[illustration: stonehenge from the south-east] rough stone monuments and their builders by t. eric peet formerly scholar of queen's college, oxford; lately craven fellow in the university of oxford and pelham student at the british school of rome harper & brothers london and new york albemarle street, w. _published october, _. preface the aim of this volume is to enable those who are interested in stonehenge and other great stone monuments of england to learn something of the similar buildings which exist in different parts of the world, of the men who constructed them, and of the great archæological system of which they form a part. it is hoped that to the archæologist it may be useful as a complete though brief sketch of our present knowledge of the megalithic monuments, and as a short treatment of the problems which arise in connection with them. to british readers it is unnecessary to give any justification for the comparatively full treatment accorded to the monuments of great britain and ireland. malta and sardinia may perhaps seem to occupy more than their due share of space, but the usurpation is justified by the magnificence and the intrinsic interest of their megalithic buildings. being of singularly complicated types and remarkably well preserved they naturally tell us much more of their builders than do the simpler monuments of other larger and now more important countries. in these two islands, moreover, research has in the last few years been extremely active, and it is felt that the accounts here given of them will contain some material new even to the archæologist. in order to assist those readers who may wish to follow out the subject in greater detail a short bibliography has been added to the book. for the figures and photographs with which this volume is illustrated i have to thank many archæological societies and individual scholars. plate iii and part of plate ii i owe to the kindness of dr. zammit, director of the museum of valletta, while the other part of plate ii is from a photograph kindly lent to me by dr. ashby. i have to thank the society of antiquaries for figures and , the reale accademia dei lincei for figures and , and the société préhistorique de france, through dr. marcel baudouin, for figure . i am indebted to the royal irish academy for figure , to the committee of the british school of rome for figure , and to dr. albert mayr and the akademie der wissenschaften in munich for the plan of mnaidra. professors montelius, siret and cartailhac i have to thank not only for permission to reproduce illustrations from their works, but also for their kind interest in my volume. figure i owe to my friend dr. randall maciver. the frontispiece and plate i are fine photographs by messrs. the graphotone co., ltd. in conclusion, i must not forget to thank canon f.f. grensted for much help with regard to the astronomical problems connected with stonehenge. t. eric peet. liverpool, _august th,_ . contents chapter page i. introduction ii. stonehenge and other great stone monuments in england and wales iii. megalithic monuments in scotland and ireland iv. the scandinavian megalithic area v. france, spain and portugal vi. italy and its islands vii. africa, malta, and the smaller. mediterranean islands viii. the dolmens of asia ix. the builders of the megalithic monuments, their habits, customs, religion, etc x. who were the builders, and whence did they come? bibliography index list of illustrations plates stonehenge from the south-east _frontispiece_ facing page i. stonehenge from the south-west ii. mnaidra, doorway of room h. the _nuraghe_ of madrone in sardinia iii. temple of mnaidra, malta. apse of chief room figure page . plan of stonehenge . avebury and kennet avenue . plans of english long barrows . horned tumulus, caithness . plans of three dolmen-types . type-plan of simple corridor-tomb . type-plan of wedge-shaped tomb . corridor-tomb at new grange, ireland . corridor-tomb at ottagården, sweden . plan of la pierre aux fées, oise, france . chambered mound at fontenay-le-marmion, normandy . plan of la grotte des fées, arles, france . the so-called dolmen-deity, petit morin, france . plan of corridor-tomb at los millares, spain . section and plan of a _talayot_, majorca . section and plan of the _nau_ d'es tudons . elevation, section and plan of a sardinian _nuraghe_ . plan of giant's tomb at muraguada, sardinia . plan of stone circle at the senâm, algeria . plan of the sese grande, pantelleria . plan of the sanctuary of mnaidra, malta . dolmen with holed stone at ala safat rough stone monuments chapter i introduction to the south of salisbury plain, about two miles west of the small country town of amesbury, lies the great stone circle of stonehenge. for centuries it has been an object of wonder and admiration, and even to-day it is one of the sights of our country. perhaps, however, few of those who have heard of stonehenge or even of those who have visited it are aware that it is but a unit in a vast crowd of megalithic monuments which, in space, extends from the west of europe to india, and, in time, covers possibly more than a thousand years. what exactly is a megalithic monument? strictly speaking, it is a building made of very large stones. this definition would, of course, include numbers of buildings of the present day and of the medieval and classical periods, while many of the egyptian pyramids and temples would at once suggest themselves as excellent examples of this type of building. the archæologist, however, uses the term in a much more limited sense. he confines it to a series of tombs and buildings constructed in western asia, in north africa, and in certain parts of europe, towards the end of the neolithic period and during part of the copper and bronze ages which followed it. the structures are usually, though not quite invariably, made of large blocks of unworked or slightly worked stone, and they conform to certain definite types. the best known of these types are as follows: firstly, the menhir, which is a tall, rough pillar of stone with its base fixed into the earth. secondly, the trilithon, which consists of a pair of tall stones set at a short distance apart supporting a third stone laid across the top. thirdly, the dolmen, which is a single slab of stone supported by several others arranged in such a way as to enclose a space or chamber beneath it. some english writers apply the term cromlech to such a structure, quite incorrectly. both menhir and dolmen are breton words, these two types of megalithic monument being particularly frequent in brittany. menhir is derived from the breton _men_, a stone, and _hir_, long; similarly dolmen is from _dol_, a table, and _men_, a stone. some archæologists also apply the word dolmen to rectangular chambers roofed with more than one slab. we have carefully avoided this practice, always classing such chambers as corridor-tombs of an elementary type. fourthly, we have the corridor-tomb (_ganggrab_), which usually consists of a chamber entered by a gallery or corridor. in cases where the chamber is no wider than, and hence indistinguishable from the corridor, the tomb becomes a long rectangular gallery, and answers to the french _allée couverte_ in the strict sense. fifthly, we come to the _alignement_, in which a series of menhirs is arranged in open lines on some definite system. we shall find a famous example of this at morbihan in brittany. sixthly, there is the cromlech (from _crom_, curve, and _lec'h_, a stone), which consists of a number of menhirs arranged to enclose a space, circular, elliptical or, in rare cases, rectangular. these are the chief types of megalithic monument, but there are others which, though clearly belonging to the same class of structure, show special forms and are more complicated. they are in many cases developments of one or more of the simple types, and will be treated specially in their proper places. such monuments are the _nuraghi_ of sardinia and the 'temples' of malta and gozo. finally, the rock-hewn sepulchre is often classed with the megalithic monuments, and it is therefore frequently mentioned in the following pages. this is justified by the fact that it generally occurs in connection with megalithic structures. the exact relation in which it stands to them will be fully discussed in the last chapter. we have now to consider what may be called the architectural methods of the megalithic builders, for although in dealing with such primitive monuments it would perhaps be exaggeration to speak of a style, yet there were certain principles which were as carefully and as invariably observed as were in later days those of the doric or the gothic styles in the countries where they took root. the first and most important principle, that on which the whole of the megalithic construction may be said to be based, is the use of the orthostatic block, i.e. the block set up on its edge. it is clear that in this way each block or slab is made to provide the maximum of wall area at the expense of the thickness of the wall. naturally, in districts where the rock is of a slabby nature blocks of a more or less uniform thickness lay ready to the builders' hand, and the appearance of the structure was much more finished than it would be in places where the rock had a less regular fracture or where shapeless boulders had to be relied on. the orthostatic slabs were often deeply sunk into the ground where this consisted of earth or soft rock; of the latter case there are good examples at stonehenge, where the rock is a soft chalk. when the ground had an uneven surface of hard rock, the slabs were set upright on it and small stones wedged in beneath them to make them stand firm. occasionally, as at mnaidra and hagiar kim, a course of horizontal blocks set at the foot of the uprights served to keep them more securely in position. with the upright block technique went hand in hand the roofing of narrow spaces by means of horizontal slabs laid across the top of the uprights. the second principle of megalithic architecture was the use of more or less coursed masonry set without mortar, each block lying on its side and not on its edge. it is quite possible that this principle is less ancient in origin than that of the orthostatic slab, for it usually occurs in structures of a more advanced type. thus in simple and primitive types of building such as the dolmen it is most rare to find dry masonry, but in the advanced corridor-tombs of ireland, the giants' graves and _nuraghi_ of sardinia, and in the 'temples' of malta this technique is largely used, often in combination with the upright slab system. indeed, this combination is quite typical of the best megalithic work: a series of uprights is first set in position, and over this are laid several horizontal courses of rather smaller stones. we must note that the dry masonry which we are describing is still strictly megalithic, as the blocks used are never small and often of enormous size. buildings in which this system is used are occasionally roofed with slabs, but more often corbelling is employed. at a certain height each succeeding course in the wall begins to project inwards over the last, so that the walls, as it were, lean together and finally meet to form a false barrel-vault or a false dome, according as the structure is rectangular or round. occasionally, when the building was wide, it was impossible to corbel the walls sufficiently to make them meet. in this case they were corbelled as far as possible and the open space still left was covered with long flat slabs. it has often been commented on as a matter of wonder that a people living in the stone age, or at the best possessing a few simple tools of metal, should have been able to move and place in position such enormous blocks of stone. with modern cranes and traction engines all would be simple, but it might have been thought that in the stone age such building would be impossible. thus, for instance, in the 'temple' of hagiar kim in malta, there is one block of stone which measures feet by , and must weigh many tons. in reality there is little that is marvellous in the moving and setting up of these blocks, for the tools needed are ready to the hand of every savage; but there is something to wonder at and to admire in the patience displayed and in the organization necessary to carry out such vast pieces of labour. great, indeed, must have been the power of the cult which could combine the force of hundreds and even thousands of individuals for long periods of time in the construction of the great megalithic temples. perhaps slave labour played a part in the work, but in any case it is clear that we are in the presence of strongly organized governments backed by a powerful religion which required the building of temples for the gods and vast tombs for the dead. let us consider for a moment what was the procedure in building a simple megalithic monument. it was fourfold, for it involved the finding and possibly the quarrying of the stones, the moving of them to the desired spot, the erection of the uprights in their places, and the placing of the cover-slab or slabs on top of them. with regard to the first step it is probable that in most cases the place chosen for a tomb or cemetery was one in which numbers of great stones lay on the surface ready to hand. by this means labour was greatly economized. on the other hand, there are certainly cases where the stones were brought long distances in order to be used. thus, in charente in france there is at la perotte a block weighing nearly tons which must have travelled over miles. we have no evidence as to whether stones were ever actually quarried. if they were, the means used must have been the stone axe, fire, and water. it was not usual in the older and simpler dolmens to dress the stones in any way, though in the later and more complicated structures well-worked blocks were often used. the required stones having been found it was now necessary to move them to the spot. this could be done in two ways. the first and simpler is that which we see pictured on egyptian monuments, such as the tomb of tahutihotep at el bersheh. a rough road of beams is laid in the required direction, and wooden rollers are placed under the stone on this road. large numbers of men or oxen then drag the stone along by means of ropes attached to it. other labourers assist the work from behind with levers, and replace the rollers in front of the stone as fast as they pass out behind. those who have seen the modern arabs in excavation work move huge blocks with wooden levers and palm-leaf rope will realize that for the building of the dolmens little was needed except numbers and time. the other method of moving the stones is as follows: a gentle slope of hard earth covered with wet clay is built with its higher extremity close beside the block to be moved. as many men as there is room for stand on each side of the block, and with levers resting on beams or stones as fulcra, raise the stone vertically as far as possible. other men then fill up the space beneath it with earth and stones. the process is next repeated with higher fulcra, until the stone is level with the top of the clay slope, on to which it is then slipped. with a little help it now slides down the inclined plane to the bottom. here a fresh slope is built, and the whole procedure is gone through again. the method can even be used on a slight uphill gradient. it requires less dragging and more vertical raising than the other, and would thus be more useful where oxen were unobtainable. when the stones were once on the spot it is not hard to imagine how they were set upright with levers and ropes. the placing of the cover-slab was, however, a more complicated matter. the method employed was probably to build a slope of earth leading up from one side to the already erected uprights and almost covering them. up this the slab could be moved by means of rollers, ropes, and levers, until it was in position over the uprights. the slope could then be removed. if the dolmen was to be partly or wholly covered with a mound, as some certainly were, it would not even be necessary to remove the slope. roughly speaking, the extension of megalithic monuments is from spain to japan and from sweden to algeria. these are naturally merely limits, and it must not be supposed that the regions which lie between them all contain megalithic monuments. more exactly, we find them in asia, in japan, corea, india, persia, syria, and palestine. in africa we have them along the whole of the north coast, from tripoli to morocco; inland they are not recorded, except for one possible example in egypt and several in the soudan. in europe the distribution of dolmens and other megalithic monuments is wide. they occur in the caucasus and the crimea, and quite lately examples have been recorded in bulgaria. there are none in greece, and only a few in italy, in the extreme south-east corner. the islands, however, which lie around and to the south of italy afford many examples: corsica, sardinia, malta, gozo, pantelleria, and lampedusa are strongholds of the megalithic civilization, and it is possible that sicily should be included in the list. moving westward we find innumerable examples in the spanish peninsula and in france. to the north we find them frequent in the british isles, sweden, denmark, and north germany; they are rarer in holland and belgium. two examples have been reported from switzerland. it is only to be expected that these great megalithic monuments of a prehistoric age should excite the wonder and stimulate the imagination of those who see them. in all countries and at all times they have been centres of story and legend, and even at the present day many strange beliefs concerning them are to be found among the peasantry who live around them. salomon reinach has written a remarkable essay on this question, and the following examples are mainly drawn from the collection he has there made. the names given to the monuments often show clearly the ideas with which they are associated in the minds of the peasants. thus the penrith circle is locally known as "meg and her daughters," a dolmen in berkshire is called "wayland the smith's cave," while in one of the orkney isles is a menhir named "odin's stone." in france many are connected with gargantua, whose name, the origin of which is doubtful, stands clearly for a giant. thus we find a rock called the "chair of gargantua," a menhir called "gargantua's little finger," and an _allée couverte_ called "gargantua's tomb." names indicating connections with fairies, virgins, witches, dwarfs, devils, saints, druids, and even historical persons are frequent. dolmens are often "houses of dwarfs," a name perhaps suggested or at least helped by the small holes cut in some of them; they are "huts" or "caves of fairies," they are "kitchens" or "forges of the devil," while menhirs are called his arrows, and cromlechs his cauldrons. in france we have stones of various saints, while in england many monuments are connected with king arthur. a dolmen in wales is his quoit; the circle at penrith is his round table, and that of caermarthen is his park. both in england and france we find stones and altars "of the druids"; in the pyrenees, in spain, and in africa there are "graves of the gentiles" or "tombs of idolaters"; in arles (france) the _allées couvertes_ are called "prisons" or "shops of the saracens," and the dolmens of the eastern pyrenees are locally known as "huts of the moors." dolmens in india are often "stones of the monkeys," and in france there are "wolves' altars," "wolves' houses," and "wolves' tables." passing now to more definite beliefs connected with megalithic monuments, we may notice that from quite early times they have been--as indeed they often are still--regarded with fear and respect, and even worshipped. in certain parts of france peasants are afraid to shelter under the dolmens, and never think of approaching them by night. in early christian days there must have been a cult of the menhir, for the councils of arles (a.d. ), of tours (a.d. ), and of nantes (a.d. ) all condemn the cult of trees, springs, and _stones_. in a.d. charlemagne attempted to suppress stone-worship, and to destroy the stones themselves. in spain, where, as in france, megalithic monuments are common, the councils of toledo in a.d. and condemned the "worshippers of stones." moreover there are many cases in which a monument itself bears traces of having been the centre of a cult in early or medieval times. the best example is perhaps the dolmen of saint-germain-sur-vienne, which was transformed into a chapel about the twelfth century. similar transformations have been made in spain. in many cases, too, crosses have been placed or engraved on menhirs in order to "christianize" them. remarkable powers and virtues have been attributed to many of the monuments. one of the dolmens of finistère is said to cure rheumatism in anyone who rubs against the loftiest of its stones, and another heals fever patients who sleep under it. stones with holes pierced in them are believed to be peculiarly effective, and it suffices to pass the diseased limb or, when possible, the invalid himself through the hole. oaths sworn in or near a megalithic monument have a peculiar sanctity. in scotland as late as the year a.d. "john off erwyne and will bernardson swor on the hirdmane stein before oure lorde ye erie off orknay and the gentiless off the cuntre." many of the monuments are endowed by the credulous with life. the menhir du champ dolent sinks an inch every hundred years. others say that a piece of it is eaten by the moon each night, and that when it is completely devoured the last judgment will take place. the stones of carnac bathe in the sea once a year, and many of those of the périgord leap three times each day at noon. we have already remarked on the connection of the monuments with dwarfs, giants, and mythical personages. there is an excellent example in our own country in berkshire. here when a horse has cast a shoe the rider must leave it in front of the dolmen called "the cave of wayland the smith," placing at the same time a coin on the cover-stone. he must then retire for a suitable period, after which he returns to find the horse shod and the money gone. chapter ii stonehenge and other great stone monuments in england and wales stonehenge, the most famous of our english megalithic monuments, has excited the attention of the historian and the legend-lover since early times. according to some of the medieval historians it was erected by aurelius ambrosius to the memory of a number of british chiefs whom hengist and his saxons treacherously murdered in a.d. . others add that ambrosius himself was buried there. giraldus cambrensis, who wrote in the twelfth century, mingles these accounts with myth. he says, "there was in ireland, in ancient times, a pile of stones worthy of admiration called the giants' dance, because giants from the remotest part of africa brought them to ireland, and in the plains of kildare, not far from the castle of naas, miraculously set them up.... these stones (according to the british history) aurelius ambrosius, king of the britons, procured merlin by supernatural means to bring from ireland to britain." from the present ruined state of stonehenge it is not possible to state with certainty what was the original arrangement, but it is probable that it was approximately as follows (see frontispiece): [illustration: fig. . plan of stonehenge in . (after _archæologia_.) the dotted stones are of porphyritic diabase.] there was an outer circle of about thirty worked upright stones of square section (fig. i). on each pair of these rested a horizontal block, but only five now remain in position. these 'lintels' probably formed a continuous architrave (pl. i). the diameter of this outer circle is about - / feet, inner measurement. the stones used are sarsens or blocks of sandstone, such as are to be found lying about in many parts of the district round stonehenge. [illustration: plate i. stonehenge from the south-west photo graphotone co. to face p. ] well within this circle stood the five huge trilithons (_a-e_), arranged in the form of a horseshoe with its open side to the north-east. each trilithon, as the name implies, consists of three stones, two of which are uprights, the third being laid horizontally across the top. the height of the trilithons varies from to - / feet, the lowest being the two that stand at the open end of the horseshoe, and the highest that which is at the apex. here again all the stones are sarsens and all are carefully worked. on the top end of each upright of the trilithons is an accurately cut tenon which dovetails into two mortices cut one at each end of the lower surface of the horizontal block. each upright of the outer circle had a double tenon, and the lintels, besides being morticed to take these tenons, were also dovetailed each into its two neighbours. within the horseshoe and close up to it stand the famous blue-stones, now twelve in number, but originally perhaps more. these stones are not so high as the trilithons, the tallest reaching only - / feet. they are nearly all of porphyritic diabase. it has often been asserted that these blue-stones must have been brought to stonehenge from a distance, as they do not occur anywhere in the district. some have suggested that they came from wales or cornwall, or even by sea from ireland. now, the recent excavations have shown that the blue-stones were brought to stonehenge in a rough state, and that all the trimming was done on the spot where they were erected. it seems unlikely that if they had been brought from a distance the rough trimming should not have been done on the spot where they were found, in order to decrease their weight for transport. it is therefore possible that the stones were erratic blocks found near stonehenge. within the horseshoe, and near its apex, lies the famous "altar stone" (a), a block measuring about feet by . between the horseshoe and the outer circle another circle of diabase stones is sometimes said to have existed, but very little of it now remains. the whole building is surrounded by a rampart of earth several feet high, forming a circle about feet in diameter. an avenue still feet in length, bordered by two walls of earth, leads up to the rampart from the north-east. on the axis of this avenue and nearly at its extremity stands the upright stone known as the friar's heel. in , in the course of repairing the central trilithon, careful excavations were carried out over a small area at stonehenge. more than a hundred stone implements were found, of which the majority were flint axes, probably used for dressing the softer of the sandstone blocks, and also for excavating the chalk into which the uprights were set. about thirty hammer-stones suitable for holding in the hand were found. these were doubtless used for dressing the surface of the blocks. most remarkable of all were the 'mauls,' large boulders weighing from to pounds, used for smashing blocks and also for removing large chips from the surfaces. several antlers of deer were found, one of which had been worn down by use as a pickaxe. these excavations made it clear that the blue-stones had been shaped on the spot, whereas the sarsens had been roughly prepared at the place where they were found, and only finished off on the spot where they were erected. what is the date of the erection of stonehenge? the finding of so many implements of flint in the excavations of shows that the structure belongs to a period when flint was still largely used. the occurrence of a stain of oxide of copper on a worked block of stone at a depth of feet does not necessarily prove that the stones were erected in the bronze age, for the stain may have been caused by the disintegration of malachite and not of metallic copper. at the same time, we must not infer from the frequency of the flint implements that metal was unknown, for flint continued to be used far on into the early metal age. moreover, flint tools when worn out were simply thrown aside on the spot, while those of metal were carefully set apart for sharpening or re-casting, and are thus seldom found in large numbers in an excavation. we have, therefore, no means of accurately determining the date of stonehenge; all that can be said is that the occurrence of flint in such large quantities points either to the neolithic age or to a comparatively early date in the copper or bronze period. it is unlikely that stone tools would play such a considerable rôle in the late bronze or the iron age. at the same time it must not be forgotten that sir arthur evans has spoken in favour of a date in the first half of the third century b.c. he believes that the great circles are religious monuments which in form developed out of the round barrows, and that stonehenge is therefore much later than some at least of the round barrows around it. that it is earlier than others is clear from the occurrence in some of them of chips from the sarsen stones. he therefore places its building late in the round barrow period, and sees confirmation of this in the fact that the round barrows which surround the monument are not grouped in regular fashion around it, as they should have been had they been later in date. many attempts have been made to date the monuments by means of astronomy. all these start from the assumption that it was erected in connection with the worship of the sun, or at least in order to take certain observations with regard to the sun. sir norman lockyer noticed that the avenue at stonehenge pointed approximately to the spot where the sun rises at the midsummer solstice, and therefore thought that stonehenge was erected to observe this midsummer rising. if he could find the exact direction of the avenue he would know where the sun rose at midsummer in the year when the circle was built. from this he could easily fix the date, for, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the point of the midsummer rising is continually altering, and the position for any year being known the date of that year can be found astronomically. but how was the precise direction of this very irregular avenue to be fixed? the line from the altar stone to the friar's heel, which is popularly supposed to point to the midsummer rising, has certainly never done so in the last ten thousand years, and therefore could not be used as the direction of the avenue. eventually sir norman decided to use a line from the centre of the circle to a modern benchmark on sidbury hill, eight miles north-east of stonehenge. on this line the sun rose in b.c. with a possible error of two hundred years each way: this sir norman takes to be the date of stonehenge. sir norman's reasoning has been severely handled by his fellow-astronomer mr. hinks, who points out that the direction chosen for the avenue is purely arbitrary, since sidbury hill has no connection with stonehenge at all. moreover, sir norman determines sunrise for stonehenge as being the instant when the edge of the sun's disk first appears, while in his attempts to date the egyptian temple of karnak he defined it as the moment when the sun's centre reached the horizon. we cannot say which alternative the builders would have chosen, and therefore we cannot determine the date of building. sir norman lockyer has since modified his views. he now argues that the trilithons and outer circle are later additions to an earlier temple to which the blue-stones belong. this earlier temple was made to observe "primarily but not exclusively the may year," while the later temple "represented a change of cult, and was dedicated primarily to the solstitial year." this view seems to be disproved by the excavations of , which made it clear that the trilithons were erected before and not after the blue-stones. nothing is more likely than that the builders of the megaliths had some knowledge of the movements of the sun in connection with the seasons, and that their priests or wise men determined for them, by observing the sun, the times of sowing, reaping, etc., as they do among many savage tribes at the present day. they may have been worshippers of the sun, and their temples may have contained 'observation lines' for determining certain of his movements. but the attempt to date the monuments from such lines involves so many assumptions and is affected by so many disturbing elements that it can never have a serious value for the archæologist. the uncertainty is even greater in the case of temples supposed to be oriented by some star, for in this case there is almost always a choice of two or more bright stars, giving the most divergent results. [illustration: fig. . avebury and the kennet avenue. (after sir r. colt hoare.)] next in importance to stonehenge comes the huge but now almost destroyed circle of avebury (fig. ). its area is five times as great as that of st. peter's in rome, and a quarter of a million people could stand within it. it consists in the first place of a rampart of earth roughly circular in form and with a diameter of about feet. within this is a ditch, and close on the inner edge of this was a circle of about a hundred upright stones. within this circle were two pairs of concentric circles with their centres slightly east of the north-and-south diameter of the great circle. the diameters of the outer circles of these two pairs are and feet respectively. in the centre of the northern pair was a cover-slab supported by three uprights, and in the centre of the southern a single menhir. all the stones used are sarsens, such as are strewn everywhere over the district. an avenue flanked by two rows of stones ran in a south-easterly direction from the rampart towards the village of kennet for a distance of about yards in a straight line. at a distance of yards due south from avebury circle stands the famous artificial mound called silbury hill. it is feet in diameter, in height, and has a flat top feet across. a pit was driven down into its centre in , and in a trench was cut into it from the south side to the centre, but neither gave any result. it is quite possible that there are burials in the mound, whether in megalithic chambers or not. south-west of avebury is hakpen hill, where there once stood two concentric ellipses of stones. a straight avenue is said to have run from these in a north-westerly direction. whether these three monuments near avebury have any connection with one another and, if so, what this connection is, is unknown. there are many other circles in england, but we have only space to mention briefly some of the more important. at rollright, in oxfordshire, there is a circle feet in diameter with a tall menhir yards to the north-east. derbyshire possesses a famous monument, that of arbor low, where a circle is surrounded by a rampart and ditch, while that of stanton drew in somerset consists of a great circle a and two smaller circles b and c. the line joining the centres of b and a passes through a menhir called hauptville's quoit away to the north-east, while that which joins the centres of c and a cuts a group of three menhirs called the cove, lying to the south-west. in cumberland there are several circles. one of these, feet in diameter with an outstanding menhir, is known as "long meg and her daughters." another, the mayborough circle, is of much the same size, but consists of a tall monolith in the centre of a rampart formed entirely of rather small water-worn stones. a similar circle not far from this is known as king arthur's round table; here, however, there is no monolith. near keswick there is a finely preserved circle, and at shap there seems to have existed a large circle with an avenue of stones running for over a mile to the north. cornwall possesses a number of fine monuments. the most celebrated is the dance maen circle, which is feet in diameter and has two monoliths to the north-east, out of sight of the circle, but stated to be in a straight line with its centre. local tradition calls the circle "the merry maidens," and has it that the stones are girls turned into stones for dancing on sunday: the two monoliths are called the pipers. the three circles known as the hurlers lie close together with their centres nearly in a straight line in the direction n.n.e. by s.s.w. at boscawen-un, near penzance, is a circle called the nine maidens, and two circles near tregeseal have the same name. another well-known circle in cornwall is called the stripple stones: the circle stands on a platform of earth surrounded by a ditch, outside which is a rampart. in the centre is a menhir feet in height. at merivale, in somersetshire, there are the remains of a small circle, to the north of which lie two almost parallel double lines of menhirs, running about e.n.e. by w.s.w., the more southerly of the two lines overlapping the other at both extremities. with what purpose were these great circles erected? we have already mentioned the curious belief of geoffrey of monmouth with regard to stonehenge, and we may pass on to more modern theories. james i was once taken to see stonehenge when on a visit to the earl of pembroke at wilton. he was so interested that he ordered his architect inigo jones to enquire into its date and purpose. the architect's conclusion was that it was a roman temple "dedicated to the god caelus and built after the tuscan order." many years later dr. stukeley started a theory which has not entirely been abandoned at the present day. for him stonehenge and other stone circles were temples of the druids. this was in itself by no means a ridiculous theory, but stukeley went further than this. relying on a quaint story in pliny wherein the druids of gaul are said to use as a charm a certain magic egg manufactured by snakes, he imagined that the druids were serpent-worshippers, and essayed to see serpents even in the forms of their temples. thus in the avebury group the circle on hakpen hill was for him the head of a snake and its avenue part of the body. the avebury circles were coils in the body, which was completed by the addition of imaginary stones and avenues. he also attempted with even less success to see the form of a serpent in other british circle groups. the druids, as we gather from the rather scanty references in cæsar and other roman authors, were priests of the celts in gaul. suetonius further speaks of druids in anglesey, and tradition has it that in wales and ireland there were druids in pre-christian times. but that druids ever existed in england or in a tithe of the places in which megalithic circles and other monuments occur is unlikely. at the same time, it is not impossible that some of the circles of ireland, wales, and france were afterwards used by the druids as suitable places for meeting and preaching. fergusson in his great work _rude stone monuments_ held a remarkable view as to the purpose of the british stone circles. he believed that they were partly roman in date, and that some of them at least marked the scene of battles fought by king arthur against the saxons. thus, for example, he says with regard to avebury, "i feel it will come eventually to be acknowledged that those who fell in arthur's twelfth and greatest battle were buried in the ring at avebury, and that those who survived raised these stones and the mound of silbury in the vain hope that they would convey to their latest posterity the memory of their prowess." it is hardly necessary to take this view seriously nowadays. stonehenge, which fergusson attributes to the same late era, has been proved by excavation to be prehistoric in origin, and with it naturally go the rest of the megalithic circles of england, except where there is any certain proof to the contrary. the most probable theory is that the circles are religious monuments of some kind. what the nature of the worship carried on in them was it is quite impossible to determine. it may be that some at least were built near the graves of deified heroes to whose worship they were consecrated. on the other hand, it is possible that they were temples dedicated to the sun or to others of the heavenly bodies. whether they served for the taking of astronomical observations or not is a question which cannot be decided with certainty, though the frequency with which menhirs occur in directions roughly north-east of the circles is considered by some as a sign of connection with the watching of solar phenomena. dolmens of simple type are not common in england, though they occur with comparative frequency in wales, where the best known are the so-called arthur's quoit near swansea, the dolmen of pentre ifan in pembrokeshire, and that of plas newydd on the menai strait: in anglesey they are quite common. in england we have numerous examples in cornwall, especially west of falmouth, among which are chun quoit and lanyon quoit. there are dolmens at chagford and drewsteignton in devonshire, and there is one near the rollright circle in oxfordshire. many of the so-called cromlechs of england are not true dolmens, but the remains of tombs of more complicated types. thus the famous kit's coty house in kent was certainly not a dolmen, though it is now impossible to say what its form was. wayland the smith's cave was probably a three-chambered corridor-tomb covered with a mound. the famous men-an-tol in cornwall may well be all that is left of a chamber-tomb of some kind. it is a slab about - / feet square, in which is a hole - / feet in diameter. there are other stones standing or lying around it. it is known to the peasants as the crickstone, for it was said to cure sufferers from rickets or crick in the back if they passed nine times through the hole in a direction against the sun. the isle of man possesses a fine sepulchral monument on meayll hill. it consist of six t-shaped chamber-tombs arranged in a circle with entrances to the north and south. there is also a corridor-tomb, known as king orry's grave, at laxey, and another with a semicircular façade at maughold. among the megalithic monuments of our islands the chambered barrows hold an important place. it is well known that in the neolithic period the dead in certain parts of england were buried under mounds of not circular but elongated shape. these graves are commonest in wiltshire and the surrounding counties of dorsetshire, somersetshire, and gloucestershire. a few exist in other counties. some contain no chamber, while others contain a structure of the megalithic type. it is with these latter that we have here to deal. chambered long barrows are most frequent in wiltshire, though they do occur in other counties, as, for example, buckinghamshire, where the famous cave of wayland the smith is certainly the remains of a barrow of this kind. in derbyshire and staffordshire a type of chambered mound does occur, but it seems uncertain from the description given whether it is round or elongated. [illustration: fig. . (_a_)--barrow at stoney littleton, somersetshire. (_b_)--barrow at rodmarton, gloucestershire. (_c_)--chambers of barrow at uley, gloucestershire. (after thurnam, _archæologia,_ xlii.)] turning first to the wiltshire and gloucestershire group of barrows we find that they are usually from to feet in length and from to in breadth. in some cases there is a wall of dry stone-masonry around the foot of the mound and outside this a ditch. the megalithic chambers within the mound are of three types. in the first there is a central gallery entering the mound at its thicker end and leading to a chamber or series of chambers (fig. , _a_ and _c_). where this gallery enters the mound there is a cusp-shaped break in the outline of the mound as marked by the dry walling, and the entrance is closed by a stone block. the chambers are formed of large slabs set up on edge. occasionally there are spaces between successive slabs, and these are filled up with dry masonry. the roof is made either by laying large slabs across the tops of the sides or by corbelling with smaller slabs as at stoney littleton. in the second type of chambered barrow there is no central corridor, but chambers are built in opposite pairs on the outside edge of the mound and opening outwards (fig. , _b_). the two best known examples of this are the tumuli of avening and of rodmarton. in the third type of barrow there is no chamber connected with the outside, but its place is taken by several dolmens--so small as to be mere cists--within the mound. the burials in these barrows seem to have been without exception inhumations. the body was placed in the crouched position, either sitting up or reclining. in an untouched chamber at rodmarton were found as many as thirteen bodies, and in the eastern chamber at charlton's abbott there were twelve. with the bodies lay pottery, vases, and implements of flint and bone. chapter iii megalithic monuments in scotland and ireland the stone circles of scotland have been divided into three types--the western scottish, consisting of a rather irregular ring or pair of concentric rings; the inverness type, in which a chamber entered by a straight passage is covered by a round tumulus with a retaining wall of stone, the whole being surrounded by a regular stone circle; and the aberdeen type, which is similar to the last, but has a 'recumbent' stone between two of the uprights of its outer circle. the first type occurs in the southern counties, in the islands of the west and north coasts, and also extends into argyll and perthshire. the most famous example is the callernish circle in the isle of lewis. the circle is formed by thirteen stones from to feet high, and its centre is marked by an upright feet high. from the circle extends a line of four stones to the east and another to the west. to the south runs a line of five uprights and several fallen stones, and to the n.n.e. runs a double line, forming as it were an avenue with nine stones on one side and ten on the other, but having no entrance to the circle. inside the circle, between the central stone and the east side of the ring, is what is described as a cruciform grave with three cells under a low tumulus. in this tomb were found fragments of human bone apparently burnt. it has been suggested that the tomb is not part of the original structure, but was added later. the native tradition about this circle as repeated by martin in was that it was a druidical place of worship, and that the chief druid stood near the central stone to address the assembled people. this tradition seems to have now disappeared. in the island of arran, between brodick and lamlash, is a damaged circle feet in diameter. at a distance of feet from its circumference in a direction ° east of south is a stone feet high. in the centre of the circle was found a cist cut in the underlying rock containing bluish earth and pieces of bone. above were an implement and some fragments of flint. on the other side of the island there were still in remains of eight circles, five of sandstone and three of granite, quite close to one another. the diameter of the largest was feet, and the highest stone reached feet. one of them was a double ring. in four of them were found cists containing pottery, flint arrow-heads, a piece of a bronze pin, and some fragments of bone. others appear to contain no cists. in the other islands of the west coast few circles seem to remain; there are, however, one at kirkabrost in skye, and another at kingarth in bute. at stromness in orkney is the famous circle called the ring of brogar. it originally consisted of sixty stones forming a circle feet in diameter, outside which was a ditch feet wide. in a direction ° east of south from the centre, and at a distance of chains, is a standing stone called the watchstone, feet high, and or chains further on in the same line is a second stone, the barnstone, feet high. to the left of this line are two stones apparently placed at random, and to the right are the few remaining blocks of the ring of stenness, somewhere to the north of which was the celebrated pierced block called the "stone of odin," destroyed early in the last century. at a distance of or chains to the north-east of the barnstone lies the tumulus of maeshowe. this tumulus conceals a long gallery leading into a rectangular chamber. the walls of this latter are built of horizontal courses of stones, except at the corners, where there are tall, vertically-placed slabs. the chamber has three niches or recesses, one on each of its closed sides. the roof is formed by corbelling the walls and finishing off with slabs laid across. if one sits within the chamber and looks in a direct line along the passage one sees the barnstone. a series of measurements and alignments have been taken to connect the maeshowe tumulus with the ring of brogar. thus we have already seen that the distance from the barnstone to the watchstone is the same as from the barnstone to the tumulus. moreover, the watchstone is equidistant from the ring and from the tumulus. again, a line from the barnstone to the tumulus passes through the point of the midsummer sunrise and also, on the other horizon, through the point of the setting sun ten days before the winter solstice; the line from the watchstone to the brogar ring marks the setting of the sun at the beltane festival in may and its rising ten days before the winter solstice, while the line from maeshowe to the watchstone is in the line of the equinoctial rising and setting. these alignments are the work of mr. magnus spence; readers must choose what importance they will assign to them. the inverness type of circle is entirely different from that of which we have been speaking. the finest examples were at clava, seven miles from inverness, where fifty years ago there were eight still in existence. one of these is still partly preserved. it consists of a circle feet in diameter consisting of twelve stones. within this is a cairn of stones with a circular retaining wall of stone blocks or feet high. the cairn originally covered a circular stone chamber - / feet in diameter entered by a straight passage on its south-west side. in other words, the inverness monuments are simply chamber-tombs covered with a cairn and surrounded by a circle. around aberdeen we find the third type of circle. it consists of a cist-tomb covered by a low mound, often with a retaining wall of small blocks, but there is no entrance passage leading into the cist. outside the whole is a circle of large upright blocks with this peculiarity, that between the two highest--generally to the south or slightly east of south--lies a long block on its side, occupying the whole interval between them. the uprights nearest this 'recumbent' block are the tallest in the circle, and the size of the rest decreases towards the north. of thirty circles known near aberdeen twenty-six still possess the 'recumbent' stone, and in others it may originally have existed. passing now to monuments of more definitely sepulchral type we find that the dolmen is not frequent in scotland, though several are known in the lowlands and in part of argyllshire. to the long barrows of england answer in part at least the chambered cairns of caithness and the orkneys. the best known type is a long rectangular horned cairn (fig. ), of which there are two fine examples near yarhouse. the largest is feet in length. the chamber is circular, and roofed partly by corbelling and partly by a large slab. in the cairn of get we have a shorter and wider example of the horned type. another type is circular or elliptical. in a cairn of this sort at canister an iron knife was found. on the holm of papa-westra in the orkneys there is an elliptical cairn of this kind containing a long rectangular chamber running along its major axis with seven small circular niches opening off it. the entrance passage lies on the minor axis of the barrow. [illustration: fig. . horned tumulus at garrywhin, caithness. (after montelius.)] the megalithic monuments of ireland are extremely numerous, and are found in almost every part of the country. they offer a particular interest from the fact that though they are of few different types they display all the stages by which the more complex were developed from the more simple. it must be remembered that most if not all the monuments we shall describe were originally covered by mounds of earth, though in most cases these have disappeared. the simple dolmen is found in almost all parts of the country. its single cover-slab is supported by a varying number of uprights, sometimes as few as three, oftener four or more. it is of great importance to notice the fact that here in ireland, as elsewhere in the megalithic area, e.g. sardinia, we have the round and rectangular dolmens in juxtaposition (fig. , _a_ and _c_). [illustration: fig. . type-plans of _(a)_ the round dolmen; _(b)_ the dolmen with portico; _(c)_ the rectangular dolmen.] occasionally one of the end-blocks of the dolmen instead of just closing up the space between the two nearest side-blocks is pushed back between them so as to form with them a small three-sided portico outside the chamber, but still under the shelter of the cover-slab (fig. , _b_). a good example of this exists at gaulstown, waterford, where a table-stone weighing tons rests on six uprights, three of which form the little portico just described. the famous dolmen of carrickglass, sligo, is a still more developed example of this type. here the chamber is an accurate rectangle, and the portico is formed by adding two side-slabs outside one of the end-slabs, but still under the cover. this last is a remarkable block of limestone weighing about tons. this form of tomb is without doubt a link between the simple dolmen and the corridor-tomb. the portico was at first built under the slab by pushing an end-stone inwards. then external side-stones formed the portico, though still under the slab. the next move was to construct the portico outside the slab. the portico then needed a roof, and the addition of a second cover to provide it completed the transition to the simpler corridor-tomb. in many cases the irish simple dolmens were surrounded by a circle of upright stones. at carrowmore, sligo, there seems to have been a veritable cemetery of dolmen-tombs, each of which has one or more circles around it, the outermost being feet in diameter. the tombs in these carrowmore circles were not always simple dolmens, but often corridor-tombs of more or less complicated types. their excavation has not given very definite results. in many cases human bones have been found in considerable quantities, sometimes in a calcined condition; but there is no real evidence to show that cremation was the burial rite practised. the calcination of human bones may well have been caused by the lighting of fires in the tomb, either at some funeral ceremony, or in even later days, when the place was used as a shelter for peasants. a few poor flints were found and a little pottery, together with many bones of animals and some pins and borers of bone. the most important find made, however, was a small conical button made of bone with two holes pierced in its flat side and meeting in the middle. it is a type which occurs in europe only at the period of transition from the age of stone to that of bronze, and usually in connection with megalithic monuments. [illustration: fig. . type-plan of the simple rectangular corridor-tomb or _allée couverte_.] we pass on now to consider the simplest form of corridor-tomb, that in which there are several cover-slabs, but no separate chamber (fig. ). these tombs occur in most parts of ireland. at carrick-a-dhirra, county waterford, there is a perfect example of the most simple type. the tomb is exactly rectangular and lies east and west, with a length of feet and a breadth of - / . at each end is a single upright, and each long side consists of seven. the chamber thus formed is roofed by five slabs. the whole was surrounded by a circle of about twenty-six stones, and no doubt the chamber was originally covered by a mound. in a somewhat similar example at coolback, fermanagh, the remains of the elliptical cairn are still visible. but in most cases the plan of the corridor-tomb is complicated by a kind of outer lining of blocks which was added to it. most of the monuments are so damaged that it is difficult to see what the exact form of this lining was. whether it merely consisted of a line of upright blocks close around the sides of the chamber or whether these supported some further structure which covered up the whole chamber it is difficult to say. in some cases the roof-slab actually covers the outer line of blocks, and here it seems certain that this outer line served simply to reinforce the chamber walls, the space between being filled with earth or rubble. however, at labbamologa, county cork, is a tomb called leaba callighe, in which this was certainly not the case. the length of the whole monument is about feet. the slabs cover the inner walls of the chamber, but not the outer lining: this last forms a kind of outer shell to the whole monument. it is shaped roughly like a ship, and runs to a point at the east end, thus representing the bow. the west end is damaged, but may have been pointed like the east. the whole reminds one very forcibly of the _naus_ of the balearic isles and the giants' graves of sardinia. occasionally the corridor-tomb has a kind of portico at its west end. [illustration: fig. . type-plan of wedge-shaped tomb. the roof slabs are two or more in number.] in munster the corridor-tomb takes a peculiar form (fig. ). it lies roughly east and west, and its two long sides are placed at a slight angle to one another in such a way that the west end is broader than the east. in a good example of this at keamcorravooly, county cork, there are two large capstones and the walls consist of double rows of slabs, the outer being still beneath the cover-slabs. on the upper surface of the covers are several small cup-shaped hollows, some of which at least have been produced artificially. these wedge-shaped structures are of remarkable interest, for exactly the same broadening of the west end is found in scandinavia, in the _hünenbetter_ of holland, in the corridor-tombs of portugal, and in the dolmens of the deccan in india. in some irish tombs the corridor leads to a well-defined chamber. in a curious tomb at carrickard, sligo, the chamber was rectangular and lay across the end of the corridor in such a way as to form a t. the whole seems to have been covered with an oval mound. in another at highwood in the same county a long corridor joins two small circular chambers, the total length being feet. the corridor was once divided into four sections by cross-slabs. the cairn which covered this tomb was triangular in form. in the county of meath, in the parish of lough crew, is a remarkable series of stone cairns extending for three miles along the slieve-na-callighe hills. these cairns conceal chamber-tombs. the cairns themselves are roughly circular, and the largest have a circle of upright blocks round the base. the chambers are built of upright slabs and are roofed by corbelling. cairn h covered a corridor leading to a chamber and opening off on each side into a side-chamber, the whole group thus being cruciform. in these chambers were found human remains and objects of flint, bone, earthenware, amber, glass, bronze, and iron. cairn l had a central corridor from which opened off seven chambers in a very irregular fashion. cairn t consisted of a corridor leading to a fine octagonal chamber with small chambers off it on three sides. the chief interest of these tombs lies in the remarkable designs engraved on some of the stones of the passages and chambers. they are fairly deeply cut with a rather sharp implement, probably a metal chisel. they are arranged in the most arbitrary way on the stones and are often crowded together in masses. there is no attempt to depict scenes of any kind, nor is there, indeed, any example of animal life. in fact, the designs seem to be purely ornamental. the most frequent elements of design are cup-shaped hollows, concentric circles or ovals, star-shaped figures, circles with emanating rays, spirals, chevrons, reticulated figures, parallel straight or curved lines. there seems to be no clue as to the meaning of these designs. they may have been merely ornamental, though this is hardly likely. at new grange, near drogheda, there is a similar series of tumuli, one of which has become famous (fig. ). it consists of a huge mound of stones feet in diameter surrounded by a circle of upright blocks. access to the corridor is gained from the south-east side. this corridor leads to a chamber with three divisions, so that corridor and chambers together form a cross with a long shaft. the walls are formed of rough slabs set upright. in the passage the roof is of slabs laid right across, but the roof of the chamber is formed by corbelling. on the floor of each division of the chamber was found a stone basin. [illustration: figure . corridor-tomb at new grange, ireland (coffey, _transactions of the royal irish academy_, .)] around the edge of the mound runs an enclosure wall of stones lying on the ground edge to edge. a few of these are sculptured. the finest is a great stone which lies in front of the entrance and shows a well-arranged design of spirals and lozenges. there are also engravings on one of the stones of the chambers. these designs are in general more skilful than those of lough crew. they consist mainly of chevrons, lozenges, spirals, and triangles. the monuments we have so far described are all tombs. ireland also possesses several stone circles. the largest are situated round lough gur, or miles south of limerick. there was at one time a fine circle west of lough gur at rockbarton, but it is now destroyed. on the eastern edge of the lough is a double concentric ring of stones, the diameter of the inner circle being about feet. the rings are feet apart, and the space between them is filled up with earth. in an excavation was made within the circle and revealed some human remains, mostly those of children from six to eight years old. further north is a remarkable group of monuments known as the carrigalla circles. the first is a plain circle (l) or feet in diameter, composed of twenty-eight stones. the space within them is filled up with earth to form a raised platform. at a distance of feet are two concentric circles, diameters and feet respectively, made of stones or feet high. the space between the two circles is filled with earth. within these is a third concentric circle about feet in diameter made of stones of the same size. this group of three concentric circles we will call m. the line joining the centres of l and m runs in a direction of ° or ° west of north and passes through a stone (n) feet high standing on the top of a ridge feet away. there are two other stones more to the west (o and p) in such a position that the line joining them ( ° west of north) passes through the centre of m, from which they are distant and feet respectively. further, a line through the centre of l and a great standing stone (q) feet from it in a direction ° east of south passes through the highest point in the district, feet away and feet in height. mr. lewis compares this group of monuments with that of stanton drew in somersetshire. in both a line joining the centre of two circles passes through a single stone in a northerly direction, and there is in both a fixed line from the centre of the larger circle. captain boyle somerville, r.n., finds that the line ° or ° west of north would mark the setting of capella in b.c. , or arcturus b.c.; he adds that the direction ° west of north would suit capella in b.c. or castor in b.c. on the west side of lough gur is another group of monuments. there is in the first place a circle feet in diameter. on a line ° east of north from this is a stone feet high, and the same line produced strikes a prominent hill-top. somewhere to the south-west of this circle, perhaps with its centre in the line just described, lay a second circle between and feet in diameter, destroyed in . three other stones mentioned by early writers as being near the circles have now disappeared. the direction ° east of north is the same as that of the king-stone with regard to the rollright circle in oxfordshire. this line, allowing a height of ° for the horizon, would, according to sir norman lockyer, have struck the rising points of capella in b.c. and arcturus in b.c. to the south of the destroyed circle is another about to feet in diameter, with stones of over feet in height set close together. earth is piled up outside them to form a bank feet wide. there is an entrance feet wide in a direction ° east of north from the centre of the circle. there is said to have been at one time a cromlech feet wide due south of the circle and connected with it by a paved way. sir norman lockyer thinks that the position of the doorway is connected with observation of the sun's rising in may. moreover, the tallest stone of the circle, feet high, is ° east of north from the centre, a direction which according to him points to the rising of capella in b.c. and arcturus in b.c. chapter iv the scandinavian megalithic area in scandinavia megalithic monuments abound. they have been studied with unusual care from quite an early date in the history of archæology, and classified in the order of their development. the earliest type appears to be the simple dolmen with either four or five sides and a very rough cover-slab. this and the upper part of the sides remained uncovered by the mound of earth which was always heaped round the tomb. in later times the dolmen became more regularly rectangular in shape, and only its roof-block appeared above the mound. contemporary with this later form of dolmen were several other types of tomb. one was simply the earlier dolmen with one side open and in front of it a sort of portico or elementary corridor formed by two upright slabs with no roofing (cf. the irish type, fig. , _b_). this quickly developed into the true corridor-tomb, which had at first a small round chamber with one or two cover-slabs, a short corridor, and a round or rectangular mound. later types have an oval chamber (fig. ) with from one to four cover-slabs or a rectangular chamber with a long corridor and a circular mound. finally we reach a type where thin slabs are used in the construction, and the mound completely covers the cap-stones: here the corridor leads out from one of the short ends of the rectangular chamber. the earliest of these types in point of view of development, the true dolmen, is common both in denmark and in south sweden; only one example exists in norway. in sweden it is never found far from the sea-coast. [illustration: fig. . corridor-tomb, ottagården, sweden. (montelius, _orient und europa_.)] the corridor-tomb is also frequent in denmark and sweden, though it is unknown in norway. in sweden it is, like all megalithic monuments, confined to the south of the country. of the early transition type with elementary corridor there are fine examples at herrestrup in denmark and torebo in sweden. a tomb at sjöbol in sweden where the corridor, consisting of only two uprights, is covered in with two roof-slabs instead of being left open, shows very clearly the transition to the corridor-tomb proper, in which the entrance passage consists of at least four uprights, two on each side. of this there are numerous fine examples. a tomb of this type at broholm in denmark has a roughly circular chamber separated from the corridor by a kind of threshold-stone. another at tyfta in sweden is remarkable for its curious construction, the uprights being set rather apart from one another and the spaces between filled up with dry masonry of small stones. possibly there were not sufficient large blocks at hand to construct a tomb of the required size. the still later type consisting of a rectangular chamber with a long corridor leading out of one of its long sides often attains to very imposing dimensions. in westgothland, a province of sweden, there are fine examples with walls of limestone and often roofs of granite visible above the surface of the mound. the largest of these tombs is that of karleby near falköping. in another at axevalla heath were found nineteen bodies seated round the wall of the chamber, each in a separate small cist of stone slabs. the position of the bodies in the scandinavian graves is rather variable, both the outstretched and the contracted posture being used. it is usual to find many bodies in the same tomb, often as many as twenty or thirty: in that of borreby on the island of seeland were found seventy skeletons, all of children of from two to eighteen years of age. in denmark these rectangular tombs occasionally have one or more small round niches. in a large tomb was excavated at lundhöj on jütland, which had a circular niche opposite to the entrance. the niche had a threshold-stone, and the two uprights of the main chamber which lay on either side of this had been crudely engraved with designs, among which were a man, an animal, and a circle with a pair of diameters marked. little was found in the chamber, and only some bones and a pot in the niche. in denmark often occur mounds which contain two or more tombs, usually of the same form, each with its separate entrance passage. at the entrance of the chamber there is sometimes a well-worked framework into which fitted a door of stone or wood. the late type in which the corridor leads out of one of the narrow ends of the chamber is represented in both sweden and denmark. from this may be derived the rather unusual types in which the corridor has become indistinguishable from the chamber or forms a sort of antechamber to it. an example of the former type at knyttkärr in sweden is wider at one end than at the other, and has an outer coating of stone slabs. it resembles very closely the wedge-shaped tombs of munster (cf. fig. ): in germany megalithic monuments are not infrequent, but they are practically confined to the northern part of the country. they extend as far east as königsberg and as far west as the borders of holland. they are very frequent in holstein, mecklenburg, and hanover. there are even examples in prussian saxony, but in south germany they cease entirely. keller in one edition of his _lake dwellings_ figures two supposed dolmens north of lake pfäffikon in switzerland, but we have no details with regard to them. the true dolmen is extremely rare in germany, and only occurs in small groups in particular localities. the corridor-tomb with a distinct chamber is also very exceptional, especially east of the elbe. the most usual type of megalithic tomb is that known as the _hünenbett_ or _riesenbett_. the latter name means giants' bed, and it seems probable that the former should be similarly translated, despite the suggested connection with the huns, for a word _hünen_ has been in use in north germany for several centuries with the meaning of giants. a _hünenbett_ consists of a rectangular (rarely oval or round) hill of earth covering a megalithic tomb. this is a simple elongated rectangle in shape, made of upright blocks and roofed with two or more cover-slabs. the great _hünenbett_ or grewismühlen in mecklenburg has a mound measuring feet by with a height of feet. on the edge of the mound are arranged forty-eight tall upright blocks of stone. the _hünenbetter_ of the altmark are among the best known and explored. here the corridors are usually about feet long, though in rare cases they reach a length of feet. each is filled with clean sand up to two-thirds of its height, and on this lie the bodies and their funeral deposit. the bodies must have been laid flat, though not necessarily in an extended position, as there was not room above the sand for them to have been seated upright. various implements of flint have been found in the tombs together with stone hammers and vases of pottery. there is no certain instance of the finding of metal. a book printed by john picardt at amsterdam in contains quaint pictures of giants and dwarfs engaged in the building of a megalithic monument which is clearly a _hünenbett_. according to tradition the giants, after employing the labour of the dwarfs, proceeded to devour them. _hünenbetter_ similar to those shown in picardt's illustrations are still to be seen in holland, but only in the north, where over fifty are known. they are of elongated rectangular form, built of upright blocks, and roofed with from two to ten cover-slabs. they all widen slightly towards the west end. the most perfect example still remaining is that of tinaarloo, and the largest is that of borger, which contains forty-five blocks, of which ten are cap-stones. several _hünenbetter_ have been excavated. in them are found pottery vases, flint celts, axes and hammers of grey granite, basalt, and jade. belgium possesses several true dolmens, of which the best known is that called la pierre du diable on the right bank of the meuse. near lüttich are two simple corridor-tombs, each with a round hole in one of the end-slabs and a small portico outside it. chapter v france, spain, and portugal france contains large numbers of megalithic monuments. of dolmens and corridor-tombs no less than have been recorded. in the east and south-east they are rare, but they abound over a wide strip running from the breton coasts of the english channel to the mediterranean shores of hérault and card. in mortillef counted menhirs, including those which formed parts of _alignements_ and cromlechs. several of these attain to a great size. that to locmariaquer (morbihan), now unfortunately fallen and broken, measured over feet in height, being thus not much shorter than the egyptian obelisk which stands in the place de la concorde in paris. passing now to combinations of menhirs in groups, we must first mention the remarkable _alignements_ of brittany, of which the most famous are those of carnac. they run east and west over a distance of yards, but the line is broken at two points in such a way that the whole forms three groups. the most westerly, that of ménec, consists of eleven lines of menhirs and a cromlech, the total number of stones standing being , the tallest of which is feet in height. the central group, that of kermario, consists of stones arranged in ten straight lines, while the most easterly, that of kerlescan, is formed by menhirs, of which form a rectangular enclosure. there are other _alignements_ in brittany, of which the most important is that of erdeven, comprising stones arranged in ten lines. outside brittany _alignements_ are unusual, but a fine example, now ruined, is said to have existed at saint pantaléon north of autun. in the fields around it are found large quantities of polished stone axes with knives, scrapers, and arrow-heads of flint. we have already noticed the cromlechs which form part of the _alignements_ of brittany. there are other examples in france. at er-lanic are two circles touching one another, the lower of which is covered by the sea even at low tide. excavations carried out within the circles brought to light rough pottery and axes of polished stone. two fine circles at can de ceyrac (gard) have diameters of about yards, and are formed of stones about feet high. each has a short entrance avenue which narrows as it approaches the circle, and in the centre of each rises a trilithon of rough stones. of the definitely sepulchral monuments the dolmen is common in all parts of the french megalithic area. it will suffice to mention the magnificent example known as the table des marchands at locmariaquer. perhaps the most typical structure in france is the corridor-tomb in which the chamber is indistinguishable from the passage, and the whole forms a long rectangular area. this is the _allée couverte_ in the narrower sense. in the department of oise occurs a special type of this in which one of the end-slabs has a hole pierced in its centre and is preceded by a small portico consisting of two uprights supporting a roof-slab (fig ). a remarkable example in brittany known as les pierres plates turns at a sharp angle in the middle, and is thus elbow-shaped. [illustration: fig. . _allée couverte_, called la pierre aux fées, oise, france. (_compte rendu du congrès préhistorique de france_.)] in the north of france the _allée_ is often merely cut out in the surface of the ground and has no roof at all. it is sometimes paved with slabs and divided into two partitions by an upright with a hole in its centre. tombs of this kind often contain from forty to eighty skeletons, some of which are in the contracted position. the skulls are in some cases trepanned, i.e. small round pieces of the bone have been cut out of them; such pieces are sometimes found separate in the graves. no objects of metal occur in these north french tombs. there are many fine examples in brittany of the corridor-tomb with distinct chamber. the best known lies on the island of gavr'inis (morbihan). it is covered by a tumulus nearly feet in diameter. the circular chamber, feet in height, is roofed by a huge block measuring feet by . the corridor which leads out to the edge of the mound is feet in length. twenty-two of the upright blocks used in this tomb are almost entirely covered with engraved designs. these are massed together with very little order, the main object having been apparently to cover the whole surface of the stone with ornament. the designs consist of spirals, concentric circles and semicircles, chevrons, rows of strokes, and triangles, and bear a considerable resemblance to those of lough crew and new grange in ireland. another tomb in the same district, that of mané-er-hroeck, was intact when discovered in . it contained within its chamber a hoard of axes of fibrolite and jadeite, pebbles of a kind of turquoise known as _callaïs_, pieces of pottery, flints, and a peculiarly fine celt of jadeite together with a flat ring-shaped club-head of the same stone. the tomb was concealed by a huge oval mound more than yards in length. the famous mont s. michel is an artificial mound containing a central megalithic chamber and several smaller cists, some of which held cremated bodies. [illustration: fig. . chambered mound at fontenay-le-marmion, normandy. (after montelius, _orient und europa_.)] a very remarkable mound in calvados (fig. ) was found to contain no less than twelve circular corbelled chambers, each with a separate entrance passage. the megalithic tombs of brittany all belong to the late neolithic period, and contain tools and arrow-heads of flint, small ornaments of gold, _callaïs_, and pottery which includes among its forms the bell-shaped cup. in central and south france the _allées couvertes_ are mostly of a semi-subterranean type, i.e. they are cut in the ground and merely roofed with slabs of stone. the most famous is that of the grotte des fées near arles (fig. ), in which a passage (_a_) with a staircase at one end and two niches (_b b_) in its sides leads into a narrow rectangular chamber (_c_). the total length is nearly feet. another tomb of the same type, la grotte du castellet, contained over a hundred skeletons, together with thirty-three flint arrow or spear-heads, one of which was stuck fast in a human vertebra, a bell-shaped cup, axes of polished stone, beads and pendants of various materials, pieces of _callaïs_, and a small plaque of gold. on the plateau of ger near the town of dax are large numbers of mounds, some of which contain cremated bodies in urns and others megalithic tombs. bertrand saw in this a cemetery of two different peoples living side by side. but it has since been shown that the cremation mounds belong to a much later period than those which contain megalithic graves. in these last the skeletons were found seated around the walls of the chamber accompanied by objects of flint and other stone, beads of _callaïs_, and small gold ornaments. [illustration: fig. . plan and section of la grotte des fées, arles, france (_matériaux pour l'histoire de l'homme_, ).] [illustration: fig. . the so-called dolmen-deity, from the tombs of the petit morin. (after de baye.)] france has also its rock-hewn tombs, for in the valley of the petit-morin is a series of such graves. a trench leads down to the entrance, which is closed by a slab. the chamber itself is completely underground. in the shallower tombs were either two rows of bodies with a passage between or separate layers parted by slabs or strata of sand. in the deeper were seldom more than eight bodies, in the extended or contracted position, with tools and weapons of flint, pots, and beads of amber and of _callaïs_. on the walls were rough sculptures of human figures (fig. ), to which we shall have to return later. the channel islands possess megalithic monuments not unlike those of brittany. they are corridor-tombs covered with a mound and often surrounded by a circle of stones. within the chamber, which is usually round, lies, under a layer of shells, a mass of mingled human and animal bones. the bodies had been buried in the sitting position, and with them lay objects of stone and bone, but none of metal. the spanish peninsula abounds in megalithic monuments. with the exception of a few menhirs, whose purpose is uncertain, all are sepulchral. dolmens and corridor-tombs are numerous in many parts, especially in the north-east provinces, in galicia, in andalusia, and, above all, in portugal. there is a fine dolmen in the vall gorguina in north-east spain. the cover-slab, measuring feet by , is supported by seven rough uprights with considerable spaces between them. in the same region is a ruined dolmen surrounded by a circle nearly feet in circumference, consisting of seven large stones, some of which appear to be partly worked. circles are also found round dolmens in andalusia. portugal abounds in fine dolmens both of the round and rectangular types. at fonte coberta on the douro stands a magnificent dolmen known locally as the moors' house. in the name of the field, fonte coberta, there is doubtless an allusion to the belief that the dolmens conceal springs of water, a belief also held in parts of ireland. at eguilaz in the basque provinces is a fine corridor-tomb, in which a passage feet long, roofed with flat slabs, leads to a rectangular chamber feet by with an immense cover-slab nearly feet in length: the whole was covered with a mound of earth. the chamber contained human bones and "lanceheads of stone and bronze." a famous tomb of a similar type exists at marcella in algarve. the chamber is a fine circle of upright slabs. it is paved with stones, and part of its area is divided into two or perhaps three rectangular compartments. a couple of orthostatic slabs form a sort of neck joining the circle to the passage, which narrows as it leads away from the circle, and was probably divided into two sections by a doorway whose side-posts still remain. in south-east spain the brothers siret have found corridor-tombs in which the chamber is cut in the rock surface and roofed with slabs; the entrance passage becomes a slope or a staircase. here we have a parallel to the giants' graves of sardinia, which are built usually of stone blocks on the surface, but occasionally are cut in the solid rock. other tombs in the same district show the common megalithic construction consisting of a base course of upright slabs surmounted by several courses of horizontal masonry (fig. ). the chamber is usually round, and may have two or more niches in its circumference. it is roofed by the successive overlapping or corbelling of the upper courses. the vault thus formed is further supported by a pillar of wood or stone set in the centre of the chamber. on the walls of some of the chambers there are traces of rough painting in red. the whole tomb is covered with a circular mound. in the best known example at los millares there are remains of a semicircular façade in front of the entrance, as in many other megalithic monuments. [illustration: fig. . corridor-tomb at los millares, spain. (after siret.)] the finest, however, of all the spanish monuments is the corridor-tomb of antequera in andalusia. it consists of a short passage leading into a long rectangular chamber roofed with four slabs. within it on its axial line are three stone pillars placed directly under the three meeting-points of the four slabs, but quite unnecessary for their support. the whole tomb is covered with a low mound of earth. in the great upright slab which forms the inner end of the chamber is a circular hole rather above the centre. it is not the plan of this tomb, but the size, that compels the admiration of the beholder. he stands, as it were, within a vast cave lighted only from its narrow end, the roof far above his head. the rough surface of the blocks lends colour to the feeling that this is the work of nature and not of man. here, even if not in stonehenge, he will pause to marvel at the patient energy of the men of old who put together such colossal masses of stone. among the corridor-tombs of spain must be mentioned a wedge-shaped type which bears a close resemblance to those of munster in ireland (cf. fig. ). in alemtejo, south of cape de sines, are several of these, usually about feet in length, with a slight portico at one end. a further point of similarity with the irish monuments is seen in the corridor-tombs of monte abrahaõ in portugal, where the chamber walls seem to have been reinforced by an outer lining of slabs. remains of eighty human bodies were found in this tomb, together with objects of stone and bone, including a small conical button similar to that of carrowmore in ireland. the spanish peninsula also possesses rock-hewn tombs. at palmella, near lisbon, is a circular example about feet in diameter preceded by a bell-shaped passage which slopes slightly downwards. another circular chamber in the same group has a much longer passage, which bulges out into two small rounded antechambers. these tombs have been excavated and yielded some pottery vases, together with objects of copper and beads of a peculiar precious stone called _callaïs_. all the finds made in the megalithic remains of spain and portugal point to the period of transition from the age of stone to that of metal. the balearic islands contain remarkable megalithic monuments. those known as the _talayots_ are towers having a circular or rarely a square base and sloping slightly inwards as they rise. the largest is feet in diameter. the stones, which are rather large and occasionally trimmed, are laid flat, not on edge. a doorway just large enough to be entered with comfort leads through the thickness of the wall into a round chamber roofed by corbelling, with the assistance sometimes of one or more pillars. from analogy with the _nuraghi_ of sardinia, which they resemble rather closely, it seems probable that the _talayots_ are fortified dwellings, perhaps only used in time of danger (fig. ). [illustration: fig. . section and plan of the talayot of sa aquila, majorca. (after cartailhac.)] [illustration: fig. . nau d'es tudons, plan and section. (after cartailhac.)] the _naus_ or _navetas_ are so named from their resemblance to ships. the construction is similar to that of the _talayots_. the outer wall has a considerable batter. the famous nau d'es tudons is about feet in length. the façade is slightly concave. a low door (_a_) gives access through a narrow slab-roofed passage (_b_) to a long rectangular chamber (_c_), the method of whose roofing is uncertain. all the _naus_ are built with their façades to the south or south-east, with the exception of that of benigaus nou, the inner end of which is cut in the rock, while the outer part is built up of blocks as usual. the abnormal orientation was here clearly determined by the desire to make use of the face of rock in the construction. the _naus_ seem to have been tombs, as human remains have been found in them. rock-tombs also occur in the islands. the most remarkable are those of s. vincent in majorca. one of these has a kind of open antechamber cut in the rock, and is exactly similar in plan to the grotte des fées in france (cf. fig. ). prehistoric villages surrounded by great stone walls can still be traced in the balearic isles. the houses were of two types, built either above ground or below. the first are square or rectangular with rounded corners, the base course occasionally consisting of orthostatic slabs. the subterranean dwellings are faced with stone and roofed with flat slabs supported by columns. in each village was one building of a different type. it stood above ground and was semicircular in plan. in its centre stood a horizontal slab laid across the top of an upright, forming a t-shaped structure which helped to support the roof-slabs, but which may also have had some religious significance. the stones which composed it were always carefully worked, and the lower was let into a socket on the under side of the upper. chapter vi italy and its islands italy cannot be called a country of megalithic monuments. in the centre and north they do not occur, the supposed examples mentioned by dennis in his _cities and cemeteries of etruria_ having been proved non-existent by the italian ministry of education. it is only in the extreme south-west that megalithic structures appear. they are dolmens of ordinary type, except that in some cases the walls are formed not of upright slabs, but of stones roughly superposed one upon another. on the farm of the grassi, near lecce, are what appear to be two small dolmens at a distance of only feet apart; they are perhaps parts of a single corridor-tomb. in the neighbourhood of tarentum there is a dolmen-tomb approached by a short passage, and at bisceglie, near ruvo, there is an even finer example, the discovery of which is one of the most important events which have occurred in italian prehistoric archæology during the last few years. the tomb is a simple rectangular corridor feet in length, lying east and west. only one cover-slab, that at the west end, remains, and the exact disposition of the rest of the tomb is uncertain. in one of the side uprights which supports this slab is a circular hole, which, however, seems to be the work of nature, though its presence may have led to the choice of the stone. the tomb was carefully excavated, and the remains of several skeletons were found, one of which lay in the contracted position on the right side. three of the skulls were observed by an expert to be dolichocephalic, but their fragile condition prevented the taking of actual measurements. burnt bones of animals, fragments of pottery, a terra-cotta bead, and a stone pendant were also found, together with flint knives and a fragment of obsidian. these discoveries show that the heel of italy fell under the influence which caused the spread of the megalithic monuments, whatever that influence may have been. the same influence may also have been responsible for the bronze age rock-hewn tombs of matera in the basilicata, each of which is surrounded by a circle of fairly large stones. geographical considerations would lead one to suppose that the same conditions existed in sicily, and it is possible that this was the case. yet it is an affirmation which must be made with great reserve. megalithic monuments in the ordinary sense of the term are unknown in sicily. there are, however, four tombs in the south-east of the island which show some affinity to megalithic work. two of these were found by orsi at monteracello. they were rectangular chambers built of squared slabs of limestone set on edge. at one end of the finer of the two was a small opening or window cut in the upright slab. this same grave contained a skeleton lying on the right side with the legs slightly contracted. these two tombs can hardly be described as dolmens; they seem to have had no cover-slabs, and the blocks, which were small, were let into the earth, scarcely appearing above the surface. taken by themselves the monteracello tombs would hardly prove the presence of the megalithic civilization in sicily. however, in the valley called cava lazzaro there is a rock-hewn tomb where the vertical face of the rock in which the tomb is cut has been shaped into a curved façade, a very usual feature of megalithic architecture. this is ornamented on each side of the entrance of the tomb with four pilasters cut in relief in the solid rock, each pair being connected by a semicircular arch also in relief. on the pilasters is incised a pattern of circles and v-shaped signs. a somewhat similar arrangement of pilasters is seen in two rock-tombs at cava lavinaro in the same district. this work forcibly recalls the work of the megalithic builders in the hypogeum of halsaflieni in malta (see chap. vii), and on the façades of the giants' tombs in sardinia (see below). it affords, at any rate, a presumption that in all three islands we have to deal with the same civilization if not the same people. such a presumption is not weakened by the fact that in sicily the usual form of tomb was the rock-hewn sepulchre, which, as will be seen later, is very often a concomitant of the megalithic monument, and in many cases is proved to be the work of the same people. in the early neolithic period in sicily, called by orsi the sicanian period, rock-hewn tombs seem not to have been used. it is only at the beginning of the metal age that they begin to appear. in this period, the so-called first siculan, the tomb-chamber was almost always circular or elliptical, entered by a small door or window in the face of the rock. the dead were often seated round the wall of the chamber, evidently engaged in a funerary feast, as is clear from the great vase set in their midst with small cups for ladling out the liquid. a single tomb often contained many bodies, especially in cases where the banquet arrangement was not observed; one chamber held more than a hundred skeletons, and it has been suggested that the bodies were only laid in the tomb after the flesh had been removed from the bones, either artificially or as the result of a temporary burial elsewhere. such a custom is not unknown in other parts of the megalithic area. with these bodies were found large quantities of painted pottery, a few implements of copper and many of flint. among the ornaments which the dead carried--for they seem to have been buried in complete costume--were several axe-shaped pendants of polished stone, precisely similar to those of sardinia, malta, and france. the most important cemeteries of this period are those of castelluccio, melilli, and monteracello. near this last site was also found a round hut based on a course of orthostatic slabs of typically megalithic appearance. in the full bronze age, called the second siculan period, burial in rock-tombs still remained the rule. the tomb-form had developed considerably. the circular type was still usual, though beside it a rectangular form was fast coming into favour. the main chamber often had side-niches, and was usually preceded by a corridor which sometimes passed through an antechamber. occasionally we find an elaborate open-air court outside the façade of the tomb, built very much after the megalithic style. large vertical surfaces of rock were carefully sought after for tombs, and the almost inaccessible cliffs of pantalica and cassibile are literally honeycombed with them. where such surfaces of rock were unobtainable a vertical shaft was sunk in the level rock and a chamber was opened off the bottom of it. the tradition of the banquet of the dead is still kept up, but the number of the skeletons in each tomb steadily decreases. the sitting posture is still frequent, though occasionally the body lies flat on one side with the legs slightly contracted. flint is now rare, but objects of bronze are plentiful. the local painted pottery has almost entirely given place to simpler yet better wares with occasional mycenean importations. it is impossible to decide whether this sicilian civilization ought to be included under the term megalithic. if, as seems probable, the idea of megalithic building was brought to europe by the immigration of a new race it is possible that a branch of this race entered sicily. in that case i should prefer to think that they came not at the beginning of the first siculan period as we know it, but rather earlier. certain vases found with neolithic burials in a cave at villafrati and elsewhere in sicily resemble the pottery usually found in megalithic tombs; one of them is in fact a bell-shaped cup, a form typical of megalithic pottery. it is thus possible that an immigration of megalithic people into sicily took place during the stone age, definitely later than the period of the earliest neolithic remains on the island, but earlier than that of such sites as the castelluccio cemetery. this, however, is and will perhaps remain a mere conjecture, though it is quite possible that there are in the interior of sicily dolmens which have not yet come to the notice of the archæologist; in this connection it is worth while to remember that up to five years ago the existence of dolmens in both sardinia and malta passed unnoticed. if the inclusion of sicily in the megalithic area is doubtful there is fortunately no question about the island of sardinia. here we have one of the chief strongholds of the megalithic civilization, where the architecture displays its greatest variety and flexibility. the simplest manifestation of megalithic building, the dolmen, was up till lately thought to be absent from sardinia, but the researches of the last few years have brought to light several examples, of which the best known are those of birori, where the chamber is approximately circular in plan. the monuments, however, for which sardinia is most famous are the _nuraghi._ a _nuraghe_ is a tower-like structure of truncated conical form, built of large stones laid in comparatively regular courses (pl. ii, fig. ). the stones are often artificially squared, and set with a clay mortar. the plan and arrangement of a simple _nuraghe_ are usually as follows (fig. ): the diameter of the building is generally under feet. a door of barely comfortable height even for an average man and surmounted by a single lintel-block gives access to a narrow passage cut through the thickness of the wall. in this passage are, to the right, a small niche (_c_) just large enough to hold a man, and, on the left, a winding staircase in the wall (_d_) leading to an upper storey. the passage itself leads into the chamber (_a_), which is circular, often with two or three side-niches (_b b_), and roofed by corbelling, i.e. by making each of the upper courses of stones in its wall project inwards over the last. the upper chamber, which is rarely preserved, is similar in form to the lower. [illustration: plate ii fig. . mnaidra, doorway of room h] [illustration: plate ii fig. . the nuraghe of madrone in sardinia to face p. ] [illustration: fig. . elevation, section and plan of a _nuraghe_. (pinza, _monumenti antichi_.)] considerable speculation has been indulged in concerning the purpose of the _nuraghi_. for many years they were regarded as tombs, a view which was first combated by nissardi at the international congress in rome in . further exploration since that time has placed it beyond all doubt that the _nuraghi_ were fortified dwellings. the form of the building itself is almost conclusive. the lowness of the door would at once put an enemy at a disadvantage in attempting to enter; it is significant that in the _nuraghe_ of su cadalanu, where the doorway was over feet in height, its breadth was so much reduced that it was necessary to enter sideways. arrangements were made for the closing of the entrance from inside by a heavy slab of stone, often fitted into grooves. the niche on the right of the passage clearly served to hold a man, who would command the passage itself and the staircase to the upper floor; he would, moreover, be able to attack the undefended flank of an enemy entering with his shield on his left arm. to the same effort at impregnability we may safely ascribe the fact that the staircase leading to the upper room did not begin on the floor-level of the passage, but was reached through a hole high up in the wall. many of the _nuraghi_ are surrounded by elaborate fortifications consisting of walls, towers, and bastions, sometimes built at the same time as the dwelling itself, sometimes added later. those of aiga, losa, and s'aspru are among the most famous of this type. all the _nuraghi_ stand in commanding situations overlooking large tracts of country, and the more important a position is from the strategical point of view the stronger will be the _nuraghe_ which defends it. all are situated close to streams and springs of good water, and some, as for instance that of abbameiga, are actually built over a natural spring. at nossiu is a building which can only be described as a fortress. it consists of a rhomboidal enclosure with _nuraghe_-like towers at its corners and four narrow gateways in its walls. it is surrounded by the ruins of a village of stone huts. there cannot be the least doubt that in time of danger the inhabitants drove their cattle into the fortified enclosure, entered it themselves, and then closed the gates. each _nuraghe_ formed the centre of a group of stone huts. mackenzie has described such a village at serucci, where the circular plan of the huts was still visible. the walls in one case stood high enough to show, from the corbelling of their upper courses, that the huts were roofed in the same fashion as the _nuraghi_ themselves. another village, that which surrounds the _nuraghe_ of su chiai, was protected by a wall of huge stones. it is thus clear that the _nuraghi_ were the fortified centres of the various villages of sardinia. probably each formed the residence of the local chieftain; that they were actually inhabited is clear from the remains of everyday life found in them, and from the polish which continual use has set on the side-walls of some of the staircases. in general appearance and design the _nuraghi_ recall the modern _truddhi_, hundreds of which dot the surface of apulia and help to beguile the tedium of the railway journey from brindisi to foggia. the _truddhi_, however, are built in steps or terraces and have no upper chamber. who were the foes against whom such elaborate preparations for defence were made? two alternatives are possible. either sardinia was a continual prey to some piratical mediterranean people, or she was divided against herself through the rivalry of the local chieftains. the second explanation is perhaps the more probable. mackenzie seems to adopt it, and fancies that in the growth of the largest _nuraghi_ we may trace the rise to power of some of these local dynasts at the expense of their neighbours. he suggests that the existence of the fortified enclosure of nossiu, where there is no sign of a true _nuraghe_, may mean that there were certain communities which succeeded in maintaining their independence in the face of these powerful rulers. but here, as he himself is the first to admit, we are in the realm of pure conjecture. [illustration: fig. . giant's tomb at muraguada, sardinia. (mackenzie, _papers of the british school of rome_, v.)] it is now established that in the giants' tombs of sardinia we are to see the graves of the inhabitants of the _nuraghe_ villages. every giant's tomb lies close to such a village, and almost every village has its giants' tombs, one or more in number according to its size. a giant's tomb consists of a long rectangular chamber of upright slabs roofed by corbelled masonry (fig. ). the slab which closes one end of the tomb is of great size, and consists of a lower rectangular half with a small hole at the base and an upper part shaped like a rounded gable. there is a raised border to the whole slab, and a similar band in relief marks out the two halves. this front slab forms the centre-piece in a curved façade of upright slabs. the chamber is covered with a coating of ashlar masonry, which is shaped into an apsidal form at the end opposite to the façade. occasionally more than feet in length, the giants' tombs served as graves for whole families, or even for whole villages. mackenzie has shown that the form is derived from the simple dolmen, and has pointed out several of the intermediate stages. the inhabitants of sardinia in the megalithic period also buried their dead in rock-hewn sepulchres, of which there are numerous examples at anghelu ruju. the contents of these graves make it clear that they are the work of the same people as the giants' graves. were further proof needed it could be afforded by a grave at molafà, where a giant's grave with its façade and gabled slab has been faithfully imitated in the solid rock. there is a similar tomb at st. george. two natural caves in cape sant' elia on the south of the island contain burials of this same period. the neighbouring island of corsica also contains important megalithic remains. they consist of thirteen dolmens, forty-one menhirs, two _alignements_, and a cromlech. they fall geographically into two groups, one in the extreme north and the other in the extreme south of the island. the stones used are chiefly granite and gneiss. the dolmens, which are of carefully chosen flat blocks showing no trace of work, are all rectangular in plan, and usually consist of four side-walls and a cover-slab. the finest of all, however, the dolmen of fontanaccia, has seven blocks supporting the cover, one at each short end, three in one of the long sides, and two in the other. none of the dolmens are covered by mounds. of the _alignements_, that of caouria seems to consist, in part at least, of two parallel lines of menhirs, the rest of the plan being uncertain. there are still thirty-two blocks, of which six have fallen. the other _alignement_, that of rinaiou, consists of seven menhirs set in a straight line. the cromlech is circular and stands on cape corse. on the small island of pianosa, near elba, are several rock-hewn tombs of the æneolithic period which ought perhaps to be classed with the megalithic monuments of sardinia and corsica. chapter vii africa, malta, and the smaller mediterranean islands north africa is a great stronghold of the megalithic civilization, indeed it is thought by some that it is the area in which megalithic building originated. morocco, tunis, algeria, and tripoli all abound in dolmens and other monuments. even in the nile valley they occur, for what looks like a dolmen surrounded by a circle was discovered by de morgan in the desert near edfu, and wilson and felkin describe a number of simple dolmens which exist near ladò in the sudan. tripoli remains as yet comparatively unexplored. the traveller barth speaks of stone circles near mourzouk and near the town of tripoli. the great trilithons (_senams_) with holes pierced in their uprights and 'altar tables' at their base, which barth, followed by cooper in his _hill of the graces_, described as megalithic monuments, have been shown to be nothing more than olive-presses, the 'altar tables' being the slabs over which the oil ran off as it descended. true dolmens do, however, occur in tripoli, and cooper figures a fine monument at messa in the cyrenaica, which appears to consist of a single straight line of tall uprights with a continuous entablature of blocks similar to that of the outer circle at stonehenge. algeria has been far more completely explored, and possesses a remarkable number of megalithic monuments. many of the finest are situated near the town of constantine. thus at bou nouara there is a hill about a mile in length which is a regular necropolis of dolmen-tombs. each grave consists of a dolmen within a circle of stones. the blocks are all natural and completely unworked. the circle consists of a wall of stone blocks so built as to neutralize the slope of the hill and to form a level platform for the dolmen. thus on the lower side there are three courses of carefully laid stones rising to about five feet, while on the upper side there is only one course. the diameter of the circles varies from to feet. in the centre of the circle lies the dolmen with its single long cover-slab. this usually rests on two entire side-slabs, the ends being filled up either with entire slabs or with masonry of small stones. in rare cases the side-slabs are replaced by masonry walls. the average size of the cover-slab is - / by feet. the dolmen itself is, of course, built directly on to the platform, and the space between it and the circle is filled up with rough stones. the orientation of the dolmens varied considerably, but the cover-slab was never placed in such a way that its length ran up the hill-slope, probably because in moving the slab into place this would have been an awkward position. another equally fine site is that of bou merzoug, near oulad rahmoun, about an hour's railway journey from constantine. the place is naturally adapted for a settlement as there is a spring of water there. this spring was later utilized by the romans to provide water for the city of cirta. the dolmen-graves lie in great numbers on the hill at the foot of which the spring rises, and extend down into the valley. each dolmen lies in the centre of a stone circle. this last is in some cases formed by very large slabs set on edge, but more often by two or three courses of rough oblong blocks. many of the graves are badly damaged. one of the finest had an outer circle about feet in diameter, and an inner circle feet in diameter. between these two a third circle, much more irregular and of small stones, could just be distinguished. but in most cases it was impossible to make out clearly more than the one outer circle and the dolmen within it. the dolmen itself consisted of a large slab resting on walls formed of several large blocks, the spaces between which were filled up with smaller stones. none of the stones used were worked. the dolmens were not oriented according to any fixed system. m. féraud states that the separate graves were united together by open corridors formed by double or triple rows of large stones, but no traces of such a system could be found by the later visitors to the site, messrs. maciver and wilkin. fortunately we have some record of what these graves contained, for thirteen were opened by mr. christy and m. féraud. one contained a human skeleton in good condition, buried in the contracted position with the knees to chin and arms crossed. with this were two whole vases, fragments of others, and pieces of cedar wood. at the feet of the skeleton were two human heads, and as the graves would not have accommodated more than one whole body m. féraud suggests that these belong to decapitated victims. another grave contained, in addition to human bones, those of a horse, together with three objects of copper, viz. a ring, an earring, and a buckle. in another were found the teeth and bones of a horse and an iron bit. an entirely different type of monument is found near msila, south-west of algiers. here is a long low hill called the senâm, covered with large numbers of stone circles. these consist of large slabs of natural limestone set up on edge and not very closely fitted. the height of the slabs varies from to feet, and the diameters of the three still perfect circles are - / , - / , and - / feet respectively. at a point roughly south-east there is a break in the circumference, filled by a rectangular niche (fig. ) consisting of three large slabs, and varying in width from ft. in. to feet. there is a possibility that the niches were originally roofed, but the evidence on this point is far from conclusive. the interior of the circle is filled with blocks of stone, apparently heaped up without any definite plan. there seems to be no clue as to the meaning of these circles, as none have as yet been explored. maciver and wilkin are probably right in classing them as graves. [illustration: fig . stone circle at the senâm, algeria. (after maciver and wilkin).] the most famous, however, of the algerian sites is unquestionably that of roknia. here the tombs lie on the side of a steep hill. they consist of dolmens often surrounded by stone circles from to feet in diameter. the cover-slabs of the dolmens usually rest on single uprights, and never on built walls. several of the graves excavated contained more than one body, one yielding as many as seven. it is remarkable that three of the skulls showed wounds, the dead having been apparently killed in battle. several vases have been found and a few pieces of bronze. we have seen that in some of the tombs of bou merzoug objects of iron were found. this makes it clear that some at least of the algerian tombs belong to the iron age, i.e. that they are probably later than b.c., but beyond this we cannot go. the medal of faustina sometimes quoted as evidence for a very late date proves nothing, as it is not stated to have been found in a tomb. there is no evidence to show how far back the graves go. it may be that, as maciver and wilkin suggest, the parts of the cemeteries excavated chance to be the latest. at bou merzoug the excavators worked chiefly among the graves on the plain and at the bottom of the hill. the more closely crowded graves which lie on the hill itself may well be older than these. in fact, all that may be said of the algerian graves is that some are of the iron age, while others may be and probably are earlier. in tunis the dolmen is not uncommon, and several groups or cemeteries have been reported. near ellez occurs a type of corridor-tomb in which three dolmen-like chambers lie on either side of a central passage, and a seventh at the end opposite to the entrance. the whole is constructed of upright slabs of stone, and is surrounded by a circle formed in the same way. morocco, too, has its dolmens, especially in the district of kabylia, while near tangier there is a stone circle. off the north coast of africa, and thus on the highway which leads from africa to europe, lie the italian islands of lampedusa and linosa. the latter is volcanic in origin, and its surface presents no opportunity for the building of megalithic monuments. lampedusa, on the other hand, consists of limestone, which lies about in great blocks on its surface. on the slopes of the south coast there are several remains of megalithic construction, but they are too damaged to show much of their original form. however, on the north side of the island there are megalithic huts in a very fair state of preservation. they are oval in form and have in many cases a base course of orthostatic slabs. some miles to the north of linosa lies the much larger volcanic island of pantelleria, also a possession of italy. here megalithic remains both of dwellings and of tombs have been found. on the plateau of the mursia are the remains of rectangular huts made of rough blocks of stone. these huts seemed to have formed a village, which was surrounded by a wall for purposes of defence. in the huts were found implements of obsidian and flat stones used for grinding. [illustration: fig. . plan of the sese grande, pantelleria. (orsi, _monumenti antichi_, ix.)] the tombs of the people who inhabited this village are, unlike the houses, circular or elliptical in form. they are locally known as _sesi._ the smaller are of truncated conical shape, the circular chamber being entered by a low door and having a corbelled roof. in one of the _sesi_ a skeleton was found buried in the contracted position. the finest of the tombs, known as the sese grande, elliptical in form (fig. ), has a major diameter of more than feet, and rises in ridges, being domed at the top. it contains not one chamber, but twelve, each of which has a separate entrance from the outside of the _sese._ to judge by the remains found in the _sesi_ they belong entirely to the neolithic period. the island of malta as seen to-day is an almost treeless, though not unfertile, stretch of rock, with a harbour on the north coast which must always make the place a necessary possession to the first sea power of europe. much of its soil is of comparatively modern creation, and four thousand years ago the island may well have had a forbidding aspect. this is perhaps the reason why the first great inroads of neolithic man into the mediterranean left it quite untouched, although it lay directly in the path of tribes immigrating into europe from africa. the earliest neolithic remains of italy, crete, and the Ægean seem to have no parallel in malta, and the first inhabitants of whom we find traces in the island were builders of megalithic monuments. small as malta is it contains some of the grandest and most important structures of this kind ever erected. the two greatest of these, the so-called "phoenician temples" of hagiar kim and mnaidra, were constructed on opposite sides of one of the southern valleys, each within sight of the other and of the little rocky island of filfla. [illustration: fig. . plan of the megalithic sanctuary of mnaidra, malta. (after albert mayr's plan.)] the temple of mnaidra is the simpler of the two in plan (fig. ). it consists of two halves, the more northerly of which was almost certainly built later than the other. each half consists of two elliptical chambers set one behind the other. the south half is the better preserved. it has a concave façade of large orthostatic slabs with horizontal blocks set in front of them to keep them in position. in the centre of this opens a short paved passage formed of fine upright slabs of stone, one of which is feet in height. the first elliptical chamber (_e_) into which this passage leads us has a length of feet. its walls (pl. iii) consist of roughly squared orthostatic slabs over feet in height, above which are several courses of horizontal blocks which carry the walls in places up to a height of nearly feet. this combination of vertical and horizontal masonry is typical of all the maltese temples. to the left of the entrance is a rectangular niche in the wall containing one of the remarkable trilithons (_a_) which form so striking a feature of mnaidra and hagiar kim. it consists of a horizontal slab of stone nearly feet in length, supported at its ends by two vertical slabs about feet high. to the right of the entrance is a window-like opening (_b_, behind the seated figure in pl. iii) in one of the slabs of the wall, preceded by two steps and giving access to an irregular triangular space (_f_). in the north-west angle of this triangle is fixed a trilithon table (_c_) of the usual type, inches high; at a like height above the table is fixed another horizontal slab which serves as a roof to the corner. the south corner of the triangle is shut off by a vertical slab, in which is cut a window inches by . through this is seen a shrine (?) consisting of a box (_d_) made of five well-cut slabs of stone, the front being open. the aperture by which _f_ is entered was evidently intended to be closed with a slab of stone from the inside of _f_, for it was rebated on that side, and there are holes to be used in securing the slab. when the entrance was thus blocked _f_ still communicated with _e_ by means of a small rectangular window inches by in one of the adjacent slabs (visible in pl. iii). [illustration: plate iii temple of mnaidra, malta. apse of chief room to face p. ] returning to the area _e_ we find in the south-west wall an elaborate doorway (pl. ii, fig. i, p. ) leading to a rectangular room _h_. the doorway consists of two tall pillars with a great lintel laid across the top. the space between the pillars is closed by a fixed vertical slab in which is a window-like aperture similar to that which gives access to room _f_. all the stones in this doorway are ornamented with pit-marks. the rectangular room _h_ has niches in its walls to the north, south, and west. each niche is formed by a pair of uprights with a block laid across the top. the west niche is occupied by a horizontal table or slab (_e_) supported at its centre by a stone pillar inches in height, of circular section narrowing in the centre (visible through the doorway in pl. ii, fig. i). the southern niche contains an ordinary trilithon table (_f_): the northern niche is damaged, but apparently held a table like that of the western. the area _i_ consists of only half an ellipse, the southern half being replaced by the area _h_, which we have already described. it has a rectangular niche to the west containing a fine trilithon with a cover-slab nearly feet long. the whole of the southern half of the mnaidra temple is surrounded by a wall of huge rough blocks of stone, presenting a great contrast to the dressed slabs of which the inner walls are formed. they are placed alternately with their broad faces and their narrow edges outwards. the roughness of this enclosure wall gives the structure a remarkably wild and craggy appearance from a distance. the northern half of mnaidra is clearly a later addition. there is no doubt as to the way in which the areas were roofed. in the apse-like ends of the elliptical rooms the horizontal courses are corbelled, i.e. each course projects slightly forward over the last. thus the space narrows as the walls rise, until the aperture is small enough to be roofed by great slabs laid across. the corbelling of the apse is just perceptible in pl. iii. whether the roofing of the mnaidra temple was ever complete it is impossible to say: in any case the system we have described could only be applied to the apsidal portions of the areas, and their centres must either have been open to the sky or roofed quite simply with slabs. in the still more famous temple of hagiar kim we have a complicated building, in which the original plan has been much altered and enlarged. the main portion doubtless consisted originally of a curved façade and a pair of elliptical areas, the inner of which has been fitted with a second entrance to the north-west and completely remodelled at its south-west end. four elliptical chambers, one of which is at a much higher level than the rest of the building, have been added. here, too, as at mnaidra, we find niches containing trilithon tables. in the first elliptical area, in which the apsidal ends are divided from the central space by means of walls of vertical slabs, a remarkable group of objects was found. in front of a well-cut vertical block stood what must be an altar, cut in one piece of stone. it is square in section except for the top, which is circular. on the four vertical edges are pilasters in relief, and in the front between these is cut in relief what looks like a plant growing out of a pot or box. to the left of the altar and the vertical slab behind were an upright stone with two hanging spirals cut on it in relief, and at its foot a horizontal slab. both the altar and the carved stone are covered with small pit-marks. in the outside wall of the building, quite unconnected with the interior, is a niche partly restored on old foundations, in which stands a rough stone pillar - / feet high. in front of this pillar is a vertical slab nearly feet high, narrowing towards the base, and covered with pit-markings. this pillar can hardly be anything but a baetyl, or sacred stone. the temple called the gigantia, on the island of gozo, is no less remarkable than the two which we have already described; in one place its wall is preserved up to a height of over feet. the plan is similar to that of mnaidra, though here the two halves seem to have been built at one and the same time. several of the blocks show a design of spirals in relief, while on others there are the usual pit-markings. another bears a figure of a fish or serpent. at the foot of one of the trilithons was found a baetyl inches in height, now in the museum at valletta. that these three buildings were sanctuaries of some kind seems almost certain from their form and arrangement. we do not, however, know what was the exact nature of the worship carried on in them, though there can be no doubt that the stone tables supported by single pillars and the trilithons found in the niches played an important part in the ritual. sir arthur evans in his famous article _mycenæan tree and pillar cult_ has suggested that in malta we have a cult similar to that seen in the mycenæan world. this latter was an aneiconic worship developed out of the cult of the dead; in it the deity or hero was represented by a baetyl, i.e. a tree or pillar sometimes standing free, sometimes placed in a 'dolmen-like' cell or shrine, in which latter case the pillar often served to support the roof of the shrine. in malta sir arthur evans sees signs of a baetyl-worship very similar to this. thus at hagiar kim we have a pillar still standing free in a niche, and another pillar, which, to judge from its shape, must have stood free, was found in the gigantia. on the other hand, at mnaidra we have pillars which support slabs in a cell or shrine, and at cordin several small pillars were found which must originally have served a similar purpose. there can hardly be any doubt that sir arthur evans is right in seeing in the maltese temples signs of a baetylic worship. but is he right in his further assertion that the cult was a cult of the dead? albert mayr assumes that he is, and endeavours to show that the 'dolmen-like' cells in the niches are not altars, but stereotyped representations of the dolmen-tombs of the heroes worshipped. he thinks that the slabs which cover them are too large for altar-tables, and that the niches in which they stand are too narrow and inaccessible to have been the scene of sacrificial rites. neither of these arguments has much force, nor is it easy to see how the cells are derived from dolmens. the fact is that the word 'dolmen-like,' which has become current coin in archæological phraseology, is a question-begging epithet. the maltese cells are not like dolmens at all, they are either trilithons or tables resting on a pillar. they are always open to the front, and instead of the rough unhewn block which should cover a dolmen they are roofed with a well-squared slab. if the pillar which supports the slab is, like the free-standing pillars, a baetyl, the slab is probably a mere roof to cover and protect it; if not, the slab is almost certainly a table. at the same time, although we may not accept the hypothesis that the cell is derived from a dolmen, sir arthur evans may still be right in supposing the worship to have originated in a cult of the dead. but he was almost certainly wrong, as recent excavation has shown, in supposing that the cells were the actual burial place of the deified heroes. a number of statuettes were found at hagiar kim, two of which are of pottery and the rest of limestone. one figure represents a woman standing, but in the rest she is seated on a rather low stool with her feet tucked under her. there is no sign of clothing, except on one figure which shows a long shirt and a plain bodice with very low neck. all these statuettes are characterized by what is known as steatopygy, that is, the over-development of the fat which lies on and behind the hips and thighs. steatopygous figures have been found in many places, viz. france, malta, crete, the cyclades, greece, thessaly, servia, transylvania, poland, egypt, and the italian colony of eritrea on the red sea. the french examples are from caves of the palæolithic period; the rest mainly belong to the neolithic and bronze ages. various reasons have been given for the abnormal appearance of these figures. in the first place it has been suggested that they represent women of a steatopygous type, like the modern bushwomen, and that this race was in early days widely diffused in the mediterranean and in south europe. another hypothesis is that they represent not a truly steatopygous type of women, but only an abnormally fat type. a third suggestion is that they portray the generative aspect of nature in the form of a pregnant goddess. naturally there are considerable local differences in the shapes of the figures from the various countries we have enumerated, and it may be that no single hypothesis will explain them all. there are other megalithic buildings in malta besides the three which we have discussed, but none of them call for more than passing mention. on the heights of cordin or corradino, overlooking the grand harbour of valletta, there are no less than three groups, all of which have been lately excavated. in all three we see signs of the typical arrangement of elliptical areas one behind another, and in the finest of the three the curved façade and the paved court which lies before it are still preserved. it was for a long time believed that there were no dolmens in malta. professor tagliaferro has been able to upset this belief by discovering two, one near musta and the other near siggewi. it is hardly credible that these are the only two dolmens which ever existed in malta. more will no doubt yet be found, especially in the wild north-west corner of the isle. the megalithic builders of malta did not confine their achievements to structures above ground, they could also work with equal facility below. in the village of casal paula, which lies about a mile from the head of the grand harbour of valletta, is a wonderful complex of subterranean chambers known as the hypogeum of halsaflieni, which may justly be considered as one of the wonders of the world. the chambers, which seem to follow no definite plan, are excavated in the soft limestone and arranged in two storeys connected by a staircase, part of which still remains in place. the finest rooms are in the upper storey. the largest is circular, and contains in its walls a series of false doors and windows. it is in this room that the remarkable nature of the work in the hypogeum is most apparent. on entering it one sees at once that the intention of the original excavator was to produce in solid rock underground a copy of a megalithic structure above ground. thus the walls curve slightly inwards towards the top as do those of the apses of mnaidra and hagiar kim, and the ceiling is cut to represent a roof of great blocks laid across from wall to wall with a space left open in the centre where the width would be too great for the length of the stones. the treatment of the doors and windows recalls at once that of the temples above ground. the mason was not content, when he needed a door, to cut a rectangular opening in the rock; he must represent in high relief the monolithic side-posts and lintel which were the great features of the megalithic 'temples' of malta. nor has he failed in his intention, for, as one moves from room to room in the hypogeum, one certainly has the feeling of being in a building constructed of separate blocks and not merely cut in the solid rock. no description can do justice to the grace of the curves and the flow of the line in the circular chamber and in the passage beyond it, and we have here the work of an architect who felt the æsthetic effect of every line he traced. behind the circular chamber and across the passage just referred to lies a small room which, rightly or wrongly, has been called the 'holy of holies,' the idea being that it formed a kind of inner sanctuary to the chamber. it contains a rough shelf cut in the wall, and in the centre of this a shallow circular pit. it has been suggested that this pit was made to hold the base of the cult-object, whether it was a baetyl or an idol. this, however, is a mere conjecture. in the passage just outside the door of this room are two small circular pits about inches in diameter and the same distance apart. they connect with one another below, and are closed with tightly fitting limestone plugs. in one of them was found a cow's horn. their purpose is unknown, but similar pairs of pits occur elsewhere at halsaflieni. in two of the largest chambers in the hypogeum the roof and walls are still decorated with designs in red paint. the patterns consist of graceful combinations of curved lines and spirals. many other rooms, including the circular chamber, were originally painted with designs in red, which have now almost wholly disappeared. many of the chambers are extremely small, too small for an adult even to stand upright in them, and their entrances are merely windows, perhaps a foot square and well above the ground. what then was the purpose of this wonderful complex of rooms? before attempting to answer this question we must consider what has been found in them. when the museum authorities first took over the hypogeum practically all the chambers were filled to within a short distance of their roofs with a mass of reddish soil, which proved to contain the remains of thousands of human skeletons. in other words, halsaflieni was used as a burial place, though this may not have been its original purpose. the bones lay for the most part in disorder, and so thickly that in a space of about cubic yards lay the remains of no less than individuals. one skeleton, however, was found intact, lying on the right side in the crouched position, i.e. with arms and knees bent up. with the bones were found enormous quantities of pottery and other objects, buried with the dead as provision for the next world. the pottery is rough in comparison with the fine painted wares of crete, but it is extremely varied in its decoration. one particularly fine bowl shows a series of animals which have been identified by professor tagliaferro as the long-horned buffalo, an animal which once existed on the northern coasts of africa. ornaments of all kinds were common, and include beads, pendants, and conical buttons of stone and shell. the most remarkable of all are a large number of model celts made of jadeite and other hard stones. these are of the same shape as the stone axes used by neolithic man, but they are far too small ever to have been used, and they must therefore have been models hung round the neck as amulets. each is provided with a small hole for this purpose. the popularity of the axe-amulet makes it probable that the axe had some religious significance. finally halsaflieni has yielded several steatopygous figurines. some of these resemble those of hagiar kim, but two are of rather different type. each of these represents a female lying on a rather low couch. in the better preserved of the two she lies on her right side, her head on a small uncomfortable-looking pillow. the upper part of her body is naked, but from the waist downwards she is clad in a flounced skirt which reaches to the ankles. the other figurine is very similar, but the woman here is face downwards on the couch. the bodies themselves were so damaged with damp that only ten skulls could be saved whole. these, however, afford very valuable anthropological evidence. they have been carefully measured by dr. zammit, and they prove to belong to a long-headed (dolichocephalic) type usual among the neolithic races of the mediterranean. we have still to discuss the purpose of this great complex of underground chambers and passages. it is quite clear that its eventual fate was to be used as a burial place for thousands of individuals, but it is far from certain that this was the purpose for which it was built. the existence of the central chamber, with its careful work and laborious imitation of an open-air 'temple,' is against this interpretation. it has therefore been suggested that the hypogeum was meant for a burial place, and that the central chamber was the chapel or sanctuary in which the funeral rites were performed, after which the body was buried in one of the smaller rooms. this, however, does not explain the presence of burials in the chapel itself, and it is far more likely that it was only after halsaflieni had ceased to be used for its original purpose that it was seized upon as a convenient place for burial. the question of the date of the maltese megalithic buildings is a difficult one. it is true that no metal has been found in them, and that we can therefore speak of them as belonging to the neolithic age. but the neolithic age of malta need not be parallel in date with that of crete for example. it is extremely probable that malta lay outside the main currents of civilization, and that flint continued to be used there long after copper had been adopted by her more fortunate neighbours. chapter viii the dolmens of asia in the south-east of europe lie three groups of dolmens which are no doubt in origin more closely connected with those of asia than with those of the rest of europe. the first group lies in bulgaria, where no less than sixty dolmens have been found north of adrianople. the second consists of a few dolmens which still remain in the crimea, and the third lies in the caucasus in two divisions, one to the south-east and the other to the south-west of the town of ekaterinodar. these last are made of slabby rock, and thus have a finished appearance. a dolmen near tzarskaya has a small semicircular hole at the bottom of one of its end-slabs, while another in the valley of pehada has sides consisting of single blocks, placed so as to slant inwards considerably, and a circular hole in the centre of the slab which closes one of its ends. in asia megalithic monuments are not infrequent. we first find them in syria, they have been reported from persia, and in central and south india they exist in large numbers. corridor-tombs occur in japan, but they are late in date, and there is no evidence to show whether they are connected with those of india or not. syria is comparatively rich in megalithic monuments, but it is remarkable that almost all of them lie to the east of the jordan. thus while there are hundreds of dolmens in the country of pera and in ammon and moab, very few have been found in galilee, and only one in judæa, despite careful search. there is, however, a circle of stones west of tiberias, and an enclosure of menhirs between tyre and sidon. according to perrot and chipiez some of the moabite monuments are very similar in type to the giants' tombs of sardinia. others are simple dolmens. in a good example at ala safat (fig. ) the floor of the tomb is formed by a single flat slab of stone. the great cover-slab rests on two long blocks, one on either side, placed on edge. the narrow ends are closed up with smaller slabs, one of which, that which faces north, has a small hole pierced in it. a similar closure slab with a hole is also found in certain rock-tombs quite close to this dolmen. apparently none of these dolmens have been systematically excavated, and nothing is known of their date. [illustration: fig. . dolmen with holed stone at ala safat. (after de luynes.)] menhirs, too, are not wanting in syria. perrot and chipiez figure an example from gebel-mousa in moab which is quite unworked, except for a shallow furrow across the centre of the face. in many cases the menhir is surrounded by one or more rows of stones. thus at der ghuzaleh a menhir about feet in height is set in the centre of what when complete must have been a rectangle. in other cases the enclosure was elliptical or circular in form. in an example at minieh the menhir stands in the centre of a double (in part triple) circle of stones, on which abuts an elliptical enclosure. in some cases the circle has no proper entrance, in others it has a door consisting of a large slab resting on two others. the largest of the circles attains a diameter of feet, and has a double line of stones. within these circles and near them are found large numbers of monuments consisting each of a large flat slab resting on two others. on the upper surface of the top slab are often seen a number of basin-shaped holes, sometimes connected by furrows. many of the slabs are slightly slanting, and it has been suggested that the series of holes and furrows was intended for the pouring a libation of some kind. in a monument of this type at ammân the cover-slab slopes considerably; the upper part of its surface is a network of small channels converging on a hole inches deep about the centre of the slab. here, again, no excavations have been carried out, and we do not even know what was the purpose of these structures. it is, however, probable that these trilithons were not, like the dolmens, tombs, but served some religious purpose, possibly connected with the worship of the menhirs. in the jaulân, where the rock consists of a slabby type of basalt, there are many dolmens of fine appearance. they often lie east and west, and are often broader at the west end. many are surrounded by a double circle of stones. in one of them two copper rings were found. at ain dakkar more than dolmen-tombs are visible from a single spot. they are built on circular terraces of earth and stones about feet high. the arabs call them graves of the children of israel. most of them lie east and west, and are broader at the west. in the eastern slab there is often a hole about feet in diameter. near tsîl are several corridor-tombs of simple type. each consists of a long rectangular chamber with only one cover-slab, that being at the west end. in a well-known example of this type at kosseir there is a hole in one of the two uprights which support the cover. these examples will serve to show the importance and variety of the syrian monuments. they present analogies with those of many parts of the megalithic area, and we therefore await anxiously the publication of mackenzie's promised article on his own explorations in this district. the central and southern parts of india afford numerous examples of dolmens. they are to be found in almost all parts of lower india from the nerbudda river to cape comorin. in the nilgiri hills there are stone circles and dolmens, and numbers of dolmens are said to exist in the neermul jungle in central india. in the collectorate of bellary dolmens and other monuments to the number of have been recorded. others occur in the principality of sorapoor and near vellore in the madras presidency. these latter appear to be of two types, either with three supports only or with four supports, one of which is pierced with a circular hole. of the dolmens known in the deccan, half are of this pierced type. they are known to the natives as "dwarfs' houses." one only had a pair of uprights outside the pierced stone, thus forming a sort of portico to the dolmen. near chittore in north arcot there is said to be a square mile of ground covered with these monuments. in them were found human remains in sarcophagi, and fragments of black pottery. several of the indian dolmens are said to have contained objects of iron. occasionally the dolmen is surrounded by a double circle of stones or covered with a cairn. the deccan, in addition to its numerous dolmens, possesses also megalithic monuments of another type. they consist each of two rows, each of thirteen unworked stones set as close together as possible, in front of which is a row of three stones, each about feet high, not let into the ground. the planted stones were whitewashed, and each was marked with a large spot of red paint with black in the centre. these stones seem to have been in use in modern times. colonel forbes leslie thinks that a cock had been sacrificed on one of the three stones which lie in front of the double row, but there seems to be no certain evidence for this. it is, however, very probable that these _alignements_ had some religious signification, and the same is no doubt true of certain small circles of small stones, also found in the deccan. the modern inhabitants of the khasi hills in india still make use of megalithic monuments. they set up a group of an odd number of menhirs, , , , , or , and in front of these two structures of dolmen form. these are raised in honour of some important member of the tribe who has died, and whose spirit is thought to have done some good to the tribe. if the benefits continue it is usual to increase the number of menhirs. the earliest burials in japan are marked by simple mounds of earth. it was not until the beginning of the iron age that megalithic tombs came into use. the true dolmen is not found in japan, and all the known graves are corridor-tombs covered with a mound. they are of four types. first, we have a simple corridor with no separate chamber; secondly, a corridor broadening out at one side near the end; thirdly, a true chamber with a corridor of access; and fourthly, a type in which the corridor is preceded by an antechamber. all four types occur in rough unworked stone, roofed with huge slabs, but a few examples of the third type are made of well-cut and dressed blocks. the mounds are usually conical, though some are of a complex form shortly to be described. some of these contain stone sarcophagi. the bodies were never cremated, but the bones are so damaged that it is impossible to say what the most usual position was. objects of bronze and iron together with pottery and ornaments were found in the tombs. the more important tombs are of a more complicated type. they seem to have contained the remains of emperors and their families. they consist each of a circular mound, to which is added on one side another mound of trapezoidal form. the megalithic tomb-chamber or the sarcophagus which sometimes replaces it lies in the circular part of the mound. the total axial length of the basis of the whole mound is in a typical case--that of nara (yamato)-- feet, the diameter of the round end being feet. the mounds have in most cases terraced sides, and are surrounded by a moat. in early times it seems to have been the custom to slay or bury alive the servants of the emperor on his mound, but this was given up about the beginning of the christian era. these imperial double mounds seem to begin about two centuries before the christian era, and to continue for five or six centuries after it. many of them can be definitely assigned to their owners, and others are attributed by tradition. thus a rather small mound at the foot of mount unebi (yamato) is considered to be the burial place of the emperor jimmu, the founder of the imperial dynasty, and annual ceremonies are performed before it. the japanese emperors are still buried in terraced mounds, and in the group of huge stone blocks which have been placed on the mound of the emperor komei, who died in , we may be tempted to see a survival of the ancient megalithic chamber. these early corridor-tombs are evidently not the work of the ainu, the aborigines of japan, but of the japanese invaders who conquered them. these latter do not seem to have brought the idea of megalithic building with them, as their earlier tombs are simple mounds. as no dolmen has yet been found in japan we cannot at present derive the corridor-tomb there from it. it is, however, worthy of mention that true dolmens occur as near as corea, though none have been reported from china. chapter ix the builders of the megalithic monuments, their habits, customs, religion, etc. with regard to the date of the megalithic monuments it only remains to sum up the evidence given in the previous chapters. it may be said that in europe they never belong to the beginning of the neolithic age, but either to its end or to the period which followed it, i.e. to the age of copper and bronze. the majority date from the dawn of this latter period, though some of the chambered cairns of ireland seem to belong to the iron age. outside europe there are certainly megalithic tombs which are late. in north africa, for example, we know that the erection of dolmens continued into the early iron age; many of the indian tombs are clearly late, and the corridor-tombs of japan can be safely attributed in part at least to the christian era. with what purpose were the megalithic monuments erected? the most simple example, the menhir or upright stone, may have served many purposes. in discussing the temples of malta we saw reason for believing that the megalithic peoples were in the habit of worshipping great stones as such. other stones, not actually worshipped, may mark the scene of some great event. jacob commemorated a dream by setting up the stone which had served him as a pillow, and samuel, victorious over the philistines, set up twelve stones, and called the place "stones of deliverance." others again perhaps stood in a spot devoted to some particular national or religious ceremony. thus the angami of the present day in assam set up stones in commemoration of their village feasts. it seems clear from the excavations that the menhirs do not mark the place of burials, though they may in some cases have been raised in honour of the dead. the question of the purpose of stone circles has already been dealt with in connection with those of great britain. _alignements_ are more difficult to explain, for, from their form, they cannot have served as temples in the sense of meeting-places for worship. yet they must surely have been connected with religion in some way or other. possibly they were not constructed once and for all, but the stones were added gradually, each marking some event or the performance of some periodic ceremony, or even the death of some great chief. the so-called "canaanite high place" recently found at gezer consists of a line of ten menhirs running north and south, together with a large block in which was a socket for an idol or other object of worship. several bodies of children found near it have suggested that the monument was a place of sacrifice. other megalithic structures can be definitely classed as dwellings or tombs, as we have seen in our separate treatment of them. it is not improbable that, if we are right in considering the dolmen as the most primitive form of megalithic monument, megalithic architecture was funerary in origin. yet, as we find it in its great diffusion, it provides homes for the living as well as for the dead. in their original home, perhaps in africa, the megalithic race may have lived in huts of wattle or skins, but after their migration the need of protection in a hostile country and the exigencies of a colder climate may have forced them to employ stone for their dwellings. in any case, in megalithic architecture as seen in europe the tomb and the dwelling types are considerably intermixed, and may have reacted on one another. this, however, does not justify the assertion so often made that the megalithic tomb was a conscious imitation of the hut. it is true that some peoples make the home of their dead to resemble that of the living. among certain tribes of greenland it is usual to leave the dead man seated in his hut by way of burial. but such a conception does not exist among all peoples, and to say that the dolmen is an imitation in stone of a hut is the purest conjecture. still more improbable is montelius's idea that the corridor-tomb imitates a dwelling. it is true that the eskimos have a type of hut which is entered by a low passage often feet in length, but for one who believes as montelius does that the corridor-tomb is southern or eastern in origin such a derivation is impossible, for this type of house is essentially northern, its aim being to exclude the icy winds. in the south it would be intolerably close, and its low passage besides serving no purpose would be inconvenient. there is really no reason to derive either the dolmen or the corridor-tomb from dwellings at all. granted the use of huge stones, both are purely natural forms, and the presence of the corridor in the latter is dictated by necessity. the problem was how to cover a large tomb-chamber with a mound and to leave it still accessible for later interments, and the obvious solution was to add a covered passage leading out to the edge of the mound. a remarkable feature of the megalithic tombs is the occurrence in many of them of a small round or rectangular hole in one of the walls, usually an end-wall, more rarely a partition-wall between two chambers. occasionally the hole was formed by placing side by side two upright blocks each with a semicircular notch in its edge. tombs with a holed block or blocks occur in england, instances being the barrows of avening and rodmarton, king orry's grave in the isle of man, lanyon quoit in cornwall, and plas newydd in wales, which has two holes. there are also examples in ireland, france, belgium, central germany, and scandinavia, where they are common. passing further afield we find holes in the giants' graves of sardinia, and in syria, the caucasus, and india, where half the dolmens in the deccan are of this type. the holes are usually too small to allow of the passage of a human body. it has been suggested that they served as an outlet for the soul of the deceased, or in some cases as a means of passing in food to him. attention has been frequently drawn to curious round pits so often found on the stones of dolmens and usually known as cup-markings. they vary in diameter from about two to four inches, and are occasionally connected by a series of narrow grooves in the stone. they vary considerably in number, sometimes there are few, sometimes many. they occur nearly always on the upper surface of the cover-slab, very rarely on its under surface or on the side-walls. some have attempted to show that these pits are purely natural and not artificial. it has been suggested, for instance, that they are simply the casts of a species of fossil sea-urchin which has weathered out from the surface of the stone. this explanation may be true in some cases, but it will not serve in all, for the 'cups' are sometimes arranged in such regular order that their artificial origin is palpable. these markings are found on dolmens and corridor-tombs in palestine, north africa, corsica, france, germany, scandinavia, and great britain. in wales there is a fine example of a dolmen with pits at clynnog fawr, while in cornwall we may instance the monument called "the three brothers of grugith" near meneage. there is no clue to the purpose of these pits. some have thought that they were made to hold the blood of sacrifice which was poured over the slab, and from some such idea may have arisen some of the legends of human victims which still cling round the dolmens. others have opposed to this the fact that the pits sometimes occur on vertical walls or under the cover-slabs, and have preferred to see in them some totemistic signification or some expression of star-worship. it is possible that we have to deal with a complex and not a simple phenomenon, and that the pits were not all made to serve a single purpose. those which cover some of the finest stones at mnaidra and hagiar kim are certainly meant to be ornamental, though there may be in them a reminiscence of some religious tradition. in any case, it is worth while to remember that cup-markings also occur on natural rocks and boulders in switzerland, scandinavia, great britain (where there is a good example near ilkley in yorkshire), near como in italy, and in germany, russia, and india. of the builders of the megalithic monuments themselves we cannot expect to know very much, especially while their origin remains veiled in obscurity. yet there are a few facts which stand out clearly. we even know something about their appearance, for the skulls found in the megalithic tombs have in many cases been subjected to careful examination and measurement. into the detail of these measurements we cannot enter here; suffice it to say that the most important of them are the maximum length of the skull from front to back and its maximum breadth, both measures, of course, being taken in a straight line with a pair of callipers, and not round the contour of the skull. if we now divide the maximum breadth by the maximum length and multiply the result by we get what is known as the cephalic index of the skull. thus if a skull has a length of millimetres and a breadth of , its cephalic index is / x , i.e. . it is clear that in a roundish type of head the breadth will be greater in proportion to the length than in a narrow elliptical type. thus in a broad head the cephalic index is high, while in a narrow head it is low. the former is called brachycephalic (short-headed), and the latter dolichocephalic (long-headed). this index is now accepted by most anthropologists as a useful criterion of race, though, of course, there are other characteristics which must often be taken into account, such as the height and breadth of the face, the cubic capacity of the skull and its general contour. at any rate, if we can show that the skulls of the megalithic tombs conform to a single type in respect of their index we shall have a presumption, though not a certainty, that they belong to a single race. for africa the evidence consists in a group of twenty skulls from dolmen-tombs giving cephalic indices which range from . to . . the average index is . , and the majority of the indices lay within a few units of that number. ten skulls from halsaflieni in malta have cephalic indices running from to . , the average being . . of a series of skulls from the rock-tombs of the petit morin in france, had an index of over , were between and , and were below . but in the dolmens of lozère distinctly broad skulls were frequent. a series of british neolithic skulls, mostly from barrows, ran from to . the builders of the megalithic monuments thus belonged in the main to a fairly dolichocephalic race or races, for the large majority of the skulls measured are of a long-headed type. there are, however, in various localities, especially in france, occasional anomalous types of skull which are distinctly brachycephalic, and show that contamination of some kind was taking or had taken place. of the state of civilization to which the builders of the megalithic monuments had attained, and of the social condition in which they lived, there is something to be gathered. it is clear in the first place from the evidence of the maltese buildings that they were a pastoral people who domesticated the ox, the sheep, the pig, and the goat, upon whose flesh they partly lived. shellfish also formed a part of their diet, and the shells when emptied of their contents were occasionally pierced to be used as pendants or to form necklaces or bracelets. whether these people were agricultural is a question more difficult to answer. it is true that flat stones have been found, on which some kind of cereal was ground up with the aid of round pebbles, but the grain for which these primitive mills were used may have been wild and not cultivated. no grain of any kind has been found in the maltese settlements. the megalithic race do not seem to have been great traders. this is remarkably exemplified in malta, where there is not a trace of connection with the wonderful civilization which must have been flourishing so near at hand in crete and the Ægean at the time when the megalithic temples were built. the island seems to have been entirely self-sufficing, except for the importation of obsidian, probably from the neighbouring island of linosa. of copper, which wide trade would have introduced, there is no sign. some writers, however, have argued the existence of extensive trade-relations from the occurrence of a peculiar kind of turquoise called _callaïs_ in some of the megalithic monuments of france and portugal. the rarity of this stone has inclined some archæologists to attribute it to a single source, while some have gone so far as to consider it eastern in origin. for the last theory there is no evidence whatsoever. no natural deposit of _callaïs_ is known, but it is highly probable that the sources of the megalithic examples lay in france or portugal. it would of course be foolish to suppose that the megalithic people received none of the products of other countries, especially at a time when the discovery of copper was giving a great impetus to trade. no doubt they enjoyed the benefits of that kind of slow filtering trade which a primitive tribe, even if it had wished, could hardly have avoided, but they were not a great trading nation as were the cretans of the middle and late minoan periods, or the egyptians of the xiith and xviiith dynasties. we know nothing of their political conditions, of the groups into which they were divided, or the centres from which they were governed. that there were strong centres of government is, however, clear from the very existence of such huge monuments, many of which must have required the combined and organized labour of large armies of workers, in the gathering of which the state was doubtless strongly backed by religion. we have seen that the megalithic peoples frequently dwelt in huts of great stones. yet in the majority of cases their huts must have been, like those of most primitive races, of perishable material, such as wood, wattle, skins, turf, and clay. as for their form there was probably a continual conflict between the round and the rectangular plan, just as there was in the stone examples. which form prevailed in any particular district was probably determined almost by accident. thus in sardinia the round type was mostly kept for the huts and _nuraghi_, while the rectangular was reserved for the dolmens and giants' graves. even here the confusion between the two types is shown by the fact that near birori there are two dolmens with a round plan. again, in pantelleria the huts of the mursia are rectangular, while the _sesi_, which are tombs, are roughly circular. it is therefore probable that the round and rectangular types of building were both in use among the megalithic people before they spread over europe. within their huts these people led a life of the simplest description. their weapons and tools, though occasionally of copper, were for the most part of stone. flint was the most usual material. in scandinavia it was often polished, but elsewhere it was merely flaked. the implements made from it were of simple types, knives, borers, scrapers, lanceheads, and more rarely arrowheads. many of these were quite roughly made, no more flaking being done than was absolutely necessary to produce the essential form, and the work being, when possible, confined to one face of the flint. in the mediterranean obsidian, a volcanic rock, occasionally took the place of flint, especially in sardinia and pantelleria. axes or celts were often made of flint in scandinavia and north germany, but elsewhere other stones, such as jade, jadeite, and diorite were commonly used. we can only guess at the way in which the megalithic people were clothed. no doubt the skins of the animals they domesticated and of those they hunted provided them with some form of covering, at any rate in countries where it was needed. possibly they spun wool or flax into a thread, for at halsaflieni two objects were found which look like spindle-whorls, and others occur on sites which are almost certainly to be attributed to the megalithic people. there is, however, nothing to show that they wove the thread into stuffs. the love of personal decoration was highly developed among them, and all branches of nature were called upon to minister to their desire for ornament. shells, pierced and strung separately or in masses, were perhaps their favourite adornment, but close on these follow beads and pendants of almost every conceivable substance, bone, horn, stone, clay, nuts, beans, copper, and occasionally gold. one small object assumes a great importance on account of its wide distribution. this is the conical button with two converging holes in its base to pass the thread through. this little object, which may have served exactly the purpose of the modern button, occurs in several parts of the megalithic area. there are examples in malta made of stone and shell. elsewhere it is most usually of bone. it occurs in sardinia, in france, in the rock-tombs of gard, and in the corridor and rock-tombs of lozère and ardèche, in portugal in the _allée couverte_ of monte abrahaõ, in bohuslän (sweden), and at carrowmore in ireland. outside the megalithic area it has been found in two of the swiss lake-dwellings and in italy. the pottery of the megalithic people was of a simple type. it was all made by hand, the potter's wheel being still unknown to the makers. pottery with painted designs does not occur outside sicily, except for a few poor and late examples in malta. the best vases were of fairly purified clay, moderately well fired, and having a polished surface, usually of a darkish colour. on this surface were often incised ornamental designs, varying both in type and in the skill with which they were engraved. as a rule the schemes were rectilinear, more rarely they were carried out in curves. sardinia furnishes some fine examples of rectilinear work, while the best of the curved designs are found in malta, where elaborate conventional and even naturalistic patterns are traced out with wonderful freedom and steadiness of hand. the pottery of the megalithic area is not all alike; it would be surprising if it were. even supposing that the invaders brought with them a single definite style of pottery-making this would rapidly become modified by local conditions and by the already existing pottery industry of the country, often, no doubt, superior to that of the new-comers. nevertheless, there are a few points of similarity between the pottery of various parts of the megalithic area. the most remarkable example is the bell-shaped cup, which occurs in denmark, england, france, spain, sardinia, and possibly malta (the specimen is too broken for certainty). outside the area it is found in bohemia, hungary, and north italy. here, as in the case of the conical button, we cannot argue that the form was actually introduced by the megalithic race, though there is a certain possibility in favour of such a hypothesis. that the megalithic people possessed a religion of some kind will hardly be doubted. their careful observance of the rites due to the dead, and their construction of buildings which can hardly have been anything but places of worship, is a strong testimony to this. we have seen that in the maltese temples the worship of baetyls or pillars of stone seems to have been carried on. several stone objects which can scarcely have been anything but baetyls were found in the megalithic structures of los millares in spain, but none are known elsewhere in the megalithic area. there is some reason for thinking that among the megalithic race there existed a cult of the axe. in france, for instance, the sculptured rock-tombs of the valley of the petit morin show, some a human figure, some an axe, and some a combination of the two. this same juxtaposition of the two also occurs on a slab which closed the top of a corbelled chamber at collorgues in gard. a simple _allée couverte_ at göhlitzsch in saxony has on one of its blocks an axe and handle engraved and coloured red. there are further examples in the _allée couverte_ of gavr'inis and the dolmen called la table des marchands at locmariaquer. these sculptured axes call to mind at once the numerous axe-shaped pendants of fine polished stone (jade, jadeite, etc.) found in malta, sicily, sardinia, and france, and apparently used as amulets. the excavation of crete has brought to light a remarkable worship of the double axe, and it has been argued with great probability that one of the early boat signs figured on the pre-dynastic painted vases of egypt is a double axe, and that this was a cult object. it seems very probable that in the megalithic area, or at least in part of it, there was a somewhat similar worship, the object of cult, however, being not a double but a single axe, usually represented as fitted with a handle. it need not be assumed that the axe itself was worshipped, though this is not impossible; it is more likely that it was an attribute of some god or goddess. among the rock-hewn tombs of the valley of the petit morin in the department of marne, france, were seven which contained engravings on one of the walls. several of these represent human figures (fig. ). the eyes are not marked, but the hair and nose are clear. in some the breasts are shown, in others they are omitted. on each figure is represented what appears to be a collar or necklace. similar figures occur on the slabs of some of the _allées couvertes_ of seine et oise, and on certain blocks found in and near megalithic burials in the south of france. moreover, in the departments of aveyron, tarn, and hérault have been found what are known as menhir-statues, upright pillars of stone roughly shaped into human semblance at the top; they are of two types, the one clearly female and the other with no breasts, but always with a collar or baldric. it has been argued that these figures represent a deity or deities of the megalithic people. déchelette, comparing what are apparently tattoo marks on a menhir-statue at saint sermin (aveyron) with similar marks on a figure cut on a schist plaque at idanha a nova (portugal) and on a marble idol from the island of seriphos in the Ægean, seems inclined to argue that in france and portugal we have the same deity as in the Ægean. this seems rather a hazardous conjecture, for we know that many primitive peoples practised tattooing, and, moreover, it is not certain that the french figures represent deities at all. it is quite as likely, if not more so, that they represent the deceased, and take the place of a grave-stone: this would account for the occurrence of both male and female types. this was almost certainly the purpose of six stones that remain of a line that ran parallel to a now destroyed tomb at tamuli (sardinia). three have breasts as if to distinguish the sex of three of those buried in the tomb. we must not therefore assume that any of the french figures represents a 'dolmen-deity.' the method of burial observed in the megalithic tombs is almost universally inhumation. cremation seems to occur only in france, but there it is beyond all doubt. the known examples are found in the departments of finistère, marne, and aisne, and in the neighbourhood of paris. in finistère out of megalithic burials examined were cremations, were inhumations, and were uncertain. it is extremely curious that this small portion of france should be the only part of the megalithic area where cremation was practised. it is generally held that cremation was brought into europe by the broad-headed 'alpine' people, who seem to have invaded the centre of the continent at some period in the neolithic age. it is possible that in parts of france a mixture took place between the megalithic builders and the alpine race. intermarriage would no doubt lead to confusion in many cases between the two rites. in all other cases the builders of the megalithic monuments buried their dead unburned. often the body was lying stretched out on its back, or was set in a sitting position against the side of the tomb; but most frequently it was placed in what is known as the contracted position, laid on one side, generally the left, with the knees bent and drawn up towards the chin, the arms bent at the elbow, and the hands placed close to the face. many explanations of this position have been suggested. some see in it a natural posture of repose, some an attempt to crowd the body into as small a space as possible. some have suggested that the corpse was tightly bound up with cords in order that the spirit might not escape and do harm to the living. perhaps the most widely approved theory is that which considers this position to be embryonic, i.e. the position of the embryo previous to birth. none of these explanations is entirely convincing, but no better one has been put forward up to the present. this custom, it must be noted, was not limited to the megalithic peoples. it was the invariable practice of the pre-dynastic egyptians and has been found further east in persia. it occurs in the neolithic period in crete and the Ægean, in italy, switzerland, germany, and other parts of europe, and it is one of the facts which go to show that the builders of the megaliths were ethnologically connected, however remotely, with their predecessors in europe. at halsaflieni, in malta, we have perhaps examples of the curious custom of secondary interment; the body is buried temporarily in some suitable place, and after the flesh has left the bones the latter are collected and thrown together into a common ossuary. that the bones at halsaflieni were placed there when free from flesh is probable from the closeness with which they were packed together (see p. ). there are also possible examples in sicily (see p. ). the custom was not unknown in neolithic days, especially in crete. it is still occasionally practised on the island and on the greek mainland, where, after the dead have lain a few years in hallowed soil, their bones are dug up, roughly cleaned, and deposited in caves. chapter x who were the builders, and whence did they come? modern discussion of the origin of the megalithic monuments may be said to date from bertrand's publication of the french examples in . in this work bertrand upheld the thesis that "the dolmens and _allées couvertes_ are sepulchres; and their origin seems up to the present to be northern." in appeared bonstetten's famous _essai sur les dolmens_, in which he maintained that the dolmens were constructed by one and the same people spreading over europe from north to south. at this time the dolmens of north africa were still unstudied. in followed an important paper by bertrand. in two events of importance to the subject occurred, the publication of fergusson's _rude stone monuments in all countries_, and the discussion raised at the brussels congress by general faidherbe's paper on the dolmens of algeria. faidherbe maintained the thesis that dolmens, whether in europe or africa, were the work of a single people moving southward from the baltic sea. the question thus raised has been keenly debated since. at the stockholm congress in de mortillet advanced the theory that megalithic monuments in different districts were due to different peoples, and that what spread was the custom of building such structures and not the builders themselves. this theory has been accepted by most archæologists, including montelius, salomon reinach, sophus müller, hoernes, and déchelette. but while the rest believe the influences which produced the megalithic monuments to have spread from east to west, i.e. from asia to europe, salomon reinach holds the contrary view, which he has supported in a remarkable paper called _le mirage oriental_, published in . the questions we have to discuss are, therefore, as follows: are all the megalithic monuments due to a single race or to several? if to a single race, whence did that race come and in what direction did it move? if to several, did the idea of building megalithic structures arise among the several races independently, or did it spread from one to another? we shall consider first the theory that the idea of megalithic building was evolved among several races independently, i.e. that it was a phase of culture through which they separately passed. on the whole, this idea has not found favour among archæologists. the use of stone for building might have arisen in many places independently. but megalithic architecture is something much more than this. it is the use of great stones in certain definite and particular ways. we have already examined what may be called the style of megalithic architecture and found that the same features are noticeable in all countries where these buildings occur. in each case we see a type of construction based on the use of large orthostatic slabs, sometimes surmounted by courses of horizontal masonry, with either a roof of horizontal slabs or a corbelled vault. associated with this we frequently find the hewing of underground chambers in the rock. in almost all countries where megalithic structures occur certain fixed types prevail; the dolmen is the most general of these, and it is clear that many of the other forms are simply developments of this. the occurrence of structures with a hole in one of the walls and of blocks with 'cup-markings' is usual over the whole of the megalithic area. there are even more remarkable resemblances in detail between structures in widely separated countries. thus the giants' tombs of sardinia all have a concave façade which forms a kind of semicircular court in front of the entrance to the tomb. this feature is seen also in the temples of malta, in the tomb of los millares in spain, in the _naus_ of the balearic isles (where, however, the curve is slight), in the giant's grave of annaclochmullin and the chambered cairn of newbliss in ireland, in the tomb of cashtal-yn-ard in the isle of man, in the barrow of west tump in gloucestershire, and in the horned cairns of the north of scotland. these parallels are due to something more than coincidence; in fact, it is clear that megalithic building is a widespread and homogeneous system, which, despite local differences, always preserves certain common features pointing to a single origin. it is thus difficult to accept the suggestion that it is merely a phase through which many races have passed. the phases which occur in many races alike are always those which are natural and necessary in the development of a people, such as the phase of using copper. but there is nothing either natural or necessary in the use of huge unwieldy blocks of stone where much smaller ones would have sufficed. there are further objections to this theory in the distribution of the megalithic buildings both in space and time. in space they occupy a very remarkable position along a vast sea-board which includes the mediterranean coast of africa and the atlantic coast of europe. in other words, they lie entirely along a natural sea route. it is more than accident that the many places in which, according to this theory, the megalithic phase independently arose all lie in most natural sea connection with each other, while not one is in the interior of europe. in time the vast majority of the megalithic monuments of europe seem to begin near the end of the neolithic period and cover the copper age, the later forms continuing occasionally into that of bronze. here again it is curious that megalithic building, if merely an independent phase in many countries, should arise in so many at about the same time, and with no apparent reason. had it been the use of _worked_ stones that arose, and had this followed the appearance of copper tools, the advocates of this theory would have had a stronger case, but there seems to be no reason why huge unworked stones should _simultaneously_ begin to be employed for tombs in many different countries unless this use spread from a single source. for these reasons it is impossible to consider megalithic building as a mere phase through which many nations passed, and it must therefore have been a system originating with one race, and spreading far and wide, owing either to trade influence or migration. but can we determine which? great movements of races by sea were not by any means unusual in primitive days, in fact, the sea has always been less of an obstacle to early man than the land with its deserts, mountains, and unfordable rivers. there is nothing inherently impossible or even improbable in the suggestion that a great immigration brought the megalithic monuments from sweden to india or vice versa. history is full of instances of such migrations. according to the most widely accepted modern theory the whole or at least the greater part of the neolithic population of europe moved in from some part of africa at the opening of the neolithic age. in medieval history we have the example of the arabs, who in their movement covered a considerable portion of the very megalithic area which we are discussing. on the other hand, many find it preferable to suppose that over this same distance there extended a vast trade route or a series of trade routes, along which travelled the influences which account for the presence of precisely similar dolmens in denmark, spain, and the caucasus. yet although much has been written about neolithic trade routes little has been proved, and the fact that early man occasionally crossed large tracts of land and sea in the great movements of migration does not show that he also did so by way of trade, nor does it prove the existence of such steady and extensive commercial relations as such a theory of the megalithic monuments would seem to require. immigration is often forced on a race. change of climate or the diverting of the course of a great river may make their country unfit for habitation, or they may be expelled by a stronger race. in either case they must migrate, and we know from history that they often covered long distances in their attempt to follow the line of least resistance. thus there is nothing a priori improbable in the idea that the megalithic monuments were built by a single invading race. there are other considerations which support such a theory. it will be readily admitted that the commonest and most widely distributed form of the megalithic monument is the dolmen. both this and its obvious derivatives, the giant's grave, the _allée couverte_, and others, are known to have been tombs, while other types of structure, such as the maltese temple, the menhir, and the cromlech, almost certainly had a religious purpose. it is difficult to believe that these types of building, so closely connected with religion and burial, were introduced into all these regions simply by the influence of trade relations. religious customs and the burial rites connected with them are perhaps the most precious possession of a primitive people, and they are those in which they most oppose and resent change of any kind, even when it only involves detail and not principle. thus it is almost incredible that the people, for instance, of spain, because they were told by traders that the people of north africa buried in dolmens, gave up, even in isolated instances, their habit of interment in trench graves in favour of burial in dolmens. it is still more impossible to believe that this unnatural event happened in one country after another. it is true that the use of metal was spread by means of commerce, but here there was something to be gained by adopting the new discovery, and there was no sacrifice of religious custom or principle. an exchange of products between one country and another is not unnatural, but a traffic in burial customs is unthinkable. perhaps, however, it was not the form of the dolmen which was brought by commerce, but simply the art of architecture in general, and this was adapted to burial purposes. to this there are serious objections. in the first place it does not explain why exactly the same types of building (e.g. the dolmen), showing so many similarities of peculiar detail, occur in countries so far apart; and in the second place, if what was carried by trade was the art of building alone, why should the learners go out of their way to use huge stones when smaller ones would have suited their purpose equally well? that the megalithic builders knew how to employ smaller stones we know from their work; that they preferred to use large ones for certain purposes was not due to ignorance or chance, it was because the large stone as such had some particular meaning and association for them. we cannot definitely say that large stones were themselves actually worshipped, but there can be no possible doubt that for some reason or other they were regarded as peculiarly fit to be used in sanctified places such as the tombs of the dead. it is impossible that the men who possessed the skill to lay the horizontal upper courses of the hagiar kim temple should have taken the trouble to haul to the spot and use vast blocks over feet in length where far smaller ones would have been more convenient, unless they had some deep-seated prejudice in favour of great stones. such are the main difficulties involved by the influence theory. on the other hand, objections have been urged against the idea that the monuments were all built by one and the same race. thus dr. montelius in his excellent _orient und europa_ says, "in europe at this time dwelt aryans, but the syrians and sudanese cannot be aryans," the inference being, of course, that the european dolmens were built by a different race from that which built those of syria and the sudan. unfortunately, however, the major premise is not completely true, for though it is true that aryans did live in europe at this time, there were also people in europe who were not aryans, and it is precisely among them that megalithic buildings occur. the french archæologist déchelette also condemns the idea of a single race. "anthropological observations," he says, "have long since ruined this adventurous hypothesis." he does not tell us what these observations are, but we presume that he refers to the occurrence of varying skull types among the people buried in the megalithic tombs. nothing is more natural than that some variation should occur. we are dealing with a race which made enormous journeys, and thus became contaminated by the various other races with which it came in contact. it may even have been a mixed race to start with. thus even if we found skulls of very different types in the dolmens this would not in the least disprove the idea that dolmen building was introduced into various countries by one and the same race. it would be simply a case of the common anthropological fact that a race immigrating into an already inhabited country becomes to some extent modified by intermarriage with the earlier inhabitants. the measurements given in the last chapter would seem to show that despite local variation there is an underlying homogeneity in the skulls of the megalithic people. it thus seems that the most probable theory of the origin of the megalithic monuments is that this style of building was brought to the various countries in which we find it by a single race in an immense migration or series of migrations. it is significant that this theory has been accepted by dr. duncan mackenzie, who is perhaps the first authority on the megalithic structures of the mediterranean basin. one question still remains to be discussed. from what direction did megalithic architecture come, and what was its original home? this is clearly a point which is not altogether dependent on the means by which this architecture was diffused. montelius speaks in favour of an asiatic origin. he considers that caves, and tombs accessible from above, i.e. simple pits dug in the earth, were native in europe, while tombs reached from the side, such as dolmens and corridor-tombs, were introduced into europe from the east. salomon reinach, arguing mainly from the early appearance of the objects found in the tombs of scandinavia and the rarity of the simpler types of monument, such as the dolmen, in germany and south europe, suggests that megalithic monuments first appeared in north europe and spread southwards. mackenzie is more inclined to believe in an african origin. if he is right it may be that some climatic change, possibly the decrease of rainfall in what is now the sahara desert, caused a migration from africa to europe very similar to that which many believe to have given to europe its early neolithic population. the megalithic people may even have been a branch of the same vast race as the neolithic: this would explain the fact that both inhumed their dead in the contracted position. it is probable that the problem will never be solved. the only way to attempt a solution would be to show that in some part of the megalithic area the structures were definitely earlier than in any other, and that as we move away from that part in any direction they become later and later. such a means of solution is not hopeful, for the earliest form of structure, the dolmen, occurs in all parts of the area, and if we attempt to date by objects we are met by the difficulty that a dolmen in one place which contained copper might be earlier than one in another place which contained none, copper having been known in the former place earlier than in the latter. it still remains to consider the question of the origin of the rock-hewn sepulchre and its relation to the megalithic monument. the rock-tomb occurs in egypt, phoenicia, rhodes, cyprus, crete, south italy, sicily, sardinia, malta, pianosa, the iberian peninsula, the balearic isles, and france. in all these places there are examples which are certainly early, i.e. belong to the neolithic or early metal age, with the exception of malta and perhaps rhodes and phoenicia. two types are common, the chamber cut in the vertical face of rock and thus entered from the side, sometimes by a horizontal passage, and the chamber cut underground and entered from a vertical or sloping shaft placed not directly over the chamber, but immediately to one side of it. it is unlikely that these two types have a separate origin, for they are clearly determined by geological reasons. a piece of country where vertical cliffs or faces of rock abounded was suited to the first type, while the other alone was possible when the ground consisted of a flat horizontal surface of rock. we frequently find the two side by side and containing identically the same type of remains. in south-east sicily we have the horizontal entrance in the tombs of the rocky gorge of pantalica, while the vertical shaft is the rule in the tombs of the plemmirio, only a few miles distant. two curious facts are noticeable with regard to the distribution of the rock-hewn tombs. in the first place they are all in the vicinity of the mediterranean, and in the second some occur in the megalithic area, while others do not. the examples of egypt, cyprus, and crete show that this type of tomb flourished in the eastern mediterranean. was it from here that the type was introduced into the megalithic area, or did the megalithic people bring with them a tradition of building rock-tombs totally distinct from that which is represented by the tombs of egypt, cyprus, and crete? the question is difficult to answer. one thing alone is clear, that in certain places, such as malta and sardinia, the megalithic people were not averse to reproducing in the solid rock the forms which they more usually erected with large stones above ground. the finest instance of this is the halsaflieni hypogeum in malta, where the solid rock is hewn out with infinite care to imitate the form and even the details of surface building. similarly we have seen that both in sardinia and in france the same forms of tomb were rendered in great stones or in solid rock almost indifferently. there can therefore be no doubt that the hewing out of rock was practised by the megalithic people, and that they were no mean exponents of the art. we have no proof that they brought this art along with them from their original centre of dispersion, though if they did it is curious that they did not carry it into other countries where they penetrated besides those of the mediterranean. it may be that early rock-tombs will yet be found in north africa, but it seems improbable that, had they existed in the british isles, in north germany, or in scandinavia, not a single example should have been found. on the other hand, if the megalithic people did not bring the idea of the rock-tomb with them we must suppose either that it evolved among them after their migration, or that they adopted it from the eastern mediterranean. the last supposition is particularly unlikely, as it would involve the modification of a burial custom by foreign influence. we have, in fact, no evidence on which to judge the question. perhaps it is least unreasonable to suppose that the idea of the rock-tomb was brought into the megalithic area by the same people who introduced the megalithic monuments, and did not result from contact with the eastern mediterranean. similarly we ought perhaps to disclaim any direct connection between the corridor-tombs of the megalithic area and the great _tholoi_ of crete and the greek mainland. at first sight there is a considerable similarity between them. the treasury of atreus at mycenæ with its corbelled circular chamber and long rectangular corridor seems very little removed, except in size and finish, from the tombs of gavr' inis and lough crew. yet there are vital points of difference. the two last are tombs built partly with upright slabs on the surface of the ground, entered by horizontal corridors, and covered with mounds. the treasury of atreus is simply an elaborated rock-tomb cut underground with a sloping shaft; as the ground consisted only of loose soil a coating of stone was a necessity, and hence the resemblance to a megalithic monument. bibliography of the megalithic monuments general fergusson, _rude stone monuments in all countries_ (london ). bonstetten, _essai sur les dolmens_ (geneva ). mortillet, _compte rendu du congrès d'archéologie préhistorique_, stockholm, , pp. ff. reinach, _le mirage oriental_, in _l'anthropologie_, , pp. ff. montelius, _orient und europa_. borlase, _the dolmens of ireland_, vols. ii and iii. reinach, _terminologie des monuments mégalithiques in revue archéologique_, ^{e} sér., xxii, . westropp, _prehistoric phases_ (london ). england and wales fergusson, _op. cit._ _recent excavations at stonehenge, archæologia_, lviii, pp. ff. flinders petrie, _stonehenge: plans, descriptions, and theories_ (london ). windle, _remains of the prehistoric age in england._ james, sir henry, _plans and photos of stonehenge and of turnsuchan in the island of lewis_ (southampton ). evans, sir a., _archæological review_, ii, , pp. ff. lockyer, sir n., _nature_, november st, . hinks, _xixth century_, june, , pp. ff. lockyer, sir n., _nature_, lxxi, - , pp. ff., ff., ff., ff., ff. lewis, a. a., _stone circles in britain, archæological journal_, xlix, pp. ff. thurnam, _ancient british barrows, archæologia_, xlii, pp. ff., xliii, pp. ff. lewis, a. a., _prehistoric remains in cornwall, journal of the anthrop. inst.,_ xxv, , and xxxv, . kermode and herdman, _illustrated notes on manks antiquities_ (liverpool ). scotland wilson, _the archæological and prehistoric annals of scotland._ forbes leslie, _early races of scotland._ spence, magnus, _standing stones and maeshowe of stenness._ ireland borlase, _dolmens of ireland._ lewis, a. a., _some stone circles in ireland_, in _journal anthrop. inst.,_ xxxix, pp. ff. sweden montelius, _orient und europa._ montelius, _kulturgeschichte schwedens._ montelius, _dolmens en france et en suède_ (le mans ). montelius, graf från stenåldern, upptäckt vid Öringe i ekeby socken, . nilsson, _das steinalter, oder die ureinwohner des scandinavischen nordens_ (hamburg ). denmark montelius, _orient und europa._ sophus müller, _l'europe préhistorique._ sophus müller, _nordische alterthumskunde._ holland _archæological journal_, , pp. ff. _journal anthrop. inst._, vi, , p. . _compte rendu du congrès d'arch. préhist._, stockholm, . belgium engelhardt, _om stendysser og deres geografiske udbredelse_, in _aarböger f. nord. oldkynd._, , pp. ff. germany krause und schoetensack in _zeitschrift für ethnologie_, (altmark only). morlot, _l'archéologie du meclenbourg_ (zurich ). von estorff, _heidnische altertümer der gegend von aelzen_ (hanover ). switzerland keller, _pfahlbauten_, bericht (zurich, ), p. ; pl. xi, figs. and . france cartailhac, _la france préhistorique._ bertrand in _revue archéologique_, (list of monuments). bertrand, _archéologie celtique et gauloise_, nd edit., . déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique celtique et gallo-romaine_, vol. i. lewis, _alignements at autun_ in _journal anthrop. inst._, xxxviii, , pp. ff. lewis, _on some dolmens of peculiar form, op. cit._, xl, , pp. ff. de baye, _l'archéologie préhistorique_ (petit-morin tombs). reinach, s., _la sculpture en europe_ (angers . figures of the 'dolmen deity'). spain cartailhac, _Âges préhistorique de l'espagne_. cartailhac, _monuments primitifs des îles baléares_. bezzenberger in _zeitschrift für ethnologie_, xxxix, , pp. ff. italy _bullettino di paletnologia italiana_, xxv, pp. ff. nicolucci, _brevi note sui monumenti megalitici di terra d'otranto_, . _bull. paletn. ital._, xxxvii, pp. ff. mosso and samarelli, _il dolmen di bisceglie_, in _bull. paletn. ital._, xxxvi, pp. ff. and ff. sicily orsi in _bull. paletn. ital._, xxiv, pp. - (monteracello). orsi in _ausonia_, , pp. ff. (cava lazzaro). orsi in _notizie degli scavi_, , p. , fig. (cava lavinaro). sardinia la marmora, _voyage en sardaigne_. pinza in _monumenti antichi_, vol. viii. nissardi in _atti del congresso internazionale_, roma, , sezione preistorica. nissardi and taramelli in _mon. ant._, vol. xvii. taramelli in _memnon_, band ii, mai, , pp. - . préchac in _mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire_, xxviii. mackenzie in _ausonia_, iii, , pp. ff. mackenzie in _memnon_, vol. ii, fasc. . mackenzie in _papers of the british school of rome_, v, pp. ff. taramelli, _notizie degli scavi_, , pp. ff. (anghelu ruju). colini in _bullettino di paletnologia italiana_, xxiv, pp. ff. corsica _nouvelles archives des missions scientifiques_, vol. iii, , pp. ff. pianosa _bullettino di paletn. ital._, xxiv, pp. ff. malta mayr, a., _die vorgeschichtlichen denkmäler von malta_. mayr, a., _die insel malta_. zammit, _first report on the halsaflieni hypogeum_. tagliaferro, _the prehistoric pottery found in the hypogeum at halsaflieni_, in _annals of archæology and anthropology_, vol. iii, pp. ff. zammit and peet, _report on the small objects found at halsaflieni_ (valletta, in the press). magri, _ruins of a megalithic temple at xeuchia, gozo_. ashby, t., and others, _report on excavations at corradino, mnaidra, and hagiar kim_, appearing in vol. vi of _papers of the british school of rome_. peet, _contributions to the study of the prehistoric period in malta, papers of the british school of rome_, v, pp. ff. tagliaferro, _prehistoric burials in a cave at burmeghez_, in man, , pp. ff. north africa faidherbe in _compte rendu du congrès d'archéologie préhistorique_, bruxelles, , pp. ff. flower in _transactions of the international congress of prehistoric archæology_, norwich, , pp. ff. maciver and wilkin, _libyan notes_. morocco _matériaux pour l'histoire de l'homme_, v, p. ; viii, p. ; xx, p. . tunis cartailhac in _l'anthropologie_, , pp. ff. carton in _l'anthropologie_, , pp. ff. _matériaux pour l'histoire de l'homme_, xxi, pl. vi; xxii, pp. and . egypt and the sudan wilson and felkin, _uganda and the egyptian sudan_, vol. ii, p. . de morgan, _recherches sur l'origine de l'egypte_, p. , fig. . pantelleria orsi in _monumenti antichi_, ix, pp. ff. lampedusa ashby in _annals of archæology and anthropology_, vol. iv. bulgaria _mittheilungen der anthropologischen gesellschaft in wien_, , pp. ff. _l'anthropologie_, , p. . crimea borlase, _dolmens of ireland_, iii, p. . caucasus and crimea chantre, _recherches anthropologiques dans le caucase_, vol. i, pp. ff. chantre in _verhandlungen der berliner anthropologischen gesellschaft_, , p. . _matériaux pour l'histoire de l'homme_, , pp. ff. borlase, _dolmens of ireland_, iii, p. . syria and palestine _palestine exploration fund, quarterly reports_ for ; _annual_, , pp. ff. conder, _heth and moab_, pp. , . perrot and chipiez, iv, pp. , - . persia de morgan in _revue mensuelle de l'ecole d'anthropologie de paris_, , p. . de morgan, _la délégation en perse_, . de morgan, _l'histoire d'elam_, paris, . india _transactions of the royal irish academy_, xxiv, . westropp, _prehistoric phases_. corea _journal anthrop. inst._, xxiv, p. . japan gowland in _archæologia_, lv, pp. ff. gowland in _journal anthrop. inst._, , pp. ff. index abbameiga, aberdeen, circles near, adrianople, africa, - aiga, ain dakkar, ainu, the, ala safat, alemtejo, algeria, - _alignements_, , - , , - , , - _allées couvertes_, , , altar stone at stonehenge, altmark, ammân, ammon, anghelu ruju, anglesey, , annaclochmullin, antequera, arbor low, arcturus, , arles, arles, council of, arran, circles on, - arthur, king, , arthur's quoit, asia, - atreus, treasury of, aurelius ambrosius, avebury, - , - avening, , axe, cult of, - axe-shaped pendants, , axevalla heath, baetyls, , - , balearic isles, - barnstone, the, - barrows, long, - barth, belgium, bellary, bell-shaped cup, , , beltane festival, benigaus nou, bertrand, , birori, , bisceglie, bonstetten, borreby, - boscawen-un, bou merzoug, bou nouara, boyle somerville, captain, brittany, - brogar, ring of, - broholm, bulgaria, button, conical, , , , cæsar, cairns, horned, - caithness, cairns of, - _callaïs_, , , , , , callernish circle, calvados, camster, can de ceyrac, caouria, capella, , carnac, , - carrick-a-dhirra, carrickard, carrickglass, carrigalla, carrowmore, - cashtal-yn-ard, cassibile, castelluccio, , castor, caucasus, cava lavinaro, cava lazzaro, cave burial, , chagford, champ dolent, menhir of, channel isles, charlemagne, charlton's abbott, china, chittore, chun quoit, circles, stone, - , - , - , , , cirta, clava, clynnog fawr, collorgues, constantine, contracted burials, , , , , , , , , , - , coolback, corbelled roofs, , , , , , , , , , - cordin, , corea, cornwall, dolmens in, monuments of, corridor-tombs, , - , - , - , - , - , - , , , - corse, cape, corsica, - coursed masonry, use of, , , cove, the, cremation, , , , crete, , , , , crickstone, the, crimea, cromlechs, cumberland, monuments of, cup-markings, , - cyprus, cyrenaica, dance maen circle, date of megaliths, dax, deccan, - déchelette, , de morgan, denmark, - dennis, der ghuzaleh, dolmens, , , - , - , , , , - , , , , - , , - drawings on stones, , , , , drewsteignton, druids, , - edfu, eguilaz, egypt, ellez, england, monuments of, - erdeven, er-lanic, eskimos, es tudons, _nau_ of, - evans, sir arthur, , façades, curved, , - faidherbe, general, faustina, medal of, féraud, m., - fergusson, , fibrolite, finistère, dolmens of, fontanaccia, fonte coberta, forbes leslie, colonel, france, - friar's heel, , galilee, gargantua, gaulstown, gavr'inis, , gebel mousa, geoffrey of monmouth, ger, germany, - get, gezer, giant's bed, giant's tombs, - gigantia, giraldus cambrensis, göhlitzsch, gozo, is., greenland, grewismühlen, grotte des fées, , grotte du castellet, hagiar kim, , - hakpen hill, , halsaflieni, - , hauptville's quoit, hengist, herrestrup, highwood, hinks, mr., hirdmane stone, holed tombs, , , , , - holland, - horned cairns, _hünenbetter_, , - hurlers, the, idanha a nova, india, - inigo jones, inverness, circles in, - ireland, monuments of, - iron, , , , italy, - jadeite, james i, japan, - jaulân, jimmu, judæa, karleby, karnak (egypt), keamcorravooly, keller, kennet avenue, kerlescan, kermario, keswick circle, khasi hills, kingarth, circle at, kirkabrost, circle at, kit's coty house, knyttkärr, komei, kosseir, labbamologa, ladò, lampedusa, isle of, lanyon quoit, , la perotte, leaba callighe, lecce, lewis, isle of, linosa, isle of, , lockyer, sir norman, - , long meg and her daughters, losa, los millares, , , lough crew, , , lough gur, - lozère, lundhöj, lüttich, maciver, d.r., - mackenzie, duncan, , , maeshowe, - malta, - man, isle of, mané-er-hroeck, - marcella, matera, maughold, mayborough circle, mayr, albert, meayll hill, melilli, men-an-tol, ménec, menhirs, , , , - , - cult of, , - merivale, circle at, merlin, merry maidens, the, messa, minieh, mnaidra, - moab, - molafà, monte abrahaõ, montelius, o., , , monteracello, morocco, mortillet, de, , mourzouk, msila, munster, tombs of, mursia, musta, mycenean vases, naas, nantes, council of, nara, _naus_, - , _navetas_, see _naus_ neermul jungle, newbliss, new grange, , nile valley, nilgiri hills, nine maidens, the, nissardi, norway, nossiu, , _nuraghi_, - obsidian, , odin's stone, , orkney isles, cairns of, - orry's grave, , orsi, paolo, , orthostatic slabs, use of, , , , , , palmella, pantalica, , pantelleria, isle of, - papa-westra, pehada, penrith circle, pentre ifan, pera, périgord, persia, petit morin, - , pfäffikon, lake, phoenicia, pianosa, picardt, john, pierre du diable, la, pierres plates, les, piper, the, plas newydd, , plemmirio, pliny, portico-dolmens, - , , portugal, pottery, - reinach, salomon, religion, megalithic, - , - rhodes, rinaiou, rock-tombs, , - , , , - , rockbarton, rodmarton, , roknia, rollright circle, , , saint george, saint-germain-sur-vienne, saint michel, mont, saint pantaléon, saint sermin, saint vincent, sant' elia, cape, sardinia, - s'aspru, scandinavia, - scotland, monuments of, - sculptures, , secondary burial, , - senâm, the, - seriphos, serucci, _sesi_, the, - shap, circle at, sicily, - sidbury hill, sidon, siggewi, silbury hill, , siret, messieurs, sjöbol, skulls, , , - sorapoor, spain, - spence, magnus, stanton drew, , star-worship, , - , steatopygous figures, , stenness, ring of, stonehenge, - stoney-littleton, stripple stones, the, stromness, circle at, stukeley, dr., su cadalanu, sudan, suetonius, sun-worship, - , - , , sweden, - switzerland, syria, - table des marchands, la, , tagliaferro, professor, , tahutihotep, tomb of, _talayots_, - tamuli, tangier, tarentum, tattooing, "three brothers of grugith," the, tiberias, tinaarloo, toledo, council of, torebo, tours, council of, trade relations, - tregeseal, circles near, trepanned skulls, trilithons, , , , - , - , tripoli, - _truddhi_, tsîl, - tunis, - tyfta, tyre, tzarskaya, unebi, mt., vail gorguina, vellore, villafrati, villages, megalithic, , - , wales, monuments of, watchstone, the, - wayland the smith's cave, , , , wedge-shaped tomb, - , , - , westgothland, west tump, yarhouse, zammit, dr. t., william brendon and son, ltd. printers, plymouth ------------------------------------------------ | | | harper's library of living thought | | | | _foolscap vo, gilt tops, decorative covers, | | richly gilt backs | | | | per volume: cloth s. d. net, leather | | s. d. net._ | |-----------------------------------------------| | | | by prof. arthur keith, m.d. | |(hunterian professor royal college of surgeons)| | | | ancient types of man | | | | _illustrated_ | | | | | | from discoveries of ancient human remains | | made within the last half-century, | | anthropologists are now able to place in | | order changes that have taken place in the | | posture, gait, height, and to some extent | | the habits of man during a period of at | | least a half-million years. prof. keith, who | | is one of the foremost investigators in this | | field, tells the story of the various forms | | which the body of the man has assumed, in a | | lucid and attractive way. | | | | "the kind of book that only a master of his | | subject could write. it must interest every | | thinking person."--_british medical | | journal._ | | | ------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- | | | harper's library of living thought | | | |-----------------------------------------------| | | | by prof w.m. flinders petrie | | | | 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petrie | | the revolutions of civilisation. | | copiously illustrated | | | | the very rev. the hon. w.h. fremantle, d.d. | | (dean of ripon) | | natural christianity | | | | prof. a.w. bickerton | | the birth of worlds and systems. | | illustrated. | | preface by prof. e. rutherford, f.r.s. | | | | prof. arthur keith, m.d. | | ancient types of man. illustrated | | | | sir william ramsay, f.r.s. | | elements and electrons. diagrams | | | | arthur holmes, b.sc. | | the age of the earth. illustrated | | | | t. eric peet, m.a. | | rough stone monuments and | | their builders. illustrated | | | |-----------------------------------------------| | | | :: harper and brothers :: | | albemarle st: london, w. | | franklin sq. new york | | | ------------------------------------------------- transcribed from the macmillan and co. edition by david price, email ccx @pglaf.org the clyde mystery a study in forgeries and folklore by andrew lang, m.a. oxford hon. fellow of merton college, ll.d. st. andrews d.litt. oxford, d.c.l. durham glasgow james maclehose and sons publishers to the university glasgow: printed at the university press by robert maclehose and co. ltd. preface the author would scarcely have penned this little specimen of what scott called "antiquarian old womanries," but for the interest which he takes in the universally diffused archaic patterns on rocks and stones, which offer a singular proof of the identity of the working of the human mind. anthropology and folklore are the natural companions and aids of prehistoric and proto-historic archaeology, and suggest remarks which may not be valueless, whatever view we may take of the disputed objects from the clyde sites. while only an open verdict on these objects is at present within the competence of science, the author, speaking for himself, must record his private opinion that, as a rule, they are ancient though anomalous. he cannot pretend to certainty as to whether the upper parts of the marine structures were throughout built of stone, as in dr. munro's theory, which is used as the fundamental assumption in this book; or whether they were of wood, as in the hypothesis of mr. donnelly, illustrated by him in the glasgow _evening times_ (sept. , ). the point seems unessential. the author learns from mr. donnelly that experiments in shaping piles with an ancient stone axe have been made by mr. joseph downes, of irvine, as by monsieur hippolyte muller in france, with similar results, a fact which should have been mentioned in the book. it appears too, that a fragment of fallow deer horn at dumbuck, mentioned by dr. munro, turned out to be "a decayed _humerus_ of the _bos longifrons_," and therefore no evidence as to date, as post-roman. mr. donnelly also protests that his records of his excavations "were exceptionally complete," and that he "took daily notes and sketches of all features and finds with measurements." i must mention these facts, as, in the book, i say that mr. donnelly "kept no minute and hourly dated log book of his explorations, with full details as to the precise positions of the objects discovered." if in any respect i have misconceived the facts and arguments, i trust that the fault will be ascribed to nothing worse than human fallibility. i have to thank mr. donnelly for permission to photograph some objects from dumbuck and for much information. to dr. munro, apart from his most valuable books of crannog lore, i owe his kind attention to my private inquiries, and hope that i successfully represent his position and arguments. it is quite undeniable that the disputed objects are most anomalous as far as our present knowledge goes, and i do not think that science can give more than all i plead for, an open verdict. dr. ricardo severe generously permitted me to reproduce a few (by no means the most singular) of his designs and photographs of the disputed portuguese objects. a serious illness has prevented him from making a visit recently to the scene of the discoveries (see his paper in _portugalia_, vol. ii., part ). i trust that dr. de vasconcellos, from whom i have not yet heard, will pardon the reproduction of three or four figures from his _religioes_, an important work on prehistoric portugal. to dr. joseph anderson, of the national museum, i owe much gratitude for information, and for his great kindness in superintending the photographing of some objects now in that museum. dr. david murray obliged me by much information as to the early navigation of the clyde, and the alterations made in the bed of the river. to mr. david boyle, ontario, i owe the knowledge of red indian magic stones parallel to the perforated and inscribed stone from tappock. as i have quoted from dr. munro the humorous tale of the palaeolithic designs which deceived m. lartet and mr. christie, i ought to observe that, in _l'anthropologie_, august, , a reviewer of dr. munro's book, prof. boule, expresses some doubt as to the authenticity of the _historiette_. illustrations . inscribed stone, langbank. . grotesque face on stone, langbank. . late celtic comb, langbank. . bronze brooch, langbank. . _churinga irula_, wooden bull-roarers, arunta tribe. . _churinga nanja_, inscribed sacred stone, arunta. . sacred stone uninscribed, arunta. . collection of arunta sacred stones. , . inscribed perforated stone from tappock. age of iron. . perforated and inscribed stone from dunbuie. , . perforated inscribed stones from ontario, canada. . perforated inscribed stones from portugal, neolithic. . perforated inscribed stones from portugal, neolithic. . perforated "cup and duct" stone, portugal, neolithic. , . large slate spear-head, dumbuck. . stone figurine of woman, dumbuck. , . cup and duct stones, portuguese, dolmen site, villa d'aguiar. . stone figurine of woman, portuguese, dolmen site, villa d'aguiar. . heart-shaped stone, villa d'aguiar. . cupped stone, villa d'aguiar. . stone pendant, men in boat, scottish. figures - from _transactions_, with permission of glasgow archaeological society. figures - , spencer and gillen, _native tribes of central australia_; with permission of messrs. macmillan and co. - . with permission of scottish society of antiquaries. - . bulletin of board of education of ontario. - . _religioes_, etc., l. de vasconcellos. - . with permission of mr. w. h. donnelly. - . with permission of sr. ricardo severo. . with permission of scottish society of antiquarians. i--the clyde mystery the reader who desires to be hopelessly perplexed, may desert the contemplation of the fiscal question, and turn his eyes upon _the mystery of the clyde_. "popular" this puzzle cannot be, for there is no "demmed demp disagreeable body" in the mystery. no such object was found in clyde, near dumbarton, but a set of odd and inexpensive looking, yet profoundly enigmatic scraps of stone, bone, slate, horn and so forth, were discovered and now repose in a glass case at the national museum in queen street, edinburgh. there, as in the morgue, lies awaiting explanation the _corpus delicti_ of the clyde mystery. we stare at it and ask what are these slate spear heads engraved with rude ornament, and certainly never meant to be used as "lethal weapons"? what are these many-shaped perforated plaques of slate, shale, and schist, scratched with some of the old mysterious patterns that, in almost every part of the world, remain inscribed on slabs and faces of rock? who incised similar patterns on the oyster-shells, some old and local, some fresh--_and american_! why did any one scratch them? what is the meaning, if meaning there be, of the broken figurines or stone "dolls"? they have been styled "totems" by persons who do not know the meaning of the word "totem," which merely denotes the _natural_ object,--usually a plant or animal,--after which sets of kinsfolk are named among certain savage tribes. let us call the little figures "figurines," for that commits us to nothing. then there are grotesque human heads, carved in stone; bits of sandstone, marked with patterns, and so forth. mixed with these are the common rude appliances, quern stones for grinding grain; stone hammers, stone polishers, cut antlers of deer, pointed bones, such as rude peoples did actually use, in early britain, and may have retained into the early middle ages, say - a.d. this mixed set of objects, _plus_ the sites in which they were found, and a huge canoe, feet long, is the material part of the clyde mystery. the querns and canoe and stone-polishers, and bones, and horns are commonly found, we say, in dwellings of about - a.d. the peculiar and enigmatic things are _not_ elsewhere known to scottish antiquaries. how did the two sets of objects come to be all mixed up together, in an old hill fort, at dunbuie on clyde; and among the wooden foundations of two mysterious structures, excavated in the mud of the clyde estuary at dumbuck and langbank, near dumbarton? they were dug up between and . this is the question which has been debated, mainly in newspaper controversy, for nearly ten years. a most rambling controversy it has been, casting its feelers as far as central australia, in space, and as far back as, say, b.c. in time. either the disputed objects at the museum are actual relics of life lived in the clyde basin many centuries ago; or the discoverers and excavators of the old sites are dogged by a forger who "dumps down" false relics of kinds unknown to scottish antiquaries; or some of the unfamiliar objects are really old, while others are jocose imitations of these, or--there is some other explanation! the modern "clyde artists" are credited by dr. robert munro with "some practical artistic skill," and some acquaintance with the very old and mysterious designs on great rocks among the neighbouring hills. { } what man of artistic skill, no conscience, and a knowledge of archaic patterns is associated with the clyde? the "faker" is not the mere mischievous wag of the farm-house or the country shop. it is possible that a few "interpolations" of false objects have been made by another and less expert hand, but the weight of the problem rests on these alternatives,--the disputed relics which were found are mainly genuine, though unfamiliar; or a forger not destitute of skill and knowledge has invented and executed them--or--there is some other explanation. three paths, as usual, are open to science, in the present state of our knowledge of the question. we may pronounce the unfamiliar relics genuine, and prove it if we can. we may declare them to be false objects, manufactured within the last ten years. we may possess our souls in patience, and "put the objects to a suspense account," awaiting the results of future researches and of new information. this attitude of suspense is not without precedent in archaeology. "antiquarian lore," as dr. munro remarks by implication, _can_ "distinguish between true and false antiquities." { a} but time is needed for the verdict, as we see when dr. munro describes "the breonio controversy" about disputed stone objects, a controversy which began in , and appears to be undecided in . { b} i propose to advocate the third course; the waiting game, and i am to analyse dr. munro's very able arguments for adopting the second course, and deciding that the unfamiliar relics are assuredly impostures of yesterday's manufacture. ii--dr. munro's book on the mystery dr. munro's acute and interesting book, _archaeology and false antiquities_, { } does not cover the whole of its amusing subject. false gems, coins, inscriptions, statues, and pictures are scarcely touched upon; the author is concerned chiefly with false objects of the pre-historic and "proto-historic" periods, and with these as bearing on the clyde controversy of - . out of pages, at least treat directly of that local dispute: others bear on it indirectly. i have taken great interest in this subject since i first heard of it by accident, in the october or november of . as against dr. munro, from whose opinions i provisionally dissent, i may be said to have no _locus standi_. he is an eminent and experienced archaeologist in matters of european pre-historic and proto-historic times. any one is at liberty to say of me what another celebrated archaeologist, mr. charles hercules read, said, in a letter to dr. munro, on december , , about some one else: a person designated as "---," and described as "a merely literary man, who cannot understand that to practised people the antiquities are as readable as print, and a good deal more accurate." { } but though "merely literary," like mr. "---," i have spent much time in the study of comparative anthropology; of the manners, ideas, customs, implements, and sacred objects of uncivilised and peasant peoples. mr. "---" may not have done so, whoever he is. again, as "practised people" often vary widely in their estimates of antique objects, or objects professing to be antique, i cannot agree with mr. read that "the antiquities" are "as readable as print,"--if by "antiquities" he means antiquities in general. at the british museum i can show mr. read several admirable specimens of the art of faking, standing, like the abomination of desolation, where they ought not. it was not by unpractised persons that they were purchased at the national expense. we are all fallible, even the oldest of us. i conceive mr. read, however, to mean the alleged and disputed "antiquities" of the clyde sites, and in that case, his opinion that they are a "curious swindle" is of the most momentous weight. but, as to practised opinion on antiquities in general, dr. munro and i agree that it is really very fallible, now and again. the best authorities, he proves, may read antiquities differently. he is not certain that he has not himself, on occasion, taken "fakes" for true antiques. { a} the _savants_ of the louvre were lately caught by the notorious "tiara of saitaphernes," to the pecuniary loss of france; were caught on april , , and were made _poissons d'avril_, to the golden tune of , francs ( pounds). again, m. lartet and mr. christy betted a friend that he could not hoax them with a forged palaeolithic drawing. they lost their bet, and, after m. lartet's death, the forged object was published, as genuine, in the scientific journal, _materiaux_ ( ). { b} as m. reinach says of another affair, it was "a _fumisterie_." { c} every archaeologist may be the victim of a _fumisterie_, few have wholly escaped, and we find dr. furtwangler and mr. cecil smith at odds as to whether a head of zeus in terra-cotta be of the fifth century b.c. or, quite the contrary, of the nineteenth or twentieth century a.d. verily all "practised people" do not find "antiquities as readable as print." on the other hand, my late friend, dr. a. s. murray, keeper of classical antiquities in the british museum, "read" the mycenaean antiquities erroneously, placing them many centuries too late. m. de mortillet reckoned them forgeries, and wrote of the discoverer, dr. schliemann, and even of mrs. schliemann, in a tone unusual in men of science and gentlemen. the great palaeolithic discoveries of m. boucher de perthes, the very bases of our study of the most ancient men, were "read" as impostures by many "practised people." m. cartailhac, again, has lately, in the most candid and honourable way, recanted his own original disbelief in certain wall-paintings in spanish caves, of the period called "palaeolithic," for long suspected by him of being "clerical" impostures. { } thus even the most "practised people," like general councils, "may err and have erred," when confronted either with forgeries, or with objects old in fact, but new to them. they have _not_ always found antiquities "as readable as print." dr. munro touches but faintly on these "follies of the wise," but they are not unusual follies. this must never be forgotten. where "practised people" may be mistaken through a too confirmed scepticism, the "merely literary man" may, once in an azure moon, happen to be right, or not demonstrably wrong; that is my excuse for differing, provisionally, from "practised people." it is only provisionally that i dissent from dr. munro as to some of the points at issue in the clyde controversy. i entered on it with very insufficient knowledge: i remain, we all remain, imperfectly informed: and like people rich in practice,--dr. joseph anderson, and sir arthur mitchell,--i "suspend my judgement" for the present. { } this appears to me the most scientific attitude. time is the great revealer. but dr. munro, as we saw, prefers not to suspend his judgment, and says plainly and pluckily that the disputed objects in the clyde controversy are "spurious"; are what the world calls "fakes," though from a delicate sense of the proprieties of language, he will not call them "forgeries." they are reckoned by him among "false antiquities," while, for my part, i know not of what age they are, but incline i believe that many of them are not of the nineteenth century. this is the extent of our difference. on the other hand i heartily concur with dr. munro in regretting that his advice,--to subject the disputed objects at the earliest possible stage of the proceedings, to a jury of experts,--was not accepted. { a} one observation must be made on dr. munro's logical method, as announced by himself. "my role, on the present occasion, is to advocate the correctness of my own views on purely archaeological grounds, without any special effort to refute those of my opponents." { b} as my view is that the methods of dr. munro are perhaps,--and i say it with due deference, and with doubt,--capable of modification, i shall defend my opinions as best i may. moreover, my views, in the course of seven long years ( - ) have necessarily undergone some change, partly in deference to the arguments of dr. munro, partly because much new information has come to my knowledge since - . moreover, on one occasion, i misstated my own view, and, though i later made my real opinion perfectly dear, some confusion was generated. iii--the clyde controversy it is necessary, after these prefatory remarks, to give an account of the rise of the clyde controversy, and i may be pardoned for following the example of dr. munro, who adds, and cannot but add, a pretty copious narrative of his own share in the discussion. in , the hill fort of dunbuie, "about a mile-and-a-half to the east of dumbarton castle, and three miles to the west of the roman wall," { } was discovered by mr. w. a. donnelly: that is to say, mr. donnelly suggested that the turf might conceal something worth excavating, and the work was undertaken, under his auspices, by the helensburgh antiquarian society. as mr. donnelly's name constantly occurs in the discussion, it may be as well to state that, by profession, he is an artist,--a painter and designer in black and white,--and that, while keenly interested in the pre-historic or proto-historic relics of clydesdale, he makes no claim to be regarded as a trained archaeologist, or widely-read student. thus, after mr. donnelly found a submarine structure at dumbuck in the estuary of the clyde, dr. munro writes: "i sent mr. donnelly some literature on crannogs." { a} so mr. donnelly, it appears, had little book lore as to crannogs. he is, in fact, a field worker in archaeology, rather than an archaeologist of the study and of books. he is a member of a local archaeological society at helensburgh on the clyde, and, before he found the hill fort of dunbuie, he had discovered an interesting set of "cup and ring" marked rocks at auchentorlie, "only a short distance from dunbuie." { b} mr. donnelly's position, then, as regards archaeological research, was, in - , very like that of dr. schliemann when he explored troy. like dr. schliemann he was no erudite savant, but an enthusiast with an eye for likely sites. like dr. schliemann he discovered certain objects hitherto unknown to science, (at least to scottish science,) and, like dr. schliemann, he has had to take "the consequences of being found in such a situation." it must be added that, again like dr. schliemann he was not an excavator of trained experience. i gather that he kept no minute and hourly-dated log-book of his explorations, with full details as to the precise positions of the objects discovered, while, again like dr. schliemann, he had theories of his own, with some of which i do not concur. dr. munro justly insists on "the absolute necessity of correctly recording the facts and relics brought to light by excavations." { a} an excavator should be an engineer, or be accompanied by a specialist who can assign exact measurements for the position of every object discovered. thus dr. munro mentions the case of a man who, while digging a drain in his garden in scotland, found an adze of jade and a pre-historic urn. dr. munro declares, with another expert, that the jade adze is "a modern australian implement," which is the more amazing as i am not aware that the australians possess any jade. the point is that the modern australian adze was _not_, as falsely reported, in the pre- historic urn. { b} here i cannot but remark that while dr. munro justly regrets the absence of record as to precise place of certain finds, he is not more hospitable to other finds of which the precise locality is indicated. things are found by mr. bruce as he clears out the interior of a canoe, or imbedded in the dock on the removal of the canoe, { } or in the "kitchen midden"--the refuse heap--but dr. munro does not esteem the objects more highly because we have a distinct record as to the precise place of their finding. iv--dunbuie to return to the site first found, the hill fort of dunbuie, excavated in . dr. munro writes: "there is no peculiarity about the position or structure of this fort which differentiates it from many other forts in north britain. before excavation there were few indications that structural remains lay beneath the debris, but when this was accomplished there were exposed to view the foundations of a circular wall, . feet thick, enclosing a space to feet in diameter. through this wall there was one entrance passage on a level with its base, feet inches in width, protected by two guard chambers, one on each side, analogous to those so frequently met with in the brochs. the height of the remaining part of the wall varied from inches to feet inches. the interior contained no dividing walls nor any indications of secondary occupation." thus writes dr. munro (pp. , ), repeating his remarks on p. with this addition, "had any remains of intra-mural chambers or of a stone stair been detected it would unhesitatingly be pronounced a broch; nor, in the absence of such evidence, can it be definitely dissociated from that peculiar class of scottish buildings, because the portion of wall then remaining was not sufficiently high to exclude the possibility of these broch characteristics having been present at a higher level--a structural deviation which has occasionally been met with." "all the brochs," dr. munro goes on, "hitherto investigated have shown more or less precise evidence of a post-roman civilisation, their range, according to dr. joseph anderson, being "not earlier than the fifth and not later than the ninth century." { } "although from more recent discoveries, as, for example, the broch of torwodlee, selkirkshire, there is good reason to believe that their range might legitimately be brought nearer to roman times, it makes no difference in the correctness of the statement that they all belong to the iron age." so far the "broch," or hill fort, was not unlike other hill forts and brochs, of which there are hundreds in scotland. but many of the relics alleged to have been found in the soil of dunbuie were unfamiliar in character in these islands. there was not a shard of pottery, there was not a trace of metal, but absence of such things is no proof that they were unknown to the inhabitants of the fort. i may go further, and say that if any person were capable of interpolating false antiquities, they were equally capable of concealing such real antiquities in metal or pottery as they might find; to support their theories, or to serve other private and obscure ends. thus, at langbank, were found a bronze brooch, and a "late celtic" ( b.c.?--a.d.) comb. these, of course, upset the theory held by some inquirers, that the site was neolithic, that is, was very much earlier than the christian era. if the excavators held that theory, and were unscrupulous, was it not as easy for them to conceal the objects which disproved the hypothesis, as to insert the disputed objects--which do not prove it? of course dr. munro nowhere suggests that any excavator is the guilty "faker." i now quote dr. munro's account of the _unfamiliar_ objects alleged to have been found in dunbuie. he begins by citing the late mr. adam millar, f.s.a.scot., who described dunbuie in the _proceedings s. a. scot._ (vol. xxx. pp. - .) "the fort," writes mr. millar, "has been examined very thoroughly by picking out the stones in the interior one by one, and riddling the fine soil and small stones. the same treatment has been applied to the refuse heap which was found on the outside, and the result of the search is a very remarkable collection of weapons, implements, ornaments, and figured stones." there is no description of the precise position of any of these relics in the ruins, with the exception of two upper stones of querns and a limpet shell having on its inner surface the presentation of a human face, which are stated to have been found in the interior of the fort. no objects of metal or fragments of pottery were discovered in course of the excavations, and of bone there were only two small pointed objects and an awl having a perforation at one end. the majority of the following worked objects of stone, bone, and shell are so remarkable and archaic in character that their presence in a fort, which cannot be placed earlier than the broch period, and probably long after the departure of the romans from north britain, has led some archaeologists to question their genuineness as relics of any phase of scottish civilisation. objects of stone.--nine spear-heads, like arrow-points, of slate, six of which have linear patterns scratched on them. some are perforated with round holes, and all were made by grinding and polishing. one object of slate, shaped like a knife, was made by chipping. "this knife," says mr. millar, "has a feature common to all these slate weapons--they seem to have been saturated with oil or fat, as water does not adhere to them, but runs off as from a greasy surface." another highly ornamental piece of cannel coal is in the form of a short spear-head with a thickish stem. the stem is adorned with a series of hollows and ridges running across it; radiating lines running from the stem to the margin. another group of these remarkable objects shows markings of the cup-and-ring order, circles, linear incisions, and perforations. some of these ornamentations are deeply cut on the naturally rough surfaces of flat pieces of sandstone, whilst others are on smooth stones artificially prepared for the purpose. a small piece of flint was supposed to have been inserted into a partially burnt handle. there are several examples of hammer-stones of the ordinary crannog type, rubbing-stones, whetstones, as well as a large number of water-worn stones which might have been used as hand-missiles or sling-stones. these latter were not native to the hill, and must have been transported from burns in the neighbourhood. there are also two upper quern stones. miscellaneous objects.--a number of splintered pieces of bone, without showing any other evidence of workmanship, have linear incisions, like those on some of the stones, which suggest some kind of cryptic writing like ogams. there are also a few water-worn shells, like those seen on a sandy beach, having round holes bored through them and sharply-cut scratches on their pearly inner surface. but on the whole the edible molluscs are but feebly represented, as only five oyster, one cockle, three limpet, and two mussel shells were found, nearly all of which bore marks of some kind of ornamentation. but perhaps the most grotesque object in the whole collection is the limpet shell with a human face sculptured on its inner surface. "the eyes," writes mr. millar, "are represented by two holes, the nose by sharply-cut lines, and the mouth by a well-drawn waved line, the curves which we call cupid's bow being faithfully followed. there is nothing at all of an archaic character, however, in this example of shell-carving. we found it in the interior of the fort; it was one of the early finds--nothing like it has been found since; at the same time we have no reason for assuming that this shell was placed in the fort on purpose that we might find it. the fact that it was taken out of the fort is all that we say about it." mr. millar's opinion of these novel handicraft remains was that they were the products of a pre-celtic civilisation. "the articles found," he writes, "are strongly indicative of a much earlier period than post- roman; they point to an occupation of a tribe in their stone age." "we have no knowledge of the precise position in which the 'queer things' of dunbuie were found, with the exception of the limpet shell showing the carved human face which, according to a recent statement in the _journal of the british archaeological association_, september, , "was excavated from a crevice in the living rock, over which tons of debris had rested. when taken out, the incrustations of dirt prevented any carving from being seen; it was only after being dried and cleaned that the 'face' appeared, as well as the suspension holes on each side." so, this unique piece of art was in the fort before it became a ruin and otherwise presented evidence of great antiquity; but yet it is stated in mr. millar's report that there was "nothing at all of an archaic character in this example of shell-carving." { } i have nothing to do with statements made in _the journal of the british archaeological association_ about "_a carved oyster shell_." i stick to the limpet shell of mr. millar, which, to my eyes looks anything but archaic. v--how i came into the controversy thus far, i was so much to be sympathised with as never to have heard of the names of dunbuie and of mr. donnelly. in this ignorance i remained till late in october or early in november . on an afternoon of that date i was reading the proof sheets, kindly lent to me by messrs. macmillan, of _the native tribes of central australia_ by messrs. spencer and gillen, a work, now justly celebrated, which was published early in . i was much interested on finding, in this book, that certain tribes of central australia,--the arunta "nation" and the kaitish,--_paint_ on sacred and other rocks the very same sorts of archaic designs as mr. donnelly found _incised_ at auchentorlie (of which i had not then heard). these designs are familiar in many other parts of scotland and of the world. they play a great part in the initiations and magic of central australia. designs of the same class are incised, by the same australian tribes, on stones of various shapes and sizes, usually portable, and variously shaped which are styled _churinga nanja_. (_churinga_ merely means anything "sacred," that is, with a superstitious sense attached to it). they also occur on wooden slats, (_churinga irula_,) commonly styled "bull roarers" by europeans. the tribes are now in a "siderolithic" stage, using steel when they can get it, stone when they cannot. if ever they come to abandon stone implements, while retaining their magic or religion, they will keep on using their stone _churinga nanja_. while i was studying these novel australian facts, in the autumn of , a friend, a distinguished member of clan diarmaid, passing by my window, in london, saw me, and came in. he at once began to tell me that, in the estuary of the clyde, and at dunbuie, some one had found small stones, marked with the same archaic kinds of patterns, "cup-and-ring," half circles, and so forth, as exist on our inscribed rocks, cists, and other large objects. i then showed him the illustrations of portable stones in australia, with archaic patterns, not then published, but figured in the proof sheets of messrs. spencer and gillen's work. my friend told me, later, that he had seen small stone incised with concentric circles, found in the excavation of a hill fort near tarbert, in kintyre. he made a sketch of this object, from memory: if found in central australia it would have been reckoned a _churinga nanja_. i was naturally much interested in my friend's account of objects found in the clyde estuary, which, _as far as his description went_, resembled in being archaically decorated the _churinga nanja_ discovered by messrs. spencer and gillen in central australia. i wrote an article on the subject of the archaic decorative designs, as found all over the world, for the _contemporary review_. { } i had then seen only pen and ink sketches of the objects, sent to me by mr. donnelly, and a few casts, which i passed on to an eminent authority. one of the casts showed a round stone with concentric circles. i know not what became of the original or of the casts. while correcting proofs of this article, i read in the _glasgow herald_ (january , ) a letter by dr. munro, impugning the authenticity of one set of finds by mr. donnelly, in a pile-structure at dumbuck, on the clyde, near dumbarton. i wrote to the _glasgow herald_, adducing the australian _churinga nanja_ as parallel to mr. donnelly's inscribed stones, and thus my share in the controversy began. what dr. munro and i then wrote may be passed over in this place. vi--dumbuck it was in july , that mr. donnelly, who had been prospecting during two years for antiquities in the clyde estuary, found at low tide, certain wooden stumps, projecting out of the mud at low water. on august , , dr. munro, with mr. donnelly, inspected these stumps, "before excavations were made." { a} it is not easy to describe concisely the results of their inspection, and of the excavations which followed. "so far the facts" (of the site, not of the alleged relics), "though highly interesting as evidence of the hand of man in the early navigation of the clyde basin present nothing very remarkable or important," says dr. munro. { b} i shall here quote dr. munro's descriptions of what he himself observed at two visits, of august , october , , to dumbuck. for the present i omit some speculative passages as to the original purpose of the structure. "the so-called dumbuck 'crannog,' that being the most convenient name under which to describe the submarine wooden structures lately discovered by mr. w. a. donnelly in the estuary of the clyde, lies about a mile to the east of the rock of dumbarton, and about yards within high-water mark. at every tide its site is covered with water to a depth of three to eight feet, but at low tide it is left high and dry for a few hours, so that it was only during these tidal intervals that the excavations could be conducted. on the occasion of my first visit to dumbuck, before excavations were begun, mr. donnelly and i counted twenty-seven piles of oak, some or inches in diameter, cropping up for a few inches through the mud, in the form of a circle feet in diameter. the area thus enclosed was occupied with the trunks of small trees laid horizontally close to each other and directed towards the centre, and so superficial that portions of them were exposed above the surrounding mud, but all hollows and interstices were levelled up with sand or mud. the tops of the piles which projected above the surface of the log-pavement were considerably worn by the continuous action of the muddy waters during the ebb and flow of the tides, a fact which suggested the following remarkable hypothesis: 'their tops are shaped in an oval, conical form, meant to make a joint in a socket to erect the superstructure on.' these words are quoted from a 'report of a conjoint visit of the geological and philosophical societies to the dumbuck crannog, th april, .' { } the result of the excavations, so far as i can gather from observations made during my second visit to the 'crannog,' and the descriptions and plans published by various societies, may be briefly stated as follows. the log-pavement within the circle of piles was the upper of three similar layers of timbers placed one above the other, the middle layer having its beams lying transversely to that immediately above and below it. one of the piles (about feet long) when freshly drawn up, clearly showed that it had been pointed by a sharp metal implement, the cutting marks being like those produced by an ordinary axe. the central portion (about feet in diameter) had no woodwork, and the circular cavity thus formed, when cleared of fallen stones, showed indications of having been walled with stones and clay. surrounding this walled cavity--the so-called 'well' of the explorers, there was a kind of coping, in the form of five or six 'raised mounds,' arranged 'rosette fashion,' in regard to which mr. donnelly thus writes: 'one feature that strikes me very much in the configuration of the structure in the centre is those places marked x, fig. , around which i have discovered the presence of soft wood piles inches in diameter driven into the ground, and bounding the raised stone arrangement; the stones in these rude circular pavements or cairns are laid slightly slanting inwards.' { } from this description, and especially the 'slanting inwards' of these 'circular pavements' or 'cairns,' it would appear that they formed the bases for wooden stays to support a great central pole, a suggestion which, on different grounds, has already been made by dr. david murray. the surrounding piles were also attached to the horizontal logs by various ingenious contrivances, such as a fork, a natural bend, an artificial check, or a mortised hole; and some of the beams were pinned together by tree-nails, the perforations of which were unmistakable. this binding together of the wooden structures is a well-known feature in crannogs, as was demonstrated by my investigations at lochlee and elsewhere. { a} it would be still more necessary in a substratum of timbers that was intended (as will be afterwards explained) to bear the weight of a superincumbent cairn. underneath the layers of horizontal woodwork some portions of heather, bracken, and brushwood were detected, and below this came a succession of thin beds of mud, loam, sand, gravel, and finally the blue clay which forms the solum of the river valley. { b} the piles penetrated this latter, but not deeply, owing to its consistency; and so the blue clay formed an excellent foundation for a structure whose main object was resistance to superincumbent pressure. outside the circle of piles there was, at a distance of to feet, another wooden structure in the shape of a broad ring of horizontal beams and piles which surrounded the central area. the breadth of this outer ring was feet, and it consisted of some nine rows of beams running circumferentially. beyond this lay scattered about some rough cobble stones, as if they had fallen down from a stone structure which had been raised over the woodwork. the space intervening between these wooden structures was filled up in its eastern third with a refuse heap, consisting of broken and partially burnt bones of various animals, the shells of edible molluscs, and a quantity of ashes and charcoal, evidently the debris of human occupancy. on the north, or landward side, the outer and inner basements of woodwork appeared to coalesce for or yards, leaving an open space having stones embedded in the mud and decayed wood, a condition of things which suggested a rude causeway. when mr. donnelly drew my attention to this, i demurred to its being so characterised owing to its indefiniteness. at the outer limit of this so-called causeway, and about feet north-east of the circle of piles, a canoe was discovered lying in a kind of dock, rudely constructed of side stones and wooden piling. the canoe measures . feet long, feet broad, and . foot deep. it has a square stern with a movable board, two grasping holes near the stem, and three round perforations ( inches in diameter) in its bottom. on the north-west border of the log-pavement a massive ladder of oak was found, one end resting on the margin of the log-pavement and the other projecting obliquely into the timberless zone between the former and the outer woodwork. it is thus described in the _proceedings of the glasgow philosophical society_:{ } 'made of a slab of oak which has been split from the tree by wedges (on one side little has been done to dress the work), it is feet inches long, feet broad, and . inches thick. six holes are cut for steps, inches by inches; the bottom of each is bevelled to an angle of degrees to make the footing level when the ladder is in position. on one side those holes show signs of wear by long use.' an under quern stone, inches in diameter, was found about halfway between the canoe and the margin of the circle of piles, and immediately to the east of the so-called causeway already described. i carefully examined the surface of the log-pavement with the view of finding evidence as to the possibility of its having been at any time the habitable area of this strange dwelling-place; but the result was absolutely negative, as not a single particle of bone or ash was discovered in any of its chinks. this fact, together with the impossibility of living on a surface that is submerged every twelve hours, and the improbability of any land subsidence having taken place since prehistoric times, or any adequate depression from the shrinkage of the under-structures themselves, compels me to summarily reject the theory that the dumbuck structure in its present form was an ordinary crannog. the most probable hypothesis, and that which supplies a reasonable explanation of all the facts, is that the woodwork was the foundation of a superstructure of stones built sufficiently high to be above the action of the tides and waves, over which there had been some kind of dwelling-place. the unique arrangement of the wooden substructures suggests that the central building was in the form of a round tower with very thick walls, like the brochs and other forts of north britain. the central space was probably occupied with a pole, firmly fixed at its base in the 'well,' and kept in position by suitable stays, resting partly on the stone 'cairns' already described, partly in wooden sockets fixed into the log-pavement, and partly on the inner wall of the tower. this suggestion seems to me to be greatly strengthened by the following description of some holed tree-roots in mr. bruce's paper to the scottish antiquaries: { } 'midway between the centre and the outside piles of the structure what looked at first to be tree-roots or snags were noticed partly imbedded in the sand. on being washed of the adhering soil, holes of inches wide by inches deep were found cut in them at an angle, to all appearance for the insertion of struts for the support of an upper structure. on the outside, inches down on either side, holes of inches diameter were found intersecting the central hole, apparently for the insertion of a wooden key or trenail to retain the struts. these were found at intervals, and were held in position by stones and smaller jammers.' the outer woodwork formed the foundation of another stone structure, of a horseshoe shape, having the open side to the north or landside of the tower, which doubtless was intended as a breakwater. by means of the ladder placed slantingly against the wall of the central stone building access could be got to the top in all states of the tides. the people who occupied this watch-tower ground their own corn, and fared abundantly on beef, mutton, pork, venison, and shell-fish. the food refuse and other debris were thrown into the space between the central structure and the breakwater, forming in the course of time a veritable kitchen-midden. besides the causeway on the north side, mr. bruce describes 'a belt of stones, forming a pavement about six feet wide and just awash with the mud,' extending westwards about twenty yards from the central cavity, till it intersected the breakwater. { } these so-called pavements and causeways were probably formed during the construction of the tower with its central pole, or perhaps at the time of its demolition, as it would be manifestly inconvenient to transport stones to or from such a place, in the midst of so much slush, without first making some kind of firm pathway. their present superficial position alone demonstrates the absurdity of assigning the dumbuck structures to neolithic times, as if the only change effected in the bed of the clyde since then would be the deposition of a few inches of mud. at a little distance to the west of these wooden structures there is the terminal end of a modern ditch ('the burn' of mr. alston), extending towards the shore, and having on its eastern bank a row of stepping- stones; a fact which, in my opinion, partly accounts for the demolition of the stonework, which formerly stood over them. so far, the facts disclosed by the excavations of the structures at dumbuck, though highly interesting as evidence of the hand of man in the early navigation of the clyde basin, present nothing very remarkable or improbable. it is when we come to examine the strange relics which the occupants of this habitation have left behind them that the real difficulties begin." dr. munro next describes the disputed things found at dumbuck. they were analogous to those alleged to have been unearthed at dunbuie. they were "a number of strange objects like spear-heads or daggers, showing more or less workmanship, and variously ornamented. one great spear-head (figure ), like an arrow-point, is inches long and . inches wide at the barbs. the stem is perforated with two holes, in one of which there was a portion of an oak pin. it has a flat body and rounded edges, and is carefully finished by rubbing and grinding. one surface is ornamented with three cup-marks from which lines radiate like stars or suns, and the other has only small cups and a few transverse lines. there are some shaped stones, sometimes perforated for suspension, made of the same material; while another group of similar objects is made of cannel coal. all these are highly ornamented by a fantastic combination of circles, dots, lines, cup-and- rings with or without gutters, and perforations. a small pebble (plate xv. no. ) shows, on one side, a boat with three men plying their oars, and on the other an incised outline of a left hand having a small cup-and-ring in the palm. the most sensational objects in the collection are, however, four rude figures, cut out of shale (figs. - ), representing portions of the human face and person. one, evidently a female (figure ), we are informed was found at the bottom of the kitchen midden, a strange resting-place for a goddess; the other three are grotesque efforts to represent a human face. there are also several oyster-shells, ornamented like some of the shale ornaments, and very similar to the oyster-shell ornaments of dunbuie. a splinter of a hard stone is inserted into the tine of a deer-horn as a handle (plate xiii. no. ); and another small blunt implement (no. ) has a bone handle. a few larger stones with cup-marks and some portions of partially worked pieces of shale complete the art gallery of dumbuck." it seemed as if some curse were on mr. donnelly! whether he discovered an unique old site of human existence in the water or on the land, some viewless fiend kept sowing the soil with _bizarre_ objects unfamiliar to dr. munro, and by him deemed incongruous with the normal and known features of human life on such sites. vii--langbank the curse, (that is, the forger,) unwearied and relentless, next smote mr. john bruce, f.s.a.scot., merely, as it seems, because he and mr. donnelly were partners in the perfectly legitimate pastime of archaeological exploration. mr. bruce's share of the trouble began at dumbuck. the canoe was found, the genuine canoe. "it was at once cleared out by myself," writes mr. bruce. in the bottom of the canoe he found "a spear-shaped slate object," and "an ornamented oyster shell, which has since mouldered away," and "a stone pendant object, and an implement of bone." { } such objects have no business to be found in a canoe just discovered under the mud of clyde, and cleared out by mr. bruce himself, a man or affairs, and of undisputed probity. in this case the precise site of the dubious relics is given, by a man of honour, at first hand. i confess that my knowledge of human nature does not enable me to contest mr. bruce's written attestation, while i marvel at the astuteness of the forger. as a finder, on this occasion, mr. bruce was in precisely the same position as dr. munro at elie when, as he says, "as the second piece of pottery was disinterred by myself, i was able to locate its precise position at six inches below the surface of the relic bed." { } mr. bruce was able to locate _his_ finds at the bottom of the canoe. if i understand mr. bruce's narrative, a canoe was found under the mud, and was "cleared out inside," by mr. bruce himself. had the forger already found the canoe, kept the discovery dark, inserted fraudulent objects, and waited for others to rediscover the canoe? or was he present at the first discovery, and did he subtly introduce, unnoted by any one, four objects of shell, stone, and bone, which he had up his sleeve, ready for an opportunity? one or other alternative must be correct, and either hypothesis has its difficulties. meanwhile sir arthur mitchell, not a credulous savant, says: "the evidence of authenticity in regard to these doubted objects from dumbuck is the usual evidence in such circumstances . . . it is precisely the same evidence of authenticity which is furnished in regard to all the classes of objects found in the dumbuck exploration--that is, in regard to the canoe, the quern, the bones etc.--about the authenticity of which no doubts have been expressed, as in regard to objects about which doubts have been expressed." { a} of another object found by a workman at dumbuck dr. munro writes "is it not very remarkable that a workman, groping with his hand in the mud, should accidentally stumble on this relic--the only one found in this part of the site? is it possible that he was an unconscious thought-reader, and was thus guided to make the discovery" of a thing which "could as readily have been inserted there half-an-hour before?" { b} this passage is "rote sarcustic." but surely dr. munro will not, he cannot, argue that mr. bruce was "an unconscious thought-reader" when _he_ "cleared out" the interior of the canoe, and found three disputed objects "in the bottom." if we are to be "psychical," there seems less evidence for "unconscious thought-reading," than for the presence of what are technically styled _apports_,--things introduced by an agency of supra-normal character, vulgarly called a "spirit." undeterred by an event which might have struck fear _in constantem virum_, mr. bruce, in the summer of , was so reckless as to discover a fresh "submarine wooden structure" at langbank, on the left, or south bank of the clyde estuary opposite dumbarton castle. the dangerous object was cautiously excavated under the superintendence of mr. bruce, and a committee of the glasgow archaeological society. to be brief, the larger features were akin to those of dumbuck, without the central "well," or hole, supposed by dr. munro to have held the pole of a beacon- cairn. the wooden piles, as at dumbuck, had been fashioned by "sharp metal tools." { } this is mr. bruce's own opinion. this evidence of the use of metal tools is a great point of dr. munro, against such speculative minds as deem dumbuck and langbank "neolithic," that is, of a date long before the christian era. _they_ urged that stone tools could have fashioned the piles, but i know not that partisans of either opinion have made experiments in hewing trees with stone-headed axes, like the ingenious monsieur hippolyte muller in france. { a} i am, at present, of opinion that all the sites are of an age in which iron was well known to the natives, and bronze was certainly known. the relics at langbank were ( ) of a familiar, and ( ) of an unfamiliar kind. there was ( ) a small bone comb with a "late celtic" ( b.c.-? a.d.) design of circles and segments of circles; there was a very small penannular brooch of brass or bronze; there were a few cut fragments of deer horn, pointed bones, stone polishers, and so forth, all familiar to science and acceptable. { b} on the other hand, the curse fell on mr. bruce in the shape of two perforated shale objects: on one was cut a grotesque face, on the other two incomplete concentric circles, "a stem line with little nicks," and two vague incised marks, which may, or may not, represent "fragments of deer horn." { c} we learn from mr. bruce that he first observed the langbank circle of stones from the window of a passing train, and that he made a few slight excavations, apparently at the end of september, . more formal research was made in october; and again, under the superintendence of members of the glasgow archaeological society, in september, october, . no members of the glasgow committee were present when either the undisputed late celtic comb, or the inscribed, perforated, and disputed pieces of cannel coal were discovered. illustrations of these objects and of the bronze penannular ring are here given, (figures , , , ), (two shale objects are omitted,) by the kindness of the glasgow archaeological society (_transactions_, vol. v. p. ). the brooch (allowed to be genuine) "might date from romano-british times, say - a.d. to any date up to late mediaeval times." { } good evidence to date, in a wide sense, would be the "osseous remains," the bones left in the refuse at langbank and dumbuck. of the bones, i only gather as peculiarly interesting, that dr. bryce has found those of _bos longifrons_. of _bos longifrons_ as a proof of date, i know little. mr. ridgeway, disney professor of archaeology in the university of cambridge, is not "a merely literary man." in his work _the early age of greece_, vol. i., pp. , (cambridge university press, ), mr. ridgeway speaks of _bos_ as the celtic ox, co-eval with the swiss lake dwellings, and known as _bos brachyceros_--"short horn"--so styled by rutimeyer. if he is "celtic" i cannot say how early _bos_ may have existed among the celts of britain, but the romans are thought by some persons to have brought the celtic ox to the celts of our island. if this be so, the clyde sites are not earlier (or _bos_ in these sites is not earlier) than the roman invasion. he lasted into the seventh or eighth centuries a.d. at least, and is found on a site discovered by dr. munro at elie. { a} meanwhile archaeology is so lazy, that, after seven years, dr. bryce's "reports on the osseous remains" of langbank and dumbuck is but lately published. { b} { figs. , : p a.jpg} dr. bryce, in his report to the glasgow archaeological society, says that "_bos longifrons_ has a wide range in time, from neolithic down to perhaps even medieval times. it was the domestic ox in scotland for an unknown period, before, during, and for an unknown time after the roman invasion. . . . the occurrence of extinct, probably long extinct, breeds, and these only, make the phenomena in this respect at langbank exactly comparable with those observed at sites of pile buildings in scotland generally, and thus it becomes indirect evidence against the thesis that the structure belongs to some different category, and to quite recent times." { c} { fig. : p b.jpg} the evidence of the bones, then, denotes any date except a relatively recent date, of - ; contrary to an hypothesis to be touched on later. it follows, from the presence of _bos_ at elie ( a.d.) that the occupants of the clyde sites at langbank may have lived there as late as, say, a.d. but when they _began_ to occupy the sites is another question. { fig. : p c.jpg} if roman objects are found, as they are, in brochs which show many relics of bronze, it does not follow that the brochs had not existed for centuries before the inhabitants acquired the waifs and strays of roman civilisation. in the nine caithness brochs described by dr. joseph anderson, { } there was a crucible . . . with a portion of melted bronze, a bronze ring, moulds for ingots, an ingot of bronze, bits of roman "samian ware," but no iron. we can be sure that the broch folk were at some time in touch of roman goods, brought by traffickers perhaps, but how can we be sure that there were no brochs before the arrival of the romans? we shall return to the question of the disputable relics of the clyde, after discussing what science has to say about the probable date and original purpose of the wooden structures in the clyde estuary. nobody, it is admitted, forged _them_, but on the other hand dr. munro, the one most learned authority on "lake dwellings," or "crannogs," does not think that the sites were ever occupied by regular "crannogs," or lacustrine settlements, lake dwellings. viii--the original date and purpose of dumbuck and langbank the actual structures of langbank and dumbuck, then, are confessedly ancient remains; they are _not_ of the nineteenth century; they are "unique" in our knowledge, and we ask, what was the purpose of their constructors, and what is their approximate date? dr. munro quotes and discusses { } a theory, or a tentative guess of dr. david murray. that scholar writes "river cairns are commonly built on piled platforms, _and my doubt is_ whether this is not the nature of the structure in question" (dumbuck). a river cairn is a solid pile of stonework, with, perhaps, a pole in the centre. at dumbuck there is the central "well" of six feet in diameter. dr. murray says that a pole "carried down to the bottom would probably be sunk in the clay, which would produce a hole, or well-like cavity similar to that of the dumbuck structure." { } it is not stated that the poles of river cairns usually demand accommodation to the extent of six feet of diameter, in the centre of the solid mass of stones, and, as the langbank site has no central well, the tentative conjecture that it was a river cairn is not put forward. dr. murray suggests that the dumbuck cairn "may have been one of the works of or ," that is, of the modern age of queen mary and james vi. the object of such corporation cairns "was no doubt to mark the limit of their jurisdiction, and also to serve as a beacon to vessels coming up the river." now the corporation, with its jurisdiction and beacons, is purely modern. in the corporation had a "lower cairn, if it did not occupy this very spot" (dumbuck) "it stood upon the same line and close to it. there are, however, no remains of such cairn," says dr. murray. he cites no evidence for the date and expenses of the demolition of the cairn from any municipal book of accounts. now we have to ask ( ) is there any evidence that men in - lived on the tops of such modern cairns, dating from the reign of mary stuart? ( ) if men then lived on the top of a cairn till their food refuse became "a veritable kitchen midden," as dr. munro says, { } would that refuse exhibit bones of _bos longifrons_; and over ninety bone implements, sharpened antlers of deer, stone polishers, hammer stones, "a saddle stone" for corn grinding, and the usual _debris_ of sites of the fifth to the twelfth centuries? ( ) would such a modern site exhibit these archaic relics, plus a "late celtic" comb and "penannular brooch," and exhibit not one modern article of metal, or one trace of old clay tobacco pipes, crockery, or glass? the answers to these questions are obvious. it is not shown that any men ever lived on the tops of cairns, and, even if they did so in modern times ( - ) they could not leave abundant relics of the broch and crannog age (said to be of - a.d.), and leave no relics of modern date. this theory, or suggestion, is therefore demonstrably untenable and unimaginable. dr. munro, however, "sees nothing against the supposition" that "dr. murray is right," but dr. munro's remarks about the hypothesis of modern cairns, as a theory "against which he sees nothing," have the air of being an inadvertent _obiter dictum_. for, in his conclusion and summing up he writes, "we claim to have established that the structures of dunbuie, dumbuck, and langbank are remains of inhabited sites of the early-iron age, dating to some time between the fifth and twelfth centuries." { a} i accept this conclusion, and will say as little as may be about the theory of a modern _origin_ of the sites, finally discarded by dr. munro. i say "discarded," for his theory is that the modern corporation utilised an earlier structure as a cairn or beacon, or boundary mark, which is perfectly possible. but, if this occurred, it does not affect the question, for this use of the structure has left no traces of any kind. there are no relics, except relics of the fifth (?) to twelfth (?) centuries. in an earlier work by dr. munro, _prehistoric scotland_ (p. ), published in , he observes that we have no evidence as to the when, or how of the removal of the stones of the hypothetical "corporation cairn," or "round tower with very thick walls," { b} or "watch tower," which is supposed to have been erected above the wooden sub-structure at dumbuck. he tentatively suggests that the stones may have been used, perhaps, for the stone causeway now laid along the bank of the recently made canal, from a point close to the crannog to the railway. no record is cited. he now offers guesses as to the stones "in the so-called pavements and causeways." first, the causeways may have probably been made "during the construction of the tower with its central pole," (here the cairn is a habitable beacon, habitable on all hypotheses,) or, again, "perhaps at the time of its demolition" about which demolition we know nothing, { a} except that the most of the stones are not now _in situ._ several authentic stone crannogs in scotland, as to which we have information, possessed no central pole, but had a stone causeway, still extant, leading, _e.g._ from the crannog to the shore of the ashgrove loch, "a causeway of rough blocks of sandstone slabs." { b} if one stone crannog had a stone causeway, why should this ancient inhabited cairn or round tower not possess a stone causeway? though useless at high water, at low water it would afford better going. in a note to _ivanhoe_, and in his northern tour of , scott describes a stone causeway to a broch on an artificial island in loch cleik-him-in, near lerwick. now this loch, says scott, was, at the time when the broch was inhabited, open to the flow of tide water. as people certainly did live on these structures of langbank and dunbuie during the broch and crannog age (centuries - ) it really matters not to our purpose _why_ they did so, or _how_ they did so. let us suppose that the circular wall of the stone superstructure slanted inwards, as is not unusual. in that case the habitable area at the top may be reduced to any extent that is thought probable, with this limitation:--the habitable space must not be too small for the accommodation of the persons who filled up the eastern third of an area of from twelve to fourteen feet in breadth, and in some places a foot in thickness, with a veritable kitchen-midden, of "broken and partially burned bones of various animals, shells of edible molluscs, and a quantity of ashes and charcoal . . . ." { } but dr. munro assures me that the remains discovered could be deposited in a few years of regular occupancy by two or three persons. the structure certainly yielded habitable space enough to accommodate the persons who, in the fifth to twelfth centuries, left these traces of their occupancy. beyond that fact i do not pretend to estimate the habitable area. why did these people live on this structure in the fifth to twelfth centuries? almost certainly, not for the purpose of directing the navigation of the clyde. at that early date, which i think we may throw far back in the space of the six centuries of the estimate, or may even throw further back still, the clyde was mainly navigated by canoes of two feet or so in depth, though we ought to have statistics of remains of larger vessels discovered in the river bed. { a} i think we may say that the finances of glasgow, in st. kentigern's day, about - a.d., would not be applied to the construction of dr. munro's "tower with its central pole and very thick walls" { b} erected merely for the purpose of warning canoes off shoals in the clyde. that the purpose of the erection was to direct the navigation of clyde by canoes, or by the long vessels of the viking raiders, appears to me improbable. i offer, _periculo meo_, a different conjecture, of which i shall show reason to believe that dr. munro may not disapprove. the number of the dwellers in the structure, and the duration of their occupancy, does not affect my argument. if two natives, in a very few years, could deposit the "veritable kitchen midden," with all the sawn horns, bone implements, and other undisputed relics, we must suppose that the term of occupancy was very brief, or not continuous, and that the stone structure "with very thick walls like the brochs" represented labours which were utilised for a few years, or seldom. my doubt is as to whether the structure was intended for the benefit of navigators of the clyde--in shallow canoes! ix--a guess at the possible purpose of langbank and dumbuck the dumbuck structure, when occupied, adjoined and commanded a _ford_ across the undeepened clyde of uncommercial times. so sir arthur mitchell informs us. { a} the langbank structure, as i understand, is opposite to that of dumbuck on the southern side of the river. if two strongly built structures large enough for occupation exist on opposite sides of a ford, their purpose is evident: they guard the ford, like the two stone camps on each side of the narrows of the avon at clifton. dr. munro, on the other hand, says, "the smallness of the habitable area on both "sites" puts them out of the category of military forts." { b} my suggestion is that the structure was so far "military" as is implied in its being occupied, with langbank on the opposite bank of clyde by keepers of the ford. in dr. munro wrote, "even the keepers of the watch-tower at the ford of dumbuck had their quern, and ground their own corn." { a} this idea has therefore passed through dr. munro's mind, though i did not know the fact till after i had come to the same hypothesis. the habitable area was therefore, adequate to the wants of these festive people. i conjecture that these "keepers of the watch-tower at the ford" were military "watchers of the ford," for that seems to me less improbable than that "a round tower with very thick walls, { b} like the brochs and other forts of north britain," was built in the interests of the navigation of clyde at a very remote period. { c} but really all this is of no importance to the argument. people lived in these sites, perhaps as early as a.d. or earlier. such places of safety were sadly needed during the intermittent and turbulent roman occupation. x--the last day at old dumbuck suppose the sites were occupied by the watchers of the ford. there they lived, no man knows how long, on their perch over the waters of clyde. they dwelt at top of a stone structure some eight feet above low water mark, for they could not live on the ground floor, of which the walls, fifty feet thick at the base, defied the waves of the high tides driven by the west wind. there our friends lived, and probably tatooed themselves, and slew _bos longifrons_ and the deer that, in later ages, would have been forbidden game to them. if i may trust bede, born in , and finishing his history in , our friends were picts, and spoke a now unknown language, _not_ that of the bretonnes, or cymri, or welsh, who lived on the northern side of the firth of clyde. or the occupants of dumbuck, on the north side of the river, were cymri; those of langbank, on the south side, were picts. i may at once say that i decline to be responsible for bede, and his ethnology, but he lived nearer to those days than we do. with their ladder of fifteen feet long, a slab of oak, split from the tree by wedges, and having six holes chopped out of the solid for steps, they climbed to their perch, the first floor of their abode. i never heard of a ladder made in this way, but the zunis used simply to cut notches for the feet in the trunk of a tree, and "sich a getting up stairs" it must have been, when there was rain, and the notches were wet! time passed, the kitchen midden grew, and the cymri founded ailcluith, "clyde rock," now dumbarton; "to this day," says bede, "the strongest city of the britons." { } then the scots came, and turned the britons out; and st. columba came, and st. kentigern from wales ( - ), and began to spread the gospel among the pagan picts and cymri. stone amulets and stone idols, (if the disputed objects are idols and amulets,) "have had their day," (as bob acres says "damns have had their day,") and, with ailcluith in scots' hands, "'twas time for us to go" thought the picts and cymri of langbank and dumbuck. sadly they evacuate their old towers or cairns before the scots who now command the dumbuck ford from dumbarton. they cross to land on their stone causeway at low water. they abandon the old canoe in the little dock where it was found by mr. bruce. they throw down the venerable ladder. they leave behind only the canoe, the deer horns, stone-polishers, sharpened bones, the lower stone of a quern, and the now obsolete, or purely folk-loreish stone "amulets," or "pendants," and the figurines, which to call "idols" is unscientific, while to call them "totems" is to display "facetious and rejoicing ignorance." dr. munro merely quotes this foolish use of the term totem by others. these old things the evicted picts and cymri abandoned, while they carried with them their more valuable property, their early iron axes and knives, their treasured bits of red "samian ware," inherited from roman times, their amber beads, and the rest of their bibelots, down to the minutest fragment of pottery. or it may not have been so: the conquering scots may have looted the cairns, and borne the pictish cairn-dwellers into captivity. looking at any broch, or hill fort, or crannog, the fancy dwells on the last day of its occupation: the day when the canoe was left to subside into the mud and decaying vegetable matter of the loch. in changed times, in new conditions, the inhabitants move away to houses less damp, and better equipped with more modern appliances. i see the little troop, or perhaps only two natives, cross the causeway, while the minstrel sings in pictish or welsh a version of "the auld hoose, the auld hoose, what though the rooms were sma', wi' six feet o' diameter, and a rung gaun through the ha'!" the tears come to my eyes, as i think of the last day of old dumbuck, for, take it as you will, there _was_ a last day of dumbuck, as of windy ilios, and of "carthage left deserted of the sea." so ends my little idyllic interlude, and, if i am wrong, blame venerable bede! xi--my theory of provisional date provisionally, and for the sake of argument merely, may i suggest that the occupancy of these sites may be dated by me, about - a.d.? that date is well within the iron age: iron had long been known and used in north britain. but to the non-archaeological reader, the terms stone age, bronze age, iron age, are apt to prove misleading. the early iron age, like the bronze age, was familiar with the use of implements of stone. in the scottish crannogs, admirably described by dr. munro, in his _ancient scottish lake dwellings_, were found implements of flint, a polished stone axe-head, an iron knife at the same lowest level, finger rings of gold, a forged english coin of the sixth or seventh century a.d., well-equipped canoes (a common attendant of crannogs), the greater part of a stone inscribed with concentric circles, a cupped stone, and a large quartz crystal of the kind which apaches in north america, and the euahlayi tribe in new south wales, use in crystal gazing. in early ages, after the metals had been worked, stone, bronze, and iron were still used as occasion served, just as the australian black will now fashion an implement in "palaeolithic" wise, with a few chips; now will polish a weapon in "neolithic" fashion; and, again, will chip a fragment of glass with wonderful delicacy; or will put as good an edge as he can on a piece of hoop iron. i venture, then, merely for the sake of argument, to date the origin of the clyde sites in the dark years of unrecorded turmoil which preceded and followed the roman withdrawal. the least unpractical way of getting nearer to their purpose is the careful excavation of a structure of wood and stone near eriska, where prince charles landed in . dr. munro has seen and described this site, but is unable to explain it. certainly it cannot be a corporation cairn. xii--the disputed objects we now approach the disputed and very puzzling objects found in the three clyde sites. my object is, not to demonstrate that they were actually fashioned in, say, - a.d., or that they were relics of an age far more remote, but merely to re-state the argument of dr. joseph anderson, keeper of the scottish national museum, and of sir arthur mitchell, both of them most widely experienced and sagacious archaeologists. they play the waiting game, and it may be said that they "sit upon the fence"; i am proud to occupy a railing in their company. dr. anderson spoke at a meeting of the scots society of antiquaries, may , , when mr. bruce read a paper on dumbuck, and exhibited the finds. "with regard to the relics, he said that there was nothing exceptional in the chronological horizon of a portion of them from both sites (dumbuck and dunbuie), but as regards another portion, he could find no place for it in any archaeological series, as it had 'no recognisable affinity with any objects found anywhere else.'" "for my part," said dr. anderson, (and he has not altered his mind,) "i do not consider it possible or necessary in the meantime that there should be a final pronouncement on these questions. in the absence of decisive evidence, which time may supply, i prefer to suspend my judgment--merely placing the suspected objects (as they place themselves) in the list of things that must wait for further evidence, because they contradict present experience. it has often happened that new varieties of things have been regarded with suspicion on account of their lack of correspondence with things previously known, and that the lapse of time has brought corroboration of their genuineness through fresh discoveries. if time brings no such corroboration, they still remain in their proper classification as things whose special character has not been confirmed by archaeological experience." sir arthur mitchell spoke in the same sense, advising suspension of judgment, and that we should await the results of fresh explorations both at dumbuck and elsewhere. { } dr. murray said that the disputed finds "are puzzling, but we need not condemn them because we do not understand them." dr. munro will not suspend _his_ judgment: the objects, he declares, are spurious. xiii--method of inquiry i remarked, early in this tract, that "with due deference, and with doubt, i think dr. munro's methods capable of modification." i meant that i prefer, unlike dr. munro in this case, to extend the archaeological gaze beyond the limits of things already known to occur in the scottish area which--by the way--must contain many relics still unknown. i "let observation with extensive view survey mankind from china to peru," to discover whether objects analogous to those under dispute occur anywhere among early races of the past or present. this kind of wide comparison is the method of anthropology. thus prof. rhys and others find so very archaic an institution as the reckoning of descent in the female line,--inheritance going through the mother,--among the picts of scotland, and they even find traces of totemism, an institution already outworn among several of the naked tribes of australia, who reckon descent in the male line. races do not, in fact, advance on a straight and unbroken highway of progress. you find that the kurnai of australia are more civilised, as regards the evolution of the modern family, than were the picts who built crannogs and dug canoes, and cultivated the soil, and had domesticated animals, and used iron, all of them things that the kurnai never dreamed of doing. as to traces of totemism in scotland and ireland, i am not persuaded by professor rhys that they occur, and are attested by celtic legends about the connection of men and kinships with animals, and by personal and kinship names derived from animals. the question is very obscure. { } but as the topic of totemism has been introduced, i may say that many of the mysterious archaic markings on rocks, and decorations of implements, in other countries, are certainly known to be a kind of shorthand design of the totem animal. thus a circle, whence proceeds a line ending in a triple fork, represents the raven totem in north america: another design, to our eyes meaningless, stands for the wolf totem; a third design, a set of bands on a spear shaft, does duty for the gerfalcon totem, and so on. { a} equivalent marks, such as spirals, and tracks of emu's feet, occur on sacred stones found round the graves of australian blacks on the darling river. they were associated with rites which the oldest blacks decline to explain. the markings are understood to be totemic. occasionally they are linear, as in ogam writing. { b} any one who is interested in the subject of the origin, in certain places, of the patterns, may turn to mr. haddon's _evolution of art_. { c} mr. haddon shows how the portuguese pattern of horizontal triangles is, in the art of the uncivilised natives of brazil, meant to represent bats. { d} a cross, dotted, within a circle, is directly derived, through several stages, from a representation of an alligator. { e} we cannot say whether or not the same pattern, found at dumbuck, in central australia, and in tropical america, arose in the "schematising" of the same object in nature, in all three regions, or not. without direct evidence, we cannot assign a meaning to the patterns. xiv--the possible meanings of the marks and objects my private opinion as to the meaning of the archaic marks and the clyde objects which bear them, has, in part by my own fault, been misunderstood by dr. munro. he bases an argument on the idea that i suppose the disputed "pendants" to have had, in clydesdale, precisely the same legendary, customary, and magical significance as the stone churinga of the arunta tribe in australia. that is not my theory. dr. munro quotes me, without indicating the source, (which, i learn, is my first letter on the subject to the _glasgow herald_, jan. th, ), as saying that the clyde objects "are in absolutely startling agreement" with the arunta _churinga_. { } doubtless, before i saw the objects, i thus overstated my case, in a letter to a newspaper, in . but in my essay originally published in the _contemporary review_, (march ,) and reprinted in my book, _magic and religion_, of , { } i stated my real opinion. this is a maturely considered account of my views as they were in - , and, unlike old newspaper correspondence, is easily accessible to the student. it is _not_ "out of print." i compared the australian marks on small stones and on rock walls, and other "fixtures in the landscape," with the markings on scottish boulders, rock walls, cists, and so forth, and also with the marks on the disputed objects. i added "the startling analogy between australia and old scottish markings _saute aux yeux_," and i spoke truth. down to the designs which represent footmarks, the analogy is "startling," is of great interest, and was never before made the subject of comment. i said that we could not know whether or not the markings, in scotland and australia, had the same meaning. as to my opinion, then, namely that we cannot say what is the significance of an archaic pattern in scotland, or elsewhere, though we may know the meaning assigned to it in central australia, there can no longer be any mistake. i take the blame of having misled dr. munro by an unguarded expression in a letter to the society of scottish antiquaries, { } saying that, if the disputed objects were genuine, they implied the survival, on clyde, "of a singularly archaic set of ritual and magical ideas," namely those peculiar to the arunta and kaitish tribes of central australia. but that was a slip of the pen, merely. this being the case, i need not reply to arguments of dr. munro (pp. - ) against an hypothesis which no instructed person could entertain, beginning with the assumption that from an unknown centre, some people who held arunta ideas migrated to central australia, and others to the clyde. nobody supposes that the use of identical or similar patterns, and of stones of superstitious purpose, implies community of race. these things may anywhere be independently evolved, and in different regions may have quite different meanings, if any; while the use of "charm stones" or witch stones, is common among savages, and survives, in england and scotland, to this day. the reader will understand that i am merely applying mr. e. b. tylor's method of the study of "survivals in culture," which all anthropologists have used since the publication of mr. tylor's _primitive culture_, thirty-five years ago. xv--question of method continued what is admitted to be true of survivals in the family among the picts may also be true as to other survivals in art, superstition, and so forth. i would, therefore, compare the disputed clyde objects with others analogous to them, of known or unknown purpose, wheresoever they may be found. i am encouraged in this course by observing that it is pursued, for example, by the eminent french archaeologist, monsieur cartailhac, in his book _les ages prehistoriques de france et d'espagne_. he does not hesitate, as we shall see, to compare peculiar objects found in france or spain, with analogous objects of doubtful purpose, found in america or the antilles. m. cartailhac writes that, to find anything resembling certain portuguese "thin plaques of slate in the form of a crook, or crozier," he "sought through all ethnographic material, ancient and modern." he did find the parallels to his portuguese objects, one from gaudeloup, the other either french, or from the antilles. { } sir john evans, again, compares british with australian objects; in fact the practice is recognised. i therefore intend to make use of this comparative method. on the other hand, dr. munro denies that any of my analogies drawn from remote regions are analogous, and it will be necessary to try to prove that they are,--that my australian, american, portuguese, and other objects are of the same kind, apparently, as some of the disputed relics of the clyde. if i succeed, one point will be made probable. either the clyde objects are old, or the modern maker knew much more of archaeology than many of his critics and used his knowledge to direct his manufacture of spurious things; or he kept coinciding _accidentally_ with genuine relics of which he knew nothing. xvi--magic again, i must push my method beyond that of dr. munro, by considering the subject of magic, in relation to perforated and other stones, whether inscribed with designs, or uninscribed. among the disputed objects are many such stones, and it is legitimate for me to prove, not only that they occur in many sites of ancient life, but that their magical uses are still recognised, or were very recently recognised in the british folk- lore of to-day. a superstition which has certainly endured to the nineteenth century may obviously have existed among the picts, or whoever they were, of the crannog and broch period on clyde. the only _a priori_ objection is the absence of such objects among finds made on british soil, but our discoveries cannot be exhaustive: time may reveal other examples, and already we have a few examples, apart from the objects in dispute. xvii--disputed objects classified dr. munro classifies the disputed objects as _weapons_, _implements_, "_amulets_" _or pendants_, _cup-and-ring stones_, "_human figurines or idols_." for reasons of convenience, and because what i heard about group , the "amulets or pendants" first led me into this discussion, i shall here first examine them. dr. munro reproduces some of them in one plate (xv. p. ). he does not say by what process they are reproduced; merely naming them . . . "objects of slate and stone from dumbuck." dr. munro describes the "amulets" or "pendants" thus: "the largest group of objects (plate xv.) consists of the so-called amulets or pendants of stone, shale, and shell, some fifteen to twenty specimens of which have been preserved and recorded as having been found on the different stations, viz., three from dunbuie (exclusive of a few perforated oyster shells), eleven from dumbuck, and one from langbank. their ornamentation is chiefly of the cup-and-ring order, only a few having patterns composed of straight lines. some of them are so large as to be unfit to be used as amulets or pendants, such, for example, as that represented by no. , which is inches long, . inches broad, and . inch thick. the ornamentation consists of a strongly incised line running downwards from the perforation with small branch lines directed alternately right and left. any human being, who would wear this object, either as an ornament or religious emblem, would be endowed with the most archaic ideas of decorative art known in the history of human civilisation. yet we can have no doubt that the individual who manufactured it, if he were an inhabitant of any of the clyde sites, was at the same time living in a period not devoid of culture, and was in possession of excellent cutting implements, most likely of iron, with which he manipulated wood, deer- horn, and other substances. these objects are nearly all perforated, as if intended for suspension, but sometimes, in addition to this, there is a large central hole around which there is always an ornamentation, generally consisting of incised circles or semicircles, with divergent lines leading into small hollow points, the so-called cup-marks." i shall return to the theory that the stones were "ornaments"; meanwhile i proceed to the consideration of "cup-marks" on stones, large or small. xviii--cup marks in crannogs as to cup marks, or _cupules_, little basins styled also _ecuelles_, now isolated, now grouped, now separate, now joined by hollowed lines, they are familiar on rocks, funeral cists, and so forth in asia, europe, and north america (and australia), as m. cartailhac remarks in reviewing dr. magni's work on cupped rocks near como. { a} "their meaning escapes us," says m. cartailhac. these cups, or cupules, or _ecuelles_ occur, not only at dumbuck, but in association with a scottish crannog of the iron age, admirably described by dr. munro himself. { b} he found a polished celt, { c} and a cupped stone, and he found a fragmentary block of red sandstone, about a foot in length, inscribed with concentric circles, surrounding a cup. the remainder of the stone, with the smaller part of the design, was not found. here, then, we have these archaic patterns and marks on isolated stones, one of them about inches long, in a genuine scottish crannog, of the genuine iron age, while flint celts also occur, and objects of bronze. therefore cup markings, and other archaic markings are not unknown or suspicious things in a genuine pile structure in scotland. why, then, suspect them at dumbuck? at dumbuck the cups occur on a triangular block of sandstone, . inches long and inches thick. another cupped block is of . inches by . . { } no forger brought these cupped stones in his waistcoat pocket. we have thus made good the point that an isolated cupped stone, and an isolated stone inscribed with concentric circles round a cup, do occur in a crannog containing objects of the stone, bronze, and iron ages. the meaning, if any, of these inscribed stones, in the lochlee crannog, is unknown. many of the disputed objects vary from them in size, while presenting examples of archaic patterns. are they to be rejected because they vary in size? we see that the making of this class of decorative patterns, whether they originally had a recognised meaning; or whether, beginning as mere decorations, perhaps "schematistic" designs of real objects, they later had an arbitrary symbolic sense imposed upon them, is familiar to australians of to-day, who use, indifferently, stone implements of the neolithic or of the palaeolithic type. we also know that "in a remote corner of tropical america," the rocks are inscribed with patterns "typically identical with those engraved in the british rocks." { } these markings are in the country of the chiriquis, an extinct gold-working neolithic people, very considerable artists, especially in the making of painted ceramics. the picts and scots have left nothing at all approaching to their pottery work. these identical patterns, therefore, have been independently evolved in places most remote in space and in stage of civilisation, while in galloway, as i shall show, i have seen some of them scrawled in chalk on the flag stones in front of cottage doors. the identity of many scottish and australian patterns is undenied, while i disclaim the opinion that, in each region, they had the same significance. i have now established the coincidence between the markings of rocks in australia, in tropical america, and in scotland. i have shown that such markings occur, in scotland, associated with remains, in a crannog, of the age of iron. they also occur on stones, large (cupped) and small, in dumbuck. my next business is, if i can, to establish, what dr. munro denies, a parallelism between these disputed clyde stones, and the larger or smaller inscribed stones of the arunta and kaitish, in australia, and other small stones, decorated or plain, found in many ancient european sites. their meaning we know not, but probably they were either reckoned ornamental, or magical, or both. xix--parallelism between the disputed objects and other objects elsewhere on clyde (if the disputed things be genuine) we find decorated plaques or slabs of soft stone, of very various dimensions and shapes. in australia some of these objects are round, many oval, others elongated, others thin and pointed, like a pencil; others oblong--while on clyde, some are round, one is coffin-shaped, others are palette-shaped, others are pear- shaped (the oval tapering to one extremity), one is triangular, one is oblong. { } in australia, as on clyde, the stones bear some of the archaic markings common on the rock faces both in scotland and in central australia: on large rocks they are _painted_, in australia, in scotland they are _incised_. i maintain that there is a singularly strong analogy between the two sets of circumstances, scottish and australian; large rocks inscribed with archaic designs; smaller stones inscribed with some of these designs. is it not so? dr. munro, on the other hand, asserts that there is no such parallelism. but i must point out that there is, to some extent, an admitted parallelism. "the familiar designs which served as models to the clyde artists"--"plain cups and rings, with or without gutter channels, spirals, circles, concentric circles, semicircles, horseshoe and harp- shaped figures, etc.," occur, or a selection of them occurs, both on the disputed objects, and on the rocks of the hills. so dr. munro truly says (p. ). the same marks, plain cups, cups and rings, spirals, concentric circles, horseshoes, medial lines with short slanting lines proceeding from them, like the branches on a larch, or the spine of a fish, occur on the rocks of the arunta hills, and also on plaques of stone cherished and called churinga ("sacred") by the arunta. { } here is what i call "parallelism." dr. munro denies this parallelism. there are, indeed, other parallelisms with markings other than those of the rocks at auchentorlie which dr. munro regards as the sources of the faker's inspiration. thus, on objects from dumbuck (munro, plate xv. figs, and ), there are two "signs": one is a straight line, horizontal, with three shorter lines under it at right angles, the other a line with four lines under it. these signs "are very frequent in trojan antiquities," and on almost all the "hut urns" found "below the lava at marino, near albano, or on ancient tombs near corneto." whatever they mean, (and prof. sayce finds the former of the two "signs" "as a hittite hieroglyph,") i do not know them at auchentorlie. after "a scamper among the surrounding hills," the faker may have passed an evening with dr. schliemann's _troja_ ( , pp. , ) and may have taken a hint from the passages which have just been cited. or he may have cribbed the idea of these archaic markings from don manuel de gongora y martinez, his _antiguedades pre-historicas de andalucia_ (madrid, , p. , figures , ). in these spanish examples the marks are, clearly, "schematised" or rudimentary designs of animals, in origin. our faker is a man of reading. but, _enfin_, the world is full of just such markings, which may have had one meaning here, another there, or may have been purely decorative. "race" has nothing to do with the markings. they are "universally human," though, in some cases, they may have been transmitted by one to another people. { fig. : p a.jpg} the reader must decide as to whether i have proved my parallelisms, denied by dr. munro, between the clyde, australian, and other markings, whether on rocks or on smaller stones. { a} { fig. : p b.jpg} it suffices me to have tried to prove the parallelism between australian and clyde things, and to record dr. munro's denial thereof--"i unhesitatingly maintain that there is no parallelism whatever between the two sets of objects." { b} { fig. : p c.jpg} xx--unmarked charm stones it must be kept in mind that churinga, "witch stones," "charm stones," or whatever the smaller stones may be styled, are not necessarily marked with any pattern. in australia, in portugal, in russia, in france, in north america, in scotland, as we shall see, such stones may be unmarked, may bear no inscription or pattern. { } these are plain magic stones, such as survive in english peasant superstition. in dr. munro's _ancient lake dwellings of europe_, plain stone discs, perforated, do occur, but rarely, and there are few examples of pendants with cupped marks. of these two, as being cupped pendants, might look like analogues of the disputed clyde stones, but dr. munro, owing to the subsequent exposure of the "horn age" forgeries, now has "a strong suspicion that he was taken in" by the things. { a} to return to scottish stones. in mr. graham callander's essay on perforated stones, { b} he publishes an uninscribed triangular stone, with a perforation, apparently for suspension. this is one of several such scottish stones, and though we cannot prove it, may have had a superstitious purpose. happily sir walter scott discovered and describes the magical use to which this kind of charm stone was put in . when a person was unwell, in the orkney isles, the people, like many savages, supposed that a wizard had stolen his heart. "the parties' friends resort to a cunning man or woman, who hangs about the [patient's] neck a triangular stone in the shape of a heart." { c} this is a thoroughly well-known savage superstition, the stealing of the heart, or vital spirit, and its restoration by magic. this use of triangular or heart-shaped perforated stones was not inconsistent with the civilisation of the nineteenth century, and, of course, was not inconsistent with the civilisation of the picts. a stone may have magical purpose, though it bears no markings. meanwhile most churinga, and many of the disputed objects, have archaic markings, which also occur on rock faces. xxi--quality of art on the stones dr. munro next reproduces two _wooden_ churinga (_churinga irula_), as being very unlike the clydesdale objects _in stone_ { a} (figures , ). they are: but i was speaking of australian _churinga nanja_, of _stone_. a stone churinga { b} presented, i think, by mr. spencer through me to the scottish society of antiquaries (also reproduced by dr. munro), is a much better piece of work, as i saw when it reached me, than most of the clyde things. "the clyde amulets are," says dr. munro, "neither strictly oval," (_nor are very many australian samples_,) "nor well finished, nor symmetrical, being generally water-worn fragments of shale or clay slate. . . ." they thus resemble ancient red indian pendants. as to the art of the patterns, the australians have a considerable artistic gift; as grosse remarks, { a} while either the clyde folk had less, or the modern artists had _not_ "some practical artistic skill." but dr. munro has said that any one with "some practical artistic skill" could whittle the clyde objects. { b} he also thinks that in one case they "disclose the hand of one not altogether ignorant of art" (p. ). let me put a crucial question. are the archaic markings on the disputed objects better, or worse, or much on a level with the general run of such undisputably ancient markings on large rocks, cists, and cairns in scotland? i think the art in both cases is on the same low level. when the art on the disputed objects is more formal and precise, as on some shivered stones at dunbuie, "the stiffness of the lines and figures reminds one more of rule and compass than of the free-hand work of prehistoric artists." { c} the modern faker sometimes drew his marks "free-hand," and carelessly; sometimes his regularities suggest line and compass. now, as to the use of compasses, a small pair were found with late celtic remains, at lough crew, and plaques of bone decorated by aid of such compasses, were also found, { d} in a cairn of a set adorned with the archaic markings, cup and ring, concentric circles, medial lines with shorter lines sloping from them on either side, and a design representing, apparently, an early mono-cycle! for all that i know, a dweller in dunbuie might have compasses, like the lough crew cairn artist. if i have established the parallelism between arunta churinga nanja and the disputed clyde "pendants," which dr. munro denies, we are reduced to one of two theories. either the picts of clyde, or whoever they were, repeated on stones, usually small, some of the patterns on the neighbouring rocks; or the modern faker, for unknown reasons, repeated these and other archaic patterns on smaller stones. his motive is inscrutable: the australian parallels were unknown to european science,--but he may have used european analogues. on the other hand, while dr. munro admits that the early clyde people might have repeated the rock decorations "on small objects of slate and shale," he says that the objects "would have been, even then, as much out of place as surviving remains of the earlier scottish civilisation as they are at the present day." { } how can we assert that magic stones, or any such stone objects, perforated or not, were necessarily incongruous with "the earlier scottish civilisation?" no civilisation, old or new, is incapable of possessing such stones; even scotland, as i shall show, can boast two or three samples, such as the stone of the keiss broch, a perfect circle, engraved with what looks like an attempt at a runic inscription; and another in a kind of cursive characters. xxii--survival of magic of stones if "incongruous with the earlier scottish civilisation" the use of "charm stones" is not incongruous with the british civilisation of the nineteenth century. in the _proceedings of the society of antiquaries_ (scot.) ( - , p. _et seq._) mr. graham callander, already cited, devotes a very careful essay to such perforated stones, circular or triangular, or otherwise shaped, found in the garioch. they are of slate, or "heather stone," and of various shapes and sizes. their original purpose is unknown. the perforation, or cup not perforated, is sometimes in the centre, in a few cases in "near the end." mr. graham callander heard of a recent old lady in roxburghshire, who kept one of these stones, of irregularly circular shape, behind the door for luck. { } "it was always spoken of as a charm," though its ancient maker may have intended it for some prosaic practical use. { fig. : p .jpg} i take the next example that comes to hand. "thin flat oolite stones, having a natural perforation, are found in abundance on the yorkshire coast. they are termed "witch stones," and are tied to door keys, or suspended by a string behind the cottage door, "to keep witches out." { } "a thin flat perforated witch stone," answers to an uninscribed arunta churinga; "a magic thing," and its use survives in britain, as in yorkshire and roxburghshire. we know no limit to the persistence of survival of superstitious things, such as magic stones. this is the familiar lesson of anthropology and of folk lore, and few will now deny the truth of the lesson. xxiii--modern survival of magical wood churinga i take another example of modern survival in magic. dr. munro, perhaps, would think wooden churinga, used for magical ends, "incongruous with the earlier scottish civilisation." but such objects have not proved to be incongruous with the scottish civilisation of the nineteenth century. the term _churinga_, "sacred," is used by the arunta to denote not only the stone churinga nanja, a local peculiarity of the arunta and kaitish, but also the decorated and widely diffused elongated wooden slats called "bull roarers" by the english. these are swung at the end of a string, and produce a whirring roar, supposed to be the voice of a supernormal being, all over australia and elsewhere. i am speaking of _survivals_, and these wooden churinga, at least, _survive_ in scotland, and, in aberdeenshire they are, or were lately called "thunner spells" or "thunder bolts." "it was believed that the use of this instrument during a thunderstorm saved one from being struck by the thunner bolt." in north and south america the bull roarer, on the other hand, is used, not to avert, but magically to produce thunder and lightning. { } among the kaitish thunder is caused by the churinga of their "sky dweller," atnatu. wherever the toy is used for a superstitious purpose, it is, so far, _churinga_, and, so far, modern aberdeenshire had the same _churinga irula_ as the arunta. the object was familiar to palaeolithic man. xxiv--conclusion of argument from survivals in magic i have made it perfectly certain that magic stones, "witch stones," "charm stones," and that _churinga irula_, wooden magical slats of wood, exist in australia and other savage regions, and survive, as magical, into modern british life. the point is beyond doubt, and it is beyond doubt that, in many regions, the stones, and the slats of wood, may be inscribed with archaic markings, or may be uninscribed. this will be proved more fully later. thus pictish, like modern british civilisation, may assuredly have been familiar with charm stones. there is no _a priori_ objection as to the possibility. why should pictish stones _not_ be inscribed with archaic patterns familiar to the dwellers among inscribed rocks, perhaps themselves the inscribers of the rocks? manifestly there is no _a priori_ improbability. i have seen the archaic patterns of concentric circles and fish spines, (or whatever we call the medial line with slanting side lines,) neatly designed in white on the flag stones in front of cottage doors in galloway. the cottagers dwelt near the rocks with similar patterns on the estate of monreith, but are not likely to have copied them; the patterns, i presume, were mere survivals in tradition. the picts, or whoever they were, might assuredly use charm stones, and the only objection to the idea that they might engrave archaic patterns on them is the absence of record of similarly inscribed small stones in britain. the custom of using magic stones was not at all incongruous with the early pictish civilisation, which retained a form of the family now long outworn by the civilisation of the arunta. the sole objection is that _a silentio_, silence of archaeological records as to _inscribed_ small stones. that is not a closer of discussion, nor is the silence absolute, as i shall show. moreover, the appearance of an unique and previously unheard-of set of inscribed stones, in a site of the usual broch and crannog period, is not invariably ascribed to forgery, even by the most orthodox archaeologists. thus sir francis terry found unheard-of things, not to mention "a number of thin flat circular discs of various sizes" in his caithness brochs. in wester broch "the most remarkable things found" were three egg-shaped quartzite pearls "having their surface painted with spots in a blackish or blackish-brown pigment." he also found a flattish circular disc of sandstone, inscribed with a duck or other water-fowl, while on one side was an attempt, apparently, to write runes, on the other an inscription in unknown cursive characters. there was a boulder of sandstone with nine cup marks, and there were more painted pebbles, the ornaments now resembling ordinary cup marks, now taking the shape of a cross, and now of lines and other patterns, one of which, on an arunta rock, is of unknown meaning, among many of known totemic significance. dr. joseph anderson compares these to "similar pebbles painted with a red pigment" which m. piette found in the cavern of mas d'azil, of which the relics are, in part at least, palaeolithic, or "mesolithic," and of dateless antiquity. in _l'anthropologie_ (nov. ), mr. arthur bernard cook suggests that the pebbles of mas d'azil may correspond to the stone churinga nanja of the arunta; a few of which appear to be painted, not incised. i argued, on the contrary, that things of similar appearance, at mas d'azil: in central australia: and in caithness, need not have had the same meaning and purpose. { a} it is only certain that the pebbles of the caithness brochs are as absolutely unfamiliar as the inscribed stones of dumbuck. but nobody says that the caithness painted pebbles are forgeries or modern fabrications. sauce for the clyde goose is not sauce for the caithness gander. { b} the use of painted pebbles and of inscribed stones, may have been merely _local_. in australia the stone churinga are now, since , known to be _local_, confined to the arunta "nation," and the kaitish, with very few sporadic exceptions in adjacent tribes. { c} the purely local range of the inscribed stones in central australia, makes one more anxious for further local research in the clyde district and south-west coast. xxv--my misadventure with the charm stone as dr. munro introduces the subject, i may draw another example of the survival of charm stones, from an amusing misadventure of my own. i was once entrusted with a charm stone used in the nineteenth century for the healing of cattle in the highlands. an acquaintance of mine, a mac--- by the mother's side, inherited this heirloom with the curious box patched with wicker-work, which was its ark. it was exactly of the shape of a "stone churinga of the arunta tribe," later reproduced by messrs. spencer and gillen. { } on the surfaces of the ends were faintly traced concentric rings, that well-known pattern. i wrote in the _glasgow herald_ that, "_if_ a neolithic amulet, as it appears to be, it _may_ supply the missing link in my argument," as being not only a magic stone (which it certainly was), but a magic stone with archaic markings. { a} at the british museum i presently learned the real nature of the object, to my rueful amusement. it had been the stone pivot of an old farm-gate, and, in turning on the upper and nether stones, had acquired the concentric circular marks. not understanding what the thing was, the highland maternal ancestors of my friend had for generations used it in the magical healing of cattle, a very pretty case of "survival." { figs. , : p a.jpg} writing on october th, i explained the facts in a letter to the _glasgow herald_. a pseudonymous person then averred, in the same journal, that i had "recently told its readers that i had found the missing link in the chain that was to bind together the magic stones of the arunta and the discs, images, and 'blue points' of the clyde crannog man." { fig. : p b.jpg} i never told any mortal that i had "found the missing link!" i said that "_if_" the stone be neolithic, it "_may_" be the missing link in my argument. dr. munro prints the pseudonymous letter with approval, but does not correct the inaccurate statement of the writer. { b} dr. munro, i need not say, argues with as much candour as courtesy, and the omission of the necessary correction is an oversight. { figs. , : p c.jpg} however, here was a survival of the use of charm stones, and i think that, had the stone been uninscribed (as it was accidentally inscribed with concentric circles by turning in its stone sockets), my friend's highland ancestors might have been less apt to think it a fairy thing, and use it in cattle healing. i trust that i have now established my parallelisms. the archaic patterns of countries now civilised and of savage countries are assuredly parallel. the use of charm stones in civilisation and savagery is assuredly parallel. the application to these stones of the archaic patterns, by a rude race in clydesdale, familiar with the patterns on rocks in the district, has in it nothing _a priori_ improbable. xxvi--european parallels to the disputed objects i am not so sure as dr. munro is that we have not found small perforated stones, sometimes inscribed with archaic patterns, sometimes plain, even in scotland; i shall later mention other places. for the present i leave aside the small stone, inscribed with concentric horse-shoes, and found in a hill-fort near tarbert (kintyre), which a friend already spoken of saw, and of which he drew for me a sketch from memory. in country houses any intrinsically valueless object of this kind is apt to fall out of sight and be lost beyond recovery. sir john evans, however, in his work on _ancient stone implements_, p. ( ), writes: "a pendant, consisting of a flat pear-shaped piece of shale, . inches long, and inches broad, and perforated at the narrow end, was found along with querns, stones with concentric circles, and cup- shaped indentations worked in them; stone balls, spindle whorls, and an iron axe-head, in excavating an underground chamber at the tappock, torwood, stirlingshire. one face of this pendant was covered with scratches in a vandyked pattern. though of smaller size this seems to bear some analogy with the flat amulets of schist of which several have been discovered in portugal, with one face ornamented in much the same manner." for these examples sir john evans refers to the _transactions of the ethnological society_. { a} if by "a vandyked pattern," sir john means, as i suppose, a pattern of triangles in horizontal lines (such as the portuguese patterns on stone plaques), then the elements of this form of decoration appear to have been not unfamiliar to the designers of "cups and rings." on the cover of a stone cist at carnwath we see inscribed concentric rings, and two large equilateral triangles, each containing three contingent triangles, round a square space, uninscribed. { b} the photograph of the tappock stone (figs. , ), shows that the marks are not of a regular vandyked pattern, but are rather scribbles, like those on a portuguese perforated stone, given by vasconcellos, and on a canadian stone pendant, published by mr. david boyle (figs. , ). sir john evans does not reject the pear-shaped object of shale, "a pendant," found in a scottish site, and associated with querns, and an iron axe, and cup and ring stones. sir john sees no harm in the "pendant," but dr. munro rejects a "pear-shaped" claystone "pendant" decorated with "cup-shaped indentations," found at dunbuie. { } it has a perforation near each end, as is common in north american objects of similar nature (see fig. ). why should the schist pendant of the tappock chamber be all right, if the claystone pendant of dunbuie be all wrong? one of them seems to me to have as good a claim to our respectful consideration as the other, and, like sir john evans, i shall now turn to portugal in search of similar objects of undisputed authenticity. xxvii--portuguese and other stone pendants m. cartailhac, the very eminent french archaeologist, found not in portugal, but in the cevennes, "plaques of slate, sometimes pierced with a hole for suspension, usually smaller than those of the casa da moura, not ornamented, _yet certainly analogous with these_." { a} these are also analogous with "engraved plaques of schist found in prehistoric sites of the rio negro," "some resembling, others identical with those shewn at lisbon by carlos ribeiro." but the rio negro objects appear doubtful. { b} portugal has many such plaques, some adorned with designs, and some plain. { c} the late don estacio da veiga devotes a chapter to them, as if they were things peculiar to portugal, in europe. { a} when they are decorated the ornament is usually linear; in two cases { b} lines incised lead to "cups." one plaque is certainly meant to represent the human form. m. cartailhac holds that all the plaques with a "vandyked" pattern in triangles, without faces, "are, none the less, _des representations stylisees de silhouette humaine_." { c} illustrations give an idea of them (figs. , , ); they are more elaborate than the perforated inscribed plaques of shale or schist from dumbuck. two perforated stone plaques from volosova, figured by dr. munro (pp. , ), fall into line with other inscribed plaques from portugal. of these russian objects referred to by dr. munro, one is (his fig. ) a roughly pear-shaped thing in flint, perforated at the thin end; the other is a formless stone plaque, inscribed with a cross, three circles, not concentric, and other now meaningless scratches. it is not perforated. dr. munro does not dispute the genuine character of many strange figurines in flint, from volosova, though the redoubtable m. de mortillet denounced them as forgeries; they had the misfortune to corroborate other italian finds against which m. de mortillet had a grudge. but dr. munro thinks that the two plaques of volosova may have been made for sale by knavish boys. in that case the boys fortuitously coincided, in their fake, with similar plaques, of undoubted antiquity, and, in some prehistoric egyptian stones, occasionally inscribed with mere wayward scratches. for these reasons i think the volosova plaques as genuine as any other objects from that site, and corroborative, so far, of similar things from clyde. { figs. , : p .jpg} to return to portugal, m. cartailhac recognises that the _plain_ plaques of slate from sites in the cevennes "are certainly analogous" with the plaques from the casa da moura, even when these are elaborately ornamented with vandyked and other patterns. i find one published case of a portuguese plaque with cups and ducts, as at dumbuck (fig. ). another example is in _antiguedades prehistoricas de andalucia_, p. . { } however, dr. munro leaves the cevennes andalusian, and portuguese plaques out of his argument. m. cartailhac, then, found inscribed and perforated slate tablets "very common in portugues neolithic sepulchres." the perforated holes showed signs of long wear from attachment to something or somebody. one, from new jersey, with two holes, exactly as in the dunbuie example, was much akin in ornament to the portuguese plaques. one, of slate, was plain, as plain as "a bit of gas coal with a round hole bored through it," recorded by dr. munro from ashgrove loch crannog. a perforated shale, or slate, or schist or gas coal plaque, as at ashgrove loch, ornamented or plain, is certainly like another shale schist or slate plaque, plain or inscribed. we have shown that these occur in france, portugal, russia, america, and scotland, not to speak of central australia. my suggestion is that, if the clyde objects are forged, the forger knew a good deal of archaeology--knew that perforated inscribed plaques of soft mineral occurred in many countries--but he did not slavishly imitate the patterns. by a pleasant coincidence, at the moment of writing, comes to me the _annual archaeological report_, , of the canadian bureau of education, kindly sent by mr. david boyle. he remarks, as to stone pendants found in canadian soil, "the forms of what we call pendants varied greatly, and were probably made to adapt themselves to _the natural shapes of water-worn stones_. . . ." this is exactly what dr. munro says about the small stone objects from the three clyde stations. "the pendants, amulets, and idols _appear to have been water-worn pieces of shale or slate_, before they were perforated, decorated, and polished" (munro, p. ). the forger may have been guided by the ancient canadian pendants; that man knows everything! mr. boyle goes on, speaking of the superstitious still surviving instinct of treasuring such stones, "for some unknown reason, many of us exhibit a desire to pick up pebbles so marked, and examples of the kind are often carried as pocket pieces," obviously "for luck." he gives one case of such a stone being worn for fifty years as a "watch pendant." perforated stones have always had a "fetishness" attached to them, adds mr. boyle. he then publishes several figures of such stones. two of these, with archaic markings like many in portugal, and one with an undisputed analogue from a scottish site, are reproduced (figs. , ). it is vain to tell us that the uses of such fetishistic stones are out of harmony with any civilisation. the civilisation of the dwellers in the clyde sites was not so highly advanced as to reject a superstition which still survives. nor is there any reason why these people should not have scratched archaic markings on the pebbles as they certainly cut them on stones in a scottish crannog of the iron age. dr. munro agrees with me that rude scribings on shale or slate are found, of a post-christian date, at st. blane's, in bute. { } the art, if art it can be called, is totally different, of course, from the archaic types of decoration, but all the things have _this_ in common, that they are rudely incised on shale or slate. xxviii--question as to the objects as ornaments of the person dr. munro now objects that among the objects reckoned by me as analogous to churinga is a perforated stone with an incised line, and smaller slanting side lines, said to have been found at dumbuck; " inches long, . inches broad, and . an inch thick." { } i wish that he gave us the weight. he says, "that no human being would wear this as an ornament." no human being wears any churinga "as an ornament!" nobody says that they do. messrs. spencer and gillen, moreover, speak of "a long stone churinga," and of "especially large ones" made by the mythical first ancestors of the race. churinga, over a foot in length, they tell us, are not usually perforated; many churinga are not perforated, many are: _but the arunta do not know why some are perforated_. there is a legend that, of old, men hung up the perforated churinga on the sacred _nurtunja_ pole: and so they still have _perforated_ stone churinga, not usually more than a foot in length. { } if dr. munro has studied messrs. spencer and gillen, he cannot but know that churinga are not ornaments, are not all oval, but of many shapes and sizes, and that churinga larger than the inch perforated stone from dumbuck are perforated, and attached to strings. i cannot tell the reason why, any better than the arunta can; and, of course, i cannot know why the inch stone from dumbuck (if genuine) was perforated. but what i must admire is the amazing luck or learning of dr. munro's supposed impostor. not being "a semi-detached idiot" he must have known that no mortal would sling about his person, as an ornament, a chunk of stone inches long, . broad, and . an inch thick. dr. munro himself insists on the absurdity of supposing that "any human being" would do such a thing. yet the forger drilled a neat hole, as if for a string for suspension, at the apex of the chunk. if he knew, before any other human being in england, that the arunta do this very thing to some stone churinga, though seldom to churinga over a foot in length,--and if he imitated the arunta custom, the impostor was a very learned impostor. if he did _not_ know, he was a very lucky rogue, for the arunta coincide in doing the same thing to great stone churinga: without being aware of any motive for the performance as they never suspend churinga to anything, though they say that their mythical ancestors did. the impostor was also well aware of the many perforated stones that exist in scotland, not referred to by dr. munro. he perforated some which could not be worn as ornaments, just as the arunta do. we shall find that the forger, either by dint of wide erudition, or by a startling set of chance coincidences, keeps on producing objects which are analogous to genuine relics found in many sites of early life. this is what makes the forger so interesting. my theory of the forger is at the opposite pole from the theory of dr. munro. he says that, "in applying these local designs" (the worldwide archaic patterns,) to unworked splinters of sandstone and pieces of water- worn shale and slate, "the manufacturers had evidently not sufficient archaeological knowledge to realise the significance of the fact that they were doing what prehistoric man, in this country, is never known to have done before." { } but, (dismissing the kintyre and tappock stones,) the "manufacturers" did know, apparently, that perforated and inscribed, or uninscribed tablets and plaques of shale and schist and slate and gas coal were found in america, france, russia, and portugal, and imitated these things or coincided in the process by sheer luck. the "manufacturers" were, perhaps, better informed than many of their critics. but, if the things are genuine, more may be found by research in the locality. xxix--weapons dr. munro is less than kind to the forger in the matter of the "weapons" found at dunbuie and dumbuck. they are "absolutely worthless as real weapons," he says, with perfect truth, for they are made of slate or shale, _not_ of hard stony slate, which many races used to employ for lack of better material. { a} { fig. : p a.jpg} the forger was obviously not thinking of dumping down _serviceable_ sham weapons. he could easily have bought as many genuine flint celts and arrow-heads and knives as he needed, had his aim been to prove his sites to be neolithic. so i argued long ago, in a newspaper letter. dr. munro replies among other things, that "nothing could be easier than to detect modern imitations of neolithic relics." { b} i said not a word about "modern imitations." i said that a forger, anxious to fake a neolithic site, "would, of course, drop in a few neolithic arrow-heads, 'celts' and so forth," meaning genuine objects, very easily to be procured for money. { figs. , : p b.jpg} as the forger did not adopt a device so easy, so obvious, and so difficult of detection, (if he purchased scottish flint implements) his aim was not to fake a neolithic site. he put in, not well-known genuine neolithic things, but things of a character with which some of his critics were not familiar, yet which have analogues elsewhere. why did he do that? as to the blunt decorated slate weapons, the forger did not mean, i think, to pass off these as practicable arms of the neolithic period. these he could easily have bought from the dealers. what he intended to dump down were not practical weapons, but, in one case at least, _armes d'apparat_, as french archaeologists call them, weapons of show or ceremony. the strange "vandyked" crozier-like stone objects of schist or shale from portugal were possibly _armes d'apparat_, or heads of staves of dignity. there is a sample in the american room at the british museum, uninscribed. i submit that the three very curious and artistic stone axe- heads, figured by m. cartailhac, { } representing, one an uncouth animal; another, a hooded human head, the third an extremely pretty girl, could never have been used for practical purposes, but were _armes d'apparat_. perhaps such stone _armes d'apparat_, or magical or sacred arms, were not unknown, as survivals, in scotland in the iron age. a "celt" or stone axe-head of this kind, ornamented with a pattern of inter- crossing lines, is figured and described by the rev. mr. mackenzie (kenmore) in the _proceedings_ of the scottish society of antiquaries ( - , p. _et seq._). this axe-head, found near a cairn at balnahannait, is of five inches long by two and a quarter broad. it is of "soft micaceous stone." the owners must have been acquainted with the use of the metals, mr. mackenzie thinks, for the stone exhibits "interlaced work of a late variety of this ornamentation." mr. mackenzie suggests that the ornament was perhaps added "after the axe had obtained some kind of venerated or symbolical character." this implies that a metal-working people, finding a stone axe, were puzzled by it, venerated it, and decorated it in their late style of ornament. in that case, who, in earlier times, made an useless axe-head of soft micaceous stone, and why? it could be of no practical service. on the other hand, people who had the metals might fashion a soft stone into an _arme d'apparat_. "it cannot have been intended for ordinary use," "the axe may have been a sacred or ceremonial one," says mr. mackenzie, and he makes the same conjecture as to another scottish stone axe-head. { } here, then, if mr. mackenzie be right, we have a soft stone axe-head, decorated with "later ornament," the property of a people who knew the metals, and regarded the object as "a sacred or ceremonial one," _enfin_, as an _arme d'apparat_. dr. munro doubtless knows all that is known about _armes d'apparat_, but he unkindly forgets to credit the forger with the same amount of easily accessible information, when the forger dumps down a decorated slate spear-head, eleven inches long. believe me, this forger was no fool: he knew what he was about, and he must have laughed when critics said that his slate spear-heads would be useless. he expected the learned to guess what he was forging; not practicable weapons, but _armes d'apparat_; survivals of a ceremonial kind, like mr. mackenzie's decorated axe-head of soft stone. _that_, i think, was our forger's little game; for even if he thought no more than dr. munro seems to do of the theory of "survivals," he knew that the theory is fashionable. "nothing like these spear-heads . . . has hitherto been found in scotland, so that they cannot be survivals from a previous state of things in our country," says dr. munro. { a} the argument implies that there is nothing in the soil of our country of a nature still undiscovered. this is a large assumption, especially if mr. mackenzie be right about the sacred ceremonial decorated axe-head of soft stone. the forger, however, knew that elsewhere, if not in scotland, there exist useless _armes d'apparat_, and he obviously meant to fake a few samples. he was misunderstood. i knew what he was doing, for it seems that "mr. lang . . . suggested that the spear-heads were not meant to be used as weapons, but as 'sacred things.'" { b} i knew little; but i did know the sacred boomerang-shaped decorated arunta churinga, and later looked up other _armes d'apparat_. { c} apparently i must have "coached" the forger, and told him what kinds of things to fake. but i protest solemnly that i am innocent! he got up the subject for himself, and knew more than many of his critics. i had no more to do with the forger than m. salomon reinach had to do with faking the golden "tiara of saitaphernes," bought by the louvre for pounds. m. reinack denies the suave suggestion that _he_ was at the bottom of this imposture. { a} i also am innocent of instructing the clyde forger. he read books, english, french, german, american, italian, portuguese, and spanish. from the _bulletino di palaetnologia italiana_, vol. xi. p. , , plate iv., and from professor pigorini's article there, he prigged the idea of a huge stone weapon, of no use, found in a grotto near verona. { b} this object is of flint, shaped like a flint arrow-head; is ten inches and a half in length, and "weighs over . pounds." "pigorini conjectured that it had some religious signification." inspired by this arrow-head of gargantua, the clyde forger came in with a still longer decorated slate spear-head, weighing i know not how much. it is here photographed (figs. , ). compare the decoration of three parallel horizontal lines with that on the broken portuguese perforated stone (figs. , ). or did the veronese forger come to clyde, and carry on the business at dumbuck? the man has read widely. sometimes, however, he may have resorted to sources which, though excellent, are accessible and cheap, like mr. haddon's _evolution in art_. here (pp. , ) the faker could learn all that he needed to know about _armes d'apparat_ in the form of stone axe-heads, "unwieldy and probably quite useless objects" found by mr. haddon in the chain of isles south-east of new guinea. mr. romilly and dr. wyatt gill attest the existence of similar axes of ceremony. "they are not intended for cleaving timber." we see "the metamorphosis of a practical object into an unpractical one." { } the forger thus had sources for his great decorated slate spear-head; the smaller specimens may be sketches for that colossal work. xxx--the figurines dr. munro writes of "the carved figurines, 'idols,' or 'totems,' six in number," four from dumbuck, one from langbank. { a} now, first, nobody knows the purpose of the rude figurines found in many sites from japan to troy, from russia to the lake dwellings of europe, and in west africa, where the negroes use these figurines, when found, as "fetish," knowing nothing of their origin (_man_, no. , july, ). like a figurine of a woman, found in the dumbuck kitchen midden, they are discovered in old japanese kitchen middens. { b} the astute forger, knowing that figurines were found in japanese kitchen middens, knowing it before y. koganei published the fact in , thought the dumbuck kitchen midden an appropriate place for a figurine. dr. munro, possibly less well-informed, regards the bottom of a kitchen midden at dumbuck as "a strange resting place for a goddess." { a} now, as to "goddess" nobody knows anything. dr. schliemann thought that the many figurines of clay, in troy, were meant for hera and athene. nobody knows, but every one not wholly ignorant sees the absurdity of speaking of figurines as "totems"; of course the term is not dr. munro's. { fig. : p a.jpg} we know not their original meaning, but they occur "all over the place"; in amber on the baltic coast, with grotesque faces carved in amber. in russia and finland, and in sites of prehistoric egypt, on slate, and in other materials such grotesques are common. { b} egypt is a great centre of the early slate school of art, the things ranging from slate plaques covered with disorderly scratchings "without a conscience or an aim," to highly decorated _palettes_. there is even a perforated object like the slate crooks of m. cartailhac, from portugal, but rather more like the silhouette of a bird, { a} and there are decorative mace-heads in soft stone. { b} some of the prehistoric figurines of human beings from egypt are studded with "cups," _cupules_, _ecuelles_, or whatever we may be permitted to name them. in short, early and rude races turn out much the same set of crude works of art almost everywhere, and the extraordinary thing is, not that a few are found in a corner of britain, but that scarce any have been found. { figs. , : p b.jpg} as to the russo-finnish flint figurines, mr. abercromby thinks that these objects may "have served as household gods or personal amulets," and dr. munro regards mr. abercromby's as "the most rational explanation of their meaning and purpose." he speaks of figurines of clay (the most usual material) in carniola, bosnia, and transylvania. "idols and amulets were indeed universally used in prehistoric times." { c} "objects which come under the same category" occur "in various parts of america." mr. bruce { d} refers to m. reinach's vast collection of designs of such figurines in _l'anthropologie_, vol. v., . thus rude figurines in sites of many stages are very familiar objects. the forger knew it, and dumped down a few at dumbuck. his female figurine (photographed in fig. ), seems to me a very "plausible" figurine in itself. it does not appear to me "unlike anything in any collection in the british isles, or elsewhere"--i mean _elsewhere_. dr. munro admits that it discloses "the hand of one not altogether ignorant of art." { } i add that it discloses the hand of one not at all ignorant of genuine prehistoric figurines representing women. but i know nothing analogous from _british_ sites. either such things do not exist (of which we cannot be certain), or they have escaped discovery and record. elsewhere they are, confessedly, well known to science, and therefore to the learned forger who, nobody can guess why, dumped them down with the other fraudulent results of his researches. if the figurines be genuine, i suppose that the clyde folk made them for the same reasons as the other peoples who did so, whatever those reasons may have been: or, like the west africans, found them, relics of a forgotten age, and treasured them. if their reasons were religious or superstitious, how am i to know what were the theological tenets of the clyde residents? they may have been more or less got at by christianity, in saint ninian's time, but the influence might well be slight. on the other hand, neither men nor angels can explain why the forger faked his figurines, for which he certainly had a model--at least as regards the female figure--in a widely distributed archaic feminine type of "dolly." the forger knew a good deal! dr. munro writes: "that the disputed objects are amusing playthings--the sportive productions of idle wags who inhabited the various sites--seems to be the most recent opinion which finds acceptance among local antiquaries. but this view involves the contemporaneity of occupancy of the respective sites, of which there is no evidence. . . ." { a} there is no evidence for "contemporaneity of occupancy" if dunbuie be of - a.d., and dumbuck and langbank of - . { b} but we, and apparently dr. munro (p. ) have rejected the "corporation cairn" theory, the theory of the cairn erected in , or , and lasting till . the genuine undisputed relics, according to dr. munro, are such as "are commonly found on crannogs, brochs, and other early inhabited sites of scotland." { a} the sites are all, and the genuine relics in the sites are all "of some time between the fifth and twelfth centuries." { b} the sites are all close to each other, the remains are all of the same period, (unless the late celtic comb chance to be earlier,) yet dr. munro says that "for contemporaneity of occupancy there is no evidence." { c} he none the less repeats the assertion that they are of "precisely the same chronological horizon." "the chronological horizon" (of langbank and dumbuck) "_seems to me to be precisely the same_, _viz._ a date well on in the early iron age, posterior to the roman occupation of that part of britain" (p. ). thus dr. munro assigns to both sites "precisely the same chronological horizon," and also says that "there is no evidence" for the "contemporaneity of occupancy." this is not, as it may appear, an example of lack of logical consistency. "the range of the occupancy" (of the sites) "is uncertain, probably it was different in each case," writes dr. munro. { d} no reason is given for this opinion, and as all the undisputed remains are confessedly of one stage of culture, the "wags" at all three sites were probably in the same stage of rudimentary humour and skill. if they made the things, the things are not modern forgeries. but the absence of the disputed objects from other sites of the same period remains as great a difficulty as ever. early "wags" may have made them--but why are they only known in the three clyde sites? also, why are the painted pebbles only known in a few brochs of caithness? have the _graffiti_ on slate at st. blane's, in bute, been found--i mean have _graffiti_ on slate like those of st. blane's, been found elsewhere in scotland? { } the kinds of art, writing, and celtic ornament, at st. blane's, are all familiar, but not their presence on scraps of slate. some of the "art" of the dumbuck things is also familiar, but not, in scotland, on pieces of slate and shale. whether they were done by early wags, or by a modern and rather erudite forger, i know not, of course; i only think that the question is open; is not settled by dr. munro. xxxi--grotesque heads. disputed portuguese parallels figurines are common enough things in ancient sites; by no means so common are the grotesque heads found at dumbuck and langbank. they have recently been found in portugal. did the forger know that? did he forge them on portuguese models? or was it chance coincidence? or was it undesigned parallelism? there is such a case according to mortillet. m. de mortillet flew upon poor prof. pigorini's odd things, denouncing them as forgeries; he had attacked dr. schliemann's finds in his violent way, and never apologised, to my knowledge. then a lively squabble began. italian "archaeologists of the highest standing" backed prof. pigorini: mortillet had not seen the italian things, but he stood to his guns. things found near cracow were taken as corroborating the breonio finds, also things from volosova, in russia. mortillet replied by asking "why under similar conditions could not forgers" (very remote in space,) "equally fabricate objects of the same form." { } is it likely? why should they forge similar unheard-of things in russia, poland, and italy? did the same man wander about forging, or was telepathy at work, or do forging wits jump? the breonio controversy is undecided; "practised persons" can _not_ "read the antiquities as easily as print," to quote mr. read. they often read them in different ways, here as fakes, there as authentic. m. boulle, reviewing dr. munro in _l'anthropologie_ (august, ), says that m. cartailhac recognises the genuineness of some of the strange objects from breonio. but, as to our dumbuck things, the clyde forger went to portugal and forged there; or the clyde forger came from portugal; or forging wits coincided fairly well, in portugal and in scotland, as earlier, at volosova and breonio. in _portugalia_, a portuguese archaeological magazine, edited by don ricardo severe, appeared an article by the rev. father jose brenha on the dolmens of pouco d'aguiar. father raphael rodrigues, of that place, asked father brenha to excavate with him in the christmas holidays of . they published some of their discoveries in magazines, and some of the finds were welcomed by dr. leite de vasconcellos, in his _religioes da lusitania_ (vol. i. p. ). they dug in the remote and not very cultured transmontane province, and, in one dolmen found objects "the most extraordinary possible," says father brenha. { } there were perforated plaques with alphabetic inscriptions; stones engraved with beasts of certain or of dubious species, very fearfully and wonderfully drawn; there were stone figurines of females, as at dumbuck; there were stones with cups and lines connecting the cups, (common in many places) and, as at dumbuck, there were grotesque heads in stone. (see a few examples, figs. - ). figures , , are cupped, or cup and duct stones; is a female figurine; is a heart-shaped charm stone. { fig. : p .jpg} on all this weighty mass of stone objects, dr. munro writes thus: "since the ms. of this volume was placed in the hands of the publishers a new side-issue regarding some strange objects, said to have been found in portuguese dolmens, has been imported into the clyde controversy, in which mr. astley has taken a prominent part. in a communication to the _antiquary_, april, , he writes: 'i will merely say here, on this point, that my arguments are brought to a scientific conclusion in my paper, 'portuguese parallels to clydeside discoveries,' reported in your issue for march, which will shortly be published. "i have seen the article in _portugalia_ and the published 'scientific conclusion' of mr. astley (_journal of b.a.a._, april and august, ), and can only say that, even had i space to discuss the matter i would not do so for two reasons. first, because i see no parallelism whatever between the contrasted objects from the portuguese dolmens and the clyde ancient sites, beyond the fact that they are both 'queer things.' and, secondly, because some of the most eminent european scholars regard the objects described and illustrated in _portugalia_ as forgeries. the learned director of the musee de st. germain, m. saloman reinach, thus writes about them: 'jusqu'a nouvel ordre, c'est- a-dire jusqu'a preuve formelle du contraire je considere ces pierres sculptees et gravees comme le produit d'une mystification. j'aimerais connaitre, a ce sujet, l'opinion des autres savants du portugal' (_revue archeologique_, th s., vol. ii., , p. )." i had brought the portuguese things to the notice of english readers long before mr. astley did so, but that is not to the purpose. the point is that dr. munro denies the parallelism between the clyde and portuguese objects. yet i must hold that stone figurines of women, grotesque heads in stone, cupped stones, stones with cup and duct, stones with rays proceeding from a central point, and perforated stones with linear ornamentation, are rather "parallel," in portugal and in clydesdale. so far the scottish and the portuguese fakers have hit on parallel lines of fraud. meanwhile i know of no archaeologists except portuguese archaeologists, who have seen the objects from the dolmen, and of no portuguese archaeologist who disputes their authenticity. so there the matter rests. { } the parallelism appears to me to be noticeable. i do not say that the styles of art are akin, but that the artists, by a common impulse, have produced cupped stones, perforated and inscribed stones, figurines in stone, and grotesque heads in stone. is not this common impulse rather curious? and is suspicion of forgery to fall, in portugal, on respectable priests, or on the very uncultured wags of traz os montes? mortillet, educated by priests, hated and suspected all of them. m. cartailhac suspected "clericals," as to the spanish cave paintings, but acknowledged his error. i can guess no motive for the ponderous bulk of portuguese forgeries, and am a little suspicious of the tendency to shout "forgery" in the face of everything unfamiliar. but the portuguese things are suspected by m. cartailhac, (who, however, again admits that he has been credulously incredulous before,) as well as by m. reinach. the things ought to be inspected in themselves. i still think that they are on parallel lines with the work of the clyde forger, who may have read about them in _a vida moderna_ , , in _archeologo portugues_, in _encyclopedia dar familiar_, in various numbers, and in _religioes da lusitania_, vol. i. pp. , , ( ), a work by the learned director of the ethnological museum of portugal. to these sources the dumbuck forger may have gone for inspiration. stated without this elegant irony, my opinion is that the parallelism of the figurines and grotesque stone faces of villa d'aguiar and of clyde rather tends to suggest the genuineness of both sets of objects. but this opinion, like my opinion about the australian and other parallelisms, is no argument against dr. munro, for he acknowledges none of these parallelisms. that point,--a crucial point,--are the various sets of things analogous in character or not? must be decided for each reader by himself, according to his knowledge, taste, fancy, and bias. xxxii--disputed objects from dunbuie the faker occasionally changes his style. we have seen what slovenly designs in the archaic cup and ring and incomplete circle style he dumped down at dumbuck. i quote dr. munro on his doings at dunbuie, where the faker occasionally drops a pear-shaped slate perforated stone, with a design in cupules. dr. munro writes: "the most meaningless group--if a degree of comparison be admissible in regard to a part when the whole is absolutely incomprehensible on archaeological principles--consists of a series of unprepared and irregularly shaped pieces of laminated sandstone (plate xvi.) similar to some of the stones of which the fort of dunbuie was built, { } having one of their surfaces decorated with small cup-marks, sometimes symmetrically arranged so far as to indicate parts of geometrical figures, and at other times variously combined with lines and circles. two fragments of bones, also from dunbuie, are similarly adorned (plate xvi. nos. , ). eleven of the twelve sandstone fragments which make up the group were fractured in such a manner as to suggest that the line of fracture had intersected the original ornamentation, and had thus detached a portion of it. if this be so, there must have been originally at least two or three other portions which, if found, would fit along the margin of each of the extant portions, just as the fragments of a broken urn come together. yet among these decorated stones not one single bit fits another, nor is any of the designs the counterpart of another. if we suppose that these decorated stones are portions of larger tablets on which the designs were completed, then either they were broken before being introduced into the debris of the fort, or the designs were intentionally executed in an incomplete state, just as they are now to be seen on the existing natural splinters of stone. the supposition that the occupiers of the fort possessed the original tablets, and that they had been smashed on the premises, is excluded by the significant fact that only one fragment of each tablet has been discovered. for, in the breaking up of such tablets, it would be inconceivable, according to the law of chances, that one portion, and only one, of each different specimen would remain while all the others had disappeared. on the other hand, the hypothesis that the occupiers of the fort carved these designs on the rough and unprepared splinters of stone in the precise manner they now come before us, seems to me to involve premeditated deception, for it is difficult to believe that such uncompleted designs could have any other finality of purpose. looking at these geometrical figures from the point of technique, they do not make a favourable impression in support of their genuineness. the so-called cup-marks consist of punctures of two or three different sizes, so many corresponding to one size and so many to another. the stiffness of the lines and circles reminds one more of ruler and compass than of the freehand work of prehistoric artists. the patterns are unprecedented for their strange combinations of art elements. for example, no. , plate xvi., looks as if it were a design for some modern machinery. the main ornament on another fragment of sandstone (no. ), consisting of a cross and circle composed of a series of cup-marls, seems to be a completed design; but yet at the corner there are lines which are absolutely meaningless, unless we suppose that they formed part of a more enlarged tablet. similar remarks apply to nos. and ." is it really contrary to "the law of chances" that, in some years of unknown fortunes, no two fragments of the same plates of red sandstone (some dozen in number) should be found at dunbuie? think of all that may have occurred towards the scattering of fragments of unregarded sandstone before the rise of soil hid them all from sight. where is the smaller portion of the shattered cup and ring marked sandstone block found in the lochlee crannog? on the other hand, in the same crannog, a hammerstone broken in two was found, each half in a different place, as were two parts of a figurine at dumbuck. where are the arms of the venus of milo, vainly sought beside and around the rest of the statue? where are the lost noses, arms, and legs of thousands of statues? nobody can guess where they are or how they vanished. or where are the lost fragments of countless objects in pottery found in old sites? it was as easy for the forger to work over a whole plaque of sandstone, break it, and bury the pieces, as for him to do what he has done. these designs make an unfavourable impression because some, not all of them, are stiff and regular. the others make an unfavourable impression because they are so laxly executed. for what conceivable purpose did the forger here resort to the aid of compasses, and elsewhere do nothing of the kind? why should the artist, if an old resident of dunbuie fort, not have compasses, like the cairn-wight of lough crew? on inspecting the pieces, in the museum, the regularity of design seems to me to be much exaggerated in dr. munro's figures, by whom drawn we are not informed. as to dr. munro's figure , it seems to me to aim at a celtic cross and circle, while part of his figure suggests a crozier, and there is a cross on figure , as on a painted pebble from a broch in caithness. the rest i cannot profess to explain; they look like idle work on sandstone, but may have had a meaning to their fashioner. his meaning, and that of the forger who here changes his style, are equally inscrutable. i return to a strange perforated pebble, an intaglio from dumbuck. { fig. : p a.jpg} dr. munro quotes, as to this pebble, the _journal_ of the british archaeological association: "in the september number of the _journal_ (p. ) we are informed that a slaty spear-head, an arrow-head of bone, and a sinker stone were found in the debris inside the canoe. 'in the cavity of a large bone,' says the writer, 'was also got an ornament of a peculiar stone. the digger unearthed it from the deposit at the bottom of the canoe, about feet from the bow and near to a circular hole cut in the bottom about . inches in diameter.' what a funny place to hide a precious ornament, for i take this peculiar stone to be that with the human hand incised on one side and three men rowing in a boat on the other! (see plate xv. no. )." { fig. : p b.jpg} here the place of discovery in the canoe is given with precision, and its place within the cavity of the bone is pronounced by dr. munro to be "funny." as to the three men in a boat, the rev. geo. wilson of glenluce, on feb. , , presented to the scots antiquaries a bugle- shaped pendant of black shale or cannel-coal . inches long, with a central groove for suspension. on one side of the pendant was incised a sketch of two figures standing up in a boat or canoe with a high prow. the pendant is undisputed, the pebble is disputed, and we know nothing more about the matter (see fig. ). { fig. : p c.jpg} xxxiii--disputable and certainly forged objects in his judicious remarks to the society of antiquaries, (_proceedings_, xxxiv.,) dr. joseph anderson observed that opinions would probably vary as to certain among the disputed objects. among these are the inscribed oyster shells. i see nothing _a priori_ improbable in the circumstance that men who incised certain patterns on schist or shale, should do so on oyster shells. palaeolithic man did his usual sporting sketches on shells, and there was a vast and varied art of designing on shells among the pre-columbian natives of north america. { } we here see the most primitive scratches developing into full-blown aztec art. if the markings were only on such inscribed shells as mouldered away--so mr. bruce tells us--when exposed to light and air, (i do not know whether the designs were copied before the shells crumbled,) these conchological drawings would not trouble us. no modern could make the designs on shells that were hurrying into dust. we have mr. bruce's word for these mouldering shells, and we have the absolute certainty that such decomposing shells could not be incised by a hand of to-day, as shale, slate, schist, and sandstone can now be engraved upon, fraudulently. but when, as professor boyd dawkins writes, the finds include "two fresh shells . . . unmistakable blue points," drilled with perforations, or inscribed, from dunbuie, then there are only two possible alternatives. . they were made by the faker, or . they were "interpolated" into the dunbuie site by somebody. the forger himself is, i think, far too knowing a man to fake inscriptions on fresh shells, even if, not being a conchologist, he did not know that the oysters were american blue points. i have written in vain if the reader, while believing in the hypothesis of a forger, thinks him such an egregious ass. for blue points as non- existent save in america, rely on prof. boyd dawkins. as the public were allowed to break off and steal the prow of the dumbuck canoe, it is plain that no guard was placed on the sites. they lay open for months to the interpolations of wags, and i think, for my own part, that one of them is likely to have introduced the famous blue points. dr. munro tells us how a "large-worked stone," a grotesque head, was foisted through a horizontal hole, into the relic bed of his kitchen midden at elie. "it lay under four inches of undisturbed black earth." but it had been "interpolated" there by some "lousy tykes of fife," as the anti-covenanting song calls them. { } it was rather easier to interpolate blue point oyster shells at dunbuie. on the other hand, two splinters of stone, inserted into a bone and a tyne of deer's horn, figured by dr. munro among dumbuck and dunbuie finds, seem to me rather too stupid fakes for the regular forger, and a trifle too clever for the sunday holiday-maker. these two things i do not apologise for, or defend; my knowledge of primitive implements is that of a literary man, but for what it is worth, it does not incline me to regard these things as primitive implements. xxxiv--conclusion _explicit_! i have tried to show cause why we should not bluntly dismiss the mass of disputed objects as forgeries, but should rest in a balance of judgment, file the objects for reference, and await the results of future excavations. if there be a faker, i hope he appreciates my sympathetic estimate of his knowledge, assiduity, and skill in _leger de main_. i am the forger's only friend, and i ask him to come forward and make a clean breast of it, like the young men who hoaxed the society for psychical research with a faked wraith, or phantasm of the living. "let it fully now suffice, the gambol has been shown!" it seems to me nearly equally improbable that a forger has been at work on a large scale, and that sets of objects, unexampled in our isle, have really turned up in some numbers. but then the caithness painted pebbles were equally without precedent, yet are undisputed. the proverbial fence seems, in these circumstances, to be the appropriate perch for science, in fact a statue of the muse of science might represent her as sitting, in contemplation, on the fence. the strong, the very strong point against authenticity is this: _numbers_ of the disputed objects were found in sites of the early _iron age_. now such objects, save for a few samples, are only known,--and that in non-british lands,--in _neolithic_ sites. the theory of survival may be thought not to cover the _number_ of the disputed objects. glasgow: printed at the university press by robert maclehose and co. ltd. footnotes { } _archaeology and false antiquities_, pp. - . by robert munro, m.a., m.d., ll.d., f.r.s.e., f.s.a.scot. methuen & co., london, . { a} munro, p. xii. { b} munro, pp. - . cf. _l'homme prehistorique_, no. , pp. - . ( .) { } methuen, london, , pp. . { } munro, p. . { a} munro, p. ; cf. his _lake dwellings in europe_, fig. , nos. , , . see _arch. and false antiquities_, pp. , , where dr. munro acknowledges that he had been taken in. { b} munro, pp. , . { c} munro, pp. - . { } _l'anthropologie_, , pp. - . { } munro, pp. - . { a} munro, p. . { b} munro, pp. , . { } munro, p. . { a} munro, p. . letter of january , . { b} munro, p. . { a} munro, p. . { b} munro, p. . { } bruce, _proceedings of the scots society of antiquaries_, vol. xxxiv. pp. , , . { } _archaeologia scotica_, vol. v. p. . { } see pages , . { } march , "cup and ring"; cf. the same article in my _magic and religion_, , pp. - . { a} munro, , , - . { b} munro, pp. , . { } see _proceedings of the philosophical society of glasgow_, xxx. , and fig. . { } _journal of the british archaeological society_, december . { a} _prehistoric scotland_, p. . { b} see _proceedings of the philosophical society of glasgow_, xxx. fig. . { } vol. xxx. . { } vol. xxxiv. p. . { } mr. alston describes this causeway, and shows it on the plan as "leading from the 'central well' to the burn about fee to west of centre of crannog." { } _proceedings soc. ant. scot._ - , p. . { } _proc. scot. soc. ant._ - , p. . { a} _proceedings s.a.s._ vol. xxxiv. pp. - . { b} munro, p. . { } munro, p. . mr. bruce in _trans. glasgow archaeol. society_, vol. v. n.s. part . p. . { a} _l'anthropologie_, xiv. pp. - . { b} munro, p. . { c} munro, , . { } munro, p. . { a} munro, pp. - . { b} munro, p. . { c} _transactions_, _ut supra_, p. . { } _proc. soc. ant._ - , pp. - . { } pp. , , - , and elsewhere. { } munro, pp. , , . { } munro, p. . { a} munro, p. . { b} these phrases are from munro, _arch. and false antiquities_, pp. - . { a} munro, p. . { b} munro, _prehistoric scotland_, p. . { } munro, p. . { a} see page of dr. munro's article on raised beaches, _proc. roy. soc. edinburgh_, vol. xxv. part . the reference is to two clyde canoes built of planks fastened to ribs, suggesting that the builder had seen a foreign galley, and imitated it. { b} munro, pp. , . { a} _proceedings scot. soc. ant._ vol. xxxiv. p. . { b} munro, p. . { a} _proc. soc. ant. scot._ - , p. . { b} munro, p. . { c} these structures, of course, were of dry stone, without lime and mortar. by what name we call them, "towers," or "cairns," is indifferent to me. { } beda, book , chap. i. { } _proceedings soc. scot. ant._ - , vol. xxxiv. pp. - . { } see prof. zimmer's _das mutterrecht der pickten_, rhys's _celtic britain_, _rhind lectures_, and in _royal commission's report on wales_, with my _history of scotland_, vol. i. pp. , . { a} _bureau of ethnology's report_, - , p. . see also the essay on "indian pictographs," _report of bureau_, for - . { b} mss. of mr. mullen, of bourke, n.s.w., and of mr. charles lang. { c} scott, london, . { d} _op. cit._ p. . { e} _op. cit._ p. . { } munro, p. . { } longmans. { } munro, p. . { } cartailhac, _ages prehistoriques_, p. . { a} _l'anthropologie_, vol. xiv. p. . { b} _proc. s.a.s._, - . { c} _op. cit._ pp. , . { } bruce, _ut supra_, p. . { } _bureau of ethnology_, _report of_ - , p. . { } munro, plate xv. p. , p. , cf. fig. , p. . { } spencer and gillen, _native tribes of central australia_, figs. , , , ; _northern tribes of central australia_, figs. , , , . { a} i have no concern with an object, never seen by dr. munro, or by me, to my knowledge, but described as a "churinga"; in _journal of british archaeological association_, sept. , fig. , munro, p. . { b} munro, p. . { } see spencer and gillen, _central tribes_, fig. , ; _northern tribes_, fig. . { a} munro, p. , referring to _ancient lake dwellings_, fig. , nos. , , . { b} _proceedings scot. soc. ant._ , p. , fig. , . { c} lockhart, iv. . { a} munro, p. . { b} munro, fig. , p. . { a} _debut de l'art_, pp. - . { b} munro, p. . { c} munro, p. . { d} munro, pp. , . { } munro, p. . { } _op. cit._ p. . { } nicholson, _folk lore of east yorkshire_, p. , hull, . { } haddon, _the study of man_, pp. , . { a} _man_, , no. . { b} for the caithness brochs, see dr. joseph anderson, _proc. soc. scot. ant._, - , pp. - . { c} _native tribes of north central australia_, spencer and gillen, p. , . { } _northern tribes_, p. , fig. , . { a} _glasgow herald_, letter of october th, . { b} munro, pp. - . { a} vol. vii. p. , cf. _proceedings scots society of antiquaries_, vol. vi. p. , and, in appendix to the same volume, p. , plate xix. { b} anderson, _scotland in pagan times_, p. . { } munro, p. , fig. . { a} _les ages prehistoriques_, p. ; cf. j. l. de vasconcellos' _religioes da lusitania_, vol. i. p. . lisboa, . { b} _antiguedades monumentaes do algarve_, i. . estacio da veiga, lisboa, . { c} _religioes_, i. - . { a} _antiguedades_, vol. ii. - . { b} _religioes_, i. . { c} _l'anthropologie_, vol. xiv. p. . { } by gongora de martinez. madrid, . { } munro, pp. , . { } munro, p. . { } _tribes of central australia_, pp. - . { } munro, pp. , . { a} munro, p. , pp. - . { b} munro, p. . { } _op. cit._, p. - . { } _proceedings_, vol. xxiii. p. . { a} munro, p. . { b} _ibid_. { c} _native tribes of central australia_, p. . { a} _l'anthropologie_, vol. xiv. p. . { b} cf. munro, p. . { } _op. cit._, p. . { a} munro, p. . { b} _l'anthropologie_, vol. xiv. p. . dr. laloy's review of mr. y. koganei, _ueber die urbewohner von japan_. tokyo, . { a} munro, p. . { b} see cappart, _primitive art in egypt_, p. , translated by a. s. griffiths. grevel, london, . { a} cappart, p. , fig. , p. , fig. . { b} _ibid_. p. , fig. . { c} munro, p. . { d} _op. cit._, p. . { } munro, p. . { a} munro, p. . { b} dr. murray in munro, pp. - . { a} munro, p. . { b} munro, p. . { c} munro, p. . { d} munro, p. . { } munro, pp. - . { } munro, pp. - . { } _portugalia_, i. p. . { } see sr. severo in _portugalia_, vol. ii. part i., . { } all the specimens of this group were disinterred from the ruins of this fort. { } see an interesting and well-illustrated paper in _report of bureau on ethnology_, u.s., vol. ii. { } munro, _proc. soc. ant. scot._, - , pp. - . note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcriber's note: the table of contents and the list of illustrations were added by the transcriber. the text refers to photographic "plates," but the source copy contained only the first. two of the illustrations were labeled "fig. ;" i have labeled them fig. a and fig. b. field museum of natural history. publication . anthropological series vol. xii, no. . the wild tribes of davao district, mindanao by fay-cooper cole assistant curator of malayan ethnology the r. f. cummings philippine expedition george a. dorsey curator, department of anthropology [frontispiece:] tribal map of davao district chicago, u. s. a. september, contents i. the bagobo. ii. bila-an. iii. kulaman. iv. tagakaolo. v. ata. vi. mandaya. conclusion illustrations plate . tribal map of davao district fig. . shell bracelet. fig. . necklace of rattan overlaid with fern and orchid cuticle. fig. . brass anklets worn by the women. fig. . types of brass bracelets. fig. . ear stretchers. fig. . woman's ear plugs. fig. . little girls' pubic shields. fig. . the "stove." fig. . bamboo plate rack. fig. a. rice mortar. fig. b. pedestal which reaches to the ground. fig. c. circle of corn husks placed so as to prevent grain from falling out. fig. d. wooden pestle. fig. . cocoanut shell spoons with wooden handles. fig. . tambara or basket-like receptacle in which offerings are made. fig. . rice winnower. fig. . incised lime and tobacco tubes. fig. . spears used in fighting and hunting. fig. . chicken snare and carrying case. fig, . bows and arrows. fig. . blow guns and darts. fig. . bamboo fish trap. fig. . (left) four-pointed fish spear. fig. . (right) fish lure. fig. . types of weaving used in basketry. fig. . types of weaving used in basketry. fig. . types of weaving used in basketry. fig. . cocoanut scraper. fig. a. stages in the manufacture of metal bells. fig. b. stage in the manufacture of metal bells. fig. . hemp machine. fig. . sugar cane press. fig. . rice planter with bamboo clapper attached to top. fig. . carrying frame. fig. a. front of an oblong shield. fig. b. back of an oblong shield. fig. . taw-gau or bamboo guitar. fig. . realistic patterns in beads and shell disks. fig. . cooking pot and cover. fig. . women's combs. fig. . a. women's ear plugs. b. men's ear plugs. fig. . bows, arrows and quiver from lake buluan region. fig. . bows and arrows in common use. fig. . pitch stick used in the capture of small birds. fig. . designs embroidered on men's clothing. fig. . designs embroidered on men's clothing. fig. . part of a hemp cloth pillow cover. fig. . waterproof basket with infitting top. fig. . man's knife and sheath. fig. . tambolang or bamboo trumpet. fig. . men's hats. fig. . woman's comb. fig. . ear plugs with bell pendants. fig. . gourd rice holder. fig. . bird snare. fig. . wooden shields. fig. . silver breast ornaments. fig. a. to h. designs representing the human form. fig. a. to h. crocodile designs. fig. . crocodile design. fig. . design used in weaving. fig. . incised designs on a bamboo lime holder. fig. . clothes hanger. fig. . embroidered designs on jacktes[sic] and carrying bags. fig. . embroidered designs on jacktes[sic] and carrying bags. fig. . tobacco pouches. preface. the material presented in this paper was obtained, for the most part, during a stay of seven months among the tribes of davao district in southern mindanao of the philippine islands. previous to this i had spent a like period studying the bukidnon, of the north-central part of the island, and while thus engaged, had penetrated to within about fifty miles of the gulf of davao. in order to trace migrations, relationships, and trade routes, it was determined to continue the work from the gulf coast toward the interior. in pursuance of this plan i went to davao in july, nineteen hundred and ten. all information to be secured from publications, settlers, or natives was to the effect that there were at least fourteen distinct tribes to be met with in the gulf region. the preliminary reconnaissance of the field made it plain that the earlier classifications were greatly at fault. several divisions recognized as tribes were found to be only dialect groups, while others differing in no essential respects from one another secured names from the districts in which they resided. it was also found that in recent years there had been a considerable movement of the hill people toward the coast, and that in some places they had penetrated and established themselves in the territory formerly held by other tribes. the capture of slaves, intermarriage, and trade between the groups have been powerful influences in obliterating tribal lines, thus adding further confusion to the classification of the people. the field offered so much of interest that i determined to make detailed studies of the various tribes encountered. the work progressed satisfactorily for seven months, when a severe illness caused me to leave the tropics for a time, at least. as a result the work with the gulf tribes is still far from complete. the tribes living on or near the upper waters of the agusan river and north of compostela were not visited, and, hence, will not be mentioned here, while certain other divisions received only scant attention. no attempt is here made to treat of the christianized or mohammedanized people, who inhabit a considerable part of the coast and the samal islands, further than to indicate their influence on the wild tribes. both have settled in davao district in historic times, and have taken many native converts into their villages. from these settlements new ideas, types of garments, and industries have spread toward the interior, while the extensive slave trade carried on by the moro has had a marked effect on all the tribes with whom they have come in contact. in the preparation of this paper i have, so far as possible, drawn on the knowledge of others to fill in the gaps in my own notes. in spite of this the information on certain groups is still so scanty that this can be, at best, only a sketch. it is offered at this time in the hope that it may serve as a help to other anthropologists who may plan to visit this most interesting field. i wish here to extend my thanks to the various civil and military authorities who gave me valuable assistance; also to captain james burchfield, h. s. wilson, james irwin, otto hanson, william gohn, henry hubbell, and juan de la cruz, planters, whose wide knowledge of, and acquaintance with the interior tribes made possible my work in many localities. it is a pleasure and a duty to acknowledge the assistance rendered by my wife, who accompanied me throughout my philippine work. her presence made it possible to secure the complete confidence of the hill people, and thus to gain an insight into their home life which otherwise would have been impossible. a large part of the material here presented, particularly that relating to the women, was gathered by her and many of the photographs are from her camera. the dialects spoken by the tribes of central and southern mindanao are to be dealt with in a separate publication, so that at this time i shall merely give a brief description of the characters appearing in the native names used in this paper. the consonants are pronounced as in english, except _r_ which is as in spanish. _c_ is used as _ch_ in _church_, _ñ_, which occurs frequently, is a palatal nasal. there is no clear articulation and the stop is not present, but the back of the tongue is well up on the soft palate. the vowels are used as follows: _macron-a_ like _a_ in _father_ _macron-e_ like _a_ in _fate_ _macron-i_ like _i_ in _ravine_ _macron-o_ like _o_ in _note_ _macron-u_ like _u_ in _flute_ _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, short of the above. [transcribers' note: the macron-over-vowel orthographic symbols have regretfully been irreproducible in this document.] _e_ is a sound between the obscure vowel _e_, as _e_ in _sun_, and the _ur_ in _burrow_. the dipthongs[sic] are _ai_ like _ai_ in _aisle_, _au_ like _ou_ in _mouse_, or final spanish _ao_ as in _carabao_, _ei_ like _ei_ in _eight_, _oi_ as in _boy_, also _eu_, _eu_, etc. fay-cooper cole, assistant curator of malayan ethnology. chicago, september, . i. the bagobo. synonyms: (a) guianga, guanga, gulanga (b) obo (c) tigdapaya (d) eto habitat. the west coast of davao gulf between daliao and digos is dotted with small villages, the inhabitants of which are largely bagobo who have been converted to the christian faith and have been induced to give up their mountain homes and settle in towns. back of this coast line rise densely timbered mountain peaks, lateral spurs from which often terminate in abrupt cliffs overlooking the sea. from other peaks extensive grass covered plains slope gently down nearly to the water's edge. deep river canons cut between these mountains and across the plains, giving evidence of active erosion for a long period of time. if these mountain chains and river courses are followed back it is found that they all radiate from one stupendous mass, the center of which is mt. apo, the highest mountain in the philippines and reputed to be an active volcano. near to its summit is a deep fissure from which, on clear mornings, columns of smoke or steam can be seen ascending, while the first rays of the rising sun turn into gold, or sheets of white, the fields of sulphur which surround the cone. along the lower eastern and southern slopes of this mountain and its tributary peaks live the wilder branch of this tribe, whose traditions, religious observances, and daily life are closely related to the manifestations of latent energy in the old volcano. number. the exact number who fall under this classification is not known, governor bolton, who was intimately acquainted with the wild tribes of the district, estimated their number at sixty-five hundred, but this count did not include the sub-division here given as obo. one enumeration, made by a jesuit missionary, places the population at fifteen thousand, while the government report of gives them eighteen thousand four hundred. the latter estimates are certainly excessive. it is probable that they were determined by compiling the population of villages reported to exist in the interior. the wilder members of this tribe are, to a certain extent, migratory, moving their villages from one location to another according to the demands of their mode of agriculture. their rice fields are made in mountain-side clearings, and as the ever present cogon grass[ ] begins to invade the open land they substitute sweet potatoes or hemp. in time even these lusty plants give way to the rank grass, and the people find it easier to make new clearings in the forest than to combat the pest with the primitive tools at their command. this results in some new fields each year, and when these are at too great a distance from the dwellings the old settlements are abandoned and new ones formed at more convenient locations. [ ] _imperata koenigii_. it is probable that the total number belonging to this tribe does not exceed ten thousand persons. influence of neighbors:--history. the influence of the neighboring tribes and of the white man on the bagobo has been considerable. the desire for women, slaves, and loot, as well as the eagerness of individual warriors for distinction, has caused many hostile raids to be made against neighboring tribes. similar motives have led others to attack them and thus there has been, through a long period, a certain exchange of blood, customs, and artifacts. peaceful exchange of commodities has also been carried on for many years along the borders of their territory. with the advent of the moro along the sea coast a brisk trade was opened up and new industries introduced. there seems to have been little, if any, intermarriage between these people, but their relations were sufficiently close for the moro to exert a marked influence on the religious and civil life of the wilder tribe, and to cause them to incorporate into their language many new words and terms. the friendly relations with the moro seem to have been broken off upon the arrival and settlement of the spaniards in davao. the newcomers were then at war with the followers of mohammed and soon succeeded in enlisting the bagobo rulers in their cause. a chinese plate decorated with the picture of a large blue fish was offered for each moro head the tribesmen presented to the spanish commander. the desire for these trophies was sufficient soon to start a brisk trade in heads, to judge from the number of these plates still to be seen among the prized objects of the petty rulers. after the overthrow of moro power on the coast, jesuit missionaries began their labors among the bagobo, and later established their followers in several villages. in father gisbert reported eight hundred converts living in five coast towns. following the conflict between spain and the united states, and during the subsequent insurrection, these villages were left without protection or guidance. as a result, large numbers of the inhabitants retired to the hills where they were again merged with their wilder brothers. naturally, they carried with them new ideas as well as material objects. with the re-establishment of order under american rule many returned to the deserted villages while others were induced by governor bolton to form compact settlements midway between the coast and the mountain fastnesses. the influence of the government has become stronger each year, and following the human sacrifice at talun in , that powerful village and several of the neighboring settlements were compelled to move down near to the sea where they could be more easily controlled. schools have been opened in some localities and these, together with the activities of catholic and protestant missionaries, are causing a rapid change in the life and beliefs of the tribe. the presence of american hemp planters, with the consequent demand for laborers, is also proving an immense factor in wiping out old tribal lines and in introducing new ideas. beyond a few letters written by the missionaries[ ] we find scant reference to this tribe in history, but their own traditions and genealogies are well known even by the younger generation. [ ] blair and robertson. the philippine islands. according to the tribal historians the human race sprang from a man, toglai, and his wife, toglibon, who lived on mt. apo.[ ] "they were there from the beginning, at a point near to the present settlement of cibolan. many fruits grew on the mountains and the forests abounded in game so that it was easy for them to secure food. there were born to them children, who, when they grew up, married. one day toglai and toglibon told their oldest boy and girl that they should go far away across the ocean, for there was a good place for them. so the two departed and were seen no more until their descendants, the white people, came back to davao. the other children remained with their parents and were happy and prosperous until toglai and toglibon died and went to the sky, where they became spirits. soon after their death the country suffered a great drought. this finally became so severe that the water in the rivers dried up and there was no more food in the land. at last the children were forced to leave their home and seek out new habitations in other parts. they traveled in pairs, in different directions, until they came to favorable locations where they settled down. from them have sprung all the tribes known to the bagobo. one pair was too weak to make the journey from the drought-cursed land, and staid at cibolan. one day the man crawled out into the ruined fields to see if he could not find some one thing alive, and when he arrived there he saw, to his amazement, a single stalk of sugar cane growing lustily. he cut it with his knife, and water began to come out until there was enough for the couple to drink. the flow did not cease until the rains came again to refresh the land. from these two the tribe has again grown until it numbers its members in the thousands. the people have remained true to their belief in the spirits, and each year has found them stronger in numbers, and richer in houses, land, and slaves." [ ] see fuller account by author, in _philippine journal of science_. june , vol. vi, no. , pp. - . the genealogy of the bagobo rulers is traced back through ten generations. the first ruler of whom there is record was salingolop, during whose reign, it seems, the spaniards first came to the philippines. according to the tale[ ] "salingolop was a man of great and prodigious force, and as tall as the lauan, which is the tallest tree in these forests. he had three sons called bato, sipongos, and calisquisan, and a daughter named panugutan. when the spaniards arrived at manila, and found that there existed a man so tall and powerful, they sent a battalion of soldiers. they disembarked on the shore of bimigao near daron, and ascended the mountain where salingolop lived. he was not found, because at the time he was on the other side of the mountain hunting wild boars, and the soldiers returned to the shore, taking panugutan as a hostage. salingolop, having found out what had happened descended the mountain alone to fight the soldiers which were there. these fired on him, but in vain, because the balls could make no impression. on seeing this, they dropped their rifles and with bars of iron they struck him on the legs, trying to overthrow him. as he fell on the side towards the sea, the noise of the waves, it is said, reached to the cape of san augustin. they cut off his head and, as he lay dead, they cut off his legs that he might not arise again. the spaniards returned to manila, taking with them panugutan; she married in manila a spaniard, by whom she had two children, who later returned to these parts and were well received, being considered not only as friends but as brothers of the bagobo." [ ] recorded by p. juan doyle, s. j. salingolop was succeeded by his son bato who, in turn, was followed by boas, basian, lumbay, banga, maliadi, and taopan. until we come to this last mentioned ruler we learn little more of importance, but at the beginning of his rule, we learn that the bagobo had become a powerful people. under his leadership they made frequent forays into neighboring districts and returned with many slaves and rich loot. the _datu_[ ] was noted as a brave warrior, but in addition to this he was a wise and just ruler, greatly beloved by all his people. when he died more than one thousand of his subjects attended the funeral which lasted ten days. on the last day the house was decked, inside and out, with red and yellow flowers; many valuable gifts were placed beside the corpse, and the place was then abandoned. [ ] the moro name for chief or ruler. the bagobo name is _lagaimoda_ or _matanem_, but the moro term is in general use. he was succeeded by his son pangilan, whose administration, like that of his father, was firm and just. upon his death he bequeathed the leadership of a united people to his son manib. the new _datu_ did not prove to be a great warrior and his decisions in matters of dispute were not always just, so that bad blood arose between the people of cibolan and talun. he was unable to quell the disturbances, and finally open warfare broke out, petty chiefs of other districts throwing off his control and ruling as _datu_. this was the condition which confronted the present ruler, tongkaling, when he found himself ruler of cibolan. the claims of leadership over all the bagobo had never been relinquished, but the actual power of the _datu_ outside his own district amounted to little. tongkaling soon established his right to the name of a great warrior, and his people so prospered under his rule that upon the advent of the americans he was much the most powerful among the several chiefs. under the administration of governor bolton, tongkaling was officially recognized as head of the bagobo, and with this added prestige, he has finally succeeded in gaining recognition from all the chiefs except those about santa cruz, but his actual control over them is still very slight. he has been a consistent friend of the americans, but has jealously guarded his people against outside influences, so that they are much less affected than those of other districts. for this reason we shall, in this paper, use cibolan as a type settlement, but where radical differences occur in other districts they will be noted. physical type.[ ] [ ] this subject will be treated fully in a separate publication. an idea of the general appearance of the bagobo can best be obtained by a study of the accompanying photographs. plates ii-viii. measurements were made on thirty-three men and fifteen women. the maximum height of the males was found to be . cm.; minimum . cm.; with an average of . cm. for the women the maximum was . cm.; minimum cm.; average . cm. the cephalic indices of the same individuals showed . as the maximum, . minimum, and . the average for the males. the maximum for the females was . , minimum . , average . . the average length-height index, taken from the tragus to the vertex, of the same persons, was . --maximum . , minimum . for the men; and for the women . --maximum . , minimum . -. the face is long, moderately broad, and the zygomatic arches are seldom prominent. the forehead is high and full with supra-orbital ridge slightly developed. the crown and back of the head are rather strongly arched. the people are seldom prognathous, yet individuals are met with who are markedly so (plate v). the lips are full and bowed; the chin is round and well formed. the root of the nose is depressed; the ridge broad and generally inclined to be concave, although straight noses are not uncommon. the nasal wings are moderately broad and arched or swelled. the eye slits are oblique and moderately open, showing dark or brown-black eyes. the hair is brown-black and generally slightly wavy or loosely curled, while in some cases it is found curled in locks. women comb their hair straight back and plaster it with cocoanut oil, but even this does not prevent stray locks from creeping out. both face and body hairs are scanty and are generally removed, yet occasionally a man is seen who has cultivated a few hairs into a fair semblance of a beard. the bagobo, while well nourished, are inclined to be of slight build, with very narrow waists. in color they are a light reddish brown with a slight olive tinge which is more pronounced in the women than in the men. in a brief summary, we can say that they are a short, slightly built, metsati-cephalic people, with wavy hair, long faces, and broad, full noses and lips. individuals are met with who exhibit many of the physical characteristics of the negrito;[ ] while still others, both in color and facial lines, are comparable to the chinese. [ ] pygmy blacks of the philippines. dress--personal adornment. no wild tribe in the islands gives more attention to dress than does the bagobo. by an intricate process hemp is colored and woven into excellent garments, which, in turn, are decorated with embroidery, applique, or designs in shell disks and beads. the men wear their hair long and after twisting it around the head hold it in place with kerchiefs, the edges of which are decorated with beads and tassels. a close fitting undershirt is often worn, and above this is an elaborately beaded or embroidered coat which generally opens in front. the hemp cloth trousers scarcely reach to the knee, and the bottom of each leg is decorated with a beaded or embroidered band. two belts are worn, one to hold the trousers, the other to support the fighting or working knives which each man carries. in lieu of pockets he has on his back an elaborately beaded hemp cloth bag bordered with tassels and bells of native casting. highly prized shell bracelets, worn as cuffs by some men, are made of a large, conical sea-shell (fig. ) the base and interior spirals of which have been cut away. necklaces made of rattan strips decorated or overlaid with alternating layers of fern and orchid cuticle (fig. ) are frequently seen, while many strands of beads and carved seeds surround the necks of both men and women. both sexes also wear, above the calf of the leg, plaited or beaded leglets to some of which magical properties are ascribed. fig. . shell bracelet. fig. . necklace of rattan overlaid with fern and orchid cuticle. the woman wears a jacket which is close fitting about the neck and reaches to the skirt, so that no portion of the upper part of the body is exposed. the cloth now used in this garment is generally secured in trade, and in recent years decoration in applique has begun to succeed the excellent embroidery seen on older garments. frequently the two types of decoration are seen on the same jacket, and to these are added complicated designs in shell or metal disks, or beads. the narrow tube skirt is of hemp cloth and is made like a sack with both ends open. at the waist it is held in place by means of a cloth or beaded belt. in addition to the many strands of beads which encircle the neck and fall over the chest, a broad bead band is often worn over one shoulder, passing under the opposite arm near the waist. scarfs of colored cloth are also worn in this manner when the ladies are on dress parade. leglets and brass anklets, made like tubes so as to enclose metal balls (fig. ) or with bells and rattles attached, are commonly worn. the women are fond of loading their arms with ornaments of shell or brass (fig. ) and one forearm is covered with separate rings of incised brass wire which increase in size from the centre towards the ends, forming an ornament in the shape of an hour-glass. their hair is generally cut so as to leave a narrow band in front; this is brushed back, but often falls forward on the face or in front of the ears. back of this the hair is kept well oiled and is combed straight to the back of the head, where it is tied in a knot. into this knot is pushed a wooden comb decorated with incised lines filled with lime, or inlaid with beads. on festive occasions more elaborate combs, with plumes or other decorations attached, are worn. aside from these ornaments the head is uncovered. fig. . brass anklets worn by the women. fig. . types of brass bracelets. men and women are seen who have their eyebrows shaved to thin lines. this is a matter of individual taste and is done only for beauty. neither sex makes use of tattooing, nor do they mutilate the lips or nose, but what they lack in these respects they make up for in ear ornaments. when a child is very young a small hole is pierced in the ear lobes, and into this opening a piece of twisted banana or hemp leaf is placed. (fig. a). this leaf acts as a spring, continually enlarging the opening until the ear plugs can be inserted. another method, sometimes employed, is to fill the opening with small round sticks (fig. b), adding more from time to time, until the desired result is obtained. the plugs worn by the women are of wood, the fronts of which are inlaid with silver or brass in artistic designs, and are connected by strands of beads passing under the chin (fig. ). large wooden ornaments are also worn by the men, but more prized are large ivory ear plugs made like enormous collar buttons (plates ii-iv). these are very rare, since the ivory for their manufacture must be secured from borneo, and by the time it has passed through the hands of many traders it has assumed a value which limits the possession of articles made from it to a few wealthy men. a further method of ear adornment, frequently seen among the women, consists of beads sewed into a number of holes which have been pierced through the helices of the ears. fig. . ear stretchers. fig. . woman's ear plugs. both men and women file and blacken the teeth. when a boy or girl has reached the age of puberty, it is time that this beautifying should be done. there is, however, no prohibition to having it performed earlier if desired. the candidate places his head against the operator and grips a stick of wood between his teeth while each tooth is filed so as to leave only the stump, or is cut or broken to a point (plate xiia and b). when this has been successfully accomplished, what is left of the teeth is blackened. the color is obtained in two ways. the more common method is to place a piece of metal on one end of a bamboo[ ] tube, the other extremity of which rests on glowing coals. the smoke from the charring bamboo is conducted through the tube to the cold metal on which it leaves a deposit or "sweat." this deposit is rubbed on the teeth, at intervals, for several days until they become a shiny black. a second method is to use a powder known as _tapel_ which is secured from the _lamod_ tree. the writer did not see this tree but, from the description given of it, believes it to be the tamarindus. this powder is put on leaves and is chewed. during the period of treatment the patient is under certain restrictions. he may neither drink water, cook or eat anything sour, nor may he attend a funeral. should he do so his teeth will have a poor color or be "sick." when the teeth have been properly beautified the young man or woman is considered ready to enter society. [ ] a variety known as _balakayo_ is used for this purpose. boys run about quite nude until they are three or four years of age. until about the same age the girls' sole garment is a little pubic shield, cut from a coconut shell and decorated with incised lines filled with lime (fig. ). not infrequently bells are attached to the sides of this "garment." when children do begin to wear clothing their dress differs in no respects from that of their elders. fig. . little girls' pubic shields. sketch of fundamental religious beliefs. although we shall treat religion more fully in a later paragraph, it is desirable that we now gain an idea of those beliefs which enter intimately into every activity of the daily life of this people. the bagobo believes in a mighty company of superior beings who exercise great control over the lives of men. above all is eugpamolak manobo, also called manama, who was the first cause and creator of all. serving him is a vast number of spirits not malevolently inclined but capable of exacting punishment unless proper offerings and other tokens of respect are accorded them. below them is a horde of low, mean spirits who delight to annoy mankind with mischievous pranks, or even to bring sickness and disaster to them. to this class generally belong the spirits who inhabit mountains, cliffs, rooks, trees, rivers, and springs. standing between these two types are the shades of the dead who, after they have departed from this life, continue to exercise considerable influence, for good or bad, over the living. we have still to mention a powerful class of supernatural beings who, in strength and importance, are removed only a little from the creator. these are the patron spirits. guarding the warriors are two powerful beings, mandarangan and his wife, darago, who are popularly supposed to make their home in the crater of the volcano. they bring success in battle and give to the victors loot and slaves. in return for these favors they demand, at certain times, the sacrifice of a slave. dissentions[sic], disasters, and death will be sure to visit the people should they fail to make the offering. each year in the month of december the people are reminded of their obligation by the appearance in the sky of a constellation known as _balatik_,[ ] and soon thereafter a human sacrifice doubtless takes place in some one or more of the bagobo settlements. [ ] orion. a man to come under the protection of these two deities must first have taken at least two human lives. he is then entitled to wear a peculiar chocolate-colored kerchief with white patterns in it. when he has killed four he may wear blood-red trousers, and when his score has reached six he may don a full blood-red suit and carry a sack of the same color. such a man is known as _magani_ and his clothing marks him as a person of distinction and power in his village. he is one of the leaders in a war party; he is chosen by the _datu_ to inflict the death penalty when it has been decreed; and he is one of the assistants in the yearly sacrifice. it is not necessary that those he kills, in order to gain the right to wear a red suit, be warriors. on the contrary he may kill women and children from ambush and still receive credit for the achievement, provided his victims are from a hostile village. he may count those of his townspeople whom he has killed in fair fight, and the murder of an unfaithful wife and her admirer is credited to him as a meritorious deed. the workers in iron and brass, the weavers of hemp cloth, and the mediums or shamans--known as _mabalian_--are under the protection of special deities for whom they make ceremonies at certain times of the year. the _mabalian_ just mentioned are people--generally women past middle life--who, through sufficient knowledge of the spirits and their desires, are able to converse with them, and to make ceremonies and offerings which will attract their attention, secure their good will, or appease their wrath. they may have a crude knowledge of medicine plants, and, in some cases, act as exorcists. the ceremonies which art performed at the critical periods of life are conducted by these _mabalian_, and they also direct the offerings associated with planting and harvesting. they are generally the ones who erect the little shrines seen along the trails or in the forests, and it is they who put offerings in the "spirit boxes" in the houses. although they, better than all others, know how to read the signs and warnings sent by the spirits, yet, all of the people know the meaning of certain omens sent through the medium of birds and the like. the call of the _limokon_[ ] is recognized as an encouragement or a warning and its message will be heeded without fail. in brief, every natural phenomenon and every living thing is caused by or is subject to the will of unseen beings, who in turn can be influenced by the acts of individuals. as a result everything of importance is undertaken with reference to these superior powers. [ ] a dove (_calcophops indica_). similar beliefs held by the tagalog were mentioned by juan de plasencia in . see blair and robertson, vol. vii, p. . dwellings--household utensils. the houses found in the coast villages line well marked streets and differ in few respects from those built by the christianized natives throughout the islands. even in the more isolated districts the effect of this outside influence is marked. however, we can state with confidence that village life is a new idea to the bagobo. he has, from time immemorial, built his home near to his fields, and there he and his family reside, except during festivals or when extreme danger threatens. at such times all go to the house of the local ruler and there unite in the festivities or the common defense. the smaller dwellings have but one room, the floor of which is raised several feet above the ground and supported by many piles. a part of the latter extend five of[sic] six feet above the floor and form supports for the side and cross-beams. from the center of the room lighter poles project eight or ten feet above the cross-beams and form the main supports for the ridge timber. from beams at the end and sides of the room similar pieces run to this central ridge; below this they are joined together, at intervals, by means of horizontal poles and cross-beams. to this framework are lashed strips of _palma brava_, supports for a covering of closely laid _runo_, on which rests the final topping of flattened bamboo. the ridge pole is always at a sufficient height above the floor to give the roof a steep peak, and is of such length that, at the top, the side roof overhangs the ends. the roof generally rises in two pitches and always extends past the sides of the room. in house building, the roof, which is made first, is raised to the desired height, thus serving as a shelter for the workers until the structure is complete (plate xiii). resting on the cross-beams, just below the rafters, a number of loose boards are laid to form a sort of attic or storage room where all unused articles, and odds and ends are allowed to accumulate. the sides of the room, which are of flattened bamboo, are about six feet in height, and extend only to within a foot of the roof. in the walls small peep holes are cut so that the inhabitants can look outside without being seen (plate xiv). the flooring, which is generally made of strips of _palma brava_, is in two levels, forming a narrow elevated platform at one end of the room on which a part of the family sleep. the furniture of this house is very scanty. near to the door is the "stove" (fig. )--a bed of ashes in which three stones are sunk to form a support for the pots and jars and nearby stand a few native jars and sections of bamboo filled with water. on a hanger above the fire may be found articles of food, seeds, and the like, which need protection from flies and insects. against the wall is a bamboo rack (fig. ), filled with chinese plates, or half cocoanut shells which serve as dishes. near to the stove is a rice mortar standing on its own wooden pedestal which reaches to the ground (fig. ). fig. . the "stove." fig. . bamboo plate rack. fig. a. rice mortar. fig. b. pedestal which reaches to the ground. fig. c. circle of corn husks placed so as to prevent grain from falling out. fig. d. wooden pestle. a child's cradle, made of a blanket suspended hammock-like between the wall and a beam support, will probably be found. a few boxes and jars, usually of chinese make, and always a copper gong or two are regular furnishings, while to these can be added a miscellany of clothing, looms, spears, shields, meat blocks, spoons (fig. ), and the like. akin to furniture, since they are found in every house, are little basket-like receptacles made by splitting one end of a bamboo pole into several vertical strips and then weaving in other shorter horizontal strips (fig. ). these are attached to walls and supporting poles, and in them offerings are made to the various spirits. fig. . cocoanut shell spoons with wooden handles. fig. . tambara or basket-like receptacle in which offerings are made to the spirits. this is our picture of a typical home. it is not a cheery place by day, for the lack of windows, as well as a fog of smoke from the open stove, makes it dark and gloomy. nevertheless, since the house offers a cool retreat from the blazing sun, and the smoke-laden air is free from flies and mosquitoes, it is a popular resort for all members of the family during the hottest part of the day. the little light, which filters in through the many cracks in the floors and walls, is sufficient to allow the women to spin, dye, weave, and decorate their clothing, or to engage in other activities. after dark the resinous nuts of the _bitaog_ tree, or leaf covered resin torches are burned, and by their uncertain light the women and men carry on their labors until far into the night. entrance to the dwelling is gained by means of a notched log, bamboo pole, or by a ladder of the same material. as a protection against strong winds many props are placed against the sides of the house, and when large trees are available the dwellings are further secured by being anchored to them with rattan lines. in each settlement or district will be found one large house built on the same general plan as the smaller dwellings, but capable of housing several hundred people (plate xv). this is the home of the local _datu_ or ruler. all great ceremonies are held here, and it is the place to which all hasten when danger threatens. it is the social center of the community, and all who desire go there at any time and remain as long as they wish, accepting meanwhile the food and hospitality of the ruler. a brief description of the house of datu tongkaling will give a good idea of this type of structure. except for size--the dimensions being x ft.--the exterior does not differ greatly from the houses already described. a long, partially covered porch leading to the doorway is provided with benches which are always occupied by men and boys, loitering or engaged in the absorbing task of lousing one another. at the far end of the room is the elevated platform, but this one is much wider than is customary, and is intended as the sleeping place for the warriors, or illustrious guests. as the writer and his wife were considered, by the _datu_, as belonging to the latter class, they were favored with this vantage spot, from which they could view and be viewed by the whole household. along the sides of the room are elevated box-like enclosures in which the _datu_ and some of his wives and daughters sleep and keep their belongings. at night the balance of the family, including men, women, children, and dogs, occupy the floor. midway between the side walls and near to the elevated platform are two decorated bamboo poles, which are raised in honor of the patron spirits of the warriors; while in other parts of the room are baskets, hanging altars, and other devices in which are placed offerings intended for the spirits. in addition to the customary furnishings are hundreds of objects testifying to the wealth of the _datu_. clothes, boxes, dozens of huge copper gongs, drums, ancient chinese jars and plates, spears and shields, beaded clothing, baskets, and last but not least--in the estimation of the _datu_--a huge enameled advertisement of an american brewery. in the western part of the bagobo district is a village known as bansalan. recently its people have been induced to leave the old settlement and build in a new location, midway between the mountains and the sea. here the writer found a very different type of house (plate xvia). small trees formed the uprights to which cross-beams were tied to make the roof supports, and on these rested a final covering of _nipa_ palm. a few feet above the ground other supports were lashed and on them strips of _palma brava_ were laid as flooring. in the few cases where the houses were fitted with sides, strips of _nipa_ palm fastened together with rattan were used. there seemed to be no uniform type of dwelling, each house differing from its neighbor in number of rooms, floor levels, or in other respects. only one feature, the elevated sleeping platform at one end of the house, was always found. a few miles further inland, in the old settlement, the houses are of the type already described in detail. the people have been practically forced to their new location by governmental action. the new careless type of structures seen in bansalan probably represents, to them, temporary structures in which they expect to remain only until a change of governors will furnish an excuse for returning to the old location. other buildings. near to each farm house or settlement will be seen one or more granaries, in which rice is stored (plate xiv). four poles form the support for a rectangular base from which the sides of the structure slope out at an angle of about degrees from the perpendicular until they meet the roof. the sides and roof are of bamboo beaten flat, the latter covered with a topping of straw. in the hemp fields is an occasional shed where the fiber is sometimes stripped, but more often these buildings, thus hidden from the public gaze, house the forges on which the smiths fashion knives and spears, or cast the bells and betel nut boxes so dear to the heart of each bagobo. aside from the shrines or altars, which we shall describe later, the bagobo erects no other buildings. he sometimes encloses a rice or cornfield with a fence, but this requires no special skill in building, since it consists of two parallel lines of uprights, between which bamboo tubes are laid to the desired height (plate xvib). food and its preparation. it is impossible, without including about everything edible in a vegetable line to be found in the district, to give a full list of foods; hence no such attempt will be made. chief of all is the rice, many varieties of which are grown in the mountain-side clearings.[ ] [ ] back of the coast there are no irrigated fields to be found in the davao district. next in importance is the _camote_, or sweet potato, and then follow in the order of their importance: corn, banana, sago and cocoanut. fish, eels, crabs, grasshoppers, monkeys,[ ] deer, pigs, and chickens form a part of the food supply; in fact, the people seem to draw the line at nothing but crows, snakes, mice, rats, goats, horses, dogs, and cats. despite the assertion of a number of worthy informants that the last three are on the prohibited list, it is the opinion of the writer that it is the scarcity of the supply rather than any feeling of prejudice which causes them to be included. [ ] some people refuse to eat monkey meat. salt and pepper are used as condiments. the former is secured in trade with the coast natives and chinese, while the latter is produced by mashing the fruit of a small wild pepper, locally known as _katombal_. rice, after being allowed to dry, is stored without being separated from the straw. when a supply is needed a bundle is laid on a piece of hide and is beaten with a wooden pestle, wielded by a woman or a slave. this separates the grain, which is gathered up and placed in a wooden mortar, where it is again beaten with the pestle until the outer husk has been loosened. to remove the chaff the rice is taken from the mortar, placed on a flat winnowing tray (fig. ), and tossed and caught, until the wind has carried away the lighter husks, thus leaving the grain free. this is placed in a pot, a small quantity of water is added, and the vessel is placed over the fire. here it is allowed to remain only until it begins to boil, when it is placed on the ashes, near enough to the fire to keep it hot. from time to time the woman turns the jar until the contents is cooked through, wren each grain stands out free from its fellows.[ ] [ ] this is the usual way of preparing rice throughout the archipelago. fig. . rice winnower. other vegetable foods are eaten raw, or are cooked with water and salt, with perhaps the addition of a little meat broth or a sour[sic]. [transcriber's note: "sour" should read "soup."] small birds and fish are cooked without other treatment than a hasty cleaning; but the flesh of larger fowls, deer, and pig is generally cut into small cubes and cooked with condiments in a jar or small chinese caldron. birds are sometimes prepared by placing them on a spit, covering them with green banana leaves, and suspending them above the fire until roasted. this primitive paper bag cooking yields a most excellent dish. grasshoppers are relished, and are secured in the following manner: a clear grass spot is selected and several deep holes are dug in one end. back of them, and leading toward them, is a high tight fence made in a v. by beating the grass with boughs as they walk toward the trap, the people drive the grasshoppers before them until they are finally forced into the pit, from which they are collected by the bushel. i was told that meat was sometimes salted, dried, and stored away for future use. the climate seems to be absolutely opposed to such foresight, and the one time that i saw the process being used, the odors were such that i beat a hasty retreat and chose to accept, without proof, the verdict of the natives, that venison thus prepared was excellent. of almost as much importance as food is the use of the betel or areca nut,[ ] which is chewed almost constantly by young and old of both sexes. the nut is divided into quarters and a piece of _buyo_ leaf[ ] is wrapped about each bit. to this is added a little lime and a pinch of tobacco, and it is ready for the mouth. the resultant deep red saliva is distributed indiscriminately on the floor, walls, and furniture where it leaves a permanent stain. to hold the materials necessary for this practice brass betel nut boxes, secured from the moro or of their own manufacture, as well as plaited grass boxes and pouches are constantly carried (plates xviia and xli). the brass boxes generally have three compartments; the first for nuts, the second for leaves and tobacco, and the third for lime. lime is also carried in small bamboo tubes (fig. ), in the decoration of which a great deal of time is consumed. the open end is fitted with a rattan sifter so that the powder is distributed evenly on the nut and leaf. [ ] _catechu l_. [ ] _piper betel l_. fig. . incised lime and tobacco tubes. aged persons and those whose teeth have been so mutilated that they cannot chew, make use of an outfit which includes a small mortar and pestle (plate xviib). cutting open green betel nuts, the chewer wraps the pieces in leaves and, after adding a liberal supply of lime, mashes them in the mortar until all are reduced to a soft mass. lime is secured by placing snail shells in a fire, from which they are taken while hot and dropped into cold water. they can then be crushed into powder with the fingers. although the bagobo raises a considerable quantity of tobacco he seldom, if ever, smokes it unless the leaf is furnished him, already prepared, by an outsider. sometimes a small ball made of the green leaves is placed between the teeth and upper lip, where it remains until all the flavor has been extracted. the outfits for betel nut and tobacco, aside from the brass boxes which fasten at the side, are generally carried in the sacks worn on the backs of the men or in the elaborate shoulder bags worn by the women. however, a small waterproof box is frequently seen attached to a man's belt, and in this he carries his betel nut, tobacco, and fire-making outfit. the usual method of making fire is by the use of flint and steel, but when this is not at hand a flame can be quickly obtained by rubbing two pieces of bamboo rapidly together until the friction produces a spark. hunting and fishing. since only a few domesticated animals and fowls are found in a settlement, the greater part of the meat supply is secured by hunting and fishing. deer and wild pig are taken by means of spears. the hunter either lies in wait near the runways of the game, or the animals are driven toward the spot where the huntsmen are concealed. for this purpose the ordinary lance (figs. a, b and c) is often used, but a more effective weapon is the spear known as _kalawat_ (fig. d). in this the metal head fits loosely into a long shaft to which it is attached by a rope. as soon as the weapon enters the body of the animal the head pulls out of the shaft, and this trails behind until it becomes entangled in the undergrowth, thus putting the game at the mercy of the hunter. dead falls and pits are put in the runways, and a frightened animal is sometimes impaled on concealed sharpened bamboo sticks. less frequently, large animals are secured by means of rope loops which hang from trees past which the game is accustomed to pass. until recent years the _balatik_, a trap which when sprung throws an arrow with great force against the animal which releases it, was much used but so many domestic animals have been killed by it that this sort of trap is now in disfavor. fig. . spears used in fighting and hunting. wild chickens are captured by means of snares (fig. ). a tame rooster is fastened in the jungle and around him is placed a snare, consisting of running knots attached to a central band. the crowing of this fowl soon attracts the wild birds which, coming in to fight, are almost sure to become entangled in one of the nooses. slip loops, attached to a bent twig and released by disturbing the bait, are also employed in the capture of wild fowl. fig. . chicken snare and carrying case. birds of all sizes are secured by use of bows and arrows, blow guns, or nets. wooden decoys (plate xviii) are tied to the branches of trees in which the hunters are concealed. the bows used are of _palma brava_, in each end of which notches are cut to hold the rattan bow strings (fig. ). the arrow shafts are of light reeds and are fitted with one or two bamboo points. these weapons are effective only for close range, and even then the bagobo are far from being expert marksmen. boys use a reed blow gun through which they shoot light darts tufted with cotton (fig. ). the missile is not poisoned and is of little use at a distance of more than twenty feet. fig. . bows and arrows. fig. . blow guns and darts. by far the most effective means of securing birds is to stretch a net between trees or poles where the birds are accustomed to fly. wooden decoys are attached to the net in order to attract the game which, once enmeshed, is easily caught. various devices are employed in the capture of fresh water fish,[ ] but the most common is a torpedo-shaped trap of bamboo (fig. ). stone conduits lead the water from streams into the open ends of these traps, thus carrying in fish and shrimps. the funnel-shaped opening has the sharpened ends set close together so that it is quite impossible for the prisoners to escape, although the water readily passes between the bamboo strips. [ ] along the coast the methods of the christianized natives are used in salt water fishing. fig. . bamboo fish trap. a hook and line is employed, especially for eels; while in clear pools fish are secured by means of a four-pointed spear which is thrust or thrown (fig. ). perhaps the most interesting device used is a lure, known as _boro_ (fig. ). a live minnow is fastened at the end of the rod near to a rattan noose. a cord running from the noose to the end of the stick allows the fisherman to draw up the noose as he desires. the struggles of the captive fish soon attract others, and when one enters the loop the line is drawn taut, securely binding the intruder. several fish can be taken from a single pool by this method. a berry (_anamirta coccithis l_.) is used in the capture of fish. it is crushed to a powder, is wrapped with vines and leaves, and is thrown into pools. the fish become stupified[sic] and float to the surface where they are easily captured. after being cooked they are eaten without any ill effects. fig. . (left) four-pointed fish spear. fig. . (right) fish lure. occupations. mention has already been made of some of the daily occupations of the people. we have found the women caring for the home and preparing the rice and other foods which are served in the house. at no time did the writer see a man, other than a slave, take any part in such household duties; but when on the trail each would do his share in preparing the meals. in the village we found the women and children carrying the water and wood and, at rare intervals, doing laundry work. instead of soaping and rubbing soiled clothing, they soak the garments in water, then place them on stones and beat them with wooden paddles or clubs. the articles are alternately soaked and beaten until at least a part of the dirt has been removed. it is also the privilege of any woman to engage in the manufacture of basketry, or to act as a potter. in the manufacture of baskets the woman makes use chiefly of bamboo and rattan, though other materials, such as _pandanus_ are sometimes brought into service. three weaves or their variants are employed. the first is the common diagonal or twilled weave, in which each element of the weft passes over two or more of the warp elements. in this way most of the rice winnowers, transportation baskets, knife sheaths, and the like are made. in the second weave (fig. ), the foundation of the basket is made up of parallel horizontal rods, or strips of bamboo. these are laced together by warp strips which pass alternately under one and over one of the foundation rods, crossing each other at an angle, one above the other below the rod. the trinket baskets carried by the women, the larger waterproof receptacles known as _binota_, and the covers for wild chicken snares are in this technic. a variant of this weave is found in the rattan carrying frames and in some fish traps (fig. ). here the warp strips cross one another at an angle, at each meeting place enclosing the horizontal foundation strips. unlike the second weave described, the warp strips do not pass alternately above and below the horizontal foundation, but retain the same relation to it throughout the entire length of each strip. a coiled weave (fig. ) is used in the manufacture of tobacco boxes (plate xix) and in the rims of women's baskets. in this type the foundation consists of a series of horizontal rattan strips or rods which are sewed together in the following manner. a narrow strip _a_ passes over two of these parallel rods _ _ and _ _ in a left handed spiral. at the top of the loop the strip passes under a similar strip _b_ which binds rod _ _ to the one above. passing downward inside the basket, the strip _a_ goes beneath the strip _c_ which binds rods _ _ and _ _ together. these are drawn tightly while damp, thus forcing the foundation rods so closely together as to make the basket practically water-tight. pitch from the _tabon-tabon_ nuts may also be rubbed over the outside surface, thus making the receptacle impervious to water. fig. . fig. . fig. . types of weaving used in basketry. in the great majority of baskets the surface is divided into three parallel zones or decorative bands. these are produced by making a slight variation in the weave, by the use of blackened strips of bamboo and rattan, or by substituting in their place the black cuticle of a fern. as a rule the women of this tribe are not good potters and take little pride in their work. in some districts the art has been entirely lost, and the people depend on the coast natives for their cooking utensils. at the village of bansalan the women were found still to be proficient in their work. after the dampened clay had been carefully kneaded in order to remove lumps and gravel, the bottom of the jar was moulded with the fingers and placed on a dish which was turned on a bit of cloth or a board and answered the purpose of a potter's wheel. as the dish was turned with the right hand the operator shaped the clay with the fingers of the left adding fresh strips of material from time to time until the desired size was obtained. the final shaping was done with a wooden paddle and the jar was allowed to dry, after which it was smoothed off with a stone. when ready for firing it was placed in the midst of a pile of rubbish, over which green leaves were placed to cause a slow fire. other dishes are made by splitting a cocoanut in half and removing the "meat." this is readily accomplished by the use of a scraper fitted with a rough iron blade (fig. ), over which the concave side or the half nut is drawn. the cocoanut meat is used for food and oil. fig. . cocoanut scraper. a little later we shall describe the active part woman takes in the planting and care of the fields, but now we shall take up in some detail the industry in which she stands pre-eminent, the preparation and weaving of hemp. the hemp ordinarily stripped by the men is considered too fine to be used in the manufacture of clothing, so a smaller stripping device is employed by the woman (plate xx). on this she cleans the outer layers of the hemp stalk, from which a stronger and coarser thread can be obtained. the fiber is tied in a continuous thread and is wound onto a reel. the warp threads are measured on sharpened sticks driven into a hemp or banana stalk, and are then transferred to a rectangular frame (plate xxi). the operator, with the final pattern in mind, overties or wraps with waxed threads, such portions of the warp as she desires to remain white in the completed garment. so carefully does she wrap these sections, that, when the thread is removed from the frame and placed in the liquid dye, no portion of the coloring matter penetrates to the portions thus protected. if a red color is desired the root of the _sikarig_[ ] palm is scraped and the scrapings placed in bark vats filled with cold water. the thread is first washed in, and is later boiled with the dye for a half hour, after which it is placed in a basket to drain and dry. the process is repeated daily for about two weeks, or until the thread assumes a brick red color. if a purple hue is desired a little lime is added to the dye. black is obtained by a slightly different method. the leaves, root, and bark of the _pinarrem_ tree are crushed in water. this yields a black liquor which is poured into a jar containing the thread and the whole is placed over a slow fire where it remains until the liquid is near the boiling point. when this is reached the thread is removed and placed in a gourd, the open end of which fits over the jar so as to catch the steam coming from the dye. after a time the thread is removed and dried, and the process is repeated until at last a permanent black is obtained. after the coloring is complete the thread is again placed on the rectangular frame, the over-tying is removed and the warp is ready for the loom (plate xxii.) in the loom (plate xxiii) the threads encircle a bamboo pole attached to the wall, and are held tense by a strap which passes around the waist of the operator. the weft threads are forced up against the fabric by means of the comber board and are beaten in with a baton. the warp threads are held in their relative positions, first by the comber board, second by loops which pass under the lower threads and over a small stick or lease rod, and lastly by passing over and under, or around, other lease rods. these are rolled away as the work progresses. [ ] _morinda bracteata roxb_. [ ] woof threads are generally of one color. a somewhat similar process used in java is described by sir thos. raffles in the history of java, vol. i, p. . [transcriber's note: although footnote appears on the same page as the above paragraph, it is not clear to what particular part of that paragraph it refers.] after the cloth is removed from the loom it is polished. a long pole of _palma brava_ is fitted into a notch in the roof. the operator seats herself on the floor with a smooth board before her, or in her lap, and on it places the dampened cloth. a shell is fitted over the lower end of the pole, which is bent and made bowlike, until the shell rests on the cloth. it is then ironed rapidly to and fro until the fabric has received a high polish (plate xxiv). the woman's duties do not end with the manufacture of cloth, for all the garments worn by the members of the tribe are the result of her handiwork. she sews the strips of hemp cloth into skirts, men's trousers, carrying bags, and sometimes into jackets. the women devote hours of labor to these jackets, covering arms, necks, and waist bands with colored embroidery or designs in applique, while on the better garments they place elaborate designs in beads or shell disks. after the evening meal is over the women of the household gather around the flickering lights, and until far into the night work on these garments, bead necklaces, or other ornaments. only a few of the weavers attempt to make the peculiar chocolate-colored head covering worn by the _magani_. for these kerchiefs the woman weaves a square cotton cloth of the desired size, and at one corner attaches a small brass hook. joined to the hook, by means of a chain, is a loop which fits over the toes of the operator, thus enabling her to keep the fabric taut while her hands are left free for work. small sections of this cloth are raised and are wrapped with waxed thread, so that when the fabric is dyed these portions will not receive the coloring matter (plate xxv). later the overtying is removed, leaving small white rings or squares on a chocolate-colored background. these cloths are meant primarily for the warriors, but expert weavers, who are under the protection of a certain powerful spirit, are also permitted to wear an upper garment of this material. a considerable part of the man's time is consumed in preparation for, or actual participation in, hunting or warfare, but in addition to this he does a goodly portion of the work in the fields, and is the house builder. when a man is about to erect a dwelling he notifies his friends to come and aid him. this they will do without pay, but when in need of similar services they will expect and will receive similar help. all sorts of house-furnishings, such as spoons, meat blocks, or rice mortars are made by the man, and not infrequently, he assists in the making or waterproofing of baskets. a few of the old men of cibolan still engage in the manufacture of small shell disks with which valuable suits are decorated, but the greater part of those now in use have been inherited, or are purchased from neighboring peoples. the men carve beads out of "job's tears"[ ] and make them into necklaces. for this purpose a peculiarly carved and decorated stick is employed (plate xxvi). this is placed in the palm of the left hand so that the thumb and forefinger can hold the seed which fits into a depression in the top. a knife in the right hand of the artist is worked over the seed thus cutting a line into which dirt is rubbed. women's combs are made by shaping a half circle out of light wood and then cutting teeth into it with a saw-like blade of tin or iron. [ ] _coix lachryma johi l_. among the men, as with the women, certain industries are monopolized by a few individuals. in this community no men stand higher in the estimation of their fellows than do the smiths and the casters of copper. the writer spent many hours watching i-o, the brass and copper worker of cibolan, while he shaped bells, bracelets, and betel boxes at his forge on the outskirts of the village (plate xxvii). feathered plungers, which worked up and down in two bamboo cylinders, forced air through a small clay-tipped tube into a charcoal fire. this served as a bellows, while a small cup made of straw ashes formed an excellent crucible. the first day i watched i-o, he was making bells. taking a ball of wax the size of a bucket shot, he put it on the end of a stick (fig. a), and over this moulded the form of a bell in damp ashes obtained from rice straw (b). when several bells were thus fashioned they were dipped in melted wax and were turned on a leaf until smooth, after which an opening was cut through the wax at the bottom of each form (c). strips of wax were rolled out and laid in shallow grooves which had been cut in the sides of the bells and were pressed in, at intervals, with a small bamboo knife (d). the top stick was then withdrawn, leaving an opening down to the wax ball inside. into this hole a thin strip of wax was inserted and was doubled back on itself so as to form a hanger (e). for three days the forms were allowed to harden and were covered with several coats of damp straw ashes. finally they were laid in a bed of the same material with a thin strip of wax leading from each bell to a central core (f). [fig. ] the whole, with the exception of the top of the central wax strip, was covered with a thick coating of damp ashes, and when this had hardened pieces of copper, secured from broken gongs, were placed in the crucible, melted and poured into the open end of the clay form. the molten metal took the place of the wax as it was dissolved and flowed to all parts where it had been. after being dropped in water the form was broken open, revealing six nearly perfect little bells which were ready for use as soon as the ashes were removed from them. the same method was used for all other casting. clay forms were made as desired, were covered with wax, and the final coating of ashes applied before the casting. the workers in copper and brass are under the care and guidance of a spirit, tolus ka towangan, for whom they make a yearly ceremony, _gomek towangan_. fig. . stages in the manufacture of metal bells. fig. . stage in the manufacture of metal bells. [transcriber's note: two different figures on different pages are both labeled fig. .] of even greater importance are the smiths who are also under the care of a powerful spirit for whom the _gomek-gomanan_ ceremony is celebrated each year, just prior to the planting time. their forges are hidden away in the hemp fields, and i was repeatedly informed that no woman might see the smith at work. whether or no such a rule is rigidly enforced at all times i cannot say, but at no time did i see a woman about the forge while the fire was burning, and although i was allowed to see and photograph the process, my wife was at all times prevented from doing so. the forge differs in no material respects from that used by the brass casters, except that hollowed out logs replace the bamboo tubes, and that a metal anvil and iron hammers are used. after an iron knife or spear head has been roughly shaped, the smith splits the edge to a slight depth and inserts a band of steel. the iron is pounded down on the harder metal and the whole is brought to a white heat in the charcoal fire. removing it to the anvil the smith gives the blade one or two light blows and returns it to the fire. this is repeated many times before he begins to add the heavy strokes which finally weld the iron and steel together. the blade having been given its final shape is again heated and is held above a tube of water until the glowing metal begins to turn a yellowish green, when it is plunged into the cold water. this process, repeated many times, gives a fair temper to the whole weapon. charcoal for the fire is secured by burning logs and chilling them suddenly with cold water. brass wire, secured in trade, is made into bracelets in the following manner. in order to soften it and make it more easily worked the roll of wire is heated until it begins to turn grey, when it is allowed to cool and is scraped, so as to restore the yellow color. one end is laid on an anvil made of an iron strip on a wooden block (plate xxvii), and is cut into various designs by means of metal dies. a wooden cone is used as a form, about which the wire is placed in order to shape and measure it. hemp[ ] grows wild in the davao district and the bagobo have, for generations, used it in the manufacture of their clothing. in recent years the demand for fiber has shown the people an easy way to secure the trade articles which they desire and, as a result, rather extensive plantings are found even in the more remote districts. the women strip a large part of the fiber in local use, but all that prepared for trade is produced by the men. when the ever-present cogon grass begins to invade a clearing, the young hemp is planted. in about eighteen months it has grown to a height of some sixteen feet and is ready to be cut. the man goes to the fields, cuts down some stalks and, having removed the leaves, splits off the outer fiber layers from the cellular matter of the interior, using a bone knife for this purpose. when he has accumulated a sufficient number of strips he carries them to the hemp machine (fig. ). this consists of a knife which rests on a wooden block. the handle turns on a pivot and the end is drawn upwards by means of a bent twig, or sapling, which acts as a spring. this spring is lowered and the knife blade raised by means of a foot treadle; a strip of hemp is laid on the block; the foot pressure is removed, and the knife descends. taking a firm hold of one end of the strip, the operator draws it toward him under the blade, thus removing the pulp and leaving the free hemp threads. these are hung in the sun until dry, when they are tied in bundles ready to be carried to the coast. the work is hard and, unless necessity forces him to greater effort, a man seldom engages in it for more than three or four days in a month. he thinks his duty ceases with this expenditure of energy and, unless he is fortunate enough to possess animals or slaves, is quite content to allow his wife, or wives, to carry the product to the coast trader. [ ] _musa textilis_. fig. . hemp machine. during ceremonies and at festivals a fermented drink made of sugar cane is served, and in anticipation of its pleasurable effects the bagobo is willing to expend a considerable amount of effort. the juice of the cane is extracted by means of a press made of two logs arranged in parallel horizontal positions, so that the end of a wooden lever can slip under one and rest in a groove cut in the other (fig. ). the cane is placed in the groove and the operator bears his weight on the lever, thus squeezing out the juice. after being boiled with the bark of certain trees and lime juice, the liquor is sealed in jars or bamboo tubes and is stored away until needed. fig. . sugar cane press. the sago palm is found in parts of the bagobo territory, and in times of need, the people make temporary camps near to the sago districts, where they prepare the flour. this is done in the same manner as is fully described on page . the most important thing in the life of the bagobo is the care of the rice, for on this crop he depends for the greater part of his food supply, and by its condition he can ascertain with what favor he is looked upon by the spirits. so closely is the cultivation of this cereal coupled with the religious beliefs that it is necessary, in this relation, to describe the ceremonies connected with it. we have previously stated that the incursion of the cogon grass into the fields makes necessary some new clearings each year. in the month of december a constellation known as _balatik_ appears in the sky. this has a double significance; first, it is the reminder for the yearly sacrifice; and secondly, it notifies all workers that the tools, which are to be used in making new clearings, shall be placed in readiness. all those who expect to prepare new fields for themselves, or are to assist others in such work, gather at the forge of the local smith and there take part in a ceremony held in honor of his patron spirit. they carry with them offerings of rice and chickens which they cook in bamboo tubes, for food taken from a pot is not acceptable to this spirit. when all is ready the food is placed on a rice winnower, near to the forge, and on it the men lay their weapons and working knives (plate xxix). standing before the offering the smith, in a droning voice, calls on the spirit, beseeching him to come and eat of the food, to accept the weapons and tools, and having done so to be watchful over the workers during the clearing time, so that they may not be injured in the work or be molested by enemies. the prayer finished, the smith eats a little of the food, and all the men follow his example, but no woman may so much as touch this offering. meanwhile other food which can be eaten by all has been prepared. after the meal the weapons and tools which are to be used during the clearing time are removed, but, as they now belong to the spirit, they can never be disposed of without first recompensing him. during this day there is a strict prohibition against music and dancing. for three days the men abstain from work and the forge stands idle. when the fire is again lighted the first knife made is the property of the spirit. with the ending of the period of taboo the workers go to the fields and, in the center of each, place a _tambara_[ ] fitted with a white dish containing betel nut. this is an offering to eugpamolak manobo, who is besought to drive from the field any _tigbanawa_ or _tagamaling_[ ] who may live there, to keep the workers in good health, to allow an abundant crop, and, finally, to make the owner rich and happy. the weeds, brush, and trees, after being cut and allowed to dry are fired, while the logs remaining after this initial burning are piled together and again set on fire, and the field is ready for the planting. no soil is broken and not a seed goes into the ground until the spirits again designate the time, by placing the constellation _marara_ in the sky. this appears early in april, and is followed by a period of great activity in the fields. if, for any reason, the owner of the land cannot plant at this time, he has two or more opportunities given him when the constellations _mamari_ and _bwaya_ appear, the latter toward the end of june. [ ] see p. , fig. . [ ] evil spirits which are classed with the _buso_. see p. . when the workers go to the field on the day set for the planting they enter at one corner and proceed directly across it to the far left hand corner where they erect a small house or place a _tambara_ which is known as _pemeg'ge_. as soon as it is complete, the _mabalian_ begin to call on the spirits. manama[ ] is called first and after him other spirits, according to their rank and power. they are informed that the planting is about to begin and that the people are showing them this mark of respect so that they will not allow anything to interfere with the crop. this done, they go to the center of the field and place a second _tambara_, called _parobanian_, for the spirit taragomi, who owns all food. leaves pleasing to him and presents of food or bracelets are placed in it, as well as in his _tambara_ found in the house.[ ] the owner of the field takes the _malayag_, a large variety of rice, and plants it around the _parobanian_,[ ] and as the last grain is planted the _mabalian_ again starts her prayer, this time beginning with taragomi. she asks for good crops, and protection for the field from all animals, blight and drought. finally, she begs eugpamolak manobo to control the sun and winds so that they will always be favorable to the growing grain. having thus done all in their power to secure the cooperation of the superior beings the men take their rice planters and real work begins.[ ] the planter (fig. ) consists of a long shaft at one end of which is a metal blade while at the other is a bamboo clapper decorated with feathers. when this instrument is struck on the ground it digs a shallow hole an inch or more in depth, the clapper meanwhile keeping up an incessant noise. it is said by some that the rattle is intended to please the guardian spirit of the fields, but this does not seem to be the prevalent idea. the women follow the men, dropping seeds into the holes and pushing the soil over them with their feet. [ ] eugpamolak manobo. [ ] at cibolan only brass objects are placed in this _tambara_. [ ] at digos the _mabalian_ does the planting and harvesting about the _tambara_, and the rice grown there is reserved as seed, for the next season. [ ] father gisbert relates that it is the custom to sacrifice a slave at this time, but this is denied by the _datu_ consulted by the writer. see letters of father gisbert in blair and robertson, the philippine islands, vol. xliii; pp. - . fig. . rice planter with bamboo clapper attached to top. at nightfall of the day in which the planting has been completed a _mabalian_ cooks fish and rice, which she carries to the _parobanian_. early next morning the family goes to the field and eats this offering which "belongs to taragomi, so should be eaten at his house." from this time until harvest the fields must be guarded against birds and animals, but no further offerings take place unless unusual conditions should satisfy the owner that the spirits are demanding more gifts. when harvest time comes the owner and a few of his friends will go to the field and pull a few of the fresh stalks, which they place in the _pemeg'ge_ and _parobanian_, meanwhile addressing the spirits, and the cutting of the rice begins. this is done by women who, for this purpose, employ a small knife called _gelat_ (plate xxixd). the last grain to be cut is that about the _parobanian_. the _mabalian_ cooks a little of the new rice in the house and places a part of it in the various _tambara_ and shrines; then, having placed a number of rice stalks on the floor, she offers them one by one to the spirits. not until she has finished can any of the prepared food be eaten. the balance of the crop lies in the sun until dry, when it is tied in bundles and placed in the granary. when all the harvesting is finished the people will make a festival known as _gatokbia-an_, or _pakakaro_. ordinarily each family will have its own celebration, but at times all the inhabitants of a village will join in one great celebration. the period of toil and doubt is past, the food supply is assured, and the people gather to give thanks. no new england thanksgiving dinner is prepared with greater thought, or less regard for expense, than that which is made ready at this time. the finest of the rice, cocoanuts[sic], eggs, chickens, fish, shrimps, and many other edibles are prepared and placed in certain dishes which are dedicated to the spirits and are used only at this time. these plates are arranged in a row in the center of the room and the _mabalian_ gather around them. taking a wand of sandal wood in her hand one of the number waves it over the offerings, while she chants long prayers. beginning with the most powerful, she addresses the spirits one by one, thanking them for the care they have given to the growing grain and to the laborers, and for the bounteous harvest. frequently individuals will interrupt the proceedings to place near to the _mabalian_ a fine knife or some other prized object which they desire to have presented to the spirits as evidence of their gratitude. at first, it is a little hard to understand this lavishness, but it transpires that the former owners still have possession of these objects, and that the spirits offer no objections to their use, so long as their ownership is not disputed, truly a case of eating the pie but still having it. the knives and other implements which have been used in the fields are laid on a large basket filled with rice, "in order that they may eat, and, therefore, have no cause to injure their owners." another large dish of rice is set aside as a special offering. in some cases this is taken out to the fields, where it is eaten by the wife, or wives of the host; but in cibolan it is kept in the house until the next morning, when it is eaten by all the members of the family. the ceremonial eating of this rice causes the supply to last longer and assures abundant rains for the succeeding crop. part of the food from the dishes is placed in the _tambara_ and shrines, and then all the guests are permitted to feast and make merry. unlike most bagobo ceremonies this one lacks the music of the _agongs_,[ ] for only bamboo guitars, flutes, and the _bolang-bolang_ are permitted at this time. the last named instrument is made by placing a board on a rice mortar; the women gather around it with their wooden pestles and beat a rythmical[sic] tattoo. this concludes the festival proper, but many guests will remain for two or three days to enjoy the hospitality of their host. [ ] copper gongs. on the third morning after the festival the family and some friends will celebrate _bagkes_ "the tying together." the dishes in which food was offered are tied together and are carried to the rice field where, with great solemnity, the little dish in the _parobanian_ is removed and placed among the others, while the people tell it that the other plates have come to take it away, but that it will be returned to its home the following year. the family goes back to the village in silence and after tying all the dishes together place them in the rice granary. in the bagobo settlement at digos, the women hold still another festival following the cutting of the rice. this is known as _gomeng ka taragomi_, or _bitinbagaybe_. in the main it resembles the ceremony of similar name, which the women of malilla hold on the second day of _ginem_ (see page ). a bamboo pole decked with leaves and green fruit of the _areca_ palm is placed in the center of a room and is surrounded with cooked food. after this has been offered to the spirits, it is eaten by the guests who then indulge in dancing about the decorated pole. this generally lasts eight days, but in one instance the festivities continued for sixteen days and nights. the explanation given is that "the women wish to show taragomi and the _nitos_ (anitos) how happy they are because of the good harvest, for when they see this they will be pleased and will help again next year." transportation and trade. the bagobo makes no use of boats or rafts, for until recent times he has lived at a considerable distance from the sea; and the rivers, which flow in deep cañons, may be changed in a day from tiny streams to rushing torrents in which no craft could keep afloat. left to his own devices, he pays little attention to trails, but cuts his way through the underbrush directly to his destination. the government has forced him to clear and maintain several fairly good roads between the larger settlements and the coast, and these are now the highways over which he transports his hemp and other trade articles. quite a number of carabao and horses are to be found in the territory, where they are used as pack and riding animals. both men and women are excellent riders and take great pride in the decoration of their mounts. the saddle used is carved from wood, in exact duplication of those used by the spaniards. the copper bits are also copies, but are of native casting. strings of bells surround the neck of a prized animal, and it is further beautified by an artificial forelock. rattan whips, wound with braid, and decorated with beads, are also a part of his trappings. according to bagobo tradition, they have had horses from the most remote times, and professor blumentritt is inclined to believe that they possessed these animals prior to the arrival of the spaniards. in support of this contention, he points to the fact that, unlike most philippine tribes, they use the malayan name.[ ] [ ] the terms used are, _bait koda_--stallion, and _mamat koda_--mare. [transcriber's note: the uncontracted forms of these phrases are _bayi ta koda'_ and _mama ta koda'_. because _bayi_ means "female" and _mama_ means "male," the definitions of "stallion" and "mare" appear to have been interchanged in error.] heavy loads of field products are transported on animals, or are carried in cylindrical bark or rattan boxes or carrying frames (fig. ). such a receptacle is supported on the back by means of a band which passes around the forehead, or by other bands which slip over the shoulders. both sexes carry loads in this way, although it must be confessed that consideration for the members of the gentler sex has not reached such a stage that they are relieved of any great part of such labor. when gathering grain and forest products, or when searching for snails, the woman attaches a small basket to her belt so that it hangs at a convenient height against her thigh. we have previously noticed the decorated bags and baskets which serve as pockets, and also contain the betel nut outfits. fig. . carrying frame. a small child is supported at the mother's hip by means of a broad sash, which passes over the right shoulder and under the left arm. when it is able to walk the scarf is discarded, and it sits astride the mother's hip, where it is held in place by her left arm. older children and the men devote considerable time to the newcomers, but at a very early age the youngsters begin to run about as wild and carefree as only little savages can. the bagobo is a keen trader and many small articles of all kinds reach, and pass from him through trade; and to make this barter possible he intentionally produces an excess of certain things. chief of these is hemp, which he now carries to the coast traders, and for which he receives trade cloth, iron pots, copper gongs, bells, and the beads which he prizes so highly. in exchange for the betel boxes, bells, and knife guards, which come from his forge, he receives shell disks, certain articles of dress, cooking pots, and various other household articles as well as salt and some animals. the knives made by him are in great demand and often travel far inland. while among the bukidnon of the north-central part of the island the writer secured one blade and guard of undoubted bagobo workmanship. in early days, chinese and moro traders brought gongs, jars, plates, and other crockery, as well as many other articles now among the prized heirlooms of wealthy men or occupying an important place in the ceremonial life of the tribe. through these same channels came the borneo ivory of which the ear plugs are made, while other objects from more distant regions were occasionally brought in. two examples of this trade are now in the collections of the field museum of natural history. one is a jacket made from javanese cloth; the second a belt buckle which apparently originated in perak. local feuds, as well as the desire of individuals to be known as _magani_, have always made it unsafe for small numbers of traders to venture to any great distance from home, and this has been a great hindrance to trade. however, large parties, even from other tribes, sometimes go to a village for purposes of trade, having previously notified the inhabitants of their intentions. while in malilla the writer met with a party of thirty bila-an traders who lived three days' march to the east. the influence of capture, intermarriage, and looting, in carrying the artifacts of one tribe into the territory of another has previously been mentioned. warfare. the offensive weapons used by the bagobo are spears, knives (fig. and plate xxxii), and at times bows and arrows (fig. ). for defense they carry shields, either round or oblong (figs. - ), and cover the body with so many strips of hemp cloth that a knife thrust is warded off. turning his body sideways to the enemy, the warrior crouches behind his shield, keeping up a continuous capering, rushing forward or dancing backward, seeking for an opening but seldom coming to close quarters. arrows and spears are glanced off with the shield. an attack is usually initiated by the throwing of spears, then, if the enemy is at a disadvantage or confused, the warriors rush in to close combat. for this purpose they rely entirely on their knives, and as fencers they are unexcelled. they are but indifferent shots with the bow and arrow, and that weapon is but little used in actual combat. it has been frequently stated that these arrows are poisoned but i was unable to discover a single specimen so prepared. when hard-pressed, or when a camp must be made in dangerous territory, sharpened bamboo sticks--_sogiang_--are stuck into the ground with their points directed toward the enemy. these must be carefully gathered up by the pursuers, who otherwise run the risk of having the knife-like blades driven into their feet. old warriors state that in former years they not only covered the upper part of the body with hemp cloth but wound over this long decorated strips called _gindua_; they also tell of coats of mail made of carabao horn or rattan. none of these outfits exist in the territory today, but it is not at all improbable that they were formerly in use, for the long decorated bands are still found among the bukidnon of the north, with whom some trade is carried on; and a few coats of mail are to be seen among the neighboring moro. fig. a and b. front and back of an oblong shield. fig. a and b. a.--front of a decorated shield. b.--back of shield a. hostile raids against the neighboring bila-an, tagakaolo, and ata seem to have been common from the most ancient times. after the arrival of the spaniards there were many minor conflicts with the moro, and the tribal history takes note of several serious feuds between bagobo villages. single warriors, usually those desiring to become _magani_, sometimes enter hostile territory and there lie in wait for an opportunity to spear a passing foe. the fact that these attacks are frequently from ambush, or that whole families are slain while asleep on the floors of their houses, does not seem to detract in the least from the honor due for the deed. generally, parties of sixty or more, under the direction of a _magani_, are made up to avenge the death of their townspeople, to secure loot and slaves, or to win glory and distinction. an ambush is formed near to a hostile village and just at dawn an attack is made on the early risers who are scattered and unprepared. the invaders are usually satisfied with a few victims and then make their escape. women and children are either killed or are carried away as slaves. it is customary for all the warriors to make at least one cut in the bodies, and to eat a portion of the livers of enemies who have shown great bravery, for in this way it is thought they gain in that quality. this seems to be the only occasion when human flesh is tasted, despite the fact that the members of this tribe have been frequently referred to as cannibals. the warriors of cibolan and malilla formerly carried heads of enemies to their towns and made use of them during the _ginem_ ceremony, while at bansalan and digos a lock of hair, cut from the head of the slain, answered the same purpose. individual raiders sometimes carry home a head or a hand as evidence of a successful fight, and at such times festivals may be held to celebrate the event. however, the trophy soon loses its value and is hung or buried at a distance from the village. head-hunting for the sake of the trophy itself, does not exist here. peace can be effected by means of a blood compact known as _dayandi_. each principal cuts his own wrist until the blood flows freely; this he catches in his free hand and offers to the other participant to drink. sometimes the blood of both is caught and mixed in a dish from which they drink, meanwhile addressing the _tigyama_,[ ] saying, "we are now like brothers, like children of the same parents, and now we cannot fight any more. we ask you to be the witnesses." [ ] see p. . [transcriber's note: pages later in this document.] social organization. there seems to be no trace of clan or totemic grouping among the bagobo. blood relationship is traced as far as the second cousin and is a bar to marriage. the suggestion that a man might marry his mother-in-law was received with horror, but whether this was due to local mother-in-law stories or to an idea of relationship could not be ascertained. however, a man may marry the sister of his wife. each district has its head man, or petty _datu_ who is supposed to be subject to the _datu_ of cibolan. this seems actually to have been the case until a few years ago, when some of the local rulers withdrew their allegiance. the office is hereditary and usually passes from the father to his eldest son. should the _datu_ be without an heir, or the son be considered inefficient, the under chiefs and wise old men may choose a leader from among their number. in his own district the power of the _datu_ is very great, but even he is obliged to respect the laws and customs handed down by the ancestors. he is supreme judge in all matters, though he may, if he desires, call in the old men to help him decide difficult cases. the usual method of punishment is by means of a fine. should the culprit be unwilling or unable to pay he is placed in servitude until such a time as the debt is considered canceled, but should he refuse to serve he is killed without further ado. the _datu_ appoints a man for this purpose, and he usually gets his victim by stealth, either by waylaying him in the road or by driving a spear through him as he lies asleep on the floor of his house. when a fine is levied the _datu_ retains a portion as pay for his services; if the more drastic punishment follows it serves to emphasize his power and is more valuable to him than the payment. when his house needs repairing, his hemp requires stripping, or his fields need attention, his followers give him assistance. in return for these services he helps support a number of fighting men who can always be called upon for the defence of the people. his house is considered the property of all to the extent that anyone goes there at any time and stays as long as he pleases, partaking meanwhile of the _datu's_ food. in times of danger, or during festivals, all the people assemble there and assist, in the defense or the merry-making. datu tongkaling is the most industrious man in the tribe. he does not hesitate to work in the rice fields, to aid in the house-building or to take his turn at the forge, neither will he tolerate any loafing on the part of his followers. while in most instances he mingles freely with his people he never eats with them. his wives, children, and guests eat from a long row of dishes set on the floor, but the _datu_ takes his food alone at a considerable distance from the others. the balance of the people can be roughly divided between freeman and slaves, but slavery here is of such a mild type, and the members of that class become so quickly merged into the tribe that the lines cannot be closely drawn. women and children secured in raids become the slaves of their captors, and may be bought and sold, or pass by inheritance, like other property. it is considered proper for a man to live with his slave without marrying her, but should she become pregnant she is usually given her freedom at once; if not then, she is certain to be upon the death of her master, while her offspring are free and legitimate heirs. children born to a slave couple remain in their class, as do those born to a slave mother and a man not her master. these slaves are treated with kindness and consideration and seldom try to make their escape. in fact it is often difficult to pick out the members of this class from the other members of the family. the chief aim in life of the man is to have the right to wear the blood-red clothing and to be known as _magani_. as stated earlier in the paper, this term is applied to a man who has killed two or more persons. he is then entitled to wear the peculiar chocolate-colored head covering (plate xxv). when his score has reached four he can don blood-red trousers, and when he has six lives to his credit he is permitted to wear the complete blood-red suit and to carry a bag of the same color.[ ] from that time on his clothing does not change with the number of his victims, but his influence increases with each life put to his credit. it is said that formerly, at digos and bansalan, a man who had killed twenty or more was known as _gemawan_, and was distinguished by a black hemp suit. this claim to the black clothing is no longer respected, and such garments are worn by any who desire them. the man who has never killed a person is called _matalo_, a rather slighting term signifying one who has no desire to fight but remains at home with the women. a man who kills an unfaithful wife and her admirer may count the two on his score. he may also count those of his townspeople whom he has killed in fair fight, but unprovoked murder will be punished by the death of the offender. the candidate for _magani_ honors may go to an unfriendly town, or to a neighboring tribe, and kill without fear of censure from his own people. [ ] this is the rule at cibolan. at malilla and digos, the kerchief may be worn when one life has been taken, the trousers for two, the coat for three, and finally the sack for four. [transcriber's note: _matalo_ in the paragraph above means "coward."] the _magani_ is one of the leaders in a war party; he is chosen to inflict the death penalty when it is decreed, and it is men of this class that assist in the human sacrifices. he is under the special protection of mandarangan and darago, and all petitions to these powerful spirits must be made through him. his clothing is considered the property of these spirits, and when such specimens were secured for the collection, the wearer would invariably place the garment beside some prized article, such as a knife or spear, then taking a green betel nut would rub the garment and object, meanwhile beseeching the spirits to leave the one and enter the other. later the nut was placed in the _tambara_ belonging to those spirits. a father may not bequeath to his son the right to the red clothing; and such articles, together with his weapons, should be buried with him. should one not entitled to these garments dare to make use of them, the spirits would straightway cause his body to swell or turn yellow, and he would die. in a previous paragraph we mentioned the unorganized priesthood, the members of which are known as _mabalian_. men are not barred from this profession, but the greater number of its members are old, or middle-aged, women.[ ] a woman may live the greater part of her life without an idea of becoming a member of this order, and then suddenly be warned in dreams, by visions, or by other _mabalian_ that she has been chosen by the spirits. the one thus elected becomes a pupil of a qualified _mabalian_ and for several months will be drilled in the duties of that office. she will be taught the medicines to be used at certain times,[ ] the duties of a midwife, the correct method of building shrines and conducting ceremonies, and finally, she will learn the prayers with which the spirits should be addressed. it seems to be the belief that, at times during the ceremonies, the _mabalian_ may be possessed by a spirit and that she then speaks not as a mortal but as the spirit itself. she also knows how to weave and dye the turban worn by the _magani_, and because of this accomplishment is considered to be under the protection of baitpandi,[ ] and is permitted to wear garments made of red cloth, the same as the _magani_. [ ] there are five _mabalian_ in cibolan, all of whom are women past middle life. [ ] a medicine is used with the idea that it assists in driving away evil influences. [ ] the patron spirit of the weavers. the workers in the various crafts are under the guidance and protection of special spirits, but there is no bar against other members of the tribe entering those professions. apparently then, bagobo society is divided into several classes or divisions, but with the exception of a few individuals in the slave class, there is a possibility or an opportunity for each member of the tribe to enter any class open to his or her sex. even a slave woman may become the wife of a _datu_, and her son may assume the leadership of the tribe. laws. property and inheritance. the laws of the people are those imposed by custom and religion, and are equally binding on all classes. public opinion is sufficient to prevent most crimes; the fear of offending the spirits is a further deterrent; while the final bar is the drastic punishment meted out by the _datu_. theft is punished by the levying of a fine if the culprit is able to pay, or by a term of servitude if he has no property. if a husband finds that his wife has been unfaithful, he should kill both her and her admirer, but the spear with which he avenges his wrongs should be left in the body of one of the victims, as a sign that the murder was provoked by the fault. when this is done the husband cannot be held accountable either to the _datu_ or to the dead person's relatives. if, however, he withdraws the weapon, the brothers or other male relatives of the deceased have a right and a duty to avenge the deaths. a man who has killed his wife and her lover is allowed to count both on his score towards becoming a _magani_--a further incentive for him to avenge his wrongs. cases are known where the husband accepted payment for his wife's affections, but it was considered a sign of weakness, or cowardice, and the man lost caste. unprovoked murder of one from the same or a friendly village is punished by death. a man having illicit relations with a slave woman, not his own, is subjected to a heavy fine or a term of servitude. incest should be punished by the death of the culprits for should such a crime go unpunished the spirits would cause the sea to rise and cover the land. datu tongkaling claims that on two occasions, since he became ruler, he has put such offenders to death. in the first case he had the couple bound and thrown into the sea, while in the second instance, they were tied to trees in the forest and sacrificed in the presence of all the people of the village. prohibitions exist against the wearing of the clothing which distinguishes warriors and priestesses, and there are rules governing the conduct of individuals while near shrines or during ceremonies, but punishment for the breaking of these rules is meted out by the spirits rather than by the _datu_. each settlement is recognized as having property rights to all adjacent lands. within these recognized limits, its members may take up as much land as they need, provided it is not already in use, but when a field is, for any reason, abandoned it again becomes the property of the community. individual ownership extends to houses, furnishings, and all articles of clothing, as well as to weapons, traps, animals, and slaves. although bought with a price the wife is still very independent and has undisputed rights to her baskets, cooking utensils, looms, and to the finery with which she adorns her person. since all the people assist in the support of the _datu_ they consider his home to be, to a certain extent, their own and make use of it and its furnishings without question. probably at no place in the world has borrowing gone to greater extremes than here. when attempting to purchase clothing, or articles in daily use, the writer frequently found that not a single garment worn by an individual was his own; and it was usually necessary to consult several persons in order to secure a complete outfit. upon the death of a man, his property is taken in charge by his first wife, or by the old men, and is divided equally among his wives and children, with perhaps a little extra added to the share of the first mate. the belongings of a free-born woman go to her children, or, in case she is barren, are given to her relatives. in cases where both the parents are dead, the children pass into the care of the father's family. despite the fact that property is owned by individuals, a large part of the labor, especially in house-building and in the fields, is done in common. when a man desires to clear or plant a field or to build a house, he summons his friends to aid him and they respond with no idea of payment other than their food and drink, and the return of like services when they are in similar need. birth. for about six months before and after the birth of a child the mother is relieved from hard labor; she is not allowed to taste of any thing sour, neither may she eat dried fish or flesh, lest her child be thin and weak. the father is under no restrictions other than that he is expected to remain near to his home for a few days following the birth of a child. other action on his part would be considered by the spirits as an admission that he does not care for the child, and they would cause the umbilical cord to decay so that the child would die. the mother is delivered in the regular dwelling, where she is attended by two or more midwives or _mabalian_.[ ] she is placed with her back against an inclined board, while in her hands she holds a rope which is attached to the roof. with the initial pains, one of the midwives massages the abdomen, while another prepares a drink made from leaves, roots, and bark, and gives it to the expectant woman. the preparation of this concoction was taught by friendly spirits, and it is supposed to insure an easy delivery. still another _mabalian_ spreads a mat in the middle of the room, and on it places valuable cloths, weapons, and gongs, which she offers to the spirits; praying that they will make the birth easy and give good health to the infant. the articles offered at this time can be used by their former owners but as they are now the property of the spirits they must not be sold or traded. the writer was very anxious to secure an excellent weapon which had been thus offered. the user finally agreed to part with it but first he placed it beside another of equal value, and taking a piece of betel nut he rubbed each weapon with it a number of times, then dipping his fingers in the water he touched both the old and the new blades, all the time asking the spirit to accept and enter the new weapon. the child is removed by the _mabalian_ who, in cutting the umbilical cord, makes use of the kind of knife used by the members of the child's sex, otherwise the wound would never heal. the child is placed on a piece of soft betel bark, "for its bones are soft and our hands are hard and are apt to break the soft bones," then water is poured over it and its body is rubbed with _pogonok_.[ ] the afterbirth is placed in a bamboo tube, is covered with ashes and a leaf, and the whole is hung against the side of the dwelling where it remains until it falls of its own accord or the house is destroyed. in cibolan the midwife applies a mixture of clay and herbs called _karamir_ to the eyes of all who have witnessed the birth "so that they will not become blind." having done this she gives the child its name, usually that of a relative, and her duties are over. as payment she will receive a large and a small knife, a plate, some cloth, and a needle.[ ] [ ] in cibolan the midwife is called _taratek-ekn_, and need not be a _mabalian_. [ ] a medicine made of bark and rattan. [ ] the payment given at the birth of a boy is somewhat greater than that for a girl. in malilla the naming does not take place until three clays after the birth, and the eyes are not always anointed, although the old people agree that it is an ancient custom and "a good thing to do." at that time the mat containing the gifts is spread on the floor and the offerings are again called to the attention of the spirits, who are urged to look to the welfare of the child. should the infant be ailing, or cry a great deal, it is a sign that the spirits are displeased with the name given to it and another will be substituted; however, this does not seem to be done with an idea of fooling the spirits, as is the case with some other tribes. the child is nursed until two or three years of age, or until another takes its place. there is no superstition concerning twins, but triplets are at once put to death by filling their mouths with ashes, otherwise "the parents would die, for they are like dogs." when questioned concerning abortion, datu tongkaling asserted that he considered it "very bad," and that he would prohibit any _mabalian_ who assisted in such a practice from continuing her profession, but he said that despite his orders secret medicines which produce that result are sometimes administered. such a practice is not common, however, as children are greatly desired and no worse slur can be applied to a woman than to speak of her as barren. so far as could be learned there is no ceremony or celebration of any kind when a child reaches the age of puberty but soon thereafter its teeth will be filed and blackened. in some villages the boys are circumcised, but the practice is not compulsory, neither is it general throughout the territory. marriage. marriage among the bagobo takes place much later than is common among most philippine tribes, the couple often being eighteen or twenty years of age. as a rule the parents of the boy select the girl and negotiate the match. going to the house of the girl they casually broach the subject and if her parents are favorable, a day is set to discuss the details. this meeting is attended by the friends and relatives of both families, and two head-men or _datu_ must also be present to represent the contracting parties. the price the girl should bring varies according to the wealth of the interested parties and the accomplishments of the bride. whatever the sum paid, the father of the girl must make a return present equal to one-half the value of the marriage gift "so that he does not sell his daughter like a slave." usually marriage does not take place until a year or more after this settlement, and during the interval the boy must serve his father-in-law to be. when the time for the final ceremony arrives the relatives and friends assemble and for two or three days they feast and make merry. a _mabalian_ spreads a mat on the floor, places on it many valuable articles and then offers all to the spirits, in order that they may be pleased to give the couple a long and prosperous life together. finally, she puts a dish of rice on the mat and, after offering it to the spirits, places it between the boy and the girl as they sit on the floor. the girl takes a handful of the rice and feeds it to the boy who, in turn, feeds her, and the ceremony is complete. the couple may then go to their new home, but for several years the girl's family will exact a certain amount of service from the groom. a slight variation of the usual order occurred recently at the marriage of one of datu tongkaling's sons. at that time all the details were arranged by the _datu_, who, accompanied by his son and a number of relatives, went to the girl's house and proposed the union. after the girl had brought wine, betel nut, and food, and had placed them before the visitors, she was directed by her mother to make a carrying bag for her lover. had she objected to the union and refused to make this gift, her decision would probably have been accepted as final and all negotiations abandoned. however, it is not customary for the young people to refuse to carry out the wishes of their elders. as the girl offered no objections, the party fell to discussing the price the groom should pay, and finally, after several hours of bargaining, decided that he should furnish her father with one _agong_,[ ] one horse, and a double betel box.[ ] five days later, when he paid this sum, he received a return gift of one _agong_ and ten skirts from the bride's mother. about one-half the value of the groom's gift was distributed among the girl's relatives, who were at the same time admonished that, in case a separation should occur, they would be expected to return an equal amount. in the presence of about a hundred friends, the pair drank wine from the same dish, then submitted to having a little hair cut from their heads, and were pronounced man and wife. before they retired for the night the _mabalian_ combed their hair, then, having directed the groom to precede his bride to their sleeping place, she secured a child and placed it on the mat between the pair. this, she explained, was an old custom, and was done so that the girl might not be ashamed, for she was not the first to sleep there. having finished this duty, she returned to the center of the room and placed a number of plates and a knife on the _tambara_, where they were allowed to remain for four days as offerings to the _anito_, manama, toglai and the _tigyama_.[ ] at the end of that period the plates were attached to the outside walls of the house, and the knife returned to its former owner. this completed the duties of the _mabalian_ who returned home carrying an _agong_, the payment for her services. [ ] large copper gong. [ ] much more is often given. one girl in cibolan brought six horses, five agongs, and several spears and knives. [ ] see p. . [transcriber's note: pages after this.] a man may have as many wives as he desires and can afford, but he may not take a second mate until a child has been born to the first union, or the wife has been proved beyond doubt to be barren. the groom renders no services to the father of the second wife, but instead of this pays a double price for the girl, for he not only pays her parents but is forced also to give a like sum to his first wife, who, in turn, presents it to her father. should a third wife be added to the family a sum equal to her cost is divided among the earlier wives. the first wife is generally the lady of the house and does not particularly object to having other girls added to the family, provided they are willing to obey her. datu tongkaling has had four wives, three of whom are still living. if a couple cannot agree, a separation can be arranged by applying to the local head-man, who, after listening to their troubles, decides which one is at fault, and whether or no the marriage gifts must be returned. when a couple parts, plates, bowls, and jars are sometimes broken as a sign that they will never live together again and the spirits are thus called to witness. a divorced woman may remarry, but unless the sum originally paid for her has been returned, the new groom must pay such an amount to the first husband. sickness and death. in case of illness a _mabalian_ administers some simple remedy without any call on the spirits. if, however, the sickness does not yield readily to this treatment, it is evident that the trouble is caused by some spirit who can only be appeased by a gift, betel nuts, leaves, food, clothing, and some article in daily use by the patient are placed in a dish of palm bark and on top of all is laid a roughly carved figure of a man. this offering is passed over the body of the patient while the _mabalian_ addresses the spirits as follows. "now, you can have the man on this dish, for we have changed him for the sick man. pardon anything this man may have done, and let him be well again." immediately after this the dish is carried away and hidden so that the sick person may never see it again, for should he do so the illness would return. according to father gisbert a doll is carved from a piece of wood and the spirit is addressed: "o god, thou who has created men and trees, and all things, do not deprive us of life, and receive in exchange this bit of wood which has our face." in obstinate cases the invalid may be removed from his own house to another, in order that he may be under the care of the good spirits residing there. the _mabalian_ appplies[sic] certain medicines and then decrees a period of taboo, during which no outsiders may enter the house. those within at the time the medicine was given may go out if they desire, but must return there to sleep. should it become evident that the patient will die he is taken back to his own place, otherwise his family would be called upon to reimburse the owner of the house in which the death occurs, for bringing evil or unfriendly spirits into their dwelling. governor bolton describes a somewhat different procedure among the members of the guianga branch of this tribe. having learned that datu angalan was ill he went to see him, but found his house deserted. the _datu_ was finally located in a small hut about a hundred yards away from his own dwelling, with no attendants. the governor writes, "when i went in the tribesmen entered. i soon found that i had broken a charm which prevented anyone seeing him for a certain time; that he had been placed in the hut for that reason, and to insure his not dying in the large house. it is likely that they had a human sacrifice at that time."[ ] [ ] extract from letters of gov. bolton, in files of the governor at davao. following a death the body is covered with good clothing and is placed in the middle of the house. wailers sit by the corpse, fanning it to keep away flies, or making an occasional offering of food; while the friends gather to talk of the virtues of the deceased, to console the family, and to partake of the food and drink which has been provided for the gathering. the body is kept over one night, and in the case of great personages, for three days, or until the coffin--a large log split in halves and hollowed out--is prepared. when this is ready the body is placed in it, together with some prized articles of the deceased. after the top has been fitted to the lower portion, they are lashed together and the cracks are filled with lime.[ ] the body is buried beneath the house, and the grave is protected by a bamboo fence, within which is placed food, small offerings, or perhaps a shield and spear. in some instances the coffin is allowed to remain in the house, which is then abandoned. it is said that when datu taopan died his funeral lasted ten days, and on the last day the house was decked, inside and out, with flowers and valuable gifts, and was then deserted. [ ] when the deceased has been a person of note the coffin is sometimes decorated or colored. the coffin of a _magani_ should be red, yellow, and black; while that of a _mabalian_ should be yellow, black, and brown. following the burial the family lives in the house where the death occurred until a human sacrifice has been made. during this period they live very quietly, eat poor food, wear old clothing, and abstain from all amusements. if their wealth permits, they may shorten the period of mourning by making a special sacrifice, but in most cases the bereaved will wait until the yearly sacrifice when they will purchase a share in the victim and thus remove the taboo. following the offering, the old house is abandoned and is allowed to fall to pieces for "the man has gone and his house must go also." the procedure is the same for women, and for children who have survived infancy. beliefs concerning the soul, spirits, oracles, and magic. there is some variance, in different parts of the bagobo area, in the beliefs concerning the spirits or souls of a man. in cibolan each man and woman is supposed to have eight spirits or _gimokod_, which dwell in the head, the right and left hands and feet, and other parts not specified. at death these _gimokod_ part, four from the right side of the body, going up to a place called _palakalangit_, and four descending to a region known as _karonaronawan_.these places differ in no respects from the present home of the bagobo, except that in the region above it is always day, and all useful plants grow in abundance. in these places the _gimokod_ are met by the spirits, toglai and tigyama, and by them are assigned to their future homes. if a man has been a _datu_ on earth, his spirits have like rank in the other life, but go to the same place as those of common people. the _gimokod_ of evil men are punished by being crowded into poor houses. these spirits may return to their old home for short periods, and talk with the _gimokod_ of the living through dreams, but they never return to dwell again on earth. in the districts to the west of cibolan the general belief is that there are but two _gimokod_, one inhabiting the right side of the body, the other the left. that of the right side is good, while all evil deeds and inclinations come from the one dwelling on the left. it is a common thing when a child is ill to attach a chain bracelet to its right arm and to bid the good spirit not to depart, but to remain and restore the child to health. in malilla it is believed that after death the spirit of the right side goes to a good place, while the one on the left remains to wander about on earth as a _buso_,[ ] but this latter belief does not seem to be shared by the people of other districts. [ ] see p. . aside from the _gimokod_ the bagobo believe that there exists a great company of powerful spirits who make their homes in the sky above, in the space beneath the world, or in the sea, in streams, cliffs, mountains, or trees. the following is the list related by datu tongkaling, a number of _mabalian_, and others supposed to have special knowledge concerning these superior beings. i. eugpamolak manobo, also called manama and kalayagan. the first and greatest of the spirits, and the creator of all that is. his home is in the sky from whence he can observe the doings of men. gifts for him should be white, and should be placed above and in the center of offerings intended for other spirits. he may be addressed by the _mabalian_, the _datu_, and wise old men. ii. tolus ka balakat, "dweller in the _balakat_[ ]." a male spirit who loves the blood, but not the flesh of human beings, and one of the three for whom the yearly sacrifice is made. only the _magani_ may offer petitions to him. he is not recognized by the people of digos and vicinity. [ ] a hanger in which offerings are placed. iii and iv. mandarangan and his wife darago. this couple look after the fortunes of the warriors, and in return demand the yearly sacrifice of a slave. they are supposed to dwell in the great fissure of mt. apo, from which clouds of sulphur fumes are constantly rising. the intentions of this pair are evil, and only the utmost care on the part of the _magani_ can prevent them from causing quarrels and dissentions[sic] among the people, or even actually devouring some of them. v. taragomi. a male spirit who owns all food. he is the guardian of the crops and it is for him that the shrine known as _parobanian_ is erected in the center of the rice field. vi. tolus ka towangan. the patron of the workers in brass and copper. vii. tolus ka gomanan. patron of the smiths. viii. baitpandi. a female spirit who taught the women to weave, and who now presides over the looms and the weavers. ix. and x. toglai, also called si niladan and maniladan, and his wife toglibon. the first man and woman to live on the earth. they gave to the people their language and customs. after their death they became spirits, and are now responsible for all marriages and births. by some people toglai is believed to be one of the judges over the shades of the dead, while in bansalan he is identified with eugpamolak manobo. xi. tigyama. a class of spirits, one of whom looks after each family. when children marry, the _tigyama_ of the two families unite to form one who thereafter guards the couple. while usually well disposed they are capable of killing those who fail to show them respect, or who violate the rules governing family life. xii. diwata. a class of numerous spirits who serve eugpamolak manobo. xiii. anito. a name applied to a great body of spirits, some of whom are said formerly to have been people. they know all medicines and cures for illness, and it is from them that the _mabalian_ secures her knowledge and her power. they also assist the _tigyama_ in caring for the families. xiv. buso. mean, evil spirits who eat dead people and have some power to injure the living. a young bagobo described his idea of a _buso_ as follows: "he has a long body, long feet and neck, curly hair, and black face, flat nose, and one big red or yellow eye. he has big feet and fingers, but small arms, and his two big teeth are long and pointed. like a dog he goes about eating anything, even dead persons." as already noted, the people of malilla are inclined to identify the _gimokod_ of the left side with this evil class. xv. tagamaling. evil spirits who dwell in big trees. xvi. tigbanua. ill disposed beings inhabiting rocks and cliffs in the mountains. these last two classes are frequently confused with the _buso_. in addition to these, the old men of malilla gave the following: . tagareso. low spirits who cause people to become angry and to do little evil deeds. in some cases they cause insanity. . sarinago. spirits who steal rice. it is best to appease them, otherwise the supply of rice will vanish rapidly. . tagasoro. beings who cause sudden anger which results in quarrels and death. they are the ones who furnish other spirits with human flesh. and . balinonok and his wife balinsogo. this couple love blood and for this reason cause men and women to fight or to run amuck. . siring. mischievous spirits who inhabit caves, cliffs, and dangerous places. they have long nails and can be distinguished by that characteristic. they sometimes impersonate members of the family and thus succeed in stealing women and children, whom they carry to their mountain homes. the captives are not eaten but are fed on snakes and worms, and should they try to escape the _siring_ will scratch them with their long nails. other spirits were named and described by individuals, but as they are not generally accepted by the people of the tribe they are not mentioned here. the stars, thunder and lightning, and similar phenomena are generally considered as "lights or signs" belonging to the spirits, yet one frequently hears hazy tales such as that "the constellation marara is a one-legged and one-armed man who sometimes causes cloudy weather at planting time so that people may not see his deformities," or we are told that "the sun was placed in the sky by the creator, and on it lives an evil spirit who sometimes kills people. the sun is moved about by the wind;" again, "the sun and moon were once married and all the stars are their children." despite repeated assertions by previous writers that the bagobo are fire-worshippers no evidence was obtained during our visit to support the statement. the older people insisted that it was not a spirit and that no offerings were ever made to it. one _mabalian_ stated that fire was injurious to a woman in her periods and hence it was best for her not to cook at such times; she was also of the opinion that fire was of two kinds, good and bad, and hence might belong to both good and bad spirits. a common method used by the spirits to communicate with mortals is through the call of the _limokon_[ ] all the people know the meaning of its calls and all respect its warnings. if a man is starting to buy or trade for an article and this bird gives its warning the sale is stopped. should the _limokon_ call when a person is on the trail he at ones doubles his fist and thrusts it in the direction from which the warning comes. if it becomes necessary to point backwards, it is a signal to return, or should the arm point directly in front it is certain that danger is there, and it is best to turn back and avoid it. when it is not clear from whence the note came, the traveler looks toward the right side. if he sees there strong, sturdy trees, he knows that all is well, but if they are cut or weaklings, he should use great care to avoid impending danger. when questioned as to why one should look only to the right, an old man quickly replied: "the right side belongs to you; the left side is bad and belongs to someone else." [ ] see p. , note. [transcriber's note: footnote above beginning, "a dove."] sneezing is a bad omen, and should a person sneeze when about to undertake a journey, he knows that it is a warning of danger, and will delay until another time. certain charms, or actions, are of value either in warding off evil spirits, in causing trouble or death to an enemy, or in gaining an advantage over another in trading and in games. one type of charm is a narrow cloth belt in which "medicines" are tied. these medicines may be peculiarly shaped stones, bits of fungus growth, a tooth, shell, or similar object. such belts are known as _pamadan_, or _lambos_, and are worn soldier-fashion over one shoulder. they are supposed to protect their owners in battle or to make it easy for them to get the best of other parties in a trade, a little dust gathered from the footprint of an enemy and placed in one of these belts will immediately cause the foe to become ill. it is a simple matter to cause a person to become insane. all that is needed is to secure a piece of his hair, or clothing, place it in a dish of water and stir in one direction for several hours. father gisbert relates the following method of detecting theft: "there are not, as a rule, many thefts among the bagobo, for they believe that a thief can be discovered easily by means of their famous _bongat_. that consists of two small joints of bamboo, which contain certain mysterious powders. he who has been robbed and wishes to determine the robber takes a hen's egg, makes a hole in it, puts a pinch of the above said powder in it, and leaves it in the fire. if he wishes the robber to die he has nothing else to do than to break the egg; but since the thief may sometimes be a relative or a beloved person, the egg is not usually broken, so that there may be or may be able to be a remedy. for under all circumstances, when this operation is performed, if the robber lives, wherever he may be, he himself must inform on himself by crying out, 'i am the thief; i am the thief,' as he is compelled to do (they say) by the sharp pain which he feels all through his body. when he is discovered, he may be cured by putting powder from the other joint into the water and bathing his body with it. this practice is very common here among the heathens and moros. a bagobo, named anas, who was converted, gave me the _bongat_ with which he had frightened many people when a heathen." in bansalan crab shells are hung over the doors of houses, for these shells are distasteful to the _buso_ who will thus be kept at a distance. i was frequently told of persons who could foretell the future by means of palmistry, but was never able to see a palmist at work, or to verify the information. music, dances and ceremonies. the music for the dances is generally furnished by one or more persons beating on several _agongs_ of different sizes and notes, which are suspended in regular order from the house rafters (plate xxxa). the player stands in front of the line and begins to beat the instruments with a padded stick. oftentimes he is accompanied by a man who strikes a wooden drum with the palm of one hand and a stick held in the other. the music grows faster, emphasizing certain beats, until it becomes a compelling rhythm that starts the feet of the onlookers, and suddenly a man or woman begins to dance. at first she keeps time to the music by raising on her toes and heels, bending the knees and twisting the body from side to side, but soon she becomes more animated, the feet are raised high above the floor and brought down with a sort of shuffle which reminds one of the sound made by the feet of a clog dancer. still swaying her body, she begins to circle, contra-clockwise, around the gongs, and soon she is joined by others until all the dancing space is filled. the scene is most picturesque, for these dances usually occur at night, in rooms illuminated only by the flickering light of torches. the rich clothing of the participants loses nothing of its beauty in this dim light, while the bells and rattles with which each dancer surrounds arms, legs and ankles, add to the din and weirdness of the occasion. before the dance has progressed far the musicians begin to keep time with their feet and frequently dance away from their instruments, circle, and then return to continue the music. with slight variation, this is the dance used on all occasions. at certain ceremonies small gongs, or the _bolang bolang_,[ ] replace the _agongs_, and at times also a single dancer will accompany himself on the _kodlon_--a long wooden guitar with rattan strings (plate xxxb). [ ] an instrument made by placing a small board on a rice mortar. this is pounded or beaten with short sticks, or with the wooden pestles. in this description we have named a large share of the musical instruments used by the bagobo. the women frequently play on a sort of guitar made of a section of bamboo from the outside of which narrow strings are cut. these are raised and made taut with small wooden bridges and are then picked with a stick or the fingers (fig. ). bamboo jew's-harps and mouth flutes are played by the men, but the nose flute, so common in most parts of the philippines, was not seen in use here. fig. . taw-gau or bamboo guitar. the ceremonies and dances are so closely associated with every day affairs that in the description of the life of the people up to this point we have left only a few still to be discussed. these are, in the main, very similar throughout the bagobo belt, but to avoid confusion the description here given of the two greatest events of the year--the _ginem_ ceremony and the human sacrifice--deals with cibolan, unless expressly stated to the contrary. the greatest of all bagobo ceremonies--the _ginem_--may be given by the _datu_ within three or four months after the appearance of the constellation _balatik_, when the moon is new or full. its object is to thank the spirits for success in war or domestic affairs, to ward off sickness and other dangers, to drive away the _buso_, and finally to so gratify the spirits that they will be pleased to increase the wealth of all the people. datu tongkaling expressed a belief that this ceremony is in a way related to the rice harvest, "for it is always made when there is plenty of rice in the granaries." it appears to the writer, however, that this ceremony probably originated in connection with warfare. according to the tales of the old men, it was formerly the custom to go on a raid before this ceremony was to take place, and successful warriors would bring home with them the skulls of their victims which they tied to the _patan'nan_.[ ] it seems also to have been closely associated with the yearly sacrifice, for it was never made until after the appearance of the constellation _balatik_, and without doubt a sacrifice frequently did take place during the first day of the ceremony, at the time the decorated poles were raised. however, such an offering at this time did not relieve the _datu_ from the obligation of making the regular sacrifice. [ ] ceremonial poles dedicated to mandarangan and darago. in digos and bansalan the skulls were not taken but hair cut from the heads of enemies was placed in the swinging altar _balakat_, and were left there until the conclusion of the ceremony. datu ansig of talun informed me that, unless the death of some great person made a special sacrifice necessary, there was only one such offering made during the year, and that at the time the decorated poles were placed in the dwelling. the time for the festival having been agreed upon, messengers are sent to other _datu_ and head-men, inviting them and their people to attend. sufficient food is prepared for the guests and when all is ready the _mabalian_ takes one chicken from among those to be used for food and frees it as an offering to the _gimokod_. it is bidden to wander about in the forest, and no one will molest the fowl, for should he do so he is certain to become ill.[ ] the _mabalian_ has previously placed festoons of leaves and vines at various points in the house and now she spreads a mat on the floor. a jar of _balaba_, wine, stands at each corner, while at one end is an _agong_, and a plate containing betel nut, leaf, and two varieties of rattan; at the other end are several _tambara_. when all is thus prepared the people place offerings of beautiful clothing, knives, and other costly gifts on the mat. two _mabalian_, a man and a woman call upon the spirits,[ ] urging them to look with favor on the offering made by the people, to grant them a good year with health and plentiful harvests, to let their journeys be without mishap, and to keep them all under their constant care. the _tambara_ are fastened in various parts of the house, and the gifts are hung on or laid beside them. later these offerings may be removed by their former owners who now regard them as being loaned to them by the spirits. [ ] this offering is not made at bansalan, neither has the _mabalian_ any part in the ceremonies of the first day. [ ] those called at this time are toglai, toglibon, _tigyma_, and kalayagan--eugpamolak manobo. [transcriber's note: the word _tigyma_ in the above footnote should be spelled _tigyama_.] following the offering the _magani_ go to a bamboo thicket and cut two large poles, one nine sections long, the other eight. with each stroke of the knife the men give their battle cry, then when the poles are felled, all seize hold and carry them to the house of the _datu_. here they are decorated, first by being cut down for short distances, thus leaving the lower part attached so that the shavings make a sort of fringe, and then by attaching strips of palm or bamboo leaves and cloth or palm leaf streamers. when complete these poles are known as _patan'nan_ and are then the property of the spirits mandanagan and darago. the longer one is for the male spirit, while the one of eight sections is for his wife. under no circumstances may anyone not a _magani_ touch these poles. they are carried into the house and are fastened near to the elevated platform at the end of the room where the _datu_ or leading _magani_ stands ready to sacrifice a chicken. he allows some of the blood from the offering to drip onto the poles, at the same time begging the spirits not to let the people fight or quarrel during the _ginem_, "for blood is now being offered." in at least two recent offerings the _datu_ urged the spirits to be content with this offering of a fowl, since it was impossible for them to kill a man. at this time, it is said, the skulls of enemies should be attached to the _patan'nan_. as the leader finishes his offering, the men and boys gather about the poles and yell lustily, then sit quietly down and amuse themselves by chewing betel nut until the chicken, just killed, and the other food has been prepared for eating. old dishes are placed in the center of the floor and in them food is offered for all the spirits, but in the exact center of all is a large plate of white food for the supreme being. a second large dish of food is placed in a _tambara_ at the corner of the room as an offering to the warrior deities "so that they will not eat anyone during the fiesta." again the spirits are besought to give them a good year, with abundant crops, health, and success in war. going to the _patan'nan_ each _magani_, beginning with the _datu_ or his son, takes hold of the poles, and in a loud voice, begins to confess all his warlike deeds. he relates how and when he killed his victims, the number of sacrifices he has participated in, the towns he has sacked and the slaves he has captured. in short, he tells of all the manly deeds he has performed in order to gain the right to wear his red suit and be known as _magani_. when all have confessed, the men and boys eat the chicken which was sacrificed before the poles, and from then until near midnight, all the people may dance to the music of the _agongs_ or may indulge in feasting and drinking. from the middle of the night until daybreak they chant songs or poems, many words of which are now obsolete so that they are not fully understood.[ ] [ ] mr. gohn informs me that at midnight during the last _ginem_ made by datu ali in santa cruz, a gun was fired, and the _datu_ said that a sacrifice should have taken place at that time. the festival may last one or more days. the last held in cibolan ( ) extended through two days and nights. at that time no offerings were made to the spirits on the second day, but the people feasted and drank while the _datu_ gathered a little apart and held a council. in malilla the second day of this ceremony is called _egbikbegaybe_ and is given over almost entirely to the women. two _tambara_ are erected in the house, and young betel nut buds and women's skirts are hung on them. the women and some men form a line and dance in a circle around the offerings, keeping time to music furnished by beating small gongs, or by pounding on a board resting on a rice mortar.[ ] before each dance the _mabalian_ informs a spirit that this dance is for him and it is customary to add a gift of some kind to those already on the _tambara_. sixteen spirits are thus honored. throughout the day there is much feasting and drinking, and at some time before sunset the women are baptized. having filled an old agong with water, the _mabalian_ dips certain leaves into it and sprinkles the heads of the women present eight times, meanwhile bidding the spirits to grant to them a good mind and habit. [ ] see p. , note. [transcriber's note: back pages, the footnote beginning, "an instrument made by placing...."] mr. gohn, a planter of santa cruz who has witnessed a number of these ceremonies, says that with the bagobo of that place it was customary for the _datu_ to baptize the women prior to the day of _ginem_. on the second day, a _mabalian_ provided a long palm leaf, and a number of betel nut buds which, she said, represented streams, rivers, tribes, and individuals. taking up a bud she swung the palm leaf above it, chanting meanwhile, and, as she finished, handed it to the _datu_ who opened it and read the signs sent by the spirits. at the conclusion of this act, all the women went to the river to bathe. in the writings of the early missionary fathers stationed among the bagobo are found many references to human sacrifices. since american occupation several articles have appeared describing this custom, and following the sacrifice held in talun in , this practice became the subject of official communication between the governor of the district and his superiors. while these descriptions agree, in the main, there are so many minor variations that it seems best to first relate the account given to the writer by datu tongkaling and ten of his _magani_, after which we shall take up some of the earlier accounts, and the official correspondence of . datu tongkaling is a _magani_. he claims to have killed more than thirty of his enemies in fair fight and to have assisted in, or to have witnessed, an even greater number of sacrifices. prior to his elevation to the office of _datu_ he had aided in several of the yearly offerings. at the time he became _datu_ he entertained all his people for seven days and on the morning of the last day, in the presence of his subjects, he alone sacrificed a decrepit bila-an slave for whom he had paid three _agongs_. hence, probably, no man in the tribe is better fitted to describe this event than he. according to him, a sacrifice should be held each year following the appearance in the sky of a constellation of seven stars known as _balatik_ ("pig trap").[ ] the stars are placed there by the spirits for two purposes:--first, to inform the people that it is time to prepare for the clearing of new fields; second, to remind them that they should offer a slave to mandarangan, darago, and balakat as payment for the good year they have enjoyed, and to secure their good will for the coming season. a great epidemic or continued calamaties[sic] might also be signs that the spirits were in need of another offering, and this could take place at any time. upon the death of an adult it becomes the duty of the family to make a sacrifice, but, unless the deceased is of very great importance, they may wait until the yearly sacrifice[ ] when they can purchase a share in it. the one other occasion for which this offering is obligatory is the installation of a new _datu_ in office. for the yearly event the ruler should provide a decrepit slave, and then invite all those who have had death or trouble in the family and who wish a part in the sacrifice to help bear the expense of the ceremony. guests gather from near and far and for two or three days, feast, dance, and make merry in the house of the _datu_. on the morning of the last day they accompany their leader to a great tree in the forest and there witness or take part in the sacrifice. the victim is tied with his back to the tree, his arms stretched high above his head. meanwhile a little table or altar is constructed near by, and on it the principals place their offerings of betel nut, clothes, or weapons, and on top of all is a dish of white food for eugpamolak manobo. when all is ready one of the _magani_ begins a prayer, begging the spirits to look and see that the people are following the old custom, to give them success in battle, and to protect their homes from sickness and enemies. the prayer being completed, the _datu_ places his spear below and just in front of the right armpit; then all those who have purchased a share in the victim take hold of the weapon, and at a signal given by the _datu_, thrust it through the body. as soon as it is withdrawn, the _magani_ who has offered the greatest price for the privilege attempts to cut the body in two with one blow of his fighting knife. if he fails in the attempt, another tries, and so on until someone succeeds. the two portions are then released from the tree and cast into a shallow grave near by. before the body is covered with earth any person who wishes may cut off a portion of the flesh or hair and carry it to the grave of some relative whom he may have reason to believe is being troubled by evil spirits. in such a case the evil spirit will be content to eat of the slave, and cease disturbing the other body. returning to the house of the _datu_, the people continue the dancing and merry-making throughout another night. [ ] this is the constellation orion which appears early in december. [ ] we have already seen that this offering sometimes occurs during the _ginem_ ceremony. the following accounts are extracts from the official correspondence forwarded by the governor of davao to the governor of the moro province: "i have the honor to submit herewith a full report of an investigation made by myself and the senior inspector of constabulary of davao, regarding a human sacrifice made by the bagobos at talun near digos on dec. th, . "we left davao on the morning of the th of december and arrived at digos in the afternoon of the same day. an order was immediately sent out to the bagobos of talun to come down to digos to meet us. "on the morning of the th, the entire population of talun--men, women and children, to the number of almost one hundred and fifty--arrived at digos. they were informed that it was reported that a human sacrifice had been made at their town and that the authorities desired to know if this was so. "datto[sic] ansig replied that it was true that a sacrifice had been held as stated and that both he and his people were ready to tell all about it as to the best of their belief they had committed no crime, but only followed out a religious custom practiced by themselves and their ancestors from time immemorial. "from the statements made by ansig and his followers, it appears as follows: "that the bagobos have several gods, 'bacalad,' god of the spirits, agpanmole[sic] monobo[sic], god of good and his wife the goddess dewata; mandarangan, the god of evil (corresponding perhaps to our devil) and to whom sacrifice is made to appease his wrath which is shown by misfortune, years of drought, or evil befalling the tribe or its members, also it is at times necessary to offer him human sacrifice so that he will allow the spirits of the deceased to rest, etc. they say that in case a bagobo of rank or influence dies, and his widow be unable to secure another husband, it is necessary for her to offer sacrifice to appease the spirit of her departed husband in order that she may secure another. in order that these sacrifices be not made too often, it is customary for the old men of the town to gather together once each year during a time when a collection of seven stars, three at right angle to the other four, are seen in the heavens at seven o'clock in the evening, which is said to occur once each year during the first part of the month of december. "this collection of stars is called by the bagobos 'balatic,' and is the sign of the sacrifice, that is, if a sacrifice is to occur, it must take place during the time that the stars are in this position. "the old men meet and decide if enough misfortune has overtaken the tribe or village during the period since the last sacrifice to render necessary another tribute to the god of evil. it is not necessary to offer a sacrifice for each evil, but when the misfortunes amount to a considerable, a sacrifice is held to cover the entire lot. "in this case it appears that two widows, addy and obby, went to datto[sic] ansig and requested that he arrange a sacrifice to appease the spirits of their departed husbands which were bothering them. ansig called a meeting of the old men at which were present besides himself bagobos oling, pandaya, and ansig, and these four decided that as they had not had a sacrifice since the great drought (about three years ago) and that since that time many evils had befallen them, it would be well to offer a sacrifice. these four men sent out to find a slave for sacrifice, the finder becoming the chief of the sacrifice. "ongon, a henchman of datto ansig, purchased from bagobo ido, a bilan slave boy named sacum about eight years old and who was deaf and cross-eyed, and had other defects of vision, making him of little or no value as a laborer. ido originally received this slave from duon, a bilan, as a wedding present when he married duon's daughter about a year ago. "ongon agreed to pay ido five agongs for the boy and took him to the house of ansig where arrangements were made for the sacrifice by calling on all who for any reason had need to appease the evil spirits to come and take part. three days after the slave was brought to the house of ansig, the people met at talun near the river inolia, a short distance from ansig's house, this being the regular place of sacrifice. "leaving the house of ansig the boy sacum was seated upon the ground near the place of sacrifice. he was naked but no other preparation was made with regard to the person. upon a platform or bench of bamboo about two feet high and a foot or two square was placed a small basket or receptacle made of the bark of the bunga tree; in this each person present and taking part in the sacrifice placed a piece of betel-nut, over this the men placed their head handkerchiefs and the women strips of the bark of the palma tree. upon this the men laid their bolos, and spears were then stuck in the ground in a circle around the platform. next datto ansig as chief of the sacrifice made an oration which was about as follows: 'oh, mandarangan, chief of evil spirits and all the other spirits, come to our feast and accept our sacrifice. let this sacrifice appease your wrath and take from us our misfortunes, granting us better times.' "after this, the boy sacum was brought forward by ongon, placed against a small tree about six feet high, his hands tied above his head, and his body tied to the tree with bejuco strips at the waist and knees. ansig then placed a spear at the child's right side at a point below the right arm and above the margin of the ribs. this lance was grasped by the widows addy and obby, who at a signal from ansig forced it through the child's body, it coming out at the other side. it was immediately withdrawn and the body cut in two at the waist by bolos in the hands of moesta barraro and ola, after which the body was cut down and chopped into bits by the people present, each of whom was allowed to take a small portion as a momento[sic] of the occasion, the remainder of the body being buried in a hole prepared for it. "it is said the child was deaf and almost blind and that it did not realize what was to happen to it until the moment it was tied up when it began to cry; further, that death was almost instantaneous, the only cry being one uttered when the spear first entered the child's body. "datto ansig, a man about sixty years of age, says that in his life he has attended or officiated at fifty human sacrifices, more or less, both among the bagobos and the bilanes, and that human sacrifice is also practiced among the tagacolos, although he has never been present at one held by that tribe. "the bagobos do not sacrifice any but old and decrepit or useless slaves captured from other tribes, but the bilanes sacrifice even their own people. "being asked if it was customary to eat any portion of the body sacrificed, ansig replied that it was not customary nor did he know of any case where such had occurred. "the last sacrifice before this was held at talun during the year of the drought (about ) when a bilan slave, an old man who was paralyzed in one arm, was sacrificed by datto oling, his master. "asked if the sacrifice of an animal would not do as well as that of a human being, they said, 'no, better to have no sacrifice at all.' "they appeared utterly unconscious of having committed any crime, told their story with frankness, said it was a matter not talked about among their own people but that if we wanted to know the facts they would give them to the authorities. they claimed the offering of human sacrifices by their tribe to be an old custom and, as far as they knew the only way to appease the wrath of the evil spirits, but said if they were ordered to give the custom up they would do so even if the devil got them all." then follows the statement of an eye-witness to the ceremony: "my name is modesta barrera; i live in the town of santa cruz, my father being a visayan, my mother a bagobo. i cannot read or write, and i think that i am about twenty-three years old, although i am not certain on that point. "on the th instant myself, baon, otoy, and oton left santa cruz early in the morning to go to talun, a day's march from santa cruz, for the purpose of trading with the natives of talun, and also to collect some debts which they owed baon. we remained that night at saculampula, near talun, where ungon and ido, two bagobos, live with their families. there we found two children the only persons at the house who informed us that we should go to the house of ambing, at talun, where we could sell our merchandise. on the morning of the th we got up about or o'clock and started for ambing's house. when within about an hour's walk of the house, we found a great many people congregated together. we were told that a human sacrifice had just taken place and on approaching to discover what had happened, we saw a little boy about eight or nine years old, the upper half of whose body was suspended by the wrists to a tree, the lower half lying on the ground. the child had been thus tied up while alive and had been cut into two parts at the waist; this was about the position of the body when we saw it. "immediately about twenty persons began to chop the body into small pieces; and ansig, the datto of talun, came over to us and gave baon two pieces of the victim's hair attached to the scalp, which is a sign of the sacrifice. the victim was a slave owned and sacrificed by datto ansig. the first bolo cut which severs the body at the waist and which in this case we were told was done by ansig is always performed by the person making the sacrifice. the people present were guests of ansig and were not responsible for the killing, though it is the custom for the more favored ones to assist in chopping the victim into small pieces after death." in the letters written by father gisbert in , are many references to the religious practices of the bagobo, from which the following are extracts: "the feast which they hold before the sowing is a criminal and repugnant trago-comedy. the tragical part is the first thing that is done. when they have assembled in the middle of the woods * * * they tightly bind the slave whom they are going to sacrifice. all armed with sharp knives, leap and jump about their victim striking him, one after the other, or several at one time, amid infernal cries and shouts, until the body of the victim sacrificed has been cut to bits. from the place of the sacrifice they then go to the house of their chief or the master of the feast, holding branches in their hands which they place in a large bamboo, which is not only the chief adornment but the altar of the house in which they meet * * * the principal part is reserved for the old man or master of the feast, he standing near the bamboo which i have mentioned above, holding the vessel of wine in his hand, and, talking with his comrades, addresses the great demon called _darago_, whose feast they are celebrating, in the following words: 'darago, we are making you this feast, with great good will and gladness, offering you the blood of the sacrifice which we have made and this wine which we drink so that you may be our friend, accompany us, and be propitious in our wars.' * * * * * * * * * * * "when they marry, if the lovers think that it will be of any use they make a human sacrifice so that they may have a good marriage, so that the weather may be good, so that they may have no storm, sickness, etc., all things which they attribute to the devil. in the same way also when they learn that there is any contagious disease, or fear death, several of them assemble and make a human sacrifice, asking the devil to let them live, since they generously offer him that victim. they also believe that the disease can be conjured. but the time that it is necessary to make a sacrifice, according to the law of the bagobos, is at the death of anyone of the family, before they can remove the _lalaoan_ or mourning * * * at the point and on the day assigned, all the sacrificers assemble, or possibly one member of each of the families who are in mourning, at times fifty or more. the value of the slave sacrificed is paid among them all, and he who pays most has the right to sacrifice first."[**] [**] in blair and robertson, vol. xliii. pp. - , will be found a very interesting letter from father gisbert, in which he describes the sacrifice of a bagabo[sic] half-blood who had fallen in debt. the official files in the governor's office at davao contain an account, written by gov. bolton, of the sacrifice at cataloonan, july , . this was held to secure the return to health of chief obo, who later died. [transcriber's note: the two paragraphs immediately above both comprise a single footnote.] by the side of the trail, or in the forests, little shrines or platforms about ft. high and a foot square at the top, are frequently seen. these are known as _buis_ and are erected for the _buso_, in order to avert their displeasure and to keep them at a distance from the dwellings. when the family has been subjected to petty annoyances, or when for any other reason, the _mabalian_ thinks an offering should be made, she orders the family to provide her with betel nut, a piece of iron, and bits of broken dishes, or castoff clothing. these are placed on the platform and the _buso_ are exhorted to come and accept them. good offerings are never made to this class of spirits, for "they do not expect to be treated like the more powerful." a shrub known as _dalingding_ is planted by the side of the shrine so that its location may be known even after the platform has fallen, and all passersby will make some small offering, hoping thus to keep these evil beings in good humor. rain can be stopped by placing an offering of a leg ring, or prepared betel nut beside the trail and presenting them to the _gimokod_, at the same time asking them to stop the downpour. decorative art. to a stranger entering a bagobo house, in the absence of its owners, it appears that the people have little artistic development. he sees no paintings, no drawings, and few, if any, attempts to beautify the house with carvings. the pots sitting by the fire, show no decoration nor do the other household utensils exhibit embellishment of any kind. a closer study of the field baskets, however, shows a slight attempt to produce ornamentation by changing the weave of the central band from that at the top and bottom, or by adding a few rude lines in pitch. the moment the people enter, however, all is changed. the clothing they wear is covered with intricate patterns, some realistic, others highly conventionalized (plate xxxi). wonderful designs in beads or shell disks appear on coats, jackets, and carrying bags, while at neck, waist, shoulder, and at the bottom of sleeves and trousers are other figures in fine embroidery or applique. strands of beads and seeds exhibiting a great variety of designs surround the necks of both men and women, while rings, armlets, leglets, and anklets of beads, plaited material or metal, are common. combs are covered with pitch and inlaid with beads, or patterns are incised in the wood and filled with lime. ear plugs exhibit beautiful delicate patterns inlaid with brass or silver. a glance at the weapons carried by the man shows that his knife has been ornamented with caps of brass (plate xxxii), the metal guard has cut or cast patterns in its surface, while sheath and carrying belt are covered with thin brass plates, painted lines, or a beaded cloth (plate xxxiii) with bells attached. fronts and backs of shields are covered with incised designs, while the metal ferrule next to the spear head seldom lacks in conventionalized figures. so the list might be extended to cover the women's knives and their pocket and carrying baskets, as well as the betel boxes and lime holders used by both sexes. in short, there seems to be no end to the list of personal ornaments and equipment which may be improved by carvings, arrangements of beads or metal castings and inlays. even the horses are decorated with artificial forelocks of hair and beads. strings of bells surround their necks, while saddles and whips display the aesthetic taste of their owners. a part of this decoration is apparently realistic and will readily be identified by any member of the tribe; another part is suggestive and with a widely known meaning, but by far the greater number of designs have no generally accepted signification. the writer spent many hours securing the names of the designs on textiles, ornaments, or on lime boxes, only to receive the reply "done to make pretty," or to find that no two of five or a dozen informants could agree on many patterns, while frequently it was found that some obliging individual had volunteered names at one time which he could not remember on the day following. it is possible that a long residence with the people and diligent inquiry along this line might yield more definite results, but for the present the writer must content himself by showing some typical examples of the decorative art, and adding a few notes to the same. the great majority of baskets lack in decoration, other than that which can be obtained by a slight change in the weave. in these a central band can be distinguished from those at top and bottom, although the same material is used and there is only a minor variation in the technique. small carrying receptacles, or trinket baskets, frequently have designs produced by plaiting the rattan or bamboo of natural color with that which has been blackened (plate xxxiva). no uniform meaning or pattern name seems to be attached to the designs shown in this specimen, but an incised design on the wooden rim was readily identified as a crocodile. the small baskets in the coiled weave sometimes have the fronts entirely covered with beads which are woven into the basket in parallel lines. the tobacco box shown in plate xxxv has been covered with cloth and pitch, in which an artistic design made from the yellow cuticle of an orchid has been inlaid. plate xxxvb shows the wooden tops of three tobacco boxes. nos. and are carved and inlaid with beads and buttons in designs which "look pretty," but number depicts a hunting scene in which two men and a dog are hunting the alligator. several beads are missing so that it requires quite a stretch of the imagination to secure the impression the native artist meant to impart. the prized trinket baskets of the women generally have the fronts covered with cloth, to which hundreds of colored beads are sewed, in elaborate designs (plate xxxvi). the patterns brought out in the weaving are as beautiful and intricate as they are confusing. five typical specimens of cloth used in women's skirts are shown in plate xxxvii. in them can be found several apparently different designs to some of which names were assigned, but as there was no agreement among my informers i refrain from giving them here. the pattern marked x in (c) was generally identified as "alligator," yet the weavers were by no means agreed. the strip of cloth (plate xxxviii) was intended for the center breadth in a woman's skirt and shows the typical designs employed in the best garments. the extensive use of beads is shown in plates xxxix-xl. carrying bags, clothing, combs, necklaces, armlets, belts and sheath covers are partially covered with or made up of colored beads, always in designs, yet very few of these patterns have generally accepted meanings or names. the same holds true of the designs in shell disks, which, on the finer garments, take the place of beads. a few exceptions to this are found in which realistic patterns appear in (plate xxxib and fig. ). fig. . realistic patterns in beads and shell disks. like the bead work, the embroidery and applique found on many garments are added "to make pretty." some of this work is quite fine, but in general that of recent years is either inferior to that found on old garments or is borrowed from, or made by, the bila-an women. some garments, with designs produced by oversewing before dyeing, are seen here, but they are recent importations from the kulaman or tagakaolo tribes. necklaces and leglets are made of rattan and are decorated with burned lines or by being overlaid with platted strips of orchid and fern cuticle (fig. ). a few rare specimens, such as personal ornaments or basket rims, have sewed in designs in which the sewing has been done with fern cuticle (plate xxxivb). incised patterns appear on nearly all the bamboo lime and tobacco holders, but here individual fancy plays such an important part that a hundred specimens might be examined without finding duplicate patterns. fig. . shows nine of these tubes covered with cut-in designs, yet only one figure, that marked x in _b_ could be identified. this was said to be the familiar crocodile. coming to the work in brass and copper we encounter an entirely new type of design. in some cases straight inlaid or overlaid strips and twisted wires are used to ornament the specimen; while in the raised and cut-in lines on the bells we find simple patterns. in the main, however, the ornamentation on this class of material consists of complicated scrolls (plate xli), designs suggesting flower or tree patterns, or conventionalized figures. one only needs to compare these objects with similar specimens from borneo and the malayan islands of the south, to find the source of this type of ornamentation.[ ] in fact the imitation of moro wares is practiced today. in plate xlia and b are shown two betel nut boxes--no. the work of the samal moro, no. the imitation of the inlaid work on the top of the first specimen. this last was made in my presence, and with the expressed intention of duplicating the moro box. however, in this case, as in all others, the bagobo caster did not attempt to exactly reproduce the work of another, but simply borrowed a broad idea, and thus he often creates new forms. [ ] see ling roth, oriental silver work. not once did the writer receive a name for any pattern or design shown in metal work. a careful study of the method of work, of the articles produced, and of the folk-lore and religious observances connected with the work in brass and copper brings one to the conclusion that this class of work is of comparatively recent introduction and that the instructors in the art were the samal moro. mention has already been made of the designs incised on combs and other objects which are afterwards filled with lime. just here it is interesting to note that, so far as is known, the southern end of mindanao and adjacent small islands, are the only parts of the philippines in which this decoration, so typical of melanesia, is to be found. realistic carvings were seen used in only two capacities. the first in certain ceremonies, where extremely crude wooden figures were offered to the spirits in exchange for the sick person (see p. ), and the second, the wooden decoys used in hunting doves (see plate xviii). summing up our present information we can say: first, that the bagobo makes use of certain realistic designs which in some cases have become conventionalized but still retain their former significance; second, that the greater part of decoration in beads, shell disks, embroidery or applique, as well as the incised designs in lime boxes and the like, have no meaning to the people of the present day, and are added only to make the objects more beautiful in the eyes of the owners. in this work there are no set patterns and each artist gives full reign to the fancy in producing these figures. third, that the ideas for the patterns inlaid, incised, and cast in brass or copper, are furnished by the examples of this work coming from the malays to the south, but that even in these the artist has taken great liberties in the execution of the design. fourth, that one type of decoration, i. e., the incised figures filled with lime, suggests the possible influence of melanesia on the artistic ideas of this people. mythology. during my stay with this tribe i heard parts of many folk-tales, some chanted, others told with gravity, and still others which caused the greatest levity. my limited knowledge of the dialect and pressure of other work caused me to delay the recording of these tales until i should begin a systematic study of the language. owing to unforeseen circumstances, that time never came, and it is now possible to give only the slightest idea of a very rich body of tales.[ ] [ ] since this was written miss benedict has published an excellent collection of bagobo myths (_journal of american folklore_, , xxvi. pp. - .) in the main these stories are an attempt to account for the present order of things. in the tale which we quoted in part, at the beginning of the paper, we are told of an all-powerful being who created the earth and all that is. other spirits and many animals inhabited the sky and earth which the creator had made. of the latter only one, the monkey, is named. he and his kind, we are told, once inhabited and owned all the world, but were dispossessed by two human beings, toglai and toglibon, from whom all the people of the world are descended. after their death a great drought caused the people to disperse and seek out new homes in other parts. they journeyed in pairs and because of the objects which they carried with them, they are now known by certain names. one couple, for instance, carried with them a small basket called _bira-an_, and for this reason their children are known as bira-an (bila-an). from the time of the dispersion until the arrival of the spaniards we learn that certain mythical heroes performed wonderful feats, in some cases being closely identified with the spirits themselves, in others making use of magic, the knowledge of which seems to have been common in those times. the two following tales are typical of those commonly heard in a bagobo gathering. the first was told by urbano eli, a bagobo of malilla. "after the people were created a man named lumabet was born. he could talk when he was one day old and the people said he was sent by manama. he lived ninety seasons and when still a young man he had a hunting dog which he took to hunt on the mountain. the dog started up a white deer and lumabet and his companions followed until they had gone about the world nine times when they finally caught it. at the time they caught the deer lumabet's hair was grey and he was an old man. all the time he was gone he had only one banana and one camote with him for food. when night came he planted the skin of the banana and in the morning he had ripe bananas to eat, and the camotes came the same way. when he had caught the deer lumabet called the people to see him and he told them to kill his father. they obeyed him and then lumabet took off his headband and waved it in the air over the dead man, and he at once was alive again. he did this eight times and at the eighth time his father was small like a little boy, for every time the people cut him in two the knife took off a little flesh. so all the people thought lumabet was like a god. "one year after he killed the deer he told all the people to come into his house, but they said they could not, for the house was small and the people many. but lumabet said there was plenty of room, so all entered his house and were not crowded. the next morning the _diwata_, _tigyama_, and other spirits came and talked with him. after that he told the people that all who believed that he was powerful could go with him, but all who did not go would be turned into animals and _buso_. then lumabet started away and those who stayed back became animals and _buso_. "he went to the place binaton, across the ocean, the place where the earth and sky meet. when he got there he saw that the sky kept going up and down the same as a man opening and closing his jaws. lumabet said to the sky 'you must go up,' but the sky replied 'no.' at last lumabet promised the sky that if he let the others go he might catch the last one who tried to pass; so the sky opened and the people went through; but when near to the last the sky shut down and caught the bolo of next to the last man. the last one he caught and ate. "that day lumabet's son tagalion was hunting and caught many animals which he hung up. then he said he must go to his father's place; so he leaned an arrow against a _baliti_ tree and sat on it. it began to grow down and carried him down to his father's place, but when he arrived there were no people there. he saw a gun, made out of gold, and some white bees in the house. the bees said 'you must not cry; we can take you to the sky,' so he rode on the gun, and the bees took him to the sky and he arrived there in three days. "one of the men was looking down on the land below, and all of the spirits made fun of him and said they would take out his intestines so that he would be like one of them and never die. the man refused to let them, and he wanted to go back home because he was afraid; so manama said to let him go. "the spirits took leaves of the _karan_ grass and tied to his legs, and made a chain of the grass and let him down to the earth. when he reached the earth he was no longer a man but was an owl." ( ) the second tale, which was recorded by p. juan doyle, s. j., is as follows: "in one of the torrents which has its origin at the foot of apo, there were two eels which, having acquired extraordinary magnitude, had no room in so little water, on account of which they determined to separate, each one taking a different direction in search of the sea or the great lakes. one arrived, happily, at the sea by the padada river, and from it came eels in the sea. the other descending a torrent, swimming and confining himself as well as he might, enclosed in these narrow places, said to himself 'i haven't the slightest idea of what the sea is, but it appears to me that when i see before me an extraordinary clearness on a limpid surface, that must be the sea, and with one spring i will jump into it.' so saying, he arrived at a point where the torrent formed a cascade. he noticed that it cut off the horizon and to his view it appeared of an extraordinary clearness; he thought he could swim there without limit, and at his pleasure, and that this, in fine, must be the sea. he darted into it, but the unhappy one was dashed against the rocks, and too fatigued to swim through the rough waters, he lost his life. his body lay there inert and formed undulations which are now the folds which the earth forms to the left of mt. apo." other branches of the tribe. to the south and southwest of mt. apo, and west of digos, are seven settlements, the inhabitants of which are known as obo or tigdapaya. on the south they meet the bila-an, and, like this latter people, extend over the watershed into the valley of the cotabato river. on the northwest they come in contact with the ata. they have intermarried with both of these tribes, have adopted many of their customs, and in some cases their manner of dress. however, they consider themselves, and are considered by the bagobo, as a part of that tribe, and recognize tongkaling as their chief. bagobo customs and blood predominate, although intermarriage with the negrito was evident in nearly every individual of this division seen by the writer. immediately wrest of daliao are three villages whose people are known as eto or ata. aside from a slightly greater percentage of individuals showing negroid features, these people do not differ in any respect from the bagobo. it does not seem that they should be classed with the people later referred to as ata. to the north, their lands join the territory held by the guianga. the habitat of the division called guianga begins a few miles back of the gulf and extends west to the watershed. an east and west line drawn through the village of taloma marks their southern boundary, while to the north they approach the lasan river. they are found in a number of scattered settlements which owe allegiance and are subject to five petty _datu_. tongkaling is not recognized as having any authority in the district, and there seems to be no remembrance of a time when any of the bagobo rulers held authority over the guianga. physically and culturally they do not seem to be far removed from the bagobo, while their language is so closely related that individuals of the two divisions, meeting for the first time can carry on a conversation. there is, however, considerable variation between the dialects, both in intonation and vocabulary. further study may result in raising this branch to the dignity of a tribe, but the information at hand does not justify us in considering them other than a dialect group of the bagobo. ii. bila-an. synonyms. (a) tagalagad--"dwellers in the back country" is the name generally applied to this tribe by the coast natives. (b) tagkogon--"dwellers in the cogon"--the group living on the grass plains west of malalag. (c) buluan, buluanes--the members of this tribe dwelling near to lake buluan. this group is sometimes identified with the tagabili or tagabulu who also reside in that region. (d) bira-an, bara-an--synonym for bila-an, often used by the neighboring bagobo. (e) vilanes, bilanes. (f) balud or tumanao--name sometimes applied by early writers to the bila-an who live on the sarangani islands. this tribe is found in the mountains on the west side of davao gulf beginning at an east and west line drawn through bulatakay and extending south to sarangani point, and they also appear in small numbers in the sarangani islands which lie just south of the mainland. at bulatakay they are a day's march back from the coast and to reach them it is necessary to pass for several hours through a rolling belt of forest land, then as the mountains are approached, gently sloping cogon plains about ten miles in width are crossed. west of malalag they are still far from the sea with a belt of hill tagakaolo between them and the coast people. in this region they have spread out in considerable numbers on to the grass plains, and for this reason are locally known as tagkogon "dwellers in the cogon." on the gulf side of the divide, south of malalag, they are found in small groups far back in the mountains, while between them and the sea are tagakaolo, kulaman and moro. along the watershed between the districts of davao and cotabato they possess all the territory and even extend in some numbers into the lowlands toward lake buluan. they are distinctly a mountain people, having never reached the sea, except near sarangani point, until after the advent of the american. since then a few hundred have been induced to move to the coast plantations, and the town of labau has been established on the padada river about six miles back of the coast. according to mr. h. s. wilson, tribal ward headman for the bila-an, this tribe numbers about ten thousand persons, of which number fifteen hundred reside on the sarangani islands. the material here presented was gathered from the people of labau, the malalag cogon, and those living near the headwaters of the ma-al and padada rivers. formerly a neutral, uninhabited belt extended between them and the coast people, and at stated intervals they went to recognized trading points in this territory to exchange their agricultural and forest products for salt, fish, and other articles of barter. beyond this trading and an occasional fight, they had few dealings with the coast people and seem never to have encountered the spaniard. they are almost unknown to history, for aside from two or three short accounts,[ ] based mostly on hearsay, we find no mention of them. the coast natives who knew them by name only had many stories concerning their life and prowess, and one still hears that "the bila-an are of small stature but agile like monkeys. one may wander for days through their territory without encountering a person and then when in a bad place suddenly see the little people in hundreds swarming down the sides of impassable cliffs. they are always in such numbers that, while they use only the bow and arrow, they are almost sure to exterminate the intruders." as a matter of fact, the bila-an compare in stature with the coast natives and differ little from them in color, although a few individuals of decidedly lighter cast are met with. [ ] blair and robertson the philippine islands, vol. xliii, pp. , - . census of the philippine islands, . observations were made on thirty-eight men, but no women could be induced to submit to being measured. the maximum height of the men was found to be . cm.; minimum . cm.; with an average of . cm. the cephalic indices showed . cm. as the maximum; cm. the minimum; and . cm. the average. the greatest length-height index was . cm.; the minimum . cm. and the average . cm. from these measurements it appears that the bila-an are somewhat shorter than the bagobo; are more short headed, the majority being brachycephalic; while the height from tragus to vertex is about the same in both groups, and both have the crown and back of the head strongly arched. the face[ ] is absolutely shorter and relatively broader than in the bagobo. the forehead is usually high and full, but in about one-third of the individuals measured it was moderately retreating, while in the same proportion the supra-orbital ridges were quite strongly marked. in other features, as well as in hair form, eyes, body form and color, this people conform to the description given of the bagobo (plates xlii-xlviii). [ ] measured from the chin to the hair of the forehead. the greater part of this tribe live far back in the rugged mountains which form the watershed between the cotabato valley and the gulf of davao. travel through that district is entirely on foot, and is principally along the water courses, so that in going from place to place a person is continually crossing the stream. from time to time dim trails, scarcely worthy of that name, lead from the river's bank almost perpendicularly up the mountain-side or to the summits of high hills, where will be found one or two frail houses (plate xlix). the dwellings are never in large groups, and more frequently each house is by itself. from one habitation it is possible to look across the hills and see many others at no great distance, to reach which would necessitate a descent of several hundred feet and an equal climb up to each. there is considerable variation in the architecture of the dwellings but the following description of the home of datu dialum, on the headwaters of the ma-al river, will give the general plan of all. small hardwood poles about twenty feet in length formed the uprights to which the side and crossbeams were lashed, while in the center of each end beam smaller sticks were tied to form the king posts. from the ridge pole small timbers extended to the side beams, thus forming the framework on which the final topping of flattened bamboo was laid. this roof was of one pitch and at the sides overhung the walls by about a foot. twelve feet above the ground other poles were lashed to the uprights and on these rested the cross timbers of the floor, which in turn were covered with broad strips of bark. the side walls extended between the floor and the beams, but in no place did they extend up to the roof. entrance to the dwelling was gained by a notched log. once inside the house the arrangement impressed one as being similar to those of the bagobo. just above the door, and again in the far end of the room, poles were laid across the beams to form the floors of lofts which, in this case, were used as sleeping rooms. in front of the door, at the opposite side of the room, was a bed of ashes in which three stones were sunk to form the stove, and above this was suspended a rack which contained cooking pots, drying wood, ears of corn, and the like. close to the stove were a few earthen pots (fig. ) and many short bamboo tubes filled with water, while against the wall hung rattan frames filled with half cocoanut-shell dishes, spoons, and two or three old chinese plates. near the center of the room stood a rice mortar made by hollowing out a section of log. at the far end of the room was a raised sleeping platform, such as is found in all bagobo houses, and extending from this to the center and on each side of the room were narrow stalls where the women were engaged in weaving, and in which they slept and kept their most valued possessions. fig. . cooking pot and cover. in the description of the house we have mentioned most of the furnishings. in addition it is customary to find a few well made mats of _pandanus_ or _buri_ palm leaf. these are spread on the floor when the owners wish to retire and for the rest of the time are rolled up and laid along the walls. carved forked sticks which serve as torch-holders stand in various parts of the room, while somewhere near the stove is a miscellany of wooden meat blocks, bamboo fans and fly swatters, gourds filled with millet, salt, or mashed peppers, and shovel-shaped or round rice winnowers, which also serve as common eating dishes for the family and guests. well made baskets stand by the walls or hang from pegs along with articles of clothing, while spears, shields, and other weapons are fastened to side walls or roof. small clearings are found at no great distance from these dwellings and in them the people raise rice, corn, millet, camotes, sugar-cane, and a few banana and hemp plants (plate l). as is the case with all the wild tribes in this district, the bila-an make new clearings as soon as the cogon grass begins to invade their fields, and this in time causes them to move their homes from one locality to another. the domestic animals consist of a few chickens, dogs, an occasional cat and pig, and in the lower cogon lands, a few families possess horses. some fish are secured from the river, while deer, wild pig, jungle fowl, and other game are taken with traps or secured by hunting. there seems never to have been a time when this tribe was organized under a single leader as was the case with the bagobo. each district is so isolated from the others and the population so scattering that any such development has been barred, and hence the people of each river valley or highland plain have their local ruler. the power of this ruler is real only so far as his personal influence can make it so. he receives no pay for his services, but his position makes it possible for him to secure the help of his fellows when he is in need of workers or warriors. in return he conducts negotiations with other groups and administers justice in accordance with the customs handed down from bygone ages. upon his death he is succeeded by his eldest son, unless the old men of the group should consider him incompetent, in which case they will determine upon the successor. warriors who have killed one or more persons[ ] are known as _lebe_ (plate xlii), and are permitted to wear plain red suits decorated with embroidery. their duties and privileges are much the same as those of the bagobo _magani_. [ ] said to be four among the tagkogon. a class known as _almo-os_ is composed mostly of middle-aged women who are in close communication with the spirits and who, like the _mabalian_ of the bagobo, conduct ceremonies to aid in the cure of the sick, to secure good crops, or to thank the higher beings for their help and watchfulness. unlike the _mabalian_, these women are seldom midwives, such duties being performed by a group called _fandita_.[ ] finally, we learn that slaves are sometimes taken from neighboring tribes or even from unfriendly settlements of their own people, to which class may be added offenders against the laws of the group. slavery, however, is not very prevalent, for men are not greatly desired unless needed for a sacrifice, while young girls and women soon become regular members of their master's family. [ ] probably a corruption of the moro term _pandi'a_. as has just been indicated a man may have as many wives as he can secure by purchase or capture, provided they are not blood relations, but a new wife cannot be added to the family until the one preceding has borne a child. difficulties are generally settled between the parties concerned, but if they carry their case to the ruler they must abide by his decision. a thief is usually compelled to return the stolen property, but in at least one case the culprit was sacrificed.[ ] [ ] see p. . murder can be avenged by a murder so long as the trouble remains a family affair, but if the case goes to the ruler it is probable that he will levy a fine on the culprit. unfaithfulness in a wife can be punished by the death of one or both offenders if the husband exacts the punishment, otherwise a fine is imposed. the type of clothing worn by this tribe is practically identical with that of the bagobo, while the cloth from which it is made is procured by a like process. however, in the ornamentation of these garments there is wide variation. beads are not used to any great extent, but in their place are intricate embroidered designs which excel, both in beauty and technique the work of any other wild tribe in the islands, while on the more elaborate costumes hundreds of shell disks are used in artistic designs. the woman's skirt is of hemp and is made in exactly the same manner as those of the bagobo, but the general pattern is different, and it seldom contains the broad decorative center panel (plate lx). some of the men cut their hair so that it falls in bangs along the center line of the forehead and behind reaches to the nape of the neck, but the majority of them, and all the women, allow the back hair to grow long and tie it in a knot at the back of the head. ordinarily the men dispense with head covering, or at most twist a bit of cloth into a turban, but for special occasions they wear palm leaf hats covered with many parallel bands of rattan and crowned with notched chicken feathers (plate li). rarely is a women seen with any kind of head protection or hair ornament other than a small comb which is peculiar to this tribe (fig. ). this comb is made of bamboo or rattan splints drawn together at the center but flaring at top and bottom until it forms an ornament in the shape of an hour glass. the ear plugs worn by the men are of wood and are undecorated, but those of the women have the fronts overlaid with incised brass plates (fig. ). in other respects the dress of the women differs little from that of the bagobo. they have the same necklaces, arm and finger rings, leglets, and anklets, although in less quantity. they also carry trinket baskets, but these are larger than those used by the women of the other tribe and are lacking in bead and bell pendants. however, they are tastily decorated with designs in colored bamboo or fern cuticle. we have already noted that the use of plain red garments is limited to warriors, but cloth of that hue which contains narrow black stripes may be used by all. quite a number of garments are seen in which white pattens appear in a red background (plate lviiic). in this tribe the use of such suits is not restricted, but with the neighboring kulaman they can be worn by warriors[ ] only. fig. . women's combs. fig. . a. women's ear plugs. b. men's ear plugs. [ ] see p. for a description of this process. [transcriber's note: pages further from this one.] before we proceed further with the description of the life of the people, it will be well for us to inquire into their religious beliefs, for, as is the case with all their neighbors, their faith in unseen beings influences their daily life to a very great extent. the two following tales deal with the bila-an genesis. "in the beginning was _melu_--a being of such great size as to be beyond comparison with any known thing; who was white, having gold teeth, and who sat upon the clouds, and occupied all space above. "he was very cleanly and was constantly rubbing himself with his hands in order that he might keep his skin quite white. the scurf or dead skin which he thus removed, he placed to one side where it accumulated at last to such a heap that it annoyed him. to be rid of this annoyance he made the earth, and being pleased with his work, he decided to make two beings like himself only much smaller in size. this he did from remnants of the material from which he made the earth. "now, while melu was making the first two men, and when he had the first one finished, all excepting the nose; and the second one finished all excepting the nose and one other part, tau tana (funtana) or tau dalom tana appeared and demanded of melu that he be allowed to make the nose. then began a great argument in which tau dalom tana gained his point and did make the noses and placed them on the faces of the first two people upside down. so great had been the argument over this making and placing of noses that melu forgot to finish that part of the second person and went away to his place above the clouds, and tau dalom tana went away to his place below the earth. then came a great rain and the two people on the earth were about to perish on account of the water which ran off their heads into their noses. melu seeing what was happening came to them and changed their noses, and then told them that they should save all the hair which came from their heads, and all the scurf which came from their bodies to the end that when he came again he might make more people. as time passed there came to be a great many people, and they lived in a village having plenty to eat and no labor but the gathering of such fruits as they desired. "one day when the rest of the people were about the village and the near country, a man and woman who had been left behind fell to gazing, one upon the person of the other, and after a little while they went away apart from the rest and were gone many days, and when they returned the woman carried a child in her arms, and the people wondered and were afraid. when melu came again soon, knowing what had taken place, he was very angry and he went away abandoning them, and a great drought came, when for two seasons no rain fell and everything withered up and died. at last the people went away, two by two, one man and one woman together, and melu never again came to visit his people on earth."[ ] [ ] recorded by mr. h. s. wilson. the writer did not hear the foregoing tale, but the following, with more or less variation, was told to him by several bila-an: "in the beginning four beings, melu and fiuweigh-males, and dwata and saweigh (or sewe or seweigh)-females, lived on a small earth or island as large as a hat and called _salnaon_. there were no trees or grass on this island, but they had one bird called baswit. they sent this bird across the waters to secure some earth, the fruit of the rattan and of trees. when it returned melu took the earth and beat it the same as a woman beats pots until he had made the land, then he planted the seeds in it and they grew. when he had watched it for a time he said: 'of what use is land without people'; so the others said, 'let us make wax into people.' they did so, but when they put the wax near to the fire it melted, so they saw they could not make man that way. next it was decided that they should use dirt, and melu and fiuweigh began to make man. all. went well until they were ready to make the nose. fiuweigh who was making this part put the nose on upside down and when melu told him that the people would drown if he left it that way he became very angry and refused to change it. when he turned his back, melu seized the nose quickly and turned it as it now is, and you can see where, in his haste, he pressed his fingers (at the root). "the people they made were adnato and andawi, male and female. these two had children, tapi (or mastafi) and lakarol. (informants disagreed here, part insisting that mesa, lakbang, and mangarang were part of the first people made.) their descendants were sinudal (female), moay (male), limbay (female), madinda (female), sinnamoway (male), kamansa (male), gilay (female), gomayau (male), salau (male), slayen (female), baen (female), kanfal (female), latara (male)." [transcriber's note: these identifications of male and female (in parentheses above and below) are all signaled in the text using non-ascii symbols; the symbols for male or female were footnoted.] the last was the father of alimama, the chief informant of this tale. inok, dato of labau, is also of this line, tracing his descent from lakbang. it is said that melu and saweigh now live below, dwata and fiuweigh in the sky. a variation of this story credits melu and dwata with being the creators of fiuweigh and seweigh. they were the ancestors of men, for they took earth and made it into the form of people and then whipped it until it moved. the first people they made were otis (male) and lakbang (female). two of their children were mastafi (male) and lakarol (or landol) (female). from these two came all the bila-an. "these two lived in a small distant place and their one animal was baswit--a bird. they sent him on a long journey and when he returned he brought a piece of earth and the fruit of a _pandag_ tree. lakarol planted the fruit in the piece of earth and when it grew the leaves fell down and finally made the earth." from these tales and later questioning we learn the melu, or mele, is the most powerful of all the natural spirits and that his help is sought in times of calamity and at very important occasions. duwata (duata, dwata, adwata, diwata) is generally considered to be the wife of melu and of equal strength with him. she is sometimes identified with a female spirit called kalalokan. fiuweigh and seweigh are now powerful spirits; but there is some dispute as to whether they have always been so, or once were human. lamot ta mangayo, also called mandalangan, is the patron spirit of the warriors and is in all respects almost identical with mandarangan of the bagobo. the _busau_ are a class of spirits, often ill-disposed toward men, who live in various parts of the mountains. bakay, one of the _busau_, is said to be the owner of the deer and pig and is held in considerable esteem by the people of the padada region, but he is not recognized by the tagkogon branch of the tribe. another spirit, bawi, who owns the rice, is in great favor with the padada people, but is unknown to the latter group. flau is the spirit of an unborn child whose mother died in pregnancy. its cry is often heard at night, and at times it attacks and injures people. these natural spirits are very powerful, and since they sometimes interest themselves in the doings of mortals it behooves all to keep their good will. below them is another class of spirits, less powerful, but far more concerned in the affairs of men, and for this reason more to be feared should they become displeased. this class is made up of the spirits of the dead. a man's spirit, _almogol_, does not live in his body, but always accompanies him during life. if at any time it wanders the man becomes ill, and if it fails to return its owner dies. after separating from the body the _almogol_ goes to kilot, a good place below the earth where there is no work or punishment. there it spends most of its time, but upon occasion returns to its former haunts where it aids or injures the living. the _almo-os_, already mentioned,[ ] have considerable influence with all the spirits, but they are particularly close to the _almogol_. when a person is ill he is placed in a little house known as _lawig_ (plate lii), beside which a fire is kindled. nearby are two decorated bamboo sticks, behind which the spirit of the sick man stands while he watches the proceeding. the _almo-os_ takes a chicken in his hands and, while five or six assistants dance, he chants, appealing to the spirit to see the good things that are being prepared, and to be pleased to return to the sick man. occasionally, the music stops and one of the dancers cries "_almogol_, here is food for you; you must not go away." after a time the fowl is killed, is cooked over the fire, and is fed to the invalid, while the "doctor" continues his song of entreaty. if the call pleases the spirit it will pass between the bamboo sticks and go to the sick person in the _lawig_, but if it is not convinced that it should remain it departs, and the patient dies. the sick person is kept in the spirit house for a day and is then returned to his home. [ ] see page . little structures known as _bolon_ are erected for other spirits who may be trying to injure the _almogol_ or attempting to persuade it to leave its owner. certain ceremonies and offerings occur after a death, at the birth of a child, at planting and harvest times, and when the warriors are about to start on a raid; all of which will be spoken of in a later paragraph. when approaching a place known to be owned by certain spirits, it is thought wise to make a small offering. on the trail to ma-al is a large rock which marks the divide between the mountains and the open cogon lands. as the writer's party approached this stone one of the men removed some of his leg bands and placed them beside the rock, at the same time praying the _busau_ to "take the present and do not let any of our party fall sick or be injured on the journey." it is also customary for a man who wishes to buy anything or to make a trade, first to make an offering of betel-nut to the spirit of some rich man, and to ask his help in the venture. some new clearings are cut in the jungle each year, after the constellation _balatik_ has risen out of the sea. the spirits place this sign in the heavens to notify all that the land should be cleared, but it does not call for a sacrifice as in the case of the people we have previously described. at that time the men cut the trees and underbrush, and after allowing them to dry, fire them. they also make the holes into which the women drop seed rice. when the land is ready for planting, a little house called _botabwe_ is built in the center of the field, and beside it is placed a platform or table, _sina-al_, on which is an offering of food. early in the morning, while the others sleep, the owner and his wife carry the seed rice to the field and place it on the _botabwe_. after a time they eat some of the food which has previously been offered and then begin to plant, beginning close to the spirit house. soon they are joined by other workers who aid them in the planting. these assistants do not receive payment for their services other than food while working and like help when in need. at this time a bamboo pole, with one end split and spread open like a cup,[ ] is placed in front of the elevated platform of the family dwelling and the guardian spirit of the fields is promised that after the harvest he will receive the new seed rice. while the rice is growing the men attend to the fences and the women keep down weeds or frighten birds and other intruders away. when the crops have matured all the people of a neighborhood will meet at the home of the chief, and there celebrate a ceremony known as _pandoman_. two bundles of rice are laid on a mat in the center of the room, and beside them a spear is thrust into the floor. these are offerings to the great spirits melu and dwata who are besought to give health to the workers while they are gathering crops. as soon as this offering is made, the men begin to build the rice granaries; meanwhile the women silently guard the mat and gifts, for until the new storehouses are completed there must be no dancing or merry-making. when all is ready for the harvest, the wife of the owner goes alone to the field, and having cut a few heads of grain, she carries them back to the house. one portion is placed in the _sabak_ another on a little platform, _gramso_, near to the house, as an offering to melu and dwata; and the balance is cooked and eaten by the family. the following morning all the women go to the fields to gather the harvest. when the last bundle has been carried to the house a celebration begins, agongs and _edel_[ ] furnish the music for the dancers, and for a day and a night all feast and make merry; then the workers return to their homes carrying small gifts of cooked food or new rice. [ ] this pole which is here known as _sabak_ is the same as the _tambara_ of the bagobo. see p. and fig. . [ ] see p. note. [transcriber's note: pages earlier.] aside from clearing the land and helping somewhat with the rice crops, the men seldom concern themselves with work in the fields but leave the cultivation of corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and the like to the women. a large part of the food of the tribe is furnished by the fruits and herbs of the jungle and here again the women are the chief providers. although in the sago industry both sexes have well defined duties. along the edge of the cogon lands are many large _buri_ palms,[ ] from which a starch commercially known as sago is secured. the men cut down a tree close to its roots and remove the hard outer bark, thus exposing the soft fibrous interior (plate liii); then a section of bamboo is bent so as to resemble an adze[sic], and with this the men loosen or break up the soft interior portion of the trunk. this is removed to a near-by stream, and is placed in a bark vat into which water is led by means of bamboo tubes. here a woman works it with her hands until the starch grains are separated from the fibrous matter. as the water drains slowly out the fine starch is carried with it into a coarse cloth sieve, which retains all the larger matter but allows the starch to be carried into another bark vat below. fresh water passes slowly through this lower vat, removing the bitter sap from the flour, which is deposited on the bottom of the vat. from time to time this is scraped up and placed in baskets where it is kept until needed. the flour, while rather tasteless, is nutritious and in years of drought is the chief source of food supply. [ ] _corypha umbraculifera_. preparation of the meals, care of the children, basket and mat making, weaving and decoration of clothing, take up most of the time of the women when they are not engaged in the cultivation of the fields or in search of forest products. the hardest work in the fields falls to the men; they also strip the hemp needed in weaving, while a few of them are skilled workers in brass and copper and turn out bells and other ornaments not at all inferior to those of the coast natives. their methods of casting as well as their manufactures are identical with those of the bagobo from whom they probably learned the art. so far as could be learned no iron work is done by members of this tribe, and the few spears and knives possessed by the warriors seem to be trade articles. the old men claim that until recent years the bow and arrow was their sole offensive weapon. it is certain that today they have a greater variety of arrows and are more skillful in the use of this type of weapon than are any of their neighbors. none of the weapons found on the gulf side of the divide appeared to be poisoned, but a number secured by major porter from the lake buluan region seem to have been so treated (fig. ). different types of arrows have been developed for different purposes; one for fighting, another for deer and pig, another for monkeys, and still others for fish and birds (fig. ). birds are killed also by means of reed blow guns, identical in type with those shown on page , fig. . as a rule such weapons are used by boys. pitch sticks (fig. ), chicken snares, and fish traps are in common use, but bird nets and wooden decoys seem to be unknown. fig. . bows, arrows and quiver from lake buluan region. fig. . bows and arrows in common use. fig. . pitch stick used in the capture of small birds. when on a raid warriors carry beautifully carved shields, bows and arrows, spears, and fighting knives (plates liv-lv). they are in bad repute with the coast natives, but are really far less warlike and troublesome than any of their neighbors. their isolated dwellings serve as protection against invaders, but at the same time make it difficult to gather large bodies of men for raiding purposes. it is only when urged on by an invasion of their country, by a desire for revenge for real or fancied wrongs, or when a victim is needed for a sacrifice that great raids are planned. before a war party is to start against an enemy the leader takes eight pieces of betel nut and some leg bands and placing them on his shield, bids his followers lay their weapons upon them. addressing the guardian spirit of the warriors, he speaks as follows: "now listen lamot ta mangayo, let the person who killed my brother come to meet us even though his head does ache, for now we offer to you. give us good fortune in the fight." upon returning from the fray they place eight whole betel nuts, together with leaves, on a plate, and having set it outside the house, one of the warriors calls to melu saying: "if the brother of the man we have killed in payment for my brother calls on you for aid, you must not give heed, for here we make a present to you." there are no restrictions placed upon a pregnant woman, who, as a rule, continues her regular duties until near the time of delivery.[ ] when the first pains begin an old man or woman offers four pieces of betel nut to melu, and to the spirit of the child's grandfather, if deceased. the midwife prepares a drink which is supposed to aid in the delivery, and after the birth she cuts the umbilical cord with a bamboo knife. she also assists about the house for a time, and for these services receives two or three chinese plates, some small knives, rings for the right arm, and some needles. the father is not under any restrictions at this time, but for a day of two he will gather young _patina_ palms and from them prepare food for his wife. [ ] a woman does not work during her periods, and any food prepared by her at that time would be refused by all who knew her condition. from birth until marriage the career of the child is without special event. he is a welcome addition to the family, but no ceremonies attend either his naming, or his arrival at the age of puberty. as a rule, a youth does not take a wife until he is near twenty years of age, and then his mate is generally of his own choosing. having decided upon a suitable girl he informs his parents and the friends he may wish to accompany him when he goes to her home to press his suit. arrived at the house, the father of the suitor expresses his belief that his son wishes to reside there since he now asks the daughter for his wife. in reply he is told that the family is poor, having neither agongs, animals, or other things of value. the suitor at once makes an offering of some of these desired articles, but whatever the gift may be, a return present equal to half its value must be made.[ ] should the girl's parents reject the gift all negotiations would be called off and the guests return home, but as a rule, both families are well aware of and favorable to the expected wedding sometime before the visit of the groom's parents. after the exchange of gifts, food is furnished first to the guests and later to the couple, who in the presence of all the friends, feed each other with rice and are henceforth considered as husband and wife. until after the birth of a child the couple live with the girl's family and the groom serves his father-in-law. after the birth of an heir the couple establish a home of their own and to it the husband may bring other wives if he desires. he pays a price for these new wives, but does not give any services to their families. the first mate is considered superior to the others, and in case her husband dies, she acts as administrator of his property; however, the children of a second wife share equally with those by the first marriage. [ ] note the similarity to the bagobo custom. page . the evening following a death, the friends gather and throughout the night sing of the virtues of the deceased and of their own sorrow. the body is placed on a mat in the center of the house and for three days is watched over by the relatives, who, during this time, abstain from music, dancing, shouting, or loud talking. the women cease from weaving and the men refrain from all labor. a breaking of this taboo would result in the certain death of the offender, for the spirit of the dead man is still near at hand and is sure to wreak his vengeance on those who show him disrespect. finally, the body is wrapped in mats and is buried at some little distance from the house. all the people return to the dwelling, where the headman makes a cup out of leaves, and having placed in it a narrow belt or string, together with betel leaves, sets it adrift on a near-by stream, while all the men shout.[ ] this removes the ban, so that all the people can resume their regular occupations. [ ] see pp. and . [transcriber's note: this is page .] if the deceased has been a person of great importance, the death should be followed eight days later by a human sacrifice. this rite, while less common than with the bagobo, is by no means infrequent, and may be occasioned by several causes beside that of death. for instance, if a person has been ill for a long time and his relatives have become convinced that an enemy has used magic to bring about the misfortune, they may seize and sacrifice him, even though he be a member of their own community. a case is known where a thief was put to death in this manner. as there is considerable variation in the accounts of this important ceremony the writer has thought it wise to give the descriptions of two eye-witnesses. the first informant was an eighteen year old bila-an boy of labau named lantingari. his account is as follows: "sololin of ma-al, the wife of karan, a bila-an living near digos, died and her husband, in company with umook, gamban, and bunod, bagobos of digos, and the people of labau, decided that a sacrifice was necessary both because of the death and in order that the size, wealth, and fame of the tribe might be increased. about this time dianon, a bila-an of latian (now deceased), caught a man named saligon stealing camotes, sugar-cane, and corn from the land.[ ] he bound and tied the man, and after a conference with karan, dianon agreed to turn over his prisoner for the sacrifice if paid five agongs and one gun. [ ] the woman sololin had planted this sugar-cane and is reported to have eaten some of it just prior to her death. the cane stolen was from the patch, but the informant could not say whether or not this had anything to do with later developments. "the sacrifice took place on a stream called matinao near labau during the new moon. two poles were sunk into the ground seven feet apart, and a cross-piece attached about six feet above the ground. the culprit was tied with hands crossed, one on each side of the horizontal pole so that his arms were high above his head, and his feet were fastened to a stake. "the men gathered close around the poles, but the women and children stood at a distance. karan took his stand just back and to the right of the victim, and umook stood in front on the left side. both unsheathed their knives and then they called upon the spirits dwata, melu and lamot ta mangayo to look and see that they were killing the man because of his great fault; if this were not true they surely would not kill him.[ ] at this point saligon, the victim, told the men that he was not afraid to die, that if they killed him, their fault would be great, but that if they would release him, he would return at once to his home in bilawan and would not cause them any trouble because of what they had proposed to do. when he stopped talking, karan struck him from in front just below the ribs with his fighting knife, and umook struck him from in back. the other men present who were willing to pay for the privilege then struck at the body with their knives. the body was then cut down and buried in a shallow grave already prepared for it. no parts were carried away, although in some cases the women take the long hairs of the victim and sew them in the designs on the men's trousers in place of black thread."[ ] [ ] the informant here added that if the man had not been guilty, karan and umook would surely have been punished with sickness; but since they were not ill, it is certain that he was bad, and that dwata had taken his body up and would not punish his murderers. [ ] the informant further volunteered, that the bila-an make a sacrifice every two years, and that several years ago his uncle named ke was the victim. at that time he was too young to remember the details. datu baklay who now lives near the padada river, but was formerly a resident of the malalag cogon plains, claims that the ceremony is not a yearly event, as is the case with the bagobo, neither does it follow each death; but if the deceased has been a person of great importance or a member of the ruler's family it should take place in eight days, regardless of the phase of the moon or the position of the stars. he further insists that neither _balatik_ nor any other constellation governs the time of an offering, nor does such a ceremony insure better crops or success in war. he describes the sacrifice following the death of datu kalayan, his father, as follows: "a bila-an slave was purchased for one agong and preparations made for a sacrifice. a small house without floor or sides was built in the forest some distance from the town, and in this were two upright poles which supported a crossbeam at a height of about seven feet. near them and inside the house a shallow grave was dug and then the victim was brought in. he was tied to the horizontal pole, hands crossed one on each side of the beam. the men filled the house, leaving a free place only near the victim, and the women and children crowded close around in the yard. after addressing the spirits, lamot ta mangayo, melu, and dwata, i placed my spear to the man's side, and then all the male relatives took hold of the shaft and at my signal forced the weapon through the body. other men then cut at the body with their knives, finally releasing it from the pole. while it lay on the ground the women and boys were allowed to enter the house and throw spears at it, after which it was buried." baloey, a kagan living at padada, claims to have seen a bila-an sacrifice at ma-al, about ten years ago, while bagobo datu ansig of talun, and tongkaling of cibolan claim to have witnessed several of these events. as their accounts agree in most particulars with the two just recorded, it seems probable that we have here a fairly accurate account of a rite which no white man has seen or can hope to see. in studying the decorative art of this people a person encounters the same difficulties as with the bagobo. nearly all garments are covered with elaborate patterns (plates lvi-lx), to some of which all the people will give the same names and explanations; but by far the greater portion of the designs have only pattern names which are unexplained. many designs are readily identified as men and alligators. in fig. the forms marked a are identified as men and women, while the conventionalized crocodile is shown in the same plates by the figures marked b. fig. is perhaps the most interesting since it shows in one garment the process of conventionalization. nos. , , and , are realistic representations of the human form; in and the heads are lacking but the figures are easily recognized, while the balance have lost all resemblance to the original, except for the uplifted arms and spread legs, however, the great majority of decorative patterns on clothing are without meaning to the mass of the people, and this is true also of the designs on baskets, in mats, the incised designs often seen on pottery jars, and of the carvings which frequently cover hangers, tobacco tubes, and the like. fig. . designs embroidered on men's clothing. fig. . designs embroidered on men's clothing. the language of this tribe, while quite uniform among its divisions, varies considerably from that of any of their coast neighbors. there is at once noticeable a more common use of obscure vowel and consonant sounds, such as b, f, e, a, and k, in the beginning, end or even in the body of the word; while the letter f, seldom found in philippine dialects, is here very common; and finally, there is wide variation in vocabulary. there are certain ill-defined tales to the effect that this tribe once lived about lake buluan, and one writer[ ] has attempted to show that the tribal name is derived from that early home. today they are still in considerable numbers in that region, and this together with the fact that they are now, and have been since the advent of the white man, primarily an interior mountain people, helps to give credence to the belief that they have spread to their present homes from the lake district. their language is a further proof that they have long been separated from the people of the davao gulf region, for it differs more from all the other dialects studied than did any of these vary among themselves. despite the foregoing statement, this brief sketch has shown that in material culture, religion, and even physical type this tribe does not differ radically from the bagobo. [ ] blumentritt, _smithsonian report_ for . iii. kulaman. synonyms. (a) culamanes. (b) manobo. according to governor bolton this tribe numbers about thirty-five hundred individuals and occupies a considerable portion of the coast, and adjacent mountains, from the padada river on the north to sarangani bay on the south. on the east side of davao gulf its members are found along the beach and in the mountains, from sigaboy to cape san agustin, and also in a few scattered villages on the southeastern pacific coast. by their neighbors they are known as kulaman or manobo. the former designation is translated as "bad man," but it is probable that they received the name from the town of kulaman, where they formerly resided. they are equally well known as manobo--a word meaning "man." earlier writers, misled by these two names, have generally treated this people as forming two distinct groups, but this is quite incorrect, both names being applied to a part or to the whole of the tribe. it has also been customary to describe them as a part of the great manobo tribe which inhabits a large portion of central and northeastern mindanao. the writer is of the opinion that there is not sufficient evidence to justify such a classification and that for the present we must consider them as distinct from the manobo of the northern district as are the other tribes of davao gulf. according to their own tales, the kulaman once held all the coast from the padada river to sarangani bay, but did not extend far back from the sea, since in the mountains lived the tagakaolo and bila-an with whom they were constantly at war. when the moro appeared on their coasts and offered help against the hill tribes in return for land, they were gladly received and were given several village sites near to the mouths of various rivers. aside from a few minor quarrels, the kulaman have always lived on friendly terms with these later comers, and not a few of the tribe have been converted to mohammedism. influenced by their new allies they organized under several petty rulers who were subservient to the datu at kulaman, and with this superior organization they were able to carry on such successful warfare against the hill tribes that the tagakaolo were, for a time, partially under their rule. when the spaniards arrived and undertook to subdue the moro, the kulaman cast their lot with their mohammedan allies, and even after the power of the moro was broken, they remained irreconcilable and frequently raided the settlements under the care of the spanish priests. the recent history of the tribe, as told by datu bongkalasan of padada, as is follows: "about a hundred years ago when gogo became _datu_, he left kulaman and settled at piapi, not far from padada, and planted the cocoanut trees which can still be seen there. he was a man with a very small head, but his arms were as large as a man's legs. he lived until very old, and during his lifetime never did any work but was always a great warrior. under him the tribe became strong and all the other _datu_ feared him. when he died his son kolatau my uncle, succeeded him. like his father, he was a great warrior and all the neighboring tribes paid him slaves and other tribute. his two sons died during his lifetime; so upon his death the leadership fell to me, bongkalasan." by the time bongkalasan became ruler, the influence of the spaniards was strong enough to break the power of any coast _datu_, and after a hostile demonstration by the new ruler his town was destroyed and his following scattered. a part of the people took to the hills while others migrated to the east side of the gulf and settled near sigaboy. it is not believed that any members of this tribe were in that vicinity prior to this time. a further migration took place shortly after the arrival of the americans, when a brother of bongkalasan took a number of the kulaman over to sigaboy. a certain amount of communication is kept up between the people on both sides of the gulf and the dialects are still so similar that it is certain the separation has not been for any great period of time. upon the establishment of american rule a number of hemp planters settled along the coast and soon their inducements to laborers began to scatter the people, until today members of this tribe can be found as far north as santa cruz. the power and influence of the _datu_ has waned until he now has a following of less than two hundred people. only that portion of the tribe which retired to the hills still maintains any semblance of their old prowess and even those groups are growing smaller year by year. at the height of their power the men of the tribe were noted as boat-builders[ ] and fishermen. fighting also took up a considerable portion of their time, for added to their desire for loot and slaves was a demand for victims imposed by the warrior deity. the women cultivated little patches of corn, camotes, and some cocoanuts, and at certain seasons all the members of the tribe went to the forest to gather sago, but aside from this the sea furnished most of their food supply. according to their own stories they did not cultivate rice until recent years, and datu bongkalasan insists that none of the people planted rice when he was a boy. it is his belief that all the ceremonies connected with the rice culture were learned from the tagakaolo and bila-an. [ ] this art is now practically lost and their boats are secured from the moro. from the spanish writers[ ] we hear little but evil of this people. they are spoken of as warlike, superstitious, treacherous, and vengeful as head-hunters "who expose the heads of their enemies on poles," and as slavers. from father gisbert[ ] we learn that in , about twelve hundred members of the tribe were converted to christianity; but during the period following the departure of the spaniards most of them deserted the faith and returned to the old life. since american occupation they have been among the most troublesome people of southern mindanao, and only as late as were responsible for the death of a number of planters and the destruction of the plantations in the neighborhood of nuin. they are rapidly breaking up as a tribe, and are intermarrying with the coast natives and hill tribes, from both of whom they are adopting artifacts and ideas. already they have so altered their dwellings that we cannot refer to a typical kulaman home; their house-hold utensils[ ] are those of their neighbors, and this is true also of most of the clothing, although one special type will be mentioned later on. [ ] blair and robertson, vol. lv, p. . [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xliii, p. . [ ] long narrow hemp cloth pillows (fig. ) and round waterproof boxes with infitting, tray-like tops (fig. ) are found in nearly every house. the use of these two articles is not confined to this people, but is typical of them. the same type of box is found among the manobo of the agusan river valley. fig. . part of a hemp cloth pillow cover. fig. . waterproof basket with infitting top. as a result of their slave raids, and the adoption of captive women and their offspring into the family, we find great variation in the members of the tribe (plates lxi-lxii). measurements on twenty-seven men gave the following results: height:--maximum . cm.; minimum . cm.; average . cm. cephalic index:--maximum . ; minimum . ; average . . length-height. index:--maximum . ; minimum . ; average . . if these figures are compared with those of the bagobo it will be seen that there is little difference in the averages; however, this similarity is less real than the figures indicate, for with the kulaman there are more individuals at both extremes. for example: the cephalic indices of eight out of the twenty-seven were or above, while six were less than ; again, in the length-height indices six were above and an equal number less than . in other respects there is such variation that it is hard to generalize. it is noticeable that there is a greater tendency toward prognathism than we have heretofore met with; the forehead, while high, is moderately retreating and the supra-orbital ridges prominent in most individuals; the hair is brown-black and is inclined to curl in locks. the wide variation of type within the tribe is to be expected when we know that its members have been constantly recruited from the neighboring tribes. it is even possible that a considerable number of slave women from distant islands may have been added to the group by purchase from the moro.[ ] [ ] according to early writers, the moro of the gulf carried on a lucrative slave trade with this and other tribes. as the moro raids were made by water and often reached as far as the northeastern coast of this island and south to the celebes it is quite possible that these remote districts have helped in the upbuilding of the tribe under discussion. the religious beliefs have many points in common with those of the neighboring tribes, but there are some which require special notice. two powerful beings, timanem and his wife diwata[ ] are above all other spirits. [ ] the padada people say the term _diwata_ is a name which may be applied to the _timanem_, of whom there are two, a male and a female. mandalangan, also called siling or manobo siring, is much like the bagobo divinity of similar name. he is fond of war and bloodshed and when there has been a great slaughter he feasts on the flesh and drinks of the blood of the slain. only warriors can address him and make the offerings of red food which he demands. once a year, usually after the rice harvest and when the moon is full, a raid must be made and victims slain so that this spirit can feast.[ ] if the warriors fail to render him this service mandalangan will cause their bodies to swell up and many will die, while sickness will visit all other members of the tribe.[ ] [ ] data bongkalasan says it was formerly the custom to make a foray at each full moon. [ ] this was the reason given for the raid on the coast plantations in . the many spirits who inhabit rocks and large trees are generally favorable to man and are collectively known as _magintalonan_. tama owns the deer and wild pigs, and no one hunts or traps in the forest until he has made an offering of betel nut to this spirit. when game is secured its tail and ears are strung on rattan and are hung in a tree, in exchange for the live animal. the _maniokan_, generally evil spirits, resemble snakes, and like them live in the ground. people are frequently made lame by simply stepping over their homes. each man and woman has a spirit, _kalaloa_,[ ] dwelling in his body during lifetime. at death this spirit goes into the sky, unless it deserves punishment, in which case it is hurried to kilot, a region below. in either place these spirits keep close watch over the living and bring success or disaster according to their will. they have come to be looked upon as the guardians of the fields, and suitable offerings are made to them at planting and harvest time. [ ] the kulaman of santa cruz insist that each person has two _kalaloa_, one on the right side and one on the left. at death the one on the right side goes to a good place in the sky, where there is no work and "thoughts come easy." the _kalaloa_ of the left side goes into the ground to a poor place called kilot. it is probable that the neighboring bagobo have influenced the beliefs of this group. a few old men, _makating_, are thought to be able to address the spirits with greater probability of success than the others; but they do not stand in the same relation to the spirit world as do the _mabalian_ of the bagobo. the nearest approach to that class is a group of women known as _lokes_[ ], who act as midwives and make use of roots and herbs in curing sickness. [ ] in santa cruz known as _bagbabolan_ or _mananagámen_. the people are warned of disaster or impending danger by various signs. a snake crossing the trail is an imperative order for the traveler to turn back; the call of the _limokon_[ ] is likewise a warning, while should one of the principals to any agreement sneeze during the negotiations the project would be delayed or abandoned. [ ] see p. note. there is only slight development of beliefs and ceremonies in connection with the cultivation of field crops, due probably to the recent adoption of agriculture by the members of this tribe. a field is seldom planted to rice for more than one season, after which the land is used for corn, camotes, and the like, until the invasion of _cogon_ grass makes further cultivation impossible. as a result new land must be broken for each planting. when the constellation _layag_ "a sail" and _balangay_ "a boat" appear in the month of december, the people go to the desired plot, cut down the trees, and when these are dry, fire them. before the planting can be begun the seed rice must be carried to the center of the field where a bamboo pole, _talabinian_, and a stalk of sugar-cane have previously been placed, as an offering to the _kalaloa_ who guard the land. again at harvest time an offering of food is taken to this spot and the spirits of the dead are besought as follows: "do not take our rice, but let it last for a long time, for now we give a part to you." a meal and dance follow the offering and then all who desire may aid in cutting the new rice. no offerings are associated with the planting or harvesting of other field crops, but the gathering of sago flour is attended by gifts to the spirits of the dead and prayers for the health of the workers. the method of obtaining and preparing the flour is the same as that already described. offerings are made before and after a hunt, and a man never goes to fish without first placing a leg ring and some betel nut on the sand close to the water, meanwhile saying, "you timanem must give us some food; and you shall have your part." upon his return he places a small fish beside the first offering and is then free to take his catch to the village. in addition to the pursuits already outlined, we find that some of the men are expert workers in iron (fig. ), copper, and brass, while the women are weavers. their weaving does not differ from that previously described, but a peculiar type of decoration has been developed by this tribe, and from them has spread somewhat to their neighbors. waxed threads are used to work designs into cloth so that when the fabric is placed in dye the liquid will not reach the portions thus covered. later, when the threads are removed, white patterns appear on the red background (see plate lxiii). fig. . man's knife and sheath. slaves are kept, but their duties are so similar to those of the freeborn that it is impossible for the casual observer to pick out the members of this class. until recent years a large part of the man's time was taken up in preparation for or active participation in the inter-tribal fights. there are several incentives for these raids. first is the desire for loot and slaves; then comes the ambition of the young men to be recognized as successful warriors; and finally, and most compelling is the demand of the spirit mandalangan for victims. a man who has killed five or more persons is entitled to wear a red suit covered with peculiar white designs (see plate lxiii), and is henceforth known as _mabolot_. when his score has reached twenty-five he receives the still more honorable title of _maiseg_ and is then allowed to dress entirely in black and to deck his hair with red flowers.[ ] [ ] the flowers used are _celosia cristata l., graptophyllum hortense nees_; _coleus atropurpeus benth_. a raid is made only when the moon is full. a dish of red rice is decorated with red flowers and is placed in the center of the room. around it the warriors stick their spears and then one of the oldest of the company takes up a handful of the food and offers it to the spirit, saying: "mandalangan come and eat, for we are ready to fight; go with us and help us." as he finishes his prayer each warrior takes a portion of the rice and throws it out of doors, for "they are not yet worthy to eat what mandalangan has left." returning to the room they all eat of white rice and are ready for the raid. in addition to their spears they should carry shields and fighting knives, and in recent years quite a number have come into possession of firearms. although the warriors are bold in their attack and do not hesitate to assault strong villages, they have no scruples against seizing or killing members of small parties or the inhabitants of isolated dwellings.[ ] it is necessary that the raiders secure at least one victim, otherwise another foray must be made at once. the body of the slain is opened, the liver is extracted and is eaten by the warriors who thus "become like mandalangan."[ ] the head, forearms, and lower part of the legs are carried back to the village where they are cut to pieces by the women and children. the men take no part in this mutilation of the body, but as soon as the fragments are buried they begin to dance, meanwhile holding their unsheathed knives high above their heads. after a time the head-man blows loudly on a decorated bamboo trumpet (fig. ), while all the men unite in shouting "to announce their victory." at last they have fulfilled all the commands of mandalangan and without fear they enter the house and partake of the red food which has been offered to him. [ ] should water fall by accident on a warrior who is on a raid, it is considered a bad omen and the plans may be changed or delayed. in one instance the owner of a place marked for attack fastened dishes of water so that the marauders unwittingly knocked them over on themselves, and, as a result, the place was left unharmed. [ ] at times the skull is opened and the brain eaten. fig. . tambolang or bamboo trumpet. the events just preceding and following the birth of a child are very similar to those of the bagobo, except that there are no restrictions of any kind placed on the father and mother, neither are there any ceremonies connected with the birth or naming of a child unless unusual events have convinced the people that the spirits are in some way displeased.[ ] [ ] triplets are killed, as with the bagobo. the afterbirth is placed in the care of an old woman who carries it directly to a sturdy molave[ ] tree and there attaches it to the branches "so that the child may become strong like the tree." while on this mission the bearer looks neither to the right nor to the left, nor does she hesitate, for such actions on her part might influence the disposition of the child or cause it to have physical deformities.[ ] no special attention is given to youths when they reach the age of puberty, although it is customary to file and blacken their teeth at about that period. [ ] vitex littoralis decne. [ ] similar beliefs are held by the tinguian of northern luzon. marriage is attended by gifts and ceremonies, such as we have previously described. we find the groom paying a price for his bride, but receiving a return gift from her parents; the couple feed one another with rice and are thereby legally married; and finally we learn that a child is kept with them until they have had intercourse. it is customary for the youth to serve his father-in-law-to-be for two or three years preceding the wedding, after which he is released from such service. as is the case with the neighboring tribes, polygamy is practiced, the only bar to marriage being blood relationship. upon the death of the head of the family one-half of his property goes to his wife and half to the children. if there are two or more wives, the first wife still retains half, while all the children share equally in the balance of the estate, thus leaving the second and succeeding wives without a portion. sickness may be caused by evil spirits, or it may be due to a desire on the part of the _kalaloa_ to leave its present abode. in either case the man becomes ill and it behooves him to take immediate steps to placate the evil spirits or to convince his _kalaloa_ to remain with him. this last can best be accomplished by bathing the sick person with water which has been heated in a good _agong_. a fine dish would do equally well, but should the hot water cause it to break the spirit would depart at once. in extreme cases the _lokes_ will gather certain roots and brew them into a drink which she gives to the sick person. at each tree or shrub visited in her search for medicines she leaves an offering of betel nuts and leg rings, and when the drink has been prepared she makes a further gift, meanwhile begging timanem to aid her in effecting a cure. if all efforts fail and the spirit leaves, the corpse is placed in the center of the house, where it is kept from two to nine days according to the wealth and prominence of the deceased. during this time no one should sleep in the dwelling, for the spirit might be resentful and turn the face of the sleeper black. usually, the body is buried in the ground at a distance from the house. the coffin is made out of a split log, in which weapons, jars, and the like are placed for the use of the spirit. if the dead man has been a warrior he is dressed in the clothing distinctive of his rank, and his grave is covered with red flowers. at times the coffins are shaped to resemble small boats and are then placed on high poles near to the beach. for a month following a funeral the relatives refrain from all merrymaking. at the expiration of this period all go to a near-by river and with their knives, cut to pieces a braided cord, which has been made since the burial, and as they destroy it they shout "this is a man we are killing. this is a man we are killing." finally, the pieces are thrown into the river and the period of taboo is past. iv. tagakaolo. synonyms. (a) tagakaola. (b) saka--"head of the river." (c) kagan, kalagan, calaganes, calagars. (d) laoc. according to the account of pastell,[ ] this name is given to a small, degraded division of the tagakaolo who live in the mountains of haguimitan on san augustin peninsula. [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xliii, p. . the present habitat and general condition of this tribe is nearly the same as that of the kulaman. prior to spanish times they held the hill region back of the coast, between malalag and lais. on the gulf side they were barred from the sea by the kulaman and moro, while in the mountains they encountered the powerful bila-an tribe. about fifty years ago that part of the tribe living furthest to the north united under the leadership of a brave warrior named paugok, and made war on the bagobo. they were successful in this conflict and drove their enemies from the rich valleys of the padada and bulatakay rivers, where they established themselves. this brought them in close contact with the kulaman and moro of the coast, with whom they lived on friendly terms. the influence of the latter group was so great that the newcomers not only adopted their style of dress, but also substituted cotton for hemp in the manufacture of their garments. today the members of this tribe can still be recognized by their close fitting suits of red and yellow striped cloth, from which they have received the name of kagan.[ ] they have also been constant borrowers, from all their neighbors, of ideas for house-building and utensils. they have intermarried to some extent with the kulaman, and in times past bila-an and bagobo slave women have been added to the tribe. [ ] the general name applied to red cotton trade cloth. today practically all the members of the kagan division are found living on the american plantations along the padada and bulatakay rivers. they are on friendly terms with their tagakaolo kinsmen, and are still so like them in language, social customs, and religious beliefs, that one description will suffice for both. at some unrecorded date a considerable, portion of the tribe migrated to the east side of davao gulf, and settled near cape san agustin, where, it is said, they now number more than two thousand. the name tagakaolo signifies "those who dwell at the head of the river," and is applied to all the hill people living between the coast and the country of the bila-an. they have always been broken up into small groups, often at war with one another, yet they appear to be quite uniform in type, language, and religious beliefs. in recent years many of them have been induced to come down to the coast plantations, but the great majority still remain in the mountains. they are of a turbulent, warlike disposition, and have been a constant source of trouble to the spanish and american authorities.[ ] at the time of the writer's visit they had joined with the kulaman in raiding the coast settlements, and, as a result, were being vigorously pursued by the american troops; for this reason it was only possible to gain information from those remaining on the plantations. [ ] members of this tribe were responsible for the murder of governor bolton. the total number of persons making up the tribe is estimated at six thousand, but this is at best a mere guess. there is scarcely any variation in physical type between the kagan branch and the tagakaolo proper, while for the whole tribe there is less variation between its members than in any group so far discussed. the following results were obtained by measurements on twenty-seven men: maximum height . cm.; minimum . cm.; average . cm. cephalic indices--maximum . ; minimum . ; average . . length-height indices--maximum . ; minimum . , average . . these tables show that aside from being more short-headed, this tribe differs little from the bagobo, bila-an, and kulaman. like the kulaman, they have high foreheads, often full and vaulted but quite as frequently retreating from well-marked supra-orbital ridges. they are slightly more prognathous than the kulaman, and in the majority of cases the hair is curled in locks. the teeth are usually mutilated and blackened, while shaving of the eyebrows and tattooing of the left forearm and breast are quite common. the historians of the tribe tell us that all the tagakaolo are descended from lakbang, mengedan, and his wife bodek. in the beginning these three persons lived on a small island in the sea. two children, linkanan and lampagan, were born to them and they in turn were parents of two birds--the _kalau_ and _sabitan_. these birds flew away to other places and returned with bits of soil which their parents patted and moulded with their hands until they had formed the earth. other children were born and from them have come all the people who now inhabit the land. two powerful spirits, _diwata_ and _timanem_, watched the formation of the world, and when it was completed the latter spirit planted trees upon it. he still takes considerable interest in the affairs of men and each year sends the spirits layag and bangay,[ ] as stars, to tell the people when to prepare their land for the planting of crops. [ ] see page . other spirits, less friendly, have existed from the first time. of these one named siling causes much trouble by confusing travelers through the forest. spirits of unborn children--_mantianak_[ ]--wander through the forest crying "ina-a-a" (mother), and often attack human beings. the only way persons thus assailed can hope to escape is by running to a stream and throwing water on the abdomens of their pursuers. [ ] frequently called _busau_. the powerful spirit tama owns the deer and wild pig, and is usually kind to hunters who offer him proper gifts. should they fail in this duty he may cause them to become lost or injured. mandalangan (mandangan) is known as a powerful spirit who loves war and bloodshed, but he is so closely interwoven in the minds of the people with timanem that it is doubtful if he should be classed as a separate spirit. in addition to these beings are the _kawe_, or shades of the dead, the chiefs of whom are the people who created the earth. during life the _kawe_ live in the body, but after death they go to the sky where they remain the greater part of the time. they do return to earth at certain seasons, to aid or injure the living, and it is usually one of their number who keeps guard over the rice-fields. certain persons known as _balian_ can talk to these spirits and from them have learned the ceremonies which the people should perform at certain seasons, and at the critical periods of life. in the main these ceremonies are so similar to those just described that it is useless to repeat. the proceedings at a birth, marriage, or death are practically identical with the kulaman, as are also those at planting and harvest time. a slight variation was noticed after the rice planting at padada, when all the workers placed their planting sticks on an offering of rice and then poured water over them "so as to cause an abundance of rain." another difference is noticed following the death of a warrior. his knife lies in its sheath beside the body for seven days and during that time can only be drawn if it is to be used in sacrificing a slave. if such an offering is made it is carried out in much the same way as the bagobo sacrifice, except that the bereaved father, son, or brother cuts the body in halves. if it is impossible to offer a slave, a palm leaf cup is filled with water and is carried to the forest. here the relatives dance and then dip the knife and some sticks in the water for "this is the same as dipping them in blood." later they are carried back and hung up in the house of mourning. according to the long established custom, warriors must go to fight once each year, when the moon is bright. spears, fighting knives, bows and arrows, sharpened bamboo sticks, and shields have long been used, and to these several guns have been added in recent years. the attack is from ambush and the victims are generally cut to pieces, although women and children are sometimes taken captive. tufts of hair taken from the slain are attached to the shields of the warriors, and an arm is carried back to the home town "so that the women and children can cut it to pieces and become brave." the foregoing account shows that the kagan and tagakaolo living on the hemp plantations differ very little from their neighbors, whom we have previously described. it may be that an investigation, carried on in peaceful times, far back in the mountains, will show that more radical differences exist in the great body of the tribe. v. ata. the people classed under this name are the least known of any of the wild inhabitants of mindanao. they probably receive their name from the word _atas_ which signifies "those up above" or "the dwellers in the uplands." it does not appear that they form a single tribe, or that they are even of uniform type. the writer did no intensive work with them, and the following notes make no pretense of being first-hand knowledge. i have drawn on all possible sources for this scanty information, but am mostly indebted to the letters and reports of the late governor bolton, who, without doubt, knew more of this people than any other white man. i am thus compelled to make my descriptions vague; indeed, my one excuse for dealing with the ata is to bring together such information as we possess in the hope that it may be of value to some other worker who may later take up the task of studying this little known people. according to governor bolton, the ata inhabit the regions west and northwest of mt. apo, the headwaters of the davao river--north and west of the guianga--as well as the headwaters of the lasan, tuganay, and libagawan rivers. in all these regions they extend over the watershed, converging toward the center of the island at the headwaters of the pulangi river. it should be noted at the outset that the eto or ata, living between the guianga and bagobo, should not be included in this division. in the region about mt. apo they are closely allied to the obo and tigdapaya,[ ] while in the region adjoining the guianga they have intermarried with that people and have adopted many of their customs as well as dress. on the headwaters of the lasan river we are told that they are known as dugbatang or dugbatung; that they are a timid degenerate branch having no fixed habitations and very little clothing; they are small, with crispy hair, and often decorate their bodies with tattooed designs. about twenty miles up the tuganay river governor bolton encountered a similar group of ata whom he describes as being very wild. from the headwaters of this river he crossed over near to the source of the river libagawan where he discovered a hitherto unknown people--the tugauanum. these he believed were mixed malay and negrito, with crispy or curly hair and sharp features. [ ] see p. . while in the central part of mindanao, on the headwaters of the pulangi river, the writer saw about fifty people known as tugauanum who came over the mountains to trade. they were certainly of mixed ancestry, showing a distinct infusion of negrito blood, and in other respects conforming to the description of governor bolton. among articles of barter carried by them were the typical knives and hemp cloth of the west side of the davao gulf region, showing that they are at least in the line of trade with the tribes we have already studied. according to their own stories, the original home of the tribe was along the river mapula which flows into the tuganay near its source. governor bolton tells of hearing, while in this section, of a people called dedaanum "who were small and black and had curly hair," but who had all been killed by the tugauanum. he was also informed that a numerous tribe of very small black people called tugniah lived on the headwaters of the river omiern, which flows north of the libagawan. they were said to live in trees, to plant nothing, and to subsist on sago flour. "their bolos are like sabers and they use lances, bows, and arrows." the governor classes the tugauanum as ata "since they speak the same language" but he adds "they are probably the same race as the libabaoan." this latter people are elsewhere in his notes referred to as guibabauon or dibabaoan. they live along the headwaters of the tagum river and are, he believes, a mixture of ata and mandaya.[ ] [ ] the writer believes that the libabaoan are probably the same as the divavaoan who are classed as a branch of the mandaya. see p. . from one source we learn that the ata are small, in many respects resembling the negrito; that they are timid and are either nomads or build their houses high in the branches of trees. another writer tells us that they are a superior type, with aquiline noses, thick beards, and are tall. "they are very brave and hold their own with the moro." we are also told that they cultivate the soil and build good houses. the estimates concerning their numbers are equally conflicting. governor bolton gives the population as six thousand; the report of the philippine commission for credits them with eight thousand, while father gisbert believed that they aggregated "not less than twenty thousand souls." the divergent reports are due to the fact that up to the year only one village of this people had been visited,[ ] and since that time only a few hasty trips have been made into their territory. [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xliii, pp. - . from our present information it seems probable that the ata are descendants of an early invading people who intermarried first with the early negrito inhabitants, and later with other tribes with which they came in contact. they have been free borrowers from their neighbors in all respects, and hence we find them occupying all the steps from the nomad condition of the pygmy blacks to the highly specialized life of the guianga. the following account of their beliefs was extracted from letters written by governor bolton. he fails to designate the section from which the information was gathered, but its similarity to bagobo and guianga makes it probable that the account comes from the ata dwelling near those people. considerable variation will doubtless be found in other districts. "the greatest of all the spirits is manama[ ] who made the first men from blades of grass, weaving them together until they resembled a human form. in this manner he made eight persons--male and female--who later became the ancestors of the ata and all the neighboring tribes. long after this the water covered the whole earth and all the ata were drowned except two men and a woman. the waters carried them far away and they would have perished had not a large eagle come to their aid. this bird offered to carry them to their homes on its back. one man refused, but the other two accepted its help and returned to mapula. [ ] see page . "the other deities are mandarangan, malalayug, god of agriculture; mabalian, the spirit who presides over childbirth; tarasyub and taratuan, the guardian spirits of the brass and iron workers; boypandi--the spirit who guards over the weavers." while in the ata country the governor observed certain customs of the people. as his party approached the palisaded house of madundun they stopped for twenty minutes to perform a ceremony called _anting-anting_. "an old man waved his shield and a cloth, meanwhile repeating mysterious words. then each man was given a chew of betel-nut and was well rubbed with a charm." "at tuli a swarm of bees passed over the house just as the party was ready to start. this was taken as a sign that some of the party would be killed by the arrows of the enemy, hence they refused to go." "likewise, if the dove _limokan_ calls on the left side of the trail the party will refuse to proceed, unless another _limokan_ answers the call from the right side of the path." vi. mandaya. ("inhabitants of the uplands"). synonyms. (a) mansaka ("inhabitants of the mountain clearings"). this name is applied to those mandaya who formerly dwelt far back in the mountains. many of this division have recently emigrated to the coast and are now found at the north and east part of davao gulf. (b) pagsupan. the appellation by which the members of this tribe, living near the tagum and hijo rivers, are known. (c) mangwanga or mangrangan ("dwellers in the forests"). a name by which are designated those mandaya who live in the heavily forested mountains skirting the coast. (d) managosan or magosan. the members of the tribe living on the headwaters of the agusan river bear this name. (e) divavaoan. a division which inhabits a small district to the south and west of compostela. very little is known of this people, but from the information now at hand it seems that they should be classed as a branch of the mandaya. habitat. this tribe occupies both slopes of the mountain range which borders the pacific ocean, from about degrees of north latitude south nearly to cape san agustin. its members are also found in considerable numbers from the head of the agusan drainage nearly to the town of compostela, and several settlements of this people are to be found along the hijo and tagum rivers, while in recent years a number have established themselves on the eastern side of davao gulf. generally speaking, this whole region is extremely mountainous and at the same time heavily wooded. it is only when the agusan, hijo, and tagum rivers are approached that the country becomes more open. on the pacific coast there are few harbors, for the mountains extend down almost to the water's edge forming high sheer cliffs. aside from the three rivers mentioned the water courses are, for the greater part, small and unnavigable and a short distance back from the coast appear as tiny rivulets at the bottom of deep cañons. there is no organization of the tribe as a whole, since each district has its local ruler who is subject to no other authority. these divisions i are seldom on good terms, and are frequently in open warfare with one another or with neighboring tribes. despite this lack of unity and the great area they inhabit, their dialects are mutually intelligible, and in other respects they are so similar that i believe we are justified in regarding them as one group linguistically, physically, and culturally. description. measurements made on fifteen men and five women gave the following results: height--men: maximum . cm., minimum . cm., average . cm. women: maximum . cm., minimum . cm., average . cm. cephalic index--men: maximum . , minimum . , average . . women: maximum . , minimum . , average . . length-height index--men: maximum . , minimum . , average . . women: maximum . , minimum . , average . . from these figures it appears that there is considerable variation between individuals, but a closer study of the charts shows that the majority of those measured come closer to the averages than do the members of any other group here mentioned (plates lxiv-lxix). both sexes wear the hair long and comb it to a knot at the back of the head. the women generally bang the hair over the forehead, while the men allow a lock to fall in front of each ear. the hair is brown-black and generally slightly wavy, although four individuals with straight hair were seen. the forehead is high, and in about half the persons observed somewhat retreating; however, full, vaulted foreheads are by no means uncommon. the distance from the vertex to the tragus is uniformly great. the cheek bones are quite prominent, while the whole face tapers from above so as to be somewhat angular. in twenty per cent of the men the root of the nose seemed to be continuous with the supra-orbital ridge, which, in such cases, was strongly marked. in general the root of the nose is broad, low, and depressed, and there is a tendency for the ridge to be somewhat concave. the lips are thick and bowed, but there is little or no prognathism. the skin of the body is not tattooed or mutilated in any other way, but the eyebrows are often shaved to a thin line, and the teeth are filed and blackened. filing was formerly done with small stones but imported files are now used for this purpose. the coloring is effected by chewing the roots of the _anmon_ vine and applying to the teeth the "sweat" caught on a steel blade, held above burning bark of the _magawan_ tree. this practice seems to have no significance other than that of beautifying the person and saving the youth from the ridicule of his fellows. to keep the teeth black, tobacco treated with lemon juice which has stood on rusty iron is chewed frequently. despite constant statements to the effect that the members of this tribe are light-colored and the assertion of one writer[ ] that at least one division is white, observations made with the v. luschan color table on more than fifty individuals showed that while certain persons are somewhat lighter than their fellows, as was also the case in other tribes, there is not an appreciable difference in color between this tribe and the others of the gulf region. [ ] landor, the gems of the east. it should be noted that the district from which the white tribe was reported is now fairly well known and there seems to be no reason to believe that the people residing there differ materially in color from the other natives of the island. clothing. the ordinary man of the tribe wears a loosely fitting shirt and wide trousers made of white or blue cotton cloth. (plate lxix-lxx). these garments are frequently decorated with embroidered designs and are finished at the shoulders and knees with a cotton fringe. the trousers are supported at the waist by means of a belt, and below reach nearly to the ankles.[ ] an incised silver disk is attached to the front of the jacket, while ornaments of beads, seeds, and alligators' teeth encircle the neck. [ ] along the coast this type of garment is now seldom seen, for the men are adopting the close-fitting dress of the moro. when on the trail the man covers his head with a little palm bark hat (fig. ). this is sometimes conical, but more frequently is narrow and turned up at the front and back. painted designs, betel wings, and chicken feathers make the hat a striking decoration which compensates for its lack of utility. fig. . men's hats. a class of warriors known as _bagam_[ ] dress in red and wear turbans of the same hue, while women mediums, _ballyan_,[ ] may also make use of red cloth. [ ] see p. . [transcriber's note: this is page .] [ ] see p. . other women wear blue cotton jackets, in the fronts and back of which are many artistic embroidered designs. their hemp cloth skirts, like those of the bagobo, are made tube-like and are held at the waist by means of belts. they are very careless about the hang of these garments and one side may be above the calf of the leg while the other drags on the ground (plate lxvii). no head coverings are worn, but quite elaborate combs (fig. ) are thrust into the knots of hair at the back of the head. wooden ear plugs (fig. ) ornamented with incised silver plates and with bead and silver pendants fit into openings in the lobes of the ears. like the men they wear necklaces of beads, sweet smelling herbs, and seeds. many of the latter are considered to have medicinal value and are eaten to cure pains in the stomach. one or more silver disks are worn on the chest or over the breasts, while anklets, such as are used by the women of the other tribes, are frequently seen. both sexes are fond of bracelets of brass, shell, or vines, as well as of finger rings of tortoise shell and silver (plate lxxi). fig. . woman's comb. fig. . far plugs with bell pendants. none of the garments contain pockets, and in order to make up for this deficiency the men carry bags (plate lxx) suspended on their backs by means of bands which pass over the shoulders. in these they carry their betel-nut outfits, tobacco, and the like. small covered waterproof baskets (plate lxviii) serve the same purpose for the women and are carried at the back or at the side. history. probably no wild tribe in mindanao has received so much mention in histories, reports, and books of travel as have the mandaya, but these references have been, in the main, so vague and often so misleading that they are of little value for our purposes. quite in contrast with this mass of material are the excellent reports of the late governor bolton, and mr. melbourne a. maxey,[ ] who for a number of years has been closely associated with the members of the tribe residing in the vicinity of cateel. in the preparation of this paper frequent use has been made of the notes gathered by these two gentlemen. [ ] published in the mindanao herald. when the first white men visited the tribe they found that the neighboring moro were making frequent raids on their villages and were carrying away women and children whom they sold to the bagobo and other tribes of the gulf.[ ] at the same time it was learned that they, in turn, were slave holders and were eager to purchase captives from the mohammedan raiders. the great distances traveled by the moro in their raids make it possible that slaves from distant islands may thus have been introduced into the tribe. later we shall see that it was difficult for a slave or a descendant of a slave to become a freeman, yet it was by no means impossible, and it is likely that a considerable part of the tribe are descendants of people brought to the district through purchase and capture. another possible source of outside blood is suggested by well verified stories of castaways on the east coast of mindanao and adjacent islands.[ ] while working with the mandaya in the region of mayo bay the writer was frequently told that three times, in the memory of the present inhabitants, strange boats filled with strange people had been driven to their coasts by storms. the informants insisted that these newcomers were not put to death but that such of them as survived were taken into the tribe. these stories are given strong substantiation by the fact that only a few months prior to my visit a boat load of people from the carolines was driven to the shores of mayo bay and that their boat, as well as one survivor, was then at the village of mali. (plate lxxii). i am indebted to mr. henry hubbel for the following explicit account of these castaways: "one native banca of castaways arrived at lucatan, n. e. corner of mayo bay, mindanao, on january nd, . the banca left the island of uluthi for the island of yap, two days' journey, on december th, . they were blown out of their course and never sighted land until january nd, twenty-two days after setting sail. there were nine persons aboard, six men, two boys, and one woman, all natives of yap except one man who was a visayan from capiz, panay, p. i., who settled on the island of yap in . these people were nineteen days without food or water except what water could be caught during rain storms. the visayan, victor valenamo, died soon after his arrival, as a result of starvation. the natives recovered at once and all traces of their starvation disappeared within two weeks. the men were powerfully built, nearly six feet high. their bodies were all covered with tattoo work. the woman was decorated even more than the men. fever soon took hold of these castaways and in a year's time all died except one small boy who seems to have become acclimated and will become identified with the natives in mati. i took care of these people until they died. [ ] blair and robertson. the philippine islands, vol. xliii, p. . [ ] foreman. the philippine islands, pp. - . jagor. travels in the philippines, ch. xx. "the clothing worn by the men and woman was nothing but the 'lavalava,' a scarf of sea-grass fiber about inches wide and five feet long. this was worn around the loins. "the banca, which was of very curious construction, was taken to zamboanga last year by general pershing, to be placed in moro province museum." after the advent of the spaniards into their territory a considerable number of this people were converted to the christian faith and were induced to settle in villages. there they met and intermarried with visayan and other emigrants who had followed the spaniards to the south. during the time of the spanish rule these settlements were partially destroyed by moro raiders, and following the spanish-american war these attacks became so frequent that many of the inhabitants deserted their homes and returning to their mountain kinsmen again took up the old life. the effect of this return is especially noticeable in the vicinity of caraga where as late as there were mandaya converts. several attempts were also made to colonize the mandaya near the mouths of the tagum and hijo rivers, but the restlessness of the natives or the hostility of the moro was always sufficient to cause the early break up of the new settlements. the last great influence on this tribe has come through american planters who have prevailed upon the more venturesome members to come down to the coast plantations and there adopt the life of the christianized natives. many of these adventurers have returned to their mountain homes, carrying with them new ideas and artifacts and, in some cases, wives from other tribes. with all these influences at work there has been considerable modification of the life in many districts, particularly along the pacific coast. this description will attempt to give the old life of the tribe as it still exists in the more isolated districts, or as it was related by older people of the coast settlements. mythology and religion. in order to enter into a full understanding of the social, economic, and aesthetic life we must have some knowledge of the mythology and religious beliefs, for these pervade every activity. several stories accounting for natural phenomena and the origin of the tribe were heard. one of these relates that the sun and moon were married and lived happily together until many children had been born to them. at last they quarreled and the moon ran away from her husband who has since been pursuing her through the heavens. after the separation of their parents the children died, and the moon gathering up their bodies cut them into small pieces and threw them into space. those fragments which fell into water became fish, those which fell on land were converted into snakes and animals, while "those which fell upward" remained in the sky as stars. a somewhat different version of this tale agrees that the quarrel and subsequent chase occurred, but denies that the children died and were cut up. it states that it is true that the offspring were animals, but they were so from the time of their birth. one of these children is a giant crab named _tambanokaua_ who lives in the sea. when he moves about he causes the tides and high waves; when he opens his eyes lightning appears. for some unknown reason this animal frequently seeks to devour his mother, the moon, and when he nearly succeeds an eclipse occurs. at such a time the people shout, beat on gongs, and in other ways try to frighten the monster so that he can not accomplish his purpose.[ ] the phases of the moon are caused by her putting on or taking off her garments. when the moon is full she is thought to be entirely naked. [ ] the writer found almost identical beliefs and practices among the batak and tagbanua of palawan. according to this tale the stars had quite a different origin than that just related, "in the beginning of things there was only one great star, who was like a man in appearance. he sought to usurp the place of of the sun and the result was a conflict in which the latter was victorious. he cut his rival into small bits and scattered him over the whole sky as a woman sows rice." the earth was once entirely flat but was pressed up into mountains by a mythical woman, agusanan. it has always rested on the back of a great eel whose movements cause earthquakes. sometimes crabs or other small animals annoy him until, in his rage, he attempts to reach them, then the earth is shaken so violently that whole mountains are thrown into the sea. a great lake exists in the sky and it is the spray from its waves which fall to the earth as rain. when angered the spirits sometimes break the banks of this lake and allow torrents of water to fall on the earth below. according to mr. maxey, the mandaya of cateel believe that many generations ago a great flood occurred which caused the death of all the inhabitants of the world except one pregnant woman. she prayed that her child might be a boy. her prayer was answered and she gave birth to a son whose name was uacatan. he, when he had grown up, took his mother for his wife and from this union have sprung all the mandaya. quite a different account is current among the people of mayo. from them we learn that formerly the _limokon_,[ ] although a bird, could talk like a man. at one time it laid two eggs, one at the mouth and one at the source of the mayo river. these hatched and from the one at the headwaters of the river came a woman named mag,[ ] while a man named begenday[ ] emerged from the one near the sea. for many years the man dwelt alone on the bank of the river, but one day, being lonely and dissatisfied with his location, he started to cross the stream. while he was in deep water a long hair was swept against his legs and held him so tightly that he narrowly escaped drowning. when he succeeded in reaching the shore he examined the hair and at once determined to find its owner. after wandering many days he met the woman and induced her to be his wife. from this union came all the mandaya. [ ] see p. note. [ ] also known as manway. [ ] also known as samay. a variant of this tale says that both eggs were laid up stream and that one hatched a woman, the other a snake. the snake went down the current until it arrived at the place where the sea and the river meet. there it blew up and a man emerged from its carcass. the balance of the tale is as just related. this close relationship of the _limokon_ to the mandaya is given as the reason why its calls are given such heed. a traveler on the trail hearing the cooing of this bird at once doubles his fist and points it in the direction from whence the sound came. if this causes the hand to point to the right side it is a sign that success will attend the journey.[ ] if, however, it points to the left, in front, or in back, the mandaya knows that the omen bird is warning him of danger or failure, and he delays or gives up his mission. the writer was once watching some mandaya as they were clearing a piece of land, preparatory to the planting. they had labored about two hours when the call of the _limokon_ was heard to the left of the owner. without hesitation the men gathered up their tools and left the plot, explaining that it was useless for them to plant there for the _limokon_ had warned them that rats would eat any crop they might try to grow in that spot. [ ] maxey states exactly the opposite, for the mandaya of cateel, _i. e._, the right side is bad, the left good. the people do not make offerings to this bird, neither do they regard it as a spirit, but rather as a messenger from the spirit world. the old men were certain that anyone who molested one of these birds would die. another bird known as _wak-wak_ "which looks like a crow but is larger and only calls at night" foretells ill-fortune. sneezing is also a bad omen, particularly if it occurs at the beginning of an undertaking. certain words, accompanied by small offerings, may be sufficient to overcome the dangers foretold by these warnings. it is also possible to thwart the designs of ill-disposed spirits or human enemies by wearing a sash or charm which contains bits of fungus growth, peculiarly shaped stones, or the root of a plant called _gam_. these charms not only ward off ill-fortune and sickness, but give positive aid in battle and keep the dogs on the trail of the game.[ ] [ ] the use of these magic sashes, known as _anting-anting_, is widespread throughout the southern philippines both with the pagan and mohammedan tribes. there is in each community one or more persons, generally women, who are known as _ballyan_. these priestesses, or mediums, are versed in all the ceremonies and dances which the ancestors have found effectual in overcoming evil influences, and in retaining the favor of the spirits. they, better than all others, understand the omens, and often through them the higher beings make known their desires. so far as could be learned the _ballyan_ is not at any time possessed, but when in a trance sees and converses with the most powerful spirits as well as with the shades of the departed. this power to communicate with supernatural beings and to control the forces of nature, is not voluntarily sought by the future _ballyan_, but comes to the candidate either through one already occupying such a position or by her being unexpectedly seized with a fainting or trembling fit, in which condition she finds that she is able to communicate with the inhabitants of the spirit world. having been thus chosen she at once becomes the pupil of some experienced _ballyan_ from whom she learns all the secrets of the profession and the details of ceremonies to be made. at the time of planting or reaping, at a birth or death, when a great celebration is held, or when the spirits are to be invoked for the cure of the sick, one or more of these women take charge of the ceremonies and for the time being are the religious heads of the community. at such a time the _ballyan_ wears a blood-red waist,[ ] but on other occasions her dress is the same as that of the other women, and her life does not differ from their's in any respect. [ ] pedro rosell, writing in , says that the _ballyan_ then dressed entirely in red. blair and robertson, vol. xliii, p. . when about to converse with the spirits the _ballyan_ places an offering before her and begins to chant and wail. a distant stare comes into her eyes, her body begins to twitch convulsively until she is shivering and trembling as if seized with the ague. in this condition she receives the messages of the spirits and under their direction conducts the ceremony. rosell gives the following description of the possession of a _ballyan_.[ ] nothing of this nature was seen by the writer. [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xliii, p. . "they erect a sort of small altar on which they place the _manaugs_ or images of the said gods which are made of the special wood of the _bayog_ tree, which they destine exclusively for this use. when the unfortunate hog which is to serve as a sacrifice is placed above the said altar, the chief _bailana_ approaches with _balarao_ or dagger in hand which she brandishes and drives into the poor animal, which will surely be grunting in spite of the gods and the religious solemnity, as it is fearful of what is going to happen to it; and leaves the victim weltering in its blood. then immediately all the _bailanas_ drink of the blood in order to attract the prophetic spirit to themselves and to give their auguries or the supposed inspirations of their gods. scarcely have they drunk the blood, when they become as though possessed by an infernal spirit which agitates them and makes them tremble as does the body of a person with the ague or like one who shivers with the cold." spirits. the following spirits are known to the _ballyan_ of the mayo district: i. diwata. a good spirit who is besought for aid against the machinations of evil beings. the people of mayo claim that they do not now, nor have they at any time made images of their gods, but in the vicinity of cateel maxey has seen wooden images called _manaog_, which were said to represent diwata on earth. according to his account "the _ballyan_ dances for three consecutive nights before the _manaog_, invoking his aid and also holding conversation with the spirits. this is invariably done while the others are asleep." he further states that with the aid of diwata the _ballyan_ is able to foretell the future by the reading of palms. "if she should fail to read the future the first time, she dances for one night before the _manaog_ and the following day is able to read it clearly, the diwata having revealed the hidden meaning to her during the night conference."[ ] [ ] in the mayo district palmistry is practiced by several old people who make no claim of having the aid of the spirits. bagani paglambayon read the palms of the writer and one of his assistants, but all his predictions were of an exceedingly general nature and on the safe side. spanish writers make frequent mention of these idols,[ ] and in his reports[ ] governor bolton describes the image of a crocodile seen by him in the mandaya country "which was carved of wood and painted black, was five feet long, and life-like. the people said it was the likeness of their god." lieutenant j. r. youngblood, when near the headwaters of the agusan river, saw in front of a chief's house "a rude wooden image of a man which seemed to be treated with some religious awe and respect." mr. robert f. black, a missionary residing in davao, writes that "the mandaya have in their homes wooden dolls which may be idols." [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xii, , xliii, p. , etc. [ ] filed in the office of the governor of davao. from this testimony it appears that in a part of the mandaya territory the spirit diwata, at least, is represented by images. . asuang. this name is applied to a class of malevolent spirits who inhabit certain trees, cliffs and streams. they delight to trouble or injure the living, and sickness is usually caused by them. for this reason, when a person falls ill, a _ballyan_ offers a live chicken to these spirits bidding them "to take and kill this chicken in place of this man, so that he need not die." if the patient recovers it is understood that the _asuang_ have agreed to the exchange and the bird is released in the jungle. there are many spirits who are known as _asuang_ but the five most powerful are here given according to their rank, (a) tagbanua, (b) tagamaling, (c) sigbinan, (d) lumaman, (e) bigwa. the first two are of equal importance and are only a little less powerful than diwata. they sometimes inhabit caves but generally reside in the _bud-bud_ (baliti) trees. the ground beneath these trees is generally free from undergrowth and thus it is known that "a spirit who keeps his yard clean resides there." in clearing ground for a new field it sometimes becomes necessary to cut down one of these trees, but before it is disturbed an offering of betel-nut, food, and a white chicken is carried to the plot. the throat of the fowl is cut and its blood is allowed to fall in the roots of the tree. meanwhile one of the older men calls the attention of the spirits to the offerings and begs that they be accepted in payment for the dwelling which they are about to destroy. this food is never eaten, as is customary with offerings made to other spirits. after a lapse of two or three days it is thought that the occupant of the tree has had time to move and the plot is cleared. in former times it was the custom for a victorious war party to place the corpses of their dead, together with their weapons, at the roots of a _baliti_ tree. the reason for this custom seems now to be lost. . busau. among the mandaya at the north end of davao gulf this spirit is also known as tuglinsau, tagbusau, or mandangum. he looks after the welfare of the _bagani_, or warriors, and is in many respects similar to mandarangan of the bagobo.[ ] he is described as a gigantic man who always shows his teeth and is otherwise of ferocious aspect. a warrior seeing him is at once filled with a desire to kill. by making occasional offerings of pigs and rice it is usually possible to keep him from doing injury to a settlement, but at times these gifts fail of their purpose and many people are slain by those who serve him. [ ] p. . . omayan, or kalaloa nang omay, is the spirit of the rice. he resides in the rice fields, and there offerings are made to him before the time of planting and reaping. . muntianak is the spirit of a child whose mother died while pregnant, and who for this reason was born in the ground. it wanders through the forest frightening people but seldom assailing them.[ ] [ ] the belief in a similar spirit known as mantianak is widespread throughout the southern philippines. . magbabaya. some informants stated that this is the name given to the first man and woman, who emerged from the _limokon_ eggs. they are now true spirits who exercise considerable influence over worldly affairs. other informants, including two _ballyan_ denied any knowledge of such spirits, while still others said _magbabaya_ is a single spirit who was made known to them at the time of the _tungud_ movement.[ ] among the bukidnon who inhabit the central portion of the island the _magbabaya_ are the most powerful of all spirits. [ ] p. . . kalaloa. each person has one spirit which is known by this name. if this _kalaloa_ leaves the body it decays, but the spirit goes to dagkotanan--"a good place, probably in the sky." such a spirit can return to its former haunts for a time and may aid or injure the living, but it never returns to dwell in any other form. in addition to those just mentioned governor bolton gives the following list of spirits known to the mandaya of the tagum river valley. none of these were accepted by the people of mayo district. according to rank they are mangkokiman, mongungyahn, mibucha andepit, mibuohn, and ebu--who made all people from the hairs of his head. for the neighboring mangwanga he gives, likedanum as the creator and chief spirit, dagpudanum and macguliput as gods of agriculture, and manamoan--a female spirit who works the soil and presides over childbirth. all of these are unknown to the mandaya of the pacific coast. while in the salug river valley governor bolton witnessed a most interesting ceremony which, so far as the writer is aware, is quite unknown to the balance of the tribe. his quotation follows: "one religious dance contained a sleight of hand performance, considered by the people as a miracle, but the chiefs were evidently initiated. a man dressed himself as a woman, and with the gongs and drums beaten rapidly he danced, whirling round and round upon a mat until weak and dizzy, so that he had to lean on a post. for a time he appeared to be in a trance. after resting a few minutes he stalked majestically around the edge of the mat, exaggerating the lifting and placing of his feet and putting on an arrogant manner. after walking a minute or two he picked up a red handkerchief, doubled it in his hand so that the middle of the kerchief projected in a bunch above his thumb and forefinger; then he thrust this into the flame of an _almaciga_ torch. the music started anew and he resumed his frantic dance until the flame reached his hand when he slapped it out with his left hand, and stopped dancing; then catching the kerchief by two corners he shook it out showing it untouched by fire. the daughter of bankiaoan next went into a trance lying down and singing the message of tagbusau and other gods to the assemblage. the singing was done in a small inclosed room, the singer slipping in and out without my seeing her." the letters of pedro rosell written at caraga in contain many references to the duties of the _ballyan_. in one account he records the following song which he says is sung by the priestesses when they invoke their gods mansilatan and badla.[ ] [ ] blair and robertson, vol. xliii, pp. - , and vol. xii, p. . "miminsad, miminsad si mansilatan opod si badla nga magadayao nang dumia bailan, managunsayao, bailan, managunliguit." this means: "mansilatan has come down, has come down. later (will come) badla, who will preserve the earth. bailanas, dance; bailanas, turn ye round about." this rosell takes as "a confirmation of the most transcendental questions of our true religion," for in mansilatan he finds the principal god and father of balda, "who descended from the heavens where he dwells, in order to create the world. afterwards his only son badla came down also to preserve and protect the world--that is men and things--against the power and trickery of the evil spirits pudaugnon and malimbung." the writer made persistent inquiry among the mandaya to the south of caraga, but could not find a trace of a belief in any one of the four spirits named; neither are these spirits mentioned in the notes of governor bolton, nor in the excellent description of the people about cateel, furnished by such a careful observer as mr. maxey. it seems that this account, together with the song and its translation, must have been gathered from other than mandayan sources. long before the town of caraga had become one of the strongholds of the church on the east coast of mindanao, and christianized settlers from all the southern islands had come to the vicinity.[ ] it is probable that rosell's information was secured from christianized or moro emigrants, and the first spirits named refer to badhala--bathala, or batala--"the all powerful," and dian mansalanta--"the patron of lovers and generation."[ ] [ ] they are often referred to as _caragas_ in the early writings. [ ] further information regarding these spirits will be found in the relations of loarca, (blair and robertson, vol. v, p. ), and the relation of juan de plasencia, (_ibid_, vol. vii, pp. - , vol. xii, p. ). it is worthy of note that the bagobo spirit toglat, who is one of the pair responsible for marriages and births, is sometimes addressed as maniladan. the tungud movement in a religious movement known as _tungud_ started among the manobo[ ] at the source of the rio libaganon. soon it had spread over practically the whole southeastern portion of mindanao, and finally reached the mandaya of the pacific coast. according to mr. j. m. garvan, of the philippine bureau of science, the movement was instigated by a manobo named mapakla. this man was taken ill, probably with cholera, and was left for dead by his kinsmen. three days later he appeared among the terrified people and explained, that a powerful spirit named magbabaya had entered his body and cured him. he further stated that the world was about to be destroyed and that only those persons who gave heed to his instructions would survive. these instructions bade all to cease planting and to kill their animals for, he said, "if they survive to the end they will eat you." a religious house or shrine was to be built in every settlement, and was to be looked after by divinely appointed ministers. those persons who were at first inclined to be skeptical as to the truth of the message, were soon convinced by seeing the magbabaya enter the bodies of the ministers, causing them to perform new, frantic dances, interrupted only by trembling fits during which their eyes protruded and gave them the semblance of dead men. [ ] not the kulaman. by the time the _tungud_ had reached the mayo district it had lost most of its striking features, but was still powerful enough to cause many of the mandaya to kill their animals and hold religious dances. the coast moro, who at that time were restless, took advantage of the movement to further a plan to drive american planters and christianized natives from the district. the leading mandaya were invited to the house of the moro _pandita_[ ] "to see the spirit diwata." during several nights the son of the _pandita_ impersonated the spirit and appeared in the darkened room. over his chest and forehead he had stretched thin gauze and beneath this had placed many fire-flies, which to the imaginative people made him appear superhuman. his entrance into the room was attended by a vigorous shaking of the house, caused by a younger brother stationed below. a weird dance followed and then the spirit advised the people to rise and wipe out the whole christianized population. the mandaya had become so impressed by the nightly appearance of diwata that it is more than probable they would have joined the moro in their project had not an american planter at mayo learned of the plot. he imprisoned the leaders, thus ending a scheme which, if successful, would have given new attributes to at least one of the spirits. [ ] the religious head of the settlement. social organization the before-mentioned _ballyan_ direct the religious observances of the tribe. their mysterious powers give them great influence among their fellows but, nevertheless, they are subservient to the local ruler. the tribe is divided into many small groups, each of which is governed by a _bagani_. to reach this coveted position a man must have distinguished himself as a warrior and have killed at least ten persons with his own hand.[ ] the victims need not be killed in warfare and may be of any sex or age so long as they come from a hostile village. when the required number of lives has been taken, the aspirant appeals to the neighboring _bagani_ for the right to be numbered in their select company. they will assemble to partake of a feast prepared by the candidate and then solemnly discuss the merits of his case. the petition may be disregarded entirely, or it may be decided that the exploits related are sufficient only to allow the warrior to be known as a half _bagani_. in this case he may wear trousers of red cloth, but if he is granted the full title he is permitted to don a blood-red suit and to wear a turban of the same hue. this distinction is eagerly sought by the more vigorous men of the tribe and, as a result, many lives are taken each year. [ ] at mayo it was said that it is necessary to kill only six, but the two _bagani_ living there had each killed more than twice that number. among the mansaka the number required is often as high as thirty. a short time ago a candidate entered the district of bungalung on the east coast of davao and killed thirty-two persons. in that same section are now living five _bagani_ who have gained this title by similar exploits.[ ] whole communities become involved in feuds as a result of these individual raids, for it is the duty of a murdered man's family to seek revenge for his death. it is not necessary that they kill the offender, as any member of his family or settlement will suffice. in some districts the unmarried relatives of a murdered person are not allowed to wed until the death is avenged. [ ] these are maclingtong at pandisan; pankard at tagauanan; kasicknan, lewanan, and malangit, in the mountains between taguanan and piso. instances are known where the old men have conferred the title of _bagani_ upon the son of some deceased warrior. in such a case the recipient of the honor starts at once to fulfil the requirements of election, for otherwise he brings disgrace to himself and family. in his own settlement the oldest of the _bagani_ becomes supreme ruler, and if powerful enough he may extend his influence to a considerable distance. in a few cases on the east coast the holders of the title have so instilled fear of themselves into the neighboring districts that they have been able to levy blackmail, even on the christianized natives. war parties are led by these wearers of the red garments, and they also enforce the laws handed down from their forefathers. the day a warrior is elevated to this order he is in a large measure cut away from his fellows. he no longer associates with them as equals but eats his meals alone, unless it happens that other _bagani_ are present. below the _bagani_ in rank come the warriors, a class which includes practically all the able-bodied free men; and still below them are the slaves. slavery was an ancient institution with this people when the spaniards first visited their country, and it has continued to flourish up to the present, in all districts a little removed from the influence of the white man. the great majority of slaves are secured by capture, but until recent years the moro of the coast have carried on a lucrative slave trade with this tribe. girls and women become members of their master's household, but their children are treated as slaves. captive boys and men aid their masters in the chase and in the fields, and in most cases it would be hard indeed for a stranger to pick servant from master. sometimes the people of a neighboring village ransom one of their fellows and in such a case the freed slave may return to his old home or he may become a free member of the community in which he has been serving. dwellings the insecurity of life resulting from the conditions described has caused the people to build their homes high in the branches of trees, often so situated on the edge of cliffs that they can be approached only from one direction (plates lxxiii-lxxiv). two sorts of dwellings are commonly seen. of these, the rudest rest on the limbs of trees, and conform in size and shape to the nature of the supporting branches. some few houses of this kind have horizontal sides and sloping roofs, but more frequently a roof which slopes directly from a central ridge pole to the edges of the platform does away with the necessity of side walls. the second and more common type of house is shown in plate lxxiv. here the top of the tree has been cut off some fifteen or twenty feet above the ground leaving a stump to serve as a part of the foundation. many smaller poles help support the floor and then extend upward to form the wall and roof stays. the upper flooring of beaten bark rests on cross-beams which have been lashed to the uprights. above it are occasional horizontal poles, forming a skeleton to which the walls of _nipa_ palm are fastened. in some houses two or three of the foundation poles extend above the floor to such a height that they are used as the supports for the ridge pole. in others true king posts rest on the beams, which in turn are supported by the corner poles. from the ridge a number of smaller rods extend to or project out over the side walls, and on them rests the roofing of _nipa_ palm. a space of several inches often intervenes between the roof and the side walls. the whole structure is so firmly lashed together with rattan that it is capable of withstanding severe storms, despite the fact that it gives and creaks with every wind. during violent storms the house is further secured by anchoring it with rattan lines to nearby trees. entrance to the dwelling is gained by means of bamboo or rattan ladders. these are drawn up at night, and with all means of access thus removed the inhabitants need have little fear of a surprise attack. if enemies do attempt to dislodge them the defenders have the advantage of their elevated position in the use of their weapons. generally, each house contains only one room which varies in size according to the number of inhabitants. frequently two or three families are found living in one house, for it is the custom for the suitors, and often for the husbands of the married daughters, to live with the girls' people. near the door, or in one comer of the room, is a small box of earth in which several stones are imbedded. this constitutes the hearth, about which is found a miscellany of pots, jars, and other kitchen vessels. the smoke finds its way out through a small opening at each end of the roof, or through the narrow space under the eaves. there is no recognized arrangement of the room. utensils[ ] are scattered promiscuously about and when the inhabitants are ready to sleep they occupy such parts of the floor as are free or can be most easily cleared. [ ] these consist of baskets, rice mortars, and winnowers, weaving outfits, bark dye vats, as well as traps and weapons, nearly all of which are so similar to those already described for the bagobo that they do not call for special notice here. the people of a community build their houses within a short distance of one another, yet seldom so close together as to form a village. however, village life is not entirely unknown, for in the vicinity of cateel governor bolton found six houses, partially surrounded by palisades, perched on the top of a conical hill. lieutenant youngblood gives the following description of the people and dwellings seen by him near the upper waters of the agusan river: "the people seemed to be living in an atmosphere of fear as far as intercourse with the world outside their crater-like valley was concerned. they believed it was death to look upon the sea, of which they had heard disjointed tales, but which none of them had ever seen. they feared the coast people with a mortal fear, justified perhaps by the experiences of occasional meetings in times gone by. they fear each other to a certain extent, especially men who live further north of the headwaters of the agusan. this ever-present state of fear gives coloring to their whole life. they take to the brush at the least unwonted sound. they make their clearings on the steep mountainsides and in these build two or three of their houses in strategic positions. in the very construction of their dwellings the idea of security in case of attack is predominant. "the houses in this section are generally built in clearings on the sawn-off trunk of some giant tree and placed from the ground some forty or fifty feet. numerous posts help support the structure, entrance to which is gained by a notched pole firmly set in the ground and held in place by tightly wound bejuca. oftentimes this stair pole is bowed outwards slightly, which gives it a peculiar appearance and requires a considerable amount of skill in climbing. the front and only door to these houses consists of a section of the floor composed of hewn plank, hinged at one end. one end of this is raised by a bejuca rope during the day, while at night it is let down forming a solid floor throughout the house. "the roof is of shingles made from mountain cane; the floor and sides of hand-hewn logs and planks; the roof is at no place more than seven feet from the floor and is blackened on the inside from smoke. the largest house visited in this locality was that of chief leuanan, and this was some twenty feet square. these houses consist of one room and are inhabited by two or more families." agriculture about the settlements are the fields in which rice, corn, camotes, sugar-cane, and a small amount of tobacco, cotton and hemp are raised. however, the crops are usually so small that even with the addition of game and forest products there is, each year, a period closely bordering on starvation. new clearings are frequently made near to the old, for the primitive tools[ ] with which the people work are ill-fitted to combat the incursion into the open land of the rank cogon grass. only the exhaustion of suitable timber land for a new clearing, the prevalence of an epidemic, or the near approach of a powerful enemy will cause the people to move their homes from one district to another. [ ] these consist of a mall axe, working knife, and planting stick. we have already referred to the important part the _limokon_ plays in the selection and clearing of a new plot of ground,[ ] and to the offerings made to the spirits when it becomes necessary to cut down certain trees.[ ] the crops, aside from the rice, are planted and harvested without further reference to the spirit world, but the cultivation and care of this cereal can only be carried on according to certain fixed conditions. [ ] see pages and . [ ] near cateel the wishes of the spirits are learned by means of cords. a number of strings are tied together in the center and the knot is buried. the loose ends are then joined and if it happens that the two ends of a cord have been tied together it is taken as a sign that the spirits give their consent to the proposed clearing. about november first, when a group of seven stars called _poyo poyo_ appears in the west, it is a signal for all who expect to clear new land to begin their labors. by december first this constellation rises straight above and it is then time to plant. this is further confirmed by the appearance of a star known as _sabak_. if any have delayed their planting until the middle of december they are given a last warning when the stars forming _bayatik_[ ] appear. [ ] this is the same as _balatik_, page . as soon as the land has been cleared a pole is placed in the center of the field and is surrounded by a fence. this is known as _tagbinian_ and seems to be erected in honor of the spirit omayan, although by some it is insisted that it is intended for his residence. the seed rice is deposited inside the enclosure[ ] and the men begin to prepare the soil about it. this they do by thrusting sharpened sticks into the ground, thus making holes an inch or two in depth. taking rice from the _tagbinian_ the women follow, dropping seeds into the holes. [ ] maxey relates that at planting and harvest tune the mandaya of cateel carry offerings to the _baliti_ trees and there offer it to diwata, in supplication or thanks for an abundant crop. when the harvest time is near at hand the men repair the old granaries or build new and then, when all is ready for the crop, an old man or woman goes alone, in the middle of the night, to the fields and there cuts a few stalks of the rice. should this be neglected the crop is sure to be small and will vanish quickly. this grain is not used as an offering, nor are any gifts made to the spirits until the crop has been harvested and the people are ready to eat of the new rice. at that time a little of the recently harvested grain is placed on a dish, together with other food and betel-nut, and is carried to the granary, where it is presented to the spirit "in order that the granary may always be full." when the grain is needed for use it is removed from the straw by pounding it with wooden pestles, it is then placed in a wooden mortar and is again pounded until the husks are loosened. this accomplished, the grain is freed from chaff by tossing it in a winnower. if a greater amount has been cleared than is needed it is stored in gourds or water-proof baskets (fig. ). a month or two after the harvest a great celebration is held, the principal features of which are a feast and dance but no offerings are then made to the spirits. fig. . gourd rice holder. the small crop of sugar-cane is made into an alcoholic drink, which is sometimes indulged in at meal time but is generally reserved for festive occasions. the juice is boiled with a plant called _palba_, similar to ginger, and is stored away in bamboo tubes until it has reached a suitable stage of fermentation. another drink is made by boiling strained honey with the _palba_ and allowing it to ferment. hunting and fishing a considerable portion of the food supply is secured by hunting and fishing. small birds are captured by placing a sticky substance on bare limbs of fruit-bearing trees, or by fastening gummed sticks in places frequented by birds. when a victim alights on this it is held securely until captured by the hunter. fig. shows another method of securing such small game. a cord with a noose at one end is attached to a bent limb. in the center of this cord is tied a short stick which acts as a trigger. this trigger is placed with the top end pressing against an arched twig _a_, while the other end draws _b_ against the sides of the arch. other sticks rest on _b_ and on them is a covering of leaves on which is placed bait and the open noose. the weight of a bird or small animal on the cross-piece is sufficient to release the trigger and then the bent limb draws the noose taut. fig. . bird snare. the series of slip nooses attached to a central cord which surrounds a tame decoy is also found in use here, and boys frequently secure birds by means of blow-guns. the latter do not differ from those already described on p. , but with this tribe they are regarded only as a boy's plaything. deer and pig are sometimes hunted by large parties with the aid of dogs. in such cases an attempt is made to drive the animals past concealed hunters, or to dispatch them with spears when brought to bay by the dogs. the more successful method, however, is by means of traps several types of which were seen by the writer. the first and most common is a dead fall consisting of a heavy log so arranged in the runway of the game that a passing animal will cause it to fall. next in favor with the hunters is the _bayatik_. one end of a sapling is tied horizontally to a tree and is then bent back like a spring. it is held in place by means of a trigger which is released when an animal disturbs a vine stretched across the runway. against the free end of the spring a long bamboo spear or arrow is placed in such a manner that it is thrown with great force against the animal which has released the trigger. this trap is frequently used in warfare to protect the retreat of a war party, or to surprise an enemy. sharpened bamboo sticks, two or three feet long, planted at points where animals are accustomed to jump or run down steep inclines, are wonderfully efficient in securing game. sticks and leaves cover pits in which sharpened poles are planted and into these unsuspecting animals or members of a hostile party often fall. all these last named devices are exceedingly dangerous and it is unadvisable for a traveler in the jungle to try to penetrate a strange region unless accompanied by a native who knows the position of the traps and pits. fish are secured by means of bamboo traps through which a part of the water of a stream is diverted. these traps do not differ in any respect from those shown in fig. . along the coast metal fishhooks and dip and throw nets are in common use, but these are at present largely obtained from the moro. the easiest and hence the most popular method of securing fish is to mash together the poisonous roots of the _tobli_ tree and the fruit of the _oliskeb_. the pulp is then sunk into still pools of water and in a short time, the stupified[sic] fish begin to float to the surface, where they are quickly seized by the fishermen. warfare mention has already been made of the use of pits and traps in warfare. in addition to these it is customary for a returning war party to conceal in the trail many _saoñag_, small stiletto-shaped bamboo sticks, which pierce the feet of those in pursuit. a night camp is effectively protected in the same manner against barefooted enemies. the arms used are spears, fighting knives with wide bellied blades, daggers, narrow shields with which weapons are defected (fig. ), and in some sections bows and arrows. the fighting knives and daggers (plates lxxv-lxxvi) deserve more than casual notice. the heavy bellied blades of the knives are highly tempered, and not infrequently are bored through and inlaid with silver, in which instances they are known as _binuta_,--blind (plate lxxva). the sheaths, with their sharply upturned ends, are made of light wood on which are carved decorations, attached or inlaid bands of silver, or stained designs. the handles of the weapons are also decorated with incised silver bands. fig. . wooden shields. much as the fighting knives are prized, the dagger, _bayadau_ or _badau_, is in even greater favor. it is worn on the front left-hand part of the body in ready reach of the right hand, and is never removed unless the owner is in the company of trusted relatives. a light thread, easily broken, holds the dagger in its sheath and the slightest disturbance is enough to cause the owner to draw his weapon. the older warriors claim that it formerly was their custom to protect themselves with strips of hemp cloth, _limbotung_, which they wound many times around their bodies in order to ward off knife thrusts, but this method of protection seems to have fallen into disuse.[ ] [ ] this type of protective armor is still used by the bukidnon of central mindanao. individual warriors lie in ambush for their foes, but when a great raid is planned the party is under the command of a _bagani_. these attacks are arranged to take place during the full moon and the warriors usually assault a settlement which they think can be taken by surprise, and hence unprepared. it is very seldom that these people fight in the open, and invaders do not attempt a combat unless they feel sure of the outcome. if they find a house well protected they may attempt to fire it by attaching a torch to an arrow and shooting it into the grass roof, the occupants being slaughtered as they rush out. if one of the enemy puts up an especially good fight his body is opened and the warriors eat a portion of his heart and liver, thinking thus to gain in valor. mr. maxey mentions the use of poisoned weapons in the neighborhood of cateel, but the mandaya of the south seem to be entirely ignorant of this custom, maxey's account of the preparation of the poison is as follows: "the poison is, according to the writer's informant, prepared as follows: a long bamboo is cut and carried to a tree called _camandag_.[ ] the bamboo must be long enough to reach to the limit of the shadow cast by the tree to the trunk of the same, as the tree is so poisonous that it even affects those who stand beneath it. the bamboo has a sharp point which is stuck into the tree and receives the milk which exudes from the cut. after several days the bamboo is removed and the contents emptied into another bamboo which serves for a sheath or quiver for the arrows, these being placed in it point down. the slightest scratch will cause death. a peculiar thing about the tree from which the poison is extracted, is that the person extracting must not only not get under the tree, but must approach it from the windward, as the effects of even the odor are unpleasant and dangerous." [ ] _croton tiglium l_. industries in the description of the tribe up to this point we have touched upon those pursuits which engross the greater part of the time. in addition to these, it falls to the lot of the women to manufacture and decorate all the clothing worn by members of the tribe. some cotton is grown and is used in the manufacture of jackets, but the bulk of the garments are of hemp. in the description of the decorative art we shall deal with the decoration of the hemp cloth skirts worn by the women. here it is only necessary for us to observe that this cloth is produced and colored by exactly the same process as is employed by the bagobo women.[ ] [ ] see p. . a very little brass casting is done by the mandaya of one district, but it is evidently a crude copy of moro work. by far the greater part of the brass betel boxes, and ornaments of that metal, as well as spear heads, are purchased from the coast mohammedans. iron working is an ancient art with this people and the beauty and temper of their knives and daggers is not excelled by the output of any other philippine tribe. in the manufacture of these weapons they employ the same methods as their neighbors to the south and west. no wild tribe in the archipelago has made so much use of silver in the production of ornaments as has the mandaya. thin silver plates are rolled into small tubes and are attached to the woman's ear plugs (fig. ), finger rings of the same metal are produced in great numbers, but the finest work appears in the large silver ornaments worn on the breasts by both sexes (fig. ). silver coins are beaten into thin disks, in the center of which a hole is cut. about this opening appear beautiful intricate designs, some engraved, others stamped with metal dies. fig. . silver breast ornaments. all work in metal is limited to a few skilled men, but many lesser industries, such as shaping tortoise shell rings and shell bracelets, carving of spoons, and making baskets, are carried on by other members of the tribe during their leisure hours. birth in each district there are one or two mid wives, known as _managamon_. they are women past middle life who are versed in the medicines and rites which should be employed at the time of birth. they are not considered as _ballyan_, yet they talk to the spirits upon certain occasions. when a pregnant woman is about to be delivered the midwife crushes the bark of the _dap-dap_ tree and makes a medicine called _tagaumo_, which she gives to the patient. it is claimed that this causes the muscles to relax so that they allow an easy delivery. the umbilical cord is cut with a bamboo knife and as soon as the child has been bathed it is given to the mother. the afterbirth is placed in a specially prepared basket and is either hung against the side of the house or in a nearby tree. for a few days the midwife assists about the house and then, if all is well with the child, she takes her payment of rice, chicken, and fish, and returns to her home. should the child be ailing she will return, and having placed rice and betel-nut on banana leaves she carries these to the top of the house and there offers them to the _asuang_,[ ] meanwhile asking those spirits to accept the offering and to cease troubling the child. no ceremony takes place at the time of naming or at the age of puberty, but at the latter period the teeth are filed and blackened so that the young person may be more beautiful and, therefore, able to contract a suitable marriage. [ ] see p. . [transcriber's note: this is page .] marriage frequently parents arrange matches for their children while they are still very young, but in the majority of cases the matter is left until after the age of puberty when the wishes of the young people are taken into consideration. the youth or his father having chosen a suitable girl takes or sends a spear, knife, or other acceptable present to her father. if this offering is accepted it indicates approval of the match, and soon thereafter a feast is prepared to which friends of both families are invited. at this feast the price to be paid for the girl and the time of marriage are agreed upon, and at least partial payment is made. as is the case with the neighboring tribes, a part of the value of this gift is returned. following the agreement the boy enters the service of his fiancee's father and for a year or more lives as a member of the family. even after the marriage a considerable amount of service is expected from him at the time of planting, harvesting, or building. the marriage ceremony proper follows a feast, and consists of the young couple feeding each other with rice and drinking from a common cup. should anything occur to prevent the marriage, after the payment for the girl has been made, the gifts must be returned or service equal to their value must be rendered. unfaithfulness on the part of the woman seems to be the one cause for a separation and this is uncommon, for unless her admirer purchases her for a sum equal to the amount her husband spent in obtaining her, the divorced woman remains as a slave in the home of her former husband. polygamy is permitted and is quite common, but a man may not take a second wife until a child has been born to the first. in addition to his wives a man may have as many concubines as he can afford to purchase. it is said to be a grave offense for a man to embrace a married woman, or even to touch the breasts, elbows, or heels of any woman he does not intend to marry. an unmarried woman who permits such familiarities is considered as good as married. despite this assertion, the writer knows of several cases where young people openly lived together without being considered married, and later the parents arranged marriages between these girls and other suitors. according to several informants, incest is punished by the sacrifice of the guilty parties. they are tied to a tree with their hands drawn backward around the trunks and are then speared to death. this seems to be the one and only occasion when human sacrifice is practiced by members of this tribe. sickness and death. when a person is seriously ill a _ballyan_ is summoned and she, after securing prepared rice, betel-nuts, and a live chicken, enters into communication with the spirits. first she converses with the dead father or other deceased relative of the sick person and requests his aid in effecting a cure, next she presents food to diwata and implores his aid, and finally calls upon the _asuang_ to whom she offers the live fowl on the condition that they will cease trying to injure the patient. having thus done all in her power to influence the spirits she may administer some simple remedy, after which she begins to dance contra-clockwise, around a bamboo pole on which leaves and betel-nut have been hung.[ ] [ ] this ceremony usually takes place in the house, but if the man was taken ill in the forest or in his field it may be conducted there. if this treatment proves to be of no avail and the patient dies his body is placed in the center of the house and for two days and nights is guarded by relatives and friends. during the time that the body remains in the dwelling the family is required to fast and all the people of the settlement are prohibited from playing on agongs, from singing or indulging in other signs of merriment. finally, the body is wrapped in a mat and is buried in the forest.[ ] [ ] maxey gives the following account of burial near cateel: "the dead person is dressed in his best clothes, wrapped in a piece of _abaca_ cloth, and placed in a coffin of bamboo poles, or one hewn from a solid log, if the person was one of means, and buried. if of the poorer class he is merely wrapped in a piece of matting-, and either buried or covered over with stones, sticks, and the like. if of high rank, the body is not buried, but after preparation is taken into the forest and placed in a small hut under a _balete_ tree. food, spears, bolos, hats, shields, and some articles of furniture are placed on the graves to placate the spirits who might otherwise bring harm to the surviving members of the clan or family. there is no fixed period of mourning, but the members of the family must wear black for some time after the death. the sick are never abandoned prior to death, but slaves nearing death are sometimes killed to stop their sufferings. the owner, however, must first consult with others of the clan." returning from the burial all the people partake of a feast and then set fire to the dwelling "because we do not like the _asuang_ which killed the man in that house." during the ensuing nine days the spouse of the dead dresses in black and for a month following, or until they can purchase a slave, the whole family is barred from merry-making. two reasons for the purchase of this slave were advanced by members of the tribe. one was that the family could be happy if they were still rich enough to purchase a slave. the second, that they thus replaced the dead man with another, "for the slaves are like members of our own family." decorative art. the decorative art of the mandaya is similar in many respects to that of the bagobo and bila-an, yet in part it differs greatly from both. as is true with the other tribes, the weavers make use of many figures which they do not associate with any living forms, but which, nevertheless, strongly suggest that they may have been derived from realistic designs. in addition to such patterns they frequently employ figures which are intentional copies of human or animal forms. of these the most common are those representing a man and a crocodile; these sometimes appear together, sometimes alone. the requirements of the space to be filled, as well as readiness of the worker to alter any part in order to give a more pleasing effect to the design have resulted in many distorted and conventionalized figures which can only be explained by the artist. the accompanying drawings are taken from articles collected by the writer and now in the field museum of natural history. patterns _a_ to _h_ in fig. appear in hemp cloth skirts. these show the steps in the conventionalization of the human figure,[ ] as explained by the weavers. in the first four the forms are so realistic that they need no explanation, but _e_ is more complicated. here two greatly conventionalized figures have been used, one erect, the other with head down. the size of the head has been increased while the body is represented by a small diamond-shaped pattern with outstretched arms attached. the legs and feet of both figures help to form a pattern similar to a head, except that it lacks the "hair" shown in the end designs. _f_ resembles the preceding quite closely. in it the central head-like pattern does not appear and the legs and feet of one figure help to form the head of the other. this design has been doubled, thus necessitating some alteration of the figures at the points of union. in _g_ and _h_ nearly all the realistic elements have vanished, yet certain resemblance to _d_ and _e_ can be discerned. [ ] one weaver insisted that this figure represents a frog, because of its webbed feet, but none of the others agreed with her. fig. a to h. designs representing the human form. we have already learned that the crocodile is held in great regard and in some sections there is evidence of its more or less sacred character. its importance in the minds of the people is well shown by the frequency with which it appears in their decorative designs. fig. _a_ shows one of these animals which has just eaten a man. both figures are so realistic that the intention of the weaver is apparent. in _b_, _d_, _e_, and _f_, the animal is still realistic, but the man disappears, and in his place is a formless object or straight lines which are identified as "something eaten." fig. a to h. crocodile designs. the pattern _g_ is given as the next step in the conventionalization. here the legs, feet, and "something eaten" have assumed undue proportions, while nearly every trace of likeness has vanished. this figure is multiplied five times to obtain the highly conventionalized form shown in _h_. by referring to _g_ it is possible to see how the complicated designs in _i_ and _j_ have been derived, although they bear little resemblance to the original crocodile form. fig. was identified as a crocodile but was not regarded as a step in the conventionalization shown. many other figures such as appear so closely related to the designs just described that it seems certain they must have had a common origin, yet this was denied by all the weavers, who insisted that such decorations were added only to make the garments pretty. fig. . crocodile design. fig. . design used in weaving. going from weaving to designs cut in wood, something of the same state of affairs is encountered. pattern _a_ on the bamboo comb (fig. ) is identified as the crocodile, yet the very similar figures shown on a bamboo lime holder (fig. ) and on a wooden clothes-hanger (fig. ) are not so recognized. fig. . incised designs on a bamboo lime holder. fig. . clothes hanger. figs. and show characteristic designs which are embroidered on jackets or carrying bags. all these are added with the one idea of beautifying the garment, without any thought of copying some living form. this is true also of the incised zigzag lines, scrolls, and meander patterns seen on the silver breast disks (fig. ), and those stained on palm bark hats (fig. ). figs. and . embroidered designs on jacktes[sic] and carrying bags. tobacco pouches (fig. ) are often completely covered with bright colored geometrical designs embroidered in trade yarn. this work, which is quite unlike the other decoration used by this people, was probably introduced along with trade yarn and analine[sic] dyes. fig. . tobacco pouches. conclusion from the material now at our disposal certain general conclusions can be drawn. a comparison of the physical measurements indicates that no group is of pure race. there are significant variations between members of different tribes, but these occur also between individuals of the same village. the average person in each group is short-headed, yet long-headed individuals are found in every tribe and variations just as great as this appear in the other measurements and observations. we have previously noted the evidences of an aboriginal pygmy population, that has been partially absorbed by intermarriage with the later comers.[ ] in all the groups, except the bila-an, the percentage of individuals showing evidences of negrito blood increases as we go from the coasts toward the interior, until in such divisions as the obo and tigdapaya of the bagobo, and the tugauanum of the ata, practically all the people show traces of this admixture. [ ] negrito are reported from the samal islands in the gulf of davao. in addition to the types already described there are found in each tribe individuals who in all but color might readily pass as white men. these persons freely intermarry with the rest of the population, and it is no uncommon thing to find in one family children of this sort as well as those showing negrito characteristics or those conforming to the average type.[ ] [ ] this will be discussed in a forthcoming publication on physical types. that paper will present a full series of measurements accompanied by photographs, including the bukidnon of north central mindanao in which tribe this type is more frequently seen than in davao district. the facts indicate that the tribes now found in davao district did not reach the coasts of mindanao at the same time, but rather that they represent several periods of migration, of which the kulaman is the last. this tribe, which only a few generations ago seems to have been made up of seafarers, has not yet entirely adapted itself to a settled existence and it is only within the lifetime of the present generation that its members have taken seriously to agriculture. it appears that the bila-an once inhabited the district about lake buluan, but the pressure of the moro has forced most of them from that region toward the mountains to the south and east. they have taken possession of both sides of this mountain range, except for the lower eastern slopes where they have encountered the tagakaolo. the other tribes probably landed on the southern or southeastern coast of the island, from whence they have gradually moved to their present habitats. intermarriage between the tribes, moro raids, warfare with the accompanying capture of slaves, and the possible influence of boat-loads of castaways, all have to be considered in dealing with the types found in davao district. we have already seen that the physical measurements indicate a complex racial history. after giving full credit to all these influences, however, it does not appear to the writer that such radical differences exist between the tribes as will justify us in assigning to them different ancestry or places of origin. the summarized description of the bagobo given on page would, with only, slight modification, apply to all the other tribes, with the exception of certain groups of the ata in which the negrito element is very pronounced. in brief, the various influences that have been at work on one group have influenced all the others, since their arrival on the island of mindanao. this conclusion is further justified by the language in which a large per cent of the words in daily use are common to all the groups. even the bila-an dialect, which differs more from all the others than do any of those from one another, has so many words in common with the coast tongues and is so similar in structure that one of my native boys, who never before had seen a bila-an, was able freely to carry on a conversation within a few days after his arrival in one of their most isolated settlements. similar as are the people and their dialects, the cultural agreements are even more noticeable. taking the bagobo as a starting point, we find a highly developed culture which, with a few minor changes, holds good for the tribes immediately surrounding. these in turn differ little from their neighbors, although from time to time some new forms appear. the cibolan type of dwelling, with its raised platform at one end and box-like enclosures along the side walls, is met with until the mandaya territory is approached, while, with little variation, the house furnishings and utensils in daily use are the same throughout the district. the same complicated method of overtying, dyeing, and weaving of hemp employed in the manufacture of women's skirts is in use from cateel in the north to sarangani bay in the south, while in the manufacture of weapons the iron worker in cibolan differs not at all from his fellow-craftsman among the mandaya. here we are confronted by the objection that, so far as is known, no iron work is done by the bila-an and ata, but this is a condition which is encountered throughout the archipelago. in the interior of luzon are found isolated villages, the inhabitants of which are expert workers in iron and steel, while their neighbors seem to be ignorant of the process.[ ] the writer holds to the opinion that iron working is an ancient art throughout the philippine archipelago and that its use for various reasons, such as lack of material, has died out in certain sections. brass workers are found among most of the tribes, but, as was observed earlier in this paper, there is sufficient evidence that the industry is of recent introduction, and the amount and excellence of the work done by the brass casters is governed by the nearness or remoteness of moro settlements. [ ] the process used in northern luzon is very similar to that employed in southern mindanao. except for the cotton garments recently adopted by the kagan branch of the tagakaolo, and the suits worn by the mandaya men, the clothing seen throughout the district is very similar. a few ornaments, such as the silver rings and breast disks of the mandaya, have only a limited distribution, but for the most part the decorations worn by the different tribes differ only in the number of beads, bells, and shell disks used in their manufacture. in the ornamentation of their garments certain groups have specialized until the bead work of the bagobo excels all such work found in the philippines. the same can be said of the intricate and beautifully embroidered designs seen in the garments of the bila-an or the oversewed fabrics of the kulaman, while the crudely embroidered patterns of the mandaya are wonderfully effective. yet, despite apparent dissimilarities, there is such a likeness in many forms of ornamentation, as well as in the technique of the methods of production, that there seems to be ample proof of free borrowing, or of a common origin. on the non-material side the similarities between the groups are even more marked. in each tribe the warriors gain distinction among their fellows, the protection of certain spirits, and the privilege of wearing red garments, by killing a certain number of persons. except among the kulaman, mediums much like the _mabalian_ of the bagobo make known the wishes of the superior beings and direct the ceremonies. the people are instructed when to plant by the spirits who place certain constellations in the skies. these are the same for all the groups, although often known by different names. the _limokon_ warns or encourages the traveler, while certain acts of the individual, such as sneezing, are looked upon as warnings from unseen beings. many of these beings having like attributes, although often bearing different names, are known to each group. the idea of one or more spirits dwelling in different parts of a man's body is widespread, while the belief that the right side of the body is under the care of good influences and the left subject to the bad, is well nigh universal in the district. in conclusion note should be made of oft repeated assertions to the effect that a part of the people of davao district are white, and that they are also cannibals and headhunters. the first can be dismissed with the statement that so far as the writer has been able to observe or to learn from trustworthy sources, there is no justification for such a story. it can be just as positively stated that neither the mandaya nor any other tribe here described practice cannabalism[sic]. warriors do eat a part of the livers and hearts of men who have shown great valor, the eaters thus securing some of the good qualities of the victims. the kulaman warriors always taste of the liver of the slain "in order to become like mandalangan," but they expressed the greatest disgust when it was suggested that the balance of the body might make good food. while it is true that the kulaman take the heads, and some times the arms,[ ] of slain foes, and that the same custom is some times followed by individual warriors of the other tribes, head-hunting for the sake of the trophy is not practiced here, as is the case in northern luzon. the skull or other portions of the body are kept only long enough to prove the murder, or until they can be mutilated by the women and children, "who thus become brave." [ ] this is also the custom of the bukidnon. file was produced from images generously made available by the internet archive/million book project) no. in the physicians' and students' ready reference series history of circumcision from the earliest times to the present. moral and physical reasons for its performance, with a history of eunuchism, hermaphrodism, etc., and of the different operations practiced upon the prepuce. by p. c. remondino, m.d. (jefferson), member of the american medical association, of the american public health association, of the san diego county medical society, of the state board of health of california, and of the board of health of the city of san diego; vice-president of california state medical society and of southern california medical society, etc. [illustration] philadelphia and london: f. a. davis, publisher. . entered according to act of congress, in the year , by f. a. davis, in the office of the librarian of congress, at washington, d.c., u.s.a. philadelphia pa., u. s. a.: the medical bulletin printing house, filbert street. [illustration: hebraic circumcision] preface. in ancient egypt the performance of circumcision was at one time limited to the priesthood, who, in addition to the cleanliness that this operation imparted to that class, added the shaving of the whole body as a means of further purification. the nobility, royalty, and the higher warrior class seem to have adopted circumcision as well, either as a hygienic precaution or as an aristocratic prerogative and insignia. among the greeks we find a like practice, and we are told that in the times of pythagoras the greek philosophers were also circumcised, although we find no mention that the operation went beyond the intellectual class. in the united states, france, and in england, there is a class which also observe circumcision as a hygienic precaution, where, from my personal observation, i have found that circumcision is thoroughly practiced in every male member of many of the families of the class,--this being the physician class. in general conversation with physicians on this subject, it has really been surprising to see the large number who have had themselves circumcised, either through the advice of some college professor while attending lectures or as a result of their own subsequent convictions when engaged in actual practice and daily coming in contact both with the benefits that are to be derived in the way of a better physical, mental, and moral health, as well as with the many dangers and disadvantages that follow the uncircumcised,--the latter being probably the most frequent incentive and determinator,--as in many of these latter examples the operation of circumcision, with its pains, annoyances, and possible and probable dangers, sink into the most trifling insignificance in comparison to some of the results that are daily observed as the tribute that is paid by the unlucky and unhappy wearer of a prepuce for the privilege of possessing such an appendage. there is one thing that must be admitted concerning circumcision: this being that, among medical men or men of ordinary intelligence who have had the operation performed, instead of being dissatisfied, they have extended the advantages they have themselves received, by having those in their charge likewise operated upon. the practice is now much more prevalent than is supposed, as there are many christian families where males are regularly circumcised soon after birth, who simply do so as a hygienic measure. for the benefit of these, who may congratulate themselves upon the dangers and annoyances that they and their families have escaped, and for the benefit of those who would run into these dangers but for timely warning, this book has been especially written. to my professional brothers the book will prove a source of instruction and recreation, for, while it contains a lot of pathology regarding the moral and physical reasons why circumcision should be performed, which might be as undigestible as a mess of boston brown bread and beans on a french stomach, i have endeavored to make that part of the book readable and interesting. the operative chapter will be particularly useful and interesting to physicians, as i have there given a careful and impartial review of all the operative procedures,--from the most simple to the most elaborate,--besides paying more than particular attention to the subject of after-dressings. the part that relates to the natural history of man will interest all manner of people. i regret that the tabular statistics are not to be had, but in this regard we must use our best judgment from the material we have on hand; at any rate, i have tried to furnish a sufficiency of facts, so that, unless the reader is too overexacting, he will not find much difficulty in arriving at a conclusion on the subject. p. c. remondino, m.d. san diego, california, . contents. page preface, iii introduction, chapter i. antiquity of circumcision, chapter ii. theories as to the origin of circumcision, chapter iii. spread of circumcision, chapter iv. circumcision among savage tribes, chapter v. infibulation, muzzling, and other curious practices, chapter vi. attempts to abolish circumcision, chapter vii. miracles and the holy prepuce, chapter viii. history of emasculation, castration, and eunuchism, chapter ix. philosophical considerations relating to eunuchism and medicine, chapter x. hermaphrodism and hypospadias, chapter xi. religio medici, chapter xii. hebraic circumcision, chapter xiii. mezizah, the fourth or objectionable act of suction, chapter xiv. what are the benefits of circumcision? chapter xv. predisposition to and exemption and immunity from disease, chapter xvi. the prepuce, syphilis, and phthisis, chapter xvii. some reasons for being circumcised, chapter xviii. the prepuce as an outlaw, and its effects on the glans, chapter xix. is the prepuce a natural physiological appendage? chapter xx. the prepuce, phimosis, and cancer, chapter xxi. the prepuce and gangrene of the penis, chapter xxii. the prepuce, calculi, and other annoyances, chapter xxiii. reflex neuroses and the prepuce, chapter xxiv. dysuria, enuresis, and retention of urine, chapter xxv. general systemic diseases induced by the prepuce, chapter xxvi. surgical operations performed on the prepuce, notes to text, works and authorities quoted, index, introduction. this book is the amplification of a paper, the subject of which was, "a plea for circumcision; or, the dangers that arise from the prepuce," which was read at the meeting of the southern california medical society, at pasadena, in december, . the material gathered for that paper was more than could be used in the ordinary limits of a society paper; it was gathered and ready for use, and this suggested its arrangement into book form. the subject of the paper was itself suggested by a long and personal observation of the changes made in man by circumcision. from the individual observation of cases, it was but natural to wish to enlarge the scope of our observation and comparison; this naturally led to a study of the physical characteristics of the only race that could practically be used for the purpose. this race is the jewish race. on carefully studying into the subject, i plainly saw that much of their longevity could consistently be ascribed to their more practical humanitarianism, in caring for their poor, their sick, as well as in their generous provision for their unfortunate aged people. the social fabric of the jewish family is also more calculated to promote long life, as, strangely as it may seem, family veneration and family love and attachment are far more strong and practical among this people than among christians, this sentiment not being even as strong in the christian races as it is in the chinese or japanese. it certainly forms as much of a part of the teachings of christianity as it does of judaism, buddhism, or confucianism, only christians, as a mass, have practically forgotten it. the occupation followed by the jews also in a certain degree favors longevity, and the influence on heredity induced by all these combined conditions goes for something. but it is not alone in the matter of simple longevity--although that implies considerable--that the jewish race is found to be better situated. actual observations show them to be exempt from many diseases which affect other races; so that it is not only that they recover more promptly, but that they are not, as a class, subjected to the loss of time by illness, or to the consequent sufferings due to illness or disease, in anything like or like ratio with other people. there is also a less tendency to criminality, debauchery, and intemperance in the race; this, again, can in a measure be ascribed to their family influence, which even in our day has not lost that patriarchal influence which tinges the home or family life in the old testament. crimes against the person or property committed by jews are rare. they likewise do not figure in either police courts or penitentiary records; they are not inmates of our poor-houses, but, what is also singular, they are never accused of many silly crimes, such as indecent exposures, assaults on young girls; nor do they figure in any such exposures as the one recently made by the _pall mall gazette_. after allowing all that, which we can, in its fullest limit, to religion, family, or social habit, there is still a wide margin to be accounted for. this has naturally let the inquiry, followed in the course of this book, into a careful review of the jewish people; into their religion and its character, its relation to other creeds, and to the world's history; into their many wanderings, and into the dispersion, and we have even been obliged to follow them into the midst of the people among whom they have become nationed, to try, if possible, to find the cause of this racial difference in health, resistance to disease, decay, and death. it has been necessary, in following out the research, to give a condensed _résumé_ of the religious, political, and social condition of the jewish commonwealth, which, although in a state of dispersion, still exists. i need offer no apology for the extended notice this has received in the course of the book. we read with increasing interest either hallam or may, buckle or guizot, through the spasmodic, halting, retrograding, advancing, erratic, aimless, and accidental phases that england has plowed through, from the days of goutless, simple, and chaste, but barbarian england of the saxons, to the present civilized, enlightened, gouty, "darkest england" of general booth; and, after all is said and done, we are no wiser in any practical resulting good. we simply know that the english people, so to speak, have, as it were, gone through the figures of some social aspects, as if dancing the "lancers," with its forward and back movements, gallop, etc., and have finally sat down, better dressed and better housed, but in an acquired state of moral and physical degeneration. the briton of queen victoria is not the briton of queen boadicea, either morally or physically. on the other hand, the system of sociological tables adopted by herbert spencer would have but little to record for some six thousand years--either in religion, morals, or physique--as making any changes in the history of that simple people which, in the mountainous regions of ur, in distant armenia, started on its pilgrimage of life and racial existence; in one branch of the family--that of ishmael--the changes to be recorded are so invisible that its descendants may really be said to live to-day as they lived then. so that i do not feel that i need to apologize for the space i have given to this subject in the course of the book. the causes that make these racial distinctions should be of interest alike to the moralist, theologist, sociologist, and to the physician. ecclesiastical writers and moralists, as well as writers of fiction or dramatizers, can write on anything they please, and it is eagerly taken up and read by the people generally, either of high or low degree, alike; and somehow these people seem never to require an apology on the part of the author, for having attempted rapes, seductions, or even unavoidable fornication committed through the leaves of the story, or having it imaginably take place between acts on the stage. but if the physician writes a book touching anything connected with the generative functions, and with the best intent and for the good of humanity, he is expected to make some prefatory apology. he is supposed to address a public who all of a sudden have become intensely moral and extremely sensitive in their modesty. why things are thus i cannot explain. they are so, nevertheless. from the time that the celebrated astruc wrote his treatise on female diseases, near the end of the seventeenth century,--who felt compelled by the extreme modesty of the people in this particular--but who, outside of medicine, were about as virtuous as the average tabby or tom cats in the midnight hour--to write the chapter touching on nymphomania in latin, so as not to shock the morbidly sensitive modesty of the french nobility, who then enjoyed _le droit de cuissage_,--down through to bienville, who wrote the first extended work on nymphomania, and tissot, who first broached the subject and the danger of onanism, all have felt that they must stop on the threshold and "apologize." tissot, however, seemed to possess a robust and a plain hippocratic mind, and as he apologized he could not help but see the ridiculousness of so doing, as in the preface to his work we find the following: "shall we remain silent on so important a subject? by no means. the sacred authors, the fathers of the church, who present their thoughts in living words, and ecclesiastical authors have not felt that silence was best. i have followed their example, and shall exclaim, with st. augustine, 'if what i have written scandalizes any prudish persons, let them rather accuse the turpitude of their own thoughts than the words i have been obliged to use.'" for my part, i think that people who can go to the theatre and enjoy "as in a looking-glass," and witness some of the satyrical or billy-goat traits of humanity so graphically exhibited in "la tosca," with evident satisfaction; or attend the more robust plays of "virginius" or of "galba, the gladiator," with all its suggestions of the cæsarian section, and the lust and the fornications of an intensely animal roman empress, without the destruction of their moral equilibrium or tending to induce in them a disposition to commit a rape on the first met,--i think such people can be safely intrusted to read this book. and as to the reading public, there are but few general readers who could honestly plead an ignorance of the "decameron," balzac, la fontaine, "heptameron," crébillon _fils_, or of matter-of-fact monsieur le docteur maitre rabelais,--works which, more or less, carry a moral instruction in every tale, which, like the tales of the "malice of women," in the unexpurged edition of the literal translation of the "arabian nights," contains much more of practical moral lessons, even if in the flowery and warm, spiced language of the orient, than any supposed nastiness, on account of which they are classed among the prohibited. to these, and the readers of amelie rives's books, or other intensely realistic literature, i need not imitate the warning of ansonius, who warned his readers on the threshold of a part of his book to "stop and consider well their strength before proceeding with its lecture." metaphorically speaking, the general theatre-going, or modern literature-reading public, can be considered pretty callous and morally bullet proof. i shall therefore make no apology. some fault may, perhaps, be found with some of the occasional style of the book, or with some of the subjects used to illustrate a principle. to the extremely wise, good, and scientific, these illustrations were unnecessary; this need hardly be mentioned; and the passages which to some may prove objectionable were not intended for them, either with the expectation of delighting them or with the purpose of shocking them. these passages, they can easily avoid. this book, however, was written that it might be read: not only read by the solon, socrates, plato, or seneca of the laity or the profession, but even by the billy-goated dispositioned, vulgar plebeian, who could no more be made to read cold, scientific, ungarnished facts than you can make an unwilling horse drink at the watering-trough. human weakness and perversity is silly, but it is sillier to ignore that it exists. so, for the sake of boring and driving a few solid facts into the otherwise undigesting and unthinking, as well as primarily obdurate understanding of the untutored plebeian, i ask the indulgence of the intelligent and broad-minded as well as the easily inducted reader. cleopatra was smuggled into cæsar's presence in a roll of tapestry; the greeks introduced their men into troy by means of a wooden horse; and the discoverer of the broad pacific ocean made his escape from his importunate creditors disguised as a cask of merchandise. so, when we wish to accomplish an object, we must adopt appropriate means, even if they may apparently seem to have an entirely diametrically opposite object. the athenian, themistocles, when wishing to make the battle of salamis decisive, was inspired with the idea of sending word to the persian monarch that the greeks were trying to escape, advising him to block the passage; this saved greece. there is a weird and ghostly but interesting tale connected with the moslem conquest of spain, of how roderick, the last of the gothic kings, when in trouble and worry, repaired to an old castle, in the secret recesses of which was a magic table whereon would pass in grim procession the different events of the future of spain; as he gazed on the enchanted table he there saw his own ruin and his country's and nation's subjugation. anatomy is generally called a dry study, but, like the enchanted brazen table in the ancient gothic castle, it tells a no less weird or interesting tale of the past. its revelations lighten up a long vista, through the thousands of years through which the human species has evolved from its earliest appearance on earth, gradually working up through the different evolutionary processes to what is to-day supposed to be the acme of perfection as seen in the indo-european and semitic races of man. anatomy points to the rudiment--still lingering, now and then still appearing in some one man and without a trace in the next--of that climbing muscle which shows man in the past either nervously escaping up the trunk of a tree in his flight from many of the carnivorous animals with whom he was contemporary, or, as the shades of night were beginning to gather around him, we again see him by the aid of these muscles leisurely climbing up to some hospitable fork in the tree, where the robust habits of the age allowed him to find a comfortable resting-place; protected from the dew of the night by the overhanging branches and from the prowling hyena by the height of the tree, he passed the night in security. the now useless ear-muscles, as well as the equally useless series of muscles about the nose, also tell us of a movable, flapping ear capable of being turned in any direction to catch the sound of approaching danger, as well as of a movable and dilated nostril that scented danger from afar,--the olfactory sense at one time having a different function and more essential to life than that of merely noting the differential aroma emitted by segars or cups of mocha or java, and the ear being then used for some more useful purpose than having its tympanum tortured by wagnerian discordant sounds. our ancestors might not have been a very handsome set, nor, judging from the neanderthal skull, could they have had a very winning physiognomy, but they were a very hardy and self-reliant set of men. nature--always careful that nothing should interfere with the procreative functions--had provided him with a sheath or prepuce, wherein he carried his procreative organ safely out of harm's way, in wild steeple-chases through thorny briars and bramble-brakes, or, when hardly pushed, and not able to climb quickly a tree of his own choice, he was by circumstances forced up the sides of some rough-barked or thorny tree. this leathery pouch also protected him from the many leeches, small aquatic lizards, or other animals that infested the marshes or rivers through which he had at times to wade or swim; or served as a protection from the bites of ants or other vermin when, tired, he rested on his haunches on some mossy bank or sand-hill. man has now no use for any of these necessaries of a long-past age,--an age so remote that the speculations of ernest renan regarding the differences between the semitic race of shem and the idolatrous descendants of ham, away off in the far mountains and valleys of asia lying between the mediterranean sea and the euphrates, seem more as if he were discussing an event of yesterday than something which is considered contemporary with our earlier history,--and we find them disappearing, disuse gradually producing an obliteration of this tissue in some cases, and the modifying influence of evolution producing it in others; the climbing muscle, probably the oldest remnant and legacy that has descended from our long-haired and muscular ancestry, is the best example of disappearance caused by disuse, while the effectual disappearance of the prepuce in many cases shows that in that regard there exists a marked difference in the evolutionary march among different individuals. there is a strange and unaccountable condition of things, however, connected with the prepuce that does not exist with the other vestiges of our arboreal or sylvan existence. firstly, the other conditions have nothing that interferes with their disappearance; whereas the prepuce, by its mechanical construction and the expanding portions which it incloses, tends at times rather to its exaggerated development than to its disappearance. again, whereas the other vestiges have no injury that they inflict by their presence, or danger that they cause their possessors to run, the prepuce is from time of birth a source of annoyance, danger, suffering, and death. then, again, the other conditions are not more developed at birth; whereas the prepuce seems, in our pre-natal life, to have an unusual and unseen-for-use existence, being in bulk out of all proportion to the organ it is intended to cover. speculation as to its existence is as unprolific of results as any we may indulge in regarding the nature, object, or uses of that other evolutionary appendage, the appendix vermiformis, the recollection of whose existence always adds an extra flavor to tomatoes, figs, or any other small-seeded fruits. we may well exclaim, as we behold this appendage to man,--now of no use in health and of the most doubtful assistance to the very organ it was intended to protect, when that organ, through its iniquitous tastes, has got itself into trouble, and, job-like, is lying repentant and sick in its many wrappings of lint, with perhaps its companions in crime imprisoned in a suspensory bandage,--what is this prepuce? whence, why, where, and whither? at times, nature, as if impatient of the slow march of gradual evolution, and exasperated at this persistent and useless as well as dangerous relic of a far-distant prehistoric age, takes things in her own hands and induces a sloughing to take place, which rids it of its annoyance. in the far-off land of ur, among the mountainous regions of kurdistan, something over six thousand years ago, the fathers of the hebrew race, inspired by a wisdom that could be nothing less than of divine origin, forestalled the process of evolution by establishing the rite of circumcision. whether this has been beneficial or injurious to the race will be, in a measure, the object of the discussion in this book. one object of this book is to furnish my professional brothers with some embodied facts that they may use in convincing the laity in many cases where they themselves are convinced that circumcision is absolutely necessary; but, having nothing in their text-books to back up their opinion with, their explanations are too apt to pass for their mere unfounded personal view of the matter. if the patient, or the parents of the patient, ask the physician for his authority, he is at a loss, as there is nothing that deals with the subject in any extended manner; so that this book has been written in as plain english as the subject-matter could possibly allow, so that non-professionals could easily read and understand it. i have often felt the need of such a work; people can understand emergency or accident surgery, military surgery, or reparative surgery, but such a thing as surgery to remedy a seemingly medical disease, or what might be called the preventive practice of surgery, is something they cannot understand. first, and not the least, among the incentives to skepticism on this subject is the unwelcome fact of a surgical operation, which, no matter how trivial it may seem to the surgeon, is a matter of considerable magnitude to the patient, his parents, or friends; there are risks, pain, worry, annoyances, and expenses to be undergone,--considerations which, either singly or unitedly, often lead one to reason against the operation, even when otherwise convinced of its need or utility. the hardest to convince are those, however, who insist on having a four-and-a-half-foot-gauge fact driven through their two-foot-gated understanding, without it ever occurring to them that the gate, and not the fact, is the faulty article, some of these gentry are very unconvincible. they at times remind one of that description given by carlyle in regard to one of the georges, who found himself, when prince of wales, leading an army in flanders, and actually engaged in a battle. his royal highness was on foot, and was seen standing facing the enemy, with outstretched legs, like a colossus of rhodes, impassive and stolid,--the very impersonification of dutch courage and aggressiveness. there he stood, unconscious whether he was at the head of an army or single attendant; he might be overridden and annihilated, overturned and expunged, but there he would most assuredly stand and fall, if need be; overwhelming squadrons, by their impetus and weight, might ride him down and crush him; but one thing was most certain, this certain fact being that he never could be made to retreat or advance, as no impression from front or rear could convince him of the necessity of either. then, there is our statistical friend, who cannot discriminate between the exception and the rule by any common-sense deductions. he must have all the authentic, carefully-compiled statistics before he can allow himself to form any opinion. as long as there is the smallest fraction of a decimal unaccounted for in a mathematical way, this individual is inconvincible. these men pride themselves upon being methodically exact; they express their willingness to be convinced if you can present acceptable proofs; but, trying to present simple rational proofs to these individuals is considerably like presenting a meal of boiled pork and cabbage to a confirmed and hypochondriacal dyspeptic,--it only increases their mental dyspepsia. had columbus waited to discover america, or had galileo waited to proclaim the motion of the earth, until authorized to a serious consideration of the matter by properly-tabled statistics, they would have waited a long, long time; and, it may be added, the inconveniences that attend the proving of a negative will so interfere with the proper arrangement of statistical matter which relates to the prepuce and circumcision that, before such tables could be satisfactorily and convincingly constructed, time and the evolutionary processes that follow it will bid fair to completely remove this debatable appendage from man. it may be at a very far-distant period that this evolutionary preputial extinction will take place,--probably contemporary with the existence of bulwer's "coming race,"--but not at a too remote period for the proper and satisfactory tabulation of the statistics. the ideas of the etiology and pathological processes through which we journey,--from a condition of health and good feeling to one of disease, miserable feeling, and death,--as described in, or rather as they control the sentiment and policy of, this work, are such as have been followed by hutchinson, fothergill, beale, black, albutt, and richardson, so that if i have totally ignored the old conventional systems, with their hide-bound classification of diseases to control the etiology, i have not done so without some reliable authority. in studying the etiology of diseases we have, as a rule, been content to accept the disease when fully formed and properly labeled, being apparently satisfied with beginning our investigation not at the initial point of departure from health, but at some distant point from this, at the point where this departure has elaborated itself, on favorable ground, into a tangible general or local disease. as truthfully observed by t. clifford albutt: "the philosophic inquirer is not satisfied to know that a person is suffering, for example, from a cancer. he desires to know why he is so suffering,--that is, what are the processes which necessarily precede or follow it. he wishes to include this phenomena, now isolated, in a series of which it must necessarily be but a member, to trace the period of which it must be but a phase. he believes that diseased processes have their evolution and the laws of it, as have other natural processes, and he believes that these are fixed and knowable." to do this, the physician must travel beyond the beaten path of etiology as found in our text-books. he must follow hutchinson in the train of reasoning that elucidates the pre-cancerous stage of cancer, or tread in the path followed by sir lionel beale, in finding that the cause of disease depends on a blood change and the developmental defect, or the tendency or inherent weakness of the affected part or organ; to fully appreciate the inherent etiological factors that reside in man, and which constitute the tendency to disease or premature decay and death, we must also be able to follow canstatt, day, rostan, charcot, rush, cheyne, humphry, or reveille-parise into the study of the different conditions which, though normal, are nevertheless factors of a slow or a long life. we must also be able to appreciate fully the value of that interdependence of each part of our organism, which often, owing to a want of equilibrium of strength and resistance in some part when compared to the rest, causes the whole to give way, just as a flaw in a levee will cause the whole of the solidly-constructed mass to give way, or a demoralized regiment may entail the utter rout of an army. as described by george murray humphry, in his instructive work on "old age," at page :-- "the first requisite for longevity must clearly be an inherent or inborn quality of endurance, of steady, persistent nutritive force, which includes reparative force and resistance to disturbing agencies, and a good proportion or balance between the several organs. each organ must be sound in itself, and its strength must have a due relation to the strength of the other organs. if the heart and the digestive system be disproportionately strong, they will overload and oppress the other organs, one of which will soon give way; and, as the strength of the human body, like that of a chain, is to be measured by its weaker link, one disproportionately feeble organ endangers or destroys the whole. the second requisite is freedom from exposure to the various casualties, indiscretions, and other causes of disease to which illness and early death are so much due." in following out our study of diseases, we have been too closely narrowed down by the old symptomatic story of disease; we have too much treated surface symptoms, and neglected to study the man and his surroundings as a whole; we have overlooked the fact that there exists a geographical fatalism in a physical sense as well as the existence of the influence of that climatic fatalism so well described by alfred haviland, and the presence of a fatalism of individual constitution as well, which is either inherited or acquired. the idea that charcot elaborates, that, as the year passes successively through the hot and the cold, through the dry and the wet season, with advancing age the human body undergoes like changes, and diseases assume certain characteristics, are also points that are overlooked; and nowhere is this latter view seen to be more neglected than in the relations the prepuce bears to infancy, prime and old age, as will be more fully explained in the chapters in this book which treat of cancer and gangrene. admitting that haviland has exaggerated the influence of climate as an etiological factor in its specific influence in producing certain diseases; or that m. taine claims more than he should for his "thèorie des milieux," or influence of surroundings; or that hutchinson has drawn the hereditary and pedigreeal fatherhood of disease too finely; it must also be admitted that the solid, tangible truths upon which these authors have founded their premises are plainly visible to the most skeptical; the architectural details of the superstructure may be defective, but the foundation is permanent. from the above outline it will be easier for the reader to follow out the reasons, or the whys or wherefores, of the views expressed on medicine in the course of the book; and, although i do not wish to enter the medical field like a peter the hermit on a new crusade, to lure thousands into the hands of the circumcisers, nor, as a new mohammed, promise the eternal bliss and glory of the seventh heaven to all the circumcised, i ask of my professional brothers a calm and unprejudiced perusal of the tangible and authentic facts that i have honestly gathered and conscientiously commented upon from my field of vision, which will be plainly presented in the following pages. i simply have given the facts and my impressions: the reader is at liberty to draw his own conclusions. if i have been too tedious in the multiplication of incidents in support of certain views, i must remind the reader that the verdict goes to him who has the preponderance of testimony, and that many a lawsuit is lost from the neglect, on the part of the loser, to secure all the available testimony. having brought the subject of circumcision before the bar of public opinion, as well as that of my professional brother, i would but illy do justice to the subject at the bar, or to myself, not to properly present the case; as it was remarked by napoleon, "god is on the side of the heaviest artillery," and he who loses a battle for want of guns should not rail at providence if, having them on hand, he has neglected to bring them into action. the reasons for the existence of the book will become self-evident as the reader labors through the medical part of the work. our text-books are, as a class, even those on diseases of children as a specialty, singularly and unpardonably silent and deficient on the subject of either the prepuce and the diseases to which it leads, or circumcision; and even our surgical works are not sufficiently explicit, as they deal more with the developed disease and the operative measures for its removal than on any preventive surgery or medicine. our works on medicine are equally silent, and, although from a perusal of the latter part of the book the prepuce and circumcision will be seen to have considerable bearing on the production and nature of phthisis, this subject would, owing to our strabismic way of studying medicine, look most singularly out of place in a work devoted to diseases of the lungs or throat. owing to this poverty of literature on the subject, and that the library of the average practitioner could therefore not furnish all the data relating to it that the profession have in their possession, a book of this nature will furnish them the required material whereupon to form the basis of an opinion on the subject. to argue that the prepuce is not such a deadly appendage because so many escape alive and well who are uncircumcised, would be as logical as to assume that lee's chief of artillery neglected to properly place his guns on the heights back of fredericksburg. he had asserted, the night before the battle, that not a chicken could live on the intervening plateau between the heights and the town. on the next day, when these guns opened their fire, the federals were unable to reach the heights, while many men were for hours in the iron hail-sweeping discharges of that artillery that mowed them down by whole ranks, and yet the majority escaped alive. we take the middle ground, and, while admitting that many escape alive with a prepuce, claim that more are crippled than are visibly seen, as, like bret harte's "heathen chinee," the ways of the prepuce are dark and mysterious as well as peculiar. a discussion of the relative merits of religious creeds, when considered in relation to health, has been, from the nature of the subject of the book, unavoidable. modern christianity but very imperfectly explains why this rite was either neglected or abolished. frequent reference is made to what saint paul said and did, but, as saint paul was not one of the disciples, it is inexplicable wherefrom he received his authority in this matter, seeing that the disciples themselves had no new views on the subject. to the student who prefers to study his subject from all its aspects, the question naturally arises, "where, when, and why came the authority that abolished this rite?" there is one probable explanation, this being that paul, who was the real promulgator of gentile christianity, had to establish his creed among an uncircumcised race; although, as we shall see, devotees have not scrupled to sacrifice their virility in the hope of being more acceptable to god and to be better able to observe his commandments, and others, in their blind bigotry, have not objected to sitting naked on sand-hills, with a six-inch iron ring passed through the prepuce, it is very evident that the apostle paul's good sense showed him the uselessness of attempting to found the new creed, and at the same time hold on to the truly distinctive marking of judaism among gentiles, the hebrew race being those among whom he found the least converts, as even the disciples and apostles in palestine disagreed with him. in the words of dr. i. m. wise, it was impossible for the palestine apostles, or their flock, either to acknowledge paul as one of their own set or submit to his teaching; for they obeyed the law and he abolished it; they were sent to the house of israel only, and paul sought the gentiles with the message that the covenant and the law were at an end; they had one gospel story and he another; they prophesied the speedy return of the master and a restoration of the throne of david in the kingdom of heaven, and he prophesied the end of the world and the last day of judgment to be at hand; they forbade their converts to eat of unclean food, and especially of the sacrificial meats of the pagans, and he made light of both, as well as of the sabbath and circumcision. in the attempted reconciliation that subsequently took place in jerusalem at the house of james, the jacob of kaphersamia of the talmud, paul was charged by the synod of jewish christians "with disregarding the law, forsaking the teachings of moses, and attempting to abolish circumcision." he was bid to recant and undergo humiliation with four other nazarenes, that it might be known that he walked orderly and observed the law; paul submitted to all that was demanded. this, in short, with the exception of the sayings of paul on the subject, which are all secondary considerations, is really all that there is relating to the abolishment of circumcision by the christians. the real disciples and apostles believed in jesus with as much fervor as paul, but it is singular that they who were with the master should always have insisted on the observance of the law, while paul as energetically insisted on its abolishment. from these premises, i have seen fit to inquire into the relative merits of the three religions practiced by what we call the civilized nations, as they affect man morally, physically, and mentally. i have given the facts, my impressions, and reasons for being so impressed; from these, the reader can easily see that religion has more to do with man's temporal existence than is generally believed; its discussion is not, therefore, out of place in this book. repetitions in the course of the work have been unavoidable. this is not a novel nor a work of fiction, and wherever the want of repetition would have been an injury, either to the proper representation of a fact or a principle, the repetition has not been avoided. in describing the operations, i had desired to avoid any too numerous descriptions, as that is confusing, but have thought it best to give a number, as the reader will thereby obtain the views of the different operators, the mode of the operation often being an index to the view of the operator in regard to the needs or utility of a prepuce. in the general plan of the work, i have adopted the idea and the historical relation carried out by bergmann, of strasburg, who included all the mutilations practiced on the genitals while discussing the subject of circumcision, they being, in the originality of performance, somewhat intimately connected; this also tends to make the subject more interesting as a contribution to the natural history of man,--something in which all intelligent persons are more or less interested. p. c. remondino, m.d. san diego, california. [illustration: egyptian circumcision. (from chabas and ebers' description of the bas-relief found in the temple of khons, near the great temple of maut, at karnac.)] chapter i. antiquity of circumcision. if the ceremonials of the catholic church or the high church episcopalians carry us back into the depths of antiquity, or, as remarked by frothingham, that the ceremonies of st. peter, at rome, carried him back to the mysteries of eulesis, to the sacrificial rites of ancient phoenicia, to what misty antiquity does not the contemplation of the rite of circumcision take us? the alexandrian library, with its vast collection of precious records, could probably have furnished us some information as to its origin and antiquity; but moslem fanaticism, with its belief in the all-sufficiency and infallibility of the koran, was the destruction of that wonderful repository. we must now depend wholly on the relation of the old testament or on what has since been written by the greek and italian historians as to its origin and practices. the egyptian monuments and their hyeroglyphics give us no information on the subject further back than the reign of rameses ii; while the oft-quoted herodotus wrote some fourteen centuries after the old testament relation, and strabo and diodorus some nineteen centuries after the same chronicler. we have, therefore, in their chronological order, first, the relation of the bible; then the egyptian monuments and their revelations; and, thirdly, the information gathered by pythagoras, herodotus, and other philosophers and historians. to these three sources we may add the misty mixture of tradition and mythological events, whose beginnings as to period of time are indefinite. these are the sources from which we are to determine the origin and antiquity as well as the character of the rite. voltaire found in the subject of circumcision one that he could not satisfactorily make enter into his peculiar system of general philosophy. for some reason, he did not wish that the israelites should have the credit of its introduction; were he to have admitted that, he would have had to explain away the divine origin of the rite,--something that the hebrew has tenaciously held for over thirty-seven centuries. voltaire thought it would simplify the subject by making it originate with the egyptians, from whom the hebrews were to borrow it. to do this he adopted the relation of herodotus on the subject. his treatment of the jewish race, however, brought out a strong antagonism from those people to his attacks, and in a volume entitled, "letters of certain jews to monsieur voltaire,"--being a series of criticisms on his aspersions on the race and on the writings of the old testament (written by a number of portuguese, german, and polish jews then residing in holland[ ]),--they proved conclusively that the phoenicians had borrowed the rite from the israelites, as they (the phoenicians) had practiced the rite on the newborn, whereas, had they followed the egyptian rite, they would have only circumcised the child after its having passed its thirteenth year,--these being the distinctive differences between the jewish and egyptian rites. luckily, in the small temple of khons, which formed an annex to the greater temple of maut, at karnac, there was found a _bas-relief_, partly perfect, which goes far toward giving light on the subject of egyptian circumcision. the upper part of the sculpture was so defaced that the upper portions of four of the five figures were destroyed, but the lower portions were so perfect in every detail as to furnish a full history of the age of the candidates for the rite and the manner of its performance. it is further interesting from the fact that it establishes also the time during which the rite was so performed. m. chabas and dr. ebers argue, from the founder of the temple having been rameses ii, that the sculpture refers to the circumcision of two of his children. the knife appears to be a stone implement, and the operator kneels in front of the child, who is standing, while a matron supports him in a kneeling posture, and she holds his hands from behind him.[ ] in this _bas-relief_ we can see the great difference that existed between the two forms of the operation, that of the hebrews being performed, as a rule, on the eighth day after birth, while in the _bas-relief_ they are ten or twelve years old. although tradition and mythology veil past events in more or less obscurity, they do, in regard to circumcision, furnish considerable explanatory light on matters which would be otherwise hard to reconcile. circumcision has been performed by the chippeways, on the upper mississippi, and its modifications were performed among the mexicans, central americans, and some south american tribes of indians, as well as among many of the natives dwelling among the islands of the pacific archipelago. there is a tradition, mentioned by donnelly in connection with the sunken continent of atlantis, that ouranos, one of the atlantean kings, ordered his whole army to be circumcised that they might escape a fatal scourge then decimating the people to their westward.[ ] this tradition tells us that the hygienic benefits of circumcision were recognized antediluvian facts, as it also points out the way by which circumcision traveled westward across to the western world. as donnelly has pointed out, many of the americans possessed not only traditions, habits, and customs that must have come from the old world, but the similarity of many words and their meaning that exists between some of the american languages and those of the indigenous inhabitants that have still their remains in spots on the southwestern shores of europe--the ancient armorica whose colony in wales still retains its ancient words--leaves no room for doubt that at one time a landed highway existed between the two worlds. the mandans, on the upper missouri, have many words of undoubted armorican origin in their vocabulary,[ ] just as the chiapenec, of central america, contains its principal words denotive of deity, family relations, and many conditions of life that are identically the same as in the hebrew,[ ] the name of father, son, daughter, god, king, and rich being essentially the same in the two languages. it must have been more than a passing coincidence that gives the mandans some of their most expressive words from the welsh, or that gave to central america many cities bearing analogous names with the cities of armenia.[ ] canadian names of localities, as well as those of the mississippi valley, denote the french origin of their pioneers, as well as the names of upper california denote the nationality and creed of its first settlers. so that there is nothing strange in asserting that american civilization and many of the customs as found in the fifteenth century by the early spanish discoverers were nothing more than the remains of ancient and modified phoenician civilization, among which figured circumcision. dr. a. b. arnold, of baltimore, argues that, with the present state of our anthropological knowledge and the material that research has been able to furnish, we need no longer be surprised to find customs, laws, and morals, among nations living in regions of the world widely apart from each other, which betray an identity of origin and development, and that beliefs and institutions, whether wise or aberrant, grow up under apparently dissimilar circumstances, circumcision forming no exception.[ ] dr. arnold leaves too much to chance. it is hardly likely that the similarity that existed between the architecture of the phoenicians and the central americans, as evinced in their arches; in the beginning of the century on the th of february; the advancement and interest taken in astronomical science; the coexistence of pyramids in egypt and central america; that five armenian cities should have their namesakes in central america, should all be a matter of accident. the historiographer of the canary islands, m. benshalet, considers that those islands once formed a part of the great continent to its west; this has been verified by the discovery of many sculptured symbols, similar in the canaries and on the shores of lake superior, as well as by the discovery of a mummy in the canaries with sandals whose exact counterparts were found in central america.[ ] a compound word used to signify the great spirit being found identical in the welsh and mandan languages, each requiring five distinct sounds to pronounce, words as intricate as the passwords of secret societies, can hardly be said to be the result of chance.[ ] there must, at some remote period, have existed some communication between the ancestors of these missouri mandans and the shores of ancient armorica; the ancestors of these mandans may have then been living farther to the east; they even may have then been a tribe of since lost atlantis; but the analogy, not only in regard to the word just mentioned,--_maho-peneta_, of the welsh and mandan,--but in the similarity of the pronouns of both languages, and the existence of the idea of the counterpart of the sacred white bull of the egyptians being found among the dakotas, or sioux, all point to the fact that these people, in common with the rest of the americans, originally came from the east; from whence came their languages, manners, customs, rites, and what civilization they possessed, among which circumcision has, through the mist of centuries, held its own in some shape or other. that some terrible catastrophe occurred to divide the hemispheres is evident; the western world remaining stationary in its civilization and retaining the customs and rites of the times as evidence of their origin. with this view of the case, the existence of circumcision as found among the inhabitants of the west can easily be traced to its origin among the hills of chaldea. the ancient traditions and mythological relations of the egyptians in regard to the great nation to the west are amply verified by the deep-sea soundings of the "challenger," the "dolphin," and the "gazelle," which plainly indicate the presence of a submarine plateau that once formed the continent of atlantis, whose only visible evidence above the waves of the boisterous atlantic is the azores and the remains of phoenician civilization among the americans. professor worman, of brooklyn, scouts the idea that circumcision was ever connected in any way or that it originated in any of the rites connected with phallic worship.[ ] bergmann,[ ] of strasburg, however, not only claims circumcision to be a direct result of phallic worship, but looks upon the rite as something that has been reached by what may be termed a gradual evolutionary process of manners, customs, and society, from the time of what is termed the hero-warrior period of traditional history, when war and the clashing of shields and sword or spear were the main delights and occupations of man. it is strange to note what difference must have existed between these hero-warriors in regard to their ideas of manliness; some were brutal and fiendish, whilst others were magnanimous. mcpherson, the historiographer of early britain, cannot help but contrast the superior manliness of the heroes of ossian in his graphic description of the ancient caledonians, when compared to the brutality of homer's greek heroes. the traditions upon which bergmann undertakes to found the origin of the rite of circumcision are all connected with the inhuman and brutish passions that animated our barbarous ancestry. the first incident given is the egyptian traditional tragedy, which was, in all probability, the initial point of that phallic worship which, with increasing debauchery, assisted in the final demoralization of rome and greece, after its introduction into those countries. chapter ii. theories as to the origin of circumcision. we are told that in battle man looked upon the vanquished as unfit to bear the name of man, looking upon the weakness or want of skill which contributed to their defeat as something effeminate. the victor then proceeded by a very summary and effective mode, done in the most primitive and expeditious manner, to render his victim as much like a female as possible to all outward appearances; this was accomplished by a removal at one sweep of _all_ the organs of generation, the phallus being generally retained as a trophy,--a practice which was also carried into effect with dead enemies, to show that the victor had vanquished _men_. it has been the practice from time immemorial for a victor to carry off some portion of the body of his victim or defeated enemy, as a mark or testimony of his prowess; it was either a hand, head or scalp, lower jaw, or finger. the carrying off of the phallus or virile member was considered the most conclusive proof of the nature of the vanquished, and, as it established the sex, it conferred a greater title to bravery and skill than a mere collection of hands or scalps, which would not denote the sex. in conformity with this custom, we find that osiris, when he returned to egypt and found that typhon had fomented dissension in his absence, being vanquished by the latter in the conflict that followed, was dismembered and cut into pieces, the followers of typhon each securing a piece and typhon himself securing the phallus or generative member. isis, the spouse of osiris, seems in turn to have secured the control of government, and, having secured all the pieces of the dissected osiris except the phallus,--typhon having fled with that, and, according to some traditions, having thrown it into the sea,--isis ordered that statues should be constructed, each to contain a piece of the unfortunate osiris, who should thereafter be worshiped as a god, and that the priesthood should choose from among the animals some one kind which should thereafter be considered sacred. the phallus which was missing was ordered special worship, with more marked solemnities and mysteries; from this originated the phallic worship and the sacredness of the white bull, apis, among the egyptians, which was chosen to represent osiris. by gradual evolution and the progress of society, the cultivation of the ground and the need of menials, warriors found some other use for their prisoners taken in strife besides merely cutting off the phallus as a trophy; these prisoners began to have some intrinsic value. from this a change came about; the warrior instinct, however, still claimed that the vanquished, even if a slave, should still convey or carry some sign of servitude. the original idea of the ablation of the phallus was to emasculate the victim; investigation developed the idea that the same object could be accomplished by castration, an operation which also finally reached a tolerable state of perfection through different stages of evolution, it first being performed by a complete removal of the whole scrotum and contents. this operation, with the ignorance of the times in regard to stopping hæmorrhage, was, however, accompanied by a large mortality, and it finally evolved into the simple removal of the gland, or its obliteration by pressure or violence. bergmann conveys the idea that circumcision was at one time the indestructible marking and the distinctive feature of the slave, the mind of the period not being able to emancipate itself from the idea that the genitals must in some manner be mutilated, not being able to conceive any other degrading mark of manhood which barbarians felt they must inflict on slaves. the generally accepted idea in regard to the physical mutilation of captives taken in war, or that some token from the body of the vanquished must be carried off by the victor, has not only the support of tradition and monumental sculptured evidence, but its practice is still in vogue among many races. among the ancient scythians, only the warriors who returned from the battle or foray with the heads of the enemy were entitled to a share in the spoils. among the modern berbers it is still a practice for a young man, on proposing marriage, to exhibit to his prospective father-in-law the virile members of all the enemies he has overcome, as evidence of his manhood and right to the title of warrior. the abyssinians and some of the negro tribes on the guinea coast still follow the custom of securing the phallus of a fallen foe. however barbarous this practice may seem, its actual performance is only secondary, the primary motive being that the warrior wished to prove that he had been there, engaged in actual strife, and that his enemy had been overcome. the writer remembers that, after one of the battles in the west during the late war, many letters arrived in his locality with pieces of the garments or locks of the hair of the unfortunate confederate general, zollikoffer, who had been slain in the battle; a disposition in the warrior, seemingly still existing, such as animated the old egyptians. on an old egyptian monument,--that of osymandyas,--diodorus noticed a mural sculpture, a _bas-relief_ representing prisoners of war, either in chains or bound with cords, being registered by a royal scribe preparatory to losing either the right hand or the phallus, a pile of which is visible in one corner of the foreground; from this sculpture we learn that the practice was not only an individual performance, but that it was a national usage among the egyptians as well, who subjected, at times, their vanquished foes to its ordeal in a wholesale but business-like manner. bergmann argues that the israelites were given to like practices, and cites the incident wherein david brought two hundred prepuces--as evidence of his having slaughtered that number of philistines--to saul, as a mark of his being worthy to be his son-in-law. he argues that, whereas many have made that old testament passage to read "two hundred prepuces," it should have read "two hundred virile members" which david and his companions had cut off from the philistines, the word _orloth_ meaning the virile member, and not the prepuce. that israelitish circumcision could have originated from either phallic worship or any of the hero-warrior usages is untenable as a proposition, as regards the living prisoners, and is contrary to the monotheistic idea which ruled israel, or to the benign nature of their god. the strict opposition of the religion of judaism to any other mutilation except that of the covenant is also antagonistic to the views advanced by bergmann, as it is well known that even emasculated animals were considered imperfect and unclean, and therefore unfit to be received or offered as a sacrifice to their deity. no emasculated man was allowed to enter the priesthood or assist at sacrifices. the whole idea of judaism being opposed to such mutilations, their observance of circumcision and its performance can in no way have developed from either phallic or other warlike rites or usages; but we must accept its origin as a purely religious rite,--a covenant of the most rigid observance, coincident in its inception with the formation of the hebraic creed in the hills of chaldea. what herodotus or pythagoras may have written concerning the practice among the egyptians was written, as already remarked, some nine centuries after moses had recorded his laws; moses himself having come some centuries after abraham. herodotus is quoted as representing that the phoenicians borrowed the practice from the egyptians, in support of the theory that egypt was the central nucleus from whence the practice started, and not that it traveled toward egypt from phoenicia. the difference in the ages, already mentioned, at which the rite was practiced--that of phoenicia and israel being at one time identical--shows that the testimony of herodotus in this one particular was the result of faulty judgment, as we find the people who have borrowed the practice from the egyptians, as well as their descendants, closely follow their practice in regard to the age at which the operation should be performed. another evidence of the strictly religious nature of the rite, as far as the hebrews are concerned, lies in the fact that, with all their skill in surgery and medical sciences,--they being at one time the only intelligent exponents of our science,--they never made any alteration or improvement in the manner of performing the operation. it is evident that even maimonides, a celebrated jewish physician of the twelfth century, who furnished some rules in regard to the operation, was held under some constraint by the religious aspect of the rite. as a summary of this part of the subject, it may be stated that the old testament furnished the only reliable and authentic relation prior to pythagoras and herodotus. from its evidence, abraham was the first to perform the operation, which he seems to have performed on himself, his son, and servants,--in all, numbering nearly four hundred males; he then dwelt in chaldea. in absence of other as reliable evidence we must accept this testimony in regard to its origin, causes, and antiquity. voltaire, in his article on circumcision in his "philosophical dictionary," seems more intent on breaking down any testimony that might favor belief in any religion than to impart any useful light or information. he bases all his arguments on the book "euterpe," of herodotus, wherein he relates that the colchis appear to come from egypt, as they remembered the ancient egyptians and their customs more than the egyptians remembered either the colchis or their customs; the colchis claimed to be an egyptian colony settled there by sesostris and resembled the egyptians. voltaire claims that, as the jews were then in a small nook of arabia petrea, it is hardly likely that, they being then an insignificant people, the egyptians would have borrowed any of their customs. to read voltaire's "herodotus" is somewhat convincing, but voltaire's "herodotus" and herodotus writing himself are two different things, and the book "euterpe" says quite another thing from what m. voltaire makes it say. a perusal of voltaire and a study of his jewish critics on this subject, as found in the "jews' letters to voltaire," will convince any reader that as to circumcision m. voltaire is an unreliable authority. chapter iii. spread of circumcision. from chaldea, then, in the mountains of armenia and kurdistan, the practice of circumcision was, in all probability, first adopted by the phoenicians, who finally relinquished the israelitish rite as to age of performance and exchanged it for the egyptian rite. from phoenicia its spread through the maritime enterprises of this race to foreign parts was easy. egypt was the next place to adopt its practice; at first the priesthood and nobility, which included royalty, were the only ones who availed themselves of the practice. the egyptians connected circumcision with hygiene and cleanliness; this was the view of herodotus, who looked upon the rite as a strictly hygienic measure. history relates of the existence of circumcision among the egyptians as far back as the reign of psammétich, who ruled toward the end of the sixth century b.c. the practice must then have been of a very religious and national nature, as we are told that psammétich, having admitted some noted strangers, whom he allowed to dwell in egypt without being circumcised, brought himself into great disfavor among his subjects, and especially by the army, who looked upon an uncircumcised stranger as one undeserving of favors. during the next century pythagoras visited egypt, and was compelled to submit to be circumcised before being admitted to the privilege of studying in the egyptian temples. in the following century these restrictions were removed, for neither herodotus nor diodorus, who visited the country, were obliged to be circumcised, either to dwell among the people or to follow their studies. there is one curious habit that is mentioned in connection with the rite of circumcision among these people, this being its relation to the taking of an oath or a solemn obligation. among the egyptians the circumcised phallus, as well as the rite of circumcision, seemed to be the symbol of the religious as well as of the political community, and the circumcised member was emblematical of civil patriotism as well as of the orthodox religion of the nation. to the egyptian, his circumcised phallus was the symbol of national and religious honor; and as the anglo-saxon holds aloft his right hand, with his left resting on the holy bible, while taking an oath, so the ancient egyptian raised his circumcised phallus in token of sincerity,--a practice not altogether forgotten by his descendants of to-day. it was partly this custom of swearing, or of affirming, with the hand under the thigh, by the early israelites, that caused many to believe that their circumcision was borrowed from the egyptians, especially by m. voltaire, who insists that it was the phallus that the hand was placed on, and that the translation has not the proper meaning, as given in the bible. among the arabs it was the practice to circumcise at the age of thirteen years, this being the age of ishmael at his circumcision by his father, abraham. the arabs practiced circumcision long before the advent of mohammed, who was himself circumcised. pococke mentions a tradition which ascribes to the prophet the words, "circumcision is an ordinance for men, and honorable in women." although the rite is not a religious imposition, it has spread wherever the crescent has carried the mohammedan faith. uncircumcision and impurity are to a mohammedan synonymous terms. like the abyssinians, the arabs also practice female circumcision,--an operation not without considerable medical import, as will be explained in the medical part of the work. this practice is also common in ethopia. some authorities argue, from this association of female circumcision among the southern arabs, ethiopians, and abyssinians, that they did not derive their rite from the israelites; but there is not much room for doubt but that the operation came down to the arabians from abraham through his son ishmael. considering the occupancy of syria, arabia, and egypt by the french, and the intercourse with these countries by the british, it is surprising that the profession in the early part of the present century had not full information regarding the nature and objects of female circumcision as practiced in these countries. delpesh observes, in relation to the oriental practice, that his information was too vague to determine whether it was the nymphæ or the clitoris that were removed, or whether it was only practiced in cases of abnormal elongations of these parts. m. murat, however, writes at length on the subject, very intelligently, as well as lonyer-villermay, who, writing in the same work with delpesh, thinks it is certainly the clitoris that is removed.[ ] in arabia, the trade or profession of a _resectricis nympharum_ or she-circumciser is as stable an occupation with some matrons as that of cock-castration or caponizing is the sole occupation of many a matron in the south of europe. it is related by abulfeda that, in the battle of ohod, where mohammedanism came very near to a sudden end by the crushing defeat of the prophet and his followers, hamza, the uncle of the prophet, seeing in the opposing ranks a koreish chief, whom he knew, thus called out: "come on, you son of a she-circumciser!" as hamza was among the slain, it is most likely that he met his death from the hands of the chief, whose mother really followed that occupation. so extensive is the practice, that these old women sometimes go through a village crying out their occupation, like itinerant tinkers or scissors-grinders. the present ceremonies attending the performance of the rite among the arabians are well described by dr. delange, a surgeon of the french army, as witnessed by him in the province of constantine, in algeria. with these arabs, circumcision is performed on a whole class, so to speak, at the same time, regardless of the trifling differences in their ages. it is preceded by feasting, the total length of the feast being for eight days. for the first seven days, all the arabs of the quarter where the candidates for circumcision reside dress in their best. the poor have their mantles and clothes carefully washed, and the rich deck themselves out in their gold and silver brocaded vests and pantaloons. during these seven days there is general rejoicing, and the arabs spend most of this time in the village street, racing, firing guns, or engaging in sham battles between the different camps, during which one carries the green, or sacred banner, which is supposed to render the bearer invulnerable. the battle ends by the standard-bearer being fired at by all parties, and falling, but quickly rising again and waving the flag in token of its protecting power. the arabs now adjourn to another public place, where the notables and strangers are furnished seats on carpets; here a dance to the music of tumtums and the singing of invisible females takes place, the dancers being only males.[ ] in the evening the women sing, to which the men listen in silence, this concert being kept up until midnight. on the seventh day, the women, decked out in their best, and with all their personal ornaments, accompanied by all the young men, armed with their guns and pistols, repair to the extremity of the oasis, where they gather plates of fine sand. with this sand they return to the village, where it is exposed overnight to the glare of the full moon on the terraces of the house. this last day closes with a grand banquet, given by the rich whose children are about to be circumcised, to which all the people are invited. the next morning all the relatives of the candidates repair to the house where the rite is to be performed; the women going up into the second floor, wherefrom they can look down into the court from a porch screened with lattice-work, without themselves being seen. the men gather together on the ground-floor, together with the operator and his assistants and the children about to be circumcised, who are dressed in yellow, silken gowns. the child to be operated upon is seated in a pan of sand, while an assistant fixes his arms and holds the thighs well separated from behind. the circumciser then examines the prepuce, the glans, and removes any sebaceous collection. this done, a compress with an aperture to admit of the passage of the glans is slipped over the organ; a small piece of leather, some six centimetres in diameter, with a small hole in the centre, is now used, the free end of the prepuce being drawn through the aperture; a ligature of woolen cord is then tied on to the prepuce next to the front of the leather shield, and, the knife being applied between the thread and the leather, the prepuce is removed at one sweep; the mucous inner layer is then lacerated with the thumb-nails and turned back over to join the other parts. the surface is then sprinkled with _arar_ or _genevriere_ powder and dressed with a small cloth bandage, the subsequent dressings consisting of _arar_ powder and oil. during the operation the women in the gallery keep up an unearthly music by means of tumtums, cymbals, and all the kettles and saucepans of the neighborhood, which are brought into requisition for the occasion. this music is accompanied with songs and chants, each woman striking out with an independent song of her own, either improvised or suggested by the occasion. this not only serves to drown the cries of the children, but it must, in a manner, assist to draw them away from the immediate contemplation of their sufferings. the prepuces are now gathered together and carried to the end of the oasis, where they are buried with ceremony and rejoicings. this circumcision only takes place once in three or four years, and the children are from four to eight years of age; of fifteen circumcised at the feast witnessed by m. delange, only two had passed their eighth year. in a very interesting old book,[ ] "the treaties of alberti bobovii," who was attached to the court of mohammed iv, published with annotations by thomas hyde, of oxford, in , there is a description of the turkish performance of the rite which leads one to infer that they circumcised the children quite young: "et cum puer præ dolore exclamat, imus ex duobus parentibus digitis in melle ad hoc comparato os ei obstruit; cæteris spectatoribus acclamantibus. o deus, o deus, o deus. interim quoque musica perstrepit, tympana et alia crepitacula concutiuntur, ne pueri planctus et ploratus audiatur." bobovii says that the age at which circumcision is performed is immaterial provided the candidate is old enough to make a profession of faith,--which, however, is made for him by the godfather,--in the following words: "there is no god but god, and mohammed is his prophet," or, as rendered by our author, "non esse deum nisi ipsum deum, et mohammedem esse legatum dei." to which he adds that the child must not be an infant, but that he must be at least eight years of age. like to the arabs, the turks celebrated the occasion by feasts, plays, and a general good time; the child was kept in bed for fifteen days to allow complete cicatrization to take place. the circumcision was performed with the boy standing. michel le feber, writing in ,[ ] speaks of the tax levied on the christians by the turks, that they, the christians, may enjoy liberty of conscience, and observes that, circumcision not being compulsory among the turks, it often led to trouble and annoyances, as many of the turks evaded the operation. the tax-gatherers in turkey are very industrious, and, as being circumcised was, as a rule, sufficient evidence of not being a christian, he often witnessed on the streets scenes wherein strangers, arrested by these tax-collectors, were compelled to show their circumcision as an indisputable sign of their exemption from the tax. he also relates that in their zeal for converts to mohammedanism the turks often resorted to presents to induce christians to embrace their faith. while in aleppo, he saw a portugese sailor, who, through presents, had forsaken his religion, but who had repented in the most emphatic manner when brought to face circumcision. finding entreaties in vain, the cadi ordered the immediate administration of a stupefying draught, and the sailor was then seized and circumcised without further ceremony. in cases where the new mohammedan is reasonable and submits like a hero, the ceremonies are more elaborate. le feber relates that if the candidate is a man of note or wealth he is mounted on a horse and exhibited all over the city; he is dressed in the richest of turkish robes and in his hand he holds an arrow with the point directed to the sky; he is followed by a great concourse of people, some dressed in holiday attire and others in fantastic costumes; and general feasting and enjoyment is the rule over the course of the march, where all the people run to swell the crowd. if the man happens to be a poor man, he is simply hurriedly marched about on foot, with a simple arrow in his hand pointed skyward, to distinguish him from ordinary mortals; before him a crier proclaims in a loud voice that the new religionist has ennobled himself by professing the faith of the prophet in this solemn manner. a collection for his benefit is taken up among the booths and shops, which is mostly appropriated by the conductor, circumciser, and his assistants, after which he is circumcised without further ado. the same author describes the operation as performed on the young turks and the accompanying ceremonies. they differ in some respects from those employed in circumcising a convert. the parents of the child give a feast in proportion to their means, to which are invited the relatives of the family and personal friends; if of the upper ranks, he is promenaded about the town to the music of drums and cymbals, dressed in rich attire; two warriors lead the procession with drawn swords, and a troop of females who sing songs of joy bring up the rear; the procession now and then stops, when the two gladiators in the front indulge in a fierce set-to, hacking at each other in the most determined and murderous manner, but so studiedly shammy that neither is injured; on the return to the house, the child, who is usually eight or ten years of age, is bound hand and foot to prevent his causing any injury to himself, laid on a bed, and circumcised with a razor, the operation being performed either by a surgeon or the chief of a mosque. chapter iv. circumcision among savage tribes. e. casalis,[ ] who, in the capacity of missionary, for a very long time resided among the bassoutos, tells us that among that nation the operation is performed at the age of from thirteen to fifteen years. the ceremony is gone through once in three or four years. so important an event is it considered by the bassoutos that they date events from one of these observances, as the romans dated events from a certain consulship, or the greeks from an olympiade. at the time fixed, all the candidates go through a sham rebellion and escape to the woods; the warriors arm and give chase, and, after a sham battle, capture the insurgents, whom they bring back as prisoners, amidst dancing and great rejoicings, which are the preludes to the feast. the next day the huts of mystery (_mapato_) are erected, where, after the circumcision, the young men are to reside for some eight months, under the tutorship of experienced teachers, who drill them in the use of the spear, sword, and shield, teaching them to endure hunger, thirst, blows, and all manner of hardships; prolonged fasts and cruel flagellations being regarded as pastimes between the exercises. the severity of the regulations may be judged from the fact that the instructors have a right to put to death any one who may try to escape from these ordeals. the women are rigorously excluded from these camps, but the men are allowed to visit them, when they have the privilege of assisting the teachers by adding additional blows and precepts to the backs of the unlucky candidates. after eight months of such training, the young men are oiled from head to foot and dressed in a garment, and are now given the name which they are to bear for the rest of their lives. the _mapato_, or mystery hut, is now burned to the ground and the young men return to the village. the maternal uncle of the youth here presents him with a javelin for his defense, and a cow that is to furnish him with nourishment. until the time of his marriage, the newly circumcised dwell together; their duties being of a menial character, such as gathering wood and attending to the flocks and droves. m. paul lafargue looks upon circumcision among the negro races as being a rite commemorating their advent to manhood; livingstone, who has also observed the above, related incidents in relation to the performance of _boguera_, or circumcision, among the bassoutos, believes that with them the rite has a purely civil significance, being in no way connected with religion. among many of the african tribes the young maids have an ordeal approaching to circumcision that they must pass when near the age of thirteen, this rite bearing precisely the same relation regarding their entrance into the state of womanhood that male circumcision denotes the entrance into manhood on the part of the males among the bassoutos. at the appointed time the maids are gathered together and conducted to the riverbank; they are placed under the care of expert matrons. they here reside, after having undergone a kind of baptism; they are maltreated, punished, and abused by the old women, with a view of making them hardy and insensible to pain; they are also schooled in the science and art of african household duties. among the gallinas of sierra leone, in addition to the other observances, the clitoris of the young maid is excised at midnight, while the moon is at its full, after which they receive their name by which they are to be known through life. the initiation of each sex into these mysteries is exclusively for the sex engaged, and it would be as fatal for a man to steal into the camp of the women during the performance of these ceremonies as it would be fatal for a woman to enter a _mapato_ where the young men are undergoing their ordeal. after their initiation into womanhood, the maids live by themselves, similarly to the young men, until they marry. lafargue relates that among the australians circumcision is held in such importance that tribes at war will suspend all hostilities and meet in peace during the observance or performance of the rite. here, again, we have a repetition, with a slight variation, of the practices of the bassoutos,--something which gives some countenance to the hero-warrior idea of the origin of circumcision advanced by bergmann. the australian warriors go through a mimic battle, and, after a series of combats, finally capture the boys aged about from thirteen to fourteen years, whom they bear away amidst the cries and lamentations of the mothers and other female relatives, who, in their excess of grief, mutilate themselves by cutting gashes into their thighs, so that they bleed profusely. the boys are, in the meantime, carried to some out-of-the-way place, where an old man, perched on a tree or some rising ground, through the means of a musical instrument made of a deal-board and human hair, announced that the rite is in process of performance, so that neither women nor children might approach. tufts of moss are placed in the axilla and on the pubis, to represent puberty, and among some tribes the skin of the penis is divided to the scrotum with a stone knife, while others content themselves with simply making a circular incision, which removes the prepuce, after the jewish manner, the excised portion being placed as a ring on the median finger of the left hand. the circumcised then takes himself to the hills or woods, and there remains until healed, carefully guarding himself against the approach of any female. after this the third part of the ceremonies takes place: the godfather of the youth opens a vein in his own arm, the circumcised youth is placed on all-fours, and an incision is made from the neck down as far as the lumbar region, and the blood of the godfather is made to flow and mingle with that of the godchild; this being in reality a bloody baptism, and a near relation to the blood-compacts of the arabs. the malays, as well as the men of borneo, are circumcised. the battos likewise perform the rite. among the islanders they sometimes ligate the prepuce so that it drops off. among the battos the same object is reached by small bamboo sticks, between which the prepuce is fastened. in new caledonia and tidshi the boys are circumcised in their seventh year. the tonga islanders split the prepuce on the dorsum with a piece of bamboo or of shell. in the marquesas and sandwich islands the operation is superintended by the priests.[ ] chapter v. infibulation, muzzling, and other curious practices. it seems a matter of controversy as to whether the mexicans did or did not circumcise their children. that they had a blood-covenant is admitted by the historians, as well as the fact that this blood was taken from the prepuce; but that the prepuce was actually removed is something that is not agreed upon by all authorities. las casas and mendieta state that it was practiced by the aztecs and totonacs, while brasseur de bourbourg found traces of its practice among the mijes. las casas states that on the twenty-eighth or the twenty-ninth day the child was presented to the temple, when the high-priest and his assistants placed it upon a stone and cut off the prepuce, the excised part being afterward burnt in the ashes. girls of the same age were deflowered by the finger of the high-priest, who ordered the operation to be repeated at the sixth year; and once a year, at the fifth month, all the children born during the year were scarified on the breast, stomach, or arms, to denote their reception as servants of their god. clavigero, on the other hand, denies that circumcision was ever practiced. it was customary in mexico, according to most authorities, to take the children while infants to the temple, where the priests made an incision in the ear of the females, and an incision in the ear and prepuce of the males.[ ] grotins and arias montan at one time advanced the idea that the western coast of south america was peopled by some mutinous sailors from the fleets of king solomon, who, in their endeavor to go away far enough to be out of reach, were driven by winds and chance to the peruvian coast. others have imagined that some of the lost tribes of israel found their way eastward to america, by the way of china, to the mexican coast. the same ideal tradition has made the lost tribes the fathers of the iroquois nation in the northeastern parts of the united states. an author, who will be quoted in another part of this work, scouts the idea that the rite, as performed in america, had any connection or common origin with the rite performed in asia and africa; but, true to his theory of the climatic causes of the origin of circumcision, he maintains that it originated here as it did elsewhere, being a performance born of climatic necessity. he is, however, dissatisfied with father acosta for not being more explicit in relation to the _modus operandi_ of the mexican circumcision. the want of being explicit, and its consequences in this particular regard, may be inferred from a "diatribe on circumcision," by a mr. mallet, in an encyclopædic dictionary of the last century, in which mr. mallet informs his readers that mexicans were in the habit of _cutting off the ears and prepuces_ of the newly born. herrera and acosta agree with clavigero in asserting that the mexicans simply _bled_ the prepuce. pierre d'angleria and other contemporary writers are as emphatic in asserting that in the island of cosumel, in yucatan, on the sea-board of the gulf of mexico and on the florida coast, they have observed circumcision by the complete removal of the prepuce with a stone knife. the spanish monk, gumilla, relates that the saliva indians of the orinoco circumcised their infants on the eighth day. these indians also included the females in the observance of the rite. the same author tells us of the barbarous and bloody performances, in relation to the rite, of the nations on the banks of the quilato and the uru, as well as those dwelling along the streams that empty into the apure. the same is said of the guamo and of the othomacos indians; according to gumilla, many of these indians, in addition to the rite of circumcision, inflicted a number of cuts on the arms, legs, and over the body, to a degree that amounted to butchery, the child being reserved for this inhuman treatment until the age of ten or twelve years, that he might, by his greater powers of resistance and of recuperation, stand some chance of escaping alive from the ordeal. the friar mentions that in he found a child dying from this treatment, the wounds having become gangrenous and the child dying of pyæmia; prior to the operation the children were stupefied with some narcotic drink, and were insensible during its performance.[ ] besides circumcision, the americans practiced several other operations that bore an analogy to the operation of infibulation, a procedure common to the orient and to early europe, and so ancient that, like circumcision, its source is in the misty clouds of antiquity. it consisted in introducing a large ring, either of gold, silver, or iron, through an opening made into the prepuce, the free ends being then welded together. females were treated likewise, the ring including both labia. in some countries an agglutination of the parts induced by some irritant or a cutting instrument answered the purpose among females. dunglison mentions that the prepuce was first drawn over the glans, and then that the ring transfixed the prepuce in that position; that the ancients so muzzled the gladiators to prevent them from being enervated by venereal indulgence. the ancient germans lived a life of chastity until their marriage, and to their observance of a chaste life can be attributed the superior physical development of the race, as both males and females were not only fully developed, but were not enervated by either sexual excess or inclinations before having offspring, which were necessarily robust and healthy. to obtain the same results in a nation given to indolence and luxury, and lax in its morality, some physical restraint was required, and we therefore find the practice of infibulation coming from the warm countries to the east. the ancients not only infibulated their gladiators to restrain them from venery, but they also subjected their chanters and singers to the same ordeal, as it was found to improve the voice; comedians and public dancers were also restrained from ruining their talents by the means of infibulation. in an old amsterdam edition of locke's "essay on the extent of the human understanding," there is a quotation from the voyages of baumgarten, wherein he states having seen in egypt a devout dervish seated in a perfect state of nature among the sand-hillocks, who was regarded as a most holy and chaste man for the reason that he did not associate with his own kind, but only with the animals. as this was by no means an uncommon case, it led the greek monks, in greece and asia minor, to resort to every expedient to protect their chastity; in some of the monasteries not only were the monks muzzled by the process of infibulation, but they even had rules that excluded all females, either human or animal, from within their convent,--a habit that still prevails among many of the convents of the orient to this day,--that on mount athos especially, omitting the infibulation of the ancients. readers living in the climates of extreme ranges and of seasonal change cannot understand the physical temptations that beset mortals in certain climates, any more than they can imagine the faultless condition of the climate itself. the subject of climatic influences will be more fully discussed further on; but climate, as a factor of habits and usages in one part of the world, that are incomprehensible to those living in others, plays a part that is but little appreciated or understood; whether it be the question of diet, dress, or custom, climate exerts its influence in no uncertain manner. as sulpicius severus remarked to the greek monks, when they accused the gaulish monks with voracity and gluttony, "that which you of greece consider as superfluous, the climate of gaul renders into a positive necessity." so of all physical needs and passions,--they are subject to a similar law. those who have read canon kingsley's small work on the "hermits of asia, africa, and europe" will appreciate the above remarks; and it may be incidentally mentioned that his description of the climate that is common to the hilly country bordering on the eastern half of the mediterranean sea gives as vivid and as graphic a description of the physical condition of the climate and of its effects as can well be written. it occurs in the life of the hermit hilarion, and the description given relates to his last home in the ruins of an old temple, situated on a cliff in the island of cyprus, where the air is so invigorating that "man needs there hardly to eat, drink, or sleep, for the act of breathing will give life enough." the work gives the best insight also into origin and causes that led to monachism, as well as it tells the benefit that the condition conferred on humanity, showing a phase in the march of civilization that is but little understood. but, to return to the subject of infibulation, which has, in a manner, necessitated this digression from the main topic. thwing[ ] informs us that in ancient germany woman was considered the moral equal of man, and that woman might traverse the vast stretches of country unprotected and unharmed. woman never held such a position in the oriental countries; neither has man, under the sub-tropics, a like self-command as shown by those ancient gauls. so that, with the advent of christianity and the moral revolution that followed, primitive methods, either inflicted on others or self-inflicted, were adopted to insure a chaste life. infibulation was known, as already stated, for centuries, and in those rude times it seemed as the most natural and effective mode of accomplishing the object. it was not as barbarous an operation as emasculation on the male, as it only temporarily interfered with his functions. in the old world the practice is still performed in various manners. in ethiopia, when a female child is born the vulva is stitched together, allowing only the necessary passage for the needs of nature. these parts adhere together, and the father is then possessed of a virgin which he can sell to the highest bidder, the union being severed with a sharp knife just before marriage. in some parts of africa and asia, a ring, as before stated, transfixed the labia, which, to be removed, required either a file or a chisel; this is worn only by virgins. married women wear a sort of muzzle fastened around the body, locked by means of a key or a padlock, the key being only in the possession of the husband. the wealthy have their seraglios and eunuchs, that take the place of the belt and lock. another method is a mailed belt worn about the hips, made of brass wire, with a secret combination of fastenings, known only to the husband. in the museum in naples are to be seen some of these belts, studded with sharp-pointed pikes over the abdominal part of the instrument, which was calculated to prevent even innocent familiarity, such as nest-hiding, to say nothing of greater evils. in the "les femmes, les eunuchs, et les guerrieres du soudan," col. du bisson mentions a very peculiar custom invented by the careful jealousy that is inseparable from harem life. he had noticed that many of the harem inmates, contrary to the general oriental custom, were allowed to go about unattended by the usual guard of eunuchs, but that they walked in a painful, hesitating, and impeded manner. this walk was not the conventional, short, shuffling step that peculiarity of dress and shoe-wear imposes on the japanese beauty, nor the willowy, swaying gait produced in the chinese beauty by the lack of a sufficiency of foot; neither could it be ascribed to the presence of the ancient jingling chain of bells which induced the mincing steps of the virgins of judea,--an invention which confined the lower limbs within certain limits by being worn just below the knees, and calculated to prevent the rupture of the hymen by any undue length of step or violent exercise; hence a tinkling noise and a mincing step always denoted a virgin. in du bisson's cases, however, virgins were out of the question; they might be the victims of enforced continence, but a soudanese harem contains no virgins. on inquiry he learned that the very peculiar and unmistakably painful gait was due to the fact that each woman carried a bamboo stick, about eight inches in length, three inches or more being inserted in the vagina so as to effectually fill the opening, the balance projecting beyond, between the thighs of the person; this bamboo stick, or guardian of female virtue, was held in place by a strap with a shield that covered the vulva, the whole apparatus being strapped about the hips and waist, and the whole being held in an undisplaceable position by a padlock. this was affixed to the woman whenever she was allowed outside the harem grounds, being placed in position by the eunuch, who carried the key at his girdle. in such a harness virtue can be considered perfectly safe; even safe from any mental depredation or revolution, as, with the plug causing such uncomfortable sensations, it is perfectly safe to infer that the imagination could not be seduced by any don juanic or other byronic unvirtuous revelry. the physical ills that this contrivance must cause are necessarily without number, as the instrument is not as lightly constructed as our modern stem pessaries; but to the oriental who can replace a woman at any time and who prizes the virginity, continence, and chastity of his slaves, even if enforced, more than their health or their lives, these are matters of secondary importance. in the soudan there are no divorce courts, hence the probable necessity of the apparatus, and, as the woman is not obliged to wear it unless she chooses to go out unattended, it can hardly be considered as a compulsory barbarity. in the united states such a practice might do away with considerable divorce proceedings. celsus gives a detailed description of the manner of infibulating as practiced among the romans. according to this authority, it was employed by them on the youth attending the public schools, as well as upon the actors, dancers, and choristers, who were sold to the directors of the plays and spectacles. in the cabinet of the roman college there are to be seen two small statues representing two infibulated musicians, which are remarkable for the excessive size of the ring and the leanness of the persons to which they are attached. the mode of applying this ring did not differ much from the usual method of preparing the ear for pendants.[ ] among the greek monks mentioned, the infibulation serves a manifold purpose; it not only is a sure badge of chastity, but its weight and size is very often increased so as to render it an instrument of penitence, and considerable rivalry exists at times in this regard. virey notices that the hindoo bonze, or fakir, at times submits to infibulation at the same time that he takes his vows of eternal chastity. this ring is at times enormous, being sometimes six inches in diameter; so that it is a burden. these saints are held in great esteem and veneration. nelaton, in the sixth volume of his "surgery," mentions the case of a man who presented himself at dupuytren's clinic with a tumefied, thickened, and somewhat dilapidated and ulcerated prepuce; this prepuce had worn a couple of golden padlocks for five years, a woman having thus infibulated his organ. in an elaborate work on the subject of circumcision,[ ] de vanier du havre relates, on the authority of m. martin flaccourt, that with the madécasses the children are circumcised on the eighth day after birth; and that in some portions of the country the mother swallows the removed portion of the prepuce, while in others the father loads the prepuce in some form of fire-arm, which is afterward fired in the air. in the neighborhood of djezan, in arabia, as reported by m. fulgence fresnel in the _revue de deux mondes_ of , courtship and matrimony are not so great social events as they are with our society beaux. the occasion is probably considered social enough by the rest of the invited guests, but it can hardly be called an agreeable episode in the life of the groom. those whose bashfulness prevents them from contracting marriage in civilized communities can have the consolation of knowing that in far-off arabia, among the fierce followers of the conquerors of spain and of the eastern empire, they have sympathizing fellow-sufferers whom the conventionalities of the country deter from rushing into matrimony. in this region, circumcision is performed on the adult at the time of his candidacy for matrimonial bliss. a more inauspicious occasion could not possibly have been chosen, unless as in another mohammedan tribe, who circumcise the bridegroom on the day after his marriage and sprinkle the blood that falls from the cut onto the veil of the bride. the bride is present, and the victim is handed over to what might be called the executioner of the holy office, who proceeds to circumcise the victim in what might be called its utmost degree of performance and barbarity. this attention does not stop at the pendulous and loose prepuce. he devotes himself to the skin of the whole organ; beginning at the prepuce he gradually works backward, removing the whole skin of the penis--a flaying alive, and nothing more. should the victim betray any sign of weakness, or allow as much as a sigh or groan to escape him, or even allow the muscles of the face to betray the fact that he is not immensely enjoying the occasion, the bride elect at once leaves him for good, saying that she does not wish a woman for a husband. a large proportion of the male population annually die from this operation. so that the arabs of the djezin can be likened to those spiders who lose their life while in the act of copulation,--the female making a dinner from off the male,--only the spider is said to die a happy death, while that of the arab is one of misery. margrave and martyr have recorded a very peculiar practice common among some south american tribes: a kind of a tube is fastened onto the prepuce by means of threads of the _tacoynhaa_, the latter being the bark of a certain kind of a tree. cabras brought one of the natives, so muzzled, to lisbon, on the return from his first voyage. some tribes were observed to wear an apparatus like the old-fashioned candle-extinguisher, the virile member having been forced into this receptacle, which was strapped about the loins. the travelers spix and martius found the practice of circumcision of both sexes in the region of the upper amazon river and among the tuncas. squires mentions a curious custom of the aborigines of nicaragua. they wound the penis of their little sons and let some of the blood flow on an ear of corn, which is divided among the assembled guests and eaten by them with great ceremony. on the fifth day after birth it is the custom among the omaha indians of north america to christen the infant, the child being stripped and spotted with a red pigment; considerable ceremony accompanies the act.[ ] among the cannibals of australia, lumholtz[ ] observed a practice that seems to have no analogue in the wide world, either as an operation or in regard to its purposes. about ninety-five per cent. of the children are subjected to the ordeal. this is no less than the formation of an artificial hypospadias; this abnormality is formed through the penis into the urethra, near its junction with the scrotum; the wound is about an inch in length and is made with a flint knife which serves for no other purpose; the edges of the wound are burned with a hot stone, and the wound is subsequently kept open by the introduction of a small piece of wood, which, on healing, leaves a permanent opening. these cannibals undoubtedly are inspired by some malthusian spirit which impels them thus to functionally eunuchize themselves in one sense, as during copulation the seminal discharge flies out backward through this opening, being thereby a most effectual check on further procreation. by some, this practice has been attributed to the unreliability of the seasons in regard to food-production; but lumholtz observes that where the practice is most in vogue--among the tribes to the west of the diamantina river and west and north of the gulf of carpentaria--the food-supply is not deficient, the region being full of rats, fish, and vegetables. all the tribes are not subject to the practice of the operation at the same time of life; in some, the hypospadias is not produced until in adult life and after the person has married and has become the father of one or two children, when he must submit to the requirements of the law; the operation seems to be invested with some civil or religious significance, as a palisade or stockade of trees is placed around the place where it is performed. a native, aged about twenty years, informed lumholtz that the operation was performed because the blacks did not like to hear the children cry about the camp, and, further, that they were not desirous of having many children; this native had not yet become a father and had not yet been subjected to the operation. the natives were observed to be fat and in good physical condition. there is something mysterious in this operation. it can easily be conceived how circumcision might at times have been suggested by its spontaneous and natural performance without any assistance from man. cullerier reports one case of partial circumcision through the means of an accident happening to a painter. the man was at work on a ladder, with a small bucket of paint hooked into one of the rounds above him; through some means the bucket lost its hold and in falling struck the penis on its dorsum with such force that the prepuce was cut through on a parallel with the corona of the glans for fully two-thirds of its circumference, the glans slipping through the opening and gathering in a fleshy bunch underneath the frenum. this man carried this abnormality for some years, when, desiring to marry and seeing that this appendage would be as much of an impediment as one of the huge rings worn by the hindoo devotee, he applied to cullevier for advice, who promptly removed it with the knife.[ ] the writer has seen three cases, during his practice, of spontaneous circumcision, all resulting from phymosis as a secondary affection to venereal disease. the first case occurred when he first entered into practice; it was in a young, stout, and full-blooded man with a violent gonorrhoea. there was much swelling and tumefaction of the whole organ, which seemed to be very rebellious to all treatment. at one of his morning visits he was horrified to observe a transverse, livid mark at what seemed to be the middle of the organ; by noon this had gained ground to the right and left and there was no mistaking that it meant nothing less than mortification. never having seen a case, the natural uncomfortable conclusion was that, through some cause or other or the natural result of excessive congestion, the man was about to lose one-half of his organ; and burnside at fredericksburg was in no greater state of suspense and uncertainty with the fate of the army of the potomac on his hands than the writer must acknowledge he was with this man and his organ apparently liquefying under his treatment. the surprise can be better imagined than described when, on the following morning, the glans made its appearance safe and sound out of its imprisonment, and at right angles with the organ there hung the prepuce, thick and as large and as long as the penis itself, inflammatory deposit and infiltration having brought it to that shape and consistence; the glans became completely uncovered; the parts gathered underneath, where, in the course of some weeks, they had shrunk to the size of a walnut, which was afterward removed by the knife. in this case, as in the other two cases observed, the corona was very prominent and acted as an internal tourniquet by its upward pressure, the line of demarkation being on the dorsum in the three cases noted. that such cases would suggest circumcision is not only probable but possible, as it would point out the manner of performing the operation; but, in the cases of the australian savages, who performed an artificial hypospadias on themselves for a specific purpose, requiring a knowledge of the anatomical relation of the parts as well as of their physiological functions, it is hard to speculate how the operation was first suggested or how it came at first to be performed. as a malthusian agent it is certainly an operation of the highest merit, and it should be introduced, by all means, in the united states, where the wealth and luxury in which the people dwell is fast drifting them toward the same whirlpool that engulfed rome, which was preceded by a dislike to have children. whenever the writer sees the poor anæmic, broken-down victim of many miscarriages, he cannot help but feel that, if the laws of the damiantina river savages were enforced on their husbands, it would be a blessing to the poor women without materially injuring the husbands, who, in case of need of a re-establishment of the functions of procreation, might be fitted with a vulcanite plate for the occasion,--something like our cleft-palate patients are supplied with a plate that enables them to articulate. it was the custom among the hottentots, when first discovered or known to the whites, to remove one of their testicles. this was supposed to enable them to run more swiftly and to be lighter-footed in the race. the real reason, afterward found, was a mixture of pure humanitarianism and malthusianism boiled down to hottentot ethics. with them a monorchid was not supposed to beget twins; when twins are born in the family, the mother generally smothers the female, if one happens to be such; if not, then the feeblest of the two is sacrificed. in their migratory and nomadic life the mother finds it impossible to either carry or care for the two children. the male hottentot, rather than have any avoidable infanticide in his family, or that his wife should go through and suffer the annoyance and pangs of an unnecessary and unprofitable pregnancy, generously has one testicle removed; this is something that the ordinary civilized white man would not do, even if his legitimate wife and all his outside concubines were to have twins or triplets every nine months; so that, even as strange as it may appear, civilization must need go to the wild bushmen in search of that grand old quixotic chivalry that was in ancient times always ready to sacrifice itself for the welfare of woman. the old greek and roman statues, representing the gods and athletes of ancient greece and rome, are a puzzle to many, owing to the diminutive and phimosed virile organ that the artists have attached to them. galen represents that the disuse of the organ by the athletes was the cause of its undeveloped form, and that as the organ of these did not figure in the worship of venus, or participate in the festivals of bacchus, but was used solely and simply for micturating purposes, impotence was often the result, citing the case of a patient who came to consult him for an obstinate priapism resulting from venereal excess, who met, in his anteroom, an athlete who was being treated for the opposite condition, due to the too rigid continence to which he had been for years subjected. acton does not believe that continued continence has that effect, quoting dr. bergeret, who had long been physician to a number of religious societies, as saying that he had never seen serious troubles of the organs of generation in these communities, which denotes that if they indulged in proper fasting and prayer they were in the same condition of flaccid impotence as the athlete in galen's anteroom. louis vii, of france, tried fasting and prayer in connection with rigid continence, and, as a result, his wife, queen eleonore, was divorced from him and married henry ii, of england, who had not been continent. hence, we see that the old sculptors, whether wishing to represent jupiter or plato, Æsculapius or mars, a strongly knit and muscular frame was desired, an athlete, gladiator, or soldier being used as a model; the small, puerile, funnel-prepuced organ belonged to all these muscular or well-trained classes, was a natural appendage, as enforced continence and the most absolute chastity was the rule, to enforce which they even resorted to infibulation. this enforced continence often resulted in impotence, even before the prime of life was passed, accompanied by an inevitable atrophy of the male organ, with the resulting prepuce in the shape in which it is found in a boy of from eight to twelve years, precisely as they are found on the statues. how faithful the sculptors and artists were to nature and life in their representations can well be imagined by a critical examination of the apollo belvidere, where the difference of the scrotal position that exists between the right and left testicles is carried out to the minutest anatomical detail. in our age it is hard to conceive why their most masculine men should be deified, and all their gods represented as the most perfect of bodily development, while at the same time the finest physical specimens of manhood were doomed to a life of the most rigorous continence. it is also astonishing that all this should be done not from any principle or consideration of morality or virtue, but simply as a means subservient in producing at its maximum the highest degree of physical development and endurance. chapter vi. attempts to abolish circumcision. probably no rite or practice of a custom has been such a long-standing bone of contention as circumcision; nor does the sphynx surpass this relic of bygone ages in mystery. from time immemorial its practice has been the subject of disputes, and its literature finds oftentimes its friends and foes ranged side by side. at one time a noted israelite and voltaire, the scoffer of judaism, may be consulted on the question as to whether israelite or egyptian is entitled to priority as to its original practice with a like answer; and, again, christians are found who, after a careful investigation, will accord this to the israelites. in rome, the persecuted hebrew was stopped on the street and compelled to show the mark of circumcision, that he might be taxed, and in turkish parts the christian was subjected to the same indignity to enable the tax-gatherer to harvest the impost which he paid for his liberty of conscience and not being circumcised. when the monkish missionaries of the catholic faith first entered abyssinia, they were shocked to find their converts insisting on their time-honored practice of circumcision; and later, when the propaganda sent its own missionaries, they were scandalized to see christians practicing what they looked upon as an infidel rite; and nothing but the most earnest confession of faith, with the assurance that the rite of circumcision was only a physical remedy, and that in their conscience it in no wise possessed any religious significance, and that neither did they, in any sense, hold it in any connection with the sacrament of baptism, permitted these abyssinians to save themselves from excommunication. later still, when an abyssinian bishop was present in lisbon, the clergy of the city refused him the right of celebrating the sacrifice of the holy mass in the cathedral of lisbon, on the ground that he, having been circumcised, was no better than a heretic. the abyssinian christians still practice the rite at the present day. the turks, although very fanatical and greater proselyters than the christians of rome, seem now and then to relax in favor of general utility, as we find bajazet ii writing to the pope, alexander vi, supplicating his holiness to confer a cardinal's hat on the archbishop of arles as a special favor to the turkish emperor, as he knew that the archbishop _had a secret leaning toward mohammedanism_. as the clergy of those days, from the holy father down, were more politicians than followers of the humble nazarene, the heaven of mohammed had probably more attractions for their taste than the ideal christian paradise, and it is possible that the good archbishop would have submitted to a cardinal's hat and circumcision at the same time to secure the good things of this world and of those in the world to come. history also relates that his most christian majesty, henry iii, of france, as a relaxation to the interminable squabble between two christian religious factions which were rending france, and which in the end cost him his life, actually wrote a letter to the sultan, asking the favor to be allowed to stand as godfather at the circumcision of his son. when it is remembered that the godfather at a turkish circumcision has to make a strong profession of moslem faith and the answers as sponsor for the child, and must promise that the child will be faithful to the koran and mohammed, it will be seen that, however much the lower levels of humanity may quarrel over trifles, the heads of the people easily accommodated themselves to any existing circumstances. friar clemens might as well have let such a liberal-minded monarch live, as any of the existing churches could easily have got along with him. on the other hand, we have the remarkable tenacity to custom and habit in this regard, as exhibited by the moslems, who, although having neither ordinance nor authority for its performance, either in their law, creed, or in any order from their prophet, still no more zealous circumciser exists than the son of islam, who exacts from all proselytes the excision of the prepuce. mohammed was circumcised in his boyhood, and, although he did not order its performance to his followers, he did not see fit to proscribe a custom so general to the arabians, where the greater development of the prepuce probably renders circumcision a necessity. from the same reason it is easy to perceive why the rite has found such general observance among the africans, who are as noted for long and leathery prepuces as for their slim shanks. one author, writing in , in a work entitled "philosophical researches on the americans," treats the subject in a very intelligent manner. his arguments are both ingenious and plausible. this author looks upon circumcision as of purely climatic origin in its inceptive causes. from a careful survey of the natural history of man in his general distribution over the globe, he finds that circumcision may be said to be restricted to within certain boundaries of latitude, equidistant on both sides of the line. no circumcised people have ever inhabited northern regions, and the bulk of the circumcised races are found within certain climates. from this reasoning it is easy to see why the rite should lose its standing under certain climatic conditions, unless bolstered up by some religious significance, as it is equally easy to foresee why it should flourish elsewhere, even without any religious backing or ordinance. it is well known that in ethiopia and the neighboring countries, excrescences and elongation of either the prepuce or nymphæ are as probable as the existence of an enlarged thyroid gland or goitre among the inhabitants of some of the valleys of switzerland or of those of the tyrol. according to the author of the treatise just quoted, circumcision would be nothing more than a remedy to repair the evils that a faulty construction of the human body developed in certain climatic conditions. with the israelites it is observed as a religious rite, although they are not strangers to the physical benefits that circumcision confers upon them; the fact that even where no prepuce exists, as sometimes happens, the circumciser nevertheless goes on with the rite, being satisfied with drawing a few drops of blood from the skin near the glans, stamps the operation essentially as being a religious rite. persecutions have signally failed to suppress its performance by those of the hebrew faith. beginning with the decree of antiochus, b.c., which consigned every hebrew mother to death who dared to circumcise her offspring, they have not ceased to suffer in defense of their rite. adrian, among other repressive measures, forbade circumcision; under antonine this edict was still enforced, but he afterward recalled it and gave to the hebrews the right of observing their religious rites. marcus aurelius, however, revived the edict of adrian. heliogabalus, who ascended the roman throne in the year a.d., was himself circumcised. during the reign of constantine all the laws that interfered with hebraic rites were renewed, with the addition that any hebrew who should circumcise a slave should suffer death. under the sway of justinian, in the sixth century, the persecutions against these people were so oppressive that a hebrew was not allowed to raise or educate his own child in the faith of his fathers. in the seventh century, the augurs having prophesied the ruin of the roman empire by a circumcised race to the emperor heraclius, the persecutions were renewed against these unfortunate people. in this century, hebrews refusing baptism suffered banishment and confiscation of all their property; they were obliged to renounce the sabbath, circumcision, and all hebraic rites if they wished to remain. about this period the success of the saracens induced persecutions of the hebrews in spain, where their children were taken away from them that they might be raised in the christian religion. in the fifteenth century they suffered the greatest persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the spanish inquisition. the persecutions above cited were national and governmental persecutions levelled directly at the jewish nation and creed; the persecutions that they momentarily suffered at other times had no signification beyond the exhibition of popular spite and fury, but those above cited were moves calculated to extirpate the creed, if not the people, from off the face of the globe. if repressive measures are of any avail, circumcision as an hebraic rite should now have no existence. its present existence and observance show a vitality that is simply phenomenal; its resistance and apparent indestructibility would seem to stamp it as of divine origin. no custom, habit, or rite has survived so many ages and so many persecutions; other customs have died a natural death with time or want of persecution, but circumcision, either in peace or in war, has held its own, from the misty epochs of the stone age to the present. there is something pathetic and soul-appealing in contemplating the early christians forced to worship in the catacombs of rome, hunted like wild animals in their subterranean burrows, and then given the choice of making offerings to the heathen gods or being thrown into the arena as prey to wild beasts; so are we stirred when we think of the spanish jew, who had made spain his home for centuries, being driven into exile in such droves that no country could receive them; we see them perishing of hunger by the thousands on the african coast, and dying of starvation on the quays of the ports of civilized italy. that many, through all these trials, were forced to embrace other religions is not astonishing. in spain apostacy was to no purpose, as the inquisition could not be expected to split hairs in regard to an apostate jew, when it sent the best of gothic blood, raised in the catholic faith, to the _auto da fé_ or the scaffold,--the rack respecting neither faith nor profession that fell into its clutches. in milder persecutions, however, he escaped by outwardly conforming to the demands of his oppressors and history tells us of the circumcisions secretly performed on the dead jew, that the spirit of the law of their fathers might be carried out. in other cases, threatened exile, confiscation, or exorbitant taxation drove them to adopt every possible expedient to eradicate the sign of their israelitism and make attempts to reform a prepuce. the first attempts in this line were made during the reign of antiochus, when a number of hebrews wished to become as the people about them who were not persecuted--_fecerunt cibi præputia_. this is no easy operation, and in later times by the aid of appliances, both in rome and in spain, they undertook to cause the skin to recover the glans. martial, in speaking of the instrument used in rome, a sort of a long funnel-shaped copper tube in which the hebrew carried his virile organ, terms it _judæm pondum_, the weight of which, by drawing down the skin, was supposed in time to draw it down far enough to answer the purpose. the apostle paul, in his epistle to the corinthians, refers to these practices when he says, "was any one called being circumcised, let him not be uncircumcised." the operation of reforming a prepuce, or of obliterating the marks of circumcision, does not appear to have been a success. the writer had one experience that was interesting. on one occasion he advised circumcision for the relief of a reflex nervous disease, in a tall, athletic austrian sailor from the adriatic; although the nature of the operation was explained to the man, he evidently did not appreciate its full nature and importance until a sweeping cut with a scalpel left the excised prepuce in the operator's hand. most adriatic sailors have sailed up the bosphorus and are more or less familiar with both the greek and turkish nations; the latter they despise with gusto, "_porchi di turci_" being the affectionate appellation they bestow on their national neighbors. no sooner did he perceive the real condition of affairs than he began to beat his head, saying that he was disgraced forever, as he never would dare to associate with his countrymen again, as he would be liable to be taken for a _porcho di turco_; his frenzy increased to such a pitch that to spare any unpleasantness it was deemed advisable to replace the prepuce, which was done accordingly, the man making a tolerable good recovery, as far as the grafted prepuce was concerned. it required a secondary operation to overcome some cicatricial contraction, and, on the whole, he had a very serviceable prepuce; but, what was more to the point, it prevented his ever being mistaken for a turk. chapter vii. miracles and the holy prepuce. what strange fancies have circled themselves about the subject of generation or its organisms during the different stages of moral civilization since the world has existed! the efforts in this regard among different creeds have been something peculiar. neither mohammedans nor hebrews--both zealous circumcisers--ever went to the lengths reached by christian churches and their followers in some particulars concerning this rite; this being especially strange when it is considered that the new creed was the one that abolished the rite and through which the jews suffered such cruel and unjust persecutions. the early christian church celebrated and continues to celebrate the feast of circumcision, and history relates some strange events in connection with this circumcision. having abolished and repudiated the rite, it would seem inconsistent that it should celebrate its performance on any occasion and consider such an event sufficiently memorable that its occurrence should excite the veneration of the church and be the means of exciting the pious zeal of the faithful. the strangest events in this connection are still more mysterious and incomprehensible, if not amusing, the only excuse for the occurrence being the greedy thirst for relics of any and all kinds that in the middle ages pervaded europe. at some remote period--in the thirteenth or fourteenth century--the abbey church of coulombs, in the diocese of chartres, in france, became possessed in some miraculous manner of the holy prepuce. this holy relic had the power of rendering all the sterile women in the neighborhood fruitful,--a virtue, we are told, which filled the benevolent monks of the abbey with a pardonable amount of pride. it had the additional virtue of inducing a subsequent easy delivery, which also added to the reputation and pardonable vanity of the good monks. this last virtue, however, we are told, came near causing the loss to the abbey of this inestimable prize, for, as a french writer observes, a too great reputation is at times an unlucky possession; at any rate, the royal spouse of good and valiant king henry v--he of agincourt, whom england waded up to its knees in the sea at dover to meet on his return from that campaign--had followed the example of all good dames and was about to give england an heir. henry then governed a good part of france. having heard of the wonderful efficacy of the relic of coulombs, he early one morning threw the good monks into consternation by the arrival at the convent gate of a duly equipped herald and messenger from his kingship, asking for the loan of the relic with about as much ceremony as mrs. jones would ask for the loan of a flat-iron or saucepan from her neighbor, mrs. smith. the queen, catherine of france, was of their own country and henry was too powerful to be put off or refused; there was no room for evasion, as the holy prepuce could not be duplicated; so the poor monks with the greatest reluctance parted with their precious relic, entrusting it into the hands of the royal envoy, which wended its way to london, where it in due time, being touched by the queen, insured a safe delivery. honest henry then returned the relic to france; but so great was its reputation that royalty caused a special sanctuary to be erected for its reception, and a full period of twenty-five years occurred before the monks of coulombs again regained possession of their prize, during which period the population of the neighborhood must have suffered from the natural increase of sterility and the physicians must have reaped a rich harvest owing to the increased difficulty and complications of labor induced by the absence of the relic. on its return, the relic was found to have lost none of its virtues, and the good people and monks were all correspondingly made happy; in , when the writer was in france, it was still working its miracles. balzac found ample facts to found his famous "droll stories" without straining his imagination. so great an attraction was not to go without attempted rivalry or imitators; hence we find in the "dictionary of moreri," edition of , in the third volume, at page , that several other establishments claim the honor of a like relic,--namely, the cathedral of puy, in velay; the collegial church of antwerp; the abbey of our saviour, of charroux; and the church of st. john lateran, in rome. all of these have had very adventurous histories. the abbey of charroux was founded by charlemagne in , and among the relics with which that monarch endowed the abbey the principal one was a fragment of the holy prepuce. this abbey enjoyed great reputation, and indulgences were granted by papal bull to all those who assisted at the adoration of the relics. in the internecine wars of the sixteenth century the abbey fell into the hands of the godless and heretical huguenots and the holy relic disappeared. in , while some workmen were at work demolishing an ancient wall on the abbey site, they discovered some relic cases. the bishop was at once notified, who immediately proceeded to investigate, when, lo and behold! there, sure enough, was a piece of desiccated flesh, with marks of coagulated blood; nothing more or less than the lost prepuce--long lost, but now found. it was placed in charge of the ursuline sisterhood, where it has remained ever since undisturbed, except by a controversy in regard to the propriety of the relic, in which the good bishop ambled about in the most ambiguous manner, the only clearly defined portion of his dissertation being the one wherein he laments "the decadence of that truly christian spirit which animated the laity of the middle ages with a radiant zeal. a piety also pervaded those gentle christians of former times, who were possessed of a religious instruction which determined for them the tenets of the creed and its practices,--a happy state or condition of affairs, which prevented the intelligence of the faithful from wandering into the sloughs of unprofitable skepticism." this settled the question as to the propriety of the prepuce being converted into a miracle-working relic; at least, as far as the good bishop was concerned. it would be an injustice not to mention the other shrines in detail after the prominence that has been given to the abbeys of coulombs and charroux; so the history of another will be given. we are not told just how the church of st. john lateran in rome first became possessed of _its_ holy prepuce, but it nevertheless had one; also the only authentic one in existence, like all the others. it disappeared at one of the periodical sackings that rome has repeatedly suffered at the hands of goth, vandal, or christian. this time it was the soldiery of the eldest son of the church--- charles v--who did the sacking; it was in the year , a soldier--probably some impious, heathenish mercenary--broke into the holy sanctuary of the church and stole therefrom the box that contained the holy relics, among them the holy prepuce. these impious wretches, as a rule, came to grief in short order; hence we are told that this mercenary and sacrilegious soldier was compelled to secrete his box, when only a short distance from rome, where the box remains and the mercenary wretch disappears, probably carried off bodily by the devil, as he deserved. thirty years afterward the box is discovered by a priest, who, ignorant of its contents, carries it to the lady on whose domain it was found. on being opened it was found to contain a piece of the anatomy of saint valentine, the lower jaw of saint martha, with one tooth still in place, and a small package upon which the name of the saviour was inscribed. the lady picked up the package, when immediately the most fragrant odor pervaded the apartment, being exhaled by the miraculous packet, while the hand that held it was seen perceptibly to swell and stiffen; investigation proved it to be the holy prepuce stolen by the miscreant mercenary from st. john lateran. it is related that in , a canon of the church of st. john lateran, impelled by a worldly curiosity untempered by piety, undertook to make a critical examination of this relic, in the process of which, to better satisfy himself, he had the indiscretion to break off a small piece; instantly the most dreadful tempest broke over the place, followed by crashing peals of thunder and blinding flashes of lightning; then a sudden darkness covered the country, and the luckless priest and his assistants fell flat on their sacerdotal noses, feeling that their last hour had arrived.[ ] wonderful and miraculous cures are performed at these shrines, and some of the cures are of a nature that would baffle the intelligence of the most learned mind to ascertain the intricate and devious way that nature must at times journey to accomplish some of these changes. the writer well remembers seeing, in the church of corpus christi, in turin,[ ] a long hall, covered, from marble pavement to ceiling, with votive tablets, after the manner inaugurated in the old temples of greece. modern votaries have the advantage of being able to record their cure, safe venture or escape from peril, by means of faithful representation of the event in painting or drawing, as the material and art is more common now than in the days of ancient greece, who recorded its cures by simple inscription in laconic terms. modern medicine labors under the disadvantage of presuming that the people are endowed with an intelligence that was unknown to ancient or mediæval people, when, in fact, the people are as credulous and as subject to imposition as they were in the earlier centuries of the present era. with all its supposed superior intelligence, there is no fatter pasture for quacks and impostors than that presented by the people of the united states. whenever i see the poor, intelligent, broad-minded physician struggling along, barely able to procure for himself the necessaries required to maintain himself with proper books and appliances, while the itinerant quack or dogmatic practitioner rolls in undeserved affluence, i question the wisdom of our ethical code. braddock, at the monongahela, scorned to have his regulars, who had fought under marlborough and eugene, break ranks before a lot of breech-clouted savages, and take shelter that the nature of the ground and the trees could afford, thinking it an unfit action for men who had faced the veterans of louis xiv on many a hard-fought european field. i sometimes think that if _our_ regulars were, for only a season, to follow the example of the provincial militia at that battle, it would be better for the country, the people, science, and last, but not the least, for the profession. the theory that we should not counsel with quacks is altogether mischievous and fallacious, although right and rigidly orthodox in its intent; were we to counsel and meet these gentry, we should expose their ignorance and assumption, and we should not be exposed to the charge of jealousy and of fear to meet them in consultation. i remember on one occasion a client went to a lawyer for advice as to how he might dispossess some parties who had some adverse claim to some property which he owned, after due deliberation and a protracted siege of the house, in the vain hope of gaining admittance; the lawyer advised his client to go and nail up all exits and fasten them in, which had the effect of driving them out. so with our profession--we should not neglect an opportunity of meeting a quack in consultation, regardless of the nature of the case; it is the only way to nail them up; as it is, we have simply chained up the shepherd-dog and given the wolves full play. the french guards at fontenoy, who out of courtesy refused to fire first on the english, may have been very ethical and chivalrous, but they were very foolish, as the english discharge nearly swept them from the field, and but for the irish brigade, who knew no ethics, louis xv would in all likelihood have followed the example of king john, who, after crecy, visited england for a season. a disregard of ethics gave copenhagen to lord nelson, who insisted on looking at admiral parker's signal to withdraw from action with his sightless eye, which could not see it. a fear of disregarding ethics lost to grouchy the chance of assisting napoleon at waterloo. in our strife against ignorance and quackery the profession should follow the general plan of action usually adopted by lord nelson--lie alongside of whom you can and sink or capture your enemy; let each man do his duty; never mind any general plan. a reverse to this mode of fighting invariably lost the battle to the french and spaniards, who were, as a rule, all tied up in ethical red tape. our profession is broad, intelligent, and fearless; we do not profess any exclusive dogma, and should not, therefore, exclude persons; as a large ship throws its grappling-irons on to its adversary, we should always seek an opportunity to meet these gentry when practicable. as it is, we have placed them on the vantage-ground of appearing as being persecuted; our ethics need circumcising in this regard, and the prepuce of exclusion should be buried in the sands of the desert. moreover, we often are apt to learn something from even the most ignorant of these men. rush investigated the nature of a cancer-cure by not refusing to meet and talk with one of this kind;[ ] fothergill learned from an old, unlicensed practitioner that there was a knowledge important to the physician beyond that picked up in the pathological laboratory or the study of microscopy; and that the practiced eye of an otherwise unlearned man could detect that there were general physical signs that negatived the unfavorable prognosis suggested by the presence of tube-casts.[ ] it is related of sir isaac newton, that while riding homeward one day, the weather being clear and cloudless, in passing a herder he was warned to ride fast or the shower would wet him. sir isaac looked upon the man as demented, and rode on, not, however, without being caught in a drenching shower. not being able to account for the source of information through which the rustic had gained his knowledge, he rode back, wet as he was, to learn something. "my cow," answered the man, "always twists her tail in a certain way just before a rain, your worship, and she so twisted it just before i saw you."[ ] although twisting cow-tails do not figure in his "principia," it is very probable that such a lesson was not without its remote effects on a mind like newton's. a spider taught a lesson to one of scotland's kings; so that one man may learn something from another. professor letenneur, of the medical school of nantes, in his "causerie à propos de la circoncision," mentions that the convent of saint corneille, in compiègne, claims to possess the identical instrument with which the holy circumcision was performed. such a holy relic must have been unusually potential in performing many miracles. in this connection it will not be amiss to notice the lapping over that the old phallic worship and idea has made on the new religions. it is also as interesting to observe how the human mind still leans toward observances and ideas which are believed to belong to a solely pagan people. hargrave jennings, in a chapter devoted to phallic worship among the ancient gauls, gives many interesting and curious examples, the first example that he notices being that of saint foutin (from whom the very expressive french word "_foutre_" is taken). foutin was the first christian bishop of lyons, and after his death, so intimately was priapic worship intermingled with the religion or theology of the gauls, that somehow the memory of st. foutin and the old, dethroned priapus became commingled, and finally the former was unconsciously made to take the place of the latter. st. foutin was immensely popular. he was believed to have a wonderful influence in restoring fertility to barren women and vigor and virility to impotent men. it is related that, in the church at varages, in provence, to such a degree of reputation had the shrine of this saint risen, it was customary for the afflicted to make a wax image of their impotent and flaccid organ, which was deposited on the shrine. on windy days the beadle and sexton were kept busy in picking up these imitations of decrepit and penitent male members from the floor, whither the wind wafted them, much to the annoyance and disturbance of the female portions of the congregation, whose devotions are said to have been sadly interfered with. at a church in embrun there was a large phallus, which was said to be a relic of st. foutin. the worshippers were in the habit of offering wine to this deity,--after the manner of the early pagans,--the wine being poured over the head of the organ and caught underneath in a sacred vessel. this was then called "holy vinegar," and was believed to be an efficacious remedy in cases of sterility, impotence, or want of virility. near the city of bourges, at bourg dieu, there existed, during the roman occupation of gaul, an old priapic statue, which was worshipped by the surrounding country. the veneration in which it was held and the miracles with which it was accredited made it impolitic as well as impossible for the early missionaries and monks to remove it; it would have created too much opposition. it was therefore allowed to remain, but gradually changed into a saint,--st. guerluchon,--which, however, did not detract any from its former merit or reputation. sterile women flocked to the shrine, and pilgrimages and a set number of days of devotion to this saint were in order. scrapings from this statue infused in water were said to make a miraculous drink which insured conception. similar shrines to this same saint were erected at other places, and we are told that the good monks, who must have had an intense and lively interest in seeing that the population was increased, were kept busy supplying the statues with new members, as the women scraped away so industriously, either to prepare a drink for themselves or for their husbands, that a phallus did not last long. at one of these shrines, so onerous became the industry of replacing a new phallus to the saint, that the good monks placed an apron over the organ, informing the good women that thereafter a simple contemplation of the sacred organ would be sufficient; and a special monk was detailed to take special charge of this apron, which was only to be lifted in special cases of sterility. by this innovation the good monks stole a march on their brothers in like shrines in other localities, such as those of st. gilles, in brittany, or st. rene, in anjou, where the old-fashioned scraping and replacing still was in vogue. near the seaport town of brest, in brittany, at the shrine of st. guignole, the monks adopted a new expedient. they bored a hole through the statue, through which a phallus was made to project horizontally; as fast as the devotees scraped away in front the good monks as industriously pushed forward the wooden peg that formed the phallus, so that it gave the member the miraculous appearance of growing out as fast as scraped off, which greatly added to its reputation and efficacy. the shrine continued in great vigor until the middle of the last century. delaure mentions a similar shrine at puy, also in france, which existed up to the outbreak of the french revolution. the scrapings in this case were immersed in wine, and the guardians of the statue saw to it that no amount of paring or scraping should remove from the saint any of that appearance of vigor or virility which his great reputation demanded, this being done by a similar procedure as followed at the church near brest, one of the attendants having been sent to investigate into the marvelous growth of the brest phallus. chapter viii. history of emasculation, castration, and eunuchism. for the earliest records in regard to emasculation we must go back to mythological relations. in the old legendary lore of ancient scandinavia or of germany, the loves and hatreds of their semi-mythological heroes and heroines space over many romantic incidents before reaching a culmination. the swiftly flowing rhine, with its precipitous banks, eddies, and rapids; the broad and more majestic danube or elb; the broad meadows and druidical groves on its hilly slopes and stretches of dark and gloomy forest,--all conspired to people the fancy with elfs, gnomes, fairies, and goblins, who were more or less intermingled in all the episodes that engaged their semi-mythological heroes. this helped to fill in all their deeds with entertaining incidents; their halls and castles were made necessary accessories by the rigors of the climate, as well as were the beery feasts and carousals with the inspiration of monotonous song also rendered necessaries by the same element; hence, we have various incidents, either entertaining or exciting, connected with their legendary tales, acting like periods of intermission between their love scenes, spites, hatreds, murders, and general cremations. from such material and such opportunities it was comparatively easy for wagner to construct the thrilling and interesting incidents that compose his opera on the legend of the nibelungenlied. the grecian landscape and topography does not permit of such richness of romantic incidents or details, any more than the love-making of the unfortunate spider who is devoured by his spidery cleopatra at the end of his first sexual embrace could furnish any incidents for one of amelie rives's spirited novels; so that neither minstrel nor bard have recorded the details of the first emasculating tragedy, which from all accounts was a kind of an olympian donnybrook-fair sort of a paricidal-ending tragedy. unfortunately, homer was not there to describe the event, or we might have had a wagnerian opera with its plutonic music to illustrate all its incidents; or even a virgil could have made it into interesting verses; but, as it is, we must content ourselves with the laconic recitals that have been handed down by tradition, and, as all the greek performances of those days were marked by an intense decisiveness, with an utter lack of circumlocution, it is probable that there was not much to relate beyond the bare facts. in smith's "dictionary of greek and roman biographies and mythology" we find it related that uranos, or coelus, was the progenitor of all the grecian gods. his first children were the centimanes; his next progeny were the cyclops, who were imprisoned in tartarus because of their great strength. this so angered their mother, gäa, that she incited her next-born children, the titans, into a rebellion against their father, uranos. in the general turmoil that followed uranos was deposed, and, so that he would be incapable of begetting any more children, saturnus, the youngest of his sons, with a sickle made from a bright diamond, successfully emasculated poor old uranos. the records are not clear whether the operation only included the penis, or the scrotum and contents, or whether, like the turkish or chinese _taillè à fleur de ventre_, saturnus made a clean sweep of all the genitals; it is probable that he did, however, as the members fell into the sea, and in the foam caused by the commotion from their contact with the element venus was born. meanwhile, the blood that dripped from the wounded surface caused the giants, the furies, and the melian nymphs to spring into life. uranos is also represented as being the first king of atlantis; so that the first eunuch was a god and a king, more unfortunate than any of doran's heroes, in his "monarchs retired from business," because he was more effectually retired from business than any monarch that doran records. after this the practice seems to have been adopted in a general way; and the fact that the future proceedings of men and things on earth do not much interest these unfortunate members of society in any great degree, interest in worldly affairs and testicles seemingly having been as intimately connected in those early and remote days as with us of the present, it very naturally followed that this disinterestedness, as well as the docility and pliability which emasculation engenders, first suggested their use as servants or in position of trust, as a eunuch, having no incentive either to run away or to embezzle, would naturally be a valued and trusted servant. in the days of eunuchism there were no defaulting bank, city, or county cashiers,--a circumstance which would suggest that such a condition should form one of the qualifications for eligibility to such offices, the very opposition to any such proposal that the class would make showing in itself the benefits that would follow such an innovation, as it would show that the class is not possessed with that total spirit of abnegation requisite in the guardians of public funds. the requirement might be extended to bank-presidents with benefit, if some cincinnati episodes are any criterion. it is safe to assume that the bank that could advertise, in connection with its attractive quarterly or semi-annual statement, that the president and cashier were properly attested and vouched-for eunuchs would find in the public such a recognition of the fitness of things that the patronage it would receive would soon compel other banks to follow the example. the procedure might, with national benefit, be extended as an ordeal to our legislators at the national capitol, as it would do away with the particular influential lobby so graphically described in mark twain's "gilded age." these things or ideas are merely thrown out as suggestions to be used by those who write those interesting articles in the _forum_, or the _north american_ or _fortnightly reviews_, on government and social reforms, as a perusal of the many articles written in that direction will convince any one that, from a practical psychological view of the matter, they are sadly deficient. to make those articles effective the reflex impressions made by the animal on the psychological and moral nature of man should not be neglected. semiramis, whose beauty and many accomplishments, assisted by the murders of several of her husbands by the hand of the succeeding one, had this subject in hand in a far more practical manner than it is generally forced on the understanding; hence we see that she was the first to introduce the use of eunuchs in the capacity of servants as well as in official positions in and about the palace, as well as trusting some of the positions of the highest importance to the class. from her epoch, eunuchism has become an inseparable attendant on oriental despotism, and has so continued to the present day. like yellow fever, phthisis, and some diseases, as well as many other social afflictions and customs, eunuchism does not seem to flourish beyond certain degrees of north and south latitudes,--a fact that probably assisted montesquieu to arrive at the conclusion that climate was a powerful factor in all things. bergmann, of strasburg, quotes the ancient traditions, wherein it is stated that man was taught the art of castration by the brute creation. the hyena is cited as having so instructed man by the habit it exhibited of castrating its infant males in removing the testicles with its teeth, the habit being instigated by a jealousy, for fear of future competition in the exercise of the procreative act on the part of the young males. another tradition attributes its origin to the castor. bergmann here traces out the etymological relation existing between the name of the operation and that of the animal with that of a greek verb that forms the root of _castrum_, or camp; _casa_, or house; _castigare_, to arrange; from whence also is traced _cosmos_, the world; _kastorio_, the greek for wishing to build, and the latin _kasturio_ having the same relative but a more imperative signification; _kastor_, signifying as loving to build; _castitiator_, latin for architect, and _casticheur_, old french for constructor. the tale or tradition in regard to the self-mutilation inflicted by the castor is traced to the arabian merchants who purchased the castoreum, which was imported from the shores of the persian gulf and from india. it was called, also, by the arabs, _chuzyalu-l-bahhr_, or testicles from beyond the sea; or, in french, _testicules d'outre mer_. these terms and the tradition that the castor on being pursued, knowing the reason of the chase, was in the habit of tearing out his testicles and throwing them at his pursuers, were invented by these merchants to heighten the price and value of the article intrinsically, as well as to make it more interesting by this peculiar individuality of adventure. the latins, believing and adopting the tradition as a matter of fact, coined the word _castorare_, or doing like the castor. bergmann uses in this connection a number of terms in french to denote different forms or degrees of this mutilation which have no equivalents in english,--for instance, _chatrure_, as applied to animals, making also a distinctive difference between the meaning of the french words _castration_ and _chatrement_. bergmann is a decided evolutionist as regards circumcision being evolved from prior forms of physical mutilation, as will be more fully explained in the next chapter; the shaving of the head of a conquered people by the hindoos, or the shearing the royal locks of the ancient frankish kings; the blinding of one eye of their slaves by the old scythians, or crippling one foot by the division of a tendon in a captive by the goths, he considers as on the same line with the idea that led to castration, the different forms of eunuchism, and circumcision.[ ] from a purely materialistic and utilitarian view of the subject, he observes that what we call moral progress and civilization owe their advancement more to material interest and cold, selfish calculation than to any development of the humanitarian sentiments, and that neither morality nor justice has much to do with it. the evolution of the slave and the marks inflicted upon him by his fellow humans are the most emphatic evidences of the justness of the above proposition. the study of the subject is equally interesting when considered in connection with the evolutions of the christian church. in its divergence from judaism and its beneficent laws, both social and moral, the christian church was but illy fit to cope with its persecutors of pagan tendencies, or to enforce an unwritten law or code of morality or hygiene among an idolatrous, barbarous, and ignorant population such as it had to encounter. to its professors, the formation of that monachism which has been so much misunderstood and abused was but an inevitable condition.[ ] these men had not the steady compass to guide them in the path that was possessed by the jewish people. the martyrdom of christ and many of his apostles, and the teachings of the early church, pointed to physical denials, castigations, humiliations, and sufferings as the only way to salvation; all pleasures were sin and all denials and pain were looked upon as steps to heaven. the climate pointed to sexual indulgence as the sum of all happiness, as can readily be inferred from the mohammedan idea of heaven; so, with the early christians who were born in the same climates, the denials of sexual pleasures were looked upon as the most acceptable offering that man could make to the deity. continence, celibacy, infibulation, and even castration were the conditions looked upon by many of these men as the only means of living a life on earth that would grant them an eternal life in the next. this view of the situation peopled the deserts with a lot of men dwelling in caves and in huts, living on such a scarce diet that they barely existed. that many went insane, and in their frenzy died while roaming in these solitudes, we have ample evidence. the tortures and impositions of the pagan rulers also drove many to this life or death. religious mania has caused many cases of self-mutilation, either to escape continued promptings and desires, or simply from a resulting species of insanity. of the first, sernin[ ] reported to the medical society of paris the case of a young priest who had castrated himself with the blade of a pair of scissors, and who nearly lost his life with the subsequent hæmorrhage. the writer saw an analogous case on board an american war-vessel, of which dr. lyon was surgeon, in the harbor of havre, in the spring of , the subject being the ship's cobbler, a religious fanatic, who was driven insane by self-imposed continence. we are not surprised, from the lack of intelligence of the times, the extreme but undefined views as to religion that then ruled men, that self-imposed castration should have been sanely considered and carried into effect by origines and his monks. the cybelian priesthood had formerly set the example in their pagan worship, and when we are told that the monks of mount athos accused the monks of the convent of a neighboring island with falling away from grace, because they allowed _hens_ to be kept within the convent inclosure, we may well believe that origines and his monks felt that they were gradually ascending in grace when they submitted to this sacrifice. as strange as it may sound, self-castration is still practiced by the skoptsy, a religious sect in russia. in justice to the church, however, it must be said that she neither asked for nor did she sanction these performances, although she was not quick enough in asserting that she recognized the same law in regard to her presbytery that controlled that of the hebraic priesthood. eunuchism presents many contradictory conditions; eunuchs have not always been the fat and sleek attendants on oriental harems as tradition and custom places them or would have us believe; neither does the loss of virility, in a procreative sense, seem to have always robbed them of their virility in other senses, as we find eunuchs holding the highest offices in the state under the reigns of alexander, the ptolemys, lysimachus, mithrades, nero, and arcadius. the eunuch aristonikos, under one of the ptolemys, and another, narces, under justinian, led the armies of their sovereigns. these are, however, exceptional cases; as a rule, the result is as we observe in the domestic animals,--loss of spirit, vim, and ambition. the church recognized this result, and, while the hebraic law excluded eunuchs from participating in the priesthood as being imperfect and unclean, the church reproached origines and his monks and excluded eunuchs from its presbytery on the ground that such beings lack the moral and physical energy requisite in a calling that is supposed to guide or lead men; moreover, there are many reasons for doubting that the ministers of state and the generals of the reigns above mentioned were actually eunuchs in the full acceptance of the word. among the ancients there were several methods of performing the operations that made the eunuchs; some were more effectual than others. from the removal of _all_ the genitals, or the penis alone, or the scrotum and testicles, or removing only the testicles, down to compression or to distorting the spermatic vessels, or, as in the case of the scythians, who often became eunuchs from bareback riding, as hammond describes a eunuchism manufactured by our southwestern indians of new mexico and arizona, are performances that left many degrees of eunuchism; as we find some eunuchs that not only contracted marriage, but engendered children. voltaire mentions kislav-aga, of constantinople, a eunuch _à outrance_, with neither penis, scrotum, nor anything, who owned a large and select harem. montesquieu, in his "persian letters," admits this class of marriages as being practiced, but doubts the resulting conjugal felicity, especially on the part of the wife. potiphar's wife was one of these unfortunate wives; no wonder that she tore joseph's cloak in her desire. juvenal mentions that some eunuchs were held in high esteem by the roman matrons; it possibly could have been some of this kind of a eunuch that led armies or ruled in the palaces. among the sultans and oriental potentates those who had every exterior evidence of virility removed, so as to be obliged to micturate through the means of a catheter, were considered the safest guards, as well as they were the highest-priced eunuchs, for in their manufacture fully per cent. of those operated upon died as a result. it is related that the caribs made eunuchs of their prisoners of war on the same principle that caponizing is resorted to for our kitchens,--the prisoners were easier to fatten and were more tender when cooked. the italians allowed their children to be eunuchized for chorister purposes in church services, their soprano voices after this treatment being simply perfect. it was considered that, in the year prior to the papal ordinance of pope clement xvi forbidding the practice or the employment of eunuchs in choirs, four thousand boys, mostly in the neighborhood of rome, were castrated for chorister purposes. in china eunuchs were in use during the reign of the emperor yen-wang, in b.c. the chinese make their eunuchs by a complete ablation of all genitals. in india the followers of brahma never placed their women in charge of eunuchs. in italy it was customary to emasculate boys that they might grow up with the faculty of taking the female parts in comedies, their voices thereby assimilating to that of the other sex, this being on the same principle that the _basso-profundos_ were infibulated that they might retain their bass. eunuchism resulting from an operation owing to disease has at times given queer and unlooked-for results, as, for instance, in the case of the old man that sprengle mentions, in whom castration did not remove an inordinate sexual desire. sir astley cooper mentions a case in his "diseases of the testes" that is somewhat unique. after castration sir astley's patient showed the following results: "for nearly the first twelve months he stated that he had emissions _in coitu_, or that he had the sensations of emission; that then he had erections and coitus at distant intervals, but without the sensation of emission. after two years he had excretions very rarely and very imperfectly, and they generally ceased immediately upon the attempt at coitus. ten years after the operation he said he had during the past year been only once connected. twenty-eight years after the operation he stated that for years he had seldom any excretion, and then that it was imperfect." in regard to the mortality from castration done in a professional manner and for disease, curling, in his work on "diseases of the testis," observes that he saw or performed some thirty operations without a death, and that in a table of like operations performed at the hôtel dieu, in paris, it appeared that the mortality was one in four and a quarter. j. royes bell, in the sixth volume of the "international encyclopædia of surgery," has the following in regard to the practice among the mohammedans in india: "young boys are brought from their parents, and the entire genitals are removed with a sharp razor. the bleeding is treated by the application of herbs and hot poultices; hæmorrhage kills half the victims, and at times brings the perpetrators of the vile proceeding within the clutches of the law." the _taillè à fleur de ventre_ of the chinese is a somewhat primitive procedure. according to dr. morache, in his account of china in the "dic. ency. des sciences médicales," the operation is as follows: "the patient, be he adult or child, is, previous to the operation, well fed for some time. he is then put in a hot water bath. pressure is exercised on the penis and testes, in order to dull sensibility. the two organs are compressed into one packet, the whole encircled with a silk band, regularly applied from the extremity to the base, until the parts have the appearance of a long sausage. the operator now takes a sharp knife, and with one cut removes the organ from the pubis; an assistant immediately applies to the wound a handful of styptic powder, composed of odoriferous raisins, alum, and dried puffball powder (boletus-powder). the assistant continues the compression till hæmorrhage ceases, adding fresh supplies of the astringent powders; a bandage is added and the patient left to himself. subsequent hæmorrhage rarely occurs, but obliteration of the canal of the urethra is to be dreaded. if at the end of the third or fourth day the patient does not make water, his life is despaired of. in children the operation succeeds in two out of three cases; in adults, in one-half less. poverty is the cause which induces adults to allow themselves to be thus mutilated. it is said to be difficult to distinguish these last from ordinary chinese men. adult-made eunuchs are much sought after, as they present all the attributes of virility without any of its inconvenience." the study of the evolutionary moves or processes passed by eunuchism in its relation to music and the drama tends to rob these otherwise civilizing and enlightened arts of the aureoles of poetry and gentility with which they have been surrounded. from bergmann we learn that the practice originated in the orient, where female voices were held in higher esteem in singing, and where the profane songs that accompanied the dance were chanted by women. the hebraic regulations permitted neither women nor eunuchs to sing in their temples. with the establishment of the early christian church in oriental countries, more or less of the ancient judaic customs were retained, and in addition a too literal interpretation of the words of st. paul was adhered to, which said that women should not be _heard_ in the church. the oriental church from these reasons long remained in a quandary; according to the ceremonials, it was deemed requisite to imitate as near as possible the voices of the angelic seraphims, and this could not be done by the rasping bass voices of the well-fed monks; women were out of the question in the then social stage of church evolution; so that at last a compromise was effected by admitting the eunuch, who could chant in a most seraphic soprano, as his prototype, the mendicant priests of cybele, had done before him. constantinople became the centre of learning for greek music, and the fine soprano solos which now form the attraction of many of our modern churches were sung by the eunuchs. eunuchs were not only the chief singers, but they cultivated the art into a science, and constantinople furnished through this class the music-teachers for the world, as we learn that in the eunuch manuel and two other singers of his order established a school of music and singing in smolensk, russia. there is no doubt but that in a moral sense, considering that women are generally the pupils, this was a most meet and an appropriate arrangement; for, as st. alphonsus m. liquori observed, man was a fool to allow his daughters or female wards to be taught letters by a man, even if that man were a saint, and, as real saints were not to be found outside of heaven, it can well be imagined how much more dangerous it might be to have them taught music and singing by a man not a eunuch,--elements which have a recognized special aphrodisiac virtue, as was well known to the ancient greeks, who only allowed their wives to listen to a certain form of music when they (the husbands) were absent from home. there is not much room for doubt but that both morality and medicine have too much neglected the study and contemplation of the natural history of man, and relied altogether too much on the efficacy of church regulations and castor-oil and rhubarb. there are other things to be done besides simply framing moral codes and pouring down mandrake into the stomach; the old conjoined service of priest and doctor should never have been discontinued, as, by dividing duties that are inseparable, much harm has resulted. herein dwelt the great benefit of the early practice of medicine among the greeks, and to the physical understanding and supervision of human nature by the hebraic law may be said that the creed owes its greatness and stability, and the hebrew race its sturdy stamina. the wisdom of the mosaic laws is something that always challenges admiration, the secret being that it did not separate the moral from the physical nature of man. bain, maudsley, spencer, haeckle, buckle, draper, and all our leading sociologists base all their arguments on the intimate relations that exist between the physical surrounding and the physical condition of man and his morality. churches foolishly ignore all this. from constantinople the fashion or custom gradually invaded italy; and as rome was the centre of the new religion, so it also became the centre of music, and rome and naples were soon the home of the eunuch devoted or immolated to the science of music. the eunuchs reached the height of their renown in music, as well as what might be termed their golden era, with the establishment of the italian opera, in the seventeenth century. at this period all the stages of italy were the scenes of the lyric triumphs of this otherwise unfortunate class, some of whom accumulated vast fortunes. in the following century, as has been seen, clement xvi abolished the practice as far as the church was concerned, and in the present century the first napoleon abolished the practice secularly and socially. mankind cannot sufficiently appreciate the benefits it received from the results of the french revolution; we are too apt to look at that event simply from the unavoidable means which an uneducated class--rendered desperate by long suffering and brutalization under an organized system of oppressive misrule--had adopted to remedy existing evils. after the dissolution of the directory france cannot be said to have been in a state of anarchy, and the long and bloody wars with which napoleon is usually blamed should rather be charged to that government and imbecile ministerial policy that lost to england the american colonies. the series of battles from marengo to waterloo are as much the creation of the cabinet of george iii as those from concord to yorktown. waterloo involved more than the simple defeat of napoleon; it meant the defeat of moral and intellectual progress, as well as the suppression of the rights of man. the suppression of the inquisition in spain, and of eunuchism in italy; the code napoleon; the imperial highways of france; the construction of its harbors,--notably that of havre; and the political and social emancipation of the jews in france, italy, and germany are monuments to this great man that have not their equals to crown the acts of any other french monarch. like the phrygian monk who leaped into the arena in rome to separate the maddened gladiators, and who was stoned to death by the angry and brutal mob of spectators whose amusement he stopped, napoleon's work has had its results, in spite of waterloo and st. helena. the martyrdom of the poor monk caused an abolishment of the brutal sports of the colosseum, which henceforth crumbled to pieces. little did the people look for this result who trampled the monk under foot. neither did blucher, debouching on the english left with bulow's battalions on the evening of waterloo, foresee, some fifty years later, prussia extending its hand to make a united italy, which with napoleon--who was by blood, nature, instinct, and education an italian--had been the dream and ambition of his life. eunuchism as a punishment is an old practice, as the ancient egyptians inflicted it at times upon their prisoners of war; so it formed part of their penal code, and we are told that rape was punished by the loss of the virile organ; a like punishment for the same offense was in vogue with the spaniards and britons; with the romans at different times and with the poles the punishment was castration. the difficulty of proving the crime, as well as the ease with which the crime could be charged through motives of revenge, spite, or cupidity on innocent persons, should never have allowed this form of punishment to be so generally used as history relates that it was; rape being one of the most complex and intricate of medico-legal subjects, unless we take m. voltaire's summary and solomonic judgment, who relates that a queen, who did not wish to listen to a charge of rape made by one person against another, took the scabbard of a sword and, while she kept the open end in motion, asked the accuser to sheath the sword. count raoul du bisson, _dedjaz de l'abyssinie_, gives some very interesting information in regard to eunuchism in his work entitled "the women, the eunuchs, and the warriors of the soudan." count bisson has looked on the question from its moral, physical, and demographic stand-points, and, having seen eunuchism in its different aspects, from his landing at alexandria and cairo, down through his different expeditions into arabia, the soudan, and abyssinia, his observations are well worth repeating. from a demographic and statistical view of the subject, its truly malthusian results become at once shockingly and persistently prominent,--not alone in the interference that the condition induces in arresting any further procreation on the part of the unfortunate victim, but in the unparalleled mortality that, in the gross, is made necessary by the results of the operative procedures. the soudan alone furnished, according to reliable statistics, some eunuchs annually, the material coming from abyssinia and the neighboring countries, it being gathered by war and kidnapping parties, or by purchase, from among the young male population of those regions. these children are brought to the soudan frontier and custom duties are there paid for their passage across the border, the duty being about two dollars per head. at karthoum they are purchased by pharmacists, apothecaries, and others engaged in the manufacture of eunuchs, who generally perform simple castration; the mortality among these amounts to about per cent. these simply castrated eunuchs bring about $ apiece. the great eunuch factory of the country, however, is to be found on mount ghebel-eter, at abou-gerghè; here a large coptic monastery exists, where the unfortunate little african children are gathered. the building is a large, square structure, resembling an ancient fortress; on the ground-floor the operating-room is situated, with all the appliances required to perform these horrible operations. the coptic monks do a thriving business, and furnish constantinople, arabia, and asia minor with many of their complete, much-sought-for, and expensive eunuchs. they here manufacture both grades,--those who are simply castrated and those on whom complete ablation of all organs has been performed, the latter bringing from $ to $ per head, as only the most robust are taken for this operation, which nevertheless, even at the monastery, has a mortality of per cent. the manner of performing the operation is as barbarous and revolting as the nature of the operation itself, and the cruel and ignorant after-treatment is as fully in keeping with the whole. the little, helpless, and unfortunate prisoner or slave is stretched out on an operating-table; his neck is made fast in a collar fastened to the table, and his legs spread apart and the ankles made fast to iron rings; his arms are each held by an assistant. the operator then seizes the little penis and scrotum and with one sweep of a sharp razor removes all the appendages. the resulting wound necessarily bares the pubic bones and leaves a large, gaping sore that does not heal kindly. a short bamboo cannula or catheter is then introduced into the urethra, from which it is allowed to project for about two inches, and no attention is paid to any arterial hæmorrhage; the whole wound is simply plastered up with some hæmostatic compound and the little victim is then buried in the warm sand up to his neck, being exposed to the hot, scorching rays of the sun; the sand and soil is tightly packed about his little body so as to prevent any possibility of any movement on the part of the child, perfect immobility being considered by the monks as the main element required to promote a successful result. _it is estimated that , little africans are annually sacrificed to produce the soudanese average quota of its eunuchs._ when this immense sacrifice of life, the useless barbarity, and the really unnecessary needs of such mutilated humanity existing are fully considered, it would seem as if christian nations might, with some reason, interfere in this horrible traffic, by the side of which ordinary slavery seems but a trifle. when we further consider that, in some instances, the child is also made mute by the excision of part of the tongue,--as mute or dumb eunuchs are less apt to enter into intrigues, and are therefore higher prized,--the barbarity, cruelty, and extremes of inhumanity that these poor children have to suffer cannot be overestimated. neither must we be astonished at the stolid indifference that is exhibited by the eunuchs in after life to any or all sentiments of humanity, or that they should hold the rest of humanity in continual execration. often-occurring accidents in harems make _complete_ eunuchs a desideratum. bisson mentions that on one occasion he saw the chief eunuch of the grand cherif of mecca--a large, finely-proportioned, powerful black--on his way to stamboul for trial and sentence; he was heavily chained and well guarded. it appears that the eunuch had only been partly castrated, and that the operation had been performed during infancy; his testicles had not fully descended, so that in the operation the sac was simply obliterated, which gave him the appearance of a eunuch. in this condition he seemed to have kept a perfect control of himself and passions until made chief eunuch of the cherif, who possessed a well-assorted harem of choice circassian, georgian, and european beauties. the _négligé_ toilet of the harem bath and the seductive influence of this terrestrial koranic seventh heaven was too much for the warm soudanese blood of the chief; his forays were not suspected until a blonde circassian houri presented her lord and master, the cherif, with a suspiciously mulatto-looking son and heir. a consultation of the koran failed to explain this discrepancy, and suspicion pointed to the chief eunuch, who was accordingly watched; it was found that he had not only corrupted the fair circassian, but every inmate of the harem as well. the harem was promptly sacked and drowned and the false eunuch shipped to the sultan for sentence, the cherif having the right to sentence and drown the harem, but having no such rights over such a high personage as the chief eunuch. there are physiological facts and pathological conditions brought forth for our contemplation, while investigating the subject of eunuchism in all its details, that cause us to feel that, after all, the old hippocratic principle of inductive philosophy, upon which our study and practice of medicine is founded, with rational experience and observation for its corner-stone, is, even if commonplace, the only proper avenue of knowledge. to exemplify this proposition we have in this particular subject the practical observations and experience of m. mondat, of montpellier; in his interesting work on "de la stérilité de l'homme et de la femme," published in , he details some instructive information on the subject of eunuchs, giving some explanation as to why many simply castrated eunuchs are, like the much-prized eunuchs of the roman matrons, still able to acquit themselves of the copulative function. he mentions that while in turkey he studied the subject in its details, and, having found some of these copulating eunuchs, he secured some of the ejaculated fluid and subjected it to a careful examination. the discharge was lacking the characteristic seminal odor; it was in other respects, to the palpation especially, very much like the seminal fluid. he found that these eunuchs were much given to venereal enjoyment, but that either legitimate intercourse or masturbation, to which many were addicted, was apt to be followed by a marasmus ending in galloping consumption. mondat personally knew the opera-singer velutti, who died in london; velutti was, when a child, castrated by his parents, having both testicles removed, being intended by his father, who had himself performed the operation, for the choir of the papal chapel at rome. velutti was as much of a favorite in his day as our present tenors and handsome actors. the admiration of the opposite sex was fatal to him; he formed a _liaison_ with a young english lady residing in london, and the resulting excesses in which he indulged quickly brought him to his grave. he was passionately fond of women and was able to acquit himself perfectly; at least, as far as the copulative act--barring fecundation--was concerned. in a previous part of this chapter i have alluded to the very appropriate arrangement which formerly existed when music-teachers were eunuchs, and that our higher circles of society would do well to employ eunuchized coachmen, especially if possessed of susceptible and elopable daughters; but, from the accounts given by mondat, it would seem that they are not as safe as might at first be imagined. however, they could not be as dangerous as the chief eunuch of the grand cherif of mecca and increase the population to the same extent; but i should judge that they might be a very demoralizing moral element if introduced into modern society. if eunuchs must be employed, it can easily be understood why the turk and chinese prefer the real, clean-cut article. the new york "four hundred" should make a note of this, as in their present thirst for european aristocratic notions, coats of arms and titles, there is no telling how soon they may cross over into oriental customs and run a harem, in which case it would be sad to have them make any mistakes in the quality and ability of the eunuch. dr. gardner w. allen has furnished the american profession with a faithful translation of the valuable work of professor ultzmann on "sterility and impotence." in this, we have a clear and intelligent dissertation that explains the above conditions, and i am only surprised that the observations of mondat have not developed such explanations before, as the principle was fully explained in practice fifty years ago by the montpellier physician. according to ultzmann, there is a form of fecundating impotence in persons otherwise well provided with an apparent complete apparatus, an impotence which he terms _potentia generandi_. he states, however, that this form of impotence was not recognized until a few years ago, citing the fact that females have had, as a rule, to bear all of the blame for the unfruitfulness of the family, and that they have been accordingly subjected to all manner of operations, general and local treatment, even to being sent to watering places and sanatoria where red-headed male attendants are employed, to say nothing of the prayers, intercessions, pilgrimages, and novenas to the holy shrines, as mentioned in the chapter on the holy prepuce. ultzmann observes that a man may be perfectly able to go through the procreative or, rather, the copulative act, even to the great satisfaction of all parties concerned, and yet be perfectly impotent; he even goes further, by observing that there are cases in which copulation may take place without any fluid whatever being ejaculated. he mentions two such cases at pages and of his book. in the first instance the ejaculated fluid is precisely as that observed in such cases as those of the eunuchs and of velutti, mentioned by mondat, and consisted of an azoöspermic discharge, made up mainly from the secretion of the seminal vesicles, the accessory glands of the urethra, the prostate, and cowper's glands, as well as the discharge from the secretory glands distributed along the course of the urethral mucous membrane. some of the cases of this form of impotence have exhibited wonderful copulating desire and power of endurance, and, even if unfecundating, they must be said to be better off than the victims of that other form of male impotence, the _potentia coeundi_ of ultzmann, where, with a normal semen, either the power of erection or that of ejaculation may be entirely absent. chapter ix. philosophical considerations relating to eunuchism and medicine. eunuchism does not always subdue the animal passions; this is the view that the church took in connection with the emasculation of origenes and his monks; the church here held that not only was it possible for them to still sin in heart or imagination, but that, even were the complete eradication of the sexual idea possible, they had by their act lost the main glory of a christian,--that of successfully striving against temptation, and by a force born of triumphant virtue overcome all the wiles of the devil. it is related that among the eunuchs at rome there were some who, having been made so late in life, still retained the power of copulation, although the final act of the performance was absent. montfalcon relates that cabral reported dissecting a soldier who was hanged for committing a rape, but who on dissection showed not the least trace of testicles, either in the scrotum or abdomen, although the seminal vesicles were filled with some fluid.[ ] sprengle, in his "history of medicine," relates of the complete removal of both testicles from an old man of seventy years of age, on account of inordinate sexual desire, the operation having no perceptible effect in subduing the disease.[ ] these cases are analogous to those exceptionable cases in which, after extirpation of the ovaries, both menstruation and fecundation have still taken place. modern civilization and its unnatural mode of dressing inflict great harm on men by keeping these parts too warm and constricted. much of the irritability of these organs, as well as their _decadence_ at an age some generation or two before the time when they should still possess all their virile attributes, can be directly attributed to this cause. a more intelligent way of dressing would result in less moral and physical wreckage, and require less galvanic belts and aphrodisiacs in men under fifty. if those who habitually swath their scrotums in the heavy folds of their flannel shirts, to which are superadded the cotton shirts, drawers, and outer clothes in which civilized man incases himself, would cast a backward eye into the dim and misty past, and see the priest of some of the old pagan gods soaking the scrotum in hot water, and then gradually rubbing the testicles within, by gentle but firm friction, _to make the testicles disappear_, a process by which many of the heathen priests prepared themselves for the discharge of their sacerdotal duties and the strict observance of those rules of chastity and celibacy which they were henceforth to live up to, they would find _one_ explanation of why civilized man does not possess that vigor and retain that procreative power into advanced age that was one of the characteristics of our ancient progenitors in the days that breeches were as abbreviated as those now worn by the sioux indians. these are really but leggins, which run only to the perineum and are simply tied by outer points to a strap from each hip. finely and comfortably cushioned chairs may be a luxury to sit on, but they will have, on the man who uses them in youth and in his prime, a wonderful sedative and moral influence later on, about as effectual as the miniature warm baths for the scrotum and gentle pressure to the testicles that were used by the heathen priests of old, who preferred a gradual disappearance of the glands to the too sudden and summary methods of the cybelian clergy, who used a piece of shell and an elaborately-performed castration. according to paulus Ægineta, this was a common practice of making eunuchs out of young boys in the orient, the mortality being hardly any; whereas the _taillè à fleur de ventre_, the favorite method for making eunuchs for harem guards and attendants, and more suited to the jealous disposition of the turk, has a mortality of three out of every four, according to chardin, and of two out of every three, according to clot bey, the chief physician of the pasha,[ ] and of nine out of ten, according to bisson. so prone to reach high offices were intelligent eunuchs that it is related that parents were at times induced to treat their boys in the manner above stated, that they might be on the highway to royal favor, honor, and rank; such is the ennobling tendency of oriental despotism, polygamy, and harem life. on the same principle europeans subjected their boys to a like operation to fit them for a chorister life or the stage, where fame and honor and wealth were to be found. medicine has been the butt of wits and philosophers, as well as of the men who, from the profession, have gone into the ranks of literature. smollet, himself a physician, gives us an insight into our wandering and erratic misapplication of our knowledge on therapeutics in "peregrine pickle," where the poor painter, pallet, is believed to be a victim of hydrophobia. the learned opinion of the doctor, who explains the many and various reasons by which he arrives at his diagnosis, the various physical signs exhibited by the patient as being pathognomonic of the disease, and his final venture with the contents of the _pot de chambre_, as a diagnosis verifier, which he dashes in the patient's face in preference to ordinary water on account of the medicinal virtues contained in urine, which in the case seemed to him to have a peculiar therapeutic value, is something worth reading, however ludicrous it all sounds. there are few intelligent physicians but who have seen as ridiculous performances, in what might be called medical gymnasts, that equal, if not surpass, those of smollet's doctor. rabelais was also a professional brother, who, equally with smollet, attempted to waken up the profession by his satires. smollet was not only a physician, but in his early life had seen some very active and practical work, having participated in and been a witness to the ills and misfortunes that follow any attempts to "lock horns" with nature through ignorance of physical laws and preventive medicine,--having been a surgeon's mate in the fleet which assisted the land forces in the murderous and ill-fated carthagena expedition which cost england so many lives, ignorantly and needlessly sacrificed to ministerial disregard of physical laws and its consequences,--lessons which, unfortunately, seem to have but little effect on cabinets, owing to their shifting _personelle_, england following up the disasters of carthagena with the still greater blunder of the walcheren expedition, where, out of england's small available physical war material, nearly forty thousand men were either left to fatten the swamps of walcheren, or to wander through england in after years on the pension-list, physical wrecks and in bodily and financial misery.[ ] again, the same disregard, born of ignorance and red tape, crippled the british army in the crimea, causing in its ranks the greatest mortality. it has seemed as if it would be of advantage if all the blunders, either philosophical or of statesmanship, committed by a cabinet, should be written in large letters of gold, to be hung in the council-halls of the nations, that similar blunders at least might not occur again. dumas, in his "history of the two centuries" and his "history of the century of louis the xiv," gives some very interesting medical touches. le sage, in his "adventures of gil blas," gives us food for speculating on medical philosophy in connection with the interesting subject of how to make the profession remunerative. dickens's ideas of the doctor, as given in his works, are life touches. witness his description of the little doctor who superintended little david copperfield's advent into the world, or of dr. slammer of the army; they represent his view of the professional character. fontenelle, probably, was right in ascribing the fact of his becoming a centenarian, and maintaining a stomach with the force and resistance that are the peculiar characteristics and attributes of a chemical retort, to the fact that when sick it was his practice to throw the doctor's physic out of the window as the doctor went out of the door, as in his day a man required the constitution of a rhinoceros and the stomach of an ostrich, with the external insensibility of a crocodile, to withstand the ordinary doctor of the period and his medications. napoleon believed that baron larrey was the most virtuous, intelligent, useful, and unselfish man in existence; in fact, it is doubtful if any man of his time commanded from this truly great man so much admiration or respect, either for bravery, courage, intelligence, or activity, as the great and simple-minded larrey. as observed by napoleon of his bravest general,--poor marshal ney, the bravest of the brave, the rear guard of the grand army, the last man to leave russian soil,--ney was a lion in action, but a fool in the closet. all his generals had some great distinguishing characteristic, beyond which was a barren waste, a vacuity, but too apparent to a man of napoleon's discernment. but the cool, unflinching bravery of larrey, that did not require the stimulus of the fight or the phrenzy of strife to bring it to the surface and keep it alive; bravery and intelligence alike active under showers of shot and shell or in the thunders of charging squadrons; in the face of infective epidemics or contagiousness, walking about in these scenes in which his own life was as much at stake as that of the meanest soldier, with the same cool exercise of his intelligence that he exhibited in the organization and superintendence of his hospitals in the time of peace; always the same, untiring, unmurmuring, brave, studious, observing, unflinching in his duties, unselfish; whether in the burning sands of egypt or in the snowy steppes of russia, in the marshy plains of italy or in the highlands of spain, he always found him the same, and his notes and observations, from his first government service on the newfoundland coast to his last, always showed him the same laborer and student in the field of medicine. and yet at st. helena we find napoleon refusing to take remedies for internal disease whose real nature was unknown, and only toward the end did he consent to take anything, and then only when seeing that the end was approaching, and more from a kindly desire to express his appreciation of the services of his attendants, and not to wound their feelings, than from any hope of assistance. napoleon had not neglected the study of medicine any more than he had the study of every other science. this is evident from the instance related as taking place during the march of the grand army from the confines of poland into russia, in , when dysentery became very prevalent, of his inviting several of his favorite guard to his own table, where he experimented on each particular grenadier with a specific form of diet, so as to determine its cause and possible remedy. he did not look upon our knowledge of pathology and our skill in diagnosis as being sufficiently advanced or perfect to make him feel but that a treatment for an obscure disease like his own would be pretty much a matter of guess-work. charles reade, in his "man and wife," shows an intimate knowledge of medical science where he philosophizes on the effects of an irregular life and of over-physical training. his logic is sound science. defoe and cervantes show a like intelligent insight as to medicine; and it was not without reason that sydenham, the english hippocrates, advised a student of medicine who entered his office as a student to begin the study of medicine by the careful study of "don quixote," remarking that he found it a work of great value, which he still often read. the works of bacon and of adam smith on "moral sentiments;" the famous treatise on the "natural history of man," by the rev. john adams; the later works of buckle, spencer, darwin, draper, lecky, and other robust wielders of the anglo-saxon pen, as well as the works of montaigne, montesquieu, la fontaine, and voltaire, are all works that the medical man could probably read with more profit than loss of time. in fact, either hume, macaulay, or any philosophical work on history will furnish to the physician additional knowledge of use in his profession. no physician can afford to neglect any study that in any manner adds to his knowledge of the natural history of man, as therein is to be found the foundation of our knowledge as to what constitutes health, and as to what are the causes that lead humanity to diverge from the paths of health into those of physical degeneracy and mental and bodily disease. we have in medicine many sayings which pass for truisms, which are, after all, misleading. we say, for instance, keep the feet warm and the head cool; this will not always either keep you comfortable or well, as we know that in neuralgias it is absolutely necessary, either for comfort or to get well, to keep the head warm. while so much stress is laid on the necessity of keeping the head cool, a thing a person is sure to look after whenever the head becomes uncomfortably warm, and to which can be ascribed but few ailments or deaths, we hear comparatively nothing about the thermometric condition of the perineum, which, from the varying temperatures in which it is at times plunged, produces more beginnings for diseases in the future, during youth and our prime, as well as it quite often causes the sudden ending of life in more advanced periods. people who carefully observe the rule of keeping their heads cool and their feet warm will stand with outspread legs and uplifted coat-tails with their backs to a blazing grate, and then, going outside, incontinently sit down on a stone or iron door-step, or, stepping into a carriage or other vehicle, they sit down on a cold oil-cloth or leather cushion, without the least knowledge of the harm or danger that they are liable to incur. they little dream of the prostatic troubles that lie in wait for the unwary sitter on cold places, ready to pounce upon him like the treacherous indian lying in ambush,--troubles that carry in their train all the battalions of urethral, bladder, kidney disease and derangments, and subsequent blood disorganization, which often begin in a chilled perineum, and, in conjunction with the local disease that may result, end in handing us over to father charon for ferriage across the gloomy styx long before our life's journey is half over. it is true, neither the savage of africa or america nor the nomads of asia are subject to any of these troubles; but with us, hampered with all the benefits of the dress, diet, habits, and luxuries of civilization, and with a civilized prostatic gland, it is quite otherwise. herein, again, comes that connection between religion, morality, and medicine, that existed with so much benefit to mankind, but from which we of later days have, in our greater wisdom, seen fit to separate; although, inconsistently as it may seem, the present age has done more than any previous epoch in practically demonstrating the intimate and inseparable relation existing between the physical and moral nature of man. the persistent priapism which oftentimes results from riding with a wet seat and the inordinate morbid sensibility of the sexual organs that may result from the same cause or from spinal irritation are not to be allayed by any homily on morality or on the sanctifying attempts at keeping the animal passions under subjection, any more than will prayers or offerings to all the gods of olympus restore the eunuchized, either through foolish civilized dress and customs or through excessive indulgence. we must mix medicine with our religion and make the clergy into physicians, or ordain our physicians into full-fledged clergymen. the science of medicine, or what might be called the natural ways of nature through its physical laws, is true to itself; the fault lies in our interpretation of its phenomena, which we fail to study with sufficient discriminative precision and nicety. we have repeatedly mistaken causes and results from this want of close observance and of precision, attributing results to causes which did not exist. as an example, when the early disciples of homoeopathy in ancient palestine undertook to revive poor, old, withered king david, by putting him to bed with a young and caloric-generating sunamite maid, when it was by like incontinent practices that he had brought himself to that state of decrepitude, it is plain that they misunderstood the principle. boerhaave--who, as a true eclectic practitioner, followed these ancient and biblical homoeopaths in their practice in a similar case, the subject being an old dutch burgomaster, whom he sandwiched between a couple of rosy netherland maids--also failed to grasp the true condition of the nature of things, or the true philosophical explanation. the exhalations from the aged are by no means an elixir of health or life to the young, and the fact that the young were apt to lose health by sleeping with the aged was wrongly attributed to their loss being the others' gain, and the result of its passing into the bodies of their aged companions, and not to its true cause,--the deteriorating influence to which they were subjected; and, further, when we analyze the subject still more, we can understand how a full-blooded and active, lithe-bodied, thin, and active-skinned sunamite maid might and would impart caloric to king david; but, from our knowledge (not altogether practical) of the difference that exists between differently constitutioned and differently built maids in imparting caloric, and from our knowledge of the physique of the netherland maids, who are cold and impassive, with a layer of adipose tissue that answers the same purpose as that of the blubber in the whale,--that of retaining heat and resisting cold,--we can well believe that the poor, shriveled burgomaster could receive but little heat, even when sandwiched between the two; but, on the contrary, he was, in fact, more liable to lose the little he had, unless we look at the subject in another light, and consider that sentiment that is common to both animals and men of spirit, a sentiment that has furnished the subject for more than one canvas in the hands of the true and sympathetic artist, as seen on the awakening and alert attitude of the worn-out and old decrepit war-horse, browsing in an inclosed pasture, as he hears from afar the familiar bugle-notes of his early youth, or some cavalry regiment with prancing steeds and jingling accoutrements, with bright colors and shining arms, going past the pasture, restoring for a time to the stiffening joints and dim eyes the suppleness and fire of bygone times, with visions of gallant charges and prancing reviews; or, how the same sentiment erects once more the bowed and withering frame of the old veteran, and once again fires his soul with the martial zeal of his prime as he sees the passing colors and active-stepping regiment which he followed in the bright sunshine and flush of his youth. aside from these sentiments, which might possibly have inspired david and the dutch burgomaster with an infusion of a new and transient good feeling, it is unquestionable but that some heated brickbats or stove-lids, curocoa jugs or old stone burton ale-bottles filled with hot-water, would have been more effectual in imparting warmth than either sunamite or netherland maids. it is hard to reconcile the beliefs of some people or nations with their manners and customs. for instance, there is the turk; when a jew becomes a mohammedan he is made to acknowledge that jesus christ, the son of mary, is the expected messiah, and that none other is to be expected; they know of christ's speech on the cross, made to the repentant thief; they believe in a heaven full of houris, with large black eyes and faces like the moon at its full, in which all good moslems are to have continual rejoicings, and yet they go on performing the most barbarous and inhuman forms of castration imaginable, which not only deprives its victims of their virility, but subject more than three-fourths of those operated upon to a painful death, and the remaining to a life of continual misery. have these poor subjects no right to future bliss, or in what shape will they reach there? if the heavens of these eunuchisers were like the heaven of buddhism, or, as the chinese call it, the paradise of the west, where, although all forms of sensual gratifications are to be enjoyed, no houris are to be supplied to the saints of buddhism,--as even the women who enter this paradise must first change their sex,--we might understand that, the genitals not being needed in the eternal world, it might be considered a matter of small moment to compel a man to go through this short and transient life without them; but where a robust condition of the sexual organs is suggested as one of the heavenly requisites, it would seem as if the turk would look upon the suffering, misery, and death that they cause, in connection with the inhuman mutilation they inflict, with horror. doctrinal theology, whether in the east or west, is something incomprehensible. chapter x. hermaphrodism and hypospadias. there exists a class of human beings whose description is connected with the subject of this work. they date back to mythological times, and the confusion incident to the misapplication of names and the want of proper observation on the part of the narrators has tended to carry the uncertainty of their real existence to the present day. one reason that this part of the subject would be incomplete without their description is on account of the origin of their existence being intimately connected with eunuchism, being, in fact, an outgrowth of this condition; and any history of eunuchism would be but half told, without the additional information concerning these persons. hermaphrodites, as stated, date back to mythology. tradition tells us that hermaphroditus, a son of venus and mercury, was educated by the naiades dwelling on mount ida. at the age of fifteen years, he began his travels; while resting in the cool shades on the woody banks of a fountain and spring near caira, he was approached by the presiding nymph of the fountain, talmacis, who, becoming enamored of him, attempted to seduce him. hermaphroditus, like joseph, was the pattern and mirror of continence, and would not be seduced. talmacis then, like potiphar's wife, seized on the unlucky pattern of virtue, and prayed to the gods that they should so amalgamate poor hermaphroditus to her body as to make them one. the prayer was heard on olympus, and forthwith the two became one, but with the distinctive characteristics of each sex unchanged. thus began that fabled race of the _androgynes_ of the ancients. another tradition, which is probably correct, affirms that ancient carnia, or halicarnassus, was in those days the baden-baden of asia minor; that thither repaired all the victims of gluttony, debauchery, and general physical bankruptcy. its name in ancient caria denotes its seaside-resort location, hali-karnas-sos meaning literally "karnassus-by-the-sea," like boulogne-sur-mer. the city was under the protection of hermes and aphrodite, whose temples were near each other. human nature in the days of halicarnassus did not much differ from human nature at monte carlo or baden-baden. the baths had a number of young and handsome eunuchs who waited on the old, debauched, and nervous wrecks, and the nymph who presided over the whole was talmakis, a name derived from the salty nature of the springs which fed the baths; this nymph was worshiped as aphrodite. pederasty was one of the practices at these baths. from these conjoined conditions the place was said to be peopled with hermaphrodites,--meaning, at first, simply that they were under the protection of hermes and aphrodite; and latterly the name was attached to the passive agent in the pederastic art,--a name that has followed the class and crossed the ocean into the interior wilds of america, as in powell's history of the manners and customs of the omahas, an indian tribe of the missouri, we find that they at times practiced pederasty, the passive agent being called by the indians an hermaphrodite, or double sexed.[ ] the relations that from eunuchism led to pederasty are very easy of explanation. eunuchism induces an effeminate form, softer body, and prevents the growth of the beard; the voice is softer and more melodious; and their timidity renders them also more effeminate, obedient, and dependent. the peculiar commingling of the female form with that of the male furnished to the sculptors the models for those wonderfully well-made forms which are yet to be seen, representing in statuary the forms of androgynes and hermaphrodites; that of the favorite eunuch of the emperor adrian being remarkable for the symmetry of its form and grace of pose. europe must have been astonished at the tales that were carried back by the early explorers and voyagers, in relation to the new world. the story of the immensity of the quantity of gold and silver, of great stores of hidden treasures, of the quantities of precious gems and priceless crystals was fully discounted when, from the florida coast and the explorers of the lower mississippi, men returned with the tale that in the everglades and in the trackless forests, intersected by navigable sloughs, there dwelt a people half of whom were hermaphrodites. neither the explorers nor their european historiographers seem able to have grasped the true state of affairs. many believed in the actual existence of such numbers of these monstrosities, while others, arguing from what was then known regarding the extraordinary development of the nymphæ and clitoris, as well as of the great labia, of the women in the african regions, concluded that these supposed _androgynes_, or hermaphrodites, must be women, the dress assumed by these and the menial labors to which they were consigned assisting to favor this opinion. the early franciscan missionaries to california found the men who were used for pederasty dressed as women.[ ] hammond mentions the practice as in vogue among the indians of the southwest, which in a measure greatly resembled that of the ancient scythians in its operation, the men being dressed as women, associating with women, and used for pederastic purposes during the orgies of their festivals. these men had previously been eunuchised by a process of continued and persistent onanism, which caused at the end a complete atrophization of the testicle. in regard to the great number of hermaphrodites observed in florida and on the mississippi, the accounts are only reliable as far as they were present in female garb and in an apparent state of slavery, being compelled to do all the menial labor of the villages and camps, besides being used for pederasty, no examination having been made by any traveler. their lot was different from those described by hammond in his work on "male impotence," where the whole transaction seems to have some sort of religious and civil significance. in florida, however, they tilled the ground, extricated and carried off the dead during a battle, and did all the work generally, being used for beasts of burden and not allowed to cut their hair; but all authorities are silent or in complete ignorance as to whether they had suffered castration. pere lafiteau, however, gives an explanation which was in the last century considered ridiculous, but which, in the light that has been thrown on the existence of a former continent, and of the undisputable relation that must, some ages in the past, have existed between phoenicia and central america, seems a strongly probable solution of these customs. the father accounts for the presence of these american _androgynes_ in the following manner: the carribeans, or caribs, were originally a colony from carnia; with these colonists was brought over the worship of their pagan gods of caria and phrygia; these two localities were the homes of the cybelian priesthood, who dressed in female garb, as did the sacrificial priests of the temple of venus urania. it is true that the java or floridian priest had nothing in common with the priests of cybele or of venus urania; but, still, lafiteau gave as lucid an explanation for the existence of these conditions as any of his contemporaries. charlevoix observed the same practices among the illinois, which he attributed as being due to some principle of religion. the baron de la hontan insists that the missionary, charlevoix, was mistaken; that the persons whom he saw in female attire, whom he took to be men, were not men. hontan asserts that they were veritable hermaphrodites. the missionaries were, however, correct, as what has since been observed confirms their opinion. m. du mont, who ascended the mississippi for a distance of nine hundred leagues, also reported meeting indians at different places attended by these petticoated androgynes.[ ] as strange as it may seem, many intelligent men were loth to part with their belief in the existence of these double-sexed individuals; the logic used by many of these insisters of hermaphrodism, although now very ridiculous, was no doubt sensible logic one hundred and fifty years ago. as a matter of curiosity, some of this reasoning will bear repeating. it is taken from a latin edition of an ancient description of florida, originally in the english, but translated into the latin by the geographer, mercator. in this book we find the roots of some of the myths that led ponce de leon and his steel-clad warriors to wander through florida in a vain search of that spring or fountain of the waters of perpetual youth and of everlasting life which they were never to find. we there learn that, in the days of the good old spanish knight, the inhabitants of florida lived to a very old age, and that they did not marry until very late in life, as before that period it was very difficult to determine the sex of the individual. from what has since been seen among the indians, the probability is that these were really eunuchs, and probably in slavery, as the result of the fortunes of war, as their great number and servile condition will hardly admit of the belief that they belonged to the same tribe as their masters and oppressors. pederasty was an old, very old practice, being mentioned before circumcision; it prevailed among many of the orientals, and among the many peoples by whom the early jews were surrounded, who were, according to the old testament, about as an immoral, dissolute, and bestial a set as one could well imagine. their religions were nothing but a gross mixture of stupid superstition and blind idolatry, pederasty, fornication, and general cussedness. in the then state of the jewish nation, to have allowed them to mingle freely with these people would have ended in having the jews adopt all their customs and habits. the aim of the jewish leaders was to prevent any too free intercourse of their people with these nations, that they might remain uncontaminated even while dwelling near them. to accomplish this it was necessary to raise a barrier that would be the distinguishing mark of the jewish nation. jahns, in his learned work on the "history of the hebrew commonwealths,"[ ] lays down the idea that circumcision, as well as many articles in their laws,--which to us appear trivial,--were in reality intended to separate the jews farther and farther from their idolatrous, bestial, and heathenish neighbors, while at the same time these same ordinances were intended to preserve a constant knowledge of the true and only god, and maintain their moral and physical health. although hermaphrodism on a large scale, as an existing condition, was a matter of serious belief at the end of the eighteenth century, it has occupied no little attention in this. courts have been called to decide on cases to invalidate marriages, or to decide the sex, more than once; and physicians are often asked the question, do hermaphrodites really exist? dr. debierre, of lyons, published in a valuable paper, entitled "hermaphrodism before the civil code: its nature, origin, and social consequences," which was published in the _archives of criminal anthropology_ of lyons, france. in this short but very concise treatise, debierre gives us a complete review of the subject from mythological times to . it must be quite evident to all that there exists no logical reasons why the sexual or generative organs should be exempt from, at times, being subject to variations from the normal, either through the commingling of two conceptions or of faulty development affecting other parts of the body,--conditions that go to form monstrosities. debierre gives one peculiar case of a duplication of vagina and uterus in a girl of nineteen, the appearance of the parts and the septum between the vaginæ giving to the whole an appearance precisely similar to that of a double-barreled shot-gun. these monstrosities are as likely to happen as the different forms that affect--either by arrested development or some abnormality of excessive development--the head, which is a very prolific subject of anomalies. hermaphrodism is a common attribute in the vegetable kingdom, where fixed habitation or position makes such a condition necessary; it is also common to many of our lower forms of animal life, and even in the human foetus the presence of the wolfian bodies and the canal of müller in the same individual attest a primitive case or condition of hermaphrodism. in other words, humanity begins its existence in a state of hermaphrodism. this condition is found up to the end of the second month of foetal life in the human being, in common with all mammals, as well as all the vertebrates, where, however, it is subject to variations as to time of development and limit of existence in the normal condition. in the chick, it is only after the fourth day that the genital gland begins to determine whether it will turn into an ovary or a testicle; in the rabbit it is on the fifteenth day, and in the human embryo on the thirtieth day. hermaphrodism does not occur, however, from this at first uncertain state of affairs, but rather from subsequent developments of the external organs that by their abnormality of formation simulate one or the other sex, while the internal organs may belong without any equivocation of structure to its definite sex; as it has often happened that some of these cases, having been the subject of differences of opinion among experts during life, were, after death, unanimously assigned to one sex by all of the same experts, the organs readily defining the sex being completely of the one sex. as observed by debierre, where the subject is really a female, even where the vagina or uterus is unperceived, the presence of the menstrual function or some physical disturbance at its stated periods are sufficient evidences, as a rule, by which to determine the sex. the case of marzo joseph, or josephine, reported by crecchio in , had rudiments of an hypospadic penis ten centimetres in length and a prostate of the male sex, with a vagina centimetres in length and in circumference, ovaries, oviducts, and uterus of the female; it was not until her death, at the age of fifty-six, that her sex was fully determined. the case reported by sippel in , supposed to be a male from external evidences, was at death found to be a female. guttmann reported a like case in . the celebrated case of michel-ann dronart is remarkable; this case was declared a male by morand pere and a female by burghart, as well as by ferrein; declared asexual or neutral by the danish surgeon, kruger; of doubtful sex by mertrud. the case of marie-madeleine lefort, to which debierre devotes four figures, is full of interest. one of the figures is her portrait at the age of sixteen, and another is from her photograph at the age of sixty-five. she has a man's head in every particular of physiognomy and expression, having in the latter figure a full beard and the peculiar intellectual development of a male sage; she has the hairy breast of the man, with the mammary development of the female, and an abnormally-enlarged clitoris, which was often mistaken for the male organ. the vagina at its lower end was narrow, and the urethral aperture opened into it some distance from its outer opening; otherwise she was sexually a perfect woman, and menstruated regularly. debierre quotes the case which duval gives in his work on hermaphrodites, wherein a man asked for a dissolution of marriage, claiming that his wife had a male organ, which, although she was a woman in every other sense, prevented by its interference the consummation of the marriage act. the court had the case examined, when it was found that the erection of the clitoris, which was large, was enough to interfere as the husband had stated. it decreed that the young woman should have the objectionable and interfering member amputated, and on the refusal to have this done the marriage should be dissolved. she refused, and the divorce was consequently granted to the man. from the history of marie lefort, it can well be conceived how the popular mind, in ignorant times, could easily be imposed upon. montaigne relates the history of a hungarian soldier who was confined of a well-developed infant while in camp, and of a monk brought to a successful accouchement in the cell of a convent; while duval reports the case of a priest in paris who was found to be pregnant with child, who was in consequence imprisoned in the prison of the ecclesiastical court. these cases were strongly females in every sense, but with some male characteristic sufficiently developed, like in the case of marie lefort, to allow them to believe themselves men and to pass for such. on the other hand, males have had some female characteristics so well pronounced that they have passed for females. debierre mentions a number of cases, to wit: ambroise paré reported such a case in his time; ladowsky, of reims, reports the case of marie goulich, who, up to the age of thirty-three, was believed to be a female, at which time the descent of the testicles removed all doubts as to sex. sheghelner and cheselden have reported analogous cases, and girand's case--who was happily married to a man with whom he lived until the death of the husband, in which the only female attribute was a blind vagina, which, in his case, seems to have answered all purposes--was a most remarkable case. as a rule, the cases of males who have been mistaken for hermaphrodites have been cases of hypospadic urethræ in a greater or lesser sense of deformity. debierre, however, mentions some cases of true hermaphrodism. he quotes a number of cases, the earliest being from the writings of coelius rhodigin, who claimed to have seen in lombardy a case in which the organs of the two sexes were side by side; ambroise paré records that in a pair of twins were born, joined back to back, wherein both were hermaphrodites. among the many reporters that he quotes, he mentions rokitansky, who reported a case in , at vienna, this being the autopsy of hohmann, who had two ovaries and oviducts, a rudimentary uterus, and a testicle, with a sperm-duct containing spermatozoa. this individual menstruated regularly, and it is an interesting question as to what the result would have been had some of the spermatic fluid come in contact with some of the ovules that were periodically discharged. hohmann had an imperforate penis and a bifide scrotum. ceccherelli, who gives a more minute description of this interesting case, relates that hohmann, who died at the age of forty, had menstruated regularly to the age of thirty-eight. the penis was imperforate but hypospadic, from whence came the urinary and spermatic discharges, and hohmann could in turn copulate as either male or female. odin is also quoted in relation to the case seen at the hôtel-dieu-de-lyon, during the service of m. bondet. the subject was aged sixty-three, and named mathieu perret. the case greatly resembled that of hohmann, at the autopsy being found to be double sexed. so that, while most of the cases mentioned are fictitious and only apparent, the fact remains that the existence of true hermaphrodites is indisputable.[ ] if the subject of either apparently or true hermaphrodism is one of unhappiness, and oftentimes of discomfort and misery, history relates that this unfortunate class has suffered additionally, from the laws and action of ignorant and barbarian times, as such freaks of nature must of necessity have occurred at all times; only in the then ignorant state of medicine and anatomy they must have been considered as occurring much oftener--every deviation from the normal being considered as hermaphroditic. opmeyer relates that in excavating in the neighborhood of the capitol in rome, the laborers discovered the bronze tables on which were inscribed the twenty-two laws of romulus, termed by many historians "the double decalogue of romulus." article xv of this law, as well as articles ix and x, seem to be directed against the life of these androgynes. in roman history, however, we have an event which would seem to contradict that there existed any laws in actual force against this unfortunate class. it happened during the existence of the punic wars, when the people were more or less laboring under fear and excitement, which would readily prepare them to accept any superstitious notion. it was during these times that three of these androgynes were known to exist in italy. titus livius mentions that the existence of one of these was denounced during the consulships of c. claudius nero and of marcus livius. etruscan soothsayers and seers were summoned to rome, that they might consult the signs and the conditions of the constellations that accompanied the nativity of this hermaphrodite, or androgyne. these impostors, after a careful consultation of all attending circumstances, gave it as their opinion that the occurrence was an unfortunate impurity, and that it could only result to the disadvantage of rome, unless she at once took steps to purify herself of such a monstrosity, with the conclusion that the androgyne should be first exiled from roman soil, and then drowned in the depths of the sea. the unfortunate being was accordingly inclosed in a chest and put on board a galley, which put immediately to sea; when the vessel was out of sight of land the chest was thrown into the mediterranean.[ ] a hermaphrodite born in umbria during the consulship of messalus and c. lucinius was condemned to death, as well as was the one born at luna during the consulship of l. matellus and q. fabius maximus. debierre states that in the reign of nero this barbarous custom was discontinued, as this emperor admired these freaks of nature from their novelty, as it is related that his chariot was drawn by four hermaphroditic horses.[ ] in connection with hermaphrodism it has been shown that the males who have been supposed to be so malformed were really, in most instances, but cases of hypospadias. it may not be uninteresting to observe that, while during nearly four thousand years circumcision has been practiced without the habit or condition ever having become transmissible or hereditary, hypospadias has shown a decided tendency to being transmitted. in virchow's _archives_, lesser reports having treated eight subjects during one generation in a family.[ ] fodéré records the case of hypospadias reported by schweikard, in a person of forty-nine years of age, whose urethral orifice was near the junction of the penis and scrotum, but who, nevertheless, had three fine children. the same author records the remarkable case reported by hunter to the royal society of london, also so deformed, who successfully impregnated his wife by receiving the spermatic fluid in a warm spoon and immediately injecting it into the vagina.[ ] another interesting case is taken from _l'union médicale_ of august , . it instances both the heredity connected with hypospadias and the peculiar circumstances under which impregnation at times takes place; it is reported by dr. trexel, of kremsier, and is as follows: "on april , , a newborn infant was brought to dr. trexel, that he might determine its sex. the father and mother were servants of a peasant. on an examination of the alleged father, he was found to have all the external characters of a male; the urethra, which was rather shorter than ordinary, but of large size, was imperforate; the scrotum was divided into two pouches, each containing a testicle. the apposed surfaces of the scrotal pouches were covered with a red skin, and the division extended through their entire length. at the root of the penis, in the anterior angle of these pouches, was an opening of the size of a lentil; this was the orifice of the urethra. the lower surface of the penis was grooved from the above-mentioned orifice to the end of the glans. there was no prepuce. almost in a line behind the corona of the glans, and in the groove, were two elliptical openings, which readily admitted a large hog-bristle; there was a third smaller opening two lines from the orifice of the urethra. this man had always passed for a woman. he lay in the same room with the mother of the child; and they acknowledged having had frequent connection. the woman declared that she had had no commerce with any other man for three years, and the man did not deny this assertion. the idea of cohabitation with another man was further negatived by the circumstance that the infant had the same conformation of the genital organs as the father. how did fecundation take place? the three openings in the penis were probably the orifices of the excretory ducts of cowper's glands. but might not these have been the openings of the ejaculatory ducts? it is to be regretted that dr. trexel did not examine these canals; their length and direction would have thrown light on the subject. the fact of fecundation may also be explained by supposing that during coition the posterior wall of the vagina supplied the place of the absent floor of the urethra, thus forming a complete canal. this is the most probable explanation."[ ] the above case, as stated, had passed for a woman; these cases are by no means such rarities. the case of marie dorothee, mentioned by debierre in his work, was as peculiar. hufeland and marsina had pronounced marie a woman, while stark and martens pronounced her a man, and metzger could not determine on the sex. the case of valmont, noticed by bouillaud and manee, is on a par with that of giraud, in which the party was married as belonging to one sex and where it was not until after death ascertained that the person belonged to the other sex. valmont had a hypospadic urethra and penis; a scrotum without testicles; ovaries with the fallopian tubes; a uterus opened into a vagina of two inches in length, which, gradually narrowing, ended in the male urethra, to which was attached a prostate gland. valmont contracted marriage as a man and was not discovered to have been a female until the autopsy revealed her to be a woman. the relation does not state anything in regard to menstruation; so that her condition in that regard is unknown.[ ] there has also been reported a number of cases in the male analogous to the double organed female mentioned by debierre. geoffrey st. hilare reports a case where the penis was double, one being above the other, urine and semen flowing through both urethras. gorè mentioned a like case to the academy in . dr. vanier (du havre) records the case reported by huguier to the academy, where the organs in the anatomical preparation which he exhibited were so anomalous that it was impossible to decide the sex. aside from the medico-legal aspects that these cases present, there is an interesting jewish theological question connected with them. the law is explicit as to circumcision; the cases presenting, if males, should be circumcised, but how to determine the sex where an autopsy alone will decide the question is not defined. it has been decided, in such cases where the presumption is that the child is of the male sex, that, like in cases of absence of prepuce, a suppositious circumcision should be performed, so that the covenant should be observed; this being in keeping with the sentiment shown by the jews when persecuted by the romans, or, later, by the spaniards, who often were not able to circumcise until after death; but they never fail to comply with the covenant as far as it is possible. cases are liable to occur, however, which, without leaving the question as to sex in doubt, if reasoned by exclusion, would not furnish any possible opportunity for circumcision. such a case is reported in virchow's _archives_, vol. cxxi, no. ; also in the _british medical journal_ of december , , and in the _satellite_ for january, . it is one of congenital absence of penis. "dr. rauber records very briefly the case of a shoe-maker, aged , who complained of pain and trouble in the anus. on examining him, rauber found a well-formed scrotum containing two testicles, each with a vas deferens and spermatic cord, but no trace of a penis. the urethra opened apparently into the anterior wall of the rectum. the man occasionally experienced sexual excitement, followed by an emission into the rectum. the burning pain complained of in the rectum and about the anus was due to the irritation caused by the urine. the man would not allow an ocular inspection of the interior of the rectum. unfortunately, the details of this very rare condition are incomplete." it would be interesting to know where the seat of his sexual desire is situated, unless an aching testicle is such. i once knew a spiritualist who claimed to feel the pains suffered by any friends with whom he was in sympathy; he once tried to argue with me that a certain lady patient--a warm personal friend of my questioner and a spiritualist--had ovaritis, because he felt an intense burning pain in his _right ovarian region_ whenever he went near to her. i tried to reason with him that that pain should be in his right testicle, but he would insist on having the sympathetic pain in _his_ ovarian region. chapter xi. religio medici. sir thomas browne, in his "religio medici,"[ ] alludes to the scandal that is generally attached to our profession, we being accused of professing no religion. that this opinion is still prevalent at the present day is undeniable,--philosophers and physicians are believed to be atheists and non-religionists,--while, at the same time, by that strange contradiction that is so common, philosophers and physicians are the known and recognized sources of religions, such is the intimate relation existing between physical and moral hygiene. confucius, the contemporary of pythagoras, whose religion was said to be nothing more than the observance of a certain moral and political ethical code, and he who first formulated the text "that one should do unto others as one wishes others to do unto him," the founder of the confucian religion, the orthodox religion of china, was a philosopher. buddha, the founder of the second creed recognized in china, and which forms the religion of a great part of eastern asia, was also a philosopher who was endeavoring to reduce the brahminical religion to the simple principles of philosophical religion, based on morality. moses not only was the greatest philosopher of his time, but also had an insight into medicine that to us of the present day is simply incomprehensible. the great master was both a philosopher and a physician, his disputes with the learned and his attention to the sick having given him the titles of great master and divine healer. to use the words of the "religio medici," the great body of the medical profession can, without usurpation, assume the name of christians; for no monk of the desert convents of asia minor or religious knight of the middle ages, either in their care of the sick, or giving food and shelter to the weary, or protection of sword and shield to the oppressed pilgrim plodding his way to the holy land, were more deserving of the name of christian than the medical man unwearily and unselfishly practicing his profession. to the true student of his art there is that in medicine which makes of the physician a practical christian. nor is there aught in medicine, either in its traditions, history, study, or practice, that in the lover of his art should ever make him anything but a philosophical and practical religionist. the physician, such as is actively engaged in the daily practice of his profession, instead of having no religion, is really a practical religionist, and, although he may subscribe to no outer ceremonial form or dogma, his life is such that a confucian, a buddhist, a christian, or a hebrew can behold in him the practitioner of the essence of either of their religions,--a conception carried out by lessing, in his play of "nathan the wise," where the jew, the saracen, and crusader teach the impressive lesson that nobleness is bound by no confession of faith or religion; showing the principle that should guide true religion. the rev. dr. townsend, of boston university, has given a very interesting and intelligent relation of the connections that exist between medicine and the old testament, in the light of nineteenth-century science.[ ] the article in question is interesting in its logical reasons as to why the bible was inspired by a superior power, as well as in the comparisons it lays before us of the medicine of the pagans and that of the bible, during the early history of the world. after reviewing the false, crude, and senseless vagaries and superstitious notions that passed for medicine from the period of the trojan war, in b.c., to the dissolution of the pythagorean society, b.c.--periods which existed after the writing of the books of moses,--and the period between b.c. and b.c., or the philosophic era of medicine, during which flourished the father of our present system of medicine, an era of advancement, but which in our eyes is still full of errors and unscientific conclusions. from these two periods we span over centuries of darkness for science and medicine to the ages of ambroise paré and the more modern fathers of our art, who by perseverance finally extricated medicine from the mass of magical and superstitious rubbish which, like barnacles, had clung to it during its passage through the dark and ignorant ages. after this review our author turns to the bible and discourses in this wise:-- "turning our attention to the bible, we take the position that, though it was not designed to teach the science of medicine, still, whenever by hint, explicit statement, or commandment there is found in it anything relating to medicine, disease, or sanitary regulation, there must be no error; that is, provided the bible, in an exceptional sense, is god's book. now, what are the facts in this case? they are these: though the bible often speaks of disease and remedy, yet the illusions, deceptions, and gross errors of anatomy, physiology, and pathology, as formerly taught, nowhere appear upon its pages. this, it must be acknowledged, is at least singular. but more than this: the various hints and directions of the bible, its sanitary regulations, the isolation of the sick, the washing, the sprinkling, the external applications, and the various moral and religious injunctions in their bearing upon health are confessed to be in harmony with what is most recent and approved. to be sure, the average old-school physician of a century ago would have blandly smiled at our simplicity, had it been suggested to him that his methods would be improved by following bible hints. 'what did moses know about medical science?' would have been his reply. but moses, judged by recent standards, seems to have known much, or, at least, to have written well." the above statement is a truthful relation of facts, from which it can well be conceived that even in the bible the physician finds something to inspire him with the idea of its divine inspiration, as the very history of medicine, with which it is connected, and with which he is familiar, only lends him further support in that direction. most intelligent physicians are also lovers of philosophical history. none is more entertaining than rawlinson, either in his "seven great monarchies" or his "ancient egypt." in his "ancient religions," in his concluding remarks, he observes as follows, in regard to the hebraic religion: "it seems impossible to trace back to any one fundamental conception, to any innate idea, or to any common experience or observation, the various religions which we have been considering. the veiled monotheism of egypt, the dualism of persia, the shamanism of etruria, the pronounced polytheism of india are too contrariant to admit of any one explanation, or to be derivative of one single source.... it is clear that from none of the religions here treated of could the religion of the ancient hebrews have originated. the israelite people, at different periods of its history, came and remained for a considerable time under egyptian, babylonian, and persian influence, and there have not been wanting persons of ability who have regarded judaism as a mere offshoot of the religion of one or the other of these three peoples. but, with the knowledge that we have now obtained of the religions in question, such views have been regarded as untenable, if not henceforth impossible. judaism stands out from all other ancient religions as a thing _sui generis_, offering the sharpest contrast to the systems prevalent in the rest of the east, and so entirely different from them in its essence that its origin could not but have been distinct and separate.... the sacred books of the hebrews cannot possibly have been derived from the sacred writings of any of these nations. no contrast can be greater than that between the pentateuch and the 'ritual of the dead,' unless it be that between the pentateuch and the zendavesta, or between the same work and the vedas.... in most religions the monotheistic idea is most prominent _at the first_, and gradually becomes obscured, and gives way before a polytheistic corruption.... altogether, the theory to which the facts appear on the whole to point is the existence of a primitive religion, communicated to man from without, whereof monotheism and expiatory sacrifice were parts, and the gradual clouding over of this principle everywhere, unless it were among the hebrews."[ ] medicine is indebted for its advancement to the hebraic religion to a greater extent than is generally believed. in the early christian centuries there existed three great creeds: the christian, hebraic, and mohammedan. the christian church was in a perplexing condition. as observed by draper,[ ] it was impossible to disentangle her from the principles which had, at the beginning, entered into her political organization. for good or evil, right or wrong, her necessity required that she should put herself forth as the possessor of all knowledge within the reach of the human intellect. but the monk and priest were prohibited from studying medicine,[ ] as by so doing the church saw that she would have to relinquish the spiritual control of disease were medicine a matter of scientific research; she preferred to hold on to her spiritual dominion, and let science slumber in darkness. on the other hand, the mohammedans, recognizing the principle of fatalism in their religion, it was not to be expected that they should cultivate an art entirely opposed to that principle. in this state of affairs the jewish physician, led by the teachings of his religion, alone presented the study of medicine in a scientific manner, and its practice and its result taught the moslems that medical science placed it within the power of man to keep himself out of the grave, when either assailed by disease or laid low by the wounds of war. the arabs were not slow to avail themselves of this discovery; and to the learning and skill of the jewish physician, guided by the light of an intelligent deity and a liberal religion, does medicine owe the existence of those able and learned arabian physicians that flourished during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. there has been more or less of fault-finding in regard to certain rules and ordinances being sacramental, which, from the nature of things, should have been merely advisory or suggestive, as they pertained more to the hygienic welfare of the people than to the spiritual. thus to reason, is neither philosophical nor in concert with our knowledge of the structure of man, and of the intimate relations that exist between mind and body, or of good health and good morals. the writer has seen violent catharsis produced by bread pills, after podophyllin, castor-oil, and phosphate of soda in the most generousdoses--administered as one would drop a letter in a mail-box--had completely failed; it is all in the manner and way we give a medicine or treat a disease. certain narcotic and irritant poisons or powerful sedative agents have a physical action uninfluenced by the mind, but an intelligent physician is hardly supposed to drive at the small tack of disease with such powerful sledge-hammers. charcot, recognizing the power of and availing himself of such a remedial agent as the pilgrimages to the notre dame de lourdes, is an evidence of the intelligent and enlightened practitioner, who has learned, what the bible taught, long, long ago, that human nature must be taken as it is found, and that, like the homely saying of mohammed, as the mountain would not come to him, he must go to the mountain. moses and all the scriptural writers were well aware of this state of affairs, and their manner of using their knowledge was adapted and timed to the general intellectual development of the times. there is one point in connection with the above that should not escape our attention, this being that, while the hebraic creed and the people still subscribed to the theological doctrine of the origin of disease, in common with the religions then in vogue, here the connection stopped. all other creeds--not excepting christianity--looked forward to a theological doctrine of the cure of disease. with the hebrew, disease was looked upon as the result of some infraction on his part of some of the laws, and the consequent expression of displeasure on the part of the deity. he was taught, however, that the observance of certain ordinances were both conducive to health and to the prevention of disease, and acceptable to god, as well as to rely upon his study and skill to cure disease. this was equivalent to teaching them that diseases arose from physical causes, and that physical means were to be used to combat them. from this arose the practice of exposing the sick in public places, that they might receive the benefit of the advice of such who might have had experience in a like case. it is from their religion that hebraic medicine has received its foundation of intelligent philosophy that carried it in its purity through all ages, free from magic, superstition, and imposture. with other creeds and religions, medicine, disease, as well as the physical phenomena affecting nature, were believed to be the arbitrary expression of anger of their gods, and that the cure of disease, or alterations in physical phenomena, were to be as arbitrarily effected, regardless of the existence or action of physical laws. it is to be regretted that one of the sects which has sprung from the hebraic creed, and which worships the same god, has been unable to emancipate itself or its people from the idea of an arbitrary theological doctrine of the origin and control of disease. it is this creation of a narrow-minded theology of a vaccilating, unintelligent, unphilosophical, and arbitrary god, who would neither respect nor regard the laws of his own creation, that has led the great body of physicians out of the modern churches. they do not deny the existence of the deity, but the god of their conception is a higher and nobler god,--the deity of religio medici. when the prize for the best essay on "_the power, wisdom, and goodness of god, as manifested in creation_"--a series of publications known as the bridgewater treatises--has been nearly every other time won by physicians, among whom we may mention sir charles bell, dr. john kidd, dr. peter m. roget, and dr. william prout,--not only won on their own merit, but in competition with learned theologians and noted divines,--we may truly say that physicians are by no means atheists or agnostics, but that, on the contrary, they are the real exponents of a practical and intelligent religion, which they not only practice, but fully and intelligently comprehend. chapter xii. hebraic circumcision. the first mention that we meet concerning circumcision is in genesis. it is the command of god to abraham; in establishing the covenant with him, he said to him: "this is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee: every man-child among you shall be circumcised. and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you" (gen. xvii, , ). it was also ordained that this should be extended to servants belonging to abraham and his seed, as well as to their own children; and that in case of children it should be done on the eighth day after birth.[ ] this was appointed as an ordinance of perpetual obligation on the hebraic family, and its neglect or omission entailed being cut off from the people ( , ). in compliance with this ordinance, abraham, although in his ninety-ninth year, circumcised himself and all his slaves, as well as his son ishmael. slaves by purchase were circumcised,[ ] as were any strangers, who were also circumcised before being allowed to partake of the passover or to become jewish citizens. it was to be observed by all heathens who became converted to the jewish faith. during the wanderings in the wilderness circumcision was not practiced, but joshua caused all to be circumcised before they entered the promised land.[ ] the old hebrews strictly followed the injunction to circumcise on the eighth day, and of such importance in a religious sense was this rite in their estimation that even when the eighth day fell on the sabbath the eighth day ordinance was observed. the ordinance, however, was not blindly arbitrary, as rules were laid down for exception. for instance, whenever a family had lost two children through circumcision it did not become obligatory on that family to circumcise the third child, who was however considered as entitled to all the benefits of the congregation or of the hebraic religion, just the same as if he had been circumcised. again, maimonides, or moussa ben maimon, a celebrated physician and rabbi, born in cordova in the year a.d., among his works on medicine, has left directions in regard to circumcision which have been the guides of the _mohels_. among the hebraic physicians it was considered that the child partook of the constitutional strength or feebleness of the mother; hence the rule above mentioned, in regard to exemption to circumcision, only was in operation when the two who had formerly died belonged to the same mother as the third one, who would thereby be exempt; but if the two children had belonged to another woman, and this third child of the father was not from the same mother, the rule did not exempt. the third child of the mother who had previously lost two infants at the rite was, however, to be circumcised when arrived at adult age, provided no further counter-indication occurred. the opinion that the mother gave the constitution to the child was promulgated by maimonides and became general. the eighth day is believed to refer to the eighth day after full term; thus, a child born prematurely is not supposed to be circumcised until eight days after it would have reached its full term, and only then if its general good condition is settled. maimonides looked upon infantile jaundice, general debility, and marasmus as contra-indications to the performance of the rite; any erysipelatous inflammation, ophthalmia, anæmia, eruption of any kind, fever, tendency to convulsive movements--in fact, any observable departure from normal health should be allowed to pass before performing the rite. aside from these general conditions that denoted that the operation was contra-indicated, the local condition of the organ itself also was to be examined, and if certain conditions existed the operation was to be put off. these conditions consisted in any irritation or red appearance of the prepuce, due to either inflammation or to the irritative action of the sebaceous matter underneath the prepuce, the acrid nature of these secretions being at times sufficiently virulent to produce an ulceration, even in the newborn.[ ] among the hebrews themselves there are those who do not look upon circumcision in a favorable light, but on something that has served its time in its own day, and within the past year a proselyte has been accepted into one of the new york synagogues without previous or subsequent circumcision, these reformed jews looking upon adult circumcision as too painful an operation to be gone through, as they claim, unnecessarily. it must be said, however, that these persons look upon circumcision purely in a sacramental light, and simply as an arbitrary ordinance of god in the remote ages of antiquity, but which in the present century has not enough practical significance to warrant its performance on the occasion of an adult joining the congregation. these persons look upon it, as has been said, in a purely theological light, and ignore any and all considerations of hygiene in connection with it, claiming that if it is a simple matter of hygiene, then it is not a sacrament, and that, if it is sacramental, then the subject of hygiene has nothing whatever to do with it. the force of their reasoning and logic is very obscure and clouded, to say the least. the covenant either exists or it does not; to do away with one ordinance in any arbitrary manner is to gradually begin to crumble down the whole fabric of judaism; for when exceptions are begun, one tenet as well as another is liable to topple over. if the rite is a sacrament, then it should be performed on all, and a proselyte should not be admitted without being circumcised, and, if a hygienic measure only, the same rule holds. these jews evidently ignore the rationalism that governed the promulgation of the mosaic law, and its recognition of the inseparability of the moral from the physical nature of man. montaigne has left us a description of the performance of the rite, as witnessed by him in the city of rome in the sixteenth century. he relates it as follows: "on the thirtieth of january was witnessed one of the most ancient ceremonies of religion practiced by mankind, this being the circumcision of the jews. this is performed at the dwelling, the most commodious chamber being chosen for the occasion. at this particular time, by reason of the incommodity of the house, the rite was performed at the door of the domicile. the godfather sat himself on a table, with a pillow on his lap. the godmother then brought the child, after which she retired. the godfather then undressed the child's lower part so as to expose his person, while the operator and his assistant began to chant hymns. this operation lasts at least a quarter of an hour. the operator may or may not be a rabbi, as it is considered a great blessing to perform this operation; so that it follows that many are found who are anxious to exercise their faculty in this regard, there being a tradition that those who have circumcised a certain number do not suffer putrefaction in their mouth, nor does their mouth become food for worms after death; so that it often happens that they make presents of value to the child for the privilege of operating upon it. on the same table on which the godfather is seated all the required instruments and apparatus are placed, while an assistant stands by with a flask of wine and a glass. a warming-pan full of coals is on the floor, at which the operator warms his hands. the child being now ready, with its head toward the godfather, the operator, seizing the member, draws the foreskin toward him with one hand, while with the fingers of the other he pushes back the glans; he then places a silver instrument, which fixes the skin, and which at the same time holds back the glans so that the knife may not cut it. the foreskin is then cut off and buried in the little basin of soil that forms one of the appurtenances to the operation. the operator then tears with his nails the skin which lies on the glans, which he turns back over the body of the member. this seems the hardest and most painful part of the operation, which, however, does not seem dangerous, as in four or five days the wound has healed. the crying of the child resembles that of an infant undergoing baptism. no sooner is the glans uncovered than the operator takes a mouthful of wine; he then places the glans in his mouth and sucks the blood out of it; this he repeats three times. this done, he applies a powder of dragons' blood, with which he covers up all the wound, the parts being then done up in expressly-cut bandages. he is then given a glass of wine, over which he says some prayers; of this he takes a mouthful, and, after moistening his fingers in the same, he applies the wine three times to the child's mouth. the wine is then sent to the mother and the women, who are in some other apartment, who all take a sip. an assistant then takes a silver instrument, pierced with little holes like a small strainer, which he first applies to the nose of the officiating minister, then to that of the child, and afterward to the nose of the godfather."[ ] the above description of the performance of the rite in the sixteenth century answers to the method of its performance as was witnessed some years ago in france. in the "biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical cyclopædia" of drs. mcclintock and strong the following description of the rite, as taking place in our modern synagogues, is given:-- "the ceremony of circumcision, as practiced by the jews in our own times, is thus: if the eighth day happens to be on the sabbath, the ceremony must be performed on that day, notwithstanding its sanctity. when a male child is born the godfather is chosen from amongst his relatives or near friends; and if the party is not in circumstances to bear the expenses, which are considerable (for after the ceremony is performed a breakfast is provided, even amongst the poor, in a luxurious manner), it is usual for the poor to get one amongst the richer, who accepts the office, and becomes a godfather. there are also societies formed amongst them for the purpose of defraying the expenses, and every jew receives the benefit if his child is born in wedlock. "the ceremony is performed in the following manner, in general: the circumciser being provided with a very sharp instrument called the circumcising-knife, plasters, cummin-seeds to dress the wound, proper bandages, etc., the child is brought to the door of the synagogue by the godmother, when the godfather receives it from her and carries it into the synagogue, where a large chair with two seats is placed; the one is for the godfather to sit upon, the other is called the seat of elijah the prophet, who is called the angel or messenger of the covenant. as soon as the godfather enters with the child, the congregation say, 'blessed is he that cometh to be circumcised, and enter into the covenant on the eighth day.' the godfather being seated, and the child placed on a cushion in his lap, the circumciser performs the operation, and, holding the child in his arms, takes a glass of wine into his right hand, and says as follows: 'blessed be thou, o lord our god, king of the universe, creator of the fruit of the vine! blessed art thou, o lord our god! who hath sanctified his beloved from the womb, and ordained an ordinance for his kindred, and sealed his descendants with the mark of his holy covenant; therefore, for the merits of this, o living god! our rock and inheritance, command the deliverance of the beloved of our kindred from the pit, for the sake of the covenant which he hath put in our flesh. blessed art thou, o lord, the maker of the covenant! our god, and the god of our fathers! preserve this child to his father and mother, and his name shall be called in israel, a, the son of b. let the father rejoice in those that go forth from his loins, and let his mother be glad in the fruit of her womb, as it is written: "thy father and mother shall rejoice, and they that begat thee shall be glad."' the father of the child then says the following grace: 'blessed art thou, o lord our god, king of the universe! who hath sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to enter into the covenant of our holy father, abraham.' the congregation answer: 'as he hath entered into the law, the canopy, and the good and virtuous deeds.'"[ ] chapter xiii. mezizah, the fourth or objectionable act of suction. biblical and rabbinical traditions throw no light on the origin of the details of the operation as now performed. that it was anciently performed with a knife of stone is certain; an event common in its general observance, and which seems to have pervaded all nations or races, howsoever remote or scattered, that it has induced tylor[ ] to ascribe the origin of the rite to the stone age. we are told that when moses was returning to the land of egypt he had neglected circumcising his son, and that because of that neglect he nearly lost his son's life; his wife, zipporah, the daughter of the midian king and priest, jethro, seeing the danger and knowing its cause, took her little son gershom and circumcised him with a stone knife, and offered the foreskin to god as a peace-offering. just where the wine was first used we are not told. wine, however, was an emblem of thanksgiving, and, being one of the fruits of the earth, was considered an acceptable offering to god. it has since, in some form or other, either as wine or as the representative of either divine or human blood, been used in both the catholic and protestant churches in their ceremonials or vicarious sacrifices, or imitations of old customs. circumcision was by many connected with a blood sacrifice; it was so suggested by the words of zipporah at the circumcision of gershom: "and zipporah, his midianitish wife, took up a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet and said, 'surely a _khathan_ of blood art thou to me.'" much speculation has followed the use of this word _khathan_, which, in the ordinary arabian, may mean either husband or son-in-law; it also means a newly-admitted member of a family; a similar word means "to provide a wedding feast," and one other word from the same root and branch means "to give or receive a daughter in marriage." in our own day, the _mohel_, or ministerial circumciser, makes it a practice to draw a little blood from the skin of such as are presented for the rite, but whom nature has not furnished with sufficient foreskin for the operation. the application, thrice repeated, of the blood and wine to the lips of the child, is probably used as a sign of the sealing of the compact. wine is mentioned in connection with the high-priest melchisedeck as the wine of thanksgiving at his meeting with abraham; wine was presented to aaron by the angel, who, giving him a crystal glassful of good wine, said to him: "aaron, drink of this wine which the lord sends you as a pledge of good news." originally, circumcision must have consisted of the simple removal of the foreskin, and the elaboration of the ceremonial details must have been a subsequent occurrence; persons wounding their fingers will instinctively carry them to their mouth, and it may be that the suction practiced by the hebrews had its origin in this natural hæmostatic suggestion. wine as a hæmostatic and as an emblem of thanksgiving and an acceptable offering naturally came in as an accessory. this practice--which, in the old, patriarchal days of the simple shepherds, when men only lived on the flesh of their own flocks, their diet, however, consisting mostly of cakes of flour, milk, honey, a few herbs, or the flesh of the goat or sheep--could not have been as objectionable as it is at the present day, with blood and secretions in a continued ferment through diet and habits. man, living in the open air of armenia, palestine, or arabia, sleeping in the open tents of our biblical forefathers, living on the simple diet of a shepherd's camp, with the abstemiousness that those climates naturally induce in man, could not help but be healthy. in those early days, when neither passion, anxiety, nor worry disturbed either digestion or sleep, man had no vitiated secretions, wine was then a rarity, and water was the drink. one of the early patriarchs on such diet would have furnished a dainty and savory dish to the most fastidious cannibal, who is now tormented by the _komerborg kawan_, this being a term used by the australian cannibals to designate the peculiar nausea that is induced in them when they recklessly eat of white man,[ ]--something which they do not experience from feasting on the savages who live on the simple diet of a pastoral tribe. this primitive gastronomic science in regard to cannibalism even reached such a pitch of refinement that, as has been previously mentioned, some tribes even resorted to emasculation to improve the flavor of the animal juices, which by this procedure became less acrid. the arabian and oriental traditions bring us down tales of how, on the same principles, human beings intended to grace the festive platter were fed exclusively on rice. the salivary and buccal secretions, under such a simple diet as that indulged in by our biblical forefathers, become bland and harmless; not only harmless, but even antiseptic and positively beneficial, acting on the same principle as local applications of pepsin. so that the practice, at the time of the patriarchs and in their own family, of this part of the rite could not have offered the same objection that it does at the present day. the modern house-dweller, living on a mixed diet and in a climate that induces him to eat grossly, both as to quality and quantity, partaking more or less of vinous, spirituous, or fermented liquors, as well as indulging in tobacco, is quite another being from the arabian or armenian shepherd of former days. business anxieties and worry also have a very pronounced effect; so that, with the change in the conditions of man and the inception and multiplication of diseased conditions, as well as the creation of constitutional and transmissible diseases, this practice of suction should have been stopped. intelligent rabbis, devoted to their religion, are necessarily prone to defend any of the details in its ceremonials that age and practice have sanctioned, and even some of the later writings of israelism seem to make the mezizah, or suction, a necessary and ceremonial detail. in the "guimara," composed in the fifth century, rabbi rav popè uses these words: "all operators who fail to use suction, and thereby cause the infant to run any risk, should be destituted of the right to perform the ceremony." in the "mishna" it says, "it is permitted on the sabbath to do all that is necessary to perform circumcision, excision, denudation, and suction." the "mishna" was composed during the second century. the celebrated maimonides lent it his sanction, as in his work on circumcision he advises suction, to avoid any subsequent danger. our modern israelites are supposed, as a rule, to have taken their authority, aside from previous usage and custom, from the "beth yosef," which was written by joseph karo, and subsequently annotated by the rabbi israel isserth. in all of these sanctions, however, there is no reason expressed why it should be performed.[ ] maimonides undoubtedly looked upon this act as having a decided tendency or action in depleting the immediate vessels in the vicinity of the cut surface, and that the consequent constriction in their calibre would prevent any future hæmorrhage. that this is the natural result of suction is a fact readily understood by any modern physician. the depletion of the vessel for some distance in its length, with the contraction in the coat that follows, is certainly a better preventive to consequent hæmorrhage than the simple application of any styptic preparation that can only be placed at the mouth of the vessel, but which leaves its calibre intact. hot water, or an extreme degree of cold, will answer to produce this contraction and depletion, but there is here a local physical reaction that is more liable to occur than when the contraction has taken place naturally, as when induced by depletion, instead of by the stimulus of either heat or cold. so that if, in the light of modern civilization and changed conditions of mankind, and the existence of diseases which formerly did not exist, we are now convinced that suction is dangerous, we should not judge the ancients too hastily or rashly for having adopted the custom, as it is certainly not without some scientific merit; although, authorities are not wanting who hold that suction or depletion increases the danger of hæmorrhage. it can be understood that the results of suction would be in some measure analogous to those left by the application of an esmarch bandage on a limb. the ancients, performing the operation with rude implements and having no hæmostatic remedies or appliances, naturally followed the best means at their command; they evidently feared hæmorrhage, and their rule in regard to exemption shows us that they recognized the existence of hæmorrhagic diathesis or other transmissible peculiarities of constitution. this same fear of hæmorrhage probably suggested the second step of the operation being performed, as it is by laceration instead of by cutting instruments, showing in this an evident desire to limit the cutting part of the operation to as small a limit as possible. against an infant who has decided hæmorrhagic tendency, we are about as helpless as were the ancient hebrews, and, while the turkish or some of the arabian methods of performing the operation may be said in ordinary cases--by the application of cord and the consequent constriction--to limit the danger from subsequent hæmorrhage, still, in the hæmorrhagic diathesis this would not be of any avail; so, as already observed, we must not too rashly judge those old shepherds of the armenian plains for adopting a practice which to them was calculated to avert subsequent dangers, or their descendants following in their footsteps, until having learned better, even if that practice is to us disgusting, primitive, and useless. cases occur,--happily not frequently,--of alarming and uncontrollable hæmorrhage. the following case is suggestive of the alarming extent and persistence that may attend one of those hæmorrhagic cases, even when recovery eventually takes place. it is reported by dr. sannanel in the _gazetta toscana delle science medicale e fisiche_ of . the case was that of a jewish infant circumcised on the eighth day. some hours after the operation the child was observed to be bleeding; the hæmmorrhage would only cease for a few moments, and then come on with increased force, and which proved rebellious to ordinary remedies. dr. sannanel was called during the night of the third day after the operation. a number of physicians had been in attendance, and neither ice, astringents, pressure, nor any usual hæmostatic means had had the least effect; cautery with nitrate of silver, sulphuric acid, and the actual cautery by means of heated iron were tried in succession, without any good results. ten days passed in this manner, the hæmmorrhage only ceasing for a few moments at a time, and the child was nearly exsanguinated from the continued serous seepage and the paroxysmal hæmorrhages, when a lucky application of caustic potassa almost immediately stopped the hæmorrhage. this case was seen by nearly all the leading medical men of leghorn, who lent their aid and counsel to save the little life. the case is interesting from the length of time it persisted, and that even after all the loss of blood and suffering that the little fellow endured he survived.[ ] dr. epstein, of cincinnati, in a letter of march , , to the _israelite_ of that city, mentions a nearly fatal case from hæmorrage after the rite of "_milah_," and gives the result of his experience in such cases. he argues that _hitouch_ or _hitooch_ alone, or the first step or cutting off of the prepuce, performed with ordinary care, could hardly be followed up with any more serious results than can be controlled with the application of a little acidulated water. the second act, or _periah_, the act of laceration, he looks upon as one that calls for coolness, judgment, and skill, as the membrane should only be torn so far and no farther, the thin, inner fold of the prepuce being vascular only in the sulcus back of the corona and at its lower attachment, where it forms the frenum, or bridle; any carelessness or over-anxiety on the part of the operator in tearing this membrane too far back results in danger of hæmorrhage; especially is this part of the operation liable to be badly done if the inner preputial fold is thick and resisting, as in that case undue force may carry the laceration back into the vascular tissue. the means suggested by dr. epstein to arrest hæmorrhage are those ordinarily used in hæmorrhagic cases, such as will be given presently. the doctor regrets that the operators are not as they should be, physicians, and that, when _mohels_ are employed, persons are not sufficiently exacting as to their qualifications.[ ] in france the government has managed to secure more safety in the operation. by a royal decree of date of may , , in compliance with a desire expressed by the hebrew consistory, it was ordered that no one should exercise the functions of a _mohel_ or of _schohet_, without being duly authorized to perform said functions by the consistory of the circonscription; and that all _mohels_ and _schohets_ shall be governed in the exercise of their functions by the departmental consistory and the general consistory. by virtue of this decree a regulation was passed by the consistories on the th of july, , ordering that thereafter circumcision should only be performed in a rational manner, and by a properly qualified person. suction was likewise abolished, and the wound directed to be sponged with wine and water. this decree and the resulting regulations have been of the greatest benefit to the french israelites, and some attention to the matter would not be amiss in the united states. this reformation has met with the approval of the leading french jews, whose general consistory decided that suction was not necessarily a part of the religious rite, and that, as it was undoubtedly introduced into the rite on the days of primitive surgery, it was perfectly rational to suppress this operative accessory, now that that same science, in its enlightenment, pronounced it unsafe. the whole body of the congregation did not tamely submit to what they considered an innovation, and from some of the mohels all possible resistance was opposed to prevent the abolishment of this part of the operation from becoming a law. so determined was this opposition in some instances that the consistory of paris found it necessary to impose on all the mohels an obligation, bound by an oath, that they would respect the law. those who refused to take the obligation gave up their vocation. the grand rabbi of paris, at the time of this reformation, m. ennery, was one of the most zealous supporters of the new departure. the influence of the french pervaded northward, and the _mezizah_ was abolished in brunswick, dr. solomon, a learned hebrew of that state, being instrumental in having it done legally. the discussion of this subject, in , had one very happy effect,--the supporters of the reformed idea of the rite issued a circular letter to all the leading continental surgeons and medical men asking for their opinion on several points in relation thereto, especially, however, on this part of the rite. the opinions of many of these will be referred to in the medical part of this work. the after-treatment of the circumcised infant is governed more or less by local habits and the individual intelligence of the mohel and his experience. after turning back the inner fold of the prepuce, the parts are covered with a small, square bandage, with an aperture to admit the passage of the glans. this, and the subsequent small bandage of old linen, which is calculated to hold it in place, are slightly coated with a powder composed of lycopodium, with the slight addition, at times, of monsel's salts, alum-powder, or some vegetable astringent. over these another compress is placed, to prevent the friction of the clothes of the infant or of the bedding. the infant then receives a final benediction, and the godmother then receives the child in her arms and carries it to its cot or crib. the operator generally visits the infant in the afternoon of the operation, and carefully inspects the dressings, to see that no hæmorrhage has supervened. it is customary to place the child in a bath, either the same evening or on the following morning, the object of this being to remove and to facilitate the removal of the dressings, which are more or less saturated and clotted with blood. after the removal of these, the wound is redressed, as previously, except that some cerate--ointment of roses or some other mild ointment--is used. some prefer the simple water dressing from beginning to end. since the introduction of creasote, acid phénique, and carbolic acid, many mohels are in the practice of washing the parts with water impregnated with one of these before performing the operation, and using subsequently the same form of lotion at every dressing. in case of hæmorrhage there is an hæmostatic water or lotion, which has been long used by the german and polish mohels with considerable success, and which, in ordinary cases, has been found to be all that was required. this water, called by the french "mixture d'arguesbusade," "eau vulneraire spiriteuse de theden," and by the germans as "spritzwasser" and "schusswasser," is composed as follows:-- acetic acid, grammes. rectified spirits of wine, " diluted sulphuric acid, ½ " clarified honey, " this mixture is well mixed and filtered, and is then kept in a tightly-stoppered vial. dr. bergson uses a mixture composed of diluted sulphuric acid, part; alcohol, parts; honey, parts; and parts of wine vinegar. hæmostatic powders are also used by the hebrews, being more conveniently kept or carried than the hæmostatic waters. in russia and in poland they are composed of decomposed or decayed hawthorn-wood powder and lycopodium. that of berlin is composed of armenian bole, red clay, dragons' blood, powdered rose-leaves, powdered galls, and powdered subcarbonate of lead. in france a hæmostatic fluid, composed of dragons' blood digested in turpentine, is in vogue. the eau de pagliari is also used; it is composed of a mixture of tincture of benzoin, ounces; powdered alum, pound; and pounds of water, boiled together for six hours, and is considered a powerful styptic. in addition to these, burnt linen, spiders' webs, starch-powder, powdered alum, and plaster-of-paris powder are used by different mohels. touching the bleeding points with a pointed pencil of nitrate of silver is also a practice understood by the jewish circumcisers. chapter xiv. what are the benefits of circumcision? there are those, even among the hebrews, who are so imbued with the purely theological idea of the origin, performance, and causes of circumcision, that they cannot see any moral nor hygienic value in the operation. among many christians the idea still prevails that circumcision is the relic of some barbarous rite, practiced in some epoch away in the remote ages of the world, grafted on to the jewish religion by some accident or other; but that beyond the clinging of the jews to this custom, as being a remnant of their old religion, they neither see in the rite any other significance, moral results, nor hygienic precaution; and the fact of a jew being circumcised is too often made a subject of merriment among the unthinking portion of the christian world. neither are physicians all of one accord on the subject as to whether circumcision is a benefit, or, being useless, a dangerous and an unnecessary operation. the writer is most emphatically in favor of circumcision, and has the fullest faith in the positive moral and physical benefits that mankind gains from the operation. it may well be asked: what does the jew receive in return for all the suffering that he inflicts through circumcision on himself and his little children? what is there to repay him or his for all the risks and annoyances, besides branding himself and his with an indestructible mark, which has been more than once the sign by which they have suffered persecution, spoliation, expatriation, and death? are there any benefits enjoyed by the jew that the uncircumcised does not enjoy in equal proportion? the relative longevity between the hebrew race and the christian nations that dwell together under like climatic and political conditions indicates a stronger tenacity on the part of the jewish part of the nations to life, a greatly less liability to disease, and a stronger resistance to epidemic, endemic, and accidental diseases. by some authorities it has been held that the occupations followed by the jew are such as do not compel him to risk his life, as he neither follows any labor requiring any great and continued exertion, nor any that subjects him to any great exposure; that, as a rule, when in business, by some intuition he follows some branch that has neither anxiety, care, nor great chance of loss connected with it; that he does not follow any occupation that is attended with any risk of accident for either life or limb. besides all these, it is also urged that in cities the careful inspection of their meat, and the peculiar social fabric of the family, the love and veneration for their aged, as well as their proverbial charity to their own poor and sick, and their provident habits and hygienic regulations imposed upon them by the mosaic law, are all conditions that conspire to induce longevity. that the hebrew is generally found in such conditions as above described is undisputed; but it is questionable if all these conditions are necessarily such as are favorable to health and long life, and that, therefore, the longevity of the jewish race cannot altogether be ascribed to the above conditions. looking at the subject of occupation, if we consult lombard, thackrah, and the later works on the effects of occupation on life, we must admit that the jew has no visible advantage in that regard, as he follows hardly any out-of-door occupation, being often in-doors in a confined and foul atmosphere. to those who have closely observed the race in this country,--coming as they do from the cold-wintered climates of germany, austria, or poland, bringing with them the habit of living in small, close rooms, for the sake of economy and comfort,--it must be admitted that among the lower classes and the poorer of the race, their shops being connected, as they usually are, with their living-rooms, the _toute ensemble_ is anything but conducive to a long life. their anæmic and undeveloped physical condition and weak muscular organization are sufficient evidence that their surroundings are not calculated to improve health. in england, statistics sufficiently prove that the fisherman on the coast, exposed to all kinds of weather, is not as prone to disease as is his brother englishman who deals out the groceries in his snug shop. exercise has been held an important element in the factory of the long-lived. from the time of hippocrates down to cheyne, rush, hufeland, tissot, charcot, humphry, and all authorities on the factors of old age, exercise has been looked upon as favoring long life. exercise cannot be said to enter in any way as a factor in the longevity of the jew; but, on the contrary, his in-door life is known to be very productive of phthisis in other races. his recreations are, as a rule, of the home social order. they visit and spend the time allotted to recreation in social intercourse, which their hospitality always insists on accompanying with a generous lunch, which, to say the least, is not an element that is conducive to either health or long life; for no people excel the jew in home hospitality, and even among the poorer classes a stranger is never allowed to depart without some refreshment being offered him. among the class better able to extend hospitality, social reunions and card parties, with lunches of fruits, cakes, cold meats and coffee, or wines, are among their regular occurrences. their great affection for the family and for their youth and aged suggests these means of recreation, as then they are enjoyed by all alike; but, as observed, the hygiene of all this is very doubtful; it produces too much irregularity. it is related that after the roman conquest of palestine many of the jews, becoming more or less accustomed to roman manners and customs, often joined in the games which the romans held in imitation of the old olympic games of the grecians. not to be ridiculed, many resorted to the practices described in a previous chapter, to efface all the marks of their circumcision, that they might enter the games with as much freedom as the romans or other uncircumcised nations; so that the present aversion to out-of-door sports evinced by the jew is not necessarily a racial trait; the persecutions and political inequality that until lately he has been made to suffer have driven him into retirement and seclusion. although seeking neither converts nor political power and influence, he has been hunted down, massacred, and chased about as a dangerous beast. as the children of the great rabbi moses mendelssohn asked of their father: "is it a disgrace to be a jew? why do people throw stones at us and call us names?" it may well be asked, why? these actions have forced them into the social and retired habits for which they are noted; although it cannot be said that it is from a lack of spirit, as one of the rothschilds is well known to have been present at the battle of waterloo, where from a spot in the vicinity of the british right-centre he observed the events of the battle; and when, with the failure of ney's last desperate charge with the formidable battalions of the old guard, he saw the advance of the prussians closing in on the french right, he galloped to the sea-shore, and, crossing the channel in a frail boat, reached london twenty-four hours in advance of the news of the battle,[ ] but long enough for him to clear several millions from off the panicky state of the money market. marshal massena, one of napoleon's bravest generals, the defender of genoa and the hero of wagram, was of jewish origin. athletic sports are not of necessity conducive to long life, even if they are to temporary robust health; but there is no mistaking the fact that the sedentary and in-door life of the average jew is a deteriorator to health and life, and especially among that class of families who are poor and keep no servant; from heredity and home education having adopted unhygienic customs, in which they have grown up,--in these a total disregard for all ventilation forms a part. were an uncircumcised race so to live, scrofula and phthisis would be the inevitable result. this difference of results i have witnessed more than once as existing among the two races coming from the same european nationality, where their disregard to ordinary rules of hygiene, induced by climatic causes, especially ventilation, were alike in both the semitic and european descendants of the one nation, the purely european being more prone to consumption and scrofula. it is interesting to note the difference in the moral, mental, and physical conditions induced by creeds; it would seem as if it should not make any difference. the generally accepted idea of religion is that it should raise the moral standard of all those nations who practice religion; but the results are very peculiar, as we are forced to admit that reformation in religion has not always been a reformation in morals. take great britain for example; if illegitimacy is any criterion of the moral state of those professing creeds, we find the least among the jew; next among the catholic; next comes the episcopalian; then last the presbyterian,--the oldest creed showing the greatest moral tendency, and that of poor knox, which is the youngest, showing the least. this has certainly its physical effects, that are not without its influence in producing a greater or lesser length of life. the evolution of religion has here induced a lower moral tone and a resulting physical degeneracy. as observed by alienists, religions of different creeds have different tendencies in inducing insanity, both as to ratio of population and as to manifestations;[ ] the protestant, when unbalanced by religious cause, is generally controlled with some idea that shows itself in wild and erratic attempts at scriptural interpretation, caused by want of fixed dogmas and the unending splittings that are forever taking place in the new faith, and the persistent, intrusive, and belligerent spirit of proselytism that controls each new branch as it buds into existence. the catholic has a fixed dogma, which the church attends to, and he neither feels called upon to make his neighbors miserable or himself insane in hunting up new interpretations. when he does go insane on the subject of religion, the cause, as a rule, can be traced to some real or imagined moral delinquency, which has brought all the terrors of the punishment of the damned forcibly and persistently to his disordered imagination. in the insane-asylums of cork, in ireland, with its overwhelming catholic population, the ratio of inmates in regard to creeds is as that of one catholic to ten of the reformed religion, showing in the most conclusive manner the influence exerted by religion in this direction. on the other hand, the jew has the simplest of religious creeds; he neither wastes useful time, robs himself of sleep, nor becomes dyspeptic in hunting for hidden meanings in some ambiguous scriptural phrase; he is satisfied with his creed, his dogmas are firmly anchored, and the nature of his religion being a sort of family congregation, he is not called upon to go out in search of proselytes, any more than the father of an already large family feels called upon to go out and hunt up the homeless, that he may convert his home into a promiscuous orphan-asylum. as before remarked, his creed is of the simplest, and there exists a complete and explicit understanding between his god and himself. there are no mystical, hidden meanings in scripture for the jew; nor does he dread any eternal, unheard-of, and inexplicable torments. his laws are very clear, and the punishments for their infraction very explicit. to the jew it is a straight and well-lighted road, as far as religion is concerned. the writer has always felt that it took a mind that was incapable of appreciating simple truths, but that loved to hover on that mystical border-land on the confines of gloomy insanity that would allow its owner to seriously wander through and behold any theological beauties in bunyan. to the jew there is none of the gloomy, weird, mystical, mind-racking, ungodly theology that some of our creeds torture the poor brains of their professors with. as the wild indian of the plains runs sticks through his anatomy and capers wildly about to torture his body, so some of the creeds delight in torturing their devotees. the jewish religion is the one best suited to tranquilize the mind; it is very philosophical and rational. were he to acknowledge christ, he would not have to change his course of life to become a most exemplary christian. the celebrated letter of moses mendelssohn to the swiss clergyman, lavater, in answer to a dedication of the latter to mendelssohn, is probably the best exposition of the essence of the jewish faith that can be found. therein he says: "we believe that all other nations of the earth have been commanded by god to adhere to the laws of nature. those who regulate their conduct according to this religion of nature and of reason are called _virtuous men of other nations_, and are the children of eternal salvation." such a religion does not unsettle man's mind. these apparent digressions are made to show what additional factors exist, besides circumcision, to induce longevity in the jewish race, and that the subject may be better understood; for these reasons the above comparisons have been made. students of demographic science are well aware that form of government, religion, climate, diet, habit, and custom,--all have an important bearing on the mental and physical as well as on the moral nature of man. to the true student of his art all these conditions are but factors in the physical scale, and should so be considered without fear or favor; to him the whole world is but a unit, and the people upon its surface are but as one people, alike subject to the leveling laws of nature, which recognize neither royalty nor vagrant, nationality nor creed, color, condition, nor station in life or society. professor bernoulli, of bale, found the israelite less prolific than the christian;[ ] subject to less mortality, greater longevity, less still-born, less illegitimacy, less crime against the person, and less insanity and suicide, when compared with his christian brother--all of which he attributes not to a superior physique or organism, but solely to the observance of the laws of their religion and to the nature of the same, which exercises a beneficial influence on the mind. b. w. richardson, in his "diseases of modern life," in speaking of the relation of race to disease, says: "through the valuable labors of mm. legoyt, hoffmann, neufville, and mayer, we have obtained, however, some curious facts relative to the most widely disseminated of all races on the earth, the jewish. these facts show that, from some cause or causes, this race presents an endurance against disease that does not belong to other portions of the civilized communities amongst which its members dwell. the distinctness of the jews in the midst of other and mixed races singles them out specially for observation, and the history they present of vitality, or, in other words, of the resistance to those influences which tend to shorten the natural cycle of life, is singularly instructive. "the resistance dates from the first to the last periods of life. hoffmann finds that in germany, from to , the number of still-born among the jews was as in , while with other races it was in . mayer finds that in furth children from one to five years of age die in the proportion of per cent. among the jewish, and per cent. among the christian population. m. neufville, dealing with the same subject, from the statistics of frankfurt, gives even a more favorable proportion of vitality to the jewish child population. continuing his estimates from the ages named into riper years, the value of life is still in favor of the jews, the average duration of the life of the jew being forty years and nine months and that of the christian being thirty-six years and eleven months. in the total of all ages, the half of the jews born reach the age of fifty-three years and one month, whilst half of the christians born only reach the age of thirty-six years. a quarter of the jewish population born is found living beyond seventy-one years, but a quarter of the christian population is found living beyond fifty-nine years and ten months only. the civil state extracts of prussia give to the jews a mortality of . per cent.; to the whole kingdom, . per cent. to the jews they give an annual increase of . per cent.; to the christian, . per cent. the effective of the jews require a period of forty-one years and a half to double themselves; those of other races, fifty-one years. in , prussia returned one death for every forty-one of the jews and one for every thirty-two of the remaining population. "the jews escaped the great epidemics more readily than the other races with whom they lived. thus, the mortality from cholera amongst them is so small that the very fact of its occurrence has been disputed. lastly, that element of mortality, suicide, which we may look upon philosophically as a phenomenon of disease, is computed by glatter, from a proportion of one million of inhabitants of prussia, bavaria, würtemburg, austria, hungary, and transylvania, to have been committed by rather less than one of the jewish race to four of the members of the mixed races of the christian population. different causes have been assigned for this higher vitality of the jewish race, and it were indeed wise to seek for the causes, since that race which presents the strongest vitality, the greatest increase of life, and the longest resistance to death must in course of time become, under the influences of civilization, dominant. we see this truth, indeed, actually exemplified in the jews; for no other known race has ever endured so much or resisted so much. persecuted, oppressed by every imaginable form of tyranny, they have held together and lived, carrying on intact their customs, their beliefs, their faith, for centuries, until, set free at last, they flourish as if endowed with new force. they rule more potently than ever, far more potently than when solomon in all his glory reigned in jerusalem. they rule, and neither fight nor waste."[ ] richardson attributes the great benefits enjoyed in this regard by the jewish race to the soberness of their lives. this position is, however, not altogether tenable, if by that we mean abstemiousness; they are extremely temperate, but not abstemious. tissot, cornaro, lessius, hufeland, humphry, sir henry thompson, as well as the older greek and roman authorities, all are agreed that an abstemious life is the one that is most conducive to long life. there is no race that is more proverbial for their good cheer and indulgence in the good things of the table than the jewish; no race enjoys feasting any more than they, and from childhood they are accustomed to a generous and nutritious diet, as well as to their share of the wines with which their tables are supplied. their greater thrift and application to business, their habits of economy and carefulness in business affairs enable them to better supply their tables. in california there is no class that lives better or whose tables are supplied so well either as to quality or quantity as those of the jews, and yet no class is more exempt than they from the class of diseases that originate in too good living. as before remarked, in relation to the poor of that faith, who are unable to keep a servant, and who live in a combination of shop and home in the most unhygienic condition, disregarding ventilation and every other sanitary needs, but who, nevertheless, escape the evil results that would and do attend such social conditions among those of other races, so in this instance of good living: the better class of jews do not suffer in anything near a like proportion to the better class christians from diseases incident to too full habits and an inactive life. richardson observes that he drinks less and that he eats better food than his christian brother. in regard to the drinking habit, overindulgence is not a jewish failing; they do not drink to excess, but total abstinence is not in their vocabulary. it is inconsistent with their idea of wine as being a gift of god, and something that is symbolical of good faith and thanksgiving. nor is total abstinence consistent with their idea of generous hospitality. on the eighth day after birth the jew tastes wine, and from the time he is able to sit at table he becomes familiar with its use. to him wine is not symbolical of either moral depravity, mental or physical deterioration, or of death. their females are all accustomed to its use from childhood, but it does not cause them to become either immoral or unchaste; so that in neither sex does wine produce that moral and mental wreckage which abbreviates the length of human existence among those of other creeds. radical fanaticism, that drives a tack with a maul and a twenty-penny spike with a tack-hammer, cannot be expected to study this or any other question in any rational manner; but to the sociologist, the question as to what produces this remarkable soberness, in the midst of the habitual and continued use of wine in the race from the time of its earliest history, is something worthy of calm and careful consideration. how much circumcision may have to do with this will be discussed in the medical part of the volume. in london, according to dr. stallard, the mortality among jewish children from one to five years is only ten per cent., while among the children of the christians it is fourteen per cent., the rate being analogous to that observed by mayer among those of these ages in furth. among the london adults the average duration of life among the jews is forty-seven years, while among the christians it is only thirty-seven. dr. hough[ ] has gathered some interesting historical and statistical matter bearing on the subject of jewish resistance to disease and the benefit possessed by the race in relation to the immunity enjoyed by them in prevailing epidemics. the plague of did not affect them; according to fracastor they escaped the typhus of ; rau remarks their immunity to the typhus of ; ramazzini noticed their exemption to the fatal intermittents of rome, in ; and degner says that they escaped the epidemic dysentery at nimegue, in . richardson truly observes that "from epidemics the jews have often escaped, as if they possessed a charmed life." this racial difference and benefit, when compared to other races, has more than once cost them dear. in the dark and ignorant ages, when men reasoned nothing from a physical basis, but attributed all and every phenomena to some supernatural agency, either heavenly or diabolical, it was but natural for such minds to associate this exemption with some purchased compact made with the devil, who was often also held accountable for the existence of the epidemics. the rational and law-of-nature observing jew supposed to be in league with his satanic majesty could neither be seen nor heard in his own defense; consequently, massacres, pillaging, and such other barbarities that an insane popular fury could suggest, were the humane manifestations with which a christian people visited their jewish brothers, whose only sin consisted in worshiping the god of their fathers, and in strictly observing his laws and commandments. in france, dr. neufville found that, of one hundred children in the first five years of life, among the jewish population, . die; while from the same number of the same aged class of christians . die. one-half of all the christians die at thirty-six years, and one-half of all the jews at fifty-three years and one month. dr. john s. billings has gathered statistics relating to , jewish families, consisting of , persons,[ ] living in the united states in december, , mostly descendants of jews from the northern or middle nations of europe. for our purpose only the deductions as to death-rate and tendency to longevity will be given. in this valuable paper dr. billings says: "when we come to examine the reports of deaths for five years furnished by these jewish families, we find that they give an average annual death-rate of only . per , which would be about one-half of the annual death-rate among other persons of the same average social class and condition living in this country." to this he adds that, provided the deaths at different ages among the jews have been correctly reported, this race will, on comparison with those of other races, show a greater tendency to longevity, as the jewish expectation of life is at each age markedly greater than that of the class of people who insure their lives, the average excess being a little over twenty per cent. in speaking of the death-rate among children, dr. billings makes the following comparisons: "the low death-rate among the jews is especially marked among the children, and this corresponds to european experience. thus in prussia, in , the death-rate of the jews under fifteen years of age was . for , while among the remainder of the people it was . per ." this result he accounts for partly to the fact that among the jews illegitimacy is comparatively rare and to the high rate of mortality among the illegitimate born, which raises the average of the other classes. in regard to the immunity of the race from consumption or tubercular disease, the statistics of the above jewish families gives to the jews less than one-third of the number of deaths from these diseases than what occurs among the others as to the male population, and less than one-fourth as to the female population. these statistics coincide with the observations of the writer on this part of the subject, and are even more than corroborated by the french war-office reports from algeria, where the deaths from consumption among the christians amount to for each . deaths, and among the jews to in . , while among the mohammedans it is only in . deaths. in algeria the relative mortality from all causes is only about three-fifths of that of the christian, and the turk, although seeming to enjoy a greater exemption from phthisical or tubercular diseases than the jew, falls below the jew in exemption from deaths due to general causes, as his mortality is one-eighth greater than that of the jew. dr. billings gives us some interesting food for thought in the course of his article and some more particularly bearing on the subject of immunity from consumption. he asks: "are these differences due to race characteristics, properly so-called, to original and inherited differences in bodily organization, or are they, rather, to be attributed to the customs, habits, and modes of life of the two classes of people?" some years ago, henry i. bowditch, of boston, put on foot an extended system of inquiry in regard to ascertaining the causes or antecedents of consumption in the state of massachusetts. in answer to some of the questions of the circular, rabbi dr. guinzburg, of boston, answered as follows, under date of october , :-- st. the number of jews living in boston is about . d. there certainly have not died of consumption, during the last five years, more than eight or ten jews in the various congregations. to this dr. bowditch adds, as follows:-- "if dr. guinzburg's data be correct, they show a very great immunity from consumption on the part of the jews, compared with the citizens generally, as will be seen by the following comparison between these numbers and those procured from the registration reports, published by the state. in the report published in , page , we find that for the five years preceding the annual average of deaths by consumption was for every , living. these data from dr. guinzburg and the state report give the following table:-- proportion of deaths to , of living. all religions, jews, "these statements from dr. guinzburg are confirmed by the following letter from dr. a. haskins, of this city. dr. haskins is connected with one of the jewish benevolent associations for the benefit of the sick. i sent to him similar questions and make the following extracts from his reply:-- "'i am generally employed in about sixty families (jewish). i have had these families under my care for two and a half years. during this time i have seen but one case of consumption. i have averaged among these sixty families about two visits daily. in my other jewish practice, which is not inconsiderable, i have in this time (two and a half years) seen two cases of consumption.... i am sorry i have no statistics whereby i could compare the two peoples, viz., jews and christians. i can, therefore, give you only my impressions. i should say that i find consumption less frequent among the jews than among christians. this would be my own impression without any data to fortify it.' "dr. waterman also sustains the same idea. the following extract will give some idea of his opportunities for observation and the sources of his deductions:-- "'boston, november , . dear sir,-- ... first, i have attended four charitable associations; number about forty, fifty, sixty, and one hundred families. at present i only attend one, containing one hundred families, and on which i average a fraction over one visit a day. i have, besides, many private families among the jews. i have attended but few cases of consumption, and i think the disease is not so prevalent as among christians.'" the same report of dr. bowditch quotes from stallard's "london pauperism amongst jews and christians," as saying that there is no hereditary syphilis, and scarcely any scrofula to augment the mortality in the jewish families. in relation to the liability of the hebrew race to phthisis, richardson has the following at page of his "diseases of modern life": "the special inroads on vitality made on other races by disease are not easily determined, because of the difficulties arising from temporary admixture of race. i tried once to elicit some facts from a large experience of a particular disease, phthisis pulmonalis, and, as the results of this attempt may be useful, i put them briefly on record. "at a public institution at which large numbers of persons afflicted with chest diseases applied for medical assistance, and at which i was for many years one of the physicians, i made notes during a short portion of the time of the connection that existed between race and the particular disease i have instanced--phthisis pulmonalis, or pulmonary consumption. the number of persons observed under the disease was three hundred, and no person was put on the record who was not suffering from a malady pure and simple; i mean without complication with any other malady. they who were thus studied were of four classes: (_a_) those who were by race distinctly saxon; (_b_) those who were of mixed race, or whose race could not be determined; (_c_) those who were distinctly celtic; (_d_) those who were distinctly jewish. "the results were, that of the three hundred patients, one hundred and thirty-three, . per cent., were saxon; one hundred and eighteen, . per cent., were of mixed or undetermined race; thirty-one, . per cent., were celtic; and eighteen, per cent., were jewish." although dr. richardson admits it would be unfair to accept the above figures as a basis for general application, he argues that they are, on the average, sufficiently suggestive, as among the saxons it was noticed that there were more cases in whom the disease was hereditary, while among the others it was generally acquired. in going over the subject of this question in regard to phthisis, we must admit that, although the jew in his own home, synagogue, or in his social reunions, is not exposed to tubercular emanations, and that he has less chance of contracting the disease from tuberculous meats, he is, after all, a theatre-goer; a pretty constant inhabitant of the sleeping-car and hotel, as a commercial traveler and general merchant; and that, on the whole, he eats the same food, breathes the air and dust of the same streets, and drinks the same milk and water as the christian, and, as observed by dr. billings, cooking destroys the bacillus in meats. so that the comparative exposure in this country--where the practice is not as prevalent as in germany of eating raw minced-meat sandwiches--existing between the jew and the christian to tubercular infection from meat are about equal. the records of the jewish hospital of new york gives, out of , persons admitted, only . per of its admissions as being due to consumption; while those of the roosevelt hospital, out of , admissions, gives a per of . . from what is known of the relation of syphilis to consumption, not only as affecting the primary individual, but the subsequent generations of the same, and the known greater exemption of the jew to syphilitic infection, owing to the protecting influence of circumcision, it is safe to assert that therein is to be found one of the main reasons of the exemption of that race to consumption. if we but look at the geographical distribution of phthisis and the history of its progress, we shall find that it has had syphilis as its _avant courrier_ on more than one occasion. lancereaux, in his "distribution of pulmonary phthisis," points to the fact that where consumption has made its greatest ravages, and where it has nearly depopulated one of the great divisions of the globe,--namely, the groups of islands in the pacific ocean,--the disease had no existence at the beginning of the present century. syphilis, scrofula, and a quick, galloping consumption have, since the last ninety years, taken off the greater part of the population. the same course of transition from the best of physical conditions to racial deterioration and extinction from the same relative condition of causes--syphilis, scrofula, and phthisis--has been observed among the open-air dwellers of the new mexican plains, in the mountains of arizona, and on the arid wastes of the colorado desert, where the appearance of consumption cannot be attributed to housing or incipient civilization, as it is attributed to housing among the chippeways, sioux, or mandans in the regions that formerly formed the northwest territory. the question is very plainly answered as to how consumption was introduced or whence it sprung that has so ravaged the oceanic islands. the sailors who first visited those islands were not, as a rule, a batch of consumptive tourists on a voyage in search of health or recreation; but we can well understand that the proverbially improvident mariner has not always had his health looked after by an anson or a cook, and that many a festive tar who induced the unsophisticated indian maid to join him in worship at the shrine of venus porcina carried in the innermost recesses of the folds of his pendulous and sea-beaten prepuce the remnants of former bacchanalian festivities performed in the questionable temples of venus and bacchus in portsmouth or london. consumption, as such, was neither imported nor propagated by europeans into those islands, its original entry being in the shape of syphilis. had it been the ancient mariners of old phoenicia in the days of its circumcision, or the circumcised marines of the ancient atlantean fleets from the sunken continent of plato, instead of the uncircumcised sailors of modern england, that first and since visited those islands, it is safe to say that consumption would not now exist there. from this, it may be well to inquire what would be the relation between the jewish race and consumption; were circumcision among them to be done away with, would it not be greatly on the increase? the weight of testimony is evidently convincing that the jew has a greater longevity and stronger resistance to disease, as well as a less liability to physical ills, than other races; that all these exemptions or benefits are not altogether due to social customs is evident; how much circumcision may have to do in inducing these favorable conditions can be better appreciated by a consideration of how circumcision affects those of other races, and more particularly how its performance works changes in the individual in his general health and condition, and in doing away with many physical ailments that the individual was previously subjected to. so that the jew cannot be said to be a loser by his observance of this rite, and he and his race have been well repaid for all the sufferings and persecutions that its observance has subjected them to. as observed by john bell, "the preservation of health and the attainment of long life are objects of desire to every man, no matter in what age or country his lot is cast, nor by what arbitrary tenure he holds his life. they are the wish of the master and the slave, of the illiterate and the learned, of the timid hindoo and the warlike arab, of the natives of new zealand not less than of the inhabitants of new england,--an indispensable condition for the greatest and longest enjoyment of the senses and propensities; for the widest range and exercise of intellect and gratification of the sentiments, whether these be lofty or ignoble, health, in any special degree, has ever been a fit subject of contemplation and instruction by the philosopher and legislator. their advice and edicts on the means of preserving it have frequently been enforced as a part of religious duty, and, at all times, civilization, even in its elementary forms, has been marked by laws on this head. with the numerous and minute hygienic enactments of the great jewish lawgiver for the guidance of the people of israel we are all familiar. prompted, we may suppose, in part by the example of moses, and also by considerations growing out of the nature of the climate in which he lived, mohammed incorporated with the mingled reveries, ethics, and blasphemies, which composed his koran, dietetic rules and observances of regimen that are to this day implicitly obeyed by his zealous followers."[ ] if circumcision is not a factor in the difference that exists between the jewish race and other races, if it goes for nothing as an exemptor of disease and the promoter of longevity, then there must exist some other factor or cause that induces these conditions. what this factor is, the legislator, the sociologist, and the physician should make it their business to find out. chapter xv. predisposition to and exemption and immunity from disease. the peculiar differences that exist between different animals in regard to their susceptibility to the action of drugs is even more remarkable than the differences that exist in their susceptibility to certain forms of disease. we can understand and appreciate what koch tells us in regard to the different susceptibilities exhibited by the house-mice and the field-mice to the anthrax bacillus, or why a nursing child should offer different results, when exposed to the diphtheria bacillus or the contagious poison of any of the exanthemata, from those witnessed in the meat or promiscuously dieted child. we can also appreciate that different individuals have different susceptibilities to disease, as well as we understand that the same degree is not always in an unvarying point of resistance or susceptibility in the same individual. the investigation and study of these conditions teach us, however, that there is a cause, or that there are causes that induce and modify this susceptibility. but there are conditions that are as yet beyond our comprehension. take, for instance, two animals, both vertebrates, mammals, and dwelling together, eating the same food, and even having a mutual understanding or sympathy of mind and affections, having a like circulation, a like brain and nervous system, it would naturally be supposed that these two would exhibit a like susceptibility to the actions of narcotic poisons; but when we are told that one dog has taken grains of atropia with impunity we are staggered. atropia may not affect rabbits (as it does not), but the rabbit does not approach man in the same close relationship as the dog. richardson administered to a healthy young cat drachms of battley's solution of opium, then grains of morphia, and a little later grains more of morphia without rendering the cat unconscious. the same experimenter gave to a pigeon , , and , then grains of powdered opium on succeeding days with no bad effect. s. weir mitchell gave to three pigeons, respectively, drops of black drop, grains of powdered opium, and grains of morphia without any effect.[ ] on the other hand, horses show a like susceptibility to man to the action of drugs. in the island of ceylon, a sloth can take grains of strychnia with safety,--chickens presenting a like immunity to the poisonous effects of this alkaloid. while the dog offers such a contrast to the action of drugs as compared to man, he is as subject to goitre, and they have been seen in a true state of cretinism.[ ] an apache, or colorado indian, will prefer a dessert of decomposed gophers to one composed of the best canned peaches or bartlett pears; he will devour the mass without any resulting evil, while a german--after many generations of training on all forms of sausages in every degree of age and ripeness, and on every form of cheese, from the refreshing cottage cheese from curdled milk and the delicious cream cheese, down through to all and every grade as far as limburgher, or maggoty, common cheese--has not, in every case overcome the tendency of the civilized intestine and constitution to the action of sausage poison, something that has no effect on the ordinary indian, or on the uncivilized dweller north of the arctic circle. even the house-dog, that faithful companion of man, in many cases living on exactly the same fare as his master, is insensible to the action of this poison. an indian will gorge and gormandize, after a prolonged fast, on such quantities and qualities of food that, if the ordinary white man were to indulge in a like feast, he would be in imminent danger of literal rupture or explosion, or liable to end in sudden apoplectic seizures, or, in case of a too healthy and active digestion, liable, owing to a lack of a correspondingly active condition of the excretory organs, to go off in uræmic coma. this sporadic and fitful feasting has no perceptible effect on the indian, who either simply works it off in exercise, or sleeps it off in a long and prolonged period of sleep, during which his lungs work with the deep and steady pull and persistence that a tug-boat exhibits when towing in a large ship against the tide and a head wind,--working in and out more air in one respiration than the ordinary white man will in a dozen. all these different conditions are more or less plain to us and as easy of explanation,--just as plain as to how and why some birds eat gravel to improve their digestion. in the cases of different susceptibility to the action of strychnia or of narcotics, the explanation must of necessity, for the present, be more or less speculative. but how are we to account, even in the way of speculation, for the peculiar immunity, lack of predisposition and hereditary tendencies to disease exhibited by the hebrew, who, since the history of the world, has been a civilized and rational being,--even for decades of centuries before the civilization of europe? living under the same forms of government, climate, and shelter, practically using the same varieties of food and drink, he exhibits an entirely different vitality and resistance to disease, decay, and death,--being, in fact, a puzzle to the demographic student. the only really marked difference that exists between this race and the others lies in the fact that the hebrew is circumcised, other differences not being sufficiently constant to be accounted as factors. circumcision is, in the opinion of the writer, the real cause of the differences in longevity and faculty for the enjoyment of life that the hebrew enjoys in contrast to his christian brother. christian and uncircumcised races may individually, or in classes, develop some peculiar immunity or exemption, as, for instance, the tolerance to arsenic exhibited by some german mountaineers, or the peculiar safety enjoyed by the butcher class from attacks of continued fever;[ ] but these exemptions are purchased at the expense of the future, the effects of arsenic, long continued, finally having its morbid effects, and the very plethora which is the bulwark of resistance in the butcher, this plethora being in the end a treacherous foe, diseases result from it which make a sudden ending to this class when it is least expected. for an all around long-liver the hebrew holds a pre-eminence, and, as the factor in this pre-eminence, circumcision has no counter-claimant. circumcision is like a substantial and well-secured life-annuity; every year of life you draw the benefit, and it has not any drawbacks or after-claps. parents cannot make a better paying investment for their little boys, as it insures them better health, greater capacity for labor, longer life, less nervousness, sickness, loss of time, and less doctor-bills, as well as it increases their chances for an euthanasian death. chapter xvi. the prepuce, syphilis, and phthisis. it is not alone the tight-constricted, glans-deforming, onanism-producing, cancer-generating prepuce that is the particular variety of prepuce that is at the bottom of the ills and ailments, local or constitutional, that may affect man through its presence. the loose, pendulous prepuce, or even the prepuce in the evolutionary stage of disappearance, that only loosely covers one-half of the glans, is as dangerous as his long and constricted counterpart. if we look over the world's history, since in the latter years of the fifteenth century syphilis came down like a plague, walking with democratic tread through all walks and stations in life, laying out alike royalty or the vagrant, the curled-haired and slashed-doubleted knight, or the tonsured monk, we must conclude that syphilis has caused more families to become extinct than any ordinary plague, black death, or cholera epidemic. without wishing to enter into a history of syphilis, it is not outside of the province of this book to allude to its frequency and spread. syphilis is not restricted to classes by any means; it is not those of the lower class alone who are its victims. dr. fr. j. behrend, in his work, "die prostitution in berlin," observes that abolition of the brothels in that city in , ' , ' and ' , trebled the number of cases of syphilis treated at the der charité; in the year the cases of syphilis treated at that hospital numbered over . it was also remarked during this period of legally-enforced virtue, that, as inconsistently as it might appear, the disease invaded the best of families. from dr. neumann, in his brochure entitled "die berliner syphilisfrage," published in , we learn that, in the trades and mechanics' benevolent union of berlin, in , . per cent. of the sick were so from syphilis. in the thirteenth volume of the _british and foreign medico-chirurgical review_, we find, in a review of the control of prostitution, an estimate in regard to the syphilization of a nation. the estimates are made on the most conservative figures, as, in the desire of the reviewer not to overestimate, he starts by figuring out the actual number of prostitutes in england, wales, and scotland to be only , , when they were estimated, by those who had carefully studied the subject, as being more than double that number; the conservative estimate is, however, suitable for our purpose; so that we cannot be accused of overestimating the results. the portion of the review to which we wish to call attention is as follows:-- "though the result of the evidence contained in the first report of the commissioners on the constabulary force of england and wales was that at that time about per cent. of the prostitutes of london were suffering under some form of venereal disease, yet we will descend even lower, and presume that of one hundred healthy prostitutes, taken promiscuously from england and scotland, if each submits to one indiscriminate sexual act in twenty-four hours, not more than one would become infected with syphilis, an estimate which is without doubt far too low; yet, if admitted to be correct, the necessary consequence will be, _that of the fifty thousand prostitutes five hundred are diseased within the aforesaid twenty-four hours_. "if we next admit that a fifth of these five hundred diseased women are admitted to hospital on the day on which the disease appears, it follows _that there are every day on the streets four hundred diseased women_. let it be supposed that the power of these four hundred to infect be limited to twelve days, and that of every six persons who, at the rate of one each night, have connection with these women, five become infected, it will follow _that there will be four thousand men infected every night, and consequently one million four hundred and sixty thousand in the year_. further, as there are every night four hundred women diseased by these men, one hundred and eighty-two thousand five hundred _public prostitutes will be syphilized during the year; hence, one million six hundred and fifty-two thousand five hundred cases of syphilis in both sexes occur every twelve months_. "if, then, the entire population had intercourse with prostitutes in an equal ratio, _the gross population of great britain, of all ages and sexes, would, during eighteen years, have been affected with primary syphilis_. be it remembered, we do not assert that more than a million and a half of _persons_ are attacked every year, but that that number of _cases_ occurs annually in england, wales, and scotland, though the same individual may be attacked more than once. although it is evident that all the estimates used for these calculations are (we know no other word that expresses it) ridiculously low, yet we find that more than a million and a half of cases of syphilis occur every year,--an amount which is probably not half the actual number. how enormous, then, must be the number of children born with secondary disease! how immense the mortality among them! how vast an amount of public and private money expended on the cure of this disease!" the same reviewer (p. s. holland), in another article on the "control of prostitution," observes that among the british troops syphilis is one of the most frequent of diseases, about one hundred and eighty cases occurring annually among every one thousand soldiers. the effect of syphilis in depopulating the islands of the pacific has been pointed out in a former chapter; the nature and origin of the disease that takes them off is unmistakable. scrofula and rapid phthisis are taking off the inhabitants at a rate that, in those islands most affected, the native population will soon become extinct. according to lancereaux, in the marquesas group the women do not live beyond the age of thirty to thirty-five years, three or four months being the duration of the disease. ellis, in his "polynesian researches," published in , remarks that at that date the disease, as above described, had but recently appeared. in the nineteenth volume of the "archives de médecine navale," rey mentions that at the easter island pulmonary phthisis is the dominant affection with the adults, and that scrofula is very prevalent with the children.[ ] the effect of syphilization in inducing a scrofulous taint and the appearance of a rapidly-marching consumption among savage races has been well observed among the indians in the southwestern parts of the united states, where the appearance of these fatal diseases can easily be traced to that as a cause. there is something peculiar about the anglo-saxon race that is fatal to the indian; wherever they come in contact, the savage race begins physically and morally to crumble; the habits of the anglo-saxon in the matter of intemperance and his lust soon end the poor indian; while, on the other hand, the latin races mix with them without any physical detriment to the indian. in what was formerly the northwest territory the french and indian intermarried, and syphilis did not begin to tell on the indian until the americans settled the country. from these observations it is very evident that in the polynesian archipelago syphilis must have been the precursor of the phthisis and scrofula, as we know it to have been that which induced those diseases among the indians of the mississippi or missouri valleys, or of the colorado and mojave deserts, or in the mountains and valleys of arizona. on the other hand, circumcised races, whose women have not carried a syphilitic taint into the race, are as a class free from any syphilitic taint. neither their teeth, physiognomy, skin, nor general condition denote any syphilitic inheritance. this is true of the jewish descendants of abraham, who have more strictly adhered to the non-intercourse or marriage with other races, and whose women have abstained from vice; the arabian descendants of ishmael have, in a great measure, also retained their marked family individuality, except it be a few tribes, who, by contact with the soldiery of european nations, have had their women corrupted and syphilis introduced into the tribe through this channel. richardson, in his "preventive medicine," observing on the effects of syphilis in inducing deterioration of the organs of circulation and their degenerative changes, says that, in his opinion, syphilis is the progenitor of various diseases, and that those who give this opinion the greatest range are, unfortunately, nearest the truth. the breathing organs, he remarks, are distinctly susceptible to injury from this hereditary cause. in , at the metropolitan free hospital, situated in the jews' quarter in london, hutchinson observed that the proportion of jews to christians among the out-patients was as one to three; at the same time the proportion of cases of syphilis in the former to the latter was one to fifteen. now, this result was not due to any extra morality on the part of the jews, as fully one-half of the gonorrhoea cases occurred among those of that faith. j. royes bell also observes the less syphilization among circumcised races.[ ] the absence of the prepuce and the non-absorbing character of the skin of the glans penis, made so by constant exposure, with the necessary and unavoidably less tendency that these conditions give to favor syphilitic inoculation, are not evidently without their resulting good effects. now and then syphilitic primary sores are found on the glans, or even in the urethra or on the outside skin of the penis, or outer parts of the prepuce; but the majority are, as a rule, situated either back of the corona or on the reflected inner fold of the prepuce immediately adjoining the corona, or they may be in the loose folds in the neighborhood of the frenum, the retention of the virus seemingly being assisted by the topographical condition and relation of the parts, and its absorption facilitated by the thinness of the mucous membrane, as well as by the active circulation and moisture and heat of the parts. it must be evident that but for these favoring conditions the inoculation or infection would and could not be either as sure or as frequent. any protecting mechanical aid that interferes with these favoring conditions grants an immunity to the individual, even when he is freely exposed; this protection has often been obtained by applying to the glans and penis a substantial coat of some tenacious oil like castor-oil, which was afterward gently washed off, first in a shower of tepid water and afterward in a tepid bath of warm water and borax. horner, formerly of the navy, in his interesting little work on "naval practice,"[ ] relates that it was customary, in the older navy of the united states, to allow public women to come on board at some of the ports and to go down to the men between decks, the department of the navy being probably actuated by the same humane principle that used to induce some of the west indian cannibals to lend their wives to their prisoners of war who were intended, in the shape of roast or _fricandeau_, to grace the festive board, as it was deemed inhuman by these philanthropists to deprive a man of his necessary sexual intercourse, even if they were soon to roast him and pick his bones. they may, however, have been selfish in the matter, as by some authorities it is represented that this was done to improve the flavor of the prisoner, who was said to offer a more savory dish through this considerate treatment, the strong flavor that the semen gives to flesh being well eradicated by free fornication. whether it was through these motives of humanitarianism, or the feeling that an american tar was the equal of the british tar, whose praises and equality sir joseph porter, k.c.b., writes a song about in "pinafore," who had as much right to contract a left-handed marriage as any prince of wales or any other prince or crowned head of europe, the women were, nevertheless, allowed to go down between decks in preference to giving the men indiscriminate liberty on shore, the government further providing for their welfare by causing the assistant surgeon to examine the women at the gangway or hatchway, to see that they were not diseased. horner relates the ludicrous appearance presented by a near-sighted assistant at one of the hatchways while making this professional examination, surrounded by the sailors and marines, who were greatly-interested spectators. had the government provided a pot of castor-oil wherein the tar could dip his penile organ, as bridge piles are dipped into a creasoting mixture, these humiliations to our professional brother could have been avoided. in the conclusion to be reached, circumcision is not put forward as the only exempting element or preventive measure that deserves all the credit for the immunity that the jews enjoy from syphilis, or to the absence of hereditary diseases that are secondary or due to the presence of that disease in the parents, as considerable credit is to be given to the well-known chastity of their females. this chastity is, in a great measure, due to the inseparable conditions of their religion,--moral and social fabrics which are welded into one. their charity assumes the most practical form, so that it is not possible for one of their females to have to resort to a life of prostitution to save herself or her children from starvation, as, unfortunately, is too often the case in christian communities, where religion is put on and off with sunday clothes. the temperance and sobriety, as well as the economy and industry of the father, are not without a good moral as well as a hereditary effect on the daughters, who are neither rendered brutal nor demoralized through the example and instigation of drunken fathers. they have, therefore, a better average homelife, to which they cling and which protects them. the aid and benevolent associations of the jews are among the most efficacious of charitable institutions, and no class gives more freely or generously for this purpose. the home for aged hebrews in new york is an example of the character with which they dispense charity. we need not, therefore, be surprised to find, in statistics of illegitimacy by religious denominations taken in prussia, that the jewish women are three times as chaste as the catholics and more than four times as chaste as the evangelists.[ ] the jew has, therefore, two avenues of infection from syphilis cut off,--the lesser liability due to his circumcision and the chastity of the women. richardson mentions the immunity of the jewish race from tubercular disease, and notices the well-known relation existing between a syphilitic taint and a phthisical tendency. the comparative statistics offered by the mohammedans, jews, and christians in regard to deaths from consumption have already been mentioned in a former chapter, they being as four christians to one jew, while the mohammedan, from his greater abstemiousness and temperance to assist him, shows a still lower percentage than the jew. there can be but little doubt that to this particular and well-marked less syphilization the hebrew race owes much of its exemption from many other diseases and its greater resistance to ordinary ailments and epidemic diseases. the relative less frequency of syphilis among all circumcised people is noticed by dr. bernheim, in his brochure "de la circoncision," he being the surgeon of the israelitish consistory of paris. his utterances on this subject are worthy of attention, he having not only paid particular attention to this, but having had unusual opportunities for the basis of his opinions. dr. bernheim looks upon coition as a frequent source of tubercular infection, and the sensitive and absorbing covering of the uncircumcised glans as a ready medium of transmission of the virus from one system to the other. he calls attention to the frequent granular condition of the uterine os, in confirmed cases of tuberculosis, as something that is too much overlooked. this view of the case, from dr. bernheim's stand-point, is worthy of greater consideration than it has generally received at the hands of the profession. the great number of examples that have recently come to light in connection with the direct inoculability of tubercular consumption, both in the later works on phthisis and in the medical press, are not without interest or without a lesson. the case recorded within the past year of a healthy chambermaid, who was immediately inoculated with tubercular matter with rapidly-following constitutional effects through a scratch on the hand, received from the sharp edge of a broken china cuspidor that a consumptive was using, is one of these cases that are to the point; so it is evident that the uncircumcised need not always wait for the degeneration of syphilis into syphilitic phthisis or syphilitic scrofula to become a consumptive, but it is within the greatest range of possibility and probability that he may become at once a consumptive through an excoriation or abrasion received during coition with a tubercular woman. so many tubercular prostitutes ply their trade, or, to be more definite, so many prostitutes become tubercular, and in its different stages follow their occupation as the only means of keeping out of the poor-house, that man runs as much if not more risk, in consorting with the class, of contracting tuberculosis than that of contracting syphilis. there is something about syphilis that is not generally noticed; we are all well acquainted with the dire results that usually follow syphilitic infection, its course through every stage of suffering and misery, its transmission and effects in tubercular meningitis or in syphilitic affections of the mesentery through heredity in children, and of the many horrible cases of destruction of tissue, in skin, mucous membrane, cartilage, or bone, with their attending mutilations and disfigurations; but there is no record of the great number of cases, and very few physicians of any extended practice but who can recall some such cases, where, after undoubted syphilitic infection, with the usual course of primary sores and secondary eruption, the patient has suddenly blossomed out into a state of robust health that his system was an entire stranger to before the infection. the writer has, in the course of a long practice, seen a number of such results follow both the infection attended with a miliary eruption and that followed by the large small-pox-appearing eruption, both kinds being preceded by the primary sore; and these results have been observed in cases of both what are called the soft and multiple and the hard or hunterial initial sore. some of these cases rapidly gained in flesh, with an evident increase in the redness of their blood, increasing in vigor and strength with a very perceptibly less tendency to attacks from accidental or previously subject-to diseases. the same result has been observed to follow an attack of small-pox with some individuals, and the writer well remembers a similar result following a very extraordinary event. the subject was a man well known among his old comrades of the first minnesota infantry as "duke," and to many of the older practitioners of wabashaw county, of that state, as "old duke." in early life he was sickly and weakly, never having fully recovered from a malarial fever contracted in the mexican war. coming to minnesota, he adopted the life of a raftsman, with all the irregularities that accompanied such a life. on one occasion, after a protracted spree, feeling the need of stimulation and not having the wherewith to procure it, he secured a jar in which a snake and several other reptiles were preserved in spirits, and drank the fluid contents. he was, some days afterward, taken violently ill with a high fever and racking pains, ending in an eruption of boils that covered him from head to foot; he made a slow and tedious recovery; but when recovered he seemed to have become imbued with a constitution resembling _lignum-vitæ_, for a more stubborn-twisted constitution never existed than that of "old duke." the power of resistance that this man developed was something wonderful. dr. c. p. adams, of hastings, minnesota, and the st. paul physicians who were connected with the regiment well remember, though, wiry, precise, and soldierly "duke," who, even in the old army of the potomac, immersed up to his ears like the rest of the army in the mud and dirt of the encampment of falmouth, above fredericksburg, came out on general inspection as prim as if he had just stepped out of a bandbox, for which he received a medal for soldierly conduct and bearing. these apparent digressions are not made either to be tedious or to weary the reader, nor without an object. they are made to show that, whereas syphilis is looked upon as such a deadly disease, and it may be said to be the sole cause of fear to the assiduous worshiper at the shrine of venus porcina, there is another still more fatal danger awaiting him, ambushed in the folds of the vaginal mucous membrane, or coming along silently out of the cervical canal,--like the legions of cyrus stealing along the dry bed of the euphrates into ancient babylon, to fall unawares on the feasting nebuchadnezzar on that fatal night. so, in like manner, the virus of tuberculosis, either extruding from a granular os or from its neighborhood, gradually moves down on the unsuspecting, uncircumcised, and easily inoculable-surfaced glans penis, to infect the system with a tubercular poison that has no such exceptions as those above noted, as at times are the followers of syphilis. it is not alone the individual himself that may be the sufferer from this poison, but his progeny for several generations may have to suffer for the infection thus received, just as much as they would were that infection to have been syphilitic. as before remarked, this has heretofore not sufficiently occupied the consideration of the profession, and, as it cannot certainly be denied that such a source of tubercular infection is both possible and probable, the subject is entitled to more serious and deliberate consideration than that which has heretofore been paid to it. tuberculosis certainly has these two channels of entrance: either through direct infection or through an evolutionary process resulting from syphilis. the appearance and vital statistics offered by the french war office in regard to the algierine provinces, the report of the united states census, the opinion of dr. billings deduced from the census reports, the opinions of hutchinson, richardson, bernheim, and many other observers, as well as the personal but unrecorded observations of many practitioners, all tend to bear testimony to the remarkable difference that exists between circumcised and uncircumcised races in regard to the ravages of consumption. is circumcision a factor in this difference, or is it not? if it is, then circumcision should receive more attention than it has; if it is not, then we should not be idle in hunting up the cause of difference, for an ounce of prevention is certainly worth in this regard a whole pound of koch's lymph as a curative agent. chapter xvii. some reasons for being circumcised. the surgical and medical history of circumcision is intimately connected with the remotest ages, this being, in fact, the earliest surgical procedure of which we have any record. from the same records we obtain hints as to two conditions for which circumcision probably was suggested, either as a preventive or as a remedy. jahn, in speaking of the people by whom the early hebrews were surrounded, mentions their idolatrous practices, and that their peculiar forms of pagan worship were accompanied by indulgence in fornication, lascivious songs, and unnatural lust. others of their neighbors worshiped the "_hairy he-goat_," with which they also practiced all manner of abominations. sodomy, or pederasty, seemed a sort of religious ceremony with some of these heathen nations; from a religion it necessarily became a social practice; this, in connection with the phallic practices and worship, necessitated frequent exposure of the male member. the evil results, to say nothing of the disgusting and demoralizing tendency of these practices of the pagan, were evidently well known to the jews. the contrast between the physique and health of the pastoral habits, out-of-door life and simple diet of the jews, and the necessary opposite condition of health and physique due to luxury and to these practices among their neighbors, could not have escaped their attention. how much onanism had to do with the establishment of circumcision may well be conjectured. again, the other hint is in reference to procreation, as some stress is laid to the connection between the conception of sarah and the circumcision of abraham. here we have suggestions of a preventive to onanism, and a cure to male impotence when due to preputial interference.[ ] strange as it may seem, these two important results, due to circumcision, seem to have been lost sight of for some thousands of years, as even the able works of the physicians of the latter part of the last century have nothing to say connecting onanism and circumcision. neither the works of tissot on male onanism nor the pioneer work of bienville on nymphomania speak of the presence of the prepuce in the male, or of the nymphar or clitorian prepuce in the female, as being causative of, or their removal curative of, either masturbation, satyriasis, or nymphomania; moral, hygienic, and internal medication being by both these authors considered to be all that our science could offer or do to alleviate or cure this unfortunate class. it is only of late years that circumcision, in its true relations to onanism, has received full consideration. in regard to its being a cure of impotence, its recognition has been of longer duration. it is related by leonard, in his "memoires,"--who, in his capacity of hair-dresser in ordinary to her majesty, the unfortunate marie-antoinette, had ample opportunity for picking up all the domestic small talk of the royal family and their affairs,--that louis xvi, in addition to all his troubles and the indignities which he suffered, besides finally being beheaded, was afflicted with a congenital phimosis which prevented the flow of semen from properly discharging itself. it appears that his majesty was no little annoyed at not being able to procure an heir to his throne. his royal sister-in-law, the countess d'artois, had given birth to a prince, the duke of angouleme, who was the heir presumptive to the throne in case of the non-issue from louis; another sister-in-law had been brought to bed with a royal princess, and here was the king himself without any prospective possibility of any heir. like all kings, he was more or less unreasonable; so he blamed his first surgeon in ordinary for all these short-comings,--as if it were the duty of these court surgeons, among their many other tribulations, to furnish heirs to thrones. the surgeon finally informed his majesty that if he wished to become a father it would be necessary for him to submit to the slight operation that was the subject of the church festival of the first day of january, namely, the feast of the circumcision. his most christian majesty entered a protest to this acknowledgment that there was anything in judaism worth imitating. the surgeon insisted that the operation celebrated on the first of january would put him in a way to have the much-desired heir. the king finally waived all objections from any religious scruples, but could not be brought to look at the prospective operation with any sentiments of agreeable expectation. the king finally became good-natured, and a touch of that plebeian jollity which at times made him quite agreeable spread over his features as he imagined the ludicrousness of the spectacle that would be presented by a king of france in the hands of these handlers of the scalpel, treating him like an african savage. he took some days to consider the matter. on the next day he informed m. louis, his first surgeon in ordinary, that he had decided on submitting to the operation, and the day and hour were fixed. the royal circumcision, however, never took place, as it is most likely that in the privacy of his chamber his majesty worked, like many a plebeian or man of low degree had done before him and has done since, to bring a refractory prepuce to terms. the king was somewhat of a mechanic, as his skill as a locksmith has passed into history; so that it is not unlikely that, with what little information he had on the subject, he managed to sufficiently dilate, by scarification and stretching, the preputial opening, as from the year the queen had three children. cases of attempted self-circumcision are not rarities, as people have some inexplicable idea that a self-inflicted cut is not as painful as one that is done by others. the writer well remembers being called to assist one of these domestic surgeons who had undertaken to circumcise himself with his wife's great scissors. the man had a very long but thin and narrow prepuce that had always been an annoyance to him. the writer had circumcised two of his children for the same malformation, and the father, seeing the benefit to these two, determined to share in the general benefit; but at the same time he arranged to do it all by himself, and give the family and the surgeon a sample of his courage and a simultaneous surprise party. securing the scissors, he wended his way unperceived into the recesses of his wood-shed. the mental and physical anguish the poor man underwent, and what soliloquies he must have addressed to the rafters of the wood-shed while making up his mind and screwing up his physical courage for the last fell act with the scissors, can hardly be described, as, in all probability, they were of the most rambling and inconsistent order. at any rate, he must have reached a climax in time and grasped the fated prepuce with a revengeful glee, and, with all his powers concentrated in his good right hand, he must have closed the remorseless blades of the scissors on the unlucky prepuce. when the surgeon arrived at the scene of carnage, he was directed to the wood-shed, on the outskirts of which hovered the family, frantic with fear and apprehension; within, in the darkest corner, with wildly dilated eyes, and performing a fantastic _pas seul_, was a man with a huge pair of scissors dangling between his legs, warning all hands as they valued his life not to approach or lay a hand on him. he had shut the scissors down so that it clinched the thin prepuce, and there his courage and determination had forsaken him; he lost his presence of mind, and was not even able to take off the scissors; he had simply given one wild, blood-curdling yell--like the last winding notes from roland's horn at roncevalles--that had brought his family to the wood-shed-door, and they had then sent for a surgeon. new terrors here awaited the unlucky victim for self-circumcision. he dreaded lest the surgeon should accidentally have it enter his mind to finish the operation with the scissors, and in that case he would be helpless, as the surgeon would, undoubtedly, have a sure and tender hold of it. after executing a number of _pas à deux_ on the magilton step, while the surgeon endeavored to reassure him and gain his confidence, promising to remove the scissors without inflicting any further harm, he was finally allowed to approach, and, while the patient assumed a taglioni attitude on one foot, the other leg being extended at right angles with the body and his hands clawing the air, the scissors was removed. the patient, through the aid of lead lotions and a week's rest, made a good recovery with a whole prepuce, chagrined at his failure, but happy to have escaped immediate pain.[ ] there is not much doubt but that the operation could have been suggested by its, at times, spontaneous performance, a case of which, by cullerier, and some other additional cases have been mentioned in a former chapter. cases occur at times, also, wherein the person having a previously normal and uninterfering prepuce has, through either herpetic inflammations or through impure connection, spurious gonorrhoea, or the use of some venereal-disease preventing-wash after connection, produced some irritation resulting in the abnormal thickening of the inner fold, or an interstitial deposit at the junction of the skin and mucous membrane, with consequent constriction, this deposit finally forming a hard, inelastic ring, which prevented a free exposure of the glans and interfered in sexual connection. in such cases,--like in stricture of the meatus,--any mechanical interference short of cutting with a knife only aggravates the existing difficulty, and it is not uncommon to have such cases apply for assistance after they have in vain tried to dilate the constricting preputial orifice. in the early writings of the greeks, it is mentioned that among the egyptians circumcision exempted them from a certain form of disease that affected the penis. philon mentions particularly the immunity that the operation conferred against a species of affection which michel levy asserts to have been a gangrenous disease. so that, outside of any religious significance, there is no doubt that, in individual cases, circumcision has more than once been suggested, although it cannot be said that such individual cases would ever, or could, lead to its becoming a national or racial, much less a sectarian, rite. chapter xviii. the prepuce as an outlaw, and its effects on the glans. ricord has well termed this appendage to civilized man "a useless bit of flesh." times were, however, when--man living in a wild state, and when in imitation of some of our near relatives with tails and hairy bodies; when he still found locomotion on all-fours handier than on his two feet; when in pursuit of either the juicy grasshopper or other small game, or of the female of his own species to gratify his lust, or in the frantic rush to escape the clutches, fangs, or claws of a pursuing enemy, he was obliged to fly and leap over thorny briars and bramble-bushes or hornets' nests, or plunge through swamps alive with blood-sucking insects and leeches--ricord's definition would certainly have been inapplicable. in those days, but for the protecting double fold of the preputial envelope that protected it from the thorns and cutting grasses, the coarse bark of trees, or the stings and bites of insects, the glans penis of primitive man would have often looked like the head of the proverbially duel-disfigured german university student, or the bacchus-worshiping nose of a jolly british boniface. so that in those days, unless primitive man was intended to have an organ that resembled a battle-scarred roman legionary, a prepuce was an absolute necessity. with improvement in man's condition and his gradual evolution into a higher sphere, the assumption of the erect posture, and the great stride in civilization that originated the invention of the manufacture of the perineal band, which not only protected the glans in its thorny passage through life, but also acted like a protecting ægis to the scrotum and its contents, the prepuce became a superfluity; not only a superfluity, but, now that its natural office had been replaced by the perineal cloth, it actually began to be a nuisance, as its former free contact with the air had retained it in a state of vigorous and disease-resisting health which was now fast departing. as montesquieu observes, in the causes that led to the decline and fall of the roman empire, those seasons of trials, tribulations, and struggle for existence are those of health and progress and healthy life, and the periods of luxury and idleness are those of degeneracy and decay. so with the prepuce, the luxury and idleness, voluptuousness and consequent feasting incident to its being supplanted in its original functions by the perineal cloth, which left it thenceforth unemployed, led it in the pathway of disease and death. this first innovation in civilization was to the prepuce the beginning of its decay and fall. like belshazzar in his great banquet-hall in ancient babylon, the prepuce might have read the hand-writing on the wall, "_mene, mene, tekel, upharsin_," and foreseen the gory end that awaited it. like to other human affairs, however, even in his fallen estate a kind word can be said for the prepuce. puzey, of liverpool, has found it of extreme value, and even unequaled by any other part of the body, for furnishing skin-grafts,[ ] these grafts showing a vitality that is simply phenomenal, considering the laxity of its tissues and its seemingly adipose character. there is no doubt, however, that for skin-transplanting there is nothing superior to the plants offered by the prepuce of a boy, and where any large surface is to be covered this should undoubtedly be chosen, as offering the greatest and quickest success and the least chances of failure. this is really the only disadvantage that can be charged against circumcision, as in a strictly circumcised community they would be debarred from this great advantage. an uncircumcised individual could be procured, however, to supply the deficiency. it is related that in the latter part of , a knight templar, in cincinnati, required a great supply of grafts or skin-plants to cover a largely-denuded surface, and that the whole of his commandery chivalrously and generously supplied the needed skin-plants in a body. a few healthy prepuces would have been more efficacious. in advising the use of the prepuce for these purposes it must not be overlooked that in case of a white man it would not do to use skin of any other color besides his own. we have no data to base any assertion as to the relative action of skin-grafts taken from mongolians or indians, but we have very reliable data in relation to the proliferating action of those of the negro,[ ] which induces a growth of epidermis of its own kind; so that preputial grafts from the negro, combining the extra vitality and proliferation of the preputial tissue with the strong animal vitality of the negro, if applied to a white man, might not produce the most desirable cosmetic effects, especially if on one side of the countenance. but, taken as a whole, when considered in its relation to onanism, nocturnal enuresis, preputial calculus, syphilis, cancer, and a lot of nervous and other ailments, or induced abnormal physical conditions, we can really conclude that the days of the prepuce are past and gone, that it has outlived its usefulness, and that those whom a religious or civil ordinance or custom happily makes them rid of it are people to be greatly envied. as sancho panza remarked, "god bless the man who invented sleep," so we may well join in blessing the inventor of circumcision, as an event that has saved some parts of the human family from much ill and suffering. phimosis is an ancient attendant on our inheritance of the prepuce, we being, in fact, born with it; this is the rule. there are, however, exceptions to this rule, which, singularly enough, are found to be hereditary. the writer has met with a number of such instances, and they have always been found to have been family traits. within the past year, after attending a confinement, his attention was called to the child by the nurse, who thought that the child was deformed; the nurse, singularly enough, never having seen a natural-looking glans penis in all her life, was astonished at the size and appearance of the member. on examination, the organ showed a complete absence of prepuce. on inquiry, the father and another son, born more than twenty years previously,--this comprising every male member of the family,--were found to have been thus born, with the glans fully exposed. the family is now residing in san diego, and is naturally one of more than superior physical health and intelligence. i saw another family similarly affected in the north of france, and of individual cases, without knowing the history of the rest of the family, i have seen a large number. as the prepuce can be observed in every stage of disappearance among mixed races, it would seem that in time it would disappear altogether. its effectual absence in so many cases evidently belongs to some evolutionary process, and shows beyond question that nature does not insist on its presence either as a necessity or as an ornament. the word or term "phimosis" is derived from two greek roots, signifying "string" and "to tighten," or "to tie with a string." galen, from its signification, accepted the word, and from him it has been transmitted through the different epochs of medicine down to our own times. in virtue of its etymological significance, it was formerly applied to any stenosis or closure of duct or aperture, but at present the term is used simply to denote that constriction that affects the prepuce, and which prevents the glans from being passed through the preputial orifice. phimosis is said to be congenital or natural and acquired. the first of these is the common lot of all, as a rule, and with some it remains so throughout life. as babyhood advances in boyhood and boyhood into youth, the prepuce gradually becomes lax and distensible, and in proportion to the existence of these conditions it also loses in its length. where, however, the distal end persists in its constricted condition it is drawn forward as the penis increases in bulk. in many cases its tightness prevents the escape of the sebaceous matter that collects in the sulcus back of the corona, and the resulting irritation on the surface of the glans and the inner mucous fold of the prepuce ends in an inflammatory thickening of the latter, its inner surface becoming thick, undilatable, hard, and unyielding, all the natural elasticity that should be present having departed, with more or less inflammatory thickening and adhesions between the two layers of skin that form the prepuce. in this unyielding tube the glans is imprisoned and compressed, often suffering the tortures that the "maiden" of the dungeons of the inquisition inflicted on the unhappy heretics. it becomes elongated, cyanosed, and hyperæsthetic; the meatus of the urethra is congested and hypertrophied, the corona is undeveloped and often absent, the glans having, on the whole, the long-nosed, conical appearance of the head of a field-mouse. there are hardly five per cent. of the uncircumcised but who suffer in some degree from this constricting result of the prepuce, to a greater or less extent. on the other hand, the unconstricted glans penis assumes the shape and appearance that is seen in the circumcised. the head is shorter, the face flat and abrupt, and the meatus, instead of being at the end of a conical point, is situated on the smooth, rounded front of the glans, and does not differ in color from the covering of the glans itself. from the superior commissure of the meatus to the sulcus in the rear of the corona its topographical outline may be said to describe two opposite segments of a circle, as seen in the cuts representing the glans in its natural shape. the corona is prominent and well developed. the opponents of circumcision base much of their opposition to the fact that circumcision interferes with the natural condition of the parts. the question may well be asked, which of these two shaped glans is the natural product as nature intended it should be? it is a well-known fact that the most forlorn and mouse-headed, long-nosed glans penis will, within a week or two after its liberation from its fetters of preputial bands, assume its true shape. we may naturally inquire if nature made the glans of a certain shape, which seems to be the proper shape for copulative purposes, only to have the condition most effectually abolished by a constricting, unnatural band? how much the shape of this glans, from meatus to corona, may have to do with retaining the urethra to a healthy and normal calibre and condition has not been inquired into, but, as far as the writer has observed, a normal glans seems to have less abnormalities of the urethra, and in treating such cases he has always found that when the urethra of one of these normal-glans subjects was affected it was far easier to manage; on the other hand, secondary and even a tertiary recurrence to an operation is often the fate of a long, narrow, conical-pointed penis. phimosis is known to have been a cause of male impotence by its direct interference with the outward flow of the seminal fluid; but, although we have cases where impregnation has taken place by the aid of a warm spoon and a warm syringe, as in the case related in a former chapter, it must be admitted that the corona is not without some functional office in the act of procreation. its shape indicates a valve action like that of the valve in a syringe-piston, and if we examine the two extremes of these conditions of glans--one devoid of corona, as many are, and the other with the corona in its most pronounced form, when in a state of erection--the difference, either in the appearance of the two organs or in the different philosophical action and results that must necessarily follow the use of these two differently shaped glans, will at once be apparent. unfortunately--or, as many may consider it, most fortunate--the female organs are not always so shaped as to be in themselves wholly favorable to impregnation. the wearing of corsets, the habitual constipation of females, the relaxed and unnatural condition of the uterine ligaments and vagina in civilized women, all favor uterine displacement, with any or all forms of uterine ailments. to this we may add the effect of repeated miscarriages, application of astringent washes, irregular menstruation, etc., all of which conditions often result in an elongation of the neck, constriction of the cervical canal, with the external os placed on the depended point of the sharply pointed cervix, which is liable to point in any direction. just imagine one of these conditioned females and one of the mouse-headed, corona-deficient, long-pointed glans males in the act of copulation! the conical penis finds its way in the reflected fold of the vagina, while the point of the uterus may be two or three inches in some other direction, making impregnation wholly impossible; besides, in the normal-shaped penis, the corona acting as a valve, behind which the circular muscular fibres of the vagina close themselves, tends to retain the seminal fluid in front, while the very shape of the organ assists in straightening out the vaginal canal and to bring the uterus in proper position. in the long, thin, narrow and pointed glans, devoid of corona, there is no mechanical means to retain the seminal discharge. some years ago some one introduced the idea of postural copulation, to be tried in cases of sterility, and it has been found that impregnation would take place in some cases where it had formerly appeared impossible, this position having the effect of righting malpositions during the act, which were the cause of the sterility; but it stands to reason that, where the shape of the organ is such that it further favors malpositions, as well as where it offers no obstacle to the vagina immediately expressing or dropping out all the seminal fluid, impregnation is more difficult, and that, where the uterine deformity is coincident with this condition of penis to assist, it becomes well nigh impossible. foderè mentions a penis about the size of a porcupine-quill on an adult male, and hammond mentions one of the size of a lead-pencil in diameter and two inches in length. from total absence of the penis, either through disease or accident, to the diminutive organs mentioned by foderè and hammond, and on up to the full-sized and normal-shaped organ, we have every degree of sizes and shapes, and with these go every conceivable degree of ability or faculty for impregnation. aside from the foregoing considerations, there are others equally important. although greece was involved for years in war and ancient troy was destroyed and all its inhabitants slaughtered because of the seduction of one woman; and semiramis, through her beauty, got all her successive husbands in chancery; and poor, susceptible samson, from firing philistine vineyards and killing lions bare-handed, and the philistines by the thousands with the jaw-bone of an ass, was reduced through delilah to bitter repentance and turning philistine mill-stones; and we know that the familiar infatuation of antony for cleopatra ruined antony; and we are familiar with the well-known maxim of the french police-minister, that to catch a criminal it was but necessary to first locate _the woman_ and the man would soon be found,--society has determined to ignore the influence of the animal passions as factors in our every-day life, or factors in the estrangements, coldness, and the bickerings that end in divorces. not to shock the reader with detailed accounts as to what an important factor the shape of the penis may be in the domestic economy, i will refer the reader to brantome's works. although the councils of the older church were not above giving these conditions their calm and deliberate consideration, which resulted in the foundation of the present physical considerations in relation to divorce laws, such studies or considerations are at present only touched upon gingerly and with apologies for doing so, as if the "study of man" was of any less importance to-day from what it was in the days of moses, the elder church, or when pope formulated his oft-quoted but little-followed maxim, that "the proper study of mankind is man." the present miscalled "delicacy of sentiment" is about as misplaced a condition of disastrous and misleading morality as was the out-of-place and untimely bravery of poor old braddock when refusing washington's advice at the monongahela. the success and beauty of the mosaic law is its squarely facing the conditions of actual life, and its absence from nonsense or nauseating sentimentality. were our present churches to observe more of this plain talk, for which the good old anglo-saxon is as fully expressive and convincing as the old hebrew, and deal less in rhetorical flourishes and figurative mean-nothings to tickle the ears of our modern pharisees, mankind as well as womankind would be infinitely so much the better off, mentally, morally, and physically, and there would be less of the conflict between science and religion. luther's dream of restoring religion to its primitive purity has come to but as poor realization at the hands of his so-called followers, which leads one to think that if the martyrs of the reformation could come back and see the fruits of their martyrdom--suffered that pure religion might live--they would conclude that, for all the resulting good accomplished, they might as well have kept a whole skin and a whole set of bones. in cases of pronounced phimosis the aperture in the prepuce may not be in a line with the meatus, and the resulting discharge of urine or the ejaculations of seminal fluid may from this cause be unable to find an egress. the fluid escaping from the urethra will, in case the opening is at the side or upper part of the prepuce, cause it to balloon out until a sufficient quantity is thrown out so as to distend, the opening as well as the prepuce, before it can find its way out; in such cases impotency is liable to be as complete as in those cases of stricture wherein the seminal fluid is forced backward into the bladder. having given this general view of the effects of phimosis as it may affect man in the shape of his organ, which may have a serious result in his domestic relations or in becoming a father, we will proceed to the consideration of diseases and conditions that phimosis encourages and to which it renders man more liable. in the consideration of these cases it must not be forgotten that the sexual relations are much more to man or woman than is generally acknowledged. the days for the establishment of the utopian republic of plato are not yet with us. that platonic love does exist is true, as it has in the past and will in the future. scipio, refusing to accept the beautiful betrothed bride of an enemy as a present, or joseph leaving his coat-tail in the hands of the amorous bride of the eunuch potiphar, with the suicide of lucretia, in the past, are events which virtue and modern continence probably duplicate every day; but these are exceptions to the rule. physicians daily see evidences of the most devoted platonic affection in either sex, but they also see enough of the opposite side of the question to convince them that in the majority of cases the sexual relations are the bond of union, as well as the mainspring of love. as observed by montesquieu, the bride of a first-class turkish eunuch has but a sorry time, and a woman of the same calibre of mind as that possessed by the ordinary circassian or armenian bride cannot be in a much happier condition with a husband partly eunuchised by a constricted prepuce. chapter xix. is the prepuce a natural physiological appendage? by many surgeons the idea of circumcision, unless connected with an immediate demand for interference,--such as a phimosis unmanageable by any other means, an induced phimosis from gonorrhoea or other irritation, syphilis in its initiatory sore, cancer or some such cause,--is looked upon as an unwarrantable operation, a procedure not only barbarous, painful, and dangerous, but one that directly interferes with the intentions of nature. the prepuce is by many looked upon as a physiological necessity to health and the enjoyment of life, which, if removed, is liable to induce masturbation, excessive venereal desire, and a train of other evils. the question then resolves itself, what is the real physiological status of this appendage, if it has any, and, if it is a physiological appendage, when does it merge into a pathological appendage? as by some it is held that the prepuce enjoys the same right to live and exist as the nose, ear, or a limb, which are only subject to amputation in case of a serious disease, they should be reminded that they are not taking into consideration that the nose and ear are calculated to warn us of danger, and that our legs are very useful; as even the great orator demosthenes, by the timely and rapid use of his legs, was enabled to escape from a battle, where his oratory was of no avail against the illiterate javelins of the unscholarly macedonians. if the prepuce only was endowed with an olfactory sense,--as, for instance, if a nervous filament from the first pair of nerves had been sent down alongside of the pneumogastric and then, by following the track of the mammary and epigastric arteries, had at last reached the prepuce, where the olfactory sense could have been turned on at will, like an incandescent lamp,--it might have been a very useful organ, as in that sense it could have scented danger from afar, if not from near, and enabled man to avoid any of the many dangers into which he unconsciously drops. but, seeing that the prepuce, to say nothing of being neither nose, eye, nor ear to warn one away from danger, or a leg to run away on after once in it, having not even the precautionary sensitiveness of a cat's moustachios, it cannot, in any way that we can see, be compared to any other useful part of the body. all attempts to find reasons for its existence that are of real benefit to man have so far proved unsatisfactory, and, unlike the reasons for its removal, are, as a rule, founded on speculation. to further reason out the why and wherefore of its existence or of its summary surgical execution, we must consider its shifting positions as to the effects it produces, as well as to its conditions at different ages, sitting on its case like an impartial jury in the case of some unconvicted but diabolically-inclined criminal. as before remarked, we are, as a rule, born with this appendage, just as much as we are with the appendix vermiformis, which rises up, like banquo's ghost, whenever we eat tomatoes or any small-seeded fruit. this prepuce is then long, and the penis is found at the end of an undilatable canal, which is formed by the constricted prepuce; at this early stage of our existence it is often additionally bound down to the glans by a greater or less number of adhesions. we are then in what many term a state of physiological phimosis, that being a perfectly natural condition, and one consistent with health; at least, we imagine it is normal. phimosis in childhood is generally considered a physiological state, only to be taken as a pathological condition under certain circumstances. preputial adhesions may, according to many observers, also be classed as physiological at an early period of life, as it is by them considered as congenital, and common enough to warrant its being classed as normal. as to the first, or phimosis, it undoubtedly is a physiological condition during infancy; but why, we do not know; and it is also a fact that from birth to puberty it remains so in fully over one-half of the cases. out of children, from one week to sixteen years of age, examined by dr. packard, the prepuce was entirely unretractable in , partly so in , and wholly so in ; while in it only half-covered the glans and in the glans was wholly uncovered, of these being an infant only five weeks old. dr. packard also gives the result of examinations by himself, of from twelve to seventy-three years of age, and examinations by dr. maury, a total of , in whom had a long prepuce, a partly-covered glans, and (of whom had been circumcised) in whom the glans was exposed.[ ] as to adhesions, there is an unaccountable diversity of opinion as to their constancy as a natural condition, being frequent enough to class them as physiological occurrences. dr. a. b. arnold, of baltimore, states that his experience in reference to preputial adhesions leads him to conclude that the frequency of its occurrence has been much overstated. in the number of children that he has circumcised, which exceeds , he has met with it in less than four per cent. of the cases. he also mentions that in the adult the adhesions show greater firmness.[ ] on the other hand, dr. bernheim, of the paris israelitish consistory, observes that, of over newborn whom he has examined, with but few exceptions he found the presence of preputial adhesions. he remarks, however, that in the majority these are detached or broken by the first attempt at erection.[ ] bokai, out of children, found who were over seven years of age, who were perfectly free; while of the remaining under that age more showed no adhesions and had various degrees of adhesions.[ ] dr. holgate, of the out-door department of bellevue, considered that all phimosic cases have adhesions; while dr. moses, of new york, out of some fifty circumcisions performed at the eighth day, found only adhesions three times.[ ] these observations are, however, in perfect accord. if we connect the statement of dr. arnold, in regard to the increasing character of the firmness in the adhesions of the adult, with the statement of dr. bernheim, that the first erection is often sufficient to break up the existing adhesions in the infant, we must conclude that they are nothing more at first than a slight agglutination, which the slight manipulation required to properly locate the position of the glans, and to space out the prepuce preparatory to the operation of circumcision, must, in the majority of cases, be sufficient to liberate the prepuce from the glans; this is evident also from the statement of dr. moses, who only found six per cent. of the cases operated upon by him as being so affected. the writer has been present at a large number of hebrew circumcisions performed on the eighth day, and from that up to the sixth month (as in many communities they wait until a number of children are collected, so to speak, before sending for the mohel, who may reside at quite a distance), and in all of those witnessed he has never seen any complications from adhesions; but cases of adhesion have been often encountered from the second to the eighth year, and it has always been the case, as a rule, that the older the child the greater the firmness of the adhesion. in these cases the practice generally advised of using a probe is not practicable, as the person is more apt to wound the sound prepuce than to tear the adhesions; the practice most effectual is to hold the glans firmly but gently with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, and then to draw the prepuce as firmly back with its fold held in the forefinger and thumb of the other. it is a more expeditious mode, and the least painful; by this method extensive adhesions can readily be broken up; vaselin and a piece of fine lint should then be interposed for a couple of days to prevent a re-adherence. another co-existing condition with phimosis, very often found, is a shortening of the frenum. dr. jansen, out of soldiers of the belgian army, found . per cent. with this pathological condition and . per cent. with a narrow prepuce.[ ] take the three conditions above enumerated,--phimosis, preputial adhesions, and short frenum,--all are but a departure from a normal, in a greater or less degree; and whether the resulting discomfort consists in mere mechanical impediment to urination, erection, or as a factor in nocturnal enuresis, dysuria, impotence, either through reflex action or interference with emission, malposition of the urethral orifice during copulation owing to any of these conditions, or in any of the nervous derangements that may accompany this condition, or in the more serious results, ending in positive deformity of body or limb, or in the warping of moral sentiments, or, even further, in inducing insanity, it cannot well be seen how the conditions that will certainly produce these results, in a more or less degree, can ever, in any logical sense, be considered a physiological condition. there are certain conditions to life, up to the time of birth, which, unless they then cease at once to exist, immediately become from a physiological into very serious pathological conditions. these are well understood, and have their reasons for existing during our pre-natal existence; but the prepuce has no known function during uterine life or subsequently; and there being no valid reason for its existence, there are certainly no logical grounds for its being considered a physiological condition, especially when the serious results attending the most accentuated form of the above three conditions are considered, and as its necessity, in cases of its entire absence, has not yet been demonstrated. it can well be said that about two-thirds of mankind are affected in a greater or less degree with these pathological conditions, causing them more or less annoyance. of these, a certain percentage suffer a life of continued misery, as a direct or indirect result of these conditions. as to the actual necessity of a prepuce existing, or as to what annoyances or diseases persons are subjected to who are born without it, there is a most singular and expressive silence in medical literature. it stands to reason that, if it is a necessity, some one person should have found it out long ago, and there should then be some evidence to present in relation thereto. there are cases reported in some of the older surgeries wherein an attempt has been made, in the absence of a prepuce, to restore or manufacture one by means of a plastic operation. vidal describes such an operation,[ ] but there is no reason given as to why the operation was undertaken; there is no record of any diseased condition which it was intended either to cure or to alleviate; so that we are left to infer that the person simply submitted to the operation from purely cosmetic reasons. the hebrews of palestine, after the roman conquest, or those in italy or spain, attempted a like operation, but not from any reason of lessened health or to restore any lacking physiological action, their aim having simply been to hide their identity, for the purpose of escaping persecutions, exactions, or annoyances, either from their rulers or their fellow-citizens. dr. a. b. arnold, in a paper on circumcision, read before the academy of medicine of baltimore, argues that it is not difficult to divine the purposes of the prepuce, holding that it is necessary to protect the tactile sensibility of the glans, due to the presence of the pacinian bodies which schweigger seidel discovered in the nerves, and that a better provision than the anatomy of the prepuce cannot be conceived for shielding the very vascular and sensitive structure of the glans from external sources of irritation and friction, that might rouse the sensibility of this organ, which, on physiological grounds, may cause early masturbation; further arguing that, the corona being undoubtedly the most excitable part of the glans, its denudation by circumcision leaves it more apt to be affected by chance titillations.[ ] in this latter view of the case the preponderance of views is, however, in the opposite direction. j. royes bell states that, owing to the induration of the glans through the means of circumcision, masturbation and syphilis are less rife amongst the circumcised than amongst the uncircumcised.[ ] m. lallemand, whose experience in the treatment of seminal emissions is of the greatest value, looked upon circumcision as one of the means of curing those diseases, looking on the diminished irritability of the glans resulting from the operation as the curative element.[ ] dr. cahen, in a "dissertation sur la circoncision," in , before the faculty of medicine of paris, called the attention to the diminished sensibility of the glans induced by circumcision. dr. vanier, of havre, looks upon the prepuce as the most frequent cause of onanism. "if the prepuce is lax, its mobility produces an irritation to the highly irritable and sensitive nervous system of the child by the titillation in its movements on the glans; if too tight and constricted, then it compresses the glans, and by its irritation it leads the child to seize the organ."[ ] so that in either case he looks upon the prepuce, through the sensitiveness it retains and induces in the glans, as the principle cause of masturbation. m. debreyne, the trappist monk and physician of la trappe, who has paid considerable attention to medicine as applied to morality, practically makes the same observations. in children who have not yet the suggestions of sexual desire imparted by the presence of the spermatic fluid, the presence of the prepuce seems to anticipate those promptings. circumcised boys may, in individual cases, either through precept or example, physical or mental imperfection, be found to practice onanism, but in general the practice can be asserted as being very rare among the children of circumcised races, showing the less irritability of the organs in the class; neither in infancy are they as liable to priapism during sleep as those that are uncircumcised. dr. bernheim says that "the prepuce may be said in general to be an appendage to man, if not positively harmful in some cases, at least useless, requiring constant care, the neglect of which is liable to entail disease and suffering; the irritation it produces through the sebaceous secretion is a frequent cause of masturbation which nothing short of circumcision will remedy." through middle life, unless the prepuce be the subject of some vicious conformation, little inconvenience may result from its presence, except it be from the dangers to infections already pointed out during this period of life; an ordinarily movable and retractable prepuce will not acquire the condition of phimosis, unless it be through disease or accident; but with our entrance into old age, or after having passed our vigorous prime, the torment of the days of our infancy and childhood come to harass us again. persons given to corpulency, with a long prepuce, are apt to become affected with phimosis in their latter years, as such persons are more subject to loss of their sexual vigor and power of erection than lean and spare people; in these, the gradual diminution of the size of the erectile tissues of the organ and its retraction allows of the reconstriction of the preputial opening, which, in the end, will not allow the prepuce to be drawn back over the gland. these conditions are followed by the irritating affections incident to phimosis of our earlier life, with the modification that age has induced in making us subject to more serious and fatal ailments, both locally and generally. chapter xx. the prepuce, phimosis, and cancer. in the _british medical journal_ of january , , there is an interesting article by jonathan hutchinson on the "pre-cancerous stage of cancer." in this article he states that, whereas, twenty years previously, his suggestion had been to treat all suspicious sores as being due to syphilis until a clearer diagnosis could be made out, he "had more recently often explained and enforced the doctrine of a pre-cancerous stage of cancer. according to this doctrine, in most cases of cancer, either of penis, lips, tongue, or skin, there is a stage--often a long one--during which a condition of chronic inflammation only is present, and upon this the cancerous process becomes ingrafted. phimosis and the consequent balanitis lead to cancer of the penis.... a general acceptance of the belief that cancer usually has a pre-cancerous stage, and that this stage is the one in which operations ought to be performed, would save many hundreds of lives every year.... instead of looking on whilst the fire smouldered, and waiting till it blazed up, we should stamp it out on the first suspicion.... what is a man the worse if you have cut away a warty sore from his lip; and, when all is done, a zealous pathologist demonstrates to you that the ulcer is not cancerous, need your conscience be troubled? you have operated in a pre-cancerous stage, and you have probably effected a permanent cure of what would soon have become an incurable disease. i do not wish to offer any apology for carelessness, but i have not in this matter any fear for it." in view of the great frequency of the occurrence of cancer of the penis, and the facts pointed out by roux, that, after the removal of the cancerous prepuce or a portion of the penis for cancer, in case of a recurrence the disease does not do so in the penis, but that it attacks the inguinal glands, showing conclusively that the prepuce is the inciting cause as well as the initial point of attack, the sentiments in the foregoing paragraph, taken from the words of hutchinson, are worthy of our most careful consideration. m. roux, surgeon to the charité, during the second decade of the present century, first called the attention of the french profession to the intimate relation or dependence that cancer of the penis bears to phimosis. in england he was preceded in this field of surgical investigation by william hey, whom roux met in london in . hey had then operated by amputation of the penis on twelve cases of cancer, nine of whom had had phimosis at the time of the development of the cancer. wadd at this time also published a work on the subject, but, although he noticed that phimosis was a cause of cancer, he did not fully grasp the subject as hey and roux had done, as he believed a cancerous diathesis a primary necessity, and did not then recognize that the primary cause was fully to be found in the prepuce itself. roux was probably the first to point out the peculiarly local character of penile cancer, as there is no locality wherein a timely operation is less apt to be followed by a recurrence. he records a number of cases where the prepuce alone was affected when first seen, but none wherein the glans was attacked and where the prepuce was exempt, giving ample evidence of the original starting-point of the disease.[ ] erichsen also remarks on the little liability to recurrence of cancer of the penis after a timely operation; he divides the cancer to which the penis is subject to as being of two distinct kinds,--scirrhus and epithelioma. the latter variety commences as a tubercle in the prepuce, and, according to erichsen, does not occur in the body of the penis except as a secondary infiltration or deposit.[ ] travers states that jews who are circumcised are not subject to either form of cancer.[ ] repeated attacks of herpes preputialis and some consequent point of induration are looked upon by petit-radel, chauvin, and bernard as frequent starting-points for the cancerous affection of the prepuce. the aged or persons of lax fibre being more subject to these inflammatory attacks, are also the most frequent victims of cancer in this situation. the celebrated lallemand, in regard to the tendency to cancer induced by the presence of the prepuce, observes as follows:-- "besides simple balanitis ... there also result various indurations, which are proportionate in their degree to the length or time and intensity with which the inciting inflammatory conditions have existed. i have repeatedly found the mucous lining of the prepuce thickened, hardened, ulcerated, and nodulated; at other times converted into a fibrous or even into cartilaginous tissue of excessive thickness; in others, still, in which it had assumed a scirrhous and cancerous nature. i have repeatedly operated on such cases, wherein the prolongation of the prepuce was the only recognized primary cause, the subjects being often countrymen of from fifty to sixty years of age, who had never known any women except their own, but who had, nevertheless, been long sufferers from balanitic attacks, accompanied by abundant acrid discharges, swellings of the prepuce, with more or less consequent excoriations and narrowing of the preputial orifice."[ ] claparède sums up the inconveniences and dangers to which the possessor of a prepuce is liable to suffer from, as follows: "the retention of the sebaceous secretion is liable to alter its character, converting it into an acrid, irritating discharge, which induces more or less burning, smarting, itching, excoriations, and swelling, which, affecting the little glands situated about the corona and sulcus, induces them to secrete an altered and vicious secretion. in this manner a simple elongation of the prepuce will produce an inflammation of the surface of the glans (balanitis), or that of the prepuce itself (posthitis), or the two conjoined (balano-posthitis), complicated possibly with phimosis. by an extension to the mucous membrane of the urethra of the same condition of the inflammatory process, we have blennorrhagia; blennorrhagia is liable to be followed by inguinal swellings or tenderness, orchitis, stricture, and prostatic disease; the formation of preputial calculus, from retention of the urine in the prepuce; and cancer is apt to be the end of any of these conditions."[ ] j. royes bell, in ashhurst's "international encyclopædia of surgery," observes as follows: "carcinoma attacking the genital organs usually assumes the form of epithelioma; the other kinds are rarely met with. epithelioma may invade the prepuce, or the whole penis, or any part of it. the most common age for it is fifty years or over. in the great majority of cases there has existed a congenital or acquired phimosis. a contusion or a urinary fistula may be the exciting cause. with a phimosis the parts are not kept clean, but the gland is macerated and rendered tender and excoriated by retained secretions, and the irritation causes an epithelioma to grow in those predisposed to the disease, as is found to be the case when the tongue is irritated by a broken tooth, or the scrotum by the presence of soot in its folds. syphilis has no direct influence in inducing the disease, but a syphilitic chap or ulcer may be the starting-point of an epithelioma. two kinds of epithelioma affect the penis,--the indurated and the vegetating, or cauliflower growth.... the nature of the disease, in either the prepuce or the glans, is masked by a phimosis.... the prognosis in these cases is much more hopeful than in epithelioma, in other situations.... sir william lawrence operated on a patient who was quite well years afterward, and sir william ferguson amputated the penis of a man of note in the political world, who lived many years after the operation, and died at an advanced age." agnew, of philadelphia, describes an epithelioma of the prepuce occurring in persons past middle life, beginning as a tubercle, crack, or wart, for which he advises an early circumcision; he admits, however, to not having sufficient data to determine whether jews and circumcised persons are exempt from carcinoma of the penis; but as its usual starting-point he evidently admits to be in the prepuce, circumcision must certainly be a preventive to its appearance. gross gives substantially the same opinion as agnew in this regard. dr. john s. billings, in his article on the "vital statistics of the jews," in the january _north american review_, of , on the subject of cancer, observes as follows:-- "as regards cancer and malignant tumors, we find that the deaths from these causes among the hebrews occur in about the same proportion to deaths from other diseases as they do in the average population. but as the ratio of deaths to population is less among the jews, so the ratio of deaths from malignant diseases to population is also less. among the living population the proportion found affected with cancer among the jews was . per , while of those reported sick by the united states census of , for the general population, the proportion was . per ." there are no convenient data as to the prevalence or percentage of cases of cancer among the arabian or mohammedan population of asia and africa, but the above comparison of . per among the jews of the united states, against . per of the general population, shows that the circumcised race does, in the instance of cancer, certainly enjoy a certain amount of immunity, having in this regard not quite such an exemption as they enjoy from consumption, but still sufficient to assist in making them longer-lived and more able to enjoy life and die a less lingering and painful death. it is surprising that, in view of the fact that carcinoma of the penis, starting with such frequency in the prepuce, should have left any doubt but that with the absence of this appendage there would follow less liability to cancer. cullerier informs us that he had several times amputated the penis for cancerous diseases, but that he is unable to tell us whether the persons were affected with phimosis, remarking that on the last case he had observed the indurated remains of the prepuce; he had, however, recognized the necessity of freely exposing the gland in cases where, from continued irritation and inflammation, there was danger of cancer formation. nelaton describes two varieties of cancer that affect the penis,--that which attacks the integument and that which attacks the glans. the first of these varieties he observes as generally beginning as a hardened nodule in the prepuce, which becomes at once more or less thickened and indurated. he gives lisfranc the credit of pointing out the fact, that, even in the most hopeless-looking case, the glans and body of the penis may be simply pushed back and compressed, but otherwise sound, and that before resorting to an amputation of the whole organ it is better to make a careful exploratory dissection in search of the penis, as it oftentimes happens that the prepuce and integument can be dissected off, leaving the organ intact. he also mentions that elephantiasis of the penile integument generally begins in the prepuce. baron boyer believed that the vitiated preputial secretion allowed to remain beneath the prepuce was one of the causes of cancer of the penis, observing that it would be interesting to know whether cancer of the penis was a rarity among circumcised people, such as the jews and mohammedans.[ ] it is easy to perceive why or how agnew, gross, cullerier, and many of those who have written on the subject, have failed to appreciate the existence of the prepuce as an exciting cause, or as being, in the majority of instances, the part primarily attacked. the nodule, excoriation, or abrasion that develops into a cancer generally produces more or less local disturbance; in many it produces a phimosis that is only relieved by the ulcerative process that exposes the gland, which may by that time itself be attacked or even destroyed. they are then seen by either the rural practitioner or the family physician, but before submitting to an operation they run the gauntlet of many physicians, and, when it comes to operating, they generally apply to some one of great skill and reputation. by this time there is little left of the organ, and, as a rule, the party is unable to tell where the disease originated, whether in the prepuce or glans, to them the swollen prepuce seeming to be the whole organ. of late years, however, it has been pretty well established that it generally begins in the prepuce, and the great number of amputations of the penis on record for this disease does not lead one to believe that it is as rare a disease as was formerly believed. in langenbeck's _archiv_, bd. xii, , dr. zielewicz reports fifty cases of amputation of the penis by the galvano-cautery loop, mostly for carcinoma, one of the fifty being for gangrene and one other for a large papillary tumor. that one surgeon was able to report forty-eight cases of carcinoma or cancer that were treated by one special system of operating tells us plainly enough that the unfortunate possessor of a prepuce, no matter how normal or unobjectionable it may seem to be in the prime of man's existence, or however physiologically necessary it may be deemed, runs too many risks in holding on to his possessions. the views set forth by hutchinson in the beginning of this chapter are precisely those that are held by the writer, who would even go further, by advising all such as have, in their youth or since, suffered with balano-posthitis in any degree or form, or whose prepuce shows a tendency to elongation with age, to have the same removed at once; where the prepuce is not redundant, but only tight, a slight operation, such as slitting, will at once remove the possibility of any future danger, without keeping a man from his business a single day. it may here be remarked that, although always favorably impressed with the great benefits arising out of circumcision, nothing ever resulted in such a serious consideration of the subject as seeing a professional brother dying with a cancerous affection of the penis. the disease had originated in the mucous lining of the prepuce, and when seen in consultation with his attending physicians the gland had already disappeared and the inguinal glands were affected. the man was in the prime of life, and, aside from the local trouble, a specimen of perfect health and physique. he informed us that while a youth he had suffered from repeated attacks of herpes preputialis; that he had suggested circumcision more than once to his father, who also was a physician, but who, unfortunately for the son, could not see any merit in circumcision. to his eyes there was nothing that circumcision could do but what could be accomplished by washing and personal attention to cleanliness. when older, the prepuce gave him less trouble, and for a long time after his marriage it ceased to trouble him altogether. the idea of the necessity of circumcision did not occur to him again until the appearance of the cancerous disease; even then, not appreciating the danger, and looking upon the trouble as a simple transient result of some inflammatory action, he waited until the parts would be in a better state or condition of health before resorting to an operation,--that time never came. although to roux, wadd, and hey the credit must be given for bringing the subject of cancer of this organ so prominently before the profession, the knowledge of the existence of the disease has long been a matter of record. patissier, in the fortieth volume of the "dict. des sciences médicales," quotes from the third volume of the "mémoires de l'académie royale de chirurgie," that in an officer, aged fifty, was attacked by a cancerous affection originating underneath the prepuce; at the time he consulted mm. chicoineau and sonlier the disease had existed for two years, the inguinal glands were implicated, and even the suspensory ligament was affected. these surgeons, nevertheless, determined upon an operation, and, after a long chapter of hæmorrhagic accidents, the patient finally made a recovery. another case, quoted by patissier, was operated upon by m. ceyrac de la coste, the patient a man of sixty, the disease originating, like the preceding case, underneath the prepuce. warren, in his "surgical observations on tumors," observes that cancer of the penis begins by a warty excrescence on the glans or prepuce. walshe, in his work on the "nature and treatment of cancer," says: "the disease may commence in almost all parts of the organ, but the glans and prepuce are by far its most common primary seats. it may originate either from a warty excrescence or a pimple, or it may infiltrate the glans, or appear as a complication of venereal ulceration. phimosis, either congenital or acquired, is an exceedingly common accompaniment, and it appears probable that the irritation occasioned by this condition of the parts may act as an exciting cause of the disease in persons predisposed to cancer. circumcision is, therefore, an advisable prophylactic measure, where the constitutional taint is known to exist." chapter xxi. the prepuce and gangrene of the penis. another accompaniment of that preputial appendage is gangrene of the penis, which, like carcinoma, starting in at the prepuce, may invade the pubes and scrotum. this disease is not so rare as to merit the little attention it has received from our text-books. m. demarquay has collected the history of twenty-five cases; from him we learn that the prepuce is the most frequent seat of the start of the affection, from whence, according to astruc, it rapidly spreads to the skin of the whole organ, and then attacks the corpora cavernosa; it may even extend as high as the umbilicus. this disease spares no age; it attacks young and old alike. there is not a case recorded of this disease that particularized any other starting-point than the swelling, tension, active or passive congestion that takes place in the integument of the penis. by this it must not be understood that the initial disease or inflammatory action that produces the gangrene must necessarily have its seat in the integument, but that it is the integument of the penis (and especially that of the prepuce) in which, through the laxity of its tissues, passive congestion is favored that the gangrenous action begins. that this is the actual case there can be but little doubt about, as, even where the gangrene invades the body of the penis itself, even where the inflammatory action may have started from a violent urethritis, that condition of blood which favors gangrenous results will be found to have begun during its state of stasis, where it has parted with much of its watery element, as well as considerable of its vitality, while in its slow, tedious, and obstructed passage through the prepuce. some of this dark, thickish blood, finding its way from the integumentary return circulation to that of the deeper structure, becomes there a mechanical as well as a pathological cause for that impediment to the free circulation of the parts, through its altered physiological condition. the deeper structures of the penis, besides their own blood-supply, carry back into the deeper or systemic circulation a large supply from the integumentary tissues, when in the latter, owing to the greater supply due to any inflammatory action, the blood-current is delayed and impeded in its lax and easily-dilatable tissues, and blood-changes occur favoring the gangrene in the deeper tissues, so that, whether the gangrene first takes place in the body of the penis or in the scrotum, it will be in the prepuce or adjoining integument that its real originating causes will be found. baron boyer, in speaking of the inflammation of the penis, observes that the intensity of the swelling, great pain, and difficulty of urination that follow have led many to believe that the inflammation of the deeper structures really always formed a part of the disease. in otherwise healthy and vigorous subjects it does not, however, extend beyond the skin, as has been demonstrated where the resulting gangrene from excess of inflammatory action has ended in resolution, the deeper tissues not having been found to be injured. it is only where the tone of the general system is lowered, through disease, age, or other deteriorating conditions, that the whole organ is liable to become affected or to break down. boyer, in the tenth volume of his "treatise on surgical affections," gives several examples of this affection not due to age: one case was a person, simultaneously attacked by an adynamic fever and a blennorrhagia, who suffered from gangrene of the penis; the local and constitutional disturbance was not high, however, and the patient escaped with the simple loss of the prepuce. another case admitted to the charité, aged thirty-six, was afflicted with a blennorrhagia, upon which an attack of low fever supervened. the penis inflamed, became engorged and livid, and soon gangrenous symptoms presented themselves, making rapid progress; at first the integument alone was affected, but later all the structures became implicated and the penis was completely destroyed, the sloughs detaching themselves in shreds, leaving a conical stump that healed but slowly. one case, a young man of twenty, also at the charité, was admitted with adynamic fever; a few days after admission the prepuce was observed to be somewhat inflamed; in spite of all treatment this progressed so rapidly that the purple discoloration presaged a gangrene, which was not slow in following; the focus seemed to be at the superior and back portion of the prepuce; an incision evacuated a quantity of purulent, serous fluid; the disease, however, extended up the organ as far as its middle before its actions ceased; the sloughs were then cast off, when it was found that part of the gland and a portion of the cavernous body had followed the integument in the general wreck, subjecting the patient to intolerable pain during micturition. after the recovery from the fever, the remaining portion of the gland and the mutilated parts of the cavernous body were amputated to remedy this condition; the patient subsequently admitted to have had a blennorrhagia at the time of his admission to the hospital. the gangrenous action may, in proportion to the low condition of the patient, be as proportionately rapid. another case from boyer, quoted from the works of forestus, relates how the whole organ underwent such speedy disorganization that its liquefied remains were found in a poultice, which had been applied with a view of relieving the congestion,--a very dear price to pay for retaining the prepuce, that the exquisite sensitiveness of the tactile faculty for enjoyment, resident in the corona of the gland, might not be interfered with. gross does not mention this affection in his work on surgery, but agnew devotes considerable space to its description, dividing the disease into two forms: the inflammatory, such as may follow venereal primary sores or operations on the penis, not excepting circumcision; and the obstructive variety, such as may follow embolism or any mechanical obstruction, either purposely or accidentally applied. of the latter he gives a number of quoted instances; he only admits seeing one case, that of an aged man in the pennsylvania hospital, in whom the disease was caused by embolism of the dorsal artery. j. royes bell, in the "international encyclopædia of surgery," pays more attention to it than any of our american authors; mentioning, among the causes which may give rise to it, the exanthemata, especially small-pox, and the poisoning by ergot of rye and erysipelas. among the local causes lie mentions phimosis, paraphimosis, and balano-posthitis. bell quotes the case reported by mr. partridge, in the sixteenth volume of the "transactions of the pathological society of london," wherein a sober man, aged forty, lost the whole of his penis up to the root, during the course of a typhus fever. also the case reported by mr. gay, in the thirtieth volume of the same "transactions," wherein a cabinet-maker, aged thirty-one, lost his penis through the probable results of rheumatic phlebitis, and due to the presence of a plug in the internal iliac vein. in the twelfth volume of the "transactions" of the same society he finds the record of the case of a soldier who lost his penis through gangrene induced by syphilitic phagedena. in the consideration of the subject of the prepuce as connected with penile gangrene, it must not be overlooked that the presence of a prepuce may be the inciting cause of some rheumatic affection (the writer has repeatedly seen such), just as such cases are often the result of stricture; as cases of rheumatism that have resisted all remedial means, but that have readily given way to the dilatation of a stricture, are by no means uncommon; not a mere muscular reflex rheumatic pain, but even when accompanied by a rheumatic blood condition. so that even in such a case as above reported as being due to rheumatic phlebitis, or the case reported in the fortieth volume of the "dictionaire des sciences médicales" by patissier, wherein a man lost penis and scrotum through gangrene, induced by urinous infiltration, may all in the origin be due, if not to the immediate, to the remote effects of the presence of the prepuce. in the first volume of the _journal of venereal and cutaneous diseases_ the writer reported a case of the complete loss of penis in a young man as a result of phagedena due to syphilis. the man had had a long and pendulous prepuce; in his case, had circumcision been performed in early childhood, it would have lessened the chances of primary infection, and had it been performed after his infection, it would have removed one cause--if not the principal cause--of the ease with which the phagedenic action was inaugurated. the case already mentioned as an example of spontaneous and natural circumcision belongs to the gangrenous results following phimosis, ending with the loss of the prepuce. in maclise's "surgical anatomy" several specimens of deformity are figured, showing the results of this mildest of the effects of a phagedenic action. the beginning of the interference in the return preputial circulation undoubtedly always takes place over the superior aspect of the corona, where the pressure of the glans is most sharply defined against the inner fold of the prepuce. there are milder conditions, wherein the circulation of the prepuce is materially interfered with, both through the lax tissues of the parts and the peculiar anatomical construction and shape of the neighboring parts, wherein, without going as far as gangrenous breakdown, the person suffers considerably nevertheless, and is placed in danger of losing his penis; for, as observed by patissier, whenever a person affected with a gonorrhoea is attacked by a putrid or any low-grade fever, he runs the greatest danger of losing his virile member through gangrene. even where phimosis does not exist, but only the long, lax, and retractable prepuce, that is considered a perfectly physiological condition, the prepuce is liable to cause very distressing and complicating annoyances during the progress of other diseases. the writer has noticed that cases with a thick, leathery, and redundant prepuce, even when perfectly retractable, are more liable to require the use of the catheter during the course of a continued fever. such a condition is also a very frequent accompaniment of prostatic obstruction. so often has this been noticed that its association with prostatic trouble or disease tends to the belief that the irritation produced by this condition of prepuce often lays the foundation for prostatic disease in not a few cases.[ ] in elderly people, with the atrophied penis and elongating prepuce, the constant moisture from the urine on the inner fold and glans adds greatly to the irritation as well as to the discomfort of the patient. a number of affections are accompanied by oedema, especially toward the latter stages of the disease; such, for instance, as the ending of cases of mitral insufficiency. in these, the distension of the prepuce and the resulting balano-posthitis is at times a source of great distress, and at times the resulting engorgement produces a retention of urine. it was after an attendance on one such case that required daily and frequent puncturings for its relief, but which, in spite of all care, finally became gangrenous, that a fellow practitioner cheerfully submitted to circumcision, to avoid the possibility of any such complication occurring to embitter his closing illness.[ ] the prepuce is the starting-point of many of the cases of penitis and retention of urine that often accompany attacks of gonorroea; especially can this result be anticipated where the prepuce is long, pendulous, and with its veins in a varicose condition. why it should be so is self-evident. anything that will add to the interference of the return circulation only exaggerates the tendency to penis engorgement; this increases the difficulty of urination, which, by the retention that results, in turn increases the constriction at the root of the penis, and adds to the already difficult return circulation. the bladder by its urine, and the penis by its blood, actually form, by their mutual pressures, an impassable dam at the root of the organ. that this is the true condition has been more than once verified from the instant relief given to the whole condition by the prompt employment of the supra-pubic puncture or aspiration, as catheterization in such cases is altogether out of the question, and should never be attempted or employed unless a soft catheter can be inserted. a person laboring under a continued fever has his blood in a condition to favor sphacelus; with the slow-moving current of vitiated blood and its retention in such lax tissues as those of the prepuce, through the medium of the enlarged preputial veins, coupled with the lessened sensibilities of the bladder and his perhaps semi-conscious or unconscious condition, and an equally unconscious bladder, he is, to say the least of it,--if in possession of a prepuce,--also the unconscious possessor of a certain degree of percentage, no matter how small or fractional that may be, of recovering from his fever without his penis. dr. w. w. mckay, of the u. s. marine hospital service of san diego, attended a case of typho-malarial fever in consultation with me, where, but for the persistent, intelligent, but delicate use of the catheter for nearly three weeks the penis would have become gangrenous. the subject was an uræmic, irritable, nervous, leathery-prepuced individual; the organ was unusually large, the skin of the penis thick, and it was only by keeping the bladder empty that prevented a state of engorgement that would have effectually interfered with further catheterization. as it was, the penis was often dank, livid, and discolored from the passive engorgement. the writer saw a similar case with the late dr. f. h. milligan, of minnesota. the congestion in this case was due to a gonorrhoeal inflammation involving the skin of the whole penis, retention having followed painful micturition, and the swelling of the penis following the retention; the prepuce was enormously distended, and the penis seemed in a state of erection as far as dimension and rigidity were concerned. the man, a steam-boat cook, informed us that it was fully twice as large as when rigidly erect in health. all efforts to reduce the swelling were unavailing; neither punctures, leeches, nor scarifications were of any avail; catheterization was impossible, but, after relieving the bladder by the supra-pubic aspiration, the patient experienced some relief. he, nevertheless, lost the whole skin of the penis, with that of the pubis and on the front of the scrotum. the man ran into a low form of fever, with uræmic symptoms; the stench was so great that it was almost impossible to remain in the same room with him; but he finally made a slow and very tedious recovery. in healing there was considerable downward curvature of the penis, which, however, did not prevent him from following his old, dissolute course of life.[ ] a calm, unprejudiced consideration of the subject of the liability of the uncircumcised races dwelling in the temperate and semi-tropical countries to cancer, gangrene, and elephantiasis might well lead one to ask: why are we afflicted with a prepuce? we can understand how a man may become gouty, and become a subject in the end for a gangrene of the extremities; or how senile gangrene may, through a series of pathological processes and blood changes, with the aid of age, finally be reached; or how, by a like course of diseased processes, we reach the apoplectic stage. these conditions, however, can be put off, or partly, if not wholly avoided, by a proper course of life, and, at the worst, it is only after the fires of our youth and prime have completely burned out, that these conditions are liable to claim us as their lawful victim. not so, however, with some of these conditions that may end in penile gangrene; that are liable to pounce upon us unawares, like an apache in an arizona cañon; or as the hired mercenaries of old canon fulbert did upon poor abelard in his study, and, without further ado or ceremony emasculate man as effectually as the most exacting turk could demand, with a veritable _taillè à fleur de ventre_ operation. nature has her own ways of protecting what there is of any utility; there is a law of the survival of the fittest that we all appreciate. if, then, this penile appendage is of any utility, why is it that, unlike the rest of the body, it falls such an easy victim to gangrene? the procreative function seems to be, in a sense, one of the main cares of nature in its relation to the animal as well as the vegetable kingdom; but here is a useless bit of skin, adipose tissue, mucous membrane, and some connective tissue, that on the least provocation is liable to go off into a gangrene and drag one of the main generative, or even all the procreative, apparatus into the general wreck. nature certainly never intended anything of the kind. to be generous, and not libel nature, we must conclude that the prepuce is a near relative to the fast-disappearing climbing-muscle; very useful in our primitive, arboreal days, when we needed such a muscle to reach our perch for the night, and a prepuce or something of the kind, in default of a breech-cloth, to protect the glans penis from being scratched by the briars or thorny and rough bark of the trees in our ascent. the prepuce was well enough in our primitive and arboreal days,--ages and ages ahead of our cave and lake dwellings,--when the notch in a tree and its rough bark formed our couch; but in these days of plush-cushioned pews and opera-seats, cosy office-chairs, car-seats, and upholstered furniture or polished-oak seats, it serves no intelligent purpose. emasculation has never been looked upon with favor by its victim, and it would be but natural to suppose that man would take every precaution against the accidental occurrence of such an undesired condition. the writer well remembers that, in his "tom sawyer" days on the banks of the upper mississippi, in the happy days of the crack rafting crews, before the introduction of the towage steamer, when the river towns were more or less terrorized by wild gangs of these men, some of whom were always fighting and quarreling and drinking when not at work. in the lot there was one man with a great reputation at a rough-and-tumble fight. his main hold was that he generally tried to emasculate his adversary by destroying the physiological condition of the testicle. the man was not a large or powerful man, nor was he a great boxer or wrestler, but this reputation made him feared by all the bullies on the river. the report that not a few who had tackled him had subsequently been of no value, either as fornicators or fecundators, or had to be castrated on account of the resulting testicular degeneration, seemed in no way to encourage any one to wish to meet him in a personal encounter. it would seem as if the desire to avoid such an accident--provided persons knew the dangers that lurk in a prepuce--would induce many to submit to circumcision. that many more do not do so can only be attributed to the general human wish to escape a less present evil for a greater unknown one, being evidently deterred by the prospective pain that must be suffered immediately. there is a question that should interest man above that of the simple loss of penis. it appears that there is a powerful moral effect that follows this loss, as might, in the majority, be anticipated. according to the experience of civiale, many who have lost the penis, through amputation for disease or through disease itself, end in suicide. he mentions particularly a patient at the charité who had lost his penis, who, finding no other means to take himself off, saved up sufficient opium, from that given him to calm his pains, to take all at one dose and commit suicide. in the london _lancet_ for march , , there is reported a discussion on this subject, to which the reader is referred, as it fully covers the moral and physical effects of castration and penis amputation for disease. m. roux, who amputated the penis of a brother of buffon, in , reported that, in that case, m. buffon lost none of his customary gayety. chapter xxii. the prepuce, calculi, and other annoyances. from an article published in the new york _medical times_ of march, , from the pen of dr. j. g. kerr, of canton, china, we learn that phimosis is not an uncommon occurrence among the chinese. as has been demonstrated by c. h. mastin, of mobile, climate is a great factor of calculus. ("transactions international medical congress" of , page .) that of china seems a most favorable climate in this regard; so that, between the prevalence of phimosis among the chinese and the calculus-producing tendency of the climate, china may be said to be the classic land of preputial calculi, as england is that of the gout, or the united states that of delirium tremens. from dr. kerr we learn that the occurrence of these concretions were, as a rule, multiple, and that in two cases that fell under his observation the number of stones from each individual exceeded one hundred. in one case there were forty, and in three cases there were between twenty and thirty. these were of different sizes and weight, some being an inch and five-eighths in diameter, and from that size down to where one hundred and sixteen taken from one individual case only weighed one ounce. the tendency to calculous disease in that climate may well be imagined, when the same observer relates a case of urinary infiltration into the skin on the under side of the penis that gave rise to the formation of a collection of calculi in that locality, four of which were the size of pigeons' eggs; and another case in which a urinary fistula induced the formation of a calculus in the groin, near the scrotum, the calculus weighing two and a half drachms and measuring one and a half inches by three-quarters of an inch in diameter. claparède mentions a case in the practice of m. dumèril, in which the stone extracted from the prepuce weighed two hundred and twenty-five grammes, or about eight ounces. civiale speaks of a young man of twenty with phimosis, who, after practicing sexual connection for the first time, experienced pain and a purulent discharge, from whom, on examination, he removed five stones as large as prunes. the patient had felt them in their position, but had imagined the condition to be a natural one. e. l. keyes gives their composition as being of calcified smegma, urate of ammonium, triple and earthy phosphates and mucus, and as symptoms and results: pain, purulent discharges, interference with urination and the sexual act, involuntary emission, ulceration of the preputial cavity, and impotence. enoch mentions a child of two years in the charité, who, being operated upon for phimosis, was found to have a preputial calculus occluding the urethral meatus. at the autopsy a calculus as large as an egg was found in the bladder. the presence of these formations, although not necessarily dangerous in themselves, may, by their effects and in the irritation they induce, be the means of producing serious mischief. the only preventive or remedy for this condition is circumcision. acquired phimosis has been mentioned as a result of inflammatory lotion, such as is connected with balano-posthitis; it sometimes happens that, the act of coitus being done forcibly, especially with public women, who are apt to use very astringent and constricting washes, the prepuce becomes injured, with the result of producing a phimosis. one man will produce the same results through the means of some vaunted wash or dip which is supposed to act as a prophylactic to any venereal infection. one patient had developed a chronic herpetic affection by the constant use of an iodized ointment which he regarded as an infallible prophylactic. many cases of phimosis result from the attending inflammation that follows on the liberal domestic application of nitrate of silver to an abrasion after connection, in the mistaken idea that the party labors under, that he is destroying some venereal virus. by the irritation that all these applications and accidents induce, warts and vegetations are the but too frequent results. these i have never seen in a circumcised individual, and their occurrence and frequency, as well as persistency, are directly proportionate with the degree of tightness, thickness, or redundancy of the prepuce and the irritability of the gland. as remarked by lallemand, in reference to the victim of nocturnal enuresis becoming a future victim of nocturnal emissions, so it may be said of the person subject in early life to either warts, excoriations or vegetations on the penis, that it is this class that furnishes in after life the subjects for cancerous disease as well as furnishing the easiest victims for venereal infection. these warts, although easily removed, have a tendency to recurrence, especially as long as the moist bed that has once grown them there is still vegetating. the prepuce is liable to indurations and hypertrophy. of the first anomaly, the london _lancet_ of has a record of two cases in which paraphimosis was induced in elderly subjects, and of one in which it induced phimosis. since then a number of cases of thickening and induration have been reported. hypertrophy may take place in any degree, varying from the mere leathery and overpendulous but unobstructive prepuce to the case recorded by vidal, in the fifth volume of his "pathologie externe et médecine operatoire," which happened in the practice of m. rigal, de gaillae. the hypertrophied prepuce was something enormous, and hung down to below the patient's knees; it was pear-shaped, with the base hanging downward; this base was as large as a man's head. this prepuce was successfully removed by m. rigal, who presented the specimen before the paris surgical society, who were then discussing a somewhat similar but not so extensive a case, presented by m. lenoire. vidal mentions having operated on a number of cases of this deformity of the prepuce in various degrees of growth. as a rule, simple hypertrophic disease of the penile integument does not interfere with the sexual functions of the male organ after its removal; it being susceptible of complete removal in exaggerated cases, even without touching the body of the organ. there are exceptions to this rule, however, when even this otherwise non-malignant disease may entail the loss of all the genitals. in the london _lancet_ of july , , at page , there is a record of a remarkable case of this nature reported by f. h. brett, esq., f.r.c.s. the case was that of a locksmith of forty years of age, who was naturally much phimosed. the penis was enormously enlarged, as well as the scrotum, which was more or less ulcerated and full of sinuses filled with a serous pus; some six months prior to the final operation, a part of the prepuce was removed to facilitate urination, but the whole mass had to be subsequently removed, including the whole of the skin of the penis and the scrotum, the testicles having been carefully dissected out and recovered with some skin flap. in this case the disease was believed to have originated from a perineal fistula. the pathological investigation in the case, however, by mr. quekett, who submitted the mass to a microscopical examination, confirmed mr. brett in his original opinion that the disease had the same pathological conditions as the similar disease found in india, where it originates from local inflammatory causes. in this case the preputial irritation was, in all probability, the precursor of the conditions that led to the perineal fistula, the patient having had a stricture for some twelve years. mr. brett states that the man had been abandoned by his wife on account of his previous sexual disability, and on account, as well, of his having been incapacitated from following any vocation. after the operation all his functions were restored and his organs were sound. nelaton records a case reported by wadd, in , of an african negro so affected, whose penis measured fourteen inches in length and twelve and a half inches in circumference; also the case reported by gibert, of hospital st. louis, of a subject "with a penis the size of a mule's." mr. brett attributes the recovery of his case as being due in a great measure to the moral support given to the patient from the knowledge that his procreative organs were not interfered with, and on the same grounds he attributes the great fatality previously attending the operation to the fact that it previously had been the custom in many cases to make a clean general _taillè à fleur de ventre_, sacrificing all the genital organs. in simple hypertrophy, he considers that the body of the penis and the testicles will always be found to be in a normal condition; a careful dissection of the parts will invariably save not only the man's sexual functions, but his moral stamina, which he sadly needs in such an emergency. in the discussion on this subject heretofore mentioned as taking place in the london medical society, mr. pye, mr. john a. morgan, and others insisted on the necessity of retaining the testicles, whenever possible, in all these sweeping operations upon the genitals, they being actually necessary for the moral and physical support of man, mr. morgan observing that their removal would depress parts controlled by the sympathetic system. chapter xxiii. reflex neuroses and the prepuce. we have seen in the previous chapters what the immediate effects of the prepuce may lead to; we have followed its local effects in childhood to youth, thence into what it does in our prime, and we have seen how, when we are on the down grade, owing to the increase of years, then, like the minute-men of concord, wakened up by paul revere's classic ride, hanging on to the rear of the retreating and disheartened british, it harasses, worries, and downs a man here and there, striking down the man as if it had some undying, irremediable spite, which nothing but his misery and death could alleviate. some authorities will argue that all that is required is cleanliness; that all men need do is to be like a true american, with the old continental watchword of "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" in continued active practice. a bowlful of some antiseptic wash and a small sponge should always be at hand, and he should be as industrious as if haltered in a tread-mill; he should make this a part of his toilet, and his daily and hourly care. this will, we are told, lessen his chances of becoming a victim to the many ills that lie in wait for him, all on account of the glory, honor, and comfort of wearing a prepuce, which is a perfectly physiological appendage. from these visible and apparently easily understood conditions and results we are now to enter a broad field, wherein the prepuce seems to exercise a malign influence in the most distant and apparently unconnected manner; where, like some of the evil genii or sprites in the arabian tales, it can reach from afar the object of its malignity, striking him down unawares in the most unaccountable manner; making him a victim to all manner of ills, sufferings, and tribulations; unfitting him for marriage or the cares of business; making him miserable and an object of continual scolding and punishment in childhood, through its worriments and nocturnal enuresis; later on, beginning to affect him with all kinds of physical distortions and ailments, nocturnal pollutions, and other conditions calculated to weaken him physically, mentally, and morally; to land him, perchance, in the jail, or even in a lunatic asylum. man's whole life is subject to the capricious dispensations and whims of this job's-comforts-dispensing enemy of man. as strange as it may seem, this field of knowledge, this field of misery and suffering, disease and distortion, of physical and mental obliquity, presided over by this preputial afrit of malignant disposition, was an unknown, undiscovered, and therefore unexplored region for some thousands of years, and it remained for an american to discover and describe this vast territorial acquisition, and to annex it to the domain of medicine, which, through its skill, could modify the influence of the evil genius that there presided and spare humanity much of the ills to which it had been subjected. in this regard, louis a. sayre was to medicine what columbus was to geography. neither strabo nor herodotus had anything to say regarding what existed beyond the pillars of hercules, and neither hippocrates nor galen had anything in regard to this preputial merlin, which in their day, even, had its existence. neither did tissot nor bienville, the two pioneers in the field of our knowledge regarding onanism and nymphomania, dream of the existence of this one cause of the diseases to which they gave so much time and study. it is only some twenty years since louis a. sayre read his paper, entitled "partial paralysis from reflex irritation caused by congenital phimosis and adherent prepuce," before the american medical association. this was the starting-point from whence the profession entered into what had previously been a veritable "darkest africa." when we read that only some fifty years before the times of columbus christian europe had no lunatic asylum,--not that there was a lack of lunatics or that the existence of lunacy was entirely ignored, but that the then state of medicine and the general intelligence was not emancipated from the idea of demoniacs,--and we are told that the lunatics were in many instances hung, quartered and burned, hooted and chased about the streets, or chained in gloomy dungeons; until, as related by lecky, a spanish monk named juan gilaberto joffe, filled with compassion at the sight of the maniacs who were hooted by crowds through the streets of valencia, founded an asylum in that city. his movement in this direction called the attention of the church and people to this class in a practical light, and from spain a more enlightened idea in regard to this class swept onward throughout europe. as observed, it seems strange to us of the present day that such ignorance in these matters should, or could, have so long existed. it seems impossible for us to conceive how these conditions of incoherent action and of mental derangements could have existed and their causes have not been fully appreciated; and yet we were not above, some twenty years ago only, subjecting children to punishment and scoldings for being addicted to nocturnal enuresis, or of accusing cases of nocturnal and involuntary emissions as being due to masturbation. the child was allowed then to grow up paralytic, or with a deformed limb, or continually punished to correct what was imagined to be a condition of willful carelessness, irritability, or willful moral perversion. perversion, stupidity, and irritability of the mind or temper were not known to depend, in many instances, on preputial irritation; children were, accordingly, worried and punished for something over which they had no earthly control or the least volition. humanity cannot, at present, sufficiently appreciate what louis a. sayre has done in its behalf. it is here that we realize the hidden wisdom of the mosaic law and the truth of the assertion of the late dr. edward clarke, that, "the instructors, the houses and schools of our country's daughters, would profit by reading the old levitical law. the race has not yet outgrown the physiology of moses." these irritations from the preputial irritability are not always so slow moving as to span over either months or years in their fell work. instances of their sudden action have been sufficiently recorded as to warrant them as being classed as causative agents in acute affections that instantly threaten life. in the london _lancet_ of may , , there is a record of a very peculiar case reported to the london medical society by dr. golding bird: "the case was that of a child seven or eight weeks old only, an out-patient of guy's hospital. the child had become almost lifeless immediately after nursing, and to all appearances looked as if under the influence of some narcotic. it had not, however, had anything of the kind given to it, nor had it sustained a fall, nor was the head so large as to lead to suspicion of congenital hydrocephalus. on inquiring if the child passed water, the answer led to an examination of the prepuce, which was found to be elongated, and had an aperture only of the size of a pin-hole, like a puncture in the intestines. the urine was dribbling out; it was evident that the child had never completely emptied its bladder. mr. hilton slit up the prepuce, and all the symptoms were immediately relieved and soon entirely removed." dr. bird referred to a case which he had related to the society some years before, which was reported in the _lancet_ at the time, of a child who fell a victim to a malformation of this kind, and after death the bladder and ureter were found like those of a man who had long suffered from stricture. mr. hilton has seen many cases similar to the one mentioned by dr. bird. the greatest benefit resulted from slitting up the prepuce. in this case the benefit was very remarkable, a partial paralysis of the left side, under which the little patient labored, being quite removed in twenty-four hours. in this case the difficulty was evidently both the result of mechanical pressure and reflex irritation. a somewhat similar case as to its results is given by dr. sayre, to whom the case was reported by dr. a. r. mott, jr., of randall's island, in january of : "john english, aged , native of england, widower, clerk; admitted to workhouse hospital. patient had been at work for a week as a prisoner; on the d of december was noticed to be restless and uneasy, and finally, in the evening, he fell from his bunk in a fit. during the next forty-eight hours he had several convulsions, and during the intervals lay in a semi-comatose condition, showing no consciousness except to stir a limb when pinched. pulse, ; temperature, ½°; respiration, . swallowed nothing, and passed fæces in bed. continued in this condition until december th (temperature having fallen to °), when a string was discovered passed twice around the penis behind corona and tied, the long prepuce serving to conceal it from observation. while not sufficiently tight to occlude the urethral canal, still a firm, indurated band remained after the string was cut, and did not disappear for four or five days. "within one hour after the removal of the string the man sat up and asked for milk, and from this time remained perfectly well (was under observation for three months). he declared that he remembered nothing that had taken place during the past three days; had never had fits, denied venereal diseases, was moderately addicted to drink, but had led a 'virtuous life since the death of his wife, two years before.'" the following case in the practice of dr. f. j. wirthington, of livermore, pa., was also reported to dr. sayre: "when the child was born, he was considered the biggest and finest boy that had been born in the community for a long time, until, when he was about two and a-half years old, and being sick, a doctor was called in, who told them that their child was paralyzed, the paralysis being in his lower extremities, and who treated him with the usual nerve-tonic and with electricity. notwithstanding all this, the boy went steadily down, and the paralysis continued until he was seen by dr. wirthington. the child was then unable to walk; on examination, the prepuce was found to be adherent almost all the way around the glans penis. behind the corona was a solid cake of sebaceous matter. the case was promptly operated upon, and, although the previous attendant had not found any cause to account for the paralysis, a rapid recovery took place, the boy being able to walk even before the complete cicatrization of the wound, and was soon the picture of health." dr. t. f. leech, of attica, fountain county, ind., reports a case of a fourteen-month-old child, who had been the terror of all that part of the town for over six months, as he cried constantly. except when asleep or nursed by his mother, he would lie perfectly still and squall, not showing any disposition to sit up; nor did he like to be raised up. he was very nervous, and would have times when his limbs would be rigid. this state of things grew worse, until the child was accidentally seen by dr. leech, who, on examination, found a contracted and adherent prepuce, the child being at the time in a high fever and suffering great nervous excitement. an operation by slitting and breaking up the adhesion afforded immediate relief; the spinal irritation, partial paralysis of the lower extremities, spasms during urination, and all trouble disappeared as if by magic. prof. j. h. pooley, of columbus, ohio, reported the case of a fine, healthy boy who, up to three months before being seen professionally, had always been well and in perfect health. his condition was found by professor pooley to be one of localized chorea, manifesting itself in constant convulsive movements of the head. they were nodding or antero-posterior movements, alternating with lateral or shaking and twisting motions; these movements had become almost constant during the waking hours of the child. there was no distortion of the features nor any choreic movements of the extremities; indeed, the whole affection consisted in the nodding and shaking movements of the head referred to. these were almost incessant, sometimes slow and almost rhythmical, then for a minute or two rapid and irregular, seeming to fatigue the little fellow, and accompanied by a fretful, whimpering cry. the child had been subjected to a variety of treatment, but without any benefit or effect of any kind. upon the most careful examination of the patient and his history, professor pooley could not discover anything that seemed to throw any light upon the case, except a condition of well-marked phimosis. acting upon this, the professor immediately circumcised the child, and from the very day of the operation the spasmodic action began to diminish, and in two weeks he was entirely well, without any other treatment of any kind. dr. w. r. mcmahon, of huntington, indiana, has reported three cases of epilepsy in children caused by congenital phimosis that were entirely relieved by an operation without any subsequent return of the difficulty. one of the cases was in a boy ten years old, with very firm preputial adhesions and a high grade of inflammation of the parts. dr. j. d. griffith, of kansas city, mo., operated on a case of phimosis on a child nearly three years of age, who was afflicted with repeated attacks of convulsions and paralysis of the hips and lower extremities; the little fellow had as many as fifteen convulsions in a day; the patient was greatly troubled with painful urination and priapism. on examination at the operation, a firmly adherent prepuce and a large roll of caseous matter was found just back of the corona. a complete recovery followed the removal of these conditions. the above cases are taken from the paper read before the section of diseases of children at the international medical congress of , by dr. sayre. it contains a number of additional cases of an analogous character to the above, reported to him by physicians in different parts of the country. they show the variety, extent, and far-reaching character of the diseases induced by any preputial irritation. dr. g. l. magruder, of washington, d. c., in the same paper, has a record of twenty-five cases of various nervous disturbances which he had entirely relieved by circumcision or dilatation, without any medication whatever. dr. magruder, in concluding his report, in which he quotes the authority of brown-séquard, charcot, and leyden, as having noticed serious nervous disturbances resulting from reflex irritation due to affections of the genito-urinary organs, observes as follows:-- "from the foregoing, i think that we are justified in the conclusion that phimosis and adherent prepuce give rise to varied troubles of more or less gravity, manifesting themselves either in the muscular, osseous, or nervous systems; and that the removal of these abnormal conditions of the penis frequently affords marked relief, and, at times, perfect and permanent cure." in the discussion that followed the reading of dr. sayre's paper, dr. de forest willard, of philadelphia, remarked that he had operated by simply stripping back the prepuce and that he did not circumcise, but that he looked upon the subsequent cleanliness of the parts as the greatest safeguard, not only as against reflex irritation, but also against masturbation. retained filth and smegma are far more likely to call a boy's attention to his penis by their unrecognized irritative effects than washing can possibly do. his practice is in accordance with the belief that young children can be relieved by the simpler methods, such as dilatation; but he also observes that when a child has reached eight or ten years of age, and has never been able to expose the glans, contraction is almost certain to be present, and circumcision must be performed. in adults there is rarely any escape when the prepuce is tight. dr. i. n. love, of st. louis, said: "it has been my judgment and my practice for many years, in these reflex irritations, to pursue the radical course of circumcision. i believe thoroughly in the mosaic law, not only from a moral but also from a sanitary stand-point. all genital irritation should be thoroughly removed. it is all very well to instruct the mother or the nurse to keep the parts within the prepuce clean, but they can not or will not do it. complete and proper removal of the covering to the glans takes away all the cause of disturbance. dr. sayre takes a more pronounced position on this subject than the majority of those who have discussed his paper. an improper performance of a surgical procedure is no argument against the operation, but rather against the operator. for the reasons i have given, i am in favor of the radical application of the mosaic rite of circumcision." dr. j. lewis smith, the president of the section, believed in the evil results of the reflex irritation due to abnormality of the prepuce. in many instances the causative relation of the preputial disease to the symptoms which it produces is not so apparent as it may be in others, but after correct treatment of the prepuce they disappear. there was one result of phimosis which, he observed, neither professor sayre nor those who contributed to his paper noticed. the expulsive efforts accompanying urination sometimes cause prolapsus of the rectum, and frequently produce inguinal hernia. in a lecture before the harveian society (_british medical journal_, february , ), edmund owen, surgeon to st. mary's hospital and to the hospital for sick children, says: "perhaps the commonest cause of hernia in childhood is a small preputial or urethral orifice, and next to that i would put the smegma-hiding or adherent prepuce." arthur kemp (london _lancet_, july , ), senior house-surgeon to the children's hospital, says: "phimosis is a common occurrence, and numerous ill effects can undoubtedly be attributed to it;" and he alludes to the observation of mr. bryant, as published in his book on the "surgical diseases of children": "in fifty consecutive cases of congenital phimosis, thirty-one had hernia, five had double inguinal hernia, and many had umbilical hernia besides. in no one was the hernia congenital, its earliest occurrence being at three weeks. circumcision was performed in these cases, and all were much benefited."[ ] during the session of the ninth international congress, where the above paper was read and remarks made, which appear in the third volume of its "transactions," another paper was also presented by dr. saint-germain, of paris. the doctor fully recognized the dangers from a narrow or adherent prepuce, but did not think that more than one case in three hundred really required circumcision; he believed in dilatation, as employed by nelaton, with the exception that, whereas nelaton employs three branches to his dilator, saint-germain preferred only a two-branch dilator. dr. lewis, the president of the section, related a number of cases where the use of uncleanly instruments had resulted disastrously. but, for that matter, the same objection can be offered against dilatation, as a filthy instrument is as liable to infect the patient as a knife. there is no earthly excuse why a knife that has been used on a case of diphtheritic croup should be used some hours afterward to circumcise a child. as to the operation of dilatation practiced by dr. holgate, it can really be said to answer the _immediate_ demands, but how far its utility is efficient as to _permanent_ results dr. holgate has not given the profession any information.[ ] one of the most interesting and instructive papers that it was ever the fortune of the writer to listen to, touching on the subject of reflex nervous diseases or neuroses due to preputial adhesions, was one prepared by dr. m. f. price, of colton, california, and read at the semi-annual meeting of the southern california medical society, at its pasadena meeting in december, . in the course of the paper he gives a considerable number of examples, of which some extracts are herewith given: one case was a boy aged seven, who for two years had had frequent attacks of palpitation of the heart; when seen by dr. price the little heart was laboring hard, beating at a furious rate (far beyond counting), with a loud blowing or splashing sound, and the pulse at the wrist a mere flutter. the breath was inspired in a series of jerks, the face flushed and somewhat swollen. the chest-wall was visibly moved at every thump of the heart. the doctor attended the child for a month without the little patient making any appreciable improvement. some time during this period of observation the father happened to mention that the boy sometimes complained of his penis hurting him at the time of an erection. this led the doctor to examine the parts, when he found a long prepuce, with a mucous membrane adherent to the glans, about a line beyond the corona, the whole circumference of the organ. with the use of cocaine and a blunt instrument the adhesions were removed, with an immediate amelioration of all the reflex symptoms. the very next paroxysm was lighter and less exhausting; the improvement was continuous. the child soon went to school and had no further trouble; but, in the doctor's opinion, the two years' hard struggle have not been without its evil results on the constitution and organism of the child. the next case was born november , ; a large, healthy boy at birth. by june of the following year the child was afflicted with what the mother called "jerky spells;" up to this time the boy seemed listless, did not care to sit up, and seemed from some cause to be in more or less pain, with his eyes turned to the left. the parents dreaded that the child, their only one, would turn out idiotic. the spasmodic spells alluded to were of a tetanic nature, the body being thrown backward; his head and eyes continued to be turned to the left, and nothing could attract the child's attention. the boy cried night and day, but he was in good flesh, had all the teeth he should have, bowels were regular, and the appetite good. whatever the doctor did in the medical way seemed to be of no avail. one day, however, he thought of examining the prepuce, thinking, perhaps, that it might be contracted and that the convulsive movements might be reflexes from the parts. on examination the prepuce was found elongated and distended, with a very minute opening; this was dilated with difficulty, when the inner fold was found adhering almost the whole extent of the glans; the dilatation and breaking down of these adhesions was slowly persevered in, until sufficient dilatation was obtained and the glans was freed. from the very first operation the convulsions commenced to diminish, both in force and frequency, and a constant and rapid improvement of the child took place. six months afterward the boy was perfectly normal, stood by himself, played with play-things, and was an interested member of the family circle. case no. was a repetition of case no. , except that, with the experience of the latter case, the doctor wasted no time with medication, but proceeded at once to examine the prepuce, which was found to be very long, and with a pin-hole opening. the dilatation of this and the breaking up of the adhesions gave immediate relief. during the course of the paper he quoted the case related by brown-séquard, and recorded in the new york _medical record_, vol. xxxiv, p. , where he "related a very interesting case that presented all the rational signs of advanced cerebral disease, a case that he considered quite hopeless, that was relieved by an operation for phimosis and the treatment of an inflammatory condition of the glans penis." to use brown-séquard's own words, "so rapid was the recovery that within six weeks from the day of the operation he presented himself at my office perfectly well in every respect." in the early part of this book, in speaking of female circumcision, it was mentioned that when the medical part of the volume should be reached some medical reasons for its necessity would be given. dr. price, in his paper, gives some information on this subject, which is of the greatest interest. in the course of the paper he says as follows: "nor do i think these reflex neuroses from adherent prepuce wholly confined to the male sex. the preputium-clitoridis may be adherent and produce in the female similar reflexes. during the session of the american medical association, held in chicago in , i think, i attended one afternoon a clinical lecture by dr. sayre. a little girl, fourteen years of age, but about the size of a seven-year-old child, was brought in, who had never walked nor spoken, but with quite an intelligent countenance, who was in constant motion, and who presented very many nervous symptoms. dr. sayre examined her, and found the prepuce adherent the whole extent of the clitoris. he gave it as his opinion that here was the primary and sole cause of the symptoms, and that appropriate treatment shortly after birth would have prevented all the serious consequences so painfully apparent, and which was then too late to remedy. "i once had occasion to pass a catheter into the bladder of a lady who presented an innumerable train of nervous symptoms, often bordering on insanity, but was unable to do so without exposing the parts. although the meatus could be distinctly felt, the catheter would not enter. on exposure to view, an opening was seen in the clitoris, which was firmly bound down by preputial adhesions near the extremity of the organ. entering the catheter at this point, it readily passed through the clitoris, then down through a passage under the mucous membrane to the natural site of the meatus, on into the urethra, and through into the bladder. in the light of recent experience, my opinion now is, that here was the cause of all the nervous symptoms in this case." the relative disposition in regard to the irritability of the external sexual organs as existing in the female, when contrasted with the male, is, for some reason, not sufficiently considered or understood. the idea of masturbation or of irritation from the genitals ending in reflex neuroses is always, as a rule, associated with the male, and that it has not been more associated with the female has deprived her of the same benefit that the prosecution of the study in this regard has been to the male sex. masturbation among the feeble-minded, which is so common, must, of necessity, have for its determining cause a foundation of morbid irritability of the sexual organs. this is well known to be so among the males, whose hands seem instinctively to be drawn to those parts. dr. c. f. taylor, of new york, in an article on the "effect of imperfect hygiene of the sexual function," published in the _american journal of obstetrics_ for january, , gives us an account of his investigations in this regard, with the following results: "in an asylum for the feeble-minded of both sexes, it was found that the habit was about equal in the two sexes, there being only this difference: that the females began to masturbate one or two years earlier than the males, and that the habit, once established, was found to be more persistent than in the males. it was, further, ascertained that the habit came naturally, without the aid of precept or example to either sex." it may well be a question as to whether the feeble-mindedness be not a reflex condition from this excessive morbid irritability of the sexual organs. there is not much doubt but that, if one of the cases reported by dr. price had not been circumcised, the expressionless, listless infant would have grown, in time, into a masturbating, feeble-minded, idiotic creature, as many others, so situated, have done before it. now, would it have been logical to have laid the morbid irritability of its generative organs to its feeble-mindedness, when its feeble-mindedness was fully demonstrated to have been wholly dependent on the sexual irritation? from these premises we might take another step forward, and ask whether, under a proper hygienic prophylaxis,--which would involve a thorough inspection of the genitals of _all_ children reported to be either physically or mentally deficient,--such a course would not greatly diminish the number of paralytics, feeble-minded, and generally deficient of both sexes? if the results in private practice are any criterion, it is safe to assert that a strict adherence to the mosaic law for the males and to some of the african customs for the females would most assuredly relieve all these cases that might come under the caption of results of reflex neuroses. twenty years ago this subject was, to the body of the profession, a _terra incognita_ in regard to the male, and, as the female is similarly subject to the same morbid influence, it is to be hoped that in the present decade she will receive the same attention which the profession is now beginning to pay to the male sex.[ ] in the foregoing parts of this chapter, examples of reflex neuroses have been given to show the different effects that genital irritation will produce. the cases given were chosen for the diversity of variety of symptoms, and as cases representing the affection, without any other complication. many more could have been added, but they are unnecessary. in the writer's practice there has been a number of cases in the adult that have exemplified that this form of ailment is by no means restricted to children, as has been shown in the case reported by dr. mott to dr. sayre, in regard to the middle-aged man with a string about his penis. one of these cases was that of a young man, six feet in stature, broad-shouldered, and well built. he applied for relief for a dyspepsia that affected his stomach and also his heart. the man had an apparently feeble and irritable heart; cold, clammy skin; disturbed digestion, and uneasy sleep; was constipated and flatulent. no treatment seemed to make any impression upon his case. at last he began to emaciate and look haggard. his mind was also becoming visibly weaker, was attacked by dizziness, and on several occasions he fell in a fit. with this condition he at last began to have frequent nocturnal emissions. on account of the latter his genital organs were examined, and the penis was found smaller than the average, with a long and narrow prepuce. the glans could easily be uncovered, but the tightness of the prepuce and its unyielding qualities made paraphimosis a possibility; so that the young man, having once or twice had considerable difficulty in returning the prepuce to its place, never attempted its retraction again. there were no adhesions, but the inner fold of the prepuce had been thickened by balanitis. seeing the need of circumcision _for the local benefit_, the operation was suggested with a view of relieving the pressure on the glans, which was looked upon as the probable cause, in his broken-down condition, of the advent of the nocturnal emissions. he gladly submitted, and, to the surprise of both physician and patient, _all_ his troubles disappeared, and he at once became a changed man. so impressed was he with the result, that, on his return to his home, he examined his younger brother, and, finding him with a like long, narrow prepuce, he immediately brought him in and had him circumcised, as a prophylactic against his being subjected to the risk of lost health as he himself had suffered. another case, a man of forty-five, also a farmer, was afflicted with dyspepsia, palpitation of the heart, general debility, constipation, constant headache, etc. he could not cut up an armful of wood without bringing on palpitations and gaseous eructations, or being upset for the day; and after having connection with his wife he generally had a terrific headache, lasting for two or three days;[ ] he could stand no protracted mental effort, even such as is required to make an addition of a long line of figures, or the least business worry, without the supervening headache. all treatment against these conditions was useless; the colon was kept empty, the diet was changed; pepsin and bismuth, tonics, frictions, turkish baths, and all hygienic observances and moral treatment were all of no avail. one day, on consulting the writer, he complained of a pruritus at the head of the penis. on examination it was found that he had a narrow, long prepuce, a congenitally-contracted meatus, and was then suffering with a slight balanitis. he was very careful to keep the parts clean, but, he informed me, that in spite of all precautions, these attacks would come on. the mucous covering of the inner fold of the prepuce and glans was so irritable that connection often brought it about. the glans was small and elongated, with the meatus red, and with lips oedematous and congested. to free him from this tormenter, circumcision was advised. the party could not, however, remain away from home for the time required for the operation; so that a compromise operation was performed,--one that would not keep him from business, and, at the same time, relieve the contracting pressure on the glans. this was by clouquet's operation and bandaging back the prepuce over the penis, back of the corona,--an operation that, in my hands, has often filled all the desired purpose. the meatus was also incised. after the operation _all_ of his troubles disappeared, as they had done in the preceding case, and he was soon a hearty and well man, able to chop wood, attend to business, and, in case of need, do family duty for a turkish harem without recurrence of his old tormenting, dyspeptic palpitation or sick-headache. the writer has resorted to circumcision in many cases to improve the temper and disposition of children, with the best of results, and in one case, in association with another physician, performed the operation on a lunatic, whose lunacy ran to women and girls, with whom he would fall desperately in love, without any encouragement or provocation, or even acquaintance; finally reaching spells of such incoherence of action and speech that confinement would be required. the peculiarity of his hallucinations called attention to the genital organs. this man had never masturbated, and was, when well, a compactly-built, active, and intelligent man. by occupation he was a contractor, and a man of more than usual executive ability besides. on examination it was found that he was a subject of congenital phimosis, never having been able to uncover the glans. he had been in the habit of washing out the preputial cavity by the aid of a flat-nozzled syringe. the prepuce was long, but not thick; nevertheless, it was inelastic and very firm. the examination seemed to have a good mental effect upon the man, as it made him quite rational for the moment. he entered into the idea that this condition had some connection with his derangement very intelligently, even suggesting many symptoms and attacks that he had suffered from childhood up as probably gradual-stepping processes through which his present condition had been reached. he cheerfully submitted to a thorough circumcision, which had the effect of ameliorating his condition. he was subsequently sent to an asylum, where, after a short time, he was discharged well. some years afterward, conscious of feeling a return of the mental derangement, he voluntarily applied for admission to the same institution and remained until better. this case is very instructive. the patient readily connected his mental trouble, by a retrospective view through a series of gradually-increasing troubles, that originated in the preputial condition, to the phimosed condition of that appendage, and he was certain that this prepuce had been at the bottom of all the physical and mental trouble he had experienced. the reflex nervous train of affections had undoubtedly produced some localized lesion in the brain-structure. the natural sound, healthy organism of that organ, and the bright, active nature of his mind, however, prevented a total wreckage of the mental faculties. it is safe to assume that, had he had the ordinary listless, unresisting mind, disposed to brood, and easily cast down, he would, from the first derangement, have become a hopeless and demented lunatic. the circumcision could not undo all the mischief that had been accomplished, some of which had certainly left a permanent taint, but the mildness of his future attacks and the better exercise of his volition were the undoubted results of the operation. chapter xxiv. dysuria, enuresis, and retention of urine. any dissertation on circumcision and its many uses, either prophylactic or curative, would be incomplete without a reference to enuresis; another reason for making a somewhat full reference to the subject would be the undecided position that this morbid condition seems to occupy in medical literature, as well as the meagre and unsatisfactory treatment it has received by the majority of those who have mentioned it. it is anomalous, to say the least, to find, in general or special literature, enuresis mentioned as a diseased condition peculiar from babyhood to puberty; to find it fully described and to have it stated that it is a widely-prevalent distemper, affecting both sexes alike; to know that it is an annoying, intractable, persistent condition, wearing to the child in every sense, subjecting it to a demoralizing mortification as well as to unmerited scoldings, humiliations, and punishments, and that its habit, in badly-ventilated quarters, will breed other diseases,[ ] as well as that its continued action tends to the development of onanism, with its long and widely-ramifying trains of physical and social ills; and to find works especially devoted to children's diseases silent on the subject. knowing all these things, and also that ultzmann, lallemand, and others who have treated this affection, mention it as a children's disease, it is unaccountable to reason out why most of our text-books and treatises on children's diseases should be so remarkably and unreasonably silent. it certainly cannot be laid to its lacking in study material, as the author of "quain's dictionary of medicine" says: "it is one relative to which much might be written without exhausting the subject, the pathology of which has wide and manifold relations.... there appears to be something analogous between this condition and that which determines in after life the seminal emissions under similar circumstances." our american works are notably deficient in this regard; although stewart, of new york, in his "diseases of children," published over fifty years ago, devotes a chapter to dysuria and one to retention of urine, treating the subject quite fully, even down to the description of preputial calculi; he, however, failed to notice that the irritation of preputial constriction or adhesions will produce both conditions, and, following many of the authors of the time, as has been done since, he adopted the urino-digestion theory of acid and irritating urine, due to faulty digestion, of prout and magendie, who looked to regulating the digestion of the child, or the mother who nursed it, as the only method of cure; the lithic-acid diathesis being, in their opinion, the main thing to be guarded from. other works that mention these conditions are equally on the wide sea of speculation, as they all, more or less, look upon the treatment that they advise as indefinite and unsatisfactory, showing an equal want of sound anchorage-grounds for their etiological reasonings. dillnberger, of vienna, in his hand-book of children's diseases, mentions enuresis, but has nothing better to offer for its relief than that advised by bednar, who followed a systematically-timed period of awakening, gradually lengthened out, from the time of putting the child to bed. in addition, he advises internal medication, and, like ultzmann, he recognizes the possibility of a local cause in little girls, in whom he advises the local application of nitrate of silver. edward ellis mentions dysuria, and a long prepuce is noticed among its numerous causes. the works that give the subject the most intelligent treatment (the word "intelligent" is here used advisedly, and is in reference to the results obtained) are those of west, of london, and henoch, of berlin. west, in his "diseases of children," says: "in the child, however, we sometimes find the symptoms produced by difficulty in making water owing to the length of the prepuce and the extreme narrowness of its orifice, which may even be scarcely large enough to admit the head of a pin. this congenital phimosis is, i may add, not an infrequent occasion of incontinence of urine in children, and is also an exciting cause of the habit of masturbation, owing to the discomfort and irritation which it constantly keeps up. in every case, therefore, where any difficulty attends the passing or the retention of the urine, or where the practice of masturbation is suspected, the penis ought to be examined, and circumcision performed if the preputial opening is too small. this little operation, too, ought never to be delayed, since, if put off, adhesions are very likely to form between the glans and the foreskin, which render the necessary surgical proceeding less easy and more severe." in the "lectures on diseases of children," henoch, of berlin, says: "i need scarcely add that an examination of the external genitals should never be omitted in any case of dysuria during childhood. you will not infrequently discover a phimosis which interferes more or less with the discharge of urine and retains portions of the latter behind the foreskin, where it may decompose and give rise to an inflammatory condition of the prepuce, with painful dysuria.... this is also true of the occasional adhesion of the labia minora in little girls, like the similar adhesion of the foreskin in boys. it is almost constant in the first period of life, but sometimes persists to the end of the first year; can usually be torn by the handle of the scalpel, and rarely requires an incision. in a few cases this adhesion appeared to me to be the cause of the dysuria, which disappeared after the separation of the labia from one another." henoch, however, does not seem to have grasped the full relation that the natural phimosis of young children bears to dysuria, as he here follows the prevailing opinion, that where by dint, push, hauling, and hard work the prepuce can be pushed back phimosis does not exist, as well as the general apathy to the fact that a prepuce can exert a very injurious influence by its pressure, even when not adherent and very retractable; such a prepuce is often attended by balanitis and posthitis, with an accompanying difficult, frequent, and painful urination. in a case which will be related farther on, in the discussion of the systemic effects of a long, contracted prepuce, as it induces diseased action by continuity of tissues, there is an account of a death of a two-year-old child which we can assume to have had its original starting-point in a condition of phimosis. henoch, however, rather attributes the death in that case to what may well be considered the result of a cause, leaving the original cause more to appear as a final accessory condition. my reasons for this view of the subject are simply owing to the fact that i do not believe that a child can long be afflicted with the _ischuria phimosica_ of sauvages without having the urinary organs beyond more or less seriously affected from the mere retention alone, irrespective of any reflex irritation from the pressure on the glans or of any from the irritation of the peripheral nerves; the dilatation of the adjacent cavities or channels and the deposit of calcareous matter being facilitated by the retention of urine and its naturally altered condition owing to that retention. so that dysuria in young children, beginning in a slightly phimosed condition, or in the irritability of the glans and meatus, due to its preputial covering, it is safe to assume, may produce a train of symptoms ending in permanently-injured health, or even death. the irritating urine of a slight access of fever may, by its passage over the irritable mucous lining of the prepuce, be the initial starting-point of a serious or fatally-ending disease. in all of these, it must be admitted, the presence of the prepuce is either actively or passively the cause of the most serious disease processes that may follow. ultzmann, of vienna, in his work on the "neuroses of the genito-urinary organs," gives the subject of enuresis considerable attention. it is not a work on diseases of children, but it, nevertheless, goes into the subject as if it were, and furnishes the profession with considerable information. he defines enuresis to be the passage of urine of a normal quality in a child who, with the exception of this involuntary urination, is healthy. in the first periods of life, a slight vesical or intestinal expulsive effort is sufficient to overcome the guarding sphincter muscles at their outlet; the child first obtains a voluntary control of the rectal sphincter; and, generally, with the second year it gains control of the vesical. those who pass their second year without obtaining this control, but in whom the organs and urine are normal, may be said to be afflicted with enuresis. he divides enuresis into three varieties; that involuntary urination which takes place at night during sleep he terms the _nocturnal_; that which takes place while climbing, laughing, coughing, or in the course of any violent muscular exercise is the _diurnal_; and that wherein the involuntary evacuation takes place day and night alike he terms as the _continued_. this last is again subdivided into the continuous and periodical. as a cause, he cites anæmia, scrofula, rachitis; but adds that physical debility is not necessary for its presence, as well-developed, vigorous, puffy children are as liable to be affected as thin and scrawny ones; while not all scrofulous or rachitic children are so affected, only a small portion being enuretic. sex has no influence on the liability that tends to being attacked, the proportion between the sexes being about equal. as to age, he finds the greatest proportion to be between three and ten years, but he has often treated those of either sex even at the age of fourteen and up to seventeen years. it is absolutely necessary to examine the external genitals and the urine of those affected by this disease, as phlegmasiæ of the vagina, of the vestibule or urethra in girls, or the practice of onanism, or lithiasis, cystitis, or pyelitis may be the cause of the disease. girls are apt to be found affected with polypoid excrescences at the meatus, which when removed will cause the enuresis to disappear. from the above it will be observed that ultzmann has paid much attention to these neuroses; but it will also be remarked that neither the balanitis, collection of infantile smegma, preputial adhesions nor irritations are taken into any account as possible factors of either dysuria or enuresis; he has followed more or less an electrical form of treatment for genito-urinary neuroses, the rectal rheophore being one of his favorite modes of treating enuresis; in his etiological views of these disturbances he has adhered more or less to the views of trousseau, bretonneau, and dessault, who looked upon a debilitated or anomalous condition of the vesical neck as the cause of the majority of neuroses in that region. it may be asked why these celebrated and observing physicians have neglected the preputial condition, if, as it is claimed, it is, in itself, so important and sure a factor of the derangements at the vesical neck? to answer this, or to explain any marked discrepancy that may occur in medicine between minds equally as acute and observing, it is but necessary to observe that there is, in medicine, to a certain extent, a like rule of inheritance, education, with fashion or custom of habit of thought and practice, as we find in religion. canon kingsley and froude are equally as acute and discerning as the late cardinal newman, but that did not necessitate their following that prelate into the foremost ranks of the catholic church; and pere hyacynthe was equally as intelligent as cardinal newman, but that did not prevent him from leaving the fold into which the cardinal had entered from out of the reformed church. some are born catholics or protestants, and are so with vehemence; others are born in these religions, but are only lukewarm in their doctrinal observance; while others reason and jump the traces in either direction. the followers of the destructive theories of bronssais could not see the errors of their ways, and neither could they be made to see the merits of a less interfering form of medical practice. trousseau was himself at one time tainted with bronssaisism, but, like paul of tarsus, he was made to see the error of his way, as he relates, through a case of gout that he nearly laid out in trying to lay out the disease antiphlogistically. i do not assume that preputial irritation is at the bottom of _all_ cases of dysuria or enuresis, any more than it would be rational to deny that cases of circumcision performed in some cases of diabetic enuresis have proved fatal as a result of the operative interference; but it is safe to assume that, in the great number of cases in whom some irritating conditions were found and removed, the enuresis or dysuria was due to such preputial irritation. it is also logical to assume, with west and henoch, that the organ should in all cases be examined, and its condition rendered as harmless as possible. that the condition of preputial irritation has not been fully recognized by all parties as a cause of enuresis does not do away with the fact that it does exist, any more than the refusal of the prelates and doctors of salamanca to listen to columbus did away with the fact of the existence of the american continents. a. l. ranney, in his "lectures on nervous diseases," pages , , speaks of enuresis in children as being a reflex cachexia, "excessive stimulation of the centripetal nerves connected with the so-called 'vesical centres' of the spinal cord,"--a condition which may be produced by either worms in the intestines or by preputial irritation. ranney advises a careful exploration of the urethra and rectum in these cases, and the elimination of all local causes of the conditions. probably the most remarkable case of the immediate continuous effects resulting from phimosis is the one recorded by vidal, in the fifth volume of the third edition of his "surgery." this was a young man with a congenital phimosis, having but a very small aperture; on an operation to relieve the phimosis there was a gush of water, but this only fell at the feet of the patient, without being ejected at any distance; the urethra was found to have undergone precisely the same dilatation back of this preputial orifice that it usually undergoes back of a stricture; the whole urethra from the meatus backward was found to have exceeded the calibre of that of the vesical neck; the bladder was greatly dilated. chapter xxv. general systemic diseases induced by the prepuce. aside from all the local affections or reflex neuroses, either mental or physical, that a prepuce may induce, there are an innumerable train of diseases that may originate in this one cause that at first sight would seem to have no connecting-link with any preputial condition. it has already been suggested that the prepuce does not at all ages bear the same analogous relation to man. in childhood, especially during our earliest years, it is out of all proportion in size when compared to the rest of the organ, or to any use it may have placed to its credit. man does not, then, certainly need that refinement of nervous sensitiveness in the corona that is useful in after life in inducing the flow or ejaculation of the seminal fluid; neither is there at that age much of a corona to protect. in middle life, or what might be called the procreative period of man, when the corona would seem to require all its excitability or sensitiveness, seems to be the very season in life when the glans is most apt to remain uncovered; so that nature and this hypothetical idea of the use of the prepuce are evidently at variance. so we go through childhood with this long funnel-shaped appendage into manhood, when the increasing size of the body of the penis restores a sort of equilibrium between the size and bulk of the organ and its integumentary covering. at this period, as we have seen, although it does not, from the equilibrium restored, and the more or less use to which it is subjected, induce any great immediate or uncomplicated troubles, it nevertheless endangers the existence of the penis through the accidental course of some putrid or continued fever, or it subjects man to the manifold dangers of venereal or tubercular infections. in advanced age, owing to the diminution in size of the organ, the prepuce resumes the proportionate bulky dimensions of childhood, and as the organ recedes and becomes more and more diminutive, the prepuce again, like in childhood, begins to tend to phimosis; the urine of the aged is also more irritating and prone to decomposition or putrefaction, and the constant state of moisture that the preputial canal of the aged is necessarily kept in, either by frequent urination or the incomplete emptying of the urethra that is peculiar to old age, and which results in more or less dribbling, is a powerful factor in inducing the many attacks of posthitis and balanitis, as well as those attacks of excoriation and eczema which are so annoying to the aged. i have often seen such cases happening to men past fifty, who, being widowers, and never having had anything of the kind, as well as being in the most complete ignorance of the nature of the disease, have, from delicacy and fear that the disease might induce some suspicions as to their conduct in the minds of those whose good opinions they value above all else, gone on suffering untold miseries, especially if the urine were in the least diabetic. one such case that fell under my observation not only produced such misery as to entail a loss of rest and of appetite, but even induced such a disturbance of assimilation and nutrition that the resulting hypochondriacal condition that developed from these enervating causes ran the patient into a low condition, ending in complete prostration of all vital powers and death, without the intervention of any other disease. the subject was a timid, retiring man of about fifty-five years, and this was the first and only time that the prepuce had ever caused him any annoyance,--a circumstance which greatly preyed upon his mind, as he could not disconnect it with the idea that it must be suspected as venereal, although he had always led a most continent life since the death of his wife. this is, of course, an extreme case; but as it is a result beginning in a certain condition, be it an extreme, erratic, or infrequent occurrence, it is, nevertheless, an example of what may happen in advanced life, even where the prepuce has never before been a source of the least disturbance or annoyance. persons who, with the increase of years, are also liable to an increase of adipose tissue, are more subject to this dwindling down of the penis and consequent elongation of the prepuce, with all the attendant annoyances, than thin or spare people. in this irritation that the prepuce is liable to cause, we have not only to encounter the dangers that its thickenings or indurations may bring on in their train, in the shape of cancer, gangrene, or hypertrophies, but other and no less serious results are liable to follow a herpetic attack, or in consequence of an attack of balanitis or posthitis. the dysuria attending any of these conditions may be the initial move for such a serious complication that life may be brought to a sudden end, even in infancy, to say nothing of the ease with which life is taken off in after years and in old age; with debilitated and imperfect kidney action, it takes very little to hustle us off from life's foot-bridge. a case as occurring in henoch's clinic, already mentioned or referred to in a previous chapter, shows what a simple phimosis is capable of inducing. in the history of the case the phimosis and the resulting retention in the preputial cavity no doubt were the causes of the calculus found there; and the succeeding calculi and abnormal condition of the urinary organs, we can safely assume, were a subsequent creation to that in the prepuce. the case is taken from henoch's "lectures on diseases of children," wood library edition, page , and is as follows:-- "a. l., aged two, admitted november , . quite well nourished, but pale. complete retention of urine for two days; slight redness and marked oedema of penis, scrotum, and perineum. the foreskin cannot be retracted, on account of phimosis. abdomen distended, hard, and sensitive, the dilated bladder extending a few fingers' breadth above the symphysis. in order to introduce the catheter, it was first necessary to operate upon the phimosis, during which a calculus, which completely occluded the meatus, was removed. the catheter, when introduced into the bladder, removed a quantity of cloudy urine. the oedema, rapidly disappeared under applications of lead-wash, but on november th vomiting and diarrhoea occurred during the night, with rapid collapse; december st, death. autopsy: in the bladder, a sulphur-yellow stone, as large as a hen's egg, completely filling the organ; similar calculi, from the size of a pea to that of a bean, in the pelvis of the left kidney; right kidney normal." in the above case, the oedema of the penis, scrotum, and perineum was as much a result of the distension of the bladder by the retained urine interfering with the return circulation from the oedematous parts as the different appearances of diseased conditions were a result of the primary phimosis; yet this case, if seen during its early infancy, when probably the contraction of the preputial orifice was as yet not so well marked, would have been pronounced one in which it would be needless and barbarous to perform circumcision upon. we would most assuredly have to wander aimlessly and unprofitably in the region of speculation to build up the etiology of the above-related case and reach the culmination there found, unless we accept the one that it was all, from first to last, the result of the phimosis. jonah, pitched overboard at sea to appease the tempest and swallowed by the whale, became convinced finally that he had better return to nineveh to preach reform; while pharaoh would not let the children of israel depart even after moses had so frightened him--as it is related in the rabbinical traditions compiled by the rev. t. baring-gould, m.a.--that the royal bowels were completely relaxed at the sight of the snakes turned loose about the royal throne,--a circumstance which nearly lost him his claim to divinity, which was based on the fact that his bowels moved only once a week, as in this case they not only moved out of time and in the most unkingly manner, so that the noble king hid underneath the throne, but before even pharaoh could disengage himself from the royal robes, which event could hardly have raised him in the estimation of the gentlemen eunuchs of the bed-chamber. those who unwound the mummy of pharaoh tell us that he had the appearance of a self-willed, despotic, but intelligent, old gentleman; but the above rabbinical relation, from baring-gould's "legends of the patriarchs and prophets," seems to have had no convincing effect on pharaoh; so we must not be surprised if even a case like the one from henoch's clinic would, with many, carry no conviction. in the second volume of otis on "genito-urinary diseases," of the birmingham edition, at page , there is an interesting account of a physician who, in youth, was troubled with an annoying prepuce, which, from frequent attacks of balanitis, had finally become more or less adherent to the glans penis; up to the age of nineteen he had been unable to completely uncover the glans. by six months of hard and persistent labor he had finally broken up these adhesions. at the age of twenty-two he married, and he then ruptured the frenum, which bled profusely and left him sore for some days. then for twenty-seven years he had no further trouble, but at the end of that time he began to experience what he believed were attacks of dumb ague, and the scrotum began to swell and felt sore on firm pressure. heavy, aching pains then followed. this condition of things lasted for over five years, varied by the appearance of carbuncles on the nose and elsewhere, to relieve the monotony of the thing. from this time on, abscesses began to form in the scrotum and into the integument of the penis, burrowing forward into the prepuce, which was much swollen and painful. a gangrenous opening effected itself in the dorsal surface, which relieved him somewhat. the patient was finally examined by dr. otis, who found a badly strictured urethra, the strictures beginning at the meatus, and at intervals extended down as far as two and three-fourths inches. the case had no venereal history, the patient never having had any disease or anything of the kind. the strictures were plainly the result of the balano-posthitic attacks as much as they were the cause of the degeneration of the mucous membrane in the lower urethra, that allowed of the infiltration of urine into the tissues, which caused all the systemic disturbances, abscesses, misery, and agony of the patient, depriving him of comfort, sleep, or ability for labor, and which sent him here and there in search of health and relief. it would seem really as if a prepuce was a dangerous appendage at any time, and life-insurance companies should class the wearer of a prepuce under the head of hazardous risks, for a circumcised laborer in a powder-mill or a circumcised brakeman or locomotive engineer runs actually less risk than an uncircumcised tailor or watchmaker. they recognize the danger that lurks in a stricture, but what a prepuce can and does do, they entirely ignore. i have not had any opportunities for comparison, but it would be interesting to know, from the statistics of some of these companies, how much more the hebrew is, as a premium-payer, of value to the company than his uncircumcised brother. were they to offer some inducement, in the shape of lower rates, to the circumcised, as they should do, they would not only benefit the companies by insuring a longer number of years, on which the insured would pay premiums, but they would be instrumental in decreasing the death-rate and extending longevity. i have seen so many cases of stricture whose origin could be traced to balanitis that it can almost with confidence be assumed that, wherever there is a long prepuce with a red and inflamed meatus in a child, that unfortunate child will be a victim of fossal strictures when arrived to manhood, and that, moreover, he will be a surer victim to the reflex neuroses which so often accompany strictures, and which have been so ably described by otis, than the victim of uncomplicated strictures acquired in the worship of venus. there is no end to the misery that these poor fellows have to suffer, besides the habitual hypochondriacal condition into which the accompanying physical depression, throws them; it unfits them for business, any undertaking, or even for social enjoyment or entertainment; they keep themselves and their families in continued hot water. these subjects are, also, more prone to gouty and rheumatic affections, asthma, and other neuroses. among the many cases of nervous disorders simulating other diseases that i have seen relieved were two jewish lads with an imperfection of the meatus. they were two brothers, and from the history of the cases, and that given me by the mother of the lads in regard to the father, the malformation must have been hereditary and congenital. it consisted of a partial occlusion of the meatus by a false membrane, which divided the meatus in two, horizontally, but which was closed at the posterior end of the lower passage, which readily admitted a probe from the front as far as the occlusion, about a third of an inch to the rear. the restoration, or rather the making the anterior urethra and meatus to their normal condition, relieved both boys of asthma, under which they had labored for years. the many cases simulating the general disturbances that accompany many kidney disorders, that are simply the result, in their primary causes, of preputial irritation and the disturbances to the kidney function due to the same cause, have long induced me to look upon the prepuce as a great and avoidable factor to some of the many forms of kidney diseases, prostatic enlargements, vesical diseases, and many other diseases of the urinary organs, which we know full well can result from strictures, as the latter need not always act in a purely mechanical mode to do its full extent of mischief. one result of these preputial irritations not generally or particularly mentioned in any of our text-books--a condition far-reaching as regards its own results, and more annoying and serious than it appears at first sight--usually begins with a reflex irritability of the anal sphincter muscle, or a rectal irritation of the same order, which in time produces such organic change that an hypertrophied and irritable, indurated, unyielding muscle is the result. agnew, of philadelphia, describes the condition, but does not mention this frequent cause under the name of sphincterismus; once this is established, the train of resulting pathological or diseased conditions that may follow are without end.[ ] this is no fancy sketch, nor will the student of the pedigree and origin of diseases feel that the case is exaggerated or imaginative. these are some of those cases that are always ailing, never well and really never sick, but who are, nevertheless, gradually breaking down and finally die of what is termed "a complication of diseases," before living out half their term of life. how this happens is simple enough--the straining required to produce an evacuation is out of all proportion with the character of the discharge; such patients often complain of being constipated when the evacuations are semi-fluid; this straining is followed by a dilatation and consequent loss of power of the rectum, which becomes pouched and its mucous membrane thickened; the whole intestinal tract sympathizes and digestion is interfered with, and the forcible expulsive efforts affect all the abdominal and thoracic organs in a more or less degree, laying the foundation for serious organic diseases. now, this condition, which may be said to be no more than one of obstinate constipation, is a far more reaching condition and a far more injurious state than can be imagined at a first glance. constipation is not, as a rule, always accompanied by the indigestion, either stomachic or intestinal, that goes with this condition; the contents of the intestines in simple constipation may simply lack fluidity without undergoing putrefactive fermentation, but in this condition the undigested and retained intestinal contents do undergo that change, resulting in the generation of material whose re-absorption produces a toxic condition of the blood, from whence begins a series of serious organic changes in the blood, and from this in the organs. to the practical physician these changes are evident and their cause just as plain, and it is just here where the laity lack the proper education, and where they should understand that the intelligent physician generalizes the disease and only individualizes the patient; and it is this ignorance on the part of the laity that gives to empiricism and quackery that advantage over them, as they look upon all disease as a distinct individual ailment, that should have an equally distinct and individual therapeutic agent to cope singly with. the laity know very little of these things, and in their happy ignorance care still less for the finer definitions of or of the clinical importance of toxæmia, or the processes of abnormal conditions that lead up to such a state, or the results that may follow when that condition is once reached. to them, dyspepsia is an indigestion ascribable to the stomach, and a sick-headache is ascribed to something wrong about the stomach or liver. the laity have never been called upon to answer the questioning of the late prof. robley dunglison: "what do you mean, sir, by biliousness? do you mean, sir, that the liver does not secrete or manufacture a sufficiency of bile, or not enough? do you mean that the bile-material is left in the blood, or too much poured in? do you mean that there is an excess in the alimentary canal, and a deficiency elsewhere? please, sir, explain what you really mean by the term 'bilious!'" the professor had a way about him that at least made one stop and seriously inquire, before adopting any random notion in regard to medicine. it is to be regretted that, in the humdrum tread-mill work of many physicians, they even have to drop into the commonplace way of treating dyspepsias and such ailments without any further inquiry. a farmer knows better than to drive a dishing wheel, or with merely having a nail clinched in the loose shoe of a valuable horse; but he is fully satisfied to do so in a metaphorical sense, as regards his own constitution, and the mere hint from his physician that he had better lay up for repairs, or that there is something wrong about him that will require investigation, and that there is an ulterior cause to his feeling tired, headachy, or dyspeptic, or an allusion that there is something systemic, as a cause, to his momentary attacks of disordered vision or amaurosis, will generally make him look on the doctor with mistrust. the merchant, banker, and mechanic are not up to professor von jaksch's ideas of toxæmia,--that toxæmia may be exogenous or endogenous, or that the latter is further subdivided into three more varieties,--and, what is worse, he cares still less. the above three classes of humanity, when sick, simply would want to know if professor von jaksch was good on dyspepsia, the measles, or typhoid fever. they care very little that he divides endogenous or auto-toxæmia into that produced by the normal products of tissue-interchange, abnormally retained in the body, giving rise to uræmia, toxæmia from acute intestinal obstruction, etc., the above being the first division. the second depends on the outcome of pathological processes, which change the normal course of assimilation of food and tissue-interchange; so that, instead of non-toxic, toxic matter is formed. the second group he names noso-toxicoses, which he subdivides into two principal divisions:-- (_a_) the carbohydrates, fats, or albuminous matter, which may be decomposed abnormally and give rise to toxic products, _e.g._, diabetic intoxication, coma carcinomatosum. (_b_) a _contagium vivum_ enters the body through the skin, or the respiratory or digestive tract, and develops toxic agents in the tissues on which it feeds, as in infectious diseases. in the third group the toxic substance results from pathological non-toxic products, which again produce a toxic agent, only under certain conditions. this group he calls auto-toxicoses, and includes in it poisonous substances, resulting from decomposition of the urine in the bladder, under certain pathological conditions, and giving rise to the condition called ammoniæmia. (_medical news_ of january , ; from _wiener klinische wochenschrift_ of december , .) as observed above, unfortunately the patients know nothing, nor can they be made to understand these conditions, that are only reached through labyrinthic pathological processes, and, what is still worse, this way of looking at disease is incompatible with the idea of specific-disease treatment, which to them looks more practicable and quick, and which is also more to their liking. they cannot see any sense in such reasoning, which to them is something eminently impracticable; neither can they see a reasonable being in the doctor who practices on such, as they call them, _theories_. the practical physician, however, sees in professor von jaksch's summary the turning-point of many a poor fellow's career,--from one of comparative health into one of organic disintegration, decay, and dissolution,--all the required processes starting visibly from the very smallest of beginnings; any obstruction in the urinary tract or intestinal canal being sufficient to start any of the conditions which end in toxæmia; and, from a careful observation running over several years, i do not think that i am assuming too much in saying that a balanitis is often the tiny match that lights the train that later explodes in an apoplectic attack or sudden heart-failure due to toxæmia; the organic and vascular systems being gradually undermined until, unannounced and unawares, the ground gives way and the final catastrophe occurs,--unfortunately, an occurrence or ending looked upon as unavoidable by the friends of the victim. they cannot see any danger; the idea that diseases have the road paved, not only for an easy entrance but an easy conquest, by the action of these toxic agents on the tissues, is something that they cannot grasp. these blood changes or blood conditions are things too intricate, and the physician who understands them is, to them, a visionary and unpractical man. these conditions are, however, neither new nor unknown, and there is really no excuse for the ignorance exhibited in these matters by the general public, as it is through the blood that this mischief takes place. they can reason in their impotent way, that they should drench themselves with "blood tonics" and all manner of nauseous compounds to "purify" their blood, but the simple, scientific truth is something beyond their understanding, as well as something that they steel themselves against. sir lionel beale, in observing the immense importance he attaches to blood composition and blood change in diseases of various organs, truly remarks that "blood change is the starting-point, and may be looked upon as the cause, of what follows," the other factor being the "'tendency' or inherent weakness or developmental defect of the organ which is the subject of attack;" to which he adds that he feels convinced that, if only the blood could be kept right, thousands of serious cases of illness would not occur; while the persistence of a healthy state of the blood is the explanation of the fact that many get through a long life without a single attack of illness, although they may have several weak organs; and that an altered state of the blood, a departure from the normal physiological condition, often explains the first step in many forms of acute or chronic disease. sir lionel has been a pioneer in the field of thought that looks for the cause of the disease, which, however remote it may be, should not be overlooked as a really primary affection. his extensive labor in the microscopic field has fully convinced him that many of the pathological changes in the different organs are due to what might be called some intercellular substance that is deposited from the blood. (beale: "urinary and renal disorders.") toxic elements in the blood affect the kidneys in a greater or less degree, and there produce changes at first unnoticed,--at least, as long as the kidney can perform its function,--but the day arrives when, as described by fothergill, blood depuration is imperfect, and we get many diseases which are distinctly uræmic in character, and ending in any of the so-called kidney diseases, bright's disease being one of the most common. as observed by fothergill, however, the kidney is not the starting-point, the new departure only taking place when the structural change on the kidney has reached that point that it is no longer equal to its function--the "renal inadequacy" of sir andrew clarke. (j. milner fothergill, in the _satellite_, february, .) during the bradshawe lecture, dr. william carter made the following remarks: "according to bonchard, one-fifth of the total toxicity of normal urines is due to the poisonous products re-absorbed into the blood from the intestines, and resulting from putrefactive changes which the residue of the food undergoes there." in the course of the lecture, dr. carter fully explains that one of the benefits derived from milk diet in bright's disease is the small residuum deficient in toxic properties, and lays great stress on the employment of intestinal disinfectants or antiseptics that exercise their influence throughout the whole tract, suggesting naphthalin as peculiarly efficacious, thereby cutting off one source of blood contamination at its source. although these are recent developments in medicine, bonchard mentions that in the practice of m. tapret cases treated on this principle did well. (braithwaite's _retrospect_, january, .) persons laboring under this toxic condition of the blood, with a consequent deterioration in the texture and the physiological function of the vital organs, are of that class that easily succumb to injuries or serious sickness, and of that class to whom a surgical operation of even medium magnitude is equal to a death-warrant. the above conditions are an almost constant attendant on that condition of the sphincter described by agnew as sphincterismus, which also is productive of hæmorrhoids and fissure, and often of fistula. that sphincterismus is caused in many cases by preputial irritation is as evident as that the same affection, or hæmorrhoids or any other rectal or anal affection, will, in its turn, produce vesical and urethral reflex actions, and primarily functional and secondarily organic changes in those parts. besides, the great number of cases wherein the gradual and progressive march of each pathological event could be traced with accuracy has convinced me of the true cause of the difficulty being the result of reflex irritation. delafield, in his "studies in pathological anatomy," gives, as the first form of pneumonia, that from heart disease; in the days of broussais this would have sounded absurd, but, to-day, some forms of heart disease are known to be the regular sequences of some particular form of kidney disease, just as some form of pneumonia attends an affected heart and that some forms of pneumonia degenerate into phthisis. when the blood change is an established fact, it is only a question as to which is the weak organ, and the organism of the individual will decide whether it will be a simple sick-headache or the beginning of a pneumonia ending in phthisis. i have purposely dwelt on this part of this subject, owing to the recent origin and publication of many of the views connected with it; also on account of the greater ease of making the subject plain by fully discussing each step of the process; and if the views of sir lionel will be recalled, that a toxic element in the blood is the starting-point, and that an irritable or weakened organ invites destruction,--the induction of serious and fatal kidney disorder by the transmitted irritability and consequent injury to the kidney produced by preputial irritation in the first instance, and the supplemental blood-poisoning by intestinal absorption of septic matter, which soon brings about sir andrew clarke's "inadequacy of kidney,"--all will be readily understood. when this point is reached, a too hearty meal, exposure to variable weather, or a little extra care or anxiety, are sufficient, as determining causes, to bring life into danger. as pointed out, many cases of bright's disease or other renal difficulty have their origin in this distant but visible source, and, although malarial poisoning and a great number of other causes will produce the same particular organic changes and diseases, this condition must be admitted as one of the frequent causes. the influence of the genito-urinary tract on the rest of the economy, and the importance of the sympathy it excites, or how quickly, by its being irritated, some apparently dormant pathological condition will be awakened to life and activity, is not sufficiently appreciated. as observed by hutchinson, a patient who has once been the subject of intermittent fever is more prone, on catheterization, to have a urethral chill and fever than one who had never had the fever. (hutchinson: "pedigree of diseases.") ralfe observes, in his "kidney diseases," that long-standing disease of the genito-urinary passages must be reckoned as among the chief etiological factors of chronic interstitial nephritis (page ). the condition of the kidneys in cases of strictures of long standing is known not to be a reliable one, and any incentive to dysuria or to retention, no matter how slight, is apt to lead, eventually--and that even in very young subjects--to that toxic condition mentioned in a former part of this chapter as one of von jaksch's subdivisions of toxæmia, the ammoniæmia of frerichs; this condition being the fatal ending of the case of the two-year-old child mentioned by henoch, who died after the relief of a retention due to phimosis and calculi resulting from the phimotic occlusion. having seen so many cases wherein the conditions described in this chapter were so apparently--whether from ammoniæmia due to infection, or toxæmia from the urinary tract, or uræmic toxæmia from the intestinal tract--all due to some preputial interference or irritation, i cannot help but feel that in these conditions--which, singularly, are not so prevalent with the hebrews as with christians--we have one factor in the cause of the shorter and more precarious vitality of the latter. morel, in his "traité des dégénérescences phisiques," ably discusses the degenerative and morbific influences and results of toxæmia, as well as he clearly defines their sources. the connection between toxæmia and mental affections has already been shown, and prof. hobart a. hare, in his instructive and interesting prize essay on "la pathogénie et la thérapeutique de l'Épilepsie (bruxelles, )", mentions that convulsive disorders resulting from the presence of some toxic substance are of frequent occurrence. how much this may enter as a partial factor into many of the cases of epilepsy which are classed in the order of "reflex" may well challenge our consideration. hare lays great stress on the necessity of circumcision wherever there is an indication of preputial local irritation. "if practicable, circumcision should be performed; it is an operation with but small risk or danger, and easy of performance. in such circumstances it is always permissible to circumcise, were it for no other end than an acknowledged attempt to reach a cure." chapter xxvi. surgical operations performed on the prepuce. in operative interference there is one point which should not be lost sight of, this being that the length and bulk of the prepuce in a great measure depends on the constriction at its orifice; if the orifice is small, the prepuce tight and inelastic, every erection, by putting the penis-integument on the stretch, adds to its bulk,--nature naturally trying to make up the deficiency,--the two points of resistance being where the glans pushes it ahead, having the constricting orifice for a hold or purchase, and the skin at the pubes, which is called upon to furnish the extra tissue for the time being needed during erection, which should be supplied by the prepuce--this being the only office which i have been able to assign to this otherwise useless but very mischievous appendage. in cases where preputial irritation produces more or less priapism, the continued stretching of this integument causes a marked increase in its growth, which is mostly added forward. it was on this principle or its recognition, that celsus devised his operations, and on which the persecuted jews undertook to recover their glans by manufacturing a prepuce; and, although the trial was not reported as being very successful, i do not doubt but that, if the skin could have been drawn sufficiently over so as to constrict it anteriorly so as to give the glans a purchase, as in the case of phimosis with an inelastic prepuce, the operation could be more of a success; all that is required is the continued extension and the prepuce might be made to rival in length the labia majoræ of the females of some african tribes, or the pendulous buttocks of the hottentot venus. i have employed the knowledge of this elasticity and source of supply of the penis-integument, on more than one occasion, in recovering the denuded organ with skin. a number of cases are on record where, owing to the want of that artistic and mechanical knowledge without which no surgeon is perfect, the operator has drawn forward the skin too tight in circumcising, after which, owing to the natural elasticity of the skin, the integument has retracted, leaving the penis like a skinned eel or sausage. this accident is even liable to occur where the skin has not been tightly drawn, but where subsequent erections have torn through the sutures, and where the natural retraction of the skin has laid the organ bare for some distance. i have seen a number so recorded, but do not remember seeing any remedy suggested, it seemingly being accepted that the recovery must take place by gradual granulation,--a necessarily very slow process, owing to the constant interference by--the always present in such cases--unavoidable erections. several years ago i advised circumcision to a gentleman owing to a contracted condition of the muscles of one hip and thigh, which was threatening to render him a deformed cripple; he had a congenital phimosis and a very irritable glans penis. the operation was performed in a proper manner by a surgical friend, but this friend, unfortunately, was a great believer in antiseptic and wet dressings. a few days after the operation he called upon me to ask me to go and see the patient, as they were both in a pickle, the patient being exceedingly angry, being in constant misery, and the penis so denuded by the giving way of the sutures--owing to the erections--that it looked to the patient as if he never could have a whole penis again, and the doctor saw no way out of the difficulty; the penis was, in reality, a dilapidated and sorrowful-looking appendage, and anything else but a thing of beauty or pride; it was raw, angry-looking, and bleeding at every move; the first wink of sleep was followed by an attempt at erection that raised the patient as effectually as an indian would in scalping him; so that, taken altogether, the penis, anxious countenance, and the flexed position of the whole body to relieve the tension on the organ, the man looked about as battered, cast down, and sorrowful as don quixote did in the garret of the old spanish inn, with his plastered ribs and demolished lantern-jaw. luckily, the patient was seen before the retracted portion of the penile integument had had a chance to condense and indurate. the bed was slopping wet with the drenchings of carbolized water that the penis had undergone, the man's clothing was necessarily damp, and the whole bedding and clothes were steamy,--all of which greatly added to his discomfort and tendency to erections. the man was washed, placed in a new, clean, and dry bed, and his clothing changed. the organ was then forced backward until the preputial frill or edge was approximated to the cut end of the penis-skin, where it was made fast by an uninterrupted suture around the whole of the circumference. a short catheter, about three inches in length,--the catheter being as full size as the urethra would comfortably hold, and of the best and thickest of the red, stiff variety,--was introduced into the urethra. this protruded about half an inch beyond the meatus. a stiff, square piece of card-board was pierced and slipped over this, and then adhesive rubber straps were brought from the integument to this little platform, the first being from the median line of the scrotum, lifting the sac forward and upward. the pubes were shaved and the next four straps started from the root of the penis, each strap being split at the glans-end so as to encircle the protruding end of the catheter. by these means the skin was brought back and firmly supported over the penis, toward the glans; and, in case of any erection, the act would only assist in drawing the covering farther over the penis as the pasteboard platform and adhesive straps formed the distal end of an artificial phimosis. the catheter allowed of free urination, and the scrotum was further held up in position by a flat suspensory bandage passed underneath the scrotum and fastened over the abdomen near each hip. the penis wound was then dressed with a very little benzoated oxide-of-zinc ointment passed between the adhesive straps; a bridge-support placed over the hips to support the bed-clothes, and all was finished, and full doses of bromide of sodium and chloral were ordered at bed-time. when the dressings were removed, five days afterward, all was healed, the sutures removed, and the suspensory alone replaced. the patient had not been troubled with any more erections or annoyances of any kind. these are the points which often do more or less mischief: wet dressings are uncomfortable and favor erections, while the effect of the weight and action of the scrotum in drawing backward on the integument should not be overlooked; in addition, it should not be overlooked that we have it in our power to produce, so to speak, an artificial phimotic action, which has the same traction on the penis-integument that the natural phimosis induces. the foregoing method, to be used in these cases, has proved very serviceable in my hands, and it is here given that it may assist others; as there is no need of waiting for granulations or of allowing the patient to undergo so much misery, which, besides the local injury, cannot help but affect the general health very injuriously. the penis can stand any amount of forcing backward; it stands this in cancer or hypertrophy of the prepuce, or in the inflammatory thickenings that precede gangrene of the prepuce, in any extended degree; becoming, for the time being, more or less atrophied. as has been shown by lisfranc, the penis can be made nearly to disappear into the pubes; so that we are not as helpless in these cases as our text-books would have us believe. in infants, and in young children below the age of ten or twelve, the jewish operation, as modified and done in accordance with the dictates of modern surgery, will be found the most expedient. by this method we avoid the need of any anæsthetic agents, which are more or less dangerous with children, as well as the need of sutures, which are painful of adjustment and very annoying to remove in those little fellows who dread new harm; there is also much less risk of hæmmorrhages, as the frenal artery is not wounded. in children of a year or over, a very good result will be found often to follow cloquet's operation, care being taken to carry the slitting well back, as well as care in taking it on one side of the frenum, so as to avoid any wound of that artery, the subsequent dressing being a small maltese-cross bandage, pierced so as to admit the glans to pass through; the prepuce is retracted and the tails folded over each other and held there by a small strip of rubber adhesive plaster; a little vaselin prevents the soiling by urine underneath. this last operation is short and very easy, is not painful, nor does it require much manipulation; it is only one quick cut on the grooved director and it is over; by the retraction of the prepuce, the longitudinal cut becomes a transverse one, making the prepuce wider and shorter at once; the glans soon develops and remains uncovered. as there is a very small wound to heal over, the repair is very prompt. in adults with a very narrow, thin, not overlong prepuce, a very good result often follows a combination of the dorsal slit with the inferior slit alongside of the frenum of cloquet. the narrower and tighter the prepuce, the better the result, as the cuts are at once converted from longitudinal into transverse wounds, and the organ at once assumes the shape and condition of a circumcised organ, without having suffered any loss of substance; three stitches or sutures in each cut (silver or catgut) adjust the cut edges; a small roller of lint and adhesive plaster, placed so as to shoulder up against the corona, completes the dressing. where this operation is practicable, by the thinness and narrowness of the prepuce, it has many advantages. i have repeatedly performed it on lawyers, book-keepers, clerks, and even laboring men, who have gone from the office to the courts, counting-rooms, or stores without the least resulting inconvenience or loss of time. in laborers it is better to perform the operation on a saturday evening, which gives them a rest of thirty-six hours before going to their labor again. the operation is comparatively painless and almost bloodless, as there need not be more than half a teaspoonful of blood lost during the operation; there is no danger of any subsequent hæmorrhage, and, with proper precautions against the occurrence of erections, from seventy-two to ninety-six hours is sufficient for a complete union; the sutures are then removed and a simple lint and adhesive-plaster dressing worn for a few days more. in many, no more dressings are required. in many cases, with a properly adjusted dressing, that comes forward underneath so as to include the frenum, the simple dorsal slit is sufficient; but if any of the prepuce depasses the dressing underneath, it will puff and become oedematous and require frequent puncturing. to avoid it, it is better to make the cloquet slit at once. this operation is of no value, and perfectly impracticable in a thick, pendulous prepuce. absorption will often remove considerable preputial tissue, but where there is too much its very bulk interferes with its removal by any natural means. dilatation is recommended by a number of surgeons, but, i must admit, in my hands it has always proved a failure; it may be, that if the subsequent history of the cases reported as so operated upon had been carefully traced, the reports would not have been so good. nelaton, whose dilating instrument is generally recommended, seems, himself, to prefer some of the circumcising methods, as in the volume on "diseases of the genito-urinary organs," in his "surgery," being the sixth volume of the revised edition of , by desprès, gillettte, and horteloup, the subject of dilatation is dismissed in two short lines. st. germain, of paris, uses, as has been before observed, a two-bladed forceps, used after the manner of nelaton, and reports good results. dr. j. lewis smith agrees in his statements with dr. st. germain. dr. holgate, of new york, reports a like experience. in my own practice the prepuce has often been made _temporarily_ lax and retractable, but with the usual results of the return of the contraction, with a possible thickening of the inner fold, as a result of the interference; so that only in case of any immediate demand, where the tight prepuce is producing irritation, either through pressure or adhesions, or retained sebaceous matter, do i ever resort to dilatation; always, however, even then, not as a final operation, but merely as preparatory procedure toward a future operation of a more efficient order. in cases of timid adults, who refuse all kinds of operative interference, good results may be obtained by the use of a mild lead-wash or cold tea-baths and the introduction of flat layers of dry lint interposed between the prepuce and the glans; this has a very good effect in keeping the parts apart and dry, and may in time produce a certain amount of dilatation; but even when this is done, unless it will render the foreskin sufficiently loose to allow of its being kept finally back of the corona, it is, after all, but a temporary makeshift. the corona should be exposed and kept clear of the preputial covering; anything short of this will not give all the good results to be desired. i have more than once performed a secondary operation on jews, who had been imperfectly circumcised by not having the prepuce removed sufficiently, and in whom the subsequent contraction of the preputial orifice had re-covered part of the glans, and only lately visited a four-year-old boy, circumcised when eight days old, in whom the prepuce covered half of the glans, the corona acting as a tractive point from which the penile integument was being drawn forward. in this case the simple pierced-lint maltese cross was used, with an adhesive band to hold the tails down behind and around the penis just back of the corona. these means, although not circumcision either in a surgical or in the hebraic religious sense, are, nevertheless, sufficient in a medical sense for all desired purposes; provided, however, that there is no resulting constriction, or a mild condition of paraphimosis, back of the corona, and that the whole of the glans is sufficiently uncovered, and that no abnormal dog-ears are left to garnish each side of the penis like an elizabethan frill or collar; although agnew holds that, in slitting, the practice adopted by many of rounding off the corners is mostly superfluous, as nature will do so itself in time. the ordinary way of performing the operation by modern surgeons is by what is known as the bumstead circumcision. it was not an invention of bumstead, but was adopted by him in preference to all others. the requisites are a sharp-pointed bistoury, blunt-pointed scissors, and a pair of henry's phimosis forceps, with fine needles and fine oculists' suture silk. the penis is allowed to hang naturally and the position of the corona glandis marked on the outer skin with a pen and ink, which is to serve as a guide for the incision. the prepuce is now drawn forward until this line is brought in front of the glans and grasped between the blades of the forceps. the prepuce is now transfixed, and, with a downward cut, that portion is severed; the knife's edge is now turned upward and the excision finished. the forceps are now removed and the integument allowed to retract; with the scissors the inner mucous fold is now split along the dorsum and trimmed off so as to leave about half an inch in front of the corona. the parts are then brought together with the continuous suture and dressed according to the fancy of the surgeon. care must be taken _not to bruise_ the parts with the forceps, as, in such cases, sloughing of the sutured edges will be the result instead of union. i have seen this accident happen more than once, in one case being followed by a penitis that seriously complicated matters. it has been my practice to use fine silver-wire and catgut sutures in all operations on the prepuce; they excite less suppuration as well as less irritation. in case of need, the silver can be left in longer, and they are much easier of removal than the silk; besides, they have the advantage of not cutting. in the after-treatment the same general plan can be followed as with any amputated stump, except that it must not be forgotten that at the end of this organ dwells what has been termed the _sixth_ sense, and that heat and moisture are very apt to awaken the dormant energies of the organ, even after it has undergone cruel mutilation, and even has suffered considerable loss of blood; for that reason it is best always to avoid wet or sloppy dressing, or too much ointment, as they are more apt to cause erection than to do any good. besides, i find water does here, as elsewhere, interfere with the deposited plastic matter, properly organizing into cicatricial tissue; so that i prefer a snug, dry dressing, which is left on for four or five days without being interfered with, and light covering, plain diet, quiet, with fifteen grains each of bromide of sodium and chloral hydrate at bed-time to insure rest and freedom from annoying erections. where the organ is large in its flaccid state, it is better to support it on a small oakum-stuffed pillow, made for the purpose, than to let it hang downward. should the stitches give way and the skin tend to retract, the plan proposed on a previous page can be followed to advantage. in urinating, care must be taken not to soil the dressings; some patients are very careless about this if not warned. the penis should hang nearly perpendicular while in the act, and all dribbling should have ceased and the meatus and underneath be mopped dry with some soft cotton before raising the organ; nothing so irritates the parts, retards union, or is more offensive than a urine-saturated dressing. dr. hue, of rouen, uses an elastic ligature, which he introduces into the dorsal aspect of the prepuce by means of a curved needle. this he ties in front, and in three or four days it cuts its way through. although hue reports a large number so operated upon, the tediousness of the procedure and the swelling and oedema, as well as the active pain that must necessarily accompany the operation, will hardly recommend the ligature in preference to the incision by the knife. dr. bernheim, the surgeon of the israelitish consistory of paris, has operated on over eleven hundred circumcisions, besides the cases of phimosis occurring in his general practice. his opinion of the procedure of m. de saint-germain by dilatation is not favorable. he has employed it in a number of cases of phimosis, at the time unfit for a more radical operation. he has, however, observed that cicatricial thickenings and recontractions are very apt to occur, and, as to the septic accidents mentioned in connection with circumcision, he has noted that they are as liable to occur in hands that are as careless and slovenly with what they do with their dilating forceps as they are with what they do with their bistouries. dr. bernheim prefers the circumcision forceps of ricord, as modified by m. mathieu. this instrument he prefers by reason of its gentler pressure, which, at the same time, is all-sufficient to properly fix the prepuce. in applying the forceps, he includes as little as possible of the lower part, keeping away as much as possible from the frenic artery. the dorsum of the inner fold he cuts with the scissors. in children under two years of age, he simply turns this back over the free edge of the integument; in children over two years of age, he uses serres-fines. in children, he uses a piece of lint dressing steeped in a watery solution of boracic acid; in adults, he uses iodoform-gauze dressings. he finds cases unite in from three to ten days. dr. bernheim warns us against using antiseptics on infants or young children, in connection with the after-dressing of circumcision. neither phenic acid, corrosive sublimate, nor iodoform are well borne by these young subjects, and he has seen serious results follow upon as light an application as a / solution of phenic acid. in a number of cases he reports operating with the galvano-cautery of chardin, instead of the knife. these operations were bloodless, and cicatrization was as rapid as when the knife was used. he has in several cases operated by the dorsal incision, owing to disease of the prepuce not allowing any other operation. in france, the bumstead operation is known under the title of ricord's procedure. lisfranc, malapert, m. coster, and vidal all have operations which are not as useful as ricord's, and have not, therefore, come into general use. m. sedillot condemns the dorsal incision as leaving two unsightly-looking flaps. the reverse, or inferior incision of m. jules cloquet is likewise not in favor with either malgaigne or ricord. this inferior incision or section, alongside of the frenum was first advised by celsus. m. cullerier contented himself with slitting the inner preputial fold, longitudinally, from its junction with the skin backward to the corona. m. chauvin, by the aid of a complicated instrument with barbed points, drew out the mucous fold as far as possible before excising. there is something unaccountable in the difference in results that various operations give in the hands of different surgeons. it must be that all methods are correct _with properly-chosen cases_ and when properly _performed_, as well as properly looked after subsequently to the operation. it must not be expected, however, that, in operations where the kindly assistance of nature is a thing contemplated in absorbing superfluous tissue, the case will at once give satisfaction to all. these cases must have the required time before judgment can be passed upon the merits of the operation, just as required time in cases of dilatation or in the method of m. cullerier will often demonstrate that the benefits are but transient, and that often even cases that have been so operated upon will require a complete circumcision, _à la_ ricord or _à la_ bumstead, owing to the resulting thickening induration and overconstriction, when, if left alone, the dorsal slitting or the inferior incision of cloquet would have previously given satisfactory results. the final cosmetic results in the combined cloquet and dorsal-slit operation, for instance, depend on, first, properly choosing the case. one on whom the operation is unadaptable it is useless to attempt it on, as a future circumcision or tedious and annoying re-operation of trimming would be required. the next care is to properly cut through all constricting bands, which, like fine, tough strings, will be found to encircle the penis. these must be carefully clipped with a fine pair of strabismus scissors, as these bands do not give way, either then or afterward, of their own accord, but form the nucleus for stronger constricting bands for the future. then you must be sure to cut far enough back, either above or below, until you have reached where you obtain the normal and largest calibre of circumference of the penis. the adaptation of the edges of the parts and the proper application of a smooth, equal pressure, by means of the lint strap, is of the next importance; and then comes the strapping of the whole surface for about an inch and a half back of the corona, which should and must include all the tissues of the preputial part of the frenum. a neglect or careless performance of any of the details, or the carelessness of the patient in not keeping the dressing clean, necessitating its change before the fourth day, all tend not only to interrupt the union, but to mar the future cosmetic results as well. it may be asked why all this care and trouble, and not circumcise at once? as already observed, this operation admits of the patient following his business; whereas circumcision, on the male, will assuredly lay him up for four or five days, and perhaps ten days,--something that many, be they rich or poor, cannot afford, and will not submit to. the cosmetic condition of the penis as a copulating organ is a thing of some importance, and this should not be overlooked; for, although the particular dimension, shape, or peculiarity of the penile end never figures prominently in the complaints of women who apply for divorce,--the charges being everything else under the sun,--it can safely be assumed that this organ and its condition is the original, silent and unseen, as well as unconscious power behind the throne that is at the bottom of the whole business in more than one case. like the fable of the poor lamb that the wolf wished to devour: the real reason of his wishing to kill him was that he might eat him, the pretext set forth by the wolf that the lamb had encroached on his pasture, muddied his brook, or kept him awake by his bleating having been disproven by the lamb. besides, it is well not to leave any distinctive or distinguishing mark, like an individual baronial crest, on the head of the organ. to return, however, to the operative procedures, we find that dr. vanier finds that the operation of cloquet by incision alongside of the frenum has the advantage of not leaving any deformity--contrary to the opinion of ricord and malgaigne. he, in fact, holds this procedure in such high esteem that he considers that cloquet deserves great credit for reviving this old celsian operation. h. h. smith, in his "operative surgery," coincides with vanier in his favorable opinion of this method, as he there says: "frequent opportunities of testing the advantages of the plan of cloquet having satisfied me of its value, i do not hesitate to recommend it as that best adapted to the adult, because it fully exposes the glans and leaves little or no lateral deformity, as is frequently the case with the dorsal incision,"--an opinion that i can fully agree with, from the results of the same operation in my hands, although i have used the method even on infants. vanier does not approve of the dorsal incision unless it is made v-shaped, as it otherwise leaves the unsightly lateral flaps, but thinks well of the modification of cloquet's practiced by m. vidal de cassis, which is performed in the following manner: the patient stands before the operator, who remains sitting; the operator seizes the prepuce on its dorsum and draws it toward him; he then introduces a narrow, sharp-pointed bistoury, with its point armed with a small waxen bullet, down alongside of the frenum until he reaches the pouched extremity of the preputial cavity at this point; the point of the bistoury is now made to transfix the waxen bullet and out through the skin, which from this point is divided from behind forward. vanier very sensibly suggests that the operation that is effectual, and which can be accomplished in the least number of movements or _temps_, as being the least likely to cause extensive pain and agony, should be the one preferred, and that the aim of the surgeon should be to simplify the operation by reducing the number of necessary movements. for this reason, where an excision of considerable amount of tissue is required by the nature of the case, he prefers another operation, performed by lallemand,--that of making a dorsal transfixion and cutting off the two lateral flaps, which can all be done in three movements. it makes but little difference as to which operation is performed on the adult, but that the subsequent dressing will exercise a good or evil influence, and greatly assist not only in the present comfort or discomfort of the patient, but in the ultimate result as well. bearing these points in view, charles a. ballance, of st. thomas's hospital, has adopted the following procedure:-- "when the patient is etherized, the outline of the posterior border of the glans is marked on the skin with an aniline pencil. the skin of the prepuce is slit and removed up to the aniline line. the mucous membrane is next cut away, leaving only a free edge of about one-eighth of an inch in width. any bleeding which occurs should be entirely arrested, and asepsis must be insured by frequent sponging with carbolic or sublimate solution. numerous coarse-hair stitches are then inserted, so as to bring accurately together the fresh-cut edges of the skin and mucous membrane, and subsequently, after a further sponging and drying, a piece of gauze two layers of thickness, and wide enough to reach from the root of the penis nearly to the meatus, is wrapped loosely around the penis and secured by several applications of the collodion-brush. the setting of the collodion is hastened by the use of a fan, so that the air is kept in motion, and the patient should not be allowed to recover from the anæsthetic until the dressing is quite firm and hard. this dressing forms a carapace for the penis, protecting it from the bedclothes and effectually preventing the annoying and distressing erections. mr. ballance reports excellent results from this dressing." (braithwaite's _retrospect_, july, .) in applying the above dressing, the shrinking incident to the drying of the collodion must not be overlooked, and the gauze layers must be loosely applied, as they would otherwise become too tight. the dressing is a very ingenious and serviceable one. mr. a. g. miller, at a meeting of the edinburgh medico-chirurgical society, reported a new method of dressing after circumcision. "it consisted in first closely suturing the skin and mucous membrane by numerous catgut sutures, then painting the surface with friar's balsam and covering it over with two or three layers of cotton wadding, on which the balsam is poured. the glans penis was left sufficiently free to allow of water passing. the band or ring of dressing should be at least one inch broad. the dressing was not suitable for young infants who were frequently wetting. in the case of older children, they might be allowed to go about on the second or third day, when the dressing would be quite dry, and would not be required to be changed or renewed." (braithwaite's _retrospect_, january, .) any constricting or immovable and inelastic dressing is subject to the same objections as plaster-of-paris dressings in thigh-fractures,--that of being dangerous and not expedient, unless the patient is constantly under your eye. dr. neil macleod, in the _edinburgh medical journal_ for march, , advises a procedure that has always looked favorably to me, and which i once put in practice through the means of the ordinary ptosis fenestrated forceps, in place of the ordinary circumcision forceps, the sutures being introduced through the fenestra and the prepuce cut off on the outer side of the forceps, the thickness of the steel arm on the outer side of the fenestra allowing of the properly-sized border for the hold of the sutures. dr. macleod places his sutures all in position before making any incisions,--a procedure which will be found to save the patient considerable pain; as with many the seizing and holding of the edges of the skin and mucous membrane and the forcible pressure exerted by the fingers or forceps while the needle is being forced through is the most painful part of the operation. in doing this, care must be taken to allow sufficient length to each thread to make two sutures, as well as care must be taken to properly pull out the thread in the centre between the four folds of tissue and to cut it equidistant, after the ablation of the prepuce, a blunt hook being used to fish up the threads from the preputial opening. erichsen favors the jewish operation in young children, as being the easiest and safest of performance. slitting, or the inferior or superior incision, he thought, left too much of the prepuce, which, wherever there is a tendency to phimosis, should be entirely removed, "with a view of preserving the health and cleanliness of the parts in after life." in the phimosis that is acquired by old men, he found dilatation with a two-bladed instrument to be sufficient, provided the indurated circle was made to yield. for the circumcision of adults he has invented an adjustable shield, something like the jewish spatula, with which he protects the glans. gross (the elder) used both slitting on the dorsum and circumcision. he found neither objection nor deformity in the flaps left by the dorsal incision, as they were only temporary; in some cases, he simply followed the practice of cullerier, of making multiple slits in the constricting and inelastic mucous membrane. agnew believes in circumcision in the treatment of reflex troubles. he relates a case, in the second volume of his "surgery," of eczema extending over the abdomen, of over a year's standing, cured in a child by circumcision; he operates by incision on the dorsum, in which he leaves nature to make away with the flaps, or he circumcises by the bumstead method. van buren and keyes recommend both the incision on the dorsum and the operation of ricord; where the mucous membrane alone is tight and constricted, they follow cullerier's method of either single or multiple incisions of the inner coat. they lay great stress on the necessity of keeping the patient quietly in bed to insure rapid and complete union. my friend, dr. robert j. gregg, of san diego, has lately operated on a number of cases, the operation being perfectly painless, the little patients submitting to it and feeling no more pain than if it were having its toe-nails trimmed, the local anæsthesia being produced by the hypodermatic injection of cocaine. this procedure is now used to a considerable extent throughout the country, and it is a far safer and more comfortable performance than either etherizing or chloroforming, as the sudden and spasmodic filling of the lungs of young children--who will resist and hold their breath for a long time, then suddenly inhale--with anæsthetic vapor is almost unavoidable, having in two instances nearly lost two children from such an accident. dr. g. w. overall, in a late _medical record_, which is quoted in the _journal of the american medical association_ of february , , gives the description of a very good and painless method of producing this local anæsthesia; for it need hardly be said that with a nervous, irritable child the introduction of the hypodermatic needle is as formidable an operation as either slitting or the jewish operation. dr. overall is in the habit of holding a solution within the preputial cavity and then to introduce the needle in the mucous fold, having previously applied a light rubber band back of the corona, on the outer integument, so as to act like a tourniquet and limit the action of the anæsthetic effect to the prepuce. by this procedure he avoids all pain and the operation can be performed while the child is even amusing itself, care being taken that it does not see it. sutures that require removal should not be used, according to the doctor, and the operation thereby becomes a perfectly painless and unalarming performance to the patient in all its details. notes to text. [ ] "letters of certain jews to monsieur voltaire, containing an apology for their own people." pages - . translated by dr. lefann. philadelphia, . [ ] "circoncision chez les egyptiens." brochure by f. chabas. paris, . [ ] "atlantis." by ignatius donnelly. page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] "circumcision." a. b. arnold. _new york med. record_, feb. , . [ ] "atlantis," page . [ ] this word is, in the mandan, _maho-peneta_; in the welsh, _mawr-penæthir_. "atlantis," page . [ ] "cyclopedia of biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature," vol. viii, page . article, phallus. [ ] "origine, signification et histoire, de la castration, de l'eunuchism, et la circoncision." par. f. bergmann. published in the "archivio per le traditione populaire," . [ ] "dictionaire des sciences médicales." par une société de médecins et de chirurgiens. paris, , -volume edition. [ ] dr. delange mentions a peculiar social habit or custom among a tribe of arabians that in a sociological sense is worth mentioning. he observes that for these dances females are preferred, but owing to the peculiar habit about to be related it is impossible to have any of the village women in algeria assist at this part of the festivities; hence the men have to do the dancing. it appears that the females of one tribe--this being the tribe of ouleds-nails, who live on the southern borders of algiers--are in the habit, when young, of emigrating to the oases of the sahara, which are occupied by the french and traveling arabs, where they give themselves up to a life of prostitution. after having exercised this life for some years they return to the tribe with a dowry in money, besides an ample supply of clothes and jewelry,--the result of their economy,--which enables them to contract favorable marriages. this practice is so common in this one particular tribe, and so much have they monopolized the profession of courtesan, that the name of the tribe of ouleds-nails is in arabia synonymous with that of courtesan. these young women dance every evening in the arab cafés, and are at times employed to do the dancing at arab feasts. for this reason no self-respecting arab woman ever allows herself to dance in public, or why the practice of both sexes dancing together is not practiced in algerian villages, as a man would thereby consider himself disgraced.--dr. delange, in _receuil de mémoires de médecine de chirurgie et de pharmacie militaire_, no. , august, . [ ] "tractatus, alberti bobovii, turcarum imp. mohammedis iv olim interpretis primarii, de turcarum liturgia, peregrinatione meccana, circumcisione, Ægrotorum visitatione," etc. oxonii, . [ ] michel le feber. "le theatre de la turquie." paris, . [ ] "la circoncision, sa signification social et religieuse." par m. paul lafargue, in the _bulletins de la société d'anthropologie de paris_. tome x, d fascicule, juin à octobre, . [ ] "circumcision." by a. b. arnold. _new york med. record_, feb. , . [ ] bancroft's "native races," vol. ii, page . [ ] "recherches philosophiques sur les americains, ou memoires interessants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espece humaine." par m. de p. edition par dom pernety. tome ii. article, circoncision, berlin, . [ ] "the family, a historical and social study." by charles franklin thwing. boston, . [ ] the "recherches philosophiques sur les americains" and virey, in the th volume of the "dictionaire des sciences médicales," are very full on this subject, and for fuller information the reader is referred to those works. [ ] "cause morale de la circoncision des israelites, institution preventive de l'onanisme des enfants." par le docteur vanier, du havre. paris, . [ ] "annual report of the bureau of ethnology." by j. w. powell. washington, , . [ ] "among cannibals, or four years' travels in australia." by carl lumholtz. page . charles scribner & son, . [ ] these interesting historical facts in relation to the holy prepuce were published in the _journal l'excommunier_ in january of , when the writer was in france. they were contributed by a. s. morin, of miron, a learned historiographer and antiquary. europe has not recovered from its love of the supernatural that it had so strongly in the middle ages. the blood of st. gennaro still liquefies once a year, and many churches still claim to possess the identical winding sheet that served our lord prior to his resurrection, as well as more than one church has the holy cloth that st. veronica used on the way to calvary, which has an impression of the face of the saviour. [ ] this church has a remarkable history connected with its foundation. the tradition relates that in the dark ages some sacrilegious soldier had robbed a church in the neighborhood of its holy vessels of gold and silver. in the vessel in the tabernacle there happened to be a consecrated wafer. the soldier journeyed on to turin to dispose of his plunder, when, on arriving at the spot on which the church now stands, the wafer is said to have ascended miraculously to some distance above the soldier's head, while at the same time the mule he rode, being imbued with more religious piety than his master, reverently knelt down on his front legs. the holy wafer was now encircled by a halo of shining light; this, with the kneeling donkey and the soldier raining blows on the pious animal, while he himself was unconscious of the presence of the host above him, attracted the attention of the populace, who apprehended the soldier, on whom the stolen vessels were found. the bishop in his pontificial robes, in solemn procession, received the consecrated wafer, which promptly descended into pious hands. the donkey was adopted by the bishop and the soldier was promptly hanged, in accordance with the general treatment of thieves in those days. the writer has more than once seen a flagstone inclosed within a railing that occupies the central spot of the floor or pavement of the church, it being the identical spot on which the donkey knelt. [ ] rush's "medical inquiries," vol. i, page . [ ] fothergill. "gout in its protean aspects," page . [ ] "philosophy of magic," from the french of eusebe salverte, vol. ii, page . [ ] "dictionaire des sciences médicales." cullerier. article, phimosis. vol. xli. [ ] bergmann has gone into this subject at length, and the writer has drawn freely from his brochure on "castration and eunuchism," reprinted from the "archivio per le traditione populaire" of . [ ] "the hermit." by the rev. charles kingsley. see introduction. [ ] "dictionaire des sciences médicales," vol. liv, page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] "cyclopedia of biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature," vol. iii, page . [ ] smollett gives a good account of the carthagena expedition in his "roderick random," and for a good satisfactory detail of the blundering walcheren expedition the reader is referred to harriet martineau's "history of england," vol. i, pages , , , and . [ ] schoopanism, or pæderastia, is at times practiced by the omahas, and the man or boy who suffers as the passive agent is called _min-quga_, or hermaphrodite.--"third annual report of the bureau of ethnology." by j. w. powell. washington, , . [ ] when the missionaries first arrived in this region they found men dressed as women and performing women's duties who were kept for unnatural purposes. from their youth up they were treated, instructed, and used as females, and were even frequently publicly married to the chiefs or great men.--bancroft's works, vol. i, "native races," page . [ ] "recherches philosophiques sur les americains," tome ii. [ ] "the history of the hebrew commonwealth." from the german of john jahn, d.d. page . oxford, . [ ] "l'hermaphrodite devant le code civil." par le docteur charles debierre. bailliére et fils. paris, . [ ] "recherches philosophiques sur les americains," tome ii, page . [ ] "l'hermaphrodite devant le code civil." debierre. [ ] _occidental medical times_, sacramento, cal., october, , page . [ ] "dictionaire des sciences médicales," vol. xxxi., page . [ ] _british and foreign medico-chirurgical review_, vol. xviii, . [ ] "l'hermaphrodite devant le code civil." debierre. [ ] sir thomas brown's works, vol. ii, "religio medici." [ ] "the bible and other ancient literature in the nineteenth century." l. t. townsend, d.d. chautauqua press, . see pages - . [ ] "the religions of the ancient world." george rawlinson, m.a. alden edition of . page . [ ] "the intellectual development of europe." john w. draper. vol. ii, page . [ ] _ibid._ vol. ii, page . [ ] in "clarke's commentary," vol. i, page , the reason of choosing the eighth day is given. circumcision was not only a covenant, but an offering to god; and all born, whether human or animal, were considered unclean previous to the eighth day. neither calf, lamb, or kid was offered to god until it was eight days old.--lev., xxii, . [ ] a father circumcised his children and the master his slaves. in case of neglect the operation was performed by the magistrate. if its neglect was unknown to the magistrate, then it became the duty of the hebrew, upon arriving of age, to either do it himself or have it done.--"clarke's commentary," vol. i, page . [ ] bishop newton points out the remarkable analogy that marks the hebrew race as descendants of isaac and the arab race as the descendants of ishmael, from whom sprung the saracenic people. these are the only two races that have gone on in their purity from their beginning. they intermarry only among themselves and have, alike, the same customs and habits as their fathers. the sculptured faces of the hebrew on the babylonian monuments are the same faces that are met in the synagogues of paris or new york. so with the descendants of ishmael, in whom there flows partly the blood of the dominant element of ancient egypt; neither custom, habit, nor physiognomy have changed. in these two races, as observed by bishop newton, we have an ocular demonstration of the divine origin of our faith, if verification of scripture history is any criterion.--"clarke's commentary," vol. i, page ; also, hosmer's "story of the jews," page . [ ] "cause morale de la circoncision." vanier, du havre. pages - . [ ] "de la circoncision." par le dr. s. bernheim. page . paris, . [ ] "cyclopedia of biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature," vol. ii, page . [ ] among the semitic race, however, it seems possible to bring forward better evidence than this of an early stone age. if we follow one way of translating we find, in two passages of the old testament, an account of the use of sharp stones or stone knives for circumcision,--exodus, iv, : "and zipporah took a stone"; and joshua, v, : "at that time jehovah said to joshua, make thee knives of stone." ... the septuagint altogether favors the opinion that the knives in question were of stone, by reading, in the first place, a stone or pebble, and, in the second, stone knives of sharp-cut stone. these are mentioned again in the remarkable passage which follows the account of the death and burial of joshua (joshua, xxiv, , ),--"and it came to pass, after these things, that joshua, the son of nun, the servant of jehovah, died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in timnath serah, which is in mount ephraim, on the north side of the hill of gaash." here follows, in the lxx, a passage not in the hebrew text, which has come down to us: "and there they laid with him in the tomb, wherein they buried him there, the stone knives wherewith he circumcised the children of israel at the gilgals, when he led them out of egypt, as the lord commanded. and they are there unto this day." the rabbinical law, in connection with this subject, reads as follows: "we may circumcise with anything, even with a flint, with crystal (glass), or with anything that cuts, except with the sharp edge of a reed, because enchanters made use of that, or it may bring on a disease; and it is a precept of the wise men to circumcise with iron, whether in the form of a knife or scissors, but it is customary to use a knife." this mention of the objectionable nature of the reed as a circumcising medium is attributed to the danger that may arise from splinters. the fiji islanders use both a rattan knife and a sharp splinter of bamboo in performing circumcision and in cutting the umbilical cord at child-birth. herodotus mentions the use of stone knives by the egyptian embalmers. stone knives were supposed to produce less inflammation than those of bronze or iron, and it was for this reason that the cybelian priests operated upon themselves with a sherd of samian ware (samia testa), as thus avoiding danger. there seems, on the whole, to be a fair case for believing that among the israelites, as in arabia, ethiopia, and egypt, a ceremonial use of stone instruments long survived the general adoption of metal, and that such observances are to be interpreted as relics of an earlier stone age.--"researches into the early history of mankind." by edward b. tylor. pages - . london, . [ ] the cannibals of australia do not eat white people, as the flesh of these produces a nausea, which the flesh of the vegetable-fed blacks does not do. the rice-fed chinese are considered a treat, and these are slaughtered in great number, ten chinamen having been served up at one dinner.--"among cannibals." by carl lumholtz. page . [ ] "cause moral de la circoncision." par le dr. vanier. page . [ ] _ibid._, page . [ ] _cincinnati clinic_, vol. ii, page . [ ] "the story of the jews." hosmer. page . [ ] "traité d'hygiène, publique et privée." michel levy. d. edition, vol. ii, page . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] "diseases of modern life." b. w. richardson. page . [ ] "longevity and other biostatic peculiarities of the jewish race." by john stockton hough, m.d. _new york med. record_, . [ ] "vital statistics of the jews." by dr. john s. billings. _north american review_, no. , vol. , page , january, . [ ] "on regimen and longevity." by john bell, m.d. page . [ ] _british and foreign medico-chirurgical review_, vol. xliii, page . [ ] _ibid._, vol. xlii, page . [ ] in "influence of the trades on health," thakrah mentions the peculiar exemption enjoyed in this regard by the butcher class. he quotes tweedie in saying that he never saw a butcher admitted to the fever hospital. [ ] lancereaux. "distribution de la phthisie pulmonaire." [ ] ashhurst. "int. enc. surgery." [ ] horner. "naval practice." [ ] _cincinnati lancet and observer._, vol. xvi, . [ ] it may well be a question of some interest whether the atrophy of the testicle in the aged may not at times be partly due to the compression exercised by the prepuce on the glans through reflex action, and whether at times the virility that is departing cannot be restored by circumcision in such cases. i have seen such results, being guided to the idea by the biblical relation in the case of abraham. [ ] this patient subsequently died of a uræmic complication following on an attack of fever. the man was in his prime, and had been of most exemplary habits. the fever that he had was, i had every reason to believe, directly due to the results of imperfect blood depuration incident on the irritability of his kidneys, which, retroactively, again allowed the uræmic condition to assume that dangerous degree that suddenly and very unexpectedly to his friends and family ushered the patient into eternity. this man had only been merely inconvenienced by his prepuce up to the time that it caused his death. it is interesting to observe what little trifles bring about the end of some men. the unlucky habit of putting the royal countenance on paper brought louis xvi to a sudden halt at varennes, and his head to the scaffold. the lucky meeting of the _aides_ of bonaparte and desaix between novi and marengo gave to france its empire and to europe the enlightenment that was diffused by that event. if such trifles affect individuals and nations, we must not be astonished that the little useless prepuce should be endowed with the mischief-working power of the historical old cow and kerosene lamp that reduced chicago to ashes. [ ] in the london _lancet_ for there is a very interesting communication at page on this subject. there is no doubt but that the prepuce offers the best skin-grafting material. [ ] in the seventeenth volume (third series) of "guy's hospital reports" there is a most interesting report at page of a case of skin-grafting that was performed by thomas bryant. the case was an extensive ulcer resulting from an injury. bryant took some skin-grafts from the man's arm and some from a colored man in an adjoining bed. the account gives the daily report as taken from the note-book of mr. clarke, and is accompanied by a colored plate to illustrate the subject; the proliferation of the black skin is astonishing. in closing the report mr. clarke says: "but in the figures depicted the amount of increase in the black patches will be well seen. in ten weeks the four or five pieces of black skin, which together were not larger than a grain of barley, had grown twentyfold, and in an another month the black patch was more than one inch long by half an inch broad, the black centres of cutification having clearly grown very rapidly by the proliferation of their own black cells." [ ] _american journal med. sciences_, vol. lx. [ ] "circumcision." by dr. a. b. arnold, of baltimore. [ ] "de la circoncision." by dr. s. bernheim. paris. [ ] the reader is referred to a very interesting paper detailing conditions of adhesions in the _american journal med. sciences_ for july, . it is taken from the hungarian of m. bokai. [ ] _new york med. journal_, vol. xxvi. [ ] _american journal med. sciences_, vol. lx. [ ] dr. vanier describes this operation of celsus mentioned by vidal in his work on "circumcision," at page , which consisted in making, by a circular incision immediately back of the glans, like in a circular amputation, a complete detachment of the integument from back of the corona. the penis was then made to retreat into the sheath thus made and a short catheter introduced into the urethra, to the end of which the free end of the new preputial fold was made fast, a piece of oiled lint being interposed between the raw inner surface and the glans. another operation consisted in forcibly drawing the integument forward and in making a number of transverse incisions in the integument so as to assist its extensibility. by these means it was drawn sufficiently forward so as to fasten it to a canula or catheter made fast in the urethra. but it can well be imagined that a person must possess the most exalted idea of the physiological needs of a prepuce and feel the most sensitive need of such an appendage to submit to the first of these operations, although it is more than probable that many jews submitted to the operation in the days of celsus to avoid being exiled or plundered of all their possessions. the resulting prepuce could not have been a much more unsightly appendage than that which ornaments the overburdened virile organ of many christians, and there is no doubt but that in many cases they passed muster. [ ] "circumcision." dr. a. b. arnold. [ ] ashhurst. "int. enc. surgery," vol. vi. [ ] "pertes seminales." [ ] "circoncision." dr. vanier, du havre. [ ] "dictionaire des sciences médicales." [ ] erichsen's "surgery," page . edition of . [ ] _medical news_ of philadelphia, page . vol. for . [ ] "pertes seminales." in the fourth american edition of the english translation of mcdougall of lallemand we find that he fully appreciated the dangers that lurk in a prepuce. at page he says: "such is the condition which the parts present in cases of recent balanitis, and these are the inflammations and ulcerations that cause more or less extensive adhesions of the prepuce to the glans. such adhesions are generally cellular, but sometimes fibrous or even cartilaginous, according to the severity and frequent repetition of the inflammation. various degrees of induration also results according to the intensity, the duration, and the frequency of the phlogosis. thus, i have often found a mucous membrane hardened, thickened, and covered with numerous papillæ, sometimes fibrous or cartilaginous, with three times its natural thickness. i have also met with cases in which the prepuce has become cancerous. i have operated in several cases of cancer of the penis, too, which certainly arose from no other cause. the patients were generally peasants between fifty and sixty years of age, who had never known other than their own wives, but who had frequently suffered from balanitis attended by abundant discharge, swelling of the prepuce, and excoriation of its opening, which was so contracted as to prevent the passage of the glans. i have seen one case, also, in which balanitis, irritated by a forced march and the abuse of alcoholic stimulants, passed into gangrene, by which the greater part of the glans was destroyed. such have been the accidents which i have observed on those whose prepuce was too narrow to permit the glans being uncovered; accidents which i can only attribute to the long retention of the sebaceous matter in a kind of _cul-de-sac_, into which a certain quantity of urine passes every time the patient makes water." [ ] claparède. "la circoncision." [ ] baron boyer. "traité des maladies chirurgicales," vol. x, page . [ ] i have practiced considerably among the jewish people, but i have never seen their elderly men suffer with prostatic troubles like our own people who are uncircumcised. from having observed the tendency to prostatic complications in young people with troublesome prepuces, and that the great number of the elderly people who are affected with prostatic disease or enlargement are the unlucky possessors of long or large prepuces, i have arrived at the conclusion that the prepuce can be entered as a factor in the etiology of enlarged prostate. [ ] i have now under my care a poor consumptive who has all the appearance of having always been as virtuous as joseph, but who, unlike joseph, has from infancy had as a constant companion a long, miserable, smegmanous, and annoying prepuce. the young man has an oedema which first affected his feet, but one day, owing to the irritation of a slight balanitis, the prepuce swelled at once; it proceeded through the penis integument to the scrotum; the penis itself retracted, leaving the integument and scrotum to assume a translucent, puffy, cork-screw appearance and attitude; from its labyrinthic passage the urine slowly dribbles during urination in a scalding stream. in addition to the physical sufferings, he is tormented by the knowledge that his friends attribute all his disease and troubles--since the occurence of the penile oedema--to the fact that his earlier manhood must have been indiscreet, as well as sinful. the laity cannot connect any penile, scrotal, or testicular disease with anything except venereal disease; and if the physician attempts to explain matters, they simply look upon it as the good-natured and well-intentioned efforts of the doctor to deceive them and to cover up the shortcomings of some frail mortal. many a poor fellow has to leave this world under a cloud of mistrust and a bad odor of past deviltry to which he is not entitled, and suffer all this in addition to all his physical ills, owing to his having been ornamented through life with an annoying prepuce,--the luckless heritage of having been born a christian. columbus in chains moralizing on the ingratitude of this world is nothing to the poor invalid with a swollen prepuce, innocently acquired, silently "cussing" the ignorance of his relatives and friends. [ ] this patient, on convalescing, suffered considerable from the action of numerous small carbuncles, resulting from the toxæmic condition induced by the partial suppression of urine that he at times suffered from, and, when nearly well, brought on a serious relapse by the mail-bag appendage at the penis working up the organ into a state of erection. while so situated he had intercourse, and from ° his temperature immediately rose to ½°, where it remained for several days, lengthening out his illness by several weeks, into a long-protracted convalescence. the man is not yet circumcised, and, from the knowledge that i have of his tendency to uræmia, i feel that, although in his prime, a fever or an accident may take him off at any moment. [ ] in looking over the literature of reflex neuroses and more direct injurious results, i find that george macilwain, in a work on "surgical observations on the more important diseases of the mucous canals of the body," published in london in , calls special attention to the case of a man aged thirty-eight, admitted to the finsbury dispensary, and who was in the care of mr. hancock. the patient was suffering from excruciating pain in different joints, the pain being so great that he was confined to his bed and unable to stand on his feet. he was unable to rest at nights, and neither rheumatic nor any other apparently suitable treatment was of any service. rigors were soon added to his other troubles, and during their continuance the pain in his joints was greatly aggravated. he was referred to mr. macilwain for treatment, who promptly relieved him by the removal of a urethral stricture, which had quietly been the cause of all the disturbance. it is particularly interesting that even at that early day the reflex neuroses and complications that may arise from the irritability of the genito-urinary organs were so well understood. how well dr. macilwain appreciated the nicety of these relations can be seen from his remarks in connection with the above case, in which he says: "it may be observed that the severity of the symptoms is not always commensurate either with the duration of the disease or the degree of stricture, and that, although the progressive development of them varies considerably in rapidity, in different individuals, it is, nevertheless, in the latter stages, always more rapid." macilwain also graphically describes the insidious approach of these genito-urinary troubles. in speaking of stricture he says: "although minute inquiry generally informs us that the stricture has been of some standing, and in some instances has existed for years, yet it may happen that it is only a few months or a year since the patient's attention has been directed to the disease. this is very intelligible; for, in conformity with what we observe in other parts of the body, the bladder has a power of accommodating itself to a change of circumstances. its strength, for a long time, may increase so correctly in proportion to the increase of the obstacle which opposes the ejection of its contents that a very considerable period elapses before the difficulty in making water becomes cognizable to the patient, or it occasions an annoyance so trifling as scarcely to excite his attention. this increase of strength in the bladder frequently renders the formation of stricture so insidious that the urethra at the affected part is very narrow before the individual is aware of the existence of any contraction whatever; the bladder, however, at length becomes unable to empty itself, and the abdominal muscles and diaphragm powerfully act as coadjutors, so that each effort to make water is accompanied by a straining which is very distressing, and the complete evacuation of the bladder is often not accomplished even by these combined forces. the straining which accompanies stricture, and which seems necessary to evacuate the bladder, although it be occasionally exceedingly annoying to the patient at the time, is more important with reference to the results which are its consequence. i am firmly of opinion that there are a great number of patients laboring under hernia which has been produced by no other cause. i must confess that i had seen a great number of instances of stricture in ruptured patients before i drew any inference from the observation of their co-existence." the foregoing observations of macilwain, made in , are here reproduced for their clearness of expression and explanation, as well as to show what injuries can be produced on the young child afflicted with phimosis. we are, as surgeons, familiar with the anatomical and pathological changes there are undergone by the bladder and its lining membrane, as well as in the ureters and kidneys, in many cases of stricture, as well as of the great amount of prostatic irritability and enlargement that is due to the same cause. how similarly these results can be and are actually produced by phimosis is undeniably expressed by the post-mortem appearances in the poor infant described by golding bird to the london medical society, and mentioned in the london _lancet_ of may , . the bladder and ureter were like those of a man who had long suffered from stricture. from the remarks of dr. j. lewis smith, that phimosis may be productive of inguinal hernia and prolapsus of the rectum, and the observations of edmund owens and arthur kemp, both high authorities on children's diseases, being both connected with children's hospitals, as well as the remarks of mr. bryant in his "surgical diseases of children," who all concur in looking upon phimosis as a great factor in hernia, bryant having observed thirty-one in fifty consecutive cases of phimosis, we are certainly warranted in assuming that phimosis is not only a mere local timely inconvenience that will disappear with the approach of puberty, but a condition which, in the more easily affected organism of the child,--lacking, as it does, that resistance that comes with our prime,--is productive of serious harm; as even the first few years of life, even a few months of infant life, with a phimosis, are sufficient to so change the structures of parts that the poor child will grow into a man with an impaired kidney or sacculated ureter. the strain required to induce a prolapsus of the bowel or a rupture into the inguinal canal is exerted as much on the bladder, ureter, and kidney as on the other localities. physicians who have taken the pains to observe must have noticed, more than once, how the child afflicted with a phimosis has not only at times to wait for the stream of urine to appear, there seemingly being some obstruction to its starting, but how often such a case is afflicted with a stammering, halting urination. a child thus started out into life, with a defective kidney or kidneys, is sadly handicapped in his usefulness, comfort, or in properly competing in the race of life. no parent would for a moment think of starting his son in life by giving him a business that is heavily mortgaged at the start, but many a parent unconsciously launches the unsuspecting child into a life of such ill health--resulting from a simple narrow prepuce--beside which a heavy mortgage or a heavy yearly tribute would be but a mere trifle. i have seen such men, who in after life, broken-down and perfectly physical wrecks, would gladly have given all their wealth and been willing to have some genii set them down in the middle of the sahara, shirtless and pennyless, provided they had their health. to say nothing of the trifling loss of the prepuce, these parties would gladly have had a foot or a leg go with the prepuce if necessary, and have their health. [ ] i have often performed dilatation where, for some reason, either the timidity of the parents or the health of the child seemed to contraindicate any more radical procedure. it is customary to advise mothers or the nurses to retract the skin daily, but even after a good dilatation i have found as sudden a recontraction, and even in the majority of cases, where daily drawing back the skin might have been practicable, the cries and struggles of the child are a positive prohibition to these instructions being carried out; it is not once in ten times that it can be carried out. i have seen two very annoying cases of paraphimosis resulting from this procedure, the struggles of the child having prevented the return of the prepuce to its proper place, and the violent crying and sobbing of the child having assisted to congest the organ. [ ] it may well be a question, considering the well-established fact that nervous injuries and affections are easily transmissible and become hereditary, how much feeble-mindedness is due to an heredity originally induced in either parent through reflex neuroses from the genital organs. the jews have a very small percentage of feeble-minded; it is true that they have not any inebriates to assist in their manufacture, but still the absence of these well-pronounced cases of reflex neuroses among the race must be largely ascribed to their practice of circumcision, as that operation cures the gentiles so afflicted. [ ] i have seen precisely similar conditions resulting from a sphincterismus being relieved by anal dilatation. i had one such case who had fallen into the hands of a quack, who made him believe that he was being affected with incipient softening of the brain; systematic dilatation or a rupture of the sphincter _à la_ van buren is the appropriate remedy. [ ] in the first volume of the "american and english encyclopedia of law" there is an interesting account of a young child (who had been bound out by the parish officials) who murdered his little bed-fellow and, on trial and conviction, was sentenced to be hanged, but who was reprieved by royal favor on account of his tender years, the sentence being changed to imprisonment for life. the little fellow was only eight years of age. on the trial the boy said he was driven to commit the crime because the other child soiled the bed. the two children being both paupers, it may well be imagined that their bedding was none of the cleanest at the best, or that their bed-room had the best of ventilation. as at the time the murder was committed english paupers were not treated in the most humane manner, it is not surprising that a nervous, sensitive child would, under such a combination of circumstances, be converted into an insane murderer. [ ] the study of prematurely acquired impotence in the male is a most interesting one. i have frequently seen it result from the presence of anal or rectal irritation, from hæmorrhoids. i have seen cases who could not have erections, and in whom all sexual desire was extinct at a very early age, who have informed me that, although unable to have sexual intercourse because of the total absence of sexual desire, the flaccidity of the organ, and the want of sound physiological organic functional activity to suggest the thought, they had, nevertheless, frequently been the victims of nocturnal emissions before the total extinction of the function. as a rule, much of this premature impotence--induced by either irritation of the genital organs or rectal or anal troubles--runs its unfortunate possessor through such a course of physical incidents as described by hammond, as the wild indians of the southwest induce in the _mujerado_. at first the sound organ responds in a natural manner to any stimulus that may affect it, but soon a local satyriacal condition is set up, which, running a more or less rapid period of intense activity, soon leaves its victim completely, permanently, and hopelessly impotent, even as much so as if eunuchized in the most approved manner. hammond's description of the manner in which these unfortunates are manufactured is an interesting addition to the facts contained in the natural history of man, and is as follows: "a _mujerado_ is an essential person in the saturnalia, or orgies, in which these indians, like the ancient greeks, egyptians, and other nations, indulge. he is the chief passive agent in the pederastic ceremonies which form so important a part in the performances. these take place in the spring of every year, and are conducted with the utmost secrecy, as regards the non-indian part of the population. for the making of a _mujerado_ one of the most virile men is selected, and the act of masturbation is performed upon him many times every day; at the same time he is made to ride almost continuously on horseback. the genital organs are thus brought, at first, into a state of extreme erethism, so that the motion of the horse is sufficient to produce a discharge of seminal fluid, while at the same time the pressure of the body on the animal's back--for the riding is done without a saddle--interferes with their proper nutrition. it eventually happens that, though an orgasm may be caused, emissions can no longer be effected, even upon the most intense degree of excitation. finally, the accomplishment of an orgasm becomes impossible; in the meantime the penis and testicles begin to shrink, and in time reach their lowest plane of degradation. but the most decided changes are at the same time going on, little by little, in the instincts and proclivities of the subject. he loses his taste for those sports and occupations in which he formerly indulged, his courage disappears, and he becomes timid to such an extent that, if he is a man occupying a prominent place in the council of the pueblo, he is at once relieved of all power and responsibility, and his influence is at an end. if he is married his wife and children pass from under his control,--whether, however, through his wish or theirs, or by the orders of the council, i could not ascertain. they certainly become no more to him than other women and children of the pueblo." hammond examined one of these men, who had, as he himself informed him, formerly possessed a large penis and testicles "grande como huevos,"--as large as eggs. the penis was in its flaccid state and about an inch and a half in length, with the glans about the size of a thimble, which it very much resembled in shape. the glandular structure of the testicles had disappeared; they were atrophied, little besides connective tissue remaining. he examined another _mujerado_ in the pueblo of acoma, who had been so made when at about the age of twenty-six. the penis was not more than an inch in length and about the diameter of the little finger, and of the testicles there was apparently nothing left but a little connective tissue. both of these men had high-pitched voices. the last one examined was then thirty-six years of age. (hammond: "male impotence.") the foregoing detailed description shows an extreme degree of results produced by an equally extreme degree of intense and persistent irritation applied to the genital organs, purposely employed to obtain certain results. in the cases cited the irritation or excitation is directly applied, but it is safe to assume that reflex irritability from the anus or rectum, or from that of a stricture or of a prepuce, will in some cases produce a certain degree of excitation in the testicles that may result in their functional or organic derangement, in a degree proportionate to that of the amount of excitation from which they have suffered. that the testicles are very apt to suffer from the existence of a stricture is a well-known fact. i have myself worried over a case of stricture, in whom the attempted passage of a filiform bougie was always immediately followed by a severe attack of epididymitis, and who had always been afflicted with a tenderness and a tendency to inflammation of the testes. i have also noticed a much greater tendency to orchitis in the wearer of an irritating prepuce than where it was absent; so that the presence of a satyriacal tendency, no matter in what proportion of a degree it may be present, can safely be assumed to result in a corresponding degree of apathy, due to an actual physical degeneration of the parts. that these conditions, when present in any degree of permanency or persistence, will in the end induce early impotence, i have no reason to doubt. in this regard we must not overlook the fact that persons with phimosis, stricture, or other genital irritants and impediments, are more liable to be afflicted with hæmorrhoids, prolapsus ani, or other anal and rectal irritation, which retroactively assist in bringing about the condition under question. how much this may have to do with certain prolific peculiarities among the jews may well be questioned; it is a well-known fact that in london the jewish excess of male births has been as high as eighteen per cent., while among the christian or gentile population it is only six and one-half per cent.,--a somewhat analogous condition of proportion being also observable in the united states. here, it is accounted for, in a measure, by dr. billings, in the following words: "this comparatively large proportion of males among the jews is probably due to the fact that the death-rate of their infants is less for males, as compared with females, than it is among the average population." children gotten during the prime of life of the parents are naturally more virile and have better stamina than those gotten before full maturity is reached. if the father is on the verge of impotency just about the time he is expected to beget his best offspring, that offspring cannot be expected to present an extra amount of vitality, virility, or physical stamina; hence, the prepuce can be brought in as directly tending--in no matter how small the degree it may be, but nevertheless a factor--to the physical degeneracy of the race, as well as it demonstrates the existence of some law for the production of the sexes which we do not as yet fully comprehend. aside from the above considerations, there are those of the actual bar to the increase of population which the prepuce induces, either by primarily being the cause of impotence or by direct interference, as already mentioned, and the impotence that naturally results from the causes set forth in this note. the results of a prepuce are certainly such as must act like a moist, warm, and oily poultice to the irritability induced in the most confirmed malthusian when contemplating the--to him--rapid and unwarranted increase of population. works and authorities quoted. thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, par j. b. b. edmond nogues, sur la anatomie, physiologie, et pathologie du prépuce. paris, . thèse à la faculté de médecine de strasbourg. par j. b. a. chauvin. consideration sur le phimosis et operation de la circoncision par un procédé nouveau. strasbourg, . de la circoncision chez les egyptiens. f. chabas. paris, . cause morale de la circoncision des israelites. vanier, du havre. paris, . la circoncision, son importance dans la famille et dans l'etat. par le docteur claparéde. paris, . dissertation sur la circoncision, sons les rapports religieux, hygieniques, et pathologiques. par le docteur moyse cahen. paris, . origine, signification, et histoire, de la castration, de l'eunuchisme, et de la circoncision. par le docteur f. bergmann de strasbourg. archivio per le tradizioni populari, vol. ii. darstellung der biblichen krankheiten. von dr. j. p. trusen. posen, . archives israelites de france, no. , em année, septembre, . bulletins de la société d'anthropologie de paris. tome x (serie iii), d fascicule, juin à octobre, . recueil de mémoires de médecine, de chirurgie, et de pharmacie militaires. tome xxi (serie iii), no. , august, . traité d'hygiène, publique et privée. michel levy. d ed. paris, . neuroses des organes génito-urinaires de l'homme. ultzmann. paris, . l'hermaphrodisme, sa nature, son origine, ses consequences sociales. par le docteur charles debierre. paris, . l'onanisme. tissot. lausanne, . traité de la nymphomanie. dr. bienville. amsterdam, . la folie erotique. par prof. b. balt. paris, . des pertes seminales involontaires. lallemand. paris, . spermatorrhoea. lallemand and wilson. philadelphia, . the philosophical dictionary. voltaire. london, . oeuvres complétes, avec notes, etc. montesquieu. paris, . dictionaire d'hygiène, publique et de salubrite. tardieu. paris, . guide du posthétomiste. par le docteur l. terquem. paris. la circoncision et ses suites. par a.s. morin. ext. du journal l'excommunié, january, . la circoncision. par le docteur s. bernheim. circumcision. by dr. a. b. arnold, of baltimore. reprint from the new york medical journal of february , . among the cannibals. by carl lumholtz. new york, . recueil de questions proposés par une société de savants voyageant an arabie, michealis. amsterdam, . tractatus, alberti bobovii, turcarum imp. mohammedis iv olim interpretis primarii, de turcarum liturgia, peregrinatione meccana, circumcisione, Ægrotorum visitatione, etc. oxonii, . le theatre de la turquie. michel le feber. paris, . recherches philosophiques sur les americains, ou mémoires interessants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espece humaine. par m. de p. augumentée par dom pernety. berlin, . (also the first edition of the same work printed at cleves in .) history of the hebrews' second commonwealth. wise. cincinnati, . history of the hebrew commonwealth. jahn. oxford, . jews' letters to voltaire. philadelphia, . the jewish nation. revised by kidder. new york, . the jews under roman rule. by w. d. morrison. new york, . the story of the jews. by james k. hosmer. new york, . the history of the jews. by the rev. h. h. milman. new york, . early oriental history. by john eadie, d.d., ll.d. london, . the bible and the nineteenth century. by l. t. townsend, d.d. new york, . legends of the patriarchs and prophets. by the rev. s. baring-gould. new york, . the religions of the ancient world. by george rawlinson, m.a. new york, . the hermits. by the rev. charles kingsley. new york, . letters on demonology and witchcraft. letters addressed to j. g. lockhart, esq., by sir walter scott. london, . the philosophy of magic, prodigies, and apparent miracles. from the french of eusebe salvert. new york, . atlantis, the antediluvian world. donnelly. new york, . sir thomas browne's works. london, . physical education, or the health laws of nature. by felix oswald, m.d. new york, . the family: an historical and social study. by thwing. boston, . the intellectual development of europe. by john w. draper, m.d. new york, . history of european morals. by w. e. h. lecky, m.a. new york, . longevity and other biostatic peculiarities of the jewish race. by john stockton hough. reprinted from new york medical record, . vital statistics of the jews. by dr. john s. billings, in north american review for january, . on regimen and longevity. by john bell, m.d. new york, . diseases of modern life. by b. w. richardson, m.d. new york, . cyclopedia of biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature. by mcclintock and strong. new york, . early history of mankind. tylor. london, . dictionaire des sciences médicales. -vol. edition. paris, . british and foreign medico-chirurgical review, vols. for , , , , , , and . london. braithwaite's retrospect of medicine and surgery. the chinese. by john francis davis, esq., f.r.s. london, . massachusetts state board of health report for . on diseases of children. stewart. new york, . diseases of children. west. philadelphia. lectures on diseases of children. henoch. new york, . women's and children's diseases. dillnberger. philadelphia, . male impotence. hammond. new york, . genito-urinary diseases. otis. new york, . urinary and renal diseases. roberts. philadelphia, . urinary and renal disorders. beale. renal and urinary organs. black. philadelphia, . gout in its protean aspects. fothergill. detroit, . venereal diseases. bumstead and taylor. philadelphia, . traité sur les maladies des organes génito-urinaires. civiale. paris, . pathologic chirurgicale, tome vi. nelaton. paris, . pathologie externe, tome v. vidal (de cassis). paris, . guy's hospital reports, d series, vol. xvii. london, . transactions of the ninth international medical congress, vol iii. washington, . american journal of obstetrics for january, . on the reproductive organs. acton. philadelphia, . operative surgery. smith. philadelphia, . operative surgery. stephen smith. philadelphia, . system of surgery. gross. philadelphia, . principles and practice of surgery. agnew. philadelphia, . international encyclopedia of surgery. ashhurst. philadelphia, . science and art of surgery. erichsen. philadelphia, . diseases of the kidneys. ralfe. philadelphia, . the clinic. cincinnati, . american journal of the medical sciences for july, ; also vol. lx. new york medical journal, vols. xvi, xix, xxvi. occidental medical times. sacramento, october, . london lancet, . distribution geographique de la phthisie pulmonaire. lancereaux. paris, . annual report of the bureau of ethnology. j. w. powell. washington, . western journal of medicine and surgery. louisville, . native races of the pacific coast. bancroft. san francisco, . encyclopedia britannica, th edition. classical dictionary. lempriere. new york, . commentary on the bible. clark. satellite for february, , and january, . philadelphia. pedigree of diseases. hutchinson. medical inquiries. rush. philadelphia. half-yearly abstract of the medical sciences, vols. xii and lx, philadelphia. cincinnati lancet and observer, vol. xvi. statistics and climate of consumption. millard. traité des maladies chirurgicales, vol. x. baron boyer. paris, . dictionary of medicine. quain. new york, . index abolishment of circumcision by christians, ; by the romans, of eunuchism in italy, , abraham, absence of penis, of testicles, abyssinians, carry off the male members of slain enemies, ; circumcised bishop among the, acosta, rev. father, on mexican circumcision, adams, dr. c. powell, of hastings, minn., after-treatment of circumcised hebrews, agnew, d. hayes, on penile cancer, ; on eczema as a reflex neurosis from phimosis, albutt, t. clifford, on primary cause of disease, american circumcision, ; infibulation and muzzling, amputation of penis, , , androgynes, augleria, pierre d', on american circumcision, apis, the white bull, sacred to the egyptians, apollo belvidere, as evidence of exactness of ancient sculpture, apure indians and their circumcision, arabian circumcision, ; prostitutes, arias montan, on mexico, arnold, dr. a. b., of baltimore, , , , asthma as a reflex neurosis from genital irritation, australian circumcision, ; operation on the urethra, author's modification of circumcision, aztec circumcision, ballance, c. w., dressing after circumcision, bamboo stick worn in vagina as a chastity protector, baptismal ceremonies of omaha indians, barbarous arabian marriage custom, mutilations of guamo and othomaco indians, bas-relief representing egyptian emasculation, bassouto circumcision, battos circumcision, baumgartner's devout and chaste dervish, beale, sir lionel, on blood changes, bell, dr. john, on jewish hygiene, dr. j. royes, , , , bells, jingling of, under the skirts, denotive of judean virginity, belt of brass mail to insure female chastity, berbers, mutilations of their prisoners, bergmann, of strasburg, , bergson, dr., bernbeim, dr., on freedom of jews from syphilis, ; on preputial statistics, ; on circumcisial operation, bernoulli, prof., of bale, "beth yosef" of joseph karo, biblical vouching for homoeopathy, billings, dr. john s., u. s. army, on jewish vital statistics, ; on cancer amongst jews, bird, dr. golding, on phimosis, bishop of abyssinia accused of heresy on account of circumcision, blood of prepuce sprinkled on bride's veil, ; sprinkled on ears of corn, changes as starting-points of disease, , bobovii, alberti, on mohammedan circumcision, bogera, or african circumcision, bokai, on preputial statistics, bornean circumcision, bowditch, henry i., on jewish vital statistics, boyer, baron, on cancer of the penis, ; on gangrene of the penis, brett, dr. f. h., case of hypertrophy of prepuce, bryant, thomas, on skin-grafting, bumstead, on circumcision, burial of algerine prepuces in the sands of the deserts, cahen, dr., on diminished sensibility of glans after circumcision, calculus, liability of the chinese to preputial, ; dr. j. g. kerr, on preputial, ; c. h. martin, of mobile, on climatic influence on, ; prof. enoch, of berlin, on preputial and vesical calculi, ; claparède's case, ; composition of preputial, ; civiale's case, ; induced by phimosis, canary islands, remains of an antediluvian world, cancer of the penis, ; views of jonathan hutchinson as to its origin, ; pre-cancerous stage of, ; views of lallemand, , ; statistics of, ; cullerier on, ; fifty cases reported by dr. zielewicz, ; early mention of, ; views of prof. john c. warren, ; views of walshe, canon of st. john lateran and his profane doubts, carter, dr. wm., on toxic urines, casalis, m., on bassouto circumcision, cases of spontaneous circumcision, castration, etymology of the term, ; as a self-sacrifice to deities, celsus, on roman infibulation, ; on operations on the prepuce, , , ; originator of cloquet's operation, chabas, m., description of egyptian _bas-relief_, charlemagne endows an abbey with a holy prepuce, charles v sacks rome, and robbery of the holy prepuce, chastity among egyptian dervishes, ; belt of brass mail of the ethiopians, ; plug of bamboo of soudan, ; rings to insure chastity in the male mentioned by nelaton, ; enforced among the hindoo bonzes by infibulation, ; among the cybelian priesthood, ; greek monks, ideas of, ; comparative, among the different religious creeds of prussia, chinese, peculiar liability of, to calculous disease, ; considered a delicate diet by australian cannibals, chippeway indians and circumcision, chivalry of the male hottentot, christian abolishment of circumcision, ; circumcision in abyssinia, circumcised phallus as a religious and civic symbol, ; races peculiarly exempt from syphilis, circumcising knife (see knife). circumcision, abolished by christians, ; among chippeway indians, ; among the atlanteans of plato, ; among the phoenicians, ; among the egyptians, ; arabian, , ; during the reign of psammétich, ; civil and religious symbol of ancient egypt, ; aztec, ; among the mijes, ; mexican, ; totonac, ; among the orinoco indians, the climatic limits of, as a general rite, ; in the island of cosumel, ; in yucatan, ; in old florida, ; apure indians, ; among the amazons, ; accidental case of, mentioned by cullerier, ; spontaneous, ; abolished by the romans, ; destroying marks of, ; of abraham, ; hebraic, ; not practiced in the wilderness, ; physical conditions that exempt jewish children from, , ; description of hebraic, by montaigne, ; as a cure for epilepsy, ; as a preventive of hernia or rupture, ; as a preventive to prolapsus of the bowel, ; as a preventive of idiocy, ; as a cure for dyspepsia, , civiale, on moral effects of penis amputation, ; case of phimosis and preputial calculi, claparède, on evils resulting from the prepuce, ; on preputial calculi, clarke, sir andrew, on renal inadequacy, clavigero, on mexican circumcision, climatic limits of circumcision, cloquet operation, , colchis, colony of, constantine punished circumcisers with death, constipation as a divine attribute, ; as a result of phimosis and its results, consumption, relation of, to jewish race, , controversy about the holy prepuce, convent of st. corneille and the holy knife, convulsions induced by phimosis, , cullerier, accidental circumcision, ; on penile cancer, cybelian priesthood and castration, dakotas, the white bull sacred among the, david and the philistine prepuces, debreyne, trappist, monk, and physician, delange, on arabian circumcision, delpech, on female circumcision, demarquay, on penile gangrene, dervishes, holy and chaste, difference between turkish and buddhist heaven, dilatation of prepuce, , , donnelly, hon. ignatius, on atlantean circumcision, dressing in cases of retraction of penile skin, ; c. w. ballance's, after circumcision, ; a. g. miller's, du bisson, on soudanese harems, dyspepsia induced by preputial irritation, , ebers, dr., on karnac _bas-relief_, eczema induced by phimosis, effect of the holy prepuce on the hands of a lady, effects of age on the prepuce, egypt, uncircumcised persons not allowed to study in ancient, egyptians emasculated their prisoners, emasculation, its early practices and evolutions, ; of uranos, emperor adrian forbids circumcision, endurance and fortitude of arabs, enforced continence and its effects on the penis, ennery, m., grand rabbi of paris, enoch, prof., of berlin, on preputial calculi, ; on results of phimosis, ; on enuresis, enuresis, epilepsy, induced by the prepuce, , , epstein, dr., of cincinnati, erichsen, prof., on cancer of the penis, ethics at the battle of fontenoy, ethiopian infibulation of infant females, eunuchism, beneficial to guardians of public funds, ; as excluding from the priesthood, ; in italy, ; in china, , ; in india, ; in the soudan, ; and music, ; as a punishment, ; mortality attending its manufacture, , , , , , ; does not prevent copulation at all times, , , , , ; manner of procedure among the pagan priesthood, ; prices of eunuchs, ; numbers annually made, , ; fecundating eunuch of mecca, ; velutti, the opera-singer, ; eunuchs as possessors of harems, ; eunuch warriors and statesmen, evidence of circumcision on egyptian monuments, extraordinary results of phimosis, female circumcisers in arabia, females subject to preputial reflex neuroses, , flaccourt, m. martin, account of the madécasses, fothergill and the unlicensed practitioner on renal pathology, french war-office records, on jewish vital statistics, frenum, statistics relating to abnormalities of, frerichs' ammoniæmia, fresnel, m., on marriage circumcision, full-moon rites among the bassouto maidens, galen, on the flaccid virile member, , gangrene of the penis, golden padlocks worn on prepuce for five years, greek and roman statuary and the penis, greek monks' object in infibulations, ; extreme ideas of chastity, gregg, dr. robert j., operative procedure, griffith, dr. j. d., cases of reflex irritation, gross, prof. s. d., on penile cancer, ; operations, grotius and the origin of the peruvians, guimara, the, guinzburg, dr., on jewish vital statistics, gumilla and his south american voyages, hæmostatic powders, hare, prof. hobart a., on circumcision, haskins, dr. a., on jewish vital statistics, heaven, turkish, ; buddhist, hebraic idea of parental origin of constitution of the child, hebrew consistory of paris, hebrew words in central american languages, hebrews, attempts to efface signs of circumcision, ; secretly circumcise their dead, ; hebrew vital statistics, to ; as proverbial good livers, ; escape epidemics, ; peculiarly free from syphilitic taint, ; their circumcision suitable to young children, heliogabalus, emperor, was circumcised, henry iii of france as a moslem godfather, henry v of england and the holy prepuce, heraclius, emperor, persecuted the jews, hermaphrodites, earliest mention of, ; pederasty causes belief in their existence, , , ; debierre on, ; notable cases of, , , , hernia induced by phimosis, herodotus, his views adopted by voltaire, ; visits egypt, herrera, on mexican circumcision, hey, dr. william, on preputial cancer, hindoo devotee wears a six-inch ring in prepuce, hitouch, holgate, dr., of new york, on preputial adhesions, ; on preputial dilatation, holy circumcision, , prepuces, , vinegar and its miraculous effects, homer, surgeon u. s. navy, on the worship of venus porclna, horrible marriage performance, hottentot restriction on making twins, hough, dr., on jewish longevity, humphry, geo. murray, on "old age," hutchinson, dr. jonathan, on the pre-cancerous stage of cancer, ; on urethral child, hypospadias, as a heredity, ; artificially made, ; formerly led to belief in hermaphrodism, ; fecundation in, ; difficulty in determining sex owing to, idiocy induced by phimosis and preputial adhesions, , impious wretch steals the holy prepuce, impotence, holy vinegar and shrinal observances in, to indians and circumcision, to induration of prepuce, inflbulation practices, to isis inaugurates osirian rites, isserth, rabbi israel, jansen, surgeon of the belgian armies, on frenum deformities, jews' letters to voltaire, ; jews (see hebrews). judaism unfavorable to religious insanity, justinia, emperor, persecuted the jews, karo, joseph, and the "beth yosef," kemp, dr. arthur, on phimosis as a cause of hernia, kerr, dr. j. g., on chinese preputial calculi, keyes, dr. e. l., on composition of preputial calculi, , king david, the first homoeopathic patient, ; secures two hundred philistine prepuces, knife, circumcising, used in ancient egyptian rite, ; of shell used by tonga islanders, ; of stone used by australians, ; of the holy circumcision, ; made of rattan among the fiji islanders, lafargue, on australian circumcision, lallemand, on masturbation, ; on tendency to preputial cancer, , ; on circumcision, las casas, on aztec circumcision, leech, dr. t. f., on preputial irritation, letenneur, prof., on the knife of the holy circumcision, life-insurance and the circumcised, lisfrane, rules for operations on the penis, ; on recession of the body of the penis, livingstone, on bassouto circumcision, longevity of hebrews, , , lonyer-villermay, m., on female circumcision, louis xvi as a candidate for the rite, love, dr. i. n, on the mosaic law, lumholtz, on australian hypospadias, macilwain, on reflex neuroses, magruder, dr. g. l., on reflex irritation, maids as heat radiators, maimonides, jewish rabbi and physician, , , malay circumcision, malgaigne, operative views, , mapato, or mystery hut, marriage preceded by circumcision, martius and spix, on circumcision on the amazon, mastin, dr. c. h., on calculous disease, masturbation, maury, dr. frank, on preputial statistics, mcleod, dr. neil, circumcision operation, mcmahon, dr. w. r., on reflex epilepsy, mendelssohn, rabbi moses, , mexican circumcision, mezizah, or act of suction, milah, miracles performed by the holy prepuce, to mishna, the, mohammed, mohel, , moses, dr., of new york, preputial statistics, moses circumcises his son, mott, jr., dr. a. r., cases of reflex irritation, music, first schools of, music at algerine circumcision, ; at mohammedan, in asia, ; at turkish feast, nelaton, case of infibulation, ; on penile cancer, ; on penile hypertrophy, nelson, lord, disregard for red tape, new caledonian circumcision, newton, sir isaac, and the storm-predicting cow, nicaraguan baptism of blood, oath of mohel, oath, egyptian manner of making oath, obod, battle of, operations on the prepuce, ; cloquet's, ; bumstead's, ; hue's, ; bernheim's, sedillat's, ; chauvin's, ; cullerier's, ; vanier's, ; vidal de cassis', ; lallemand's, ; a. g. miller's, neil mcleod's, ; erichsen's, ; gross's, ; van buren and keyes', ; d. hayes agnew's, ; overall's procedure, origin of phallic worship, of human slavery, orinoco, circumcision on the, orloth, penis or prepuce? osiris vanquished by typhon, othomacos indians and their bloody rite, owen, dr. edmund, on phimosis, packard, dr., on preputial statistics, papal indulgences to worshipers of holy prepuce, paralysis induced by phimosis, penis, absence of, ; diminutive specimens, ; amputation of, , , , ; cancer of, ; gangrene of, ; hypertrophy of, , , periah, persecutions on account of circumcision, phoenician origin of circumcision, phimosed penis on ancient statues, phimosis, , ; as a cause of hernia, physicians as practical christians, pooley, prof. j. h., case of preputial irritation, popè, rabbi rav, and the _guimara_, portuguese sailors as mohammedan proselytes, potentia generandi, coeundi, prepuce, infibulated, ; swallowed by mother, ; fired off in gun, ; holy, ; useful for skin grafts, ; absence of, ; influence on man at different ages, ; induration of, ; warts of, ; reflex neuroses from, preputial miracles, ; statistics, ; adhesions, , ; calculi, price, dr. m. f., on reflex neuroses, ; on female preputial irritation, , primitive phallic rites, homoeopaths, procedure in retraction of skin of penis after circumcision, proselytes, mohammedan, how circumcised, , public women between decks in u. s. navy, puzey, dr., of liverpool, on preputial skin grafts, pythagoras ; visits egypt, ralfe, on causes of interstitial nephritis, rameses ii, circumcision of his sons, ranney, prof. a. l., on enuresis, reconstruction of a prepuce, , , rectum, prolapsus of, induced by phimosis, reflex neuroses from preputial irritation, , , regulations of french hebrew consistories of , religion, its connection to insanity, resectricis nympharum, profession of, restriction on impregnation, ; on twins, retraction of skin of penis after circumcision, richardson, dr. b. w., on relation of race to disease, , , , ricord's definition of the prepuce, ; operations on the prepuce, roman infibulation, royal decree of in france, roux, on cancer of the prepuce, rush, benjamin, and the cancer quack, saint-germain, dr., on preputial abnormalities, saint foutin and his shrine, saint guerluchon at bourg-dieu, saint guignole and the miraculous phallus, saint coulombs and the miraculous prepuce, saturnus the first eunuchiser, sayer, prof. lewis a., contributions to medical science, scythians carry off heads of the slain, self-circumcision, attempt at, semiramis first employs eunuchs, severus sulpicius, on effects of climate, sham battles at circumcision feasts, , , , she-circumcisers, shrine for the recovery of impotent males, smith, dr. j. lewis, on preputial irritation, solomon, dr., of brunswick, on suction, soudanese chastity protector, sphincterismus due to phimosis, spiked chastity belt in naples museum, stallard, dr., on jewish vital statistics, sterility cured at sacred shrines, to stricture of urethra and phimosis, , styptics used by mohels, , syphilis, statistics relating to, to syphilis and scrofula, taylor, dr. c. f., on masturbation, totonac circumcision, tonga islanders' rite, toxæmia, resulting from phimosis, ; of von jaksch, tube, penis carried in, tunca indian circumcision, turkish circumcision, to tylor, on the stone age and circumcision, van buren and keyes, on circumcision, vanier du havre, dr., , ; on operations, venus, birth of, vidal de cassis, on preputial operations, virey, account of hindoo bonze, virgins' chain of bells in ancient judea, vital statistics of jews, to voltaire, on origins of circumcision, von jaksch's definition of toxæmia, wadd, dr., on preputial cancer, ; on hypertrophy of penis, walshe, on preputial cancer, warren, on preputial cancer, warts of penis and prepuce, waterman, dr., on jewish vital statistics, wax images of penis deposited on shrines, welsh words in mandan language, wet dressing objectionable after circumcision, , white bull, sacred among sioux and egyptians, ; origin of sacredness, willard, dr. de forest, observations on the prepuce, wine at circumcision feasts, wirthington, dr. f. j., on preputial irritation, wise, dr. i. m., on st. paul the apostle, warman, prof., of brooklyn, on circumcision, the three following pages are reduced fac-similes of pages from stanton's practical and scientific physiognomy; or, how to read faces. by mary olmsted stanton. the ablest, most entertaining, trustworthy, and exhaustive treatise of the kind in the english language. complete in two royal octavo volumes of over pages each; richly illustrated with choice wood-engravings, many of them original. sold by subscription, or sent direct on receipt of price, shipping expenses prepaid. price, in united states, cloth, $ . ; sheep, $ . ; half-russia, $ . . canada (duty paid), cloth, $ . ; sheep, $ . ; half-russia, $ . . great britain, cloth, s.; sheep, s.; half-russia, s. france, cloth, fr. ; sheep, fr. ; half-russia, fr. . examine the following pages. f. a. davis, publisher, filbert street, phila., pa. branch offices: _chicago, ill.-- lakeside building, - s. clark st. new york city-- w. d street. atlanta, ga.-- old capitol. london, eng.-- berners st., oxford st., w._ order from nearest office. _fac-simile page from "stanton's physiognomy"--reduced._ how to reduce size without losing strength. voice. a thorough-bred person may belong to the artistic, mechanical, or scientific classes, either appreciatively or executively; he must exhibit both gentleness and spirit, as occasion requires; he must be governed by the law of justice; he must make the comfort of his associates his concern, and do what is _right_ in order to enhance their happiness. the facial indications of those who are not thorough-bred, speaking physiologically, are as follow: a coarse, thick skin; a "muddy" complexion, or one permanently blotched, pimpled, or discolored; dull eyes, very small or very large and bulging; coarse hair, or that which is very light or colorless,--that is to say, of no _decided_ hue. i regard very light colored, pallid people as morbid varieties; also those with irregular teeth, a very small or ill-shapen nose, small nostrils, perpendicular jaws, exposed gums, open mouth, receding chin, or one that projects greatly forward, ending in a point; thin, pallid, dry lips; hollow cheeks, flat upper cheeks. ugly or ill-shapen ears, a voice weak, thin, hoarse, shrill or nasal; a long, cylindrical neck; a high, narrow forehead. the undue development of certain organs and systems of the body induces abnormal conditions, as, for example, an excessive disposition of fatty tissue. when the appetite is voracious, or the nutritive system uncommonly active, too much of the carbonaceous elements of the food are eliminated, or, as it often occurs, too much carbonaceous food, such as white bread, potatoes, etc., is consumed for the needs of the body; the consequence is an excess of fat, which, in many subjects, impedes respiration, prevents activity, and gives a generally uncomfortable feeling. for this condition a spare diet is often prescribed, but as this is felt to be a hardship, and as few who attempt it succeed in continuing it long enough to produce satisfactory results, it is pronounced a failure. for this class of people there is a very agreeable and sure method of reducing the bulk without reducing strength and without compelling too great a sacrifice of the appetite. how to reduce the size without losing strength. a diet which will attain this result is easily obtained, and of it the subject can use a quantity sufficient to allay the craving for food. this diet consists of absolutely _raw_ foods, nothing cooked being allowed. this diet, of course, must consist mainly of fruits, nuts, grains, milk, and, when flesh-meat is desired, a hamburg beefsteak may be partaken of; this steak is raw beef chopped fine and seasoned with onion, salt, pepper, or other condiments; to this may be added raw oysters and clams. every kind of fruit _fac-simile page from "stanton's physiognomy"--reduced._ systems and faculties required for a surgeon. is a dangerous being); he should develop his friendliness, love of children, and of the opposite sex; in short, he should be a _lover_ of _humanity_. the systems and faculties required for a surgeon. [illustration: fig. --edward jenner, m.d. (celebrated english physician, author, and discoverer of vaccination.) no scientific physiognomist could mistake this face for other than that of a physician, and an earnest and attentive one as well, as evidenced by the signs of "natural physician" in the cheek-bones, in the attitude of the head and neck, and by the thoughtful, observant expression of the eye. the combination of systems in this subject is such as is most frequently observed among physicians, viz., the supremacy of the osseous and brain systems. the muscular, thoracic, and vegetative powers all assist in this combination by their development. the signs for conscience and firmness are apparent. love of home and patriotism rank high. benevolence, amativeness, love of young, mirth, approbation, self-esteem, modesty, friendship, alimentiveness, sanativeness, pneumativeness, and color combine to form a lovely domestic and social nature. the form, size, and peculiarities of the nose claim attention. it is a nose denoting constructiveness, originality, and logical power. the signs for hope, analysis, mental imitation, human nature, ideality, sublimity, construction, and acquisition are strongly delineated. self-will is normally developed, while size, form, observation, weight, locality, calculation, and memory of various sorts are manifest. the signs of language in the eye and mouth denote fluency, while the practical faculties, being dominant, would give clearness, perspicacity, and directness to his style of expression, either oral or written. time, order, reason, and intuition are well developed. the long-continued observation and experiments of this noble physician in his endeavor to protect humanity from the ravages of small-pox by his discovery of vaccination, met at last with a suitable recognition, for he received by a vote of parliament the sum of £ , , and special honors were awarded him. it is a singular fact that all of the benefactors of the human race--those who have benefited it by discoveries of any kind whatever--have met with the most violent opposition, treachery, and often disgrace, before they could make the world see the value of their discoveries. such was the case with dr. jenner, but his firmness and truth at last gained the victory.] the best _form_ for a surgeon who attempts the most severe operations is the round build of body and head, and many of them are of this shape. the muscular system should be supreme, with the brain system a close second, the bony and thoracic systems about equal and next in development. the muscular tissue is _comparatively unfeeling_--insensitive; _fac-simile page from "stanton's physiognomy"--reduced._ other classes of surgeons" in the body. form and size are also requisite to aid the memory of the shape and relative position of each part, and to assist locality. human nature is essential in order that he may be _en rapport_ with his patients, and also to enable him to _divine_ instinctively all bodily and mental states. he should be a good physiognomist, and be well versed in the _pathology_ of physiognomy. he must have large observation, in order to take cognizance of the most minute changes and appearances. calculation is a useful trait also, as it is required in many ways in the medication and treatment of the wounded, as in chemistry and in making surgical implements, etc. he should have large friendship; in order to attach his patients to him and to command their esteem; enough benevolence to sympathize, but not enough to weaken the feelings when severity is required. the faculty of amativeness is necessary to _comprehend_ the nature of the opposite sex; love of young also, that he may inspire children with love and confidence. the sense of weight should be a strong one, for the muscular sense is dependent upon its power in order to _gauge_ the amount of force to be used in handling instruments and in bandaging wounds, limbs, etc. executiveness is required to assist authority and give resistance. self-will is another ally most necessary, as well as analysis, time, order, and reason. a fair share of musical ability is required to assist the ear in making examinations of the heart and lungs, and in auscultation for various other purposes. if to these faculties one adds large intuition, he has a fine bodily and mental equipment for the practice of surgery. other classes of surgeons. many army surgeons are characterized by a round and broad form, with broad, rather low, and round heads; short, round arms, and round and tapering fingers. this build is the most suitable for those severe operations which require the greatest exhibition of force, endurance, and coolness; another class of surgeons--those who undertake the more delicate and less forceful operations--are characterized by about an equal development of the brain and muscular systems. this class of surgeons tend naturally to the treatment of those finer, less difficult, and more delicate cases of operative surgery, such, for example, as treatment of the ear, the eye, etc. this class of surgeons require a fine endowment of the brain and nervous system. in short, the muscles as well as nerves of this class must be sensitive to a great degree, and this combination calls for a fine and high organization. the surgeon should be something of an actor in order to know when to be sympathetic and when to be severe. yet he +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | transcriber's notes and errata | | | | footnotes - have been renumbered in sequence. | | | | the anchor for footnote was missing. has been inserted | | at the appropriate place. | | | | 'oe' ligatures have been expanded to separate 'o' and 'e' | | characters. | | | | the following words were found in both hyphenated and | | unhyphenated forms once each. | | | | |bed-clothes |bedclothes | | | |co-existence |coexistence | | | |short-comings |shortcomings | | | | | the word 'pre-cancerous' occurred four times in the text, | | while 'precancerous' occurred twice, both in the index. | | these index entries have been hyphenated. | | | | the following typographical errors have been corrected. | | | | |error |correction | | | |route |rout | | | |prepuse |prepuce | | | |a a |a | | | |siezes |seizes | | | |stèrilitè |stérilité | | | |others |others' | | | |tranyslvania |transylvania | | | |occasian |occasion | | | |suprised |surprised | | | |function |junction | | | |orginated |originated | | | |smoulderd |smouldered | | | |wes |was | | | |tisses |tissues | | | |dut |but | | | |innner |inner | | | |may |many | | | |brakemen |brakeman | | | |thinnes |thinness | | | |totel |total | | | |america |american | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ [illustration: snana called loudly to her companion turnip-diggers. frontispiece. _see page_ .] indian child life by charles a. eastman (_ohiyesa_) illustrated by george varian boston little, brown, and company _copyright, _, by little, brown, and company. _all rights reserved_ printers s. j. parkhill & co., boston, u.s.a. transcriber's note: in the name "hak[=a]dah" the [=a] represents an "a" with a macron above it. a letter to the children dear children:--you will like to know that the man who wrote these true stories is himself one of the people he describes so pleasantly and so lovingly for you. he hopes that when you have finished this book, the indians will seem to you very real and very friendly. he is not willing that all your knowledge of the race that formerly possessed this continent should come from the lips of strangers and enemies, or that you should think of them as blood-thirsty and treacherous, as savage and unclean. war, you know, is always cruel, and it is true that there were stern fighting men among the indians, as well as among your own forefathers. but there were also men of peace, men generous and kindly and religious. there were tender mothers, and happy little ones, and a home life that was pure and true. there were high ideals of loyalty and honor. it will do you good and make you happier to read of these things. perhaps you wonder how a "real, live indian" could write a book. i will tell you how. the story of this man's life is itself as wonderful as a fairy tale. born in a wigwam, as he has told you, and early left motherless, he was brought up, like the little hiawatha, by a good grandmother. when he was four years old, war broke out between his people and the united states government. the indians were defeated and many of them were killed. some fled northward into canada and took refuge under the british flag, among them the writer of this book, with his grandmother and an uncle. his father was captured by the whites. after ten years of that wild life, now everywhere at an end, of which he has given you a true picture in his books, his father, whom the good president lincoln had pardoned and released from the military prison, made the long and dangerous journey to canada to find and bring back his youngest son. the sioux were beginning to learn that the old life must go, and that, if they were to survive at all, they must follow "the white man's road," long and hard as it looked to a free people. they were beginning to plow and sow and send their children to school. ohiyesa, the winner, as the boy was called, came home with his father to what was then dakota territory, to a little settlement of sioux homesteaders. everything about the new life was strange to him, and at first he did not like it at all. he had thoughts of running away and making his way back to canada. but his father, many lightnings, who had been baptized a christian under the name of jacob eastman, told him that he, too, must take a new name, and he chose that of charles alexander eastman. he was told to cut off his long hair and put on citizen's clothing. then his father made him choose between going to school and working at the plow. ohiyesa tried plowing for half a day. it was hard work to break the tough prairie sod with his father's oxen and the strange implement they gave him. he decided to try school. rather to his surprise, he liked it, and he kept on. his teachers were pleased with his progress, and soon better opportunities opened to him. he was sent farther east to a better school, where he continued to do well, and soon went higher. in the long summer vacations he worked, on farms, in shops and offices; and in winter he studied and played football and all the other games you play, until after about fifteen or sixteen years he found himself with the diplomas of a famous college and a great university, a bachelor of science, a doctor of medicine, and a doubly educated man--educated in the lore of the wilderness as well as in some of the deepest secrets of civilization. since that day, a good many more years have passed. ohiyesa, known as doctor charles a. eastman, has now a home and six children of his own among the new england hills. he has hundreds of devoted friends of both races. he is the author of five books which have been widely read, some of them in england, france and germany as well as in america, and he speaks face to face to thousands of people every year. perhaps some of you have heard from his own lips his recollections of wild life. you may find all the stories in this book, and many more of the same sort, in the books called "indian boyhood," and "old indian days," published by doubleday, page and company, of garden city, l.i., who have kindly consented to the publication of this little volume in order that the children in our schools might read stories of real indians by a real indian. contents part one my indian childhood chapter page i. "the pitiful last" ii. early hardships iii. an indian sugar camp iv. games and sports v. an indian boy's training vi. the boy hunter vii. evening in the lodge part two stories of real indians i. winona's childhood ii. winona's girlhood iii. a midsummer feast iv. the faithfulness of long ears v. snana's fawn vi. hakadah's first offering vii. the grave of the dog list of illustrations snana called loudly to her companion turnip-diggers _frontispiece_ so he bravely jumped upon the nest page "oh, what nice claws he has, uncle!" i exclaimed eagerly he began to sing a dirge for him part one my indian childhood i "the pitiful last" what boy would not be an indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world? this life was mine. every day there was a real hunt. there was real game. no people have a better use of their five senses than the children of the wilderness. we could smell as well as hear and see. we could feel and taste as well as we could see and hear. nowhere has the memory been more fully developed than in the wild life, and i can still see wherein i owe much to my early training. of course i myself do not remember when i first saw the day, but my brothers have often recalled the event with much mirth; for it was a custom of the sioux that when a boy was born his brother must plunge into the water, or roll in the snow naked if it was winter time; and if he was not big enough to do either of these himself, water was thrown on him. if the new-born had a sister, she must be immersed. the idea was that a warrior had come to camp, and the other children must display some act of hardihood. i was so unfortunate as to be the youngest of five children who, soon after i was born, were left motherless. i had to bear the humiliating name "hak[=a]dah," meaning "the pitiful last," until i should earn a more dignified and appropriate name. i was regarded as little more than a plaything by the rest of the children. the babe was done up as usual in a movable cradle made from an oak board two and a half feet long and one and a half feet wide. on one side of it was nailed with brass-headed tacks the richly embroidered sack, which was open in front and laced up and down with buckskin strings. over the arms of the infant was a wooden bow, the ends of which were firmly attached to the board, so that if the cradle should fall the child's head and face would be protected. on this bow were hung curious playthings--strings of artistically carved bones and hoofs of deer, which rattled when the little hands moved them. in this upright cradle i lived, played, and slept the greater part of the time during the first few months of my life. whether i was made to lean against a lodge pole or was suspended from a bough of a tree, while my grandmother cut wood, or whether i was carried on her back, or conveniently balanced by another child in a similar cradle hung on the opposite side of a pony, i was still in my oaken bed. this grandmother, who had already lived through sixty years of hardships, was a wonder to the young maidens of the tribe. she showed no less enthusiasm over hakadah than she had done when she held her first-born, the boy's father, in her arms. every little attention that is due to a loved child she performed with much skill and devotion. she made all my scanty garments and my tiny moccasins with a great deal of taste. it was said by all that i could not have had more attention had my mother been living. uncheedah (grandmother) was a great singer. sometimes, when hakadah wakened too early in the morning, she would sing to him something like the following lullaby: sleep, sleep, my boy, the chippewas are far away--are far away. sleep, sleep, my boy; prepare to meet the foe by day--the foe by day! the cowards will not dare to fight till morning break--till morning break. sleep, sleep, my child, while still 'tis night; then bravely wake--then bravely wake! the dakota women were wont to cut and bring their fuel from the woods and, in fact, to perform most of the drudgery of the camp. this of necessity fell to their lot because the men must follow the game during the day. very often my grandmother carried me with her on these excursions; and while she worked it was her habit to suspend me from a wild grape vine or a springy bough, so that the least breeze would swing the cradle to and fro. she has told me that when i had grown old enough to take notice, i was apparently capable of holding extended conversations in an unknown dialect with birds and red squirrels. once i fell asleep in my cradle, suspended five or six feet from the ground, while uncheedah was some distance away, gathering birch bark for a canoe. a squirrel had found it convenient to come upon the bow of my cradle and nibble his hickory nut, until he awoke me by dropping the crumbs of his meal. it was a common thing for birds to alight on my cradle in the woods. after i left my cradle, i almost walked away from it, she told me. she then began calling my attention to natural objects. whenever i heard the song of a bird, she would tell me what bird it came from, something after this fashion: "hakadah, listen to shechoka (the robin) calling his mate. he says he has just found something good to eat." or "listen to oopehanska (the thrush); he is singing for his little wife. he will sing his best." when in the evening the whippoorwill started his song with vim, no further than a stone's throw from our tent in the woods, she would say to me: "hush! it may be an ojibway scout!" again, when i waked at midnight, she would say: "do not cry! hinakaga (the owl) is watching you from the tree-top." i usually covered up my head, for i had perfect faith in my grandmother's admonitions, and she had given me a dreadful idea of this bird. it was one of her legends that a little boy was once standing just outside of the teepee (tent), crying vigorously for his mother, when hinakaga swooped down in the darkness and carried the poor little fellow up into the trees. it was well known that the hoot of the owl was commonly imitated by indian scouts when on the war-path. there had been dreadful massacres immediately following this call. therefore it was deemed wise to impress the sound early upon the mind of the child. indian children were trained so that they hardly ever cried much in the night. this was very expedient and necessary in their exposed life. in my infancy it was my grandmother's custom to put me to sleep, as she said, with the birds, and to waken me with them, until it became a habit. she did this with an object in view. an indian must always rise early. in the first place, as a hunter, he finds his game best at daybreak. secondly, other tribes, when on the war-path, usually make their attack very early in the morning. even when our people are moving about leisurely, we like to rise before daybreak, in order to travel when the air is cool, and unobserved, perchance, by our enemies. as a little child, it was instilled into me to be silent and reticent. this was one of the most important traits to form in the character of the indian. as a hunter and warrior it was considered absolutely necessary to him, and was thought to lay the foundations of patience and self-control. ii early hardships one of the earliest recollections of my adventurous childhood is the ride i had on a pony's side. i was passive in the whole matter. a little girl cousin of mine was put in a bag and suspended from the horn of an indian saddle; but her weight must be balanced or the saddle would not remain on the animal's back. accordingly, i was put into another sack and made to keep the saddle and the girl in position! i did not object, for i had a very pleasant game of peek-a-boo with the little girl, until we came to a big snow-drift, where the poor beast was stuck fast and began to lie down. then it was not so nice! this was the convenient and primitive way in which some mothers packed their children for winter journeys. however cold the weather might be, the inmate of the fur-lined sack was usually very comfortable--at least i used to think so. i believe i was accustomed to all the precarious indian conveyances, and, as a boy, i enjoyed the dog-travaux ride as much as any. the travaux consisted of a set of rawhide strips securely lashed to the tent-poles, which were harnessed to the sides of the animal as if he stood between shafts, while the free ends were allowed to drag on the ground. both ponies and large dogs were used as beasts of burden, and they carried in this way the smaller children as well as the baggage. this mode of travelling for children was possible only in the summer, and as the dogs were sometimes unreliable, the little ones were exposed to a certain amount of danger. for instance, whenever a train of dogs had been travelling for a long time, almost perishing with the heat and their heavy loads, a glimpse of water would cause them to forget all their responsibilities. some of them, in spite of the screams of the women, would swim with their burdens into the cooling stream, and i was thus, on more than one occasion, made to partake of an unwilling bath. i was a little over four years old at the time of the "sioux massacre" in minnesota. in the general turmoil, we took flight into british columbia, and the journey is still vividly remembered by all our family. a yoke of oxen and a lumber-wagon were taken from some white farmer and brought home for our conveyance. how delighted i was when i learned that we were to ride behind those wise-looking animals and in that gorgeously painted wagon! it seemed almost like a living creature to me, this new vehicle with four legs, and the more so when we got out of axle-grease and the wheels went along squealing like pigs! the boys found a great deal of innocent fun in jumping from the high wagon while the oxen were leisurely moving along. my elder brothers soon became experts. at last, i mustered up courage enough to join them in this sport. i was sure they stepped on the wheel, so i cautiously placed my moccasined foot upon it. alas, before i could realize what had happened, i was under the wheels, and had it not been for the neighbor immediately behind us, i might have been run over by the next team as well. this was my first experience with a civilized vehicle. i cried out all possible reproaches on the white man's team and concluded that a dog-travaux was good enough for me. i was really rejoiced that we were moving away from the people who made the wagon that had almost ended my life, and it did not occur to me that i alone was to blame. i could not be persuaded to ride in that wagon again and was glad when we finally left it beside the missouri river. the summer after the "minnesota massacre," general sibley pursued our people across this river. now the missouri is considered one of the most treacherous rivers in the world. even a good modern boat is not safe upon its uncertain current. we were forced to cross in buffalo-skin boats--as round as tubs! the washechu (white men) were coming in great numbers with their big guns, and while most of our men were fighting them to gain time, the women and the old men made and equipped the temporary boats, braced with ribs of willow. some of these were towed by two or three women or men swimming in the water and some by ponies. it was not an easy matter to keep them right side up, with their helpless freight of little children and such goods as we possessed. in our flight, we little folks were strapped in the saddles or held in front of an older person, and in the long night marches to get away from the soldiers, we suffered from loss of sleep and insufficient food. our meals were eaten hastily, and sometimes in the saddle. water was not always to be found. the people carried it with them in bags formed of tripe or the dried pericardium of animals. now we were compelled to trespass upon the country of hostile tribes and were harassed by them almost daily and nightly. only the strictest vigilance saved us. one day we met with another enemy near the british lines. it was a prairie fire. we were surrounded. another fire was quickly made, which saved our lives. one of the most thrilling experiences of the following winter was a blizzard, which overtook us in our wanderings. here and there, a family lay down in the snow, selecting a place where it was not likely to drift much. for a day and a night we lay under the snow. uncle stuck a long pole beside us to tell us when the storm was over. we had plenty of buffalo robes and the snow kept us warm, but we found it heavy. after a time, it became packed and hollowed out around our bodies, so that we were as comfortable as one can be under those circumstances. the next day the storm ceased, and we discovered a large herd of buffaloes almost upon us. we dug our way out, shot some of the buffaloes, made a fire and enjoyed a good dinner. i was now an exile as well as motherless; yet i was not unhappy. our wanderings from place to place afforded us many pleasant experiences and quite as many hardships and misfortunes. there were times of plenty and times of scarcity, and we had several narrow escapes from death. in savage life, the early spring is the most trying time and almost all the famines occurred at this period of the year. the indians are a patient and a clannish people; their love for one another is stronger than that of any civilized people i know. if this were not so, i believe there would have been tribes of cannibals among them. white people have been known to kill and eat their companions in preference to starving; but indians--never! in times of famine, the adults often denied themselves in order to make the food last as long as possible for the children, who were not able to bear hunger as well as the old. as a people, they can live without food much longer than any other nation. i once passed through one of these hard springs when we had nothing to eat for several days. i well remember the six small birds which constituted the breakfast for six families one morning; and then we had no dinner or supper to follow! what a relief that was to me--although i had only a small wing of a small bird for my share! soon after this, we came into a region where buffaloes were plenty, and hunger and scarcity were forgotten. such was the indians' wild life! when game was to be had and the sun shone, they easily forgot the bitter experiences of the winter before. little preparation was made for the future. they are children of nature, and occasionally she whips them with the lashes of experience, yet they are forgetful and careless. much of their suffering might have been prevented by a little calculation. during the summer, when nature is at her best, and provides abundantly for the savage, it seems to me that no life is happier than his! food is free--lodging free--everything free! all were alike rich in the summer, and, again, all were alike poor in the winter and early spring. however, their diseases were fewer and not so destructive as now, and the indian's health was generally good. the indian boy enjoyed such a life as almost all boys dream of and would choose for themselves if they were permitted to do so. the raids made upon our people by other tribes were frequent, and we had to be constantly on the watch. i remember at one time a night attack was made upon our camp and all our ponies stampeded. only a few of them were recovered, and our journeys after this misfortune were effected mostly by means of the dog-travaux. the second winter after the massacre, my father and my two older brothers, with several others, were betrayed by a half-breed at winnipeg to the united states authorities. as i was then living with my uncle in another part of the country, i became separated from them for ten years. during all this time we believed that they had been killed by the whites, and i was taught that i must avenge their deaths as soon as i was able to go upon the war-path. iii an indian sugar camp with the first march thaw the thoughts of the indian women of my childhood days turned promptly to the annual sugar-making. this industry was chiefly followed by the old men and women and the children. the rest of the tribe went out upon the spring fur-hunt at this season, leaving us at home to make the sugar. the first and most important of the necessary utensils were the huge iron and brass kettles for boiling. everything else could be made, but these must be bought, begged or borrowed. a maple tree was felled and a log canoe hollowed out, into which the sap was to be gathered. little troughs of basswood and birchen basins were also made to receive the sweet drops as they trickled from the tree. as soon as these labors were accomplished, we all proceeded to the bark sugar house, which stood in the midst of a fine grove of maples on the bank of the minnesota river. we found this hut partially filled with the snows of winter and the withered leaves of the preceding autumn, and it must be cleared for our use. in the meantime a tent was pitched outside for a few days' occupancy. the snow was still deep in the woods, with a solid crust upon which we could easily walk; for we usually moved to the sugar house before the sap had actually started, the better to complete our preparations. my grandmother did not confine herself to canoe-making. she also collected a good supply of fuel for the fires, for she would not have much time to gather wood when the sap began to flow. presently the weather moderated and the snow began to melt. the month of april brought showers which carried most of it off into the minnesota river. now the women began to test the trees--moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. trees, like people, have their individual characters; some were ready to yield up their life-blood, while others were more reluctant. now one of the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the axe had made. from the corners of this chip--at first drop by drop, then, more freely--the sap trickled into the little dishes. it is usual to make sugar from maples, but several other trees were also tapped by the indians. from the birch and ash was made a dark-colored sugar, with a somewhat bitter taste, which was used for medicinal purposes. the box-elder yielded a beautiful white sugar, whose only fault was that there was never enough of it! a long fire was now made in the sugar house, and a row of brass kettles suspended over the blaze. the sap was collected by the women in tin or birchen buckets and poured into the canoes, from which the kettles were kept filled. the hearts of the boys beat high with pleasant anticipations when they heard the welcome hissing sound of the boiling sap! each boy claimed one kettle for his especial charge. it was his duty to see that the fire was kept under it, to watch lest it boil over, and finally, when the sap became sirup, to test it upon the snow, dipping it out with a wooden paddle. so frequent were these tests that for the first day or two we consumed nearly all that could be made; and it was not until the sweetness began to pall that my grandmother set herself in earnest to store up sugar for future use. she made it into cakes of various forms, in birchen molds, and sometimes in hollow canes or reeds, and the bills of ducks and geese. some of it was pulverized and packed in rawhide cases. being a prudent woman, she did not give it to us after the first month or so, except upon special occasions, and it was thus made to last almost the year around. the smaller candies were reserved as an occasional treat for the little fellows, and the sugar was eaten at feasts with wild rice or parched corn, and also with pounded dried meat. coffee and tea, with their substitutes, were all unknown to us in those days. every pursuit has its trials and anxieties. my grandmother's special tribulations, during the sugaring season, were the upsetting and gnawing of holes in her birch-bark pans. the transgressors were the rabbit and squirrel tribes, and we little boys for once became useful, in shooting them with our bows and arrows. we hunted all over the sugar camp, until the little creatures were fairly driven out of the neighborhood. occasionally one of my older brothers brought home a rabbit or two, and then we had a feast. i remember on this occasion of our last sugar bush in minnesota, that i stood one day outside of our hut and watched the approach of a visitor--a bent old man, his hair almost white, and carrying on his back a large bundle of red willow, or kinnikinick, which the indians use for smoking. he threw down his load at the door and thus saluted us: "you have indeed perfect weather for sugar-making." it was my great-grandfather, cloud man, whose original village was on the shores of lakes calhoun and harriet, now in the suburbs of the city of minneapolis. he was the first sioux chief to welcome the protestant missionaries among his people, and a well-known character in those pioneer days. he brought us word that some of the peaceful sugar-makers near us on the river had been attacked and murdered by roving ojibways. this news disturbed us not a little, for we realized that we too might become the victims of an ojibway war party. therefore we all felt some uneasiness from this time until we returned heavy laden to our village. iv games and sports the indian boy was a prince of the wilderness. he had but very little work to do during the period of his boyhood. his principal occupation was the practice of a few simple arts in warfare and the chase. aside from this, he was master of his time. it is true that our savage life was a precarious one, and full of dreadful catastrophes; however, this never prevented us from enjoying our sports to the fullest extent. as we left our teepees in the morning, we were never sure that our scalps would not dangle from a pole in the afternoon! it was an uncertain life, to be sure. yet we observed that the fawns skipped and played happily while the gray wolves might be peeping forth from behind the hills, ready to tear them limb from limb. our sports were molded by the life and customs of our people; indeed, we practiced only what we expected to do when grown. our games were feats with the bow and arrow, foot and pony races, wrestling, swimming and imitation of the customs and habits of our fathers. we had sham fights with mud balls and willow wands; we played lacrosse, made war upon bees, shot winter arrows (which were used only in that season), and coasted upon the ribs of animals and buffalo robes. no sooner did the boys get together than, as a usual thing, they divided into squads and chose sides; then a leading arrow was shot at random into the air. before it fell to the ground a volley from the bows of the participants followed. each player was quick to note the direction and speed of the leading arrow and he tried to send his own at the same speed and at an equal height, so that when it fell it would be closer to the first than any of the others. it was considered out of place to shoot by first sighting the object aimed at. this was usually impracticable in actual life, because the object was almost always in motion, while the hunter himself was often upon the back of a pony at full gallop. therefore, it was the off-hand shot that the indian boy sought to master. there was another game with arrows that was characterized by gambling, and was generally confined to the men. the races were an every-day occurrence. at noon the boys were usually gathered by some pleasant sheet of water, and as soon as the ponies were watered, they were allowed to graze for an hour or two, while the boys stripped for their noonday sports. a boy might say to some other whom he considered his equal: "i can't run; but i will challenge you to fifty paces." a former hero, when beaten, would often explain his defeat by saying: "i drank too much water." boys of all ages were paired for a "spin," and the little red men cheered on their favorites with spirit. as soon as this was ended, the pony races followed. all the speedy ponies were picked out and riders chosen. if a boy declined to ride, there would be shouts of derision. last of all came the swimming. a little urchin would hang to his pony's long tail, while the latter, with only his head above water, glided sportively along. finally the animals were driven into a fine field of grass and we turned our attention to other games. the "mud-and-willow" fight was rather a severe and dangerous sport. a lump of soft clay was stuck on the end of a limber and springy willow wand and thrown as boys throw apples from sticks, with considerable force. when there were fifty or a hundred players on each side, the battle became warm; but anything to arouse the bravery of indian boys seemed to them a good and wholesome diversion. wrestling was largely indulged in by us all. it may seem odd, but wrestling was done by a great many boys at once--from ten to any number on a side. it was really a battle, in which each one chose his opponent. the rule was that if a boy sat down, he was let alone, but as long as he remained standing within the field, he was open to an attack. no one struck with the hand, but all manner of tripping with legs and feet and butting with the knees was allowed. altogether it was an exhausting pastime--fully equal to the american game of football, and only the young athlete could really enjoy it. one of our most curious sports was a war upon the nests of wild bees. we imagined ourselves about to make an attack upon the ojibways or some tribal foe. we all painted and stole cautiously upon the nest; then, with a rush and war-whoop, sprang upon the object of our attack and endeavored to destroy it. but it seemed that the bees were always on the alert and never entirely surprised, for they always raised quite as many scalps as did their bold assailants! after the onslaught upon the nest was ended, we usually followed it by a pretended scalp dance. on the occasion of my first experience in this mode of warfare, there were two other little boys who were also novices. one of them particularly was really too young to indulge in an exploit of that kind. as it was the custom of our people, when they killed or wounded an enemy on the battle-field, to announce the act in a loud voice, we did the same. my friend, little wound (as i will call him, for i do not remember his name), being quite small, was unable to reach the nest until it had been well trampled upon and broken and the insects had made a counter charge with such vigor as to repulse and scatter our numbers in every direction. however, he evidently did not want to retreat without any honors; so he bravely jumped upon the nest and yelled: "i, the brave little wound, to-day kill the only fierce enemy!" [illustration: so he bravely jumped upon the nest. _page ._] scarcely were the last words uttered when he screamed as if stabbed to the heart. one of his older companions shouted: "dive into the water! run! dive into the water!" for there was a lake near by. this advice he obeyed. when we had reassembled and were indulging in our mimic dance, little wound was not allowed to dance. he was considered not to be in existence--he had been killed by our enemies, the bee tribe. poor little fellow! his swollen face was sad and ashamed as he sat on a fallen log and watched the dance. although he might well have styled himself one of the noble dead who had died for their country, yet he was not unmindful that he had _screamed_, and this weakness would be apt to recur to him many times in the future. we had some quiet plays which we alternated with the more severe and warlike ones. among them were throwing wands and snow-arrows. in the winter we coasted much. we had no "double-rippers" or toboggans, but six or seven of the long ribs of a buffalo, fastened together at the larger end, answered all practical purposes. sometimes a strip of bass-wood bark, four feet long and about six inches wide, was used with considerable skill. we stood on one end and held the other, using the slippery inside of the bark for the outside, and thus coasting down long hills with remarkable speed. the spinning of tops was one of the all-absorbing winter sports. we made our tops heart-shaped of wood, horn or bone. we whipped them with a long thong of buckskin. the handle was a stick about a foot long and sometimes we whittled the stick to make it spoon-shaped at one end. we played games with these tops--two to fifty boys at one time. each whips his top until it hums; then one takes the lead and the rest follow in a sort of obstacle race. the top must spin all the way through. there were bars of snow over which we must pilot our top in the spoon end of our whip; then again we would toss it in the air on to another open spot of ice or smooth snow-crust from twenty to fifty paces away. the top that holds out the longest is the winner. we loved to play in the water. when we had no ponies, we often had swimming matches of our own, and sometimes made rafts with which we crossed lakes and rivers. it was a common thing to "duck" a young or timid boy or to carry him into deep water to struggle as best he might. i remember a perilous ride with a companion on an unmanageable log, when we were both less than seven years old. the older boys had put us on this uncertain bark and pushed us out into the swift current of the river. i cannot speak for my comrade in distress, but i can say now that i would rather ride on a swift bronco any day than try to stay on and steady a short log in a river. i never knew how we managed to prevent a shipwreck on that voyage and to reach the shore. we had many curious wild pets. there were young foxes, bears, wolves, raccoons, fawns, buffalo calves and birds of all kinds, tamed by various boys. my pets were different at different times, but i particularly remember one. i once had a grizzly bear for a pet, and so far as he and i were concerned, our relations were charming and very close. but i hardly know whether he made more enemies for me or i for him. it was his habit to treat every boy unmercifully who injured me. v an indian boy's training very early, the indian boy assumed the task of preserving and transmitting the legends of his ancestors and his race. almost every evening a myth, or a true story of some deed done in the past, was narrated by one of the parents or grand-parents, while the boy listened with parted lips and glistening eyes. on the following evening, he was usually required to repeat it. if he was not an apt scholar, he struggled long with his task; but, as a rule, the indian boy is a good listener and has a good memory, so that the stories were tolerably well mastered. the household became his audience, by which he was alternately criticized and applauded. this sort of teaching at once enlightens the boy's mind and stimulates his ambition. his conception of his own future career becomes a vivid and irresistible force. whatever there is for him to learn must be learned; whatever qualifications are necessary to a truly great man he must seek at any expense of danger and hardship. such was the feeling of the imaginative and brave young indian. it became apparent to him in early life that he must accustom himself to rove alone and not to fear or dislike the impression of solitude. it seems to be a popular idea that all the characteristic skill of the indian is instinctive and hereditary. this is a mistake. all the stoicism and patience of the indian are acquired traits, and continual practice alone makes him master of the art of wood-craft. physical training and dieting were not neglected. i remember that i was not allowed to have beef soup or any warm drink. the soup was for the old men. general rules for the young were never to take their food very hot, nor to drink much water. my uncle, who educated me up to the age of fifteen years, was a strict disciplinarian and a good teacher. when i left the teepee in the morning, he would say: "hakadah, look closely to everything you see"; and at evening, on my return, he used often to catechize me for an hour or so. "on which side of the trees is the lighter-colored bark? on which side do they have most regular branches?" it was his custom to let me name all the new birds that i had seen during the day. i would name them according to the color or the shape of the bill or their song or the appearance and locality of the nest--in fact, anything about the bird that impressed me as characteristic. i made many ridiculous errors, i must admit. he then usually informed me of the correct name. occasionally i made a hit and this he would warmly commend. he went much deeper into this science when i was a little older, that is, about the age of eight or nine years. he would say, for instance: "how do you know that there are fish in yonder lake?" "because they jump out of the water for flies at mid-day." he would smile at my prompt but superficial reply. "what do you think of the little pebbles grouped together under the shallow water? and what made the pretty curved marks in the sandy bottom and the little sand-banks? where do you find the fish-eating birds? have the inlet and the outlet of a lake anything to do with the question?" he did not expect a correct reply at once to all the questions that he put to me on these occasions, but he meant to make me observant and a good student of nature. "hakadah," he would say to me, "you ought to follow the example of the shunktokecha (wolf). even when he is surprised and runs for his life, he will pause to take one more look at you before he enters his final retreat. so you must take a second look at everything you see. "it is better to view animals unobserved. i have been a witness to their courtships and their quarrels and have learned many of their secrets in this way. i was once the unseen spectator of a thrilling battle between a pair of grizzly bears and three buffaloes--a rash act for the bears, for it was in the moon of strawberries, when the buffaloes sharpen and polish their horns for bloody contests among themselves. "i advise you, my boy, never to approach a grizzly's den from the front, but to steal up behind and throw your blanket or a stone in front of the hole. he does not usually rush for it, but first puts his head out and listens and then comes out very indifferently and sits on his haunches on the mound in front of the hole before he makes any attack. while he is exposing himself in this fashion, aim at his heart. always be as cool as the animal himself." thus he armed me against the cunning of savage beasts by teaching me how to outwit them. "in hunting," he would resume, "you will be guided by the habits of the animal you seek. remember that a moose stays in swampy or low land or between high mountains near a spring or lake, for thirty to sixty days at a time. most large game moves about continually, except the doe in the spring; it is then a very easy matter to find her with the fawn. conceal yourself in a convenient place as soon as you observe any signs of the presence of either, and then call with your birchen doe-caller. "whichever one hears you first will soon appear in your neighborhood. but you must be very watchful, or you may be made a fawn of by a large wild-cat. they understand the characteristic call of the doe perfectly well. "when you have any difficulty with a bear or a wild-cat--that is, if the creature shows any signs of attacking you--you must make him fully understand that you have seen him and are aware of his intentions. if you are not well equipped for a pitched battle, the only way to make him retreat is to take a long sharp-pointed pole for a spear and rush toward him. no wild beast will face this unless he is cornered and already wounded. these fierce beasts are generally afraid of the common weapon of the larger animals,--the horns,--and if these are very long and sharp, they dare not risk an open fight. "there is one exception to this rule--the gray wolf will attack fiercely when very hungry. but their courage depends upon their numbers; in this they are like white men. one wolf or two will never attack a man. they will stampede a herd of buffaloes in order to get at the calves; they will rush upon a herd of antelopes, for these are helpless; but they are always careful about attacking man." of this nature were the instructions of my uncle, who was widely known at that time as among the greatest hunters of his tribe. all boys were expected to endure hardship without complaint. in savage warfare, a young man must, of course, be an athlete and used to undergoing all sorts of privations. he must be able to go without food and water for two or three days without displaying any weakness, or to run for a day and a night without any rest. he must be able to traverse a pathless and wild country without losing his way either in the day or night time. he cannot refuse to do any of these things if he aspires to be a warrior. sometimes my uncle would waken me very early in the morning and challenge me to fast with him all day. i had to accept the challenge. we blackened our faces with charcoal, so that every boy in the village would know that i was fasting for the day. then the little tempters would make my life a misery until the merciful sun hid behind the western hills. i can scarcely recall the time when my stern teacher began to give sudden war-whoops over my head in the morning while i was sound asleep. he expected me to leap up with perfect presence of mind, always ready to grasp a weapon of some sort and to give a shrill whoop in reply. if i was sleepy or startled and hardly knew what i was about, he would ridicule me and say that i need never expect to sell my scalp dear. often he would vary these tactics by shooting off his gun just outside of the lodge while i was yet asleep, at the same time giving blood-curdling yells. after a time i became used to this. when indians went upon the war-path, it was their custom to try the new warriors thoroughly before coming to an engagement. for instance, when they were near a hostile camp, they would select the novices to go after the water and make them do all sorts of things to prove their courage. in accordance with this idea, my uncle used to send me off after water when we camped after dark in a strange place. perhaps the country was full of wild beasts, and, for aught i knew, there might be scouts from hostile bands of indians lurking in that very neighborhood. yet i never objected, for that would show cowardice. i picked my way through the woods, dipped my pail in the water and hurried back, always careful to make as little noise as a cat. being only a boy, my heart would leap at every crackling of a dry twig or distant hooting of an owl, until, at last, i reached our teepee. then my uncle would perhaps say: "ah, hakadah, you are a thorough warrior!" empty out the precious contents of the pail, and order me to go a second time. imagine how i felt! but i wished to be a brave man as much as a white boy desires to be a great lawyer or even president of the united states. silently i would take the pail and endeavor to retrace my foot-steps in the dark. with all this, our manners and morals were not neglected. i was made to respect the adults and especially the aged. i was not allowed to join in their discussions, nor even to speak in their presence, unless requested to do so. indian etiquette was very strict, and among the requirements was that of avoiding the direct address. a term of relationship or some title of courtesy was commonly used instead of the personal name by those who wished to show respect. we were taught generosity to the poor and reverence for the "great mystery." religion was the basis of all indian training. vi the boy hunter there was almost as much difference between the indian boys who were brought up on the open prairies and those of the woods, as between city and country boys. the hunting of the prairie boys was limited and their knowledge of natural history imperfect. they were, as a rule, good riders, but in all-round physical development much inferior to the red men of the forest. our hunting varied with the season of the year, and the nature of the country which was for the time our home. our chief weapon was the bow and arrows, and perhaps, if we were lucky, a knife was possessed by some one in the crowd. in the olden times, knives and hatchets were made from bone and sharp stones. for fire we used a flint with a spongy piece of dry wood and a stone to strike with. another way of starting fire was for several of the boys to sit down in a circle and rub two pieces of dry, spongy wood together, one after another, until the wood took fire. we hunted in company a great deal, though it was a common thing for a boy to set out for the woods quite alone, and he usually enjoyed himself fully as much. our game consisted mainly of small birds, rabbits, squirrels and grouse. fishing, too, occupied much of our time. we hardly ever passed a creek or a pond without searching for some signs of fish. when fish were present, we always managed to get some. fish-lines were made of wild hemp, sinew or horse-hair. we either caught fish with lines, snared or speared them, or shot them with bow and arrows. in the fall we charmed them up to the surface by gently tickling them with a stick and quickly threw them out. we have sometimes dammed the brooks and driven the larger fish into a willow basket made for that purpose. it was part of our hunting to find new and strange things in the woods. we examined the slightest sign of life; and if a bird had scratched the leaves off the ground, or a bear dragged up a root for his morning meal, we stopped to speculate on the time it was done. if we saw a large old tree with some scratches on its bark, we concluded that a bear or some raccoons must be living there. in that case we did not go any nearer than was necessary, but later reported the incident at home. an old deer-track would at once bring on a warm discussion as to whether it was the track of a buck or a doe. generally, at noon, we met and compared our game, noting at the same time the peculiar characteristics of everything we had killed. it was not merely a hunt, for we combined with it the study of animal life. we also kept strict account of our game, and thus learned who were the best shots among the boys. i am sorry to say that we were merciless toward the birds. we often took their eggs and their young ones. my brother chatanna and i once had a disagreeable adventure while bird-hunting. we were accustomed to catch in our hands young ducks and geese during the summer, and while doing this we happened to find a crane's nest. of course, we were delighted with our good luck. but, as it was already midsummer, the young cranes--two in number--were rather large and they were a little way from the nest; we also observed that the two old cranes were in a swampy place near by; but, as it was moulting-time, we did not suppose that they would venture on dry land. so we proceeded to chase the young birds; but they were fleet runners and it took us some time to come up with them. meanwhile, the parent birds had heard the cries of their little ones and come to their rescue. they were chasing us, while we followed the birds. it was really a perilous encounter! our strong bows finally gained the victory in a hand-to-hand struggle with the angry cranes; but after that we hardly ever hunted a crane's nest. almost all birds make some resistance when their eggs or young are taken, but they will seldom attack man fearlessly. we used to climb large trees for birds of all kinds; but we never undertook to get young owls unless they were on the ground. the hooting owl especially is a dangerous bird to attack under these circumstances. i was once trying to catch a yellow-winged woodpecker in its nest when my arm became twisted and lodged in the deep hole so that i could not get it out without the aid of a knife; but we were a long way from home and my only companion was a deaf-mute cousin of mine. i was about fifty feet up in the tree, in a very uncomfortable position, but i had to wait there for more than an hour before he brought me the knife with which i finally released myself. our devices for trapping small animals were rude, but they were often successful. for instance, we used to gather up a peck or so of large, sharp-pointed burrs and scatter them in the rabbit's furrow-like path. in the morning, we would find the little fellow sitting quietly in his tracks, unable to move, for the burrs stuck to his feet. another way of snaring rabbits and grouse was the following: we made nooses of twisted horse-hair, which we tied very firmly to the top of a limber young tree, then bent the latter down to the track and fastened the whole with a slip-knot, after adjusting the noose. when the rabbit runs his head through the noose, he pulls the slip-knot and is quickly carried up by the spring of the young tree. this is a good plan, for the rabbit is out of harm's way as he swings high in the air. perhaps the most enjoyable of all was the chipmunk hunt. we killed these animals at any time of year, but the special time to hunt them was in march. after the first thaw, the chipmunks burrow a hole through the snow crust and make their first appearance for the season. sometimes as many as fifty will come together and hold a social reunion. these gatherings occur early in the morning, from daybreak to about nine o'clock. we boys learned this, among other secrets of nature, and got our blunt-headed arrows together in good season for the chipmunk expedition. we generally went in groups of six to a dozen or fifteen, to see which would get the most. on the evening before, we selected several boys who could imitate the chipmunk's call with wild oat-straws and each of these provided himself with a supply of straws. the crust will hold the boys nicely at this time of the year. bright and early, they all come together at the appointed place, from which each group starts out in a different direction, agreeing to meet somewhere at a given position of the sun. my first experience of this kind is still well remembered. it was a fine crisp march morning, and the sun had not yet shown himself among the distant tree-tops as we hurried along through the ghostly wood. presently we arrived at a place where there were many signs of the animals. then each of us selected a tree and took up his position behind it. the chipmunk-caller sat upon a log as motionless as he could, and began to call. soon we heard the patter of little feet on the hard snow; then we saw the chipmunks approaching from all directions. some stopped and ran experimentally up a tree or a log, as if uncertain of the exact direction of the call; others chased one another about. in a few minutes, the chipmunk-caller was besieged with them. some ran all over his person, others under him and still others ran up the tree against which he was sitting. each boy remained immovable until their leader gave the signal; then a great shout arose, and the chipmunks in their flight all ran up the different trees. now the shooting-match began. the little creatures seemed to realize their hopeless position; they would try again and again to come down the trees and flee away from the deadly aim of the youthful hunters. but they were shot down very fast; and whenever several of them rushed toward the ground, the little redskin hugged the tree and yelled frantically to scare them up again. each boy shoots always against the trunk of the tree, so that the arrow may bound back to him every time; otherwise, when he had shot away all of them, he would be helpless, and another, who had cleared his own tree, would come and take away his game, so there was warm competition. sometimes a desperate chipmunk would jump from the top of the tree in order to escape, which was considered a joke on the boy who lost it and a triumph for the brave little animal. at last all were killed or gone, and then we went on to another place, keeping up the sport until the sun came out and the chipmunks refused to answer the call. vii evening in the lodge i had been skating on that part of the lake where there was an overflow, and came home somewhat cold. i cannot say just how cold it was, but it must have been intensely so, for the trees were cracking all about me like pistol-shots. i did not mind, because i was wrapped up in my buffalo robe with the hair inside, and a wide leather belt held it about my loins. my skates were nothing more than strips of basswood bark bound upon my feet. i had taken off my frozen moccasins and put on dry ones in their places. "where have you been and what have you been doing?" uncheedah asked as she placed before me some roast venison in a wooden bowl. "did you see any tracks of moose or bear?" "no, grandmother, i have only been playing at the lower end of the lake. i have something to ask you," i said, eating my dinner and supper together with all the relish of a hungry boy who has been skating in the cold for half a day. "i found this feather, grandmother, and i could not make out what tribe wear feathers in that shape." "ugh, i am not a man; you had better ask your uncle. besides, you should know it yourself by this time. you are now old enough to think about eagle feathers." i felt mortified by this reminder of my ignorance. it seemed a reflection on me that i was not ambitious enough to have found all such matters out before. "uncle, you will tell me, won't you?" i said, in an appealing tone. "i am surprised, my boy, that you should fail to recognize this feather. it is a cree medicine feather, and not a warrior's." "then," i said, with much embarrassment, "you had better tell me again, uncle, the language of the feathers. i have really forgotten it all." the day was now gone; the moon had risen; but the cold had not lessened, for the trunks of the trees were still snapping all around our teepee, which was lighted and warmed by the immense logs which uncheedah's industry had provided. my uncle, white footprint, now undertook to explain to me the significance of the eagle's feather. "the eagle is the most war-like bird," he began, "and the most kingly of all birds; besides, his feathers are unlike any others, and these are the reasons why they are used by our people to signify deeds of bravery. "it is not true that when a man wears a feather bonnet, each one of the feathers represents the killing of a foe or even a _coup_. when a man wears an eagle feather upright upon his head, he is supposed to have counted one of four _coups_ upon his enemy." "well, then, a _coup_ does not mean the killing of an enemy?" "no, it is the after-stroke or touching of the body after he falls. it is so ordered, because oftentimes the touching of an enemy is much more difficult to accomplish than the shooting of one from a distance. it requires a strong heart to face the whole body of the enemy, in order to count the _coup_ on the fallen one, who lies under cover of his kinsmen's fire. many a brave man has been lost in the attempt. "when a warrior approaches his foe, dead or alive, he calls upon the other warriors to witness by saying: 'i, fearless bear, your brave, again perform the brave deed of counting the first (or second or third or fourth) _coup_ upon the body of the bravest of your enemies.' naturally, those who are present will see the act and be able to testify to it. when they return, the heralds, as you know, announce publicly all such deeds of valor, which then become a part of the man's war record. any brave who would wear the eagle's feather must give proof of his right to do so. "when a brave is wounded in the same battle where he counted his _coup_, he wears the feather hanging downward. when he is wounded, but makes no count, he trims his feather, and in that case it need not be an eagle feather. all other feathers are merely ornaments. when a warrior wears a feather with a round mark, it means that he slew his enemy. when the mark is cut into the feather and painted red, it means that he took the scalp. "a brave who has been successful in ten battles is entitled to a war-bonnet; and if he is a recognized leader, he is permitted to wear one with long, trailing plumes. also those who have counted many _coups_ may tip the ends of the feathers with bits of white or colored down. sometimes the eagle feather is tipped with a strip of weasel skin; that means the wearer had the honor of killing, scalping and counting the first _coup_ upon the enemy all at the same time. "this feather you have found was worn by a cree--it is indiscriminately painted. all other feathers worn by the common indians mean nothing," he added. "tell me, uncle, whether it would be proper for me to wear any feathers at all if i have never gone upon the war-path." "you could wear any other kind of feathers, but not an eagle's," replied my uncle, "although sometimes one is worn on great occasions by the child of a noted man, to indicate the father's dignity and position." the fire had gone down somewhat, so i pushed the embers together and wrapped my robe more closely about me. now and then the ice on the lake would burst with a loud report like thunder. uncheedah was busy re-stringing one of uncle's old snow-shoes. there were two different kinds that he wore; one with a straight toe and long; the other shorter and with an upturned toe. she had one of the shoes fastened toe down, between sticks driven into the ground, while she put in some new strings and tightened the others. aunt four stars was beading a new pair of moccasins. wabeda, the dog, the companion of my boyhood days, was in trouble because he insisted upon bringing his extra bone into the teepee, while uncheedah was determined that he should not. i sympathized with him, because i saw the matter as he did. if he should bury it in the snow outside, i knew shunktokecha (the coyote) would surely steal it. i knew just how anxious wabeda was about his bone. it was a fat bone--i mean a bone of a fat deer; and all indians know how much better they are than the other kind. wabeda always hated to see a good thing go to waste. his eyes spoke words to me, for he and i had been friends for a long time. when i was afraid of anything in the woods, he would get in front of me at once and gently wag his tail. he always made it a point to look directly in my face. his kind, large eyes gave me a thousand assurances. when i was perplexed, he would hang about me until he understood the situation. many times i believed he saved my life by uttering the dog word in time. most animals, even the dangerous grizzly, do not care to be seen when the two-legged kind and his dog are about. when i feared a surprise by a bear or a gray wolf, i would say to wabeda: "now, my dog, give your war-whoop!" and immediately he would sit up on his haunches and bark "to beat the band," as you white boys say. when a bear or wolf heard the noise, he would be apt to retreat. sometimes i helped wabeda and gave a war-whoop of my own. this drove the deer away as well, but it relieved my mind. when he appealed to me on this occasion, therefore, i said: "come, my dog, let us bury your bone so that no shunktokecha will take it." he appeared satisfied with my suggestion, so we went out together. we dug in the snow and buried our bone wrapped up in a piece of old blanket, partly burned; then we covered it up again with snow. we knew that the coyote would not touch anything burnt. i did not put it up a tree because wabeda always objected to that, and i made it a point to consult his wishes whenever i could. i came in and wabeda followed me with two short rib bones in his mouth. apparently he did not care to risk those delicacies. "there," exclaimed uncheedah, "you still insist upon bringing in some sort of bone!" but i begged her to let him gnaw them inside because it was so cold. having been granted this privilege, he settled himself at my back and i became absorbed in some specially nice arrows that uncle was making. "oh, uncle, you must put on three feathers to all of them so that they can fly straight," i suggested. "yes, but if there are only two feathers, they will fly faster," he answered. "woow!" wabeda uttered his suspicions. "woow!" he said again, and rushed for the entrance of the teepee. he kicked me over as he went and scattered the burning embers. "en na he na!" uncheedah exclaimed, but he was already outside. "wow, wow, wow! wow, wow, wow!" a deep guttural voice answered him. out i rushed with my bow and arrows in my hand. "come, uncle, come! a big cinnamon bear!" i shouted as i emerged from the teepee. uncle sprang out, and in a moment he had sent a swift arrow through the bear's heart. the animal fell dead. he had just begun to dig up wabeda's bone, when the dog's quick ear had heard the sound. "ah, uncle, wabeda and i ought to have at least a little eaglet's feather for this! i too sent my small arrow into the bear before he fell," i exclaimed. "but i thought all bears ought to be in their lodges in the winter time. what was this one doing at this time of the year and night?" "well," said my uncle, "i will tell you. among the tribes, some are naturally lazy. the cinnamon bear is the lazy one of his tribe. he alone sleeps out of doors in the winter, and because he has not a warm bed, he is soon hungry. sometimes he lives in the hollow trunk of a tree, where he has made a bed of dry grass; but when the night is very cold, like to-night, he has to move about to keep himself from freezing, and as he prowls around, he gets hungry." we dragged the huge carcass within our lodge. "oh, what nice claws he has, uncle!" i exclaimed eagerly. "can i have them for my necklace?" [illustration: "oh, what nice claws he has, uncle!" i exclaimed eagerly. _page ._] "it is only the old medicine-men who wear them regularly. the son of a great warrior who has killed a grizzly may wear them upon a public occasion," he explained. "and you are just like my father and are considered the best hunter among the santees and sissetons. you have killed many grizzlies, so that no one can object to my bear's-claw necklace," i said appealingly. white foot-print smiled. "my boy, you shall have them," he said, "but it is always better to earn them yourself." he cut the claws off carefully for my use. "tell me, uncle, whether you could wear these claws all the time?" i asked. "yes, i am entitled to wear them, but they are so heavy and uncomfortable," he replied, with a superior air. at last the bear had been skinned and dressed and we all resumed our usual places. uncheedah was particularly pleased to have some more fat for her cooking. "now, grandmother, tell me the story of the bear's fat. i shall be so happy if you will," i begged. "it is a good story and it is true. you should know it by heart and gain a lesson from it," she replied. "it was in the forests of minnesota, in the country that now belongs to the ojibways. from the bedawakanton sioux village a young married couple went into the woods to get fresh venison. the snow was deep; the ice was thick. far away in the woods they pitched their lonely teepee. the young man was a well-known hunter and his wife a good maiden of the village. "he hunted entirely on snow-shoes, because the snow was very deep. his wife had to wear snow-shoes too, to get to the spot where they pitched their tent. it was thawing the day they went out, so their path was distinct after the freeze came again. "the young man killed many deer and bears. his wife was very busy curing the meat and trying out the fat while he was away hunting each day. in the evenings she kept on trying the fat. he sat on one side of the teepee and she on the other. "one evening, she had just lowered a kettle of fat to cool, and as she looked into the hot fat she saw the face of an ojibway scout looking down at them through the smoke-hole. she said nothing, nor did she betray herself in any way. "after a little she said to her husband in a natural voice: 'marpeetopah, some one is looking at us through the smoke-hole, and i think it is an enemy's scout.' "then marpeetopah (four-skies) took up his bow and arrows and began to straighten and dry them for the next day's hunt, talking and laughing meanwhile. suddenly he turned and sent an arrow upward, killing the ojibway, who fell dead at their door. "'quick, wadutah!' he exclaimed; 'you must hurry home upon our trail. i will stay here. when this scout does not return, the war-party may come in a body or send another scout. if only one comes, i can soon dispatch him and then i will follow you. if i do not do that, they will overtake us in our flight.' "wadutah (scarlet) protested and begged to be allowed to stay with her husband, but at last she came away to get re-inforcements. "then marpeetopah (four-skies) put more sticks on the fire so that the teepee might be brightly lit and show him the way. he then took the scalp of the enemy and proceeded on his track, until he came to the upturned root of a great tree. there he spread out his arrows and laid out his tomahawk. "soon two more scouts were sent by the ojibway war-party to see what was the trouble and why the first one failed to come back. he heard them as they approached. they were on snow-shoes. when they came close to him, he shot an arrow into the foremost. as for the other, in his effort to turn quickly his snow-shoes stuck in the deep snow and detained him, so marpeetopah killed them both. "quickly he took the scalps and followed wadutah. he ran hard. but the ojibways suspected something wrong and came to the lonely teepee, to find all their scouts had been killed. they followed the path of marpeetopah and wadutah to the main village, and there a great battle was fought on the ice. many were killed on both sides. it was after this that the sioux moved to the mississippi river." i was sleepy by this time and i rolled myself up in my buffalo robe and fell asleep. part two stories of real indians i winona's childhood hush, hushaby, little woman! be brave and weep not! the spirits sleep not; 'tis they who ordain to woman, pain. hush, hushaby, little woman! now, all things bearing, a new gift sharing from those above-- to woman, love. _--sioux lullaby._ "chinto, wéyanna! yes, indeed; she is a real little woman," declares the old grandmother, as she receives and critically examines the tiny bit of humanity. there is no remark as to the color of its hair or eyes, both so black as almost to be blue, but the old woman scans sharply the delicate profile of the baby face. "ah, she has the nose of her ancestors! lips thin as a leaf, and eyes bright as stars in midwinter!" she exclaims, as she passes on the furry bundle to the other grandmother for her inspection. "tokee! she is pretty enough to win a twinkle from the evening star," remarks that smiling personage. "and what shall her name be? "winona, the first-born, of course. that is hers by right of birth." "still, it may not fit her. one must prove herself worthy in order to retain that honorable name." "ugh," retorts the first grandmother, "she can at least bear it on probation!" "tosh, tosh," the other assents. thus the unconscious little winona has passed the first stage of the indian's christening. presently she is folded into a soft white doeskin, well lined with the loose down of cattails, and snugly laced into an upright oaken cradle, the front of which is a richly embroidered buckskin bag, with porcupine quills and deer's hoofs suspended from its profuse fringes. this gay cradle is strapped upon the second grandmother's back, and that dignitary walks off with the newcomer. "you must come with me," she says. "we shall go among the father and mother trees, and hear them speak with their thousand tongues, that you may know their language forever. i will hang the cradle of the woman-child upon utuhu, the oak; and she shall hear the love-sighs of the pine maiden!" in this fashion winona is introduced to nature and becomes at once "nature-born," in accord with the beliefs and practices of the wild red man. the baby girl is called winona for some months, when the medicine-man is summoned and requested to name publicly the first-born daughter of chetonska, the white hawk; but not until he has received a present of a good pony with a finely painted buffalo-robe. it is usual to confer another name besides that of the "first-born," which may be resumed later if the maiden proves worthy. the name winona implies much of honor. it means charitable, kind, helpful; all that an eldest sister should be! the herald goes around the ring of lodges announcing in singsong fashion the christening, and inviting everybody to a feast in honor of the event. a real american christening is always a gala occasion, when much savage wealth is distributed among the poor and old people. winona has only just walked, and this fact is also announced with additional gifts. a well-born child is ever before the tribal eye and in the tribal ear, as every little step in its progress toward manhood or womanhood--the first time of walking or swimming, first shot with bow and arrow (if a boy), first pair of moccasins made (if a girl)--is announced publicly with feasting and the giving of presents. so winona receives her individual name of tatiyopa, or her door. it is symbolic, like most indian names, and implies that the door of the bearer is hospitable and her home attractive. the two grandmothers, who have carried the little maiden upon their backs, now tell and sing to her by turns all the legends of their most noted female ancestors, from the twin sisters of the old story, the maidens who married among the star people of the sky, down to their own mothers. all their lullabies are feminine, and designed to impress upon her tender mind the life and duties of her sex. as soon as she is old enough to play with dolls, she plays mother in all seriousness and gravity. she is dressed like a miniature woman (and her dolls are clad likewise), in garments of doeskin to her ankles, adorned with long fringes, embroidered with porcupine quills, and dyed with root dyes in various colors. her little blanket or robe, with which she shyly drapes or screens her head and shoulders, is the skin of a buffalo calf or a deer, soft, white, embroidered on the smooth side, and often with the head and hoofs left on. "you must never forget, my little daughter, that you are a woman like myself. do always those things that you see me do," her mother often admonishes her. even the language of the sioux has its feminine dialect, and the tiny girl would be greatly abashed were it ever needful to correct her for using a masculine termination. this mother makes for her little daughter a miniature copy of every rude tool that she uses in her daily tasks. there is a little scraper of elk-horn to scrape raw-hides preparatory to tanning them, another scraper of a different shape for tanning, bone knives, and stone mallets for pounding choke-cherries and jerked meat. while her mother is bending over a large buffalo-hide stretched and pinned upon the ground, standing upon it and scraping off the fleshy portion as nimbly as a carpenter shaves a board with his plane, winona, at five years of age, stands upon a corner of the great hide and industriously scrapes away with her tiny instrument. when the mother stops to sharpen her tool, the little woman always sharpens hers also. perhaps there is water to be fetched in bags made from the dried pericardium of an animal; the girl brings some in a smaller water-bag. when her mother goes for wood she carries one or two sticks on her back. she pitches her play teepee to form an exact copy of her mother's. her little belongings are nearly all practical, and her very play is real! ii winona's girlhood braver than the bravest, you sought honors at death's door; could you not remember one who weeps at home-- could you not remember me? braver than the bravest, you sought honors more than love; dear, i weep, yet i am not a coward; my heart weeps for thee-- my heart weeps when i remember thee! _--sioux love song._ the sky is blue overhead, peeping through window-like openings in a roof of green leaves. right between a great pine and a birch tree their soft doeskin shawls are spread, and there sit two sioux maidens amid their fineries--variously colored porcupine quills for embroidery laid upon sheets of thin birch-bark, and moccasin tops worked in colors like autumn leaves. it is winona and her friend miniyata. they have arrived at the period during which the young girl is carefully secluded from her brothers and cousins and future lovers, and retires, as it were, into the nunnery of the woods, behind a veil of thick foliage. thus she is expected to develop her womanly qualities. in meditation and solitude, entirely alone or with a chosen companion of her own sex and age, she gains a secret strength, as she studies the art of womanhood from nature herself. "come, let us practise our sacred dance," says one to the other. each crowns her glossy head with a wreath of wild flowers, and they dance with slow steps around the white birch, singing meanwhile the sacred songs. now upon the lake that stretches blue to the eastward there appears a distant canoe, a mere speck, no bigger than a bird far off against the shining sky. "see the lifting of the paddles!" exclaims winona. "like the leaping of a trout upon the water!" suggests miniyata. "i hope they will not discover us, yet i would like to know who they are," remarks the other, innocently. the birch canoe approaches swiftly, with two young men plying the light cedar paddles. the girls now settle down to their needle-work, quite as if they had never laughed or danced or woven garlands, bending over their embroidery in perfect silence. surely they would not wish to attract attention, for the two sturdy young warriors have already landed. they pick up the canoe and lay it well up on the bank, out of sight. then one procures a strong pole. they lift a buck deer from the canoe--not a mark upon it, save for the bullet wound; the deer looks as if it were sleeping! they tie the hind legs together and the fore legs also and carry it between them on the pole. quickly and cleverly they do all this; and now they start forward and come unexpectedly upon the maidens' retreat! they pause for an instant in mute apology, but the girls smile their forgiveness, and the youths hurry on toward the village. winona has now attended her first maidens' feast and is considered eligible to marriage. she may receive young men, but not in public or in a social way, for such is not the custom of the sioux. when he speaks, she need not answer him unless she chooses. it was no disgrace to the chief's daughter in the old days to work with her hands. indeed, their standard of worth was the willingness to work, but not for the sake of accumulation, only in order to give. winona has learned to prepare skins, to remove the hair and tan the skin of a deer so that it may be made into moccasins within three days. she has a bone tool for each stage of the conversion of the stiff rawhide into velvety leather. she has been taught the art of painting tents and rawhide cases, and the manufacture of garments of all kinds. generosity is a trait that is highly developed in the sioux woman. she makes many moccasins and other articles of clothing for her male relatives, or for any who are not well provided. she loves to see her brother the best dressed among the young men, and the moccasins especially of a young brave are the pride of his woman-kind. her own person is neatly attired, but ordinarily with great simplicity. her doeskin gown has wide, flowing sleeves; the neck is low, but not so low as is the evening dress of society. her moccasins are plain; her leggins close-fitting and not as high as her brother's. she parts her smooth, jet-black hair in the middle and plaits it in two. in the old days she used to do it in one plait wound around with wampum. her ornaments, sparingly worn, are beads, elks' teeth, and a touch of red paint. no feathers are worn by the woman, unless in a sacred dance. she is supposed to be always occupied with some feminine pursuit or engaged in some social affair, which also is strictly feminine as a rule. there is an etiquette of sitting and standing, which is strictly observed. the woman must never raise her knees or cross her feet when seated. she seats herself on the ground sidewise, with both feet under her. notwithstanding her modesty and undemonstrative ways, there is no lack of mirth and relaxation for winona among her girl companions. in summer, swimming and playing in the water is a favorite amusement. she even imitates with the soles of her feet the peculiar, resonant sound that the beaver makes with her large, flat tail upon the surface of the water. she is a graceful swimmer, keeping the feet together and waving them backward and forward like the tail of a fish. nearly all her games are different from those of the men. she has a sport of wand-throwing, which develops fine muscles of the shoulder and back. the wands are about eight feet long, and taper gradually from an inch and a half to half an inch in diameter. some of them are artistically made, with heads of bone and horn, so that it is remarkable to what a distance they may be made to slide over the ground. in the feminine game of ball, which is something like "shinny," the ball is driven with curved sticks between two goals. it is played with from two or three to a hundred on a side, and a game between two bands or villages is a picturesque event. a common indoor diversion is the "deer's foot" game, played with six deer hoofs on a string, ending in a bone or steel awl. the object is to throw it in such a way as to catch one or more hoofs on the point of the awl, a feat which requires no little dexterity. another is played with marked plum-stones in a bowl, which are thrown like dice and count according to the side that is turned uppermost. winona's wooing is a typical one. as with any other people, love-making is more or less in vogue at all times of the year, but more especially at midsummer, during the characteristic reunions and festivities of that season. the young men go about usually in pairs, and the maidens do likewise. they may meet by chance at any time of day, in the woods or at the spring, but oftenest seek to do so after dark, just outside the teepee. the girl has her companion, and he has his, for the sake of propriety or protection. the conversation is carried on in a whisper, so that even these chaperons do not hear. at the sound of the drum on summer evenings, dances are begun within the circular rows of teepees, but without the circle the young men promenade in pairs. each provides himself with the plaintive flute and plays the simple cadences of his people, while his person is completely covered with his fine robe, so that he cannot be recognized by the passer-by. at every pause in the melody he gives his yodel-like love-call, to which the girls respond with their musical, sing-song laughter. matosapa has improved every opportunity, until winona has at last shyly admitted her willingness to listen. for a whole year he has been compelled at intervals to repeat the story of his love. through the autumn hunting of the buffalo and the long, cold winter he often presents her kinsfolk with his game. at the next midsummer the parents on both sides are made acquainted with the betrothal, and they at once begin preparations for the coming wedding. provisions and delicacies of all kinds are laid aside for a feast. matosapa's sisters and his girl cousins are told of the approaching event, and they too prepare for it, since it is their duty to dress or adorn the bride with garments made by their own hands. the bride is ceremoniously delivered to her husband's people, together with presents of rich clothing, collected from all her clan, which she afterward distributes among her new relations. winona is carried in a travois handsomely decorated, and is received with equal ceremony. iii a midsummer feast the wahpetonwan village on the banks of the minnesota river was alive with the newly-arrived guests and the preparations for the coming event. meat of wild game had been put away with much care during the previous fall in anticipation of this feast. there was wild rice and the choicest of dried venison that had been kept all winter, as well as freshly dug turnips, ripe berries and an abundance of fresh meat. along the edge of the woods the teepees were pitched in groups or semi-circles, each band distinct from the others. the teepee of mankato or blue earth was pitched in a conspicuous spot. just over the entrance was painted in red and yellow a picture of a pipe, and directly opposite this the rising sun. the painting was symbolic of welcome and good will to men under the bright sun. a meeting was held to appoint some "medicine-man" to make the balls that were to be used in the lacrosse contest; and presently the herald announced that this honor had been conferred upon old chankpee-yuhah, or "keeps the club," while every other man of his profession was disappointed. towards evening he appeared in the circle, leading by the hand a boy about four years old. closely the little fellow observed every motion of the man; nothing escaped his vigilant black eyes, which seemed constantly to grow brighter and larger, while his glossy black hair was plaited and wound around his head like that of a celestial. he wore a bit of swan's down in each ear, which formed a striking contrast with the child's complexion. further than this, the boy was painted according to the fashion of the age. he held in his hands a miniature bow and arrows. the medicine-man drew himself up in an admirable attitude, and proceeded to make his short speech: "wahpetonwans, you boast that you run down the elk; you can outrun the ojibways. before you all, i dedicate to you this red ball. kaposias, you claim that no one has a lighter foot than you; you declare that you can endure running a whole day without water. to you i dedicate this black ball. either you or the leaf-dwellers will have to drop your eyes and bow your head when the game is over. i wish to announce that if the wahpetonwans should win, this little warrior shall bear the name ohiyesa (winner) through life; but if the light lodges should win, let the name be given to any child appointed by them." the ground selected for the great game was on a narrow strip of land between a lake and the river. it was about three quarters of a mile long and a quarter of a mile in width. the spectators had already ranged themselves all along the two sides, as well as at the two ends, which were somewhat higher than the middle. the soldiers appointed to keep order furnished much of the entertainment of the day. they painted artistically and tastefully, according to the indian fashion, not only their bodies but also their ponies and clubs. they were so strict in enforcing the laws that no one could venture with safety within a few feet of the limits of the field. now all of the minor events and feasts, occupying several days' time, had been observed. heralds on ponies' backs announced that all who intended to participate in the final game were requested to repair to the ground; also that if any one bore a grudge against another, he was implored to forget his ill-feeling until the contest should be over. the most powerful men were stationed at the half-way ground, while the fast runners were assigned to the back. it was an impressive spectacle a fine collection of agile forms, almost stripped of garments and painted in wild imitation of the rainbow and sunset sky on human canvas. some had undertaken to depict the milky way across their tawny bodies, and one or two made a bold attempt to reproduce the lightning. others contented themselves with painting the figure of some fleet animal or swift bird on their muscular chests. at the middle of the ground were stationed four immense men, magnificently formed. a fifth approached this group, paused a moment, and then threw his head back, gazed up into the sky in the manner of a cock and gave a smooth, clear operatic tone. instantly the little black ball went up between the two middle rushers, in the midst of yells, cheers and war-whoops. both men endeavored to catch it in the air; but alas! each interfered with the other; then the guards on each side rushed upon them. for a time, a hundred lacrosse sticks vied with each other, and the wriggling human flesh and paint were all one could see through the cloud of dust. suddenly there shot swiftly through the air toward the south, toward the kaposias' goal, the ball. there was a general cheer from their adherents, which echoed back from the white cliff on the opposite side of the minnesota. as the ball flew through the air, two adversaries were ready to receive it. the kaposia quickly met the ball, but failed to catch it in his netted bag, for the other had swung his up like a flash. thus it struck the ground, but had no opportunity to bound up when a wahpeton pounced upon it like a cat and slipped out of the grasp of his opponents. a mighty cheer thundered through the air. the warrior who had undertaken to pilot the little sphere was risking much, for he must dodge a host of kaposias before he could gain any ground. he was alert and agile; now springing like a panther, now leaping like a deer over a stooping opponent who tried to seize him around the waist. every opposing player was upon his heels, while those of his own side did all in their power to clear the way for him. but it was all in vain. he only gained fifty paces. thus the game went. first one side, then the other would gain an advantage, and then it was lost, until the herald proclaimed that it was time to change the ball. no victory was in sight for either side. after a few minutes' rest, the game was resumed. the red ball was now tossed in the air in the usual way. no sooner had it descended than one of the rushers caught it and away it went northward; again it was fortunate, for it was advanced by one of the same side. the scene was now one of the wildest excitement and confusion. at last, the northward flight of the ball was checked for a moment and a desperate struggle ensued. the ball had not been allowed to come to the surface since it reached this point, for there were more than a hundred men who scrambled for it. suddenly a warrior shot out of the throng like the ball itself! then some of the players shouted: "look out for antelope!" but it was too late. the little sphere had already nestled into antelope's palm and that fleetest of wahpetons had thrown down his lacrosse stick and set a determined eye upon the northern goal. such a speed! he had cleared almost all the opponents' guards--there were but two more. these were exceptional runners of the kaposias. as he approached them in his almost irresistible speed, every savage heart thumped louder in the indian's dusky bosom. in another moment there would be a defeat for the kaposias or a prolongation of the game. the two men, with a determined look approached their foe like two panthers prepared to spring; yet he neither slackened his speed nor deviated from his course. a crash--a mighty shout!--the two kaposias collided, and the swift antelope had won the laurels! the turmoil and commotion at the victors' camp were indescribable. a few beats of a drum were heard, after which the criers hurried along the lines, announcing the last act to be performed at the camp of the "leaf dwellers." the day had been a perfect one. every event had been a success; and, as a matter of course, the old people were happy, for they largely profited by these occasions. within the circle formed by the general assembly sat in a group the members of the common council. blue earth arose, and in a few appropriate and courteous remarks assured his guests that it was not selfishness that led his braves to carry off the honors of the last event, but that this was a friendly contest in which each band must assert its prowess. in memory of this victory, the boy would now receive his name. a loud "ho-o-o" of approbation reverberated from the edge of the forest upon the minnesota's bank. half frightened, the little fellow was now brought into the circle, looking very much as if he were about to be executed. cheer after cheer went up for the awe-stricken boy. chankpee-yuhah, the medicine-man, proceeded to confer the name. "ohiyesa (or winner) shall be thy name henceforth. be brave, be patient and thou shalt always win! thy name is ohiyesa." iv the faithfulness of long ears away beyond the thin hills, above the big lone tree upon the powder river, the uncpapa sioux had celebrated their sun dance, some forty years ago. it was midsummer and the red folk were happy. they lacked for nothing. the yellowish green flat on either side of the powder was studded with wild flowers, and the cottonwood trees were in full leaf. one large circle of buffalo-skin teepees formed the movable village. the tribal rites had all been observed, and the usual summer festivities enjoyed to the full. the camp as it broke up divided itself in three parts, each of which had determined to seek a favorite hunting-ground. one band journeyed west, toward the tongue river. one followed a tributary of the powder to the south. the third merely changed camp, on account of the grazing for ponies, and for four days remained near the old place. the party that went west did not fail to realize the perilous nature of their wanderings, for they were trespassing upon the country of the warlike crows. on the third day at sunrise, the sioux crier's voice resounded in the valley of the powder, announcing that the lodges must be razed and the villagers must take up their march. breakfast of jerked buffalo meat had been served and the women were adjusting their packs, not without much chatter and apparent confusion. weeko (beautiful woman), the young wife of the war-chief shunkaska, who had made many presents at the dances in honor of her twin boys, now gave one of her remaining ponies to a poor old woman whose only beast of burden, a large dog, had died during the night. this made it necessary to shift the packs of the others. nakpa, or long ears, her kitten-like gray mule, which had heretofore been honored with the precious burden of the twin babies, was to be given a heavier and more cumbersome load. weeko's two-year-old spotted pony was selected to carry the babies. accordingly, the two children, in their gorgeously beaded buckskin hoods, were suspended upon either side of the pony's saddle. as weeko's first-born, they were beautifully dressed; even the saddle and bridle were daintily worked by her own hands. the caravan was now in motion, and weeko started all her ponies after the leader, while she adjusted the mule's clumsy burden of kettles and other household gear. in a moment: "go on, let us see how you move with your new load! go on!" she exclaimed again, with a light blow of the horse-hair lariat, as the animal stood perfectly still. nakpa simply gave an angry side glance at her load and shifted her position once or twice. then she threw herself headlong into the air and landed stiff-legged, uttering at the same time her unearthly protest. first she dove straight through the crowd, then proceeded in a circle, her heels describing wonderful curves and sweeps in the air. her pack, too, began to come to pieces and to take forced flights from her undignified body and heels, in the midst of the screams of women and children, the barking of dogs, and the war-whoops of the amused young braves. the cowskin tent became detached from her saddle, and a moment later nakpa stood free. her sides worked like a bellows as she stood there, meekly indignant, apparently considering herself to be the victim of an uncalled-for misunderstanding. "i should put an arrow through her at once, only she is not worth a good arrow," said shunkaska, or white dog, the husband of weeko. at his wife's answer, he opened his eyes in surprised displeasure. "no, she shall have her own pack again. she wants her twins. i ought never to have taken them from her!" weeko approached nakpa as she stood alone and unfriended in the face of her little world, all of whom considered that she had committed the unpardonable sin. as for her, she evidently felt that her misfortunes had not been of her own making. she gave a hesitating, sidelong look at her mistress. "nakpa, you should not have acted so. i knew you were stronger than the others, therefore i gave you that load," said weeko in a conciliatory tone, and patted her on the nose. "come, now, you shall have your own pet pack," and she led her back to where the young pony stood silently with the babies. nakpa threw back her ears and cast savage looks at him, while shunkaska, with no small annoyance, gathered together as much as he could of their scattered household effects. the sleeping brown-skinned babies in their chrysalis-like hoods were gently lowered from the pony's back and attached securely to nakpa's padded wooden saddle. the family pots and kettles were divided among the pack-ponies. order was restored and the village once more in motion. "come now, nakpa; you have your wish. you must take good care of my babies. be good, because i have trusted you," murmured the young mother in her softest tones. "really, weeko, you have some common ground with nakpa, for you both always want to have your own way, and stick to it, too! i tell you, i fear this long ears. she is not to be trusted with babies," remarked shunkaska, with a good deal of severity. but his wife made no reply, for she well knew that though he might criticize, he would not actually interfere with her domestic arrangements. he now started ahead to join the men in advance of the slow-moving procession, thus leaving her in undivided charge of her household. one or two of the pack ponies were not well trained and required all her attention. nakpa had been a faithful servant until her escapade of the morning, and she was now obviously satisfied with her mistress' arrangements. she walked alongside with her lariat dragging, and perfectly free to do as she pleased. some hours later, the party ascended a slope from the river bottom to cross over the divide which lay between the powder river and a tributary stream. the ford was deep, with a swift current. here and there a bald butte stood out in full relief against the brilliant blue sky. "whoo! whoo!" came the blood-curdling signal of danger from the front. it was no unfamiliar sound--the rovers knew it only too well. it meant sudden death--or at best a cruel struggle and frantic flight. terrified, yet self-possessed, the women turned to fly while yet there was time. instantly the mother looked to nakpa, who carried on either side of the saddle her precious boys. she hurriedly examined the fastenings to see that all was secure, and then caught her swiftest pony, for, like all indian women, she knew just what was happening, and that while her husband was engaged in front with the enemy, she must seek safety with her babies. hardly was she in the saddle when a heartrending war-whoop sounded on their flank, and she knew that they were surrounded! instinctively she reached for her husband's second quiver of arrows, which was carried by one of the pack-ponies. alas! the crow warriors were already upon them! the ponies became unmanageable, and the wild screams of women and children pierced the awful confusion. quick as a flash, weeko turned again to her babies, but nakpa had already disappeared! when the crows made their flank charge, nakpa apparently appreciated the situation. to save herself and the babies, she took a desperate chance. she fled straight through the attacking force. when the warriors came howling upon her in great numbers, she at once started back the way she had come, to the camp left behind. they had travelled nearly three days. to be sure, they did not travel more than fifteen miles a day, but it was full forty miles to cover before dark. "look! look!" exclaimed a warrior, "two babies hung from the saddle of a mule!" no one heeded this man's call, and his arrow did not touch nakpa or either of the boys, but it struck the thick part of the saddle over the mule's back. "whoo! whoo!" yelled another crow to his comrades, "the sioux have dispatched a runner to get reinforcements! there he goes, down on the flat! now he has almost reached the river bottom!" it was only nakpa. she laid back her ears and stretched out more and more to gain the river, for she realized that when she had crossed the ford the crows would not pursue her farther. now she had reached the bank. with the intense heat from her exertions, she was extremely nervous, and she imagined a warrior behind every bush. yet she had enough sense left to realize that she must not satisfy her thirst. she tried the bottom with her forefoot, then waded carefully into the deep stream. she kept her big ears well to the front as she swam, to catch the slightest sound. as she stepped on the opposite shore, she shook herself and the boys vigorously, then pulled a few mouthfuls of grass and started on. soon one of the babies began to cry, and the other was not long in joining him. nakpa did not know what to do. she gave a gentle whinny and both babies apparently stopped to listen; then she took up an easy gait as if to put them to sleep. these tactics answered only for a time. as she fairly flew over the lowlands, the babies' hunger increased and they screamed so loud that a passing coyote had to sit upon his haunches and wonder what in the world the fleeing long-eared horse was carrying on his saddle. even magpies and crows flew near as if to ascertain the meaning of this curious sound. nakpa now came to the little trail creek, a tributary of the powder, not far from the old camp. there she swerved aside so suddenly as almost to jerk her babies out of their cradles. two gray wolves, one on each side, approached her, growling low--their white teeth showing. never in her humble life had nakpa been in more desperate straits. the larger of the wolves came fiercely forward to engage her attention, while his mate was to attack her behind and cut her hamstrings. but for once the pair had made a miscalculation. the mule used her front hoofs vigorously on the foremost wolf, while her hind ones were doing even more effective work. the larger wolf soon went limping away with a broken hip, and the one in the rear received a deep cut on the jaw which proved an effectual discouragement. a little further on, an indian hunter drew near on horseback, but nakpa did not pause or slacken her pace. on she fled through the long dry grass of the river bottoms, while her babies slept again from sheer exhaustion. toward sunset, she entered the sioux camp amid great excitement, for some one had spied her afar off, and the boys and the dogs announced her coming. "whoo, whoo! weeko's nakpa has come back with the twins! whoo, whoo!" exclaimed the men. "tokee! tokee!" cried the women. zeezeewin, a sister to weeko, who was in the village, came forward and released the children, as nakpa gave a low whinny and stopped. "sing a brave-heart song for the long-eared one! she has escaped alone with her charge. she is entitled to wear an eagle's feather! look at the arrow in her saddle! and more, she has a knife-wound in her jaw and an arrow-cut on her hind leg.--no, those are the marks of a wolf's teeth! she has passed through many dangers and saved two chief's sons, who will some day make the crows sorry for this day's work!" the speaker was an old man, who thus addressed the fast gathering throng. zeezeewin now came forward again with an eagle feather and some white paint in her hands. the young men rubbed nakpa down, and the feather, marked with red to indicate her wounds, was fastened to her mane. shoulders and hips were touched with red paint to show her endurance in running. then the crier, praising her brave deed in heroic verse, led her around the camp, inside of the circle of teepees. all the people stood outside their lodges and listened respectfully, for the dakota loves well to honor the faithful and the brave. during the next day, riders came in from the ill-fated party, bringing the sad news of the fight and heavy loss. late in the afternoon came weeko, her face swollen with crying, her beautiful hair cut short in mourning, her garments torn and covered with dust and blood. her husband had fallen in the fight, and her twin boys she supposed to have been taken captive by the crows. singing in a hoarse voice the praises of her departed warrior, she entered the camp. as she approached her sister's teepee, there stood nakpa, still wearing her honorable decorations. at the same moment, zeezeewin came out to meet her with both babies in her arms. "mechinkshee! mechinkshee! (my sons, my sons!)" was all that the poor mother could say, as she all but fell from the saddle to the ground. the despised long ears had not betrayed her trust. v snana's fawn the little missouri was in her spring fulness, and the hills among which she found her way to the great muddy were profusely adorned with colors, much like those worn by the wild red man upon a holiday! between the gorgeous buttes and rainbow-tinted ridges there were narrow plains, broken here and there by dry creeks or gulches, and these again were clothed scantily with poplars and sad-colored bull-berry bushes, while the bare spots were purple with the wild dakota crocuses. upon the lowest of a series of natural terraces there stood on this may morning a young sioux girl, whose graceful movements were not unlike those of a doe which chanced to be lurking in a neighboring gulch. on the upper plains, not far away, were her young companions, all busily employed with the wewoptay, as it is called--the sharp-pointed stick with which the sioux women dig wild turnips. they were gayly gossiping together, or each humming a love-song as she worked, only snana stood somewhat apart from the rest; in fact, concealed by the crest of the ridge. it was now full-born day. the sun shone hot upon the bare ground, and the drops stood upon snana's forehead as she plied her long pole. there was a cool spring in the dry creek bed near by, well hidden by a clump of choke-cherry bushes, and she turned thither to cool her thirsty throat. in the depths of the ravine her eye caught a familiar footprint--the track of a doe with the young fawn beside it. the hunting instinct arose within. "it will be a great feat if i can find and take from her the babe. the little tawny skin shall be beautifully dressed by my mother. the legs and the nose shall be embossed with porcupine quills. it will be my work-bag," she said to herself. as she stole forward on the fresh trail she scanned every nook, every clump of bushes. there was a sudden rustle from within a grove of wild plum trees, thickly festooned with grape and clematis, and the doe mother bounded away as carelessly as if she were never to return. ah, a mother's ruse! snana entered the thorny enclosure, which was almost a rude teepee, and, tucked away in the further-most corner, lay something with a trout-like, speckled, tawny coat. she bent over it. the fawn was apparently sleeping. presently its eyes moved a bit, and a shiver passed through its subtle body. "thou shalt not die; thy skin shall not become my work-bag!" unconsciously the maiden spoke. the mother sympathy had taken hold on her mind. she picked the fawn up tenderly, bound its legs, and put it on her back to carry like an indian babe in the folds of her robe. "i cannot leave you alone, tachinchala. your mother is not here. our hunters will soon return by this road, and your mother has left behind her two plain tracks leading to this thicket," she murmured. the wild creature struggled vigorously for a minute, and then became quiet. its graceful head protruded from the elk-skin robe just over snana's shoulder. she was slowly climbing the slope with her burden, when suddenly like an apparition the doe mother stood before her. the fawn called loudly when it was first seized, and the mother was not too far away to hear. now she called frantically for her child, at the same time stamping with her delicate forefeet. "yes, sister, you are right; she is yours; but you cannot save her to-day! the hunters will soon be here. let me keep her for you; i will return her to you safely. and hear me, o sister of the woods, that some day i may become the mother of a noble race of warriors and of fine women, as handsome as you are!" at this moment the quick eyes of the indian girl detected something strange in the doe's actions. she glanced in every direction and behold! a grizzly bear was cautiously approaching the group from a considerable distance. "run, run, sister! i shall save your child if i can," she cried, and flew for the nearest scrub oak on the edge of the bank. up the tree she scrambled, with the fawn still securely bound to her back. the grizzly came on with teeth exposed, and the doe-mother in her flight came between him and the tree, giving a series of indignant snorts as she ran, and so distracted mato from his object of attack; but only for a few seconds--then on he came! "desist, o brave mato! it does not become a great medicine-man to attack a helpless woman with a burden upon her back!" snana spoke as if the huge brute could understand her, and, indeed, the indians hold that wild animals understand intuitively when appealed to by human beings in distress. yet he replied only with a hoarse growl, as rising upon his hind legs he shook the little tree vigorously. "ye, ye, heyupi ye!" snana called loudly to her companion turnip-diggers. her cry soon brought all the women into sight upon a near-by ridge, and they immediately gave a general alarm. mato saw them, but appeared not at all concerned and was still intent upon dislodging the girl, who clung frantically to her perch. presently there appeared upon the little knoll several warriors, mounted and uttering the usual war-whoop, as if they were about to swoop down upon a human enemy. this touched the dignity of mato, and he immediately prepared to accept the challenge. every indian was alive to the possibilities of the occasion, for it is well known that mato, or grizzly bear, alone among animals is given the rank of a warrior, so that whoever conquers him may wear an eagle feather. "woo! woo!" the warriors shouted, as they maneuvered to draw him into the open plain. he answered with hoarse growls, threatening a rider who had ventured too near. but arrows were many and well-aimed, and in a few minutes the great and warlike mato lay dead at the foot of the tree. the men ran forward and counted their _coups_ on him, just as when an enemy is fallen. then they looked at one another and placed their hands over their mouths as the young girl descended the-tree with a fawn bound upon her back. "so that was the bait!" they cried. "and will you not make a feast with that fawn for us who came to your rescue?" "the fawn is young and tender, and we have not eaten meat for two days. it will be a generous thing to do," added her father, who was among them. "ye-e-e!" she cried out in distress. "do not ask it! i have seen this fawn's mother. i have promised to keep her child safe. see! i have saved its life, even when my own was in danger." "ho, ho, wakan ye lo! (yes, yes, 'tis holy or mysterious)," they exclaimed approvingly. it was no small trouble for snana to keep her trust. as may well be supposed, all the dogs of the teepee village must be watched and kept at a distance. neither was it easy to feed the little captive; but in gaining its confidence the girl was an adept. the fawn soon followed her everywhere, and called to her when hungry exactly as she had called to her own mother. after several days, when her fright at the encounter with the bear had somewhat worn off, snana took her pet into the woods and back to the very spot in which she had found it. in the furthest corner of the wild plum grove she laid it down, gently stroked its soft forehead, and smoothed the leaf-like ears. the little thing closed its eyes. once more the sioux girl bent over and laid her cheek against the fawn's head; then reluctantly she moved away, hoping and yet dreading that the mother would return. she crouched under a clump of bushes near by, and gave the doe call. it was a reckless thing for her to do, for such a call might bring upon her a mountain lion or ever-watchful silver-tip; but snana did not think of that. in a few minutes she heard the light patter of hoofs, and caught a glimpse of a doe running straight toward the fawn's hiding-place. when she stole near enough to see, the doe and the fawn were examining one another carefully, as if fearing some treachery. at last both were apparently satisfied. the doe caressed her natural child, and the little one accepted the milk she offered. in the sioux maiden's mind there was turmoil. a close attachment to the little wild creature had already taken root there, contending with the sense of justice that was strong within her. now womanly sympathy for the mother was in control, and now a desire to possess and protect her helpless pet. "i can take care of her against all hunters, both animal and human. they are ever ready to seize the helpless fawn for food. her life will be often exposed. you cannot save her from disaster. o, takcha, my sister, let me still keep her for you!" she finally appealed to the poor doe, who was nervously watching the intruder, and apparently thinking how she might best escape with the fawn. just at this moment there came a low call from the wood. it was a doe call; but the wild mother and her new friend both knew that it was not the call of a real doe. "it is a sioux hunter!" whispered the girl. "you must go, my sister! be off; i will take your child to safety!" while she was yet speaking, the doe seemed to realize the danger. she stopped only an instant to lick fondly the tawny coat of the little one, then she bounded away. as snana emerged from the bushes with her charge, a young hunter met her face to face, and stared at her curiously. he was not of her father's camp, but a stranger. "ugh, you have my game." "tosh!" she replied coquettishly. it was so often said among the indians that the doe was wont to put on human form to mislead the hunter, that it looked strange to see a woman with a fawn, and the young man could not forbear to gaze upon snana. "you are not the real mother in maiden's guise? tell me truly if you are of human blood," he demanded rudely. "i am a sioux maiden! do you not know my father?" she replied. "ah, but who is your father? what is his name?" he insisted, nervously fingering his arrows. "do not be a coward! surely you should know a maid of your own race," she replied reproachfully. "ah, you know the tricks of the doe! what is thy name?" "hast thou forgotten the etiquette of thy people, and wouldst compel me to pronounce my own name? i refuse; thou art jesting!" she retorted with a smile. "thou dost give the tricky answers of a doe. i cannot wait; i must act before i lose my natural mind. but already i am yours. whatever purpose you may have in thus charming a poor hunter, be merciful," and, throwing aside his quiver, he sat down. the maiden stole a glance at his face and then another. he was handsome. softly she reëntered the thicket and laid down the little fawn. "promise me never to hunt here again!" she said earnestly, as she came forth without her pretty burden, and he exacted another promise in return. thus snana lost her fawn, and found a lover. vi hakadah's first offering "hakadah, coowah!" was the sonorous call that came from a large teepee in the midst of the indian encampment. in answer to the summons there emerged from the woods, which were only a few steps away, a boy, accompanied by a splendid black dog. there was little in the appearance of the little fellow to distinguish him from the other sioux boys. he hastened to the tent from which he had been summoned, carrying in his hands a bow and arrows gorgeously painted, while the small birds and squirrels that he had killed with these weapons dangled from his belt. within the tent sat two old women, one on each side of the fire. uncheedah was the boy's grandmother, who had brought up the motherless child. wahchewin was only a caller, but she had been invited to remain and assist in the first personal offering of hakadah to the "great mystery." it had been whispered through the teepee village that uncheedah intended to give a feast in honor of her grandchild's first sacrificial offering. this was mere speculation, however, for the clear-sighted old woman had determined to keep this part of the matter secret until the offering should be completed, believing that the "great mystery" should be met in silence and dignity. the boy came rushing into the lodge, followed by his dog ohitika, who was wagging his tail promiscuously, as if to say: "master and i are really hunters!" hakadah breathlessly gave a descriptive narrative of the killing of each bird and squirrel as he pulled them off his belt and threw them before his grandmother. "this blunt-headed arrow," said he, "actually had eyes this morning. before the squirrel can dodge around the tree it strikes him in the head, and, as he falls to the ground, my ohitika is upon him." he knelt upon one knee as he talked, his black eyes shining like evening stars. "sit down here," said uncheedah to the boy; "i have something to say to you. you see that you are now almost a man. observe the game you have brought me! it will not be long before you will leave me, for a warrior must seek opportunities to make him great among his people. "you must endeavor to equal your father and grandfather," she went on. "they were warriors and feast-makers. but it is not the poor hunter who makes many feasts. do you not remember the 'legend of the feast-maker,' who gave forty feasts in twelve moons? and have you forgotten the story of the warrior who sought the will of the great mystery? to-day you will make your first offering to him." the concluding sentence fairly dilated the eyes of the young hunter, for he felt that a great event was about to occur, in which he would be the principal actor. but uncheedah resumed her speech. "you must give up one of your belongings--whichever is dearest to you--for this is to be a sacrificial offering." this somewhat confused the boy; not that he was selfish, but rather uncertain as to what would be the most appropriate thing to give. then, too, he supposed that his grandmother referred to his ornaments and playthings only. so he volunteered: "i can give up my best bow and arrows, and all the paints i have, and--and my bear's claws necklace, grandmother!" "are these the things dearest to you?" she demanded. "not the bow and arrows, but the paints will be very hard to get, for there are no white people near; and the necklace--it is not easy to get one like it again. i will also give up my otter-skin head-dress, if you think that it not enough." "but think, my boy, you have not yet mentioned the thing that will be a pleasant offering to the great mystery." the boy looked into the woman's face with a puzzled expression. "i have nothing else as good as those things i have named, grandmother, unless it is my spotted pony; and i am sure that the great mystery will not require a little boy to make him so large a gift. besides, my uncle gave three otter-skins and five eagle-feathers for him and i promised to keep him a long while, if the blackfeet or the crows do not steal him." uncheedah was not fully satisfied with the boy's free offerings. perhaps it had not occurred to him what she really wanted. but uncheedah knew where his affection was vested. his faithful dog, his pet and companion--hakadah was almost inseparable from the loving beast. she was sure that it would be difficult to obtain his consent to sacrifice the animal, but she ventured upon a final appeal. "you must remember," she said, "that in this offering you will call upon him who looks at you from every creation. in the wind you hear him whisper to you. he gives his war-whoop in the thunder. he watches you by day with his eye, the sun; at night, he gazes upon your sleeping countenance through the moon. in short, it is the mystery of mysteries, who controls all things, to whom you will make your first offering. by this act, you will ask him to grant to you what he has granted to few men. i know you wish to be a great warrior and hunter. i am not prepared to see my hakadah show any cowardice, for the love of possessions is a woman's trait and not a brave's." during this speech, the boy had been completely aroused to the spirit of manliness, and in his excitement was willing to give up anything he had--even his pony! but he was unmindful of his friend and companion, ohitika, the dog! so, scarcely had uncheedah finished speaking, when he almost shouted: "grandmother, i will give up any of my possessions for the offering to the great mystery! you may select what you think will be most pleasing to him." there were two silent spectators of this little dialogue. one was wahchewin, the other was ohitika. the woman had been invited to stay, although only a neighbor. the dog, by force of habit, had taken up his usual position by the side of his master when they entered the teepee. without moving a muscle, save those of his eyes, he had been a very close observer of what passed. had the dog but moved once to attract the attention of his little friend, he might have been dissuaded from that impetuous exclamation: "grandmother, i will give up any of my possessions!" it was hard for uncheedah to tell the boy that he must part with his dog, but she was equal to the situation. "hakadah," she proceeded cautiously, "you are a young brave. i know, though young, your heart is strong and your courage is great. you will be pleased to give up the dearest thing you have for your first offering. you must give up ohitika. he is brave; and you, too, are brave. he will not fear death; you will bear his loss bravely. come,--here are four bundles of paints and a filled pipe,--let us go to the place!" when the last words were uttered, hakadah did not seem to hear them. he was simply unable to speak. to a civilized eye, he would have appeared at that moment like a little copper statue. his bright black eyes were fast melting in floods of tears, when he caught his grandmother's eye and recollected her oft-repeated adage: "tears for woman and the war-whoop for man to drown sorrow!" he swallowed two or three big mouthfuls of heartache and the little warrior was master of the situation. "grandmother, my brave will have to die! let me tie together two of the prettiest tails of the squirrels that he and i killed this morning, to show to the great mystery what a hunter he has been. let me paint him myself." this request uncheedah could not refuse, and she left the pair alone for a few minutes, while she went to ask wacoota to execute ohitika. every indian boy knows that, when a warrior is about to meet death, he must sing a death dirge. hakadah thought of his ohitika as a person who would meet his death without a struggle, so he began to sing a dirge for him, at the same time hugging him tight to himself. as if he were a human being, he whispered in his ear: [illustration: he began to sing a dirge for him. _page ._] "be brave, my ohitika! i shall remember you the first time i am upon the war-path in the ojibway country." at last he heard uncheedah talking with a man outside the teepee, so he quickly took up his paints. ohitika was a jet-black dog, with a silver tip on the end of his tail and on his nose, beside one white paw and a white star upon a protuberance between his ears. hakadah knew that a man who prepares for death usually paints with red and black. nature had partially provided ohitika in this respect, so that only red was required and this hakadah supplied generously. then he took off a piece of red cloth and tied it around the dog's neck; to this he fastened two of the squirrels' tails and a wing from the oriole they had killed that morning. just then it occurred to him that good warriors always mourn for their departed friends, and the usual mourning was black paint. he loosened his black braided locks, ground a dead coal, mixed it with bear's oil and rubbed it on his entire face. during this time every hole in the tent was occupied with an eye. among the lookers-on was his grandmother. she was very near relenting. had she not feared the wrath of the great mystery, she would have been happy to call out to the boy: "keep your dear dog, my child!" as it was, hakadah came out of the teepee with his face looking like an eclipsed moon, leading his beautiful dog, who was even handsomer than ever with the red touches on his specks of white. it was now uncheedah's turn to struggle with the storm and burden in her soul. but the boy was emboldened by the people's admiration of his bravery, and did not shed a tear. as soon as she was able to speak, the loving grandmother said: "no, my young brave, not so! you must not mourn for your first offering. wash your face and then we will go." the boy obeyed, submitted ohitika to wacoota with a smile, and walked off with his grandmother and wahchewin. the boy and his grandmother descended the bank, following a tortuous foot-path until they reached the water's edge. then they proceeded to the mouth of an immense cave, some fifty feet above the river, under the cliff. a little stream of limpid water trickled down from a spring within the cave. the little watercourse served as a sort of natural staircase for the visitors. a cool, pleasant atmosphere exhaled from the mouth of the cavern. really it was a shrine of nature, and it is not strange that it was so regarded by the tribe. a feeling of awe and reverence came to the boy. "it is the home of the great mystery," he thought to himself; and the impressiveness of his surroundings made him forget his sorrow. very soon wahchewin came with some difficulty to the steps. she placed the body of ohitika upon the ground in a life-like position and again left the two alone. as soon as she disappeared from view, uncheedah, with all solemnity and reverence, unfastened the leather strings that held the four small bundles of paints and one of tobacco, while the filled pipe was laid beside the dead ohitika. she scattered paints and tobacco all about. again they stood a few moments silently; then she drew a deep breath and began her prayer to the great mystery: "o, great mystery, we hear thy voice in the rushing waters below us! we hear thy whisper in the great oaks above! our spirits are refreshed with thy breath from within this cave. o, hear our prayer! behold this little boy and bless him! make him a warrior and a hunter as great as thou didst make his father and grandfather." and with this prayer the little warrior had completed his first offering. vii the grave of the dog the full moon was just clear of the high mountain ranges when the game scout moved slowly homeward, well wrapped in his long buffalo robe, which was securely belted to his strong loins; his quiver tightly tied to his shoulders so as not to impede his progress. as he emerged from the lowlands into the upper regions, he loomed up a gigantic figure against the clear, moonlit horizon. his picturesque foxskin cap with all its trimmings was incrusted with frost from the breath of his nostrils, and his lagging footfall sounded crisply. the distance he had that day covered was enough for any human endurance; yet he was neither faint nor hungry; but his feet were frozen into the psay, the snow-shoes, so that he could not run faster than an easy slip and slide. at last he reached the much-coveted point--the crown of the last ascent; and when he smelled fire and the savory odor of the jerked buffalo meat, it well-nigh caused him to waver! but he must not fail to follow the custom of untold ages, and give the game scout's wolf call before entering camp. accordingly he paused upon the highest point of the ridge and uttered a cry to which the hungry cry of a real wolf would have seemed but a coyote's yelp in comparison! then it was that the rest of the buffalo hunters knew that their game scout was returning with welcome news; for the unsuccessful scout enters the camp silently. in the meantime, the hunters at the temporary camp were aroused to a high pitch of excitement. some turned their buffalo robes and put them on in such a way as to convert themselves into make-believe bison, and began to tread the snow, while others were singing the buffalo song, that their spirits might be charmed and allured within the circle of the camp-fires. the scout, too, was singing his buffalo bull song in a guttural, lowing chant as he neared the hunting camp. within arrow-shot he paused again, while the usual ceremonies were enacted for his reception. this done, he was seated with the leaders in a chosen place. "it was a long run," he said, "but there were no difficulties. i found the first herd directly north of here. the second herd, a great one, is northeast, near shell lake. the snow is deep. the buffalo can only follow their leader in their retreat." "hi, hi, hi!" the hunters exclaimed solemnly in token of gratitude, raising their hands heavenward and then pointing them toward the ground. "ho, kola! one more round of the buffalo-pipe, then we shall retire, to rise before daybreak for the hunt," advised one of the leaders. silently they partook in turn of the long-stemmed pipe, and one by one, with a dignified "ho!" departed to their teepees. the scout betook himself to his little old buffalo teepee, which he used for winter hunting expeditions. his faithful shunka, who had been all this time its only occupant, met him at the entrance as dogs alone know how to welcome a lifelong friend. as his master entered he stretched himself in his old-time way, from the tip of his tail to that of his tongue, and finished by curling both ends upward. "ho, mita shunka, eat this; for you must be hungry!" so saying, the scout laid before his canine friend the last piece of his dried buffalo meat. it was the sweetest meal ever eaten by a dog, judging by his long smacking of his lips after he had swallowed it! the hunting party was soon lost in heavy slumber. not a sound could be heard save the gnawing of the ponies upon the cottonwood bark, which was provided for them instead of hay in the winter time. when wapashaw, the game scout, had rolled himself in his warm buffalo robe and was sound asleep, his faithful companion hunter, the great esquimaux wolf dog, silently rose and again stretched himself, then stood quiet for a moment as if meditating. it was clear that he knew well what he had planned to do, but was considering how he should do it without arousing any suspicion of his movements. this is a dog's art, and the night tricks and marauding must always be the joy and secret of his life! softly he emerged from the lodge and gave a sweeping glance around to assure him that there were none to spy upon him. suspiciously he sniffed the air, as if to ascertain whether there could be any danger to his sleeping master while he should be away. up the long ascent he trotted in a northerly direction, yet not following his master's trail. he was large and formidable in strength, combining the features of his wild brothers of the plains with those of the dogs who keep company with the red men. his jet-black hair and sharp ears and nose appeared to immense advantage against the spotless and jewelled snow, until presently his own warm breath had coated him with heavy frost. after a time shunka struck into his master's trail and followed it all the way, only taking a short cut here and there when, by dog instinct, he knew that a man must go around such a point to get to his destination. he met many travellers during the night, but none had dared to approach him, though some few followed at a distance, as if to discover his purpose. at last he reached shell lake, and there beheld a great gathering of the herds! they stood in groups, like enormous rocks, no longer black, but white with frost. every one of them emitted a white steam, quickly frozen into a fine snow in the air. shunka sat upon his haunches and gazed. "wough, this is it!" he said to himself. he had kept still when the game scout gave the wolf call, though the camp was in an uproar, and from the adjacent hills the wild hunters were equally joyous, because they understood the meaning of the unwonted noise. yet his curiosity was not fully satisfied, and he had set out to discover the truth, and it may be to protect or serve his master in case of danger. at daybreak the great dog meekly entered his master's rude teepee, and found him already preparing for the prospective hunt. he was filling his inside moccasins full of buffalo hair to serve as stockings, over which he put on his large buffalo moccasins with the hair inside, and adjusted his warm leggins. he then adjusted his snow-shoes and filled his quiver full of good arrows. the dog quietly lay down in a warm place, making himself as small as possible, as if to escape observation, and calmly watched his master. soon all the hunters were running in single file upon the trail of the scout, each indian closely followed by his trusty hunting dog. in less than two hours they stood just back of the low ridge which rounded the south side of shell lake. the narrow strip of land between its twin divisions was literally filled with the bison. in the gulches beyond, between the dark lines of timber, there were also scattered groups; but the hunters at once saw their advantage over the herd upon the peninsula. "hechetu, kola! this is well, friends!" exclaimed the first to speak. "these can be forced to cross the slippery ice and the mire around the springs. this will help us to get more meat. our people are hungry, and we must kill many in order to feed them!" "ugh, he is always right! our dogs must help us here. the meat will be theirs as well as ours," another added. "tosh, kola! the game scout's dog is the greatest shunka of them all! he has a mind near like that of a man. let him lead the attack of his fellows, while we crawl up on the opposite side and surround the buffalo upon the slippery ice and in the deceitful mire," spoke up a third. so it was agreed that the game scout and his shunka should lead the attack. "woo, woo, woo!" was the hoarse signal from the throat of the game scout; but his voice was drowned by the howling and barking of the savage dogs as they made their charge. in a moment all was confusion among the buffalo. some started this way, others that, and the great mass swayed to and fro uncertainly. a few were ready to fight, but the snow was too deep for a countercharge upon the dogs, save on the ice just in front of them, where the wind had always full sweep. there all was slippery and shining! in their excitement and confusion the bison rushed upon this uncertain plain. their weight and the momentum of their rush carried them hopelessly far out, where they were again confused as to which way to go, and many were stuck in the mire which was concealed by the snow, except here and there an opening above a spring from which there issued a steaming vapor. the game scout and his valiant dog led on the force of canines with deafening war-cries, and one could see black heads here and there popping from behind the embankments. as the herd finally swept toward the opposite shore, many dead were left behind. pierced by the arrows of the hunters, they lay like black mounds upon the glassy plain. it was a great hunt! "once more the camp will be fed," they thought, "and this good fortune will help us to reach the spring alive!" a chant of rejoicing rang out from the opposite shore, while the game scout unsheathed his big knife and began the work which is ever the sequel of the hunt--to dress the game; although the survivors of the slaughter had scarcely disappeared behind the hills. all were busily skinning and cutting up the meat into pieces convenient for carrying, when suddenly a hunter called the attention of those near him to an ominous change in the atmosphere. "there are signs of a blizzard! we must hurry into the near woods before it reaches us!" he shouted. some heard him; others did not. those who saw or heard passed on the signal and hurried toward the wood, where others had already arranged rude shelters and gathered piles of dry wood for fuel. around the several camp-fires the hunters sat or stood, while slices of savory meat were broiled and eaten with a relish by the half-starved men. but the storm had now fairly enveloped them in whirling whiteness. "woo, woo!" they called to those who had not yet reached camp. one after another answered and emerged from the blinding pall of snow. at last none were missing save the game scout and his shunka! the hunters passed the time in eating and telling stories until a late hour, occasionally giving a united shout to guide the lost one should he chance to pass near their camp. "fear not for our scout, friends!" finally exclaimed a leader among them. "he is a brave and experienced man. he will find a safe resting-place, and join us when the wind ceases to rage." so they all wrapped themselves in their robes and lay down to sleep. all that night and the following day it was impossible to give succor, and the hunters felt much concern for the absent. late in the second night the great storm subsided. "ho, ho! iyotanka! rise up!" so the first hunter to awaken aroused all the others. as after every other storm, it was wonderfully still; so still that one could hear distinctly the pounding feet of the jack-rabbits coming down over the slopes to the willows for food. all dry vegetation was buried beneath the deep snow, and everywhere they saw this white-robed creature of the prairie coming down to the woods. now the air was full of the wolf and coyote game call, and they were seen in great numbers upon the ice. "see, see! the hungry wolves are dragging the carcasses away! harken to the war-cries of the scout's shunka! hurry, hurry!" they urged one another in chorus. away they ran and out upon the lake; now upon the wind-swept ice, now upon the crusted snow; running when they could, sliding when they must. there was certainly a great concourse of the wolves, whirling in frantic circles, but continually moving toward the farther end of the lake. they could hear distinctly the hoarse bark of the scout's shunka, and occasionally the muffled war-whoop of a man, as if it came from under the ice. as they approached nearer the scene they could hear more distinctly the voice of their friend, but still as it were from underground. when they reached the spot to which the wolves had dragged two of the carcasses of the buffalo, shunka was seen to stand by one of them, but at that moment he staggered and fell. the hunters took out their knives and ripped up the frozen hide covering the abdominal cavity. it revealed a warm nest of hay and buffalo hair in which the scout lay, wrapped in his own robe! he had placed his dog in one of the carcasses and himself in another for protection from the storm; but the dog was wiser than the man, for he kept his entrance open. the man lapped the hide over and it froze solidly, shutting him securely in. when the hungry wolves came shunka promptly extricated himself and held them off as long as he could; meanwhile, sliding and pulling, the wolves continued to drag over the slippery ice the body of the buffalo in which his master had taken refuge. the poor, faithful dog, with no care for his own safety, stood by his imprisoned master until the hunters came up. but it was too late, for he had received more than one mortal wound. as soon as the scout got out, with a face more anxious for another than for himself, he exclaimed: "where is shunka, the bravest of his tribe?" "ho, kola, it is so, indeed; and here he lies," replied one sadly. his master knelt by his side, gently stroking the face of the dog. "ah, my friend; you go where all spirits live! the great mystery has a home for every living creature. may he permit our meeting there!" at daybreak the scout carried him up to one of the pretty round hills overlooking the lake, and built up around him walls of loose stone. red paints were scattered over the snow, in accordance with indian custom, and the farewell song was sung. since that day the place has been known to the sioux as shunkahanakapi--the grave of the dog. the end glossary of indian words be-day-wah´-kan-ton, lake-dwellers. cha-tan´-na, fourth son. chin´-to, certainly. che-ton´-skah, white hawk. chank-pay´-yu-hah, carries the club. coo´-wah, come here! ha-nah´-kah-pee, grave. he-yu´-pee-yay, come all of you! hay´-chay-tu, it is well. hah-kay´-dah, the last-born. he-nah´-kah-gah, the owl. kah-po´-se-yah, light lodges (a band of sioux). ko´-lah, friend. man-kah´-to, blue earth. mah-to´, bear. mah-to´-sap-ah, black bear. mah-pee´-to-pah, four heavens. me-ne-yah´-tah, beside the water. me-chink´-shee, my son. nak-pah´, ears (of an animal). o-o´-pay-han´-skah, bluebird. o-hit´-e-kah, brave. shun´kah, dog. sna´-na, rattle. shunk-to´-kay-chah, wolf. she-cho´-kah, robin. shun´-kah-skah, white dog. tee´-pee, tent. tak-chah´, deer. to-kee´, well, well! ta-tee´-yo-pah, her door. un-chee´-dah, grand-mother. u-tu´-hu, oak. wa-kan´, holy, wonderful. wah-coo´-tay, shooter. wah-pay´-ton, dweller among the leaves. wah-chee´-win, dancing woman. wee-ko´, beautiful woman. wa-doo´-tah, scarlet. we´-yan-nah, little woman. we-no´-nah, first-born girl. wah-be-day´, orphan. zee-zee´-wee, yellow woman. note: project gutenberg also has an html version of this file which includes the original illustrations. see -h.htm or -h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h/ -h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/ / / / / / -h.zip) transcriber's note: the table of contents is not part of the original book. the story of atlantis & the lost lemuria by w. scott-elliot with six maps the theosophical publishing house ltd great russell street london, w.c. the story of atlantis _first printed_ the lost lemuria _first printed_ contents the story of atlantis the lost lemuria maps the story of atlantis preface. for readers unacquainted with the progress that has been made in recent years by earnest students of occultism attached to the theosophical society, the significance of the statement embodied in the following pages would be misapprehended without some preliminary explanation. historical research has depended for western civilisation hitherto, on written records of one kind or another. when literary memoranda have fallen short, stone monuments have sometimes been available, and fossil remains have given us a few unequivocal, though inarticulate assurances concerning the antiquity of the human race; but modern culture has lost sight of or has overlooked possibilities connected with the investigation of past events, which are independent of fallible evidence transmitted to us by ancient writers. the world at large is thus at present so imperfectly alive to the resources of human faculty, that by most people as yet, the very existence, even as a potentiality, of psychic powers, which some of us all the while are consciously exercising every day, is scornfully denied and derided. the situation is sadly ludicrous from the point of view of those who appreciate the prospects of evolution, because mankind is thus wilfully holding at arm's length, the knowledge that is essential to its own ulterior progress. the maximum cultivation of which the human intellect is susceptible while it denies itself all the resources of its higher spiritual consciousness, can never be more than a preparatory process as compared with that which may set in when the faculties are sufficiently enlarged to enter into conscious relationship with the super-physical planes or aspects of nature. for anyone who will have the patience to study the published results of psychic investigation during the last fifty years, the reality of clairvoyance as an occasional phenomenon of human intelligence must establish itself on an immovable foundation. for those who, without being occultists--students that is to say of nature's loftier aspects, in a position to obtain better teaching than that which any written books can give--for those who merely avail themselves of recorded evidence, a declaration on the part of others of a disbelief in the possibility of clairvoyance, is on a level with the proverbial african's disbelief in ice. but the experiences of clairvoyance that have accumulated on the hands of those who have studied it in connection with mesmerism, do no more than prove the existence in human nature of a capacity for cognizing physical phenomena distant either in space or time, in some way which has nothing to do with the physical senses. those who have studied the mysteries of clairvoyance in connection with theosophic teaching have been enabled to realize that the ultimate resources of that faculty range as far beyond its humbler manifestations, dealt with by unassisted enquirers, as the resources of the higher mathematics exceed those of the abacus. clairvoyance, indeed, is of many kinds, all of which fall easily into their places when we appreciate the manner in which human consciousness functions on different planes of nature. the faculty of reading the pages of a closed book, or of discerning objects blindfold, or at a distance from the observer, is quite a different faculty from that employed on the cognition of past events. that last is the kind of which it is necessary to say something here, in order that the true character of the present treatise on atlantis may be understood, but i allude to the others merely that the explanation i have to give may not be mistaken for a complete theory of clairvoyance in all its varieties. we may best be helped to a comprehension of clairvoyance as related to past events, by considering in the first instance the phenomena of memory. the theory of memory which relates it to an imaginary rearrangement of physical molecules of brain matter, going on at every instant of our lives, is one that presents itself as plausible to no one who can ascend one degree above the thinking level of the uncompromising atheistical materialist. to every one who accepts, as even a reasonable hypothesis, the idea that a man is something more than a carcase in a state of animation, it must be a reasonable hypothesis that memory has to do with that principle in man which is super-physical. his memory in short, is a function of some other than the physical plane. the pictures of memory are imprinted, it is clear, on some non-physical medium, and are accessible to the embodied thinker in ordinary cases by virtue of some effort he makes in as much unconsciousness as to its precise character, as he is unconscious of the brain impulse which actuates the muscles of his heart. the events with which he has had to do in the past are photographed by nature on some imperishable page of super-physical matter, and by making an appropriate interior effort, he is capable of bringing them again, when he requires them, within the area of some interior sense which reflects its perception on the physical brain. we are not all of us able to make this effort equally well, so that memory is sometimes dim, but even in the experience of mesmeric research, the occasional super-excitation of memory under mesmerism is a familiar fact. the circumstances plainly show that the record of nature is accessible if we know how to recover it, or even if our own capacity to make an effort for its recovery is somehow improved without our having an improved knowledge of the method employed. and from this thought we may arrive by an easy transition at the idea, that in truth the records of nature are not separate collections of individual property, but constitute the all-embracing memory of nature herself, on which different people are in a position to make drafts according to their several capacities. i do not say that the one thought necessarily ensues as a logical consequence of the other. occultists know that what i have stated is the fact, but my present purpose is to show the reader who is not an occultist, how the accomplished occultist arrives at his results, without hoping to epitomize all the stages of his mental progress in this brief explanation. theosophical literature at large must be consulted by those who would seek a fuller elucidation of the magnificent prospects and practical demonstrations of its teaching in many directions, which, in the course of the theosophical development, have been laid before the world for the benefit of all who are competent to profit by them. the memory of nature is in reality a stupendous unity, just as in another way all mankind is found to constitute a spiritual unity if we ascend to a sufficiently elevated plane of nature in search of the wonderful convergence where unity is reached without the loss of individuality. for ordinary humanity, however, at the early stage of its evolution represented at present by the majority, the interior spiritual capacities ranging beyond those which the brain is an instrument for expressing, are as yet too imperfectly developed to enable them to get touch with any other records in the vast archives of nature's memory, except those with which they have individually been in contact at their creation. the blindfold interior effort they are competent to make, will not, as a rule, call up any others. but in a flickering fashion we have experience in ordinary life of efforts that are a little more effectual. "thought transference" is a humble example. in that case "impressions on the mind" of one person--nature's memory pictures, with which he is in normal relationship, are caught up by someone else who is just able, however unconscious of the method he uses--to range nature's memory under favourable conditions, a little beyond the area with which he him self is in normal relationship. such a person has begun, however slightly, to exercise the faculty of astral clairvoyance. that term may be conveniently used to denote the kind of clairvoyance i am now endeavouring to elucidate, the kind which, in some of its more magnificent developments, has been employed to carry out the investigations on the basis of which the present account of atlantis has been compiled. there is no limit really to the resources of astral clairvoyance in investigations concerning the past history of the earth, whether we are concerned with the events that have befallen the human race in prehistoric epochs, or with the growth of the planet itself through geological periods which antedated the advent of man, or with more recent events, current narrations of which have been distorted by careless or perverse historians. the memory of nature is infallibly accurate and inexhaustibly minute. a time will come as certainly as the precession of the equinoxes, when the literary method of historical research will be laid aside as out of date, in the case of all original work. people among us who are capable of exercising astral clairvoyance in full perfection--but have not yet been called away to higher functions in connexion with the promotion of human progress, of which ordinary humanity at present knows even less than an indian ryot knows of cabinet councils--are still very few. those who know what the few can do, and through what processes of training and self-discipline they have passed in pursuit of interior ideals, of which when attained astral clairvoyance is but an individual circumstance, are many, but still a small minority as compared with the modern cultivated world. but as time goes on, and within a measurable future, some of us have reason to feel sure that the numbers of those who are competent to exercise astral clairvoyance will increase sufficiently to extend the circle of those who are aware of their capacities, till it comes to embrace all the intelligence and culture of civilised mankind only a few generations hence. meanwhile the present volume is the first that has been put forward as the pioneer essay of the new method of historical research. it is amusing to all who are concerned with it, to think how inevitably it will be mistaken--for some little while as yet, by materialistic readers, unable to accept the frank explanation here given of the principle on which it has been prepared--for a work of imagination. for the benefit of others who may be more intuitive it may be well to say a word or two that may guard them from supposing that because historical research by means of astral clairvoyance is not impeded by having to deal with periods removed from our own by hundreds of thousands of years, it is on that account a process which involves no trouble. every fact stated in the present volume has been picked up bit by bit with watchful and attentive care, in the course of an investigation on which more than one qualified person has been engaged, in the intervals of other activity, for some years past. and to promote the success of their work they have been allowed access to some maps and other records physically preserved from the remote periods concerned--though in safer keeping than in that of the turbulent races occupied in europe with the development of civilisation in brief intervals of leisure from warfare, and hard pressed by the fanaticism that so long treated science as sacrilegious during the middle ages of europe. laborious as the task has been however, it will be recognized as amply repaying the trouble taken, by everyone who is able to perceive how absolutely necessary to a proper comprehension of the world as we find it, is a proper comprehension of its preceding atlantean phase. without this knowledge all speculations concerning ethnology are futile and misleading. the course of race development is chaos and confusion without the key furnished by the character of atlantean civilization and the configuration of the earth at atlantean periods. geologists know that land and ocean surfaces must have repeatedly changed places during the period at which they also know--from the situation of human remains in the various strata--that the lands were inhabited. and yet for want of accurate knowledge as to the dates at which the changes took place, they discard the whole theory from their practical thinking, and except for certain hypotheses started by naturalists dealing with the southern hemisphere, have generally endeavoured to harmonize race migrations with the configuration of the earth in existence at the present time. in this way nonsense is made of the whole retrospect; and the ethnological scheme remains so vague and shadowy that it fails to displace crude conceptions of mankind's beginning which still dominate religious thinking, and keep back the spiritual progress of the age. the decadence and ultimate disappearance of atlantean civilisation is in turn as instructive as its rise and glory; but i have now accomplished the main purpose with which i sought leave to introduce the work now before the world, with a brief prefatory explanation, and if its contents fail to convey a sense of its importance to any listeners i am now addressing, that result could hardly be accomplished by further recommendations of mine. a. p. sinnett. the story of atlantis a geographical, historical and ethnological sketch. the general scope of the subject before us will best be realized by considering the amount of information that is obtainable about the various nations who compose our great fifth or aryan race. from the time of the greeks and the romans onwards volumes have been written about every people who in their turn have filled the stage of history. the political institutions, the religious beliefs, the social and domestic manners and customs have all been analyzed and catalogued, and countless works in many tongues record for our benefit the march of progress. further, it must be remembered that of the history of this fifth race we possess but a fragment--the record merely of the last family races of the keltic sub-race, and the first family races of our own teutonic stock. but the hundreds of thousands of years which elapsed from the time when the earliest aryans left their home on the shores of the central asian sea to the time of the greeks and romans, bore witness to the rise and fall of innumerable civilizations. of the st sub-race of our aryan race who inhabited india and colonial egypt in prehistoric times we know practically nothing, and the same may be said of the chaldean, babylonian, and assyrian nations who composed the nd sub-race--for the fragments of knowledge obtained from the recently deciphered hieroglyphs or cuneiform inscriptions on egyptian tombs or babylonian tablets can scarcely be said to constitute history. the persians who belonged to the rd or iranian sub-race have it is true, left a few more traces, but of the earlier civilizations of the keltic or th sub-race we have no records at all. it is only with the rise of the last family shoots of this keltic stock, _viz._, the greek and roman peoples, that we come upon historic times. in addition also to the blank period in the past, there is the blank period in the future. for of the seven sub-races required to complete the history of a great root race, five only have so far come into existence. our own teutonic or th sub-race has already developed many nations, but has not yet run its course, while the th and th sub-races, who will be developed on the continents of north and south america, will have thousands of years of history to give to the world. in attempting, therefore, to summarize in a few pages information about the world's progress during a period which must have occupied at least as great a stretch of years as that above referred to, it must be realized how slight a sketch this must inevitably be. a record of the world's progress during the period of the fourth or atlantean race must embrace the history of many nations, and register the rise and fall of many civilizations. catastrophes, too, on a scale such as have not yet been experienced during the life of our present fifth race, took place on more than one occasion during the progress of the fourth. the destruction of atlantis was accomplished by a series of catastrophes varying in character from great cataclysms in which whole territories and populations perished, to comparatively unimportant landslips such as occur on our own coasts to-day. when the destruction was once inaugurated by the first great catastrophe there was no intermission of the minor landslips which continued slowly but steadily to eat away the continent. four of the great catastrophes stand out above the rest in magnitude. the first took place in the miocene age, about , years ago. the second, which was of minor importance, occurred about , years ago. the third--about , years ago--was a very great one. it destroyed all that remained of the atlantean continent, with the exception of the island to which plato gave the name of poseidonis, which in its turn was submerged in the fourth and final great catastrophe of , b.c. now the testimony of the oldest writers and of modern scientific research alike bear witness to the existence of an ancient continent occupying the site of the lost atlantis. before proceeding to the consideration of the subject itself, it is proposed cursorily to glance at the generally known sources which supply corroborative evidence. these may be grouped into the five following classes: first, the testimony of the deep-sea soundings. second, the distribution of fauna and flora. third, the similarity of language and of ethnological type. fourth, the similarity of religious belief, ritual, and architecture. fifth, the testimony of ancient writers, of early race traditions, and of archaic flood-legends. in the first place, then, the testimony of the deep-sea soundings may be summarized in a few words. thanks chiefly to the expeditions of the british and american gunboats, "challenger" and "dolphin" (though germany also was associated in this scientific exploration) the bed of the whole atlantic ocean is now mapped out, with the result that an immense bank or ridge of great elevation is shewn to exist in mid-atlantic. this ridge stretches in a south-westerly direction from about fifty degrees north towards the coast of south america, then in a south-easterly direction towards the coast of africa, changing its direction again about ascension island, and running due south to tristan d'acunha. the ridge rises almost sheer about , feet from the ocean depths around it, while the azores, st. paul, ascension, and tristan d'acunha are the peaks of this land which still remain above water. a line of , fathoms, or say, , feet, is required to sound the deepest parts of the atlantic, but the higher parts of the ridge are only a hundred to a few hundred fathoms beneath the sea. the soundings too showed that the ridge is covered with volcanic _débris_ of which traces are to be found right across the ocean to the american coasts. indeed the fact that the ocean bed, particularly about the azores, has been the scene of volcanic disturbance on a gigantic scale, and that within a quite measurable period of geologic time, is conclusively proved by the investigations made during the above named expeditions. mr. starkie gardner is of opinion that in the eocene times the british islands formed part of a larger island or continent stretching into the atlantic, and "that a great tract of land formerly existed where the sea now is, and that cornwall, the scilly and channel islands, ireland and brittany are the remains of its highest summits" (_pop. sc. review_, july, ). _second._--the proved existence on continents separated by great oceans of similar or identical species of fauna and flora is the standing puzzle to biologists and botanists alike. but if a link between these continents once existed allowing for the natural migration of such animals and plants, the puzzle is solved. now the fossil remains of the camel are found in india, africa, south america and kansas: but it is one of the generally accepted hypotheses of naturalists that every species of animal and plant originated in but one part of the globe, from which centre it gradually overran the other portions. how then can the facts of such fossil remains be accounted for without the existence of land communication in some remote age? recent discoveries in the fossil beds of nebraska seem also to prove that the horse originated in the western hemisphere, for that is the only part of the world where fossil remains have been discovered, showing the various intermediate forms which have been identified as the precursors of the true horse. it would therefore be difficult to account for the presence of the horse in europe except on the hypothesis of continuous land communication between the two continents, seeing that it is certain that the horse existed in a wild state in europe and asia before his domestication by man, which may be traced back almost to the stone age. cattle and sheep as we now know them have an equally remote ancestry. darwin finds domesticated cattle in europe in the earliest part of the stone age, having long before developed out of wild forms akin to the buffalo of america. remains of the cave-lion of europe are also found in north america. turning now from the animal to the vegetable kingdom it appears that the greater part of the flora of the miocene age in europe--found chiefly in the fossil beds of switzerland--exist at the present day in america, some of them in africa. but the noteworthy fact about america is that while the greater proportion are to be found in the eastern states, very many are wanting on the pacific coast. this seems to show that it was from the atlantic side that they entered the continent. professor asa gray says that out of genera and species found in the forest east of the rocky mountains, only genera and species are found west of these heights. but the greatest problem of all is the plantain or banana. professor kuntze, an eminent german botanist, asks, "in what way was this plant" (a native of tropical asia and africa) "which cannot stand a voyage through the temperate zone, carried to america?" as he points out, the plant is seedless, it cannot be propagated by cuttings, neither has it a tuber which could be easily transported. its root is tree-like. to transport it special care would be required, nor could it stand a long transit. the only way in which he can account for its appearance in america is to suppose that it must have been transported by civilized man at a time when the polar regions had a tropical climate! he adds, "a cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have been under culture for a _very long period_ ... it is perhaps fair to infer that these plants were cultivated as early as the beginning of the diluvial period." why, it may be asked, should not this inference take us back to still earlier times, and where did the civilization necessary for the plant's cultivation exist, or the climate and circumstances requisite for its transportation, unless there were at some time a link between the old world and the new? professor wallace in his delightful _island life_ as well as other writers in many important works, have put forward ingenious hypotheses to account for the identity of flora and fauna on widely separated lands, and for their transit across the ocean, but all are unconvincing, and all break down at different points. it is well known that wheat as we know it has never existed in a truly wild state, nor is there any evidence tracing its descent from fossil species. five varieties of wheat were _already cultivated_ in europe in the stone age--one variety found in the "lake dwellings" being known as egyptian wheat, from which darwin argues that the lake dwellers "either still kept up commercial intercourse with some southern people, or had originally proceeded as colonists from the south." he concludes that wheat, barley, oats, etc., are descended from various _species now extinct_, or so widely different as to escape identification in which case he says: "man must have cultivated cereals from an enormously remote period." the regions where these extinct species flourished, and the civilization under which they were cultivated by intelligent selection, are both supplied by the lost continent whose colonists carried them east and west. _third._--from the fauna and flora we now turn to man. _language._--the basque language stands alone amongst european tongues, having affinity with none of them. according to farrar, "there never has been any doubt that this isolated language, preserving its identity in a western corner of europe, between two mighty kingdoms, resembles in its structure the aboriginal languages of the vast opposite continent (america) and those alone" (_families of speech_, p. ). the phoenicians apparently were the first nation in the eastern hemisphere to use a phonetic alphabet, the characters being regarded as mere signs for sounds. it is a curious fact that at an equally early date we find a phonetic alphabet in central america amongst the mayas of yucatan, whose traditions ascribe the origin of their civilization to a land across the sea to the east. le plongeon, the great authority on this subject, writes: "one-third of this tongue (the maya) is pure greek. who brought the dialect of homer to america? or who took to greece that of the mayas? greek is the off-spring of the sanscrit. is maya? or are they coeval?" still more surprising is it to find thirteen letters out of the maya alphabet bearing most distinct relation to the egyptian hieroglyphic signs for the same letters. it is probable that the earliest form of alphabet was hieroglyphic, "the writing of the gods," as the egyptians called it, and that it developed later in atlantis into the phonetic. it would be natural to assume that the egyptians were an early colony from atlantis (as they actually were) and that they carried away with them the primitive type of writing which has thus left its traces on both hemispheres, while the phoenicians, who were a sea-going people, obtained and assimilated the later form of alphabet during their trading voyages with the people of the west. one more point may be noticed, _viz._, the extraordinary resemblance between many words in the hebrew language and words bearing precisely the same meaning in the tongue of the chiapenecs--a branch of the maya race, and amongst the most ancient in central america. a list of these words is given in _north americans of antiquity_, p. . the similarity of language among the various savages races of the pacific islands has been used as an argument by writers on this subject. the existence of similar languages among races separated by leagues of ocean, across which in historic time they are known to have had no means of transport, is certainly an argument in favour of their descent from a single race occupying a single continent, but the argument cannot be used here, for the continent in question was not atlantis, but the still earlier lemuria. _ethnological types._--atlantis as we shall see is said to have been inhabited by red, yellow, white and black races. it is now proved by the researches of le plongeon, de quatrefages, bancroft and others that black populations of negroid type existed even up to recent times in america. many of the monuments of central america are decorated with negro faces, and some of the idols found there are clearly intended to represent negros, with small skulls, short woolly hair and thick lips. the popul vuh, speaking of the first home of the guatemalan race, says that "black and white men together" lived in this happy land "in great peace," speaking "one language." (see bancroft's _native races_, p. .) the popul vuh goes on to relate how the people migrated from their ancestral home, how their language _became altered_, and how some went to the east, while other travelled west (to central america). professor retzius, in his _smithsonian report_, considers that the primitive dolichocephalæ of america are nearly related to the guanches of the canary islands, and to the population on the atlantic seaboard of africa, which latham comprises under the name of egyptian-atlantidæ. the same form of skull is found in the canary islands off the african coast and the carib islands off the american coast, while the colour of the skin in both is that of a reddish-brown. the ancient egyptians depicted themselves as red men of much the same complexion as exists to-day among some tribes of american indians. "the ancient peruvians," says short, "appear from numerous examples of hair found in their tombs to have been an auburn-haired race." a remarkable fact about the american indians, and one which is a standing puzzle to ethnologists, is the wide range of colour and complexion to be found among them. from the white tint of the menominee, dakota, mandan and zuni tribes, many of whom have auburn hair and blue eyes, to the almost negro blackness of the karos of kansas and the now extinct tribes of california, the indian races run through every shade of red-brown, copper, olive, cinnamon, and bronze. (see short's _north americans of antiquity_, winchell's _pre-adamites_, and catlin's _indians of north america_; see also _atlantis_, by ignatius donnelly who has collected a great mass of evidence under this and other heads.) we shall see by and by how the diversity of complexion on the american continent is accounted for by the original race-tints on the parent continent of atlantis. _fourth._--nothing seems to have surprised the first spanish adventurers in mexico and peru more than the extraordinary similarity to those of the old world, of the religious beliefs, rites, and emblems which they found established in the new. the spanish priests regarded this similarity as the work of the devil. the worship of the cross by the natives, and its constant presence in all religious buildings and ceremonies, was the principal subject of their amazement; and indeed nowhere--not even in india and egypt--was this symbol held in more profound veneration than amongst the primitive tribes of the american continents, while the meaning underlying its worship was identical. in the west, as in the east, the cross was the symbol of life--sometimes of life physical, more often of life eternal. in like manner in both hemispheres the worship of the sun-disk or circle, and of the serpent, was universal, and more surprising still is the similarity of the word signifying "god" in the principal languages of east and west. compare the sanscrit "dyaus" or "dyaus-pitar," the greek "theos" and zeus, the latin "deus" and "jupiter," the keltic "dia" and "ta," pronounced "thyah" (seeming to bear affinity to the egyptian tau), the jewish "jah" or "yah" and lastly the mexican "teo" or "zeo." baptismal rites were practised by all nations. in babylon and egypt the candidates for initiation into the mysteries were first baptized. tertullian in his _de baptismo_ says that they were promised in consequence "regeneration and the pardon of all their perjuries." the scandinavian nations practised baptism of new-born children; and when we turn to mexico and peru we find infant baptism there as a solemn ceremonial, consisting of water sprinkling, the sign of the cross, and prayers for the washing away of sin (see humboldt's _mexican researches_ and prescott's _mexico_). in addition to baptism, the tribes of mexico, central america and peru resembled the nations of the old world in their rites of confession, absolution, fasting, and marriage before priests by joining hands. they had even a ceremony resembling the eucharist, in which cakes marked with the tau (an egyptian form of cross) were eaten, the people calling them the flesh of their god. these exactly resemble the sacred cakes of egypt and other eastern nations. like these nations too, the people of the new world had monastic orders, male and female, in which broken vows were punished with death. like the egyptians they embalmed their dead, they worshipped sun, moon, and planets, but over and above these adored a deity "omnipresent, who knoweth all things ... invisible, incorporeal, one god of perfect perfection" (see sahagun's _historia de nueva espâna_, lib. vi.). they too had their virgin-mother goddess, "our lady" whose son, the "lord of light," was called the "saviour," bearing an accurate correspondence to isis, beltis and the many other virgin-goddesses of the east with their divine sons. their rites of sun and fire worship closely resembled those of the early kelts of britain and ireland, and like the latter they claimed to be the "children of the sun." an ark or argha was one of the universal sacred symbols which we find alike in india, chaldea, assyria, egypt, greece and amongst the keltic peoples. lord kingsborough in his _mexican antiquities_ (vol. viii. p. ) says: "as among the jews the ark was a sort of portable temple in which the deity was supposed to be continually present, so among the mexicans, the cherokees and the indians of michoacan and honduras, an ark was held in the highest veneration and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests." as to religious architecture, we find on both sides of the atlantic that one of the earliest sacred buildings is the pyramid. doubtful as are the uses for which these structures were originally intended, one thing is clear, that they were closely connected with some religious idea or group of ideas. the identity of design in the pyramids of egypt and those of mexico and central america is too striking to be a mere coincidence. true some--the greater number--of the american pyramids are of the truncated or flattened form, yet according to bancroft and others, many of those found in yucatan, and notably those near palenque, are pointed at the top in true egyptian fashion, while on the other hand we have some of the egyptian pyramids of the stepped and flattened type. cholula has been compared to the groups of dachour, sakkara and the step pyramid of médourn. alike in orientation, in structure, and even in their internal galleries and chambers, these mysterious monuments of the east and of the west stand as witnesses to some common source whence their builders drew their plan. the vast remains of cities and temples in mexico and yucatan also strangely resemble those of egypt, the ruins of teotihuacan having frequently been compared to those of karnak. the "false arch"--horizontal courses of stone, each slightly overlapping the other--is found to be identical in central america, in the oldest buildings of greece, and in etruscan remains. the mound builders of both eastern and western continents formed similar tumuli over their dead, and laid the bodies in similar stone coffins. both continents have their great serpent-mounds; compare that of adams co., ohio, with the fine serpent-mound discovered in argyleshire, or the less perfect specimen at avebury in wilts. the very carving and decoration of the temples of america, egypt and india have much in common, while some of the mural decorations are absolutely identical. _fifth._--it only remains now to summarize some of the evidence obtainable from ancient writers, from early race traditions, and from archaic flood-legends. aelian in his _varia historia_ (lib. iii. ch. xviii.), states that theopompus ( b.c.) recorded an interview between the king of phrygia and silenus, in which the latter referred to the existence of a great continent beyond the atlantic, larger than asia, europe and libya together. proclus quotes an extract from an ancient writer who refers to the islands in the sea beyond the pillars of hercules (straits of gibraltar), and says that the inhabitants of one of these islands had a tradition from their ancestors of an extremely large island called atlantis, which for a long time ruled over all the islands of the atlantic ocean. marcellus speaks of seven islands in the atlantic, and states that their inhabitants preserve the memory of a much greater island, atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones." diodorus siculus relates that the phoenicians discovered "a large island in the atlantic ocean beyond the pillars of hercules several days' sail from the coast of africa." but the greatest authority on this subject is plato. in the _timæus_ he refers to the island continent, while the _critias_ or _atlanticus_ is nothing less than a detailed account of the history, arts, manners and customs of the people. in the _timæus_ he refers to "a mighty warlike power, rushing from the atlantic sea and spreading itself with hostile fury over all europe and asia. for at that time the atlantic sea was navigable and had an island before that mouth which is called by you the pillars of hercules. but this island was greater than both libya and all asia together, and afforded an easy passage to other neighbouring islands, as it was likewise easy to pass from those islands to all the continents which border on this atlantic sea." there is so much of value in the _critias_ that it is not easy to choose, but the following extract is given, as it bears on the material resources of the country: "they had likewise everything provided for them which both in a city and every other place is sought after as useful for the purposes of life. and they were supplied indeed with many things from foreign countries, on account of their extensive empire; but the island afforded them the greater part of everything of which they stood in need. in the first place the island supplied them with such things as are dug out of mines in a solid state, and with such as are melted: and orichalcum, which is now but seldom mentioned, but then was much celebrated, was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and was considered as the most honourable of all metals except gold. whatever, too, the woods afforded for builders the island produced in abundance. there were likewise sufficient pastures there for tame and savage animals; together with a prodigious number of elephants. for there were pastures for all such animals as are fed in lakes and rivers, on mountains and in plains. and in like manner there was sufficient aliment for the largest and most voracious kind of animals. besides this, whatever of odoriferous the earth nourishes at present, whether roots, or grass, or wood, or juices, or gums, flowers or fruits--these the island produced and produced them well." the gauls possessed traditions of atlantis which were collected by the roman historian, timagenes, who lived in the first century, b.c. three distinct peoples apparently dwelt in gaul. first, the indigenous population (probably the remains of a lemurian race), second, the invaders from the distant island of atlantis, and third, the aryan gauls (see _pre-adamites_, p. ). the toltecs of mexico traced themselves back to a starting-point called atlan or aztlan; the aztecs also claimed to come from aztlan (see bancroft's _native races_, vol. v. pp. and ). the popul vuh (p. ) speaks of a visit paid by three sons of the king of the quiches to a land "in the east on the shores of the sea whence their fathers had come," from which they brought back amongst other things "a system of writing" (see also bancroft, vol. v. p. ). amongst the indians of north america there is a very general legend that their forefathers came from a land "toward the sun-rising." the iowa and dakota indians, according to major j. lind, believed that "all the tribes of indians were formerly one and dwelt together _on an island_ ... towards the sunrise." they crossed the sea from thence "in huge skiffs in which the dakotas of old floated for weeks, finally gaining dry land." the central american books state that a part of the american continent extended far into the atlantic ocean, and that this region was destroyed by a series of frightful cataclysms at long intervals apart. _three_ of these are frequently referred to (see baldwin's _ancient america_, p. ). it is a curious confirmation that the kelts of britain had a legend that part of _their_ country once extended far into the atlantic and was destroyed. three catastrophes are mentioned in the welsh traditions. quetzalcoatl, the mexican deity, is said to have come from "the distant east." he is described as a white man with a flowing beard. (n.b.--the indians of north and south america are beardless.) he originated letters and regulated the mexican calendar. after having taught them many peaceful arts and lessons he sailed away _to the east_ in a canoe of serpent skins (see short's _north americans of antiquity_, pp. - ). the same story is told of zamna, the author of civilization in yucatan. the marvellous uniformity of the flood legends on all parts of the globe, alone remains to be dealt with. whether these are some archaic versions of the story of the lost atlantis and its submergence, or whether they are echoes of a great cosmic parable once taught and held in reverence in some common centre whence they have reverberated throughout the world, does not immediately concern us. sufficient for our purpose is it to show the universal acceptation of these legends. it would be needless waste of time and space to go over these flood stories one by one. suffice it to say, that in india, chaldea, babylon, media, greece, scandinavia, china, amongst the jews and amongst the keltic tribes of britain, the legend is absolutely identical in all essentials. now turn to the west and what do we find? the same story in its every detail preserved amongst the mexicans (each tribe having its own version), the people of guatemala, honduras, peru, and almost every tribe of north american indians. it is puerile to suggest that mere coincidence can account for this fundamental identity. the following quotation from le plongeon's translation of the famous troano ms., which may be seen in the british museum, will appropriately bring this part of the subject to a close. the troano ms. appears to have been written about , years ago, among the mayas of yucatan, and the following is its description of the catastrophe that submerged the island of poseidonis:--"in the year kan, on the th muluc in the month zac, there occurred terrible earthquakes, which continued without interruption until the th chuen. the country of the hills of mud, the land of mu was sacrificed: being twice upheaved it suddenly disappeared during the night, the basin being continually shaken by volcanic forces. being confined, these caused the land to sink and to rise several times and in various places. at last the surface gave way and ten countries were torn asunder and scattered. unable to stand the force of the convulsions, they sank with their , , of inhabitants years before the writing of this book." but enough space has now been devoted to the fragments of evidence--all more or less convincing--which the world so far has been in possession of. those interested in pursuing any special line of investigation are referred to the various works above named or quoted. the subject in hand must now be dealt with. drawn as they have been from contemporary records which were compiled in and handed down through the ages we have to deal with, the facts here collected are based upon no assumption or conjecture. the writer may have failed fully to comprehend the facts, and so may have partially misstated them. but the original records are open for investigation to the duly qualified, and those who are disposed to undertake the necessary training may obtain the powers to check and verify. but even were _all_ the occult records open to our inspection, it should be realized how fragmentary must be the sketch that attempts to summarize in a few pages the history of races and of nations extending over at least many hundreds of thousands of years. however, any details on such a subject--disconnected though they are--must be new, and should therefore be interesting to the world at large. among the records above referred to there are maps of the world at various periods of its history, and it has been the great privilege of the writer to be allowed to obtain copies--more or less complete--of four of these. all four represent atlantis and the surrounding lands at different epochs of their history. these epochs correspond approximately with the periods that lay between the catastrophes referred to above, and into the periods thus represented by the four maps the records of the atlantean race will naturally group themselves. before beginning the history of the race, however, a few remarks may be made about the geography of the four different epochs. the first map represents the land surface of the earth as it existed about a million years ago, when the atlantean race was at its height, and before the first great submergence took place about , years ago. the continent of atlantis itself, it will be observed, extended from a point a few degrees east of iceland to about the site now occupied by rio de janeiro, in south america. embracing texas and the gulf of mexico, the southern and eastern states of america, up to and including labrador, it stretched across the ocean to our own islands--scotland and ireland, and a small portion of the north of england forming one of its promontories--while its equatorial lands embraced brazil and the whole stretch of ocean to the african gold coast. scattered fragments of what eventually became the continents of europe, africa and america, as well as remains of the still older, and once wide-spread continent of lemuria, are also shown on this map. the remains of the still older hyperborean continent which was inhabited by the second root race, are also given, and like lemuria, coloured blue. as will be seen from the second map the catastrophe of , years ago caused very great changes in the land distribution of the globe. the great continent is now shorn of its northern regions, and its remaining portion has been still further rent. the now growing american continent is separated by a chasm from its parent continent of atlantis, and this no longer comprises any of the lands now existing, but occupies the bulk of the atlantic basin from about ° north to a few degrees south of the equator. the subsidences and upheavals in other parts of the world have also been considerable--the british islands for example, now being part of a huge island which also embraces the scandinavian peninsula, the north of france, and all the intervening and some of the surrounding seas. the dimensions of the remains of lemuria it will be observed, have been further curtailed, while europe, africa and america have received accretions of territory. the third map shows the results of the catastrophe which took place about , years ago. with the exception of the rents in the continents both of atlantis and america, and the submergence of egypt, it will be seen how relatively unimportant were the subsidences and upheavals at this epoch, indeed the fact that this catastrophe has not always been considered as one of the great ones, is apparent from the quotation already given from the sacred book of the guatemalans--three great ones only being there mentioned. the scandinavian island however, appears now as joined to the mainland. the two islands into which atlantis was now split were known by the names of ruta and daitya. the stupendous character of the natural convulsion that took place about , years ago, will be apparent from the fourth map. daitya, the smaller and more southerly of the islands, has almost entirely disappeared, while of ruta there only remains the relatively small island of poseidonis. this map was compiled about , years ago, and it no doubt fairly represents the land surface of the earth from that period onwards till the final submergence of poseidonis in b.c., though during that period minor changes must have taken place. it will be noted that the land outlines had then begun to assume roughly the same appearance they do to-day, though the british islands were still joined to the european continent, while the baltic sea was non-existent, and the sahara desert then formed part of the ocean floor. * * * * * some reference to the very mystical subject of the manus is a necessary preliminary to the consideration of the origin of a root race. in transaction no. , of the london lodge, reference was made to the work done by these very exalted beings, which embraces not only the planning of the types of the whole manvantara, but the superintending the formation and education of each root race in turn. the following quotation refers to these arrangements: "there are also manus whose duty it is to act in a similar way for each root race on each planet of the round, the seed manu planning the improvement in type which each successive root race inaugurates and the root manu actually incarnating amongst the new race as a leader and teacher to direct the development and ensure the improvement." the way in which the necessary segregation of the picked specimens is effected by the manu in charge, and his subsequent care of the growing community, may be dealt with in a future transaction. the merest reference to the mode of procedure is all that is necessary here. it was of course from one of the sub-races of the third root race on the continent which is spoken of as lemuria, that the segregation was effected which was destined to produce the fourth root race. following where necessary the history of the race through the four periods represented by the four maps, it is proposed to divide the subject under the following headings: . origin and territorial location of the different sub-races. . the political institutions they respectively evolved. . their emigrations to other parts of the world. . the arts and sciences they developed. . the manners and customs they adopted. . the rise and decline amongst them of religious ideas. the names of the different sub-races must first be given-- . rmoahal. . tlavatli. . toltec. . first turanian. . original semite. . akkadian. . mongolian. some explanation is necessary as to the principle on which these names are chosen. wherever modern ethnologists have discovered traces of one of these sub-races, or even identified a small part of one, the name they have given to it is used for the sake of simplicity, but in the case of the first two sub-races there are hardly any traces left for science to seize upon, so the names by which they called themselves have been adopted. now the period represented by map no. shows the land surface of the earth as it existed about one million years ago, but the rmoahal race came into existence between four and five million years ago, at which period large portions of the great southern continent of lemuria still existed, while the continent of atlantis had not assumed the proportions it ultimately attained. it was upon a spur of this lemurian land that the rmoahal race was born. roughly it may be located at latitude ° north and longitude ° west, which a reference to any modern atlas will show to lie on the ashanti coast of to-day. it was a hot, moist country, where huge antediluvian animals lived in reedy swamps and dank forests. the fossil remains of such plants are to-day found in the coal measures. the rmoahals were a dark race--their complexion being a sort of mahogany black. their height in these early days was about ten or twelve feet--truly a race of giants--but through the centuries their stature gradually dwindled, as did that of all the races in turn, and later on we shall find they had shrunk to the stature of the "furfooz man." they ultimately migrated to the southern shores of atlantis, where they were engaged in constant warfare with the sixth and seventh sub-races of the lemurians then inhabiting that country. a large part of the tribe eventually moved north, while the remainder settled down and intermarried with these black lemurian aborigines. the result was that at the period we are dealing with--the first map period--there was no pure blood left in the south, and as we shall see it was from these dark races who inhabited the equatorial provinces, and the extreme south of the continent, that the toltec conquerors subsequently drew their supplies of slaves. the remainder of the race, however, reached the extreme north-eastern promontories contiguous with iceland, and dwelling there for untold generations, they gradually became lighter in colour, until at the date of the first map period we find them a tolerably fair people. their descendants eventually became subject, at least nominally, to the semite kings. that they dwelt there for untold generations is not meant to imply that their occupation was unbroken, for stress of circumstances at intervals of time drove them south. the cold of the glacial epochs of course operated alike with the other races, but the few words to be said on this subject may as well come in here. without going into the question of the different rotations which this earth performs, or the varying degrees of eccentricity of its orbit, a combination of which is sometimes held to be the cause of the glacial epochs, it is a fact--and one already recognized by some astronomers--that a minor glacial epoch occurs about every , years. but in addition to these there were two occasions in the history of atlantis when the ice-belt desolated not merely the northern regions, but, invading the bulk of the continent, forced all life to migrate to equatorial lands. the first of these was in process during the rmoahal days, about , , years ago, while the second took place in the toltec ascendency about , years ago. with reference to all glacial epochs it should be stated that though the inhabitants of northern lands were forced to settle during the winter far south of the ice-belt, there yet were great districts to which in summer they could return, and where for the sake of the hunting they encamped until driven south again by the winter cold. the place of origin of the tlavatli or nd sub-race was an island off the west coast of atlantis. the spot is marked on the st map with the figure . thence they spread into atlantis proper, chiefly across the middle of the continent, gradually however tending northwards towards the stretch of coast facing the promontory of greenland. physically they were a powerful and hardy race of a red-brown colour, but they were not quite so tall as the rmoahals whom they drove still further north. they were always a mountain-loving people, and their chief settlements were in the mountainous districts of the interior, which a comparison of maps, and will show to be approximately conterminous with what ultimately became the island of poseidonis. at this first map period they also--as just stated--peopled the northern coasts, whilst a mixture of tlavatli and toltec race inhabited the western islands, which subsequently formed part of the american continent. we now come to the toltec or rd sub-race. this was a magnificent development. it ruled the whole continent of atlantis for thousands of years in great material power and glory. indeed so dominant and so endowed with vitality was this race that intermarriages with the following sub-races failed to modify the type, which still remained essentially toltec; and hundreds of thousands of years later we find one of their remote family races ruling magnificently in mexico and peru, long ages before their degenerate descendants were conquered by the fiercer aztec tribes from the north. the complexion of this race was also a red-brown, but they were redder or more copper-coloured than the tlavatli. they also were a tall race, averaging about eight feet during the period of their ascendency, but of course dwindling, as all races did, to the dimensions that are common to-day. the type was an improvement on the two previous sub-races, the features being straight and well marked, not unlike the ancient greek. the approximate birthplace of this race may be seen, marked with the figure , on the first map. it lay near the west coast of atlantis about latitude ° north, and the whole of the surrounding country, embracing the bulk of the west coast of the continent, was peopled with a pure toltec race. but as we shall see when dealing with the political organization, their territory eventually extended right across the continent, and it was from their great capital on the eastern coast that the toltec emperors held their almost world-wide sway. these first three sub-races are spoken of as the "red races," between whom and the four following there was not at first much mixture of blood. these four, though differing considerably from each other, have been called "yellow," and this colour may appropriately define the complexion of the turanian and mongolian, but the semite and akkadian were comparatively white. the turanian or th sub-race had their origin on the eastern side of the continent, south of the mountainous district inhabited by the tlavatli people. this spot is marked on map no. . the turanians were colonists from the earliest days, and great numbers migrated to the lands lying to the east of atlantis. they were never a thoroughly dominant race on the mother-continent, though some of their tribes and family races became fairly powerful. the great central regions of the continent lying west and south of the tlavatli mountainous district was their special though not their exclusive home, for they shared these lands with the toltecs. the curious political and social experiments made by this sub-race will be dealt with later on. as regards the original semite or th sub-race ethnologists have been somewhat confused, as indeed it is extremely natural they should be considering the very insufficient data they have to go upon. this sub-race had its origin in the mountainous country which formed the more southerly of the two north-eastern peninsulas which, as we have seen, is now represented by scotland, ireland, and some of the surrounding seas. the site is marked in map no. . in this least desirable portion of the great continent the race grew and flourished, for centuries maintaining its independence against aggressive southern kings, till the time came for it in turn to spread abroad and colonize. it must be remembered that by the time the semites rose to power hundreds of thousands of years had passed and the nd map period had been reached. they were a turbulent, discontented race, always at war with their neighbours, especially with the then growing power of the akkadians. the birthplace of the akkadian or th sub-race will be found on map no. (marked there with the figure ), for it was after the great catastrophe of , years ago that this race first came into existence. it took its rise in the land east of atlantis, about the middle of the great peninsula whose south-eastern extremity stretched out towards the old continent. the spot may be located approximately at latitude ° north and longitude ° east. they did not for long, however, confine themselves to the land of their birth, but overran the now diminished continent of atlantis. they fought with the semites in many battles both on land and sea, and very considerable fleets were used on both sides. finally about , years ago they completely vanquished the semites, and from that time onwards an akkadian dynasty was set up in the old semite capital, and ruled the country wisely for several hundred years. they were a great trading, sea-going, and colonizing people, and they established many centres of communication with distant lands. the mongolian or th sub-race seems to be the only one that had absolutely no touch with the mother-continent. having its origin on the plains of tartary (marked no. on the second map) at about latitude ° north and longitude ° east, it was directly developed from descendants of the turanian race, which it gradually supplanted over the greater part of asia. this sub-race multiplied exceedingly, and even at the present day a majority of the earth's inhabitants technically belong to it, though many of its divisions are so deeply coloured with the blood of earlier races as to be scarcely distinguishable from them. _political institutions._--in such a summary as this it would be impossible to describe how each sub-race was further sub-divided into nations, each having its distinct type and characteristics. all that can be here attempted is to sketch in broad outline the varying political institutions throughout the great epochs of the race. while recognizing that each sub-race as well as each root race is destined to stand in some respects at a higher level than the one before it, the cyclic nature of the development must be recognized as leading the race like the man through the various phases of infancy, youth, and manhood back to the infancy of old age again. evolution necessarily means ultimate progress, even though the turning back of its ascending spiral may seem to make the history of politics or of religion a record not merely of development and progress but also of degradation and decay. in making the statement therefore that the st sub-race started under the most perfect government conceivable, it must be understood that this was owing to the necessities of their childhood, not to the merits of their matured manhood. for the rmoahals were incapable of developing any plan of settled government, nor did they ever reach even as high a point of civilization as the th and th lemurian sub-races. but the manu who effected the segregation actually incarnated in the race and ruled it as king. even when he no longer took visible part in the government of the race, adept or divine rulers were, when the times required it, still provided for the infant community. as students of theosophy know, our humanity had not then reached the stage of development necessary to produce fully initiated adepts. the rulers above referred to, including the manu himself, were therefore necessarily the product of evolution on other systems of worlds. the tlavatli people showed some signs of advance in the art of government. their various tribes or nations were ruled by chiefs or kings who generally received their authority by acclamation of the people. naturally the most powerful individuals and greatest warriors were so chosen. a considerable empire was eventually established among them, in which one king became the nominal head, but his suzerainty consisted rather in titular honour than in actual authority. it was the toltec race who developed the highest civilization and organized the most powerful empire of any of the atlantean peoples, and it was then that the principle of hereditary succession was for the first time established. the race was at first divided into a number of petty independent kingdoms, constantly at war with each other, and all at war with the lemurio-rmoahals of the south. these were gradually conquered and made subject peoples--many of their tribes being reduced to slavery. about one million years ago, however, these separate kingdoms united in a great federation with a recognized emperor at its head. this was of course inaugurated by great wars, but the outcome was peace and prosperity for the race. it must be remembered that humanity was still for the most part possessed of psychic attributes, and by this time the most advanced had undergone the necessary training in the occult schools, and had attained various stages of initiation--some even reaching to adeptship. now the second of these emperors was an adept, and for thousands of years the divine dynasty ruled not only all the kingdoms into which atlantis was divided but the islands on the west and the southern portion of the adjacent land lying to the east. when necessary, this dynasty was recruited from the lodge of initiates, but as a rule the power was handed down from father to son, all being more or less qualified, and the son in some cases receiving a further degree at the hands of his father. during all this period these initiate rulers retained connection with the occult hierarchy which governs the world, submitting to its laws, and acting in harmony with its plans. this was the golden age of the toltec race. the government was just and beneficent; the arts and sciences were cultivated--indeed the workers in these fields, guided as they were by occult knowledge, achieved tremendous results; religious belief and ritual was still comparatively pure--in fact the civilization of atlantis had by this time reached its height. after about , years of this golden age the degeneracy and decay of the race set in. many of the tributary kings, and large numbers of the priests and people ceased to use their faculties and powers in accordance with the laws made by their divine rulers, whose precepts and advice were now disregarded. their connection with the occult hierarchy was broken. personal aggrandisement, the attainment of wealth and authority, the humiliation and ruin of their enemies became more and more the objects towards which their occult powers were directed: and thus turned from their lawful use, and practised for all sorts of selfish and malevolent purposes, they inevitably led to what we must call by the name of sorcery. surrounded as this word is with the odium which credulity on the one hand and imposture on the other have during many centuries of superstition and ignorance gradually caused it to be associated, let us consider for a moment its real meaning, and the terrible effects which its practice is ever destined to bring on the world. partly through their psychic faculties, which were not yet quenched in the depths of materiality to which the race afterwards descended, and partly through their scientific attainments during this culmination of atlantean civilization, the most intellectual and energetic members of the race gradually obtained more and more insight into the working of nature's laws, and more and more control over some of her hidden forces. now the desecration of this knowledge and its use for selfish ends is what constitutes sorcery. the awful effects, too, of such desecration are well enough exemplified in the terrible catastrophes that overtook the race. for when once the black practice was inaugurated it was destined to spread in ever widening circles. the higher spiritual guidance being thus withdrawn, the kamic principle, which being the fourth, naturally reached its zenith during the fourth root race, asserted itself more and more in humanity. lust, brutality and ferocity were all on the increase, and the animal nature in man was approaching its most degraded expression. it was a moral question which from the very earliest times divided the atlantean race into two hostile camps, and what was begun in the rmoahal times was terribly accentuated in the toltec era. the battle of armageddon is fought over and over again in every age of the world's history. no longer submitting to the wise rule of the initiate emperors, the followers of the "black arts" rose in rebellion and set up a rival emperor, who after much struggle and fighting drove the white emperor from his capital, the "city of the golden gates," and established himself on his throne. the white emperor driven northward re-established himself in a city originally founded by the tlavatli on the southern edge of the mountainous district, but which was now the seat of one of the tributary toltec kings. he gladly welcomed the white emperor and placed the city at his disposal. a few more of the tributary kings also remained loyal to him, but most transferred their allegiance to the new emperor reigning at the old capital. these, however, did not long remain faithful. constant assertions of independence were made by the tributary kings, and continual battles were fought in different parts of the empire, the practice of sorcery being largely resorted to, to supplement the powers of destruction possessed by the armies. these events took place about , years before the first great catastrophe. from this time onwards things went from bad to worse. the sorcerers used their powers more and more recklessly, and greater and greater numbers of people acquired and practised these terrible "black arts." then came the awful retribution when millions upon millions perished. the great "city of the golden gates" had by this time become a perfect den of iniquity. the waves swept over it and destroyed its inhabitants, and the "black" emperor and his dynasty fell to rise no more. the emperor of the north as well as the initiated priests throughout the whole continent had long been fully aware of the evil days at hand, and subsequent pages will tell of the many priest-led emigrations which preceded this catastrophe, as well as those of later date. the continent was now terribly rent. but the actual amount of territory submerged by no means represented the damage done, for tidal waves swept over great tracts of land and left them desolate swamps. whole provinces were rendered barren, and remained for generations in an uncultivated and desert condition. the remaining population too had received a terrible warning. it was taken to heart, and sorcery was for a time less prevalent among them. a long period elapsed before any new powerful rule was established. we shall eventually find a semite dynasty of sorcerers enthroned in the "city of the golden gates," but no toltec power rose to eminence during the second map period. there were considerable toltec populations still, but little of the pure blood remained on the mother continent. on the island of ruta however, in the third map period, a toltec dynasty again rose to power and ruled through its tributary kings a large portion of the island. this dynasty was addicted to the black craft, which it must be understood became more and more prevalent during all the four periods, until it culminated in the inevitable catastrophe, which to a great extent purified the earth of the monstrous evil. it must also be borne in mind that down to the very end when poseidonis disappeared, an intitiate emperor or king--or at least one acknowledging the "good law"--held sway in some part of the island continent, acting under the guidance of the occult hierarchy in controlling where possible the evil sorcerers, and in guiding and instructing the small minority who were still willing to lead pure and wholesome lives. in later days this "white" king was as a rule elected by the priests--the handful, that is, who still followed the "good law." little more remains to be said about the toltecs. in poseidonis the population of the whole island was more or less mixed. two kingdoms and one small republic in the west divided the island between them. the northern portion was ruled by an initiate king. in the south too the hereditary principle had given way to election by the people. exclusive race-dynasties were at an end, but kings of toltec blood occasionally rose to power both in the north and south, the northern kingdom being constantly encroached upon by its southern rival, and more and more of its territory annexed. having dealt at some length with the state of things under the toltecs, the leading political characteristics of the four following sub-races need not long detain us, for none of them reached the heights of civilization that the toltecs did--in fact the degeneration of the race had set in. it seems to have been some sort of feudal system that the natural bent of the turanian race tended to develop. each chief was supreme on his own territory, and the king was only _primus inter pares_. the chiefs who formed his council occasionally murdered their king and set up one of their own number in his place. they were a turbulent and lawless race--brutal and cruel also. the fact that at some periods of their history regiments of women took part in their wars is significant of the last named characteristics. but the strange experiment they made in social life which, but for its political origin, would more naturally have been dealt with under "manners and customs," is the most interesting fact in their record. being continually worsted in war with their toltec neighbours, knowing themselves to be greatly outnumbered, and desiring above all things increase of population, laws were passed, by which every man was relieved from the direct burden of maintaining his family. the state took charge of and provided for the children, and they were looked upon as its property. this naturally tended to increase the birth-rate amongst the turanians, and the ceremony of marriage came to be disregarded. the ties of family life, and the feeling of parental love were of course destroyed, and the scheme having been found to be a failure, was ultimately given up. other attempts at finding socialistic solutions of economical problems which still vex us to-day, were tried and abandoned by this race. the original semites, who were a quarrelsome marauding and energetic race, always leant towards a patriarchal form of government. their colonists, who generally took to the nomadic life, almost exclusively adopted this form, but as we have seen they developed a considerable empire in the days of the second map period, and possessed the great "city of the golden gates." they ultimately, however, had to give way before the growing power of the akkadians. it was in the third map period, about , years ago, that the akkadians finally overthrew the semite power. this th sub-race were a much more law-abiding people than their predecessors. traders and sailors, they lived in settled communities, and naturally produced an oligarchical form of government. a peculiarity of theirs, of which sparta is the only modern example, was the dual system of two kings reigning in one city. as a result probably of their sea-going taste, the study of the stars became a characteristic pursuit, and this race made great advances both in astronomy and astrology. the mongolian people were an improvement on their immediate ancestors of the brutal turanian stock. born as they were on the wide steppes of eastern siberia, they never had any touch with the mother-continent, and owing, doubtless, to their environment, they became a nomadic people. more psychic and more religious than the turanians from whom they sprang, the form of government towards which they gravitated required a suzerain in the background who should be supreme both as a territorial ruler and as a chief high priest. _emigrations._--three causes contributed to produce emigrations. the turanian race, as we have seen, was from its very start imbued with the spirit of colonizing, which it carried out on a considerable scale. the semites and akkadians were also to a certain extent colonizing races. then, as time went on and population tended more and more to outrun the limits of subsistence, necessity operated with the least well-to-do in every race alike, and drove them to seek for a livelihood in less thickly populated countries. for it should be realized that when the atlanteans reached their zenith in the toltec era, the proportion of population to the square mile on the continent of atlantis probably equalled, even if it did not exceed, our modern experience in england and belgium. it is at all events certain that the vacant spaces available for colonization were very much larger in that age than in ours, while the total population of the world, which at the present moment is probably not more than twelve hundred to fifteen hundred millions, amounted in those days to the big figure of about two thousand millions. lastly, there were the priest-led emigrations which took place prior to each catastrophe--and there were many more of these than the four great ones referred to above. the initiated kings and priests who followed the "good law" were aware beforehand of the impending calamities. each one, therefore, naturally became a centre of prophetic warning, and ultimately a leader of a band of colonists. it may be noted here that in later days the rulers of the country deeply resented these priest-led emigrations, as tending to impoverish and depopulate their kingdoms, and it became necessary for the emigrants to get on board ship secretly during the night. in roughly tracing the lines of emigration followed by each sub-race in turn, we shall of necessity ultimately reach the lands which their respective descendants to-day occupy. for the earliest emigrations we must go back to the rmoahal days. it will be remembered that that portion of the race which inhabited the north-eastern coasts alone retained its purity of blood. harried on their southern borders and driven further north by the tlavatli warriors, they began to overflow to the neighbouring land to the east, and to the still nearer promontory of greenland. in the second map period no pure rmoahals were left on the then reduced mother-continent, but the northern promontory of the continent then rising on the west was occupied by them, as well as the greenland cape already mentioned, and the western shores of the great scandinavian island. there was also a colony on the land lying north of the central asian sea. brittany and picardy then formed part of the scandinavian island, while the island itself became in the third map period part of the growing continent of europe. now it is in france that remains of this race have been found in the quaternary strata, and the brachycephalous, or round-headed specimen known as the "furfooz man," may be taken as a fair average of the type of the race in its decay. many times forced to move south by the rigours of a glacial epoch, many times driven north by the greed of their more powerful neighbours, the scattered and degraded remnants of this race may be found to-day in the modern lapps, though even here there was some infusion of other blood. and so it comes to pass that these faded and stunted specimens of humanity are the lineal descendants of the black race of giants who arose on the equatorial lands of lemuria well nigh five million years ago. the tlavatli colonists seem to have spread out towards every point of the compass. by the second map period their descendants were settled on the western shores of the then growing american continent (california) as well as on its extreme southern coasts (rio de janeiro). we also find them occupying the eastern shores of the scandinavian island, while numbers of them sailed across the ocean, rounded the coast of africa, and reached india. there, mixing with the indigenous lemurian population, they formed the dravidian race. in later days this in its turn received an infusion of aryan or fifth race blood, from which results the complexity of type found in india to-day. in fact we have here a very fair example of the extreme difficulty of deciding any question of race upon merely physical evidence, for it would be quite possible to have fifth race egos incarnate among the brahmans, fourth race egos among the lower castes, and some lingering third race among the hill tribes. by the fourth map period we find a tlavatli people occupying the southern parts of south america, from which it may be inferred that the patagonians probably had remote tlavatli ancestry. remains of this race, as of the rmoahals, have been found in the quaternary strata of central europe, and the dolichocephalous "cro-magnon man"[ ] may be taken as an average specimen of the race in its decadence, while the "lake-dwellers" of switzerland formed an even earlier and not quite pure offshoot. the only people who can be cited as fairly pure-blooded specimens of the race at the present day are some of the brown tribes of indians of south america. the burmese and siamese have also tlavatli blood in their veins, but in their case it was mixed with, and therefore dominated by, the nobler stock of one of the aryan sub-races. we now come to the toltecs. it was chiefly to the west that their emigrations tended, and the neighbouring coasts of the american continent were in the second map period peopled by a pure toltec race, the greater part of those left on the mother-continent being then of very mixed blood. it was on the continents of north and south america that this race spread abroad and flourished, and on which thousands of years later were established the empires of mexico and peru. the greatness of these empires is a matter of history, or at least of tradition supplemented by such evidence as is afforded by magnificent architectural remains. it may here be noted that while the mexican empire was for centuries great and powerful in all that is usually regarded as power and greatness in our civilization of to-day, it never reached the height attained by the peruvians about , years ago under their inca sovereigns, for as regards the general well-being of the people, the justice and beneficence of the government, the equitable nature of the land tenure, and the pure and religious life of the inhabitants, the peruvian empire of those days might be considered a traditional though faint echo of the golden age of the toltecs on the mother-continent of atlantis. the average red indian of north or south america is the best representative to-day of the toltec people, but of course bears no comparison with the highly civilized individual of the race at its zenith. egypt must now be referred to, and the consideration of this subject should let in a flood of light upon its early history. although the first settlement in that country was not in the strict sense of the term a colony, it was from the toltec race that was subsequently drawn the first great body of emigrants intended to mix with and dominate the aboriginal people. in the first instance it was the transfer of a great lodge of initiates. this took place about , years ago. the golden age of the toltecs was long past. the first great catastrophe had taken place. the moral degradation of the people and the consequent practice of the "black arts" were becoming more accentuated and widely spread. purer surroundings for the white lodge were needed. egypt was isolated and was thinly peopled, and therefore egypt was chosen. the settlement so made answered its purpose, and undisturbed by adverse conditions the lodge of initiates for nearly , years did its work. about , years ago, when the time was ripe, the occult lodge founded an empire--the first "divine dynasty" of egypt--and began to teach the people. then it was that the first great body of colonists was brought from atlantis, and some time during the ten thousand years that led up to the second catastrophe, the two great pyramids of gizeh were built, partly to provide permanent halls of initiation, but also to act as treasure-house and shrine for some great talisman of power during the submergence which the initiates knew to be impending. map no. shows egypt at that date as under water. it remained so for a considerable period, but on its re-emergence it was again peopled by the descendants of many of its old inhabitants who had retired to the abyssinian mountains (shown in map no. as an island) as well as by fresh bands of atlantean colonists from various parts of the world. a considerable immigration of akkadians then helped to modify the egyptian type. this is the era of the second "divine dynasty" of egypt--the rulers of the country being again initiated adepts. the catastrophe of , years ago again laid the country under water, but this time it was only a temporary wave. when it receded the third "divine dynasty"--that mentioned by manetho--began its rule, and it was under the early kings of this dynasty that the great temple of karnak and many of the more ancient buildings still standing in egypt were constructed. in fact with the exception of the two pyramids no building in egypt predates the catastrophe of , years ago. the final submergence of poseidonis sent another tidal wave over egypt. this too, was only a temporary calamity, but it brought the divine dynasties to an end, for the lodge of initiates had transferred its quarters to other lands. various points here left untouched have already been dealt with in the _transaction of the london lodge_, "the pyramids and stonehenge." the turanians who in the first map period had colonized the northern parts of the land lying immediately to the east of atlantis, occupied in the second map period its southern shores (which included the present morocco and algeria). we also find them wandering eastwards, and both the east and west coasts of the central asian sea were peopled by them. bands of them ultimately moved still further east, and the nearest approximation to the type of this race is to-day to be found in the inland chinese. a curious freak of destiny must be recorded about one of their western offshoots. dominated all through the centuries by their more powerful toltec neighbours, it was yet reserved for a small branch of the turanian stock to conquer and replace the last great empire that the toltecs raised, for the brutal and barely civilized aztecs were of pure turanian blood. the semite emigrations were of two kinds, first, those which were controlled by the natural impulse of the race: second, that special emigration which was effected under the direct guidance of the manu; for, strange as it may seem, it was not from the toltecs but from this lawless and turbulent though vigorous and energetic sub-race that was chosen the nucleus destined to be developed into our great fifth or aryan race. the reason, no doubt, lay in the mânasic characteristic with which the number five is always associated. the sub-race of that number was inevitably developing its physical brain power and intellect; although at the expense of the psychic perceptions, while that same development of intellect to infinitely higher levels is at once the glory and the destined goal of our fifth root race. dealing first with the natural emigrations we find that in the second map period while still leaving powerful nations on the mother-continent, the semites had spread both west and east--west to the lands now forming the united states, and thus accounting for the semitic type to be found in some of the indian races, and east to the northern shores of the neighbouring continent, which combined all there then was of europe, africa and asia. the type of the ancient egyptians, as well as of other neighbouring nations, was to some extent modified by this original semite blood; but with the exception of the jews, the only representatives of comparatively unmixed race at the present day are the lighter coloured kabyles of the algerian mountains. the tribes resulting from the segregation effected by the manu for the formation of the new root race eventually found their way to the southern shores of the central asian sea, and there the first great aryan kingdom was established. when the transaction dealing with the origin of a root race comes to be written, it will be seen that many of the peoples we are accustomed to call semitic are really aryan in blood. the world will also be enlightened as to what constitutes the claim of the hebrews to be considered a "chosen people." shortly it may be stated that they constitute an abnormal and unnatural link between the fourth and fifth root races. the akkadians, though eventually becoming supreme rulers on the mother-continent of atlantis, owed their birthplace as we have seen in the second map period, to the neighbouring continent--that part occupied by the basin of the mediterranean about the present island of sardinia being their special home. from this centre they spread eastwards, occupying what eventually became the shores of the levant, and reaching as far as persia and arabia. as we have seen, they also helped to people egypt. the early etruscans, the phoenicians, including the carthaginians and the shumero-akkads, were branches of this race, while the basques of to-day have probably more of the akkadian than of any other blood which flows in their veins. a reference to the early inhabitants of our own islands may appropriately be made here, for it was in the early akkadian days, about , years ago, that the colony of initiates who founded stonehenge landed on these shores--"these shores" being, of course, the shores of the scandinavian part of the continent of europe, as shown in map no. . the initiated priests and their followers appear to have belonged to a very early strain of the akkadian race--they were taller, fairer, and longer headed than the aborigines of the country, who were a very mixed race, but mostly degenerate remnants of the rmoahals. as readers of the _transaction of the london lodge_ on the "pyramids and stonehenge," will know, the rude simplicity of stonehenge was intended as a protest against the extravagant ornament and over-decoration of the existing temples in atlantis, where the debased worship of their own images was being carried on by the inhabitants. the mongolians, as we have seen, never had any touch with the mother-continent. born on the wide plains of tartary, their emigrations for long found ample scope within those regions; but more than once tribes of mongol descent have overflowed from northern asia to america, across behring's straits, and the last of such emigrations--that of the kitans, some , years ago--has left traces which some western savants have been able to follow. the presence of mongolian blood in some tribes of north american indians has also been recognized by various writers on ethnology. the hungarians and malays are both known to be offshoots of this race, ennobled in the one case by a strain of aryan blood, degraded in the other by mixture with the effete lemurians. but the interesting fact about the mongolians is that its last family race is still in full force--it has not in fact yet reached its zenith--and the japanese nation has still got history to give to the world. _arts and sciences._--it must primarily be recognized that our own aryan race has naturally achieved far greater results in almost every direction than did the atlanteans, but even where they failed to reach our level, the records of what they accomplished are of interest as representing the high water mark which their tide of civilization reached. on the other hand, the character of the scientific achievements in which they did outstrip us are of so dazzling a nature, that bewilderment at such unequal development is apt to be the feeling left. the arts and sciences, as practised by the first two races, were, of course, crude in the extreme, but we do not propose to follow the progress achieved by each sub-race separately. the history of the atlantean, as of the aryan race, was interspersed with periods of progress and of decay. eras of culture were followed by times of lawlessness, during which all artistic and scientific development was lost, these again being succeeded by civilizations reaching to still higher levels. it must naturally be with the periods of culture that the following remarks will deal, chief among which stands out the great toltec era. architecture and sculpture, painting and music were all practised in atlantis. the music even at the best of times was crude, and the instruments of the most primitive type. all the atlantean races were fond of colour, and brilliant hues decorated both the insides and the outsides of their houses, but painting as a fine art was never well established, though in the later days some kind of drawing and painting was taught in the schools. sculpture on the other hand, which was also taught in the schools, was widely practised, and reached great excellence. as we shall see later on under the head of "religion" it became customary for every man who could afford it to place in one of the temples an image of himself. these were sometimes carved in wood or in hard black stone like basalt, but among the wealthy it became the fashion to have their statues cast in one of the precious metals, aurichalcum, gold or silver. a very fair resemblance of the individual usually resulted, while in some cases a striking likeness was achieved. architecture, however, was naturally the most widely practised of these arts. their buildings were massive structures of gigantic proportions. the dwelling houses in the cities were not, as ours are, closely crowded together in streets. like their country houses some stood in their own garden grounds, others were separated by plots of common land, but all were isolated structures. in the case of houses of any importance four blocks of building surrounded a central courtyard, in the centre of which generally stood one of the fountains whose number in the "city of the golden gates" gained for it the second appellation of the "city of waters." there was no exhibition of goods for sale as in modern streets. all transactions of buying and selling took place privately, except at stated times, when large public fairs were held in the open spaces of the cities. but the characteristic feature of the toltec house was the tower that rose from one of its corners or from the centre of one of the blocks. a spiral staircase built outside led to the upper stories, and a pointed dome terminated the tower--this upper portion being very commonly used as an observatory. as already stated the houses were decorated with bright colours. some were ornamented with carvings, others with frescoes or painted patterns. the window-spaces were-filled with some manufactured article similar to, but less transparent than, glass. the interiors were not furnished with the elaborate detail of our modern dwellings, but the life was highly civilized of its kind. the temples were huge halls resembling more than anything else the gigantic piles of egypt, but built on a still more stupendous scale. the pillars supporting the roof were generally square, seldom circular. in the days of the decadence the aisles were surrounded with innumerable chapels in which were enshrined the statues of the more important inhabitants. these side shrines indeed were occasionally of such considerable size as to admit a whole retinue of priests whom some specially great man might have in his service for the ceremonial worship of his image. like the private houses the temples too were never complete without the dome-capped towers, which of course were of corresponding size and magnificence. these were used for astronomical observations and for sun-worship. the precious metals were largely used in the adornment of the temples, the interiors being often not merely inlaid but plated with gold. gold and silver were highly valued, but as we shall see later on when the subject of the currency is dealt with, the uses to which they were put were entirely artistic and had nothing to do with coinage, while the great quantities that were then produced by the chemists--or as we should now-a-days call them alchemists--may be said to have taken them out of the category of the precious metals. this power of transmutation of metals was not universal, but it was so widely possessed that enormous quantities were made. in fact the production of the wished-for metals may be regarded as one of the industrial enterprises of those days by which these alchemists gained their living. gold was admired even more than silver, and was consequently produced in much greater quantity. _education._--a few words on the subject of language will fitly prelude a consideration of the training in the schools and colleges of atlantis. during the first map period toltec was the universal language, not only throughout the continent but in the western islands and that part of the eastern continent which recognized the emperor's rule. remains of the rmoahal and tlavatli speech survived it is true in out-of-the-way parts, just as the keltic and cymric speech survives to-day among us in ireland and wales. the tlavatli tongue was the basis used by the turanians, who introduced such modifications that an entirely different language was in time produced; while the semites and akkadians, adopting a toltec ground-work, modified it in their respective ways, and so produced two divergent varieties. thus in the later days of poseidonis there were several entirely different languages--all however belonging to the agglutinative type--for it was not till fifth race days that the descendants of the semites and akkadians developed inflectional speech. all through the ages, however, the toltec language fairly maintained its purity, and the same tongue that was spoken in atlantis in the days of its splendour was used, with but slight alterations, thousands of years later in mexico and peru. the schools and colleges of atlantis in the great toltec days, as well as in subsequent eras of culture, were all endowed by the state. though every child was required to pass through the primary schools, the subsequent training differed very widely. the primary schools formed a sort of winnowing ground. those who showed real aptitude for study were, along with the children of the dominant classes who naturally had greater abilities, drafted into the higher schools at about the age of twelve. reading and writing, which were regarded as mere preliminaries, had already been taught them in the primary schools. but reading and writing were not considered necessary for the great masses of the inhabitants who had to spend their lives in tilling the land, or in handicrafts, the practice of which was required by the community. the great majority of the children therefore were at once passed on to the technical schools best suited to their various abilities. chief among these were the agricultural schools. some branches of mechanics also formed part of the training, while in outlying districts and by the sea-side hunting and fishing were naturally included. and so the children all received the education or training which was most appropriate for them. the children of superior abilities, who as we have seen had been taught to read and write, had a much more elaborate education. the properties of plants and their healing qualities formed an important branch of study. there were no recognized physicians in those days--every educated man knew more or less of medicine as well as of magnetic healing. chemistry, mathematics and astronomy were also taught. the training in such studies finds its analogy among ourselves, but the object towards which the teachers' efforts were mainly directed, was the development of the pupil's psychic faculties and his instruction in the more hidden forces of nature. the occult properties of plants, metals, and precious stones, as well as the alchemical processes of transmutation, were included in this category. but as time went on it became more and more the personal power, which bulwer lytton calls vril, and the operation of which he has fairly accurately described in his _coming race_, that the colleges for the higher training of the youth of atlantis were specially occupied in developing. the marked change which took place when the decadence of the race set in was, that instead of merit and aptitude being regarded as warrants for advancement to the higher grades of instruction, the dominant classes becoming more and more exclusive allowed none but their own children to graduate in the higher knowledge which gave so much power. in such an empire as the toltec, agriculture naturally received much attention. not only were the labourers taught their duties in technical schools, but colleges were established in which the knowledge necessary for carrying out experiments in the crossing both of animals and plants, were taught to fitting students. as readers of theosophic literature may know, _wheat_ was not evolved on this planet at all. it was the gift of the manu who brought it from another globe outside our chain of worlds. but oats and some of our other cereals are the results of crosses between wheat and the indigenous grasses of the earth. now the experiments which gave these results were carried out in the agricultural schools of atlantis. of course such experiments were guided by high knowledge. but the most notable achievement to be recorded of the atlantean agriculturists was the evolution of the plantain or banana. in the original wild state it was like an elongated melon with scarcely any pulp, but full of seeds as a melon is. it was of course only by centuries (if not thousands of years) of continuous selection and elimination that the present seedless plant was evolved. among the domesticated animals of the toltec days were creatures that looked like very small tapirs. they naturally fed upon roots or herbage, but like the pigs of to-day, which they resembled in more than one particular, they were not over cleanly, and ate whatever came in their way. large cat-like animals and the wolf-like ancestors of the dog might also be met about human habitations. the toltec carts appear to have been drawn by creatures somewhat resembling small camels. the peruvian llamas of to-day are probably their descendants. the ancestors of the irish elk, too, roamed in herds about the hill sides in much the same way as our highland cattle do now--too wild to allow of easy approach, but still under the control of man. constant experiments were made in breeding and cross-breeding different kinds of animals, and, curious though it may seem to us, artificial heat was largely used to force their development, so that the results of crossing and interbreeding might be more quickly apparent. the use, too, of different coloured lights in the chambers where such experiments were carried on were adopted in order to obtain varying results. this control and moulding at will by man of the animal forms brings us to a rather startling and very mysterious subject. reference has been made above to the work done by the manus. now it is in the mind of the manu that originates all improvements in type and the potentialities latent in every form of being. in order to work out in detail the improvements in the animal forms, the help and co-operation of man were required. the amphibian and reptile forms which then abounded had about run their course, and were ready to assume the more advanced type of bird or mammal. these forms constituted the inchoate material placed at man's disposal, and the clay was ready to assume whatever shape the potter's hands might mould it into. it was specially with animals in the intermediate stage that so many of the experiments above referred to were tried, and doubtless the domesticated animals like the horse, which are now of such service to man, are the result of these experiments in which the men of those days acted in co-operation with the manu and his ministers. but the co-operation was too soon withdrawn. selfishness obtained the upper hand, and war and discord brought the golden age of the toltecs to a close. when instead of working loyally for a common end, under the guidance of their initiate kings, men began to prey upon each other, the beasts which might gradually have assumed, under the care of man, more and more useful and domesticated forms, being left to the guidance of their own instincts naturally followed the example of their monarch, and began to prey upon each other. some indeed had actually already been trained and used by men in their hunting expeditions, and thus the semi-domesticated cat-like animals above referred to naturally became the ancestors of the leopards and jaguars. one illustration of what some may be tempted to call a fantastic theory, though it may not elucidate the problem, will at least point the moral contained in this supplement to our knowledge regarding the mysterious manner in which our evolution has proceeded. the lion it would appear might have had a gentler nature and a less fierce aspect had the men of those days completed the task that was given them to perform. whether or not he is fated eventually "to lie down with the lamb and eat straw like the ox," the destiny in store for him as pictured in the mind of the manu has not yet been realized, for the picture was that of a powerful but domesticated animal--a strong level-backed creature, with large intelligent eyes, intended to act as man's most powerful servant for purposes of traction. the "city of the golden gates" and its surroundings must be described before we come to consider the marvellous system by which its inhabitants were supplied with water. it lay, as we have seen, on the east coast of the continent close to the sea, and about ° north of the equator. a beautifully-wooded park-like country surrounded the city. scattered over a large area of this were the villa residences of the wealthier classes. to the west lay a range of mountains, from which the water supply of the city was drawn. the city itself was built on the slopes of a hill, which rose from the plain about feet. on the summit of this hill lay the emperor's palace and gardens, in the centre of which welled up from the earth a never-ending stream of water, supplying first the palace and the fountains in the gardens, thence flowing in the four directions and falling in cascades into a canal or moat which encompassed the palace grounds, and thus separated them from the city which lay below on every side. from this canal four channels led the water through four quarters of the city to cascades which in their turn supplied another encircling canal at a lower level. there were three such canals forming concentric circles, the outermost and lowest of which was still above the level of the plain. a fourth canal at this lowest level, but on a rectangular plan, received the constantly flowing waters, and in its turn discharged them into the sea. the city extended over part of the plain, up to the edge of this great outermost moat, which surrounded and defended it with a line of waterways extending about twelve miles by ten miles square. it will thus be seen that the city was divided into three great belts, each hemmed in by its canals. the characteristic feature of the upper belt that lay just below the palace grounds, was a circular race-course and large public gardens. most of the houses of the court officials also lay on this belt, and here also was an institution of which we have no parallel in modern times. the term "strangers' home" amongst us suggests a mean appearance and sordid surroundings, but this was a palace where all strangers who might come to the city were entertained as long as they might choose to stay--being treated all the time as guests of the government. the detached houses of the inhabitants and the various temples scattered throughout the city occupied the other two belts. in the days of the toltec greatness there seems to have been no real poverty--even the retinue of slaves attached to most houses being well fed and clothed--but there were a number of comparatively poor houses in the lowest belt to the north, as well as outside the outermost canal towards the sea. the inhabitants of this part were mostly connected with the shipping, and their houses though detached were built closer together than in other districts. it will be seen from the above that the inhabitants had thus a never-failing supply of pure clear water constantly coursing through the city, while the upper belts and the emperor's palace were protected by lines of moats, each one at a higher level as the centre was approached. now it does not require much mechanical knowledge in order to realize how stupendous must have been the works needed to provide this supply, for in the days of its greatness the "city of the golden gates" embraced within its four circles of moats over two million inhabitants. no such system of water supply has ever been attempted in greek, roman or modern times--indeed it is very doubtful whether our ablest engineers, even at the expenditure of untold wealth, could produce such a result. a description of some of its leading features will be of interest. it was from a lake which lay among the mountains to the west of the city, at an elevation of about , feet, that the supply was drawn. the main aqueduct which was of oval section, measuring fifty feet by thirty feet, led underground to an enormous heart-shaped reservoir. this lay deep below the palace, in fact at the very base of the hill on which the palace and the city stood. from this reservoir a perpendicular shaft of about feet up through the solid rock gave passage to the water which welled up in the palace grounds, and thence was distributed throughout the city. various pipes from the central reservoir also led to different parts of the city to supply drinking water and the public fountains. systems of sluices of course also existed to control or cut off the supply of the different districts. from the above it will be apparent to any one possessed of some little knowledge of mechanics that the pressure in the subterranean aqueduct and the central reservoir from which the water naturally rose to the basin in the palace gardens, must have been enormous, and the resisting power of the material used in their construction consequently prodigious. if the system of water supply in the "city of the golden gates" was wonderful, the atlantean methods of locomotion must be recognised as still more marvellous, for the air-ship or flying-machine which keely in america, and maxim in this country are now attempting to produce, was then a realized fact. it was not at any time a common means of transport. the slaves, the servants, and the masses who laboured with their hands, had to trudge along the country tracks, or travel in rude carts with solid wheels drawn by uncouth animals. the air-boats may be considered as the private carriages of those days, or rather the private yachts, if we regard the relative number of those who possessed them, for they must have been at all times difficult and costly to produce. they were not as a rule built to accommodate many persons. numbers were constructed for only two, some allowed for six or eight passengers. in the later days when war and strife had brought the golden age to an end, battle ships that could navigate the air had to a great extent replaced the battle ships at sea--having naturally proved far more powerful engines of destruction. these were constructed to carry as many as fifty, and in some cases even up to a hundred fighting men. the material of which the air boats were constructed was either wood or metal. the earlier ones were built of wood--the boards used being exceedingly thin, but the injection of some substance which did not add materially to the weight while it gave leather-like toughness, provided the necessary combination of lightness and strength. when metal was used it was generally an alloy--two white-coloured metals and one red one entering into its composition. the resultant was white-coloured, like aluminium, and even lighter in weight. over the rough framework of the air-boat was extended a large sheet of this metal which was then beaten into shape and electrically welded where necessary. but whether built of metal or wood their outside surface was apparently seamless and perfectly smooth, and they shone in the dark as if coated with luminous paint. in shape they were boat-like, but they were invariably decked over, for when at full speed it could not have been convenient, even if safe, for any on board to remain on the upper deck. their propelling and steering gear could be brought into use at either end. but the all-interesting question is that relating to the power by which they were propelled. in the earlier times it seems to have been personal vril that supplied the motive power--whether used in conjunction with any mechanical contrivance matters not much--but in the later days this was replaced by a force which, though generated in what is to us an unknown manner, operated nevertheless through definite mechanical arrangements. this force, though not yet discovered by science, more nearly approached that which keely in america is learning to handle than the electric power used by maxim. it was in fact of an etheric nature, but though we are no nearer to the solution of the problem, its method of operation can be described. the mechanical arrangements no doubt differed somewhat in different vessels. the following description is taken from an air-boat in which on one occasion three ambassadors from the king who ruled over the northern part of poseidonis made the journey to the court of the southern kingdom. a strong heavy metal chest which lay in the centre of the boat was the generator. thence the force flowed through two large flexible tubes to either end of the vessel, as well as through eight subsidiary tubes fixed fore and aft to the bulwarks. these had double openings pointing vertically both up and down. when the journey was about to begin the valves of the eight bulwark tubes which pointed downwards were opened--all the other valves being closed. the current rushing through these impinged on the earth with such force as to drive the boat upwards, while the air itself continued to supply the necessary fulcrum. when a sufficient elevation was reached the flexible tube at that end of the vessel which pointed away from the desired destination, was brought into action, while by the partial closing of the valves the current rushing through the eight vertical tubes was reduced to the small amount required to maintain the elevation reached. the great volume of the current, being now directed through the large tube pointing downwards from the stern at an angle of about forty-five degrees, while helping to maintain the elevation, provided also the great motive power to propel the vessel through the air. the steering was accomplished by the discharge of the current through this tube, for the slightest change in its direction at once caused an alteration in the vessel's course. but constant supervision was not required. when a long journey had to be taken the tube could be fixed so as to need no handling till the destination was almost reached. the maximum speed attained was about one hundred miles an hour, the course of flight never being a straight line, but always in the form of long waves, now approaching and now receding from the earth. the elevation at which the vessels travelled was only a few hundred feet--indeed, when high mountains lay in the line of their track it was necessary to change their course and go round them--the more rarefied air no longer supplying the necessary fulcrum. hills of about one thousand feet were the highest they could cross. the means by which the vessel was brought to a stop on reaching its destination--and this could be done equally well in mid-air--was to give escape to some of the current force through the tube at that end of the boat which pointed towards its destination, and the current impinging on the land or air in front, acted as a drag, while the propelling force behind was gradually reduced by the closing of the valve. the reason has still to be given for the existence of the eight tubes pointing upwards from the bulwarks. this had more specially to do with the aerial warfare. having so powerful a force at their disposal, the warships naturally directed the current against each other. now this was apt to destroy the equilibrium of the ship so struck and to turn it upside down--a situation sure to be taken advantage of by the enemy's vessel to make an attack with her ram. there was also the further danger of being precipitated to the ground, unless the shutting and opening of the necessary valves were quickly attended to. in whatever position the vessel might be, the tubes pointing towards the earth were naturally those through which the current should be rushing, while the tubes pointing upwards should be closed. the means by which a vessel turned upside down might be righted and placed again on a level keel, was accomplished by using the four tubes pointing downwards at one side of the vessel only, while the four at the other side were kept closed. the atlanteans had also sea-going vessels which were propelled by some power analogous to that above mentioned, but the current force which was eventually found to be most effective in this case had a denser appearance than that used in the air-boats. _manners and customs._--there was doubtless as much variety in the manners and customs of the atlanteans at different epochs of their history, as there has been among the various nations which compose our aryan race. with the fluctuating fashion of the centuries we are not concerned. the following remarks will attempt to deal merely with the leading characteristics which differentiate their habits from our own, and these will be chosen as much as possible from the great toltec era. with regard to marriage and the relations of the sexes the experiments made by the turanians have already been referred to. polygamous customs were prevalent at different times among all the sub-races, but in the toltec days while two wives were allowed by the law, great numbers of men had only one wife. nor were the women--as in countries now-a-days where polygamy prevails--regarded as inferiors, or in the least oppressed. their position was quite equal to that of the men, while the aptitude many of them displayed in acquiring the vril-power made them fully the equals if not the superiors of the other sex. this equality indeed was recognised from infancy, and there was no separation of the sexes in schools or colleges. boys and girls were taught together. it was the rule, too, and not the exception, for complete harmony to prevail in the dual households, and the mothers taught their children to look equally to their father's wives for love and protection. nor were women debarred from taking part in the government. sometimes they were members of the councils, and occasionally even were chosen by the adept emperor to represent him in the various provinces as the local sovereigns. the writing material of the atlanteans consisted of thin sheets of metal, on the white porcelain-like surface of which the words were written. they also had the means of reproducing the written text by placing on the inscribed sheet another thin metal plate which had previously been dipped in some liquid. the text thus graven on the second plate could be reproduced at will on other sheets, a great number of which fastened together constituted a book. a custom which differs considerably from our own must be instanced next, in their choice of food. it is an unpleasant subject, but can scarcely be passed over. the flesh of the animals they usually discarded, while the parts which among us are avoided as food, were by them devoured. the blood also they drank--often hot from the animal--and various cooked dishes were also made of it. it must not, however, be thought that they were without the lighter, and to us, more palatable, kinds of food. the seas and rivers provided them with fish, the flesh of which they ate, though often in such an advanced stage of decomposition as would be to us revolting. the different grains were largely cultivated, of which were made bread and cakes. they also had milk, fruit and vegetables. a small minority of the inhabitants, it is true, never adopted the revolting customs above referred to. this was the case with the adept kings and emperors and the initiated priesthood throughout the whole empire. they were entirely vegetarian in their habits, but though many of the emperor's counsellors and the officials about the court affected to prefer the purer diet, they often indulged in secret their grosser tastes. nor were strong drinks unknown in those days. fermented liquor of a very potent sort was at one time much in vogue. but it was so apt to make these who drank it dangerously excited that a law was passed absolutely forbidding its consumption. the weapons of warfare and the chase differed considerably at different epochs. swords and spears, bows and arrows sufficed as a rule for the rmoahals and the tlavatli. the beasts which they hunted at that very early period were mammoths with long woolly hair, elephants and hippopotami. marsupials also abounded as well as survivals of intermediate types--some being half reptile and half mammal, others half reptile and half bird. the use of explosives was adopted at an early period, and carried to great perfection in later times. some appear to have been made to explode on concussion, others after a certain interval of time, but in either case the destruction to life seems to have resulted from the release of some poisonous vapour, not from the impact of bullets. so powerful indeed must have become these explosives in later atlantean times, that we hear of whole companies of men being destroyed in battle by the noxious gas generated by the explosion of one of these bombs above their heads, thrown there by some sort of lever. the monetary system must now be considered. during the first three sub-races at all events, such a thing as a state coinage was unknown. small pieces of metal or leather stamped with some given value were, it is true, used as tokens. having a perforation in the centre they were strung together, and were usually carried at the girdle. but each man was as it were his own coiner, and the leather or metal token fabricated by him, and exchanged with another for value received, was but a personal acknowledgment of indebtedness, such as a promissory note is among us. no man was entitled to fabricate more of these tokens than he was able to redeem by the transfer of goods in his possession. the tokens did not circulate as coinage does, while the holder of the token had the means to estimate with perfect accuracy the resources of his debtor by the clairvoyant faculty which all then possessed to a greater or less degree, and which in any case of doubt was instantly directed to ascertain the actual state of the facts. it must be stated, however, that in the later days of poseidonis, a system approximating to our own currency was adopted, and the triple mountain visible from the great southern capital was the favourite representation on the state coinage. but the system of land tenure is the most important subject under this heading. among the rmoahal and tlavatli, who lived chiefly by hunting and fishing, the question naturally did not arise, though some system of village cultivation was recognized in the tlavatli days. it was with the increase of population and civilization in the early toltec times that land first became worth fighting for. it is not proposed to trace the system or want of system prevalent in the troublous times anterior to the advent of the golden age. but the records of that epoch present to the consideration, not only of political economists, but of all who regard the welfare of the race, a subject of the utmost interest and importance. the population it must be remembered had been steadily increasing, and under the government of the adept emperors it had reached the very large figure already quoted; nevertheless poverty and want were things undreamt of in those days, and this social well-being was no doubt partly due to the system of land tenure. not only was all the land and its produce regarded as belonging to the emperor, but all the flocks and herds upon it were his as well. the country was divided into different provinces or districts, each province having at its head one of the subsidiary kings or viceroys appointed by the emperor. each of these viceroys was held responsible for the government and well-being of all the inhabitants under his rule. the tillage of the land, the harvesting of the crops, and the pasturage of the herds lay within his sphere of superintendence, as well as the conducting of such agricultural experiments as have been already referred to. each viceroy had round him a council of agricultural advisers and coadjutors, who had amongst their other duties to be well versed in astronomy, for it was not a barren science in those days. the occult influences on plant and animal life were then studied and taken advantage of. the power, too, of producing rain at will was not uncommon then, while the effects of a glacial epoch were on more than one occasion partly neutralized in the northern parts of the continent by occult science. the right day for beginning every agricultural operation was of course duly calculated, and the work carried into effect by the officials whose duty it was to supervise every detail. the produce raised in each district or kingdom was as a rule consumed in it, but an exchange of agricultural commodities was sometimes arranged between the rulers. after a small share had been put aside for the emperor and the central government at the "city of the golden gates," the produce of the whole district or kingdom was divided among the inhabitants--the local viceroy and his retinue of officials naturally receiving the larger portions, but the meanest agricultural labourer getting enough to secure him competence and comfort. any increase in the productive capacity of the land, or in the mineral wealth which it yielded, was divided proportionately amongst all concerned--all, therefore, were interested in making the result of their combined labour as lucrative as possible. this system worked admirably for a very long period. but as time went on negligence and self-seeking crept in. those whose duty it was to superintend, threw more and more responsibility on their inferiors in office, and in time it became rare for the rulers to interfere or to interest themselves in any of the operations. this was the beginning of the evil days. the members of the dominant class who had previously given all their time to the state duties began to think about making their own lives more pleasant. the elaboration of luxury was setting in. there was one cause in particular which produced great discontent amongst the lower classes. the system under which the youth of the nation was drafted into the technical schools has already been referred to. now it was always one of the superior class whose psychic faculties had been duly cultivated, to whom the duty was assigned of selecting the children so that each one should receive the training, and ultimately be devoted to the occupation, for which he was naturally most fitted. but when those possessed of the clairvoyant vision, by which alone such choice could be made, delegated their duties to inferiors who were wanting in such psychic attributes, the results ensuing were that the children were often thrust into wrong grooves, and those whose capacity and taste lay in one direction often found themselves tied for life to an occupation which they disliked, and in which, therefore, they were rarely successful. the systems of land tenure which ensued in different parts of the empire on the breaking up of the great toltec dynasty were many and various. but it is not necessary to follow them. in the later days of poseidonis they had, as a rule, given place to the system of individual ownership which we know so well. reference has already been made, under the head of "emigrations," to the system of land tenure which prevailed during that glorious period of peruvian history when the incas held sway about , years ago. a short summary of this may be of interest as demonstrating the source from which its ground-work was doubtless derived, as well as instancing the variations which had been adopted in this somewhat more complicated system. all title to land was derived in the first instance from the inca, but half of it was assigned to the cultivators, who of course constituted the great bulk of the population. the other half was divided between the inca and the priesthood who celebrated the worship of the sun. out of the proceeds of his specially allotted lands the inca had to keep up the army, the roads throughout the whole empire, and all the machinery of government. this was conducted by a special governing class all more or less closely related to the inca himself, and representing a civilization and a culture much in advance of the great masses of the population. the remaining fourth--"the lands of the sun"--provided not only for the priests who conducted the public worship throughout the empire, but for the entire education of the people in schools and colleges, for all sick and infirm persons, and finally, for every inhabitant (exclusive, of course, of the governing class for whom there was no cessation of work) on reaching the age of forty-five, that being the age arranged for the hard work of life to cease, and for leisure and enjoyment to begin. _religion._--the only subject that now remains to be dealt with is the evolution of religious ideas. between the spiritual aspiration of a rude but simple race and the degraded ritual of an intellectually cultured but spiritually dead people, lies a gulf which only the term religion, used in its widest acceptation, can span. nevertheless it is this consecutive process of generation and degeneration which has to be traced in the history of the atlantean people. it will be remembered that the government under which the rmoahals came into existence, was described as the most perfect conceivable, for it was the manu himself who acted as their king. the memory of this divine ruler was naturally preserved in the annals of the race, and in due time he came to be regarded as a god, among a people who were naturally psychic, and had consequently glimpses of those states of consciousness which transcend our ordinary waking condition. retaining these higher attributes, it was only natural that this primitive people should adopt a religion, which, though in no way representative of any exalted philosophy, was of a type far from ignoble. in later days this phase of religious belief passed into a kind of ancestor-worship. the tlavatli while inheriting the traditional reverence and worship for the manu, were taught by adept instructors of the existence of a supreme being whose symbol was recognized as the sun. they thus developed a sort of sun worship, for the practice of which they repaired to the hill tops. there they built great circles of upright monoliths. these were intended to be symbolical of the sun's yearly course, but they were also used for astronomical purposes--being placed so that, to one standing at the high altar, the sun would rise at the winter solstice behind one of these monoliths, at the vernal equinox behind another, and so on throughout the year. astronomical observations of a still more complex character connected with the more distant constellations were also helped by these stone circles. we have already seen under the head of emigrations how a later sub-race--the akkadians--in the erection of stonehenge, reverted to this primitive building of monoliths. endowed though the tlavatli were with somewhat greater capacity for intellectual development than the previous sub-race, their cult was still of a very primitive type. with the wider diffusion of knowledge in the days of the toltecs, and more especially with the establishment later on of an initiated priesthood and an adept emperor, increased opportunities were offered to the people for the attainment of a truer conception of the divine. the few who were ready to take full advantage of the teaching offered, after having been tried and tested, were doubtless admitted into the ranks of the priesthood which then constituted an immense occult fraternity. with these, however, who had so outstripped the mass of humanity, as to be ready to begin the progress of the occult path, we are not here concerned, the religions practised by the inhabitants of atlantis generally being the subject of our investigation. the power to rise to philosophic heights of thought was of course wanting to the masses of those days, as it is similarly wanting to the great majority of the inhabitants of the world to-day. the nearest approach which the most gifted teacher could make in attempting to convey any idea of the nameless and all-pervading essence of the kosmos was necessarily imparted in the form of symbols, and the sun naturally enough was the first symbol adopted. as in our own days too the more cultivated and spiritually minded would see through the symbol, and might sometimes rise on the wings of devotion to the father of our spirits, that "motive and centre of our soul's desire, object and refuge of our journey's end" while the grosser multitude would see nothing but the symbol, and would worship it, as the carved madonna or the wooden image of the crucified one is to-day worshipped throughout catholic europe. sun and fire worship then became the cult for the celebration of which magnificent temples were reared throughout the length and breadth of the continent of atlantis, but more especially in the great "city of the golden gates"--the temple service being performed by retinues of priests endowed by the state for that purpose. in those early days no image of the deity was permitted. the sun-disk was considered the only appropriate emblem of the godhead, and as such was used in every temple, a golden disk being generally placed so as to catch the first rays of the rising sun at the vernal equinox or at the summer solstice. an interesting example of the almost unalloyed survival of this worship of the sun-disk may be instanced in the shinto ceremonies of japan. all other representation of deity is in this faith regarded as impious, and even the circular mirror of polished metal is hidden from the vulgar gaze save on ceremonial occasions. unlike the gorgeous temple decorations of atlantis however, the shinto temples are characterized by an entire absence of decoration--the exquisite finish of the plain wood-work being unrelieved by any carving, paint or varnish. but the sun-disk did not always remain the only permissible emblem of deity. the image of a man--an archetypal man--was in after days placed in the temples and adored as the highest representation of the divine. in some ways this might be considered a reversion to the rmoahal worship of the manu. even then the religion was comparatively pure, and the occult fraternity of the "good law" of course did their utmost to keep alive in the hearts of the people the spiritual life. the evil days, however, were drawing near when no altruistic idea should remain to redeem the race from the abyss of selfishness in which it was destined to be overwhelmed. the decay of the ethical idea was the necessary prelude to the perversion of the spiritual. the hand of every man fought for himself alone, and his knowledge was used for purely selfish ends, till it became an established belief that there was nothing in the universe greater or higher than themselves. each man was his own "law, and lord and god," and the very worship of the temples ceased to be the worship of any ideal, but became the mere adoration of man as he was known and seen to be. as is written in the _book of dzyan_, "then the fourth became tall with pride. we are the kings it was said; we are the gods.... they built huge cities. of rare earths and metals they built, and out of the fires vomited, out of the white stone of the mountains and of the black stone, they cut their own images in their size and likeness, and worshipped them." shrines were placed in temples in which the statue of each man, wrought in gold or silver, or carved in stone or wood, was adored by himself. the richer men kept whole trains of priests in their employ for the cult and care of their shrines, and offerings were made to these statues as to gods. the apotheosis of self could go no further. it must be remembered that every true religious idea that has ever entered into the mind of man, has been consciously suggested to him by the divine instructors or the initiates of the occult lodges, who throughout all the ages have been the guardians of the divine mysteries, and of the facts of the supersensual states of consciousness. mankind generally has but slowly become capable of assimilating a few of these divine ideas, while the monstrous growths and hideous distortions to which every religion on earth stands as witness, must be traced to man's own lower nature. it would seem indeed that he has not always even been fit to be entrusted with knowledge as to the mere symbols under which were veiled the light of deity, for in the days of the turanian supremacy some of this knowledge was wrongfully divulged. we have seen how the life and light giving attributes of the sun were in early times used as the symbol to bring before the minds of the people all that they were capable of conceiving of the great first cause. but other symbols of far deeper and more real significance were known and guarded within the ranks of the priesthood. one of these was the conception of a trinity in unity. the trinities of most sacred significance were never divulged to the people, but the trinity personifying the cosmic powers of the universe as creator, preserver, and destroyer, became publicly known in some irregular manner in the turanian days. this idea was still further materialized and degraded by the semites into a strictly anthropomorphic trinity consisting of father, mother and child. a further and rather terrible development of the turanian times must still be referred to. with the practice of sorcery many of the inhabitants had, of course, become aware of the existence of powerful elementals--creatures who had been called into being, or at least animated by their own powerful wills, which being directed towards maleficent ends, naturally produced the elementals of power and malignity. so degraded had then become man's feelings of reverence and worship, that they actually began to adore these semi-conscious creations of their own malignant thought. the ritual with which these beings were worshipped was blood-stained from the very start, and of course every sacrifice offered at their shrine gave vitality and persistence to these vampire-like creations--so much so, that even to the present day in various parts of the world, the elementals formed by the powerful will of these old atlantean sorcerers still continue to exact their tribute from unoffending village communities. though inaugurated and widely practised by the brutal turanians, this blood-stained ritual seems never to have spread to any extent among the other sub-races, though human sacrifices appear to have been not uncommon among some branches of the semites. in the great toltec empire of mexico the sun-worship of their forefathers was still the national religion, while the bloodless offerings to their beneficent deity, quetzalcoatl, consisted merely of flowers and fruit. it was only with the coming of the savage aztecs that the harmless mexican ritual was supplemented with the blood of human sacrifices, which drenched the altars of their war-god, huitzilopochtli, and the tearing out of the hearts of the victims on the summit of the teocali may be regarded as a direct survival of the elemental-worship of their turanian ancestors in atlantis. it will be seen then that as in our own days, the religious life of the people embraced the most varied forms of belief and worship. from the small minority who aspired to initiation, and had touch with the higher spiritual life--who knew that good will towards all men, control of thought, and purity of life and action were the necessary preliminaries to the attainment of the highest states of consciousness and the widest realms of vision--innumerable phases led down through the more or less blind worship of cosmic powers, or of anthropomorphic gods, to the degraded but most widely extended ritual in which each man adored his own image, and to the blood-stained rites of the elemental worship. it must be remembered throughout that we are dealing with the atlantean race only, so that any reference would be out of place that bore on the still more degraded fetish-worship that even then existed--as it still does--amongst the debased representatives of the lemurian peoples. all through the centuries then the various rituals composed to celebrate these various forms of worship were carried on, till the final submergence of poseidonis, by which time the countless hosts of atlantean emigrants had already established on foreign lands the various cults of the mother-continent. to trace the rise and follow the progress in detail of the archaic religions, which in historic times have blossomed into such diverse and antagonistic forms, would be an undertaking of great difficulty, but the illumination it would throw on matters of transcendent importance may some day induce the attempt. in conclusion, it would be vain to attempt to summarize what is already too much of a summary. rather let us hope that the foregoing may lend itself as the text from which may be developed histories of the many offshoots of the various sub-races--histories which may analytically examine political and social developments which have been here touched on in the most fragmentary manner. one word, however, may still be said about that evolution of the race--that progress which all creation, with mankind at its head, is ever destined to achieve century by century, millennium by millennium, manvantara by manvantara, and kalpa by kalpa. the descent of spirit into matter--these two poles of the one eternal substance--is the process which occupies the first half of every cycle. now the period we have been contemplating in the foregoing pages--the period during which the atlantean race was running its course--was the very middle or turning point of this present manvantara. the process of evolution which in our present fifth race has now set in--the return, that is, of matter into spirit--had in those days revealed itself in but a few isolated individual cases--forerunners of the resurrection of the spirit. but the problem, which all who have given the subject any amount of consideration must have felt to be still awaiting a solution, is the surprising contrast in the attributes of the atlantean race. side by side with their brutal passions, their degraded animal propensities, were their psychic faculties, their godlike intuition. now the solution of this apparently insoluble enigma lies in the fact that the building of the bridge had only then been begun--the bridge of manas, or mind, destined to unite in the perfected individual the upward surging forces of the animal and the downward cycling spirit of the god. the animal kingdom of to-day exhibits a field of nature where the building of that bridge has not yet been begun, and even among mankind in the days of atlantis the connection was so slight that the spiritual attributes had but little controlling power over the lower animal nature. the touch of mind they had was sufficient to add zest to the gratification of the senses, but was not enough to vitalize the still dormant spiritual faculties, which in the perfected individual will have to become the absolute monarch. our metaphor of the bridge may carry us a little further if we consider it as now in process of construction, but as destined to remain incomplete for mankind in general for untold millenniums--in fact, until humanity has completed another circle of the seven planets and the great fifth round is half way through its course. though it was during the latter half of the third root race and the beginning of the fourth that the manasaputra descended to endow with mind the bulk of humanity who were still without the spark, yet so feebly burned the light all through the atlantean days that few could be said to have attained to the powers of abstract thought. on the other hand the functioning of the mind on concrete things came well within their grasp, and as we have seen it was in the practical concerns of their every-day life, especially when their psychic faculties were directed towards the same objects, that they achieved such remarkable and stupendous results. it must also be remembered that kama, the fourth principle, naturally obtained its culminating development in the fourth race. this would account for the depths of animal grossness to which they sank, whilst the approach of the cycle to its nadir inevitably accentuated this downward movement, so that there is little to be surprised at in the gradual loss by the race of the psychic faculties, and in its descent to selfishness and materialism. rather should all this be regarded as part of the great cyclic process in obedience to the eternal law. we have all gone through those evil days, and the experiences we then accumulated go to make up the characters we now possess. but a brighter sun now shines on the aryan race than that which lit the path of their atlantean forefathers. less dominated by the passions of the senses, more open to the influence of mind, the men of our race have obtained, and are obtaining, a firmer grasp of knowledge, a wider range of intellect. this upward arc of the great manvantaric cycle will naturally lead increasing numbers towards the entrance of the occult path, and will lend more and more attraction to the transcendent opportunities it offers for the continued strengthening and purification of the character--strengthening and purification no longer directed by mere spasmodic effort, and continually interrupted by misleading attractions, but guided and guarded at every step by the masters of wisdom, so that the upward climb when once begun should no longer be halting and uncertain, but lead direct to the glorious goal. the psychic faculties too, and the godlike intuition, lost for a time but still the rightful heritage of the race, only await the individual effort of re-attainment, to give to the character still deeper insight and more transcendent powers. so shall the ranks of the adept instructors--the masters of wisdom--be ever strengthened and recruited, and even amongst us to-day there must certainly be some, indistinguishable save by the deathless enthusiasm with which they are animated, who will, before the next root race is established on this planet, stand themselves as masters of wisdom to help the race in its upward progress. footnotes: [footnote : students of geology and palæontology will know that these sciences regard the "cro-magnon man" as prior to the "furfooz," and seeing that the two races ran alongside each other for vast periods of time, it may quite well be that the individual "cro-magnon" skeleton, though representative of the second race, was deposited in the quaternary strata thousands of years before the individual furfooz man lived on the earth.] the lost lemuria foreword. the object of this paper is not so much to bring forward new and startling information about the lost continent of lemuria and its inhabitants, as to establish by the evidence obtainable from geology and from the study of the relative distribution of living and extinct animals and plants, as well as from the observed processes of physical evolution in the lower kingdoms, the facts stated in the "secret doctrine" and in other works with reference to these now submerged lands. the lost lemuria. it is generally recognised by science that what is now dry land, on the surface of our globe, was once the ocean floor, and that what is now the ocean floor was once dry land. geologists have in some cases been able to specify the exact portions of the earth's surface where these subsidences and upheavals have taken place, and although the lost continent of atlantis has so far received scant recognition from the world of science, the general concensus of opinion has for long pointed to the existence, at some prehistoric time, of a vast southern continent to which the name of lemuria has been assigned. [sidenote: evidence supplied by geology and by the relative distribution of living and extinct animals and plants.] "the history of the earth's development shows us that the distribution of land and water on its surface is ever and continually changing. in consequence of geological changes of the earth's crust, _elevations_ and _depressions_ of the ground take place everywhere, sometimes more strongly marked in one place, sometimes in another. even if they happen so slowly that in the course of centuries the seashore rises or sinks only a few inches, or even only a few lines, still they nevertheless effect great results in the course of long periods of time. and long--immeasurably long--periods of time have not been wanting in the earth's history. during the course of many millions of years, ever since organic life existed on the earth, land and water have perpetually struggled for supremacy. continents and islands have sunk into the sea, and new ones have arisen out of its bosom. lakes and seas have been slowly raised and dried up, and new water basins have arisen by the sinking of the ground. peninsulas have become islands by the narrow neck of land which connected them with the mainland sinking into the water. the islands of an archipelago have become the peaks of a continuous chain of mountains by the whole floor of their sea being considerably raised. "thus the mediterranean at one time was an inland sea, when in the place of the straits of gibraltar, an isthmus connected africa with spain. england even during the more recent history of the earth, when man already existed, has repeatedly been connected with the european continent and been repeatedly separated from it. nay, even europe and north america have been directly connected. the south sea at one time formed a large pacific continent, and the numerous little islands which now lie scattered in it were simply the highest peaks of the mountains covering that continent. the indian ocean formed a continent which extended from the sunda islands along the southern coast of asia to the east coast of africa. this large continent of former times sclater, an englishman, has called _lemuria_, from the monkey-like animals which inhabited it, and it is at the same time of great importance from being the probable cradle of the human race, which in all likelihood here first developed out of anthropoid apes.[ ] the important proof which alfred wallace has furnished, by the help of chorological facts, that the present malayan archipelago consists in reality of two completely different divisions, is particularly interesting. the western division, the indo-malayan archipelago, comprising the large islands of borneo, java and sumatra, was formerly connected by malacca with the asiatic continent, and probably also with the lemurian continent just mentioned. the eastern division on the other hand, the austro-malayan archipelago, comprising celebes, the moluccas, new guinea, solomon's islands, etc., was formerly directly connected with australia. both divisions were formerly two continents separated by a strait, but they have now for the most part sunk below the level of the sea. wallace, solely on the ground of his accurate chorological observations, has been able in the most accurate manner to determine the position of this former strait, the south end of which passes between balij and lombok. "thus, ever since liquid water existed on the earth, the boundaries of water and land have eternally changed, and we may assert that the outlines of continents and islands have never remained for an hour, nay, even for a minute, exactly the same. for the waves eternally and perpetually break on the edge of the coast, and whatever the land in these places loses in extent, it gains in other places by the accumulation of mud, which condenses into solid stone and again rises above the level of the sea as new land. nothing can be more erroneous than the idea of a firm and unchangeable outline of our continents, such as is impressed upon us in early youth by defective lessons on geography, which are devoid of a geological basis."[ ] the name lemuria, as above stated, was originally adopted by mr. sclater in recognition of the fact that it was probably on this continent that animals of the lemuroid type were developed. "this," writes a. r. wallace, "is undoubtedly a legitimate and highly probable supposition, and it is an example of the way in which a study of the geographical distribution of animals may enable us to reconstruct the geography of a bygone age.... "it [this continent] represents what was probably a primary zoological region in some past geological epoch; but what that epoch was and what were the limits of the region in question, we are quite unable to say. if we are to suppose that it comprised the whole area now inhabited by lemuroid animals, we must make it extend from west africa to burmah, south china and celebes, an area which it possibly did once occupy."[ ] "we have already had occasion," he elsewhere writes, "to refer to an ancient connection between this sub-region (the ethiopian) and madagascar, in order to explain the distribution of the lemurine type, and some other curious affinities between the two countries. this view is supported by the geology of india, which shows us ceylon and south india consisting mainly of granite and old-metamorphic rocks, while the greater part of the peninsula is of tertiary formation, with a few isolated patches of secondary rocks. it is evident, therefore, that during much of the tertiary period,[ ] ceylon and south india were bounded on the north by a considerable extent of sea, and probably formed part of an extensive southern continent or great island. the very numerous and remarkable cases of affinity with malaya, require, however, some closer approximation with these islands, which probably occurred at a later period. when, still later, the great plains and tablelands of hindostan were formed, and a permanent land communication effected with the rich and highly developed himalo-chinese fauna, a rapid immigration of new types took place, and many of the less specialised forms of mammalia and birds became extinct. among reptiles and insects the competition was less severe, or the older forms were too well adapted to local conditions to be expelled; so that it is among these groups alone that we find any considerable number of what are probably the remains of the ancient fauna of a now submerged southern continent."[ ] after stating that during the whole of the tertiary and perhaps during much of the secondary periods, the great land masses of the earth were probably situated in the northern hemisphere, wallace proceeds, "in the southern hemisphere there appear to have been three considerable and very ancient land masses, varying in extent from time to time, but always keeping distinct from each other, and represented more or less completely by australia, south africa and south america of our time. into these flowed successive waves of life as they each in turn became temporarily united with some part of the northern land."[ ] although, apparently in vindication of some conclusions of his which had been criticised by dr. hartlaub, wallace subsequently denied the necessity of postulating the existence of such a continent, his general recognition of the facts of subsidences and upheavals of great portions of the earth's surface, as well as the inferences which he draws from the acknowledged relations of living and extinct faunas as above stated, remain of course unaltered. the following extracts from mr. h. f. blandford's most interesting paper read before a meeting of the geological society deals with the subject in still greater detail:--[ ] "the affinities between the fossils of both animals and plants of the beaufort group of africa and those of the indian panchets and kathmis are such as to suggest the former existence of a land connexion between the two areas. but the resemblance of the african and indian fossil faunas does not cease with permian and triassic times. the plant beds of the uitenhage group have furnished eleven forms of plants, two of which mr. tate has identified with indian rájmahál plants. the indian jurassic fossils have yet to be described (with a few exceptions), but it has been stated that dr. stoliezka was much struck with the affinities of certain of the cutch fossils to african forms; and dr. stoliezka and mr. griesbach have shown that of the cretaceous fossils of the umtafuni river in natal, the majority ( out of described forms) are identical with species from southern india. now the plant-bearing series of india and the karoo and part of the uitenhage formation of africa are in all probability of fresh-water origin, both indicating the existence of a large land area around, from the waste of which these deposits are derived. was this land continuous between the two regions? and is there anything in the present physical geography of the indian ocean which would suggest its probable position? further, what was the connexion between this land and australia which we must equally assume to have existed in permian times? and, lastly, are there any peculiarities in the existing fauna and flora of india, africa and the intervening islands which would lend support to the idea of a former connexion more direct than that which now exists between africa and south india and the malay peninsula? the speculation here put forward is no new one. it has long been a subject of thought in the minds of some indian and european naturalists, among the former of whom i may mention my brother [mr. blandford] and dr. stoliezka, their speculations being grounded on the relationship and partial identity of the faunas and floras of past times, not less than on that existing community of forms which has led mr. andrew murray, mr. searles, v. wood, jun., and professor huxley to infer the existence of a miocene continent occupying a part of the indian ocean. indeed, all that i can pretend to aim at in this paper is to endeavour to give some additional definition and extension to the conception of its geological aspect. "with regard to the geographical evidence, a glance at the map will show that from the neighbourhood of the west coast of india to that of the seychelles, madagascar, and the mauritius, extends a line of coral atolls and banks, including adas bank, the laccadives, maldives, the chagos group and the saya de mulha, all indicating the existence of a submerged mountain range or ranges. the seychelles, too, are mentioned by mr. darwin as rising from an extensive and tolerably level bank having a depth of between and fathoms; so that, although now partly encircled by fringing reefs, they may be regarded as a virtual extension of the same submerged axis. further west the cosmoledo and comoro islands consist of atolls and islands surrounded by barrier reefs; and these bring us pretty close to the present shores of africa and madagascar. it seems at least probable that in this chain of atolls, banks, and barrier reefs we have indicated the position of an ancient mountain chain, which possibly formed the back-bone of a tract of later palæozoic, mesozoic, and early tertiary land, being related to it much as the alpine and himálayan system is to the europæo-asiatic continent, and the rocky mountains and andes to the two americas. as it is desirable to designate this mesozoic land by a name, i would propose that of indo-oceana. [the name given to it by mr. sclater, _viz._, lemuria, is, however, the one which has been most generally adopted.] professor huxley has suggested on palæontological grounds that a land connexion existed in this region (or rather between abyssinia and india) during the miocene epoch. from what has been said above it will be seen that i infer its existence from a far earlier date.[ ] with regard to its depression, the only present evidence relates to its northern extremity, and shows that it was in this region, later than the great trap-flows of the dakhan. these enormous sheets of volcanic rock are remarkably horizontal to the east of the gháts and the sakyádri range, but to the west of this they begin to dip seawards, so that the island of bombay is composed of the higher parts of the formation. this indicates only that the depression to the westward has taken place in tertiary times; and to that extent professor huxley's inference, that it was after the miocene period, is quite consistent with the geological evidence." after proceeding at some length to instance the close relationship of many of the fauna in the lands under consideration (lion, hyæna, jackal, leopard, antelope, gazelle, sand-grouse, indian bustard, many land molusca, and notably the lemur and the scaly anteater) the writer proceeds as follows:-- "palæontology, physical geography and geology, equally with the ascertained distribution of living animals and plants, offer thus their concurrent testimony to the former close connexion of africa and india, including the tropical islands of the indian ocean. this indo-oceanic land appears to have existed from at least early permian times, probably (as professor huxley has pointed out) up to the close of the miocene epoch;[ ] and south africa and peninsular india are the existing remnants of that ancient land. it may not have been absolutely continuous during the whole of this long period. indeed, the cretaceous rocks of southern india and southern africa, and the marine jurassic beds of the same regions, prove that some portions of it were, for longer or shorter periods, invaded by the sea; but any break of continuity was probably not prolonged; for mr. wallace's investigations in the eastern archipelago have shown how narrow a sea may offer an insuperable barrier to the migration of land animals. in palæozoic times this land must have been connected with australia, and in tertiary times with malayana, since the malayan forms with african alliances are in several cases distinct from those of india. we know as yet too little of the geology of the eastern peninsula to say from what epoch dates its connexion with indo-oceanic land. mr. theobald has ascertained the existence of triassic, cretaceous, and nummulitic rocks in the arabian coast range; and carboniferous limestone is known to occur from moulmein southward, while the range east of the irrawadi is formed of younger tertiary rocks. from this it would appear that a considerable part of the malay peninsula must have been occupied by the sea during the greater part of the mesozoic and eocene periods. plant-bearing rocks of rániganj age have been identified as forming the outer spurs of the sikkim himálaya; the ancient land must therefore have extended some distance to the north of the present gangetic delta. coal both of cretaceous and tertiary age occurs in the khasi hills, and also in upper assam, but in both cases associated with marine beds; so that it would appear that in this region the boundaries of land and sea oscillated somewhat during cretaceous and eocene times. to the north-west of india the existence of great formations of cretaceous and nummulitic age, stretching far through baluchistán and persia, and entering into the structure of the north-west himálaya, prove that in the later mesozoic and eocene ages india had no direct communication with western asia; while the jurassic rocks of cutch, the salt range, and the northern himálaya, show that in the preceding period the sea covered a large part of the present indus basin; and the triassic, carboniferous, and still more recent marine formations of the himálaya, indicate that from very early times till the upheaval of that great chain, much of its present site was for ages covered by the sea. "to sum up the views advanced in this paper. " st. the plant-bearing series of india ranges from early permian to the latest jurassic times, indicating (except in a few cases and locally) the uninterrupted continuity of land and fresh water conditions. these may have prevailed from much earlier times. " nd. in the early permian, as in the postpliocene age, a cold climate prevailed down to low latitudes, and i am inclined to believe in both hemispheres simultaneously. with the decrease of cold the flora and reptilian fauna of permian times were diffused to africa, india, and possibly australia; or the flora may have existed in australia somewhat earlier, and have been diffused thence. " rd. india, south africa and australia were connected by an indo-oceanic continent in the permian epoch; and the two former countries remained connected (with at the utmost only short interruptions) up to the end of the miocene period. during the latter part of the time this land was also connected with malayana. " th. in common with some previous writers, i consider that the position of this land was defined by the range of coral reefs and banks that now exist between the arabian sea and east africa. " th. up to the end of the nummulitic epoch no direct connexion (except possibly for short periods) existed between india and western asia." in the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, professor ramsay "agreed with the author in the belief in the junction of africa with india and australia in geological times." mr. woodward "was pleased to find that the author had added further evidence, derived from the fossil flora of the mesozoic series of india, in corroboration of the views of huxley, sclater and others as to the former existence of an old submerged continent ('lemuria') which darwin's researches on coral reefs had long since foreshadowed." "of the five now existing continents," writes ernst haeckel, in his great work "the history of creation,"[ ] "neither australia, nor america, nor europe can have been this primæval home [of man], or the so-called 'paradise,' the 'cradle of the human race.' most circumstances indicate southern asia as the locality in question. besides southern asia, the only other of the now existing continents which might be viewed in this light is africa. but there are a number of circumstances (especially chorological facts) which suggest that the primeval home of man was a continent now sunk below the surface of the indian ocean, which extended along the south of asia, as it is at present (and probably in direct connection with it), towards the east, as far as further india and the sunda islands; towards the west, as far as madagascar and the south-eastern shores of africa. we have already mentioned that many facts in animal and vegetable geography render the former existence of such a south indian continent very probable. sclater has given this continent the name of lemuria, from the semi-apes which were characteristic of it. by assuming this lemuria to have been man's primæval home, we greatly facilitate the explanation of the geographical distribution of the human species by migration." in a subsequent work, "the pedigree of man," haeckel asserts the existence of lemuria at some early epoch of the earth's history as an acknowledged fact. the following quotation from dr. hartlaub's writings may bring to a close this portion of the evidence in favour of the existence of the lost lemuria:--[ ] "five and thirty years ago, isidore geoffrey st. hilaire remarked that, if one had to classify the island of madagascar exclusively on zoological considerations, and without reference to its geographical situation, it could be shown to be neither asiatic nor african, but quite different from either, and almost a fourth continent. and this fourth continent could be further proved to be, as regards its fauna, much more different from africa, which lies so near to it, than from india which is so far away. with these words the correctness and pregnancy of which later investigations tend to bring into their full light, the french naturalist first stated the interesting problem for the solution of which an hypothesis based on scientific knowledge has recently been propounded, for this fourth continent of isidore geoffrey is sclater's 'lemuria'--that sunken land which, containing parts of africa, must have extended far eastwards over southern india and ceylon, and the highest points of which we recognise in the volcanic peaks of bourbon and mauritius, and in the central range of madagascar itself--the last resorts of the almost extinct lemurine race which formerly peopled it." [sidenote: evidence obtained from archaic records.] the further evidence we have with regard to lemuria and its inhabitants has been obtained from the same source and in the same manner as that which resulted in the writing of the _story of atlantis_. in this case also the author has been privileged to obtain copies of two maps, one representing lemuria (and the adjoining lands) during the period of that continent's greatest expansion, the other exhibiting its outlines after its dismemberment by great catastrophes, but long before its final destruction. it was never professed that the maps of atlantis were correct _to a single degree_ of latitude, or longitude, but, with the far greater difficulty of obtaining the information in the present case, it must be stated that still less must these maps of lemuria be taken as absolutely accurate. in the former case there was a globe, a good bas-relief in terra-cotta, and a well-preserved map on parchment, or skin of some sort, to copy from. in the present case there was only a broken terra-cotta model and a very badly preserved and crumpled map, so that the difficulty of carrying back the remembrance of all the details, and consequently of reproducing exact copies, has been far greater. we were told that it was by mighty adepts in the days of atlantis that the atlantean maps were produced, but we are not aware whether the lemurian maps were fashioned by some of the divine instructors in the days when lemuria still existed, or in still later days of the atlantean epoch. but while guarding against over-confidence in the absolute accuracy of the maps in question, the transcriber of the archaic originals believes that they may in all important particulars, be taken as approximately correct. [sidenote: probable duration of the continent of lemuria.] a period--speaking roughly--of between four and five million years probably represents the life of the continent of atlantis, for it is about that time since the rmoahals, the first sub-race of the fourth root race who inhabited atlantis, arose on a portion of the lemurian continent which at that time still existed. remembering that in the evolutionary process the figure four invariably represents not only the nadir of the cycle, but the period of shortest duration, whether in the case of a manvantara or of a race, it may be assumed that the number of millions of years assignable as the life-limit of the continent of lemuria must be very much greater than that representing the life of atlantis, the continent of the fourth root race. but in the case of lemuria no dates can be stated with even approximate accuracy. geological epochs, so far as they are known to modern science, will be a better medium for contemporary reference, and they alone will be dealt with. [sidenote: the maps.] but not even geological epochs, it will be observed, are assigned to the maps. if, however, an inference may be drawn from all the evidence before us, it would seem probable that the older of the two lemurian maps represented the earth's configuration from the permian, through the triassic and into the jurassic epoch, while the second map probably represents the earth's configuration through the cretaceous and into the eocene period. from the older of the two maps it may be seen that the equatorial continent of lemuria at the time of its greatest expansion nearly girdled the globe, extending as it then did from the site of the present cape verd islands a few miles from the coast of sierra leone, in a south-easterly direction through africa, australia, the society islands and all the intervening seas, to a point but a few miles distant from a great island continent (about the size of the present south america) which spread over the remainder of the pacific ocean, and included cape horn and parts of patagonia. a remarkable feature in the second map of lemuria is the great length, and at parts the extreme narrowness, of the straits which separated the two great blocks of land into which the continent had by this time been split, and it will be observed that the straits at present existing between the islands of bali and lomboc coincide with a portion of the straits which then divided these two continents. it will also be seen that these straits continued in a northerly direction by the west, not by the east coast of borneo, as conjectured by ernst haeckel. with reference to the distribution of fauna and flora, and the existence of so many types common to india and africa alike, pointed out by mr. blandford, it will be observed that between parts of india and great tracts of africa there was direct land communication during the first map period, and that similar communication was partially maintained in the second map period also; while a comparison of the maps of atlantis with those of lemuria will demonstrate that continuous land communication existed, now at one epoch, and now at another, between so many different parts of the earth's surface, at present separated by sea, that the existing distribution of fauna and flora in the two americas, in europe and in eastern lands, which has been such a puzzle to naturalists, may with perfect ease be accounted for. the island indicated in the earlier lemurian map as existing to the north-west of the extreme promontory of that continent, and due west of the present coast of spain, was probably a centre from which proceeded, during long ages, the distribution of fauna and flora above referred to. for--and this is a most interesting fact--it will be seen that this island must have been the nucleus, from first to last, of the subsequent great continent of atlantis. it existed, as we see, in these earliest lemurian times. it was joined in the second map period to land which had previously formed part of the great lemurian continent; and indeed, so many accretions of territory had it by this time received that it might more appropriately be called a continent than an island. it was the great mountainous region of atlantis at its prime, when atlantis embraced great tracts of land which have now become north and south america. it remained the mountainous region of atlantis in its decadence, and of ruta in the ruta and daitya epoch, and it practically constituted the island of poseidonis--the last remnant of the continent of atlantis--the final submergence of which took place in the year b.c. a comparison of the two maps here given, along with the four maps of atlantis, will also show that australia and new zealand, madagascar, parts of somaliland, the south of africa, and the extreme southern portion of patagonia are lands which have _probably_ existed through all the intervening catastrophes since the early days of the lemurian period. the same may be said of the southern parts of india and ceylon, with the exception in the case of ceylon, of a temporary submergence in the ruta and daitya epoch. it is true there are also remains still existing of the even earlier hyperborean continent, and they of course are the oldest known lands on the face of the earth. these are greenland, iceland, spitzbergen, the most northerly parts of norway and sweden, and the extreme north cape of siberia. japan is shown by the maps to have been above water, whether as an island, or as part of a continent, since the date of the second lemurian map. spain, too, has doubtless existed since that time. spain is, therefore, with the exception of the most northerly parts of norway and sweden, _probably_ the oldest land in europe. the indeterminate character of the statements just made is rendered necessary by our knowledge that there _did_ occur subsidences and upheavals of different portions of the earth's surface during the ages which lay between the periods represented by the maps. for example, soon after the date of the second lemurian map we are informed that the whole malay peninsula was submerged and remained so for a long time, but a subsequent upheaval of that region must have taken place before the date of the first atlantean map, for, what is now the malay peninsula is there exhibited as part of a great continent. similarly there have been repeated minor subsidences and upheavals nearer home in more recent times, and haeckel is perfectly correct in saying that england--he might with greater accuracy have said the islands of great britain and ireland, which were then joined together--"has repeatedly been connected with the european continent, and been repeatedly separated from it." in order to bring the subject more dearly before the mind, a tabular statement is here annexed which supplies a condensed history of the animal and plant life on our globe, bracketed--according to haeckel--with the contemporary rock strata. two other columns give the contemporary races of man, and such of the great cataclysms as are known to occult students. [sidenote: reptiles and pine forests.] from this statement it will be seen that lemurian man lived in the age of reptiles and pine forests. the amphibious monsters and the gigantic tree-ferns of the permian age still flourished in the warm damp climates. plesiosauri and icthyosauri swarmed in the tepid marshes of the mesolithic epoch, but, with the drying up of many of the inland seas, the dinosauria--the monstrous land reptiles--gradually became the dominant type, while the pterodactyls--the saurians which developed bat-like wings--not only crawled on the earth, but flew through the air. the smallest of these latter were about the size of a sparrow; the largest, however, with a breadth of wing of more than sixteen feet, exceeding the largest of our living birds of to-day; while most of the dinosauria--the dragons--were terrible beasts of prey, colossal reptiles which attained a length of from forty to fifty feet.[ ] subsequent excavations have laid bare skeletons of an even larger size. professor ray lankester, at a meeting of the royal institution on th january, , is reported to have referred to a brontosaurus skeleton of sixty-five feet long, which had been discovered in the oolite deposit in the southern part of the united states of america. |depth of| | | | | rock strata. | strata.| races of men. | cataclysms. | animals. | plants. | | feet. | | | | | -------------------------+--------+------------------+-----------------------+--------------+------------------| laurentian } | |first root race | | | | } archilithic | |which being astra | |skull-less |forest of gigantic| cambrian } or | , |could leave | |animals. |tangle and other | } primordial | |no fossil remains.| | |thallus plants. | silurian } | | | | | | | | | | | | devonian } | | | | | | } palæolithic | |second root race | | | | coal } or | , |which was etheric.| |fish. |fern forests. | } primary. | | | | | | permian } | | | | | | | | | | | | triassic } | | |lemuria is said to have| | | } mesolithic | |third root race |perished before the | |pine and palm | jurassic } or | , |or lemurian. |beginning of the eocene|reptiles. |forests. | } secondary | | |age. | | | cretaceous } | | | | | | | | |the main continent of | | | eocene } | | |atlantis was destroyed | | | } cenolithic | |fourth root race |in the miocene period | | | miocene } or | , |or atlantean. |about , years |mammals. |forests of | } tertiary. | | |ago. second great | |deciduous trees. | pliocene } | | |catastrophe? about | | | | | | , years ago. | | | diluvial or} | | |third great catastrophe| | | pleistocene} quarternary | |fifth root race |about , years ago.|more |cultivated | } or | |or aryan. |final submergence of |differentiated|forests. | alluvial }anthopolithic| | |poseidonis b.c. |mammals. | | as it is written in the stanzas of the archaic book of dzyan, "animals with bones, dragons of the deep, and flying sarpas were added to the creeping things. they that creep on the ground got wings. they of the long necks in the water became the progenitors of the fowls of the air." modern science records her endorsement. "the class of birds as already remarked is so closely allied to reptiles in internal structure and by embryonal development that they undoubtedly originated out of a branch of this class.... the derivation of birds from reptiles first took place in the mesolithic epoch, and this moreover probably during the trias."[ ] in the vegetable kingdom this epoch also saw the pine and the palm-tree gradually displace the giant tree ferns. in the later days of the mesolithic epoch, mammals for the first time came into existence, but the fossil remains of the mammoth and mastodon, which were their earliest representatives, are chiefly found in the subsequent strata of the eocene and miocene times. [sidenote: the human kingdom.] before making any reference to what must, even at this early date, be called the human kingdom, it must be stated that none of those who, at the present day, can lay claim to even a moderate amount of mental or spiritual culture _can_ have lived in these ages. it was only with the advent of the last three sub-races of this third root race that the least progressed of the first group of the lunar pitris began to return to incarnation, while the most advanced among them did not take birth till the early sub-races of the atlantean period. indeed, lemurian man, during at least the first half of the race, must be regarded rather as an animal destined to reach humanity than as human according to our understanding of the term; for though the second and third groups of pitris, who constituted the inhabitants of lemuria during its first four sub-races, had achieved sufficient self-consciousness in the lunar manvantara to differentiate them from the animal kingdom, they had not yet received the divine spark which should endow them with mind and individuality--in other words, make them truly human. [sidenote: size and consistency of man's body.] the evolution of this lemurian race, therefore, constitutes one of the most obscure, as well as one of the most interesting, chapters of man's development, for during this period not only did he reach true humanity, but his body underwent the greatest physical changes, while the processes of reproduction were twice altered. in explanation of the surprising statements which will have to be made in regard to the size and consistency of man's body at this early period it must be remembered that while the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms pursued the normal course, on this the fourth globe, during the fourth round of this manvantara, it was ordained that humanity should run over in rapid succession the various stages through which its evolution had passed during the previous rounds of the present manvantara. thus the bodies of the first root race in which these almost mindless beings were destined to gain experience, would have appeared to us as gigantic phantoms--if indeed we could have seen them at all, for their bodies were formed of astral matter. the astral forms of the first root race were then gradually enveloped in a more physical casing. but though the second root race may be called physical--their bodies being composed of ether--they would have been equally invisible to eyesight as it at present exists. it was, we are told, in order that the manu, and the beings who aided him, might take means for improving the physical type of humanity that this epitome of the process of evolution was ordained. the highest development which the type had so far reached was the huge ape-like creature which had existed on the three physical planets, mars, the earth and mercury in the third round. on the arrival of the human life-wave on the earth in this the fourth round, a certain number, naturally, of these ape-like creatures were found in occupation--the residuum left on the planet during its period of obscuration. these, of course, joined the in-coming human stream as soon as the race became fully physical. their bodies may not then have been absolutely discarded; they may have been utilized for purposes of reincarnation for the most backward entities, but it was an improvement on this type which was required, and this was most easily achieved by the manu, through working out on the astral plane in the first instance, the architype originally formed in the mind of the logos. from the etheric second race, then, was evolved the third--the lemurian. their bodies had become material, being composed of the gases, liquids and solids which constitute the three lowest sub-divisions of the physical plane, but the gases and liquids still predominated, for as yet their vertebrate structure had not solidified into bones such as ours, and they could not, therefore, stand erect. their bones in fact were pliable as the bones of young infants now are. it was not until the middle of the lemurian period that man developed a solid bony structure. to explain the possibility of the process by which the etheric form evolved into a more physical form, and the soft-boned physical form ultimately developed into a structure such as man possesses to-day, it is only necessary to refer to the permanent physical atom.[ ] containing as it does the essence of all the forms through which man has passed on the physical plane, it contained consequently the potentiality of a hard-boned physical structure such as had been attained during the course of the third round, as well as the potentiality of an etheric form and all the phases which lie between, for it must be remembered that the physical plane consists of four grades of ether as well as the gases, liquids and solids which so many are apt to regard as alone constituting the physical. thus, every stage of the development was a natural process, for it was a process which had been accomplished in ages long past, and all that was needed was for the manu and the beings who aided him, to gather round the permanent atom the appropriate kind of matter. [sidenote: organs of vision.] the organs of vision of these creatures before they developed bones were of a rudimentary nature, at least such was the condition of the two eyes in front with which they sought for their food upon the ground. but there was a third eye at the back of the head, the atrophied remnant of which is now known as the _pineal gland_. this, as we know, is _now_ a centre solely of astral vision, but at the epoch of which we are speaking it was the chief centre not only of astral but of physical sight. referring to reptiles which had become extinct, professor ray lankester, in a recent lecture at the royal institution, is reported to have drawn special attention "to the size of the parietal foramen in the skull which showed that in the ichthyosaurs the parietal or pineal eye on the top of the head must have been very large." in this respect he went on to say mankind were inferior to these big sea lizards, "for we had lost the third eye which might be studied in the common lizard, or better in the great blue lizard of the south of france."[ ] somewhat before the middle of the lemurian period, probably during the evolution of the third sub-race, the gigantic gelatinous body began slowly to solidify and the soft-boned limbs developed into a bony structure. these primitive creatures were now able to stand upright, and the two eyes in the face gradually became the chief organs of physical sight, though the third eye still remained to some extent an organ of physical sight also, and this it did till the very end of the lemurian epoch. it, of course, remained an actual organ, as it still is a potential focus, of psychic vision. this psychic vision continued to be an attribute of the race not only throughout the whole lemurian period, but well into the days of atlantis. a curious fact to note is that when the race first attained the power of standing and moving in an upright position, they could walk backwards with almost as great ease as forwards. this may be accounted for not only by the capacity for vision possessed by the third eye, but doubtless also by the curious projection at the heels which will presently be referred to. [sidenote: description of lemurian man.] the following is a description of a man who belonged to one of the later sub-races--probably the fifth. "his stature was gigantic, somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet. his skin was very dark, being of a yellowish brown colour. he had a long lower jaw, a strangely flattened face, eyes small but piercing and set curiously far apart, so that he could see sideways as well as in front, while the eye at the back of the head--on which part of the head no hair, of course, grew--enabled him to see in that direction also. he had no forehead, but there seemed to be a roll of flesh where it should have been. the head sloped backwards and upwards in a rather curious way. the arms and legs (especially the former) were longer in proportion than ours, and could not be perfectly straightened either at elbows or knees; the hands and feet were enormous, and the heels projected backwards in an ungainly way. the figure was draped in a loose robe of skin, something like rhinoceros hide, but more scaly, probably the skin of some animal of which we now know only through its fossil remains. round his head, on which the hair was quite short, was twisted another piece of skin to which were attached tassels of bright red, blue and other colours. in his left hand he held a sharpened staff, which was doubtless used for defence or attack. it was about the height of his own body, _viz._, twelve to fifteen feet. in his right hand was twisted the end of a long rope made of some sort of creeping plant, by which he led a huge and hideous reptile, somewhat resembling the plesiosaurus. the lemurians actually domesticated these creatures, and trained them to employ their strength in hunting other animals. the appearance of the man gave an unpleasant sensation, but he was not entirely uncivilised, being an average common-place specimen of his day." many were even less human in appearance than the individual here described, but the seventh sub-race developed a superior type, though very unlike any living men of the present time. while retaining the projecting lower jaw, the thick heavy lips, the flattened face, and the uncanny looking eyes, they had by this time developed something which might be called a forehead, while the curious projection of the heel had been considerably reduced. in one branch of this seventh sub-race, the head might be described as almost egg-shaped--the small end of the egg being uppermost, with the eyes wide apart and very near the top. the stature had perceptibly decreased, and the appearance of the hands, feet and limbs generally had become more like those of the negroes of to-day. these people developed an important and long-lasting civilisation, and for thousands of years dominated most of the other tribes who dwelt on the vast lemurian continent, and even at the end, when racial decay seemed to be overtaking them, they secured another long lease of life and power by inter-marriage with the rmoahals--the first sub-race of the atlanteans. the progeny, while retaining many third race characteristics, of course, really belonged to the fourth race, and thus naturally acquired fresh power of development. their general appearance now became not unlike that of some american indians, except that their skin had a curious bluish tinge not now to be seen. but surprising as were the changes in the size, consistency, and appearance of man's body during this period, the alterations in the process of reproduction are still more astounding. a reference to the systems which now obtain among the lower kingdoms of nature may help us in the consideration of the subject. [sidenote: processes of reproduction.] after instancing the simplest processes of propagation by self-division, and by the formation of buds (gemmatio), haeckel proceeds, "a third mode of non-sexual propagation, that of the formation of germ-buds (polysporogonia) is intimately connected with the formation of buds. in the case of the lower, imperfect organisms, among animals, especially in the case of the plant-like animals and worms, we very frequently find that in the interior of an individual composed of many cells, a small group of cells separates itself from those surrounding it, and that this small isolated group gradually develops itself into an individual, which becomes like the parent and sooner or later comes out of it.... the formation of germ buds is evidently but little different from real budding. but, on the other hand, it is connected with a fourth kind of non-sexual propagation, which almost forms a transition to sexual reproduction, namely, the formation of germ cells (monosporogonia). in this case it is no longer a group of cells but a single cell, which separates itself from the surrounding cells in the interior of the producing organism, and which becomes further developed after it has come out of its parent.... sexual or amphigonic propagation (amphigonia) is the usual method of propagation among all higher animals and plants. it is evident that it has only developed at a very late period of the earth's history, from non-sexual propagation, and apparently in the first instance from the method of propagation by germ-cells.... in all the chief forms of non-sexual propagation mentioned above--in fission, in the formation of buds, germ-buds, and germ-cells--the separated cell or group of cells was able by itself to develop into a new individual, but in the case of sexual propagation, the cell must first be fructified by another generative substance. the fructifying sperm must first mix with the germ-cell (the egg) before the latter can develop into a new individual. these two generative substances, the sperm and the egg, are either produced by one and the same individual hermaphrodite (hermaphroditismus) or by two different individuals (sexual-separation). "the simpler and more ancient form of sexual propagation is through double-sexed individuals. it occurs in the great majority of plants, but only in a minority of animals, for example, in the garden snails, leeches, earth-worms, and many other worms. every single individual among hermaphrodites produces within itself materials of both sexes--eggs and sperm. in most of the higher plants every blossom contains both the male organ (stamens and anther) and the female organ (style and germ). every garden snail produces in one part of its sexual gland eggs, and in another part sperm. many hermaphrodites can fructify themselves; in others, however, reciprocal fructification of both hermaphrodites is necessary for causing the development of the eggs. this latter case is evidently a transition to sexual separation. "sexual separation, which characterises the more complicated of the two kinds of sexual reproduction, has evidently been developed from the condition of hermaphroditism at a late period of the organic history of the world. it is at present the universal method of propagation of the higher animals.... the so-called virginal reproduction (parthenogenesis) offers an interesting form of transition from sexual reproduction to the non-sexual formation of germ-cells which most resembles it.... in this case germ-cells which otherwise appear and are formed exactly like egg-cells, become capable of developing themselves into new individuals without requiring the fructifying seed. the most remarkable and the most instructive of the different parthenogenetic phenomena are furnished by those cases in which the same germ-cells, according as they are fructified or not, produce different kinds of individuals. among our common honey bees, a male individual (a drone) arises out of the eggs of the queen, if the egg has not been fructified; a female (a queen, or working bee) if the egg has been fructified. it is evident from this, that in reality there exists no wide chasm between sexual and non-sexual reproduction, but that both modes of reproduction are directly connected."[ ] now, the interesting fact in connection with the evolution of third race man on lemuria, is that his mode of reproduction ran through phases which were closely analogous with some of the processes above described. sweat-born, egg-born and androgyne are the terms used in the secret doctrine. "almost sexless, in its early beginnings, it became bisexual or androgynous; very gradually, of course. the passage from the former to the latter transformation required numberless generations, during which the simple cell that issued from the earliest parent (the two in one), first developed into a bisexual being; and then the cell, becoming a regular egg, gave forth a unisexual creature. the third race mankind is the most mysterious of all the hitherto developed five races. the mystery of the 'how' of the generation of the distinct sexes must, of course, be very obscure here, as it is the business of an embryologist and a specialist, the present work giving only faint outlines of the process. but it is evident that the units of the third race humanity began to separate in their pre-natal shells, or eggs, and to issue out of them as distinct male and female babes, ages after the appearance of its early progenitors. and, as time rolled on its geological periods, the newly born sub-races began to lose their natal capacities. toward the end of the fourth _sub-race_, the babe lost its faculty of walking as soon as liberated from its shell, and by the end of the fifth, mankind was born under the same conditions and by the same identical process as our historical generations. this required, of course, millions of years."[ ] [sidenote: lemurian races still inhabiting the earth.] it may be as well again to repeat that the almost mindless creatures who inhabited such bodies as have been above described during the early sub-races of the lemurian period can scarcely be regarded as completely human. it was only after the separation of the sexes, when their bodies had become densely physical, that they became human even in appearance. it must be remembered that the beings we are speaking of, though embracing the second and third groups of the lunar pitris, must also have been largely recruited from the animal kingdom of that (the lunar) manvantara. the degraded remnants of the third root race who still inhabit the earth may be recognised in the aborigines of australia, the andaman islanders, some hill tribes of india, the tierra-del-fuegans, the bushmen of africa, and some other savage tribes. the entities now inhabiting these bodies must have belonged to the animal kingdom in the early part of _this_ manvantara. it was probably during the evolution of the lemurian race and before the "door was shut" on the entities thronging up from below, that these attained the human kingdom. [sidenote: sin of the mindless.] the shameful acts of the mindless men at the first separation of the sexes had best be referred to in the words of the stanzas of the archaic book of dzyan. no commentary is needed. "during the third race the boneless animals grew and changed, they became animals with bones, their chayas became solid. "the animals separated first. they began to breed. the two-fold man separated also. he said, 'let us as they; let us unite and make creatures.' they did. "and those that had no spark took huge she-animals unto them. they begat upon them dumb races. dumb they were themselves. but their tongues untied. the tongues of their progeny remained still. monsters they bred. a race of crooked red-hair-covered monsters going on all fours. a dumb race to keep the shame untold." (and an ancient commentary adds 'when the third separated and fell into sin by breeding men-animals, these (the animals) became ferocious, and men and they mutually destructive. till then, there was no sin, no life taken.'). "seeing which the lhas who had not built men, wept, saying. 'the amanasa [mindless] have defiled our future abodes. this is karma. let us dwell in the others. let us teach them better lest worse should happen.' they did. "then all men became endowed with manas. they saw the sin of the mindless." [sidenote: origin of the pithecoid and the anthropoid apes.] the anatomical resemblance between man and the higher ape, so frequently cited by darwinists as pointing to some ancestors common to both, presents an interesting problem, the proper solution of which is to be sought for in the esoteric explanation of the genesis of the pithecoid stocks. now, we gather from the secret doctrine[ ] that the descendants of these semi-human monsters described above as originating in the sin of the "mindless," having through long centuries dwindled in size and become more densely physical, culminated in a race of apes at the time of the miocene period, from which in their turn are descended the pithecoids of to-day. with these apes of the miocene period, however, the atlanteans of that age renewed the sin of the "mindless"--this time with full responsibility, and the resultants of their crime are the species of apes now known as anthropoid. we are given to understand that in the coming sixth root race, these anthropoids will obtain human incarnation, in the bodies doubtless of the lowest races then existing upon earth. that part of the lemurian continent where the separation of the sexes took place, and where both the fourth and the fifth sub-races flourished, is to be found in the earlier of the two maps. it lay to the east of the mountainous region of which the present island of madagascar formed a part, and thus occupied a central position around the smaller of the two great lakes. [sidenote: origin of language.] as stated in the stanzas of dzyan above quoted, the men of that epoch, even though they had become completely physical, still remained speechless. naturally the astral and etherial ancestors of this third root race had no need to produce a series of sounds in order to convey their thoughts, living as they did in astral and etherial conditions, but when man became physical he could not for long remain dumb. we are told that the sounds which these primitive men made to express their thoughts were at first composed entirely of vowels. in the slow course of evolution the consonant sounds gradually came into use, but the development of language from first to last on the continent of lemuria never reached beyond the monosyllabic phase. the chinese language of to-day is the sole great lineal descendant of ancient lemurian speech[ ] for "the whole human race was at that time of one language and of one lip."[ ] in humboldt's classification of language, the chinese, as we know, is called the _isolating_ as distinguished from the more highly evolved _agglutinative_, and the still more highly evolved _inflectional_. readers of the _story of atlantis_ may remember that many different languages were developed on that continent, but all belonged to the _agglutinative_, or, as max müller prefers to call it, the _combinatory_ type, while the still higher development of _inflectional_ speech, in the aryan and semitic tongues, was reserved for our own era of the fifth root race. [sidenote: the first taking of life.] the first instance of sin, the first taking of life--quoted above from an old commentary on the stanzas of dzyan, may be taken as indicative of the attitude which was then inaugurated between the human and the animal kingdom, and which has since attained such awful proportions, not only between men and animals, but between the different races of men themselves. and this opens up a most interesting avenue of thought. the fact that kings and emperors consider it necessary or appropriate, on all state occasions, to appear in the garb of one of the fighting branches of their service, is a significant indication of the apotheosis reached by the combative qualities in man! the custom doubtless comes down from a time when the king was the warrior-chief, and when his kingship was acknowledged solely in virtue of his being the chief warrior. but now that the fifth root race is in ascendency, whose chief characteristic and function is the development of intellect, it might have been expected that the dominant attribute of the fourth root race would have been a little less conspicuously paraded. but the era of one race overlaps another, and though, as we know, the leading races of the world all belong to the fifth root race, the vast majority of its inhabitants still belong to the fourth, and it would appear that the fifth root race has not yet outstripped fourth race characteristics, for it is by infinitely slow degrees that man's evolution is accomplished. it will be interesting here to summarise the history of this strife and bloodshed from its genesis during these far-off ages on lemuria. from the information placed before the writer it would seem that the antagonism between men and animals was developed first. with the evolution of man's physical body, suitable food for that body naturally became an urgent need, so that in addition to the antagonism brought about by the necessity of self-defence against the now ferocious animals, the desire of food also urged men to their slaughter, and as we have seen above, one of the first uses they made of their budding mentality was to train animals to act as hunters in the chase. the element of strife having once been kindled, men soon began to use weapons of offence against each other. the causes of aggression were naturally the same as those which exist to-day among savage communities. the possession of any desirable object by one of his fellows was sufficient inducement for a man to attempt to take it by force. nor was strife limited to single acts of aggression. as among savages to-day, bands of marauders would attack and pillage the communities who dwelt at a distance from their own village. but to this extent only, we are told, was warfare organised on lemuria, even down to the end of its seventh sub-race. it was reserved for the atlanteans to develop the principle of strife on organised lines--to collect and to drill armies and to build navies. this principle of strife was indeed the fundamental characteristic of the fourth root race. all through the atlantean period, as we know, warfare was the order of the day, and battles were constantly fought on land and sea. and so deeply rooted in man's nature during the atlantean period did this principle of strife become, that even now the most intellectually developed of the aryan races are ready to war upon each other. [sidenote: the arts.] to trace the development of the arts among the lemurians, we must start with the history of the fifth sub-race. the separation of the sexes was now fully accomplished, and man inhabited a completely physical body, though it was still of gigantic stature. the offensive and defensive war with the monstrous beasts of prey had already begun, and men had taken to living in huts. to build their huts they tore down trees, and piled them up in a rude fashion. at first each separate family lived in its own clearing in the jungle, but they soon found it safer, as a defence against the wild beasts, to draw together and live in small communities. their huts, too, which had been formed of rude trunks of trees, they now learnt to build with boulders of stone, while the weapons with which they attacked, or defended themselves against the dinosauria and other wild beasts, were spears of sharpened wood, similar to the staff held by the man whose appearance is described above. up to this time agriculture was unknown, and the uses of fire had not been discovered. the food of their boneless ancestors who crawled on the earth were such things as they could find on the surface of the ground or just below it. now that they walked erect many of the wild forest trees provided them with nuts and berries, but their chief article of food was the flesh of the beasts and reptiles which they slew, tore in pieces, and devoured. [sidenote: teachers of the lemurian race.] but now there occurred an event pregnant with consequences the most momentous in the history of the human race. an event too full of mystical import, for its narration brings into view beings who belonged to entirely different systems of evolution, and who nevertheless came at this epoch to be associated with our humanity. the lament of the lhas "who had not built men" at seeing their future abodes defiled, is at first sight far from intelligible. though the descent of these beings into human bodies is not the chief event to which we have to refer, some explanation of its cause and its result must first be attempted. now, we are given to understand that these lhas were the highly evolved humanity of some system of evolution which had run its course at a period in the infinitely far-off past. they had reached a high stage of development on their chain of worlds, and since its dissolution had passed the intervening ages in the bliss of some nirvanic condition. but their karma now necessitated a return to some field of action and of physical causes, and as they had not yet fully learnt the lesson of compassion, their temporary task now lay in becoming guides and teachers of the lemurian race, who then required all the help and guidance they could get. but other beings also took up the task--in this case voluntarily. these came from the scheme of evolution which has venus as its one physical planet. that scheme has already reached the seventh round of its planets in its fifth manvantara; its humanity therefore stands at a far higher level than ordinary mankind on this earth has yet attained. they are "divine" while we are only "human." the lemurians, as we have seen, were then merely on the verge of attaining true manhood. it was to supply a temporary need--the education of our infant humanity--that these divine beings came--as we possibly, long ages hence, may similarly be called to give a helping hand to the beings struggling up to manhood on the jupiter or the saturn chain. under their guidance and influence the lemurians rapidly advanced in mental growth. the stirring of their minds with feelings of love and reverence for those whom they felt to be infinitely wiser and greater than themselves naturally resulted in efforts of imitation, and so the necessary advance in mental growth was achieved which transformed the higher mental sheath into a vehicle capable of carrying over the human characteristics from life to life, thus warranting that outpouring of the divine life which endowed the recipient with individual immortality. as expressed in the archaic stanzas of dzyan, "then all men became endowed with manas." a great distinction, however, must be noted between the coming of the exalted beings from the venus scheme and that of those described as the highly evolved humanity of some previous system of evolution. the former, as we have seen, were under no karmic impulse. they came as men to live and work among them, but they were not required to assume their physical limitations, being in a position to provide appropriate vehicles for themselves. the lhas on the other hand had actually to be born in the bodies of the race as it then existed. better would it have been both for them and for the race if there had been no hesitation or delay on their part in taking up their karmic task, for the sin of the mindless and all its consequences would have been avoided. their task, too, would have been an easier one, for it consisted not only in acting as guides and teachers, but in improving the racial type--in short, in evolving out of the half-human, half-animal form then existing, the physical body of the man to be. it must be remembered that up to this time the lemurian race consisted of the second and third groups of the lunar pitris. but now that they were approaching the level reached on the lunar chain by the first group of pitris, it became necessary for these again to return to incarnation, and this they did all through the fifth, sixth and seventh sub-races (indeed, some did not take birth till the atlantean period), so that the impetus given to the progress of the race was a cumulative force. the positions occupied by the divine beings from the venus chain were naturally those of rulers, instructors in religion, and teachers of the arts, and it is in this latter capacity that a reference to the arts taught by them comes to our aid in the consideration of the history of this early race. [sidenote: the arts continued.] under the guidance of their divine teachers the people began to learn the use of fire, and the means by which it could be obtained, at first by friction, and later on by the use of flints and iron. they were taught to explore for metals, to smelt and to mould them, and instead of spears of sharpened wood they now began to use spears tipped with sharpened metal. they were also taught to dig and till the ground and to cultivate the seeds of wild grain till it improved in type. this cultivation carried on through the vast ages which have since elapsed has resulted in the evolution of the various cereals which we now possess--barley, oats, maize, millet, etc. but an exception must here be noted. wheat was not evolved upon this planet like the other cereals. it was a gift of the divine beings who brought it from venus ready for the food of man. nor was wheat their only gift. the one animal form whose type has not been evolved on our chain of worlds is that of the bee. it, too, was brought from venus. the lemurians now also began to learn the art of spinning and weaving fabrics with which to clothe themselves. these were made of the coarse hair of a species of animal now extinct, but which bore some resemblance to the llamas of to-day, the ancestors of which they may possibly have been. we have seen above that the earliest articles of clothing of lemurian man were robes of skin stripped from the beasts he had slain. these skins he still continued to wear on the colder parts of the continent, but he now learnt to cure and dress the skin in some rude fashion. one of the first things the people were taught was the use of fire in the preparation of their food, and whether it was the flesh of animals they slew or the pounded grains of wheat, their modes of cooking were closely analogous to those we hear of as existing to-day among savage communities. with reference to the gift of wheat so marvellously brought from venus, the divine rulers doubtless realised the advisability of at once procuring such food for the people, for they must have known that it would take many generations before the cultivation of the wild seeds could provide an adequate supply. rude and barbarous as were the people during the period of the fifth and sixth sub-races, such of them as had the privilege of coming in contact with their divine teachers were naturally inspired with such feelings of reverence and worship as helped to lift them out of their savage condition. the constant influx, too, of more intelligent beings from the first group of the lunar pitris, who were then beginning to return to incarnation, helped the attainment of a more civilised state. [sidenote: great cities and statues.] during the later part of the sixth, and the seventh sub-race they learnt to build great cities. these appear to have been of cyclopean architecture, corresponding with the gigantic bodies of the race. the first cities were built on that extended mountainous region of the continent which included, as will be seen in the first map, the present island of madagascar. another great city is described in the "secret doctrine"[ ] as having been entirely built of blocks of lava. it lay some miles west of the present easter island, and it was subsequently destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions. the gigantic statues of easter island--measuring as most of them do about feet in height by feet across the shoulders--were probably intended to be representative not only of the features, but of the height of those who carved them, or it may be of their ancestors, for it was probably in the later ages of the lemuro-atlanteans that the statues were erected. it will be observed that by the second map period, the continent of which easter island formed a part had been broken up and easter island itself had become a comparatively small island, though of considerably greater dimensions than it retains to-day. civilisations of comparative importance arose on different parts of the continent and the great islands where the inhabitants built cities and dwelt in settled communities, but large tribes who were also partially civilised continued to lead a nomadic and patriarchial life; while other parts of the land--in many cases the least accessible, as in our own times--were peopled by tribes of extremely low type. [sidenote: religion.] with so primitive a race of men, at the best, there was but little in the shape of religion that they could be taught. simple rules of conduct and the most elementary precepts of morality were all that they were fitted to understand or to practise. during the evolution of the seventh sub-race, it is true that their divine instructors taught them some primitive form of worship and imparted the knowledge of a supreme being whose symbol was represented as the sun. [sidenote: destruction of the continent.] unlike the subsequent fate of atlantis, which was submerged by great tidal waves, the continent of lemuria perished by volcanic action. it was raked by the burning ashes and the red-hot dust from numberless volcanoes. earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it is true, heralded each of the great catastrophes which overtook atlantis, but when the land had been shaken and rent, the sea rushed in and completed the work, and most of the inhabitants perished by drowning. the lemurians, on the other hand, met their doom chiefly by fire or suffocation. another marked contrast between the fate of lemuria and atlantis was that while four great catastrophes completed the destruction of the latter, the former was slowly eaten away by internal fires, for, from the time when the disintegrating process began towards the end of the first map period, there was no cessation from the fiery activity, and whether in one part of the continent or another, the volcanic action was incessant, while the invariable sequence was the subsidence and total disappearance of the land, just as in the case of krakatoa in . so closely analogous was the eruption of mount pelée, which caused the destruction of st. pièrre, the capital of martinique, about two years ago, to the whole series of volcanic catastrophes on the continent of lemuria, that the description of the former given by some of the survivors may be of interest. "an immense black cloud had suddenly burst forth from the crater of mont pelée and rushed with terrific velocity upon the city, destroying everything--inhabitants, houses and vegetation alike--that it found in its path. in two or three minutes it passed over, and the city was a blazing pyre of ruins. in both islands [martinique and st. vincent] the eruptions were characterised by the sudden discharge of immense quantities of red-hot dust, mixed with steam, which flowed down the steep hillsides with an ever-increasing velocity. in st. vincent this had filled many valleys to a depth of between feet and feet, and months after the eruptions was still very hot, and the heavy rains which then fell thereon caused enormous explosions, producing clouds of steam and dust that shot upwards to a height of from feet to feet, and filled the rivers with black boiling mud." captain freeman, of the "roddam," then described "a thrilling experience which he and his party had at martinique. one night, when they were lying at anchor in a little sloop about a mile from st. pièrre, the mountain exploded in a way that was apparently an exact repetition of the original eruption. it was not entirely without warning; hence they were enabled to sail at once a mile or two further away, and thus probably saved their lives. in the darkness they saw the summit glow with a bright red light; then soon, with loud detonations, great red-hot stones were projected into the air and rolled down the slopes. a few minutes later a prolonged rumbling noise was heard, and in an instant was followed by a red-hot avalanche of dust, which rushed out of the crater and rolled down the side with a terrific speed, which they estimated at about miles an hour, with a temperature of ° centigrade. as to the probable explanation of these phenomena, no lava, he said, had been seen to flow from either of the volcanoes, but only steam and fine hot dust. the volcanoes were, therefore, of the explosive type; and from all his observations he had concluded that the absence of lava-flows was due to the material within the crater being partly solid, or at least highly viscous, so that it could not flow like an ordinary lava-stream. since his return this theory had received striking confirmation, for it was now known that within the crater of mont pelée there was no lake of molten lava, but that a solid pillar of red-hot rock was slowly rising upwards in a great conical, sharp-pointed hill, until it might finally overtop the old summit of the mountain. it was nearly feet high, and slowly grew as it was forced upwards by pressure from beneath, while every now and then explosions of steam took place, dislodging large pieces from its summit or its sides. steam was set free within this mass as it cooled, and the rock then passed into a dangerous and highly explosive condition, such that an explosion must sooner or later take place, which shivered a great part of the mass into fine red-hot dust."[ ] a reference to the first lemurian map will show that in the lake lying to the south-east of the extensive mountainous region there was an island which consisted of little more than one great mountain. this mountain was a very active volcano. the four mountains which lay to the south-west of the lake were also active volcanoes, and in this region it was that the disruption of the continent began. the seismic cataclysms which followed the volcanic eruptions caused such wide-spread damage that by the second map period a large portion of the southern part of the continent had been submerged. a marked characteristic of the land surface in early lemurian times was the great number of lakes and marshes, as well as the innumerable volcanoes. of course, all these are not shown on the map. only some of the great mountains which were volcanoes, and only some of the largest lakes are there indicated. another volcano on the north-east coast of the continent began its destructive work at an early date. earthquakes completed the disruption, and it seems probable that the sea shown in the second map as dotted with small islands to the south-east of the present japan, indicates the area of seismic disturbance. in the first map it will be seen that there were lakes in the centre of what is now the island-continent of australia--lakes where the land is at present exceedingly dry and parched. by the second map period those lakes had disappeared, and it seems natural to conjecture that the districts where those lakes lay, must, during the eruptions of the great volcanoes which lay to the south-east (between the present australia and new zealand), have been so raked with red-hot volcanic dust that the very water-springs were dried up. [sidenote: founding of the atlantean race.] in concluding this sketch, a reference to the process by which the fourth root race was brought into existence, will appropriately bring to an end what we know of the story of lemuria and link it on to that of atlantis. it may be remembered from previous writings on the subject that it was from the _fifth_ or semitic sub-race of the fourth root race that was chosen the nucleus destined to become our great fifth or aryan root race. it was not, however, until the time of the _seventh_ sub-race on lemuria that humanity was sufficiently developed physiologically to warrant the choice of individuals fit to become the parents of a new root race. so it was from the seventh sub-race that the segregation was effected. the colony was first settled on land which occupied the site of the present ashantee and western nigeria. a reference to the second map will show this as a promontory lying to the north-west of the island-continent which embraced the cape of good hope and parts of western africa. having been guarded for generations from any admixture with a lower type, the colony gradually increased in numbers, and the time came when it was ready to receive and to hand on the new impulse to physical heredity which the manu was destined to impart. students of theosophy are aware that, up to the present day, no one belonging to our humanity has been in a position to undertake the exalted office of manu, though it is stated that the founding of the coming sixth root race will be entrusted to the guidance of one of our masters of wisdom--one who, while belonging to our humanity, has nevertheless reached a most exalted level in the divine hierarchy. in the case we are considering--the founding of the fourth root race--it was one of the adepts from venus who undertook the duties of the manu. naturally he belonged to a very high order, for it must be understood that the beings who came from the venus system as rulers and teachers of our infant humanity did _not_ all stand at the same level. it is this circumstance which furnishes a reason for the remarkable fact that may, in conclusion, be stated--namely, that there existed in lemuria a lodge of initiation. [sidenote: a lodge of initiation.] naturally it was not for the benefit of the lemurian race that the lodge was founded. such of them as were sufficiently advanced were, it is true, taught by the adept gurus, but the instruction they required was limited to the explanation of a few physical phenomena, such as the fact that the earth moves round the sun, or to the explanation of the different appearance which physical objects assumed for them when subjected alternately to their physical sight and their astral vision. it was, of course, for the sake of those who, while endowed with the stupendous powers of transferring their consciousness from the planet venus to this our earth, and of providing for their use and their work while here appropriate vehicles in which to function, were yet pursuing the course of their own evolution.[ ] for their sake it was--for the sake of those who, having entered the path, had only reached the lower grades, that this lodge of initiation was founded. though, as we know, the goal of normal evolution is greater and more glorious than can, from our present standpoint, be well imagined, it is by no means synonymous with that expansion of consciousness which, combined with and alone made possible by, the purification and ennoblement of character, constitute the heights to which the pathway of initiation leads. the investigation into what constitutes this purification and ennoblement of character, and the endeavour to realise what that expansion of consciousness really means are subjects which have been written of elsewhere. suffice it now to point out that the founding of a lodge of initiation for the sake of beings who came from another scheme of evolution is an indication of the unity of object and of aim in the government and the guidance of _all_ the schemes of evolution brought into existence by our solar logos. apart from the normal course in our own scheme, there is, we know, a path by which he may be directly reached, which every son of man in his progress through the ages is privileged to hear of, and to tread, if he so chooses. we find that this was so in the venus scheme also, and we may presume it is or will be so in all the schemes which form part of our solar system. this path is the path of initiation, and the end to which leads is the same for all, and that end is union with god. footnotes: [footnote : haeckel is correct enough in his surmise that lemuria was the cradle of the human race as it now exists, but it was not out of anthropoid apes that mankind developed. a reference will be made later on to the position in nature which the anthropoid apes really occupy.] [footnote : ernst haeckel's "hist. of creation," nd ed., , vol. ., pp. - .] [footnote : alfred russell wallace's "the geographical distribution of animals--with a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the earth's surface." london: macmillan & co., . vol. ., pp. - .] [footnote : ceylon and south india, it is true, have been bounded on the north by a considerable extent of sea, but that was at a much earlier date than the tertiary period.] [footnote : wallace's "geographical distribution, etc." vol. ., pp. - .] [footnote : wallace's "geographical distribution, etc.," vol. ii., p. .] [footnote : h. f. blandford "on the age and correlations of the plant-bearing series of india and the former existence of an indo-oceanic continent," see quarterly journal of the geological society, vol. xxxi., , pp. - .] [footnote : a reference to the maps will show that mr. blandford's estimate of date is the more correct of the two.] [footnote : parts of the continent of course endured, but the dismemberment of lemuria is said to have taken place before the beginning of the eocene age.] [footnote : vol ii., pp. - .] [footnote : dr. g. hartlaub "on the avifauna of madagascar and the mascarene islands," see "the ibis," a quarterly journal of ornithology. fourth series, vol. i., , p. .] [footnote : ernst haeckel's "history of creation," vol. ii., pp. - .] [footnote : ernst haeckel's "history of creation," vol. ii., pp. - .] [footnote : for a further account of the permanent atoms on all the planes, and the potentialities contained in them with reference to the processes of death and re-birth, see "man's place in universe." pp. - .] [footnote : the "standard," th jan., .] [footnote : ernst haeckel's "the history of creation," nd ed., vol. i., pp. - .] [footnote : "the secret doctrine," vol. ii., p. .] [footnote : vol. ii., pp. and .] [footnote : it must, however, be noted that the chinese _people_ are mainly descended from the fourth or turanian sub-race of the fourth root race.] [footnote : "secret doctrine," vol. ii., p. .] [footnote : vol. ii., p. .] [footnote : the "times," th sept., .] [footnote : the heights reached by them will find their parallel when our humanity will, countless aeons hence, have reached the sixth round of our chain of worlds, and the same transcendent powers will be the possession of ordinary mankind in those far-off ages.] maps [illustration: no. the world about , , years ago, during many previous ages, and up to the catastrophe of about , years ago. atlantis at its prime] [illustration: no the world after the catastrophe of , years ago and up to the catastrophe of about , years ago. atlantis in its decadence] [illustration: no the world after the catastrophe of , years ago and up to the catastrophe of about , years ago. ruta & daitya] [illustration: no the world after the catastrophe of years ago and up to the final submergence of poseidonis in , b.c. poseidonis] [illustration: no. lemuria at its greatest extent.] [illustration: no. lemuria at a later period.] [illustration: the later cave-men] industrial and social history series _by katharine elizabeth dopp, ph. d._ _the extension division of the university of chicago. author of "the place of industries in elementary education"_ #book i. the tree-dwellers.# the age of fear. illustrated with a map, full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth. square mo. pages. _for the primary grades._ #book ii. the early cave-men.# the age of combat. illustrated with a map, full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth. square mo. pages. _for the primary grades._ #book iii. the later cave-men.# the age of the chase. illustrated with full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth. square mo. pages. _for the primary grades._ #book iv. the early sea people.# first steps in the conquest of the waters. illustrated with full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown and kyohei inukai. cloth. square mo. pages. _for the intermediate grades._ _other volumes, dealing with the early development of pastoral and agricultural life, the age of metals, travel, trade, and transportation, will follow._ _to_ the children who are asking for more about the cave-men i dedicate this book [illustration: "_a feeling of awe came over them while they worked._"--page .] the later cave-men katharine elizabeth dopp _lecturer in education in the extension division of the university of chicago_ [illustration] rand mcnally & company chicago new york london _copyright, _ by katharine elizabeth dopp _entered at stationers' hall_ edition of [illustration: the rand mcnally press rmn & co] made in u. s. a. * * * * * [illustration: preface] the series, of which this is the third volume, is an attempt to meet a need that has been felt for several years by parents and physicians, as well as by teachers, supervisors, and others who are actively interested in educational and social progress. the need of practical activity, which for long ages constituted the entire education of mankind, is at last recognized by the elementary school. it has been introduced in many places and already results have been attained which demonstrate that it is possible to introduce practical activity in such a way as to afford the child a sound development--physically, intellectually, and morally--and at the same time equip him for efficient social service. the question that is perplexing educators at the present time is, therefore, not one regarding the value of practical activity, but rather one of ways and means by which practical activity can be harnessed to the educational work. the discovery of the fact that steam is a force that can do work had to await the invention of machinery by means of which to apply the new force to industrial processes. the use of practical activity will likewise necessitate many changes in the educational machinery before its richest results are realized. yet the conditions that attend the introduction of practical activity as a motive power in education are very different from those that attended the introduction of the use of steam. in the case of steam the problem was that of applying a new force to an old work. in the case of practical activity it is a question of restoring a factor which, from the earliest times until within the last two or three decades, has operated as a permanent educational force. the situation that has recently deprived the child of the opportunity to participate in industrial processes is due, as is well known, to the rapid development of our industrial system. since the removal of industrial processes from the home the public has awakened to the fact that the child is being deprived of one of the most potent educational influences, and efforts have already been made to restore the educational factor that was in danger of being lost. this is the significance of the educational movement at the present time. as long as a simple organization of society prevailed, the school was not called upon to take up the practical work; but now society has become so complex that the use of practical activity is absolutely essential. society to-day makes a greater demand than ever before upon each and all of its members for special skill and knowledge, as well as for breadth of view. these demands can be met only by such an improvement in educational facilities as corresponds to the increase in the social demand. evidently the school must lay hold of all of the educational forces within its reach. in the transitional movement it is not strange that new factors are being introduced without relation to the educational process as a whole. the isolation of manual training, sewing, and cooking from the physical, natural, and social sciences is justifiable only on the ground that the means of establishing more organic relations are not yet available. to continue such isolated activities after a way is found of harnessing them to the educational work is as foolish as to allow steam to expend itself in moving a locomotive up and down the tracks without regard to the destiny of the detached train. this series is an attempt to facilitate the transitional movement in education which is now taking place by presenting educative materials in a form sufficiently flexible to be readily adapted to the needs of the school that has not yet been equipped for manual training, as well as to the needs of the one that has long recognized practical activity as an essential factor in its work. since the experience of the race in industrial and social processes embodies, better than any other experiences of mankind, those things which at the same time appeal to the whole nature of the child and furnish him the means of interpreting the complex processes about him, this experience has been made the groundwork of the present series. in order to gain cumulative results of value in explaining our own institutions, the materials used have been selected from the life of aryan peoples. that we are not yet in possession of all the facts regarding the life of the early aryans is not considered a sufficient reason for withholding from the child those facts that we have when they can be adapted to his use. information regarding the early stages of aryan life is meager. enough has been established, however, to enable us to mark out the main lines of progress through the hunting, the fishing, the pastoral, and the agricultural stages, as well as to present the chief problems that confronted man in taking the first steps in the use of metals, and in the establishment of trade. upon these lines, marked out by the geologist, the paleontologist, the archæologist, and the anthropologist, the first numbers of this series are based. a generalized view of the main steps in the early progress of the race, which it is thus possible to present, is all that is required for educational ends. were it possible to present the subject in detail, it would be tedious and unprofitable to all save the specialist. to select from the monotony of the ages that which is most vital, to so present it as to enable the child to participate in the process by which the race has advanced, is a work more in keeping with the spirit of the age. to this end the presentation of the subject is made: first, by means of questions, which serve to develop the habit of making use of experience in new situations; second, by narrative, which is employed merely as a literary device for rendering the subject more available to the child; and third, by suggestions for practical activities that may be carried out in hours of work or play, in such a way as to direct into useful channels energy which when left undirected is apt to express itself in trivial if not in anti-social forms. no part of a book is more significant to the child than the illustrations. in preparing the illustrations for this series as great pains have been taken to furnish the child with ideas that will guide him in his practical activities as to illustrate the text itself. mr. howard v. brown, the artist who executed the drawings, has been aided in his search for authentic originals by the late j. w. powell, _director of the united states bureau of ethnology, washington, d. c._; by frederick j. v. skiff, _director of the field columbian museum, chicago_, and by the author. ethnological collections and the best illustrative works on ethnological subjects scattered throughout the country have been carefully searched for material. many of the text illustrations of this volume are reproductions of originals found in the caves and rock shelters of france. k. e. d. _october, ._ * * * * * [illustration: contents] page _dedication_ _preface_ _contents_ _illustrations_ the later cave-men the age of the chase page the reindeer start for their summer home chew-chew fleetfoot's lessons after the chase why the cave-men made changes in their weapons how the cave-men made delicate spear points the return of the bison the first bison hunt of the season what happened when the children played with hot stones why the children began to eat boiled meat the nutting season why mothers taught their children the boundary lines what happened to fleetfoot how the strangers camped for the night fleetfoot is adopted by the bison clan how the cave-men protected themselves from the cold how the children played in winter overtaken by a storm how antler happened to invent snowshoes how antler made snares how spears were changed into harpoons how the cave-men hunted with harpoons how the cave-men tested fleetfoot and flaker fleetfoot and flaker see a combat what happened when fleetfoot and flaker hunted the bison what the cave-men did for flaker how flaker learned to make weapons of bone how flaker invented the saw the reindeer dance fleetfoot prepares for his final test fleetfoot fasts and prays the meeting of the clans what happened when the clans found fleetfoot fleetfoot's return willow-grouse how fleetfoot and willow-grouse spent the winter how willow-grouse learned to make needles how flaker became a priest and a medicine man how the cave-men learned to boil and to dry foods the new home how the clans united to hunt the bison how things were made to do the work of men how the cave-men rewarded and punished the clansmen _suggestions to teachers_ [illustration: illustrations] full page page "_a feeling of awe came over them while they worked_" frontispiece "_pigeon boiled meat and gave it to the men, and they all sounded her praises_" "_the reindeer swam through the deep water and waded out to the opposite bank_" _chew-chew telling stories to fleetfoot_ "_then scarface threw, and all the horses took fright_" "_chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry ravine_" "_she took a flint point and scratched the men's arms until she made big scars_" "_straightshaft saw the herd at sunrise and made a sign to the men_" "_at the close of the day there was not a little valley in the surrounding country that did not have a herd of two or three hundred bison_" "_with a quick snort he turned and charged_" "_chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing sound_" "_all the women and children went nutting_" _the wild hogs were having a feast_ "_mothers taught their children what the boundaries were_" "_a big man caught him, and put him upon his shoulder_" "_the tent was an old oak, which reached out long and low-spreading branches_" "_greybeard asked fleetfoot to drop the hot stones in the water again_" "_when the men saw the new garment they wondered how it was made_" "_but many could find no protection, so they turned about and faced the storm_" "_and so the cave-men tested the boys in many different ways_" "_then their antlers crashed in a swift charge_" "_they looked so much like wolves that they got very close before the bison threatened_" "_what the cave-men did for flaker_" "_people began to wander away from their old homes_" "_it was the melting of this glacier which fed the little stream_" "_greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to the spot_" _after the bison hunt_ text _a reindeer_ _a stone ax_ _a stone knife_ _a laurel leaf_ _laurel leaf-shaped spear point_ _a stone scraper_ _a shaft-straightener_ _a delicate spearhead_ "_when the cave-men held the flint in the hand, the hand yielded to the light blow_" "_while scarface placed the punch he sang in low tones_" _straightshaft using a flaker_ _a flaker_ _an ibex_ _a bear's tooth awl_ _a scraper_ _a skin stretched on a frame_ _a hammer of reindeer horn_ _a cave-man's glove_ _a stone maul_ _fur gloves_ _a snowshoe_ "_then she set snares on the ground and fastened them to strong branches_" "_antler learned to protect the cord by running it through a hollow bone_" "_so it ran along and nibbled the bait until its sharp teeth cut the cord_" _a chisel-scraper_ _a barbed point_ _a harpoon_ _chipper using a spear-noose_ _a cave-man's carving of a "hamstrung" animal_ _a wedge or tent pin_ _the head of a javelin_ _a small antler_ _a knife with two blades, a saw, and a file, all in one_ _a cave-man's dagger_ _a cave-man's mortar stone_ _a drum_ _the engraving of a cave-bear_ _a stone borer_ _a necklace of fossil shells_ _a throwing-stick_ _an irish deer_ _a fragment of a cave-man's baton, engraved_ _a cave-man's nose ornament_ _a cave-man's baton, engraved_ _an eskimo drawing of reindeer caught in snares_ "_a piece of sandstone for flattening seams_" _a reindeer snare_ _three views of a cave-man's spearhead_ "_it was during this time that the bison clan learned to use the throwing-stick_" _harpoons with several barbs_ _a bone awl_ _a bone pin_ _a large bone needle_ _a bone from which the cave-men have sawed out slender rods for needles_ _a piece of sandstone used by the cave-men in making needles_ _a flint comb used in rounding and polishing needles_ _a flint saw used in making needles of bone_ _a short needle of bone_ _a flint comb used in shredding fibers_ _a long fine needle of bone_ _two views of a curved bone tool_ _a cave-man's engraving of two herds of wild horses_ _a cave-man's carving of horses' heads_ _a cave-man's engraving of a reindeer_ _harpoons of reindeer antler_ _a flint harpoon with one barb_ _a spoon-shaped stone_ _a baby's hood_ "_in summer he played in the basket cradle_" _first step in coiled basketry_ _second step in coiled basketry_ _three rows of coiled work_ _a water basket_ _a cave-man's engraving of a tent showing the interior structure_ _a cave-man's engraving of a tent showing the exterior_ _a cave-man's engraving of a tent with covering pulled one side so as to show the ends of the poles which support the roof_ _framework showing the best kind of a tent made by the cave-men_ _a tent pin_ _handle of a cave-man's hunting-knife with engraving_ _a hunter's tally_ _fragment of cave-man's baton_ _engraving of a seal upon a bear's tooth_ _a cave-man's hairpin, engraved_ [illustration: "_pigeon boiled meat and gave it to the men, and they all sounded her praises._"--_page ._] * * * * * the later cave-men the age of the chase i _the reindeer start for their summer home_ every winter the reindeer came to the wooded hills where the cave-men lived. no matter how deep the snow, they always found food. sometimes they stretched their slender necks and ate moss from the trees. again they scraped up the snow with their forefeet and found dry grass. the reindeer liked cold weather. they liked the north wind that brought the snow. as soon as the snow began to melt, they started toward the mountains. in the high valleys among the mountains, there was snow all the year round. one morning the cave-men awoke and found the south wind blowing. all the people were glad; for they knew it would drive the winter away. the reindeer sniffed the warm wind and knew it was time to go. each leader signaled to his herd. and soon the wooded hills were dotted with small herds moving toward the ford. straightshaft saw what the reindeer were doing and he signaled the news to the men. then the cave-men gathered around scarface, who was to lead them in the hunt. the children had listened to all that was said about the great herd. they could scarcely wait to see it. fleetfoot pulled his grandmother's hand and started up the cliff. chew-chew wanted to see the herds meet at the reindeer ford. all the women wanted to see the great herd before it went away. so they all climbed the cliff where they could get a good view. when the children saw a herd near the river, they clapped their hands and shouted. then chew-chew pointed out many herds and they all danced for joy. the scattered herds were coming slowly down the little valleys. each followed a handsome leader headed toward the ford. [illustration: _a reindeer._] "look!" said chew-chew as the leader of a herd plunged into the river. the herd plunged too, for reindeer know it is best to follow their leader. the reindeer swam through the deep water and waded out to the opposite bank. then the frightened creatures hurried on toward the well-known ford. [illustration: "_the reindeer swam through the deep water and waded out to the opposite bank._"] "why did the reindeer jump into the river?" asked fleetfoot of chew-chew. before she could answer eagle-eye pointed to a big cave-bear. the cave-bear was going into a thicket when fleetfoot heard his mother say, "cave-bears and hyenas hide in the thickets. they lie in wait for the herds." scarface seemed to be lying in wait on some rocks by an evergreen tree. he had stopped on his way to the reindeer pass to see what had frightened the herd. while the men were going to the pass, the reindeer were gathering at the ford. several herds of two or three hundred each were already there. other herds were coming. the flat sandy banks on one side of the river were already covered with reindeer. soon the ford was filled, and the reindeer began to press up the narrow river valley. when at last all the herds from the wooded hills were gathered at the ford, the handsomest leader of all stepped forth to lead the way. after looking around to see if an enemy was near, he started up the well-trodden trail through the narrow river valley. slowly the great herd began to move. to those watching from the cliff, it looked like a moving forest. those in advance were soon out of sight, and were going toward the pass. meanwhile the men had reached the pass where the bravest ones hid at the farther end. there they waited to spear the reindeer, while others hid behind rocks near the entrance to drive the reindeer on. while the women and children watched from the cliff a signal came from the men. it was a call for the women to come and carry the reindeer to the cave. the younger women went, but chew-chew stayed and watched with the children. at length the cave-men returned. the men brought trophies and the women brought heavy loads of meat. they found chew-chew and the children still watching from the cliff. there they all watched for a long, long time; for not until the sun was low down in the sky had the last of the reindeer left the ford. #things to do# _model a large river valley with many little valleys in it. show where the small herds were. model the cliffs along the river and show the flat sandy banks on one side, and the narrow valley with steep sides on the other._ _find rocks and make the reindeer pass. make the trail from the ford through the narrow valley to the pass._ _play the story this lesson tells._ _draw one of these pictures_:-- _the reindeer stretched their slender necks and ate moss from the trees._ _the reindeer sniffed the warm wind and knew it was time to go._ _fleetfoot pulled his grandmother's hand and started up the cliff._ _the cave-bears and hyenas hide in the thickets._ _hunting at the reindeer pass._ _show how eagle-eye loaded a reindeer upon her back. model eagle-eye in clay so as to show how she carried the reindeer._ ii things to think about if you have read the story of "the early cave-men," tell how the cave that was flooded was made. can you think of any other way in which a cave might be made? if you have ever seen a shallow hole in a cliff, see if you can find out how it was made. if such a hole was made in a very soft rock what would happen to it? what would happen to a hole made in a hard rock? see if you can find a piece of limestone. what do we use limestone for? if we wanted a house of limestone, what would we do to get it? when the cave-men wanted a limestone house, what did they do? _chew-chew_ chew-chew was the oldest woman in the cave at the fork of the river. she was not as strong as she once had been; but she was still able to lead the women in their work. her sons' wives carried the heaviest burdens, but chew-chew still carried heavy loads. chew-chew was the wisest woman in the cave. when the other women did not know what to do, they always asked chew-chew. the bravest men were always glad to get chew-chew's advice. the children thought nobody could tell such stories as chew-chew told. chew-chew and all of her children belonged to the horse clan. all the children in those days took the clan name of their mother. chew-chew's sons had captured wives from the reindeer clan. and so the children in chew-chew's cave belonged to the reindeer clan. it thus happened that in every cave there were people of different clans. but since chew-chew was the oldest woman in the cave, we shall call the people at the fork of the river by the name of the horse clan. [illustration: _chew-chew telling stories to fleetfoot._] chew-chew often told the children about her first home. she told them about the cave near the river of snow, which was much like the cave which sheltered them. she told them about the wide shelving rocks which were like the ones above their cave. and she told how frightened her people were the day a rock fell near the mouth of their cave. no one knew at the time what made the rock fall. no one knew there was no need of being afraid. some one said that the god of the cliff was angry and that he had pushed the rock down. everybody believed the story. so nobody dared go near the cave. but the cave-men needed a shelter. so they offered gifts to the god of the cliffs. when they thought he was satisfied, they all went back to the cave. and after a while they used the big rock as a table for their work. chew-chew wanted the children to grow to be brave and wise. so she told them stories of the bravest and wisest people of her clan. she told them stories about their grandfathers who were the heroes of the olden times. and fleetfoot never grew tired of hearing about the wonderful things which his grandfathers did. and so chew-chew taught the children all she thought they ought to know. and they looked into her eyes and listened to all that she said. #things to do# _if there are cliffs or shelving rocks near by, go and see them. find places where you think caves may form. find out why it is that the rocks shelve. why does a shelving rock sometimes break and fall to the ground?_ _model the cliffs which you find. model a cave which is formed in a cliff._ _tell a story which you think chew-chew might have told to the children._ _play one of these plays:_-- _chew-chew telling stories to the children._ _what the people did when the rock fell near the mouth of the cave._ _draw a picture of something which you have played._ iii things to think about why did chew-chew tell the children stories about their forefathers? why do we like to hear such stories? do you think that the later cave-men will hunt in just the same way that the early cave-men did? what change took place in the animals while the cave-men were learning to be good hunters? what change did the cave-men have to make in their hunting on account of this? of all the animals you know, which are the fastest runners? can you think how they became fast runners? _fleetfoot's lessons_ when the men were at home, fleetfoot liked to stay with them. he liked to watch them make spears; he liked to watch them run races; he liked to listen to the stories they told about the wild animals. when the men went out to hunt, fleetfoot wanted to go with them. but he was a little boy, and had to stay at home. sometimes he went with his mother when she went to dig roots; sometimes he went with her to gather twigs for baskets. but the safest place for little children was not far from the fire. so fleetfoot stayed at home nearly all the time. while the children played near the cave, chew-chew broke fagots with a stone ax. when she was ready to sit down, they all gathered around her. they knew that that was one of the times when chew-chew told them stories. [illustration: _a stone ax._] this time chew-chew began with a story of the early cave-men. she told of animals that stood their ground and fought instead of running away. she told about the strong spears and axes made to conquer the wild beasts. she told of brave and daring deeds of the heroes of olden times. none of the animals feared man before he had fire. and for a long time afterward none of them feared him without a torch. but the early cave-men made strong weapons after they had fire. they struck hard blows with their stone axes, which the animals learned to fear. grass-eating animals feared beasts of prey long before the tree-dwellers lived. wild horses learned to run fast by trying to escape from packs of wolves. they learned to keep sentinels to watch while the herd fed. all the grass-eating animals learned to do this. the sentinels signaled at a sign of danger, and then the herd ran; and so their enemies learned to hunt by following the chase. when chew-chew was tired of telling stories, she marked out a path for a race. then she showed the children how to get a fair start, by standing abreast and holding a stick. the children learned to keep in step until they reached the real starting place. then they dropped the stick and ran. and they all clapped their hands and cheered the one who won the race. [illustration: "_then scarface threw, and all the horses took fright._"] after the children had raced a long time, they came back to chew-chew for another story. and this time she told them stories about the men of their own clan. they often chased the animals from early morn until noon. at first they got very tired when they went on a long chase. but the more they practiced running, the better they hunted in the real chase. when the story was ended, the children climbed the cliff. chew-chew went with them and they all looked at the wild horses going up the trail. the horses had been to the river to drink and now they were going away. they were following their leader up the trail which led to the grassy plains. chew-chew knew where the men were lying in wait and she pointed out the spot. the children looked just in time to see straightshaft throw his spear. then scarface threw, and all the horses took fright. up hill and down, through bushes and briars, the horses galloped away. the cave-men followed the wounded ones, hurling their spears as they ran. the chase was long and weary, and some of the wounded horses escaped. but the men returned with many trophies and the women brought heavy loads of meat. the trophies the cave-men prized the most were the heads of the wild horses. they kept these trophies near the cave, and they thought that they were charms. the cave-men thought that the horses' heads would bring more horses to the hunting grounds. #things to do# _tell a story about the age of combat. tell a story about the age of the chase. draw a picture to illustrate each story._ _show on your sand-map where the men were lying in wait for the horses. model the trail which the horses followed._ _what chasing game do you know how to play? can you think how some of these games first started?_ _why do people not try to run as fast in a long race as in a short one?_ _model in clay something which you might name "the age of combat."_ iv things to think about how do you feel after you have had a long, hard chase? what does your mother tell you to do when you come in dripping with sweat? how do you think the cave-men learned to take care of themselves? when they were lame and stiff, do you think they would know what made them so? think of as many things as you can that they might do to make themselves feel better. _after the chase_ when the long, hard chase was over, the cave-men were tired and dripping with sweat. all but scarface threw themselves upon the cold ground to rest. it was scarface who blew the whistle which called the women to the spot. it was he who guarded the carcasses until the women came. and while the women skinned the horses he sat on a log to rest. it was sunset when they reached the cave. all joined in a feast upon horse flesh, then they slept until break of day. it was then that the men groaned with pain. their muscles ached, and they were so lame that they could scarcely move. scarface alone of all the men was not suffering with pain. perhaps you can tell what made the men lame. none of the cave-men knew. everybody thought that an angry god was trying to punish them. and so the men tried to drive the god away by raising fearful shouts. then they asked chew-chew's advice, and chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry ravine. there she found bitter roots which she gathered and carried home. no one knew at that time how to steep roots, for people had not learned how to boil. so chew-chew chopped the roots with a stone chopper and laid them upon hot stones. and while the men breathed the bitter fumes, chew-chew threatened the angry god and commanded him to go away. in a few days the men were well and it was almost time to go hunting again. straightshaft feared the angry god. he talked with the men and they wondered why it was that scarface escaped. they looked at his deep scar which a tiger's claw had made. and then they looked at the trophies of scarface which he wore about his neck. every cave-man admired the deep scar of the bravest man in the clan. every man wished that he, too, could show such a scar as that. and the men began to wonder if the scar was a kind of a charm. [illustration: "_chew-chew took her basket and started up the dry ravine._"] the more the men talked about the scar, the more they wanted scars. they talked with chew-chew about it, and at last decided to let her make scars. so chew-chew muttered prayers to the gods, and asked them not to hurt the cave-men. then she took a flint point and scratched the men's arms until she made big scars. years afterward, when people made scars, they stained them with all sorts of things. sometimes they stained the scars with juices of plants, and sometimes they colored them with paints. the cave-men thought they could protect themselves by scars, and by all sorts of charms. so they kept on making scars, and they hunted for all sorts of charms. but no matter how many charms they wore, they often were lame and stiff. some one must have noticed that they were more apt to be lame after sitting on the cold ground while they were warm. for after a while the custom grew of never sitting on the bare ground while they were warm. #things to do# _draw or paint a pattern which you think the cave-men might have tattooed upon their arms. where do we put the pictures which we make?_ _find and name as many roots and herbs as you can that are used as medicines._ _what animals have you seen eating herbs?_ _what mistakes did the cave-men make when they tried to cure themselves?_ [illustration: "_she took a flint point and scratched the men's arms until she made big scars._"] v things to think about what way can you use a spear besides thrusting it with one or both hands? what changes do you think the cave-men made in their spearheads when they began to throw spears? what changes do you think they made in the shafts? how do you think the cave-men made straight shafts for their spears? what do we do with wood when we wish to bend it? _why the cave-men made changes in their weapons_ [illustration: _a stone knife._] while the cave-men were resting from the hunt, they did a great many things. they practiced running; they hunted for stuff to make new weapons; they worked upon their weapons and trophies; they learned new hunting dances. no matter what they did, they always asked their gods to help. [illustration: _a laurel leaf._] [illustration: _laurel leaf-shaped spear point._] all the later cave-men learned to make light spears and javelins. the clumsy spear which served strongarm so well was not what scarface needed. but in the days of the early cave-men the heavy spear was a good weapon. strongarm cared as much for his spear as you do for your dog. it was like a friend in time of need. few animals could withstand strongarm's blow when he grasped his spear in one or both hands and lunged forward with all his might. his spear was a powerful weapon. but strongarm lived in the age of combat when people fought animals at close range. the later cave-men did not make light spears and javelins all at once. they began by throwing heavy spears. chew-chew could tell of many a hunter who lost his life throwing a spear. sometimes it was because the spear was too heavy to throw with enough force. sometimes it was because the shaft was crooked and the spear did not go to the right spot. when the cave-men practiced throwing, they did not stand still and throw. they took aim and threw as they ran. that was the kind of practice they needed for the real chase. the mark, too, was a moving mark. it was made of a bundle of branches, or an old skin stuffed with leaves. while one man dragged it by a long cord, the others ran after it, throwing their spears. a cave-man could wound an animal with a spear, but he could not give a deadly blow. there was always danger of the wounded animal turning upon the hunter. a skilled hunter with a good spear ran little risk in throwing it. but not all the cave-men had enough skill. not all of the cave-men made good enough weapons to be thrown with a sure aim. and so the cave-men learned new ways of making and using spears. perhaps they did not want to do it. but they had to do it or die. so you see why the men and boys spent most of their time in learning to follow the chase. even the women and girls learned to hunt and to make all sorts of weapons. long before scarface lived the cave-men began to make lighter spears. the straighter they made the shaft, the easier it was to hit the mark. and so the cave-men began to vie with one another in making the straightest and smoothest shafts. [illustration: _a stone scraper._] when they cut the sticks for the shafts the cave-men made gifts to the wood-gods, and asked for the straightest and toughest branches that grew on the trees. then they cut the branches carefully and carried them home to the cave. there they peeled them from butt to tip and smoothed them with stone scrapers. sometimes they rubbed them with fat and laid them away to dry. it was hard work to make a crooked stick straight. but the cave-men tried many ways and at last they learned to make as beautiful shafts as ever have been made. when the cave-men pulled the shaft back and forth on the sandstone, they made deep grooves in it. we have found pieces of grooved sandstone that the later cave-men used. sometimes they would clamp a crooked stick between a grooved piece of sandstone and a flat bone. then they would pull and twist, and pull and twist, and pull and twist that stick back and forth until the crooked place was made straight. [illustration: _a shaft-straightener._] when scarface was very old he made a shaft-straightener of a piece of reindeer horn. he carved the head of the reindeer upon it, and made a hole for the shaft. then he thrust the crooked stick through the hole and turned the shaft-straightener round and round as we turn a wrench, until he straightened the shaft. #things to do# _see if you can find a good branch for a shaft. if you have a right to cut the branch, see if you can make it into a shaft._ _find a stone which you can use for a scraper. what else can you use as a scraper?_ _if you do not care to make a shaft, make something else out of the stick which you straighten._ _name the things which you have at home or at school made of wood._ _make a collection of the different kinds of wood which you know._ _which of these are soft wood? what do we use soft wood for? which are hard? what do we use hard wood for?_ vi. things to think about can you think why the cave-men used stone for their spear points and knives before they used bone or horn? what tools did the cave-men need in making flint spear points? why did the cave-men have to learn to strike gentle blows in making their weapons? can you think of any way of removing little pieces of flint besides striking them off? _how the cave-men made delicate spear points_ perhaps you have seen very beautiful indian arrows. perhaps you have wished you could make such arrows yourself. the later cave-men first made such weapons and no people since have ever been able to make more beautiful ones. the early cave-men did not need such beautiful spear points. rough points of flint and heavy stone axes were the weapons they needed most. it was not until the age of the chase that people shaped stone into beautiful forms. [illustration] scarface always used flakes of flint for the points of spears and javelins. but in earlier times, people did not know how to strike off flakes of flint. they put the flint on a hard rock and struck it with a heavy blow. they smashed the flint, for the hard rock did not yield. they had not learned to let the flint break in its own way. when the cave-men held the flint in the hand, the hand yielded to the light blow. the flint broke in its own way. but the sharp edges cut the men's hands. so they covered the palms of their hands with rawhide and kept from getting hurt. when they worked in this way, they had no trouble in striking off flakes for spear points and knives. when the men worked on their flint points, fleetfoot liked to play near the workshop. he liked to watch straightshaft strike off flakes with a hammer-stone and punch. he liked to listen to the song that scarface and straightshaft sang. [illustration: "_when the cave-men held the flint in the hand, the hand yielded to the light blow._"] scarface and straightshaft always sang when they worked with the hammer-stone and punch. while scarface placed the punch he sang in low tones. and when he was ready for straightshaft to strike, he sang so as to let him know. then straightshaft took up the song and marked the time for each blow. [illustration: "_while scarface placed the punch he sang in low tones._"] the men always sang when they worked together. if one man stopped when it was his turn to sing, the other did not know what to do. besides marking the time, the song helped the men to measure the force of each blow. it helped them to strike off tiny flakes so as not to break the point. so, at length, the cave-men began to think that the song they sang was a charm. while the men struck off large flint flakes, fleetfoot played not far away. he played while they hafted long narrow flakes for knives, but when they began to chip spearheads, he came and watched them at their work. he listened to the song of scarface and straightshaft, while they shaped a fine spearhead. at length the spearhead was ready for the finishing touches. so straightshaft dropped his hammer-stone and picked up a queer little tool. he called it a flaker, and he used it to press off tiny flakes from the beautiful point. [illustration: _straightshaft using a flaker._] when straightshaft had finished, he dropped the flaker and fleetfoot picked it up. and he asked straightshaft if he might use it to press off little flakes. straightshaft let him try, but fleetfoot was not strong enough to press off hard flint flakes. so he listened to the story that scarface told of the young man who first made a flaker. holding up a little bone flaker, scarface turned to the men and said: "when i was a boy, no one pressed off flakes of flint. no one had a flaker. we hammered off flint flakes. "one summer when there were plenty of salmon, the neighboring clans had a great feast. nimble-finger came. i saw him. i heard him speak. the third day of the feast i saw him flake flint." [illustration: _a flaker._] as scarface went on he told how nimble-finger invented the flaker. he did it one day when he was making a bone handle for a knife. when he was scraping a bone with a flint scraper he happened to press off a flint flake. nimble-finger did not know how it happened. he tried again and again. at last he pressed off another flake; and this time he knew that he did it by pressing the point of the bone against one edge of the flint. nimble-finger never finished that bone-handled hunting knife. but he showed the people how to make a flaker. he became an inventor; for he gave the world a tool it had never had before. when the people returned from the feast many forgot about the flaker. others longed for delicate spear points like those nimble-finger made. so, at length, they tried to make flakers of their own. some tried to make them of wood; but the wood was too soft to break the stone. others tried to make them of ivory; but ivory was too hard to get a hold. at length all the cave-men made flakers of antler and bone, for they were hard enough to break the stone and soft enough to get a hold. when scarface finished, fleetfoot began to talk about nimble-finger. he asked scarface, "where does nimble-finger live? does he always come to the great feasts?" to the child's questions scarface replied, "while nimble-finger was still a young man he went far away. for many years he lived far north in a cave beside the river of stones. but years have come and gone since then. if he still lives, he is an old man; but of that i know not." #things to do# _if you can find a piece of flint strike off a flake with a hammer-stone. strike off a flake with an angular stone. strike off a flake by using a hammer and punch._ _sort out the flakes that are good for knives. put handles on them. sort out the flakes that are good for making into spearheads. see if you can strike off tiny flakes until the large flake looks like a spearhead._ _find something which you can use as a flaker. when you have made one, see if you can use it._ _make a collection of stones which you can chip or flake. tell all you know about each of those stones._ _think of scarface as he was telling the story. draw the picture._ vii things to think about what do our horses and cattle eat? where do we get their food? what do wild cattle and horses eat? see if you can find out whether wild cattle or horses have ever lived in a place where the ground is covered with snow part of the year. did you ever see cattle pawing the ground? did you ever see horses pawing the ground? did you ever see them paw the snow? see if you can find out something about the great herds of bison that used to live in this country. what has become of them? can you think why bison live in herds? what officers does a herd of bison have? can you think how the officers of a herd of bison are chosen? _the return of the bison_ ever since the reindeer went away the cave-men had been looking for the return of the bison. each summer the herds came up the valley to feed on green grass and tender shoots. each winter they went to the forests of the lowlands where they found shelter from the cold. the snow was now gone from the wooded hills and the days were warm again. the dingy brown coats of the hillsides were changing to the palest green. the buds were beginning to swell. everything seemed to say that summer was coming. each day the cave-men watched for signs of the coming of the great herd. each night they danced the bison dance and tried to make the bison come. one morning straightshaft climbed the cliff and looked far up and down the valley. looking north he could see the river of stones with high cliffs on one or both banks. he could see dense forests of evergreen that grew on the low banks. he could see hills and valleys beyond the cliffs where many wild animals lived. looking south, near at hand, was the fork of the river where little river joined the river of stones. here the cliffs were not very high; farther down, they became lower, and at last there were no cliffs. the edge of the lowland forest where the bison wintered could be seen far away. grassy lowlands near the forests stretched farther than the eye could see. it was here that the bison and cattle found the best winter pastures. it was in the lowland forests that they found shelter from the cold. [illustration: "_straightshaft saw the herd at sunrise and made a sign to the men._"] straightshaft looked toward the lowlands, hoping to see a bison. mammoths were feeding not far away, and beyond were woolly rhinoceroses. but there was not one bison. [illustration: _an ibex._] as straightshaft watched the second day, chamois and ibexes played on the hills. herds of horses came from the grassy uplands and returned after drinking at the ford. but no sign of a bison yet appeared. the third day straightshaft saw a black spot in the distance. it was far down on the river trail. as he watched, it became larger and larger. and then straightshaft knew that it was a bison coming in advance of the great herd. the morning of the fourth day the great herd came. a powerful bison led the way. strong sentinels guarded either side. the herd followed blindly, galloping eight or ten abreast. straightshaft saw the herd at sunrise and made a sign to the men. those who saw it passed it along, and soon all the people had seen the sign. then everybody climbed up a hill or a high cliff and watched the coming of the bison. nearer and nearer the great herd came, like a sea of tossing manes and horns. the earth trembled beneath their tread and the air was filled with their bellowing. when the bison reached the ford, the foremost creatures stopped to drink. but the solid mass, pressing on from the rear, crowded them up the river. soon the ford was packed with struggling beasts. some tried to escape by swimming up the river. others swam down the stream. and still the solid mass from the rear kept crowding on and on. at length the herd divided. one part followed the river trail, while the other went up the narrow valley. whenever a herd reached a branching valley, a big bison led off a small herd. this happened many a time. and at the close of the day there was not a little valley in the surrounding country that did not have a herd of two or three hundred bison. #things to do# _play you are a herd of bison, and show how the herd marched. show how it divided. show how you think it would come together again._ _show in your sand-box where straightshaft stood while he watched. show the trails the bison followed._ _think of the herd as it galloped up the river trail. draw the picture._ _make such a sign as you think straightshaft made._ _plan a bison dance._ viii things to think about if you were to hunt bison, what would you want to know about them? in what ways can bison notice signs of danger? in what ways can they help one another? watch animals, and see if they give signs to one another. what weapons do you think the cave-men would take when they went to hunt the bison? how could the cave-men help one another in hunting? how might one man hinder the others? [illustration: "_at the close of the day there was not a little valley in the surrounding country that did not have a herd of two or three hundred bison._"] _the first bison hunt of the season_ and now the great herd of bison had come, and the cave-men were eager to hunt them. while they were getting ready to start they kept up this merry song:-- _the bison have come;_ _the bison have come;_ _now for the chase!_ _now for the chase!_ _bring axes and spears;_ _bring axes and spears;_ _now for the chase!_ _now for the chase!_ when scarface climbed the cliff he saw three herds of bison. the first was feeding in an open space; the second was on a hillside, and the third was in a narrow valley close by a deep and hidden ravine. this was a place where the cave-men liked to hunt. so they agreed to follow scarface through the hidden ravine. scarface led the way, and all the men followed. not a leaf rustled beneath their tread. not a twig broke as they crept up the side of the deep ravine and looked out at the herd. everybody wanted to get the yearlings or young cows, for their flesh was tender and sweet. but the cows and young bison were in the center of the herd. they were guarded by the sentinels, whose flesh was hard and tough. and so the cave-men wondered how to get a young bison. they wondered if the vigilant leader was more than a match for them. they watched his signals, and saw fresh sentinels take the places of the hungry ones. they noticed how quickly the bison obeyed every signal the leader gave. [illustration: "_with a quick snort he turned and charged._"] at last the cave-men decided to attack the leader first. they waited till he was not more than a stone's throw away. then scarface gave the signal and the men made a bold attack. straightshaft hurled his spear with all his might, then turned to give place to the others. the leader was taken by surprise. the men had crept up so quietly that not till the spear whizzed through the air did he suspect danger. with a quick snort he turned and charged. straightshaft ran, but the others met the charge. they hurled their spears and dealt heavy blows with their stone axes. before the leader could give the alarm he lay stretched out on the ground. the sentinels looked for a signal. meanwhile the cows and yearlings tried to make their escape. then each of several sentinels tried to lead. but the frightened herd did not know which one to follow. some of the bison rushed one way and some rushed another. then there was a general stampede. they gored one another with their sharp horns. they trampled one another under their feet. they were too frightened to know what they were doing. it was then that the cave-men singled out the young bison. when they had secured them for their prize, they started toward the cave, singing-- _to-day we went hunting._ _we crept up the ravine;_ _we surprised the leader of the bison._ _he made a charge upon us--_ _we have his horns for a headdress._ _we killed many a young bison;_ _we have plenty of tender meat._ perhaps one of the sentinels became leader of the herd that very day. perhaps several battles were fought to see which sentinel was the strongest. for bison never follow a leader that is not stronger and wiser than themselves. #things to do# _show in your sand-box where each of the three herds was feeding._ _make a plan for hunting the herd that was feeding in an open space._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _the cave-men creeping up the banks of the steep ravine._ _the charge of the leader._ _the stampede._ _deciding which bison shall be leader of the herd._ _make a song to sing in getting ready to hunt the way you have planned. make a song to sing on your return._ _model a large, strong bison._ ix things to think about watch water when it is boiling, and see if you can tell what happens. why would it be harder for people to learn to boil than to roast? what kind of dishes did the cave-men have? what would happen to them if they were put over the fire? what does your mother do, when she wants to find out whether the flatiron is hot enough to iron? when the cave-men first learned to boil water, do you think they would think of boiling food? what might make them think of boiling food? _what happened when the children played with hot stones_ again the cave-men went out to hunt. again the women went out to gather roots and berries. only chew-chew and the children were left near the cave. chew-chew was curing the skins which the women had brought home. some of them were stretched out on the ground. others were stretched on frames. many of these were ready to be rolled up and put away. while the skins were drying, chew-chew had time for other work. she wanted to finish her basket, and so the splints must be put to soak. at a sign from chew-chew, fleetfoot went to the river for a bag of water. while he was gone, chew-chew began to make a place to put it. she dug a shallow hole in the ground and lined it with a skin. when fleetfoot came back they patted down the skin. then they poured the water into the skin-lined hole, and put the splints to soak. while chew-chew worked at her basket, fleetfoot played near at hand. often he came to his grandmother's side and talked about many things. at length chew-chew, holding up a skin, turned to fleetfoot and said, "do you know what animal wore this skin?" [illustration: _a bear's tooth awl._] "one of the reindeer we saw at the ford," quickly responded fleetfoot. "where have all the reindeer gone?" was chew-chew's next question. "to the cave of the big bear of the mountains," came the prompt answer. while chew-chew and fleetfoot talked the children played near the cave. pigeon was playing with stones which she had gathered and tossed into the fire. in trying to get them out again she burned her fingers, and began to cry. when chew-chew saw what had happened, she told fleetfoot to play with pigeon. and fleetfoot played with pigeon, and he showed her how to lift hot stones without getting burned. the children played and carried hot stones with tongs made of sticks. they ran back and forth between rows of skins until pigeon dropped a hot stone into the hole. no sooner had pigeon dropped the stone than she screamed, "a snake! a snake!" and she ran to her grandmother and sobbed, while she hid her face in her chubby arm. chew-chew thought that a snake was crawling about. fleetfoot helped her look under all the skins. they looked for some time, but they found no trace of a snake. then chew-chew asked pigeon to tell her all about it. and pigeon said, "a big snake hissed and made me drop the stone." just then fleetfoot dropped a hot stone and something went "s-s-s-s-s-s." pigeon screamed again, but a hearty laugh from chew-chew showed there was nothing to fear. chew-chew knew that the hissing sound was not the hiss of a snake. it was the sizzling of the water when it touched the hot stone. and so chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing sound. she picked up hot stones and dropped them into the water. each time a stone was dropped, the hissing sound was heard; and the children learned to know the sound, and they were no longer afraid. as chew-chew kept on dropping the hot stones, she did not notice all that happened. she thought only of teaching the children, so that they would not be afraid. but at last such a strange thing happened, that even chew-chew was afraid. the water no longer was still. it kept moving like the angry water in the rapids of the river. a thin mist began to rise, and a strange voice came from the water, saying:-- "_bubble, bubble, bubble; bubble, bubble, bubble._" at the sound chew-chew was filled with fear. she was afraid the gods were angry. she looked about for an offering, and found a piece of bison meat. she dropped the meat into the water, hoping to appease the angry god. [illustration: "_chew-chew tried to teach the children how to know the hissing sound._"] the bubbling ceased, but chew-chew was still afraid. so she called the children together, and took them into the cave. when the men and women came home that night, chew-chew told them what had happened. they went to the spot and saw the meat, which they thought the god had left. then they listened in silence as chew-chew told them the story again and again. #things to do# _choose some one for each of the parts and dramatize the story._ _draw pictures which will show what happened._ _see if you can boil water by dropping hot stones into it._ _show in your sand-box how the skins were stretched out, and how the skin-lined hole was made._ x things to think about what do you think chew-chew might learn by dropping the meat into the hot water? what kind of boiling-pots did people first use? why didn't they hang their boiling-pots over the fire? _why the children began to eat boiled meat_ the more chew-chew thought about the bubbling sound, the more she wanted to hear it again. she wondered what the god wanted to say, and if he was asking for food. she wondered if she could make friends with him by giving him something to eat. chew-chew talked with eagle-eye and at length they tried to make friends with the god. they prepared a place for the water by making a skin-lined hole. eagle-eye poured the water into the hole, while chew-chew dropped in a piece of meat. then they looked and listened for a sign, but no sign was made. they tried it again and again, but still there was no sign. at length chew-chew thought of the hot stones she had dropped when she heard the voice. so she and eagle-eye heated stones and dropped them into the water. as they did it they muttered prayers to the gods and asked them to protect the cave-men. before the women had dropped many stones, the children crowded around. nobody was frightened this time when the hissing sound was heard. but their eyes opened wide when the water began to bubble. chew-chew dropped the meat into the water as an offering to the god. everybody watched as she dropped the meat. everybody breathed more freely when the bubbling ceased. and chew-chew said, "the god is pleased with the offering of meat." many times after that chew-chew dropped hot stones into the water, and offered meat to the god. but when she did it she never thought that she was cooking meat. she thought she was helping the cave-men by winning the favor of the god. sometimes when the children were hungry, chew-chew let them tear off strips of partly boiled meat. sometimes she let them drink the broth from bone dippers and horns. the children liked to eat the boiled meat and to drink the rich broth. but they always thought the meat and broth were what the god had left. #things to do# _make tongs out of sticks and see if you can lift small objects with them._ _watch water when it boils, and tell where the steam comes from._ _where does it go? hold a cold plate over the steam and see what happens. where do the drops of water on the plate come from?_ _when water stands in the open air, what becomes of part of it?_ _why do we hang clothes out on the clothes-line to dry?_ _what becomes of the water that was in the clothes?_ _tell what you think happens just as clouds form. see if you can do something that will show what happens at the time._ _what happens to the clouds just as it begins to rain?_ xi things to think about why would the grass-eating animals go from place to place during the summer? what do you think the cave-men would do when the herds went away? at what season of the year are nuts fit to gather? is there any place near by where you have a right to go nutting? what animals eat nuts? what animals store nuts? do you think the cave-men would gather many nuts? _the nutting season_ summer passed as summers had passed before. when the bison went to the higher lands, the cave-men followed them. when they started toward their winter pastures, the cave-men came home. [illustration: "_all the women and children went nutting._"] it was the nutting season when they returned. all the beech, walnut, and butternut trees were heavily laden that year. the ground underneath their branches was nearly covered with nuts. slender hazel bushes bent under their heavy loads. wild hogs and bears had begun to harvest the nuts before the cave-men returned. each day they went to the trees and ate the nuts that had fallen. when eagle-eye saw what they were doing, she said, "bring your bags and baskets and come. if we do not look out the hogs will get the best of the nuts this year." then all the women and children went nutting. they gathered the nuts that lay upon the ground and put them in their baskets. some climbed trees and shook the branches until they got a shower of nuts; others took their digging sticks and beat the heavily laden branches. the children had a feast that day. they sat down under the trees and cracked all the nuts they could eat. they gathered handfuls and helped their mothers fill baskets and skin bags. they climbed the trees and they laughed and played all day long. when the women first came to the trees, they heard the wild hogs in the distance. once a big hog came up and tried to eat the nuts out of a basket. but eagle-eye chased him with a big stick and drove him away from the spot. when eagle-eye was coming back from the chase, she saw other trees heavily laden. she called to the women, and they came to the spot and forgot all about the nuts they had gathered. [illustration: _the wild hogs were having a feast._] it was chew-chew who first thought of the pile of nuts they had left on the ground. it was she who ran to the trees and found the wild hogs having a feast. chew-chew struck one of the hogs with her digging stick. he was munching the nuts she had gathered. he turned away and she struck another; then the first hog came back. chew-chew soon found that unless she had help the hogs would eat all the nuts, for as fast as she drove one hog away another one came back. chew-chew screamed for help and the women came with their digging-sticks. the women drove the hogs away, but they returned again and again. and so the women learned to keep a close watch while they were gathering nuts. but in spite of all their trouble, they had a good time that day. it was not until they were starting home that they found that a serious thing had happened. they did not know all about it then, and some of them never knew. it was all about fleetfoot. when eagle-eye looked for him, he was nowhere to be seen. at first she thought he was with chew-chew, but chew-chew had not seen him since morn. fleetfoot had played near his mother nearly all day. he had cracked nuts; he had climbed trees; he had mimicked the squirrels; he had scattered burrs in the rabbits' paths, and he had done all sorts of things. but now fleetfoot was lost, and everybody began to hunt for him. eagle-eye found the stones he had left only a short time before. she found his tracks and followed them until they crossed the boundary of the hunting ground. there she lost all trace of him. she called, but the "caw-caw" of a crow was the only answer. the men heard her call, and came to join in the search. but in spite of all they could do, they did not find the child. and so the cave-men thought they would never see fleetfoot again. they thought he had lost his way in the forest and had been killed by a cave-bear. for a few days they mourned for the child, then they spoke no more of him. #things to do# _tell a story of what happened one time when you went nutting._ _name all the nuts you can that grow on trees. name those that grow on bushes. where do peanuts grow?_ _dramatize this story._ _draw a picture of the part you like the best._ xii things to think about why do people put up such signs as "keep off," "do not trespass"? why do people build fences around their land? do you think the cave-men could hunt wherever they chose? why did each clan have its own hunting ground? what kind of boundaries did the hunting grounds have? why was it not safe to go on the land of a stranger? why did mothers teach their children the boundary lines? what do you think some mothers mean when they tell their children that the "bogie-man" will get them? _why mothers taught their children the boundary lines_ each day brought so many hard things to do that most of the cave-men forgot fleetfoot. but his mother and grandmother did not forget him. they often thought of the boy they had lost. other mothers were afraid they might lose their children. so they tried to keep them from running away. most of all, they tried to keep them from running across the boundary line. when pigeon tried to run away, eagle-eye would say, "the cave-bear will get you." mothers tried all sorts of ways to keep their children from danger. each clan had its own hunting ground. the people who lived together shared it, but no one else was allowed to hunt on the land. it was not even safe to cross the land of a stranger. sometimes the cave-men had to do it. sometimes they had to call upon their neighbors for help. but since there were people who had lost their lives when trying to cross the land of strangers, the cave-men learned to use signs to show what they wanted. they carved pictures upon sticks, which told what we might tell in a letter. when a stranger carried a message-stick, it was safe for him to do his errand. people knew what he wanted and why he came, so they let him go on his way unharmed. but when a stranger had no message-stick, his life was not safe in a strange land. [illustration: "_mothers taught their children what the boundaries were._"] and so people learned to stay on their own lands and mothers taught their children what the boundaries were. they taught the children to name them over and over again. they taught them to know how the boundaries looked. for a long time pigeon had to tell her mother each day the boundaries of the hunting grounds. she would stand on the cliff and point north to the narrow valley, then south to little river. then she pointed to a high ridge of hills toward the east and west to the river of stones. while pigeon was so small that eagle-eye had to take her by the hand, her mother took her to the boundaries. eagle-eye had taught her so well that she knew them as soon as she saw them. perhaps you have heard the story told about mothers who taught their children the boundary lines. it is told that mothers used to be so anxious to have their children remember the boundaries that they whipped them at each one. then the story is told that in later times instead of beating the children, people let them beat the boundaries. some day you may be able to learn more about the strange customs of beating the boundary lines. #things to do# _mark out in your sand-box the boundary lines of the hunting ground of the horse clan. show a good place for another hunting ground._ _ask some one to read you the story, "the goblins will get you if you don't watch out." what do you think the story means?_ _climb a hill, or look out of a high window, and see if you can find land which at one time was a good hunting ground._ _see if you can make a message-stick._ xiii things to think about what do you think had happened to fleetfoot? if strangers found him, what do you think they would do with him? _what happened to fleetfoot_ perhaps you have been wondering what happened to fleetfoot. perhaps you would like to know how he happened to wander away from his clan. it happened in this way. he cracked all the nuts he could eat; he climbed trees; he threw sticks and stones; he watched the wild hogs eating nuts; he listened to the whistle which scarface blew to call the men to the hunt. he wished that he could blow the whistle and hunt with the men. then a rabbit hopped across his path and stopped and looked at him. how fleetfoot longed to catch the rabbit and to hold him in his hands! he stood perfectly still; he could hear himself breathe; he tried to breathe more quietly, for he did not want to frighten the rabbit. the rabbit started. how fleetfoot wished he would go down the path where he had scattered burrs! but the rabbit took another path and fleetfoot ran to catch him. he was almost sure he could lay his hands on the rabbit's stumpy white tail. the rabbit was too quick for him, yet fleetfoot did not give up. he started on a hard chase and forgot about everything else. up hill and down the rabbit ran and fleetfoot followed after. not until the rabbit was out of sight did fleetfoot give up the chase. then he stopped and rested a while and tried to get his breath. while fleetfoot was resting he looked at the squirrels which were chattering in the trees. he watched them hold nuts with their forepaws while they gnawed through the shells. he listened to their chattering and then he wandered on. fleetfoot did not know that he had crossed the narrow valley. he did not know that he had wandered into a strange land. he thought nothing about where he was until some time had passed. but after a while everything seemed still, and fleetfoot began to feel lonesome. and so he turned around to go back to the women and children. fleetfoot walked and walked, but he did not find them. he called, but no answer came. so he wandered on and on. soon fleetfoot knew he was in a spot he had never seen before. everything seemed strange. he looked this way and that; but he could not tell which way to go. and so the lost child wandered farther and farther away from home. he was choking down a sob when he caught sight of some women with packs upon their backs. fleetfoot thought he had found his people going home with their loads of nuts. he ran and called to his mother. a strange woman stopped and looked at the child. then she gave a signal to her clan. fleetfoot was within reach of the strange woman before he saw his mistake. he tried to run away. but he could not do it. a big man caught him and lifted him up and put him upon his shoulder. strange men, women, and children crowded around and stared into his face. [illustration: "_a big man caught him, and put him upon his shoulder._"] bighorn asked him where he lived; but fleetfoot was too frightened to speak. he remembered the stories chew-chew had told about strange clans. he wondered what the strangers would do. how he wished he were safe at home! but poor fleetfoot did not see his home again for many long years. he was in a strange land, and soon he was traveling with the strangers far away from his home. a woman, whose name was antler, took charge of fleetfoot. she took him by the hand until he was too tired to walk. then she carried him until they came to the place where they camped for the night. #things to do# _choose some one for each of the parts and see if you can act out this story. draw pictures to illustrate the story._ _name the wild animals you can find in your neighborhood. notice what they eat. do they help or harm the people near where they live?_ _model one of these animals in clay._ xiv things to think about what kind of a shelter do you think the people will have for the night? think of as many easy ways as you can of making a shelter out of trees. _how the strangers camped for the night_ the camping place was an old one. it had been used many times. the strange clan always used it on their way to and from the lowland plains. it was under a big oak tree, and near a spring of fresh water. when the strangers reached the camp, greybeard took charge of fleetfoot. the women quickly unloaded their packs, and began to build a tent. it did not take long to make the tent, for it was almost ready-made. it was an old oak, which reached out long and low-spreading branches. the branches had been bent to the ground many times, and now they nearly touched it. so all that the women had to do was to fasten the ends firmly. they did it by rolling a stone over the end of a branch, and sometimes they tied the end of a branch to a peg which they had driven in the ground. all the cave-men made such tents in the summer when they were away from the caves. when the branches were not thick enough for a shelter, the women broke saplings and leaned them against the tree. while chipper worked at a spearhead, the other men were moving about. bighorn feared that fleetfoot's clan might follow their tracks. long after fleetfoot fell asleep, the strangers talked quietly. they held their ears close to the ground and listened. they went and looked at fleetfoot, now fast asleep. then they all sat down by the fire. [illustration: "_the tent was an old oak, which reached out long and low-spreading branches._"] at length the men turned to greybeard. and greybeard spoke to them and said, "when i was young my clan lived in a cave near sweet briar river. every year, in the salmon season, the neighboring clans met at the rapids. the horse clan came from the fork of the river, where the sweet briar joins the river of stones. they may live there still. this boy may belong to them." "do you think they will follow us?" asked bighorn. greybeard looked up, but did not speak. he seemed to be trying to think. at length he turned to the men and said, "sleep until the moon sets; i'll watch and wake you." so the cave-men went to the tent and slept while greybeard kept watch. not a sound escaped his ear that night. not a leaf rustled that he did not hear. not a twig broke, as wild animals passed, but that he found out what it meant. as greybeard watched in the moonlight he heard many a familiar sound. now he heard the roar of a tiger, and again the "hoo-hoo" of an owl; now the howling of hyenas, and again an eagle's scream. among all these sounds greybeard heard nothing that seemed to come from the lost child's clan. but when the moon was set he roused the people, and under cover of the darkness they hurried toward home. they let fleetfoot sleep, for fear he might answer if he were called. and so the child slept while he was hurried away through the darkness. at daybreak, when he awoke, he found himself in a new home. #things to do# _see if there is a tree in your neighborhood that could be made into such a tent as the cave-men made._ _find a thick branch and make such a tent in your sand-box._ _draw one of these pictures:--_ _the council of the clan before going to sleep._ _greybeard watching in the moonlight._ _hurrying home under cover of the darkness._ _fleetfoot awakes and finds himself in his new home._ _act out part of this story and let some one guess what it is._ _write as many calls of the birds as you know. model one of the birds in clay. if you know its nest, model that._ xv things to think about how do you think fleetfoot felt the first few days he was with the strange clan? what do you think he will learn of them? what do you think he can teach them? _fleetfoot is adopted by the bison clan_ for a few days fleetfoot missed his mother and chew-chew more than he could tell. he missed little pigeon, too. he missed the people he had always seen. but he said very little about them. it was greybeard who told him that he was now living with the bison clan. not all of the people belonged to that clan, but there were more of that clan than of any other. and so they were known as the bison clan. at first fleetfoot was afraid of the men and large boys. most of all he was afraid of bighorn, for it was bighorn who captured him. but before one moon had passed, he was adopted by the bison clan. and soon after that, he began to feel at home. greybeard told him stories, and gave him little spears. antler was kind to him, and the children were always ready to play. [illustration: _a skin stretched on a frame._] fleetfoot liked to play with the children. he liked to play with flaker best of all. flaker was antler's child, and he was about the size of fleetfoot. [illustration: _a scraper._] as the days became cold, the women worked upon skins. there was not a smooth spot near the cave which was not covered with a skin. fleetfoot watched antler as she cut little slits in the edges. he helped stretch the skins out on the ground and drive little pegs through the slits. he watched her stretch a skin on a frame and put it near the fire. antler scraped a skin until the fat was off, and the inner skin was removed. then she roughened it by scraping it crosswise, so as to make it flexible. when fleetfoot saw antler roll the skins in a loose roll, he asked if she was going to chew them. antler smiled as she asked fleetfoot how his mother softened skins. fleetfoot showed how his mother did it. and he told antler about chew-chew. he told her that chew-chew got her name because she learned to chew the skins. while antler and fleetfoot were talking, all the women and children gathered around. they wanted to see what they were doing, and to hear what fleetfoot said. then antler said to the women and children, "these skins are ready to soften. come, join hands and show fleetfoot how we soften hard skins." [illustration: _a hammer of reindeer horn._] what a noisy time they had for a little while! each group wanted to finish first. some of them stamped the skins, and kept time by singing. others pounded the skins with their hands, and still others pounded with hammers of reindeer horn. they had such a merry time that fleetfoot could not keep still. he was soon stamping and singing as well as any one. when the skins were softened, antler told fleetfoot that once her people chewed the skins. but since they had found an easier way, they chewed only the edges they wished to sew. and so fleetfoot began to learn lessons of the bison clan. but once he was the teacher. it was when he showed flaker what happened the day pigeon played with hot stones. flaker told his mother, and antler told greybeard. and then greybeard asked fleetfoot to drop the hot stones in the water again. all the cave-men gathered around to see what fleetfoot did. when the steam began to rise from the water, they stepped back. but when they saw that the child was not afraid, they came forward cautiously. when the water began to bubble, they were all filled with fear. they looked upon fleetfoot in silence. they called him a wonderful child. #things to do# _tell a story about dressing skins. draw pictures which will show all that is done in dressing the skin._ _dramatize the part of the story that tells what fleetfoot taught the bison clan. draw a picture of it._ _make a song that people might sing in stamping upon the skins._ _make a song to sing while beating the skins._ xvi things to think about what kind of clothes do you wear in winter? what do you think the cave-men wore? can you think how they learned to fit skins to their bodies? what part of an animal's skin could they use for sleeves? what part could they use for leggings? how do you think they learned to make mittens and gloves? how many ways do you know of fastening garments? which of these do we use? which of these do you think the cave-men used? what did they use instead of a needle? what kind of thread did they have? [illustration: "_greybeard asked fleetfoot to drop the hot stones in the water again._"] _how the cave-men protected themselves from the cold_ one morning fleetfoot started out of the cave, but a cold wind drove him back. snow had fallen during the night, and the air had grown very cold. it was not fit for a bare-backed boy to go out on such a day. so fleetfoot stayed in the cave all day long. all the cave-men stayed in the cave nearly all the day. once chipper went out and found fresh tracks. he followed the tracks until he came within close range of a reindeer. but his bare arms shook with the cold, and he missed his aim. the next day was bitterly cold. the river was frozen almost into silence. only the ripples of the swiftest currents laughed aloud at the frost. the snow was deep on the hillsides. it was deeper in the valleys, and the narrow ravines were almost filled with snow. the third day was still very cold and everybody was hungry and cross. the children were crying for food, and since antler had nothing to give them, she was trying to get them to play. at length the children began to take turns at playing they were cave-bears. now it was fleetfoot's turn to be the bear, and when antler saw him she laughed. the cave-men looked up in surprise. everybody was so hungry and cross it seemed strange to hear any one laugh. but antler really was laughing. fleetfoot had found a cave-bear's skin on a ledge in the cave. he had wrapped it around him so that he looked like a little cave-bear. the children kept calling him "little bear," and he was trying to act like one. soon all the people were laughing. they forgot, for the time, how hungry they were. and the next day they had meat, for it was warm enough to go hunting. many times after that the children played cave-bear. many times the people laughed when they saw the children dressed in cave-bears' skins. once when antler looked at them, she got an idea about making clothes. when antler took a large skin and wrapped it around her, fleetfoot thought that she was going to play "bear." but antler was not playing. she was thinking of the cold days when the children had no food. she was thinking that if she could make a warm dress, perhaps she could go out in the bitter cold. antler talked with birdcatcher about it, and birdcatcher helped her fit the skin. birdcatcher fitted the skin of the head over antler's head so as to make a warm hood. then she run a cord through the slits along the edges and tied the ends under antler's chin. antler fastened the skin down the front with buckles. she covered her arms with the skin of the forelegs. she cut off the skin that hung below the knees, and afterward used it to make a pair of leggings. when the garment was fitted, antler took it off. then the women sat down and worked until it was done. they punched holes through the edges with a bone awl. then they threaded the sinew through the holes in an "over-and-over seam." [illustration: "_when the men saw the new garment, they wondered how it was made._"] when the men saw the new garment, they wondered how it was made. so antler and birdcatcher showed them how it was done, and helped them to make warm garments of their own. [illustration: _a cave-man's glove._] and so all the cave-men soon had warm garments of fur. sometimes they fastened them with buckles, and sometimes they used bone pins. they made long leggings of soft skins, and moccasins for their feet. perhaps you can think how they learned to make mittens and gloves. we know that they had warm mittens and gloves, for we have found pictures they made of them. when they dressed in their warm fur garments, the cave-men did not fear the cold. if they wanted food, they put on their garments and went wherever they pleased. #things to do# _if you can get a small skin, fit it to a doll the way you think the cave-men fitted skins to their bodies. if you cannot get a skin, cut a piece of cloth so as to make it the shape of a skin, and show how the new suit was made._ _find as many things as you can that you can use for pins, buttons, and buckles._ _find as many ways as you can of sewing a simple seam. when you go to a museum notice how the seams are sewed. why do you think people invented new stitches? visit a shoemaker and notice how he sews._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _the cold wind drives fleetfoot into the cave._ _playing "cave-bear."_ xvii things to think about how do you think the children played in the winter? what do you play in the winter? how do you think the cave-men would hunt when there was only a light fall of snow? how would they hunt when the snow was deep? how would they hunt when there was a hard crust on the snow? _how the children played in winter_ when the children saw their fathers and mothers go out of doors, they, too, wanted to go. but they had no warm clothing, so their mothers tried to keep them in doors. sometimes fleetfoot and flaker teased to go out and play in the snow. and when the days were warm enough, antler let them go out and play. but on very cold days they had to stay in the cave. the children had good times in the cave. they played many animal games. they played they were grown men and women, and they made believe do all sorts of work. they peeked out of the cave many times each day. they heard their fathers and mothers talk. and they listened to greybeard's stories. and so the children always knew what the men and women were doing. after a heavy fall of snow, they knew they would trap the animals in the drifts. when a hard crust formed, they knew they would dig pitfalls. antler often wished that the children might play out doors every day. greybeard wanted the boys to learn to make pitfalls and traps. but neither antler nor greybeard had thought of making clothing for little children. the day antler thought of making clothes for the boys, was the day they ran away to the pitfall. it was soon after chipper came to the cave and said that two reindeer were in the pit. when the boys heard what chipper said, they were playing they were bighorn and chipper. they had tied the skins of wolves' heads over their heads, and they let the rest of the skins hang down as if they were capes. when the news came about the reindeer, everybody was excited. everybody hurried to the pitfall so as to see the reindeer. nobody noticed the boys steal out of the cave. nobody noticed them run to the pitfall. but soon after she started, antler saw the tracks of their bare feet. she guessed at once where the boys had gone. and it was then that she thought of making them clothing. while the children slept that night, antler talked with the women. and when morning came, the women took skins and made the children warm clothes and moccasins. when the children put on their wolf-skin suits, they looked like a pack of wolves. sometimes they played they were wolves. then they chased make-believe wild horses. sometimes when the children were playing in the snow, they found the antlers of a full-grown stag. the children began to look for the antlers of the full-grown stags in early winter. but they knew that the other reindeer kept their antlers until early spring. an old stag's antlers were large and strong, and the children liked to find them. they would pick them up and hold them in their hands and would then make believe they were cave-men trapping reindeer in the snow. one day greybeard showed fleetfoot and flaker how to trap the reindeer in the snow. he showed them how to dig a pitfall in the drifts. the boys found a large drift near the trail and they cut out a large block of snow. they hollowed a deep pit under the crust which they took pains not to break. then they fitted the block of snow in its place, thus covering the pit. to make sure that the reindeer would come to the pitfall they scattered moss over the thin crust. then greybeard taught them to say, "_come down to the river, reindeer;_ _come down to the river to drink._ _come eat the moss i have spread for you,_ _come and fall into my trap._" all the cave-men believed that these words would charm the reindeer to the spot. they always muttered such lines as charms when they went out to hunt. and so greybeard taught the boys the lines, for he wanted them to know all the cave-men's charms. #things to do# _name the animals which you know by their tracks. draw a picture of the tracks you know best._ _tell a story about hunting an animal by tracking it._ _next time there is a heavy fall of snow, play hunting animals by driving them into the drifts._ _see if you can show in your sand-box how the pitfall was made._ _see if you can think of a way of having real drifts in your sand-box._ _draw a picture of the children playing with the antlers of the reindeer._ _draw a picture of the reindeer in the pitfall._ xviii things to think about do you know whether we can tell what the weather is going to be? have you ever heard any one talking about the signs of the weather? what signs do you know? notice animals and see how they act before a storm. notice what animals and birds are here in summer that are not here in winter. are any here in winter that are not here in the summer? why did the bison go away from the cave-men's hunting grounds each winter? when they went away would they go in large or small herds? if the weather kept pleasant how do you think they would travel? what would they do if it looked like a storm? notice the animals that live near you and see whether they turn their heads or backs toward the storm. _overtaken by a storm_ winter passed and summer came and now it was almost gone. the cattle had gone to the forests in the lowlands where they spent the winter. straggling lines of bison were moving down the valley. now and then they stopped a few days to eat the tall grass. then they slowly moved onward toward the lower lands. the days were like the indian summer days which we sometimes have in late autumn. everybody enjoyed each day as it came, and thought little about the coming cold. but one morning the sky was gray and gloomy, and the sun could not pierce through the heavy clouds. the air was cold and now and then a snowflake was falling. there was no meat at the cave, and everybody was hungry. so bighorn said to the men, "let's hunt the bison to-day." the men crowded around, for they were always glad to go hunting with bighorn. as soon as he had shown them his plan, they took their weapons and started toward the herd. bighorn expected to find the herd feeding quietly on a hillside. but, instead, the bison were tossing their horns, sniffing the air, and looking this way and that. bighorn saw that the bison were restless and that he could not take them by surprise. "we shall have a hard chase," said he to the men, "if we get a bison to-day." the men stood still for a moment, for they did not know what to do. fine snowflakes were now falling and the dark clouds threatened a heavy storm. but the men were hungry and they were not ready to give up the hunt at once. "listen!" said bighorn, as a low rumbling sound came from the upper valley. the cave-men put their ears to the ground and heard a sound like distant thunder. as they listened it came nearer and nearer and the ground seemed to shake. the cave-men were not afraid. they knew what the sound meant. the bison, too, knew what it meant. they knew that winter was coming, and that it was time for them to be gone. they knew that the laggard herds were racing with the storm. and so the sentinels of the scattered herds gave signals to the bison. and before the cave-men were on their feet, the bison had started toward the ford. louder and louder the rumbling sound grew as the great herd galloped on. the snow was now falling thick and fast, and a cold northwest wind was blowing. but in spite of the wind and the snow, the cave-men pressed on toward the ford. bighorn still hoped to get a bison as the great herd passed. by the time the herd reached the ford, the wind had become a strong gale. the air was so thick with the snow that it nearly blinded the men. then bighorn turned and said to the men, "we must find a shelter from the storm." the bison, too, tried to find a shelter. some of them hugged up closely to the sheltered side of the cliffs. others sought cover in the ravines. but many could find no protection, so they turned about and faced the storm. [illustration: "_but many could find no protection, so they turned about and faced the storm._"] the cave-men wished they were safe at home, but they dared not go through the storm. they huddled together and felt their way to a spot where the snow did not drift. there they lay down in the snow and waited for the storm to cease. #things to do# _name some bird that migrates. tell all that you know about the way it migrates._ _when you go out to play, show how the bison migrated in warm weather. show how they migrated in cold weather._ _show in your sand-box where the deep drifts would be. show places where the snow would not drift. if you cannot be sure about where the drifts would be, see if you can find out by watching the storms during winter._ _if the cave-men are buried in the snow, how do you think they can get air to breathe? how can they tell when the storm is over?_ xix things to think about what do you think those who stayed in the cave will do during the storm? can you think of any way by which they could get food? did you ever walk on snowshoes? how do you think people came to make snowshoes? _how antler happened to invent snowshoes_ antler saw the coming storm and at once she thought of the fire. she called to the women. and soon they were all breaking branches with stone axes and mauls. the children piled the fagots together and carried them to the cave. [illustration: _a stone maul._] the snow was falling fast before they finished their work. they watched the storm for a little while and then went into the cave. the children were hungry and asked for meat. but there was no meat in the cave. antler tried to get the children to play and to forget that they were hungry. and the children played for a little while, but they soon grew tired. and so antler gathered the children together and began to tell them stories. as the storm raged fiercer and fiercer, antler told stories of other storms. she had braved many storms on the wooded hills and the children liked to hear her stories. among the stories she told that day was the story of the big bear. she said that the big bear lived in a cavern away up in the mountain. she said that he kept watch of the game and that sometimes he shut the game in his cavern. antler said she had often heard the big bear above the voice of the storm. and fleetfoot, listening for his voice, thought he heard it in the wailing of the storm. in spite of the stories antler told, the day was long and dreary. the next day was still more dreary, for the children were crying for food. toward the close of day they were very tired, and soon they fell asleep. most of the women slept that night, but there was no sleep for antler. she could not sleep when the children were hungry and when the men were out in the storm. she stayed awake and watched and listened all through the long dark night. [illustration: _fur gloves._] toward morning the storm began to slacken, and antler gave a sigh of relief. she felt sure that many bison were floundering in the drifts. she hoped they were not far away from the cave. so she dressed in her fur garments and took a large knife and an ax. and at break of day she set out hoping to find a bison. but the snow was very deep and antler could scarcely walk. she was faint from hunger and cold. for a while she struggled through the drifts, but soon her strength failed, and she sank down in the snow. as antler lay in the deep drifts, she seemed powerless to move. the thought of the hungry children, however, made her turn to the gods. then the branches of spruce trees seemed to urge her on. and so antler took courage and grasping a strong branch of a friendly spruce struggled through the deep snow. she stepped upon the partly buried branches and they helped her on her way. a bison, floundering in a drift, filled her heart with hope. but when she started toward the bison, antler sank down once more into the drifts. so again she turned to the friendly trees, and again she reached out to them for aid. and she broke branches from the trees and bound them to her feet. starting once more, antler walked as if on winged feet. she ran over the deep drifts. and since she could hunt as well as the men, she soon had plenty of meat. as antler was strapping her load upon her back, she heard a familiar voice. quickly she turned, and her heart beat fast as she listened to hear it again. and seeing the men struggling through the drifts, she knelt and gave thanks to the gods. soon antler arose and laid down her load; and breaking a handful of branches, she hurried over the drifts and met the cave-men. [illustration: _a snowshoe._] when the men saw antler gliding over the drifts they wondered if it was one of the gods. not until antler spoke were they really sure it was she. and not until she showed them how to tie the branches to their feet did they understand what she had done. and even then they did not know that antler had invented the snowshoe. many people worked upon snowshoes before fine snowshoes were made. for when people heard what antler had done, they tried different ways for themselves. of course all the people were glad when antler returned with the men. they feasted and told stories all day long. and afterward the children played they were hunters overtaken by a storm, and they made little snowshoes and learned to walk over the drifts. #things to do# _the next time there is a storm listen to it and see if you can hear what the cave-men thought was the voice of the big bear. see if you can tell what it is that makes the music of the storm._ _listen to the music of the birds and see if you can give their songs and calls._ _what other animals do you hear calling one another? see if you can give their calls._ _tell a story of some storm you have seen._ _draw one of these pictures;_-- _antler praying to the gods for help._ _a bison floundering in the drift._ _antler bringing aid to the men._ _find a picture of a snowshoe, and tell how you think it was made._ _find something which you can use for making snowshoes. make a pair, and use them when you have a chance._ _see if you can find out why the snowshoe keeps one from sinking in the snow._ xx things to think about why would the women be apt to make traps before the men did? what animals did the men hunt most? how did they hunt them? what animals did the women hunt most? how? how many kinds of knots can you tie? which of these knots slip? which of these knots would be the best to use in a trap? _how antler made snares_ while fleetfoot and flaker were little boys, they learned a few lessons in trapping. the men seldom trapped at that time, but the women trapped in several ways. antler was only a little girl when she learned to catch birds with a seed on a string. she was called snowflake then and she lived in another cave. snowflake's mother taught her to do all the things that little girls needed to know. she learned to hunt for roots and berries, to catch birds, and to make traps, besides learning to make tents, to prepare skins, and to make them into garments. it would take too long to tell all the things that little girls learned in those days. snowflake learned her lessons well and she found new ways of doing things. it was when she found a reindeer caught in the vines that she took the first step in making a snare. she had started to the hillside to dig roots and had gone only a little way when she heard something pulling and tugging among the vines. she peeked through the branches to see what it was, and there stood a beautiful reindeer. his antlers were caught in the tangled vines and he was trying to get loose. snowflake's heart went pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, when she saw the reindeer. but she kept going nearer, and the reindeer pulled and pulled until he was strangled by the vines. when snowflake came to the cave dragging the handsome reindeer, the people shouted for joy. and when they had knocked off the beautiful antlers, they gave them to snowflake and changed her name. whenever she went to the spot where the reindeer was caught she always looked for another reindeer. but the reindeer kept away from the spot. so, at length, antler thought of cutting vines and fastening them to branches. then she learned to tie knots that would slip and tighten when pulled. and, after a while, she used the slipknots in making many kinds of snares. [illustration: "_then she set snares on the ground and fastened them to strong branches._"] antler watched the birds until she knew the spots where they liked to alight. then she set snares on the ground and fastened them to strong branches. the birds, alighting on the spot, caught their feet in the snare. when they tried to fly away, they pulled the slipknot which held them fast. [illustration: "_antler learned to protect the cord by running it through a hollow bone._"] some of the birds were frightened away, and did not return to the spot. so antler tried to coax them back by scattering seeds near the snare. once antler set a snare in a rabbit path just high enough to catch the rabbit's head. a rabbit was caught, but he nibbled the cord and ran off with the snare. and so antler learned to protect the cord by running it through a hollow bone. there was no better trapper than antler among all the cave-men. it was she who taught the boys and girls how to make and set traps. when the marmots awoke from their long winter's sleep, all the children learned to catch them in traps. they learned to loosen the bark of a tree without breaking it except along one edge. they used the bark as a leadway to a trap which they set near a marmot's hole. after placing the noose inside the bark, they fastened it to a bent sapling. [illustration: "_so it ran along and nibbled the bait until its sharp teeth cut the cord._"] when the children went to the trap, they clapped their hands and shouted. then they took the marmot out of the trap and carried it to the cave. and they made a great noise when bighorn said, "you will soon be very good trappers." then the children wanted to catch another marmot, so antler went with them and showed them how the trap worked. the marmot coming out of his hole smelled the bait on the string. so it ran along and nibbled the bait until its sharp teeth cut the cord. then the sapling sprang up and jerked the snare upward. and the weight of the marmot, pulling downward, drew the slipknot tight. #things to do# _tie a slipknot at one end of a string, and show how to set it for snaring birds. show how to set it for snaring rabbits. find a hollow stick or a bone to protect the snare from the rabbit's teeth. show how the marmot trap was set._ _tell how you catch mice. tell how you catch flies._ _what animals do you know that sleep during the winter? how can they live so long without eating?_ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _snowflake finds a reindeer caught in the vines._ _antler teaches the children to set traps._ _model a marmot in clay._ _name all the animals you know that burrow in the ground. watch one of them and find out what it does._ xxi things to think about why would the cave-men be apt to lose many spears and javelins? how could they keep from losing the shafts? can you think of how they might find a way of saving their spearheads? find a picture of a barbed spearhead. why did people begin to make barbs? _how spears were changed into harpoons_ none of the clans could make better weapons than the men of the bison clan. since boyhood, greybeard had been known for his delicate spear points and knives. no workshop in all the valley was better known than his. but even greybeard's weapons sometimes were known to fail. even his spear points sometimes were lost in the chase. for several days the men were at home making new weapons. they never made spears and javelins with sharper and finer points. they never made straighter and smoother shafts. when they started out to hunt, they were proud of their new weapons. all the cave-men expected that before the day passed, they would have new trophies and fresh meat. the women, trapping birds on the hillsides, listened from time to time. they expected to hear bighorn's whistle when the animals were ready to be skinned. but the day passed, and no signal came. at sunset the men returned, but they were gloomy and silent. they brought no trophies, and they spoke not a word of the chase. no wonder the men were gloomy and silent. their precious spears and javelins had been lost in the chase. it was not because the men were careless. it was not because they were not skillful in making spears and javelins. it was because these weapons, when thrown from the hand, could not strike deadly blows. the cave-men had thrown at the wild horses with a sure aim. their javelins and spears went right to the mark. when the horses ran, the cave-men followed. but in spite of all they could do, the wild horses were soon out of sight. some of the horses received ugly wounds and carried the weapons far away. others received slight wounds; they brushed off the spears and javelins, which fell and were lost in the tall grass. [illustration: _a chisel-scraper._] time and again, hunted animals had escaped with only a wound. wounded animals had often escaped with a spear or javelin. but never before had so many animals escaped with so many precious weapons. of course there was nothing for the cave-men to do but to make new weapons. but it took a long time to season the sticks for straight and smooth shafts. it took patience and skill for the cave-men to make delicate flint points. perhaps this was why the cave-men learned to retrieve the weapons they threw. ever since the cave-men had learned to make spears, they had lashed the head to the shaft. they thought that this was the only way to make a good spear. chipper was the first cave-man who invented a new way. chipper was all alone in the workshop. he had finished a spear point which he held in his hand. without thinking what he was doing, he slipped the tang into a hollow reed which he picked up from the ground. if it had not been for a hungry wolf, he might have thought no more about it. but the wolf had smelled the meat which was on the ground close to the workshop. hearing a sound, chipper looked just in time to see the wolf spring toward the meat. the spear flew from chipper's hand before he stopped to think. and chipper sprang upon the wolf and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight. at the first sound of the combat the cave-men rushed to the spot. there they found that chipper had already secured his prize. while the cave-men looked at the wolf, chipper told them what had happened. he showed them the reed which he had used in hurling his new spear point. the men looked at the hollow reed and tried it to see how it worked. other reeds were on the ground. so the men fitted spearheads into the reeds and practiced throwing that way. they played with the reeds the rest of the day. [illustration: _a barbed point._] when they worked at their weapons again, chipper, alone, tried a new way. he made a loose shaft with a socket in the end. during the next chase they lost many weapons. chipper lost many spearheads; but he always found his loose shaft. when the cave-men noticed that chipper never lost his shaft they began to make loose shafts. and they got the idea of a barbed spearhead from a wound which was made by a broken point. they found such a point deep down in the wound of a bison. the sharp edge had caught in the bison's flesh. and every movement of the bison had driven the spearhead deeper. [illustration: _a harpoon._] it was by paying attention to such little things that the cave-men learned to make barbed spears. when the cave-men learned that barbed spearheads made very dangerous wounds, they were willing to take the trouble of making the barbed points. but no cave-man was willing to lose one of his barbed spear points. perhaps that is why the men began to tie the barbed heads to the loose shaft. when they first did this, they did not know that their spears had become harpoons. #things to do# _find a hollow reed and use it for a shaft. make a shaft with a socket in it. fit a spearhead into the socket. change the spear so as to make a harpoon._ _draw a picture of the chase of the wild horses._ _think of a wild horse running very fast. see if you can model a wild horse in clay so as to show that it has great speed._ xxii things to think about why was the harpoon a better weapon for hunting than the spear or javelin? what could hunters do to keep smooth shafts from slipping from their hands? what is the harpoon used for to-day? why do animals become more cunning after they are hunted? _how the cave-men hunted with harpoons_ once again the cave-men went out to hunt the wild horses. once again they took new weapons. but instead of spears and javelins they carried barbed harpoons. from a high hill they saw the horses on the edge of a grassy upland. they hurried over the wooded hills and crept through the tall grass. when bighorn gave the signal the sentinels pricked up their ears. but before they could give the alarm, the men had thrown their harpoons. the frightened horses crowded upon one another. snapping sounds of breaking shafts, sharp cries of wounded horses, and loud shouts of cave-men added to their terror. the snorting of the sentinels warned the cave-men back. a signal from the leader brought order to the herd. it began to move as though it were one solid mass. away the herd galloped, striking terror to all creatures in the way. but the wounded horses soon lagged. in vain they tried to keep up. at each step the shaft of the harpoon swung under their feet. at each step the barbed head pierced deeper and deeper. so the cave-men had little trouble in finishing the chase. perhaps you think the cave-men had no trouble in hunting after that. they had less trouble for some time, and they all prized their harpoons. but on cold days, when their hands were stiff, the smooth shafts slipped from their grasp. when they used shafts with knobs and large joints, it was easy to keep a firm hold. so the men made shafts with larger knobs and they put girdles around the smooth shafts. [illustration: _chipper using a spear-noose._] at their games of throwing spears and javelins, bighorn was almost sure to win. it was partly because he had large hands and very strong fingers. by bending one finger like a hook and striking the butt of the shaft, he could send a harpoon straight to the mark. chipper's hands were not very large. his fingers were not so strong as bighorn's. but chipper was a bright young man, and he found a way of using a spear-noose so that he could throw as well as bighorn. the spear-noose was a simple thing. chipper made it by tying a noose in each end of a cord. when he used it, he slipped one noose around his thumb and the other around one finger. then he grasped the spear near the butt and slipped the cord around the knob. the spear-noose was a great help to hunters whose hands were not large and strong. every time the cave-men made new weapons, they worked very well for a short time. but as soon as the animals learned about them, they became more cunning in getting away. wild horses kept sentinels on knolls and hilltops so that they could see an enemy from afar. they guarded their herds so carefully that the cave-men could scarcely get near enough to hit them with their harpoons. and so the cave-men returned many times bearing no trophies. they returned many times giving no signal for the women to come for fresh meat. #things to do# _take a harpoon and show how the shaft would swing against the feet of an animal that had been hit by the head._ _make a girdle around a smooth shaft, or make a shaft with a knob or large joint near the butt._ _make a spear-noose and show how chipper used it._ _think of the wild horses during the first few minutes after the men threw their harpoons. see if you can draw a picture of them._ xxiii things to think about think of as many hard things as you can that the cave-men had to do. why did they have to do these things? what kind of men did the cave-men have to be? think of as many ways as you can that the cave-men would use to teach the boys. what tests do you think they would give the boys? [illustration: "_and so the cave-men tested the boys in many different ways._"] _how the cave-men tested fleetfoot and flaker_ winters came and went, and fleetfoot and flaker grew to be large boys. they watched the men; they heard them talk; they learned what a cave-man had to do. greybeard told them stories of brave hunters that lived long ago. he told them about the animals they must learn to hunt. the boys listened to the stories. and they thought there was no animal too fierce for them to fight. they thought there was no river too swift for them to cross. they thought there was no mountain too steep for them to climb. but the boys had not learned how fierce a bison can be. they had never crossed a raging river nor climbed a mountain peak. the men knew that the boys needed to try their strength before they could be really strong. they knew they must do brave deeds before they could be really brave. they knew they must suffer patiently before they could have self-control. and so the cave-men tested the boys in many different ways. if the boys stood the tests, the cave-men shouted praises; but if they showed any sign of fear, the cave-men jeered at them. sometimes the boys were given nothing to eat until they brought food from the hunt. and even then they were not always allowed to touch the food which was near. when the boys were fasting, the cave-men tempted them with food. and if the boys took even a bite, they failed in the test. so fleetfoot and flaker learned to fast without a word of complaint. one of the hardest things which the boys had to do was to make their own weapons. at first, greybeard helped them; but, later, they had to do their own work. so the boys learned to go to the trees that had the best wood for shafts. they learned to cut, and peel, and scrape, and oil, and season, and polish the sticks before they were ready to use. no wonder the boys became tired before all this work was done. then they worked very carefully before they could make good spearheads. they hunted for the best stones and learned to shape them very well. when they forgot and struck hard blows, they spoiled the flint points. then greybeard would tell them that the strongest and bravest hunters were those who could strike the gentlest blows. it was work of this kind that was harder for the boys than chasing a wild horse or a reindeer. if they had not known that they must have weapons, they would not have had patience to do it. while the boys worked at their weapons, they thought of what they would do with them. they thought of the trophies they would bring home and what the people would say. and they learned to sing at their work and to mark the time for each blow. and so they managed to keep at work until the weapons were done. one day when the boys were flaking spear points, fleetfoot turned to flaker and said, "do you know who made the first flaker?" "yes," answered flaker, "it was greybeard." "no, no!" said fleetfoot, "nimble-finger did it." greybeard heard fleetfoot speak his name and he came to the spot. then it was that fleetfoot learned that greybeard was nimble-finger. after that fleetfoot took great pains to learn how to flake flint points. he watched greybeard as he worked and he listened to all he said. before many years had passed, the boys could make good weapons. they knew every spot on their own hunting ground. they knew the wild animals that lived there and what they liked to do. they knew each animal by its track. each sound of the woods, each patch of light, they learned to read as you read a book. #things to do# _name things you will have to learn before you are full-grown._ _what kind of tests do you have to take?_ _tell a story of the way the cave-men tested fleetfoot and flaker._ _tell a story of all that you think happened the day that fleetfoot learned that greybeard was nimble-finger._ _name the birds you can tell by their song. name those you can tell by sight._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _testing fleetfoot and flaker._ _fleetfoot and flaker in the workshop._ _fleetfoot discovers nimble-finger._ [illustration: "_then their antlers crashed in a swift charge._"] xxiv things to think about what animals would the cave-men see just before winter? which of these live in herds? how are the leaders of the herds chosen? what kind of a voice does the reindeer have when it is good-natured? what kind of a voice does it have when it is angry? _fleetfoot and flaker see a combat_ one day just before winter, fleetfoot and flaker went out on the hills. the reindeer were coming back and the boys wanted to see them. they had gone only a little way, when they saw two handsome stags. each wanted to be leader of the reindeer herd, and so they were trying their strength. the stags stood head to head, their red eyes blazing like fire. their hair stood on end. they stamped their hoofs on the hard ground. they hissed fierce blasts to and fro. slowly and carefully they changed their position, still keeping head to head. each reindeer knew that the lances of the other could strike deadly blows. each reindeer had fought too many battles to expose himself to such blows. and so the stags eyed each other, getting more angry all the while. louder and fiercer sounded their blasts. then their antlers crashed in a swift charge. they pulled and pushed with all their might in a life and death struggle. not until their strength was exhausted did they stop a moment to rest. then they tried to draw apart, but they found they could not do it. each stag was held a prisoner by the antlers of the other. in vain the handsome creatures pulled and pushed. each was held fast. and the boys, seeing their chance, secured both of the reindeer. perhaps it was well for the reindeer that the boys were there. at least, the boys saved them from a more horrible death. reindeer caught in this way have suffered from hunger and thirst many days before death came. the boys admired the beautiful reindeer as they lay stretched out on the ground. they felt of their polished antlers that had dealt many powerful blows. and they wished they had such weapons as these to use all of the time. #things to do# _show how the reindeer stood in the combat and how they changed their positions. draw the picture._ _take a flat surface of clay and see if you can model a reindeer so that it will stand out a little from the surface._ _tell a story of what you think happened at the cave after the boys killed the reindeer._ xxv things to think about if you have ever seen a cat hunt, tell how she does it. can you think why cats do not hunt together? do dogs hunt alone, or with one another? how do wolves hunt? in what ways can animals help one another in hunting? what animals do wolves hunt to-day? what animals did the wolves hunt in the time of the cave-men? _what happened when fleetfoot and flaker hunted the bison_ when summer came, fleetfoot and flaker watched the bison from day to day. the wolves, too, watched the bison. one day the boys saw two wolves hunt a bison that had strayed from the herd. the wolves walked boldly up toward the bison until they were only a few paces away. then they went cautiously. the bison paid no attention at first; but when the wolves came closer, he stamped his foot and shook his horns. any animal could know that the bison meant, "it is dangerous here. keep away!" but the wolves had a plan and they carried it out. the smaller wolf kept the bison's attention by making believe attack from the front. this gave the big wolf a chance; and he cut the large muscles of the bison's knees with his sharp teeth. the bison was thus crippled so badly that the wolves were more than a match for him. "i wonder if we could get a bison," said flaker as the boys watched the wolves at their feast. "let's try," said fleetfoot. "but how can we get close up," said flaker, "without frightening the bison away?" "let's dress in wolf-skins," said fleetfoot, "and make believe we are wolves." and the boys dressed in wolf-skins and took their best hunting knives. they watched the herd until they saw a large bison stray away. then the boys approached the bison, and they looked so much like wolves that they got very close before the bison threatened with his horns. then the boys made the attack. flaker took the part of the little wolf and attacked the bison's head. fleetfoot took the part of the big wolf and tried to cripple the bison. but the boys had not counted upon the bison's tough skin. they had not counted upon his muscles, which were as hard as boards. flaker's dagger glanced off at one side and merely scratched the bison. but it made the creature so angry that he charged upon flaker. meanwhile fleetfoot was doing his best to cut the hard muscles of the bison's knee. he forgot about everything else until he had lamed one of the forelegs. it was then that the bison charged and that flaker called for help. and then fleetfoot tried to rescue flaker by drawing the bison's attention away. fleetfoot did this just in time to save flaker's life. he struck at the bison's head, then dodged in time to escape his horns. he dodged again and again until he was almost exhausted. the bison limped, but he seemed as strong and as furious as ever. once again the bison charged, and again fleetfoot dodged. then a spear whizzed past fleetfoot's head and a voice called, "climb a tree." [illustration: "_they looked so much like wolves that they got very close before the bison threatened._"] fleetfoot never remembered running to the tree. he never remembered climbing it. but for many days he seemed to see himself in the tree and the bison just beneath. for many days he seemed to hear greybeard's welcome voice. [illustration: _a cave-man's carving of a "hamstrung" animal._] greybeard and fleetfoot stayed in the trees until the bison started up the ravine. then they climbed down from one of the trees and hurried to see what had happened to flaker. #things to do# _tell something that you have learned from watching an animal._ _mention as many things as you can that you think the cave-men learned from animals._ _straighten and bend your elbow or knee so as to find where the strong muscles are._ _tell why the cave-men tried to cut the strong muscles of the bison's knee. we say when we cut these large muscles that we have "hamstrung" the animal._ _look at the picture of a cave-man's carving of an animal which has been "hamstrung." can you tell what animal it is?_ _think of the two wolves coming up toward the bison. model one of them in clay. see if the children can guess which one it is._ xxvi things to think about what do you think had happened to flaker? if any of his bones were broken, do you think the cave-men could set them? do you think there were doctors when the cave-men lived? who would do the work which doctors do to-day? _what the cave-men did for flaker_ fleetfoot ran ahead of greybeard and found flaker on the ground. fleetfoot stooped and looked into his face. he called him by name. no answer came. then fleetfoot asked greybeard if flaker was dead. greybeard shook his head as he bent down and laid his hands upon the boy. he examined his wounds, then said to fleetfoot, "let's carry him down to the cool spring." so greybeard and fleetfoot lifted flaker and carried him gently down to the spring. there they bathed his face and the ugly wounds with fresh cool water. they bound his wounds with strips of the skins that the boys wore that day. when greybeard tried to set the broken bones, flaker began to moan. he opened his eyes for a moment; then he fell back in a swoon. then greybeard sent fleetfoot to the cave for help. and fleetfoot hurried and told antler; and antler, picking up some little things which she knew she would need, and telling the women to follow quickly with a large skin, went with fleetfoot to the spot where flaker lay. greybeard was watching beside the boy when antler arrived. he helped her set the broken bones and then they prepared to carry him home. [illustration: _what the cave-men did for flaker._] taking the skin which the women brought, antler stretched it upon the ground. then the women helped her lift the boy and lay him upon the skin. gently they laid him upon the stretcher. softly they stepped as they carried him home. they tended him carefully many days. flaker's wounds soon healed. but when he was strong enough to walk, the cave-men saw that he was lame. flaker was always lame after that. the bones had slipped out of place and now it was too late to reset them. afterwards the cave-men learned better ways of setting broken bones. they found better ways of holding them in place while they grew together. perhaps the cave-men learned this by watching the wild animals. some birds, when they break a leg, hold the bones in place with wet clay. sometimes we use a plaster cast, but the cave-men knew nothing about such a way. the days seemed long to flaker while he was getting well. everybody was kind to him, but it seemed hard to keep quiet when everybody else was moving about. when fleetfoot went out to hunt, flaker wanted to go too. but he could not go, and so fleetfoot used to tell him everything that happened. #things to do# _show how the women helped antler put flaker upon the skin. show how they carried him home. draw one of the pictures._ _find out why a child's bones will grow together more easily than an old person's bones. see if you can find out what bones are made of. soak a bone in acid and see what happens to it. burn a bone and see what happens to it. why do a child's bones break less easily than an old person's?_ _if there is a spring in your neighborhood, go and see it. find out where the water comes from._ xxvii things to think about if flaker is lame, how will he be able to get food? what do you think he can do that will be useful to the clan? do you think the cave-men took as good care of the sick, and the lame, and the old people, as we do? what could they do for them? why did the men use weapons more than tools? why did the women use tools more than weapons? think of as many tools as you can that the women used. _how flaker learned to make weapons of bone_ before flaker was hurt he and fleetfoot had planned to do many things. but now flaker was lame, and all the cave-men knew he would never be able to hunt. when flaker first knew it, he was very sad. and so fleetfoot tried to comfort him. each day he brought him a bird or a rabbit, and he told him all that had happened. for a while flaker thought that if a man could not hunt, there was nothing else for him to do. but soon he found there were many things to do besides going out to hunt. flaker began by doing a few little things to help fleetfoot. he helped him flake heads for harpoons and javelins and make strong shafts. when greybeard and fleetfoot praised his work, flaker was very happy. and so flaker busied himself in the workshop when the men went out to hunt. sometimes chipper helped him, and often greybeard worked with him. when flaker was tired he would look at the trophies which were fastened on the wall near the cave. he was always glad to see the locked antlers of the two stags. as he looked at the strong antlers, he could almost see the handsome stags. he thought of them standing head to head ready to strike deadly blows. and he wished he had had such powerful weapons to meet the bison's charge. [illustration: _a wedge or tent pin._] the children wanted to be good to flaker and so they brought him the antlers they found. they liked to play with the antlers, and their mothers used them in many ways. they had learned to cut them with choppers and chisels, and sometimes they cut them with stone knives. all the women used the small prongs of the antlers. they used them as wedges in prying the bark loose from the sap-wood of young trees. all the women had learned to make hammers of antler by making two cuts near the base. and sometimes they used the broad end of the brow antler instead of a stone chisel. once when flaker was watching antler, he thought she was making a dagger. but antler had not thought of making a dagger. she was making a hammer and wedge. when she had finished, she dropped the long beam of the antler upon the ground and went away with her tools. flaker kept his eyes fixed upon the long beam. the more he looked at it, the more it looked like a dagger. at length he reached and picked it up. then he took his knife and began to cut it. [illustration: _the head of a javelin._] that night when fleetfoot came home, flaker gave him a dagger of reindeer horn. fleetfoot showed it to bighorn, who took it, then tossed it on the ground. bighorn had never seen such a dagger. he thought a good dagger had to be made of stone. so he made fun of flaker's weapon, then thought no more about it. but greybeard and chipper did not make fun of the weapons flaker made. they tried the dagger next day, and found that it stood the test. so they asked flaker to make each of them daggers and javelins of reindeer horn. #things to do# _tell all you know about the antlers of full-grown stags. tell all you know about the antlers of other reindeer._ _look at the antlers in the pictures on pages , , , and . find the part that would make such a wedge as is shown on page . find the part that would make such a hammer as is shown on page . find a part for a chisel or scraper. find the long beam that was used in making such a dagger as is shown on page . do you think that flaker's first dagger was carved in this way? can you tell why the cave-men carved their weapons?_ _act out the part of this story you like best._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _flaker watching for fleetfoot's return._ _the children bringing antlers to flaker._ _the women at work making tools._ _fleetfoot showing the dagger to bighorn._ _greybeard and chipper asking flaker to make daggers._ _make as many simple tools as you can out of bone or horn. find ways of using them._ xxviii things to think about what do you think flaker used in cutting the antler? what tools will he need to use in making weapons of bone or horn? what do you think the first saws were? how do you think people came to use saws? how large do you think they were? what are files used for? can you think what the first files were like? what do you think they were used for? _how flaker invented the saw_ [illustration: _a small antler._] how glad flaker was when greybeard and chipper asked him to make them some daggers! he looked at all the antlers the children had brought. he thought of the reindeer he had seen with antlers such as these. he remembered the handsome reindeer with their deadly weapons, and at length he chose the large antlers which had belonged to a handsome stag. flaker looked at the long beams and decided to use them for daggers. he took his knife to cut off the prongs, but he could scarcely cut them with a knife. flaker knew that the women cut the prongs with a chopper, but a chopper was a woman's tool. and flaker wanted to be like the men. and so he kept working with his knife, but he wished he had taken a beam which the women had left. [illustration: _a knife with two blades, a saw, and a file, all in one._] when he was tired using his knife, he played with some flint flakes. he ran his fingers over the sharp edges. then he carelessly pressed off tiny flakes. but flaker soon tired of this and he picked up the antler again. he pushed a flint flake back and forth upon one of the prongs of the antler. flaker was simply playing at first; but when he saw that the flint was cutting, his play became real work. and he kept on pushing and pulling the flake until the prong fell to the ground. then he sawed off other prongs, but he did not know he was sawing. flaker had never seen a saw and he did not know what it was. he did not know that when he pressed off the tiny flakes he made the teeth of a flint saw. but flaker had made a saw. it was only the rough edge of a flint flake. no doubt such rough edges had been made many times before. but flaker learned to use the rough edge by pushing and pulling it back and forth. [illustration: _a cave-man's dagger of carved antler._] when flaker sawed the prongs from the beam, some of the places were rough. so he rubbed them with the face of the flint until he made them smooth. when flaker did this, the flake, which had been only a knife, became a file as well as a saw. greybeard and chipper tried the new daggers and found that they were sharp and strong. and the next time they went on the chase they took the new weapons along. bighorn saw the new weapons, but he said little about them. for bighorn knew better than to make fun of weapons greybeard used. nothing pleased flaker more than to be able to help greybeard. and so he cherished the new tool that he used in shaping reindeer horn. sometimes he showed it to greybeard, who was always kind to the boys. but even the wise old man had no idea of what a wonderful tool it was. the other cave-men saw the tool, but they thought very little about it. they cared a great deal about the weapons they used in the chase. but few of the cave-men ever thought of making anything they did not need right away. and so little was said about the new tool which was a knife with two blades, a saw, and a file, all in one. nobody dreamed at that time that the little tool was the forerunner of a great change. #things to do# _if you can strike off a large flint flake with three faces, see if you can make it into a knife-saw-file._ _look at the picture, or at the real tool you have made, and find the plain face that can be used as a file._ _find the two edges which can be used as knives. find the edge which has a crest of teeth, and which can be used as a saw._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _the women chopping prongs from the beam of the antler._ _flaker sawing the prongs off the antler._ xxix things to think about can you think why the females and the young males of the reindeer herd could drive the old stags away during the winter? could they do it in the summer? why can the reindeer walk easily in the snow or on slippery places? what is it that makes the clicking sound when reindeer walk or run? why were the cave-men careful to make no mistake in the dance? _the reindeer dance_ fleetfoot did not hunt with the men, but he learned many things from them. in early winter, he heard them tell stories of dangerous encounters with ugly stags. when the old stags shed their antlers, he saw the men dance the reindeer dance. fleetfoot mimicked the reindeer's movements and the grunting sounds they made. but he was not allowed to join with the men in dancing the reindeer dance. only brave men were allowed to join in the dance. only the bravest men were allowed to lead. [illustration: _a cave-man's mortar stone for grinding paint._] but fleetfoot stood near and saw everything that was done. some of the men put on headdresses made of the antlers of the reindeer. others put on reindeer suits without the headdress of antlers. those that were to be the cave-men painted their faces and carried trophies. fleetfoot wished that he could have a headdress and take part in the dance. he wondered how long he would have to wait before he could dance with the men. he wondered how many brave things he must do before he would rank as a man. and when fleetfoot saw the men standing in silence while greybeard made offerings to the gods, he looked at the brave old man and wondered how a man could be so wise. then he thought of chew-chew's stories of brave men of olden times. at length fleetfoot saw flaker, who was sitting all alone. he went and sat beside him and they watched the men dance. the men had finished dressing, and the women were seated on the ground. they had rolls of skin, and rude drums, and rattles of reindeer hoofs. at a signal from bighorn, a group of men came dancing to the music of the rattles. they moved about and made low grunting sounds as though they were a reindeer herd. then the music changed. the women drummed upon skins and hummed in a weird way. they tried to show by the sound of the music the coming of a storm. [illustration: _a drum._] at the first sound of the weird music, the reindeer pricked up their ears. then the larger reindeer that had lost their antlers started off to make-believe higher lands. there they made believe paw the snow until they found the moss. as the music of the storm grew louder, the herd followed to the higher lands. and with many an angry threat they drove the old stags away. then the drumming and humming became fainter, and at last the sounds died away. but still the faint clicking of the rattles marked each step of the men in the dance. another signal from bighorn marked the change to a new scene. trails were marked upon the ground and sticks placed for hills and streams. while the reindeer pretended to feed, a group of cave-men appeared. bighorn, who was still the leader, sent little-bear to watch where the trail crossed the hills. chipper was sent to lie in wait at the spot where the trail crossed the river. and bighorn, himself, took his stand at the point where the trails crossed. when the men took their places, others crept back of the herd. only the light music of the rattles sounded as the reindeer moved about. as the men came nearer the reindeer herd, the sentinels showed signs of fear. the clicking of the rattles was quicker. the herd became thoroughly alarmed and the women shook the rattles and made a loud din. then the reindeer started on their old trails and came near the spots where the men were hid. the clicking of the rattles marked the time for the running, and the beating of the drum showed when javelins were hurled. soon the shouts of the men and the rattles and drums made a loud noise. all the cave-men enjoyed the dance. they danced it without a mistake. and so they felt sure that the god of the reindeer would give them success in the chase. #things to do# _model in your sand-box the spot where the reindeer dance was danced._ _model the trails where the cave-men thought the reindeer would run when alarmed._ _make rattles of something which you can find, and show how to mark time with them._ _if you can get a skin, see if you can stretch it over something so as to make a drum. try different ways, and tell which is best._ _dramatize this lesson._ _draw a picture to illustrate it._ xxx things to think about can you think why hunters frequently have famines? at what season of the year would they be most likely to have a famine? can you think why they did not preserve and save food in times of plenty? if game should be scarce on a hunting ground, do you think all of the people could stay at home? what do you think would happen at such a time? have you ever heard that the indians used to be afraid of having their pictures taken? why were they afraid of it? _fleetfoot prepares for his final test_ toward the close of winter rumors of famine came to the bison clan. several times people came from neighboring clans and asked antler for food. there was plenty of meat in the cave, so she gave to those who asked. the strangers soon went away, and the bison clan forgot about them. the next summer game was scarce on several of the old hunting grounds. there was not enough food for all. people began to wander away from their old homes. small groups of men, women, and children, set out in different directions. game was still plenty on the lands of the bison clan. when the neighbors knew this, they came to hunt on these lands. the day fleetfoot went away to fast, strange people came and camped. the next day the bison clan drove them away. a few days later other strangers came, and they, too, were driven away. bighorn was angry when the strangers first came, but soon he became alarmed. just as the men and women were holding a council to consider what to do, the strangers disappeared. not until fleetfoot returned did the bison clan know who they were or why they came. [illustration: "_people began to wander away from their old homes._"] before fleetfoot went away to fast, he had been curious about the big bear. he had heard many stories about the big bear ever since he was a child. he had heard that the big bear guarded the game and kept the animals in the rocky cavern. he had wondered if he could climb the mountains and find the cave of the big bear. before flaker was hurt, the boys had planned to go to the mountains. they had planned to make friends with the big bear and learn where he kept the game. they had planned to climb the highest peaks and see what there was beyond. once, when the boys asked greybeard if they might go to the mountains, greybeard said, "no, no, my children! wait a while. you are not yet old enough to go." and so the boys waited, but they still talked about going to the cavern of the big bear. after flaker was hurt they still planned, but they planned for fleetfoot to go alone. one day when the boys were talking together, greybeard came to fleetfoot and said, "the time you have waited for has come. prepare for your final test." this was glad news for fleetfoot. at last he was to have a chance to prove himself worthy to rank with the men. flaker rejoiced with fleetfoot, yet he could not help feeling sad. the bison clan had decided that fleetfoot should go to a quiet spot. there he was to fast and pray until he received a sign from the gods. and when he had done their bidding, he was to return for his final test. this test once passed, fleetfoot would be counted one of the men. before fleetfoot went, greybeard instructed him in the use of prayers and charms. antler gave him a magic powder and showed him how to prepare it from herbs. and the men told him of their tests, and the signs they received from the gods. flaker had listened to every word that greybeard had said. he had thought of all the dangers which fleetfoot might encounter. and he wondered if there was not a way to protect fleetfoot from harm. flaker knew that the reindeer dance was a prayer of the cave-men to their gods. he knew each movement in the dance was to help the gods understand. he felt sure that the gods would help fleetfoot if he could make them understand. and so he determined to make a prayer which fleetfoot could carry with him. [illustration: _the engraving of a cave-bear on a pebble._] perhaps you will think that the prayer flaker made was a very strange prayer. but many people in all parts of the world have made such prayers. it was a prayer to the big bear of the mountains. flaker scratched it upon a smooth pebble with a flint point. it was a picture of the big bear, and flaker made it so that fleetfoot could control the actions of the big bear. when flaker gave the prayer to fleetfoot he told him to guard it with great care. fleetfoot took the prayer and promised to keep it near his side. then the boys made an offering to the big bear and asked him to guide the way. when at length fleetfoot was ready to start, greybeard spoke these parting words: "forget not the offerings to the gods, and remember they must be made with true words and a faithful heart." #things to do# _show in your sand-box where you think the mountains were. model them and show that they were almost covered with snow. show good places for neighboring hunting grounds._ _tell why game might be scarce in some hunting grounds and plenty in others._ _dramatize this story. draw pictures which will show what happened. see if you can engrave some animal upon wood or soft stone._ xxxi things to think about where do you think fleetfoot will go while he is away from home? find a picture of a glacier, and see if you can tell how a glacier is made. in what places does the snow stay all the year round? if a great deal of snow falls each year, what do you think will become of it? find out whether there have ever been glaciers near where you live. if there have, see if you can find any traces of them. _fleetfoot fasts and prays_ none of the cave-men knew where fleetfoot would go to fast and pray. he scarcely knew himself, but all the time he kept thinking of the big bear of the mountains. and so he turned his steps toward the high mountain peaks. he followed the bison trail, for that was a sure guide. it led up the river a long way, and then skirted a dark forest. he crossed the river and went to the forest. there he sought out a lonely spot where he stayed several days. as soon as he had made a fire, fleetfoot made offerings to the gods. his offerings were fish he caught in the river and birds he caught in snares. although fleetfoot offered meat to the gods, he did not taste it himself. when he was ready to sleep, he rubbed a pinch of wood-ashes upon his breast and prayed thus to the fire god: "o fire god, hover near me while i sleep. hear my prayer. grant good dreams to me this night. grant me a sign that thou wilt aid me. lead my feet in the right way." the first night fleetfoot had no dreams. the second night he dreamed he was a child again and that he lived in his old home. the third night he dreamed of the big bear of the mountains. he thought that he climbed the mountain crags and went to the big bear's cave. he dreamed that the big bear spoke to him and asked him whence he came. then strange people seemed to come out of the cave and wave their weapons in a threatening way. after that fleetfoot remembered nothing except that the big bear seemed like a friend. at daybreak fleetfoot awoke, and at once he thought of his dream. he took the pebble from a little bag. then he made an offering to the bear as he spoke these words: "o big bear! o mighty hunter! show me the way to thy caverns. show me where thou keepest the game. give me strength to meet all dangers. fill my enemies with fear." then, remembering what greybeard had said, fleetfoot gave offerings to all the animals he hoped to kill. in this way he thought the gods would help him when he went out to hunt. as soon as the offerings were made, fleetfoot looked for a sign from the gods. the winds began to blow. dark clouds began to climb the sky. then the thunders pealed through the heavens. [illustration: _a stone borer, used in making a necklace._] fleetfoot, faint from his long fast, took courage from these signs. the winds seemed to be messengers bearing his prayer to the gods. the dark clouds seemed to be the enemies he would meet on the way. the peals of thunder sounded to him like promises of strength. the bright lightning in the sky flashed a message of hope. a flock of swallows circling near seemed to point the way. and so fleetfoot refreshed himself and started toward the mountains. it would take too long to tell all the things that happened to fleetfoot before he returned. one of the first things he did was to kill a cave-bear and take the trophies. when fleetfoot started out again, he wore a necklace of bear's teeth. he wore them partly because they were trophies and partly because they were charms. fleetfoot followed the trail along the edge of the forest until he reached a ridge of hills. behind him lay the river of stones and all the places he had known. before him lay a pretty valley about a day's journey across. to his left the snow-covered mountain peaks shone with a dazzling light. he stopped only to sleep and to make offerings to the gods. fleetfoot was full of courage, and yet he was weak from his fast. he longed to be strong against all foes. he longed to be a great hunter. he longed to strengthen his people and to meet the dangers which threatened his clan. at midday he reached the river, where he sat down to rest. then he went up the little river, which flowed over a rocky bed. fleetfoot followed the river until he came to a spot where it seemed to end. great masses of snow and ice covered the river bed. farther up they reached the top of the cliffs and stretched out into the valley. it was the melting of this glacier which fed the little stream. fleetfoot stood and gazed at the glacier with its rough billows of snow and ice. he looked at the green forests which stretched to its very edge. he looked at the great ice sheets which covered the mountain peaks. he looked at the bare crags which jutted out from the rocks. and he wondered if the big bear's cave was in one of these rocks. [illustration: "_it was the melting of this glacier which fed the little stream._"] then he crossed the stream and approached the cliff on the opposite side. there he found a cave, and he looked about, but he found no one at home. as fleetfoot was looking about, he began to think of chew-chew. everything upon which his eyes rested seemed to speak of her. and yet he could not remember seeing the place before. night came again and fleetfoot slept. again he saw the big bear in his dreams. again he saw the enemies of his clan, and again he dreamed of his old home. for several days fleetfoot explored the country near the mountains. he found several good hunting grounds, but he did not find the big bear. as the days passed it seemed to fleetfoot that he was no longer alone. he heard no steps, and he saw no tracks; yet he felt sure that some one was near. one morning, when he awoke, there was some one watching him through the thick leaves. he grasped his spear and was ready to throw, when he heard a merry laugh. then a lovely maiden appeared with dark and glossy hair. her eyes shone with the morning light and her breath was as fresh as the dew. fleetfoot dropped his spear and stepped forward to greet the girl. a moment they gazed in each other's eyes, and then they knew no fear. they sat on a mossy bank where they talked for a long, long time. and fleetfoot learned that she was called willow-grouse and that her people were away. before he could ask her more, she inquired from whence he came. and then she asked him what had brought him so far away from his home. while fleetfoot was telling his story, willow-grouse listened with sparkling eyes. when he had finished, her eyes fell, and she seemed to be buried in thought. willow-grouse knew that her own people were plotting against the bison clan. she wanted fleetfoot to stay with her; and she feared that if she told him what her people were doing, he would go away. for a few minutes willow-grouse kept silent; but, at length, she decided to speak. she told fleetfoot of the famine of the springtime and of the scarcity of game. she told how the people separated and traveled far and wide. many of her own people had been to the grounds of the bison clan. now the clans were at the rapids. but as soon as the salmon season was over, they were going to attack the bison clan. when fleetfoot heard what willow-grouse said, he gave up his search for the big bear. he decided to go to the salmon feast and learn what the clans were doing. he hoped he could do this and still have time to warn the bison clan. #things to do# _see if you can find a way of making a glacier in your sand-box._ _model a river valley whose upper part is filled with a glacier. show where the bed and banks are covered with snow and ice. show where the cliffs are covered. show where the ice-sheets are. show on the sand-map fleetfoot's journey to the place where he fasted. show the remainder of his journey._ _draw pictures of the following:_-- _fleetfoot prays to the fire-god._ _fleetfoot receives signs from the gods._ _fleetfoot standing on the ridge of hills._ _fleetfoot's meeting with willow-grouse._ xxxii things to think about can you think why the salmon feast was at the rapids of the river? show in your sand-map a place where rapids might be. if there is a river near you which has rapids, go to the spot and see if you can tell what it is that makes the rapids. show in your map the hunting grounds of the clans which met at the rapids. find the trails they would follow in going to the rapids. find out all you can about the habits of the salmon. [illustration: _a necklace of fossil shells._] _the meeting of the clans_ at his parting from willow-grouse, fleetfoot gave her a necklace of fossil shells. then saying, "we shall meet when the new moon comes," he started on his way. he followed sweet briar river on his way to the meeting of the clans. at sunset he knew he was nearing the place where willow-grouse said they had met. he could hear the roaring of the rapids, and above this sound, the shouts of the clans. fleetfoot waited for the cover of darkness, for he did not wish to be seen. then he approached cautiously toward the spot where the camp fire crackled and blazed. in the light of the flames dark trunks of oaks and fir trees stood out of the blackness. then moving forms appeared on the banks and lighted the clans seated around the fire. at first fleetfoot did not go near enough to see the faces distinctly. but he could tell from the various movements that they were preparing for a dance. all eyes seemed fixed on an old woman who was offering gifts to the gods. she lifted hot stones from the fire and dropped them into a basket of water. then she took a piece of salmon and dropped it into the water. as fleetfoot watched the old woman, he thought of chew-chew and his old home. then he wondered if all women would look like chew-chew when they grew old. when the offerings were made, the men began a war dance. some were dressed in masks of horses, and others wore masks of reindeer and cattle. when the men took off their masks, fleetfoot looked as if in a dream. for among the strangers moving about there appeared familiar forms. for a few minutes fleetfoot could not tell whether he was awake or asleep. what he saw seemed very real, and yet it seemed like a dream. he had almost forgotten his own people. he had not seen them since the day he was lost. and now, only a few paces away, stood scarface and straightshaft. then other familiar forms appeared moving near the fire. and among the women who had beaten the drums were chew-chew and eagle-eye. when fleetfoot saw his mother and chew-chew, he almost shouted for joy. he wanted to go and speak to them, but something seemed to hold him back. then his heart began to beat so loud and so fast that fleetfoot was afraid he would be discovered; so he hurried away from the spot to a hollow tree where he spent the night. for a long time he lay awake thinking about what to do. he could not go back to willow-grouse and leave his work undone. he could not make himself known to cave-men who were planning to attack the bison clan. he could not return to the bison clan without learning the enemies' plans. and so fleetfoot took the pebble from its bag and asked the big bear for aid. then he fell asleep and did not awake until the break of day. all through the day he watched the clans. he saw them fish at the rapids and feast and play around the fire. he saw them go to a smooth spot near the bank where they played games. when night came he said to himself, "i'll watch the dance and learn their plans." scarface offered gifts to the gods before the dance began. as he performed the magic rites, all the people were still. every eye was turned toward the old man. no one suspected danger. fleetfoot, watching from a safe retreat, had heard a rustling sound. and, looking in the direction from which the sound came, he saw a big tiger in a neighboring tree. the tiger had crept out on a strong branch and was watching for his prey. the eyes of the big cat snapped fire as they followed each movement that scarface made. there was not a moment to be lost. the tiger was about to spring. fleetfoot's spear whizzed through the air and dealt a powerful blow. another followed, but with less force although fleetfoot hurled it with all his might. with a cry of rage the tiger turned, and leaving scarface upon the ground, he sprang toward fleetfoot. and the cave-men grasped their weapons and rushed to the spot. they found the tiger dying from the effect of the first blow. they watched his death struggles. then they looked for the man who had hurled a spear that struck a death blow. if fleetfoot had not been struck senseless, he might have made his escape. but as it happened, the cave-men found him lying on the ground, and they raised him up and carried him to a spot near the bright camp-fire. #things to do# _show on your sand-map where the clans had camped. show where you think fleetfoot watched. show where the ceremonies were performed._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _fleetfoot bids farewell to willow-grouse._ _the clans seated around the camp-fire._ _fleetfoot watching the dance._ _fleetfoot saves scarface's life._ _watch a cat as it springs upon a mouse, and then think of the tiger as he sprang upon scarface. model it in bas-relief._ xxxiii things to think about what do you think the people will do with fleetfoot? can you think of any way that fleetfoot might prevent them from attacking the bison clan? _what happened when the clans found fleetfoot_ while chew-chew and eagle-eye were attending to scarface, others took care of fleetfoot. they knew nothing about him except that he had saved scarface's life. everybody wanted to see him; and so a great crowd gathered around. people looked at the strange young man as he lay pale and still on the ground. they looked and looked again, then said, "how like he is to scarface." eagle-eye had not forgotten fleetfoot. she never spoke of him, but she still hoped that he was alive and that she would see him again. when strangers came she always inquired for tidings of the lost boy. and so when eagle-eye heard what the people said, she pushed her way through the crowd. the moment she saw him, she cried, "fleetfoot!" and then bent over his lifeless form. chew-chew, hearing eagle-eye's cry, hurried to the spot. she knelt by his side and murmured his name, and thought of scarface when he was young. those who stood near turned and asked, "who is fleetfoot?" many of the people had never heard of him. others had heard of eagle-eye's boy. all were curious to know more about the strange young man. all were anxious to know if he was dead or alive. fleetfoot was not dead. he was only stunned by the tiger's blow. when eagle-eye bathed him with cold water, he began to show signs of life. when at length he opened his eyes, he knew that he was recognized. when those who stood near found out who the young man was, they shouted the tidings to those who were farther away. then the people rejoiced and thanked the gods for thus befriending them. before fleetfoot slept that night, he wondered how the meeting would end. he wondered if he could find a way to prevent an attack upon the bison clan. and, turning once more to the big bear, he soon fell asleep. next morning the people caught salmon just below the rapids. they feasted a while and then played games in which fleetfoot took part. when the games were over, the young men crowded around him. they asked him how he could throw a spear so as to strike a deadly blow. fleetfoot told all he knew about the use of spears and harpoons, but he scarcely knew himself how he had thrown with such force. but he took two spearheads in his hand, just as he had held them when he saw the tiger. he threw one at a mark and the spear went with such force that the young men shouted for joy. then they all practiced throwing until they could throw in the same way. it was in this way that people learned to hurl weapons with a throwing-stick. instead of hurling one spear by resting the butt against the barb of another, as fleetfoot had done when he threw at the tiger, they learned to shape sticks for throwing spears, and they called them "throwing-sticks." [illustration: _a throwing-stick._] the older men watched as fleetfoot showed the young men how he threw spears and harpoons. and soon they all agreed to ask fleetfoot to lead in the dance that night. scarface invited him to lead, and fleetfoot accepted. he was glad to lead in a real hunting dance, but he was still more glad to have a chance to prevent an attack upon the bison clan. and so he resolved to plan a dance which would make them forget their plan. when the time came to begin the dance, fleetfoot was ready to lead. he knew that the men all wanted to find good hunting grounds. so he showed them where to find such grounds and what trails to follow. [illustration: _an irish deer._] a few days later he went with the people to these very grounds. there they hunted the bison herds and the irish deer. and when each of the clans had chosen a place to camp, fleetfoot bade them farewell. then it was that the bravest young men came forward and said that they would follow him. and so the young men agreed to be brothers and to help one another in times of need. they agreed upon signs which they should use when they wanted to meet. and when fleetfoot started homeward, the young men escorted him. of the adventures on the way to the bison clan's cave there is little time to tell. all the young men were faithful. and as they journeyed on their way, they recalled fleetfoot's brave deeds in a victory song. #things to do# _show how the people acted from the time fleetfoot threw his spear until they knew who he was. draw pictures which will illustrate the story._ _make such a hunting dance as you think fleetfoot led. show in your sand-map the places where the hunting grounds were._ _name all the running games you know. tell how you play one of them. draw a picture of the cave-men playing games._ _make a throwing-stick._ _look at the picture of the irish deer and tell how it appears to differ from other deer you know. for what do you think it uses its large and heavy antlers?_ xxxiv things to think about what do you think flaker will do while fleetfoot is gone? what do you think the bison clan will do when fleetfoot returns? which do you think will be the greater man--fleetfoot or flaker? what things do you think fleetfoot will do? what do you think flaker will do? _fleetfoot's return_ [illustration: _a fragment of a cave-man's baton, engraved with the heads of bison._] flaker missed fleetfoot more than he could tell. awake, he thought of his dangerous journey. asleep, he was with him in his dreams. many, many times each day he prayed for fleetfoot's safe return. ever since the strangers had camped on their lands, the bison clan had been anxious. when questioned about it, greybeard was sad and bighorn shook his head. so the women were trying to arouse their courage, and flaker was carving prayers. when fleetfoot announced his return, it was flaker who heard his whistle. it was he who shouted the glad tidings to all the cave-men. and though he was lame, he was the first who ran ahead to greet him. fleetfoot and his companions had halted on a hillside not far from the cave. it was from this hill that fleetfoot whistled so as to announce his return. here his companions waited, while fleetfoot advanced alone. while fleetfoot greeted his friends and showed them his wonderful necklace, his companions chanted his brave deeds in a victory song. it was thus that the bison clan learned of fleetfoot's brave deeds. it was thus that they learned of his courage which came from fasting and prayer. when the song was ended, bighorn advanced with fleetfoot, and together they escorted the brave young men to the cave of the bison clan. there they feasted, and rested, and played games until it was time for fleetfoot's last test. meanwhile the young men became acquainted with flaker. fleetfoot had told them about him. he had shown them the dagger flaker made and the engraving of the big bear. and so the young men were glad to see him and make him one of their brotherhood. when the time came for fleetfoot's last test, he asked permission to speak. and when bighorn nodded his head, fleetfoot told the people the story of how he and flaker had worked and played together. he told of flaker's bravery the day he was hurt by the bison. he told of flaker's poniard which he used to kill the cave-bear. he told of the tools which flaker had made for working bone and horn. [illustration: _a cave-man's nose ornament._] then he said that the people of the bison clan had taught them to worship the gods. he said that flaker had the favor of the gods and that his prayers would bring success. and he urged the cave-men, on account of these things, to forget that flaker was lame, and to admit him into the ranks of the full-grown men. the cave-men listened to what fleetfoot said and they all gave assent. and when they made ready to receive fleetfoot, flaker was brought forward. the nose of each of the boys was pierced and they were given nose ornaments. on account of his bravery fleetfoot was given a baton which showed that he might lead the men. and flaker, too, received a baton, but his was to show that he could lead in the worship of the gods. [illustration: _a cave-man's baton engraved with wild horses._] and so every one knew that fleetfoot and flaker were brave young men. they had passed the tests that had been given for courage, and patience, and self-control. fleetfoot's companions stayed at the cave until the ceremonies were ended. then they renewed their vows to help one another and took leave of the bison clan. and fleetfoot, having done his duty, was free to return to willow-grouse. #things to do# _see if you can make such a victory song as you think the young men sang. see if you can make the speech which fleetfoot made for flaker._ _dramatize this lesson, and then draw a picture of the part you like the best._ _see if you can make a baton._ xxxv things to think about why do you think people began to live in places where there were no caves? can you think what kind of a shelter they might find? find out all you can about the difference between the winter and summer coat of some animal you know. which skins do you think would be used for curtains and beds? which skins would be used for clothing? which for the heavy winter coats? _willow-grouse_ soon after the salmon feast, willow-grouse saw her people again. when they went away, no one knew why she stayed behind. when they returned, no one noticed how eager she was to hear all that was said. so willow-grouse kept her secret from every one in the clan. many days the people hunted; but, at length, there were signs of the coming cold. it was then that the wise men gave an order to prepare for the journey to the winter home. all but willow-grouse obeyed; but she heeded not what was said. it was not because she did not hear the command. it was not because she did not care to live with her own people. it was simply because she remembered fleetfoot and was waiting for his return. and so, when the women chided her for being a thoughtless girl, they little thought that willow-grouse was making plans of her own. in the confusion of packing, nobody noticed that she stayed behind, and many moons passed before they learned what willow-grouse did. as soon as her people were out of sight willow-grouse began to make ready for fleetfoot. there was no cave near at hand, but there were high overhanging rocks. under one of these the people had camped. they found the roof and back wall of a dwelling ready-made. so they simply camped at the foot of the rock and built their camp-fire. willow-grouse knew that the bare rock was a good shelter in summer. but she also knew that it would soon be too cold to live in such an open space. so she cut long poles and braced them under the roof so as to make a framework for front and side walls. then she covered the framework with plaited branches, and left a narrow doorway which she closed with a skin. it was hard work to make the rock shelter, but willow-grouse did not mind it. she kept thinking of fleetfoot all the time, and she hoped the rock shelter would be their new home. [illustration: _an eskimo drawing of reindeer caught in snares._] when willow-grouse looked at her dress, she saw it was much the worse for wear. so she set snares in the reindeer trails and caught two beautiful reindeer. [illustration: "_a piece of sandstone for flattening seams._"] the soft summer skins of the reindeer had short, fine hair. willow-grouse scraped and pounded them and then polished them with sandstone. willow-grouse took great pains in making her new garments. she flattened the seams with a piece of sandstone until they were nice and smooth. then she gathered fossil shells from the rocks and trimmed the neck and sleeves. and she made a beautiful headband and belt, and pretty moccasins for her feet. [illustration: _a reindeer snare._] and when the time drew near for fleetfoot's return, willow-grouse dressed in her new garments. she put on the necklace of fossil shells and thought of fleetfoot's last words. fleetfoot kept his promise. when the new moon came he appeared. then willow-grouse became his wife and he lived with her in their new home. #things to do# _look at the picture of a rock shelter on page ._ _find some large rocks and put them in your sand-box so as to show a natural rock shelter. make a framework for front and side walls, and see if you can make it into a warm hut. model the upper valley._ _find a piece of sandstone which you can use in polishing skins._ _dress a doll the way you think willow-grouse dressed. dress a doll the way you think fleetfoot dressed._ _find pretty seeds and shells which you can use in trimming belts and headbands. before sewing the seeds or shells on the band, lay them so as to make a pretty pattern. after you have made your pattern draw it on paper, so that you can look at it while you are trimming the band._ xxxvi things to think about look at what you have modeled in your sand-box and see if you can tell in what parts of the valley the snow will be deepest. when the snow is very deep, what do the wild animals do? what do the people do? can you think how people learned to use poison in hunting? does the poisoned weapon poison any part of the animal's flesh? why do people try to be careful not to leave poison around? _how fleetfoot and willow-grouse spent the winter_ when willow-grouse was living alone, she had to hunt for her own food. sometimes she caught animals in traps, and sometimes she hunted with spears and harpoons. when the wounded animal escaped, willow-grouse was disappointed. so she tried all sorts of ways to make sure of the game. one day she happened to use a harpoon which had been thrust into a piece of decayed liver. she wounded a reindeer with the harpoon and the animal soon died. [illustration: _three views of a cave-man's spearhead with a groove to hold poison._] and so willow-grouse soon learned to mix and to use poisons. when fleetfoot made simple spearheads of antler, she helped him make grooves to hold the poison. when they used poison on their weapons, they were sure of the game without a long chase. they lived happily in the rock shelter until the middle of winter. then heavy snowstorms came and the wild animals went away. fleetfoot and willow-grouse were left without food. they ate a piece of sun-dried meat which willow-grouse had left in a tree; and when that was gone, they put on their snowshoes and started toward the south. before many days had passed, they arrived at the cave of the bison clan. there they were made so welcome that they stayed for two moons. it was during this time that the bison clan learned to use the throwing-stick. while fleetfoot taught the use of the throwing-stick, flaker made wonderful harpoons. and as fast as fleetfoot found new ways of using weapons in hunting, flaker invented new weapons for the men to use. ever since fleetfoot had been away, flaker had been working at harpoons. he had made harpoon heads with two or three barbs, and now he was trying to make a harpoon with four or five barbs on each side. it took a long while to make a harpoon with many beautiful barbs. it took more patience to make it than most of the cave-men had. for when flaker traced a regular outline of the harpoon on one side of the antler, he traced the same outline upon the other side. then he cut upon these lines, and he shaped the barbs one by one, until he had made them all of the same shape and size. [illustration: "_it was during this time that the bison clan learned to use the throwing-stick._"] he finished the base of the head with a large ridge near the end so as to make it easy to attach it to the shaft. then he traced fleetfoot's property-mark upon it, and thought that it was done. but willow-grouse, who had been watching him, spoke up and said, "no, there is one thing more. you must put a groove in each of the barbs to carry the magic poison." and so, although willow-grouse learned a great deal from watching flaker use his tools, she taught him something he did not know. when the harpoon was really finished, flaker gave it to fleetfoot. and all the cave-men gathered around to see the new harpoon. when everybody had seen it, fleetfoot placed the harpoon upon his throwing-stick and hurled it again and again. to the people who stood near, the barbs carried the harpoon through the air like the wings of a bird. the deep grooves which held the poison carried sure death with each wound. and the throwing-stick with which it was hurled helped in getting a firm hold and a sure aim. [illustration: _harpoons with several barbs._] #things to do# _find a piece of soft wood and trace the outline of a harpoon upon it. see if you can whittle a harpoon with barbs._ _experiment until you can tell whether you like to have a ridge on the base of the harpoon head._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- "_heavy snowstorms came and the wild animals went away._" _fleetfoot and willow-grouse find some dried meat in a tree._ _fleetfoot and willow-grouse arrive at the cave of the bison clan._ _flaker working at the barbed harpoon._ "_the barbs carried the harpoon through the air like the wings of a bird._" xxxvii things to think about how did people sew before they had needles? what bones do you think the cave-men would use first in making needles and awls? why would people want the hardest bones for needles? [illustration: _a bone pin._] [illustration: _a large bone needle._] see if you can find out where the hardest bones are found. see if you can think of all the things that would have to be done in making a needle out of a piece of ivory or a large bone. why do we sometimes wax thread? what do you think the cave-men would use instead of wax? why did the cave men make holes in their awls? what were the first holes which they made in their needles used for? how do you think they would think of carrying the thread through the needle's eye? why do we use thimbles when we sew? when do you think people began to use thimbles? what do you think the first thimbles were like? _how willow-grouse learned to make needles_ [illustration: _a bone awl._] willow-grouse soon made friends with the women. they admired the clothing she wore, and they wanted to learn how to polish skins and to make beautiful clothing. so willow-grouse showed the women how to polish skins and to make them into beautiful garments. while the women sewed with bone awls, willow-grouse watched flaker, who was sawing a bone with a flint saw. it was soon after this that willow-grouse learned to make needles of large hard bones. the first ones she made were not very beautiful needles. they were not so smooth nor so round as the awls she had made of bird's bones. but she made a beginning and after a while all the women learned to make fine needles. [illustration: _a bone from which the cave-men have sawed out slender rods for needles._] [illustration: _a piece of sandstone used by the cave-men in making needles._] they made the needles of a hard bone which they took from the leg of a horse. they traced out the lines they wished to cut just as flaker traced the harpoon. then they sawed out slender rods and whittled one end to a point. the other end they made thin and flat, for this was the end where the hole was made. they made the rods round and smooth by drawing them back and forth on a piece of soft sandstone. this made long grooves in the sandstone, which became deeper and deeper every time the sandstone was used. then they polished the rods by drawing them back and forth between the teeth of a flint comb. [illustration: _a flint comb used in rounding and polishing needles._] the first needles had no eyes. they were more like awls and pins, than needles. perhaps the first eyes were made in needles to keep them from getting lost. [illustration: _a flint saw used in making needles of bone taken from the leg of a horse._] it was hard work to saw the bone rods and to round and polish them. no wonder the women did not want to lose them. no wonder they bored little holes in the thin flat end and hung them about their necks. [illustration: _a short needle of bone._] it may have been willow-grouse who first discovered that the eye of the needle could carry the thread. she may have discovered it when she was playing with a needle she carried on a cord. at any rate, the women soon learned to sew with the thread through the needle's eye. and then they began to make finer needles with very small eyes. [illustration: _a flint comb used in shredding fibers._] these fine needles were used at first in sewing the softest skins. they were used, too, in sewing trimming on beautiful garments. but when the women sewed the hard skins, instead of a needle they used a bone awl. [illustration: _a long fine needle of bone._] at the meeting of the clans in the salmon season, the cave-men wore their most beautiful garments. and soon the clans began to vie with one another in wearing the most beautiful skins. and the women hunted for the choicest sands to use in polishing their needles. they still gave the first polish with a piece of sandstone or a gritty pebble. but when they gave the last polish the women used a powder of the finest sand. instead of beeswax, the women used marrow which they kept in little bags. instead of a thimble, they used a small piece of leather. and instead of pressing the seams with a hot iron, they made them smooth with a rounded stone. from the tough sinews of the large animals, every cave-man made his own thread. all the children learned to prepare sinew and to shred the fibers with a jagged flint comb. #things to do# _find bones which you can make into needles. see if you can find a piece of flint for a saw._ _find a piece of sandstone with which you can polish your needle._ _make a collection of the different kinds of sand in your neighborhood and tell what they can be used for._ _make a collection of needles and find out how they were made._ xxxviii things to think about if the animals went away in search of shelter from the storms, do you think the cave-men would know where they went? what do you think they would say when they noticed that the animals had gone? [illustration: _two views of a curved bone tool used by the cave-men in polishing skins._] how did the cave-men learn what they knew? why did they make more mistakes than people do to-day? what changes did the cave-men see take place in the buds? in seeds? in eggs? when they found shells in the hard rocks instead of in the water, what do you suppose they would think? have you ever heard any one say "it rained angleworms?" have you ever heard any one say that cheese or meat had "changed to maggots?" can you tell what really happened in each of these cases? can you see how stories of animals that turned into men could be started? is there anything that we can learn from these stories? _how flaker became a priest and a medicine man_ the winter was long and stormy. wild animals found little food. herds of horses and reindeer went to the lowland forests. game was scarce on the wooded hills. few horses or reindeer were seen near the caves. the trails were filled with snow and everything seemed to tell of the coming of a famine. the people ate the frozen meat that was left near the caves, and when they found they could get no more they began to pray to their gods. "o, big bear," they prayed, "send us thine aid. help us now or we die. drive the horses and reindeer out of thy caverns. send them back to our hunting grounds." when the first rumor of famine came, fleetfoot took down his drum. and he set out over the hills to call a meeting of the brotherhood. at the first sound of the drumbeat, the people knew what it meant. everybody felt a gleam of hope. the young men passed the signal along and fresh courage came to the hearts of the people in the neighboring clans. buckling their hunger-straps around them, the young men started at fleetfoot's call. they met near the bison clan's cave. there they told of the heavy snowstorms and the disappearance of the herds. they told of the beginnings of famine and considered ways of finding food. some said, "let us leave the old hunting grounds for our elders. let us take wives and go to far away lands." others said, "no, let us dwell together and let each clan keep its own hunting ground." "but how can we dwell together," said one, "when there is not food enough for all?" [illustration: _a cave-man's engraving of two herds of wild horses._] the silence which followed the young man's question showed that no one could reply. it was then that fleetfoot turned to flaker and asked him to speak what was in his mind. and flaker arose, and turning his eyes toward the heavens, he raised his baton, whereupon all the young men were silent. then he turned to the young men and said, "the gods will surely provide food for the hungry cave-men." "but the people need food and game is scarce," said one of the brave young men. "how can we prevent the famine? how can we make the gods understand?" "remember the big bear," said flaker. "he heard our prayer when we made his likeness on stone. let us make likenesses of the animals. the gods will then understand our prayers and send many herds to our hunting grounds." saying this, flaker picked up a flint point and a flat piece of stone and quickly engraved two herds of wild horses. the young men believed in the power of magic. and when they saw flaker engraving the herds, they believed the wild horses would come. and so they all tried to make the likeness of an animal they wished to hunt. [illustration: _a cave-man's carving of horses' heads._] when they had made offerings to the gods, the young men were ready to go out to hunt. flaker stayed at the cave, but it was he who directed them in the right way. he remembered all that the cave-men had said about the reindeer and the wild horses. and so when they started flaker said, "follow the trail to the dense forests." it so happened that just as the young men were starting to hunt, the herds were coming back from the forests. and so the young men had great success, and soon all the cave-men had plenty of food. [illustration: _a cave-man's engraving of a reindeer._] when the young men returned to their homes, they had strange stories to tell. they said that flaker had brought back the herds by his wonderful magic. they showed the engravings they had made and told of their magical power. and so wherever stories of fleetfoot's bravery went, stories of flaker's magic were told. and just as fleetfoot worked to learn all the arts of the hunter, so flaker worked to learn the arts which made him both a priest and a medicine man. flaker listened to all the stories that were told by the best hunters. he questioned them eagerly and learned many things which the hunters themselves soon forgot. he learned the haunts of the wild animals in the various seasons. he knew where to look for the best feeding grounds and the places of shelter from storms. and so when the fame of flaker was noised about among all the clans, people came from near and from far to make gifts and to get his advice. #things to do# _find soft wood or stone and see if you can engrave some animal on it._ _find a stick with branches and carve the head of some animal upon the end of the short branches._ _dramatize this story._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _fleetfoot starting out with his drum._ _flaker speaking to the young men of the brotherhood._ _flaker inquiring of returning hunters about the game and the feeding grounds._ _strangers coming with gifts to get flaker's advice._ xxxix things to think about think of as many simple ways of catching fish as you can. how do you think the cave-men fished? what do you think people mean when they say that some one is living a "hand-to-mouth" life? how do you think people learned to dry meat, fish, or fruit? why would the people honor the one who taught them to preserve food by drying it? can you think of anything which could be used as food when it was boiled, that would not be a good food eaten raw? name a bitter vegetable. what happens to the water in which a bitter vegetable is boiled? name a sweet vegetable. what happens to the water in which a sweet vegetable is boiled? what do you mean by "parboiling?" do you think the cave-men will learn how to boil food? _how the cave-men learned to boil and to dry foods_ again the salmon feast came, and again the neighboring clans camped at the rapids. this time they caught more salmon than they had ever caught before. and this was the summer that the cave-men began to dry salmon and to fish with harpoons. it was willow-grouse who thought of drying salmon, and carrying it to the caves. she remembered the berries dried on the bushes, and the dried meat she found in a tree. no doubt all the cave-men had eaten dried meat many times before. often the cave-men left strips of meat hanging from the trees. anybody could leave meat which he did not care to eat. anybody could eat meat which had been dried in the sun. but not every one was bright enough to think of drying meat. chew-chew had never dried meat, nor had any of the women. it was enough for them to prepare the meat which they needed day by day. few of the people ever thought of laying up stores for the morrow. they lived a "hand-to-mouth" life. but willow-grouse remembered the famines. she knew food was scarce in the early spring. and when she saw the river full of salmon, she thought of the sun-dried meat. and so willow-grouse caught some salmon and cleaned them and hung them on the branches of a tree. and when they had dried, she took them down and the cave-men said that dried salmon were good. and so all the people caught salmon and dried them in the sun. the first few days the people fished as they had fished before. they waded in the water and caught salmon with their hands, or they stunned them with clubs or with stones. but soon the men began to catch salmon by spearing them with barbed harpoons. [illustration: _harpoons of reindeer antler used for fishing._] afterward the cave-men fished with harpoons which had barbs on only one side. perhaps they first used a broken harpoon. perhaps they found they could throw with a surer aim when the barbs were on only one side. at any rate, the cave-men used harpoons with barbs on one side for fishing, while they used harpoons with barbs on both sides when they went out to hunt. it was about the time of the salmon feast that people began to boil food. pigeon first boiled food to eat. she remembered the broth and partly boiled meat which chew-chew said the gods had left. and she boiled meat and gave it to the men, and they all sounded her praises. for a while the only boiling pot pigeon used was a hole in the ground which she lined with a skin. then she used a water-tight basket for boiling little things. [illustration: _a flint harpoon with one barb._] pigeon always boiled by dropping hot stones into the water. she had never heard of a boiling-pot which could be hung over the fire. she had never heard of a stove. the cave-men knew nothing about such things as stoves. it would have done them no good if they had, for their boiling-pots could not stand the heat. so instead of putting the boiling-pot over the fire, the cave-men brought the fire to the boiling-pot by means of hot stones. in times of famine, pigeon learned to boil all sorts of roots and leaves. many bitter plants, when boiled, were changed so that they tasted very well. some plants which were poison when eaten raw were changed to good foods by being boiled. [illustration: _a spoon-shaped stone made and used by the cave-men._] and so the young women had their share in procuring food for the clans. while the young men invented new weapons for hunting, and tried to control the animals by magic, the young women learned to preserve foods and to keep them for times when game was scarce. when the end of the salmon feast came, the people had dried many salmon. it was soon after this that the young men captured wives and took them to new hunting grounds. and one of the very bravest young men was the one who captured pigeon. #things to do# _find some kind of raw food which you can dry. dry it and tell what happens. what dried foods do we eat? in what kind of a place do we keep dried foods?_ _find the best way of boiling bitter vegetables. tell what happens when you boil them. find the best way of boiling sweet vegetables._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _catching salmon just below the rapids._ _drying salmon._ _pigeon boiling meat for the cave-men._ xl things to think about do you think that any of the young men and their wives would live with fleetfoot and willow-grouse? where do you think flaker will live? can you think why willow-grouse would take great pains to embroider her baby's clothing? why would willow-grouse want pretty colors? think of new ways she might find of getting pretty colors. how could she get the color out of plants into the stuff she wished to color? why was it easier to make pretty dyes after people knew how to boil? _the new home_ a year or so passed and fleetfoot and willow-grouse were settled with their kinsfolk in a new rock shelter. its framework was covered with heavy skins instead of woven branches. heavy bone pegs and strong thongs served to keep the skins in place. flaker and other young men with their wives lived in the rock shelter. there were little children, too, and tiny babies. [illustration: _a baby's hood._] willow-grouse had a baby and she thought he was a wonderful child. she dressed him in the softest skins which she embroidered with a prayer. and she hung a bear's tooth about his neck because she thought it was a charm. in winter she put him in a skin cradle and wrapped him in the warmest furs. in summer he played in a basket cradle which willow-grouse wove on a forked stick. in all that willow-grouse did, she always asked the gods for help. the baskets she made for boiling food, were also prayers to the gods. [illustration: "_in summer he played in the basket cradle which willow-grouse wove on a forked stick._"] she searched for the choicest grasses and spread them on a clean spot to dry. no one knew so well as willow-grouse when to gather the twigs. she knew the season when they were full-grown and gathered them before the sap had hardened. she gathered them when the barks peeled easily and when the rich juices flowed. when the twigs were gathered the women soaked them and peeled off the bark. they left some of the twigs round, but others they made into flat splints. sometimes they stained them with the green rind of nuts, and sometimes they dyed them with pretty dyes. [illustration: _first step in coiled basketry._] [illustration: _second step in coiled basketry._] instead of weaving the baskets, willow-grouse sewed them with an over-and-over stitch. in this way she made the soft grasses into a firm basket. she began by taking a wisp of grass in the left hand and a flat splint in the other. she wound the splint around the wisp a few times then turned the wrapped portion upon itself. when she had fastened it with a firm stitch, again she wound the splint around the wisp and took another stitch. [illustration: _three rows of coiled work._] sometimes willow-grouse made baskets for boiling food, and sometimes she made them for carrying water. the baskets she prized most were the ones into which she put a prayer. the prayer was a little pattern which she made for a picture of one of the gods. sometimes it was a wild animal and sometimes it was a bird. sometimes it was the flowing river and sometimes a mountain peak. and sometimes it was a flash of lightning, and sometimes it was the sun. all the cave-men wanted the gods to be friendly and they wanted them to stay near. that is why they took so much pains in making pictures of them. that is why that soon after the rock shelter was made they engraved a reindeer upon the wall. [illustration: "_greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to the spot._"] greybeard, now old and feeble, walked all the way to the spot. fleetfoot and flaker wanted him to perform the magic rites. [illustration: _a water basket._] not all the people who lived there were allowed to take part in the ceremonies. only the grown people were allowed to see the first part. and only the wisest and bravest ones went into the dark shelter. for a moment, those who went in stood in silence waiting for a sign. then, by the light of a torch, fleetfoot chiseled a reindeer on the hard rock, and greybeard, holding a reindeer skull, murmured earnest prayers. a feeling of awe came over them while they worked. they began to feel that the god of the reindeer was really there with them. they asked the god to take good care of those who lived in the rock shelter, and to send many herds of reindeer to the cave-men's hunting grounds. #things to do# _make a rock shelter with walls of skin instead of plaited branches. use bone pegs to keep the curtains drawn tight._ _find a forked stick and several smaller ones and make a framework for a basket-cradle. if you cannot weave such a cradle as the one shown in the picture, make one in some other way and fasten it to the framework._ _find grasses and splints and see if you can make a sewed mat or basket. make a simple pattern for your mat._ _look at the picture of a water basket. why do you think it was made to bulge near the bottom? why was the bottom made flat? why was the neck made narrow? why were handles put on this basket? tell or write a story about this basket._ _turn to the frontispiece and find a picture with this legend: "a feeling of awe came over them while they worked."_ xli things to think about what might happen that would lead the cave-men to work together? at what times might the clans help one another? think of as many ways as you can of making tents out of poles and skins. _how the clans united to hunt the bison_ in spite of all the cave-men did to appease the wrath of the gods, it seemed to them that a powerful god was trying to do them harm. soon after the bison came, the grass near the caves disappeared. then the herds scattered and the cave-men said, "the god has driven them away." as the word passed from cave to cave, all the people were frightened. wise men shook their heads and looked about in despair. then it was that the younger men spoke of fleetfoot and flaker. scarface knew of fleetfoot's courage. and when he heard of flaker's magical power, he sent messengers, bearing gifts, to invite them with their people to a meeting of the clans. fleetfoot and flaker accepted the gifts and made ready to go. the women made a stretcher for flaker. and when they had buried their household treasures, all set out to the meeting of the clans. they arrived at the fork of the river where fleetfoot had lived when he was a child. there the frightened clans had gathered to seek aid against a common foe. when the people saw flaker upon the stretcher, their voices were hushed and all was still. and when flaker, arising, fixed his eyes upon something that no one else could see, they scarcely breathed. they were sure that something was going to happen. instead of offering gifts, flaker threatened the angry god. he made faces at him; he shook his fists, and he made a great noise. and the people, becoming excited, joined flaker in making threats. they made faces, they joined hands, they danced about and they made such a horrible noise that they began to feel that the god was frightened and that he had gone away. when the ceremony was ended, the people hoped to find the herds. scarface asked for young men to go ahead and act as scouts. several young men at once stepped forward from different parts of the circle of the clans. and scarface selected fleetfoot and blackcloud to go in search of the herds. [illustration: _a cave-man's engraving of a tent showing the interior structure._] the people listened as scarface spoke thus to the young men: "go follow the tracks; listen to each sound; find where the herds are feeding. do not frighten them away. return quickly and report what you have seen. if you speak not the truth when you return, may the fire burn you; may the lightning strike you; may the big bear shut you in his dark cavern!" [illustration: _a cave-man's engraving of a tent showing the exterior._] the scouts nodded their heads, and looked to flaker for a sign. and flaker, turning to the scouts, said, "the gods will lead you. follow where the green grass is cropped. follow where the grass is trampled. these are the signs which the gods will give to show that you are on the right way." the scouts departed. the first day the clans made ready to move. the second day the scouts returned and brought news of the herds. the third day all the clans were traveling toward the fertile plains. [illustration: _a cave-man's engraving of a tent with covering pulled one side so as to show the ends of the poles which support the roof._] fleetfoot and blackcloud led the way and at midday caught sight of the herds. at once, fleetfoot gave the signal and scarface ordered the clans to stop. then the men prepared to attack the herds, while the women built the tents. there were no large trees in sight, but there were a few small ones. a grassy plain stretched all around for a long, long way. and so the women built their tents out of slender saplings. [illustration: _framework showing the best kind of a tent made by the cave-men._] most of the women made a framework by leaning poles against the branch of a tree. the roof and the walls of such a tent were one and the same thing. willow-grouse and her companions tried a different way. it was by trying different ways in the different places where they camped, that the women at length learned to make tents with the roof separated from the wall. the cave-men made pictures of some of these tents upon a piece of antler. [illustration: _a tent pin._] when the men parted from the women, they considered ways of attacking the herd. it was hard to approach it on the grassy plain without being seen. and the men knew that if the herd was alarmed, it would gallop far away. at length fleetfoot showed the cave-men a plan for surrounding the herd. and he asked who would volunteer to follow two leaders in separate lines. all the bravest men volunteered, for they were eager to make an attack. fleetfoot placed them in two lines and told them what each one was to do. fleetfoot led one of the lines through the grass to the right, and blackcloud led the other to the left. they crept softly through the tall grass until they had surrounded the herd. approaching the herd cautiously, they drew nearer and nearer together. fleetfoot gave the signal to attack when they were about a spear's throw away. at once the harpoons whizzed through the air and struck many a mortal blow. the bison were taken by surprise and they attempted to escape. but no sooner had they run from one side than they were attacked from the other. many a bison was killed that day and many others were wounded. many of the cave-men carried away marks of an ugly bison's horns. but all of the people had food and all the people were happy. and to show that they honored both fleetfoot and flaker they bored holes through their batons. #things to do# _make such a stretcher as you think the women made to carry flaker._ _make tents whose roof and walls are one and the same thing. make a tent whose roof and walls are separated. tell how you think people learned to make such perfect tents._ _dramatize one of the following scenes and then draw a picture to illustrate it:_-- _the fear of the people at the disappearance of the herds._ _bearing gifts to fleetfoot and flaker._ _flaker threatening the angry god._ _sending the scouts._ _surrounding the herds._ _showing honors to fleetfoot and flaker._ xlii things to think about if there were not men enough to surround a herd can you think of anything the cave-men might do to drive them where they wanted them to go? how do we get animals into traps? why do you think people first began to make fences and walls? how do you think they used them? why do we have fences? what do we use them for? _how things were made to do the work of men_ when the clans returned to their own hunting grounds, they could not surround the large herds. there were not enough men in one cave to hunt in this way. sometimes they partly surrounded a herd and drove the animals over a cliff, but unless the herd was near the cliff, there were not enough men to drive them. and so the men tried to coax the animals to the edge of the cliff. sometimes they did it by imitating the cries the animals made. sometimes they did it by dressing so as to look like the animals themselves. but even then they often failed to get the animals into their trap. it was when fleetfoot saw a bison frightened by a feather that he thought of making things do the work of live men. the greater part of the day the bison fed some distance from the cliff. fleetfoot wanted to find a way of driving them up to the very edge. the bison drive which he invented was the way he succeeded in doing it. it was shaped like a letter #v# with the point cut off. the sides were piles of brush, or stones, or vines stretched from tree to tree. at the edge of the cliff where they started, the sides were only a short distance apart. but the farther out they extended, the farther they were apart. men, women, and children joined in making the bison drive. they piled stones and heaped up brush, and they hunted for long vines. then they hunted for feathers and bits of fur, which they tied along the lines. flaker performed the magical ceremony before the hunt began. fleetfoot dressed in a bison's skin so as to coax the herd along. women and children hid behind piles of stone and brush. and the men formed themselves in line far out from the cliffs in the rear of the herd. everybody kept still until fleetfoot's signal sounded. then the men sprang up and with loud shouts they ran after the herd. the bison saw fleetfoot in disguise; and, thinking he was one of the herd, they followed where he led. when the bison came near a pile of stones a woman or child frightened them. when they came near the fence of vines they were frightened away by the feathers and fur. and so the herd kept on toward the steep cliff. and with loud shouts and drumbeats, with the clatter of weapons and hard hoofs, the bellowing herd galloped madly on toward the steep cliff. then fleetfoot, throwing off his disguise, slipped under one of the lines; but the frantic herd rushed headlong to the brink of the precipice. then, seeing the danger, the foremost ones attempted to escape. but the maddened herd pressed blindly on and pushed them over the cliff. after such a hunt as this, there was food enough for many days. very likely the women dried meat during this time. #things to do# _model in your sand-box a good place for the bison drive. make the drive and show what happened from first to last._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- _bison feeding some distance from the cliff._ _building a bison drive._ _fleetfoot leading the herd._ _the bison at the edge of the cliff._ _drying meat._ xliii things to think about can you think why people make rules and laws? why do we have them? what kind of rules and laws do you think the cave-men made? what laws do you think they would make about hunting animals? what laws would they make about the use of plants? what people did the cave-men honor most? what must any one do to be honored? what were some of the signs that a man was honored? when dangerous work needs to be done, what kind of men and women are needed? [illustration: _after the bison hunt._] _how the cave-men rewarded and punished the clansmen_ again the clans went to hunt on the fertile plains. again the women built the tents while the men went out to hunt. but before the tents were finished, the women heard the thunder of the galloping herd. angry shouts followed, and the women began to feel alarmed. all the men were angry with blackcloud. he had frightened the herd away. fleetfoot had planned to surround the bison as they were surrounded before. but a stronger and braver young man than blackcloud, helped fleetfoot lead the lines. [illustration: _handle of a cave-man's hunting-knife with engraving of a man hunting the bison._] nobody dreamed that blackcloud would do it. everybody knew that each one must be careful not to frighten the herd. the men crept quietly through the grass when they saw a bison browsing near the line. but when blackcloud saw a young cow, he rushed forward and made an attack. the loud bellow of the wounded cow gave the alarm to the herd. and before the cave-men could stop them, the bison were galloping madly away. and so all the men were angry with blackcloud. bighorn wanted to have him flogged. others wanted to kill him. he dared not come near them for many days. no one would hunt with him, and no one would give him food. [illustration: _a hunter's tally._] afterward, when he begged to be taken back, the people let him come. but first they gave him a hard flogging in the presence of the clan. as years passed, the custom grew of making rules for the hunt. and those who broke any of the rules were punished by the clan. every day the cave-men recited the brave deeds of the clan. they watched every one carefully, so as to know who the brave men were. those who were found most useful to the clan were given special honors. and when a man did a very brave deed he was given a hole in his baton. brave hunters, besides keeping trophies, engraved a record of their brave deeds. sometimes they kept a hunter's tally, and sometimes they engraved the animal they killed. [illustration: _fragment of cave-man's baton engraved with reindeer._] many of the cave-men engraved these records upon the weapons they used in the chase. they believed that the weapons which had such engravings were of great value for their magical powers. the wise men, who led the people, engraved their records upon their batons. others engraved them upon their trophies or upon bone hairpins which they used in their hair. [illustration: _engraving of a seal upon a bear's tooth._] the engraving of a seal upon a bear's tooth probably recorded a trip to the sea, while the rude sketch of the mammoth made on the mammoth's tusk, probably recorded a great hunt. by all these signs of brave deeds, the cave-men knew who the brave men were. and these same records help to tell the story of the later cave-men. #things to do# _write out some of the rules you have helped make for your games._ _do you think the rules are good ones?_ _see if you can engrave or carve an ornament on some weapon you have made. before doing it, think what you would like to have the ornament mean._ _draw one of these pictures:_-- "_all the cave-men were angry with blackcloud._" _engraving records upon trophies and batons._ _tell a story of how bone hairpins came to be used._ _tell a story of the cave-men's trip to the sea._ _tell a story of a mammoth hunt._ [illustration: _a cave-man's hairpin engraved with wild horses._] * * * * * [illustration: suggestions to teachers] "the industrial and social history series," of which this is the third number, emphasizes, first of all, the steps in the development of industrial and social life. but in addition to its use as a series of text-books in history or social science, it has a place as a mode of approach to the different subjects included in the curriculum of the elementary school. whether the work suggested under "things to think about" and "things to do" is carried out in the period devoted to the study and recitation known as history (possibly some may prefer to call it reading), or in those periods devoted to geography, nature study, language, constructive work, and art, is largely a question of administration. the point for the teacher to make sure of is that the interests of the child which are aroused through the use of the books be utilized not merely in history, but in geography, nature study, reading, language, constructive work, and art. if this is done, subjects which too long have been isolated from the interests of real life, will become the means of stimulating and enriching all of the activities of the child. the list of references and the tabulated facts presented in _the early cave-men_, pp. - , will be of service to the teacher who wishes to engage in a further study of the subject. special suggestions _lesson i._ it seems best to let the child read the first story before asking questions. afterwards, however, the following questions may be of service: did you ever see a reindeer? where do reindeer live now? where were the reindeer at the time of the tree-dwellers? where were they at the time of the early cave-men? (see _the tree-dwellers_, pp. - , and _the early cave-men_, pp. - .) why did the reindeer come to the wooded hills by the caves at the time of the cave-men? why do reindeer live in herds? name other animals that live in herds. do you think the reindeer herds would stay near the caves all the year? should any child inquire how we know that it was once very cold here, tell him of the tracks that the glaciers made, and of the work of the glaciers in grinding hard rocks so as to make fertile soil. let the children turn to the picture of a glacier on page , and let them hunt for a rock which has markings made by glacial action. but reserve the fine points of this topic for a later period. the children will be helped to get a conception of the great number of reindeer in a herd partly through the story, partly through illustrations, and partly through tearing reindeer from paper and mounting them so as to represent great herds. the child's experiences in seeing processions or large numbers of people assembled can also be used in forming a picture of the large number of reindeer that met at the ford. in this and in succeeding lessons, which refer to the women carrying the fresh meat to the cave, remember that animals no larger than the reindeer were carried to the cave. larger animals, such as the wild horse, the cow, and the bison, were divided on the spot. the bones having the greater amount of flesh were removed from the carcass and carried to the cave where the flesh was eaten and the bones left. three women could carry the flesh of one bison without the skin. when the skins were good they were carried to the cave. in addition to the skin and the flesh the cave-men prized the head as a trophy and also as a means of gaining control over the animals by sympathetic magic. all the skulls were broken, probably for the sake of removing the brains, which are usually considered a delicacy among primitive peoples. _lesson ii._ help the children to see that when people had no books, the person who knew most was of great service to the clan. the older people, because they had more experience, took the place of books. that is one reason why people were glad to take care of older and wiser people than themselves, when the latter were no longer able to do hard work. _lesson iii._ this lesson illustrates one form which education among primitive peoples takes. relate what is given regarding the speed of the wild horse in the lessons on pp. - , in _the tree-dwellers_, which show the influence of such flesh-eating animals as wolves in developing the speed of the wild horse on the grassy uplands. _lesson iv._ this lesson illustrates the ideas of primitive peoples regarding sickness and methods of treating the sick, which consisted largely of ceremonies for driving the "angry god," the "evil spirit," away. in dealing with a superstition of primitive peoples always try to lead the child to discover the mistaken idea which gave rise to it. _lesson v._ let the children experiment in making straight shafts. the value of this work is not in the product--the shaft--but in its power to arouse the inventive spirit, to call forth free activity, and to yield an experience which lies at the basis of a great variety of subjects. _reference_: katharine e. dopp, _the place of industries in elementary education_, pp. , , . _lesson vi._ in most places throughout the united states there is some one who has a small collection of indian arrows. if the children can see some of these arrows or other flint implements, it will add greatly to their interest in this subject. in places where flint can be found, the children should collect specimens and experiment in chipping and flaking off small pieces. where no flint is to be found, it is possible to get good specimens by exchanging materials with children in other localities. _references_: katharine e. dopp, _the place of industries in elementary education_, pp. , - . _lessons vii and viii._ the habit horses have of pawing the ground is thought to be a survival of the ancient habit of pawing snow away from the grass. the horses and reindeer stayed in the neighborhood of the caves all through the winter, going to protected places only in times of severe storms. the bison and wild cattle, on the contrary, went to the lowland plains and forests at the close of summer, and returned only after the snow had melted. since few children now have the opportunity to observe the bison, and no child has the opportunity to see great herds, they must rely upon books, pictures, and other symbols as sources for the necessary facts. in bringing the sources of knowledge to the children, the teacher should remember that the modern european bison, which is a descendant of the aurochs of pleistocene times, the species of bison we are considering, is smaller than the ancient form. the pleistocene bison of europe was similar to the american type that lived in the woodlands. although the teacher should make use of available materials in supplying herself with information regarding the bison, the following summary is presented, especially for those who do not have access to public libraries. the bison are naturally shy, avoiding the presence of man; they have a keen sense of smell, and hence man has difficulty in approaching a herd, except from the leeward side. they have little intelligence, are sluggish and timid, rarely attacking man or beast, except when wounded or in self-defense. in migrating they travel in large herds, but when feeding they separate into herds of about two or three hundred each. the leader maintains his position by superior intelligence and brute force. if he fails in duty he is punished. scouts go ahead of the herd in search of new pastures; and guards, or sentinels surround the herd and guard it while feeding and during the night. when the guards have been on duty awhile, they give place to fresh guards. in case of danger, the guards give a signal of alarm by tossing up the head and bellowing furiously. at this the leader gives a signal and the herd starts off at once. bison run swiftly for a short distance, but are not able to continue a rapid flight. they can run faster than cattle, however, and when pursued always run against the wind. when surprised or wounded, they turn upon their assailants and attack them furiously, fighting with horns and hoofs. they show their rage by thrusting out the tongue, lashing the tail, and projecting the eyes. at such times they are fierce and formidable. the enemies of the bison are the carnivorous animals. a herd of bison has no cause to be afraid of wolves or bears, but solitary bison are often killed by these creatures. the cry of a bison resembles that of a groan or grunt. in case the leader is killed and no bison is able to assert his authority, there is great confusion until the question of leadership is settled. _references_: richard irving dodge, _the plains of the great west_, pp. - . w. t. hornaday, _the extermination of the american bison_, in "the smithsonian report of the u. s. national museum," , pp. - . poole's index will supply references to magazines, and the encyclopedias and natural histories will furnish further facts. _lessons ix and x._ boiling is such a common process that one seldom thinks of the importance of the discovery of the art. these lessons will show the child how people may have learned to boil and the explanation they would be apt to give of the changes which take place during the process. boiling was undoubtedly used as a religious ceremony long before it was used for cooking food. _lessons xi and xii._ if possible let the children take a field trip in connection with these lessons. if there are no nuts or wild fruits to gather, let the children gather fruits from a garden or some of the products of the farm. the particular conditions in which the children are placed will determine the form this lesson shall take. at any rate, there will be an opportunity to observe birds, squirrels, or rabbits. _lessons xiii and xiv._ the shelter described is a very early form and is important as a step in the evolution of shelter. the remains found give ample evidence that such a form was adopted by the cave-men of france. _lesson xv._ it was a common practice among primitive peoples to adopt a child or even a grown person into the clan. the custom is important as revealing one method of introducing new ideas at a time when means of communication were undeveloped. the description of the method of softening skins by beating and treading upon them illustrates the common use of rhythm and song as a means of holding the attention to what otherwise would be tedious work. _lessons xvi and xvii._ the data for these lessons is taken from drawings made by the cave-men and from the results of anthropological research among primitive peoples. it will be best not to confine the children to any one mode of clothing, but to allow them to express their own ideas regarding the first forms used. _lesson xviii._ in connection with this lesson the children will be interested in observing the signs of a storm, the actions of animals before and during a storm, methods they adopt to protect themselves, as well as the animals and birds which migrate from the place where the children live. _lesson xix._ let the children think of ways in which snowshoes might be invented, and the things the cave-men would be able to do after having the snowshoes. _lesson xx._ the invention of traps requires more forethought than the invention of weapons and was at a later date. the accidental catching of animals in natural traps, such as vines, pot-holes, soft places in the marshes and cliffs, offered a suggestion; and the tediousness of lying in wait, on the one hand, and the danger of a direct conflict with large animals, on the other, offered a strong motive for the use of nature's suggestions in the way of traps. undoubtedly women made a large use of traps in catching the smaller animals before men gave much attention to this mode of hunting. if the children make as many simple traps as they can think of and arrange them in the order of their complexity, they will be able after a few months to work out a fairly complete series in the evolution of traps. _lesson xxi._ this lesson illustrates the constant interaction between man's inventions and the animal's habits. a new invention which gives man greater power in hunting, makes the animals more timid, more watchful, more skillful in escaping from man's presence. hence, man is constantly stimulated to make new inventions, in order to be successful in the hunt. _reference_: katharine e. dopp. _the place of industries in elementary education_. (see index under _animals_ and _traps_.) _lesson xxii._ no animal was more difficult to hunt than the wild horse. herds of horses were organized under a leader and sentinels which were very alert in detecting the least sign of danger; and as soon as the alarm was given, the herds would run with great speed until they were out of sight. when unable to escape they would fight furiously with hoofs and teeth. when in need of a new pasture, scouts--the old, experienced, wise, cautious, and observant members of the herd--would be sent out to search for good feeding grounds and to report to the herd. _lesson xxiii._ help the children to see that, although the children of the caves did not go to such schools as we have, they had lessons to learn and tests to take. those who lived together had to learn to work together. each one must learn to be patient, brave, and self-controlled. the thoughtless, impatient, and cowardly were apt to prevent the capture of wild animals in the hunt, and to risk the lives of their clansmen. hence, from early childhood the old men and women gave attention to teaching the children, preparing them for the tests which must be passed before they ranked with the men and women. _lesson xxiv._ instances of stags meeting death by having their horns interlocked are well known. _lesson xxv._ encourage the children to notice the difference between those animals which live in herds and those which lead a solitary life. although the dog has changed greatly since it was domesticated, a study of the dog will be helpful in understanding the habits of packs of wolves. jack london's _call of the wild_, and ernest thompson seton's stories will be helpful in this connection. the cat, having changed less than the dog, will furnish the child with a good type of carnivorous animals that lead a solitary life. _lesson xxvi._ from an examination of the skeletons which have been referred to the late pleistocene period, it is evident that the cave-men were able to treat wounds and to set bones. "no one could have survived such wounds as we have described," writes mr. nadaillac, "but for the care and nursing of those around him, such as the other members of his tribe. the wounded one must have been fed by the others for months; nay more, he must have been carried in migrations, and his food and resting place must have been prepared for him." _lesson xxvii._ there was little difference between weapons and tools until the period of the later cave-men. a piece of chipped stone served as a tool and a weapon. the children learned when they read _the tree-dwellers_ how people used the tools in their bodies and how they supplemented these by the use of natural tools, such as sticks, stones, shells, bones, and horns. in reading _the early cave-men_ they learned how people chipped flint and bound strong handles to heavy spear points and axes. at this time they can learn how people came to make use of new materials--materials which require the use of _tools_ in shaping into weapons. tools had been used by women from a very early time. the digging-stick, the hammer-stone, the chopper, the knife, and the bone awl are tools which every woman used. men, on the contrary, were more interested in weapons than in tools, and it is quite likely that the first steps which led to the differentiation of tools from weapons was made by a man who had been wounded and thus disabled for the hunt. the incident of bighorn making fun of the bone dagger is introduced to illustrate the conservative tendency which is still present in society, a tendency less powerful now than in early times, yet strong enough to keep many people out of sympathy with the forces which work for progress. let the children examine a real antler, if possible, and notice its fitness for being made into a variety of tools and weapons. if no antler can be found let them examine the picture of one, so as to determine what part of it is used in making a dagger, a hammer, a baton, a tent peg, and an awl. _lesson xxviii._ the invention of the flint saw marks an important step in the evolution of both tools and weapons. without the saw it would have been impossible to use such material as bone, horn, and ivory. it is interesting to notice that the saw was at first not clearly differentiated from the file and the knife, the three tools being united in one piece of flint. _lesson xxix._ in representing the action of a story by means of pantomime, let the children choose a leader who shall take charge of the action. where this has been tried the results have been very satisfactory. the children, because they feel the responsibility, are stimulated to their best thought. the pleasure they take in the play leads them to a far more careful study of the book than they would make without this stimulus. in addition to this, it leads them to be alert in making use of various sources of knowledge. _lesson xxx._ hunting peoples, because they live a hand-to-mouth life, have either a feast or a famine. game was so plentiful during the late pleistocene period that we may suppose that the cave-men usually had plenty of food. the time when a famine was most likely to occur was early spring, before the grass furnished food for the herds which came a little later. when food supplies begin to fail, the clan breaks up into smaller groups, and, in case of great scarcity, each of these groups subdivides so that food may be found. the worship of the bear and other large animals can be traced back to a very ancient period. it undoubtedly originated in the pleistocene period when man first stood in fear of these animals and tried to win their favor by offering gifts. _lesson xxxi._ in central france, the region from which the greater part of the data used in this book is derived, small glaciers were to be found in the upper portions of the mountain valleys, but they did not extend far down the river valleys. in other places, however, glaciers extended far down into the lowlands. while this is not the place for a thorough study of the glacier, it is possible for the children of primary grades to understand certain phases of the subject. the teacher who attempts to make clear the formation of the glacier may find the following quotation from prof. shaler helpful: "when a glacial period comes upon a country, the sheets of ice are first imposed upon the mountain tops, and then the ice creeps down the torrent and river beds far below the snow line, in a manner now seen in switzerland and norway. as long as the ice streams follow the torrent-channels, they act in something like the fashions of the flowing waters--to gouge out the rocks and deepen the valleys; but as the glacial period advances and the ice sheet spreads beyond the mountains enveloping the plains as well, when the glacier attains the thickness of thousands of feet, it disregards the valleys in its movements and sweeps on in majestic march across the surface of the country. as long as the continental glaciers remain the tendency is to destroy the river valleys. the result is to plane down the land and, to a certain extent, to destroy all preëxisting river valleys." if this subject is studied while snow is on the ground it will be interesting to the children to experiment out of doors in making glaciers. if there are no hills present the children can readily make small hills on their playground and the falling and partial melting of the snow will do the rest. _lesson xxxii._ neighboring clans are accustomed to meet at the rapids of a river during the salmon season. at such places, and in all places where abundant sources of food are to be found, neighboring clans participate in feasting, dancing, and general merrymaking. just as scarcity of food tends to separate people, so abundance of food tends to draw them together. at such gatherings people of different clans exchange ideas, learn new ways of doing things and become accustomed to act in larger groups for the accomplishment of a common purpose. _lesson xxxiii._ on the side of invention the throwing-stick is a point to be emphasized in this lesson. on the side of social coöperation, the organization of the brotherhood is the point of interest. such organizations are characteristic of primitive peoples, and similar organizations among children are of common occurrence. _lesson xxxiv._ this lesson serves to bring out the contrast between fleetfoot, the brave, active young man, who is beginning to develop the arts which require great personal bravery and force, and flaker, the crippled young man, whose ability is directed toward the development of tools and the arts which later make him a priest and medicine man. originally, there was no sharp distinction between the priest and the medicine man. one person performed both functions, and in many cases this person was a woman. later, those who made use of supplication and entreaty constituted the priesthood, while those who attempted to frighten the gods were known as medicine men. _lesson xxxv._ overhanging rocks were made use of for natural shelters from the earliest times. the improvement of the natural shelter by the addition of front and side walls was a later step and was doubtless an invention of woman. the motives for such an invention may be found in the fact that in many places near good hunting grounds there were not enough caves to shelter the people. under such circumstances, as well as in districts where no caves abound, women would not be slow to take advantage of the overhanging rocks and to use their ingenuity in converting them into comfortable habitations. let the children compare summer and winter skins, if possible; if not, let them notice the difference between the horse's coat in winter and summer. _lesson xxxvi._ to help the children to realize the importance of the discovery of the use of poison, let the children think of the many advantages which the cave-men enjoyed because they could use it. the dependence of man upon animals for his food supply is shown here. the disappearance of the herds caused fleetfoot and willow-grouse to leave the rock-shelter. this is the beginning of a series of events which culminates in a famine. with this in mind, the teacher can emphasize the points which lead up to the famine. _lesson xxxvii._ let the children bring together from various sources the materials and tools required to make needles by the processes of the cave-men. do not require the children to make needles, but permit them to experiment with the materials so as to understand the subject. if the children label and arrange the collection they make in an orderly way, the work itself will be of great value to them, and the collection will constitute an interesting feature in the children's industrial museum. _lesson xxxviii._ such a lesson as this ought to be helpful in freeing the child from superstitions without putting him out of sympathy with people who entertain them. in their origin superstitions are unsuccessful attempts to explain the phenomena of life. in spite of the fact that many of the beliefs of mankind have been false, they have served a useful purpose in the development of the individual and in uniting individuals into social groups. the art of the cave-men, as illustrated in this and in other lessons, shows a belief in sympathetic magic, a belief that is universal among primitive peoples. the fear formerly entertained by the american indians of having their photographs taken was due to a belief in sympathetic magic. the one who possessed the likeness was supposed to have some mysterious power over the person. help the children to distinguish between the things the cave-men did which really helped and those which they thought helped. notice that flaker actually learned a great deal about the topography of the country, the location of the best hunting grounds, the movements and habits of the herds, and, because of this, was often able to give the cave-men good advice. the magical ceremonies he practiced were of use to him in getting the people to believe in his wonderful power. (see, also, notes under _xxxiv_.) _lesson xxxix._ although there was a great variety and abundance of fish, not all the cave-men used fish. from the remains which have been found, however, we know that different clans used nearly all the varieties of fish which still may be found in our rivers and lakes; and we may readily believe that a salmon stream would be held as property common to all the neighboring tribes, as it is to-day among hunting and fishing peoples. fishing tackle of the cave-men was very crude. fish were sufficiently abundant, however, to be caught with the hands or by means of stones and clubs. a fish hook made of a bear's tooth, by removing the enamel and crown and lessening the thickness by rubbing, has been found. the barbed harpoons, which were originally made for hunting, were later used in spearing fish. harpoons with barbs on both sides were well adapted for throwing through the air, while those with barbs on one side were better adapted for use in the water. an experiment with a pencil in a glass of water will show the child that the part in the water is not where it appears to be, and from this he can readily reach the conclusion given above. _lesson xl._ if one will notice the clothing and the cradles of the north american indians in a museum, he cannot fail to observe that care was taken in their preparation. they are comfortable and, in many cases, beautiful. we may well believe from what is known that among all primitive peoples the beauty, especially that of ornamentation, was for the sake of some supposed magical power. the representation of an animal was supposed to secure the especial protection of that animal, which was worshiped as a god. the bear's tooth, which was pierced and strung about the neck of an infant, served a useful purpose when the child was cutting teeth, and it was supposed to be a charm which served to protect the child. _lesson xli._ the strongest motives for coöperation were doubtless the common need of protection from dangerous beasts of prey and the need of adopting methods of hunting wild animals which required the united efforts of many people. notice that the different batons and fragments of batons represented in this book differ in the number of holes bored through them. it is thought that the number of holes indicated the rank of the owner. although many theories are given regarding the use of batons, the one which seems most tenable to the author is that which views them as marks of distinction and instruments used in magical ceremonies and in hunting dances. _lesson xlii._ the method of hunting herds by surrounding them is a coöperative method suitable to such regions as grassy plains, and comparatively level tracts which are sparsely wooded. the drive, on the contrary, is adapted to regions where steep cliffs are to be found. it is a natural development of the earlier method of hunting by taking advantage of the proximity of animals to steep cliffs. in that case man's part was to lie in wait until a favorable opportunity presented itself for frightening the animals over. the lesson in _the tree-dwellers_ on "how the hyenas hunted the big-nosed rhinoceros," and the one in _the early cave-men_ on "hunting the mammoth," illustrate early stages of this method. notice that there is a new principle employed in this lesson--that of the decoy--and that the method of hunting by means of the drive makes use of various ideas worked out before. _lesson xliii._ the experience of children in games is sufficient to enable them to realize the necessity of making laws and rules for regulating the conduct of the members of the group. this lesson should serve to connect this narrow experience with that of the race. many of the representations of the cave-man's art, as shown in the illustrations of this book, might well have been made the subjects of special lessons. the limits of this book, however, forbid further expansion. * * * * * industrial and social history series _by katharine elizabeth dopp, ph. d._ _lecturer in education in the extension division of the university of chicago. author of "the place of industries in elementary education."_ what the books are _book i._ #the tree-dwellers.# the age of fear. _illustrated with a map, full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth, square mo, pages. for the primary grades._ this volume makes clear to the child how people lived before they had fire, how and why they conquered it, and the changes wrought in society by its use. the simple activities of gathering food, of weaving, building, taming fire, making use of stones for tools and weapons, wearing trophies, and securing coöperative action by means of rhythmic dances, are here shown to be the simple forms of processes which still minister to our daily needs. _book ii._ #the early cave-men.# the age of combat. _illustrated with a map, full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth, square mo, pages. for the primary grades._ in this volume the child is helped to realize that it is necessary not only to know how to use fire, but to know how to make it. protection from the cold winters, which characterize the age described, is sought first in caves; but fire is a necessity in defending the caves. the serious condition to which the cave-men are reduced by the loss of fire during a flood is shown to be the motive which prompts them to hold a council; to send men to the fire country; to make improvements in clothing, in devices for carrying, and in tools and weapons; and, finally, to the discovery of how to make fire. _book iii._ #the later cave-men.# the age of the chase. _illustrated with full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown. cloth, square mo, pages. for the primary grades._ here is portrayed the influence of man's presence upon wild animals. man's fear, which with the conquest of fire gave way to courage, has resulted in his mastery of many mechanical appliances and in the development of social coöperation, which so increases his power as to make him an object of fear to the wild animals. since the wild animals now try to escape from man's presence, there is a greater demand made upon man's ingenuity than ever before in supplying his daily food. the way in which man's cunning finds expression in traps, pitfalls, and in throwing devices, and finally in a remarkable manifestation of art, is made evident in these pages. _book iv._ #the early sea people.# first steps in the conquest of the waters. _illustrated with full-page and text drawings in half-tone by howard v. brown and kyohei inukai. cloth, square mo, pages. for the intermediate grades._ the life of fishing people upon the seashore presents a pleasing contrast to the life of the hunters on the wooded hills depicted in the previous volumes. the resources of the natural environment; the early steps in the evolution of the various modes of catching fish, of manufacturing fishing tackle, boats, and other necessary appliances; the invention of devices for capturing birds; the domestication of the dog and the consequent changes in methods of hunting; and the social coöperation involved in manufacturing and in expeditions on the deep seas, are subjects included in this volume. _other volumes, dealing with the early development of pastoral and agricultural life, the age of metals, travel, trade, and transportation, will follow._ _write us for detailed information regarding these books and a complete list of our up-to-date publications._ #rand mcnally & company# educational publishers chicago new york london transcriber's note: the term "halberd" and "halbert" have both been used on numerous occasions. "halbert" is a variant of "halberd" and has been left as printed in the original text. * * * * * the bronze age in ireland the bronze age in ireland by george coffey member of the royal irish academy honorary fellow of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland keeper of irish antiquities in the national museum and professor r.h.a. dublin _with eleven plates and eighty-five illustrations_ hodges, figgis, & co., limited, grafton street, dublin simpkin, marshall, & co., london printed at the dublin university press by ponsonby and gibbs. preface in this book on the bronze age in ireland i have collected and collated all my work on the period. much of it i have already published in the "proceedings of the royal irish academy" and elsewhere. i have long felt the need of a book on the bronze age in ireland, as hitherto none has appeared dealing adequately with the archæology of that period in this country. within the last few years it has been recognized that the bronze-age civilization in europe did not consist of a series of isolated communities, each developing its own type of objects and decorations, but that there was a community of ideas and forms extending from mycenæ all over the european continent. i have described the various forms of bronze-age implements of peace and of war found in ireland, and have shown how they are connected with similar types on the continent of europe. m. j. déchelette, of the roanne museum, one of the first authorities on the bronze age, agrees with me in ascribing a mycenæan origin to certain forms of bronze-age implements. how this mycenæan influence penetrated to ireland is a matter on which there is some difference of opinion, and possibly new discoveries may throw additional light on the problem. as i have shown both in this and in former works, the most probable route seems to be that of the danube and the elbe, and thence by way of scandinavia to ireland. it is to be hoped that now--with a concentrating of irish interests on irish affairs a new impetus will be given to the study of the history of our country, and that many workers may be found in the fields of archæology and of all subjects connected with our past. in my "guide to the celtic antiquities of the christian period" i have given the history of irish art in the christian period; in "new grange (brugh na boine) and other incised tumuli in ireland, the influence of crete and the Ægean in the extreme west of europe in early times," i have given as much as is known of the pre-christian period up to the bronze age; and in this, my latest work, which has been much interrupted by illness, i have endeavoured to complete the history of ancient art in ireland. i have to thank the councils of the royal irish academy and of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland for the loan of a number of blocks. in other cases drawings have been made direct from objects in the national museum by miss e. barnes. the plates are from photographs taken by the photographer of the national museum. in offering this book to the public i must express my gratitude to mr. e. c. r. armstrong, to whom i am indebted for his unvarying kindness and sympathy, and for much valuable assistance both in the matter and form of the work. george coffey. contents page chapter i, introduction; chronology of the irish bronze age. chapter ii, transitional copper period; localities where native copper is found in ireland; finds of copper celts; moulds for casting flat celts; list of localities where irish copper celts have been found; halberds; localities where found; types; analyses; continental examples; probable derivation of irish halberds from spain. chapter iii, first and later periods of the bronze age; evolution of the bronze celt; ornamentation of bronze celts; palstave with double loops; anvil and hammers; spear-heads; evolution from the knife-dagger; type derived from the rapier; leaf-shaped spear-heads; spear-heads with apertures in the blade; moulds for casting spear-heads; ferules for spear-butts. chapter iv, irish gold: account of irish gold deposits; lunulæ: general description of; distribution. chapter v, daggers and rapiers; evolution of the dagger and rapier blade; handles of daggers and rapiers. chapter vi, gold gorgets; gold sun-disks; gold balls; clare find; penannular rings and ring-money; ring-money. chapter vii, leaf-shaped swords; division of types; absence of moulds for casting; bronze chapes; winged chapes; shields; circular bronze shields; shield of wood; leather shield. chapter viii, torcs; twisted torcs; distribution of torcs; ribbon torcs; plain torcs. chapter ix, bronze-age finds; list of well-authenticated irish finds. chapter x, bronze trumpets; types and derivation of irish trumpets; sickles; discussion of types; importance of, with regard to date of agriculture; disk-headed pins. chapter xi, bronze-age pottery; food-vessels; derivation of, from neolithic type; cinerary urns; incense cups. chapter xii, bronze-age ornamentation in ireland; discussion of the ornamentation at new grange; m. déchelette's views as to its origin compared with those of the author. index, list of illustrations fig. page . copper halbert, birr find, . copper celts, birr find, . copper knife and awls found at knocknague, . copper celts, . copper celts from cappeen, co. cork, . stone mould for casting celts, . halbert blades, . halbert blades, . halbert blades, . halbert blades, . halberts from north germany and sweden, . halberts from south and east spain, . rock markings, maritime alps, . stone pick from the bann, . deer-horn pick, . ornamented bronze celts, plate i, irish bronze celts in the order of their development, . ornamented bronze celts, . ornamented bronze celts, . winged celt, . winged celt, . palstave with double loops, . bronze anvil, . bronze hammers, . dagger and spear-heads, . spear-heads, . spear-heads, . rapier and spear-head, . leaf-shaped spear-heads, . ornamented socket of spear-head, . leaf-shaped spear-heads found at the ford, belturbet, . spear-heads with loops joining the blade, . spear-heads, . ornamental spear-heads, with openings in the blade, . portion of spear-head, with studs at the base of the wings, . spear-heads with openings in the blades, . spear-heads with ornamental loops in the blades, . spear-head found at tempo, co. fermanagh, . half of mould for casting a socketed spear-head, killymeddy, co. antrim, . half of mould for casting a spear-head and dagger, killymeddy, co. antrim, . mould for casting a spear-head and knife, killymeddy, co. antrim, . moulds for casting primitive spear-heads found in co. tyrone, . moulds for casting primitive spear-heads found in co. tyrone, . half of mould for casting spear-head and dagger, killymeddy, co. antrim, . bronze spear-ferules, . bronze spear-ferule with la tène ornament, . gold lunula found at trenta, carrigans, co. donegal, . gold lunula found in co. galway, . gold lunula, . gold lunula found at killarney, . oak case for lunula found at newtown, co. cavan, . gold lunula found at valognes, manche, . gold lunula found in co. londonderry, . gold lunula found at athlone, . map showing the distribution of gold lunulæ in ireland and europe, . stone celt, bronze dagger with gold band, and urn, found in topped mountain cairn, co. fermanagh, . dagger and rapier blades, . dagger with horn handle found at ballymoney, co. antrim, . rapier found in upper lough erne, . rapier found at lissane, co. derry, . rapiers and daggers found in ireland, . gold gorget found in ireland, formerly in the possession of the earl of charleville, plate ii, irish gold gorgets, plate iii, gold sun-disks, plate iv, portion of the great clare find, . gold fibulæ and other objects found together at coachford, co. cork, plate v, gold fibulæ, . sixteenth-century bronze casting from benin, showing europeans holding manillas, . sixteenth-century bronze casting from benin, showing natives holding manillas, plate vi, gold ring-money, . leaf-shaped bronze swords found with a spear-head at tempo, co. fermanagh, . bronze chapes, . winged chapes, . bronze shield found at lough gur, co. limerick, . alder-wood shield found in co. leitrim, . front and back of leather shield, found at clonbrin, co. longford, plate vii, gold torcs from tara and elsewhere, plate viii, gold torcs, plate ix, gold torcs from clonmacnois and broighter, . two late bronze-age finds, . late bronze-age horse-hair fabrics from armoy, co. antrim, . bronze implements, co. tipperary, . bronze implements found at kilfeakle, co. tipperary, plate x, bronze trumpets, . mould for casting a sickle, found at killymeddy, co. antrim, . bronze sickles, . bronze sickles, . bronze disk, . bronze button, . incense cup, . cinerary urn, . food-vessel with cover, danesfort, co. kilkenny, . cinerary urn, carballybeg, co. waterford, plate xi, food-vessels in the order of their development, . model of cinerary urn from greenhills, co. dublin, . cinerary urn, cookstown, co. tyrone, * * * * * the bronze age in ireland chapter i introduction this book deals with the bronze age principally from the point of view of the implements and weapons in use in ireland during that period. it is unnecessary to state that the materials for writing anything like a full account of the civilization or political organization during the bronze age do not exist; and even the ethnological affinities of the dominant race that inhabited ireland during this period are doubtful. all that can be said is that there was apparently no gap between the end of the neolithic period and the transitional copper to bronze period. stone weapons continued in use side by side with those of copper and bronze; and the form of the former was sometimes actually influenced by those of the latter. there has been so little scientific excavation in ireland that the question as to the early burial-customs is surrounded with difficulty; such evidence as there is points to cremation having been practised early, as was also the case in great britain. instances show that the two rites of inhumation and cremation were practised side by side. in the cairn excavated on belmore mountain, county fermanagh, both burnt and unburnt interments were found with pottery and other objects of early bronze-age type.[ ] at a recent excavation near naas, county kildare, a burnt interment was discovered in a cist, the remains being associated with a wrist-bracer and remains of pottery.[ ] in the fine series of cairns on carrowkeel mountain, county sligo, burnt and unburnt interments were found associated with pottery, bone implements, and stone beads.[ ] at annaghkeen, county galway, a cremated burial was discovered in a cist associated with pottery and a small bronze knife-dagger and awl.[ ] [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xx, p. . [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, p. . [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxix, p. . [ ] journal galway archæological and historical society, vol. v, p. . the hon. john abercromby gives a list of food-vessels found with cremated burials in ireland, and to these must be added a food-vessel of early type found in in a quarry at crumlin, county dublin. it must, however, be left for future excavations to decide many questions to which at present no answer, or only a doubtful one, can be given. this, however, is certain--ireland during the bronze age was not isolated, but stood in direct communication with the continent. Ægean and scandinavian influences can be detected in the great tumuli of the new grange group[ ]; and iberian influence is discernible in some of the later types of bronze implements. ireland, as will be shown in the chapters dealing directly with the gold objects, was, during the bronze age, a kind of western el dorado, owing to her great richness in gold; irish gold ornaments have been found both on the continent and in scandinavia; while scandinavian amber has been found in ireland. as will be seen on p. , the bronze-age people were acquainted with the art of weaving; and fine ornaments of horse-hair were sometimes used. the art of making pottery by hand was carried to a high degree of excellence. shaving must have been fairly common, judging by the number of bronze razors found. we shall find evidence further on in this work to show that corn was probably grown and agriculture fairly advanced. [ ] "new grange and other incised tumuli in ireland," p. . the great tumuli at new grange and the lesser ones at carrowkeel show that the art of building was well developed, and that the religious ideals of the people had attained a certain fixed form. what the actual dwellings occupied by the people were we cannot say; but it is probable that many of the promontory-forts and some at least of the larger cashels and ring-forts date back to this period. there remain, however, many questions which, as we have said, must be kept over for future investigations. the chronology of the irish bronze age some discussion as to the absolute chronology of the bronze age in ireland will, no doubt, be expected, though any attempts to give actual dates can only be approximate; the succession of types is really of considerably more importance than the actual date, as such a succession enables objects, finds, and interments to be arranged in a progressive series, and shows the general trend of advance and culture. the doyen of prehistoric archæology, dr. oscar montelius, of stockholm, has been the pioneer of the study of the prehistoric chronology of europe, his chronology of the bronze age in scandinavia having been published as far back as . since then he has published the results of his studies of the bronze-age chronologies of greece and italy, and of france, belgium, south germany, and switzerland. more recently ( ) he has put forward the chronology of the british islands in a notable memoir published in archæologia. it may be mentioned that dr. montelius visited ireland some years ago, and speaks with the greater authority as having personally examined the actual irish evidence. in this memoir dr. montelius divides the bronze age of great britain and ireland into five periods, and includes in his first period the transitional time when copper was in use (copper period), which he places at from the middle of the third to the beginning of the second millennium b.c. now, though the division of the irish bronze age into five periods may be accepted, we should hardly care to place the first period as early as dr. montelius suggests; and without going into the question of the time at which the period commenced, we might take the period of its ending at from about - b.c. in this period would be included the flat copper celts of early form, copied from the stone celts of the preceding neolithic period, some few small, flat knife-daggers of copper, and the earliest of the halberds. stone implements, no doubt, remained largely in use; and the very finely decorated hammer-axes probably belong to this period. it is possible that gold--which, on account of its colour and appearance on the surface of the ground, must have been one of the metals first noticed and made use of in prehistoric times--was used for making ornaments at this period, or possibly, as prof. gowland suggests, may have been hammered into ornaments even during the preceding neolithic age.[ ] there is, however, no gold object in the national collection which we should care to place so early. [ ] journal royal anthropological institute, vol. xlii, p. . the second division of the bronze age (the first period of the true bronze age) would fall between and b.c.; and in it would be included, as the principal types, the flat bronze celts--including those with the edge much wider than the blade--flanged celts, small bronze daggers, the later halberds, jet buttons with conical perforations, and the early types of jet necklaces, and probably the gold lunulæ. the third period might be placed at from to b.c., and the principal types falling within it are flanged celts with stop-ridges, tanged spear-heads, and larger dagger-blades, sometimes with bronze handles. the fourth period, which was long, and during which a considerable development takes place, might be placed at from to b.c. this period includes the later type of celts with increased stop-ridge and flanges (palstaves), and some of the earlier forms of socketed celts, long rapiers, the earlier type of leaf-shaped swords, and the looped and leaf-shaped spear-heads, gold torcs, and possibly some of the bronze fibulæ, and sickles without sockets; the disk-headed pins and bronze razors may be placed either at the end of this time or the beginning of the next period. in this period must also be placed the building of the great tumuli of the new grange group. the fifth division--also a long one--would go from to about b.c., at which time iron weapons were probably coming into general use in ireland. in this period would fall the socketed celts, including the latest type, which takes a form not uncommon among iron or steel axes, the later bronze swords with notches below the blades, bronze sword-chapes, the socketed sickles, probably some of the more highly ornamented bronze spears with apertures in the blades, the bronze trumpets, the gold fibulæ, and gold gorgets. it must be remembered that the continental hallstatt period is not at present well represented in great britain and ireland, and though, under hallstatt influence, certain continental iron-age types such as bronze caldrons, trumpets, round shields, &c., found their way into ireland, we cannot as yet definitely separate this period from the end of the bronze age. chapter ii transitional copper period in ireland the metal first used was copper. native copper is plentiful in ireland, and has been chiefly obtained from the counties of wicklow, waterford, cork, kerry, tipperary, and galway. in waterford stone implements have been found in copper mines in ancient workings, showing copper was mined for at an early period.[ ] the time during which copper was in use was probably relatively only a short one, much shorter than the neolithic period or than the true bronze age. the evidence for this period is the large number of flat copper celts which have been found in the north and south, and east and west, of the country. the earliest copper celts resemble in form the stone celts from which they are derived, and were cast in open moulds on one side only, and then hammered flat on the other. moulds for casting celts in this way have been found in ireland. it is also extremely interesting to notice that some stone celts betray the influence of metal types by their form. it may be well here to meet an objection that has been raised against a special use of copper in ireland. it has been urged that the large number of flat copper celts may have been due to a scarcity of tin, and that as copper cannot be cast in closed moulds, casters who could cast advanced forms of bronze celts were obliged to return to the primitive form necessary for casting in an open mould. copper ores are, however, very rarely found in a pure state, and the small impurities of antimony, arsenic, &c., combine in the smelting with the copper, and lend a hardness and ductibility which would enable it to be cast in closed moulds.[ ] the analyses of irish copper celts agree among themselves, and substantially with those from other countries, the small quantities of tin, antimony, arsenic, &c., which are found being due to impurities in the ore. the celts may be taken to be of copper, and not of poor bronze.[ ] the earliest copper celts resemble the stone celts from which they are derived; some of them are small. a development takes place throughout the series, the celts becoming larger and the edges thinner as they approach the bronze forms. no trace of a stop-ridge is ever found on copper celts. [ ] sir r. kane, industrial resources of ireland. second edition, , p. . [ ] see analysis of a socketed celt of an alloy of copper and antimony found at elbing, west prussia, journal anthropological institute, vol. xxxvi, p. . [ ] see paper "irish copper celts," journal anthropological institute, vol. xxxi, p. , where the question is fully dealt with. [illustration: fig. .--copper halberd, birr find.] the principal finds are as follows:-- . three copper celts, three copper awls, and a copper knife found, in , in a bog at knocknague, kilbannon, county galway. purchased from the finder, michael rafferty, by the royal irish academy. (fig. .) . three copper celts, a fragment of a fourth (butt-end), a copper halberd, and a short blade of copper of somewhat similar form, found in , near birr, king's county, formerly in the collection of mr. robert day, of cork. (fig. .) . three copper celts found in , when ploughing at cullinagh, near beaufort, killarney, county kerry. (day collection.) . two large and well-formed copper celts found together in street excavations in suffolk street, dublin, in may, . (ray collection.) (fig. , nos. and .) [illustration: fig. .--birr find.] . two copper celts found together at clontoo, near kenmare, county kerry, in . (fig. , nos. and .) . six copper celts found together at cappeen, county cork. the distribution, analyses, types, and finds show that the copper celts represent a period when copper was in common use throughout ireland and before bronze was generally known. the celts from the ray collection mentioned above show that the fully developed celt was in use during this period, while the "birr find" with the halberd shows that the halberd was also known and in use during the full copper period. [illustration: fig. .--copper knife and awls found at knocknague.] moulds for casting flat celts, copper and bronze, have been found in the following places in ireland:--carrickfergus; ballymena; loughgall, county antrim; ballynahinch, county down; and lough scur crannog, county leitrim.[ ] [ ] crawford, "early bronze-age settlements in britain," journal royal geographical society, , p. . copper celts have been found practically over the whole country; and the following is a list of those in the national collection, of which the localities are known, and, as well as these, there are about eighty for which the provenance has not been exactly recorded:-- list of copper celts found in ireland. antrim, craigbally, ( : ). [illustration: fig. .--copper celts.] cavan, (r. ). cork, cappeen ( ); county cork, ( : ). donegal, letterkenny, ( : ). dublin, suffolk street, : large copper celts. (ray collection.) galway, knocknague, kilbannon, three copper celts, a copper knife, and three copper awls. county galway, . (r. ) (fig. .) kerry, beaufort, killarney, three copper celts found together in when ploughing at cullinagh. (day collection.) clontoo, near kenmare, two copper celts found together in . londonderry, in the river bann, near coleraine, . (w. .). louth, . (r. ). mayo, killala, (w. .). [illustration: fig. .--copper celts from cappeen, co. cork.] meath, dunshaughlin, ( , w.). tipperary, dundrum, ( : ). tyrone, mountfield, ( : ). waterford, tramore, (w. .). the localities of the following copper celts in other collections are known:-- antrim, (knowles collection.) cork, (day collection, about . evans collection, .) fermanagh, (day collection, . evans collection, .) kerry, (day collection.) kilkenny, (day collection.) [illustration: fig. .] king's county, (birr three, and five others found in the king's county. day collection.) limerick, (day collection.) sligo, (sir john leslie's collection.) halberds as already stated the birr find shows that the halberd was in use during the full copper period; and, though to judge by the form of the celts, we may place it at the end of the period, yet more primitive types are known, and we may therefore presume the halberd goes well back into the copper period. the national collection at dublin contains forty-nine specimens of these broad coppery blades. in a few cases there may possibly be a doubt as to whether they should be classified as halberds or primitive daggers. the localities of the majority are not known further than that they have been found in ireland; but from the known localities they seem, like the copper celts, to have been found in all parts of the island; and local distinctions of type, if they existed, are not now possible. [illustration: fig. .--halberd blades.] of the forty-nine mentioned, twenty have localities as follows:--antrim , cavan , roscommon , galway , meath , king's county , queen's county , clare , limerick , cork . seven of those from galway represent a single find, which gives that county an undue proportion. [illustration: fig. .--halberd blades.] types [illustration: fig. .--halberd blades.] [illustration: fig. .--halberd blades.] what may be considered as the developed or normal type of the irish halberd blade is slightly but distinctly curved, so that they have been called "scythe-shaped." they vary from about inches to or inches in length, and from about to inches in breadth at the widest part; with few exceptions they have three rivets with large heads. the various sizes are well represented in a find of seven of these blades obtained in when making the railway near hollywood, county galway. they were described as having been found about - / feet under the surface of a shallow bog "stuck in a bunch in the ground, with points down. no other relics appeared near them." we do not think it is any use attempting to place the halberds in a series of development; and no progression can be claimed for their forms other than that there appears to be a movement of development from the smaller straight blades to the larger and curved blades. in one or two cases the mid rib has been brought to a slight roof-ridge; and a fine example in the late sir john evans' collection shows a well-marked bead down the mid rib ("bronze implements," fig. ); but in most cases the mid rib is quite plain with a rounded curve in section. analyses analyses of the halberd blades show that the metal of which they are composed does not differ much from that of the copper celts. a recent analysis of five specimens is appended which shows that the blades are practically of pure copper. this is interesting, as it removes the doubt expressed by sir john evans in "bronze implements," p. , that "many of these blades have the appearance of being made of copper; but the absence of tin in their composition has not been proved." +-+----------+-------+----+---------+--------+-----+-------+-----+-------+ | | | | | | | | | |bismuth| | | |copper.|tin.|antimony.|arsenic.|lead.|silver.|iron.| nickel| | | | | | | | | | | zinc.| +-+----------+-------+----+---------+--------+-----+-------+-----+-------+ | |king's co.| | | | | | | | | | |day coll.,| | | | | | | | | | | no. ,| . | . | nil | nil | . | . | . | nil | | | | | | | | | | | | | |antrim, | | | | | | | | | | | , ,| | | | | | | | | | | no. , | . | . | . | . | nil | nil | nil | nil | | | | | | | | | | | | | |galway, | | | | | | | | | | | w. , | | | | | | | | | | | no. ,| . | . | nil | nil | . | nil | . | nil | | | | | | | | | | | | | |cork, | | | | | | | | | | | r. , | | | | | | | | | | | no. , | . | . | . | . | nil | nil | nil | nil | | | | | | | | | | | | | | w. , | | | | | | | | | | | no. ,| . | . | nil | . | nil | . | nil | nil | +-+----------+-------+----+---------+--------+-----+-------+-----+-------+ [illustration: fig. .--halberds from north germany and sweden after montelius.] the manner in which the halberd blades were attached to their shafts is explained by the bronze halberds with bronze shafts--the blade and upper part of the shaft often in one piece--from north germany and from sweden. these halberds are referred to an early stage of the bronze age; but they are of bronze, and, in casting and other features, show a considerable advance on a primitive type; the large imitation rivets cast in the head of the shaft no doubt represent an earlier form in which the shaft was of wood and the rivets real. ten bronze halberd blades were found together near stendal in prussian saxony, but without handles, four of which are figured by montelius in "die chronologie der ältesten bronzezeit," figs. - . an analysis of one of the blades gave per cent. of tin and of a rivet · per cent. of tin. from the straight mark across the blades, and some bronze tubular pieces for the handles, there seems no doubt that they were intended for straight wooden handles, and thus represent the earlier type. the blades are about - / inches in length. it is important to note that the rivets are of two kinds: some are large and stout like the usual irish form; and some have metal washers, like the solitary example found in ireland (fig. ), and which has caused some authorities to consider the irish halberd blades somewhat later than we should care to place them. in general appearance these halberd blades from stendal are closer to the irish halberds than any of the others which have been found on the continent, but do not include the curved or scythe-shaped form common to ireland. copper halberds, with remains of transverse wooden shafts, have been found by the brothers siret on the south-east of spain. in this case they go back to the very beginning of the bronze age in this district. the form of the blades is, however, in most cases #t#-shaped, and different from the irish examples (fig. ). halberds attached to their shafts are also shown on the prehistoric rock-markings in the "italian maritime alps," published by mr. c. bicknell. the actual blades, however, that can be classified with any certainty as halberds are very rare in the north and middle italian districts, though some of the copper and early bronze triangular dagger forms may have been occasionally mounted as halberds. it is possible, however, that the decoration of certain halberds found in germany may have been influenced by that of the italian dagger. [illustration: fig. .--halberts from south-east spain.] the halberd blade can be distinguished from the broad dagger by the shape of the handle, which is curved or indented in the case of the dagger, but straight across in the case of the halberd. there is, however, another point. the hindmost rivets, both in the case of the blades with four rivets and those with three only, are shorter than those in front of them. the shortness of the end-rivets and slope of the heads imply that the handle was rounded off behind the blade, as would be the case with a transverse shaft. so there appears no room to doubt the manner in which the long scythe-shaped blades were mounted on handles, though some uncertainty was formerly expressed on the subject. the irish halberd-blades were evidently mounted at right angles to the shaft in the same way as most of the continental blades, as can be seen from the straight-across marks of the handle, which can be traced on several examples. [illustration: fig. .--rock markings, maritime alps.] from the analyses of copper halberds, it will be seen that the tin varies from · to · per cent. we may therefore conclude that the copper halberds are simply coarse or unrefined copper from similar ores to the copper celts; and that the copper implements found in ireland may contain up to about · per cent. of tin. an increasing percentage of tin was not found in any of the copper celts, or, contrary to expectation, in the copper halberds; but, judging from the widespread use of copper implements in ireland, from which it may be inferred that copper remained in use for a considerable time, it seems probable that bronze was introduced as an alloy of a known percentage of tin. as relatively few analyses of irish bronze implements have been made, it is not possible at present to come to any fixed conclusions on the subject of the introduction of bronze into ireland. [illustration: fig. .--stone pick from the bann.] [illustration: fig. .--deer horn pick.] also, in the case of the halberds, the great rarity of any specimens of bronze blades which can be classified as halberds indicates that the form of implement practically ceased to be used when bronze came into use in ireland. as the copper celts show a gradual transition from stone to metal forms, it seems reasonable to look for the prototypes of the copper halberd among the stone implements of the preceding period. in the bann valley many flint wedges or picks have been found, which may, perhaps, have influenced the copper halberds; and if a stone pick-like instrument was in use in neolithic times, it may explain to some extent the prevalence of the metal halberd in ireland in the copper period. when the blades were made larger, the curved form would come into existence, being suggested by the deer-horn picks already in use. copper came into use in ireland, we may suppose, in no sudden or violent manner. on the contrary, the transition from stone was probably of some duration. the use of copper made its way up through europe, spreading from the lands of the eastern mediterranean along the old trade routes of neolithic times, influenced by the search for new deposits of ore. though at first implements of copper, and even, perhaps, the metal, might be carried a considerable distance, an early use of the local ores seems to explain the case better. whether this new knowledge of metal, coming from the eastern mediterranean, first crept round by way of spain, or struck across the continent to the north and west of europe, and so to ireland, we cannot at present definitely say; the line of march, as indicated by the halberds, which are strangely deficient both in the south and the north of france, seems to point to north germany and scandinavia, by way of the rich ore-fields of middle europe. but the archæology of the peninsula for this early period is at present too uncertain to speak with confidence. there are indications, even in neolithic times, which, perhaps, point to spain; but, again, there are relations which indicate a considerable correspondence with brittany and the north of france in the early bronze age. the late dr. much ("die kupferzeit," p. ) compared the irish halberds with the spanish and german examples, and came to the conclusion that the irish halberds were later than the spanish and earlier than the german. this view is supported by the form of the irish halberds, which are more primitive in type than the german examples. any conclusion as to the probable date when the halberds were in use in ireland can only be arrived at in an indirect and approximate manner. we are, on the whole, inclined to think it is probable that the irish halberds were influenced by the spanish examples; and herr hubert schmidt, who has worked out in much detail a scheme of chronology for this period, based upon the egyptian dating of professor eduard meyer, places the finds from el argar at from to b.c.[ ] allowing, therefore, some margin on the later side, we should probably be fairly safe in placing the period when the halberds were in use in ireland at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium b.c. we must remember that the whole of the irish bronze age has to be fitted in after the copper period; and if we are to allow sufficient room for the several periods and their approximate correspondence with the periods of the continental chronology, it is not easy to see how this dating can be much reduced. it may be noted that montelius in his recent scheme of bronze age chronology for the british islands, treats the halberds as bronze, and places them in his second period (first period of the true bronze age) dated from the beginning of the second millennium to the seventeenth century b.c.[ ] [ ] prehistorische zeitschrift, vol. i, , p. . [ ] archæologia, vol. lxi, p. , and pl. xi, fig. . chapter iii first and later periods of the bronze age even during the copper period an evolution can be traced in the celt. the cutting-edge has been expanded; and the thickest part of the celt has been moved up from just above the cutting-edge to the centre. until, however, we get into the bronze age, there has been no trace of a stop-ridge. when we get into the true bronze age, we find a complete and probably fairly rapid evolution of type from the flat celt to the final socketed form. analyses of irish celts on a large scale have not been made; but such analyses as have been done do not indicate an experimental stage of small additions of tin, but rather show that the bronze from the first contained a fairly large proportion of tin. where the tin came from is at present uncertain. the illustrations will make the evolution of the celt clear. the first step was the broadening of the cutting-edge, and moving the thickest part up to the centre of the blade; the next step was hammering the sides to make flanges to grip the handle more securely; a stop-ridge was then added to prevent the handle slipping down over the blade; and the latter forms are reached by increasing the flanges and broadening the stop-ridge; in its last forms the wings are increased at the expense of the stop-ridge; and the final socketed form is reached by leaving out the centre division between the wings. figure may be noticed, as it is very similar to certain continental forms. [illustration: fig. .--ornamented bronze celts.] [illustration: plate i. irish bronze celts in the order of their development. _p. ._] some of the earlier flat bronze celts may have been hafted like the stone celts, by merely fixing the smaller end into a stick with a thick head; but this method must soon have been abandoned, as after a certain number of blows had been delivered, the axe-head would be forced back into the shaft. a more practical method was to place the head in a handle having a forked head, and the origin of the stop-ridge was to prevent the two sides coming down too low on to the blade. the side flanges and palstave-form developed naturally from this. the manner of hafting the socketed celts is well shown by a handled socketed celt found at edenderry, king's co., and formerly in the murray collection. this object is now in the ethnological and archæological museum at cambridge; and it is to be regretted that so rare and important a find should have left the country. [illustration: fig. .--ornamented bronze celts.] some of the flat bronze celts are very finely decorated with incised chevrons, triangles, cross-hatchings, and other bronze-age linear ornament. one example has a kind of herring-bone pattern, somewhat resembling the well-known leaf-marking at new grange. some examples show a kind of cable-pattern on the side flanges; and the size of a few specimens is remarkable. a flat celt, with a remarkable ornamentation from the greenwell collection found near connor, county antrim, is figured by sir john evans, _op. cit._, p. . it has a border of chevrons along the edge of the side; and this is carried across the celt in the centre and at the commencement of the cutting-edge. this border is joined by a similar centre band of ornament. several of the irish palstaves have a shield-shaped ornament below the stop-ridge. the socketed celts are, as a rule, unornamented; but there are a few which have been found in ireland which are ornamented with ribs ending in pellets. [illustration: fig. .--ornamented bronze celts.] the question is often asked as to whether the bronze celts were used as weapons or tools; and the probability is that they were used as either as occasion demanded. the celts do not show any marked difference of type which would enable us to differentiate a weapon from a tool, as is possible in the later iron axes of the norman and danish period when we can distinguish a heavy axe and a lighter keen blade. the bayeux tapestry shows the two types in use, the heavy type being used to fell trees and the lighter for fighting. there is one palstave, with double loops, in the national collection; and another was found in ireland at ballincollig, county cork, and is in the evans collection. these double-looped palstaves are of much interest, as the type is characteristic of the iberian peninsula. a few have been found in the west of france, and some in the south-west of england, but on the route which one would expect to have been followed if they are due to intercourse with spain. these probably belong to the middle bronze age, though they have not as yet been found associated with objects which would give much information as to their date. [illustration: fig. .--winged celt.] [illustration: fig. .--winged celt.] [illustration: fig. .--palstave with double-loops.] anvil and hammers among objects that may undoubtedly be classed as tools are the small bronze anvil (fig. ), and the bronze socketed hammers (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--bronze anvil.] the anvil appears to be the only specimen which has been found in the british islands, though examples are not uncommon in france. it resembles the small anvils used by jewellers, and it is interesting to note that, as m. déchelette points out, these small bronze anvils correspond to those mentioned by homer, which were also portable and used by goldsmiths.[ ] socketed bronze hammers resembling the irish examples are fairly common in england and on the continent. one well-known irish specimen was found in the douris hoard and is figured in evans's "bronze implements," p. . of the specimens illustrated, the largest was found at abbeyshrule, co. longford, the exact locality of the others, further than that they were found in ireland, is not known. [ ] déchelette, manuel d'archéologie préhistorique, vol. ii, p. . [illustration: fig. .--bronze hammers.] spear-heads even as early as the copper period small weak knife-daggers were in use, and these continued into the bronze age, becoming the parent of the spear-head as well as of the rapier and sword. the spear-head was evolved by decreasing the width of the base of the dagger-blade, and adding a narrow tang with a peg-hole to fix into the shaft. the addition of a ferule was the next step; and the omission of the tang, and amalgamation of the ferule with the blade, gave rise to the socketed spear-head. [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] the irish spear-heads may be divided into two well-defined groups, looped and riveted; and it will be found that the separation of the types extends farther than the mode of attachment. the form of the blade of each class is quite distinct. taking the looped spear-heads first, we can follow the development of the spear-head from the dagger-blade. the adaptation is shown in fig. (the centre spear-head), which is, in fact, a dagger-blade placed on a socket. the socket does not enter the blade, but is stopped at the shoulders. the #v#-shaped base of the blade is derived from the dagger, and disappears as the true character of the spear form is developed. a feature of special interest is the survival of the rivet-heads of the dagger in the form of ornamental bosses at the base of the blade. the rivet-holes appear to have been drilled, and not formed in casting. no examples of this form of spear-head have been found in england; and but one is recorded from the isle of man and two from scotland. in the last example (in fig. ), the imitative rivets are reduced to a single boss, and completely disappear in the next stage (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] in the subsequent figures we see the blade developed at the expense of the socket; and the transition to the fully developed spear-head begins. the derivation of this form of spear-head from the so-called arreton down type of tanged blade is now admitted. though tanged spear-heads of the arreton down type are fairly represented in irish finds, no socket has been so far recovered with any of them; but an early form of nondescript tanged blade with a socket was found at lough ruadh bog near tullamore, king's county, in , and shows the socket was known in ireland. [illustration: fig. .--leaf-shaped spear-heads.] [illustration: fig. .] another very early type of spear-head, nearly all the known examples of which were found in ireland, was derived by mounting the rapier on a socket (fig. ). there are six of these spear-heads in the collection of the royal irish academy, and one in the collection of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland. one of these spear-heads, found at taplow on the thames, has gold studs at the base of the blade which, no doubt, represent the rivets. the derivation of the spear-head by gradually rounding off the corners of the blade can be easily followed. [illustration: fig. .--leaf-shaped spear-heads found together at the ford, belturbet, co. cavan.] [illustration: fig. .] [illustration: fig. .] we will now turn to the spear-heads with rivet-holes in the sockets, but without loops or openings in the blades (figs. and ). these spear-heads are almost invariably leaf-shaped and devoid of ribs. the pins or rivets used to attach this class to the shaft were probably of wood, horn, or bone. two examples formerly in mr. day's collection have rivets of bronze, and others with bronze rivets have been found in england. the leaf-shaped spear-head is associated by form with the leaf-shaped sword; the looped type with the older type of weapons, the dagger and rapier forms. the records of the finds are very incomplete; but the association of leaf-shaped spears and swords to the exclusion of the looped form is sufficiently marked to be noted as an additional piece of evidence. [illustration: fig. .--ornamental spear-heads with openings in the blade.] [illustration: fig. .--portion of spear-head with studs at the base of the wings.] [illustration: fig. .] there are in the academy's collection a number of spear-heads with rivet-holes in the sockets and ornamental side-apertures (figs. and ). these spear-heads are very highly decorated, and form an attractive class. they may be derived from the spear-heads in which the loops are joined to the base of the blade (fig. ), and in which, by a process of evolution, the loop has been incorporated as part of the wing, or they may also have been influenced by the early type of tanged spear-heads from the greek islands, in which the openings in the blade were functional, being used for binding the head into a split shaft. these ornamental spear-heads belong, as a type, to the british islands, where the socketed spear-head itself appears to have been evolved. several of these spear-heads have, as well as the wings, small holes in the blades, the purpose of which is not clear. they are very finely cast; and even in ireland, where bronze-age casting reached its highest point, these are amongst its best products. [illustration: fig. .--spear-heads with ornamental openings in the blades.] [illustration: fig. .--spear-head found at tempo, co. fermanagh.] [illustration: fig. .--half of mould for casting a socketed spear-head, killymeddy, co. antrim.] another very rare type of spear-head, in which the loops are formed by the extension of the small ribs on each side of the mid rib, must be mentioned. these spear-heads are very seldom met with. we only know of the existence of four, of which one is in the greenwell collection, two in the collection of the royal irish academy, and one in the municipal museum at belfast. the academy was fortunate enough to secure a very fine specimen in . it was found with two leaf-shaped bronze swords at tempo, county fermanagh,[ ] and measures - / inches long (fig. ). judging from the associated swords, this spear-head may be dated about the ninth century b.c. [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . moulds [illustration: fig. .--half of mould for casting a spear-head and dagger, killymeddy, co. antrim.] the most important moulds for casting spear-heads found in ireland are a series for casting early tanged spear-heads which were found about thirty years ago at omagh, county tyrone, and are now in the possession of mr. m. j. sullivan. these moulds are of the greatest importance in the history of the development of the bronze spear-head, as they show the evolution of the tanged blade to the socketed form, and also that the tanged and socketed forms were in contemporary use in ireland. the form of the moulds for the socketed spear-heads shows them to be at the very commencement of this type; and it was probable that the tanged type was rapidly superseded by the improved socketed form. [illustration: fig. .--mould for casting spear-head and knife, killymeddy, co. antrim.] these moulds are made of sandstone; and the illustrations will show them sufficiently. for a full description see the journal of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland, vol. xxxvii, , p. . [illustration: fig. .--moulds for primitive spear-heads found in the county tyrone. (reproduced from the journal of the royal society of antiquaries.)] [illustration: fig. .--moulds for primitive spear-heads found in the county tyrone. (reproduced from the journal of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland.)] another very important find of moulds was made in at killymeddy, near ballymoney, county antrim. this find included two complete moulds and a half mould for casting looped socketed spear-heads. of the other moulds for casting spear-heads found in ireland, nearly all are for the looped type; and the few that have been found for casting the leaf-shaped type are small and indeterminate in character. it is most probable that, with the introduction of the leaf-shaped spear-heads, moulds of clay or sand were introduced; and these have naturally perished. fragments of a clay mould for casting a spear-head and a sword were found at whitepark bay, and portions of clay moulds for spear-heads have been found in brittany, the lake of bienne, and other places. the discoveries of moulds enforce the distinction of type between the looped and leaf-shaped spear-heads, and the moulds from killymeddy (figs. - and ) may probably be placed at the end of the period when stone moulds were in use, and assigned to about - b.c. [illustration: fig. .--half of mould for casting spear-head and dagger, killymeddy, co. antrim.] spear-ferules [illustration: fig. .--bronze spear ferules.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze spear ferule with la tène ornament.] from time to time objects of bronze have been found in ireland of a curious shape, somewhat like the handle of a door; and their use was considered uncertain; it is, however, clear that they were the ferules of spears; and in some cases the remains of the wooden shafts have been found inside them. the finding, moreover, of one in the lisnacroghera crannog with the whole of the shaft, measuring feet in length, attached to it, places the matter beyond dispute.[ ] it also shows that these objects were in use down to the early iron age, as most of the objects of the lisnacroghera find belong to the la tène period. [ ] journal royal society of antiquaries of ireland, vol. xvi, p. . other ferules assume a long and graceful shape, and one is decorated with la tène motives (fig. ). chapter iv irish gold ireland's extreme richness in gold during the bronze age made her a kind of el dorado of the western world. the gold was, no doubt, obtained from county wicklow, where gold was worked down to the end of the eighteenth century, nuggets of , , , and oz. being recorded. one exceptionally large nugget weighing oz., found in at croghan kinshela, co. wicklow, was presented to king george iii; and its discovery caused a rush to the workings. as well as wicklow there are six other counties where gold has been found. the very large number of gold ornaments that have been found in ireland is therefore not surprising. the ancient literature of ireland contains many references to gold ornaments and payments of gold by weight. it is interesting to note that the tradition preserved in the book of leinster, a ms. of the twelfth century, refers the first smelting of gold in ireland to a district in which gold has been found in considerable quantities in modern times. the leinstermen, it is stated, were called "lagenians of the gold," because it was in their country that gold was first discovered in erin. it is further stated that gold was first smelted for tighearnmas, one of the earliest of the milesian kings, in the forests standing on the east side of the river liffey, by iuchadan, a native of that district. after the discovery of native gold in ballinvally stream at croghan in , the government undertook mining operations; and in three years collected ounces worth, at the price of the day, £ , . since the workings were abandoned by the government, the district has been worked at intervals by companies, and at other times by the peasants; the total output since is estimated at a value of £ , . the knowledge of the irish gold deposits must have been a very considerable factor in the foreign relations of the island in the bronze age. lunulÆ the earliest of the irish gold ornaments are the flat gold collars known as lunulæ. these have been found fairly evenly distributed over the country, and in astonishing numbers. [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found at trenta, carrigans, co. donegal.] the circumstances under which the lunulæ have been found have not often been recorded. the collection of the royal irish academy in the national museum, dublin, contains no less than thirty-seven examples. several of these have been found and recorded during the past three or four years. as a rule the lunulæ are engraved on one face only with finely cut or scored well-recognized bronze age ornament, consisting of bands of lines, cross-hatchings, chevrons, triangles, and lozenges. the centres of the lunulæ are plain, the exact reason of which is not quite apparent. the ornament is gathered to the end of the lunula and spaced out by bands. two lunulæ found together at padstow, cornwall, are said to have been found with a bronze celt of early type. the find is preserved in the truro museum, and is of the utmost importance as an indication of the early bronze-age date of the lunulæ. it is, we believe, the only instance of lunulæ being found with associated objects. [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found in co. galway.] figures - and - illustrate the various types of ornament; it will be noticed that some of the smaller examples are quite plain. one lunula was found in an oak case at newtown, crossdoney, co. cavan. the case has greatly shrunk since it was found, as when first discovered it measured inches by inches (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula, locality not recorded.] the two expanded pieces at the ends are always turned at right angles to the plane of the lunula, and serve to clasp the back of the neck, and may have been secured by a tie. it need not, however, be pointed out that they are quite out of place in a head-ornament; indeed, the geometrical shape of a lunula is contrary to such a theory, and quite different from recognized diadems or head-ornaments. [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found at killarney.] one example found at volognes has a chain and sort of buckle attached at the ends. it has since been melted down, but a drawing of it has been preserved (fig. ). the chain seems to have been ancient--at least it is stated to have been on it, as shown, when found; but, however ancient it may be, it is evident that it was more recently attached than the original make of the ornament. it is, however, of interest as indicating at some time a chain-tie to secure the ends of the ornament. the accompanying list of finds shows how numerous the lunulæ are in ireland and how rarely they have been found outside this island. the map shows their distribution (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--oak case for lunula found at newtown, co. cavan.] [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found at valognes, manche.] two have been found in the west baltic at zealand and funen. they have otherwise hardly penetrated beyond brittany. one has recently ( ) been found at hanover, and another some time ago at fauvillers, luxembourg. this failure to penetrate far beyond the coasts of england and brittany may point to early raids; but the copper and tin of cornwall, as well as the tin deposits of brittany and the general trade with brittany, may indicate the early seeking of the irish gold deposits. we may take as a provisional date for the lunulæ, to b.c. [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found in co. londonderry.] lunulæ now existing or known to have formerly existed:-- ireland ( at least). --------------+---+------------------------------------------------ county. |no.| reference. --------------+---+------------------------------------------------ donegal, | | r.i.a. : ( ). trenta, carrigans. r.i.a. | | : ( ). naran. | | londonderry, | | r.i.a. w. ( ). r.i.a. (loan : ) ( ). | | antrim, | | dublin penny journal, vol. iv, p. . | | down, | | castlereagh, ulster journal of archæology, | | vol. ix, p. . | | tyrone, | | trillick, r.i.a. : ( ). carrickmore, | | r.i.a. : ( ). tartaraghan, ulster | | journal of archæology, vol. ix, p. (at cecil, | | augher) ( ). | | mayo, | | r.i.a. . | | sligo, | | windele's miscellanea, p. . | | fermanagh, | | enniskillen (day coll.). | | monaghan, | | ballybay (day coll.). | | galway, | | r.i.a. w. (sirr coll.). | | roscommon, | | athlone, r.i.a. w. , and : . | | cavan, | | newtown, r.i.a. : ( ). bailieborough | | (british museum) ( ). lisanover, bawnboy. | | : ( ). | | westmeath, | | ross, r.i.a. : ( ). mullingar, : | | ( ). | | kildare, | | dunfierth, r.i.a. w. , , , and . | | clare, | | porsoon callan, r.i.a. : ( ). proc. | | r.i.a., vol. viii, p. ( ). | | tipperary, | | glengall (british museum). | | kerry, | | banmore, r.i.a. r., , , ( ): | | r.i.a., killarney, w. ( ). mangerton (brit. | | mus.) ( ). | | cork | | ballycotton (brit. mus.) ( ), and one or perhaps | | two in mr. cliborn's scrap-book in r.i.a. in addition to the foregoing there are in the collection of the r.i.a. and in the british museum, and about in private collections, which are known to have been found in ireland, but of which the localities have not been recorded. england ( ). cornwall, | | penzance ( ), padstow ( ), lesnewth ( ) (arch. | | journ., vol. xxii, ). wales ( ). carnavonshire,| | llanllyfni (british museum). scotland ( ). lanarkshire, | | southside near coulter (anderson, vol. i, p. ). | | dumfriesshire,| | auchentaggart (anderson, vol. i, p. ). | | elginshire, | | fochabers (cat. nat. mus., scot., p. ). [illustration: fig. .--gold lunula found at athlone.] france ( ). côtes du nord,| | saint-potan (reinach, revue celtique, , | | p. ). | | manche, | | tourlaville ( ), valognes ( ) (reinach, r. c., | | , p. ). | | montebourg ( ) (cong. arch. de france, , | | p. ). | | vendée, | | bourneau ( ), nesmy ( ) (reinach, r. c., , | | p. ). belgium ( ). luxemburg, | | fauvillers (cong. arch. de france, , p. ). denmark ( ). zealand, | | grevinge (a. f. anth. xix, ). | | funen, | | skogshöierup (a. f. anth. xix, ). [illustration: fig. .--map showing the distribution of lunulæ in ireland and europe.] germany ( ). hanover, | | schulenburg (leine) springe ( ). chapter v daggers and rapiers [illustration: fig. .--stone celt, bronze dagger with gold band, and urn found in topped mountain cairn, co. fermanagh.] as has been mentioned, as well as being parent to the spear-head, the small weak knife-dagger frequently found in early bronze-age burials also developed into the true dagger-blade, and in course of time into the sword. bronze daggers have often been found in ireland; there are about forty in the national collection. among the most interesting finds of these early daggers may be mentioned that discovered in at an interment at topped mountain cairn, county fermanagh. this dagger measures - / inches, and is covered with a beautiful blue patina. it is decorated with raised lines on each side of the blade, and has two small rivets. it was discovered in a cist in the cairn lying at the right side of the skull of an uncremated body, and in the same place was a small band of gold which appears to have been half of a band of that metal which was probably round the handle of the dagger (fig. ). another interesting find is the small bronze dagger discovered with urns and cremated bones in a cist at annaghkeen cairn, county galway, in . [illustration: fig. .--dagger and rapier blades.] in course of time the length of the dagger-blade was increased; and later examples are wonderful specimens of casting. the earlier daggers were either attached to the handle by rivets, or else notches were left in the base of the blade for the attachment. the manner of hafting them is quite clear, as a few hafted examples have been found. some had bronze handles cast separately (fig. ); others had handles of horn or wood (fig. ); but the hilts for the most part were made of some perishable substance, and they have consequently not been recovered. the scolloped mark left by the hilt is often quite plainly to be seen on the blade. in later times the handle was sometimes cast in one piece with the blade; but the division between the handle and the blade is always quite clearly marked. the decoration of the later dagger-blades takes the form of a number of triangles at the base of the blade, and the extreme similarity in decoration between the italian and the early northern and western daggers has led montelius to consider the latter as derived from the former; and this is enforced in the case of the irish examples by the series of small hatched-triangles which have been found at the base of two well-known irish examples (fig. ). the rapiers were evolved quite naturally by lengthening the dagger-blade; and this form was probably influenced also, as will be mentioned later, by contemporary weapons in use in the mediterranean lands. the longest rapier ever found in western europe is the splendid weapon found at lissane, co. derry, in , which measures - / inches in length (fig. ). another very remarkable irish example is the short rapier found in upper lough erne, and obtained by mr. thomas plunkett, m.r.i.a., from the finder. this weapon is a wonderfully fine piece of casting. it measures - / inches in length (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--dagger with horn handle found at ballymoney, co. antrim.] [illustration: fig. .--rapier found in upper lough erne.] [illustration: fig. .--rapier found at lissane, co. derry.] [illustration: fig. .--rapiers and daggers found in ireland.] the rapiers belong to the middle and later portions of the bronze age. this type of weapon is common in france, and is described by m. déchelette as widely spread in the british islands and the north of france, and as having been introduced from there into south germany and the region of the middle rhine.[ ] the rapiers of advanced type he places in the third division of the bronze age, as they have been found in bronze-age tumuli of that period, as at staadorf, haut palatinat ( - b.c.). montelius places the rapiers in his fourth period dated at the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the twelfth century b.c.,[ ] so that his dating of these objects practically coincides with that of m. déchelette. it is now well recognized that the swords of the Ægean-mycenæan area were developed on parallel lines to those of western europe. we find that the long rapiers or thrusting swords are developed from the tanged cypriote dagger, and that the true sword is a later evolution from the rapier. it is hardly to be doubted that some of the western forms of daggers and rapiers were influenced by mycenæan types; and the discovery in sicily of rapiers of mycenæan type with pottery dated as recent minoan iii, establishes a direct bond between the Ægean and western europe.[ ] [ ] "manuel d'archéologie," vol. ii, p. . [ ] "archæologia," vol. lxi, p. , and pl. xv. [ ] "manuel d'archéologie," vol. ii, p. . chapter vi gold gorgets [illustration: fig. .--gold gorget found in ireland, formerly in the possession of the earl of charleville. from vetusta monumenta, vol. v, pl. xxviii.] [illustration: plate ii. irish gold gorgets. _p. ._] among the most striking of the gold ornaments in the national collection are the five gold gorgets or neck-collars, with the ends decorated with ornamented disks. these are very elaborately decorated, and of great massiveness. two others mentioned as having been found in ireland, one of which was formerly in the possession of the earl of charleville, were figured in "vetusta monumenta." vallancey states that another was found in the county longford. a few disks have also been found which may have been portions of these gorgets. the neck-portion of the gorgets is arranged in three rows of raised ridges, and these are ornamented with rows of small bosses, the depressions of the ridges being occupied with a narrow rope-shaped fillet. in some cases the ridges are left plain. the small disks at the terminals of the collar are remarkable; they measure about - / or inches in diameter, and are decorated with a centre and side bosses, surrounded with concentric circles. they much resemble in miniature the round shields or bucklers of the late bronze age, but they also show some resemblance to the so-called sun-disks which have been found in ireland, and which will be described later on. unfortunately the gorgets have in no case been found with any accompanying objects which would assist in dating them, and in fact in only two cases have details as to their finding been preserved, one found at ardcroney, near nenagh, county tipperary, the other at tony hill, croom, county limerick. their ornamentation, however, would seem to place them in the hallstatt period, first iron age, which may be dated at about - b.c. their form and ornamentation may be compared with that of the splendid gold collar from cintra, lisbon, now in the british museum,[ ] and also with the triple bronze collars common in scandinavia and north germany, all of which are referred to the hallstatt period. this period is at present not well represented in ireland or the british isles; and it is doubtful whether iron came into general use in ireland till about the third century b.c. [ ] "british museum bronze-age guide," p. . one point of much interest must be noticed. in one of the gorgets shown in plate ii, where the disk is attached to the gorget, above the line where the end of the plate passes into the boss, three perpendicular and two cross-stitches can be seen. some of these sewings are made by means of slight square wire, but in others the fastenings are composed of fine woollen thread, round which is twisted spirally a thin, flat strip of gold. these strips are one of the oldest specimens of woollen cordage now in existence in ireland. gold sun-disks we have already referred to the flat disks of gold, a number of which have been found in ireland. there are four in the british museum, and no less than fifteen in the national collection at dublin. in four cases they have been found in pairs--one pair at ballina, county mayo, another pair at tydavnet, county monaghan, a third at cloyne, co. cork, and the fourth at castle martyr, co. cork. some of these disks are ornamented with concentric circles; others have a cruciform ornament which resembles the four-spoked chariot-wheel, and is a well-known sun symbol. when these objects were first discovered, their origin and use were quite unknown; and mr. reginald a. smith, of the british museum, was the first to point out their resemblance to the gold disk, decorated with spirals, affixed to a bronze sun-chariot, found in trundholm moss, zealand, in . the bronze chariot consisted of a bronze disk mounted on wheels and drawn by a horse, the gold disk being affixed to the bronze one. the ornamentation of the irish disks is somewhat different, as the spiral does not appear, its place being taken by the concentric circle. the trundholm sun-chariot is dated by prof. sophus muller at before b.c. the trundholm disk is admittedly connected with sun-worship, as is also the cruciform ornament on the irish disks. the spoked-wheel is a well-known solar symbol; and similar designs have been found on the bases of some irish food-vessels, and may also be compared with some of the markings at dowth.[ ] the prevalence of sun-worship in the bronze age need not be further gone into here; but the gold disks are of great interest, as furnishing another point of contact between ireland and scandinavia in the bronze age. the finding of irish gold lunulæ in denmark, and the occurrence of scandinavian amber in irish finds of the bronze-age, have already been mentioned. [ ] "new grange and other incised tumuli," p. , fig. . [illustration: plate iii. gold sun-disks. _p. ._] gold balls we may also mention the large hollow golden balls of which seven are in the national collection, one in the possession of mr. h. j. b. clements, and another in the british museum. eleven of these golden balls were found in at carrick-on-shannon.[ ] there has been much conjecture as to the use these balls were put to, and it has been suggested that as their large size would render them inconvenient as personal ornaments, they were probably used to decorate a horse. if so they may have been attached to the bridle like the large balls shown on the horses' bridles in the bronze scabbard from hallstatt, dated la tène i. see déchelette, "manuel d'archéologie," vol. ii, p. . the golden peytrell found at mold, flintshire, may be instanced to show that gold was sometimes used to decorate horses; and if the gold balls were really used for this purpose, we may well endorse what the author of the "british museum bronze-age guide" says when he writes: "a discovery of this kind demonstrates in a striking manner the abundance of gold at the end of our bronze period."[ ] [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . [ ] "british museum bronze-age guide," p. . clare find another type of neck-ornaments are the thin gold gorgets with funnel-shaped ends, many of which were found in the great clare find. these gorgets are quite plain, except for a little ornamentation at the extreme ends near the funnel-shaped extremities. there are five of these objects in the national collection, and all were found together in the celebrated clare find. this find--the largest collective one of gold objects ever made in western europe--was discovered in making a railway-cutting for the limerick and ennis railway in . a gang of labourers were digging near an old hawthorn-bush, a little distance to the south of the railway bridge in moghaun north, on the west side of the line of the great fort, and opposite the lough, when they undermined a kind of cist. the fall of one of the containing-stones disclosed a mass of gold ornaments--gorgets, bracelets of all sizes with cup-shaped ends, and a few ingots of gold. the find, from a numerical point of view, far surpassed anything ever made, but none of the objects were highly ornamented or of a special type. the fact of this immense number of gold ornaments being hidden in a cist in this way has given rise to many conjectures; but in the absence of any other explanation, it may be suggested that the objects had been collected together, and hidden purposely, with the idea of returning and regaining possession of them later. the value of the find has been estimated at at least £ , . unfortunately, most of the objects were sold to jewellers and melted down, but a large number were exhibited at the archæological institute by dr. todd and lord talbot de malahide in , and casts of these were taken, and a set is now in the national collection. there are also a small number of the originals in the royal irish academy's collection (plate iv). otherwise such objects of the find as escaped the melting-pot were scattered, and have found their way into different museums and private collections. as has been mentioned, the objects of this find did not show any remarkable types, and for the most part consisted of very thin bracelets and penannular rings with cup-shaped ends. it is probable that, as well as being ornaments, they served as a kind of currency. [illustration: plate iv. portion of the great clare find. _p. ._] penannular rings and ring-money [illustration: fig. .--gold fibulæ, and other objects found together at coachford, co. cork.] [illustration: fig. .--sixteenth-century bronze casting from benin, showing europeans holding manillas (after read and dalton, _antiquities of the city of benin_).] the large number of penannular rings with cup-shaped ends which have been found from time to time in the island, brings us on to the general question of the so-called irish fibulæ. in ireland penannular rings with cup-shaped ends of copper or bronze are very rare, only about half a dozen being known, while fibulæ of gold are exceedingly common. the coachford find, in which amber beads, gold fibulæ, and a copper or bronze fibula were all found together, shows that the objects were contemporary; and as this find may be placed at the end of the bronze age, it shows that these objects were in use at that period (fig. ). on the other hand, it is likely that their use began earlier and continued for a long period. these objects when made of gold are of two shapes--in the one case the expanded cups are large and flat and the connecting bar is bow-shaped, and is striated. these have been conjectured to have been used as brooches for fastening a garment; and their form was probably influenced by the scandinavian spectacle-brooches, the bows of the latter having, in some cases, the same decoration. except for the striations on the connecting link, the irish so-called mamillary fibulæ are almost always plain; but vallancey has figured two examples, one of which is engraved with triangular, and the other with lozenge, ornaments. there is also the well-known example in trinity college, dublin, in which the surfaces of the cups are completely covered with concentric circle ornament, the inside rims of the cups being decorated with hatched triangles, and the neckings of what may be called the handle, with chevron and herring-bone pattern, while along the back of the handle is an ornament of lozenges. in the second type these objects assume the shape of a bracelet; and the expanded ends are sometimes cup-shaped and sometimes plain. from the extreme similarity between the shape of these, whether in gold or bronze, to the so-called african manillas, it has been conjectured the irish examples, like the african, may have been used as a medium of exchange; and on the whole it seems probable that such was the case, the dividing line between what were used for ornaments and what may have been used for exchange not being at all easily defined (figs. and ). [illustration: plate v. gold fibulæ. _p. ._] [illustration: fig. .--sixteenth-century bronze casting from benin, showing natives holding manillas (after read and dalton, _antiquities of the city of benin_).] ring-money the question of a medium of exchange leads us to mention the very small gold penannular rings, the largest being about an inch in diameter, frequently found in ireland, which are known as 'ring-money.' there are fifty-six in the national collection; and a find made near belfast of a socketed bronze celt in association with some of these objects shows they were in use during the late bronze age.[ ] attention has been called to the similarity of these irish gold rings to the penannular copper rings plated with gold often found in early japanese burials.[ ] [ ] archæologia, lxi, p. . [ ] see munro, "pre-historic japan," p. , fig. . many attempts have been made to equate the weights of a series of these rings with some known standard; and in his valuable work "the origin of currency and weight standards," professor ridgeway devotes several pages of his appendix c to a discussion of the subject, and gives a table of the weights arrived at by grouping the rings in multiples of . while there can be no reasonable doubt that these objects were used as a medium of exchange, we are not inclined, in the absence of literary evidence, to go any further into the question of what standard they may represent. some of these rings are evidently forgeries of ancient times, as they are composed of bronze rings covered with a thin plate of gold. the rings as a rule are plain; but some are ornamented with small strips of darker metal let into the gold, and two examples are twisted like small torcs. [illustration: plate vi. gold ring-money. _p. ._] chapter vii leaf-shaped swords a number of leaf-shaped bronze swords have been found in ireland. they may be roughly divided into two types, those with notches just below the blade and above the handle, and those that are plain. the latter are the earlier, and belong to the late bronze age; the former correspond to the continental swords of the hallstatt period. the leaf-shaped type was the typical bronze-age sword of western and northern europe. it was developed from the dagger, and, like it, was a thrusting rather than a cutting weapon. the handle is cast in one piece with the blade, and has rivet-holes, and in some cases a slit for the attachment of the hilt, which was no doubt formed of bone or horn plates. the pommel was probably globular, and formed of lead or some heavy material. a bronze sword of this type was found in a house on the akropolis at mycenæ by schliemann, and it can be dated at about b.c.[ ] the discovery of this sword may be explained either as the result of a raid, or as showing that invaders from the north had reached greece as early as this date. a leaf-shaped sword has been noticed on one of the clay tablets dated as late minoan ii, and in one of the stone slabs from over the fifth shaft grave at mycenæ, which represents a figure in a chariot attacking a man on foot, the latter is armed with a leaf-shaped sword.[ ] in any case it gives us a date for the period when these swords were in common use in western europe. the type with notches below the blade has a tendency to become straighter at the sides, and to lose its leaf-shaped form. the use of the notches is not apparent, but it has been thought that the scabbards at that time were made of wood and were liable to shrink from exposure to weather, and that this may have prevented the sword from being thrust home, so that the edge was cut off by the notches slightly below the handle to avoid cutting the hand. the handle end of this latter type very frequently assumes a form like a fish's tail. these swords develop into the iron swords of the hallstatt period, of which so far only one irish example has been found. a bronze sword of the notched type formed part of the dowris hoard, and is figured in the "british museum bronze-age guide," plate ii. two remarkably fine specimens of this type were found in with a socketed spear-head at tempo, county fermanagh. [ ] naue, "die vorrömischen schwerter," pp. and . [ ] see burrowes, "discoveries in crete," p. . [illustration: fig. .--leaf-shaped bronze swords, found with a spear-head at tempo, co. fermanagh.] no moulds for casting leaf-shaped swords of either type have been found in ireland; and it is therefore probable that at the time they were in use sand-casting had replaced casting from stone moulds. the scabbards of the leaf-shaped swords were made of wood or leather, protected by a ferule or chape of bronze, which was fastened to it by rivets; the point of the weapon does not seem to have reached the end of the sheath. there are several examples of bronze chapes in the royal irish academy's collection, and they display a considerable variety of design. some are long and tubular in shape (fig. ), while others are of the winged or boat-shaped type which is found on the continent (fig. ). others again are of a small and simple type. the rivet-holes for the attachment of the sheaths can be seen in nearly all the irish specimens. the casting of these objects shows a good deal of skill, as the metal is very thin. the winged variety are probably the latest, as they have been found with iron swords of hallstatt type on the continent. [illustration: fig. .--bronze chapes.] [illustration: fig. .--winged chapes.] shields [illustration: fig. .--bronze shield, found at lough gur, co. limerick.] two circular shields or bucklers of bronze have been found in ireland. there is only one in the national collection, the fine shield discovered at lough gur, county limerick. there is, however, a small shield of bronze ornamented with large bosses in the british museum which was found at athenry, county galway.[ ] these bronze shields have never been found in the british islands with any objects which would give any definite clue to their date; but they are generally referred to the late bronze age. they belong to a common type, being decorated with numerous bands of small bosses separated by concentric circles. they appear to have been hammered out. [ ] "british museum bronze-age guide," p. . [illustration: fig. .--alder-wood shield, found in co. leitrim.] [illustration: fig. .--front and back of leather shield, found at clonbrin, co. longford.] there are two other shields of great interest in the national collection. one is the remarkable alder-wood shield found feet deep in a bog in at annadale, county leitrim. this shield is oval in shape, and has a central boss and seven raised ribs. it will be noticed that the ribs show an indentation at one side; but too much emphasis must not be placed on this, as the shield shrank a good deal after its removal from the bog, and the alteration may be due to this. this shield has a handle at the back. it is interesting to note that 'sciath,' one of the irish words for 'shield,' denotes 'alder.' the next is the leather shield found in at clonbrin, county longford, and presented to the royal irish academy's collection by colonel w. h. king-harman. this truly remarkable shield, the only one of its kind in europe, is made of a solid piece of leather nearly / of an inch thick, and measures - / inches in length by - / inches across. it has an oblong centre boss pressed out of the leather and covered with an ornamental cap of fine leather laced on to it. the boss is encircled by three ribs, the inner one being gapped, and the two others having a curious re-entrant angle. the shield has twenty-four small round bosses on it which resemble those on the bronze shields. there is a leather handle which was laced on to the back. this shield appears to be complete as it stands, as there is no sign of any wooden supports at the back, nor is it easy to see how such supports could have been attached to it. according to polybius round shields of bulls' hide were used by the roman equites in the early days of roman history. the round shield of the late bronze age was succeeded by the oval shield which may be taken as partly transitional to the oblong shield of southern europe and also of the late celtic type found in britain. the date, therefore, of this irish leather shield is probably to be placed in the early iron period. chapter viii torcs there are twenty-four golden torcs of various types in the national collection and one of bronze; but the irish provenance of the latter is doubtful. the best known are the two magnificent gold torcs found in the side of one of the raths at tara, and these belong to a type that has been found in england and france, of which the best known examples are those found at yeovil, somerset,[ ] and grunty fen, cambridge.[ ] a torc of this type was also found by schliemann in the royal treasury in the second city of troy. this find has led to a good deal of speculative opinions varying as to whether the model of the torc was imported into ireland from the south, or whether the irish gold could have reached the mediterranean in pre-mycenæan times.[ ] torcs of this type were made by folding two thin ribbons of gold along the middle at a right angle; they were then attached with some kind of resinous flux, apex to apex, and twisted together. in some cases, instead of two folded ribbons a flat one and two halves of another were used, after being fastened together, the twisting being done in the same way. in some of the irish examples the body of the torc is plain, or was grooved to simulate the appearance of the twisted torc. a peculiar feature of these torcs is the large hooks with which they are provided. it must be noted that whereas twisted torcs of bronze are fairly common in england and france there is only one bronze torc in the irish national collection, and, as mentioned above, the provenance of this is doubtful. the dating of these twisted torcs is a matter of difficulty, as there are only two instances of their having been found in association with bronze objects, one in the case of the grunty fen torc which was discovered with three bronze palstaves, and another found at fresné la mère, near falaise, normandy, which was found with a bronze razor and other objects of bronze. such evidence as exists, therefore, would place them in the late bronze age, probably somewhere about b.c., but certain varieties of torcs, as we shall see, continued in use as late as the first century. the area of distribution of gold torcs of the tara type in ireland, england and france is very limited, none having been found in italy, switzerland, germany, belgium, holland, or spain and portugal.[ ] it has been suggested that the gold of which all these torcs were composed came from the wicklow mountains,[ ] and in view of the extreme wealth of ireland in gold, as evinced by the number of gold ornaments which are still constantly found, this may be considered probable. [ ] proceedings somerset archæological and natural history society, vol. lv, , pt. ii, pp. - . [ ] cambridge antiquarian society's communications, vol. xii, p. . [ ] déchelette, "manuel d'archéologie," vol. ii, p. , note. [ ] congrès archéologique français, beauvais, , p. . [ ] proc. soc. antiquaries of london, second series, vol. xxiv, p. . [illustration: plate vii. gold torcs from tara and elsewhere. _p. ._] [illustration: plate viii. gold torcs. _p. ._] among the other types of gold torcs are two splendid examples, one of which appears to have been prepared for twisting and left unfinished, while the other is in a complete state (plate viii). small torcs made by twisting a plain ribbon are fairly common, and some of these are so small that they must have been used as bracelets. in later times the torc was the distinguishing ornament of the celt, and there are many allusions to torcs in classical writers. in b.c., when flaminius nepos gained his victory over the gauls on the addua, it is related that instead of the gauls dedicating, as they had intended, a torc made from the roman spoils to their god of war, the romans erected a roman trophy to jupiter made from gaulish torcs. the name of the torquati, a family of the manlia gens, was derived from their ancestor, t. manlius, who, having slain a gigantic gaul in b.c. , took the torc from the dead body, and placed it round his neck. the famous statue of the dying gaul preserved in the capitol at rome shows a torc on the warrior's neck. this is one of a series of statues set up by the greeks of pergamos to celebrate their struggle with, and first victory over, the gauls of asia minor, with whom they came in contact from about to b.c. the twisted torc appears to have been replaced in ireland about the second century b.c. by the plain torc, which was probably introduced from gaul. the fine gold torc from clonmacnois (plate ix), with la tène decoration, is a good example of these torcs, and is almost identical with one from the marne district now preserved in the st. germain museum. probably the finest la tène torc in existence is that found in the celebrated broighter find, which is richly decorated with la tène ornament (plate ix, the inner torc). chapter ix bronze-age finds [illustration: plate ix. gold torcs from clonmacnois and broighter. _p. ._] one of the greatest difficulties to be contended with in any attempt to arrive at a working chronology for the prehistoric period in ireland is that, though ireland had a rich bronze age, as attested by the magnificent collection of objects preserved in the national collection, yet in very few cases have any of these objects been found in association. excavation carried on under scientific supervision was practically unknown in ireland until quite recent years, and though, no doubt, hoards of associated objects have been discovered in the country, yet trustworthy particulars as to their finding have hardly ever been preserved, and the objects themselves have generally been scattered. under these circumstances it seemed useful to gather together in the present chapter an account of the finds--unfortunately very few--in which associated objects have been discovered, and of which there is indisputable evidence of their association:-- . find of a socketed celt, a gouge, a pin, a razor (the last in a simple leather case), a portion of a woollen garment, an ornament of horse-hair, like a tassel, and some pieces of wood. these objects were found in a bog in the townland of cromaghs, parish of armoy, co. antrim, in may, , when cutting turf[ ] (fig. , nos. - ). [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxvi, sec. c, p. . . a find of late bronze-age objects discovered in a bog in the townland of lahardoun, tulla, co. clare, in may, . the find contained the following objects:--two small socketed celts, a disk-headed pin, a plain bronze ring, and a bronze fibula[ ] (fig. , nos. - ). [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxvi, sec. c, . . find at mountrivers, rylane, coachford, co. cork. this find was made in may, , and contained the following objects:--two socketed bronze celts, two gold fibulæ, one fibula of copper or bronze, and eleven amber beads[ ] (fig. ). [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . . find at kilfeakle, co. tipperary, made in may, , the find consisted of a bronze socketed celt, a socketed sickle, two chisels, and a gouge[ ] (fig. ). [ ] journal of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland, vol. xxxvii, p. . . find of moulds for casting primitive spear-heads. this find was made near omagh, co. tyrone, about , and consisted of seven blocks of sandstone for casting tanged and socketed spear-heads.[ ] (see page .) [ ] journal of the royal society of antiquaries of ireland, vol. xxxvii, p. . . find of moulds made in december, , at killymeddy, ballymoney, co. antrim. the find contained two complete moulds for casting looped socketed spear-heads, and half a mould for a looped socketed spear-head, a mould for one side of a long dagger-blade, a large mould for casting one side of a leaf-shaped knife, two halves of a mould for casting a sickle, eight fragments of moulds, two sharpening stones, and a stone for hammering or smoothing objects.[ ] (see page .) [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . . find made at tempo, co. fermanagh. this find was made in , and consisted of two leaf-shaped bronze swords with notches below the blades, and a very fine socketed spear-head[ ] (figs. and ). [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . . two leaf-shaped spear-heads found together at the ford, belturbet, co. cavan[ ] (fig. ). [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxx, sec. c, p. . . large hoard found at dowris, king's co., about . a small portion of this hoard, consisting of two bronze trumpets, seven crotals, five socketed spear-heads, and a socketed gouge, are preserved in the royal irish academy's collection in the national museum. there are other portions of this hoard in the british museum and at birr castle.[ ] [ ] "british museum bronze-age guide," p. . . bronze socketed celt, large bronze ring, two smaller rings with lateral-shaped trumpet projections, and a small flat ring all found together near glenstal, co. limerick, about . . large find of objects, formerly in st. columba's college collection, all stated to have been found together, in , in a bog at derryhall, county antrim. the find comprises fourteen disk-headed bronze pins of late bronze-age type, and two bronze pins, with cup-shaped heads, a bronze dagger and two bronze knives (one of the latter being socketed), a socketed celt, nine bronze rings, a bronze ring with side perforations and a double ring, a bronze fibula with three beads; also two late brooches, and two late pins, which are said to have proved part of this find, but whose association with the remaining objects is very doubtful. [illustration: fig. .--two late bronze-age finds.] [illustration: fig. .--late bronze-age horse-hair fabrics from armoy, co. antrim.] . bronze fibula, and twenty-two bronze rings, found together, about , at broca, rochford bridge, county westmeath. . socketed bronze celt, bronze fibula, bronze ring, and disk-headed bronze-age pin. all found together at lapoudin, tulla, county clare. . three large, seventeen small, eight double bronze rings, and one fragment, probably all found together. . bronze fibula, bronze gouge, and three rings, found together, but locality unrecorded. . six copper celts found together at cappeen, county cork. [illustration: fig. .--bronze implements, co. tipperary.] . seven halberds found together at hillswood, county galway.[ ] [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxvii, sec. c, p. . . two bronze rings, a small leaf-shaped spear-head, a socketed celt, and a small gold bulla, said to have been found together in kinnegoe bog, county armagh, in . st. columba's college collection. . three bronze trumpets, one in two parts, found in a bog in the barony of moyarta, county clare. . six bronze trumpets, one in two parts, found in a bog close to chute hall, in the townland of clogher, clemin, three miles from tralee, county kerry. . two trumpets, one in two parts, probably found together in a bog at carrick o'gunnell, county limerick. (these are probably two of those described by mr. r. ousley, in the trans. r.i.a., .) [illustration: fig. .--bronze implements found at kilfeakle, co. tipperary.] . three trumpets found at carraconway, near cloughouter castle, county cavan.[ ] [ ] wilde's catalogue of the royal irish academy's collection, p. . . two trumpets found at macroom, county cork. . four trumpets found in the bog of drumabest, kilraughts, county antrim, in .[ ] [ ] _ibid._ . two trumpets found in county cork. (londesborough collection.) . two trumpets and a part of a third found together, but locality unknown. . two trumpets probably found together, from trinity college, dublin, collection. . a socketed bronze celt and gold ring-money found together near belfast.[ ] [ ] archæologia, vol. lxi, p. . . four gold lunulæ, found together at dunfierth, carbury, county kildare.[ ] [ ] "wilde's catalogue of gold antiquities," p. . . a large spear-head, a round bronze shield, with a central boss for the hand, and two circles of smaller bosses, found in a mound or rath, at athenry, county galway.[ ] [ ] horae ferales. pl. xi, fig. . with the exception of nos. , , , and , the above-mentioned finds are preserved in the royal irish academy's collection, in the national museum, dublin. chapter x bronze trumpets numerous trumpets of cast bronze have been found in ireland, both in the south and the north. they are rare in britain. two or more trumpets have often been found together; eight were found at dungannon, county tyrone, in , and thirteen or fourteen near cork in . the irish trumpets may be divided into three types--( ) in the shape of a horn, open at both ends, having the mouth-piece and trumpet cast in one piece; ( ) of similar shape, but closed at the narrow end, with an aperture for the mouth at the side near the closed end; ( ) also horn-shaped, but with a long straight tube attached to the narrow end of the carved portion, the upper end of the tube having four rivet-holes, to which another tube or mouth-piece may have been fixed. there are references in classical authorities to the trumpets used by the celts. polybius, describing the defeat of the celts by the romans at the battle of telemon, b.c. , speaks of the innumerable horns and trumpets of the celts (gaesatæ, insubres, taurisci, and boii). dr. f. behn, of the mainz museum, has recently written an account of the music in the roman army, in which he has brought together much information about the early bronze trumpets; and he includes a short description of the irish type.[ ] the irish trumpets, which are furnished with the straight tubular piece, much resemble the roman lituus; and, as a whole, the irish type is very closely allied to the lituus and carnyx, the difference between the lituus and carnyx being that the expanded end of the carnyx takes the form of some fantastic animal's head. trumpets have been found in the dowris hoard, with socketed spear-heads, and other objects of the late bronze age, and they must be dated to that period; on this account the etruscan lituus can hardly have been derived from irish trumpets; so that it is probable that the irish trumpets, like those of gaul, were derived from the south. [ ] die musik im römischen heere "mainzer zeitschrift," , p. . [illustration: plate x. bronze trumpets. _p. ._] [illustration: fig. .--mould for casting a sickle, found at killymeddy, co. antrim.] sickles [illustration: fig. .--bronze sickles.] socketed bronze sickles have been found fairly frequently in different parts of ireland. those in the national collection have generally been referred to the late bronze age. these sickles are all very small, and it has been thought that the irish, like the gauls, cut only the ear of the corn, and burnt the stalk. a recent find of moulds in county antrim contained a mould for casting a sickle without a socket like the continental examples, and shows that this type was also known in ireland in the later bronze age (fig. ). the bronze sickles have an important bearing on the question of agriculture in ireland. an opinion has recently been expressed that corn was not introduced into england until the roman invasion, and was introduced into ireland even later than this.[ ] however, there are instances of ears of corn being found within the walls of food-vessels of early bronze age date in scotland; and it is probable that corn was also grown in ireland during the bronze age. there is evidence that the ox was domesticated during this period. the excellence of the metal-casting and the high degree of skill shown in casting implements and weapons during the bronze age lead us to believe that the civilization, and with the civilization the art of agriculture and material comfort, had reached a fairly high level. [ ] proc. royal irish academy, vol. xxxi (clare island survey, part ). [illustration: fig. .--bronze sickles.] disk-headed pins [illustration: fig. .--bronze disk.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze button.] in the late period of the irish bronze age, bronze pins with disk-shaped heads having a conical projection in the centre are fairly common. the disk-heads in many instances are ornamented with concentric circles and other simple kinds of decoration. they are bent at right angles to the pin, though in some cases the pin comes straight from the head. the pins are very long, some measuring as much as inches. in the very interesting find at armoy, county antrim (p. ), it will be remembered that one of these pins was found together with a woollen garment, and there is no doubt they were used to fasten the dress. the fact of a razor being one of the objects of this find indicates that the pins were used by men, though no doubt they may also have been worn by women. the use of such long pins seems to point to the wearing of some kind of cloak-like garment probably fastened in the front; and the ornamental heads of the pins indicate that they were worn in a conspicuous place. as well as the pins a few bronze buttons have been found consisting of disks with the same conical projection, but having the pin replaced by a small bar at the back. one remarkable example in the national collection measures - / inches in diameter (fig. ). this object was probably either attached to a leathern belt or possibly may have been a portion of a horse's furniture. the smaller buttons have been found on the continent, and are fairly numerous in the continental lake-dwellings or finds of the late bronze age. one is tempted to see in the irish examples a derivation of the button from the pin. chapter xi bronze-age pottery [illustration: fig. .--incense cup.] [illustration: fig. .--cinerary urn.] [illustration: fig. .--food-vessel with cover, danesfort, co. kilkenny.] in ireland the pottery of the bronze age is principally represented by the type of vessel known as a food-vessel. we may commence with these, as there has only been one undoubted find of beakers made: this consisted of the remains of three vessels found together at moytura, county sligo, and preserved in the national collection. a beaker is stated to have been found at mount stewart, county cavan; but the vessel is not extant, and the evidence as to its discovery is not perfectly satisfactory. the irish food-vessel is derived directly from the round-bottomed vessel of neolithic times. some of these round-bottomed bowls have been found with neolithic remains at portstewart, county down, and there is one in the national collection described as found in a cavern associated with stone implements beside the moat of dunagore, near the town of antrim. the development from the neolithic bowl can be clearly traced in the irish series. the earliest are flat, almost saucer-shaped bowls, which are generally covered all over with ornament, and often have a cruciform pattern on the base which has been thought to indicate that the vessels were turned mouth downwards when not in use.[ ] [ ] abercromby, "bronze-age pottery," vol. i, p. . [illustration: fig. .--cinerary urn, carballybeg, co. waterford.] these bowls have a very pleasing effect; and, as dr. abercromby says: "the small native women, sometimes under five feet high, who made these little vessels, had certainly a fine sense of form and a delicate perception of the beauty of curved forms. the care and precision with which the ornament was effected, and the richness of the effect produced by simple means, may excite our admiration."[ ] [ ] abercromby, _op. cit._, p. . [illustration: plate xi. food-vessels in the order of their development. _p. ._] [illustration: fig. .--model of cinerary urn, showing its position in cist over burnt bones and small vessel, greenhills, co. dublin.] in the next stage a slight indentation about the centre of the vessel can be noticed, the ornament being arranged on either side above and below this; next two small ridges develop out of this, which are at first close together, but are afterwards placed further apart, and in the later stages the vessel becomes considerably higher, the base assuming the form of a cone, and the upper portion having an everted lip. some of these latter vessels have a number of small ribs encircling them. plate xi shows a series of food-vessels placed in the order of their evolution. the decoration can be well seen. it consists for the most part of chevron, herring-bone, and other linear ornament, but wavy lines can be seen in some examples. in some rare cases the food-vessels were provided with lids (fig. ). all of these vessels were made by hand; and though the baking of the pottery varies, it was evidently done over a fire. [illustration: fig. .--cinerary urn, cookstown, co. tyrone.] the food-vessels, which are found both with unburnt and burnt interments, continued in use during the greater part of the bronze age, and the name food-vessel is hardly appropriate in ireland, as in many cases these vessels have been found containing cremated bones, having apparently served the purpose of cinerary urns. the so-called cinerary urns are large vessels which have been usually discovered containing human bones; they have often been found inverted over cremated remains. they can be conveniently divided into several types, of which the type with the overhanging rim may be mentioned first. in this type the vessel consists of two portions, a lower flower-pot-like cone, on which is placed a larger truncated cone, which forms the overhanging rim. this type is widely distributed in england, and in ireland has been found in the counties of antrim, down, and tyrone. the cordoned or hooped type is developed from the preceding type by replacing the overhanging rim by a moulding, both types being contemporary. in the encrusted type the urn, which is of the flower-pot shape, is decorated with strips of clay in the form of chevrons and bosses, the ornamentation assuming a rope-like form. urns of this type have been found at greenhills, tallaght, county dublin; gortnain, broomhedge, county antrim; tullyweggin, cookstown, county tyrone; closkett, drumgooland, and glanville, newry, county down. very small vessels, of usually about to - / inches in height, are often found in interments associated with the large cinerary urns, and occasionally, when the latter are inverted, are found inside them. the exact use of these small vessels, which are called "incense-cups" or "pygmy-cups," is a matter of speculation; several theories have been advanced to explain the purpose of placing them in graves, but none of them are altogether satisfactory.[ ] [ ] see abercromby, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. , who discusses these small vessels at length. like the other vessels, they can be divided into different types, of which some are peculiar to england, and even there confined to certain counties. in ireland several of these small cups have perforated walls, while some have handles. one remarkable specimen found at knocknacoura, co. carlow, is covered all over with ornament. in the fine cist discovered at greenhills, county dublin, and now set up in the national museum, a very remarkable little cup was found inside the large inverted cinerary urn (fig. ). the form of this small cup appears to be originally derived from a metal prototype, and exactly resembles pottery-vessels of iron-age date found in the cemetery at marne. chapter xii bronze-age ornamentation in ireland the ornament of the bronze age in ireland consists of chevrons, hatched triangles, lozenges, etc., combined with some wavy patterns, and later in some instances with the spirals introduced from scandinavia,[ ] where this motive had penetrated early from the Ægean along the amber route. this early type of ornament can be seen on some of the bronze celts, and also on the pottery, notably the food-vessels, which are often most tastefully decorated. the ornamentation, however, can be most fully studied on the inscribed stones in the great monuments of the new grange group. these monuments, perhaps the most remarkable in western europe, have justly aroused the interest of generations of archæologists, and many interpretations have been placed upon their decoration. having dealt so fully with this subject in a recent book, "new grange and other incised tumuli in ireland," , it is not proposed to go into the question again, but there are one or two points that may be noticed. [ ] see hoernes, "jahrbuch für altertnmskunde," band vi, p. . the most remarkable feature about the ornamentation at new grange is the occurrence of the spiral motive; and it is the presence of this distinctive motive which has led to so much speculation. it may be stated at once that the general view at present held by those who have studied the question is that the spiral was introduced, and that in the case of ireland it was derived from scandinavia. the similarity between new grange and the tholos tombs of the mainland of greece is so striking that it is at least likely that the former may have been derived from the latter. in examining the monument of new grange, the author had been led by long study, and the comparison with motives common in the Ægean at about the same period, to explain the ornamentation, notably in the cases of the large stones illustrated in the book, p. , as derived from combinations of ornaments commonly found on Ægean pottery, these motives being themselves connected with the symbolism of sun-worship. in the case of other markings, it was considered these were possibly derived from the decoration of certain objects of scandinavian origin. in an article in _l'anthropologie_, vol. xxiii, p. , dealing with the subject, m. j. déchelette has put forward other views with regard to the markings at new grange. m. déchelette sees in the markings at new grange a degenerated copy of the female idols of neolithic times, carvings of which in a more or less rudimentary form have been found in the iberian peninsula, italy, france, england, and scandinavia. it may be mentioned that from the occurrence of carvings of this idol on sepulchral monuments it is to be connected with funeral rites. m. déchelette supports his contentions with a wealth of illustrations drawn from the tattooed idols of greece, portugal, and aveyron, the engraved chalk cylinder from madrid, the incised lines from almizaraque, the sculptures from the artificial grottos of marne, the vase fragments of charantaise, the chalk drum from folkton wold (yorkshire), and the engravings from the dolmens of locmariaquer. on p. m. déchelette gives a scheme of the evolution of the pattern of the idol, starting from fairly well-defined eyes, eyebrows, and nose, with chevron marks imitating tattooing. the face becomes stylized by the substitution of a mere arched line for the eyebrows, and concentric circles for the eyes, the tattooing marks becoming a conventional pattern of regular chevrons. in the irish examples the spiral replaces the concentric circles for the eyes, and the pattern below is further enriched by lozenges, and finally we arrive at a form in which the spiral has an eyebrow above and a single lozenge below, and this form m. déchelette compares to the engravings on the slabs at new grange. the shield-like figure on the roofing stone of the right recess at new grange is compared by m. déchelette to the engravings on the dolmen of pierres-plates at locmariaquer, which also appear to be a stylized form of the idol. m. déchelette compares the very remarkable boundary-stone at dowth, with the engraving of suns on it, to the vases from millares, province d'almérie, which are ornamented with raised circles, these in their turn being derived from a degenerate form of the idol. m. déchelette applies the same explanation to the scribings at gavir'inis, the spiral ornamentation of which is to be regarded as derived from ireland. this very brilliant and original interpretation of the scribings at new grange seems to fit the case exceedingly well, and m. déchelette's theory may be regarded as a very probable one for the origin of the markings, but it must be remembered that there is some difficulty caused by the fact that the similarity in plan between new grange and the tholos tombs, as has been pointed out, is too great to be neglected. now if new grange is derived from this source, it cannot well be placed earlier than b.c. the idol, on the other hand, is neolithic in date, and must have survived a considerable time to have influenced the irish carvings. it must also be borne in mind that no other forms of this idol have been met with in ireland. * * * * * index a abercromby, hon. john, , . amber found in ireland, , , . annadale, co. leitrim, wooden shield found at, . annaghkeen, co. galway, burial at, , . anvil and hammers, , . armoy, co. antrim, find made at, . athenry, co. galway, bronze objects found at, . b bann, river, co. antrim, . beakers found in ireland, . belfast, find of gold ring-money and bronze celt at, . belmore mountain, co. fermanagh, interment at, . belturbet, bronze spear-heads found at, , . birr, king's co., celts found at, . broighter find, . bronze age in ireland, chronology of, - ; st period of, - ; finds of, - ; ornamentation, characteristic of, - . bronze celts, evolution of, ; hafting of, , ; ornamentation of, , . c cappeen, co. cork, copper celts found at, , . carraconway, co. cavan, trumpets found at, . carrick o'gunnell, co. limerick, trumpets found at, . carrowkeel, co. sligo, interments at, . chapes of bronze for swords, , . chute hall, co. kerry, trumpets found at, . cinerary urns, , . clare find of gold ornaments, , . clements, mr. h. j. b., . clonbrin, co. longford, leather shield found at, . clonmacnois, gold torc found at, . clontoo, co. kerry, copper celts found at, . coachford, co. cork, objects found at, , . copper, counties in which obtained, . copper celts, list of counties in which these have been found, - . copper period in ireland, - . cork, co., trumpets found in, . crumlin, co. dublin, urn found at, . cullinagh, co. kerry, celts found at, . d daggers and rapiers, - . déchelette, m. j., , , , . disk-headed pins, , , . dowris hoard, . drumabest, co. antrim, trumpets found at, . dublin, copper celts found in, . dunfierth, co. kildare, gold lunulæ found at, . f finds of copper celts, , , - . finds of bronze-age implements and weapons, - . food-vessels, description of, - . g glenstal, co. limerick, find of bronze objects at, . gold balls found at carrick-on-shannon, . gorgets, gold, - . gowland, prof. w., . h halberds, - ; analyses of, . hallstatt period in ireland, , . hillswood, co. galway, halberds found at, . i incense cups, . irish gold deposits, , . iron sword of hallstatt type found in ireland, . k kilfeakle, co. tipperary, bronze implements found at, . killymeddy, co. antrim, find of moulds at, , . kinnegoe bog, co. armagh, bronze objects found at, . knocknague, co. galway, celts found at, . l lahardoun, tulla, co. clare, find of bronze objects at, . leaf-shaped swords, - . lisnacroghera crannog, . lissane, co. derry, rapier found at, . lough gur, co. limerick, bronze shield found at, . lunulæ, gold, - . m macroom, co. cork, trumpets found at, . manillas, african, similarity to irish gold fibulæ, . montelius, dr. oscar, , , , . moulds for casting spear-heads, - ; absence of, for casting leaf-shaped swords, ; for casting flat celts, , . mountrivers, coachford, co. cork, find at, . moyarta, co. clare, trumpets found at, . much, dr., . muller, prof. s., . mycenæ, leaf-shaped swords found at, . n naas, co. kildare, excavation at, . neolithic pottery found in ireland, . new grange, - ; ornamentation at, - . o omagh, co. tyrone, moulds found at, . p padstow, cornwall, gold lunulæ found at, . palstaves with double loops, . penannular rings and ring-money, - . polybius quoted, . pottery of the bronze age, - . r ridgeway, prof. w., . ring-money, . s schmidt, herr hubert, . shields, bronze, , ; wood, ; leather, . sickles, , ; mould for casting, . smith, mr. r. a., . spain, halberds from, . spear-heads, - ; spear-ferules, , . st. columba's college, collection, . sullivan, mr. m. j., . sun-disks, gold, , . t tempo, co. fermanagh, swords found at, . topped mountain cairn, find of objects made at, . torcs, - . trumpets, , ; finds of, in ireland, - . w wicklow, gold obtained from, . home university library of modern knowledge no. _editors:_ herbert fisher, m.a., f.b.a. prof. gilbert murray, litt.d., ll.d., f.b.a. prof. j. arthur thomson, m.a. prof. william t. brewster, m.a. _a complete classified list of the volumes of_ the home university library _already published will be found at the end of this book_. anthropology by r.r. marett, m.a. reader in social anthropology in the university of oxford author of "the threshold of religion," etc. new york henry holt and company london williams and norgate contents chap. page i scope of anthropology . . . ii antiquity of man . . . . . iii race . . . . . . . . . . . iv environment . . . . . . . . v language . . . . . . . . . vi social organization . . . . vii law . . . . . . . . . . . . viii religion . . . . . . . . . ix morality . . . . . . . . . x man the individual . . . . bibliography . . . . . . . index . . . . . . . . . . . "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, are these half-brutish prehistoric brothers. girdled about with the immense darkness of this mysterious universe even as we are, they were born and died, suffered and struggled. given over to fearful crime and passion, plunged in the blackest ignorance, preyed upon by hideous and grotesque delusions, yet steadfastly serving the profoundest of ideals in their fixed faith that existence in any form is better than non-existence, they ever rescued triumphantly from the jaws of ever-imminent destruction the torch of life which, thanks to them, now lights the world for us. how small, indeed, seem individual distinctions when we look back on these overwhelming numbers of human beings panting and straining under the pressure of that vital want! and how inessential in the eyes of god must be the small surplus of the individual's merit, swamped as it is in the vast ocean of the common merit of mankind, dumbly and undauntedly doing the fundamental duty, and living the heroic life! we grow humble and reverent as we contemplate the prodigious spectacle." william james, in _human immortality_. anthropology chapter i scope of anthropology in this chapter i propose to say something, firstly, about the ideal scope of anthropology; secondly, about its ideal limitations; and, thirdly and lastly, about its actual relations to existing studies. in other words, i shall examine the extent of its claim, and then go on to examine how that claim, under modern conditions of science and education, is to be made good. firstly, then, what is the ideal scope of anthropology? taken at its fullest and best, what ought it to comprise? anthropology is the whole history of man as fired and pervaded by the idea of evolution. man in evolution--that is the subject in its full reach. anthropology studies man as he occurs at all known times. it studies him as he occurs in all known parts of the world. it studies him body and soul together--as a bodily organism, subject to conditions operating in time and space, which bodily organism is in intimate relation with a soul-life, also subject to those same conditions. having an eye to such conditions from first to last, it seeks to plot out the general series of the changes, bodily and mental together, undergone by man in the course of his history. its business is simply to describe. but, without exceeding the limits of its scope, it can and must proceed from the particular to the general; aiming at nothing less than a descriptive formula that shall sum up the whole series of changes in which the evolution of man consists. that will do, perhaps, as a short account of the ideal scope of anthropology. being short, it is bound to be rather formal and colourless. to put some body into it, however, it is necessary to breathe but a single word. that word is: darwin. anthropology is the child of darwin. darwinism makes it possible. reject the darwinian point of view, and you must reject anthropology also. what, then, is darwinism? not a cut-and-dried doctrine. not a dogma. darwinism is a working hypothesis. you suppose something to be true, and work away to see whether, in the light of that supposed truth, certain facts fit together better than they do on any other supposition. what is the truth that darwinism supposes? simply that all the forms of life in the world are related together; and that the relations manifested in time and space between the different lives are sufficiently uniform to be described under a general formula, or law of evolution. this means that man must, for certain purposes of science, toe the line with the rest of living things. and at first, naturally enough, man did not like it. he was too lordly. for a long time, therefore, he pretended to be fighting for the bible, when he was really fighting for his own dignity. this was rather hard on the bible, which has nothing to do with the aristotelian theory of the fixity of species; though it might seem possible to read back something of the kind into the primitive creation-stories preserved in genesis. now-a-days, however, we have mostly got over the first shock to our family pride. we are all darwinians in a passive kind of way. but we need to darwinize actively. in the sciences that have to do with plants, and with the rest of the animals besides man, naturalists have been so active in their darwinizing that the pre-darwinian stuff is once for all laid by on the shelf. when man, however, engages on the subject of his noble self, the tendency still is to say: we accept darwinism so long as it is not allowed to count, so long as we may go on believing the same old stuff in the same old way. how do we anthropologists propose to combat this tendency? by working away at our subject, and persuading people to have a look at our results. once people take up anthropology, they may be trusted not to drop it again. it is like learning to sleep with your window open. what could be more stupefying than to shut yourself up in a closet and swallow your own gas? but is it any less stupefying to shut yourself up within the last few thousand years of the history of your own corner of the world, and suck in the stale atmosphere of its own self-generated prejudices? or, to vary the metaphor, anthropology is like travel. every one starts by thinking that there is nothing so perfect as his own parish. but let a man go aboard ship to visit foreign parts, and, when he returns home, he will cause that parish to wake up. with darwin, then, we anthropologists say: let any and every portion of human history be studied in the light of the whole history of mankind, and against the background of the history of living things in general. it is the darwinian outlook that matters. none of darwin's particular doctrines will necessarily endure the test of time and trial. into the melting-pot must they go as often as any man of science deems it fitting. but darwinism as the touch of nature that makes the whole world kin can hardly pass away. at any rate, anthropology stands or falls with the working hypothesis, derived from darwinism, of a fundamental kinship and continuity amid change between all the forms of human life. it remains to add that, hitherto, anthropology has devoted most of its attention to the peoples of rude--that is to say, of simple--culture, who are vulgarly known to us as "savages." the main reason for this, i suppose, is that nobody much minds so long as the darwinizing kind of history confines itself to outsiders. only when it is applied to self and friends is it resented as an impertinence. but, although it has always up to now pursued the line of least resistance, anthropology does not abate one jot or tittle of its claim to be the whole science, in the sense of the whole history, of man. as regards the word, call it science, or history, or anthropology, or anything else--what does it matter? as regards the thing, however, there can be no compromise. we anthropologists are out to secure this: that there shall not be one kind of history for savages and another kind for ourselves, but the same kind of history, with the same evolutionary principle running right through it, for all men, civilized and savage, present and past. * * * * * so much for the ideal scope of anthropology. now, in the second place, for its ideal limitations. here, i am afraid, we must touch for a moment on very deep and difficult questions. but it is well worth while to try at all costs to get firm hold of the fact that anthropology, though a big thing, is not everything. it will be enough to insist briefly on the following points: that anthropology is science in whatever way history is science; that it is not philosophy, though it must conform to its needs; and that it is not policy, though it may subserve its designs. anthropology is science in the sense of specialized research that aims at truth for truth's sake. knowing by parts is science, knowing the whole as a whole is philosophy. each supports the other, and there is no profit in asking which of the two should come first. one is aware of the universe as the whole universe, however much one may be resolved to study its details one at a time. the scientific mood, however, is uppermost when one says: here is a particular lot of things that seem to hang together in a particular way; let us try to get a general idea of what that way is. anthropology, then, specializes on the particular group of human beings, which itself is part of the larger particular group of living beings. inasmuch as it takes over the evolutionary principle from the science dealing with the larger group, namely biology, anthropology may be regarded as a branch of biology. let it be added, however, that, of all the branches of biology, it is the one that is likely to bring us nearest to the true meaning of life; because the life of human beings must always be nearer to human students of life than, say, the life of plants. but, you will perhaps object, anthropology was previously identified with history, and now it is identified with science, namely, with a branch of biology? is history science? the answer is, yes. i know that a great many people who call themselves historians say that it is not, apparently on the ground that, when it comes to writing history, truth for truth's sake is apt to bring out the wrong results. well, the doctored sort of history is not science, nor anthropology, i am ready to admit. but now let us listen to another and a more serious objection to the claim of history to be science. science, it will be said by many earnest men of science, aims at discovering laws that are clean out of time. history, on the other hand, aims at no more than the generalized description of one or another phase of a time-process. to this it may be replied that physics, and physics only, answers to this altogether too narrow conception of science. the laws of matter in motion are, or seem to be, of the timeless or mathematical kind. directly we pass on to biology, however, laws of this kind are not to be discovered, or at any rate are not discovered. biology deals with life, or, if you like, with matter as living. matter moves. life evolves. we have entered a new dimension of existence. the laws of matter in motion are not abrogated, for the simple reason that in physics one makes abstraction of life, or in other words leaves its peculiar effects entirely out of account. but they are transcended. they are multiplied by _x_, an unknown quantity. this being so from the standpoint of pure physics, biology takes up the tale afresh, and devises means of its own for describing the particular ways in which things hang together in virtue of their being alive. and biology finds that it cannot conveniently abstract away the reference to time. it cannot treat living things as machines. what does it do, then? it takes the form of history. it states that certain things have changed in certain ways, and goes on to show, so far as it can, that the changes are on the whole in a certain direction. in short, it formulates tendencies, and these are its only laws. some tendencies, of course, appear to be more enduring than others, and thus may be thought to approximate more closely to laws of the timeless kind. but _x_, the unknown quantity, the something or other that is not physical, runs through them all, however much or little they may seem to endure. for science, at any rate, which departmentalizes the world, and studies it bit by bit, there is no getting over the fact that living beings in general, and human beings in particular, are subject to an evolution which is simple matter of history. and now what about philosophy? i am not going into philosophical questions here. for that reason i am not going to describe biology as natural history, or anthropology as the natural history of man. let philosophers discuss what "nature" is going to mean for them. in science the word is question-begging; and the only sound rule in science is to beg as few philosophical questions as you possibly can. everything in the world is natural, of course, in the sense that things are somehow all akin--all of a piece. we are simply bound to take in the parts as parts of a whole, and it is just this fact that makes philosophy not only possible but inevitable. all the same, this fact does not prevent the parts from having their own specific natures and specific ways of behaving. the people who identify the natural with the physical are putting all their money on one specific kind of nature or behaviour that is to be found in the world. in the case of man they are backing the wrong horse. the horse to back is the horse that goes. as a going concern, however, anthropology, as part of evolutionary biology, is a history of vital tendencies which are not natural in the sense of merely physical. what are the functions of philosophy as contrasted with science? two. firstly, it must be critical. it must police the city of the sciences, preventing them from interfering with each other's rights and free development. co-operation by all means, as, for instance, between anthropology and biology. but no jumping other folks' claims and laying down the law for all; as, for instance, when physics would impose the kind of method applicable to machines on the sciences of evolving life. secondly, philosophy must be synthetic. it must put all the ways of knowing together, and likewise put these in their entirety together with all the ways of feeling and acting; so that there may result a theory of reality and of the good life, in that organic interdependence of the two which our very effort to put things together presupposes as its object. what, then, are to be the relations between anthropology and philosophy? on the one hand, the question whether anthropology can help philosophy need not concern us here. that is for the philosopher to determine. on the other hand, philosophy can help anthropology in two ways: in its critical capacity, by helping it to guard its own claim, and develop freely without interference from outsiders; and in its synthetic capacity, perhaps, by suggesting the rule that, of two types of explanation, for instance, the physical and the biological, the more abstract is likely to be farther away from the whole truth, whereas, contrariwise, the more you take in, the better your chance of really understanding. it remains to speak about policy. i use this term to mean any and all practical exploitation of the results of science. sometimes, indeed, it is hard to say where science ends and policy begins, as we saw in the case of those gentlemen who would doctor their history, because practically it pays to have a good conceit of ourselves, and believe that our side always wins its battles. anthropology, however, would borrow something besides the evolutionary principle from biology, namely, its disinterestedness. it is not hard to be candid about bees and ants; unless, indeed, one is making a parable of them. but as anthropologists we must try, what is so much harder, to be candid about ourselves. let us look at ourselves as if we were so many bees and ants, not forgetting, of course, to make use of the inside information that in the case of the insects we so conspicuously lack. this does not mean that human history, once constructed according to truth-regarding principles, should and could not be used for the practical advantage of mankind. the anthropologist, however, is not, as such, concerned with the practical employment to which his discoveries are put. at most, he may, on the strength of a conviction that truth is mighty and will prevail for human good, invite practical men to study his facts and generalizations in the hope that, by knowing mankind better, they may come to appreciate and serve it better. for instance, the administrator, who rules over savages, is almost invariably quite well-meaning, but not seldom utterly ignorant of native customs and beliefs. so, in many cases, is the missionary, another type of person in authority, whose intentions are of the best, but whose methods too often leave much to be desired. no amount of zeal will suffice, apart from scientific insight into the conditions of the practical problem. and the education is to be got by paying for it. but governments and churches, with some honourable exceptions, are still wofully disinclined to provide their probationers with the necessary special training; though it is ignorance that always proves most costly in the long run. policy, however, including bad policy, does not come within the official cognizance of the anthropologist. yet it is legitimate for him to hope that, just as for many years already physiological science has indirectly subserved the art of medicine, so anthropological science may indirectly, though none the less effectively, subserve an art of political and religious healing in the days to come. * * * * * the third and last part of this chapter will show how, under modern conditions of science and education, anthropology is to realize its programme. hitherto, the trouble with anthropologists has been to see the wood for the trees. even whilst attending mainly to the peoples of rude culture, they have heaped together facts enough to bewilder both themselves and their readers. the time has come to do some sorting; or rather the sorting is doing itself. all manner of groups of special students, interested in some particular side of human history, come now-a-days to the anthropologist, asking leave to borrow from his stock of facts the kind that they happen to want. thus he, as general storekeeper, is beginning to acquire, almost unconsciously, a sense of order corresponding to the demands that are made upon him. the goods that he will need to hand out in separate batches are being gradually arranged by him on separate shelves. our best way, then, of proceeding with the present inquiry, is to take note of these shelves. in other words, we must consider one by one the special studies that claim to have a finger in the anthropological pie. or, to avoid the disheartening task of reviewing an array of bloodless "-ologies," let us put the question to ourselves thus: be it supposed that a young man or woman who wants to take a course, of at least a year's length, in the elements of anthropology, joins some university which is thoroughly in touch with the scientific activities of the day. a university, as its very name implies, ought to be an all-embracing assemblage of higher studies, so adjusted to each other that, in combination, they provide beginners with a good general education; whilst, severally, they offer to more advanced students the opportunity of doing this or that kind of specific research. in such a well-organized university, then, how would our budding anthropologist proceed to form a preliminary acquaintance with the four corners of his subject? what departments must he attend in turn? let us draw him up a curriculum, praying meanwhile that the multiplicity of the demands made upon him will not take away his breath altogether. man is a many-sided being; so there is no help for it if anthropology also is many-sided. for one thing, he must sit at the feet of those whose particular concern is with pre-historic man. it is well to begin here, since thus will the glamour of the subject sink into his soul at the start. let him, for instance, travel back in thought to the europe of many thousands of years ago, shivering under the effects of the great ice-age, yet populous with human beings so far like ourselves that they were alive to the advantage of a good fire, made handy tools out of stone and wood and bone, painted animals on the walls of their caves, or engraved them on mammoth-ivory, far more skilfully than most of us could do now, and buried their dead in a ceremonial way that points to a belief in a future life. thus, too, he will learn betimes how to blend the methods and materials of different branches of science. a human skull, let us say, and some bones of extinct animals, and some chipped flints are all discovered side by side some twenty feet below the level of the soil. at least four separate authorities must be called in before the parts of the puzzle can be fitted together. again, he must be taught something about race, or inherited breed, as it applies to man. a dose of practical anatomy--that is to say, some actual handling and measuring of the principal portions of the human frame in its leading varieties--will enable our beginner to appreciate the differences of outer form that distinguish, say, the british colonist in australia from the native "black-fellow," or the whites from the negroes, and redskins, and yellow asiatics in the united states. at this point, he may profitably embark on the details of the darwinian hypothesis of the descent of man. let him search amongst the manifold modern versions of the theory of human evolution for the one that comes nearest to explaining the degrees of physical likeness and unlikeness shown by men in general as compared with the animals, especially the man-like apes; and again, those shown by the men of divers ages and regions as compared with each other. nor is it enough for him, when thus engaged, to take note simply of physical features--the shape of the skull, the colour of the skin, the tint and texture of the hair, and so on. there are likewise mental characters that seem to be bound up closely with the organism and to follow the breed. such are the so-called instincts, the study of which should be helped out by excursions into the mind-history of animals, of children, and of the insane. moreover, the measuring and testing of mental functions, and, in particular, of the senses, is now-a-days carried on by means of all sorts of ingenious instruments; and some experience of their use will be all to the good, when problems of descent are being tackled. further, our student must submit to a thorough grounding in world-geography with its physical and human sides welded firmly together. he must be able to pick out on the map the headquarters of all the more notable peoples, not merely as they are now, but also as they were at various outstanding moments of the past. his next business is to master the main facts about the natural conditions to which each people is subjected--the climate, the conformation of land and sea, the animals and plants. from here it is but a step to the economic life--the food-supply, the clothing, the dwelling-places, the principal occupations, the implements of labour. a selected list of books of travel must be consulted. no less important is it to work steadily through the show-cases of a good ethnological museum. nor will it suffice to have surveyed the world by regions. the communications between regions--the migrations and conquests, the trading and the borrowing of customs--must be traced and accounted for. finally, on the basis of their distribution, which the learner must chart out for himself on blank maps of the world, the chief varieties of the useful arts and appliances of man can be followed from stage to stage of their development. of the special studies concerned with man the next in order might seem to be that which deals with the various forms of human society; since, in a sense, social organization must depend directly on material circumstances. in another and perhaps a deeper sense, however, the prime condition of true sociality is something else, namely, the exclusively human gift of articulate speech. to what extent, then, must our novice pay attention to the history of language? speculation about its far-off origins is now-a-days rather out of fashion. moreover, language is no longer supposed to provide, by itself at any rate, and apart from other clues, a key to the endless riddles of racial descent. what is most needed, then, is rather some elementary instruction concerning the organic connection between language and thought, and concerning their joint development as viewed against the background of the general development of society. and, just as words and thoughts are essentially symbols, so there are also gesture-symbols and written symbols, whilst again another set of symbols is in use for counting. all these pre-requisites of human intercourse may be conveniently taken together. coming now to the analysis of the forms of society, the beginner must first of all face the problem: "what makes a people one?" neither blood, nor territory, nor language, but only the fact of being more or less compactly organized in a political society, will be found to yield the unifying principle required. once the primary constitution of the body politic has been made out, a limit is set up, inside of which a number of fairly definite forms of grouping offer themselves for examination; whilst outside of it various social relationships of a vaguer kind have also to be considered. thus, amongst institutions of the internal kind, the family by itself presents a wide field of research; though in certain cases it is liable to be overshadowed by some other sort of organization, such as, notably, the clan. under the same rubric fall the many forms of more or less voluntary association, economic, religious, and so forth. on the other hand, outside the circle of the body politic there are, at all known stages of society, mutual understandings that regulate war, trade, travel, the celebration of common rites, the interchange of ideas. here, then, is an abundance of types of human association, to be first scrutinized separately, and afterwards considered in relation to each other. closely connected with the previous subject is the history of law. every type of association, in a way, has its law, whereby its members are constrained to fulfil a certain set of obligations. thus our student will pass on straight from the forms of society to the most essential of their functions. the fact that, amongst the less civilized peoples, the law is uncodified and merely customary, whilst the machinery for enforcing it is, though generally effective enough, yet often highly indefinite and occasional, makes the tracing of the growth of legal institutions from their rudiments no less vitally important, though it makes it none the easier. the history of authority is a strictly kindred topic. legislating and judging on the one hand, and governing on the other, are different aspects of the same general function. in accordance, then, with the order already indicated, law and government as administered by the political society in the person of its representatives, chiefs, elders, war-lords, priest-kings, and so forth, must first be examined; then the jurisdiction and discipline of subordinate bodies, such as the family and the clan, or again the religious societies, trade guilds, and the rest; then, lastly, the international conventions, with the available means of ensuring their observance. again, the history of religion is an allied theme of far-reaching interest. for the understanding of the ruder forms of society it may even be said to furnish the master-key. at this stage, religion is the mainstay of law and government. the constraining force of custom makes itself felt largely through a magnifying haze of mystic sanctions; whilst, again, the position of a leader of society rests for the most part on the supernormal powers imputed to him. religion and magic, then, must be carefully studied if we would understand how the various persons and bodies that exercise authority are assisted, or else hindered, in their efforts to maintain social discipline. apart from this fundamental inquiry, there is another, no less important in its way, to which the study of religion and magic opens up a path. this is the problem how reflection manages as it were to double human experience, by setting up beside the outer world of sense an inner world of thought-relations. now constructive imagination is the queen of those mental functions which meet in what we loosely term "thought"; and imagination is ever most active where, on the outer fringe of the mind's routine work, our inarticulate questionings radiate into the unknown. when the genius has his vision, almost invariably, among the ruder peoples, it is accepted by himself and his society as something supernormal and sacred, whether its fruit be an act of leadership or an edict, a practical invention or a work of art, a story of the past or a prophecy, a cure or a devastating curse. moreover, social tradition treasures the memory of these revelations, and, blending them with the contributions of humbler folk--for all of us dream our dreams--provides in myth and legend and tale, as well as in manifold other art-forms, a stimulus to the inspiration of future generations. for most purposes fine art, at any rate during its more rudimentary stages, may be studied in connection with religion. so far as law and religion will not account for the varieties of social behaviour, the novice may most conveniently consider them under the head of morals. the forms of social intercourse, the fashions, the festivities, are imposed on us by our fellows from without, and none the less effectively because as a general rule we fall in with them as a matter of course. the difference between manners and morals of the higher order is due simply to the more pressing need, in the case of our most serious duties, of a reflective sanction, a "moral sense," to break us in to the common service. it is no easy task to keep legal and religious penalties or rewards out of the reckoning, when trying to frame an estimate of what the notions of right and wrong, prevalent in a given society, amount to in themselves; nevertheless, it is worth doing, and valuable collections of material exist to aid the work. the facts about education, which even amongst rude peoples is often carried on far into manhood, throw much light on this problem. so do the moralizings embodied the traditional lore of the folk--the proverbs, the beast-fables, the stories of heroes. there remains the individual to be studied in himself. if the individual be ignored by social science, as would sometimes appear to be the case, so much the worse for social science, which, to a corresponding extent, falls short of being truly anthropological. throughout the history of man, our beginner should be on the look-out for the signs, and the effects, of personal initiative. freedom of choice, of course, is limited by what there is to choose from; so that the development of what may be termed social opportunity should be concurrently reviewed. again, it is the aim of every moral system so to educate each man that his directive self may be as far as possible identified with his social self. even suicide is not a man's own affair, according to the voice of society which speaks in the moral code. nevertheless, lest the important truth be overlooked that social control implies a will that must meet the control half-way, it is well for the student of man to pay separate and special attention to the individual agent. the last word in anthropology is: know thyself. chapter ii antiquity of man history, in the narrower sense of the word, depends on written records. as we follow back history to the point at which our written records grow hazy, and the immediate ancestors or predecessors of the peoples who appear in history are disclosed in legend that needs much eking out by the help of the spade, we pass into proto-history. at the back of that, again, beyond the point at which written records are of any avail at all, comes pre-history. how, then, you may well inquire, does the pre-historian get to work? what is his method of linking facts together? and what are the sources of his information? first, as to his method. suppose a number of boys are in a field playing football, whose superfluous garments are lying about everywhere in heaps; and suppose you want, for some reason, to find out in what order the boys arrived on the ground. how would you set about the business? surely you would go to one of the heaps of discarded clothes, and take note of the fact that this boy's jacket lay under that boy's waistcoat. moving on to other heaps you might discover that in some cases a boy had thrown down his hat on one heap, his tie on another, and so on. this would help you all the more to make out the general series of arrivals. yes, but what if some of the heaps showed signs of having been upset? well, you must make allowances for these disturbances in your calculations. of course, if some one had deliberately made hay with the lot, you would be nonplussed. the chances are, however, that, given enough heaps of clothes, and bar intentional and systematic wrecking of them, you would be able to make out pretty well which boy preceded which; though you could hardly go on to say with any precision whether tom preceded dick by half a minute or half an hour. such is the method of pre-history. it is called the stratigraphical method, because it is based on the description of strata, or layers. let me give a simple example of how strata tell their own tale. it is no very remarkable instance, but happens to be one that i have examined for myself. they were digging out a place for a gas-holder in a meadow in the town of st. helier, jersey, and carried their borings down to bed rock at about thirty feet, which roughly coincides with the present mean sea-level. the modern meadow-soil went down about five feet. then came a bed of moss-peat, one to three feet thick. there had been a bog here at a time which, to judge by similar finds in other places, was just before the beginning of the bronze-age. underneath the moss-peat came two or three feet of silt with sea-shells in it. clearly the island of jersey underwent in those days some sort of submergence. below this stratum came a great peat-bed, five to seven feet thick, with large tree-trunks in it, the remains of a fine forest that must have needed more or less elevated land on which to grow. in the peat was a weapon of polished stone, and at the bottom were two pieces of pottery, one of them decorated with little pitted marks. these fragments of evidence are enough to show that the foresters belonged to the early neolithic period, as it is called. next occurred about four feet of silt with sea-shells, marking another advance of the sea. below that, again, was a mass, six to eight feet deep, of the characteristic yellow clay with far-carried fragments of rock in it that is associated with the great floods of the ice-age. the land must have been above the reach of the tide for the glacial drift to settle on it. finally, three or four feet of blue clay resting immediately on bed-rock were such as might be produced by the sea, and thus probably betokened its presence at this level in the still remoter past. here the strata are mostly geological. man only comes in at one point. i might have taken a far more striking case--the best i know--from st. acheul, a suburb of amiens in the north of france. here m. commont found human implements of distinct types in about eight out of eleven or twelve successive geological layers. but the story would take too long to tell. however, it is well to start with an example that is primarily geological. for it is the geologist who provides the pre-historic chronometer. pre-historians have to reckon in geological time--that is to say, not in years, but in ages of indefinite extent corresponding to marked changes in the condition of the earth's surface. it takes the plain man a long time to find out that it is no use asking the pre-historian, who is proudly displaying a skull or a stone implement, "please, how many years ago exactly did its owner live?" i remember hearing such a question put to the great savant, m. cartailhac, when he was lecturing upon the pre-historic drawings found in the french and spanish caves; and he replied, "perhaps not less than , years ago and not more than , ." the backbone of our present system of determining the series of pre-historic epochs is the geological theory of an ice-age comprising a succession of periods of extreme glaciation punctuated by milder intervals. it is for the geologists to settle in their own way, unless, indeed, the astronomers can help them, why there should have been an ice-age at all; what was the number, extent, and relative duration of its ups and downs; and at what time, roughly, it ceased in favour of the temperate conditions that we now enjoy. the pre-historians, for their part, must be content to make what traces they discover of early man fit in with this pre-established scheme, uncertain as it is. every day, however, more agreement is being reached both amongst themselves and between them and the geologists; so that one day, i am confident, if not exactly to-morrow, we shall know with fair accuracy how the boys, who left their clothes lying about, followed one another into the field. sometimes, however, geology does not, on the face of it, come into the reckoning. thus i might have asked the reader to assist at the digging out of a cave, say, one of the famous caves at mentone, on the italian riviera, just beyond the south-eastern corner of france. these caves were inhabited by man during an immense stretch of time, and, as you dig down, you light upon one layer after another of his leavings. but note in such a case as this how easily you may be baffled by some one having upset the heap of clothes, or, in a word, by rearrangement. thus the man whose leavings ought to form the layer half-way up may have seen fit to dig a deep hole in the cave-floor in order to bury a deceased friend, and with him, let us suppose, to bury also an assortment of articles likely to be useful in the life beyond the grave. consequently an implement of one age will be found lying cheek by jowl with the implement of a much earlier age, or even, it may be, some feet below it. thereupon the pre-historian must fall back on the general run, or type, in assigning the different implements each to its own stratum. luckily, in the old days fashions tended to be rigid; so that for the pre-historian two flints with slightly different chipping may stand for separate ages of culture as clearly as do a greek vase and a german beer-mug for the student of more recent times. * * * * * enough concerning the stratigraphical method. a word, in the next place, about the pre-historian's main sources of information. apart from geological facts, there are three main classes of evidence that serve to distinguish one pre-historic epoch from another. these are animal bones, human bones, and human handiwork. again i illustrate by means of a case of which i happen to have first-hand knowledge. in jersey, near the bay of st. brelade, is a cave, in which we dug down through some twenty feet of accumulated clay and rock-rubbish, presumably the effects of the last throes of the ice-age, and came upon a pre-historic hearth. there were the big stones that had propped up the fire, and there were the ashes. by the side were the remains of a heap of food-refuse. the pieces of decayed bone were not much to look at; yet, submitted to an expert, they did a tale unfold. he showed them to be the remains of the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth's even more unwieldy comrade, of the reindeer, of two kinds of horse, one of them the pony-like wild horse still to be found in the mongolian deserts, of the wild ox, and of the deer. truly there was better hunting to be got in jersey in the days when it formed part of a frozen continent. next, the food-heap yields thirteen of somebody's teeth. had they eaten him? it boots not to inquire; though, as the owner was aged between twenty and thirty, the teeth could hardly have fallen out of their own accord. such grinders as they are too! a second expert declares that the roots beat all records. they are of the kind that goes with an immensely powerful jaw, needing a massive brow-ridge to counteract the strain of the bite, and in general involving the type of skull known as the neanderthal, big-brained enough in its way, but uncommonly ape-like all the same. finally, the banqueters have left plenty of their knives lying about. these good folk had their special and regular way of striking off a broad flat flake from the flint core; the cores are lying about, too, and with luck you can restore some of the flakes to their original position. then, leaving one side of the flake untouched, they trimmed the surface of the remaining face, and, as the edges grew blunt with use, kept touching them up with the hammer-stone--there it is also lying by the hearth--until, perhaps, the flake loses its oval shape and becomes a pointed triangle. a third expert is called in, and has no difficulty in recognizing these knives as the characteristic handiwork of the epoch known as the mousterian. if one of these worked flints from jersey was placed side by side with another from the cave of le moustier, near the right bank of the vezere in south-central france, whence the term mousterian, you could hardly tell which was which; whilst you would still see the same family likeness if you compared the jersey specimens with some from amiens, or from northfleet on the thames, or from icklingham in suffolk. putting all these kinds of evidence together, then, we get a notion, doubtless rather meagre, but as far as it goes well-grounded, of a hunter of the ice-age, who was able to get the better of a woolly rhinoceros, could cook a lusty steak off him, had a sharp knife to carve it, and the teeth to chew it, and generally knew how, under the very chilly circumstances, both to make himself comfortable and to keep his race going. there is one other class of evidence on which the pre-historian may with due caution draw, though the risks are certain and the profits uncertain. the ruder peoples of to-day are living a life that in its broad features cannot be wholly unlike the life of the men of long ago. thus the pre-historian should study spencer and gillen on the natives of central australia, if only that he may take firm hold of the fact that people with skulls inclining towards the neanderthal type, and using stone knives, may nevertheless have very active minds; in short, that a rich enough life in its way may leave behind it a poor rubbish-heap. when it comes, however, to the borrowing of details, to patch up the holes in the pre-historic record with modern rags and tatters makes better literature than science. after all, the australians, or tasmanians, or bushmen, or eskimo, of whom so much is beginning to be heard amongst pre-historians, are our contemporaries--that is to say, have just as long an ancestry as ourselves; and in the course of the last , years or so our stock has seen so many changes, that their stocks may possibly have seen a few also. yet the real remedy, i take it, against the misuse of analogy is that the student should make himself sufficiently at home in both branches of anthropology to know each of the two things he compares for what it truly is. * * * * * having glanced at method and sources, i pass on to results. some text-book must be consulted for the long list of pre-historic periods required for western europe, not to mention the further complications caused by bringing in the remaining portions of the world. the stone-age, with its three great divisions, the eolithic (_eos_, greek for dawn, and _lithos_, stone) the palaeolithic (_pallaeos_, old), and the neolithic (_neos_, new), and their numerous subdivisions, comes first; then the age of copper and bronze; and then the early iron-age, which is about the limit of proto-history. here i shall confine my remarks to europe. i am not going far afield into such questions as: who were the mound-builders of north america? and are the calaveras skull and other remains found in the gold-bearing gravels of california to be reckoned amongst the earliest traces of man in the globe? nor, again, must i pause to speculate whether the dark-stained lustrous flint implements discovered by mr. henry balfour at a high level below the victoria falls, and possibly deposited there by the river zambezi before it had carved the present gorge in the solid basalt, prove that likewise in south africa man was alive and busy untold thousands of years ago. also, i shall here confine myself to the stone-age, because my object is chiefly to illustrate the long pedigree of the species from which we are all sprung. the antiquity of man being my immediate theme, i can hardly avoid saying something about eoliths; though the subject is one that invariably sets pre-historians at each other's throats. there are eoliths and eoliths, however; and some of m. rutot's belgian examples are now-a-days almost reckoned respectable. let us, nevertheless, inquire whether eoliths are not to be found nearer home. i can wish the reader no more delightful experience than to run down to ightham in kent, and pay a call on mr. benjamin harrison. in the room above what used to be mr. harrison's grocery-store, eoliths beyond all count are on view, which he has managed to amass in his rare moments of leisure. as he lovingly cons the stones over, and shows off their points, his enthusiasm is likely to prove catching. but the visitor, we shall suppose, is sceptical. very good; it is not far, though a stiffish pull, to ash on the top of the north downs. hereabouts are mr. harrison's hunting-grounds. over these stony tracts he has conducted sir joseph prestwich and sir john evans, to convince the one authority, but not the other. mark this pebbly drift of rusty-red colour spread irregularly along the fields, as if the relics of some ancient stream or flood. on the surface, if you are lucky, you may pick up an unquestionable palaeolith of early type, with the rusty-red stain of the gravel over it to show that it has lain there for ages. but both on and below the surface, the gravel being perhaps from five to seven feet deep, another type of stone occurs, the so-called eolith. it is picked out from amongst ordinary stones partly because of its shape, and partly because of rough and much-worn chippings that suggest the hand of art or of nature, according to your turn of mind. take one by itself, explains mr. harrison, and you will be sure to rank it as ordinary road-metal. but take a series together, and then, he urges, the sight of the same forms over and over again will persuade you in the end that human design, not aimless chance, has been at work here. well, i must leave mr. harrison to convert you into the friend or foe of his eoliths, and will merely add a word in regard to the probable age of these eolith-bearing gravels. sir joseph prestwich has tried to work the problem out. now-a-days kent and sussex run eastwards in five more or less parallel ridges, not far short of , feet high, with deep valleys between. formerly, however, no such valleys existed, and a great dome of chalk, some , feet high at its crown, perhaps, though others would say less, covered the whole country. that is why rivers like the darenth and medway cut clean through the north downs and fall into the thames, instead of flowing eastwards down the later valleys. they started to carve their channels in the soft chalk in the days gone by, when the watershed went north and south down the slopes of the great dome. and the red gravels with the eoliths in them, concludes prestwich, must have come down the north slope whilst the dome was still intact; for they contain fragments of stone that hail from right across the present valleys. but, if the eoliths are man-made, then man presumably killed game and cut it up on top of the wealden dome, how many years ago one trembles to think. * * * * * let us next proceed to the subject of palaeoliths. there is, at any rate, no doubt about them. yet, rather more than half a century ago, when the abbe boucher de perthes found palaeoliths in the gravels of the somme at abbeville, and was the first to recognize them for what they are, there was no small scandal. now-a-days, however, the world takes it as a matter of course that those lumpish, discoloured, and much-rolled stones, shaped something like a pear, which come from the high terraces deposited by the ancient thames, were once upon a time the weapons or tools of somebody who had plenty of muscle in his arm. plenty of skill he had in his fingers, too; for to chip a flint-pebble along both faces, till it takes a more or less symmetrical and standard shape, is not so easy as it sounds. hammer away yourself at such a pebble, and see what a mess you make of it. to go back for one moment to the subject of eoliths, we may fairly argue that experimental forms still ruder than the much-trimmed palaeoliths of the early river-drift must exist somewhere, whether mr. harrison's eoliths are to be classed amongst them or not. indeed, the tasmanians of modern days carved their simple tools so roughly, that any one ignorant of their history might easily mistake the greater number for common pieces of stone. on the other hand, as we move on from the earlier to the later types of river-drift implements, we note how by degrees practice makes perfect. the forms grow ever more regular and refined, up to the point of time which has been chosen as the limit for the first of the three main stages into which the vast palaeolithic epoch has to be broken up. the man of the late st. acheul period, as it is termed, was truly a great artist in his way. if you stare vacantly at his handiwork in a museum, you are likely to remain cold to its charm. but probe about in a gravel-bed till you have the good fortune to light on a masterpiece; tenderly smooth away with your fingers the dirt sticking to its surface, and bring to view the tapering or oval outline, the straight edge, the even and delicate chipping over both faces; then, wrapping it carefully in your handkerchief, take it home to wash, and feast till bedtime on the clean feel and shining mellow colour of what is hardly more an implement than a gem. they took a pride in their work, did the men of old; and, until you can learn to sympathize, you are no anthropologist. during the succeeding main stage of the palaeolithic epoch there was a decided set-back in the culture, as judged by the quality of the workmanship in flint. those were the days of the mousterians who dined off woolly rhinoceros in jersey. their stone implements, worked only on one face, are poor things by comparison with those of late st. acheul days, though for a time degenerated forms of the latter seem to have remained in use. what had happened? we can only guess. probably something to do with the climate was at the bottom of this change for the worse. thus m. rutot believes that during the ice-age each big freeze was followed by an equally big flood, preceding each fresh return of milder weather. one of these floods, he thinks, must have drowned out the neat-fingered race of st. acheul, and left the coast clear for the mousterians with their coarser type of culture. perhaps they were coarser in their physical type as well.[ ] [footnote : theirs was certainly the rather ape-like neanderthal build. if, however, the skull found at galley hill, near northfleet in kent, amongst the gravels laid down by the thames when it was about ninety feet above its present level, is of early palaeolithic date, as some good authorities believe, there was a kind of man away back in the drift-period who had a fairly high forehead and moderate brow-ridges, and in general was a less brutal specimen of humanity than our mousterian friend of the large grinders.] to the credit of the mousterians, however, must be set down the fact that they are associated with the habit of living in caves, and perhaps may even have started it; though some implements of the drift type occur in le moustier itself, as well as in other caves, such as the famous kent's cavern near torquay. climate, once more, has very possibly to answer for having thus driven man underground. anyway, whether because they must, or because they liked it, the mousterians went on with their cave life during an immense space of time, making little progress; unless it were to learn gradually how to sharpen bones into implements. but caves and bones alike were to play a far more striking part in the days immediately to follow. the third and last main stage of the palaeolithic epoch developed by degrees into a golden age of art. but i cannot dwell on all its glories. i must pass by the beautiful work in flint; such as the thin blades of laurel-leaf pattern, fairly common in france but rare in england, belonging to the stage or type of culture known as the solutrian (from solutre in the department of saone-et-loire). i must also pass by the exquisite french examples of the carvings or engravings of bone and ivory; a single engraving of a horse's head, from the cave at creswell crags in derbyshire, being all that england has to offer in this line. any good museum can show you specimens or models of these delightful objects; whereas the things about which i am going to speak must remain hidden away for ever where their makers left them--i mean the paintings and engravings on the walls of the french and spanish caves. i invite you to accompany me in the spirit first of all to the cave of gargas near aventiron, under the shadow of the pic du midi in the high pyrenees. half-way up a hill, in the midst of a wilderness of rocky fragments, the relics of the ice-age, is a smallish hole, down which we clamber into a spacious but low-roofed grotto, stretching back five hundred feet or so into infinite darkness. hard by the mouth, where the light of day freely enters, are the remains of a hearth, with bone-refuse and discarded implements mingling with the ashes to a considerable depth. a glance at these implements, for instance the small flint scraper with narrow high back and perpendicular chipping along the sides, is enough to show that the men who once warmed their fingers here were of the so-called aurignacian type (aurignac in the department of haute garonne, in southern france), that is to say, lived somewhere about the dawn of the third stage of the palaeolithic epoch. directly after their disappearance nature would seem to have sealed up the cave again until our time, so that we can study them here all by themselves. now let us take our lamps and explore the secrets of the interior. the icy torrents that hollowed it in the limestone have eaten away rounded alcoves along the sides. on the white surface of these, glazed over with a preserving film of stalactite, we at once notice the outlines of many hands. most of them left hands, showing that the aurignacians tended to be right-handed, like ourselves, and dusted on the paint, black manganese or red ochre, between the outspread fingers in just way that we, too, would find convenient. curiously enough, this practice of stencilling hands upon the walls of caves is in vogue amongst the australian natives; though unfortunately, they keep the reason, if there is any deeper one than mere amusement, strictly to themselves. like the australians, again, and other rude peoples, these aurignacians would appear to have been given to lopping off an occasional finger--from some religious motive, we may guess--to judge from the mutilated look of a good many of the handprints. the use of paint is here limited to this class of wall-decoration. but a sharp flint makes an excellent graving tool; and the aurignacian hunter is bent on reproducing by this means the forms of those game-animals about which he doubtless dreams night and day. his efforts in this direction, however, rather remind us of those of our infant-schools. look at this bison. his snout is drawn sideways, but the horns branch out right and left as if in a full-face view. again, our friend scamps details such as the legs. sheer want of skill, we may suspect, leads him to construct what is more like the symbol of something thought than the portrait of something seen. and so we wander farther and farther into the gloomy depths, adding ever new specimens to our pre-historic menagerie, including the rare find of a bird that looks uncommonly like the penguin. mind, by the way, that you do not fall into that round hole in the floor. it is enormously deep; and more than forty cave-bears have left their skeletons at the bottom, amongst which your skeleton would be a little out of place. next day let us move off eastwards to the little pyrenees to see another cave, niaux, high up in a valley scarred nearly up to the top by former glaciers. this cave is about a mile deep; and it will take you half a mile of awkward groping amongst boulders and stalactites, not to mention a choke in one part of the passage such as must puzzle a fat man, before the cavern becomes spacious, and you find yourself in the vast underground cathedral that pre-historic man has chosen for his picture-gallery. this was a later stock, that had in the meantime learnt how to draw to perfection. consider the bold black and white of that portrait of a wild pony, with flowing mane and tail, glossy barrel, and jolly snub-nosed face. it is four or five feet across, and not an inch of the work is out of scale. the same is true of nearly every one of the other fifty or more figures of game-animals. these artists could paint what they saw. yet they could paint up on the walls what they thought, too. there are likewise whole screeds of symbols waiting, perhaps waiting for ever, to be interpreted. the dots and lines and pothooks clearly belong to a system of picture-writing. can we make out their meaning at all? once in a way, perhaps. note these marks looking like two different kinds of throwing-club; at any rate, there are australian weapons not unlike them. to the left of them are a lot of dots in what look like patterns, amongst which we get twice over the scheme of one dot in the centre of a circle of others. then, farther still to the left, comes the painted figure of a bison; or, to be more accurate, the front half is painted, the back being a piece of protruding rock that gives the effect of low relief. the bison is rearing back on its haunches, and there is a patch of red paint, like an open wound, just over the region of its heart. let us try to read the riddle. it may well embody a charm that ran somewhat thus: "with these weapons, and by these encircling tactics, may we slay a fat bison, o ye powers of the dark!" depend upon it, the men who went half a mile into the bowels of a mountain, to paint things up on the walls, did not do so merely for fun. this is a very eerie place, and i daresay most of us would not like to spend the night there alone; though i know a pre-historian who did. in australia, as we shall see later on, rock-paintings of game-animals, not so lifelike as these of the old days, but symbolic almost beyond all recognizing, form part of solemn ceremonies whereby good hunting is held to be secured. something of the sort, then, we may suppose, took place ages ago in the cave of niaux. so, indeed, it was a cathedral after a fashion; and, having in mind the carven pillars of stalactite, the curving alcoves and side-chapels, the shining white walls, and the dim ceiling that held in scorn our powerful lamps, i venture to question whether man has ever lifted up his heart in a grander one. space would fail me if i now sought to carry you off to the cave of altamira, near santander, in the north-west of spain. here you might see at its best a still later style of rock-painting, which deserts mere black and white for colour-shading of the most free description. indeed, it is almost too free, in my judgment; for, though the control of the artist over his rude material is complete, he is inclined to turn his back on real life, forcing the animal forms into attitudes more striking than natural, and endowing their faces sometimes, as it seems to me, with almost human expressions. whatever may be thought of the likelihood of these beasts being portrayed to look like men, certain it is that in the painted caves of this period the men almost invariably have animal heads, as if they were mythological beings, half animal and half human; or else--as perhaps is more probable--masked dancers. at one place, however--namely, in the rock shelter of cogul near lerida, on the spanish side of the pyrenees, we have a picture of a group of women dancers who are not masked, but attired in the style of the hour. they wear high hats or chignons, tight waists, and bell-shaped skirts. really, considering that we thus have a contemporary fashion-plate, so to say, whilst there are likewise the numerous stencilled hands elsewhere on view, and even, as i have seen with my own eyes at niaux in the sandy floor, hardened over with stalagmite, the actual print of a foot, we are brought very near to our palaeolithic forerunners; though indefinite ages part them from us if we reckon by sheer time. * * * * * before ending this chapter, i have still to make good a promise to say something about the neolithic men of western europe. these people often, though not always, polished their stone; the palaeolithic folk did not. that is the distinguishing mark by which the world is pleased to go. it would be fatal to forget, however, that, with this trifling difference, go many others which testify more clearly to the contrast between the older and newer types of culture. thus it has still to be proved that the palaeolithic races ever used pottery, or that they domesticated animals--for instance, the fat ponies which they were so fond of eating; or that they planted crops. all these things did the neolithic peoples sooner or later; so that it would not be strange if palaeolithic man withdrew in their favour, because he could not compete. pre-history is at present almost silent concerning the manner of his passing. in a damp and draughty tunnel, however, called mas d'azil, in the south of france, where the river arize still bores its way through a mountain, some palaeolithic folk seem to have lingered on in a sad state of decay. the old sureness of touch in the matter of carving bone had left them. again, their painting was confined to the adorning of certain pebbles with spots and lines, curious objects, that perhaps are not without analogy in australia, whilst something like them crops up again in the north of scotland in what seems to be the early iron-age. had the rest of the palaeolithic men already followed the reindeer and other arctic animals towards the north-east? or did the neolithic invasion, which came from the south, wipe out the lot? or was there a commingling of stocks, and may some of us have a little dose of palaeolithic blood, as we certainly have a large dose of neolithic? to all these questions it can only be replied that we do not yet know. no more do we know half as much as we should like about fifty things relating to the small, dark, long-headed neolithic folk, with a language that has possibly left traces in the modern basque, who spread over the west till they reached great britain--it probably was an island by this time--and erected the well-known long barrows and other monuments of a megalithic (great-stone) type; though not the round barrows, which are the work of a subsequent round-headed race of the bronze-age. every day, however, the spade is adding to our knowledge. besides, most of the ruder peoples of the modern world were at the neolithic stage of culture at the time of their discovery by europeans. hence the weapons, the household utensils, the pottery, the pile-dwellings, and so on, can be compared closely; and we have a fresh instance of the way in which one branch of anthropology can aid another. in pursuance of my plan, however, of merely pitching here and there on an illustrative point, i shall conclude by an excursion to brandon, just on the suffolk side of the border between that county and norfolk. here we can stand, as it were, with one foot in neolithic times and the other in the life of to-day. when canon greenwell, in , explored in this neighbourhood one of the neolithic flint-mines known as grime's graves, he had to dig out the rubbish from a former funnel-shaped pit some forty feet deep. down at this level, it appeared, the neolithic worker had found the layer of the best flint. this he quarried by means of narrow galleries in all directions. for a pick he used a red-deer's antler. in the british museum is to be seen one of these with the miner's thumb-mark stamped on a piece of clay sticking to the handle. his lamp was a cup of chalk. his ladder was probably a series of rough steps cut in the sides of the pit. as regards the use to which the material was put, a neolithic workshop was found just to the south of grime's graves. here, scattered about on all sides, were the cores, the hammer-stones that broke them up, and knives, scrapers, borers, spear-heads and arrow-heads galore, in all stages of manufacture. well, now let us hie to lingheath, not far off, and what do we find? a family of the name of dyer carry on to-day exactly the same old method of mining. their pits are of squarer shape than the neolithic ones, but otherwise similar. their one-pronged pick retains the shape of the deer's antler. their light is a candle stuck in a cup of chalk. and the ladder is just a series of ledges or, as they call them, "toes" in the wall, five feet apart and connected by foot-holes. the miner simply jerks his load, several hundredweight of flints, from ledge to ledge by the aid of his head, which he protects with something that neolithic man was probably without, namely, an old bowler hat. he even talks a language of his own. "bubber-hutching on the sosh" is the term for sinking a pit on the slant, and, for all we can tell, may have a very ancient pedigree. and what becomes of the miner's output? it is sold by the "jag"--a jag being a pile just so high that when you stand on any side you can see the bottom flint on the other--to the knappers of brandon. any one of these--for instance, my friend mr. fred snare--will, while you wait, break up a lump with a short round hammer into manageable pieces. then, placing a "quarter" with his left hand the leather pad that covers his knee, he will, with an oblong hammer, strike off flake after flake, perhaps , in a morning; and finally will work these up into sharp-edged squares to serve as gun-flints for the trade with native africa. alas! the palmy days of knapping gun-flints for the british army will never return to brandon. still, there must have been trade depression in those parts at any time from the bronze-age up to the times of brown bess; for the strike-a-lights, still to be got at a penny each, can have barely kept the wolf from the door. and mr. snare is not merely an artisan but an artist. he has chipped out a flint ring, a feat which taxed the powers of the clever neolithic knappers of pre-dynastic egypt; whilst with one of his own flint fishhooks he has taken a fine trout from the little ouse that runs by the town. thus there are things in old england that are older even than some of our friends wot. in that one county of suffolk, for instance, the good flint--so rich in colour as it is, and so responsive to the hammer, at any rate if you get down to the lower layers or "sases," for instance, the floorstone, or the black smooth-stone that is generally below water-level--has served the needs of all the palaeolithic periods, and of the neolithic age as well, and likewise of the modern englishmen who fought with flintlocks at waterloo, or still more recently took out tinder-boxes with them to the war in south africa. and what does this stand for in terms of the antiquity of man? thousands of years? we do not know exactly; but say rather hundreds of thousands of years. chapter iii race there is a story about the british sailor who was asked to state what he understood by a dago. "dagoes," he replied, "is anything wot isn't our sort of chaps." in exactly the same way would an ancient greek have explained what he meant by a "barbarian." when it takes this wholesale form we speak, not without reason, of race-prejudice. we may well wonder in the meantime how far this prejudice answers to something real. race would certainly seem to be a fact that stares one in the face. stroll down any london street: you cannot go wrong about that hindu student with features rather like ours but of a darker shade. the short dapper man with eyes a little aslant is no less unmistakably a japanese. it takes but a slightly more practised eye to pick out the german waiter, the french chauffeur, and the italian vendor of ices. lastly, when you have made yourself really good at the game, you will be scarcely more likely to confuse a small dark welshman with a broad florid yorkshireman than a retriever with a mastiff. yes, but remember that you are judging by the gross impression, not by the element of race or breed as distinguished from the rest. here, you say, come a couple of our american cousins. perhaps it is their speech that betrayeth them; or perhaps it is the general cut of their jib. if you were to go into their actual pedigrees, you would find that the one had a scotch father and a mother from out of dorset; whilst the other was partly scandinavian and partly spanish with a tincture of jew. yet to all intents and purposes they form one type. and, the more deeply you go into it, the more mixed we all of us turn out to be, when breed, and breed alone, is the subject of inquiry. yet race, in the only sense that the word has for an anthropologist, means inherited breed, and nothing more or less--inherited breed, and all that it covers, whether bodily or mental features. for race, let it not be forgotten, presumably extends to mind as well as to body. it is not merely skin-deep. contrast the stoical red indian with the vivacious negro; or the phlegmatic dutchman with the passionate italian. true, you say, but what about the influence of their various climates, or again of their different ideals of behaviour? quite so. it is immensely difficult to separate the effects of the various factors. yet surely the race-factor counts for something in the mental constitution. any breeder of horses will tell you that neither the climate of newmarket, nor careful training, nor any quantity of oats, nor anything else, will put racing mettle into cart-horse stock. in what follows, then, i shall try to show just what the problem about the race-factor is, even if i have to trespass a little way into general biology in order to do so.[ ] and i shall not attempt to conceal the difficulties relating to the race-problem. i know that the ordinary reader is supposed to prefer that all the thinking should be done beforehand, and merely the results submitted to him. but i cannot believe that he would find it edifying to look at half-a-dozen books upon the races of mankind, and find half-a-dozen accounts of their relationships, having scarcely a single statement in common. far better face the fact that race still baffles us almost completely. yet, breed is there; and, in its own time and in its own way, breed will out. [footnote : the reader is advised to consult also the more comprehensive study on _evolution_ by professors geddes and thomson in this series.] race or breed was a moment ago described as a factor in human nature. but to break up human nature into factors is something that we can do, or try to do, in thought only. in practice we can never succeed in doing anything of the kind. a machine such as a watch we can take to bits and then put together again. even a chemical compound such as water we can resolve into oxygen and hydrogen and then reproduce out of its elements. but to dissect a living thing is to kill it once and for all. life, as was said in the first chapter, is something unique, with the unique property of being able to evolve. as life evolves, that is to say changes, by being handed on from certain forms to certain other forms, a partial rigidity marks the process together with a partial plasticity. there is a stiffening, so to speak, that keeps the life-force up to a point true to its old direction; though, short of that limit, it is free to take a new line of its own. race, then, stands for the stiffening in the evolutionary process. just up to what point it goes in any given case we probably can never quite tell. yet, if we could think our way anywhere near to that point in regard to man, i doubt not that we should eventually succeed in forging a fresh instrument for controlling the destinies of our species, an instrument perhaps more powerful than education itself--i mean, eugenics, the art of improving the human breed. to see what race means when considered apart, let us first of all take your individual self, and ask how you would proceed to separate your inherited nature from the nature which you have acquired in the course of living your life. it is not easy. suppose, however, that you had a twin brother born, if indeed that were possible, as like you as one pea is like another. an accident in childhood, however, has caused him to lose a leg. so he becomes a clerk, living a sedentary life in an office. you, on the other hand, with your two lusty legs to help you, become a postman, always on the run. well, the two of you are now very different men in looks and habits. he is pale and you are brown. you play football and he sits at home reading. nevertheless, any friend who knows you both intimately will discover fifty little things that bespeak in you the same underlying nature and bent. you are both, for instance, slightly colour-blind, and both inclined to fly into violent passions on occasion. that is your common inheritance peeping out--if, at least, your friend has really managed to make allowance for your common bringing-up, which might mainly account for the passionateness, though hardly for the colour-blindness. but now comes the great difficulty. let us further suppose that you two twins marry wives who are also twins born as like as two peas; and each pair of you has a family. which of the two batches of children will tend on the whole to have the stronger legs? your legs are strong by use; your brother's are weak by disuse. but do use and disuse make any difference to the race? that is the theoretical question which, above all others, complicates and hampers our present-day attempts to understand heredity. in technical language, this is the problem of use-inheritance, otherwise known as the inheritance of acquired characters. it is apt to seem obvious to the plain man that the effects of use and disuse are transmitted to offspring. so, too, thought lamarck, who half a century before darwin propounded a theory of the origin of species that was equally evolutionary in its way. why does the giraffe have so long a neck? lamarck thought it was because the giraffe had acquired a habit of stretching his neck out. every time there was a bad season, the giraffes must all stretch up as high as ever they could towards the leafy tops of the trees; and the one that stretched up farthest survived, and handed on the capacity for a like feat to his fortunate descendants. now darwin himself was ready to allow that use and disuse might have some influence on the offspring's inheritance; but he thought that this influence was small as compared with the influence of what, for want of a better term, he called spontaneous variation. certain of his followers, however, who call themselves neo-darwinians, are ready to go one better. led by the german biologist, weismann, they would thrust the lamarckians, with their hypothesis of use-inheritance, clean out of the field. spontaneous variation, they assert, is all that is needed to prepare the way for the selection of the tall giraffe. it happened to be born that way. in other words, its parents had it in them to breed it so. this is not a theory that tells one anything positive. it is merely a caution to look away from use and disuse to another explanation of variation that is not yet forthcoming. after all, the plain man must remember that the effects of use and disuse, which he seems to see everywhere about him, are mixed up with plenty of apparent instances to the contrary. he will smile, perhaps, when i tell him that weismann cut off the tails of endless mice, and, breeding them together, found that tails invariably decorated the race as before. i remember hearing mr. bernard shaw comment on this experiment. he was defending the lamarckianism of samuel butler, who declared that our heredity was a kind of race-memory, a lapsed intelligence. "why," said mr. shaw, "did the mice continue to grow tails? because they never wanted to have them cut off." but men-folk are wont to shave off their beards because they want to have them off; and, amongst people more conservative in their habits than ourselves, such a custom may persist through numberless generations. yet who ever observed the slightest signs of beardlessness being produced in this way? on the other hand, there are beardless as well as bearded races in the world; and, by crossing them, you could, doubtless, soon produce ups and downs in the razor-trade. only, as weismann's school would say, the required variation is in this case spontaneous, that is, comes entirely of its own accord. leaving the question of use-inheritance open, i pass on to say a word about variation as considered in itself and apart from this doubtful influence. weismann holds, that organisms resulting from the union of two cells are more variable than those produced out of a single one. on this view, variation depends largely on the laws of the interaction of the dissimilar characters brought together in cell-union. but what are these laws? the best that can be said is that we are getting to know a little more about them every day. amongst other lines of inquiry, the so-called mendelian experiments promise to clear up much that is at present dark. the development of the individual that results from such cell-union is no mere mixture or addition, but a process of selective organization. to put it very absurdly, one does not find a pair of two-legged parents having a child with legs as big as the two sets of legs together, or with four legs, two of them of one shape and two of another. in other words, of the possibilities contributed by the father and mother, some are taken and some are left in the case of any one child. further, different children will represent different selections from amongst the germinal elements. mendelism, by the way, is especially concerned to find out the law according to which the different types of organization are distributed between the offspring. each child, meanwhile, is a unique individual, a living whole with an organization of its very own. this means that its constituent elements form a system. they stand to each other in relations of mutual support. in short, life is possible because there is balance. this general state of balance, however, is able to go along with a lot of special balancings that seem largely independent of each other. it is important to remember this when we come a little later on to consider the instincts. all sorts of lesser systems prevail within the larger system represented by the individual organism. it is just as if within the state with its central government there were a number of county councils, municipal corporations, and so on, each of them enjoying a certain measure of self-government on its own account. thus we can see in a very general way how it is that so much variation is possible. the selective organization, which from amongst the germinal elements precipitates ever so many and different forms of fresh life, is so loose and elastic that a working arrangement between the parts can be reached in all sorts of directions. the lesser systems are so far self-governing that they can be trusted to get along in almost any combination; though of course some combinations are naturally stronger and more stable than the rest, and hence tend to outlast them, or, as the phrase goes, to be preserved by natural selection. it is time to take account of the principle of natural selection. we have done with the subject of variation. whether use and disuse have helped to shape the fresh forms of life, or whether these are purely spontaneous combinations that have come into being on what we are pleased to call their own account, at any rate let us take them as given. what happens now? at this point begins the work of natural selection. darwin's great achievement was to formulate this law; though it is only fair to add that it was discovered by a.r. wallace at the same moment. both of them get the first hint of it from malthus. this english clergyman, writing about half a century earlier, had shown that the growth of population is apt very considerably to outstrip the development of food-supply; whereupon natural checks such as famine or war must, he argued, ruthlessly intervene so as to redress the balance. applying these considerations to the plant and animal kingdoms at large, darwin and wallace perceived that, of the multitudinous forms of life thrust out upon the world to get a livelihood as best they could, a vast quantity must be weeded out. moreover, since they vary exceedingly in their type of organization, it seemed reasonable to suppose that, of the competitors, those who were innately fitted to make the best of the ever-changing circumstances would outlive the rest. an appeal to the facts fully bore out this hypothesis. it must not, indeed, be thought that all the weeding out which goes on favours the fittest. accidents will always happen. on the whole, however, the type that is most at home under the surrounding conditions, it may be because it is more complex, or it may be because it is of simpler organization, survives the rest. now to survive is to survive to breed. if you live to eighty, and have no children, you do not survive in the biological sense; whereas your neighbour who died at forty may survive in a numerous progeny. natural selection is always in the last resort between individuals; because individuals are alone competent to breed. at the same time, the reason for the individual's survival may lie very largely outside him. amongst the bees, for instance, a non-working type of insect survives to breed because the sterile workers do their duty by the hive. so, too, that other social animal, man, carries on the race by means of some whom others die childless in order to preserve. nevertheless, breeding being a strictly individual and personal affair, there is always a risk lest a society, through spending its best too freely, end by recruiting its numbers from those in whom the engrained capacity to render social service is weakly developed. to rear a goodly family must always be the first duty of unselfish people; for otherwise the spirit of unselfishness can hardly be kept alive the world. enough about heredity as a condition of evolution. we return, with a better chance of distinguishing them, to the consideration of the special effects that it brings about. it was said just now that heredity is the stiffening in human nature, a stiffening bound up with a more or less considerable offset of plasticity. now clearly it is in some sense true that the child's whole nature, its modicum of plasticity included, is handed on from its parents. our business in this chapter, however, is on the whole to put out of our thoughts this plastic side of the inherited life-force. the more or less rigid, definite, systematized characters--these form the hereditary factor, the race. now none of these are ever quite fixed. a certain measure of plasticity has to be counted in as part of their very nature. even in the bee, with its highly definite instincts, there is a certain flexibility bound up with each of these; so that, for instance, the inborn faculty of building up the comb regularly is modified if the hive happens to be of an awkward shape. yet, as compared with what remains over, the characters that we are able to distinguish as racial must show fixity. unfortunately, habits show fixity too. yet habits belong to the plastic side of our nature; for, in forming a habit, we are plastic at the start, though hardly so once we have let ourselves go. habits, then, must be discounted in our search for the hereditary bias in our lives. it is no use trying to disguise the difficulties attending an inquiry into race. * * * * * these difficulties notwithstanding, in the rest of this chapter let us consider a few of what are usually taken to be racial features of man. as before, the treatment must be illustrative; we cannot work through the list. further, we must be content with a very rough division into bodily and mental features. just at this point we shall find it very hard to say what is to be reckoned bodily and what mental. leaving these niceties to the philosophers, however, let us go ahead as best we can. oh for an external race-mark about which there could be no mistake! that has always been a dream of the anthropologist; but it is a dream that shows no signs of coming true. all sorts of tests of this kind have been suggested. cranium, cranial sutures, frontal process, nasal bones, eye, chin, jaws, wisdom teeth, hair, humerus, pelvis, the heart-line across the hand, calf, tibia, heel, colour, and even smell--all these external signs, as well as many more, have been thought, separately or together, to afford the crucial test of a man's pedigree. clearly i cannot here cross-examine the entire crowd of claimants, were i even competent to do so. i shall, therefore, say a few words about two, and two only, namely, head-form and colour. i believe that, if the plain man were to ask himself how, in walking down a london street, he distinguished one racial type from another, he would find that he chiefly went by colour. in a general way he knows how to make allowance for sunburn and get down to the native complexion underneath. but, if he went off presently to a museum and tried to apply his test to the pre-historic men on view there, it would fail for the simple reason that long ago they left their skins behind them. he would have to get to work, therefore, on their bony parts, and doubtless would attack the skulls for choice. by considering head-form and colour, then, we may help to cover a certain amount of the ground, vast as it is. for remember that anthropology in this department draws no line between ancient and modern, or between savage and civilized, but tries to tackle every sort of man that comes within its reach. head-shape is really a far more complicated thing to arrive at for purposes of comparison than one might suppose. since no part of the skull maintains a stable position in regard to the rest, there can be no fixed standard of measurement, but at most a judgment of likeness or unlikeness founded on an averaging of the total proportions. thus it comes about that, in the last resort, the impression of a good expert is worth in these matters a great deal more than rows of figures. moreover, rows of figures in their turn take a lot of understanding. besides, they are not always easy to get. this is especially the case if you are measuring a live subject. perhaps he is armed with a club, and may take amiss the use of an instrument that has to be poked into his ears, or what not. so, for one reason or another, we have often to put up with that very unsatisfactory single-figure description of the head-form which is known as the cranial index. you take the greatest length and greatest breadth of the skull, and write down the result obtained by dividing the former into the latter when multiplied by . medium-headed people have an index of anything between and . below that figure men rank as long-headed, above it as round-headed. this test, however, as i have hinted, will not by itself carry us far. on the other hand, i believe that a good judge of head-form in all its aspects taken together will generally be able to make a pretty shrewd guess as to the people amongst whom the owner of a given skull is to be placed. unfortunately, to say people is not to say race. it may be that a given people tend to have a characteristic head-form, not so much because they are of common breed, as because they are subjected after birth, or at any rate, after conception, to one and the same environment. thus some careful observations made recently by professor boas on american immigrants from various parts of europe seem to show that the new environment does in some unexplained way modify the head-form to a remarkable extent. for example, amongst the east european jews the head of the european-born is shorter and wider than that of the american-born, the difference being even more marked in the second generation of the american-born. at the same time, other european nationalities exhibit changes of other kinds, all these changes, however, being in the direction of a convergence towards one and the same american type. how are we to explain these facts, supposing them to be corroborated by more extensive studies? it would seem that we must at any rate allow for a considerable plasticity in the head-form, whereby it is capable of undergoing decisive alteration under the influences of environment; not, of course, at any moment during life, but during those early days when the growth of the head is especially rapid. the further question whether such an acquired character can be transmitted we need not raise again. before passing on, however, let this one word to the wise be uttered. if the skull can be so affected, then what about the brain inside it? if the hereditarily long-headed can change under suitable conditions, then what about the hereditarily short-witted? it remains to say a word about the types of pre-historic men as judged by their bony remains and especially by their skulls. naturally the subject bristles with uncertainties. by itself stands the so-called pithecanthropus (ape-man) of java, a regular "missing link." the top of the skull, several teeth, and a thigh-bone, found at a certain distance from each other, are all that we have of it or him. dr. dubois, their discoverer, has made out a fairly strong case for supposing that the geological stratum in which the remains occurred is pliocene--that is to say, belongs to the tertiary epoch, to which man has not yet been traced back with any strong probability. it must remain, however, highly doubtful whether this is a proto-human being, or merely an ape of a type related to the gibbon. the intermediate character is shown especially in the head form. if an ape, pithecanthropus had an enormous brain; if a man, he must have verged on what we should consider idiocy. also standing somewhat by itself is the heidelberg man. all that we have of him is a well-preserved lower jaw with its teeth. it was found more than eighty feet below the surface of the soil, in company with animal remains that make it possible to fix its position in the scale of pre-historic periods with some accuracy. judged by this test, it is as old as the oldest of the unmistakable drift implements, the so-called chellean (from chelles in the department of seine-et-marne in france). the jaw by itself would suggest a gorilla, being both chinless and immensely powerful. the teeth, however, are human beyond question, and can be matched, or perhaps even in respect to certain marks of primitiveness out-matched, amongst ancient skulls of the neanderthal order, if not also amongst modern ones from australia. we may next consider the neanderthal group of skulls, so named after the first of that type found in in the neanderthal valley close to dusseldorf in the rhine basin. a narrow head, with low and retreating forehead, and a thick projecting brow-ridge, yet with at least twice the brain capacity of any gorilla, set the learned world disputing whether this was an ape, a normal man, or an idiot. it was unfortunate that there were no proofs to hand of the age of these relics. after a while, however, similar specimens began to come in. thus in the jaw of a woman, displaying a tendency to chinlessness combined with great strength, was found in the cave of la naulette in belgium, associated with more or less dateable remains of the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and reindeer. a few years earlier, though its importance was not appreciated at the moment, there had been discovered, near forbes' quarry at gibraltar, the famous gibraltar skull, now to be seen in the museum of the royal college of surgeons in london. any visitor will notice at the first glance that this is no man of to-day. there are the narrow head, low crown, and prominent brow-ridge as before, supplemented by the most extraordinary eye-holes that were ever seen, vast circles widely separated from each other. and other peculiar features will reveal themselves on a close inspection; for instance, the horseshoe form in which, ape-fashion, the teeth are arranged, and the muzzle-like shape of the face due to the absence of the depressions that in our own case run down on each side from just outside the nostrils towards the corners of the mouth. and now at the present time we have twenty or more individuals of this neanderthal type to compare. the latest discoveries are perhaps the most interesting, because in two and perhaps other cases the man has been properly buried. thus at la chapelle-aux-saints, in the french department of correze, a skeleton, which in its head-form closely recalls the gibraltar example, was found in a pit dug in the floor of a low grotto. it lay on its back, head to the west, with one arm bent towards the head, the other outstretched, and the legs drawn up. some bison bones lay in the grave as if a food-offering had been made. hard by were flint implements of a well-marked mousterian type. in the shelter of le moustier itself a similar burial was discovered. the body lay on its right side, with the right arm bent so as to support the head upon a carefully arranged pillow of flints; whilst the left arm was stretched out, so that the hand might be near a magnificent oval stone-weapon chipped on both faces, evidently laid there by design. so much for these men of the neanderthal type, denizens of the mid-palaeolithic world at the very latest. ape-like they doubtless are in their head-form up to a certain point, though almost all their separate features occur here and there amongst modern australian natives. and yet they were men enough, had brains enough, to believe in a life after death. there is something to think about in that. without going outside europe, we have, however, to reckon with at least two other types of very early head-form. in one of the caves of mentone known as la grotte des enfants two skeletons from a low stratum were of a primitive type, but unlike the neanderthal, and have been thought to show affinities to the modern negro. as, however, no other proto-negroes are indisputably forthcoming either from europe or from any other part of the world, there is little at present to be made out about this interesting racial type. in the layer immediately above the negroid remains, however, as well as in other caves at mentone, were the bones of individuals of quite another order, one being positively a giant. they are known as the cro-magnon race, after a group of them discovered in a rock shelter of that name on the banks of the vezere. these particular people can be shown to be aurignacian--that is to say, to have lived just after the mousterian men of the neanderthal head-form. if, however, as has been already suggested, the galley hill individual, who shows affinities to the cro-magnon type, really goes back to the drift-period, then we can believe that from very early times there co-existed in europe at least two varieties; and these so distinct, that some authorities would trace the original divergence between them right back to the times before man and the apes had parted company, linking the neanderthal race with the gorilla and the cro-magnon race with the orang. the cro-magnon head-form is refined and highly developed. the forehead is high, and the chin shapely, whilst neither the brow-ridge nor the lower jaw protrudes as in the neanderthal type. whether this race survives in modern europe is, as was said in the last chapter, highly uncertain. in certain respects--for instance, in a certain shortness of face--these people present exceptional features; though some think they can still find men of this type in the dordogne district. perhaps the chances are, however, considering how skulls of the neolithic period prove to be anything but uniform, and suggest crossings between different stocks, that we may claim kinship to some extent with the more good-looking of the two main types of palaeolithic man--always supposing that head-form can be taken as a guide. but can it? the pygmies of the congo region have medium heads; the bushmen of south africa, usually regarded as akin in race, have long heads. the american indians, generally supposed to be all, or nearly all, of one racial type, show considerable differences of head-form; and so on. it need not be repeated that any race-mark is liable to deceive. * * * * * we have sufficiently considered the use to which the particular race-mark of head-form has been put in the attempted classification of the very early men who have left their bones behind them. let us now turn to another race-mark, namely colour; because, though it may really be less satisfactory than others, for instance hair, that is the one to which ordinary people naturally turn when they seek to classify by races the present inhabitants of the earth. when linnaeus in pre-darwinian days distinguished four varieties of man, the white european, the red american, the yellow asiatic, and the black african, he did not dream of providing the basis of anything more than an artificial classification. he probably would have agreed with buffon in saying that in every case it was one and the same kind of man, only dyed differently by the different climates. but the darwinian is searching for a natural classification. he wants to distinguish men according to their actual descent. now race and descent mean for him the same thing. hence a race-mark, if one is to be found, must stand for, by co-existing with, the whole mass of properties that form the inheritance. can colour serve for a race-mark in this profound sense? that is the only question here. first of all, what is the use of being coloured one way or the other? does it make any difference? is it something, like the heart-line of the hand, that may go along with useful qualities, but in itself seems to be a meaningless accident? well, as some unfortunate people will be able to tell you, colour is still a formidable handicap in the struggle for existence. not to consider the colour-prejudice in other aspects, there is no gainsaying the part it plays in sexual selection at this hour. the lower animals appear to be guided in the choice of a mate by externals of a striking and obvious sort. and men and women to this day marry more with their eyes than with their heads. the coloration of man, however, though it may have come to subserve the purposes of mating, does not seem in its origin to have been like the bright coloration of the male bird. it was not something wholly useless save as a means of sexual attraction, though in such a capacity useful because a mark of vital vigour. colour almost certainly developed in strict relation to climate. right away in the back ages we must place what bagehot has called the race-making epoch, when the chief bodily differences, including differences of colour, arose amongst men. in those days, we may suppose, natural selection acted largely on the body, because mind had not yet become the prime condition of survival. the rest is a question of pre-historic geography. within the tropics, the habitat of the man-like apes, and presumably of the earliest men, a black skin protects against sunlight. a white skin, on the other hand--though this is more doubtful--perhaps economizes sun-heat in colder latitudes. brown, yellow and the so-called red are intermediate tints suitable to intermediate regions. it is not hard to plot out in the pre-historic map of the world geographical provinces, or "areas of characterization," where races of different shades corresponding to differences in the climate might develop, in an isolation more or less complete, such as must tend to reinforce the process of differentiation. let it not be forgotten, however, that individual plasticity plays its part too in the determination of human colour. the anglo-indian planter is apt to return from a long sojourn in the east with his skin charged with a dark pigment which no amount of pears' soap will remove during the rest of his life. it would be interesting to conduct experiments, on the lines of those of professor boas already mentioned, with the object of discovering in what degree the same capacity for amassing protective pigment declares itself in children of european parentage born in the tropics or transplanted thither during infancy. correspondingly, the tendency of dark stocks to bleach in cold countries needs to be studied. in the background, too, lurks the question whether such effects of individual plasticity can be transmitted to offspring, and become part of the inheritance. one more remark upon the subject of colour. now-a-days civilized peoples, as well as many of the ruder races that the former govern, wear clothes. in other words they have dodged the sun, by developing, with the aid of mind, a complex society that includes the makers of white drill suits and solar helmets. but, under such conditions, the colour of one's skin becomes more or less of a luxury. protective pigment, at any rate now-a-days, counts for little as compared with capacity for social service. colour, in short, is rapidly losing its vital function. will it therefore tend to disappear? in the long run, it would seem--perhaps only in the very long run--it will become dissociated from that general fitness to survive under particular climatic conditions of which it was once the innate mark. be this as it may, race-prejudice, that is so largely founded on sheer considerations of colour, is bound to decay, if and when the races of darker colour succeed in displaying, on the average, such qualities of mind as will enable them to compete with the whites on equal terms, in a world which is coming more and more to include all climates. * * * * * thus we are led on to discuss race in its mental aspect. here, more than ever, we are all at sea, for want of a proper criterion. what is to be the test of mind? indeed, mind and plasticity are almost the same thing. race, therefore, as being the stiffening in the evolution of life, might seem by its very nature opposed to mind as a limiting or obstructing force. are we, then, going to return to the old pre-scientific notion of soul as something alien to body, and thereby simply clogged, thwarted and dragged down? that would never do. body and soul are, for the working purposes of science, to be conceived as in perfect accord, as co-helpers in the work of life, and as such subject to a common development. heredity, then, must be assumed to apply to both equally. in proportion as there is plastic mind there will be plastic body. unfortunately, the most plastic part of body is likewise the hardest to observe, at any rate whilst it is alive, namely, the brain. no certain criterion of heredity, then, is likely to be available from this quarter. you will see it stated, for instance, that the size of the brain cavity will serve to mark off one race from another. this is extremely doubtful, to put it mildly. no doubt the average european shows some advantage in this respect as compared, say, with the bushman. but then you have to write off so much for their respective types of body, a bigger body going in general with a bigger head, that in the end you find yourself comparing mere abstractions. again, the european may be the first to cry off on the ground that comparisons are odious; for some specimens of neanderthal man in sheer size of the brain cavity are said to give points to any of our modern poets and politicians. clearly, then, something is wrong with this test. nor, if the brain itself be examined after death, and the form and number of its convolutions compared, is this criterion of hereditary brain-power any more satisfactory. it might be possible in this way to detect the difference between an idiot and a person of normal intelligence, but not the difference between a fool and a genius. we cross the uncertain line that divides the bodily from the mental when we subject the same problem of hereditary mental endowment to the methods of what is known as experimental psychology. thus acuteness of sight, hearing, taste, smell and feeling are measured by various ingenious devices. seeing what stories travellers bring back with them about the hawk-like vision of hunting races, one might suppose that such comparisons would be all in their favour. the cambridge expedition to torres straits, however, of which dr. haddon was the leader, included several well-trained psychologists, who devoted special attention to this subject; and their results show that the sensory powers of these rude folk were on the average much the same as those of europeans. it is the hunter's experience only that enables him to sight the game at an immense distance. there are a great many more complicated tests of the same type designed to estimate the force of memory, attention, association, reasoning and other faculties that most people would regard as purely mental; whilst another set of such tests deals with reaction to stimulus, co-ordination between hand and eye, fatigue, tremor, and, most ingenious perhaps of all, emotional excitement as shown through the respiration--phenomena which are, as it were, mental and bodily at once and together. unfortunately, psychology cannot distinguish in such cases between the effects of heredity and those of individual experience, whether it take the form of high culture or of a dissipated life. indeed, the purely temporary condition of body and mind is apt to influence the results. a man has been up late, let us say, or has been for a long walk, or has missed a meal; obviously his reaction-times, his record for memory, and so on, will show a difference for the worse. or, again, the subject may confront the experiment in very various moods. at one moment he may be full of vanity, anxious to show what superior qualities he possesses; whilst at another time he will be bored. not to labour the point further, these methods, whatever they may become in the future, are at present unable to afford any criterion whatever of the mental ability that goes with race. they are fertile in statistics; but an interpretation of these statistics that furthers our purpose is still to seek. but surely, it will be said, we can tell an instinct when we come across it, so uniform as it is, and so independent of the rest of the system. not at all. for one thing, the idea that an instinct is apiece of mechanism, as fixed as fate, is quite out of fashion. it is now known to be highly plastic in many cases, to vary considerably in individuals, and to involve conscious processes, thought, feeling and will, at any rate of an elementary kind. again, how are you going to isolate an instinct? those few automatic responses to stimulation that appear shortly after birth, as, for instance, sucking, may perhaps be recognized, since parental training and experience in general are out of the question here. but what about the instinct or group of instincts answering to sex? this is latent until a stage of life when experience is already in full swing. indeed, psychologists are still busy discussing whether man has very few instincts or whether, on the contrary, he appears to have few because he really has so many that, in practice, they keep interfering with one another all the time. in support of the latter view, it has been recently suggested by mr. mcdougall that the best test of the instincts that we have is to be found in the specific emotions. he believes that every instinctive process consists of an afferent part or message, a central part, and an efferent part or discharge. at its two ends the process is highly plastic. message and discharge, to which thought and will correspond, are modified in their type as experience matures. the central part, on the other hand, to which emotion answers on the side of consciousness, remains for ever much the same. to fear, to wonder, to be angry, or disgusted, to be puffed up, or cast down, or to be affected with tenderness--all these feelings, argues mr. mcdougall, and various more complicated emotions arising out of their combinations with each other, are common to all men, and bespeak in them deep-seated tendencies to react on stimulation in relatively particular and definite ways. and there is much, i think, to be said in favour of this contention. yet, granting this, do we thus reach a criterion whereby the different races of men are to be distinguished? far from it. nay, on the contrary, as judged simply by his emotions, man is very much alike everywhere, from china to peru. they are all there in germ, though different customs and grades of culture tend to bring special types of feeling to the fore. indeed, a certain paradox is to be noted here. the negro, one would naturally say, is in general more emotional than the white man. yet some experiments conducted by miss kellor of chicago on negresses and white women, by means of the test of the effects of emotion on respiration, brought out the former as decidedly the more stolid of the two. and, whatever be thought of the value of such methods of proof, certain it is that the observers of rude races incline to put down most of them as apathetic, when not tuned up to concert-pitch by a dance or other social event. it may well be, then, that it is not the hereditary temperament of the negro, so much as the habit, which he shares with other peoples at the same level of culture, of living and acting in a crowd, that accounts for his apparent excitability. but after all, "mafficking" is not unknown in civilized countries. thus the quest for a race-mark of a mental kind is barren once more. * * * * * what, then, you exclaim, is the outcome of this chapter of negatives? is it driving at the universal equality and brotherhood of man? or, on the contrary, does it hint at the need of a stern system of eugenics? i offer nothing in the way of a practical suggestion. i am merely trying to show that, considered anthropologically--that is to say, in terms of pure theory--race or breed remains something which we cannot at present isolate, though we believe it to be there. practice, meanwhile, must wait on theory; mere prejudices, bad as they are, are hardly worse guides to action than premature exploitations of science. as regards the universal brotherhood of man, the most that can be said is this: the old ideas about race as something hard and fast for all time are distinctly on the decline. plasticity, or, in other words, the power of adaptation to environment, has to be admitted to a greater share in the moulding of mind, and even of body, than ever before. but how plasticity is related to race we do not yet know. it may be that use-inheritance somehow incorporates its effects in the offspring of the plastic parents. or it may be simply that plasticity increases with inter-breeding on a wider basis. these problems have still to be solved. as regards eugenics, there is no doubt that a vast and persistent elimination of lives goes on even in civilized countries. it has been calculated that, of every hundred english born alive, fifty do not survive to breed, and, of the remainder, half produce three-quarters of the next generation. but is the elimination selective? we can hardly doubt that it is to some extent. but what its results are--whether it mainly favours immunity from certain diseases, or the capacity for a sedentary life in a town atmosphere, or intelligence and capacity for social service--is largely matter of guesswork. how, then, can we say what is the type to breed from, even if we confine our attention to one country? if, on the other hand, we look farther afield, and study the results of race-mixture or "miscegenation," we but encounter fresh puzzles. that the half-breed is an unsatisfactory person may be true; and yet, until the conditions of his upbringing are somehow discounted, the race problem remains exactly where it was. or, again, it may be true that miscegenation increases human fertility, as some hold; but, until it is shown that the increase of fertility does not merely result in flooding the world with inferior types, we are no nearer to a solution. if, then, there is a practical moral to this chapter, it is merely this: to encourage anthropologists to press forward with their study of race; and in the meantime to do nothing rash. chapter iv environment when a child is born it has been subjected for some three-quarters of a year already to the influences of environment. its race, indeed, was fixed once for all at the moment of conception. yet that superadded measure of plasticity, which has to be treated as something apart from the racial factor, enables it to respond for good or for evil to the pre-natal--that is to say, maternal--environment. thus we may easily fall into the mistake of supposing our race to be degenerate, when poor feeding and exposure to unhealthy surroundings on the part of the mothers are really responsible for the crop of weaklings that we deplore. and, in so far as it turns out to be so, social reformers ought to heave a sigh of relief. why? because to improve the race by way of eugenics, though doubtless feasible within limits, remains an unrealized possibility through our want of knowledge. on the other hand, to improve the physical environment is fairly straight-ahead work, once we can awake the public conscience to the need of undertaking this task for the benefit of all classes of the community alike. if civilized man wishes to boast of being clearly superior to the rest of his kind, it must be mainly in respect to his control over the physical environment. whatever may have been the case in the past, it seems as true now-a-days to say that man makes his physical environment as that his physical environment makes him. even if this be granted, however, it remains the fact that our material circumstances in the widest sense of the term play a very decisive part in the shaping of our lives. hence the importance of geographical studies as they bear on the subject of man. from the moment that a child is conceived, it is subjected to what it is now the fashion to call a "geographic control." take the case of the child of english parents born in india. clearly several factors will conspire to determine whether it lives or dies. for simplicity's sake let us treat them as three. first of all, there is the fact that the child belongs to a particular cultural group; in other words, that it has been born with a piece of paper in its mouth representing one share in the british empire. secondly, there is its race, involving, let us say, blue eyes and light hair, and a corresponding constitution. thirdly, there is the climate and all that goes with it. though in the first of these respects the white child is likely to be superior to the native, inasmuch as it will be tended with more careful regard to the laws of health; yet such disharmony prevails between the other two factors of race and climate, that it will almost certainly die, if it is not removed at a certain age from the country. possibly the english could acclimatize themselves in india at the price of an immense toll of infant lives; but it is a price which they show no signs of being willing to pay. what, then, are the limits of the geographical control? where does its influence begin and end? situation, race and culture--to reduce it to a problem of three terms only--which of the three, if any, in the long run controls the rest? remember that the anthropologist is trying to be the historian of long perspective. history which counts by years, proto-history which counts by centuries, pre-history which counts by millenniums--he seeks to embrace them all. he sees the english in india, on the one hand, and in australia on the other. will the one invasion prove an incident, he asks, and the other an event, as judged by a history of long perspective? or, again, there are whites and blacks and redskins in the southern portion of the united states of america, having at present little in common save a common climate. different races, different cultures, a common geographical situation--what net result will these yield for the historian of patient, far-seeing anthropological outlook? clearly there is here something worth the puzzling out. but we cannot expect to puzzle it out all at once. in these days geography, in the form known as anthropo-geography, is putting forth claims to be the leading branch of anthropology. and, doubtless, a thorough grounding in geography must henceforth be part of the anthropologist's equipment.[ ] the schools of ratzel in germany and le play in france are, however, fertile in generalizations that are far too pretty to be true. like other specialists, they exaggerate the importance of their particular brand of work. the full meaning of life can never be expressed in terms of its material conditions. i confess that i am not deeply moved when ratzel announces that man is a piece of the earth. or when his admirers, anxious to improve on this, after distinguishing the atmosphere or air, the hydrosphere or water, the lithosphere or crust, and the centrosphere or interior mass, proceed to add that man is the most active portion of an intermittent biosphere, or living envelope of our planet, i cannot feel that the last word has been said about him. [footnote : thus the reader of the present work should not fail to study also dr. marion newbigin's _geography_ in this series.] or, again, listen for a moment to m. demolins, author of a very suggestive book, _comment la route cree le type social_ ("how the road creates the social type"). "there exists," he says in his preface, "on the surface of the terrestrial globe an infinite variety of peoples. what is the cause that has created this variety? in general the reply is, race. but race explains nothing; for it remains to discover what has produced the diversity of races. race is not a cause; it is a consequence. the first and decisive cause of the diversity of peoples and of the diversity of races is the road that the peoples have followed. it is the road that creates the race, and that creates the social type." and he goes further: "if the history of humanity were to recommence, and the surface of the globe had not been transformed, this history would repeat itself in its main lines. there might well be secondary differences, for example, in certain manifestations of public life, in political revolutions, to which we assign far too great an importance; but the same roads would reproduce the same social types, and would impose on them the same essential characters." there is no contending with a pious opinion, especially when it takes the form of an unverifiable prophecy. let the level-headed anthropologist beware, however, lest he put all his eggs into one basket. let him seek to give each factor in the problem its due. race must count for something, or why do not the other animals take a leaf out of our book and build up rival civilizations on suitable sites? why do men herd cattle, instead of the cattle herding the men? we are rational beings, in other words, because we have it in us to be rational beings. again, culture, with the intelligence and choice it involves, counts for something too. it is easy to argue that, since there were the asiatic steppes with the wild horses ready to hand in them, man was bound sooner or later to tame the horse and develop the characteristic culture of the nomad type. yes, but why did man tame the horse later rather than sooner? and why did the american redskins never tame the bison, and adopt a pastoral life in their vast prairies? or why do modern black folk and white folk alike in africa fail to utilize the elephant? is it because these things cannot be done, or because man has not found out how to do them? when all allowances, however, are made for the exaggerations almost pardonable in a branch of science still engaged in pushing its way to the front, anthropo-geography remains a far-reaching method of historical study which the anthropologist has to learn how to use. to put it crudely, he must learn how to work all the time with a map of the earth at his elbow. first of all, let him imagine his world of man stationary. let him plot out in turn the distribution of heat, of moisture, of diseases, of vegetation, of food-animals, of the physical types of man, of density of population, of industries, of forms of government, of religions, of languages, and so on and so forth. how far do these different distributions bear each other out? he will find a number of things that go together in what will strike him as a natural way. for instance, all along the equator, whether in africa or south america or borneo, he will find them knocking off work in the middle of the day in order to take a siesta. on the other hand, other things will not agree so well. thus, though all will be dark-skinned, the south americans will be coppery, the africans black, and the men of borneo yellow. led on by such discrepancies, perhaps, he will want next to set his world of man in movement. he will thereupon perceive a circulation, so to speak, amongst the various peoples, suggestive of interrelations of a new type. now so long as he is dealing in descriptions of a detached kind, concerning not merely the physical environment, but likewise the social adjustments more immediately corresponding thereto, he will be working at the geographical level. directly it comes, however, to a generalized description or historical explanation, as when he seeks to show that here rather than there a civilization is likely to arise, geographical considerations proper will not suffice. distribution is merely one aspect of evolution. yet that it is a very important aspect will now be shown by a hasty survey of the world according to geographical regions. * * * * * let us begin with europe, so as to proceed gradually from the more known to the less known. lecky has spoken of "the european epoch of the human mind." what is the geographical and physical theatre of that epoch? we may distinguish--i borrow the suggestion from professor myres--three stages in its development. firstly, there was the river-phase; next, the mediterranean phase; lastly, the present-day atlantic phase. thus, to begin with, the valleys of the nile and euphrates were each the home of civilizations both magnificent and enduring. they did not spring up spontaneously, however. if the rivers helped man, man also helped the rivers by inventing systems of irrigation. next, from minoan days right on to the end of the middle ages, the mediterranean basin was the focus of all the higher life in the world, if we put out of sight the civilizations of india and china, together with the lesser cultures of peru and mexico. i will consider this second phase especially, because it is particularly instructive from the geographical standpoint. finally, since the time of the discovery of america, the sea-trade, first called into existence as a civilizing agent by mediterranean conditions, has shifted its base to the atlantic coast, and especially to that land of natural harbours, the british isles. we must give up thinking in terms of an eastern and western hemisphere. the true distinction, as applicable to modern times, is between a land-hemisphere, with the atlantic coast of europe as its centre, and a sea-hemisphere, roughly coinciding with the pacific. the pacific is truly an ocean; but the atlantic is becoming more of a "herring-pond" every day. fixing our eyes, then, on the mediterranean basin, with its black sea extension, it is easy to perceive that we have here a well-defined geographical province, capable of acting as an area of characterization as perhaps no other in the world, once its various peoples had the taste and ingenuity to intermingle freely by way of the sea. the first fact to note is the completeness of the ring-fence that shuts it in. from the pyrenees right along to ararat runs the great alpine fold, like a ridge in a crumpled table-cloth; the spanish sierras and the atlas continue the circle to the south-west; and the rest is desert. next, the configuration of the coasts makes for intercourse by sea, especially on the northern side with its peninsulas and islands, the remains of a foundered and drowned mountain-country. this same configuration, considered in connection with the flora and fauna that are favoured by the climate, goes far to explain that discontinuity of the political life which encouraged independence whilst it prevented self-sufficiency. the forest-belt, owing to the dry summer, lay towards the snow-line, and below it a scrub-belt, yielding poor hunting, drove men to grow their corn and olives and vines in the least swampy of the lowlands, scattered like mere oases amongst the hills and promontories. for a long time, then, man along the north coasts must have been oppressed rather than assisted by his environment. it made mass-movements impossible. great waves of migration from the steppe-land to the northeast, or from the forest-land to the north-west, would thunder on the long mountain barrier, only to trickle across in rivulets and form little pools of humanity here and there. petty feuds between plain, shore, and mountain, as in ancient attica, would but accentuate the prevailing division. contrariwise, on the southern side of the mediterranean, where there was open, if largely desert, country, there would be room under primitive conditions for a homogeneous race to multiply. it is in north africa that we must probably place the original hotbed of that mediterranean race, slight and dark with oval heads and faces, who during the neolithic period colonized the opposite side of the mediterranean, and threw out a wing along the warm atlantic coast as far north as scotland, as well as eastwards to the upper danube; whilst by way of south and east they certainly overran egypt, arabia, and somaliland, with probable ramifications still farther in both directions. at last, however, in the eastern mediterranean was learnt the lesson of the profits attending the sea-going life, and there began the true mediterranean phase, which is essentially an era of sea-borne commerce. then was the chance for the northern shore with its peninsular configuration. carthage on the south shore must be regarded as a bold experiment that did not answer. the moral, then, would seem to be that the mediterranean basin proved an ideal nursery for seamen; but only as soon as men were brave and clever enough to take to the sea. the geographical factor is at least partly consequence as well as cause. * * * * * now let us proceed farther north into what was for the earlier mediterranean folk the breeding-ground of barbarous outlanders, forming the chief menace to their circuit of settled civic life. it is necessary to regard northern europe and northern asia as forming one geographic province. asia minor, together with the euphrates valley and with arabia in a lesser degree, belongs to the mediterranean area. india and china, with the south-eastern corner of asia that lies between them, form another system that will be considered separately later on. the eurasian northland consists naturally, that is to say, where cultivation has not introduced changes, of four belts. first, to the southward, come the mountain ranges passing eastwards into high plateau. then, north of this line, from the lower danube, as far as china, stretches a belt of grassland or steppe-country at a lower level, a belt which during the milder periods of the ice-age and immediately after it must have reached as far as the atlantic. then we find, still farther to the north, a forest belt, well developed in the siberia of to-day. lastly, on the verge of the arctic sea stretches the tundra, the frozen soil of which is fertile in little else than the lichen known as reindeer moss, whilst to the west, as, for instance, in our islands, moors and bogs represent this zone of barren lands in a milder form. the mountain belt is throughout its entire length the home of round-headed peoples, the so-called alpine race, which is generally supposed to have originally come from the high plateau country of asia. these round-headed men in western europe appear where-ever there are hills, throwing out offshoots by way of the highlands of central france into brittany, and even reaching the british isles. here they introduced the use of bronze (an invention possibly acquired by contact with egyptians in the near east), though without leaving any marked traces of themselves amongst the permanent population. at the other end of europe they affected greece by way of a steady though limited infiltration; whilst in asia minor they issued forth from their hills as the formidable hittites, the people, by the way, to whom the jews are said to owe their characteristic, yet non-semitic, noses. but are these round-heads all of one race? professor ridgeway has put forward a rather paradoxical theory to the effect that, just as the long-faced boer horse soon evolved in the mountains of basutoland into a round-headed pony, so it is in a few generations with human mountaineers, irrespective of their breed. this is almost certainly to overrate the effects of environment. at the same time, in the present state of our knowledge, it would be premature either to affirm or deny that in the very long run round-headedness goes with a mountain life. the grassland next claims our attention. here is the paradise of the horse, and consequently of the horse-breaker. hence, therefore, came the charging multitudes of asiatic marauders who, after many repulses, broke through the mediterranean cordon, and established themselves as the modern turks; whilst at the other end of their beat they poured into china, which no great wall could avail to save, and established the manchu domination. given the steppe-country and a horse-taming people, we might seek, with the anthropo-geographers of the bolder sort, to deduce the whole way of life, the nomadism, the ample food, including the milk-diet infants need and find so hard to obtain farther south, the communal system, the patriarchal type of authority, the caravan-system that can set the whole horde moving along like a swarm of locusts, and so on. but, as has been already pointed out, the horse had to be tamed first. palaeolithic man in western europe had horse-meat in abundance. at solutre, a little north of lyons, a heap of food-refuse yards long and feet high largely consists of the bones of horses, most of them young and tender. this shows that the old hunters knew how to enjoy the passing hour in their improvident way, like the equally reckless bushmen, who have left similar golgothas behind them in south africa. yet apparently palaeolithic man did not tame the horse. environment, in fact, can only give the hint; and man may not be ready to take it. the forest-land of the north affords fair hunting in its way, but it is doubtful if it is fitted to rear a copious brood of men, at any rate so long as stone weapons are alone available wherewith to master the vegetation and effect clearings, whilst burning the brushwood down is precluded by the damp. where the original home may have been of the so-called nordic race, the large-limbed fair men of the teutonic world, remains something of a mystery; though it is now the fashion to place it in the north-east of europe rather than in asia, and to suppose it to have been more or less isolated from the rest of the world by formerly existing sheets of water. where-ever it was, there must have been grassland enough to permit of pastoral habits, modified, perhaps, by some hunting on the one hand, and by some primitive agriculture on the other. the mediterranean men, coming from north africa, an excellent country for the horse, may have vied with the asiatics of the steppes in introducing a varied culture to the north. at any rate, when the germans of tacitus emerge into the light of history, they are not mere foresters, but rather woodlanders, men of the glades, with many sides to their life; including an acquaintance with the sea and its ways, surpassing by far that of those early beachcombers whose miserable kitchen-middens are to be found along the coast of denmark. of the tundra it is enough to say that all depends on the reindeer. this animal is the be-all and end-all of lapp existence. when nansen, after crossing greenland, sailed home with his two lapps, he called their attention to the crowds of people assembled to welcome them at the harbour. "ah," said the elder and more thoughtful of the pair, "if they were only reindeer!" when domesticated, the reindeer yields milk as well as food, though large numbers are needed to keep the community in comfort. otherwise hunting and fishing must serve to eke out the larder. miserable indeed are the tribes or rather remnants of tribes along the siberian tundra who have no reindeer. on the other hand, if there are plenty of wild reindeer, as amongst the koryaks and some of the chukchis, hunting by itself suffices. * * * * * let us now pass on from the eurasian northland to what is, zoologically, almost its annexe, north america; its tundra, for example, where the eskimo live, being strictly continuous with the asiatic zone. though having a very different fauna and flora, south america presumably forms part of the same geographical province so far as man is concerned, though there is evidence for thinking that he reached it very early. until, however, more data are available for the pre-history of the american indian, the great moulding forces, geographical or other, must be merely guessed at. much turns on the period assigned to the first appearance of man in this region; for that he is indigenous is highly improbable, if only because no anthropoid apes are found here. the racial type, which, with the exception of the eskimo, and possibly of the salmon-fishing tribes along the north-west coast, is one for the whole continent, has a rather distant resemblance to that of the asiatic mongols. nor is there any difficulty in finding the immigrants a means of transit from northern asia. even if it be held that the land-bridge by way of what are now the aleutian islands was closed at too early a date for man to profit by it, there is always the passage over the ice by way of behring straits; which, if it bore the mammoth, as is proved by its remains in alaska, could certainly bear man. once man was across, what was the manner of his distribution? on this point geography can at present tell us little. m. demolins, it is true, describes three routes, one along the rockies, the next down the central zone of prairies, and the third and most easterly by way of the great lakes. but this is pure hypothesis. no facts are adduced. indeed, evidence bearing on distribution is very hard to obtain in this area, since the physical type is so uniform throughout. the best available criterion is the somewhat poor one of the distribution of the very various languages. some curious lines of migration are indicated by the occurrence of the same type of language in widely separated regions, the most striking example being the appearance of one linguistic stock, the so-called athapascan, away up in the north-west by the alaska boundary; at one or two points in south-western oregon and north-western california, where an absolute medley of languages prevails; and again in the southern highlands along the line of colorado and utah to the other side of the mexican frontier. does it follow from this distribution that the apaches, at the southern end of the range, have come down from alaska, by way of the rockies and the pacific slope, to their present habitat? it might be so in this particular case; but there are also those who think that the signs in general point to a northward dispersal of tribes, who before had been driven south by a period of glaciation. thus the first thing to be settled is the antiquity of the american type of man. a glance at south america must suffice. geographically it consists of three regions. westwards we have the pacific line of bracing highlands, running down from mexico as far as chile, the home of two or more cultures of a rather high order. then to the east there is the steaming equatorial forest, first covering a fan of rivers, then rising up into healthier hill-country, the whole in its wild state hampering to human enterprise. and below it occurs the grassland of the pampas, only needing the horse to bring out the powers of its native occupants. before leaving this subject of the domesticated horse, of which so much use has already been made in order to illustrate how geographic opportunity and human contrivance must help each other out, it is worth noticing how an invention can quickly revolutionize even that cultural life of the ruder races which is usually supposed to be quite hide-bound by immemorial custom. when the europeans first broke in upon the redskins of north america, they found them a people of hunters and fishers, it is true, but with agriculture as a second string everywhere east of the mississippi as well as to the south, and on the whole sedentary, with villages scattered far apart; so that in pre-conquest days they would seem to have been enjoying a large measure of security and peace. the coming of the whites soon crowded them back upon themselves, disarranging the old boundaries. at the same time the horse and the gun were introduced. with extraordinary rapidity the indian adapted himself to a new mode of existence, a grassland life, complicated by the fact that the relentless pressure of the invaders gave it a predatory turn which it might otherwise have lacked. something very similar, though neither conditions nor consequences were quite the same, occurred in the pampas of south america, where horse-indians like the patagonians, who seem at first sight the indigenous outcrop of the very soil, are really the recent by-product of an intrusive culture. * * * * * and now let us hark back to southern asia with its two reservoirs of life, india and china, and between them a jutting promontory pointing the way to the indonesian archipelago, and thence onward farther still to the wide-flung austral region with its myriad lands ranging in size from a continent to a coral-atoll. here we have a nursery of seamen on a vaster scale than in the mediterranean; for remember that from this point man spread, by way of the sea, from easter island in the eastern pacific right away to madagascar, where we find javanese immigrants, and negroes who are probably papuan, whilst the language is of a malayo-polynesian type. india and china each well-nigh deserve the status of geographical provinces on their own account. each is an area of settlement; and, once there is settlement, there is a cultural influence which co-operates with the environment to weed out immigrant forms; as we see, for example, in egypt, where a characteristic physical type, or rather pair of types, a coarser and a finer, has apparently persisted, despite the constant influx of other races, from the dawn of its long history. india, however, and china have both suffered so much invasion from the eurasian northland, and at the same time are of such great extent and comprise such diverse physical conditions, that they have, in the course of the long years, sent forth very various broods of men to seek their fortunes in the south-east. nor must we ignore the possibility of an earlier movement in the opposite direction. in indonesia, the home of the orang-utan and gibbon, not to speak of pithecanthropus, many authorities would place the original home of the human race. it will be wise to touch lightly on matters involving considerations of palaeo-geography, that most kaleidoscopic of studies. the submerged continents which it calls from the vasty deep have a habit of crumbling away again. let us therefore refrain from providing man with land-bridges (draw-bridges, they might almost be called), whether between the indonesian islands; or between new guinea, australia and tasmania; or between indonesia and africa by way of the indian ocean. let the curious facts about the present distribution of the racial types speak for themselves, the difficulties about identifying a racial type being in the meantime ever borne in mind. most striking of all is the diffusion of the negro stocks with black skin and woolly hair. their range is certainly suggestive of a breeding-ground somewhere about indonesia. to the extreme west are the negroes of africa, to the extreme east the papuasians (papuans and melanesians) extending from new guinea through the oceanic islands as far as fiji. a series of connecting links is afforded by the small negroes of the pygmy type, the so-called negritos. it is not known how far they represent a distinct and perhaps earlier experiment in negro-making, though this is the prevailing view; or whether the negro type, with its tendency to infantile characters due to the early closing of the cranial sutures, is apt to throw off dwarfed forms in an occasional way. at any rate, in africa there are several groups of pygmies in the congo region, as well as the bushmen and allied stocks in south africa. then the andaman islanders, the semang of the malay peninsula, the aket of eastern sumatra, the now extinct kalangs of java, said to have been in some respects the most ape-like of human beings, the aetas of the philippines, and the dwarfs, with a surprisingly high culture, recently reported from dutch new guinea, are like so many scattered pieces of human wreckage. finally, if we turn our gaze southward, we find that negritos until the other day inhabited tasmania; whilst in australia a strain of negrito, or negro (papuan), blood is likewise to be detected. are we here on the track of the original dispersal of man? it is impossible to say. it is not even certain, though highly probable, that man originated in one spot. if he did, he must have been hereditarily endowed, almost from the outset, with an adaptability to different climates quite unique in its way. the tiger is able to range from the hot indian jungle to the freezing siberian tundra; but man is the cosmopolitan animal beyond all others. somehow, on this theory of a single origin, he made his way to every quarter of the globe; and when he got there, though needing time, perhaps, to acquire the local colour, managed in the end to be at home. it looks as if both race and a dash of culture had a good deal to do with his exploitation of geographical opportunity. how did the australians and their negrito forerunners invade their austral world, at some period which, we cannot but suspect, was immensely remote in time? certain at least it is that they crossed a formidable barrier. what is known as wallace's line corresponds with the deep channel running between the islands of bali and lombok and continuing northwards to the west of celebes. on the eastern side the fauna are non-asiatic. yet somehow into australia with its queer monotremes and marsupials entered triumphant man--man and the dog with him. haeckel has suggested that man followed the dog, playing as it were the jackal to him. but this sounds rather absurd. it looks as if man had already acquired enough seamanship to ferry himself across the zoological divide, and to take his faithful dog with him on board his raft or dug-out. until we have facts whereon to build, however, it would be as unpardonable to lay down the law on these matters as it is permissible to fill up the blank by guesswork. it remains to round off our original survey by a word or two more about the farther extremities, west, south, and east, of this vast southern world, to which south-eastern asia furnishes a natural approach. the negroes did not have africa, that is, africa south of the sahara, all to themselves. in and near the equatorial forest-region of the west the pure type prevails, displaying agricultural pursuits such as the cultivation of the banana, and, farther north, of millet, that must have been acquired before the race was driven out of the more open country. elsewhere occur mixtures of every kind with intrusive pastoral peoples of the mediterranean type, the negro blood, however, tending to predominate; and thus we get the fulahs and similar stocks to the west along the grassland bordering on the desert; the nilotic folk amongst the swamps of the upper nile; and throughout the eastern and southern parkland the vigorous bantu peoples, who have swept the bushmen and the kindred hottentots before them down into the desert country in the extreme south-west. it may be added that africa has a rich fauna and flora, much mineral wealth, and a physical configuration that, in respect to its interior, though not to its coasts, is highly diversified; so that it may be doubted whether the natives have reached as high a pitch of indigenous culture as the resources of the environment, considered by itself, might seem to warrant. if the use of iron was invented in africa, as some believe, it would only be another proof that opportunity is nothing apart from the capacity to grasp it. of the australian aborigines something has been said already. apart from the negrito or negro strain in their blood, they are usually held to belong to that pre-dravidian stock represented by various jungle tribes in southern india and by the veddas of ceylon, connecting links between the two areas being the sakai of the malay peninsula and east sumatra, and the toala of celebes. it may be worth observing, also, that pre-historic skulls of the neanderthal type find their nearest parallels in modern australia. we are here in the presence of some very ancient dispersal, from what centre and in what direction it is hard to imagine. in australia these early colonists found pleasant, if somewhat lightly furnished, lodgings. in particular there were no dangerous beasts; so that hunting was hardly calculated to put a man on his mettle, as in more exacting climes. isolation, and the consequent absence of pressure from human intruders, is another fact in the situation. whatever the causes, the net result was that, despite a very fair environment, away from the desert regions of the interior, man on the whole stagnated. in regard to material comforts and conveniences, the rudeness of their life seems to us appalling. on the other hand, now that we are coming to know something of the inner life and mental history of the australians, a somewhat different complexion is put upon the state of their culture. with very plain living went something that approached to high thinking; and we must recognize in this case, as in others, what might be termed a differential evolution of culture, according to which some elements may advance, whilst others stand still, or even decay. to another and a very different people, namely, the polynesians, the same notion of a differential evolution may be profitably applied. they were in the stone-age when first discovered, and had no bows and arrows. on the other hand, with coco-nut, bananas and bread-fruit, they had abundant means of sustenance, and were thoroughly at home in their magnificent canoes. thus their island-life was rich in ease and variety; and, whilst rude in certain respects, they were almost civilized in others. their racial affinities are somewhat complex. what is almost certain is that they only occupied the eastern pacific during the course of the last years or so. they probably came from indonesia, mixing to a slight extent with melanesians on their way. how the proto-polynesians came into existence in indonesia is more problematic. possibly they were the result of a mixture between long-headed immigrants from eastern india, and round-headed mongols from indo-china and the rest of south-eastern asia, from whom the present malays are derived. * * * * * we have completed our very rapid regional survey of the world; and what do we find? by no means is it case after case of one region corresponding to one type of man and to one type of culture. it might be that, given persistent physical conditions of a uniform kind, and complete isolation, human life would in the end conform to these conditions, or in other words stagnate. no one can tell, and no one wants to know, because as a matter of fact no such environmental conditions occur in this world of ours. human history reveals itself as a bewildering series of interpenetrations. what excites these movements? geographical causes, say the theorists of one idea. no doubt man moves forward partly because nature kicks him behind. but in the first place some types of animal life go forward under pressure from nature, whilst others lie down and die. in the second place man has an accumulative faculty, a social memory, whereby he is able to carry on to the conquest of a new environment whatever has served him in the old. but this is as it were to compound environments--a process that ends by making the environment coextensive with the world. intelligent assimilation of the new by means of the old breaks down the provincial barriers one by one, until man, the cosmopolitan animal by reason of his hereditary constitution, develops a cosmopolitan culture; at first almost unconsciously, but later on with self-conscious intent, because he is no longer content to live, but insists on living well. as a sequel to this brief examination of the geographic control considered by itself it would be interesting, if space allowed, to append a study of the distribution of the arts and crafts of a more obviously economic and utilitarian type. if the physical environment were all in all, we ought to find the same conditions evoking the same industrial appliances everywhere, without the aid of suggestions from other quarters. indeed, so little do we know about the conditions attending the discovery of the arts of life that gave humanity its all-important start--the making of fire, the taming of animals, the sowing of plants, and so on--that it is only too easy to misread our map. we know almost nothing of those movements of peoples, in the course of which a given art was brought from one part of the world to another. hence, when we find the art duly installed in a particular place, and utilizing the local product, the bamboo in the south, let us say, or the birch in the north, as it naturally does, we easily slip into the error of supposing that the local products of themselves called the art into existence. similar needs, we say, have generated similar expedients. no doubt there is some truth in this principle; but i doubt if, on the whole, history tends to repeat itself in the case of the great useful inventions. we are all of us born imitators, but inventive genius is rare. take the case of the early palaeoliths of the drift type. from egypt, somaliland, and many other distant lands come examples which sir john evans finds "so identical in form and character with british specimens that they might have been manufactured by the same hands." and throughout the palaeolithic age in europe the very limited number and regular succession of forms testifies to the innate conservatism of man, and the slow progress of invention. and yet, as some american writers have argued--who do not find that the distinction between chipped palaeoliths and polished neoliths of an altogether later age applies equally well to the new world--it was just as easy to have got an edge by rubbing as by flaking. the fact remains that in the old world human inventiveness moved along one channel rather than another, and for an immense lapse of time no one was found to strike out a new line. there was plenty of sand and water for polishing, but it did not occur to their minds to use it. to wind up this chapter, however, i shall glance at the distribution, not of any implement connected directly and obviously with the utilization of natural products, but of a downright oddity, something that might easily be invented once only and almost immediately dropped again. and yet here it is all over the world, going back, we may conjecture, to very ancient times, and implying interpenetrations of bygone peoples, of whose wanderings perhaps we may never unfold the secret. it is called the "bull-roarer," and is simply a slat of wood on the end of a string, which when whirled round produces a rather unearthly humming sound. will the anthropo-geographer, after studying the distribution of wood and stringy substances round the globe, venture to prophesy that, if man lived his half a million years or so over again, the bull-roarer would be found spread about very much where it is to-day? "bull-roarer" is just one of our local names for what survives now-a-days as a toy in many an old-fashioned corner of the british isles, where it is also known as boomer, buzzer, whizzer, swish, and so on. without going farther afield we can get a hint of the two main functions which it seems to have fulfilled amongst ruder peoples. in scotland it is, on the one hand, sometimes used to "ca' the cattle hame." a herd-boy has been seen to swing a bull-roarer of his own making, with the result that the beasts were soon running frantically towards the byre. on the other hand, it is sometimes regarded there as a "thunner-spell," a charm against thunder, the superstition being that like cures like, and whatever makes a noise like thunder will be on good terms, so to speak, with the real thunder. as regards its uses in the rest of the world, it may be said at once that here and there, in galicia in europe, in the malay peninsula in asia, and amongst the bushmen in africa, it is used to drive or scare animals, whether tame or wild. and this, to make a mere guess, may have been its earliest use, if utilitarian contrivances can generally claim historical precedence, as is by no means certain. as long as man hunted with very inferior weapons, he must have depended a good deal on drives, that either forced the game into a pitfall, or rounded them up so as to enable a concerted attack to be made by the human pack. no wonder that the bull-roarer is sometimes used to bring luck in a mystic way to hunters. more commonly, however, at the present day, the bull-roarer serves another type of mystic purpose, its noise, which is so suggestive of thunder or wind, with a superadded touch of weirdness and general mystery, fitting it to play a leading part in rain-making ceremonies. from these not improbably have developed all sorts of other ceremonies connected with making vegetation and the crops grow, and with making the boys grow into men, as is done at the initiation rites. it is not surprising, therefore, to find a carved human face appearing on the bull-roarer in new guinea, and again away in north america, whilst in west africa it is held to contain the voice of a very god. in australia, too, all their higher notions about a benevolent deity and about religious matters in general seem to concentrate on this strange symbol, outwardly the frailest of toys, yet to the spiritual eye of these simple folk a veritable holy of holies. and now for the merest sketch of its distribution, the details of which are to be learnt from dr. haddon's valuable paper in _the study of man_. england, scotland, ireland and wales have it. it can be tracked along central europe through switzerland, germany, and poland beyond the carpathians, whereupon ancient greece with its dionysiac mysteries takes up the tale. in america it is found amongst the eskimo, is scattered over the northern part of the continent down to the mexican frontier, and then turns up afresh in central brazil. again, from the malay peninsula and sumatra it extends over the great fan of darker peoples, from africa, west and south, to new guinea, melanesia, and australia, together with new zealand alone of polynesian islands--a fact possibly showing it to have belonged to some earlier race of colonists. thus in all of the great geographical areas the bull-roarer is found, and that without reckoning in analogous implements like the so-called "buzz," which cover further ground, for instance, the eastern coastlands of asia. are we to postulate many independent origins, or else far-reaching transportations by migratory peoples, by the american indians and the negroes, for example? no attempt can be made here to answer these questions. it is enough to have shown by the use of a single illustration how the study of the geographical distribution of inventions raises as many difficulties as it solves. our conclusion, then, must be that the anthropologist, whilst constantly consulting his physical map of the world, must not suppose that by so doing he will be saved all further trouble. geographical facts represent a passive condition, which life, something by its very nature active, obeys, yet in obeying conquers. we cannot get away from the fact that we are physically determined. yet, physical determinations have been surmounted by human nature in a way to which the rest of the animal world affords no parallel. thus man, as the old saying has it, makes love all the year round. seasonal changes of course affect him, yet he is no slave of the seasons. and so it is with the many other elements involved in the "geographic control." the "road," for instance--that is to say, any natural avenue of migration or communication, whether by land over bridges and through passes, or by sea between harbours and with trade-winds to swell the sails--takes a hand in the game of life, and one that holds many trumps; but so again does the non-geographical fact that your travelling-machine may be your pair of legs, or a horse, or a boat, or a railway, or an airship. let us be moderate in all things, then, even in our references to the force of circumstances. circumstances can unmake; but of themselves they never yet made man, nor any other form of life. chapter v language the differentia of man--the quality that marks him off from the other animal kinds--is undoubtedly the power of articulate speech. thereby his mind itself becomes articulate. if language is ultimately a creation of the intellect, yet hardly less fundamentally is the intellect a creation of language. as flesh depends on bone, so does the living tissue of our spiritual life depend on its supporting framework of steadfast verbal forms. the genius, the heaven-born benefactor of humanity, is essentially he who wrestles with "thoughts too deep for words," until at last he assimilates them to the scheme of meanings embodied in his mother-tongue, and thus raises them definitely above the threshold of the common consciousness, which is likewise the threshold of the common culture. there is good reason, then, for prefixing a short chapter on language to an account of those factors in the life of man that together stand on the whole for the principle of freedom--of rational self-direction. heredity and environment do not, indeed, lie utterly beyond the range of our control. as they are viewed from the standpoint of human history as a whole, they show each in its own fashion a certain capacity to meet the needs and purposes of the life-force halfway. regarded abstractly, however, they may conveniently be treated as purely passive and limiting conditions. here we are with a constitution not of our choosing, and in a world not of our choosing. given this inheritance, and this environment, how are we, by taking thought and taking risks, to achieve the best-under-the-circumstances? such is the vital problem as it presents itself to any particular generation of men. the environment is as it were the enemy. we are out to conquer and enslave it. our inheritance, on the other hand, is the impelling force we obey in setting forth to fight; it tingles in our blood, and nerves the muscles of our arm. this force of heredity, however, abstractly considered, is blind. yet, corporately and individually, we fight with eyes that see. this supervening faculty, then, of utilizing the light of experience represents a third element in the situation; and, from the standpoint of man's desire to know himself, the supreme element. the environment, inasmuch as under this conception are included all other forms of life except man, can muster on its side a certain amount of intelligence of a low order. but man's prerogative is to dominate his world by the aid of intelligence of a high order. when he defied the ice-age by the use of fire, when he outfaced and outlived the mammoth and the cave bear, he was already the rational animal, _homo sapiens_. in his way he thought, even in those far-off days. and therefore we may assume, until direct evidence is forthcoming to the contrary, that he likewise had language of an articulate kind. he tried to make a speech, we may almost say, as soon as he had learned to stand up on his hind legs. unfortunately, we entirely lack the means of carrying back the history of human speech to its first beginnings. in the latter half of the last century, whilst the ferment of darwinism was freshly seething, all sorts of speculations were rife concerning the origin of language. one school sought the source of the earliest words in imitative sounds of the type of bow-wow; another in interjectional expressions of the type of tut-tut. or, again, as was natural in europe, where, with the exception of basque in a corner of the west, and of certain asiatic languages, turkish, hungarian and finnish, on the eastern border, all spoken tongues present certain obvious affinities, the comparative philologist undertook to construct sundry great families of speech; and it was hoped that sooner or later, by working back to some linguistic parting of the ways, the central problem would be solved of the dispersal of the world's races. these painted bubbles have burst. the further examination of the forms of speech current amongst peoples of rude culture has not revealed a conspicuous wealth either of imitative or of interjectional sounds. on the other hand, the comparative study of the european, or, as they must be termed in virtue of the branch stretching through persia into india, the indo-european stock of languages, carries us back three or four thousand years at most--a mere nothing in terms of anthropological time. moreover, a more extended search through the world, which in many of its less cultured parts furnishes no literary remains that may serve to illustrate linguistic evolution, shows endless diversity of tongues in place of the hoped-for system of a few families; so that half a hundred apparently independent types must be distinguished in north america alone. for the rest, it has become increasingly clear that race and language need not go together at all. what philologist, for instance, could ever discover, if he had no history to help him, but must rely wholly on the examination of modern french, that the bulk of the population of france is connected by way of blood with ancient gauls who spoke celtic, until the roman conquest caused them to adopt a vulgar form of latin in its place. the celtic tongue, in its turn, had, doubtless not so very long before, ousted some earlier type of language, perhaps one allied to the still surviving basque; though it is not in the least necessary, therefore, to suppose that the celtic-speaking invaders wiped out the previous inhabitants of the land to a corresponding extent. races, in short, mix readily; languages, except in very special circumstances, hardly at all. disappointed in its hope of presiding over the reconstruction of the distant past of man, the study of language has in recent years tended somewhat to renounce the historical--that is to say, anthropological--method altogether. the alternative is a purely formal treatment of the subject. thus, whereas vocabularies seem hopelessly divergent in their special contents, the general apparatus of vocal expression is broadly the same everywhere. that all men alike communicate by talking, other symbols and codes into which thoughts can be translated, such as gestures, the various kinds of writing, drum-taps, smoke signals, and so on, being in the main but secondary and derivative, is a fact of which the very universality may easily blind us to its profound significance. meanwhile, the science of phonetics--having lost that "guid conceit of itself" which once led it to discuss at large whether the art of talking evolved at a single geographical centre, or at many centres owing to similar capacities of body and mind--contents itself now-a-days for the most part with conducting an analytic survey of the modes of vocal expression as correlated with the observed tendencies of the human speech-organs. and what is true of phonetics in particular is hardly less true of comparative philology as a whole. its present procedure is in the main analytic or formal. thus its fundamental distinction between isolating, agglutinative and inflectional languages is arrived at simply by contrasting the different ways in which words are affected by being put together into a sentence. no attempt is made to show that one type of arrangement normally precedes another in time, or that it is in any way more rudimentary--that is to say, less adapted to the needs of human intercourse. it is not even pretended that a given language is bound to exemplify one, and one alone, of these three types; though the process known as analogy--that is, the regularizing of exceptions by treating the unlike as if it were like--will always be apt to establish one system at the expense of the rest. if, then, the study of language is to recover its old pre-eminence amongst anthropological studies, it looks as if a new direction must be given to its inquiries. and there is much to be said for any change that would bring about this result. without constant help from the philologist, anthropology is bound to languish. to thoroughly understand the speech of the people under investigation is the field-worker's master-key; so much so, that the critic's first question in determining the value of an ethnographical work must always be, could the author talk freely with the natives in their own tongue? but how is the study of particular languages to be pursued successfully, if it lack the stimulus and inspiration which only the search for general principles can impart to any branch of science? to relieve the hack-work of compiling vocabularies and grammars, there must be present a sense of wider issues involved, and such issues as may directly interest a student devoted to language for its own sake. the formal method of investigating language, in the meantime, can hardly supply the needed spur. analysis is all very well so long as its ultimate purpose is to subserve genesis--that is to say, evolutionary history. if, however, it tries to set up on its own account, it is in danger of degenerating into sheer futility. out of time and history is, in the long run, out of meaning and use. the philologist, then, if he is to help anthropology, must himself be an anthropologist, with a full appreciation of the importance of the historical method. he must be able to set each language or group of languages that he studies in its historical setting. he must seek to show how it has evolved in relation to the needs of a given time. in short, he must correlate words with thoughts; must treat language as a function of the social life. * * * * * here, however, it is not possible to attempt any but the most general characterization of primitive language as it throws light on the workings of the primitive intelligence. for one reason, the subject is highly technical; for another reason, our knowledge about most types of savage speech is backward in the extreme; whilst, for a third and most far-reaching reason of all, many peoples, as we have seen, are not speaking the language truly native to their powers and habits of mind, but are expressing themselves in terms imported from another stock, whose spiritual evolution has been largely different. thus it is at most possible to contrast very broadly and generally the more rudimentary with the more advanced methods that mankind employs for the purpose of putting its experience into words. happily the careful attention devoted by american philologists to the aboriginal languages of their continent has resulted in the discovery of certain principles which the rest of our evidence, so far as it goes, would seem to stamp as of world-wide application. the reader is advised to study the most stimulating, if perhaps somewhat speculative, pages on language in the second volume of e.j. payne's _history of the new world called america_; or, if he can wrestle with the french tongue, to compare the conclusions here reached with those to which professor levy-bruhl is led, largely by the consideration of this same american group of languages, in his recent work, _les fonctions mentales dans les societes inferieures_ ("mental functions in the lower societies"). if the average man who had not looked into the matter at all were asked to say what sort of language he imagined a savage to have, he would be pretty sure to reply that in the first place the vocabulary would be very small, and in the second place that it would consist of very short, comprehensive terms--roots, in fact--such as "man," "bear," "eat," "kill," and so on. nothing of the sort is actually the case. take the inhabitants of that cheerless spot, tierra del fuego, whose culture is as rude as that of any people on earth. a scholar who tried to put together a dictionary of their language found that he had got to reckon with more than thirty thousand words, even after suppressing a large number of forms of lesser importance. and no wonder that the tally mounted up. for the fuegians had more than twenty words, some containing four syllables, to express what for us would be either "he" or "she"; then they had two names for the sun, two for the moon, and two more for the full moon, each of the last-named containing four syllables and having no element in common. sounds, in fact, are with them as copious as ideas are rare. impressions, on the other hand, are, of course, infinite in number. by means of more or less significant sounds, then, fuegian society compounds impressions, and that somewhat imperfectly, rather than exchanges ideas, which alone are the currency of true thought. for instance, i-cut-bear's-leg-at-the-joint-with-a-flint-now corresponds fairly well with the total impression produced by the particular act; though, even so, i have doubtless selectively reduced the notion to something i can comfortably take in, by leaving out a lot of unnecessary detail--for instance, that i was hungry, in a hurry, doing it for the benefit of others as well as myself, and so on. well, american languages of the ruder sort, by running a great number of sounds or syllables together, manage to utter a portmanteau word--"holophrase" is the technical name for it--into which is packed away enough suggestions to reproduce the situation in all its detail, the cutting, the fact that i did it, the object, the instrument, the time of the cutting, and who knows what besides. amusing examples of such portmanteau words meet one in all the text-books. to go back to the fuegians, their expression _mamihlapinatapai_ is said to mean "to look at each other hoping that either will offer to do something which both parties desire but are unwilling to do." now, since exactly the same situation never recurs, but is partly the same and partly different, it is clear that, if the holophrase really tried to hit off in each case the whole outstanding impression that a given situation provoked, then the same combination of sounds would never recur either; one could never open one's mouth without coining a new word. ridiculous as this notion sounds, it may serve to mark a downward limit from which the rudest types of human speech are not so very far removed. their well-known tendency to alter their whole character in twenty years or less is due largely to the fluid nature of primitive utterance; it being found hard to detach portions, capable of repeated use in an unchanged form, from the composite vocables wherein they register their highly concrete experiences. thus in the old huron-iroquois language _eschoirhon_ means "i-have-been-to-the-water," _setsanha_ "go-to-the-water," _ondequoha_ "there-is-water-in-the-bucket," _daustantewacharet_ "there-is-water-in-the-pot." in this case there is said to have been a common word for "water," _awen_, which, moreover, is somehow suggested to an aboriginal ear as an element contained in each of these longer forms. in many other cases the difficulty of isolating the common meaning, and fixing it by a common term, has proved too much altogether for a primitive language. you can express twenty different kinds of cutting; but you simply cannot say "cut" at all. no wonder that a large vocabulary is found necessary, when, as in zulu, "my father," "thy father," "his-or-her-father," are separate polysyllables without any element in common. the evolution of language, then, on this view, may be regarded as a movement out of, and away from, the holophrastic in the direction of the analytic. when every piece in your play-box of verbal bricks can be dealt with separately, because it is not joined on in all sorts of ways to the other pieces, then only can you compose new constructions to your liking. order and emphasis, as is shown by english, and still more conspicuously by chinese, suffice for sentence-building. ideally, words should be individual and atomic. every modification they suffer by internal change of sound, or by having prefixes or suffixes tacked on to them, involves a curtailment of their free use and a sacrifice of distinctness. it is quite easy, of course, to think confusedly, even whilst employing the clearest type of language; though in such a case it is very hard to do so without being quickly brought to book. on the other hand, it is not feasible to attain to a high degree of clear thinking, when the only method of speech available is one that tends towards wordlessness--that is to say, is relatively deficient in verbal forms that preserve their identity in all contexts. wordless thinking is not in the strictest sense impossible; but its somewhat restricted opportunities lie almost wholly on the farther side, as it were, of a clean-cut vocabulary. for the very fact that the words are crystallized into permanent shape invests them with a suggestion of interrupted continuity, an overtone of un-utilized significance, that of itself invites the mind to play with the corresponding fringe of meaning attaching to the concepts that the words embody. it would prove an endless task if i were to try here to illustrate at all extensively the stickiness, as one might almost call it, of primitive modes of speech. person, number, case, tense, mood and gender--all these, even in the relatively analytical phraseology of the most cultured peoples, are apt to impress themselves on the very body of the words of which they qualify the sense. but the meagre list of determinations thus produced in an evolved type of language can yield one no idea of the vast medley of complicated forms that serve the same ends at the lower levels of human experience. moreover, there are many other shades of secondary and circumstantial meaning which in advanced languages are invariably represented by distinct words, so that when not wanted they can be left out, but in a more primitive tongue are apt to run right through the very grammar of the sentence, thus mixing themselves up inextricably with the really substantial elements in the thought to be conveyed. for instance, in some american languages, things are either animate or inanimate, and must be distinguished accordingly by accompanying particles. or, again, they are classed by similar means as rational or irrational; women, by the bye, being designated amongst the chiquitos by the irrational sign. reverential particles, again, are used to distinguish what is high or low in the tribal estimation; and we get in this connection such oddities as the tamil practice of restricting the privilege of having a plural to high-caste names, such as those applied to gods and human beings, as distinguished from the beasts, which are mere casteless "things." or, once more, my transferable belongings, "my-spear," or "my-canoe," undergo verbal modifications which are denied to non-transferable possessions such as "my-hand"; "my-child," be it observed, falling within the latter class. most interesting of all are distinctions of person. these cannot but bite into the forms of speech, since the native mind is taken up mostly with the personal aspect of things, attaining to the conception of a bloodless system of "its" with the greatest difficulty, if at all. even the third person, which is naturally the most colourless, because excluded from a direct part of the conversational game, undergoes multitudinous leavening in the light of conditions which the primitive mind regards as highly important, whereas we should banish them from our thoughts as so much irrelevant "accident." thus the abipones in the first place distinguished "he-present," _eneha_, and "she-present," _anaha_, from "he-absent" and "she-absent." but presence by itself gave too little of the speaker's impression. so, if "he" or "she" were sitting, it was necessary to say _hiniha_ and _haneha_; if they were walking and in sight _ehaha_ and _ahaha_, but, if walking and out of sight, _ekaha_ and _akaha_; if they were lying down, _hiriha_ and _haraha_, and so on. moreover, these were all "collective" forms, implying that there were others involved as well. if "he" or "she" were alone in the matter, an entirely different set of words was needed, "he-sitting (alone)" becoming _ynitara_, and so forth. the modest requirements of fuegian intercourse have called more than twenty such separate pronouns into being. without attempting to go thoroughly into the efforts of primitive speech to curtail its interest in the personnel of its world by gradually acquiring a stock of de-individualized words, let us glance at another aspect of the subject, because it helps to bring out the fundamental fact that language is a social product, a means of intersubjective intercourse developed within a society that hands on to a new generation the verbal experiments that are found to succeed best. payne shows reason for believing that the collective "we" precedes "i" in the order of linguistic evolution. to begin with, in america and elsewhere, "we" may be inclusive and mean "all-of-us," or selective, meaning "some-of-us-only." hence, we are told, a missionary must be very careful, and, if he is preaching, must use the inclusive "we" in saying "we have sinned," lest the congregation assume that only the clergy have sinned; whereas, in praying, he must use the selective "we," or god would be included in the list of sinners. similarly, "i" has a collective form amongst some american languages, and this is ordinarily employed, whereas the corresponding selective form is used only in special cases. thus if the question be "who will help?" the apache will reply "i-amongst-others," "i-for-one"; but, if he were recounting his own personal exploits, he says _sheedah_, "i-by-myself," to show that they were wholly his own. here we seem to have group-consciousness holding its own against individual self-consciousness, as being for primitive folk on the whole the more normal attitude of mind. another illustration of the sociality engrained in primitive speech is to be found in the terms employed to denote relationship. "my-mother," to the child of nature, is something more than an ordinary mother like yours. thus, as we have already seen, there may be a special particle applying to blood-relations as non-transferable possessions. or, again, one australian language has special duals, "we-two," one to be used between relations generally, another between father and child only. or an american language supplies one kind of plural suffix for blood-relations, another for the rest of human beings. these linguistic concretions are enough to show how hard it is for primitive thought to disjoin what is joined fast in the world of everyday experience. no wonder that it is usually found impracticable by the european traveller who lacks an anthropological training to extract from natives any coherent account of their system of relationships; for his questions are apt to take the form of "can a man marry his deceased wife's sister?" or what not. such generalities do not enter at all into the highly concrete scheme of viewing the customs of his tribe imposed on the savage alike by his manner of life and by the very forms of his speech. the so-called "genealogical method" initiated by dr. rivers, which the scientific explorer now invariably employs, rests mainly on the use of a concrete type of procedure corresponding to the mental habits of the simple folk under investigation. john, whom you address here, can tell you exactly whether he may, or may not, marry mary anne over there; also he can point out his mother, and tell you her name, and the names of his brothers and sisters. you work round the whole group--it very possibly contains no more than a few hundred members at most--and interrogate them one and all about their relationships to this and that individual whom you name. in course of time you have a scheme which you can treat in your own analytic way to your heart's content; whilst against your system of reckoning affinity you can set up by way of contrast the native system; which can always be obtained by asking each informant what relationship-terms he would apply to the different members of his pedigree, and, reciprocally, what terms they would each apply to him. * * * * * before closing this altogether inadequate sketch of a vast and intricate subject, i would say just one word about the expression of ideas of number. it is quite a mistake to suppose that savages have no sense of number, because the simple-minded european traveller, compiling a short vocabulary in the usual way, can get no equivalent for our numerals, say from to . the fact is that the numerical interest has taken a different turn, incorporating itself with other interests of a more concrete kind in linguistic forms to which our own type of language affords no key at all. thus in the island of kiwai, at the mouth of the fly river in new guinea, the cambridge expedition found a whole set of phrases in vogue, whereby the number of subjects acting on the number of objects at a given moment could be concretely specified. to indicate the action of two on many in the past, they said _rudo_, in the present _durudo_; of many on many in the past _rumo_, in the present _durumo_; of two on two in the past, _amarudo_, in the present _amadurudo_; of many on two in the past _amarumo_; of many on three in the past _ibidurumo_, of many on three in the present _ibidurudo_; of three on two in the present, _amabidurumo_, of three on two in the past, _amabirumo_, and so on. meanwhile, words to serve the purpose of pure counting are all the scarcer because hands and feet supply in themselves an excellent means not only of calculating, but likewise of communicating, a number. it is the one case in which gesture-language can claim something like an independent status by the side of speech. for the rest, it does not follow that the mind fails to appreciate numerical relations, because the tongue halts in the matter of symbolizing them abstractly. a certain high official, when presiding over the indian census, was informed by a subordinate that it was impossible to elicit from a certain jungle tribe any account of the number of their huts, for the simple and sufficient reason that they could not count above three. the director, who happened to be a man of keen anthropological insight, had therefore himself to come to the rescue. assembling the tribal elders, he placed a stone on the ground, saying to one "this is your hut," and to another "this is your hut," as he placed a second stone a little way from the first. "and now where is yours?" he asked a third. the natives at once entered into the spirit of the game, and in a short time there was plotted out a plan of the whole settlement, which subsequent verification proved to be both geographically and numerically correct and complete. this story may serve to show how nature supplies man with a ready reckoner in his faculty of perception, which suffices well enough for the affairs of the simpler sort of life. one knows how a shepherd can take in the numbers of a flock at a glance. for the higher flights of experience, however, especially when the unseen and merely possible has to be dealt with, percepts must give way to concepts; massive consciousness must give way to thinking by means of representations pieced together out of elements rendered distinct by previous dissection of the total impression; in short, a concrete must give way to an analytic way of grasping the meaning of things. moreover, since thinking is little more or less than, as plato put it, a silent conversation with oneself, to possess an analytic language is to be more than half-way on the road to the analytic mode of intelligence--the mode of thinking by distinct concepts. if there is a moral to this chapter, it must be that, whereas it is the duty of the civilized overlords of primitive folk to leave them their old institutions so far as they are not directly prejudicial to their gradual advancement in culture, since to lose touch with one's home-world is for the savage to lose heart altogether and die; yet this consideration hardly applies at all to the native language. if the tongue of an advanced people can be substituted, it is for the good of all concerned. it is rather the fashion now-a-days amongst anthropologists to lay it down as an axiom that the typical savage and the typical peasant of europe stand exactly on a par in respect to their power of general intelligence. if by power we are to understand sheer potentiality, i know of no sufficient evidence that enables us to say whether, under ideal conditions, the average degree of mental capacity would in the two cases prove the same or different. but i am sure that the ordinary peasant of europe, whose society provides him, in the shape of an analytic language, with a ready-made instrument for all the purposes of clear thinking, starts at an immense advantage, as compared with a savage whose traditional speech is holophrastic. whatever be his mental power, the former has a much better chance of making the most of it under the given circumstances. "give them the words so that the ideas may come," is a maxim that will carry us far, alike in the education of children, and in that of the peoples of lower culture, of whom we have charge. chapter vi social organization if an explorer visits a savage tribe with intent to get at the true meaning of their life, his first duty, as every anthropologist will tell him, is to acquaint himself thoroughly with the social organization in all its forms. the reason for this is simply that only by studying the outsides of other people can we hope to arrive at what is going on inside them. "institutions" will be found a convenient word to express all the externals of the life of man in society, so far as they reflect intelligence and purpose. similarly, the internal or subjective states thereto corresponding may be collectively described as "beliefs." thus, the field-worker's cardinal maxim can be phrased as follows: work up to the beliefs by way of the institutions. further, there are two ways in which a given set of institutions can be investigated, and of these one, so far as it is practicable, should precede the other. first, the institutions should be examined as so many wheels in a social machine that is taken as if it were standing still. you simply note the characteristic make of each, and how it is placed in relation to the rest. regarded in this static way, the institutions appear as "forms of social organization." afterwards, the machine is supposed to be set going, and you contemplate the parts in movement. regarded thus dynamically, the institutions appear as "customs." in this chapter, then, something will be said about the forms of social organization prevailing amongst peoples of the lower culture. our interest will be confined to the social morphology. in subsequent chapters we shall go on to what might be called, by way of contrast, the physiology of social life. in other words, we shall briefly consider the legal and religious customs, together with the associated beliefs. how do the forms of social organization come into being? does some one invent them? does the very notion of organization imply an organizer? or, like topsy, do they simply grow? are they natural crystallizations that take place when people are thrown together? for my own part, i think that, so long as we are pursuing anthropology and not philosophy--in other words, are piecing together events historically according as they appear to follow one another, and are not discussing the ultimate question of the relation of mind to matter, and which of the two in the long run governs which--we must be prepared to recognize both physical necessity and spiritual freedom as interpenetrating factors in human life. in the meantime, when considering the subject of social organization, we shall do well, i think, to keep asking ourselves all along, how far does force of circumstances, and how far does the force of intelligent purpose, account for such and such a net result? if i were called upon to exhibit the chief determinants of human life as a single chain of causes and effects--a simplification of the historical problem, i may say at once, which i should never dream of putting forward except as a convenient fiction, a device for making research easier by providing it with a central line--i should do it thus. working backwards, i should say that culture depends on social organization; social organization on numbers; numbers on food; and food on invention. here both ends of the series are represented by spiritual factors--namely, culture at the one end, and invention at the other. amongst the intermediate links, food and numbers may be reckoned as physical factors. social organization, however, seems to face in both directions at once, and to be something half-way between a spiritual and a physical manifestation. in placing invention at the bottom of the scale of conditions, i definitely break with the opinion that human evolution is throughout a purely "natural" process. of course, you can use the word "natural" so widely and vaguely as to cover everything that was, or is, or could be. if it be used, however, so as to exclude the "artificial," then i am prepared to say that human life is preeminently an artificial construction, or, in other words, a work of art; the distinguishing mark of man consisting precisely in the fact that he alone of the animals is capable of art. it is well known how the invention of machinery in the middle of the eighteenth century brought about that industrial revolution, the social and political effects of which are still developing at this hour. well, i venture to put it forward as a proposition which applies to human evolution, so far back as our evidence goes, that history is the history of great inventions. of course, it is true that climate and geographical conditions in general help to determine the nature and quantity of the food-supply; so that, for instance, however much versed you may be in the art of agriculture, you cannot get corn to grow on the shores of the arctic sea. but, given the needful inventions, superior weapons for instance, you need never allow yourselves to be shoved away into such an inhospitable region; to which you presumably do not retire voluntarily, unless, indeed, the state of your arts--for instance, your skill in hunting or taming the reindeer--inclines you to make a paradise of the tundra. suppose it granted, then, that a given people's arts and inventions, whether directly or indirectly productive, are capable of a certain average yield of food, it is certain, as malthus and darwin would remind us, that human fertility can be reckoned on to bring the numbers up to a limit bearing a more or less constant ratio to the means of subsistence. at length we reach our more immediate subject--namely, social organization. in what sense, if any, is social organization dependent on numbers? unfortunately, it is too large a question to thrash out here. i may, however, refer the reader to the ingenious classification of the peoples of the world, by reference to the degree of their social organization and culture, which is attempted by mr. sutherland in his _origin and growth of the moral instinct_. he there tries to show that a certain size of population can be correlated with each grade in the scale of human evolution--at any rate up to the point at which full-blown civilization is reached, when cases like that of athens under pericles, or florence under the medici, would probably cause him some trouble. for instance, he makes out that the lowest savages, veddas, pygmies, and so on, form groups of from ten to forty; whereas those who are but one degree less backward, such as the australian natives, average from fifty to two hundred; whilst most of the north american tribes, who represent the next stage of general advance, run from a hundred up to five hundred. at this point he takes leave of the peoples he would class as "savage," their leading characteristic from the economic point of view being that they lead the more or less wandering life of hunters or of mere "gatherers." he then goes on to arrange similarly, in an ascending series of three divisions, the peoples that he terms "barbarian." economically they are either sedentary, with a more or less developed agriculture, or, if nomad, pursue the pastoral mode of life. his lowest type of group, which includes the iroquois, maoris, and so forth, ranges from one thousand to five thousand; next come loosely organized states, such as dahomey or ashanti, where the numbers may reach one hundred thousand; whilst he makes barbarism culminate in more firmly compacted communities, such as are to be found, for example, in abyssinia or madagascar, the population of which he places at about half a million. now i am very sceptical about mr. sutherland's statistics, and regard his bold attempt to assign the world's peoples each to their own rung on the ladder of universal culture as, in the present state of our knowledge, no more than a clever hypothesis; which some keen anthropologist of the future might find it well worth his while to put thoroughly to the test. at a guess, however, i am disposed to accept his general principle that, on the whole and in the long run, during the earlier stages of human evolution, the complexity and coherence of the social order follow upon the size of the group; which, since its size, in turn, follows upon the mode of the economic life, may be described as the food-group. besides food, however, there is a second elemental condition which vitally affects the human race; and that is sex. social organization thus comes to have a twofold aspect. on the one hand, and perhaps primarily, it is an organization of the food-quest. on the other hand, hardly less fundamentally, it is an organization of marriage. in what follows, the two aspects will be considered more or less together, as to a large extent they overlap. primitive men, like other social animals, hang together naturally in the hunting pack, and no less naturally in the family; and at a very rudimentary stage of evolution there probably is very little distinction between the two. when, however, for some reason or other which anthropologists have still to discover, man takes to the institution of exogamy, the law of marrying-out, which forces men and women to unite who are members of more or less distinct food-groups, then, as we shall presently see, the matrimonial aspect of social organization tends to overshadow the politico-economic; if only because the latter can usually take care of itself, whereas to marry a perfect stranger is an embarrassing operation that might be expected to require a certain amount of arrangement on both sides. * * * * * to illustrate the pre-exogamic stage of human society is not so easy as it may seem; for, though it is possible to find examples, especially amongst negritos such as the andamanese or bushmen, of peoples of the rudest culture, and living in very small communities, who apparently know neither exogamy nor what so often accompanies it, namely, totemism, we can never be certain whether we are dealing in such a case with the genuinely primitive, or merely with the degenerate. for instance, the chapter on the forms of social organization in professor hobhouse's _morals in evolution_ starts off with an account of the system in vogue amongst the veddas of the ceylon jungle, his description being founded on the excellent observations of the brothers sarasin. now it is perfectly true that some of the veddas appear to afford a perfect instance of what is sometimes called "the natural family." a tract of a few miles square forms the beat of a small group of families, four or five at most, which, for the most part, singly or in pairs, wander round hunting, fishing, gathering honey and digging up the wild yams; whilst they likewise take shelter together in shallow caves, where a roof, a piece of skin to lie on--though this is not essential--and, that most precious luxury of all, a fire, represent, apart from food, the sum total of their creature comforts. now, under these circumstances, it is not, perhaps, wonderful that the relationships within a group should be decidedly close. indeed, the correct thing is for the children of a brother and sister to marry; though not, it would seem, for the children of two brothers or of two sisters. and yet there is no approach to promiscuity, but, on the contrary, a very strict monogamy, infidelities being as rare as they are deeply resented. that they had clans of some sort was, indeed, known to professor hobhouse and to the authorities whom he follows; but these clans are dismissed as having but the slightest organization and very few functions. an entirely new light, however, has been thrown on the meaning of this clan-system by the recent researches of dr. and mrs. seligmann. it now turns out that some of the veddas are exogamous--that is to say, are obliged by custom to marry outside their own clan--though others are not. the question then arises, which, for the veddas, is the older system, marrying-out or marrying-in? seeing what a miserable remnant the veddas are, i cannot but believe that we have here the case of a formerly exogamous people, groups of which have been forced to marry-in, simply because the alternative was not to marry at all. of course, it is possible to argue that in so doing they merely reverted to what was once everywhere the primeval condition of man. but at this point historical science tails off into mere guesswork. * * * * * we reach relatively firm ground, on the other hand, when we pass on to consider the social organization of such exogamous and totemic peoples as the natives of australia. the only trouble here is that the subject is too vast and complicated to permit of a handling at once summary and simple. perhaps the most useful thing that can be done for the reader in a short space is to provide him with a few elementary distinctions, applying not only to the australians, but more or less to totemic societies in general. with the help of these he may proceed to grapple for himself with the mass of highly interesting but bewildering details concerning social organization to be found in any of the leading first-hand authorities. for instance, for australia he can do no better than consult the two fascinating works of messrs. spencer and gillen on the central tribes, or the no less illuminating volume of howitt on the natives of the south-eastern region; whilst for north america there are many excellent monographs to choose from amongst those issued by the bureau of ethnology of the smithsonian institution. or, if he is content to allow some one else to collect the material for him, his best plan will be to consult dr. frazer's monumental treatise, _totemism and exogamy_, which epitomizes the known facts for the whole wide world, as surveyed region by region. the first thing to grasp is that, for peoples of this type, social organization is, primarily and on the face of it, identical with kinship-organization. before proceeding further, let us see what kinship means. distinguish kinship from consanguinity. consanguinity is a physical fact. it depends on birth, and covers all one's real blood-relationships, whether recognized by society or not. kinship, on the other hand, is a sociological fact. it depends on the conventional system of counting descent. thus it may exclude real relationships; whilst, contrariwise, it may include such as are purely fictitious, as when some one is allowed by law to adopt a child as if it were his own. now, under civilized conditions, though there is, as we have just seen, such an institution as adoption, whilst, again, there is the case of the illegitimate child, who can claim consanguinity, but can never, in english law at least, attain to kinship, yet, on the whole, we are hardly conscious of the difference between the genuine blood-tie and the social institution that is modelled more or less closely upon it. in primitive society, however, consanguinity tends to be wider than kinship by as much again. in other words, in the recognition of kinship one entire side of the family is usually left clean out of account. a man's kin comprises either his mother's people or his father's people, but not both. remember that by the law of exogamy, the father and mother are strangers to each other. hence, primitive society, as it were, issues a judgment of solomon to the effect that, since they are not prepared to halve their child, it must belong body and soul either to one party or to the other. we may now go on to analyse this one-sided type of kinship-organization a little more fully. there are three elementary principles that combine to produce it. they are exogamy, lineage and totemism. a word must be said about each in turn. exogamy presents no difficulty until you try to account for its origin. it simply means marrying-out, in contrast to endogamy, or marrying-in. suppose there were a village composed entirely of mcintyres and mcintoshes, and suppose that fashion compelled every mcintyre to marry a mcintosh, and every mcintosh a mcintyre, whilst to marry an outsider, say a mcbean, was bad form for mcintyres and mcintoshes alike; then the two clans would be exogamous in respect to each other, whereas the village as a whole would be endogamous. lineage is the principle of reckoning descent along one or other of two lines--namely, the mother's line or the father's. the former method is termed matrilineal, the latter patrilineal. it sometimes, but by no means invariably, happens, when descent is counted matrilineally, that the wife stays with her people, and the husband has the status of a mere visitor and alien. in such a case the marriage is called matrilocal; otherwise it is patrilocal. again, when the matrilocal type of marriage prevails, as likewise often when it does not, the wife and her people, rather than the father and his people, exercise supreme authority over the children. this is known as the matripotestal, as contrasted with the patripotestal, type of family. when the matrilineal, matrilocal and matripotestal conditions are found together, we have mother-right at its fullest and strongest. where we get only two out of the three, or merely the first by itself, most authorities would still speak of mother-right; though it may be questioned how far the word mother-right, or the corresponding, now almost discarded, expression, "the matriarchate," can be safely used without further explanation, since it tends to imply a right (in the legal sense) and an authority, which in these circumstances is often no more than nominal. totemism, in the specific form that has to do with kinship, means that a social group depends for its identity on a certain intimate and exclusive relation in which it stands towards an animal-kind, or a plant-kind, or, more rarely, a class of inanimate objects, or, very rarely, something that is individual and not a kind or class at all. such a totem, in the first place, normally provides the social group with its name. (the boy scouts, who call themselves foxes, peewits, and so on, according to their different patrols, have thus reverted to a very ancient usage.) in the second place, this name tends to be the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace that, somehow flowing from the totem to the totemites, sanctifies their communion. they are "all-one-flesh" with one another, as certain of the australians phrase it, because they are "all-one-flesh" with the totem. or, again, a man whose totem was _ngaui_, the sun, said that his name was _ngaui_ and he "was" _ngaui_; though he was equally ready to put it in another way, explaining that _ngaui_ "owned" him. if we wish to express the matter comprehensively, and at the same time to avoid language suggestive of a more advanced mysticism, we may perhaps describe the totem as, from this point of view, the totemite's "luck." there is considerable variation, however, to be found in the practices and beliefs of a more or less religious kind that are associated with this form of totemism; though almost always there are some. sometimes the totem is thought of as an ancestor, or as the common fund of life out of which the totemites are born and into which they go back when they die. sometimes the totem is held to be a very present help in time of trouble, as when a kangaroo, by hopping along in a special way, warns the kangaroo-man of impending danger. sometimes, on the other hand, the kangaroo-man thinks of himself mainly as the helper of the kangaroo, holding ceremonies in order that the kangaroos may wax fat and multiply. again, almost invariably the totemite shows some respect towards his totem, refraining, for instance, from slaying and eating the totem-animal, unless it be in some specially solemn and sacramental way. the upshot of these considerations is that if the totem is, on the face of it, a name, the savage answers the question, "what's in a name?" by finding in the name that makes him one with his brethren a wealth of mystic meaning, such as deepens for him the feeling of social solidarity to an extent that it takes a great effort on our part to appreciate. having separately examined the three principles of exogamy, lineage and totemism, we must now try to see how they work together. generalization in regard to these matters is extremely risky, not to say rash; nevertheless, the following broad statements may serve the reader as working hypotheses, that he can go on to test for himself by looking into the facts. firstly, exogamy and totemism, whether they be in origin distinct or not, tend in practice to go pretty closely together. secondly, lineage, or the one-sided system of reckoning descent, is more or less independent of the other two principles.[ ] [footnote : that is to say, either mother-right or father-right in any of their forms may exist in conjunction with exogamy and totemism. it is certainly not the fact that, wherever totemism is in a state of vigour, mother-right is regularly found. at most it may be urged in favour of the priority of mother-right that, if there is change, it is invariably from mother-right to father-right, and never the other way about.] if, instead of consulting the evidence that is to hand about the savage world as it exists to-day, you read some book crammed full with theories about social origins, you probably come away with the impression that totemic society is entirely an affair of clans. some such notion as the following is precipitated in your mind. you figure to yourself two small food-groups, whose respective beats are, let us say, on each side of a river. for some unknown reason they are totemic, one group calling itself cockatoo, the other calling itself crow, whilst each feels in consequence that its members are "all-one-flesh" in some mysterious and moving sense. again, for some unknown reason each is exogamous, so that matrimonial alliances are bound to take place across the river. lastly, each has mother-right of the full-blown kind. the cockatoo-girls and the crow-girls abide each on their own side of the river, where they are visited by partners from across the water; who, whether they tend to stay and make themselves useful, or are merely intermittent in their attentions, remain outsiders from the totemic point of view and are treated as such. the children, meanwhile, grow up in the cockatoo and crow quarters respectively as little cockatoos or crows. if they need to be chastised, a cockatoo hand, not necessarily the mother's, but perhaps her brother's--never the father's, however--administers the slap. when they grow up, they take their chances for better and worse with the mother's people; fighting when they fight, though it be against the father's people; sharing in the toils and the spoils of the chase; inheriting the weapons and any other property that is handed on from one generation to another; and, last but not least, taking part in the totemic mysteries that disclose to the elect the inner meaning of being a cockatoo or a crow, as the case may be. now such a picture of the original clan and of the original inter-clan organization is very pretty and easy to keep in one's head. and when one is simply guessing about the first beginnings of things, there is something to be said for starting from some highly abstract and simple concept, which is afterwards elaborated by additions and qualifications until the developed notion comes near to matching the complexity of the real facts. such speculations, then, are quite permissible and even necessary in their place. to do justice, however, to the facts about totemic society, as known to us by actual observation, it remains to note that the clan is by no means the only form of social organization that it displays. the clan, it is true, whether matrilineal or patrilineal, tends at the totemic level of society to eclipse the family. the natural family, of course--that is to say, the more or less permanent association of father, mother and children, is always there in some shape and to some extent. but, so long as the one-sided method of counting descent prevails, and is reinforced by totemism, the family cannot attain to the dignity of a formally recognized institution. on the other hand, the totemic clan, of all the formally recognized groupings of society to which an individual belongs in virtue of his birth and kinship, is, so to speak, the most specific. as the australian puts it, it makes him what he "is." his social essence is to be a cockatoo or a crow. consequently his first duty is towards his clan and its members, human and not-human. wherever there are clans, and so long as there is any totemism worthy of the name, this would seem to be the general law. besides the specific unity, however, provided by the clan, there are wider, and, as it were, more generic unities into which a man is born, in totemic society of the complex type that is found in the actual world of to-day. first, he belongs to a phratry. in australia the tribe--a term to be defined presently--is nearly always split up into two exogamous divisions, which it is usual to call phratries.[ ] then, in some of the australian tribes, the phratry is subdivided into two, and, in others, into four portions, between which exogamy takes place according to a curious criss-cross scheme. these exogamous subdivisions, which are peculiar to australia, are known as matrimonial classes. dr. frazer thinks that they are the result of deliberate arrangement on the part of native statesmen; and certainly he is right in his contention that there is an artificial and man-made look about them. the system of phratries, on the other hand, whether it carves up the tribe into two, or, as sometimes in north america and elsewhere, into more than two primary divisions, under which the clans tend to group themselves in a more or less orderly way, has all the appearance of a natural development out of the clan-system. thus, to revert to the imaginary case of the cockatoos and crows practising exogamy across the river, it seems easy to understand how the numbers on both sides might increase until, whilst remaining cockatoos and crows for cross-river purposes, they would find it necessary to adopt among themselves subordinate distinctions; such as would be sure to model themselves on the old cockatoo-crow principle of separate totemic badges. but we must not wander off into questions of origin. it is enough for our present purpose to have noted the fact that, within the tribe, there are normally other forms of social grouping into which a man is born, as well as the clan. [footnote : from a greek word meaning "brotherhood," which was applied to a very similar institution.] now we come to the tribe. this may be described as the political unit. its constitution tends to be lax and its functions vague. one way of seizing its nature is to think of it as the social union within which exogamy takes place. the intermarrying groups naturally hang together, and are thus in their entirety endogamous, in the sense that marriage with pure outsiders is disallowed by custom. moreover, by mingling in this way, they are likely to attain to the use of a common dialect, and a common name, speaking of themselves, for instance, as "the men," and lumping the rest of humanity together as "foreigners." to act together, however, as, for instance, in war, in order to repel incursions on the part of the said foreigners, is not easy without some definite organization. in australia, where there is very little war, this organization is mostly wanting. in north america, on the other hand, amongst the more advanced and warlike tribes, we find regular tribal officers, and some approach to a political constitution. yet in australia there is at least one occasion when a sort of tribal gathering takes place--namely, when their elaborate ceremonies for the initiation of the youths is being held. it would seem, however, that these ceremonies are, as often as not, intertribal rather than tribal. so similar are the customs and beliefs over wide areas, that groups with apparently little or nothing else in common will assemble together, and take part in proceedings that are something like a pan-anglican congress and a world's fair rolled into one. to this indefinite type of intertribal association the term "nation" is sometimes applied. only when there is definite organization, as never in australia, and only occasionally in north america, as amongst the iroquois, can we venture to describe it as a genuine "confederacy." no doubt the reader's head is already in a whirl, though i have perpetrated endless sins of omission and, i doubt not, of commission as well, in order to simplify the glorious confusion of the subject of the social organization prevailing in what is conveniently but loosely lumped together as totemic society. thus, i have omitted to mention that sometimes the totems seem to have nothing to do at all with the social organization; as, for example, amongst the famous arunta of central australia, whom messrs. spencer and gillen have so carefully described. i have, again, refrained from pointing out that sometimes there are exogamous divisions--some would call them moieties to distinguish them from phratries--which have no clans grouped under them, and, on the other hand, have themselves little or no resemblance to totemic clans. these, and ever so many other exceptional cases, i have simply passed by. an even more serious kind of omission is the following. i have throughout identified the social organization with the kinship organization--namely, that into which a man is born in consequence of the marriage laws and the system of reckoning descent. but there are other secondary features of what can only be classed as social organization, which have nothing to do with kinship. sex, for instance, has a direct bearing on social status. the men and the women often form markedly distinct groups; so that we are almost reminded of the way in which the male and the female linnets go about in separate flocks as soon as the pairing season is over. of course, disparity of occupation has something to do with it. but, for the native mind, the difference evidently goes far deeper than that. in some parts of australia there are actually sex-totems, signifying that each sex is all-one-flesh, a mystic corporation. and, all the savage world over, there is a feeling that woman is uncanny, a thing apart, which feeling is probably responsible for most of the special disabilities--and the special privileges--that are the lot of woman at the present day. again, age likewise has considerable influence on social status. it is not merely a case of being graded as a youth until once for all you legally "come of age," and are enrolled, amongst the men. the grading of ages is frequently most elaborate, and each batch mounts the social ladder step by step. just as, at the university, each year has apportioned to it by public opinion the things it may do and the things it may not do, whilst, later on, the bachelor, the master, and the doctor stand each a degree higher in respect of academic rank; so in darkest australia, from youth up to middle age at least, a man will normally undergo a progressive initiation into the secrets of life, accompanied by a steady widening in the sphere of his social duties and rights. lastly, locality affects status, and increasingly as the wandering life gives way to stable occupation. amongst a few hundred people who are never out of touch with each other, the forms of natal association hold their own against any that local association is likely to suggest in their place. according to natal grouping, therefore, in the broad sense that includes sex and age no less than kinship, the members of the tribe camp, fight, perform magical ceremonies, play games, are initiated, are married, and are buried. but let the tribe increase in numbers, and spread through a considerable area, over the face of which communications are difficult and proportionately rare. instantly the local group tends to become all in all. authority and initiative must always rest with the men on the spot; and the old natal combinations, weakened by inevitable absenteeism, at last cease to represent the true framework of the social order. they tend to linger on, of course, in the shape of subordinate institutions. for instance, the totemic groups cease to have direct connection with the marriage system, and, on the strength of the ceremonies associated with them, develop into what are known as secret societies. or, again, the clan is gradually overshadowed by the family, so that kinship, with its rights and duties, becomes practically limited to the nearer blood-relations; who, moreover, begin to be treated for practical purposes as kinsmen, even when they are on the side of the family which lineage does not officially recognize. thus the forms of natal association no longer constitute the backbone of the body politic. their public importance has gone. henceforward, the social unit is the local group. the territorial principle comes more and more to determine affinities and functions. kinship has dethroned itself by its very success. thanks to the organizing power of kinship, primitive society has grown, and by growing has stretched the birth-tie until it snaps. some relationships become distant in a local and territorial sense, and thereupon they cease to count. my duty towards my kin passes into my duty towards my neighbour. * * * * * reasons of space make it impossible to survey the further developments to which social organization is subject under the sway of locality. it is, perhaps, less essential to insist on them here, because, whereas totemic society is a thing which we civilized folk have the very greatest difficulty in understanding, we all have direct insight into the meaning of a territorial arrangement; since, from the village community up to the modern state, the same fundamental type of social structure obtains throughout. besides local contiguity, however, there is a second principle which greatly helps to shape the social order, as soon as society is sufficiently advanced in its arts and industries to have taken firm root, so to speak, on the earth's surface. this is the principle of private property, and especially of private property in land. the most fundamental of class distinctions is that between rich and poor. that between free and slave, in communities that have slavery, is not at first sight strictly parallel, since there may be a class of poor freemen intermediate between the nobles and the slaves; but it is obvious that in this case, too, private property is really responsible for the mode of grading. or sometimes social position may seem to depend primarily on industrial occupation, the indian caste-system providing an instance in point. since, however, the most honourable occupations in the long run coincide with those that pay best, we come back once again to private property as the ultimate source of social rank, under an economic system of the more developed kind. in this brief sketch it has been impossible to do more than hint how social organization is relative to numbers, which in their turn are relative to the skill with which the food-quest is carried on. but if, up to a certain point, it be true that the structure of society depends on its mass in a more or less physical way, there is to be borne in mind another aspect of the matter, which also has been hinted at as we went rapidly along. a good deal of intelligence has throughout helped towards the establishing of the social order. if social organization is in part a natural result of the expansion of the population, it is partly also, in the best sense of the word, an artificial creation of the human mind, which has exerted itself to devise modes of grouping whereby men might be enabled to work together in larger and ever larger wholes. regarded, however, in the purely external way which a study of its mere structure involves, society appears as a machine--that is to say, appears as the work of intelligence indeed, but not as itself instinct with intelligence. in what follows we shall set the social machine moving. we shall then have a better chance of obtaining an inner view of the driving power. we shall find that we have to abandon the notion that society is a machine. it is more, even, than an organism. it is a communion of souls--souls that, as so many independent, yet interdependent, manifestations of the life-force, are pressing forward in the search for individuality and freedom. chapter vii law the general plan of this little book being to start from the influences that determine man's destiny in a physical, external, necessary sort of way, and to work up gradually to the spiritual, internal, voluntary factors in human nature--that strange "compound of clay and flame"--it seems advisable to consider law before religion, and religion before morality, whether in its collective or individual aspect, for the following reason. there is more sheer constraint to be discerned in law than in religion, whilst religion, in the historical sense which identifies it with organized cult, is more coercive in its mode of regulating life than the moral reason, which compels by force of persuasion. to one who lives under civilized conditions the phrase "the strong arm of the law" inevitably suggests the policeman. apart from policemen, magistrates, and the soldiers who in the last resort must be called out to enforce the decrees of the community, it might appear that law could not exist. and certainly it is hard to admit that what is known as mob-law is any law at all. for historical purposes, however, we must be prepared to use the expression "law" rather widely. we must be ready to say that there is law wherever there is punishment on the part of a human society, whether acting in the mass, or through its representatives. punishment means the infliction of pain on one who is judged to have broken a social rule. conversely, then, a law is any social rule to the infringement of which punishment is by usage attached. so long as it is recognized that a man breaks a social rule at the risk of pain, and that it is the business of everybody, or of somebody armed with the common authority, to make that risk a reality for the offender, there is law within the meaning of the term as it exists for anthropology. punishment, however, is by its very nature an exceptional measure. it is only because the majority are content to follow a social rule, that law and punishment are possible at all. if, again, every one habitually obeys the social rules, law ceases to exist, because it is unnecessary. now, one reason why it is hard to find any law in primitive society is because, in a general way of speaking, no one dreams of breaking the social rules. custom is king, nay tyrant, in primitive society. when captain cook asked the chiefs of tahiti why they ate apart and alone, they simply replied, "because it is right." and so it always is with the ruder peoples. "'tis the custom, and there's an end on't" is their notion of a sufficient reason in politics and ethics alike. now that way lies a rigid conservatism. in the chapter on morality we shall try to discover its inner springs, its psychological conditions. for the present, we may be content to regard custom from the outside, as the social habit of conserving all traditional practices for their own sake and regardless of consequences. of course, changes are bound to occur, and do occur. but they are not supposed to occur. in theory, the social rules of primitive society are like "the law of the medes and persians which altereth not." this absolute respect for custom has its good and its bad sides. on the one hand, it supplies the element of discipline; without which any society is bound soon to fall to pieces. we are apt to think of the savage as a freakish creature, all moods--at one moment a friend, at the next moment a fiend. so he might be, if it were not for the social drill imposed by his customs. so he is, if you destroy his customs, and expect him nevertheless to behave as an educated and reasonable being. given, then, a primitive society in a healthy and uncontaminated condition, its members will invariably be found to be on the average more law-abiding, as judged from the standpoint of their own law, than is the case any civilized state. but now we come to the bad side of custom. its conserving influence extends to all traditional practices, however unreasonable or perverted. in that amber any fly is apt to be enclosed. hence the whimsicalities of savage custom. in _primitive culture_ dr. tylor tells a good story about the dyaks of borneo. the white man's way of chopping down a tree by notching out v-shaped cuts was not according to dyak custom. hence, any dyak caught imitating the european fashion was punished by a fine. and yet so well aware were they that this method was an improvement on their own that, when they could trust each other not to tell, they would surreptitiously use it. these same dyaks, it may be added, are, according to mr. a.r. wallace, the best of observers, "among the most pleasing of savages." they are good-natured, mild, and by no means bloodthirsty in the ordinary relations of life. yet they are well known to be addicted to the horrid practice of head-hunting. "it was a custom," mr. wallace explains, "and as a custom was observed, but it did not imply any extraordinary barbarism or moral delinquency." the drawback, then, to a reign of pure custom is this: meaningless injunctions abound, since the value of a traditional practice does not depend on its consequences, but simply on the fact that it is the practice; and this element of irrationality is enough to perplex, till it utterly confounds, the mind capable of rising above routine and reflecting on the true aims and ends of the social life. how to break through "the cake of custom," as bagehot has called it, is the hardest lesson that humanity has ever had to learn. customs have often been broken up by the clashing of different societies; but in that case they merely crystallize again into new shapes. but to break through custom by the sheer force of reflection, and so to make rational progress possible, was the intellectual feat of one people, the ancient greeks; and it is at least highly doubtful if, without their leadership, a progressive civilization would have existed to-day. it may be added in parenthesis that customs may linger on indefinitely, after losing, through one cause or another, their place amongst the vital interests of the community. they are, or at any rate seem, harmless; their function is spent. hence, whilst perhaps the humbler folk still take them more or less seriously, the leaders of society are not at pains to suppress them. nor would they always find it easy to do so. something of the primeval man lurks in us all; and these "survivals," as they are termed by the anthropologist, may often in large part correspond to impulses that are by no means dead in us, but rather sleep; and are hence liable to be reawakened, if the environment happens to supply the appropriate stimulus. witness the fact that survivals, especially when the whirligig of social change brings the uneducated temporarily to the fore, have a way of blossoming forth into revivals; and the state may in consequence have to undergo something equivalent to an operation for appendicitis. the study of so-called survivals, therefore, is a most important branch of anthropology, which cannot unfortunately in this hasty sketch be given its due. it would seem to coincide with the central interest of what is known as folk-lore. folk-lore, however, tends to broaden out till it becomes almost indistinguishable from general anthropology. there are at least two reasons for this. firstly, the survivals of custom amongst advanced nations, such as the ancient greeks or the modern british, are to be interpreted mainly by comparison with the similar institutions still flourishing amongst ruder peoples. secondly, all these ruder peoples themselves, without exception, have their survivals too. their customs fall as it were into two layers. on top is the live part of the fire. underneath are smouldering ashes, which, though dying out on the whole, are yet liable here and there to rekindle into flame. so much for custom as something on the face of it distinct from law, inasmuch as it seems to dispense with punishment. it remains to note, however, that brute force lurks behind custom, in the form of what bagehot has called "the persecuting tendency." just a boy at school who happens to offend against the unwritten code has his life made a burden by the rest of his mates, so in the primitive community the fear of a rough handling causes "i must not" to wait upon "i dare not." one has only to read mr. andrew lang's instructive story of the fate of "why why, the first radical," to realize how amongst savages--and is it so very different amongst ourselves?--it pays much better to be respectable than to play the moral hero. * * * * * let us pass on to examine the beginnings of punitive law. after all, even under the sway of custom, casual outbreaks are liable to occur. some one's passions will prove too much for him, and there will be an accident. what happens then in the primitive society? let us first consider one of the very unorganized communities at the bottom of the evolutionary scale; as, for example, the little negritos of the andaman islands. their justice, explains mr. man, in his excellent account of these people, is administered by the simple method of allowing the aggrieved party to take the law into his own hands. this he usually does by flinging a burning faggot at the offender, or by discharging an arrow at him, though more frequently near him. meanwhile all others who may be present are apt to beat a speedy retreat, carrying off as much of their property as their haste will allow, and remaining hid in the jungle until sufficient time has elapsed for the quarrel to have blown over. sometimes, however, friends interpose, and seek to deprive the disputants of their weapons. should, however, one of them kill the other, nothing is necessarily said or done to him by the rest. yet conscience makes cowards of us all; so that the murderer, from prudential motives, will not uncommonly absent himself until he judges that the indignation of the victim's friends has sufficiently abated. now here we seem to find want of social structure and want of law going together as cause and effect. the "friends" of whom we hear need to be organized into a police force. if we now turn to totemic society, with its elaborate clan-system, it is quite another story. blood-revenge ranks amongst the foremost of the clansman's social obligations. over the whole world it stands out by itself as the type of all that law means for the savage. within the clan, indeed, the maxim of blood for blood does not hold; though there may be another kind of punitive law put into force by the totemites against an erring brother, as, for instance, if they slay one of their number for disregarding the exogamic rule and consorting with a woman who is all-one-flesh with him. but, between clans of the same tribe, the system of blood-revenge requires strict reprisals, according to the principle that some one on the other side, though not necessarily the actual murderer, must die the death. this is known as the principle of collective responsibility; and one of the most interesting problems relating to the evolution of early law is to work out how individual responsibility gradually develops out of collective, until at length, even as each man does, so likewise he suffers. the collective method of settling one's grievances is natural enough, when men are united into groups bound together by the closest of sentimental ties, and on the other hand there is no central and impartial authority to arbitrate between the parties. one of our crew has been killed by one of your crew. so a stand-up fight takes place. of course we should like to get at the right man if we could; but, failing that, we are out to kill some one in return, just to teach your crew a lesson. comparatively early in the day, however, it strikes the savage mind that there are degrees of responsibility. for instance, some one has to call the avenging party together, and to lead it. he will tend to be a real blood-relation, son, father, or brother. thus he stands out as champion, whilst the rest are in the position of mere seconds. correspondingly, the other side will tend to thrust forward the actual offender into the office of counter-champion. there is direct evidence to show that, amongst australians, eskimo, and so on, whole groups at one time met in battle, but later on were represented by chosen individuals, in the persons of those who were principals in the affair. thus we arrive at the duel. the transition is seen in such a custom as that of the port lincoln black-fellows. the brother of the murdered man must engage the murderer; but any one on either side who might care to join in the fray was at liberty to do so. hence it is but a step to the formal duel, as found, for instance, amongst the apaches of north america. now the legal duel is an advance on the collective bear-fight, if only because it brings home to the individual perpetrator of the crime that he will have to answer for it. cranz, the great authority on the eskimo of greenland, naively remarks that a greenlander dare not murder or otherwise wrong another, since it might possibly cost him the life of his best friend. did the greenlander know that it would probably cost him his own life, his sense of responsibility, we may surmise, might be somewhat quickened. on the other hand, duelling is not a satisfactory way of redressing the balance, since it merely gives the powerful bully an opportunity of adding a second murder to the first. hence the ordeal marks an advance in legal evolution. a good many australian peoples, for example, have reached the stage of requiring the murderer to submit to a shower of spears or boomerangs at the hands of the aggrieved group, on the mutual understanding that the blood-revenge ends here. luckily, however, for the murderer, it often takes time to bring him to book; and angry passions are apt in the meanwhile to subside. the ruder savages are not so bloodthirsty as we are apt to imagine. war has evolved like everything else; and with it has evolved the man who likes fighting for its own sake. so, in place of a life for a life, compensation--"pacation," as it is technically termed--comes to be recognized as a reasonable _quid pro quo_. constantly we find custom at the half-way stage. if the murderer is caught soon, he is killed; but if he can stave off the day of justice, he escapes with a fine. when private property has developed, the system of blood-fines becomes most elaborate. amongst the iroquois the manslayer must redeem himself from death by means of no less than sixty presents to the injured kin; one to draw the axe out of the wound, a second to wipe the blood away, a third to restore peace to the land, and so forth. according to the collective principle, the clansmen on one side share the price of atonement, and on the other side must tax themselves in order to make it up. shares are on a scale proportionate to degrees of relationship. or, again, further nice calculations are required, if it is sought to adjust the gross amount of the payment to the degree of guilt. hence it is not surprising that, when a more or less barbarous people, such as the anglo-saxons, came to require a written law, it should be almost entirely taken up by regulations about blood-fines, that had become too complicated for the people any longer to keep in their heads. so far we have been considering the law of blood-revenge as purely an affair between the clans concerned; the rest of the tribal public keeping aloof, very much in the style of the andamanese bystanders who retire into the jungle when there is a prospect of a row. but with the development of a central authority, whether in the shape of the rule of many or of one, the public control of the blood-feud begins to assert itself; for the good reason that endless vendetta is a dissolving force, which the larger and more stable type of society cannot afford to tolerate if it is to survive. the following are a few instances illustrative of the transition from private to public jurisdiction. in north america, africa, and elsewhere, we find the chief or chiefs pronouncing sentence, but the clan or family left to carry it out as best they can. again, the kin may be entrusted with the function of punishment, but obliged to carry it out in the way prescribed by the authorities; as, for instance, in abyssinia, where the nearest relation executes the manslayer in the presence of the king, using exactly the same kind of weapon as that with which the murder was committed. or the right of the kin to punish dwindles to a mere form. thus in afghanistan the elders make a show of handing over the criminal to his accusers, who must, however, comply strictly with the wishes of the assembly; whilst in samoa the offender was bound and deposited before the family "as if to signify that he lay at their mercy," and the chief saw to the rest. finally, the state, in the person of its executive officers, both convicts and executes. when the state is represented by a single ruler, crime tends to become an offence against "the king's peace"--or, in the language of roman law, against his "majesty." henceforward, the easy-going system of getting off with a fine is at an end, and murder is punished with the utmost sternness. in such a state as dahomey, in the old days of independence, there may have been a good deal of barbarity displayed in the administration of justice, but at any rate human life was no less effectively protected by the law than it was, say, in mediaeval europe. * * * * * the evolution of the punishment of murder affords the typical instance of the development of a legal sanction in primitive society. other forms, however, of the forcible repression of wrong-doing deserve a more or less passing notice. adultery is, even amongst the ruder peoples, a transgression that is reckoned only a degree less grave than manslaughter; especially as manslaughter is a usual consequence of it, quarrels about women constituting one of the chief sources of trouble in the savage world. with a single interesting exception, the stages in the development of the law against adultery are exactly the same as in the case already examined. whole kins fight about it. then duelling is substituted. then duelling gives way to the ordeal. then, after the penalty has long wavered between death and a fine, fines become the rule, so long as the kins are allowed to settle the matter. if, however, the community comes to take cognizance of the offence, severer measures ensue. the one noticeable difference in the two developments is the following. whereas murder is an offence against the chief's "majesty," and as such a criminal offence, adultery, like theft, with which primitive law is wont to associate it as an offence against property, tends to remain a purely civil affair. kafir law, for example, according to maclean, draws this distinction very clearly. it remains to add as regards adultery that, so far, we have only been considering the punishment that falls on the guilty man. the guilty woman's fate is a matter relating to a distinct department of primitive law. family jurisdiction, as we find it, for instance, in an advanced community such as ancient rome, meant the right of the _pater familias_, the head of the house, to subject his _familia_, or household, which included his wife, his children (up to a certain age), and his slaves, to such domestic discipline as he saw fit. such family jurisdiction was more or less completely independent of state jurisdiction; and, indeed, has remained so in europe until comparatively recent times. what light, then, does the study of primitive society throw on the first beginnings of family law as administered by the house-father? to answer this question at all adequately would involve the writing of many pages on the evolution of the family. for our present purpose, all turns on the distinction between the matripotestal and the patripotestal family. if the man and the woman were left to fight it out alone, the latter, despite the "shrewish sanction" that she possesses in her tongue, must inevitably bow to the principle that might is right. but, as long as marriage is matrilocal--that is to say, allows the wife to remain at home amongst male defenders of her own clan--she can safely lord it over her stranger husband; and there can scarcely be adultery on her part, since she can always obtain divorce by simply saying, go! things grow more complicated when the wife lives amongst her husband's people, and, nevertheless, the system of counting descent favours her side of the family and not his. does the mere fact that descent is matrilineal tend to imply on the whole that the mother's kin take a more active interest in her, and are more effective in protecting her from hurt, whether undeserved or deserved? it is no easy problem to settle. dr. steinmetz, however, in his important work on _the evolution of punishment_ (in german), seeks to show that under mother-right, in all its forms taken together, the adulteress is more likely to escape with a light penalty, or with none at all, than under father-right. whatever be the value of the statistical method that he employs, at any rate it makes out the death penalty to be inflicted in only a third of his cases under the former system, but in about half under the latter. * * * * * we must be content with a mere glance at other types of wrong-doing which, whilst sooner or later recognized by the law of the community, affect its members in their individual capacity. theft and slander are cases in point. amongst the ruder savages there cannot be much stealing, because there is next to nothing to steal. nevertheless, groups are apt to quarrel over hunting and fishing claims; whilst the division of the spoils of the chase may give rise to disputes, which call for the interposition of leading men. we even occasionally find amongst australians the formal duel employed to decide cases of the violation of property-rights. not, however, until the arts of life have advanced, and wealth has created the two classes of "haves" and "have-nots," does theft become an offence of the first magnitude, which the central authority punishes with corresponding severity. as regards slander, though it might seem a slight matter, it must be remembered that the savage cannot stand up for a moment again an adverse public opinion; so that to rob him of his good name is to take away all that makes life worth living. to shout out, long-nose! sunken-eyes! or skin-and-bone! usually leads to a fight in andamanese circles, as mr. man informs us. nor, again, is it conducive to peace in australian society to sing as follows about the staying-powers of a fellow-tribesman temporarily overtaken by european liquor: "spirit like emu--as a whirlwind--pursues--lays violent hold on travelling--uncle of mine (this being particularly derisive)--tired out with fatigue--throws himself down helpless." amongst more advanced peoples, therefore, slander and abuse are sternly checked. they constitute a ground for a civil action in kafir law; whilst we even hear of an african tribe, the ba-ngindo, who rejoice in the special institution of a peace-maker, whose business is to compose troubles arising from this vexatious source. * * * * * let us now turn to another class of offences, such as, from the first, are regarded as so prejudicial to the public interest that the community as a whole must forcibly put them down. cases of what may be termed military discipline fall under this head. even when the functions of the commander are undeveloped, and war is still "an affair of armed mobs," shirking--a form of crime which, to do justice to primitive society, is rare--is promptly and effectively resented by the host. amongst american tribes the coward's arms are taken away from him; he is made to eat with the dogs; or perhaps a shower of arrows causes him to "run the gauntlet." the traitor, on the other hand, is inevitably slain without mercy--tied to a tree and shot, or, it may be, literally hacked to pieces. naturally, with the evolution of war, these spontaneous outbursts of wrath and disgust give way to a more formal system of penalties. to trace out this development fully, however, would entail a lengthy disquisition on the growth of kingship in one of its most important aspects. if constant fighting turns the tribe into something like a standing army, the position of war-lord, as, for instance, amongst the zulus, is bound to become both permanent and of all-embracing authority. there is, however, another side to the history of kingship, as the following considerations will help to make clear. public safety is construed by the ruder type of man not so much in terms of freedom from physical danger--unless such a danger, the onset of another tribe, for instance, is actually imminent--as in terms of freedom from spiritual, or mystic, danger. the fear of ill-luck, in other words, is the bogy that haunts him night and day. hence his life is enmeshed, as dr. frazer puts it, in a network of taboos. a taboo is anything that one must not do lest ill-luck befall. and ill-luck is catching, like an infectious disease. if my next-door neighbour breaks a taboo, and brings down a visitation on himself, depend upon it some of its unpleasant consequences will be passed on to me and mine. hence, if some one has committed an act that is not merely a crime but a sin, it is every one's concern to wipe out that sin; which is usually done by wiping out the sinner. mobbish feeling always inclines to violence. in the mob, as a french psychologist has said, ideas neutralize each other, but emotions aggrandize each other. now war-feeling is a mobbish experience that, i daresay, some of my readers have tasted; and we have seen how it leads the unorganized levy of a savage tribe to make short work of the coward and traitor. but war-fever is a mild variety of mobbish experience as compared with panic in any form, and with superstitious panic most of all. being attacked in the dark, as it were, causes the strongest to lose their heads. hence it is not hard to understand how it comes about that the violator of a taboo is the central object of communal vengeance in primitive society. the most striking instance of such a taboo-breaker is the man or woman who disregards the prohibition against marriage within the kin--in other words, violates the law of exogamy. to be thus guilty of incest is to incite in the community at large a horror which, venting itself in what bagehot calls a "wild spasm of wild justice," involves certain death for the offender. to interfere with a grave, to pry into forbidden mysteries, to eat forbidden meats, and so on, are further examples of transgressions liable to be thus punished. falling under the same general category of sin, though distinct from the violation of taboo, is witchcraft. this consists in trafficking, or at any rate in being supposed to traffic, with powers of evil for sinister and anti-social ends. we have only to remember how england, in the seventeenth century, could work itself up into a frenzy on this account to realize how, in an african society even of the better sort, the "smelling-out" and destroying of a witch may easily become a general panacea for quieting the public nerves. when crimes and sins, affairs of state and affairs of church thus overlap and commingle in primitive jurisprudence, it is no wonder if the functions of those who administer the law should tend to display a similar fusion of aspects. the chief, or king, has a "divine right," and is himself in one or another sense divine, even whilst he takes the lead in regard to all such matters as are primarily secular. the earliest written codes, such as the mosaic books of the law, with their strange medley of injunctions concerning things profane and sacred, accurately reflect the politico-religious character of all primitive authority. indeed, it is only by an effort of abstraction that the present chapter has been confined to the subject of law, as distinguished from the subject of the following chapter, namely, religion. any crime, as notably murder, and even under certain circumstances theft, is apt to be viewed by the ruder peoples either as a violation of taboo, or as some closely related form of sin. nay, within the limits of the clan, legal punishment can scarcely be said to be in theory possible; the sacredness of the blood-tie lending to any chastisement that may be inflicted on an erring kinsman the purely religious complexion of a sacrifice, an act of excommunication, a penance, or what not. thus almost insensibly we are led on to the subject of religion from the study of the legal sanction; this very term "sanction," which is derived from roman law, pointing in the same direction, since it originally stood for the curse which was appended in order to secure the inviolability of a legal enactment. chapter viii religion "how can there be a history of religions?" once objected a french senator. "for either one believes in a religion, and then everything in it appears natural; or one does not believe in it, and then everything in it appears absurd!" this was said some thirty years ago, when it was a question of founding the now famous chair of the general history of religions at the college de france. at that time, such chairs were almost unheard of. now-a-days the more important universities of the world, to reckon them alone, can show at least thirty. what is the significance of this change? it means that the parochial view of religion is out of date. the religious man has to be a man of the world, a man of the wider world, an anthropologist. he has to recognize that there is a "soul of truth" in other religions besides his own. it will be replied--and i fully realize the force of the objection--that history, and therefore anthropology, has nothing to do with truth or falsehood--in a word, with value. in strict theory, this is so. its business is to describe and generalize fact; and religion from first to last might be pure illusion or even delusion, and it would be fact none the less on that account. at the same time, being men, we all find it hard, nay impossible, to study mankind impartially. when we say that we are going to play the historian, or the anthropologist, and to put aside for the time being all consideration of the moral of the story we seek to unfold, we are merely undertaking to be as fair all round as we can. willy nilly, however, we are sure to colour our history, to the extent, at any rate, of taking a hopeful or a gloomy view of man's past achievements, as bearing on his present condition and his future prospects. in the same way, then, i do not believe that we can help thinking to ourselves all the time, when we are tracing out the history of world-religion, either that there is "nothing in it" at all, or that there is "something in it," whatever form it assume, and whether it hold itself to be revealed (as it almost always does) or not. on the latter estimate of religion, however, it is still quite possible to judge that one form of religion is infinitely higher and better than another. religion, regarded historically, is in evolution. the best form of religion that we can attain to is inevitably the best for us; but, as a worse form preceded it, so a better form, we must allow and even desire, may follow. now, frankly, i am one of those who take the more sympathetic view of historical religion; an i say so at once, in case my interpretation of the facts turn out to be coloured by this sanguine assumption. moreover, i think that we may easily exaggerate the differences in culture and, more especially, in religious insight and understanding that exist between the ruder peoples and ourselves. in view of our common hope, and our common want of knowledge, i would rather identify religion with a general striving of humanity than with the exclusive pretension of any one people or sect. who knows, for instance, the final truth about what happens to the soul at death? i am quite ready to admit, indeed, that some of us can see a little farther into a brick wall than, say, neanderthal man. yet when i find facts that appear to prove that neanderthal man buried his dead with ceremony, and to the best of his means equipped them for a future life, i openly confess that i would rather stretch out a hand across the ages and greet him as my brother and fellow-pilgrim than throw in my lot with the self-righteous folk who seem to imagine this world and the next to have been created for their exclusive benefit. now the trouble with anthropologists is to find a working definition of religion on which they can agree. christianity is religion, all would have to admit. again, mahomedanism is religion, for all anthropological purposes. but, when a naked savage "dances" his god--when the spoken part of the rite simply consists, as amongst the south-eastern australians, in shouting "daramulun! daramulun!" (the god's name), so that we cannot be sure whether the dancers are indulging in a prayer or in an incantation--is that religion? or, worse still, suppose that no sort of personal god can be discovered at the back of the performance--which consists, let us say, as amongst the central australians, in solemnly rubbing a bull-roarer on the stomach, so that its mystic virtues may cause the man to become "good" and "glad" and "strong" (for that is his own way of describing the spiritual effects)--is that religion, in any sense that can link it historically with, say, the christian type of religion? no, say some, these low-class dealings with the unseen are magic, not religion. the rude folk in question do not go the right way about putting themselves into touch with the unseen. they try to put pressure on the unseen, to control it. they ought to conciliate it, by bowing to its will. their methods may be earnest, but they are not propitiatory. there is too much "my will be done" about it all. unfortunately, two can play at this game of _ex-parte_ definition. the more unsympathetic type of historian, relentlessly pursuing the clue afforded by this distinction between control and conciliation, professes himself able to discover plenty of magic even in the higher forms of religion. the rite as such--say, churchgoing as such--appears to be reckoned by some of the devout as not without a certain intrinsic efficacy. "very well," says this school, "then a good deal of average christianity is magic." my own view, then, is that this distinction will only lead us into trouble. and, to my mind, it adds to the confusion if it be further laid down, as some would do, that this sort of dealing with the unseen which, on the face of it, and according to our notions, seems rather mechanical (being, as it were, an effort to get a hold on some hidden force) is so far from being akin to religion that its true affinity is with natural science. the natural science of to-day, i quite admit, has in part evolved out of experiments with the occult; just as law, fine art, and almost every other one of our higher interests have likewise done. but just so long and so far as it was occult science, i would maintain, it was not natural science at all, but, as it were, rather supernatural science. besides, much of our natural science has grown up out of straightforward attempts to carry out mechanical work on industrial lines--to smelt iron, let us say; but since then, as now, there were numerous trade-secrets, an atmosphere of mystery was apt to surround the undertaking, which helped to give it the air of a trafficking with the uncanny. but because science then, as even now sometimes, was thought by the ignorant to be somehow closely associated with all the powers of evil, it does not follow that then or now the true affinity of science must be with the devil. magic and religion, according to the view i would support, belong to the same department of human experience--one of the two great departments, the two worlds, one might almost call them, into which human experience, throughout its whole history, has been divided. together they belong to the supernormal world, the _x_-region of experience, the region of mental twilight. magic i take to include all bad ways, and religion all good ways, of dealing with the supernormal--bad and good, of course, not as we may happen to judge them, but as the society concerned judges them. sometimes, indeed, the people themselves hardly know where to draw the line between the two; and, in that case, the anthropologist cannot well do it for them. but every primitive society thinks witchcraft bad. witchcraft consists in leaguing oneself with supernormal powers of evil in order to effect selfish and anti-social ends. witchcraft, then, is genuine magic--black magic of the devil's colour. on the other hand, every primitive society also distinguishes certain salutary ways of dealing with supernormal powers. all these ways taken together constitute religion. for the rest, there will always be a mass of more or less evaporated beliefs, going with practices that have more or less lost their hold on the community. these belong to the folklore which every people has. under this or some closely related head must also be set down the mass of mere wonder-tales, due to the play of fancy, and without direct bearing on the serious pursuits of life. the world to which neither magic nor religion belongs, but to which physical science, the knowledge of how to deal mechanically with material things, does belong wholly, is the workaday world, the region of normal, commonplace, calculable happenings. with our telescopes and microscopes we see farther and deeper into things than does the savage. yet the savage has excellent eyes. what he sees he sees. consequently, we must duly allow for the fact that there is for him, as well as for us, a "natural," that is to say, normal and workaday world; even though it be far narrower in extent than ours. the savage is not perpetually spook-haunted. on the contrary, when he is engaged on the daily round, and all is going well, he is as careless and happy as a child. but savage life has few safeguards. crisis is a frequent, if intermittent, element in it. hunger, sickness and war are examples of crisis. birth and death are crises. marriage is usually regarded by humanity as a crisis. so is initiation--the turning-point in one's career, when one steps out into the world of men. now what, in terms of mind, does crisis mean? it means that one is at one's wits' end; that the ordinary and expected has been replaced by the extraordinary and unexpected; that we are projected into the world of the unknown. and in that world of the unknown we must miserably abide until, somehow, confidence is restored. psychologically regarded, then, the function of religion is to restore men's confidence when it is shaken by crisis. men do not seek crisis; they would always run away from it, if they could. crisis seeks them; and, whereas the feebler folk are ready to succumb, the bolder spirits face it. religion is the facing of the unknown. it is the courage in it that brings comfort.[ ] [footnote : the courage involved in all live religion normally coexists with a certain modesty or humility. i have tried to work out this point elsewhere in a short study entitled _the birth of humility_.] we must go on, however, to consider religion sociologically. a religion is the effort to face crisis, so far as that effort is organized by society in some particular way. a religion is congregational--that is to say, serves the ends of a number of persons simultaneously. it is traditional--that is to say, has served the ends of successive generations of persons. therefore inevitably it has standardized a method. it involves a routine, a ritual. also it involves some sort of conventional doctrine, which is, as it were, the inner side of the ritual--its lining. now in what follows i shall insist, in the first instance, on this sociological side of religion. for anthropological purposes it is the sounder plan. we must altogether eschew that "robinson crusoe method" which consists in reconstructing the creed of a solitary savage, who is supposed to evolve his religion out of his inner consciousness: "the mountain frowns, therefore it is alive"; "i move about in my dreams whilst my body lies still, therefore i have a soul," and so on. no doubt somebody had to think these things, for they are thoughts. but he did not think them, at any rate did not think them out, alone. men thought them out together; nay, whole ages of living and thinking together have gone to make them what they are. so a social method is needed to explain them. the religion of a savage is part of his custom; nay, rather, it is his whole custom so far as it appears sacred--so far as it coerces him by way of his imagination. between him and the unknown stands nothing but his custom. it is his all-in-all, his stand-by, his faith and his hope. being thus the sole source of his confidence, his custom, so far as his imagination plays about it, becomes his "luck." we may say that any and every custom, in so far as it is regarded as lucky, is a religious rite. hence the conservatism inherent in religion. "nothing," says robertson smith, "appeals so strongly as religion to the conservative instincts." "the history of religion," once exclaimed dr. frazer, "is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason, to find a sound theory for absurd practice." at first sight one is apt to see nothing but the absurdities in savage custom and religion. after all, these are what strike us most, being the curiosity-hunters that we all are. but savage custom and religion must be taken as a whole, the bad side with the good. of course, if we have to do with a primitive society on the down-grade--and very few that have been "civilizaded," as john stuart mill terms it, at the hands of the white man are not on the down-grade--its disorganized and debased custom no longer serves a vital function. but a healthy society is bound, in a wholesale way, to have a healthy custom. though it may go about the business in a queer and roundabout fashion, it must hit off the general requirements of the situation. therefore i shall not waste time, as i might easily do, in piling up instances of outlandish "superstitions," whether horrible and disgusting, from our more advanced point of view, or merely droll and silly. on the contrary, i would rather make it my working assumption that, with all its apparent drawbacks, the religion of a human society, if the latter be a going concern, is always something to be respected. in considering, however, the relation of religion to custom, we are met by the apparent difficulty that, whereas custom implies "do," the prevailing note of primitive religion would seem rather to consist in "do not." but there is really no antagonism between them on this account. as the old greek proverb has it, "there is only one way of going right, but there are infinite ways of going wrong." hence, a nice observance of custom of itself involves endless taboos. since a given line of conduct is lucky, then this or that alternative course of behaviour must be unlucky. there is just this difference between positive customs or rites, which cause something to be done, and negative customs or rites, which cause something to be left undone, that the latter appeal more exclusively to the imagination for their sanction, and are therefore more conspicuously and directly a part of religion. "why should i do this?" is answered well-nigh sufficiently by saying, "because it is the custom, because it is right." it seems hardly necessary to add, "because it will bring luck." but "why should i not do something else instead?" meets, in the primitive society, with the invariable answer, "because, if you do, something awful will happen to us all." what precise shape the ill-luck will take need not be specified. the suggestion rather gains than loses by the indefiniteness of its appeal to the imagination. * * * * * to understand more clearly the difference between negative and positive types of custom as associated with religion, let us examine in some detail an example of each. it will be well to select our cases from amongst those that show the custom and the religion to be quite inseparable--to be, in short, but two aspects of one and the same fact. now nothing could be more commonplace and secular a custom than that of providing for one's dinner. yet for primitive society this custom tends to be likewise a rite--a rite which may, however, be mainly negative and precautionary, or mainly positive and practical in character, as we shall now see. the todas, so well described by dr. rivers, are a small community, less than a thousand all told, who have retired out of the stress of the world into the fastnesses of the nilgiri hills, in southern india, where they spend a safe but decidedly listless life. they are in a backwater, and are likely to remain there. at any rate, their religion is not such as to make them more enterprising. gods they may be said to have none. the bare names of certain deities of the hill-tops are retained, but whether these were once the honoured gods of the todas or, as some think, those of a former race, certain it is that there is more shadow than substance about them now. the real religion of the people centres round a dairy-ritual. from a practical and economic point of view, the work of the dairy consists in converting the milk of their buffaloes into the butter and buttermilk which constitute their staple diet. from a religious point of view, it consists in converting something they dare not eat into something they can eat. many, though not all, of their buffaloes are sacred, and their milk may not be drunk. the reason why it may not be drunk anthropologists may cast about to discover, but the todas themselves do not know. all that they know, and are concerned to know, is that things would somehow all go wrong, if any one were foolish enough to commit such a sin. so in the toda temple, which is a dairy, the toda priest, who is the dairyman, sets about rendering the sacred products harmless. the dairy has two compartments--one sacred, the other profane. in the first are stored the sacred vessels, into which the milk is placed when it comes from the buffaloes, and in which it is turned into butter and buttermilk with the help of some of the previous brew, this having meanwhile been put by in an especially sacred vessel. in the second compartment are profane vessels, destined to receive the butter and buttermilk, after they have been carefully transferred from the sacred vessels with the help of an intermediary vessel, which stands exactly on the line between the two compartments. this transference, being carried out to the accompaniment of all sorts of reverential gestures and utterances, secures such a profanation of the sacred substance as is without the evil consequences that would otherwise be entailed. thus the ritual is essentially precautionary. a taboo is the hinge of the whole affair. and the tendency of such a negative type of religion is to pile precautions on precautions. thus the dairyman, in order to be equal to his sacred office, must observe taboos without end. he must be celibate. he must avoid all contact with the dead. he is limited to certain kinds of food; which, moreover, must be prepared in a certain way, and consumed in a certain place. his drink, again, is a special milk, which must be poured out with prescribed formulas. he is inaccessible to ordinary folk save on certain days and in certain ways, their mode of approach, their salutations, his greeting in reply, being all regulated with the utmost nicety. he can only wear a special garb. he must never cut his hair. his nails must be suffered to grow long. and so on and so forth. such disabilities, indeed, are wont to circumscribe the life of all sacred persons, and can be matched from every part of the world. but they may fairly be cited here, as helping to fill in the picture of what i have called the precautionary or negative type of religious ritual. further, there is something rotten in the state of toda religion. the dairymen struck dr. rivers as very slovenly in the performance of their duties, as well as vague and inaccurate in their accounts of what ought to be done. indeed, it was hard to find persons willing to undertake the office. ritual duties involving uncomfortable taboos were apt to be thrust on youngsters. the youngsters, being youngsters, would probably violate the taboos; but anyway that was their look-out. from evasions to fictions is but a step. hence when an unclean person approached the dairyman, the latter would simply pretend not to see him. or the rule that he must not enter a hut, if women were within, would be circumvented by simply removing from the dwelling the three emblems of womanhood, the pounder, the sieve, and the sweeper; whereupon his "face was saved." now wherefore all this lack of earnestness? dr. rivers thinks that too much ritual was the reason. i agree; but would venture to add, "too much negative ritual." a religion that is all dodging must produce a sneaking kind of worshipper. now let us turn another type of primitive religion that is equally identified with the food-quest, but allied to its positive and active functions, which it seeks to help out. messrs. spencer and gillen have given us a most minute account of certain ceremonies of the arunta, a people of central australia. these ceremonies they have named _intichiuma_, and the name will probably stick, though there is reason to believe that the native word for them is really something different. their purpose is to make the food-animals and food-plants multiply and prosper. each animal or plant is attended to by the group that has it for a totem. (totemism amongst this very remarkable people has nothing to do either with exogamy or with lineage; but that is a subject into which it is impossible to go here.) the rites vary considerably from totem to totem, but a typical case or two may be cited. the witchetty-grub men, for instance, want the grubs to multiply, that there may be plenty for their fellows to eat. so they wend their way along a certain path which tradition declares to have been traversed by the great leader of the witchetty-grubs of the days of long ago. (these were grubs transformed into men, who became by reincarnation ancestors of the present totemites.) the path brings them to a place in the hills where there is a big stone surrounded by many small stones. the big stone is the adult animal, the little stones are its eggs. so first they tap the big stone, chanting an invitation to it to lay eggs. then the master of the ceremonies rubs the stomach of each totemite with the little stones, and says, "you have eaten much food." or, again, the kangaroo men repair to a place called undiara. it is a picturesque spot. by the side of a water-hole that is sheltered by a tall gum-tree rises a curiously gnarled and weather-beaten face of quartzite rock. about twenty feet from the base a ledge juts out. when the totemites hold their ceremony, they repair to this ledge. for here in the days of long ago the ancestors who are now reincarnated in them cooked and ate kangaroo food; and here, moreover, the kangaroo animals of that time deposited their spirit-parts. first the face of the rock below the ledge is decorated with long stripes of red ochre and white gypsum, to represent the red fur and white bones of the kangaroo. it is, in fact, one of those rock-paintings such as the palaeolithic men of europe made in their caves. then a number of men, say, seven or eight, mount upon the ledge, and, whilst the rest sing solemn chants about the prospective increase of the kangaroos, these men open veins in their arms, so that the blood flows down freely upon the ceremonial stone. this is the first part of the rite. the second part is no less interesting. after the blood-letting, they hunt until they kill a kangaroo. thereupon the old men of the totem eat a little of the meat; then they smear some of the fat on the bodies of all the party; finally, they divide the flesh amongst them. afterwards, the totemites paint their bodies with stripes in imitation of the design upon the rock. a second hunt, followed by a second sacramental meal, concludes the whole ceremony. that their meal is sacramental, a sort of communion service, is proved by the fact that henceforth in an ordinary way they allow themselves to partake of kangaroo meat at most but very sparingly, and of certain portions of the flesh not at all. one more example of these rites may be cited, in order to bring out the earnestness of this type of religion, which is concerned with doing, instead of mere not-doing. there is none of the toda perfunctoriness here. it will be enough to glance at the commencement of the ritual of the honey-ant totemites. the master of the ceremonies places his hand as if he were shading his eyes, and gazes intently in the direction of the sacred place to which they are about to repair. as he does so, the rest kneel, forming a straight line behind him. in this position they remain for some time, whilst the leader chants in a subdued tone. then all stand up. the company must now start. the leader, who has fallen to the rear, that he may marshal the column in perfect line, gives the signal. then they move off in single file, taking a direct course to the holy ground, marching in perfect silence, and with measured step, as if something of the profoundest import were about to take place. i make no apology for describing these proceedings at some length. it is necessary to my argument to convey the impression that the essentials of religion are present in these apparently godless observances of the ruder peoples. they arise directly out of custom--in this case the hunting custom. their immediate design is to provide these people with their daily bread. yet their appeal to the imagination--which in religion, as in science, art, and philosophy, is the impulse that presides over all progress, all creative evolution--is such that the food-quest is charged with new and deeper meaning. not bread alone, but something even more sustaining to the life of man, is suggested by these tangled and obscure solemnities. they are penetrated by quickenings of sacrifice, prayer, and communion. they bring to bear on the need of the hour all the promise of that miraculous past, which not only cradled the race, but still yields it the stock of reincarnated soul-force that enables it to survive. if, then, these rites are part and parcel of mere magic, most, or all, of what the world knows as religion must be mere magic. but it is better for anthropology to call things by the names that they are known by in the world of men--that is, in the wider world, not in some corner or coterie of it. * * * * * in order to bring out more fully the second point that i have been trying to make, namely, the close interdependence between religion and custom in primitive society, let me be allowed to quote one more example of the ritual of a rude people. and again let us resort to native australia, though this time to the south-eastern corner of it; since in australia we have a cultural development on the whole very low, having been as it were arrested through isolation, yet one that turns out to be not incompatible with high religion in the making. initiation in native australia is the equivalent of what is known amongst ourselves as the higher education. the only difference is that, with them, every one who is not judged utterly unfit is duly initiated; whereas, with us, the higher education is offered to some who are unfit, whilst many who are fit never have the luck to get it. the initiation-custom is intended to tide the boys over the difficult time of puberty, and turn them into responsible men. the whole of the adult males assist in the ceremonies. special men, however, are told off to tutor the youth--a lengthy business, since it entails a retirement, perhaps for six months, into the bush with their charges; who are there taught the tribal traditions, and are generally admonished, sometimes forcibly, for their good. further, this is rather like a retirement into a monastery for the young men, seeing that during all the time they are strictly taboo, or in other words in a holy state that involves much fasting and mortification of the flesh. at last comes the time when their actual passage across the threshold of manhood has to be celebrated. the rites may be described in one word as impressive. society wishes to set a stamp on their characters, and believes in stamping hard. physically, then, the lads feel the force of society. a tooth is knocked out, they are tossed in the air to make them grow tall, and so on--rites that, whilst they may have separate occult ends in view, are completely at one in being highly unpleasant. spiritual means of education, however, are always more effective than physical, if designed and applied with sufficient wisdom. the bull-roarer, of which something has been already said, furnishes the ceremonies with a background of awe. it fills the woods, that surround the secret spot where the rites are held, with the rise and fall of its weird music, suggestive of a mighty rushing wind, of spirits in the air. not until the boys graduate as men do they learn how the sound is produced. even when they do learn this, the mystery of the voice speaking through the chip of wood merely wings the imagination for loftier flights. whatever else the high god of these mysteries, daramulun, may be for these people--and undoubtedly all sorts of trains of confused thinking meet in the notion of him--he is at any rate the god of the bull-roarer, who has put his voice into the sacred instrument. but daramulun is likewise endowed with a human form; for they set up an image of him rudely shaped in wood, and round about it dance and shout his name. daramulun instituted these rites, as well as all the other immemorial rites of the assembled tribe or tribes. so when over the heads of the boys, prostrated on the ground, are recited solemnly what mr. lang calls "the ten commandments," that bid them honour the elders, respect the marriage law, and so on, there looms up before their minds the figure of the ultimate law-giver; whilst his unearthly voice becomes for them the voice of the law. thus is custom exalted, and its coercive force amplified, by the suggestion of a power--in this case a definitely personal power--that "makes for righteousness," and, whilst beneficent, is full of terror for offenders. * * * * * and now it may seem high time to pass on from the sociological and external view that has hitherto been taken of primitive religion to a psychological view of it--one that should endeavour to disclose the hidden motives, the spiritual sources, of the beliefs that underlie and sustain the customary practices. but precisely at this point the anthropological treatment of religion is apt to prove unsatisfactory. history can record that such and such is done with far more certainty than that such and such a state of mind accompanies and inspires the doing. besides, the savage is no authority on the why and wherefore of his customs. "however else would a reasonable being think of acting?" is his sufficient reason, as we have already seen. not but what the higher minds amongst savages reflect in their own way upon the meaning of their customs and rites. but most of this reflection is no more than an elaborate "justification after the event." the mind invents what mr. kipling would call a "just-so story" to account for something already there. how it might have come about, not how it did come about, is all that the professed explanation amounts to. and when it comes to choosing amongst mere possibilities, the anthropologist, instead of consulting the savage, may just as well endeavour to do it for himself. now anthropological theories of the origin of religion seem to me to go wrong mainly because they seek to simplify too much. having got down to what they take to be a root-idea, they straightway proclaim it _the_ root-idea. i believe that religion has just as few, or as many, roots as human life and mind. the theory of the origin of religion that may be said to hold the field, because it is the view of the greatest of living anthropologists, is dr. tylor's theory of animism. the term animism is derived from the latin _anima_, which--like the corresponding word _spiritus_, whence our "spirit"--signifies the breath, and hence the soul, which primitive folk tend to identify with the breath. dr. tylor's theory of animism, then, as set forth in his great work, _primitive culture_, is that "the belief in spiritual beings" will do as a definition of religion taken at its least; which for him means the same thing as taken at its earliest. now what is a "spiritual being"? clearly everything turns on that. dr. tylor's general treatment of the subject seems to lay most of the emphasis on the phantasm. a phantasm (as the etymology of the word shows) is essentially an appearance. in a dream or hallucination one sees figures, more or less dim, but still having "vaporous materiality." so, too, the shadow is something without body that one can see; though the breath, except on a frosty day, shows its subtle but yet sensible nature rather by being felt than by being seen. now there can be no doubt that the phantasm plays a considerable part in primitive religion (as well as in those fancies of the primitive mind that have never found their way into religion, at all events into religion as identified with organized cult). savages see ghosts, though probably not more frequently than we do; they have vivid dreams, and are much impressed by their dream-experiences; and so on. besides, the phantasm forms a very convenient half-way house between the seen and the unseen; and there can be no doubt that the savage often says breath, shadow, and so forth, when he is trying to think and mean something immaterial altogether. but animism would seem sometimes to be used by dr. tylor in a wider sense, namely, as "a doctrine of universal vitality." in dealing with the myths of the ruder peoples, as, for example, those about the sun, moon, and stars, he shows how "a general animation of nature" is implied. the primitive man reads himself into these things, which, according to our science, are without life or personality. he thinks that they have a different kind of body, but the same kind of feelings and motives. but this is not necessarily to think that they are capable of giving off a phantasm, as a man does when his soul temporarily leaves him, or when after death his soul becomes a ghost. there need be nothing ghost-like about the sun, whether it is imagined as a shining orb, or as a shining being of human shape to whom the orb belongs. there is not anything in the least phantasmal about the greek god apollo. i think, then, that we had better distinguish this wider sense of animism by a different name, calling it "animatism," since that will serve at once to disconnect and to connect the two conceptions. i am not sure, however, how far we ought to press this "doctrine of universal vitality." does a savage, for instance, when he is hammering at a piece of flint think of it as other than a "thing," any more than we should? i doubt it. he may say "confound you!" if it suddenly snaps in two, just as we might do. but though the language may seem to imply a "you," he would mean, i believe, to impute to the flint just as much, or as little, of personality as we should mean to do when using similar language. in other words, i believe that, within the world of his ordinary work-a-day experience, he recognizes both things and persons; without giving a thought, in either case, to the hidden principles that make them be what they are, and act as they do. when, on the other hand, the thing, or the person, falls within the world of supernormal experience, when they strike the imagination as wonderful and wonder-working, then there is much more reason why he should seek to account to himself for the mystery in, or behind, the strange appearance. howitt, who knew his australian natives intimately, cites the following as "a good example of how the native mind works." to the black-fellow his club or his spear are part and parcel of his ordinary life. there is no, "medicine," no "devil," in them. if they are to be made supernaturally potent, they must be specially charmed. but it is quite otherwise with his spear-thrower or his bull-roarer. the former for no obvious reason enables him to throw his spear extraordinarily far. (i have myself seen an australian spear, with the help of the spear-thrower, fly a hundred and fifty yards, and strike true and deep at the end of its flight.) the latter emits the noise of thunder, though a mere chip of wood on the end of a string. these, then, are in themselves "medicine." there is "virtue" in, or behind, them. is, then, to attribute "virtue" the same thing, necessarily, as to attribute vitality? are the spear-thrower and the bull-roarer inevitably thought of as alive? or are they, as a matter of course, endowed with soul or spirit? or may there be also an impersonal kind of "virtue," "medicine," or whatever the wonder-working power in the wonder-working thing is to be called? now there is evidence that the savage himself, in speaking about these matters, sometimes says power, sometimes vitality, sometimes spirit. but the simplest way of disposing of these questions is to remember that such fine distinctions as these, which theorists may seek to draw, do not appeal at all to the savage himself. for him the only fact that matters is that, whereas some things in the world are ordinary, and can be reckoned on, other things cannot be reckoned on, but are wonder-working. moreover, of wonder-working things, some are good and some are bad. to get all the good kind of wonder-workers on to his side, so as to confound the bad kind--that is what his religion is there to do for him. "may blessings come, may mischiefs go!" is the import of his religious striving, whether anthropologists class it as spell or as prayer. now the function of religion, it has been assumed, is to restore confidence, when man is mazed, and out of his depth, fearful of the mysteries that obtrude on his life, yet compelled, if not exactly wishful, to face them and wrest from them whatever help is in them. this function religion fulfils by what may be described in one word as "suggestion." how the suggestion works psychologically--how, for instance, association of ideas, the so-called "sympathetic magic," predominates at the lower levels of religious experience--is a difficult and technical question which cannot be discussed here. religion stands by when there is something to be done, and suggests that it can be done well and successfully; nay, that it is being so done. and, when the religion is of the effective sort, the believers respond to the suggestion, and put the thing through. as the latin poet says, "they can because they think they can." what, from the anthropological point of view, is the effective sort of religion, the sort that survives because, on the whole, those whom it helps survive? it is dangerous to make sweeping generalizations, but there is at any rate a good deal to be said for classing the world's religions either as mechanical and ineffective, or as spiritual and effective. the mechanical kind offers its consolations in the shape of a set of implements. the "virtue" resides in certain rites and formularies. these, as we have seen, are especially liable to harden into mere mechanism when they are of the negative and precautionary type. the spiritual kind of religion, on the other hand, which is especially associated with the positive and active functions of life, tends to read will and personality into the wonder-working powers that it summons to man's aid. the will and personality in the worshippers are in need not so much of implements as of more will and personality. they get this from a spiritual kind of religion; which in one way or another always suggests a society, a communion, as at once the means and the end of vital betterment. to say that religion works by suggestion is only to say that it works through the imagination. there is good make-believe as well as bad; and one must necessarily imagine and make-believe in order to will. the more or less inarticulate and intuitional forces of the mind, however, need to be supplemented by the power of articulate reasoning, if the will is to make good its twofold character of a faculty of ends that is likewise a faculty of the means to those ends. suggestion, in short, must be purged by criticism before it can serve as the guide of the higher life. to bring this point out will be the object of the following chapter. chapter ix morality space is running out fast, and it is quite impossible to grapple with the details of so vast a subject as primitive morality. for these the reader must consult dr. westermarck's monumental treatise, _the origin and development of the moral ideas_, which brings together an immense quantity of facts, under a clear and comprehensive scheme of headings. he will discover, by the way, that, whereas customs differ immensely, the emotions, one may even say the sentiments, that form the raw material of morality are much the same everywhere. here it will be of most use to sketch the psychological groundwork of primitive morality, as contrasted with morality of the more advanced type. in pursuance of the plan hitherto followed, let us try to move yet another step on from the purely exterior view of human life towards our goal; which is to appreciate the true inwardness of human life--so far at least as this is matter for anthropology, which reaches no farther than the historic method can take it. it is, of course, open to question whether either primitive or advanced morality is sufficiently of one piece to allow, as it were, a composite photograph to be framed of either. for our present purposes, however, this expedient is so serviceable as to be worth risking. let us assume, then, that there are two main stages in the historical evolution of society, as considered from the standpoint of the psychology of conduct. i propose to term them the synnomic and the syntelic phases of society. "synnomic" (from the greek _nomos_, custom) means that customs are shared. "syntelic" (from the greek _telos_, end) means that ends are shared. the synnomic phase is, from the psychological point of view, a kingdom of habit; the syntelic phase is a kingdom of reflection. the former is governed by a subconscious selection of its standards of good and bad; the latter by a conscious selection of its standards. it remains to show very briefly how such a difference comes about. the outstanding fact about the synnomic life of the ruder peoples is perhaps this--that there is hardly any privacy. of course, many other drawbacks must be taken into account also--no wide-thrown communications, no analytic language, no writing, no books, and so on; but perhaps being in a crowd all the time is the worst drawback of all. for, as disraeli says in _sybil_, gregariousness is not association. constant herding and huddling together hinders the development of personality. that independence of character which is the prime condition of syntelic society cannot mature, even though the germs be there. no one has a chance of withdrawing into his own soul. therefore the individual does not experience that silent conversation with self which is reflection. instead of turning inwards, he turns outwards. in short, he imitates. but how, it may be objected, does evolution take place, if every one imitates every one else? certainly, it looks at first sight like a vicious circle. nevertheless, there is room for a certain progress, or at any rate for a certain process of change. to analyse its psychological springs would take us too long. if a phrase will do instead of an explanation, we may sum them up, with the brilliant french psychologist, tarde, as "a cross-fertilization of imitations." we need not, however, go far to get an impression of how this process of change works. it is going on every day in our midst under the name of "change of fashion." when one purchases the latest thing in ties or straw hats, one is not aiming at a rational form of dress. if there is progress in this direction, it is subconscious. the underlying spiritual condition is not inaptly described by dr. lloyd morgan as "a sheep-through-the-gapishness." from a moral point of view, this lack of capacity for private judgment is equivalent to a want of moral freedom. we have seen how relatively external are the sanctions of savage life. this does not mean, of course, that there is no answering judgment in the mind of the individual when he follows his customs. he says, "it is the custom; therefore it is right." but this judgment can scarcely be said to proceed from a truly judging, that is to say, critical, self. the man watches his neighbours, taking his cue from them. his judgment is a judgment of sense. he does not look inwards to principle. a moral principle is a standard that can, by means of thought, be transferred from one sensible situation to another sensible situation. the general law, and its application to the situation present now to the senses, are considered apart, before being put together. consequently, a possible application, however strongly suggested by custom, fashion, the action of one's neighbours, one's own impulse or prejudice, or what not, can be resisted, if it appear on reflection not to be really suited to the circumstances. in short, in order to be rational and "put two and two together," one must be able to entertain two and two as distinct conceptions. perceptions, on the contrary, can only be compared in the lump. just as in the chapter on language we saw how man began by talking in holophrases, and only gradually attained to analytic, that is, separable, elements of speech, so in this chapter we have to note the strictly parallel development from confusion to distinction on the side of thought. savage morality, then, is not rational in the sense of analysed, but is, so to speak, impressionistic. we might, perhaps, describe it as the expression of a collective impression. it is best understood in the light of that branch of social psychology which usually goes by the name of "mob-psychology." perhaps mob and mobbish are rather unfortunate terms. they are apt to make us think of the wilder explosions of collective feeling--panics, blood-mania, dancing-epidemics, and so on. but, though a savage society is by no means a mob in the sense of a weltering mass of humanity that has for the time being lost its head, the psychological considerations applying to the latter apply also to the former, when due allowance has been made for the fact that savage society is organized on a permanent basis. the difference between the two comes, in short, to this, that the mob as represented in the savage society is a mob consisting of many successive generations of men. its tradition constitutes, as it were, a prolonged and abiding impression, which its conduct thereupon expresses. savage thought, then, is not able, because it does not try, to break up custom into separate pieces. rather it plays round the edges of custom; religion especially, with its suggestion of the general sacredness of custom, helping it to do so. there is found in primitive society plenty of vague speculation that seeks to justify the existing. but to take the machine to bits in order to put it together differently is out of the reach of a type of intelligence which, though competent to grapple with details, takes its principles for granted. when progress comes, it comes by stealth, through imitating the letter, but refusing to imitate the spirit; until by means of legal fictions, ritual substitutions, and so on, the new takes the place of the old without any one noticing the fact. freedom, in the sense of intellectual freedom, may perhaps be said to have been born in one place and at one time--namely, in greece in the fifth and fourth centuries b.c.[ ] of course, minglings and clashings of peoples had prepared the way. ideas begin to count as soon as they break away from their local context. but greece, in teaching the world the meaning of intellectual freedom, paved a way towards that most comprehensive form of freedom which is termed moral. moral freedom is the will to give out more than you take in; to repay with interest the cost of your social education. it is the will to take thought about the meaning and end of human life, and by so doing to assist in creative evolution. [footnote : political freedom, which is rather a different matter, is perhaps pre-eminently the discovery of england.] chapter x man the individual by way of epilogue, a word about individuality, as displayed amongst peoples of the ruder type, will not be out of place. there is a real danger lest the anthropologist should think that a scientific view of man is to be obtained by leaving out the human nature in him. this comes from the over-anxiety of evolutionary history to arrive at general principles. it is too ready to rule out the so-called "accident," forgetful of the fact that the whole theory of biological evolution may with some justice be described as "the happy accident theory." the man of high individuality, then, the exceptional man, the man of genius, be he man of thought, man of feeling, or man of action, is no accident that can be overlooked by history. on the contrary, he is in no small part the history-maker; and, as such, should be treated with due respect by the history-compiler. the "dry bones" of history, its statistical averages, and so on, are all very well in their way; but they correspond to the superficial truth that history repeats itself, rather than to the deeper truth that history is an evolution. anthropology, then, should not disdain what might be termed the method of the historical novel. to study the plot without studying the characters will never make sense of the drama of human life. it may seem a truism, but is perhaps worth recollecting at the start, that no man or woman lacks individuality altogether, even if it cannot be regarded in a particular case as a high individuality. no one is a mere item. that useful figment of the statistician has no real existence under the sun. we need to supplement the books of abstract theory with much sympathetic insight directed towards men and women in their concrete selfhood. said a vedda cave-dweller to dr. seligmann (it is the first instance i light on in the first book i happen to take up): "it is pleasant for us to feel the rain beating on our shoulders, and good to go out and dig yams, and come home wet, and see the fire burning in the cave, and sit round it." that sort of remark, to my mind, throws more light on the anthropology of cave-life than all the bones and stones that i have helped to dig out of our mousterian caves in jersey. as the stock phrase has it, it is, as far as it goes, a "human document." the individuality, in the sense of the intimate self-existence, of the speaker and his group--for, characteristically enough, he uses the first person plural--is disclosed sufficiently for our souls to get into touch. we are the nearer to appreciating human history from the inside. some of those students of mankind, therefore, who have been privileged to live amongst the ruder peoples, and to learn their language well, and really to be friends with some of them (which is hard, since friendship implies a certain sense of equality on both sides), should try their hands at anthropological biography. anthropology, so far as it relates to savages, can never rise to the height of the most illuminating kind of history until this is done. it ought not to be impossible for an intelligent white man to enter sympathetically into the mental outlook of the native man of affairs, the more or less practical and hardheaded legislator and statesman, if only complete confidence could be established between the two. that there are men of outstanding individuality who help to make political history even amongst the rudest peoples is, moreover, hardly to be doubted. thus messrs. spencer and gillen, in the introductory chapter of their work on the central australians, state that, after observing the conduct of a great gathering of the natives, they reached the opinion that the changes which undoubtedly take place from time to time in aboriginal custom are by no means wholly of the subconscious and spontaneous sort, but are in part due also to the influence of individuals of superior ability. "at this gathering, for example, some of the oldest men were of no account; but, on the other hand, others not so old as they were, but more learned in ancient lore or more skilled in matters of magic, were looked up to by the others, and they it was who settled everything. it must, however, be understood that we have no definite proof to bring forward of the actual introduction by this means of any fundamental change of custom. the only thing that we can say is that, after carefully watching the natives during the performance of their ceremonies and endeavouring as best we could to enter into their feelings, to think as they did, and to become for the time being one of themselves, we came to the conclusion that if one or two of the most powerful men settled upon the advisability of introducing some change, even an important one, it would be quite possible for this to be agreed upon and carried out." this passage is worth quoting at length if only for the admirable method that it discloses. the policy of "trying to become for the time being one of themselves" resulted in the book that, of all first-hand studies, has done most for modern anthropology. at the same time messrs. spencer and gillen, it is evident, would not claim to have done more than interpret the external signs of a high individuality on the part of these prominent natives. it still remains a rare and almost unheard-of thing for an anthropologist to be on such friendly terms with a savage as to get him to talk intimately about himself, and reveal the real man within. there exist, however, occasional side-lights on human personality in the anthropological literature that has to do with very rude peoples. the page from a human document that i shall cite by way of example is all the more curious, because it relates to a type of experience quite outside the compass of ordinary civilized folk. here and there, however, something like it may be found amongst ourselves. my friend mr. l.p. jacks, for instance, in his story-book, _mad shepherds_, has described a rustic of the north of england who belonged to this old-world order of great men. for men of the type in question can be great, at any rate in low-level society. the so-called medicine man is a leader, perhaps even the typical leader, of primitive society; and, just because he is, by reason of his calling, addicted to privacy and aloofness, he certainly tends to be more individual, more of a "character," than the general run of his fellows. i shall slightly condense from howitt's _native tribes of south-east australia_ the man's own story of his experience of initiation. howitt says, by the way, "i feel strongly assured that the man believed that the events which he related were real, and that he had actually experienced them"; and then goes on to talk about "subjective realities." i myself offer no commentary. those interested in psychical research will detect hypnotic trance, levitation, and so forth. others, versed in the spirit of william james' _varieties of religious experience_, will find an even deeper meaning in it all. the sociologist, meanwhile, will point to the force of custom and tradition, as colouring the whole experience, even when at its most subjective and dreamlike. but each according to his bent must work out these things for himself. in any case it is well that the end of a book should leave the reader still thinking. the speaker was a wiradjuri doctor of the kangaroo totem. he said: "my father is a lizard-man. when i was a small boy, he took me into the bush to train me to be a doctor. he placed two large quartz-crystals against my breast, and they vanished into me. i do not know how they went, but i felt them going through me like warmth. this was to make me clever, and able to bring things up." (this refers to the medicine-man's custom of bringing up into the mouth, as if from the stomach, the quartz-crystal in which his "virtue" has its chief material embodiment or symbol; being likewise useful, as we see later on, for hypnotizing purposes.) "he also gave me some things like quartz-crystals in water. they looked like ice, and the water tasted sweet. after that, i used to see things that my mother could not see. when out with her i would say, 'what is out there like men walking?' she used to say, 'child, there is nothing.' these were the ghosts which i began to see." the account goes on to state that at puberty our friend went through the regular initiation for boys; when he saw the doctors bringing up their crystals, and, crystals in mouth, shooting the "virtue" into him to make him "good." thereupon, being in a holy state like any other novice, he had retired to the bush in the customary manner to fast and meditate. "whilst i was in the bush, my old father came out to me. he said, 'come here to me,' and then he showed me a piece of quartz-crystal in his hand. when i looked at it, he went down into the ground; and i saw him come up all covered with red dust. it made me very frightened. then my father said, 'try and bring up a crystal.' i did try, and brought one up. he then said, 'come with me to this place.' i saw him standing by a hole in the ground, leading to a grave. i went inside and saw a dead man, who rubbed me all over to make me clever, and gave me some crystals. when we came out, my father pointed to a tiger-snake, saying, 'that is your familiar. it is mine also.' there was a string extending from the tail of the snake to us--one of those strings which the medicine-men bring up out of themselves. my father took hold of the string, and said, 'let us follow the snake.' the snake went through several tree-trunks, and let us through them. at last we reached a tree with a great swelling round its roots. it is in such places that daramulun lives. the snake went down into the ground, and came up inside the tree, which was hollow. we followed him. there i saw a lot of little daramuluns, the sons of baiame. afterwards, the snake took us into a great hole, in which were a number of snakes. these rubbed themselves against me, and did not hurt me, being my familiars. they did this to make me a clever man and a doctor. "then my father said, 'we will go up to baiame's camp.' [amongst the wiradjuri, baiame is the high god, and daramulun is his son. what 'little daramuluns' may be is not very clear.] he got astride a thread, and put me on another, and we held by each other's arms. at the end of the thread was wombu, the bird of baiame. we went up through the clouds, and on the other side was the sky. we went through the place where the doctors go through, and it kept opening and shutting very quickly. my father said that, if it touched a doctor when he was going through, it would hurt his spirit, and when he returned home he would sicken and die. on the other side we saw baiame sitting in his camp. he was a very great old man with a long beard. he sat with his legs under him, and from his shoulders extended two great quartz-crystals to the sky above him. there were also numbers of the boys of baiame, and of his people who are birds and beasts. [the totems.] "after this time, and while i was in the bush, i began to bring crystals up; but i became very ill, and cannot do anything since." _november, _. bibliography introductory note.--it is impossible to provide a bibliography of so vast a subject, even when first-class authorities only are referred to; whilst selection must be arbitrary and invidious. here books written in english are alone cited, and those mostly the more modern. the reader is advised to spend such time as he can give to the subject mostly on the descriptive treatises. a few very educative studies are marked by an asterisk. in many cases, to save space, merely the author's name with initials is given, and a library catalogue must be consulted, or a list of authors such as is to be found, _e.g._ at the end of westermarck's works. a. theoretical general.--e.b. tylor, _anthropology_* (best manual); _primitive culture_* (the greatest of anthropological classics); lord avebury's works; _anthropological essays presented to e.b. tylor_. antiquity of man.--w.j. sollas, _ancient hunters and their modern representatives_ (best popular account). subject difficult without special knowledge, to be derived from, _e.g._ sir j. evans (stone implements); j. geikie (geology of ice age), etc. see also brit. mus. guides to stone age, bronze age, early iron age. race and geographical distribution.--a.c. haddon, _races of man_ and _the wanderings of peoples_ (best short outlines to work from); fuller details in j. deniker, a.h. keane; and, for europe, w.z. ripley. see also brit. mus. guide to ethnological collections. social organization and law.--j.g. frazer, _totemism and exogamy_*; l.h. morgan, _ancient society_*; e. westermarck, _history of human marriage_*; e.s. hartland, _primitive paternity_; a. lang, _the secret of the totem_; n.w. thomas, _kinship organization and group marriage in australia_; h. webster, _primitive secret societies_. religion, magic, folk-lore.--j.g. frazer, _the golden bough_* ( rd edit.); e.s. hartland, _the legend of perseus_ (esp. vol. ii); a. lang, _myth, ritual and religion_,* _the making of religion_, etc.; w. robertson smith, _early religion of the semites_*; f.b. jevons, a.c. crawley, d.g. brinton, g.l. gomme, l.r. farnell, r.r. marett, etc. morals.--e. westermarck, _origin and development of the moral ideas_*; e.b. tylor, _contemp. rev._ xxi-ii; l.t. hobhouse, _morals in evolution_; a. sutherland, _origin and growth of the moral instinct_. miscellaneous.--language: e.j. payne, _history of the new world called america_,* vol. ii. art: y. hirn, _origins of art_.* economics: p.j.h. grierson, _the silent trade_. b. descriptive australia.--b. spencer and f.j. gillen, _native tribes of central australia_,* _northern tribes of central australia_; a.w. howitt, _native tribes of south-east australia_*; j. woods (and others), _native tribes of south australia_; l. fison and a.w. howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_; h. ling roth, _aborigines of tasmania_. oceania and indonesia.--r.h. codrington, _the melanesians_*; b.h. thompson, _the fijians_; a.c. haddon (and others), _report of cambridge expedition to torres straits_; c.g. seligmann (for new guinea); g. turner, w. ellis, e. shortland, r. taylor (for polynesia); a.r. wallace, _malay archipelago_; c. hose and w. mcdougall (for indonesia). asia.--j.j.m. de groot, _the religious system of china_; w.h.r. rivers, _the todas_*; and a host of other good authorities for india, _e.g._ sir h.h. risley, e. thurston, w. crooke, t.c. hodson, p.r.t. gurdon, c.g. and b.z. seligmann (veddas of ceylon); e.h. man, _journ. r. anthrop. instit._ xii (andamanese); w. skeat (for malay peninsula). africa.--south: h. callaway, e. casalis, j. maclean, d. kidd. east: a.c. hollis, j. roscoe, w.s. and k. routledge, a. werner. west: m.h. kingsley, a.b. ellis. madagascar: w. ellis. america.--a vast number of important works, see esp. _smithsonian institution_, _reports of the bureau of ethnology_ (j.w. powell, f. boas, f. cushing, a.c. fletcher, m.c. stevenson, j.r. swanton, c. mindeleff, s. powers, j. mooney, j.o. dorsey, w.j. hoffman, w.j. mcgee, etc.); l.h. morgan (on iroquois), j. teit, c. hill tout; c. lumholtz, _unknown mexico_; sir e. im thurn, _among the indians of guiana_. europe.--ancient: l.r. farnell, _cults of the greek states_; j.e. harrison, _prolegomena to greek religion_; w. warde fowler, _religious experience of the roman people_; _anthropology and the classics_, etc. modern: g.f. abbott, c. lawson (to compare modern with ancient), folk-lore society's publications, etc. c. subsidiary c. darwin, _descent of man_ (part i); w. bagehot, _physics and politics_*; w. james, _varieties of religious experience_*; w. mcdougall, _introduction to social psychology_.* and in this series geddes and thomson, newbigin, myres, mcdougall, keith. index adultery, africans, , , , , , , , , age-grades, alpine race, altamira, americans, , , , - , , , , - , , , , , andamanese, , , anglo-saxons, animatism, animism, , anthropo-geography, , , - , , anthropoid apes, , , - , , , , , anthropology, - , , , , , asiatics, , , , , - , - , - , , , , , , - , , , , - athapascan languages, atlantic phase of culture, aurignac, australians, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , - , , - bagehot, w., , , , baiame, , balfour, h., basque language, , , biology, , bison, , , , blood-revenge, - boas, f., , borneo, , brandon, , bronze-age, , , bull-roarer, - , , , burial, , , , , , bushmen, , , , , , , butler, s., buzz, calaveras skull, cannibalism, cartailhac, e., carthage, caste, , cave-paintings, , - , chelles, china, , , , chukchis, clan, , , , , , class (matrimonial), climate, - , , , , cogul, collective responsibility, , colour, - commont, v., confederacy, consanguinity, conservatism of savage, , , , , , counting, , , cranial index, cranz, d., creswell crags, cro-magnon, custom, , - , - , , , , , dahomey, , dairy-ritual, - daramulun, , , darwin, c., - , , , , , , demolins, e., , differential evolution, dog, dubois, e., duel, , , egypt, , , , endogamy, , environment, , , , , - eoliths, - eskimo, , , , eugenics, , , , eurasian region, - europeans, - , , - , , - , , , , , , , , , , , evans, sir j., , evolution, - , , , - , , exogamy, , - , , , , , experimental psychology, , family, , , , , , family jurisdiction, flint-mining, , folk-lore, , frazer, j.g., , , freedom, , , , , , fuegians, - , galley hill skull, , gargas, - genealogical method, gesture-language, , ghosts, , , gibraltar skull, greece, , , , , greenwell, w., grime's graves, haddon, a.h., , haeckel, e., hand-prints, harrison, b., , head-form, - , head-hunting, heidelberg mandible, history, , - , , , , , hittites, hobhouse, l.t., holophrase, - , horse, , , , howitt, a.w., , , humility, ice-age, , , , , , , , icklingham, imagination, , , , incest, , india, individuality, , - indo-european languages, indonesia, , , , initiation, , , , , - , - instinct, , , , - intichiuma ceremonies, , , - iron-age, , jacks, l.p., james, w., jersey, , , , kellor, f.a., kent's cavern, kingship, , , , kinship, , knappers, , koryaks, la chapelle-aux-saints, lamarck, j.b., , la naulette mandible, lang, a., , language, , - lapps, law, , - lecky, t., le moustier, , - , le play, f., levy-bruhl, l., lineage, , lloyd morgan, c., local association, luck, , , , mcdougall, w., madagascar, , magic, , , , , - , , , malaya, , , malthus, t., , mammoth, , , , man, e.h., , mas d'azil, masks, matriarchate, matrilineal, matrilocal, matripotestal, , medicine-man, - mediterranean race, , , melanesians, , , mendelism, mentone, military discipline, , miscegenation, mob-psychology, , , - moieties, morality, , - mother-right, , , myres, j.l., nation, natural selection, - , nature, , , , , neanderthal race, , , - , , , negative rites, - , negritos, , - , , , negro race, , , , neolithic age, , - , , , niaux, - nordic race, ordeal, , pacation, , painted pebbles, palaeolithic age, , - , , papuasians, patagonians, patrilineal, patrilocal, patripotestal, , payne, e.j., persecuting tendency, perthes, boucher de, phantasm, philosophy, - , , , phratry, pictographs, pithecanthropus erectus, , policy, - polynesians, , , , positive rites, - , pottery, , pre-dravidians, pre-historic chronology, pre-history, , , , pre-natal environment, prestwich, sir j., profane vessels, property, , , , proto-history, , quartz crystals, - race, , - , , ratzel, f., reincarnation, , , reindeer, , , , , religion, , , , - , - , - ridgeway, w., rites, , - , river-phase of culture, rivers, w.h.r., , , rutot, a., , sacramental meal, sacredness, , , , , , , , , , st. acheul, , , sanction, , savagery, , science, - secret societies, seligmann, c.g. and b.z., , sex-totems, shaw, b., slander, slavery, smith, w. robertson, snare, f., social organization, - , - solutre, , spear-thrower, spencer, b., and gillen, f.j., , , , , spirit, , steinmetz, s.r., stratigraphical method, - suggestion, - , - survivals, sutherland, a., sympathetic magic, , synnomic phase of society syntelic phase of society, taboo, - , , tasmanians, - thames gravels, - , theft, todas, - torres straits, totemism, , - , , , - , tribe, tylor, e.b., , - use-inheritance, , variation, - veddas, , , wallace, a.r., , , wealden dome, weismann, a., , westermarck, e., witchcraft, , the home university library _of modern knowledge_ is made up of absolutely new books by leading authorities. the editors are _professors gilbert murray_, _h.a.l. fisher_, _w.t. brewster_, _and j. arthur thomson_. cloth bound, good paper, clear type, pages per volume, bibliographies, indices, also maps or illustrations where needed. each complete and sold separately. c. per volume american history [_order number_] . the colonial period ( - ). by charles mclean andrews, professor of american history, yale. the fascinating history of the two hundred years of "colonial times." . the wars between england and america ( - ). by theodore c. smith, professor of american history, williams college. a history of the period, with especial emphasis on the revolution and the war of . . from jefferson to lincoln ( - 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"the best small treatise dealing with the range of subjects fairly indicated by the title."--_the dial_. . modern geography. by dr. marion newbigin. shows the relation of physical features to living things and to some of the chief institutions of civilization. . master mariners. by john r. spears, author of _the history of our navy_, etc. a history of sea craft adventure from the earliest times. social science . the negro. by w.e. burghardt dubois, author of _souls of black folks_, etc. a history of the black man in africa, america or wherever else his presence has been or is important. . co-partnership and profit sharing. by aneurin williams, chairman, executive committee, international co-operative alliance, etc. explains the various types of co-partnership or profit-sharing, or both, and gives details of the arrangements now in force in many of the great industries. . political thought: from herbert spencer to the present day. by ernest barker, m.a. . political thought: the utilitarians. from benthan to j.s. mill. by william l. davidson. . unemployment. by a.c. pigou, m.a., professor of political economy at cambridge. the meaning, measurement, distribution, and effects of unemployment, its relation to wages, trade fluctuations, and disputes, and some proposals of remedy or relief. . common-sense in law. by prof. paul vinogradoff, d.c.l., ll.d. social and legal rules--legal rights and duties--facts and acts in law--legislation--custom--judicial precedents--equity--the law of nature. . elements of political economy. by s.j. chapman, professor of political economy and dean of faculty of commerce and administration, university of manchester. . the science of wealth. by j.a. hobson, author of _problems of poverty_. a study of the structure and working of the modern business world. . parliament. its history, constitution, and practice. by sir courtenay p. ilbert, clerk of the house of commons. . liberalism. by prof. l.t. hobhouse, author of _democracy and reaction_. a masterly philosophical and historical review of the subject. . the stock exchange. by f.w. hirst, editor of the london _economist_. reveals to the non-financial mind the facts about investment, speculation, and the other terms which the title suggests. . the socialist movement. by j. ramsay macdonald, chairman of the british labor party. . the evolution of industry. by d.h. macgregor, professor of political economy, university of leeds. an outline of the recent changes that have given us the present conditions of the working classes and the principles involved. . elements of english law. by w.m. geldart, vinerian professor of english law, oxford. a simple statement of the basic principles of the english legal system on which that of the united states is based. . the school: an introduction to the study of education. by j.j. findlay, professor of education, manchester. presents the history, the psychological basis, and the theory of the school with a rare power of summary and suggestion. . irish nationality. by mrs. j.r. green. a brilliant account of the genius and mission of the irish people. natural science . disease and its causes. by w.t. councilman, m.d., ll.d., professor of pathology, harvard university. . sex. by j. arthur thompson and patrick geddes, joint authors of _the evolution of sex_. . plant life. by j.b. farmer, d.sc., f.r.s., professor of botany in the imperial college of science. this very fully illustrated volume contains an account of the salient features of plant form and function. . the origin and nature of life. by benjamin m. moore, professor of bio-chemistry, liverpool. . chemistry. by raphael meldola, f.r.s., professor of chemistry, finsbury technical college. presents the way in which the science has developed and the stage it has reached. . electricity. by gisbert kapp, professor of electrical engineering, university of birmingham. . the making of the earth. by. j.w. gregory, professor of geology, glasgow university. maps and figures. describes the origin of the earth, the formation and changes of its surface and structure, its geological history, the first appearance of life, and its influence upon the globe. . man: a history of the human body. by a. keith, m.d., hunterian professor, royal college of surgeons. shows how the human body developed. . nerves. by david fraser harris, m.d., professor of physiology, dalhousie university, halifax. explains in non-technical language the place and powers of the nervous system. . an introduction to science. by prof. j. arthur thomson, science editor of the home university library. for those unacquainted with the scientific volumes in the series, this would prove an excellent introduction. . evolution. by prof. j. arthur thomson and prof. patrick geddes. explains to the layman what the title means to the scientific world. . astronomy. by a.r. hinks, chief assistant at the cambridge observatory. 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"brilliant. can hardly be surpassed. sure to attract attention."--_new york sun_. . psychology, the study of behaviour. by william mcdougall, of oxford. a well digested summary of the essentials of the science put in excellent literary form by a leading authority. . the principles of physiology. by prof. j.g. mckendrick. a compact statement by the emeritus professor at glasgow, for uninstructed readers. . anthropology. by r.r. marett, reader in social anthropology, oxford. seeks to plot out and sum up the general series of changes, bodily and mental, undergone by man in the course of history. "excellent. so enthusiastic, so clear and witty, and so well adapted to the general reader."--_american library association booklist_. . crime and insanity. by dr. c.a. mercier, author of _text-book of insanity_, etc. . the animal world. by prof. f.w. gamble. . introduction to mathematics. by a.n. whitehead, author of _universal algebra_. philosophy and religion . a history of freedom of thought. by john b. bury, m.a., ll.d., regius professor of modern history in cambridge university. summarizes the history of the long struggle between authority and reason and of the emergence of the principle that coercion of opinion is a mistake. . missions: their rise and development. by mrs. mandell creighton, author of _history of england_. the author seeks to prove that missions have done more to civilize the world than any other human agency. . ethics. by g.e. moore, lecturer in moral science, cambridge. discusses what is right and what is wrong, and the whys and wherefores. . the literature of the old testament. by george f. moore, professor of the history of religion, harvard university. "a popular work of the highest order. will be profitable to anybody who cares enough about bible study to read a serious book on the subject."--_american journal of theology_ . the making of the new testament. by b.w. bacon, professor of new testament criticism, yale. an authoritative summary of the results of modern critical research with regard to the origins of the new testament. . a history of philosophy. by clement c.j. webb, oxford. . the problems of philosophy. by bertrand russell, lecturer and late fellow, trinity college, cambridge. . buddhism. by mrs. rhys davids, lecturer on indian philosophy, manchester. . english sects: a history of nonconformity. by w.b. selbie, principal of manchester college, oxford. . comparative religion. by prof. j. estlin carpenter. . religious development between old and new testaments. by r.h. charles, canon of westminster. shows how religious and ethical thought grew between b.c. and a.d. literature and art . euripides and his age. by gilbert murray, regius professor of greek, oxford. . chaucer and his times. by grace e. hadow, lecturer lady margaret hall, oxford; late reader, bryn mawr. . ancient art and ritual. by jane e. harrison, ll.d., d.litt. "one of the most important books of ."--_new york times review_. . the victorian age in literature. by g.k. chesterton. . milton. by john bailey. . dr. johnson and his circle. by john bailey. johnson's life, character, works, and friendships are surveyed; and there is a notable vindication of the "genius of boswell." . the newspaper. by g. binney dibble. the first full account, from the inside, of newspaper organization as it exists to-day. . painters and painting. by sir frederic wedmore. with half-tone illustration. . the literature of germany. by j.g. robertson. . great writers of america. by w.p. trent and john erskine, of columbia university. . the renaissance. by edith sichel, author of _catherine de medici, men and women of the french renaissance_. . dante. by jefferson b. fletcher, columbia university, an interpretation of dante and his teachings from his writings. . an outline of russian literature. by maurice baring, author of _the russian people_, etc. tolstoi, tourgenieff, dostoieffsky, pushkin (the father of russian literature), saltykov (the satirist), leskov, and many other authors. . the english language. by l.p. smith. a concise history of its origin and development. . medieval english literature. by w.p. ker, professor of english literature, university college, london. "one of the soundest scholars. his style is effective, simple, yet never dry."--_the athenaeum_. . elizabethan literature. by j.m. robertson, m.p., author of _montaigne and shakespeare, modern humanists_. . modern english literature. by g.h. mair. from wyatt and surrey to synge and yeats. "one of the best of this great series."--_chicago evening post_. . shakespeare. by john masefield. "one of the very few indispensable adjuncts to a shakespearean library."--_boston transcript_. . landmarks in french literature. by g.l. strachey, scholar of trinity college, cambridge. "it is difficult to imagine how a better account of french literature could be given in pages."--_london times_. . architecture. by prof. w.r. lethaby. an introduction to the history and theory of the art of building. . writing english prose. by william t. brewster, professor of english, columbia university. "should be put into the hands of every man who is beginning to write and of every teacher of english that has brains enough to understand sense."--_new york sun_. . william morris: his work and influence. by a. clutton brock, author of _shelley: the man and the poet_. william morris believed that the artist should toil for love of his work rather than the gain of his employer, and so he turned from making works of art to remaking society. . shelley, godwin and their circle. by h.n. brailsford. the influence of the french revolution on england. other volumes in preparation henry holt and company west d street new york the euahlayi tribe a study of aboriginal life in australia by k. langloh parker contents introduction i. introductory ii. the all father, byamee iii. relationships and totems iv. the medicine men v. more about the medicine men and leechcraft vi. our witch woman vii. birth--betrothal--an aboriginal girl from infancy to womanhood viii. the training of a boy up to boorah preliminaries ix. the boorah and other meetings x. chiefly as to funerals and mourning xi. something about stars and legends xii. the trapping of game xiii. foraging and cooking xiv. costumes and weapons xv. the amusements of blacks xvi. bush bogies and finis list of illustrations by one of the euahlayi tribe (omitted from etext) a native carrying a message-stick two natives ready for a corroboree the funeral of a native. a bark coffin a native singing to his own accompaniment a native grinding grass seed on a dayoorl-stone a native with shield and waddy in front of his camp introduction no introduction to mrs. langloh parker's book can be more than that superfluous 'bush' which, according to the proverb, good wine does not need. our knowledge of the life, manners, and customary laws of many australian tribes has, in recent years, been vastly increased by the admirable works of mr. howitt, and of messrs. spencer and gillen. but mrs. parker treats of a tribe which, hitherto, has hardly been mentioned by anthropologists, and she has had unexampled opportunities of study. it is hardly possible for a scientific male observer to be intimately familiar with the women and children of a savage tribe. mrs. parker, on the other hand, has had, as regards the women and children of the euahlayi, all the advantages of the squire's wife in a rural neighbourhood, supposing the squire's wife to be an intelligent and sympathetic lady, with a strong taste for the study of folklore and rustic custom. among the zulus, we know, it is the elder women who tell the popular tales, so carefully translated and edited by bishop colenso. mrs. parker has already published two volumes of euahlayi tales, though i do not know that i have ever seen them cited, except by myself, in anthropological discussion. as they contain many beautiful and romantic touches, and references to the euahlayi 'all father,' or paternal 'super man,' byamee, they may possibly have been regarded as dubious materials, dressed up for the european market. mrs. parker's new volume, i hope, will prove that she is a close scientific observer, who must be reckoned with by students. she has not scurried through the region occupied by her tribe, but has had them constantly under her eyes for a number of years. my own slight share in the book as it stands ought to be mentioned. after reading the original ms., i catechised mrs. parker as to her amount of knowledge of the native language; her methods of obtaining information; and the chances that missionary influence had affected the euahlayi legends and beliefs. i wrote out her answers, and she read and revised what i had written. i also collected many scattered notices of byamee into the chapter on that being, which mrs. parker has read and approved. i introduced a reference to mr. howitt's theory of the 'all father,' and i added some references to other authorities on the australian tribes. except for this, and for a very few purely verbal changes in matter of style, mrs. parker's original manuscript is untouched by me. it seems necessary to mention these details, as i have, in other works, expressed my own opinions on australian religion and customary law. [making of religion, second edition; myth, ritual, and religion, second edition.] these opinions i have not, so to speak, edited into the work of mrs. parker. the author herself has remarked that, beginning as a disciple of mr. herbert spencer in regard to the religious ideas of the australians--according to that writer, mere dread of casual 'spirits'--she was obliged to alter her attitude, in consequence of all that she learned at first hand. she also explains that her tribe are not 'wild blacks,' though, in the absence of missionary influences, they retain their ancient beliefs, at least the old people do; and, in a decadent form, preserve their tribal initiations, or boorah. how she tested and controlled the evidence of her informants she has herself stated, and i venture to think that she could hardly have made a better use of her opportunities. in one point there is perhaps, almost unavoidably, a lacuna or gap in her information. the euahlayi, she says, certainly do not possess the dieri and urabunna custom of pirrauru or piraungaru, by which married, and unmarried men, of the classes men and women which may intermarry, are solemnly allotted to each other as more or less permanent paramours. [see mr. howitt's native tribes of south-east australia, and my secret of the totem, chapter iii.] that custom, for some unknown reason, is confined to certain tribes possessing the two social divisions with the untranslated names matteri and kiraru. these tribes range from lake eyre southward, perhaps, as far as the sea. their peculiar custom is unknown to the euahlayi, but mrs. parker does not inform us concerning any recognised licence which may, as is usual, accompany their boorah assemblies, or their 'harvest home' of gathered grass seed, which she describes. any reader of mrs. parker's book who has not followed recent anthropological discussions, may need to be apprised of the nature of these controversies, and of the probable light thrown on them by the full description of the euahlayi tribe. the two chief points in dispute are ( ) the nature and origin of the marriage laws of the australians; and ( ) the nature and origin of such among their ideas and practices as may be styled 'religious.' as far as what we commonly call material civilisation is concerned, the natives of the australian continent are probably the most backward of mankind, having no agriculture, no domestic animals, and no knowledge of metal-working. their weapons and implements are of wood, stone, and bone, and they have not even the rudest kind of pottery. but though the natives are all, in their natural state, on or about this common low level, their customary laws, ceremonials, and beliefs are rich in variety. as regards marriage rules they are in several apparently ascending grades of progress. first we have tribes in which each person is born into one or other of two social divisions usually called 'phratries.' say that the names of the phratries mean eagle hawk and crow. each born crow must marry an eagle hawk; each born eagle hawk must marry a crow. the names are derived through the mothers. one obvious result is that no two persons, brother and sister maternal, can intermarry; but the rule also excludes from intermarriage great numbers of persons in no way akin to each other by blood, who merely share the common phratry name, crow or eagle hawk. in each phratry are smaller sets of persons, each set distinguished by the name of some animal or other natural object, their 'totem.' the same totem is never found in both phratries. thus a person marrying out of his or her phratry, as all must do, necessarily marries out of his or her totem. the same arrangements exist among tribes which derive phratry and totem names through the father. this derivation of names and descent through the father is regarded by almost all students, and by mr. j. g. frazer, in one passage of his latest study of the subject, as a great step in progress. ['the beginnings of religion and totemism among the australian aborigines,' fortnightly review, september , p. .] the obvious result of paternal descent is to make totem communities or kins local. in any district most of the people will be of the same paternal totem name--say, grub, iguana, emu, or what not. just so, in glencoe of old, most of the people were macians; in appin most were stewarts; in south argyll campbells, and so on. the totem kins are thus, with paternal descent, united both by supposed blood ties in the totem kin, and by associations of locality. this is certainly a step in social progress. but while mr. frazer, with almost all inquirers, acknowledges this, ten pages later in his essay he no longer considers the descent of the totem in the paternal line as necessarily 'a step in progress' from descent in the maternal line. 'the common assumption that inheritance of the totem through the mother always preceded inheritance of it through the father need not hold good,'[ibid. p. .] he remarks. thus it appears that a tribe has not necessarily made 'a great step in progress,' because it reckons descent of the totem on the male side. if this be so, we cannot so easily decide as to which tribe is socially advanced and which is not. in any case, however, there is a test of social advance. there is an acknowledged advance when a tribe is divided into, not two, but four or eight divisions, which may not intermarry. [ibid. p. ] the euahlayi have four such divisions. in each of their intermarrying phratries are two 'matrimonial classes,' each with its name, and these are so constituted that a member of the elder generation can never marry a member of the succeeding generation. this rule prevents, of course, marriage between parent and child, but such marriages never do occur in the pristine tribes of the darling river which have no such classes. the four-class arrangement excludes from intermarriage all persons, whether parents and children or not, who bear the same class name, say hippai. among the central and northern tribes, from the arunta of the macdonnell hills to the gulf of carpentaria, the eight-class rule exists, and it is, confessedly, the most advanced of all. in this respect, then, the arunta of the centre of australia are certainly more advanced than the euahlayi. the arunta have eight, not four, intermarrying classes. in the matter of rites and ceremonies, too, they are, in the opinion of messrs. spencer and gillen, more advanced than, say, the euahlayi. they practise universal 'subincision' of the males, and circumcision, in place of the more primitive knocking out of the front teeth. their ceremonies are very prolonged: in messrs. spencer and gillen's experience, rites lasted for four months during a great tribal gathering. that the arunta could provide supplies for so prolonged and large an assembly, argues high organisation, or a region well found in natural edible objects. yet the region is arid and barren, so the organisation is very high. for all these reasons, even if we do not regard paternal descent of the totem as a step in progress from maternal descent, the arunta seem greatly advanced in social conditions. yet they are said to lack entirely that belief in a moral and kindly 'all father,' such as byamee, which mrs. parker describes as potent among the less advanced euahlayi, and which mr. howitt has found among non-coastal tribes of the south-east, with female descent of the totem, but without matrimonial classes--that is, among the most primitive tribes of all. here occurs a remarkable difficulty. mr. howitt asserts, with mr. frazer's concurrence, that (in mr. frazer's words) 'the same regions in which the germs of religion begin to appear have also made some progress towards a higher form of social and family life.'['the beginnings of religion and totemism among the australian aborigines,' fortnightly review, september , p. .] but the social advance from maternal to paternal descent of the totem, we have seen, is not necessarily an advance at all, in mr. frazer's opinion. [ibid. p. .] the arunta, for example, he thinks, never recognised female descent of the totem. they have never recognised, indeed, he thinks, any hereditary descent of the totem, though in all other respects, as in hereditary magistracies, and inheritance of the right to practise the father's totemic ritual, they do reckon in the male line. by such advantage, however it was acquired, they are more progressive than, say, the euahlayi. but, progressive as they are, they have not, like the more pristine tribes of the south-east, developed 'the germs of religion,' the belief in a benevolent or ruling 'all father.' unlike the tribes of the south-east, they have co-operative totemic magic. each totem community does magic for its totem, as part of the food supply of the united tribe. but the tribe, though so solidaire, and with its eight classes and hereditary magistracies so advanced, has developed no germs of religion at all. arunta progress has thus been singularly unequal. the germs of religion are spoken of as the results of social advance, but, while so prominent in social advance, the arunta have no trace of religion. the tribes northward from them to the sea are also very advanced socially, but (with one known exception not alluded to by mr. frazer) have no 'all father,' no germ of religion. from this fact, if correctly reported, it is obvious that social progress is not the cause, nor the necessary concomitant, of advance in religious ideas. again, the influence of the sea, in causing a 'heavier rainfall, a more abundant vegetation, and a more plentiful supply of food,' with an easier and more reflective life than that of 'the arid wilderness of the interior,' cannot be, as is alleged, the cause of the germs of religion. [ibid. p. .] if this were the case, the coastal tribes of the gulf of carpentaria and of the north generally would have developed the all father belief. yet, in spite of their coastal environment, and richer existence, and social advance, the northern coastal tribes are not credited with the belief in the all father. meanwhile tribes with no matrimonial classes, and with female descent of the totem--tribes dwelling from five to seven hundred miles away from the southern sea--do possess the all father belief as far north as central queensland, no less than did the almost or quite extinct tribes of the south coast, who had made what is (or is not) 'the great step in progress' of paternal descent of the totem. again, arid and barren as is the central region tenanted by the arunta, it seems to permit or encourage philosophic reflection, for their theory of evolution is remarkably coherent and ingenious. the theory of evolution implies as much reflection as that of creation! their magic for the behoof of edible objects is attributed to the suddenness of their first rains,[ibid. p. .] and the consequent outburst of life, which the natives attribute to their own magical success. but rainmaking magic, as mrs. langloh parker shows, is practised with sometimes amazing success among the euahlayi, who work no magic at all for their totems. their magic, if it brings rain, benefits their totems at large, but for each totem in particular, no euahlayi totem kin does magic. again, agricultural magic has been, and indeed is, practised in europe, in conditions of climate unlike those of the arunta; and totemic magic is freely practised in north america, in climatic conditions dissimilar from those of central australia. for all these reasons i must confess that i do not follow the logic of the philosophy which makes social advance the cause of the belief in the all father, and coastal rains the cause of social advance. the arunta have the social advance, the eight classes, the relatively high organisation; but they have neither the climatic conditions supposed to produce the advance, nor the religion which the advance is supposed to produce. the northern coastal tribes, again, have the desired climatic conditions, and the social advance, but they have not the germs of religion found in many far inland southern tribes, like the euahlayi, whose social progress is extremely moderate. we thus find, from the northern coast to the centre, one supposed result of coastal conditions, namely, social progress, but not the other supposed result of coastal conditions, namely, the all father belief. i do not say that it does not exist, for it is a secret belief, but it is not reported by messrs. spencer and gillen. on the other hand, among tribes of the south-east very far from the coast, we find the lowest grades of social progress, but we also find the all father belief. i am ready, of course, to believe that good conditions of life beget progress, social and religious, as a general rule. but other causes exist; speculation anywhere may take crudely scientific rather than crudely religious lines. especially the belief in ancestral spirits may check or nullify the belief in a remote all father. we see this among the zulus, where spirits entirely dominate religion, and the all father is, at most, the shadow of a name, unkulunkulu. we may detect the same influence among the northern tribes of australia, where ancestral spirits dominate thought and society, though they receive no sacrifice or prayer. meanwhile, if we accept mrs. parker's evidence, among the euahlayi ancestral spirits are of no account in religion, while the all father is obeyed, and, on some occasions, is addressed in prayer; and may even cause rain, if property approached by a human spirit which has just entered his mansions. clearly, climatic causes and natural environment are not the only factors in producing and directing the speculative ideas of men in early society. we must also remember that the neighbours of the arunta, northwards, who share certain peculiar arunta ideas, possess, beyond all doubt, either the earliest germs of belief in the all father, or that belief in a decadent condition of survival. this is quite certain; for, whereas the arunta laugh at all inquiries as to what went before the 'alcheringa,' or mythic age of evolution, the kaitish, according to messrs. spencer and gillen, aver that an anthropomorphic being, who dwells above the sky, and is named atnatu, first created himself, and then 'made the alcheringa,'--the mythic age of primal evolution. of mankind, some, in kaitish opinion, were evolved; of others atnatu is the father. he expelled men to earth from his heaven for neglect of his ceremonies, but he provided them with weapons and all that they possess. he is not tros ferro sur la morale: he has made no moral laws, but his ritual laws, as to circumcision and the whirling of the bull-roarer, must be observed as strictly as the ritual laws of byamee of the euahlayi. in this sense of obedience due to a heavenly father who begat men, or some of them, punished them, and started them on their terrene career, laying down ceremonial rules, we have certainly 'the germs of religion' in a central tribe cognate to the arunta. mr. frazer detects only two traces of religion in the centre, omitting the kaitish atnatu, ['the beginnings of religion and totemism among the australian aborigines,' fortnightly review, september , p. , note .] but i am unable to see how the religious aspect of atnatu, non-moral as it is, can be overlooked. he is the father of part of the tribe, and all are bound to, observe his ceremonial rules. he accounts for the beginning of the beginning; he is the cause of the alcheringa; men owe duties to him. we do not know whether he was once as potent in their hearts, and as moral as byamee, but has dogringolo under arunta philosophic influences; or whether byamee is a more highly evolved form of atnatu. but it is quite certain that the kaitish, in a region as far almost from the north sea as that of the arunta, and further from southern coastal influences than the arunta, have a modified belief in the all father. how are we to account for this on the philosophic hypothesis of oceanus as the father of all the gods; of coastal influences producing a richer life, and causing both social and religious progress? another difficulty is that while the arunta, with no religion, and the kaitish, with the atnatu belief, are socially advanced in organisation (whether we reckon male descent of the totem 'a great step in progress,' or an accident), they are yet supposed by mr. frazer to be, in one respect, the least advanced, the most primitive, of known human beings. the reason is this: the arunta do not recognise the processes of sexual union as the cause of the production of children. sexual acts, they say, merely prepare women for the reception of original ancestral spirits, which enter into them, and are reincarnated and brought to the birth. if the women cannot accept the spirits without being 'prepared' by sexual union, then sexual union plays a physical part in the generation of a spirit incarnated, a fact which all believers in the human soul are as ready as the arunta to admit. if the arunta recognise the prior necessity of 'preparation,' then they are not so ignorant as they are thought to be; and their view is produced, not so much by stark ignorance, as by their philosophy of the eternal reincarnation of primal human spirits. the arunta philosophers, in fact, seem to concentrate their speculation on a point which puzzled mr. shandy. how does the animating principle, or soul, regarded as immaterial, clothe itself in flesh? material acts cannot effect the incarnation of a spirit. therefore, the spirit enters women from without, and is not the direct result of human action. the south-eastern tribes, with female descent of the totem, and with no belief in the universal and constant reincarnation of ancestral spirits, take the 'schylean view, according to mr. howitt, that the male is the sole originating cause of children, while the female is only the recipient and 'nurse.' these tribes, socially less advanced than the arunta, have not the arunta nescience of the facts of procreation, a nescience which i regard as merely the consequence and corollary of the arunta philosophy of reincarnation. each arunta child, by that philosophy, has been in being since the alcheringa: his mother of the moment only reproduces him, after 'preparation.' he is not a new thing; he is as old as the development of organic forms. this is the arunta belief, and i must reckon it as not more primitive than the peculiar philosophy of reincarnation of ancestral spirits. certainly such an elaborate philosophy manifestly cannot be primitive. it is, however, the philosophy of the tribes from the urabunna, on lake eyre (with female descent of the totem), to the most northerly tribes, with male descent. but among none of these tribes has the philosophy that extraordinary effect on totemic institutions which, by a peculiar and isolated addition, it possesses among the septs of the arunta nation, and in a limited way among the kaitish. among all tribes except these the child inherits its totem: from the mother, among the urabunna; from the father in the northern peoples. but, among the arunta and kaitish, the totem is not inherited from either parent. according to the belief of these tribes, in every district there is a place where the first human ancestors--in each case all of one totem, whichsoever that totem, in each case, might happen to be--died, 'went under the earth.' rocks or trees arose to mark such spots. these places are haunted by the spirits of the dead ancestors; here they are all grubs, there all eagle hawks, or all iguanas, or all emus, or all cats. or as in these sites the ancestors left each his own sacred stone, churinga nanja, with archaic patterns inscribed on it, patterns now fancifully interpreted as totemic inscriptions. such stones are especially haunted by the ancestral souls, all desiring reincarnation. when a woman becomes aware of the life of the child she bears, among the arunta and kaitish, she supposes that a local spirit of the local totem has entered her, and her child's totem is therefore the totem of that locality, whatever other totems she and her husbands may own. the stone amulet of the ancestral spirit, who is the child, is sought; if it cannot be found at the spot, a wooden churinga is made to represent it, and it is kept carefully in a sacred storehouse. even in the centre and north, where the belief in reincarnation prevails, this odd manner of acquiring totems is only practised by the arunta tribes and the kaitish, and only among them are the inscribed stones known to exist as favoured haunts of ancestral spirits desiring incarnation. the other northern tribes believe in reincarnation, but not in the haunted sacred stones, which they do not, north of the worgaia, possess; nor do they derive totems from locality, but, as usual, by inheritance. it thus appears that these arunta sacred stones are an inseparable accident of the arunta method of acquiring the totem. how they and the faith in them cause that method is not obvious, but the two things--the haunted sacred stone, and the local source of totems--are inseparable--that is, the former never is found apart from the latter. now such stones, with the sense and usage attached to them, cannot well be primitive. they are the result of the peculiar and strictly isolated arunta custom and belief, which gives to each man and woman one of these stones, the property of himself or herself, since the mythical age, through all reincarnations. one cannot see how such an unique custom and belief, associated with objects of art, can be reckoned primitive. yet, where such stones do not exist, the usage of acquiring totems by locality does not exist; even where the belief in reincarnation and in local centres haunted by totemic spirits is found in north australia. [for an hypothesis of the origin of the churinga nanja belief, see my secret of the totem, chapter iv.] on these grounds it appears that the hereditary totem is the earlier, and that the arunta usage is the result of the special and inseparable superstition about the sacred stones. it may be a relatively recent complication of and addition to the theory of reincarnation. meanwhile, the belief and usage produce an unique effect. the arunta and kaitish, we saw, are so advanced socially that they possess not two, or four, but eight matrimonial classes. the tribe is divided into two sets of four classes each, and no person in a division (nameless) of four classes may marry another person of any one of these four, but must marry a person of a given class among the four in b division (nameless). the succession to the class is hereditary in the mate line. but any person among the arunta, contrary to universal custom elsewhere, may marry another person of his or her own totem, if that person be in the right class of the opposite division. nowhere else can a person of division a and totem grub find a grub to marry in the opposite division b. but this is possible among the arunta and kaitish, because their totems are acquired by pure accident, are not hereditary, and all totems exist, or may exist, in division a and also in division b. mr. frazer argues that the arunta is the earlier state of affairs. he supposes that men acquired their totems, at first, by local accident, before they had laid any restrictions on marriage. later, they divided their tribe, first into two, then into four, then into eight classes; and every one had to marry out of his class, or set of classes. all other known tribes introduced these restrictions after totems had been made hereditary. on passing the restrictive marriage law, they merely drafted people of one set of hereditary totems into one division, all the other totem kins into the other division. but the arunta had not made totems hereditary, but accidental, so all the children of one crowd of mothers were placed in division a, all other children in division b. the mothers in each division would have children of all the totems, and thus the same totems now appeared in both of the exogamous divisions. if a man married into his lawful opposite class, the fact that the woman was of the same totem made no difference. i have offered quite an opposite explanation. arunta totems were, originally, hereditary among the arunta, as everywhere else, and no totem occurred in both exogamous divisions. the same totems, later, got into both divisions as the result of the later and isolated belief in reincarnation plus the sacred haunted stones. that superstition has left the kaitish practice of marriage still almost untouched. a kaitish may, like an arunta, marry a woman of his own totem, but he scarcely ever does so. the old prohibition, extinct in law, persists in custom; unless we say that the kaitish are now merely imitating the usual practice of the rest of the totemic races of the world. moreover, even among the arunta, certain totems greatly preponderate in each of the two exogamous intermarrying divisions of the tribe. this must be because the present practice has not yet quite upset the ancient usage, by which no totem ever occurred in both divisions. there is even an arunta myth asserting that this was so, but it is, of course, of no historical value as evidence. here it is proper to give mr. frazer's contrary theory in his own words:-- 'this [arunta] mode of determining the totem has all the appearance of extreme antiquity. for it ignores altogether the intercourse of the sexes as the cause of offspring, and further, it ignores the tie of blood on the maternal as well as the paternal side, substituting for it a purely local bond, since the members of a totem stock are merely those who gave the first sign of life in the womb at one or other of certain definite spots. this form of totemism, which may be called conceptional or local to distinguish it from hereditary totemism, may with great probability be regarded as the most primitive known to exist at the present day, since it seems to date from a time when blood relationship was not yet recognised, and when even the idea of paternity had not yet presented itself to the savage mind. moreover, it is hardly possible that this peculiar form of local totemism, with its implied ignorance of such a thing as paternity at all, could be derived from hereditary totemism, whereas it is easy to understand how hereditary totemism, either in the paternal or in the maternal line, could be derived from it. indeed, among the umbaia and gnanji tribes we can see at the present day how the change from local to hereditary totemism has been effected. these tribes, like the arunta and kaitish, believe that conception is caused by the entrance into a woman of a spirit who has lived in its disembodied state, along with other spirits of the same totem, at any one of a number of totem centres scattered over the country; but, unlike the arunta and kaitish, they almost always assign the father's totem to the child, even though the infant may have given the first sign of life at a place haunted by spirits of a different totem. for example, the wife of a snake man may first feel her womb quickened at a tree haunted by spirits of goshawk people; yet the child will not be a goshawk but a snake, like its father. the theory by which the umbaia and gnanji reconcile these apparently inconsistent beliefs is that a spirit of the husband's totem follows the wife and enters into her wherever an opportunity offers, whereas spirits of other totems would not think of doing so. in the example supposed, a snake spirit is thought to have followed up the wife of the snake man and entered into her at the tree haunted by goshawk spirits, while the goshawk spirits would refuse to trespass, so to say, on a snake preserve by quartering themselves in the wife of a snake man. this theory clearly marks a transition from local to hereditary totemism in the paternal line. and precisely the same theory could, mutatis mutandis, be employed to effect a change from local to hereditary totemism in the maternal line; it would only be necessary to suppose that a pregnant woman is always followed by a spirit of her own totem, which sooner or later effects a lodgement in her body. for example, a pregnant woman of the bee totem would always be followed by a bee spirit, which would enter into her wherever and whenever she felt her womb quickened, and so the child would be born of her own bee totem. thus the local form of totemism, which obtains among the arunta and kaitish tribes, is older than the hereditary form, which is the ordinary type of totemism in australia and elsewhere, first, because it rests on far more archaic conceptions of society and of life; and, secondly, because both the hereditary kinds of totemism, the paternal and the maternal, can be derived from it, whereas it can hardly be derived from either of them.' this argument appears to take for granted that the conception of primal ancestral spirits, perpetually reincarnated, is primitive. but, in fact, we seem to know it, among australian tribes, only in these which have advanced to the possession of eight classes, and have made 'the great step in progress' (if it is a great step), of descent of the totem in the paternal line. the urabunna, with female descent of the totem, have, it is true, the belief in reincarnation. but they intermarry with the arunta, borrow their sacred stones, and practise the same advanced rites and ceremonies. the idea may thus have been borrowed. on the other hand, the more pristine tribes of the south-east, with two or four exogamous divisions, and with female descent of the totem, have no known trace of the doctrine of reincarnation (except as displayed by the euahlayi), and have no doubt that the father is the cause of procreation, save in the case of the euahlayi, who believe that the moon and the crow 'make' the new children. it would thus appear that the central and northern belief in perpetual reincarnation of primal spirits is not primitive, yet the arunta method of acquiring totems does not exist save by grace of this belief, plus the isolated belief in primal sacred stones. i am obliged to differ from mr. frazer when he says that 'it is easy to see how hereditary totemism, either in the paternal or in the maternal line, would be derived from' the arunta belief and practice, whereas 'it is hardly possible that this peculiar form of local totemism [arunta], with its implied ignorance of such a thing as paternity at all, could be derived from hereditary totemism.' i do not know whether the other northern tribes share the arunta nescience of procreation, or not. whether they do or do not, it was as easy for them to e plain all difficulties by a reconciling myth--a spirit of the husband's totem follows his wife--as for a white savant to frame an hypothesis. the urabunna, with female descent of the totem, have quite another myth--to reconcile everything. nothing can be more easy. supposing the arunta to have begun, as in my theory, with hereditary totemism, the rise of their isolated belief in spirit-haunted sacred stones, encroached on and destroyed the hereditary character of their totemism. the belief in churinga nanja is an isolated freak, but it has done its work, while leaving traces of an earlier state of things, as we have shown, both among the kaitish and arunta. if i am right in differing from such a master of many legions as the learned author of the golden bough, the irreligion of the arunta and northern tribes (if these be really without religion) is the result of their form of speculation, wholly occupied by the idea of reincarnation, while the arunta form of totemism is the consequence of an isolated fantasy about their peculiar sacred stones. meanwhile the euahlayi, as mrs. parker proves, entertain, in a limited way, not elsewhere recorded in australia, the belief in the reincarnation of the souls of uninitiated young people. they also, like the arunta, recognise haunted trees and rocks, but the haunting spirits do not desire reincarnation, and are not ancestral. spirits of the dead go to one or other abode of souls, to baiame, or far from his presence to a place of pain. so limited is human fancy, that here, as in beckford's picture of hell in vathek, each spirit eternally presses his hand against his side. were this a christian doctrine, the euahlayi would be said to have borrowed it, but few will accuse them of plagiarising from beckford. these myths, like all myths, are not consistent. baiame may change a soul into a bird. we may ask whether, with their limited belief in reincarnation, and with their haunted minggah trees and rocks, the euahlayi have set up a creed which might possibly develop into the northern faith, or whether they once held the northern faith, and have almost emerged from it. without further information about intermediate tribes and their ideas on these matters, the question cannot be answered. we are also without data as to whether the nearly extinct southern coastal tribes evolved the all father belief, and transmitted it to the euahlayi, to some queensland tribe, with their mulkari, and even to the kaitish, or whether the faith has been independently developed among the tribes with no matrimonial classes and the others. conjecture is at present useless. in one respect a discovery of mrs. parker's is unfavourable to my theories. in the secret of the totem have shown that, when the names of the phratry divisions of the tribes can be interpreted, they prove to be names of animals, and i have shown how this may have come to be the case. but among the euahlayi the phratry names mean 'light blood' and 'dark blood.' this, prima facie, seems to favour the theory of the rev. mr. mathews, in his eagle hawk and crow, that two peoples, lighter and darker, after an age of war, made connubium and marriage treaty, whence came the phratries. the same author might urge, if he pleased, that eagle hawk (about the colour of the peregrine) was chosen to represent 'light,' and crow to represent 'dark'; while the phratry animals, white and black cockatoo, were selected, elsewhere, to represent the same contrast. but we need more information as to the meanings of other phratry names which have defied translation. in many other things, as in the account of the yunbeai of the euahlayi, their mode of removing the tabu on the totem in food, their magic, their 'multiplex totems,' their methods of hunting, their initiatory ceremonies, their highly moral lullabies, and the whole of their kindly life, mrs. parker's book appears to deserve a welcome from the few who care to study the ways of early men, 'the pit whence we were dug.' the euahlayi are a sympathetic people, and have found a sympathetic chronicler. a. lang. chapter i introductory the following pages are intended as a contribution to the study of the manners, customs, beliefs, and legends of the aborigines of australia. the area of my observation is mainly limited to the region occupied by the euahlayi tribe of north-western new south wales, who for twenty years were my neighbours on the narran river. i have been acquainted since childhood with the natives, first in southern south australia; next on my father's station on the darling river, where i was saved by a native girl, when my sisters were drowned while bathing. i was intimate with the dispositions of the blacks, and was on friendly terms with them, before i began a regular attempt to inquire into their folk-lore and customary laws, at my husband's station on the narran, due north of the barwon river, the great affluent of the murray river. my tribe is a neighbour of that mentioned by mr. howitt as the 'wollaroi,' 'yualloroi,' or 'yualaroi.' [howitt, native tribes of south-east australia, pp. , , , .] i spell the tribal name 'euahlayi'; the accent is on the second syllable--'you-ahl-ayi'; and the name is derived from the tribal word for the negative: euahl, or youal, 'no,' as in the case of the kamilaroi (kamil, 'no'), and many other tribes. mr. howitt regards these tribes as on the limits of what he calls the 'four sub-class' system. the people, that is to say, have not only the division into two 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties,' intermarrying, but also the four 'matrimonial classes' further regulating marriage. these classes bear the kamilaroi names, of unknown meaning, ipai, kumbo, murri, and kubbi; but the names of the two main divisions, or phratries, are not those of the kamilaroi--dilbi and kupathin. the euahlayi language, or dialect, is not identical with that of the great kamilaroi tribe to their south-east, but is clearly allied with it, many names of animals being the same in both tongues. a few names of animals are shared with the wir djuri speech, as mullian, eagle hawk; pelican, goolayyahlee (wir djuri, gulaiguli). the term for the being called 'the all father' by mr. howitt is also the term used by the wir djuri and kamilaroi, 'baiame' or 'byamee.' the euahlayi, however, possess myths, beliefs, and usages not recorded as extant among the kamilaroi, but rather forming a link with the ideas of peoples dwelling much further west, such as the tribes, on lake eyre, and the southernmost arunta of the centre. thus, there is a limited and modified shape of the central and northern belief in reincarnation, and there is a great development of what are called by mr. howitt 'sub-totems,' which have been found most in a region of northern victoria, to the south of the euahlayi. there is a belief in spirit--haunted trees, as among the arunta, and there is a form of the arunta myth of the 'dream time,' the age of pristine evolution. the euahlayi thus present a mixture of ideas and usages which appears to be somewhat peculiar and deserving of closer study than it has received. mr. howitt himself refers to the tribe very seldom. it will be asked, 'how far have the euahlayi been brought under the influence of missionaries, and of european ideas in general?' the nearest missionary settlement was founded after we settled among the euahlayi, and was distant about one hundred miles, at brewarrina. none of my native informants had been at any time, to my knowledge, under the influence of missionaries. they all wore shirts, and almost all of them trousers, on occasion; and all, except the old men, my chief sources, were employed by white settlers. we conversed in a kind of lingua franca. an informant, say peter, would try to express himself in english, when he thought that i was not successful in following him in his own tongue. with paddy, who had no english but a curse, i used two native women, one old, one younger, as interpreters, checking each other alternately. the younger natives themselves had lost the sense of some of the native words used by their elders, but the middle-aged interpreters were usually adequate. occasionally there were disputes on linguistic points, when paddy, a man already grey in , would march off the scene, and need to be reconciled. they were on very good terms with me. they would exchange gifts with me: i might receive a carved weapon, and one of them some tobacco. the giving was not all on my side, by any means. my anthropological reading was scanty, but i was well acquainted with and believed in mr. herbert spencer's 'ghost theory' of the origin of religion in the worship of ancestral spirits. what i learned from the natives surprised me, and shook my faith in mr. spencer's theory, with which it seemed incompatible. in hearing the old blacks tell their legends you notice a great difference between them as raconteurs--some tell the bare plot or feature of the legend, others give descriptive touches all through. if they are strangers to their audience, they get it over as quickly as possible in a half-contemptuous way, as if saying, 'what do you want to know such rubbish for?' but if they know you well, and know you really are interested, then they tell you the stories as they would tell them to one another, giving them a new life and adding considerably to their poetical expression. chapter ii the all father, byamee as throughout the chapters on the customary laws, mysteries, and legends of the euahlayi, there occur frequent mentions of a superhuman though anthropomorphic being named byamee (in kamilaroi and wir djuri 'baiame'), it is necessary to give a preliminary account of the beliefs entertained concerning him. the name byamee (usually spelled baiame) occurs in euahlayi, kamilaroi, and wir djuri; 'the wir djuri language is spoken over a greater extent of territory than any other tongue in new south wales.'[r. h. mathews, j. a. i., vol. xxxiv. p. .] the word occurs in the rev. mr. ridley's gurre kamilaroi, an illustrated manual of biblical instruction for the education of the kamilaroi: mr. ridley translated our 'god' by 'baiame.' he supposed that native term, which he found and did not introduce, to be a derivative from the verb baia, or biai, 'to make.' literally, however, at least in euahlayi, the word byamee means 'great one.' in its sense as the name of the all father it is not supposed to be used by women or by the uninitiated. if it is necessary to speak to them of byamee, he is called boyjerh, which means father, just as in the theddora tribe the women speak of darramulun as papang, 'father.' [howitt, native tribes of south-east australia, p. .] among the euahlayi both women and the uninitiated use byamee, the adjective for 'great,' in ordinary talk, though the more usual adjective answering to 'great' is boorool, which occurs in kamilaroi as well as in euahlayi. the verb baia or biai, to make or shape, whence mr. ridley derived baiame, is not known to me in euahlayi. wir djuri has bai, a footmark, and byamee left footmarks on the rocks, but that is probably a chance coincidence. i was first told of byamee, in whispers, by a very old native, yudtha dulleebah (bald head), said to have been already grey haired when sir thomas mitchell discovered the narran in . my informant said that he was instructed as to byamee in his first boorah, or initiation. if he was early grey, say at thirty, in , that takes his initiation back to , when, as a matter of fact, we have contemporary evidence to the belief in byamee, who is not of missionary importation, though after christian ideas may, through mr. ridley's book, have been attached to his name by educated kamilaroi. but he was a worshipful being, revealed in the mysteries, long before missionaries came, as all my informants aver. there has, indeed, been much dispute as to whether the aborigines of australia have any idea, or germ of an idea, of a god; anything more than vague beliefs about unattached spirits, mainly mischievous, who might be propitiated or scared away. mr. huxley maintained this view, as did mr. herbert spencer. [ecclesiastical institutions, p. .] both of these authors, who have great influence on popular opinion, omitted to notice the contradictory statement of waitz, published in . he credited the natives, in some regions, with belief in, and dances performed in honour of, a 'good being,' and denied that the belief and rites were the result of european influence. [waitz, anthropologie der natur--v(tm)lker, vol. vi. pp. - . leipzig, .] mr. tylor, admitting to some extent that the belief now exists, attributed it in part to the influence of missionaries and of white settlers. [journal, anthropological institute, vol. xxi. p. et seq.] 'baiame,' he held, was a word of missionary manufacture, introduced about - . this opinion was controverted by mr. lang,[magic and religion, p. sq. myth, ritual, and religion, vol. ii. chap. xii., .] and by mr. n. w. thomas. mr. thomas [man, , no. .] has produced the evidence of henderson, writing in - , for the belief in 'piame' or byamee, or baiame. [observations an the colonies of new south wales and van dieman's land, p. .] in mr. howitt gave a great mass of evidence for the belief in what he calls an 'all father': in many dialects styled by various names meaning 'our father,' dwelling in or above the sky, and often receiving the souls of blacks who have been 'good.' these ideas are not derived, mr. howitt holds, from europeans, or developed out of ancestor-worship, which does not exist in the tribes. the belief is concealed from women, but communicated to lads at their initiation. [howitt, native tribes of south-east australia, pp. - .] the belief, in favourable circumstances, might develop, mr. howitt thinks, into what he speaks of as a 'religion,' a 'recognised religion.' without asking how 'a recognised religion' is to be defined, i shall merely tell what i have gathered as to the belief in byamee among the euahlayi. it may seem strange that i should know anything about a belief carefully kept from women, but i have even been privileged to hear 'byamee's song,' which only the fully initiated may sing; an old black, as will later appear, did chant this old lay, now no longer understood, to myself and my husband. moreover, the women of the euahlayi have some knowledge of, and some means of, mystic access to byamee, though they call him by another name. byamee, in the first place, is to the euahlayi what the 'alcheringa' or 'dream time' is to the arunta. asked for the reason why of anything, the arunta answer, 'it was so in the alcheringa.' our tribe have a subsidiary myth corresponding to that of the alcheringa. there was an age, in their opinion, when only birds and beasts were on earth; but a colossal man and two women came from the remote north-east, changed birds and beasts into men and women, made other folk of clay or stone, taught them everything, and left laws for their guidance, then returned whence they came. this is a kind of 'alcheringa' myth, but whether this colossal man was byamee or not, our tribe give, as the final answer to any question about the origin of customs, 'because byamee say so.' byamee declared his will, and that was and is enough for his children. at the boorah, or initiatory ceremonies, he is proclaimed as 'father of all, whose laws the tribes are now obeying.' byamee, at least in one myth (told also by the wir djuri), is the original source of all totems, and of the law that people of the same totem may not intermarry, 'however far apart their hunting-grounds.' i heard first in a legend, then received confirmation from all old blacks, that byamee had a totem name for every part of his body, even to a different one for each finger and toe. and when he was passing on to fresh fields, he gave each kinship of the tribe he was leaving one of his totems. the usual version is, that to such as were metamorphosed from birds and animals he gave as totem the animal or whatever it was from which they were evolved. but no one dreams of claiming byamee as a relation belonging to one clan; he is one apart and yet the father of all, even as birrahgnooloo is mother of all and not related to any one clan; cunnumbeillee, his other wife, had only one totem. certainly woman is given a high place in their sacred lore. the chief wife of byamee, birrahgnooloo, is claimed as the mother of all, for she, like him, had a totem for each part of her body; no one totem can claim her, but all do. mother of all, though mother of none in particular, she was not to be vulgarised by ordinary domestic relations, for those purposes cunnumbeillee was at hand, as a bearer of children and a caterer. yet it was birrahgnooloo whom byamee best loved and made his companion, giving her power and position which no other held. she too, like him, is partially crystallised in the sky-camp, where they are together; the upper parts of their bodies are as on earth; to her, those who want floods go, and when willing to grant their requests, she bids cunnumbeillee start the flood-ball of flood rolling down the mountains. cunnumbeillee, as has been said, had but one totem which her children derived from her. byamee is the originator of things less archaic and important than totemism. there is a large stone fish-trap at brewarrina, on the barwan river. it is said to have been made by byamee and his gigantic sons, just as later greece attributed the walls of tiryns to the cyclops, or as glasgow cathedral has been explained in legend as the work of the picts. byamee also established the rule that there should be a common camping-ground for the various tribes, where, during the fishing festival, peace should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish, and do their share towards preserving the fisheries. byamee still exists. i have been told by an old native, as will be shown later, that prayers for the souls of the dead used to be addressed to byamee at funerals; certainly not a practice derived from protestant missionaries. byamee is supposed to listen to the cry of an orphan for rain. such an one has but to run out when the clouds are overhead, and, looking at the sky, call aloud 'gullee boorboor. gullee boorboor.' 'water come down. water come down.' or should it be raining too much, the last possible child of a woman can stop it by burning midjeer wood. bootha told me after one rain that she had sent one of her tutelary spirits to tell boyjerh--byamee is called by women and children boyjerh--that the country wanted rain. in answer he had taken up a handful of crystal pebbles and thrown them from the sky down into the water in a stone basin on the top of the sacred mountain; as the pebbles fell in, the water splashed up into the clouds above, whence it descended as the desired rain. it is told to me, that at some initiatory rites the oldest medicine man, or wirreenun, present addresses a prayer to byamee, asking him to give them long life, as they have kept his law. the tribesmen do not profess to pray, or to have prayed, to byamee on any occasions except at funerals, and at the conclusion of the boorah. as for byamee's relation to ethics, it will be stated in the chapter on the tribal ceremonies, while the stories as to the rewards and punishments of the future life will be given in their place. baiame's troubles with a kind of disobedient deputy, darramulun, will also be narrated: the myth is current, too, among the wir djuri tribe. other particulars about byamee will occur in the course of later chapters: here i have tried to give a general summary of the native beliefs. the reader may interpret them in his own fashion, and may decide as to whether the beliefs do or do not indicate a kind of 'religion,' whether 'a recognised religion' or not. there is necessarily, of course, an absence of temples and of priests, and i have found no trace or vestige of sacrifice. what may be said on the affirmative side as to the religious aspect of the belief, the reader can supply from the summary of facts. other potent beings occur in native myth, as we shall show, but there appears to exist between them and mankind no relation of affection, reverence, or duty, as in the case of byamee. here it seems necessary to advert to a remark of mr. howitt's which appears to be erroneous. he says 'that part of australia which i have indicated as the habitat of that belief' (namely, in an all father),' is also the area where there has been the advance from group marriage to individual marriage; from descent in the female line to that in the male line; where the primitive organisation under the class system has been more or less replaced by an organisation based on locality; in fact, where these advances have been made to which i have more than once drawn attention.'[howitt, native tribes of south-east australia, p. .] mr. howitt forgets that he himself attributes the early system of descent through women, and also the belief in an all father (nurelli), to the wiimbaio tribe [ibid. p. ] to the wotjobaluk tribe,[native tribes of south-east australia, pp. , .] to the kamilaroi, to the ta-ta-thi,[ibid. p. ] while female descent and the belief in baiame mark the euahlayi and wir djuri. [journal, anthropological institute, xxv., p. .] these tribes cover an enormous area of country, and, though they have not advanced to male kinship, they all possess the belief in an all father. that belief does not appear to be in any way associated with advance in social organisation, for messrs. spencer and gillen cannot find a trace of it in more than one of the central and northern tribes, which have male kinship, and a kind of local self-government. on the other hand, it does occur among southern tribes, like the kurnai, which have advanced almost altogether out of totemism. in short, we have tribes with female descent, such as the dieri and urabunna, to whom all knowledge of an all father is denied. we have many large and important tribes with female descent who certainly believe in an all father. we have tribes of the highest social advancement who are said to show no vestige of the belief, and we have tribes also socially advanced who hold the belief with great vigour. in these circumstances, authenticated by mr. howitt himself, it is impossible to accept the theory that belief in an all father is only reached in the course of such advance to a higher social organisation as is made by tribes who reckon descent in the male line. chapter iii relationships and totems some savants question the intellectual ability of the blacks because they have not elaborate systems of numeration and notation, which in their life were quite unneeded. such as were needed were supplied. they are often incorporate in one word-noun and qualifying numerical adjective, as for example-- gundooee a solitary emu booloowah two emus oogle oogle four emus gayyahnai five or six emus gonurrun fourteen or fifteen emus. i fancy the brains that could have elaborated their marriage rules were capable of workaday arithmetic if necessary, and few indeed of us know our family trees as the blacks know theirs. even the smallest black child who can talk seems full of knowledge as to all his relations, animate and inanimate, the marriage taboos, and the rest of their complicated system. the first division among this tribe is a blood distinction (i phratries'):-- gwaigulleeah light blooded gwaimudthen dark blooded. this distinction is not confined to the human beings of the tribe, who must be of one or the other, but there are the gwaigulleeah and gwaimudthen divisions in all things. the first and chief division in our tribe, as regards customary marriage law, is the partition of all tribes-folk into these 'phratries,' or 'exogamous moieties.' while in most australian tribes the meanings of the names of phratries are lost, where the meanings are known they are usually names of animals--eagle, hawk, and crow, white cockatoo and black cockatoo, and so forth. among the great kamilaroi tribe, akin in speech to the euahlayi, the names of phratries, dilbi and kupathin, are of unknown significance. the euahlayi names, we have seen, are gwaigulleeah, light blooded, and gwaimudthen, dark blooded. the origin of this division is said to be the fact that the original ancestors were, on the one side, a red race coming from the west, the gwaigulleeah; on the other, a dark race coming from the east. a gwaigulleeah may under no circumstances marry a gwaigulleeah; he or she must mate with a gwaimudthen. this rule has no exception. a child belongs to the same phratry as its mother. the next name of connection is local, based on belonging to one country or hunting-ground; this name a child takes from its mother wherever it may happen to be born. any one who is called a noongahburrah belongs to the noongah-kurrajong country; ghurreeburrah to the orchid country; mirriehburrah, poligonum country; bibbilah, bibbil country, and so on. this division, not of blood relationship, carries no independent marriage restriction, but keeps up a feeling equivalent to scotch, irish, or english, and is counted by the blacks as 'relationship,' but not sufficiently so to bar marriage. the next division is the name in common for all daughters, or all sons of one family of sisters. the daughters take the name from their maternal grandmother, the sons from their maternal great-uncle. of these divisions, called i matrimonial classes, there are four for each sex, bearing the same names as among the kamilaroi. the names are-- masculine kumbo brother and sister feminine, bootha masculine murree brother and sister feminine, matha masculine hippi brother and sister feminine, hippitha masculine kubbee brother and sister feminine, kubbootha the children of bootha will be masculine hippi brother and sister feminine, hippitha the children of matha will be masculine kubbee brother and sister feminine, kubbootha the children of hippatha will be masculine kumbo brother and sister feminine, bootha the children of kubbootha will be masculine murree brother and sister feminine, matha thus, you see, they take, if girls, their grandmother's and her sisters' 'class' names in common; if boys, the 'class' name of their grandmother's brothers. bootha can only marry murree, matha can only marry kumbo, hippitha can only marry kubbee, kubbootha can only marry hippi. both men and women are often addressed by these names when spoken to. a propos of names, a child is never called at night by the same name as in the daytime, lest the 'devils' hear it and entice him away. names are made for the newly born according to circumstances; a girl born under a dheal tree, for example, was called dheala. any incident happening at the time of birth may gain a child a name, such as a particular lizard passing. two of my black maids were called after lizards in that way: barahgurree and bogginbinnia. nimmaylee is a porcupine with the spines coming; such an one having been brought to the camp just as a girl was born, she became nimmaylee. the mothers, with native politeness, ask you to give their children english names, but much mote often use in familiar conversation either the kumbo bootha names, or others derived from place of birth, from some circumstance connected with it, a child's mispronunciation of a word, some peculiarity noticed in the child, or still more often they call each other by the name proclaiming the degree of relationship. for example, a girl calls the daughters of her mother and of her aunts alike sisters. boahdee sister wambaneah full brother dayadee half brother gurrooghee uncle wulgundee uncle's wife kummean sister's sister numbardee mother numbardee mother's sister beealahdee father beealahdee mother's sisters' husbands gnahgnahdee grandmother on father's side bargie grandmother on mother's side dadadee grandfather on mother's siae gurroomi a son-in-law, or one who could be a son-in-law goonooahdee a daughter-in-law, or one who could be a daughter-in-law gooleerh husband or wife, or one who might be so. so relationships are always kept in their memories by being daily used as names. there are other general names, too, such as-- mullayerh a temporary mate or companion moothie a friend of childhood in after life doore-oothai a lover dillahga an elderly man of the same totem tuckandee a young man of the same totem, reckoned as a sort of brother. another list of names used ordinarily is-- boothan last possible child of a woman mahmee old woman beewun motherless girl gowun fatherless girl yumbui fatherless boy moogul only child. those of the same totem are reckoned as brothers and sisters, so cannot intermarry. 'boyjerh' relations, as those on the father's side are called, are not so important as on the mother's side, but are still recognised. now for the great dhe, or totem system, by some called mah, but dhe, is the more correct. dinewan, or emu, is a totem, and has amongst its multiplex totems' or 'sub-totems'-- goodoo or codfish gumbarl silver bream inga crayfish boomool shrimps gowargay water emu spirit moograbah big black-and-white magpie booloorl little night owl byahmul black swan eerin a little night owl beerwon a bird like a swallow dulloorah the manna-bringing birds bunnyal flies dheal sacred fire gidya an acacia yaraan an eucalyptus deenyi ironbark guatha quandong goodooroo river box mirieh poligonum yarragerh the north-east wind guie tree--owenia acidula niune wild melon binnamayah big saltbush. bohrah, the kangaroo, is another totem, and is considered somewhat akin to dinewan. for example, in a quarrel between, say, the bohrah totem and the beewee, the dinewan would take the part of the former rather than the latter. amongst the multiplex totems of bohrah are-- goolahwilleel topknot pigeons boogoodoogadah the rain-bird gilah fink-breasted parrot quarrian yellow and red breasted grey parrot buln buln green parrot gidgerregah small green parrot cocklerina a rose and yellow crested while cockatoo youayah frogs guiggahboorool biggest ant-beds dunnia wattle tree mulga an acacia gnoel sandalwood brigalow an acacia yarragerh north-east wind, same as dinewan's. all clouds, lightning, thunder, and rain that is not blown up by the wind of another totem, belong to bohrah. beewee, brown and yellow iguana, numerically a very powerful totem, has for multiplex totems-- gai-gai catfish curreequinquin butcher-bird gougourgahgah laughing-jackass deenbi divers birroo birroo sand builders deegeenboyah soldier-bird weedah bower-bird mooregoo mooregoo black ibis booloon white crane noodulnoodul whistling ducks goborrai stars gulghureer pink lizard goori pine talingerh native fuchsia guiebet native passion fruit boonburr poison tree gungooday stockman's wood guddeeboondoo bitter bark boorgoolbean or mooloowerh a shrub with creamy blossoms yarragerh spring wind muddernwurderh west wind. those with whom the beewee shares the winds he counts as relations. it is the beewees of the gwaimudthen, or dark blood, who own yarragerh (spring wind); the light-blooded own mudderwurderh (west wind). another totem is gouyou, or bandicoot. the animal has disappeared from the narran district, but the totem tribe is still strong, though not so numerous as either the beewees or dinewans. multiplex totems of gouyou-- wayarnberh turtle mungghee mussels piggiebillah porcupine dayahminnah small carpet snake mungun large carpet snake douyouie ants moondoo wasps murgahmuggui spider bayarh green-head ants mubboo beefwood coolabah eucalyptus, flooded box bingahwingul needlebush mayarnah stones gheeger gheeger cold west wind gibbon yam boondoon kingfisher durnerh brown pigeon guineeboo redbreasts munggheewurraywurraymul seagulls guiggah ordinary ant-beds. next we take doolungaiyah, or bilber, commonly known as bilby, a large species of rat the size of a small rabbit, like which it burrows; almost died out now. the totem clan are very few here too, so it is difficult to learn much as to their multiplex totems, amongst which, however, are-- ooboon blue-tongued lizard goomblegubbon plains turkey or bustard boothagullagulla bird like seagull tekel barain large white amaryllis. douyou, black snake, totem claims-- noongah kurrajong--sterculia carbeen an eucalyptus booroorerh bulrushes gargooloo yams yhi the sun (feminine) gunyahmoo the east wind kurreah crocodile wa-ah shells douyougurrah earth-worms deereeree willy wagtail burrengeen jeewee bouyoudoorunnillee grey cranes ouyan curlew bouyougah centipedes bubburr big snake woggoon scrub turkey beeargah crane waggestmul kind of rat wi small fish millan small water-yam--sourtop moodai, or opossum, another totem, claims-- bibbil popular-leaved gum bumble capparis mitchellianni birah whitewood beebuyer yellow flowering broom illay hop bush mirrie wild currant bush mooregoo swamp oak--belah mungoongarlee largest iguana mouyi white cockatoo beeleer black cockatoo wungghee white night owl mooregoo mopoke narahdarn bat bahloo moon euloowirrie rainbow bibbee woodpecker billai crimson wing parrot durrahgeegin green frog. maira, a paddy melon, claims as multiplex totems-- wahn the crow mullyan the eagle-hawk gooboothoo doves goolayyalilee pelican oonaywah black diver gunundar while diver birriebungar small diver mounin mosquito mouninguggahgui mosquito bird bullah bullah butterflies tucki a kind of bream beewerh bony bream gulbarlee shingleback lizard budtha rosewood goodoogah yalli wayarah wild grapes garwah rivers gooroongoodilbaydilbay south wind. it is said a maira will never be drowned, for the rivers are a sub-totem of theirs; but i notice they nevertheless learn to swim. yubbah, carpet snake, as a kin has almost disappeared, only a few members remaining to claim mungahran hawk. burrahwahn, a big sandhill rat, now extinct here, claims-- mien dingo dalleerin a lizard gaengaen wild lime willerhderh, or douran douran north wind bralgah native companion. buckandee, native cat kin, claim-- buggila leopard wood bean myall bunbundoolooey a little brown bird dunnee bunbun a very large green parrot dooroongul hairy caterpillar. amongst other totems were once the bralgah, native companion, and dibbee, a sort of sandpiper, but their kins are quite extinct as far as our blacks are concerned; the birds themselves are still plentiful. the bralgah birds have a boorah ground at the back of our old horse-paddock, a smooth, well-beaten circle, where they dance the grotesque dances peculiar to them, which are really most amusing to watch, somewhat like a set of kitchen lancers into which some dignified dames have got by mistake, and a curious mixture is the dance of dignity and romping. the totem kins numerically strongest with us were the dinewans, beewees, bohrahs, and gouyous. further back in the country, they tell me, the crow, the eaglehawk, and the bees were original totems, not multiplex ones, as with us. it may be as well for those interested in the marriage law puzzles to state that dinewans, bohrahs, douyous, and doolungayers are always kumbo hippi bootha hippitha. that moodai, gouyou, beewee, maira, yubbah are always murree kubbee matha kubbootha. our blacks may and do eat their hereditary totems, if so desirous, with no ill effects to themselves, either real or imaginary; their totem names they take from their mothers. they may, in fact, in any way use their totems, but never abuse them. a beewee, for example, may kill, or see another kill, and eat or use a beewee, or one of its multiplex totems, and show no sign of sorrow or anger, but should any one speak evil of the beewee, or of any of its multiplex totems, there will be a quarrel. there will likewise be a quarrel if any one dares to mimic a totem, either by drawing one, except at boorahs, or imitating it in any way. there are members of the tribes, principally wizards, or men intended to be such, who are given an individual totem called yunbeai. this they must never eat or they will die. any injury to his yunbeai hurts the man himself in danger he has the power to assume the shape of his yunbeai, which of course is a great assistance to him, especially in legendary lore; but, on the other hand, a yunbeai is almost a heel of achilles to a wirreenun (see the chapter on medicine and magic). women are given a yunbeai too, sometimes. one girl had a yunbeai given her as a child, and she was to be brought up as a witch, but she caught rheumatic fever which left her with st. vitus's dance. the yunbeai during one of her bad attacks jumped out of her, and she lost her chance of witchery. one old fellow told me once that when he was going to a public-house he took a miniature form of his yunbeai, which was the kurrea--crocodile--out of himself and put it safety in a bottle of water, in case by any chance he got drunk, and an enemy, knowing his yunbeai, coaxed it away. i wanted to see that yunbeai in a bottle, but never succeeded. the differences between the hereditary totem or dhe, inherited from the mother, and the individual totem or yunbeai, acquired by chance, are these: food restrictions do not affect the totem, but marriage restrictions do; the yunbeai has no marriage restrictions; a man having an opossum for yunbeai may marry a woman having the same either as her yunbeai or hereditary totem, other things being in order, but under no circumstances must a yunbeai be eaten by its possessor. the yunbeai is a sort of alter ego; a man's spirit is in his yunbeai, and his yunbeai's spirit in him. a minggah, or spirit-haunted tree of an individual, usually chosen from amongst a man's multiplex totems, is another source of danger to him, as also a help. as mr. canton says: 'what singular threads of superstition bind the ends of the earth together! in an old german story a pair of lovers about to part chose each a tree, and by the tree of the absent one was the one left to know of his wellbeing or the reverse. in time his tree died, and she, hearing no news of him, pined away, her tree withering with her, and both dying at the same time. well, that is just what a wirreenun would believe about his minggah. these minggah and goomarh spirit trees and stones always make me think, perhaps irrelevantly, of one of the restored sayings of the lord, which ends 'raise the stone, and there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and i am there.' blacks were early scientists in some of their ideas, being before darwin with the evolution theory, only theirs was a kind of evolution aided by byamee. i dare say, though, the missing link is somewhere in the legends. i rather think the central australians have the key to it. one old man here was quite an ibsen with his ghastly version of heredity. he said, when i asked him what harm it would do for, say, a beewee totem man to come from the gulf country, where his tribe had never had any communication with ours, and marry a girl here,--that all beewees were originally changed from the beewee form into human shape. the beewee of the gulf, originally, like the beewee here, had the same animal shape, and should two of this same blood mate the offspring would throw back, as they say of horses, to the original strain, and partake of iguana (beewee) attributes either in nature or form. from the statements just given, it will be seen that the euahlayi are in the kamilaroi stage of social organisation. they reckon descent in the female line: they have 'phratries' and four matrimonial classes, with totems within the phratries. in their system of 'multiplex-totems' or 'sub-totems' they resemble the wotjobaluk tribe. [howitt, native tribes of south-east australia, pp. , , , .] the essence of the 'sub-totem' system is the division of all things into the categories provided by the social system of the human society. the arrangement is a very early attempt at a scientific system of classification. perhaps the most peculiar feature in the organisation of the euahlayi is the existence of matrimonial classes, which are named as in the kamilaroi tongue, while the phratry names are not those of the kamilaroi, and alone among phratry names in australia which can be translated, are not names of animals. the phratries have thus no presiding animals, and in the phratries there are no totem kins of the phratriac names. the cause of these peculiarities is matter of conjecture. a peculiarity in the totemic system of the euahlayi--the right of each individual to kill and eat his own totem--has been mentioned, and may be associated here with other taboos on food. the wunnarl, or food taboo, was taken off a different kind of food for boys at each boorah, until at last they could eat what they pleased except their yunbeai, or individual familiar: their dhe, or family totem, was never wunnarl or taboo to them. a child may not perhaps know that it has had a yunbeai given to it, and may eat of it in ignorance, when immediately they say that child sickens. should a boy or a girl eat plains turkey or bustard eggs while they were yet wunnarl, or taboo, he or she would lose his or her sight. should they eat the eggs or flesh of kangaroo or piggiebillah, their skins would break out in sores and their limbs wither. even honey is wunnarl at times to all but the very old or very young. fish is wunnarl for about four years after his boorah to a boy, and about four months after she is wirreebeeun, or young woman, to a girl. when the wunnarl was taken off a particular kind of meat, a wizard poured some of the melted fat and inside blood of that animal or bird, as the case might be, over the boy, and rubbed it into him. the boy, shaking and shivering, made a spluttering noise with his lips; after that he could eat of the hitherto forbidden food. this did not necessarily refer to his totem, but any food wunnarl to him, though it is possible that there may have been a time in tribal history, now forgotten, when totems were wunnarl, and these ceremonies may be all that is left to point to that time. when a boy, after his first boorah, killed his first emu, whether it was his dhe, or totem, or not, his father made him lie on the bird before it was cooked. afterwards a wirreenun (wizard) and the father rubbed the fat on the boy's joints, and put apiece of the flesh in his mouth. 'the boy chewed it, making a noise as he did so of fright and disgust; finally he dropped the meat from his mouth, making a blowing noise through his lips of 'ooh! ooh! ooh!' after that he could eat the flesh. a girl, too, had to be rubbed with the fat and blood of anything from which the wunnarl was to be removed for her. no ceremony of this sort would be gone through with the flesh, fat, or blood of any one's yunbeai, or individual familiar animal, for under no circumstances would any one kill or eat their yunbeai. concerning the yunbeai, or animal familiar of the individual, conferred by the medicine men, more is to be said in the ensuing chapters. the yunbeai answers to the manitu obtained by red indians during the fast at puberty; to the 'bush soul' of west africa; to the nagual of south american tribes; and to the nyarong of borneo. the yunbeai has hitherto been scarcely remarked on among australian tribes. mr. thomas declares it to be 'almost non-existent' in australia, mentioning as exceptions its presence among the euahlayi; the wotjobaluk in victoria; the yaraikkanna of cape york; and 'probably' some of the northern tribes on the other side of the gulf of carpentaria. [man ( ), no. , p. .] perhaps attention has not been directed to the animal familiar in australia, or perhaps it is really an infrequent thing among the tribes. chapter iv the medicine men i used to wonder how the wirreenuns or doctor-wizards of the tribe attained their degrees. i found out that the old wizards fix upon a young boy who is to follow their profession. they take him to a tribal burial-ground at night. there they tie him down and leave him, after having lit some fires of fat at short distances round him. during the night that boy, if he be shaky in his nerves, has rather a bad time. one doctor of our tribe gave me a recital of his own early experience. he said, after the old fellows had gone, a spirit came to him, and without undoing his fastenings by which he was bound, turned him over, then went away. scarcely had the spirit departed when a big star fell straight from the sky alongside the boy; he gazed fixedly at it, and saw emerge from it, first the two hind legs, then the whole of a beewee or iguana. the boy's totem was a beewee, so he knew it would not hurt him. it ran close up to him, climbed on him, ran down his whole length, then went away. next came a snake straight towards his nose, hissing all the time. he was frightened now, for the snake is the hereditary enemy of the iguana. the boy struggled to free himself, but ineffectually. he tried to call out but found himself dumb. he tried to shut his eyes, or turn them from the snake, but was powerless to do so. the snake crawled on to him and licked him. then it went away, leaving the boy as one paralysed. next came a huge figure to him, having in its hand a gunnai or yam stick. the figure drove this into the boy's head, pulled it out through his back, and in the hole thus made placed a 'gubberah,' or sacred stone, with the help of which much of the boy's magic in the future was to be worked. this stone was about the size and something the shape of a small lemon, looking like a smoothed lump of semi-transparent crystal. it is in such stones that the wi-wirreenuns, or cleverest wizards, see visions of the past, of what is happening in the present at a distance, and of the future; also by directing rays from them towards their victims they are said to cause instantaneous death. next, to the doctor-boy on trial, came the spirits of the dead who corroboreed round him, chanting songs full of sacred lore as regards the art of healing, and instructions how, when he needed it, he could call upon their aid. then they silently and mysteriously disappeared. the next day one of the old wizards came to release the boy; he kept him away from the camp all day and at night took him to a weedah, or bower-bird's, playground. there he tied him down again, and there the boy was visited again by the spirits of the dead, and more lore was imparted to him. the reason given for taking him to a weedah's playground is, that before the weedah was changed into a bird, he was a great wirreenun; that is why, as a bird, he makes such a collection of pebbles and bones at his playground. the bower-bird's playgrounds are numerous in the bush. they are made of grass built into a tent-shaped arch open at each end, through which the weedahs run in and out, and scattered in heaps all around are white bones and black stones, bits of glass, and sometimes we have found coins, rings, and brooches. the weedahs do not lay their eggs at their playgrounds their nests are hard to find. a little boy always known as 'weedah,' died lately, so probably a new name will have to be found for the bird, or to mention it will be taboo, at all events before the old people, who never allow the names of the dead to be mentioned. for several nights the medical student was tied down in case he should be frightened and run away, after that he was left without bonds. he was kept away from the camp for about two months. but he was not allowed to become a practitioner until he was some years older: first he dealt in conjuring, later on he was permitted to show his knowledge of pharmacy. his conjuring cures are divers. a burn he cures by sucking lumps of charcoal from it. obstinate pains in the chest, the wizard says, must be caused by some enemy having put a dead person's hair', or bone in it. looking wisdom personified in truly professional manner, he sucks at the affected spot, and soon produces from his mouth hair, bones, or whatever he said was there. if this faith-healing does not succeed, a stronger wizard than he must have bewitched the patient; he will consult the spirits. to that end he goes to his minggah, a tree or stone--more often a tree, only the very greatest wirreenuns have stones, which are called goomah--where his own and any spirits friendly towards him may dwell. he finds out there who the enemy is, and whence he obtained his poison. if a wirreenun is too far away to consult his friendly spirits in person, he can send his mullee mullee, or dream spirit, to interview them. he may learn that an enemy has captured the sick person's doowee, or dream spirit--only wirreenuns' dream spirits are mullee mullee, the others are doowee--then he makes it his business to get that doowee back. these dream spirits are rather troublesome possessions while their human habitations sleep they can leave them and wander at will. the things seen in dreams are supposed to be what the doowees see while away from the sleeping bodies. this wandering of the doowees is a great chance for their enemies: capture the doowee and the body sickens; knock the doowee about before it returns and the body wakes up tired and languid. should the doowee not return at all, the person from whom it wandered dies. when you wake up unaccountably tired in the morning, be sure your doowee has been 'on the spree,' having a free fight or something of that sort. and though your doowee may give you at times lovely visions of passing paradises, on the whole you would be better without him. there is on the queensland border country a dillee bag full of unclaimed doowees. the wirreenun who has charge of this is one of the most feared of wirreenuns; he is a great magician, who, with his wonder-working glassy stones, can conjure up visions of the old fleshly habitations of the captured doowees. he has gubberahs, or clever stones, in which are the active spirits of evil-working devils, as well as others to work good. should a doowee once get into this wirreenun's bag, which has the power of self-movement, there is not a great chance of getting it back, though it is sometimes said to be done by a rival combination of magic. the worst of it is that ordinary people have no power over their doowees; all they can do is to guard against their escaping by trying to keep their mouths shut while asleep. the wirreenuns are masters of their mullee mullees, sending them where they please, to do what they are ordered, always provided they do not meet a greater than themselves. all sorts of complications arise through the substitution of mad or evil spirits for the rightful doowee. be sure if you think any one has suddenly changed his character unaccountably, there has been some hankey-pankey with that person's doowee. one of the greatest warnings of coming evil is to see your totem in a dream; such a sign is a herald of misfortune to you or one of your immediate kin. should a wirreenun, perhaps for enmity, perhaps for the sake of ransom, decide to capture a doowee, he will send his mullee mullee out to do it, bidding the mullee mullee secrete the doowee in his--the wirreenun's--minggah, tree or rock. when he is consulted as to the return of the missing doowee, he will order the one who has lost it to sleep, then the doowee, should the terms made suit the wirreenun, re-enters the body. should it not do so, the doowee-less one is doomed to die. in a wirreenun's minggah, too, are often secreted shadow spirits stolen from their owners, who are by their loss dying a lingering death, for no man can live without mulloowil, his shadow. every one has a shadow spirit which he is very careful not to parade before his enemies, as any injury to it affects himself. a wirreenun can gradually shrink the shadow's size, the owner sickens and dies. 'may your shadow never be less!' the shadow of a wirreenun is, like his head, always mahgarl, or taboo; any one touching either will be made to suffer for such sacrilege. a man's minggah is generally a tree from amongst his multiplex totems,' as having greater reason to help him, being of the same family. in his minggah a wirreenun will probably keep some wundah, or white devil spirits, with which to work evil. there, too, he often keeps his yunbeai, or animal spirit--that is, his individual totem, not hereditary one. all wirreenuns have a yunbeai, and sometimes a special favourite of the wirreenuns is given a yunbeai too--or in the event of any one being very ill, he is given a yunbeai, and the strength of that animal goes into the patient, making him strong again, or a dying wirreenun leaves his yunbeai to some one else. though this spirit gives extra strength it likewise gives an extra danger, for any injury to the animal hurts the man too; thus even wirreenuns are exposed to danger. no one, as we have said, must eat the flesh of his yunbeai animal; he may of his family totem, inherited from his mother, but of his yunbeai or individual familiar, never. a wirreenun can assume the shape of his yunbeai; so if his yunbeai were, for example, a bird, and the wirreenun were in danger of being wounded or killed, he would change himself into that bird and fly away. a great wirreenun can substitute one yunbeai for another, as was done when the opossum disappeared from our district, and the wirreenun, whose yunbeai it was, sickened and lay ill for months. two very powerful wirreenuns gave him a new yunbeai, piggiebillah, the porcupine. his recovery began at once. the porcupine had been one of his favourite foods; from the time its spirit was put into him as his yunbeai, he never touched it. a wirreenun has the power to conjure up a vision of his particular yunbeai, which he can make visible to those whom he chooses shall see it. the blacks always told me that a very old man on the narran, dead some years ago, would show me his yunbeai if i wished; it was oolah, the prickly lizard. one day i went to the camp, saw the old man in his usual airy costume, only assumed as i came in sight, a tailless shirt. one of the gins said something to him; he growled an answer; she seemed persuading him to do something. presently he moved away to a quite clear spot on the other side of the fire; he muttered something in a sing-song voice, and suddenly i saw him beating his head as if in accompaniment to his song, and then--where it came from i can't say--there beside him was a lizard. that fragment of a shirt was too transparent to have hidden that lizard; he could not have had it up his sleeve, because his sleeves were in shreds. it may have been a pet lizard that he charmed in from the bush by his song, but i did not see it arrive. they told me this old man had two yunbeai, the other was a snake. he often had them in evidence at his camp, and when he died they were seen beside him; there they remained until he was put into his coffin, then they disappeared and were never seen again. this man was the greatest of our local wizards, and i think really the last of the very clever ones. they say he was an old grey-headed man when sir thomas mitchell first explored the narran district in . we always considered him a centenarian. it was through him that i heard some of the best of the old legends, with an interpreter to make good our respective deficiencies in each other's language. in the lives of blacks, or rather in their deaths, the gooweera, or poison sticks or bones, play a great part. a gooweera is a stick about six inches long and half an inch through, pointed at both ends. this is used for sickening' or killing men. a guddeegooree is a similar stick, but much smaller, about three inches in length, and is used against women. a man wishing to injure another takes one of these sticks, and warms it at a small fire he has made; he sticks the gooweera in the ground a few inches from the fire. while it is warming, he chants an incantation, telling who he wants to kill, why he wants to kill him, how long he wants the process to last, whether it is to be sudden death or a lingering sickness. the chant over, and the gooweera warmed, he takes it from the fire. should he wish to kill his enemy quickly, he binds opossum hair cord round the stick, only leaving one point exposed; should he only want to make his enemy ill, he only partially binds the stick. then he ties a ligature tightly round his right arm, between the wrist and elbow, and taking the gooweera, or guddeegooree, according to the sex of his enemy, he points it at the person he wishes to injure, taking care he is not seen doing it. suddenly he feels the stick becoming heavier, he knows then it is drawing the blood from his enemy. the poison is prevented from entering himself by the ligature he has put round his arm. when the gooweera is heavy enough he ceases pointing it. if he wants to kill the person outright, he goes away, makes a small hole in the earth, makes a fire beside it. in this hole he puts a few dheal leaves--dheal is the tree sacred to the dead; on top of the leaves he puts the gooweera, then more leaves this done, he goes away. the next day he comes back with his hand he hits the earth beside the buried stick, out jumps the gooweera, his enemy is dead. he takes the stick, which may be used many times, and goes on his way satisfied. should he only wish to inflict a lingering illness on his enemy, he refrains from burying the gooweera, and in this case it is possible to save the afflicted person. for instance, should any one suspect the man with the gooweera of having caused the illness, knowing of some grudge he had against the sick person, the one who suspects will probably intercede for mercy. the man may deny that he knows anything about it. he may, on the other hand, confess that he is the agent. if the intercessions prevail, he produces the gooweera, rubs it all over with iguana fat, and gives the intercessor what fat is left to rub over the sick person, who, on that being done, gradually regains his normal condition after having probably been reduced to a living skeleton from an indescribable wasting sickness, which i suspect we spell funk. the best way to make a gooweera effective is to tie on the end of it some hair from the victim's head--a lock of hair being, in this country of upside-downs, a hate token instead of one of love. when the lock of hair method is chosen as a means of happy dispatch, the process is carried out by a professional. the hair is taken to the boogahroo--a bag of hair and gooweeras--which is kept by one or two powerful wirreenuns in a certain minggah. the wirreenun on receiving the hair asks to whom it belongs. should it belong to one of a tribe he is favourably disposed towards, he takes the gooweera or hair, puts it in the bag, but never sings the i death song' over it, nor does he warm it. should he, however, be indifferent, or ill-disposed towards the individual or his tribe, he completes the process by going through the form already given, or rather when there are two wirreenuns at the boogahroo, the receiver of the hair gives it to the other one, who sings the death-song, warms the gooweera, and burns the hair. the person from whose head the hair on the gooweera came, then by sympathetic magic, at whatever distance he is, dies a sudden or lingering death according to the incantation sung over the poison-stick. gooweeras need not necessarily be of wood; bone is sometimes used, and in these latter days even iron. sometimes at a large meeting of the blacks the boogahroo wirreenuns bring the bag and produce from it various locks of hair, which the owners or their relations recognise, claim, and recover. they find out, from the wirreenun, who put them there; on gaining which knowledge a tribal feud is declared--a regular vendetta, which lasts from generation to generation. if it be known that a man has stolen a lock of hair, he will be watched and prevented from reaching the boogahroo tree, if possible. these gooweeras used to be a terrible 'nuisance to us on the station. a really good working black boy would say he must leave, he was going to die. on inquiry we would extract the information that some one was pointing a gooweera at him. then sometimes the whole camp was upset; a strange black fellow had arrived, and was said to have brought gooweeras. this reaching the boss's ears, confiscation would result in order to restore peace of mind in the camp. before i left the station a gin brought me a gooweera and told me to keep it; she had stolen it from her husband, who had threatened to point it at her for talking to another man. some of them, though they still had faith in the power of such charms, had faith also in me. i used to drive devils out with patent medicines; my tobacco and patent medicine accounts while collecting folk-lore were enormous. a wirreenun, or, in fact, any one having a yunbeai, has the power to cure any one suffering an injury from whatever that yunbeai is; as, for example, a man whose yunbeai is a black snake can cure a man who is bitten by a black snake, the method being to chant an incantation which makes the yunbeai enter the stricken body and drive out the poison. these various incantations are a large part of the wirreenun's education; not least valuable amongst them is the chant sung over the tracks of snakes, which renders the bites of those snakes innocuous. chapter v more about the medicine men and leechcraft the wirreenuns sometimes hold meetings which they allow non-professionals to attend. at these the spirits of the dead speak through the medium of those they liked best on earth, and whose bodies their spirits now animate. these spirits are known as yowee, the equivalent of our soul, which never leave the body of the living, growing as it grows, and when it dies take judgment for it, and can at will assume its perishable shape unless reincarnated in another form. so you see each person has at least three spirits, and some four, as follows: his yowee, soul equivalent; his doowee, a dream spirit; his mulloowil, a shadow spirit; and may be his yunbeai, or animal spirit. sometimes one person is so good a medium as to have the spirits of almost any one amongst the dead people speak through him or her, in the whistling spirit voice. i think it is very clever of these mediums to have decided that spirits all have one sort of voice. at these meetings there would be great rivalry among the wirreenuns. the one who could produce the most magical stones would be supposed to be the most powerful. the strength of the stones in them, whether swallowed or rubbed in through their heads, adds its strength to theirs, for these stones are living spirits, as it were, breathing and growing in their fleshly cases, the owner having the power to produce them at any time. the manifestation of such power is sometimes, at one of these trials of magic, a small shower of pebbles as seeming to fall from the heads and mouths of the rivals, and should by chance any one steal any of these as they fall, the power of the original possessor would be lessened. the dying bequeath these stones, their most precious possessions, to the living wirreenun most nearly related to them. the wirreenun's health and power not only depend upon his crystals and yunbeai, but also on his minggah; should an accident happen to that, unless he has another, he will die--in any case, he will sicken. many of the legends deal with the magic of these spirit-animated trees. they are places of refuge in time of danger; no one save the wirreenun, whose spirit-tree it was, would dare to touch a refugee at a minggah; and should the sanctuary be a goomarh, or spirit-stone, not even a wirreenun would dare to interfere, so that it is a perfectly safe sanctuary from humanly dealt evil. but a refugee at a minggah or goomarh runs a great risk of incurring the wrath of the spirits, for minggah are taboo to all but their own wirreenun. there was a minggah, a great gaunt coolabah, near our river garden. some gilahs build in it every year, but nothing would induce the most avaricious of black bird-collectors to get the young ones from there. a wirreenun's boondoorr, or dillee bag, holds a queer collection: several sizes of gooweeras, of both bone and wood, poison-stones, bones, gubberahs (sacred stones), perhaps a dillee--the biggest, most magical stone used for crystal-gazing, the spirit out of which is said to go to the person of whom you want to hear, wherever he is, to see what he is doing, and then show you the person in the crystal. a dinahgurrerhlowah, or moolee, death-dealing stone, which is said to knock a person insensible, or strike him dead as lightning would by an instantaneous flash. to these are added in this miscellaneous collection medicinal herbs, nose-bones to put through the cartilage of his nose when going to a strange camp, so that he will not smell strangers easily. the blacks say the smell of white people makes them sick; we in our arrogance had thought it the other way on. swansdown, shells, and woven strands of opossum's hair are valuable, and guarded as such in the boondoorr, which is sometimes kept for safety in the wirreenun's minggah. having dealt with the supernatural part of a wirreenun's training, which argues cunning in him and credulity in others, i must get to his more natural remedies. snakebite they cure by sucking the wound and cauterising it with a firestick. they say they suck out the young snakes which have been injected into the bitten person. for headaches or pains which do not yield to the vegetable medicine, the wirreenuns tie a piece of opossum's hair string round the sore place, take one end in their mouths, and pull it round and round until it draws blood along the cord. for rheumatic pains in the head or in the small of the back and loins they often bind the places affected with coils of opossum hair cord, as people do sometimes with red knitting-silk. the blacks have many herbal medicines, infusions of various barks, which they drink or wash themselves with, as the case may be. various leaves they grind on their dayoorl-stones, rubbing themselves with the pulp. steam baths they make of pennyroyal, eucalyptus, pine, and others. the bleeding of wounds they stanch with the down of birds. for irritations of the skin they heat dwarf saltbush twigs and put the hot ends on the irritable parts. after setting a broken limb they put grass and bark round it, then bind it up. for swollen eyes they warm the leaves of certain trees and hold them to the affected parts, or make an infusion of budtha leaves and bathe the eyes in it. for rheumatic pains a fire is made, budtha twigs laid on it, a little water thrown on them; the ashes raked out, a little more water thrown on, then the patient lies on top, his opossum rug spread over him, and thus his body is steamed. to induce perspiration, earth or sand is also often heated and placed in a hollowed-out space; on it the patient lies, and is covered with more heated earth. pennyroyal infused they consider a great blood purifier they also use a heap as a pillow if suffering from insomnia. it is hard to believe a black ever does suffer from insomnia, yet the cure argues the fact. beefwood gum is supposed to strengthen children. it is also used for reducing swollen joints. a hole is made in the ground, some coals put in, on them some beefwood leaves, on top of them the gum; over the hole is put enough bark to cover it with a piece cut out of it the size of the swollen joint to be steamed, which joint is held over this hole. various fats are also used as cures. iguana fat for pains in the head and stiffness anywhere. porcupine and opossum fats for preserving their hair, fish fat to gloss their skins, emu fat in cold weather to save their skins from chapping. but what is supposed to strengthen them more than anything, both mentally and physically, is a small piece of the flesh of a dead person, or before a body is put in a bark coffin a few incisions were made in it; when it was coffined it was stood on end, and what drained from the incisions was caught in small wirrees and drunk by the mourners. i fancy such cannibalism as has been in these tribes was not with a view to satisfaction of appetite but to the incorporation of additional strength. either men or women are allowed to assist in this particularly nauseating funeral rite, but not the young people. nor must their shadows fall across any one who has partaken of this rite; should they do so some evil will befall them. if the mother of a young child has not enough milk for its sustenance, she is steamed over 'old man' saltbush, and hot twigs of it laid on her breasts. to expedite the expulsion of the afterbirth, an old woman presses the patient round the waist, gives her frequent drinks of cold water, and sprinkles water over her. as soon as the afterbirth is removed a steam is prepared. two logs are laid horizontally, some stones put in between them, then some fire, on top leaves of eucalyptus, and water is then sprinkled over them. the patient stands astride these logs, an opossum rug all over her, until she is well steamed. after this she is able to walk about as if nothing unusual had happened. every night for about a month she has to lie on a steam bed made of damped eucalyptus leaves. she is not allowed to return to the general camp for about three months after the birth of her child. though perfectly well, she is considered unclean, and not allowed to touch anything belonging to any one. her food is brought to her by some old woman. were she to touch the food or food utensils of another they would be considered unclean and unfit for use. her camp is gailie--that is, only for her; and she is goorerwon as soon as her child is born--a woman unclean and apart. immediately a' baby is born it is washed in cold water. ghastly traditions the blacks have of the time when dunnerh-dunnerh, the smallpox, decimated their ancestors. enemies sent it in the winds, which hung it on the trees, over the camps, whence it dropped on to its victims. so terror-stricken were the tribes that, with few exceptions, they did not stay to bury their dead; and because they did not do so, flying even from the dying, a curse was laid on them that some day the plague would return, brought back by the wundah or white devils; and the blacks shudder still, though it was generations before them, at the thought that such a horror may come again. poison-stones are ground up finely and placed in the food of the person desired to be got rid of. these poison-stones are of two kinds, a yellowish-looking stone and a black one; they cause a lingering death. the small bones of the wrist of a dead person are also pounded up and put into food, in honey or water, as a poison. one cure struck me as quaint. the patient may be lying down, when up will come one of the tribe, most likely a wirreenun with a big piece of bark. he strikes the ground with this all round the patient, making a great row; this is to frighten the sickness away. what seems to me a somewhat peculiar ceremony is the reception a coming baby holds before its birth. the baby is presumably about to be born. its grandmother is there naturally, but the black baby declines to appear at the request of its grandmother, and, moreover, declines to come if even the voice of its grandmother is heard; so grannie has to be a silent spectator while some other woman tempts the baby into the world by descanting on the glories of it. first, perhaps, she will say: 'come now, here's your auntie waiting to see you.' 'here's your sister.' 'here's your father's sister,' and so on through a whole list. then she will say, as the relatives and friends do not seem a draw: 'make haste, the bumble fruit is ripe. the guiebet flowers are blooming. the grass is waving high. the birds are all talking. and it is a beautiful place, hurry up and see for yourself.' but it generally happens that the baby is too cute to be tempted, and an old woman has to produce what she calls a wi-mouyan--a clever stick--which she waves over the expectant mother, crooning a charm which brings forth the baby. if any one nurses a patient and the patient dies, the nurse wears an armlet of opossum's hair called goomil, and a sort of fur boa called gurroo. if blacks go visiting, when they leave they make a smoke fire and smoke themselves, so that they may not carry home any disease. as a rule blacks do not have small feet, but their hands are almost invariably small and well shaped, having tapering fingers. chapter vi our witch woman our witch woman was rather a remarkable old person. when she was, i suppose, considerably over sixty, her favourite granddaughter died. old bootha was in a terrible state of grief, and chopped herself in a most merciless manner at the burial, especially about the head. she would speak to no one, used to spend her time about the grave, round which she fixed upright posts which she painted white, red, and black. all round the grave she used to sweep continually. more and more she isolated herself, and at last discarded all her clothes and roamed the bush a la eve before the fall, as she had probably done as a young girl. she dug herself an underground camp, roofed it over, and painted enormous posts which she erected in front of her 'muddy wine,' as she called her camp. she never came near the house, though we had been great friends before. she used to prowl round the outhouses and pick up all sorts of things, rubbish for the most part, but often good utensils too; all used to be secreted in the underground camp. she never talked to any one, but used to mutter continually to herself and her dogs in an unknown tongue which only her dogs seemed to understand. we thought she was quite mad. one day, while we were playing tennis, she suddenly, muttering her strange language and dancing new corroboree steps, clad only in her black skin, came up. matah told her to go away, but she only corroboreed round him and said she wanted to see me. i have the most morbid horror of lunacy in any form. i was once induced to go over a lunatic asylum--the horror of it haunts me still. however, i thought it would never do to show the coward i was, so though i felt as if i had been scooped out and filled up with ice, i went to her. she danced round me for a little time, then sidled up to me and said: 'wahl you frightened, wahl me hurt you. i only womba--mad--all yowee--spirits--in me tell me gubbah--good--i lib 'long a youee; bimeby i come back big feller wirreenun; wahl you frightened? i not hurt you.' and after crooning an accompaniment to her steps off she went, a strange enough figure, dancing and crooning as she went towards her camp; and not until the spirits gave up possession of her did she come near the house again. one day she gave us a start. we were schooling a new team of four horses. the off-side leader had only been in once before, and was a brumby (horse run in from a wild mob). we had to pass bootha's camp. i looked about as we neared it but saw nothing of her. suddenly from the ground, as it seemed, out dashed the weird old figure, arms full of things, jabbering away at a great rate. whiz came a tin plate past the leaders' heads; the offside horse reared and plunged and took some holding. whiz came an old bill; then, one after another, a regular fusilade of various utensils. it did not take us long to get past, but for as long as we could see the attack was kept up. coming back we saw nothing of bootha, and all the utensils had been picked up. i used to tell the other blacks to see that bootha had plenty of food. they said she was all right, the spirits were looking after her. lunatics, from their point of view, are only persons spirit-possessed. gradually old bootha, clothed as usual, came back about the place. strange stories came through the house blacks to me of old bootha. she was very ill for a long time, then suddenly she recovered; not only recovered but seemed rejuvenated. we heard of wonderful cures she made; how she always consulted the spirits about any illness; how there were said to be spirits in some of her dogs; how she was now a rainmaker and, in fact, a fully fledged witch. i was curious to see some of these wonders, so used to get the old woman to come up when any one was ill, consult her, and generally make much of her. there is no doubt she could diagnose a case well enough. matah suffered a good deal with a constant pain in one knee, he was quite lame from it. he showed it to bootha one day. she sang a song to her spirits, then said: 'too muchee water there; you steam him, put him on hot rag; you drink plenty cold water, all lite dat go.' as it happened a medical man was passing a few days afterwards with an insurance agent. matah consulted him. 'hum! yes, yes. hot fomentations to the place affected, poultices, a cooling draught. there's a stoppage of fluid at the knee-joint which must be dispersed.' i thought bootha ought to have been called in consultation. a girl i had staying with me was taken suddenly and, to us, unaccountably ill. she was just able to get out of her room into the drawing-room, where she would lie back on the cushions of a lounge looking dreadfully limp and utterly washed out. hearing of her illness old bootha came up. i thought it might amuse adelaide to see an old witch; she agreed, so i brought her in. bootha went straight up to the sick girl, expressed a few sympathetic sentences, then she said she would ask the spirits what had made adelaide ill and what would cure her. she moved my furniture until she left the centre of the room clear; she squatted down, and hanging her head began muttering in an unintelligible dialect. presently her voice ceased and we heard from beside her a most peculiar whistling sort of voice, to which she responded, evidently interrogating. again the whistling voice from further away. bootha then told me she had asked a dead black fellow, big joe, to tell her what she wanted to know; but he could not, so now she was going to ask her dead granddaughter. again she said a sort of incantation, and again, after a while, came the whistling voice reply--this time from another direction, not quite so loud. the same sort of thing was gone through with the same result. then bootha said she would ask guadgee, a black girl who had been one of my first favourites in the camp, and who had died a few years previously. the whistling voice came from a third direction, though all the time i could see bootha's lips moving. guadgee answered all she was asked. she said adelaide was made ill because she had offended the spirits by bathing in the creek under the shade of a minggah, or spirit-tree, a place tabooed to all but wirreenuns, or such as hold communion with spirits. of course, according to the blacks, to disturb a shadow is to hurt the original. in this minggah, guadgee said, were swarms of bees invisible to all but wirreenuns, and they are ready always to resent any insult to the minggah or its shadow. these spirit-bees had entered adelaide and secreted some wax on her liver; their bites, guadgee said, were on her back. well, that can't be it, i said, i for you never did bathe in the shade of a minggah; for, going as you always do with the house-girls, you are bound to be kept from such sacrilege; they would never dare such desecration.' 'which is their minggah? is it a big coolabah between the bend and the garden?' 'yes.' 'then i did bathe there the last time i went down. i was up too late to go with the black-but-comelys, and as the sun was hot i went further round the point and bathed in the shade. and the bee-bites must be those horribly irritating pimples i have across my back.' the cause of illness settled to her satisfaction, bootha asked how to cure it. the patient was to drink nothing hot nor heating but as much cold water as she liked, especially a long drink before going to bed. guadgee said she would come in the night when the patient was asleep and take the wax from her liver; she would sleep well and wake better in the morning. bootha got up then, came over to the patient, took her hand, rubbed it round the wrist several times, muttering an incantation; then saying she would see her again next day, off she went, taking, she told us, all the spirits away inside her, whence at desire they could be returned to such minggah in their own noorunbah, or hereditary hunting-grounds, as wirreenuns had placed them in, or to roam at their pleasure when not required by those in authority over spirits. our old spiritualist denies us freedom even in the after-life she promises us. adelaide slept that night, looked a better colour the next morning, and rapidly recovered. we think old bootha must be a good physician and a ventriloquist, only i believe it is said ventriloquists cannot live long, and bootha is now over eighty. others besides wirreenuns see spirits sometimes, but rarely, though wirreenuns are said to have the power to conjure them up in a form visible to ordinary eyes. babies are said to see spirits when they are smiling or crowing as if to themselves; it's to some spirit visible to them but to no one else. when a baby opens his hands and shuts them again quickly, smiling all the while, that baby is with the spirits catching crabs! dogs see spirits; when they bark and howl suddenly and you see nothing about, it is because they have seen a spirit. one person may embody many spirits, but such an one must be careful not to drink anything hot or heating, such would drive out the spirits at once. the spirits would never enter a person defiled by the white man's 'grog.' old bootha had an interview with a very powerful spirit after she was ill, who told her that the spirit of her father was now in bahloo, the moon; and that it was this spirit which had cured her, and if she kept his commands she would live for ever. the commands were never to drink 'grog,' never to wear red, never to eat fish. this was told her fifteen years ago, never once has she transgressed; her vigour for an old woman considerably over eighty is marvellous. she was going away for a trip. before going she said, as she would not be able to know when i wanted rain for my garden, she would put two posts in it which had in them the spirits of kurreahs, or crocodiles. as these spirits required water i might be certain my tanks would never go dry while they were on guard. she asked one of my black-but-comelys, a very stalwart young woman, to help her lift one of these posts into the garden where she wanted to erect it. the girl took hold of one end, but in a little while dropped it, said it was too heavy. old bootha got furious. 'i get the spirits to help me,' she said, and started a little sing-song, then shouldered the post herself and carried it in. these posts are painted red, black, and white, with a snaky pattern, the kurreah sign, on them. she also planted in my garden two other witch-poles, one painted red and having a cross-bar about midway down it from which raddled strings were attached to the top; this was to keep away the euloowayi, black fellows possessed of devils, who came from behind the sunset. the other was a plain red-painted, tapering pine-pole which she said, when it fell to the ground, would tell of the death of some one related to an inmate of the house. should it lean towards the house it foretold misfortune; or if she were any time away, when she was returning she would send her mullee mullee to sit on the top and bend it just to let us know. this pole would also keep away the spirits of the dead from the house during her absence. while she was away there would be no one to come and clear the place of evil by smoking the budtha twigs all round it, as she always did if i were alone and, she thought, in need of protection. old bootha has what she calls a wi-mouyan, clever-stick. it is about six feet long, great lumps of beefwood gum making knobs on it at intervals; between each knob it is painted. armed with this stick, a piece of crystal, some green twigs, and sometimes a stick with a bunch of feathers on top, and a large flat stone, she goes out to make rain. the crystal and stone she puts under the water in the creek, the feathered stick she erects on the edge of the water, then goes in and splashes about with green twigs, singing all the time. after a while she gets out and parades the bank with the wi-mouyan, singing a rain-song which charms some of the water out of the creek into the clouds, whence it falls where she directs it. once my garden of roses looked very wilted. i asked bootha to make rain, but just then she was very offended with matah. one of her dogs had been poisoned, she would make no rain on his country. however, at last she said she would make some for me. i bound her down to a certain day. the day came; a heavy storm fell just over my garden, filling the ground tank, which was almost empty. about two inches fell. within half a mile of each side of the garden the dust was barely laid. old bootha's luck stuck to her that time, and i had to give her a new dress and some 'bacca.' but during the last drought she failed signally. her excuse for failing was that a great wirreenun up the creek was so angry with the white people who were driving away all emu, kangaroo, and opossums, the black fellow's food, and yet made a fuss if their dogs killed a sheep for them sometimes, that he put his rain-stone in a fire, and while he did that no rain would fall. he said if all the sheep died the white fellows would go away again, and then, as long ago, the black fellows' country would have plenty of emu and kangaroo. we saw a curious coincidence in connection with one of bootha's witch-poles in my garden, the pole whose falling foretold death of some relative of some one in the house. one afternoon there had been drizzling rain and a grey mist overshadowing things. matah went out to look at the chances of a continuance of rain, the usual drought being on. he called to me to come and see a curious sky. looking towards the west i saw a golden ball of a sun piercing the grey clouds which seemed like a spangled veil over its face; shooting from the sun was a perfect halo of golden light, from which three shafts spread into roadways up past the grey clouds into the vault of heaven. the effect was very striking indeed, against the grey clouds shaded from silver to almost black. as we stood waiting for the sun to sink and the afterglow to paint these clouds, as it did, from shrimp pink and heliotrope to vivid crimson, we saw bootha's pole fall. the air was quite still. 'the damp has loosened its setting,' said matah, 'but we had better leave it alone and let the old girl fix it up again herself; it may be taboo to ordinary mortals like us.' we left it. that evening a messenger arrived from the sheep station to say my cook's mother had died just before sunset. the camp were firm believers in bootha's witch-stick after that. it was just as well we did not touch that stick; had we done so, bootha says we should have broken out in sores all over our bodies. they say that long ago the wirreenuns always used to have a sort of totem wizard-stick guarding the front of their camps. chapter vii birth--betrothal--an aboriginal girl from infancy to womanhood to begin at the beginning, bahloo, the moon, is a sort of patron of women. he it is who creates the girl babies, assisted by wahn, the crow, sometimes. should wahn attempt the business on his own account the result is direful; women of his creating are always noisy and quarrelsome. bahloo's favourite spot for carrying on the girl manufacturing is somewhere on the culgoa. on one of the creeks there is to be seen, when it is dry, a hole in the ground. as water runs along, the bed of this creek, gradually a stone rises from this hole. as the water rises it rises, always keeping its top out of the water. this is the goomarh, or spirit-stone, of bahloo. no one would dare to touch this stone where the baby girls' spirits are launched into space. in the same neighbourhood is a clear water-hole, the rendezvous of the snakes of bahloo. should a man go to drink there he sees no snakes, but no sooner has he drunk some of the water than he sees hundreds; so even water-drinkers see their snakes. the name of the hole is dahn. spirit-babies are usually despatched to waddahgudjaelwon and sent by her to hang promiscuously on trees, until some woman passes under where they are, then they will seize a mother and be incarnated. this resembles the arunta belief, but with the euahlayi the spirits are new freshly created beings, not reincarnations of ancestral souls, as among the arunta. to live, a child must have an earthly father; that it has not, is known by its being born with teeth. wurrawilberoo is said to snatch up a baby spirit sometimes and whirl along towards some woman he wishes to discredit, and through the medium of this woman he incarnates perhaps twins, or at least one baby. no doubt were it not for signs of teeth in a spirit-baby of immaculate conception, many a camp scandal would be conveniently nipped in the bud. babies are sometimes sent directly to their mothers without the coolabah-tree or whirlwind medium. the bronze mistletoe branches with their orange-red flowers are said to be the disappointed babies whose wailing in vain for mothers has wearied the spirits who transform them into these bunches, the red flowers being formed from their baby blood. the spirits of babies and children who die young are reincarnated, and should their first mother have pleased them they choose her again and are called millanboo--the same again. they can instead, if they like, choose some other woman they know, which seems very accommodating in those presiding over the reincarnation department. sometimes two baby spirits will hang on one branch and incarnate themselves in the same woman, who as result is the mother of twins, and the object of much opprobrium in the camp. in fact, in the old days, one of the twins would have been killed. one of my black-but-comelys said, on hearing that a woman had twins: 'if it had been me i would have put my fingers round the throat of one of them and killed it.' the woman who made this speech i had always looked upon as the gentlest and kindliest of creatures. the father of the twins has treated his wife with the utmost contempt since their birth, and declines to acknowledge more than one of the babies. they say the first-born of twins is always born grinning with his tongue out, as if to say, 'there's another to come yet; nice sort of mother i have.' no wonder the women cover themselves under a blanket when they see a whirlwind coming, and avoid drooping coolabah trees, believing that either may make them objects of scorn as the mother of twins. when a baby is born, some old woman takes the coolabah leaf out of its mouth. such a leaf is said always to be found there if the baby was incarnated from a coolabah tree; should this leaf not be removed it will carry the baby back to spirit-land. as soon as the leaf is taken away the baby is bathed in cold water. hot gum leaves are pressed on the bridge of its nose to ensure its flatness; the more bridgeless the nose the greater the beauty. when a baby clutches hold of anything as if to give it to some one, the bargie--grandmother--or some elderly woman takes what the baby offers, and makes a muffled clicking sort of noise with her tongue rolled over against the roof of her mouth, then croons the charm which is to make the child a free giver: so is generosity inculcated in extreme youth. i have often heard the grannies croon over the babies: oonahgnai birrablee, oonahgnoo birrahlee, oonahgnoo birrahlee, oonabmillangoo birrahlee, gunnoognoo oonah birrahlee. which translated is: 'give to me, baby, give to her, baby, give to him, baby, give to one, baby, give to all, baby.' as babies are all under the patronage of the moon, the mothers are very careful every new moon to make a white cross-like mark on the babies' foreheads, and white dabs on cheeks and chins. and very careful are the mothers not to look at the full moon, nor let their babies do so; an attack of thrush would be the result. bahloo, too, has a spiteful way of punishing a woman who has the temerity to stare at him, by sending her the dreaded twins. if babies do not sleep well their mothers get the red powdered stuff like pine pollen, from the joints of the bingahwingul, or needlebush tree, and rub it on the babies' skulls and foreheads. if the babies cry too much their mothers say evil spirits are in them, and must be smoked out. they make a smoke fire of budtha twigs and hold the baby in the thick of the smoke. i have seen the mother of a fretful child of three or four years even, apply the smoke anodyne. whenever the mother of a young child woke in the night, if well up in her mother duties, she was supposed to warm her hands, and rub her baby's joints so that the child might grow lissome and a good shape, and she always saw that her baby's mouth was shut when the child was asleep lest an evilly disposed person should slip in a disease or evil-working spirit. for the same reason they will not let a baby lie on its back unless they cover its head. if a gilah flies over the camp crying out as it passes, it is a sure sign of 'debbil debbil'; the child, to escape evil consequences, must be turned on to its left side. if a gooloo, or magpie, did the same, the child had to be laid flat on her moobil--stomach: for the passing of a cawing crow, a child had to be laid on the right side. as these birds are not night birds, it is evident that they are evil spirits abroad in bird form, hence the precautions. as soon as a baby begins to crawl, the mother finds a centipede, half cooks it, takes it from the fire, and catching hold of her child's hands beats them with it, crooning as she does so: 'gheerlayi ghilayer, wahl munnoomerhdayer, wahl mooroonbahgoo, yelgayerdayer deermuldayer, gheerlayi ghilayer.' which means: 'kind be, do not steal, do not touch what to another belongs, leave all such alone, kind be.' the accompaniment being a muffled click of a rolled-up tongue against the roof of a mouth. no child must touch the big feathers of a goomblegubbon, or bustard's wings, nor any of its bones. at the age of about four, the mother takes one of these wings and beats the child all over the shoulders and under the arms with it. again making the clicking noise, she croons: 'goobean gillaygoo, oogowahdee goobolaygoo, wahl goonundoo, ghurranbul daygoo.' which charm means: 'a swimmer be, flood to swim against, no water, strong to stop you.' and so was a child made a good swimmer. the wirreenuns would see that the septum of a child's nose was pierced at the right time, and their tribal marks cut on them. the nose was pierced at midwinter when ice was about, with which to numb the place to be pierced; ice was held to the septum, then prod through it went a bone needle. an old gin who worked about the station had a pierced nose, and often wore a mouyerh, or bone, through it. a white laundress wore earrings. she said one day to the old gin: 'why you have hole made in your nose and put that bone there? no good that. white women don't do that.' the black woman looked the laundress up and down, and finally anchored her eyes on the earrings. 'why you make hole in your ears? no good that. black gin no do that, pull 'em down your ears like dogs. plenty good bone in your nose make you sing good. sposin' cuggil--bad--smell you put bone longa nose no smell 'im. plenty good make hole longa nose, no good make hole longa ears, make 'em hang down all same dogs.' and off she went laughing, and pulling down the lobes of her ears, began to imitate the barking of a dog. there is often a baby betrothal called bahnmul. for some reason or another it has been decided that a baby girl is to be given to a man, perhaps because he has been kind to her mother, perhaps she is owed to his kin by her own; any way the granny of the baby girl puts feathers, white swansdown, on the baby's head, and takes her over to the man when she is about a month old. granny says to the baby: 'look at him, and remember him, because you are promised to him.' then she takes some feathers off the baby's head and puts them on to his; that makes it a formal betrothal, binding to both sides. i have heard great camp rows because girls made a struggle for independence, having found out they had only been promised, not formally betrothed, to some old chap whom they did not wish to marry. perhaps the old fellow will already have a wife or so, a man can have as many as he pleases. i have heard of one with three; i have known some with two; but the generality of them seem content with one. should a young girl marry a man with an old wife, the old wife rules her to any extent, not even letting her have a say about her own children, and no duenna could be stricter. should the young wife in the absence of her husband speak to a young man, she will probably get a scolding from the old wife and a 'real hiding' from the old man, to whom the old wife will report her conduct. quite young men often marry quite old women; a reason sometimes given is that these young men were on earth before and loved these same women, but died before their initiation, so could not marry until now in their reincarnation. certainly, amongst the blacks, age is no disqualification for a woman; she never seems to be too old to marry, and certainly with age gains power. at whatever age a girl may be betrothed to a man he never claims her while she is yet mullerhgun, or child girl; not until she is wirreebeeun, or woman girl. a girl's initiation into womanhood is as follows. her granny probably, or some old woman relation, takes her from the big camp into the scrub where they make a bough shade. as soon as this is made, the old woman sets fire to a thick heap of budtha leaves and makes the girl swallow the smoke. she then bids her lie down in a scooped-out hollow she has made in the earth, saying to her, 'you are to be made a young woman now. no more must you run about as you please. here must you stay with me, doing as i say. then in two moons' time you shall go and claim your husband, to do for ever what he bids you. you must not sleep as you lie there in the day time, nor must you go to sleep at night until those in the camp are at rest. i will put food ready for you. honey you must not eat again for four moons. at first streak of day you must get up, and eat the food i have placed for you. then when you hear a bird note you must shake yourself all over, and make a noise like this.' and the old woman makes a ringing noise with her lips. 'that you must do every time you hear a fresh bird note; so too when you hear the people in the camp begin to talk, or even if you hear them laugh or sneeze. if you do not, then grey will your hair be while you are yet a young woman, dull will your eyes be, and limp your body.' girls have told me that they got very tired of being away with only the old woman for so long, and were glad enough when she told them they were to move to a new camp, nearer to the big one, which the women had prepared for them. when they reached this the old woman rubbed off the mud with which she had plastered the girl's limbs when first they went away to camp, and which she had renewed from time to time. when this was all off she painted the girl in different designs with red ochre and white gypsum, principally in spots. she put on her head a gnooloogail, or forehead band, made of kurrajong fibre, plaited and tied with some kurrajong string, from over the cars to the back of the head; in this band, which she had painted white, she stuck sprays of white flowers. sweetly scented budtha and clustering birah were the flowers most used for this ceremony. should neither of these be in bloom, then sprays of collarene or coolibah blossom were used. when the flowers were placed in the band the old woman scattered a handful of white swansdown over the girl's head. next she tied round her a girdle of opossum's sinews with strands of woven opossum's hair hanging about a foot square in front. round her arms she bound goomils--opossum hair armlets--into which she placed more sprays of flowers, matching those in the girl's hair. to show that the occasion was a sacred one a sprig of dheal tree was placed through the hole in the septum of the nose. the toilet of a wirreebeeun was now complete. the old woman gave her a bunch of smoking budtha leaves to carry, and told her what to do. note here the origin of bridal bouquets. having received her instructions, the girl, holding the smoking twigs, went towards the big camp. when the women there saw her coming they began to sing a song in, to her, a strange language. on a log, with his back towards her--for he must not yet look on her face--sat the man to whom she was betrothed. the girl went up to him. as the women chanted louder she threw the smoking budtha twigs away, placed a hand on each of his shoulders and shook him. then she turned and ran back to her new camp, the women singing and pelting her with dry twigs and small sticks as she went. for another moon she stayed with her granny in this camp, then the women made her another one nearer. in a few weeks they made her one on the outskirts of the main camp. here she stayed until they made her another in the camp, but a little apart. in front of the opening of this dardurr they made a fire. that night her betrothed camped on one side of this fire and she on the other. for a moon they camped so. then the old granny told the girl she must camp on the same side of the fire as her betrothed, and as long as she lived be his faithful and obedient wife, having no thought of other men. should he ill-treat her, her relations had the power to take her from him. or should he for some reason, after a while, not care for her, he can send her back to her people; should she have a child he leaves it with her until old enough to camp away from her, when it is returned to him. the wedding presents are not given to the bride and bridegroom, but by the latter to his mother-in-law, to whom, however, he is never allowed to speak. failing a mother-in-law, the presents are given to the nearest of kin to the wife. you can hardly reckon it as purchase money, for sometimes a man gives no presents and yet gets a wife. in books about blacks, you always read of the subjection of the women, but i have seen henpecked black husbands. there are two codes of morals, one for men and one for women. old testament morality for men, new testament for women. the black men keep the inner mysteries of the boorah, or initiation ceremonies, from the knowledge of women, but so do masons keep their secrets. as to the black women carrying most of the baggage on march, naturally so; the men want their hands free for hunting en route, or to be in readiness for enemies in a strange country. black women think a great deal of the moonaibaraban, or as they more often call them, kumbuy, or sister-in-law. these are spirit-women who come a few days after the boorah to bring presents to the women relations of the boys who have been initiated. the kumbuy are never seen, but their voices are heard--voices like dogs barking; on hearing which the women in the camp have to answer, calling out: 'are you my kumbuy?' an answer comes like a muffled bark, 'bah! bah bah!' then the old men--crafty old men--go out to where the 'bahing' comes from, and bring in the gifts, which take the form of food, yams, honey, fruit principally. these kumbuy are among the few beneficent spirits they never hurt any one, simply supply the bereaved women with comfort in the shape of food, for the temporary loss of their male relatives. should an uninitiate have a wife, which of course is improper, the kumbuy decline to recognise her; and should she presume to answer their spirit back, they make in token of displeasure a thudding noise as if earth were being violently banged with a yam stick. she has encroached on the kumbuy preserves, for prior to his initiation a man should only have a spirit wife, never an incarnate one. if you ask a black woman why the kumbuy thud the earth in answer to an initiate's wife, she will say: 'dat one jealous.' jealousy even in the spirit world of women! unchaste women were punished terribly. after we went west even the death penalty for wantonness was enforced, though at the time we did not know it. should a girl be found guilty of a frailty, it being her first fault, her brothers and nearest male relations made a ring round her, after having bound her hands and feet, and toss her one from the other until she is in a dazed condition and almost frightened to death. the punishment over, she is unbound and given to her betrothed, or a husband chosen for her. should a woman have been discovered to be an absolute wanton, men from any of the clans make a ring round her, she being bound, and tossed from one to the other, and when exhausted is unbound and left by her relations to the men to do as they please to her--the almost inevitable result is death. with this terror before them, it is possible the old blacks are right who say that their women were very different in their domestic relations in olden times. chapter viii the training of a boy up to boorah preliminaries at the boy manufactory, boomayahmayahmul, the wood lizard, was the principal worker, though bahloo from time to time gave him assistance. the little blacks throw their mythical origin at each other tauntingly. a little black girl, when offended with a boy friend, says: 'ooh, a lizard made you.' 'wah! wah! a crow made you,' he retorts. up to a certain age boys are trained as are girls--charms sung over them to make them generous, honest, good swimmers, and the rest; but after that they are taken into the weedegah, or bachelors' camp, and developed on manly lines. when he is about seven years old, his mother will paint her son up every day for about a week with red and white colourings. after that he would go to the weedegah gahreemai, bachelors' camp. he would then be allowed to go hunting with boys and men. he would see, now when he was out with the men, how fire was made in the olden time, almost a lost art now when wax matches are plentiful. no boy who had not been to a boorah would dare to try to make fire. the implements for fire-making are a little log about as thick as a man's arm, of nummaybirah wood--a rather soft white wood--and a split flat piece about a foot long and three inches wide. the little log was split open at one end, a wedge put in it, and the opening filled up with dry grass broken up. this log was laid on the ground and firmly held there; the fire-maker squatted in front, and with the flat piece rubbed edgeways across the opening in the log. the sawdust fell quickly into the opening. after about a minute and a half's rubbing a smoke started out. after rubbing on a little longer the fire-maker took a handful of dry grass, emptied the smoking sawdust and dry grass into it, waved it about, and in three and a half minutes from starting the process i have seen a blaze. sometimes it has taken longer, but just under five minutes is the longest time i have ever seen it take. they use pine too, i believe, but whenever i timed them it was nummaybirah they were using. the boys pick up the woodcraft of the tribes when they begin going out with the men. as the boys began to grow up, when a good season came round, and game and grass were plentiful, the old men were seen to draw apart often and talk earnestly. at length there came a night when was heard a whizzing, whirling boom far in the scrub. as the first echo of it reached the camp, the women, such as were still young enough to bear children, stopped their ears, for should any such hear the gurraymi, the women's name for the gayandi, or boorah spirit's voice, that spirit will first make them mad, then kill them. the old women began to sing a boorah song. to deaden the sound of the dreaded voice, opossum rugs were thrown over the children, none of whom must hear, unless they are boys old enough to be initiated; the sound reveals the fact to such that the hour of their initiation is at hand. the men all gathered together with the boys, except two old wirreenuns, who earlier in the evening have seemingly quarrelled and gone away into the scrub. the men and boys in camp march up and down to some distance from the camp. the old women keep on singing, and one man with a spear painted red with a waywah fastened on top, walks up and down in the middle of the crowd of men, holding the spear, with its emblematic belt of manhood, aloft; as he does so, calling out the names of the bends of the creek, beginning with the one nearest to which they are camped. when he gets to the end of the names along that creek and comes to the name of a big river, all the men join him in giving a loud crow like 'wah! wah! wah!' then he begins with the names along the next creek across the big river, and so on; at the mention of each main stream the crowd again join in the cry of 'wah! wah! wah!' all the while, closer and still closer, comes the sound of the gayandi, as the men call the gurraymi, or bull roarer. at length the two old wirreenuns come back to the camp and the noise ceases, to recur sometimes during the night, when i expect, did any one search for them, the old wirreenuns would be found missing from the camp. after the first whirling of the bull roarers and calling of the creek names, the gooyeanawannah, or messengers, prepare for a journey, and when ready, the wirreenuns start them off in various directions to summon neighbouring tribes from hundreds of miles round to attend the boorah. the messengers each carry a spear with a waywah (or belt of manhood) on the top, seeing which no tribe, even at enmity with the messenger, will molest him. when a messenger arrived at a strange camp, he was not asked his business but left to choose his own time for telling. he would squat down a little way from the strangers' camp, food would probably be brought to him which he would cat. he would find out who was the chief wirreenun of the tribe, then take him apart, give to him his boorah message-stick as guarantee of his good faith, and tell him where and when the boorah was to be held. after having given all necessary information, the gooyeanawannah would return to his tribe; the wirreenun to whom he had given the doolooboorah, or message-stick, would send it on by the messenger of his tribe, and so with others, until all were summoned, each tribe letting it be known that a boorah summons had been received by sounding the gayandi, which would carry its own tale to those in the camp. should young boys be chosen as messengers, they were held in high honour; woormerh they were called. while the messengers were away, the old men of the tribe in whose noorumbah, or hereditary hunting lands, the boorah was to be held, prepared the sacred grounds. they cleared a big circle, round which they put a bank of earth, and from the circle was cleared a path leading to a thick scrub; along this path were low earthen embankments, and the trees on both sides had the bark stripped off, and carved on them the various totems and multiplex totems of the tribes. such carvings were also put on the trees round the bunbul, or little boorah ring, where the branches were also in some instances lopped, and the trunks carved and painted to represent figures of men, amongst whom were supposed to be the sons of byamee's wives. two of these sons had been made young men at the first boorah byamee instituted in this district, the ground of which is pointed out to this day. in the middle of the bunbul a large heap of wood was placed ready for the yungawee, or sacred fire. when the preliminary preparations were over, the camps were moved to just outside the boorah, or big boorah ring. by that time the other tribes began to arrive. first came from each tribe the boys to be initiated and the munthdeeguns, or men in charge of them. the men were painted, and had leafy twigs tied round their wrists and ankles, as had the boys also, and all carried in their hands small branches of green. those especially in charge of boys held, too, a painted spear with a waywah on top of it. as they approached the place of gathering the head man, with the painted spear, began calling out all the names of the places along the creeks from whence he came; at the name of each big watercourse they all cried together 'wah! wah! wah!' they were met at some distance from the camp by the men who had summoned them, and who had made a round brush yard where they were to meet them. here the older women were singing boorah songs. some held their breasts as a sign they had sons among the initiates; others put their hands on their shoulders, which showed they had brothers going to be made young men. all the women had leafy twigs tied round their wrists and ankles as the men had. the newcomers and the men who met them walked round the yard at a measured beat, lifting one leg and throwing up one arm each time the cry of 'wah! wah! wah!' was given, for here too the enumeration of geographical names went on. when the boorah song was over, the men marched out of the yard; closely behind them the two oldest men with the tufted spears; the boorah boys closely after them. the women followed, carrying bunches of leafy twigs with which they pelted the boys until they reached the camp. matah and i had been watching the whole performance, and followed in the wake of the women. the whole scene impressed us as picturesque--the painted figures of the men and boys, with the peculiarly native stealthy tread, threading their way through the grey coolabah trees; the decorated women throwing their leafy missiles with accurate aim into the ranks of the boys, who did not dare to look at their assailants. a boorah boy must give no evidence of curiosity; the nil admirari attitude then begun clings to a black man through life. the women of the tribe express voluble surprise, but a black man never except by the dilation of his eyes. every night after this a corroboree was held. the fully initiated of each tribe, as they arrived, help in the preparation of the inner sacred ground, while the younger men collected game and other food. the old men cut out of the ground along the narrow path leading to the bunbul, and round it, huge earthen animals, their various totems, such as crocodiles, kangaroos, emus and others, all of a colossal size. these they plastered over with mud and painted in different colours and designs. on the right of the bunbul they made an earthen figure of byamee--this figure was reclining holding in each hand a boondee. on the other side was the huge figure of a woman--this represented birrahgnooloo, the favourite wife of byamee; she held two spears. there was a third figure not so large as the other two but like them, apart from the figures near the path and the bunbul; this was baillahburrah, according to some, dillalee according to others, the supernatural son of byamee--or as some say, brother--not born of woman, having lived before the human race existed, before byamee travelled as creator and culture hero through australia. of the gayandi, the boorah spirit, sometimes called wallahgooroonboooan, there was no figure, because he was always present at boorahs, though invisible. his voice only gave evidence of his presence. the wirreenuns said it was he who had placed in the forks of trees round the big ring heaps of dry wood, which they said, when the ceremonies began, he would light, making a dazzling illumination of the scene. in the middle of the boorah ring was placed a mudgee, a painted stick or spear, with a bunch of hawk's feathers on the top. every night was heard at intervals the gayandi, and immediately the younger women and children stopped their ears, while the old women shrieked their brumboorah. as each fresh batch of blacks arrived the volume of sound was increased, for the old men with their gayandi would go into the scrub and whirl them. these bull roarers sound curiously uncanny--i did not wonder the uninitiated accepted the spirit theory as to their origin. the bush of australia is a good background for superstition; there is such a non-natural air about its nature, as if it has been sketched in roughly by a beardsley-like artist. the function of the gayandi is to inspire awe, and it fulfils it. byamee himself made the first. it was some time before he got quite the effect he wanted. at first he desired to give the boorah spirit a form as well as a voice, to inspire awe; he also wished it to knock out the front tooth of an initiate. he made a stone figure in the image of man, having a voice. this spirit, known variously as gayandi, or darramulun, went to the boorah, but when he was to knock out the front tooth, he began to eat the boys' faces. he was too strong; he would not do to preside over, boorahs. byamee transformed him into a large piggiebillah-like animal, though instead of being covered with spines, thick hair grew over him; he has since been known as nahgul. he went away into the bush, where he has been a dreaded devil ever since; for if he touches a man's shadow even, that man will itch all over and nothing can cure him of it. he haunts boorah grounds. next byamee made a stone bull roarer sort of thing, but this was too heavy to make the noise he wanted. one day he was chopping a big coolabah tree close to weetalibah water-hole, which tree, much to the horror of our blacks, was burnt down a few years ago by travellers. as byamee chopped, out flew a big chip. he heard the whizzing sound it made, gave another chop, out flew another; again the whizzing sound. 'that is what i want,' he said i'll make a gayandi of wood.' he cut a piece of mubboo, or beefwood, and shaped it; he tied a piece of string to a hole in one end; he hung it up in the big coolabah tree. then he went and cut one out of noongah or kurrajong, tied a string on to that and put it beside the other on the tree, and left them swinging there. one day he came back and was camping near; his wives, came along to the big tree. there the gayandi swung, making a whirring noise. 'what's that?' said the women. 'we'll have a look what it is.' seeing byamee they said, 'we heard voices in that big tree over there.' 'whereabouts?' he said. 'in that coolabah tree. such strange voices, such as we never heard.' 'you two go' he said, 'to our camp and make a fire. i'll go and see what it is.' when the women were out of sight he went to the tree and took the pieces of wood down. he was satisfied now they would answer his purpose. he carefully hid them until he made a boorah. and since then such pieces of wood have been the medium for the gayandi's voice, and are kept carefully hidden away from all but the eyes of wirreenuns. at length all the expected tribes had arrived, preparations were finished, and a signal was given for a move to be made that the real ceremonies might begin. the fully initiated men went away after their midday meal, and about sundown came in single file along the banked-in path each carrying a firestick in one hand, a green switch in the other. when they reached the mudgee in the middle of the big ring and corroboreed for a little round it, the old women answered with a boorah song, and all moved to the edge of the ring. at this stage men often tried to steal each other's boys, and great wrestling matches came off. one man would try to pull up the mudgee, out would rush one of another clan to wrestle with him. first the boys would wrestle, then the elder men, each determined his clan should prove victorious at this great boorah wrestling. the skill of the eeramooun, or uninitiated boys, would be tried in sham fights too. they were given bark shields, and their attackers had bark boomerangs; great was the applause when the boys ably defended themselves. previously they have been tried with boomerang and boodthul throwing, and other arts of sport and warfare, boys of each tribe trying to excel those of the others. if a boy comes well out of these trials the men say he is worthy to be a yelgidyi, or fully initiated young man. when the wrestling and sham fights are over, corroborees begin. all night they are kept up, and sometimes there are day performances too. chapter ix the boorah and other meetings at last would come the night when everything was ready. sports and corroborees would be held as usual, until, at a given signal, the younger women were ordered into bough sheds which were round the ring. the old women stayed on singing. the boys, who are painted red, are beckoned into the middle of the ring, where their respective munthdeeguns daub them with white. that done, each man seizing his charge, hoists him on to his shoulder, and dances round the ring with him. then the old women are told to bid the boys good-bye. forward they come, singing each her own brumboorah, for every oldest woman relation of each of the boys makes a song for him. they corroboree a few steps behind the men, chanting a farewell, then corroboree back a few steps, then hasten to join the younger women in the bough sheds, which are now pulled down on top of them by the men, that they may see nothing further. then the munthdeeguns disappear down the track into the scrub. when they are out of sight the women are released, that they may get ready to travel to where the durrawunga, or little boorah, will be held in about four days' time, at about ten miles distance. as the munthdeeguns passed their totem-marked trees, or images, which would be those of the boys in their charge--for each guardian was a relation of the same totem as his charge--they would perform some magical feat, such as producing gubberahs, charcoal, gypsum, and so on, uttering as they did so a little chant about that totem. the boy's eyes are closed all this time and his head bent down. boys at a boorah always remind me of wilhelm meisler's travels, where, at the school to which wilhelm takes felix, he learns, on inquiry as to the three attitudes assumed by the pupils, that these gestures inculcate veneration, which also seems to be the keynote of the eeramooun's instruction. the boorah over, he too, 'stands erect and bold, yet not selfishly isolated; only in an union with his equals (his fellow initiates) does he present a front towards the world.' and only when the fear, the abasement, is gone does the true reverence come, which makes the most primitive creed a living religion. as the munthdeeguns pass the sacred fire they throw in a weapon each. this done they place their charges in slightly scooped-out places, already prepared in the inner ring. then they bid them, on pain of death, not to look up whatever happens. soon a great whirring is heard, telling that gayandi, the boorah spirit, is near. yudtha dulleebah, one of the oldest black men in the district, said at this stage once two boys did look up. the wirreenuns saw them, though the boys did not know it and went on looking. these boys saw the men advance each to the fire where they had thrown their weapons; chanting in a strange tongue, they corroboreed round the fire for some time. then the wirreenuns snatched up the coals left from the weapons and rubbed them into their limbs, trampling as they did so on the edge of the fire, which did not seem to burn them, rubbing and chanting until the sacred coals were supposed to be absorbed by them, from which they would derive new powers. this over, the boys were all ordered to get up, and march round, hands on thighs and heads abased, while they learnt a boorah song, giving new words for common things, which acted as pass-words hereafter for the initiated. into a slow chant these words were strung, as the men and boys passed round the ring, two of the oldest men standing beating time with painted spears with tufted tops. the two boys who had transgressed before looked up again, curious as to their surroundings. suddenly the men with the spears roared at the boys to lower their heads. the boys laughed. their fates were sealed. out flashed the sacred gubberahs of these two old men. 'dead is he,' they cried, 'who laughs in the bunbul where yungawee burns more fiercely than yirangal, the sun, where near lies the image of byamee: byamee, father of all, whose laws the tribes are now obeying.' then the men chanted to the gubberahs and held them between the fires and the boys, the light of the flames seemed to play on them and stretch its beams to the boys, who began to tremble. as louder grew the chant an answer came from the scrub, the voice of gayandi; shaking with fear the boys fell to the ground, to all appearance lifeless. then the old men went forward, each with a stone knife in hand. stooping over the two boys they opened veins in each, out flowed the blood, and the other men all raised a death cry. the boys were lifeless. the old wirreenuns, dipping their stone knives in the blood, touched with them the lips of all present. then the bodies were put on the edge of the sacred fire and the other initiates taken a little further into the scrub. there they were tried in many ways. with the boorah spirits whistling and whizzing all round them, spears were pointed at them. their skins were scratched with stone knives and mussel shells. hideously painted, fiendish-looking creatures suddenly rushed upon them. should they show fear and quail at the little boorah they would be returned to their mothers as cowards unfit for initiation, and sooner or later sympathetic magic would do its work, a poison-stick or bone would end them. or if one of the initiates was considered stupid and generally incapable, having been brought to the boorah for that purpose, he was now, after having been made to suffer all sorts of indignities, such as eating filth and so on, bound to the earth, strapped down, killed, and his body burnt. when the trials were over and the old wirreenuns said to the boys who had not quailed, 'you are brave; you shall be boorahbayyi first and afterwards yelgidyi, and carry the marks that all may know.' then they made on the shoulder of each boy a round hole with a pointed stone; this hole they licked to feel no splinter of stone remained, then filled it with powdered charcoal. after this, leaving the boys there, the men went back to the bunbul ring. the bodies of the boorah victims were cooked. each man who had been to five boorahs ate a piece of this flesh, no others were allowed even to see this done. then the bones and what was left of the bodies were put into the middle of the fire, and all traces of the victims so destroyed. the men then sang a song, saying that so must always be served those who scoffed at sacred things; that the strength they had wasted should go into other men who would use it better; while the spirits of the victims should wander about until reincarnated if the boorah spirit gave them another chance. perhaps he would only let them be reincarnated in animals. after another dance and chant round the yungawee, the men went and brought the boys back again. they came with their hands on their thighs, and their heads abased; each was taken to his allotted place near the outer edge of the ring. there each munthdeegun told his boy he could sleep that night; he would go to sleep the boy he had been, to wake in the morning a new man; his courage had now been tried, and in the morning a new name and a sacred stone would be given to him. the gayandi would settle their names that night and tell the wirreenuns. the next morning the boys were awakened by the munthdeegun chanting and dancing before them. they stopped in front of the first boy, called him to rise by a new name; as he did so all the men clapped their thighs and shouted 'wah! wah! wah!' then an old wirreenun gave him a small white gubberah, which he was bidden to keep concealed for ever from the uninitiated and the women, and he must be ready to produce it whenever called upon to do so. the result of failure would be fatal to him. with the loss of the stone his life spirit would be weakened, and the strength of the boorah spirit, with which he was now endowed, be used against him instead of for him, as would be the case as long as he kept the stone. these stones seem somewhat in the way of 'baetyli' of pagan antiquity, which were of round form; they were supposed to be animated, by means of magical incantations, with a portion of the deity; they were consulted on occasions of great and pressing emergency as a kind of divine oracle, and were suspended either round the neck or some other part of the body. as each boy received his stone another loud chorus of 'wah! wah! wah!' went up from that crowd, making the scrub ring with the sound. some of those, of whose tribe it was the custom--it is not invariably so--now had a front tooth knocked off; this done a wirreenun chanted to the boy, who had been blindfolded and almost deafened by the whirring of gayandi. one chant was as follows:-- now you can meet the boorah spirit, now will he harm you not. he will know his spirit is in you. for this is the sign, a front tooth gone. that is his sign, he will know you by it. some of the wirreenuns buried these teeth by the boorah fire, others carefully wrapped them up to keep as charms, or to send to other tribes, each according to the individual custom of his tribe. this all over, once more there was a marching and chanting round the fire, then the boys were taken away and given food for the first time since they left their mothers. no wonder that the 'supernatural' was mixed up with their impressions of the boorah: fasting nourishes hallucinations. while the boys were eating, they could hear in the distance other chants, and knew that ceremonies were going on to which they were not yet to be admitted, there being degrees of initiation. on the fourth day the men took them about ten miles, and camped with them where they could hear faintly in the distance the noise of the main camp; so they knew they were near the place chosen for the durramunga, or little boorah. just before dawn next morning each munthdeegun took his boorahbayyi, or partially initiated one, to the durramunga. there was a boorah ring, but instead of earth grass was heaped all round it. no young women were visible, only the old women, who sang and corroboreed towards the boys. slowly they came forward, peered at their shoulders, and seeing there the marks, embraced them, shrieking out cries of joy that their boys had borne the tests. they danced round them, then at a sign from the old men embraced them again; and while, the women sang their brumboorah and danced, the boys were taken away by their guardians. for two moons they remained away, learning much as to sacred things. they were told that the oldest wirreenuns could see in their sacred crystals pictures of the past, pictures of what was happening at a distance in the present, and pictures of the future; some of which last filled their minds with dread, for they said as time went on the colours of the blacks, as seen in these magical stones, seemed to grow paler and paler, until at last only the white faces of the wundah, or spirits of the dead, and white devils were seen, as if it should mean that some day no more blacks should be on this earth. the reason of this must surely be that the tribes fell away from the boorah rites, and in his wrath byamee stirred from his crystal seat in bullimah. he had said that as long as the blacks kept his sacred laws, so long should he stay in his crystal seat, and the blacks live on earth; but if they failed to keep up the boorah rites as he had taught them, then he would move and their end would come, and only wundah, or white devils, be in their country. it is said that this prophetic vision was the reason that so many of the first-born half-caste babies were killed, the old wirreenuns seeing in them the beginning of the end. at the end of two moons they make back towards the place where the boorah had begun, and where preparations were now being made to receive them. they camped in the scrub near the old camp of the tribe who had started the boorah. that night in the camp the gayandi was heard again, another ceremony was at hand. the next day the women at the big camp made a big fire, a little distance away. when this fire was nearly burnt out they covered it thickly with budtha, dheal, and coolabah leaves to make a great smoke. on the top of these leaves, which were piled about two feet high, logs were placed; this fire was round a dheal tree. when the thick smoke was seen curling up in a column, the boorahbayyi were brought out of the scrub by the munthdeegun, while in the distance sounded the whizzing voice of the boorah spirit. as it ceased, when the women's chanting rose above it, the painted boys came into the open. on they came, heads down and hands on thighs, looking neither to the right nor to the left, but walking straight ahead until they stood on the logs on the fire. they leaned over and placed a hand each on the tree in the centre, there they stood while the smoke curled all round them. the women past child-bearing were singing all the time, while the men danced outside the leaf-smoke, clicking boomerangs as they did so. for some time this went on, then the men took the boys back into the scrub. in about four moons' time another leaf-smoke was made ready, and the boorahbayyi were again brought out and smoked. this time while chanting a song the old women brought a big net and put it right over the boys. then they stepped back and danced round to the clicking of boomerangs by the men. the boys were again taken away. but after this they were allowed to camp nearer the general camp, though they held no intercourse with the people of it. i have often met these boorah boys in the bush, and on sighting me they have fled as if i were a devil in petticoats. in about another moon's time, the boys were painted principally white, a waywah put on them, a yunbean--a piece of beefwood gum with two kangaroo teeth stuck in it, and a hole through it--was tied to their front lock of hair. a number of these yunbean were tied to forehead bands, which they wore too. armlets of opossum's hair string were put on their arms, and feathers stuck in them. feathers were also stuck upright in the forehead bands. some of the old men added to their own decorations by putting on wongins, from which were hanging those most precious possessions to inland blacks--seaside shells. some had fresh beads of gum fastened on to their hair, hanging round their heads in dozens. the women, too, had coiffured themselves with fresh gum beads; the mothers of the boorahbayyi were painted, too, in corroboree style. they had made a smoke fire, but the logs instead of being put on it, were placed at a little distance; on these the painted boys sat, the smoke enveloping them. after they had been seated there some time, their mothers came up behind them, and put their hands on their sons' shoulders. then they rubbed all the paint off the boys' bodies; the boys never once looking at them. when the paint was all off, the women sang and danced, until the men in charge took the boys away again. after this, supervision was relaxed except at night. during the day-time the boys might wander at will, so as they kept clear of the general camp. they might not receive food from nor speak to a woman for twelve months, as if they were monks of byamee in training. at his second boorah a young man was allowed to see the sacred fire ceremony, throwing in of weapons, walking on burning coals, and the rest. he saw the huge earthen figures of byamee, birrahgnooloo, and baillahburrah, or dillalee, and was told all about them; that byamee having initiated the boorah, only such as have been through its rites can go to his sky-camp. three sins are unforgiveable, and commit a spirit of a guilty one to continual movement in the lower world of the eleanbah wundah, where, but for big fires kept up, would be darkness. there the guilty one had to keep his right hand at his side, never moving it, but he himself perpetually moving. those who know the blacks and their love of a 'dolce far niente,' will understand what a veritable hell this perpetual movement would make. the three deadly sins were unprovoked murder, lying to the elders of the tribe, or stealing a woman within the forbidden degrees--that is, of the same hereditary totem, i.e. of the same blood, or of the prohibited family name clan. but by a curious train of reasoning two wrongs make a right. should by any chance a man succeed in getting a wife he had no right to, having lived with her, he could keep her, if he came unhurt from the trial he had to stand; he only having a shield to defend himself with, the men of the stolen woman's kin threw weapons at him. only the men of her kin are assailants, not as in a murder trial, when the men of all kins can throw at the guilty man. should he defend himself successfully, he can keep the woman on the understanding that a woman of his family is given to a man of hers, to square things. a man who stands his trial is called a booreenbayyi. kindliness towards the old and sick is strictly inculcated as a command of byamee, to whom all breaches of his laws are reported by the all-seeing spirit at a man's death, and he is judged accordingly. sir thomas mitchell, writing in his experiences of the blacks during his explorations, notices as very striking their care and affection for the aged of their race. at his second boorah a man is allowed to see the carvings on the trees and to hear the legends of them. also to hear the boorah song of byamee, which byamee himself sang; and to hear the prayer of the oldest wirreenun to byamee, asking him to let the blacks live long, for they have been faithful to his charge as shown by the observance of the boorah ceremony. the old wirreenun says words to this effect several times imploringly, his head turned to the east; facing this direction the dead are mostly buried. though we say that actually these people have but two attempts at prayers, one at the grave and one at the inner boorah ring, i think perhaps we are wrong. these two seem the only ones directly addressed to byamee. but perhaps it is his indirect aid which is otherwise invoked. daily set prayers seem to them a foolishness and an insult, rather than otherwise, to byamee. he knows; why weary him by repetition, disturbing the rest he enjoys after his earth labours? but a prayer need not necessarily be addressed to the highest god. i think if we really understood and appreciated the mental attitude of the blacks, we should find more in their so-called incantations of the nature of invocations. when a man invokes aid on the eve of a battle, or in his hour of danger and need; when a woman croons over her baby an incantation to keep him honest and true, and that he shall be spared in danger, surely these croonings are of the nature of prayers born of the same elementary frame of mind as our more elaborate litany. i fancy inherent devotional impulses are common to all races irrespective of country or colour. when the prayer was over the old men chanted byamee's song, which only the fully initiated may sing, and which an old black fellow chanted for us as the greatest thing he could do. there seemed very little in this song, for no, one can translate it, the meaning having been lost in the 'dark backward,' if it was ever known to the euahlayi. 'byamee guadoun. byamee guadoun. byamee guadoun. mungerh wirree. mungerh wirree. mungerh wirree. birree gunyah, birrie gunyah. dilbay gooran mulah bungarn. oodoo doo gilah. googoo wurra wurra. bulloo than nulgah delah boombee nulgah. delah boombee. nulgah delah boombee boombee. buddereebah . . . . . . eumoolan. dooar wullah doo. boombee nulgah delah.' the old fellow said wherever byamee had travelled this song was known, but no one now knew the meaning of the whole, not even the oldest wirreenuns. another stone was given to a boorahbayyi when he first heard this song. the wirreenuns, they say, swallow their stones to keep them safe. at each boorah a taboo is taken off food. after a third boorah a man could eat fish, after a fourth honey, after a fifth what he liked. he was then, too, shown and taught the meanings of the tribal message-sticks, and the big boorah one of byamee. as few men now have ever been to five boorahs, few know anything about these last. at each boorah a stone was given to a man, and when he had the five he could marry. after each boorah all the figures and embankments are destroyed. after the fifth boorah the mystery of the gayandi was revealed and the bull roarers shown--oval pieces of wood pointed at both ends, fastened to a string and swung round; but though this was shown, the wirreenuns told them that the spirit's voice was really in this wood animating it. after a man has been to one boorah he can have war weapons and is a warrior, but not until he has been to five can he join or be one of the dorrunmai--sort of chiefs--who hold councils of war, but have few privileges beyond being accepted authorities as to war and hunting. with the wirreenuns rests the real power, by reason of their skill in magic. besides boorahs are minor corroboree meetings where marriages are arranged; meetings where the illegality of marriages is gone into, and, if necessary, exchanges effected or arranged; meetings where the wirreenuns of the boogahroo produce the bags of hair, etc., and vendettas are sworn; meetings of boodther, or giving, where each person receives and gives presents. a person who went to a boodther without a goolay full of presents would be thought a very poor thing indeed. of course every meeting has a corroboree as part of it. every totem even has its own special corroboree and time for having it, as the beewees, or iguanas, when the pine pollen is failing and the red dust-storms come. and if you abused these dust-storms to a beewee black, you would insult him: it is not dust, it is the pollen off the pines, and so a multiplex totem to him! the winds belong to various totems, and the rains are claimed by the totem whose wind it was that blew it up. if a storm comes up without wind it belongs to bohrah, the kangaroo. the big mountainous clouds when they come from the south-west are said to be mullyan, the eagle-hawk, who makes the south-west wind claimed by maira, paddy melon totem, one of whose multiplex totems mullyan is. the crow keeps the cold west wind in a hollow log, as she was too fond of blowing up hurricanes; she escapes sometimes, but the crow hunts her back. but they say the log is rotting and she will get away yet, when there will be great wreckage and quite a change in climates. [here we see the usual antagonism of crow and eagle-hawk.--a. l.] away to the north-west a tribe of blacks have almost a monopoly in wind-making, holding great corroborees to sing these hurricanes up. one of this tribe came to the station once and wanted to marry a girl there. she would not consent, and told him to go home. he went, threatening to send a storm to wreck the station. the storm came; the house escaped, but stable, store, and cellar were unroofed. i told my black-but-comelys to kindly avoid such vehemently revengeful lovers for the future. chapter x chiefly as to funerals and mourning i was awakened one morning on the station by distant wailing. a wailing that came in waves of sound, beginning slowly and lowly, to gain gradually in volume until it reached the full height or limit of the human voice, when gradually, as it had risen, it fell again. no shrieking, just a wailing inexpressibly saddening to hear. i lay for some minutes not realising what the sound was, yet penetrated by its sorrow. then came consciousness. it was from the blacks' camp, and must mean death. beemunny, the oldest woman of the camp, who for weeks had been ill, must now be dead. poor old beemunny, who was blind and used to get her great-granddaughter, little buggaloo, to lead her up to the tree outside my window, under whose shade she had spent so many hours, telling me legends of the golden age when man, birds, beasts, trees, and elements spoke a common language. but the day before i had been to the camp to hear how she was. the old women were sitting round her; one of the younger ones told me her end had nearly come. the boolees, or whirlwinds, with the mullee mullees of her enemies in, had been playing round and through the camp for days, they said, watching to seize her fleeting spirit--a sure sign the end was near. that night surely would come yowee, the skeleton spirit, with the big head and fiery eyes, whose coming meant death. last night more than one of the blacks had dreamt of an emu, which meant misfortune to one of that totem, which was beemunny's. as yellen spoke in a hushed sad voice, suddenly, though no breath of wind was stirring, sprang up on the edge of the camp a boolee, rearing its head as if it were a living thing. round it whirled, snatching the dead leaves of the coolabahs, swirling them with the dust it gathered into a spiral column, which sped, as if indeed a spirit animated it, straight to the camp of the dying woman. round and round it eddied, a dust-devil dancing a dance of death. the watchers drew nearer to beemunny, who was past heeding even the spirits of evil. the women in other camps clutched their children to them, but spoke no word. all was silent but the swirling leaves as the column gathered them. finding the deathbed guarded, the boolee turned sharply from the camp and sped away down the road, dissolving on the poligonum flat in the distance. yellen gave a sigh of relief. but now her fears were verified; beemunny was dead. poor old beemunny! how the vanities of youth cling to one; how we are 'all sisters under the skin.' she was ever so old, she was blind, her face was scarred with wrinkles, yet one of her beauties remained, and she absolutely joyed in its possession: it was her hair. her hair was thick and fuzzy, when combed would stand nearly straight out, which is quite unusual with the native women's hair in that part. beemunny one day asked one of the younger women if i had ever heard what a lot of lovers she had had in her youth, what fights there had been over her, and all because of her beautiful hair. poor old beemunny! something in my own woman nature went out to her in sympathy. she was old, she was ugly, her husband was dead, as were all men to her. poor old beemunny! having once learnt her vanity, i never passed her without saying 'gubbah tekkul!' 'beautiful hair!' at which she would beam and toss her head. at sunrise came again the wailing; the singing of the goohnai, or dirge, wherein are enumerated all the multiplex totems of the deceased, crooned in a wailing way, and each fresh person who comes to the camp sings this dirge again. in olden times all would have been painted in full war paint, weapons in hand, to see the corpse. i was given permission to go to the funeral, old bootha was to take me. i heard that beemunny had died early in the night. her daughter and nearest of kin had sat all night beside her body, with each a hand on it to guard her from the spirits. she was now in her bark coffin, round which were her own blankets to be buried with her. the coffin was made of bark cut off right round a tree, split on one side from end to end; the body was placed in this, then the bark lapped over it, the ends were blocked up with other pieces, the whole secured by ropes. all day until the burial some one of kin stayed beside the coffin, little fires of budtha kept smoking all the while. in the afternoon old bootha came for me, and we set out. first in the procession marched two old men of the tribe, behind them some young men, then those in charge of the coffin and the two nearest women relations, immediately behind them the old women, then the young women. no women with babies were allowed to go, nor any children. i came last with old bootha. the procession moved along an old winding track on the top of a moorilla, or pebbly ridge, pine-trees overarching in places carving the sky into a dome--a natural temple through which we walked to the burial-ground. every now and then we heard a bird note, which made the women glance at each other and say, first, 'guadgee,' then 'bootha,' as it came again, and a third time 'hippitha.' to my uneducated ear the note seemed the same each time. i asked bootha what it was. she told me it was the note of a little bird, something like a wren, called durrooee, in whose shape the spirits of dead women revisited the earth. it seems that numbardee, the first woman, was, like milton's eve, a caterer; she acquired art in beating the roots of plants into flat cakes much esteemed; she was never to be met without some, carrying them always in a bag across her shoulders. and byamee was so pleased with her for always having food for the hungry that, when at length she died, he allowed her to revisit her old gahreemai, or camp, her spirit returning in the form of the little honey-eater bird, durrooee; and all women after her had a like privilege if they had done their duty in life. these birds are sacred; no one must harm them, nor even imitate their cry. it would be hard to hurt them, for the spirit in them is so strong. if any one even takes up a stick or stone to throw at them, hardly is it raised from the ground when the would-be assailant is forcibly knocked over, though he sees nothing but the little bird he was about to attack. then he knows the bird must be a spirit bird, and perhaps seeing him look at her, the bird calls a woman's name, then he knows whose spirit it is. a black boy on the station was badly hurt by a fall from a tree. it had seemed strange that such a good climber should fall. the blacks said it was because there was a durrooee's nest in that tree, the spirit had knocked him down, and for a time so paralysed the man with him that he could not move to his assistance. needless to say, they have avoided that tree since. in the distance we heard the sound of the grave being dug. none of the same totem as the dead person must dig the grave. the coffin was put down beside the grave, the daughter and other nearest women relations stayed with it, the other women went away into the bush in one direction, some of the men in another. old hippi heaped up some budtha twigs he had gathered, i noticed as we came along; these he set fire to, and made a dense smoke which hung low over the open grave and spread over the old graves. hippi smoked himself in this smoke. the women came back with arms full of small branches of the sacred dheal tree, these they laid beside the grave, then sat down and broke them into small twigs; the old women had twigs put through the bored hole in their noses. the men came back with some pine saplings; two of these they laid at the bottom of the grave, which was about five feet deep. on these pines they spread strips of bark, then a thick bed of dheal twigs; then a woman handed a bag containing the belongings of the dead woman--boogurr they were called--to the oldest male relative, who was standing in the grave; he placed it as a pillow at one end. then hippi and the daughter's husband took each an end of the coffin and lowered it into the grave; the daughter cried loudly as they did so. over the coffin they laid a rug, and on the rug they placed beemunny's yam stick. hippi signalled to the daughter, who then came with the other women close to the edge of the grave. she sat at one end, looked over into the grave, and called out: 'my mother! oh, my mother! come back to me, my mother! my mother that i have been with always, why did you leave me?' then she wailed the death-wait, which the other women caught up. as the wail died away, hippi said: 'she has gone from us; never as she was will she return. never more as she once did will she chop honey. never more with her gunnai dig yams. she has gone from us; never as she was to return.' as he finished all the women wailed again, and loudest of all the daughter. then the old man in the grave said: 'mussels there are in the creek and plenty, but she who lies here will dig no more. we shall fish as of old for cod-fish, but she who lies here will beg no more oil, oil for her hair, she will want no more.' then again the women wailed. old hippi said, as the other man, in a sort of recitative 'never again will she use a fire. where she goes fires are not. for she goes to the women, the dead women, and women can make no fires. fruit is there in plenty and grass seed, but no birds nor beasts in the heaven of woman.' again the women wailed, wail after wail. then they handed the remaining twigs of dheal to the men, who laid them on the top of the coffin, then bark again over the twigs, and pine saplings on them, on top some old rugs. while this was being done the old, old gins danced slowly a corroboree step round the edge of the grave, crooning a goohnai-wurrai or dirge. then the men began to throw in the earth, the oldest male relative of the deceased standing in the grave to guard the body until the earth covered the coffin. as thud after thud went the earth in, the daughter shrieked and swayed over as if to fall into the grave, but her friend drew her back. she called 'mother! mother!' took a sharp stone which was beside her and hit it against her head until the blood gushed out. they took the stone from her. there she sat rocking her body to and fro, wailing all the time, the other women wailing too, until the grave was quite covered in. when it was filled in hippi made another big smoke, thoroughly smoked himself, calling to all the men to do the same. an old woman made a big smoke behind where the women were sitting; she called them one by one and made them stand in the thick of it for a while. hippi said something to her. i caught the word 'innerah'--they called me innerah, which meant literally a woman with a camp of her own. the old woman gave the smoke fire a stir, and out at once came a thick column of smoke circling round my guest and myself. they covered the grave with logs and boughs and then swept round it. all was over, we turned homewards. as we did so a flock of screeching gilahs flew over, their bright rose colouring lighting up the sombre scene where the only colour was that of the dark pines silhouetted against a sky from which the blue had now faded. going home bootha told me that the smoking process was to keep the spirits away, and to disinfect us from any disease the dead might have; and she said had we not been smoked the spirits might have followed us back to the house. they would at once change their camp; the old one would be gummarl--a tabooed place; but before they left it they would burn smoke fires there to scare away the spirits. i asked her why they swept round the grave. she said, in case the dead person had been poisoned or killed by magic; and, indeed, so little do they allow the possibility of death from natural causes, they even said old beemunny had been given poison in her honey by an old-time rejected lover. well, by sweeping round the grave they would see what track was on the swept place next morning, and according to that they would know to what totem the murderer belonged. if the track should be an iguana's, then one of the beewee, or iguana totem, was guilty; if an emu, then one of the dinewan, or emu totem, and so on. old hippi joined me a little further on. he explained that the service was not as it would have been some years ago. that i knew, because when i first went to the station i had seen them going to funerals all decorated as if for corroborees. round their waists, wrists, knees and ankles had been twigs of dheal, the sacred tree, and the rest of their bodies had been painted. hippi said a great deal more would have been spoken and sung at the grave if the dead person had been a man. his spirit would have in a short sort of prayer been commended to byamee, who would have been intreated to let the dead enter bullimah (heaven), as he had kept the boorah laws--that is, of course, if he had been initiated: the spirits of the uninitiated wander until they are reincarnated, and never enter bullimah. one curious coincidence occurred in connection with this burial. seeing the droughty desolation of the country, as we walked to the grave, i asked old bootha when she thought it would rain again. coming very close to me she half whispered: 'in three days i think it; old woman dead tell me when she dying that "'sposin" she can send 'em rain, she send 'im three days when her yowee bulleerul--spirit breath--go long oobi oobi.' beemunny died on wednesday night. on saturday when we went to bed the skies were as cloudless as they had been for weeks. in the middle of the night we were awakened by the patter of rain-drops on the iron roof. all night it rained, and all the next day. it is said that a dead person always sends rain within a week of his death to wash out his tracks on earth. one little black girl told me she always felt sad when she saw thunderclouds, because she thought some dead person had sent them. as a rule, there is a good deal more shedding of blood over a grave than i saw. this blood offering is said to please the dead, being a proof to them of the affection of the living. it is funeral etiquette to prepare yourself with a weapon with which to shed this blood, but likewise etiquette for a friend to intervene and stop your self-mutilation. on emerging from the grave the spirit finds the spirits of his dead relations waiting to go with him to oobi oobi, that is, a sacred mountain whose top towers into the sky, nearly touching bullimah. the new spirit recognises his relations at once; they had, many of them, been round the death-bed visible at the last to the dying, though not to any of the watchers with him, though these are said sometimes to hear the spirit voices. the spirit from the grave carried with him the twigs of the sacred dheal tree which were placed over and under his body; he follows his spirit relations, dropping these twigs as he goes along, leaving thus a trail that those who follow may see. at the top of oobi oobi he finds the spirits called mooroobeaigunnil, whose business it is to bridge over the distance a spirit has to traverse between the top of the mountain and bullimah, the great byamee's sky-camp. one of these mooroobeaigunnil seizes him and hoists him on to his shoulders; then comes another and hoists the first; and so on, until the one holding the spirit can lift him into bullimah. as the spirit is hoisted in, one of the mooroobeaigunnil, knocks the lowest one in the ladder of spirits down; thud to the earth come the rest, making a sound like a thunderclap, which the far away tribes hear, and hearing say: 'a spirit has entered bullimah.' should a big meteor fall followed by a thunderclap, it is a sign that a great man has died. should a number of stars shoot off from a falling star, it is a sign that a man has died leaving a large family. when a star is seen falling in the day-time, it is a sign that one of the noongahburrah tribe dies. in the olden time some of the tribes would keep a body at least five days. then they would rub the outside black skin off, make an opening in the side of the body, take out the internal parts, fill it up with dheal leaves. they would place the rubbed-off skin and internals in bark and put it in hollow trees. they would then bury the body, which they said would come up white. sometimes they would keep their dead for weeks, that they might easily extract the small joint bones with which to make poison. a baby's body they would sometimes carry for years before burying, but it would usually have been well smoke-dried first, though not, i believe, invariably so. sometimes a body was kept so that relations from a distance might come and see for themselves the death was not the result of foul play. after the body was filled up with dheal leaves it was put into its bark coffin and smoke fires made round it. as each relation arrived he was blindfolded and led up to the corpse, which was held up standing by some of the men. when the blindfolded relation came near, the bandage was taken off him and before him he saw standing his relation, whom he examined to see if wounds were visible. if signs of violence were apparent, the murderer had to be discovered and stand his trial. he was given a shield to defend himself with. every man had a right to throw a weapon at him; should he manage to defend himself successfully, as far as that crime was concerned he would be henceforth a free man, no stigma attaching to him whatever. in which, i fancy, the blacks show themselves a larger-minded people than their white supplanters, who make this world no place for repentance for wrong-doers, 'though they seek it with tears.' in the world's opinion there is no limit to a man's sentence. we read the letter of the gospel, and leave the spirit of it to the blacks to apply. should there be a difficulty as to discovering the criminal, all the men of the tribes amongst whom the murderer could be stand round the coffin. a head man says to the corpse, 'did such and such a man harm you?' naming, one after another, all the men. at the guilty one's name the corpse is said to knock a sort of rap, rap, rap. that man has to stand his trial. but as a rule the blacks like to bury their dead quickly, because the spirit haunts their neighbourhood or its late camp until the body is buried. mysterious lights are said to be seen at night, and there is a general scare in camp-land until a corpse is safely buried. there are variations in the funeral rites of nearly every tribe. even in our district the dead were sometimes placed in hollow trees. i know of skeletons in trees on the edge of the ridge on which the home station was built. these are said to be for the most part the bodies of worthless women or babies. in the coastal districts there are platforms in trees on which dead bodies were laid. in some places corpses are tied up in a sitting posture. the tying, they say, is to keep them secure when spirits come about, or body-snatchers for poison bones. in some places the graves are covered with a sort of emu egg-shaped and sized lumps of copi; and also, when a widow's term of mourning was over, she would take the widow's cap--which was a sort of copi or gypsum covering put on wet to her head--and place it on the grave of her husband. on the narran the widows plaster their heads with copi or bidyi, as they call it, but so thinly that it cakes off. they renew it, and keep their heads covered with it for the allotted term of mourning, then just let it gradually all wear off. those widows' caps, having the imprint of nets inside them, are very old; for hair nets have been out of fashion for very many years in camp-land, so such rank as antique curios. i don't think the small girl who thought when she grew up she'd choose to be a widow, would have thought so if she had been born black. when a black woman's husband dies she has to cover herself with mud, and sleep beside a smouldering smoke all night. three days afterwards, black fellows go and make a fire by the creek. they chase the widow and her sisters, who might have been her husband's wives, down to the creek. the widow catches hold of the smoking bush, puts it under her arm, and jumps into the middle of the creek; as the smoking bush is going out she drinks some of the smoky water. then out she comes, is smoked at the fire; she then calls to those in the camp, and looks towards her husband's grave and calls again; his spirit answers, and the blacks call to her that they have heard him. after that she is allowed to speak; she had been doomed to silence since his death, but for lamentations. she goes to the new camp, where another big smoke is made. she puts on her widow's cap, which, as it wears out, has to be renewed for many months; for some months, too, she keeps her face daubed with white. every time a stranger comes to the camp the widow has to make a smoke and smoke the camp again. the nearest of kin to her husband has a right to claim her as wife when her mourning is over. should a woman be left a widow two or three times there are sinister whisperings about her. she is spoken of as having a 'white heart'; and no man can live long, they say, with a woman having a 'white heart.' the graves in some parts of australia are marked by carved trees; only a few painted upright posts marked them on the narran. a tabooed camp has always a marked tree--just a piece of bark cut off and some red markings made on the wood, which indicate that the place is gummarl. any possessions of the dead not buried with them are burnt, except the sacred stones; they are left to the wirreenun nearest of kin to the dead person. lately a case came under my notice of the taboo extended to the possessions of dead people. a black man having two horses died. neither his widow nor her mother would use those horses, even when he had been dead over a year. they would walk ten or twelve miles for their rations and carry them back, rather than use those horses before the term of mourning was over. the widow was one of my particular friends, but she would not come to see me because her husband had been at the house shortly before he died. she camped nearly a mile away, and i went to see her there. after he had been dead about a year, she came to see me; but before she did so her mother walked all round the out-buildings, garden, yards, etc., with a bunch of smoking budtha, crooning little spirit songs. chapter xi something about stars and legends venus in the summer evenings is a striking object in the western sky. our venus they call the laughing star, who is a man. he once said something very improper, and has been laughing at his joke ever since. as he scintillates you seem to see him grinning still at his rabelais-like witticism, seeing which the {aborigines} say: 'he's a rude old man, that laughing star.' the milky way is a warrambool, or water overflow; the stars are the fires, and the dusky haze the smoke from them, which spirits of the dead have lit on their journey across the sky. in their fires they are cooking the mussels they gather where they camp. there is one old man up there who was once a great rainmaker, and when you see that he has turned round as the position of the milky way is altered, you may expect rain; he never moves except to make it. a waving dark shadow that you will see along the same course is kurreah, the crocodile. to get to the warrambool, the wurrawilberoo, two dark spots in scorpio, have to be passed. they are devils who try to catch the spirits of the dead; sometimes even coming to earth, when they animate whirlwinds and strike terror into the blacks. the old men try to keep them from racing through the camp by throwing their spears and boomerangs at them. the pleiades are seven sisters, as usual, the dimmed ones having been dulled because on earth wurrunnah seized them and tried to melt the crystal off them at a fire; for, beautiful as they were with their long hair, they were ice-maidens. but he was unsuccessful beyond dulling their brightness, for the ice as it melted put out the fire. the two ice-maidens were miserable on earth with him, and eventually escaped by the aid of one of their 'multiplex totems,' the pine-tree. wurrunnah had told them to get him pine bark. now the meamei--pleiades--belong to the beewee totem, so does the pine-tree. they chopped the pine bark, and as they did so the tree telescoped itself to the sky where the five other meamei were, whom they now joined, and with whom they have remained ever since. but they who were polluted by their enforced residence with the earth-man never shone again with the brightness of their sisters. this legend was told emphasising the beauty of chastity. men had desired all the sisters when once they travelled on earth, but they kept themselves unspotted from the world, with the exception of the two wurrunnah captured by stratagem. orion's sword and belt are the berai-berai--the boys--who best of all loved the meamei, for whom they used to hunt, bringing their offerings to them; but the ice-maidens were obdurate and cold, disdaining lovers, as might be expected from their parentage. their father was a rocky mountain, their mother an icy mountain stream. but when they were translated to the sky the berai-berai were inconsolable. they would not hunt, they would not eat, they pined away and died. the spirits pitied them and placed them in the sky within sound of the singing of the meamei, and there they are happy. by day they hunt, and at night light their corroboree fires, and dance to the singing in the distance. just to remind the earth-people of them, the meamei drop down some ice in the winter, and they it is who make the winter thunderstorms. castor and pollux, in some tribes, are two hunters of long ago. canopus is womba, the mad star, the wonderful weedah of long ago, who, on losing his loves, went mad, and was sent to the sky that they might not reach him; but they followed, and are travelling after him to this day, and after them the wizard beereeun, their evil genius, who made the mirage on the plains in order to deceive them, that they and weedah might be lured on by it and perish of thirst. when they escaped him beereeun threw a barbed spear into the sky, and hooked one spear on to another until he made a ladder up which he climbed after them; and across the sky he is still pursuing them. the clouds of magellan are the bralgah, or native companions, mother and daughter, whom the wurrawilberoo chased in order to kill and eat the mother and keep the daughter, who was the great dancer of the tribes. they almost caught her, but her tribe pursued them too quickly; when, determined that if they lost her so should her people, they chanted an incantation and changed her from bralgah, the dancing-girl, to bralgah, the dancing-bird, then left her to wander about the plains. they translated themselves on beefwood trees into the sky, and there they are still. gowargay, the featherless emu, is a debbil-debbil of water-holes; he drags people who bathe in his holes down and drowns them, but goes every night to his sky-camp, the coalpit, a dark place by the southern cross, and there he crouches. our corvus, the crow, is the kangaroo. the southern crown is mullyan, the eagle-hawk. the southern cross was the first minggah, or spirit tree a huge yaraan, which was the medium for the translation of the first man who died on earth to the sky. the white cockatoos which used to roost in this tree when they saw it moving skywards followed it, and are following it still as mouyi, the pointers. the other yaraan trees wailed for the sadness that death brought into the world, weeping tears of blood. the red gum which crystallises down their trunks is the tears. some tribes say it was by a woman's fault that death came into the world. this legend avers that at first the tribes were meant to live for ever. the women were told never to go near a certain hollow tree. the bees made a nest in this tree; the women coveted the honey, but the men forbade them to go near it. but at last one woman determined to get that honey; chop went her tomahawk into that hollow trunk, and out flew a huge bat. this was the spirit of death which was now let free to roam the world, claiming all it could touch with its wings. of eclipses there are various accounts. some say it is yhi, the sun, the wanton woman, who has overtaken at last her enemy the moon, who scorned her love, and whom now she tries to kill, but the spirits intervene, dreading a return to a dark world. some say the enemies have managed to get evil spirits into each other which are destroying them. the wirreenuns chant incantations to oust these spirits of evil, and when the eclipse is over claim a triumph of their magic. another account says that yhi, the sun, after many lovers, tried to ensnare bahloo, the moon; but he would have none of her, and so she chases him across the sky, telling the spirits who stand round the sky holding it up, that if they let him escape past them to earth, she will throw down the spirit who sits in the sky holding the ends of the kurrajong ropes which they guard at the other end, and if that spirit falls the earth will be hurled down into everlasting darkness. so poor bahloo, when he wants to get to earth and go on with the creation of baby girls, has to sneak down as an emu past the spirits, hurrying off as soon as the sun sinks down too. bahloo is a very important personage in legends. when the blacks see a halo round the moon they say, 'hullo! going to be rain. bahloo building a house to keep himself dry.' all sorts of scraps of folk-lore used to crop out from the little girls i took from the camp into the house to domesticate. when storms were threatening, some of the clouds have a netted sort of look, something like a mackerel sky, only with a dusky green tinge, they would say: 'see the old man with the net on his back; he's going to drop some hailstones.' meteors always mean death; should a trail follow them, the dead person has left a large family. comets are a spirit of evil supposed to drink up the rain-clouds, so causing a drought; their tails being huge families all thirsty, so thirsty that they draw the river up into the clouds. every natural feature in any way pronounced has a mythical reason for its existence, every peculiarity in bird life, every peculiarity in the trees and stones. besides there are many mythical bogies still at large, according to native lore, making the bush a gnome-land. even the winds carry a legend in their breath. you hear people say they could have 'burst with rage,' but it is left to a black's legend to tell of a whole tribe bursting with rage, and so originating the winds. there was once an invisible tribe called mayrah. these people, men and women, though they talked and hunted with them, could never be seen by the other tribes, to whom were only visible their accoutrements for hunting. they would hear a woman's voice speak to them, see perhaps a goolay in mid-air and hear from it an invisible baby's cry; they would know then a mayrah woman was there. or a man would speak to them. looking up they would see a belt with weapons in it, a forehead band too, perhaps, but no waist nor forehead, a water-vessel invisibly held: a man was there, an invisible mayrah. one of these mayrah men chummed with one of the doolungaiyah tribe; he was a splendid mate, a great hunter, and all that was desirable, but for his invisibility. the doolungaiyah longed to see him, and began to worry him on the subject until at last the mayrah became enraged, went to his tribe, and told them of the curiosity of the other tribes as to their bodily forms. the others became as furious as he was; they all burst with rage and rushed away roaring in six different directions, and ever since have only returned as formless wind to be heard but never seen. so savagely the mayrah howled round the doolungaiyah's camp that he burrowed into the sand to escape, and his tribe have burrowed ever since. three of the winds are masculine and three feminine. the crow, according to legend, controls gheeger gheeger, and keeps her in a hollow log. the eagle-hawk owns gooroongoodilbaydilbay, and flies with her in the shape of high clouds. yarragerh is a man, and he has for wives the budtha, bibbil, and bumble trees, and when he breathes on them they burst into new shoots, buds, flowers, and fruits, telling the world that their lover yarragerh, the spring, has come. douran doura woos the coolabah, and kurrajong, who flower after the hot north wind has kissed them. the women winds have no power to make trees fruitful. they can but moan through them, or tear them in rage for the lovers they have stolen, whom they can only meet twice a year at the great corroboree of the winds, when they all come together, heard but never seen; for mayrah, the winds, are invisible, as were the mayrah, the tribe who in bursting gave them birth. yarragerh and douran doura are the most honoured winds as being the surest rain-bringers. in some of the blacks' songs mayrah is sung of as the mother of yarragerh, the spring, or as a woman kissed into life by yarragerh putting such warmth into her that she blows the winter away. but these are poetical licences, for yarragerh is ordinarily a man who woos the trees as a spring wind until the flowers are born and the fruit formed, then back he goes to the heaven whence he came. then there are the historical landmarks: byamee's tracks in stone, and so on, and the battle-fields, too, of old tribal fights. just in front of our station store was a gnarled old coolabah tree covered with warty excrescences, which are supposed to be seats for spirits, so showing a spirit haunt. in this particular tree are the spirits of the moungun, or armless women, and when the wind blows you could hear them wailing. their cruel husband chopped their arms off because they could not get him the honey he wanted, and their spirits have wailed ever since. across the creek is another very old tree, having one hollow part in which is said to be secreted a shell which old wurrunnah, the traveller of the tribes, and the first to see the sea, brought back. no one would dare to touch the shell. the tribe of a neighbouring creek, when we were first at the station, used to threaten to come and get it, but the men of the local tribe used to muster to protect it from desecration even at the expense of their lives. the minggah by the garden i have told you of before. further down the creek are others. at weetalibah was the tree from which byamee cut the first gayandi. this tree was burnt by travellers a few years ago. the blacks were furious: the sacred tree of byamee burnt by the white devils! there are trees, too, considered sacred, from which byamee cut honey and marked them for his own, just as a man even now, on finding a bee's nest and not being able to stay and get it, marks a tree, which for any one else to touch is theft. a little way from the head station was an outcrop of white stones. these are said to be fossilised bones of boogoodoogahdah's victims. she was a cannibal woman who had hundreds of dogs; with them she used to round up blacks and kill them, and she and her dogs ate them. at last she was outwitted and killed herself, and her spirit flew out as a bird from her heart. this bird haunts burial grounds, and if in a drought any one can run it down and make it cry out, rain will fall. during a drought one of these birds came into my garden, hearing which the blacks said rain would come soon, and it did. in another drought when the rainmakers had failed, some of the old blacks saw a rain-bird and hunted it, but could not get it to call out. geologists say there should be diamonds along some of the old water-courses of the moorilla ridges. perhaps the white stone that the blacks talk about, which shows a light at night, and has, they say, a devil in it, is a diamond. ruskin rather thought there was a devil in diamonds, making women do all sorts of evil to possess them. the blacks told me that a queensland tribe had a marvellous stone which at great gatherings they show. taking those who are privileged to see it into the dark, there they suddenly produce it, and it glows like a star, though when looked closely at in daylight seems only like a large drop of rain solidified. this stone, they said, has to be well guarded, as it has the power of self-movement, or rather, the devil in it can move it. the greatest of local landmarks is at brewarrina; this is the work of byamee and his giant sons, the stone fisheries made in the bed of the barwon. at boogira, on the narran lake, is an imprint in stone of byamee's hand and foot, which shows that in those days were giants. there it was that byamee brought to bay the crocodiles who had swallowed his wives, from which he recovered them and restored them to life. at mildool is a scooped-out rock which byamee made to catch and hold water; beside it he hollowed out a smaller stone, that his dog might have a drinking-place too. this recurrence of the mention of dogs in the legends touching byamee looks as if blacks at all events believed dogs to have been in australia as long as men. at dooyanweenia are two rocks where byamee and birrahgnooloo rested, and to these rocks are still sticking the hairs he pulled from his beard, after rubbing his face with gum to make them come out easily. at guddee, a spring in the brewarrina district, every now and then come up huge bones of animals now extinct. legends say that these bones are the remains of the victims of mullyan, the eagle-hawk, whose camp was in the tree at the foot of which was the spring. this tree was a tree of trees; first, a widely spreading gum, then another kind, next a pine, and lastly a midgee, in which was mullyan's camp, out of which the relations of his victims burnt him and his wives, and they now form the northern crown constellation. the roots of this gigantic tree travelled for miles, forming underground water-courses. at eurahbah and elsewhere are hollowed-out caves like stones; in these places birrahgnooloo slept, and near them, before the stock trampled them out, were always to be found springs made at her instigation for her refreshment; she is the patroness of water. at toulby and elsewhere are mud springs. it is said that long ago there were no springs there, nor in the warrego district, and in the droughts the water-courses all dried up and the blacks perished in hundreds. time, after time this happened, until at last it seemed as if the tribes would be exterminated. the yanta--spirits--saw what was happening and felt grieved, so they determined to come and live on the earth again to try and bring relief to the drought-stricken people. down they came and set to work to excavate springs. they scooped out earth and dug, deeper and deeper, until at length after many of them gave in from exhaustion, those that were left were rewarded by seeing springs bubble up. the first of those that they made was at yantabulla, which bears their name to this day. the blacks were delighted at having watering-places which neither a drought nor the fiercest sun could dry up. the yantas were not contented with this nor with the other springs they made. they determined to excavate a whole plain, and turn it into a lake so deep that the sun could never dry it, and which would be full of fish for the tribes. they went to kinggle and there began their work. on they toiled unceasingly, but work as they would they could not complete their scheme, for one after another wearied and died, until at last nothing was left on the plain but the mud springs under the surface and the graves of the yantas on top. no blacks will cross kinggle plains lest some of these spirits arise through the openings of their graves. this legend shows what a disheartening country the west is in a drought. when even the spirits gave in, how can ordinary men succeed? but indeed it is not ordinary men who do, but our 'western heroes,' as will ogilvie calls them, who wear their cross of bronze on neck and cheek in the country where 'the green fades into grey.' chapter xii the trapping of game some of the blacks' methods of catching game i have seen practised, some have long since died out of use. of course the sportsmen knew the favourite watering-holes of the game. at such a place they made a rough break at each side, leaving an opening where the track was. along this track they would lay a net with one end on the edge of the water; in the water they put sticks on the ends of which the birds rest to drink, the other ends are out in the trap. they would make a hole low down on each side of the net, and a man would hide in each. a bird's watering-place, where the blacks trap them, is called dheelgoolee. when the dheelgoolee trapping begins, on the first day those who go out hunting must bring home their game alive to give the man at the dheelgoolee luck. then they never try to catch an emu or kangaroo, only iguana, opossum, piggiebillah, paddy melon, or bandicoot, all of which could be brought home alive. but after the first day they can kill as they go along. all day some birds come to the dheelgoolee-pigeons, gilahs, young crows, and others, and the man watching catches them. when the game was thick on the net, the men in the holes would catch hold of the ends of the sticks in the net and quickly turn them over the lower ends, thus entrapping all on the net. in the evening turkeys and such things as water at night-time, amongst which are opossums and paddy melons, would be trapped. ducks were trapped, too, by making bough breaks across the shallow part of the creek, with a net across the deep part from break to break. a couple of the men would go up stream to hunt the ducks down, and some would stay each side of the net armed with pieces of bark. the two hunters up stream frightened the ducks off the water, and sent them flying down stream to the trap. should they seem flying too high as if to pass, the blacks would throw the pieces of bark high in the air, imitating, as they did so, the cry of hawks. down the ducks would fly turning back; some of the men would whistle like ducks, others would throw bark again, giving the hawk's cry, which would frighten the birds, making them double back into the net, where they were quickly despatched by those waiting. murrahgul is another trap. this is a yard made all round a waterhole with one opening; about this opening they will fasten, from stumps or logs, strong strings with a slipping knot. the game, emu or kangaroo, would probably step into one of these string nooses, would try to pull its leg out; the harder it pulled the tighter the knot. or the blacks might have put a sort of cross-bar overhead at the entrance, with hanging strings having a slip knot; in would go an emu's head, the bird would rush on and be strangled. boobeen is a primitive cornet, a hollowed piece of bibbil wood, one end partially filled up with pine gum, and ornamented outside with carvings. to blow through it is an art, and the result rather like a big horn. the noise is said to be very like an emu's cry, and this emu bugle will certainly, they say, draw towards it a gundooee, or solitary emu. the blacks used on the sandhills to make a deep hole to hide themselves in, usually only one though. from this hole they would run out a drain for about thirty yards. the man with the boobeen would have a little break of bushes round him; scattered over the leaves he'd have emu feathers, and then he would have a strong string, on the end of which he would have a small branch with this he would place about midway emu feathers on it; down the drain. when the emu answers the boobeen's call, the bugler gets lower and slower with his call. the emu sees the feathered thing in the drain, comes inquisitively up and sniffs at it. the man in the hole pulls in the string slowly; the emu follows, on, on, until heedlessly he steps on a murrahgul, or string trap, and is caught. the hunters would sometimes stalk kangaroo, holding in front of them boughs of trees or bushy young saplings, closing silently in and in, until at last the kangaroo were so closely surrounded by men armed with boondees and spears that there was no escape for them. for catching emu they had a net made of string as thick as a clothes-line. these nets were made either of kurrajong (noongah) bark, or of burraungah grass. the kurrajong bark is stripped off the trees, beaten, chewed, and then teased. then it was taken and rubbed, principally by the women on their legs, into strands. the grass was used preferably to kurrajong bark, as it was easier to work. the process of preparation was as follows:-- a hole was dug in the ground, some fire put in it, a. quantity of ordinary grass was put on the top of the coals, and on top of that a heap of burraungah grass, that topped with ordinary grass. water was sprinkled over it all and the hole earthed up. when it had been in long enough the earth was cleared away, and the grass, which was quite soft, taken out. it was then chewed and worked like the kurrajong bark, than which it was much more pliable. string was made of various thicknesses according to what it was required for. fishing nets were always smoked before being used, and all nets had little charm songs sung over them. in netting, their only implement was a piece of wood to wind their string on. an emu net was about five feet high, and between two and three hundred yards long. when any one discovered a setting emu, they used not to disturb her at once and get her eggs, but returned to the camp, singing as they neared it a song known as the noorunglely, or setting emu song; those in camp would recognise it, and sing back the reply. the black fellows having learnt where the nest was, would get their net and go out to camp near it. all that evening they would have an emu-hunting corroboree. the next morning at daylight they would erect their net into a sort of triangular-shaped yard, one side open. black fellows would be stationed at each end of the net, and at stated intervals along the mirroon, as the net was called. when the others were all ready some of the blacks would make a wide circle round the emu, leaving open the side towards the net; they would close in gradually until they frightened the emu off her nest; she would run in the direction where she saw no black fellows and where the net was; the black fellows closing in behind, followed quickly. poor noorunglely floundered into the net, up rushed a black fellow and, seizing her, wrung her neck. having secured her, they would next secure her eggs; that they might be a trifle stale was a matter of indifference to them. another old method was by making sort of brush yards and catching the emus in these. one modern way is to run them down with kangaroo dogs, the same way with kangaroo; but at one time still another method obtained. a black fellow would get a long spear and fasten on the end a bunch of emu feathers. when he sighted an emu he would climb a tree, break some boughs to place beneath him, if the trees were thinly foliaged, to hide him from the emu, then he would let his spear dangle down. the emu, a most inquisitive bird, seeing the emu feathers, would investigate. directly the bird was underneath the tree, the black fellow would grip his spear tightly and throw it at the emu, rarely, if ever, failing to hit it, though the emu might run wounded for a short distance, but the black fellow would be quickly after it to give it happy despatch. if the emu got a good start even, it was easily tracked by the trail of blood. it has happened that a black fellow has not found his emu until the next day, when it was dead and the spear still in it; but usually very soon after the wounded birds start running the spear is shaken out. sometimes the blacks killed birds with their boomerangs, ducks in particular. i fancy this killing of ducks by a well-thrown boomerang is one of the feats that black fellows allow themselves to blow about. every man has usually one subject, a speciality he considers of his own, and on that subject he waxes eloquent. pigeons, gilahs, and plains turkeys are also killed with boomerangs. blacks' fishing-nets are about ten feet by five, a stick run through each end, for choice of eurah wood. eurah is a pretty drooping shrub with bell-shaped spotted flowers, having a horrible smell. the wood is very pliable. it is sometimes used instead of the sacred dheal at funerals. two of the fishermen take the net into the creek, one at each end; they stand in a rather shallow place, holding the net upright in the water. some other blacks go up stream and splash about, frightening the fish down towards the net. when those holding the net feel the fish in it, they fold the two sticks together and bring the net out. to catch fish they also make small weirs and dams of stones, with narrow passages of stones leading to them. the fish are swept by the current into these yards, and there either caught by the blacks with their hands, or speared. the most celebrated of these stone fish-traps is at brewarrina on the barwon. it is said to have been made by byamee, the god and culture-hero of these people, and his giant sons. he it was who established the rule that there should be a camping-ground in common for the various tribes where, during the fishing festival, peace should be strictly kept, all meeting to enjoy the fish, to do their share towards preserving the fisheries. each tribe has its particular yards; for another to take fish from these is theft. each tribe keeps its yards in repair, replacing stones removed by floods, and so on. these stony fish mazes are fully two hundred yards in length, substantially built; some huge boulders are amongst the stones which form these most intricate labyrinthine fish yards, which as traps are eminently successful, many thousands of murray cod and other fish being caught in them. dingo pups, in the days when dingoes were plentiful, were a most esteemed delicacy. to eat dog is dangerous for a woman, as causing increased birth-pangs; that suggests dog must be rather good eating, some epicure wirreenun scaring women off it by making that assertion. ant larv', a special gift from some spirit in the stars, and frogs, are also thought good by camp epicures. the blacks smear themselves over with the fat of fish or of almost any game they catch. it is supposed to keep their limbs supple, and give the admired ebony gloss to their skins which, by the way, are very fine grained. after a flood, when the water is running out of the tributaries of the creek, the blacks make a bough break beginning on each bank and almost meeting in the middle; across the gap they place a fishing-net which folds in like a bag, thus forming a fish-trap in which are caught any number of fish. crayfish and mussels they caught by digging down their holes in the mud for them. their mode of catching shrimps was very (with all apologies to scientists for using the word) primitive. quite nude, the women sit down in the water, let the shrimps bite them; as they nip, seize them. iguanas burrow into the soft sand ridges and there remain during the winter, only coming out after the curreequinquins--butcher birds--one of their sub-totems, sing their loudest to warn them that the winter is gone, calling dooloomai, the thunder, to their aid lest their singing is not heard by their relations, who after the storms come out again in as good condition as when they disappeared. black men do not approve of women cooks. at least the old men, under the iron rule of ancient custom, will not eat bread made by gins, nor would they eat iguana, fish, piggiebillah, or anything like that if the inside were removed by a woman, though after themselves having prepared such things, they allow the gins to cook them--that is, if they have not young children or are enceinte; under those conditions they are unclean. chapter xiii foraging and cooking it is very strange to me to hear the average white person speak of the blacks collectively as having no individuality, for really they are as diverse in characteristics as possible; no two girls i had in the house but were totally different. there has been too much generalisation about the blacks. for instance, you hear some people assert all blacks are trackers and good bushmen. that there are some whose tracking power is marvellous is true, but they are not the rule, and a black fellow off his own beat is often useless as a bushman. so with their eyesight; what they have been trained to look out for they see in a marvellously quick way, or so it seems to us who have not in their lines the same aptitude. of course, for seeing things at a distance a black has the advantage, unless the white has had the same open-air life. some white bushmen are as good as any blacks. nimmaylee, a little black girl who lived in the house, used to tell me all sorts of bush wonders, as we went in the early summer mornings for a swim in the river. she was a great water-baby, with rather a contempt for my aquatic limitations. then she thought it too idiotic to want to dry yourself with a towel,--just like a mad white woman! white people were an immense joke to nimmaylee. she conformed to their rules as one playing a new game. she has a little brother as black as herself. she has a substantial pair of legs, but his are so thin and his little body so round that he looks like a little black spider. nimmaylee is quite an authority on corroborees, knowing ever so many different steps, from the serpentile trail of the codfish to the mimic fight. the songs she knows too. she used, when she lived in the camp, to marshal in a little crowd of camp children, and put them through a varied performance for my benefit. these performances were of daily occurrence when the fruit was ripe, for nimmaylee's capacity for water-melon was practically unlimited. nimmaylee was a wonderful little fisherwoman; she delighted in a fishing expedition with me. off we used to go with our lines, worms or frogs for bait, or perhaps shrimps or mussels if we were after cod. if we were successful, nimmaylee would string the fish on a stick in a most professional manner, and carry them with an air of pride to the cook. she attributes her fishing successes to a charm having been sung over her to that end as a baby. accompanied by some reliable old 'gins' and ever so many piccaninnies, i used to take long walks through the 'bush.' how interesting those blacks made my bush walks for me! every ridge, plain, and bend had its name and probably legend; each bird a past, every excrescence of nature a reason for its being. those walks certainly at least modified my conceit. i was always the dunce of the party--the smallest child knew more of woodcraft than i did, and had something to tell of everything. seeing oogahnahbayah, a small eagle-hawk, flying over, they would say, 'he eats the emu eggs.' he flies over where the emu is sitting on her eggs and makes a noise hoping to frighten the bird off; having done so, he will drop a stone on the eggs. if the emu is not startled off the nest, the hawk will fly on, alight at some distance, and walk up like a black fellow, still with the stone in his beak, to the nest; off the emu will go, then the hawk bangs the eggs with the stone until he breaks them. he throws the stone on one side, has a feed of emu eggs, and goes off, leaving poor moorunglely, the sitting emu, to come back and find her eggs all destroyed. as the narrative ended, the little {aborigines} would look quite sad, and say 'nurragah!' 'poor thing!' at the thought of the domestic tragedy in bird life. i had to hear the stingless little native bees humming before i could see them; and as to knowing which tree had honey in it, unless i saw the bees, that was quite beyond me, while a mere toddler would point triumphantly to a 'sugar-bag' tree, recognising it as such by the wax on its fork, black before rain, yellowish afterwards. this honey is good strained, but as the blacks get it, it is all mixed up with dirty wax and dead bees. i deplored the sacrifice of the bees one day, but was told it was all right. whoever had chopped the nest out would take home the waxy stick they had used to help get the honey out; they would throw the stick in the fire, then all the dead bees would go to a paradise in the skies, whence next season they would send yarragerh mayrah, the spring wind, to blow the flowers open, and then down they would come to earth again. one year the manna just streamed down the coolabah and bibbil trees; it ran down like liquid honey, crystallising where it dropped. the old blacks said, 'it is a drought now, but it will be worse. byamee has sent the manna by the little dulloorah birds and the black ants, because there will be no flowers for the bees to get honey from, so he has sent this manna.' each time he has done so, a great drought has followed, and indeed it was followed by one of the worst droughts australia has ever known. byamee, it is said, first sent them the manna because their children were crying for honey, of which there was none except in the trees that byamee, when on earth, had marked for his own. the women had murmured that they were not allowed to get this; but the men were firm, and would neither touch it nor let them touch it, which so pleased byamee that he sent the manna, and said he always would when a long drought threatened. a great chorus of 'my jerhs' would tell something was sighted. it might be the track of a piggiebillah porcupine. this track was followed to a hollow log; then came the difficulty, how to get it out, for porcupines cling tightly with their sharp claws, and all a dog can do where a piggiebillah is concerned is to bark, their spines are too much to tackle at close quarters. but the old gins are equal to the occasion: a tomahawk to chop the log, and a yam-stick to dislodge the porcupine, who takes a good deal of killing before he is vanquished. they say a fully initiated man can sing a charm which will make a piggiebillah relax his grip and be taken captive without any trouble. the piggiebillahs burrow into the sand and leave their young there as soon as the faintest feel of a spine appears. the baby piggiebillahs look like little indiarubber toys. the opossums all disappeared from our district. when we were first there they were very numerous and used to make raids at night to my rose-bushes--great havoc the result. it is said a very great wirreenun--wizard--willed them away so that his enemy, whose yunbeai, or personal totem, the opossum was, should die. this design was frustrated by counter magic; two powerful wizards appeared and, acting in concert, put a new yunbeai into the dying man; he recovered. when the opossums were about the blacks used to see their scratched tracks on the trees, and chop or burn them out. they miss the opossums very much, for not only were they a prized food, but their skins made rugs, their hair was woven into cords of which were made amulets worn on the forearm or head against sickness, and with no modern instrument can they so well carve their weapons, as with an opossum tooth. naturally their desire is to see moodai, the opossum, return; to that end a wirreenun is now singing incantations to charm him back. opossum hunters had a way of bringing them home strung round their necks; very disagreeable, i should think, but custom, that tyrant, rules it so. the old gins dug out yams vigorously; some were eaten raw, others were kept for cooking. to cook them they dug out a hole, made a fire in it, put some stones on the fire, then, when the stones were heated and the fire burnt down, they laid some leaves and grass on the stones, sprinkled some water, then put on the yams, on top of them more grass, sprinkled more water, then more grass and a. thick coating of earth, leaving the yams to cook. several other roots they cooked and ate. raw they ate thistle tops, pigweed, and crowfoot, with great relish. their game they cooked as follows. kangaroo were first singed, cleaned out, and filled with hot stones, then put on the top of a burnt-down fire, hot ashes heaped all over them. the blacks like their meats with the gravy in, very distinctly red gravy. emu were plucked, the insides taken out, and the birds filled up with hot stones, box leaves, and some of their own feathers. a fire was made in a hole; when it was burnt down, leaves and emu feathers were put in it, on top of these the bird, on top of it leaves and feathers again, then a good layer of hot ashes, and over all some earth. the piggiebillahs were first smoked so that their quills might be easily knocked off. this done, the insides were taken out, then the piggiebillahs were put in little holes made beside the fire, and covered over with hot ashes, as were also opossums, ducks and other birds, iguanas and fish. ducks were plucked by our tribe, but in some places they were encased thickly in mud, buried in the ashes to cook, and, when done, the plaster of mud would be knocked off, and with it would come all the feathers. the insides of iguanas and fish are taken out all in one piece. each fish carries in its inside a representation of its minggah--spirit tree; by drying the inside and pressing it you can plainly see the imprint of the tree. when we go bathing, the blacks tell me that the holes in the creek filled with gum leaves are codfish nests. they say too, that when they beat the river to drive the fish out towards the net waiting for them, that they hear the startled cod sing out. mussels and crayfish are cooked in the ashes. the seagulls, which occasionally we used to see inland, are said to have brought the first mussels to the back creeks. emu eggs the blacks roll in hot ashes, shake, roll again; shake once more, and then bury them in the ashes, where they are left for about an hour until they are baked hard, when they are eaten with much relish and apparently no hurt to digestion, though one egg is by no means considered enough for a meal in spite of its being equal to several eggs of our domestic hen. not only are the blacks very particular in the way their game is carved or divided, but also in the distribution of the portions allotted to each person. the right to a particular part is an inherited one. no polite offering of a choice to an honoured guest, no suggestion of the leg or wing. you may loathe the leg of a bird as food, but at a black fellow's feast, if convention ordains that as your portion, have it you must; just as each rank in society had its invariable joint in early mediaeval ireland. the seeds of noongah--a sterculia--and dheal, were ground on their flat dayoorl-stones and made into cakes, which they baked, first on pieces of bark beside the fire to harden them, then in the ashes. these dayoorl, or grinding-stones, are handed down from generation to generation, being kept each in the family to whom it had first belonged. should a member of any other use it without permission, a fight would ensue. some of these stones are said to have spirits in them; those are self-moving, and at times have the power of speech. i have neither seen them move nor heard them speak, though i have a couple in my possession. i suppose the statement must be taken on faith; and as faith can move mountains, why not a dayoorl-stone? the so-called improvident blacks actually used to have a harvest time, and a harvest home too. when the doonburr, or seed, was thick on the yarmmara, or barley-grass, the tribes gathered this grass in quantities. first, they made a little space clear of everything, round which they made a brush-yard. each fresh supply of yarmmara, as it was brought in by the harvesters, was put in this yard. when enough was gathered, the brush-yard was thrown on one side, and fire set to the grass, which was in full ear though yet green. while the fire was burning, the blacks kept turning the grass with sticks all the time to knock the seeds out. when this was done, and the fire burnt out, they gathered up the seed into a big opossum-skin rug, and carried it to the camp. there, the next day, they made a round hole like a bucket, and a square hole close to it. these they filled with grass seed. one man trampled on the seed in the square hole to thresh it out with his feet; another man had a boonal, or stick, about a yard long, rounded at one end, and nearly a foot broad; with this he worked the grass in the round hole, and as he worked the husks flew away. it took all one day to do this. the next day they took the large bark wirrees, canoe-shaped vessels, which when big like these are called yubbil. they put some grain in these, and shook it up; one end of the yubbils being held much higher than the other, thus all the dust and dirt sifted to one end, whence it was blown off. when the grain was sufficiently clean, it was put away in skin bags to be used as required, being then ground on the large flat dayoorl-stones, with a smaller flat stone held in both hands by the one grinding; this stone was rubbed up and down the dayoorl, grinding the seed on it, on which, from time to time, water was thrown to soften it. when ground, the grain was made into little flat cakes, and cooked as the tree-seed cakes were. when the harvesting of the yarmmara was done, a great hunt took place, a big feast was prepared, and a big corroboree held night after night for some time. the two principal drinks were gullendoorie--that is, water sweetened with honey; and another made of the collarene, or flowers of the coolabah (grey-leaved box), or bibbil (poplar-leaved box) flowers, soaked all night in binguies (canoe-shaped wooden vessels) of water. just about christmas time the collarene is at its best; and then, in the olden days, there were great feasts and corroborees held. the flat dayoorl-stones on which the seeds are ground with the smaller stone, are like the 'saddle-stone querns' occasionally found in ancient british sites. these primitive appliances preceded the circular rotatory querns in evolution, and as the monuments prove were used in ancient egypt. i cannot say whether, amongst the euahlayi, there was a recognised licence as to exchange of wives on these festal occasions, or at boorahs. if the custom existed, i was not told of it by the blacks; but it is quite possible that, unless i made inquiries on the subject, i would not be told. chapter xiv costumes and weapons i have seen a coloured king simply smirking with pride, in what he considered modern full dress--a short shirt and an old tall hat. and i suppose, as far as actual clothing went, it was an advance on the old-time costume of paint and feathers. a black woman's needle was a little bone from the leg of an emu, pointed. her thread was sinews of opossums, kangaroos, and emus; that was all that was necessary for her plain sewing, which was plain indeed. her fancy work consisted of netting dillee, goolays, or miniature hammocks to sling her baby across her back, or, failing a baby, her mixed possessions, from food to feathers; her larder and wardrobe in one. her costume being simple in the extreme did not require much room. it consisted of a goomillah, which was a string wound round the waist, made of opossum sinews, and in front, hanging down for about a foot, were twisted strands of opossum hair. a bone, or on state occasions a green twig, stuck through the cartilage of her nose, a string net over her hair, or perhaps only a fillet, or a kangaroo's tooth fastened to her front lock, gum balls dried on side-locks, an opossum's hair armlet, and perhaps a reed bead necklet and a polished black skin, toilette complete, unless for certain ceremonies a further decoration of flowers or down feathers was required. the principal article of the man's dress was called waywah. it was a belt, about six inches wide, made of twisted sinews and hair, with four tufts about eighteen inches long hanging back and front and at each side from it, made of narrow strips of kangaroo or paddy melon skins. for warmth in winter they would wrap themselves in their opossum-skin rugs. sometimes both sexes adorned themselves with strings of kangaroo teeth fixed into gum, in which a little hole was made, round their heads and necks--yumbean they called them; or forehead bands with hanging kangaroo teeth, which were called gnooloogail. pine gum they rolled into small egg-shaped balls, warmed them and stuck them in dozens all over their heads, where they would be left until they wore off, hairdressings being only an occasional duty. the gum they used for sticking the kangaroo's teeth was that of the mubboo, or beefwood tree. sometimes wongins were worn; they consisted of cords round the neck and under the arms, crossing the chest with a shell pendant at the centre of the cross. a shell is still a most prized ornament. the corroboree dress is one of paint; the feature of it being its design, a man can gain quite a tribal reputation for being an originator of decorative designs. their original paint colourings were white, red, and yellow; occasionally they said they got some sort of blue by barter, but very occasionally, as it came from very far. white was from gidya ash, or gypsum; red and yellow, ochre clay; but they also got both red and yellow from burning at a certain stage certain trees, gooroolay for red; the charcoal, instead of being black, having red and yellow tinges. but since the white people came the blue bag has put yellow out of fashion, and raddle is used for the red. their opossum rugs used to have designs scratched on the skin sides and also painted patterns, some say tribal marks, others just to look pretty and distinguish each their own. feathers tied into little bunches and fastened on to small wooden skewers were stuck upright in the hair at corroborees, also swansdown fluffed in puff balls over the heads. the gooumoorh, or corroboree, is a sort of black fellow's opera; as to the musical part, rather, as some one found an oratorio, a thing of high notes and vain repetition. the stage effects of corroborees are sometimes huge sheets of bark fastened on to poles; these sheets of bark are painted in different designs and colours, something like moorish embroideries. sometimes there is a huge imitation of an alligator made of logs plastered over with earth and painted in stripes of different colours, a piece of wood cut open stuck in at one end as a gaping mouth. this alligator corroboree is generally indicative of a boorah, or initiation ceremony, being near at hand. sometimes the stage effects are high painted poles merely. at the back of the goomboo, or stage, are large fires; in the front, in a semicircle, sit the women as orchestra, and the audience; a fire at each end of the semicircle, as a sort of footlights. the music of the orchestra is made by some beating time on rolled-up opossum rugs, and some clicking two boomerangs together. the time is faultless. the tunes are monotonous, but rhythmical and musical, curiously well suited to the stage and layers. these last have a very weird look as they steal pout of the thick scrub, out of the darkness, quickly one after another, dancing round the goomboo in time to the music, their grotesquely painted figures and feather-decorated heads lit up by the flickering lights of the fires around. as the dancing gets faster the singing gets louder, every muscle of the dancers seems strained, and the wonder is the voices do not crack. just as you think they must, the dancing slows again; the voices die away, to swell out once more with renewed vigour when the fires are built up again and again; the same dance is gone through, time after time--one night one dance, or, for that matter, many nights one dance. the dancers sometimes make dumb-show of hunts, fights, slaughters, the women sometimes translating the actions in the songs; sometimes the words seem to have nothing to do with them, and the dances only a series of steps illustrating nothing. corroborees seem to fit in with the indescribable mystery of the bush. that the spirit of the bush is mystery makes it so difficult to describe beyond bald realism, otherwise it seems an effort to seize the intangible. poor barcroft boake got something of the mystery into words. if an australian wagner could be born we might hope for a musical adaptation of corroborees. wagner was essentially the exponent of folk-lore music, wherein must be expressed the fundamentals of human passion unrefined. the most celebrated weapon is probably the boomerang the most celebrated kind to whites, though not most useful to blacks, is the bubberab, or returning boomerang. these are made chiefly of gidya and myall. here these 'come backs' are never carved, are more curved than the ordinary boomerang, and were greased, rubbed with charred grass, and warmed before being used, so that the slightest warp would be straightened. it is marvellous the accuracy with which an adept can throw one of these weapons, locating it on the exact place to which he wishes it to return. gidya is the favourite wood for boomerangs. they are first roughly shaped, then thrown into water and soaked for two or three days; taken out and made into the proper shape, rubbed with charred grass, greased well, and carved in various designs with an opossum's tooth. boomerangs have many uses--in peace two clicked together as a musical instrument, as a war weapon, and as a weapon in the chase. its last and rapidly approaching use will be as a curio for collectors. billah, or spears, are made of belah (swamp oak) or gidya. these too are cut roughly first and thrown into water, then cut a little more, thrown into water again, and so day after day until finished. sometimes they are carved with a running featherstitch-like pattern from end to end, sometimes have bingles, or barbs, cut down one or both sides; some barbarous things with barbs pointing both ways, so that they could be neither pushed out nor drawn through a wound; some are plain, painted at each end or darkened with poison tips. billah are war weapons; a larger kind called moornin are used for spearing emu. woggarahs, the hatchet-shaped weapons, were made of myall, gidya, and other woods, carved as were boomerangs, each carver usually having a favourite design by which his weapons were recognised. booreens, or shields, were of three kinds: a narrow kind made of hardwood, a broad flat kind of kurrajong, and a medium-sized one of birah, or whitewood, all painted in coloured designs. it is wonderful the way a man can defend himself single-handed against a number of men, he having only a narrow shield, the only defence he is allowed when he has to stand his trial for a breach of the laws. their tomahawks, or cumbees, were of dark-green stone, of which there is none in this district, so it must have been obtained by barter, as in the first instance were the flat, light booreens from the queensland side, and the grass-tree gum from the narrabri mountains side, for which gidya boomerangs were given in exchange. the stone tomahawks have a handle put over one end of the stone, gummed on with beefwood gum, then drawn together under the stone, crossed, and the two ends tied together as a handle, with sinews of emus, opossums, or kangaroos. muggils, or stone knives, are just sharpened pieces of stone. moorooleh are plain waddies used in war and for killing game; a smaller kind called boodthul are thrown for amusement. boondees are heavy-headed clubs used in war. the black fellow won't allow his womenkind a heaven of rest, for the spirit women are supposed to make weapons which the wirreenuns journey towards the sunset clouds to get--the women's heaven is in the west--giving in exchange animal food and opossum rugs, no animals being there. for carrying water they used to make bags of opossum skins. to prepare the skins they would pluck the hair off, and, after cleansing them well, sew up the skins with sinews, leaving only the neck open. they would fill this vessel with air and hang it out to dry. as, a water vessel, to mix their drinks and medicines in, they used binguies or coolamons, a deep, canoe-shaped vessel cut out of solid wood, carved sometimes and painted, a string handle to it. they used little bark vessels to drink out of, like shallow basins, cut from excrescences on eucalyptus trees; these were called wirree. a larger bark vessel they used for holding water, honey, or anything liquid. while on the subject of personal decoration i forgot the moobir, or cuts on the bodies, some of which are tribal marks, some marks of mourning, some merely of ornamentation. both men and women are seen with these marks in the narran district; some huge wales on the skin from the shoulders half-way down the back, some on the chest and the forepart of the arms. they are cut with a stone knife, licked along by the medicine man, filled in with charcoal, and the skin let grow over. various reasons are given for these marks: some say they are to give strength, others as a tribal sign, others just to took pretty. some give the final reason for everything, 'because byamee say so.' in summer the blacks are great bathers, and play all sorts of games in the water. their soap is clay; they rub themselves with that, the women plastering it under their arms again and again; the little children rub themselves all over with it, then tumble into the water to wash it off. in winter they forgo bathing, and rub themselves with liberal applications of grease. the old blacks used to have very good teeth; they never ate without afterwards rinsing out their mouths, and sometimes munched up charcoal to purify them. but the younger generation have discarded the mouth-rinsing habit, and not yet attained to a tooth-brush: result, gradual deterioration in teeth, a deterioration probably helped by the drinking of hot liquids. blacks of the old time drank nothing hot. perhaps, too, their tough meats gave muscular strength to their jaws. to blacks, kissing is a 'white foolishness,' also handshaking; in olden times even to smell a stranger was considered a risk. chapter xv the amusements of blacks a very favourite game of the old men was skipping--brambahl, they called it. they had a long rope, a man at each end to swing it. when it is in full swing in goes the skipper. after skipping in an ordinary way for a few rounds, he begins the variations, which consist, amongst other things, of his taking thorns out of his feet, digging as if for larv' of ants, digging yams, grinding grass-seed, jumping like a frog, doing a sort of cobbler's dance, striking an attitude as if looking for something in the distance, running out, snatching up a child, and skipping with it in his arms, or lying flat down on the ground, measuring his full length in that position, rising and letting the rope slip under him; the rope going the whole time, of course, never varying in pace nor pausing for any of the variations. the one who can most successfully vary the performance is victor. old men of over seventy seemed the best at skipping. there is great excitement over bubberah, or come-back boomerang throwing. every candidate has a little fire, where, after having rubbed his bubberah with charred grass and fat, he warms it, eyes it up and down to see that it is true, then out he comes, weapon in hand. he looks at the winning spot, and with a scientific flourish of his arm sends his bubberah forth on its circular flight; you would think it was going into the beyond, when it curves round and comes gyrating back to the given spot. here again the old ones score. wungoolay is another old game. a number of black fellows arm themselves with a number of spears, or rather pointed sticks, between four and five feet long, called widyu-widyu. two men take the wungoolays, which are pieces of bark, either squared or roughly rounded, about fifteen inches in diameter. these men go about fifty yards from each other; first one and then another throws the wungoolays, which roll swiftly along the ground past the men with the spears, who are stationed midway between the other two a few yards from the path of the wungoolays, which, as they come rolling rapidly past, the men try to spear with their widyu-widyu; he who hits the most, wins the game. it looks easy enough, but here again the old men scored. for gurril boodthul, if a bush is not at hand, a bushy branch of a tree is stuck up. the men arm themselves with small boodthuls, or miniature waddies, then stand a few feet behind the bush, which varies from five to eight feet or so in height at competitions. they throw their boodthuls in turn; these have to skim through the top of the bush, which seems to give them fresh impetus instead of slackening them. the distance they go beyond is the test of a good thrower; over three hundred yards is not unusual. as practice in this game is kept up, the young men hold their own. there is another throwing stick somewhat larger than the gurril boodthul, which only weighs about three ounces, and is about a foot in length. the other stick is thrown to touch the ground, then bound on, sometimes making one high long leap, sometimes a series of jumps, as a flat pebble does when thrown along the water in the game children call 'ducks and drakes.' yahweerh is a sort of sham trial fight. one man has a bark shield, and he has to defend himself with it from the bark toy boomerangs the others throw. here again the old men win. their games, which old and young alike play, are distinctly childish. boogalah, or ball, is one. in playing this all of one dhe, or totem, are partners. the ball, made of sewn-up kangaroo skin, is thrown in the air; whoever catches it goes with his or her division--for women join in this game--into a group in the middle, the other circling round. the ball is thrown in the air, and if one of the circle outside the centre ring catches it, then his side namely, all his totem--go into the middle, the others circling round, and so on. the totem keeping it longest wins. goomboobooddoo, or wrestling, is a great boorah-time entertainment. family clan against clan. kubbee against hippi, and so on. a hippi, for example, will go into a ring and plant there a mudgee, or painted stick with a bunch of feathers at the top. in will run a kubbee and try to make off with the stick; hippi will grapple with him, and a wrestling match comes off. into the ring will go others of each side wrestling in their turn. the side that finally throws the most men, and gets the mudgee, wins. before wrestling matches, there is much greasing of bodies to make them slippery. wimberoo was a favourite fireside game. a big fire was made of leafy branches. each player got a dry coolabah leaf, warmed it until it bent a little, then placed it on two fingers and hit it with one into where the current of air, caused by the flame, caught it and bore it aloft. they all jerked their leaves together, and anxiously watched whose would go the highest. each watched his leaf descend, caught it, and began again. so on until tired. woolbooldarn is an absolutely infantile game. a low, overhanging branch of a tree is chosen, and as many as it will bear, old and young, men and women, straddle it; and, holding on to the higher overhanging branches, they swing up and down with as much spring as they can get out of the branch they are on. whagoo is just like our i hide and seek.' gooumoorhs, or corroborees, are of course their greatest entertainment, their opera, ballet, and the rest; only they reverse the usual order of things obtaining elsewhere. the women form the orchestra, the men are the dancers, as a rule, though women do on occasions take part too. the dancers rarely sing while performing their evolutions, though they will end up a measure at times with a loud 'ooh! ooh!' or 'wahl wah!' there are two dances they think very clever: one a sort of in and out movement with the knees, while keeping the feet close together. another, which they called i shivering of the chest,' a sort of drawing in and out of their breath, causing a vibratory motion. then they give a sort of sandow performance all in time to the music. they first start the muscles of their legs showing, then the arms, and down the sides of the chest. i am afraid i was not educated up to be appreciative of any of these special wonders, though matah and others said their muscular training was marvellous. from a spectacular point of view i thought much more interesting a corroboree illustrating the coming of the first steamer up the barwon. the steamer was made--for the corroboree, i mean--of logs with mud layered over them, painted up, a hollow log for a funnel in the middle. there was a little opening in the far side of the steamer in which a fire was made, the smoke issuing through the hollow log in the most realistic fashion. the blacks who first came on the stage were all supposed to represent various birds disturbed by this strange sight--cranes, pelicans, black swans, and ducks. the peculiarities of each bird were well imitated; and as each section in turn was startled, their cries were realistically given. hearing which, on the scene came some armed black fellows, who, seeing what the birds had seen, started back in astonishment, seemed to have a great dumb-show palaver, then one by one, clutching their weapons, they came forward to more closely examine the new 'debbil debbil.' here some one would stoke the fire, out would belch through the funnel a big smoke and a lapping flame, away went the blacks into the bush as if too terrified to stay. but you can't describe a corroboree, it wants the scenic effects of the grim bush: tapering, dark belahs, coolabahs contorted into quaint shapes and excrescences by extremes of flood and drought, and their grotesqueness lit up by the flickering fires, until the trees themselves look like demons of the night, and the painted black fellows their attendant spirits stealing into the firelight from what seems a vast, dark, unknown beyond. the sing-song seems to suit it, and the well-timed clicking of the boomerangs and thudding of the rolled-up rugs. the blacks are great patrons of art, and encourage native talent in the most praiseworthy way; although, judging from one of their legends, you might think they were not. this legend tells how goolahwilleel had the soul of an artist, and when his family sent him out to hunt their daily dinner, he forgot his quest and perfected his art, which was the modelling of a kangaroo in gum. when his work was finished, with the pride of a successful artist he returned for applause. his family demanded of him meat; he showed his kangaroo. his masterpiece was unappreciated. even as did palissy's--of pottery fame--wife, so did goolahwilleel's family revile him. his freedom to wander at will, seeking inspiration and giving it form, was taken from him. he was driven out: daily to slay, that his family might feed, and never again was he let go alone--a crowd of relations went with him! figure to yourself what a damper to inspiration must have been that crowd of relations; how it must have slain the artist in goolahwilleel. how the old legend repeats itself, and now as then, how often the artist is woman--slain that she by the caterer may live. surely in the interests of intellect was the prayer made: 'give us our daily bread.' perhaps the old legend of goolahwilleel was originally told with a moral, and that may be: why black artists are so well treated now. a maker of new songs or corroborees is always kept well supplied with the luxuries of life; it may be that such an one is a little feared as being supposed to have direct communication with the spirits who teach him his art. a fine frenzy is said to seize some of their poets and playwrights, who, for the time being, are quite under the domination of the spirits--possessed of devils, in fact. when the period of mental incubation is over and the song hatched out, the possessed ones return to their normal condition, the devils are cast out, and the songs are all that remain in evidence that the artist was ever possessed. some songs do not require this process of fine frenzy they come along in the course of barter, handed from tribe to tribe. ghiribul, or riddles, play a great part in their social life, and he who knows many is much sought after. most of these ghiribul are not translatable, being little songs describing the things to be guessed, whose peculiarities the singer acts as he sings--a sort of one-man show, pantomime in miniature, with a riddle running through it. some which i will give indicate the nature of others. what is it that says to the flood-water, 'i am too strong for you; you can not push me back'? ans. goodoo, the codfish. what is it that says, 'you cannot help yourself; you will have to go and let me take your place; you cannot stay when i come'? ans. the grey hairs in a man's beard to the black ones. 'if a man hide himself so that his wife could not see him, and he wanted her to know where he was, yet had promised not to speak, laugh, cry, sneeze, cough, nor move his hands nor feet, how could he do so?' ans. whistle. 'the strongest man cannot stand against me. i can knock him down, yet i do not hurt him. he feels better for my having knocked him down. what am i?' ans. sleep. 'i am not water, yet all who are thirsty, seeing me, come toward me to drink, though i am no liquid. what am i?' ans. mirage. 'what is it that goes along the creek, across the creek, underneath it, and along it again, and yet has left neither side?' ans. the yellow-flowering creeping water-weed. 'here i am, just in front of you. i can't move; but if you kick me, i will knock you down, though i will not move to do it. who says this?' ans. a stump that any one falls over. 'you cannot walk without me, yet you grease your body and forget me and let me crack, even though but for me you could neither walk nor run. who says that?' ans. a black fellow's feet, which he neglects to grease when doing the rest of his body. with riddles ends, i think, the list of the blacks' amusements, unless you count fights. the blacks are a bit celtic in that way; some are real fire-eaters, always spoiling for a row. but in most everyday rows the feelings are more damaged than the bodies. an old gin in a rage will say more in a given time, without taking breath, than any human being i have ever seen; it is simply physiologically marvellous. from the noise you would think murder at least would result. you listen in dread of a tragedy; you hear the totem and multiplex totems of her opponent being scoffed at, strung out one after another, deadly insult after deadly insult. the insulted returns insult for insult; result, a lively cross fire. it lulls down; the insults are exhausted, quietude reigns. some one makes a joke, all are laughing together in amity. from impending tragedy to comedy the work of a few minutes. a mercurial race indeed, but not a forgetful one. a black fellow never forgives a broken promise, and he can cherish a grudge from generation to generation as well as remember a kindness. though, when high pitched in quarrels, their voices lose their natural tones, as a rule those of the blacks are remarkably sweet and soft, quite musical; their language noticeable for its freedom from harsh sounds. chapter xvi bush bogies and finis weeweemul is a big spirit that flies in the air; he takes the bodies of dead people away and eats them. that is why the dead are so closely watched before burial. gwaibooyanbooyan is the hairless red devil of the scrubs, who kills and eats any one he meets, unless they are quick enough to get away before he sees them, as one woman of this tribe is said to have done on the eurahbah ridge. it would really seem as if there were a debbil debbil on that ridge; every boundary rider who lives there takes to drink. i think the red spirit must be rum. marahgoo are man-shaped devils, to be recognised by the white swansdown cap they wear, and the red rugs they carry. red is a great devil's colour amongst blacks some will never wear it on that account. these marahgoo always have with them a mysterious drink, which they offer to any one they meet. it is like drinking dirt, and makes the drinker dream dreams and see visions, in which he is taken down to the underground spirit-world of the marahgoo, where anything he wishes for appears at once. the entrance to this world is said to be near a never-drying waterhole, in a huge scrub, near pilliga. if a man drinks the draught, unless he is made marahgoo, he dies. each totem is warned by its bird sub-totems of the coming of marahgoo, and after such a warning tribes take care, if wise, to stay in camp; or should a man go out, he will smear his face with black, and put rings of black round his wrists and ankles, and probably have a little charm song sung over him. birrahmulgerhyerh are blacks with devils in them, who, armed with bags full of poison-sticks, or bones--called gooweera--are invisible to all but wirreenuns or wizards. others are warned of their coming by hearing the rattle of the gooweeras knocking together. when the birrahmulgerhyerh are about, all are warned not to carry firesticks, which at other times after dark they are never without in order to scare off spirits, but now such a light would show the birrahmulgerhyerh where to point their gooweeras. they are said only to point these poison-sticks at law-breakers, and even then only against persons in a strange country. their own land is down brewarrina way, but there they make no punitive expeditions, travelling up the narran and elsewhere for that purpose. the euloowayi, or long-nailed devils, are spirits which live where the sun sets. just as the afterglow dies in the sky, they come out victim-hunting. these euloowayi demand a tribute of young black men from the camp, to recoup their own ranks. when this tribute has to be paid, the old men get some ten or so young ones, and march them off to a minggah at about ten or fifteen miles from the camp. there they make them climb into the ming-ah, to sit there all day. they must not move, not even so much as wink an eyelid. at night time they are allowed to come down, and are given some meat, which they must eat raw. the old men from the camp go back leaving their victims with the euloowayi, who keep the boys up the tree for some days, bringing them raw meat at night. at last they say: 'come and try if your nails are long and strong enough. see who can best tear this bark off with them.' they all try, and if all are equally good, the old euloowayi say: 'you are right. how do you feel?' 'strong,' they answer. they are kept on the tree about a month, then taken into the bush to hunt human beings, to deceive whom they take new forms at times. a couple of blacks may be hunting--one will be after honey, another after opossums. the one after opossums will go to a tree, see an opossum, chop into the tree, seize the opossum by the tail as usual. he cannot move him. he'll seize him by the hind legs, still he cannot move him. then he will hear a voice say, 'leave him alone, you can't move him.' the hunter will look down, see nothing but a rainbow at the foot of the tree. wonderingly he'll come down, and immediately the euloowayi, who have been in the form of the opossum in the tree and the rainbow on the ground, seize him, tear him open with their long nails, take out all his fat, stuff him up again with grass and leaves, and send him back to the camp. when he reaches there, he starts scolding every one. probably they guess by his violent words and actions that he is a victim of the euloowayi. if so, they are careful not to answer him; were they to do so he would drop dead. any way, he will die that night. when the magpies and butcher-birds sing much it is a sign the euloowayi are about. gineet gineet, so called from his cry, is the bogy that black children dread. he is a black man who goes about with a goolay or net across his shoulders, into which he pops any children he can steal. several waterholes are taboo as bathing-places. they are said to be haunted by kurreah, which swallow their victims whole, or by gowargay, the featherless emu, who sucks down in a whirlpool any one who dares to bathe in his holes. nahgul is the rejected gayandil who was found by byamee too destructive to act as president of the boorahs. he principally haunts boorah grounds. he still has a boorah gubberrah, a sacred stone, inside him, hence his strength. he sets string traps for men, touching which they feel ill, and suddenly drop down never to rise again. the wirreenuns know then that nahgul is about. they find out where he is. circling, at a good distance, the spot he is on, they corroboree round it. hearing them, nahgul comes out. they close in and seize him, kill him, drink his blood, and eat him; by so doing gaining immense additional strength. marmbeyah are tree spirits, somewhat akin to the nats of burmah. one, a huge, fat spirit--if you can imagine a fat spirit--carried a green boondee, or waddy, with which he tapped people on the backs of their necks: result, heat apoplexy. a few years ago, an old black fellow laid wait for him and 'flattened him out,' since which there has been no heat apoplexy. we think it is because the bad times have made people too poor to overheat themselves with bad spirits of a liquid kind. the blacks differ, and certainly there were some cases of even total abstainers falling victims to the heat wave. hatefully frequent devil visitors are those who animate the boolees, or whirlwinds. if these whirl near the house they smother everything with debris and dust. the black-but-comelys say, as they clear the dirt away: 'i wish whoever in this house those boolees are after would go out when they come, not let 'em hunt after 'em here and make this mess.' the wurrawilberos chiefly animate these. but sometimes the wirreenuns use whirlwinds as mediums of transit for their mullee mullees, or dream spirits, sent in pursuit of some enemy, to capture a woman, or incarnate child spirit; women dread boolees, more even than men, on this account. great wirreenuns are said to get rid of evil spirits by eating the form in which they appear. i'm sure we all swallowed a good share of the dust devils, but still they came; evidently we were not wizards or witches. the plain of weawarra is haunted. once long ago there was a fight there. two young warriors but lately married were slain. as their bodies were never recovered, they were supposed to have been stolen and eaten by the enemy. their young widows spent days searching for them, after the tribe had given up hope of finding them. at last the widows--who had refused to marry again, declaring their husbands yet lived, and that one day they would find them--disappeared. time passed; they did not return, so were supposed to be dead too. then arose the rumour that their ghosts had been seen, and to this day it is said the plain of weawarra is haunted by them. should men camp there at night, these women spirits silently steal into the camp. the men, thinking they are women from some tribe they do not know, speak to them; but silently there they sit, making no answer, and vanish again before the dawn of day, to renew their search night after night. the high ridges above warrangilla are haunted by two women, who tradition says were buried alive. their spirits have never rested, but come out at all times from the huge fissure in the ridges where their bodies were put. their anguished cries as the stones and earth fell on them are still to be heard echoing through the scrub there; and sometimes it is said one, keener sighted than his fellows, sees their spirit forms flitting through the budtha bushes, and hears again their tragic cries, as they disappear once more into the fathomless fissure. there is a tradition--common, i believe, to many black tribes, even outside australia--that, long before the coming of the white people into this country, two beautiful white girls lived with the blacks. they had long hair to their waists. they were called bungebah, and were killed as devils by an alien tribe somewhere between noorahwahgean and gooroolay. where their blood was spilled two red-leaved trees have grown, and that place is still haunted by their spirits. amid the cookeran lake still wanders the woman who arrived late at the big boorah, having lost her children one by one on the track, arriving at last with only her dead baby in the net at her back. as she died she cursed the tribes who had deserted her, and turned them into trees. some of the blacks were in groups a little way off; those, too, she cursed, and they were changed into forests of belah, which look dark and funereal as you drive through them; and the murmuring sound, as the wind wails through their tops, has a very sad sound. she wanders through these forests and round the lake, the dead baby still in the goolay on her back, and sometimes her voice is heard mingling with the voices of the forest; and as the shadows fall, she may be seen flitting past, they say. noorahgogo is a very handsome bronze and peacock-blue beetle, said to embody a spirit which always answers the cry of a noongahburrah in the bush. the bright orange-red fungi on the fallen trees are devils' bread, and should a child touch any he will be spirited away. very mournful are the bush nights if you happen to be alone on your verandah. away on the flat sound the cries of curlews; past flies a night heron; then the discordant voice of a plover is heard. in all these birds are embodied the spirits of men of the past; each has its legend. perhaps some passing swans will cry 'biboh, biboh,' reminding in vain the camp wizards that they too were once men, and long to be again. poor enchanted swans! to whose enchantment we owe the lovely flannel flowers of new south wales, and the red epacris bells. but in spite of their sadness the bush nights are lovely, when the landscapes are glorified by the magic of the moon. even the gum leaves are transmuted into silver as the moonlight laves them, making the blacks say the leaves laugh, and the shimmer is like a smile. no wonder trees have such a place in the old religions of the world, and wirreenuns, even as do buddhists, love to linger beneath their branches--the one holding converse with his spirit friends, the other cultivating the perfect peace. there would not be much perfect peace about a wirreenun's communing with the spirits if it happened to be in mosquito time. the blacks say a little grey-speckled bird rules the mosquitoes, and calls them from their swamp-homes to attack us. in the mythological days this bird--a woman--was badly treated by a man who translated her sons to the sky; having revenged herself on him, she vowed vengeance on all men, and in the form of the mosquito bird wreaks that vengeance. her mosquito slaves have just the same spots on their wings as she has. i dare say little with an air of finality about black people; i have lived too much with them for that. to be positive, you should never spend more than six months in their neighbourhood; in fact, if you want to keep your anthropological ideas quite firm, it is safer to let the blacks remain in inland australia while you stay a few thousand miles away. otherwise, your preconceived notions are almost sure to totter to their foundations; and nothing is more annoying than to have elaborately built-up, delightfully logical theories, played ninepins with by an old greybeard of a black, who apparently objects to his beliefs being classified, docketed, and pigeon-holed, until he has had his say. after all, when we consider their marriage restrictions, their totems, and the rest, what becomes of the freedom of the savage? as with us, as montague says, 'our laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.' i have often thought the failure of the generality of missionaries lay in the fact that they began at the wrong end. not recognising the tyranny of custom, though themselves victims to it, they ignore, as a rule, the religion into which the black is born, and by which he lived, in much closer obedience to its laws than we of this latter-day christendom. it seems to me, if we cannot respect the religion of others we deny our own. if we are powerless to see the theism behind the overlying animism, we argue a strange ignorance of what crept over other faiths, in the way of legends and superstitions quite foreign to the simplicity of the beginnings. to be a success, a missionary, i think, should--as many do, happily--before he goes out to teach, acquaint himself with the making of the world's religions, and particularly with the one he is going to supplant. he will probably find that elimination of some savageries is all that is required, leaving enough good to form a workable religion understanded of his congregation. if he ignores their faith, thrusting his own, with its mysteries which puzzle even theologians, upon them, they will be but as whited sepulchres, or, at best, parrots. glossary bahloo, moon (masculine). bibbil, poplar-leaved box-tree. an eucalyptus. byamee, their god; culture hero 'great one.' boorak, initiation ceremony. boonal, a sort of flail. boobeen, wooden cornet. bootha, woman's name; divisional family name. boahdee, sister. beealahdee, father and mother's sisters' husbands. bargie, grandmother on mother's side. boothan, last possible child of a woman. beewun, motherless girl, boomerang, weapon. bubberah, a 'come-back' boomerang. billah, spear. belah, swamp oak. booreen, shield. birah, whitewood tree. boodthul, toy waddy. boondee, heavy-headed club. binguie, coolamon; canoe-shaped wooden vessel. beewee, brown and yellow iguana. bunbul, little boorah ring. boormool, shrimps. boolooral, a night owl. byahmul, a black swan. beerwon, bird like a swallow. bunnyal, flies. binnantayah, big saltbush. bohrah, kangaroo. boogodoogadah, rainbird. buln buln, green parrot. boogahroo, a tree where poison-sticks are kept. boondurr, wizard's bag of charms. budtha, shrub eremophila. bumble, shrub capparis mitchelliensis. brambahl, skipping. boogalah, ball. bayarrh, green-head ants. bingahwingul, shrub needlebush. boondoon, kingfisher. bilber, sandhill rat. boothagullagulla, bird like seagull. booroorerh, bulrushes. burrengeen, peewee; white and black bird. bouyoudoorimmillee, grey cranes. bouyougah, centipede. bubburr, large brown and yellow snake. beeargah, crane. buggiloo, girl's name; little yam. boolee, whirlwind. boogurr, things belonging to a dead person. bullimah, sky-camp; heaven. bulleerul, breath. boorboor, come down. boyjerh, father, or relation of father. brigalow, an acacia. birroo birroo, bird; sand-builders. booloon, white crane. boonburr, poison tree. boorgoolbean, a shrub with creamy flowers. birrahlee, baby. bahnmul, betrothal of babies. boomayahmayahmul, a wood lizard. brewarrina, name of place; place of myall trees. boorool, big, great, many. birrahgnooloo, woman's name meaning hatchet-faced. booloowah two emus. bibbilah, belonging to the bibbil country. barahgurree, girl's name; a kind of lizard. bogginbinnia, girl's name; a kind of lizard. billai, crimson-wing parrot. birriebunger, small diver-bird burrahwahn, a rat now extinct. bralgah, bird; native companion. bean, myall tree; a weeping acacia. beebuyer, yellow flowering broom, shrub. beeleer, black cockatoo. bibbee, woodpecker, bullah bullah, butterfly. beeweerh, bony bream. buggila, leopard wood. bunbundoolooey, a little brown bird. brumboorah, boorah song. boorahbayyi, boy undergoing initiation. boodther, a meeting where presents are exchanged. berai berai, the boys; orion's sword and belt. beereeun, lizard. birrahmulgerhyerh, devils with poison-sticks. byjerh, expression of surprise. buckandee, native cat. coolabah, flooded box; eucalyptus. curreequinquin, butcher-bird; piping shrike. cumbee, stone tomahawk. cocklerina, a rose and yellow crested cockatoo. (major mitchell.) carbeen, an eucalyptus. collarene, coolabah blossom. c-ngil, ugly, nasty, bad. cunnumbeillee, woman's name meaning pigweed root. dhe, hereditary totem. dheal, sacred tree. dayoorl, grinding-stone. doonburr, grass seed. dheelgoolee, a bird-trapping place. dardurr, a camp shelter of bark. dheala, girl's name. dayadee, half-brother. dadadee, grandfather on mother's side. doore-oothai, a lover. dillahga, an elderly man of same totem as person speaking of or to him. dooloomai, thunder. dillee, treasure bag. deenyi, ironbark. doowee, any one's dream-spirit. dinahgurrerhlowah, death-dealing stone. dumerh dumerh, smallpox. dumerh, brown pigeon. doolungaiyah, sandhill rat, bilber. douyougurrah, earthworms. deereeree, willy wagtail. durrooee, spirit-bird. dinewan, emu. dunnia, wattle tree. deenbi, diver. deegeenboyah, soldier-bird. dayahminyah, small carpet snake. douyouie, ants. dulibah, bald. dulleerin, a lizard. douran douran, north wind. dunnee bunbun, a very large green parrot. dibbee, sort of sandpiper. durrahgeegin, green frog. dooroongul, hairy caterpillar. durramunga, little boorah. doolooboorah, boorah message-stick. dulloorah, tree manna-bringing birds. eerin, little night owl. euloowayi, long-nailed devils. euahlayi, name of the narran tribe. euloowirree, rainbow. eeramooun, uninitiated boy. eleanbah wundah, spirits of the lower world. {one page missing from the scanned edition} hippi, man's divisional family name hippitha, woman's divisional family name. inga, crayfish. innerah, a woman with a camp of her own. illay, hop bush. kumbo, man's divisional family name kubbee, man's divisional family name kubbootha, woman's divisional family name. kummean, father's sister. kurreah, crocodile. kumbuy, sister-in-law. kamilaroi, name of a tribe. kurrajong, tree; a sterculia. moodai, an opossum. minggah, spirit tree. murrahgul, a bird string trap. murree, man's divisional family name. matha, woman's divisional family name mullayerh, a temporary companion. moothie, a friend of childhood in afterlife. mirroon, emu net. mubboo, beefwood tree. myall, a drooping acacia; violet-scented wood. moornin, emu spears. muggil, stone knife. moorooleh, plain waddy. moogul, only child. mah, hand or totem. moograbah, big black and white magpie. mirrieh, poligonum. mullee mullee, dream spirit of a wizard. mullowil, shadow spirit. moolee, death-dealing stone. moondoo, wasps. murgahmuggui, spider. mayamah, stones. munggheewurraywurraymul, seagulls. matah, corruption of master. mooroobeaigunnil, spirits on the sacred mountain. midjeer, an acacia. mulga, an acacia. mooregoo mooregoo, black ibis. mooloowerh, a shrub with cream coloured flowers. muddurwerderh, west wind. mungghee, mussels. millanboo, the first again. moobil, stomach. mouyerh, bone through nose. moonaibaraban, spirit sister-in-law. mayamerh, gayandi's camp. mullyan, eagle-hawk. mirriehburrah, belonging to poligonum country. millan, small water yam. mooregoo, swamp oak; belah, mouyi, white cockatoo. maira, a paddy melon. mouninguggahgul, mosquito bird. maira, wild currant bush. mungoongarlee, largest iguana. mooregoo, mopoke. mounin, mosquito. mungahran, hawk. mien, dingo. munthdeegun, man in charge of initiate at boorah. meamei, the girls; pleiades. mayrah, wind. marahgoo, man-shaped devil. marmbeyah, tree spirits. moorilla, pebbly ridge. mahmee, old woman. nimmaylee, girl's name; young porcupine. nurragah, an exclamation of pity. noongah, kurrajong. numbardee, mother and mother's sisters. niune, wild melon. noongahburrah, belonging to the country of the noongah. noorumbah, hereditary bunting ground. noodul noodul, whistling duck. nummaybirrah, wild grape; namoi. narahdarn, bat. noorunglely, a setting emu. nahgul, a devil haunting boorah grounds. oganahbayah, a small eagle-hawk. ooboon, blue-tongued lizard. oobi oobi, sacred mountain. oonahgnai, give to me. oonahgnoo, give to her or him. oonahmillangoo, give to one. oogowahdee goobelaygoo, flood to swim against. oogle oogle, four emus. oonaywah, black diver. ouyan, curlew. piggiebillah, porcupine. quarrian, yellow and red breasted grey parrot. tuckandee, a young man of the same totem reckoned a kind of brother. tekel barain, large white amaryllis. tekkul, hair. talingerh, native fuchsia. tucki, a kind of bream. wirreenun, medicine man, wizard. wunnarl, food taboo. wirreebeeun, young woman. wirree, canoe-shaped bark vessel for drinking from, or holding things in. wambaneah, full brother. wulgundee, uncle's wife. woormerh, a boorah boy messenger. waywah, man's belt. wongin, a string breastplate. wogarrah, hatchet-shaped weapon, wi, clever. weedah, bower-bird. wundah, white devil. wi-mouyan, magic stick. wungoolay, a game with discs and spears. widyu widyu, toy-spear. wahl, no. wa-ah, shells. woggoon, scrub turkey. wimberoo, game with leaf and fire. woolbooldarn, game; riding on bent branch. whagoo, game; hide-and-seek. wahn, crow. wurrawilberoo, the whirlwind devils. waddahgudjaelwon, a birth-presiding spirit. wahl nunnoomahdayer, do not steal wahl goonundoo, no water. weedegah, bachelor's camp. wir djuri, name of a tribe. waggestmul, kind of rat. wungghee, white night owl. willerhderh, north wind. wi, small fish. wayarah, wild grapes. womba, mad, deaf. weeweemul, a body-snatching spirit. wayambah, turtle. yhi, the sun (feminine). yarragerh, spring wind, north-east. yunbeai, individual totem. yarmmara, barley grass. yubbil, large bark vessel. yungawee, sacred fire. yumbean, kangaroo teeth fixed in grim, ornaments. yumbui, fatherless boy. yaraan, an eucalyptus. yowee, a soul equivalent. yahweerh, sham fight. youayah, frogs. yelgayerdayer deermuldayer, leave all such alone. yudthar, feather. yubbah, carpet snake. yelgidyi, fully initiated young man. yowee bulleerul, spirit breath. ragnarok: the age of fire and gravel ragnarok: the age of fire and gravel [redactor's notes: "ragnarok" is a sequel to "atlantis" but goes far beyond presaging the pseudo-science of velikovsky's "worlds in collision". the original scans and html were provided by mr. j.b. hare. in this edition the illustrations and figures have been replaced by the glyph "###". because of the numerous notes, they have been retained on the original page. searching on "[" will reveal the set of notes for the current page. the page numbers of the original have been retained as {p. } for example. the html is plain vanilla with no illustrations. for a fully illustrated version the reader is referred to the website http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/rag/index.htm where other explanatory material prepared by mr. hare is available.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ragnarok: the age of fire and gravel. by ignatius donnelly, author of "atlantis: the antediluvian world." _"i am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all before the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth. he might have inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these terrible events, he repeopled the world. perhaps, also, the spots where he abode were swallowed up, and the bones lie buried under the beds of the present seas."--cuvier._ [ ] {scanned at sacred-texts.com, december, } ### the geographical distribution of the drift. {p. iii} contents. part i. the drift. i. the characteristics of the drift ii. the origin of the drift not known iii. the action of waves iv. was it caused by icebergs? v. was it caused by glaciers? vi. was it caused by a continental ice-sheet? vii. the drift a gigantic catastrophe viii. great heat a prerequisite part ii. the comet. i. a comet caused the drift ii. what is a comet? iii. could a comet strike the earth? iv. the consequences to the earth {p. iii} part iii. the legends. i. the nature of myths ii. did man exist before the drift? iii. legends of the coming of the comet iv. ragnarok v. the conflagration of phaËton vi. other legends of the conflagration vii. legends of the cave-life viii. legends of the age of darkness ix. the triumph of the sun x. the fall of the clay and gravel xi. the arabian myths xii. the book of job xiii. genesis read by the light of the comet part iv. conclusions. i. was pre-glacial man civilized? ii. the scene of man's survival iii. the bridge iv. objections considered v. biela's comet vi. the universal belief of mankind vii. the earth struck by comets many times viii. the after-word {p. iv} list of illustrations. geographical distribution of the drift frontispiece. till overlaid with bowlder-clay scratched stone, from the till river issuing from a swiss glacier terminal moraine glacier-furrows and scratches at stony point, lake erie drift-deposits in the tropics stratified beds in till, leithen water, peeblesshire, scotland section at joinville orbits of the periodic comets orbit of earth and comet the earth's orbit the comet sweeping past the earth the side of the earth struck by the comet the side not struck by the comet the great comet of crag and tail solar spectrum section at st. acheul the engis skull the neanderthal skull plummet from san joaquin valley, california {p. v} comet of course of donati's comet the primeval storm the afrite in the pillar dahish overtaken by dimiriat earthen vase, found in the cave of furfooz, belgium pre-glacial man's picture of the mammoth pre-glacial man's picture of reindeer pre-glacial man's picture of the horse specimen of pre-glacial carving stone image found in ohio copper coin, found one hundred and fourteen feet under ground, in illinois {front} copper coin, found one hundred and fourteen feet under ground, in illinois {back} biela's comet, split in two section on the schuylkill {p. } ragnarok: the age of fire and gravel. part i. the drift chapter i. the characteristics of the drift. reader,--let us reason together:-- what do we dwell on? the earth. what part of the earth? the latest formations, of course. we live upon the top of a mighty series of stratified rocks, laid down in the water of ancient seas and lakes, during incalculable ages, said, by geologists, to be from _ten to twenty miles in thickness_. think of that! rock piled over rock, from the primeval granite upward, to a height _four times greater than our highest mountains_, and every rock stratified like the leaves of a book; and every leaf containing the records of an intensely interesting history, illustrated with engravings, in the shape of fossils, of all forms of life, from the primordial cell up to the bones of man and his implements. but it is not with the pages of this sublime volume {p. } we have to deal in this book. it is with a vastly different but equally wonderful formation. upon the top of the last of this series of stratified rocks we find the drift. what is it? go out with me where yonder men are digging a well. let us observe the material they are casting out. first they penetrate through a few inches or a foot or two of surface soil; then they enter a vast deposit of sand, gravel, and clay. it may be fifty, one hundred, five hundred, eight hundred feet, before they reach the stratified rocks on which this drift rests. it covers whole continents. it is our earth. it makes the basis of our soils; our railroads cut their way through it; our carriages drive over it; our cities are built upon it; our crops are derived from it; the water we drink percolates through it; on it we live, love, marry, raise children, think, dream, and die; and in the bosom of it we will be buried. where did it come from? that is what i propose to discuss with you in this work,--if you will have the patience to follow me. so far as possible, [as i shall in all cases speak by the voices of others] i shall summon my witnesses that you may cross-examine them. i shall try, to the best of my ability, to buttress every opinion with adequate proofs. if i do not convince, i hope at least to interest you. and to begin: let us understand what the drift _is_, before we proceed to discuss its origin. in the first place, it is mainly unstratified; its lower formation is altogether so. there may be clearly defined strata here and there in it, but they are such as a tempest might make, working in a dust-heap: picking up a patch here and laying it upon another there. but there {p. } are no continuous layers reaching over any large extent of country. sometimes the material has been subsequently worked over by rivers, and been distributed over limited areas in strata, as in and around the beds of streams. but in the lower, older, and first-laid-down portion of the drift, called in scotland "the till," and in other countries "the hard-pan," there is a total absence of stratification. james geikie says: "in describing the till, i remarked that the irregular manner in which the stones were scattered through that deposit imparted to it a confused and tumultuous appearance. the clay does not arrange itself in layers or beds, but is distinctly unstratified."[ ] "the material consisted of earth, gravel, and stones, and also in some places broken trunks or branches of trees. part of it was deposited in a pell-mell or unstratified condition during the progress of the period, and part either stratified or unstratified in the opening part of the next period when the ice melted."[ ] "the unstratified drift may be described as a heterogeneous mass of clay, with sand and gravel in varying proportions, inclosing the transported fragments of rock, of all dimensions, partially rounded or worn into wedge-shaped forms, and generally with surfaces furrowed or scratched, the whole material looking as if it had been scraped together."[ ] the "till" of scotland is "spread in broad but somewhat ragged sheets" through the lowlands, "continuous across wide tracts," while in the highland and upland districts it is confined principally to the valleys.[ ] [ . "the great ice age," p. . . dana's "text-book," p. . . "american cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. . . "great ice age," geikie, p. .] {p. } "the lowest member is invariably a tough, stony clay, called 'till' or 'hard-pan.' throughout wide districts stony clay alone occurs."[ ] "it is hard to say whether the till consists more of stones or of clay."[ ] this "till," this first deposit, will be found to be the strangest and most interesting. in the second place, although the drift is found on the earth, it is unfossiliferous. that is to say, it contains no traces of pre-existent or contemporaneous life. this, when we consider it, is an extraordinary fact: where on the face of this life-marked earth could such a mass of material be gathered up, and not contain any evidences of life? it is as if one were to say that he had collected the _detritus_ of a great city, and that it showed no marks of man's life or works. "i would reiterate," says geikie,[ ] "that nearly all the scotch shell-bearing beds belong to the _very close of the glacial_ period; only in one or two places have shells ever been obtained, with certainty, from a bed in the true till of scotland. they occur here and there in bowlder-clay, and underneath bowlder-clay, in maritime districts; but this clay, as i have shown, is more recent than the till--fact, rests upon its eroded surface." "the lower bed of the drift is entirely destitute of organic remains."[ ] sir charles lyell tells us that even the stratified drift is usually devoid of fossils: "whatever may be the cause, the fact is certain that over large areas in scotland, ireland, and wales, i might add throughout the northern hemisphere, on both sides of the atlantic, the stratified drift of the glacial period is very commonly devoid of fossils."[ ] [ . "great ice age," geikie, p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. . . rev. o. fisher, quoted in "the world before the deluge," p. . . "antiquity of man," third edition, p. .] {p. } in the next place, this "till" differs from the rest of the drift in its exceeding hardness: "this till is so tough that engineers would much rather excavate the most obdurate rocks than attempt to remove it from their path. hard rocks are more or less easily assailable with gunpowder, and the numerous joints and fissures by which they are traversed enable the workmen to wedge them out often in considerable lumps. but till has neither crack nor joint; it will not blast, and to pick it to pieces is a very slow and laborious process. should streaks of sand penetrate it, water will readily soak through, and large masses will then run or collapse, as soon as an opening is made into it." ### till overlaid with bowlder-clay, river stinchar. _r_, rock; _t_, till; _g_, bowlder-clay; _x_, fine gravel, etc. the accompanying cut shows the manner in which it is distributed, and its relations to the other deposits of the drift. in this "till" or "hard-pan" are found some strange and characteristic stones. they are bowlders, not water-worn, not rounded, as by the action of waves, and yet not angular--for every point and projection has been ground off. they are not very large, and they differ in this and other respects from the bowlders found in the other portions of the drift. these stones in the "till" are always striated--that is, cut by deep lines or grooves, usually running lengthwise, or parallel to their longest diameter. the cut on the following page represents one of them. {p. } above this clay is a deposit resembling it, and yet differing from it, called the "bowlder-clay." this is not so tough or hard. the bowlders in it are larger and more angular-sometimes they are of immense size; one at ### scratched stone (black shale), from the till. bradford, massachusetts, is estimated to weigh , , pounds. many on cape cod are twenty feet in diameter. one at whitingham, vermont, is forty-three feet long by thirty feet high, or , cubic feet in bulk. in some {p. } cases no rocks of the same material are found within two hundred miles.[ ] these two formations--the "till" and the "bowlder-clay"--sometimes pass into each other by insensible degrees. at other times the distinction is marked. some of the stones in the bowlder-clay are furrowed or striated, but a large part of them are not; while in the "till" _the stone not striated is the rare exception_. above this bowlder-clay we find sometimes beds of loose gravel, sand, and stones, mixed with the remains of man and other animals. these have all the appearance of being later in their deposition, and of having been worked over by the action of water and ice. this, then, is, briefly stated, the condition of the drift. it is plain that it was the result of violent action of some kind. and this action must have taken place upon an unparalleled and continental scale. one writer describes it as, "a remarkable and stupendous period--a period so startling that it might justly be accepted with hesitation, were not the conception unavoidable before a series of facts as extraordinary as itself."[ ] remember, then, in the discussions which follow, that if the theories advanced are gigantic, the facts they seek to explain are not less so. we are not dealing with little things. the phenomena are continental, world-wide, globe-embracing. [ . dana's "text-book," p. . . gratacap, "ice age," "popular science monthly," january, .] chapter ii. the origin of the drift not known. while several different origins have been assigned for the phenomena known as "the drift," and while one or two of these have been widely accepted and taught in our schools as established truths, yet it is not too much to say that no one of them meets all the requirements of the case, or is assented to by the profoundest thinkers of our day. says one authority: "the origin of the unstratified drift is a question which has been much controverted."[ ] louis figuier says,[ ] after considering one of the proposed theories: "no such hypothesis is sufficient to explain either the cataclysms or the glacial phenomena; and we need not hesitate to confess our ignorance of this strange, this mysterious episode in the history of our globe. . . . nevertheless, we repeat, no explanation presents itself which can be considered conclusive; and in science we should never be afraid to say, _i do not know_." geikie says: "many geologists can not yet be persuaded that till has ever formed and accumulated under ice." [ ] a recent scientific writer, after summing up all the facts and all the arguments, makes this confession: [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. . . "the world before the deluge," pp. , . . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } from the foregoing facts, it seems to me that we are justified in concluding: " . that however simple and plausible the lyellian hypothesis may be, or however ingenious the extension or application of it suggested by dana, it is not sustained by any proof, and the testimony of the rocks seems to be decidedly against it. " . though much may yet be learned from a more extended and careful study of the glacial phenomena of all parts of both hemispheres, the facts already gathered _seem to be incompatible with any theory yet advanced_ which makes the ice period simply a series of telluric phenomena, and so far strengthens the arguments of those who look to extraneous and cosmical causes for the origin of these phenomena."[ ] the reader will therefore understand that, in advancing into this argument, he is not invading a realm where science has already set up her walls and bounds and landmarks; but rather he is entering a forum in which a great debate still goes on, amid the clamor of many tongues. there are four theories by which it has been attempted to explain the drift. these are: i. the action of great waves and floods of water. ii. the action of icebergs. iii. the action of glaciers. iv. the action of a continental ice-sheet. we will consider these several theories in their order. [ . "popular science monthly," july, , p. .] {p. } chapter iii. the action of waves. when men began, for the first time, to study the drift deposits, they believed that they found in them the results of the noachic deluge; and hence the drift was called the diluvium, and the period of time in which it was laid down was entitled the diluvial age. it was supposed that-- "somehow and somewhere in the far north a series of gigantic waves was mysteriously propagated. these waves were supposed to have precipitated themselves upon the land, and then swept madly over mountain and valley alike, carrying along with them a mighty burden of rocks and stones and rubbish. such deluges were called 'waves of translation.'"[ ] there were many difficulties about this theory: in the first place, there was no cause assigned for these waves, which must have been great enough to have swept over the tops of high mountains, for the evidences of the drift age are found three thousand feet above the baltic, four thousand feet high in the grampians of scotland, and six thousand feet high in new england. in the next place, if this deposit had been swept up from or by the sea, it would contain marks of its origin. the shells of the sea, the bones of fish, the remains of seals and whales, would have been taken up by these great deluges, and carried over the land, and have remained [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } mingled in the _débris_ which they deposited. this is not the case. the unstratified drift is unfossiliferous, and where the stratified drift contains fossils they are the remains of land animals, except in a few low-lying districts near the sea. i quote: "over the interior of the continent _it contains no marine fossils or relics_."[ ] geikie says: "_not a single trace of any marine organism has yet been detected in true till_."[ ] moreover, if the sea-waves made these great deposits, they must have picked up the material composing them either from the shores of the sea or the beds of streams. and when we consider the vastness of the drift-deposits, extending, as they do, over continents, with a depth of hundreds of feet, it would puzzle us to say where were the sea-beaches or rivers on the globe that could produce such inconceivable quantities of gravel, sand, and clay. the production of gravel is limited to a small marge of the ocean, not usually more than a mile wide, where the waves and the rocks meet. if we suppose the whole shore of the oceans around the northern half of america to be piled up with gravel five hundred feet thick, it would go but a little way to form the immense deposits which stretch from the arctic sea to patagonia. the stones of the "till" are strangely marked, striated, and scratched, with lines parallel to the longest diameter. no such stones are found in river-beds or on sea-shores. geikie says: "we look in vain for striated stones in the gravel which the surf drives backward and forward on a beach, [ . dana's "text-book," p. . . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } and we may search the _detritus_ that beaches and rivers push along their beds, but _we shall not find any stones at all resembling those of the till_."[ ] but we need not discuss any further this theory. it is now almost universally abandoned. we know of no way in which such waves could be formed; if they were formed, they could not find the material to carry over the land; if they did find it, it would not have the markings which are found in the drift, and it would possess marine fossils not found in the drift; and the waves would not and could not scratch and groove the rock-surfaces underneath the drift, as we know they are scratched and grooved. let us then dismiss this hypothesis, and proceed to the consideration of the next. [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } chapter iv. was it caused by icebergs? we come now to a much more reasonable hypothesis, and one not without numerous advocates even to this day, to wit: that the drift-deposits were caused by icebergs floating down in deep water over the sunken land, loaded with _débris_ from the arctic shores, which they shed as they melted in the warmer seas of the south. this hypothesis explains the carriage of enormous blocks weighing hundreds of tons from their original site to where they are now found; but it is open to many unanswerable objections. in the first place, if the drift had been deposited under water deep enough to float icebergs, it would present throughout unquestionable evidences of stratification, for the reason that the larger masses of stone would fall more rapidly than the smaller, and would be found at the bottom of the deposit. if, for instance, you were to go to the top of a shot-tower, filled with water, and let loose at the same moment a quantity of cannon-balls, musket-balls, pistol-balls, duck-shot, reed-bird shot, and fine sand, all mixed together, the cannon-balls would reach the bottom first, and the other missiles in the order of their size; and the deposit at the bottom would be found to be regularly stratified, with the sand and the finest shot on top. but nothing of this kind is found in the drift, especially in the "till"; clay, sand, gravel, stones, {p. } and bowlders are all found mixed together in the utmost confusion, "higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell." says geikie: "neither can till owe its origin to icebergs. if it had been distributed over the sea-bottom, it would assuredly have shown some kind of arrangement. when an iceberg drops its rubbish, it stands to reason that the heavier blocks will reach the bottom first, then the smaller stones, and lastly the finer ingredients. there is no such assortment visible, however, in the normal 'till,' but large and small stones are scattered pretty equally through the clay, which, moreover, is quite unstratified."[ ] this fact alone disposes of the iceberg theory as an explanation of the drift. again: whenever deposits are dropped in the sea, they fall uniformly and cover the surface below with a regular sheet, conforming to the inequalities of the ground, no thicker in one place than another. but in the drift this is not the case. the deposit is thicker in the valleys and thinner on the hills, sometimes absent altogether on the higher elevations. "the true bowlder-clay is spread out over the region under consideration as a somewhat widely extended and uniform sheet, yet it may be said to fill up all small valleys and depressions, and to be thin or absent on ridges or rising grounds."[ ] that is to say, it fell as a snow-storm falls, driven by high winds; or as a semi-fluid mass might be supposed to fall, draining down from the elevations and filling up the hollows. again: the same difficulty presents itself which we found in the case of "the waves of transplantation." where did the material of the drift come from? on what sea-shore, in what river-beds, was this incalculable mass of clay, gravel, and stones found? [ . "the great ice age," p. . . "american cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. .] {p. } again: if we suppose the supply to have existed on the arctic coasts, the question comes, would the icebergs have carried it over the face of the continents? mr. croll has shown very clearly[ ] that the icebergs nowadays usually sail down into the oceans without a scrap of _débris_ of any kind upon them. again: how could the icebergs have made the continuous scratchings or striæ, found under the drift nearly all over the continents of europe and america? why, say the advocates of this theory, the icebergs press upon the bottom of the sea, and with the stones adhering to their base they make those striæ. but two things are necessary to this: first, that there should be a force great enough to drive the berg over the bottom of the sea when it has once grounded. we know of no such force. on the contrary, we do know that wherever a berg grounds it stays until it rocks itself to pieces or melts away. but, suppose there was such a propelling force, then it is evident that whenever the iceberg floated clear of the bottom it would cease to make the strive, and would resume them only when it nearly stranded again. that is to say, when the water was deep enough for the berg to float clear of the bottom of the sea, there could be no striæ; when the water was too shallow, the berg would not float at all, and there would be no striæ. the berg would mark the rocks only where it neither floated clear nor stranded. hence we would find striæ only at a certain elevation, while the rocks below or above that level would be free from them. but this is not the case with the drift-markings. they pass over mountains and down into the deepest valleys; they are [ . "climate and time," p. .] {p. } universal within very large areas; they cover the face of continents and disappear under the waves of the sea. it is simply impossible that the drift was caused by icebergs. i repeat, when they floated clear of the rocks, of course they would not mark them; when the water was too shallow to permit them to float at all, and so move onward, of course they could not mark them. the striations would occur only when the water was; just deep enough to float the berg, and not deep enough to raise the berg clear of the rocks; and but a small part of the bottom of the sea could fulfill these conditions. moreover, when the waters were six thousand feet deep in new england, and four thousand feet deep in scotland, and over the tops of the rocky mountains, where was the rest of the world, and the life it contained? {p. } chapter v. was it caused by glaciers? what is a glacier? it is a river of ice, crowded by the weight of mountain-ice down into some valley, along which it descends by a slow, almost imperceptible motion, due to a power of the ice, under the force of gravity, to rearrange its molecules. it is fed by the mountains and melted by the sun. the glaciers are local in character, and comparatively few in number; they are confined to valleys having some general slope downward. the whole alpine mass does not move down upon the plain. the movement downward is limited to these glacier-rivers. the glacier complies with some of the conditions of the problem. we can suppose it capable of taking in its giant paw a mass of rock, and using it as a graver to carve deep grooves in the rock below it; and we can see in it a great agency for breaking up rocks and carrying the _detritus_ down upon the plains. but here the resemblance ends. that high authority upon this subject, james geikie, says: "but we can not fail to remark that, although scratched and polished stones occur not infrequently in the frontal moraines of alpine glaciers, yet at the same time these moraines _do not at all resemble till_. the moraine consists for the most part of a confused heap of rough _angular_ stones and blocks, and loose sand and _débris_; scratched {p. } stones are decidedly in the minority, and indeed _a close search will often fail to show them_. clearly, then, the till is not of the nature of a terminal moraine. _each stone_ in the 'till' gives evidence of having been subjected to a grinding process. . . . "we look in vain, however, among the glaciers of the alps for such a deposit. the scratched stones we may occasionally find, _but where is the clay?_ . . . it is clear that the conditions for the gathering of a stony clay like the i till' do not obtain (as far as we know) among the alpine glaciers. there is too much water circulating below the ice there to allow any considerable thickness of such a deposit to accumulate."[ ] but it is questionable whether the glaciers do press with a steady force upon the rocks beneath so as to score them. as a rule, the base of the glacier is full of water; rivers flow from under them. the opposite picture, from professor winchell's "sketches of creation," page , does not represent a mass of ice, bugging the rocks, holding in its grasp great gravers of stone with which to cut the face of the rocks into deep grooves, and to deposit an even coating of rounded stones and clay over the face of the earth. on the contrary, here are only angular masses of rock, and a stream which would certainly wash away any clay which might be formed. let mr. dawkins state the case: "the hypothesis upon which the southern extension is founded--that the bowlder-clays have been formed by ice melting on the land--is open to this objection, that _no similar clays have been proved to have been so formed_, either in the arctic regions, where the ice-sheet has retreated, or in the districts forsaken by the glaciers in the alps or pyrenees, or in any other mountain-chain. . . . the english bowlder-clays, as a whole, differ from [ . "the great ice age," pp. - .] {p. } the _moraine profonde_ in their softness, and the large area which they cover. strata of bowlder-clay at all comparable to the great clay mantle covering the lower grounds of britain, north of the thames, are conspicuous by their absence from the glaciated regions of central europe and the pyrenees, which were not depressed beneath the sea." ### a river issuing from a swiss glacier. moreover, the drift, especially the "till," lies in great continental sheets of clay and gravel, of comparatively uniform thickness. the glaciers could not form such sheets; they deposit their material in long ridges called "terminal moraines." agassiz, the great advocate of the ice-origin of the drift, says: "all these moraines are the land-marks, so to speak, by which we trace the height and extent, as well as the [ . dawkin's "early man in britain," pp. , .] {p. } progress and retreat, of glaciers in former times. suppose, for instance, that a glacier were to disappear entirely. for ages it has been a gigantic ice-raft, receiving all sorts of materials on its surface as it traveled onward, and bearing them along with it; while the hard particles of rocks set in its lower surface have been polishing and fashioning the whole surface over which it extended. as it now melts it drops its various burdens to the ground; bowlders are the milestones marking the different stages of its journey; the terminal and lateral moraines are the frame-work which it erected around itself as it moved forward, and which define its boundaries centuries after it has vanished."[ ] ### terminal moraine. and professor agassiz gives us, on page of the same work, the above representation of a "terminal moraine." the reader can see at once that these semicircular [ . "geological sketches," p. .] {p. } ridges bear no resemblance whatever to the great drift-deposits of the world, spread out in vast and nearly uniform sheets, without stratification, over hills and plains alike. and here is another perplexity: it might naturally be supposed that the smoothed, scratched, and smashed appearance of the underlying rocks was due to the rubbing and rolling of the stones under the ice of the glaciers; but, strange to say, we find that-- "the scratched and polished rock-surfaces are by no means confined to till-covered districts. they are met with _everywhere_ and _at all levels_ throughout the country, from the sea-coast up to near the tops of some of our higher mountains. the lower hill-ranges, such as the sidlaws, the ochils, the pentlands, the kilbarchan and paisley hills, and others, exhibit polished and smoothed rock-surfaces _on their very crest_. similar markings streak and score the rocks up to a great height in the deep valleys of the highlands."[ ] we can realize, in our imagination, the glacier of the mountain-valley crushing and marking the bed in which it moves, or even the plain on which it discharges itself; but it is impossible to conceive of a glacier upon the bare top of a mountain, without walls to restrain it or direct its flow, or higher ice accumulations to feed it. again: "if glaciers descended, as they did, on both sides of the great alpine ranges, then we would expect to find the same results on the plains of northern italy that present themselves on the low grounds of switzerland. but this is not the case. on the plains of italy there are no traces of the stony clay found in switzerland and all over europe. neither are any of the stones of the drift of italy scratched or striated."[ ] [ . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., pp. , .] {p. } but, strange to say, while, as geikie admits, no true "till" or drift is now being formed by or under the glaciers of switzerland, nevertheless "till" is found in that country _disassociated from the glaciers_. geikie says: "in the low grounds of switzerland we get a dark, tough clay, packed with scratched and well-rubbed stones, and containing here and there some admixture of sand and irregular beds and patches of earthy gravel. this clay is quite unstratified, and the strata upon which it rests frequently exhibit much confusion, being turned up on end and bent over, exactly as in this country the rocks are sometimes broken and disturbed below till. the whole deposit has experienced much denudation, but even yet it covers considerable areas, and attains a thickness varying from a few feet up to not less than thirty feet in thickness."[ ] here, then, are the objections to this theory of the glacier-origin of the drift: i. the glaciers do not produce striated stones. ii. the glaciers do not produce drift-clay. iii. the glaciers could not have formed continental sheets of "till." iv. the glaciers could not have existed upon, and consequently could not have striated, the mountain-tops. v. the glaciers could not have reached to the great plains of the continents far remote from valleys, where we still find the drift and drift-markings. vi. the glaciers are limited in number and confined in their operations, and were utterly inadequate to have produced the thousands of square miles of drift-_débris_ which we find enfolding the world. [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } chapter vi. was it caused by continental ice-sheets? we, come now to the theory which is at present most generally accepted: it being apparent that glaciers were not adequate to produce the results which we find, the glacialists have fallen back upon an extraordinary hypothesis--to wit, that the whole north and south regions of the globe, extending from the poles to ° or ° of north and south latitude, were, in the drift age, covered with enormous, continuous sheets of ice, from one mile thick at its southern margin, to three or five miles thick at the poles. as they find drift-scratches upon the tops of mountains in europe three to four thousand feet high, and in new england upon elevations six thousand feet high, it follows, according to this hypothesis, that the ice-sheet must have been considerably higher than these mountains, for the ice must have been thick enough to cover their tops, and high enough and heavy enough above their tops to press down upon and groove and scratch the rocks. and as the _striæ_ in northern europe were found to disregard the conformation of the continent and the islands of the sea, it became necessary to suppose that this polar ice-sheet filled up the bays and seas, so that one could have passed dry-shod, in that period, from france to the north pole, over a steadily ascending plane of ice. no attempt has been made to explain where all this {p. } ice came from; or what force lifted the moisture into the air which, afterward descending, constituted these world-cloaks of frozen water. it is, perhaps, easy to suppose that such world-cloaks might have existed; we can imagine the water of the seas falling on the continents, and freezing as it fell, until, in the course of ages, it constituted such gigantic ice-sheets; but something more than this is needed. this does not account for these hundreds of feet of clay, bowlders, and gravel. but it is supposed that these were torn from the surface of the rocks by the pressure of the ice-sheet moving southward. but what would make it move southward? we know that some of our mountains are covered to-day with immense sheets of ice, hundreds and thousands of feet in thickness. do these descend upon the flat country? no; they lie there and melt, and are renewed, kept in equipoise by the contending forces of heat and cold. why should the ice-sheet move southward? because, say the "glacialists," the lands of the northern parts of europe and america were then elevated fifteen hundred feet higher than at present, and this gave the ice a sufficient descent. but what became of that elevation afterward? why, it went down again. it had accommodatingly performed its function, and then the land resumed its old place! but _did_ the land rise up in this extraordinary fashion? croll says: "the greater elevation of the land (in the ice period) is simply assumed as an hypothesis to account for the cold. the facts of geology, however, are fast establishing the opposite conclusion, viz., that when the country was covered with ice, the land stood in relation to the sea at a lower level than at present, and that the continental periods or times, when the land stood in relation to the {p. } sea at a higher level than now, were the warm inter-glacial periods, when the country was free of snow and ice, and a mild and equable condition of climate prevailed. this is the conclusion toward which we are being led by the more recent revelations of surface-geology, and also by certain facts connected with the geographical distribution of plants and animals during the glacial epoch."[ ] h. b. norton says: "when we come to study the cause of these phenomena, we find many perplexing and contradictory theories in the field. a favorite one is that of vertical elevation. but it seems impossible to admit that the circle inclosed within the parallel of °--some seven thousand miles in diameter--could have been elevated to such a height as to produce this remarkable result. this would be a supposition hard to reconcile with the present proportion of land and water on the surface of the globe and with the phenomena of terrestrial contraction and gravitation."[ ] we have seen that the surface-rocks underneath the drift are scored and grooved by some external force. now we find that these markings do not all run in the same direction; on the contrary, they cross each other in an extraordinary manner. the cut on the following page illustrates this. if the direction of the motion of the ice-sheets, which caused these markings, was,--as the glacialists allege,--always from the elevated region in the north to the lower ground in the south, then the markings must always have been in the same direction: given a fixed cause, we must have always a fixed result. we shall see, as we go on in this argument, that the deposition of the "till" was instantaneous; and, as these markings were made before or at the same time the "till" was laid down, how could the land [ . "climate and time," p. . . "popular science monthly," october, , p. .] {p. } possibly have bobbed up and down, now here, now there, so that the elevation from which the ice-sheet descended ### sketch of glacier-furrows and scratches at stony point, lake erie, michigan. _aa_, deep water-line; _bb_ border of the bank of earthy materials; _cc_, deep parallel grooves four and a half feet apart and twenty-five feet long, bearing north ° east; _d_, a set of grooves and scratches bearing north ° west; _e_, a natural bridge. [winchell's "sketches of creation," p. .] was one moment in the northeast, and the next moment had whirled away into the northwest? as the poet says: ". . . will these trees, that have outlived the eagle, page thy steps and skip, when thou point'st out?" {p. } but if the point of elevation was whisked away from east to west, how could an ice-sheet a mile thick instantaneously adapt itself to the change? for all these markings took place in the interval between the time when the external force, whatever it was, struck the rocks, and the time when a sufficient body of "till" had been laid down to shield the rocks and prevent further wear and tear. neither is it possible to suppose an ice-sheet, a mile in thickness, moving in two diametrically opposite directions at the same time. again: the ice-sheet theory requires an elevation in the north and a descent southwardly; and it is this descent southwardly which is supposed to have given the momentum and movement by which the weight of the superincumbent mass of ice tore up, plowed up, ground up, and smashed up the face of the surface-rocks, and thus formed the drift and made the _striæ_. but, unfortunately, when we come to apply this theory to the facts, we find that it is the _north_ sides of the hills and mountains that are striated, while the _south sides have gone scot-free!_ surely, if weight and motion made the drift, then the groovings, caused by weight and motion, must have been more distinct upon a declivity than upon an ascent. the school-boy toils patiently and slowly up the hill with his sled, but when he descends he comes down with railroad-speed, scattering the snow before him in all directions. but here we have a school-boy that tears and scatters things going _up_-hill, and sneaks down-hill snail-fashion. "professor hitchcock remarks, that mount monadnock, new hampshire, , feet high, is scarified from top to bottom on its northern side and western side, but not on, the southern."[ ] this state of things is universal in north america. [ . dana's "manual of geology," p. .] {p. } but let us look at another point: if the vast deposits of sand, gravel, clay, and bowlders, which are found in europe and america, were placed there by a great continental ice-sheet, reaching down from the north pole to latitude ° or °; if it was the ice that tore and scraped up the face of the rocks and rolled the stones and striated them, and left them in great sheets and heaps all over the land--then it follows, as a matter of course, that in all the regions equally near the pole, and equally cold in climate, the ice must have formed a similar sheet, and in like manner have torn up the rocks and ground them into gravel and clay. this conclusion is irresistible. if the cold of the north caused the ice, and the ice caused the drift, then in all the cold north-lands there must have been ice, and consequently there ought to have been drift. if we can find, therefore, any extensive cold region of the earth where the drift is not, then we can not escape the conclusion that the cold and the ice did not make the drift. let us see: one of the coldest regions of the earth is siberia. it is a vast tract reaching to the arctic circle; it is the north part of the continent of asia; it is intersected by great mountain-ranges. here, if anywhere, we should find the drift; here, if anywhere, was the ice-field, "the sea of ice." it is more elevated and more mountainous than the interior of north america where the drift-deposits are extensive; it is nearer the pole than new york and illinois, covered as these are with hundreds of feet of _débris_, and yet _there is no drift in siberia!_ i quote from a high authority, and a firm believer in the theory that glaciers or ice-sheets caused the drift; james geikie says: "it is remarkable that _nowhere in the great plains of siberia do any traces of glacial action appear to have_ {p. } _been observed._ if cones and mounds of gravel and great erratics like those that sprinkle so wide an area in northern america and northern europe had occurred, they would hardly have failed to arrest the attention of explorers. middendorff does, indeed, mention the occurrence of trains of large erratics which he observed along the banks of some of the rivers, but these, he has no doubt, were carried down by river-ice. the general character of the 'tundras' is that of wide, flat plains, covered for the most part with a grassy and mossy vegetation, but here and there bare and sandy. frequently nothing intervenes to break the monotony of the landscape. . . . it would appear, then, that ill northern asia representatives of the glacial deposits which are met with in similar latitudes in europe and america _do not occur_. the northern drift of russia and germany; the åsar of sweden; the kames, eskers, and erratics of britain; and the iceberg-drift of northern america have, apparently, no equivalent in siberia. consequently we find the great river-deposits, with their mammalian remains, which tell of a milder climate than now obtains in those high latitudes, still lying _undisturbed at the surface_."[ ] think of the significance of all this. there is no drift in siberia; no "till," no "bowlder-clay," no stratified masses of gravel, sand, and stones. there was, then, no drift age in all northern asia, _up to the arctic circle!_ how pregnant is this admission. it demolishes at one blow the whole theory that the drift came of the ice. for surely if we could expect to find ice, during the so-called glacial age, anywhere on the face of our planet, it would be in siberia. but, if there was an ice-sheet there, it did not grind up the rocks; it did not striate them; it did not roll the fragments into bowlders and pebbles; it rested so quietly on the face of the land that, as geikie tells us, the pre-glacial deposits throughout siberia, with their mammalian remains, are still found "_lying undisturbed_ [ . "the great ice age," p. , published in .] {p. } _on the surface_"; and he even thinks that the great mammals, the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, "may have survived in northern asia down to a comparatively recent date,"[ ] ages after they were crushed out of existence by the drift of europe and america. mr. geikie seeks to account for this extraordinary state of things by supposing that the climate of siberia was, during the glacial age, too dry to furnish snow to make the ice-sheet. but when it is remembered that there was moisture enough, we are told, in northern europe and america at that time to form a layer of ice from _one to three miles in thickness_, it would certainly seem that enough ought to have blown across the eastern line of european russia to give siberia a fair share of ice and drift. the explanation is more extraordinary than the thing it explains. one third of the water of all the oceans must have been carried up, and was circulating around in the air, to descend upon the earth in rain and snow, and yet none of it fell on northern asia! and as the line of the continents separating europe and asia had not yet been established, it can not be supposed that the drift ref used to enter asia out of respect to the geographical lines. but not alone is the drift absent from siberia, and, probably, all asia; it does not extend even over all europe. louis figuier says that the traces of glacial action "are observed in all the north of europe, in russia, iceland, norway, prussia, the british islands, part of germany in the north, and even in some parts of the south of spain."[ ] m. edouard collomb finds only a "a shred" of the glacial evidences in france, and thinks they were _absent from part of russia!_ [ . "the great ice age," p. . . "the world before the deluge," p. .] {p. } and, even in north america, the drift is not found everywhere. there is a remarkable region, embracing a large area in wisconsin, iowa, and minnesota, which professor j. d. whitney[ ] calls "the driftless region," in which no drift, no clays, no gravel, no rock strive or furrows are found. the rock-surfaces have not been ground down and polished. "this is the more remarkable," says geikie, "seeing that the regions to the north, west, east, and south are all more or less deeply covered with drift-deposits."[ ] and, in this region, as in siberia, the remains of the large, extinct mammalia are found imbedded in the surface-wash, or in cracks or crevices of the limestone. if the drift of north america was due to the ice-sheet, why is there no drift-deposit in "the driftless region" of the northwestern states of america? surely this region must have been as cold as illinois, ohio, etc. it is now the coldest part of the union. why should the ice have left this oasis, and refused to form on it? or why, if it did form on it, did it refuse to tear up the rock-surfaces and form drift? again, no traces of northern drift are found in california, which is surrounded by high mountains, in some of which fragments of glaciers are found even to this day.[ ] according to foster, the drift did not extend to oregon; and, in the opinion of some, it does not reach much beyond the western boundary of iowa. nor can it be supposed that the driftless regions of siberia, northwestern america, and the pacific coast are due to the absence of ice upon them during the glacial [ . "report of the geological survey of wisconsin," vol. i, p. . . "the great ice age," p. . . whitney, "proceedings of the california academy of natural sciences."] {p. } age, for in siberia the remains of the great mammalia, the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the bison, and the horse, are found to this day imbedded in great masses of ice, which, as we shall see, are supposed to have been formed around them at the very coming of the drift age. but there is another difficulty: let us suppose that on all the continents an ice-belt came down from the north and south poles to ° or ° of latitude, and there stood, massive and terrible, like the ice-sheet of greenland, frowning over the remnant of the world, and giving out continually fogs, snow-storms, and tempests; what, under such circumstances, must have been the climatic conditions of the narrow belt of land which these ice-sheets did not cover? louis figuier says: "such masses of ice could only have covered the earth when the temperature of the air was lowered at least some degrees below zero. but organic life is incompatible with such a temperature; and to this cause must we attribute the disappearance of certain species of animals and plants--in particular the rhinoceros and the elephant--which, before this sudden and extraordinary cooling of the globe, appeared to have limited themselves, in immense herds, to northern europe, and chiefly to siberia, where their remains have been found in such prodigious quantities."[ ] but if the now temperate region of europe and america was subject to a degree of cold great enough to destroy these huge animals, then there could not have been a tropical climate anywhere on the globe. if the line of ° or °, north and south, was several degrees below zero, the equator must have been at least below the frost-point. and, if so, how can we account for the survival, [ . "the world before the deluge," p. .] {p. } to our own time, of innumerable tropical plants that can not stand for one instant the breath of frost, and whose fossilized remains are found in the rocks prior to the drift? as they lived through the glacial age, it could not have been a period of great and intense cold. and this conclusion is in accordance with the results of the latest researches of the scientists:-- "in his valuable studies upon the diluvial flora, count gaston de saporta concludes that the climate in this period was marked rather by extreme moisture than extreme cold." again: where did the clay, which is deposited in such gigantic masses, hundreds of feet thick, over the continents, come from? we have seen (p. , _ante_) that, according to mr. dawkins, "no such clay has been proved to have been formed, _either in the arctic regions, whence the ice-sheet has retreated_, or in the districts forsaken by the glaciers." if the arctic ice-sheet does not create such a clay now, why did it create it centuries ago on the plains of england or illinois? the other day i traveled from minnesota to cape may, on the shore of the atlantic, a distance of about fifteen hundred miles. at scarcely any point was i out of sight of the red clay and gravel of the drift: it loomed up amid the beach-sands of new jersey; it was laid bare by railroad-cuts in the plains of new york and pennsylvania; it covered the highest tops of the alleghanies at altoona; the farmers of ohio, indiana, illinois, and wisconsin were raising crops upon it; it was everywhere. if one had laid down a handful of the wisconsin drift alongside of a handful of the new jersey deposit, he could scarcely have perceived any difference between them. {p. } here, then, is a geological formation, almost identical in character, fifteen hundred miles long from east to west, and reaching through the whole length of north and south america, from the arctic circle to patagonia. did ice grind this out of the granite? where did it get the granite? the granite reaches the surface only in limited areas; as a rule, it is buried many miles in depth under the sedimentary rocks. how did the ice pick out its materials so as to grind _nothing but granite_? this deposit overlies limestone and sandstone. the ice-sheet rested upon them. why were _they_ not ground up with the granite? did the ice intelligently pick out a particular kind of rock, and that the hardest of them all? but here is another marvel--this clay is red. the red is due to the grinding up of mica and hornblende. granite is composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica. in syenitic granite the materials are quartz, feldspar, and hornblende. mica and hornblende contain considerable oxide of iron, while feldspar has none. when mica and hornblende are ground up, the result is blue or red clays, as the oxidation of the iron turns the clay red; while the clay made of feldspar is light yellow or white. now, then, not only did the ice-sheet select for grinding the granite rocks, and refuse to touch the others, but it put the granite itself through some mysterious process by which it separated the feldspar from the mica and hornblende, and manufactured a white or yellow clay out of the one, which it deposited in great sheets by itself, as west of the mississippi; while it ground up the mica and hornblende and made blue or red clays, which it laid down elsewhere, as the red clays are spread over that great stretch of fifteen hundred miles to which i have referred. {p. } can any one suppose that ice could so discriminate? and if it by any means effected this separation of the particles of granite, indissolubly knit together, how could it perpetuate that separation while moving over the land, crushing all beneath and before it, and leave it on the face of the earth free from commixture with the surface rocks? again: the ice-sheets which now exist in the remote north do not move with a constant and regular motion southward, grinding up the rocks as they go. a recent writer, describing the appearance of things in greenland, says: "the coasts are deeply indented with numerous bays and fiords or firths, which, when traced inland, are almost invariably found to terminate against glaciers. thick ice frequently appears, too, crowning the exposed sea-cliffs, from the edges of which _it droops in thick, tongue-like, and stalactitic projections_, until its own weight forces it to break away and topple down the precipices into the sea."[ ] this does not represent an ice-sheet moving down continuously from the high grounds and tearing up the rocks. it rather breaks off like great icicles from the caves of a house. again: the ice-sheets to-day do not striate or groove the rocks over which they move. mr. campbell, author of two works in defense of the iceberg theory--"fire and frost," and "a short american tramp"--went, in , to the coasts of labrador, the strait of belle isle, and the gulf of st. lawrence, for the express purpose of witnessing the effects of icebergs, and testing the theory he had formed. on the coast of labrador he reports that at hanly harbor, where [ . "popular science monthly," april, , p. .] {p. } the whole strait is blocked up with ice each winter, and the great mass swung bodily up and down, "grating along the bottom at all depths," he "found the rocks ground smooth, but _not striated_."[ ] at cape charles and battle harbor, he reports, "the rocks at the water-line are _not striated_."[ ] at st. francis harbor, "the water-line is much rubbed smooth, but _not striated_."[ ] at sea islands, he says, "no striæ are to be seen at the land-wash in these sounds or on open sea-coasts near the present waterline."[ ] again: if these drift-deposits, these vast accumulations of sand, clay, gravel, and bowlders, were caused by a great continental ice-sheet scraping and tearing the rocks on which it rested, and constantly moving toward the sun, then not only would we find, as i have suggested in the case of glaciers, the accumulated masses of rubbish piled up in great windrows or ridges along the lines where the face of the ice-sheet melted, but we would naturally expect that the farther north we went the less we would find of these materials; in other words, that the ice, advancing southwardly, would sweep the north clear of _débris_ to pile it up in the more southern regions. but this is far from being the case. on the contrary, the great masses of the drift extend as far north as the land itself. in the remote, barren grounds of north america, we are told by various travelers who have visited those regions, "sand-hills and erratics appear to be as common as in the countries farther south."[ ] captain bach tells us[ ] that he saw great chains of sand-hills, stretching [ . "a short american tramp," pp. , . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. . . "the great ice age," p. . . "narrative of arctic land expedition to the mouth of the great fish river," pp. , .] {p. } away from each side of the valley of the great fish river, in north latitude °, of great height, and crowned with gigantic bowlders. why did not the advancing ice-sheet drive these deposits southward over the plains of the united states? can we conceive of a force that was powerful enough to grind up the solid rocks, and yet was not able to remove its own _débris_? but there is still another reason which ought to satisfy us, once for all, that the drift-deposits were not due to the pressure of a great continental ice-sheet. it is this: if the presence of the drift proves that the country in which it is found was once covered with a body of ice thick and heavy enough by its pressure and weight to grind up the surface-rocks into clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders, then the tropical regions of the world must have been covered with such a great ice-sheet, upon the very equator; for agassiz found in brazil a vast sheet of "ferruginous clay with pebbles," which covers the whole country, "a sheet of drift," says agassiz, "consisting of the same homogeneous, unstratified paste, and containing loose materials of all sorts and sizes," deep red in color, and distributed, as in the north, in uneven hills, while sometimes it is reduced to a thin deposit. it is recent in time, although overlying rocks ancient geologically. agassiz had no doubt whatever that it was of glacial origin. professor hartt, who accompanied professor agassiz in his south american travels, and published a valuable work called "the geology of brazil," describes drift-deposits as covering the province of pará, brazil, upon the equator itself. the whole valley of the amazon is covered with stratified and unstratified and unfossiliferous {p. } drift,[ ] and also with a peculiar drift-clay (_argile plastique bigarrée_), plastic and streaked. professor hartt gives a cut from which i copy the following representation of drift-clay and pebbles overlying a gneiss hillock of the serra do mar, brazil: ### drift-deposits in the tropics. _a_, drift-clay; _f f_, angular fragments of quartz; _c_. sheet of pebbles; _d d_, gneiss in situ; _g g_, quartz and granite veins traversing the gneiss. but here is the dilemma to which the glacialists are reduced: if an ice-sheet a mile in thickness, or even one hundred feet in thickness, was necessary to produce the drift, and if it covered the equatorial regions of brazil, then there is no reason why the same climatic conditions should not have produced the same results in africa and asia; and the result would be that the entire globe, from pole to pole, must have rolled for days, years, or centuries, wrapped in a continuous easing, mantle, or shroud of ice, under which all vegetable and animal life must have utterly perished. [ . "geology of brazil," p. .] {p. } and we are not without evidences that the drift-deposits are found in africa. we know that they extend in europe to the mediterranean. the "journal of the geographical society" (british) has a paper by george man, f. g. s., on the geology of morocco, in which he says: "glacial moraines may be seen on this range nearly eight thousand feet above the sea, forming gigantic ridges and mounds of porphyritic blocks, in some places damming up the ravines, and at the foot of atlas are enormous mounds of bowlders." these mounds oftentimes rise two thousand feet above the level of the plain, and, according to mr. man, were produced by glaciers. we shall see, hereafter, that the sands bordering egypt belong to the drift age. the diamond-bearing gravels of south africa extend to within twenty-two degrees of the equator. it is even a question whether that great desolate land, the desert of sahara, covering a third of the continent of africa, is not the direct result of this signal catastrophe. henry w. haynes tells us that drift-deposits are found in the desert of sahara, and that-- "in the _bottoms_ of the dry ravines, or wadys, which pierce the hills that bound the valley of the nile, i have found numerous specimens of flint axes of the type of st. acheul, which have been adjudged to be true palæolithic implements by some of the most eminent cultivators of prehistoric science."[ ] the sand and gravel of sahara are underlaid by a deposit of clay. bayard taylor describes in the center of africa [ . "the palæolithic implements of the valley of the delaware," cambridge, .] {p. } great plains of coarse gravel, dotted with gray granite bowlders.[ ] in the united states professor winchell shows that the drift-deposits _extend to the gulf of mexico_. at jackson, in southern alabama, be found deposits of pebbles one hundred feet in thickness.[ ] if there are no drift-deposits except where the great ice-sheet ground them out of the rocks, then a shroud of death once wrapped the entire globe, and _all life ceased_. but we know that all life,--vegetable, animal, and human,--is derived from pre-glacial sources; therefore animal, vegetable, and human life did not perish in the drift age; therefore an ice-sheet did not wrap the world in its death-pall; therefore the drift-deposits of the tropics were not due to an ice-sheet; therefore the drift-deposits of the rest of the world were not due to ice-sheets: therefore we must look elsewhere for their origin. there is no escaping these conclusions. agassiz himself says, describing the glacial age: "all the springs were dried up; the rivers ceased to flow. to the movements of a numerous and animated creation _succeeded the silence of death_." if the verdure was covered with ice a mile in thickness, all animals that lived on vegetation of any kind must have perished; consequently, all carnivores which lived on these must have ceased to exist; and man himself, without animal or vegetable food, must have disappeared for ever. a writer, describing greenland wrapped in such an ice-sheet, says [ . "travels in africa," p. . . "sketches of creation," pp. , .] {p. } "the whole interior seems to be buried beneath a great depth of snow and ice, which loads up the valleys and wraps over the hills. the scene opening to view in the interior is desolate in the extreme--nothing but one dead, dreary expanse of white, so far as the eye can reach--_no living creature frequents this wilderness--neither bird, beast, nor insect_. the silence, deep as death, is broken only when the roaring storm arises to sweep before it the pitiless, blinding snow."[ ] and yet the glacialists would have us believe that brazil and africa, and the whole globe, were once wrapped in such a shroud of death! here, then, in conclusion, are the evidences that the deposits of the drift are not due to continental ice-sheets: i. the present ice-sheets of the remote north create no such deposits and make no such markings. ii. a vast continental elevation of land-surfaces at the north was necessary for the ice to slide down, and this did not exist. iii. the ice-sheet, if it made the drift markings, must have scored the rocks going up-hill, while it did not score them going down-hill. iv. if the cold formed the ice and the ice formed the drift, why is there no drift in the coldest regions of the earth, where there must have been ice? v. continental ice-belts, reaching to ° of latitude, would have exterminated all tropical vegetation. it was not exterminated, therefore such ice-sheets could not have existed. vi. the drift is found in the equatorial regions of the world. if it was produced by an ice-sheet in those regions, all pre-glacial forms of life must have perished; but they did not perish; therefore the ice-sheet could not [ . "popular science monthly," april, , p. .] {p. } have covered these regions, and could not have produced the drift-deposits there found. in brief, the drift is _not_ found where ice must have been, and _is_ found where ice could not have been; the conclusion, therefore, is irresistible that the drift is not due to ice. {p. } chapter vii. the drift a gigantic catastrophe. in the first place, the drift fell upon a fair and lovely world, a world far better adapted to give happiness to its inhabitants than this storm-tossed planet on which we now live, with its endless battle between heat and cold, between sun and ice. the pre-glacial world was a garden, a paradise; not excessively warm at the equator, and yet with so mild and equable a climate that the plants we now call tropical flourished within the present arctic circle. if some future daring navigator reaches the north pole and finds solid land there, he will probably discover in the rocks at his feet the fossil remains of the oranges and bananas of the pre-glacial age. that the reader may not think this an extravagant statement, let me cite a few authorities. a recent writer says: "this was, indeed, for america, _the golden age_ of animals and plants, and in all respects but one--the absence of man--the country was more interesting and picturesque than now. we must imagine, therefore, that the hills and valleys about the present site of new york were covered with noble trees, and a dense undergrowth of species, for the most part different from those now living there; and that these were the homes and feeding-grounds of many kinds of quadrupeds and birds, which have long since become extinct. the broad plain which sloped gently seaward from the highlands must have been {p. } covered with a sub-tropical forest of-giant trees and tangled vines teeming with animal life. this state of things doubtless continued through many thousands of years, but ultimately a change came over the fair face of nature more complete and terrible than we have language to describe."[ ] another says: "at the close of the tertiary age, which ends the long series of geological epochs previous to the quaternary, the landscape of europe had, in the main, assumed its modern appearance. the middle era of this age--the miocene--was characterized by tropical plants, a varied and imposing fauna, and a genial climate, so extended as to nourish forests of beeches, maples, _walnuts_, poplars, and _magnolias in greenland and spitzbergen_, while an exotic vegetation hid the exuberant valleys of england."[ ] dr. dawson says: "this delightful climate was not confined to the present temperate or tropical regions. it extended to the very shores of the arctic sea. in _north_ greenland, at atane-kerdluk, in latitude ° north, at an elevation of more than a thousand feet above the sea, were found the remains of beeches, oaks, pines, poplars, maples, _walnuts, magnolias, limes_, and _vines_. the remains of similar plants were found in spitzbergen, in latitude ° '."[ ] dr. dawson continues: "was the miocene period on the whole a better age of the world than that in which we live? in some respects it was. obviously, there was in the northern hemisphere a vast surface of land under a mild and equable climate, and clothed with a rich and varied vegetation. had we lived in the miocene we might have sat under our own vine and fig-tree equally in greenland and spitzbergen and in those more southern climes to which this [ . "popular science monthly," october, , p. . . l. p. gratacap, in "american antiquarian," july, , p. . . dawson, "earth and man," p. .] {p. } privilege is now restricted. . . . some reasons have been adduced for the belief that in the miocene and eocene there were intervals of cold climate; but the evidence of this may be merely local and exceptional, and does not interfere with the broad characteristics of the age."[ ] sir edward belcher brought away from the dreary shores of wellington channel (latitude ° ' north) portions of a tree which there can be no doubt whatever had actually grown where be found it. the roots were in place, in a frozen mass of earth, the stump standing upright where it was probably overtaken by the great winter.[ ] trees have been found, _in situ_, on prince patrick's island, in latitude ° ' north, _four feet in circumference_. they were so old that the wood had lost its combustible quality, and refused to burn. mr. geikie thinks that it is possible these trees were pre-glacial, and belonged to the miocene age. they may have been the remnants of the great forests which clothed that far northern region when the so-called glacial age came on and brought the drift. we shall see hereafter that man, possibly civilized man, dwelt in this fair and glorious world--this world that knew no frost, no cold, no ice, no snow; that he had dwelt in it for thousands of years; that he witnessed the appalling and sudden calamity which fell upon it; and that he has preserved the memory of this catastrophe to the present day, in a multitude of myths and legends scattered all over the face of the habitable earth. but was it sudden? was it a catastrophe? again i call the witnesses to the stand, for i ask you, good reader, to accept nothing that is not _proved_. in the first place, was it sudden? [ . "earth and man," p. . . "the last of the arctic voyages," vol. i, p. .] {p. } one writer says: "the glacial action, in the opinion of the land-glacialists, was limited to a _definite period_, and operated _simultaneously_ over a vast area."[ ] and again: "the drift was accumulated where it is by some violent action."[ ] louis figuier says: "the two cataclysms of which we have spoken surprised europe at the moment of the development of an important creation. the whole scope of animated nature, the evolution of animals, was _suddenly arrested_ in that part of our hemisphere over which these gigantic convulsions spread, followed by the brief but sudden submersion of entire continents. organic life had scarcely recovered from the violent shock, when a second, and perhaps severer blow assailed it. the northern and central parts of europe, the vast countries which extend from scandinavia to the mediterranean and the danube, were visited by a period of sudden and severe cold; the temperature of the polar regions seized them. the plains of europe, but now ornamented by the luxurious vegetation developed by the heat of a burning climate, the boundless pastures on which herds of great elephants, the active horse, the robust hippopotamus, and great carnivorous animals grazed and roamed, became covered with a mantle of ice and snow."[ ] m. ch. martins says: "the most violent convulsions of the solid and liquid elements appear to have been themselves only the effects due to a cause much more powerful than the mere expansion of the pyrosphere; and it is necessary to recur, in order to explain them, to some new and bolder hypothesis than has yet been hazarded. some philosophers have belief [ . american cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. . . ibid., vol. vi, p. . . "the world before the deluge," p. .] {p. } in an astronomical revolution which may have overtaken our globe in the first age of its formation, and have modified its position in relation to the sun. they admit _that the poles have not always been as they are now_, and that _some terrible shock displaced them_, changing at the same time the inclination of the axis of the rotation of the earth."[ ] louis figuier says: "we can not doubt, after such testimony, of the existence, in the frozen north, of the almost entire remains of the mammoth. the animals seem to have _perished suddenly; enveloped in ice at the moment of their death_, their bodies have been preserved from decomposition by the continual action of the cold."[ ] cuvier says, speaking of the bodies of the quadrupeds which the ice had seized, and which have been preserved, with their hair, flesh, and skin, down to our own times: "if they had not been frozen as soon as killed, putrefaction would have decomposed them; and, on the other hand, this eternal frost could not have previously prevailed in the place where they died, for they could not have lived in such a temperature. it was, therefore, _at the same instant when these animals perished that the country they inhabited was rendered glacial_. these events must have been _sudden, instantaneous, and without any gradation_."[ ] there is abundant evidence that the drift fell upon a land covered with forests, and that the trunks of the trees were swept into the mass of clay and gravel, where they are preserved to this day. mr. whittlesey gives an account of a log found _forty feet below the surface_, in a bed of blue clay, resting [ . "the world before the deluge," p. . . ibid., p. . . "ossements fossiles, discours sur les révolutions du globe."] {p. } upon the "hard-pan" or "till," in a well dug at columbia, ohio.[ ] at bloomington, illinois, pieces of wood were found _one hundred and twenty-three feet below the surface_, in sinking a shaft.[ ] and it is a very remarkable fact that none of these illinois clays _contain any fossils_.[ ] the inference, therefore, is irresistible that the clay, thus unfossiliferous, fell upon and inclosed the trees while they were yet growing. these facts alone would dispose of the theory that the drift was deposited upon lands already covered with water. it is evident, on the contrary, that it was dry land, inhabited land, land embowered in forests. on top of the norwich crag, in england, are found the remains of an ancient forest, "showing stumps of trees standing erect with their roots penetrating an ancient soil."[ ] in this soil occur the remains of many extinct species of animals, together with those of others still living; among these may be mentioned the hippopotamus, three species of elephant, the mammoths, rhinoceros, bear, horse, irish elk, etc. in ireland remains of trees have been found in sand-beds below the till.[ ] dr. dawson found a hardened peaty bed under the bowlder-clay, in canada, which "contained many small roots and branches, apparently of coniferous trees allied to the spruces."[ ] mr. c. whittlesey refers to decayed [ . "smithsonian contributions," vol. xv. . "geology of illinois," vol. iv, p. . . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. . "dublin quarterly journal of science," vol. vi, p. . . "acadian geology," p. .] {p. } leaves and remains of the elephant and mastodon found below and in the drift in america.[ ] "the remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and elephant are found in the pre-glacial beds of italy."[ ] these animals were slaughtered outright, and so suddenly that few escaped: admiral wrangel tells us that the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, etc., are heaped up in such quantities in certain parts of siberia that "he and his men climbed over ridges and mounds composed entirely of their bones."[ ] we have seen that the drift itself has all the appearance of having been the product of some sudden catastrophe: "stones and bowlders alike are scattered higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell, through the clay, so as to give it a _highly confused and tumultuous appearance_." another writer says: "in the mass of the 'till' itself fossils sometimes, but very rarely, occur. tusks of the mammoth, reindeer-antlers, and _fragments of wood_ have from time to time been discovered. they almost invariably afford marks of having been subjected to the same action as the stones and bowlders by which they are surrounded."[ ] another says: "logs and fragments of wood are often got at great depths in the buried gorges."[ ] [ . "smithsonian contributions," vol. xv. . "the great ice age," p. . . agassiz, "geological sketches," p. . . "the great ice age," p. . . "illustrations of surface geology," "smithsonian contributions."] {p. } mr. geikie says: "below a deposit of till, at woodhill quarry, near kilmaurs, in ayrshire (scotland), the remains of mammoths and reindeer and certain marine shells have several times been detected during the quarrying operations. . . . two elephant-tasks were got at a depth of seventeen and a half feet from the surface. . . . the mammalian remains, obtained from this quarry, occurred in a peaty layer between two thin beds of sand and gravel which lay beneath a mass of 'till,' and _rested directly on the sandstone rock_."[ ] and again: "remains of the mammoth have been met with at chapelhall, near airdrie, where they occurred in a bed of laminated sand, _underlying_ 'till.' reindeer-antlers have also been discovered in other localities, as in the valley of the endrick, about four miles from loch lomond, where an antler was found associated with marine shells, near the bottom of a bed of blue clay, and _close to the underlying rock_--the blue clay being covered with twelve feet of tough, stony clay."[ ] professor winchell says "buried tree-trunks are often exhumed from the glacial drift at a depth of from twenty to _sixty feet from the surface_. dr. locke has published an account of a mass of buried drift-wood at salem, ohio, _forty-three feet below the surface_, imbedded in ancient mud. the museum of the university of michigan contains several fragments of well-preserved tree-trunks exhumed from wells in the vicinity of ann arbor. such occurrences are by no means uncommon. the encroachments of the waves upon the shores of the great lakes reveal whole forests of the buried trunks of the white cedar."[ ] these citations place it beyond question that the drift came suddenly upon the world, slaughtering the animals, [ . the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. . . winchell, "sketches of creation," p. .] {p. } breaking up the forests, and overwhelming the trunks and branches of the trees in its masses of _débris_. let us turn to the next question: was it an extraordinary event, a world-shaking cataclysm? the answer to this question is plain: the drift marks probably the most awful convulsion and catastrophe that has ever fallen upon the globe. the deposit of these continental masses of clay, sand, and gravel was but one of the features of the apalling event. in addition to this the earth at the same time was cleft with great cracks or fissures, which reached down through many miles of the planet's crust to the central fires and released the boiling rocks imprisoned in its bosom, and these poured to the surface, as igneous, intrusive, or trap-rocks. where the great breaks were not deep enough to reach the central fires, they left mighty fissures in the surface, which, in the scandinavian regions, are known as _fiords_, and which constitute a striking feature of the scenery of these northern lands; they are great canals--hewn, as it were, in the rock--with high walls penetrating from the sea far into the interior of the land. they are found in great britain, maine, nova scotia, labrador, greenland, and on the western coast of north america. david dale owen tells us that the outburst of trap-rock at the dalles of the st. croix came up _through open fissures_, breaking the continuity of strata, without tilting them into inclined planes."[ ] it would appear as if the earth, in the first place, cracked into deep clefts, and the igneous matter within took advantage of these breaks to rise to the surface. it caught masses of the sandstone in its midst and hardened around them. these great clefts seem to be, as owen says, "lines [ . "geological survey of wisconsin, iowa, and minnesota," p. .] {p. } radiating southwestwardly from lake superior, as if that was the seat of the disturbance which caused them."[ ] moreover, when we come to examine the face of the rocks on which the drift came, we do not find them merely smoothed and ground down, as we might suppose a great, heavy mass of ice moving slowly over them would leave them. there was something more than this. there was something, (whatever it was,) that fell upon them with awful force and literally _smashed_ them, pounding, beating, pulverizing them, and turning one layer of mighty rock over upon another, and scattering them in the wildest confusion. we can not conceive of anything terrestrial that, let loose upon the bare rocks to-day, would or could produce such results. geikie says: "when the 'till' is removed from the underlying rocks, these almost invariably show either a well-smoothed, polished, and striated surface, or else a _highly confused, broken, and smashed_ appearance."[ ] gratacap says: "'_crushed ledges_' designate those plicated, overthrown, or curved exposures where parallel rocks, as talcose schist, usually vertical, are bent and fractured, _as if by a maul like force, battering them from above_. the strata are oftentimes tumbled over upon a cliff-side like a row of books, and rest upon heaps of fragments broken away by the strain upon the bottom layers, or _crushed_ off from their exposed layers."[ ] the rev. o. fisher, f. g. s., says he "finds the covering beds to consist of two members--a lower one, entirely destitute of organic remains, and [ . "geological survey of wisconsin, iowa, and minnesota," p. . . "the great ice age," p. . . "popular science monthly," january, , p. .] {p. } generally unstratified, which has often been _forcibly_ indented _into the bed beneath it_, sometimes exhibiting slickensides at the junction. there is evidence of this lower member having been pushed or dragged over the surface, from higher to lower levels, _in a plastic condition_; on which account he has named it 'the trail'."[ ] now, all these details are incompatible with the idea of ice-action. what condition of ice can be imagined that would _smash_ rocks, that would beat them like a maul, that would _indent_ them? and when we pass from the underlying rocks to the "till" itself, we find the evidences of tremendous force exerted in the wildest and most tumultuous manner. when the clay and stones were being deposited on those crushed and pounded rocks, they seem to have picked up the _detritus_ of the earth in great masses, and whirled it wildly in among their own material, and deposited it in what are called "the intercalated beds." it would seem as if cyclonic winds had been at work among the mass. while the "till" itself is devoid of fossils, "the intercalated beds" often contain them. whatever was in or on the soil was seized upon, carried up into the air, then cast down, and mingled among the "till." james geikie says, speaking of these intercalated beds: "they are twisted, bent, crumpled, and confused _often in the wildest manner_. layers of clay, sand, and gravel, which were probably deposited in a nearly horizontal plane, are puckered into folds and sharply curved into vertical positions. i have seen whole beds of sand and clay which had all the appearance of having been pushed forward bodily for some distance the bedding assuming _the most fantastic appearance_. . . . the intercalated beds are everywhere cut through by the overlying 'till,' and [ . "journal of the geological society and geological magazine."] {p. } large portions have been carried away. . . . they form but a small fraction of the drift-deposits."[ ] in the accompanying cut we have one of these sand (_s_) and clay (_c_) patches, embosomed in the "till," _t_ and _t_ . ### stratified beds in till, leithen water, peeblesshire, scotland. and again, the same writer says: "the intercalated beds are remarkable for having yielded an imperfect skull of the great extinct ox (_bos primigenius_), and remains of the irish elk or deer, and the horse, together with layers of peaty matter."[ ] several of our foremost scientists see in the phenomena of the drift the evidences of a cataclysm of some sort. sir john lubbock[ ] gives the following representation of a section of the drift at joinville, france, containing ### section at joinville. [ . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. . . "prehistoric times," p. .] {p. } an immense sandstone block, eight feet six inches in length, with a width of two feet eight inches, and a thickness of three feet four inches. discussing the subject, mr. lubbock says: "we must feel that a body of water, with power to move such masses as these, must have been very different from any floods now occurring in those valleys, and might well deserve the name of a _cataclysm_. . . . but a flood which could bring down so great a mass would certainly have swept away the comparatively light and movable gravel below. we can not, therefore, account for the phenomena by aqueous action, because a flood which would deposit the sandstone blocks would remove the underlying gravel, and a flood which would deposit the gravel would not remove the blocks. the _deus ex machinâ_ has not only been called in most unnecessarily, but when examined turns out to be but an idol, after all." sir john thinks that floating ice might have dropped these blocks; but then, on the other hand, m. c. d'orbigny observes that all the fossils found in these beds belong to fresh-water or land animals. the sea has had nothing to do with them. and d'orbigny thinks the drift came from cataclysms. m. boucher de perthes, the first and most exhaustive investigator of these deposits, has always been of opinion that the drift-gravels of france were deposited by _violent cataclysms_.[ ] this view seems to be confirmed by the fact that the gravel-beds in which these remains of man and extinct animals are found lie at an elevation of from eighty to _two hundred feet above the present water-levels of the valleys_. sir john lubbock says: "our second difficulty still remains--namely, the height at which the upper-level gravels stand above the [ . "mém. soc. d'em. l'abbeville," , p. .] {p. } present water-line. we can not wonder that these beds have generally been attributed to violent cataclysms."[ ] in america, in britain, and in europe, the glacial deposits made clean work of nearly all animal life. the great mammalia, too large to find shelter in caverns, were some of them utterly swept away, while others never afterward returned to those regions. in like manner palæolithic man, man of the rude and unpolished flint implements, the contemporary of the great mammalia, the mammoth, the hippopotamus, and the rhinoceros, was also stamped out, and the cave-deposits of europe show that there was a long interval before be reappeared in those regions. the same forces, whatever they were, which "smashed" and "pounded" and "contorted" the surface of the earth, crushed man and his gigantic associates out of existence.[ ] but in siberia, where, as we have seen, some of the large mammalia were caught and entombed in ice, and preserved even to our own day, there was no "smashing" and "crushing" of the earth, and many escaped the snow-sheets, and their posterity survived in that region for long ages after the glacial period, and are supposed only to have disappeared in quite recent times. in fact, within the last two or three years a russian exile declared that he had seen a group of living mammoths in a wild valley in a remote portion of that wilderness. these, then, good reader, to recapitulate, are points that seem to be established: i. the drift marked a world-convulsing catastrophe. it was a gigantic and terrible event. it was something quite out of the ordinary course of nature's operations. ii. it was sudden and overwhelming. [ . "prehistoric times," p. . . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } iii. it fell upon land areas, much like our own in geographical conformation; a forest-covered, inhabited land; a glorious land, basking in perpetual summer, in the midst of a golden age. let us go a step further. {p. } chapter viii. great heat a prerequisite. now, it will be observed that the principal theories assigned for the drift go upon the hypothesis that it was produced by extraordinary masses of ice--ice as icebergs, ice as glaciers, or ice in continental sheets. the scientists admit that immediately preceding this glacial age the climate was mild and equable, and these great formations of ice did not exist. but none of them pretend to say how the ice came or what caused it. even agassiz, the great apostle of the ice-origin of drift, is forced to confess: "we have, as yet, no clew to the source of this great and _sudden_ change of climate. various suggestions have been made--among others, that formerly the inclination of the earth's axis was greater, or that a submersion of the continents under water might have produced a decided increase of cold; but none of these explanations are satisfactory, and science has yet to find any cause which accounts for all the phenomena connected with it."[ ] some have imagined that a change in the position of the earth's axis of rotation, due to the elevation of extensive mountain-tracts between the poles and the equator, might have caused a degree of cold sufficient to produce the phenomena of the drift; but geikie says-- "it has been demonstrated that the protuberance of the earth at the equator so vastly exceeds that of any [ . "geological sketches," p. .] {p. } possible elevation of mountain-masses between the equator and the poles, that any slight changes which may have resulted from such geological causes could have had only an infinitesimal effect upon the. general climate of the globe."[ ] let us reason together:-- the ice, say the glacialists, caused the drift. what caused the ice? great rains and snows, they say, falling on the face of the land. granted. what is rain in the first instance? vapor, clouds. whence are the clouds derived? from the waters of the earth, principally from the oceans. how is the water in the clouds transferred to the clouds from the seas? by evaporation. what is necessary to evaporation? _heat_. here, then, is the sequence: if there is no heat, there is no evaporation; no evaporation, no clouds; no clouds, no rain; no rain, no ice; no ice, no drift. but, as the glacial age meant ice on a stupendous scale, then it must have been preceded by heat on a stupendous scale. professor tyndall asserts that the ancient glaciers indicate the action of heat as much as cold. he says: "cold will not produce glaciers. you may have the bitterest northeast winds here in london throughout the winter without a single flake of snow. cold must have the fitting object to operate upon, and this object--the aqueous vapor of the air--is the direct product of heat. let us put this glacier question in another form: the latent heat of aqueous vapor, at the temperature of its production in the tropics, is about , ° fahr., for the latent heat augments as the temperature of evaporation descends. a pound of water thus vaporized at the equator has absorbed one thousand times the quantity of heat which [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } would raise a pound of the liquid one degree in temperature. . . . it is perfectly manifest that by weakening the sun's action, either through a defect of emission or by the steeping of the entire solar system in space of a low temperature, _we should be cutting off the glaciers at their source_."[ ] mr. croll says: "heat, to produce _evaporation_, is just as essential to the accumulation of snow and ice as cold to produce condensation."[ ] sir john lubbock says: "paradoxical as it may appear, the primary cause of the glacial epoch may be, after all, _an elevation of the temperature in the tropics_, causing a greater amount of evaporation in the equatorial regions, and consequently a greater supply of the raw material of snow in the temperate regions during the winter months."[ ] so necessary did it appear that heat must have come from some source to vaporize all this vast quantity of water, that one gentleman, professor frankland,[ ] suggested that the ocean must have been rendered hot by the internal fires of the earth, and thus the water was sent up in clouds to fall in ice and snow; but sir john lubbock disposes of this theory by showing that the fauna of the seas during the glacial period possessed an arctic character. we can not conceive of greenland shells and fish and animals thriving in an ocean nearly at the boiling-point. a writer in "the popular science monthly"[ ] says: "these evidences of vast accumulations of ice and snow on the borders of the atlantic have led some theorists [ . "heat considered as a mode of motion," p. . . "climate and time," p. . . "prehistoric times," p. . . "philosophical magazine," , p. . . july, , p. .] {p. } to suppose that the ice period was attended, if not in part caused, by a far more abundant evaporation from the surface of the atlantic than takes place at present; and it has even been conjectured that submarine volcanoes in the tropics might have loaded the atmosphere with an unusual amount of moisture. this speculation seems to me, however, both improbable and superfluous; improbable, because no traces of any such cataclysm have been discovered, and it is more than doubtful whether the generation of steam in the tropics, however large the quantity, would produce glaciation of the polar regions. the ascent of steam and heated air loaded with vapor to the altitude of refrigeration would, as it seems to me, result in the rapid radiation of the heat into space, and the local precipitation of unusual quantities of rain; and the effect of such a catastrophe would be slowly propagated and feebly felt in the arctic and antarctic regions. when we consider the magnitude of the ice-sheets which, it is claimed by the glacialists, covered the continents during the drift age, it becomes evident that a vast proportion of the waters of the ocean must have been evaporated and carried into the air, and thence cast down as snow and rain. mr. thomas belt, in a recent number of the "quarterly journal of science," argues that the formation of ice-sheets at the poles _must have lowered the level of the oceans of the world two thousand-feet!_ the mathematician can figure it out for himself: take the area of the continents down to, say, latitude °, on both sides of the equator; suppose this area to be covered by an ice-sheet averaging, say, two miles in thickness; reduce this mass of ice to cubic feet of water, and estimate what proportion of the ocean would be required to be vaporized to create it. calculated upon any basis, and it follows that the level of the ocean must have been greatly lowered. what a vast, inconceivable accession of _heat_ to our {p. } atmosphere was necessary to lift this gigantic layer of ocean-water out of its bed and into the clouds! the ice, then, was not the cause of the cataclysm; it was simply one of the secondary consequences. we must look, then, behind the ice-age for some cause that would prodigiously increase the _heat_ of our atmosphere, and, when we have found _that_, we shall have discovered the cause of the drift-deposits as well as of the ice. the solution of the whole stupendous problem is, therefore, heat, not cold. {p. } part ii. the comet. chapter i. a comet caused the drift. now, good reader, we have reasoned together up to this point. to be sure, i have done most of the talking, while you have indulged in what the rev. sydney smith called, speaking of lord macaulay, "brilliant flashes of silence." but i trust we agree thus far that neither water nor ice caused the drift. water and ice were doubtless associated with it, but neither produced it. what, now, are the elements of the problem to be solved? first, we are to find something that instantaneously increased to a vast extent the heat of our planet, vaporized the seas, and furnished material for deluges of rain, and great storms of snow, and accumulations of ice north and south of the equator and in the high mountains. secondly, we are to find something that, _coming from above_, smashed, pounded, and crushed "as with a maul," and rooted up as with a plow, the gigantic rocks of the surface, and scattered them for hundreds of miles from their original location. {p. } thirdly, we are to find something which brought to the planet vast, incalculable masses of clay and gravel, which did not contain any of the earth's fossils; which, like the witches of macbeth, look not like th' inhabitants of earth, and yet are on it; " which are marked after a fashion which can not be found anywhere else on earth; produced in a laboratory which has not yet been discovered on the planet. fourthly, we are to find something that would produce cyclonic convulsions upon a scale for which the ordinary operations of nature furnish us no parallel. fifthly, we are to find some external force so mighty that it would crack the crust of the globe like an eggshell, lining its surface with great rents and seams, through which the molten interior boiled up to the light. would a comet meet all these prerequisites? i think it would. let us proceed in regular order. {p. } chapter ii. what is a comet? in the first place, are comets composed of solid, liquid, or gaseous substances? are they something, or the next thing to nothing? it has been supposed by some that they are made of the most attenuated gases, so imponderable that if the earth were to pass through one of them we would be unconscious of the contact. others have imagined them to be mere smoke-wreaths, faint mists, so rarefied that the substance of one a hundred million miles long could, like the genie in the arabian story, be inclosed in one of solomon's brass bottles. but the results of recent researches contradict these views: padre secchi, of rome, observed, in donati's comet, of , from the th to the d of october, that the nucleus threw out intermittingly from itself appendages having the form of brilliant, coma-shaped masses of incandescent substance twisted violently backward. he accounts for these very remarkable changes of configuration by the influence first of the sun's heat upon the comet's substance as it approached toward perihelion, and afterward by the production in the luminous emanations thus generated of enormous tides and perturbation derangements. some of the most conspicuous of these luminous developments occurred on october th, when the comet was at its nearest approach to the earth, and on {p. } october th, when it was nearest to the planet venus. he has no doubt that the close neighborhood of the earth and venus at those times was the effective cause of the sudden changes of aspect, and that those changes of aspect may be accepted _as proof that the comet's substance consists of "really ponderable material."_ mr. lockyer used the spectroscope to analyze the light of coggia's comet, and he established beyond question that-- "some of the rays of the comet were sent either from _solid particles_, or from vapor in a state of _very high condensation_, and also that beyond doubt other portions of the comet's light issue from the vapor _shining by its own inherent light_. the light coming from the more dense constituents, and therefore giving a continuous colored spectrum, was, however, deficient in blue rays, and was most probably emitted _by material substance at the low red and yellow stages of incandescence_." padre secchi, at rome, believed he saw in the comet "carbon, or an oxide of carbon, as the source of the bright luminous bands," and the abbé moigno asks whether this comet may not be, after all, "_un gigantesque diamant volatilisé_." "whatever may be the answer hereafter given to that question, the verdict of the spectroscope is clearly to the effect that the comet is made up of a _commingling of thin vapor and of denser particles_, either compressed into the _condition of solidification_, or into some physical state approaching to that condition, and is therefore entirely in accordance with the notion formed on other grounds that the nucleus of the comet is a _cluster of solid nodules or granules_, and that the luminous coma and tail are jets and jackets of vapor, associated with the more dense ingredients, and _swaying and streaming about them as heat and gravity, acting antagonistic ways, determine_."[ ] [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. .] {p. } if the comet shines by reflected light, it is pretty good evidence that there must be some material substance there to reflect the light. "a considerable portion of the light of the comet is, nevertheless, borrowed from the sun, for it has one property belonging to it that only reflected light can manifest. it is capable of being polarized by prisms of double-refracting spar. polarization of this character is _only possible_ when the light that is operated upon has already been reflected _from an imperfectly transparent medium_."[ ] there is considerable difference of opinion as to whether the bead of the comet is solid matter or inflammable gas. "there is nearly always a point of superior brilliancy perceptible in the comet's head, which is termed its nucleus, and it is necessarily a matter of pressing interest to determine what this bright nucleus is; whether it is really a kernel of hard, solid substance, or merely a whiff of somewhat more condensed vapor. newton, from the first, maintained that the comet is _made partly of solid substance_, and _partly of an investment of thin, elastic vapors_. if this is the case, it is manifest that the central nodule of dense substance should be capable of intercepting light when it passes in front of a more distant luminary, such as a fixed star. comets, on this account, have been watched very narrowly whenever they have been making such a passage. on august , , the astronomer messier believed that he saw a second bright star _burst into sight from behind the nucleus of a comet which had concealed it the instant before_. another observer, wartmann, in the year , noticed that the light of an eighth-magnitude star was _temporarily quenched as the nucleus of encke's comet passed over it_."[ ] others, again, have held that stars have been seen through the comet's nucleus. [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } amédée guillemin says: "comets have been observed whose heads, instead of being nebulous, have presented the appearance of stars, with which, indeed, they have been confounded."[ ] when sir william herschel discovered the planet urania, he thought it was a comet. mr. richard a. proctor says: "the spectroscopic observations made by mr. huggins on the light of three comets show that a certain portion, at least, of the light of these objects _is inherent_. . . . the nucleus gave in each case three bands of light, indicating that the substances of the nuclei consisted of glowing vapor."[ ] in one case, the comet-head seemed, as in the case of the, comet examined by padre secchi, to consist of pure carbon. in the great work of dr. h. schellen, of cologne, annotated by professor huggins, we read: "that the nucleus of a comet can not be in itself a dark and solid body, such as the planets are, is proved by its great transparency; but this does not preclude the possibility of its consisting of _innumerable solid particles_ separated from one another, which, when illuminated by the sun, give, by the reflection of the solar light, the impression of a homogeneous mass. it has, therefore, been concluded that comets are either composed of a substance which, like gas in a state of extreme rarefaction, is perfectly transparent, or of _small solid particles_ individually separated by intervening spaces through which the light of a star can pass without obstruction, and which, held together by mutual attraction, as well as by gravitation toward a denser central conglomeration, moves through space _like a cloud of dust_. in any case the connection lately noticed by schiaparelli, between comets and meteoric [ . "the heavens," p. . . note to guillemin's "heavens," p. .] {p. } showers, seems to necessitate the supposition that in many comets a similar aggregation of particles seems to exist."[ ] i can not better sum up the latest results of research than by giving dr. schellen's words in the work just cited: "by collating these various phenomena, the conviction can scarcely be resisted that the nuclei of comets not only emit their own light, which is that of a glowing gas, but also, together with the coma and the tail, reflect the light of the sun. there seems nothing, therefore, to contradict the theory that the mass of a comet may be composed of _minute solid bodies_, kept apart one from another in the same way as the infinitesimal particles forming a cloud of dust or smoke are held loosely together, and that, as the comet approaches the sun, the most easily fusible constituents of these small bodies become wholly or partially vaporized, and in a condition of _white heat_ overtake the remaining solid particles, and surround the nucleus in a self-luminous cloud of glowing vapor."[ ] here, then, we have the comet: first, a more or less solid nucleus, on fire, blazing, glowing. second, vast masses of gas heated to a white heat and enveloping the nucleus, and constituting the luminous head, which was in one case fifty times as large as the moon. third, solid materials, constituting the tail (possibly the nucleus also), which are ponderable, which reflect the sun's light, and are carried along under the influence of the nucleus of the comet. fourth, possibly in the rear of all these, attenuated volumes of gas, prolonging the tail for great distances. what are these solid materials? [ . "spectrum analysis," . . ibid., p. .] {p. } stones, and sand, the finely comminuted particles of stones ground off by ceaseless attrition. what is the proof of this? simply this: that it is now conceded that meteoric showers are shreds and patches of cometic matter, dropped from the tail; _and meteoric showers are stones_. "schiaparelli considers meteors to be dispersed portions of the comet's original substance; that is, of the substance with which the comet entered the solar domain. thus comets would come to be regarded as consisting of _a multitude of relatively minute masses_."[ ] now, what is the genesis of a comet? how did it come to be? how was it born? in the first place, there are many things which would connect them with our planets. they belong to the solar system; they revolve around the sun. says amédée guillemin: "comets form a part of our solar system. like the. planets, they revolve about the sun, traversing with very variable velocities extremely elongated orbits."[ ] we shall see reason to believe that they contain the same kinds of substances of which the planets are composed. their orbits seem to be reminiscences of former planetary conditions: "all the comets, having a period not exceeding seven years, travel in the same direction around the sun as the planets. among comets with periods less than eighty years long, five sixths travel in the same direction as the planets."[ ] [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. v, p. . . "the heavens," p. . . american cyclopedia," vol. v, p. .] {p. } it is agreed that this globe of ours was at first a gaseous mass; as it cooled it condensed like cooling steam into a liquid mass; it became in time a molten globe of red-hot matter. as it cooled still further, a crust or shell formed around it, like the shell formed on an egg, and on this crust we dwell. while the crust is still plastic it shrinks as the mass within grows smaller by further cooling, and the wrinkles so formed in the crust are the depths of the ocean and the elevations of the mountain-chains. but as ages go on and the process of cooling progresses, the crust reaches a density when it supports itself, like a couple of great arches; it no longer wrinkles; it no longer follows downward the receding molten mass within; mountains cease to be formed; and at length we have a red-hot ball revolving in a shell or crust, with a space between the two, like the space between the dried and shrunken kernel of the nut and the nut itself. volcanoes are always found on sea-shores or on islands. why? through breaks in the earth the sea-water finds its way occasionally down upon the breast of the molten mass; it is at once converted into gas, steam; and as it expands it blows itself out through the escape-pipe of the volcano; precisely as the gas formed by the gunpowder coming in contact with the fire of the percussion-cap, drives the ball out before it through the same passage by which it had entered. hence, some one has said, "no water, no volcano." while the amount of water which so enters is small because of the smallness of the cavity between the shell of the earth and the molten globe within, this process is carried on upon a comparatively small scale, and is a safe one for the earth. but suppose the process of cooling to go on uninterruptedly until a vast space exists between the {p. } crust and the core of the earth, and that some day a convulsion of the surface creates a great chasm in the crust, and the ocean rushes in and fills up part of the cavity; a tremendous quantity of steam is formed, too great to escape by the aperture through which it entered, an explosion takes place, and the crust of the earth is blown into a million fragments. the great molten ball within remains intact, though sorely torn; in its center is still the force we call gravity; the fragments of the crust can not fly off into space; they are constrained to follow the master-power lodged in the ball, which now becomes the nucleus of a comet, still blazing and burning, and vomiting flames, and wearing itself away. the catastrophe has disarranged its course, but it still revolves in a prolonged orbit around the sun, carrying its broken _débris_ in a long trail behind it. this _débris_ arranges itself in a regular order: the largest fragments are on or nearest the head; the smaller are farther away, diminishing in regular gradation, until the farthest extremity, the tail, consists of sand, dust, and gases. there is a continual movement of the particles of the tail, operated upon by the attraction and repulsion of the sun. the fragments collide and crash against each other; by a natural law each stone places itself so that its longest diameter coincides with the direction of the motion of the comet; hence, as they scrape against each other they mark each other with lines or _striæ_, lengthwise of their longest diameter. the fine dust ground out by these perpetual collisions does not go off into space, or pack around the stones, but, still governed by the attraction of the head, it falls to the rear and takes its place, like the small men of a regiment, in the farther part of the tail. now, all this agrees with what science tells us of the constitution of clay. {p. } "it is a finely levigated silico-aluminous earth--formed by the disintegration of feldspathic or granite rocks."[ ] the particles ground out of feldspar are finer than those derived from mica and hornblende, and we can readily understand how the great forces of gravity, acting upon the dust of the comet's tail, might separate one from the other; or how magnetic waves passing through the comet might arrange all the particles containing iron by themselves, and thus produce that marvelous separation of the constituents of the granite which we have found to exist in the drift clays. if the destroyed world possessed no sedimentary rocks, then the entire material of the comet would consist of granitic stones and dust such as constitutes clays. the stones are reduced to a small size by the constant attrition: "the stones of the 'till' are not of the largest; indeed, bowlders above four feet in diameter are comparatively seldom met with in the till."[ ] and this theory is corroborated by the fact that the eminent german geologist, dr. hahn, has recently discovered an entire series of organic remains in meteoric stones, of the class called _chrondites_, and which he identifies as belonging to classes of sponges, corals, and crinoids. dr. weinland, another distinguished german, corroborates these discoveries; and he has also found fragments in these stones very much like the youngest marine chalk in the gulf of mexico; and he thinks he sees, under the microscope, traces of vegetable growth. francis birgham says: [ . "american cyclopædia," article "clay." . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } "this entire ex-terrestrial fauna hitherto discovered, which already comprises about fifty different species, and which originates from different meteoric falls, even from some during the last century, conveys the impression that it doubtlessly once formed part of _a single ex-terrestrial-celestial body_ with a unique creation, which in by-gone ages seems to have been overtaken by a grand catastrophe, during which it was broken up into fragments."[ ] when we remember that meteors are now generally believed to be the droppings of comets, we come very near to proof of the supposition that comets are the _débris_ of exploded planets; for only on planets can we suppose that life existed, for there was required, for the growth of these sponges, corals, and crinoids, rocks, earth, water, seas or lakes, atmosphere, sunshine, and a range of temperature between the degree of cold where life is frozen up and the degree of heat in which it is burned up: hence, these meteors must be fragments of bodies possessing earth-like conditions. we know that the heavenly bodies are formed of the same materials as our globe. dana says: "meteoric stones exemplify the same chemical and crystallographic laws as the rocks of the earth, and have afforded no new element or principle of any kind."[ ] it may be presumed, therefore, that the granite crust of the exploded globe from which some comet was created was the source of the finely triturated material which we know as clay. but the clays are of different colors--white, yellow, red, and blue. [ . "popular science monthly," november, , p. . . "manual of geology," p. .] {p. } "the aluminous minerals contained in granite rocks are feldspar, mica, and hornblende. . . . mica and hornblende generally contain considerable oxide of iron, while feldspar usually yields only a trace or none. therefore clays which are derived from feldspar are light-colored or white, while those partially made up of decomposed mica or hornblende are dark, either bluish or red."[ ] the tail of the comet seems to be perpetually in motion. it is, says one writer, "continually _changing and fluctuating_ as vaporous masses of cloud-like structure might be conceived to do, and in some instances there has been a strong appearance even of an _undulating movement_."[ ] the great comet of , donati's comet, which many now living will well remember, and which was of such size that when its head was near our horizon the extremity of the tail reached nearly to the zenith, illustrated this continual movement of the material of the tail; that appendage shrank and enlarged millions of miles in length. mr. lockyer believed that he saw in coggia's comet the evidences of a _whirling_ motion-- "in which the regions of greatest brightness were caused by the different coils _cutting_, or appearing to cut, each other, and so in these parts leading to compression or condensation, and _frequent collision of the luminous particles_." olbers saw in a comet's tail-- "a sudden flash and pulsation of light which vibrated for several seconds through it, and the tail appeared during the continuance of the pulsations of light to be lengthened by several degrees and then again contracted."[ ] [ . "american cyclopædia," article "clay." . "edinburgh review," october, , p. , , "cosmos," vol. i, p. .] {p. } now, in this perpetual motion, this conflict, these great thrills of movement, we are to find the source of the clays which cover a large part of our globe to a depth of hundreds of feet. where are those exposures of granite on the face of the earth from which ice or water could have ground them? granite, i repeat, comes to the surface only in limited areas. and it must be remembered that clay is the product exclusively of granite ground to powder. the clays are composed exclusively of the products of disintegrated granite. they contain but a trace of lime or magnesia or organic matters, and these can be supposed to have been infiltrated into them after their arrival on the face of the earth.[ ] other kinds of rock, ground up, form sand. moreover, we have seen that neither glaciers nor ice-sheets now produce such clays. we shall see, as we proceed, that the legends of mankind, in describing the comet that struck the earth, represent it as party-colored; it is "speckled" in one legend; spotted like a tiger in another; sometimes it is a _white_ boar in the heavens; sometimes a _blue_ snake; sometimes it is _red_ with the blood of the millions that are to perish. doubtless these separate formations, ground out of the granite, from the mica, hornblende, or feldspar, respectively, may, as i have said, under great laws, acted upon by magnetism or electricity, have arranged themselves in separate lines or sheets, in the tail of the comet, and hence we find that the clays of one region are of one color, while those of another are of a different hue. again, we shall see that the legends represent the monster as "winding," undulating, writhing, twisting, fold over fold, precisely as the telescopes show us the comets do to-day. [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. iv, p. .] {p. } the very fact that these waves of motion run through the tail of the comet, and that it is capable of expanding and contracting on an immense scale, is conclusive proof that it is composed of small, adjustable particles. the writer from whom i have already quoted, speaking of the extraordinary comet of , says: "as the comet moves past the great luminary, it sweeps round its tail as a sword may be conceived to be held out at arm's-length, and then waved round the head, from one side to the opposite. but a sword with a blade one hundred and fifty millions of miles long must be a somewhat awkward weapon to brandish round after this fashion. its point would have to sweep through a curve stretching out more than six hundred millions of miles; and, even with an allowance of two hours for the accomplishment of the movement, the flash of the weapon would be of such terrific velocity that it is not an easy task to conceive how any blade of _connected material substance_ could bear the strain of the stroke. even with a blade that possessed the coherence and tenacity of iron or steel, the case would be one that it would be difficult for molecular cohesion to deal with. but that difficulty is almost infinitely increased when it is a substance of much lower cohesive tenacity than either iron or steel that has to be subjected to the strain. "there would be, at least, some mitigation of this difficulty if it were lawful to assume that the substance which is subjected to this strain was not amenable to the laws of ponderable existence; if there were room for the notion that comets and their tails, which have to be brandished in such a stupendous fashion, were sky-spectres, immaterial phantoms, unreal visions of that negative shadow-kind which has been alluded to. this, however, unfortunately, is not a permissible alternative in the circumstances of the case. the great underlying and indispensable fact that the comet comes rushing up toward the sun out of space, and then shoots round that great center of attraction by the force of its own acquired and ever-increasing impetuosity; the fact that it is obedient {p. } through this course to the law of elliptical, or, to speak more exactly, of conic-section, movement, _permits of no doubt as to the condition of materiality_. the comet is obviously drawn by the influence of the sun's mass, and is subservient to that all-pervading law of sympathetic gravitation that is the sustaining bond of the material universe. _it is ponderable substance beyond all question_, and held by that chain of physical connection which it was the glory of newton to discover. if the comet were not a material and ponderable substance it would not gravitate round the sun, and it would not move with increasing velocity as it neared the mighty mass until it had gathered the energy for its own escape in the enhanced and quickened momentum. in the first instance, the ready obedience to the attraction, and then the overshooting of the spot from which it is exerted, combine to establish the comet's right to stand ranked at least among the ponderable bodies of space."[ ] and it is to the comet we must look for the source of a great part of those vast deposits of gravel which go to constitute the drift. "they have been usually attributed to the action of waves; but the mechanical work of the ocean is mostly confined to its shores and soundings, where alone material exists in quantity within reach of the waves and currents.[ ] . . . the eroding action is greatest for a short distance above the height of half-tide, and, except in violent storms, it is almost null below low-tide."[ ] but if any one will examine a sea-beach he will see, not a vast mass of pebbles perpetually rolling and grinding each other, but an expanse of sand. and this is to be expected; for as soon as a part of the pebbles is, by the attrition of the waves, reduced to sand, the sand packs around the stones and arrests their further waste. to form such a mass of gravel as is found in the drift we [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. . . dana's "text book," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } must conceive of some way whereby, as soon as the sand is formed, it is removed from the stones while the work of attrition goes on. this process we can conceive of in a comet, if the finer _detritus_ is constantly carried back and arranged in the order of the size of its particles. to illustrate my meaning: let one place any hard substance, consisting of large fragments, in a mortar, and proceed to reduce it with a pestle to a fine powder. the work proceeds rapidly at first, until a portion of the material is triturated; you then find that the pulverized part has packed around and protected the larger fragments, and the work is brought to a stand-still. you have to remove the finer material if you would crush the pieces that remain. the sea does not separate the sand from the gravel; it places all together at elevations where the waves can not reach them: "waves or shallow soundings have some transporting power; and, as they always move toward the land, their action is landward. they thus beat back, little by little, any _detritus_ in the waters, preventing that loss to continents or islands which would take place if it were carried out to sea."[ ] the pebbles and gravel are soon driven by the waves up the shore, and beyond the reach of further wear;[ ] and "_the rivers carry only silt to the ocean_."[ ] the brooks and rivers produce much more gravel than the sea-shore: "the _detritus_ brought down by rivers is vastly greater in quantity than the stones, sand, or clay produced by the wear of the coasts."[ ] [ . dana's "text book," p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } but it would be absurd to suppose that the beds of rivers could have furnished the immeasurable volumes of gravel found over a great part of the world in the drift-deposits. and the drift-gravel is different from the gravel of the sea or rivers. geikie says, speaking of the "till": "there is something very peculiar about the shape of the stones. they are neither round and oval, like the pebbles in river-gravel, or the shingle of the sea-shore, nor are they sharply angular like newly-fallen _débris_ at the base of a cliff, although they more closely resemble the latter than the former. they are, indeed, angular in shape, but the sharp corners and edges have _invariably been smoothed away_. . . . their shape, as will be seen, is by no means their most striking peculiarity. each is smoothed, polished, and covered with striæ or scratches, some of which are delicate as the lines traced by an etching-needle, others deep and harsh as the scores made by the plow upon a rock. and, what is worthy of note, most of the scratches, coarse and fine together, seem to run parallel to the longer diameter of the stones, which, however, are scratched in many other directions as well."[ ] let me again summarize: i. comets consist of a blazing nucleus and a mass of ponderable, separated matter, such as stones, gravel, clay-dust, and gas. ii. the nucleus gives out great heat and masses of burning gas. iii. luminous gases surround the nucleus. iv. the drift-clays are the result of the grinding up of granitic rocks. v. no such deposits, of anything like equal magnitude, could have been formed on the earth. [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } vi. no such clays are now being formed under glaciers or arctic ice-sheets. vii. these clays were ground out of the substance of the comet by the endless changes of position of the material of which it is composed as it flew through space, during its incalculable journeys in the long reaches of time. viii. the earth-supplies of gravel are inadequate to account for the gravel of the drift-deposits. ix. neither sea-beach nor rivers produce stones like those found in the drift. i pass now to the next question. {p. } chapter iii. could a comet strike the earth? reader, the evidence i am about to present will satisfy you, not only that a comet might have struck the earth in the remote past, but, that the marvel is that the earth escapes collision for a single century, i had almost said for a single year. how many comets do you suppose there are within the limits of the solar system (and remember that the solar system occupies but an insignificant portion of universal space)? half a dozen-fifty-a hundred-you will answer. let us put the astronomers on the witness-stand: kepler affirmed that "comets are scattered through the heavens with as much profusion as fishes in the ocean." think of that! "three or four telescopic comets are now entered upon astronomical records every year. lalande had a list of seven hundred comets that had been observed in his time." arago estimated that the comets belonging to the solar system, within the orbit of neptune, numbered _seventeen million five hundred thousand!_ lambert regards _five hundred millions_ as a very moderate estimate![ ] [ . guillemin, "the heavens," p. .] {p. } and this does not include the monstrous fiery wanderers who may come to visit us, bringing their relations ### orbits of the periodic comets. along, from outside the solar system--a sort of celestial immigrants whom no anti-chinese legislation can keep away. says guillemin: "leaving mere re-appearances out of the question, _new comets are constantly found to arrive from the depths of space_, describing around the sun orbits which testify to the attractive power of that radiant body; and, for the {p. } most part, going away for centuries, to return again from afar after their immense revolutions."[ ] but do these comets come anywhere near the orbit of the earth? look at the map on the preceding page, from amédée guillemin's great work, "the heavens," page , and you can answer the question for yourself. here you see the orbit of the earth overwhelmed in a complication of comet-orbits. the earth, here, is like a lost child in the midst of a forest full of wild beasts. and this diagram represents the orbits of only six comets out of those seventeen millions or five hundred millions! it is a celestial game of ten-pins, with the solar system for a bowling-alley, and the earth waiting for a ten-strike. in the earth and biela's comet, as i will show more particularly hereafter, were both making for the same spot, moving with celestial rapidity, but the comet reached the point of junction one month before the earth did; and, as the comet was not polite enough to wait for us to come up, this generation missed a revelation. "in the year lexell's comet approached so near to the earth that it would have increased the length of the sidereal year by three hours if its mass had been equal to the earth's."[ ] and this same comet did strike our fellow-planet, jupiter. [ . "the heavens," p. . . "edinburgh review," october, , p. .] {p. } in the years and lexell's comet passed though the midst of jupiter's satellites, and became entangled temporarily among them. but not one of the satellites altered its movements to the extent of a hair's breadth, or of a tenth of an instant."[ ] but it must be remembered that we had no glasses then, and have none now, that could tell us what were the effects of this visitation upon the surface of jupiter or its moons. the comet might have covered jupiter one hundred feet--yes, one hundred miles--thick with gravel and clay, and formed clouds of its seas five miles in thickness, without our knowing anything about it. even our best telescopes can only perceive on the moon's surface--which is, comparatively speaking, but a few miles distant from us--objects of very great size, while jupiter is sixteen hundred times farther away from us than the moon. but it is known that lexell's comet was very much demoralized by jupiter. it first came within the influence of that planet in ; it lost its original orbit, and went bobbing around jupiter until , when it became entangled with jupiter's moons, and then it lost its orbit again, and was whisked off into infinite space, never more, perhaps, to be seen by human eyes. is it not reasonable to suppose that an event which thus demoralized the comet may have caused it to cast down a considerable part of its material on the face of jupiter? encke's comet revolves around the sun in the short period of twelve hundred and five days, and, strange to say-- "the period of its revolution is _constantly diminishing_; so that, if this progressive diminution always follows the same rate, _the time when the comet_, continually [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. .] {p. } describing a spiral, _will be plunged into the incandescent mass of the sun can be calculated_."[ ] the comet of , first seen by coggia, at marseilles, and called by his name, came between the earth and the sun, and _approached within sixty thousand miles of the flaming surface of the sun_. it traveled through this fierce blaze at the rate of _three hundred and sixty-six miles per second!_ three hundred and sixty-six miles _per second!_ when a railroad-train moves at the rate of a mile per minute, we regard it as extraordinary speed; but three hundred and sixty-six miles _per second!_ the mind fails to grasp it. when this comet was seen by sir john herschel, after it had made its grand sweep around the sun, it was not more than _six times the breadth of the sun's face away from the sun_. and it had come careering through infinite space with awful velocity to this close approximation to our great luminary. and remember that these comets are no animalculæ. they are monsters that would reach from the sun to the earth. and when we say that they come so close to the sun as in the above instances, it means peril to the earth by direct contact; to say nothing of the results to our planet by the increased combustion of the run, and the increased heat on earth should one of them fall upon the sun. we have seen, in the last chapter, that the great comet of possessed a tail one hundred and fifty million miles long; that is, it would reach from the sun to the earth, and have over fifty million miles of tail to spare; and it swept this gigantic appendage around in two hours, describing the are of a circle _six hundred million miles long!_ [ . guillemin, "the heavens," p. .] {p. } the mind fails to grasp these figures. solar space is hardly large enough for such gyrations. and it must be remembered that this enormous creature actually _grazed the surface of the sun_. and it is supposed that this monster of , which was first seen in , returned, and was seen in the southern hemisphere in --that is to say, it came back in thirty-seven years instead of one hundred and seventy-five years. whereupon mr. proctor remarked: "if already the comet experiences such resistance in passing through the corona when at its nearest to the sun that its period undergoes a marked diminution, the effect must of necessity be increased at each return, and after only a few, possibly one or two, circuits, the comet will be absorbed by the sun." on october , , lewis swift, of rochester, new york, discovered a comet which has proved to be of peculiar interest. from its first discovery it has presented no brilliancy of appearance, for, during its period of visibility, a telescope of considerable power was necessary to observe it. since this comet, when in close proximity to the earth, was very faint indeed, its dimensions must be quite moderate. the illustration on page gives the orbit of the earth and the orbit of this comet, and shows how closely they approached each other; when at its nearest, the comet was only distant from the earth . of the distance of the earth from the sun. it comes back in eleven years, or in . on the d of june, , a comet of great brilliancy flashed suddenly into view. it was unexpected, and advanced with tremendous rapidity. the illustration on page will show how its flight intersected the orbit of the earth. at its nearest point, june th, it was distant {p. } from the earth only . of the distance of the sun from the earth. now, it is to be remembered that great attention has been paid during the past few years to searching for comets, and some of the results are here given. as many as five were discovered during the year . but not ### orbit of earth and comet a few of the greatest of these strange orbs require thousands of years to complete their orbits. the period of the comet of july, , has been estimated at not less than one hundred thousand years! some of those that have flashed into sight recently have been comparatively small, and their contact with {p. } ### the earth's orbit the earth might produce but trifling results. others, again, are constructed on an extraordinary scale; but even the largest of these may be but children compared with the monsters that wander through space on orbits {p. } that penetrate the remotest regions of the solar system, and even beyond it. when we consider the millions of comets around us, and when we remember how near some of these have come to us during the last few years, who will undertake to say that during the last thirty thousand, fifty thousand, or one hundred thousand years, one of these erratic luminaries, with blazing front and train of _débris_, may not have come in collision with the earth? {p. } chapter iv. the consequences to the earth. in this chapter i shall try to show what effect the contact of a comet must have had upon the earth and its inhabitants. i shall ask the reader to follow the argument closely first, that he may see whether any part of the theory is inconsistent with the well-established principles of natural philosophy; and, secondly, that he may bear the several steps in his memory, as he will find, as we proceed, that _every detail of the mighty catastrophe has been preserved in the legends of mankind_, and precisely in the order in which reason tells us they must have occurred. in the first place, it is, of course, impossible at this time to say precisely how the contact took place; whether the head of the comet fell into or approached close to the sun, like the comet of , and then swung its mighty tail, hundreds of millions of miles in length, moving at a rate almost equal to the velocity of light, around through a great are, and swept past the earth;--the earth, as it were, going through the midst of the tail, which would extend for a vast distance beyond and around it. in this movement, the side of the earth, facing the advance of the tail, would receive and intercept the mass of material--stones, gravel, and the finely-ground-up-dust which, compacted by water, is now clay--which came in contact with it, while the comet would sail off into space, {p. } demoralized, perhaps, in its orbit, like lexell's comet when it became entangled with jupiter's moons, but shorn of a comparatively small portion of its substance. the following engraving will illustrate my meaning. i can not give, even approximately, the proportions of the ### the comet sweeping past the earth. objects represented, and thus show the immensity of the sun as compared with our insignificant little orb. in a picture showing the true proportions of the sun and earth, the sun would have to be so large that it would take up the entire page, while the earth would be but as a {p. } ### the side of the earth struck by the comet {left} the side not struck by the comet {right} {p. } pin-head. and i have not drawn the comet on a scale large enough as compared with the earth. if the reader will examine the map on page , he will see that the distribution of the drift accords with this theory. if we suppose the side of the earth shown in the left-hand figure was presented to the comet, we will see why the drift is supposed to be confined to europe, africa, and parts of america; while the right-hand figure will show the half of the world that escaped. "the breadth of the tail of the great comet of , at its widest part, was nearly fourteen million miles, the length one hundred and sixteen million miles, and that of the second comet of the same year, one hundred and forty million miles."[ ] on page is a representation of this monster. imagine such a creature as that, with a head _fifty times as large as the moon_, and a tail one hundred and sixteen million miles long, rushing past this poor little earth of ours, with its diameter of only seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles! the earth, seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles wide, would simply make a bullet-hole through that tail, fourteen million miles broad, where it passed through it!--a mere eyelet-hole--a pin-hole--closed up at once by the constant movements which take place in the tail of the comet. and yet in that moment of contact the side of the earth facing the comet might be covered with hundreds of feet of _débris_. or, on the other hand, the comet may, as described in some of the legends, have struck the earth, head on, amid-ships, and the shock may have changed the angle of inclination of the earth's axis, and thus have modified [ . schellen, "spectrum analysis," p. .] {p. } permanently the climate of our globe; and to this cause we might look also for the great cracks and breaks in the earth's surface, which constitute the fiords of the sea-coast and the trap-extrusions of the continents; and here, too, ### the great comet of . might be the cause of those mighty excavations, hundreds of feet deep, in which are now the great lakes of america, and from which, as we have seen, great cracks radiate out in all directions, like the fractures in a pane of glass where a stone has struck it. the cavities in which rest the great lakes have been attributed to the ice-sheet, but it is difficult to comprehend how an ice-sheet could dig out and root out a hole, as in the case of lake superior, _nine hundred feet deep!_ {p. } and, if it did this, why were not similar holes excavated wherever there were ice-sheets--to wit, all over the northern and southern portions of the globe? why should a general cause produce only local results? sir charles lyell shows[ ] that glaciers do not cut out holes like the depressions in which the great lakes lie; he also shows that these lakes are not due to a sinking down of the crust of the earth, because the strata are continuous and unbroken beneath them. he also calls attention to the fact that there is a continuous belt of such lakes, reaching from the northwestern part of the united states, through the hudson bay territory, canada, and maine, to finland, and that this belt does not reach below ° north latitude in europe and ° in america. do these lie in the track of the great collision? the comet, as the striæ indicate, came from the north. the mass of donati's comet was estimated by mm. faye and roche at about the seven-hundredth part of the bulk of the earth. m. faye says: "that is the weight of a sea of forty thousand square miles one hundred and nine yards deep; and it must be owned that a like mass, animated with considerable velocity, might well produce, by its shock with the earth, very perceptible results."[ ] we have but to suppose, (a not unreasonable supposition,) that the comet which struck the earth was much larger than donati's comet, and we have the means of accounting for results as prodigious as those referred to. we have seen that it is difficult to suppose that ice produced the drift-deposits, because they are not found where ice certainly was, and they are found where ice certainly was not. but, if the reader will turn to the [ . "elements of geology," pp. , , _et seq_. . "the heavens," p. .] {p. } illustration which constitutes the frontispiece of this volume, and the foregoing engraving on page , he will see that the drift is deposited on the earth, as it might have been if it had suddenly fallen from the heavens; that is, it is on one side of the globe--to wit, the side that faced the comet as it came on. i think this map is substantially accurate. there is, however, an absence of authorities as to the details of the drift-distribution. but, if my theory is correct, the drift probably fell at once. if it had been twenty-four hours in falling, the diurnal revolution would, in turn, have presented all sides of the earth to it, and the drift would be found everywhere. and this is in accordance with what we know of the rapid movements of comets. they travel, as i have shown, at the rate of three hundred and sixty-six miles per second; this is equal to twenty-one thousand six hundred miles per minute, and one million two hundred and ninety-six thousand miles per hour! and this accords with what we know of the deposition of the drift. it came with terrific force. it smashed the rocks; it tore them up; it rolled them over on one another; it drove its material _into_ the underlying rocks; "it _indented it_ into them," says one authority, already quoted. it was accompanied by inconceivable winds--the hurricanes and cyclones spoken of in many of the legends. hence we find the loose material of the original surface gathered up and carried into the drift-material proper; hence the drift is whirled about in the wildest confusion. hence it fell on the earth like a great snow-storm driven by the wind. it drifted into all hollows; it was not so thick on, or it was entirely absent from, the tops of hills; it formed tails, precisely as snow does, on the leeward side of all obstructions. glacier-ice is slow and plastic, {p. } and folds around such impediments, and wears them away; the wind does not. compare the following representation of a well-known feature of the drift, called ### crag and tail.--_c_, crag; _t_, till. "crag and tail," taken from geikie's work,[ ] with the drifts formed by snow on the leeward side of fences or houses. the material runs in streaks, just as if blown by violent winds: "when cut through by rivers, or denuded by the action of the sea, _ridges_ of bowlders are often seen to be inclosed within it. although destitute of stratification, horizontal lines are found, indicating differences in texture and color."[ ] geikie, describing the bowlder-clay, says: "it seems to have come from regions whence it is bard to see how they could have been borne by glaciers. as a rule it is quite unstratified, but traces of bedding are not uncommon." "sometimes it contains worn fossils, and fragments of shells, broken, crushed, and striated; sometimes it contains bands of stones arranged in lines." in short, it appears as if it were gusts and great whirls of the same material as the "till," lifted up by the cyclones and mingled with blocks, rocks, bones, sands, fossils, earth, peat, and other matters, picked up with terrible [ . "the great ice age," p. . . "american cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. .] {p. } force from the face of the earth and poured down pell-mell on top of the first deposit of true "till." in england ninety-four per cent of these stones found in this bowlder-clay are "stranger" stones; that is to say, they do not belong to the drainage area in which they are found, but must have been carried there from great distances. but how about the markings, the _striæ_, on the face of the surface-rocks below the drift? the answer is plain. _débris_, moving at the rate of a million miles an hour, would produce just such markings. dana says: "the sands carried by the winds when passing over rocks sometimes _wear them smooth_, or cover them with _scratches and furrows_, as observed by w. p. blake on granite rocks at the pass of san bernardino, in california. even quartz was polished and garnets were left projecting upon pedicels of feldspar. limestone was so much worn as to look as if the surface had been removed by solution. similar effects have been observed by winchell in the grand traverse region, michigan. glass in the windows of houses on cape cod sometimes has holes worn through it by the same means. the hint from nature has led to the use of sand, driven by a blast, with or without steam, for cutting and engraving glass, and even for cutting and carving granite and other hard rocks."[ ] gratacap describes the rock underneath the "till" as polished and oftentimes lustrous."[ ] but, it may be said, if it be true that _débris_, driven by a terrible force, could have scratched and dented the rocks, could it have made long, continuous lines and grooves upon them? but the fact is, the _striæ_ on the face of the rocks covered by the drift are _not_ continuous; [ . dana's "text-book," p. . . "popular science monthly," january, , p. .] {p. } they do not indicate a steady and constant pressure, such as would result where a mountainous mass of ice had caught a rock and held it, as it were, in its mighty hand, and, thus holding it steadily, had scored the rocks with it as it moved forward. "the groove is of irregular depth, its floor rising and falling, as though hitches had occurred when it was first planed, the great chisel meeting resistance, or being thrown up at points along its path."[ ] what other results would follow at once from contact with the comet? we have seen that, to produce the phenomena of the glacial age, it was absolutely necessary that it must have been preceded by a period of heat, great enough to vaporize all the streams and lakes and a large part of the ocean. and we have seen that no mere ice-hypothesis gives us any clew to the cause of this. would the comet furnish us with such heat? let me call another witness to the stand: in the great work of amédée guillemin, already cited, we read: "on the other hand, it seems proved that the light of the comets is, in part, at least, borrowed from the sun. but may they not also possess a light of their own? and, on this last hypothesis, is this brightness owing to a kind of phosphorescence, or to the state of incandescence of the nucleus? truly, if the nuclei of comets be incandescent, the smallness of their mass would eliminate from the danger of their contact with the earth only one element of destruction: _the temperature of the terrestrial atmosphere would be raised to an elevation inimical to the existence of organized beings_; and we should only escape the danger of a mechanical shock, to run into a not less frightful [ . gratacap, "the ice age," in "popular science monthly," january, , p. .] {p. } one of being _calcined in a many days passage through an immense furnace_."[ ] here we have a good deal more heat than is necessary to account for that vaporization of the seas of the globe which seems to have taken place during the drift age. but similar effects might be produced, in another way, even though the heat of the comet itself was inconsiderable. suppose the comet, or a large part of it, to have fallen into the sun. the arrested motion would be converted into heat. the material would feed the combustion of the sun. some have theorized that the sun is maintained by the fall of cometic matter into it. what would be the result? mr. proctor notes that in a star, in the constellation northern cross, suddenly shone with _eight hundred times its former luster_, afterward rapidly diminishing in luster. in a new star in the constellation cygnus became visible, subsequently fading again so as to be only perceptible by means of a telescope; the luster of this star must have increased from five hundred to _many_ thousand times. mr. proctor claims that should our sun similarly increase in luster even one hundred-fold, the glowing heat would destroy all vegetable and animal life on earth. there is no difficulty in seeing our way to heat enough, if we concede that a comet really struck the earth or fell into the sun. the trouble is in the other direction--we would have too much heat. we shall see, hereafter, that there is evidence in our rocks that in two different ages of the world, millions of years before the drift period, the whole surface of the [ . "the heavens," p. .] {p. } earth was actually fused and melted, probably by cometic contact. this earth of ours is really a great powder-magazine there is enough inflammable and explosive material about it to blow it into shreds at any moment. sir charles lyell quotes, approvingly, the thought of pliny: "it is an amazement that our world, so full of combustible elements, stands a moment unexploded." it needs but an infinitesimal increase in the quantity of oxygen in the air to produce a combustion which would melt all things. in pure oxygen, steel burns like a candle-wick. nay, it is not necessary to increase the amount of oxygen in the air to produce terrible results. it has been shown[ ] that, of our forty-five miles of atmosphere, one fifth, or a stratum of nine miles in thickness, is oxygen. a shock, or an electrical or other convulsion, which would even partially disarrange or decompose this combination, and send an increased quantity of oxygen, the heavier gas, to the earth, would wrap everything in flames. or the same effects might follow from any great change in the constitution of the water of the world. water is composed of eight parts of oxygen and one part of hydrogen. "the intensest heat by far ever yet produced by the blow-pipe is by the combustion of these two gases." and dr. robert hare, of philadelphia, found that the combination which produced the intensest heat was that in which the two gases were in the _precise proportions found in water_.[ ] we may suppose that this vast heat, whether it came from the comet, or the increased action of the sun, preceded the fall of the _débris_ of the comet by a few minutes or a few hours. we have seen the surface-rocks [ . "science and genesis," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } described as lustrous. the heat may not have been great enough to melt them--it may merely have softened them; but when the mixture of clay, gravel, striated rocks, and earth-sweepings fell and rested on them, they were at once hardened and almost baked; and thus we can account for the fact that the "till," which lies next to the rocks, is so hard and tough, compared with the rest of the drift, that it is impossible to blast it, and exceedingly difficult even to pick it to pieces; it is more feared by workmen and contractors than any of the true rocks. professor hartt shows that there is evidence that some cause, prior to but closely connected with the drift, did decompose the surface-rocks underneath the drift to great depths, changing their chemical composition and appearance. professor hartt says: "in brazil, and in the united states in the vicinity of new york city, the surface-rocks, under the drift, are decomposed from a depth of a few inches to that of a hundred feet. the feldspar has _been converted into slate_, and the mica _has parted with its iron_."[ ] professor hartt tries to account for this metamorphosis by supposing it to have been produced by warm rains! but why should there be warm rains at this particular period? and why, if warm rains occurred in all ages, were not all the earlier rocks similarly changed while they were at the surface? heusser and clarez suppose this decomposition of the rocks to be due to nitric acid. but where did the nitric acid come from? in short, here is the proof of the presence on the earth, just before the drift struck it, of that conflagration which we shall find described in so many legends. [ . "the geology of brazil," p. .] {p. } and certainly the presence of ice could not decompose rocks a hundred feet deep, and change their chemical constitution. nothing but heat could do it. but we have seen that the comet is self-luminous--that is, it is in process of combustion; it emits great gushes and spouts of luminous gases; its nucleus is enveloped in a cloak of gases. what effect would these gases have upon our atmosphere? first, they would be destructive to animal life. but it does not follow that they would cover the whole earth. if they did, all life must have ceased. they may have fallen in places here and there, in great sheets or patches, and have caused, until they burned themselves out, the conflagrations which the traditions tell us accompanied the great disaster. secondly, by adding increased proportions to some of the elements of our atmosphere they may have helped to produce the marked difference between the pre-glacial and our present climate. what did these gases consist of? here that great discovery, the spectroscope, comes to our aid. by it we are able to tell the elements that are being consumed in remote stars; by it we have learned that comets are in part self-luminous, and in part shine by the reflected light of the sun; by it we are even able to identify the very gases that are in a state of combustion in comets. in schellen's great work[ ] i find a cut (see next page) comparing the spectra of carbon with the light emitted by two comets observed in --winnecke's comet and brorsen's comet. here we see that the self-luminous parts of these comets [ . "spectrum analysis," p. .] {p. } burned with substantially the same spectrum as that emitted by burning carbon. the inference is irresistible that these comets were wrapped in great masses of carbon in a state of combustion. this is the conclusion reached by dr. schellen. ### solar spectrum padre secchi, the great roman astronomer, examined dr. winnecke's comet on the st of june, , and concluded that the light from the self-luminous part was produced by carbureted hydrogen. we shall see that the legends of the different races speak of the poison that accompanied the comet, and by which great multitudes were slain; the very waters that {p. } first flowed through the drift, we are told, were poisonous. we have but to remember that carbureted hydrogen is the deadly fire-damp of the miners to realize what effect great gusts of it must have had on animal life. we are told[ ] that it burns with a _yellow_ flame when subjected to great heat, and some of the legends, we will see hereafter, speak of the "yellow hair" of the comet that struck the earth. and we are further told that, "when it, carbureted hydrogen, is mixed in due proportion with oxygen or atmospheric air, a compound is produced which explodes with the electric spark or the approach of flame." another form of carbureted hydrogen, olefiant gas, is deadly to life, burns with a white light, and when mixed with three or four volumes of oxygen, or ten or twelve of air, it explodes with terrific violence. we shall see, hereafter, that many of the legends tell us that, as the comet approached the earth, that is, as it entered our atmosphere and combined with it, it gave forth world-appalling noises, thunders beyond all earthly thunders, roarings, howlings, and hissings, that shook the globe. if a comet did come, surrounded by volumes of carbureted hydrogen, or carbon combined with hydrogen, the moment it reached far enough into our atmosphere to supply it with the requisite amount of oxygen or atmospheric air, precisely such dreadful explosions would occur, accompanied by noises similar to those described in the legends. let us go a step further: let us try to conceive the effects of the fall of the material of the comet upon the earth. we have seen terrible rain-storms, hail-storms, snow-storms; [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } but fancy a storm of stones and gravel and clay-dust!--not a mere shower either, but falling in black masses, darkening the heavens, vast enough to cover the world in many places hundreds of feet in thickness; leveling valleys, tearing away and grinding down hills, changing the whole aspect of the habitable globe. without and above it roars the earthquaking voice of the terrible explosions; through the drifts of _débris_ glimpses are caught of the glaring and burning monster; while through all and over all is an unearthly heat, under which rivers, ponds, lakes, springs, disappear as if by magic. now, reader, try to grasp the meaning of all this description. do not merely read the words. to read aright, upon any subject, you must read below the words, above the words, and take in all the relations that surround the words. so read this record. look out at the scene around you. here are trees fifty feet high. imagine an instantaneous descent of granite-sand and gravel sufficient to smash and crush these trees to the ground, to bury their trunks, and to cover the earth one hundred to five hundred feet higher than the elevation to which their tops now reach! and this not alone here in your garden, or over your farm, or over your township, or over your county, or over your state; but over the whole continent in which you dwell--in short, over the greater part of the habitable world! are there any words that can draw, even faintly, such a picture--its terror, its immensity, its horrors, its destructiveness, its surpassal of all earthly experience and imagination? and this human ant-hill, the world, how insignificant would it be in the grasp of such a catastrophe! its laws, its temples, its libraries, its religions, its armies, its mighty nations, would be but as the veriest {p. } stubble--dried grass, leaves, rubbish-crushed, smashed, buried, under this heaven-rain of horrors. but, lo! through the darkness, the wretches not beaten down and whelmed in the _débris_, but scurrying to mountain-caves for refuge, have a new terror: the cry passes from lip to lip, "the world is on fire!" the head of the comet sheds down fire. its gases have fallen in great volumes on the earth; they ignite; amid the whirling and rushing of the _débris_, caught in cyclones, rises the glare of a titanic conflagration. the winds beat the rocks against the rocks; they pick up sand-heaps, peat-beds, and bowlders, and whirl them madly in the air. the heat increases. the rivers, the lakes, the ocean itself, evaporate. and poor humanity! burned, bruised, wild, crazed, stumbling, blown about like feathers in the hurricanes, smitten by mighty rocks, they perish by the million; a few only reach the shelter of the caverns; and thence, glaring backward, look out over the ruins of a destroyed world. and not humanity alone has fled to these hiding-places: the terrified denizens of the forest, the domestic animals of the fields, with the instinct which in great tempests has driven them into the houses of men, follow the refugees into the caverns. we shall see all this depicted in the legends. the first effect of the great heat is the vaporization of the waters of the earth; but this is arrested long before it has completed its work. still the heat is intense--how long it lasts, who shall tell? an arabian legend indicates years. the stones having ceased to fall, the few who have escaped--and they are few indeed, for many are shut up for ever by the clay-dust and gravel in their hiding-places, {p. } and on many others the convulsions of the earth have shaken down the rocky roofs of the caves--the few survivors come out, or dig their way out, to look upon a changed and blasted world. no cloud is in the sky, no rivers or lakes are on the earth; only the deep springs of the caverns are left; the sun, a ball of fire, glares in the bronze heavens. it is to this period that the norse legend of mimer's well, where odin gave an eye for a drink of water, refers. but gradually the heat begins to dissipate. this is a signal for tremendous electrical action. condensation commences. never has the air held such incalculable masses of moisture; never has heaven's artillery so rattled and roared since earth began! condensation means clouds. we will find hereafter a whole body of legends about "the stealing of the clouds" and their restoration. the veil thickens. the sun's rays are shut out. it grows colder; more condensation follows. the heavens darken. louder and louder bellows the thunder. we shall see the lightnings represented, in myth after myth, as the arrows of the rescuing demi-god who saves the world. the heat has carried up perhaps one fourth of all the water of the world into the air. now it is condensed into cloud. we know how an ordinary storm darkens the heavens. in this case it is black night. a pall of dense cloud, many miles in thickness, enfolds the earth. no sun, no moon, no stars, can be seen. "darkness is on the face of the deep." day has ceased to be. men stumble against each other. all this we shall find depicted in the legends. the overloaded atmosphere begins to discharge itself. the great work of restoring the waters of the ocean to the ocean begins. it grows colder--colder--colder. the pouring rain turns into snow, and settles on all the uplands and north countries; snow falls on {p. } snow; gigantic snow-beds are formed, which gradually solidify into ice. while no mile-thick ice-sheet descends to the mediterranean or the gulf of mexico, glaciers intrude into all the valleys, and the flora and fauna of the temperate regions become arctic; that is to say, only those varieties of plants and animals survive in those regions that are able to stand the cold, and these we now call arctic. in the midst of this darkness and cold and snow, the remnants of poor humanity wander over the face of the desolated world; stumbling, awe-struck, but filled with an insatiable hunger which drives them on; living upon the bark of the few trees that have escaped, or on the bodies of the animals that have perished, and even upon one another. all this we shall find plainly depicted in the legends of mankind, as we proceed. steadily, steadily, steadily--for days, weeks, months, years--the rains and snows fall; and, as the clouds are drained, they become thinner and thinner, and the light increases. it has now grown so light that the wanderers can mark the difference between night and day. "and the evening and the morning were the first day." day by day it grows lighter and warmer; the piled-up snows begin to melt. it is an age of tremendous floods. all the low-lying parts of the continents are covered with water. brooks become mighty rivers, and rivers are floods; the drift _débris_ is cut into by the waters, re-arranged, piled up in what is called the stratified, secondary, or champlain drift. enormous river-valleys are cut out of the gravel and clay. the seeds and roots of trees and grasses, uncovered by the rushing torrents, and catching the increasing {p. } warmth, begin to put forth green leaves. the sad and parti-colored earth, covered with white, red, or blue clays and gravels, once more, wears a fringe of green. the light increases. the warmth lifts up part of the water already cast down, and the outflow of the steaming ice-fields, and pours it down again in prodigious floods. it is an age of storms. the people who have escaped gather together. _they know the sun is coming back_. they know this desolation is to pass away. they build great fires and make human sacrifices to bring back the sun. they point and guess where he will appear; for they have lost all knowledge of the cardinal points. and all this is told in the legends. at last the great, the godlike, the resplendent luminary breaks through the clouds and looks again upon the wrecked earth. oh, what joy, beyond all words, comes upon those who see him! they fall upon their faces. they worship him whom the dread events have taught to recognize as the great god of life and light. they burn or cast down their animal gods of the pre-glacial time, and then begins that world-wide worship of the sun which has continued down to our own times. and all this, too, we shall find told in the legends. and from that day to this we live under the influence of the effects produced by the comet. the mild, eternal summer of the tertiary age is gone. the battle between the sun and the ice-sheets continues. every north wind brings us the breath of the snow; every south wind is part of the sun's contribution to undo the comet's work. a continual amelioration of climate has been going on since the glacial age; and, if no new catastrophe falls on the earth, our remote posterity will yet see the last snow-bank {p. } of greenland melted, and the climate of the eocene reestablished in spitzbergen. "it has been suggested that the warmth of the tertiary climate was simply the effect of the residual heat of a globe cooling from incandescence, but many facts disprove this. for example, the fossil plants found in our lower cretaceous rocks in central north america indicate a temperate climate in latitude ° to ° in the cretaceous age. the coal-flora, too, and the beds of coal, indicate a moist, equable, and warm but not hot climate in the carboniferous age, millions of years before the tertiary, and three thousand miles farther south than localities where magnolias, tulip-trees, and deciduous cypresses, grew in the latter age. some learned and cautious geologists even assert that there have been several ice periods, one as far back as the devonian."[ ] the ice-fields and wild climate of the poles, and the cold which descends annually over europe and north america, represent the residuum of the refrigeration caused by the evaporation due to the comet's heat, and the long absence of the sun during the age of darkness. every visitation of a comet would, therefore, necessarily eventuate in a glacial age, which in time would entirely pass away. and our storms are bred of the conflict between the heat and cold of the different latitudes. hence, it may be, that the tertiary climate represented the true climate of the earth, undisturbed by comet catastrophes; a climate equable, mild, warm, stormless. think what a world this would be without tempests, cyclones, ice, snow, or cold! let us turn now to the evidences that man dwelt on the earth during the drift, and that he has preserved recollections of the comet to this day in his myths and legends. [ . "popular science monthly," july, , p. .] {p. } part iii the legends chapter i. the nature of myths. in a primitive people the mind of one generation precisely repeats the minds of all former generations; the construction of the intellectual nature varies no more, from age to age, than the form of the body or the color of the skin; the generations feel the same emotions, and think the same thoughts, and use the same expressions. and this is to be expected, for the brain is as much a part of the inheritable, material organization as the color of the eyes or the shape of the nose. the minds of men move automatically: no man thinks because he intends to think; he thinks, as he hungers and thirsts, under a great primal necessity; his thoughts come out from the inner depths of his being as the flower is developed by forces rising through the roots of the plant. the female bird says to herself, "the time is propitious, and now, of my own free will, and under the operation of my individual judgment, i will lay a nestful of eggs and batch a brood of children." but it is unconscious that it is moved by a physical necessity, which has constrained all its ancestors from the beginning of time, {p. } and which will constrain all its posterity to the end of time; that its will is nothing more than an expression of age, development, sunlight, food, and "the skyey influences." if it were otherwise it would be in the power of a generation to arrest the life of a race. all great thoughts are inspirations of god. they are part of the mechanism by which he advances the race; they are new varieties created out of old genera. there come bursts of creative force in history, when great thoughts are born, and then again brahma, as the hindoos say, goes to sleep for ages. but, when the fever of creation comes, the poet, the inventor, or the philosopher can no more arrest the development of his own thoughts than the female bird, by her will-power, can stop the growth of the ova within her, or arrest the fever in the blood which forces her to incubation. the man who wrote the shakespeare plays recognized this involuntary operation of even his own transcendent intellect, when he said: "our poesy is a gum which oozes from whence 'tis nourished." it came as the arabian tree distilled its "medicinal gum"; it was the mere expression of an internal force, as much beyond his control as the production of the gum was beyond the control of the tree. but in primitive races mind repeats mind for thousands of years. if a tale is told at a million hearth-fires, the probabilities are small, indeed, that any innovation at one hearth-fire, however ingenious, will work its way into and modify the narration at all the rest. there is no printing-press to make the thoughts of one man the thoughts of thousands. while the innovator is modifying {p. } the tale, to his own satisfaction, to his immediate circle of hearers, the narrative is being repeated in its unchanged form at all the rest. the doctrine of chances is against innovation. the majority rules. when, however, a marvelous tale is told to the new generation--to the little ones sitting around with open eyes and gaping mouths--they naturally ask, "_where_ did all this occur?" the narrator must satisfy this curiosity, and so he replies, "on yonder mountain-top," or "in yonder cave." the story has come down without its geography, and a new geography is given it. again, an ancient word or name may have a signification in the language in which the story is told different from that which it possessed in the original dialect, and, in the effort to make the old fact and the new language harmonize, the story-teller is forced, gradually, to modify the narrative; and, as this lingual difficulty occurs at every fireside, at every telling, an ingenious explanation comes at last to be generally accepted, and the ancient myth remains dressed in a new suit of linguistic clothes. but, as a rule, simple races repeat; they do not invent. one hundred years ago the highest faith was placed in written history, while the utmost contempt was felt for all legends. whatever had been written down was regarded as certainly true; whatever had not been written down was necessarily false. we are reminded of that intellectual old brute, dr. samuel johnson, trampling poor macpherson under foot, like an enraged elephant, for daring to say that he had collected from the mountaineers of wild scotland the poems of ossian, and that they had been transmitted, from mouth to mouth, through ages. but the great epic of the son of fingal will survive, part of the widening {p. } heritage of humanity, while johnson is remembered only as a coarse-souled, ill-mannered incident in the development of the great english people. but as time rolled on it was seen that the greater part of history was simply recorded legends, while all the rest represented the passions of factions, the hates of sects, or the servility and venality of historians. men perceived that the common belief of antiquity, as expressed in universal tradition, was much more likely to be true than the written opinions of a few prejudiced individuals. and then grave and able men,--philosophers, scientists,--were seen with note-books and pencils, going out into hindoo villages, into german cottages, into highland huts, into indian _tepees_, in short, into all lands, taking down with the utmost care, accuracy, and respect, the fairy-stories, myths, and legends of the people;--as repeated by old peasant-women, "the knitters in the sun," or by "gray-haired warriors, famousèd for fights." and, when they came to put these narratives in due form, and, as it were, in parallel columns, it became apparent that they threw great floods of light upon the history of the world, and especially upon the question of the unity of the race. they proved that all the nations were repeating the same stories, in some cases in almost identical words, just as their ancestors had heard them, in some most ancient land, in "the dark background and abysm of time," when the progenitors of the german, gaul, gael, greek, roman, hindoo, persian, egyptian, arabian, and the red-people of america, dwelt together under the same roof-tree and used the same language. but, above all, these legends prove the absolute fidelity of the memory of the races. we are told that the bridge-piles driven by the romans, two thousand years ago, in the rivers of europe, {p. } from which the surrounding waters have excluded the decaying atmosphere, have remained altogether unchanged in their condition. if this has been the case for two thousand years, why would they not remain unchanged for ten thousand, for a hundred thousand years? if the ice in which that siberian mammoth was incased had preserved it intact for a hundred years, or a thousand years, why might it not have preserved it for ten thousand, for a hundred thousand years? place a universal legend in the minds of a race, let them repeat it from generation to generation, and time ceases to be an element in the problem. legend has one great foe to its perpetuation--civilization. civilization brings with it a contempt for everything which it can not understand; skepticism becomes the synonym for intelligence; men no longer repeat; they doubt; they dissect; they sneer; they reject; they invent. if the myth survives this treatment, the poets take it up and make it their stock in trade: they decorate it in a masquerade of frippery and finery, feathers and furbelows, like a clown dressed for a fancy ball; and the poor barbarian legend survives at last, if it survives at all, like the conflagration in ovid or king arthur in tennyson--a hippopotamus smothered in flowers, jewels, and laces. hence we find the legends of the primitive american indians adhering quite closely to the events of the past, while the myths that survive at all among the civilized nations of europe are found in garbled forms, and. only among the peasantry of remote districts. in the future more and more attention will be given to the myths of primitive races; they will be accounted as more reliable, and as reaching farther back in time than many things which we call history. thoughtful men will {p. } analyze them, despising nothing; like a chemist who resolves some compound object into its original elements--the very combination constituting a history of the object. h. h. bancroft describes myths as-- "a mass of fragmentary truth and fiction, not open to rationalistic criticism; a partition wall of allegories, built of dead facts cemented with wild fancies; it looms ever between the immeasurable and the measurable past." but he adds: "never was there a time in the history of philosophy when the character, customs, and beliefs of aboriginal man, and everything appertaining to him, were held in such high esteem by scholars as at present." "it is now a recognized principle of philosophy that no religious belief, however crude, nor any historical tradition, however absurd, can be held by the majority of a people for any considerable time as true, without having had in the beginning some foundation in fact."[ ] an universal myth points to two conclusions: first, that it is based on some fact. secondly, that it dates back, in all probability, to the time when the ancestors of the races possessing it had not yet separated. a myth should be analyzed carefully; the fungi that have attached themselves to it should be brushed off; the core of fact should be separated from the decorations and errors of tradition. but above all, it must be remembered that we can not depend upon either the geography or the chronology of a myth. as i have shown, there is a universal tendency to give the old story a new habitat, and hence we have ararats and olympuses all over the world. in the same [ . "the native races of america," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } way the myth is always brought down and attached to more recent events: "all over europe-in germany, france, spain, switzerland, england, scotland, ireland--the exploits of the oldest mythological heroes, figuring in the sagas, eddas, and nibelungen lied, have been ascribed, in the folk-lore and ballads of the people, to barbarossa, charlemagne, boabdil, charles v, william tell, arthur, robin hood, wallace, and st. patrick."[ ] in the next place, we must remember how impossible it is for the mind to invent an entirely new fact. what dramatist or novelist has ever yet made a plot which did not consist of events that had already transpired somewhere on earth? he might intensify events, concentrate and combine them, or amplify them; but that is all. men in all ages have suffered from jealousy,--like othello; have committed murders,--like macbeth; have yielded to the sway of morbid minds,--like hamlet; have stolen, lied, and debauched,--like falstaff;--there are oliver twists, bill sykeses, and nancies; micawbers, pickwicks, and pecksniffs in every great city. there is nothing in the mind of man that has not preexisted in nature. can we imagine a person, who never saw or heard of an elephant, drawing a picture of such a two-tailed creature? it was thought at one time that man had made the flying-dragon out of his own imagination; but we now know that the image of the _pterodactyl_ had simply descended from generation to generation. sindbad's great bird, the _roc_, was considered a flight of the oriental fancy, until science revealed the bones of the _dinornis_. all the winged beasts breathing fire are simply a recollection of the comet. in fact, even with the patterns of nature before it, the [ . bancroft, "native races," note, vol. iii, p. .] {p. } human mind has not greatly exaggerated them: it has never drawn a bird larger than the _dinornis_ or a beast greater than the mammoth. it is utterly impossible that the races of the whole world, of all the continents and islands, could have preserved traditions from the most remote ages, of a comet having struck the earth, of the great heat, the conflagration, the cave-life, the age of darkness, and the return of the sun, and yet these things have had no basis of fact. it was not possible for the primitive mind to have imagined these things if they had never occurred. {p. } chapter ii. did man exist before the drift? first, let us ask ourselves this question, did man exist before the drift? if he did, he must have survived it; and he could hardly have passed through it without some remembrance of such a terrible event surviving in the traditions of the race. if he did not exist before the drift, of course, no myths descriptive of it could have come down to us. this preliminary question must, then, be settled by testimony. let us call our witnesses "the palæolithic hunter of the mid and late pleistocene river-deposits in europe belongs, as we have already shown, to a fauna which arrived in britain before the lowering of the temperature produced glaciers and icebergs in our country; he may, therefore, be viewed as being probably pre-glacial."[ ] man had spread widely over the earth before the drift; therefore, he had lived long on the earth. his remains have been found in scotland, england, ireland, france, spain, italy, greece; in africa, in palestine, in india, and in the united states.[ ] "man was living in the valley of the lower thames before the arctic mammalia had taken full possession of [ . dawkins's "early man in britain," p. . . ibid., pp. , .] {p. } the valley of the thames, and before the big-nosed rhinoceros had become extinct."[ ] mr. tidderman[ ] writes that, among a number of bones obtained during the exploration of the victoria cave, near settle, yorkshire, there is one which mr. busk has identified as _human_. mr. busk says: "the bone is, i have no doubt, human; a portion of an unusually clumsy fibula, and in that respect not unlike the same bone in the mentone skeleton." the deposit from which the bone was obtained is overlaid "by a bed of stiff glacial clay, containing ice-scratched bowlders." "here then," says geikie, "is direct proof that men lived in england prior to the last inter-glacial period."[ ] the evidences are numerous, as i have shown, that when these deposits came upon the earth the face of the land was above the sea, and occupied by plants and animals. ### section at st. acheul. the accompanying cut, taken from sir john lubbock's "prehistoric times," page , represents the strata at st. acheul, near amiens, france. [ . dawkins's "early man in britain," p. . . "nature," november , . . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } the upper stratum (_a_) represents a brick earth, four to five feet in thickness, and containing a few angular flints. the next (_b_) is a thin layer of angular gravel, one to two feet in thickness. the next (_c_) is a bed of sandy marl, five to six feet in thickness. the lowest deposit (_d_) _immediately overlies the chalk_; it is a bed of partially rounded gravel, and, in this, _human implements of flint have been found_. the spot was used in the early christian period as a cemetery; _f_ represents one of the graves, made fifteen hundred years ago; _e_ represents one of the ancient coffins, of which only the nails and clamps are left, every particle of the wood having perished. and, says sir john lubbock: "it is especially at the _lower part_" of these lowest deposits "that the flint implements occur." the bones of the mammoth, the wild bull, the deer, the horse, the rhinoceros, and the reindeer are found near the bottom of these strata mixed with the flint implements of men. "all the fossils belong to animals which live on land; . . . we find no marine remains."[ ] remember that the drift is unfossiliferous and unstratified; that it fell _en masse_, and that these remains are found in its lower part, or _caught between it and the rocks below it_, and you can form a vivid picture of the sudden and terrible catastrophe. the trees were imbedded with man and the animals; the bones of men, smaller and more friable, probably perished, ground up in the tempest, while only their flint implements and the great bones of the larger animals, hard as stones, remain to tell the dreadful story. and yet some human bones [ . "prehistoric times," p. . . ibid., pp. , .] {p. } have been found; a lower jaw-bone was discovered in a pit at moulinguignon, and a skull and other bones were found in the valley of the seine by m. bertrand.[ ] and these discoveries have not been limited to river-gravels. in the shrub hill gravel-bed in england, "_in the lowest part of it_, numerous flint implements of the palæolithic type have been discovered."[ ] we have, besides these sub-drift remains, the skulls of men who probably lived before the great cataclysm,--men who may have looked upon the very comet that smote the world. they represent two widely different races. one is "the engis skull," so called from the cave of engis, near liége, where it was found by dr. schmerling. "it is a fair average human skull, which might," says huxley, "have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage."[ ] it represents a ### the engis skull. civilized, if not a cultivated, race of men. it may represent a victim, a prisoner, held for a cannibalistic feast or a trader from a more civilized region. [ . "prehistoric times," p. . . ibid., p. . . "man's place in nature," p. .] {p. } in another cave, in the neanderthal, near hochdale, between düsseldorf and elberfeld, a skull was found which is the most ape-like of all known human crania. the mail to whom it belonged must have been a barbarian brute of the rudest possible type. here is a representation of it. ### the neanderthal skull. i beg the reader to remember these skulls when he comes to read, a little further on, the legend told by an american indian tribe of california, describing the marriage between the daughter of the gods and a son of the grizzly bears, from which union, we are told, came the indian tribes. these skulls represent creatures as far apart, i was about to say, as gods and bears. the "engis skull," with its full frontal brain-pan, its fine lines, and its splendidly arched dome, tells us of ages of cultivation and development in some favored center of the race; while the horrible and beast-like proportions of "the neanderthal skull" speak, with no less certainty, of undeveloped, brutal, savage man, only a little above the gorilla in capacity;--a prowler, a robber, a murderer, a cave-dweller, a cannibal, a cain. {p. } we shall see, as we go on in the legends of the races on both sides of the atlantic, that they all looked to some central land, east of america and west of europe, some island of the ocean, where dwelt a godlike race, and where alone, it would seem, the human race was preserved to repeople the earth, while these brutal representatives of the race, the neanderthal people, were crushed out. and this is not mere theorizing. it is conceded, as the result of most extensive scientific research: . that the great southern mammalia perished in europe when the drift came upon the earth. . it is conceded that these two skulls are associated with the bones of these locally extinct animals, mingled together in the same deposits. . the conclusion is, therefore, logically irresistible, that these skulls belonged to men who lived during or before the drift age. many authorities support this proposition that man--palæolithic man, man of the mammoth and the mastodon--existed in the caves of europe before the drift. "after having occupied the english caves for untold ages, palæolithic man disappeared for ever, and with him vanished many animals now either locally or wholly extinct."[ ] above the remains of man in these caves comes a deposit of stalagmite, twelve feet in thickness, indicating a vast period of time during which it was being formed, and during this time _man was absent_.[ ] above this stalagmite comes another deposit of cave-earth: "the deposits immediately _overlying_ the stalagmite and cave-earth contain an almost _totally different assemblage_ [ . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } _of animal remains_, along with relics of the neolithic, bronze, iron, and historic periods. "there is no passage, but, on the contrary, a _sharp and abrupt break_ between these later deposits and the underlying palæolithic accumulations."[ ] here we have the proof that man inhabited these caves for ages before the drift; that he perished with the great mammals and disappeared; and that the twelve feet of stalagmite were formed while no men and few animals dwelt in europe. but some fragment of the human race had escaped elsewhere, in some other region; there it multiplied and replenished the earth, and gradually extended and spread again over europe, and reappeared in the cave-deposits above the stalagmite. and, in like manner, the animals gradually came in from the regions on which the drift had not fallen. but the revelations of the last few years prove, not only that man lived during the drift age, and that he dwelt on the earth when the drift fell, but that he can be traced backward for ages before the drift; and that he was contemporary with species of great animals that had run their course, and ceased to exist centuries, perhaps thousands of years, before the drift. i quote a high authority: "most of the human relics of any sort have been found in the more recent layers of the drift. they have been discovered, however, not only in the older drift, but also, though very rarely, _in the underlying tertiary_. for instance, in the upper pliocene at st. prest, near chartres, were found stone implements and cuttings on bone, in connection with relics of a long-extinct elephant (_elephas meridionalis_) _that is wholly lacking in the drift_. during the past two years the evidences of human existence in the tertiary period, i. e., previous to the age of mammoths [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } of the diluvial period, have multiplied, and by their multiplication give cumulative confirmation to each other. even in the lower strata of the miocene (the middle tertiary) important discoveries of stone knives and bone-cuttings have been made, as at thenay, department of marne-et-loire, and billy, department of allier, france. professor j. d. whitney, the eminent state geologist of california, reports similar discoveries there also. so, then, we may believe that before the last great upheaval of the alps and pyrenees, and while the yet luxuriant vegetation of the then (i. e., in the tertiary period) paradisaic climate yet adorned central europe, man inhabited this region."[ ] we turn to the american continent and we find additional proofs of man's pre-glacial existence. the "american naturalist," , says: "the discoveries that are constantly being made in this country are proving that man existed on this continent as far back in geological time as on the european continent; and it even seems that america, really the old world, geologically, will soon prove to be the birthplace of the earliest race of man. one of the late and important discoveries is that by mr. e. l. berthoud, which is given in full, with a map, in the 'proceedings of the philadelphia academy of sciences for ,' p. . mr. berthoud there reports the discovery of ancient fire-places, rude stone monuments, and implements of stone in great number and variety, in several places along crow creek, in colorado, and also on several other rivers in the vicinity. these fire-places indicate several ancient sites of an unknown race differing entirely from the mound-builders and the present indians, while the shells and other fossils found with the remains make it quite certain that the deposit in which the ancient sites are found _is as old as the pliocene, and perhaps as the miocene_. as the fossil shells found with the relies of man are of estuary forms, and as the sites of the ancient towns are on extended [ . "popular science monthly," april, , p. .] {p. } points of land, and at the base of the ridges or bluffs, mr. berthoud thinks the evidence is strongly in favor of the locations having been near some ancient fresh-water lake, whose vestiges the present topography of the region favors." i quote the following from the "scientific american" ( ): "the finding of numerous relies of a buried race on an ancient horizon, _from twenty to thirty feet below the present level of country in missouri and kansas_, has been noted. the st. louis 'republican' gives particulars of another find of an unmistakable character made last spring ( ) in franklin county, missouri, by dr. r. w. booth, who was engaged in iron-mining about three miles from dry branch, a station on the st. louis and santa fé railroad. at a depth of _eighteen feet below the surface_ the miners uncovered a human skull, with portions of the ribs, vertebral column, and collar-bone. with them were found two flint arrow-heads of the most primitive type, imperfect in shape and barbed. _a few pieces of charcoal were also found_ at the same time and place. dr. booth was fully aware of the importance of the discovery, and tried to preserve everything found, but upon touching the skull it crumbled to dust, and some of the other bones broke into small pieces and partly crumbled away; but enough was preserved to fully establish the fact that they are human bones. "some fifteen or twenty days subsequent to the first finding, at a depth of _twenty-four feet below the surface_, other bones were found--a thigh-bone and a portion of the vertebra, and several pieces of _charred wood, the bones apparently belonging to the first-found skeleton_. in both cases the bones rested on a fibrous stratum, suspected at the time to be a fragment of coarse matting. this lay upon a floor of soft _but solid iron-ore_, which retained the imprint of the fibers. . . . "the indications are that the filled cavity had originally been a sort of cave, and that the supposed matting was more probably a layer of twigs, rushes, or weeds, which the inhabitants of the cave had used as a bed, as the fiber {p. } marks cross each other irregularly. the ore-bed in which the remains were found, and part of which seems to have formed after the period of human occupation of the cave, lies in the second (or saccharoidal) sandstone of the lower silurian." note the facts: the remains of this man are found separated--part are eighteen feet below the surface, part twenty-four feet--that is, they are _six feet apart_. how can we account for this condition of things, except by supposing that the poor savage had rushed for safety to his shallow rock-shelter, and had there been caught by the world-tempest, and _torn to pieces_ and deposited in fragments with the _débris_ that filled his rude home? in california we encounter a still more surprising state of things. the celebrated calaveras skull was found in a shaft _one hundred and fifty feet deep_, under five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four beds of auriferous gravel. the accompanying cut represents a plummet found in digging a well in the san joaquin valley, california, _thirty feet below the surface_. ### plummet from san joaquin valley, cal. dr. foster says: "in examining this beautiful relic, one is led almost instinctively to believe that it was used as a plummet, for the purpose of determining the perpendicular to the horizon [for building purposes?]; . . . when we consider its symmetry of form, the contrast of colors brought out by the process of grinding and polishing, and the delicate drilling of the hole through a material (syenite) so liable to fracture, we are free to say it affords an exhibition of the lapidary's skill superior to anything yet furnished by the stone age of either continent."[ ] [ . "the prehistoric races of the united states," p. .] {p. } in louisiana, layers of pottery, _six inches thick_, with remnants of matting and baskets, were found _twelve feet below the surface_, and underneath what dr. foster believes to be strata of the drift.[ ] i might fill pages with similar testimony; but i think i have given enough to satisfy the reader that man _did_ exist before the drift. i shall discuss the subject still further when i come to consider, in a subsequent chapter, the question whether pre-glacial man was or was not civilized. [ . "the prehistoric races of the united states," p. .] {p. } chapter iii. legends of the coming of the comet. we turn now to the legends of mankind. i shall try to divide them, so as to represent, in their order, the several stages of the great event. this, of course, will be difficult to do, for the same legend may detail several different parts of the same common story; and hence there may be more or less repetition; they will more or less overlap each other. and, first, i shall present one or two legends that most clearly represent the first coming of the monster, the dragon, the serpent, the wolf, the dog, the evil one, the comet. the second hindoo "avatar" gives the following description of the rapid advance of some dreadful object out of space, and its tremendous fall upon the earth: "by the power of god there issued from the essence of brahma a being shaped like a boar, _white and exceeding small_; this being, _in the space of an hour_, grew to the size of an elephant of the largest size, _and remained in the air_." that is to say, it was an atmospheric, not a terrestrial creature. "brahma was astonished on beholding this figure, and discovered, by the force of internal penetration, that it could be nothing but the power of the omnipotent which had assumed a body and become visible. he now felt that god is all in all, and all is from him, and all in him; {p. } and said to mareechee and his sons (the attendant genii): 'a wonderful animal has emanated from my essence; at first of the smallest size, it has in one hour increased to this enormous bulk, and, without doubt, it is a portion of the almighty power.'" brahma, an earthly king, was at first frightened by the terrible spectacle in the air, and then claimed that he had produced it himself! "they were engaged in this conversation when that _vara_, or 'boar-form,' suddenly uttered a sound _like the loudest thunder_, and the echo reverberated and _shook all the quarters of the universe_." this is the same terrible noise which, as i have already shown, would necessarily result from the carbureted hydrogen of the comet exploding in our atmosphere. the legend continues: "but still, under this dreadful awe of heaven, a certain wonderful divine confidence secretly animated the hearts of brahma, mareechee, and the other genii, who immediately began praises and thanksgiving. that _vara_ (boar-form) figure, hearing the power of the vedas and mantras from their mouths, again made a loud noise, and _became a dreadful spectacle_. shaking the _full flowing mane_ which hung down his neck on both sides, and erecting the humid _hairs_ of his body, he proudly displayed his two most exceedingly white tusks; then, rolling about his wine-colored (red) eyes, and erecting his _tail_, he descended _from the region of the air_, and plunged headforemost into the water. the whole body of water was convulsed by the motion, and began to rise in waves, while the guardian spirit of the sea, being terrified, began to tremble for his domain and cry for mercy.[ ] flow fully does this legend accord with the descriptions of comets given by astronomers, the "horrid hair," the mane, the animal-like head! compare it with mr. [ . maurice's "ancient history of hindustan," vol. i, p. .] {p. } lockyer's account of coggia's comet, as seen through newell's large refracting telescope at ferndene, gateshead, and which he described as having a head like "_a fan-shaped projection of light_, with _ear-like appendages_, at each side, which sympathetically complemented each other at every change either of form or luminosity." we turn to the legends of another race: the zendavesta of the ancient persians[ ] describes a period of "great innocence and happiness on earth." this represents, doubtless, the delightful climate of the tertiary period, already referred to, when endless summer extended to the poles. "there was a 'man-bull,' who resided on an elevated region, which the deity had assigned him." this was probably a line of kings or a nation, whose symbol was the bull, as we see in bel or baal, with the bull's horns, dwelling in some elevated mountainous region. "at last an evil one, denominated ahriman, corrupted the world. after having _dared to visit heaven_" (that is, he appeared first in the high heavens), "he _descended upon the earth and assumed the form of a serpent_." that is to say, a serpent-like comet struck the earth. "the man-bull was _poisoned by his venom_, and died in consequence of it. meanwhile, ahriman _threw the whole universe into confusion_ (chaos), for that enemy of good mingled himself with everything, appeared everywhere, and sought to do mischief above and below." we shall find all through these legends allusions to the poisonous and deadly gases brought to the earth by the comet: we have already seen that the gases which are proved to be associated with comets are fatal to life. [ . faber's "horæ mosaicæ," vol. i, p. .] {p. } and this, be it remembered, is not guess-work, but the revelation of the spectroscope. the traditions of the ancient britons[ ] tell us of an ancient time, when "the profligacy of mankind had provoked the great supreme to send a pestilential wind upon the earth. a pure _poison descended, every blast was death_. at this time the patriarch, distinguished for his integrity, _was shut up_, together with his select company, in the _inclosure with the strong door_. (the cave?) here the just ones were safe from injury. _presently a tempest of fire arose. it split the earth asunder_ to the great deep. the lake llion burst its bounds, and the waves of the sea lifted themselves on high around the borders of britain, _the rain poured down from heaven, and the waters covered the earth_." here we have the whole story told briefly, but with the regular sequence of events: . the poisonous gases. . the people seek shelter in the caves. . the earth takes fire. . the earth is cleft open; the fiords are made, and the trap-rocks burst forth. . the rain pours down. . there is a season of floods. when we turn to the greek legends, as recorded by one of their most ancient writers, hesiod, we find the coming of the comet clearly depicted. we shall see here, and in many other legends, reference to the fact that there was more than one monster in the sky. this is in accordance with what we now know to be true of comets. they often appear in pairs or even triplets. within the past few years we have seen biela's comet divide and form two separate comets, pursuing [ . "mythology of the british druids," p. .] {p. } their course side by side. when the great comet of appeared, another of almost equal magnitude followed it. seneca informs us that ephoras, a greek writer of the fourth century before christ, had recorded the singular fact of a comet's separation into two parts. "this statement was deemed incredible by the roman philosopher. more recent observations of similar phenomena leave no room to question the historian's veracity."[ ] the chinese annals record the appearance of _three_ comets--one large and two smaller ones--at the same time, in the year of our era. "they traveled together for three days. the little ones disappeared first and then the large one." and again: "on june th, a. d. , two comets appeared in the constellation hercules, and pursued nearly the same path."[ ] if mere proximity to the earth served to split biela's comet into two fragments, why might not a comet, which came near enough to strike the earth, be broken into several separate forms? so that there is nothing improbable in hesiod's description of two or three aërial monsters appearing at or about the same time, or of one being the apparent offspring of the other, since a large comet may, like biela's, have broken in two before the eyes of the people. hesiod tells us that the earth united with night to do a terrible deed, by which the heavens were much wronged. the earth prepared a large sickle of white iron, with jagged teeth, and gave it to her son cronus, and stationed him in ambush, and when heaven came, cronus, his son, grasped at him, and with his "huge sickle, long and jagged-toothed," cruelly wounded him. [ . kirkwood, "comets and meteors," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } was this jagged, white, sickle-shaped object a comet? "and night bare also hateful destiny, and black fate, and death, and nemesis." and hesiod tells us that "she," probably night-- "brought forth another monster, _irresistible_, nowise like to mortal man or immortal gods, in a hollow cavern; the divine, stubborn-hearted echidna (half-nymph, with dark eyes and fair cheeks; and half, on the other hand, a _serpent, huge and terrible and vast_), _speckled_, and _flesh-devouring_, 'neath caves of sacred earth. . . . with her, they say that typhaon (typhon) associated in love, a terrible and lawless ravisher for the dark-eyed maid. . . . but she (echidna) bare chimæra, _breathing resistless fire_, fierce and huge, fleet-footed as well as strong; this monster had three heads: one, indeed, of a grim-visaged lion, one of a goat, and another of a serpent, a fierce dragon; ### comet of . aspect of the head of the comet at nine in the evening, the d august, and the th august at the same hour. {p. } in front a lion, a dragon behind, and in the midst a goat, _breathing forth the dread strength of burning fire_. her pegasus slew and brave bellerophon." the astronomical works show what weird, and fantastic, and goblin-like shapes the comets assume under the telescope. look at the representation on page , from guillemin's work,[ ] of the appearance of the comet of , giving the changes which took place in twenty-four hours. if we will imagine one of these monsters close to the earth, we can readily suppose that the excited people, looking at "the dreadful spectacle," (as the hindoo legend calls it,) saw it taking the shapes of serpents, dragons, birds, and wolves. and hesiod proceeds to tell us something more about this fiery, serpent-like monster: "but when jove had driven the titans out from heaven, huge earth bare her youngest-born son, typhœus (typhaon, typhœus, typhon), by the embrace of tartarus (hell), through golden aphrodite (venus), whose hands, indeed, are apt for deeds on the score of strength, and untiring the feet of the strong god; and from his shoulders there were a hundred heads of a serpent, a fierce dragon playing with _dusky tongues_" (_tongues of fire and smoke?_), "and from the eyes in his wondrous heads are sparkled beneath the brows; whilst from all his heads _fire was gleaming_, as he looked keenly. in all his terrible heads, too, _were voices sending forth every kind of voice ineffable_. for one while, indeed, they would utter sounds, so as for the gods to understand, and at another time, again, the voice of a loud-bellowing bull, untamable in force and proud in utterance; at another time, again, that of a lion possessing a daring spirit; at another time, again, they would sound like to whelps, wondrous to hear; and at another, he would hiss, and the lofty mountains resounded. [ . "the heavens," p. .] {p. } "and, in sooth, then would there have been done a deed past remedy, and he, even he, would have reigned over mortals and immortals, unless, i wot, the sire of gods and men had quickly observed him. harshly then he thundered, and heavily and terribly the earth re-echoed around; and the broad heaven above, and the sea and streams of ocean, and the abysses of earth. but beneath his immortal feet _vast olympus trembled_, as the king uprose and earth groaned beneath. and the _heat from both caught the dark-colored sea_, both of the thunder and the lightning, and _fire from the monster_, the heat arising from the thunder-storms, _winds_, and burning lightning. _and all earth, and heaven, and sea, were boiling_; and huge billows roared around the shores about and around, beneath the violence of the gods; and _unallayed quaking arose_. pluto trembled, monarch over the dead beneath; and the titans under tartarus, standing about cronus, trembled also, on account of _the unceasing tumult and dreadful contention_. but jove, when in truth he had raised high his wrath, and had taken his arms, his thunder and lightning, and smoking bolt, leaped up and smote him from olympus, and scorched all around the wondrous heads of the terrible monster. "but when at length he had quelled it, after having smitten it with blows, the monster _fell down_, lamed, and _huge earth groaned_. but the _flame_ from the lightning-blasted monster _flashed forth in the mountain hollows_, hidden and rugged, when he was stricken, and _much was the vast earth burnt and melted by the boundless vapor_, like as pewter, heated by the art of youths, and by the well-bored melting-pit, or iron, which is the hardest of metals, subdued in the dells of the mountain by blazing fire, melts in the sacred earth, beneath the hands of vulcan. so, i wot, _was earth melted in the glare of burning fire_. then, troubled in spirit, he hurled him into wide tartarus."[ ] here we have a very faithful and accurate narrative of the coming of the comet: [ . "theogony."] {p. } born of night a monster appears, a serpent, huge, terrible, speckled, flesh-devouring. with her is another comet, typhaon; they beget the chimæra, that breathes resistless fire, fierce, huge, swift. and typhaon, associated with both these, is the most dreadful monster of all, born of hell and sensual sin, a serpent, a fierce dragon, many-headed, with dusky tongues and fire gleaming; sending forth dreadful and appalling noises, while mountains and fields rock with earthquakes; chaos has come; the earth, the sea boils; there is unceasing tumult and contention, and in the midst the monster, wounded and broken up, _falls upon the earth_; the earth groans under his weight, and there he blazes and burns for a time in the mountain fastnesses and desert places, melting the earth with boundless vapor and glaring fire. we will find legend after legend about this typhon he runs through the mythologies of different nations. and as to his size and his terrible power, they all agree. he was no earth-creature. he moved in the air; he reached the skies: "according to pindar the head of typhon reached to the stars, his eyes darted fire, his hands extended from the east to the west, terrible serpents were twined about the middle of his body, and one hundred snakes took the place of fingers on his hands. between him and the gods there was a dreadful war. jupiter finally killed him with a flash of lightning, and buried him under mount etna." and there, smoking and burning, his great throes and writhings, we are told, still shake the earth, and threaten mankind: and with pale lips men say, 'to-morrow, perchance to-day, encelidas may arise! "' {p. } chapter iv. ragnarok there is in the legends of the scandinavians a marvelous record of the coming of the comet. it has been repeated generation after generation, translated into all languages, commented on, criticised, but never understood. it has been regarded as a wild, unmeaning rhapsody of words, or as a premonition of some future earth catastrophe. but look at it! the very name is significant. according to professor anderson's etymology of the word, it means "the darkness of the gods"; from _regin_, gods, and _rökr_, darkness; but it may, more properly, be derived from the icelandic, danish, and swedish _regn_, a rain, and _rök_, smoke, or dust; and it may mean the rain of dust, for the clay came first as dust; it is described in some indian legends as ashes. first, there is, as in the tradition of the druids, page , _ante_, the story of an age of crime. the vala looks upon the world, and, as the "elder edda" tells us-- there saw she wade in the heavy streams, men--foul murderers and perjurers, and them who others' wives seduce to sin. brothers slay brothers sisters' children shed each other's blood. {p. } hard is the world! sensual sin grows huge. there are sword-ages, axe-ages; shields are cleft in twain; storm-ages, murder ages; till the world falls dead, and men no longer spare or pity one another."[ ] the world has ripened for destruction; and "ragnarok," the darkness of the gods, or the rain of dust and ashes, comes to complete the work. the whole story is told with the utmost detail, and we shall see that it agrees, in almost every particular, with what reason assures us must have happened. "there are three winters," or years, "during which great wars rage over the world." mankind has reached a climax of wickedness. doubtless it is, as now, highly civilized in some regions, while still barbarian in others. "then happens that which will seem a great miracle: that _the wolf devours the sun_, and this will seem a great loss." that is, the comet strikes the sun, or approaches so close to it that it seems to do so. "the other wolf devours the moon, and this, too, will cause great mischief." we have seen that the comets often come in couples or triplets. "the stars shall be hurled from heaven." this refers to the blazing _débris_ of the comet falling to the earth. "then it shall come to pass that the earth will shake so violently that trees will be torn up by the roots, the [ . anderson, "norse mythology," p. .] {p. } mountains will topple down, and all bonds and fetters will be broken and snapped." chaos has come again. how closely does all this agree with hesiod's description of the shaking earth and the universal conflict of nature? "the fenris-wolf gets loose." this, we shall see, is the name of one of the comets. "_the sea rushes over the earth_, for the midgard-serpent writhes in giant rage, and seeks to gain the land." the midgard-serpent is the name of another comet; it strives to reach the earth; its proximity disturbs the oceans. and then follows an inexplicable piece of mythology: "the ship that is called naglfar also becomes loose. it is made of the nails of dead men; wherefore it is worth warning that, when a man dies with unpared nails, he supplies a large amount of materials for the building of this ship, which both gods and men wish may be finished as late as possible. but in this flood naglfar gets afloat. the giant hrym is its steersman. "the fenris-wolf advances with wide-open mouth; _the upper jaw reaches to heaven and the lower jaw is on the earth_." that is to say, the comet extends from the earth to the sun. "he would open it still wider had he room." that is to say, the space between the sun and earth is not great enough; the tail of the comet reaches even beyond the earth. "_fire flashes from his eyes and nostrils_." a recent writer says: "when bright comets happen to come very near to the sun, and are subjected to close observation under the {p. } advantages which the fine telescopes of the present day afford, a series of remarkable changes is found to take place in their luminous configuration. first, _jets of bright light start out from the nucleus_, and move through the fainter haze of the coma toward the sun; and then these jets are turned backward round the edge of the coma, and stream from it, behind the comet, until they are fashioned into a tail."[ ] "the midgard-serpent vomits forth _venom_, defiling all the air and the sea; he is very terrible, and places himself _side by side with the wolf_." the two comets move together, like biela's two fragments; and they give out poison--the carbureted-hydrogen gas revealed by the spectroscope. "in the midst of this clash and din the heavens are rent in twain, and the sons of muspelheim come riding through the opening." muspelheim, according to professor anderson,[ ] means the day of judgment." _muspel_ signifies an abode of fire, peopled by fiends. so that this passage means, that the heavens are split open, or appear to be, by the great shining comet, or comets, striking the earth; it is a world of fire; it is the day of judgment. "surt rides first, and before him and after _him flames burning fire_." surt is a demon associated with the comet;[ ] he is the same as the destructive god of the egyptian mythology, set, who destroys the sun. it may mean the blazing nucleus of the comet. "he has a very good sword that shines brighter than the sun. as they ride over bifrost it breaks to pieces, as has before been stated." [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. . . "norse mythology," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } bifrost, we shall have reason to see hereafter, was a prolongation of land westward from europe, which connected the british islands with the island-home of the gods, or the godlike race of men. there are geological proofs that such a land once existed. a writer, thomas butler gunn, in a recent number of an english publication,[ ] says: "tennyson's 'voyage of maeldune' is a magnificent allegorical expansion of this idea; and the laureate has also finely commemorated the old belief in the country of lyonnesse, _extending beyond the bounds_ of cornwall: 'a land of old upheaven from the abyss by fire, _to sink into the abyss again_; where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt, and the long mountains ended in a coast of ever-shifting sands, and far away the phantom circle of a moaning sea.' "cornishmen of the last generation used to tell stories of strange household relics picked up at the very low tides, nay, even of the quaint habitations seen fathoms deep in the water." there are those who believe that these scandinavian eddas came, in the first instance, from druidical briton sources. the edda may be interpreted to mean that the comet strikes the planet west of europe, and crushes down some land in that quarter, called "the bridge of bifrost." then follows a mighty battle between the gods and the comet. it can have, of course, but one termination; but it will recur again and again in the legends of different nations. it was necessary that the gods, the protectors of mankind, should struggle to defend them against these strange and terrible enemies. but their very helplessness [ . "all the year round."] {p. } and their deaths show how immense was the calamity which had befallen the world. the edda continues: "the sons of muspel direct their course to the plain which is called vigrid. thither repair also the fenris-wolf and the midgard-serpent." both the comets have fallen on the earth. "to this place have also come loke" (the evil genius of the norse mythology) "and hrym, and with him all the frost giants. in loke's company are all the friends of hel" (the goddess of death). "the sons of muspel have then their efficient bands alone by themselves. the plain vigrid is one hundred miles (rasts) on each side." that is to say, all these evil forces, the comets, the fire, the devil, and death, have taken possession of the great plain, the heart of the civilized land. the scene is located in this spot, because probably it was from this spot the legends were afterward dispersed to all the world. it is necessary for the defenders of mankind to rouse themselves. there is no time to be lost, and, accordingly, we learn-- "while these things are happening, heimdal" (he was the guardian of the bifrost-bridge) "stands up, blows with all his might in the gjallar-horn and _awakens all the gods_, who thereupon hold counsel. odin rides to mimer's well to ask advice of mimer for himself and his folk. "then quivers the ash ygdrasil, and all things in heaven and earth tremble." the ash ygdrasil is the tree-of-life; the tree of the ancient tree-worship; the tree which stands on the top of the pyramid in the island-birth place of the aztec race; the tree referred to in the hindoo legends. "the asas" (the godlike men) "and the einherjes" (the heroes) "arm themselves and speed forth to the battlefield. odin rides first; with his golden helmet, resplendent {p. } byrnie, and his spear gungner, he advances against the fenris-wolf" (the first comet). "thor stands by his side, but can give him no assistance, for he has his hands full in his struggle with the midgard-serpent" (the second comet). "frey encounters surt, and heavy blows are exchanged ere frey falls. the cause of his death is that he has not that good sword which he gave to skirner. even the dog garm," (another comet), "that was bound before the gnipa-cave, gets loose. he is the greatest plague. he contends with tyr, and they kill each other. thor gets great renown by slaying the midgard-serpent, but retreats only nine paces when he falls to the earth dead, _poisoned by the venom that the serpent blows upon him_." he has breathed the carbureted-hydrogen gas! "the wolf swallows odin, and thus causes his death; but vidar immediately turns and rushes at the wolf, placing one foot on his nether jaw. ["on this foot he has the shoe, for which materials have been gathering through all ages, namely, the strips of leather which men cut off from the toes and heels of shoes; wherefore he who wishes to render assistance to the asas must cast these strips away."] this last paragraph, like that concerning the ship naglfar, is probably the interpolation of some later age. the narrative continues: "with one hand vidar seizes the upper jaw of the wolf, and thus rends asunder his mouth. thus the wolf perishes. loke fights with heimdal, and they kill each other. _thereupon surt flings fire over the earth, and burns up all the world_." this narrative is from the younger edda. the elder edda is to the same purpose, but there are more allusions to the effect of the catastrophe on the earth the eagle screams, _and with pale beak tears corpses_. . . . mountains dash together, {p. } heroes go the way to hel, and heaven is rent in twain. . . . _all men abandon their homesteads_ when the warder of midgard in wrath slays the serpent. _the sun grows dark, the earth sinks into the sea_, the bright stars from heaven vanish; _fire rages, heat blazes, and high flames play 'gainst heaven itself_" and what follow then? ice and cold and winter. for although these things come first in the narrative of the edda, yet we are told that "_before these_" things, to wit, the cold winters, there occurred the wickedness of the world, and the wolves and the serpent made their appearance. so that the events transpired in the order in which i have given them. "first there is a winter called the fimbul winter," "the mighty, the great, the iron winter,"[ ] "'_when snow drives from. all quarters_, the frosts are so severe, the winds so keen, there is no joy in the sun. _there are three such winters in succession, without any intervening summer_." here we have the glacial period which followed the drift. three years of incessant wind, and snow, and intense cold. the elder edda says, speaking of the fenris-wolf: "it feeds on the bodies of men, when they die the seats of the gods _it stains with red blood_." [ . "norse mythology," p. .] {p. } this probably refers to the iron-stained red clay cast down by the comet over a large part of the earth; the "seats of the gods" means the home of the god-like race, which was doubtless covered, like europe and america, with red clay; the waters which ran from it must have been the color of blood. "_the sunshine blackens_ in the summers thereafter, and the weather grows bad." in the younger edda (p. ) we are given a still more precise description of the ice age: "replied har, explaining, that as soon as the streams, that are called elivogs" (the rivers from under ice), "had came so far that the venomous yeast" (the clay?) "which flowed with them hardened, as does dross that runs from the fire, then it turned" (as) "into ice. and when this ice stopped and flowed no more, then gathered over it the drizzling rain that arose from the venom" (the clay), "and froze into rime" (ice), "_and one layer of ice was laid upon another clear into the ginungagap_." ginungagap, we are told,[ ] was the name applied in the eleventh century by the northmen to the ocean between greenland and vinland, or america. it doubtless meant originally the whole of the atlantic ocean. the clay, when it first fell, was probably full of chemical elements, which rendered it, and the waters which filtered through it, unfit for human use; clay waters are, to this day, the worst in the world. "then said jafnhar: 'all that part of ginungagap that turns to the north' (the north atlantic) 'was filled with thick and heavy ice and rime, and everywhere within were drizzling rains and gusts. but the south part of ginungagap was lighted up by the glowing sparks that flew out of muspelheim.'" [ . "norse mythology," p. .] {p. } the ice and rime to the north represent the age of ice and snow. muspelheim was the torrid country of the south, over which the clouds could not yet form in consequence of the heat--africa. but it can not last forever. the clouds disappear; the floods find their way back to the ocean; nature begins to decorate once more the scarred and crushed face of the world. but where is the human race? the "younger edda" tells us: "during the conflagration caused by surt's fire, a woman by the name of lif and a man named lifthraser lie concealed in hodmimer's hold, or forest. the dew of the dawn serves them for food, and so great a race shall spring from them, that their descendants shall soon spread over the whole earth."[ ] the "elder edda" says: "lif and lifthraser will lie hid in hodmimer's-holt; the morning dew they have for food. from them are the races descended." holt is a grove, or forest, or hold; it was probably a cave. we shall see that nearly all the legends refer to the caves in which mankind escaped from destruction. this statement, "from them are the races descended," shows that this is not prophecy, but history; it refers to the past, not to the future; it describes not a day of judgment to come, but one that has already fallen on the human family. two others, of the godlike race, also escaped in some [ . "norse mythology" p. .] {p. } way not indicated; vidar and vale are their names. they, too, had probably taken refuge in some cavern. "neither the sea nor surt's fire had harmed them, and they dwell on the plains of ida, where asgard _was before_. thither come also the sons of thor, mode, and magne, and they have mjolner. _then come balder and hoder from hel_. mode and magne are children of thor; they belong to the godlike race. they, too, have escaped. mjolner is thor's hammer. balder is the sun; he has returned from the abode of death, to which the comet consigned him. hoder is the night. all this means that the fragments and remnants of humanity reassemble on the plain of ida--the plain of vigrid--where the battle was fought. they possess the works of the old civilization, represented by thor's hammer; and the day and night once more return after the long midnight blackness. and the vala looks again upon a renewed and rejuvenated world: "she sees arise the second time. from the sea, the earth, _completely green_. the cascades fall, the eagle soars, from lofty mounts pursues its prey." it is once more the glorious, the sun-lighted world the world of flashing seas, dancing streams, and green leaves; with the eagle, high above it all, "batting the sunny ceiling of the globe with his dark wings;" while "the wild cataracts leap in glory." {p. } what history, what poetry, what beauty, what inestimable pictures of an infinite past have lain hidden away in these sagas--the despised heritage of all the blue-eyed, light-haired races of the world! rome and greece can not parallel this marvelous story: the gods convene on ida's plains, and talk of the powerful midgard-serpent; they call to mind the fenris-wolf and the ancient runes of the mighty odin." what else can mankind think of, or dream of, or talk of for the next thousand years but this awful, this unparalleled calamity through which the race has passed? a long-subsequent but most ancient and cultivated people, whose memory has, for us, almost faded from the earth, will thereafter embalm the great drama in legends, myths, prayers, poems, and sagas; fragments of which are found to-day dispersed through all literatures in all lands; some of them, as we shall see, having found their way even into the very bible revered alike of jew and christian: the edda continues, "then again the wonderful golden tablets are found in the grass in time's morning, the leader of the gods and odin's race possessed them." and what a find was that! this poor remnant of humanity discovers "the golden tablets" of the former {p. } civilization. doubtless, the inscribed tablets, by which the art of writing survived to the race; for what would tablets be without inscriptions? for they talk of "the ancient runes of mighty odin," that is, of the runic letters, the alphabetical writing. and we shall see hereafter that this view is confirmed from other sources. there follows a happy age: "the fields unsown yield their growth; all ills cease. balder comes. hoder and balder, those heavenly gods, dwell together in odin's halls." the great catastrophe is past. man is saved, the world is once more fair. the sun shines again in heaven. night and day follow each other in endless revolution around the happy globe. ragnarok is past. {p. } chapter v. the conflagration of phaËton now let us turn to the mythology of the latins, as preserved in the pages of ovid, one of the greatest of the poets of ancient rome.[ ] here we have the burning of the world involved in the myth of phaëton, son of phœbus--apollo--the sun--who drives the chariot of his father; he can not control the horses of the sun, they run away with him; they come so near the earth as to set it on fire, and phaëton is at last killed by jove, as he killed typhon in the greek legends, to save heaven and earth from complete and common ruin. this is the story of the conflagration as treated by a civilized mind, explained by a myth, and decorated with the flowers and foliage of poetry. we shall see many things in the narrative of ovid which strikingly confirm our theory. phaëton, to prove that he is really the son of phœbus, the sun, demands of his parent the right to drive his chariot for one day. the sun-god reluctantly consents, not without many pleadings that the infatuated and rash boy would give up his inconsiderate ambition. phaëton persists. the old man says: "even the ruler of vast olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with his terrific right hand, can not guide [ . "the metamorphoses," book xi, fable .] {p. } this chariot; and yet, what have we greater than jupiter? the first part of the road is steep, and such as the horses, though fresh in the morning, can hardly climb. in the middle of the heaven it is high aloft, whence it is often a source of fear, even to myself, to look down upon the sea and the earth, and my breast trembles with fearful apprehensions. the last stage is a steep descent, and requires a sure command of the horses. . . . besides, the heavens are carried round with a constant rotation, and carrying with them the lofty stars, and whirl them with rapid revolution. against this i have to contend; and that force which overcomes all other things does not overcome me, and _i am carried in a contrary direction to the rapid world_." here we seem to have a glimpse of some higher and older learning, mixed with the astronomical errors of the day: ovid supposes the rapid world to move, revolve, one way, while the sun appears to move another. but phaëton insists on undertaking the dread task. the doors of aurora are opened, "her halls filled with roses"; the stars disappear; the hours yoke the horses, "filled with the _juice of ambrosia_," the father anoints the face of his son with a hallowed drug that he may the better endure the great heat; the reins are handed him, and the fatal race begins. phœbus has advised him not to drive too high, or "thou wilt set on fire the signs of the heavens"--the constellations;--nor too low, or he will consume the earth. "in the mean time the swift pyroeis, and eoüs and Æthon, the horses of the sun, and phlegon, the fourth, fill the air with neighings, sending forth flames, and beat the barriers with their feet. . . . they take the road . . . they cleave the resisting clouds, and, raised aloft by their wings, they pass by the east winds that had arisen from the same parts. but the weight" (of phaëton) "was light, and such as the horses of the sun could not feel; and the yoke was deficient of its wonted weight. . . . soon as {p. } the steeds had perceived this they rush on and leave the beaten track, and run not in the order in which they did before. he himself becomes alarmed, and knows not which way to turn the reins intrusted to him; nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he did know, could he control them. then, for the first time, did the cold triones grow warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in the sea that was forbidden to them. and the serpent, which is situate next to the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and formidable to no one, grew warm, and regained new rage for the heat. and they say that thou, boötes, scoured off in a mighty bustle, although thou wert but slow, and thy cart hindered thee. but when from the height of the skies the unhappy phaëton looked down upon the earth lying far, very far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook with a sudden terror; and, in a light so great, darkness overspread his eyes. and now he could wish that he had never touched the horses of his father; and now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and prevailed in his request; now desiring to be called the son of merops." "what can he do? . . . he is stupefied; he neither lets go the reins, nor is able to control them. in his fright, too, he sees strange objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the heavens, and the forms of huge wild beasts. there is a spot where the scorpion bends his arms into two curves, and, with his tail and claws bending on either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two signs of the zodiac. as soon as the youth beheld him, wet with the sweat of black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point of his tail, bereft of sense he let go the reins in a chill of horror." compare the course which ovid tells us phaëton pursued through the constellations, past the great serpent and boötes, and close to the venomous scorpion, with the orbit of donati's comet in , as given in schellen's great work.[ ] [ . "spectrum analysis," p. .] {p. } ### course of donati's comet the path described by ovid shows that the comet came from the north part of the heavens; and this agrees with what we know of the drift; the markings indicate that it came from the north. the horses now range at large; "they go through {p. } the air of an unknown region; . . . they rush on the stars fixed in the sky"; they approach the earth. "the moon, too, wonders that her brother's horses run _lower than her own_, and the scorched clouds send forth smoke, as each region is most elevated it is _caught by the flames_, and cleft, it makes _vast chasms, its moisture being carried away_. the grass grows pale; the trees, with their foliage, are _burned up_, and the dry, standing corn affords fuel for its own destruction. but i am complaining of trifling ills. _great cities perish_, together with their fortifications, and the flames _turn whole nations into ashes_; woods, together with mountains, are on fire. athos burns, and the cilician taurus, and tmolus, and œta, and ida, now dry but once most famed for its springs, and helicon, the resort of the virgin muses, and hæmus, not yet called œagrian. _Ætna burns intensely with redoubled flames_, and parnassus, with its two summits, and eryx, and cynthus, and orthrys, and rhodope, at length to be despoiled of its snows, and mimas, and dindyma, and mycale, and cithæron, created for the sacred rites. nor does its cold avail even scythia; caucasus is on fire, and ossa with pindus, and olympus, greater than them both, and the lofty alps, and the cloud-bearing apennines. "then, indeed, phaëton _beholds the world see on fire on all sides_, and he can not endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth scorching air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own chariot to be on fire. and neither is he able now to bear the ashes and _the emitted embers_; and on every side he is involved in a _heated smoke_. covered with _a pitchy darkness_, he knows not whither he is going, nor where he is, and is hurried away at the pleasure of the winged steeds. they believe that it was then that the nations of _the Æthiopians contracted their black hue_, the blood being attracted. into the surface of the body. then was libya" (sahara?) "made dry by the heat, the moisture being carried off; then with disheveled hair the nymphs _lamented the springs and the lakes_. bœotia bewails dirce, argos amymone, and ephyre the waters of pirene. nor do rivers that {p. } have banks distant remain secure. tanais smokes in the midst of its waters, and the aged peneus and teuthrantian caïcus and rapid ismenus. . . . the babylonian euphrates, too, was on fire, orontes was in flames, and the swift thermodon and ganges and phasis and ister. alpheus _boils_; the banks of spercheus burn; and the gold which tagus carries with its stream melts in the flames. the river-birds, too, which made famous the mæonian banks with song, grew hot in the middle of caÿster. the nile, affrighted, fled to the remotest parts of the earth and concealed his head, which still lies hid; his seven last mouths are empty, seven channels without any streams. the same fate dries up the ismarian rivers, hebeus together with strymon, and the hesperian streams, the rhine, the rhone, and the po, and the tiber, to which was promised the sovereignty of the world." in other words, according to these roman traditions here poetized, the heat dried up the rivers of europe, asia, and africa; in short, of all the known world. ovid continues: "all the ground bursts asunder, and through the chinks the light penetrates into tartarus, and startles the infernal king with his spouse." we have seen that during the drift age the great clefts in the earth, the fiords of the north of europe and america, occurred, and we shall see hereafter that, according to a central american legend, the red rocks boiled up through the earth at this time. "the _ocean, too, is contracted_," says ovid, "and that which lately was sea is a surface of parched sand, and the mountains which the deep sea has covered, start up and increase the number of the scattered cyclades" (a cluster of islands in the Ægean sea, surrounding delos as though with a circle, whence their name); "the fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked dolphins do not care to raise themselves on the surface into the air as usual. the bodies of sea-calves float lifeless on their backs on {p. } the top of the water. the story, too, is that even nereus himself and doris and their daughters _lay hid in the heated caverns_." all this could scarcely have been imagined, and yet it agrees precisely with what we can not but believe to have been the facts. here we have an explanation of how that vast body of vapor which afterward constituted great snow-banks and ice-sheets and river-torrents rose into the air. science tells us that to make a world-wrapping ice-sheet two miles thick, all the waters of the ocean must have been evaporated;[ ] to make one a mile thick would take one half the waters of the globe; and here we find this roman poet, who is repeating the legends of his race, and who knew nothing about a drift age or an ice age, telling us that the water _boiled_ in the streams; that the bottom of the mediterranean lay exposed, a bed of dry sand; that the fish floated dead on the surface, or fled away to the great depths of the ocean; and that even the sea-gods "hid in the heated caverns." ovid continues: "three times had neptune ventured with stern countenance to thrust his arms out of the water; three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat of the air." this is no doubt a reminiscence of those human beings who sought safety in the water, retreating downward into the deep as the heat reduced its level, occasionally lifting up their heads to breathe the torrid and tainted air. "however, the genial earth, _as she was surrounded by the sea_, amid the waters of the main" (the ocean); "the springs dried up on every side which had hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, burnt up, lifted up her all-productive face as far as her neck, and [ . "science and genesis," p. .] {p. } placed her hand to her forehead, and, shaking all things with a _vast trembling_, she _sank down a little and retired below the spot where she is wont_ to be." here we are reminded of the bridge bifrost, spoken of in the last chapter, which, as i have shown, was probably a prolongation of land reaching from atlantis to europe, and which the norse legends tell us sank down under the feet of the forces of muspelheim, in the day of ragnarok: "and thus she spoke with a parched voice: 'o sovereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if i have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? let me, if doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune by being the author of it. with difficulty, indeed, do i open my mouth for these very words. behold my scorched hair, and _such a quantity of ashes over my eyes_' (the drift-deposits), '_so much, too, over my features_. and dost thou give this as my recompense? this as the reward of my _fertility_ and my duty, in that i _endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows_, and am harassed all the year through, in that i supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food, for mankind, and frankincense for yourselves. "'but still, suppose i am deserving of destruction, why have the waves deserved this? why has thy brother' (neptune) 'deserved it? why do the seas delivered to him by lot _decrease_, and why do they _recede still farther from the sky?_ but if regard neither for thy brother nor myself influences thee, still have consideration for thy own skies; look around on either side, see how each pole is _smoking_; if the fire shall injure them, _thy palace will fall in ruins_. see! atlas himself is struggling, and hardly can he bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. "'if the sea, if the earth, if the palace of heaven, perish, we are then jumbled into the old chaos again. save it from the flames, if aught still survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe.' {p. } "thus spoke the earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the vapor, nor say more, and she withdrew her face within herself, _and the caverns neighboring to the shades below_. "but the omnipotent father, having called the gods above to witness, and him, too, who had given the chariot to phaëton, that unless he gives assistance all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft to the highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds over the spacious earth; and from which he moves his thunders, and burls the brandished lightnings. _but then he had neither clouds that he could draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky_." that is to say, so long as the great meteor shone in the air, and for some time after, the heat was too intense to permit the formation of either clouds or rain; these could only come with coolness and condensation. he thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right ear, against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both of life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the flames. the horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in the opposite direction, they shake the yoke from their necks, and disengage themselves from the torn harness. in one place lie the reins, in another the axle-tree wrenched from the pole, in another part are the spokes of the broken wheels, and _the fragments of the chariot torn in pieces are scattered far and wide_. but phaëton, the flames consuming his _yellow_ hair, _is hurled headlong_, and is borne in _a long track through the air_, as sometimes _a star is seen to fall from the serene sky_, although it really has not fallen. him the great eridanus receives in a part of the world far distant from his country, and bathes his foaming face. the _hesperian naiads_ commit his body, smoking from the _three-forked_ flames, to the tomb, and inscribe these verses on the stone: 'here is phaëton buried, the driver of his father's chariot, which, if he did not manage, still he miscarried in a great attempt.' "but his wretched father" (the sun) "_had hidden his_ {p. } _face overcast with bitter sorrow_, and, if only we can believe it, they say that _one day passed without the sun_. the flames" (of the fires on the earth) "afforded light, and there was some advantage in that disaster." as there was no daily return of the sun to mark the time, that one day of darkness was probably of long duration; it may have endured for years. then follows ovid's description of the mourning of clymene and the daughters of the sun and the naiads for the dead phaëton. cycnus, king of liguria, grieves for phaëton until he is transformed into a swan; reminding one of the central american legend, (which i shall give hereafter,) which states that in that day all men were turned into _goslings_ or _geese_, a reminiscence, perhaps, of those who saved themselves from the fire by taking refuge in the waters of the seas: "cycnus becomes a new bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens or the air, as being mindful of the _fire unjustly sent from thence_. he _frequents the pools and the wide lakes_, and, abhorring fire, he chooses the streams, the very contrary of flames. "meanwhile, the father of phaëton" (the sun), "in _squalid garb_ and destitute of his comeliness, _just as he is wont to be when he suffers an eclipse of his disk_, abhors both the light, himself, and the day; and gives his mind up to grief, and adds resentment to his sorrow." in other words, the poet is now describing the age of darkness, which, as we have seen, must have followed the conflagration, when the condensing vapor wrapped the world in a vast cloak of cloud. the sun refuses to go again on his daily journey; just as we shall see hereafter, in the american legends, he refuses to stir until threatened or coaxed into action. {p. } "all the deities," says ovid, "stand around the sun as he says such things, and they entreat him, with suppliant voice, _not to determine to bring darkness over the world_." at length they induce the enraged and bereaved father to resume his task. "but the omnipotent father" (jupiter) "surveys the vast walls of heaven, and carefully searches that no part, impaired by the violence of the fire, may fall into ruin. after he has seen them to be secure and in their own strength, he examines the earth, and the _works of man_; yet a care for his own arcadia is more particularly his object. he _restores, too, the springs and the rivers_, that had not yet dared to flow, _he gives grass to the earth, green leaves to the trees_; and orders the injured forests again to be green." the work of renovation has begun; the condensing moisture renews the springs and rivers, the green mantle of verdure once more covers the earth, and from the waste places the beaten and burned trees put forth new sprouts. the legend ends, like ragnarok, in a beautiful picture of a regenerated world. divest this poem of the myth of phaëton, and we have a very faithful tradition of the conflagration of the world caused by the comet. the cause of the trouble is a something which takes place high in the heavens; it rushes through space; it threatens the stars; it traverses particular constellations; it is disastrous; it has yellow hair; it is associated with great heat; it sets the world on fire it dries up the seas; its remains are scattered over the earth; it covers the earth with ashes; the sun ceases to appear; there is a time when he is, as it were, in eclipse, darkened; after a while he returns; verdure comes again upon the earth, the springs and rivers reappear, the world is renewed. during this catastrophe man has hidden himself, swanlike, {p. } in the waters; or the intelligent children of the earth betake themselves to deep caverns for protection from the conflagration. how completely does all this accord, in chronological order and in its details, with the scandinavian legend; and with what reason teaches us must have been the consequences to the earth if a comet had fallen upon it! and the most ancient of the ancient world, the nation that stood farthest back in historical time, the egyptians, believed that this legend of phaëton really represented the contact of the earth with a comet. when solon, the greek lawgiver, visited egypt, six hundred years before the christian era, he talked with the priests of sais about the deluge of deucalion. i quote the following from plato ("dialogues," xi, , _timæus_): "thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age, said, 'o solon, solon, you hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an hellene.' solon, hearing this, said, 'what do you mean?' 'i mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. and i will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. there is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time phaëthon, the son of helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunder-bolt. now, this has the form of a myth, but _really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth_ recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore."' {p. } chapter vi. other legends of the conflagration. the first of these, and the most remarkable of all, is the legend of one of the central american nations, preserved not by tradition alone, but committed to writing at some time in the remote past. in the "codex chimalpopoca," one of the sacred books of the toltecs, the author, speaking of the destruction which took place by fire, says: "the third sun" (or era) "is called _quia-tonatiuh_, sun of rain, because there fell a _rain of fire; all which existed burned; and there fell a rain of gravel_." "they also narrate that while the sandstone, which we now see _scattered about_, and the _tetzontli_ (_amygdaloide poreuse_--trap or basaltic rocks), '_boiled with great tumult_, there also rose the rocks of vermilion color.'" that is to say, the basaltic and red trap-rocks burst through the great cracks made, at that time, in the surface of the disturbed earth. "now, this was in the year _ce tecpatl_, one _flint_, it was the day _nahui-quiahuit_l, fourth rain. now, in this day, in which men were lost and destroyed _in a rain of fire_, they _were transformed into goslings_; the _sun itself was on fire_, and everything, together with the houses, was consumed."[ ] [ . "the north americans of antiquity," p. .] {p. } here we have the whole story told in little: "fire fell from heaven," the comet; "the sun itself was on fire"; the comet reached to, or appeared to reach to, the sun; or its head had fallen into the sun; or the terrible object may have been mistaken for the sun on fire. "_there was a rain of gravel_"--the drift fell from the comet. there is also some allusion to the sandstones scattered about; and we have another reference to the great breaks in the earth's crust, caused either by the shock of contact with the comet, or the electrical disturbances of the time; and we are told that the trap-rocks, and rocks of vermilion color, boiled up to the surface with great tumult. mankind was destroyed, except such as fled into the seas and lakes, and there plunged into the water, and lived like "goslings." can any one suppose that this primitive people invented all this? and if they did, how comes it that their invention agreed so exactly with the traditions of all the rest of mankind; and with the revelations of science as to the relations between the trap rocks and the gravel, as to time at least? we turn now to the legends of a different race, in a different stage of cultivation--the barbarian indians of california and nevada. it is a curious and wonderful story: "the natives in the vicinity of lake tahoe ascribe its origin to a great natural convulsion. there was a time, they say, when their tribe possessed the whole earth, and were strong numerous, and rich; but a day came in which a people rose up stronger than they, and defeated and enslaved them. afterward the great spirit sent an immense wave across the continent from the sea, and this wave ingulfed both the oppressors and the oppressed, all but a very small remnant. then the task-masters made the remaining people raise up a great temple, so that {p. } they, of the ruling caste, should have a refuge in case of another flood, and on the top of this temple the masters worshiped a column of perpetual fire." it would be natural to suppose that this was the great deluge to which all the legends of mankind refer, and which i have supposed, elsewhere, to refer to the destruction of "atlantis"; but it must be remembered that both east and west of the atlantic the traditions of mankind refer to several deluges--to a series of catastrophes--occurring at times far apart. it may be that the legend of the tower of babel refers to an event far anterior in time even to the deluge of noah or deucalion; or it may be, as often happens, that the chronology of this legend has been inverted. the tahoe legend continues: "half a moon had not elapsed, however, before the earth was again troubled, this time with strong convulsions and thunderings, upon which the masters took refuge in their great tower, closing the people out. the poor slaves fled to the humboldt river, and, getting into canoes, paddled for life _from the awful sight behind them_; for the land was tossing like a troubled sea, and casting up fire, smoke, and ashes. _the flames went up to the very heavens, and melted many stars_, so that they rained down in molten metal upon the earth, forming the ore" [gold?] "that white men seek. the sierra was mounded up from the bosom of the earth; while the place where the great fort stood sank, leaving only the dome on the top exposed above the waters of lake tahoe. the inmates of the temple-tower clung to this dome to save themselves from drowning; but the great spirit walked upon the waters in his wrath, and took the oppressors one by one, _like pebbles_, and threw them far into the recesses of a great cavern on the east side of the lake, called to this day the spirit lodge, where the waters shut them in. there must they remain till the last great volcanic burning, which is to overturn the {p. } whole earth, is to again set them free. in the depths of cavern-prison they may still be heard, wailing and their cave, moaning, when the snows melt and the waters swell in the lake."[ ] here we have the usual mingling of fact and myth. the legend describes accurately, no doubt, the awful appearance of the tossing earth and the falling fire and _débris_; the people flying to rivers and taking shelter in the caves) and some of them closed up in the caves for ever. the legend, as is usual, accommodates itself to the geography and topography of the country in which the narrators live. in the aztec creation-myths, as preserved by the fray andres de olmos, and taken down by him from the lips of those who narrated the aztec traditions to him, we have an account of the destruction of mankind by the sun, which reads as follows: the sun had risen indeed, and _with the glory of the cruel fire about him_, that not even the eyes of the gods could endure; but he moved not. there he lay on the horizon; and when the deities sent tlotli, their messenger, to him, with orders that he should go on upon his way, his ominous answer was that he would never leave that place _till he had destroyed and put an end to them all_. then a great fear fell upon some, while others were moved only to anger; and among the others was one citli, who immediately strung his bow and advanced against the glittering enemy. by quickly lowering his head the sun avoided the first arrow shot at him; but the second and third had attained his body in quick succession, when, filled with fury, he seized the last and launched it back upon his assailant. and the brave citli laid shaft to string never more, for the arrow of the sun pierced his forehead. then all was dismay in the assembly of the gods, and _despair filled their hearts_, for they saw that [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] the legends. they could not prevail against the shining one; and they agreed to die, and to cut themselves open through the breast. . xololt was appointed minister, and he killed his companions one by one, and last of all he slew himself also. . . . immediately after the death of the gods, the sun began his motion in the heavens; and a man called tecuzistecatl, or tezcociztecatl, who, when nanahuatzin leaped into the fire, had retired into a cave, now emerged from his concealment as the moon. others say that instead of going into a cave, this tecuzistecatl had leaped into the fire after nanahuatzin, but that the heat of the fire being somewhat abated he had come out less brilliant than the sun. still another variation is that the sun and moon came out equally bright, but this not seeming good to the gods, one of them took a rabbit by the heels and slung it into the face of the moon, dimming its luster with a blotch whose mark may be seen to this day."[ ] here we have the same titanic battle between the gods, the godlike men of old--"the old ones"--and the comet, which appears in the norse legends, when odin, thor, prey, tyr, and heimdal boldly march out to encounter the comet and fall dead, like citli, before the weapons or the poisonous breath of the monster. in the same way we see in hesiod the great jove, rising high on olympus and smiting typhaon with his lightnings. and we shall see this idea of a conflict between the gods and the great demon occurring all through the legends. and it may be that the three arrows of this american story represent the three comets spoken of in hesiod, and the fenris-wolf, midgard-serpent, and surt or garm of the goths: the first arrow did not strike the sun; the second and the third "attained its body," and then the enraged sun launched the last arrow back at citli, at the earth; and thereupon despair filled the people, and they prepared to die. [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } the avesta, the sacred book of the ancient persians, written in the zend dialect, tells the same story. i have already given one version of it: ahura mazda is the good god, the kind creator of life and growth; he sent the sun, the fertilizing rain. he created for the ancestors of the persians a beautiful land, a paradise, a warm and fertile country. but ahriman, the genius of evil, created azhidahaka, "_the biting snake of winter_." "he had triple jaws, three heads, six eyes, the strength of a thousand beings." he brings ruin and winter on the fair land. then comes a mighty hero, thraetaona, who kills the snake and rescues the land.[ ] in the persian legends we have feridun, the hero of the shah-nameh. there is a serpent-king called zohak, who has committed dreadful crimes, assisted by a demon called iblis. as his reward, iblis asked permission to kiss the king's shoulder, which was granted. then from the shoulder sprang two dreadful serpents. iblis told him that these must be fed every day with the brains of two children. so the human race was gradually being exterminated. then feridun, beautiful and strong, rose up and killed the serpent-king zohak, and delivered his country. zohak is the same as azhidahaka in the avesta--"the biting snake of winter."[ ] he is python; he is typhaon; he is the fenris-wolf; he is the midgard-serpent. the persian fire-worship is based on the primeval recognition of the value of light and fire, growing out of this age of darkness and winter. in the legends of the hindoos we read of the fight between rama, the sun-god (_ra_ was the egyptian god of the sun), and ravana, a giant who, accompanied by the [ . poor, "sanskrit literature," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } rakshasas, or demons, made terrible times in the ancient land where the ancestors of the hindoos dwelt at that period. he carries away the wife of rama, sita; her name signifies "a furrow," and seems to refer to agriculture, and an agricultural race inhabiting the furrowed earth. he bears her struggling through the air. rama and his allies pursue him. the monkey-god, hanuman, helps rama; a bridge of stone, sixty miles long, is built across the deep ocean to the island of lanka, where the great battle is fought: "_the stones which crop out through southern india are said to have been dropped by the monkey builders!_" the army crosses on the bridge, as the forces of muspelheim, in the norse legends, marched over the bridge "bifrost." the battle is a terrible one. ravana has ten heads, and as fast as rama cuts off one another grows in its place. finally, rama, like apollo, fires the terrible arrow of brahma, the creator, and the monster falls dead. "gods and demons are watching the contest from the sky, and flowers fall down in showers on the victorious hero." the body of ravana is _consumed by fire_. sita, the furrowed earth, goes through _the ordeal of fire_, and comes out of it purified and redeemed from all taint of the monster ravana; and rama, the sun, and sita, the earth, are separated _for fourteen years_; sita _is hid in the dark jungle_, and then they are married again, and live happily together ever after. here we have the battle in the air between the sun and the demon: the earth is taken possession of by the demon; the demon is finally consumed by fire, and perishes; the earth goes through an ordeal of fire, a conflagration; and for fourteen years the earth and sun do not see each other; the earth is hid in a dark jungle; but {p. } eventually the sun returns, and the loving couple are again married, and live happily for ever after. the phoibos apollo of the greek legends was, byron tells us-- the lord of the unerring bow, the god of life and poetry and light, the sun in human limbs arrayed, and brow all radiant from his triumph in the fight. the shaft had just been shot, the arrow bright with an immortal's vengeance; in his eye and nostril beautiful disdain, and might, and majesty flash their full lightnings by, developing in that one glance the deity." this fight, so magnificently described, was the sun-god's battle with python, the destroyer, the serpent, the dragon, the comet. what was python doing? he was "stealing the springs and fountains." that is to say, the great heat was drying up the water-courses of the earth. "the arrow bright with an immortal's vengeance," was the shaft with which apollo broke the fiend to pieces and tumbled him down to the earth, and saved the springs and the clouds and the perishing ocean. when we turn to america, the legends tell us of the same great battle between good and evil, between light and darkness. manibozho, or the great hare nana, is, in the algonquin legends, the white one, the light, the sun. "his foe was the glittering prince of serpents"-the comet.[ ] among the iroquois, according to the jesuit missionary, father brebeuf, who resided among the hurons in , there was a legend of two brothers, ioskeba and tawiscara, which mean, in the oneida dialect, the _white one_, the light, the sun, and the _dark one_, the night. [ . brinton's "myths," p. .] {p. } they were twins, born of a virgin mother, who died in giving them life. their grandmother was the moon (the _water_ deity), called _at-aeusic_, a word which signifies "she bathes herself," derived from the word for _water_. "the brothers quarreled, and finally came to blows, the former using the horns of a stag, the latter the wild rose. he of the weaker weapon was very naturally discomfited and sorely wounded. fleeing for life, the blood gushed from him at every step, and as it fell _turned into flint-stones_. the victor returned to his grandmother in the _far east_, and established his lodge on _the borders of the great ocean_, whence the sun comes. in time he became _the father of mankind_, and special guardian of the iroquois. the earth was at first arid and sterile, but he destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed all the waters, and guided the torrents into smooth streams and lakes. the woods he stocked with game; and, having learned from the great tortoise who supports the world how to make fire, taught his children, the indians, this indispensable art. . . . sometimes they spoke of him as the sun, but this is only figuratively."[ ] here we have the light and darkness, the sun and the night, battling with each other; the sun fights with a younger brother, another luminary, the comet; the comet is broken up; it flies for life, the red blood (the red clay) streaming from it, and _flint-stones_ appearing on the earth wherever the blood (the clay) falls. the victorious sun re-establishes himself in the east. and then the myth of the sun merges into the legends concerning a great people, who were the fathers of mankind who dwelt "in the east," on the borders of the great eastern ocean, the atlantic. "the earth was at first arid and sterile," covered with _débris_ and stones; but the returning sun, the white one, destroys the gigantic frog, emblem of cold and water, the great snows and ice-deposits; this [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } frog had "swallowed all the waters," that is to say, the falling rains had been congealed in these great snow-banks and glaciers; the sun melts them, and kills the frog; the waters pour forth in deluging floods; manibozho "guides the torrents into smooth streams and lakes"; the woods return, and become once more full of animal life. then the myth again mixes up the sun and the sun-land in the east. from this sun-land, represented as "a tortoise," always the emblem of an island, the iroquois derive the knowledge of "how to make fire." this coming of the monster, his attack upon and conquest of the sun, his apparent swallowing of that orb, are all found represented on both sides of the atlantic, on the walls of temples and in great earth-mounds, in the image of a gigantic serpent holding a globe in its mouth. this long-trailing object in the skies was probably the origin of that primeval serpent-worship found all over the world. and hence the association of the serpent in so many religions with the evil-one. in itself, the serpent should no more represent moral wrong than the lizard, the crocodile, or the frog; but the hereditary abhorrence with which he is regarded by mankind extends to no other created thing. he is the image of the great destroyer, the wronger, the enemy. let us turn to another legend. an ancient authority[ ] gives the following legend of the tupi indians of brazil: "monau, without beginning or end, author of all that is, seeing the ingratitude of men, and their contempt for him who had made them thus joyous, withdrew from them, and sent upon them _tata_, the divine _fire, which burned all that was on the surface of the earth_. he [ . "une fête brésilienne célébré à rouen en ," par m. ferdinand denis, p. .] {p. } swept about the fire in such a way that _in places he raised mountains, and in others dug valleys_. of all men one alone, irin magé, was saved, whom monau carried into the heaven. he, seeing all things destroyed, spoke thus to monau: 'wilt thou also destroy the heavens and their garniture? alas! henceforth where will be our home? why should i live, since there is none other of my kind? then monau was so filled with pity that he _poured a deluging rain on the earth, which quenched the fire_, and flowed on all sides, forming the ocean, which we call the _parana_, the great waters."[ ] the prayer of irin magé, when he calls on god to save the garniture of the heavens, reminds one vividly of the prayer of the earth in ovid. it might be inferred that heaven meant in the tupi legend the heavenly land, not the skies; this is rendered the more probable because we find irin asking where should he dwell if heaven is destroyed. this could scarcely allude to a spiritual heaven. and here i would note a singular coincidence: the fire that fell from heaven was the divine _tata_. in egypt the dame of deity was "ta-ta," or "pta-pta," which signified father. this became in the hebrew "ya-ya," from which we derive the root of jah, jehovah. and this word is found in many languages in europe and america, and even in our own, as, "da-da," "daddy," father. the tupi "_tata_" was fire from the supreme father. who can doubt the oneness of the human race, when millions of threads of tradition and language thus cross each other through it in all directions, like the web of a mighty fabric? we cross from one continent to another, from the torrid part of south america to the frozen regions of north america, and the same legend meets us. [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } the tacullies of british columbia believe that the earth was formed by a musk-rat, who, diving into the universal sea, brought up the land in his mouth and spit it out, until he had formed "quite an island, and, by degrees, the whole earth": "in some unexplained way, this earth became afterward peopled in every part, and it remained, _until a fierce fire, of several days' duration, swept over it, destroying all life_, with two exceptions; one man and one woman _hid themselves in a deep cave in the heart of a mountain_, and from these two has the world since been repeopled."[ ] brief as is this narrative, it preserves the natural sequence of events: first, the world is made; then it becomes peopled in every part; then a fierce fire sweeps over it for several days, consuming all life, except two persons, who save themselves by hiding in a deep cave; and from these the world is repeopled. how wonderfully does all this resemble the scandinavian story! it has oftentimes been urged, by the skeptical, when legends of noah's flood were found among rude races, that they had been derived from christian missionaries. but these myths can not be accounted for in this way; for the missionaries did not teach that the world was once destroyed by fire, and that a remnant of mankind escaped by taking refuge in a cave; although, as we shall see, such a legend really appears in several places hidden in the leaves of the bible itself. we leave the remote north and pass down the pacific coast until we encounter the ute indians of california and utah. this is their legend: "the ute philosopher declares the sun to be a living personage, and explains his passage across the heavens along an appointed way by giving an account of a fierce [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. ] {p. } personal conflict between ta-vi, the sun-god, and ta-wats, one of the supreme gods of his mythology. "in that, long ago, the time to which all mythology refers, the sun roamed the earth at will. _when he came too near with his fierce heat the people were scorched, and when he hid away in his cave for a long time, too idle to come forth, the night was long and the earth cold_. once upon a time ta-wats, the hare-god, was sitting with his family by the camp-fire in the solemn woods, anxiously waiting for the return of ta-vi, the wayward sun-god. wearied with long watching, the hare-god fell asleep, and the sun-god came so near that he scorched the naked shoulder of ta-wats. foreseeing the vengeance which would be thus provoked, he fled back to his cave beneath the earth. ta-wats awoke in great anger, and speedily determined to go and fight the sun-god. after a long journey of many adventures the hare-god came to the brink of the earth, and there watched long and patiently, till at last the sun-god coming out he shot an arrow at his face, but the fierce heat consumed the arrow ere it had finished its intended course; then another arrow was sped, but that also was consumed; and another, and still another, till only one remained in his quiver, but this was the magical arrow that had never failed its mark. ta-wats, holding it in his hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized it in a divine tear; then the arrow was sped and _struck the sun-god full in the face, and the sun was shivered into a thousand fragments, which fell to the earth, causing a general conflagration_. then ta-wats, the hare-god, fled before the destruction he had wrought, and as he fled the burning earth consumed his feet, consumed his legs, consumed his body, consumed his bands and his arms--all were consumed but the head alone, which bowled across valleys and over mountains, fleeing destruction from the burning earth, until at last, swollen with heat, the eyes of the god burst and the tears _gushed forth in a flood which spread over the earth and extinguished the fire_. the sun-god was now conquered, and he appeared before a council of the gods to await sentence. in that long council were established the days and the nights, the seasons and the years, with the length {p. } thereof, and the sun was condemned to travel across the firmament by the same trail day after day till the end of time."[ ] here we have the succession of arrows, or comets, found in the legend of the aztecs, and here as before it is the last arrow that destroys the sun. and here, again, we have the conflagration, the fragments of something falling on the earth, the long absence of the sun, the great rains and the cold. let us shift the scene again. in peru--that ancient land of mysterious civilization, that brother of egypt and babylon, looking out through the twilight of time upon the silent waters of the pacific, waiting in its isolation for the world once more to come to it-in this strange land we find the following legend: "_ere sun and moon was made_, viracocha, the white one, rose from the bosom of lake titicaca, and presided over the erection of those wondrous cities whose ruins still dot its islands and western shores, and whose history is totally lost in the night of time."[ ] he constructed the sun and moon and created the inhabitants of the earth. these latter attacked him with murderous intent (the comet assailed the sun?); but "scorning such unequal contest he manifested his power by hurling the lightning on the hill-sides and _consuming the forests_," whereupon the creatures he had created humbled themselves before him. one of viracocha names was _at-achuchu_. he civilized the peruvians, taught them arts and agriculture and religion; they called him "the teacher of all things." _he came from the east_ and disappeared in the western ocean. four civilizers followed him who _emerged from the cave_ [ . "popular science monthly," october, , p, . . brinton's; "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } pacarin tampu, the house of birth.[ ] these four brothers were also called viracochas, _white men_. here we have the white one coming from the east, hurling his lightning upon the earth and causing a conflagration; and afterward civilized men emerged from a cave. they were white men; and it is to these cave-born men that peru owed its first civilization. here is another and a more amplified version of the peruvian legend: the peruvians believed in a god called at-achuchu, already referred to, the creator of heaven and earth, and the maker of all things. from him came the first man, guamansuri. this first mortal is mixed up with events that seem to refer to the age of fire. he descended to the earth, and "there seduced the sister of certain guachemines, rayless ones, or darklings"; that is to say, certain powers of darkness, "who then possessed it. for this crime they destroyed him." that is to say, the powers of darkness destroyed the light. but not for ever. "their sister proved pregnant, and died in her labor, giving birth to two eggs," the sun and moon. "from these emerged the two brothers, apocatequil and piguerao." then followed the same great battle, to which we have so many references in the legends, and which always ends, as in the case of cain and abel, in one brother slaughtering the other. in this case, apocatequil "was the more powerful. by touching the corpse of his mother (the sun?) he brought her to life, he drove off and slew the guachemines (the powers of darkness), and, directed by [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } _at-achuchu_, released the race of indians from the soil by turning it up with a golden spade." that is to say, he dug them out from the cave in which they were buried. "for this reason they adored him as their maker. he it was, they thought, who produced the thunder and the lightning by _hurling stones with his sling;_ and the thunder-bolts that fall, said they, are his children. few villages were willing to be without one or more of these. they were in appearance _small, round, smooth stones_, but had the admirable properties of securing fertility to the fields, protecting from lightning," etc.[ ] i shift the scene again; or, rather, group together the legends of three different localities. i quote: "the takahlis" (the tacullies already referred to) "of the north pacific coast, the yurucares of the bolivian cordilleras, and the mbocobi of paraguay, each and all attribute the destruction of the world to a _general conflagration_, which swept over the earth, consuming everything living _except a few who took refuge in a deep cave_."[ ] the botocudos of brazil believed that the world was once destroyed by the moon falling upon it. let us shift the scene again northward: there was once, according to the ojibway legends, a boy; the sun burned and spoiled his bird-skin coat; and he swore that he would have vengeance. he persuaded his sister to make him a noose of her own hair. he fixed it just where the sun would strike the land as it rose above the earth's disk; and, sure enough, he caught the sun, and held it fast, so that it did not rise. "the animals who ruled the earth were immediately put into _great commotion. they had no light._ they called a council to debate upon the matter, and to appoint [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } some one to go and cut the cord, for this was a very hazardous enterprise, as the rays of the sun would _burn up whoever came so near_. at last the dormouse undertook it, for at this time the dormouse was the largest animal in the world" (the mastodon?); "when it stood up it looked like a mountain. when it got to the place where the sun was snared, its back began to _smoke and burn with the intensity of the heat_, and the top of its carcass was reduced to _enormous heaps of ashes_. it succeeded, however, in cutting the cord with its teeth and freeing the sun, but it was _reduced to very small size_, and has remained so ever since." this seems to be a reminiscence of the destruction of the great mammalia.[ ] the "enormous heaps of ashes" may represent the vast deposits of clay-dust. among the wyandots a story was told, in the seventeenth century, of a boy whose father was killed and eaten by a bear, and his mother by the great hare. he was small, but of prodigious strength. he climbed a tree, like jack of the bean-stalk, until he reached heaven. "he set his snares for game, but when he got up at night to look at them he found _everything on fire_. his sister told him he had caught the sun unawares, and when the boy, chakabech, went to see, so it was. but he dared not go near enough to let him out. but by chance he found a little mouse, and blew upon her until she grew so big" (again the mastodon) "that she could set the sun free, and he went on his way. but while he was held in the snare, _day failed down here on earth_." it was the age of darkness[ ] the dog-rib indians, far in the northwest of america, near the esquimaux, have a similar story: chakabech becomes chapewee. he too climbs a tree, but it is in pursuit [ . tylor's "early history of mankind," p. . . le jeune ( ), in "rélations des jesuits dans la nouvelle france," vol. i, p. .] {p. } of a squirrel, until he reaches heaven. he set a snare made of his sister's hair and caught the sun. "_the sky was instantly darkened_. chapewee's family said to him, 'you must have done something wrong when you were aloft, _for we no longer enjoy the light of day_.' 'i have,' replied he, 'but it was unintentionally.' chapewee sent a number of animals to cut the snare, but the intense _heat reduced them all to ashes_." at last the ground-mole working in the earth cut the snare but lost its sight, "and its nose and teeth have ever since been brown as if burnt."[ ] the natives of siberia represented the mastodon as a great mole burrowing in the earth and casting up ridges of earth--the sight of the sun killed him. these sun-catching legends date back to a time when the races of the earth had not yet separated. hence we find the same story, in almost the same words, in polynesia and america. maui is the polynesian god of the ancient days. he concluded, as did ta-wats, that the days were too short. he wanted the sun to slow-up, but it would not. so he proceeded to catch it in a noose like the ojibway boy and the wyandot youth. the manufacture of the noose, we are told, led to the discovery of the art of rope-making. he took his brothers with him; he armed himself, like samson, with a jaw-bone, but instead of the jaw-bone of an ass, he, with much better taste, selected the jawbone of his mistress. she may have been a lady of fine conversational powers. they traveled far, like ta-wats, even to the very edge of the place where the sun rises. there he set his noose. the sun came and put his head and fore-paws into it; then the brothers pulled the ropes [ . richardson's "narrative of franklin's second expedition," p. .] {p. } tight and maui gave him a great whipping with the jawbone; he screamed and roared; they held him there for a long time, (the age of darkness,) and at last they let him go; and weak from his wounds, (obscured by clouds,) he crawls slowly along his path. here the jaw of the wolf fenris, which reached from earth to heaven, in the scandinavian legends, becomes a veritable jaw-bone which beats and ruins the sun. it is a curious fact that the sun in this polynesian legend is _ra_, precisely the same as the name of the god of the sun in egypt, while in hindostan the sun-god is ra-ma. in another polynesian legend we read of a character who was satisfied with nothing, "even pudding would not content him," and this unconscionable fellow worried his family out of all heart with his new ways and ideas. he represents a progressive, inventive race. he was building a great house, but the days were too short; so, like maui, he determined to catch the sun in nets and ropes; but the sun went on. at last he succeeded; he caught him. the good man then had time to finish his house, but the sun cried and cried "until the island of savai was nearly drowned."[ ] and these myths of the sun being tied by a cord are, strange to say, found even in europe. the legends tell us: "in north germany the townsmen of bösum sit up in their church-tower and hold the sun by a cable all day long; taking care of it at night, and letting it up again in the morning. in 'reynard the fox,' the day is bound with a rope, and its bonds only allow it to come slowly on. the peruvian inca said the sun is like a tied beast, who goes ever round and round, in the same track."[ ] that is to say, they recognized that he is not a god, but the servant of god. [ . tyler's "early mankind," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } verily the bands that knit the races of the earth together are wonderful indeed, and they radiate, as i shall try to show, from one spot of the earth's surface, alike to polynesia, europe, and america. let us change the scene again to the neighborhood of the aztecs: we are told of two youths, the ancestors of the miztec chiefs, who separated, each going his own way to conquer lands for himself: "the braver of the two, coming to the vicinity of tilantongo, armed with buckler and bow, was _much vexed and oppressed by the ardent rays of the sun_, which he took to be the lord of that district, striving to prevent his entrance therein. then the young man strung his bow, and advanced his buckler before him, and drew shafts from his quiver. he shot these against the great light even till the going down of the same; then he took possession of all that land, seeing that he had _grievously wounded the sun_ and forced him to hide behind the mountains. upon this story is founded the lordship of all the caciques of mizteca, and upon their descent from this mighty archer, their ancestor. even to this day, the chiefs of the miztecs blazon as their arms a plumed chief with bow and arrows and shield, and the sun in front of him setting behind gray clouds."[ ] are these two young men, one of whom attacks and injures the sun, the two wolves of the gothic legends, the two comets, who devoured the sun and moon? and did the miztec barbarians, in their vanity, claim descent from these monstrous creatures of the sky? why not, when the historical heroes of antiquity traced their pedigree back to the gods; and the rulers of peru, egypt, and china pretended to be the lineal offspring of the sun? and there are not wanting those, even in europe, who [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } yet believe that the blood-royal differs in some of its constituents from the blood of the common people "what, will the aspiring blood of lancaster sink in the ground? " in the aztec legends there were four ages, or suns, as they were termed. the first terminated, according to gama, in a destruction of the people of the world by hunger; the second ended in a destruction by winds; in the third, _the human race was swept away by fire_, and the fourth destruction was by water. and in the hindoo legends we find the same series of great cycles, or ages: one of the shastas teaches that the human race has been destroyed four times--first by water, secondly by winds, thirdly the earth swallowed them, and _lastly fire consumed them_.[ ] i come now to a most extraordinary record: in the prayer of the aztecs to the great god tezcatlipoca, "the supreme, invisible god," a prayer offered up in time of pestilence, we have the most remarkable references to the destruction of the people by stones and fire. it would almost seem as if this great prayer, noble and sublime in its language, was first poured out in the very midst of the age of fire, wrung from the human heart by the most appalling calamity that ever overtook the race; and that it was transmitted from age to age, as the hymns of the vedas and the prayers of the hebrews have been preserved, for thousands of years, down to our own times, when it was carefully transcribed by a missionary priest. it is as follows: "o mighty lord, under whose wing we find defense and shelter, thou art invisible and impalpable, even as night and the air. how can i, that am so mean and worthless, dare to appear before thy majesty? stuttering [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } and with rude lips i speak, ungainly is the manner of my speech as one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly; for all this i fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of appeasing thee; nevertheless, thou wilt do unto me as may please thee. o lord, _thou hast held it good to forsake us in these days_, according to the counsel that thou hast as well in heaven as in hades,--alas for us, in that thine _anger and indignation has descended upon us in these days_; alas in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath have overgone, and swallowed us up, _coming down even as stones, spears, and arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth!_--this is the sore pestilence with which we are afflicted and _almost destroyed_. o valiant and all-powerful lord, the common people are almost _made an end of and destroyed;_ a great destruction the ruin and pestilence already make in this nation; and, what is most pitiful of all, the little children, that are innocent and understand nothing, only to play with _pebbles and to heap up little mounds of earth, they too die, broken and dashed to pieces as against stones and a wall_--a thing very pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there remain of them not even those in the cradles, nor those that could not walk or speak. ah, lord, how _all things become confounded!_ of young and old and of men and women there _remains neither branch nor root;_ thy nation, and thy people, and thy wealth, _are leveled down and destroyed_. "o our lord, protector of all, most valiant and most kind, _what is this?_ "thine anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in _hurling the stone, and arrow, and spear? the fire of the pestilence, made exceeding hot, is upon thy nation_, as a fire in a hut, _burning and smoking, leaving nothing upright or sound_. the grinders of thy teeth," (the falling stones), "are employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of thy people, who have become lean, and of little substance, even as a hollow green cane. yea, _what doest thou now_, o lord, most strong, compassionate, invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all are subject,--what in thy divine breast {p. } hast thou decreed? peradventure, hast thou altogether forsaken thy nation and thy people? hast thou verily determined that it _utterly perish_, and that there be no more memory of it in the world, _that the peopled place become a wooded hill, and_ a wilderness of stones? peradventure, wilt thou permit that the temples, and the places of prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, _be razed_ and destroyed, and no memory of them left? "is it, indeed, possible that thy wrath and punishment and vexed indignation are altogether implacable, and will go on to the end to our destruction? is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there is to be no mercy nor pity for us, _until the arrows of thy fury are spent to our utter perdition and destruction?_ is it possible that this lash and chastisement is not given for our correction and amendment, but only for _our total destruction and obliteration;_ that the sun shall never more shine upon us, _but that we must remain in_ perpetual darkness and silence; that never more wilt thou look upon us with eyes of mercy, neither little nor much? "wilt thou after this fashion destroy the wretched sick that can not find rest, nor turn from side to side, whose mouth and teeth _are filled with earth and scurf?_ it is a sore thing to tell how we are all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense to watch for or aid one another. we are all as drunken, and without understanding: without hope of any aid, _already the little children perish of hunger_, for there is none to give them food, nor drink, nor consolation, nor caress; none to give the breast to them that suck, _for their fathers and mothers have died and left them orphans_, suffering for the sins of their fathers." what a graphic picture is all this of the remnant of a civilized religious race hiding in some deep cavern, in darkness, their friends slaughtered by the million by the falling stones, coming like arrows and spears, and the pestilence of poisonous gases; their food-supplies scanty; they themselves horrified, awe-struck, despairing, fearing that they would never again see the light; that this dreadful day was the end of the human race {p. } and of the world itself! and one of them, perhaps a priest, certainly a great man, wrought up to eloquence, through the darkness and the terror, puts up this pitiful and pathetic cry to the supreme god for mercy, for protection, for deliverance from the awful visitation. how wonderful to think that the priesthood of the aztecs have through ages preserved to us, down to this day, this cavern-hymn--one of the most ancient of the utterances of the heart of man extant on the earth--and have preserved it long after the real meaning of its words was lost to them! the prayer continues "o our lord, all-powerful, full of mercy, our refuge, though indeed thine anger and indignation, thine arrows and stones, have sorely hurt this poor people, let it be as a father or a mother that rebukes children, pulling their ears, pinching their arms, whipping them with nettles, pouring chill water upon them, all being done that they may amend their puerility and childishness. thy chastisement and indignation have lorded and prevailed over these thy servants, over this poor people, even as rain falling upon the trees and the green canes, being touched of the wind, drops also upon those that are below. "o most compassionate lord, thou knowest that the common folk are as children, that being whipped they cry and sob and repent of what they have done. peradventure, already these poor people by reason of their chastisement weep, sigh, blame, and murmur against themselves; in thy presence they blame and bear witness against their bad deeds, and punish themselves therefor. our lord, most compassionate, pitiful, noble, and precious, let a time be given the people to repent; let the past chastisement suffice; let it end here, to begin again if the reform endure not. pardon and overlook the sins of the people; cause thine anger and thy resentment to cease; repress it again within thy breast _that it destroy no further_; let it rest there; let it cease, for of a surety _none can avoid death nor escape to anyplace_." {p. } "we owe tribute to death; and all that live in the world are vassals thereof; this tribute shall every man pay with his life. none shall avoid from following death, for it is thy messenger what hour soever it may be sent, hungering and thirsting always to devour all that are in the world and so powerful that none shall escape; then, indeed, shall every man be judged according to his deeds. o most pitiful lord, at least take pity and have mercy upon the children that are in the cradles, upon those that can not walk have mercy also, o lord, upon the poor and very miserable, who have nothing to eat, nor to cover themselves withal, nor a place to sleep, who do not know what thing a happy day is, whose days pass altogether in pain, affliction, and sadness. than this, were it not better, o lord, if thou shouldst forget to have mercy upon the soldiers and upon the men of war whom thou wilt have need of some time? behold, it is better to die in war and go to serve food and drink in the house of the sun, than to die in this pestilence and descend to hades. o most strong lord, protector of all, lord of the earth, governor of the world and universal master, let the sport and satisfaction thou hast already taken in this past punishment suffice; _make an end of this smoke and fog_ of thy resentment; _quench also the burning and destroying fire of thine anger;_ let _serenity come and clearness;_ let the small birds of thy people begin to sing and" (to) "_approach the sun; give them_ quiet weather; so that they may cause their voices to reach thy highness, and thou mayest know them."[ ] now it may be doubted by some whether this most extraordinary supplication could have come down from the glacial age; but it must be remembered that it may have been many times repeated in the deep cavern before the terror fled from the souls of the desolate fragment of the race; and, once established as a religious prayer, associated with such dreadful events, who would dare to change a word of it? [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } who would dare, among ourselves, to alter a syllable of the "lord's prayer"? even though christianity should endure for ten thousand years upon the face of the earth; even though the art of writing were lost, and civilization itself had perished, it would pass unchanged from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, crystallized into imperishable diamonds of thought, by the conservative power of the religious instinct. there can be no doubt of the authenticity of this and the other ancient prayers to tezcatlipoca, which i shall quote hereafter. i repeat what h. h. bancroft says, in a foot-note, in his great work: "father bernardino de sahagun, a spanish franciscan, was _one of the first preachers sent to mexico_, where he was much employed in the instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the province of tezcuco. while there, in the city of tepeopulco, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known to us as the 'historia general de las cosas de nueva españa,' from which the above prayers have been taken. it would be hard to imagine a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of working than his. gathering the principal natives of the town in which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of which he proposed to write. these learned mexicans being collected, father sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology, and so on, that he wanted; at the foot of the said. pictures these learned mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the mexican tongue; and this explanation the father sahagun translated into spanish. that translation purports to be what we now read as the 'historia general.'"[ ] [ . "the native races of the pacific states," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } sahagun was a good and holy man, who was doubtless inspired of god, in the face of much opposition and many doubts, to perpetuate, for the benefit of the race, these wonderful testimonials of man's existence, condition, opinions, and feelings in the last great cataclysm which shook the whole world and nearly destroyed it. religions may perish; the name of the deity may change with race and time and tongue; but he can never despise such noble, exalted, eloquent appeals from the hearts of millions of men, repeated through thousands of generations, as these aztec prayers have been. whether addressed to tezcatlipoca, zeus, jove, jehovah, or god, they pass alike direct from the heart of the creature to the heart of the creator; they are of the threads that tie together matter and spirit. in conclusion, let me recapitulate . the original surface-rocks, underneath the drift, are, we have seen, decomposed and changed, for varying depths of from one to one hundred feet, by fire; they are metamorphosed, and their metallic constituents vaporized out of them by heat. . only tremendous heat could have lifted the water of the seas into clouds, and formed the age of snow and floods evidenced by the secondary drift. . the traditions of the following races tell us that the earth was once swept by a great conflagration: _a_. the ancient britons, as narrated in the mythology of the druids. _b_. the ancient greeks, as told by hesiod. _c_. the ancient scandinavians, as appears in the _elder edda_ and _younger edda_. _d_. the ancient romans, as narrated by ovid. _e_. the ancient toltecs of central america, as told in their sacred books. {p. } _f_. the ancient aztecs of mexico, as transcribed by fray de olmos. _g_. the ancient persians, as recorded in the zend-avesta. _h_. the ancient hindoos, as told in their sacred books. _i_. the tahoe indians of california, as appears by their living traditions. also by the legends of-- _j_. the tupi indians of brazil. _k_. the tacullies of british america. _ _. the ute indians of california and utah. _m_. the peruvians. _n_. the yurucares of the bolivian cordilleras. _o_. the mbocobi of paraguay. _p_. the botocudos of brazil. _q_. the ojibway indians of the united states. _r_. the wyandot indians of the united states. _s_. lastly, the dog-rib indians of british columbia. we must concede that these legends of a world-embracing conflagration represent a race-remembrance of a great fact, or that they are a colossal falsehood--an invention of man. if the latter, then that invention and falsehood must have been concocted at a time when the ancestors of the greeks, romans, hindoos, persians, goths, toltecs, aztecs, peruvians, and the indians of brazil, the united states, the west coast of south america, and the northwestern extremity of north america, and the polynesians, (who have kindred traditions,) all dwelt together, as one people, alike in language and alike in color of their hair, eyes, and skin. at that time, therefore, all the widely separated regions, now inhabited by these races, must have been without human inhabitants; the race must have been a mere handful, and dwelling in one spot. {p. } what vast lapses of time must have been required before mankind slowly overflowed to these remote regions of the earth, and changed into these various races speaking such diverse tongues! and if we take the ground that this universal tradition of a world-conflagration was an invention, a falsehood, then we must conclude that this handful of men, before they dispersed, in the very infancy of the world, shared in the propagation of a prodigious lie, and religiously perpetuated it for tens of thousands of years. and then the question arises, how did they hit upon a lie that accords so completely with the revelations of science? they possessed no great public works, in that infant age, which would penetrate through hundreds of feet of _débris_, and lay bare the decomposed rocks beneath; therefore they did not make a theory to suit an observed fact. and how did mankind come to be reduced to a handful? if men grew, in the first instance, out of bestial forms, mindless and speechless, they would have propagated and covered the world as did the bear and the wolf. but after they had passed this stage, and had so far developed as to be human in speech and brain, some cause reduced them again to a handful. what was it? something, say these legends, some fiery object, some blazing beast or serpent, which appeared in the heavens, which filled the world with conflagrations, and which destroyed the human race, except a remnant, who saved themselves in caverns or in the water; and from this seed, this handful, mankind again replenished the earth, and spread gradually to all the continents and the islands of the sea. {p. } chapter vii. legends of the cave-life. i have shown that man could only have escaped the fire, the poisonous gases, and the falling stones and clay-dust, by taking refuge in the water or in the deep caves of the earth. and hence everywhere in the ancient legends we find the races claiming that they came up out of the earth. man was earth-born. the toltecs and aztecs traced back their origin to "the seven caves." we have seen the ancestors of the peruvians emerging from the primeval cave, _pacarin-tampu_; and the aztec nanahuatzin taking refuge in a cave; and the ancestors of the yurucares, the takahlis, and the mbocobi of america, all biding themselves from the conflagration in a cave; and we have seen the tyrannical and cruel race of the tahoe legend buried in a cave. and, passing to a far-distant region, we find the bungogees and pankhoos, hill tribes, of the most ancient races of chittagong, in british india, relating that "their ancestors came out of a cave in the earth, under the guidance of a chief named tlandrokpah."[ ] we read in the toltec legends that a dreadful hurricane visited the earth in the early age, and carried away trees, mounds, horses, etc., and the people escaped by _seeking safety in caves_ and places where the great hurricane [ . captain lewin, "the hill tribes of chittagong" p. , .] {p. } could not reach them. after a few days they came forth "to see what had become of the earth, when they found it all populated with monkeys. all this time they were in darkness, without the light of the sun or the moon, which the wind had brought them."[ ] a north american tribe, a branch of the tinneh of british america, have a legend that "the earth existed first in a chaotic state, with only one human inhabitant, a woman, _who dwelt in a cave_ and lived on berries." she met one day a mysterious animal, like a dog, who transformed himself into a handsome young man, and they became the parents of a giant race."[ ] there seems to be an allusion to the cave-life in ovid, where, detailing the events that followed soon after the creation, he says: "then for the first time did the parched air _glow with sultry heat_, and the _ice_, bound up by the winds, was pendent. then for the first time did men enter houses; those houses were _caverns_, and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with bark."[ ] but it is in the legends of the navajo indians of north america that we find the most complete account of the cave-life. it is as follows: "the navajos, living north of the pueblos, say that at one time all the nations, navajos, pueblos, coyoteros, and white people, lived together tinder ground, in the heart of a mountain, near the river san juan. _their food was meat, which they had in abundance, for all kinds of game were closed up with them in their cave;_ but their light was dim, and only endured for a few hours each day. there were, happily, two dumb men among the navajos, flute-players, [ . "north americans of antiquity," p. . . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. . . "the metamorphoses," fable iv.] {p. } who enlivened the darkness with music. one of these, striking by chance on the roof of the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow sound, upon which the elders of the tribe determined to bore in the direction whence the sound came. the flute was then set up against the roof, and the raccoon sent up the tube _to dig a way out_, but he could not. then the moth-worm mounted into the breach, and bored and bored till he found himself suddenly on the outside of the mountain, and _surrounded by water_." we shall see hereafter that, in the early ages, mankind, all over the world, was divided into totemic septs or families, bearing animal names. it was out of this fact that the fables of animals possessing human speech arose. when we are told that the fox talked to the crow or the wolf, it simply means that a man of the fox totem talked to a man of the crow or wolf totem. and, consequently, when we read, in the foregoing legend, that the raccoon went up to dig a way out of the cave and could not, it signifies that a man of the raccoon totem made the attempt and failed, while a man of the moth-worm totem succeeded. we shall see hereafter that these totemic distinctions probably represented original race or ethnic differences. the navajo legend continues: "under these novel circumstances, he, (the moth-worm,) heaped up a little mound, and set himself down on it to observe and ponder the situation. a critical situation enough!--for from the four corners of the universe four great white swans bore down upon him, every one with two arrows, one under each wing. the swan from the north reached him first, and, having pierced him with two arrows, drew them out and examined their points, exclaiming, as the result, 'he is of my race.' so, also, in succession, did all the others. then they went away; and toward the directions in which they departed, to the north, south, east, and west, were found four great _arroyos_, {p. } by which _all the water flowed off, leaving only_ mud. the worm now returned to the cave, and the raccoon went up into the mud, _sinking in it mid-leg deep_, as the marks on his fur show to this day. and the wind began to rise, sweeping up the four great _arroyos_, and _the mud was dried away_. "_then the men and the animals began to come up from their cave_, and their coming up required several days. first came the navajos, and no sooner had they reached the surface than they commenced gaming at _patole_, their favorite game. then came the pueblos and other indians, who _crop their hair and build houses_. lastly came _the white people_, who started off at once _for the rising sun_, and were lost sight of for many winters. "when these nations lived under ground they all _spake one tongue_; but, with the light of day and the level of earth, came many languages. the earth was at this time very small, and _the light was quite as scanty as it had been down below, for there was as yet no heaven, no sun, nor moon, nor stars_. so another council of the ancients was held, and a committee of their number appointed to manufacture these luminaries."[ ] here we have the same story: in an ancient age, before the races of men had differentiated, a remnant of mankind was driven, by some great event, into a cave; all kinds of animals had sought shelter in. the same place; something--the drift--had closed up the mouth of the cavern; the men subsisted on the animals. at last they dug their way out, to find the world covered with mud and water. great winds cut the mud into deep valleys, by which the waters ran off. the mud was everywhere; gradually it dried up. but outside the cave it was nearly as dark as it was within it; the clouds covered the world; neither sun, moon, nor stars could be seen; the earth was very small, that is, but little of it was above the waste of waters. [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } and here we have the people longing for the return of the sun. the legend proceeds to give an account of the making of the sun and moon. the dumb fluter, who had charge of the construction of the sun, through his clumsiness, _came near setting fire to the world_. "_the old men_, however, either more lenient than zeus, or lacking his thunder, contented themselves with forcing the offender back by puffing the smoke of their pipes into his face." here we have the event, which properly should have preceded the cave-story, brought in subsequent to it. the sun nearly burns up the earth, and the earth is saved amid the smoke of incense from the pipes of the old men--the gods. and we are told that the increasing size of the earth has four times rendered it necessary that the sun should be put farther back from the earth. the clearer the atmosphere, the farther away the sun has appeared. "at night, also, the other dumb man issues from this cave, bearing the moon under his arm, and lighting up such part of the world as he can. next, the old men set to work to make the heavens, intending to _broider in the stars in beautiful patterns of bears, birds, and such things_." that is to say, a civilized race 'began to divide up the heavens into constellations, to which they gave the names of the great and little bear, the wolf, the serpent, the dragon, the eagle, the swan, the crane, the peacock, the toucan, the crow, etc.; some of which names they retain among ourselves to this day. "but, just as they had made a beginning, a prairie-wolf rushed in, and, crying out, 'why all this trouble and embroidery?' scattered the pile of stars over all the floor of heaven, just as they still lie." this iconoclastic and unæsthetical prairie-wolf represents a barbarian's incapacity to see in the arrangement {p. } of the stars any such constellations, or, in fact, anything but an unmeaning jumble of cinders. and then we learn how the tribes of men separated: "the old men" (the civilized race, the gods) "prepared two earthen _tinages_, or water-jars, and having decorated one with bright colors, filled it with trifles; while the other was left plain on the outside, but filled within with flocks and herds and riches of all kinds. these jars being covered, and presented to the navajos and pueblos, the former chose the gaudy but paltry jar; while the pueblos received the plain and rich vessel--each nation showing, in its choice, traits which characterize it to this day." in the legends of the lenni-lenape,--the delaware indians,--mankind was once buried in the earth with a wolf; and they owed their release to the wolf, who scratched away the soil and dug out a means of escape for the men and for himself. the root-diggers of california were released in the same way by a coyote."[ ] "the tonkaways, a wild people of texas, still celebrate this early entombment of the race in a most curious fashion. they have a grand annual dance. one of them, naked as he was born, is _buried in the earth_; the others, clothed in wolf-skins, walk over him, snuff around him, howl in lupine style, and finally dig _him up with their nails_."[ ] compare this american custom with the religious ceremony of an ancient italian tribe: "three thousand years ago the hirpani, or wolves, an ancient sabine tribe of italy, were wont to collect on mount soracte, and there go through certain rites, in memory of an oracle which predicted their extinction when they ceased to gain their living as wolves do, by violence and plunder. therefore they dressed in wolf-skins, [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid.] {p. } _ran with barks and howls over burning coals_, and gnawed wolfishly whatever they could seize."[ ] all the tribes of the creeks, seminoles, choctaws, chickasaws, and natchez, who, according to tradition, were in remote times banded into one common confederacy, unanimously located their earliest ancestry near an artificial eminence in the valley of the big black river, in the natchez country, whence they pretended to have emerged. this hill is an elevation of earth about half a mile square and fifteen or twenty feet high. from its northeast corner a wall of equal height extends for nearly half a mile to the high land. this was the _nunne chaha_, properly _nanih waiya_, sloping hill, famous in choctaw story, and which captain gregg found they had not yet forgotten in their western home. "the legend was, that in its center was a cave, the house of the master of breath. here he made the first men from the _clay around him, and, as at that time the waters covered the earth_, he raised the wall to dry them on. when the soft mud had hardened into elastic flesh and firm bone, he _banished the waters to their channels and beds_, and gave the dry land to his creatures."[ ] here, again, we have the beginnings of the present race of men in a cave, surrounded by clay and water, which covered the earth, and we have the water subsiding into its channels and beds, and the dry land appearing, whereupon the men emerged from the cave. a parallel to this southern legend occurs among the six nations of the north. they with one consent looked to a mountain near the falls of the oswego river, in the state of new york, as the locality where their forefathers saw the light of day; and their name, oneida, signifies _the people of the stone_. [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } the cave of pacarin-tampu, already alluded to, the lodgings of the dawn, or the place of birth of the peruvians, was five leagues distant from cuzco, surrounded by a sacred grove, and inclosed with temples of great antiquity. "from its hallowed recesses the mythical civilizers, of peru, tile first of men, emerged, and in it, during the time of the flood, the remnants of the race escaped the fury of the waves."[ ] we read in the legends of oraibi, hereafter quoted more fully, that the people climbed up a ladder from a lower world to this--that is, they ascended from the cave in which they had taken refuge. this was in an age of cold and darkness; there was yet no sun or moon. the natives in the neighborhood of mount shasta, in northern california, have a strange legend which refers to the age of caves and ice. they say the great spirit made mount shasta first: "_boring a hole in the sky_," (the heavens cleft in twain of the edda?) "using a _large stone_ as an auger," (the fall of stones and pebbles?) "he pushed down _snow and ice until they reached the desired height;_ then he stepped from cloud to cloud down to _the great icy pile_, and from it to the earth, where he planted the first trees by merely putting his finger into the soil here and there. _the sun began to melt the snow; the snow produced water; the water ran down the sides of the mountains_, refreshed the trees, and made rivers. the creator gathered the leaves that fell from the trees, blew upon them, and they became birds," etc.[ ] this is a representation of the end of the glacial age. but the legends of these indians of mount shasta go still further. after narrating, as above, the fall of a [ . balboa, "histoire du pérou," p. . . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } stone from heaven, and the formation of immense masses of ice, which subsequently melted and formed rivers, and after the creator had made trees, birds,. and animals, especially the grizzly bear, then we have a legend which reminds us of the cave-life which accompanied the great catastrophe: "indeed, this animal" (the grizzly bear) "was then so large, strong, and cunning, that the creator somewhat feared him, and hollowed out mount shasta as a wigwam for himself, where he might reside while on earth in the most perfect security and comfort. so the smoke was soon to be seen curling up from the mountain where the great spirit and his family lived, and still live, though their hearth-fire is alive no longer, now that the white-man is in the land." here the superior race seeks shelter in a cave on mount shasta, and their camp-fire is associated with the smoke which once went forth out of the volcano; while an inferior race, a neanderthal race, dwell in the plains at the foot of the mountain. "this was thousands of snows ago, and there came after this a late and severe spring-time, in which a memorable storm blew up from the sea, shaking the huge lodge" (mount shasta) "to its base." (another recollection of the ice age.) "the great spirit commanded his daughter, little more than an infant, to go up and bid the wind to be still, cautioning her, at the same time, in his fatherly way, not to put her head out into the blast, but only to thrust out her little red arm and make a sign, before she delivered her message."[ ] here we seem to have a reminiscence of the cave-dwellers, looking out at the terrible tempest from their places of shelter. [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } the child of the great spirit exposes herself too much, is caught by the wind and blown down the mountain-side, where she is found, shivering on the snow, by a family of grizzly bears. these grizzly bears evidently possessed some humane as well as human traits: "they walked then on their hind-legs like men, and talked, and carried clubs, using the fore-limbs as men use their arms." they represent in their bear-skins the rude, fur-clad race that were developed during the intense cold of the glacial age. the child of the great spirit, the superior race, intermarries with one of the grizzly bears, and _from this union came the race of men_, to wit, the indians. "but the great spirit punished the grizzly bears by depriving them of the power of speech, and of standing erect--in short, by making true bears of them. but no indian will, to this day, kill a grizzly bear, recognizing as he does the tie of blood." again, we are told: "the inhabitants of central europe and the teutonic races who came late to england place their mythical heroes under ground in caves, in vaults beneath enchanted castles, or _in mounds_ which rise up and open, and show their buried inhabitants alive and busy about the avocations of earthly men. . . . in morayshire the buried race are _supposed to be under the sandhills_, as they are in some parts of brittany."[ ] associated with these legends we find many that refer to the time of great cold, and snow, and ice. i give one or two specimens: in the story of the iroquois, (see p. , _ante_,) we are told that the white one, [the light one, the sun,] after he had destroyed the monster who covered the earth with [ . "frost and fire," vol. ii, p. .] {p. } blood and stones, then destroyed the gigantic frog. the frog, a cold-blooded, moist reptile, was always the emblem of water and cold; it represented the great ice-fields that squatted, frog-like, on the face of the earth. it had "swallowed all the waters," says the iroquois legend; that is, "the waters were congealed in it; and when it was killed great and destructive torrents broke forth and devastated the land, and manibozho, the white one, the beneficent sun, guided these waters into smooth streams and lakes." the aztecs adored the goddess of water under the figure of a great green frog carved from a single emerald.[ ] in the omaha we have the fable of "how the rabbit killed the winter," told in the indian manner. the rabbit was probably a reminiscence of the great hare, manabozho; and he, probably, as we shall see, a recollection of a great race, whose totem was the hare. i condense the indian story: "the rabbit in the past time moving came where the winter was. the winter said: 'you have not been here lately; sit down.' the rabbit said he came because his grandmother had altogether _beaten the life out of him_" (the fallen _débris_?). "the winter went hunting. it was _very cold: there was a snow-storm_. the rabbit seared up a deer. 'shoot him,' said the rabbit. 'no; i do not hunt such things as that,' said the winter. they came upon some men. that was the winter's game. he killed the men and _boiled them for supper_," (cave-cannibalism). "the rabbit refused to eat the human flesh. the winter went hunting again. the rabbit found out from the winter's wife that the thing the winter dreaded most of all the world was the head of a rocky mountain sheep. the rabbit procured one. _it was dark_. he threw it suddenly at the winter, saying, 'uncle, that _round thing_ by you is the head of a rocky mountain [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } sheep.' the winter became altogether dead. only the woman remained. _therefore from that time it has not been very cold_." of course, any attempt to interpret such a crude myth must be guess-work. it shows, however, that the indians believed that there was a time when the winter was much more severe than it is now; it was very cold and dark. associated with it is the destruction of men and cannibalism. at last the rabbit brings a round object, (the sun?), the head of a rocky mountain sheep, and the winter looks on it, and perishes. even tropical peru has its legend of the age of ice. garcilaso de la vega, a descendant of the incas, has preserved an ancient indigenous poem of his nation, which seems to allude to a great event, the breaking to fragments of some large object, associated with ice and snow. dr. brinton translates it from the quichua, as follows "beauteous princess, lo, thy brother _breaks thy vessel now in fragments_. from the blow come thunder, lightning, strokes of lightning and thou, princess, tak'st the water, with it raineth, and _the hail_, or _snow dispenseth_. viracocha, world-constructor, world-enlivener, to this office thee appointed, thee created."[ ] [ . "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } but it may be asked, how in such a period of terror and calamity--as we must conceive the comet to have caused-would men think of finding refuge in caves? the answer is plain: either they or their ancestors had lived in caves. caves were the first shelters of uncivilized men. it was not necessary to fly to the caves through the rain of falling _débris_; many were doubtless already in them when the great world-storm broke, and others naturally sought their usual dwelling-places. "the cavern," says brinton, "dimly lingered in the memories of nations." man is born of the earth; he is made of the clay like adam, created-- "of good red clay, haply from mount aornus, beyond sweep of the black eagle's wing." the cave-temples of india-the oldest temples, probably, on earth--are a reminiscence of this cave-life. we shall see hereafter that lot and his daughters "dwelt in a cave"; and we shall find job bidden away in the "narrow-mouthed bottomless" pit or cave. [ . "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } chapter viii. legends of the age of darkness. all the cosmogonies begin with an age of darkness; a damp, cold, rainy, dismal time. hesiod tells us, speaking of the beginning of things "in truth, then, _foremost sprung chaos_. . . . but from chaos were born _erebus and black night;_ and from night again sprang forth Æther and day, whom she bare after having conceived by _union with erebus_." aristophanes, in his "aves," says:[ ] "_chaos and night and black erebus_ and wide tartarus _first existed_."[ ] orpheus says: "_from the beginning the gloomy night enveloped and obscured all things_ that were under the ether" (the clouds). "the earth was invisible on account of the darkness, but the light _broke through the ether_" (the clouds), "and illuminated the earth." by this power were produced the sun, moon, and stars.[ ] it is from sanchoniathon that we derive most of the little we know of that ancient and mysterious people, the phœnicians. he lived before the trojan war; and of his writings but fragments survive--quotations in the writings of others. [ . "the theogony." . faber's "origin of pagan idolatry," vol. i, p. . . cory's "fragments," p. .] {p. } he tells us that-- "the beginning of all things was a condensed, windy air, or a breeze of _thick_ air, and a _chaos turbid and black as erebus_. "out of this chaos was generated môt, which some call ilus," (_mud,_) "but others the putrefaction of a watery mixture. and from this sprang all the seed of the creation, and the generation of the universe. . . . and, when the air began to send forth light, winds were produced and clouds, and very great defluxions and _torrents of the heavenly waters_." was this "thick air" the air thick with comet-dust, which afterward became the mud? is this the meaning of the "_turbid_ chaos"? we turn to the babylonian legends. berosus wrote from records preserved in the temple of belus at babylon. he says: "there was a time in which there _existed nothing but darkness_ and an _abyss of waters_, wherein resided _most hideous beings_, which were produced of a twofold principle." were these "hideous beings" the comets? from the "laws of menu," of the hindoos, we learn that the universe existed at first in darkness. we copy the following text from the vedas: "the supreme being alone existed; _afterward there was universal darkness;_ next the watery ocean was produced by the diffusion of virtue." we turn to the legends of the chinese, and we find the same story: their annals begin with "pwan-ku, or the reign of chaos."[ ] [ . "the ancient dynasties of berosus and china," rev. t. p. crawford, d. d., p. .] {p. } and we are told by the chinese historians that-- "p'an-ku came forth in the midst of the _great chaotic void_, and we know not his origin; that he knew the rationale of heaven and earth, and _comprehended the changes of the darkness and the light_."[ ] he "existed _before the shining of the light_."[ ] he was "the prince of chaos." "after the chaos _cleared away_, heaven appeared first in order, then earth, then after they existed, _and the atmosphere had changed its character, man came forth_."[ ] that is to say, p'an-ku lived through the age of darkness, during a chaotic period, and while the atmosphere was pestilential with the gases of the comet. where did he live? the chinese annals tell us: "in the age after the chaos, when heaven and earth had _just separated_." that is, when the great mass of cloud had just lifted from the earth: "records had not yet been established or inscriptions invented. at first even the rulers _dwelt in caves_ and desert places, eating raw flesh and drinking blood. at this fortunate juncture pan-ku-sze _came forth_, and from that time heaven and earth began to be heaven and earth, men and things to be men and things, and so the chaotic state passed away."[ ] this is the rejuvenation of the world told of in so many legends. and these annals tell us further of the "ten stems," being the stages of the earth's primeval history. "at _wu_--the sixth stem--the darkness and the light unite _with injurious effects_--all things become _solid_," (frozen?), "_and the darkness destroys the growth of all things_. [ . compendium of wong-shi-shing - ," crawford, p. . . ibid. . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } "at _kung_--the seventh stem--_the darkness nips all things_." but the darkness is passing away: "at _jin_--the ninth stem--the light _begins to nourish all things in the recesses below_. "lastly, at _tsze_, all things _begin to germinate_."[ ] the same story is told in the "twelve branches." " . _k'wun-tun_ stands for the period of _chaos, the cold midnight darkness_. it is said that with it all things began to germinate in the hidden recesses of the under-world." in the d--_ch'i-fun-yoh_--"light and heat become active, and all things begin to rise in obedience to its nature." in the d--_sheh-ti-kuh_--the stars and sun probably appear, as from this point the calendar begins. in the th--_chi-shii_--all things in a torpid state begin to come forth. in the th--_hëen-hia_--all things harmonize, and the present order of things is established; that is to say, the effects of the catastrophe have largely passed away.[ ] the kings who governed before the drift were called the rulers of heaven and earth; those who came after were the rulers of man. "_cheu ching-huen_ says: 'the rulers of man succeeded to the rulers of heaven and the rulers of earth in the government; that then _the atmosphere gradually cleared away_, and all things sprang up together; that the order of time was gradually settled, and the usages of society gradually became correct and respectful."[ ] and then we read that "the day and night had not yet been divided," but, after a time, "day and night were distinguished from each other."[ ] here we have the history of some event which changed [ . "compendium of wong-shi-shing - ," crawford, pp. , . . ibid., p. . . ibid. . ibid., p. .] {p. } the dynasties of the world: the heavenly kingdom was succeeded by a merely human one; there were chaos, cold, and darkness, and death to vegetation; then the light increases, and vegetation begins once more to germinate; the atmosphere is thick; the heavens rest on the earth; day and night can not be distinguished from one another, and mankind dwell in caves, and live on raw meat and blood. surely all this accords wonderfully with our theory. and here we have the same story in another form: "the philosopher of oraibi tells us that when the people ascended by means of the magical tree, which constituted the ladder from the lower world to this, they found the firmament, _the ceiling of this world, low down upon the earth_--the floor of this world." that is to say, when the people climbed up, from the cave in which they were bidden, to the surface of the earth, the dense clouds rested on the face of the earth. "machito, one of their gods, raised the firmament on his shoulders to where it is now seen. _still the world was dark, as there was no sun, no moon, and no stars_. so the people murmured because of the darkness and the cold. machito said, 'bring me seven maidens'; and they brought him seven maidens; and he said, 'bring me seven baskets of cotton-bolls'; and they brought him seven baskets of cotton-bolls; and he taught the seven maidens to weave a magical fabric from the cotton, and when they had finished it he held it aloft, and the breeze carried it away toward the firmament, and in the twinkling of an eye it was transformed into a beautiful and full-orbed moon; and the same breeze caught the remnants of flocculent cotton, which the maidens had scattered during their work, and carried them aloft, and they were transformed into bright stars. but _still it was cold;_ and the people murmured again, and machito said, 'bring me seven buffalo-robes'; and they brought him seven buffalo-robes, and from the densely matted hair of the robes he wove another wonderful fabric, which the storm carried {p. } away into the sky, and it was transformed into the full-orbed sun. then machito appointed times and seasons, and ways for the heavenly bodies; and the gods of the firmament have obeyed the injunctions of machito from the day of their creation to the present." * among the thlinkeets of british columbia there is a legend that the great crow or raven, yehl, was the creator of most things: "_very dark, damp, and chaotic_ was the world in the beginning; nothing with breath or body moved there except yehl; in the likeness of _a raven he brooded over the mist; his black winds beat down the vast confusion; the waters went back before him and the dry land appeared_. the thlinkeets were placed on the earth--though how or when does not exactly appear--while the world was _still in darkness, and without sun, moon, or stars_."[ ] the legend proceeds at considerable length to tell the doings of yehl. his uncle tried to slay him, and, when he failed, "he imprecated with a potent curse a deluge upon all the earth. . . . the flood came, the waters rose and rose; but yehl clothed himself in his bird-skin, and soared up to the heavens, where he stuck his beak into a cloud, and remained until the waters were assuaged."[ ] this tradition reminds us of the legend of the thessalian cerambos, "who escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings, given him by the nymphs." i turn now to the traditions of the miztecs, who dwelt on the outskirts of the mexican empire; this legend was taken by fray gregoria garcia[ ] from a book found in a convent in cuilapa, a little indian town, about a league and a half south of oajaca; the book had been compiled by the vicar of the convent, "just as they [ . "popular science monthly," october, , p. . . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. . . ibid., p. . . "origen de los ind.," pp. - .] {p. } themselves were accustomed to depict and to interpret it in their primitive scrolls": "in the year and in _the day of obscurity and darkness_," (the days of the dense clouds?), "yea, even before the days or the years were," (before the visible revolution of the sun marked the days, and the universal darkness and cold prevented the changes of the seasons?), "when the world was in _great darkness and chaos_, when the earth was covered with water, and there was nothing but _mud and slime on all the face of the earth_--behold a god became visible, and his name was the deer, and his surname was the lion-snake. there appeared also a very beautiful goddess called the deer, and surnamed the tiger-snake. these two gods were the origin and beginning of all the gods." this lion-snake was probably one of the comets; the tiger-snake was doubtless a second comet, called after the tiger, on account of its variegated, mottled appearance. it will be observed they appeared _before_ the light had returned, these gods built a temple on a high place, and laid out a garden, and waited patiently, offering sacrifices to the higher gods, wounding themselves with _flint_ knives, and "praying that it might seem good to them to shape the firmament, and _lighten the darkness_ of the world, and to establish the foundation of the earth; or, rather, to gather the waters together so that the earth might appear--as they had no place to rest in save only one little garden." here we have the snakes and the people confounded together. the earth was afterward made fit for the use of mankind, and at a later date there came-- "a great deluge, wherein perished many of the sons and daughters that had been born to the gods; and it is said that, when the deluge was passed, the human race {p. } was restored, as at the first, and the miztec kingdom populated, and the heavens and the earth established."[ ] father duran, in his ms. "history antique of new spain," written in a. d. , gives the cholula legend, which commences: "in the beginning, _before the light of the sun_ had been created, this land was _in obscurity and darkness_ and void of any created thing." in the toltec legends we read of a time when-- "there was a tremendous hurricane that carried away trees, mounds, houses, and the largest edifices, notwithstanding which many men and women escaped, _principally in caves_, and places where the great hurricane could not reach them. a few days having passed, they set out to see what had become of the earth, when they found it all populated with monkeys. all this time they were in darkness, _without seeing the light of the sun, nor the moon, that the wind had brought them_."[ ] in the aztec creation-myths, according to the accounts furnished by mendieta, and derived from fray andres de olmos, one of the earliest of the christian missionaries among the mexicans, we have the following legend of the "return of the sun": "_now, there had been no sun in existence for many years;_ so the gods being assembled in a place called teotihuacan, six leagues from mexico, and gathered at the time _around a great fire_, told their devotees that he of them who should first cast himself into that, fire should have the honor of being transformed into a sun. so, one of them, called nanahuatzin . . . flung himself into the fire. then the gods" (the chiefs?) "began to peer through the gloom in all directions _for the expected light_, and to make bets as to what part of heaven. he should [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, pp. - . . "north americans of antiquity," p. .] {p. } first appear in. some said 'here,' and some said 'there'; but when the sun rose they were all proved wrong, for not one of them had fixed upon the east." in the long-continued darkness they had lost all knowledge of the cardinal points. the ancient landmarks, too, were changed. the "popul vuh," the national book of the quiches, tells us of four ages of the world. the man of the first age was made of clay; he was "strengthless, inept, watery; he could not move his head, his face looked but one way; his sight was restricted, he could not look behind him," that is, he had no knowledge of the past; "he had been endowed with language, but he had no intelligence, so he was consumed in the water."[ ] then followed a higher race of men; they filled the world with their progeny; they had intelligence, but _no moral sense_"; "they forgot the heart of heaven." they were _destroyed by fire and pitch from heaven_, accompanied by tremendous earthquakes, from which only a few escaped. then followed a period _when all was dark_, save the white light "of the morning-star--sole light as yet of the primeval world"--probably a volcano. "once more are the gods in council, _in the darkness, in the night of a desolated universe_." then the people prayed to god for light, evidently for the return of the sun: "'hail! o creator they cried, 'o former! thou that hearest and understandest us! abandon us not! forsake us not! o god, thou that art in heaven and on earth; o heart of heaven i o heart of earth! _give us descendants, and a posterity as long as the light endure_.'" . . . in other words, let not the human race cease to be. [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } "it was thus they spake, living tranquilly, _invoking the return of the light; waiting the rising of the sun;_ watching the star of the morning, precursor of the sun. but no sun came, and the four men and their descendants grew uneasy. 'we have no person to watch over us,' they said; 'nothing to guard our symbols!' then they adopted gods of their own, and waited. they kindled fires, _for the climate was colder;_ then there fell _great rains and hail-storms,_ and put out their fires. several times they made fires, and several times the rains and storms extinguished them. many other trials also they underwent in tulan, famines and such things, and _a general dampness and cold_--for the earth was _moist, there being yet no sun_." all this accords with what i have shown we might expect as accompanying the close of the so-called glacial age. dense clouds covered the sky, shutting out the light of the sun; perpetual rains and storms fell; the world was cold and damp, muddy and miserable; the people were wanderers, despairing and hungry. they seem to have come from an eastern land. we are told: "tulan was a much colder climate than the happy eastern land they had left." many generations seem to have grown up and perished under the sunless skies, "waiting for the return of the light"; for the "popul vuh" tells us that "here also the language of all the families was confused, so that no one of the first four men could any longer understand the speech of the others." that is to say, separation and isolation into rude tribes had made their tongues unintelligible to one another. this shows that many, many years--it may be centuries--must have elapsed before that vast volume of moisture, carried up by evaporation, was able to fall {p. } back, in snow and rain to the land and sea, and allow the sun to shine through "the blanket of the dark." starvation encountered the scattered fragments of mankind. and in these same quiche legends of central america we are told: "the persons of the godhead were enveloped in the _darkness which enshrouded a desolated world_."[ ] they counseled together, and created four men of white and yellow maize (the white and yellow races?). it was _still dark;_ for they had no light but the light of the morning-star. they came to tulan. and the abbé brasseur de bourbourg gives further details of the quiche legends: now, behold our ancients and our fathers were made lords, and _had their dawn_. behold we will relate also the rising of the sun, the moon, and the stars! great was their joy when they saw the morning-star, which came out first, with its resplendent face before the sun. _at last_ the sun itself began to come forth; the animals, small and great, were in joy; they rose from the water-courses and ravines, and stood on the mountain-tops, with their heads toward where the sun was coming. an innumerable crowd of people were there, and the dawn cast light on all these people at once. at last _the face of the ground was dried by the sun:_ like a man the sun showed himself, and his presence warmed and dried the surface of the ground. before the sun appeared, _muddy and wet_ was the surface of the ground, and it was before the sun appeared, and then only the sun rose like a man. _but his heat had no strength_, and he _did but show when he rose;_ he only remained like" (an image in) "a mirror and it is not, indeed, the same sun that appears now, they say, in the stories."[ ] [ . "north americans of antiquity," p. . . tylor's "early history of mankind," p. .] {p. } how wonderfully does all this accord with what we have shown would follow from the earth's contact with a comet! the earth is wet and covered with mud, the clay; the sun is long absent; at last he returns; he dries the mud, but his face is still covered with the remnants of the great cloud-belt; "his heat has no strength"; he shows himself only in glimpses; he shines through the fogs like an image in a mirror; he is not like the great blazing orb we see now. but the sun, when it did appear in all its glory, must have been a terrible yet welcome sight to those who had not looked upon him for many years. we read in the legends of the thlinkeets of british columbia, after narrating that the world was once "dark, damp, and chaotic," full of water, with no sun, moon, or stars, how these luminaries were restored. the great hero-god of the race, yehl, got hold of three mysterious boxes, and, wrenching the lids off, let out the sun, moon, and stars. "when he set up the blazing light" (of the sun) "in heaven, the people that saw it were at first afraid. many hid themselves in the mountains, and in the forests, and even in the water, and were changed into the various kinds of animals that frequent these places."[ ] says james geikie: "nor can we form any proper conception of how long a time was needed to bring about that other change of climate, under the influence of which, slowly and imperceptibly, this immense sheet of frost melted away from the lowlands and retired to the mountain recesses. we must allow that long ages elapsed before the warmth became such as to induce plants and animals to clothe and people the land. how vast a time, also, must have passed away ere the warmth reached its climax!"[ ] [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. . . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } and all this time the rain fell. there could be no return of the sun until all the mass of moisture sucked up by the comet's heat had been condensed into water, and falling on the earth had found its way back to the ocean; and this process had to be repeated many times. it was the age of the great primeval rain. ### the primeval storm. in the andes, humboldt tells us of a somewhat similar state of facts: "a thick mist during a particular season obscures the firmament for many months. not a planet, not the most brilliant stars of the southern hemisphere--canopus, the {p. } southern cross, nor the feet of centaur--are visible. it is frequently almost impossible to discover the position of the moon. if by chance the outlines of the sun's disk be visible during the day, it appears devoid of rays." says croll: "we have seen that the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground, resulting from the long and cold winters, tended to cool the air and produce fogs, which cut off the sun's rays."[ ] the same writer says: "snow and ice lower the temperature by chilling the air and condensing the rays into thick fogs. the great strength of the sun's rays during summer, due to his nearness at that season, would, in the first place, tend to produce an increased amount of evaporation. but the presence of snow-clad mountains and an icy sea would chill the atmosphere and condense the vapors into thick fogs. the thick fogs and cloudy sky would effectually prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth, and the snow, in consequence, would remain unmelted during the entire summer. in fact, we have this very condition of things exemplified in some of the islands of the southern ocean at the present day. sandwich land, which is in the same parallel of latitude as the north of scotland, is covered with ice and snow the entire summer; and in the island of south georgia, which is in the same parallel as the center of england, the perpetual snow descends to the very sea-beach. the following is captain cook's description of this dismal place: 'we thought it very extraordinary,' he says, 'that an island between the latitudes of ° and ° should, in the very height of summer, be almost wholly covered with frozen snow, in some places many fathoms deep. . . . the head of the bay was terminated by ice-cliffs of considerable height, pieces of which were continually breaking off, which made a noise like cannon. nor were the interior parts of the country less horrible. the savage rocks raised their lofty summits [ . "climate and time," p. .] {p. } till lost in the clouds, and valleys were covered with seemingly perpetual snow. not a tree nor a shrub of any size was to be seen.'" i return to the legends. the gallinomeros of central california also recollect the day of darkness and the return of the sun: "in the beginning they say there was _no light, but a thick darkness covered all the earth_. man stumbled blindly against man and against the animals, the birds clashed together in the air, and confusion reigned everywhere. the hawk happening by chance to fly into the face of the coyote, there followed mutual apologies, and afterward a long discussion on the emergency of the situation. determined to make some effort toward abating the public evil, the two set about a remedy. the coyote gathered a great heap, of tules" (rushes) "rolled them into a ball, and gave it to the hawk, together with some pieces of flint. gathering all together as well as he could, the hawk flew straight up into the sky, where he struck fire with the flints, lit his ball of reeds, and left it there whirling along all in a fierce red glow as it continues to the present; for it is the sun. in the same way the moon was made, but as the tules of which it was constructed were rather damp, its light has always been somewhat uncertain and feeble."[ ] the algonquins believed in a world, an earth, "anterior to this of ours, but one _without light or human inhabitants_. a lake burst its bounds and submerged it wholly." this reminds us of the welsh legend, and the bursting of the lake llion (see page , _ante_). the ancient world was united in believing in great cycles of time terminating in terrible catastrophes: [ . captain cook's "second voyage," vol. ii, pp. - ; . "climate and time," croll, pp. , . . powers's pomo ms., bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } hence arose the belief in epochs of nature, elaborated by ancient philosophers into the cycles of the stoics, the great days of brahm, long periods of time rounding off by sweeping destructions, the cataclysms and ekpyrauses of the universe. some thought in these all things perished, others that a few survived. . . . for instance, epietetus favors the opinion that at the solstices of the great year not only all human beings, but even the gods, are annihilated; and speculates whether at such times jove feels lonely.[ ] macrobius, so far from agreeing with him, explains the great antiquity of egyptian civilization by the hypothesis that that country is so happily situated between the pole and the equator, as to escape both the deluge and conflagration of the great cycle."[ ] in the babylonian genesis tablets we have the same references to the man or people who, after the great disaster, divided the heavens into constellations, and regulated, that is, discovered and revealed, their movements. in the fifth tablet of the creation legend[ ] we read: " . it was delightful all that was fixed by the great gods. . stars, their appearance (in figures) of animals he arranged. . to fix the year through the observation of their constellations, . twelve months or signs of stars in three rows he arranged, . from the day when the year commences unto the close. . he marked the positions of the wandering stars to shine in their courses, . that they may not do injury, and may not trouble any one." that is to say, the civilized race that followed the great cataclysm, with whom the history of the event was [ . discourses," book iii, chapter xiii. . brinton's myths of the new world," p. . . proctor's pleasant ways," p. .] {p. } yet fresh, and who were impressed with all its horrors, and who knew well the tenure of danger and terror on which they held all the blessings of the world, turned their attention to the study of the heavenly bodies, and sought to understand the source of the calamity which had so recently overwhelmed the world. hence they "marked," as far as they were able, "the positions of the 'comets,'" "that they might not" again "do injury, and not trouble any one." the word here given is _nibir_, which mr. smith says does not mean planets, and, in the above account, _nibir_ is contradistinguished from the stars; they have already been arranged in constellations; hence it can only mean comets. and the tablet proceeds, with distinct references to the age of darkness: " . the positions of the gods bel and hea he fixed with him, . and _he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded_. . the fastenings were strong on the left and right. . in its mass, (i. e., the lower chaos,) he made a _boiling_. . the god uru (the moon) _he caused to rise out_, the _night he overshadowed_, . to fix it also for the light of the night until the shining of the day. . that the month might not be broken, and in its amount be regular, . at the beginning of the month, at the rising of the night, . his (the sun's) horns are breaking through to shine on the heavens. . on the seventh day _to a circle he begins to swell_, . and stretches _toward the dawn further_, . when the god shamas, (the in the horizon of heaven, in the east, . . . . formed beautifully and . . . . . . . to the orbit shamas was perfected." {p. } here the tablet becomes illegible. the meaning, however, seems plain: although to left and right, to east and west, the darkness was fastened firm, was dense, yet "the great gods opened the great gates in the darkness," and let the light through. first, the moon appeared, through a "boiling," or breaking up of the clouds, so that now men were able to once more count time by the movements of the moon. on the seventh day, shamas, the sun, appeared; first, his horns, his beams, broke through the darkness imperfectly; then he swells to a circle, and comes nearer and nearer to perfect dawn; at last he appeared on the horizon, in the east, formed beautifully, and his orbit was perfected; i. e., his orbit could be traced continuously through the clearing heavens. but how did the human race fare in this miserable time? in his magnificent poem "darkness," byron has imagined such a blind and darkling world as these legends depict; and he has imagined, too, the hunger, and the desolation, and the degradation of the time. we are not to despise the imagination. there never was yet a great thought that had not wings to it; there never was yet a great mind that did not survey things from above the mountain-tops. if bacon built the causeway over which modern science has advanced, it was because, mounting on the pinions of his magnificent imagination, he saw that poor struggling mankind needed such a pathway; his heart embraced humanity even as his brain embraced the universe. the river which is a boundary to the rabbit, is but a landmark to the eagle. let not the gnawers of the world, the rodentia, despise the winged creatures of the upper air. {p. } byron saw what the effects of the absence of the sunlight would necessarily be upon the world, and that which he prefigured the legends of mankind tell us actually came to pass, in the dark days that followed the drift. he says: "morn came, and went--and came, and brought no day, and men forgot their passions in the dread of this their desolation, and all hearts were chilled into a selfish prayer for light. . . . a fearful hope was all the world contained; forests were set on fire--but hour by hour they fell and faded,--and the crackling trunks extinguished with a crash,--and all was black. the brows of men by the despairing light wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits the flashes fell upon them; some lay down and bid their eyes and wept; and some did rest their chins upon their clinchèd hands and smiled; and others hurried to and fro, and fed their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up with mad disquietude on the dull sky, the pall of a past world; and then again with curses cast them down upon the dust, and gnashed their teeth and howled. . . . and war, which for a moment was no more, did glut himself again--a meal was bought with blood, and each sat sullenly apart, gorging himself in gloom, . . . and the pang of famine fed upon all entrails;--men died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh the meager by the meager were devoured, even dogs assailed their masters." how graphic, how dramatic, how realistic is this picture! and how true! for the legends show us that when, at last, the stones and clay had ceased to fall, and the fire had exhausted itself, and the remnant of mankind were able to dig their way out, to what an awful wreck of nature did they return. {p . } instead of the fair face of the world, as they had known it, bright with sunlight, green with the magnificent foliage of the forest, or the gentle verdure of the plain, they go forth upon a wasted, an unknown land, covered with oceans of mud and stones; the very face of the country changed--lakes, rivers, hills, all swept away and lost. they wander, breathing a foul and sickening atmosphere, under the shadow of an awful darkness, a darkness which knows no morning, no stars, no moon; a darkness palpable and visible, lighted only by electrical discharges from the abyss of clouds, with such roars of thunder as we, in this day of harmonious nature, can form no conception of. it is, indeed, "chaos and ancient night." all the forces of nature are there, but disorderly, destructive, battling against each other, and multiplied a thousand-fold in power; the winds are cyclones, magnetism is gigantic, electricity is appalling. the world is more desolate than the caves from which they have escaped. the forests are gone; the fruit-trees are swept away; the beasts of the chase have perished; the domestic animals, gentle ministers to man, have disappeared; the cultivated fields are buried deep in drifts of mud and gravel; the people stagger in the darkness against each other; they fall into the chasms of the earth; within them are the two great oppressors of humanity, hunger and terror; hunger that knows not where to turn; fear that shrinks before the whirling blasts, the rolling thunder, the shocks of blinding lightning; that knows not what moment the heavens may again open and rain fire and stones and dust upon them. god has withdrawn his face; his children are deserted; all the, kindly adjustments of generous nature are gone. god has left man in the midst of a material world without law; he is a wreck, a fragment, a lost particle, {p. } in the midst of an illimitable and endless warfare of giants. some lie down to die, hopeless, cursing their helpless gods; some die by their own bands; some gather around the fires of volcanoes for warmth and light--stars that attract them from afar off; some feast on such decaying remnants of the great animals as they may find projecting above the _débris_, running to them, as we shall see, with outcries, and fighting over the fragments. the references to the worship of "the morning star," which occur in the legend, seem to relate to some great volcano in the east, which alone gave light when all the world was lost in darkness. as byron says, in his great poem, "darkness": and they did live by watch-fires--and the thrones, the palaces of crownèd kings--the huts, the habitations of all things which dwell, were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed, and men were gathered round their blazing homes to look once more into each other's face; happy were they _who dwelt within the eye of the volcanoes and their mountain-torch_." in this pitiable state were once the ancestors of all mankind. if you doubt it, reader, peruse again the foregoing legends, and then turn to the following central american prayer, the prayer of the aztecs, already referred to on page , _ante_, addressed to the god tezcatlipoca, himself represented as a flying or winged serpent, perchance the comet: "is it possible that this lash and chastisement are not given for our correction and amendment, but only for our total destruction and overthrow; that _the sun will never more shine upon us, but that we must remain in perpetual darkness?_ . . . it is a sore thing to tell how we are all in {p. } darkness. . . . o lord, . . . make an end of _this smoke and fog_. quench also the _burning and destroying fire of thine anger_; let serenity come and _clearness_," (light); "let the small birds of thy people begin to sing and _approach the sun_." there is still another aztec prayer, addressed to the same deity, equally able, sublime, and pathetic, which it seems to me may have been uttered when the people had left their biding-place, when the conflagration had passed, but while darkness still covered the earth, before vegetation had returned, and while crops of grain as yet were not. there are a few words in it that do not answer to this interpretation, where it refers to those "people who have something"; but there may have been comparative differences of condition even in the universal poverty; or these words may have been an interpolation of later days. the prayer is as follows: "o our lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible and impalpable, thou art the giver of life; lord of all, and lord of battles. i present myself here before thee to say some few words concerning the need of the poor people of none estate or intelligence. when they lie down at night they have nothing, nor when they rise up in the morning; the darkness and the light pass alike in great poverty. know, o lord, that thy subjects and servants suffer a sore poverty that can not be told of more than that it is a sore poverty and desolateness. the men have no garments, nor the women, to cover themselves with, but only certain rags rent in every part, that allow the air and the cold to pass everywhere. "with great toil and weariness they scrape together enough for each day, _going by mountain and wilderness seeking their food_; so faint and enfeebled are they that their bowels cleave to their ribs, and all their body reechoes with hollowness, and they walk as people affrighted, the face and body in likeness of death. if they be merchants, they now sell only cakes of salt and broken {p. } pepper; the people that have something despise their wares, so that they go out to sell from door to door, and from house to house; and when they sell nothing they sit down sadly by some fence or wall, or in some corner, licking their lips and gnawing the nails of their hands for the hunger that is in them; they look on the one side and on the other at the mouths of those that pass by, hoping peradventure that one may speak some word to them. "o compassionate god, the bed on which they lie down is not a thing to rest upon, but to endure torment in; they draw a rag over them at night, and so sleep; there they throw down their bodies, and the bodies of children that thou hast given them. for the misery that they grow up in, for the filth of their food, for the lack of covering, their faces are yellow, and all their bodies of the color of earth. they _tremble with cold_, and for leaness they stagger in walking. they go weeping and sighing, and full of sadness, and all misfortunes are joined to them; _though they stay by afire, they find little heat_."[ ] the prayer continues in the same strain, supplicating god to give the people "some days of prosperity and tranquillity, so that they may sleep and know repose"; it concludes: "if thou answerest my petition it will be only of thy liberality and magnificence, for no one is worthy to receive thy bounty for any merit of his, but only through thy grace. _search below the dung-hills_ and in the mountains for thy servants, friends, and acquaintance, and raise them to riches and dignities." . . . "where am i? lo, i speak with thee, o king; well do i know that i stand in an eminent place, and that i talk with one of great majesty, before whose presence flows a river through a chasm, a gulf sheer down of awful depth; this, also, is a slippery place, whence many precipitate themselves, for there shall not be found one without error before thy majesty. i myself, a man of little understanding and lacking speech, dare to address [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } my words to thee; i put myself in peril of falling into the gorge and cavern of this river. i, lord, have come to take with my hands, _blindness to mine eyes_, rottenness and shriveling to my members, poverty and affliction to my body; for my meanness and rudeness this it is that i merit to receive. live and rule for ever in all quietness and tranquillity, o thou that art our lord, our shelter, our protector, most compassionate, most pitiful, invisible, impalpable." it is true that much of all this would apply to any great period of famine, but it appears that these events occurred when there was great cold in the country, when the people gathered around fires and could not get warm, a remarkable state of things in a country possessing as tropical a climate as mexico. moreover, these people were wanderers, "going by mountain and wilderness," seeking food, a whole nation of poverty-stricken, homeless, wandering paupers. and when we recur to the part where the priest tells the lord to seek his friends and servants in the mountains, "below the dung-hills," and raise them to riches, it is difficult to understand it otherwise than as an allusion to those who had been buried under the falling slime, clay, and stones. even poor men do not dwell under dung-hills, nor are they usually buried under them, and it is very possible that in transmission from generation to generation the original meaning was lost sight of. i should understand it to mean, "go, o lord, and search and bring back to life and comfort and wealth the millions thou hast slaughtered on the mountains, covering them with hills of slime and refuse." and when we turn to the traditions of the kindred and more ancient race, the toltecs,[ ] we find that, after the fall of the fire from heaven, the people, emerging from the [ . "north americans of antiquity," p. .] {p. } seven caves, wandered _one hundred and four years_, "suffering from nakedness, hunger, and cold, over many lands, across expanses of sea, and through untold hardships," precisely as narrated in the foregoing pathetic prayer. it tells of the migration of a race, over the desolated world, during the age of darkness. and we will find something, hereafter, very much like it, in the book of job. {p. } chapter ix. the triumph of the sun. a great solar-myth underlies all the ancient mythologies. it commemorates the death and resurrection of the sun. it signifies the destruction of the light by the clouds, the darkness, and the eventual return of the great luminary of the world. the syrian adonis, the sun-god, the hebrew tamheur, and the assyrian du-zu, all suffered a sudden and violent death, disappeared for a time from the sight of men, and were at last raised from the dead. the myth is the primeval form of the resurrection. all through the gothic legends runs this thought--the battle of the light with the darkness; the temporary death of the light, and its final triumph over the grave. sometimes we have but a fragment of the story. in the saxon beowulf we have grendel, a terrible monster, who comes to the palace-hall at midnight, and drags out the sleepers and sucks their blood. beowulf assails him. a ghastly struggle follows in the darkness. grendel is killed. but his fearful mother, the devil's clam, comes to avenge his death; she attacks beowulf, and is slain.[ ] there comes a third dragon, which beowulf kills, but is stifled with the breath of the monster and dies, rejoicing, however, that the dragon has brought with him a great treasure of gold, which will make his people rich.[ ] [ . poor, "sanskrit and kindred literatures," p. . . ibid.] {p. } here, again, are the three comets, the wolf, the snake, and the dog of ragnarok; the three arrows of the american legends; the three monsters of hesiod. when we turn to egypt we find that their whole religion was constructed upon legends relating to the ages of fire and ice, and the victory of the sun-god over the evil-one. we find everywhere a recollection of the days of cloud, "when darkness dwelt upon the face of the deep." osiris, their great god, represented the sun in his darkened or nocturnal or ruined condition, before the coming of day. m. mariette-bey says: "originally, osiris is the nocturnal sun; he is _the primordial night of chaos_; he is consequently anterior to ra, the sun of day."[ ] mr. miller says: "as nocturnal sun, osiris was also regarded as a type of the sun _before its first rising_, or of the primordial night of chaos, and as such, according to m. mariette, his first rising--his original birth to the light under the form of ra--symbolized the birth of humanity itself in the person of the first man."[ ] m. f. chabas says: "these forms represented the same god at different hours of the day. . . . the nocturnal sun and the daily sun, which, succeeding to the first, dissipated the darkness on the morning of each day, and renewed the triumph of horus over set; that is to say, _the cosmical victory which determined the first rising of the sun_--the organization of the universe at the commencement of time. ra is the god who, after _having marked the commencement of time_, continues each day to govern his work. . . . he succeeds [ . "musée de boulaq," etc., pp. , , , . . rev. o. d. miller, "solar symbolism," "american antiquarian," april, , p. .] {p. } to a primordial form, osiris, the nocturnal sun, or better, _the sun before its first rising_."[ ] "_the suffering and death of osiris_," says sir g. wilkinson, "_were the great mystery of the egyptian religion_, and some traces of it are perceptible among other people of antiquity. his being the divine goodness, and the abstract idea of good; his _manifestation upon earth_, his _death_ and _resurrection_, and his office as judge of the dead in a future state, look like the early revelation of a future manifestation of the deity, converted into a mythological fable."[ ] osiris--the sun--had a war with seb, or typho, or typhon, and was killed in the battle; he was subsequently restored to life, and became the judge of the under-world.[ ] seb, his destroyer, was a son of ra, the ancient sun-god, in the sense, perhaps, that the comets, and all other planetary bodies, were originally thrown out from the mass of the sun. seb, or typho, was "the personification of all evil." he was the destroyer, the enemy, the evil-one. isis, the consort of osiris, learns of his death, slain by the great serpent, and ransacks the world in search of his body. she finds it mutilated by typhon. this is the same mutilation which we find elsewhere, and which covered the earth with fragments of the sun. isis was the wife of osiris (the dead sun) and the mother of horus, the new or returned sun; she seems to represent a civilized people; she taught the art of cultivating wheat and barley, which were always carried in her festal processions. when we turn to the greek legends, we shall find [ . "revue archæologique," tome xxv, , p. . . notes to rawlinson's "herodotus," american edition, vol. ii, p.: . . murray's "mythology," p. .] {p. } typhon described in a manner that clearly identifies him with the destroying comet. (see page , _ante_.) the entire religion of the egyptians was based upon a solar-myth, and referred to the great catastrophe in the history of the earth when the sun was for a time obscured in dense clouds. speaking of the legend of "the dying sun-god," rev. o. d. miller says: "the wide prevalence of this legend, and its extreme antiquity, are facts familiar to all orientalists. there was the egyptian osiris, the syrian adonis, the hebrew tamheur, the assyrian _du-zu_, all regarded as solar deities, vet as having lived a mortal life, _suffered a violent death_, being subsequently _raised from, the dead_. . . . how was it possible _to conceive the solar orb as dying and rising from the dead_, if it had not already been taken for a mortal being, as a type of mortal man? . . . we repeat the proposition: it was impossible to conceive the sun _as dying and descending into hades_ until it had been assumed as a type and representative of man. . . . the reign of osiris in egypt, his war with typhon, his death and resurrection, were events appertaining to the divine dynasties. we can only say, then, that the origin of these symbolical ideas was _extremely ancient_, without attempting to fix its chronology." but when, we realize the fact that these ancient religions were built upon the memory of an event which had really happened--an event of awful significance to the human race--the difficulty which perplexed mr. miller and other scholars disappears. the sun had, apparently, been slain by an evil thing; for a long period it returned not, it was dead; at length, amid the rejoicings of the world, it arose from the dead, and came in glory to rule mankind. and these events, as i have shown, are perpetuated in the sun-worship which still exists in the world in many {p. } forms. even the christian peasant of europe still lifts his hat to the rising sun. the religion of the hindoos was also based on the same great cosmical event. indra was the great god, the sun. he has a long and dreadful contest with vritra, "the throttling snake." indra is "the cloud-compeller"; he "shatters the cloud with his bolt and releases the imprisoned waters";[ ] that is to say, he slays the snake vritra, the comet, and thereafter the rain pours down and extinguishes the flames which consume the world. "he goes in search of the cattle, the clouds, which the evil powers have driven away."[ ] that is to say, as the great heat disappears, the moisture condenses and the clouds form. doubtless mankind remembered vividly that awful period when no cloud appeared in the blazing heavens to intercept the terrible heat. "he who fixed firm the _moving earth_; who tranquillized _the incensed mountains_; who spread the spacious firmament; who consolidated the heavens--he, men, is indra. "he who having destroyed ahi (vritra, typhon,) set free the seven rivers, who, _recovered the cows_, (the clouds,) _detained by bal_; who generated fire in the clouds; who is invincible in battle--he, men, is indra." in the first part of the "vendidad," first chapter, the author gives an account of the beautiful land, the aryana vaejo, which was a land of delights, created by ahura mazda (ormaz). then "an evil being, angra-manyus, (ahriman,) pill of death, created _a mighty serpent_, and _winter_, the work of the devas." "_ten months of winter are there_, and two months of summer." [ . murray's "mythology," p. . . ibid.] {p. } then follows this statement: "seven months of summer are there; five months of winter were there. the latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees. there is the heart of winter; then all around _falls deep snow_. there is the worst of evils." this signifies that once the people dwelled in a fair and pleasant land. the evil-one sent a mighty serpent; the serpent brought a great winter; there were but two months of summer; gradually this ameliorated, until the winter was five months long and the summer seven months long. the climate is still severe, cold and wet; deep snows fell everywhere. it is an evil time. the demonology of the hindoos turns on the battles between the asuras, the irrational demons of the air, the comets, and the gods: "they dwell beneath the three-pronged root of the world-mountain, occupying the nadir, while their great enemy indra," (the sun;) "the highest buddhist god, sits upon the pinnacle of the mountain, in the zenith. the meru, which stands between the earth and the heavens, around which the heavenly bodies revolve, is the battlefield of the asuras and the devas."[ ] that is to say, the land meru--the same as the island mero of the ancient egyptians, from which egypt was first colonized; the merou of the greeks, on which the meropes, the first men, dwelt--was the scene where this battle between the fiends of the air on one side, and the heavenly bodies and earth on the other, was fought. the asuras are painted as "gigantic opponents of the gods, terrible ogres, with bloody tongues and long tusks, eager to devour human flesh and blood."[ ] and we find the same thoughts underlying the myths [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. v, p. . . ibid.] {p. } of nations the most remote from these great peoples of antiquity. the esquimaux of greenland have this myth: "in the beginning were two brothers, one of whom said, 'there shall be night and there shall be day, and men shall die, one after another.' but the second said, 'there shall be no day, but only night all the time, and men shall live for ever.' they had a long struggle, but here once more he who loved darkness rather than light was worsted, and the day triumphed." here we have the same great battle between light and darkness. the darkness proposes to be perpetual; it says, "there shall be no more day." after a long struggle the light triumphed, the sun returned, and the earth was saved. among the tupis of brazil we have the same story of the battle of light and darkness. they have a myth of timandonar and ariconte: "they were brothers, one of fair complexion, the other dark. they were constantly struggling, and ariconte, which means _the stormy or cloudy day_, came out worst." again the myth reappears; this time among the norsemen: balder, the bright sun, (baal?) is slain by the god hodur, the blind one; to wit, the darkness. but vali, odin's son, slew hodur, the darkness, and avenged balder. vali is the son of rind--the rind--the frozen earth. that is to say, darkness devours the sun; frost rules the earth; vali, the new sun, is born of the frost, and kills the darkness. it is light again. balder returns after ragnarok. and nana, balder's wife, the lovely spring-time, died of grief during balder's absence. [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } we have seen that one of the great events of the egyptian mythology was the search made by isis, the wife of osiris, for the dead sun-god in the dark nether world. in the same way, the search for the dead balder was an important part of the norse myths. hermod, mounted on odin's horse, sleifner, the slippery-one, (the ice?) set out to find balder. he rode nine days and nine nights through deep valleys, _so dark that he could see nothing_;[ ] at last he reaches the barred gates of hel's (death's) dominions. there he found balder, seated on a throne: he told hel that all things in the world were grieving for the absence of balder, the sun. at last, after some delays and obstructions, balder returns, and the whole world rejoices. and what more is needed to prove the original unity of the human race, and the vast antiquity of these legends, than the fact that we find the same story, and almost the same names, occurring among the white-haired races of arctic europe, and the dark-skinned people of egypt, phœnicia, and india. the demon set, or seb, of one, comes to us as the surt of another; the baal of one is the balder of another; isis finds osiris ruling the underworld as hermod found balder on a throne in hel, the realm of death. the celebration of the may-day, with its ceremonies, the may-pole, its may-queen, etc., is a survival of the primeval thanksgiving with which afflicted mankind welcomed the return of the sun from his long sleep of death. in norway,[ ] during the middle ages, the whole scene was represented in these may-day festivals: one man represents summer, he is clad in green leaves the other represents winter; he is clad in straw, fit picture of the [ . "nome mythology," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } misery of the drift age. they have each a large company of attendants armed with staves; they fight with each other until winter (the age of darkness and cold) is subdued. they pretend to pluck his eyes out and throw him in the water. winter is slain. here we have the victory of osiris over seb; of adonis over typhon, of balder over hodur, of indra over vritra, of timandonar over ariconte, brought down to almost our own time. to a late period, in england, the rejoicing over the great event survived. says horatio smith: "it was the custom, both here and in italy, for the youth of both sexes to proceed before daybreak to some neighboring wood, accompanied with music and horns, about sunrise to deck their doors and windows with garlands, and to spend the afternoon dancing around the may-pole." stow tells us, in his "survey of london": "every man would walk into the sweet meddowes and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of birds praising god in their kindes."[ ] stubbs, a puritan of queen elizabeth's days, describing the may-day feasts, says: "and then they fall to banquet and feast, to leape and dance about it," (the may-pole), "as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idolles, whereof this is a perfect picture, or rather the thing itself."[ ] stubbs was right: the people of england in the year a. d., and for years afterward, were celebrating the end of the drift age, the disappearance of the darkness and the victory of the sun. [ . "festivals, games," etc., p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid.] {p. } the myth of hercules recovering his cows from cacus is the same story told in another form: a strange monster, cacus, (the comet,) stole the cows of hercules, (the clouds,) and dragged them backward by their tails into a cave, and vomited smoke and flame when hercules attacked him. but hercules killed cacus with his unerring arrows, and released the cows. this signifies that the comet, breathing fire and smoke, so rarefied the air that the clouds disappeared and there followed an age of awful heat. hercules smites the monster with his lightnings, and electrical phenomena on a vast scale accompany the recondensation of the moisture and the return of the clouds. "cacus is the same as vritra in sanskrit, azbidihaka in zend, python in greek, and the worm fafnir in norse."[ ] the cows everywhere are the clouds; they are white and soft; they move in herds across the fields of heaven; they give down their milk in grateful rains and showers to refresh the thirsty earth. we find the same event narrated in the folk-lore of the modern european nations. says the russian fairy-tale: "once there was an old couple who had three sons." here we are reminded of shem, ham, and japheth; of zeus, pluto, and neptune; of brahma, vishnu, and siva; of the three-pronged trident of poseidon; of the three roots of the tree ygdrasil. "two of them," continues the legend, "had their wits about them, but the third, ivan, was a simpleton. "now, in the lands in which ivan lived _there was never any day, but always night_. this was a _snake's doings_. well, ivan undertook to kill the snake." [ . poor, "sanskrit literature," p. .] {p. } this is the same old serpent, the dragon, the apostate, the leviathan. "then came a _third_ snake with twelve heads. ivan killed it, and destroyed the heads, and immediately there was _a bright light_ throughout the whole land."[ ] here we have the same series of monsters found in hesiod, in ragnarok, and in the legends of different nations; and the killing of the third serpent is followed by a bright light throughout the whole land--the conflagration. and the russians have the legend in another form. they tell of ilia, the peasant, the servant of vladimir, _fair sun_. he meets the brigand soloveï, a monster, a gigantic bird, called the nightingale; his claws extend for seven versts over the country. like the dragon of hesiod, he was full of sounds--"he roared like a wild beast, bowled like a dog, and whistled like a nightingale." ilia bits him with an arrow in the right eye, and he _tumbles_ headlong from his lofty nest _to the earth_. the wife of the monster follows ilia, who has attached him to his saddle, and is dragging him away; she offers cupfuls of gold, silver, and pearls--an allusion probably to the precious metals and stones which were said to have fallen from the heavens. the sun (vladimir) welcomes ilia, and requests the monster to howl, roar, and whistle for his entertainment; he contemptuously refuses; ilia then commands him and he obeys: the noise is so terrible that the roof of the palace falls off, and the courtiers _drop dead with fear_. ilia, indignant at such an uproar, "cuts up the monster into little pieces, which _he scatters over the fields_"--(the drift).[ ] subsequently ilia _hides away in a cave_, unfed by [ . poor, "sanskrit and kindred literatures," p. . . ibid., p. . .] {p. } vladimir--that is to say, without the light of the sun. at length the sun goes to seek him, expecting to find him starved to death; but the king's daughter has sent him food every day for _three years_, and he comes out of the cave hale and hearty, and ready to fight again for vladimir, the fair sun.[ ] these three years are the three years of the "fimbul-winter" of the norse legends. i have already quoted (see chapter viii, part ill, page , _ante_) the legends of the central american race, the quiches, preserved in the "popul vuh," their sacred book, in which they describe the age of darkness and cold. i quote again, from the same work, a graphic and wonderful picture of the return of the sun "they determined to leave tulan, and the greater part of them, under the guardianship and direction of tohil, set out to see where they would take up their abode. they continued on their way amid the most extreme hardships for the want of food; sustaining themselves at one time upon the mere smell of their staves, and by imagining they were eating, when in verity and truth they ate nothing. their heart, indeed, it is again and again said, was almost broken by affliction. poor wanderers! they had a cruel way to go, many forests to pierce, many stern mountains to overpass, and a long passage to make through the sea, along _the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand_--the sea being, however, parted for their passage. at last they came to a mountain, that they named hacavitz, after one of their gods, and here they rested--for here they were by some means given to understand that _they should see the sun_. then, indeed, was filled with an exceeding joy the heart of balam-quitzé, of balam-agab of mahucutah, and of iqui-balam. it seemed to them that even the face of the morning star caught a new and more resplendent brightness. "they shook their incense-pans and danced for very gladness: sweet were their tears in dancing, very hot [ . poor, "sanskrit and kindred literatures," p. .] {p. } their incense--their precious incense. _at last the sun commenced to advance_; the animals small and great were full of delight; they raised themselves to the surface of the water; they fluttered in the ravines; they gathered at the edge of the mountains, turning their beads together toward that part from which the sun came. and the lion and the tiger roared. and the first bird that sang was that called the queletzu. all the animals were beside themselves at the sight; the eagle and the kite beat their wings, and every bird both great and small. _the men prostrated themselves on the ground_, for their hearts were full to the brim."[ ] how graphic is all this picture! how life-like! here we have the starving and wandering nations, as described in the preceding chapter, moving in the continual twilight; at last the clouds grow brighter, the sun appears: all nature rejoices in the unwonted sight, and mankind fling themselves upon their faces like "the rude and savage man of ind, kissing the base ground with obedient breast," at the first coming of the glorious day. but the clouds still are mighty; rains and storms and fogs battle with the warmth and light. the "popul vuh" continues: "and the sun and the moon and the stars were now all established"; that is, they now become visible, moving in their orbits. "yet was not the sun then in the beginning the same as now; his _heat wanted force_, and he was _but as a reflection in a mirror_; verily, say the historians, not at all the same sun as that of to-day. nevertheless, he _dried up and warmed the surface of the earth, and answered many good ends_." could all this have been invented? this people could not themselves have explained the meaning of their myth, and yet it dove-tails into every fact revealed by our latest science as to the drift age. [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } and then, the "popul vuh" tells us, the sun petrified their gods: in other words, the worship of lions, tigers, and snakes, represented by stone idols, gave way before the worship of the great luminary whose steadily increasing beams were filling the world with joy and light. and then the people sang a hymn, "the song called 'kamucu,'" one of the oldest of human compositions, in memory of the millions who had perished in the mighty cataclysm: "we _see;_" they sang, "alas, we ruined ourselves in tulan; _there lost we many of our kith and kin;_ they still remain there! left behind! we, indeed, _have seen the sun_, but they--now that his golden light begins to appear, where are they?" that is to say, we rejoice, but the mighty dead will never rejoice more. and shortly after balam-quitzé, balam-agab, mahucutah, and iqui-balam, the hero-leaders of the race, died and were buried. this battle between the sun and the comet graduated, as i have shown, into a contest between light and darkness; and, by a natural transition, this became in time the unending struggle between the forces of good and the powers of evil--between god and satan; and the imagery associated with it has,--strange to say,--continued down into our own literature. that great scholar and mighty poet, john milton, had the legends of the greeks and romans and the unwritten traditions of all peoples in his mind, when he described, in the sixth book of "paradise lost," the tremendous conflict between the angels of god and the followers of the fallen one, the apostate, the great serpent, the dragon, lucifer, the bright-shining, the star of the morning, coming, like the comet, from the north. {p. } milton did not intend such a comparison; but he could not tell the story without his over-full mind recurring to the imagery of the past. hence we read the following description of the comet; of that-- "thunder-cloud of nations, wrecking earth and darkening heaven." milton tells us that when god's troops went forth to the battle-- "at last, far in the horizon, _to the north_, appeared from skirt to skirt, a _fiery region stretched_, in battailous aspect, and nearer view bristled with upright beams innumerable of rigid spears, and helmets thronged and shields various, with boastful arguments portrayed, the banded powers of satan, hasting on with furious expedition. . . . high in the midst, exalted as a god, the apostate, in _his sun-bright chariot_, sat, idol of majesty divine, inclosed with _flaming cherubim_ and golden shields." the comet represents the uprising of a rebellious power against the supreme and orderly dominion of god. the angel abdiel says to satan: "fool! not to think how vain against the omnipotent to rise in arms; who out of smallest things could without end have raised incessant armies to defeat thy folly; or, with solitary hand, reaching beyond all limit, at one blow, unaided, could have finished thee, and whelmed thy legions under darkness." the battle begins: "now storming fury rose, and clamor such as heard in heav'n till now was never; arms on armor clashing brayed {p. } horrible discord, and the madding wheels of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise of conflict; overhead the dismal _hiss_ of fiery darts in _flaming volleys flew_, and, flying, vaulted either host with fire. . . . army 'gainst army, numberless to raise _dreadful combustion_ warring and disturb though not destroy, their happy native seat. . . . sometimes on firm ground a standing fight, then _soaring on main wing_ tormented all the air, _all air seemed then_ conflicting fire." michael, the archangel, denounces satan as an unknown being a stranger: "author of evil, _unknown till thy revolt_, _unnamed_ in heaven . . . how hast thou disturbed heav'n's blessed peace, and into nature brought misery, uncreated till the crime of thy rebellion! . . . but think not here to trouble holy rest; heav'n casts thee out from all her confines: heav'n, the seat of bliss, brooks not the works of violence and war. hence then, and evil go with thee along, thy offspring, to the place of evil, bell, thou and thy wicked crew! " but the comet (satan) replies that it desires liberty to go where it pleases; it refuses to submit its destructive and erratic course to the domination of the supreme good; it proposes-- "here, however, to dwell free if not to reign." the result, of the first day's struggle is a drawn battle. the evil angels meet in a night conference, and prepare gunpowder and cannon, with which to overthrow god's armies! "hollow engines, long and round, thick rammed, at th' other bore with touch of fire {p. } dilated and infuriate, shall send forth from far, with thund'ring noise, among our foes such implements of mischief, as shall dash to pieces, and overwhelm whatever stands adverse." thus armed, the evil ones renew the fight. they fire their cannon: "for sudden all at once their reeds put forth, and to a narrow vent applied with nicest touch. immediate in a flame, but soon obscured with clouds, all heav'n appeared, from these deep-throated engines belched, whose roar emboweled with outrageous noise the air, and all her entrails tore, disgorging foul their devilish glut, chained thunder-bolts and hail of iron globes." the angels of god were at first overwhelmed by this shower of missiles and cast down; but they soon rallied: "from their foundations, loos'ning to and fro, they plucked the seated hills, with all their load, rocks, waters, woods, and by their shaggy tops uplifted bore them in their hands." the rebels seized the hills also: so hills amid the air encountered hills, hurled to and fro with jaculation. dire. . . . . and now all heaven had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread," had not the almighty sent out his son, the messiah, to help his sorely struggling angels. the evil ones are overthrown, overwhelmed, driven to the edge of heaven: "the monstrous sight struck them with horror backward, but far worse urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw down from the verge of heav'n; eternal wrath burnt after them to the bottomless pit. . . .{p. } nine days they fell: _confounded chaos roared_ and felt tenfold confusion in their fall through his wide anarchy, so huge a rout encumbered him with ruin." thus down into our own times and literature has penetrated a vivid picture of this world-old battle. we see, as in the legends, the temporary triumph of the dragon; we see the imperiled sun obscured; we see the flying rocks filling the appalled air and covering all things with ruin; we see the dragon at last slain, and falling clown to hell and chaos; while the sun returns, and god and order reign once more supreme. and thus, again, milton paints the chaos that precedes restoration: on heav'nly ground they stood; and from the shores they viewed the vast immeasurable abyss, outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, up from the bottom, turned by furious winds and surging waves, as mountains to assault heav'n's height, and with the center mix the poles." but order, peace, love, and goodness follow this dark, wild age of cold and wet and chaos:--the night is slain, and the sun of god's mercy shines once more on its appointed track in the heavens. but never again, they feel, shall the world go back to the completely glorious conditions of the tertiary age, the golden age of the eden-land. the comet has "brought death into the world, and all our woe." mankind has sustained its great, its irreparable "fall." this is the event that lies, with mighty meanings, at the base of all our theologies. {p. } chapter x. the fall of the clay and gravel. i trust that the reader, who has followed me thus far in this argument, is satisfied that the legends of mankind point unmistakably to the fact that the earth, in some remote age--before the polynesians, red-men, europeans, and asiatics had separated, or been developed as varieties out of one family--met with a tremendous catastrophe; that a conflagration raged over parts of its surface; that mankind took refuge in the caves of the earth, whence they afterward emerged to wander for a long time, in great poverty and hardships, during a period of darkness; and that finally this darkness dispersed, and the sun shone again in the heavens. i do not see how the reader can avoid these conclusions. there are but two alternatives before him: he must either suppose that all this concatenation of legends is the outgrowth of a prodigious primeval lie, or he must concede that it describes some event which really happened. to adopt the theory of a great race-lie, originating at the beginning of human history, is difficult, inasmuch as these legends do not tell the same story in anything like the same way, as would have been the case had they all originated in the first instance from the same mind. while we have the conflagration in some of the legends, it has {p. } been dropped out of others; in one it is caused by the sun; in another by the demon; in another by the moon; in one phaëton produced it by driving the sun out of its course; while there are a whole body of legends in which it is the result of catching the sun in a noose. so with the stories of the cave-life. in some, men seek the caves to escape the conflagration; in others, their race began in the caves. in like manner the age of darkness is in some cases produced by the clouds; in others by the death of the sun. again, in tropical regions the myth turns upon a period of terrible heat when there were neither clouds nor rain; when some demon had stolen the clouds or dragged them into his cave: while in more northern regions the horrible age of ice and cold and snow seems to have made the most distinct impression on the memory of mankind. in some of the myths the comet is a god; in others a demon; in others a serpent; in others a feathered serpent; in others a dragon; in others a giant; in others a bird in others a wolf; in others a dog; in still others a boar. the legends coincide only in these facts:--the monster in the air; the heat; the fire; the cave-life; the darkness; the return of the light. in everything else they differ. surely, a falsehood, springing out of one mind, would have been more consistent in its parts than this. the legends seem to represent the diverging memories which separating races carried down to posterity of the same awful and impressive events: they remembered them in fragments and sections, and described them as the four blind men in the hindoo story described the elephant;--to one it was a tail, to another a trunk, to another a leg, to another a body;--it needs to put all their stories together to make a consistent whole. we can not understand {p. } the conflagration without the comet; or the cave-life without both; or the age of darkness without something that filled the heavens with clouds; or the victory of the sun without the clouds, and the previous obscuration of the sun. if the reader takes the other alternative, that these legends are not fragments of a colossal falsehood, then he must concede that the earth, since man inhabited it, encountered a comet. no other cause or event could produce such a series of gigantic consequences as is here narrated. but one other question remains: did the drift material come from the comet? it could have resulted from the comet in two ways: either it was a part of the comet's substance falling upon our planet at the moment of contact; or it may have been torn from the earth itself by the force of the comet, precisely as it has been supposed that it was produced by the ice. the final solution of this question can only be reached when close and extensive examination of the drift deposits have been made to ascertain how far they are of earth-origin. and here it must be remembered that the matter which composes our earth and the other planets and the comets was probably all cast out from the same source, the sun, and hence a uniformity runs through it all. humboldt says: "we are 'astonished at being able to touch, weigh, and chemically decompose metallic and earthy masses which belong to the outer world, to celestial space'; to find in them the minerals of our native earth, making it probable, as the great newton conjectured, that the materials which belong to one group of cosmical bodies are for the most part the same."[ ] [ . "cosmos," vol. iv, p. .] {p. } some aërolites are composed of finely granular tissue of olivine, augite, and labradorite blended together (as the meteoric stone found at duvets, in the department de l'ardèche, france): "these bodies contain, for instance, crystalline substances, perfectly similar to those of our earth's crust; and in the siberian mass of meteoric iron, investigated by pallas, the olivine only differs from common olivine by the absence of nickel, which is replaced by oxide of tin." neither is it true that all meteoric stones are of iron. humboldt refers to the aërolites of siena, "in which the iron scarcely amounts to two per cent, or the earthy aërolite of alais, (in the department du gard, france,) _which broke up in the water_," (clay?); "or, lastly, those from jonzac and juvenas, which contained _no metallic iron_."[ ] who shall say what chemical changes may take place in remnants of the comet floating for thousands of years through space, and now falling to our earth? and who shall say that the material of all comets assumes the same form? i can not but continue to think, however, until thorough scientific investigation disproves the theory, that the cosmical granite-dust which, mixed with water, became clay, and which covers so large a part of the world, we might say one half the earth-surface of the planet, and possibly also the gravel and striated stones, fell to the earth from the comet. it is a startling and tremendous conception, but we are dealing with startling and tremendous facts. even though we dismiss the theory as impossible, we still find ourselves face to face with the question, where, then, did these continental masses of matter come from? [ . "cosmos," vol. i, p. . . ibid., vol. i, p. .] {p. } i think the reader will agree with me that the theory of the glacialists, that a world-infolding ice-sheet produced them, is impossible; to reiterate, they are found, (on the equator,) where the ice-sheet could not have been without ending all terrestrial life; and they are not found where the ice must have been, in siberia and northwestern america, if ice was anywhere. if neither ice nor water ground up the earth-surface into the drift, then we must conclude that the comet so ground it up, or brought the materials with it already ground up. the probability is, that both of these suppositions are in part true; the comet brought down upon the earth the clay-dust and part of the gravel and bowlders; while the awful force it exerted, meeting the earth while moving at the rate of a million miles an hour, smashed the surface-rocks, tore them to pieces, ground them up and mixed the material with its own, and deposited all together on the heated surface of the earth, where the lower part was baked by the heat into "till" or "hardpan," while the rushing cyclones deposited the other material in partly stratified masses or drifts above it; and part of this in time was rearranged by the great floods which followed the condensation of the cloud-masses into rain and snow, in the period of the river or champlain drift. nothing can be clearer than that the inhabitants of the earth believed that the stones fell from heaven--to wit, from the comet. but it would be unsafe to base a theory upon such a belief, inasmuch as stones, and even fish and toads, taken up by hurricanes, have often fallen again in showers; and they would appear to an uncritical population to have fallen from heaven. but it is, at least, clear that the fall of the stones and the clay are associated in {p. } the legends with the time of the great catastrophe; they are part of the same terrible event. i shall briefly recapitulate some of the evidence. the mattoles, an indian tribe of northern california, have this legend: "as to the creation, they teach that a certain big man began by making the _naked earth, silent and bleak_, with nothing of plant or animal thereon, save one indian, who roamed about _in a wofully hungry and desolate state_. suddenly there arose a terrible whirlwind, _the air grew dark and thick with dust and drifting sand_, and the indian fell upon his face in sore dread. then there came a great calm, and the man rose and looked, and lo, all the earth was perfect and peopled; the grass and the trees were green on every plain and hill; the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the creeping things, the things that swim, moved everywhere in his sight."[ ] here, as often happens, the impressive facts are remembered, but in a disarranged chronological order. there came a whirlwind, thick with dust, the clay-dust, and drifting sand and gravel. it left the world naked and lifeless, "silent and bleak"; only one indian remained, and he was dreadfully hungry. but after a time all this catastrophe passed away, and the earth was once more populous and beautiful. in the peruvian legends, apocatequil was the great god who saved them from the powers of the darkness. he restored the light. he produced the lightning by hurling stones with his sling. the thunder-bolts are _small, round, smooth stones_.[ ] the stone-worship, which played so large a part in antiquity, was doubtless due to the belief that many of the stones of the earth had fallen from heaven. dr. schwarz, [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. . . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } of berlin, has shown that the lightning was associated in popular legends _with the serpent_. "when the lightning kindles the woods it is associated with the _descent of fire from heaven_, and, as in popular imagination, where it falls it scatters the thunderbolts in all directions, _the flint-stones_, which flash when struck, were supposed to be these fragments, and gave rise to the stone-worship so frequent in the old world."[ ] in europe, in old times, the bowlders were called devil-stones; they were supposed. to have originated from "the malevolent agency of man's spiritual foes." this was a reminiscence of their real source. the reader will see (page , _ante_) that the iroquois legends represent the great battle between the _white one_, the sun, and the _dark one_, the comet. the _dark one_ was wounded to death, and, as it fled for life, "the blood gushed from him at every step, and as it fell _turned into flint-stones_." here we have the red clay and the gravel both represented. among the central americans the flints were associated with hurakan, haokah, and tlaloe {_tlaloc?--jbh_}, the gods of storm and thunder: "the thunder-bolts, as elsewhere, were believed to be flints, and thus, as the emblem of the fire and the storm, this stone figures conspicuously in their myths. tohil, the god who gave the quiches fire by shaking his sandals, was _represented by a flint-stone_. such a stone, _in the beginning of things, fell from heaven to earth, and broke into sixteen hundred pieces_, each of which sprang up a god. . . . this is the germ of the adoration of stones as emblems of the fecundating rains. this is why, for example) the navajos use, as their charm for rain, certain [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } long, _round_ stones, which they think fall from the cloud when it thunders."[ ] in the algonquin legends of manibozho, or manobosbu, or nanabojou, the great ancestor of all the algic tribes, the hero man-god, we learn, had a terrific battle with "his brother chakekenapok, _the flint-stone, whom he broke in pieces, and scattered over the land_, and changed his entrails into fruitful vines. the conflict was _long and terrible_. the face of nature was _desolated as by a tornado, and the gigantic bowlders and loose rocks found on the prairies are the missiles hurled by the mighty combatants_."[ ] we read in the ute legends, given on page ---, _ante_, that when the magical arrow of ta-wats "struck the sun-god full in the face, the sun was shivered into a _thousand fragments, which fell to the earth_, causing a general conflagration."[ ] here we have the same reference to matter falling on the earth from the heavens, associated with devouring fire. and we have the same sequence of events, for we learn that when all of ta-wats was consumed but the head, "his tears gushed forth in a flood, which spread over the earth and extinguished the fires." the aleuts of the aleutian archipelago have a tradition that a certain old man, called traghdadakh, created men "_by casting stones on the earth; he flung also other stones into the air, the water, and over the land_, thus making beasts, birds, and fishes."[ ] it is a general belief in many races that the stone axes and celts fell from the heavens. in japan, the stone [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid., p. . . major j. w. powell, "popular science monthly," , p. . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } arrow-heads are rained from heaven by the flying spirits, who shoot them. similar beliefs are found in brittany, in madagascar, ireland, brazil, china, the shetlands, scotland, portugal, etc.[ ] in the legends of quetzalcoatl, the central figure of the toltec mythology, we have a white man--a bearded man--from an eastern land, mixed up with something more than man. he was the bird-serpent, that is, the winged or flying serpent, the great snake of the air, the son of iztac mixcoatl, "the white-cloud serpent, the spirit of the tornado."[ ] he created the world. he was overcome by tezcatlipoca, the spirit of the night. "when he would promulgate his decrees, his herald proclaimed them from tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, with such a mighty voice that it could be heard a hundred leagues around. the _arrows which he shot_ transfixed great trees; _the stones he threw leveled forests;_ and when he laid his hands on the rocks the _mark was indelible_."[ ] "his symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross, and _the flint_."[ ] in the aztec calendar the sign for the age of fire is the _flint_. in the chinese encyclopædia of the emperor kang-hi, , we are told: "in traveling from the shores of the eastern sea toward che-lu, neither brooks nor ponds are met with in the country, although it is intersected by mountains and valleys. nevertheless, there are found in the sand, very far away from the sea, oyster-shells and the shields of crabs. the tradition of the mongols who inhabit the country is, that it has been said from time immemorial that in a [ . tyler's "early mankind," p. . . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } remote antiquity the waters of the deluge flooded the district, and when they retired the places where they had been made their appearance covered with sand. . . . this is why these deserts are called the 'sandy sea,' which indicates that they were not always covered with sand and gravel."[ ] in the russian legends, a "golden ship sails across the heavenly sea; it breaks into fragments, which neither princes nor people can put together again,"--reminding one of humpty-dumpty, in the nursery-song, who, when he fell from his elevated position on the wall-- "not all the king's horses, nor all the king's men, can ever make whole again." in another russian legend, perun, the thunder-god, destroys the devils with _stone_ hammers. on ilya's day, the peasants offer him a roasted animal, which is cut up and _scattered over the fields_,[ ] just as we have seen the great dragon or serpent cut to pieces and scattered over the world. mr. christy found at bou-merzoug, on the plateau of the atlas, in northern africa, in a bare, deserted, stony place among the mountains, a collection of fifteen hundred tombs, made of rude limestone slabs, set up with one slab to form a roof, so as to make perfect dolmens--closed chambers--where the bodies were packed in. "tradition says that a wicked people lived there, and for their sins _stones were rained upon them from heaven;_ so they built these chambers to creep into."[ ] in addition to the legend of "phaëton," already given, ovid derived from the legends of his race another story, [ . tylor's "early mankind," p. . . poor, "sanskrit literature," p. . . tylor's "early mankind," p. .] {p. } which seems to have had reference to the same event. he says (fable xi): "after the men who came from the tyrian nation had touched this grove with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a splash, the _azure dragon_ stretched forth his head from the deep cave, and uttered dreadful hissings." we are reminded of the flying monster of hesiod, which roared and hissed so terribly. ovid continues: "the urns dropped from their hands, and the blood left their bodies, and a sudden trembling seized their astonished limbs. he wreathes his scaly orbs in rolling spirals, and, with a spring, becomes twisted into mighty folds; and, uprearing himself from below the middle into the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of" (as) "large size, as, if you were to look on him entire, the _serpent_ which separates the two bears" (the constellations). he slays the phœnicians; "some he kills with his sting, some with his long folds, some breathed upon by the venom of his baleful poison." cadmus casts a huge stone, as big as a millstone, against him, but it falls harmless upon his scales, "that were like a coat-of-mail"; then cadmus pierced him with his spear. in his fall he crushes the forests; the blood flows from his poisonous palate and changes the color of the grass. he is slain. then, under the advice of pallas, cadmus _sows the earth with the dragon's teeth,_ "_under the earth turned up_, as the seeds of a future people." afterward, the earth begins to move, and armed men rise up; they slay cadmus, and then fight with and slay each other. this seems to be a recollection of the comet, and the stones falling from heaven; and upon the land so afflicted {p. } subsequently a warlike and aggressive and quarrelsome race of men springs up. in the contest of hercules with the lygians, on the road from caucasus _to the hesperides_, "there is an attempt to explain mythically the origin of the round quartz blocks in the lygian field of stones, at the mouth of the rhône."[ ] in the "prometheus delivered" of Æsechylus, jupiter draws together a cloud, and causes "the district round about to be _covered with a shower of round stones_."[ ] the legends of europe refer to a race buried under sand and earth: "the inhabitants of central europe and teutonic races who came late to england, place their mythical heroes _under ground in caves_, in vaults beneath enchanted castles, or in _mounds_ which open and show their buried inhabitants alive and busy about the avocations of earthly men. . . . in morayshire _the buried race are supposed to have been buried under the sand-hills_, as they are in some parts of brittany."[ ] turning again to america, we find, in the great prayer of the aztecs to tezcalipoca, {_tezcatlipoca--jbh_} given on page , _ante_, many references to some material substances falling from heaven; we read: "thine anger and indignation has _descended upon us_ in these days, . . . coming down even as _stones, spears, and darts upon the wretches that inhabit_ the earth; this is the pestilence by which we are afflicted and _almost destroyed_." the children die, "broken and dashed to pieces _as against stones_ and a wall. . . . thine anger and thy indignation does it delight in _hurling the stone and arrow and spear_. the _grinders of thy teeth_" (the dragon's teeth of ovid?) "are employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of [ . "cosmos," vol. i, p. . . ibid., p. . . "frost and fire," vol. ii, p. .] {p. } thy people.... hast thou verily determined that it utterly perish; . . . that the peopled place become a wooded hill and _a wilderness of stones?_ . . . is there to be no mercy nor pity for us until the _arrows of thy fury are spent?_ . . . thine arrows and _stones have sorely hurt this poor people_." in the legend of the indians of lake tahoe (see page , _ante_), we are told that the stars were melted by the great conflagration, and they rained down molten metal upon the earth. in the hindoo legend (see page , _ante_) of the great battle between rama, the sun-god, and ravana, the evil one, rama persuaded the monkeys to help him build a bridge to the island of lanka, "and _the stones which crop out through southern india are said to have been dropped by the monkey builders_." in the legend of the tupi indians (see page , _ante_), we are told that god "swept about the fire in such way that in _some places he raised mountains and in others dug valleys_." in the bible we have distinct references to the fall of matter from heaven. in deuteronomy (chap. xxviii), among the consequences which are to follow disobedience of god's will, we have the following: " . the lord shall smite thee . . . with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. " . and thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. " . _the lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from. heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed_. . . . " . and thou shalt _grope at noonday_, as the blind gropeth in darkness." and even that marvelous event, so much mocked at by modern thought, the standing-still of the sun, at the {p. } command of joshua, may be, after all, a reminiscence of the catastrophe of the drift. in the american legends, we read that the sun stood still, and ovid tells us that "a day was lost." who shall say what circumstances accompanied an event great enough to crack the globe itself into immense fissures? it is, at least, a curious fact that in joshua (chap. x) the standing-still of the sun was accompanied by a fall of stones from heaven by which multitudes were slain. here is the record " . and it came to pass, as they fled from before israel, and were in the going down to beth-horon, that _the lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them_ unto azekah, and they died: there were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of israel slew with the sword." " . and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. is not this written in the book of jasher? so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down _about a whole day_. " . and there was no day like that before it or after it, that the lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the lord fought for israel." the "book of jasher" was, we are told, a very ancient work, long since lost. is it not possible that a great, dim memory of a terrible event was applied by tradition to the mighty captain of the jews, just as the doings of zeus have been attributed, in the folk-lore of europe, to charlemagne and barbarossa? if the contact of lexell's comet with the earth would, as shown on page , _ante_, have increased the length of the sidereal year three hours, what effect might not a comet, many times larger than the mass of the earth, have had upon the revolution of the earth? were the heat, {p. } the conflagrations, and the tearing up of the earth's surface caused by such an arrestment or partial slowing-up of the earth's revolution on its axis? i do not propound these questions as any part of my theory, but merely as suggestions. the american and polynesian legends represent that the catastrophe increased the length of the days. this may mean nothing, or a great deal. at least, joshua's legend may yet take its place among the scientific possibilities. but it is in the legend of the toltecs of central america, as preserved in one of the sacred books of the race, the "codex chimalpopoca," that we find the clearest and most indisputable references to the fall of gravel (see page , _ante_): "'the third sun' (or era) 'is called quia-tonatiuh, sun of rain, because there fell a rain of fire; all which existed burned; _and there fell a rain of gravel_.' "'they also narrate that while _the sandstone which we now see scattered about_, and the tetzontli' (_amygdaloide poreuse_, basalt, trap-rocks) 'boiled with great tumult, there also arose the rocks of vermilion color.' "'now this was in the year ce tecpatl, one _flint_, it was the day _nahui-quiahuitl_, fourth rain. now, in this day in which men were lost and destroyed _in a rain of fire_, they were transformed into goslings.'"[ ] we find also many allusions in the legends to the clay. when the navajos climbed up from their cave they found the earth covered with clay into which they sank mid-leg deep; and when the water ran off it left the whole world full of mud. in the creek and seminole legends the great spirit made the first man, in the primeval cave, "from the clay around him." [ . "north americans of antiquity," p. .] {p. } sanchoniathon, from the other side of the world, tells us, in the phœnician legends (see page , _ante_), that first came chaos, and out of chaos was generated _môt_ or mud. in the miztec (american) legends (see page , _ante_), we are told that in the age of darkness there was "nothing but _mud and slime_ on all the face of the earth." in the quiche legends we are told that the first men were destroyed by fire and _pitch_ from heaven. in the quiche legends we also have many allusions to the wet and muddy condition of the earth before the returning sun dried it up. in the legends of the north american indians we read that the earth was covered with great heaps of ashes; doubtless the fine, dry powder of the clay looked like ashes before the water fell upon it. there is another curious fact to be considered in connection with these legends--that the calamity seems to have brought with it some compensating wealth. thus we find beowulf, when destroyed by the midnight monster, rejoicing to think that his people would receive a treasure, a fortune by the monster's death. hence we have a whole mass of legends wherein a dragon or great serpent is associated with a precious horde of gold or jewels. "the scythians had a saga of the sacred gold which fell _burning_ from heaven. the ancients had also some strange fictions of silver which fell from heaven, and with which it had been attempted, under the emperor severus, to cover bronze coins."[ ] "in peru the god of riches was worshiped under the image of a rattlesnake, horned and hairy, _with a tail of gold_. it was said to _have descended from the heavens in_ [ . "cosmos," vol. i, p. .] {p. } _the sight of all the people_, and to have been seen by the whole army of the inca."[ ] the peruvians--probably in reference to this event--chose as their arms two serpents with their tails interlaced. among the greeks and ancient germans the fiery dragon was _the dispenser of riches_, and "_watches a treasure in the earth_."[ ] these legends may be explained by the fact that in the ural mountains, on the east of europe, in south america, in south africa, and in other localities, the drift gravels contain gold and precious stones. the diamond is found in drift-gravels alone. it is pure carbon crystallized. man has been unable to reproduce it, except in minute particles; nor can he tell in what laboratory of nature it has been fabricated. it is not found _in situ_ in any of the rocks of an earth-origin. has it been formed in space? is it an outcome of that pure carbon which the spectroscope has revealed to us as burning in some of the comets? [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } chapter xi. the arabian myths. and when we turn to the arabian tales, we not only see, by their identity with the hindoo and slavonic legends, that they are of great antiquity, dating back to the time when these widely diverse races, aryan and semitic, were one, but we find in them many allusions to the battle between good and evil, between god and the serpent. abou mohammed the lazy, who is a very great magician, with power over the forces of the air and the afrites, beholds a battle between two great snakes, one tawny-colored, the other white. the tawny serpent is overcoming the white one; but abou mohammed kills it with a rock. "the white serpent" (the sun) "departed and was _absent for a while_, but returned"; and the tawny serpent was torn to pieces and scattered over the land, and nothing remained of her but her head. and then we have the legend of "the city of brass," or bronze. it relates to "an ancient age and period in the olden time." one of the caliphs, abdelmelik, the son of marwan, has heard from antiquity that solomon, (solomon is, in arabic, like charlemagne in the middle-age myths of europe, the synonym for everything venerable and powerful,) had imprisoned genii in bottles of brass, and the caliph desired to procure some of these bottles. {p. } then talib (the son of sahl) tells the caliph that a man once voyaged to the island of sicily, but a wind arose and blew him away "to one of the lands of god." "this happened during the black darkness of night." it was a remote, unfrequented land; the people were black and lived in caves, and were naked and of strange speech. they cast their nets for talib and brought up a bottle of brass or bronze, containing one of the imprisoned genii, who came out of it, as a blue smoke, and cried in a horrible voice, "repentance, repentance, o prophet of god!" all this was in a western land. and abdelmelik sent talib to find this land. it was "a journey of two years and some months going, and the like returning." it was in a far country. they first reach a deserted palace in a desolate land, the palace of "kosh the son of sheddad the son of ad, the greater." he read an inscription: "here was a people, whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion. "and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. "death hath destroyed them and disunited them, and in the dust they have lost what they amassed." talib goes on with his troops, until they come to a great pillar of black stone, sunk into which, to his armpits, was a mighty creature; "he had two wings and four arms; two of them like those of the sons of adam, and two like the fore-legs of lions with claws. he had hair upon his head like the tails of horses, and two eyes like two burning coals, and he had a third eye in his forehead, like the eye of the lynx, from which there appeared sparks of fire." he was the imprisoned comet-monster, and these {p. } arms and eyes, darting fire, remind us of the description given of the apostate angel in the other legends: ### the afrite in the pillar. "he was tall and black; and he was crying out 'extolled be the perfection of my lord, who hath appointed me this severe affliction and painful torture until the day of resurrection!'" {p. } the party of talib were stupefied at the sight and retreated in fright. and the wise man, the sheik abdelsamad, one of the party, drew near and asked the imprisoned monster his history. and he replied: "i am an afrite of the genii, and my name is dahish, the son of elamash, and i am restrained here by the majesty of god. "there belonged to one of the sons of eblis an idol of red carnelian, of which i was made guardian; and there used to worship it one of the kings of the sea, of illustrious dignity, of great glory, leading, among his troops of the genii, a million warriors who smote with swords before him, and who answered his prayer in cases of difficulty. these genii, who obeyed him, were under my command and authority, following my words when i ordered them: all of them were in rebellion against solomon the son of david (on both of whom be peace!), and i used to enter the body of the idol, to command them and to forbid them." solomon sent word to this king of the sea that he must give up the worship of the idol of red carnelian; the king consulted the idol, and this afrite, speaking through the idol, encouraged the king to refuse. what,--he said to him,--can solomon do to thee, "when thou art in the midst of this great sea?" and so solomon came to compel the island-race to worship the true god; he surrounded his island, and filled the land with his troops, assisted by birds and wild beasts, and a dreadful battle followed in the air: "after this they came upon us all together, and we contended with him in a wide tract _for a period of two days_; and calamity befell us on the third day, and the decree of god (whose name be exalted!) was executed among us. the first who charged upon solomon were i and my troops: and i said to my companions, 'keep in your places in the battle-field while i go forth to them and challenge _dimiriat_."' (dimiriat was the sun, the {p. } bright one.) "and lo, _he came forth, like a great mountain, his fires flaming and his smoke ascending;_ and he approached and _smote me with a flaming fire; and his arrow prevailed over my fire_. he cried out at me _with a prodigious cry_, so that i imagined the _heaven had fallen_ and closed over me, and the mountains shook at his voice. ### dahish overtaken by dimiriat. then he commanded his companions, and they charged upon us all together: we also charged upon them, and we cried out one to another: _the fires rose and the smoke ascended_, the hearts of the combatants were almost cleft asunder, and the battle raged. the birds fought in the air, and the wild _beasts in the dust_; and i contended with dimiriat until he wearied me and i wearied him; {p. } after which i became weak, and my companions and troops were enervated and my tribes were routed." the birds tore out the eyes of the demons, and cut them in pieces until _the earth was covered with the fragments_, like the trunks of palm-trees. "as for me, i flew from before dimiriat, but he followed me a journey of three months until he overtook me." and solomon hollowed out the black pillar, and sealed him in it with his signet, and chained him until the day of resurrection. and talib and his party go on still farther, and find "the city of brass," a weird, mysterious, lost city, in a desolate land; silent, and all its people dead; a city once of high civilization, with mighty, brazen walls and vast machinery and great mysteries; a city whose inhabitants had perished suddenly in some great calamity. and on the walls were tablets, and on one of them were inscribed these solemn words: "'where are the kings and the peoples of the earth? they have quitted that which they have built and peopled. and in the grave they are pledged for their past actions. there, after destruction, they have become putrid corpses. where are the troops? they repelled not nor profited. and where is that which they collected and boarded? the decree of the lord of the throne _surprised them_. neither riches nor refuge saved them from it.' "and they saw the merchants dead in their shops; their skins were dried, and their bones were carious, and they had become examples to him who would be admonished." everywhere were the dead, "lying upon skins, and appearing almost as if they would speak." their death seems to have been due to a long period of terrible heat and drought. on a couch was a damsel more beautiful than all the daughters of adam; she was embalmed, so as to preserve all her charms. her eyes were of glass, filled with quick {p. } silver, which seemed to follow the beholder's every motion. near her was a tablet of gold, on which was inscribed: "in the name of god, the compassionate, the merciful.... the lord of lords, the cause of causes; the everlasting, the eternal. . . . where are the kings of the regions of the earth" where are the amalekites? where are the mighty monarchs? the mansions are void of their presence, and they have quitted their families and homes. where are the kings of the foreigners and the arabs? they have all died and become rotten bones. where are the lords of high degree? they have all died. where are korah and haman? where is sheddad, the son of add? where are canaan and pharaoh? god hath _cut them off_, and it is he who cutteth short the lives of mankind, and he hath made the mansions to be void for their presence. . . . i am tadmor, the daughter of the king of the amalekites, of those who ruled the countries with equity: i possessed what none of the kings possessed," (i. e., in extent of dominion,) "and ruled with justice, and acted impartially toward my subjects; i gave and bestowed; and i lived a longtime in the enjoyment of happiness and an easy life, and emancipated both female and male slaves. thus i did until _the summoner of death came, and disasters occurred before me_. and the cause was this: _seven years_ in succession came upon us, _during which no water descended on us from heaven, nor did any grass grow for us on the face of the earth_. so we ate what food we had in our dwellings, and after that we fell upon the beasts and ate, and there remained nothing. upon this, therefore, i caused the wealth to be brought, and meted it with a measure, and sent it, by trusty men, who went about with it through _all regions_, not leaving unvisited a single large city, to seek for some food. _but they found it not_, and they returned to us with the wealth after a long absence. so, thereupon we exposed to view our riches and our treasures, locked the gates of the fortresses in our city, and submitted ourselves to the decrees of our lord; and thus we all died, as thou beholdest, and left what we had built and what we had treasured." {p. } and this strange tale has relations to all the other legends. here we have the great demon, darting fire, blazing, smoking, the destructive one; the rebel against the good god. he is overthrown by the bright-shining one, dimiriat, the same as the dev-mrityu of the hindoos; he and his forces are cut to pieces, and scattered over the land, and he, after being chased for months through space, is captured and chained. associated with all this is a people of the bronze age--a highly civilized people; a people living on an island in the western sea, who perished by a calamity which came on them suddenly; "a summoner of death" came and brought disasters; and then followed a long period of terrible heat and drought, in which not they alone, but all nations and cities, were starved by the drying up of the earth. the demon had devoured the cows-the clouds; like cacus, he had dragged them backward into his den, and no hercules, no indra, had arisen to hurl the electric bolt that was to kill the heat, restore the clouds, and bring upon the parched earth the grateful rain. and so this bronze-age race spread out their useless treasures to the sun, and, despite their miseries, they praise the god of gods, the cause of causes, the merciful, the compassionate, and lie down to die. and in the evil-one, captured and chained and sealed by solomon, we seem to have the same thing prefigured in revelation, xx, : " . and he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years. " . and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should no more seduce the nations." {p. } chapter xii. the book of job. we are told in the bible (job, i, )-- "while he [job] was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, _the fire of god is fallen from heaven_ and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and _consumed them_, and i only am escaped alone to tell thee." and in verse we are told-- "while he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: " . and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and i only am escaped alone to tell thee." we have here the record of a great convulsion. fire fell from heaven; the fire of god. it was not lightning, for it killed the seven thousand sheep, (see chap. i, ,) belonging to job, and all his shepherds; and not only killed but consumed them--burned them up. a fire falling from heaven great enough to kill seven thousand sheep must have been an extensive conflagration, extending over a large area of country. and it seems to have been accompanied by a great wind--a cyclone--which killed all job's sons and daughters. has the book of job anything to do with that great event which we have been discussing? did it originate out of it? let us see. in the first place it is, i believe, conceded by the foremost {p. } scholars that the book of job is not a hebrew work; it was not written by moses; it far antedates even the time of abraham. that very high orthodox authority, george smith, f. s. a., in his work shows that-- "everything relating to this patriarch has been violently controverted. his country; the age in which he lived; the author of the book that bears his name; have all been fruitful themes of discord, and, as if to confound confusion, these disputants are interrupted by others, who would maintain that no such person ever existed; that the whole tale is a poetic fiction, an allegory!"[ ] job lived to be two hundred years old, or, according to the septuagint, four hundred. this great age relegates him to the era of the antediluvians, or their immediate descendants, among whom such extreme ages were said to have been common. c. s. bryant says: "job is in the purest hebrew. the author uses only the word _elohim_ for the name of god. the compiler or reviser of the work, moses, or whoever he was, employed at the heads of chapters and in the introductory and concluding portions the name of _jehovah_; but all the verses where _jehovah_ occurs, in job, are later interpolations in a very old poem, written at a time when the semitic race had no other name for god but _elohim_; before moses obtained the elements of the new name from egypt."[ ] hale says: "the cardinal constellations of spring and autumn, in job's time, were _chima_ and _chesil_, or taurus and scorpio, of which the principal stars are aldebaran, the bull's eye, and antare, the scorpion's heart. knowing, therefore, the longitudes of these stars at present, the interval [ . "the patriarchal age," vol. i, p. . . ms. letter to the author, from c. s. bryant, st. paul, minnesota.] {p. } of time from thence to the assumed date of job's trial will give the difference of these longitudes, and ascertain their positions then with respect to the vernal and equinoctial points of intersection of the equinoctial and ecliptic; according to the usual rate of the precession of the equinoxes, one degree in seventy-one years and a half."[ ] a careful calculation, based on these principles, has proved that this period was b. c. according to the septuagint, in the opinion of george smith, job lived, or the book of job was written, from b. c. to b. c. or the events described may have occurred , years before that date. it appears, therefore, that the book of job was written, even according to the calculations of the orthodox, long before the time of abraham, the founder of the jewish nation, and hence could not have been the work of moses or any other hebrew. mr. smith thinks that it was produced _soon after the flood_, by an arabian. he finds in it many proofs of great antiquity. he sees in it (xxxi, , ) proof that in job's time idolatry was an offense under the laws, and punishable as such; and he is satisfied that all the parties to the great dialogue were free from the taint of idolatry. mr. smith says: "the babylonians, chaldeans, egyptians, canaanites, midianites, ethiopians of abyssinia, syrians, and other contemporary nations, had sunk into gross idolatry long before the time of moses." the arabians were an important branch of the great atlantean stock; they derived their descent from the people of add. "and to this day the arabians declare that _the father of job was the founder of the great arabian people_."[ ] [ . hale's "chronology," vol. ii, p. . . smith's "sacred annals," vol. i, p. .] {p. } again, the same author says: "job acted as high-priest in his own family; and, minute as are the descriptions of the different classes and usages of society in this book, we have not the slightest allusion to the existence of any priests or specially appointed ministers of religion, _a fact which shows the extreme antiquity of the period_, as priests were, in all probability, first appointed about the time of abraham, and became general soon after."[ ] he might have added that priests were known among the egyptians and babylonians and phœnicians from the very beginning of their history. dr. magee says: "if, in short, there be on the whole, that genuine air of the antique which those distinguished scholars, schultens, lowth, and michaelis, affirm in every respect to pervade the work, we can scarcely hesitate to pronounce, with lowth and sherlock, that _the book of job is the oldest in the world now extant_."[ ] moreover, it is evident that this ancient hero, although he probably lived before babylon and assyria, before troy was known, before greece had a name, nevertheless dwelt in the midst of a high civilization. "the various arts, the most recondite sciences, the most remarkable productions of earth, in respect of animals, vegetables, and minerals, the classified arrangement of the stars of heaven, are all noticed." not only did job's people possess an alphabet, but books were written, characters were engraved; and some have even gone so far as to claim that the art of printing was known, because job says, "would that my words were printed in a book!" [ . smith's "sacred annals," p. . . magee "on the atonement," vol. ii, p. .] {p. } the literary excellence of the work is of the highest order. lowth says: "the antiquary, or the critic, who has been at the pains to trace the history of the grecian drama from its first weak and imperfect efforts, and has carefully observed its tardy progress to perfection, will scarcely, i think, without astonishment, contemplate a poem produced so many ages before, so elegant in its design, so regular in its structure, so animated, so affecting, so near to the true dramatic model; while, on the contrary, the united wisdom of greece, after ages of study, was not able to produce anything approaching to perfection in this walk of poetry before the time of Æschylus."[ ] smith says: "the debate rises high above earthly things; the way and will and providential dealings of god are investigated. all this is done with the greatest propriety, with the most consummate skill; and, notwithstanding the expression of some erroneous opinions, all is under the influence of a devout and sanctified temper of mind."[ ] has this most ancient, wonderful, and lofty work, breathing the spirit of primeval times, its origin lost in the night of ages, testifying to a high civilization and a higher moral development, has it anything to do with that event which lay far beyond the flood? if it is a drama of atlantean times, it must have passed through many hands, through many ages, through many tongues, before it reached the israelites. we may expect its original meaning, therefore, to appear through it only like the light through clouds; we may expect that later generations would modify it with local names and allusions; we may expect that they would even strike out parts whose meaning they failed to understand, and [ . "hebrew poetry," lecture xxxiii. . "sacred annals," vol. i, p. .] {p. } interpolate others. it is believed that the opening and closing parts are additions made in a subsequent age. if they could not comprehend how the fire from heaven and the whirlwind could have so utterly destroyed job's sheep, servants, property, and family, they would bring in those desert accessories, sabæan and chaldean robbers, to carry away the camels and the oxen. what is the meaning of the whole poem? god gives over the government of the world for a time to satan, to work his devilish will upon job. did not god do this very thing when he permitted the comet to strike the earth? satan in arabic means a serpent. "going to and fro" means in the arabic in "the heat of haste "; umbreit translates it, "from _a flight over the earth_." job may mean a man, a tribe, or a whole nation. from a condition of great prosperity job is stricken down, in an instant, to the utmost depths of poverty and distress; and the chief agency is "fire from heaven" and great wind-storms. does this typify the fate of the world when the great catastrophe occurred? does the debate between job and his three visitors represent the discussion which took place in the hearts of the miserable remnants of mankind, as they lay hid in caverns, touching god, his power, his goodness, his justice; and whether or not this world-appalling calamity was the result of the sins of the people or otherwise? let us see what glimpses of these things we can find in the text of the book. when job's afflictions fall upon him he curses his day--the day, as commonly understood, wherein he was born. but how can one curse a past period of time and ask the darkness to cover it? {p. } the original text is probably a reference to the events that were _then_ transpiring: "let that day _be turned into darkness_; let not god regard it from above; and _let not the light shine upon it_. let darkness and the _shadow of death cover it;_ let a mist overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness. _let a darksome whirlwind_ seize upon that night. . . . let them curse it who curse the clay, who are _ready to raise up a leviathan_."[ ] de dieu says it should read, "and thou, leviathan, rouse up." "let a mist overspread it"; literally, "let a gathered mass of dark clouds cover it." "the fathers generally understand the devil to be meant by the leviathan." we shall see that it means the fiery dragon, the comet: "let the stars be darkened _with the mist thereof;_ let it _expect light and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning of the day_."[ ] in other words, job is not imprecating future evils on a past time--an impossibility, an absurdity: he is describing the events then transpiring--the whirlwind, the darkness, the mist, the day that does not come, and the leviathan, the demon, the comet. job seems to regret that he has escaped with his life: "for now," he says, "_should i have lain still and been quiet_," (if i had not fled) "i should have slept: then had i been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver."[ ] job looks out over the whole world, swept bare of its inhabitants, and regrets that he did not stay and bide the [ . douay version, chapter iii, verses - . . ibid., verse . . king james's version, chapter iii, verses - .] {p. } pelting of the pitiless storm, as, if he had done so, he would be now lying dead with kings and counselors, who built places for themselves, now made desolate, and with princes who, despite their gold and silver, have perished. kings and counselors do not build "desolate places" for themselves; they build in the heart of great communities; in the midst of populations: the places may become desolate afterward. eliphaz the temanite seems to think that the sufferings of men are due to their sins. he says: even _as i have seen_, they that plough wickedness and sow wickedness, reap the same. _by the blast of god they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed_. the roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. _the old lion perisheth for lack of prey_, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad." certainly, this seems to be a picture of a great event. here again the fire of god, that consumed job's sheep and servants, is at work; even the fiercest of the wild beasts are suffering: the old lion dies for want of prey, and its young ones are scattered abroad. eliphaz continues: "in thoughts, from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on me, _fear came upon me_, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. then a spirit _passed before my face_, the hair of my flesh stood up." a voice spake: "shall mortal man be more just than god? shall a man be more pure than his maker? behold he put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with folly: how much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth. _they are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish forever without any regarding it_." {p. } the moth can crush nothing, therefore maurer thinks it should read, "crushed like the moth." "they are destroyed," etc.; literally, "they are _broken to pieces in the space of a day_."[ ] all through the text of job we have allusions to the catastrophe which had fallen on the earth (chap. v, ): "i have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly i," (god,) "cursed his habitation." " . his children are far from safety," (far from any place of refuge?) "and they are _crushed in the gate_, neither is there any to deliver them. " . whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance." that is to say, in the general confusion and terror the harvests are devoured, and there is no respect for the rights of property. " . although affliction _cometh not forth of the dust_, neither doth trouble _spring out of the ground_." in the douay version it reads: "nothing on earth is done without a cause, and sorrow doth not spring out of the ground" (v, ). i take this to mean that the affliction which has fallen upon men comes not out of the ground, but from above. " . yet man is born unto trouble, _as the sparks fly upward_." in the hebrew we read for sparks, "sons of _flame_ or burning coal." maurer and gesenius say, "as the sons of lightning fly high"; or, "troubles are many and fiery as sparks." [ . faussett's "commentary," iii, .] {p. } " . i would seek unto god, and unto god would i commit my cause; " . which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: . who _giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields_." rain here signifies the great floods which cover the earth. " . to set up _on high_ those that be low; that those which mourn may be _exalted to safety_." that is to say, the poor escape to the high places--to safety--while the great and crafty perish. " . he disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands can not perform their enterprise. " . he taketh the wise in their own craftiness," (that is, in the very midst of their planning,) "and the counsel of the froward is _carried headlong_," (that is, it is instantly overwhelmed). " . they meet with darkness in the day-time, and _grope in the noonday as in the night_." (chap. v.) surely all this is extraordinary--the troubles of mankind come from above, not from the earth; the children of the wicked are crushed in the gate, far from places of refuge; the houses of the wicked are "crushed before the moth," those that plow wickedness perish," by the "blast of god's nostrils they are consumed"; the old lion perishes for want of prey, and its whelps are scattered abroad. eliphaz sees a vision, (the comet,) which "makes his bones to shake, and the hair of his flesh to stand up"; the people "are destroyed from morning to evening"; the cunning find their craft of no avail, but are taken; the counsel of the froward is carried headlong; the poor find safety in high places; and darkness comes in midday, so that the people grope their way; {p. } and job's children, servants, and animals are destroyed by a fire from heaven, and by a great wind. eliphaz, like the priests in the aztec legend, thinks he sees in all this the chastening hand of god: " . behold, happy is the man whom god correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the almighty: " . for he _maketh sore_, and bindeth up: he _woundeth_, and his hands make whole." (chap. v.) we are reminded of the aztec prayer, where allusion is made to the wounded and sick in the cave "whose mouths were full of _earth_ and scurf." doubtless, thousands were crushed, and cut, and wounded by the falling stones, or burned by the fire, and some of them were carried by relatives and friends, or found their own way, to the shelter of the caverns. " . in _famine_ he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. " . _thou shalt be hid_ from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh." (chap. v.) "the scourge of the tongue" has no meaning in this context. there has probably been a mistranslation at some stage of the history of the poem. the idea is, probably, "you are hid in safety from the scourge of the comet, from the tongues of flame; you need not be afraid of the destruction that is raging without." " . at destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. " . for thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall _be at peace with thee_." (chap. v.) that is to say, as in the aztec legend, the stones of the field have killed some of the beasts if the earth, "the lions have perished," and their whelps have been scattered; {p. } the stones have thus been your friends; and other beasts have fled with you into these caverns, as in the navajo tradition, where you may be able, living upon them, to defy famine. now it may be said that all this is a strained construction; but what construction can be substituted that will make sense of these allusions? how can the stones of the field be in league with man? how does the ordinary summer rain falling on the earth set up the low and destroy the wealthy? and what has all this to do with a darkness that cometh in the day-time in which the wicked grope helplessly? but the allusions continue job cries out, in the next chapter (chap. vi) " . oh that my grief" (my sins whereby i deserved wrath) "were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! . _as the sands of the sea this would appear heavier_, therefore my words are full of sorrow. (douay version.) ' . for the _arrows of the almighty are within_ me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit; _the terrors of god do set themselves in array against me_" ("war against me"-douay ver.). that is to say, disaster comes down heavier than the sands--the gravel of the sea; i am wounded; the arrows of god, the darts of fire, have stricken me. we find in the american legends the descending _débris_ constantly alluded to as "stones, arrows, and spears"; i am poisoned with the foul exhalations of the comet; the terrors of god are arrayed against me. all this is comprehensible as a description of a great disaster of nature, but it is extravagant language to apply to a mere case of boils. " . even that it would please god to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off." {p. } the commentators say that "to destroy me" means literally "to grind or crush me." (chap. vi.) job despairs of final escape: " . what is my strength that i can hold out? and what is i end that i should keep patience?" (douay.) " . is my strength the _strength of stones?_ or is my flesh of brass? " that is to say, how can i ever bold out? how can i ever survive this great tempest? how can my strength stand the crushing of these stones? is my flesh brass, that it will not burn up? can i live in a world where such things are to continue? and here follow allusions which are remarkable as occurring in an arabian composition, in a land of torrid beats: " . my brethren" (my fellow-men) "have dealt deceitfully" (have sinned) "as a brook, and as the stream of brooks _they pass away_. . which are blackish _by reason of the ice_, and wherein _the snow is hid_. " . what time they wax _warm_, they vanish: when it is hot, they _are consumed out of their place_. . the paths of their way are turned aside; they _go to nothing and perish_." the douay version has it: " . they" (the people) "that fear the hoary frost, _the snow shall fall upon them_. " . at the time _when they shall be scattered they shall perish;_ and after it _groweth hot they shall be melted out of their place_. " . the paths of their steps are entangled; _they shall walk in vain and shall perish_." there is a great deal of perishing here--some by frost and snow, some by heat; the people are scattered, they lose their way, they perish. {p. } job's servants and sheep were also consumed in their place; _they_ came to naught, _they_ perished. job begins to think, like the aztec priest, that possibly the human race has reached its limit and is doomed to annihilation (chap. vii): " . is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?" is it not time to discharge the race from its labors? " . when i lie down, i say, when shall i arise, _and the night be gone?_ and i am full of tossings to and fro unto _the dawning of the day_." he draws a picture of his hopeless condition, shut up in the cavern, never to see the light of day again. (douay ver., chap. vii): " : am i sea or a whale, _that thou hast inclosed me in a prison?_" " . my eyes _shall not return to see good things_. " . nor shall the sight of man behold me; thy eyes are upon me, and i shall be no more"; (or, as one translates it, thy mercy shall come too late when i shall be no more.) " . as a cloud is consumed and passeth away, so he that shall go down to hell" (or the grave, the cavern) shall not come up. " . nor shall he return any more into his house, neither shall his place know him any more." how strikingly does this remind one of the druid legend, given on page , _ante_: "the profligacy of mankind had provoked the great supreme to send a pestilential wind upon the earth. a pure poison descended, every blast was death. at this time the patriarch, _distinguished for his integrity_, was _shut up, together with his select company_, in the inclosure with the strong door. here the just ones were safe from injury. presently a tempest of fire arose," etc. {p. } who can doubt that these widely separated legends refer to the same event and the same patriarch? job meditates suicide, just as we have seen in the american legends that hundreds slew themselves under the terror of the time: " . for now shall i sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but i shall not be." the chaldaic version gives us the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of chapter viii as follows: "the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof faileth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." and then job refers to the power of god, seeming to paint the cataclysm (chap. ix): " . which _removeth the mountains_, and they know not which _overturneth them in his anger_. " . which _shaketh the earth out of her place_, and the _pillars thereof_ tremble. " . which commandeth the sun, _and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars_. " . which alone spreadeth out the heavens and _treadeth upon the waves of the sea_." all this is most remarkable: here is the delineation of a great catastrophe--the mountains are removed and leveled; the earth shakes to its foundations; the sun _fails to appear_, and the stars are sealed up. how? in the dense masses of clouds? surely this does not describe the ordinary manifestations of god's power. when has the sun refused to rise? it can not refer to the story of joshua, for in that case the sun was in the heavens and refrained from setting; and joshua's time was long subsequent to that of job. but when we take this in connection with the fire {p. } falling from heaven, the great wind, the destruction of men and animals, the darkness that came at midday, the ice and snow and sands of the sea, and the stones of the field, and the fact that job is shut up as in a prison, never to return to his home or to the light of day, we see that peering through the little-understood context of this most ancient poem are the disjointed reminiscences of the age of fire and gravel. it sounds like the cry not of a man but of a race, a great, religious, civilized race, who could not understand how god could so cruelly visit the world; and out of their misery and their terror sent up this pitiful yet sublime appeal for mercy. " . if god will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him." one commentator makes this read: "under him the whales below heaven bend," (the crooked leviathan?) " . for he shall crush me in a _whirlwind_, and multiplieth my wounds even without cause." (douay ver.) and job can not recognize the doctrine of a special providence; he says: " . this is one thing" (therefore i said it). "he _destroyeth the perfect and the wicked_. " . if the _scourge slay suddenly_, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. " . the earth _is given into the hands of the wicked:_ he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if it be not him, who is it then?" (douay ver.) that is to say, god has given up the earth to the power of satan (as appears by chapter i); good and bad perish together; and the evil one laughs as the scourge (the comet) slays suddenly the innocent ones; the very judges who should have enforced justice are dead, and {p. } their faces covered with dust and ashes. and if god has not done this terrible deed, who has done it? and job rebels against such a state of things " . let him take his _rod away from me_, and let not his fear terrify me. " . then i would speak to him and not fear him but it is not so with me." what rod--what fear? surely not the mere physical affliction which is popularly supposed to have constituted job's chief grievance. is the "rod" that terrifies job so that he fears to speak, that great object which cleft the heavens; that curved wolf-jaw of the goths, one end of which rested on the earth while the other touched the sun? is it the great sword of surt? and here we have another (chap. x) allusion to the "darkness," although in our version it is applied to death: " . before i go whence i shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. " . a _land of darkness_ as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, _without any order_, and _where the light is as darkness_." or, as the douay version has it: " . before i go, and return no more, to _a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death_. " . a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order but _everlasting horror dwelleth_." this is not death; death is a place of peace, "where the wicked ceased from troubling "; this is a description of the chaotic condition of things on the earth outside the cave, "without any order," and where even the feeble light of day is little better than total darkness. job thinks he might just as well go out into this dreadful world and end it all. zophar argues (chap. xi) that all these things have {p. } come because of the wickedness of the people, and that it is all right: " . if he _cut off_ and _shut up_ and _gather together_, who can hinder him? " . for he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? "if he cut off," the commentators say, means literally, "if he pass by as a storm." that is to say, if he cuts off the people, (kills them by the million,) and shuts up a few in caves, as job was shut up in prison, gathered together from the storm, how are _you_ going to help it? hath he not seen the vanity and wickedness of man? and zophar tells job to hope, to pray to god, and that he will yet escape: " . because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it _as waters that pass away_. " . and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning." "thou shalt shine forth" gesenius renders, "though _now thou art in darkness_ thou shalt presently be as the morning"; that is, the storm will pass and the light return. umbreit gives it, "thy darkness shall be as the morning; only the darkness of morning twilight, not nocturnal darkness." that is, job will return to that dim light which followed the drift age. " . and thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, _thou shalt dig_ about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety." that is to say, when the waters pass away, with them shall pass away thy miseries; the sun shall yet return brighter than ever; thou shalt be secure; thou shalt _dig thy way out of these caverns;_ and then take thy rest in {p. } safety, for the great tempest shall have passed for ever. we are told by the commentators that the words "about thee" are an interpolation. if this is not the interpretation, for what would job dig about him? what relation can digging have with the disease which afflicted job? but job refuses to receive this consolation. he refuses to believe that the tower of siloam fell only on the wickedest men in the city. he refers to his past experience of mankind. he thinks honest poverty is without honor at the hands of successful fraud. he says (chap. xii): " . he that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp _despised in the thought of him that is at ease_." but-- " . the tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke god are secure; into whose hand god bringeth abundantly." and he can not see how, if this calamity has come upon men for their sins, that the innocent birds and beasts, and even the fish in the heated and poisoned waters, are perishing: " . but ask now the beasts," ("for verily," he has just said, "ye are the men, and wisdom will die with you,") "and _they_ shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and _they_ shall tell thee: " . or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare it unto thee. " . who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the lord hath wrought this?" wrought what? job's disease? no. some great catastrophe to bird and beast and earth. you pretend, he says, in effect, ye wise men, that only the wicked have suffered; but it is not so, for aforetime i have seen the honest poor man despised and the villain {p. } prosperous. and if the sins of men have brought this catastrophe on the earth, go ask the beasts and the birds and the fish and the very face of the suffering earth, what they have done to provoke this wrath. no, it is the work of god, and of god alone, and he gives and will give no reason for it. " . behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built up again; _he shutteth up a man_, and there can be no opening. " . behold, _he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up:_ also, he sendeth them out, and _they overturn the earth_." that is to say, the heat of the fire from heaven sucks up the waters until rivers and lakes are dried up: cacus steals the cows of hercules; and then again they fall, deluging and overturning the earth, piling it into mountains in one place, says the tupi legend, and digging out valleys in another. and god buries men in the caves in which they sought shelter. " . he increaseth the nations, _and destroyeth them:_ he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. " . he taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander _in a wilderness where there is no way_. " . _they grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man_." more darkness, more groping in the dark, more of that staggering like drunken men, described in the american legends: "lo, mine eye," says job, (xiii, ,) "_hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard_ and understood it. what ye know, the same do i know also." we have all seen it, says job, and now you would come here with your platitudes about god sending all this to punish the wicked: {p. } " . but ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value." honest job is disgusted, and denounces his counselors with carlylean vigor: " . shall not his excellency make you afraid? _and his dread fall upon you?_ " . your remembrances are like unto _ashes_, your bodies to bodies of _clay_. " . hold your peace, let me alone, that i may speak, and let come on me what will. " . wherefore do i take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? " . though he slay me, yet will i trust in him: but i will maintain mine own ways before him." in other words, i don't think this thing is right, and, though i tear my flesh with my teeth, and contemplate suicide, and though i may be slain for speaking, yet i will speak out, and maintain that god ought not to have done this thing; he ought not to have sent this horrible affliction on the earth--this fire from heaven, which burned up my cattle; this whirlwind which slew my children; this sand of the sea; this rush of floods; this darkness in noonday in which mankind grope helplessly; these arrows, this poison, this rush of waters, this sweeping away of mountains. "if i hold my tongue," says job, "i shall give up the ghost!" job believes-- "the grief that will not speak, whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break." "as _the waters fail from the sea_," says job, (xiv, ,) and the flood _decayeth and drieth up:_ " . so man _lieth down, and riseth not:_ till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. {p. } . o that thou wouldest _hide me_ in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, _until thy wrath be past_, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and _remember me!_" what does this mean? when in history have the waters failed from the sea? job believes in the immortality of the soul (xix, ): "though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall i see god." can these words then be of general application, and mean that those who lie down and rise not shall not awake for ever? no; he is simply telling that when the conflagration came and dried up the seas, it slaughtered the people by the million; they fell and perished, never to live again; and he calls on god to hide him in a grave, a tomb, a cavern--until the day of his wrath be past, and then to remember him, to come for him, to let him out. " . my bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and _i am escaped with the skin of my teeth_." escaped from what? from his physical disease? no; he carried that with him. but zophar insists that there is a special providence in all these things, and that only the wicked have perished (chap. xx): " . the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment." " . yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, where is be?" . he shall suck the _poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him_." how? " . when he is about to fill his belly, _god shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him_, and shall rain it upon him, while he is eating. " . he shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. {p. } " . it is drawn and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword" (the comet?) "cometh out of his gall: _terrors are upon him_. " . _all darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him_. . . . " . the heavens _shall reveal his iniquity;_ and _the earth shall rise up against him_. " . the increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall _flow away_ in the day of his wrath." what does all this mean? while the rich man, (necessarily a wicked man,) is eating his dinner, god shall rain upon him a consuming fire, a fire not blown by man; he shall be pierced by the arrows of god, the earth shall quake under his feet, the heavens shall blaze forth his iniquity; the darkness shall be hid, shall disappear, in the glare of the conflagration; and his substance shall flow away in the floods of god's wrath. job answers him in powerful language, maintaining from past experience his position that the wicked ones do not suffer in this life any more than the virtuous (chap. xxi): "their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of god upon them. their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. they send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. they spend their days in wealth, and _in a moment go down to the grave_. therefore they say unto god, depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." and here we seem to have a description (chap. xvi, douay ver.) of job's contact with the comet: " . a false speaker riseth up against my face, contradicting me." that is, job had always proclaimed the goodness of god, and here comes something altogether evil. {p. } " . he hath gathered together his fury against me; and threatening me he hath _gnashed with his teeth upon me:_ my enemy hath beheld me _with terrible_ eyes." " . he has compassed me _round about with his lances_, he hath wounded my loins, he hath not spared, he hath poured out my bowels on the earth. " . he hath torn me with _wound upon wound_, he hath rushed in upon me _like a giant_." " . for behold _my witness is in heaven_, and he that knoweth my conscience is on high." it is impossible to understand this as referring to a skin-disease, or even to the contradictions of job's companions, zophar, bildad, etc. something rose up against job that comes upon him with fury, gnashes his teeth on him, glares at him with terrible eyes, surrounds him with lances, wounds him in every part, and rushes upon him like a giant; and the witness of the truth of job's statement is there in the heavens. eliphaz returns to the charge. he rebukes job and charges him with many sins and oppressions (chap. xxii): " . therefore snares are around about thee, and _sudden fear troubleth thee;_ " . _or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee_." " . and thou sayest, how doth god know? can he judge _through the dark cloud?_ " . _thick clouds are a covering to him_, that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven. . hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? " . which were cut down out of time, _whose foundation was overflown with a flood?_" " . whereas our substance is not cut down, but _the remnant of them the fire consumeth_." " . he shall give for earth _flint_, and for flint _torrents of gold_." (douay ver.) {p. } what is the meaning of all this? and why this association of the flint-stones, referred to in so many legends; and the gold believed to have fallen from heaven in torrents, is it not all wonderful and inexplicable upon any other theory than that which i suggest? " . he shall deliver _the island of the innocent_: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine "(job's) "hands." what does this mean? where was "the island of the innocent"? what was the way which the wicked, who did not live on "the island of the innocent," had trodden, but which was swept away in the flood as the bridge bifrost was destroyed, in the gothic legends, by the forces of muspelheim? and job replies again (chap. xxiii): " . for god maketh my heart soft, and the almighty troubleth me: " . _because i was not cut off before the darkness_, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face." that is to say, why did i not die before this great calamity fell on the earth, and before i saw it? job continues (chap. xxvi): " . dead things are formed from _under the waters_, and the inhabitants thereof. " . _hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering_. the commentators tell us that the words, "dead things are formed under the waters," mean literally, "the souls of the dead tremble from under the waters." in all lands the home of the dead was, as i have shown elsewhere,[ ] beyond the waters: and just as we have seen in ovid that phaëton's conflagration burst open the earth [ . "atlantis," , , etc.] {p. } and disturbed the inhabitants of tartarus; and in hesiod's narrative that the ghosts trembled around pluto in his dread dominion; so here hell is laid bare by the great catastrophe, and the souls of the dead in the drowned flood-land, beneath the waters, tremble. surely, all these legends are fragments of one and the same great story. " . he stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. " . _he bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them_." the clouds do not break with this unparalleled load of moisture. " . _he holdeth back the face of his throne_, and _spreadeth his cloud upon it_. " . he hath compassed the waters with bounds, _until the day and night come to an end_. " . the pillars of heaven _tremble_, and are astonished at his reproof. " . he divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud." ("by his wisdom _he has struck the proud_ one."--douay ver.) " . by his spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath _formed the crooked serpent_." ("his artful hand brought forth the winding serpent."--douay ver.) what is the meaning of all this? the dead under the waters tremble; hell is naked, in the blazing heat, and destruction is uncovered; the north, the cold, descends on the world; the waters are bound up in thick clouds; the face of god's throne, the sun, is bidden by the clouds spread upon it; darkness has come, day and night are all one; the earth trembles; he has lighted up the heavens with the fiery comet, shaped like a crooked serpent, but he has struck him as indra struck vritra. how else can these words be interpreted? when {p. } otherwise did the day and night come to an end? what is the crooked serpent? job continues, (chap. xxviii,) and speaks in an enigmatical way, v. , of "the _stones_ of darkness, and the shadow of death." . the flood breaketh out from the inhabitants; even the waters forgotten of the foot: _they are dried up_, they are gone away from men. " . as for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up _as it were fire_." maurer and gesenius translate verse in a way wonderfully in accord with my theory: "the flood breaketh out from the inhabitants," they render, "a shaft, (or gulley-like pit,) is broken open far from the inhabitant, the dweller on the surface of the earth."[ ] this is doubtless the pit in which job was bidden, the narrow-mouthed, bottomless cave, referred to hereafter. and the words, "forgotten of the foot," confirm this view, for the high authorities, just cited, tell us that these words mean literally, "unsupported by the foot they hang by ropes in descending; they are dried up; they are gone away from men."[ ] here we have, probably, a picture of job and his companions descending by ropes into some great cavern, "dried up" by the heat, seeking refuge, far from the habitations of men, in some "deep shaft or gulley-like pit." and the words, "they are gone away from men," maurer and gesenius translate, "far from men they move with uncertain steps--they _stagger_." they are stumbling through the darkness, hurrying to a place of refuge, precisely as narrated in the central american legends. [ . fausset's "commentaries," vol. iii, p. . . ibid.] {p. } this is according to the king james version, but the douay version gives it as follows: " . he hath set _a time for darkness_, and the _end of all things he considereth_; the stone also that is _in the dark_, and the shadow of death. " . the flood _divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the foot of the needy man hath forgotten, and those who cannot be come at_. . the land out of which bread grew in its place, _hath been overturned with fire_." that is to say, god has considered whether he would not make an end of all things: he has set a time for darkness; in the dark are the stones; the flood separates the people; those who are escaping are divided by it from those who were forgotten, or who are on the other side of the flood, where they can not be come at. but the land where formerly bread grew, the land of the agricultural people, the civilized land, the plain of ida where grew the apples, the plain of vigrid where the great battle took place, _that has been overturned by fire_. and this land the next verse tells us: " . the stones of it are the place of sapphires, and the clods of it" (king james, "dust") "are gold." we are again reminded of those legends of america and europe where gold and jewels fell from heaven among the stones. we are reminded of the dragon-guarded hoards of the ancient myths. the douay version says: " . he" (god) "has stretched out his hand to the _flint_, he hath _overturned mountains from the roots_." what is the meaning of flint here? and why this recurrence of the word flint, so common in the central american legends and religions? and when did god in {p. } the natural order of things overturn mountains by the roots? and job (chap. xxx, douay version) describes the condition of the multitude who had at first mocked him, and the description recalls vividly the central american pictures of the poor starving wanderers who followed the drift age: " . barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, _disfigured with calamity_ and misery. . and they ate grass, and _barks of trees_, and the _root of junipers was their food_. " . who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and _when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry_. " . they dwelt in the _desert places of torrents_, and _in caves of the earth_, or upon the gravel." is not all this wonderful? in the king james version, verse reads: . for want and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness, in former time, desolate and waste." the commentators say that the words, "in former time, desolate and waste," mean literally, "_the yesternight of desolation and waste_." job is describing the condition of the people immediately following the catastrophe, not in some remote past. and again job says (douay version, chap. xxx): " . . . . my calamities forthwith arose; they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves. . . . " . they have rushed in upon me as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries. . . ." maurer translates, "as when a wall is broken," "with a shout like the _crash of falling masonry_." {p. } . i was the brother of _dragons_ and companion of ostriches. " . my _skin is become black_ upon me, and my bones are dried up with the _heat_." we are reminded of ovid's statement that the conflagration of phaëton caused the skin of the africans to turn black. in chapter xxxiv, (king james's version,) we read: " . if he" (god) "set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; " . _all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust_." and in chapter xxxvi, (verses , , douay,) we see that job was shut up in something like a cavern: " . he shall deliver the poor out of his distress, and shall open his ear in affliction. " . therefore he shall _set thee at large out of the narrow mouth, and which hath no foundation under it_; and the rest of thy table shall be full of fatness." that is to say, in the day when he delivers the poor out of their misery, he will bring thee forth from the place where thou hast been "hiding," (see chap. xiii, ,) from that narrow-mouthed, bottomless cavern; and instead of starving, as you have been, your table, during the rest of your life, "shall be full of fatness." " . he" (god) "lifteth up the drops of rain and poureth out showers like floods. " . which flow from the clouds which _cover all from above_." the commentators tell us that this expression, "which cover all from above," means literally, "the bottom of the sea is laid bare"; and they confess their inability to understand it. but is it not the same story told by ovid of the bottom of the mediterranean having been rendered {p. } a bed of dry sand by phaëton's conflagration; and does it not remind us of the central american legend of the starving people migrating in search of the sun, through rocky places where the sea had been separated to allow them to pass? and the king james version continues " . _with clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt_. " . _the noise thereof_ sheweth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapor." this last line shows how greatly the original text has been garbled; what have the cattle to do with it? unless, indeed, here, as in the other myths, the cows signify the clouds. the meaning of the rest is plain: god draws up the water, sends it down as rain, which covers all things; the clouds gather before the sun and hide its light; and the vapor restores the cows, the clouds; and all this is accompanied by great disturbances and noise. and the next chapter (xxxvii) continues the description: " . hear ye attentively the terror of his" (the comet's) "voice, and the sound that cometh out of his mouth. " . he beholdeth under all the heavens," (he is seen under all the heavens?) "and his _light is upon the ends of the earth_. " . after it a noise shall roar, he shall thunder with the voice of his majesty, and shall not be found out when his voice shall be heard." the king james version says, "and he will not stay them when his voice is heard." " . god shall _thunder wonderfully_ with his voice, he that doth great and unsearchable things." here, probably, are more allusions to the awful noises made by the comet as it entered our atmosphere, referred to by hesiod, the russian legends, etc. {p. } " . _he commandeth the snow to go down upon the earth_, and _the winter rain_ and the shower of his strength "--("the _great rain of his strength_," says the king james version). " . he sealeth up the hand of every man." this means, says one commentator, that "he confines men within doors" by these great rains. instead of houses we infer it to mean "the caves of the earth," already spoken of, (chap. xxx, v. ,) and this is rendered more evident by the next verse: " . and _the beast shall go into his covert_ and shall _abide in his den_. " . out of the inner parts" (meaning the south, say the commentators and the king james version) "_shall tempest come_, and _cold out of the north_. " . when god bloweth, there cometh _frost_, and _again the waters are poured forth abundantly_." the king james version continues: " . also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud." that is to say, the cloud is gradually dissipated by dropping its moisture in snow and rain. " . and it is turned round about by his counsels that they may do whatsoever be commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. " . he causeth it to come, whether for _correction_, or for his land, or for mercy." there can be no mistaking all this. it refers to no ordinary events. the statement is continuous. god, we are told, will call job out from his narrow-mouthed cave, and once more give him plenty of food. there has been a great tribulation. the sun has sucked up the seas, they have fallen in great floods; the thick clouds have covered the face of the sun; great noises prevail; there is a great light, and after it a roaring noise; the snow {p. } falls on the earth, with winter rains, (cold rains,) and great rains; men climb down ropes into deep shafts or pits; they are sealed up, and beasts are driven to their dens and stay there: there are great cold and frost, and more floods; then the continual rains dissipate the clouds. " . teach us what we shall say unto him; for we can not order our speech _by reason of darkness_. " . shall it be told him that i speak? if a man speak, surely _he shall be swallowed up?_" and then god talks to job, (chap. xxxviii,) and tells him "to gird up his loins like a man and answer him." he says: " . who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb? . when i made a _cloud the garment thereof_, and wrapped it in _mists_ as in swaddling-bands, " . i set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors." . . . " . hast thou entered into _the storehouses of the snow_, or hast thou beheld the treasures of the _hail?_" . . . " . out of whose womb came the _ice_? and the _frost_ from heaven, who hath gendered it? " . the waters are hardened like a _stone_, and _the surface of the deep is frozen_." what has this arabian poem to do with so many allusions to clouds, rain, ice, snow, hail, frost, and _frozen oceans_? " . who hath put wisdom in the inward part? or who hath given understanding to the heart? " umbreit says that this word "heart" means literally "a shining phenomenon--a meteor." who hath given understanding to the comet to do this work? " . when was _the dust poured on the earth_, and the _clods hardened together_?" {p. } one version makes this read: "poured itself into a mass by the rain, like molten metal." and another translates it-- "_is caked into a mass by heat, like molten metal_, before the rain falls." this is precisely in accordance with my theory that the "till" or "hard-pan," next the earth, was caked and baked by the heat into its present pottery-like and impenetrable condition, long before the work of cooling and condensation set loose the floods to rearrange and form secondary drift out of the upper portion of the _débris_. but again i ask, when in the natural order of events was dust poured on the earth and hardened into clods, like molten metal? and in this book of job i think we have a description of the veritable comets that struck the earth, in the drift age, transmitted even from the generations that beheld them blazing in the sky, in the words of those who looked upon the awful sight. in the norse legends we read of three destructive objects which appeared in the heavens one of these was shaped like a serpent; it was called "the midgard-serpent"; then there was "the fenris wolf"; and, lastly, "the dog garm." in hesiod we read, also, of three monsters: first, echidna, "a serpent huge and terrible and vast"; second, chimæra, a lion-like creature; and, thirdly, typhœus, worst of all, a fierce, fiery dragon. and in job, in like manner, we have three mighty objects alluded to or described: first the "winding" or "twisting" serpent with which god has "adorned the heavens"; then "behemoth," monstrous enough to "drink up rivers," "the chief of the ways of god"; and lastly, {p. } and most terrible of all, "leviathan"; the name meaning, the twisting animal, gathering itself into folds." god, speaking to job, and reminding him of the weakness and littleness of man, says (chap. xl, v. ): "canst thou draw out the leviathan with a book, or canst thou tie his tongue with a cord? " the commentators differ widely as to the meaning of this word "leviathan." some, as i have shown, think it means the same thing as the crooked or "winding" serpent (_vulg_.) spoken of in chapter xxvi, v. , where, speaking of god, it is said: "his spirit hath adorned the heavens, and his artful hand brought forth the winding serpent." or, as the king james version has it: "by his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent." by this serpent some of the commentators understand "a constellation, the devil, the leviathan." in the septuagint he is called "the apostate dragon." the lord sarcastically asks job: " . canst thou put a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with a buckle? " . will he make many supplications to thee, or speak soft words to thee? " . will he make a covenant with thee, and wilt thou take him to be a servant for ever? " . shalt thou play with him as with a bird, or tie him up for thy handmaids? " . shall friends" (septuagint, "the nations") cut him in pieces, shall merchants" (septuagint, "the generation of the phœnicians") "divide him?" . . (chap. xli, v. . douay version.) "i will not stir him up, like one that is cruel; for who can resist my" (his?) "countenance," or, "who shall stand against me" (him?) "and live?" . . . {p. } " . who can discover the face of his garment? or who can go into the midst of his mouth? " . who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. " . his body is like _molten shields_, shut close up, the scales pressing upon one another. " . one is joined to another, and not so much as any air can come between them. " . they stick one to another, and they hold one another fast, and shall not be separated. " . his sneezing is like the _shining of fire_, and his eyes like the eyelids of the morning." (syriac, "his look is brilliant." arabic, "the apples of his eyes are fiery, and his eyes are like the brightness of the morning.") . _out of his mouth go forth lamps, like torches of lighted fire_." compare these "sneezings" or "neesings" of the king james version, and these "lamps like torches of lighted lire," with the appearance of donati's great comet in : "on the th of september two diverging streams of light shot out from the nucleus across the coma, and, having separated to about the extent of its diameter, they turned back abruptly and streamed out in the tail. _luminous substance_ could be distinctly seen _rushing out from the nucleus_, and then flowing back into the tail. m. rosa described the streams of light as resembling _long hair brushed upward from the forehead_, and then allowed to fall back on each side of the head."[ ] " . _out of his nostrils goeth forth smoke_, like that of a pot heated and boiling." (king james's version has it, "as out of a seething pot or caldron.") " . his breath _kindleth coals, and a flame cometh forth out of his mouth_. " . in his neck strength shall dwell, and want goeth before his face." (septuagint, "_destruction runs before him_.") [ . "edinburgh review," october, , p. .] {p. } " . the members of his flesh cleave one to another; he shall send lightnings against him, and they shall not be carried to another place." (sym., "his flesh being cast for him as in a foundry," (molten,) "is immovable.") " . his heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith's anvil." (septuagint, "he hath stood immovable as an anvil.") " . when he shall raise him up, _the angels shall fear_, and being affrighted shall purify themselves." could such language properly be applied, even by the wildest stretch of poetic fancy, to a whale or a crocodile, or any other monster of the deep? what earthly creature could terrify the angels in heaven? what earthly creature has ever breathed fire? " . when a sword shall lay at him, it shall not be able to hold, nor a spear, nor a breast-plate. " . for he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. " . the archer shall not put him to flight, the stones of the sling are to him like stubble. " . as stubble will he esteem the hammer, and he will laugh him to scorn who shaketh the spear." we are reminded of the great gods of asgard, who stood forth and fought the monster with sword and spear and hammer, and who fell dead before him; and of the american legends, where the demi-gods in vain hurled their darts and arrows at him, and fell pierced by the rebounding weapons. " . _the beams of the sun shall be under him_," (in the king james version it is, "sharp stones _are under him_"--the gravel, the falling _débris_,) "and _he shall strew gold under him like mire_." (the king james version says, "_he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire_.") to what whale or crocodile can these words be applied? when did they ever shed gold or stones? and {p. } in this, again, we have more references to gold falling from heaven: " . he shall make the deep sea to boil like a pot, and shall make it as when ointments boil." (the septuagint says, "he deems the sea as a vase of ointment, and the tartarus of the abyss like a prisoner.") " . _a path shall shine after him_; he shall esteem the deep as growing old." (the king james version says, "one would think the deep to be hoary.") . _there is no power upon earth that can be compared with him_, who was made to fear no one. " . he beholdeth every _high thing_; he is king over all the children of pride." (chaldaic, "of all the sons of the mountains.") now, when we take this description, with all that has preceded it, it seems to me beyond question that this was one of the crooked serpents with which god had adorned the heavens: this was the monster with blazing bead, casting out jets of light, breathing volumes of smoke, molten, shining, brilliant, irresistible, against whom men hurled their weapons in vain; for destruction went before him: he cast down stones and pointed things upon the mire, the clay; the sea boils with his excessive heat; he threatens heaven itself; the angels tremble, and he beholds all high places. this is he whose rain of fire killed job's sheep and shepherds; whose chaotic winds killed job's children; whose wrath fell upon and consumed the rich men at their tables; who made the habitations of kings "desolate places"; who spared only in part "the island of the innocent," where the remnant of humanity, descending by ropes, hid themselves in deep, narrow-mouthed caves in the mountains. this is he who dried up the rivers and absorbed or evaporated a great part of the water of the ocean, to subsequently cast it down in great floods of snow and rain, to cover the north with ice; {p. } while the darkened world rolled on for a long night of blackness underneath its dense canopy of clouds. if this be not the true interpretation of job, who, let me ask, can explain all these allusions to harmonize with the established order of nature? and if this interpretation be the true one, then have we indeed penetrated back through all the ages, through mighty lapses of time, until, on the plain of some most ancient civilized land, we listen, perchance, at some temple-door, to this grand justification of the ways of god to man; this religious drama, this poetical sermon, wrought out of the traditions of the people and priests, touching the greatest calamity which ever tried the hearts and tested the faith of man. and if this interpretation be true, with how much reverential care should we consider these ancient records embraced in the bible! the scientist picks up a fragment of stone--the fool would fling it away with a laugh,--but the philosopher sees in it the genesis of a world; from it he can piece out the detailed history of ages; he finds in it, perchance, a fossil of the oldest organism, the first traces of that awful leap from matter to spirit, from dead earth to endless life; that marvel of marvels, that miracle of all miracles, by which dust and water and air live, breathe, think, reason, and cast their thoughts abroad through time and space and eternity. and so, stumbling through these texts, falling over mistranslations and misconceptions, pushing aside the accumulated dust of centuried errors, we lay our hands upon a fossil that lived and breathed when time was new: we are carried back to ages not only before the flood, but to ages that were old when the flood came upon the earth. here job lives once more: the fossil breathes and palpitates;-hidden from the fire of heaven, deep in his cavern; {p. } covered with burns and bruises from the falling _débris_ of the comet, surrounded by his trembling fellow-refugees, while chaos rules without and hope has fled the earth, we hear job, bold, defiant, unshrinking, pouring forth the protest of the human heart against the cruelty of nature; appealing from god's awful deed to the sense of god's eternal justice. we go out and look at the gravel-heap--worn, rounded, ancient, but silent,--the stones lie before us. they have no voice. we turn to this volume, and here is their voice, here is their story; here we have the very thoughts men thought-men like ourselves, but sorely tried--when that gravel was falling upon a desolated world. and all this buried, unrecognized, in the sacred book of a race and a religion. {p. } chapter xiii. genesis read by the light of the comet. and now, gathering into our hands all the light afforded by the foregoing facts and legends, let us address ourselves to this question: how far can the opening chapters of the book of genesis be interpreted to conform to the theory of the contact of a comet with the earth in the drift age? it may appear to some of my readers irreverent to place any new meaning on any part of the sacred volume, and especially to attempt to transpose the position of any of its parts. for this feeling i have the highest respect. i do not think it is necessary, for the triumph of truth, that it should lacerate the feelings even of the humblest. it should come, like quetzalcoatl, advancing with shining, smiling face, its hands full of fruits and flowers, bringing only blessings and kindliness to the multitude; and should that multitude, for a time, drive the prophet away, beyond the seas, with curses, be assured they will eventually return to set up his altars. he who follows the gigantic mississippi upward from the gulf of mexico to its head-waters on the high plateau of minnesota, will not scorn even the tiniest rivulet among the grass which helps to create its first fountain. so he who considers the vastness for good of this great force, christianity, which pervades the world down the long course of so many ages, aiding, relieving, encouraging, cheering, purifying, sanctifying humanity, can not afford {p. } to ridicule even these the petty fountains, the head-waters, the first springs from which it starts on its world-covering and age-traversing course. if we will but remember the endless array of asylums, hospitals, and orphanages; the houses for the poor, the sick, the young, the old, the unfortunate, the helpless, and the sinful, with which christianity has literally sprinkled the world; when we remember the uncountable millions whom its ministrations have restrained from bestiality, and have directed to purer lives and holier deaths, he indeed is not to be envied who can find it in his heart, with malice-aforethought, to mock or ridicule it. at the same time, few, i think, even of the orthodox, while bating no jot of their respect for the sacred volume, or their faith in the great current of inspired purpose and meaning which streams through it, from cover to cover, hold to-day that every line and word is literally accurate beyond a shadow of question. the direct contradictions which occur in the text itself show that the errors of man have crept into the compilation or composition of the volume. the assaults of the skeptical have been largely directed against the opening chapters of genesis: "what!" it has been said, "you pretend in the first chapter that the animated creation was made in six days; and then in the second chapter (verses and ) you say that the heavens and the earth and all the vegetation were made in one day. again: you tell us that there was light shining on the earth on the first day; and that there was night too; for 'god divided the light from the darkness'; and there was morning and evening on the first, second, and third days, while the sun, moon, and stars, we are told, were not created until the fourth day; and grass and fruit-trees were made before the sun." {p. } "how," it is asked, "could there be night and day and vegetation without a sun?" and to this assault religion has had no answer. now, i can not but regard these opening chapters as a mosaic work of ancient legends, dovetailed together in such wise that the true chronological arrangement has been departed from and lost. it is conceded that in some of the verses of these chapters god is spoken of as elohim, while in the remaining verses he is called jehovah elohim. this is very much as if a book were discovered to-day in part of which god was referred to as jove, and in the rest as jehovah-jove. the conclusion would be very strong that the first part was written by one who know the deity only as jove, while the other portion was written by one who had come under hebraic influences. and this state of facts in genesis indicates that it was not the work of one inspired mind, faultless and free from error; but the work of two minds, relating facts, it is true, but jumbling them together in an incongruous order. i propose, therefore, with all reverence, to attempt a re-arrangement of the verses of the opening chapters of the book of genesis, which will, i hope, place it in such shape that it will be beyond future attack from the results of scientific research; by restoring the fragments to the position they really occupied before their last compilation. whether or not i present a reasonably probable case, it is for the reader to judge. if we were to find, under the _débris_ of pompeii, a grand tessellated pavement, representing one of the scenes of the "iliad," but shattered by an earthquake, its fragments dislocated and piled one upon the top of another, it would be our duty and our pleasure to seek, by following the clew of the picture, to re-arrange the fragments so as {p. } to do justice to the great design of its author; and to silence, at the same time, the cavils of those who could see in its shocked and broken form nothing but a subject for mirth and ridicule. in the same way, following the clew afforded by the legends of mankind and the revelations of science, i shall suggest a reconstruction of this venerable and most ancient work. if the reader does not accept my conclusions, he will, at least, i trust, appreciate the motives with which i make the attempt. i commence with that which is, and should be, the first verse of the first chapter, the sublime sentence: "in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth." let us pause here: "god created the heavens and the earth _in the beginning_";--that is, before any other of the events narrated in the chapter. why should we refuse to accept this statement? _in the beginning_, says the bible, at the very first, god created the heavens and the earth. he did not make them in six days, he made them _in the beginning_; the words "six days" refer, as we shall see, to something that occurred long afterward. he did not attempt to create them, he created them; he did not partially create them, he created them altogether. the work was finished; the earth was made, the heavens were made, the clouds, the atmosphere, the rocks, the waters; and the sun, moon, and stars; all were completed. what next? is there anything else in this dislocated text that refers to this first creation? yes; we go forward to the next chapter; here we have it: chap. ii, v. . "_thus_ the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." {p. } and then follows: chap. ii, v. . "these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, _when they were created_, in the day that the lord god made the earth and the heavens. chap. ii, v. . "and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the lord god _had not caused it to rain upon the earth_, and there was not a man to till the ground." here we have a consecutive statement--god made the heavens and the earth in the beginning, and thus they were _finished_, and all the host of them. they were not made in six days, but "_in the day_," to wit, in that period of remote time called "the beginning." and god made also all the herbs of the field, all vegetation. and he made every plant of the field before it was cultivated in that particular part of the world called "the earth," for, as we have seen, ovid draws a distinction between "the earth" and the rest of the globe; and job draws one between "the island of the innocent" and the other countries of the world. and here i would call the reader's attention particularly to this remarkable statement: chap. ii, verse . "for the lord god had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. verse . "but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." this is extraordinary: _there was no rain_. a mere inventor of legends certainly had never dared make a statement so utterly in conflict with the established order of things; there was no necessity for him to do so; he would fear that it would throw discredit on all the rest of his narrative; as if he should say, "at that time the grass was not green," or, "the sky was not blue." {p. } a world without rain! could it be possible? 'did the writer of genesis invent an absurdity, or did he record an undoubted tradition? let us see: rain is the product of two things--heat which evaporates the waters of the oceans, lakes, and rivers; and cold which condenses them again into rain or snow. both heat and cold are necessary, in the tropics the water is sucked up by the heat of the sun; it rises to a cooler stratum, and forms clouds; these clouds encounter the colder air flowing in from the north and south, condensation follows, accompanied probably by some peculiar electrical action, and then the rain falls. but when the lemon and the banana grew in spitzbergen, as geology assures us they did in pre-glacial days, where was the cold to come from? the very poles must then have possessed a warm climate. there were, therefore, at that time, no movements of cold air from the poles to the equator; when the heat drew up the moisture it rose into a vast body of heated atmosphere, surrounding the whole globe to a great height; it would have to pass through this cloak of warm air, and high up above the earth, even to the limits of the earth-warmth, before it reached an atmosphere sufficiently cool to condense it, and from that great height it would fall as a fine mist. we find an illustration of this state of things on the coast of peru, from the river loa to cape blanco,[ ] where no rain ever falls, in consequence of the heated air which ascends from the vast sand wastes, and keeps the moisture of the air above the point of condensation. or it would have to depend for its condensation on the difference of temperature between night and day, settling [ . "american cyclopædia," vol. xiii, p. .] {p. } like a dew at night upon the earth, and so maintaining vegetation. what a striking testimony is all this to the fact that these traditions of genesis reach back to the very infancy of human history--to the age before the drift! after the creation of the herbs and plants, what came next? we go back to the first chapter: verse . "and god created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and god saw that it was good." verse . "and god blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth." verse . "and god made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and god saw that it was good." verse . "and god said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." we come back to the second chapter: verse . "and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." we return to the first chapter: verse . "so god created man in his own image, in the image of god created he him; male and female created he them." we come back to the second chapter: verse . "and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden; and there he put the man he had formed." verse . "and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good {p. } for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." verse . "and a river went out of eden to water the garden," etc. here follows a description of the garden; it is a picture of a glorious world, of that age when the climate of the bahamas extended to spitzbergen. verse . "and the lord god took the man, and put him into the garden of eden to dress it and to keep it." here follows the injunction that "the man whom god had formed," (for he is not yet called adam--the adami--the people of ad,) should not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. and then we have, (probably a later interpolation,) an account of adam, so called for the first time, naming the animals, and of the creation of eve from a rib of adam. and here is another evidence of the dislocation of the text, for we have already been informed (chap. i, v. ) that god had made man, "male and _female_"; and here we have him making woman over again from man's rib. verse . "and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." it was an age of primitive simplicity, the primeval world; free from storms or ice or snow; an edenic age; the tertiary age before the drift. then follows the appearance of the serpent. although represented in the text in a very humble capacity, he is undoubtedly the same great creature which, in all the legends, brought ruin on the world--the dragon, the apostate, the demon, the winding or crooked serpent of job, the leviathan, satan, the devil. and as such he is regarded by the theologians. he obtains moral possession of the woman, just as we {p. } have seen, in the hindoo legends, the demon ravana carrying off sita, the representative of an agricultural civilization; just as we have seen ataguju, the peruvian god, seducing the sister of certain rayless ones, or darklings. and the woman ate of the fruit of the tree. this is the same legend which we see appearing in so many places and in so many forms. the apple of paradise was one of the apples of the greek legends, intrusted to the hesperides, but which they could not resist the temptation to pluck and eat. the serpent ladon watched the tree. it was one of the apples of idun, in the norse legends, the wife of brage, the god of poetry and eloquence. she keeps them in a box, and when the gods feel the approach of old age they have only to taste them and become young again. loke, the evil-one, the norse devil, tempted idun to come into a forest with her apples, to compare them with some others, whereupon a giant called thjasse, in the appearance of an enormous eagle, flew down, seized idun and her apples, and carried them away, like ravana, into the air. the gods compelled loke to bring her back, for they were the apples of the tree of life to them; without them they were perishing. loke stole idun from thjasse, changed her into a nut, and fled with her, pursued by thjasse. the gods kindled _a great fire_, the eagle plumage of thjasse caught the flames, he _fell to the earth, and was slain by the gods_.[ ] but the serpent in genesis ruins eden, just as he did in all the legends; just as the comet ruined the tertiary age. the fair world disappears; cold and ice and snow come. adam and eve, we have seen, were at first naked, and subsequently clothe themselves, for modesty, with fig-leaves, (chap. iii, v. ;) but there comes a time, as in the [ . norse mythology," pp. , .] {p. } north american legends, when the great cold compels them to cover their shivering bodies with the skins of the wild beasts they have slain. a recent writer, commenting on the glacial age, says: "colder and colder grew the winds. the body could not be kept warm. clothing must be had, and this must be furnished by the wild beasts. their hides must assist in protecting the life of men. . . . the skins were removed and transferred to the bodies of men."[ ] hence we read in chapter iii, verse : "unto adam also, and to his wife, did the lord god make _coats of skins and clothed them_." this would not have been necessary during the warm climate of the tertiary age. and as this took place, according to genesis, before adam was driven out of paradise, and while he still remained in the garden, it is evident that some great change of climate had fallen upon eden. the glacial age had arrived; the drift had come. it was a rude, barbarous, cold age. man must cover himself with skins; he must, by the sweat of physical labor, wring a living out of the ground which god had "cursed" with the drift. instead of the fair and fertile world of the tertiary age, producing all fruits abundantly, the soil is covered with stones and clay, as in job's narrative, and it brings forth, as we are told in genesis,[ ] only "thorns and thistles"; and adam, the human race, must satisfy its starving stomach upon grass, "and thou shalt eat the herb of the field"; just as in job we are told: chap. xxx, verse . "for want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time, desolate and solitary." [ . maclean's "antiquity of man," p. . . chap. iii, verse .] {p. } verse . "who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper-roots for their food." verse . "among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles were they gathered together." and god "_drove out the man_" from the fair edenic world into the post-glacial desolation; and paradise was lost, and-- "at the east of the garden of eden he placed cherubims and _a flaming sword_, which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life." this is the sword of the comet. the norse legends say: "yet, before all things, there existed what we call muspelheim. it is a world luminous, glowing, not to be dwelt in by strangers, and situate at the end of the earth. surtur holds his empire there. _in his hand there shines a flaming sword_." there was a great conflagration between the by-gone eden and the present land of stones and thistles. is there any other allusion besides this to the fire which accompanied the comet in genesis? yes, but it is strangely out of place. it is a distinct description of the pre-glacial wickedness of the world, the fire falling from heaven, the cave-life, and the wide-spread destruction of humanity; but the compiler of these antique legends has located it in a time long subsequent to the deluge of noah, and in the midst of a densely populated world. it is as if one were to represent the noachic deluge as having occurred in the time of nero, in a single province of the roman empire, while the great world went on its course unchanged by the catastrophe which must, if the statement were true, have completely overwhelmed it. so we find the story of lot and the destruction of the cities of the plain brought down to the time {p. } of abraham, when egypt and babylon were in the height of their glory. and lot's daughters believed that the whole human family, except themselves, had been exterminated; while abraham was quietly feeding his flocks in an adjacent country. for if lot's story is located in its proper era, what became of abraham and the jewish people, and all the then civilized nations, in this great catastrophe? and if it occurred in that age, why do we hear nothing more about so extraordinary an event in the history of the jews or of any other people? mr. smith says: "the conduct of lot in the mountain whither he had retired scarcely admits of explanation. it has been generally supposed that his daughters believed that the whole of the human race were destroyed, except their father and themselves. but how they could have thought so, when they had previously tarried at zoar, it is not easy to conceive; and we can not but regard the entire case as one of those problems which the scriptures present as indeterminate, on account of a deficiency of data on which to form any satisfactory conclusion."[ ] the theory of this book makes the whole story tangible, consistent, and probable. we have seen that, prior to the coming of the comet, the human race, according to the legends, had abandoned itself to all wickedness. in the norse sagas we read: brothers will fight together, and become each other's bane; sisters' children their sib shall spoil; hard, is the world, sensual sins grow huge." [ . "the patriarchal age," vol. i, p. .] {p. } in the legends of the british druids we are told that it was "the profligacy of mankind" that caused god to send the great disaster. so, in the bible narrative, we read that, in lot's time, god resolved on the destruction of "the cities of the plain," sodom, (od, ad,) and gomorrah, (go-meru,) because of the wickedness of mankind: chap. xviii, verse . "and the lord said, because the cry of sodom and gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous"-- therefore he determined to destroy them. when the angels came to sodom, the people showed the most villainous and depraved appetites. the angels warned lot to flee. blindness (darkness?) came upon the people of the city, so that they could not find the doors of the houses. the angels took lot and his wife and two daughters by the hands, and led or dragged them away, and told them to fly "to the mountain, lest they be consumed." there is an interlude here, an inconsistent interpolation probably, where lot stays at zoar, and persuades the lord to spare zoar; but soon after we find all the cities of the plain destroyed, and lot and his family hiding in a cave in the mountain; so that lot's intercession seems to have been of no avail: verse . "then the lord rained upon sodom and upon gomorrah _brimstone and fire from the lord out of heaven_." verse . "and he overthrew those cities, and _all the cities of the plain_, and all the _inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground_." it was a complete destruction of all living things in that locality; and lot "_dwell in a cave_, he and his two daughters." and the daughters were convinced that they were the {p. } last of the human race left alive on the face of the earth, notwithstanding the fact that the lord had promised (chap. iii, verse ), "i will not overthrow this city," zoar; but zoar evidently _was_ overthrown. and the daughters, rather than see the human race perish, committed incest with their father, and became the mothers of two great and extensive tribes or races of men, the moabites and the ammonites. this, also, looks very much as if they were indeed repeopling an empty and desolated world.. to recapitulate, we have here, in due chronological order: . the creation of the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them. . the creation of the plants, animals, and man. . the fair and lovely age of the pliocene, the summer-land, when the people went naked, or clothed themselves in the leaves of trees; it was the fertile land where nature provided abundantly everything for her children. . the serpent appears and overthrows this eden. . fire falls from heaven and destroys a large part of the human race. . a remnant take refuge in a cave. . man is driven out of the edenic land, and a blazing sword, a conflagration, waves between him and paradise, between niflheim and muspelheim. what next? we return now to the first chapter of this dislocated text: verse . "and the earth _was without form, and void_." that is to say, chaos had come in the train of the comet. otherwise, how can we understand how god, as stated in the preceding verse, has just made the heavens {p. } and the earth? how could his work have been so imperfect? "_and darkness was upon the face of the deep_." this is the primeval night referred to in all the legends; the long age of darkness upon the earth. "and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters." the word for _spirit_, in hebrew, as in latin, originally meant _wind_; and this passage might be rendered, "a mighty wind swept the face of the waters." this wind represents, i take it, the great cyclones of the drift age. verse . "and god said, let there be light: and there was light." the sun and moon had not yet appeared, but the dense mass of clouds, pouring their waters upon the earth, had gradually, as job expresses it, "wearied" themselves,--they had grown thin; and the light began to appear, at least sufficiently to mark the distinction between day and night. verse . "and god saw the light: that it was good; and god divided the light from the darkness." verse . "and god called the light day, and the darkness be called night. and the evening and the morning were the first day." that is to say, in subdividing the phenomena of this dark period, when there was neither moon nor sun to mark the time, mankind drew the first line of subdivision, very naturally, at that point of time, (it may have been weeks, or months, or years,) when first the distinction between night and day became faintly discernible, and men could again begin to count time. but this gain of light had been at the expense of the {p. } clouds; they had given down their moisture in immense and perpetual rains; the low-lying lands of the earth were overflowed; the very mountains, while not under water, were covered by the continual floods of rain. there was water everywhere. to appreciate this condition of things, one has but to look at the geological maps of the amount of land known to have been overflowed by water during the so-called glacial age in europe. and so the narrative proceeds: verse . "and god said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." this has been incomprehensible to the critics. it has been supposed that by this "firmament" was meant the heavens; and that the waters "above the firmament" were the clouds; and it has been said that this was a barbarian's conception, to wit, that the unbounded and illimitable space, into which the human eye, aided by the telescope, can penetrate for thousands of billions of miles, was a blue arch a few hundred feet high, on top of which were the clouds; and that the rain was simply the leaking of the water through this roof of the earth. and men have said: "call ye this real history, or inspired narrative? did god know no more about the nature of the heavens than this?" and religion has been puzzled to reply. but read genesis in this new light: there was water everywhere; floods from the clouds, floods from the melting ice; floods on the land, where the return of the evaporated moisture was not able, by the channel-ways of the earth, to yet find its way back to the oceans. "and god said, let there be a firmament _in the midst of the waters_, and let it divide the waters from the waters." {p. } that is to say, first a great island appeared dividing the waters from the waters. this was "the island of the innocent," referred to by job, where the human race did not utterly perish. we shall see more about it hereafter. " . and god made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. " . _and god called the firmament heaven_. and the evening and the morning were the second day." the hebrew _rokiâ_ is translated _stereoma_, or _solidity_, in the septuagint version. it meant solid land--not empty space. and if man was not or had not yet been on earth, whence could the name heaven have been derived? for whom should god have named it, if there were no human ears to catch the sound? god needs no lingual apparatus--he speaks no human speech. the true meaning probably is, that this was the region that had been for ages, before the drift and the darkness, regarded as the home of the godlike, civilized race; situated high above the ocean, "_in the midst of the waters_," in mid-sea; precipitous and mountainous, it was the first region to clear itself of the descending torrents. what next? " . and god said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. " . and god called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters called he seas: and god saw that it was good." this may be either a recapitulation of the facts already stated, or it may refer to the gradual draining off of the continents, by the passing away of the waters; the continents {p. } being distinguished in order of time from the island "in the midst of the waters." " . and god said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself _upon the earth_: and it was so." it has been objected, as i have shown, that this narrative was false, because science has proved that the fruit-trees did not really precede in order of creation the creeping things and the fish, which, we are told, were not made until the fifth day, two days afterward. but if we will suppose that, as the water disappeared from the land, the air grew warmer by the light breaking through the diminishing clouds, the grass began to spring up again, as told in the norse, chinese, and other legends, and the fruit-trees, of different kinds, began to grow again, for we are told they produced each "after his kind." and we learn "that its seed is in itself upon the earth." does this mean that the seeds of these trees were buried in the earth, and their vitality not destroyed by the great visitation of fire, water, and ice? and on the fourth day "god made two great lights," the sun and moon. if this were a narration of the original creation of these great orbs, we should be told that they were made exclusively to give light. but this is not the case. the light was there already; it had appeared on the evening of the first day; they were made, we are told, to "divide the day from the night." day and night already existed, but in a confused and imperfect way; even the day was dark and cloudy; but, with the return of the sun, the distinction of day and night became once more clear. " . and god said . . . let them be for signs and for _seasons_, and for days and years." {p. } that is to say, let them be studied, as they were of old, as astronomical and astrological _signs_, whose influences control affairs on earth. we have seen that in many legends a good deal is said about the constellations, and the division of time in accordance with the movements of the heavenly bodies, which was made soon after the catastrophe: " . and god said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowls that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." that is to say, the moving creatures, the fishes which still live, which have escaped destruction in the deep waters of the oceans or lakes, and the fowls which were flying wildly in the open firmament, are commanded to bring forth abundantly, to "replenish" the desolated seas and earth. " . and the evening and the morning were the fifth day. " . and god said, let the earth _bring forth_ the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." god does not, in this, _create_ them; he calls them forth from the earth, from the caves and dens where they had been hiding, each _after his kind_; they were already divided into species and genera. " . and god blessed them," (the human family,) "and god said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the _earth_." surely the poor, desolated world needed replenishing, restocking. but how could the word "replenish" be applied to a new world, never before inhabited? we have seen that in chapter ii (verses and ) god especially limited man and enjoined him not to eat of the {p. } fruit of the tree of knowledge; while in v. , ch. iii, it is evident that there was another tree, "the tree of life," which god did not intend that man should enjoy the fruit of. but with the close of the tertiary period and the drift age all this was changed: these trees, whatever they signified, had been swept away, "the blazing sword" shone between man and the land where they grew, or had grown; and hence, after the age of darkness, god puts no such restraint or injunction upon the human family. we read: ch. i, v. . "and god said, behold, i have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and _every tree_, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; _to you it shall be for meat_." with what reason, if the text is in its true order, could god have given man, in the first chapter, the right to eat the fruit of _every_ tree, and in the following chapters have consigned the whole race to ruin for eating the fruit of one particular tree? but after the so-called glacial age all limitations were removed. the tree of knowledge and the tree of life had disappeared for ever. the drift covered them. reader, waive your natural prejudices, and ask yourself whether this proposed readjustment of the great book does not place it thoroughly in accord with all the revelations of science; whether it does not answer all the objections that have been made against the reasonableness of the story; and whether there is in it anything inconsistent with the sanctity of the record, the essentials of religion, or the glory of god. instead of being, compelled to argue, as religion now does, that the whole heavens and the earth, with its twenty miles in thickness of stratified rocks, were made in six actual days, or to interpret "days" to mean vast periods {p. } of time, notwithstanding the record speaks of "the evening and the morning" constituting these "days," as if they were really subdivisions of sun-marked time; we here see that the vast creation, and the great lapses of geologic time, all lie far back of the day when darkness was on the face of the deep; and that the six days which followed, and in which the world was gradually restored to its previous condition, were the natural subdivisions into which events arranged themselves. the chinese divided this period of reconstruction into "branches" or "stems"; the race from whom the jews received their traditions divided it into days. the first subdivision was, as i have said, that of the twilight age, when light began to invade the total darkness; it was subdivided again into the evening and the morning, as the light grew stronger. the next subdivision of time was that period, still in the twilight, when the floods fell and covered a large part of the earth, but gradually gathered themselves together in the lower lands, and left the mountains bare. and still the light kept increasing, and the period was again subdivided into evening and morning. and why does the record, in each case, tell us that the evening and the morning "constituted the day, instead of the morning and the evening? the answer is plain:--mankind were steadily advancing from darkness to light; each stage terminating in greater clearness and brightness; they were moving steadily forward to the perfect dawn. and it is a curious fact that the israelites, even now, commence the day with the period of darkness: they begin their sabbath on friday at sunset. the third subdivision was that in which the continents cleared themselves more and more of the floods, and the increasing light and warmth called forth grass and the {p. } trees, and clothed nature in a mantle of green. man had come out of his cave, and there were scattered remnants of the animal kingdom here and there, but the world, in the main, was manless and lifeless--a scene of waste and desolation. in the fourth subdivision of time, the sun, moon, and stars appeared;--dimly, and wrapped in clouds, in the evening; clearer and brighter in the morning. in the next subdivision of time, the fish, which spawn by the million, and the birds, which quadruple their numbers in a year, began to multiply and scatter themselves, and appear everywhere through the waters and on the land. and still the light kept increasing, and "the evening and the morning were the fifth day." and on the sixth day, man and the animals, slower to increase, and requiring a longer period to reach maturity, began to spread and show themselves everywhere on the face of the earth. there was a long interval before man sent out his colonies and repossessed the desolated continents. in europe, as i have shown, twelve feet of stalagmite intervenes in the caves between the remains of pre-glacial and post-glacial man. as this deposit forms at a very slow rate, it indicates that, for long ages after the great destruction, man did not dwell in europe. slowly, "like a great blot that spreads," the race expanded again over its ancient bunting-grounds. and still the skies grew brighter, the storms grew less, the earth grew warmer, and "the evening and the morning" constituted the sixth subdivision of time. and this process is still going on. mr. james geikie says: "we are sure of this, that since the deposition of the shelly clays, and the disappearance of the latest local glaciers, {p. } there have been no oscillations, but only a _gradual amelioration of climate_."[ ] the world, like milton's lion, is still trying to disengage its binder limbs from the superincumbent weight of the drift. every snow-storm, every chilling blast that blows out from the frozen lips of the icy north, is but a reminiscence of ragnarok. but the great cosmical catastrophe was substantially over with the close of the sixth day. we are now in the seventh day. the darkness has gone; the sun has come back; the waters have returned to their bounds; vegetation has resumed its place; the fish, the birds, the animals, men, are once more populous in ocean, air, and on the land; the comet is gone, and the orderly processes of nature are around us, and god is "resting" from the great task of restoring his afflicted world. the necessity for some such interpretation as this was apparent to the early fathers of the christian church, although they possessed no theory of a. comet. st. basil, st. cæsarius, and origen, long before any such theory was dreamed of, argued that the sun, moon, and stars existed from the beginning, but that they did not _appear_ until the fourth day. "who," says origen, "that has sense, can think that the first, second, and third days were without sun, moon, or stars?" but where were they? why did they not appear? what obscured them? what could obscure them but dense clouds? where did the clouds come from? they were vaporized water. what vaporized the water and caused this darkness on the face of the deep, so dense that the sun, moon, and stars did not appear until the world had clothed itself [ . "the great ice age," p. .] {p. } again in vegetation? tremendous heat. where did the heat come from? if it was not caused by contact with a comet, _what was it_? and if it was not caused by contact with a comet, how do you explain the blazing sword at the gate of eden; the fire falling from heaven on "the cities of the plain"; and the fire that fell on job's sheep and camels and consumed them; and that drove job to clamber by ropes down into the narrow-mouthed bottomless cave; where he tells us of the leviathan, the twisted, the undulating one, that cast down stones in the mire, and made the angels in heaven to tremble, and the deep to boil like a pot? and is it not more reasonable to suppose that this sublime religious poem, called the book of job, represents the exaltation of the human soul under the stress of the greatest calamity our race has ever endured, than to believe that it is simply a record of the sufferings of some obscure arab chief from a loathsome disease? surely inspiration should reach us through a different channel; and there should be some proportion between the grandeur of the thoughts and the dignity of the events which produced them. and if origen is right, and it is absurd to suppose that the sun, moon, and stars were not created until the third day, then the sacred text is dislocated, transposed; and the second chapter narrates events which really occurred before those mentioned in the first chapter; and the "darkness" is something which came millions of years after that "beginning," in which god made the earth, and the heavens, and all the host of them. in conclusion, let us observe how fully the bible record accords with the statements of the druidical, hindoo, scandinavian, and other legends, and with the great unwritten theory which underlies all our religion. here we have: {p. } . the golden age; the paradise. . the universal moral degeneracy of mankind; the age of crime and violence. . god's vengeance. . the serpent; the fire from heaven. . the cave-life and the darkness. . the cold; the struggle to live. . the "fall of man," from virtue to vice; from plenty to poverty; from civilization to barbarism; from the tertiary to the drift; from eden to the gravel. . reconstruction and regeneration. can all this be accident? can all this mean nothing? {p. } part iv. (conclusions) chapter i. was pre-glacial man civilized? we come now to another and very interesting question: in what stage of development was mankind when the drift fell upon the earth? it is, of course, difficult to attain to certainties in the consideration of an age so remote as this. we are, as it were, crawling upon our hands and knees into the dark cavern of an abysmal past; we know not whether that which we encounter is a stone or a bone; we can only grope our way. i feel, however, that it is proper to present such facts as i possess touching this curious question. the conclusion at which i have arrived is, that mankind, prior to the drift, had, in some limited localities, reached a high stage of civilization, and that many of our most important inventions and discoveries were known in the pre-glacial age. among these were pottery, metallurgy, architecture, engraving, carving, the use of money, the domestication of some of our animals, and even the use of an alphabet. i shall present the proofs of this startling conclusion, and leave the reader to judge for himself. {p. } while this civilized, cultivated race occupied a part of the earth's surface, the remainder of the world was peopled by races more rude, barbarous, brutal, and animal-like than anything we know of on our earth to-day. in the first place, i shall refer to the legends of mankind, wherein they depict the condition of our race in the pre-glacial time. if these statements stood alone, we might dismiss them from consideration, for there would be a strong probability that later ages, in repeating the legends, would attribute to their remote ancestors the civilized advantages which they themselves enjoyed; but it will be seen that these statements are confirmed by the remains of man which have been dug out of the earth, and upon which we can rely to a much greater extent. first, as to the legends: if i have correctly interpreted job as a religious drama, founded on the fall of the drift, then we must remember that job describes the people overtaken by the catastrophe as a highly civilized race. they had passed the stage of worshiping sticks and stones and idols, and had reached to a knowledge of the one true god; they were agriculturists; they raised flocks of sheep and camels; they built houses; they had tamed the horse; they had progressed so far in astronomical knowledge as to have mapped out the heavens into constellations; they wrote books, consequently they possessed an alphabet; they engraved inscriptions upon the rocks. but it may be said truly that the book of job, although it may be really a description of the drift catastrophe, was not necessarily written at the time of, or even immediately after, that event. so gigantic and terrible a thing must have been the overwhelming consideration and memory of mankind for thousands of years after it occurred. we will see that its impress still exists on the {p. } imagination of the race. hence we may assign to the book of job an extraordinary antiquity, and nevertheless it may have been written long ages after the events to which it refers occurred; and the writer may have clothed those events with the associations and conditions of the age of its composition. let us, then, go forward to the other legends, for in such a case we can _prove_ nothing. we can simply build up cumulative probabilities. in ovid we read that the earth, when the dread affliction fell upon her, cried out: "o sovereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if i have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? . . . and dost thou give this as my recompense? this as the reward of my fertility and of my duty, in that _i endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows_, and am harassed all the year through? in that i supply green leaves to the _cattle_, and _corn_, a wholesome food for mankind, and _frankincense_ for yourselves? " here we see that ovid received from the ancient traditions of his race the belief that when the drift age came man was already an agriculturist; he had invented the plow and the barrow; he had domesticated the cattle; he had discovered or developed some of the cereals; and he possessed a religion in which incense was burned before the god or gods. the legend of phaëton further indicates that man had tamed the horse and had invented wheeled vehicles. in the hindoo story of the coming of the demon ravana, the comet, we read that he carried off sita, the wife of rama, the sun; and that her name indicates that she represented "the _furrowed earth_," to wit, a condition of development in which man plowed the fields and raised crops of food. when we turn to the scandinavian legends, we see {p. } that those who transmitted them from the early ages believed that pre-glacial man was civilized. the asas, the godlike, superior race, dwelt, we are told, "in stone houses." in describing, in the elder edda, the corrupt condition of mankind before the great catastrophe occurred, the world, we are told, was given over to all manner of sin and wickedness. we read: "brothers will fight together, and become each other's bane sisters' children their sib shall spoil. hard is the world; sensual sins grow huge. there are _axe_-ages, _sword_-ages _shields_ are cleft in twain, there are wind-ages, murder-ages, ere the world falls dead."[ ] when the great day of wrath comes, heimdal blows in the gjallar-_horn_, odin _rides_ to mimer's well, odin puts on his _golden helmet_, the asas hold counsel before their _stone doors_. all these things indicate a people who had passed far beyond barbarism. here we have axes, swords, helmets, shields, musical instruments, domesticated horses, the use of gold, and stone buildings. and after the great storm was over, and the remnant of mankind crept out of the caves, and came back to reoccupy the houses of the slain millions, we read of the delight with which they found in the grass "the golden tablets" of the _asas_--additional proof that they worked in the metals, and possessed some kind of a written language; they also had "the runes," or runic letters of odin. [ . "the vala's prophecy," , .] {p. } in the norse legends we read that loke, the evil genius, carried off iduna, and her _apples_. and when we turn to the american legends, similar statements present themselves. we see the people, immediately after the catastrophe, sending a messenger to the happy eastern land, over the sea, by a bridge, to procure drums and other musical instruments; we learn from the aztecs that while the darkness yet prevailed, the people built a sumptuous _palace_, a masterpiece of skill, and on the top of it they placed an _axe of copper_, the edge being uppermost, and on this axe the heavens rested.[ ] the navajos, shut up in their cave, had flute-players with them. the peruvians were dug out of their cave with a golden _spade_. in the tahoe legend, we read that the superior race compelled the inferior to build a great _temple_ for their protection from floods; and the oppressed people escaped in _canoes_, while the world blazes behind them. soon after the navajos came out of the cave, we find them, according to the legend, possessed of water-jars, and we have references to the division of the heavens into constellations. in the arabian legend of the city of brass, we are told that the people who were destroyed were great architects, metallurgists, agriculturists, and machinists, and that they possessed a written language. we turn now to the more reliable evidences of man's condition, which have been exhumed from the caves and the drift. in the seventeenth century, fray pedro simon relates that some miners, running an adit into a hill near callao, [ . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } "met with a ship, _which had on top of it the great mass of the hill_, and did not agree in its make and appearance with our ships." sir john clerk describes a canoe found near edinburgh, in . "the washings of the river carron discovered a _boat thirteen or fourteen feet under ground_; it is thirty-six feet long and four and a half broad, all of one piece of oak. there were several strata above it, such as loam, clay, shells, moss, sand, and gravel." boucher de perthes found remains of man _thirty to forty feet_ below the surface of the earth. in the following we have the evidence that the pre-glacial race was acquainted with the use of fire, and cooked their food: "in the construction of a canal between stockholm and gothenburg, it was necessary to cut through one of those hills called _osars_, or erratic blocks, which were deposited by the drift ice during the glacial epoch. beneath an immense accumulation of osars, with shells and sand, there was discovered _in the deepest layer of subsoil, at a depth of about sixty feet_, a circular mass of stones, forming a hearth, in the middle of which there were wood-coals. no other hand than that of man could have performed the work."[ ] in the state of louisiana, on petite anse island, remarkable discoveries have been made.[ ] at considerable depths below the surface of the earth, fifteen to twenty feet, _immediately overlying the salt-rocks_, and _underneath_ what dr. foster believes to be the equivalent of the _drift_ in europe, "associated with the bones of elephants and other huge extinct quadrupeds," "incredible quantities of _pottery_ were found"; in some [ . tylor's "early mankind," p. . . maclean's "manual of antiquity of man," p. ; buchner, p. . . foster's "prehistoric races," p. , etc.] {p. } cases these remains of pottery formed "veritable strata, three and six inches thick"; in many cases the bones of the mastodon were found _above_ these strata of pottery. fragments of baskets and matting were also found. here we have evidence of the long-continued occupation of this spot by man prior to the drift age, and that the human family had progressed far enough to manufacture pottery, and weave baskets and matting. the cave of chaleux, belgium, was buried by a mass of rubbish caused by the falling in of the roof, consequently preserving all its implements. there were found the split bones of mammals, and the bones of birds and fishes. there was an immense number of objects, chiefly manufactured from reindeer-horn, such as needles, arrow-heads, daggers, and hooks. besides these, there were ornaments made of shells, pieces of slate with engraved figures, mathematical lines, remains of very coarse pottery, hearthstones, ashes, charcoal, and last, but not least, thirty thousand worked flints mingled with the broken bones. in the hearth, placed in the center of the cave, was discovered a stone, with certain but unintelligible signs engraved upon it. m. dupont also found about twenty pounds of the bones of the water-rat, either scorched or roasted.[ ] ### earthen vase, found in the cave of furfooz, belgium. [ . maclean's "antiquity of man," p. .] {p. } here we have the evidence that the people who inhabited this cave, or some race with whom they held intercourse, manufactured pottery; that they wore clothing which they sewed with needles; that they used the bow and arrow; that they caught fish with hooks; that they ornamented themselves; that they cooked their food; that they engraved on stone; and that they had already reached some kind of primitive alphabet, in which signs were used to represent things. we have already seen, (page , _ante_,) that there is reason to believe that pre-glacial europe contained a very barbarous race, represented by the neanderthal skull, side by side with a cultivated race, represented by the fine lines and full brow of the engis skull. the latter race, i have suggested, may have come among the former as traders, or have been captured in war; precisely as today in central africa the skulls of adventurous, civilized portuguese or englishmen or americans might be found side by side with the rude skulls of the savage populations of the country. the possession of a piece of pottery, or carving, by an african tribe would not prove that the africans possessed the arts of engraving or manufacturing pottery, but it would prove that somewhere on the earth's surface a race had advanced far enough, at that time, to be capable of such works of art. and so, in the remains of the pre-glacial age of europe, we have the evidence that some of these people, or their captives, or those with whom they traded or fought, had gone so far in the training of civilized life as to have developed a sense of art and a capacity to represent living forms in pictures or carvings, with a considerable degree of taste and skill. and these works are found in the most ancient caves, "the archaic caves," associated with the bones of the animals _that ceased to exist in europe at the time of the_ {p. } ### pre-glacial man's picture of the mammoth {p. } _drift deposits_. nay, more, a picture of a mammoth has been found engraved _upon a piece of mammoth-tusk_. the engraving on page represents this most curious work of art. the man who carved this must have seen the creature it represented; and, as the mammoth did not survive the drift, that man must have lived before or during the drift. and he was no savage. says sir john lubbock: "no representation, however rude, of any animal has yet been found in any of the danish shell-mounds, or the stone-age lake-villages. even on objects of the bronze age they are so rare that it is doubtful whether a single well-authenticated instance could be produced."[ ] in the dordogne caves the following spirited drawing was found, representing a group of reindeer: ### pre-glacial man's picture of reindeer. here it would appear as if the reindeer were fastened together by lines or reins; if so, it implies that they were [ . "prehistoric times," p. .] {p. } domesticated. in this picture they seem to have become entangled in their lines, and some have fallen to the ground. and it does not follow from the presence of the reindeer that the climate was lapland-like. the ancestors of all our so-called arctic animals must have lived during the mild climate of the tertiary age; and those only survived after the drift, in the north, that were capable of accommodating themselves to the cold; the rest perished or moved southwardly. another group of animals was found, engraved on a piece of the palm of a reindeer's horn, as follows: ### pre-glacial man's picture of the horse. here the man stands alongside the horse's head--a very natural position if the horse was domesticated, a very improbable one if he was not. pieces of pottery have also been found accompanying these palæolithic remains of man. the oldest evidence of the existence of man is probably the fragment of a cut rib from the pliocenes of tuscany, preserved in the museum at florence; it was associated with flint-flakes and _a piece of rude pottery_.[ ] but the art-capacity of these people was not limited to the drawing of animals; they also carved figures out [ . dawkins's "early man in britain," p. .] {p. } of hard substances. the following engraving represents a poniard cut from a reindeer's horn. ### a specimen of pre-glacial carving. sir john lubbock says: "the artist bas ingeniously adapted the position of the animal to the necessities of the case. the horns are thrown back on the neck, the fore-legs are doubled up under the belly, and the hind-legs are stretched out along the blade."[ ] these things seem to indicate quite an advanced condition; the people who made them manufactured pottery, possessed. domesticated animals, and were able to engrave and carve images of living objects. it is difficult to believe that they could have carved and engraved these hard substances without metallic gravers or tools of some kind. the reader will see, on page , _ante_, a representation of a sienite plummet found _thirty feet below the surface_, in a well, in the san joaquin valley, california, which professor foster pronounces to be-- "a finer exhibition of the lapidary's skill than has yet been furnished by the stone age of either continent. "[ ] [ . "prehistoric times," p. . . foster's "prehistoric races of the united states," p. .] {p. } the following picture represents a curious image carved out of black marble, about twice as large as the cut, found near marlboro, stark county, ohio, by some workmen, while digging a well, at a depth of _twelve feet below the surface_. the ground above it had never been disturbed. it was imbedded in _sand and gravel_. the black or variegated marble out of which this image is carved has not been found in place in ohio. ### stone image found in ohio t. w. kinney, of portsmouth, ohio, writes as follows: "last summer, while digging a vault for drainage, at the _depth of twenty-seven feet_, the workmen found the tusk of a mastodon. the piece was about four feet long and four inches in diameter at the thickest part. it was nearly all lost, having, crumbled very much when exposed to the air. i have a large piece of it; also several flakes of flint found near the same depth. "i also have several of the flakes from other vaults, some of which show evidence of work. "we also found a log at the depth of _twenty-two feet_. the log was _burned at one end_, and at the other end was a _gap, the same as an axeman's kerf_. shell-banks below the level of the base of mound-builders' works, from six to fifteen feet."[ ] was this burned log, thus found at a depth of twenty-two feet, a relic of the great conflagration? was that [ . "american antiquarian," april, , p. .] {p. } axe-kerf made by some civilized man who wielded a bronze or iron weapon? it is a curious fact that _burned_ logs have, in repeated instances, been exhumed from great depths in the drift clay. while this work is going through the press, an article has appeared in "harper's monthly magazine," (september, , p. ,) entitled "the mississippi river problem," written by david a. curtis, in which the author says: "when la salle found out how goodly a land it was, his report was the warrant of eviction that drove out the red man to make place for the white, as the mound-builders had made place for the indian in what we call the days of old. yet it must have been only yesterday that the mound-builders wrought in the valley, for in the few centuries that have elapsed since then the surface of the ground has risen only a few feet--not enough to bury their works out of sight. how long ago, then, must it have been that the race lived there whose pavements and cisterns of roman brick now lie _seventy feet underground_?" mr. curtis does not mean that the bricks found in this prehistoric settlement had any historical connection with rome, but simply that they resemble roman bricks. these remains, i learn, were discovered in the vicinity of memphis, tennessee. the details have not yet, so far as i am aware, been published. is it not more reasonable to suppose that civilized man existed on the american continent thirty thousand years ago, (the age fixed by geologists for the coming of the drift,) a comparatively short period of time, and that his works were then covered by the drift-_débris_, than to believe that a race of human beings, far enough advanced in civilization to manufacture bricks, and build pavements and cisterns, dwelt in the mississippi valley, in a past so inconceivably remote that the slow increase of the soil, {p. } by vegetable decay, has covered their works to the depth of _seventy feet_? i come now to the most singular and marvelous revelation of all: professor alexander winchell, in an interesting and recent work,[ ] says: "i had in my possession for some time a copper relic resembling a rude coin, which was taken from an artesian boring at the depth of _one hundred and fourteen feet_, at lawn ridge, marshall county, illinois. "mr. w. h. wilmot, then of lawn ridge, furnished me, in a letter dated december , , the following statement of deposits pierced in the boring: soil feet. yellow clay " blue clay " dark vegetable matter " hard purplish clay " bright green clay " mottled clay " soil " depth of coin " yellow clay " sand and clay. water, rising feet. "in a letter of the th of december, written from chillicothe, illinois, he stated that the bore was four inches for eighty feet, and three inches for the remainder of the depth. but before one hundred feet had been reached the four-inch portion was 'so plastered over as to be itself but three inches in diameter,' and hence the 'coin' could not have come from any depth less than _eighty feet_. "'three persons saw "the coin" at the same instant, and each claims it.' this so-called coin was about the [ . "sparks from a geologist's hammer," p. .] {p. } thickness and size of a silver quarter of a dollar, and was of _remarkably uniform thickness_. it was approximately round, and _seemed to have been cut_. its two faces bore marks as shown in the figure, _but they were not stamped as with a die nor engraved_. they looked as if _etched_ ### ### copper coin, found one hundred and fourteen feet under ground in illinois. _with acid_. the character of the marks was partly unintelligible. on each side, however, was a rude outline of a human figure. one of these held in one hand an object resembling a child, while the other was raised as if in the act of striking. the figure wore a head-dress, apparently made of quills. _around the border were undecipherable hieroglyphics_. the figure on the opposite side extended only to the waist, and had also one hand upraised. this was furnished _with long tufts like mule's ears_. around the border was another circle of hieroglyphics. on this side also was a rude outline of a quadruped. i exhibited this relic to the geological section of the american association, at its meeting at buffalo in . the general impression seemed to be that its origin could not date from the epoch of the stratum in which it is represented to have been found. one person thought he could detect a rude representation of the signs of the zodiac around the border. another fancied he could discover numerals, and even dates. no one could even offer any explanation of the objects or the circumstances of its discovery. the figures bear a close resemblance to rude drawings executed on birch-bark and rock surfaces by the american indians. _but by what means were they etched_? and by what means was _the uniform thickness of the copper produced_? {p. } this object was sent by the owner to the smithsonian institution for examination, and secretary henry referred it to mr. william e. dubois, who presented the result of his investigation to the american philosophical society. _mr. dubois felt sure that the object had passed through a rolling-mill, and he thought the cut edges gave further evidence of the machine-shop_. 'all things considered,' he said, 'i can not regard this illinois piece as _ancient_ nor _old_ (observing the usual distinction), nor yet recent; because the tooth of time is plainly visible.' he could suggest nothing to clear up the mystery. professor j. p. lesley thought it might be an astrological amulet. he detected upon it the signs of pisces and leo. he read the date . he said, 'the piece was placed there as a practical joke.' he thought it might be hispano-american or french-american in origin. the suggestion of 'a practical joke' is itself something which must be taken as a joke. no person in possession of this interesting object would willingly part with it; least of all would he throw so small an object into a hole where not one chance in a thousand existed that it would ever be seen again by any person. "if this object does not date from the age of the stratum from which obtained, it can only be a relic of the sixteenth or seventeenth century, buried beneath the alluvium deposited more recently by the illinois river. the country is a level prairie, and 'peoria lake' is an expansion of the river ten miles long and a mile and a half broad. it is certainly possible that in such a region deep alluvial deposits may have formed since the visits of the french in the latter part of the seventeenth century. _but it is not easy to admit an accumulation of one hundred and fourteen or one hundred and twenty-feet_, since such a depth extends too much below the surface of the river. in whiteside county, fifty miles northwest from peoria county, about , according to mr. moffat, _a large copper ring was found one hundred and twenty feet beneath the surface_, as also something which has been compared to a boat-hook. several other objects have been found at less depths, including _stone pipes and pottery, and a spear-shaped hatchet_, made of iron. if these {p. } are not 'ancient,' their occurrence at depths of ten, forty, fifty, and one hundred and twenty feet must be explained as i have suggested in reference to the 'coin.' an instrument of iron is a strong indication of the civilized origin of all." this is indeed an extraordinary revelation. here we have a copper medal, very much like a coin, inscribed with alphabetical or hieroglyphical signs, which, when placed under the microscope, in the hands of a skeptical investigator, satisfies him that it is not recent, and that it _passed through a rolling-mill and was cut by a machine_. if it is not recent, if the tooth of time is plainly seen on it, it is not a modern fraud; if it is not a modern fraud, then it is really the coin of some pre-columbian people. the indians possessed no currency or alphabet, so that it dates back of the red-men. nothing similar has been found in the hundreds of american mounds that have been opened, so that it dates back of the mound-builders. it comes from a depth of _not less than eighty feet in glacial clay_, therefore it is profoundly ancient. it is engraved after a method _utterly unknown to any civilized nation on earth, within the range of recorded history_. it is engraved with acid! it belongs, therefore, to a civilization unlike any we know of. if it had been derived from any other human civilization, the makers, at the same time they borrowed the round, metallic form of the coin, would have borrowed also the mold or the stamp. but they did not; and yet they possessed a rolling-mill and a machine to cut out the coin. what do we infer? that there is a relationship between our civilization and this, but it is a relationship in which this represents the parent; and the round metallic {p. } coins of historical antiquity were derived from it, but without the art of engraving by the use of acid. it does not stand alone, but at great depths in the same clay _implements of copper and of_ iron _are found_. what does all this indicate? that far below the present level of the state of illinois, in the depths of the glacial clays, about one hundred or one hundred and twenty feet below the present surface of the land, there are found the evidences of a high civilization. for a coin with an inscription upon it implies a high civilization:--it implies an alphabet, a literature, a government, commercial relations, organized society, regulated agriculture, which could alone sustain all these; and some implement like a plow, without which extensive agriculture is not possible; and this in turn implies domesticated animals to draw the plow. the presence of the coin, and of implements of copper and iron, proves that mankind had passed far beyond the stone age. and these views are confirmed by the pavements and cisterns of brick found seventy feet below the surface in the lower mississippi valley. there is a pompeii, a herculaneum, somewhere, underneath central and northwestern illinois or tennessee, of the most marvelous character; not of egypt, assyria, or the roman empire, things of yesterday, but belonging to an inconceivable antiquity; to pre-glacial times; to a period ages before the flood of noah;--a civilization which was drowned and deluged out of sight under the immeasurable clay-flood of the comet. man crawled timidly backward into the history of the past over his little limit of six thousand years; and at the farther end of his tether he found the perfect civilization of early egypt. he rises to his feet and looks still backward, and the vista of history spreads and {p. } spreads to antediluvian times. here at last he thinks he has reached the beginning of things: here man first domesticated the animals; here he first worked in copper and iron; here he possessed for the first time an alphabet, a government, commerce, and coinage. and, lo! from the bottom of well-holes in illinois, one hundred and fourteen feet deep, the buckets of the artesian-well auger bring up copper rings and iron hatchets and engraved coins--engraved by a means unknown to historical mankind--and we stand face to face with a civilization so old that man will not willingly dare to put it into figures. here we are in the presence of that great, but possibly brutal and sensual development of man's powers, "the sword-ages, the axe-ages, the murder-ages of the goths," of which god cleared the earth when he buried the mastodon under the drift for ever. how petty, how almost insignificant, how school-boy-like are our historians, with their little rolls of parchment under their arms, containing their lists of english, roman, egyptian, and assyrian kings and queens, in the presence of such stupendous facts as these! good reader, your mind shrinks back from such conceptions, of course. but can you escape the facts by shrinking back? are they not there? are they not all of a piece--job, ovid, rama, ragnarok, genesis, the aztec legends; the engraved ivory tablets of the caves, the pottery, the carved figures of pre-glacial europe; the pottery-strata of louisiana under the drift; the copper and iron implements, the brick pavements and cisterns, and this coin, dragged up from well-holes in illinois? and what do they affirm? that this catastrophe was indeed the fall of man. think what a fall! from comfort to misery; from plowed fields to the {p. } thistles and the stones; from sunny and glorious days in a stormless land to the awful trials of the drift age; the rains, the cold, the snow, the ice, the incessant tempests, the darkness, the poverty, the coats of hides, the cave-life, the cannibalism, the stone age. here was a fall indeed. there is nothing in antiquity that has not a meaning. the very fables of the world's childhood should be sacred from our laughter. our theology, even where science has most ridiculed it, is based on a great, a gigantic truth. paradise, the summer land of fruits, the serpent, the fire from heaven, the expulsion, the waving sword, the "fall of man," the "darkness on the face of the deep," the age of toil and sweat--all, all, are literal facts. and could we but penetrate their meaning, the trees of life and knowledge and the apples of paradise probably represent likewise great and important facts or events in the history of our race. and with what slow steps did mankind struggle upward! in some favored geographical center they recovered the arts of metallurgy, the domestication of animals, and the alphabet. "all knowledge," says the hindoo krishna, "was originally bestowed on mankind by god. they lost it. they recovered it as a recollection." the poor barbarian indians of america possess traditions of this ancient civilization, traditions in forms as rude as their own condition. it was represented by the great hare, manibozho, or nanaboshu. do we not find his typical picture, with those great mule-tufts, (referred to by professor winchell,) the hare-like ears, on this coin of illinois? {p. } read what the indians tell of this great being "from the remotest wilds of the northwest," says dr. brinton, "to the coast of the atlantic, from the southern boundaries of carolina to the cheerless swamps of hudson's bay, the algonquins were never tired of gathering around the winter fire and repeating the story of manibozho or michabo, the _great hare_. with entire unanimity their various branches, the powhatans of virginia, the lenni-lenape of the delaware, the warlike hordes of new england, the ottawas of the far north, and the western tribes, perhaps without exception, spoke of this 'chimerical beast,' as one of the old missionaries calls it as _their common ancestor_. the totem or clan which bore his name was looked up to with peculiar respect. . . . "what he really was we must seek in the accounts of older travelers, in the invocations of the _jossakeeds_ or prophets, and in the part assigned to him in the solemn mysteries of religion. in these we find him portrayed as the patron and founder of the meda worship, _the inventor of picture-writing_, the father and guardian of their nation, the ruler of the winds, even the maker and preserver of the world and creator of the sun and moon. from a grain of sand brought from the bottom of the primeval ocean, he fashioned the habitable land, and set it floating on the waters till it grew to such a size that a strong young wolf, running constantly, died of old age ere he reached its limits. . . . he was the founder of the medicine-hunt. . . . he himself was a _mighty hunter_ of old. . . . attentively watching the spider spread its web to trap unwary flies, _he devised the art of knitting nets to catch fish_."[ ] this is a barbarian's recollection of a great primeval civilized race who established religion, invented nets, and, as the other legends concerning him show, first made the bow and arrow and worked in the metals. there is every reason to think the division of the people into several classes, or families, who take the name of [ . "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } some animal whose picture is their _totem_, dates back to the very beginning of the human race. the animal fables, as i have suggested, grew out of these animal _totems_; we find them everywhere among the american tribes; and in some cases they are accompanied by mental and physical traits which may be supposed to indicate that they originated in primal race differences. this is the belief of warren, the native historian of the ojibways. i am indebted to hon. h. al. rice, of st. paul, for an opportunity to examine his valuable manuscript history of that tribe of indians. the great _totem_ of the algonquins is the hare; he represents a ruling class, and is associated with recollections of this great hare, this demi-god, this man or race, who taught them all the arts of life with which they are acquainted. then there is a _turtle totem_, associated with myths of the turtle or tortoise, which are the images all over the world of an island.[ ] and when we cross the atlantic we find[ ] that the arabs are divided up in the same way into tribes bearing animal names. "_asad_, lion; 'a number of tribes.' _aws_, wolf; 'a tribe of the ancar, or defenders.' _badau_, ibex; 'a tribe of the kalb and others.' _tha'laba_, she-fox; 'a name of tribes.' _garad_, locusts; 'a sub-tribe of the azol.' _thawr_, bull; 'a sub-tribe of hamdan and of abel manah.' _gahah_, colt of an ass; 'a sub-tribe of the arabs.' _hida'_, kite; 'a sub-tribe of murad.' "the origin of all names is referred, in the genealogical system of the arabs, to an ancestor who bore the tribal or gentile name. thus the _kalb_ or dog-tribe consists of the beni-kalb--sons of kalb (the dog), who is in turn son of wabra (the female rock-badger), son of tha'laba [ . tylor's "early history of mankind." . w. j. f. maclennan, "fortnightly review," and .] {p. } (the she-fox), great-grandson of quoda'a, grandson of saba', the sheba of scripture. a single member of the tribe is kalbi--a kalbite--_caninus_." "the same names which appear as _totem_ tribes reach through edom, midian, and moab, into the land of canaan."[ ] among the jews there was the stock of the serpent, nashon, to which david belonged; and there is no doubt that they were once divided into totemic families. and in all this we see another proof of the race-identity of the peoples on the opposite sides of the atlantic. permit me to close this chapter with a suggestion: is there not energy enough among the archæologists of the united states to make a thorough examination of some part of the deep clay deposits of central illinois or of those wonderful remains referred to by mr. curtis? if one came and proved that at a given point he had found indications of a coal-bed or a gold-mine, he would have no difficulty in obtaining means enough to dig a shaft and excavate acres. can not the greed for information do one tenth as much as the greed for profit? who can tell what extraordinary revelations wait below the vast mass of american glacial clay? for it must be remembered that the articles already found have been discovered in the narrow holes bored or dug for wells. how small is the area laid bare by such punctures in the earth compared with the whole area of the country in which they are sunk! how remarkable that _anything_ should have been found under such circumstances! how probable, therefore, that the remains of man are numerous at a certain depth! where a coin is found we might reasonably expect to [ . w. j. f. maclennan, "fortnightly review," and .] {p. } find other works of copper, and all those things which would accompany the civilization of a people working in the metals and using a currency,--such as cities, houses, temples, etc. of course, such things might exist, and yet many shafts might be sunk without coming upon any of them. but is not the attempt worth making? {p. } chapter ii. the scene of man's survival let us pass to another speculation: the reader is not constrained to accept my conclusions. they will, i trust, provoke further discussion, which may tend to prove or disprove them. but i think i can see that many of these legends point to an island, east of america and west of europe, that is to say in the atlantic ocean, as the scene where man, or at least our own portion of the human race, including the white, yellow, and brown races, survived the great cataclysm and renewed the civilization of the pro-glacial age and that from this center, in the course of ages, they spread east and west, until they reached the plains of asia and the islands of the pacific. the negro race, it seems probable, may have separated from our own stock in pre-glacial times, and survived, in fragments, somewhere in the land of torrid heats, probably in some region on which the drift did not fall. we are told by ovid that it was the tremendous heat of the comet-age that baked the negro black; in this ovid doubtless spoke the opinion of antiquity. whether or not that period of almost insufferable temperature produced any effect upon the color of that race i shall not undertake to say; nor shall i dare to assert that the white race was bleached to its present complexion by the long absence of the sun during the age of darkness. {p. } it is true professor hartt tells us[ ] that there is a marked difference in the complexion of the botocudo indians who have lived in the forests of brazil and those, of the same tribe, who have dwelt on its open prairies; and that those who have resided for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years in the dense forests of that tropical land are nearly white in complexion. if this be the case in a merely leaf-covered tract, what must have been the effect upon a race dwelling for a long time in the remote north, in the midst of a humid atmosphere, enveloped in constant clouds, and much of the time in almost total darkness? there is no doubt that here and then were developed the rude, powerful, terrible "ice-giants" of the legends, out of whose ferocity, courage, vigor, and irresistible energy have been evolved the dominant races of the west of europe--the land-grasping, conquering, colonizing races; the men of whom it was said by a roman poet, in the viking age: "the sea is their school of war and the storm their friend they are sea-wolves that prey on the pillage of the world." they are now taking possession of the globe. great races are the weeded-out survivors of great sufferings. what are the proofs of my proposition that man survived on an atlantic island? in the first place we find job referring to "the _island_ of the innocent." in chapter xxii, verse , eliphaz, the temanite, says when men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person." where shall he save him? the next verse ( ) seems to tell [ . "the geology of brazil," p. .] {p. } "he shall deliver _the island of the innocent_: and _it is delivered_ by the pureness of thine [job's] hands." and, as i have shown, in genesis it appears that, after the age of darkness, god separated the floods which overwhelmed the earth and made a firmament, a place of solidity, a refuge, (chap. i, vs. , ,) "in the midst of the waters." a firm place in the _midst_ of the waters is necessarily an island. and the location of this eden was westward from. europe, for we read, (chap. iii, v. ): "so he drove out the man; and he placed _at the_ east _of the garden of eden_ cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." the man driven out of the edenic land was, therefore, driven _eastward_ of eden, and the cherubims in the east of eden faced him. the land where the jews dwelt was eastward of paradise; in other words, paradise was west of them. and, again, when cain was driven out be too moved _eastward_; he "dwelt in the land of nod, on the east of eden," (chap. iv, verse .) there was, therefore, a constant movement of the human family eastward. the land of nod may have been _od_, _ad_, atlantis; and from _od_ may have come the name of _odin_, the king, the god of ragnarok. in ovid "the earth" is contradistinguished from the rest of the globe. it is an island-land, the civilized land, the land of the tritons or water-deities, of proteus, Ægeon, doris, and atlas. it is, in my view, atlantis. ovid says, (book ii, fable , "the metamorphoses") "_the sea circling around the encompassed earth_. . . . the earth has upon it men and cities, and woods and wild beasts, and rivers, and nymphs and other deities of the {p. } country." on this land is "the palace of the sun, raised high on stately columns, bright with radiant gold, and carbuncle that rivals the flames; polished ivory crests its highest top, and double folding doors shine with the brightness of silver." in other words, the legend refers to the island-home of a civilized race, over which was a palace which reminds one of the great temple of poseidon in plato's story. the atlantic was sometimes called "the sea of ivory," in allusion, probably, to this ivory-covered temple of ovid. hence croly sang: now on her hills of ivory lie giant-weed and ocean-slime, hiding from man and angel's eye the land of crime." and, again, ovid says, after enumerating the different rivers and mountains and tracts of country that were on fire in the great conflagration, and once more distinguishing the pre-eminent earth from the rest of the world: "however, the genial earth, _as she was surrounded with sea_, amid the waters of the _main_," (the ocean,) "and the springs dried up on every side, lifted up her _all-productive face_," etc. she cries out to the sovereign of the gods for mercy. she refers to the burdens of the crops she annually bears; the wounds of the crooked plow and the barrow, which she voluntarily endures; and she calls on mighty jove to put an end to the conflagration. and he does so. the rest of the world has been scarred and seared with the fire, but he spares and saves this island-land, this agricultural, civilized land, this land of the tritons and atlas; this "island of the innocent" of job. and when the terrible convulsion was over, and the {p. } rash phaëton dead and buried, jove repairs, with especial care, "his own arcadia." it must not be forgotten that phaëton was the son of _merops_; and theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited atlantis were the _meropes_, the people of merou. and the greek traditions[ ] show that the human race issued from _upa-merou_; and the egyptians claim that their ancestors came from the _island of mero_; and among the hindoos the land of the gods and the godlike men was _meru_. and here it is, we are told, where in deep caves, and from the seas, receding under the great heat, the human race, crying out for mercy, with uplifted and blistered hands, survived the cataclysm. and ovid informs us that this land, "with a mighty trembling, sank down a little" in the ocean, and the gothic and briton (druid) legends tell us of a prolongation of western europe which went down at the same time. in the hindoo legends the great battle between rama and ravana, the sun and the comet, takes place _on an island_, the island of lanka, and rama builds a stone bridge sixty miles long to reach the island. in the norse legends asgard lies to the west of europe; communication is maintained with it by the bridge bifrost. gylfe goes to visit asgard, as herodotus and solon went to visit egypt: the outside barbarian was curious to behold the great civilized land. there he asks many questions, as herodotus and solon did. he is told:[ ] "the earth is round, and _without it round about lies the deep ocean_." [ . "atlantis," p. . . the fooling of gylfe--the creation of the world--the younger edda.] {p. } the earth is ovid's earth; it is asgard. it is an island, surrounded by the ocean: "and along the outer strand of that sea they gave lands for the giant-races to dwell in; and against the attack of restless giants they built a burg within the sea and around the earth." this proves that by "the earth" was not meant the whole globe; for here we see that around the outside margin of that ocean which encircled asgard, the mother-country had given lands for colonies of the giant-races, the white, large, blue-eyed races of northern and western europe, who were as "restless" and as troublesome then to their neighbors as they are now and will be to the end of time. and as the _elder_ and _younger edda_ claim that the northmen were the giant races, and that their kings were of the blood of these asas; and as the bronze-using people advanced, (it has been proved by their remains,[ ]) into scandinavia from the _southwest_, it is clear that these legends do not refer to some mythical island in the indian seas, or to the pacific ocean, but to the atlantic: the west coasts of europe were "the outer strand" where these white colonies were established; the island was in the atlantic; and, as there is no body of submerged land in that ocean with roots or ridges reaching out to the continents east and west, except the mass of which the azores islands constitute the mountain-tops, the conclusion is irresistible that here was atlantis; here was lanka; here was "the island of the innocent," here was asgard. and the norse legends describe this "asgard" as a land of temples and plowed fields, and a mighty civilized race. and here it is that ragnarok comes. it is from the [ . du chaillu's "land of the midnight sun," vol. i, pp. , , etc.] {p. } people of asgard that the wandering gylfe learns all that he tells about ragnarok, just as solon learned from the priests of sais the story of atlantis. and it is here in asgard that, as we have seen, "during surt's fire two persons, called lif and lifthraser, a man and a woman, concealed themselves in hodmimer's holt," and afterward repeopled the world. we leave europe and turn to india. in the bagaveda-gita krishna recalls to the memory of his disciple ardjouna the legend as preserved in the sacred books of the veda. we are told: "the earth was covered with flowers; the trees bent under their fruit; thousands of animals sported over the plains and in the air; white elephants roved unmolested under the shade of gigantic forests, and brahma perceived that the time had come for the creation of man to inhabit this dwelling-place."[ ] this is a description of the glorious world of the tertiary age, during which, as scientific researches have proved, the climate of the tropics extended to the arctic circle. brahma makes man, adima, (adam,) and he makes a companion for him, héva, (eve). _they are upon an island_. tradition localizes the legend by making this the island of ceylon. "adima and héva lived for some time in perfect happiness--no suffering came to disturb their quietude; they had but to stretch forth their hands and pluck from surrounding trees the most delicious fruits--but to stoop and gather rice of the finest quality." this is the same golden age represented in genesis, when adam and eve, naked, but supremely happy, lived [ . jacolliet, "the bible in india," p. .] {p. } upon the fruits of the garden, and knew neither sorrow nor suffering, neither toil nor hunger. but one day the evil-one came, as in the bible legend the prince of the _rakchasos_ (raknaros--ragnarok?) came, and broke up this paradise. adima and héva leave their _island_; they pass to a boundless country; they fall upon an evil time; "trees, flowers, fruits, birds, vanish in an instant, amid terrific clamor";[ ] the drift has come; they are in a world of trouble, sorrow, poverty, and toil. and when we turn to america we find the legends looking, not westward, but _eastward_, to this same island-refuge of the race. when the navajos come out of the cave the white race goes _east_, and the red-men go _west_; so that the navajos inhabit a country _west_ of their original habitat, just as the jews inhabit one _east_ of it. "let me conclude," says the legend, "by telling how the navajos came by the seed they now cultivate. all the wise men being one day assembled, a turkey-hen came flying _from the direction of the morning star_, and shook from her feathers an ear of blue corn into the midst of the company; and in subsequent visits _brought all the other seeds they possess_."[ ] in the peruvian legends the civilizers of the race came _from the east_, after the cave-life. so that these people not only came from the east, but they maintained intercourse for some time afterward with the parent-land. on page , _ante_, we learn that the iroquois believed that when joskeha renewed the world, after the great battle with darkness, he learned from _the great tortoise_ [ . jacolliet, "the bible in india," p. . . bancroft's "native races," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } --always the image of an island--how to make fire, and taught the indians the art. and in their legends the battle between the white one and the dark one took place in the east near the great ocean. dr. brinton says, speaking of the great hare, manibozho: "in the oldest accounts of the missionaries he was alleged to reside _toward the east_, and in the holy formula of the meda craft, when the winds are invoked to the medicine-lodge, the _east is summoned_ in his name, the door opens in that direction, and there _at the edge of the earth_, where the sun rises, on _the shore of the infinite ocean that surrounds the land_, he has his house, and sends the luminaries forth on their daily journey."[ ] that is to say, in the east, in the _surrounding_ ocean of the east, to wit, in the atlantic, this god, (or godlike race,) has his house, his habitation, upon a land surrounded by the ocean, to wit, an island; and there his power and his civilization are so great that he controls the movements of the sun, moon, and stars; that is to say, he fixes the measure of time by the movements of the sun and moon, and he has mapped out the heavenly bodies into constellations. in the miztec legend, (see page , _ante_,) we find the people praying to god to gather the waters together and enlarge the land, for they have only "a little garden" to inhabit in the waste of waters. this meant an island. in the arabian legends we have the scene of the catastrophe described as an island west of arabia, and it _requires two years and a half of travel to reach it_. it is the land of bronze. in the hindoo legend of the battle between rama, the [ . brinton's "myths of the new world," p. .] {p. } sun, and ravana, the comet, the scene is laid on the _island_ of lanka. in the tahoe legend the survivors of the civilized race take refuge in a cave, in a mountain on an _island_. they give the tradition a local habitation in lake tahoe. the tacullies say god first created an _island_. in short, we may say that, wherever any of these legends refer to the locality where the disaster came and where man survived, the scene is placed upon an island, in the ocean, in the midst of the waters; and this island, wherever the points of the compass are indicated, lies to the west of europe and to the east of america: it is, therefore, in the atlantic ocean; and the island, we shall see, is connected with these continents by long bridges or ridges of land. this island was atlantis. ovid says it was the land of neptune, poseidon. it is neptune who cries out for mercy. and it is associated with atlas, the king or god of atlantis. let us go a step further in the argument. {p. } chapter iii. the bridge. the deep-sea soundings, made of late years in the atlantic, reveal the fact that the azores are the mountaintops of a colossal mass of sunken land; and that from this center one great ridge runs southward for some distance, and then, bifurcating, sends out one limb to the shores of africa, and another to the shores of south america; while there are the evidences that a third great ridge formerly reached northward from the azores to the british islands. when these ridges--really the tops of long and continuous mountain-chains, like the andes or the rocky mountains, the backbone of a vast primeval atlantic-filling, but, even then, in great part, sunken continent, were above the water, they furnished a wonderful feature in the scenery and geography of the world; they were the pathways over which the migrations of races extended in the ancient days; they wound for thousands of miles, irregular, rocky, wave-washed, through the great ocean, here expanding into islands, there reduced to a narrow strip, or sinking into the sea; they reached from a central civilized land--an ancient, long-settled land, the land of the godlike race--to its colonies, or connections, north, south, east, and west; and they impressed themselves vividly on the imagination and the traditions of mankind, leaving their image even in the religions of the world unto this day. as, in process of time, they gradually or suddenly settled {p. } into the deep, they must at first have formed long, continuous strings of islands, almost touching each other, resembling very much the aleutian archipelago, or the bahama group; and these islands continued to be used, during later ages, as the stepping-stones for migrations and intercourse between the old and the new worlds, just as the discovery of the azores helped forward the discovery of the new world by columbus; he used them, we know, as a halting-place in his great voyage. when job speaks of "the island of the innocent," which was spared from utter destruction, he prefaces it by asking, (chap. xxii): " . hast thou marked _the old way_ which wicked men have trodden? " . which were (was?) cut down out of time, _whose foundation was overflown with a flood_." and in chapter xxviii, verse , we have what may be another allusion to this "way," along which go the people who are on their journey, and which "divideth the flood," and on which some are escaping. the quiche manuscript, as translated by the abbé brasseur de bourbourg,[ ] gives an account of the migration of the quiche race to america from some eastern land in a very early day, in "the day of darkness," ere the sun was, in the so-called glacial age. when they moved to america they wandered for a long time through forests and over mountains, and "they had a _long passage to make, through the sea, along the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand_." and this long passage was through the sea "which was parted for their passage." that is, the sea was on both sides of this long ridge of rocks and sand. [ . tylor's "early mankind," p. .] {p. } the abbé adds: "but it is not clear how they crossed the sea; they passed as though there had been no sea, for they passed over scattered rocks, and these rocks were rolled on the sands. this is why they called the place 'ranged stones and torn-up sands,' the name which they gave it in their passage within the sea, the water being divided when they passed." they probably migrated along that one of the connecting ridges which, the sea-soundings show us, stretched from atlantis to the coast of south america. we have seen in the hindoo legends that when rama went to the island of lanka to fight the demon ravana, he built a bridge of stone, sixty miles long, with the help of the monkey-god, in order to reach the island. in ovid we read of the "settling down a little" of the island on which the drama of phaëton was enacted. in the norse legends the bridge bifrost cuts an important figure. one would be at first disposed to regard it as meaning, (as is stated in what are probably later interpolations,) the rainbow; but we see, upon looking closely, that it represents a material fact, an actual structure of some kind. gylfe, who was, we are told, a king of sweden in the ancient days, visited asgard. he assumed the name of ganglere, (the walker or wanderer). i quote from the "_younger edda, the creation_": "then asked ganglere, 'what is the path from earth to heaven?'" the earth here means, i take it, the european colonies which surround the ocean, which in turn surrounds asgard; heaven is the land of the godlike race, asgard. ganglere therefore asks what is, or was, in the mythological past, the pathway from europe to the atlantic island. {p. } "har answered, laughing, 'foolishly do you now ask. have you not been told that the gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, which is called bifrost? you must have seen it. it may be that you call it the rainbow. it has three colors, is very strong, and is made with more craft and skill than other structures. still, however strong it is, it will break when the sons of muspel come to ride over it, and then they will have to swim their horses over great rivers in order to get on.'" muspel is the blazing south, the land of fire, of the convulsions that accompanied the comet. but how can bifrost mean the rainbow? what rivers intersect a rainbow? "then said ganglere, 'the gods did not, it seems to me, build that bridge honestly, if it shall be able to break to pieces, since they could have done so if they had desired.' then made answer har: 'the gods are worthy of no blame for this structure. bifrost is indeed a good bridge, but there is nothing in the world that is able to stand when the sons of muspel come to the fight.'" muspel here means, i repeat, the heat of the south. mere heat has no effect on rainbows. they are the product of sunlight and falling water, and are often most distinct in the warmest weather. but we see, a little further on, that this bridge bifrost was a real structure. we read of the roots of the ash-tree ygdrasil, and one of its roots reaches to the fountain of urd: here the gods have their doomstead. the _asas ride hither every day over bifrost_, which is also called asa-bridge." and these three mountain-chains going out to the different continents were the three roots of the tree ygdrasil, the sacred tree of the mountain-top; and it is to this "three-pronged root of the world-mountain" that the {p. } hindoo legends refer, (see page , _ante_): on its top was heaven, olympus; below it was hell, where the asuras, the comets, dwelt; and between was meru, (mero merou,) the land of the meropes, atlantis. the _asas_ were clearly a human race of noble and godlike qualities. the proof of this is that they perished in ragnarok; they were mortal. they rode over the bridge every day going from heaven, the heavenly land, to the earth, europe. we read on: "kormt and ormt, and the two kerlaugs these shall thor wade every day, when he goes to judge near the ygdrasil ash; _for the asa-bridge burns all ablaze--_ the holy waters roar." these rivers, kormt and ormt and the two kerlaugs, were probably breaks in the long ridge, where it had gradually subsided into the sea. the asa-bridge was, very likely, dotted with volcanoes, as the islands of the atlantic are to this day. "then answered ganglere, 'does fire burn over bifrost?' har answered: 'the red which you see in the rainbow is burning fire. the frost-giants and the mountain-giants would go up to heaven if bifrost were passable for all who desired to go there. many fair places are there in heaven, and they are protected by a divine defense.'" we have just seen (p. , _ante_) that the home of the godlike race, the _asas_, to wit, heaven, asgard, was surrounded by the ocean, was therefore an island; and that around the outer margin of this ocean, the atlantic, [ . elder edda, "grimner's lay," .] {p. } the godlike race had given lands for the ice-giants to dwell in. and now we read that this asa-bridge, this bifrost, reached from earth to heaven, to wit, across this gulf that separated the island from the colonies of the ice-giants. and now we learn that, if this bridge were not defended by a divine defense, these troublesome ice-giants would go up to heaven; that is to say, the bold northmen would march across it from great britain and ireland to the azores, to wit, to atlantis. surely all this could not apply to the rainbow. but we read a little further. har is reciting to ganglere the wonders of the heavenly land, and is describing its golden palaces, and its mixed population of dark and light colored races, and he says: "furthermore, there is a dwelling, by name himinbjorg, _which stands at the end of heaven, where the bifrost bridge is united with heaven_." and then we read of heimdal, one of the gods who was subsequently killed by the comet: "he dwells in a place called himinbjorg, near bifrost. he is the ward," (warder, guardian,) "of the gods, and sits _at the end of heaven, guarding the bridge against the mountain-giants_. he needs less sleep than a bird; sees an hundred miles around him, and as well by night as by day. _his teeth are of gold_." this reads something like a barbarian's recollection of a race that practiced dentistry and used telescopes. we know that gold filling has been found in the teeth of ancient egyptians and peruvians, and that telescopic lenses were found in the ruins of babylon. but here we have bifrost, a bridge, but not a continuous structure, interrupted in places by water, reaching from europe to some atlantic island. and the island-people regarded it very much as some of the english look {p. } upon the proposition to dig a tunnel from dover to calais, as a source of danger, a means of invasion, a threat; and at the end of the island, where the ridge is united to it, they did what england will probably do at the end of the dover tunnel: they erected fortifications and built a castle, and in it they put a ruler, possibly a sub-king, heimdal, who constantly, from a high lookout, possibly with a field-glass, watches the coming of the turbulent goths, or gauls, or gael, from afar off. doubtless the white-headed and red-headed, hungry, breekless savages had the same propensity to invade the civilized, wealthy land, that their posterity had to descend on degenerate rome. the word _asas_ is not, as some have supposed, derived from asia. asia is derived from the _asas_. the word _asas_ comes from a norse word, still in use in norway, _aas_, meaning _a ridge of high land_.[ ] anderson thinks there is some connection between _aas_, the high ridge, the mountain elevation, and _atlas_, who held the world on his shoulders. the _asas_, then, were the civilized race who inhabited a high, precipitous country, the meeting-point of a number of ridges. atlas was the king, or god, of atlantis. in the old time all kings were gods. they are something more than men, to the multitude, even yet. and when we reach "ragnarok" in these gothic legends, when the jaw of the wolf fenris reached from the earth to the sun, and he vomits fire and poison, and when surt, and all the forces of muspel, "ride over bifrost, _it breaks to pieces_." that is to say, in this last great catastrophe of the earth, the ridge of land that led from the british islands to atlantis goes down for ever. [ . the younger edda," anderson, note, p. .] {p. } and in plato's description of atlantis, as received by solon from the egyptian priests, we read: "there was an island" (atlantis) "situated in front of the straits which you call the columns of hercules; the island was larger than libya and asia put together, and _was the way to other islands_, and from the islands _you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent_," (america,) "which surrounds the true ocean." now this is not very clear, but it may signify that there was continuous land communication between atlantis and the islands of the half-submerged ridge, and from the islands to the continent of america. it would seem to mean more than a passage-way by boats over the water, for that existed everywhere, and could be traversed in any direction. i have quoted on p. , _ante_, in the last chapter, part of the sanskrit legend of adima and héva, as preserved in the bagaveda-gita, and other sacred books of the hindoos. it refers very distinctly to the bridge which united the island-home of primeval humanity with the rest of the earth. but there is more of it: when, under the inspiration of the prince of demons, adima and héva begin to wander, and desire to leave their island, we read: "arriving at last at the extremity of the island"-- we have seen that the bridge bifrost was connected with the extremity of asgard-- "they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the sea, and beyond it a vast and apparently boundless country," (europe?) "_connected with their island by a narrow and rocky pathway, arising from the bosom of the waters_." this is probably a precise description of the connecting ridge; it united the boundless continent, europe, with {p. } the island; it rose out of the sea, it was rocky; it was the broken crest of a submerged mountain-chain. what became of it? here again we have a tradition of its destruction. we read that, after adima and héva had passed over this rocky bridge-- "no sooner did they touch the shore, than trees, flowers, fruit, birds, all that they had seen from the opposite side, vanished in an instant, _amidst terrible clamor; the rocks by which they had crossed sank beneath the waves_, a few sharp peaks alone remaining above the surface, to indicate the place of the bridge, _which had been destroyed by divine displeasure_." here we have the crushing and instant destruction by the drift, the terrific clamor of the age of chaos, and the breaking down of the bridge bifrost under the feet of the advancing armies of muspel; here we have "the earth" of ovid "settling down a little" in the ocean; here we have the legends of the cornishmen of the lost land, described in the poetry of tennyson; here we have the emigrants to europe cut off from their primeval home, and left in a land of stones and clay and thistles. it is, of course, localized in ceylon, precisely as the mountain of ararat and the mountain of olympus crop out in a score of places, wherever the races carried their legends. and to this day the hindoo points to the rocks which rise in the indian ocean, between the eastern point of india and the island of ceylon, as the remnants of the bridge; and the reader will find them marked on our maps as" adam's bridge" (_palam adima_). the people even point out, to this day, a high mountain, from whose foot the bridge went forth, over which adima and héva, crossed to the continent; and it is known in modern geography as "adam's peak." so vividly have the traditions of a vast antiquity come down to us! the legends {p. } of the drift have left their stamp even in our schoolbooks. and the memory of this bridge survives not only in our geographies, but in our religions. man reasons, at first, from below upward; from godlike men up to man-like gods; from cæsar, the soldier, up to cæsar, the deity. heaven was, in the beginning, a heavenly city on earth; it is transported to the clouds; and there its golden streets and sparkling palaces await the redeemed. this is natural: we can only conceive of the best of the spiritual by the best we know of the material; we can imagine no musical instrument in the bands of the angels superior to a harp; no weapon better than a sword for the grasp of gabriel. this disproves not a spiritual and superior state; it simply shows the poverty and paucity of our poor intellectual apparatus, which, like a mirror, reflects only that which is around it, and reflects it imperfectly. men sometimes think they are mocking spiritual things when it is the imperfection of material nature, (which they set so much store by,) that provokes their ridicule. so, among all the races which went out from this heavenly land, this land of high intelligence, this land of the master race, it was remembered down through the ages, and dwelt upon and sung of until it moved upward from the waters of the atlantic to the distant skies, and became a spiritual heaven. and the ridges which so strangely connected it with the continents, east and west, became the bridges over which the souls of men must pass to go from earth to heaven. for instance: the persians believe in this bridge between earth and {p. } paradise. in his prayers the penitent in his confession says to this day: "i am wholly without doubt in the existence of the mazdayaçnian faith; in the coming of the resurrection of the latter body; in the stepping _over the bridge chinvat_; as well as in the continuance of paradise." the bridge and the land are both indestructible. over the midst of the moslem hell stretches the bridge es-sirat, "finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword." in the lyke-wake dirge of the english north-country, they sang of the brig of dread na braider than a thread." in borneo the passage for souls to heaven is across a long tree; it is scarcely practicable to any except those who have killed a man. in burmah, among the karens, they tie strings across the rivers, for the ghosts of the dead to pass over to their graves. in java, a bridge leads across the abyss to the dwelling-place of the gods; the evil-doers fall into the depths _below_. among the esquimaux the soul crosses an awful gulf over a stretched rope, until it reaches the abode of "the great female evil spirit below" (beyond?) "the sea." the ojibways cross to paradise on a great snake, which serves as a bridge. the choctaw bridge is a slippery pine-log. the south american manacicas cross on a wooden bridge. among many of the american tribes, the milky way is the bridge to the other world. [ . poor, "sanskrit literature," p. .] {p. } the polynesians have no bridge; they pass the chasm in canoes. the vedic yama of the hindoos crossed the rapid waters, and showed the way to our aryan fathers. the modern hindoo hopes to get through by holding on to the cow's tail! even the african tribes, the guinea negroes, believe that the land of souls can only be reached by crossing a river. among some of the north american tribes "the souls come to a great lake," (the ocean,) "where there is a _beautiful island_, toward which they have to paddle in a canoe of white stone. on the way there arises a storm, and the wicked souls are wrecked, and the heaps of their bones are to be seen under the water, but the good reach the happy _island_."[ ] the slavs believed in a pathway or road which led to the other world; it was both the rainbow (as in the gothic legends) and the milky way; and, since the journey was long, they put boots into the coffin, (for it was made on foot,) and coins to pay the ferrying across a wide sea, even as the greeks expected to be carried over the styx by charon. this abode of the dead, at the end of this long pathway, was _an island_, a warm, fertile land, called _buyau_.[ ] in their effort to restore the dead men to the happy island-home, the heavenly land, beyond the water, the norsemen actually set their dead heroes afloat in boats on the open ocean.[ ] subsequently they raised a great mound over boat, warrior, horses, weapons, and all. these boats are now being dug up in the north of europe and placed in the [ . tylor's "early mankind," p. . . poor, "sanskrit and kindred literatures," pp. , . . ibid.] {p. } great museums. they tell a marvelous religious and historical story. i think the unprejudiced reader will agree with me that these legends show that some atlantic island played an important part in the very beginning of human history. it was the great land of the world before the drift; it continued to be the great land of the world between the drift and the deluge. here man fell; here he survived; here he renewed the race, and from this center he repopulated the world. we see also that this island was connected with the continents east and west by great ridges of land. the deep-sea soundings show that the vast bulk of land, of which the azores are the outcroppings, are so connected yet with such ridges, although their crests are below the sea-level; and we know of no other island-mass of the atlantic that is so united with the continents on both sides of it. is not the conclusion very strong that atlantis was the island-home of the race, in whose cave job dwelt; on whose shores phaëton fell; on whose fields adam lived; on whose plain sodom and gomorrah stood, and odin and thor and citli died; from which the quiches and the aztecs wandered to america; the center of all the races; the root of all the mythologies? {p. } chapter iv. objections considered. let me consider, briefly, those objections to my theory which have probably presented themsevles {_sic_} to some of my readers. first, it may be said: "we don't understand you. you argue that there could not have been such an ice-age as the glacialists affirm, and yet you speak of a period of cold and ice and snow." true: 'but there is a great difference between such a climate as that of scotland, damp and cold, snowy and blowy, and a continental ice-sheet, a mile or two thick, reaching from john o' groat's house to the mediterranean. we can see that the oranges of spain can grow to-day within a comparatively short distance of edinburgh; but we can not realize that any tropical or semitropical plant could have survived in africa when a precipice of ice, five thousand feet high, frowned on the coast of italy; or that any form of life could have survived on earth when the equator in south america was covered with a continental ice-sheet a mile in thickness, or even ten feet in thickness. we can conceive of a glacial age of snow-storms, rains, hail, and wind--a terribly trying and disagreeable climate for man and beast--but we can not believe that the whole world was once in the condition that the dead waste of ice-covered greenland is in now. {p. } secondly, it may be said-- "the whole world is now agreed that ice produced the drift; what right, then, has any one man to set up a different theory against the opinions of mankind? " one man, mohammed said, with god on his side, is a majority; and one man, with the truth on his side, must become a majority. all recognized truths once rested, solitary and alone, in some one brain. truth is born an acorn, not an oak. the rev. sydney smith once said that there was a kind of men into whom you could not introduce a new idea without a surgical operation. he might have added that, when you had once forced an idea into the head of such a man, you could not deliver him of it without instruments. the conservatism of unthinkingness is one of the potential forces of the world. it lies athwart the progress of mankind like a colossal mountain-chain, chilling the atmosphere on both sides of it for a thousand miles. the hannibal who would reach the eternal city of truth on the other side of these alps must fight his way over ice and hew his way through rocks. the world was once agreed that the drift was due to the deluge. it abandoned this theory, and then became equally certain that it came from icebergs. this theory was, in turn, given up, and mankind were then positive that glaciers caused the drift. but the glaciers were found to be inadequate for the emergency; and so the continents were lifted up fifteen hundred feet, and the ice-sheets were introduced. and now we wait to hear that the immense ice-masses of the himalayas have forsaken their elevations and are moving bodily over the plains of india, grinding up the rocks into clay and gravel {p. } as they go, before we accept a theory which declares that they once marched over the land in this fashion from hudson's bay to cape horn, from spitzbergen to spain. the universality of an error proves nothing, except that the error is universal. the voice of the people is only the voice of god in the last analysis. we can safely appeal from caiaphas and pilate to time. but, says another: "we find deep grooves or striations under the glaciers of to-day; therefore the glaciers caused the grooves." but we find striations on level plains far remote from mountains, where the glaciers could not have been; therefore the glaciers did not cause the striations. "a short horse is soon curried." superposition is not paternity. a porcelain nest-egg found under a hen is no proof that the hen laid it. but, says another "the idea of a comet encountering the earth, and covering it with _débris_, is so stupendous, so out of the usual course of nature, i refuse to accept it." ah, my friend, you forget that those drift deposits, hundreds of feet in thickness, are _there_. _they_ are out of the usual course of nature. it is admitted that they came suddenly from some source. if you reject my theory, you do not get clear of the phenomena. the facts are a good deal more stupendous than the theory. go out and look at the first drift deposit; dig into it a hundred feet or more; follow it for a few hundred miles or more; then come back, and scratch your head, and tell me where it came from! calculate how many cart-loads there are of it, then multiply this by the area of your own continent, and multiply that again by the area of two or three more continents, and then again tell me where it came from! {p. } set aside my theory as absurd, and how much nearer are you to solving the problem? if neither waves, nor icebergs, nor glaciers, nor ice-sheets, nor comets, produced this world-cloak of _débris_, where did it come from? remember the essential, the incontrovertible elements of the problem: . great heat. . a sudden catastrophe. . great evaporation of the seas and waters. . great clouds. . an age of floods and snows and ice and torrents. . the human legends. find a theory that explains and embraces all these elements, and then, and not until then, throw mine aside. another will say: "but in one place you give us legends about an age of dreadful and long-continued heat, as in the arabian tale, where no rain is said to have fallen for seven years; and in another place you tell us of a period of constant rains and snows and cold. are not these statements incompatible?" not at all. this is a big globe we live on: the tropics are warmer than the poles. suppose a tremendous heat to be added to our natural temperature; it would necessarily make it hotter on the equator than at the poles, although it would be warm everywhere. there can be no clouds without condensation, no condensation without some degree of cooling. where would the air cool first? naturally at the points most remote from the equator, the poles. hence, while the sun was still blazing in the uncovered heavens of the greater part of the earth, small caps of cloud would form at the north and south poles, and shed their moisture in gentle rain. as the heat brought to the earth by the comet was accidental and {p. } adventitious, there would be a natural tendency to return to the pre-comet condition. the extraordinary evaporation would of itself have produced refrigeration. hence the cloud-caps would grow and advance steadily toward the equator, casting down continually increasing volumes of rain. snow would begin to form near the poles, and it too would advance. we would finally have, down to say the thirty-fifth degree of north and south latitude, vast belts of rain and snow, while the equator would still be blazing with the tropical heat which would hold the condensation back. here, then, we would have precisely the condition of things described in the "younger edda" of the northmen: "then said jafnhar: 'all that part of ginungagap' (the atlantic) 'that turns toward the north _was filled with thick, heavy ice and rime_,' (snow,) 'and everywhere within were _drizzling gusts and rain_. but the south part of ginungagap was lighted up by the _glowing sparks_ that flew out of muspelheim' (africa?). added thride: 'as cold and all things grim proceeded from niflheim, so that which bordered on muspelheim was hot and bright, and ginungagap' (the atlantic near africa?) 'was as warm and mild as windless air.'" another may say: "but how does all this agree with your theory that the progenitors of the stock from which the white, the yellow, and the brown races were differentiated, were saved in one or two caverns in one place? how did they get to africa, asia, and america?" in the first place, it is no essential part of my case that man survived in one place or a dozen places; it can not, in either event, affect the question of the origin of the drift. it is simply an opinion of my own, open to modification upon fuller information. if, for instance, men dwelt in asia at that time, and no drift deposits {p. } fell upon asia, races may have survived there; the negro may have dwelt in india at that time; some of the strange hill-tribes of china and india may have had no connection with lif and lifthraser. but if we will suppose that the scene of man's survival was in that atlantic island, atlantis, then this would follow: the remnant of mankind, whether they were a single couple, like lif and lifthraser; or a group of men and women, like job and his companions; or a numerous party, like that referred to in the navajo and aztec legends, in any event, they would not and could not stay long in the cave. the distribution of the drift shows that it fell within twelve hours; but there were probably several days thereafter during which the face of the earth was swept by horrible cyclones, born of the dreadful heat. as soon, however, as they could safely do so, the remnant of the people must have left the cave; the limited nature of their food-supplies would probably drive them out. once outside, their condition was pitiable indeed. first, they encountered the great heat; the cooling of the atmosphere had not yet begun; water was a pressing want. hence we read in the legends of mimer's well, where odin pawned his eye for a drink. and we are told, in an american legend, of a party who traveled far to find the life-giving well, and found the possessor sitting over it to hide it. it was during this period that the legends originated which refer to the capture of the cows and their recovery by demi-gods, hercules or rama. then the race began to wander. the world was a place of stones. hunger drove them on. then came the clouds, the rains, the floods, the snows, the darkness; and still the people wandered. the receded ocean laid bare the great ridges, if they had sunk in the catastrophe, {p. } and the race gradually spread to europe, africa, and america. "but," says one, "how long did all this take? who shall say? it may have been days, weeks, months, years, centuries. the toltec legends say that their ancestors wandered for more than a hundred years in the darkness. the torrent-torn face of the earth; the vast rearrangement of the drift materials by rivers, compared with which our own rivers are rills; the vast continental regions which were evidently flooded, all testify to an extraordinary amount of moisture first raised up from the seas and then cast down on the lands. given heat enough to raise this mass, given the cold caused by its evaporation, given the time necessary for the great battle between this heat and this condensation, given the time to restore this body of water to the ocean, not once but many times,--for, along the southern border of the floods, where muspelheim. and niflheim met, the heat must have sucked up the water as fast almost as it fell, to fall again, and again to be lifted up, until the heat-area was driven back and water fell, at last, everywhere on the earth's face, and the extraordinary evaporation ceased,--this was a gigantic, long-continued battle. but it may be asked: "suppose further study should disclose the fact that the drift _is_ found in siberia and the rest of asia, and over all the world, what then? " it will not disprove my theory. it will simply indicate that the _débris_ did not, as i have supposed, strike the earth instantaneously, but that it continued to fall during twenty-four hours. if the comet was split into fragments, if there was the "midgard-serpent" as well as the {p. } "fenris wolf" and "the dog garm," they need not necessarily have reached the earth at the same time. another says: "you supposed in your book, 'atlantis,' that the glacial age might have been caused by the ridges radiating from atlantis shutting off the gulf stream and preventing the heated waters of the tropics from reaching the northern shores of the world." true; and i have no doubt that these ridges did play an important part in producing climatic changes, subsequent to the drift age, by their presence or absence, their elevation or depression; but on fuller investigation i find that they are inadequate to account for the colossal phenomena of the drift itself--the presence of the clay and gravel, the great heat and the tremendous downfall of water. it may be asked, "how does your theory account for the removal of great blocks, weighing many tons, for hundreds of miles from their original site? the answer is plain. we know the power of the ordinary hurricanes of the earth. "the largest trees are uprooted, or have their trunks snapped in two; and few if any of the most massive buildings stand uninjured."[ ] if we will remember the excessive heat and the electrical derangements that must have accompanied the drift age, we can realize the tremendous winds spoken of in many of the legends. we have but to multiply the hurricane of the west indies, or the cyclone of the mississippi valley, a hundred or a thousand fold, and we shall have power enough to move all the blocks found scattered over the face of the drift deposits or mixed with its material. [ . appletons' "american cyclopædia," vol. ix, p. .] {p. } another asks: "how do you account for the fact that this drift material does not resemble the usual aërolites, which are commonly composed of iron, and unlike the stones of the earth?" i nave shown that aërolites have fallen that did not contain any iron, and that could not be distinguished from the material native to the earth. and it must be remembered that, while the shining meteoroids that blaze in periodical showers from radiant points in the sky are associated with comets, and are probably lost fragments of comet-tails, these meteoroids do not reach the earth, but are always burned out, far up in our atmosphere, by the friction produced by their motion. the iron aërolite is of different origin. it may be a product of space itself, a condensation of metallic gases. the fact that it reaches the earth without being consumed would seem to indicate that it belongs at a lower level than the meteoric showers, and has, consequently, a less distance to fall and waste. and these views are confirmed by a recent writer,[ ] who, after showing that the meteoroids, or shooting-stars, are very different from meteorites or aërolites, and seldom or never reach the earth, proceeds to account for the former. he says: "many theories have been advanced in the past to account for these strange bodies, but the evidence now accumulated proves beyond reasonable doubt that they are near relatives, and probably the _débris_ of comets. "tempel's comet is now known to be traveling in the same orbit as the november meteors, and is near the head of the train, and it appears, in like manner, that the second comet of (swift's comet) is traveling in the orbit of the august meteors. and the first comet of seems to be similarly connected with the april meteors. . . . [ . ward's "science bulletin," e. e. ii., , p. .] {p. } "although few scientific men now question a relationship between comets and the ordinary meteors, there are those, and among them some of our ablest men, who think that the large meteors, or bolides, and aërolites, may be different astronomically, and perhaps physically, from the ordinary shooting-stars, and in the past some contended that they originated in our atmosphere others that they were ejected from terrestrial volcanoes. . . and at the present time the known facts, and all scientific thought, seem to point to the conclusion that the difference between them and ordinary shooting-stars is analogous to that between rain and mist, and, in addition to the reasons already given for connecting them with comets, may be mentioned the fact that meteorites bring with them carbonic acid, which is known to form so prominent a part of comets' tails; and if fragments of meteoric iron or stone be heated moderately in a vacuum, they yield up gases consisting of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and the spectrum of these gases corresponds to the spectrum of a cornet's coma and tail. "by studying their microscopical structure, mr. sorby has been able to determine that the material was at one time certainly in a state of fusion; and that the most remote condition of which we have positive evidence was that of small, detached, melted globules, the formation of which can not be explained in a satisfactory manner, except by supposing that their constituents were originally in the state of vapor, as they now exist in the atmosphere of the sun; and, on the temperature becoming lower, condensed into these "ultimate cosmical particles." these afterward collected into larger masses, which have been variously changed by subsequent metamorphic action, and broken up by repeated mutual impact, and often again collected together and solidified. the meteoric irons are probably those portions of the metallic constituents which were separated from the rest by fusion when the metamorphism was carried to that extreme point.'" but if it be true, as is conceded, that all the planets and comets of the solar system were out-throwings from the sun itself, then all must be as much of one quality of {p. } material as half a dozen suits of clothes made from the same bolt of cloth. and hence our-brother-the-comet must be made of just such matter as our earth is made of. and hence, if a comet did strike the earth and deposited its ground-up and triturated material upon the earth's surface, we should find nothing different in that material from earth-substance of the same kind. but, says another: "if the drift fell from a comet, why would not this clay-dust and these pebbles have been consumed before reaching the earth by the friction of our atmosphere just as we have seen the meteoroids consumed; or, if not entirely used up, why would these pebbles not show a fused surface, like the iron aërolites? " here is the difference: a meteorite, a small or large stone, is detached, isolated, lone-wandering, lost in space; it comes within the tremendous attractive power of our globe; it has no parental attraction to restrain it; and it rushes headlong with lightning-like rapidity toward the earth, burning itself away as it falls. but suppose two heavenly bodies, each with its own center of attraction, each holding its own scattered materials in place by its own force, to meet each other; then there is no more probability of the stones and dust of the comet flying to the earth, than there is of the stones and dust of the earth flying to the comet. and the attractive power of the comet, great enough to bold its gigantic mass in place through the long reaches of the fields of space, and even close up to the burning eye of the awful sun itself, holds its dust and pebbles and bowlders together until the very moment of impact with the earth. in short, they, the dust and stones, do not continue to follow the comet, because the earth has got in their way and arrested them. it was this terrific force of the {p. } comet's attraction, represented in a fearful rate of motion, that tore and pounded and scratched and furrowed our poor earth's face, as shown in the crushed and striated rocks under the drift. they would have gone clean through the earth to follow the comet, if it had been possible. if we can suppose the actual bulk of the comet to have greatly exceeded the bulk of the earth, then the superior attraction of the comet may have shocked the earth out of position. it has already been suggested that the inclination of the axis of the earth may have been changed at the time of the drift; and the esquimaux have a legend that the earth was, at that time, actually shaken out of its position. but upon this question i express no opinion. but another may say: "your theory is impossible; these dense masses of clay and gravel could not have fallen from a comet, because the tails of comets are composed of material so attenuated that sometimes the stars are seen through them." granted: but remember that the clay did not come to the earth as clay, but as a finely comminuted powder or dust; it packed into clay after having been mixed with water. the particles of this dust must have been widely separated while in the comet's tail; if they had not been, instead of a deposit of a few hundred feet, we should have had one of hundreds of miles in thickness. we have seen, (page , _ante_,) that the tail of one comet was thirteen million miles broad; if the particles of dust composing that tail had been as minute as those of clay-dust, and if they had been separated from each other by many feet in distance, they would still have left a deposit on the face of any object passing through them much greater than the drift. to illustrate my meaning: you ride on a summer day a hundred miles in a railroad-car, seated by an open {p. } window. there is no dust perceptible, at least not enough to obscure the landscape; yet at the end of the journey you find yourself covered with a very evident coating of dust. now, suppose that, instead of traveling one hundred miles, your ride had been prolonged a million miles, or thirteen million miles; and, instead of the atmosphere being perfectly clear, you had moved through a cloud of dust, not dense enough to intercept the light of the stars, and yet dense enough to reflect the light of the sun, even as a smoke-wreath reflects it, and you can readily see that, long before you reached the end of your journey, you would be buried alive under hundreds of feet of dust. to creatures like ourselves, measuring our stature by feet and inches, a drift-deposit three hundred feet thick is an immense affair, even as a deposit a foot thick would be to an ant; but, measured on an astronomical scale, with the foot-rule of the heavens, and the drift is no more than a thin coating of dust, such as accumulates on a traveler's coat. even estimating it upon the scale of our planet, it is a mere wrapping of tissue-paper thickness. in short, it must be remembered that we are an infinitely insignificant breed of little creatures, to whom a cosmical dust-shower is a cataclysm. and that which is true of the clay-dust is true of the gravel. at a million miles' distance it, too, is dust; it runs in lines or streaks, widely separated; and the light shines between its particles as it does through the leaves of the trees "and glimmering through the groaning trees kirk alloway seems in a blaze; through every bore the beams are glancing." but another says: "why do you think the finer parts of the material of the comet are carried farthest back from the head?" {p. } because the attractive power lodged in the nucleus acts with most force on the largest masses; even as the rock is not so likely to leave the earth in a wind-storm as the dust; and in the flight of the comet through space, at the rate of three hundred and sixty-six miles per second, its lighter substances would naturally trail farthest behind it; for-- "the thing that's heavy in itself upon enforcement flies with greatest speed." and it would seem as if in time this trailing material of the comet falls so far behind that it loses its grip, and is lost; hence the showers of _meteoroids_. another says: "i can not accept your theory as to the glacial clays they were certainly deposited in water, formed like silt, washed down from the adjacent continents." i answer they were not, because:-- . if laid down in water, they would be stratified; but they are not. . if laid down in water, they would be full of the fossils of the water, fresh-water shells, sea-shells, bones of fish, reptiles, whales, seals, etc.; but they are non-fossiliferous. . if laid down in water, they would not be made exclusively from granite. where are the continents to be found which are composed of granite and nothing but granite? . where were the continents, of any kind, from which these washings came? they must have reached from pole to pole, and filled the whole atlantic ocean. and how could the washings of rivers have made this uniform sheet, reaching over the whole length and half the breadth of this continent? . if these clays were made from land-washings, how comes it that in some places they are red, in others blue, in others yellow? in western minnesota you penetrate {p. } through twenty feet of yellow clay until you reach a thin layer of gravel, about an inch thick, and then pass at once, without any gradual transition, into a bed of blue clay fifty feet thick; and under this, again, you reach gravel. what separated these various deposits? the glacialists answer us that the yellow clay was deposited in fresh water, and the blue clay in salt water, and hence the difference in the color. but how did the water change instantly from salt to fresh? why was there no interval of brackish water, during which the blue and yellow clays would have gradually shaded into each other? the transition from the yellow clay to the blue is as immediate and marked as if you were to lay a piece of yellow cloth across a piece of blue cloth. you can not take the salt out of a vast ocean, big enough to cover half a continent, in a day, a month, a year, or a century. and where were the bowl-like ridges of land that inclosed the continent, and kept out the salt water during the ages that elapsed while the yellow clay was being laid down in fresh water? and, above all, why are no such clays, blue, yellow, or red, now being formed anywhere on earth, under sheet-ice, glaciers, icebergs, or anything else? and how about the people who built cisterns, and used coins and iron implements before this silt was accumulated in the seas, a million years ago, for it must have taken that long to create these vast deposits if they were deposited as silt in the bottom of seas and lakes. it may be asked: "what relation, in order of time, do you suppose the drift age to hold to the deluge of noah and deucalion? " the latter was infinitely later. the geologists, as i have shown, suppose the drift to have come upon the earth--basing their calculations upon the recession of the {p. } falls of niagara--about thirty thousand years ago. we have seen that this would nearly accord with the time given in job, when he speaks of the position of certain constellations. the deluge of noah probably occurred somewhere from eight to eleven thousand years ago. hence, about twenty thousand years probably intervened between the drift and the deluge. these were the "myriads of years" referred to by plato, during which mankind dwelt on the great plain of atlantis. and this order of events agrees with all the legends. in the bible a long interval elapsed between the fall of man, or his expulsion from paradise, and the deluge of noah; and during this period mankind rose to civilization; became workers in the metals, musicians, and the builders of cities. in the egyptian history, as preserved by plato, the deluge of deucalion, which many things prove to have been identical with the deluge of noah, was the last of a series of great catastrophes. in the celtic legends the great deluge of ogyges preceded the last deluge. in the american legends, mankind have been many times destroyed, and as often renewed. but it may be asked: "are you right in supposing that man first rose to civilization in a great atlantic island? we can conceive, as i have shown, mankind at some central point, like the atlantic island, building up anew, after the drift age, the shattered fragments of pre-glacial civilization, and hence becoming to the post-glacial ancient world the center and apparent fountain of all cultivation. but in view of the curious discoveries made, as i have shown, in the glacial clays of the united {p. } states, further investigations may prove that it was on the north american continent civilization was first born, and that it was thence moved _eastward_ over the bridge-like ridges to atlantis. and it is, in this connection, remarkable that the bible tells us (genesis, chap. ii, v. ): "and the lord god planted a garden _eastward, in eden_; and there he put the man that he had formed." he had first (v. ) "formed man of the dust of the ground," and then he moves him eastward to eden, to the garden. and, as i have shown, when the fall of man came, when the drift destroyed the lovely tertiary conditions, man was _again moved eastward_; he was driven out of eden, and the cherubims guarded the _eastern_ extremity of the garden, to prevent man's return from (we will say) the shores of atlantis. in other words, the present habitat of men is, as i have shown, according to the bible, _east_ of their former dwelling-place. in the age of man's declension he moved eastward. in the age of his redemption he moves westward. hence, if the bible is to be relied on, before man reached the garden of eden, he had been created in some region _west of the garden_, to wit, in america; and here he may have first developed the civilization of which we find traces in illinois, showing a metal-working race sufficiently advanced to have an alphabet and a currency. but in all this we do not touch upon the question of where man was first formed by god. the original birthplace of the human race who shall tell? it was possibly in some region now under the ocean, as professor winchell has suggested; there he was evolved during the mild, equable, gentle, plentiful, conclusions. garden-age of the tertiary; in the midst of the most favorable conditions for increasing the vigor of life and expanding it into new forms. it showed its influence by developing mammalian life in one direction into the monstrous forms of the mammoth and the mastodon, the climax of animal growth; and in the other direction into the more marvelous expansion of mentality found in man. there are two things necessary to a comprehension of that which lies around us--development and design, evolution and purpose; god's way and god's intent. neither alone will solve the problem. these are the two limbs of the right angle which meet at the first life-cell found on earth, and lead out until we find man at one extremity and god at the other. why should the religious world shrink from the theory of evolution? to know the path by which god has advanced is not to disparage god. could all this orderly nature have grown up out of chance, out of the accidental concatenation of atoms? as bacon said: "i would rather believe all the fables in the talmud and the koran than that this universal frame is _without a mind!_" wonderful thought! a flash of light through the darkness. and what greater guarantee of the future can we have than evolution? if god has led life from the rudest beginnings, whose fossils are engraved, (blurred and obscured,) on the many pages of the vast geological volume, up to this intellectual, charitable, merciful, powerful world of to-day, who can doubt that the same hand will guide our posterity to even higher levels of development? {p. } if our thread of life has expanded from cain to christ, from the man who murders to him who submits to murder for the love of man, who can doubt that the cain-like in the race will gradually pass away and the christ-like dominate the planet? religion and science, nature and spirit, knowledge of god's works and reverence for god, are brethren, who should stand together with twined arms, singing perpetual praises to that vast atmosphere, ocean, universe of spirituality, out of which matter has been born, of which matter is but a condensation; that illimitable, incomprehensible, awe-full something, before the conception of which men should go down upon the very knees of their hearts in adoration. {p. } chapter v. biela's comet. humboldt says: "it is probable that the vapor of the tails of comets mingled with our atmosphere in the years and ."[ ] there is reason to believe that the present generation has passed through the gaseous prolongation of a comet's tail, and that hundreds of human beings lost their lives, somewhat as they perished in the age of fire and gravel, burned up and poisoned by its exhalations. and, although this catastrophe was upon an infinitely smaller scale than that of the old time, still it may throw some light upon the great cataclysm. at least it is a curious story, with some marvelous features: on the th day of february, , (to begin as m. dumas would commence one of his novels,) m. biela, an austrian officer, residing at josephstadt, in bohemia, discovered a comet in the constellation aries, which, at that time, was seen as a small round speck of filmy cloud. its course was watched during the following month by m. gambart at marseilles and by m. clausen at altona, and those observers assigned to it an elliptical orbit, with a period of _six years and three quarters_ for its revolution. m. damoiseau subsequently calculated its path, and announced that on its next return the comet would cross [ . "cosmos," vol. i, p. .] {p. } the orbit of the earth, within _twenty thousand miles of its track, and but about one month before the earth would have arrived at the same spot!_ this was shooting close to the bull's-eye! he estimated that it would lose nearly ten days on its return trip, through the retarding influence of jupiter and saturn; but, if it lost forty days instead of ten, what then? but the comet came up to time in , and the earth _missed it by one month_. and it returned in like fashion in and . but here a surprising thing occurred. _its proximity to the earth had split it in two_; each half had a head and tail of its own; each had set up a separate government for itself; and they were whirling through space, side by side, like a couple of race-horses, about sixteen thousand miles apart, or about twice as wide apart as the diameter of the earth. here is a picture of them, drawn from life. ### biela's comet, split in two, (from guillemin's "the heavens," page .) {p. } did the fenris-wolf, the midgard-serpent, and the dog-garm look like this? in , , and , the comet should have returned, but it did not. it was lost. it was dissipated. its material was banging around the earth in fragments somewhere. i quote from a writer in a recent issue of the "edinburgh review": the puzzled astronomers were left in a state of tantalizing uncertainty as to what had become of it. at the beginning of the year this feeling of bewilderment gained expression in the annual report of the council of the royal astronomical society. the matter continued, nevertheless, in the same state of provoking uncertainty for another six years. the third period of the perihelion passage had then passed, and nothing had been seen of the missing luminary. but on the night of november , , night-watchers were startled by a sudden and a very magnificent display of falling stars or meteors, of which there had been no previous forecast, and professor klinkerflues, of berlin, having carefully noted the common radiant point in space from which this star-shower was discharged into the earth's atmosphere, with the intuition of ready genius jumped at once to the startling inference that here at last were traces of the missing luminary. there were eighty of the meteors that furnished a good position for the radiant point of the discharge, and that position, strange to say, was very much the same as the position in space which biela's comet should have occupied just about that time on its fourth return toward perihelion. klinkerflues, therefore, taking this spot as one point in the path of the comet, and carrying the path on as a track into forward space, fixed the direction there through which it should pass as a 'vanishing-point' at the other side of the starry sphere, and having satisfied himself of that further position he sent off a telegram to the other side of the world, where alone it could be seen--that is to say, to mr. pogson, of the madras observatory--which may be best told in his own nervous and simple words. {p. } herr klinkerflues's telegram to mr. pogson, of madras, was to the following effect: "'november th--biela touched the earth on the th of november. search for him near theta centauri.' "the telegram reached madras, through russia, in one hour and thirty-five minutes, and the sequel of this curious passage of astronomical romance may be appropriately told in the words in which mr. pogson replied to herr klinkerflues's pithy message. the answer was dated madras, the th of december, and was in the following words: "'on the th of november, at sixteen hours, the time of the comet rising here, i was at my post, but hopelessly; clouds and rain gave me no chance. the next morning i had the same bad luck. but on the third trial, with a line of blue break, about ¼ hours mean time, _i found biela immediately!_ only four comparisons in successive minutes could be obtained, in strong morning twilight, with an anonymous star; but direct motion of . seconds decided that i had got the comet all right. i noted it--circular, bright, with, a decided nucleus, but no tail, and about forty-five seconds in diameter. next morning i got seven good comparisons with an anonymous star, showing a motion of . seconds in twenty-eight minutes, and i also got two comparisons with a madras star in our current catalogue, and with , taylor. i was too anxious to secure one good place for the one in hand to look for the other comet, and the fourth morning was cloudy and rainy.' "herr klinkerflues's commentary upon this communication was that he forthwith proceeded to satisfy himself that no provoking accident had led to the discovery of a comet altogether unconnected with biela's, although in this particular place, and that he was ultimately quite confident of the identity of the comet observed by mr. pogson with one of the two heads of biela. it was subsequently settled that mr. pogson had, most probably, seen both heads of the comet, one on the first occasion of his successful search, and the second on the following day; and the meteor-shower experienced in europe on november th was unquestionably due to the passage {p. } near the earth of a meteoric trail traveling in the track of the comet. when the question of a possible collision was mooted in , sir john herschel remarked that such an occurrence might not be unattended with danger, and that on account of the intersection of the orbits of the earth and the comet a rencontre would in all likelihood take place within the lapse of some millions of years. as a matter of fact the collision did take place on november , , and the result, so far as the earth was concerned, was a magnificent display of aërial fireworks! but a more telling piece of ready-witted sagacity than this prompt employment of the telegraph for the apprehension of the nimble delinquent can scarcely be conceived. the sudden brush of the comet's tail, the instantaneous telegram to the opposite side of the world, and the glimpse thence of the vagrant luminary as it was just whisking itself off into space toward the star theta centauri, together constitute a passage that stands quite without a parallel in the experience of science." but did the earth escape with a mere shower of fireworks? i have argued that the material of a comet consists of a solid nucleus, giving out fire and gas, enveloped in a great gaseous mass, and a tail made up of stones, possibly gradually diminishing in size as they recede from the nucleus, until the after-part of it is composed of fine dust ground from the pebbles and bowlders; while beyond this there may be a still further prolongation into gaseous matter. now, we have seen that biela's comets lost their tails. what became of them? there is no evidence to show whether they lost them in , , , or . the probabilities are that the demoralization took place before , as otherwise the comets would have been seen, tails and all, in that and subsequent years. it is true that the earth came near enough in to attract some of the wandering gravel-stones toward itself, and that they fell, {p. } blazing and consuming themselves with the friction of our atmosphere, and reached the surface of our planet, if at all, as cosmic dust. but where were the rest of the assets of these bankrupt comets? they were probably scattered around in space, _disjecta membra_, floating hither and thither, in one place a stream of stones, in another a volume of gas; while the two heads had fled away, like the fugitive presidents of a couple of broken banks, to the canadian refuge of "_theta centauri_"--shorn of their splendors and reduced to first principles. did anything out of the usual order occur on the face of the earth about this time? yes. in the year , on sunday, the th of october, at half past nine o'clock in the evening, events occurred which attracted the attention of the whole world, which caused the death of hundreds of human beings, and the destruction of millions of property, and which involved three different states of the union in the wildest alarm and terror. the summer of had been excessively dry; the moisture seemed to be evaporated out of the air; and on the sunday above named the atmospheric conditions all through the northwest were of the most peculiar character. the writer was living at the time in minnesota, hundreds of miles from the scene of the disasters, and he can never forget the condition of things. there was a parched, combustible, inflammable, furnace-like feeling in the air, that was really alarming. it felt as if there were needed but a match, a spark, to cause a world-wide explosion. it was weird and unnatural. i have never seen nor felt anything like it before or since. those who experienced it will bear me out in these statements. at that hour, half past nine o'clock in the evening, _at apparently the same moment_, at points hundreds of miles {p. } apart, in three different states, wisconsin, michigan, and illinois, fires of the most peculiar and devastating kind broke out, so far as we know, by spontaneous combustion. in wisconsin, on its eastern borders, in a heavily timbered country, near lake michigan, a region embracing _four hundred square miles_, extending north from brown county, and containing peshtigo, manistee, holland, and numerous villages on the shores of green bay, was swept bare by an absolute whirlwind of flame. there were _seven hundred and fifty people killed outright_, besides great numbers of the wounded, maimed, and burned, who died afterward. more than three million dollars' worth of property was destroyed.[ ] it was no ordinary fire. i quote: "at sundown there was a lull in the wind and comparative stillness. for two hours there were no signs of danger; but at a few minutes after nine o'clock, and by a singular coincidence, _precisely the time at which the chicago fire commenced_, the people of the village heard a terrible roar. it was that of a tornado, crushing through the forests. _instantly the heavens were illuminated with a terrible glare_. _the sky_, which had been so dark a moment before, _burst into clouds of flame_. a spectator of the terrible scene says the fire did not come upon them gradually from burning trees and other objects to the windward, but the first notice they had of it was _a whirlwind of flame in great clouds from above the tops of the trees_, which fell upon and entirely enveloped everything. the poor people inhaled it, or the intensely hot air, and fell down dead. this is verified by the appearance of many of the corpses. they were found dead in the roads and open spaces, _where there were no visible marks of fire near by, with not a trace of burning upon their bodies or clothing_. at the sugar bush, which is an extended clearing, in some places four miles in width, [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , pp. , , etc.] {p. } corpses were found in the open road, between fences only slightly burned. _no mark of fire was upon them; they lay there as if asleep_. this phenomenon seems to explain the fact that so many were killed in compact masses. they seemed to have huddled together, in what were evidently regarded at the moment as the safest places, _far away from buildings, trees, or other inflammable_ material, and there to have died together."[ ] another spectator says: "much has been said of the intense heat of the fires which destroyed peshtigo, menekaune, williamsonville, etc., but all that has been said can give the stranger but a faint conception of the reality. the heat has been compared to that engendered by a flame concentrated on an object by a blow-pipe; but even that would not account for some of the phenomena. for instance, we have in our possession a copper cent taken from the pocket of a dead man in the peshtigo sugar bush, which will illustrate our point. _this cent has been partially fused_, but still retains its round form, and the inscription upon it is legible. others, in the same pocket, were partially _melted_, and yet _the clothing and the body of the man were not even singed_. we do not know in what way to account for this, unless, as is asserted by some, the tornado and fire were accompanied by electrical phenomena."[ ] "it is the universal testimony that the prevailing idea among the people was, that the last day had come. accustomed as they were to fire, nothing like this had ever been known. they could give no other interpretation to this ominous roar, this _bursting of the sky with fame, and this dropping down of fire out of the very heavens_, consuming instantly everything it touched. "no two give a like description of the great tornado as it smote and devoured the village. it seemed as if 'the fiery fiends of hell had been loosened,' says one. 'it came in great sheeted _flames from heaven_,' says another. 'there was _a pitiless rain of fire and_ sand.' 'the [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } atmosphere was all afire.' some speak of '_great balls of fire unrolling and shooting forth, in streams_.' the fire leaped over roofs and trees, and ignited whole streets at once. no one could stand before the blast. it was a race with death, above, behind, and before them."[ ] a civil engineer, doing business in peshtigo, says "the heat increased so rapidly, as things got well afire, that, _when about four hundred feet from the bridge and the nearest building_, i was obliged to lie down behind a log that was aground in about two feet of water, and by going under water now and then, and holding my head close to the water behind the log, i managed to breathe. there were a dozen others behind the same log. if i had succeeded in crossing the river and gone among the buildings on the other side, probably i should have been lost, as many were." we have seen ovid describing the people of "the earth" crouching in the same way in the water to save themselves from the flames of the age of fire. in michigan, one allison weaver, near port huron, determined to remain, to protect, if possible, some mill-property of which he had charge. he knew the fire was coming, and dug himself a shallow well or pit, made a thick plank cover to place over it, and thus prepared to bide the conflagration. i quote: "he filled it nearly full of water, and took care to saturate the ground around it for a distance of several rods. going to the mill, he dragged out a four-inch plank, sawed it in two, and saw that the parts tightly covered the mouth of the little well. 'i kalkerated it would be tech and go,' said he, 'but it was the best i could do.' at midnight he had everything arranged, and the roaring then was [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , p. .] {p. } awful to hear. the clearing was ten to twelve acres in extent, and weaver says that, for two hours before the fire reached him, there was a constant flight across the ground of small animals. as he rested a moment from giving the house another wetting down, a horse dashed into the opening at full speed and made for the house. weaver could see him tremble and shake with excitement and terror, and felt a pity for him. after a moment the animal gave utterance to a snort of dismay, ran two or three times around the house, and then shot on into the woods like a rocket." we have, in the foregoing pages, in the legends of different nations, descriptions of the terrified animals flying with the men into the caves of the earth to escape the great conflagration. 'i not long after this the fire came. weaver stood by his well, ready for the emergency, yet curious to see the breaking-in of the flames. the roaring increased in volume, the air became oppressive, a cloud of dust and cinders came showering down, and he could see the flame through the trees. it did not run along the ground, or leap from tree to tree, but it came on like a tornado, _a sheet of flame reaching from the earth to the tops of the trees_. as it struck the clearing he jumped into his well, and closed over the planks. he could no longer see, but he could hear. he says that the flames made no halt whatever, or ceased their roaring for an instant, but he hardly got the opening closed before the house and mill were burning tinder, and both were down in five minutes. the smoke came down upon him powerfully, and his den was so hot he could hardly breathe. "he knew that the planks above him were on fire, but, remembering their thickness, he waited till the roaring of the flames had died away, and then with his head and hands turned them over and put out the fire by dashing up water with his hands. although it was a cold night, and the water had at first chilled him, the heat gradually warmed him up until he felt quite comfortable. he remained in his den until daylight, frequently turning {p. } over the planks and putting out the fire, and then the worst had passed. the earth around was on fire in spots, house and mill were gone, leaves, brush, and logs were swept clean away as if shaved off and swept with a broom, and nothing but soot and ashes were to be seen."[ ] in wisconsin, at williamson's mills, there was a large but shallow well on the premises belonging to a mr. boorman. the people, when cut off by the flames and wild with terror, and thinking they would find safety in the water, leaped into this well. "the relentless fury of the flames drove them pell-mell into the pit, to struggle with each other and die--some by drowning, and others by fire and suffocation. none escaped. _thirty-two bodies were found there_. they were in every imaginable position; but the contortions of their limbs and the agonizing expressions of their faces told the awful tale."[ ] the recital of these details, horrible though they may be, becomes excusable when we remember that the ancestors of our race must have endured similar horrors in that awful calamity which i have discussed in this volume. james b. clark, of detroit, who was at uniontown, wisconsin, writes: "the fire suddenly made a rush, like the flash of a train of gunpowder, and swept in the shape of a crescent around the settlement. it is almost impossible to conceive _the frightful rapidity of the advance of the flames_. the rushing fire seemed to eat up and annihilate the trees." they saw a black mass coming toward them from the wall of flame: "it was a stampede of cattle and horses thundering toward us, bellowing moaning, and neighing as they galloped [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } on; rushing with fearful speed, their eyeballs dilated and glaring with terror, and every motion betokening delirium of fright. some had been badly burned, and must have plunged through a long space of flame in the desperate effort to escape. following considerably behind came a solitary horse, panting and snorting and nearly exhausted. he was saddled and bridled, and, as we first thought, had a bag lashed to his back. as he came up we were startled at the sight of a young lad lying fallen over the animal's neck, the bridle wound around his hands, and the mane being clinched by the fingers. little effort was needed to stop the jaded horse, and at once release the helpless boy. he was taken into the house, and all that we could do was done; but he had inhaled the smoke, and was seemingly dying. some time elapsed and he revived enough to speak. he told his name--patrick byrnes--and said: 'father and mother and the children got into the wagon. i don't know what became of them. everything is burned up. i am dying. oh! is hell any worse than this?'"[ ] how vividly does all this recall the book of job and the legends of central america, which refer to the multitudes of the burned, maimed, and wounded lying in the caverns, moaning and crying like poor patrick byrnes, suffering no less in mind than in body! when we leave wisconsin and pass about two hundred and fifty miles eastward, over lake michigan and across the whole width of the state of michigan, we find much the same condition of things, but not so terrible in the loss of human life. fully _fifteen thousand people were rendered homeless by the fires_; and their food, clothing, crops, horses, and cattle were destroyed. of these five to six thousand were burned out the _same night that the fires broke out in chicago and wisconsin_. the [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , p. .] {p. } total destruction of property exceeded one million dollars; not only villages and cities, but whole townships, were swept bare. but it is to chicago we must turn for the most extraordinary results of this atmospheric disturbance. it is needless to tell the story in detail. the world knows it by heart: blackened and bleeding, helpless, panting, prone, on the charred fragments of her shattered throne, lies she who stood but yesterday alone." i have only space to refer to one or two points. the fire was spontaneous. the story of mrs. o'leary's cow having started the conflagration by kicking over a lantern was proved to be false. it was the access of gas from the tail of biela's comet that burned up chicago! the fire-marshal testified: "i felt it in my bones that we were going to have a burn." he says, speaking of o'leary's barn: "we got the fire under control, and it would not have gone a foot farther; but the next thing i knew they came and told me that st. paul's church, about two squares north, was on fire."[ ] they checked the church-fire, but-- "the next thing i knew the fire was in bateham's planing-mill." a writer in the new york "evening post" says he saw in chicago "buildings far beyond the line of fire, _and in no contact with it, burst into flames from the interior_." [ . see "history of the great conflagration," sheahan & upton, chicago, , p. .] {p. } it must not be forgotten that the fall of was marked by extraordinary conflagrations in regions widely separated. on the th. of october, _the same day_ the wisconsin, michigan, and chicago fires broke out, the states of iowa, minnesota, indiana, and illinois were severely devastated by prairie-fires; while terrible fires raged on the alleghanies, the sierras of the pacific coast, and the rocky mountains, and in the region of the red river of the north. "the annual record of science and industry" for , page , says: "for weeks before and after the great fire in chicago in , great areas of forest and prairie-land, both in the united states and the british provinces, were on fire." the flames that consumed a great part of chicago were of an unusual character and produced extraordinary effects. they absolutely _melted_ the hardest building-stone, which had previously been considered fire-proof. iron, glass, granite, were fused and run together into grotesque conglomerates, as if they had been put through a blast-furnace. no kind of material could stand its breath for a moment. i quote again from sheahan & upton's work: "the huge stone and brick structures melted before the fierceness of the flames as a snow-flake melts and disappears in water, and almost as quickly. six-story buildings would take fire and _disappear for ever from sight in five minutes by the watch_. . . . the fire also doubled on its track at the great union depot and burned half a mile southward _in the very teeth of the gale_--a gale which blew a perfect tornado, and in which no vessel could have lived on the lake. . . . _strange, fantastic fires of blue, red, and green played along the cornices of buildings_."[ ] [ . "history of the chicago fire," pp. , .] {p. } hon. william b. ogden wrote at the time: "the fire was accompanied by the fiercest tornado of wind ever known to blow here."[ ] "the most striking peculiarity of the fire was its intense heat. nothing exposed to it escaped. amid the hundreds of acres left bare there is not to be found a piece of wood of any description, and, _unlike most fires, it left nothing half burned_. . . . the fire swept the streets of all the ordinary dust and rubbish, consuming it instantly."[ ] the athens marble burned like coal! "the intensity of the heat may be judged, and the thorough combustion of everything wooden may be understood, when we state that in the yard of one of the large agricultural-implement factories was stacked some hundreds of tons of pig-iron. this iron was two hundred feet from any building. to the south of it was the river, one hundred and fifty feet wide. no large building but the factory was in the immediate vicinity of the fire. yet, so great was the heat, that _this pile of iron melted and run, and is now in one large and nearly solid mass_."[ ] the amount of property destroyed was estimated by mayor medill at one hundred and fifty million dollars; and the number of people rendered houseless, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand. several hundred lives were lost. all this brings before our eyes vividly the condition of things when the comet struck the earth; when conflagrations spread over wide areas; when human beings were consumed by the million; when their works were obliterated, and the remnants of the multitude fled before the rushing flames, filled with unutterable consternation; [ . "history of the chicago fire," p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } and as they jumped pell-mell into wells, so we have seen them in job clambering down ropes into the narrow-mouthed, bottomless pit. who shall say how often the characteristics of our atmosphere have been affected by accessions from extraterrestrial sources, resulting in conflagrations or pestilences, in failures of crops, and in famines? who shall say how far great revolutions and wars and other perturbations of humanity have been due to similar modifications? there is a world of philosophy in that curious story, "dr. ox's hobby," wherein we are told how he changed the mental traits of a village of hollanders by increasing the amount of oxygen in the air they breathed. {p. } chapter vi. the universal belief of mankind. there are some thoughts and opinions which we seem to take by inheritance; we imbibe them with our mothers' milk; they are in our blood; they are received insensibly in childhood. we have seen the folk-lore of the nations, passing through the endless and continuous generation of children, unchanged from the remotest ages. in the same way there is an untaught but universal feeling which makes all mankind regard comets with fear and trembling, and which unites all races of men in a universal belief that some day the world will be destroyed by fire. there are many things which indicate that a far-distant, prehistoric race existed in the background of egyptian and babylonian development, and that from this people, highly civilized and educated, we have derived the arrangement of the heavens into constellations, and our divisions of time into days, weeks, years, and centuries. this people stood much nearer the drift age than we do. they understood it better. their legends and religious beliefs were full of it. the gods carved on hindoo temples or painted on the walls of assyrian, peruvian, or american structures, the flying dragons, the winged gods, the winged animals, gucumatz, rama, siva, vishnu, tezcatlipoca, were painted in the very colors of the clays which came from the disintegration of the granite, "red, {p. } white, and blue," the very colors which distinguished the comet; and they are all reminiscences of that great monster. the idols of the pagan world are, in fact, congealed history, and will some day be intelligently studied as such. doubtless this ancient astronomical, zodiac-building, and constellation-constructing race taught the people the true doctrine of comets; taught that the winding serpent, the flying dragon, the destructive winged dog, or wolf, or lion, whose sphinx-like images now frown upon us from ancient walls and door-ways, were really comets; taught how one of them had actually struck the earth; and taught that in the lapse of ages another of these multitudinous wanderers of space would again encounter our globe, and end all things in one universal conflagration. and down through the race this belief has come, and down through the race it will go, to the consummation of time. we find this "day of wrath" prefigured in the words of malachi, (chap. iv, v. ): " . for behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. " . but unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. " . and ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that i shall do this, saith the lord of hosts." we find the same great catastrophe foretold in the book of revelation, (chap. xii, v. ): "and there appeared another _wonder in heaven_; and behold a great red _dragon_, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. {p. } " . _and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth_." and again, (chap. vi): " . and i beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; _and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair_, and the moon became as blood; " . _and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth_, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. " . and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and _every mountain and island were moved out of their places_. " . and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every freeman, _hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains_; " . and said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb . _for the great day of his wrath is come_, and who shall be able to stand?" here we seem to have the story of job over again, in this prefiguration of the future. the ethiopian copy of the apocryphal book of enoch contains a poem, which is prefixed to the body of that work, and which the learned author of "nimrod" supposes to be authentic. it certainly dates from a vast antiquity. it is as follows: "enoch, a righteous man, who was with god, answered and spoke while his eyes were open, and while _he saw a holy vision in the heavens_. . . . "upon this account i spoke, and conversed with him who will _go forth from his habitation_, the holy and mighty one, the god of the world. "who will hereafter tread upon the mountain sinai, and _appear with his hosts_, and he manifested in the strength of his power from heaven. {p. } "all shall be afraid, and the watchers be terrified. great fear and trembling shall seize even to the ends of the earth. "the lofty mountains shall be troubled, and the exalted hills depressed, _melting like honeycomb in the flame_. "the earth shall be _immerged_, and _all things_ which are in it _perish_. . . . "he shall preserve the elect, and toward them exercise clemency. . . . the whole earth is full of water." this is either history or prophecy. in the second epistle general of peter, (chap. iii,) we have some allusions to the past, and some prophecies based upon the past, which are very curious: verse . "for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of god the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water." that is to say, the earth was, as in ovid and ragnarok, and the legends generally, an island, "standing out of the water and in the water." verse . "whereby _the world that then was_, being overflowed with water, perished." this seems to refer to the island atlantis, "overflowed with water," and destroyed, as told by plato; thereby forming a very distinct connection between the island of poseidon and the deluge of noah. we read on: verse . "but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, _reserved unto fire_ against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." verse . "but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." {p. } the gothic mythology tells us that surt, with his flaming sword, "shall come at the end of the world; he shall vanquish all the gods; he shall give up the universe a prey to the flames." this belief in the ultimate destruction of the world and all its inhabitants by fire was found among the american races as well as those of the old world: "the same terror inspired the peruvians at every eclipse; for some day--taught the amantas--the shadow will veil the sun for ever, and land, moon, and stars will be wrapped in a devouring conflagration, to know no regeneration."[ ] the algonquin races believed that some day michabo "will stamp his foot on the ground, flames will burst forth to consume the habitable land; only a pair, or only, at most, those who have maintained inviolate the institutions he ordained, will he protect and preserve to inhabit the new world he will then fabricate."[ ] nearly all the american tribes had similar presentiments. the chickasaws, the mandans of the missouri, the pueblo indians of new mexico, the muyscas of bogota, the botocudos of brazil, the araucanians of chili, the winnebagoes, all have possessed such a belief from time immemorial. the mayas of yucatan had a prediction which father lizana, _curé_ of itzamal, preserved in the spanish language: "at the close of the ages, it hath been decreed, shall perish and vanish each weak god of men, and the world shall be _purged with ravening fire_." we know that among our own people, the european races, this looking forward to a conflagration which is to end all things is found everywhere; and that everywhere a comet is regarded with terror. it is a messenger of [ . brinton's "myths," p. . . ibid.] {p. } woe and disaster; it is a dreadful threat shining in the heavens; it is "god's rod," even as it was in job's day. i could fill pages with the proofs of the truth of this statement. an ancient writer, describing the great meteoric shower of the year , says: "the stars flew against one another like a scattering swarm of locusts, to the right and left; this phenomenon lasted until daybreak; people were thrown into consternation and cried to god, the most high, with confused clamor."[ ] the great meteoric display of produced similar effects. an historian of the time says: "those who saw it were filled with such great fear and dismay that they were astounded, imagining that they were all dead men, and that the end of the world had come."[ ] how could such a universal terror have fixed itself in the blood of the race, if it had not originated from some great primeval fact? and all this terror is associated with a dragon. and chambers says: "the dragon appears in the mythical history and legendary poetry of almost every nation, as the emblem of the destructive and anarchical principle; . . . as misdirected physical force and untamable animal passions. . . . the dragon proceeds openly to work, running on its feet with expanded wings, and head and tail erect, violently and ruthlessly outraging decency and propriety, _spouting fire and fury from both mouth and tail, and wasting and devastating the whole land_."[ ] this fiery monster is the comet. [ . popular science monthly," june, , p. . . ibid., p. . . "chambers's encyclopaedia," vol. iii, p. .] {p. } and milton speaks from the same universal inspiration when he tells us: "a comet burned, that fires the length of ophiucus huge in th' arctic sky, and _from its horrid hair shakes pestilence and war_." and in the shakespeare plays[ ] we read: "hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! comets, importing change of times and states, brandish your crystal tresses in the sky; and with them scourge the bad revolting stars." man, by an inherited instinct, regards the comet as a great terror and a great foe; and the heart of humanity sits uneasily when one blazes in the sky. even to the scholar and the scientist they are a puzzle and a fear; they are erratic, unusual, anarchical, monstrous--something let loose, like a tiger of the heavens, athwart an orderly, peaceful, and harmonious world. they may be impalpable and harmless attenuations of gas, or they way be loaded with death and ruin; but in any event man can not contemplate them without terror. [ . henry vi, , .] {p. } chapter vii. the earth struck by comets many times. if the reader is satisfied, from my reasoning and the facts i have adduced, that the so-called glacial age really represents a collision of the earth with one of these wandering luminaries of space, the question can not but occur to him, was this the first and only occasion, during all the thousands of millions of years that our planet has been revolving on its axis and circling around the sun, that such a catastrophe has occurred? the answer must be in the negative. we find that all through the rocky record of our globe the same phenomena which we have learned to recognize as peculiar to the drift age are, at distant intervals, repeated. the long ages of the palæozoic time passed with few or no disturbances. the movements of the earth's crust oscillated at a rate not to exceed one foot in a century.[ ] it was an age of peace. then came a tremendous convulsion. it has been styled by the geologists "the epoch of the appalachian revolution." "strata were upraised and flexed into great (olds, some of the folds a score or more of miles in span. deep fissures were opened in the earth's crust," like the fiords or great rock-cracks which accompanied the diluvial or drift age. "rocks were consolidated; and over some parts sandstones and shales were crystallized into gneiss, [ . dana's "text-book," p. .] {p. } mica-schist, and other related rocks, and limestone into architectural and statuary marble. bituminous coal was turned into anthracite in pennsylvania."[ ] i copy from the same work (p. ) the following cut, showing the extent to which the rocks were crushed out of shape: ### section on the schuylkill, pennsylvania. _p, pottsville on the coal-measures; , calciferous formation; , trenton; , hudson river; , oneida and niagara; , lower helderberg; , , , devonian; , , subcarboniferous; , carboniferous, or coal-measures._ these tremendous changes were caused by a pressure of some kind which came from the east, from where the atlantic ocean now rolls. "it was due to a _lateral_ pressure, the folding having taken place just as it might in paper or cloth under a lateral or _pushing_ movement."[ ] "it was accompanied by _great heat_ which melted and consolidated the rocks, changed their condition, drove the volatile gases out of the bituminous coal and changed it into anthracite, in some places altered it to graphite, as if it had been passed through a furnace."[ ] it also made an almost universal slaughter of all forms of life: "the extermination of life which took place at this time was one of the most extensive in all geological history; . . . no fossils of the carboniferous formation occur in later rocks."[ ] [ . dana's "text-book," p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } it was accompanied or followed, as in the drift age, by tremendous floods of water; the evaporated seas returned to the earth in wasting storms: "the waters commenced the work of denudation, which has been continued to the present time."[ ] is not all this a striking confirmation of my theory? here we find that, long before the age of man, a fearful catastrophe happened to the earth. its rocks were melted--not merely decomposed, as in the drift age,--but actually melted and metamorphosed; the heat, as in the drift age, sucked up the waters of the seas, to cast them down again in great floods; it wiped out nearly all the life of the planet, even as the drift age exterminated the great mammals; whatever drift then fell probably melted with the burning rocks. here are phenomena which no ice-sheet, though it were a thousand miles thick, can explain; here is heat, not ice; combustion, not cold; and yet all these phenomena are but the results which we have seen would naturally follow the contact of the earth with a comet. but while, in this particular case, the size of the comet, or its more fiery nature, melted the surface of the globe, and changed the very texture of the solid rocks, we find in the geological record the evidences of repeated visitations when drift was thrown upon the earth in great quantities; but the heat, as in the last drift age, was not great enough to consume all things. in the cambrian formation, conglomerates are found, combinations of stones and hardened clay, very much like the true "till." in the lower silurian of the south of scotland, large blocks and bowlders (from one foot to five feet in diameter) [ . dana's "text-book," p. .] {p. } are found, "of gneiss, syenite, granite, etc., none of which belong to the rocks of that neighborhood." geikie says: "possibly these bowlders may have come from some ancient atlantis, transported by ice."[ ] the conglomerates belonging to the old red sandstone formation in the north of england and in scotland, we are told, "closely resemble a consolidated bowlder drift."[ ] near victoria, in australia, a conglomerate was found _nearly one hundred feet in thickness_. "great beds of conglomerate occur at the bottom of the carboniferous, in various parts of scotland, which it is difficult to believe are other than ancient morainic _débris_. they are frequently quite unstratified, and the stones _often show that peculiar blunted form which is so characteristic of glacial work_."[ ] professor ramsay found well-scratched and blunted stones in a permian conglomerate. in the north of scotland, a coarse, bowlder-conglomerate is associated with the jurassic strata. the cretaceous formation has yielded great stones and bowlders. in the eocene of switzerland, erratics have been found, some angular and some rounded. they often attain great size; one measured one hundred and five feet in length, ninety feet in breadth, and forty-five feet in height. some of the blocks consist of _a kind of granite not known to occur anywhere in the alps_. geikie says: "the occurrence in the eocene of huge ice-carried blocks seems _incomprehensible_ when the general character of the eocene fossils is taken into account, for these have a somewhat _tropical_ aspect. so, likewise, the appearance of ice-transported blocks in the miocene is a _sore puzzle_, [ . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. . . ibid.] {p. } as the fossils imbedded in this formation speak to us of tropical and sub-tropical climates having prevailed in central europe."[ ] it was precisely during the age when a warm climate prevailed in spitzbergen and north greenland that these erratics were dropped down on the plains of italy! and, strange to say, just as we have found the drift-deposits of europe and america unfossiliferous,--that is to say, containing no traces of animal or vegetable life,--so these strange stone and clay deposits of other and more ancient ages were in like manner unfossiliferous.[ ] in the "flysch" of the eocene of the alps, few or no fossils have been found. in the conglomerates of turin, belonging to the upper miocene period, not a single organic remain has been found. what conclusion is forced upon us? that, written in the rocky pages of the great volume of the planet, are the records of _repeated visitations from the comets_ which then rushed through the heavens. no trace is left of their destructive powers, save the huge, unstratified, unfossiliferous deposits of clay and stones and bowlders, locked away between great layers of the sedimentary rocks. can it be that there wanders through immeasurable space, upon an orbit of such size that millions of years are required to complete it, some monstrous luminary, so vast that when it returns to us it fills a large part of the orbit which the earth describes around the sun, and showers down upon us deluges of _débris_, while it fills the world with flame? and are these recurring strata of stones and clay and bowlders, written upon these widely separated pages of the geologic volume, the record of its oft and regularly recurring visitations? [ . "the great ice age," p. . . ibid., p. .] {p. } who shall say? science will yet compare minutely the composition of these different conglomerates. no secret can escape discovery when the light of a world's intelligence is brought to bear upon it. and even here we stumble over a still more tremendous fact: it has been supposed that the primeval granite was the molten crust of the original glowing ball of the earth, when it first hardened as it cooled. but, lo! the microscope, (so professor whichell tells us,) reveals that this very granite, this foundation of all our rocks, this ancient globe-crust, is itself made up of sedimentary rocks, which were melted, fused, and run together in some awful conflagration which wiped out all life on the planet. beyond the granite, then, there were seas and shores, winds and rains, rivers and sediment carried into the waters to form the rocks melted up in this granite; there were countless ages; possibly there were animals and man; but all melted and consumed together. was this, too, the result of a comet visitation? who shall tell the age of this old earth? who shall count the ebbs and flows of eternity? who shall say how often this planet has been developed up to the highest forms of life, and how often all this has been obliterated in universal fire? the earth is one great tomb of life: "all that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom." in endless series the ages stretch along--birth, life, development, destruction. and so shall it be till time is no more. {p. } chapter viii. the after-word. when that magnificent genius, francis bacon, sent forth one of his great works to the world, he wrote this prayer: "thou, o father, who gavest the visible light as the first-born of thy creatures, and didst pour into man the intellectual light as the top and consummation of thy workmanship, be pleased to protect and govern this work, which coming from thy goodness returneth to thy glory. . . . we humbly beg that this mind may be steadfastly in us; and that thou, by our hands and the hands of others, on whom thou shalt bestow the same spirit, wilt please to convey a largess of new alms to thy family of mankind." and again he says: "this also we beg, that human things may not prejudice such as are divine; neither that from the unlocking of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural light, anything of incredulity, or intellectual night, may arise in our minds toward divine mysteries." in the same spirit, but humbly halting afar after this illustrious man, i should be sorry to permit this book to go out to the world without a word to remove the impression which some who read it, and may believe it, may form, that such a vast catastrophe as i have depicted militates against the idea that god rules and cares for his world and his creatures. it will be asked, if "there is a special providence even in the fall of a sparrow," how {p. } could he have permitted such a calamity as this to overtake a beautiful, populous, and perhaps civilized world? here we fall again upon the great debate of job, and we may answer in the words which the author of that book puts into the mouth of god himself, when from out the whirlwind he answered him: "shall he that contendeth with the almighty instruct him "he that reproveth god, let him answer." in other words, who and what is man to penetrate the counsels and purposes of the creator; and who are you, job?-- "where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth? declare it, if thou hast understanding. "who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who has stretched the line upon it? "whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof? "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of god shouted for joy." consider, job, the littleness of man, the greatness of the universe; and what right have you to ask him, who made all this, the reasons for his actions? and this is a sufficient answer: a creature seventy inches long prying into the purposes of an awful something, whose power ranges so far that blazing suns are seen only as mist-specks! but i may make another answer: although it seems that many times have comets smitten the earth, covering it with _débris_, or causing its rocks to boil, and its waters to ascend into the heavens, yet, considering all life, as revealed in the fossils, from the first cells unto this day, _nothing has perished that was worth preserving_. {p. } so far as we can judge, after every cataclysm the world has risen to higher levels of creative development. if i am right, despite these incalculable tons of matter piled on the earth, despite heat and cyclones and darkness and ice and floods, not even a tender tropical plant fit to adorn or sustain man's life was blotted out; not an animal valuable for domestication was exterminated; and not even the great inventions which man had attained to, during the tertiary age, were lost. nothing died but that which stood in the pathway of man's development,--the monstrous animals, the neanderthal races, the half-human creatures intermediate between man and the brute. the great centers of human activity to-day in europe and america are upon the drift-deposits; the richest soils are compounded of the so-called glacial clays. doubtless, too, the human brain was forced during the drift age to higher reaches of development under the terrible ordeals of the hour. surely, then, we can afford to leave god's planets in god's hands. not a particle of dust is whirled in the funnel of the cyclone but god identifies it, and has marked its path. if we fall again upon "axe-ages, sword-ages, wind-ages, murder-ages-- if "sensual sins grow huge"; if "brother spoils brother" if sodom and gomorrah come again--who can say that god may not bring out of the depths of space a rejuvenating comet? be assured of one thing--this world tends now to a deification of matter. dives says: "the earth is firm under my feet; i own my possessions down to the center of the earth and up to {p. } the heavens. if fire sweeps away my houses, the insurance company reimburses me; if mobs destroy them, the government pays me; if civil war comes, i can convert them into bonds and move away until the storm is over; if sickness comes, i have the highest skill at my call to fight it back; if death comes, i am again insured, and my estate makes money by the transaction; and if there is another world than this, still am i insured: i have taken out a policy in the ----- church, and pay my premiums semiannually to the minister." and dives has an unexpressed belief that heaven is only a larger wall street, where the millionaires occupy the front benches, while those who never had a bank account on earth sing in the chorus. speak to dives of lifting up the plane of all the underfed, under-paid, benighted millions of the earth--his fellow-men--to higher levels of comfort, and joy, and intelligence--not tearing down any but building up all--and dives can not understand you. ah, dives! consider, if there is no other life than this, the fate of these uncounted millions of your race! what does existence give to them? what do they get out of all this abundant and beautiful world? to look down the vista of such a life as theirs is like gazing into one of the corridors of the catacombs: an alley filled with reeking bones of dead men; while from the cross-arches, waiting for the poor man's coming on, ghastly shapes look out:--sickness and want and sin and grim despair and red-eyed suicide. put yourself in his place, dives, locked up in such a cavern as that, and the key thrown away! do not count too much, dives, on your lands and houses and parchments; your guns and cannon and laws; your insurance companies and your governments. there {p. } may be even now one coming from beyond arcturus, or aldebaran, or coma berenices, with glowing countenance and horrid hair, and millions of tons of _débris_, to overwhelm you and your possessions, and your corporations, and all the ant-like devices of man in one common ruin. build a little broader, dives. establish spiritual relations. matter is not everything. you do not deal in certainties. you are but a vitalized speck, filled with a fraction of god's delegated intelligence, crawling over an egg-shell filled with fire, whirling madly through infinite space, a target for the bombs of a universe. take your mind off your bricks and mortar, and put out your tentacles toward the great spiritual world around you. open communications with god. you can not help god. for him who made the milky way you can do nothing. but here are his creatures. not a nerve, muscle, or brain-convolution of the humblest of these but duplicates your own; you excel them simply in the coordination of certain inherited faculties which have given you success. widen your heart. put your intellect to work to so readjust the values of labor, and increase the productive capacity of nature, that plenty and happiness, light and hope, may dwell in every heart, and the catacombs be closed for ever. and from such a world god will fend off the comets with his great right arm, and the angels will exult over it in heaven. end of ragnarok: the age of fire and gravel the mafulu mountain people of british new guinea robert w. williamson with an introduction by a. c. haddon, sc.d., f.r.s. with illustrations and map macmillan and co., limited st. martin's street, london preface this book is the outcome of an expedition to british new guinea in , in which, after a short stay among the people of some of the western solomon islands, including those of that old centre of the head hunters, the rubiana lagoon, and a preparatory and instructive journey in new guinea among the large villages of the mekeo district, i struck across country by a little known route, via lapeka, to ido-ido and on to dilava, and thus passed by way of further preparation through the kuni country, and ultimately reached the district of the mafulu villages, of whose people very little was known, and which was therefore the mecca of my pilgrimage. i endeavoured to carry out the enquiries of which the book is a record as carefully and accurately as possible; but it must be remembered that the mafulu people had seen very few white men, except some of the fathers of the catholic mission of the sacred heart, the visits of government officials and once or twice of a scientific traveller having been but few and far between, and only short; that the mission station in mafulu (the remotest station of the mission) had only been established five years previously; that the people were utterly unaccustomed to the type of questioning which systematic ethnological enquiry involves, and that necessarily there was often the usual hesitation in giving the required information. i cannot doubt, therefore, that future enquiries and investigations made in the same district will bring to light errors and misunderstandings, which even with the greatest care can hardly be avoided in the case of a first attempt on new ground, where everything has to be investigated and worked up from the beginning. i hope, however, that the bulk of my notes will be found to have been correct in substance so far as they go. i regret that my ignorance of tropical flora and fauna has made it impossible for me to give the names of many of the plants and animals to which i refer. there are many people, more than i can mention here, to whom i owe my grateful thanks. prior to my departure for the south seas dr. haddon took great trouble in helping and advising me, and, indeed, i doubt whether i should have ventured upon my solitary expedition if i had not had his stimulating encouragement. in new guinea i had the never-failing hospitality and kindness of my good friend monseigneur de boismenu (the bishop of the mission of the sacred heart) and the fathers and brothers of the mission. among the latter i would specially mention father egedi and father clauser. father egedi (whose name is already familiar to students of new guinea ethnology) was my friend and travelling companion during a portion of my journeyings through the mekeo and kuni districts, and his mekeo explanations proved invaluable to me when i reached my mafulu destination. and dear good father clauser was a pillar of help in mafulu. he placed at my disposal all his existing knowledge concerning the people, and was my intermediary and interpreter throughout all my enquiries. and finally, when having at some risk prolonged my stay at mafulu until those enquiries were completed, i was at last compelled by the serious state of my health to beat a retreat, and be carried down to the coast, he undertook to do the whole of my photographing and physical measurements, and the care and skill with which he did so are evidenced by the results as disclosed in this book. [ ] i must also add that the frontispiece and plates , , , and are taken from previous photographs which father clauser kindly placed at my disposal. my remembrance of his lordship the bishop, and of the reverend fathers and the brothers of the mission will ever be one of affectionate personal regard, and of admiration of the spirit of heroic self-sacrifice which impels them to submit cheerfully to the grave and constant hardships and dangers to which their labour of love necessarily exposes them. since my return home dr. seligmann has given me immense help, advising me upon my notes, placing material at my disposal, and afterwards reading through a considerable portion of my manuscript. mr. t.a. joyce and mr. j. edge partington helped me in arranging and dealing with the things which i had brought back to the british museum. dr. keith examined and reported upon some skulls which i had obtained, and advised me upon my notes on physique. dr. stapf helped me in matters of botanical identification; mr. s.h. ray has given me the full benefit of his wide knowledge of south pacific linguistics, and has written the appendices to the book. and, finally, dr. haddon has very kindly read through my proof sheets. in conclusion, i would add that there is still an immense amount of detailed work to be done among the mafulu people, and that the districts of the ambo and boboi and oru lopiku people, still further back among the mountains, offer an almost virgin field for investigation to anyone who will take the trouble to go there. contents introduction, by dr. a.c. haddon chapter i introductory chapter ii physique and character chapter iii dress and ornament chapter iv daily life and matters connected with it chapter v community, clan, and village systems and chieftainship chapter vi villages, emone, houses and modes of inter-village communication chapter vii government, property and inheritance chapter viii the big feast chapter ix some other ceremonies and feasts chapter x matrimonial and sexual chapter xi killing, cannibalism and warfare chapter xii hunting, fishing and agriculture chapter xiii bark cloth making, netting and art chapter xiv music and singing, dancing, and toys and games chapter xv counting, currency and trade chapter xvi language chapter xvii illness, death and burial chapter xviii religion and superstitious beliefs and practices chapter xix note on the kuni people chapter xx conclusion appendix i a grammar of the fuyuge language appendix ii note on the afoa language appendix iii note on the kovio language appendix iv a comparative vocabulary of the fuyuge, afoa, and kovio languages appendix v notes on the papuan languages spoken about the head waters of the st. joseph river, central papua plates mafulu women decorated for a dance. ... _frontispiece_ kuni scenery. mafulu scenery. skull a. skull c. husband, wife and child. man and two women. , man, young man and boy. different types of men. an unusual type. , two unusual types. fig. . section of man's perineal band. fig. . decoration near end of woman's perineal band. fig. . section of woman's perineal band. fig. . section of man's or woman's dancing ribbon. fig. . belt no. . fig. . belt no. . fig. . belt no. . fig. . belt no. (one end only). fig. . belt no. (one end only). fig. . belt no. . a general group. a young chief's sister decorated for a dance. , women wearing illness recovery capes. fig. . ear-rings. fig. . jew's harp. fig. . hair fringe. man, woman and children. , a little girl with head decorations. figs. , , , and . women's hair plaits decorated with european beads, shells, shell discs, dog's tooth, and betel nut fruit. fig. . man's hair plait with cane pendant. fig. . man's hair plait with betel nut pendant. fig. . leg band. figs. and . women's hair plaits decorated with shells and dogs' teeth. fig. . bone implement used (as a fork) for eating. group of women. a young woman. two women. two women. fig. . mourning string necklace. fig. . comb. fig. . pig's tail ornament for head. fig. . whip lash head ornament. fig. . forehead ornament. necklaces. a necklace. necklaces. fig. . armlet no. . fig. . armlet no. . fig. . armlet no. . fig. . armlet no. . woman wearing dancing apron. , decoration of dancing aprons. , decoration of dancing aprons. , decoration of dancing aprons. , decoration of dancing aprons. head feather ornaments. head feather ornaments. fig. . head feather ornament. fig. . back feather ornament. plaited head feather frames. mother and baby. at the spring. a social gathering. fig. . small smoking pipe. fig. . pig-bone scraping implement. fig. . stone bark cloth beater. fig. . drilling implement. fig. . bamboo knife. figs. and . lime gourds. fig. . wooden dish. figs. and . water-carrying gourds. fig. . bag no. . fig. . bag no. . fig. . bag. no. . village of salube and surrounding country. village of seluku, with chiefs _emone_ at end and remains of broken-down burial platform in middle. village of amalala, with chiefs _emone_ at end.. village of amalala (looking in other direction), with secondary _emone_ at end. village of malala, with secondary _emone_ at end and ordinary grave and burial platform of chief's child in right foreground. village of uvande, with chief's _emone_ at end. village of biave, with chief's _emone_ at end and burial platform of chief's child in middle. chief's _emone_ in village of amalala. chief's _emone_ in village of malala. house in village of malala. house in village of levo, with child's excrement receptacle to left. suspension bridge over st. joseph river. bridge over aduala river. scene at big feast in village of amalala. row of killed pigs at big feast at village of amalala. scene at village of seluku during preparations for big feast. scene at big feast at village of seluku. young girl ornamented for perineal band ceremony. feast at perineal band ceremony. figs, , , and . points of war spears. fig. . point of war-arrow. fig. . point of bird-shooting arrow. fig. . bow. fig. . shield (outside). fig. . shield (inside). fig. . club (pineapple type of head). fig. . club (disc type of head). fig. . drum. fig. . adze. fishing weir. planting yams in garden. collecting sweet potatoes in garden. hammering bark cloth. the ine pandanus. mafulu network. funeral feast (not of chief). guests assembled to commence dance down village enclosure. the same funeral feast. guest chief dancing down village enclosure. platform grave of chief's child at back. ordinary grave in front. group of platform graves of chiefs and their relations. platform grave of a chief's child. , the _gabe_ fig tree, in which chiefs' burial boxes are placed and which is generally believed to be haunted by spirits. the remains of a chiefs burial platform which has collapsed, and beneath which his skull and some of his bones are interred underground. an _emone_ to which are hung the skulls and some of the bones from chiefs' burial platforms which have collapsed. a house with receptacle for child's excrement. map. illustrations in text . leg band making (commencing stage) . ancient mortar . illustrative diagram of a mafulu community of villages . diagram of front of _emone_ (front hood of roof and front platform and portions of front timbers omitted, so as to show interior) . diagram of transverse section across centre of emone . diagrammatic sketch of apse-like projection of roof of _emone_ and platform arrangements . diagram illustrating positions of people during performance at big feast . mafulu net making ( st line of network) . mafulu net making ( nd, rd, and th lines of network) . mafulu net making ( th line of network, to which rest of net is similar in stitch) introduction by dr. a.c. haddon it is a great pleasure to me to introduce mr. williamson's book to the notice of ethnologists and the general public, as i am convinced that it will be read with interest and profit. perhaps i may be permitted in this place to make a few personal remarks. mr. williamson was formerly a solicitor, and always had a great longing to see something of savage life, but it was not till about four years ago that he saw his way to attempting the realisation of this desire by an expedition to melanesia. he made my acquaintance in the summer of , and seeing that he was so keenly interested, i lent him a number of books and all my ms. notes on melanesia; by the help of these and by the study of other books he gained a good knowledge of the ethnology of that area. in november, , he started for oceania for the first time and reached fiji, from which place he had intended to start on his expedition. circumstances over which he had no control, however, prevented the carrying out of his original programme; so he went to sydney, and there arranged modified plans. he was on the point of executing these, when he was again frustrated by a telegram from england which necessitated his immediate return. it was a sad blow to him to have his long-cherished schemes thus thwarted and rendered abortive, but, undaunted, he set about to plan another expedition. accordingly, in january, , he once more set sail for australia as a starting place for the solomon islands and british new guinea, and this time achieved success; the book which he now offers to the public is the result of this plucky enterprise. in justice to the author it should be known that, owing to climatic and other conditions, he was unwell during the whole of his time in new guinea, and had an injured foot and leg that hurt him every step he took. the only wonder is that he was able to accomplish so large and so thorough a piece of work as he has done. it is interesting to note the different ways by which various investigators have entered the field of ethnology. some have approached it from the literary or classical side, but very few indeed of these have ever had any experience in the field. the majority of field workers have had a previous training in science--zoology not unnaturally has sent more recruits than any other branch of science. a few students have been lawyers, but so far as i am aware mr. williamson is the first british lawyer who has gone into the field, and he has proved that legal training may be a very good preliminary discipline for ethnological investigation in the field, as it gives invaluable practice in the best methods of acquiring and sifting of evidence. a lawyer must also necessarily have a wide knowledge of human nature and an appreciation of varied ways of thought and action. it was with such an equipment and fortified by extensive reading in ethnology, that mr. williamson was prepared for his self-imposed task. proof of his powers of observation will be found in the excellent descriptions of objects of material culture with which he has presented us. i now turn to some of the scientific aspects of his book. mr. williamson especially set before himself the work of investigating some tribes in the mountainous hinterland of the mekeo district. this was a most happy selection, though no one could have foreseen the especial interest of these people. thanks mainly to the systematic investigations of dr. seligmann and to the sporadic observations of missionaries, government officials and travellers, we have a good general knowledge of many of the peoples of the eastern coast of the south-eastern peninsula of new guinea, and of some of the islands from the trobriands to the louisiades. the ethnology of the fertile and populous mekeo district has been mainly made known to us by the investigations of various members of the sacred heart mission, and by dr. seligmann. what little we know of the papuan gulf district is due to missionaries among the coastal tribes, mr. james chalmers and mr. w. holmes. dr. g. landtman is at present investigating the natives of the delta of the fly river and daudai. the natives of the torres straits islands have also been studied as fully as is possible. but of the mountain region lying behind the mekeo district very little indeed has been published; so mr. williamson's book fills a gap in our knowledge of papuan ethnology. we have as yet a very imperfect knowledge of the ethnological history of new guinea. speaking very broadly, it is generally admitted that the bulk of the population belongs to the papuan race, a dark-skinned, woolly-haired people who have also spread over western oceania; but, to a greater or less extent, new guinea has been subject to cultural and racial influences from all sides, except from australia, where the movement has been the other way. thus the east indian archipelago has directly affected parts of netherlands new guinea, and its influence is to be traced to a variable degree in localities in the bismarck archipelago, german new guinea (kaiser wilhelm's land), western oceania, and british new guinea or papua, as it is termed officially. the south-eastern peninsula of new guinea--or at all events the coastal regions--has been largely affected by immigrants, who were themselves a mixed people, and who came later at various times. it is to these immigrants that mr. ray and i applied the term melanesian (ray, s. h., and haddon, a. c., "a study of the languages of torres straits," _proc. roy. irish acad._, rd ser., iv., , p. ). early in , mr. ray read a paper before the anthropological institute (_journ. anth. inst._, xxiv., p. ), in which he adhered to our former discrimination of two linguistic stocks and added a third type of language composed of a mixture of the other two, for which he proposed the name melano-papuan. these languages, according to mr. ray, occur in the trobriands, woodlarks and the louisiades, and similar languages are found in the northern solomon islands. for some years i had been studying the decorative art of british new guinea, and from physical and artistic and other cultural reasons had come to the conclusion that the melanesians of british new guinea should be broken up into two elements: one consisting of the motu and allied melanesians, and the other of the inhabitants of the massim district--an area extending slightly beyond that of mr. ray's melano-papuans ("the decorative art of british new guinea," _cunningham memoirs_, x., _roy. irish acad._, , pp. - ). i reinforced my position six years later ("studies in the anthropo-geography of british new guinea," _journ. roy. geog. soc._, , pp. , ). dr. seligmann, in his valuable paper "a classification of the natives of british new guinea" (_journ. roy. anth. inst._, xxxix., , pp. , ) corroborated these views and designated the two groups of "melanesians" as the eastern and western papuo-melanesians. the following year he published the great book to which mr. williamson so frequently refers, and in which this classification is maintained, and these two groups together with the papuans, are termed papuasians. the motu stock of the western papuo-melanesians have extended their dispersal as far as the mekeo district, where they came into contact with other peoples. it has been shown that the true papuans are a narrow-headed people, but there are some puzzling exceptions, the explanation of which is not yet ascertained. the papuo-melanesians contain a somewhat broad-headed element, and there is a slightly broad-headed population in the central range of the south-east peninsula, the extent of which has not yet been determined. the questions naturally arise: ( ) is the true papuan a variable stock including both long- broad-headed elements? or ( ) does the broad-headed element belong to an immigrant people? or, again ( ) is there an hitherto unidentified indigenous broad-headed race? i doubt if the time is ripe for a definite answer to any of these questions. furthermore, we have yet to assign to their original sources the differences in culture which characterise various groups of people in new guinea. something has been done in this direction, but much more has yet to be learnt. so far i have not referred to a negrito element in the ethnology of new guinea. from time to time we have heard rumours of pygmy people, and german travellers have recorded very short individuals in kaiser wilhelm's land; but it was not till the expedition to netherlands new guinea of the british ornithological union of - that a definite pygmy race was demonstrated. i think this can be no longer denied, and the observations made by german ethnologists show that the race in a more or less modified state is widely spread. now mr. williamson, whose work in new guinea was contemporaneous with that of the netherlands new guinea expedition, adduces evidence that this is also the case in british territory. it is worth recalling that de quatrefages and hamy (_crania ethnica_, , pp. - , - ) distinguish a "negrito-papuan" and a "papuan" element in the torres straits. this problem will be discussed in vol. i. of the reports of the cambridge expedition to torres straits. i feel little doubt that mr. williamson has shown strong evidence that the mafulu and probably other adjacent mountain tribes are essentially a pygmy--that is to say a negrito--people who have been modified to some extent by papuan and possibly papuo-melanesian influence, both physical and cultural. he has marshalled his data with great skill, and has dissected out, as it were, the physical and cultural elements of the negrito substratum. it only remains for other observers to study negritos in other parts of new guinea to see how far these claims can be substantiated. it is evident therefore that, apart from the valuable detailed information which mr. williamson has given us concerning a hitherto unknown tribe, he has opened up a problem of considerable interest and magnitude. a.c. haddon. the mafulu mountain people of british new guinea chapter i introductory the map appended to this volume is (with the exception of the red lines and red lettering upon it) a reproduction of a portion of the map relating to the explorations and surveys of dr. strong, mr. monckton and captain barton, which was published in the _geographical journal_ for september, , and the use of which has been kindly permitted me by the royal geographical society. i have eliminated the red route lines which appear in the original map, so as to avoid confusion with the red lines which i have added. the unbroken red lines and the red lettering upon my map are copied from a map, also kindly placed at my disposal, which has been recently prepared by father fillodean of the mission of the sacred heart, and these lines mark roughly what the fathers of the mission believe to be the boundaries of the several linguistic areas within the district covered by their map. it will be observed that some of these lines are not continued so as to surround and complete the definition of the areas which they indicate; but this defect is unavoidable, as the fathers' map only covered a relatively small area, and even in that map the lines were not all carried to its margin. it will also be noticed that, though the fathers introduce the two names oru lopiku and boboi as being linguistically distinct, they have not indicated the boundary line between the two areas. father egedi, however, informed me that this boundary passes along the ridge of hills south of the ufafa river as far as mt. eleia, and thence along the ukalama river to the kuni boundary. the ukalama river is not shown in the geographical society's map; but i may say that it is shown in the fathers' map as rising in mt. eleia, and flowing thence in a south-easterly direction, and so joining the st. joseph river close to dilava. the broken red line upon my map does not appear in the fathers' map, but has been added by me to indicate what, i understand, the fathers believe to be a continued boundary, so far as ascertained, of the fuyuge linguistic area, called by them the mafulu area, to which i am about to draw attention. the term mafulu is the kuni pronunciation of mambule, which is the name, as used by themselves, of the people who live in a group of villages within and near the north-westerly corner of the area of the fuyuge-speaking people, whose papuan language, so far as ascertained, appears, subject to local dialectal differences, to be the same, and may, i was informed, be regarded as one common language throughout the fuyuge area. the fathers of the mission have adopted the name mafulu in a wider sense, as including all the people with whom they have come in contact of the fuyuge-speaking area; and, though my investigations, which form the subject-matter of this book, have been conducted only in the neighbourhood of mafulu itself, i was assured that, so far as the fathers have been able to ascertain, all these fuyuge people not only have similar languages, but also are substantially similar in physique and in culture. my observations concerning the mafulu people may therefore, if this statement is correct, be regarded as applying, not only to the inhabitants of the portion of the north-westerly corner of the fuyuge area in which the mafulu group of villages is placed, but to those of the whole of the north-westerly portion of the area, and generally in a greater or less degree of accuracy to those of the northerly and north-easterly parts of the area, and possibly the southerly ones also. the boundaries of this fuyuge-speaking area can hardly be regarded as definitely ascertained; and the discrepancies, even as regards the courses of the rivers and the positions of the mountains, which appear in the few available maps make it difficult to deal with the question. the area, so far as actually ascertained by the fathers of the mission, roughly speaking, covers, and seems to extend also some distance to the south or south-west of a triangle, the western apex of which is the junction of the river kea with the river aduala (a tributary of the st. joseph), [ ] whose north-eastern apex is mt. albert edward, and whose south-eastern apex is mt. scratchley. it includes the valley of the aduala river and its streams (except those flowing into it from the north in the region of the western apex of the triangle) within its northern boundary, and the valley of the upper vanapa river and its rivers and streams in the neighbourhood of its eastern boundary; but this eastern boundary has been found to extend also so as to include the upper valley of the river chirima. how far the area extends to the south or south-west of the triangle above mentioned appears to be uncertain. the linguistic area to the north of the mafulu or fuyuge people is that of the ambo people, who are somewhat similar in appearance to the mafulu, and whose language is also papuan, and, though differing from the mafulu language, is, i was told, somewhat similar to it in grammatical construction and as regards a few of its words. the area to the west is that of the kuni people, whose language is melanesian, but whose ordinary modes of life are, i was informed, more like those of the mafulu than are those of the papuan-speaking ambo. the areas to the east and south cannot be so definitely stated, but are dealt with below. as regards these ambo people i may, in view of divergences of names which appear in maps, explain that ambo is a contraction of ambore, and is the name given to the people by their mafulu neighbours, whilst afoa is the name given to them by the kuni people, and is adopted in the geographical society's map. [ ] as regards the kuni people, their name is the one adopted by themselves. concerning the boundaries of the fuyuge linguistic area as above indicated, and the people whose districts adjoin that area, i propose here to draw attention to four names, and to refer to some observations bearing on the subject of the probable fuyuge boundary which are to be found in existing literature. the term kovio, though primarily the name of mt. yule, and properly applicable to the people living in the neighbourhood of that mountain, is now, i think, often used to express all the mountain tribes of the hinterland of the mekeo and pokau, and perhaps the kabadi, districts. but the use of this name has not, i believe, been generally associated with any question of linguistics. the area in the map which is called by the fathers boboi is occupied by people whose language, i was told by the fathers, is papuan, but is distinct from the languages of the ambo and the fuyuge areas. kamaweka is a name which appears in several of dr. seligmann's publications. it seems to have been originally used by captain barton to designate the natives of the district of which inavaurene, to the north-east of the mekeo plains, is the centre, but to have been afterwards regarded as a somewhat more general term; and i think dr. seligmann uses it in a very general sense, almost, if not quite, equivalent to the wide application above referred to of the term kovio, and which might include the papuan-speaking boboi and ambo people, and even perhaps the people of the northern mafulu villages. [ ] but here again the use of the name has, i think, no reference to linguistics. if the fathers' linguistic boundary lines are substantially correct, each of the two terms kovio and kamaweka, as now used, would appear to cover more than one linguistic area; and in any case these terms seem to have widened and to have become somewhat indefinite. it will be seen on reference to the map and to father egedi's information as to the oru lopiku and boboi boundaries that both mt. yule and inavaurene are within the area which the fathers call oru lopiku, but that inavaurene is not far from their boboi area. i suggest that it would be convenient for the present, pending further investigation and delimitation on the spot, and until we know something of the difference between the languages of the oru lopiku and boboi people, to adopt the term kovio as a general name for, and confine it to, the two areas boboi and oru lopiku; though for linguistic purposes the names boboi and oru lopiku, which at present indicate very little to us, may eventually be accepted and come into general use. the koiari people of the foothills and lateral spurs behind the motu area, also referred to from time to time in dr. seligmann's writings, must be eastern next door neighbours of the fuyuge-speaking people, the western boundary of these koiari being stated by him to be the vanapa river, [ ] and they being in fact regarded by him as being the eastern neighbours of the natives of "the mountains inland of mekeo nara and kabadi," [ ] and being referred to by him as being the people from whose district the kamaweka and kuni are reached by "passing westward"--the word used is "eastward," but this is obviously a printer's error--"in the mountains, keeping roughly parallel with the coast." [ ] turning to the question of the fuyuge boundary, dr. strong says that the fuyuge people occupy the upper waters of the st. joseph river, [ ] and he is quoted by dr. seligmann as having stated that the afoa language "is spoken in the villages on mt. pizoko and the northern slopes of mt. davidson," and that "the afoa villages lie to the north of the fuyuge-speaking communities, stretching westward for an unknown distance behind mt. davidson." [ ] if the information given to me verbally by the fathers of the mission of the sacred heart and the red linguistic boundary lines roughly drawn by them, and introduced into my map, be correct, these statements require modification, for according to the fathers the mafulu or fuyuge-speaking area does not include any part of the st. joseph river, as its extreme north-westerly corner lies to the east of the junction--close to the boundary line between the afoa (ambo) and the kuni areas--of the rivers alabula and aduala, and mt. pizoko is within the fuyuge area, and not within that of the afoa, and mt. davidson is within the boboi area. i think that, though the fathers' lines are admittedly not exact, they and the information supplied by the fathers to me are likely to be more trustworthy in these respects, especially as regards boundaries near to the actual mafulu villages, than the earlier statements of dr. strong, as they are the outcome of recent and careful investigation; and, as regards mt. pizoko, i may mention that dr. strong himself seems to have subsequently regarded that mountain as being within the mafulu district, [ ] which brings it into the fuyuge area. the inclusion of the upper valley of the river chirima within the fuyuge or mafulu-speaking area is perhaps surprising, as this valley is separated from the general fuyuge area by one of the southern ridges of mt. albert edward, and more or less so by the ridges of mt. stone wigg and the wharton range, and as the chirima is a tributary flowing into the mambare river, which is one of the great watercourses of northern new guinea. the mafulu fathers, however, had no doubt as to the correctness of the inclusion, which seems to open out the possibility of some, at all events, of the fuyuge people having northern associations; and indeed monseigneur de boismenu told me that he believed that the mafulu people were in touch with northern new guinea, and got some of their shell ornaments, or the shells from which they were made, from the northern coast. it is interesting, therefore, to turn for the purpose of comparison to the report of mr. monckton's expedition to mt. albert edward by way of the upper chirima valley in [ ] and the illustrations accompanying it, with which i incorporate a description of the people of this valley given to dr. seligmann by mr. money, who was with mr. monckton. [ ] from these it appears that the upper chirima people are short in stature and sturdily built. both sexes wear the perineal band, the front of which is made (i am not sure whether this applies to women as well as to men) to bulge out by padding. in some cases the men's hair is tied up in a bunch with string, and in others it is bound up in various styles with native cloth. some of the men have their hair done up in small plaits over the forehead. all the above descriptions, except that of the padding of the band, are applicable to the mafulu. some of the chirima houses have a curious apse-like roof projection over the front platform, which is a specially distinctive feature of a mafulu house, and one with this projection figured by mr. monckton is indistinguishable from a typical mafulu house. the chirima people place the bodies of their dead on raised platforms, and apparently sometimes put the body of an infant on the platform erection of an adult, but below the latter. this also is a practice of the mafulu; and, though the latter people confine platform burial (if such it may be called) to chiefs and their families and important persons, it is possible that some such limitation of the custom exists in the chirima valley also, but did not come under mr. monckton's notice. a burial platform figured by him might well be a mafulu burial platform, except that the curious cone-shaped receptacle for the child is a form for which i cannot vouch as regards the mafulu. the chirima have a special and peculiar form of netting, which mr. monckton's illustration shows to be identical with the special form of mafulu netting. on the other hand, as regards the chirima weapons, implements and utensils, a comparison of mr. monckton's verbal descriptions and figures with what i have seen in mafulu, and describe in this book, leads me to the conclusion that, though many of these are similar to those of mafulu, some of them are different. as examples of this i may say that the drill implements of the chirima people are very similar to, and their stone cloth-beaters appear to be identical with, those used by the mafulu; whilst on the other hand their war bows are much longer, [ ] and their method of producing fire seems to be totally different; also they apparently have bull-roarers, which to the best of my knowledge are unknown among the mafulu. again some of the chirima weapons, as figured by mr. monckton, disclose ideas of artistic design, including that of the curved line and a rude representation of a man, which i have not met with among the mafulu. as regards this last point i draw attention to mr. monckton's figures of carving on a bow and on wooden clubs. i think, however, that in such matters as these local differences might well arise between people who are really more or less identical, especially if their respective districts are on opposite sides of the main mountain range of the country, and still more so if the people of one of the districts (in the present case i refer to the chirima people) may perhaps have been subject to the influence of other people beyond them. as to this latter point, however, i should say that these chirima people seem to be, so far as dress, ornaments, &c., are concerned, much nearer to the mafulu than they are to the natives of the mambare river itself, as described by sir william macgregor. [ ] it is curious also that the dogs of the chirima people are not yellow dingoes, but are black and white, as is the case in mafulu. i notice that dr. seligmann suggests that these chirima valley people are related to the natives of the neighbourhood of mt. yule, [ ] a statement which, though probably intended broadly, is in accord with the suggestion that they are connected with the mafulu-speaking people. the natives of mt. scratchley (apparently the eastern or south-eastern side), visited by sir william macgregor in , appear from his description of them [ ] to show a few points of resemblance to the mafulu people. in particular i refer to their "dark bronze" colour, to the wearing by women of the perineal band (to which, however, is added a mantle and "in most cases" a grass petticoat, which is not done in mafulu), to the absence of tattooing or cicatrical ornamentation, to their "large earrings made out of tails of lizards covered by narrow straps of palm leaves dyed yellow" (which, though not correctly descriptive of the mafulu earring, is apparently something like it), to their use of pigs' tails as ear ornaments, to their plaiting of the hair and the decoration of the plaited hair with teeth and shells, to their small charm bags and to the shortness of their bows. also to the construction of their houses, with the roof carried down to the ground, with a fireplace about feet wide extending down the centre of the building from one end to the other, and having an inclined floor on each side, and especially to the curious apse-like roof projections in front of these houses (dr. haddon calls them "pent roofs" [ ]), sir william's figure of which is, like that of the chirima villages, identical, or nearly so, with that of a mafulu house. but sir william's description of the physique of these mt. scratchley people and other matters make it clear, i think, that they belong to a type different from that of the mafulu, though they must be next door neighbours of the fuyuge-speaking people. dr. seligmann, in commenting upon this description of these people, expresses the opinion that they are papuo-melanesians. [ ] the natives in the region of mt. musgrave and mt. knutsford, as described by mr. thomson, [ ] appear, at all events so far as dress is concerned, to be utterly different from the mafulu. dr. seligmann states that dr. strong has informed him that the southern boundary of the fuyuge-speaking area is the kabadi country, [ ] and he had previously referred to korona, immediately behind the kabadi and doura districts, as being within the area, [ ] and, indeed, the geographical society's map shows the fuyuge area as at all events extending as far south as korona. i do not know how far inland the kabadi and doura people extend; but i may say that the mafulu fathers expressed grave doubt as to the extension of the fuyuge area so far south as is indicated by the map. if the fuyuge area does in fact reach the kabadi boundary, and if my notes on the mafulu people are, as suggested, broadly descriptive of the natives of the whole fuyuge area, there must be a very sudden and sharp differentiation, as the kabadi people are apparently an offshoot from mekeo, [ ] with apparently other papuo-melanesian blood (especially roro) introduced. [ ] the contour and appearance of the country in the actual mafulu district of the fuyuge area is strikingly different from that of the immediately adjoining kuni country, the sharp steep ridges and narrow deep-cut valleys of the latter, with their thick unbroken covering of almost impenetrable forest, changing to higher mountain ranges with lateral ridges among them, and with frequent gentle undulating slopes and wider and more open valleys; while, interspersed with the forests, are small patches and great stretches of grass land, sometimes thinly covered or scattered with timber and sometimes quite open and devoid of trees. [ ] and this condition continues, i was told, over the greater part of the triangular area above referred to. plates and give, i think, a fair illustration of what i mean, the steep contours and thickly wooded character of the foreground and nearer middle distance shown by plate being typical kuni scenery, and the more open nature of the country displayed by plate and the comparative freedom from forest of its foreground being typical of the higher uplands of mafulu. [ ] it will be noticed that the physical character of the mafulu country is more favourable to continued occupation than is that of the kuni country; and it is a fact that the mafulu people are not so restless and ready to move as are the kuni folk; and, even when they do migrate, it is generally to a spot comparatively near to their old villages. the geological formation of the lower hills on which the actual mafulu villages are placed and the intervening valleys is partly limestone; and i was told that limestone formation was also found further to the east. throughout this book i shall use the term "mafulu" as including, not only the little group of villages near the north-westerly corner of the fuyuge linguistic area actually known by that name, but also the other groups of fuyuge villages in the north-western portion of that area; and, as above indicated, it is believed by the fathers of the mission that i should be substantially correct if i included the whole of the northern and north-eastern, and probably the southern portions of the known part of that area, and possibly the entire area. chapter ii physique and character physique. the mafulu people are of short stature, though perhaps a trifle taller than the kuni. they are as a rule fairly strong and muscular in build, the women in particular having very strongly developed thighs; but, speaking generally, their limbs are more slender, and their general development is slighter, than is usually the case among the roro and mekeo people. they appear to be usually mesaticephalic, but to have a very marked tendency to brachycephaly. their noses seemed to me to be generally strong, and of prominent size, varying considerably in width of bridge, but usually having rather widely distending nostrils; and sometimes the width of the nose was equal to its length, or nearly so. referring to the above matters, the following are the results of twenty measurements of mafulu men. these were obtained from men of upwards of six different communities or groups of villages, so as to avoid the possible misleading character of measurements made in only one village or group of villages, in which some family relationship between the persons measured might militate against the true average character of the figures obtained. no. | stature in cm. | | length of head in cm. | | | breadth of head in cm. | | | | cephalic index | | | | | cranial index ( units deducted | | | | | from cephalic index). | | | | | | nose length in cm. | | | | | | | nose breadth in cm. | | | | | | | | nasal index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . analysing these figures, we get the following results:-- highest number. lowest number. average. stature [ ] cm. cm. . cm. ( . ins.) ( . ins.) ( . ins.) head length . cm. . cm. . cm. head breadth . cm. . cm. . cm. cephalic index . . . cranial index . . . nose length . cm. . cm. . cm. nose breadth . cm. . cm. . cm. nasal index . . . [ ] number of cranial indices under = ( per cent.). number of cranial indices between and = ( per cent.). number of cranial indices over = ( per cent.). there are a few points in connection with these figures to which i would draw attention. the very short man (no. --height, cm.) has a cranial index of . , on the border line between dolichocephaly and mesaticephaly. he has also a short nose ( . cm.), and is one of the two with the narrowest noses ( . c.m.). the very tall man (no. --height, cm.) has a long head ( . cm.), and the lowest dolichocephalic cranial index of . , and is one of two with the longest noses ( . cm.). the other very tall man (no. --height, cm.) has one of the two shortest heads ( . cm.), and the highest brachycephalic cranial index of . , and has a long nose ( . cm.) the man (no. ) whose nasal index is has the mesaticephalic cranial index of . (almost the average index). the other man (no. ) whose nasal index is has a head of exactly the average length ( . cm.) and the greatest breadth ( . cm.), and the brachycephalic cranial index of . . the man (no. ) with the lowest nasal index of . has a very short head ( . cm.), and the brachycephalic cranial index of . . the following tables, however, illustrate the fact that the measurements of these twenty men do not appear to indicate, as regards them, any marked connection between stature, cranial index, and nasal index. order in stature (beginning with the shortest): -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- . order in progress upwards of cranial indices: -- -- -- - -- --ll-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- . order in progress upwards of nasal indices: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- . i brought home three mafulu skulls, which dr. keith kindly had measured at the royal college of surgeons, with the following results [ ]:-- skull | length in cm. | | breadth in cm. | | | height in cm. | | | | cranial index. | | | | | proportion of | | | | | height to length. a . . . . . b . . . . . c . . . . . it will be observed that the lowest of these three cranial indices is a trifle higher than the lowest of those of the head measurements, that the highest of them is much lower than the highest of those of the head measurements, and that their average ( . ) is a little below the average of those of the head measurements. dr. keith had further measurements made of these skulls from the point of view of prognathism and characters of noses and orbits, with the following results: skull. | basi-nasal length. | | basi-alveolar length. | | | height of nose. | | | | width of nose. | | | | | height of orbit. | | | | | | width of orbit. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. mm. a b c dr. keith, referring to these skulls, says that they disclose relatively small brains, the cranial capacity of a being , c.c., that of b being , c.c., and that of c being , c.c. he compares these figures with the average cranial capacity of the male european, which he puts at , c.c. the eyes of the mafulu people are dark brown and very bright. i never saw among them those oblique eyes, almost recalling the mongolian, which, according to dr. seligmann, are found, though rarely only, on the coast, [ ] and of which i saw many instances among the kuni people. their lips are usually not so thick as are those of the mekeo and roro people, and are generally finer and more delicate in shape. in view of their papuan language i kept a sharp look out for the curious backward sloping foreheads and projecting brow ridges and jewish-looking noses which are so often found among the western papuans; but, although i saw a few examples of these, they were rare, and i did not observe any noticeable tendency in these directions in the faces of the people generally. [ ] a curious characteristic with them is the big toe, which is usually much developed, and projects outwards at a larger angle than is the case with the roro and mekeo people, and is much used for holding on to roots, &c., whilst travelling along their rough mountain paths. their general colour is a dark sooty brown, a trifle darker, perhaps, than that of the kuni people, and contrasting forcibly with the varying shades of chocolate which you find among the roro and mekeo people. they are smooth-skinned. their hair is frizzly, and generally dark brown, often quite dark, almost even approaching to black, and sometimes perhaps quite black. but it is frequently lighter; and indeed i was often, when observing men's hair lit up by sunshine, impressed by the fact that its brown colour was not even what we should in europe call dark. [ ] i often saw marked variations in the depth of hair colour on the head of the same individual. i saw no examples of the comparatively straight or curly type of hair which is found in the pokau district and elsewhere. [ ] plate gives front and side views of the mesaticephalic (almost brachycephalic) skull a and plate gives similar views of the dolichocephalic skull c. all the photographs were made as nearly as possible exactly half the sizes of the originals; but the photographer has made the front view of skull a about an eighth of an inch too narrow (with, of course, a corresponding deficiency in height), so that the tendency to roundness of this skull is not quite sufficiently shown, and the proportion of its height to its length is reduced, in the plate. i am not a craniologist, and so i do not attempt to discuss the more detailed points of interest which arise in connection with these skulls. a good idea of the somewhat varying characters of the general physiques and features of the people will be obtained from my plates; but there are a few of these plates which i may mention here. the people shown in plates , , , , and may, i think, be regarded as fairly typical, and i would draw attention to the somewhat melanesian tendency of feature which is disclosed by the faces of the man in plate , the young man in the middle in plate and the fourth and sixth men from the left in plate ; also to the great diversity shown in plate . the man shown in plate , with his thick and strong muscular development, is of a type which is occasionally seen, but which is, i believe, unusual. the two men figured in plates and are, i think, specially interesting. the one to the right, with his somewhat backward sloping forehead, and slightly arched nose, shows a distinct tendency towards the type of the western papuan, to which i have already referred. the other one is in general shape of head and appearance of features not unlike some of the dwarf people found by the recent expedition into dutch new guinea (see the man to the left in plate of the page of illustrations in _the illustrated london news_ for september , ), and indeed there is almost an australian tendency in his face. it is noticeable that he has a beard and moustache, which is quite unusual among the mafulu. a somewhat similar type of face may be noticed in one or two of the other plates. character and temperament. it is difficult to speak with any degree of definiteness on this question. it must be borne in mind that the mafulu people have been very little in touch with white people, the missionaries, who have only been there since , and on rare occasions a government official or scientific traveller, being almost the only white men whom the bulk of them have ever seen; and they have been but slightly affected by the outside influences which for some years past have been constantly brought to bear upon the natives of the adjoining coast line and the people of the mekeo plains; so that comparisons of these people with their more up-to-date neighbours as regards their relative natural characters may well be in some respects misleading. subject, however, to this caution i would say that they are lazy and easy-going (though not so much so as the roro and mekeo people), lively, excitable, cheerful, merry, fairly intelligent (this being judged rather from the young people), very superstitious, brave, with much power of enduring pain, cruel, not more revengeful perhaps than is usual among uncivilised natives, friendly one with another, not quarrelsome, but untrustworthy and not over-faithful even in their dealings with one another, though honest as regards boundaries and property rights and in the sense of not stealing from one another within their own communities (this being regarded as a most shameful offence), and of very loose sexual morality. a difference between them and the mekeo and roro natives is that they appear to be not so conservative as the latter, being more ready to abandon old traditions and adopt new ideas; though this characteristic is one which shows itself in the young people rather than in the elders with their formed habits. chapter iii dress and ornament dress. the perineal band, made of bark cloth, is the one article of dress which is universally worn by both men and women. these bands are made by both men and women, but are coloured by men only. they are commonly unstained and undecorated; but some of them, and especially those worn for visiting and at dances, are more or less decorated. some that i have noticed are stained in one colour covering the whole garment; others in two colours arranged in alternate transverse bands, sometimes with narrow spaces of unstained cloth between; and again others have bands of one colour alternating with bands of unstained cloth. some are decorated with lines or groups of lines of one colour, or alternating lines or groups of lines of two colours, painted transversely across the cloth. others, while simply stained in one colour or stained or decorated in one of the ways above described, have another simple terminal design near the end of the garment. the men's bands are usually small and narrow, as compared with those worn by the roro and mekeo people; and the women's bands seemed to me to be generally even narrower than those of the men, particularly in front. men's bands, which i have measured, were about inches wide at one end, narrowing down to about inches at the other; and the widths of women's bands were or inches or less at one end, narrowing down to about inches at the other. but the bands of both men and women, especially those of the latter, often become so crumpled up and creased with wear that the portion passing between the legs dwindles down to about an inch or less in width. one is tempted to think, as regards both men and women, that, from the point of view of covering, the bands might be dispensed with altogether. this remark applies still more strongly to the case of young boys and unmarried girls, including among the latter big full-grown girls, who are in fact fully developed women, whose bands can hardly be regarded as being more than nominal, and who, especially the girls and young women, and even sometimes married women who are nursing their babies, can really only be described as being practically naked. plate (figs, , , and ) illustrates the staining and decoration of perineal bands. [ ] fig. is a section of a man's band about inches wide. the transverse lines, which extend along the whole length of the band, are in alternate groups of black and red. the background is unevenly stained yellow behind the black lines; but the background behind the red lines and the spaces intervening between the groups of lines are unstained. fig. is the pattern near the end of a woman's band about inches wide. the lines are coloured red. there is no pattern on the rest of the band; but the whole of the band, including the background of the pattern, is stained yellow. fig. is a section of a woman's band about / inches wide. the colouring is in alternate bands of red and yellow with irregular unstained spaces between. i was struck with the gradual reduction of the women's dress as i travelled from the coast, with its roro inhabitants, through mekeo, and thence by lapeka and ido-ido to dilava, and on by deva-deva to mafulu. the petticoats of the roro women gave way to the shorter ones of mekeo, and these seemed to get shorter as i went further inland. then at lapeka they were still shorter. at ido-ido, which is kuni, the petticoats ceased, and there was only the perineal band. then, again, at dilava (still kuni) this band was narrower, and at deva-deva, and finally at mafulu, it was often, as i have said, almost nominal. i was told that the age at which a boy usually begins to wear his band is about or , or in the case of a chief's son or ; but that girls assume their bands at a somewhat earlier age, say at or . so far as my personal observation went i should have thought that the usual maximum age of nakedness for both boys and girls was rather younger, and i never saw a naked boy of an age anything like . the assumption of the perineal band is the subject of a ceremony which will be dealt with hereafter. caps are very often worn by men, but not by women or children. these are simply pieces of plain unstained bark cloth about inches wide, which are coiled and twisted on the head. the result is often a shapeless mass; but there are methods of arranging the cloth in definite ways which produce describable results. sometimes the cloth is merely coiled several times around the head, so as to produce a tall thin turban-shaped band, the crown of the head being left uncovered. often this plan is extended by turning the end of the cloth over, so as to cover the top of the head, thus producing in some cases a result which resembles a fez, and in other cases one which looks more like a tight skullcap. again the cap often has its centre terminating in an end or tassel hanging over, thus making it look like a cap of liberty; and yet again i have seen the cap look almost like the square paper caps often worn by certain artisans at home. these caps are seen in several of the plates. abdominal belts are commonly worn by both men and women, but not as a rule by children. there are several distinct forms of these:-- ( ) a thick strong dark-coloured belt (plate , fig. i) made of tree bark; made and worn by men only. the belt is about or more inches wide and is often so long that it passes twice round the body, the outer end being fastened to the coil beneath it by two strings. this form of belt is sometimes ornamented with simple straight-lined geometric patterns carved into the belt, but it is never coloured. the process of manufacture is as follows: they cut off a strip of bark large enough for one, two, three, or four belts, and coil it up in concentric circles, like the two circles of the belt when worn. they then place it so coiled into water, and leave it there to soak for a few days, after which they strip off the outer part, leaving the smooth inner bark, which they dry, and finally cut into the required lengths, to which they add the attachment strings made of native fibre. ( ) a belt made of a material looking like split cane and thin strips from the fibre of what i was told was a creeping plant [ ]; made and worn by men only. the latter material is obtained by splitting the fibre into thin strips. these strips and the strips of split cane-like material are rather coarse in texture. the former are of a dull red-brown colour (natural, not produced by staining) and the latter are stone-yellow. the two are plaited together in geometric patterns. the width of the belt is about inches. it only passes once round the man's body; and the plaiting is finished with the belt on the body, so that it can only afterwards be removed by unplaiting or cutting it off. ( ) a belt (plate , fig. ) made of stone-yellow unsplit cane; made and worn by both men and women. this is the simplest form of belt, being merely a strip of cane intertwined (not plaited) so as to form a band about half an inch wide, and left the natural colour of the cane. both men and women, when short of food, use this belt to reduce the pain of hunger, by tightening it over the stomach. it is, therefore, much worn during a period of restricted diet prior to a feast. women also use it, along with their other ordinary means, to bring about abortion, the belt being for this purpose drawn very tightly round the body. often two, or even three, such belts are worn together. ( ) a belt (plate , fig. ) made of coarse, sometimes very coarse, stone-yellow split cane or cane-like material; made and worn by men only. this belt is left the natural colour of the material, which is plaited so as to form a band from half an inch to inches broad, the two ends of which are bound together with cane. it also, like no. , is finished on the body. a man will often wear two or three of these belts together. ( ) a belt (plate , fig. i) made out of the inner fibre of a creeping plant [ ]; made and worn by men only. the fibre threads used for this belt are very fine, so the plaiting is minute, instead of being coarse like that of no. ; but it is generally done rather loosely and openly. the belt is usually about inches wide or a trifle less and is often plaited in slightly varying geometric patterns. it is not stained in manufacture, but the natural stone-grey colour of the fibre soon becomes tinted as the result of wear and the staining of the wearer's body, and in particular it often becomes an ornamental red. this belt also is finished on the man's body. ( ) a belt (plate , fig. ) made of the inner fibre of what i was told was another creeping plant [ ] and the stem of a plant which i believe to be one of the dendrobiums [ ]; made and worn by men only. the fibres of the former plant are stained black; the reedy stems of the other plant are put in short bamboo stems filled with water, and then boiled. they are then easily split up into flattish straws, and become a colour varying from rather bright yellow to brown. for making the belt these two materials, looking rather like black and bright yellow straw, are plaited together in various geometrical patterns. the width of the belt is inches, or a trifle more. it is tied at the ends with fibre string. ( ) a rather special form of belt (plate , fig. ) used mainly for visiting and dancing; made and worn by both men and women. the belt is made out of a hank of loose separate strands between and feet long, tied together with string or bark cloth at two opposite points, so as to form a belt of between feet and feet inches in length. for better description i would liken it to a skein of wool, as it looks when held on the hands of one person for the purpose of being wound off into a ball by someone else, but which, instead of being wound off, is tied up at the two points where it passes round the hands of the holder, and is then pulled out into a straight line of double the original number of strands, and so forms a single many-stranded belt of feet or more in length. it is fastened round the waist with a piece of bark cloth attached to one of the points where the hank has been tied up. [ ] the number of strands is considerable. belts examined by me and counted gave numbers varying from eighteen to thirty-five, and the number of strands of the belt round the body would be double that. each strand is made of three parts plaited together, and is one-eighth of an inch or less in width. various materials, including all the materials used for armlets (see below), are employed for making these belts, some for one and some for another. sometimes a belt has its strands all plaited out of one material only, in which case the belt will be all of one colour. sometimes its strands are plaited out of two different coloured materials. there is no colouring of the belt, except that of its strands. belt no. , as worn, is seen in plates and . belt no. is worn by the man at the extreme right in plate . it is worn by many of the women figured in the plates, and several of them have two belts. one of the women figured in plates and has three of them. belt no. is worn by one of the men figured in plates and (he has three of them). belt no. is worn by one or two of the women figured in the frontispiece, the one to the extreme right having a many-stranded belt, and it is excellently illustrated in plate . capes made of bark cloth are made and worn by men and women. they are only put on after recovery from an illness by which the wearer has been laid up, including childbirth. the cape is simply a plain long narrow piece of undyed bark cloth. the corners of one end are fastened together, and the whole of that end is bunched up into a sort of hood, which is placed over the head, whilst the rest of the cloth hangs down as a narrow strip behind. the cape in no way covers or conceals any part of the body when viewed from the front or side. it is only worn for a few days; but whilst wearing it the wearer discards all, or nearly all, his or her ornaments. i could learn no reason for the custom. plates and show these capes, and the way in which they are worn. mourning strings (plate , fig. ) are made and worn by both men and women. these are plain undecorated necklaces varying much in size and appearance; sometimes they are made of undyed twisted bark cloth, and vary in thickness from one-sixteenth of an inch to an inch; sometimes they are only made of string, and are quite thin. there is always an end or tassel to the necklace, made out of the extremities of the neck part, and hanging in front over the chest; and, if the necklace is of string, and not of bark cloth, some bark cloth is twisted round this tassel. this sign of grief is after a death worn by the widow or widower or other nearest relative (male or female) of the deceased; and at times two people of equal degree of relationship will both wear it. it is worn until the formal ending of the mourning. the woman to the extreme right in plate is wearing one of these. widows' vests. these are mourning garments, only worn by the widows of chiefs. the garment, which is made by women, is a vest made of string network (like a string bag), the mesh of which is the special mafulu mesh, which will be described hereafter, and it is not coloured. it is plainly and simply made, with openings at the top for the neck, and at the sides for the arms (no sleeves), and coming down to about the waist, without any other opening either in front or at the back. this garment is also worn until the formal end of the period of mourning. [ ] i was unable to secure a picture of one of these. there is no special dress for chiefs to distinguish them from other people. european calico clothing has not been adopted by these people, even in the district where they are in touch with the missionaries. indeed i may say that the people, happily for their own health, show no inclination to wear more clothing; and no doubt as a result of their conservatism in this respect they escape many a fatal cold and attack of pneumonia, and the spread of infectious skin diseases is somewhat reduced. i may also add that the bishop and fathers of the mission do not attempt, or seem to desire, to urge the people who come under their influence to endanger their health and their lives for the sake of conforming to views as to clothing which have played such havoc with tropical natives in many parts of the globe. [ ] physical body decoration, &c. tattooing and body-scarring are not practised by either men or women among the mafulu. depilation. when a young man's beard begins to grow, the hairs of the beard and moustache and eye-brows are extracted. no other depilation is practised by men, and none whatever by women; and none of them shave any part of the body. the depilation is effected with two fibre threads twisted round each other, the hair to be extracted being inserted between the threads. anyone can do this, and there is no ceremony connected with it. nose-piercing. the septa of the noses of both men and women are pierced at or after the age of or , and either before or after marriage. this is done for men by men, and for women by women. there is no special person whose duty it is to do it, but he or she must be one who knows the incantations which are required. there is no restriction as to diet or otherwise placed upon the operator prior to the operation, but there is a day's food restriction imposed upon the person whose nose is to be pierced. two instruments are used for the operation, one being a piercing instrument made of pig bone and sharpened, and the other being a small wooden plug, also sharpened. the operator first visibly, but silently, engages in two incantations, during the former of which he holds up the thumb and first finger of his right hand, and during the latter of which he holds up the two instruments. he then with the thumb and first finger of his right hand holds the septum of the nose of the person to be operated upon, whom i will call the "patient," and with the left hand pierces the septum with the bone instrument. he next inserts the wooden plug into the hole, so as to make it larger, and leaves the plug there. then he takes a blade of grass, which he also inserts through the hole, by the side of the plug, and, holding the grass by the two ends, he makes it rotate round and round the plug. this is a painful process, which frequently causes tears and cries from the patient. he then probably goes through the same process with various other patients, as it is the custom to operate on several persons at the same time. the patients are then all lodged in houses built for the purpose, one house being for men and one for women. these are not houses which are kept permanently standing, but are specially built on each occasion on which the nose-boring operation is going to be performed. a great swelling of the patients' noses develops, and this spreads more or less over their faces. the patients are confined in the special houses until the holes in their noses are large enough and the wounds are healed. during this confinement each patient has himself to do what is requisite to further enlarge the hole by the insertion into it from time to time of pieces of wood and by putting in rolled up leaves and pushing pieces of wood inside these leaves. during all this period he is not allowed to come out of the house, at all events not so as to be seen, and his diet is confined to sweet potato, cooked in a certain way. the cooking for all the patients, men and women, is done by the woman nose-piercing operator, assisted by other women. the potatoes are wrapped up in leaves (usually banana), each potato being generally wrapped up separately in one or more leaves; and, when so wrapped up, they are cooked in red-hot ashes, and then taken to the houses where the patients are. when the hole in any patient's nose has reached the requisite size, and the wound is healed, he inserts a large croton leaf [ ] into the hole; he may then come out and return to his own house, retaining the croton leaf in his nose. he must next occupy himself in searching for a black non-poisonous snake about or inches long, which is commonly found in the grass. i cannot say what snake this is, but i am advised that it is probably _tropidonotus mairii_. its native name is _fal' ul' obe_, which means "germ of the ground." until he finds this snake he must keep the croton leaf in his nose, and is still under the same restriction as to food, which is cooked in the same way and by the same persons as before. on finding the snake, he secures it alive, removes the croton leaf from the hole in his nose, and inserts into it the tail end of the living snake; then, holding the head of the snake in one of his hands, and the tail in the other, he draws the snake slowly through the hole, until its head is close to the hole. he then lets the head drop from his hand, and with a quick movement of the other hand draws it through the nose, and throws the snake, still living, away. [ ] this completes the nose-piercing; but there still rests upon the patient the duty of going to the river, and there catching an eel, which he gives to the people who have been feeding him during his illness. the nose-piercing is generally done at one of the big feasts; and, as these are rare in any one village, you usually find in the villages many fully-grown people whose noses have not been pierced; though as to this i may say that nose-piercing is more generally indulged in by chiefs and important people and their families than by the village rank and file. it commonly happens, however, that a good many people have to be done when the occasion arises. each person to be operated upon has to provide a domestic pig for the big feast. i have been unable to discover the origin and meaning of the nose-piercing ceremony. [ ] ear-piercing is done to both men and women, generally when quite young, say at seven or twelve years of age. both the lower and the upper lobes are pierced, sometimes only one or the other, and sometimes both; but the lower lobe is the one more commonly pierced. they can do it themselves, or can get someone else to do it. there is no ceremony. the piercing is done with the thorn of a tree, and the hole is afterwards gradually widened by the insertion of small pieces of wood. they never make large holes, or enlarge them greatly afterwards, as the holes are only used for the hanging of pendants, and not for the insertion of discs. after the piercing the patient must, until the wound is healed, abstain from all food except sweet potato; but there is no restriction as to the way in which this food is to be cooked, or the person who is to cook it. there is as regards ear-piercing no difference between the case of chiefs' children and those of other people. body-staining is usual with both men and women, who do it for themselves, or get others to help them. there is no ceremony in connection with it. the colours generally adopted are red, greyish-yellow and black. the red stain is procured from an earth, which is obtained from the low countries; but they themselves also have an earth which is used, and produces a more bronzy red. the yellow stain is also got from an earth. all these coloured earths are worked into a paste with water, or with animal fat, if they can get it. i think they also get a red stain from the fruit of a species of pandanus; but i am not quite clear as to this. the black stain is obtained from crushed vegetable ashes mixed with fat or water. the staining of the face is usually of a simple character. it may cover the whole face all in one colour or in different colours, and often one side of the face is stained one colour, and the other side another colour. they also make stripes and spots or either of them of any colour or colours on any part of the face. the red colour (i think especially that obtained from the pandanus fruit) is also often applied in staining the whole body, this being especially done for dances and visiting; though a young dandy will often do it at other times. the black is the symbol of mourning, and will be referred to hereafter. hairdressing may be conveniently dealt with here. the mafulu hairdressing is quite simple and rough, very different from the big, spreading, elaborately prepared and carefully combed mops of mekeo. this is a factor which a traveller in this part of new guinea may well bear in mind in connection with his impedimenta, as he has no difficulty in getting the kuni and mafulu people to carry packages on their heads, which the mekeo folk are unwilling to do. the modes in which the men dress their hair, so far as i was able to notice, may be roughly divided into the following categories:--(_a_) a simple crop of hair either cut quite close or allowed to grow fairly long, or anything between these two, but not dressed in any way, and probably uncombed, unkempt and untidy. this is the commonest form. (_b_) the same as (_a_), but with a band round the hair, separating the upper part of it from the lower, and giving the former a somewhat chignon-like appearance, (_c_) the hair done up all over the head in three-stranded plaits a few inches long, and about an eighth of an inch thick, having the appearance of short thick pieces of string, (_d_) the top of the head undressed, but the sides, and sometimes the back, of the head done up in plaits like (_c_). (_e_) a manufactured long shaped fringe of hair, human, but not the hair of the wearer (plate , fig. ), is often worn over the forehead, just under the wearer's own hair, so as to form, as it were, a part of it, pieces of string being attached to the ends of the fringe and passed round the back of the head, where they are tied. these fringes are made by tying a series of little bunches of hair close to one another along the double string, which forms the base of the fringe. specimens examined by me were about inches long and / inches wide (this width being the length of the bunches of hair), and contained about twenty bunches. it is usual to have two or three of these strings of bunches of hair tied together at the ends, thus making one broad fringe. these fringes are often worn in connection with styles (_c_) and (_d_) of hairdressing; but i never noticed them in association with (_a_) and (_b_). i was told that men who have become bald sometimes wear complete artificial wigs, though i never saw an example of this. the hairdressing of the women seemed to be similar to that of the men, except that i never saw the chignon-producing band, that they do not wear fringes, and that the entire or partial plaiting of the hair is more frequently adopted by them than it is by the men. i do not know whether the women ever indulge in entire wigs. method (_a_) is seen in many of the plates. method (_b_) is illustrated, though not very well, in plate (the fourth and fifth man from the left) and in plate (the young man to the left, behind). method (_c_) is adopted by four of the women in the frontispiece, by some of the women in plate , by the woman in plate , and by the little girl in plates and . method (_d_) is well illustrated by the second woman from the right in the frontispiece. the cutting of the hair of both men and women is effected with sharp pieces of stone of the sort used for making adze blades, or with sharp pieces of bamboo or shell. infant deformation is not practised in any form by the mafulu people; nor do they circumcise their children. ornaments. the string-like plaits in which men and women arrange their hair, and especially those of the women, are often decorated with ornaments. small cowrie and other shells, or native or european beads, or both, are strung by women on to these plaits, sometimes in a line along all or the greater part of the length of the plait, sometimes as a pendant at the end of it, and sometimes in both ways; and any other small ornamental object may be added. dogs' teeth are also used by both men and women in the same way; but these are, i think, more commonly strung in line along the plaits, rather than suspended at the ends of them. both men and women wear suspended at the ends of these plaits wild betel-nut fruit, looking like elongated acorns; and men, but not women, wear in the same way small pieces of cane, an inch or two long, into which the ends of the plaits are inserted. all these forms of decoration may be found associated together. they are in the case of men usually confined to the plaits at the sides, being also often attached to the side ends of the artificial fringes; but they are sometimes used for the back of the head also. the women often wear them also at the top of the head, and in wearing them at the sides sometimes have them hanging in long strings reaching to the shoulders. plate (figs. , , , and ) and plate (figs. and ) are ornamented plaits cut off the heads of women. the ornaments shown include beads, shells, discs made out of shells, dogs' teeth and betel-nut fruit. plate (figs. and ) are ornamented plaits cut off the heads of men, one of them having a cane pendant, and the other a pendant of betel-nut. the appearance of these things, as worn, is seen in plates , , , and (the habit of wearing a single dog-tooth at each side of the head, as shown by , being a common one, and showing the equally common habit of wearing a couple of betel-nuts at each side). their appearance, when worn in abundance for a festal dance, is excellently shown in the frontispiece and in plate ; and the little girl in plates and , though too young to be a dancer, is decorated for an occasion. pigs' tails are a common head decoration for women, and are also worn, though not so frequently, by men. these tails are covered with the natural hair of the tail, and are brown-coloured. they are suspended by strings passing round the crown of the head or from the plaits at the sides of the head. they are generally only about inches long; but sometimes the ornaments into which they are made are much longer, and i have seen them worn by women hanging down as far as the level of the breast. these pigtails are sometimes worn hanging in clusters of several tails. they are also often, in the case of women, decorated with shells, beads, dogs' teeth, etc., which are attached like tassels to their upper ends. [ ] plate , fig. shows a pigtail ornament for hanging over the head, with the tails suspended on both sides and strings of beads and dogs' teeth hanging from the upper ends of the tails. the ornament is worn by the middle man in plate and by the little girl figured in plates and , and it is seen more extensively worn by women decorated for dancing in the frontispiece and in plate , and by the girl in plate . a peculiar and less usual sort of head ornament (plate , fig. ), worn by both men and women, is a cluster of about a dozen or less of bark cloth strings, about / feet long, fastened together at the top, and there suspended by a string tied round the top of the head, so as to hang down like the lashes of a several-thonged whip over the back. the individual strings of the cluster are quite thin, but they are decorated with the yellow and brown straw-like material above referred to in connection with abdominal belt no. (being prepared from the same plant, apparently dendrobium, and in the same way), the material being twisted in a close spiral round the strings, and making them look, when seen from a short distance off, like strings of very small yellow and brown beads, irregularly arranged in varying lengths of the two colours, shading off gradually from one to the other. even when so bound round, these strings are only about / to / of an inch thick. the mafulu comb (plate , fig. ) differs in construction from the wooden combs, all made in one piece, which are commonly used in mekeo. it is made of four, five, or six thin pieces of wood, which are left blunt at one end, but are sharpened to points at the other. these are bound together with straw-like work, sometimes beautifully done, the binding being nearly always near to the blunt ends, though it is sometimes almost in the middle. [ ] the combs so made are flat, with the blunt ends converging and generally fastened together, and the long sharp ends, which are the ends to be inserted into the hair, spreading outwards. the bound-up blunt ends are in fact a point, or, say, half an inch or less (occasionally more) across. the spread of the sharp ends varies from to inches or more. the straw-like binding may be light or dark brown, or partly one and partly the other. sometimes only the two outside prongs meet together at the blunt end, and the inner prongs do not extend much, or at all, beyond the upper edge of the straw-like work binding. the fastening together of the blunt converging tips is done sometimes with native thread just at the tips, and sometimes with a little straw work rather further down; occasionally it is missing altogether. the comb figured is not so converging at the blunt ends or so spreading at the sharp ends as is usual, and its blunt ends are not bound together. these combs are only worn by men; they are commonly worn in front, projecting forwards over the forehead, as is done in mekeo; but they are also worn at the back of the head, projecting sideways to either right or left. a feather (generally a white cockatoo feather), or sometimes two feathers, are often inserted into the straw-like work of the comb, so as to stand up vertically when the comb is worn, and there wave, or rather wag, backwards and forwards in the wind. i could not learn any significance in these feathers, such as applies to many of the upright head feathers worn by the young men of mekeo. the comb is worn by several of the men figured in plate , one of them wearing it in front and the others having it standing out sideways at the back. the almost universal type of earring (plate , fig. ), varying from to inches in circumference, is made out of the tail of the cuscus. the ring is made by removing the hair from the animal's tail, drying the tail, and fastening the pointed end into or on to the blunt cut-off stump end, tying them firmly together. the ring is then bound closely round with the yellow and brown material (dendrobium) of belt no. ; but a space of or inches is generally left uncovered at the part where the two ends of the tail are fastened together. the simplest form is a single earring, which passes through the hole in the ear; but i have seen two rings hanging to the ear; and frequently a second ring is hung on to the first, and often a third to the second, and sometimes a fourth to the third; or perhaps, instead of the fourth ring, there may be two rings hanging to the second one. in fact, there are varieties of ways in which the fancy of the wearer and the number of rings he possesses will cause him to wear them. they are worn by both men and women. [ ] they may be seen in several plates, but unfortunately are not very clear. the most distinct are, i think, those worn by the second woman from the left in plate and the woman on the left in plate . the second woman from the left in the frontispiece has two of them hanging from her right ear. pigs' tails, similar to those worn from the hair, are also worn by both men and women, especially the latter, suspended from the ears; and here again they vary much in length, and are often decorated with tassel-like hanging ornaments of shells, beads, etc. forehead ornaments (plate , fig ) are made by men and worn by them at dances. this ornament is a band, very slightly curved, which is worn across the forehead, just under and surrounding the basis of the dancing feathers. it is generally about inches long and between and inches broad in the middle, from which it narrows somewhat towards the ends. its manufacture consists of a ground basis of the material of belt no. , into which are interplaited in geometric patterns the two black and yellow and brown materials which are used for belt no. . it is fixed on to the forehead by means of strings attached to its two ends, and passing round, and tied at the back of, the head. nose ornaments. these are straight pencil-shaped pieces of shell, generally about inches long, which are passed through the hole in the septum of the nose. they are only worn at dances and on special occasions; but the people from time to time insert bits of wood or cane or bone or some other thing into the hole for the purpose of keeping it open. there are temporary pegs in the noses of the fifth man to the left in plate and the man in plate . the nose ornament is worn by the woman to the extreme right in the frontispiece. necklaces and straight pendants, suspended from the neck and hanging over the chest, are common, though they are not usually worn in anything approaching the profusion seen in mekeo and on the coast. these are made chiefly of shells of various sorts (cut or whole), dogs' teeth and beads, as in mekeo. the shells include the cowries and the small closely packed overlapping cut shells so generally used in mekeo for necklaces, and the flat disc-like shell sections, which are here, as in mekeo, specially used for straight hanging pendants; also those lovely large crescent-shaped discs of pearl shell, which are well known to new guinea travellers. the shells are, of course, all obtained directly or indirectly from the coast; in fact, these are some of the chief articles for which the mountain people exchange their stone implements and special mountain feathers, so the similarity in the ornaments is to be expected; but it is only within a quite recent time that the pearl crescents have found their way to mafulu. i do not propose to describe at length the various forms of shell ornament, as they are very similar to, and indeed i think practically the same as, those of mekeo. some of the necklaces are figured in plates , and , and they are worn by many of the people figured in other plates, especially the frontispiece and plate . straight pendant ornaments are seen in the frontispiece and in plates , , and others. the crescent-shaped pearl ornaments are seen in the frontispiece and in plates , , , and others, a very large one being worn by the little girl in plate . there is, however, one shell necklace which is peculiar to the mountains, and, i think, to mafulu (i do not know whether the kuni people also wear it), where it is worn as an emblem of mourning by persons who are relatives of the deceased, but who are not sufficiently closely related to him to stain themselves with black during the period of mourning. this necklace is made of white cowrie shells varying in size from half an inch to an inch long, each of which has its convex side ground away, so as to show on one side the untouched mouth of the shell and on the other an open cavity. the shells are strung, sometimes closely and sometimes loosely, on to a double band of thin cord. specimens of this type of necklace measured by me varied in length from inches (with shells) to inches (with shells). it is worn until the period of mourning is formally terminated. the middle necklace in plate is a mourning shell necklace, and it is seen on the neck of the woman to the right in plate . pigs' tail ornaments similar to those already described are also worn suspended by neck-bands over the chest. armlets and wrist-bands are worn by both men and women, and more or less by children, including quite young ones, at the higher end of the upper arm and just above the wrist. they are made by men only, and vary in width from half an inch to or inches, the wider ones being generally worn on the upper arm. there are several common forms of these: ( ) the more usual form (plate , fig. ) is made of the thin and finely plaited stone-grey material described in abdominal belt no. , and is made in the same way, subject to the difference that the plaiting is more closely done. measured specimens of this armlet varied in width from to / inches, and displayed different varieties of diagonal twill stitch. ( ) another common form (plate , fig. ) is made of the coarser-plaited black and yellow and brown materials described concerning no. belt, and is made in the same way. specimens of this armlet varied in width from to inches. ( ) there is another form which in fineness of material and plait is between nos. and . i was told that this is made out of another creeping plant, and is left in its own natural unstained colour, which, however, in this case is a dull brown red. ( ) another form (plate , fig. ) is made of the coarse dull red-brown and stone-yellow materials described with reference to belt no. , and is made in the same way. a specimen of this armlet was / inches wide. ( ) another form (plate , fig. ) is in make something like no. , but the two materials used are the stone-yellow material of belt no. and the black material of belt no. , and the plaiting materials are much finer in thickness than are those of armlet no. . specimens of this armlet varied in width from / to / inches. ( ) the beautiful large cut single-shell wrist ornament, commonly worn on the coast and plains, whence the mafulu people procure it. armlets will be seen worn by many of the people figured in the plates. there is no practice of putting armlets on young folk, and retaining them in after life, so as to tighten round and contract the arm. leg-bands (plate , fig. ) and anklets are worn by both men and women, and also by children, just below the knee and above the ankle. there is a form of plaited leg-band somewhat similar in make to armlet no. , and between half-an-inch and an inch in width, though the colour of this leg-band is a dull brown. but the usual form of leg-band and anklet is made by women only out of thread fibre by a process of manufacture quite distinct from the stiff plait work adopted for some of the belts and for the armlets. they make their thread out of fine vegetable fibre as they proceed with the manufacture of the band, rolling the individual fibres with their hands upon their thighs, and then rolling these fibres into two-strand threads, and from time to time in this way making more thread, which is worked into the open ends of the then working thread as it is required--all this being done in the usual native method. i had an opportunity of watching a woman making a leg-band, and i think the process is worth describing. she first made a thread or feet long by the method above referred to, the thread being a two-strand one, made out of small lengths about or inches long of the original fibre, rolled together and added to from time to time until the full length of or feet of thread had been made. the thread was of the thickness of very coarse european thread or exceedingly fine string. she next wound the thread into a triple loop of the size of the proposed leg-band. this triple loop was to be the base upon which she was to make the leg-band, of which it would form the first line and upper edge. it was only about inches in circumference, and thus left two ends, one of which (i will call it "the working thread") was a long one, and the other of which (i will call it "the inside thread") was a short one. both these threads hung down together from the same point (which i will call "the starting point"). she then, commencing at the starting point, worked the working thread round the triple base by a series of interlacing loops in the form shown (very greatly magnified) in fig. ; but the loops were drawn quite tight, and not left loose, as, for the purpose of illustration, i have had to make them in the figure. this process was carried round the base until she had again reached the starting point, at which stage the base, with its tightly drawn loop work all around it, was firm and strong, and there were still the two ends of thread hanging from the starting point. here and at subsequent stages of the work she added to the lengths of these two ends from time to time in the way above described when they needed it, and the two ends of thread were therefore always present. then began the making of the second line. this was commenced at the starting point, from which the two ends of thread hung, and was effected by a series of loops made with the working thread in the way already described, except that these loops, instead of passing round the whole of the base line, passed through holes which she bored with a thorn, as she went on, in the extreme bottom edge of that line, and also that, in making this second line, she passed the inside thread through each loop before she drew the latter tight; so that the second line was itself composed of a single internal thread, around which the loops were drawn. the second line was continued in this way until she again reached the starting point (but, of course, one line lower down), from which the two ends of thread hung down as before. the third and following lines were made by a process identical with that of the second one, the holes for each line being pricked through the bottom of that above it. i did not see the completion of the band, but i may say that the final line is similar to the second and subsequent ones, and is not a triple-threaded line like the first one. it was amazing to see this woman doing her work. she was an old woman, but she did the whole of the work with her fingers, and she must have had wonderful eyesight and steadiness of hand, as she made the minute scarcely visible prick holes, and passed the end of her working thread through them, with the utmost apparent ease and quickness. the band thus produced is of very small, close, fine work, and is quite soft, flexible and elastic, like european canvas, instead of being stiff and hard, like the plaited belts and armlets. the band is generally about an inch (more or less) in width. it is not dyed or coloured in any way, but is often decorated with beads, which are worked into the fabric in one or more horizontal lines, but as a rule, i think, only at irregular intervals, and not in continuous lines. these bands and anklets are seen in many of the plates. in plates , and the bead decorations are seen. dancing aprons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women, but coloured by men only. the apron, which is worn at dances by women only, is about to inches wide. it is worn, as shown in plate , in front of the body, being passed over the abdominal belt or a cord so as to hang over it in two folds, one behind the other; and the front fold, which is the part which shows (the back fold being more or less concealed), and is generally inches to feet in length, has at its base a fringe made by cutting the end of the cloth up into strips, equal or unequal in width, the number of which may be only six or less, or may be fifteen or twenty. the front fold is often wholly or partly stained, the colour of the stain being usually yellow, and is always more or less covered with a decorative design, the colours of which are usually black and red. the back fold is generally stained yellow, but never has any design upon it. the fringe is also usually stained yellow, and is without design, except occasionally perhaps a few horizontal lines of colour. i may say here, as regards these colours, that, so far as my observation went, the colours of the decorative patterns were always black and red, and the general staining was always yellow; and indeed the last-mentioned colour does not show up against the natural colour of the cloth sufficiently clearly to adapt it for actual design work. i am not, however, prepared to say that this allocation of the colours is in fact an invariable one; and, as i know that red is used for general staining of perineal bands and dancing ribbons, it is possible that it, as well as yellow, is used for aprons. numerous variations of design are to be found in these garments; and indeed i may say that it is in these and in the feather head decorations that the mafulu people mainly indulge such artistic powers as they possess. plates to are examples of decoration of the front folds of these dancing aprons [ ]; and i give the following particulars concerning them, first stating that, subject to what may appear in my particulars, the darker lines and spots represent black ones in the apron, and the lighter ones represent red ones. plate. | average width of apron in inches. | | notes on ground staining and other matters. / background of design unstained, but back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. [ ] / ditto ditto ditto / only a little irregular yellow staining behind the design. back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. background of design (except fringe part) unstained, but back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. background of upper (zig-zag) part of design unstained, but that of lower (rectangular) part and whole of back fold of apron and fringe stained yellow. / faintly tinted broad horizontal and vertical lines and triangles in figure represent yellow stain. no other staining in the apron. / background of design unstained, but back fold end of apron and fringe stained yellow. / no background staining in the apron. the smallness of the amount of decoration and the substitution of two tails for a fringe are, i think, unusual. dancing ribbons are made out of bark cloth by both men and women, but are coloured by men only. these are worn by both men and women at dances, the ribbons hanging round the body from the abdominal belt or a cord, three or four or five of them being worn by one person, and one of these commonly hanging in front. they are generally or inches wide and about feet long, but a portion of this length is required for hitching the ribbon round the belt. i think their ornamentation is confined to staining in transverse bands of alternating colour or of one colour and unstained cloth. plate , fig. , illustrates the colouring of two ribbons (each inches wide), the alternation in one case being red and yellow, and in the other red and unstained cloth; and the men figured in plate are wearing ribbons, though they are not very clearly shown in the plate. the feather ornaments for the head, and especially those worn at dances, and the feather ornaments worn on the back at dances present such an enormous variety of colours and designs that it would be impossible to describe them here without very greatly increasing the length of the book. the ornaments are often very large, sometimes containing eight or ten or even twelve rows of feathers, one behind another. they can usually be distinguished from those made by the mekeo people by a general inferiority in design and make of the ornament as a whole, the mafulu people having less artistic skill in this respect than the people of the lowlands. the ornaments include feathers of parrots, cockatoos, hornbills, cassowaries, birds of paradise, bower birds and some others. one never or rarely sees feathers of sea-birds, or waterfowl, or goura pigeons (which, i was told, are not found among the mountains), as the mafulu people in their trading with the people of the plains take in exchange things which they cannot themselves procure, rather than feathers, which are so plentiful with them. the black cassowary feather is important in mafulu as being the special feather distinction of chiefs; but, though chiefs are as a rule possessed of more and better ornaments than are the poorer and unimportant people, they have no other special and distinctive ornament. plates and illustrate some of these head feather ornaments. plate , fig. , shows an ornament made out of the brown fibrous exterior of the wild betel-nut, black pigeon feathers and white cockatoo feathers, the betel fibre and black pigeon feathers being, i was told, only used in the mountains. plate , fig. , shows one made out of brown feathers of young cassowary, white cockatoo feathers and red-black parrot feathers. plate , fig. , shows one made out of bright red and green parrot feathers. plate , fig. , shows one made out of black cassowary feathers, white cockatoo feathers, red parrot feathers and long red feathers of the bird of paradise. plate , fig. , is made of cassowary feathers only. this ornament is worn in front of the head, over the forehead, and is specially worn by chiefs. plate , fig. , shows a head feather ornament which is peculiar to the mountains. the crescent-shaped body of the ornament, which is made of short feathers taken from the neck of the cassowary, is worn in front over the forehead, and the cockade of hawk feathers stands up over the head. plate , fig. , shows a back ornament of cassowary feathers which is specially intended to be worn by chiefs at dances. the custom is to have from five to twelve of these ornaments hanging vertically side by side, suspended to a horizontal stick, which is fastened on the chief's back at the height of the shoulders, so that the feathers hang like a mantle over his back. the mode in which feather ornaments for the back are hung on sticks is seen in plate , where a stick with pendant ornaments is being held by two boys in front. plaited frames (plate ) are worn by men in connection with these head feather ornaments. these frames are flat curved bands, rigid or nearly so, generally forming half or nearly half a circle of an external diameter of about inches, and being about inch in width. they are worn at dances and on solemn occasions. they are placed round the top of the forehead, not vertically, but with their upper edges sloping obliquely forward, and have at their ends strings, which pass over the ears and are tied at the back of the head. these frames help to support the feather ornaments, and prevent them from falling down over the face. they are made by men only. a groundwork of small split cane or other material runs in parallel curved lines from end to end, single pieces of the material being generally doubled back at the ends so as to form several lines; and this is strengthened and ornamented by interplaiting into it either split cane or some other material obtained from the splitting of the inside fibre of a plant in the way previously referred to. there are varieties of material and of pattern worked up in different designs of interplaiting. some of the materials are uncoloured or merely the natural colour of the material, and others are in two colours, generally brown or reddish-brown and yellow. these frames display a considerable amount of variety of artistic design. the feather erections used at special and important dances, and especially those worn by chiefs, are enormous things, towering or feet above the wearer's head, and are generally larger than those of mekeo. they are held in a framework, which has an inverted basket-shaped part to rest on the head, and downward pointing rods, which are tied to the shoulders. the frames are to a great extent similar to those of mekeo, but, having a larger burden to bear, they are more strongly made. these feather erections and their frames are seen in plate . here, as in other parts of new guinea, both men and women, but especially men, love to decorate themselves with bright flowers and leaves and grasses, these being worn in the hair and in bunches stuck into their belts, armlets and leg-bands, and indeed in any places where they can be conveniently fastened. it is not the practice with the mafulu for mothers to wear the umbilical cords of any of their children, though apparently the kuni people do so. chapter iv daily life and matters connected with it daily life. the early morning finds the wife and young children and unmarried daughters in the house. the husband has been sleeping either there or in the _emone_ (clubhouse), but most probably the latter. the unmarried sons are in the _emone_, except any very young ones, who have not been formally admitted to it in a way which will be hereafter described. the women cook the breakfast for the whole family inside the house at about six or seven o'clock, and then take the food of the men to the _emone_. after breakfast most of the men and women go off to the gardens and the bush. the women's work there is chiefly the planting of sweet potatoes, taro and other things, and cleaning the gardens; and in the afternoon they get food from the gardens and firewood from the bush, all of which they bring home to the village; also they have to clear off the undergrowth from newly cleared bush. the men's work is mainly the yam and banana and sugar-cane planting, each in its season, and the cutting down of big trees and making fences, if they happen to be opening out new garden land. they also sometimes help the women with their work. or they may have hunting expeditions in the bush, or go off in fishing parties to the river. in all matters the men of mafulu, though lazy, are not so lazy as those of mekeo and the coast. in the middle of the day the women cook the meal for everyone in the gardens, this being done on the spot, and there they all eat it. at three, four, or five o'clock all the people of the village have returned to it, except perhaps when they are very busy taking advantage of good weather for making new clearings or other special work. in the evening they have another meal cooked in the village. at every meal in the village the pigs have to be fed also, these sharing the food of the people themselves, or feeding on raw potatoes. unless there is dancing going on, or they are tempted by a fine moonlight night to sit out talking, the people all terminate their routine day by going to bed early. as regards the daily social conduct of the people among themselves, i was told that the members of a family generally live harmoniously together (subject as regards husbands and wives to the matters which will be mentioned later), that children are usually treated kindly and affectionately by their parents, and that there is very little quarrelling within a village; and what i saw when i was among the mafulu people certainly seemed to confirm all this. there are various detailed matters of daily life which will appear under their appropriate headings; but i will here deal with a few of them. food. the vegetable foods of the mafulu people are sweet potato and other plants of the same type, yam and other foods of the same type, taro and other foods of that type, banana of different sorts, sugar-cane, a kind of wild native bean, a cultivated reed-like plant with an asparagus flavour (what it is i do not know), several plants of the pumpkin and cucumber type, one of them being very small, like a gherkin, fruit from two different species of pandanus, almonds, the fruit of the _malage_ (described later on), and others, both cultivated and wild. the sugar-cane is specially eaten by them when working in the gardens. [ ] their animal food consists of wild pig and, on occasions, village pig, a small form of cassowary, kangaroo, a small kind of wallaby, kangaroo rat, "iguana," an animal called _gaivale_ (i could not find out what this is), various wild birds, fish, eels, mice, a large species of snake and other things. their staple drink is water, but when travelling they cut down a species of bamboo, and drink the watery fluid which it contains. after boiling any food in bamboo stems they drink the water which has been used for the purpose, and which has become a sort of thin flavoured soup. betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by these people as extensively as it is done in mekeo and on the coast; but they like it well enough, and for a month or so before a big feast, during which period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they indulge in it largely. the betel used by them is not the cultivated form used in mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species, only about half the size of the other; and the lime used is not, as in mekeo and on the coast, made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained from the mountain stone, which is ground down to a powder. the gourds (plate , figs. and ) in which the lime is carried are similar to those used in mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or, if they are so, the ornamentation is only done in simple straight-lined geometric patterns. the spatulae are sometimes very simply and rudely decorated. the people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of swallowing it, as is the custom in mekeo. cooking and eating and their utensils. they have no cooking utensils, other than the simple pieces of bamboo stem, which they use for boiling. their usual methods of cooking are roasting and boiling. roasting is usually effected by making a fire, letting it die down into red-hot ashes, and then putting the food without wrap or covering into the ashes, turning it from time to time. they also roast by holding the food on sticks in the flame of the burning fire, turning it occasionally. stone cooking is adopted for pig and other meats. they make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them, place the meat without wrap or covering on the others, then place the removed stones on the meat, and finally pile on these stones a big covering of leaves to keep in the heat. stone cooking in the gardens is done in a slightly different way; there they dig in the ground a round hole about foot deep and from / to feet in diameter, and in this hole they make their fire, on which they pile their stones; and the rest of the process is the same as before. this hole-making process is never adopted in the village. the only reason for it which was suggested was that the method was quicker, and that in the gardens they are in a hurry. of course, holes of this sort dug in the open village enclosure would be a source of danger, especially at night. boiling is done in pieces of bamboo about inches in diameter and about or inches long. they fill these with water, put the food into them, and then place or hold the bamboo stems in a slanting position in the flames. this method is specially used for cooking sweet potatoes, but it is their only method of boiling anything. water, which they keep stored and carry in bamboo receptacles and hollow pumpkins, is boiled in bamboo stems in the same way. the bamboo storage vessels are generally from to feet long, the intersecting nodes, other than that at one end, having been removed. the pumpkins (plate , figs. and ) are similar to those used by the roro coast people and in mekeo, except that the usual form, instead of being rather short and broad with a narrow opening, is longer and narrower, some of them being, say, feet long, and often very curved and crooked in shape. their only eating utensils are wooden dishes and small pieces of wood, or sometimes of cassowary or kangaroo bone, which are used as forks, and pieces of split bamboo, which are used for cutting meat; but these latter are used for other purposes, and rather come within the list of ordinary implements, and will be there described. they also use prepared pig-bones as forks; but these again are largely used for other purposes, and will be described under the same heading. the dishes (plate , fig. ) are made out of the trunk of a tree called _ongome_. the usual length of a dish, without its handles, is between and feet; its width varies from inches to foot, and its depth from to inches. it is rudely carved out of the tree-trunk, [ ] the work being done with stone adzes--unless they happen to possess european axes--and it generally has a handle at one or both ends. it is not decorated with carving in any way. the common form of handle is merely a simple knob about inches long and / inches wide. but it is sometimes less simple, and i have a dish one of the handles of which is divided into two projecting pieces about / inches long and joined to each other at the end. the handle is always carved out of the same piece of wood as is the dish; never made separately and afterwards attached. the wooden forks are simply bits cut from trees and sharpened at one end, and they are without prongs. their use is only temporary, and they are not permanently stored as household utensils. the cassowary and kangaroo bone implements (plate , fig. ) are also merely roughly pointed unpronged pieces of bone, and otherwise without special form. when eating _en famille_ they do not always use these pointed wooden and bone sticks, but very commonly take the food out of the dish with their hands only; but if the family had guests with them they would probably use the sticks more, and their hands less. the men and women often eat together, sitting round the dish and helping themselves out of it, though, if there are too many to do this conveniently, pieces will be handed out to some of them. various implements. besides the cooking and eating implements above described and other things, such as weapons of war and of hunting and fishing, and implements for manufacture, agriculture and music, which will be dealt with under their own headings, there are a few miscellaneous things which may be conveniently described here. bamboo knives (plate , fig. ). these are simple strips made out of a special mountain form of bamboo, and are generally to inches long and about inch wide. one edge is left straight for its whole length, and the other is cut away near the end, very much as we cut away one side of a quill pen, so as to produce a sharp point. the side edge which is used for cutting is the one which is not cut away at the end; and when it gets blunt it is renewed by simply peeling off a length of fibre, thus producing a new edge, bevelled inwards towards the concave side of the implement, and making a hard and very sharp fresh cutting edge. the point can of course be sharpened at any time in the obvious way. pig-bone implements (plate , fig. ). these are the implements which are often used as forks, but they have straight edges also with which they are used as scraping knives, and they are utilised for many other purposes. the implement, which is, i think, similar to what is commonly found in mekeo and on the coast, is made out of the leg-bone of a pig, and is generally from to inches long. one side of the bone is ground away, so as to make the implement flattish in section, one side (the outside unground part of the bone) being somewhat convex, and the other (where the bone has been ground away) being rather concave. some of the joint end of the bone is left to serve as a handle; and from this the bone is made to narrow down to a blunt, rather flattish and rounded point, somewhat like that of a pointed paper-cutter. the side edge is used for scraping, and the point for sticking into things. smoking pipes are in the ordinary well-known form of mekeo and the coast, being made of sections of bamboo stem in which the natural intersecting node near the mouthpiece end is bored and the node at the other end is left closed, and between these two nodes, near to the closed one, is a flute-like hole, in which is placed the cigarette of tobacco wrapped up in a leaf. they are, however, generally not ornamented; or, if they are so, it is merely in a simple geometric pattern of straight lines. i obtained one pipe (plate , fig. ) of an unusual type, being much smaller than is usual. a special feature of this pipe is its decoration, which includes groups of concentric circles. this is the only example of a curved line which i ever met with among the mafulu villages, and it is probable that it had not been made there. boring drills (plate , fig. ) are also similar to those of mekeo and the coast, except that there the fly-wheel is, i think, usually a horizontal circular disc, through the centre of which the upright shaft of the implement passes, whereas in the mafulu boring instrument the fly-wheel, through which the shaft passes, is a rudely cut flat horizontal piece of wood about or inches long, inches broad, and half an inch or less thick, and also that in mafulu the native point, made out of a pointed fragment of the stone used for making club-heads, adze blades and cloth-beaters, is not generally replaced by a european iron point, as is so commonly the case in mekeo and near the coast. these drills are used for boring dogs' teeth and shells and other similar hard-substanced things, but are useless for boring articles of wood or other soft substances, in which the roughly formed point would stick. [ ] fire-making. this is a question of process, rather than of implement, but may be dealt with here. to produce fire, the mafulu native takes two pieces of very dry and inflammable wood, one larger than the other, and some dry bark cloth fluff. he then holds the smaller piece of wood and the fluff together, and rubs them on the larger piece of wood. after four or five minutes the fluff catches fire, without bursting into actual flame, upon which the native continues the rubbing process, blowing gently upon the fluff, until the two pieces of wood begin to smoulder, and can then be blown into a sufficient flame for lighting a fire. carrying bags. these are all made of network. i shall say something about the mode of netting and colouring them hereafter, and will here only deal with the bags and their use. they are of various sizes, ( ) there are the large bags used by women for carrying heavy objects, such as firewood, vegetables and fruit, which they bring back to the village on their return in the afternoon from the gardens and bush. these bags are carried in the usual way, the band over the opening of the bag being passed across the front of the head above the forehead, and the bag hanging over the back behind. they are curved in shape, the ends of the bag being at both its top and bottom edges higher than are the centres of those edges, so that, when a bag is laid out flat, its top line is a concave one and its bottom line is a convex one. the network at the two ends of the top line is continued into the loop band by means of which the bag is carried. the usual dimensions of one of these bags, as it lies flat and unstretched on a table (the measurements being made along the curved lines) are as follows--top line about feet, bottom line about feet, and side lines about inches. but when filled with vegetables, firewood, etc., they expand considerably, especially those made of "mafulu network," of which i shall speak hereafter. these bags are uncoloured. ( ) there are similar, but somewhat smaller, bags, in which the women carry lighter things, and which in particular they use for carrying their babies. they frequently carry this bag and the larger one together; and you will often see a woman with a big bag heavily laden with vegetables or firewood or both, and another smaller bag (perhaps also slung behind over the top of the big one, or hanging from her head at her side, or over her breast), which contains her baby, apparently rolled up into a ball. these bags also are uncoloured. ( ) there are other bags, similar perhaps in size to no. , used for visiting and at feasts, dances and similar occasions, and also sometimes used for carrying babies. the top line of one of these is generally about feet long, the bottom line a trifle longer, and the side lines about foot. these are coloured in decorative patterns. ( ) there are small bags of various sizes carried by men slung over their shoulders or arms, and used to hold their betel-nut, pepper and tobacco and various little implements and utensils of daily life. these are sometimes uncoloured and sometimes coloured. ( ) there are the very small charm bags, only about inches or a trifle more square, which are used by both men and women (i think only the married ones) for carrying charms, and are worn hanging like lockets from the neck. they are sometimes coloured. plate gives illustrations of three of these bags--fig. being a woman's ornamented bag no. , and fig. being a man's ornamented bag no. ; but this last-mentioned bag is rather a large one of its type, the usual difference in size between nos. and being greater than the two examples figured would suggest. the patterns of both these bags, and especially of the larger one, are more regular than is usually the case. the bag shown in fig. will be dealt with hereafter under the heading of netting. as regards women, the carrying of bags, either full or empty, hanging over their backs is so common that one might almost regard the bag as an additional article of dress. i may say here in advance of my observations on netting that the distinctive features of mafulu bags, as compared with those made in mekeo and on the coast, are the special and peculiar form of netting which is commonly adopted for some of them and the curious lines of colouring with which they are often ornamented. hammocks are commonly used in the houses and _emone_ for sleeping. [ ] these also are made of network and will be referred to later. the distinctive feature of network mentioned in relation to bags applies to these also, but not that of colouring. pottery is not made or used in mafulu. i may perhaps refer here to what i imagine to be an ancient stone mortar, which i found at mafulu, and which i have endeavoured to show in fig. . a portion of the upper part of the original was broken away, and i regret that i did not try to sketch it just as it was, instead of adopting the easier course of following what had been the original lines. i am also sorry that its great weight made it impossible for me to bring it down with me to the coast, [ ] and that by an oversight i did not secure a photograph of it. the vessel was well and evenly shaped. it had perfectly smooth surfaces, without any trace of cutting or chipping, and must have been made by grinding. it was devoid of any trace of decoration. its top external diameter was about inches, its height, when standing upright on its base, was about inches, and the thickness of the bowl at the lip about inch. i was told that similar things are from time to time found in the district, generally on the ridges, far away from water. a mafulu chief said that the mafulu name for these things is _idagafe._ the natives have no knowledge of their origin or past use, the only explanation of the latter which was suggested being that they were used as looking-glasses by looking into the scummy surface of the water inside them. [ ] european things. the mafulu people are now beginning, mainly through the missionaries of the sacred heart, and also through their contact with mekeo and other lowland tribes, to get into touch with european manufactures. trade beads, knives, axes, plane irons (used by them in place of stone blades for their adzes), matches and other things are beginning to find their way directly and indirectly into such of the villages as are nearest to the opportunities of procuring them by exchange or labour. domestic animals. dogs may occasionally, though only rarely, be seen in the villages, but these are small black, brownish-black, or black and white dogs with very bushy tails, and not the yellow dingo dogs which infest the villages of mekeo; and even these mafulu dogs are, i was told, not truly a mafulu institution, having been obtained by the people, i think, only recently from their kuni neighbours. a tame cockatoo may also very occasionally be seen, and even, though still more rarely, a tame hornbill. there are no cocks and hens. the universal domestic animal of the mafulu, however, is the pig, and he is so important to them that he is worthy of notice. these pigs are "village" pigs, which, though naturally identical with "wild" pigs--being, in fact, wild pigs which have been caught alive or their descendants--have to be distinguished from wild pigs, and especially so in connection with feasts and ceremonies. village pigs are the individual property of the householders who possess them, there being no system of community or village ownership; and, when required for feasts and ceremonies, each household has to provide such pig or pigs as custom requires of it. they are bred in the villages by their owners, and by them brought up, fed and tended, the work of feeding and looking after them being the duty of the women. no distinguishing ownership marks are put upon the pigs, but their owners know their own pigs, and still more do the pigs know the people who feed them; so that disputes as to ownership do not arise. the number of pigs owned by these people is enormous in proportion to the size of their villages, and i was told that a comparatively small village will be able at a big feast to provide a number of village pigs much in excess of what will be produced by one of the big mekeo villages. these village pigs often wander away into the bush, and may disappear from sight for months; but they nevertheless still continue to be village pigs. if, however, they are not seen or heard of for a very long time (say six months), they are regarded as having become wild pigs, and may be caught and appropriated as such. it is usual with village pigs to clip or shorten their ears and tails, or even sometimes to remove their eyes, so as to keep them from wandering into the gardens. [ ] but even a village pig thus marked as such would be regarded as having become a wild pig if it had disappeared for a very long time. village pigs (as distinguished from wild pigs) are, as will be seen below, never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions, or indeed perhaps at all, being only killed and cut up and given to the visitors to take away and eat in their own villages. etiquette. these simple people do not appear to have many customs which come under the heading of etiquette, pure and simple. a boy must soon, say within a few weeks, after he has received his perineal band leave the parental home, and go to live in the _emone;_ but this rule only refers to his general life, and does not prohibit him from ever entering his parents' house. if he receives his band when he is very young, this rule will not begin to operate until he is ten or twelve years old. he is in no case under any prohibition from being in or crossing the village enclosure. a girl is allowed to enter the _emone_, though she may not sleep there, prior to receiving her band, but after that she must never enter it. a young unmarried man, who has arrived at the marriageable age, must not eat in the presence of women. he can eat in the bush, or inside the _emone_, but he must not eat on the platform of the _emone_, where women might see him. there appear to be no other customs of mutual avoidance, as, for example, that between son-in-law and mother-in-law, and with reference to other marriage relationships, such as are found in some of the solomon islands, and among various other primitive races. children and unimportant adults must always pass behind a chief, not in front of him, and when a chief is speaking, everyone else, old and young, must be silent. young men and girls associate and talk freely together in public among other people, but no young man would go about alone with a girl, unless he was misconducting himself with her, or wished to do so. visiting is purely friendly and social, and there is no personal system of formal and ceremonial visiting, except as between communities or villages. there do not appear to be any forms of physical salutation, but there are recognised ways in which men address one another on meeting and parting. if a and b meet in the bush, a may say to b, "where do you come from?", and b will answer, "i come from----." a may then say, "where are you going to?", and b will reply to this. then b may put similar questions to a, and will be similarly answered. these questions are not necessarily asked because the questioner is really anxious for information, but are in the nature of a formality,--the equivalent of our "how do you do?" the system of asking and answering these questions, though well recognised as a social form, is not in practice strictly adhered to. also a, on coming to a village and finding b there, and wishing to salute him, will call him by name, and b will then call a by name. then a will say, "you are here," and b will reply, "i am here." this form is more strictly carried out than is the other one. then when a leaves he will say to b, "i am going," and b will answer, "go." then b will call a by his name, and a will call b by name, and the formality is finished. if a, being very friendly with b, comes to his village to see him, on a's departure b, and probably b's family, will accompany a out of the village, and will stand watching his departure until he is about to disappear round the corner of the path; and then they will call out his name, and he will respond by calling out b's name. gestures may perhaps be included under this heading, though there is apparently but little to be said about the matter. when a question is asked, an affirmative reply is indicated by nodding the head, and a negative one by shaking it; and, though i asked if this was not probably the result of association with people who had been among white men, i was told that it was not so. a negative answer is also often expressed by shrugging the shoulders, and a kind of grimace with the lips. the nodding of the head to a negative question, such as "are you not well?" signifies assent to the negative, that is, that he is not well, and so vice-versa with the shaking of the head. chapter v community, clan, and village systems and chieftainship communities, clans, and villages. the native populations of the mafulu area are scattered about in small groups or clusters of villages or hamlets; and, as each cluster of villages is for many purposes a composite and connected whole, i propose to call such a cluster a "community." friendships, based on proximity and frequent intercourse and intermarriage, doubtless arise between neighbouring communities, but otherwise there does not appear to be any idea in the minds of the people of any general relationship or common interest between these various communities of the area. each community regards the members of every other community within the area as outsiders, just as much so as are, say, the ambo people to the north and the kuni people to the west. if a community, or group of communities together, were the subject of an attack from either ambo or kuni natives, each of these being people whose language is different--as regards the kuni utterly different--from that of the mafulu, there would apparently be no thought of other mafulu-speaking communities, as such, coming to assist in repelling the attack. hence in dealing with the question of inter-village relationship, i have to fix my mind mainly upon the community and its constituent parts. concerning the situation as between one community and another, as they regard themselves as quite distinct and unrelated, the only question which seems to arise is that of the ownership of, and rights over, the intervening bush and other land. the boundaries between what is regarded as the preserve of one community, within which its members may hunt and fish, clear for garden purposes, cut timber, and collect fruit, and that of an adjoining community are perfectly well known. the longitudinal boundaries along the valleys are almost always the rivers and streams, which form good boundary marks; but those across the hills and ridges from stream to stream are, i was told, equally defined in the minds of the natives, though no artificial boundary marks are visible. these boundaries are mutually respected, and trouble and fighting over boundary and trespass questions are, i was told, practically unknown, the people in this respect differing from those of mekeo. a community comprises several villages, the number of which may vary from, say, two to eight. but the relationship between all the villages is not identical. there is a clan system, and there is generally more than one clan in a community. often there are three or more of such clans. each clan, however, has its own villages, or sometimes one village only, within the community, and two clans are never found represented in any one village, [ ] or any one clan spread over two or more communities. fig. is a diagrammatic illustration of a typical mafulu community, the circles representing villages of one clan, the squares those of another clan, and the triangle being the sole village of a third clan. i have said that the entire community is for many purposes a composite whole. in many matters they act together as a community. this is especially so as regards the big feast, which i shall describe hereafter. it is so also to a large extent in some other ceremonies and in the organisation of hunting and fishing parties and sometimes in fighting. and the community as a whole has its boundaries, within which are the general community rights of hunting, fishing, etc., as above stated. but the relationship between a group of villages of any one clan within the community is of a much closer and more intimate character than is that of the community as a whole. these villages of one clan have a common _amidi_ or chief, a common _emone_ or clubhouse, and a practice of mutual support and help in fighting for redress of injury to one or more of the individual members; and there is a special social relationship between their members, and in particular clan exogamy prevails with them, marriages between people of the same clan, even though in different villages, being reprobated almost as much as are marriages between people of the same village. the mafulu word for village is _emi_, but there are no words signifying the idea of a community of villages and that of a group of villages belonging to the same clan within that community. as regards the latter there is the word _imbele_, but this word is used to express the intimate social relationship existing between the members of a clan, and not to express the idea of an actual group of villages. communities and villages have geographical names. the name adopted for a community will probably be the name of some adjoining river or ridge. that adopted for a village will probably be the name of the exact crest or spot on which it is placed, the minuteness of the geographical nomenclature here being remarkable. clan-groups of villages, forming part of a community, have, as such, no geographical names, but a member of one such group will distinguish himself from those of another group by saying that he is a man of----, giving the name of the chief of the clan occupying the group. i was assured that, when there are two or more villages of a clan with a common chief and emone, they have originally been one village which has split up, an event which undoubtedly does in fact take place; while on the other hand the several villages of a clan, presumably the outcome of a previous splitting-up of a single village, will sometimes amalgamate together into one village, which thus becomes the only village of the clan. but two villages of different clans could never amalgamate in this way. the following are examples of these village changes:-- near to the mafulu mission station is a community called sivu, which includes seven villages occupied by three clans, as follows [ ]:-- . voitele belonging to a clan whose chief, jaria, lives at amalala, where the clan _emone_ is. . amalala . kodo-malabe . motaligo . malala belonging to a clan whose chief, gito-iola, lived at malala, where the clan _emone_ is. (he has recently retired in favour of his eldest son, anum' iva, who is the present chief, and also lives there.) . gelva . seluku being the only village of a clan whose chief, baiva, has recently died. his eldest son, who has succeeded him, is an infant. there is no regency. also near the mission station is a community called alo, which includes four villages occupied by two clans, as follows:-- . asida belonging to a clan whose chief, amo-kau, lives at asida, where the _emone_ is. . kotsi . ingomaunda . uvande being the only village of a clan whose chief is iu-baibe. referring to these villages, in the year the clan now occupying the four villages voitele, amalala, kodo-malabe and motaligo had only a single village, kaidiabe, the clan's chief being the above-mentioned jaria. then there was a government punitive expedition, following the attack of the natives upon monseigneur de boismenu (the present bishop of the mission of the sacred heart in british new guinea) and his friends, who were making their first exploration of the district, in which expedition a number of natives, including the brother of the chief, were killed. after that the village was abandoned, and the three villages of voitele, amalala and motaligo arose in its place. subsequently after a big feast, which was held at amalala in the year , that village put out an offshoot, which is the present village of kodo-malabe. also in the year the village of uvande was represented by seven villages, all belonging to one clan under the chieftainship of iu-baibe, the names of which were ipolo, olona, isisibei, valamenga, amada, angasabe and amambu; but after the feast above mentioned the people of that clan all abandoned their villages, and joined together in forming the present village of uvande. the chief, that is the true chief, of a clan has his house in one of the villages of the clan, and if, as sometimes occurs, he has houses in two or more of these villages, there is one village in which is what is regarded as his usual residence, and this is the village in which is the _emone_ of the clan. as regards the relative predominance of the various clans of a community and their respective chiefs in matters affecting the whole community (_e.g.,_ the arranging and holding of a big feast), there is no rule or system. the predominance will probably, unless there be a great disparity in the actual size or importance of the clans, and perhaps even to a certain extent notwithstanding such a disparity, fall to the clan whose chief by his superior ability or courage or force of character, or perhaps capacity for palavering, has succeeded in securing for himself a predominating influence in the community. the word _imbele_ and certain other words are used to designate the closeness or otherwise of the connection between individuals. _imbele_ signifies the close connection which exists between members of one clan, and a man will say of another member of his clan that he is his _imbele_. the word _bilage_ signifies a community connection, which is recognised as being not so close as a clan connection; and a man will say of another, who is outside his own clan, but is a member of his own community, that he is his _bilage_. the expression _a-gata_ signifies absence of any connection, and a man will refer to a member of another community, mafulu, kuni, ambo, or anything else (there is no distinction between these in the use of the term) as being _a-gata_, thereby meaning that he is an outsider. this brings me to the question of the use by me of the term "clan" to designate the intimate association above referred to. to begin with, there is a considerable difference between the situation produced by the clan system, if it may be regarded as such, of mafulu and that of, say, mekeo, where one finds several clans occupying one village, and where members of one clan may be scattered over several more or less distant villages; though this latter difference might perhaps arise in part from natural geographical causes, the flat lowlands of the mekeo people being highly favourable to inter-village communication over their whole areas, and to the holding of their recognised and numerous markets, whilst it may almost be assumed that such intercommunication would be more restricted, at all events in days gone by, among the mafulu inhabitants of the mountains. then again in mafulu there are no clan badges, nor are there any realistic or conventional representations of, or designs which can to my mind be possibly regarded as representing, or having had their origin in the representation of, animals, birds, fishes, plants, or anything else. as regards this, however, it may be mentioned that the mafulu people are very primitive and undeveloped, and have not in their art any designs which could readily partake of this imitative character, their artistic efforts never producing curves, and indeed not going beyond geometric designs composed of straight lines, rectangular and zig-zag patterns and spots. also i was unable to discover the faintest trace of any idea which might be regarded as being totemistic, or having a totemistic origin. in particular, although enquiry was made from ten independent and trustworthy native sources, i could not find a trace of any system of general clan taboo against the killing or the eating of any animal, bird, fish, or plant. it is true that there are various temporary food taboos associated with special conditions and events, and that there are certain things the eating of which is regarded as permanently taboo to certain individuals; but the former of these restrictions are general and are not associated with particular clans or communities, and the latter restrictions relate separately to the individuals only, and apparently are based in each case on the fact that the food has been found to disagree with him; though whether the restriction is the result of mere common sense based upon individual experience, or has in it an element of superstition as to something which may be harmful to the individual concerned, is a point upon which i could not get satisfactory explanation. again, still dealing with the question of totemism, i may say that the community and village names (as already stated, there are no clan names) do not appear to be referable to any possible totemistic objects. there is no specific ancestor worship, in connection with which i could endeavour to trace out an association between that ancestor and a totemistic object, and there is no special reverence paid to any animal or vegetable, except certain trees and creepers, the fear of which is associated with spirits and ghosts generally, and not with ghosts of individual persons, and except as regards omen superstitions concerning flying foxes and fireflies, which are general and universal among all these people, and except as regards the possible imitative character of the mafulu dancing, which, if existent, is probably also universal. moreover, i was told that now, at any rate, the people regard their _imbele_ or clan relationship as a social one, as well as one of actual blood, a statement which is illustrated by the fact that, if a member of one clan leaves his village to reside permanently in a village of another clan, he will regard the members of the latter clan, and will himself be regarded by them, as being _imbele_, although he does not part with the continuing _imbele_ connection between himself and the other members of his original clan. on the other hand the association between members of a clan is exceedingly close, so much so that a serious injury done by an outsider to one member of a clan (_e.g._, his murder, or the case of his wife eloping with a stranger and her family refusing to compensate him for the price which he had paid for her on marriage) is taken up by the entire clan, who will join the injured individual in full force to inflict retribution; and, as already stated, the members of a clan share in one common chief and one common _emone_, intermarriage between them is regarded as wrong, and apparently each group of villages occupied by a single clan has in origin been a single village, and may well have a common descent. i think, therefore, that i am justified in regarding these internal sections of a community as clans. chiefs, sub-chiefs and notables and their emone at the head of each clan is the _amidi_, or chief of the clan. he is, and is recognised as being, the only true chief. he is the most important personage of his clan, and is treated with the respect due to his office; but, though he takes a leading part in all matters affecting the clan, he is not a person with any administrative or judicial functions, and he has no power of punishment or control over the members of the clan. in public ceremonial matters of importance, however, he has functions which rest primarily upon him alone, and he does, in fact, always perform these functions in his own village; and on the occasion of a big feast (as to which see below), he does so in whatever village of the clan that feast may be held. the chief lives in one of the villages of the clan, but may have houses in other villages of that clan also. in the village in which he mainly resides is his _emone_ or club-house, which is the only true _emone_ of the clan; and for the upkeep and repair of this he is responsible. this is the ceremonial _emone_ in his own village, and is always the one used in connection with the ceremony of a big feast in any village of the clan; and, if the feast be held in a village other than that in which is his then existing _emone_, another one is built in that village in lieu of his former one in the other village. there is not in connection with these chiefs and their ceremonies any distinctive difference in importance between the right and the left as regards the positions occupied by them on the _emone_ platform or the structure of the _emone_, such as is found among the roro people. next in rank to the chief, and at the head of each village of the clan, there is a sub-chief, or _em' u babe_, this term meaning "father of the village." he is not regarded as a true chief, but he is entitled, and it is his duty, to perform in his own village all the functions of the chief, except those connected with the big feast. he and the similar sub-chiefs of the other villages of the clan are the persons who take the prominent part in supporting the chief in any ceremonial function concerning the whole clan in which the latter may be engaged, and in particular at the big feast. the _em' u babe_ is usually a relative of the chief, and at all events is an important personage. he also has in his own village his _emone_, which is the principal _emone_ of that village, and is used for all ceremonial functions in that village except the big feast, but it is not regarded as being a true _emone_. the chief holds in his own village of residence both his office of _amidi_ and that of _em' u babe_, there being no other person holding the latter office in that village. next in rank to the sub-chiefs come a number of _ake baibe_, which means "great men." these are the leading people--the aristocracy--of the clan. there are no distinctive social grades of rank among them. their number is often very large in proportion to the total number of male inhabitants of a village; indeed sometimes almost every member of a village will claim to belong to this class. these people are in no sense office-bearers, and have no special duties to perform, though on a ceremonial occasion they are entitled to have their importance borne in mind. each of them also is entitled to have an _emone_ (here again not a true _emone_) in his village, but in fact their numbers often make this practically impossible, and you rarely see more than two or three _emone_ in one village. the above are all the chiefs and notables of the clan. there is no such thing as a war chief. aristocracy in its various forms is not a condition to which a man attains on getting older--it is attained by inheritance. the office of the chief is hereditary in the male line by strict rules of descent and primogeniture. on the death of a chief his office descends to his eldest son, or if that son has died leaving children, it descends to the eldest son of that son, and so on for subsequent generations. failing the eldest son or male issue in the male line of the eldest son, the office devolves upon the late chiefs second son or his male issue in the male line. and so on for other sons and their issue. failing such male issue the office passes to a collateral relation of the late chief on his father's side (_e.g._, the late chief's next eldest brother or that brother's son, or the late chief's second brother or that brother's son), the ascertainment of the devolution being based upon a general principle of nearest male relationship in the male line and primogeniture. [ ] the chief holds his office for life, but he may in his lifetime resign it in favour of the person entitled to succeed him, and this in fact often occurs. he cannot, however, on the appointment of his successor still continue in office himself, so as to create a joint chieftainship, as is done in mekeo. he, as chief, is subject to no special taboo, and there is no qualification for office, other, of course, than hereditary right; but no chief can perform the functions of his office, or build for himself an _emone_, until he has married. there is no ceremony on the chiefs accession to office on the death of his predecessor; but there is a ceremony (to be described hereafter) on a chief's abdication in favour of his successor. cases have, i was told, occurred in which a man has in one way or another forced himself into the position of chief, though not qualified by descent, and has thus become a chief, from whom subsequent chieftainship descent has been traced, but i could learn nothing of the circumstances under which this had occurred. also it has happened that, when a chief has been weak, and has not asserted his position, a sub-chief has more or less usurped his power and influence, without actually upsetting his chieftainship or supplanting him in his performance of ceremonial duties. if the chief on acquiring office by inheritance is a child, or not qualified to act (_e.g._, unmarried), he is nevertheless chief; but some person will usually act as his guardian, and perform his functions for him until he has qualified. this person will probably be one of the young chief's eldest male paternal relations (_e.g._, the eldest living brother of the last previous chief), and will presumably be a person of consequence; but he will not necessarily be one of the sub-chiefs. all the above observations concerning the hereditary nature of a chief's office and subsequently explained matters apply also to the case of a sub-chief, except that there is no ceremony on his resigning office in favour of his successor, and that the usurpation of the office of a sub-chief, of the occurrence of which i found no record, would perhaps be more difficult of accomplishment. in the event of a village throwing off an offshoot village, or itself splitting up into two villages, the then existing sub-chief of the original village would continue his office in it or, in case of a division, in one of the villages resulting from the split, and the other village would have for its sub-chief some one of the _ake-baibe_ of the original village, probably the one who was most active in organising the split. on the other hand, if several villages united into one, one only of their sub-chiefs could be sub-chief of the village arising from the amalgamation, and the others would sink to the rank of _ake-baibe_. the observations concerning the hereditary nature of a chiefs rank also apply to the _ake-baibe_. i have no information concerning them on the other points; but these are not so important as regards these people, who have no official position and have no duties to perform. there are, as will be seen hereafter, a number of persons who are employed from time to time to perform various acts and functions of a ceremonious or superstitious character, notably the man who has the important duty of killing pigs at feasts; but these men are not by virtue of their offices or functions either chiefs or sub-chiefs, or even notables or important personages. it is in each case a matter of the specific personal power which the man is believed to possess. any of them might happen to be an important personage, and the pig-killer, whose office is a prominent one, would probably be one; though in his case muscular strength would, i understand, be an important element of qualification. [ ] chapter vi villages, emone, houses and modes of inter-village communication villages and their emone and houses. the mafulu villages are generally situated on narrow plateaux or ridges, sloping down on each side; but the plateaux are not usually so narrow, nor the slopes so steep, as are those of the kuni district, and the villages themselves are not generally so narrow, as the contour of the country does not involve these conditions to the same extent. also the mafulu villages are on the lower ridges only, and not on the high mountains; but the actual elevations above sea-level of these lower ridges are, i think, generally higher than those of the top ridges of the kuni. plate shows the position and surroundings of the village of salube (community of auga), and is a good representative example, except that the plate does not show any open grassland. the villages are, or were, protected with stockades and with pits outside the stockades, and sometimes with platforms on trees near the stockade boundaries, from which platforms the inhabitants can shoot and hurl stones upon an enemy climbing up the slope. the stockade is made of timber, is about to feet high, and is generally constructed in three or more parallel rows or lines, each of the lines having openings, but the openings never being opposite to one another. these protections have now, however, been largely, though not entirely, discontinued. [ ] it is, or was, also the practice, when expecting an attack, to put into the ground in the approaches to the village calthrop-like arrow-headed objects, with their points projecting upwards. the average size of the villages is small compared with that of the large villages of mekeo, some of them having only six or eight houses, though many villages have thirty houses, and some of them have fifty or sixty or more. the houses and _emone_ are much smaller than those of mekeo, and much ruder and simpler in construction and they have no carving or other decoration. there are no communal houses. the houses are ranged in two parallel rows along the side of the ridge, with an open village space between them, the space being considerably longer than it is broad, and more or less irregular in shape. the houses are generally built with their door-openings facing inwards towards the village enclosure. at one end of the village, and facing down the open space, is the chief's or sub-chief's _emone_. these are, like the roro _marea_ and the mekeo _ufu_, used, not only in connection with ceremonies, but also as living houses for men, especially unmarried men, and for the accommodation of visitors to the village. there are probably also in the village the _emone_ of one or more of the notables before mentioned, of which one will be at the other end of the village and any others will be among the houses at the side of, and facing into, the village enclosure. there are not often more than three _emone_, true or otherwise, in one village. you of course do not find the surrounding palm groves of mekeo and the coast; nor do you generally see the waste space behind the houses, or the ring of garden plots outside the waste space, the position of the village on its ridge being usually hardly adapted to the latter. you may, however, often find garden plots very near to the village. each family has its own house, and, except as regards the _emone_ and their use, there are no separate houses for men or women, or for any class of them. the mafulu _emone_ is an oblong building, erected on piles of very varying height, the interior floor being anything from to feet above the ground. in size also it varies very much, but generally it is internally about to feet long from front to back, and about to feet in width. the roof, which is thatched with long, rather broad leaves, is constructed on the ridge and gable principle, with the gable ends facing the front and the back, and the roof sloping on both sides in convex curves from the ridge downwards. remarkable and specially distinctive features of the building are the thatched roof appendages projecting from the tops of the two gable ends (front and back), the forms of which appendages are somewhat like a hood or the convex fan-shaped semicircular roof of an apse, and in construction are sometimes made as rounded overhanging continuations of the upper part of the roof, and sometimes as independent additions, not continuous with, and not forming parts of, the actual roof. in front of the building, but not at the back, is a platform at a level about a foot below that of the inner floor, extending the whole length of the front of the building, and projecting forwards to a distance of from to feet. the approach from the ground to this platform in the case of a high-built emone is a rudely constructed ladder, but when the building is only low and near the ground it is generally merely a rough sloping piece of tree trunk, or even only a stump. the two gable ends are enclosed with walls made of horizontal tree branches, two or three of which are, at both the front and rear ends of the building, discontinued for a short distance in the centre, so as to leave openings. these openings are, say, feet or more above the level of the front outside platform, and foot or more above that of the inside floor, and are usually very small; so that, in entering or leaving the building, you have to step up to, or even climb, and wriggle yourself through the opening, and then step down on the other side. inside the building you find the centre of the floor space occupied by a longitudinal fireplace, about feet broad, extending from front to back of the building; and the floors on each side of this fireplace slope upwards somewhat from the visible level of the fire-place towards the sides of the building. the fireplace part of the interior is, in fact, dropped to a level below that of the adjoining floors, so as to form a long trough, which is filled up with soil upon which the fire can burn; and it is the visible top level of this soil covering which is practically flush with the inside lower level of the adjacent upward-sloping floors. some distance below the roof there is usually an open ceiling of reeds, used for the purpose of storing and drying fruits and other things, and especially, as will be seen hereafter, for drying fruit required in the preparation for the big feast. fig. is a diagram of the front of an _emone_, disclosing the internal plan of the floor and fireplace, for which purpose the front hood of the roof and the front platform are omitted from the plan, and of the horizontal front timbers the third up from the bottom is shown at the ends only, the middle part being omitted, and small portions of the timbers immediately above them are omitted. the words in parentheses appearing in the explanatory notes to the figure are the mafulu names for the various parts of the building. _explanatory notes to fig._ . (_a_) main posts, one at the front of the building, one in the middle, and one at the back (_apopo_). (_b_) posts supporting roof, a line of them running along each side (_tedele_). (_c_) posts supporting outer edge of flooring, a line of them on each side (_emuje_ or _aje_). (_d_) post supporting inner edge of flooring and hearth, a line of them on each side (_foj' ul' emuje_). (_e_) lower ridge pole (_tanguve_). (_f_) main downward-sloping roof work, strongly made, going all the way back, only four or five of them on each side (_loko-loko_). (_g_) upper ridge pole (_tope_). (_h_) main horizontal roof work, resting on _f_ (_gegebe_). (_i_) upper downward-sloping roof work, not so thick as _f_ resting on _h_, going all the way back at intervals of about foot (_engala_). (_k_) upper horizontal roof work, not so thick as _h_ resting on _i_ (_gegebe_) (_l_) thatch made of leaves (_asase_). _note._--the roof (excluding the hood) projects forward and overhangs a little beyond the post _a_, so as to overhang the greater part, but not the whole, of the platform; the hood (not shown in this figure) is really intended to shelter the platform. (_m_) pole supporting roof (_karia_). (_n_) pole supporting outer edge of floor (_karia_). (_o_) pole supporting inner edge of floor and enclosing hearth (_jakusube_). (_p_) floor, composed of transverse woodwork (_koimame_) with thin light longitudinal lath work on top of it (_ondovo_). (_q_) pole above inner edge of floor and edging hearth, not so thick as _o_ (_bubuje_). (_r_) floor of fireplace, upon which soil is put (_foj' ul maovo_). (_s_) pieces of wood supported by _c_ and _d_, going right across building and over floor of fireplace, but under its earth, all the way back (_kooije_). (_t_) wall timbers below top of door-opening, at front and back (_kautape_). _note._--_t_( )goes right across under door-opening, but the middle portion of it is omitted from the diagram, and the lower edges of timbers _t_ ( ) are partly broken off, so as to show floor and fireplace. (_u_) wall timbers above top of door-opening (_dibindi_). _note._--_t_ and _u_ together-the whole wall-are called _bou_. (_v_) uprights bracing together _t_ and _u_ (mafulu name unknown). (_w_) ceiling made with reeds and used for storing and drying fruit, etc. it may occupy the whole length of the building and the whole width of it, or part only of either or both of these (_avale_). (_x_) space filled up with soil and used as hearth (_foje_). (_y_) door-opening, one at back also (_akomimbe_). fig. is a diagram of a transverse section across the centre of an _emone_, showing the internal construction. the explanatory note only deals with portions not explained in those to fig. . _explanatory note to fig._ . post _a_ is the main central support of the building corresponding with post _a_ in fig. . posts _b b_ are central side supports to the roof. poles _c_ and _d_ are attached to posts _a b b_, and help to strengthen the fabric. these poles are also used for hanging up sleeping hammocks, the other extremities of which are hung to the _loko-loko_ of the roof (fig. , _f_). the name for post _a_ is _dudu_, but this word is often used to express the whole structure _a b b c d_. i have endeavoured in the diagrammatic sketch--fig. --to illustrate the apse-like projection of the roof of an _emone_ and the platform arrangements. i have in this sketch denuded the apse roof of its thatch, showing it in skeleton only; and i have shaded all timber work behind the platform, in order more clearly to define the latter. _explanatory notes to fig._ . (_a_) front end of thatch (_asase_) of main roof. (_b c d_) front apse-shaped roof (_siafele_), the thatch having been removed to show its internal construction. (_b c, b e, b d_) downward-sloping roof work (_engala_). (_f f, c d_] horizontal roof work (_gegebe_), carried round in curves. _note._--sometimes the apse-shaped roof is constructed as a continuation of the main roof of the building, in which case the _gegebe_ of the former are a continuation of those of the latter. sometimes the apse roof is a separate appendage, not connected with the main roof, and in that case the _gegebe_ of the former are separate from those of the latter, and are fixed at their extremities to the _loko-loko_ of the main roof. (_g_) posts supporting the platform (_purum'-ul' emuge_). (_h_) horizontal platform supports resting at one end on _g_ and at the other end fixed to either the _tedele_ or the _emuje_. (_i_) platform (_purume_). _note._--it will be seen that the front _apopo_ passes through the platform. (_k_) additional supports to the apse roof, which are sometimes added, but are not usual. their lower ends rest on the platform and they are connected with the apse roof at its outer edge (mafulu name unknown). (_l_) a stump by which to get on to the platform. this is often a rough sloping piece of tree-trunk; where the platform of the emone is high it is a rudely constructed ladder (_gigide_). _note._--the entire façade of the front gable end is called _konimbe_ (which means door) or _purume_ (which means platform). that of the back gable end is called _apei_. _note._--the height of the door-opening above the outside platform is shown in this figure. the houses are in construction very similar to the _emone_, and in fact the above description of the latter may be taken as a description of a house, subject to the following modifications: (i.) the house is never raised high, its floor always being within a foot or two of the ground, (ii.) it is smaller than the _emone_, its average internal dimensions being about to feet long, and to feet wide, (iii.) the roof generally slopes down on both sides to the level of the ground (concealing the side structure of the house) or nearly so. (iv.) the projecting hood of the roof is only added at the front of the building, and not at the rear; and it is usually separate from, and not continuous with, the real roof. [ ] (v.) the platform is generally small and narrow, and often only extends for half the length of the front of the house, and, being always within a foot or two of the ground, it does not possess or require a ladder or tree-trunk approach; it is also narrower. frequently there is no platform at all. (vi.) there is no entrance opening at the back of the house, (vii.) the front entrance opening is smaller and narrower and more difficult of entry. when the family are absent, they generally put sticks across this opening to bar entry, whereas the entrance opening of the _emone_ is always open, (viii.) the centre house support very often consists of one post only, instead of a combination, (ix.) there is often on one side of the entrance opening a small space of the inside of the house fenced off for occupation by the pigs, and there is a little aperture by which they can get into this space from outside, (x.) the _avale_ ceiling is usually absent; and, even if there be one, it will only extend under a small portion of the roof. [ ] the following are explanations of my plates of villages and their buildings. plate. | explanation. village of seluku (community of sivu), with chief's _emone_ at the end facing up the enclosure. village of amalala (community of sivu), with chief's _emone_ at the end of the enclosure. the same village of amalala (photographed in the other direction), with secondary _emone_ at the end of the enclosure. village of malala (community of sivu), with secondary _emone_ at the end of the enclosure. village of uvande (community of alo), with chief's _emone_ at the end of the enclosure. village of biave (community of mambu), with chief's _emone_ at the end of the enclosure. the chief's _emone_ in village of amalala. the chief's _emone_ in the village of malala, at the other end of the enclosure. a house in the same village. a house in village of levo (community of mambu). communications. the native paths of the mafulu people, or at all events those passing through forests, are, like those of most other mountain natives, usually difficult for white men to traverse. the forest tracks in particular are often quite unrecognisable as such to an inexperienced white man, and are generally very narrow and beset with a tangle of stems and hanging roots and creepers of the trees and bush undergrowth, which catch the unwary traveller across the legs or body or hands or face at every turn, and are often so concealed by the grass and vegetation that, unless he be very careful, he is apt to be constantly tripped up by them; and moreover these entanglements are often armed with thorns or prickles, or have serrated edges, a sweep of which may tear the traveller's clothes, or lacerate his hands or face. then there are at every turn and corner rough trunks of fallen trees, visible or concealed, often more or less rotten and treacherous, to be got over; and such things are frequently the only means of crossing ditches and ravines of black rotting vegetable mud. moreover the paths are often very steep; and, indeed, it is this fact, and the presence of rough stones and roots, which renders the very prominent outward turn of the people's big toes, with their prehensile power, such useful physical attributes. their bridges may be divided into four types, namely: ( ) a single tree thrown across the stream, having either been blown down, and so fallen across it accidentally, or been purposely placed across it by the natives. ( ) two or more such trunks placed in parallel lines across the stream, and covered with a rough platform of transverse pieces of wood. ( ) the suspension bridge. i regret that i am unable to give a detailed description of mafulu suspension bridges, but i think i am correct in saying that they are very similar to those of the kuni people, one of whose bridges is described in the _annual report_ for june, , as being feet long and feet above water at the lowest part, and as being made of lawyer vine (i do not know whether this would be right for mafulu), with flooring of pieces of stick supported on strips of bark, and as presenting a crazy appearance, which made the governor's carriers afraid of crossing it, though it was in fact perfectly safe, and had very little movement, even in the middle. i also give in plate a photograph taken by myself [ ] of a bridge over the st. joseph river, close to the kuni village of ido-ido, which, though a kuni bridge, may, i think, be taken as fairly illustrative of a mafulu bridge over a wide river. [ ] plate is a photograph, taken in mafulu, of another form of suspension bridge used by them, and adapted to narrower rivers, the river in this case being the aduala. ( ) the bamboo bridge. this is a highly arched bridge of bamboo stems. the people take two long stems, and splice them together at their narrow ends, the total length of the spliced pair being considerably greater than the width of the river to be bridged. they then place the spliced pair of bamboos across the river, with one end against a strong backing and support on one side of the river and the other end at the other side, where it will extend for some little distance beyond the river bank. this further end is then forcibly bent backward to the bank by a number of men working together, and is there fixed and backed. the bamboo stems then form a high arch over the river. they then fix another pair of stems in the same way, close to and parallel with the first one; and the double arch so formed is connected all the way across with short pieces of wood, tied firmly to the stems, so as to strengthen the bridge and form a footway, by which it can be crossed. they then generally add a hand rail on one side. one can hardly leave the question of physical communications without also referring to the marvellous system of verbal communication which exists amongst the mafulu and kuni and other mountain people. messages are shouted across the valleys from village to village in a way which to the unaccustomed traveller is amazing. it never seemed to me that any attempt was made specially to articulate the words and syllables of the message, or to repeat them slowly, so as to make them more readily heard at a distance off, though the last syllable of each sentence is always prolonged into a continuous sort of wail. this system of wireless telegraphy has, however, been before described by other writers, so i need say no more about it. chapter vii government, property, and inheritance government and justice. there is, as might be expected, no organised system of government among the mafulu, nor is there any official administration of justice. as regards government, the chiefs in informal consultation with the sub-chiefs and prominent personages deal with important questions affecting the community or clan or village as a whole, such as the holding of big feasts and important ceremonies, the migrations or splitting-up or amalgamation of villages, and warlike operations; but events of this character are not frequent. and as to justice, neither the chiefs nor any other persons have any official duties of settling personal disputes or trying or punishing wrongdoers. the active functions of the chiefs, in fact, appear to be largely ceremonial. concerning the question of justice, it would seem, indeed, that a judicial system is hardly requisite. personal disputes between members of a village or clan, or even of a community, on such possible subjects as inheritance, boundary, ownership of property, trespass and the like, and wrongful acts within the village or the community, are exceedingly rare, except as regards adultery and wounding and killing cases arising from acts of adultery, which are more common. there are certain things which from immemorial custom are regarded as being wrong, and appropriate punishments for which are generally recognised, especially stealing, wounding, killing and adultery; but the punishment for these is administered by the injured parties and their friends, favoured and supported by public opinion, and often, where the offender belongs to another clan, actively helped by the whole clan of the injured parties. the penalty for stealing is the return or replacement of the article stolen; but stealing within the community, and perhaps even more so within the clan or village, is regarded as such a disgraceful offence, more so, i believe, than either killing or adultery, that its mere discovery involves a distressing punishment to the offender. as regards wounding and killing, the recognised rule is blood for blood, and a life for a life. the recognised code for adultery will be stated in the chapter on matrimonial matters. any retribution for a serious offence committed by someone outside the clan of the person injured is often directed, not only against the offender himself, but against his whole clan. there is a method of discovering the whereabouts of a stolen article, and the identity of the thief, through the medium of a man who is believed to have special powers of ascertaining them. this man takes one of the large broad single-shell arm ornaments, which he places on its edge on the ground, and one of the pig-bone implements already described, which he places standing on its point upon the convex surface of the shell. to make the implement stand in this way he puts on the point, and makes to adhere to the shell a small piece of wild bees' wax, this being done, i was told, surreptitiously, though i cannot say to what extent the people are deceived by the dodge, or are aware of it. the implement stands on the shell for a few seconds, after which it falls down. previously to doing this he has told his client of certain possible directions in which the implement may fall, and intimated that, whichever that may be, it will be the direction in which the lost article must be sought. he has also given certain alternative names of possible culprits, one of such names being associated with each of the alternative directions of falling. the fall of the implement thus indicates the quarter in which the lost article may be found and the name of the thief. father clauser saw this performance enacted in connection with a pig which had been stolen from a chief; the falling bone successfully pointed to the direction in which the pig was afterwards found, and there was no doubt that the alleged thief was in fact the true culprit. presumably the operator makes private enquiries before trying his experiment, and knows how to control the fall of the implement. property and inheritance. the property of a mafulu native may be classified as being ( ) his movable belongings, such as clothing, ornaments, implements and pigs; ( ) his house in the village; ( ) his bush land; ( ) his gardens. the movable belongings are, of course, his own absolute property. the village house is also his own; but this does not include the site of that house, which continues to be the property of the village. every grown-up male inhabitant of the village has the right to build for himself one house in that village; he is not entitled to have more than one there, but he may have a house in each of two or more villages, and a chief or very important man is allowed two or three houses in the same village. on a house being pulled down and not rebuilt, or being abandoned and left to decay, the site reverts to the village, and another person may build a house upon it. [ ] houses are never sold, but the ordinary life of a house is only a few years. the man's bush land is his own property, and his ownership includes all trees and growth which may be upon it, and which no other man may cut down, but it does not include game, this being the common property of the community; and any member of the community is entitled to pass over the land, hunt on it, and fish in streams passing through it, as he pleases. the whole of the bush land of the community belongs in separate portions to different owners, one man sometimes owning two or more of such portions; and it is most remarkable that, though there are apparently no artificial boundary marks between the various portions, these boundaries are, somehow or other, known and respected, and disputes with reference to them are practically unknown. how the original allocations and allotments of land have been made does not appear to be known to the people themselves. the man's garden plot or plots are also his own, having been cleared by him or some predecessor of his out of his or that predecessor's own bush land; and he may build in his gardens as many houses as he pleases. his ownership of his garden plot is more exclusive than is that of his bush land, as other people are not entitled to pass over it. but on the other hand, if he abandons the garden, and nature again overruns it with growth--a process which takes place with great rapidity--it ceases to be his garden, and reverts to, and becomes absorbed in, the portion of the bush out of which it had been cleared; and if, as it may be, he is not the sole owner of that portion of bush, he loses his exclusive right to the land, which as a garden had been his own sole property. no man can sell or exchange either his bush land or his garden plots, and changes in their ownership therefore only arise through death and inheritance. this statement, however, is, i think, subject to the qualification that an owner of bush-land will sometimes allow his son or other male descendant to clear and make for himself a garden in it; but i am not sure as to the point. on a man's death his widow, if any, does not inherit any portion of his property, either movable or immovable, but three things are allowed to her. she is generally allowed one pig, which will be required by her at a later date for the ceremony of the removal of her mourning; and she shares with her husband's children, or, if there be none, she has the sole right to, the then current season's crops and fruit resulting from the planting effected by her late husband and herself, though this is a right which, after her return home to her own people, she would not continue to exercise; and she is allowed to continue to occupy her husband's house, but this latter privilege terminates at the mourning removal ceremony, when the house will be pulled down, and its site will revert to the village, and she will probably return to her own people in her own village, if she has not done so previously. subject to these three allowances, i may dismiss the widow entirely in dealing with the law of inheritance. i may also dismiss the man's female children by saying that, if there be male children, the females do not share at all in the inheritance, and even if there be no male children the female children will only perhaps be allowed, apparently rather as a matter of grace than of right, to share in his movable effects; and that, subject to this, everything goes to the man's male relatives. i may also eliminate the man's pigs, as apparently any pigs he has, other than that retained for his widow, are killed at his funeral. on the death of an owner everything he possesses goes, except as above mentioned, to his sons. they divide the movable things between them, but the bush and garden land pass to them jointly, and there is no process by which either of these can be divided and portioned among them. the male children of a deceased son, and the male children of any deceased male child of that deceased son (and so on for subsequent generations), inherit between them in lieu of that son. there does not appear, however, to be any idea in the mafulu mind of each son of the deceased owner being entitled to a specific equal fractional share, or of the descendants of a deceased son of that owner being between them only entitled to one share, _per stirpes_. they apparently do not get beyond the general idea that these people, whoever they may be and to whatever generations they may belong, become the owners of the property. they take possession of and cultivate the existing gardens as joint property. any one of them will be allowed to clear some of their portion of bush, and fence it, and plant it as a garden, and it will then become the sole property of that one man, and if he dies it will pass as his own property to his own heirs; though, as before stated, if he abandons it, and lets it be swallowed up by the bush, it will cease to be his own garden, and will again be included in the family's joint portion of bush land, and on his death his heirs will only come into the joint bush ownership. in this way the ownership of a garden must often be in several persons, with no well-defined rights _inter se_, and the general ownership of bush land which has never been cleared, or which, having been cleared, has been abandoned and reverted, must often be in a very large number of persons without defined rights. in fact, so far as bush land is concerned, one only has to remember that on the death of an owner it passes into joint ownership of children--that on the deaths of these children fresh groups of persons come into the joint ownership--that this may go on indefinitely, generation after generation--that bush, having once got into the ownership of many people, is hardly likely to again fall by descents into a single ownership--that indeed the tendency must be for the number of owners of any one portion of bush steadily to increase--and finally that there is no way by which the extensively divided ownership can be terminated by either partition or alienation--and one then realises the extraordinary complications of family ownership of bush land which must commonly exist. as regards both movable effects and gardens and bush land there must be endless occasions for dispute. how are the movable things to be divided among the inheritors, and, in particular, who is to take perhaps one valuable article, which may be worth all the rest put together? how are questions of doubtful claims to heirship to bush and garden land to be determined? how is the joint ownership of the gardens to be dealt with, and how is the work there to be apportioned, and the products of the gardens divided? how are the mutual rights of the bush land to be regulated, and especially what is to happen if each of two or more joint owners desires to clear and allocate to himself as a garden, a specially eligible piece of bush? such situations in england would bristle with lawsuits, and i tried to find out how these questions were actually dealt with by the mafulu; but there is no judicial system there, and the only answer i could get was that in these matters, as in the case of inter-community bush boundaries and personal bush boundaries, disputes were practically unknown; though it was pointed out to me, as regards bush land, that the amount of it belonging to any one family was usually so large that crowding out could hardly arise. if a man dies without male descendants in the male line, then, subject perhaps to some sort of claim of his daughters, if any, to share in his movable effects, his property goes to his nearest male relative or relatives in the male line. this would primarily be his father, if living, but the father could hardly be the inheritor of anything but movable things and perhaps garden land, as the deceased could not be the owner of bush land during the lifetime of his father. subject as regards movable things and perhaps gardens to this right of the father, the persons to inherit everything would be deceased's brothers and the male descendants in the male line of any such brothers who had died; or in default of these it would be the father's (not the mother's) brothers and their male descendants in the male line, and so on for more distant male relatives, every descent being traced strictly in the male line only, on a principle similar to that above explained. male infants, by which term i mean young children, there being of course no infancy in the defined sense in which the term is used in english law, like adults, may become possessed of property by inheritance as regards bush and garden land, and by inheritance or otherwise as regards movable property, but they would hardly be likely to be the owners of houses; and the descent from these infants is the same as that in the case of adults. no woman can possess any property, other than movable property, and even this is at best confined to the clothes and ornaments which she wears. on the death of a married woman all her effects go to her husband, or, if he be dead, they go to her children or descendants, male and female, equally, if she has no children or descendants, they go to her husband's father, or, failing him, to such other person or persons as would have been entitled to inherit if her effects had been those of her husband. her own blood relations do not come in, as she had been bought and paid for by her husband. if the deceased woman were a spinster, then her effects would pass to her father, or, failing him, to her brothers, or, failing them, to her nearest male relatives on her father's side. the guardianship of and responsibility for infant children whose father dies falls primarily upon the children's mother, and she, if and when she returned to her own people, would probably take the children away with her, though her sons, who shared in the inheritance from their father, would usually come back again to their own village when they became grown up, and might do so even when comparatively young. if there is no mother of the children, the guardianship and responsibility is taken up by one or more of the relatives of either the deceased father or deceased mother of the children, and it might be that some children would be taken over by some of such relatives, and some by others. there appears, however, to be no regular rule as to all this, the question being largely one of convenience. adopted children have in all matters of inheritance the same rights as actual children. from the above particulars it will be seen that there is no system of descent in the female line or of mother-right among the mafulu, and i could not find any trace of such a thing having ever existed with them. as to this i would draw attention to the facts that the mother's relatives do not come in specially, as they do among the roro and mekeo people, in connection with the perineal band ceremony; that a boy owes no service to his maternal uncle, as is the case among the koita; that there is no equivalent of the koita _heni_ ceremony; that in no case can a woman be a chief, or chieftainship descend by the female line; that children belong to the clan of their father, and not to that of their mother; and that no duty or responsibility for orphan children devolves specially upon their mother's relations. chapter viii the big feast this is the greatest and most important social function of a mafulu community of villages. i was unable to get any information as to its real intent and origin, but a clue to this may, i think, be found in the formal cutting down of the grave platform of a chief, the dipping of chiefs' bones in the blood of the slain pigs, and the touching of other chiefs' bones with the bones so dipped, which constitute such important features of the function, and which perhaps point to an idea of in some way finally propitiating or driving away or "laying" the ghosts of the chiefs whose bones are the subject of the ceremony. the feast, though only to be solemnised in one village, is organised and given by the whole community of villages. there is no (now) known matter or event with reference to which it is held. it is decided upon and arranged and prepared for long beforehand, say a year or two, and feasts will only be held in one village at intervals of perhaps fifteen or twenty years. the decision to hold a feast is arrived at by the chiefs of the clans of the community which proposes to give it. the village at which the feast is to be held will not necessarily be the largest one of the community, or one in which is a then existing chiefs _emone_. the guests to be invited to it will be the people of some other (only one other) community, and at the outset it will be ascertained more or less informally whether or not they will be willing to accept the invitation. when the feast has been resolved upon, the preparations for it begin immediately, that is a year or two before the date on which it is to be held. large quantities will be required of yam, taro and sugar-cane, and of a special form of banana (not ripening on the trees, and requiring to be cooked); also of the large fruit of the _ine_, a giant species of pandanus (see plate --the figure seated on the ground near to the base of the tree gives an idea of the size of the latter and of the fruit head which is hanging from it), which is cultivated in the bush, and the fruit heads of which are oval or nearly round, and have a transverse diameter of about inches; and of another fruit, called by the natives _malage_, which grows wild, chiefly by streams, and is also cultivated, and the fruit of which was described to me as being rather like an apple, almost round, green in colour, and or inches in diameter. [ ] and above all things will be wanted an enormous number of village pigs (not wild pigs); and sweet potatoes must be plentiful for the feeding of these pigs. and finally they will need plenty of native tobacco for their guests. in view of these requirements it is obvious that a year or two is by no means an excessive period for the preparations for the feast. the existing yam and taro gardens, intended for community consumption alone, will be quite insufficient for the purpose, and fresh bush land is at once cleared, and new gardens are made and planted, the products of these new gardens being allocated specially for the feast, and not used for any other purpose. there is also an extensive planting of sugar-cane, probably in old potato gardens. for bananas there will probably be no great need of preparation, as they are grown plentifully, and there is no specific appropriation of these; but the sufficiency of the supply of the tobacco for the visitors, and of the sweet potatoes for the pigs, has to be seen to, also that of the _ine_ pandanus trees, the fruit of which has often to be procured from elsewhere, and of the trees. and finally the village pigs must be bred and fattened, for which latter purpose it is a common practice to send young pigs to people in other communities; and these people will be invited to the big feast, and will have pig given to them, though not members of the invited community; but never in any case will any of them have a part of a pig which he himself has fattened. the cultivated vegetable foods and the pigs are not provided on a communistic basis, but are supplied by the individual members of the community, each household of which is expected to do its duty in this respect; and no person who or whose family has not provided at least one pig (some of them provide more than one) will be allowed to take part in the preliminary feast and subsequent dancing, to be mentioned below. the bringing in and storing of the _ine_ and _malage_ fruits commence at an early stage. the _ine_ fruits are collected when quite ripe; they split the large fruit heads up into two or more parts, put these into baskets roughly made of cane (at least half a fruit head in each basket), and place these baskets in the _avale_ or ceiling of the _emone_, where the fruits get dried and smoked by the heat and smoke of the fire constantly burning beneath. if, as is sometimes the case, the _emone_ has no _avale_ one is constructed specially for the purpose. the fruits are left there until required; in fact, if taken away from the smoke, they would go bad. sometimes, instead of putting portions of the fruit heads into baskets, they take out from them the almond-shaped seeds, which are the portions to be eaten, string these together, each seed being tied round and not pierced, and hang them to the roof of the _emone_ above the _avale_. the fruits of the _malage_ are gathered and put into holes or side streams by a river, and there left for from seven to ten months, until the pulp, which is very poisonous, is all rotted away, a terrible smell being emitted during the process; they then take the pips or seeds, the insides of which, after the surrounding shells have been cracked, are the edible parts, and place these in baskets made out of the almost amplexicaul bases of the leaves of a species of palm tree, and so store them also on the _avale_ of the _emone_. [ ] large preparations of a structural and repairing nature are also required in the village where the feast is to be held. the _emone_, the true chiefs _emone_, of the village is repaired or pulled down and entirely rebuilt; or, if that village does not possess such an _emone_, one is erected in it. in point of fact the usual practice is, i was informed, to build a new _emone_, the occasion of an intended feast being the usually recognised time for the doing of this. [ ] the houses of the village are put into repair. the people of the other villages of the same community build houses for themselves in the feast village, so that on the occasion of the feast all the members of the community (the hosts) will be living in that village. view platforms, from which the dancing can be watched, are built by all the people of the community. these are built between the houses where possible, or at all events so as to obstruct the view from the houses as little as possible. they are built on upright poles, and are generally between and feet high, each platform having a roof, which will probably be somewhat similar to the roofs of the houses. sometimes there are two platforms under one roof, but this is not usual. sometimes the platforms, instead of being on posts, are in trees, being, however, roofed like the others. two or more houses may join in making one platform for themselves and their friends. all the above works are put in hand at an early stage. the following are done later, perhaps not till after the sending out of the formal invitation (see below), but they may conveniently be dealt with here. the people erect near to, but outside, the village in which the feast is to be held one or more sheds for the accommodation of the guests, the number of sheds depending upon the requirements of the case. these are merely gable and ridge-shaped roofs, which descend on each side down to the ground, or very close to it, being supported by posts, and there being no flooring. they are called _olor' eme_, which means dancers' houses. posts about or feet high and inches or nearly so in diameter are erected in various places in the village enclosure, and each of these posts is surrounded with three, four, or five upright bamboo stems, which are bound to the post so as together to make a composite post of which the big one is the strong supporting centre. the leaf branches of these bamboos, starting out from the nodes of the stems, are cut off or inches from their bases, thus leaving small pegs or hooks to which vegetables, etc., can be afterwards hung; and in the case of each post one only of its surrounding bamboos has the top branches and leaves left on. each household is responsible for the erection of one post. i may here say in advance that upon these post clusters will be hung successively, yams and taro in the upper parts, human skulls and bones lower down, and croton leaves by way of decoration at the bottom. the sugar-cane and banana and _ine_ and _malage_ are dealt with in another way. there is a further erection of thin poles, which will be mentioned in its proper place. about six months before the anticipated date of the big feast there is a preliminary festivity, which is regarded as a sort of intimation that the long-intended feast is shortly to take place. to this festivity people of villages of any neighbouring communities, say within an hour or two's walk, are invited. there is no dancing, but there is a distribution among the guests of a portion of each of the vegetables and fruits which will be consumed at the feast, and a village pig is killed and cut up, and its parts are also distributed among the guests, who then return home. after this preliminary festivity dancing begins in the village in which the feast is to be held and in the other villages of the same community, and this dancing goes on, subject to weather, every day until the evening prior to the day upon which the feast takes place. the men dance in the villages, beginning at about sundown, and going on through the evening, and perhaps throughout the night. only men who or whose families have provided at least one pig for the feast are allowed to join in the dancing. bachelors join in the dancing, subject to the above condition. the women dance outside their villages, and, as regards them, there is no pig qualification. about a month before the date on which the feast is proposed to be held, a formal invitation is sent out to the community which is to be invited to it, and who, as above stated, have already been approached informally in the matter. for this purpose a number, perhaps ten, twenty, or thirty, of the men of the community giving the feast start off, taking with them several bunches of croton leaves--one bunch for each village of the invited community. these men, if the invited community be some distance off, only carry the croton leaves as far as some neighbouring community, probably about one day's journey off, where they stay the night, and then return. during their progress, and particularly as they arrive at their destination, they are all singing. then the men of this neighbouring community carry the croton leaves a stage further; and so on till they reach their ultimate destination. this may involve two or three sets of messengers, but occasionally one or two of the original messengers may go the whole way. these croton leaves are delivered to the chiefs of the several clans of the invited community, and they are tied to the front central posts of the village _emone_, the true _emone_ of the chiefs village, and, as regards other villages, the _emone_ of the sub-chiefs. [ ] the exact date of the feast depends upon the guests, who may come in a month after receiving the croton leaves, or may be later; and the community giving the feast do not know on what date their guests will arrive until news comes that they are actually on their way, though in the meantime messengers will be passing backwards and forwards and native wireless telegraphy (shouting from ridge to ridge) will be employed. as soon as the formal invitation has been sent the people of the community giving the feast begin to bring in the yams from the gardens, which they do day by day, singing as they do so; and these yams are stored away in the houses as they are brought in. when the yams have all been collected, they are brought out and spread in one, two, or three long lines along the centre of the village open space. the owner of each post knows which are his own yams, and they will go to his post. when the yams are laid out on the ground, the chiefs inspect them, and select the best ones, which are to be given to the chiefs of the community invited to the dance. to these selected yams they tie croton leaves as distinguishing marks. then each man stands by his own yams, and has a boy standing by his own post; each man picks up his best yams, and whilst holding these they all (only the men with the yams) begin to sing. the moment the song is over, each man rushes with his selected best yam to his post, and hands the yam to the boy, who climbs up the post, and hangs up the yam. after this they hang the rest of the yams, each man running with them to the post, and giving them to the boy, who climbs up and hangs the yam whilst the man runs back for another, the performance being all in apparent disorder and there being no singing. some of the best-shaped yams are hung to little cross-sticks about or feet long, which the boys then and there attach to those bamboo stems which have their top branches and leaves left upon them, the sticks being attached just below these branches. these selected yams will include those with the croton leaves, which are intended for chiefs. of the rest the better yams are hung up higher on the posts, and the poorer ones lower down. the lowest of them will probably be or feet from the ground. after hanging the yams, the next step is to erect in the ground all round the village enclosure and in front of the houses a number of tall young slender straight-stemmed tree poles, with the top branches and leaves only left upon them. these poles are connected with one another by long stems, fixed horizontally to them at a height of or feet from the ground, the stems thus forming a sort of long line or girdle encircling the village enclosure. the men then go to their gardens and bring in the sugar-canes, singing as they do so, and these they hang to the horizontal stems, but without ceremony. the sugar-canes are all in thick bundles, perhaps or inches thick, and these bundles are hung horizontally end to end immediately under the line of stems, so as also to make a continuous encircling line. next they bring in the bananas, again singing, and these they hang up on the tall, slender tree poles, and on the platforms of the houses, and under the view platforms, but without ceremony. lastly, again singing, they bring in the taro, and hang these up, mixed with the yams (not below them) on the posts, again without ceremony. the hanging up of the taro is left to the last, and, in fact, is not done till it is known that the guests are on their way, as the taro would be spoilt by bad weather. in hanging the yam and the taro the people all work simultaneously--that is, they are all hanging yams at the same time and all hanging taro at the same time. but as regards the sugar cane and banana each man works in his own time without waiting for, or being waited for by, the others. women may help the men in all these things, except the ceremonious hanging up of the yams. they do not, however, hang all the yam, sugar-cane, banana and taro, some of each being kept back in the houses for a purpose which will appear hereafter. the _ine_ and _malage_ fruits are not hung up at all, but are kept in the _avale_ of the village _emone_ until the day of the actual feast, when the various vegetables and fruits are, as will be seen, put in heaps for distribution among the guests. they then further decorate the posts with human skulls and bones, which are hung round in circles below the yams and taro, but not reaching to the ground. these are the skulls and bones of chiefs and members of their families and sub-chiefs and important personages only of the community, and the bones used are only the larger bones of the arms and legs; skulls will, so far as possible, be used for the purpose in preference to the other bones. these skulls and bones are taken from wherever they may then happen to be; some of them will be in burial boxes on trees, [ ] some may be in graves underground, and some may be hung up in the village _emone_; though it may here be mentioned that those underground and in the _emone_ are not, as i shall show later, in their original places of sepulture. finally croton leaves, tied in sheaves, are arranged round the posts below the skulls and bones, so as to decorate the posts down to the ground. one other specially important matter must here be mentioned. there will probably be in or by the edge of the village enclosure a high box-shaped wooden burial platform, [ ] supported on poles, and containing the skull and all the bones of a chief, these platforms and a special sort of tree being, as will be explained later on, the only places where they and their families and important personages are originally buried. if so, the people add to the bones on this platform such of the other skulls and special arm and leg bones, collected as above mentioned, as are not required for decorating the posts. if, as is most improbable, there is no such burial platform, then they erect one, and upon it place all the available skulls and special bones not required for the posts. these various preparations bring us to the evening before the day of the feast, upon which evening the women, married and unmarried, of the community, whose families have supplied pigs for the feast, dance together in full dancing decorations in the village enclosure, beginning at about sundown, and, if weather permits, dancing all through the night. there is no ceremony connected with this dancing. the next day is the feast day. the guests are in the special guest houses outside the village, where they are dressing for the dance. they have probably arrived the day before, in which case they may have come into the village to watch the women dancing in the evening; but they are not regarded as having formally arrived. these guests include married and unmarried men, women and children, nobody of the invited community being left behind, except old men and women who cannot walk. the women have brought with them their carrying bags, in which they carry all their men's and their own goods (_e.g._, knives, feathers, ornaments, etc.), including not only the things used for the ceremony, but all their other portable property, which they do not wish to expose to risk of theft by leaving at home. they have also brought special ornamental bags to be used in the dance as mentioned below. the people of the village in the meantime erect one, two, or three (generally three) trees in a group in the very centre of the village enclosure. and now come the successive ceremonies of the feast, in which both married and unmarried men and women take part; in describing these ceremonies i will call the people of the community giving the feast the "hosts," and the visitors attending it the "guests." first: all or nearly all the men hosts go in a body out of the village to the guests' houses, singing as they go. they are all fully ornamented for a feast, but do not wear their special dancing ornaments, and they do not carry their spears, or as a rule any other weapons. each chiefs ornaments include a bunch of black cassowary feathers tied round his head behind, and falling down over his shoulders, this being his distinctive ornament; but otherwise his ornaments do not differ from those of the rest, except probably as regards quantity and quality. the object of this visit is to ascertain if the guests are ready, and if they are not ready the men hosts wait until they are so. then the men hosts return to the village, singing as before, and all the guests, men and women, follow them; but they do not sing, and they do not enter the village. the men hosts, on returning, retire to their houses and the view platforms, where also are the women hosts, thus leaving the village enclosure empty. second: all the women guests, except two, then enter the village. they are fully ornamented for the feast, but do not wear their special dancing ornaments. they all have large carrying bags on their backs, not the common ones of everyday use, but the ornamental ones; and in these they carry and show off all their own and their husbands' riches other than what they respectively are actually wearing. they enter at one end of the village enclosure (i will hereafter call this the "entrance end") by the side of the end _emone_ of the village (this may be the chiefs true _emone_ or it may be the secondary _emone_), and walk in single file along one side of the village enclosure, and half of them walk round the other end (which i will call the "far end") in front of the _emone_ there (which also will be either the true one or the other one), and back again along the other side, until there are two rows of them, _vis-à-vis_ at opposite sides of the enclosure, none of them remaining at the far end in front of the _emone_ there. if they are very numerous, there may be lines on both sides of the enclosure, stretching from end to end; whereas if they are few only, they would be in facing lines at the far end only of the enclosure. this is all done silently. third: all the women hosts, fully ornamented for a feast, but without special dancing ornaments, then enter the enclosure at the entrance end, and congregate at the far end of it, in front of the far _emone_ and between the two facing lines of women guests, and facing towards the centre of the enclosure. the group of them stretches as far forward towards the centre of the enclosure as their number allows; but it will never extend beyond the special trees, which have been last erected in the centre. this also is done in silence. fourth: the two women guests excluded from the general entry now come in. they are presumably the wives of chiefs. they are also decorated for the feast, but without full dancing ornaments. each of them, however, holds in her mouth something intended to give her a terrible appearance, probably two pairs of pigs' tusks, one pair curling, crescent-like, upwards, and the other pair similarly curling downwards, or a piece of cloth; but this is only carried by her for this particular scene of the performance, and not afterwards. each of them also carries two spears, one in each hand. these two women rush into the village enclosure, one entering at each side of the _emone_ at the entrance end. they run along the two sides of the enclosure, one at each side, in front of the lines of women guests already there (between them and the central group of host women), brandishing their spears as they do so, but in silence. when they reach the far end of the enclosure they meet each other in front of the _emone_ there; and then, if that happens to be the true (chief's) _emone_, they brandish their spears in a hostile manner at the building, the spears sometimes even striking it, though they do not leave the women's hands, and there is probably a little pause or halt in their running for the purpose of this attack. they then pass each other, and return as they had come, still brandishing their spears, but each on the opposite side, until they are both at the entrance end of the enclosure. if the _emone_ at this end is the true _emone_, then the attack is made upon it, instead of upon the other one. they then generally again pass each other, and go round the enclosure a second time, and again attack the _emone_ exactly as before. during the first part of this performance the host women congregated in the far end of the enclosure are all dancing a sort of non-progressive goose step, there being, however, no singing. but, when the two guest women on the return journey of their second circuit reach the front row of the host women, the latter advance in a body silently dancing (but not travelling so fast as the two guest women) down the enclosure, and so following the two guest women, until they are all congregated at the entrance end of the enclosure. the positions of the _dramatis personæ_ up to and including the stage of proceedings lastly described will be better understood by reference to fig. and its accompanying notes. at the end of this stage the lines of guest women are still as shown; but the two special guest women and all the host women are at the entrance end of the enclosure. fifth: such of the guest men as are not going to join in the real ultimate dance (see heading ) enter the village at the entrance end, they also being fully ornamented, but not wearing their special dancing ornaments. they carry their spears, and perhaps in their other hands their clubs or adzes. any chiefs who may be among them wear their black cassowary feather ornaments, like those of the host chiefs. they all advance along the enclosure, jumping and dancing and brandishing their spears, but not singing; and in front of them go all the host women, dancing as before, also in silence. this double body of people, host women in front, and guest men behind, advance _en masse_ along the village enclosure. when, in doing this, the guest men reach the three last-erected special trees in the middle of the enclosure, they attack the trees with their spears, never letting the spears leave their hands, and with kicks, and thus try to knock the trees down. if they succeed in doing so, then this part of the performance is at an end, and these guest men disperse and spread about at both sides and ends of the village; but the host and guest women return from wherever they are to the entrance end. if the guest men's first attack on the trees is not successful, they pass them, and continue their advance, as before, to the far end of the enclosure and return back again in the other direction, the host women still dancing in front of them; and on this return journey they repeat their attack on the trees. if again unsuccessful, they go on to their starting point, and go a second time through the same performance as before, going up the enclosure, and, if necessary, down again; and, if still unsuccessful, they will probably try a third time, the host women always dancing in front of them as before. the whole of this is one continuous movement, going on till the trees are down. if after the third double attempt the guest men have still been unsuccessful, they relinquish their efforts; and in that case the pig-killer of the hosts' village (as to whom see below) steps forward, and cuts down the trees with his adze. when the trees are down, the performance is at an end, the guest men retire, and the host and guest women return to the entrance end, as above stated. sixth: such of the chiefs of the guests as do not intend to join in the real ultimate dance (heading ) then step forward into the enclosure at the entrance end. their number may be two or three or more. they wear their full dancing ornaments, including their black cassowary feather ornaments and the enormous feather erections on their heads, which for chiefs are even larger and heavier than for other people. they carry their drums, but not spears or clubs or adzes. the two special guest women who have already been mentioned and two other guest women, all with their full dancing ornaments, also come forward. a line is formed with the chiefs in the middle and the four women at the two ends. in front of this line are all the host women, still decorated as before, but without special dancing ornaments. then the whole group, host women in front and the guest chiefs and their four attendant guest women in a line behind, dance forward along the enclosure. in doing this, they face the direction in which they are progressing, and their progress is slow. this is done to the accompaniment of the beating by the dancing chiefs of their drums, but there is no singing. when the dancing party reach the far end of the enclosure, they go back again in the same way; and so on again until the chiefs (with the great weights they are carrying) are tired; then they stop. but the men hosts thereupon politely press them to go on again, giving them in fact a sort of complimentary encore, and this they will probably do. after about half-an-hour from the commencement of the dancing they finally stop. then the chief of the clan in one of whose villages the dance is held comes forward and removes the heavy head-pieces from the dancing chiefs. seventh: an important ceremony now occurs. the chief of the clan cuts away the supports of the burial platform already mentioned, whereupon the platform falls to the ground, and the skulls and bones upon it roll on the ground. these are picked up, and the skulls and big arm and leg bones are put on one side. there is no singing or ceremony in connection with this. the platform is not rebuilt; and what is afterwards done with the skulls and bones will be seen hereafter. eighth: there is now a distribution among the chiefs and more important male guests of the yam, taro, sugar-cane and bananas, which at the time of the hanging up on the village posts were kept back and put into the houses, and of tobacco. the chief of the clan, with help from others, makes a number of heaps of these things in the centre of the village enclosure, the number of heaps corresponding to the number of recipients. then, standing successively before each of these heaps, he calls out in turn the names of the men who are to receive them, chiefs being given the first priority, and specially important people the next. each man comes forward, usually bringing with him his wife or some other woman with a bag, picks up his heap, and takes it away. and so with all of them in turn, till all is finished. on each heap there is usually, but not always, a portion of a village pig, which has that morning been killed under the burial platform, before it was cut down. the guests, men and women, then return to the guest houses, where the women cook the food which has been given, and it is eaten by the men and themselves. ninth: the real dance now takes place, beginning perhaps at or in the evening, and lasting the whole night, and perhaps till o'clock the following morning. the dancing is done by some only of the guest men, and none of their women, and none of the hosts, either men or women, join in it. the dancers are all arrayed in full dancing ornaments, including their heavy head feather erections, and chiefs also wear their cassowary feathers; and they all carry their drums and spears, and sometimes clubs or adzes. after the dance has begun, the chief of the clan in whose village the dance occurs distributes, with assistance, among the more important of these dancers, especially chiefs, the skulls and bones which had been put on one side after the cutting down of the burial platform, and probably some or all of the skulls and bones which had been hung upon the big posts; and the dancers receiving these skulls and bones wear them as additional decoration upon their arms throughout the dance. guest chiefs dance with the others, but owing to the heavy weight of the head ornaments they have to carry, they will be tired sooner than the others. the dancing party enter the village at the entrance end, walking backwards. directly after they have entered the village they, still having their backs to it, begin to beat their drums, after doing which for a short time they turn round, and the dancing begins. the dancers beat their drums whilst dancing, but neither they nor the other people sing during the actual dancing. there are, however, intervals in the dancing (not the mere rest intervals, such as they have in mekeo, and which they also have in mafulu, but intervals which are themselves an actual part of the dance), and during these intervals the drums are not being beaten, and the dancers and the other people, hosts, guests, men and women, all sing. i shall have something more to say about dancing generally later on. at a subsequent stage the skulls and bones with which the dancers have been decorated, including those which had fallen from the burial platform, are all again hung up among the other skulls and bones on the big posts. tenth: this is the stage at which occur various other ceremonies, which, though themselves quite distinct from that of the big feast, and performed, often several of them together, when there is no big feast, are also, some or all of them, generally or always introduced into it, as being a convenient occasion for them. the ceremonies in question are those connected with the assumption of the perineal band, admission to the _emone_ and the giving of the right to carry a drum and dance, that of nose-piercing, and that on the devolution of chieftainship. the nose-piercing ceremony has already been described. the others will be dealt with later. eleventh: next comes the general distribution among the guests of the vegetables and fruits, including all those which have been hung up and displayed, as above described, and the _ine_ fruit, prepared in two ways, and _malage_ fruit. every male guest who has joined in the real dance is, speaking generally, entitled to have a share; though sometimes, where there are two or three members of one family, shares may be given to one or two of them only, instead of to each. the chiefs of the community giving the feast work together in carrying out the distribution. the various things are collected into a number of heaps about the village, the number of heaps corresponding to the number of portions to be distributed; and each heap contains something of everything. excluded from these heaps, however, are the _ine_ seeds which have been put on strings and preserved separately, as before explained. for these are erected stakes about feet high, round which the strings of seeds are twined. the number of these stakes is less than the number of heaps, because they are only planted near to the heaps which contain none of the _ine_ fruit prepared the other way, so that each dancing guest gets some of this fruit, done in either one way or the other. then the chiefs of the hosts' community stand round one of the heaps and shout wildly, calling upon the recipient. this may be done by name, or it may in the case of a chief be done by the name of a spot, say a mound or hollow, adjoining the village from which he comes. here, again, priority is given first to chiefs, and next to important personages. the man so called upon comes running forward with his wife or another woman, picks up his vegetables and fruit, and runs back again with them. then the chiefs go on to another heap, and again afterwards to the others, one by one, going through the same process in each case, until everything has been distributed. some of the women then go back to their own villages, carrying with them a portion of the food which has been given to their husbands, but leaving the rest with the latter. sometimes some of the guest men go home also. but anyone who is proposing to return to the village of the feast must leave some of his food, or bring food on his return, as no more will be given to him. twelfth: the next stage is the collection of the village pigs. this may take some time, as many of them are running about in the bush, and have to be caught; and some of them have been agisted out as above mentioned, and have to be fetched. this may involve a delay of a week or ten days, during which most or all of the guests remain, sleeping in their guest houses at night, and perhaps roaming about among other villages in the neighbourhood by day. during this interval there is neither singing nor dancing. thirteenth: the village pigs are all brought in alive, and placed under the houses of the village, each pig having its legs tied up and being tied to the house. when all is ready, the chief of the clan announces that the killing of the pigs will take place on the following morning. fourteenth: the next morning all the people, both hosts and guests, are in the village to watch the pig-killing; and people from other communities, who are not guests, and will not receive any pig, come too. the pigs are brought out one by one, and killed by hitting them on the head with clubs or adzes or anything else. this is not a chiefs duty. there is a man who is the recognised pig-killer, and who, as already stated, will probably be a man of some position, though not either a chief or a sub-chief. where there are many pigs, as at the big feast, there will be a number of other men helping him. each pig is killed on the site of the burial platform which has been cut down. as the pigs are killed, their bodies are carried away and placed on the ground in a row, commencing at the end of the village enclosure, and forming a central line along it; and it is usual also to place upon the row of dead pigs a continuous line of long thin poles, laid end to end, which are afterwards kept tied to the _emone_ as a record of the total length of the line of pigs, and thus of the number of pigs killed. the number of pigs killed is generally very large in proportion to the size of the community giving the feast, much more so than is the case in the villages of mekeo and the coast. it may be anything from fifty to over one hundred; in fact at a recent feast given by a community of seven villages, having between them about a hundred houses, they killed pigs. some chiefs of the hosts' community then take some of the bones (not skulls) from the big posts, and dip them into the mouths of the pigs, from which the blood is flowing. they have been seen to dip one bone into several pigs. there does not appear to be any method of selection of the bones to be dipped. they then touch with the bones which have been so dipped the skulls and all the other bones on the posts, which include the skulls and other special bones of all the chiefs and members of their families and other prominent people buried in and by the villages of the community since the last previous big feast was held there. after this all the bones are again hung up on the posts. i may say here in advance that, when the feast is over, all the bones are removed from the posts; and, the ceremony as regards those bones having been performed, they will never again be the subject of ceremonial observance. they, or some of them, may be hung up in the _emone_, but if so it is known that they are not to be used again for ceremonial purposes; or they may be put in a box in a tree, or hung up on a tree, not necessarily of the special species used for burying; or they may be simply flung away anywhere in the bush. whilst the bodies of the slain pigs lie in a line, and before the cutting up, it is the duty of each man who has had a pig fed up for him to pay the man who has done so, the payment probably being a string of dogs' teeth, or head feather ornaments. next, the hosts set to work to cut up the pigs. this is not done by a chief or special person, nor is there any ceremony connected with it. each pig is cut into seven parts, namely, ( ) the head, ( - ) the four legs, ( ) the bowels and internal parts, and ( ) the back and sides. i was told that each part of each pig is destined for a certain person, as arranged beforehand. it follows that, if there are, say, pigs, there are predestined pieces, which are known and remembered, though there are no means of recording them. it is difficult to believe the truth of this, but i was assured that it was correct. the pieces of each pig are placed on banana leaves, by the side of the spot where the body had lain, and all the pieces are distributed among the male guests. everybody who has given a pig knows the length of each part of it, though he could not express it in numerals. each male guest has a piece given to him, which, if the feast be a return feast, will correspond in some way, which i could not understand, with what he had himself provided at the previous feast. but dancers receive larger and better portions than do mere singers. people who have fed up pigs for members of the hosts' community also receive portions. in the distribution of pig each man is called in turn as before, and in the same order of priority, and runs up and gets his piece of pig, and runs back with it; but in this case he is not accompanied by a woman. fifteenth: the feast is now over, and all the guests return to their homes, taking away with them everything that has been given to them. sixteenth: the village has, however, to undergo a process which i may perhaps call purification. as soon as possible after the guests have gone, the men of the community go off into the bush and capture wild pigs, for which purpose they may have to hunt for three or four days, or even for a week or more. they must have at least one pig, and they generally have two or more, even up to six. when caught, the pigs are brought alive into the village, and are killed upon the site of the cut-down burial platform, this being done by the pig-killer. the pigs are then cut up and eaten by the members of the villages of the community, those of the village itself eating their portions there, and those of the other villages taking their portions away and eating them in their own villages. except as regards the killing of the pigs on the site of the grave, the whole performance appears to be quite informal. after the eating of the pigs, perhaps on the same day, or if, as is probable, the feast lasts until late in the evening, then on the next day, the women of the village clear away the filthy mess of blood and garbage by which the village enclosure is filled, and sweep the enclosure from end to end with branches of trees. then the bulk of the villagers leave the village and go off into the gardens and the bush for a period of about six months. the feast has denuded the village of food, including even sweet potatoes, to which they have had no time to attend during the period before the feast, and which have been used up in the feeding of the village pigs required for it. new gardens are needed, and therefore new bush has to be cut down, and the land must be cleared and planted with various things, and especially with sweet potato. for this purpose it is requisite or usual for them to build temporary houses on the scene of their labours, in which the people live. the old people, however, remain in the village, as do also some of the younger ones, who have to tend the gardens close to it. at the end of the period they all return, and village life goes on as usual. what the idea in the native mind may be concerning what i have called the purification of the village is a matter upon which i was unable to find any clue, beyond what may be suspected from the actual facts of the proceeding; but i think it probably has a superstitious origin. although in theory all the village pigs have been killed and given to the guests at the big feast, there are always some left wandering in the bush, which have not been caught. these pigs are, however, never used in the purification ceremony, in which they always kill wild pigs only. it has been suggested to me that a reason for this may be that, if they killed village pigs, they would thereby advertise the fact that they had not killed and distributed all their village pigs at the big feast; but this hardly seems to be a satisfactory explanation. it clearly falls to the ground as regards present intent if, as i was told, there always is an unkilled residue of village pigs after a big feast. the practice of killing wild pigs only would seem to associate itself with the fact that pigs killed at this ceremony are eaten in the village itself, for there seems to be no doubt that among the mafulu people village pigs are never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions; and indeed it seems doubtful whether they are ever eaten there at all. in fact, it appears to be a general custom in connection with all ceremonial feasts to which outside guests are invited, to kill village pigs only at the feast, and for these to be given to the guests to be eaten by them in their own villages, and afterwards to have a second feast, to which outside guests are not invited, and at which wild pigs are killed, and eaten by the villagers themselves within the village. the pig-killing is generally, and perhaps always, done in the morning. it is thought by the mafulu fathers of the mission as regards the subsequent partial desertion of the village that, although it is only partial, and although there is a practical reason for it, it is based upon superstition, and is regarded by the people as being a formal leaving of the village, pending its complete purification. plates to are reproductions of four photographs which father clauser was good enough to give me, the two former ones having been taken at the big feast held in the village of amalala in the year and the two latter prior to and at a big feast held in the village of seluku. i have thought it better to avoid the insertion of frequent, and perhaps somewhat confusing, references to these plates in the body of my notes upon the feast, and to take the plates separately, drawing attention to what appear to be points of interest in them. plate represents the scene at amalala immediately prior to or during the general distribution of vegetables and fruits (_ante_ heading ). a comparison of this scene with the village in its normal condition, as shown in plates and , gives some idea of the very extensive and elaborate preparations which are made for the feast. on the right hand side are seen some view platforms, and beyond them on the same side is a normal house. here and there are the big posts surrounded with bamboo stems (notice these posts denuded of their bamboo appendages still remaining in the village enclosure as shown in plates and ). some of the vegetables are seen still hanging upon these post clusters, and near the base of two of them are seen the sheaves of croton leaves. there are apparently no skulls and bones upon the posts seen in the plate, but possibly the re-hanging of these had not been attended to when the photo was taken, or perhaps they had been suspended to other posts not shown in the photograph. upon the ground are the heaps of vegetables, and close to some of these are the stakes round which are twined strings of seeds of the _ine_ pandanus. plate is a photograph taken after the subsequent pig-killing, and shows the pigs' bodies lying in a row along the centre of the village enclosure, with the measuring line of poles placed above them. it will be noticed that the elaborate view platforms have been cleared away, but that the bamboo stems have not yet been removed from their central posts. plate represents a scene at seluku prior to a big feast then about to be held. the view platforms have not yet been erected. but the post clusters have been erected, and the yams and croton leaves have been hung upon them. in the centre of the village enclosure is the chief's grave platform, which will be cut down during the festivities in the way above described. the bones of the chief are in the box-like receptacle at the top of the structure, and the receptacle rather further down (underneath the other one) contains the bones of a chief's child. plate shows five men at the seluku feast with full dancing ornaments, including the great feather head ornaments. one of them has donned a piece of european calico, and the one to the extreme right appears to have done the same. these would doubtless be regarded as highly decorative additions. a few long thin dancing ribbons can be seen hanging from their belts. the elaborate carved (turtle?) shell ornament hanging over the breast of the man to the left is certainly not of mafulu make, and has probably come from the coast. i never saw anything like it when i was at mafulu. the two boys in front are holding the ornament of elaborately prepared strings of feathers hung upon a stick, and worn by dancers on their backs, and into which the best feathers are generally put. chapter ix some other ceremonies and feasts ceremony on birth. there is no ceremony on the birth of a child, except in the case of the first-born of a chief. on this occasion the women of a neighbouring community are invited. they come in their full dancing ornaments, and armed in both hands with spears and either clubs or adzes. they rush into the village, first to the chiefs house and then to his _emone_; and at each of these they make a warlike demonstration, actually hurling their spears at the buildings with such force that the spears sometimes go through the thatch of the roof. then follows a distribution of vegetables among the visitors, after which one, two, or three village pigs are killed under a chiefs burial platform or on the site of a past one, cut up in the ordinary way, as at the big feast, given to the visitors and taken away by them, and the ceremony is over. there is no singing. [ ] ceremony on assumption of perineal band. this ceremony is performed for both boys and girls, and usually for several at one time. the children are heavily adorned with ornaments, consisting, as a rule, chiefly of dogs' teeth, which are hung round their necks, or over their foreheads; and they usually have belts of dogs' teeth round their waists. any persons may decorate the children. prior to the ceremony a number of box-like receptacles are erected in the village by the children's relatives, there being one receptacle for each child for whom the ceremony is to be performed. these receptacles are made with upright corner poles or feet high, boxed in with cross-pieces of wood up to a height of or feet. in these receptacles are put yams and taro, upon their upright poles are hung bananas and upon their cross-pieces of wood are hung lengths of sugar-cane; all this being done by the families of the children. guests are invited from some other community or communities. there is a dance, in which only people from outside communities take part. a village pig must be provided by the family of each child. each of these pigs is killed by the pig-killer under a chiefs platform grave, or, if no such platform then exists, upon the site of one, and is cut up. before the cutting-up, however, the child in each case stands upon the body of the pig, and whilst he so stands he is dressed with a feather ornament put over his head, but which, instead of being tied up in the usual way at the back of the head, is left with the ends hanging down over his shoulders. the putting on of this ornament is not a chiefs duty, but is done for each child by a certain person who has bought the pig from that child's family. plate shows a little girl upon whom the perineal band ceremony has just been performed. she has a string of dogs' teeth over her forehead, and a belt of dogs' teeth round her waist, an enormous crescent-shell ornament, some long pigtails, and on her head is the feather ornament, which hangs down at the sides over her shoulders. plate is a scene taken at the feast held in connection with the performance of the ceremony upon her and some other children. i could not find out who the person who buys the pig and performs the ceremony would ordinarily be, nor what motive he has for buying and paying for a pig which is about to be killed and cut up and distributed amongst other people; and i am convinced that there must be something further behind the matter, which i have been unable to ascertain. i may say that, knowing that among the roro and mekeo people a brother or other male relative of the child's mother takes a prominent part in the perineal band ceremony, being the recipient of the dog or pig which is killed, and the person who puts the band upon the boy, i specially enquired as to any similar relationship on the part of the person who buys the pig and performs the ceremony among the mafulu, but i could find no trace of anything of the sort. [ ] nor, as already stated, could i find any system of service being rendered by a boy to his maternal uncle, such as exists among the koita, [ ] nor anything in the nature of the koita _heni_ ceremony, described by dr. seligmann. [ ] it will be seen that this purchasing of the pig by a person who takes a prominent part in the ceremony affecting an individual appears in other ceremonies of that nature among the mafulu. following this performance there is a general distribution among the people, including both visitors and members of the village, of the various vegetables and fruits, and among the visitors only of the portions of village pig. the vegetables are eaten then and there, but the visitors take away the pig for eating in their own villages. the actual putting on by the child of his perineal band is done afterwards without further ceremony. the same ceremony is observed in the case of the son or daughter of a chief, except that in this case the child is more fully decorated, the family give two or more pigs, there are more visitors, and the whole ceremony is on a larger scale; also that, after the performance of standing on the dead pig and receiving the feather ornament, the child is placed standing on a platform, which may be only or feet high, but may be as much as feet, though no further ceremony appears to be performed whilst it is on that platform. if children of ordinary people undergo the ceremony at the same time as a chief's child, they apparently stand on the platform also. when the ceremony is performed at a big feast, it is substantially the same as that above described, subject to certain variations, which almost naturally arise from the change of conditions. there is no special dancing, as distinguished from the dancing programme of the big feast. the vegetable food provided will be included in the general stock, so that the people of the village will not share in it; and the ceremony of standing on the pig is postponed till a later day, and on that day, the child, having worn his special ornaments, other than the feather ornament, at the big feast, will not again wear them when he stands on the pig, though his feather ornament is put upon him on that later day. it may be mentioned that this perineal band ceremony and all the other ceremonies relating personally to both children and adults, if not performed at a big feast, may be performed together, the people concerned in each ceremony being taken more or less in batches; and indeed this generally is so. but in that case each class of ceremony would be performed separately. one person may have more than one ceremony performed for him on the same occasion, but if so a separate pig must be provided in respect of each of these ceremonies, and there must be a separate receptacle and a separate supply of food in respect of each of them, though it does not follow that the total amount of food to be provided, other than pig, is proportionately increased. at a subsequent date there will be a purification ceremony, at which a wild pig or pigs will be killed and eaten by the villagers; though, if the perineal band ceremony has taken place during a big feast, the purification ceremony in connection with the latter will be the only one to take place. there is no system of seclusion of either boys or girls on attaining puberty, or in connection with initiation, or on attaining a marriageable age. nor is there any initiation ceremony, or wearing of ceremonial masks, or use of bull-roarers. the custom by which chiefs' children, when assuming the perineal band, are made to stand on a platform reminds one, however, of the hood peninsular custom for girls to stand on a dubu platform for the initiation ceremony, as referred to by dr. seligmann. [ ] ceremony on admission to emone. both boys and girls must undergo a ceremony before being allowed to enter the _emone_. it generally takes place when they are two, three, or four years old. the preliminary decoration of the child is similar to that adopted for the perineal band ceremony, except that, if the child has lost either of its parents, this decoration is omitted. the erection of receptacles and provision of food and pigs, and the invitation of guests and dancing, and the killing of the pigs are the same as in the case of the other ceremony; also each child has to stand on the pig which his people provide for him. there is, however, no putting on of a feather ornament, but instead of it the following performance takes place:--each child has been carried by its mother or father or other relative, but is taken from that person by the man who has bought the pig. this man places the child on the dead pig; then he immediately picks the child up again, and runs with it to one of the _emone_, upon the platform of which two rows of men are sitting, and hands it to the man at the end of one of the rows. the child is then rapidly passed from hand to hand along that row, and then along the other row, after which it is returned to its carrier, who runs with it to the other _emone_, on which also two rows of men are sitting, and where a similar performance takes place. during all this performance there is much shouting and calling out to the child-carrier to hurry. finally, when the child is again handed back to this man, he returns it to its parents, and the ceremony is finished. the ceremony in the case of a chief's child seems to be the same as that for other children, the platform business of the perineal band ceremony being apparently omitted in this case. if the ceremony is performed at a big feast, the variations are substantially similar to those of the perineal band ceremony; and in particular the placing of the child on the pig, and the running with it to the _emone_, are postponed to a later date. the observations as to the subsequent purification in connection with the perineal band ceremony apply to this ceremony also. it will be noticed that girls are included in this admission to the _emone_. when a girl has undergone the admission ceremony she has free entry into the _emone_--except that she must not sleep there--until she formally receives her perineal band, upon which her permission to enter the _emone_ ceases. ceremony conferring right to use drum and dance. this ceremony also applies to both boys and girls; but i omitted to ascertain the age at which it usually occurs. it is similar to the perineal band ceremony, except that the child is dressed in dance ornaments (though not the fullest formal dance ornaments), until we reach the stage of standing on the pig, and putting on of the feather ornament, which is omitted; and, instead of it, the person who has bought the pig places the child upon it, and then for a short time beats a drum, after which he gives the drum to the child, who also beats it, and then returns it to him. i cannot say whether in this case there is any variation of the ceremony as regards a chief's child; but i do not think there is. here again i believe that, when the ceremony takes place at a big feast, the variations are similar to those above described, and in particular the standing on the pig and drum-beating are postponed. the observations as to the subsequent purification in connection with the perineal band ceremony apply to this one also. ceremony on devolution of chieftainship when chieftainship devolves on the death of a chief to his successor, there is no ceremony connected with the devolution. [ ] when a chief resigns in his lifetime, however, there is a ceremony. there does not appear to be a special dance and feast connected with this, it being always tacked on to some other ceremony or group of ceremonies. this particular ceremony does not, in fact, begin until after the pig-killing. the retiring chief will have provided one or more pigs for the purpose of his ceremony, and these will have been killed with the others. he addresses the people and tells them that he is giving up his office and transferring it to his successor; but in doing so he says nothing about that successor's title to succeed, that being always known and recognised. he then sits on his pig, and hands to his successor a bamboo knife, such as is used for the cutting up of pigs. the successor, having received the knife, takes the place of the retiring chief on the pig, and tells the people that he accepts the office of chief; after which he goes round to all the pigs which are there in connection with all the various ceremonies to be gone through, one after another, and in each case makes with the knife just given to him a small slit at the end of the mouth of each pig. [ ] this act is regarded as a performance by the new chief of a chiefs office; and, as under present customs the killing of the pig is commonly done by the pig-killer, and the cutting of it up is done by anybody, one is tempted to wonder whether the ceremony points to some chief's duty of the past, which has ceased to exist, or to some unknown origin of the status of the pig-killer. ceremony on building of a new emone. the usual occasion for the building of a new _emone_ is an impending big feast, the then existing _emone_ in the village being out of repair, or there being then no true _emone_ in the village. but _emone_ are built at other times also. the actual building of the _emone_ is carried out by the whole clan without ceremony; but when it is finished they erect tall slender straight-stemmed tree poles, passing through the roof of the _emone_, and to these they tie bunches of croton leaves. when the _emone_ is being built in anticipation of a big feast, these poles are like, and in fact are part of the series of, the poles erected for the purpose of the feast, as above described. croton leaves are also attached to poles after the repairing of a then existing _emone_. in the case of a new _emone_, after its completion they light a fire in it, and in that fire cook a wild pig; vegetable food is provided, and the clan, including members of the village and of other villages, have a little clan feast of the vegetables, followed by a cutting up and distribution of the pig. but there is no dancing. chapter x matrimonial and sexual a boy is regarded as having reached a marriageable age at about , , or , and the age for a girl is a few years younger. they do not as a rule marry before they have received their perineal bands; but there does not appear to be any definite custom against their doing so; nor are there any acts which must be performed to qualify for marriage, nor any indications by dress or ornament or otherwise that a boy or girl has attained a marriageable age. marriages are usually contracted with women of another community, though sometimes the wife will belong to a village of another clan in the same community. very rarely only is she of another village of the same clan, and still more rarely is she of the same village, clan exogamy being the rule, and marriages within the clan, and still more within the village, being regarded as irregular and undesirable, and people who have contracted them being considered as having done wrong. there does not appear to be any system of special matrimonial relationship between any communities; and the mode described below, by which a youth will by lighting a fire decide in which direction he must travel to seek a wife, would be hardly consistent with any such system. they have their prohibitive rules of consanguinity; but these are based merely upon the number of generations between either party and the common ancestor. the number of degrees within which prohibition applies in this way is two, thus taking it to the grandparent; and the result is that no man or woman may properly marry any descendant of his or her paternal or maternal grandfather or grandmother, however distant the actual relationship of the persons concerned may be. [ ] marriages within the prohibited degree do in fact occur; but they are discountenanced, and are rare. polygyny is usual, and is largely practised. a man will often have two or three, or sometimes even four, wives; and a chief or rich man may have as many as six. in the case of an ordinary person the wives all live with their husband in the same house; but a chief or rich person may have two or more houses. a man who is already married, and then marries again, goes through a formality, if it may be so called, similar to that of a first marriage. opposition from the first wife sometimes occurs, but this is unusual. infant betrothals are common; but they are quite informal, and not the subject of any ceremony. the parents in such cases, whether of the same or different communities, are usually intimate friends, and are thus led to offer their children to each other for intermarriage. there is a known case of a girl of or years of age, who was what i can only call betrothed to the unborn son of a chief. a curious element in this case was that at the date, prior to the birth of the proposed husband, of what i call the betrothal, the price for the girl was actually paid--a thing which is never done till the marriage--and that, as i was most solemnly assured, the living girl and the unborn boy were in fact regarded, not merely as betrothed, but as actually married, and that, when the boy died, which he did in infancy, long before marital relationship between them was possible, the girl was regarded as being a widow. i could not ascertain what happened as regards the price which had been paid for the girl. a couple betrothed in childhood are not subject to any restrictions as to meeting and mutual companionship, nor is there any mutual avoidance, nor any increased probability, based on their betrothal, of immorality between them; though in the more usual case of betrothal between children of different communities they in ordinary course are not likely to be constantly seeing each other. a young man will speak of his sweetheart, present or prospective, as his _ojande_, which means his "flower"; and this is so even if he does not yet know her; and, when asked where he is going, he will reply that he is going to seek an _ojande_. if he is not already betrothed, and is matrimonially inclined, he has various expedients for accomplishing his desires. a boy who wants to marry, and does not know where to seek a wife, will sometimes light a fire in the bush, or better still in an open space (not in the village), when the air is still, and wait until a slight breeze blows the flame or smoke a little in some one direction; and he will then select a community or village which lies in that direction as the spot in which to seek a wife. a boy will often carry in a small bag (this does not refer to the special small charm bag already described) some pieces of wood and stone, and will rub a piece of tobacco between two of these, and send this tobacco to the girl of his choice through a female relative of hers or some other friend; and he believes that in some mysterious way this will draw her heart towards him, and make her accept him. the pieces of wood and stone need not be of any particular kind; but he will have carried them for a considerable time, until they have, as he thinks, acquired the specific odour of his body; and it is then that they have obtained their special power. it is impossible to induce a boy to part with a piece of wood or stone which has been so seasoned by time, and would take long to replace. sometimes a boy will acquire these things by purchase from a magic man, who professes to be able to impart to them a more effective power. a proposal of marriage is usually made by the boy through some female relative of the girl, or other suitable person, and not directly by him to the girl herself. another custom may be mentioned here, though it only relates to a man who is already married, but wants another wife or wives. in clearing the bush for yam gardens it is usual, as regards the smaller trees, to cut away the side branches only, leaving the main trunks for posts up which the yams will climb; but the man in question will in the case of one (only one) of these smaller trees leave uncut one, two, or three of the upper branches, the number so left being the number of the wives he desires; and everyone understands its meaning. as regards the relationship of unmarried boys and girls generally, they are allowed to associate together, without any special precautions to prevent misconduct, and a good deal of general immorality exists. the marriage ceremony, following a parental betrothal, or with parental acquiescence, is a very informal matter, and in fact both the bargaining for the wife and the ceremony of the marriage are in striking contrast to the elaborate system of bargaining and mock raiding by the girl's family, and the wedding ceremonies, which are adopted in mekeo. a day is fixed for the marriage, and on that day the boy goes to the house of the girl's parents, after which he and she and her parents go to the house of the boy's parents, and the girl is paid for then and there. after this the young people immediately live together as a married couple in the house of either his or her parents, until he has been able to build a house for himself. neither are there any special ceremonies in connection with the fixing of the price. this is generally very small. dogs' teeth, pearl shell, necklaces, adzes, etc., are the usual things in which it is paid; but there is always a pig, which has been killed under, or on the site of, the grave platform above referred to. the price, in fact, depends upon the position and wealth of the girl's parents, except that there is always only one pig. the price is paid to the father of the girl, or, if dead, to her eldest brother or other nearest male paternal relative. a runaway marriage is still simpler. the boy has proposed to the girl through her friend, and she has consented; and they simply run off into the bush together, and remain in the bush, or the gardens, or a distant village, until the boy's friends have succeeded in propitiating the girl's father, and the price has been paid; and then the couple return to the village. after marriage, the husband and wife are not as a rule faithful to each other, the marriage tie being only slight. adultery on the part of the wife, but not of the husband, is regarded as a serious offence, if discovered. the injured husband will beat the guilty wife, and is entitled to kill the man with whom she has misconducted herself, and will usually do so; though nowadays he often dares not do so in districts where he fears government punishment. sometimes he will be content if the adulterer pays him a big price, say a pig; and this compensation is now commonly accepted in districts where the husband dares not kill. in either case, the husband generally keeps the wife. formal divorce or separation does not exist. a husband who wants to get rid of his wife will make her life so miserable that she runs away from him. but more usually the separation originates with the wife, who, not liking or being tired of her husband, or being in love elsewhere, will run away and elope altogether with another man. in such a case, the husband may retaliate on that other man in the way already mentioned; but that is rather the method adopted in cases of incidental adultery, and as a rule, when the wife actually elopes, she and her paramour go off to some other community, and the husband submits to the loss. he will, however, claim from the wife's people the price which he paid for her on his marriage. this is sometimes paid, but not always; and, as the wife almost always belongs to another clan, and generally to another community, the refusal to pay this claim is one of the frequent causes of fighting, the members of the husband's clan, and often the whole community, joining him in a punitive expedition. when a man dies, or at all events after the removal by the widow of her mourning, she goes back to her own people, generally taking with her any of their young children who are then living in the house. there is no devolution of the wife to the husband's brother, or anything of that nature. nor, in case of the death of the wife, does the husband marry her sister. speaking of the people generally, it may certainly be said that sexual morality among men, women, boys and girls is very low; and there is no punishment for immorality, except as above stated. chapter xi killing, cannibalism, and warfare killing. individual killing in personal quarrel, as distinguished from slaying in warfare, is exceedingly rare, except in cases of revenge upon adulterers. in these cases, however, it is regarded as the appropriate punishment; and even the family of the adulterer would hardly retaliate, if satisfied as to his guilt. there is no system of head-hunting, or of killing victims in connection with any ceremonies, or of burying alive, [ ] or of killing old and sick people, though the ceremonial blow on the head of a reputed dying man must sometimes be premature. abortion and infanticide, however, are exceedingly common, the more usual practice being that of procuring abortion. although sexual immorality so largely exists, and young unmarried women and girls are known to indulge in it so freely, and it is not seriously reprobated, it is regarded as a disgrace for one to give birth to a child; and if she gets into trouble she will procure abortion or kill the child. the same thing is also common among married women, on the ground that they do not wish to have more children. there is another cause for this among married women, which is peculiar. a woman must not give birth to a child until she has given a pig to a village feast; and if she does so it will be a matter of reproach to her. if, therefore, she finds herself about to have a child, and there is no festal opportunity for her to give a pig, or if, though there be a feast, she cannot afford to give a pig, she will probably procure abortion or kill the child when born. i was told by father chabot, the father superior of the mission, that among the neighbouring kuni people a woman would kill her child for extraordinary reasons; and he furnished an example of this in a woman who killed her child so that she might use her milk for suckling a young pig, which was regarded as being more important. whether such a thing would occur in mafulu appears to be doubtful; but it is quite possible, more especially as the mafulu women do, in fact, suckle pigs. abortion is induced by taking the heavy stone mallet used for bark cloth beating, and striking the woman on the front of the body over the womb. it is also assisted by the wearing of the tight cane belt already mentioned. i could not hear of any system of using drugs or herbs to procure abortion; but herbs are used to produce general sterility, which they are believed to be effective in doing. married women also often kill their children as the result of a sort of superstitious ceremony. the child being born, the mother, in accordance with the custom of the country, goes down to the river, and throws the placenta into it. she then, however, often takes a little water from the river, and gives it to the babe. if the latter seems by the movements of its lips and tongue to accept and take the water into its mouth, it is a sign that it is to live, and it is allowed to do so. if not, it is a sign that it is to die, and she throws it into the river. this custom, which is quite common, has presumably had a superstitious origin, and it seems to be practised with superstitious intent now. there appears, however, to be no doubt that it is also followed for the purpose of keeping or killing the child, according to the wish of the mother. there is further, confirming the last statement, a well-known practice, when the mother goes down to the river with her baby, for some other woman, who is childless and desires a child, to accompany the mother, and take from her and adopt the baby; and as to this, there is no doubt that, before doing so, the woman ascertains from the mother whether or not she intends to keep her child, and only goes with her to the river if she does not intend to keep it. this is done quite openly, with the full knowledge of the second woman's husband and friends; and everyone knows that the child is not really hers, and how she acquired it. [ ] cannibalism. there is no doubt that the mafulu people have always been cannibals, and are so still, subject now to the fear in which they hold the controlling authority of the white man, and which impels such of them as are in close touch with the latter to indulge in their practice only in secrecy. their cannibalism has been, and is, however, of a restricted character. they do not kill for the purpose of eating; and they only eat bodies of people who have been intentionally killed, not the bodies of those who have been killed by accident, or died a natural death. also the victim eaten is always a member of another community. the killing which is followed by eating is always a hostile killing in fight; but this fight may be either a personal and individual one, or it may be a community battle. the idea of eating the body appears to be a continued act of hostility, rather than one of gastronomic enjoyment; and i could learn nothing of any belief as to acquiring the valour and power of the deceased by eating him. i was informed that the man who has killed the victim will never himself share in the eating of him, this being the case both as regards people killed in private personal fighting and those killed in war. [ ] i tried to find out if there were any ceremonies connected with the eating of human flesh; but could learn nothing upon the subject, the natives being naturally not readily communicative with white men on the matter. warfare. warfare generally occurs between one community or section of a community (probably a clan) and another community or section of one; it very rarely occurs within a community. sometimes two communities join together in opposition to a third one; but alliances of this sort are usually only of a temporary character. war among these people is now, of course, forbidden by the british authorities, and indulgence in it is a serious punishable offence; but it cannot be said to be abolished. the usual ground for an attack is either that some member of the attacked community or section of a community has by personal violence or by spirit-supported sorcery killed a member of the attacking community or section, or it is of the matrimonial character above explained. the underlying idea of the war is a life for a life; and in the matrimonial matter one life is the sum of vengeance required. hence the primary object of an attack has usually been accomplished when the attacking party has killed one of their opponents. if there are two or more persons whose deaths have to be avenged, a corresponding number of lives is required in the battle. then the attacking party may suffer loss during the fight, in which case this has to be added to the account; and loss by the attacked is introduced into the other side of it to their credit. the number killed in a battle is not, however, often great. when the required vengeance has been accomplished, the attacking party usually cease fighting and return home, if the enemy allow them to do so. they may retire before their vengeance has been accomplished; but in that case they are probably doing so as a defeated party, with the intention of renewing the attack on a subsequent occasion. if the attacking party cease fighting and try to return, the enemy may continue their counter attack, especially if they have themselves suffered loss in the fighting; but i was told that the enemy would not as a rule follow the attacking party far into the bush. it may be that what is regarded by the attackers as a correct balance of lives struck, on which they may retire, is not so regarded by the enemy, in which case the latter may try to prolong the fight; and, if the attackers get away, there will probably be a retaliatory expedition, in which the position of attackers and attacked is reversed. the primary idea of a life for a life is, however, generally understood and acknowledged; and if the enemy recognise the truth of the alleged reason for the attack, and have not lost more life than was required to balance the account, they usually rest satisfied with the result. no ceremony or taboo appears to be adopted in anticipation of proposed hostilities for the purpose of securing success; but individual fighters often wear charms, upon whose efficacy they rely. nor do there appear to be any omens in connection with them other than certain general ones to be referred to hereafter. the preparations for a fight and its conduct can hardly be regarded as subjects of much organisation, as the chiefs are not war chiefs, and there are no recognised permanent leaders or commanders of the forces, and no recognised war councils or systematic organisation, either of the fighting party or of the conduct of the fight. all adult males of the community engaged are expected to take part, and the leadership will generally fall upon someone who at the moment is regarded as a strong and wise fighter. the men start off on their expedition as an armed, but unorganised, body, their arms being spears, bows and arrows, [ ] clubs, adzes and shields, and none of their weapons being poisoned. during their progress to the enemy's community they are generally singing, and their song relates to the grievance the avenging of which is the object of the expedition. the warriors do not, i was told, as a rule carry a full supply of provisions, as they rely largely upon what they can find in the bush, and what they hope to raid from their enemy's plantations. on reaching the scene of battle they adopt methods of spying and scouting and sentry duty, though only on simple and unscientific lines. they have apparently no generally recognised systems of signs of truce or truce envoys or hostages. there are certain recognised cries, which respectively signify the killing of a man and the taking of a prisoner, by which, when such an event occurs, the fighters on both sides are aware of it. an enemy wounded on the battlefield may be killed at once or may be taken prisoner. all prisoners, wounded or otherwise, are taken home by the party that secures them, and are then killed, apparently without any prior torture, and generally eaten. a prisoner thus carried off would be regarded as a man killed, which in fact he shortly will be. the women of a community follow their fighting men in the expedition, their duty being to encourage the fighters on the way out, and during the fight, by their singing; but they remain in the rear during the battle, and do not actually fight. these women, of course, also run the risk of being killed or wounded or taken prisoners. fighting between two communities may go on intermittently for years. then perhaps the communities may get mutually weary of it, and decide to make peace. this act is ratified by an exchange between the two communities of ceremonial visits, with feasts and pig-killing, but no dancing, the pigs and vegetables and fruit distributed by the hosts among the visitors on the return visit being exactly similar in character and quantity to what the latter have given the former on the prior visit. the mafulu war spears are made out of a very hard-wooded palm tree and another hard red-wooded tree, the name of which i do not know. they are round in section, tapering at both ends, and are generally from to feet long, and about three-quarters of an inch in diameter at the widest part. there are three forms of point. the first (plate , fig. ) is simply a tapering off in round section. the second (plate , fig. ) is made square in section for a distance of to / feet from the tip. the third (plate , fig. ) is in section a triangle, of which two sides are equal and the other side is a little larger, this triangular form being carried for a foot or less from the tip, and the larger surface being barbed bilaterally. this last-mentioned form is also generally decorated with a little tuft of bright-coloured feathers, just above the point where the barbing begins. the bows (plate , fig. ) are made of split bamboo, the convex side of the bow being the inner section of the split bamboo. these bows are quite short, generally about feet long when straightened out, and have triangular-shaped knobs at the ends for holding the bowstrings. the bowstrings are made of what appears to be strong split canes (not sugar-canes). the arrows (plate , fig. ) are from to feet long, which is extraordinary in comparison with the length of the bows, and are made in two parts, the shaft being made of a strong reed, and the point, which is inserted into the reed shaft and is generally a foot or more long, being single and round-sectioned, and made of the same materials as are used for spears. there are no feathers or equivalents of feathers, and the shaft end of the arrow is cut square and not notched. the clubs (plate , figs, and ) are stone-headed, the heads being of the pineapple and disc types; but these heads are the same as those used on the plains and coast, whose people, in fact, get them from the mountains, and as these are so well-known, it is not necessary for me to describe them. the adzes (plate , fig. ) are of the usual type, the stone blade being lashed directly on to the handle. there are two common forms. in one, which is also used for ordinary adze work, the haft is cut from a natural branch, with the angle of the head part set obliquely. in the other, which is also used for cutting timber, the haft is cut from a branch with the angle of the head part set at right angles, or nearly so. i do not know to what extent this second form is common in new guinea. it is not found in mekeo. the shields (plate , figs. and ) are thick, heavy, cumbrous weapons, made out of the wood used for making wooden dishes. the outer surfaces are convex, and the inner ones concave, the natural convexity of the circular trunk of the tree from which they are made being retained. these shields are / to feet long, and usually about or inches wide in the broadest central part, getting somewhat narrower towards the two ends, where they are rounded off. each shield has two strong cane handles in the centre of its internal concave side, each of which handles is fixed by means of two pairs of holes bored through the shield, and of thongs which are passed through these holes and attached to the ends of the handles. the shields are carried by passing the left arm through the upper handle downwards, the left hand holding the lower handle. chapter xii hunting, fishing and agriculture hunting. this is engaged in more or less all the year round, especially as regards wild pigs when wanted for village killing. the animals chiefly hunted are pigs, kangaroos, wallabies, the "macgregor bear," [ ] large snakes, cassowaries and other birds. the hunting weapons and contrivances used are spears, bows and arrows, nets and traps; but adzes and clubs are used in connection with net hunting. the spears are those used for war. the bows and arrows employed for hunting animals and cassowaries are also the same as those used for war; but these are not much used. for bird-shooting (excluding cassowary-shooting) they generally use arrows (plate , fig. ) the points of which are made of four rather fine pieces of bamboo cane, closely bound together at the place of insertion into the reed shaft, and also bound together further down, but with a piece of stick or some other material inserted between them inside this second binding, so as to keep them a little apart and make them spread outwards, thus producing a four-pronged point. the arrows vary in length from to or feet, and their points vary from to inches. the adzes and clubs are the same as those used for war. the people generally hunt in large parties for pigs (hunted with either spears or nets), kangaroos and wallabies (hunted with nets only), and macgregor bears, cassowaries, and big snakes (hunted with spears only). the hunters may be members of a single village or of a whole community. they generally return home on the same day, except when hunting the macgregor bear, which is only found on the tops of high mountains, and so requires a longer expedition. they usually take out with them large numbers of young boys, who are not armed, and do not take part in the actual killing, but who, when the party reaches the hunting ground, spread out in the bush, and so find the animals. while doing this the boys bark like dogs. sometimes dogs are taken instead, but this is unusual, as they have not many dogs. a preliminary ceremony is performed by a person whose special duty it is, and who, i think, is usually the pig-killer. he takes a particular kind of fragrant grass, makes an incantation over it, rubs it on the noses of the dogs (if there are any), [ ] and then ties it in several portions to the meshes of the net to be used. if there are dogs, but no net, then, after rubbing the dogs' noses, he throws the grass away. if there is a net, but no clogs, then, after making the incantation, he ties the grass on to the net as above mentioned. this appears to be the only ceremony in connection with hunting; and there is no food or other taboo associated with it, but some of the charms worn are intended to give success in hunting. in spear hunting, when children and not dogs are employed, the children shout as soon as the animal has been found, and then retreat; and, when the animal has been found by either children or dogs, the hunting men attack it with their spears, if possible surrounding it. in net hunting, which of course can only be adopted in fairly open spaces, the hunters place their net by means of pole supports in the form of a crescent, perhaps as much as or yards long, this length, however, requiring several nets put end to end together, and or feet high. the net is generally put across the base of a narrow ravine, or across a narrow ridge, these being the routes along which the animals usually travel. the children or dogs search for the animal, as in spear hunting; and when it is found, most of the hunters place themselves in a crescent-shaped formation behind the animal, so that it is between them and the net, and then gradually close in upon it, and so drive it into the net. behind the net are other hunters, more or less hidden, who kill the animal with club or adze when it is caught in the net. they sometimes use spears in the event of an animal jumping over the net, and so trying to escape; though in net hunting the spears are more especially carried for purposes of self-defence in case of an attack by the animal. there is always an enormous amount of shouting all through the hunt. when the animal has been caught, they generally kill it then and there, except as regards pigs required alive for village ceremony, and which are disabled, but not killed. the huntings, except when pigs are specially required, are usually general; and when any sort of animal has been killed the hunters are content. they surround the beast, and make three loud shouting screams, by which the people of the village or community know, not only that an animal has been killed, but also what the animal is. it is then brought home, and eaten by the whole village, if the hunt be a village hunt, or by the community, if it be a community hunt. individual hunting, in which i include hunts by parties of two or three, is also common. solitary hunters are generally only searching for birds (not cassowaries); but parties of two or three will go after larger game, such as pigs, cassowaries, etc. such parties hunt the larger game with spears, clubs and adzes, and shoot the birds, other than cassowaries, with bows and arrows. they kill their victims as they can, and bring them home; and they, and probably some of their friends, eat them. trap hunting is much engaged in by single individuals. a common form of trap used for pigs is a round hole about feet deep and feet in diameter, which is dug in the ground anywhere in the usual tracks of the pigs, and is covered over with rotten wood, upon which grass is spread; and into this hole the pig falls and cannot get out. the maker of the hole does not necessarily stay by it, but will visit it from time to time in the hope of having caught a pig. small tree-climbing animals are often caught by a plan based upon the inclination of an animal, seeing a continuous line, to go along it. a little pathway of sticks is laid along the ground, commencing near a suitable tree, and carried up to the base of that tree, and then taken up the trunk, and along a branch, on which it terminates, the parts upon the tree being bound to it with cane. at the branch termination of this path is either a noose trap, made out of a piece of native string tied at one end to the branch, and having at the other end a running noose in which the animal is caught, or a very primitive baitless framework trap, so made that the animal, having once got into it, cannot get out again. or instead of a trap, the man will erect a small rough platform upon the same tree, upon which platform he waits, perhaps all night, until the animal comes, and then shoots it with his bow and arrow. another form of trap for small animals is a sort of alley along the ground, fenced in on each side by a palisading of sticks, and having at its end a heavy overhanging piece of wood, supported by an easily moved piece of stick, which the animal, after passing along the alley, disturbs, so bringing down the piece of wood on to the top of it; this trap also has no bait. large snakes are caught in nooses attached to the ground or hanging from trees. birds of all kinds, except cassowaries, are killed with bows and arrows. there is also a method of killing certain kinds of birds of paradise which dance on branches of trees, and certain other kinds and bower birds, which dance on the ground, [ ] by means of nooses as above described, these being tied to the branch of the tree, or, in the case of ground nooses, tied to a stick or something in the ground. the natives know the spots where the birds are dancing, and place the noose traps there. another method of killing birds is adopted on narrow forest-covered ridges of the mountains. an open space or passage about or yards wide is cut in the bush, across the ridge; and across this passage are suspended three parallel nets, the inner or central one being of a close and impassable mesh, and the two outer ones having a mesh so far open that a bird striking against it can get through. these nets are made of very fine material, and so are not easily seen, especially as they are more or less in shade from the trees on each side of the passage. a bird flying from the valley on either side towards the ridge is attracted by this open passage, and flies into and along it; it strikes against one of the more open outer nets, and gets through it, but is confused and bewildered, and so is easily stopped by the central close-meshed net, where it is shot with bow and arrow. fishing. fishing is carried on by the mafulu people by means of weirs placed across streams, the weirs having open sluices with intercepting nets, and smaller nets being used to catch such fish as escape the big ones. they do not fish with spears, hooks, or bows and arrows, or with fishing lines, as is done in mekeo; and even their weir and net systems are different from the mekeo ones. fishing with them is more or less communistic, as it is generally engaged in by parties of ten or twenty men (women do not fish), and sometimes nearly all the men of a village, or even of a community, join in a fishing expedition; and everyone in the village or community shares more or less in the spoil. the fishing season is towards the end of the dry season, say in october or november, when work in the gardens is over, and the rivers are low. i cannot give the names of the fishes caught, but was told that the chief ones are large full-bodied carp-like fish and eels. the large weir nets are simply ordinary frameless nets about to yards long, and yard wide, with a fairly small mesh. the smaller ones are hand nets, made in two forms. one of these is made of ordinary fine netting, and is bag-shaped, being strung on a round looped end of cane, of which the other end is the handle, the net being about the size of a good-sized butterfly net. the other form is also framed on a looped cane; but the loop in this case is larger and more oval in shape, and the netting is made of the web of a large spider. to make it they take the already looped cane to where there are a number of such webs, and twist the looped end round and round among the webs, until there is stretched across the loop a double or treble or quadruple layer of web, which, though flat when made, is elastic, and when used becomes under pressure more or less bag-shaped. the fishers first make a weir of upright sticks placed close together among the stones in the river bed, the weir stretching across the greater part of, or sometimes only half-way across, the river. the side of the river left open and undammed is filled up with stones to such a height that the water flowing over it is shallow, and the fish do not escape across it. in the middle of the weir they leave an open space or sluice, behind which they fasten the big net. [ ] plate shows a weir on the aduala river, a portion of the open sluice being seen on the left. after forming the weir, but before fixing the net, the fishers all join in a sort of prayer or invocation to the river. for example, on the aduala river they will say, "aduala, give us plenty of fish, that we may eat well." this is the only ceremony in connection with the fishing, and there is no food or other taboo associated with it; but here again charms are often relied upon. the big net catches most of the fish which are carried down by the rush of water through the opening in the weir; but a group of fishermen stand round it with their hand nets, with which they catch any fish that leap out of the big net, and would otherwise escape, the ordinary hand nets being usually used for larger fish, and the cobweb ones for the smaller fish. they often have two or three of these weirs in the same stream, at some little distance from each other. a fishing party will often stay and live for some days at the place where they are fishing, and eat the fish each day as they catch it; so that what they bring home for the village or community may only be the result of the last day's sport. but the women will sometimes come to the fishers, bring them food, and take some fish back to the village or community. each community has waters which it regards as being its own; but disputes as to this apparently do not arise. a solitary individual sometimes goes off to catch fish with one of the hand nets above described or with his hands, and eats or keeps what he catches; but this is unusual. agriculture. agriculture is never communistic, being entirely an individual or family matter, men and households and families having their own gardens and plantations. the trees and plants chiefly cultivated are those already mentioned as being used for food. the clearing of the ground is done by men, and is begun about the end of june. the trees and their branches are used for fencing, the fencing being also done by men. the clearing away of the undergrowth is done by women, who pile it in small heaps, which are spread over the cleared space, being so close together that they almost touch one another. when these have got quite dry, which may be in a few days, or not for some time, they burn them, and the ashes add fertility to the soil. there is no general digging up of the ground, as distinguished from the digging of holes for individual plants. the clearing of the trees is done with stone adzes, or in difficult cases by fire; but some of the people now have european axes, of which some have been acquired from white men, and some from plain and coast natives. in clearing for planting yam and plants of the yam type they leave the upright stems of some of the trees and shrubby undergrowth for the yams, etc., to trail over. cultivation of some of the more usual plants is done as follows. sweet potatoes and vegetables of similar type are planted by the women in august and september. they make little holes in the ground about feet apart, and in them plant the potatoes, the roots used being the young sarmentose runners, which they cut off from the parent plants, the latter being merely cut down to the ground, and the old tubers being left in it. these runners are left to grow, and in about three or four months the young potatoes are ready for eating, and afterwards there will be a continuous supply from the runners. the digging up of the day-to-day supply of potatoes is done by the women, the work in this, and in all other digging, being done with small pointed sticks, roughly made and not preserved; though now they sometimes have european knives, these knives and axes being the two european implements which they use in agriculture, if they possess them. yams and similar vegetables are planted by men in august and september, near to the young tree stems up which they are to trail, and at distances apart of or yards. in this case, however, there are two plantings. in the first instance the yam tubers are planted in pretty deep holes, the tubers being long. the yams then grow, and twine over the tree stems, and spread. after about ten months the men dig up the tubers, which in the meantime have grown larger, and cut away from them all the trailing green growth, and then hang the tubers up in the houses and _emone_, to let the new growing points sprout. then in about another two months the men replant the smaller tubers, while the larger ones are retained for food. there are two curious mafulu practices in connection with yam-planting. first, before planting each tuber they wrap round it an ornamental leaf, such as a croton, which they call the "sweetheart of the yam." against this leaf they press a piece of limestone. they then plant the tuber with its sweetheart leaf around it and the piece of limestone pressing against its side, and fill in the soil; but as they do the latter they withdraw the piece of limestone, which they use successively for other yams, and, indeed, keep in their houses for use year by year. in the villages near the mafulu mission station the limestone used is generally a piece of stalactite, which they get from the limestone caves in the mountains. the belief is that by planting in this way the yams will grow stronger and better. secondly, there is a little small-leafed plant of a spreading nature, only a few inches high, which grows wild in the mountains, but which is also cultivated, and a patch of which they always plant in a yam plantation. this plant they also call the "sweetheart of the yam"; and they believe that its presence is beneficial to the plantation. yams are ready for supplying food eight or ten months after planting. they are not, like the potatoes, dug up from day to day, as they can be stored. the usual period of digging and storing is about june or july, and this digging is done by both men and women, the former dealing with the larger yams, which are difficult to get up, and the latter with the smaller ones. the yam is apparently regarded by the mafulu people as a vegetable possessing an importance which one is tempted to think may have a more or less superstitious origin-witness the facts that only men may plant it and that it is the only vegetable in the planting of which superstitious methods are employed, and the special methods and ceremonies adopted in the hanging of the yams at the big feast. but i fancy this idea as to the yam is not confined to the mafulu; and indeed chalmers tells us of a motu superstition which attributes to it a human origin; [ ] and a perusal of the chapter on sacrifices in dr. codrington's book, _the melanesians_, leaves the impression on one's mind that among these people the yam is the one vegetable which is specially used for sacrificial purposes. taro and similar vegetables are planted by women in august and september among the yams, at distances of or feet apart. for this purpose they take the young secondary growths which crop up round the main central plants during the year. [ ] they are ready for eating in, say, may or june of the following year. they are dug up by women from day to day as wanted, as they, like the sweet potato, cannot be kept, as the yams are, after being taken up. there is, however, a method when the taro is ripe and needs digging up, but is not then required for eating, of making a large hole in the ground, filling it with grass, digging up the taro, putting it on the grass in the hole, covering and surrounding it with more grass, and then filling up with soil, and so preserving the taro for future use by a sort of ensilage system. i was told that this was not done on the plains. bananas are planted by men, this being done every year, and off and on all through the year, generally in old potato gardens. in this case they take the young offshoots, which break out near the bases of the stems. the closeness of planting varies considerably. the fruit is gathered all through the year by men. a banana will generally begin to bear fruit about twelve months after planting, though some sorts of banana take as long as two years. sugar-cane is planted by men off and on during the whole year, generally in old potato gardens, the growing points at the tops of the canes being put into the ground at distances of or feet apart. each plant produces a number of canes, and these begin to be edible after six or eight months. they are then cut for eating by both men and women. as regards both banana and sugar-cane, the people, after planting them in the potato gardens, allow the potatoes to still go on growing and spreading; but these potatoes are merely used for the pigs, the people only eating those grown in their open patches. beans of a big coarse-growing sort, with large pods from to inches long, are planted by women about september by the garden fences of the potato and yam gardens, and allowed to creep up these fences. they furnish edible fruit in about three or four months from the time of planting, and are then gathered by the women. only the inside seeds are eaten (not the pod); and even these are so hard that twenty--four hours' boiling does not soften them--indeed, they are usually roasted. pandanus trees are grown in the bush and not in the gardens. the _ine_ which is a large form (plate ), is always grown at a height of not less than , feet; but there is a smaller one which is grown by a river or stream. the _malage_ is always grown in the valleys near brooks and rivers. as regards the gardens generally, they may be roughly divided into sweet potato gardens and yam gardens. in the former are also grown bananas, sugar-cane, beans, pumpkin, cucumber and maize; and in the latter taro and beans, and the reed plant with the asparagus flavour to which i have already referred. the general tending of the bananas and sugar-canes, and to a certain extent the yams, is done by men; but in other respects the garden produce is looked after by women, who also attend to the weeding and keeping of the gardens clean, the men looking after the fences. having planted a certain crop in a garden, they let it go on until it is exhausted, the period for this being different for different crops; but afterwards they never again plant the same crop in the same garden. when a crop is exhausted, they may possibly use the same garden for some other purpose; but as a rule they do not do so, except as regards the use of old potato gardens for banana and sugar-cane. when fresh gardens are wanted, fresh portions of bush are cleared; and the old deserted gardens are quickly re-covered by nature with fresh bush, the growth of vegetation being very rapid. most of the gardens are bush gardens, and, though these may sometimes be close to the village, you do not find a regular system of gardens within the village clearing, as you do in the mekeo district, the situations of the villages being indeed hardly adapted for this. chapter xiii bark cloth making, netting and art. bark cloth making and netting. i put the two processes of bark cloth making and netting together, as being the only forms in which material is made in pieces of substantial size. bark cloth is used for making perineal bands, men's caps, illness-recovery capes, bark cloth head strings, mourning strings and dancing aprons and ribbons. netting is used for fishing and hunting nets, sleeping hammocks, the various forms of carrying bags and the mourning vests worn by the widows of chiefs. bark cloth making. bark cloth is made by both men and women out of the bark of three different kinds of tree; but i do not know what these are. they strip the bark from the tree, and from the bark they strip off the outer layer, leaving the inner fibrous layer, which is about / th of an inch in thickness. they have no method of fastening two pieces of bark or cloth together, so every garment has to be a single piece, and the size of the piece to be made depends upon the purpose for which it is wanted. the cloth is made in the usual way by soaking the prepared bark in water for about twenty-four hours, and then hammering it with a heavy mallet upon the rounded surface of a cut-down tree trunk (plate ). the mallet used (plate , fig. ), however, differs from the wooden mallet of mekeo and the coast. it is a heavy black roller-shaped piece of stone, tapering a little at one or both ends, and being broader at the beating end than at the holding end. it varies in length from to inches, and has a maximum width of about or / inches. the beating surface is not flattened, as is the case with the mekeo beaters, but it is rather deeply scored with a series of longitudinal and transverse lines, crossing each other at right angles, or nearly so. this scoring generally covers a surface space of about inches by or inches, and is done with pointed pieces of similar stone, or with the tusks of wild pigs. as the hammering proceeds the bark becomes thinner and larger in surface, and when this process is finished, the cloth is hung up to dry. the colouring of the cloth, if and when this is added, is done by men only, and, like body-staining, is nearly always in either red, yellow, or black. the red stain is obtained from the two sorts of earth used for red face and body-staining, being, as in the other case, mixed with water or animal fat, so as to produce a paste. another source of red stain used for cloth is the fruit of a wild tree growing in the bush, which fruit they chew and spit out. i do not know what the tree is, but i do not think it is the pandanus, whose fruit is, i believe, used for body-staining. the yellow stain is obtained from the root of a plant which i understand to be rather like a ginger. they dry the root in the sun, and afterwards crush it and soak it in water, and the water so coloured becomes the pigment to be used. the black stain is obtained in the same way as that used for face-staining. these dyes are put on to the cloth with the fingers, which the men dip into the dye, or with feathers. in making a design they do not copy from a pattern placed before them, nor do they first trace the design on the cloth. netting. in dealing with netting, i should begin with the making of the string; but, as i think the method adopted is not confined to the mountains, it is perhaps sufficient to refer to my previous description of thread-making in connection with the manufacture of leg-bands; though in most netting the strings are necessarily very much thicker and stronger than are the threads used for leg-bands, and they are three-stranded. hunting and fishing nets are made by men in a simple open form of netting, worked on the common principle of the reef knot, and having diamond-shaped holes, with a knot at each corner of each hole. i shall refer to this form of netting as "ordinary network." the nets are made of thick, strong material, except as regards the hand fishing nets, which are made of the fine material used for making leg-bands. these nets are never coloured. hammocks are made by men. they are sometimes done entirely with ordinary network, and are then, i think, similar to mekeo-made hammocks; but often only two or three lines of netting are done in this way, the rest of the net being made in a closer and finer pattern of interlacing knotless network, which is never adopted on the coast and mekeo plains (all nets of this description found there having come down from the mountains) and which i will call "mafulu network." [ ] i have watched the making of one of these nets, and will endeavour to describe the process. the ultimate result of the mafulu network part of this is shown in plate . the maker first formed a base line of three strands of native string stretched out horizontally. this base line is marked _a b_ in fig. . he then wound a long length of netting string round a rough piece of stick to be used as a sort of netting shuttle. he next worked the netting string on to the base line by a series of loops or slip-knots as shown in fig. , strand _c_ of each loop bending upwards and becoming strand _d_ of the next loop to the right, and the series of loops extending for the whole length of the base line, and thus constituting the first loop line of the net. the hitches of the loops, which appear loose and open in the figure for the purpose of showing their construction, were really drawn tight on the base line. on to these loops he then worked one line of ordinary network, as shown in fig. , the strings _a b c d_ in this figure being the loops above mentioned, and the knots of this also being, of course, drawn tight, and not made loose and open, as shown in the figure. the base of this line again formed a series made one of these lines of mesh for my instruction; but it is usual in the making of hammocks to have two or three of them, as appears in the figure. the next stage commenced the mafulu network. the form of this is shown in fig. ; and here again the actual network was more closely drawn than is shown in the illustration, though it was not drawn tight, as in the case of the ordinary network. the first line of mafulu network was worked on to the loops above it, so as to form a continuous line, in which many loops of mafulu work were attached to each loop of the line of ordinary work above, the former being considerably smaller than the latter. the rest of the network is similarly made in the mafulu method, each loop of each line being connected with a loop of the line above, until the worker almost reaches the other end of the hammock, which latter is finished off with ordinary network and a final base line, so as to correspond with the commencing end. often there are only four or five loops of mafulu network attached to each loop of ordinary network above them; and i have seen hammocks in which the mesh of the ordinary network part is much smaller, so that each loop of the bottom line of this mesh has attached to it only one loop of the top line of mafulu mesh; and this last variation is common as regards carrying bags. the hammocks are never coloured; but they are sometimes decorated with a few pandanus or _malage_ seeds hung from their borders. the different forms of carrying bags have already been referred to. i will now deal with their manufacture and colouring. they are made exclusively by women; and the fibres used in their manufacture are not the same as those employed for making nets and hammocks. i will deal separately with the five forms already described by me. nos. and are made of either ordinary or mafulu network, and are never coloured. when these, or any other bags, are made of mafulu network, their elasticity is very great. no. is always made of mafulu network, and coloured. no. is made of mafulu network, and is sometimes coloured, and sometimes not. no. is made of mafulu network, and is sometimes coloured. the string used in making this bag is different from that used for the others, and is obtained from the bark of a small shrub. the question of manufacture introduces another form of bag (plate , fig ), which i may call no. . it is used by men for the purposes of no. , and no is also sometimes made in the same way. the method of manufacture of no. is, i was told, an uncommon one; and, though i was able to procure one of these bags, i had not an opportunity of observing the process by which it was made. the appearance of the bag, however, suggests a process not unlike that of knitting. its outer surface displays a series of thick, strong trie ord-plaited, vertical ridges, all close together, and looking very like the outside ridges of a knitted woollen stocking; but on the inner surface these ridges are not to be seen, and the general appearance of this inside is one of horizontal lines. the material of this bag is much closer, thicker and heavier than is that of any of the others. the colouring of nos. , and is not put into the netting after its manufacture, as is done with bark cloth. the string itself is dyed beforehand, and the lines of colour are worked into the bag in the process of netting. the colouring is confined to the front of the bag only, being the part which is visible when the bag is worn hanging over the back or shoulder. speaking generally, the colouring is black; but there is often a little red introduced along with the black. the pattern is in the general form of parallel horizontal lines or stripes, which, however, are in places made to recess or turn downwards or upwards at right angles, and subsequently turn upwards or downwards again, and then continue horizontally as before, thus giving variety to the mere design of straight horizontal lines; and these rectangular breaks are often introduced at more or less symmetrical intervals. there are other details in these patterns, which can be observed in the plate. i have one of these bags the lines in which are blue, red and yellow; but i think this colouring is not usual. the pigments are obtained from the sources described above with reference to bark cloth. the colouring of my specimen of no. bag is also worked into the bag in the process of knitting, or whatever that process should be called. but this colouring merely consists of four faint horizontal lines of pale reddish-brown; and i was told that these bags are generally uncoloured, or only slightly coloured in thin lines. the mourning vests worn by chiefs' widows are, i believe, made of mafulu network; but unfortunately i did not see one of these, and so cannot describe them. art, design, etc. art and design among the mafulu people are only of a simple and primitive type. there is no carving or other decoration on their houses, or even on their _emone,_ nor is there any on their stone or wooden implements. art and design, other than the arrangement of feather ornaments, is, in fact, apparently confined to the very simple designs scratched upon some of their broad abdominal belts, smoking pipes and lime gourds and perhaps occasionally on one or two other things, and to the plaited designs displayed in the manufacture of other abdominal belts and of arm and leg ornaments and plaited forehead ornaments and feather frames, and to the very simple linear patterns in which some of their network is made, and the ground-staining and pattern-colouring of their perineal bands, dancing aprons and ribbons. as regards the latter, the designs are of a very simple nature, never apparently representing anything either realistically or conventionally, and being confined to geometric designs of straight lines and bands, rectangular and zig-zag patterns with coloured triangles within the zig-zag patterns, and spots. the patterns of the perineal bands and dancing ribbons are very simple indeed; but those of the dancing aprons are more elaborate, covering a considerable surface of cloth, and often displaying a fair variety of design on the same apron. the mafulu have no visible method of recording events or numbers, or sending messages, either by marks or notches on sticks, or tying of knots in string, or any other method, and they are quite unable to grasp the meaning of a map. the limited nature of the ideas of artistic design possessed by the mafulu people is, i think, a matter for surprise. they are believed to have papuan or papuo-melanesian blood in their veins. but, even if they also have another distinct and more primitive ancestry of their own, not associated with the papuo-melanesian types, or even with the pure papuan types, found on the coast and in the plains, one would imagine that contact with these types would have caused the mafulu people to learn something of the more advanced art which these other peoples display and that we should not have to record a sudden drop from artistic designs embodying curves and natural imitative art to a system confined to straight lines, zig-zags, and spots. this contact with the coast and plain people, or at all events with the latter, has certainly existed for some time back; for, though the mutual fear and antagonism between coast and mountain natives, which is usually found among savage peoples, has doubtless existed in this case, and is even now not altogether eradicated, [ ] direct or indirect trading relationship, including in particular the interchange of the stone implements and feathers of the mountains for the shell decorations of the coast, is not a mere recent development of the last few years only. it seems to me that the existence of this decorative hiatus points to a rather small inherent sense of design in the mafulu mind. it may be, however, that the absence of imitative art, to which i have already referred in connection with totemism and clan badges, is partly due to the absence of totemism and of the imitative stimulus, which, as dr. haddon has more than once pointed out, [ ] arises from it. chapter xiv music and singing, dancing and toys and games music and singing. the mafulu people are naturally musical and have good musical ears--much more so than is the case in mekeo and on the coast, thus conforming to what i believe to be a general rule that music is usually more indigenous in hill country than it is in the plains. their instruments are the drum, the jew's-harp and a small flute; but the flute is not a true mafulu instrument, and has probably been acquired from mekeo. the drum (plate , fig. ) is like the mekeo drum, but smaller, and its open end is cut in deep indentations. the wooden body of the drum is made from various trees. a pine tree is the favourite one; but others are used, including a tree the native name of which is _arive_, which word is also the native word for a drum. the membrane is made of the skin of a reptile, probably the "iguana." the maker of a drum must climb up the tree from the wood of which he is about to make it, and there, until the drum is finished, he must remain sitting among the branches, or, if these are inconvenient for the purpose, he may erect a scaffold around the trunk of the tree, with a platform on the top of it, and work upon that. whilst working, he must always keep the upper or tympanic end of his drum facing the wind, the idea of this being that the wind gets into the drum, and makes it musical. his food is brought to him, whilst in his tree, by some woman, probably his mother if he is a bachelor, or his wife if he is married, and he lets down a string by which he hauls it up; but he is under no special restriction as to the food he may eat. there is no superstition, such as is found among the roro and mekeo people, compelling him, in the event of his seeing a woman during the making of the drum, to throw it away and begin a new one. the jew's-harp (plate , fig. ), though seen in mekeo, is, i was told, as regards its manufacture, an instrument of the mountains. it is made out of bamboo or palm, or some other tree having a hollow or soft interior, from which is cut a piece about or inches long. a portion of this piece is cut away longitudinally, leaving for the making of the instrument only two-thirds or half, or even one-third, of the convex outside stem circumference on one side and the flat surface of the cut-away part on the other, and the latter is then hollowed out, leaving, however, a solid head an inch or two long at one end. the hollow piece thus produced is cut into three longitudinal sections or strips, of which the two outside ones are longer than the central one. the two outside strips are left at their full width from the head downwards to a distance of or inches from the other end, from which point they are cut away, very much as one would cut away the divided nib of a quill pen, so that the actual tips of these two strips are quite slender, being no broader than their thickness. these two ends are tied together with fine vegetable fibre. the centre strip, which is generally narrower than the other two at its commencement by the head, is further reduced in width by a more immediate and gradual process of paring down, and so becomes a very slender vibrating tongue or reed, the tip of which goes almost up to, but does not quite reach, the point at which the tips of the two outer strips are bound together. a hole is bored through the solid head; and through this hole is passed a thick string of native make from to or inches long, secured at one end by a knot on the flat side of the head, to keep the string from slipping out, and having at the other end a large, rough, ornamental tassel. the tassel is generally in part composed of the untwisted fibres of the string itself; but to these is added something else, such as a bunch of feathers, or two smaller bunches of feathers; and among these may be seen such miscellaneous articles as a fragment of dried-up fruit, or a part of the backbone of a fish. for playing the instrument, they place its tail end, with the hollow side inwards, to the mouth, holding the extreme tip of that end in the fingers of the left hand, and keep the tongue of the instrument in a constant state of vibration, by smart, rapid, jerky pullings of the tasselled string. the flute is merely a small simple instrument made out of a small bamboo stem, with one or two holes bored in it. all these instruments are played by both men and women; but the jew's-harp and flute are regarded only as toys. i believe the mafulu people occasionally sing at dances to the beating of the drums; but this is quite unusual; and they never sing to the music of the jew's-harp or flute. both men and women sing, generally several or many together, not so often alone. their songs are all very simple, and are chiefly sung in unison or octaves. i was told that they sometimes accomplish simple harmonies, the notes of which may simultaneously rise or fall either with the same or different intervals, or may rise and fall in contrary motion; or the harmony may be produced by one man or part of the group sustaining a note, whilst another changes it; and i myself heard an example of the latter of these, and also heard singing in which, while a group of men were singing the same simple air, some of them were occasionally singing one part of it, whilst the others seemed to be singing another part, thus producing a very simple catch or canon. i am not, however, quite certain as to this. their songs are both cheerful and plaintive; but the latter predominate, and are mainly in the minor key. the subjects of their songs are generally sentimental love, and include ditties by young men about their sweethearts; and i believe that some of their songs are indecent, though i am not sure of this. they also have warlike songs; and, when a special event occurs, songs are often composed with reference to it. for example, not long ago a chief was taken by the authorities to port moresby, and died there; and songs about this were sung all through his district. anyone will compose a topical song; in fact, a man will begin singing one in the _emone,_ making it up as he goes on, and the others will join. the men have a very pretty custom of singing together very softly when at the end of the day they have retired to their _emone,_ and have lain down to sleep, the singing being very gentle, and producing what i can only describe as a sort of crooning sound, like a lullaby or cradle song. i once heard one of these songs sung by my carriers the last thing at night as they lay beneath the floor of the building in which i was sleeping; and the effect was absolutely charming. as an example of mafulu music i give the following, which, though not, i fear, quite accurate, is i think a substantially correct version of the music of a war song sung by the mambule and sivu communities in connection with joint hostilities by them against another community, and i have so far as possible added the song itself. st verse: e! e! e! si-vu mambule juju la em u jeka le nd verse: e! e! e! noul e nul em u ieka la bulu iuju le it will be observed that the first line is whistling only. i was informed that it is a common practice to whistle the air before singing the first verse; though i did not gather that it was always done. it will also be noticed that simple harmonies occur in the fourth and fifth bars. i cannot say whether the two parts in the music are sustained or taken up by the voices upon any defined scheme, and, if so, what that scheme is. nor can i say whether the voices which take the lower notes in the music are silent after the word _la,_ or repeat that word in the sixth bar, with or without the upper voices, in order to bring the tune to a full close. i have only given two verses; and, as regards the song in question, i doubt if there were any more. unfortunately i am unable to translate the words, and can only give the meanings of the following:-- _e! e! e!_ are merely meaningless exclamatory sounds, such as we have in civilised songs. _sivu_ is the name of a fuyuge community close to the mission station, being, in fact, the one referred to by me in my chapter on communities. _mambule_ is the name of another of these communities, further away from the station, being, as stated in my introductory chapter, the name of the community from which the name mafulu arises. i cannot give verbal explanations of any of the other words; but i may say that a rough translation of the second verse is "my village, your village is alike (or equal.)" dancing. the mafulu people, like other new guinea natives, are fond of dancing, and indulge in it extensively, especially in connection with feasts and ceremonies. their dancing is of an exceedingly active and lively character. the movements of the feet are lively and jumping, often half a hop and half a run; and, whilst dancing, their heads are actively moving backwards and forwards and to both sides. the general progressive movement of a dancing party is slow, but not a crawl; and the progress along the village enclosure is usually accomplished by a series of diagonal advances, by which they zig-zag backwards and forwards across the enclosure, and in this way gradually travel along it. very often the dancers divide themselves into two parties, which in their zig-zag progress alternately approach and recede from each other. the dancers are always facing in the direction in which at that moment they are moving. men and women never dance together, except at the big feast, where they do so in the way already described. this method of dancing is in striking contrast to that of the mekeo people, whose movements are generally very gentle and slow, those of the feet, which are accompanied by a corresponding genuflexion, downwards and outwards, being a slow slight step, usually barely more than a shuffle, the feet being hardly lifted off the ground, and those of the head being confined to a slow and sedate backwards and forwards nodding. also the progress of a party of mekeo dancers is generally very slow,--a crawl,--so much so as often to be barely perceptible, perhaps two or three inches being accomplished at each step, and the line of progress of a dancing party is usually a straight line down the village enclosure; and more commonly, though not always, the position of each dancer is sideways to the then actual direction of progression. and in mekeo women and men often dance together in one group. another difference between mafulu and mekeo dancing is that among the mafulu, though the drum-beating and dancing go on simultaneously, the singing, in which all the dancers and non-dancers of both sexes join, does not usually take place during the actual dancing, but only during periodic pauses, in which the drum-beating and dancing cease; whereas in mekeo the drum-beating, dancing and singing all go on continuously and simultaneously. as regards these mafulu pauses in the dancing, i should explain that these are quite distinct from the resting pauses (in which there is neither drum-beating, dancing, nor singing) which are customary both among the mafulu and the mekeo people. a further difference arises as regards the dancing decorations. both mafulu and mekeo natives have elaborate high framework head feather decorations, which are worn by some, but not necessarily all, of the dancers; and they are much ornamented about their bodies. but the mafulu people generally wear their finest and most beautiful feathers on their backs, whereas among the mekeo natives the head ornament is the chief feature of the decoration; and in mekeo any man who has not a framework head decoration generally has sticking in his hair a tall, upright feather, which sways slowly backwards and forwards in response to the slow nodding movements of his head. the special dancing ornaments worn by the mafulu are the aprons worn by women, the ribbons worn by men and women, the forehead ornaments worn by men, the long shell nose ornaments worn by both, and the huge head feather erections. but for dances the people generally wear all the decorative finery they possess or are able to borrow; and they usually with special care paint their faces in various colours, and their bodies red. the comparison above given between the dancing of the mafulu people and that of the people of mekeo brings me to a suggestion, made to me by father clauser, that the mafulu mode of dancing had its origin in an imitation of that of the red bird of paradise, and the mekeo mode in an imitation of that of the goura pigeon. in support of this suggestion he gave me the following information concerning the dancing of these birds, which may be compared with the description given above of the dancing of the mafulu and mekeo natives respectively:-- the movements of the red birds of paradise, when dancing, are remarkably lively, the birds hopping and jumping about the tree branches and from branch to branch, and bobbing their heads backwards and forwards and from side to side, almost as though they had gone mad. the progression along the branches is fairly rapid; but there is not apparently any continuous line of progression in any given direction, and the birds seem to have a curious way of approaching and receding from each other as they do so. the birds always face in the direction in which they are at the time moving, and do not dance sideways. moreover, the dance is an alternation of wild dancing and intermittent pauses; and during the dancing both the males and females are silent, but during the pauses they are uttering their songs or cries. the dancing movements of the goura pigeons are a gentle slow shuffle, and are accompanied by a slow bowing or nodding of the head. the progressive movement is exceedingly slow, and is always a continuous one in the same direction, and it is usually a sideways movement. the dancing and accompanying cooing of the pigeons go on continuously and simultaneously, and the rhythm of the latter is curiously like the more usual rhythm of the mekeo drums. i have unfortunately never had opportunities of observing the dancing of either of these birds, and so cannot personally vouch for the correctness of the above descriptions of them. but father clauser has often watched them, and he is undoubtedly a careful observer, upon whose testimony we may rely; and i may add that my efforts since my return to england to obtain evidence, confirmatory or otherwise, of these descriptions have produced confirmation of some of the facts stated, and have not produced any contradictions. then again attention must be drawn to the fact that the magnificent feather decoration of the bird of paradise is mainly upon or springing from its back or body, whilst the goura pigeon's sole projecting decoration, and perhaps its chief beauty, is the crest upon its head, to which the mekeo single upright head feather may be likened. my efforts to obtain light from native sources upon this question of imitation in mafulu were fruitless, as the natives questioned knew nothing of it; and on my return from mafulu to the coast i did not again pass through the mekeo villages. but on reaching the coast i made further enquiries upon the subject from the fathers there of the mission, and obtained three interesting pieces of information. first, i was told that the mekeo clan inawae of the mekeo village oriropetana, whose clan badge is the goura pigeon, and who are not allowed to kill and eat it, and whose bird totem it appears to be, say that they are descended from the goura pigeon, and that an ancestor of theirs, though himself a man, had all the powers and faculties of movement of those birds, and that he used to dance with them, and so learnt the dance and taught it to his people. unfortunately no enquiry had been made as to the question of any imitative character in their present dancing, and the information only emanated from a particular clan with a particular association with the bird. i therefore do not attach undue general importance to this case. [ ] secondly, i was told that the pokau people, whose dance is practically the same as that of the mekeo people, themselves say that their dancing is an imitation of that of the goura pigeon. this certainly tends to support father clauser's suggestion as regards mekeo. thirdly, some natives of kuni, who are undoubtedly very similar and closely related to the mafulu, and whose dancing is very similar to that of the latter, were questioned on the subject in my presence, and under my direction. the question put was, "when kuni people are dancing, are they in their dance imitating anything, and if so what?" (no mention or suggestion being made of a bird or of anything else). the answer was that they were imitating the dance of the _goloala_, which i was told was not the red bird of paradise, but was another small species of that bird with a yellowish-white body, yellow head and yellowish-white wings. the leading question was then put to them, whether they were sure the bird was the yellow one described by them, and not the red one; which question was answered definitely in the affirmative. and subsequently, when, in order to test their definiteness and certainty in what they had told me, i showed them a few postcard pictures of birds of paradise, which included the red one and others, but not one such as is above described, and almost invited them to recognise one of these as being the bird they meant, they were firm in their insistence that the bird to which they referred was not shown in any of the pictures. this, i think, helps to support father clauser's suggestion as regards the mafulu, subject of course to the question of the variety of bird of paradise which is imitated. dealing with this question of imitation as a whole, and taking into consideration the apparently marked similarities between the dancing of the two tribes of natives and the two genera of birds, and the further element, perhaps not so strong, as to the similarities in distribution upon the bodies of their decorations, and bearing in mind the evidence obtained from native sources, which, though obviously only fragmentary and insufficient in character, is so far as it goes distinctly confirmatory, i am impelled to suggest that father clauser's theory is not without foundation, and indeed amounts, subject to the question of the species of bird of paradise, to a very substantial possibility. and it is undoubtedly an interesting one. [ ] toys and games. the mafulu children have neither dolls nor other toys, and do not make cat's-cradles. the young boys amuse themselves with small bows and arrows and spears, which they make themselves. one common sport is for the boys, armed with their spears, to stand in a row and for another boy to roll in front of them a ball, made out of the root of a banana tree, with its many rootlets intertwined, and for the boys to try to hit it with their spears as it passes them. a similar game is played in mekeo and on the coast; but there the ball is often made out of the outer fibre of a cocoanut. small boys and girls amuse themselves with glissading down the steep grassy slopes. there is also a sort of fighting game for boys, in which young men sometimes join. a number of them divide themselves into two opposing groups, all armed with little darts, made of reeds on which a few leaves are left at the head ends; and these two groups mutually attack each other, advancing and retreating, according to the fortunes of the fight. boys, and men also, play at tug-of-war, using long canes for ropes; and boys and girls have swings, constructed either by looping two flexible rope-like tree stems together at the bottom, or with a single rope, with a loop at the bottom, in which to place their feet. but there are no racing or jumping or gymnastic games, and no group or singing children's games. chapter xv counting, currency and trade counting. mafulu counting is accomplished by the use of two numerals (one and two) and of the word "another" and of their hands and feet [ ]; and with these materials they have phraseology for counting up to twenty as follows:-- = _fida_ (one). = _gegedo_ (two). = _gegedo minda_ (two and another). = _gegedo ta gegedo_ (two and two). = _gegedo ta gegedo minda_ (two and two and another) [or _bodo fida_ (one hand)]. = _gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo_ (two and two and two). = _gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo minda_ (two and two and two and another) [or _bodo fida ta gegedo_ (one hand and two) ]. = _gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo_ (two and two and two and two) [or _bodo fida ta gegedo minda_ (one hand and two and another) ]. = _gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo minda_ (two and two and two and two and another) [or _bodo fida ta gegedo ta gegedo_ (one hand and two and two) ]. = _bodo gegedo_ (two hands). = _bodo gegedov' u minda_ (two hands and another). [note the "v" at the end of gegedo. the full word is really _gegedove_; but it is shortened to _gegedo_, unless the next word is a vowel. also note the "u." there are two words for "and," namely _ta_ and _une_. the "u" here is the _une_ shortened, and put instead of _ta_ for euphony]. = _bodo gegedo ta gegedo_ (two hands and two). = _bodo gegedo ta gegedo minda_ (two hands and two and another). = _bodo gegedo ta gegedo ta gegedo_ (two hands and two and two). = _bodo gegedo ta jovari fida_ (two hands and one foot). = _bodo gegedo ta jovari fidari u minda_ (two hands and one foot and another). [note the "n" at the end of _fida_. the full word is really _fidane_, and the "n" is introduced here for euphony.] = _bodo gegedo ta jovari fida ta gegedo_ (two hands and one foot and two). = _bodo gegedo ta jovari fida ta gegedo minda_ (two hands and one foot and two and another). = _bodo gegedo ta jovari fida ta gegedo ta gegedo_ (two hands and one foot and two and two). = _bodo gegedo ta jovari gegedo_ (two hands and two feet). as regards these numerals it will be seen that in some cases alternatives are given, whilst in other cases, where corresponding alternatives would appear to be equally applicable, they are not given; the reason is that in these latter cases the alternatives do not in fact appear to be used. there is no numerical phraseology to indicate any number above twenty; and in the ordinary affairs of life, although numeration can be carried in this cumbrous way up to twenty, they rarely use the numerals beyond ten, and anything over that will be referred to as _tale, tale, tale, tale_ (which may be translated "plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty"). important counting, such as that of pigs at a feast, is accomplished by the actual use of the hands and feet. the fingers stretched open mean nothing; closing down the thumb of the right hand indicates one; closing down also the first finger of that hand indicates two; and so on with the other fingers of the right hand, till you reach the closing down of the thumb and all the fingers of the right hand, which indicates five. then, keeping all the right hand closed, they begin with the left hand also. closing down only the thumb indicates six; and so on as before, until the thumbs and all the fingers of both hands are closed, which indicates ten. [ ] then they go to the feet. they keep both hands closed and together, and with the right fist they point to the toes, beginning with the big toe of the right foot, and so along the other toes of that foot, and then go to the big toe of the left foot, and so along the other toes of that foot, thus reaching the enumerative total of twenty. they do not, when wishing to indicate a number, simply place their fingers and hands and feet simultaneously in the requisite position for doing so. they always go through the whole process of finger and toe counting from the beginning. for example, to indicate eight, they turn in the thumb and all the fingers of the right hand, and afterwards the thumb and two fingers of the left hand, separately, and one alter another, until the right position is reached; and similarly as regards numbers over ten, they solemnly turn down all the fingers one after another, and then point to the toes one after another, until they get to the right one for indicating the desired number. when the fingers and toes of the person counting are exhausted, he has recourse to those of another person, if he wishes to count further, although he has then passed the limit of numerical phraseology. for the purpose of counting big numbers they are always sitting, and as in counting they exhaust hands and feet, the latter are put together, if, for example, they reach eighty, there are four men sitting, with all their hands and feet crowded together; and if the number be eighty-three, there is also a fifth man with a thumb and two fingers of his right hand closed up. sometimes a number above ten, but not over twenty, is indicated with the hands only by counting up to ten in the ordinary way, and then opening all the fingers and counting again, until they reach the requisite amount in excess of ten. i do not think it can be said that these people have in their minds any real abstract idea of number, at all events beyond twenty. each finger turned down and toe pointed to, in succession, seems to represent to their minds the article (_e.g._, a pig) which is counted, rather than a step in a process of mental addition. but this is a matter upon which i can only express myself in a very general way; and indeed the mental stage at which the mere physical idea of the objects counted has developed into the abstract idea of numbers would in any case be exceedingly difficult to ascertain, or even, perhaps, to define. they never use pebbles or sticks or anything else of that kind, and have no method of recording numbers or anything else by notching sticks; and they have no weights or measures. currency and trade. the mafulu people have no currency in the true sense, every transaction being one of exchange; but nevertheless some specific articles, especially some of the dearer ones, can only be acquired by the offering of certain other specific articles, and certain things have definite recognised relative values for the purpose of exchange. as examples of the former of these statements, i may say that a pig used to be always paid for in dogs' teeth--though this practice is not now, i think, so strict--and that some of their finer head feather dancing ornaments and ornamental nose pieces can still only be paid for in dogs' teeth; also that there is a special kind of feather ornament, composed of many small feathers fixed in a line on a string, which can only be obtained in exchange for a particular sort of shell necklace. as examples of recognised relative values, i may state that the proper payment in dogs' teeth for a pig is a chain of dogs' teeth equal in length to the body of the pig, the latter being measured from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail; and that the payment for the special feather ornament is its own length of the corresponding shell necklace. exchange and barter is generally only engaged in between members of different communities, and not between those of the same community. an apparent exception to this arises in the purchase of pigs at certain ceremonies above referred to; but in this case it is really a matter of ceremony, and not one of ordinary barter. there are no regular markets, such as exist in some other parts of the country, the exchange of goods being effected by one or more individuals going with their articles of exchange to some other community, where they hope to get what they require. the nearest approach to a market arises intermittently when there is to be a big feast. then the communities giving, and invited to, the feast require a large supply of ornaments, especially for those who are going to dance, and probably do not possess a sufficient quantity. they therefore have to procure these ornaments elsewhere; and the natural place to go to is some other community, possibly a long way off, which has recently been in the same want of extensive ornaments for a feast, and has procured and used them, and now has them, so to speak, in stock, and will be glad to dispose of them again. thus ornaments used for feasts are sold and resold and travel about the country very extensively. chapter xvi language i have been fortunate in having had some interesting and valuable linguistic material placed at my disposal for publication by father egedi and in having had further material added to it by dr. seligmann and mr. sidney h. ray. i have thought it better to deal with it in five appendices, and i am greatly indebted to mr. ray for having undertaken the laborious task of their compilation. i give the following explanation concerning these appendices. ( ) is a grammar of the fuyuge language. the original manuscript is the work of father egedi, the, materials from which it was prepared by him having been collected in the mafulu villages. the appendix is father egedi's grammar, translated and edited by mr. ray. ( ) is a short note on the afoa language prepared by dr. w. m. strong, when he was government agent in mekeo, and handed by him to dr. seligmann for publication. to this note mr. ray has added a footnote. ( ) is a note on the kovio language prepared by dr. strong, and handed by him to dr. seligmann. this note refers to the languages spoken in the neighbourhoods of inavarene and the inava valley and of the upper lakekamu river, all of which were found by dr. strong to be somewhat similar. the footnote is by mr. ray. ( ) is a comparative vocabulary, prepared by mr. ray, of the languages of some of the different papuan-speaking people of the mountain districts of central british new guinea. the words in the "mafulu" column are taken from a very lengthy ms. vocabulary compiled by father egedi in mafulu. those in the "kambisa" column were all collected by the rev. p. j. money in the kambisa villages of the upper chirima valley during mr. monckton's expedition, referred to in my introductory chapter. most of these words are taken from the new guinea _annual report_ for - ; but to them have been added other words, which had been collected by mr. money. the words in the "korona" column are taken from an ms. vocabulary prepared by dr. strong at korona, also mentioned in my introductory chapter, and handed by him to dr. seligmann. those in the "afoa" column are taken from an ms. vocabulary prepared by dr. strong in connection with his afoa notes, to which are added in square brackets some other words taken from father egedi's vocabulary in _anthropos_ ii., , pp. - , this vocabulary being there called by him tauata. the words in the "kovio" column are taken from an ms. vocabulary prepared by dr. strong in connection with his kovio notes, to which are added in square brackets some "oru-lopiku" words collected by father egedi, and published in _anthropos_ ii., , pp. - . as regards this column i must explain that dr. strong's words were all collected within the districts to which his notes refer, but that father egedi's words, though in part collected there, were, i believe, in part collected further to the east. ( ) is a series of notes by mr. ray upon the matter contained in the previous appendices. i am perhaps open to criticism for introducing into a book of my own notes on the mafulu people such extensive material written by others, and relating to other mountain districts as well as to that of the mafulu; but my belief as to the probable similarity in many respects between the papuan-speaking natives of these central mountain districts, and the obvious value and importance of the matter which has been so kindly placed at my disposal, justify me, i think, in introducing it; and indeed i should be doing but ill service to new guinea ethnology if i did not take advantage of these opportunities which have been offered to me. though i am not qualified to discuss these materials from the grammatical and scientific linguistic point of view, there are a few matters to which i should like to draw attention, as affecting statements appearing in this book, and which were written by me before i received this linguistic material. regarding the question raised in my introductory chapter as to the extension of the fuyuge linguistic area so far south as korona, it will be noticed that a large number of the words in the mafulu and korona columns are the same, or very similar. dr. strong, in some unpublished ms. notes in dr. seligmann's possession, to which i have had access, says as regards the mafulu and korona languages that "there is nothing to show that the two languages may not be for all practical purposes identical," and mr. ray in his concluding notes classes mafulu and korona together as dialects of fuyuge. the village of sikube, mentioned by mr. ray, is, i believe, on the upper vanapa river and north of mt. lilley, and so is well within the fuyuge-speaking area as defined by the fathers. concerning the kambisa (upper chirima valley) column, the similarity of many of the words contained in it to those in either the mafulu or the korona column is obvious; and it is curious that some of these words appear to resemble the korona words more than they do those of mafulu. i also think i may say that the similarity between kambisa words on the one hand, and those of either mafulu or korona on the other, is almost equal to the similarity between mafulu and korona; and mr. ray classes kambisa along with mafulu and korona as dialects of fuyuge. so the statement in the introductory chapter that the valley of the upper chirima river is included in the fuyuge area has, i think, stood the test of some detailed linguistic comparison. the note by dr. strong upon what he calls the kovio language and his kovio vocabulary both relate to a district which is within the fathers' oru-lopiku linguistic area; and i venture to repeat the suggestion, made in my introductory chapter, that for the present should adopt the term kovio for the two areas which the fathers call oru-lopiku and boboi, though eventually we may be able to distinguish between these two areas. the afoa or tauata area is the fathers' ambo area. the afoa column discloses a very few words which resemble the fuyuge words; but it seems obvious that the afoa language does not belong to the fuyuge group, and this is the view taken of it by mr. ray. there are two matters in mr. ray's classification in the fifth appendix which i wish to mention. it seems to have been already assumed that the rev. james chalmers' kabana language could not have been collected on mt. victoria; and i would point out that this mountain is quite outside what now appears to be the fuyuge area. as regards the afoa language the references by dr. strong to mt. pizoko and mt. davidson bring me back to my observations upon the point in my introductory chapter. if the fathers are right in putting mt. pizoko within the fuyuge area, it is hardly correct to say (see introductory chapter) that the afoa language is spoken in the villages on mt. pizoko; but it might well be, as quoted by mr. ray, that a fuyuge native in a mt. pizoko village spoke afoa fluently, as this mountain is close to the fathers' fuyuge-afoa boundary. also mt. davidson is according to the fathers in the boboi area; but dr. strong seems to have regarded it as ambo, and to have treated vocabulary matter collected from a native who came from a village "apparently on the slopes of" that mountain as having been taken from an ambo native. in this case, however, there seems to be some doubt as to where this native did in fact come from; and the eastern slopes of mt. davidson are not far from the fathers' afoa boundary. i think that these linguistic materials, taken as a whole, are, so far as they go, well in accord with the delimitation by the fathers of the fuyuge area, except as regards their view concerning korona, as to which they did not profess actual knowledge, and merely expressed a doubt, and subject to the point that, for linguistic purposes at all events, the fathers' use of the word "mafulu" as representing the whole fuyuge area is perhaps not desirable, and would be better replaced by the term "fuyuge," with subdivisions of "mafulu," "korona," and "kambisa," as given by mr. ray; though probably sikube might be included in either mafulu or korona, as geographically it is evidently between these two. chapter xvii illness, death, and burial ailments and remedies. all serious ailments occurring up to certain ages, and except in certain cases, are generally assumed to be the work of someone acting in connection with a spirit; but, speaking generally, no efforts appear to be made by imprecation or other supernatural method to propitiate or contend against these spirits, except by the use of general charms against illness, and except, so far as the propitiation or driving out of the spirit is involved, by one or other of the specific remedies for specific ailments mentioned below. the natives have, however, for common diseases cures of which some are obviously purely fanciful and superstitious, but some are probably more or less practical. the chief ailments are colds and complications arising from them, malaria, dysentery, stomach and bowel and similar complaints, toothache and wounds. dysentery has recognised and accredited curers, both men and women. the operator chews and crushes with his teeth the root of a vegetable (i do not know what it is) which they grow in their gardens, and then wraps it up into a small bundle in a bunch of grass, and gives it to the patient to suck. this remedy does not appear to be effective. there are men who are specially skilled in dealing with stomach and bowel troubles. the operator takes in his hand a stone, and with the other hand he sprinkles that stone over with ashes. he then makes over it an incantation, in which, though his lips are seen to be moving, no sound comes out of them; after which he takes some of the ashes from the stone, which he still holds in his hand, and with these ashes he rubs the stomach of the patient, who, i was told, generally at once feels rather better, or says so. there are also women who deal with cases believed to be caused by the presence in the stomach of a snake, which has to be got out. here the operator takes a piece of bark cloth, with which she rubs the front of the patient's body, but without any incantation. then, as she removes the cloth from the body, she makes a movement as though she were wrapping up in it something, presumably the escaped snake; and afterwards she carries the cloth away with her, and the cure is thus effected. a man with toothache will say that "a spirit is eating my teeth." the people seem to have a knowledge of something inside the teeth, the nature of which i am not able to state definitely, but which apparently is, in fact, the nerve, and they recognise that it is in this something that the pain arises; but i could not ascertain the connection between this something and the spirit which is supposed to cause the trouble. if the aching tooth can be got at, they adopt a method the native explanation of which was translated to me as being a drawing or driving out of the mysterious something from the tooth. this is done in some way with an ordinary native comb, without extracting the tooth itself; but how it is done i could not ascertain. there is no incantation connected with the operation. another cure is for the patient to chew the leaf of a certain tree (i do not know what tree), so that the sap of it gets into the hole in the tooth, and thereby, as they think, draws or drives out this nerve, or whatever the something may be. the fathers of the mission told me that both these two remedies do really appear to be effective. wounds are the speciality of many healers with special knowledge of the curative properties of various plants, and who gather the plant, make an incantation over it, boil it in water, and then with that water wash the wound. there are also men who operate surgically on wounds with knives made of stone or shell or bamboo. charms, probably of a poisonous nature, are used generally for the warding off of sickness, these being carried in the little charm bags. a general and universal cure for all ailments is a piece of bark, tied with a piece of string to the neck or head, all neck ornaments having been first removed. i regret that as regards all these matters i am only able to indicate shortly and generally the methods of cure, and can give no further explanation concerning them. death and burial. _(ordinary people.)_ when a man or woman is regarded as dying, he or she is at once attended by a woman whose permanent office it is to do this, and who has other women and girls with her to assist her, these others including, but not necessarily being confined to, the females of the dying man's own family and relatives. the house is full of women; but there is no man there. this special woman and the others attend the dying man, [ ] nursing him, washing him from time to time, and keeping the flies away from him; but they apparently do not attempt any measures for curing him, their offices only beginning when he is regarded as dying. in the meantime they all wail, and there are also a number of other women wailing outside the house. the special woman watches the dying person; and when she thinks he is dead she gives him a heavy blow on the side of the head with her fist, and pronounces him dead. she apparently does not feel his heart, or do more than watch his face; and i should think it may often be that in point of fact he is not dead when the blow is given, and might perhaps have recovered. then the women inside the house say to one another that he is dead, and communicate the news to the people outside; whereupon the men in the village all commence shouting as loudly as they can. the reason given for this shouting is that it frightens away the man's ghost; but if so it is apparently only a partial intimidation of the ghost, who, as will be seen hereafter, is subjected to further alarms at a later stage. the men communicate the news in the ordinary way adopted by these people of shouting it across the valleys; and so it spreads to other villages, and even to other communities. the man being dead, the wailing of the women inside and outside the house is changed into a true funeral wailing song; but this latter only continues for a few minutes. the special woman and some others, probably relatives only, remain in the house; but they do not touch the body at this stage. the other women, probably non-relatives, go out. the relatives of the deceased, both men and women, immediately smear their bodies with mud, but no one else in the village does so. this is the situation until the first party of women, generally accompanied by men, begin to come in from other villages of the same, and probably of one or more other, communities. these people have been laughing and playing and enjoying themselves on their way to the village, and do so freely until they get close to it. then they commence wailing (not the funeral song) and shouting, calling the deceased by a relationship term, such as father, brother, etc., though they may never have heard of him before; and, doing this, they enter the village, and go to the house. the incoming women, but not the men, all arrive smeared with mud. the women crowd into and about the house, still wailing as before, but not the funeral song. they all see the body; and each woman, after seeing it, comes out and sits on the platform of the house or on the ground outside. the party of outside village women then cease their first wailing, and commence the funeral song, in which they are joined by the female relatives of the deceased and other women of the village. but again this only lasts for a few minutes, the period being longer or shorter according to the importance of the person who has died. other similar parties, coming in from other villages, go through the same performance as they come into the village; and in each case, as the women of each fresh party come out of the house after seeing the corpse, there is a fresh outburst of the funeral song on the part of all the women present, but always only for a few minutes. this goes on till the last batch of visitors has arrived. the people of the village know when this last batch has come, because they have been told by cross-valley shouting which villages are sending parties. the total number of women in the village is then generally very large. after the last batch of visitors has arrived, and until the funeral ceremony, all the women again break out into the funeral song for a few minutes about once an hour in the daytime, but not so often at night. the funeral takes place probably about twenty-four hours after death. the body is now wrapped up by the special woman attendant, helped by the female relatives of the deceased, in leaves, especially banana leaves, and bark of trees, and remains so wrapped up in the house. it is placed with the knees bent up to the chin, and the heels to the buttocks. in the meantime men of the village dig a grave or feet deep in the village open enclosure. when all is ready the funeral song begins again, the singers this time being the female relatives of the deceased and the women who have come from outside villages, but not the other women of the village of the deceased. men of the village then carry the corpse, wrapped and doubled up, and place it, lying on its back, in the grave. there is no real procession from the house to the grave, though all the people assemble at the latter; but during the whole of the time, until the body is in the grave, the singing by the women of the funeral song continues. as soon as the body is in the grave, all the men, both villagers and visitors, shout again as before, and for the same purpose. the grave is then filled up, the women in the meantime singing as before; and when this is done the funeral is over. the relatives of the deceased now go into mourning. the widow or widower or other nearest relative wears the mourning string necklace already described. he or she, and also the other near relatives, smear their faces, and sometimes, but not always, their bodies, with black, to which, as regards the face, but not the body, is added oil or water. some more distant relatives, instead of blackening themselves, wear the mourning shell necklace. and all this will continue, nominally without break, until the mourning is formally removed, in the way to be explained hereafter. as a matter of fact, the insignia of mourning are not worn without interruption, and the black smearing is by no means so retained; but on any special occasion the person would take care to appear in mourning. there is a custom under which the widow or widower or other nearest relative may, instead of wearing the mourning string necklace, abstain during the period of mourning from eating some particular food, of which deceased was most fond. [ ] in connection with mourning, i should also mention a curious custom, which i understand is common, though not universal, for a woman who has lost a child, and especially a first-born or very clear child, to amputate the top end of one of her fingers, up to the first joint, with an adze. having done this once for one child, she will possibly do it again for another child; and a woman has been seen with three fingers mutilated in this way. [ ] the family of the deceased invite men and women from some other community, but only one community, to a funeral feast, which is held after an interval of two or three days from the day of the funeral. on the day appointed these guests arrive. they are all well ornamented, but, with one exception, they do not wear their dancing ornaments. one of them, however, usually a chief or the son of a chief of the community invited, comes in his full dancing ornaments. all the guest men bring with them their spears, and perhaps adzes or clubs. when they arrive the following performances take place, the village enclosure being left by the villagers empty and open:--first two guest women enter the village enclosure at one end, and run in silence round it, brandishing spears in both hands, as at the big feast; but they make no hostile demonstration. when these two women have reached their starting point, they again do the same thing, brandishing their spears as before, and all the guest men, except the specially dressed one, follow them by advancing with a dancing step along the enclosure, they also brandishing their spears, and also being silent. thus the whole group goes to the other end of the village, passing the grave of the deceased as they do so; then they turn round, and come back again in the same way, but on their return they stop before they reach the grave. then the specially ornamented guest man enters alone, without his arms, but with his drum, which he beats. he dances up the village enclosure in a zigzag course, going from side to side of the enclosure, and always facing in the direction in which he is at the time moving; and during his advance he beats his drum., but otherwise he and all the other people are silent. when in this way he has reached the grave, the chief of the clan of the village where the funeral takes place, who does not wear any dancing ornaments, approaches him, and removes his heavy head ornament. this ends the first part of the ceremony; and the villagers and guests then chat and conduct themselves in the ordinary way. plates and illustrate scenes at a funeral feast in the village of amalala. in the former plate the grave is very clear, and the remains of an older grave are visible behind the post a little to the left. at the upper end of the village enclosure are the visitors, who are about to dance along the enclosure past the grave, and then back again up to it. the figures in the _emone_ behind are amalala men, watching the performance. in the latter plate the visitor chief is seen dancing along the village enclosure towards the grave. in the meantime the members of the family of the deceased bring in one or more village pigs and some vegetables. a number of sticks are laid upon the ground over the grave, the sticks crossing each other so as to form a rude ground platform (this is not done by any particular person), and these sticks are covered with banana leaves. [ ] the pigs are placed on this platform, and are then killed by the pig-killer and cut up, and the vegetables and pieces of pig are distributed by the chief of the clan, helped perhaps by the family of the deceased, among the male visitors. the one specially dressed visitor, being the only one who has really danced, gets much the largest share. for example, if there be two or more pigs, he will get an entire pig for himself. then the ceremony is over, and the guests return home. the wood of the platform is not removed from the grave, but is left to rot there. the killing of the pigs at this ceremony is regarded as the act which will, they think, finally propitiate or drive away the ghost of the departed. it will be noticed that, though representatives from several communities may be invited and come to the funeral, only one community is invited to the subsequent funeral feast, just as only one community is invited to the big feast, which latter we must, i think, associate with the general superstitious idea of laying the ghosts of past departed chiefs and notables. i cannot say what is the reason for the confinement of these invitations to one community only, but it must, i think, have had some definite origin [ ]; and as to this i am struck by the similarity of the massim idea, referred to by dr. seligmann, that an individual's death primarily concerns the dead man's hamlet and one other hamlet of his clan, with which certain death feasts are exchanged, other members of the clan being comparatively little affected. [ ] as soon as possible after the funeral pig-killing, they catch some wild pig or pigs, and kill and eat them, and sweep down the village by way of purification ceremony, very much as they do in the case of the big feast, except that it is on a very much smaller scale, and that the people do not afterwards leave the village. the ceremony of removal of the mourning may take place after an interval of only a week or two, or of so much as six months, the date often depending upon the occurrence of some other ceremony, at which the removal of the mourning can be carried out without necessitating a ceremony for itself only. visitors from some other community attend. the ceremony only applies to the nearest relative--the person who wears the string necklace; but, on his or her mourning being ceremoniously removed, the mourning of all others in respect of the same deceased ceases automatically. [ ] this nearest relative has to provide a village pig. there is a feast, and dancing and pig-killing and distribution of food and pig, in the usual way, and this may be in the village of the deceased or in some other village of the community. the pig-killing is done by the pig-killer under the platform of a chiefs platform grave, or on the site of it. the pig, specially provided by the nearest relative, is bought and paid for by some person, as in the case of some of the ceremonies already described, and this person, after the killing of the pig, without special ceremony, cuts off the mourner's string necklace, dips it in the blood of the pig, and throws it away; then he takes some coloured paint, usually red, and with it daubs two lines on each side of the face across the cheek of the mourner, who of course at this ceremony will still have his black paint. if the mourner has been refraining from food, instead of wearing the necklace, the ceremony is confined to the paint-daubing. then the mourner pays this ceremonial pig-buyer for his services, probably in feathers or dog-teeth, and the mourning is at an end. there will at a later date be a purification ceremony, at which wild pigs will be killed, such as has already been described. [ ] death and burial. _(chiefs.)_ a dying chief is attended by the special woman and others in the way above described, except that many women of the clan are there, and that this special attendance and its accompanying wailing begin earlier, perhaps two or three days earlier, than in the case of an ordinary person, and that all the women of the clan who are not in the house wail outside it. in this case, however, there is a special ceremony for ascertaining whether or not the chief is in fact going to die--a ceremony which is usually performed at his own request. some vegetable food, probably sweet potato, or perhaps sugar-cane or taro, is given him to eat; and this he will do although he may be very ill, and may not have been taking food, though of course, if he were insensible or unable to eat, this special ceremony could not be carried out. the inedible portions of this food, _e.g.,_ the peel of the potato or the hard fibres of the sugar-cane, are then handed to certain magical persons of the community, whose special duty it is to perform the ceremony about to be described, but as to whom i was unable to ascertain who and what they are, and whether they have any other special functions besides those of this ceremony. some of these portions of food may even be sent to some similar magic person of high reputation in another community, in order that he also may perform the same ceremony. each of these magic persons also has handed to him a portion of a perineal band belonging to, and recently worn by, the ailing chief. each of the magic men then wraps up the portion of food which has been given to him in the piece of band; and this he again wraps up in leaves, and continues doing so until the parcel has become a round ball or inches in diameter. the men then separate, and each of them goes off alone to a spot outside the village, where he collects some very dry firewood, and heaps it up against the trunk of a tree to a height of, say, feet. he then engages in an incantation, after which he puts the ball inside the bottom of the wood pile, and lights the pile at the bottom. then he lies down by this fire and closes his eyes. after an interval of perhaps two to five minutes he gets up, as though awakening from a bad dream, and hears the wailing in the adjoining village, and asks himself what all this wailing is about; and he then appears to remember for what purpose he is there, goes to the fire, and takes out the ball. if the fire has burnt or scorched the food wrapped up in the ball, it is an indication that the chief is to die. if not, it indicates that he will live. these magic men then return to the village, and report the result. if their report be that the chief is going to live, the people cease their wailing, but if it be that he is to die, the wailing continues. pausing here for a moment, i may admit that, though i have told the tale of this ceremony, with its private cogitations--real or pretended--of the magic men, as it was told to me, the tale is open to obvious questions. how can a magic man from a distant community hear the wailing? what would happen if the results of the ceremonies of the various magic men were to differ? what would be the situation if a chief whose death was indicated by the ceremony lived, or if one whose recovery was foretold became worse and died? all these points i tried to elucidate without success; but possibly the answer to the query as to divergence of results may be that the men take care that the results of their experiments shall not differ. it is believed by the natives that, if a hostile community can secure some of the food remnants and band, and hand them to their own magic man, for him to go through the same ceremony, he may maliciously bring about an unfavourable result, and thus may cause the death of the chief. if the belief that such a thing had happened arose, it would be a _casus belli_ with that other community; and a case is known in which an inter-community fight did occur on this ground. if the report be that the chief is to die, the special woman attendant will give him the blow on the head, as in the case of the ordinary villager. the shouting of the men outside when the chiefs death is announced is much louder than in the case of a commoner; and as they shout they brandish their spears, and strike the roof of the chiefs house with the spear points, and some of the men strike it with adzes and clubs. the spreading of the news to other communities is on a wider scale, and the number of people who respond to the news and come to the funeral is very great, and includes a larger number of chiefs and prominent men; there are more, and much larger, parties of them. the funeral song of the women, commenced on the announcement of death, lasts much longer--indeed for hours. in fact, as numerous large bodies of people keep coming in, and some of these coming from a distance may not arrive until just before the funeral, and as the funeral song has to be recommenced as each fresh party comes in, and lasts so much longer each time, it follows that this funeral song practically continues without ceasing from the moment when death is announced until the actual funeral. the immediate smearing by men and women of their bodies with mud is done by all the members of the entire community. when the guests reach the village, they are all, both men and women, smeared with mud, and they loudly call on the dead chief by his title _amidi_, or as _babe_ (father). also the various chiefs' wives among the guests remain in the house after seeing the body, instead of coming out with the other guest women. the funeral does not take place till thirty-six or forty-eight hours after the death. the various chiefs' wives take part in the wrapping up of the body; and to the ordinary wrappings are added large pieces of bark cloth. the grave [ ] is quite different from that of a commoner. there are two methods of sepulture adopted for chiefs, the grave being in both cases in or by the edge of the open village enclosure. the first of these methods is a burial platform, a very rough erection of upright poles from to feet high, the number of which may be four, or less or more than that, at the top of which erection is a rude wooden box-shaped receptacle, about or feet square, and from inches to a foot deep, and uncovered at the top, in which receptacle the corpse is placed. sometimes the supporting structure, instead of being composed of a number of poles, is only a rough tree trunk, on which the lower ends of the branches are left to support the box. the second method is tree burial. the tree in which this is done is a special form of fig tree called _gabi_, the burial box, similar to the one above described, being placed in its lowest fork, or, if that be already occupied, then in the next one, and so on. [ ] a tree has been seen with six of these boxes in it, one above another. this tree is specially used for such burials. the natives will never cut it down. in selecting a village site they will often specially choose one where one of these trees is growing; and indeed the presence of such a tree in the bush raises a probability that there is, or has been, a native village there. [ ] if a burial platform afterwards falls down through decay, the people throw away all the bones, except the skull and the larger bones of the arms and legs; and these they deal with in one of three alternative ways. they either ( ) dig a shallow grave in the ground under the fallen platform, and put the skull and special bones there, and then fill in the grave with soil, on this put a heap of stones, and on these put the wooden remains of the collapsed platform, planting round them tobacco or croton, or some other fine-leaved plant, or ( ) they put the skull and special bones in a box on the _gabi_ burying tree, or ( ) they take them to the _emone_, and there hang them up till they are wanted for a big feast. in the same way, if a tree box falls, they retain only the skull and large arm and leg bones, and replace them in a new box in the same tree. we have already seen a chiefs burial platform in the two plates and relating to the big feast at seluku, and the following plates are additional illustrations:--plate is the grave of a chiefs child in the village of malala. the supports of the grave rise from the village enclosure fence behind, and are quite distinct from the underground commoner's grave, which is seen in front. the positions of the two graves can be seen in the general view of the village (plate ). plate is a group of graves of chiefs and chiefs' relatives in the village of tullalave (community of auga). plate shows the grave of a chiefs child in the village of faribe (community of faribe). the form of this grave is quite different from those of the others, and is not, i think, so common, but a grave somewhat resembling it is seen in plate . plate is a _gabi_ fig tree, used for tree burial, near to the village of seluku, and plate shows the remains of an old burial box in one of its forks. the bones are still in this box, and indeed one of them may be just discerned at the extreme left, close to the upright stem of the tree. plate illustrates what i have said as to what is done when a burial platform falls down from decay. the skull and larger arm and leg bones of the body have been buried underground, and upon these have been heaped first stones and then the remains of the collapsed platform, and one little foliage plant and dried-up looking specimens of others can be seen around it. this picture was taken in the village of seluku, and the actual position of the grave in the village enclosure is seen in plate . plate , of an _emone_ in the village of voitele (community of sivu) illustrates the alternative plan of hanging the skull and bones up in the _emone_. at the funeral all the women present, those of the village and of the whole community and the guests, join in singing the funeral song; but here again there is no actual procession, and the carrying of the body is not necessarily entrusted to any particular person. when the grave, whether on a platform or on a tree, is reached, all the men present begin to shout loudly, and there is a terrible noise. they all have their spears, but there is no brandishing of them. then some men (anyone may do this) climb up to the box, and others hand the wrapped body up to them, and they place it lying on its back in the box. this ends the actual burial ceremony. the black mourning face, and sometimes body-staining is then adopted by all the people of the community, and perhaps also by chiefs from other communities who have been friends of the dead chief. the special string necklace worn by the nearest relative and the other family emblems of mourning are the same as in the case of an ordinary person, except that the chiefs widow will probably also wear the special mourning network vest already described, and that the mourning shell necklace, which in the case of an ordinary man is only worn by distant relatives, is worn by all the married men and women of the clan who have or can procure it. the subsequent ceremony and feast are in this case held one or two days after the funeral, the acceleration in the case of a chief being necessary in consequence of the retention of the corpse above ground and the foul smell which immediately begins to emanate from it. this feast is on a very large scale, though here again only one community is invited. the guests enter the village just as they do in the case of the death of an ordinary person; but they are all specially well decorated, and the one guest who comes in full dancing ornaments will certainly be a chief, or at least a chiefs son. the subsequent part of the ceremony, up to the removal of the head feather ornament from the dancer, is the same; but this removal is done by the nearest male relative of the deceased chief, who will probably be the person to whom the chieftainship has descended. then follows the feast itself. the vegetables and village pigs for the feast are provided by the whole clan, and are in very large quantities. no platform of sticks is placed on the grave, the grave in this case not being underground; but the banana leaves are placed around (not under) the supports of the burial platform, or around the trunk of the burial tree. the pigs are killed upon these banana leaves by the pig-killer and his helpers, and the killed pigs are then placed in circles around the platform or tree, and are there cut up. the distribution of food and pig's flesh is made by the chiefs nearest male relative, with assistance, here again the special dancer getting the largest share, and the ceremony is then over, and the guests return to their villages. and now a true desertion of the village by its inhabitants takes place, as indeed is necessary, as the putrefying body is becoming so offensive; and it will be at least two or three weeks before the emission of the smells is over. the villagers all go off into the bush, with the exception of two unhappy men, more or less close relatives of the dead chief, who have to remain in the village. whilst there alone they are well ornamented, though not in their full dancing decoration, but in particular, though not themselves chiefs, they wear on their heads the cassowary feathers which are the distinctive decoration of a chief, and they carry their spears. there they remain amidst the awful stench of the decomposing body and all the mess and smell of the pigs' blood and garbage about the village. it is a curious fact that, in speaking of these two men, the natives do not speak of them as watching over the body of the chief, but as watching over the blood of the killed pigs. when the stench is over, the villagers in the bush are informed, and they then return to the village. then follow the killing and eating of wild pigs and sweeping down of the village, as in the case of the death of an ordinary person, but again on a much larger scale. it will be noticed that, though the desertion of the village after a big feast lasts for six months, that which follows a chiefs funeral only lasts for a few weeks. the removal of the mourning takes place after an interval which may be anything between one and six months. this is a special ceremony, and will not be postponed for the purpose of tacking it on to some other ceremony, as in the case of an ordinary person's mourning removal; but other ceremonies will often be tacked on to it. the guests invited are from only one other community. here again the person actually dealt with is the chief mourner, and the removal of mourning from him or her terminates the mourning for everyone. the village pigs for this occasion are provided by the dead man's family, and not by the whole clan, as in the case of a chiefs funeral feast. there will probably be two or three of such pigs provided; but, as the ceremony is also available for various other ceremonies, there may be a considerable number of pigs killed. the dancing and pig-killing and feast are the same as those of an ordinary mourning-removal ceremony, but on a larger scale. the pig-killing in this case is done round the platform or tree on which the chief is buried. the buyer of the pig, who cuts off the mourning necklace and daubs the face of the chief mourner, if not a chief, will at all events be a person of importance; but the ceremonies relating to all these matters are identical with those already described. there is also the subsequent purification ceremony, at which wild pigs are killed and eaten as before. the graves of chiefs' wives and members of their families, and other persons of special importance, are platform or tree graves, like those of chiefs, and the funeral ceremonies on the deaths of these people are very similar to those of chiefs, though they are on a scale which is smaller, in proportion to the relative smallness of the importance of the person to be buried; and they are subject to a few detailed differences, which the difference of the situation involves. the special magic ceremony for ascertaining if the patient is or is not going to die is not performed in the case of these people. chapter xviii religion and superstitious beliefs and practices religion and superstitions. these are subjects which i should hardly have ventured to introduce into this book if i had had to rely exclusively upon enquiries made only during my stay among the mafulu villages, without having the benefit of five years' observation by the mafulu fathers of the mission. and, notwithstanding this additional facility, my notes on these questions will be found to involve puzzles and apparent inconsistencies; and there is no part of the book which should be read and accepted with greater reserve and doubt as to possible misunderstanding. subject to this caution, i give the information as i have obtained it. i heard nothing to justify the idea of the mafulu people having any belief in a universal god or all father; but there is a general belief among them in a mysterious individual named _tsidibe_, who may be a man, or may be a spirit (they appear to be vague as to this), who has immense power, and who once passed through their country in a direction from east to west. wherever you may be, if you speak of this personage, and ask to be told in which direction he travelled, they always point out one which is from east to west. they believe that it was _tsidibe_ who taught them all their customs, including dancing and manufacture, and that he ultimately reached and remained in the land of the white man, where he is now living; and that the superior knowledge of the white man in manufacture, and especially in the making of clothes, has been acquired from him. the idea of his ultimate association with the white man can hardly, however, be a very ancient tradition. one of the fathers was seriously asked by a native whether he had ever seen _tsidibe_. they seem to think that he is essentially a beneficent being. they regret his having left their country; but they have no doubt as to this, and do not regard him as still continuing to exercise any influence over them and their affairs, have no ceremonies or observances with reference to him, and do not address to him any supplications. as traces of his passage through their country they will show you extraordinarily shaped rocks and stones, such as fragments which have fallen from above into the valley, and rocks and stones which have lodged in strange positions. but there are no ceremonies with reference to these and the natives have no fear of them, and indeed they will proudly point them out to you as evidences of this mysterious being having been in their country, and of his power. they would not hesitate to touch one of these stones, but they would never injure it. i learnt nothing about him which would justify me in suggesting that the mafulu people deified him as an ancestor, or even regarded him as being one, though some of the matters attributed to him are perhaps not dissimilar from those often attributed to deified ancestors. [ ] they certainly have a lively belief in ghosts of people who have lived and died, and in spirits which have never occupied human form, all of whom (ghosts and spirits) are evil disposed, and in sorcery. every human being, male and female, has during life a mysterious ghostly self, in addition to his bodily visible and conscious self; and this ghostly self will on his death survive him as a ghost. there appears to be no idea of this ghostly self leaving the body in times of sleeping or dreaming; though, if a man dreams of someone who is dead, he thinks that he has been visited by that person's ghost. at death the ghost leaves the body, and becomes, and remains, a malevolent being. there is no idea of re-incarnation, or of the ghost passing into any animal or plant, though, as will be seen hereafter, it sometimes apparently _becomes_ a plant; and there is no difference in their minds between the case of a person who has died naturally and one who has been killed in battle or otherwise, or between persons who have or have not been eaten, or who have or have not been buried, though in case of burial there are the methods of getting rid of the ghost; and there is no superstitious avoidance of graves or fear of mentioning a deceased person by name, and no superstition as to the shadows of living persons passing over graves and sacred places. except as above stated, i found no trace of any belief in a future state. when on the death of a man or woman or child, the ghostly self leaves the body, or at all events when the funeral pig-killing has been performed, the ghost goes away to the tops of the mountains, where apparently it exists as a ghost for ever. the shouting immediately after the death, and afterwards at the funeral, are steps towards driving it there; and the pig-killing ceremony completes the process. on reaching the mountains the ghost _becomes_ one of two things. the ghost of a young or grown-up person up to, say, forty or forty-five years of age becomes the shimmering light upon the ground and undergrowth, which occurs here and there where the dense forest of the mountains is penetrated by the sun's beams. it is apparently only the light which shimmers on the ground and undergrowth, and not that in the air. the ghost of an elderly person over forty or forty-five years of age becomes a large sort of fungus, which is indigenous to the mountains, where alone it is found. any native who on a hunting expedition or otherwise meets with a glade in which this shimmering light occurs will carefully pass round it, instead of going across it; and any native finding one of these fungi will neither eat nor touch, nor even tread upon it; though indeed, as regards the eating, i understand that this particular fungus is one of the poisonous non-edible forms. a native who, after the recent death of another, is travelling in the mountains, and there finds a young fungus of this species only just starting into growth, will think that it is probably the ghost of the recently departed one. as regards the use by me with reference to both sunbeams and fungi of the word "_becomes_" i recognise that it may justify much doubt and questioning. the idea of actually _becoming_ the flickering light or the fungus, as distinguished from that of entering into or haunting it, is a difficult one to grasp, especially as regards the flickering light. i tried to get to the bottom of this question when i was at mafulu; but the belief as to actual _becoming_ was insisted upon, and i could get no further. i cannot doubt, however, that there is much room for further investigation on the point, which is of a character concerning which misapprehension may well arise, especially in dealing with such simple and primitive people as are the mafulu natives. the foods of these ghosts in both their forms are the ghostly elements of the usual native vegetable foods (sweet potato, yam, taro, banana, and in fact every vegetable food) and the ghostly elements of the excrement of the still living natives; and the ghosts come down from the mountains to the villages and gardens to procure these foods. here again the difficulty as to meaning above referred to arises, as they can hardly imagine that the flickering lights cease to flicker in their mountain glades, or that the fungi cease to exist in their mountain habitats during these food-seeking incursions; and yet, unless this be so, the superstitious difficulty is increased. a ghost is also sometimes for some reason or other dissatisfied with his mountain abode; and he will then return to the village (not apparently in the visible form of a flickering light or a fungus). as the intentions of the ghost towards living humanity are always evil, his visits, whether for procuring food or in consequence of dissatisfaction with his habitat, are feared by the people; but i could not ascertain what was the nature of the injuries by the ghost to themselves of which they were afraid, nor could i hear of any actual instance of a disaster or misfortune which had been attributed to the machinations of such a ghost. when sleeping in their dark enclosed houses, however, the people fill up all openings by which the ghost might enter (this does not apply to the _emone_, the entrance openings of which are not closed at night; but perhaps the fact that a number of men are always sleeping together there gives them confidence); and when the mission station at mafulu was started the natives were amazed at the missionaries daring to sleep alone in rooms with open doors and windows, through which the ghosts might enter. having by the shouting prior to and at the dead man's funeral wholly or partially driven his ghost to the mountains, and in some way, as it would seem, further placated or influenced the ghost by the subsequent pig-killing over or by his grave at the funeral feast, there is no method of which i could gain information by which the people can actually keep him there, or prevent his periodic returns to the village and gardens for food, or his return from a mountain home with which he is dissatisfied; and there are apparently no prayers, incantations or other ceremonies for the purpose of placating, or intimidating, or in any way influencing the ghost. this statement is subject, however, to the existence of the practice of pig-killing at the various other ceremonies before described (always apparently done under or by or on the site of a chiefs grave), which is evidently superstitious in character, and must have reference to the ghosts of the departed chiefs and notables, being intended, or having originally been intended, to placate or influence them in some way or other; and especially it would seem that this must be so as regards the dipping of the mourner's string necklace in dead pigs' blood at the mourning-removal ceremony, and as regards the pig-killing at the big feast, at which the skulls and bones of all the then departed chiefs and notables are carefully collected, and made the objects of ceremonious dipping in blood, or touching with bones so dipped, and after which these skulls and bones may be thrown away, as not requiring further ceremony. and concerning all these ceremonies, if we bear in mind the special fear which many primitive people seem to have of the ghosts of their great men, as distinguished from those of the unimportant ones, it seems, i think, to be natural that the graves and the skulls and bones of the great ones should be those which are specially dealt with, and the dealing with which may possibly, so far as the big feasts are concerned, have been the original purpose for which the feasts were held. the mental attitude and conduct of the people towards ghosts may have originated in some form of ancestor worship, but i found nothing now existing to indicate this; and in particular i could learn nothing of any recognition of, or ceremonial observances with reference to, the individual ghosts of known persons, as distinguished from the ghosts generally. i could find no direct information as to any belief in ghosts of animals or plants; but the fact that the living edible plants have a ghostly self, upon which the human ghosts feed, seems to involve the idea during the life of those plants; and in that case one sees no reason why the ghost of the plant should not survive the plant itself, just as the ghost of the living person survives him at his death. also the existence of a ghostly element in human excrement opens out a wide field of ghostly possibilities. spirits which have never been human beings are also malevolent; though when we come to the operations of magic men or sorcerers, and to incantations and the use of charms, the powers in connection with all of which appear to be ascribed to spirits, it will be noticed that these are by no means necessarily and invariably engaged or used for malevolent purposes. i was not able to obtain any satisfactory information as to these spirits, or their supposed attributes, nor, except as regards illness and death, as to the nature of, and ground for, the fears which the natives feel concerning them; indeed, this is a subject upon which most natives all over the world are inclined to be reticent, partly or largely from fear. even as regards the sacred places which these spirits are supposed to haunt, though the natives are not unwilling to pass them, and will mention the fact that they are sacred, they are unwilling to talk about them. my notes as to spirits, other than those in connection with sorcery producing illness and death, must therefore be practically confined to the sacred places haunted by the spirits, and the demeanour and acts of the natives with reference to, and when they pass, these places. speaking generally, any place which has something specially peculiar or unusual in its appearance is likely to be regarded as the abode of a spirit. a waterfall, or a deep still pool in the course of a river (but not the river itself), or a deep narrow rocky river ravine, or a strangely shaped rock come under this category. there are also certain trees and creepers which are regarded as implying the presence of a spirit in their vicinity, although that vicinity has in itself nothing unusual. i can, however, only give a few illustrative examples of this general idea. there are three special trees and two or three special creepers which imply the presence of a spirit. what the creepers are i could not ascertain; but the trees are a very large palm which grows on the mountains and not on the coast, a form of pine tree, [ ] and the _gabi_ fig-tree, used for burial of chiefs. [ ] it does not necessarily follow that every specimen of any one of these trees and creepers is spirit-haunted; but some are known to be so, and all are apparently so much under suspicion that, though the natives will speak of them and will pass them, they are afraid to cut them down. at the time when the path near the newly erected mission station at mafulu was being opened some of these creepers had to be cleared away, and the mission fathers had the utmost difficulty with the natives, only two or three of whom could be persuaded to help in the work, whilst the others stood aloof and afraid. in the same way, when the fathers wanted to cut down some of the special palms, only two natives were induced to help in this, and even they only did so on the condition that the fathers themselves made the first strokes; and the fathers were warned by the natives that evil would befall them. it was a curious coincidence that the father who did this tree-cutting, being then and having been for a long time past perfectly well in health, was that evening taken ill with a bad sore, which nearly necessitated his being carried down to the head mission station on the coast. there is a very common ceremony performed when natives, in travelling through the country, pass a spirit-haunted spot. the leader of the party turns round, and in a low voice tells the others that they are approaching the spot, whereupon they all become silent, though up to that point they have been chattering. the leader then takes a wisp of grass and ties it in a knot, and all the others do the same. they then walk on in silence for a period, which may be anything from five to fifteen minutes, after which, as they pass the spot, the leader turns round and throws his bunch of grass on the ground, and the others do the same. in this way they avert the danger and afterwards chatter as before. [ ] another somewhat similar ceremony commences, like the former one, with silence; but, instead of throwing grass down as they pass the haunted spot, the visible sign of which in this case is a hole in the ground, the leader stops and looks round at the others, and then presses the palm of his hand down into the interior of the hole, and the others do the same; and after this all is safe and well, as in the former case. in travelling through the country these holes with numerous impressions of hands in them are to be seen; and you may in one day's journey pass several of these signs of haunted places, of either or both sorts, within a comparatively short distance of one another. the hole in which the people put their hands may not have originally existed, and may have been produced by the oft-repeated pressure of hands on the ground as natives passed the haunted spot; but on this point i am unable to make any statement. nor have i been able to ascertain what the difference, if any, is, or has been, between the places where they put grass and those in which they merely press the hands. i found no evidence of any general idea of supernatural powers being possessed by natural inanimate objects, such as rivers or rocks; but, as already stated, fishers are in the habit of addressing the stream in supplication for fish, and it is possible there are other examples of the same sort of thing, which i did not discover. magic or sorcery, and those who practise it, and incantations and charms, and those who supply charms, are naturally associated with either ghosts or spirits, or both. among the mafulu people they are, i was assured, associated solely with spirits, and not with ghosts; and, though i have no confirmatory evidence of the accuracy of this statement, i can only in these notes assume that it is correct. it may well be, however, that in the minds of the people themselves the distinction between the ghost of a person who has lived and died and the spirit which has never lived in visible human form is not really quite clearly defined; or that powers which are now regarded by them as spirits have had an origin, possibly long ago, in what were then believed to be ghosts. i shall revert to this point at a later stage. sorcery. the mafulu magic men or sorcerers are different from those of the mekeo plains. there is not among the mafulu, as there is in mekeo, a large body of powerful professional sorcerers, who are a source of constant terror to the other people of their own villages, and are yet to a certain extent relied upon and desired by those people as a counterpoise to the powers of sorcerers of other villages; and a mafulu native, unless prevented by a fear of outside hostility in no way connected with the supernatural, will travel alone outside his own community in a way in which fear of the sorcerers would make a mekeo native unwilling to do so. the mafulu sorcerers are a somewhat less powerful people; but they claim, and are supposed to have, certain powers of divination, or actual causation, or both, of certain things. so far as i could learn, the sorcerer's supernatural powers would never be exercised in a hostile way against anyone of his own village, or indeed of his own clan, or even, as a rule, of his own community. apparently the sorcerer's victim is nearly always a member of some other community; and the sorcerers of a community do not appear to be in any way either feared or shunned by the members of that community. and, even as regards their acts of hostility against members of other communities, these do not seem to be performed to an extent in any way approaching what is found in mekeo. it seemed to me at first, as regards these sorcerers, that there was a confusion in the mafulu mind between divination and causation. the question as to this arose specially in connection with the ceremony for ascertaining whether a chief was or was not going to die. the people of a clan and the ailing chief certainly assume that the sorcerers who perform the ceremony under instructions, whether they be of the same community or of some other community, will by their magical powers merely divine the death or recovery of the chief; and the idea does not enter their heads that these sorcerers may actually cause the death. and yet they will accuse a hostile sorcerer of causing the death by an exactly similar ceremony, and will go to war over the matter. probably, however, it is rather a question of the sorcerer's assumed volition--that is, it is assumed that the friendly sorcerer does not want the chief to die, and the people rely upon him to confine himself to a divination ceremony, and not to engage in hostile sorcery; whereas a hostile sorcerer might do the latter. i may add that i was led to suspect that the burning test was regarded as being only a matter of divination, and that the causation, if it occurred, was effected by means of the previous incantation. there are also, besides the sorcerers, a number of specialists, who can hardly perhaps be called true sorcerers, but who have certain specific powers, or are acquainted with certain specific forms of incantation, and whose services are from time to time sought by the people. it is impossible for me to point to any definite line of demarcation between the true sorcerers and these smaller people; and it cannot be doubted that the powers of the latter, like those of the former, are, or have been, based upon the supernatural, even though they themselves do not claim to be and are not regarded as being magic men in the highest sense. i think i may regard them as being more or less the mafulu equivalents of the roro individuals whom dr. seligmann calls "departmental experts." [ ] dealing first with the true sorcerers, they undoubtedly include among their number the men who perform the special ceremonial already described for ascertaining whether a sick chief is or is not destined to die. they also seem to include the makers or providers of the various charms, including those which are carried in the little charm bags and the love charms used by young men, as already mentioned. there are also two other matters which are regarded as coming within the province of the true sorcerers, of which one relates to rain and the other relates to illness and death. i will deal with them separately. the rain sorcerer is apparently merely a diviner. dr. seligmann would perhaps include him among the departmental experts, but the fathers of the mission regard him as being a true sorcerer. he is the man to whom the people go in anticipation of a proposed important event, such as a big feast, or perhaps a fighting or large hunting expedition, to ascertain and inform them whether the period in which it is proposed that the event shall occur will be fine or wet; but he does not profess to be able to do more than this, and they never expect him to prevent or bring about the rain, or in any way hold him responsible for the weather as it may in fact eventually occur. the sorcery connected with illness and death is not so simple; and there is no doubt that it is not confined to powers of divination, but includes powers of actual causation. this department of sorcery obviously includes the ceremonial in connection with the supposed dying chief. but it is not confined to this ceremony, as it is generally believed by the mafulu people that sickness, which does not necessarily end in death, and death itself, can be, and commonly is, brought about by the operation of sorcerers in one way or another through the medium of certain things. the only things of this nature concerning which i was able to obtain information are ( ) the inedible part of some vegetable food which the victim has recently eaten (_e.g.,_ the outside part of a sweet potato or banana or the cane part of a sugar cane), and ( ) the victim's discharged excrement or urine. i found no trace of any use for purposes of sorcery of the edible remnants of the victim's food, nor (except as regards a woman's placenta, to which i shall refer presently) of any part of his body, such as his hair or nails; and, in fact, the free way in which the natives throw away their hair when cut is inconsistent with any belief as to its possible use against them. first, the inedible remnants of recently consumed vegetable food. the use of this as a medium for causing illness and death is apparently confined to the case of a victim who has passed the stage of very young childhood. why this is so i could not learn; though in point of fact a mere infant would hardly be eating such things as a regular practice. a man or woman, however, never carelessly throws aside his own food remnants of this character; and his reason for this is fear of sorcery. he carefully keeps them under his control until he can take them to a river, into which he throws them, after which they are harmless as a medium against him. the fear concerning these remains is that a sorcerer will use them for a ceremony somewhat similar to that described in connection with the death of a chief, but in a hostile way. no such precautions are taken with reference to similar food eaten by very young children. secondly, the discharged excrement and urine. this, for some reason, only applies to the case of an infant or quite young child. here again i could not learn the reason for the limitation; but it is confirmed by the fact that grown-up persons take no pains whatever to avoid the passing of these things into the possession of other people, whereas, as regards little children, the mothers or other persons having charge of them always take careful precautions. the mother picks up her little child's excrement, and wraps it in a leaf, and then either carefully hides it in a hole in the ground, or throws it into the river, or places it in a little raised-up nest-like receptacle, which is sometimes erected near the house for this purpose, and where also it is regarded as being safe. one of these receptacles, shaped like an inverted cone, is shown in plate , and a somewhat similar one is seen in plate . as regards the urine, she pours upon it, as it lies on the ground or on the house floor or platform, a little clean water which she obtains from any handy source, or sometimes from a little store which, when away from other water supply, she often carries about with her for the purpose. i could get no information as to the way in which the sorcerer would use the excrement or urine as a medium for hostile purposes; though there is apparently no process similar to that of the fire used in connection with the inedible food remnants of the adult. it will have been noticed that the mode of rendering the inedible food remnants of a grown-up person immune from sorcery, and one of the methods of making the infants' excrement immune, is that of throwing them into the river; and even as regards infants' urine, which apparently is not, and as a rule hardly could be, actually thrown into the river, the protection is obtained by pouring water upon it. i think that the belief among the islands of the pacific in the power of water to protect against the machinations of spirits or ghosts is not confined to the mafulu natives, or indeed to those of new guinea. dr. codrington mentions its existence as regards human excrement in melanesia. [ ] i would also refer to a custom of the mafulu women after childbirth of throwing the placenta into the river, a practice which is similar to that of the koita women, who drop the placenta into the sea. [ ] probably these practices relating to placenta are also based upon some idea of protection from sorcerers and spirits, although i was informed that among the mafulu there is no superstitious fear connected with the matter now. if the custom is in fact superstitious in origin, the list of media for the use of sorcery already given by me requires enlarging. [ ] serious illness or death of either an adult or an infant, if not caused by visible accident, is by the mafulu, as by other natives, generally attributed, subject to limitations, to the sorcerers. the belief of the mafulu as to this arises if the victim, being an ordinary person, is comparatively young, or in the strength of life, say under forty or forty-five, or if the victim, being a chief or a member of a chief's family or a person of very high position, is even over that age, unless he is very old, and old age is recognised as the natural cause of his illness or death. if the belief arises that the calamity, especially that of death, has been brought about by spiritualistic influence, the family will probably go to some person who is believed to be in touch with spirits and able to designate the culprit. i cannot say whether or not the person so employed is regarded as being a sorcerer in the full sense of the word, or as merely one of the inferior types of magic men above referred to. probably he is only the latter, as i do not think there are any juvenile sorcerers among the mafulu, and this particular person may be quite a young boy; indeed, there is in a village near to the mafulu mission station a young boy who is supposed to have this power. as a matter of fact this boy is not quite right in his head; but this state of mind is not among the mafulu in any way a necessary, or indeed a usual, qualification for a sorcerer or magic man of any sort. the person appealed to will perhaps tell them who has done the deed, or will make some oracular statement which will lead to his identification. the culprit identified by him will in any case be a member of another clan, and most probably of another community. when he has been discovered, there will probably be a fight, in which the members of the victim's clan, or even, especially if the victim be a chief or big person, the whole of his community, will join the injured relatives, this question of suspected causing of death being, like that of non-repayment of the price paid for a runaway wife, one of the frequent causes of intercommunity fighting. reverting here to the matter of ghosts and spirits, one cannot help noting a similarity between, on the one hand, the ghostly element of living food plants and the ghostly element of human excrement, which constitute the food of the ghosts, and, on the other hand, the physical inedible remnants of food recently eaten by an adult victim and the physical excrement and urine of an infant victim, which are the media used for hostile sorcery through the power of spirits; though, as regards the latter, i have no evidence of a belief that the spirits eat them. i tried to get further into this matter, but was unable to do so. again one is struck by the fact that the special _gabi_ tree, which is the tree used for the interment of chiefs and notables, is one of the trees whose presence is regarded as indicating a place inhabited by spirits. these elements of similarity tend, i think, to suggest the possibility of some confusion in the native mind as to the difference between ghosts and spirits, or of some originally ghostly origin in what are now regarded as spirits. the class of magic men who are something less than sorcerers, and whose powers are perhaps confined to the knowledge of certain specific forms of incantation, would probably include the person who does the nose-boring, and perhaps the person who detects the causes of death above referred to. it would also, i think, include the men who ascertain the whereabouts of a stolen article and discover the thief, and who perform the ceremony in connection with hunting, and the persons who effect, or profess to effect, cures of a more or less superstitious nature, all of whom are probably not regarded as full sorcerers. the professional pig-killer is not, as such, either a sorcerer or a magic man in the minor sense; and, if there has originally been anything of a superstitious or magic character associated with him or his functions, i was unable to find any trace of it, except perhaps as regards the ceremony and incantation in connection with hunting, which apparently is commonly performed by him. charms. the mafulu people believe in charms. i have already referred to those used by young men desirous of marrying. but there are many other more important charms for various purposes, such as averting illness and death, success in hunting and fishing, and perhaps preservation in time of war. these charms may be stones, small pieces of different sorts of bark, flowers, or various kinds of poisons, though the poisons appear to be only used for averting illness and death. they are all procured from sorcerers, who may be of the same or of some other village, or of another community, and there are sorcerers who have specialities in certain sorts of charms. these charms are often carried inside the small charm bags already mentioned. omens. they believe in omens; but of these i was only able to hear of two examples--namely, flying foxes, [ ] and fireflies, the latter, though common in the plains, being rare on the mountains, and both of these are bad omens. any person or party starting off on a journey, or on a hunting or fishing expedition, and meeting either of these creatures would probably at once turn back; and i was told that even a full war party starting off on a punitive expedition would turn back, or at least halt for a time, if it met one or other of them. i cannot help thinking there must be some other omens, which i have failed to discover. general. referring generally to supplications, incantations, and acts of propitiation, the only examples of them which i was able to discover were the above-mentioned supplication to the river prior to fishing, which is apparently spoken by the fishers themselves, and not merely by a sorcerer or magic man, and the incantations in connection with nose-piercing, with hunting, with a dying chief, with the stone operation for stomach complaints, and with the plant remedies for wounds, and the acts of propitiation, if such they are, in connection with ceremonious pig-killing, and especially with the ceremonies performed at a big feast and at or following a funeral; and as regards the incantations i could learn nothing as to their nature, nor as to the specific spiritual powers for the influencing of which they are intended, nor the way in which those powers are moved by them. in fact, concerning the whole question of ghosts, spirits, sorcery, charms, omens and superstitions, i cannot imagine that i have accomplished more than the mere touching of the fringe of it; and i am sure that, when the mafulu people have got rather more into touch with civilisation, and become more accessible and communicative about these things, there will be much more to be learnt. it may perhaps be that some of the apparently superstitious acts are, like many such acts performed in england, based upon beliefs which have long since been forgotten, and have themselves become mere formalities, to which the natives do not attach serious superstitious importance; though their fear of ghosts and spirits is undoubtedly a very real and general one. there are no secret societies or mysteries, such as are met with in some of the solomon islands, and they have no superstition as to sneezing. taboo. the subject of taboo may perhaps be referred to under the present heading, for, though there appear to be no totemic taboos, and though i have no material showing that the mafulu taboos are based on superstitious ideas, it may, i imagine, be assumed that, while some of these taboos are possibly partly based on medical common sense, the element of superstition enters more or less into many of them. i have already referred to a few general restrictions connected with etiquette, and what i now propose to mention are food taboos. young men are not supposed to eat wild pig until they have married, but this is the only food restriction which is put upon them. [ ] a woman who is about to give birth to a child must eat no food whatever for a day or rather longer (never more than two days), before the child is born. i have already referred to the food taboo on persons undergoing the nose-piercing operation, and the optional food taboo to which the nearest relative of a deceased person may submit, in lieu of wearing the mourning string. there is also a general taboo against any food other than sweet potato and chewing of betel-nuts, with its condiments of lime and pepper, upon any male person who intends to take part, either as a dancer or singer, in any ceremonial dance. this latter term includes the dance at a big feast and the women's dance on the eve of it, but not the dancing during the six months' interval before it. it also includes the dance at any of the various minor ceremonies above described, and at a funeral ceremony. the period of restriction in the case of the big feast begins when the formal croton-leaf invitation has gone out to the guests, about a month before the date of the feast. in the case of a funeral it is necessarily only quite short, and in cases of other ceremonies it varies, being largely dependent on the length of period during which the approach of the ceremony is known. during the period of restriction the people avail themselves largely of the privilege of betel-chewing, and prior to a big feast their mouths get very red. in connection with personal ceremonies upon assumption of the perineal band, admission to the _emone_ (excepting, as regards this, the case of a child of very tender years), qualifying for drumming and dancing, devolution of chieftainship and nose-piercing, the person concerned, male or female, is under the same food restriction for a day prior to that of the ceremony, and as regards nose-piercing this taboo is prior to the actual piercing, and is quite distinct from the subsequent taboo already referred to. there does not appear to be any taboo connected with fishing, hunting or war. the observance of all these taboos is secured only by superstitious belief or public opinion, or both, there being no method of enforcing them by punishment or by any exercise of authority by the chiefs. chapter xix note on the kuni people father egedi, who has studied the kuni people, and has written a series of articles about them in numbers of _anthropos_, told me that he regarded them as being a cross between the papuan-speaking mafulu and the melanesian-speaking papuo-melanesians of mekeo and the adjoining coast. whether or not this is absolutely and strictly correct is a question upon which i will not venture to express an opinion. in general physique and appearance the kuni are distinctly and strongly of the type of the mafulu, whilst their language is melanesian; and, as regards other matters, they in some respects resemble and in other respects differ from the mafulu. as regards physique, father egedi distinguishes the kuni from the natives of the adjoining coast by their slighter development, slender limbs and darker colour of skin, in which respects they resemble the mafulu; but he regards them as being lower-statured than the tribes of the interior, which term includes the mafulu, [ ]with greater regularity of features, and of lighter colour, all of which tallies, i think, with my own observation of them. but the fact that they are shorter in stature than the mafulu, who are themselves shorter than the coast natives, is perhaps a matter for surprise, if they are a cross between the two. i have not measured any kuni heads; but i should be disposed from general observation to say that they are very similar to those of the mafulu, being predominantly mesaticephalic, with tendencies to brachycephalism. [ ] many of the lapeka people, who are kuni, but are on the borders of the upper mekeo district, seemed to me to have distinctly flattish faces, with remarkably delicately cut features--some of the women in particular being exceedingly pretty in profile--and very bright sparkling eyes. where these local characteristics came from i cannot say, as it could hardly be the result of an intermixture of mekeo blood. [ ] the oblique eye, which is occasionally found on the coast, [ ] but which i never saw in mafulu, is, according to father egedi, present, though only rare, among the kuni. his large amount of opportunity for observation, and his known care and ability in this respect, compel me to assume his accuracy; but i can say that i saw a good many of these eyes among them, and indeed once, having about twenty of these kuni people squatting in front of me, i observed that about half of them had distinctly oblique eyes. father egedi speaks of their hair as being "generally black, rarely bright, and more rarely chestnut"; and as to this, i would refer to the fact that the predominating colour of hair among the mafulu is dark or darkish brown, so that in this respect the kuni apparently tend more to the black-haired coast type of native than do the mafulu. concerning matters other than physique and language, as i only passed through the kuni district, and did not attempt serious ethnological investigation there, i can say but little beyond what i learn from father egedi's articles and a few other sources; and the material thus available only deals with a few questions. it would appear from father egedi's observations that the relationship between villages arising from the splitting up into two or more of an original family village is not so permanent as i believe it to be among the mafulu. dr. seligmann says [ ] that among the kuni father egedi "could find no trace of intermarrying groups, or groups of clans claiming common descent," which statement applies to my investigations among the mafulu. he further says [ ] that "the dilava folk" (dilava is a kuni village) "marry into all the surrounding villages; and when a death occurs it is the head of the family of the deceased who says when mourning shall cease"--statements of which the former, and i believe the latter, could hardly be correctly made concerning the mafulu. he also refers [ ] to kuni war chiefs, an office which does not exist among the mafulu, and apparently understands that the office of these war chiefs is non-hereditary, a statement which could not be made of any mafulu chief; and he refers [ ] to a funeral ceremony which is quite unknown in mafulu. but his statement [ ] that the _kufu_ (club-house) system seems less developed than in mekeo would apply very strongly to the mafulu. the kuni superstitious remedies for illnesses, as described by father egedi, are quite different from those of mafulu, and their food restrictions, as enumerated by him, are in some respects substantially distinct from those of the mafulu, though some of them are more or less similar. according to him kuni women, though they may not enter the village _kufu_ or club-house, are allowed upon its platform, which is not the case with the mafulu _emone_; and eldest sons of kuni influential people may not enter into the _kufu_ until their parents have given a specific feast, which custom is apparently not identical with that of the mafulu above described by me, and which applies to all sons of all members of the village, and not merely to those of influential people. the kuni houses differ from those of the mafulu, being more or less round or oval in apparent shape, even though the floor is rectangular. also according to father egedi, kuni _kufu_ are of several various sorts, and some of them are constructed in specific ways, and have specific carved and painted decorations, some of which are imitative of animals and objects held in veneration; and these different types of club-house, which include one used only by elderly bachelors and widowers, have specific names--all of which is quite different from what is found in mafulu. among these club-houses father egedi includes one built at feast times higher up the ridge, outside the village, for guests' accommodation, which, though apparently somewhat similar in purpose to the guests' houses at a mafulu feast, differs from them in form. indeed, as regards building construction, the only point of strong similarity between the kuni and the mafulu which i can trace is the long fireplace extending from front to back of the building, which with the kuni is apparently very like that of the mafulu. father egedi's statement as to kuni cannibalism, that speaking generally it appears to be confined to the bodies of people killed in war or in private vendetta, and that, though other cases are recorded, they are regarded as a violation of a custom and are detested, might be equally well said of the mafulu; though i did not actually hear of any known record there of the other cases mentioned. again his statement that the actual killer must not share in the feast holds good with the mafulu; but i believe that this idea exists elsewhere also. concerning the kuni implements i can only refer to dr. seligmann's statement, [ ] that they do not appear to use bows and shields--which, if correct, is a point of difference between them and the mafulu--and to a few other things referred to by father egedi in his articles. from his descriptions i should imagine that the kuni pig-bone implements and their bamboo cutting knives are similar, and that their wooden vegetable dishes are somewhat similar to those of the mafulu. but the kuni have cooking pots (which they get from the coast), and use forks and spoons and various other implements and utensils which are not found in mafulu, and their mode of producing fire is quite different from the mafulu mode. i recognise that the above comparative notes on kuni culture are only of a very fragmentary character; but father egedi expresses the general opinion that, though the language of the kuni people is melanesian, their habits and customs "may be considered as making one with those of the mafulu people." on the whole question of kuni relationship it can, i think, hardly be doubted that the kuni have some characteristics which are clearly those of the mafulu and other central mountain tribes, and others which are obviously those of the papuo-melanesians of the adjacent plains and the coast beyond; and the only question seems to be the nature and origin of the kuni relationship to these two types of people. it may be, as suggested by father egedi, that they are actually a cross between these two mixed types; or, if the suggestion in my concluding chapter as to the possible presence in these mafulu and other mountain people of negrito blood be correct, it may be that the kuni people are merely another result of the general negrito-papuo-melanesian intercrossing, in which the papuan and melanesian elements have been more predominant than they have been with the mafulu. chapter xx conclusion what is the origin of these mafulu people, with their short stature, small and somewhat rounded heads, slight but active build, sooty brown skin, and frizzly hair, predominantly brown in colour, and with their comparatively primitive ideas of organisation, and simple arts and crafts? the question is one of no mere local interest, as the answer to it will probably be the answer to a similar question concerning most, and perhaps all, of the other papuan-speaking people of the mountainous interior of the central district of british new guinea, and may even be a key to the past early history of the entire island. it has, i think, been hitherto believed that all these mountain people had a mixed papuan and melanesian ancestry; but it was impossible to be among them, as i was, for some time without being impressed by the difference in appearance between them and the people of the adjacent coast and plains, and suspecting that, though they had papuan and melanesian blood in their veins, there was also some third element there. and the name which obtruded itself upon my mind, whilst in mafulu, was negrito. the dark skin and the comparatively rounded heads, and, i think, some shortness of stature are found elsewhere in british new guinea; though shortness of stature and rounded heads are unusual, and, i believe, only local, and i do not know whether even the papuan skin is ever quite so dark as that of the mafulu people. but the almost universal shortness of stature, the comparatively slight, but strong and active, build and the brown colour of the hair seemed entirely different from anything that i had ever seen or read of as regards either the papuans or the melanesians; and all of these, coupled with the tendency to roundness of head, were consistent with a partial negrito ancestry. then on my return to england i learnt that dwarf people had been found by the recent expedition into dutch new guinea organised by the british ornithologists' union. dr. haddon has expressed the opinion that these dwarf people and some dwarf people previously found by dr. rudolph poch in german new guinea are all negritoes, or negritoes crossed with papuans. [ ] dr. keith, to whom i submitted all my notes upon the measurements and physique of the mafulu people, and who measured and examined the three skulls which i brought home, wrote to me as follows:-- "i have examined the observations you have made on the mafulu. from your paper one can form, for the first time, a picture of the physical characters of this tribe; but, when i proceed to assign the tribe to its proper race, i am at once met by difficulties. in my opinion the short stature, the pigmented skin, and the small heads inclined to brachycephaly indicate a strong negrito element, which we know is widely distributed in the far east, and certainly, as we should expect, occurs in certain districts of new guinea. in the three crania there were characters which one could assign to papuan, as well as to a melanesian stock.... a brown or reddish tinge is seen not infrequently in the hair of negritoes. you will see that i am inclined to look on the mafulu as showing a very considerable degree of negrito blood, and to regard the more primitive tribes of new guinea as being of this nature. if that were so, the mafulu might be regarded as belonging to the older population of new guinea, both papuan and melanesian having added something to their civilisation, as well as their physical characters." dr. keith then is inclined to agree with my suggestion concerning the origin of the mafulu; and dr. haddon, having seen my notes upon physique, said that he endorsed the views expressed by dr. keith. and if the view suggested be correct as regards the mafulu or fuyuge people, i am prepared to say that from what i have heard of the other mountain papuan-speaking people of that part of new guinea, including the oru lopiku (kovio), boboi and ambo people, i am convinced that it must be correct as regards them also, though the relative predominance of the three strains may well vary with these different people. i am hardly qualified to enter into the discussion as to the relationship, if any, existing between the principal hitherto known dwarf races, the pygmies of central africa, the semang of the malay peninsula, the andamanese and the aetas of the philippine islands, or to deal with the question whether or not all or some of them are to be grouped together as forming a distinct and related type, or are to be regarded as unconnected in the sense that each of them is merely a local variation, sharing a common ancestry with some other taller negroid race. as, however, my suggestion of a partial negrito origin of the mafulu people necessarily brings me into contact with this wider question, and the latter is still one upon which opinions differ, i may perhaps briefly tabulate some of the chief physical characters of the andamanese, the semang, the aetas, the dwarf people recently found in dutch new guinea and the mafulu. i think i may omit the african pygmies from my tables. _stature._ andamanese ' / '' this is the figure given by mr. portman (_journal of anthropological institute_, vol. , p. ) and by dr. haddon (_races of man and their distribution_, p. ), and is very near the ' / '' given by mr. man (_the andaman islanders_, p. ), and adopted by messrs. skeat and blagden (_pagan races of the malay peninsula_, p. ). semang ' / '' skeat and blagden (_pagan races_, &c., p. ) and haddon (races of man, &c., p. ). aetas ' '' this is dr. haddon's figure (_races of man, &c._, p. ), and it is within half an inch of the ' l / '' given by dr. semper (_journal of anthropology_ for october, , p. ). dr. meyer gives a number of varying measurements (see _journal of anthropological institute,_ vol. , p. ), and reed gives the average of males, some of whom were not pure types, only ' " (_negritos of zambales_, p. ). dutch new guinea dwarfs ' '' captain rawling (_geographical journal_, vol. , p. ). mafulu ' '' it is merely suggested by me that they are _partly_ negrito, which, if correct, would explain the somewhat higher stature. _general physique._ andamanese well proportioned, and with good muscular development (man, _journal of anthropological institute_, vol. , pp. and ). semang sturdily built (haddon, _races of man, &c._, p. ). aetas well formed and sprightly (earle, _papuans_, p. ), and with limbs which, corresponding to their stature, are uncommonly slender, but well formed (semper, _journal of anthropology_ for october, , p. ). well-built little men with broad chests, symmetrical limbs, and well-developed muscles (reed, _negritos of zambales,_ p. ). dutch new guinea dwarfs of sturdy build (rawling, _geographical journal_, vol. , p. ). mafulu fairly strong and muscular, but rather slender and slight in development. _cephalic index._ andamanese this is dr. haddon's figure (_races of man, &c._, p. ). messrs. skeat and blagden say they are decidedly brachycephalic (_pagan races, &c._, p. ). semang . dr. haddon's figure (_races of man, &c._, p. ). skeat and blagden describe them as brachycephalic to mesatecephalic (_pagan races, &c._, p. ). aetas dr. haddon's figure (_races of man, &c._, p. ). skeat and blagden describe them as decidedly brachycephalic (_pagan races, &c._, p. ). reed gives as the average (_negritos of zambales_, p. ). dutch new guinea dwarfs . this figure is calculated by me from the actual length and breadth given by captain rawling (_geographical journal_, vol. , p. ). mafulu _nasal index._ andamanese ? semang calculated by me from average of actual measurements of people given by skeat and blagden (_pagan races, &c._, p. ). aetas ? reed records highly varying indices, the bulk of which were hyperplatyrhine ( . - . ), and nearly all the others of which were ultraplatyrhine ( and over) (_negritos of zambales_, pp. , ). dutch new guinea dwarfs . calculated by me from captain rawling's actual figures. mafulu . _colour of skin._ descriptions of this are so general, and so much depends in each case upon the relative meanings attached by each writer to the terms used by him, that i prefer to depend as regards the andamanese, semang, and aetas upon dr. haddon's descriptions, which are doubtless based upon his comparison of those given in previous literature. andamanese very dark (_races of man, &c._, p. ). semang dark chocolate brown, approximating to black. (_ibid._). aetas dark sooty brown (_ibid._). dutch new guinea dwarfs brown (rawling, _geographical journal_, vol. , p. ). mafulu dark sooty brown. _texture of hair._ this is frizzly in all cases, as with other negroids, the word "woolly" often used being, i imagine, intended to imply frizzly. _colour of hair._ this being a point which seems to me to be rather interesting, i propose to quote various descriptions. andamanese varies from sooty black to dark brown, old gold, red and light brown; and, though these may be the colours of individual hairs, the general appearance is sooty black or yellowish-brown. portman (_history of our relations with the andamanese_, p. ). varies between black, greyish-black and sooty, the last perhaps predominating. man (_the andaman islanders_, p. ii). black, with a reddish tinge. haddon (_races of man, &c._, p. ). semang brownish-black, not a bluish-black like that of the malays. skeat and blagden (_pagan races, &c.,_ p. ). brownish-black. haddon (_races of man, &c.,_ p. ). aetas brown-black, shining. semper (_journal of anthropology_ for october, , p. ). rich dark brown. writer of article on semper's work (_id_.). varying from a dark seal-brown to black. meyer (_journal of anthropological institute_, vol. , p. ). dirty black colour, in some instances _sun-burned at top to_ a reddish-brown. [the italics are mine.] reed (_negritos of zambales_, p. ). black, sometimes tinged with red. haddon (_races of man_, &c., p. ). dutch new guinea dwarfs. black. rawling (_geographical journal_, vol. , p. ). the hair of some of the pygmies was decidedly _dark_ brown. statement made to me by mr. walter goodfellow. hair of men (out of ) distinctly not black, a sort of dirty rusty brown or rusty black colour; all others black-haired. extract supplied to me by dr. wollaston from his diary. mafulu. generally dark brown, often quite dark, approaching to black, and sometimes perhaps quite black. but frequently lighter, and often not what we in europe should call dark. i think that the above tables indicate that, though there are differences, there are elements of similarity between (i) the mafulu people, ( ) the dutch new guinea dwarfs, and ( ) one or more of the andamanese, semang and aetas; but in my comparison of the mafulu and the dwarfs of dutch new guinea with the other previously known dwarf races i would specially draw attention to their similarity in shortness of stature and (as regards most of the mafulu and a few of the dutch new guinea people) colour of hair; and this impels me to venture to say a few words on the larger question. i have searched through much existing literature concerning the various hitherto discovered dwarf races of the world with reference to the question whether, even assuming that these people have an original primary ancestry from which the taller negroid races also are descended, they must be regarded as having become a related type, separate and distinct from the latter, as now existing, or whether they must all be treated as merely separate local variations, each of them having failed to develop, or retrograded, and in other respects become different in type from taller negroid races among or near to whom they are found. and i am struck by the fact that, though the natural tendency to local variation in stature, shape of head, colour and other matters is brought forward in support of the latter theory, no one seems, in connection with the general question, to have noted the fact that, whilst the hair colour of negroes, papuans and melanesians is black, the hair of all these various dwarf people seems to be predominantly brown, and that this variation explanation, if regarded as applying to these dwarf races separately and independently of one another, involves a remarkable coinciding double variation (in stature and predominant colour of hair) exhibited by all these dwarf people as compared with the taller negroids. on the other hand, if there has been an original separation of descendants of common primary ancestors of all the negroid races, which, through variation, has resulted in two main types, one predominantly full-sized and always black-haired, and the other always short and predominantly brown-haired, and the pygmies (negritoes and negrilloes) are to be regarded as being all descendants of the latter type, who have since for some reason become geographically separated, there would appear to be nothing remarkable in the double variation. but in that case we are, i take it, justified in regarding the dwarf races as being a separate type, to be distinguished from the taller races; and, if that be so, there appears to be substantial ground for thinking that the dutch new guinea dwarf people and the mafulu people are in part descended from people of that type. i may also draw attention (for what they are worth as points of detail) to the facts already noted, that the semang and andamanese, who bury their ordinary folk under ground, adopt tree burial, and apparently, as regards the semang, platform burial not on trees also, as a more honourable method of disposing of the bodies of important people and chiefs; and that as regards these matters the mafulu custom is similar. also the very simple ideas of the mafulu, as compared with papuans and melanesians, in matters of social organization, implements, arts and crafts, religion and other things may well, i think, be associated with a primitive negrito origin. if the mafulu people may be properly regarded as having a negrito ancestry, distinct in type from that of either the papuans or the melanesians, the negrito element would presumably be the earlier one, papuan and melanesian infusion having occurred subsequently. indeed it may well be believed that the negrito element is derived from an original ancestry who were probably the earlier inhabitants of new guinea. chapter i a grammar of the fuyuge language translated and edited by _sidney h. ray_, m.a., from the manuscript of the _rev. father egedi_, s.c. phonology. i. alphabet. vowels: _a, e, i, o, u_. consonants: _k, g; t, d; p, b, f, v; m, n; r, l; s; y_. the vowels are pronounced as in italian, the consonants as in english. the sound of the italian _c_ is also found, but is rare. it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between _o_ and _u_. ex. _ombo(le)_ or _umbo(le)_, belly. _g, b_, and _d_, are often preceded by a nasal, sometimes constant (and then marked in the vocabulary), sometimes variable according to the pronunciation of individuals. for the nasals _m_ is employed before _p_ and _b_, and _n_ before other consonants. the _i_ and _y_ are very difficult to distinguish, especially when they follow one another. ex. _iye_ or _ye_, or _ie_, tree; _iangolo_ or _yangolo_, ear. father egidi wrote _j_ for _y_. the _l_ and _r_ are very difficult to determine. ex. _aliete_ or _ariete_, to salute; _naul'i_ and _naur'i_, my eye. in the vocabulary _l_ is used generally. the _s_ is often _ts_. ex. tsivu and sivu; su(le) and tsu(le grass. also in the future suffix _t_ or _ts_. ex. _nati_ or _natsi_, i will eat. ii. elision. a great number of fuyuge words terminate in an open syllable of which the vowel is generally _e_. this syllable is usually omitted at the end of a phrase, and nearly always when the following word commences with a consonant. but if the following word begins with a vowel the final _e_ only falls away. thus the complete form of a word is rarely used, except to avoid confusion, or for the sake of emphasis. the following are examples: _ovo(le),_ pig: _ovol' ovoge,_ boar, _ovo momombe,_ sow. _ifa(ne),_ beautiful: _ifa ta,_ very fine, _ifan' aka,_ less fine. _da(le),_ who? _nu da?_ who art thou? _dal' aua?_ who is this? _i(nde),_ to give: _ne i,_ give me, _ne ind' u,_ give it to me. _-a(le)_, with: _andal' a?_ with what? _indiv' al' ongai_, cut with the knife. _a(le),_ here: _a mo ma?_ must i put it here? _al' itatsi,_ he will sleep here. _u(ne),_ and: _kitoval' u kene,_ black parroquet and white, _amb' un' ale,_ banana and sugar cane. note ( ). the _b_ in an elision sometimes changes to _p._ ex. _obe,_ bud, _op'indie,_ to bud. ( ). sometimes two syllables are elided: ex. _taume, tame,_ from which comes _ovo ta,_ a tame pig, and _ovo taum' ifa,_ the tame pig is good. ( ). words which do not end in _e,_ rarely elide a final vowel, and never the last syllable. ex. _kuku,_ tobacco, _kuk' oko nei,_ give me a little tobacco; _na,_ i, _nu,_ thee, _ongo_ at the foot of, _na n' ong' ando,_ i am at thy feet; _umbubi, wash, umbub' u,_ wash him. ( ). some verbs in _-ri_ or _-li_ however often omit this syllable. ex. _ivo(ri)_ to wipe, _na ga kodig' ivo,_ i have wiped the plates; _tsimi(li),_ to lick, _ama tsimi,_ lick the salt; _itu(lili)_ to split, _ol' itu,_ split the wood. in the grammar and vocabulary the syllable which may be elided is enclosed in a bracket, and in compound words and phrases the elision is marked with an apostrophe, as in the preceding examples. iii. vowel changes. . a final _o_ sometimes changes to _u_ if the word following begins with a vowel. ex. _oko,_ some, a little, _kuk' oku ind' uno,_ give him some tobacco to smoke. . an initial _o,_ on the other hand, sometimes changes to _u_ when the preceding word begins with _a._ ex. _ongo,_ under; _na_ ungo ando, remain at my feet. . the final _a_ of the word _na,_ i, becomes _e_ when it is followed by the verb _indi_ in the imperative. ex. _ne i, ne inde,_ give me, but _nuga na indi,_ thou hast given me. nouns. i. gender. there is no modification or grammatical difference to mark gender. sex is indicated by separate words in the case of human beings: _an(e)_ man, _me(le)_ boy, _ena(ne)_ brother, _amu(le)_ woman, _ame(le)_ girl, _eta(de)_ sister. for mammals the words _avoge,_ male, or _momobe,_ female, follow the noun: _ovol' avoge,_ boar, _ovo' momobe,_ sow. dr. strong notes that the sex of birds is sometimes denoted by the adjective _ifa(ne),_ good, _i.e.,_ "ornamented," for the male bird, and _ifan' ul' amu,_ the "wife of the ornamented" for the female: _uruv' ifa,_ the male hornbill; _uruv' ifan ul' amu,_ the female hornbill. ii. number. only nouns indicating persons have been found with plurals. these are formed by changing the final _e_ to _i._ sometimes the _e_ is changed to _a;_ this may indicate the dual. ex. _amu(le)_ woman, plur. amuli and amula; _so(le),_ young man, plur. _soli_ and _sola; me(le),_ child, plur. _meli_ and _mela._ note ( ). the word _a(ne)_ man, has a double plural in two different meanings: _ani,_ the men; _ake(da)_ the married men. ( ). the shortened form of the word is often used in the plural. this naturally is the same as the singular. iii. case. . there is no modification of the noun to express case, but the equivalents of cases are shown by suffixes. the vocative alone often takes a final _a_ as in the interrogative form. ex. _tayova, a tsia!_ tayo, come here! the subject, direct object, and indirect object are however easily recognised by their position in the sentence. the subject comes first, followed by the direct object, then the indirect object if there be one, with the verb at the end. if there are complements they immediately precede the word which governs them. ex. _naga kuku nu inde,_ i tobacco to thee gave; _baiv' u mega nembe u fod' al' ema,_ baiva's child bird his bow-with killed; _nuni ake mu letsi gatsi,_ thou men their village-to will-go. . the genitive is expressed by means of the possessive adjective. ex. _ovo'u ma,_ hair of the pig, lit. pig his hair. . persons belonging to a place sometimes omit the adjective. ex. _a kotsi,_ a man of kotsi; _an'alol',_ a man of alole; _alol' amu,_ a woman of alole; _ambov'amu,_ a woman of ambove; _tseluku ul' akeda,_ men of tseluku. . position in a place, or motion to or from a place is shown in the following ways. when the noun has a shortened for _-tsi_ is suffixed. if there is no short form the final _e_ of the noun is changed to _i_ and _-tsi_ is added. ex. _nani etsi ando,_ i am in the house; _nuni bulitsi gatsi,_ thou wilt go to the garden; _naga mambutsi l'a tela,_ i have come here from mambo. note ( ). some proper names of places do not take the suffix _-tsi._ ex. _amul' alol' itatsi,_ the woman will sleep at alole. ( ). other proper names, especially those of mountains and the villages built on them, take the suffix _-tu_ (upon) instead of _-tsi._ ex. _falitu gatsi,_ i will go to faliba, lit. i will go upon faliba. iv. interrogative nouns. the noun in fuyuge has a special form to indicate the interrogative. if the noun ends in _e,_ this vowel is changed to _a._ if already ending in _a,_ the _a_ takes a strong accent. to any other vowel ending _a_ is added. ex. _ovo(le)_ pig: interrog. _ovola?_ is it a pig? _bulomakao,_ cow, &c.: interrog. _bulomakaoa?_ is it a cow? _kuku,_ tobacco: interrog. _kukua?_ is it tobacco? _kupa,_ sweet potato: interrog. _kupa?_ is it a sweet potato? v. demonstrative nouns. these are similar to the interrogative nouns and are formed by the addition of the syllables _-aua, -ana,_ or _-ala_ instead of _a._ this form is both affirmative and interrogative. ex. _oyand' aua?_ is it a flower? or, it is a flower. _tayov' aua,_ it is tayo; _kuku aua,_ it is tobacco; _an' ala,_ it is a man; _ambov' ana,_ it is ambo. adjectives. i. adjectives have no gender. in the expression of case, interrogative and demonstrative forms they are the same as nouns. ex. _a baibe, amu baibe,_ man tall, woman tall; _uli baibitsi mau,_ pot big-in put it, put it in the big pot; _ifana?_ is it good? _ifan' ala,_ it is good. ii. adjectives of quality. . number. number is expressed as with nouns by changing _e_ to _i._ some adjectives in _-a_ add _i._ there are no adjectives with the plural in _-a._ some adjectives in _-a(ne)_ have the plural _-ai._ ex. _kakava(ne)_ strong, plur. _kakavani; safa(le),_ plur. _safa(li); isosonga,_ idle, plur. _isosongai; aka(ne)_ small, plur. _akai._ . agreement. the adjective always follows the noun which it qualifies, and takes the suffix of the noun. ex. _a sesada,_ fence long; _emo gai,_ house old; _kodige kisiakatsi,_ plate little-in: _indiv' amoja(le)_ knife blunt-with; _koua baibitu,_ box big-on. sometimes the pronoun _u(ne),_ his, is placed between the noun and the adjective. the meaning of this is uncertain, but it appears to be more emphatic, as _e.g._ "the road which is good," "the house which is bad." ex, _enamb' un' ifa,_ the good road, _em' u koi,_ the bad house. the adjective used as predicate immediately follows the noun, without a substantive verb. ex. _an' ala gududuba,_ that man (is) stingy; _nuni sesada,_ thou (art) tall; _amu safali,_ the women (are) weak. note.--when the subject is represented by a pronoun of the first or second person dual or plural, the predicate remains singular. ex. _dini kakava(ne)_ we (are) strong; _yani kapape,_ you two (are) weak; but, _muni isosongai,_ they (are) idle. when the predicate expresses a negation the word expressing the quality is followed by the adverb _ua(ne)_ not. ex. _sesad' ua, onov' aka,_ it is not long, it is short. . comparison. there is no special form for comparisons. two positive statements are made, or a superlative may be used. ex. my house is larger than yours may be translated: _naul' e baibe, nul' a kisiaka,_ my house is large, yours is small, or _nul'e baibe, naul'a baibe ta,_ your house is large, mine is large much. equality is expressed by the suffix _-umba_ or _-yakala._ ex. _naul' e, nul' em' umba,_ my house is like your house; _nuni sesada, nauyekala,_ you are tall like me. a superlative is expressed by the prefix _ande,_ or the suffix _-ta._ but if the adjective in the superlative expresses a lessening of the quality then _-aka(ne)_ is suffixed. ex. _baibe,_ large, _ande baibe,_ larger; _ifa,_ fine, _ifata,_ finer; but _ono(ve),_ short, _onov'aka,_ shorter. the prefix _ande_ is used only with adjectives which express an idea of extension. when the adjective expresses an actual state rather than a passive, it is preceded by the sign of past tense, the particle _ga._ ex. _ant g'ifa,_ the breeches are (have become) good; _ena ga ko,_ the road (is) bad. iii. demonstrative adjectives. the demonstrative adjectives in fuyuge are represented by the suffixes -_ana_, this, -_ala_, this, here, -_vala_ that, there. the same expressions translate the french "le voici," "le voilà." ex. _indiv'ana_, this knife; _eni'ala_, this house; _enavala_, that road. there is no article, but the expression _u mane_ is used in reference to any thing which has been previously spoken about. ex. _enamb' ifa_, or _enamb' un' ifa_, it (is) a good road; but _enamb u man' ifa_, the road (which has been mentioned) is good. iv. interrogative adjectives. for these. _see_ pronouns. v. indefinite adjectives. the indefinite adjectives are _oko_, some, a little, part of; _tale(le)_, several, many; _korio_, several; _gegeto_, a few, several; _alu(ve)_, all; _urambe_, another; _none_, together, one with the other; _dovavemunge_? _domamai_? how many? note.--when _oko_ is followed by a word beginning with _i_, it becomes _oku_. ex. _kuku oko nei_, give me some tobacco; _nemb' oko ematsi_, they will spear the birds; _bodol' oko tsia_, take one of his hands; _indiv' oko ya_, take a knife; _kuk oko ua_, (there is) no tobacco; _indiv' oku i_, give him a knife; _ake talel' ando_, there are many men; _kupa korio inde_, give several potatoes; _me' gegeto indiatsi_, some children will come; _aked' aluvi etsi ando_, all the men are in the village; _nau mel' alu_, all my children; _indiv' urambe ya_, take another knife; _pitsoke non' ade_, the pitsoke strike one another; _oye non' ongete_, the dogs keep beside each other; _kokol' ul' ombo dovavemunge?_ how many eggs? _nu sise domamai?_ how many dog's teeth? vi. possessive adjectives. _see_ possessive pronouns. numerals. i. there are only two numerals: _fida (ne)_, one, and _gegeto_, two. _gegeto_ is also used for a small number, and _gegetom'inda_, is little used for three. for more than three, _gegeto_, meaning "a few," or _tale(le)_, "many" is used. ii. there are no ordinals and the only distributive is _fida fida_, one by one. pronouns. i. personal pronouns. simple. singular. lst person _na, nave, nani,_ i, me nd person _nu, nove, nuni,_ thou, thee rd person _u(ne), ove, uni,_ he, she, it, him, her dual. lst person _da, dani,_ we, or us two nd person _ya, yani,_ you two rd person _tu, tuni,_ they, or them two plural. st person _di, dini,_ we, us nd person _yi yini,_ you rd person _mu, muni,_ they, them . the first form _na, nu, u(ne)_ etc., is used either as subject or object of the verb, the meaning being only indicated by the position of the word. ex. _na kuku nu inditsi,_ i will give thee tobacco; _na un' adatsi,_ i will strike him; _ya di ong' ando,_ you two are beside us. when used before the imperative of the verb _indi,_ to give, _na_ becomes _ne._ ex. _ne i, ne inde,_ give me. . the forms _nave_ and _ove_ are rarely used. the commonest use is with the words _ete,_ to say, _ende,_ also. ex. _nav' elete,_ i said; _ov' elete,_ he said; _nav' ende, nov' ende, ov' ende,_ i also, thou also, he also. . the forms _nani, nuni,_ etc., are employed when the verb is understood, or to indicate opposition or emphasis. ex. _da gatsi? dini;_ who will go? we (will); _nuni kakape ta, nani kakava,_ you are weak, but i am strong; _nani a baibe,_ i am a great man. . the dual is generally observed by the natives. adjectives used with the dual pronoun take the singular form. ex. _dani sosonga,_ we (are) idle, . the dual is often employed with two subjects one of which is plural. ex. _kakao tu, tsimani u g'anga_, kakao they two, with the policemen, have started. when _dani_ is used alone it is generally inclusive of the person addressed, and means "i and thou." if the third person is intended the name is used: _dani okomi' u da gatsi_, we two okomi with we will go. _yani_ is used in a similar way, when one of the persons referred to is not present: _ya, dun'u yani natsi_, you two dune with you will go. the use of the conjunction _u(ne)_ with the second member of the subject does not appear to be constant. . the pronoun of the third person singular _u(ne)_ when it is the direct object of the verb usually follows, and often takes the form -_unde_. ex. _kodigitsi mau_, put it in the dish; _nag' al' unde_, i have seen him. ii. personal pronouns. compound. from the pronouns _na, nu_, etc., are derived by means of the suffix -_muku_, alone, the forms _namuku, numuku_, etc., with the meanings, "i alone, without company," etc. the suffix -_mule_, is equivalent to self, _namule, numule_, etc., myself, thyself, etc. from _nani, nuni_, etc., come the forms: _naniende_, or _nanienge_, etc., meaning myself in person, etc.; _nanieke, nunieke_, etc., from -_eke_, alone; _naniova_, etc., it is my business, _nanibila_, i by myself, without help. _nani endebila_ is more emphatic than _nanibila_. ex. _numuku andola_? art thou quite alone? _da gatsi? uniende_; who will go? he himself; _nu da? nanienge_; who art thou? it is myself; _amed' unieke ando_, the chief is alone; _ake muniova_, it is the men's business; _dinieke al' andetsi_, we will stay here alone; _isong' unibila_, his own rainbow appears. iii. possessive pronouns. . these are formed from the simple forms of the personal pronouns by suffixing -_ula(ne)_ literally "his thing." singular. dual. plural. . _naula(ne)_ . _daula(ne)_ . _diula(ne)_ . _nula(ne)_ . _yaula(ne)_ . _yula(ne)_ . _ula(ne)_ . _tula(le)_ . _mula(ne)_ they translate the english mine, thine, etc. sometimes in compounds the final _n_ becomes _nd_. ex. _nauland' aua_, here is mine. . the adjectival forms appear without the syllable _la_. singular. dual. plural. . _nau_(_le_) . _dau_(_le_) . _diu_(_le_) . _nu_(_le_) . _yau_(_le_) . _yu_(_le_) . _u_(_le_) . _tu_(_le_) . _mu_(_le_) these adjectives precede the noun which they govern. with personal nouns the forms _naula_, etc., are sometimes used. ex. _nau me_ and _naula me_, my son; _diu vase_ and _diula vase_, our guest. note.--the form _nulu_ is heard in the phrase _nulu babe_, thy father. the suffix _mule_ is also used in the sense of "own." ex. _numul' ul' i to, n' alo_, your own name, which i know; _namul' ul i_, my own name. these suggest that the true possessive is simply _ul_(_e_) or _ula_(_ne_). iv. interrogative pronouns. . these are: _da_(_le_)? _dau_(_ne_)? who, which? _anda_(_le_)? what? _unau_? which? they are used also as adjectives. ex. _nu da_? who art thou? _dau ga ne_? who has eaten it? _anda l' elete_? what did he say? _ivi: unau_? ivi: which one? . when the verb is preceded by the particle _ga_, _dau_(_ne_) must be used instead of _da_(_le_). v. indefinite pronouns. these are the same as the indefinite adjectives. vi. relative pronouns. the suffix _niu_(_ne_) or _u_(_ne_) takes the place of a relative pronoun. ex. _a yaigegemune_, the man who descends; _audati itedemu bulitsi jalo tolom elota_, in the garden which they are cutting now when the food is ripe; _ovo jamun' imbade_, the meat taken from the pig; _fal' itamun' akeda_, the men who have dug the ground. verbs. i. conjugation. the fuyuge verb is conjugated by modifications of the terminal syllables, or by a particle added to the subject. ii. the particle, ga. the particle _ga_ (often _g'_ before a vowel) is generally used with the past tense, and is rarely absent in the positive form of the verb. but it may be used also with the present and future. with the present it seems to indicate reference to a preceding action in the sense of "being on the point of," "ready to." with the future it has almost the sense of "go." ex. _ake ga nembe na,_ the men have eaten the bird; _amu g'anga_ the women are gone; _naga bulitsi gatsi,_ i am going to go away to the garden; _naga sue,_ i am going away. note ( ). _ga_ always immediately follows the subject, except with the past of the verb _ange(ge),_ to go, which always has _g'anga._ ( ). when the subject is not a pronoun, the pronoun of the rd pers. sing. is often expressed. ( ). _ga_ never appears to be used in a negative expression. ex. _naga ipitsial' uruv' ema,_ i have killed with the gun a toucan; _mel ul' etsi g'anga,_ the child to his village has gone; _okom' ug' nemb' ema,_ okome has killed a bird; _ake kupa me na,_ the men have not eaten the potatoes. iii. person and number. these are not expressed by the verb in fuyuge. iv. tense and mode. . there are three principal tenses, present, past and future. the present is found in the indicative and imperative modes, the past in the indicative only, and the future in the indicative and subjunctive. besides these, there is a method of expressing the infinitive, a passive participle, and two forms of verbal adjectives. . _paradigm of tenses and modes._ ememe, umbubi, isiei, pierce wash follow indicative present ememe umbubi isiei indicative past ( ) ema(me) umbubi(ne) isia indicative past ( ) emo(ne) indicative future ematsi(me) umbubitsi(me) isiatsi imperative ( ) ema umbubi isia imperative ( ) emau umbubu subjunctive ( ) emo(le) umbubi(ne) isio(me) subjunctive ( ) emo(me) infinitive ema(me) umbubi(me) isie(me) past participle emam(ane) umbubim(ane) verbal adjective ( ) emabul(ane) umbubibul(ane) verbal adjective ( ) ememond(ana) if the imperative be regarded as the stem, there appear to be three conjugations, but dr. strong gives four based on past tense, thus: i. verbs with monosyllabic roots, . verbs with roots in _a_, . verbs with roots in _i_, . verbs with roots in _e_. his examples are:-- . . . . nen, itede, ongai, bole, eat cut break leave present nene itede ongai bolo past na ita ongai bole future natsi itatsi ongaitsi bolatsi imperative nu ito ongai bo(le) subjunctive no ito ongai bolo infinitive namubabe itamubabe ongaimubabe bolamane past participle namane itaname ongaimane bolamane adjectival nab'ula(ne) itedondona ongaibula(ne) bolabula(ne) . _notes on the foregoing paradigms._ _a._ indicative present. most verbs double the last syllable of the stem, which in the first conjugation always ends in _e_. there are, however, some exceptions, especially among verbs in _i_, and those which have a verbal suffix. the syllable _-te_ when doubled is always _-tede_. ex. _nag alili_, i see; _nani e gadi_, i build (tie up) the house; _nani okid' atede_, i light the fire. _b._ indicative past. the difference between the two forms, both of which are preceded by the particle _ga_, is not yet clearly made out. the ending _e_ seems to refer to the time when the action finished, whilst _-a_ has a more general signification. ex. _naga ne_, i have eaten, _naga kupa na_, i ate the potatoes. there is another form which replaces the final syllable of the present tense by _-ua_. verbs in _-i_ add _-ua_ to the final syllable. but it is uncertain whether this expresses the near past, or includes an idea of movement. ex. _na bul' elelua_, i have just worked in the garden; _nu a gadi ua_, you have just tied up the fence. _c_. indicative future. if the syllables preceding the suffix _-tsi_ also contain _-tsi-ti_. in monosyllabic verbs especially, a second form of the future is often found, which retains the doubling of the present tense. ex. _etsiati_, will come; _nenetsi_, will eat; _yeyetsi_, will take. for _ga_ with the future, see below. _d_. imperative. the first form of the imperative has less force than the second. in the first conjugation the second form always terminates in _-au_, even when the first form is irregular. the last syllable of the imperative is often lost, especially when the ending is _-li_. ex. _aitodede_, runs, imperat. _aitode_ and _aitodau_; _itulili_, ward off, imperat. _itu_; _bole_, leaves, imperat. _bole_, _bo_, and _bolau_; _ameme_, puts, imperat. _a_ and _ama_. the imperative is only used for the second person. in the first and third (sometimes even in the second) it is replaced by the subjunctive. ex. _di ango_, let us go; _to n'alo_, speak, that i may know; _go di go_, go that we may go. _e_. subjunctive. the two forms of the subjunctive are distinguished only in composition, and have not yet been clearly understood. the last syllable besides is rarely heard except in questions, and refers then to the interrogative form. the subjunctive without a conjunction is used in simple phrases consisting only of subject and object. ex. _kuku gadi, di no_, roll the tobacco (make cigarette), that we may smoke (eat). _f_. infinitive. the forms given as infinitive are uncertain. they may be verbal nouns. they are used in phrases such as: _nam' u babe_, father of eating, for 'a great eater': _tsimilim' u babe_, father of licking, cf. _andaval' u babe_, father of crying, one who causes crying. _g_. past participle. this does not easily lose the final syllable when it ends a sentence. in other cases, when it is followed by the word it qualifies it loses _-ane_, if the qualified word begins with a vowel, and _-ne_ in other cases. ex. _iy' ongaimane_, the cut tree, _indiv' ongaima ya_, or _ongaim' indi' ya_, take the broken knife, _g'usangaman' ul' ande_, the thing of death. the past participle of some verbs has not yet been ascertained. _h_. verbal adjectives. the exact difference between the two forms is not accurately ascertained. the first seems to indicate an instrument, and is equivalent to the phrase "used for," the second appears to indicate habitual rather than momentary use. when qualifying persons _-onde_ is used for _-ondana_. ex. _indi kupa fifitabula_, knife for scraping potatoes; _ai safatsilibula_, a yam which has rotted; _kulule iy' adedondona_, a hammer for striking wood; _nuni oyatonde_, you are only joking; _nani falawa me nonde_, i don't eat bread. in composition _-ande_, or at least _-nde_, is lost when the word qualified follows. ex. _ai filibulanda_, a yam for planting, _filibula' ai ne i_, give me the yam for planting; _ambe nenondana_, the eatable banana, _nenond' ambe ya_, take the eatable banana. v. negation. the negative of the verb is formed by the particle _me_ or _mi_ preceding. in the imperative it also precedes, but when emphasis is laid upon the negation _mi_ follows. the difference between _me_ and _mi_ is not clear, but _me_ appears to be used only before verbs beginning with a consonant, and _mi_ with other verbs. a negative participle or infinitive does not appear. for the verbal adjective the suffix _-ua(ne)_ is used. ex. _na mi alele_, i do not understand; _nani matsine mi engatsi_, i will not put on the (shell) bracelet; _mi unde_, do not fear; _kolose mi_, do not play; _me ya_, do not take; _nenond' an' ua_, what is not eaten. vi. interrogative. the interrogative is only employed with reference to the verb itself, not to the complements. it changes with the conjugation and varies for present, past and future tense. present. past . past . future . future . ememoma? emama? emena? emolà? emómà? umbubima? umbibia? umbubina? umbubila? umbubima? the present in the first conjugation keeps the reduplication of the stem, and changes the final _e_ to _-oma_. the second conjugation simply adds _-ma_. the interrogative in the past simply changes the _e_ of the positive indicative to _a_ in both forms. the future is formed in the same way from the subjunctive with a stress upon the final _a_ in the first conjugation. ex. _nuga malele yera?_ have you taken the book? _uga nemb' emama?_ has he killed the bird? _nu aiti golà?_ would you start to-morrow? _kupa g'ilama?_ are the potatoes cooked? note ( ). the future interrogative replies to the question, "can i..."? or "should i..."? ( ). the interrogative of the near past (_cf.p._ , , _b_) is formed by substituting _-una_ for _-ua_. ex. _nug' em' aliluna?_ have you just come to see the village? ( ). the form of the second future as _umbibia_ is rarely heard, except with the verb _alili_, see, from which comes _'aria?_ see? ( ). the negative interrogative is formed like the simple negative by _me_ or _mi_ preceding the verb. the questions "what should i do?" "what should i say," how should i begin it?" are translated by the expression _do(le)... maiti_, from _do(le)?_ where? ex. _dotamaiti?_ how should i say? _dol' imaiti?_ what should i do? _do yela maiti?_ how shall i call? vii. substantive verb. . in the present tense there is no substantive verb. the predicate and subject are combined as in the examples already given (cf. p. , ). but when the present indicates a state in opposition to one preceding it, _ga_ is used before the adjective, or if in opposition to a future state, the verb _ando_ follows. ex. _kuku ga ko_, the tobacco is bad; _balava ga ua_, the bread is finished; _indi ga kouatu_, the knife is on the box; _ambe g'ifa_, the banana is good; _ambe gos' ando_, the banana is (still) green (not ripe). the past is more difficult to express. it always requires an adverb of time. ex. _mele maleke ifa, audati ga ko_, the child formerly was good, now he is bad. . for other tenses the verb is translated only by the auxiliaries _-elele_ and _-angege_, for which cf. p. , . viii. auxiliary verbs. . the particle _ga_ may be used to make any expression whatever attributive. ex. _yu g'ua_, the water is finished (_i.e_., is not); _malele ga kouatsi_, the book is in the box. in such examples there is almost the sense of a past action, as if it were "the water (has become) nothing," "the book has been put (is already in) the box." . the verbs _ete, tede_, to say, or to do, and _elele_, to become, are often used to form a noun stem into a verb. _ete_ and _tede_ give the sense of _sounding_, _elele_ gives the sense of _using_ whatever the noun expresses. ex. _fioli_, flute, _fioliete_, to play the flute. _yuve_, water, _yuv' elele_, to bathe. _ule_, thunder, _ulonete_, to thunder. _ivule_, dye, _ivul' elele_, to paint one's self. _andavale_, crying, _andav' ete_, to weep. _bule_, earth, _bul' elele_, to cultivate. . the tenses, etc., of these verbs are found as follows: pres. indic. ete or tede. elele. imperative. ta. elau, ele, e. past indic. te(ne). elame. subjunctive. to(me), to(le). elo(me), elo(le). past indic. ta(me). elene. infinitive. ta(me). ela(me). future indic. tatsi(me). elatsi(me). verbal adj. tond(ana). ? . the negative is formed regularly by _mi_. ex. _nani yu mi elatsi_, i shall not bathe; _degu mi e_, don't get dirty. . the interrogative is regular. pres. or past, _tena?_ or _tama? elena?_ or _elama?_ fut. _toma?_ and _tola? eloma?_ and _elola?_ . the auxiliaries _ete, tede, elele_, should be distinguished from the regular verb, _tede_ or _ta_, to make. the latter is a distinct verb used when the result of the action is to produce a new thing. ex. _sambari tatsi_, will make a wall; _ombo tatsi_, will make a sieve. . the verbs _elele_ and _angege_, both meaning "to become," may be regarded as auxiliary verbs when they are used with adjectives, often taking the place of a substantive verb. in this use _elele_ is never, and _angege_ very rarely used in the past tense, the particle _ga_ taking their place. both are regular except in the imperative, which has respectively _ela_ and _elau_, _ange_ and _angau_. ex. _ifan' eloma?_ will he become handsome? _ifa mi elatsi?_ he will not be handsome? _indi g' ifa_, the knife is good; _yuv' uan angatsi_, the water will cease (become nothing); _mel g' us' anga_, or _me g' use_, the child is dead. ix. verbal suffixes. . the suffix _-i_, added to a noun stem, forms generally a neuter verb. ex. _abe_, work, _abi_, to work; _iso_(_ne_), smoke, _isoni_, to give forth smoke; _kese_, a clean vegetable, _kesi_, to clean vegetables. . the suffix _-tede_, added to a noun stem, forms usually an active verb. ex. _foye_, ashes, _foitede_, to cook in ashes; _gurube_, neck, _gurutede_, to hang at the neck. . the suffix of manner defining the verb, is formed by adding the adjective with the final syllable changed to _-i_. note ( ). the suffix of manner is always added to the infinitive form of the preceding verb. ( ). in the negative these compound verbs are considered a single word. ex. _te_, say, _ifane_, good, _tam' ifani_, to say well. _i_, do, _koye_, bad, _i'koi_, to do badly. _ilele_, cook, _akane_, small, _ilam'akani_, to half-cook. . the suffix _-matede_ appears to have a causative signification. ex. _ga koda_ (perhaps the past of _kodede_,) pierced, _komatede_, to pierce (of a man); _ga siuda_, extinguished, _siumatede_, to extinguish. note. this suffix appears in some examples as a separate verb in the same sense. ex. _yuv' olola mata_, warm up the water; _indi koi matatsi_, the knife will become bad. the negative is not known. . the suffixes _-meme_ and _-ngo_ are added to neuter verbs. the first has an active meaning, the second is passive. ex. _yu_, to be upright, _yuma_, to put upright, _yungo_, to be upright. _yari_(?), _yarima_, to hang, _yaringo_, to be hanging. note ( ). _meme_ is regularly conjugated; _-ngo_ is imperfectly known. ( ). negative forms are _me yumatsi_, will not place upright, _mi yaringo_, not hanging. . the auxiliary verbs, except _ga_, may perhaps be included among the suffixes (_see_ p. , viii.). x. verbal prefixes. the prefix _ya-_ renders a neuter verb active or causative. ex. _yaigege_, to go down, _yeyaigege_, to carry down. _faikadede_, to come back, _yefaika(dede)_, to give back. _yu_, to stand up, _yeyu_, to set up. xi. irregular verbs. . many verbs are irregular in the imperative. ex. _angege_, imperat. _ange_, go. _atede_, imperat. _ade_, kindle, burn. _ende_, imperat. _ende_, undo. _etsie_, imperat. _etsie_, come up (ladder). _faikadede_, imperat. _faika(dede)_, go back. _idede_, imperat. _de_, gather, pluck. _isie_, imperat. _isia_, follow; _itede_, imperat. _ide_, sting, bite. _itulili_, imperat. _itu(li)_, split. _ivori_, imperat. _ivo(ri)_, wipe. _kosisi_, imperat. _kose_, turn. _telele_, imperat. _te(le)_, come. _yelele_, imperat. _ye(le)_, call. . other irregular verbs are the following. only those forms known are entered. _aitodede_, to run: imperat. _attode_, infin. _aitode(me)_. _ando_ and _ande_, to be there: fut. _andetsi_, imperat. _ande_, subj. _ando_, and _ande_. _bole_, to leave: past, _bo(le)_, imperat. _bo(le)_. _ete_, to tell: past, _ete_ and _elete_, imperat. _eta_ and _ta_. _faduatsiete_, to ache (head): fut. _faduatatsi_. _iei_, to throw: fut. _iatsi_, imperat. _ia_. _indi_, to give;, imperat. _i(nde)_, subj. _i(ndi)_. _ingale_, to carry (on shoulder): past, _ingala_ and _inge_, imperat. _inga_, subj. _ingo_. _itede_ and _ito_, to lay down: past, _ito_ and _ita_, near past, _itova_, imperat. _ito_. _songe_, to go: pres. and past, _se_, near past, _sova_, imperat. _so(nge)_, subj. _so_, interrog. _sona?_ _sue_, to walk, go: pres. _sue_, fut. _susuetsi_. _utsisi_, to draw: fut. _utsist_, imperat. _ude_. note ( ). the verbs _ando_ and _ito_ are not yet accurately understood. ( ). the verb _ete_ has a double conjugation, the initial _e_ being retained or omitted at will. the past _elete_ is used in reporting the words of another person. ( ). the verb _faduatsiete_ is a type of several verbs which end in _ete_, preceded by the syllable _tsi_. all these appear to lose _tsi_ in the future, although some have both forms. ex. _kiovatsiete_, to cry (of black parrot): fut. _kiovatatsi_ and _kiovatsitatsi_. _puatsiete_, to make a cracking noise: fut. _puatatsi_ and _puatsiatsi_. ( ). the verb _sue_ in the meaning "go away" always has _ga_. ex. _nu ga sua? na ga sua_, are you going away? i am going away. the verb _angege_, to go, in the past tense has the particle ga prefixed to the verb instead of suffixed to the pronoun. ex. _na nul etsi ganga_, i went to your village. xii. notes on some verbs. . _tede_ and _i_. there is a difference in the meaning of the verbs _tede_, (_ete_) and _i_, both used for "do" or "make." the first is used when the object by which one obtains the action is indicated, the second is used when the action only is expressed, and might then be translated by the phrase "to go to work, to set about." ex. _olon'ete_, to snore, make a sound with the _olo_(_ne_ hole, _i.e._, the nostrils, _ung'ul 'olo. na (melauk') i koitsi_, i shall do the thing wrong. . _gege, angege, engege, songe._ all of these have the general meaning of "go." their differences are not yet clearly understood. _engege_ appears to mean "go up." _songe_ is specially employed when the following phrase indicates a final proposition, or an answer to the questions "where do you come from?" or "where are you going?" ex. _nuni o' gega_, thou hast passed down there; _di engo_, let us go up; _na song' em' aritsi_, i am going to see the village; _nu do sona_? where have you been? (or, where do you come from?); _na bulitsi sova_, i have been in the garden (or, i have come from the garden). . _idede_. this verb has a general meaning besides the special one "to gather." ex. _fang' idede_, to set a trap; _di yu molots' idoma_? should we make a water-pipe? . _ameme_. this verb has the general meaning of passing, or making anything pass, through an opening. the object which has the opening does not take suffixes. ex. _kupa ulin' ama_, put the potatoes in the pot; _na ul' olol' amene_, i passed it through the hole; _iso nu emana? andavete_, does the smoke irritate you? you are weeping. adverbs. i. adverbs generally precede the verb which they modify. the exceptions are the interrogative na? (is it not so?) which always comes at the end of the sentence, and _-ta_ (at first), which follows the verb. ex. _aiti balava natsi_, to-morrow bread i shall eat; _aiti nu inditsi na_? to-morrow i will give it you, shall i not? _kuku neta_, i eat the tobacco at first. note.--this _ta_ appears to be almost a conjunction, and the phrase might be translated "when i shall have smoked (eaten) the tobacco." ii. adverbs of place. _do(le)?_ where. _a(le)_), here. _va(ie)_, there. _ombatsi_, underneath. _gisa(le)_, far. _ime(li)?_ far. _kugume_, near. _tsi_, inside. _val'enga_, outside. _tu_, on, over _ibe(le)_, down there. _o(me)_, up there. _yo(le)_, there above. iii. adverbs of time. the adverbs of time are not very definite. for example _audati_, "to-day, now," means also "in a few days" or "a few days ago." the latter meaning is also attributed to _arima_, and the former to _aiti_. _aida_? when? _vomarima_, day before yesterday. _arima_, yesterday. _male(ke)_, formerly. _malieke)_, formerly. _audali)_, to-day, now. _aiti(me)_, to-morrow. _vomaiti_, day after to-morrow. _talele_, often, for ever. _dedi_, just now, later (near). _ido(ve)_, not yet (with fut.) immediately. _ulsienga_, later on, in the future. _utsimata_, later on, in the future. _utsinenga_, later on, in the future. _kelavalage_, for a time. _-ta_, at first. _vo(ye_, again. iv. adverbs of quantity. _dovavemunge_? how much? how many? _domamai_? how much? how many? _avevemunge_, as much, so much, as many, so many. _tale(le)_, many. _apa(le)_, enough. _kisiaka_, few, little. _oko_, few, little. _-ta_, very. _ande_, very. _boboi_, entirely, quite. _gegeto_, few. note. when _apa_ is used with a numeral it precedes it. ex. _apa gegeto_, two are sufficient. v. adverbs of affirmation, negation and interrogation. _e_, yes. _akai(ge)_, truly. _g'akai_, truly. _me_! what! certainly! _ila_! i who knows? _ua(ne)_, not, no. _nà_? is it not (french, n'est ce pas?). _óuo_! not at all, by no means. _andal'ai(me)_? why? note. _me_, _óuo_, and _ila_ are almost interjections. vi. adverbs of manner and likeness. the adverbs of manner are often replaced by noun suffixes attached to the verb, with the final _i_. (see verbal suffixes, p. ). _unoi_, together. _akaumai(nge)_, further, beyond, besides. _uneke_, only. _ende_, also. _elele_, quickly. _dedi_, slowly _fidefide_, continually. _kela_, without reason, gratis. note. when _ende_ modifies a verb with subject in the third person, it is preceded by the pronoun _ove_. ex. _nau fud' ov' ende fufuli_, my bones (they) also ache. prepositions and postpositions. i. prepositions. only two prepositions are found in fuyuge. these are _ise_, near, and _ga_, by. ex. _aked' is' okid' ando_, the men are near the fire; _ganda_? _ga ma_! by what do you swear? by the thread. note. _ga_, in the sense of "by," is much used, and corresponds to a kind of oath. ii. postpositions. . all the postpositions are used as suffixes to the words which they govern. when the noun to which they are suffixed has a double form, the postposition is added to the short form. ex. _uli-tsi_ from _uli(ne)_ pot: _fatsi_ from _fa(le)_, ground. there are however some exceptions. . when the postposition begins with a consonant, the final _e_ of a noun changes to _i_. ex. _kodigi-tsi_ from _kodige_, plate; _bulitsi_ from _bule_, garden. . the postpositions are often used as nouns. ex. _balava u tsi ido asi_, the inside of the loaf is still raw. iii. list of postpositions. _-ai(me)_, because of, for: _ovol' aim' andavete_, i weep for the pig. _-a(le)_, with, by (instrumental): _isong' al' oki ya -andal' a? isong' ale_, take the fire with the tongs--with what? with the tongs; _amul' al' ul'ese_, the woman with her child; _uli sond' al' ale_, a pot with a handle. _-ala_, to, adherent to, along: _yo' ata yarima_, hang it on the rattan; _enamb' ata malele yatsi_, i will take it along the road. _-fendateme_, near (within bounds): _sivu alo fendatem' ando_, sivu is near alo. _-noi_, with (?): _yini danoi gatsi_, you will go with us two. _-ongo_, before, at the side of (with an idea of inferiority): _na nu ongo ando_, i am before thee (at thy service); _non' ongo_, one beside the other. _-enga_, from the side of, towards: _nani ambov'enga g'anga_, i have been (gone) towards ambove. _-kaine_, towards: _dedi yi kaine tsiati_, later on i will come towards you. _teti_, under: _sosoeteti ando_, he is under the bed. _tsi_, to (movement, and time, rest), at, at the place of (fr. chez): _nani etsi andota, u bulitsi g'anga_, i am in the house, he has gone into the garden; _naga mambutsil' a tela_, i am come here from mambo; _kouatsi ma_, put it in the box; _tutsi etsiati_, he will come in the night; _nu datsi sona_? who has he been with? _-tu_, upon (to or at places on mountains): _kulumitu, ma_, put it on the table; _falitu g'anga_, he is gone to faliba. note. _ale_ in the sense of "with" is used when the second substantive is considered as an accessory to the first. ex. _an' al amu_, a married man (man with a wife); _uli sondal' ale_, pot with a handle. there are not yet enough examples to distinguish the two forms. iv. prepositional phrases. _u mome_, above: _kurum' u mome yarime_, hang it over the table; _u bane_, behind; _mel' an' u ban' ando_, the child is behind the man; _ul' umbo(le)_, in the middle of; _veke ul' umbol' ando_, he is at vee. conjunctions. i. copulative. _-u(ne)_, and, with; _naga kitoval' u kene' ema_, i killed a black and white parrot. _une_ is generally only used to connect two nouns, and is placed between the two. but sometimes it comes after the second, especially when meaning "with," and the first noun is then followed by the personal pronoun. there are a few doubtful examples of _une_ joining two phrases: _ake tale mu, augustin' un' ando_, many men are with augustin. ii. adversative. _-ta_, yet, but: _nuni safa' ta nani kakava_, you are weak but i am strong. _ta_, meaning "but," precedes the phrase which it governs: _nuni natsi, ta nani fema_, you will eat, but i do not. iii. sequence. _-ta_, when (when a fact is accomplished, or will certainly happen), lest: _aked' indiota, dinoi gatsi_, when the men arrive, we will go together. _ta_ in this sense follows the verb, which is in the past if the action depends on the person who speaks or is spoken to, in other cases in the subjunctive: _kuku neta, etsi gatsi_, when i (or you) have eaten, i will (or you will) go to the village; _mulamula angetota, gadiu_, lest the medicine fall, tie it up. _-tamai_, when (uncertain event): _oki finolitamai, na natatsi_, when the fire blazes, warn me. _tamai_ always requires the subjunctive. _-mai_, if: _augusto bubulimai, dimuku e gaditsi_. if augusto delays, we ourselves will build the house. _-umba_, so, like: _an' umba ne i_, give me (one) like that. interjections. _mamu(la)_! admiration. _ile_! sadness. _fanimo(le)_, commiseration. _fanikoe_! commiseration. _-e_ (suffix), commiseration. _segoa_! joy at another's misfortune. _biu_! contempt. _alaila_! a command for silence. _faiamela_! expresses the recognition of an error. notes on dependent clauses. . a final proposition with the future is expressed in four ways. a. by the infinitive preceding the verb which it governs: _na nul' em' arim' an gatsi_, i will go to see thy village, lit, i thy village to-see will-go. b. by the simple future preceded by the verb: _na songe, tsekari aritsi_, i go, i shall see tseka. c. by the future preceding the verb: _ake mambutsi itatsi m' ando_, the men remain to sleep at mambo. d. by the suffix _-du(le]: pe' egidi yol' itadul andemai, puatsitatsi,_ if père egidi stays to sleep up there, he will fire a gun; _ake baidane (gatsi) ame boladu_, the men will go to baidane to leave the girl; _muto yetadu, labao gatsi_; i will go to yule is to take the sheep, (_muto_, fr. mouton). the use of the verb "to go" is not certain. . a dependent sentence with the past is expressed in two ways. a. by the simple past: _na so, fang' an_, i went to see the trap. b. by the suffix _-ua_, with the omission of the verb: _tsekan' alilua_, i went to see tseka, which might also be translated: _na sova, tsekan' ari_. . causative sentences appear to be governed by the same rules as the preceding. ex. _ame nu arim' undede_, the girl is afraid to see you; _andal' un' arim' ete_, what has he seen to talk about. . conditional sentences precede the principal and have their verb in the subjunctive with the conjunction _-mai_ or _-tamai_. (see p. , iii.). . a dependent sentence expressing time also precedes the principal sentence. it has its verb in the subjunctive or indicative, followed by the conjunction _-ta_ or sometimes _-tamai_. (see p. , iii.). chapter ii note on the afoa language by dr. w. m. strong the vocabulary recorded below was obtained from a fuyuge native who spoke the afoa language. he had travelled with me to the afoa-speaking villages on mount pitsoko and i could assure myself that he spoke the language fluently. in spite of the vocabulary having been obtained through a fuyuge native there is very little similarity between this and the fuyuge vocabulary. it should be noted that the words for "i" and for "thou" are substantially the same in the two languages. i also obtained a short vocabulary from a native who came down the coast to me, and found that this was substantially the same as the pitsoko vocabulary. the native had come from a village which appeared to be situated on the slopes of mount davidson and on the inland side of it. according to native accounts the afoa language is spoken in numerous villages which stretch from mount davidson to the head of the st. joseph river in the mafulu district. all the afoa villages are situated north of the st. joseph and its main branches. [dr. strong gives only the pronoun: _nui,_ thou; and the numerals: _koane,_ one; _atolowai,_ two; _atolowai-itima,_ three; _atolowai-atolowai,_ four; _atolowai-atolowai-itima,_ five. the pronouns given by father egidi for tauata ("anthropos," ii. , pp. - ) are:-- singular. plural. dual. lst person, _nai_, _na_. _nanei_, _nane_. _nonei_, _none_. nd person, _nui_, _nu_. _nunei_, _nune_ _nuvei_, _nuve_. rd person, _omei_, _ome_. _otei_, _ote_. _olei_(?). the possessives are:-- singular. plural. dual. lst person, _ne_, _neve_. _nane_,_nanene_. _none_. nd person, _ni_, _nie_. _nune_. _nuvene_. rd person, _ote_, _otene_. _otene_. _olene_. the interrogatives are: _te_? who? _te_? _teile_? what thing? _te_? _tue_? which? the numerals, according to father egidi, are, _kone_, one; _atolo_(_ai_), two; _atoloai-laina_, three; _talele_, _memene_, many; _konekone_, few. s. h. r.] chapter iii note on the kovio language. by dr. w. m. strong. substantially the same language is spoken in the whole of the neighbourhood of mount yule. i have travelled all around this mountain and the same interpreter was able to make himself understood everywhere. the vocabulary recorded below was collected by means of the motuan from a native of lopiko in the inava valley. i have also collected short vocabularies from the village of inavarene in the same valley, and from the kwoifa district of the upper part of the lakekamu river. these vocabularies show close similarities with that of lopiko. the natives around the pic eleia also speak much the same language. the vocabulary of the language bears no resemblance to any other language i am acquainted with. it is peculiar in that a word often ends in a consonant preceded by a short vowel. there is also an unusual consonant sound in the language. this sound seems to vary between a "ch" and a "tch" sound. the pronouns are as follows;-- first person: _na_. second person: _ni_. third person: _pi_. these were obtained without much difficulty as well as the corresponding possessives _nemai_, _nimai_, and _pimai_; but plurals could not be obtained. possibly the above are both singular and plural. the possessive precedes the noun, _e.g._, _nemai tupumagi_, my house. [ ] a binary system of counting is shown in the following numerals:-- one: _uniuni_. two: _karaala_. three: _naralavievi napuevi_. four: _naralavievi naralavievi_. five: _naralavievi naralavievi napuievi_. ten: _kowa_. eleven: _kowa uniuni_. twelve: _kowa karaala_. twenty: _kowakowa_. seven, eight, and nine were also translated by saying _naralavievi_ for each two, and _napuevi_ for one over. the numeral follows the noun, e.g., _inai karaala_, two spears. [ ] chapter iv a comparative vocabulary of the fuyuge, afoa, and kovio languages prepared by sidney h. ray, m.a. [from the mss. of rev. father egedi, rev. p.j. money, and dr. w.m. strong. words in square brackets from "antropos," ii., pp. - . _cf_. appendix v.] english: adze mafulu: so(ve) kambisa: so(nda) korona: itau afoa: kealeve kovio: labian)ed english: ankle mafulu: sog' u' kodabe [ ] kambisa: segikanan [ ] korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: areca-nut mafulu: kese kambisa: kesi korona: soroma afoa: iluve; [vonuve] kovio: koveo; [auliri-koyo] english: arm mafulu: bodo(le); matange (_shoulder_) kambisa: ia; kosa (_shoulder_) korona: ya afoa: kalab; [kala(pe)] kovio: malau; [malao] english: armlet mafulu: koio(ne) (_cane_); matsi(ne) (_shell_) kambisa: ino (_cane_) korona: -- afoa: [torite; litsi] kovio: [loria] english: arrow mafulu: fod' u' komome kambisa: -- korona: fode afoa: -- kovio: [kilelupa] english: ashes mafulu: foye kambisa: hoi korona: -- afoa: enamiro [ ]; pita; [sepe] kovio: iziuvate; [itekamite] english: backbone mafulu: bane kambisa: bano korona: -- afoa: [momo(pe) (_back_)] kovio: -- english: bad mafulu: ko(ye) kambisa: -- korona: ko afoa: k=o=ali kovio: kep)ip; [amifu] english: bag, basket mafulu: anon(ne) kambisa: ha(_netted_) korona: -- afoa: [lamui] kovio: [lamui] english: bamboo mafulu: bione; e(re) (_pipe_) kambisa: e korona: tobo [ ] afoa: ila; [vioni; ila (_pipe_)] kovio: nelele; [pidele; nerele (_pipe_)] english: banana mafulu: ambe kambisa: -- korona: haba afoa: pelai kovio: teri; [teli] english: barter mafulu: davani kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: tvatava [ ] kovio: -- english: beard mafulu: anama(le) kambisa: hanama korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: belly mafulu: ombo(le) kambisa: hombo (_stomach_) korona: obo afoa: aniami; [aniame (_abdomen_); kutote (_belly_)] kovio: dapoale; [data] english: belt (waist string) mafulu: ganinge; ganingame (_bark_); tafade (_ratan_) kambisa: misu korona: -- afoa: [terite; afafe; teupe] kovio: [tabatsio; talakota] english: bird mafulu: nembe kambisa: neba korona: nebe afoa: kile kovio: id)ep; [ite] english: bite mafulu: angale (_of men_); itede (_of dog_) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: kanaiva kovio: -- english: black mafulu: dube kambisa: -- korona: duba afoa: lumatu kovio: alolamala; [tumuta]. english: blood mafulu: tana(le) kambisa: -- korona: tana afoa: ilive kovio: uiau-toro; [ueho]. english: boat mafulu: -- kambisa: -- korona: asi [ ] afoa: -- kovio: -- english: body mafulu: mule kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [kotsi(pe)] kovio: ulan-utoro ; [koki]. english: bone mafulu: fude kambisa: -- korona: ufudi afoa: kemiabi kovio: kateleru. english: bow, _n_ mafulu: fode kambisa: -- korona: fode afoa: -- kovio: -- english: bowels mafulu: taride; gige kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [kimu(ve)] kovio: [tsikamaki]. english: branch mafulu: bodo(le); gobe (_young_) kambisa: -- korona: uga afoa: ietami kovio: litaud english: breast mafulu: ouba kambisa: duda; kononda [ ] (_chest_); bononga (_breast-bone_) korona: -- afoa: talate [opipe] kovio: apiteu; [apetei (_woman's_)]. english: bring mafulu: yetsia (_up_); yayeitsie (_down_) kambisa: -- korona: neda afoa: ainakava kovio: [boale?]. english: bury mafulu: mudi kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: alota kovio: -- english: butterfly mafulu: keneke kambisa: -- korona: kaneke afoa: gotaubi kovio: -- english: by an bye mafulu: dedi; ido(ve) (_not yet_) kambisa: gadavi korona: -- afoa: [epe (_not yet_)] kovio: -- english: cane mafulu: yokome; seene (_ratan_) kambisa: ongo korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: charcoal mafulu: -- kambisa: urugum korona: orugu afoa: (ena)imiti [ ] kovio: -- english: cheek mafulu: omenge kambisa: hanan korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: chest mafulu: kavale kambisa: kononda korona: konode afoa: kaluvi kovio: lipat; [ulako]. english: chief mafulu: ame(de) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: child mafulu: mele; ese (_son_); ame(le) (_girl_); ayame(le) (_small_) kambisa: isa; isoko (_boy_); amuri (_girl_) korona: isia afoa: lu [lu; pie (_boy_); epi (_girl_)] kovio: nekeotoro; [koemala; feimala (_boy_); nalemala; etaofu (_girl_)]. english: chin mafulu: ana kambisa: ana korona: -- afoa: [natau(pe)] kovio: [akumare]. english: claw (_of bird_) mafulu: fodo(le) kambisa: -- korona: bodo [ ] afoa: kila karabe kovio: -- english: cloth (_native_) mafulu: kogo(ve) kambisa: hudo korona: -- afoa: [etape] kovio: [tsimika]. english: cloud mafulu: unu(me) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: ulua; [ponive] kovio: unida; [lariatsi]. english: club mafulu: gilise (_pineapple_); gadaibe (_disc_); kongomu (_wood_) kambisa: hadufa (_wood_) korona: hadoga (_pine-apple_) afoa: yetikwi kovio: ineri (_stone_) english: coconut mafulu: fofo(ne) kambisa: bao korona: fofo afoa: -- kovio: teri. english: cold mafulu: yuyuma kambisa: -- korona: dudure afoa: loola kovio: delea; [abatata]. english: come mafulu: tsia kambisa: -- korona: yeterun afoa: lai kovio: [imaro] english: crocodile mafulu: fua kambisa: -- korona: fuai afoa: -- kovio: -- english: cuscus mafulu: -- kambisa: ano [ ] korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: darkness mafulu: tu(be) kambisa: -- korona: gerenama afoa: guviti kovio: dubare english: daylight mafulu: ev' ul' aveve [ ] kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: die mafulu: usangege kambisa: -- korona: usaga afoa: lae-elu; [kelui] kovio: [nusuaka] english: dig mafulu: tsie kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: amatita kovio: -- english: digging-stick mafulu: itsive kambisa: -- korona: iti afoa: -- kovio: -- english: dog mafulu: oi(e) kambisa: hu korona: ho afoa: kovela kovio: gad)ep; [katefu] english: door mafulu: akonimbe kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: dress (_man's_) mafulu: ganinge kambisa: haninga korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: dress (_woman's_) mafulu: yangile (_petticoat_); yamba(le) kambisa: iambaro korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: drink mafulu: nene kambisa: -- korona: eu' naida afoa: kwaiana kovio: [naro] english: ear mafulu: yangolo(me) kambisa: gadoro korona: i afoa: kepapi kovio: katoli english: earring mafulu: -- kambisa: kemang korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: earth (ground) mafulu: bu(le), fa(le) kambisa: hoa korona: fa(la) afoa: amati kovio: kamad; [amatsi] english: eat mafulu: nene kambisa: -- korona: adako' naida afoa: na)nai [ ]; [nai] kovio: [naro] english: egg mafulu: ombo(le) kambisa: -- korona: obo afoa: kile' mutube kovio: nekeo english: elbow mafulu: bodol'u' kodabe [ ] kambisa: hukanan [ ] korona: ya' koba afoa: oma' kaluve kovio: mala-gagoboro english: eye mafulu: i(me) kambisa: i(ng) korona: yago afoa: tabe; [va(pe)] kovio: ita-kwaru; [itau] english: eyebrow mafulu: ingob' u' male [ ] kambisa: ing' ode [ ] korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: ita-dunali english: eyelash mafulu: -- kambisa: ing' uba korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: ita-kalam english: face mafulu: mede kambisa: -- korona: yodoge afoa: keuwil [keu(ve)] kovio: tara-ata; [kawasata] english: far off mafulu: gisa(le) kambisa: busara korona: -- afoa: ainioari [ainiole] kovio: waladekatch; [lulusivelaka] english: father mafulu: ba(be) kambisa: -- korona: bane afoa: ati kovio: papai; [fafae; vavafu] english: fear mafulu: undede kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: nu)kela [ ] kovio: -- english: feather mafulu: ma(le); pame (_of wing_) kambisa: wasa (_cassowary plum_) korona: -- afoa: kili' amute kovio: atch; [akoatsi] english: finger mafulu: bodol' u' gobe [ ] (_index_); bodol' u' feneme [ ] (_middle and ring_); bodol' u' talave [ ] (_little finger_); bodol' u' mame [ ] (_thumb_) kambisa: naria (_thumb_) korona: yaro' goba [ ] afoa: lelevai; [kalaopue (_index and ring_); kimataliope (_middle_); leleva (_little_); amo(te) _thumb_] kovio: mala-tiporotch; [obido (_index_); upurau; kaitaita (_middle_); upurau; gitaguruita (_ring_); itarao; taravalara (_little_); banoe (_thumb_)] english: fire mafulu: oki(de) kambisa: uki korona: oke afoa: )enami kovio: iziradi; [iti] english: fish mafulu: garume kambisa: garung korona: unuma (?) afoa: gapila; [kapita] kovio: rapiamala; [kavila] english: flea mafulu: yo(le) kambisa: kasin korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: flesh mafulu: mise kambisa: -- korona: misa afoa: miluti kovio: [muditsi] english: flower mafulu: sive; oyande kambisa: -- korona: unida [ ] afoa: iadaude kovio: [ulatu] english: fly, _n._ mafulu: sungulu(me) kambisa: -- korona: sigurum afoa: tainanu; [tainamu] kovio: [muni] english: fly, _v._ mafulu: iyei kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: fog mafulu: unu(me) kambisa: hunu korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: food mafulu: imbade (_animal_); yalove (_vegetable_) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [nifite (_animal_); valive; kalai (_vegetable_)] kovio: [muditsi (_animal_); taraj (_vegetable_)] english: foot mafulu: yovali, so(ge); sog' u' tobo (_sole_) [ ] kambisa: suga; hu tobo' (_sole_) korona: sogo afoa: lomineti; [lo(ape)] kovio: ina-tiporotch; [teporotsi] english: forehead mafulu: mede; ingobe (_bone of eyebrow_) kambisa: anone (_temple_) korona: mida afoa: miavi kovio: [tavatau] english: forest mafulu: mavane (_hunting-ground_); siu(le), tsiu(le) (_bush_) kambisa: -- korona: bu [ ] afoa: sule; [kalite] kovio: yaped; [buloka] english: fowl mafulu: kokole kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: fruit mafulu: dede kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: ietaube; [eadauda] kovio: ulau; [kalitu; ulata] english: garden mafulu: bu(le) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: [volomala; volofu] english: ghost mafulu: sila(le) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: give mafulu: indi kambisa: -- korona: ide afoa: nu)inie [ ]; [ini] kovio: [nanara] english: go mafulu: gege kambisa: -- korona: hego afoa: lo; [la] kovio: [taro] english: good mafulu: ifa(ne) kambisa: -- korona: ifi afoa: ladi; [kato] kovio: aupumara; [tsimafu] english: great mafulu: baibe kambisa: mataka korona: baibe afoa: kalowo kovio: aputep; [tovenaetsi] english: hair (of head) mafulu: alome kambisa: ha; makoko (_dressed_) korona: -- afoa: auwataute; [voto(pe)] kovio: nanaled; [manala; manalreta]. english: hair (of body) mafulu: ma(le) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: auwuti; [avute] kovio: ada; [akoatsi] english: hand mafulu: bodo(le); bodol' u'-tobo (palm) [ ] kambisa: ia; ia'tobo (_palm_) korona: yaro' uba afoa: galatopute [kalaopue] kovio: mala-kapunatch; [mala=tu portosi] english: hard mafulu: kakava(ne) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: avava kovio: maradi; [unamane] english: head mafulu: ade(de) kambisa: hondu korona: ha afoa: ni)adi; [ade] [ ] kovio: gagau; [kakao] english: head-wrap mafulu: ogoupe kambisa: suno korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: hear mafulu: alele kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: lanita kovio: -- english: hill mafulu: kume kambisa: kumo korona: bunga afoa: itavi; [maive; lavave (_uninhabited_); itave (_crest_)] kovio: la-ôâ-uta; [laoaka] english: hip mafulu: ol'u'ga(ye) [ ] kambisa: huru korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: hook mafulu: -- kambisa: -- korona: kimai [ ] afoa: -- kovio: -- english: hot mafulu: olola kambisa: -- korona: giganfe afoa: nunali kovio: midilamolamo english: house mafulu: e(me); emo(ne) (_communal_) kambisa: e(m) korona: e afoa: geade; [kia(te); tumute (_communal_)] kovio: tupumagi; [dema(ki); dubumaki (_communal_)] english: husband mafulu: a(ne) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: omen)iva; [vale; mu] [ ] kovio: anawab english: iron mafulu: tavili [ ] kambisa: -- korona: nani afoa: nai kovio: -- english: kill mafulu: adede; ememe kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [amui] kovio: [mavemara] english: knee mafulu: amia kambisa: amiang korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: english: knife mafulu: indi(ve) kambisa: indi(fa) korona: -- afoa: [tiveja(ve)] [ ] kovio: [vesti] english: know mafulu: tsitsiva kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: nu)ali; [ni] kovio: [edemaka] english: leaf mafulu: tu(le) kambisa: idu korona: utu afoa: valupi kovio: aukwata; [aufu; aubota] english: leg mafulu: yovali; fande (shin); mude (thigh); mise (_calf_) kambisa: furo (_shin_); muda (_thigh_) korona: mude (_thigh_) afoa: wolupi (_thigh_); [keniame; kupuame (_thigh_)] kovio: alile (_thigh_); [inako; apota (_thigh_)] english: lime mafulu: abe kambisa: -- korona: hava afoa: [kaute] kovio: wati. english: lip mafulu: ude kambisa: uba korona: udu afoa: getapi kovio: ridokalule (_upper_); akoitale (_lower_); [kijtakorutsi] english: live mafulu: asilando (_be alive_) kambisa: -- korona: asihera afoa: kajli kovio: [watara (_alive_)] english: liver mafulu: dube kambisa: -- korona: hade afoa: kimaule kovio: -- english: long mafulu: sesada kambisa: busa korona: -- afoa: [tsyani] kovio: [tovenaemita]. english: louse mafulu: i(ye) kambisa: -- korona: hi afoa: iate kovio: [inepu]. english: male mafulu: avoge kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: man mafulu: a(ne) kambisa: -- korona: a afoa: woale;[vale] kovio: kalauotoro;[abo(te); mala; abofu]. english: many mafulu: tale; taluvi kambisa: -- korona: harut afoa: tatele;[talele] kovio: maimitara. english: mat mafulu: -- kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: unite kovio: tau-ud. english: milk mafulu: oubatsinge; oub'indidi [ ] (_to suckle_) kambisa: -- korona: obo afoa: mulape kovio: apiteu. english: mirror mafulu: aveve kambisa: idida korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: moon mafulu: one kambisa: hama korona: hoana afoa: oani;[one] kovio: nonitch;[onea, nonitsi]. english: morning mafulu: tutsi kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: laliate' govelai [kuwitue] kovio: -- english: mosquito mafulu: maingogo kambisa: -- korona: igogesa afoa: nipope kovio: -- english: mother mafulu: ma(me) kambisa: -- korona: uma afoa: aumen)ini [ ]; [ine] kovio: nei; [nei, nonofu]. english: mouth mafulu: ambode kambisa: gobang korona: adinu afoa: nautabe; [natave, yolote] kovio: akwot;[khidatsi]. english: nail (_finger_) mafulu: fodo(le); koko (_of cassowary_) kambisa: bodong (_of toe_) [ ] korona: -- afoa: [viloipe] kovio: [tevetsi]. english: name mafulu: i(ve) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: apete kovio: nitiab;[vitane]. english: navel mafulu: kombolu kambisa: kumburu korona: koboro afoa: oatobe; [otove] kovio: autau; [koto]. english: near mafulu: kugume kambisa: kuguraga korona: -- afoa: amauli;[amavola] kovio: kauwari. english: neck mafulu: gurube; kalolo (_throat_) kambisa: indu (_back_); aroro (_throat_) korona: -- afoa: [kumulute] kovio: neneviro;[nelevio]. english: necklace mafulu: sale, sambu (_shell_); tsiba, [dog's incisors] sise [dog's canine] (_dogs' teeth_); yakeva (_pearl_) kambisa: sa (_shell_) korona: -- afoa: [telenate [dog's incisors]; lulate [dog's canine] kovio: [kulolobotsi[dog's incisors]; kitetsi[dog's canine]]. english: night mafulu: tu(be) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: guve'teletai[kuvite] kovio: -- english: nipple mafulu: ouba' ul' unge [ ] kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: oalube; [okobe] kovio: apiteu. english: no mafulu: mi, ua(ne) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: muinu kovio: [nai]. english: nose mafulu: unge kambisa: unga korona: unga afoa: kiti [ki(te)] kovio: watarupu;[wata(rube)]. english: nostril mafulu: ung' ul' olo [ ] kambisa: urorong korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: paddle mafulu: -- kambisa: -- korona: bara [ ] afoa: -- kovio: -- english: pig mafulu: ovo(le) (_wild_); ovota (_tame_); oleda (_large_); foilange (_wild boar_). kambisa: sika korona: o'o afoa: polu kovio: woromala; [voro(mala)]. english: pot mafulu: uli(ne); kodige (_dish_); kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [kapite; lua(pe) (_dish_); nau(pe) (_earthen dish_)] [ ] kovio: kaivitch; [apitsi; kuetsi; kapaitsi (_earthen dish_)]. english: pumpkin mafulu: botame; tobo(le) (_goard_). kambisa: bata korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: rain mafulu: yangose kambisa: -- korona: yagosa afoa: iti kovio: uteli. english: rat mafulu: giliminde kambisa: -- korona: sui afoa: keni kovio: keniani. english: red mafulu: ilalama kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: boratu; [polatu] kovio: lolalumala. english: rib mafulu: auale kambisa: awari korona: -- afoa: [malupe] kovio: [elavotsi]. english: river mafulu: yu(ve) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: ipe kovio: everi. english: road mafulu: enambe; foida (_along flank of mountain_) kambisa: enambo korona: enaba afoa: kani kovio: abatu. english: root mafulu: okasili kambisa: -- korona: okusi afoa: kilu' mute kovio: mudene. english: rope mafulu: knoage kambisa: -- korona: yu afoa: pumave; [pumave inate] kovio: pemarap; [leka; vilape]. english: sago mafulu: balck' u; ta(ye) [ ] kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: salt mafulu: ama(ne) kambisa: hanamo korona: ama afoa: limanevi kovio: [yota]. english: sand mafulu: sanga(ve) kambisa: -- korona: soana afoa: nunu kovio: [utsiaio]. english: scratch mafulu: fifiete; sisilimi (_one's self_) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: malitana kovio: -- english: sea mafulu: ise kambisa: -- korona: isa afoa: -- kovio: tapala. english: see mafulu: ariri kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: na)nukava [ ] kovio: [italara]. english: shadow mafulu: sove; abebe; avevene (_of object_); kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: ala kovio: utupapu. english: sit mafulu: tegid' ande [ ] kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: na)navi kovio: [ularo]. english: skin mafulu: ode kambisa: -- korona: hode afoa: gotipe; [kotsi(pe)] kovio: komotoro; [kalukalutsi]. english: sky mafulu: asolo(ne) kambisa: asoro korona: -- afoa: [manape] kovio: abat; [abatsi]. english: sleep mafulu: imaritade kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: utewu; [utevoi] kovio: [voile; waro (_rest_)]. english: small mafulu: kisi; aka(ne); kisiaka(ne) (_very_) kambisa: ami'aga korona: kisibaga afoa: eveeve kovio: peipu; [utsiaitsi]. english: smoke mafulu: iso(ne) kambisa: isong korona: isoa afoa: etaivi kovio: [itiaulo]. english: snake mafulu: tsivili kambisa: -- korona: hemai [ ] afoa: nai; [kovo] kovio: toiepe; [toepo]. english: soft mafulu: safe(le) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: tamenu; [oluolue] kovio: ketitau; [peopeo]. english: sour mafulu: beekoi (_bitter_) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: speak mafulu: ave(te) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: tananipa; [te] kovio: [wade]. english: spear mafulu: eme(le); idika (_with barbs of cassowary claws_) kambisa: himi(ra) korona: hemi afoa: -- kovio: inari. english: spit mafulu: sabete kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: luiteta kovio: -- english: spittle mafulu: sabe kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: stand mafulu: yu kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: lugila; [kilai] kovio: [lavaka]. english: star mafulu: alile kambisa: duba [ ] korona: harira afoa: tui; [imuli] kovio: kapu. english: stay mafulu: vayu kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: loia kovio: -- english: stone mafulu: bute kambisa: io korona: butia afoa: eviti; [evi(te)] kovio: geleo; [kile]. english: sugar-cane mafulu: ale kambisa: teba [ ] korona: -- afoa: tu(ami) kovio: apiu; [api]. english: sun mafulu: eve kambisa: ewu(ri) korona: eurima afoa: wati; [vata(ve)] kovio: stamari; [kita]. english: sweet mafulu: bebena kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: sweet potato mafulu: kupa kambisa: kupe korona: gupe afoa: gupe; [kupeame; vetoe] kovio: kouwai; [vetore]. english: taro mafulu: munde kambisa: munda korona: mude afoa: ku(we) kovio: gamach; [gimale]. english: taste, _v._ mafulu: tovogi kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: thick mafulu: kakava(ne) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [evoevotupi] kovio: inep. english: thin mafulu: fafale; garibe kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: [itape] kovio: krawida. english: tobacco mafulu: vilu (_native_); kuku (_foreign_); matsika (_stick_) kambisa: ewuta korona: -- afoa: [emuna(te) (_native_)] kovio: [munamuna (_native_)]. english: to-day mafulu: audati kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: kailili kovio: [tetefa; vae]. english: tomohawk mafulu: so(ve) kambisa: so(nda) korona: -- afoa: [amu(te)] kovio: -- english: to-morrow mafulu: aiti kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: kila kovio: [kavokae]. english: tongue mafulu: usese kambisa: asisino korona: asiesa afoa: aivi kovio: tananio; [tzinao]. english: tooth mafulu: ato(le) kambisa: usi [ ] korona: atu afoa: noto(ab); [noto(ape)] kovio: kitira; [rita (tsi)]. english: tree mafulu: i(ye) kambisa: i (_wood_) korona: i afoa: enade; [ea(te)] kovio: ida. english: valley mafulu: ole (_below_) kambisa: horo korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: village mafulu: e(me) kambisa: haru korona: eda afoa: geade; [kia(te); mai(te)] kovio: deata; [dela]. english: water mafulu: yu(ve) kambisa: iu korona: eu(wa) afoa: i(pe) kovio: eweo; [eveo; evori]. english: weep mafulu: andavel'ete; availili kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: kowaitai kovio: [inivade]. english: white mafulu: kogola; fofoye (_ash colour_) kambisa: -- korona: foa afoa: ilitu kovio: unimala; [aela]. english: wife mafulu: amu(le) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: omen)iva [ ]; [iva] kovio: anamara. english: wind mafulu: gubu(le) kambisa: -- korona: gubu(ra) afoa: kavi; [oive] kovio: tamara; [tsinu]. english: wing mafulu: geoge; fala(le) (_feathers_); pilulupe (_of bat_) kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: woman mafulu: amu(le) kambisa: mamo [ ] korona: amu afoa: iva kovio: anakave; [anatemada, anakave; anafu]. english: wrist mafulu: bodul' u' gurube [ ] kambisa: ia' u' gidiba korona: -- afoa: -- kovio: -- english: yam mafulu: ai(ne) kambisa: -- korona: hain afoa: loite kovio: darai; [tarae]. english: yellow mafulu: yangogona [ ] kambisa: -- korona: yarem afoa: epe kovio: katech. english: yes mafulu: e kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: namoade kovio: -- english: yesterday mafulu: arima kambisa: -- korona: -- afoa: kila kovio: [orivafari]. chapter v appendix v notes on the papuan languages spoken about the head waters of the st. joseph river, central papua by sidney h. ray, m.a. the grammars and vocabularies collected by the rev. father egedi, the rev. e. p. money and dr. w. m. strong illustrate the languages spoken in the higher hill country extending from the district about mount yule to mount albert edward and the upper vanapa river. they form three distinct groups. . fuyuge, comprising the dialects of mafulu, kambisa, korona and sikube. . afoa or ambo, including tauata. . kovio, including oru lopiko. section i i. classification. . fuyuge:--the first specimen of any lanugage of the fuyuge group was collected by the rev. james chalmers in . this was called by him kabana, and was printed in a collection of vocabularies in . [ ] from a note on the original ms., the vocabulary was assumed to be the dialect of a village on mount victoria (called by chalmers mount owen stanley). [ ] but as sir william macgregor pointed out, [ ] there are no villages on that mountain, hence chalmers, in assigning a locality to the vocabulary some time after its collection, must have been mistaken. the language of chalmers' kabana is nearly the same as that of a vocabulary collected by mr. a. giulianetti at the village of sikube in the upper vetapa or vanapa valley, north of mount lilley. this was published in . [ ] a few words from the village of kambisa, in sirima (chirima) valley were published in the annual report on british new guinea for - , [ ] and i have since been favoured by the compiler, the rev. p. j. money, with a fuller list. the rev. father egedi published in a vocabulary of fuyuge along with his account of the tauata or afoa tribe. [ ] dr. strong collected a vocabulary from the natives of korona, a village situated close to the head of galley reach. this was collected with the help of a motu-speaking native, and contains a few apparently melanesian words. dr. strong was spontaneously told that these had been introduced from the coast in quite recent times. (_cf_. § iii.) the words in the comparative vocabulary are taken from an extensive collection in mafulu by the rev. father egedi. they represent the same dialect as the grammar in appendix i. that mafulu, kambisa, and korona, with sikube and kabana, represent the same language is plain. the kabana pronoun _nahu_, i, the sikube _na(nio_) i, _nu_(_ni_) thou, and the kambisa _na_, i, _nu_, thou, _hu_, he, agree with the fuyuge _na, na(ni_), i, _nu, nu(ni_) thou, _u_, he. the kabana _nauera_, mine, is the fuyuge _naula_. the kambisa _nara-ndo_, mine, _nura-ndo_, thine, _hura-ndo_ his, also show a suffix _ndo_ corresponding to mafulu _ne_ in _naula(ne_), mine, _nula(ne_) thine, _ula(ne_) his, and in the vocabulary the kambisa suffix _nda_ corresponds to the korona _de_ in the word for "chest." there is, however, no evidence that the korona _de_ is equivalent to the mafulu _ne_. the word given in sikube for "woman," _amuri_, is the fuyuge plural _amuli_, "women." a few other likenesses appear, as _e.g._, kambisa suffix _ng_ represents mafulu _me, ne_; kambisa _fa_, the fuyuge _ve_; kambisa _a_, korona _la_, mafulu _le_. the following extract shows the likeness of the vocabulary. [ ] mafulu. kambisa. sikube. kabana. korona. adze so so cho -- itau arm, hand -- ia ia ia ya belly ombo hombo -- habe obo bird nembe neba membe -- nebe cassowary plume -- wasa vasa -- -- child, son me, ese isa me ese isia club gilise hadufa adufa, -- hadoga girishia dog oi hu hu, fu hoa ho ear yangolo gadoro gaderu gadero i eye i i i e yago forest -- -- bu = garden -- bu father ba -- -- ba ba fire oki uki okia okia oke foot soge siga suku suge sogo go gege -- henga inga hego ground bu, fa hoa bu = garden -- fa hair, head ade ha ha ha ha house e e -- e e knife indi indi indi -- -- leaf tu idu itu idu utu lip, mouth ude uba ude ude uau moon one hama -- hama hoana navel kombolu kumburu -- habera = koboro belly nose unge unga hunge unuga unga pig ovo -- obu -- o'o rain yangose -- iangushe iangose yagosa smoke iso iso ishio -- isoa stone bute io -- io butia sun, day eve ewuri -- evurima eurima sugar-cane -- teba tebe -- -- taro munde munda mude -- mude thigh mude muda mude -- mude tongue usese asisino asese asese asiesa tooth ato usi ado ado atu village e haru e -- eda water yu iu iu iu eu woman amu ?mamo = amu amu amu mother the numerals show similar agreements. these will be illustrated in the next section. . afoa.--the afoa vocabulary was collected by dr. strong in the villages on mount pitsoko from a fuyuge native who spoke afoa fluently. dr. strong also obtained a short vocabulary from a native who came from a village apparently on the slopes of mount davidson. the language is substantially the same as the tauata or tauatape of which rev. father egedi has published a vocabulary and grammar. [ ] there are, however, a few slight differences which seem to confirm father egedi's statement that there is probably a difference of pronunciation in the various afoa villages. [ ] father egedi writes: _p, v, k, t, l, ts_ where dr. strong has: _b, w, g, d, r, t_. the latter also has final _i_ for _e_, _oa_ for _a_ or _o_, _ia_ for _ea_, _u_ for _oi_ _ai_ for _ei_. sometimes _b_ represents _m_ or _v_. some of dr. strong's words show marks of afoa grammar, as, _e.g._, the words for eat, see, sit, give, head, husband or wife, mother, are: _na nai_, i eat; _na nu kava_, i thee see; _na navi_, i sit; _nu inie_, thou givest; _ni adi_, your head; _omen iva_, his wife or her husband; _aumen ini_, his mother. the tauata words are added to the afoa vocabulary in square brackets. . kovio.--the language called kovio by dr. strong is substantially the same as the oru lopiko of rev. father egedi. [ ] the same or a similar language is said to be found in four places, viz.-- . lopiko in the inava valley. . inavarene in the inava valley. . kwoifa district on upper lakekamu river. . villages round pic eleia. details of these dialects are not given. section ii ii. comparison. the three groups of languages illustrated in these vocabularies present the usual papuan characteristics of great differences. a certain amount of resemblance may be found in some of the pronouns, and possibly in a few other words, but generally speaking the languages are not only quite unconnected with each other, but are also distinct from the known papuan languages surrounding them. i. thou. he. we. you. they. i. fuyuge na, nani nu, nuni u, uni di, dini yi, yini tu, tuni kambisa na nu u -- -- ha-ru sikube na-nio nu-ni -- -- -- -- kabana nau -- -- -- -- -- ii. afoa na nu-i ome -- -- -- tauata na, nai nu, nu-i ome, ome-i nane, nane-i nune, nunei ote, ote-i iii. kovio na ni pi -- -- -- oru-lopiko na, naro ni, niro pi, piro dae, daro ali, alero valo, valoro west toaripi ara-o a-o are-o ela-o e-o ere-o namau na-i ni-i u ene-i noro oro kiwai mo ro nou nimo nigo nei north-east, binandele na imo owa kaena, nakare imomae owawa east, koita da a au no yai yau south-east, mailu ia ga noa gea aea omoa it is interesting here to note the agreement in the forms of the first and second persons singular, with a wide difference in the other pronouns. similar words for these two pronouns occur in other papuan languages as _e.g._, kai (finschhafen) _no_, kelana kai _nai_, "i," and bongu and bogadjim (astrolabe bay), _ni_, kelana kai _ne_, "thou." the widespread use of a suffix, used when the pronoun is emphatic, is noteworthy. the possessive case also is formed as in some other papuan languages by a suffix added to the root of the pronoun. _cf._-- my. thy. his. our. your. their. fuyuge nau(le) nu(le) u(le) diu(le) yu(le) ta(le) naula(ne) nula(ne) ula(ne) diula(ne) yula(ne) tala(ne) kambisa narando nurando hurando -- -- haruando tauata neve nie omene nanene nuvene otene kovio nemai nimai pimai -- -- -- oru-lopiko nema nima pima daema alima valoma toaripi arave ave areve elave eve ereve binandele nato ito ounda, kaenato itomane omida owanda sometimes the simple form of the pronoun is prefixed to the noun in tauata to indicate the possessive, as in namau and koita. tauata _na ate_, koita _di omote_, namau, _na uku_, "my head." the numerals also show great differences. as far as "three" they appear as follows: fuyuge. korona. sikitbe. afoa. tauata. kovio. oru lopiko. . fida(ne) fida(ne) fidana koane kone uniuni konepu . gegeto gegeda iuara atolowai atoloai karaala kalotolo . gegeto m'inaa gegeda-fidane iuara-minda atolowai-itime atoloai-laina naralavievi-napuevi konekhalavi some of these words have other meanings. thus fuyuge , _gegeto_ is given also as "few." in tauata , _kone_ duplicated as _konekone_ is "few," whilst _onioni_, means "alone." in oru lopiko , _konepu_ compares with _onionipu_, "few." these numerals are all different from mailu, koita, binandele, toaripi and namau. mailu. koita. binandele. toaripi. namau. kiwai. . omu kobua, igagu da farakeka monou nao . ava abu tote orakoria morere netowa. . aiseri abi-gaga tamonde oroisoria morere-monou netowa-naobi the vocabulary shows very few agreements, and there is very little evidence in support of a connection of any one of these dialects with its neighbours. the following correspondences may be purely accidental. bamboo. afoa, _ila_; namau, _ina_. banana. korona, _haba_; iworo, _sabari_. barter. afoa, _tavatava_; toaripi, _tavatava_. belly. oru lop., _data_; sogeri, koiari, _detu_. black. fuyuge, _dube, duba_; neneba, _aduve_; koiari, koita, _dubu_. blood. fuyuge, _tana_; koiari, koita, _tago_. bone. fuyuge, _fude, &c._; toaripi, _uti_. child. fuyuge, _me(le_); binandele, _mai_; berepo, _me_.     fuyuge, _isia_; kambisa, _isa_; ubere, _esi_; neneba, _eche_. coconut. kambisa, _bao_; koiari, _bagha_. crocodile. fuyuge, _fua, fuai_; koiari, _fuie_. dig. fuyuge, _etsia_; toaripi, _isei_. dog. fuyuge, _oi, ho_; agi, ubere, _o_; koiari, &c., _to_. eat, drink. fuyuge, _na, nene_; namau, _na_. fire. tauata, _ena_; koiari, _vene_; koita, _veni_. foot. fuyuge, &c., _soge, suga_; amara, _joka_. male. tauata, _mu_; toaripi, _mo_. oru lopiko, _vitapu_; toaripi, _vita_. man. fuyuge _a(ne_); neneba, _ana_; koiari, koita, _ata_. mother. oru lopiko, kovio, _nei_, uberi, _neia_; koita, _neina_; tauata; _ine_; koiari, _ine_. pig. kambisa, _sika_; musa river, _siko_. fuyuge, _avo_; koiari, _ofo_; koita, _oho_. rope. fuyuge, _konange_; gosisi, _goda_; koiari, koita,_gote_. salt. fuyuge, _ama(ne_); neneba, iworo, _amani_. taro. fuyuge, &c., _munde_, _muda_; neneba, _muda_. tree. fuyuge, _i_, _iye_; kovio, _ida_; koiari, koita, _idi_. water. fuyuge, &c., _yu_; afoa, _i(pe_); neneba, _ei_; ubere, _e_. woman. fuyuge, _amu_; iworo, neneba, _amuro_, wife. section iii iii. papuan and melanesian. three melanesian languages are spoken in the country around the lower courses of the st. joseph and aroa rivers, and are thus in immediate contact with the papuan languages spoken about the upper waters. these melanesian languages are the mekeo, kuni and pokau. it is, therefore, of some importance to note whether any apparently non-melanesian elements in these languages may be traced to the influence of the neighbouring papuan tongues. in grammar the only non-melanesian characteristic which appears is the preceding of the substantive by the genitive, but in the vocabularies a few correspondences are found. bamboo pokau, _ileile_; fuyuge, _ele_; afoa, _ila_. sinaugoro, _tobo_; korono, _tobo_. kuni, _bioni_; mekeo, _piengi_; fuyuge, _bione_. big kuni, _galoa_; afoa, _kalowo_. bird mekeo, _inei_; afoa, _kile_; oru lopiko, _ite_. breast pokau, _pede_; oru lopiko, _apetei_. chest mekeo, _olanga_; oru lopiko, _ulako_. couch kuni, _itsifu_; tauata, _itsifu_. crocodile roro, _puaea_; kabadi, _ua_; fuyuge, _fua_. dog pokau, _oveka_; kuni, _ojame_, _obeka_; fuyuge, _oi(e_); afoa, _kovela_. fork kuni, _ini_; tauata, _ini_. girdle kuni, _afafa_; tauata, _afafe_. hammock kuni, _totoe_; fuyuge, _sosoe_; tauata, _totolo_; oru lopiko, _totoki_. head mekeo, _kangia_; oru lopiko, _kakuo_. hill mekeo, _iku_; fuyuge, _ku(me_). house mekeo, _ea_; fuyuge, _e(me_). knife mekeo, _aiva_; kuni, _atsiva_; tauata, _tiveya_; oru lopiko, _vetsi_. many kuni, _talelea_; afoa, _talele_; fuyuge, _talele_. rope mekeo, _ue_; korona, _yu_. spoon kuni, _nima_; tauata, _dima_. sweet potato kuni, _gubea_; fuyuge, _kupa_, _gupe_; afoa, _gupe_. white mekeo, _foenga_; korona, _foa_. but there are many apparently non-melanesian words in mekeo, kuni and pokau, which are different in each language, and cannot be traced to the neighbouring papuan. the inference is that such words may be remnants of other papuan tongues spoken in the st. joseph and aroa basins, which have been absorbed by the immigrant melanesian speech. only three melanesian words in the list appear to have been adopted by the papuans. these are: tauata _nau_ (_pe_), earthen dish, which is kuni, motu, pokau, &c., _nau_; fuyuge asi boat, pokau and motu asi; and fuyuge _bara_, paddle, the motu, kabadi _bara_, mekeo _fanga_, oar. the fuyuge _kokole_ fowl is also probably the mekeo _kokolo_. notes [ ] the photographs of skulls, articles of dress and ornament, implements and weapons were made in london after my return. [ ] the geographical society's map used by me is somewhat confusing as regards the upper reaches of the st. joseph or angabunga river and the rivers flowing into and forming it. the fathers' map makes the st. joseph river commence under that name at the confluence, at a point a little to the west of ° ' s. lat. and ° e. long., of the river alabula (called in one of its upper parts loloipa), flowing from the north, and the river aduala, flowing from mt. albert edward in the north-east; and this arrangement, which is practically in accord with a map appended to the british new guinea _annual report_ for june, , is, i think, probably the most suitable and correct one. the aduala is the river the upper part of which is in the geographical society's map called angabunga. the fathers' map shows the river kea flowing into the aduala at a distance of about two miles above the confluence of the latter with the alabula; but, according to the report map, this distance is about miles. [ ] note the change from the mafulu (papuan) pronunciation _mambule_ to the kuni (melanesian) pronunciation _mafulu_ and the similar change from the mafulu _ambo_ to the kuni _ajoa_. [ ] see dr. seligmann's "hunterian lecture" in the _lancet_ for february , , p. ; seligmann and strong in the _geographical journal_ for march, , pp. and ; also dr. seligmann's "classification of the natives of british new guinea" in the _journal of the royal anthropological institute_ for december, , p. . [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] _lancet_, february , , p. . [ ] _geographical journal_ for september, , p. . [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] british new guinea _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] british new guinea _annual report_ for june , , pp. to . [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] apparently bows and arrows are not found among the tribes of the lower mambare river (_annual report_ for june, , appendix c, p. .) [ ] _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] _journal of the royal anthropological institute_ for december, , p. . [ ] _annual report_ for june, , appendix c, p. . [ ] _geographical journal_ for october, , p. . [ ] _journal of the royal anthropological institute_ for december, , p. . [ ] _british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _journal of the royal anthropological institute_ for december, , p. . [ ] seligmann and strong--_geographical journal_ for march, , p. . [ ] seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] dr. strong has referred (_geographical journal_ for september, , p. ) to the considerable areas of open grass country at the source of the st. joseph river; and in his remarks which appeared in the _annual report_ for june, , p. , he referred to the same matter, and spoke of the valleys being for the most part less steep than those of the kuni district. [ ] i must state that plate represents a scene taken from a spot near to deva-deva, which, though close to what is regarded as the boundary between the kuni and mafulu areas, is in fact just within the former. the general appearance of the scenery is, however, distinctly mafulu. [ ] dr. strong's measurements of seven mafulu men referred to by dr. seligmann (_journal of royal anthropological institute_, vol. , p. ) showed an average stature of / inches, and an average cephalic index of . . it will be noticed that my figures show a somewhat higher average stature, but that my average cephalic index is the same. dr. seligmann here speaks of the mafulu as being almost as short as the men of inavaurene, and even more round-headed. [ ] this is the index calculated on average lengths and breadths. the average of the indices is . , the difference arising from the omission in working out of each index of second points of decimals. [ ] dr. keith thinks they are all skulls of males. they are now in college museum, and are numbered . , . and . in the college catalogue. [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] dr. haddon refers (_geographical journal_, vol. , p. ) to the finding by the mission fathers of "another type of native, evidently an example of the convex-nosed papuan," in the upper waters of the alabula river. i gather from the habitat of these natives that they must have been either ambo or oru lopiku. i should be surprised to hear the semitic nose was common in either of those areas. [ ] dr. seligmann, in speaking of the koiari people, refers to an occasional reddish or gingery tinge of facial hair (_melanesians of british new guinea,_, p. ). i never noticed this among the mafulu. [ ] since writing the above, i have learnt that some of the dwarf people found by the expedition into dutch new guinea organised by the british ornithologists' union had brown hair. mr. goodfellow tells me that "the hair of some of the pygmies was decidedly _dark_ brown"; and dr. wollaston gives me the following extract from his diary for march , , relating to twenty-four pygmies then under observation:--"hair of three men distinctly _not_ black, a sort of dirty rusty brown or rusty black colour--all others black-haired." [ ] this plate and the plates of dancing aprons were produced by first drawing the objects, and then photographing the drawings. it would have been more satisfactory if i could have photographed the objects themselves. but they were much crumpled, and i was advised that with many of them the camera would not indicate differences of colour, and that in one or two of them even the design itself would not come out clearly. [ ] dr. stapf, to whom i showed one of the armlets, no. , the materials of which are said to be the same as those used for this belt, said that the split cane-like material is a strip from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm, and that the other material is sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant. i may say that i felt a doubt at the time as to the complete accuracy of the information given to me concerning the vegetable materials used for the manufacture of various articles, and there may well be errors as to these. [ ] dr. stapf, to whom i showed one of these belts, says that it is made of the separated woody strands from the stem of a climbing plant (possibly one of the cucurbitaceae or aristolochiaceae). [ ] dr. stapf, having inspected one of the belts, thinks this material is composed of split strips of sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern, and not that of a creeping plant. [ ] dr. stapf, to whom i showed a written description which i had made of the plant, and who has also examined the belt, is of opinion that it belongs to the diplocaulobium section of dendrobium. [ ] i have examined at the british museum a belt made by the dwarf mountain people found by the recent expedition organised by the british ornithologists' union. this belt is made in hank-like form, remarkably similar to that of my mafulu belt no. , though in other respects it differs from the latter, and it is much smaller. the only other thing of similar hank-like form which i have been able to find at the museum is a small belt or head ornament (it is said to be the latter) made by sakai people of the malay peninsula. [ ] chalmers describes a young woman in the foot hills behind port moresby who "had a net over her shoulders and covering her breasts as a token of mourning" (_work and adventures in new guinea_ p. ). compare also the koita custom referred to by dr. seligmann (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ) for a widow to wear two netted vests. the same custom is found at hula. [ ] see reference to this question in the _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] i shall from time to time have to refer to the croton, and in doing so i am applying to the plant in question the name commonly given to it; but dr. stapf tells me that the plant so commonly called is really a codioeum. [ ] the rev. mr. dauncey, of the l.m.s. station at delena (a roro village on the coast) told me that in his village it is a common thing for a native to pick up a small white snake about inches long, and pass it through the hole in his nose; and that the pokau people sometimes pass the tip of the tail of a larger black snake into these holes, the intention of both practices being to keep the hole open. in neither of these cases is the practice a part of an original ceremony connected with nose-piercing, such as that of mafulu; but it may well be that all the practices have superstitious origins. [ ] there is apparently no corresponding ceremony among the koita natives (seligmann, _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ), nor among the roro people (_id_., p. ), and i do not believe there is any such in mekeo. [ ] i do not think these pigtails are used as ornaments by the roro and mekeo people, though dr. seligmann says that a koita bridegroom wears them in his ears on his wedding day (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). [ ] dr. stapf, to whose inspection i have submitted two of these combs, said they were made of palm-wood--split and shaped pieces from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm--and that the material used for binding the teeth of the combs together was sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern. [ ] these earrings are, i think, sometimes found in mekeo; but they have all come from the mountains. [ ] see note on p. as to the way in which these plates have been produced. [ ] only the two ends of the pattern have been copied, the intermediate part being the same throughout, as is shown. [ ] i am unable to state the various forms and varieties of these vegetables, but i give the following native names for plants of the yam, taro, and sweet potato types:--yams include _tsiolo, avanve, buba, aligarde, vaule, vonide, poloide_ and _ilavuide_. taros include _auvari, elume, lupeliolu, kamulepe, ivuvana_ and _fude_. sweet potatoes include _asi, bili, dube, saisasumulube_ and _amb' u tolo_ (this last name means "ripe banana," and the reason suggested for the name is that the potato tastes rather like a ripe banana). [ ] dr. stapf says the wood is that of a rather soft-wooded dicotyledonous tree (possibly urticaceous). [ ] the chirima boring instrument figured by mr. monckton (_annual report_ for june , ) is rather of the mafulu type, but in this case the fly-wheel, instead of being a flat piece of wood, appears to be made of a split reed bound on either side of the upright cane shaft. [ ] hammocks are also used in the plains and on the coast, but only, i think, to a very limited extent; whereas in the mountains, of at all events the mafulu district, they are used largely. [ ] i had a considerable quantity of impedimenta, and unfortunately my condition made it necessary for me to be carried down also; and i had great difficulty in getting enough carriers. [ ] compare the differently shaped mortar found in the yodda valley and described and figured in the _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] the practice of destroying the pigs' eyes in the kuni district is referred to in the _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] this is subject to the qualification which arises from the fact (stated below) that a member of one clan who migrates to a village of another clan retains his _imbele_ relationship to the members of his own old clan, although he has by his change of residence obtained a similar relationship to the members of the clan in whose village he has settled. [ ] see _annual report_ for june, , which on p. speaks of "several villages round about the mission, known as sivu." [ ] compare the koita system, under which under certain conditions the son of a chief's sister might succeed him (seligmann, _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). such a thing could not take place among the mafulu. [ ] i do not know how far this pig-killer may be compared with the roro _ovia akiva_, or chief of the knife, referred to by dr. seligmann (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). the mafulu pig-killer cannot be regarded as being even a quasi-chief, and his office is not hereditary. it is noticeable also that he is the man who kills the pigs, whereas the _ovia akiva_ only cuts up the bodies after the pigs have been killed by someone else. [ ] i do not suggest that these defences are peculiar to the mafulu area. i believe they are used by other mountain natives of the central district. [ ] though this curious-shaped hood in front of a house is apparently a speciality of the mountains, so far as british new guinea is concerned, i do not suggest that it does not exist elsewhere. in fact, some of the native houses which i have seen in the rubiana lagoon district of the solomon islands had a somewhat similar projection, though in them the front wall of the house, with its little door-opening, was carried round below the outer edge of the hood, which thus formed part of the roof of the interior, instead of being merely a shelter over the outside platform, as is the case in mafulu. [ ] dr. haddon refers (_geographical journal, vol. xvi._, p. ) to conical ground houses with elliptical and circular bases found in villages on the top of steep hills behind the mekeo district and on the southern spur of mt. davidson, and says that in some places, as on the aduala affluent of the angabunga (_i.e._, st. joseph's) river, the houses are oblong, having a short ridge pole. i think that the elliptical houses to which he refers have probably been kuni houses, to which his description could well be applied, and that the oblong houses have been mafulu. the villages with very narrow streets, and the houses of which are, he says, built partly on the crest and partly on the slope, are also in this respect typically kuni. [ ] this photograph had to be taken from an awkward position above, from which i had to point the camera downwards to the bridge. [ ] see also description of suspension bridge over vanapa river in lower hill districts given in _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] compare the koita system under which the owner of the house owns the site of it also, and the latter passes on his death to his heirs (seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. .) [ ] see note on p. . [ ] father egedi describes in _anthropos_ a kuni method of preparing a fruit similar to the one described here, and which also gives rise to terrible smells. the tree is referred to by him as being a bread-fruit; and dr. stapf thinks that the _malage_ may possibly be one of the artocarpus genus, of which some have smooth or almost smooth fruit, and some are said to have poisonous sap, and the seeds of many of which are eaten, or of some closely allied type. [ ] the information obtained by me at mafulu did not go beyond the actual facts as stated by me. i cannot, however, help suspecting that there is, or has been, a close connection between the building of anemone and the holding of a big feast, and that the latter may be compared with the tabu ceremonial of the koita described by dr. seligmann (_melanesians of british new guinea_, pp. and _et seq_.). indeed there are some elements of similarity between the two feasts. [ ] compare the roro custom for the messengers carrying an invitation to important feasts to take with them bunches of areca nut, which are hung in the _marea_ of the local groups of the invited _itsubu_ (seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). [ ] see note on p. as to the use by me of the terms "grave," "bury" and "burial." [ ] _ibid._ [ ] it is the custom among the kuni people when any woman (not merely the wife of a chief) has her first baby for the women of her own village, and probably of some neighbouring villages also, to assemble in the village and to attack her house and the village club-house with darts, which the women throw with their hands at the roofs. at ido-ido i saw that the roofs of the club-house and of some of the ordinary houses had a number of these darts sticking into them. the darts were made out of twigs of trees, and were about five or six feet long; and each of them had a bunch of grass tied in a whorl at or near its head, and some of them had a similar bunch similarly tied at or near its middle. see also dr. seligmann's reference (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ) to the roro custom for warriors, when returning from a successful campaign, to throw their spears at the roof and sides of the marea. in mekeo there is no corresponding ceremony on the birth of a first child; but men, women and children of the village collect by the house and sing all through the night; and in the morning the woman's husband will kill a pig or dog for them, which they cook and eat without ceremony. [ ] dr. seligmann refers to this custom among the roro people (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ), and there is no doubt that it exists among the mekeo people also. father desnoes, of the sacred heart mission, told me that in mekeo, though the pig used to be given when the boy adopted his perineal band at the age of four, five, six, or seven, it is now generally given earlier. the pig is there regarded as the price paid for the child, and is called the child's _engifunga_. [ ] seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] in mekeo such a devolution of chieftainship is the occasion for a very large feast. [ ] this ceremony is different from the mekeo ceremony on the elevation by a chief of his successor to a joint chieftainship, of which some particulars were given to me by father egedi; but there is an element of similarity to a mekeo custom for the new chief, after the pigs have been killed and partly cut up by someone else, to cut the backs of the pigs in slices. [ ] according to dr. seligmann, among the koita the forbidden degrees of relationship extend to third cousins (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ); whereas it will be seen that among the mafulu it only extends, as between people of the same generation, to first cousins. but a mafulu native who was grandson of the common ancestor would be prohibited from marrying his first cousin once removed (great-granddaughter of that ancestor) or his first cousin twice removed (great-great-granddaughter of that ancestor). [ ] but see p. , note . [ ] half-a-dozen years ago, before open systematic killing and cannibalism were checked, it was a kuni custom, when a woman died in her confinement, to bury the living baby with the dead mother. i have not heard of this custom in mafulu, and do not know whether or not it exists, or has existed, there; but as regards matters of this sort the mafulu and the kuni are very similar. my statement that there is no burying alive must be taken subject to the possibility of this custom. [ ] this custom is found elsewhere. [ ] from dr. haddon's distribution chart in vol. xvi. of _the geographical journal_, it will be seen that the mafulu district is just about at the junction between his spear area and his bow and arrow area. [ ] i have never seen the animal called the "macgregor bear," and i do not know what it is. the fathers assured me it was a bear; but in view of the great unlikelihood of this, i consulted the authorities at the natural history museum, and they think it is probably one of the marsupials. it is named after sir william macgregor. it is found in the mountains, where the forest is very thick. [ ] compare the motumotu (toaripi) practice of rubbing the dogs' mouths with a special plant, referred to by chalmers (_pioneering in new guinea_, p. ). [ ] the birds of paradise which dance in trees include, i was told, what the fathers called the "red," the "blue," the "black," the "superb" and the "six-feathered." those which dance on the ground include the "magnificent." [ ] in mekeo the weir is made with wicker-work, at the openings in which basket fish-traps are placed. [ ] _pioneering in new guinea_, pp. and . [ ] dr. stapf tells me that taro is usually propagated by means of tubers or division of crowns, that is that either the whole tuber is planted or it is cut up, as potatoes are done, into pieces, each of which has an eye, and each of which is planted. it would appear that the mafulu method, as explained to me, amounts to much the same thing, the only difference being that instead of planting a crown, or a piece with an eye from which a fresh shoot will proceed, they let that shoot first grow into a young plant and then transplant the latter. [ ] i have examined at the british museum some net work of the dwarf people of the interior of dutch new guinea, brought home by the recent expedition organised by the british ornithologists' union, and found it to be similar in stitch to the mafulu network. [ ] the comet was regarded by some of the mekeo people with terror, because they thought it presaged a descent of the mountain natives upon themselves. [ ] see _evolution in art_ ( ), p. ; and _geographical journal_, vol. , p. . [ ] i would point out, however, that the inawae clan is part of, and is probably largely representative of, the original inawae _ngopu_ group of the great biofa tribe of mekeo, and that this inawae group is rather widely scattered over mekeo (see seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. and pp. to ); so that the information obtained is probably not really of a merely local character. [ ] sir w. macgregor, in describing (_ann. rep._, june, , p. ) the movements and actions of the kiwai (fly river mouth) natives prior to a canoe attack by them upon him, says: "the canoes darted hither and thither, as if performing a circus dance or a highland reel, and all these movements were accompanied by the chant of a paean that sounded as if composed to imitate the cooing--soft, plaintive, and melodious--of the pigeons of their native forests"; and he refers to the performance as a "canoe choral dance." it was, of course, not a dance in the sense in which i am dealing with the subject here; but the apparently imitative character of the singing is perhaps worth noticing in connection with this dancing question. see also the description (_country life_, march , ) by mr. walter goodfellow, the leader of the recent expedition into dutch new guinea, of the dancing and accompanying singing of the mimika natives whom he met there, and his suggestion that the final calls of these songs were derived from that of the greater paradise bird. mr. goodfellow has since told me with reference to these mimika songs that he was forcibly struck by the resemblance of the termination of _most_ of the songs to the common cry of the greater bird of paradise, and said: "they finished with the same abrupt note, repeated three times (like the birds)." dr. haddon has been good enough to lend me the manuscript of his notes on the dances performed in the islands of torres straits, which will probably have appeared in vol. iv. of the _reports of the cambridge anthropological expedition to torres straits_ before this book is published. here again i find interesting records of imitative dancing. one dance imitates the swimming movements of the large lizard (varanus), another is an imitation of the movements of a crab, another imitates those of a pigeon, and another those of a pelican. at a dance which i witnessed in the roro village of seria a party from delena danced the "cassowary" dance; and father egedi says it is certainly so called because its movements are in some way an imitation of those of the cassowary. [ ] compare the western papuans, who, according to dr. seligmann, also have only two numerals, but who are apparently not able to count to anything like the extent which can be done by the mafulu (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). according to mr. monckton the kambisi (chirima valley) people only count on their fingers and up to ten, not on their toes and up to twenty (_annual report_, june, , p. ). father egedi told me that the mekeo people only count on their fingers and up to ten. [ ] i believe that in mekeo they begin with the left hand and with the small finger, thus reversing the mafulu order of counting; but i am not quite certain as to this. [ ] though here and afterwards i use the word "man," it must be understood that the notes apply to deaths of women also. [ ] this food taboo is with the mafulu only an optional alternative; but it may be compared with the corresponding food taboo placed upon all the relatives of the deceased by the koita (see seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea,_ p. ). [ ] i was told of this mafulu practice as being adopted only on the death of the woman's child. but the custom is referred to by the mekeo government agent (mr. giulianetti) in the _annual report_ for june, , pp. and ; and, according to him, its adoption applies also to deaths of other relatives--husband, father, and mother being especially mentioned by him--and he suggests that there are rules as regards these amputations, and says he understood that a mother would cut off the first joint for her children, and the second for her husband, father, or mother. he also gives information as to the way in which the amputation is effected. [ ] the sticks are seen in the plates, having been placed on the grave before the photographs were taken. [ ] i am not aware of any ground for believing that the community invited is one with which intermarriage is specially common. indeed, as stated above, i do not think that there are special matrimonial relationships between communities. [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea,_ p. . [ ] i was told that in the mekeo mourning-removal ceremony each of the persons wearing the insignia of mourning has to go through the ceremony, which consists of the cutting of his necklace or something else with a shell. [ ] compare dr. seligmann's references in _melanesians of british new guinea_ to the mourning removal ceremonies of the koita (p. ), the roro (p. ), and the mekeo (p. ). [ ] i recognise that, though the terms "grave," "bury," and "burial" are correctly applied to the mode of interment underground of an ordinary person, the term "grave" is clearly an incorrect one for the overground platform box and tree box in one or other of which a chiefs body is placed; and the use with reference to this mode of disposal of the dead of the terms "bury" and "burial" is, i think, at least unsuitable. but with this apology, and for lack of a short and convenient, but more accurate, substitute adapted to the three methods, i use these terms throughout with reference to all of them. [ ] this mafulu practice of tree burial is referred to in the _annual report_ for june, , p. . [ ] platform burial in one form or another is not peculiar to the mafulu district. it is perhaps common among many of the mountain people. sir william macgregor found it in the mountains of the vanapa watershed (_annual report_, - , pp. and ), and dr. seligmann regards it, i think, as a custom among the general class of what he calls "kama-weka" (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ). mr. j. p. thomson records its occurrence even in the lower waters of the kemp welch river (_british new guinea_, p. , and see also his further references to the matter on pp. and ). in view of a suggestion which i make in my concluding chapter as to the possible origin of the mafulu people, it is also interesting to note that platform or tree burial is, or used to be, adopted, for important people only, by the semang of the malay peninsula and the andamanese. as regards the semang, though they now employ a simple form of interment, their more honourable practice was to expose the dead in trees (skeat and blagden, _pagan races of the malay peninsula_, vol. ii., p. ); and, though the bodies of the pangan (east coast semang) lay members were buried in the ground, those of their great magicians were deposited in trees (_ibid._, vol. ii., p. ); and apparently this was the case among the semang as regards the bodies of chiefs (_ibid._, vol. i., p. ). and concerning the andamanese it is recorded that the skeleton of a man who, for reasons given, was believed to have been a chief was found lying on a platform of sticks placed across forks of a tree about feet from the ground, a mode which was compared with the method of underground burial which had previously been met with (_transactions of the ethnological society, new series_, vol. v. p. ). mr. portman records (_history of our relations with the andamanese_, vol. ii., p. ) similar tree burial of two chiefs and the wife of a chief, and refers to the practice of burying underground "or, what is more honourable," on a platform up in a tree (_ibid_., vol. i., p. ). the practice is also mentioned by mr. man, who, after referring (_the andaman islanders_, p. ) to underground interment and platform burial, of which "the latter is considered the more complimentary," states (pp. and ) that a small stage is constructed of sticks and boughs about to feet above the ground, _generally_ (the italics are mine) between the forked branches of some large tree, and to it the body is lashed. [ ] i have been unable to find an account of any spiritual or partly spiritual being associated with the beliefs of papuans or melanesians who can be regarded as being similar to _tsidibe_. perhaps the nearest approach to him will be found in _qat_ of the banks islands, of whom much is told us by dr. codrington in _the melanesians_, and who apparently is not regarded as having been of divine rank, but is rather a specially powerful, but perhaps semi-human, spiritual individual, who, though not having originally created mankind and the animal and vegetable world and the objects and forces of nature as a whole, has had, and it would seem still has, considerable creative and influencing powers over them all. but i could learn no detailed legends concerning _tsidibe_; and the scanty information given to me concerning him differs from what we know of _qat_. [ ] dr. stapf thinks it is probably a species of podocarpus or dacrydium. [ ] dr. seligmann refers (_melanesians of british new guinea_, p. ) to a specimen of _ficus rigo_, in which a taboo, having the power of making koita folk sick, is believed to be immanent. i do not know whether or not the _gabi_ tree is _ficus rigo_, but, if it be so, there is an interesting similarity in this respect between these people and the mafulu. [ ] a knotted wisp of grass is, i think, a common form of taboo sign in parts of new guinea; and dr. seligmann refers (_melanesians of british new guinea_, pp. to ) to its use by the koita for the protection of cocoanuts and other trees and firewood, and as part of the protective sign for new gardens. the use of the wisp by the mafulu people, as above described, is not a taboo used for the protection of an object from human interference, being intended to protect the travellers in some way from the spirit or spirits haunting the spot. but there is, i think, an underlying similarity of superstitious ideas involved by the two purposes for which the wisps are used. [ ] _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _the melanesians_, p. . [ ] seligmann, _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] i imagine a somewhat similar superstitious origin may be assumed as regards the idea of general purification (i of course do not refer to mere physical surface washing) by bathing: and father egedi says (_anthropos_, vol. v., p. ) that the kuni people, after a cannibal feast, had to confine themselves until the end of the moon which commenced before the feast to certain food, and that they then all bathed in running water and returned purified and free to eat any food. [ ] apparently flying foxes are good omens in tubetube (southern massim). see seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] this is very different from the extensive food taboo restrictions which father egedi told me were placed upon the bachelors of mekeo. [ ] dr. seligmann puts their average stature at . in. (_lancet,_ feb. th, , p. ), which is less than the mafulu average of . in. given by me above. [ ] dr. seligmann puts their average cephalic index calculated from fifteen measurements at (_geographical journal_, vol. xxvii., p. ), which is below the mafulu average cephalic index of given by me above. [ ] father egedi thinks that the lapeka people have some pokau blood in them. their language is a mixture of kuni and mekeo. [ ] seligmann's _melanesians of british new guinea_, p. . [ ] _geographical journal_, vol. xxvi i., p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] _geographical journal_, vol. xxvii., p. . [ ] p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] _geographical journal_, vol. xxvii., p. . [ ] _nature_, june, , p. . [ ] the rev. father egedi's vocabulary of oru lopiko gives the pronouns thus: 						singular.			plural. 		 st person,		_na_, _naro_.		_dae_, _daro_. 		 nd person,		_ni_, _niro_.		_ali_, _alero_. 		 rd person,		_pi_, _piro_.		_valo_, _valoro_. the possessives are formed with _ma_: _nema_, _nima_, _pima_, _daema_, _lima_, _valoma_. the interrogatives are: _tsia_? who? _itara_? _vaina_? what thing? (s.h.r.) [ ] these numerals differ from the oru lopiko of father egidi. he gives: _konepu_, one; _kalotolo_, two; _konekhalavi_, three; _maimitara_, many; _onionipu_, few. (s.h.r.) [ ] foot's joint. [ ] cf. m. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood. [ ] cf. fire. [ ] cf. m. _tobo_, gourd. [ ] probably introduced. mekeo _avaava_, pokau _tavatava_, buy. [ ] introduced. motu _asi_. [ ] cf. m. _kon(on)de_, knot in wood. [ ] cf. fire. [ ] cf. finger. [ ] cf. bag. [ ] sun its light. [ ] _na,_ i. [ ] arm's joint. [ ] cf. m. _kon(on)de,_ knot in wood. [ ] eyebrow's hair. [ ] eye-skin. [ ] _nu,_ thou. [ ] cf. branch. [ ] _feneme_, eel. [ ] cf. _tala(pe)_, sp. thread. [ ] finger's mother. [ ] cf. earth. [ ] foot's hollow. cf. pumpkin. [ ] cf. earth. [ ] _nu_, thou. [ ] hand's hollow. [ ] _ ni_, you. [ ] side's tongue. [ ] introduced (motu, _kimai_). [ ] _omen_, his. [ ] also handcuffs. [ ] _nu_, thou. [ ] to give the breast. [ ] _aumen_, his?. [ ] _cf._ finger. [ ] breast, its nose. [ ] nose, its hole. [ ] introduced (kabadi, motu, _bara_). [ ] kabadi, &c., _nau_. [ ] sagopalm's important part. [ ] _na_, i. [ ] sit and stay. [ ] _cf._ m. ememe, _pierce._ [ ] _cf._ night, darkness, black. [ ] _cf._ m. _tsibe_, a reed. [ ] _cf._ m. _usi(le_), tusk. [ ] _omen_, he, his. [ ] _cf_. mother. [ ] hand's neck. [ ] _yango(ne_) a plant of which the roots give a yellow stain [ ] _british new guinea vocabularies_. london: the society for promoting christian knowledge. [ ] _a comparative vocabulary of the dialects of british new guinea_. compiled by sidney h. ray. london, . [ ] _annual report on british new guinea_. - , p. . [ ] _annual report on british new guinea_. - , p. . [ ] _british new guinea. annual report for the year ending th june_, . p. . [ ] _anthropos ii, heft_ . pp. - . [ ] in comparing i have omitted the non-essential syllable. [ ] _anthropos_, ii. _heft_ , pp. - . [ ] _op. cit._, p. . [ ] _op. cit._, pp. - . transcriber's notes: ) there are a number of words in the native language that appear to mean the same thing, but have different accents. it is unknown if this is intentional or a printing error - these have been left as printed. eg: nuleága / núleaga ... takináka / takínaka / takinaka ... wáhok / wahok ) characters with diacritical marks are noted as follows: acute ['x] macron [=x] combined ['=x] macron (below) [x=] dot above [.x] breve [)x] * * * * * university of pennsylvania the university museum anthropological publications vol. vi no. ____________________________ the dance festivals of the alaskan eskimo by e. w. hawkes philadelphia published by the university museum contents page introduction phonetic key the dance in general the chorus participation of the sexes the kÁsgi or dance house paraphernalia the dance festivals the asking festival the bladder feast the feasts to the dead the annual feast, ail['=i]gi the great feast, aÍthuk['=a]tukhtuk the feast givers the ritual the clothing of the namesakes the inviting-in festival introduction this account of the dance festivals of the alaskan eskimo was written from material gathered in the bering strait district during three years' residence: two on the diomede islands, and one at st. michael at the mouth of the yukon river. this paper is based on my observations of the ceremonial dances of the eskimo of these two localities. phonetic key [=a], [=e], [=i], [=o], [=u], long vowels. a, e, i, o, u, short vowels. ä, as in hat. â, as in law. ai, as in aisle. au, as ow in how. h, w, y, semivowels. c, as sh in should. f, a bilabial surd. g, as in get. ['g], a post-palatal sonant. k, as in pick. l, as in lull. m, as in mum. n, as in nun. ng, as ng in sing. p, as in pipe. q, a post-palatal surd. [.r], a uvular sonant spirant. s, as in sauce. t, an alveolar stop. tc, as ch in chapter. v, a bilabial sonant. z, as in zone. * * * * * the dance festivals of the alaskan eskimo the dance in general the ceremonial dance of the alaskan eskimo is a rhythmic pantomime--the story in gesture and song of the lives of the various arctic animals on which they subsist and from whom they believe their ancient clans are sprung. the dances vary in complexity from the ordinary social dance, in which all share promiscuously and in which individual action is subordinated to rhythm, to the pantomime totem dances performed by especially trained actors who hold their positions from year to year according to artistic merit.[ ] yet even in the totem dances the pantomime is subordinate to the rhythm, or rather superimposed upon it, so that never a gesture or step of the characteristic native time is lost. this is a primitive - beat based on the double roll of the chorus of drums. time is kept, in the men's dances, by stamping the foot and jerking the arm in unison, twice on the right, then twice on the left side, and so on, alternately. vigorous dancers vary the program by leaping and jumping at intervals, and the shamans are noted for the dizzy circles which they run round the púgyarok, the entrance hole of the dance hall. the women's dance has the same measure and can be performed separately or in conjunction with the men's dance, but has a different and distinctly feminine movement. the feet are kept on the ground, while the body sways back and forth in graceful undulations to the music and the hands with outspread palms part the air with the graceful stroke of a flying gull. some of their dances are performed seated. then they strip to the waist and form one long line of waving arms and swaying shoulders, all moving in perfect unison. [ ] this characterization applies to the alaskan eskimo only; so far as is now known the other eskimo branches do not have totemic dances. the chorus the chorus which furnishes the music, is composed of from six to ten men. they sit on the in['g]lak, a raised shelf extending around the dance hall about five feet from the floor, and sing their dance songs keeping time on their drums. they usually sit in the rear of the room, which is the post of honor. among the island tribes of bering strait this position is reversed and they occupy the front of the room. some old man, the keeper of tribal tradition and song, acts as the leader, calling out the words of the dance songs a line ahead. he begins the proceedings by striking up a low chant, an invitation to the people assembled to dance. the chorus accompany him lightly on their drums. then at the proper place, he strikes a crashing double beat; the drums boom out in answer; the song arises high and shrill; the dancers leap into their places, and the dance begins. the first dances are usually simple exercises calculated to warm the blood and stretch stiffened muscles. they begin with leaping around the pú['g]yarok, jumping into the air with both feet in the eskimo high kick, settling down into the conventional movements of the men's dance.[ ] [ ] while the northern and southern tribes have the same general movements for their ordinary dances, they give a very different presentation of the festival dance-songs. the northerners leap and stamp about the kásgi until overcome with exhaustion; while in the south the performers sit or kneel on the floor, adorned with an abundance of streaming furs and feathers, sweep their hands through the air in graceful unison. it is a difference between rude vigor and dramatic art. quite often a woman steps into the center of the circle, and goes through her own dance, while the men leap and dance around her. this act has been specialized in the reindeer and wolf pack dance of the aithúkaguk, the inviting-in festival, where the woman wearing a reindeer crest and belt is surrounded by the men dancers, girt in armlets and fillets of wolf skin. they imitate the pack pulling down a deer, and the din caused by their jumping and howling around her shrinking form is terrific. participation of the sexes there appears to be no restriction against the women taking part in the men's dances. they also act as assistants to the chief actors in the totem dances, three particularly expert and richly dressed women dancers ranging themselves behind the mask dancer as a pleasing background of streaming furs and glistening feathers. the only time they are forbidden to enter the kásgi is when the shaman is performing certain secret rites. they also have secret meetings of their own when all men are banished.[ ] i happened to stumble on to one of these one time when they were performing certain rites over a pregnant woman, but being a white man, and therefore unaccountable, i was greeted with a good-natured laugh and sent about my business. [ ] this custom appears to be widespread. low writes of the hudson bay eskimo: "during the absence of the men on hunting expeditions, the women sometimes amuse themselves by a sort of female "angekoking." this amusement is accompanied by a number of very obscene rites...." low, the cruise of the neptune, p. . on the other hand, men are never allowed to take part in the strictly women's dances, although nothing pleases an eskimo crowd more than an exaggerated imitation by one of their clowns of the movements of the women's dance. the women's dances are practiced during the early winter and given at the aiyáguk, or asking festival, when the men are invited to attend as spectators. they result in offers of temporary marriage to the unmarried women, which is obviously the reason for this rite. such dances, confined to the women, have not been observed in alaska outside the islands of bering sea, and i have reason to believe are peculiar to this district, which, on account of its isolation, retains the old forms which have died out or been modified on the mainland. but throughout alaska the women are allowed the utmost freedom in participating in the festivals, either as naskuks[ ] or feast givers, as participants or as spectators. [ ] literally "heads" or directors of the feasts. in fact, the social position of the eskimo woman has been misrepresented and misunderstood. at first sight she appears to be the slave of her husband, but a better acquaintance will reveal the fact that she is the manager of the household and the children, the business partner in all his trades, and often the "oomíalik," or captain of the concern as well. her husband is forbidden by tribal custom to maltreat her, and if she owns the house, she can order him out at any time. i have never known a woman being head of a tribe, but sometimes a woman is the most influential member of a tribe. the kÁsgi or dance house with few exceptions, all dances take place in the village kásgi or dance hall. this is the public meeting place where the old men gather to sit and smoke while they discuss the village welfare, where the married men bring their work and take their sweat baths, and where the bachelors and young men, termed kásgimiut, have their sleeping quarters. the kásgi is built and maintained at public expense, each villager considering it an honor to contribute something. any tools or furnishings brought into the kásgi are considered public property, and used as such. when a kásgi is to be built, announcement is made through messengers to neighboring villages, and all gather to assist in the building and to help celebrate the event. first a trench several feet deep is dug in which to plant the timbers forming the sides. these are usually of driftwood, which is brought by the ocean currents from the yukon. the ice breaks up first at the head of that great stream, and the débris dams up the river, which overflows its banks, tearing down trees, buildings and whatever borders its course as it breaks its way out to the sea. the wreckage is scattered along the coast for over a hundred miles, and the islands of bering sea get a small share. the islanders are constantly on the lookout for the drifting timber, and put out to sea in the stormiest weather for a distant piece, be it large or small. they also patrol the coast after a high tide for stray bits of wood. when one considers the toil and pain with which material is gathered, the building of a kásgi becomes an important matter. after the timbers have been rough hewn with the adze (úlimon) they are set upright in the trench to a height of seven to eight feet and firmly bedded with rock. this is to prevent the fierce polar winds which prevail in midwinter from tearing the houses to pieces. in the older buildings a protecting stone wall was built on the sides. most of the houses are set in a side hill, or partly underground, for additional security, as well as for warmth. the roof is laid on top of the uprights, the logs being drawn in gradually in pyramid shape to a flat top. in the middle of the top is the [.r]álok or smoke hole, an opening about two feet square. in a kásgi thirty feet square the rálok is twenty feet above the floor. it is covered with a translucent curtain of walrus gut. the dead are always taken out through this opening, and never by the entrance. the most important feature of the room is the in['g]lak, a wide shelf supported by posts at intervals. it stands about five feet high extending around the room. this serves the double purpose of a seat and bed for the inmates of the kásgi. the rear, the káan, is the most desirable position, being the warmest, and is given to headmen and honored guests.[ ] the side portions, káaklim, are given to the lesser lights and the women and children; and the front, the óaklim, being nearest the entrance and therefore cold and uncomfortable is left for the orphans and worthless men. [ ] the order of the seating on the in['g]lak of invited guests is a matter of great concern to the eskimo, as it is an indication of worth. children purchase their right to a seat in the kásgi by making presents, through their parents, to all the inmates, kásgimiut. until they do so they have no right to enter. for the same reason strangers on entering the kásgi offer a small present to the headman, who divides it among the people. the floor of the kásgi is made of rough planking, and the boards in the center are left loose so that they may be easily removed. these cover the k[=e]néthluk or fireplace, an excavation four feet square, and four feet deep, used in the sweat baths. it is thought to be the place where the spirits sit, when they visit the kásgi, during festivals held in their honor. offerings are poured to them through the cracks in the planks. in the center of the floor is a round hole about two feet in diameter, called the entrance hole or púgyarok. this connects with a long tunnel, the a['g]veak, which leads outside. the tunnel is usually so low that it is necessary to enter in a stooping position, which the eskimo does by placing both hands on the sides of the púgyarok, and drawing himself through. some dance-houses have another entrance directly into the room on a level with the ground, the underground passage being used only in winter. the diagram (plate xi) gives an idea of this arrangement. paraphernalia the drum (saúyit)[ ] is the only instrument employed in the dances. it is made of a circular hoop about eighteen inches in width over which is stretched a resonant covering made from the bladder of the walrus or seal. it is held in place by a cord of rawhide (o['k]linok)[ ] which fits into a groove on the outer rim. the cover can therefore be tightened at will. it is customary during the intermissions between the dances for the drummers to rub a handful of snow over the skins to prevent them from cracking under the heavy blows. the drum is held aloft and struck with a thin stick (múmwa).[ ] it gives a deep boom in answer. the shaman uses a smaller baton with which he beats a continuous tattoo as an accompaniment to his songs. the northerners strike the back of the rim with their sticks, while the yukon people belabor the face of the drum. [ ] tcáuyak, yukon dialect. [ ] lóftak, yukon dialect. [ ] múmra, yukon dialect. the leader of the chorus frequently flourishes a baton, made from a fox tail or the skin of the ermine which is mounted on a stick. with this he marks the time of the dance. in plate xiv, the white blur is the ermine at the end of his stick. it is very difficult to obtain a good picture in the ill lighted kásgi, and not often that the natives will allow one taken there. one indispensable part of a male dancer's outfit is his gloves. i have never seen a man dancing without them. these are usually of wolverine, or of reindeer with elaborate trimmings, but on ordinary occasions any kind will do. the women do not share this peculiarity. in place of gloves they wear handlets of grass decorated with feathers of duck or of ptarmigan. the men in the totem dances also wear handlets which are carved and painted to represent the particular totem they seek to honor. these too are fantastically decorated with feathers, usually of the loon. the central feather is stripped, and crowned with a tuft of white down. both men and women wear armlets and fillets of skin or feathers according to the animal character they represent. when in the full swing of the dance with fur and feathers streaming they present a pleasing spectacle, a picture full of the same wild grace and poetic motion which characterizes the animal forbears from which they claim descent. the chief characters in the totem and comic dances wear masks and carry staves decorated with feathers. occasionally the women assistants carry feathered wands (kelízruk). of the masks there is a great variety ranging from the plain wooden masks to those of such great size that they are suspended from the ceiling of the kásgi by a cord while the dancer performs behind them. the cape prince of wales (kinígumiut) eskimo construct complete figures of their totems. these are worked by means of concealed strings by the performers, a climax of art which is supposed to be particularly pleasing to the spirits addressed. then the shaman (túngalik)[ ] has his own set of masks, hideous enough to strike terror to even the initiated. each one of these represents a familiar spirit (túnghat)[ ] which assists him in his operations. [ ] tungrálik, yukon dialect. [ ] tungrániyak, yukon dialect. ordinary dance masks may be made by anyone, but the masks for the ceremonial dances are made by some renowned shaman, engaged for the occasion. these masks are burned at the close of the festival, but may be sold by the actors if they supply an equal amount of wood for the sacrificial fire. many of the masks are very complicated, having appendages of wood, fur and feathers. they are all fashioned with an idea of representing some feature in the mythology of the spirit (inua) or animal shade (tunghat) which they represent. in the latter case they are nearly always made double, the mythical beings who inhabited the early world being regarded as able to change from animal to human shape, by merely pushing up or pulling down the upper part of the face as a mask. such masks are often hinged to complete the illusion, the actor changing the face at will. it might be mentioned here that when the actor puts on the mask he is supposed to become imbued with the spirit of the being represented. this accounts, to the native mind, for the very lifelike imitation which he gives. the masks are painted along conventional lines; the favorite colors for the inua masks are red (karékteoak),[ ] black (auktoak), green (cúngokyoak), white (katéktoak), and blue (taúkrektoak), in the order named. these colors[ ] may hold a sacred or symbolic significance. the inua masks are decorated with some regard to the natural colors of the human face, but in the masks of the túnghat the imagination of the artist runs riot. the same is true of the comic masks, which are rendered as grotesque and horrible as possible. a mask with distorted features, a pale green complexion, surrounded by a bristling mass of hair, amuses them greatly. the eskimo also caricature their neighbors, the dènè, in this same manner, representing them by masks with very large noses and sullen features. [ ] these are the northern names. in the southern or yukon dialect black is túnguli; white katughúli; red, kauigúli; green, tcunungúli. the endings and pronunciation of similar eskimo words are somewhat different in arctic alaska and on the yukon river; sufficiently so as to produce two distinct dialects. for this reason i have given the forms from both sections. [ ] red is obtained from red ochre; white from white clay; black from soot or ashes; green from oxide of copper. the dance festivals the dance festivals of the alaskan eskimo are held during that cold, stormy period of the winter when the work of the year is over and hunting is temporarily at an end. at this season the people gather in the kásgi to celebrate the local rites, and at certain intervals invite neighboring tribes to join in the great inter-tribal festivals. this season of mirth and song is termed "tcauyávik" the drum dance season, from "tcaúyak" meaning drum. it lasts from november to march, and is a continuous succession of feasts and dances, which makes glad the heart of the eskimo and serves to lighten the natural depression caused by day after day of interminable wind and darkness. a brisk exchange of presents at the local festivals promotes good feeling, and an interchange of commodities between the tribes at the great feasts stimulates trade and results in each being supplied with the necessities of life. for instance, northern tribes visiting the south bring presents of reindeer skins or múkluk to eke out the scanty supply of the south, while the latter in return give their visitors loads of dried salmon which the northerners feed to their dogs. the festivals also serve to keep alive the religious feeling of the people, as evidenced in the dance to the dead, which allows free play to the nobler sentiments of filial faith and paternal love. the recital of the deeds of ancient heroes preserves the best traditions of the race and inspires the younger generation. to my mind, there is nothing which civilization can supply which can take the place of the healthy exercise, social enjoyment, commercial advantages, and spiritual uplift of these dances. where missionary sentiment is overwhelming they are gradually being abandoned; where there is a mistaken opinion in regard to their use, they have been given up altogether; but the tenacity with which the eskimo clings to these ancient observances, even in places where they have been nominal christians for years, is an evidence of the vitality of these ancient rites and their adaptation to the native mind. the festivals vary considerably according to locality, but their essential features are the same. taken in order of celebration they are as follows local festivals. . the aiyáguk or asking festival. . the tcaúiyuk or bladder feast. . the ail['=i]gi or annual feast to the dead. inter-tribal festivals. . the aíthuk['=a]tukhtuk or great feast to the dead. . the aithúkaguk or inviting-in feast. the asking festival, which begins the round of feasting and dancing, takes place during the november moon. it is a local ceremony in which gifts are exchanged between the men and women of the village, which result in offers of temporary marriage. it takes its name from the aiyáguk or asking stick,[ ] which is the wand of office of the messenger or go-between. the annual feast to the dead is held during the december moon, and may be repeated again in spring after the bladder feast, if a large number of eskimos have died in the interim. it consists of songs and dances accompanied by offerings of food and drink to the dead. it is a temporary arrangement for keeping the dead supplied with sustenance (they are thought to imbibe the spiritual essence of the offerings) until the great feast to the dead takes place. [ ] the asking stick is also used in the inviting-in feast (aithúkaguk). this is held whenever the relatives of the deceased have accumulated sufficient food, skins and other goods to entertain the countryside and are able to properly honor the deceased. at the same time the namesakes of the dead are richly clothed from head to foot and showered with presents. as this prodigal generosity entails the savings of years on the part of the feast givers (náskut), the feast occurs only at irregular intervals of several years. it has been termed the ten year feast by the traders (kágruska), but so far as i have been able to inquire, it has no fixed date among the eskimo. it is by far the most important event in the life of the alaskan native. by it he discharges all debts of honor to the dead, past, present and future. he is not obliged to take part in another festival of the kind unless another near relative dies. he pays off all old scores of hospitality and lays his friends under future obligations by his presents. he is often beggared by this prodigality, but he can be sure of welcome and entertainment wherever he goes, for he is a man who has discharged all his debts to society and is therefore deserving of honor for the rest of his days. in the bladder feast which takes place in january, the bladders of the animals slain during the past season, in which the spirits of the animals are supposed to reside, are returned to the sea, after appropriate ceremonies in the kásgi. there they are thought to attract others of their kind and bring an increase to the village. this is essentially a coast festival. among the tribes of the islands of bering sea and the siberian coast this festival is repeated in march, in conjunction with a whaling ceremony performed at the taking down of the [=u]miaks. the dance contests in the inviting-in feast resemble the nith songs of greenland. they are comic and totem dances in which the best performers of several tribes contest singly or in groups for supremacy. the costumes worn are remarkably fine and the acting very realistic. this is essentially a southern festival for it gives an opportunity to the eskimo living near the rivers to display their ingenious talent for mimicry and for the arrangement of feathers. there are a few purely local ceremonies, the outgrowth of practices of local shamans. an example of this is the aitekátah or doll festival of the igomiut, which has also spread to the neighboring dènè. such local outgrowths, however, do not appear to spread among the conservative eskimo, who resent the least infringement of the ancient practices handed down from dim ancestors of the race. it is not often that they will allow a white man to witness the festival dances, but, owing to the friendliness of the chief of the diomede tribes, who always reserved a seat for me next to him in the kásgi, i had the opportunity of seeing the local rites and the great dance to the dead. the same favor continuing with the chief of the unalit, during my residence on the yukon, i witnessed the inviting-in feast as celebrated by the southern tribes. having described the dances in general, i will proceed to a detailed account of each. the asking festival the aiyáguk or asking festival is the first of the local feasts. it occurs about the middle of november when the eskimo have all returned from their summer travels and made their iglus secure against the storms of the coming winter. so, with caches full of fish, and houses packed with trade goods after a successful season at the southern camps, they must wait until the shifting ice pack settles and the winter hunting begins. such enforced inaction is irksome to the eskimo, who does not partake of the stolidity of the indian, but like a nervous child must be continually employed or amused. so this festival, which is of a purely social character, has grown up. my first intimation that there was a celebration taking place was being attracted by a tremendous uproar in the native village just as darkness had fallen. suspecting that the eskimo were making merry over a native brew, called "hoosch,"[ ] i slipped down to the village to see what was the matter. i was met by the queerest procession i have ever seen. a long line of men and boys, entirely naked and daubed over with dots and figures of mingled oil and charcoal,[ ] were proceeding from house to house with bowls in their hands. at each entrance they filed in, howling, stamping and grunting, holding out their dishes until they were filled by the women of the house. all this time they were careful to keep their faces averted so that they would not be recognized. this is termed the "tutúuk" or "going around." returning to the kásgi they washed off their marks with urine, and sat down to feast on their plunder. [ ] this is a liquor distilled from flour and molasses. in the operation an old cask and a gun barrel are used. the liquid is fermented with sour dough and allowed to distill through the barrel. the eskimo had no liquor prior to the advent of the whalers, who supplied them with the materials and probably taught them the art of distilling. the u. s. revenue cutter "bear" has been active in breaking up the practice. in , six illicit stills were seized on the diomede islands. [ ] the first night of the feast the men and older boys meet in the kásgi, and two boys named the raven (tulukaúguk) and the hawk (teibúriak) mix the paint and assist the men in ornamenting themselves. the next day the men gathered again in the kásgi and the aiyáguk or asking stick was constructed. it was made by a man especially chosen for the purpose. it was a slender wand about three feet long with three globes made of thin strips of wood hanging by a strip of o['k]linok from the smaller end. it was carried by the messenger between the men and women during the feast, and was the visible sign of his authority. it was treated with scrupulous respect by the eskimo and to disregard the wishes conveyed by means of it during the feast would have been considered a lasting disgrace. when not in use it was hung over the entrance to the kásgi. the wand maker, having finished the asking stick, took his stand in the center of the room, and swaying the globes, to and fro, asked the men to state their wishes. then any man present had the privilege of telling him of an article he wished and the name of the woman from whom he wished it. (among the southern tribes the men made small wooden models of the objects they wished which were hung on the end of the asking stick.) the messenger then proceeded to the house of the woman in question, swinging the globes in front of her, repeated the wish and stood waiting for her answer. she in turn recollected something that she desired and told it to the messenger. thereupon he returned to the kásgi, and standing in front of the first party, swung the globes, and told him what was desired in return. in this way he made the round of the village. the men then returned to their homes for the article desired, while the messenger blackened his face with charcoal and donned a costume betoking humility. this was considered the only proper attitude in presenting gifts. the costume consisted of wornout clothing, of which a disreputable raincoat (kamleíka) and a dogskin belt with the tail behind were indispensable parts. then the men and women gathered in the kásgi where the exchanges were made through the messenger. if anyone did not have the gift requested he was in honor bound to secure it as soon as possible and present it to his partner. those exchanging gifts entered a relationship termed o[=i]ló['g]uk, and among the northern tribes where the ancient forms persevere, they continued to exchange presents throughout succeeding festivals. after this exchange, a dance was performed by the women. they stripped to the waist, and taking their places on the i['n]glak, went through a series of motions in unison. these varied considerably in time and movement from the conventional women's dance. according to custom at the conclusion of the dance any man has the privilege of asking any unmarried woman through the messenger, if he might share her bed that night. if favorably inclined, she replies that he must bring a deerskin for bedding. he procures the deerskin, and presents it to her, and after the feast is over remains with her for the night. whether these temporary unions lead to permanent marriage i was unable to find out. the gift of reindeer skin is very like the suit of clothing given in betrothal and would furnish material for the parka which the husband presents to his bride. the fact that the privilege is limited to unmarried women might be also urged in turn. as the system of exchanging wives was formerly common among the alaskan eskimo, and as they distribute their favors at will, it is rather remarkable that the married women are not included, as in the licentious feasts recorded of the greenlanders.[ ] from talks with some of the older eskimo i am led to regard this as a relic of an ancient custom similar to those which have been observed among many nations of antiquity, in which a woman is open to violation at certain feasts. this privilege is taken advantage of, and may become a preliminary to marriage. [ ] see hans egede, det gamle grönlands nye perlustration, p. . the bladder feast the bladder feast (tcaúiyuk) is held in december at the full of the moon. the object of this feast is the propitiation of the inua of the animals slain during the season past. these are believed to reside in the bladders, which the eskimo carefully preserve. the ceremony consists in the purification of the bladders by the flame of the wild parsnip (aíkituk). the hunters are also required to pass through the flame. they return the bladders then to the sea, where entering the bodies of their kind, they are reborn and return again, bringing continued success to the hunter. the first three days are spent in preparation. they thoroughly clean the kásgi, particularly the kenéthluk or fireplace, the recognized abode of all spirits visiting the kásgi. then the men bring in their harvest of bladders.[ ] they tie them by the necks in bunches of eight to the end of their spears. these they thrust into the walls at the rear of the room leaving ample room for the dancers to pass under the swaying bladders in the rites of purification. offerings of food and water are made to the inua, and they are constantly attended. one old man told me that they would be offended and take their departure if left alone for a moment. dogs, being unclean, are not allowed to enter the kásgi. neither is anyone permitted to do any work during the ceremony. [ ] the mothers also preserve with greatest care the bladders of the mice, ground squirrels, and other small animals killed by the children. these are purified at the same time. meanwhile four men,[ ] especially chosen for the purpose, scour the adjoining country for parsnip stalks. they bind these into small bundles, and place them on top of the látorak, the outer vestibule to the entrance of the kásgi. in the evening they take these into the kásgi, open the bundles and spread out the stalks on the floor. then each hunter takes a stalk, and they unite in a song to the parsnip, the burden of which is a request that the stalks may become dry and useful for purification. the heat of the seal oil lamps soon dries them, and they are tied into one large bundle. the third day the sheaf is opened, and two bundles made. the larger one is for the use of the dancers; the smaller is placed on a spear and stuck in front of the bladders. the fourth day the bladders are taken down and painted. a grayish mixture is used which is obtained by burning a few parsnip stalks and mixing the ashes with oil. the designs are the series of bands and dots grouped to represent the totems of the hunters. when the paint is dry the bladders are returned to their places. in the evening the men gather again in the kásgi, and the dancers proceed to strip off every vestige of clothing. snatching a handful of stalks at the common pile they light them at the lamps, and join in a wild dance about the room. the resinous stalks shoot into flame with a frightful glare, lighting up the naked bodies of the dancers, and dusky interior of the kásgi. waving the flaming torches over their heads, leaping, jumping, and screaming like madmen they rush around the room, thrusting the flame among the bladders and then into the faces of the hunters. when the mad scene is at its height, they seize one another, and struggle toward the púgyarok (entrance hole). here each is thrust down in succession until all the dancers have passed through. i am informed that this is a pantomime enactment, an indication to the inua it is time for them to depart. [ ] the number four appears to have a sacred significance among the alaskan eskimo. the raven father (tulukaúguk) waves his wings four times over the objects of his creation; the heroes of ancient legends take four steps and are transported great distances; and important events occur on the fourth night. i understand that the four men who gather the wild parsnips represent the four clans of the tribe. the next day a hole is made in the ice near the kásgi, and each hunter dips his spear in the water, and, running back to the kásgi, stirs up the bladders with it. the presence of the sea water reminds the inua of their former home, and they make ready to depart. the bladders are then tied into one large bundle, and the people await the full moon. at sunrise the morning after the full moon each hunter takes his load of bladders, and filing out of the kásgi starts for the hole in the ice on a dead run. arriving there, he tears off the bladders one by one, and thrusts them under the water. this signifies the return of the inua to the sea. as the bladders float or sink success is prophesied for the hunter by the shaman in attendance. in the meantime the old men build a fire of driftwood on the ice in front of the kásgi. the small bundle of parsnip stalks which stood in front of the bladders is brought out and thrown on the fire, and as the stalks kindle to the flame, each hunter utters a shout, takes a short run, and leaps through in turn. this performance purifies the hunter of any matter offensive to the inua, and concludes the ceremony. during the bladder feast all intercourse between the married men and their wives is tabooed. they are required to sleep in the kásgi with the bachelors. neither is any girl who has attained puberty (wingiktóak) allowed near the bladders. she is unclean (wáhok). the feasts to the dead the eskimo idea of the life after death and the rationale for their most important ritual, the feast to the dead, is nowhere better illustrated than in a quaint tale current along the yukon, in which the heroine, prematurely buried during a trancelike sleep, visited the land of the dead. she was rudely awakened from her deathlike slumber by the spirit of her grandmother shaking her and exclaiming, "wake up. do not sleep the hours away. you are dead!" arising from her grave box, the maiden was conducted by her guide to the world beneath, where the dead had their dwellings in large villages grouped according to the localities from which they came. even the animal shades were not forgotten, but inhabited separate communities in human shape.[ ] after some travel the girl found the village allotted to her tribe, and was reclaimed by her departed relatives. she was recognized by the totem marks on her clothing, which in ancient times the eskimo always wore. she found the inmates of this region leading a pleasant but somewhat monotonous life, free from hardships and from the sleet and cold of their earthly existence. they returned to the upper world during the feasts to the dead, when they received the spiritual essence of the food and clothing offered to their namesakes[ ] by relatives. according to the generosity or stinginess of the feast givers there was a feast or a famine in spirit land, and those who were so unfortunate as to have no namesake, either through their own carelessness[ ] or the neglect of the community,[ ] went hungry and naked. this was the worst calamity that could befall an eskimo, hence the necessity of providing a namesake and of regularly feeding and clothing the same, in the interest of the beloved dead. [ ] the shapes of animals are thought by the alaskan eskimo to be like those of men, and in ancient times animals possessed the power of changing their forms at will. this was effected by pulling the muzzle up over the head to become people or of pulling it down again to regain their original form. [ ] the first child born in the village after his death becomes the deceased's namesake. however, if born in camp, its mother gives it the name of the first natural object to catch her eye. [ ] childless people provide for this contingency by adoption. [ ] one who has made himself odious to his fellow villagers is purposely neglected in the feasts to the dead. the annual feast, ail['=i]gi the annual feast to the dead is a temporary arrangement, whereby the shades of those recently departed are sustained until the advent of the great feast to the dead. the essence of the offerings of food and drink are supposed to satisfy the wants of the dead until they can be properly honored in the great festival. in the latter event the relative discharges all his social obligations to the dead, and the ghost is furnished with such an abundance that it can never want in the world below. the makers of the feast (n['ä]skut) are the nearest relatives of those who have died during the past year, together with those villagers who have not yet given the greater festival. the day before the festival the male mourners go to the village burial ground and plant a newly made stake before the grave of their relative. the stake is surmounted by a wooden model of a spear, if the deceased be a man; or a wooden dish, if it be a woman. the totem mark of the deceased is carved upon it. in the north simple models of kayak paddles suffice. the sticks are a notification to the spirits in the land of the dead that the time for the festival is at hand. accordingly they journey to the grave boxes, where they wait, ready to enter the kásgi at the song of invocation. to light their way from the other world lamps are brought into the kásgi and set before their accustomed places. when the invitation song arises they leave their graves and take their places in the fireplace (kenéthluk), where they enjoy the songs and dances, and receive the offerings of their relatives. the annual feast is celebrated after the bladder feast during the december moon. by the yukon tribes it is repeated just before the opening of spring. during the day of the festival a taboo is placed on all work in the village, particularly that done with any sharp pointed tool which might wound some wandering ghost and bring retribution on the people. at midday the whole village gathers in the kásgi, and the ceremony begins. soon the mourners enter bearing great bowls of food and drink which they deposit in the doorway. then the chorus leader arises and begins the song of invitation accompanied by the relatives of the dead. it is a long minor chant, a constant reiteration of a few well worn phrases. "tukomalra-[=a]-, tung lík-a, tis-ká-a a-a-yung-a-a-yung-a, etc. dead ones, next of kin, come hither, túntum komúga thetámtatuk, móqkapik thetámtatuk moqsúlthka. reindeer meat we bring you, water we bring you for your thirst." when the song is completed the mourners arise, and going to the food in the doorway set it on the planks over the fireplace, after which they take a ladleful from each dish pouring it through the cracks in the floor, and the essence of this offering supplies the shades below with food until the next festival. the remainder of the food is distributed among those present. when the feast is over, the balance of the day is given over to songs and dances. then the spirits are sent back to their homes by the simple expedient of stamping on the floor. the great feast, aÍthuk['=a]tukhtuk after making offerings to his relative at the annual feast the chief mourner begins saving up his skins, frozen meat, and other delicacies prized by the eskimo, until, in the course of years, he has accumulated an enormous amount of food and clothing. then he is prepared to give the great feast in honor of his kinsman. others in the village, who are bereaved, have been doing the same thing. they meet and agree on a certain time to celebrate the feast together during the ensuing year. the time chosen is usually in january after the local feasts are over, and visitors from neighboring tribes are free to attend. there are no set intervals between these feasts as has been generally supposed. they are celebrated at irregular intervals according to the convenience of the givers. at the minor festival preceding the great feast, the usual invitation stakes planted before the dead are supplemented by others placed before the graves of those in whose honor the festival is to be given. on these is a painted model of the totemic animals of the deceased. the feast giver sings an especial song of invitation, requesting the dead kinsman to be present at the approaching feast. on the first day of the great feast the villagers welcome the guests. early in the morning they begin to arrive. the messenger goes out on the ice and leads them into the village, showing each where to tie his team. during the first day the guests are fed in the kásgi. they have the privilege of demanding any delicacy they wish. after this they are quartered on various homes in the village. salmon or meat must also be provided for their dogs. this is no small item, and often taxes the resources of a village to the utmost. i have known of a village so poor after a period of prolonged hospitality that it was reduced to starvation rations for the rest of the winter. immediately on tying up their dogs, the guests go to the kásgi. on entering each one cries in set phraseology, "ah-ka-ká- píatin, pikeyútum." "oh, ho! look here! a trifling present." he throws his present on a common pile in front of the headman, who distributes them among the villagers. it is customary to make the presents appear as large as possible. one fellow has a bolt of calico which he unwinds through the entrance hole, making a great display. it may be thirty yards long. sometimes they accompany the gift with a short dance. it is considered bad form for one coming from a distance[ ] not to make the usual present, as in this way he purchases the right to join in the festival dances. [ ] during the inter-tribal festivals, guests are given seats of honor next to the headman of the village according to the distance from which they have come. the back of the room (káan), the place of honor, is reserved for this purpose. as soon as all are gathered in the kásgi, a feast is brought in for the tired travelers. kantags of sealmeat, the blackskin of the bowhead, salmon berries swimming in oil, greens from the hillsides, and pot after pot of tea take off the edge of hunger. after gorging themselves, the guests seem incapable of further exertion, and the remainder of the day is spent in visiting. the feast givers the feast givers or n['ä]skut assemble in the kásgi the second day, and the ceremony proper begins. they range themselves around the púgyarok or entrance, the chorus and guests occupying the back of the room and the spectators packing themselves against the walls. each feast giver is garbed according to the sex of his dead relative, not his own, so that some men wear women's clothes and vice versa. each bears in his right hand a wand about two feet long (kelézruk).[ ] this is a small stick of wood surmounted with tufts of down from ptarmigan (okozregéwik). all are dressed to represent the totem to which the deceased belongs. one wears a fillet and armlet of wolfskin (egóalik); others wear armlets of ermine (táreak); still others are crowned with feathers of the raven (tulúa) or the hawk (tciakaúret).[ ] after a short dance they withdraw and the day's ceremony is finished. [ ] the same arrangement characterizes the finger masks of the inviting-in dance. (kiggilúnok), meaning wand, in southern dialect. [ ] southern dialect. akkizhzhígik, ptarmigan. teibúviak, hawk; tulukaúguk, meaning raven. the following day the n['ä]skut assemble again, but they have doffed their fine feathers, and are dressed in their oldest clothes. the suits of the day before they carry in a grass sack. they wear raincoats of sealgut tied about the waist with a belt of dogskin, and enter the kásgi with eyes cast on the floor. even in the dances they keep their faces from the audience. this attitude of humility is in accord with eskimo ethics. they say that if they adopt a boastful air and fail to give as many presents as the other n['ä]skut they will be ashamed. so they safeguard themselves in advance. the ritual advancing with downcast eyes, the n['ä]skut creep softly across the kásgi and take their places before the funeral lamps. then taking out their festival garments, they slip them on. immediately the drummers start tapping lightly on their drums, and at a signal from their leader the song of invitation begins. each n['ä]skuk advances in turn, invoking the presence of his dead in a sad minor strain. toakóra ílyuga takína dead brother, come hither a-yunga-ayunga-a-yunga. or: nuleága awúnga toakóra sister mine, dead one, takína, núleaga, takína, come hither, sister, come hither. or: akága awúnga takína mother mine, come hither. nanáktuk, takína, we wait for you, come hither. to which the chorus answer: ilyúga awúnga takína, our brother, come hither, takináka, ilyúga, takínaka, return, dead brother, return. the women advance in line, holding their wands in the right hand, and singing in unison; then the men advance in their turn, then both n['ä]skut and chorus sing together: takinaka, awúnga, tungalika, return to us, our dead kinsmen, nanakátuk, kineáktuk tungal[í=]ka we wait your home coming, our dead kinsmen. suddenly the drummers cease and rap sharply on the in['g]lak with their drumsticks. the dancers stop in the midst of their movements and stamp on the floor, first with one foot then with the other, placing their hands on their shoulders, bringing them down over their bodies as though wiping off some unseen thing. then they slap their thighs and sit down. i am informed that this is to "wipe off" any uncleanness (wahok) that might offend the shades of the dead. then the namesakes of the dead troop into the kásgi, and take their places in the center of the room between the two lines. to each, the n['ä]skuk hands a bowl of water and a kantag of frozen reindeer meat cut into small pieces. the namesakes drop a small portion of the meat on the floor. the essence is evidently thought to pass below to the waiting inua. then they finish the remainder. at the same time a large amount of frozen meat and fish is brought in and distributed among the guests. this is done at the end of each day. the fourth day the chorus leader mounts the top of the kásgi and begins again the invitation song. the people scatter to the burying ground or to the ice along the shore according to the spot where they have lain their dead. they dance among the grave boxes so that the shades who have returned to them, when not in the kásgi, may see that they are doing them honor. during the dancing the children of the village gather in the kásgi, carrying little kantags and sealskin sacks. the women on returning bring great bags of frozen blueberries and reindeer fat, commonly called "eskimo ice cream," with which they fill the bowls of the children, but the young rogues immediately slip their portions into their sacks (póksrut) and hold out their dishes for more, crying in a deafening chorus, "wunga-t['=u]k" (me too). this part of the festival is thoroughly enjoyed by the eskimo, who idolize their children. at the conclusion of the day's feast many presents are given away by the n['ä]skut, the husbands of the female feast givers distributing them for the ladies, who assume a bashful air. during the distribution the n['ä]skut maintain their deprecatory attitude and pass disparaging remarks on their gifts. sometimes the presents are attached to a long line of óklinok (seal thong) which the n['ä]skut haul down through the smokehole, making the line appear as long as possible. at the same time they sing in a mournful key bewailing their relative: ah-ka- ilyúga toakóra, tákin, oh! oh! dead brother, return, utiktutátuk, ilyúga awúnga, return to us, our brother, illearúqtutuk, ilyúga, we miss you, dear brother, pikeyútum, kokítutuk, a trifling present we bring you. the clothing of the namesakes the following day occurs the clothing of the namesakes. this is symbolical of clothing the dead, who ascend into the bodies of their namesakes during the ceremony and take on the spiritual counterpart of the clothing. after a grand distribution of presents by the n['ä]skut, bags of fine clothing are lowered to the feast givers and the namesakes take the center of the floor, in front of their relatives, the feast givers. then each n['ä]skuk calls out to the particular namesake of his dead kinsman: "[=i]takín, illorahug-náka," "come hither, my beloved," and proceeds to remove the clothing of the namesake and put on an entirely new suit of mukluks, trousers, and parka, made of the finest furs. then the feast giver gathers up the discarded clothing, and stamps vigorously on the floor, bidding the ghost begone to its resting place. it goes, well satisfied, and the dancers disperse until another great festival. until the feast is concluded no one can leave the village. the inviting-in festival the inviting-in festival (aithúkaguk) is a great inter-tribal feast, second in importance to the great feast to the dead. it is a celebration on invitation from one tribe to her neighbors when sufficient provisions have been collected. it takes place late in the season, after the other festivals are over. neighboring tribes act as hosts in rotation, each striving to outdo the other in the quality and quantity of entertainment offered. during this festival the dramatic pantomime dances for which the alaskan eskimo are justly famous, are performed by especially trained actors. for several days the dances continue, each side paying the forfeit as they lose in the dancing contests. in this respect the representations are somewhat similar to the nith contests of the greenlanders. as i have noticed the dances at length elsewhere,[ ] i shall only give a brief survey here, sufficient to show their place in the eskimo festival dances. [ ] canadian geological survey. memoir . the "inviting-in" feast of the alaskan eskimo. the main dances of the inviting-in festival are totemic in character, performed by trained actors to appease the totems of the hunters, and insure success for the coming season. these are danced in pantomime and depict the life of arctic animals, the walrus, raven, bear, ptarmigan, and others. then there are group dances which illustrate hunting scenes, like the reindeer and wolf pack dance already described, also dances of a purely comic character, designed for the entertainment of the guests. during the latter performances the side which laughs has to pay a forfeit. elaborate masks are worn in all of the dances. the full paraphernalia, masks, handmasks, fillets, and armlets, are worn by the chief actors. they are supported by richly garbed assistants. an old shaman acts as master of ceremonies. there is an interchange of presents between the tribes during the intervals but not between individuals, as in the asking festival. at the close of the festival the masks are burned. key to plate xi a--outer vestibule. (l[=a]´tor[)a]k.) b--summer entrance. (am[=e]k´.) c--front platform. (['=o]aklim.) seat of orphans and worthless. d--plank floor. (n[=a]´t[=u]k.) e--rear platform. (k[=a]´an.) seat of honored guests. f--smoke hole. ([.r]a´l[)o]k.) entrance for gift-lines. g--entrance hole. (pug´y[)a]r[)a]k.) h--fireplace. (k[=e]ne´thluk.) seat of spirit-guests. i--underground tunnel. (ag´v[=e]ak.) j--side platforms. (k['=a]aklim.) seats for spectators. k--chorus of drummers. l--feast givers. (nä´skut.) m--namesakes of dead. [illustration: anthr. pub. univ. museum vol. vi plate xi arrangement of kásgi during the great feast to the dead. the kÁsgi or dance house.] key to plate xii a--first movement. the chief's son, okvaíok is dancing. b--second movement. [illustration: anthr. pub. univ. museum vol. vi plate xii a b men's dance] key to plate xiii c--third movement. d--fourth movement. [illustration: anthr. pub. univ. museum vol. vi plate xiii c d men's dance] key to plate xiv children's dance. the chorus. leader in center beating time with an ermine stick. [illustration: anthr. pub. univ. museum vol. vi plate xiv children's dance the chorus] key to plate xv women's dance. [illustration: anthr. pub. univ. museum vol. vi plate xv women's dance] none line # . . .text begins on line # production notes at line # explanation of typographical conventions at line # this electronic edition of edith a. how's _people of africa_ was produced by john walker in january . it follows the edition (the only one of which i am aware) published in london by the society for promoting christian knowledge and in new york by the macmillan company. i have corrected two typographical errors in the original text: "sandstorm" was misspelled as "standstorm" on page (section of chapter iii), and "bought" appeared where "brought" was intended on page (paragraph of section of chapter iv). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- people of africa etext production notes this public domain etext edition of edith a. how's people of africa was prepared by: john walker http://www.fourmilab.ch/ if you discover any errors in this etext, please report them to me by 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manual of style_. this preserves readability and doesn't require funny encoding, but in a sense violates the author's "original intent"--the author could have transliterated the word in the first place but chose not to. by transliterating we're reversing the author's decision. the second approach, encoding in latex or some other markup language, preserves the distinction that the author wrote the word in greek and maintains readability since letters are called out by their english language names, for the most part. of course latex helps us only for greek (and a few characters from other languages). if you're faced with cyrillic, arabic, chinese, japanese, or other languages written in non-roman letters, the only option (absent unicode) is to transliterate. i suggest that encoding mathematical formulas as latex achieves the goal of "readable by humans" on the strength of latex encoding being widely used in the physics and mathematics communities when writing formulas in e-mail and other ascii media. just as one is free to to transliterate greek in an etext, one can use ascii artwork formulas like: --------- + / -b - \/ b - ac x = ------------------ , a this is probably a better choice for occasional formulas simple enough to write out this way. but to produce etexts of historic scientific publications such as einstein's "zur elektrodynamik bewegter k”rper" (the special relativity paper published in _annalen der physik_ in ), trying to render dozens of complicated equations in ascii is not only extremely tedious but in all likelihood counter-productive; ambiguities in trying to express complex equations would make it difficult for a reader to determine precisely what einstein wrote unless conventions just as complicated (and harder to learn) as those of latex were adopted for ascii expression of mathematics. finally, the choice of latex encoding is made not only based on its existing widespread use but because the underlying software that defines it (tex and latex) are entirely in the public domain, available in source code form, implemented on most commonly-available computers, and frozen by their authors so that, unlike many commercial products, the syntax is unlikely to change in the future and obsolete current texts. . other punctuation in the text consists only of the characters: . , : ; ? ! ` ' ( ) { } " + = - / * @ # $ % & ~ ^ | < > in other words, the characters: _ [ ] \ are never used except in the special senses defined above. . quote marks may be rendered explicitly as open and close quote marks with the sequences `single quotes' or ``double quotes''. as long as quotes are balanced within a paragraph, the ascii quote character `"' may be used. alternating occurrences of this character will be typeset as open and close quote characters. the open/close quote state is reset at the start of each paragraph, limiting the scope of errors to a single paragraph and permitting ``continuation quotes'' when multiple paragraphs are quoted. a program to translate etexts prepared in this format into: latex (and thence to postscript or pdf, if you wish) html for posting on the web or palm reader format for handhelds may be downloaded from: http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/etset/ the program is in the public domain and includes complete source code. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> people of africa ===================================== by edith a. how, b.a. universities' mission to central africa with six coloured illustrations london society for promoting christian knowledge new york: the macmillan co. --------------- preface it is hoped that this book and its companion volume dealing with non-african peoples will be the beginning of a series of simple, readable accounts for africans of some of the various objects of general interest in the world of to-day. there are many such works published for the use of english and american children. but the native african has a totally different experience of life, and much that is taken for granted by a child of a northern civilized land needs explanation to one used to tropical uncivilized surroundings. again, the african knows the essential operations of everyday life in their simplest form, whereas the european knows them disguised by an elaborate industrial system. all this makes books written for english children almost unintelligible to a member of a primitive race. these two volumes are far from perfect, but it has been difficult to know always how to select wisely from the mass of material at hand. they will have served, however, a useful purpose if they form a basis for adaptations into the various african vernaculars, and afford an inspiration for other works of a similar nature. thanks are due to miss k. nixon smith, of the universities mission to central africa, for her kindness in criticizing the mss. from her long experience of the african outlook. edith a. how _june_, . i ----------- introduction in this book we are going to read about some of the other people who live in our own great country--africa. africa is very, very large, so big that no one would be able to go to all the places in it. but different people have been to different parts, and have told what they saw where they went. wherever our home in africa may be, if we walked towards the sunrise--that is, towards the east--day after day, at last we should reach the great salt sea. again, if we walked towards the sunset in the west, we should at last get to the sea. to the north, again, is the sea, and to the south, the sea. whichever way we walked, at last, after many months, we should be stopped by the sea. but on our journey we should have met many different kinds of people, and have seen many different customs. in some places there would be rivers, in some mountains, in some deserts, with no trees or grass to be seen. in these, people must make their homes in many ways, and have many kinds of food and clothes. because we live in africa, we want to know about africa and the people in it. they are men and women and children like ourselves, though the colour of their skins may be lighter or darker than ours, and their languages quite different. but they, too, build houses and eat food and wear some kind of dress, and it is interesting to know about their customs. so in this book we shall read about some of them and of how they live; and, to help us to understand, we shall find with each part a picture of the people we are reading about. all the time we must remember that we could get to see them for ourselves if we were strong enough to walk so far, because they are all our own brothers and sisters in africa. long ago most african peoples were shut off from the other people of the world by the sea and the great sandy desert. only the people of egypt could meet and learn from the people of europe and asia. so while the egyptians grew wise and clever, all the other africans, south of the desert, knew nothing except what they had learnt by themselves. then arabs began to cross the desert to get gold and slaves from the dark-skinned africans. these arabs taught them a little. but, later still, europeans began to come in great ships over the sea. these came at first like the arabs to trade, and afterwards began to plant great fields of cotton and tobacco, which will not grow in their own lands. but they found the dark-skinned africans were still ignorant, and afraid of people of other races. they were always fighting among themselves, and no one could settle among them until there was peace and safety. at last the european nations made agreements with the chiefs, so that now in nearly every part of africa there is a european governor to prevent wars and fighting. thus in north africa the governors are sent by france, in the congo lands by belgium, in east africa by england, in some other parts by portugal. these are different european nations who send men to keep peace, and to make it possible to carry on trade. of course, the coming of the europeans has made great changes in the lives of the africans. in the old times all the men were busy fighting, and often whole villages of people were killed or made slaves. now there is no fighting, but there is more need to work than before. there are more people, and less land for each family. europeans want workmen to help on their great fields. the africans want many things now, which they did not know about before, and they must have money to buy them. so work for money has taken the place of fighting. again, in some ways the europeans, enforcing peace and making many quick ways of travel, such as good roads and bridges, have helped to weaken the power of the chiefs. nobody likes changes to come, and the old people are always sorry when their children begin new customs; but on the whole it is good for africans that other nations came to their country, because they have brought peace in the place of war, and safety and freedom instead of the old fear of death or slavery. ii ----------- egypt . the country and its river egypt is a country in the north of africa. it has sea to the north and sea to the east. on the north it is called the mediterranean sea, and on the east the red sea. on the west is the great sandy desert called the sahara, and to the south are great forests and mountains. egypt itself is the land of the great river nile. there is very seldom any rain there, and everyone has to get water from the great river. so all the people live near the nile or the canals which lead out of it. a "canal" is a waterway, the channel of which has been dug by men. the big towns are where the river flows out into the sea, or where a canal meets the main stream, because the people bring their merchandise to market in boats. all over the land are little villages, where many people live and work in the fields to grow food. year by year when there is heavy rain in the mountains far away south, the river nile rises and floods the fields. then the people plant their seed quickly and get a good harvest. it is not difficult to understand why the egyptians love their great river, which gives them water for their fields and carries them in their boats from place to place. . its past history egypt is the only part of africa that could be reached easily by people in europe and asia, because in egypt is the only place where men could walk from asia and europe into africa. even if they did not want to walk, the sea was not too wide to cross in small boats. in the bible we read how abraham, who lived in asia, walked to egypt, and later how moses led the children of israel back to asia. since that time europeans have cut a waterway for ships through this narrow neck of land, which is called the suez canal. so now people can no longer walk from asia to africa, but in the old days the egyptians grew wiser than others in africa, because they were more able to meet men from other lands in asia and europe, and to learn something from them all. so hundreds and hundreds of years ago there were people living in this country of the nile who were wise and great. they built large cities and temples and houses. they knew how to write, and covered the walls of their houses with writing. their letters were not like ours, but were pictures of the things they were writing about. they also built huge stone tombs for their kings to be buried in, and these were called "pyramids." the kings of egypt were called "pharaohs." when the old egyptians wrote books, instead of paper they used the dried leaves of a reed called "papyrus," which grows in the nile. several leaves were fastened together to make a book. these old writings on reeds and on the walls have been found after lying buried in the sand, which has covered so much of old egypt. the hot sand has kept them dry, and prevented them being destroyed during hundreds of years. by reading these writings we are able to find out how these people lived so long ago. they had also a wonderful way of taking the waters of the nile in ditches over the whole land. there is hardly any rain in egypt, and this nile water prevented the country becoming so sandy and dry. in those days egypt was well-known for its wonderful harvests and stores of food. but though these people were wise in many ways, yet they were proud and cruel to their enemies. in the bible we read how they treated the children of israel in the time of moses. perhaps this was because they did not know god our father, but worshipped many gods, whose pictures and images were like animals. many of the great temples they built for these gods are still standing, and when we see pictures of them, we wonder at the skill of these people who lived so long ago. egypt was one of the first great countries to become christian, and many of the old heathen temples were turned into churches. but at last the arabs, who were mohammedans, conquered egypt, and forced most of the people to become mohammedans too. but some remained faithful in spite of all, and these to-day are called "copts," from the old name for egypt. for hundreds of years these copts have lived in a country ruled by moslem arabs, or turks, who hated their religion, but they have been true to christ through all. there are people of all lands living in the towns of egypt in these days, for there is a great deal of business to be done in them. but the people who work in the fields are the children of the old egyptians, though they have forgotten their old wisdom and are now very ignorant. . the people of egypt the egyptians are a race different both from the dark-skinned people of africa and from europeans. they have olive skins, very dark, almond-shaped eyes, and dark, straight hair. most of the men shave their heads, and wear a turban or tarboosh as a covering. the women fasten a veil below their eyes, which falls over the lower part of their face. both the men and the women wear several loose garments, which cover the whole body from the neck to the feet. all except the very poor wear shoes. in the towns there are a great many people, some very rich and others very poor. often a city looks very beautiful, because the houses are built of white or light-coloured stone or brick. but they are close together, and the streets are very narrow and dirty, and so the poor people are often ill. the houses are built in "storeys," one room on the top of another, with steps leading to the upper rooms. often there is a courtyard in the middle of the house, so that all the rooms can have windows and light. one part of the house is separated from the rest for the women to use. this is called the "hareem," and no man, except the master of the house, is allowed to go into it. all rich mohammedans have a separate part of their house for the women. a poor woman in all countries has plenty of work to do, but a rich lady in egypt has many servants, or slaves, to do the work, and, as she is kept shut up in the "hareem" from the time she is ten or eleven years old, she can learn very little, except how to do beautiful needlework. she cannot help her husband and her sons to be wise and good, because she does not know enough about life and work outside the "hareem." so the egyptian ladies have little to do and little to think about all the day while their husbands are away, and they are often very dull. but the town-people love their children very much, and egyptian children are taught always to love, honour, and obey their father and mother. an egyptian man may have four wives, but generally he has only one. until a few years ago, all egyptians who had enough money used to buy slaves to do their work. slaves could be bought or sold, or married or given away, as if they were things instead of people. masters could illtreat or even kill their slaves and not be punished, because it was only as if they had broken their water-jar in a temper, and that was no one else's business. often slaves were happy if they had good masters, but it is a bad custom to take away a person's freedom and treat him as if he had no soul. during the last few years many europeans have been helping the egyptians to improve their country, and one of the changes has been to do away gradually with slavery. no one is now allowed to buy a slave, and anyone born in slavery can become free if he wishes to do so. instead of slaves, people now have servants who receive wages for their work. these are free to leave their master if he does not treat them well. although slavery is dying out of egypt, there are other parts of north africa where the old bad customs still exist, though the great european nations try to prevent the public markets for slaves being held. people are happiest in countries where there are no slaves and everyone is free to do the work for which he is best fitted. in egyptian households where there is more than one wife there is often quarrelling. the wives of one man all live in one "hareem," and cannot help being jealous if they see their husband likes one better than another. then there is quarrelling and ill-will among them. as the children grow up there is a further cause for jealousy, because the mothers of boys are more important than those who have only girl-children. children cannot respect their mothers if they often see them quarrelling and jealous. again, there is always a possibility that a husband may divorce his wife. he is not likely to do so if she has a boy-baby, but until she has, her position as a wife is not very secure. these bad marriage customs lead to much unhappiness, and prevent the women of egypt from doing so much good as the women of some other lands are able to do. we must not, of course, think that all egyptian homes are unhappy; probably many poor women are quite glad when their husband brings another wife to help with the work. but where servants do the work, there are only the pleasures of the home to be shared, and then jealousy will be likely to come. . the big towns if we went for a walk in the narrow streets of an egyptian city or big town, we should see on either side open shops, each with its owner ready to sell his goods. many of the people of the towns have shops or trades. they sell jewellery, furniture, cloth, and everything that is wanted in the house for cooking. in the streets there are some men carrying drinking-water for sale, because it is hot walking about and people get thirsty. others will be selling sweet-stuff made of sugar, which everyone likes. others wait about ready to write letters for people who cannot write for themselves, and there are always many beggars. great steamers from other countries--england, france, india, japan--bring merchandise to alexandria and port said, the seaports of egypt, and so people from these countries have shops and offices in those towns. then the goods are taken by boats or trains to the capital, cairo, where the sultan lives, and to other large towns. in all these towns there are hundreds of people, so that a man can only know those who live near him or work with him. most of them are unknown to one another and are like strangers, although they all live in one town and can all speak arabic. . life in the villages the country-people of egypt are very poor, and have to work very hard all the year round in their fields. their houses are built of bricks dried in the sun, plastered together with mud, and the roof is made of plaited palm leaf. inside there is only one room, which has a big oven made of mud with a flat top on which the father and mother sleep. the work in the fields is very hard, as the ground has to be made fertile by digging canals and ditches all over it to bring the water from the nile, because, you remember, there is no rain in egypt. when the nile begins to fall, the water has to be raised in baskets fastened to a wheel or pole, and thrown on the ground. in order to get enough money, the people plant another kind of seed as soon as one harvest is gathered; first, perhaps, planting wheat, then millet, or cotton, then maize. so the country-people in egypt are always working hard from sunrise to sunset all the year in their fields, and their little children have to learn to mind sheep, goats, or cattle, and to help in other ways as soon as they can walk alone. other men work on the nile, carrying people or goods up and down the river in boats from place to place. this, again, is hard work, but the boatmen seem very happy and often sing as they pass along. people in the country villages are ignorant, and very few can read or write. sometimes when the harvest has been bad and food is dear and scarce, the people get deeply into debt. there is a great deal of illness and disease, but there are very few doctors and nurses to help people to get well. so the life of an egyptian peasant is a hard one--a great deal of work and very little time to rest, or play, or learn. but everyone has something to make him happy, and, unless there is famine or pestilence, these people have their wives and children and home, just as people have in england and other countries. the only person who need be unhappy is the one who has no one to love. so we have learnt a little about that part of africa called egypt--the land of the nile--and about the people who live in it. we must remember that all the other people who live on the north coast of africa, in tunis, algeria, and morocco, are something like the egyptians, also speaking arabic, and different from the dark-skinned people who live farther south where it is very hot. iii ----------- the sahara, the great sandy desert . what the desert is like in the last chapter we were reading about egypt, and we said that on the west of egypt lay the great desert. now a desert is a place where for some reason no food will grow. in some deserts the soil is too bad; in some the ground is covered with salt; in others, like the sahara, there are no rivers. in some places in the sahara there is water coming up through a crack in the rocks. this water is called a "spring," and wherever one is found, trees and grass and food will grow. such a place is called an "oasis." in the big oases there are villages and towns. but the sun is so hot that before the water from the spring has flowed very far it is dried up, and beyond that nothing will grow. so when we think of the sahara we have to try and picture to ourselves a very big country, full of hills and valleys, but with no rivers or lakes. it is a journey of many months to cross the sahara, and day after day there is nothing to see but sand--sand, not flat, but in ridges of hills like great waves of the sea. when people are travelling across this desert, they get very tired of looking at nothing but sand all day. then, at last, as the sun sets, they reach an oasis where there is water and bananas and date-trees, and perhaps houses and people. sometimes great winds blow in the desert and bring a sandstorm. then the sand beats hard against everything. if travellers meet a sandstorm, they have to throw themselves face downwards on the ground to keep the sand out of their eyes and mouth. very often people who live in the desert have bad eyes, and many are blind because of the sandstorms. . how the desert came long, long ago, the sahara was not quite so dry as it is now. there were rivers then, which have dried up since. when there was water, food would grow, and people could keep sheep and cattle. in those days there were several large cities there. but when the water began to dry up, the ground became sandy and nothing would grow. then, whenever the wind blew, the sand was carried along and began to cover up the houses and temples. the people had moved away because their food would not grow, and soon the sand completely covered the old cities. for a long time they were buried, until some europeans went to see what they could find out about the people who lived there long ago. then they dug and dug in the sand, and found the old houses and temples. but digging in the desert is very hard work, because it is very hot, and there is very little water and food. often, too, a great wind arises and brings a sandstorm. then the sand drifts back again to the places already cleared. . the desert peoples (_a_) berbers it is surprising to find that there are a great many people living in this desert region of north africa. there are three kinds of people there. firstly, there are the berbers, who live always in a little town or village on a big oasis, and grow their own food. secondly, there are the bedouin, who live in large wandering tribes. these keep sheep and goats and camels, and stay on a small oasis until their herds have eaten all the grass on it, and then move on to another place. thirdly, there are the arab traders, whose business is to go south of the desert to get ivory and gold, and to take these back to egypt and to the great cities north of the desert to sell. all these people speak arabic and are mohammedans. the berbers who live in the towns on the great oasis, where there is a large spring of water, are a different race from the arabs, the egyptians, or the dark-skinned people of farther south. they are much darker-skinned than the egyptians and the bedouin. in the past many different races of south europe, as well as the arabs, have conquered them and intermarried with them, but they still remain a distinct race, though their customs are like those of other moslems. they make their houses of bricks dried in the sun, and build them so close together that people can step from one roof to another across the street. the roofs are flat, so that they can sit or sleep on them at night when it is very hot inside the house. all round the outside of the towns are brick walls with gates that are shut at night for fear of robbers. these people live very much like the town-people in egypt, only they are much poorer. they can buy things from the traders in the caravans which stop at their village for the night, but as they cannot grow or make many things to give in exchange, most people have to be content with the earthenware cooking-pots and the cloth they can make themselves. the women draw water and prepare the food and look after the children. then they weave flax and wool into cloth. their dress is something like that of the poor egyptians. the children have to herd the sheep and goats, which at night sleep in the house with their owners. the men hoe the gardens and grow the millet and barley for food, and the flax for cloth. the chief food of these people is bread made of millet-flour kneaded with milk and baked in a hole in the ground. the flour is ground between two stones placed one on the top of the other, the upper one having one or two handles by which it can be moved round. the people in these small, crowded towns in the middle of the desert must live very narrow lives, and they do not know much about anything outside their own village. journeys in the desert are very dangerous because of sandstorms and the difficulty of finding the way where there are no roads, and more especially because of robbers. so people never go on journeys unless they can join a big company with plenty of men ready to fight if the robbers attack them. . the desert peoples (_b_) bedouin the second kind of people who have their home in the desert are the bedouin. these are arabs who once lived in another desert in arabia, but long, long ago many of them came to live in the sahara. the bedouin live in tents made of poles with dark cloth of goats' hair or camels' hair spread across them for walls and roof. they travel in large tribes, and put up their tents on a small oasis where there is no town. these people still live as abraham, isaac, and jacob lived long ago, before the israelites built their towns. on the oasis their camels, horses, sheep, and goats can find water to drink and grass to eat. when all the food has been eaten they pack up the tents and everything they have and put it on the backs of the animals. then the men and women and children all mount camels and horses and donkeys, and the whole tribe moves to another oasis. these people drink camels' milk and eat the dates and bananas and other fruit they find where they pitch their tents. they also bring these fruits to the berber towns, and exchange them for flour to make bread and for coffee to drink. coffee is a berry which is first roasted, then, when water is boiled and poured on to it, it makes a strong, brown liquid which arabs and europeans like to drink. the women weave camels' hair into clothes and blankets, and goats' hair into tent-covers. the bedouin men are always ready to fight with their guns and lances; sometimes they are robbers, but most of them travel from place to place, only fighting if others attack them. there is always a chief in each tribe of bedouin, and in each village of the berbers, but away in the desert there are many bands of robbers who will not obey any law, and everyone has to fight for himself against these people. the bedouin love their animals, especially their camels and their horses. it is quite natural that they should do so, because often a man would die in the desert if his horse or camel would not work well and carry him faithfully until they reached water. sometimes when the people lose their way in the pathless sand, the horses and camels can find it. . the desert peoples (_c_) traders the third kind of people who are found in the sahara are the traders. these, like the bedouin, are arabs, but often their homes are in some town, either on the edge of the desert or in egypt. they travel from the great north african towns and from egypt, across the desert to the rich countries south of it, where the dark-skinned people live. there, south of the sahara, they buy ivory and dyed goat-skins and other things in exchange for cloth and beads, and return with their merchandise to the northern towns again. many years ago they used to capture slaves, but they cannot often do so now, because the christian europeans try to stop trading in slaves. the journeys of the traders take many months, because often they have to go by a long road in order to find water. so they travel from oasis to oasis seeking shade and water. sometimes they have to ride three or four days to reach the next drinking-place. then they have to carry water for themselves in goat-skins. the camels can live for a few days without water, though they get very weak. for this reason, everyone who makes long journeys in the sahara has to ride on a camel. a horse can travel more quickly, but he, like a man, must have water every day. so the camel is sometimes called the "ship of the desert," because he, best of all, can carry men across the waterless sand. when traders travel across the desert with their merchandise, they are very much afraid of the desert robbers, who steal what they can from travellers. so they journey in large companies called "caravans," with a paid guide to show them the best and the quickest way from oasis to oasis, and with many men armed with guns and spears paid to ride along by the side of the camels carrying the merchandise, and to fight if robbers come to steal. these sahara robbers are very bad people, who fight, and steal all they can get, and always kill everyone they can. so everyone who crosses the sahara has to be ready to fight for his life as well as his property. the desert is so vast, and has so many hills and hiding-places, that it is easy for the robbers to get away after they have robbed a caravan. then, as silence once more falls on the place of the struggle, the cries of the jackals and hyenas and vultures are heard, as they come from miles away drawn by the smell of blood. swiftly they gather to feed on the bodies of the slain, and soon the wind blows the sand smooth and clean, where a few hours before it was trampled and stained with blood. perhaps only a few whitened bones remain to show what has happened. . the north of africa so we have learned something about the people who live in the north of africa. in egypt, the land of the great river nile, the people can grow rich and prosperous. they have time to learn, but, except the copts, many of whom are goldsmiths, they seem to have quite forgotten how to make the beautiful things the old egyptians made. in the desert, the sahara, there is little water, and life is very hard. all day people must work to get enough for food and clothes. it is a land without a king and without laws, where each must fight for himself. yet these people, on their long journeys through the waterless waste, have learned to be very brave and fearless and strong. they are patient, and endure great hardships without grumbling. they love music, and often sing as they ride over the silent sand. in the evening they gather round the fire to tell stories of what happened long ago. the people of north africa are all arabs or egyptians or berbers, with olive complexions and smooth, dark hair as a rule. next we shall read about the very dark-skinned races who live farther south, in central africa, where the sun is much hotter. iv ----------- uganda, an african kingdom . central africa in the last chapter we read that the arab merchants crossed the desert to buy ivory and goat-skins from the people who lived farther south. in these next two chapters we shall read about these people south of the desert. their land lies in the very middle of africa, and so is called central africa. it is a beautiful country, with many rivers and great lakes and mountains. central and west africa are also the very hottest part of this continent. now when plants have a lot of water and a lot of sun they grow very quickly, and so central africa, with its hot sun and its great rivers and lakes, is a land of great forests. in these forests there are lions and leopards, elephants, and deer; and ivory and skins, as well as gold, have for many years been sold by the central africans to the traders from the desert. on the eastern side of this country there are more mountains, lakes, and small rivers; on the western side there are great rivers, all of which join one very large one called the congo. in this chapter we shall read about some of the people who live on the eastern side on the shores of the largest of all the lakes--the one called victoria nyanza. these people are called the baganda, and their country is uganda. . the baganda the baganda are dark-skinned africans. they all belong to one tribe and speak one language, but all around them are other africans belonging to different tribes and speaking different languages. about sixty years ago, when the grandfathers of the men who are alive now were still young, the first europeans went to uganda. until that time the tribes in central africa had spent most of their time fighting one another, killing many and making others slaves. some of these slaves were sold to the arabs to take away to zanzibar and across the sea, or to take across the desert to egypt. some tribes were much stronger than others, and some of these drove everyone else out of the country they had chosen for themselves and made a kingdom of it. one of these strong tribes was the baganda. others liked to wander from place to place, but the baganda chose to settle down on the shores of the great lake victoria nyanza, and to stay there always. when europeans went to uganda they found the baganda had a king to whom they paid great honour. the king had many officers under him. some of these were the chiefs of different parts of the kingdom. others had special work to do--one to hear all the lawsuits and to settle disputes, another to command the army. others had to work in the king's household, to wait on his wives and children, or to beat the big drum to call the people when the king wanted them, or to take care that no one entered the palace unless the king wished them to do so. but whatever their work was, all the chiefs and officers and people honoured and obeyed the king, and, because in this way everyone was ready to fight or to work for the king and the rest of the nation, the baganda were one of the strongest and wisest of all the african peoples. the old dress of these people was a cloth, not sewn, but simply twisted tight round their body under their arms, and reaching nearly to the ground. sometimes it was fastened also by a belt round the waist. the cloth is made from the bark of certain trees soaked in water and beaten hard for many days until it is soft and thin and strong like woven cloth. their houses were round and built of reeds, with steep roofs which nearly reached to the ground. the smaller villages had only a few people in them, everyone in each village being related to the rest. but the baganda also had big towns, the biggest to-day being mengo, where the king lives. here there were people gathered together for the king's work, and many others brought food and bark-cloth to market to sell. the houses of the king and the great chiefs were large and beautifully decorated with plaited reeds. the chief food of the baganda is plantains or bananas, which are peeled when unripe and wrapped in smoke-dried banana leaves. these packets are slowly cooked with very little water in earthenware cooking-pots. when the food is cooked it is pressed and beaten, and then the leaves are opened out and make a plate. other things, such as beans and vegetables and fish, are cooked in the same way, wrapped in banana leaves and then eaten with the bananas. some of the baganda fish in the lake, and when they go on journeys it is often quicker to travel by boat on the lake. many africans can only make boats out of rough tree-trunks with the inside scooped out, but the baganda had learnt to build long, narrow boats with high carved wooden ends. these canoes shot through the water very swiftly, as twenty or thirty men paddled together in each boat. it is well they learnt to travel quickly, because the lake is very wide and distances are great. often there are sudden, violent storms, which would overturn a clumsy boat. the carving on the boats and the beautiful reed-work on the chiefs' houses were different from the work of other african tribes. when people begin to try to make things beautiful as well as useful it is a sign that one day they will become wise and great. . europeans come to uganda in the old days the baganda, like other african people, thought there were spirits in all the rivers and lakes and trees and everywhere, which could help or hurt men. the chief spirit they feared and to whom they offered sacrifice was the spirit of their lake, victoria nyanza. their witch-doctors told the people when they thought this spirit was pleased or angry. these witch-doctors were often bad and cruel, and really cared more about getting all the power they could over the king and people than for anything else. sometimes they said that people must be killed as a sacrifice to the spirit of the lake. when europeans first went to uganda, a few went to trade, but most went to teach the baganda about the christians' god. many boys went to their school near mengo and were taught. but the witch-doctors grew frightened and persuaded the king to drive away all the europeans, and to kill the baganda who would not worship the lake spirit because they were christians. mutesa the king did this, killing the christian baganda boys very cruelly by burning them to death, and killing the european, bishop hannington, when he came. but in a few years there were more christians than before, and now in uganda the king and nearly all the chiefs and people are christians, as well as many of the tribes living near them to whom the baganda have sent teachers. all through the christian african kingdom there are schools and hospitals. the baganda were always strong, and now so many are christians they have stopped fighting the other tribes and killing and making slaves, and instead they spend their time learning to make useful and beautiful things, which make their homes happier and more comfortable to live in. they quickly learn all they can from europeans and indians, and to-day, in mengo and in the other large towns of uganda, there are trains and motor-cars and stores, while steamers on the lake bring european and indian things quickly from the coast towns. there are many europeans and indians living in uganda, and this is a good thing, because when many people of different races meet, they learn from one another and so grow wiser. . europeans help africans in this chapter we have read about one of the wisest tribes of the dark-skinned african people. the arabs in the north came to africa long ago from their own home in asia, and the europeans in the south came from their home in europe. both these races had learnt by themselves a great deal more than the african race has done. this is partly because their homes were not so hot, and so they had to think hard to get enough food and to keep warm. it is partly due, too, to the way in which for hundreds of years the people of europe and asia have been able to read and write, and have met and learnt from one another. the africans never found out how to write, and so could only learn from each other by listening, never by reading. they were shut off from the rest of the world until one hundred years ago, and all they knew they had found out for themselves. but among the africans some learnt more than others, and the baganda are a tribe who used their minds as well as their bodies in becoming strong. so by thinking and learning they grew wise as well as powerful, and now europeans and indians have come to their country they are able to learn all these other races can teach them, which is far more than any one race could find out alone. v ----------- the people of the congo . towards the sunset in the last chapter we read about some of the people who lived in the eastern lands south of the desert. they were among the wisest of the dark-skinned african tribes. in this chapter we shall read about some of the people who live in the western part of central africa. if the baganda walked day after day towards the sunset, they would reach the land of the great river congo. this is not a narrow strip of land along one river, like egypt, but a very large country with many great rivers, but all of these at last pour their waters into one very large one, which is called the congo. then the congo takes all the water from the whole land to the great salt sea. like uganda this country is very hot, and so, because there is so much sun and so much water, there are great forests. in places where there are no trees the grass and maize grow much higher than a man's head. in the forests there are wild beasts--lions, leopards, elephants, and hippopotami--as well as deer which are good to eat. many of the people spend most of their time hunting in the forests for food and skins. . the different tribes the people of the congo are all dark-skinned africans of the same race as the baganda, except two tribes which are quite different. these other people are called the pigmies, which means they are very small. none of the congo people have made a kingdom of their own like the baganda. they belong to different tribes, each with its own customs and language. most of them wear a piece of bark-cloth or the skin of an animal for clothing, but some wear very little, and paint or tattoo their bodies. their houses are built of reeds, some tribes covering the reed-walls with a thick plaster of mud, others leaving them unplastered. the roofs of some are thatched with the long grass of the country, others are made of plaited palm-leaf mats. each tribe has its own way of making a house, but no one builds very big houses or large villages. none of the houses last more than three or four years; but these people do not want their houses to stand for many years, because they are not like the baganda who chose a country and stay there always. the congo tribes move their villages after a few years and live somewhere else. so villages are always shifting, and nothing they make is wanted to last long. some weave mats and baskets out of palm-leaves or reeds; others make pottery; others make iron-headed spears and hoes for their fields, but only a few things that can easily be carried are wanted to last. when the village moves, most of the things must be left behind. so, until a tribe decides to stay always in one place, it does not as a rule learn to make many useful and beautiful things. again, often men of different tribes build their villages near one another, but the people of the two villages keep quite separate. each has its own chief and follows its own customs. several villages of one tribe may all obey a great chief, but no tribe has a chief so powerful as the king of uganda. the congo tribes have not learnt nearly so much as some other african peoples. the customs of each tribe depend partly on which district of this large country they live in. those who live near the salt sea eat sea-fish, and get salt by boiling the sea-water in their cooking-pots until the pot is quite dry, and then the salt is left behind after the water has gone. it was clever of those people to find out they could get salt that way. others, who live near the great rivers, make canoes out of the tree-trunks with the inside hollowed out. in these they go out and catch river-fish to eat. others live in a country good for goats, and these keep large herds of goats. some make good earthenware cups and pots, others carve wooden ones. some wear ornaments made of shells, some of beads, some of berries, some of teeth; everyone uses the things he can get most easily. but each tribe follows its own customs, and despises those of its neighbours. they are afraid and jealous of each other, and there is constant fighting between the various groups of villages. some tribes want to be peaceful, and these plant their food, which is maize or millet, or some other grain which can be ground into flour, then made into porridge. others are hunters or fishermen, and chiefly eat meat or fish. some live by fighting other tribes, and capturing their food and slaves. some of these are called cannibals, which means they eat the flesh of human beings. people who do this are despised by all other races in the world, as they are so ignorant that they do not know that it is wrong to eat other men. many of the people of the congo are not cannibals, but there is always war and fighting between the different tribes, and it is dangerous to travel because so many are always watching to rob and kill strangers. the lions and other wild beasts are dangerous, but the bands of fighting men are still more to be feared. everything is wild and unsafe, and there is no law outside the village, so each one has to protect himself. among the dark-skinned central african people each village has a chief who keeps order within it, and often a group of villages of one tribe has a great chief. there are old laws and customs of each tribe, and if anyone breaks one of these and injures someone else, the chief calls him and asks all about it, and punishes the man who did the wrong. . the pigmies now we will think about the other two tribes who live in this country, but who are of quite a different race from the others. these little red and black pigmy peoples do not have villages at all. they are all hunters, and each man wanders with his wife and children wherever he chooses. then, near the village of some chief of another tribe, he collects grass and sticks, and builds a little house which is too small for an ordinary man to stand upright inside. the pigmy people are not so dark-skinned as the other races of central africa, and they are very small, not so high as an ordinary man's shoulder. they live by hunting with a bow and arrow. the pigmy man respects the chief whose village he settles in, but he does not fight for him or serve him as the other people do in his village. when he chooses, he leaves that village and goes somewhere else. if the pigmies want fruit or anything the villagers have, they shoot an arrow into it. then, later, when they come to fetch it, they leave a packet of meat in payment, for these little people never steal. although they live peaceably with the other races, they speak their own language, and never have anything to do with other villagers, and they only marry among their own people. the pigmy men wear a small strip of cloth, and the women wear a bunch of leaves for their clothes. most people of central africa like to be clean, and when there is enough water they always wash and bathe, but the pigmies hate water and are always very dirty. they have no cooking-pots, but roast the meat they have got from hunting on a stick over a fire. these pigmy people have learnt less than any other tribe in africa, for they do not even know that it is better to live in villages with others of their own race, which is the beginning of learning most other things. . many still ignorant so in this chapter we have read about some other people who live in the very hottest part of africa. the baganda are among the cleverest central africans, and these pigmies and the cannibal tribes are among the most ignorant. but the congo lands are very large, and there are many different peoples; they often move their villages, and because they hate one another they fight whenever they get the chance. so these people are still very ignorant and miserable. when they find out that it is better to be peaceful and work to help each other, then they will be able to grow wise and strong like the other central african people in uganda, and like the dark-skinned people of south africa whom we shall read about in the next chapter. vi ----------- the mine-workers of south africa . the cooler land of the south the congo rivers and another great river called the zambezi stretch right across africa from east to west. north of this the country is called central africa, about some of whose people we have been reading. south of it across the zambezi lies south africa. east and west of this land is the salt sea, on the east called the indian ocean, on the west the atlantic ocean. as we travel south the country gets narrower and narrower, until the two great oceans meet at the cape of good hope. near the congo and the zambezi towards central africa the sun is very hot, but as we journey southwards it gets cooler. when we reach the colder lands of the south we find that the grass and maize do not grow so tall, and that there are no great forests. for long distances the land stretches as far as we can see, covered with short grass, but there are no trees. this kind of country is called "veld" in south africa. there are some waterless deserts here, too, but none so large as the sahara in north africa. in other parts there are rivers, though some of them dry up in the summer and only have water in the rainy season. in south africa, as in central africa, it rains some months of the year and is dry the others. . black and white in south africa there are two races of people living side by side. first, there are dark-skinned africans like those of uganda and the congo. these belong to many tribes, each speaking its own language. secondly, there are many europeans who, about three hundred years ago, began to come across the great salt sea to live in south africa. their own countries in europe were too small for all the people in them, but south africa is so large that there was plenty of room. these europeans live in houses of brick or stone, and wear the same kind of clothes which are worn by the people in europe. their skins are lighter-coloured than even those of the egyptians and arabs of north africa, and their hair is straight and often very fair. there are two chief european peoples in south africa, the english and the dutch. these speak different languages, but many of them can speak both. europeans, as perhaps you know, are very clever at making machines of iron to work for them. they have made motor-cars to carry them quickly along ordinary roads, and another machine called an "engine" which draws many cars on its own road, which is made of two iron rails. among the african people of south africa there are many different customs, but most people live in their own villages very much like those of central africa. some tribes keep great herds of cattle, which find plenty of food on the grassy plains of the "veldt." many have learned to copy european customs, especially those living near the great european towns. some go long distances to work in these towns, especially in places where gold or other valuable things are found under the ground in the "mines." it is about these men who work on the mines that we will read now. . work in the mines when men first found gold in the ground it was near the surface, and was not very difficult to get. but when this had all been taken, they had to dig deeper and deeper, until at last they found it easier to cut out roads and rooms far down underneath the ground, and to look for the gold among the earth and stones they found there. perhaps you wonder how the miners get so deep down in the earth every day. there are no steps, but they get into a kind of cage called a "lift," which slips down on a rope skip into a deep hole called a "shaft," to where they want to work. it is a wonderful machine, something like a motor-car, only it goes down into the earth instead of along the top. when the men get out of the skip down in the mine, there are many different roads in it, and each man has to go to his own part to work. when he reaches his place he has to drill holes in the rock for the dynamite which breaks up the rock, and the loose stones are taken away along the roads to the lift and then up to the top. there it is stamped with great hammers into dust, and washed, until the gold-dust is separated from the rest. there are thousands of men, both underground and at the top, always at work at the mines. down in the mines it is always dark because the sunlight cannot get down there, and so the people have to use lanterns. in the larger openings there are lamps fixed to the walls and ceilings lighted by "electricity." although it is dark below the ground, we must not think it is cold. on the contrary, it is very hot and difficult to breathe, because there is no wind, so that the bad air does not get cleared away. it is hot and stuffy, like a house where people have been sleeping all night with no windows open. when people first made mines, a great many died because of the bad air and because of fires, but now they have machines which blow good air down into the ground, and electric and other lamps which do not set fire to things easily, and so there are not many people killed in the mines now. nevertheless, it is very hard and tiring work, and men are often ill because of the dust which fills the air they breathe. so the europeans to whom the mines belong pay for doctors and hospitals where the sick can be cared for until they are well. many valuable minerals, besides gold, are found in south africa, but the chief mines are for gold, diamonds, and coal. diamonds are beautiful stones, clear like water, which flash red, blue, and green when they are turned about. they are very hard, and are sometimes used to cut glass. but they are valuable because european and indian ladies will pay large prices for them, as they like to wear them as ornaments. coal is a hard, black, shiny mineral used for burning. it makes better fires than wood, and burns much longer. these three--gold, diamonds, and coal--are the chief things found in mines in south africa. but in other countries men find iron and silver and copper (of which pennies are made), and tin and salt, and many other useful things, in mines dug deep under the ground. . how the miners live people often come from very long distances to work in the diamond mines at kimberley and in the gold mines at johannesburg. sometimes they walk, but in south africa there are railways and trains to take people to all the large towns, and a person can travel in one day by train as far as he could walk in three or four days. very few people spend all their lives at the mines. most of the workers come for six months or a year, because they want money for clothes or food, as well as to buy cattle to pay the dowry for the girls they wish to marry. when they arrive at the mines, after their long journey, their names are written in a book as miners, and they are given places where they can live. if the men are single they live together in a large compound, which is a place enclosed by walls and gates. in these compounds there are houses where the men sleep, and places where they can do their washing, and the european mine masters provide people to clean these houses and to do the cooking. if the workman has a wife he is given a house in a mine village, called a "location." a location or a compound is like a village with a great number of houses placed close together along straight roads. the houses are sometimes built of stones or bricks, but more often of corrugated iron. in each location there are hundreds of people who have come to work at the mines for a few months from different parts of south africa. they are all strangers to each other and speak many different languages. most of them try to copy the dress of europeans; but as european clothes are very expensive to buy and soon wear out, the natives often look ragged and dirty in them. these native workers in the mines are supplied with food, such as maize, corn, and meal; but there are shops in the locations and compounds where they can buy other food, such as tea, coffee, sugar, and bread, and where they can also get clothes and other european things. there are hospitals with doctors and nurses at all the mines to attend to the sick and the injured. there are also schools for the children in the location. it is difficult to teach in these schools because the children speak different languages, and their parents only stay for a short time. but a great many do learn to read, write, to do sums, and to sew. the country near the mines is very often dry and dusty. there are no fields nor trees, unless planted by europeans. there are many laws regulating the life and work of the native miner; for example, he must go to work every day unless the doctor says he is too ill to do so. at night every one must be in the location, unless he be given a letter, which is called a "pass," from his master giving the reason why he is not in the location. . strict laws for miners the reason for these laws is that all these people are far away from their homes, and often no one can speak their language. their relations and chiefs are far away and cannot help them, and so the government has to make laws to prevent bad people robbing and perhaps killing them. wherever there is a great deal of money, there are always thieves and bad people. so the europeans who own the mines and pay the workmen make these laws to protect their workmen, until their time on the mines is finished, and they can go home to their own chiefs again. there are police ready to see that everyone obeys the laws, and if they find bad people or thieves they take them to a police-court and lock them up. in all the other chapters we have read about people living in their own homes with their own relations. but in this chapter we read about africans who leave their homes to work on the mines. they work hard and live a very different life from that lived in their village. they see many different people of other countries, hear many languages, and find out many new things. but no one wants to make his home there. high wages are paid for hard work, but everything is strange and different, and each one longs for his home. so everyone is glad when at last his work is done and his wages paid, and he is free to go back to his own village and the people he loves. we must remember that south africa is a very large country with a great many africans in it. large numbers do go to work on the mines for a time, as we have been reading, but we must not forget that all these men have their homes in villages scattered all over that great country. in these villages there are chiefs and customs very much like those of central africa. but the great difference between south africa and central africa is that in cool south africa europeans can make their homes, and so the africans there see many european customs which they copy. trains make it easy to go from one part of the country to another, and no tribe is allowed to fight. where there is no fighting, people have tried to learn and to grow wise. the dark-skinned races of south africa are learning to be good workmen, and some to be wise enough to be teachers and even doctors to serve and help their own people to lead happier and more useful lives. vii ----------- the great farms of south africa . the two white races in the last chapter we read about some of the dark-skinned africans who live in south africa, but we said also that there are many europeans living there too. these europeans came from two nations in europe--the english and the dutch. now in south africa they live side by side, doing the same work, and all obeying and helping the government of south africa, which is european. for many years these two nations kept separate, but the wisest men in each saw that this was bad, and they decided to make one strong nation. when europeans go to live in another country, they take all their own customs with them, and so in south africa there are cities and houses exactly like those in their old homes in europe. in the towns many people live together, drawn there by their work. some work on mines or railways, some have shops, some have to keep the town clean and healthy. in all european towns there are shops, because in europe and in india and china no one can make everything he needs for himself. each man learns to make one thing well, and spends all the day making one kind of thing. then he sells what he has made, and buys from other people all the other food and clothes he needs. a country where people work and live in this way is called civilized. it is a good way to live, because people do their work better and have more time to think and learn from others. in another book we will read about civilized countries and the town people of europe and asia. in this chapter we will read about the europeans on the great farms of south africa, who live far away from the towns. these people are mostly dutch or, as they are sometimes called, boers, but some of the farmers are english. . what a farm is like now a farm is a large stretch of land which belongs to one man, who uses it either to grow food in the ground, or else to raise large herds of cattle, or horses, or sheep. in a civilized country people cannot grow their own food, because they are busy all day with some other trade. so some people make it their work to grow large quantities of food, and sell all they do not need themselves. cattle are kept for their milk, which all europeans drink. the flesh of cattle and sheep is used for food. the skins of cattle and horses are dried and made into leather for shoes and harness. cattle and horses are also used to draw heavy carts and ploughs, and for riding long distances. a plough is a machine used to break up the ground ready for sowing seed. it is quicker and better than a hoe. sheep are used as meat, and are kept especially for their wool. this is sheared or cut off every year, and is washed and spun and then woven into cloth. woollen cloth is much warmer and stronger than cotton, and in cooler countries where europeans can live people always need warm clothes some months in the year, because the sun is low down in the sky, not overhead, and the air is cold. it is quite easy to see how useful cattle and horses and sheep are in south africa, and why some people work to rear large herds. on other farms where food is grown, some plant wheat or maize for people to eat; some plant food for cattle to eat. but a great many farms grow maize, as this grows better than other grains in south africa. some parts of this country have great plains or low rolling hills covered with short grass as far as you can see. this kind of land is called the "veldt." in other places there are dry, dusty plains. everywhere there are hills formed of great mounds of huge stones. these are called "kopjes." for many months in the year there is no rain, and the country becomes dusty and the smaller rivers dry up; then at last the rain comes and the rivers are filled up with water, and the whole land is covered with grass and flowers. if at times the rain is very late in coming, often whole farms are ruined because the crops wither, or the cattle die, for want of water. . the farmer and his family we said that a farm always belongs to one man, called the farmer. this man lives with his wife and children in a brick or stone house in the middle of his land. sometimes, when his children grow up, the sons marry and bring their wives to live in the father's house, while the daughters go away to live with their husbands on other farms. the girls who do not marry still live at home with their father and mother. so there are often many people living together in one great farmhouse. each man and woman will have their own room to sleep in, and everyone will eat together in a big room, not used for sleeping. in the evening they all sit together to talk about what has been done during the day. outside, not far away, there are huts for the africans who work on the farm, and sheds for the cattle and horses and the carts and ploughs. the africans who work on the farms are not like those who work on the mines for a while and then go home. the farm-workers usually make their homes where they work, living there with their wives and children. they have as a rule no other village or chief of their own. their wives work in the farmer's house. all the europeans have some work to do. the men see that the ploughing and sowing is done well, and, because the farm is large, this takes a long time. they have to look after the cattle and horses and sheep, and to take care that their food and water are good and that their sleeping sheds are clean. if the cattle get ill, sometimes a whole herd will die, and the farmer will lose a great deal of money. the children watch the herds while they are grazing, and take care they do not stray too far away. the women have to see after the household. there are always african women servants to help, but there is a great deal of work in a european house. in every room there are many chairs and tables which have to be moved when the room is swept. on all the beds there are blankets and white cotton sheets. a white cloth is spread on the table when food is to be eaten. europeans wear many clothes. all these have to be washed whenever they are dirty, and so one person will be kept busy all day washing and ironing if there are many people living on a farm. then europeans eat three or four times a day, and have many different kinds of food. maize or wheat flour is made into bread or cakes. meat is either roasted or boiled, and is often eaten with green vegetables. sometimes meat and vegetables are cut up into small pieces and all boiled together for a long time. then it is called soup, and is eaten with a spoon. milk from the cattle is used to drink, and is also made into butter and cheese, which are hard, and can be eaten with bread. europeans drink coffee like the arabs, or tea which is made from the leaves of another plant. when mealtime comes all the family come to the big room where a large table is covered with a white cloth. the food is brought in a large bowl or dish, and the farmer or his wife puts some on a plate for each person. europeans use knives and forks and spoons in eating food. the men and women and children all sit together round the table. on the farms as a rule there is no wood or coal to make fires, so the sweepings of the cattle-shed are made into cakes and dried in the sun. this makes very good fuel for fires. . how south africa is ruled the europeans on the farms do not see many other people, as the farms are very large and are long distances apart. sometimes the men have to go to town to sell their grain or cattle and to buy other things, but they cannot leave their work very often. the children are taught to read and write at home, and sometimes when they are big enough they are sent away to school in some town. there they will live with children from many other parts of south africa, and will learn that their farm is only a little part of a very big country. europeans are christians, and the children are taught that they must love and help their country and other people always. it is because european children are taught to be ready to give up everything, even their lives, to help their country to be good and great, that the christian european nations have grown as strong and wise as they are. the countries of europe learnt about christ many hundreds of years ago. we said that south africa was ruled by europeans. their king is king george who lives in england, but he does not rule or make laws by himself. in south africa and in each of his other countries, king george sends a governor, because he himself is so far away. then the people of south africa choose someone in each district to go and help the governor to rule wisely. when all these men from different parts meet together it is called a parliament. this council or parliament decides everything about ruling the country, and tells the governor what it is best to do for all the people in south africa. so in thinking of south africa we have to think of a nation of people, each doing one particular kind of work which is needed both by himself and by everyone else. everyone's work is useful to the whole nation, whether he works in a town, or on a farm, or on a railway. the great towns are where people sell what they have made and buy what else they need. the farm families live far away from one another, growing food or wool for the nation. but they, too, meet from time to time, and they read newspapers about what is done in the great towns. then, when the time comes to choose the men for the parliament to help the governor, farmers and townsmen in each district say which man they wish to go to it. in this way everyone can help the nation by his work, and everyone can help to keep peace and justice in the country and to prevent bad people hurting the weaker ones. viii ----------- conclusion now our book is finished, and we have read about some of the other people who also live in our country of africa. there in the north are the bedouin and the traders, always moving from waterspring to waterspring across the sand of the great sahara, ever on the watch against robbers. next there are the egyptians living on the great river nile: some in towns with shops and trades; some very poor in the villages, planting their seed when the river rises. all these northern people are mohammedans and the men marry several wives, and the women are veiled and live apart. farther south it is very hot, and is a land of great lakes and rivers. here we read about the baganda, the dark-skinned africans who learned to make a strong nation where all the people helped each other and obeyed their king. these are now christian, and are quickly learning other things from the christian european nations who trade with them. then we read about the tribes farther west in the land of the river congo. these people still move their villages from time to time, and each man makes only what he needs in his own home. there is often fighting between the tribes, and many people are killed. these congo people have learnt very little, and some eat the flesh of men and women, and the little pigmies do not even live in villages, but each family by itself. farther south still is the great country of south africa. here it is not so hot, and europeans have made their homes in it. there are africans living in tribes and villages, but learning to be peaceful and to help each other by their work. many of these at times go to work in the mines to find useful things deep down in the ground. there are also the europeans: some in towns, some in farms, all european and african bound together in the great nation of south africa, each doing his own part of the nation's work. so that in this great land of africa we have people living very different kinds of life, in the deserts, in the forests of the congo, in uganda and on the nile, in the mines of south africa, and on the great farms on the veld and in the great towns. the country itself is different in different parts: the sand in the north; central africa, with its hot sun and its lakes and rivers and mountains and forests; south africa, with its great grassy plains, and the mines and towns joined by the railways which make it easy to get quickly to places far away. yet, although the people of africa have such different homes, we must remember that they are very much like ourselves. they wear other clothes and speak other languages, but all love their families, and each is doing his best to make his home a happy place in which he can live. printed in great britain by billing and sons, ltd., guildford and esher <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> the tinguian social, religious, and economic life of a philippine tribe by fay-cooper cole assistant curator of malayan ethnology contents list of illustrations introduction i. geographical relations and history ii. physical type and relationships iii. the cycle of life birth childhood engagement and marriage death and burial the layog iv. religion and magic v. the ceremonies . the minor ceremonies . the great ceremonies . special ceremonies vi. social organization. government. the village vii. warfare, hunting, and fishing viii. economic life rice culture cultivated plants and trees wild plants and trees plants and trees used in the treatment of disease use of betel-nut, tobacco, and stimulants domestic animals ix. products of industry iron-working spinning and weaving manufacture of rope and string bark cloth basket making mats dyes net making manufacture of pottery pipe making method of drying hides x. decorative art xi. personal adornment, dances, and musical instruments xii. music, by albert gale conclusions list of illustrations text-figures . child's cradle and jumper . diagram of a game . cross sections showing types of graves . ceremonial paraphernalia . household objects . spoons and ladles . types of knives . head-axes . spears . shields . chicken snare . bird snares . fishing devices . grass knife; root adze; rice cutter . agricultural implements . devices used in spinning and weaving . rope-making appliances . bark beater . basket weaves . net needle and mesh stick . tobacco-pipes . designs on pipes and pottery . decorative designs . patterns used in weaving . blanket designs . musical instruments plates frontispiece: map of northwestern luzon. i. the province of abra, looking inland from the coast range. ii. abra, looking toward the sea from the top of the cordillera central. iii. manabo man. iv. man of ba-ak. v. manabo woman. vi. woman of patok. vii. a mountain tinguian from likuan. viii. a young man from likuan. ix. girl from the mountain village of lamaw (photograph from philippine bureau of science). x. a woman from lamaw (photograph from philippine bureau of science). xi. a typical small boy (photograph from philippine bureau of science). xii. the baby tender. xiii. a betrothed maiden. xiv. the wedding. xv. mothers and babies. xvi. funeral of malakay. xvii. the whipping at a funeral. xviii. inapapaiag. an offering to the spirits. xix. the medium's outfit. xx. ceremonial houses. xxi. balaua. the greatest of the spirit structures. xxii. spirit houses in a garden. xxiii. the kalangan: a spirit house; second in importance. xxiv. the saloko. a split bamboo, in which offerings are placed. ceremonies. xxv. the saloko. a spirit bamboo, in which offerings are placed. xxvi. ready to launch the spirit raft on the river. xxvii. the tangpap. an important spirit structure. xxviii. gateway at likuan. xxix. pottery houses, for the spirit of the rice. xxx. a medium making an offering to the guardian stones. xxxi. ceremonial pounding of the rice. xxxii. renewing the offering on the spirit shield. xxxiii. singeing a pig at a ceremony. xxxiv. offering of the pigs to the spirits. xxxv. the sayang ceremony. xxxvi. potters at work. xxxvii. a family of laba-an. xxxviii. the village of sallapadin. xxxix. typical houses. xl. house building. xli. roofing a house. xlii. water carriers (photograph from philippine bureau of science). xliii. a tinguian housewife (photograph from philippine bureau of science). xliv. a warrior. xlv. hunter fitted for the trail. xlvi. hunting party on mt. posoey. xlvii. shooting the blowgun. xlviii. highland field and terraces at patok. xlix. the rice terraces near likuan. l. plowing in the lower terraces. li. taking rice sprouts from the seed beds. lii. transplanting the rice. liii. bird scarers in the fields. liv. harvesting the rice. lv. the rice granary. lvi. pounding rice (photograph from philippine bureau of science). lvii. winnowing and sifting (photograph from philippine bureau of science). lviii. drying corn. lix. breaking the corn between two stones. lx. preparing tobacco. lxi. feeding the pigs. lxii. a typical forge of the iron workers. lxiii. ginning cotton and sizing the thread. lxiv. beating cotton on a carabao hide. lxv. spinning (photograph from philippine bureau of science). lxvi. weaving a blanket. lxvii. basket making. lxviii. basket types. lxix. basket types. lxx. the net maker. lxxi. ceremonial blanket. lxxii. blankets showing designs. lxxiii. blankets showing designs. lxxiv. woven belts and clouts. lxxv. men of sallapadin. lxxvi. typical dress of the man. lxxvii. women in full dress. lxxviii. customary dress of the woman. lxxix. women's arm beads. lxxx. woman wearing girdle and clout (photograph from philippine bureau of science). lxxxi, . dancing tadek at a ceremony. lxxxi, . beating the copper gongs. lxxxii. the nose flute. lxxxiii. playing on bamboo guitars. the tinguian introduction it seems desirable, at the outset, to set forth certain general conclusions regarding the tinguian and their neighbors. probably no pagan tribe of the philippines has received more frequent notice in literature, or has been the subject of more theories regarding its origin, despite the fact that information concerning it has been exceedingly scanty, and careful observations on the language and physical types have been totally lacking. according to various writers, these people are descended from chinese, japanese, or arabs; are typical malay; are identical with the igorot; are pacific, hospitable, and industrious; are inveterate head-hunters, inhospitable, lazy, and dirty. the detailed discussion of these assertions will follow later in the volume, but at this point i wish to state briefly the racial and cultural situation, as i believe it to exist in northwestern luzon. i am under the impression that at one time this whole region was inhabited by pygmy blacks, known as aeta or negrito, small groups of whom still retain their identity. with the coming of an alien people they were pressed back from the coasts to the less hospitable regions of the interior, where they were, for the most part, exterminated, but they intermarried with the invaders to such an extent that to-day there is no tribe or group in northwestern luzon but shows evidence of intermixture with them. i believe that the newcomers were drawn from the so-called primitive malay peoples of southeastern asia; that in their movement eastward and northward they met with and absorbed remnants of an earlier migration made up of a people closely related to the polynesians, and that the results of this intermixture are still evident, not only in luzon, but in every part of the archipelago. in northern luzon, i hold, we find evidences of at least two series of waves and periods of migration, the members of which are similar physical type and language. it appears, however, that they came from somewhat different localities of southeastern asia and had, in their old homes, developed social organizations and other elements of culture radically different from one another--institutions and groupings which they brought with them to the philippines, and which they have maintained up to the present time. to the first series belong the igorot [ ] with their institutions of trial marriage; division of their settlements into social and political units known as _ato_; separate dormitories for unmarried men and women; government by the federated divisions of a village as represented by the old men; and a peculiar and characteristic type of dwelling. in the second wave series we find the apayo, the western division at least of the people known as kalinga, the tinguian, and ilocano. [ ] in none of these groups do we find the institutions just mentioned. trial unions are unknown, and marriage restrictions are based solely on blood relationship; government is through the headman aided by the elders of his village, or is a pure democracy. considerable variation exists between the dwellings of these four peoples, yet they conform to a general type which is radically different from that of the igorot. the apayao and kalinga divisions of this second wave series, by reason of their environment, their more isolated localities and consequent lack of frequent communication with the coast, have a simpler culture than that of the tinguian; yet they have, during many generations, developed certain traits and institutions now apparently peculiar to them. the tinguian and ilocano, on the other hand, have had the advantages of outside communication of extensive trade, and the admixture of a certain amount of foreign blood. these last two groups evidently left their ancient home as a unit, at a time prior to the hindu domination of java and sumatra, but probably not until the influence of that civilization had begun to make itself felt. traces of indian culture are still to be found in the language, folklore, religion, and economic life of this people, while the native script which the spanish found in use among the ilocano seems, without doubt, to owe its origin to that source. after reaching luzon, this people slowly broke up into groups which spread out over the provinces of ilocos sur and norte, union and abra. the partial isolation of some of these divisions, local feuds, the universal custom of head-hunting, and the need of human victims to accompany the spirits of the dead, all doubtless aided in separating the tribe into a number of dialect groups,--groups which nevertheless retained the old culture to a surprising degree. long before the arrival of the spanish, chinese and japanese traders were visiting the ilocos coasts. we are also informed that merchants from macao and india went there from time to time, while trade relations with pangasinan and the tagalog provinces were well developed. the leavening influence of trade and contact with other peoples resulted in such advancement that this people was early mentioned as one of the six "civilized" tribes of the philippines. upon the arrival of salcedo, the greater portion of the coast people accepted the rule of spain and the christian religion, while the more conservative element retired to the interior, and there became merged with the mountain people. to the spaniards, the christianized natives became known as ilocano, while the people of the mountain valleys were called tinguian, or mountain dwellers. if the foregoing sketch is correct, as i believe the data which follow prove it to be, we find in the tinguian of to-day a people living much the same sort of life as did the members of the more advanced groups at the time of the spanish invasion, and we can study in them early philippine society stripped of its european veneer. this second and concluding section of volume xiv gives the greater part of the results of an investigation carried on by me with the assistance of mrs. cole among the tinguian, from january, , to june, ; the funds for which were furnished field museum of natural history by the late robert f. cummings. the further generosity of mrs. cummings, in contributing a fund toward the printing of this publication is also gratefully acknowledged. a collection of texts and a study of the language are contemplated for a separate volume, as is also the detailed treatment of the anthropometric data. for the transcription of the phonograph records and the chapter on music, i am indebted to mr. albert gale. his painstaking analysis establishes beyond question the value of the phonograph as an aid in ethnographic research. the photographs, unless otherwise noted, were taken by the author in the field. chapter i geographical relations and history the tinguian are a pagan philippine people who inhabit chiefly the mountain province of abra in northwestern luzon. from this center their settlements radiate in all directions. to the north and west, they extend into ilocos sur and norte as far as kabittaoran. manabo, on the south, is their last settlement; but barit, amtuagan, gayaman, and luluno are tinguian mixed with igorot from agawa and sagada. villaviciosa is an igorot settlement from sagada, but bulilising, still farther south, is predominantly tinguian. sigay in amburayan is said to be made up of emigrants from abra, while a few rancherias in lepanto are likewise much influenced. the non-christian population of ilocos sur, south of vigan, is commonly called tinguian, but only seven villages are properly so classed; [ ] four others are inhabited by a mixed population, while the balance are igorot colonies from titipan, sagada, and fidilisan. along the cordillera central, from the head-waters of the saltan (malokbot) river as far south as balatok, is found a population of mixed tinguian, kalinga, and igorot blood. kalinga predominates north of balbalasang and along the gobang river, while the igorot is dominant in guina-an, lubuagan, and balatok. tinguian intermarriage has not extended far beyond balbalasang, but their culture and dress have affected the whole region. [ ] from this belt there have been extensive migrations into abra, the newcomers for the most part marrying with the tinguian, but in the ikmin river valley emigrants from balatok formed the towns of danok, amti, and doa-angan, which have remained quite isolated up to the present time. agsimao and other towns of the tineg group, in the extreme northern end of abra, are made up chiefly of apayao mixed with kalinga, while all the villages on the headwaters of the binongan have received emigrants from the kagayan side. the population of the towns properly classed as tinguian is approximately twenty thousand individuals. [ ] from the foregoing it is seen that, with the exception of a few villages of mixed descent, all their territory lies on the western side of the cordillera central, [ ] the great mountain range which runs from north to south through northern luzon. as one emerges from the jungle, which covers the eastern slopes of these mountains, and looks down over the province of abra, he sees an exceedingly broken land (plates i and ii), the subordinate ranges succeeding one another like the waves of the sea. the first impression is one of barrenness. the forest vanishes, and in its place are long grassy slopes, broken here and there by scattered pines and lower down by dense growths of the graceful, feathery bamboo. but this lack of trees is more fancied than real, for as one proceeds down any of the valleys he meets with side canyons, where the tropical jungle still holds sway, while many a mountain side is covered with a dense undergrowth of shrubs, plants, and vines. it seems probable that the forest once covered the western slopes of the mountains, but accident and intention on the part of man has cleared broad sections. as soon as the shade is removed, the land is invaded by a coarse grass (the _cogon_), and this is burned over each year in order to provide feed for the stock and to make good hunting grounds. the young trees are killed off and reforesting prevented. numerous streams plunge from the high mountains toward the coast. in places they rush through deep gorges between high mountains, again they pass peacefully through mountain valleys. everywhere they are fed by minor streams and waterfalls until at last, as they emerge into the broader valleys of the abra and its tributaries, they are rivers of respectable size. the great central valley of abra is far from being a level plain. in places, as about manabo, bukay, and bangued, there are stretches of level land; but, for the most part, the country is rough and broken. this valley is cut off from the sea by the coast range of mountains which forms the provincial line between abra and ilocos sur, while another heavy spur forms the northern limits of abra from ilocos sur to the cordillera central. two small and rather difficult passes afford entrance from the coastal plain into the valley, but the chief avenue of communication is the cut through which the abra river reaches the sea. so narrow is this entrance that, at high water, the river completely covers the floor and often raises its waters ten or fifteen feet up the canyon side. in recent years a road has been cut in the rocks above the flood waters, but even to-day most of the traffic between abra and the coast is carried on by means of rafts which are poled up the river. [ ] the rainfall averages about one hundred inches, and most of this precipitation takes place between may and the end of september. this, coupled with the lack of forest, causes the rivers to become rushing torrents during the rainy season, while during the balance of the year most of them are mere rivulets. under these conditions there has been no development of navigation by the mountaineers. on occasion they may construct a bamboo raft, but they possess no boats of any description. the great fluctuation of the streams makes fishing an uncertain occupation; yet at least a dozen varieties of fish are known, and enough are taken to add materially to the food supply. deer and pig are fairly abundant, and a considerable number is killed each year; wild carabao roam the mountain sides and uninhabited valleys, but they are dangerous animals, and can seldom be taken with the primitive weapons of the natives. wild chickens are plentiful, and many are snared, together with smaller birds. in fact, there is sufficient game and fish to support a considerable population, if the people would turn seriously to their capture, so that the oft repeated statement that the mountaineers of abra were forced to agriculture is not entirely accurate. it seems much more probable that, at the time of their entrance into the interior valleys, the tinguian were already acquainted with terraced hillside fields, and that they developed them as needed. the soil is fairly fertile, the rainfall abundant during the growing season, and the climate warm enough to insure good crops. the thermometer ranges between ° and ° during the day, but there is generally a land or sea breeze, so that actual discomfort from the heat is unusual. the nights are somewhat cooler, but a drop of a few degrees is felt so keenly that a person may be uncomfortarble at °. fogs and cold rains are not uncommon during the wet season, while one or more typhoons can be expected each year. earthquakes are likewise of occasional occurrence, but the construction of the houses is such that storms and earthquakes do much less damage than along the coast. there is no doubt that the natural ruggedness of the country and the long rainy season have had a strong influence on the people, but this has been chiefly in isolating them in small groups. the high mountains separating the narrow valleys, the lack of water transportation, the difficulty of maintaining trails, have all tended to keep the people in small communities, while the practice of head-hunting has likewise raised a barrier to free communication. thus, the settlements within a limited area have become self-sustaining groups; a condition which has existed long enough to allow for the development of five dialects. the traditions of the tinguian furnish us with no stories of an earlier home than luzon, but there are many accounts of migrations from the coast back into the mountains, after the arrival of the spaniards and the christianization of the ilocano. the fact that there is an historical background for these tales is amply proven by fragments of pottery and the like, which the writer has recovered from the reported sites of ancient settlements. the part played by this people in philippine history is small indeed, and most of the references to them have been of an incidental nature. apparently, they first came in contact with the spanish in when salcedo was entrusted with the task of subduing that part of luzon now known as the ilocano provinces. the people he encountered are described as being more barbarous than the tagalog, not so light complexioned, nor so well clad, but husbandmen who possessed large fields, and whose land abounded in rice and cotton. their villages were of considerable size, and each was ruled over by a local headman who owed allegiance to no central authority, there was a uniform, well recognized code of law or custom, and a considerable part of the population could read and write in a native script similar to that of the tagalog. they also possessed gold, which was reported to have come from rich mines in the interior, and on primitive forges were turning out excellent steel weapons, but the use of fire-arms was unknown. according to _reyes_, their weapons consisted of lances, bows and arrows, bolos, great shields which protected them from head to foot, blow guns and poisoned arrows. the newcomers also found a flourishing trade being carried on with manila and the settlements in pangasinan, as well as with the chinese. this trade was of such importance that, as early as pirate fleets from japan frequently scoured the coast in search of chinese vessels and goods, while from time to time japanese traders visited the ilocos ports. apparently trade relations were not interrupted for a considerable time after the arrival of the spaniards, for in medina states that ships from china, macao, and india "are accustomed to anchor in these ports--and all to the advantage of this district." [ ] that pre-spanish trade was not restricted to the ilocos provinces, but was active along the whole northern coast of luzon has been amply proved by many writers. in fact, the inhabitants of pangasinan not only had trade relations with borneo, japan, and china, [ ] but it now seems probable that they can be identified as the ping-ka-shi-lan who, as early as , sent an embassy to china with gifts of horses, silver, and other objects for the emperor yung-lo. [ ] trade relations of an even earlier date are evident throughout all this area, in the presence far in the interior of chinese pottery of the fourteenth century and possibly of the tenth. [ ] with friendly relations so long established, it is to be expected that many evidences of chinese material culture would be found in all the northern provinces; and it is not unlikely that a considerable amount of chinese blood may have been introduced into the population in ancient times, as it has been during the historic period. it does not seem probable, however that either the influence of chinese blood or culture need have been stronger in the ilocos provinces than in the other regions which they visited. when salcedo attempted a landing at vigan, he was at first opposed; but the superior weapons of the spaniards quickly overcame all resistance, and the invaders took possession of the city, which they rechristened fernandino. from this center they carried on an energetic campaign of reduction and christianization. as fast as the natives accepted the rule of spain, they were baptized and taken into the church, and so rapid was the process that by the ilocano were reported to be christianized. [ ] in fact, force played such a part that fray martin de herrada, who wrote from ilocos in june, , protested that the reduction was accomplished through fear, for if the people remained in their villages and received the rule of spain and the church, they were accepted as friends and forthwith compelled to pay tribute; but if they resisted and fled to other settlements, the troops followed and pillaged and laid waste their new dwellings. [ ] paralleling the coast, a few miles inland, is a range of mountains on the far side of which lie the broad valleys of the abra river and its tributaries. the more conservative elements of the population retreated to the mountain valleys, and from these secure retreats bade defiance to the newcomers and their religion. to these mountaineers was applied the name tinguianes--a term at first used to designate the mountain dwellers throughout the islands, but later usually restricted to his tribe. [ ] the tinguian themselves do not use or know the appellation, but call themselves itneg, a name which should be used for them but for the fact that they are already established in literature under the former term. although they were in constant feuds among themselves, the mountain people do not appear to have given the newcomers much trouble until toward the end of the sixteenth century, when hostile raids against the coast settlements became rather frequent. to protect the christianized natives, as well as to aid in the conversion of these heathens, the spanish, in , entered the valley of the abra and established a garrison at the village of bangued. [ ] as before, the natives abandoned their homes and retreated several miles farther up the river, where they established the settlement of lagangilang. from bangued as a center, the augustinian friars worked tirelessly to convert the pagans, but with so little success that _san antonio_, [ ] writing in , says of the tinguian, that little fruit was obtained, despite extensive missions, and that although he had made extraordinary efforts, he had even failed to learn their number. in the mountains of ilocos sur, the missionaries met with somewhat better success, and in _olarte_ states that in the two preceding years one hundred and fifty-six "infidel tinguianes" had been converted and baptized. again, in , four hundred and fifty-four converts are reported to have been formed into the villages of santiago, magsingal, and batak. [ ] about this time the work in abra also took on a more favorable aspect; by three tinguian villages, with a combined population of more than one thousand, had been established near bangued, and in the next century five more settlements were added to this list. [ ] in general the relations between the pagan and christianized natives were not cordial, and oftentimes they were openly hostile; but despite mutual distrust the coast people have on several occasions enlisted the aid of the mountaineers against outside enemies. in a serious revolt occurred in pangasinan and zambales, and the rebels, after gaining control of these provinces, started on a looting expedition in the northern districts. in the face of strong resistance they proceeded as far north as badok, in ilocos sur, burning and pillaging many villages including the capital city of vigan (fernandino). the tinguian came to the aid of the hard-pressed ilocano, and their combined forces fell upon the enemy just outside the village of narbacan. the tribesmen had previously made the road almost impassable by planting it thickly with sharpened sticks; and, while the invaders were endeavoring to remove these obstacles, they set upon them with great fury and, it is said, succeeded in killing more than four hundred of the zambal, a part of whom they beheaded. [ ] as spanish rule was extended into the tinguian territory, ilocano settlers pressed in and acquired holdings of land. this led to many bitter disputes which were consistently settled in favor of the converts; but at the same time many inducements were offered the pagans to get them into the christianized village. all converts were to be exempted from paying tribute, while their villages received many favors withheld from the pagan settlements. this failing to bring the desired results, all the nearby villages of the tinguian were incorporated with the civilized pueblos, and thereafter they had to furnish the major part of all taxes and most of the forced labor. following the appointment of gov. esteban de penñarubia in , the tribesmen suffered still greater hardships. under his orders all those who refused baptism were to be expelled from the organized communities, an edict which meant virtual banishment from their old homes and confiscation of their property. further, no tinguian in native dress was to be allowed to enter the towns. "conversions" increased with amazing rapidity, but when it was learned that many of the new converts still practiced their old customs, the governor had the apostates seized and imprisoned. the hostile attitude of penñarubia encouraged adventurers from the coast in the seizure of lands and the exploitation of the pagans, and thus a deep resentment was added to the dislike the tinguian already held for "the christians." yet, despite the many causes for hostility, steady trade relations have been maintained between the two groups, and the influence of the ilocano has been increasingly strong. a little more than a half century ago head-hunting was still common even in the valley of abra, where it is now practically unknown. as a matter of dire necessity the mountain people made raids of reprisal against the hostile igorot villages on the eastern side of the great mountain range, and it is still the proud boast of many a man in the vicinity of manabo that he took part in the raid which netted that village a score of heads from the towns of balatok and lubuagan. but, as will be seen later, head-hunting was by no means limited to forays against other tribes; local feuds, funeral observances, and the desire for renown, all encouraged the warriors to seek heads even from nearby settlements. those incentives have not been entirely removed, and an occasional head is still taken in the mountain districts, but the influence of the ilocano, backed by spanish and american authority, is rapidly making this sport a thing of the past. the rule of governor penñarubia had so embittered the tinguian against the "white man" that a considerable number joined the insurrecto troops to fight against the spaniards and americans. these warriors, armed with spears, shields, and head-axes, made their way to malolos, where they joined the filipino troops the day of the first american bombardment. the booming of cannon and the bursting of shells was too much for the warriors, and, as they express it, "the first gun was the beginning of their going home." friendly relations with the insurgents were early destroyed by bands of armed robbers who, posing as filipino troops, looted a number of tinguian villages. in several localities the tribesmen retaliated by levying tribute on the christianized villages, and in some instances took a toll of heads to square accounts. at this juncture the americans appeared in abra, and the considerate treatment of the pagans by the soldiers soon won for them a friendly reception. later, as the result of the efforts of commissioner worcester, the tinguian villages were made independent of ilocano control, and the people were given the full right to conduct their own affairs, so long as they did not disturb the peace and welfare of the province. under american rule the tinguian have proved themselves to be quiet, peaceable citizens; a few minor disturbances have occurred, but none of sufficient importance to necessitate the presence of troops in their district. they have received less attention from the government than most of the pagan tribes, but, even so, a measure of progress is discernible. they still stoutly resist the advances of the missionaries, but the few schools which have been opened for their children have always been crowded to overflowing; trade relations are much freer and more friendly than a decade ago; and with the removal of unequal taxes and labor requirements, the feelings of hostility towards "the christians" are rapidly vanishing. it now seems probable that within one or two generations the tinguian will again merge with the ilocano. chapter ii physical type and relationships from the time of the spanish invasion up to the present, nearly every author who has mentioned the people of northern luzon has described the tinguian as being different from other philippine tribes. the majority of these writers has pictured them as being of larger stature than their neighbors; as lighter in color, possessing aquiline features and mongoloid eyes; as being tranquil and pacific in character, and having a great aptitude for agriculture. from these characteristics they have concluded that they are probably descended from early chinese traders, emigrants, or castaways, or are derived from the remnants of the pirate band of the chinese corsair limahon (lin-fung), which fled into the mountains of pangasinan after his defeat by salcedo in . these conjectures are strengthened by the reported discovery, in early times, of graves in northwestern luzon, which contained bodies of men of large stature accompanied by chinese and japanese jewels. the undisputed fact that hundreds of ancient chinese jars and dishes are still among the cherished possessions of the tinguian is also cited as a further proof of a close relationship between these peoples. finally it is said that the head-bands, jackets, and wide trousers of the men resemble closely those of the fishermen of fukien, one of the nearest of the chinese provinces. [ ] two writers, [ ] basing their observations on color, physical resemblances, and the fact that the tinguian blacken their teeth and tattoo their bodies, are convinced that they are the descendants of japanese castaways; while _moya_ [ ] states that the features, dress, and customs of this people indicate their migration from the region of the red sea in pre-mohammedan times. finally, _quatrefages_ and _hamy_ are quoted as regarding the tinguian as modern examples of "the indonesian, an allophylic branch of the pure white race, non-aryan, therefore, who went forth from india about b.c." [ ] _dr. barrows_ [ ] classes all the pagan tribes of northern luzon--the pygmies excepted--with the igorot, a position assailed by _worcester_, [ ] particularly in regard to the tinguian; but the latter writer is convinced that the apayao and tinguian are divisions of the same people, who have been separated only a comparatively short time. in the introduction to the present volume (p. ) i have expressed the opinion that the tinguian and ilocano are identical, and that they form one of the waves of a series which brought the apayao and western kalinga to northern luzon, a wave which reached the islands at a later period than that represented by the igorot, and which originated in a somewhat different region of southeastern asia. [ ] in order to come to a definite decision concerning these various theories, we shall inquire into the cultural, linguistic, and physical types of the people concerned. the most striking cultural differences between the igorot and the tinguian, indicated in the introduction, will be brought out in more detail in the following pages, as will also the evidence of chinese influence in this region. here it needs only to be restated, that there are radical differences in social organization, government, house-building, and the like, between the igorot-ifugao groups, and the ilocano-tinguian-apayao-kalinga divisions. all the tribes of northwestern luzon belong to the same linguistic stock which, in turn, is closely related to the other philippine languages. there are local differences sufficiently great to make it impossible for people to communicate when first brought together, but the vocabularies are sufficiently alike, and the morphology of the dialects is so similar that it is the task of only a short time for a person conversant with one idiom to acquire a speaking and understanding knowledge of any other in this region. it is important to note that these dialects belong to the philippine group, and there seems to be very little evidence of chinese influence [ ] either in structure or vocabulary. [ ] the various descriptions of the physical types have been of such a conflicting nature that it seems best at this point to present rather detailed descriptions of the tinguian, ilocano, and apayao, and to compare these with the principal measurements of the other tribes and peoples under discussion. for purposes of comparison, the tinguian have been divided into a valley and mountain group; for, as already indicated, there has been a considerable movement of the mixed kalinga-igorot people of the upper saltan (malokbot) river, of guinaan lubuagan and balatok, into the mountain districts of abra, and these immigrants becoming merged into the population have modified the physical type to a certain extent. in the detailed description of the ilocano, all the subjects have been drawn from the cities of bangued in abra, and vigan in ilocos sur, in order to eliminate, so far as possible, the results of recent intermixture with the tinguian,--a process which is continually taking place in all the border towns. the more general tabulation includes ilocano from all the northern provinces. aged and immature individuals have been eliminated from all the descriptions here presented. [ ] _ilocano_ observations on males from vigan and bangued range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, - of martin scale. _hair_--often black, but usually brown-black. per cent straight and about per cent slightly wavy. one case closely curled. _forehead_--usually high, broad, and moderately retreating, but sometimes vaulted. _crown and back of head_--middle arched. two cases flat. _face_--moderately high; broad and oval. three cases angular. _eye-slit_--generally slightly oblique, moderately open, almond shape. mongolian fold present in per cent. _nose_--root:--middle broad and moderately high. bridge:--inclined to be concave, but often straight. wings:--middle thick and slightly arched or swelled. _lips_:--middle thick and double bowed (slightly). _ears_:--outstanding. lobes generally small and close growing, but are sometimes free. _ilocano_ [ ] _observations made by folkmar_ (_see album of philippine types, manila_, ) males of ilocos norte average height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . nasal index . males of ilocos sur average height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . nasal index . males of union province average height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . nasal index . males from all provinces average height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . nasal index . _valley tinguian_ observations on males (see plates iii, iv) range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head, cases " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, - of martin table. _hair_--varies from black to brownish black. usually wavy, but straight in about one third. _forehead_--moderately high and broad; slightly retreating, but sometimes vaulted. supra-orbital ridges strongly developed in three cases. _crown and back of head_--middle arched. two cases of flattening. _face_--moderately high and broad; cheek bones sufficiently outstanding to give face angular appearance, tapering from above, but oval faces are common. _eye-slit_--straight or slightly oblique; moderately wide open and inclined to be almond shaped; mongolian fold slightly developed in about per cent. _nose_--root:--middle broad and high, seldom small or flat. bridge:--middle broad and usually straight, but per cent are slightly concave, while two cases are convex. wings:--in most cases are thin, but are commonly thick; both are slightly arched. _lips_--middle thick and double bowed (slightly). _ears_--outstanding, with small close-growing lobes. _valley tinguian_ observations on females (see plates v, vi) range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head ( cases) " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, - of martin table. _hair_--usually brown black, but black is common. sometimes straight, but generally slightly wavy. _forehead_--considerable variation. usually moderately high, broad, and vaulted, but is sometimes low and moderately retreating. _crown and back of head_--middle arched. two cases of flattening. _face_--moderately high and oval. in a few cases angular, tapering from above. _eye-slit_--generally oblique, moderately open and almond shape. is sometimes straight and narrowly open. mongolian fold slightly developed in about per cent. _nose_--root:--moderately broad and either flat or slightly elevated. bridge:--middle broad and slightly concave. in five cases is straight and in two is convex. wings:--equally divided between thick and thin. slightly arched. _lips_--middle thick and double bowed (slightly). _ears_--outstanding, with small, close growing lobes. _mountain tinguian_ observations on males (see plates vii-viii) range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head ( cases) " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose ( cases) " . to . . breadth of nose ( cases) " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, - of martin table. _hair_--brown black, and slightly wavy. _forehead_--middle high to high, moderately broad, moderately retreating, but sometimes vaulted. supra-orbital ridges strongly developed in five cases. _crown and back of head_--middle or strongly arched. _face_--moderately high. cheek bones moderately outstanding giving face angular appearance, tapering from above. in seven cases face is oval. _eye-slit_--sometimes straight, but usually slightly oblique, moderately open, almond shape. mongolian fold in five cases. _nose_--root:--middle broad and moderately high, but sometimes high. bridge:--middle broad and straight. seven cases concave and three convex. wings:--middle thick and arched. _lips_--middle thick, sometimes thin; double bowed. _ears_--outstanding; lobes generally small and close growing. _mountain tinguian_ observations on females (see plates ix-x) range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, - of martin table. _hair_--brown-black and slightly wavy. _forehead_--moderately high and broad; moderately retreating. _crown and back of head_--middle arched. _face_--moderately high and generally oval; sometimes angular tapering from above. _eye-slit_--about equally divided between straight and oblique; moderately open. mongolian fold slightly developed in one third of cases. _nose_--root:--moderately broad and nearly flat, but sometimes moderately high. bridge:--middle broad and inclined to be concave. straight noses occur. wings:--usually thin and inclined to be swelled. _lips_--middle thick and inclined to be double bowed. _ears_--outstanding. lobes small and close growing. _apayao_ observations on males range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . _eyes_--dark brown, to in martin table. _hair_--brown black and wavy. _forehead_--high and generally moderately retreating, but in about one third is vaulted. supra-orbital ridges strongly developed in six cases. _crown and back of head_--rather strongly arched. six cases (all from one village) showed slight flattening of occipital region. _face_--usually high. the cheek bones are moderately outstanding giving face angular appearance, tapering from above. in eight cases face tapers from below, and in nine is oval. _eye-slit_--usually oblique, moderately open, almond shape. mongolian fold in about per cent. _nose_--root:--middle broad and flat or slightly elevated. bridge:--middle broad and slightly or strongly concave. seven instances of straight noses occur. wings:--middle thick, arched or swelled. _lips_--middle thick and slightly double bowed. _ears_--outstanding. lobes small and close growing. _bontoc igorot_ [ ] _observations by jenks_ (_see the bontoc igorot, manila_, ) males average range height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . . to . nasal index . . to . in this group are brachycephalic are mesaticephalic are dolichocephalic _color_--ranges from light brown, with strong saffron undertone, to very dark brown or bronze. _eyes_--black to hazel brown. "malayan" fold in large majority. _hair_--coarse, straight and black. a few individuals possess curly or wavy hair. _nose_--jenks gives no statement, but his photos show the root of the nose to be rather high; the bridge appears to be broad and straight, although in some individuals it tends toward concave. females average range height, standing meters . length of head " . breadth of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . . to . nasal index . . to . in this group are brachycephalic are mesaticephalic are dolichocephalic very different results were obtained by _kroeber_ [ ] from the group of igorot exhibited in san francisco in . his figures may possibly be accounted for by the fact that about one third of the party came from alap near the southern end of the bontoc area, also, as he has suggested, by the preponderance of very young men. the figures for this group are as follows: observations on males average height . range . to . " length of head . . to . " breadth of head . . to . " bizygomatic width . . to . " length of nose . . to . " breadth of nose . . to . " cephalic index . nasal index . observations on females average height . range . to . " length of head . . to . " breadth of head . . to . " bizygomatic width . . to . " length of nose . . to . " width of nose . . to . " cephalic index . nasal index . from these descriptive sheets it is obvious that each tribe is made up of very heterogeneous elements, and each overlaps the other to a considerable extent; however, the number of individuals measured is sufficiently great for us to draw certain general conclusions from the averages of each group. it is at once evident that the differences between the ilocano and the valley tinguian are very slight, in fact are less than those between the valley and mountain people of the latter tribe. the ilocano appear to be slightly taller, the length of head a little less, and the breadth a bit more; yet there is an average difference of only two points in the cephalic indices of the two groups. the only other points of divergence are: the greater percentage among the ilocano of eyes showing the mongolian fold, and the occurrence of straight hair in about half the individuals measured. however, this latter feature may be more apparent than real; for the ilocano cut the hair short, and a slight degree of waviness might readily pass unobserved. as we pass from the valley to the mountain tinguian, and from them to the apayao, we find the average stature almost constant, but the head becomes longer; there is a greater tendency for the cheekbones to protrude and the face to be angular, and there is a more frequent development of the supra-orbital ridges. the root of the nose is often flat and the bridge concave; while wavy hair becomes the rule in the mountains. there is a slight decrease, in the tinguian groups, of eyes showing the mongolian fold, but in the apayao the percentage again equals that of the ilocano. the apayao present no radical differences to the mountain tinguian; yet, as already noted, the length and height of the head are slightly greater; the zygomatic arches more strongly developed; the face more angular; and the nose is broader as compared with its length. evidences of former extensive intermixture are here apparent, while at the present time there is rather free marriage with the neighboring kalinga and negrito. comparing these four groups with the igorot, we find that the latter averages slightly taller than all but the ilocano. the breadth of the head is about the same as the ilocano; but the length is much greater, and there is, in consequence, a considerable difference in the cephalic index. reference to our tables will show the ilocano and both tinguian divisions to be brachycephalic, while the igorot is mesaticephalic. the average index of the apayao also falls in the latter classification; but the variation from igorot is greater than is indicated, for the apayao skull is actually considerably shorter and narrower. in the length and breadth of the nose, the igorot exceeds any of the groups studied, while the malayan (mongolian?) fold of the eye is reported in the great majority of cases. the bodily appearance of the tinguian and bontoc igorot differs little, although the latter are generally of a slightly heavier build. both are lithe and well proportioned, their full rounded muscles giving them the appearance of trained athletes; neither is as stocky or heavy set as are the igorot of amburayan, lepanto, and benguet. there is great variation in color among the members of all these tribes, the tones varying from a light olive brown to a dark reddish brown; but in general the ilocano and valley tinguian are of a lighter hue than the mountain people. observations on the southern chinese and the south perak malay are given below, not with the intention of connecting them with any one of the tribes of luzon, but in order to test, by comparison, the theory of the chinese origin of the tinguian, and also to secure, if possible, some clue as to the relationships of both peoples. _the southern chinese_ _dr. girard_, [ ] as a result of his studies on the chinese of kwang-si, a province of southern china, expresses the belief that the population is greatly mixed, but all considered they appear more like indo-chinese than like the chinese proper (that is, northern chinese). _deniker_ [ ] comes to a similar conclusion from a study of the results obtained by many observers. _girard_ gives the following measurements for males of kwang-si: range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . breadth of head " . height of head " . length of nose " . breadth of nose " . cephalic index . to . . length-height index . breadth-height index . nasal index . to . . _deniker_ (p. ) gives the average height of , males, mostly hakka of kwang-tung, as . . the cephalic index of living subjects and crania, principally from canton, he finds to be--living . ; crania . . _martin_ [ ] presents the following data: average height of males-- . ; average height of females-- . . cephalic index ( males)-- . . length-height index ( males)-- . . nasal index ( males)-- . . [ ] _south perak malay_ [ ] _observations by annandale and robinson_ (_fasciculi malayenses, pt_. i, pp. _et seq_., _london_, ). males range average height, standing meters . to . . length of head " . to . . breadth of head " . to . . height of head (tragus to vertex) " . to . . breadth of zygomatic arches " . to . . length of nose " . to . . breadth of nose " . to . . cephalic index . length-height index . nasal index . _color_--varies from dark olive to red; less commonly olive or yellowish white. _eyes_--black, sometimes reddish brown. _hair_--appears to be straight in most cases, but being cut short a slight waviness might not be noticed. black. a comparison of these figures with those of our luzon groups brings out several interesting points. it shows that the tinguian are not related to the chinese, "because of their tall stature;" for they are, as a matter of fact, shorter than either the chinese or igorot. it is also evident that they resemble the southern chinese no more than do the people of bontoc. further it is seen that both the tinguian-ilocano and the chinese show greater likeness to the perak malay than they do to each other. as a matter of fact, we find no radical differences between any of the peoples discussed; despite evident minor variations, the tribes of northwestern luzon approach a common type, and this type appears not to be far removed from the dominant element in southern china, indo-china, and malaysia generally, a fact which probably can be attributed to a common ancestry in times far past. [ ] with this data before us, we might readily dismiss most of the theories of early writers as interesting speculations based on superficial observation; but the statement that the tinguian are derived from the pirate band of limahon has received such wide currency that it deserves further notice. it should be borne in mind that the scene of the chinese disaster was in pangasinan, a march of three days to the south of the tinguian territory. it is unlikely that a force sufficiently large to impress its type on the local population could have made its way into abra, without having been reported to salcedo, who then had his headquarters at vigan. as early as the tinguian were so powerful and aggressive that active steps had to be taken to protect the coast people from their raids. had they been recognized as being essentially chinese--a foreign, hostile population--some mention of that fact must certainly have crept into the spanish records of that period. such data are entirely wanting, while the exceedingly rich traditions of the tinguian [ ] likewise fail to give any evidence of such an invasion. the presence of large quantities of ancient chinese pottery in abra must be ascribed to trade, for it is inconceivable that a fugitive band of warriors would have carried with them the hundreds of jars--many of large size--which are now found in the interior. the reputed similarity of the garments of the men to those of fukien fishermen is likewise without value, for at the time of the spanish invasion both ilocano and tinguian were innocent of trousers. it was not until the order of gov. penñarubia, in , barring all unclad pagans from the christianized towns, that the latter donned such garments. to-day many of the men possess full suits, but the ordinary dress is still the head-band, breech-cloth, and belt. finally, it seems curious that the tinguian should be of "a pacific character" because of the fact that they are descended from a band of chinese pirates. summarizing our material, we can say of the tinguian, that they are a rather short, well-built people with moderately high, brachycephalic heads, fairly high noses, and angular faces. their hair is brown black and inclined to be wavy, while the skin varies from a light olive brown to a dark reddish brown. a study of our tables shows that within this group there are great extremes in stature, head and nasal form, color, and the like, indicating very heterogeneous elements in its make-up. we also find that physically the tinguian conform closely to the ilocano, while they merge without a sharp break into the apayao of the eastern mountain slopes. when compared to the igorot, greater differences are manifest; but even here, the similarities are so many that we cannot classify the two tribes as members of different races. we have seen that this people approaches the southern chinese in many respects, but this is likewise true of all the other tribes under discussion and, hence, we are not justified, on anatomic grounds, in considering the tinguian as distinct, because of chinese origin. the testimony of historical data and language leads us to the same conclusions. chinese influence, through trade, has been active for many centuries along the north and west coast of luzon, but it has not been of a sufficiently intimate nature to introduce such common articles of convenience and necessity as the composite bow, the potter's wheel, wheeled vehicles, and the like. the anatomical data likewise prevent us from setting this tribe apart from the others, because of japanese or indonesian origin. chapter iii the cycle of life _birth_.--the natural cause of pregnancy is understood by the tinguian, but coupled with this knowledge is a belief in its close relationship to the spirit world. supernatural conception and unnatural births are frequently mentioned in the traditions, and are accepted as true by the mass of people; while the possibility of increasing the fertility of the husband and wife by magical acts, performed in connection with the marriage ceremony, is unquestioned. likewise, the wife may be affected if she eats peculiar articles of food, [ ] and unappeased desires for fruits and the like may result disastrously both for the expectant mother and the child. [ ] the close relationship which exists between the father and the unborn babe is clearly brought out by various facts; for instance, the husband of a pregnant woman is never whipped at a funeral, as are the other guests, lest it result in injury to the child. the fact that these mythical happenings and magical practices do not agree with his actual knowledge in no way disturbs the tinguian. it is doubtful if he is conscious of a conflict; and should it be brought to his attention, he would explain it by reference to the tales of former times, or to the activities of superior beings. like man in civilized society, he seldom rationalizes about the well-known facts--religious or otherwise--generally held by his group to be true. it is thought that, when a mortal woman conceives, an _anito_ woman likewise becomes pregnant, and the two give birth at the same time. otherwise, the lives of the two children do not seem to be closely related, though, as we shall see later, the mothers follow the same procedure for a time after delivery (cf. p. ). according to common belief, supernatural beings have become possessed at times, with menstrual blood or the afterbirth which under their care developed into human offspring, some of whom occupy a prominent place in the tribal mythology. [ ] in the tales we are told that a frog became pregnant, and gave birth to a child after having lapped up the spittle of aponitolau, [ ] a maid conceived when the head-band of her lover rested on her skirt, [ ] while the customary delivery of children during the mythical period seems to have been from between the fingers of the expectant mother. [ ] _anitos_ and, in a few cases, the shades of the dead have had intercourse with tinguian women, [ ] but children of such unions are always born prematurely. as a rule, a miscarriage is thought to be the result of union with the inhabitants of the spirit realm, though an expectant woman is often warned not to become angry or sorrowful lest her "blood become strong and the child be born." abortion is said to be practised occasionally by unmarried women; but such instances are exceedingly rare, as offspring is much desired, and the chance of making a satisfactory match would be in no way injured by the possession of an illegitimate child. [ ] except for the district about manabo, it is not customary to make any offerings or to cause any changes in the daily life of the pregnant woman until the time of her delivery is near at hand. in manabo a family gathering is held about a month before the anticipated event, at which time the woman eats a small chicken, while her relatives look on. after completing this meal, she places two bundles of grass, some bark and beads in a small basket and ties it beside the window. the significance of the act is not clear to the people, but it is "an old custom, and is pleasing to the spirits." shortly before the child is expected, two or three mediums are summoned to the dwelling. spreading a mat in the center of the room, they place on it their outfits (cf. p. ) and gifts [ ] for all the spirits who are apt to attend the ceremony. nine small jars covered with _alin_ leaves are distributed about the house and yard; one sits on a head-axe placed upon an inverted rice-mortar near the dwelling, another stands near by in a winnower, and is covered with a bundle of rice; four go to a corner of the room; while the balance is placed on either side of the doorway. these jars are later used to hold the cooked rice which is offered to the _inginlaod_, spirits of the west. at the foot of the house ladder a spear is planted, and to it is attached a long narrow cloth of many colors. last of all, a bound pig is laid just outside the door with its head toward the east. when all is ready, the mediums bid the men to play on the _tong-a-tong_ (cf. p. ); then, squatting beside the pig, they stroke its side with oiled fingers, meanwhile chanting appropriate _diams_ (cf. p. ). this done, they begin to summon spirits into their bodies, and from them learn what must be done to insure the health and happiness of the child. later, water is poured into the pig's ear, that "as it shakes out the water, so may the evil spirits be thrown out of the place." [ ] then an old man cuts open the body of the animal and, thrusting in his hand, draws out the still palpitating heart, which he gives to the medium. with this she strokes the body of the expectant woman, "so that the birth may be easy, and as a protection against harm," and also touches the other members of the family. [ ] she next directs her attention to the liver, for by its condition it is possible to foretell the child's future (cf. p. ). while the medium has been busy with the immediate family, friends and relatives have been preparing the flesh for food, which is now served. no part is reserved, except the boiled entrails which are placed in a wooden dish and set among other gifts intended for the superior beings. following the meal, the mediums continue summoning spirits until late afternoon when the ceremony known as _gipas_--the dividing--is held. [ ] the chief medium, who is now possessed by a powerful spirit, covers her shoulder with a sacred blanket, [ ] and in company with the oldest male relative of the expectant woman goes to the middle of the room, where a bound pig lies with a narrow cloth extending along its body from head to tail. after much debating they decide on the exact center of the animal, and then with her left hand each seizes a leg. they lift the victim from the floor, and with the head-axes, which they hold in their free hands, they cut it in two. in this way the mortals pay the spirits for their share in the child, and henceforth they have no claims to it. the spirit and the old man drink _basi_, to cement their friendship; and the ceremony is at an end. the small pots and other objects used as offerings are placed on the sacred blanket in one corner of the room, where they remain until the child is born, "so that all the spirits may know that _gipas_ has been held." a portion of the slaughtered animals and some small present are given to the mediums, who then depart. in san juan a cloth is placed on the floor, and on it are laid betel-nuts, four beads, and a lead sinker. these are divided with the head-axe in the same manner as the pig, but the medium retains for her own use the share given to the spirits. in the better class of dwellings, constructed of boards, there is generally a small section in one corner, where the flooring is of bamboo; and it is here that the delivery takes place, but in the ordinary dwellings there is no specified location. the patient is in a kneeling or squatting position with her hands on a rope or bamboo rod, which is suspended from a rafter about the height of her shoulders. [ ] she draws on this, while one or more old women, skilled in matters pertaining to childbirth, knead and press down on the abdomen, and finally remove the child. the naval cord is cut with a bamboo knife, [ ] and is tied with bark cloth. should the delivery be hard, a pig will be killed beneath the house, and its blood and flesh offered to the spirits, in order to gain their aid. if the child is apparently still-born, the midwife places a chinese dish close to its ear, and strikes against it several times with a lead sinker. if this fails to gain a response, the body is wrapped in a cloth, and is soon buried beneath the house. there is no belief here, as is common in many other parts of the philippines, that the spirits of unborn or still-born children form the chief recruits for the army of evil spirits. the after-birth is placed in a small jar together with bamboo leaves, "so that the child will grow like that lusty plant," and is then intrusted to an old man, usually a relative. he must exercise the greatest care in his mission, for should he squint, while the jar is in his possession, the child will be likewise afflicted. if it is desired that the infant shall become a great hunter, the jar is hung in the jungle; if he is to be an expert swimmer and a successful fisherman, it is placed in the river; but ill fortune is in store for the baby if the pot is buried, for he will always be afraid to climb a tree or to ascend a mountain. these close ties between the infant and the after-birth are easily comprehended by a people who also believe in the close relationship between a person and any object recently handled by him (cf. p. ). in general it is thought that the after-birth soon disappears and no longer influences the child; yet certain of the folk-tales reflect a firm conviction that a group of spirits, known as _alan_, sometimes take the placenta, and transform it into a real child, who is then more powerful than ordinary mortals. [ ] immediately following the birth the father constructs a shallow bamboo framework (_baitken_), [ ] which he fills with ashes, and places in the room close to the mother. on this a fire is kept burning constantly for twenty-nine days [ ] for this fire he must carefully prepare each stick of wood, for should it have rough places on it, the baby would have lumps on its head. a double explanation is offered for this fire; firstly, "to keep the mother warm;" secondly, as a protection against evil spirits. the idea of protection is evidently the original and dominant one; for, as we shall see, evil spirits are wont to frequent a house, where a birth or death has occurred, and a fire is always kept burning below the house or beside the ladder at such a time. [ ] when the child has been washed, it is placed on an inverted rice-winnower, and an old man or woman gives it the name it is to bear. the winnower is raised a few inches above the ground, and the woman asks the child its name, then drops it. again she raises it, pronounces the name, and lets it fall. a third time it is raised and dropped, with the injunction, "when your mother sends you, you go," or "you must not be lazy." if it is a boy, it may be instructed, "when your father sends you to plow, you go." among the tinguian of ilocos norte it is customary for the person who is giving the name to wave a burning torch beneath the winnower, meanwhile saying, if to a boy, "here is your light when you go to fight. here is your light when you go to other towns." if the child is a girl, she says, "here is your light when you go to sell things." in the san juan district, the fire is made of pine sticks; for "the burning pine gives a bright light, and thus makes it clear to the spirits that the child is born. the heat and smoke make the child hard and sturdy." just before the naming, the rice winnower is circled above the fire and the person officiating calls to the spirits, saying, "come and take this child, or i shall take it." then, as the infant still remains alive, she proceeds to give it its name. [ ] a tinguian child is nearly always named after a dead ancestor; often it receives two names--one for a relative in the father's family, and one in the mother's. a third name commemorating the day or some event, or perhaps the name of a spirit, is frequently added. [ ] certain names, such as abacas ("worthless"), inaknam ("taken up"), and dolso ("rice-chaff") are common. if the infant is ailing, or if the family has been unfortunate in raising children, the newborn is named in the regular way, then is placed on an old rice winnower, and is carried to a refuse heap and left. evil spirits witnessing this will think that the child is dead, and will pay no more heed to it. after a time, a woman from another house will pick the child up and carry it back to the dwelling, where it is renamed. in such a case it is probable that the new name will recall the event. [ ] if a former child has died, it is possible that the infant will receive its name, but if so, it will be renamed within a few days. in this manner, respect is shown both for the deceased child and the ancestor for which it was named; yet the newborn is not forced to bear a title which is apparently displeasing to the spirits. continued sickness may also result in the giving of a new name. [ ] in such a case a small plot of rice is planted as an offering to the spirits, which have caused the illness. according to reyes, the child to be named is carried to a tree, and the medium says, "your name is ----;" at the same time she strikes the tree with a knife. if the tree "sweats," the name is satisfactory; otherwise, other names are mentioned until a favorable sign is obtained. [ ] the writer found no trace of such procedure in any part of the tinguian belt. for a month succeeding the birth, the mother must follow a very strict set of rules. each day she is bathed with water in which certain herbs and leaves, distasteful to evil spirits, are boiled. [ ] beginning with the second day and until the tenth she must add one bath each day, at least one of which is in cold water. from the tenth to the twenty-fourth day she takes one hot and one cold bath, and from then to the end of the month she continues the one hot bath. until these are completed, the family must keep a strip of _ayabong_ bark burning beneath the house, in order to protect the baby from evil spirits. as an additional defence, a miniature bow and arrow, and a bamboo shield, with a leaf attached, as hung above the infant's head (fig. , no. ). on the fifth day the mother makes a ring out of old cloth, rice stalks, and a vine, and puts it on her head; over her shoulders is an old blanket, while in one hand she holds a reed staff, which "helps her in her weakness, and protects her from evil beings." she carries a coconut shell filled with ashes, a basket and a jar, and thus equipped she goes to the village spring. arriving there, she cleans the dishes "as a sign that her weakness has passed, and that she can now care for herself;" then she sets fire to a piece of bark, and leaves it burning beside the water, as a further sign of her recovery. when she returns to the dwelling, the cleansed dishes and the staff are placed above the spot, where she and the baby sleep. on the th day the fire is extinguished, and the bamboo frame is fastened under the floor of the house, below the mother's mat, "so that all can see that the family has followed the custom." as the frame is carried out, the mother calls to the _anito_ mother (cf. p. ) to throw out her fire. in the mountain districts about lakub, a ceremony in which the spirits are besought to look to the child's welfare is held about the third day after the birth. the mediums summon several spirits; a chicken or a pig is killed, and its blood mixed with rice is offered up. at the conclusion a small _saloko_ [ ] containing an egg is attached to one end of the roof. in ba-ak this is generally a three to six day event attended by all the friends and relatives of the family. here, in place of the egg, a jar containing pine-sticks is attached to the roof, for the pine which burns brightly makes it plain to the spirits what the people are doing. in the light of the extended and rather complex procedure just related, it is interesting to note that the tinguian woman is one of those mythical beings whom careless or uninformed writers have been wont to describe as giving birth to her children without bodily discomfort. _reyes_ [ ] tells us that she cuts the umbilical cord, after which she proceeds to the nearest brook, and washes the clothing soiled during the birth. _lerena_ likewise credits her with delivering herself without aid, at whatever spot she may then chance to be; then, without further ado or inconvenience, she continues her duties as before. if she happens to be near to a river, she bathes the child; or, if water is not handy, she cleans it with grass or leaves, and then gives it such a name as stone, rooster, or carabao. [ ] throughout the greater part of the tinguian territory, nothing further of importance takes place for about two years, providing the child progresses normally, but should it be ailing, a medium will be summoned to conduct the _ibal_ ceremony. [ ] for this a pig or rooster is prepared for sacrifice, but before it is killed, the medium squats before it and, stroking its side with oiled fingers, she chants the following _diam_. "those who live in the same town go to raid, to take heads. after they arrive, those who live in the same town, 'we go and dance with the heads,' said the people, who live in the same town, 'because they make a celebration, those who went to kill.' 'when the sun goes down, you come to join us,' said the mother and baby (to her husband who goes to the celebration). after that the sun truly went down; she went truly to join her husband; after that they were not (there), the mother and the baby (i.e., when the father arrived where they had agreed to meet, the mother and child were not there). "he saw their hats lying on the ground. he looked down; the mother and the baby were in (the ground), which ground swallowed them. 'why (are) the mother and the baby in the ground? how can i get them?' when he raises the mother and the baby, they go (back) into the ground. after that kaboniyan above, looking down (said), 'what can you do? the spirits of ibal in daem are the cause of their trouble. it is better that you go to the home of your parents-in-law, and you go and prepare the things needed in ibal,' said kaboniyan. "they went truly and prepared; after that they brought (the things) to the gate. after that the mother and child came out of the ground. 'after this when there is a happening like this, of which you ipogau are in danger, you do like this (i. e., make the ibal ceremony); and i alone, kaboniyan am the one you summon,' said kaboniyan. "after that they got well because they came up, the mother and the baby." when the chant is finished, the animal is slaughtered, and food is prepared both for guests and spirits. following the instructions of kaboniyan, the latter is placed at the entrance to the village; after which it is possible that this powerful spirit will visit the gathering in the person of the medium, and give further instructions for the care of the infant. in the village of lakub the writer witnessed a variation of this ceremony which, it is said, is also followed in case the pregnancy is not progressing favorably. a piece of banana stalk, wrought into the form of a child, and wearing a bark head-band, was placed on the mat beside the medium. she, acting for a spirit, seized the miniature shield and bow and arrow which hung above the baby, and attempted to shoot the figure. immediately two old women came to the rescue of the image, and after a sharp tussel compelled the spirit to desist. they then secured the weapons, and in their turn tried to shoot the figure, which was now defended in vain by the medium. it was later explained that, in the first place, the figure represented the child, and had the spirit succeeded in shooting it, the babe would have died; later, it impersonated the child of the spirit, and when that being saw its own offspring in danger, it immediately departed from the village. several other spirits then entered the body of the medium, and after receiving food and drink, gave friendly advice. when the child is about two years old, a ceremony known as _olog_ [ ] is held. the mediums who are summoned prepare a spirit mat, [ ] and at once begin to recite _diams_ over the body of a bound pig. as soon as the animal is killed, its heart is removed, and is rubbed against the breast of each member of the family. the medium then resumes her place at the mat, and soon is possessed by a spirit who takes charge of the proceedings. at his suggestion, the child is rubbed from head to foot with the thread from the medium's outfit, "so that it will not cry any more;" next, he orders that the intestines of the pig be cleaned, placed on a wooden dish, and be carried to the gate of the town. when they arrive at the designated spot, the mediums make a "stove" by driving three sticks into the ground, so as to outline a triangle, and within these they burn a bundle of rice-straw. beside the "stove" is placed a branch, each leaf of which is pierced with a chicken feather. this completed, the child is brought up to the fire, and is crowned with the intestines; while one of the mediums strikes the ground vigorously with a split stick, [ ] to attract the attention of the spirits. next, she secures a rooster, and with this in one hand and a spear in the other, she marches five times around the fire meanwhile reciting a _diam_. at the conclusion of this performance the fowl is killed; and its blood, mixed with rice, is scattered on the ground. at the same time the medium calls to all the spirits to come and eat, to be satisfied, and not cause the child to become ill. the flesh and rice cakes are likewise offered, but after a few moments have elapsed, they are eaten by all the people. at the conclusion of the meal, a wreath of vines is substituted for the intestines, which are hung beside the fire. this concludes the ceremony; but, as the mother and child reach the ladder of their home, the people above sprinkle them with water, meanwhile calling out eight times, "you are in a heavy storm." the significance of this sprinkling is not known, but the custom is widespread, and is evidently very ancient. in the mountain village of likuan, a man who wears a very large hat takes the child to a nearby _saloko_. as he returns, he is sprinkled by a medium, who says, "you are wet from the rain; in what place did you get wet?" he replies, "yes, we are wet from the rain; we were wet in inakban (a town of the spirits);" then placing two small baskets in the _saloko_, he carries the child into the dwelling. soon the father appears and goes about inquiring for his wife and child; suddenly spying the baskets, he seizes them and takes them into the house, saying, "here are the mother and the child." the following morning, the women place rice cakes and betel-nuts, ready to chew, in leaves, and tie them to a bamboo stalk with many branches. this is then planted beside the spring, "so that the child will grow and be strong like the bamboo." the sight of all these good things is also pleasing to the spirits, and they will thus be inclined to grant to the child many favors. when the women return to the house, they carry with them a coconut shell filled with water, and with this they wash the infant's face "to keep it from crying, and to keep it well." this done, they tie a knot of banana leaves to the house ladder as a sign that no person may enter the dwelling until after its removal the next day. [ ] a ceremony, not witnessed by the writer, is said to take place when evil spirits have persistently annoyed the mother and the child, when the delivery is long overdue, or when an _anito_ child [ ] has been born to a human mother. the husband and his friends arm themselves with long knives or head-axes, and enter the dwelling, where they kill a rooster. the blood is mixed with rice; and this, together with nine coconut shells filled with _basi_, is placed beneath the house for the _anitos_ to eat. while the spirits are busy with this repast, the mother, wrapped in a blanket, is secretly passed out a window and taken to another house. then the men begin shouting, and at the same time slash right and left against the house-posts with their weapons. in this way the evil spirits are not only kept from noticing the absence of the mother, but are also driven to a distance. this procedure is repeated under nine houses, after which they return to the dwelling with the woman. as soon as they reach the top of the ladder, an old woman throws down ashes "to blind the eyes of the _anitos_, so that they cannot see to come up." [ ] she likewise breaks a number of small jars, "which look like heads," as a threat of the treatment which awaits them if they attempt to return to the house. within the dwelling food and presents are offered to the good spirits, and all who have participated in the _anito_ driving are feasted. next morning, a wash, said to be particularly distasteful to the evil _anito_, is prepared. it consists of water in which are placed lemon, bamboo, and _atis_ leaves, a cigar stub, and ashes from burned rice straw. the family wash in this mixture, and are then fully protected against any evil spirits, which may still remain after the terrifying events of the previous night. _childhood_.--when outside the house, small babies are always carried by their mothers or older sisters (plate xv). the little one either sits astride its mother's hip or fits against the small of the back, and is held in place by her arm or by a blanket which passes over one shoulder. from this position the infant is readily shifted, so that it can nurse whenever it is hungry. there are no regular periods for feeding, neither is there a definite time for weaning. most children continue to nurse until quite large, or until they are displaced by newcomers. however, they are given some solid food, such as rice, while very young, and soon they are allowed to suck sugar-cane and sweet potatoes. it is also a common thing to see a mother take the pipe from her mouth, and place it in that of her nursing infant. they thus acquire the habit of using tobacco at a very early age, and continue it through life, but apparently without evil effects. weaning is accomplished by rubbing the breasts with powdered chile peppers, or plants with sour flavor. a crib or sleeping basket is made out of bamboo or rattan, and this is attached to the center of a long bamboo pole, which is suspended across one corner of the room (fig. , no. ). the pole bends with each movement of the child, and thus it rocks itself to sleep. another device in which small children are kept is known as _galong-galong_. this consists of a board seat attached to a strip of split rattan at each corner. sliding up and down on these strips are vertical and horizontal pieces of reed or bamboo, which form an open box-like frame (fig. , no. ). the reeds are raised, the child is put in, and then they are slipped back in place. this device is suspended from a rafter, at such a height that it can serve either as a swing or walker, as desired. when the mother goes to the village spring or to the river, she carries her baby with her, and invariably gives it a bath in the cold water. this she applies with her hand or a coconut shell, and frequently she ends the process by dipping the small body into the water. apparently, the children do not enjoy the ordeal any more than european youngsters; but this early dislike for the water is soon overcome, and they go to the streams to paddle and play, and quickly become excellent swimmers. they learn that certain sluggish fish hide beneath large rocks; and oftentimes a whole troop of naked youngsters may be seen going up stream, carefully feeling under the stones, and occasionally shouting with glee, as a slippery trophy is drawn out with the bare hands. they also gather shell fish and shrimps, and their catch often adds variety to the family meal. children are seldom punished or scolded. all the family exhibit real affection for the youngsters, and find time to devote to them. a man is never too old or too busy to take up and amuse or caress the babies. kissing seems to be unknown, but a similar sign of affection is given by placing the lips to the face and drawing the breath in suddenly. a mother is often heard singing to her babes, but the songs are usually improvised, and generally consist of a single sentence repeated over and over. aside from the daily bath, the child has little to disturb it during the first five or six years of its life. it has no birthdays, its hair is never cut, unless it be that it is trimmed over the eyes to form bangs, and it wears clothing only on very special occasions. the children are by no means innocent in sexual matters; but absolute familiarity with nudity has removed all curiosity and false modesty, and the relations between the sexes are no freer than in civilized communities. when garments are put on, they are identical with those worn by the elders. at all ages the people will discard their clothing without any sense of shame, whenever the occasion demands; as, for instance, the fording of a stream, or when a number of both sexes happen to be bathing at the same time in the village pool. this does not lead to immodesty or lewdness, and a person who is careless about the acts, which are not considered proper in tinguian society, is an object of scorn quite as much as he would be in a more advanced community. the first toys generally consist of pigs, carabao, or horses made by sticking bamboo legs into a sweet potato or mango. a more elaborate plaything is an imitation snake made of short bamboo strips fastened together with cords at top, center, and bottom. when this is held near the middle by the thumb and forefinger, it winds and curls about as if alive. stilts of bamboo, similar to those used in america, are sometimes used by the older children, but the more popular local variety is made by fastening cords through the tops of half coconut shells. the youth holds a cord in each hand, stands on the shells with the lines passing between the first two toes, and then walks. flat boards with cords attached become "carabao sleds," and in these immense loads of imaginary rice are hauled to the granaries. a similar device serves as a harrow, while a stick is converted into a "plough" or "horse," as is desired. imitation carabao yokes are much prized, and the children pass many hours serving as draught animals or drivers. the bull-roarer, made by putting a thin piece of bamboo on a cord and whirling it about the head, makes a pleasing noise, and is excellent to use in frightening stray horses. blow-guns, made out of bamboo or the hollow tubes of plants, vie in popularity with a pop-gun of similar construction. a wad of leaves is driven through with a plunger, and gives a sharp report, as it is expelled. tops are among the prized possessions of the boys. they are spun, or are wound with cord, and are thrown overhand at those of other players, with the intention of splitting or marking them. quite as popular, with the small girls, are tiny pestles with which they industriously pound rice chaff, in imitation of their mothers. while still mere babies, the boys begin to play with toy knives made of wood, but by the time they are seven or eight years of age, they are permitted to carry long _bolos_, and before puberty they are expert with the weapons used by the tribe (plate xi). in the mountain regions in particular, it is a common occurrence for groups of youngsters, armed with reed spears and palm-bark shields, to carry on mock battles. they also learn to make traps and nets, and oftentimes they return to the village with a good catch of small birds. full grown dogs are seldom friendly or considered as pets; but puppies, small chickens, parrakeets, pigs, and baby carabao make excellent playfellows, and suffer accordingly. from the day of its birth, the young carabao is taken possession of by the children, who will fondle and tease it, ride on its back, or slide off over its head or tail. soon they gain confidence, and find similar amusements with the full grown animals. these huge beasts are often surly or vicious, especially around white men, but they recognize their masters in the little brown folk, and submit meekly to their antics. in fact, the greater part of the care of these animals is entrusted to young boys. when not engaged in some of the amusements already mentioned, it is probable that the youngster is one of the group of naked little savages, which races through the village on the way to the swimming hole, or climbs tall trees from the top of which sleeping pigs can be easily bombarded. should the children be so fortunate as to possess a tin can, secured from some visiting traveller, they quickly convert it into a drum or _gansa_, and forthwith start a celebration. all can dance and sing, play on nose flutes, bamboo guitars, or jew's harps. in addition to songs of their own composition, there are other songs, which are heard whenever the children are at play. they make a swing by tying ropes to a carabao yoke, and attach it to a limb; then, as they swing, they sing: "pull swing. my swing is a snake. do not writhe like a snake. my swing is a big snake. do not turn and twist. my swing is a lizard. do not tremble or shake." when a group gathers under a house to pop corn in the burning rice chaff, they chant: "pop, pop, become like the privates of a woman. make a noise, make a noise, like the clay jar. pop, pop, like the coconut shell dish. sagai, sagai, [ ] make a noise like the big jar." when the smoke blows toward a part of the children, the others sing over and over: "deep water here; high land there." a favorite game is played by a number of children. part stand on the edge of a bank, part below. those above sing, "jump down, where the big stone is, the big stone which swallows people. big stone, which swallows people, where are you?" to this the children below reply, "i am here. i am the big rock which swallows men. come down here." as those on the bank jump down, they are piled upon, and a free-for-all tussel ensues. in the midst of this, one of the players suddenly sings out, "i am a deer in--, i am very fat." with this he starts off on a run, and the rest of the party, now suddenly transformed into dogs, take up the chase, yelping and barking. when the deer becomes tired, he makes for the water, where he is considered safe; but if he is caught, he is rolled and bitten by the dogs. another game played by both boys and girls is known as _maysansani_, and is much like hide-and-go-seek. one boy holds out an open hand, and the others lay their fingers in his palm, while the leader counts, _maysansani_, _duan-nani_, _mataltali_, [ ] _ocop_. as _ocop_ ("four" or "ready") is pronounced, the boy quickly closes his hand in order to catch a finger. if he succeeds, the prisoner puts his hands over his eyes, and the leader holds him, while the others run and hide. when all are ready, he is released, and then must find all the players; or he is beaten on the forearm with the first and second fingers of all the participants, or they may pick him up by his head and feet, and whirl him about. like european children, they have a set of small sayings or acts for use on appropriate occasions. a youngster may come up to another who is eating a luscious mango; when requested for a bite, he is apt to draw down the lower lid of his eye and coolly answer, "i will make a sound like swallowing for you," and then go on with the feast. he may even hold out the tempting fruit, as if to comply with the request, then suddenly jerk it back and shout "kilat." [ ] this is often the signal for a scuffle. as the children grow older, they begin more and more to take their place in the village life. the little girl becomes the chief guardian of a new arrival in the family; and with the little one strapped on her back, she romps and plays, while the baby enjoys it all or sleeps serenely (plate xii). the boy also assists his father and mother in the fields, but still he finds some time for games of a more definite character than those just described. probably the most popular of these is known as _agbita_ or _lipi_. this is played with the large disk-shaped seeds of the _lipi_ plant (ilocano _lipai_). each player puts two disks in line, then all go to a distance and shoot toward them. the shooter is held between the thumb and first finger of the left hand, and is propelled forward by the index finger of the right. the one whose seed goes the farthest gets first shot, and the others follow in order. all seeds knocked down belong to the player, and if any are still in line after each has had his turn, the leader shoots again. when each boy has had two shots, or when all the disks are down, a new line is made; and he whose seed lies at the greatest distance shoots first. another common game is _patpatinglad_, which has certain resemblances to cricket. a small cylinder-shaped missel, called _papa-anak_ ("little duck"), about four inches long, is set in a shallow groove, so that one end stands free; it is then struck and batted with a bamboo stock--_papa-ina_ ("mother duck"). the lad who has driven his missel the farthest is the winner, and hence has the privilege of batting away the _papa-anak_ of the other players, so that they will have to chase them. if he likes, he may take hold of the feet of a looser and compel him to walk on his hands to secure this missel. a loser is sometimes taken by the head and feet, and is swung in a circle, a game frequently seen in the lowland valleys is also common to the ilocano children, who call it san pedro. lines are drawn on the ground to enclose a space about thirty feet square (see diagram fig. ). the boys at d try to run between the lines, and at the same time evade the guards a, b, and c. guard a can run along line , or as far as . guard b must stay on line ; and c must keep on . when the runners are captured, they become the guards. from the preceding paragraphs it may be surmized that the youth is quite untrained and untaught. it is true that he spends no time in a class-room; he passes through no initiation at the time of puberty, neither are there ceremonies or observances of any kind which reveal to him the secret knowledge of the tribe, yet he quickly learns his place in society, and at an early age begins to absorb its customs and beliefs. he sits about the village fires in the evenings, and listens to the tales of long ago, or hears the elders discuss the problems of their daily life. during the hot midday hours, he lounges in the field-houses, while his parents relate the fate of lazy children; or tell of punishments sent by the spirits on those who fail to follow the customs of the ancestors, or give heed to the omens. he attends the ceremonies, where he not only learns the details of these important events, but with his own eyes sees the bodies of the mediums possessed by superior beings, and thus the close relationship of the spirit world to his people is forcibly brought to his notice. he is never debarred from the dances or other activities; in fact, he is encouraged to take part in them or to imitate his elders. soon custom gathers him into its net, and unless he is the exceptional individual, or comes in intimate contact with outsiders, he never escapes. it has already been seen that he begins very early to take an active part in the village life, but it is many years before he assumes a position of importance in the group. it is only when age and experience have gained for him the respect of his fellows that he begins to have a voice in the more weighty affairs of tinguian life. _engagement and marriage_.--since there are no clans or other groupings to limit the number of families in which unions may be contracted, the only impediments are former marriage ties or blood relationship. cousins may not marry, neither is a man allowed to wed his step-sister, his wife's sister, or her mother. engagement takes place while the children are very young, sometimes while they are still babes-in-arms; but usually the contract is made when they are six or eight years of age. the boy's parents take the initiative, and having selected a suitable girl, they broach the subject to her family. this is not done directly, but through an intermediary, generally a relative, "who can talk much and well." he carries with him three beads--one red, one yellow, and one agate, [ ] which he offers "as an evidence of affection," and then proceeds to relate the many desirable qualities of the groom and his family, as well as the advantages to be gained by the union. if the suit is favored, the beads are attached to the girl's wrist as a sign of her engagement, and a day is set for the _pakálon_ [ ] or price fixing. on the appointed day, friends and relatives gather at the girl's home and, after several hours of feasting and drinking, settle down to the real business on hand. a large pig is slaughtered, and its liver is carefully examined; for, should the omens be unfavorable, it would be useless to continue the negotiations further at that time (cf. p. ). if the signs are good, the happy crowd forms a circle, and then begins a long and noisy discussion of the price which the girl should bring. theoretically, the payment is made in horses, carabao, jars, blankets, and rice, but as each article is considered as having a value of five pesos ($ . ), the money is frequently substituted, especially by people in poor circumstances. a portion of the agreed price is paid at once, and is distributed between the girl's parents and her relatives, who thus become vitally interested in the successful termination of the match; for should it fail of consummation, they must return the gifts received. the balance of the payment is often delayed for a considerable time, and it not infrequently happens that there is still a balance due when the man dies. in such a case no division of his property can be made until the marriage agreement is settled in full. the completion of the list is the signal for great rejoicing; liquor circulates freely, the men sing _daleng_ (cf. p. ), and _tadek_ (cf. p. ) is danced far into the night. in the yard where the dancing takes place, three inverted rice-mortars are placed one above the other, "to serve as a table for the spirits who always attend." a dish of liquor is placed on it, while at its side is a spear decorated with a man's belt. these engagement-parties are the great social affairs of the year, and friends will journey long distances to be present, but the betrothed couple is seldom in evidence, and in many instances the groom is absent. following their engagement the children live with their parents until such a time as they are considered old enough to maintain their own home. if the lad comes from a well-to-do family, it is probable that the final ceremony will take place before either of the couple reaches puberty; but, if the groom must earn a living, the marriage may be delayed until he is eighteen or nineteen years old (plate xiii). when the time for the fulfillment of the agreement arrives, the boy goes, in company, at night to the girl's house. he has a headaxe hanging from his belt, but he is the only one so armed. an earlier writer [ ] has described a feigned attack on the house of the bride as a part of the marriage ceremony, but the present writer did not witness anything of the sort, nor could he learn of any such action. the groom carries with him a small part of the marriage payment and a valuable jar; these he presents to his parents-in-law, and from that time on he may never call them or their near relatives by name. should he do so, "he will have boils and the first child will be insane." the bride's people have provided a coconut shell filled with water and a wooden dish [ ] containing cooked rice. these are placed between the couple, as they sit in the center of the room (plate xiv). the boy's mother drops two beads into the shell cup, and bids them drink; for, "as the two beads always go together at the bottom, so you will go together and will not part. the cool water will keep you from becoming angry." great care must be exercised in handling the cup; for should the contents be shaken the couple will become dizzy, and in old age their heads and hands will shake. after they have drunk, each takes a handful of rice, and squeezes it into a ball. the girl drops hers through the slits in the bamboo floor as an offering to the spirits, but the boy tosses his into the air. if it breaks or rolls, it is a bad sign, and the couple is apt to part, or their children die. in such a circumstance, the marriage is usually deferred, and tried again at a later date; but repeated scattering of the rice generally results in the annulling of the agreement. [ ] should anything in the dwelling fall or be broken during the ceremony, it is halted at once; to proceed further that night would be to court misfortune. however, it may be undertaken again a few days later. the guests depart immediately after the rice ceremony. no food or drink is offered to them, nor is there any kind of celebration. [ ] that night the couple sleep with a pillow between them, [ ] and under the groom's pillow is a head-axe. early in the morning, the girl's mother or some other elderly female of her family awakens them, and leads the way to the village spring. arriving there, she pours water in a coconut shell, which contains a cigar from which the couple have drawn smoke; [ ] she adds leaves of bamboo and _agiwas_, and washes their faces with the liquid, "to show that they now have all in common; that the tobacco may keep them and their children from becoming insane; that the _agiwas_ will keep them in health; and the bamboo will make them strong and insure many children, the same as it has many sprouts." on their way home, the boy cuts a _dangla_ shrub (_vitex negundo_ l.) with his head-axe, and later attaches it to the door of their home, "so that they may have many children." throughout that day the doors and windows are kept tightly closed; for should the young people see birds or chickens having intercourse, they are apt to become insane, and their first born have sore or crossed eyes. the next morning is known as _sipsipot_ ("the watching"). accompanied by the girl's parents, the couple goes to the father's fields. on the way they carefully observe any signs which animals, birds, or nature, may give them. when they reach the fields, the boy shows his respect for his elders by cutting the grass along the borders with his head-axe. this service also counteracts any bad sign which they may have received that morning. he next takes a little of the soil on his axe, and both he and his bride taste of it, "so that the ground will yield good harvests" for them, and they will become rich. [ ] nowadays the couple goes to the home, prepared by the groom and his parents, as soon as it is ready, but the tales indicate [ ] that in former times they lived for a time with the boy's parents. they are accompanied by the groom's mother, and go very early in the morning, as they are then less apt to receive bad signs from the birds. the girl carries her sleeping mat and two pillows; but before she has deposited these in her new dwelling, she seats herself on the bamboo floor with her legs stretched out in front. it then becomes necessary for the groom to present her with a string of agate beads equal in length to the combined width of the bamboo slats which she covers. before she can eat of her husband's rice, he must give her a string of beads, or she will become ill; she may not open his granary until a like present has been given, or the resident spirit will make her blind; neither may she take food from the pots or water from the jars, until other beads have been presented to her. if the girl comes from another village, it is customary to make a payment to her parents for each stream crossed on the journey to the new home; another is demanded before she goes up the house ladder, and still others when she enters the house, and her belongings are brought in. [ ] a common occurrence in ba-ak and the san juan district is for the parents of the girl to spread rows of baskets, chinese plates or jars on the floor and to offer them to the groom. before he can accept them, he must make a return gift of money, beads, and the like for each one. it is explained by the elders that, when the young people see all the gifts spread out on the floor, they will appreciate the expense involved, and will be less likely to separate. if at any time the relatives of the girl have reason to doubt the husband's affection, they go to his home, and hold a gathering known as _nagkakaló-nan_. they place a pig, a jar, and a number of baskets on the floor; and the husband is obliged to exchange money and other gifts for them, if he desires to convince the people of his continued love. after the pig has been served as food, the old men deliberate; and should they decide that the relatives have erred, they assess the whole cost of the gathering to the plaintiffs, and return the gifts. if the charge is sustained, the relatives recover the price of the pig, and retain the articles received in exchange for the baskets and dishes. divorce is not uncommon, and is effected by a council similar to that just described. an attempt to reconcile the couple is made, but if that fails, the old men decide who is at fault, and assess the expenses of the gathering to that one. if blame attaches to the husband, he must complete any part of the marriage price still due; but if the woman is guilty, her parents and relatives must return the gifts distributed at the time of the engagement. the chief causes for divorce are cruelty or laziness on the part of the man, or unfaithfulness of the woman. small children are generally left with the mother, but when they are old enough to decide, they may choose between their parents. however, the father must aid in the support of his offspring, and they share in his property when he dies. either party to a divorce may remarry at any time. the tinguian recognize only one wife, but a man may have as many concubines (_pota_), as he can secure. the _pota_ lives in a house of her own, but she is held somewhat in contempt by the other woman, and is seldom seen in the social gatherings or in other homes. her children belong to the father, and she has no right of appeal to the old men, except in cases of cruelty. men with concubines do not suffer in the estimation of their fellows, but are considered clever to have won two or three women. the _pota_ is generally faithful to one man, and prostitution is almost unknown. unfaithfulness on the part of a betrothed girl, or wife, or even a _pota_ is almost certain to cause serious trouble, and is likely to end in a murder. the early pledging and marriage of the children has reduced illicit sexual intercourse to a minimum; nevertheless, it sometimes happens that an unbetrothed girl, not a _pota_, is found to be pregnant. in such a case the man is expected to make a gift of about one hundred pesos to the girl's people, and he must support the child when finally it comes into his keeping. neither party to such an occurrence loses standing in the community unless the father should fail to redeem the child. should this happen, he would be a subject of ridicule in the community, and a fine might also result. the usual outcome of such an illicit union is that the girl becomes the _pota_ of her child's father. _death and burial_.--sickness and death are usually caused by unfriendly spirits; [ ] sometimes kadaklan himself thus punishes those who refuse to obey the customs; sometimes they are brought about by mortals who practise magic, or by individuals themselves as punishment for violated taboos; and finally violent death is recognized as coming from human agency. the methods of cajoling the spirits, of overcoming magic, and thwarting evil designs are discussed in another chapter (cf. pp. _et seq_.). if all these fail, and the patient dies, the family and relatives at once don old garments, and enter on a period of mourning, while friends and relatives assist in the disposal of the corpse. a funeral is a great event in a tinguian village. the dead is bathed, "so that his spirit [ ] may be clean," and is placed in a bamboo seat at the end of the house. this seat, which is known as _sangádel_, is constructed by placing three long bamboo poles against the wall and resting a frame of bamboo slats on them, to a height of about three feet. a mat is attached to the top, and is stretched onto the floor in front. the corpse is dressed in its best garments, beads and silver wire surround its neck, while above and about it are many valuable blankets, belts, clouts, woven skirts, and the like, which the spirit is to take with him to the ancestors in maglawa, his future home. a live chicken is placed behind the chair as an offering, but following the funeral it becomes the property of the friend, who removes the poles from the house. the flesh of a small pig is also offered to the spirits, while the intestines are hung just outside the door, until the body is buried. in the yard at the north-east corner of the house stands an inverted rice-mortar on which is a dish of _basi_,--an offering to the spirit al-lot, who in return prevents the people from becoming angry. the needs of the spirit of the deceased are looked after by the members of the family. it is their duty to place two small jars of liquor near to the corpse and to bring food to it, when the others are eating. up to this point only those spirits who attend the ceremony with friendly intent have been provided for, but the tinguian realize that there are others who must be kept at a distance or at least be compelled to leave the body unharmed. the first of these evil beings to be guarded against is kadongáyan, [ ] who in former times used to attend each funeral and amuse himself by sliting the mouth of the corpse, so that it extended from ear to ear. through the friendly instruction of kaboniyan it was learned that, if a live chicken, with its mouth split down to its throat, were fastened to the door of the house, its suffering would be noticed by the evil spirit, who, fearing similar treatment, would not attempt to enter the dwelling. [ ] the spirit ibwa is also much feared. [ ] long ago he used to mingle with the people in human form, without harming them, but the thoughtless act of a mourner started him on the evil course he has since pursued. in those times, it is said, the corpse was kept in the dwelling seven days; and, as the body decomposed, the liquid which came from it was caught in dishes, and was placed in the grave. on the occasion referred to, he was handed a cup of the "lard" to drink. he immediately acquired a great liking for this disgusting dish, and frequently even devoured the body as well. since he fears iron, it is possible to drive him away by using metal weapons. it is also necessary to guard the grave against him and the spirit selday, who demands blood or the corpse. akop is another evil spirit, who has a head, long slimy arms and legs, but no body. he is always near the place of death, awaiting an opportunity to embrace the spouse of the deceased, and once let the living feel his cold embrace, death is sure to follow. so a barricade of pillows is erected at one corner of the room, and behind this the wife is compelled to remain during the three days the body is kept in the house, while throughout the night she sleeps under a fish net, in the meshes of which the long fingers of the spirit are sure to become entangled. meanwhile, two or three old women sit near the corpse fanning it and wailing continually, at the same time keeping close watch to prevent the spirits from approaching the body or the widow (plate xvi). from time to time the wife may creep over to the corpse, and wailing and caressing it beg the spirit not to depart. [ ] according to custom, she has already taken off her beads, has put on old garments and a bark head-band, and has placed over her head a large white blanket, which she wears until after the burial. [ ] likewise all the relatives don old garments, and are barred from all work. the immediate family is under still stricter rules. corn is their only food; they may not touch anything bloody, neither can they swing their arms as they walk. they are prohibited from mounting a horse, and under no circumstances are they allowed to leave the village or join in merry-making. failure to obey these rules is followed by swift punishment, generally meted out by the spirit of the dead. [ ] except for the wife, these restrictions are raised after the blood and oil ceremony (described in a later paragraph), but the widow continues in mourning until the layog is celebrated, at the end of a year. according to many informants among the older men, it was formerly necessary, following the death of an adult, for the men to put on white head-bands and go out on a head-hunt. until their return it was impossible to hold the ceremony which released the relatives from the taboo. [ ] during the first two days that the body is in the house, the friends and relatives gather to do honor to the dead and to partake of the food and drink, which are always freely given at such a time; but there is neither music, singing, or dancing. [ ] on the morning of the third day, the male guests assemble in the yard, and after drinking _basi_ they select one of their number and proceed to beat him across the wrist or thigh, with a light rod (plate xvii). two hundred blows are required, but since the stick is split at one end only, one hundred strokes are given. this whipping is not severe, but the repeated blows are sufficient to cause the flesh to swell. as soon as the first man is beaten, he takes the rod and then proceeds to apply one hundred and fifty strokes [ ] to each man present, excepting only those whose wives are pregnant. should one of the latter be punished, his wife would suffer a miscarriage. the avowed purpose of this whipping is "to make all the people feel as sorry as the relatives of the dead man." burial in most of the valley towns is beneath the house, "as it is much easier to defend the body against evil spirits, and the grave is also protected against the rain." in manabo and many mountain villages, however, burial is in the yard. it is customary to open a grave already occupied by several of the relatives of the deceased. toward noon of the last day, some of the men begin clearing away the bamboo, which protects the old burial, and to remove the dirt. the grave is generally of one of the forms indicated in fig. , and when a depth of about three feet has been reached, the workers encounter stone slabs which protect a lower chamber. [ ] when these are reached, the diggers make an opening and thrusting in burning pine-sticks, they call to the dead within, "you must light your pipes with these." as soon as the slabs are raised, the oldest female relative of the deceased goes into the grave, gathers up the bones of the last person interred, ties them into a bundle, and reburies them in one corner. there is at present no such type of burial chamber, as is described by _la gironière_, [ ] nor is there a memory or tradition of such an arrangement. as his visit took place less than a century ago, it is unlikely that all trace of it would have been lost. the heavy rainfall in this district would make the construction and maintenance of such a chamber almost impossible, while the dread of leaving the corpses thus exposed to hostile spirits and the raids of enemies in search of heads would also argue against such a practice. his description of the mummifying or drying of the corpse by means of fires built around it [ ] is likewise denied by the old men of manabo, who insist that they never had such a custom. it certainly does not exist to-day. in a culture, in which the influence of custom is as strong as it is here, it would seem that the care of the corpse, which is intimately related to the condition of the spirit in its final abode, would be one of the last things to change, while the proceedings following a death are to-day so uniform throughout the tinguian belt, that they argue for a considerable antiquity. when the grave is ready, the fact is announced in the dwelling, and is the signal for renewed lamentation. the wife and near relatives throw themselves on the corpse, caressing it and crying wildly. whatever there may have been of duty or respect in the wailing of the first two days, this parting burst of sorrow is genuine. tears stand in the eyes of many, while others cease their wailing and sob convulsively. after a time an old woman brings in some _oldot_ seeds, each strung on a thread, and fastens one on the wrist of each person, as a protection against the evil spirit akop, who, having been defeated in his designs against the widow, may seek to vent his anger on others. when this has been done, a medium seats herself in front of the body; and, covering her face with her hands, begins to chant and wail, bidding the spirit to enter her body. suddenly she falls back in a faint, while suppressed excitement is manifested by all the onlookers. after a moment or two, fire and water are placed at her head and feet, "in order to frighten the spirit away," and then the medium gives the last message of the dead man to his family. this is, except for very rare exceptions, the only time that the spirits of the deceased communicate with mortals; and it is, so far as the writer has been able to learn, the only occasion when the medium repeats messages given to her. at other times she is possessed by natural spirits, [ ] who then talk directly with mortals. as a last preparation for the grave, a small hole is burned in each garment worn by the dead person, for otherwise the spirit ibwa will envy him his clothing and attempt to steal them. the corpse is then wrapped in a mat, and is carried from the house. [ ] the bearers go directly to the _balaua,_ [ ] and rest the body in it for a moment. unless this is done, the spirit will be poor in its future life and unable to build _balaua_. the body is deposited full length in the grave, the stone slabs are relaid, the chinks between them filled in with damp clay, and the grave is refilled. [ ] as the last earth is pushed in, a small pig is killed, and its blood is sprinkled on the loose soil. meanwhile selday is besought to respect the grave and leave it untouched. the animal is cut up, and a small piece is given to each guest, who will stop on the way to his home, and place the meat on the ground as an offering, meanwhile repeating a _diam_. should he fail to do this, sickness or death is certain to visit his home or village. as a further protection against evily disposed spirits, especially ibwa, an iron plough-point is placed over the grave, "for most evil spirits fear iron;" and during this night and the nine succeeding, a fire is kept burning at the grave and at the foot of the house-ladder. [ ] that night the men spend about an hour in the house of mourning, singing _sang-sangit_, a song in which they praise the dead man, encourage the widow, and bespeak the welfare of the family. the wailers still remain in the dwelling to protect the widow, and a male relative is detailed to see that the fire at the foot of the ladder is kept burning brightly. early the next morning, the widow, closely guarded by the wailers, goes to the river, throws her headband into the water, and then goes in herself. as she sinks in the water, an old man throws a bundle of burning rice-straw on her. "the water will wash away some of the sorrow, and the fire will make her thoughts clear." upon her return to the village, the grave is enclosed with a bamboo fence, and above it is hung a shallow box-like frame, known as _patay_, in which are placed the articles needed by the spirit. [ ] within the house the mat and pillow of the dead are laid ready for use, and at meal time food is placed beside it. the length of time that the mat is left spread out differs somewhat between towns and families. in some cases it is taken up at the end of the period of taboo, while in others it is not rolled up; nor are the windows of the house opened until after the celebration of the _layog_ ceremony, a year later. the taboo is usually strictly observed through ten days; but should there be some urgent reason, such as planting or reaping, it may be raised somewhat earlier. it is concluded by the blood and oil ceremony. the _lakay_, the other old men of the settlement, and all the relatives, gather in the house of mourning, while the mediums prepare for the ceremony. they kill a small pig and collect its blood in a dish; in another receptacle they place oil. a brush has been made out of a variety of leaves, and this the medium dips into the blood and oil, then draws it over the wrists or ankles of each person present, meanwhile saying, "let the _lew-lew_ (_fiscus hauili_ blanco) leaves take the sickness and death to another town; let the _kawayan_ ("bamboo") make them grow fast and be strong as it is, and have many branches; let the _atilwag_ (_breynia acuminata_ nuell. arg.) turn the sickness to other towns." a little oil is rubbed on the head of each person present; and all, except the widow, are then freed from restrictions. she must still refrain from wearing her beads, ornaments, or good clothing; and she is barred from taking part in any merry-making until after the _layog_ ceremony. [ ] at the conclusion of the anointing, the old men discuss the disposal of the property and other matters of importance in connection with the death. _the layog_. [ ]--several months after the burial (generally after the lapse of a year), the friends and relatives are summoned in the _layog_,--a ceremony held with the avowed intention "to show respect for the dead and to cause the family to forget their sorrow." friends come from near and far; and rice, pigs, cows or carabaos are prepared for food, while _basi_ flows freely. it is said that the liquor served at this time is "like tears for the dead." a medium goes to the guardian stones of the village, and there offers rice mixed with blood; she oils the stones, places new yellow headbands on each one, and after dancing _tadek_, returns to the gathering. often she is accompanied by a number of men, who shout on their return trip "to frighten away evil spirits." near the house a chair is made ready for the deceased, and in it are placed clothing and food. in the yard four crossed spears form the frame-work on which a shield rests (plate xviii) [ ] and on this are beads, food, and garments--offerings for the spirits; while near the house ladder is the spirits' table made of inverted rice mortars. the duration of this ceremony depends largely on the wealth of the family, for the relatives must furnish everything needed at this time. games are played, and there is much drinking and singing; but before the members of the family may take part, they are dressed in good garments, and the blood and oil ceremony is repeated on them. at the conclusion of the dancing, they go into the house, roll up the mat used by the dead, open the doors and windows, and all are again free to do as they wish. should they fail to roll up the mat at this time, it must remain until another _layog_ is held; and during the interval all the former restrictions are in force. [ ] about twenty years ago, a great number of people in patok died of cholera; and since then the people of that village have held a _layog_ in their honor each november, to the expense of which all contribute. as this is just before the rice-harvest, a time when all the people wear their best garments, it is customary for the old men to allow bereaved families to participate in this ceremony and then release them from mourning. _beliefs concerning the spirit of the dead_.--direct questioning brings out some differences of opinion, in the various districts, concerning the spirit of the dead. in manabo, a town influenced both by the igorot of the upit river valley and the christianized ilocano of san jose, the spirit is said to go at once to the great spirit kadaklan, and then to continue on "to the town where it lives." "it is like a person, but is so light that it can be carried along by the wind when it blows." [ ] the people of ba-ay, a mountain village partially made up of immigrants from the eastern side of the cordillera central, claim that the spirits of the dead go to a mountain called singet, where they have a great town. here, it is also stated, the good are rewarded with fine houses, while the bad have to be content with hovels. the general belief, however, is that the spirit (_kalading_) has a body like that of the living person, but is usually invisible, although spirits have appeared, and have even sought to injure living beings. immediately following death, the spirit stays near to its old home, ready to take vengeance on any relative, who fails to show his body proper respect. after the blood and oil ceremony, he goes to his future home, maglawa, carrying with him gifts for the ancestors, which the people have placed about his corpse. in maglawa he finds conditions much the same as on earth; people are rich and poor; they need houses; they plant and reap; and they conduct ceremonies for the superior beings, just as they had done during their life on earth. beyond this, the people do not pretend to be posted, "for kaboniyan did not tell." with the exception of the people of ba-ay and a few individuals influenced by christianity, the tinguian has no idea of reward or punishment in the future life, but he does believe that the position of the spirit in its new home can be affected by the acts of the living (cf. p. ). no trace of a belief in re-incarnation was found in any district inhabited by this tribe. _life and death_.--the foregoing details concerning birth, childhood, sickness, and death, seem to give us an insight into the tinguian conception of life and death. for him life and death do not appear to be but incidents in an endless cycle of birth, death, and re-incarnation ad infinitum, such as pictured by _lévy-bruhl_; [ ] yet, in many instances, his acts and beliefs fit in closely with the theory outlined by that author. in this society, there is only a weak line of demarcation between the living and the dead, and the dead for a time at least participate more or less in the life of the living. this is equally true of the unborn child, whose future condition, physical and mental, may be largely moulded by the acts of others. according to _lévy-bruhl_, this would indicate that the child at delivery is not fully born, is not as yet a member of the group; and the succeeding ceremonies are necessary to its full participation in life. death is likewise of long duration. following the last breath, the spirit remains near by until the magic power of the funeral severs, to an extent, his participation with society. the purpose of the final ceremony is to complete the rupture between the living and the dead. to the writer, the facts of tinguian life and beliefs suggest a somewhat different explanation. we have seen how strong individuals may be affected by magical practices. the close connection between an individual, his garments, or even his name, must be considered to apply with quite as much force to the helpless infant and the afterbirth. so strong is this bond, that even unintentional acts may injure the babe. evil spirits are always near; and, unless great precautions are taken, they will injure adults if they can get them at a disadvantage, particularly when they are asleep. the child is not able to protect itself from these beings; therefore the adults perform such acts, as they think will secure the good will and help of friendly spirits, while they bribe or buy up those who might otherwise be hostile; and lastly they make use of such magical objects and ceremonies, as will compel the evil spirits to leave the infant alone. as the child grows in size and strength, he is less in need of protection; and at an early age he is treated like the other younger members of the community. naming follows almost immediately after birth, while puberty and initiation ceremonies are entirely lacking. apparently then, a child is considered as being fully alive at birth, and at no time does he undergo any rites or ceremonies which make him more a part of the community than he was on the first day he saw the light. when death occurs, the spirit remains near to the corpse until after the funeral, and even then is close by until the ten days of taboo are over. he still finds need of nourishment, and hence food is placed near to his mat. as at birth, he is not in a position to protect his body from the designs of evil spirits, and if his relatives fail to give the corpse proper care, it is certain to be mutilated; likewise certain acts of the living towards the corpse can affect the position of the spirit in maglawa. hence it is of supreme importance that the former owner guards against any possible neglect or injury to the body, and it seems plausible that the presence of the spirit near its old haunts may be for the purpose of seeing that its body is carefully attended to. the folktales tell of several instances, in which the spirits took vengeance on relatives who neglected their bodies, or violated the period of taboo. [ ] when the danger period is past, the spirit at once leaves its old home, and returns again only at the time of the _layog_. from that time on, he continues his existence in the upper world, neither troubling, nor being troubled by mortals on earth. [ ] ancestor worship does not occur here, nor are offerings made to the dead, other than those described above. chapter iv religion and magic the tinguian has been taught by his elders that he is surrounded by a great body of spirits, some good, some malevolent. the folk-tales handed down from ancient times add their authority to the teachings of older generations, while the individual himself has seen the bodies of the mediums possessed by the superior beings; he has communicated with them direct, has seen them cure the sick and predict coming events. at many a funeral, he has seen the medium squat before the corpse, chanting a weird song, and then suddenly become possessed by the spirit of the deceased; and, finally, he or some of his friends or townspeople are confident that they have seen and talked to ghosts of the recently departed. all these beings are real to him; he is so certain of their existence that he seldom speculates about them or their acts. some of these spirits are always near; and a part of them, at least, take more than an ordinary interest in human affairs. thanks to the teachings of the elders, the tinguian knows how to propitiate them; and, if necessary, he may even compel friendly action on the part of many. toward the less powerful of the evily disposed beings, he shows indifference or insolence; he may make fun of, or lie to, and cheat them during the day, but he is careful to guard himself at night against their machinations. to the more powerful he shows the utmost respect; he offers them gifts of food, drink, and material objects; and conducts ceremonies in the manner demanded by them. having done these things, he feels that he is a party to a bargain; and the spirits must, on their part, repay by granting the benefits desired. not entirely content with these precautions, he performs certain magical acts which prevent evil spirits from doing harm to an individual or a community, and by the same means he is able to control storms, the rise of streams, and the growth of crops. it is doubtful if the tinguian has ever speculated in regard to this magical force, yet he clearly separates it from the power resident in the spirit world. it appears to be a great undifferentiated force to which spirits, nature, and men are subject alike. if a troublesome question arises, or an evident inconsistency in his beliefs is called to his attention, he disposes of it by the simple statement that it is _kadauyan_ ("custom"), "was taught by the ancestors," and hence is not subject to question. his religion holds forth no threat of punishment in a future world, neither are there rewards in that existence to urge men to better deeds. the chief teaching is that the customs of ancient times must be faithfully followed; to change is to show disrespect for the dead, for the spirits who are responsible for the customs, which are synonymous with law. custom and religion have become so closely interwoven in this society that it is well-nigh impossible to separate them. the building of a house, the planting, harvesting and care of the rice, the procedure at a birth, wedding, or funeral, in short, all the events of the social and economic life, are so governed by custom and religious beliefs, that it is safe to say that nearly every act in the life of the tinguian is directed or affected by these forces. two classes of spirits are recognized; first, those who have existed through all time, whom we shall call natural spirits; second, the spirits of deceased mortals. the latter reside forever in maglawa, a place midway between earth and sky; but a small number of them have joined the company of the natural spirits. except for these few, they are not worshiped, and no offerings are made to them, after the period of mourning is past. the members of the first class cover a wide range, from kadaklan, the great spirit who resides above, to kaboniyan, the teacher and helper, to those resident in the guardian stones, to the half human, half bird-like _alan_, to the low, mean spirits who delight to annoy mortals. these beings are usually invisible, but at times of ceremonies they enter the bodies of the mediums, possess them, and thus communicate with the people. on rare occasions they are visible in their own forms, as when kaboniyan appeared as the antagonist and later as the friend of sayen. [ ] these beings are addressed, first through certain semi-magical formulas, know as _diams_. these are seldom prayers or supplications, but are a part of a definite ritual, the whole of which is expected to gain definite favors. at the beginning, and during the course of all ceremonies, animals are killed. a part of the flesh and the blood is mixed with rice, and is offered to the spirits; but the bulk of the offering is eaten by the participants. liquor is consumed in great quantities at such a time, but a small amount is always poured out for the use of the superior beings. finally, the mediums summon the spirits into their bodies; and, when possessed, they are no longer considered as persons, but are the spirits themselves. the beings who appear in this way talk directly with the people; they offer advice, give information concerning affairs in the spirit world, and oftentimes they mingle with the people on equal terms, joining in their dances and taking a lively interest in their daily affairs. the people seldom pray to or supplicate the invisible spirits; but when they are present in the bodies of the mediums, they make requests, and ask advice, as they would from any friend or acquaintance. with many, the tinguian is on amicable terms, while toward kaboniyan he exhibits a degree of respect and gratitude which is close to affection. he realizes that there are many unfriendly spirits, but he has means of controlling or thwarting their evil designs; and hence he does not live in that state of perpetual fear which is so often pictured as the condition of the savage. _the spirits_.--a great host of unnamed spirits are known to exist; they often attend the ceremonies and sometimes enter the bodies of the mediums, and in this way new figures appear from time to time. in addition to these, there are certain superior beings who are well known, and who, as already indicated, exercise a potent influence on the daily life of the people. the following list will serve to give some idea of these spirits and their attributes; while the names of the less important will be found in connection with the detailed description of the ceremonies. kadaklan ("the greatest"), a powerful male spirit, who lives in the sky, created the earth, sun, moon, and stars. the stars are only stones, but the sun and moon are lights. at times kadaklan enters the body of a favored medium, and talks directly with the people; but more frequently he takes other means of communication. oftentimes he sends his dog kimat, the lightening, to bite a tree or strike a field or house, and in this way makes known his wish that the owner celebrate the _padiam_ ceremony (cf. p. ). all other beings are in a measure subservient to him, and his wishes are frequently made known through them. thunder is his drum with which he amuses himself during stormy weather, but sometimes he plays on it even on clear days. agemem is the wife of kadaklan. she lives in the ground. little is known of her except that she has given birth to two sons, [ ] whose chief duty is to see that the commands of their father are obeyed. adám and baliyen are the sons of kadaklan. the name of the first boy is suggestive of christian influence, but there are no traditions or further details to link him with the biblical character. kaboniyan is the friend and helper of the people, and by many is classed above or identified with kadaklan. at times he lives in the sky; again in a great cave near patok. [ ] from this cave came the jars which could talk and move, here were found the copper gongs used in the dances, and here too grew the wonderful tree which bore the agate beads so prized by the women. this spirit gave the tinguian rice and sugar-cane, taught them how to plant and reap, how to foil the designs of ill-disposed spirits, the words of the _diams_ and the details of many ceremonies. further to bind himself to the people, it is said, he married "in the first times" a woman from manabo. he is summoned in nearly every ceremony, and there are several accounts of his having appeared in his own form. according to one of these, he is of immense proportions; his spear is as large as a tree, and his head-axe the size of the end of the house. [ ] apdel is the spirit who resides in the guardian stones (_pinaing_) at the gate of the town. during a ceremony, or when the men are away for a fight, it becomes his special duty to protect the village from sickness and enemies. he has been known to appear as a red rooster or as a white dog. idadaya, who lives in the east (_daya_), is a powerful spirit who attends the _pala-an_ ceremony. he rides a horse, which he ties to the little structure built during the rite. ten grand-children reside with him, and they all wear in their hair the _igam_ (notched feathers attached to a stick). when these feathers lose their lustre, they can only be restored by the celebration of _pala-an_(cf. p. ). hence the owners cause some mortal, who has the right to conduct the ceremony, to become ill, and then inform him through the mediums as to the cause of his affliction. the names of the grand-children are as follows: pensipenondosan, logosen, bakoden, bing-gasan, bakdañgan, giligen, idomalo, agkabkabayo, ebloyan, and agtabtabokal. kaiba-an is the spirit who lives in the little house or _saloko_ in the rice-fields, and who protects the growing crops. offerings are made to him, when a new field is constructed, when the rice is transplanted, and at harvest time. "the ground which grows" (that is the nest of the white ant) is said to be made by him. makaboteng, also called sanadan, is the guardian of the deer and wild hogs. his good will is necessary if the dogs are to be successful in the chase; consequently he is summoned to many ceremonies, where he receives the most courteous treatment. in one ceremony he declared, "i can become the sunset sky." sabian or isabian is the guardian of the dogs. bisangolan ("the place of opening or tearing") is a gigantic spirit, who lives near the river, and who in time of floods uses his head-axe and walking-stick to keep the logs and refuse from jamming. "he is very old, like the world, and he pulls out his beard with his finger nails and his knife. his seat is a wooden plate." he appears in the _dawak_, _tangpap_, and _sayang_ ceremonies, holding a rooster and a bundle of rice. in ba-ak he is called ibalinsogóan, and is the first spirit summoned in _dawak_. kakalonan, also known as boboyonan, is the one who makes friends, and who learns the source of troubles. when summoned at the beginning of a ceremony, he tells what needs to be done, in order to insure the results desired. sasagangen, sometimes called ingalit, are spirits whose business it is to take heads and put them on the _saga_ or in the _saloko_ (cf. p. ). headache is caused by them. abat are numerous spirits who cause sore feet and headache. _salono_ and _bawi_ are built for them (cf. pp. - ). the spirits of ibal, who live in daem, are responsible for most sickness among children, but they are easily appeased with blood and rice. the ibal ceremony is held for them. maganáwan, who lives in nagbotobotan ("the place near which the rivers empty into the hole, where all streams go") is one of the spirits, called in the _sangásang_ ceremony, and for whom the blood of the rooster mixed with rice is put into the _saloko_, which stands in the yard. ináwen is a pregnant female spirit, who lives in the sea, and who demands the blood of a chicken mixed with rice to satisfy her capricious appetite. she also attends the _sangásang_. kideng is a tall, fat spirit with nine heads. he is the servant of ináwen, and carries the gifts of mortals to his mistress. ibwa is an evil spirit, who once mingled with the people in human form. due to the thoughtless act of a mourner at a funeral, he became so addicted to the taste of human flesh, that it has since then been necessary to protect the corpse from him. he fears iron, and hence a piece of that metal is always laid on the grave. holes are burned in each garment placed on the body to keep him from stealing them. akop is likewise evil. he has a head, long slimy arms and legs, but no body. he always frequents the place of death, and seeks to embrace the spouse of the deceased. should he succeed, death follows quickly. to defeat his plans, the widow is closely guarded by the wailers; she also sleeps under a fish net as an additional protection against his long fingers, and she wears seeds which are disliked by this being. kadongáyan indulges in the malicious sport of slitting the mouth of the corpse back to the ears. in order to frighten him away, a live chicken, with its mouth split to its throat, is placed by the door, during the time the body is in the house. when he sees the sufferings of the bird, he fears to enter the dwelling lest the people treat him in the same manner. selday is an ill-disposed being. he causes people to have sore feet, and only relieves them, when offerings are made to him in the _saloko_ or _bawi_. he lives in the wooded hill, but quickly learns of a death, and appears at the open grave. unless he is bought off with an offering, the blood of a small pig, he is almost certain to make away with the body, or cause a great sickness to visit the village. as the mourners return home, after the burial, they place bits of the slaughtered animal by the trail, so that he will not make them ill. bayon is a male spirit, who dwells in the sky, and who comes to earth as a fresh breeze. he once stole a girl from layógan, changed her two breasts into one, placed this in the center of her chest, and married her. lokadáya is the human wife of bayon. she now appears to have joined the company of the natural spirits and to be immortal. at times, both she and her husband enter the bodies of the mediums. agonán is the spirit who knows many dialects. he lives in dingolowan. gilen attends many ceremonies, and occupies an important place in _tangpap_; yet little is known of him. inginlaod are spirits who live in the west. ginobáyan is a female spirit, always present in the _tangpap_ ceremony. sangalo is a spirit who gives good and bad signs. dapeg, balingen-ngen, benisalsal, and kikiba-an, are all disturbers and mischief-makers. they cause illness, sore feet, headache, and bad dreams. they are important only because of the frequency with which they appear. al-lot attends festivals and prevents quarrels. liblibayan, banbanayo, and banbantay, are lesser spirits, who formerly aided "the people of the first times." the term "alan" comprises a large body of spirits with half human, half bird-like forms. they have wings and can fly; their toes are at the back of their feet, and their fingers attach to the wrists and point backward. often they hang from the branches of trees, like bats, but they are also pictured as having fine houses and great riches. they are sometimes hostile or mischievous, but more frequently are friendly. they play a very important part in the mythology, but not in the cult. [ ] komau is a giant spirit, who, according to tradition, was killed by the hero sayen. among the ilocano and some of the tinguian, the komau is known as a great invisible bird, which steals people and their possessions. he does not visit the people through the bodies of the mediums. anito is a general term used to designate members of the spirit world. a survey of the foregoing list brings out a noticeable lack of nature-spirits; of trees, rocks, and natural formations considered as animate; and of guardian spirits of families and industries. there is a strong suggestion, however, in the folk-tales to the effect that this has not always been the case; and even to-day there are some conflicts regarding the status of certain spirits. in the village of manabo, thunder is known as kidol; in likuan and bakaok, as kido-ol; and in each place he is recognized as a powerful spirit. in ba-ay, two types of lightning are known to be spirits. the flash from the sky is salit, that "from the ground" is kilawit. here thunder is kadaklan, but the sun is the all powerful being. he is male, and is "so powerful that he does not need or desire ceremonies or houses." the moon is likewise a powerful spirit, but female. in the discussion of the tales [ ] it was suggested that these and other ideas, which differ from those held by the majority of the tribe, may represent older conceptions, which have been swamped, or may have been introduced into abra by emigrants from the north and east. _the mediums_.--the superior beings talk with mortals through the aid of mediums, known individually and collectively as _alopogan_ ("she who covers her face"). [ ] these are generally women past middle life, though men are not barred from the profession, who, when chosen, are made aware of the fact by having trembling fits when they are not cold, by warnings in dreams, or by being informed by other mediums that they are desired by the spirits. a woman may live the greater part of her life without any idea of becoming a medium, and then because of such a notification will undertake to qualify. she goes to one already versed, and from her learns the details of the various ceremonies, the gifts suitable for each spirit, and the chants or _diams_ which must be used at certain times. this is a considerable task, for the _diams_ must be learned word for word; and, likewise, each ceremony must be conducted, just as it was taught by the spirits to the "people of the first times." the training occupies several months; and when all is ready, the candidate secures her _piling_. this is a collection of large sea-shells attached to cords, which is kept in a small basket together with a chinese plate and a hundred fathoms of thread (plate xix). new shells may be used, but it is preferable to secure, if possible, the _piling_ of a dead medium. being thus supplied, the novice seeks the approval of the spirits and acceptance as a medium. the wishes of the higher beings are learned by means of a ceremony, in the course of which a pig is killed, and its blood mixed with rice is scattered on the ground. the liver of the animal is eagerly examined; for, if certain marks appear on it, the candidate is rejected, or must continue her period of probation for several months, before another trial can be made. during this time she may aid in ceremonies, but she is not possessed by the spirits. when finally accepted, she may begin to summon the spirits into her body. she places offerings on a mat, seats herself in front of them, and calls the attention of the spirits by striking her _piling_, or a bit of lead, against a plate; then covering her face with her hands, she begins to chant. suddenly she is possessed; and then, no longer as a human, but as the spirit itself, she talks with the people, asking and answering questions, or giving directions, as to what shall be done to avert sickness and trouble, or to bring good fortune. certain mediums are visited only by low, mean spirits; others, by both good and bad; while still others may be possessed even by kadaklan, the greatest of all. it is customary for the spirit of a deceased mortal to enter the body of a medium, just before the corpse is to be buried, to give messages to the family; but he seldom comes again in this manner. the pay of a medium is small, usually a portion of a sacrificed animal, a few bundles of rice, and some beads; but this payment is more than offset by the restrictions placed on her. at no time may she eat of carabao, wild pig, wild chicken, or shrimp; nor may she touch peppers--all prized articles of food. the inducements for a person to enter this vocation are so few that a candidate begins her training with reluctance; but, once accepted by the spirits, the medium yields herself fully and sincerely to their wishes. when possessed by a spirit, her own personality is submerged, and she does many things of which she is apparently ignorant, when she emerges from the spell. oftentimes, as she squats by the mat, summoning the spirits, her eyes take on a far-away stare; the veins of her face and neck stand out prominently, while the muscles of her arms and legs are tense; then, as she is possessed, she assumes the character and habits of the superior being. if it is a spirit supposed to dwell in igorot or kalinga land, she speaks in a dialect unfamiliar to her hearers, orders them to dance in igorot fashion, and then instructs them in dances, which she or her townspeople could never have seen. [ ] at times she carries on sleight-of-hand tricks, as when she places beads in a dish of oil, and dances with it high above her head, until the beads vanish. a day or two later she will recover them from the hair of some participant in the ceremony. most of her acts are in accordance with a set procedure; yet at times she goes further, and does things which seem quite inexplainable. one evening, in the village of manabo, we were attending a ceremony. spirit after spirit had appeared, and at their order dances and other acts had taken place. about ten o'clock a brilliant flash of lightning occurred, although it was not a stormy evening. the body of the medium was at that time possessed by amangau, a head-hunting spirit. he at once stopped his dance, and announced that he had just taken the head of a boy from luluno, and that the people of his village were even then dancing about the skull. earlier in the evening we had noticed this lad (evidently a consumptive) among the spectators. when the spirit made this claim, we looked for him, but he had vanished. a little later we learned that he had died of a hemorrhage at about the time of the flash. such occurrences make a deep impression on the mind of the people, and strengthen their belief in the spirit world; but, so far as could be observed, the prestige of the medium was in nowise enhanced. since most of the ceremonies are held to keep the family or individual in good health, the medium takes the place of a physician. she often makes use of simple herbs and medicinal plants, but always with the idea that the treatment is distasteful to the being, who has caused the trouble, and not with any idea of its curative properties. since magic and religion are practically the same in this society, the medium is the one who usually conducts or orders the magic rites; and for the same reason she, better than all others, can read the signs and omens sent by members of the spirit world. _magic and omens_.--the folk-tales are filled with accounts of magical acts, performed by "the people of the first times." they annihilated time and space, commanded inanimate objects to do their will, created human beings from pieces of betel-nut, and caused the magical increase of food and drink. those days have passed, yet magical acts still pervade all the ceremonies; nature is overcome, while the power to work evil by other than human means is a recognized fact of daily life. in the detailed accounts of the ceremonies will be found many examples of these magical acts, but the few here mentioned will give a good idea of all. in one ceremony, a blanket is placed over the family, and on their heads a coconut is cut in two, and the halves are allowed to fall; for, "as they drop to the ground, so does sickness and evil fall away from the people." a bound pig is placed in the center of the floor, and water is poured into its ear that, "as it shakes out the water, so may evil spirits and sickness be thrown out of the place." at one point in the _tangpap_ ceremony, a boy takes the sacrificial blood and rice from a large dish, and puts it in a number of smaller ones, then returns it again to the first; for, "when the spirits make a man sick, they take a part of his life. when they make him well, they put it back, just as the boy takes away a part of the food, gives it to the spirits, and then replaces it," the same idea appears in the dance which follows. the boy and the medium take hold of a winnower, raise it in the air, and dance half way around a rice-mortar; then return, as they came, and replace it, "just as the spirits took away a part of the patient's life, but now will put it back." the whole life of a child can be determined, or at least largely influenced, by the treatment given the afterbirth, while the use of bamboo and other prolific plants, at this time and at a wedding, promote growth and fertility. a piece of charcoal attached to a certain type of notched stick is placed in the rice-seed beds, and thus the new leaves are compelled to turn the dark green color of sturdy plants. if a river is overflowing its banks, it can be controlled by cutting off a pig's head and throwing it into the waters. an even more certain method is to have a woman, who was born on the other side of the river, take her weaving baton and plant it on the bank. the water will not rise past this barrier. blackening of the teeth is a semi-magical procedure. a mixture of tan-bark and iron salts is twice applied to the teeth, and is allowed to remain several hours; but, in order to obtain the desired result, it is necessary to use the mixture after nightfall and to remove it, before the cocks begin to crow, in the morning. if the fowls are heard, while the teeth are being treated, they will remain white; likewise they will refuse to take the color, should their owner approach a corpse or grave. on well-travelled trails one often sees, at the tops of high hills, piles of stones, which have been built up during many years. as he ascends a steep slope, each traveller picks up a small stone, and carries it to the top, where he places it on the pile. as he does so, he leaves his weariness behind him, and continues his journey fresh and strong. the use of love-charms is widespread: certain roots and leaves, when oiled or dampened with saliva, give forth a pleasant odor, which compels the affection of a woman, even in spite of her wishes. [ ] evil magic, known as _gamot_ ("poison") is also extensively used. a little dust taken from the footprint of a foe, a bit of clothing, or an article recently handled by him, is placed in a dish of water, and is stirred violently. soon the victim begins to feel the effect of this treatment, and within a few hours becomes insane. to make him lame, it is only necessary to place poison on articles recently touched by his feet. death or impotency can be produced by placing poison on his garments. a fly is named after a person, and is placed in a bamboo tube. this is set near the fire, and in a short time the victim of the plot is seized with fever. likewise magical chants and dances, carried on beneath a house, may bring death to all the people of the dwelling. a combination of true poisoning and magical practice is also found. to cause consumption or some wasting disease, a snake is killed, and its head cut off; then the body is hung up, and the liquor coming from the decomposing flesh is caught in a shell cup. this fluid is introduced into the victim's food, or some of his belongings are treated with it. if the subject dies, his relatives may get revenge on the poisoner. this is accomplished by taking out the heart of a pig and inserting it in the mouth or stomach of the victim. this must be done under the cover of darkness, and the corpse be buried at once. a high bamboo fence is then built around the grave, so that no one can reach it. the person responsible for the death will fall ill at once, and will die unless he is able to secure one of the victim's garments or dirt from the grave. the actual introduction of poison in food and drink is thought to be very common. the writer attended one ceremony following which a large number of the guests fell sick. the illness was ascribed to magic poisoning, yet it was evident that the cause was over-indulgence in fresh pork by people, who for months had eaten little if any meat. _omens_.--the ability to foretell future events by the flight or calls of birds, actions of animals, by the condition of the liver and gall of sacrificed pigs, or by the movements of certain articles under the questioning of a medium, is an undoubted fact in this society. a small bird known as _labeg_, is the messenger of the spirits, who control the _bakid_ and _sangásang_ ceremonies. when this bird enters the house, it is caught at once, its feathers are oiled; beads are attached to its feet, and it is released with the promise that the ceremony will be celebrated at once. this bird accompanies the warriors, and warns or encourages them with its calls. if it flies across their path from right to left, all is well; but if it comes from the left, they must return home, or trouble will befall the party. the spirits of _sangásang_ make use of other birds and animals to warn the builders of a house, if the location selected does not please them. all the tinguian know that the arrival of snakes, big lizards, deer, or wild hogs at the site of a new house is a bad sign. if a party or an individual is starting on a journey, and the kingfisher _(salaksak)_ flies from in front toward the place just left, it is a command to return at once; else illness in the village or family will compel a later return. [ ] should the _koling_ cry _awit, awit_ ("to carry, to carry"), an immediate return is necessary, or a member of the party will die, and will be carried home. when a snake crawls across the trail, and goes into a hole, it is a certain warning that, unless the trip is given up, some of the party will die, and be buried in the ground. the falling of a tree across the trail, when the groom is on his way to the home of his bride, threatens death for the couple, while the breaking or falling of an object during the marriage ceremony presages misfortune. not all the signs are evil; for, if a man is starting to hunt, or trade, and he sees a hawk fly in front of him and catch a bird or chicken, he may on that day secure all the game he can carry, or can trade on his own terms. all the foregoing are important, but the most constantly employed method of foretelling the future is to examine the gall and liver of slain pigs. these animals are killed in all great ceremonies, at the conclusion of a medium's probation period, at birth, death, and funeral observances, and for other important events. if a head-hunt is to be attempted, the gall sack is removed, and is carefully examined, for if it is large and full, and the liquor in it is bitter, the enemy will be powerless; but if the sack is small, and only partially filled with a weak liquor, it will fare ill with the warriors who go into battle. for all other events, the liver itself gives the signs. when it is full and smooth, the omens are favorable; but if it is pitted, has black specks on it, is wrinkled, or has cross lines on it, the spirits are ill-disposed, and the project should be delayed. if, however, the matter is very urgent, another pig or a fowl may be offered in the hope that the attitude of the spirits may be changed. if the liver of the new sacrifice is good, the ceremony or raid may continue. the blood of these animals is always mixed with rice, and is scattered about for the superior beings, but the flesh is cooked, and is consumed by the mortals. [ ] to recover stolen and misplaced articles or animals, one of three methods is employed. the first is to attach a cord to a jar-cover or the shells used by a medium. this is suspended so that it hangs freely, and questions are put to it. if the answer is "yes," it will swing to and fro. the second method is to place a bamboo stick horizontally on the ground and then to stand an egg on it. as the question is asked, the egg is released. if it falls, the answer is in the negative; if it stands, it replies "yes." the third and more common way is to place a head-axe on the ground, then to blow on the end of a spear and put it point down on the blade of the axe. if it balances, the answer is "yes." _ceremonial structures and paraphernalia_.--as has been indicated, the tinguian holds many ceremonies in honor of the superior beings; and, in connection with these, builds numerous small structures, and employs various paraphernalia, most of which bear definite names, and have well established uses. since a knowledge of these structures and devices is necessary to a full understanding of the ceremonies, an alphabetical list is here furnished, before proceeding to the detailed discussion of the rites. _alalot_: two arches of bamboo, which support a grass roof. a small jar of _basi_ stands in this structure for the use of visiting spirits. is generally constructed during the _sayang_ ceremony, but in bakaok it is built alone to cure sickness or to change a bad disposition (plate xx, no. ). _aligang_: a four-pronged fork of a branch in which a jar of _basi_ and other offerings are placed for the igorot spirits of talegteg (salegseg). it is placed at the corner of the house during _sayang_. _ansisilit_: the framework placed beside the guardian stones on the sixteenth morning of _sayang_. it closely resembles the _inapapáyag_. _balabago_ (known in manabo as talagan): a long bamboo bench with a roofing of betel leaves. it is intended as a seat for guests, both spirit and human, during important ceremonies. _balag_: a seat of wood or bamboo, placed close to the house-ladder during the _sayang_ ceremony. above and beside it are _alangtin_ leaves, branches of the _lanoti_ tree, sugar-cane, and a leafy branch of bamboo. here also are found a net equipped with lead sinkers, a top-shaped device, and short sections of bamboo filled with liquor. in some towns this is the seat of the honored guest, who dips _basi_ for the dancers. in san juan this seat is called _patogaú_. _balaua_: this, the largest and most important of the spirit structures, is built during the _sayang_ ceremony. the roofing is of plaited bamboo, covered with cogon grass. this is supported by eight uprights, which likewise furnish attachment for the bamboo flooring. there are no sides to the building, but it is so sturdily constructed that it lasts through several seasons. except for the times of ceremony, it is used as a lounging place for the men, or as a loom-room by the women. quite commonly poles are run lengthwise of the structure, at the lower level of the roof; and this "attic," as well as the space beneath the floor, is used for the storage of farming implements, bundles of rattan and thatching (plate xxi). _balitang_: a large seat like the _balabago_, but with a grass roofing. it is used as a seat for visitors during great ceremonies and festivals. this name is applied, in manabo, to a little house, built among the bananas for the spirit imalbi. _bani-it_ or _bunot_: consists of a coconut husk suspended from a pole. the feathers of a rooster are stuck into the sides. it is made as a cure for sick-headache, also for lameness. _bangbangsal_: four long bamboo poles are set in the ground, and are roofed over to make a shelter for the spirits of sayaw, who come in the _tangpap_ ceremony. _bátog_: an unhusked coconut, resting on three bamboo sticks, goes by this name. it always appears in the _sayang_ ceremony, close to the _balag_, but its use and meaning are not clear. _bawi_, also called _babawi, abarong_, and _sinaba-an_: a name applied to any one of the small houses, built in the fields or gardens as a home for the spirits kaiba-an, abat, selday, and some others of lesser importance (plate xxii). _idasan_: a seat or bench which stands near the house-ladder during the _sayang_. a roof of cogon grass protects ten bundles of unthreshed rice, which lie on it. this rice is later used as seed. in the san juan district, the place of the idasan seems to be taken by three bamboo poles, placed in tripod fashion, so as to support a basket of rice. this is known as _pinalasang_. _inapapáyag_: two-forked saplings or four reeds are arranged so as to support a shield or a cloth "roof" (plate xviii). during _sayang_ and some other ceremonies, it stands in the yard, or near to the town gate; and on it food and drink are placed for visiting spirits. during the celebration of _layog_ (cf. p. ), it is built near to the dancing space, and contains offerings for the spirit of the dead. a spear with a colored clout is stuck into the ground close by; and usually an inverted rice mortar also stands here, and supports a dish of _basi_. in the mountain village of likuan it is built alone as a cure for sickness. a pig is killed and the mediums summon the spirits as in _dawak_ (cf. p. ). _kalang_: a wooden box, the sides of which are cut to resemble the head and horns of a carabao. the spirits are not thought to reside here, but do come to partake of the food and drink placed in it. it is attached to the roof of the dwelling or in the _balaua_ or _kalangan._ new offerings are placed in the _kalang_, before the men go to fight, or when the _sayang_ ceremony is held. it also holds the head-bands worn by the mediums, when making _dawak_ (fig. , no. ). _kalangan_: the place of the _kalang_. this is similar to the _balaua_, but is smaller and, as a rule, has only four supporting timbers (plate xxiii). _pala-an_: four long poles, usually three of bamboo, and one of a resinous tree known as _anteng_ (_canarium villosum_ bl.) are set in a square and support, near the top, a platform of bamboo (plate xxiv). offerings are made both on and below the _pala-an_ during the ceremony of that name, and in the more important rites. _pangkew_: three bamboo poles are planted in the ground in a triangle, but they lean away from each other at such an angle, as to admit of a small platform midway of their length. a roofing of cogon grass completes the structure. it is built during _sayang_, and contains a small jar of _basi_. the roof is always adorned with coconut blossoms (plate xx). _sagang_: sharpened bamboo poles about eight feet in length on which the skulls of enemies were formerly exhibited. the pointed end was pushed through the _foramen magnum_, and the pole was then planted near the gate of the town. _saloko_, also called _salokang_ and _sabut_: this is a bamboo pole about ten feet long, one end of which is split into several strips; these are forced apart, and are interwoven with other strips, thus forming a sort of basket. when such a pole is erected near to a house, or at the gate of the town, it is generally in connection with a ceremony made to cure headache. it is also used in the fields as a dwelling place for the spirit kaiba-an (plate xxv). the _saloko_ ceremony and the _diam_, which accompanies it, seem to indicate that this pole originated in connection with head-hunting; and its presence in the fields gives a hint that in former times a head-hunt may have been a necessary preliminary to the rice-planting. _sogáyob_: a covered porch, which is built along one side of the house during the _sayang_ ceremony. in it hang the vines and other articles, used by the female dancers in one part of the rite. a portion of one of the slaughtered pigs is placed here for the spirits of bangued. in lumaba the _sogáyob_ is built alone as a part of a one-day ceremony; while in sallapadan it follows _kalangan_ after an interval of about three months. _taltalabong_: following many ceremonies a small bamboo raft with arched covering is constructed. in it offerings are placed for spirits, who have been unable to attend the rite. in manabo it is said that the raft is intended particularly for the sons of kadaklan (plate xxvi). _tangpap_: two types of structure appear under this name. when it is built as a part of the _tangpap_ ceremony, it is a small house with a slanting roof resting on four poles. about three feet above the ground, an interwoven bamboo floor is lashed to the uprights (plate xxvii). in the _sayang_ ceremony, there are two structures which go by this name (plate xx, nos. and ). the larger has two floors, the smaller only one. on each floor is a small pot of _basi_, daubed with white. _taboo gateway_: at the gate of a town, one sometimes finds a defensive wall of bamboo, between the uprights of which are thrust bamboo spears in order to catch evil spirits, while on the gate proper are vines and leaves pleasing to the good spirits. likewise in the _saloko_, which stands close by, are food and drink or betel-nut. all this generally appears when an epidemic is in a nearby village, in order to frighten the bearers of the sickness away, and at the same time gain the aid of well-disposed spirits. at such a time many of the people wear wristlets and anklets of bamboo, interwoven with roots and vines which are displeasing to the evil beings (plate xxviii). _ceremonial paraphernalia_.--_akosan_ (fig. , no. ): a prized shell, with top and bottom cut off, is slipped over a belt-like cloth. above it are a series of wooden rings and a wooden imitation of the shell. this, when hung beside the dead, is both pleasing to the spirit of the deceased, and a protection to the corpse against evil beings. _aneb_ (fig. , no. ): the name usually given to a protective necklace placed about the neck of a young child to keep evil spirits at a distance. the same name is also given to a miniature shield, bow and arrow, which hang above the infant. _dakidak_ (fig. , nos. - a): long poles, one a reed, the other bamboo, split at one end so they will rattle. the medium strikes them on the ground to attract the spirits to the food served on the _talapitap_. _igam_: notched feathers, often with colored yarn at the ends, attached to sticks. these are worn in the hair during the _pala~an_ and _sayang_ ceremonies, to please the spirits of the east, called idadaya. _inálson_: a sacred blanket made of white cotton. a blue or blue and red design is formed, where the breadths join, and also along the borders. it is worn over the shoulders of the medium during the _gipas_ ceremony (cf. p. ). _lab-labón_: also called _adug_. in buneg and nearby towns, whose inhabitants are of mixed tinguian and kalinga blood, small incised pottery houses are found among the rice jars, and are said to be the residences of the spirits, who multiply the rice. they are sometimes replaced with incised jars decorated with vines. the idea seems to be an intrusion into the tinguian belt. the name is probably derived from _lábon_, "plenty" or "abundance" (plate xxix). _piling_ (plate xix): a collection of large sea-shells attached to cords. they are kept in a small basket together with one hundred fathoms of thread and a chinese plate, usually of ancient make. the whole makes up the medium's outfit, used when she is summoning the spirits. _pinapa_: a large silk blanket with yellow strips running lengthwise. such blankets are worn by certain women when dancing _da-eng_, and they are also placed over the feet of a corpse. _sado_ (fig. , no. ): the shallow clay dishes in which the spirits are fed on the _talapitap_. _salogeygey_: the outside bark of a reed is cut at two points, from opposite directions, so that a double fringe of narrow strips stands out. one end is split, _saklag_ leaves are inserted, and the whole is dipped or sprinkled in sacrificial blood, and placed in each house during the _sagobay_ ceremony. the same name is applied to the magical sticks, which are placed in the rice seed-beds to insure lusty plants (cf. p. ). _sangádel_: the bamboo frame on which a corpse is placed during the funeral. _tabing_: a large white blanket with which one corner of the room is screened off during the _sayang_ and other ceremonies. in this "room" food and other offerings are made for the black, deformed, and timid spirits who wish to attend the ceremony unobserved. _takal_: armlets made of boar's tusks, which are worn during certain dances in _sayang_. _talapitap_ (fig. , no. ): a roughly plaited bamboo frame on which the spirits are fed during the more important rites. used in connection with the _dakidak_ and clay dishes _(sado)._ _tongátong_ (fig. , no. ): the musical instrument, which appears in many ceremonials. it consists of six or more bamboo tubes of various lengths. the players hold a tube in each hand, and strike their ends on a stone, which lies between them, the varying lengths of the cylinders giving out different notes. chapter v the ceremonies a visitor, who enters the tinguian territory in the period following the rice-harvest, quickly gains the impression that the ceremonial life of this people is dominant. in nearly every village, he finds one or more ceremonies in progress, while work is almost forgotten. this condition exists until the coming of the rains in may, when all is changed. men and women go to the fields before daybreak, and return only when darkness forces them to cease their toil. during the period when the fields are in preparation, or the rice is growing, few ceremonials are held, except those intended to promote the growth of the crops, to cure sickness, or to ward off impending misfortune. aside from the rites, which attend birth, marriage, and similar events, the ceremonies may be placed in two divisions: first, those which may be celebrated by all people; second, those restricted to certain families. the first class we shall designate as the minor ceremonies. section the minor ceremonies _dawak_ (also called boni and alopag).--the name _dawak_ is applied to that part of important ceremonies in which the spirits enter the bodies of the mediums. it is also given as a separate ceremony, usually to cure sickness, but in some settlements it follows a birth. according to tradition, it was taught, together with the _sayang_ ceremony, by the spirit kaboniyan to a woman dayapan; and she, in turn, taught it to others, who were then able to cure sickness. it is probable that the name comes from _dáwat_ (a "request" or "petition"); yet there is little in it which corresponds to prayer or entreaty. as there was considerable variation in each _dawak_ witnessed by the writer, the complete ceremony is given for the village of ba-ak, together with striking variations from other towns. in this instance, the rite was held to effect the cure of a sick woman and to learn the desires of the spirits. two mediums, assisted by several men and women, spent the first afternoon preparing the things to be used. first, a short cane was fashioned out of black wood, rattan rings were slipped over this, and all were placed inside a chinese jar. a dish of cooked rice was put over the top, as a cover, and a blanket spread over the whole. this was brought close to the patient, the medium recited a _dam_ over it, [ ] and then ordered that it remain there throughout the ceremony. on a large mat in the center of the room were placed betel-nuts, coconuts, and leaves, two jars--one empty, the other filled with _basi_--, a large and small head-axe, two spears, and some shells. an empty jar had a string of beads tied around its neck, and inside it was placed a switch, care being taken that a portion of it hung outside. beside the jar was a basket containing five bundles of unthreshed rice, on which was a skein of thread supporting a new jar. all this was covered with a woman's skirt. finally a bound pig was laid just inside the door. when all was complete, three men played on the _tongátong_ (cf. p. ), until one of the mediums took her place beside the mat. raising a plate above her head, she struck it repeatedly with a small head-axe, to call attention of the spirits. [ ] then she began to chant and wail calling the spirits to enter her body. after two or three moments of song, she was possessed by a spirit, who announced that his name was ibalinsogwan. he placed a rooster at one end of a spear, and a bundle of rice at the other, did a short dance, and departed. the mediums then seated themselves on opposite sides of the jar of _basi_; each drank of the liquor, and the chant began again. spirit after spirit took possession of one of the mediums, who then conversed with the other, asked questions concerning the patient, or other matters, and occasionally offered advice. before his departure, each spirit would drink of the _basi_. the members of the family were present during most of the day; friends came, and went as they pleased, stopped to listen to or talk with the spirits, drank _basi_, and then went about their work. early the second morning, the mediums went to a bound pig in the house, and after placing betel-nut on its back, they poured water into its ear. this caused the animal to shake its head; and, as the water was thrown out, one of the mediums caught it in her hand, and applied it to the sick woman, at the same time chanting, "go away sickness, be thrown out like this water; let this person be well, for she is now following the custom." as soon as she had finished, two men carried the animal to the river bank, where they killed and singed it. upon their return to the house, they removed and carefully examined its liver; for, by the markings on it, the people were assured that the spirits were pleased with the manner in which the ceremony was being conducted, and hence the prospects for the patient's recovery were very bright. _gipas_, the dividing, followed. an old man divided the pig with the medium, but by sly manipulation managed to get a little more than she did. a betel-nut, beeswax, and a lead net-sinker were tied together with a string, and were divided, but again the old man received a little more than his share. betel-nut was offered to the pair. apparently each piece was the same, but only one was supplied with lime, and the mortal secured that. he then challenged the medium to see whose spittle was the reddest. both expectorated on the head-axe, but since the spittle of the medium was not mixed with lime, it was uncolored. in all instances the human being came out victor over the spirit, who sought to take the woman's life. hence her recovery was assured. a new spirit possessed the medium, and under her directions the family was placed beneath a blanket, and a coconut was cut in two over their heads. in addition to the fluid of the nut, water was emptied over them, "so that the sickness would be washed away." as soon as the family emerged from the blanket, they went to their _balaua_, [ ] and offered food, after which the medium again summoned several spirits. from this time until well into the evening, the guests danced _tadek_, stopping only to be served with food and drink. the morning of the third and last day was spent in preparing food and other offerings, which were placed on a mat and left, for a time, to be used by the immortals. later the offerings were consumed by the guests, and the medium summoned the spirit agkabkabayo. this being directed four men to carry the blanket on which the medium was seated to the _balaua_, when they were met by another medium, possessed by the spirit balien. for a time they busied themselves making repairs to the spirit structure, then decorated it by tying strips of shredded coconut leaves to the slats of the floor. they also attached leaves to the _kalang_ (cf. p. ), and inserted betel-nut and leaf. the final act of the ceremony was to prepare four _soloko_ (cf. p. ). in the first was placed a half coconut; in the second was rice mixed with blood; in the third cooked flesh of a fowl; and in the last were four stalks of rice, and some pine-sticks. one was placed at each gate of the town as an offering, and the people returned to their homes. as payment for their services, the mediums received a small portion of the pig, some rice, beads, a little money, and cloth. the acts and conversation of the spirits when summoned in _dawak_ are well illustrated by the following. a woman of lagangilang was ill with dysentery; and a medium, in this instance, a man, was instructed to make _dawak_. he began summoning the spirits by striking a dish with his head-axe. soon he covered his face with his hands, began to sway to and fro, and to chant unintelligible words. suddenly he stopped and announced that he was the spirit labotan, and that it was his wish that blood and rice be placed on a head-axe, and be laid on the woman's abdomen. next he ordered that they should feed some rice to the small pig which lay bound on the floor. "if he eats, this is the right ceremony, and you will get well," he said. the pig refused the food, and, after expressing regret that he was unable to help, the spirit departed, to be succeeded by binoñgon. he at once directed that the pig be killed, and the palpitating heart be put on the woman's stomach, and then be pressed against each person in the room, as a protection against illness. at first he refused to drink the liquor which was offered to him, for it was new and raw; but when he learned that no other could be obtained, he drank, and then addressed the patient. "you ate something forbidden. it is easy to cure you if the spirits have made you ill; but if some one is practising magic, perhaps you will die." with this cheering message the spirit departed, and ayaonwán appeared. he directed an old woman to feed rice and water to the patient, and then, without further advice, he said, "the other spirits do not like me very well, so i cannot go to their places. i went to their places, but they said many bad words to me. i offered them _basi_, but they did not wish to take; so i asked the way, and they showed me to the other spirits' place. i was poor, and had nothing to eat for noon or night. when i was in the road, i met many long snakes, and i had to push them apart so i could walk. and i met many eels, and asked of them the road; but the eels bit me, and took me into their stomachs, and carried me to luluaganan to the well there; then i died. the people, who go to the well, say, 'why is ayaonwán dead? we have a bad odor now;' and the eels say, 'whose son is this?' and they rubbed my dead spirit, and i received life again. then i took blood and rice with me to the sky to the other eels to make _sayang_. the eels gave me gold for my wrists; the monkeys gave me gold for my teeth and hair; the wild pig gave me bracelets. there is much more i can tell you, but now i must go." the spirit departed, and a new one was summoned. this spirit took the spear in his hand, and after chanting about the illness of the woman, he drank _basi_ out of a dish, sitting on the head-axe. then singing again he dipped the spear in the oil, and allowed it to fall drop by drop on the stomach of the sick woman; later he touched the heads of all present with the spear, saying, "you will not be sick any more," and departed. _pináing_ or _pináding_ (plate xxx).--at the gate or entrance of nearly every village will be found a number of peculiarly shaped, water-worn stones, either beneath a small shelter, or nestling among the roots of some great tree. these are the "guardian stones," and in them lives apdel ("the spirit who guards the town"). many stories cluster about these _pináing_, [ ] but all agree that, if proper offerings are made to them at the beginning of a great ceremony; when the men are about to undertake a raid; or, when sickness is in a nearby village, the resident spirit will protect the people under his care. thus it happens that several times each year a group of people may be seen early in the morning, gathered at the stones. they anoint the head of each one with oil, put new bark bands on their "necks," after which they kill a small pig. the medium mixes the blood of the slain animal with rice, and scatters it on the ground while she recites the story of their origin. then she bids the spirits from near and far to come and eat, and to be kindly disposed. in bakaok and some other villages it is customary for the medium to summon several spirits at this time, and this is followed by the dancing of _tadek_. the people of luluno always hold a ceremony at the _pináing_ before the planting of the rice and after the harvest. following this ceremony in the village of san juan, a miniature raft (_taltalabong_) was loaded with food and other presents, and was set afloat, to carry provisions to any spirit, who might have been prevented from enjoying the feast. these stones are of particular interest, in that they present one of the few instances in which the tinguian associates supernatural beings with natural objects. _saloko_ (plate xxv).--besides the houses, in the fields, and at the gate of many villages, one often sees long bamboo poles with one end converted into a basket-like receptacle. offerings of food and betel-nut are now found in them; but, according to some of the older men, these were, until recently, used to hold the heads of slain enemies, as is still the case among the neighboring apayao. the ritual of the _saloko_ ceremony seems, in part, to bear out this claim; yet the folk-tales and equally good informants assure us that the heads were placed on sharpened bamboo poles, which passed through the _foramen magnum_. it is probable that both methods of exhibiting skulls were employed in the tinguian belt. nowadays the _saloko_ found near to the villages are usually erected, during a short ceremony of the same name, as a cure for headache. a medium is summoned; and, after securing a chicken, she strokes it, as she chants: "you spirits of the _sagang_, [ ] who live above. "you spirits of the _sagang_, who live on the level ground. "you spirits of the _sagang_, who live in the east. "you spirits of the _sagang_, who live in the west. "you lalaman [ ] above. "you lalaman on the wooded hill. "you lalaman in the west. "if you took the head of the sick man, "you must now grant him health, as you please." the fowl is killed; and its blood, together with rice and some other gift, is placed in the _saloko_, and is planted near the house or gate. oftentimes a string of feathers runs from the pole to the dwelling, or to the opposite side of the gate. the family cooks and eats the chicken, and the affected member is expected to recover at once. should the trouble persist, a more elaborate ceremony, probably _dawak_, will follow. in some instances betel-nut prepared for chewing takes the place of the fowl; rice-stalks hang from the sides of the basket, and bits of pine are added "to make bright and clear." all of this is rubbed on the patient's head, while the medium recites the _diam_. _bawi_, also called _sinaba-an_ and _ababong_.--this name is often applied to the small houses built in the rice-fields for the spirit kaiba-an, but more commonly it refers to the little structures of bamboo and grass, which nestle among the banana plantings near the village (plate xxii). when such a structure is built or repaired, it is accompanied by a ceremony of the same name. the usual purpose of this event is to cure sore feet, but in patok and other valley towns it is celebrated before the rice harvest and the pressing of the sugar-cane, so that the spirits will keep the workers in good health, and save them from injury. one of the most common ailments is sore or cracked feet caused, no doubt, by standing for long periods in the mud and water of the rice-fields, and then tramping over the rough, hot trails to the village. the tinguian, however, know that the spirits, called abat and selday bring about this affliction, unless they are kept in good humor, and have something to occupy their time other than disturbing human beings; hence these houses are built for them, suitable offerings are placed inside, and finally a few banana suckers are planted close by, so that the spirits will be kept busy caring for them. the origin of the ceremony is ascribed to a woman of ancient times, named bagutayka, who, lacking certain organs, appears as an outcast. she at first caused passers-by to have trouble with their feet and limbs, but later taught them how to effect a cure by building the _bawi_ and performing the ceremony. [ ] to-day, when a person is afflicted, he summons a medium, the spirit-house is built, and then the following _diam_ is recited over a rooster: "you abat above, "you abat in the ground, "you abat in the corner of the house, "you abat in the center pole, "you abat below the stair, "you abat in the door, "you selday in the wooded hill, "you selday above, "make the sick person well, if you please!" [ ] when the recital is finished, the fowl is killed, and its blood mixed with rice is placed in nine dishes and one polished coconut shell. from these it is transferred to nine other dishes and one bamboo basket. these are placed in a row, and nine dishes and one unpolished shell are filled with water, and placed opposite. in the center of this double line is a dish, containing the cooked flesh of the rooster, also some rice, and one hundred fathoms of thread, while between the dishes are laid ten half betel-nuts, prepared for chewing. later, all these things are returned to a single receptacle, except those in the shell cups and basket, which are placed in the spirit-house. the underlying idea in this procedure seems to be that frequently found in other ceremonies, namely, that food and water symbolizes the life of the patient, which is partially taken away by the spirits; but when they are returned to one place, the life must be replaced in a like manner. in manabo a piece of banana bark is taken from one of the plantings beside a _bawi_; and, after being washed in the water, is applied to the affected limb. the final act is to take a coconut husk, stick feathers in its sides, and hang it beside the _bawi_ as a sign to all that the ceremony has been held. no spirits are summoned at this time, neither is there singing or dancing. _bakid_. [ ]--this ceremony is held to celebrate the completion of a new dwelling, or to remove any bad sign, which may have been received during the building operations. the medium and her assistants fasten a bamboo pole or rattan cord across one portion of the room, and on it place numerous pieces of cloth-skirts, blankets, belts, a fish-net, and a quantity of false hair. this serves first as an offering to the spirits, but it is also explained that, if the immortals are unable to count all the gifts, they will be powerless to injure the occupants of the dwelling. should an evilly disposed being desire to make trouble for the owner, he must count every hair in the switches, as well as every hole in the fish-net. failing in this, he will be compelled by the other spirits to celebrate the _bakid_ ceremony five times at his own expense. beneath the line of offerings, a bound pig is laid; and, as she strokes the side of the animal, with oiled fingers, the medium repeats a _diam_ [ ] in which she tells of misfortunes of a family, which failed to observe the signs sent by kaboniyan, and of his instructions as to how best to overcome their troubles. the family listens respectfully until the story is finished, then they lift a door from its socket, place it in the middle of the floor, and proceed to sacrifice the pig upon it. some of the blood is immediately sprinkled on the house timbers, particularly those which may have given the builders trouble, either in transportation, or during the erection of the structure. the greater part of the blood is mixed with rice, and is dropped through the slits in the floor, or scattered about for the spirits; while for an hour or more a portion of the meat, the heart, and the head, are placed below the offerings on the cord or on the house-beams. later, these portions will be cooked and served to the guests. immediately after the killing, the liver is removed, and is examined for a sign. should the omens be unfavorable, another animal will be killed, or the family will celebrate _sangasang_ within a few days. if the signs are satisfactory, the host begins to distribute _basi_, and soon good fellowship reigns. one after another of the guests sings the _daleng_, in which they bespeak for the owner a long and prosperous life in his new home. the _bakid_ always ends with a feast, in which the flesh of slaughtered animals plays the important part. upon its completion, the medium is given a portion of the meat, some unthreshed rice, and other small gifts, as payment for her services. the guests return to their homes, and for two or three days following are barred from entering the new dwelling. during this period the family must remain indoors. _sangásang_.--_sangásang_ is often so similar to the _bakid_, that one description might cover both. this is particularly true, if it is held to remove a bad sign. should a large lizard or a bird enter a new building, it is considered as a messenger of kaboniyan; and the foregoing ceremony is carried out, the only variation being that the bird or lizard is caught, if possible, is anointed with oil, a bead is attached to a leg, and it is then released to go back to its master. continued misfortunes to the members of a household would also be an excuse for the ceremony. in this instance, the only variation from the procedure just given would be in the _diams_. the first to be recited tells how the spirit maganáwan sent many snakes and birds to the gate of a town to demand the blood of a rooster mixed with rice. the people celebrated _sangásang_, and sent blood and rice to maganáwan, who, in turn, spat it out on the ground. as he did so, the sickness and misfortunes of the mortals vanished. the second _diam_ [ ] relates a quarrel between the various parts of the house, each insisting on its own importance. at last they recognize their mutual dependence, and the people of the dwelling are again in good health. [ ] in lumaba and nearby villages, unpleasant dreams, or a bad disposition are overcome by a ceremony called _sangásang_; but, as this varies somewhat from the others, it is given in detail. the medium, who is summoned for this event, calls for oil and a rooster with long spurs. when these are brought, she strokes the fowl with the oil, and chants the following _diam_. "there is a very old woman in the sea, and she says to her spirits, who are dapeg (a spirit which kills people), balingenngen (a spirit which causes bad dreams), and benisalsal (a spirit which throws things and is unpleasant), 'go beyond the sea and spread your sickness,' the spirits are going. they arrive and begin their work, and if the people do not make _sangásang_, many will die. now it is morning, and the spirits are going to the river to see what the people have offered to the old woman, who is ináwen. if they do not find anything, they will say, 'all the people in this town shall die,' and then they will go on to another place." "ináwen, who is waiting, sends kideng (a servant) to search for the spirits, who are killing people, to tell them to return. dapeg leaves the first town. he goes to another, and the dogs bark so that the people cannot sleep. a man opens the door, to learn the cause of the barking, and he sees a man, fat and tall, with nine heads, and he carries many kinds of cakes. the man says, 'now take these cakes, and if you do not make _sangásang_ for my mistress, at the river, you shall die. you must find a rooster with long tail and spurs; you must mix its blood with rice, and put it in the river at dawn when no one can see you,' the man makes _sangásang_ the next night, and puts the blood, mixed with rice, in a well dug by the river, so that the spirits may take it to their mistress. kideng also arrives and says, 'you must come with me now, for she awaits you who are bearing this offering.' they go and arrive. their mistress eats and says, 'i did not think that the blood of people tasted so badly, now i shall not send you again, for you have already killed many people.'" when this chant is completed, the chicken is killed, as directed in the song; and at night the blood and rice are offered beside the stream. [ ] the chicken is eaten by the family, and its feathers are tied to a string, stretched across the room. leaves are attached to the house-ladder as a warning that all visitors are barred, and for three days the family remains quietly indoors. _sagobay_. [ ]--this is one of the most widespread of the ceremonies, for it not only covers the entire tinguian belt, but extends into the igorot villages of the upit river region and ilocos sur, as well as into the kalinga villages of the malokbot valley. its occurrence in connection with the rice-culture is fully, described elsewhere (cf. p. ), so that at this place only its second function, that of keeping illness from the town, is described. when an epidemic appears in a nearby settlement, the _lakay_ summons the old men in council, and they decide on the number of pigs, and the amount of rice, _basi_, and other articles required, after which the necessary funds are secured by levying a tax on all the people of the village. to keep the evil spirits, who bear the sickness, out of the town, a cord of bamboo or rattan is stretched around the whole settlement, while at the gate a high fence is erected. through the uprights of this fence are stuck bamboo spikes with the sharpened ends facing outward, so as to catch or pierce the intruders (plate xxviii); while in the _saloko_ and along the gateway are placed leaves, roots, and other offerings acceptable to the friendly spirits. similar cords and leaves are also strung around the entrances to the houses. the cord and gateway form an adequate protection, and no human being or spirit will violate this taboo. should a human do so, the least penalty would be a tax sufficient to pay all the expense of the ceremony; but should the sickness afterwards invade the town, it is quite possible that more serious punishment might be exacted by the families of the victims. when all is prepared, the men and boys arm themselves, and with shouts and hostile demonstrations drive the sickness toward the town whence it is thought to come. [ ] returning to the center of the village, the people dance _tadek_, and the mediums may summon several spirits. next, the pigs are killed, and their livers are examined for a sign. should the omens be unfavorable, one or more fowls will be sacrificed, until it seems certain that the help of the spirits is assured, after which the flesh is cooked and eaten. then a small covered raft _(taltalabong)_ is constructed, and a portion of the food is placed inside. late in the afternoon, this is carried through the village, while one or more drummers keep up a din to frighten evil spirits away. just as the sun is sinking, the raft is carried to the river, and is set afloat, in order that any interested spirits, who may have been prevented from attending the ceremony, may still receive their share of the offering. in likuan a different explanation is offered for the _taltalabong_. here they say that the offerings are placed on the raft, so as to induce any hostile spirits who may be near to enter, and then they are carried out and away from the town. the blood of the slaughtered animals has been saved, and upon their return from the river the people dip leaves into it, and attach these near to the doors of their dwellings. for at least one day following, no work is done, and all visitors are barred. during this time the people only converse in low tones, and take special precautions against even animals making a noise. the beaks of roosters are tied, or they are placed in small baskets, so that they cannot stand up to crow. in lakub a new house or protection is placed above the guardian stones, and offerings are made to them at the time of the _sagobay_, while in likuan the participants wear neck and ankle bands of bamboo as a further protection from the sickness. _ngorong-or_.--lumaba and the tinguian villages of ilokos sur hold this ceremony, whenever a person is seriously ill with stomach trouble. as the rite does not extend far into the tinguian belt, but is found in the igorot villages farther south, it seems likely that it is an importation from that region. the members of the family gather in the afternoon, and kill a small pig by cutting off its head. a part of the blood is saved, and the balance is sprinkled against the house posts and ladder. the pig itself is hung from one round of the ladder, so that its blood will drip to the ground. the medium has been standing quietly to one side watching, but now she calls upon the spirits, "you (calling one or more by name), come out; be vomited up, for now you are being fed." she allows them a few minutes for their repast, then cuts open the carcass and removes the liver. a bit is cut from the top, then she splits open the animal's skull, and removes a little of the brain. this she places on a banana leaf; and, after adding a small piece of gold, wraps it up and buries it beside the center post of the dwelling. the animal is now cooked and served to the guests, but liberal portions are placed on the house rafters and other places convenient for the spirits. next morning a piece is cut from a dog's ear, is smeared with blood, and is placed in a small split bamboo, together with two stalks of rice. a clout is tied to a spear, and all are rubbed on the body of the patient, while the medium explains that this is the betel-nut of the spirits, and that, when she takes it from the village, they will go also, and the recovery be assured. the family follows her to the gate of the town, and watches closely, as she thrusts the spear and pole into the ground; for if they are firmly set in the ground, yet lean away from the village, it is certain that the spirits have departed, and the sick will recover. following the ceremony, members of the family may not work for five days, neither may they lead a horse or carabao, or eat of wild meat. should they do any of the things forbidden, they will be struck by lightning. _sapatá the oath_.--if a theft has been committed, and it has been impossible to detect the guilty person, the following procedure takes place. a rice-mortar is placed in the yard, and on it a dish of _basi_. all the people are summoned to gather, and one by one they drink of the liquor, meanwhile calling on the snakes to bite them, the lightning to strike them, or their abdomens to swell up and burst if they are guilty. soon the people will know the culprit, for one of these disasters will befall him. when that occurs, his family will be compelled to make good the theft, as well as the expense of this gathering. section the great ceremonies in addition to the ceremonies and rites which may be celebrated by all the people there are a number of more elaborate observances, which can only be given by those who have the hereditary right, or who have gained the privilege by a certain definite procedure. in general these ceremonies are restricted to the villages in or close to the valley of the abra, the lower reaches of the tineg, malanas, and sinalong rivers. as one proceeds up the tributary streams into such settlements as baay, likuan, and lakub, it is noticeable that the typical spirit houses become fewer in number, while the participants in the accompanying ceremonies are limited to recent emigrants from the lower valleys. the same thing is found to be true on the western side of the coast range of mountains, as one goes north or south from the abra river, although there is evidence here that some of the settlements formerly had these rites, but have allowed them to fall into disuse, as a result of ilocano influence. this distribution of the great ceremonies seems to give a hint that they are intrusive; that they probably were at one time restricted to the families of emigrants and even to-day are barred from a part of the people. they have not yet extended far into the interior, despite the fact that in the lower valleys they almost completely dominate the life of the people during a portion of the year. in all the valley towns one sees little houses and platforms, apparently of no practical value, yet occupying important places, while in the period following the rice-harvest elaborate festivals are carried on about them. soon it develops that each of these structures has a definite name, is associated with a particular ceremony, and is built and kept in repair in honor of certain powerful spirits. the culmination of these rites is the great _sayang_ ceremony which extends over seventeen days and nights. when this is held, it includes all the minor events of this class, and the smaller spirit structures are then built or repaired. this supreme event can only be celebrated by a few families, but all the townpeople are welcome guests, and all, regardless of age and sex, may witness or take part in the proceedings. since all the great events occur after the harvest, a time of leisure and plenty, they become the great social events of the year. a person who does not have the hereditary right to the ceremonies may gain the liberty if he be warned in a dream or be notified by the spirits that it is their wish. since all the expenses of such a gathering fall on the giver, it is imperative that he be well-to-do. such a one gives the ceremonies, in order, during a term of years, and eventually obtains the right to the _sayang_, the greatest social and religious event in tinguian life. adoption entitles an individual to all the privileges of the family, and as the writer and his wife were adopted into a family possessing the right to all the ceremonies, they became at once participants in all the events which are here described. in this way it was possible to obtain information and instruction on many points which observation alone could scarcely afford. the _pala-an_ ceremony is the first round on the social and religious ladder. it is here given in some detail, and is then followed by others, in the order of their importance. _pala-an_.--the _pala-an_ is held when some member of the family is ill, or when the structure of that name needs repair. many spirits visit the people during this rite, but the one chiefly interested is idadaya, the spirit of the east. he and his ten grandchildren wear in their hair the notched tail-feathers of a rooster, which are known as _igam._ from time to time these lose their luster, and they can only be refreshed by having some mortal celebrate _pala-an_. when it appears that these ornaments need attention, the idadaya will notify some family, either through a medium or by sending illness to them. a family having received such a notification summons a medium, and she at once begins to gather _saklag_ (_justicia gendarussa_ l.) and _sikag_ (_lygodium_ sp. near _scandens_) and a grass known as _bildis_, while the men secure the bamboo and other materials used in building the spirit structure. one corner of the living room is screened off with a large white blanket called _tabing_, and behind it the medium places unthreshed rice and jars which she has decked with vines and leaves. while she is thus engaged, the men are busy building the _pala-an_ (plate xxiv). this consists of four long poles--three of bamboo and one of a resinous tree, _anteng_, [ ] set in a square and supporting, near the top, a platform of bamboo. a number of women have been invited to assist the family, and they now proceed to beat out sufficient rice to serve the guests. when the pounding is finished, a rice-mortar is set out in the open, and a little rice is placed in it. the women, armed with long pestles, gather around and, keeping time to the music of copper gongs, they circle the mortar contra-clockwise, striking its edge three times in regular beats of , , ; on the next beat the leader strikes the bottom of her pestle against that of her neighbor, on the first and second beats, but on the third she pounds the rice in the mortar. this is repeated by the woman on her right and so on around the circle. then the leader strikes the top of her pestle against the top of the one held by the women next her on two beats and on the third pounds rice, and this is repeated by all. the music now becomes much faster, and, keeping time with it, the leader strikes first into the rice, then whirls clear around and strikes the pestle of the woman on her left; again she turns and strikes that of the woman on her right. each follows her in turn, and soon all are in motion about the mortar, alternately pounding the rice and clashing pestles. this is known as _kitong_, and is the method prescribed by the great spirit kaboniyan for the breaking of a part of the rice to be used in this and other ceremonies (plate xxxi). as soon as the pounding is finished, the medium places some of the newly broken rice in a bamboo dish, and places this on a rice winnower. she also adds a skirt, five pieces of betel-nut, two piper leaves, and a little dish of oil, and carries the collection below the _pala-an_, where a bound pig lies. the betel-nut and leaf are placed on the animal, then the medium dips her fingers in the oil, and strokes its side while she recites the following _diam_:-- "the spirit who lives in dadaya lies in bed; he looks at his _igam_, and they are dull. he looks again, 'why are my _igam_ dull? ala, let us go to sudipán, where the tinguian live, and let us take our _igam_, so that some one may make them bright again.' after that they laid them (the _igam_) on the house of the ipogau, and they are all sick who live in that house. kaboniyan looked down on them. 'ala, i shall go down to the ipogau,' he truly went down to them, 'what is the matter with you?' 'we are all sick who live in the same place,' said those sick ones. 'that is true, and the cause of your sickness is that they (the spirits) laid down their _igam_ on you. it is best that you make _pala-an_, since you have received their _igam_, for that is the cause of your illness,' after that they made _pala-an_, and they recovered from their sickness, those who lived in the same place. (here the medium calls the spirits of dadaya by name and then continues.) 'now those who live in the same place make bright again those _igam_ which you left in their house. make them well again, if you please'." as soon as she finishes her recital, the pig is stabbed in the throat, its blood is collected, and is mixed with cooked rice. the carcass is singed at once. five men then carry it to the top of the _pala-an_, where it is cut up. the suet and the hind legs are handed to the medium, who places them behind the screen in the room, and the family may then rest assured that the spirits thus remembered will free them from headache and sore eyes. after the flesh has been cut into small pieces, most of it is carried into the dwelling to be cooked for the guests, but a portion is placed in a bamboo tube, and is cooked beneath the _pala-an_. when it is ready to serve, the five men again go to the top of the structure and eat it, together with cooked rice, then they take the bamboo cooking tube, tie some of the sacred vines from behind the curtain about it, and fasten it to one pole of the _pala-an_. the men in the house are free to eat, and when they are finished, the women dine. in the cool of the afternoon, the people begin to assemble in the yard, where they are soon joined by the medium carrying a spear in one hand, a rooster in the other, and with a rice winnower atop her head. she places the latter on a rice-mortar close to the _pala-an_, and uncovering it reveals a small head-axe, notched chicken feathers, her shells, five pieces of betel-nut and two leaves, a jar cover, a dish of oil, and a coconut shell filled with rice and blood. at the command of the medium, four or five men begin to play on copper gongs, while the wife of the host comes forward and receives the spear and rooster in one hand. the medium takes the head-axe, and then the two women take hold of the winnower with their free hands. keeping time to the music, they lift it from the mortar, take one step, then stop, strike the spear and head-axe together, then step and stop again. at each halt the medium takes a little of the rice and blood from the winnower and sprinkles it on the ground for the spirits to eat. [ ] when they have made half the circuit of the mortar, they change places and retrace their steps; for "as they take the gifts partly away and then replace them, in the same manner the spirits will return that part of the patient's life which they had removed, and he will become well and strong again." the blood and rice which remain after this dance is placed on nine pieces of banana bark. five of these are carried to the _pala-an_; one to the east and one to the west gate of the town; one is put on the _talagan_, a miniature seat erected near by for the convenience of visiting spirits, and one in a little spirit house known as _tangpap_ (cf.p. ). for an hour or more, the medium makes _dawak_, and summons many spirits into her body. when the last of superior beings has made his call, the medium goes to her home, carrying her payment for the day's work, [ ] but the townspeople remain to drink _basi_ and to sing _da-eng_ until well into the night. early the next morning, the medium goes to the house, and removing the jars and the bundle of decorated rice from the _tabing_, carries them to the family's rice granary, and places them in the center of that structure, covering them with six bundles of rice. this is an offering to the spirit residing there, and for the next five days the granary must not be opened. nothing more of importance takes place during the morning, but late in the afternoon the people assemble in the dwelling to drink _basi_, while one or more mediums summon the spirits. after a time a sterile female pig is brought in and placed in the center of the room. two men armed with long knives slice the animal open along the length of its stomach. an old man quickly slips in his hand, draws out the still palpitating heart, and hands it to a medium, who in turn strokes the stomachs of members of the family, thus protecting them from intestinal troubles. she also touches the guests and the articles which have been used during the day. for this second day this medium receives, as pay, the head and two legs of the pig, a hundred fathoms of thread, a dish of broken rice, and five bundles of unthreshed rice. she also is given a small present in exchange for each bead she received when the spirits entered her body. following the ceremony, the members of the family are barred from work, usually for one moon, and during this period they may not eat of wild pig or carabao, of lobsters or eels. an infraction of this rule would incur, the wrath of the spirits and result in sickness and disaster. _tangpap_.--in many of the valley towns tangpap is only a part of _sayang_ (cf.p. ), and is never given alone, but in manabo, lagangilang, and nearby settlements it is recognized as one of the ceremonies which must be celebrated before a family acquires the right to _sayang_. in these villages it follows _pala-an_ after a lapse of two or three years. it was during the progress of this ceremony in the village of manabo, in , that the writer and his wife were made members of the tribe, and since the mediums were particularly anxious that we know all the details, the information in this instance is unusually complete. it is here given in full, as an excellent example of how all are conducted. a manabo woman, the wife of sagasag, was seized with an illness which deprived her of the use of her limbs, and when other means of relief failed, was told by the spirits to give the _tangpap_ ceremony, to which she already had a hereditary right. a medium was summoned, and she, with two assistants, began to prepare many presents for the spirits who were expected to attend the ceremony. from previous experience it was known the sort of gift each would appreciate, and by the end of the second day the following things were in readiness. for the spirits bakod and olak, [ ] a rice winnower was loaded with a shield, a clay dish, a coconut shell filled with _basi_, a string of beads, a small basket, two bundles of rice, and leaves of the _atilwag_ (_breynia acuminata_), later the half of a slain pig was also added. cords were attached at each corner of the living room, and beneath the points where they crossed was a mat on which the mediums were to sit when summoning the spirits. on the cords were leaves, grasses, and vines, the whole forming a decoration pleasing to the superior beings, i-anáyan and i-angáwan. for gapas they provided two small baskets of rice, a shell called _gosipeng_, and a rattan-like vine, _tanobong_, betel-nuts and piper-leaf. bogewan received a basket of rice, some white thread, sections of _posel_--a variety of bamboo--, _atilwag_ leaves, and some beads. for bognitan, a jar was partly filled with _tanobong_, and for gilin, a jar of _basi_. cooked rice was moulded into the form of an alligator, and was spotted with red, betel saliva. this, when placed on a basket of rice, was intended for bolandan. soyan was provided with a basket which contained the medium's shells and a cloth, while ibaka received a jar cover filled with salt. dandawila had to be content with a stem of young betel-nuts, and bakoki with two fish baskets filled with pounded rice, also a spear. a large white blanket was folded into a neat square, and on it was laid a lead sinker for the use of mamonglo. as a rule, three spirits named mabeyan attended this ceremony. for the first, a bamboo frame was constructed, and on it was placed a female pig, runo (a reed), and prepared betel nut. for the second, a shield, fish net, rice and a rice winnower, and a bit of string; while for the third, a rice winnower was set with eight coconut shells, a small dish, and a gourd dipper. during a considerable portion of the time that these articles were being prepared, several men sat in the yard and played on the _tongátong_, but when the mediums finally gave the signal that everything was in readiness, they moved their instrument up on the porch of the dwelling, where they continued playing softly. one of the mediums took her place in the mat in the middle of the room, and raising a chinese plate above her head, began to strike against it with her shells, in order to notify the spirits that the ceremony was about to begin. next she placed two dishes on the mat in front of her, and as she sang a monotonous chant, she touched each one with a small stick. the host was then ordered to shuffle his feet between the lines of dishes and to step over each one. as soon as he did so, the medium pulled the mat from beneath them, rolled it up, and used it as a whip with which she struck the head of each member of the family. the spirit who had caused the woman's illness was supposed to be near by, and after he witnessed this whipping, he would be afraid to remain longer. as a promise of future reward to the well-disposed immortals, a bound pig was then placed beside the door of the dwelling. going to the hearth, the medium withdrew burning sticks, and placed them in a jar, and held this over the head of the sick woman, for "a spirit has made her sick, but the fire will frighten him away, and she will get well." after she had made the circuit of the family, she held a bundle of rice above the flames, and with it again went to each person in the room; then she did the same thing with broken rice and with the _atilwag_ vine. two mediums then seated themselves on the mat, and covering their faces with their hands, began to chant and wail, beseeching the spirits to enter their bodies. one after another the spirits came and possesed the mediums, so that they were no longer regarded as human beings, but as the spirits themselves. first came kakalonan, also known as boboyonan, a friendly being whose chief duty it is to find the cause of troubles. addressing the sick woman, he said, "now you make this ceremony, and i come to make friends and to tell you the cause of your trouble. i do not think it was necessary for you to hold this ceremony now, for you built your _balaua_ only two years ago; yet it is best that you do so, for you can do nothing else. you are not like the spirits. if we die, we come to life again; if you die, you do not." at this point an old man interrupted, and offered him a drink of _basi_. at first kakalonan refused, saying he did not want to accept any payment; but finally he yielded and drained the coconut shell of liquor. after assuring the family that all would be well with them when the ceremony was complete, he took his departure. the next spirit to come was sagangan [ ] of anayan. he appeared to be in a rage, because the proper present had not been prepared for his coming, and was expressing himself vigorously when a passing woman happened to touch him, and he at once departed. the medium chanted for a long time, urging him to return, and finally he did so. at once he demanded that two bundles of rice have wax heads moulded on them, and that black beads be inserted for eyes. these, he assured them, would serve him as well as the woman's life, so he would make the exchange, and she would get well. when the dolls were prepared, he addressed the husband, "my other name is ingalit, and i live in the sky. what is the matter with the woman?" "i do not know," replied the man. "we ask you." "you ask me, what is the matter with this woman, and i will tell you. how does it happen that americans are attending the ceremony?" the husband replied that the americans wished to learn the tinguian customs, and this finally seemed to satisfy the superior being. turning toward the door where the men were still softly playing on the _tongátong_, he called out peevishly, "tell the people not to play on the _tongátong_, for the spirits who wish to hear it are not present, and we are ashamed to have the americans hear it. you make this ceremony now because you are sick and do not wish to die, but you could have waited two years." while this spirit was talking, another, who said he lived in langbosan, and had been sent by gilen, came to the body of the second medium. paying no attention to the other spirit, he began to give instructions for the conduct of the ceremony. the _tangpap_ was to be build the next morning, also two _balags_ (p. ), and for them they were to prepare one pig. "do not fail to prepare this pig, but you may use it for both _tangpap_ and _balag_. you will also make a _taltalabong_ (p. ). for this you must prepare a different pig, for this is for the sons and servants of kadaklan." after the departure of these beings, ten other spirits came in quick succession. two of the latter claimed to be igorot spirits, and both talked with the peculiar stacatto accent of the people who live along the kalinga-igorot border. [ ] after the departure of the igorot spirits, both mediums were possessed, one by sanadan, a male spirit, and the other by the female spirit of pangpangdan. at their request the men began again to play on the _tongátong_, and the spirits danced. soon sanadan began to fondle the woman, to rub her face with his, to feel of her body and at last of her privates. other spirits, who stayed only long enough to drink, followed them, and then gonay appeared. the spectators had been openly bored by the last few visitors, but the name of gonay quickly revived their interest. she began to sing a wailing song in which she told of her sad plight. time after time she repeated the sentence, "gongay has no husband, for her mother put a stone in her vagina, yet she loves all young men." from time to time she would pause, and make ludicrous attempts to fondle the young boys, and then when they resisted her, she again took up her plaint. at last she succeeded in getting one young fellow to exchange cigars and headbands with her, and began to rub her hands on his body, urging him not to leave her. just when she seemed on the verge of success in winning him, another spirit baliwaga came to the medium, and the fun-maker had to depart. the newcomer placed an agate bead in a dish, and held it high above his head while he danced. finally he called out that the bead had vanished, but when he lowered the plate, it was still there, and he left in chagrin. he was succeeded by a dumb female spirit named damolan, who undertook to do the trick in which her predecessor had failed. holding the plate high above her head, she danced furiously, and from time to time struck against the side of the dish with the medium's shells. twice when she lowered the dish, the bead was there, but on the third attempt it had vanished. the trick was so cleverly done that, although we were beside her and watching closely, we did not detect the final movement. with much satisfaction, the medium assured us that the bead would be found in the hair of the man who broke the first ground for the _tangpap_, a boast which was made good the following morning. adadog came next, and not finding the chicken which should have been placed on the mat for him, he broke out in a great fury and tried to seize a man in its place. he was restrained from doing injury to his victim, and soon left, still highly indignant. seven other spirits stopped only for a drink, and then daliwaya appeared. upon her arrival, one of the headmen gravely informed her that the people wished to adopt four americans, but that only one was then present. the spirit bade the writer to arise from the mat, where he was lying, and after stroking his head for a time, said, "you wish to make this american an _itneg_, [ ] but before you can do anything, the spirits must approve and give him a name. i will give him a name now, and then to-morrow all the people must say if they wish to give him another name and make him ipogau. [ ] his name shall be agonan, for that is the name of the spirit who knows many languages." again she stroked the writer's head, and then taking a large porcelain platter, she filled it with _basi_, and together we drank the liquor, alternately, a swallow at a time. after her departure, an alzado [ ] came and danced with high knee action, meantime saying, she was there to make some one ill, and that she would do so unless the american gave her a cloth for her clout when she returned the following day. the next visitor was sanadan, the spirit who owns and guards the deer and wild pig. up to this time the people had been mildly interested in the arrivals, but when this important being appeared, the men at once became alert; they told him of their troubles in the hunts, of the scarcity of deer, and urged him to send more of them to mt. posoey, where they were accustomed to hunt. he offered much good advice concerning the methods of hunting, but refused to take any action regarding the game on the nearby mountain, for, he said, the spirit dapwanay who owns posoey was watching the game there. just before he departed, he called to the headmen, "i am very rich and very bold. i am not afraid to go anywhere. i can become the sunset sky. i am going to asbinan in kalaskígan to have him make me a shoe of gold. to-morrow you must not use any of the things you have had out-of-doors, but you may make use of them when you build the _taltalabong_." the last spirit to come that night was ablalansa who keeps guard over the sons of kadaklan. he paused only for a drink and to tell the people that america was very near to the place, where the big birds live who eat people. it was midnight when the medium informed us that no more spirits would come that evening, and we went to rest. about six o'clock the next morning, the women began the ceremonial pounding of the rice known as _kitong_ (cf. p. ) in the yard, while one of the mediums went to the bound pig lying in the dwelling and recited a _diam_ as she stroked its side; she also poured a little _basi_ through the slits in the floor for the use of any visiting spirits. while the women were thus engaged, the men were busy constructing spirit houses in the yard. of greatest importance was the _tangpap_ (plate xxvii), a small bamboo structure with a slanting roof, resting on four poles, and an interwoven bamboo floor fastened about three feet above the ground. [ ] near one of the house poles a funnel-shaped basket was tied, and in it was set a forked stick, within the crotch of which was a little floor and roof, the whole forming a resting place for the igorot spirits of talegteg. the _pala-an_ needed a few repairs, and two of the old men looked after these, while others made two long covered bamboo benches which might be used either by visiting men or spirits. [ ] four long bamboo poles were set in the ground, and a roof placed over them to form the _bang-bangsal_, a shelter always provided for the spirits of soyau. by ten o'clock all was in readiness, and the people then gathered in the dwelling, where the mediums began summoning the spirits. the first to arrive was omgbawan, a female spirit whose conversation ran as follows: "i come now because you people ought to make this ceremony. i did not come last night, for there were many spirits here, and i was busy. you people who build _tangpap_ must provide all the necessary things, even though they are costly. it is good that the americans are here. i never talked with one before." manaldek [ ] was the next arrival, and as he was one of the spirits who was supposed to have caused the patient's illness, his visit was of considerable importance. he was presented with a spear and prepared betel-nut. the latter was attached to the point of the weapon, and this was pressed against the body of the pig, then the spirit touched each member of the family in order to drive the sickness from them. mamonglo ordered the family under a white blanket, and then touched the head of each person with a lead sinker, while his companion spirit waved a bundle of rice and a firebrand over them, "to take away the sickness which they had sent." six other spirits came long enough to drink, then bisangolan occupied the attention of all for a time. he is an old man, a giant who lives near the river, and with his head-axe keeps the trees and driftwood from jamming, and thus prevents floods. for quite a time he chatted about himself, then finally blew smoke over the people, at the same time assuring them that the sickness would now vanish like the smoke. just before departing he informed the family that a spirit named imalbi had caused the trouble in the patient's eyes, and that on the next morning they must build a little house, called _balitang_, among the banana trees, and place in it a live chicken. gayangayan, a female spirit from lagayan, followed, rubbed the head of each person, blew smoke over them, and then announced thus: "the people of layogan [ ] must not close their doors when it rains, or it will stop." the attitude of the people toward the weaker and less important spirits was well shown when ambayau, a wild female spirit, arrived. she demanded to know where she could secure heads, and immediately the people began to tell her all sorts of impossible places, and made jests about her and her family. finally they told her to take the head of a certain christianized native; but she refused, since she had short hair, and it would be hard for her to carry the skull. while she was still talking, the men started to carry the pig from the room, but she detained them, to explain that the people cut the meat into too large pieces, for "we spirits eat only so much," indicating a pinch. the spirit soyau came for a drink, and then all the people went out to the _tangpap_, where the pig was killed, singed, and cut up. a small pig was laid beside the _pala-an_, and for a time was guarded by the son of the sick woman, who for this event had placed the notched chicken-feathers in his hair, and had put on bracelets of boar's tusks. as soon as she had finished at the _tangpap_, the medium came to the _pala-an_, and having recited the proper _diam_ over the pig lying there, ordered it killed in the manner already described for this structure (cf. p. ). both animals were then cooked, and soon all the guests were eating, drinking and jesting. late in the afternoon, the spirit mat was spread in the yard near to the _tangpap_, and the mediums began summoning the spirits. the first to come was mamabeyan, an igorot spirit for whom the people showed the utmost contempt. they guyed him, threw dirty water on his body, and in other ways insulted him, until in his fury he tried to climb the house posts to punish a group of girls, the worst offenders, but men and women rushed up with sticks and clubs, and drove him back. after a time he calmed down, and going to a bound pig, he addressed it as "a pretty lady," and tried to caress it. while this clown spirit was amusing the crowd, a second medium brought out ten coconut shells, one of which was filled with blood and rice. these she placed on a winnower, which in turn was set on a rice-mortar. soon the spirit ilongbósan entered her body, and commanded the son of the patient to take some of the blood and rice from the one dish, place it in all the others, and then put it back again, "for when the spirits make a man sick, they take part of his life, and when they make him well, they put it back. so the boy takes a part of the blood and rice away, and gives it to the spirits, then puts it back." the spirit was followed, by gilen, who bade the lad take hold of one side of the winnower, while he held the other. raising it in the air, they danced half way round the mortar, then retraced their steps. "this is because the spirits only partially took the life away. now they put it back." as they finished dancing, gilen struck his spear against the boy's head-axe and departed. the medium, now with her own personality, leaned a shield against the rice-mortar, and in the [lambda] thus formed she hung a small bundle of rice and a burning cord, while over the whole she spread a fish net. scarcely had she completed this task, when she was possessed by the spirit of kibáyen, this being walked round and round the net, seeking for an opening, but without success. later the medium explained, "the rice and fire represent the woman's life, which the spirit wishes to take; but she cannot, since she is unable to pass through the fish net." the next visitor was yangayang, who began to boast of his power to make persons ill. suddenly the medium fell to the ground in convulsions, and then stretched out in a dead faint. the writer examined her closely, but could not detect her breathing. after a moment, the second medium seized a rooster and waved it over the prostrate form, while an old man gave a sharp stroke on a gong close to her head. the medium awoke from her faint and thus "the death was frightened away." mamonglo, who had been present during the morning, returned for a moment to again rub the family and guests with his lead sinker. while he was thus engaged, the second medium was possessed by baniyat, a female who made a bit of fun by trying to steal the beads of the young girls, "so the men would love her." several times she tried to scale the house ladder, but was always repulsed, and each failure was greeted with jeers and ridicule. gomogopos, who causes stomach troubles, came, and after dancing before the rice-mortar, demanded that a small pig be laid before the _tangpap_. scarcely had the animal been deposited, when the spirit seized a head-axe and cut it in two at one blow. then he dipped the weapon in its blood and applied it to the stomach of each member of the family. "the pig is his pay, and now he takes away his kind of sickness." the second medium secured a live rooster, and using its wings as a brush, she took up the blood and the two halves of the pig, and put them in the _tangpap_. "the rooster is the spirits' brush, and when the dirt in front of the _tangpap_ is cleaned up, then the people will be clean and well inside their bodies." at the command of the medium, the husband of the patient went to the opposite side of the _tangpap_; then she threw a bundle of rice over the structure to him. he caught it, and immediately threw it back. this was repeated six times, but on the seventh the bundle lighted on the roof, where it was allowed to remain. "the spirit threw away the lives of the people, but the man returned them. the bundle is now on the _tangpap_, so now the people's lives will remain safe." an unnamed spirit was next to appear, and at his command the fore part of the pig was stood upright in the winnower, and a stick was placed in each nostril. these were seized by the spirit, who pumped them up and down, then withdrew them, and stroked each member of the family, while he chanted, "i did this to your lives, so now i must do it to you." saking, a lame spirit, called for one of the pig's legs, and with it rubbed the limbs of each member of the family, "so that they will not become ill in their legs." one of the mediums now became possessed by mangamian, who carried a feather which he used as a fighting knife. the onlookers seized similar weapons and defended themselves, or drove the spirit away by threatening him with a small dog. a fire had been built near the _tangpap_, and from time to time the spirit would rush up to this, thrust his feather into the flames, and then put it into his mouth. later it was explained, "he is an evil spirit who tries to kill people. the feather is his bolo. he is like a blacksmith, and when his knife gets dull, he puts it in the fire, then puts it in his mouth to wet it, so as to make it ring." three spirits now appeared in quick succession, and discussed with the old men the advisability of adopting the americans [ ] as ipogau. finally the leader ilabdangan called them to the mat before him and told them their names, and also recited a list of their relations. then, filling a coconut shell with _basi_, he drank half and presented the shell to each candidate, who had to drain it to the last drop. a circle was formed, and for the balance of the afternoon the new members of the tribe had to dance _tadek_ with their relations. just before dusk, the igorot spirit daliwáya, who had been present the night before, appeared and demanded that the american give her cloth for her clout. when she received this, she sang and then instructed the men how to dance in igorot fashion. when finally they were doing her bidding, she danced beside them with outstretched arms in the manner of the igorot women. later, when the medium was again herself, we questioned her concerning her knowledge of this dance, but she professed absolute ignorance. that evening the people danced _tadek_, for a short time, near to the _pala-an_, then a fire was built beside the _tangpap_, and by its light the visitors danced _da-eng_ until far into the night (cf.p. ). early the next morning, the men went to some banana trees near to a rice granary, and there constructed a little spirit house, which resembled the _pala-an_, except that it was only about four feet high. this was called _balitang_, and was made in fulfilment of the orders given by the spirit imalbi on the previous evening. when it was finished, the medium placed a dish of broken rice on it, and then tied a rooster with a belt close enough, so that the fowl could eat of the rice. returning to the dwelling, she took down a small shield which was attached to the wall, placed new leaves and a dish of oil on it. then as she stirred the oil, she sang the _talatal_ (plate xxxii). the significance of this song, which consists only of mentioning the names of prominent men of various villages, seems to be lost. the _kalang_, or spirit box, was then redecorated, food was dropped through the slits in the floor for visiting spirits, and finally the medium held the shield over the heads of the family, beat upon it with a head-axe, while in a loud voice she asked the spirits that, since the family was now celebrating _tangpap_, they would please make them well again. the shield was fastened to the wall, new offerings of _basi_ were placed in the _kalang_, and after it had been swung over the head of the patient, it was again fastened above the house beam near to the roof. for the next hour the mediums summoned spirits to them. the first five had little of interest to offer, except that each demanded that his liquor be served to him on a head-axe. when the spirit amangau arrived, he spent the time boasting of his head-hunting exploits; he told of how he had gone to one village, and had killed all the people, except one pregnant woman, and of the dance which followed. finally he claimed the credit of having killed a man who had recently died in manabo, and assured the people that his friends were then dancing about the head. the spirit banbanyalan, who followed, disclaimed any part in the killing just mentioned, but verified the statement of his predecessor. tomakdeg came, and after filling his mouth with rice, blew it out over the people, in the same way that the sickness was to be spit out. meanwhile bebeka-an, armed with a wooden spoon, tried to dig up the floor and the people on it, "for that is the way she digs up sickness." awa-an, a spirit of the water, came to inform the people that the spirit of a man recently drowned was just passing the house. everything else was abandoned for a few moments, while _basi_ was poured out of the window, so that the dead might receive drink. two female spirits, dalimayawan and ginlawan, came at the same time and danced together, while they informed the people of their beauty and their expertness in dancing. suddenly they stopped, and said that andayau, the mother of lakgangan, was near by; then they instructed the host that he should wrap a gourd in a cloth and tell andayau that it was her son's head, and that he had been killed, because he had stolen carabao. scarcely had the two visitors departed, when the mother appeared, and being informed of her son's death, she began to wail, "he is lost. no one works the fields, where we planted calabasa. lakgangan is lost, he who has been killed. why did you go to steal carabao? we have put lakgangan in a hammock; we take him to tomakdang. the _basi_ put out for lakgangan is good. he is lost whom they went to kill. lakgangan is lost. we take him to tomakdang." the song was interrupted by a head-hunting spirit, who demanded the heads of two visiting girls from patok, but she finally went away satisfied with a piece of cloth which they gave her. blood and oil were sprinkled liberally over the ground and the gathering broken up for the morning. all the forenoon, a small group of men and women, had been constructing a small covered bamboo raft, and had placed in it a sack of rice, which had been contributed by all the people. [ ] by four o'clock a large number of people had gathered in the yard near the house, and soon the spirit mats were spread on an old bedstead, and the mediums started again to summon the superior beings. the first two to appear were esteban from cagayan and maria from spain. they wore gay handkerchiefs about their shoulders, and when they danced, gave an imitation of the spanish dances now seen among the christianized natives of the coast. it was quite evident that these foreign spirits were not popular with the people, and they were distinctly relieved when mananáko replaced them. this spirit has the reputation of being a thief, and the guests had great sport preventing him from stealing the gifts intended for other spirits. in the midst of this revelry, the other medium was suddenly possessed by kadaklan--the supreme being. the laughter and jesting ceased, and breathlessly the people listened, while the most powerful being said, "i am kadaklan. here in this town where i talk, you must do the things you ought to do. i hear what you say you desire, and i see what you are able to do. something ill will befall you unless you quickly celebrate _sagobay_ (cf. p. ), when there are no strangers or christians in your town. where is the _basi_ which should have been in the place where i first came?" [ ] without awaiting an answer he vanished, and his wife agemem took his place and repeated his remarks with little variation. sopo, a gambler, next appeared and tossed handfuls of coins into a blanket. he stated that if heads came up, the people won and would have good health, but if they lost, their lives were his. as soon as he threw, the people rushed up, and if they saw any tails they were quickly turned, and the spirit was informed that he had lost. kimat, lightning, came and demanded a drink, which was given. as he is usually considered as a dog, the writer inquired why he had appeared as a man, but was rewarded only by a shrug of the shoulders and the word--_kadauyan_ ("custom"). another spirit, andeles, quickly replaced lightning, and with sopo danced on the spirit raft, while the old men put dishes of water and coins inside, and fastened a small live chicken to the roof. the people then tried to induce the spirits to leave, but they refused. suddenly they were flung aside, and two strong men seized the raft and started to run with it. immediately the two spirits gave chase and fought viciously all who tried to get in their way, but when, finally, their opponents were joined by an old woman carrying a bundle of burning rice straw and an old man beating a drum, they gave up the chase and vanished. the party proceeded on to the abra river, where they waded out into deep water and set the raft afloat (plate xxvi). that evening the guests danced _da-eng_, and the ceremony was over. throughout the three days, the mediums had been constantly drinking of _basi_, and while under the strain of the ceremony, they had not appeared intoxicated, but at its conclusion both were hopelessly drunk. the payment for the service was one half of the largest pig, unthreshed rice, and about two pesos in money, which was given in exchange for the beads which different spirits had demanded. kalangan.--in manabo and the villages of that vicinity a period of about seven years elapses between the building of _tangpap_ and the celebration of _kalangan_, but in most of the valley towns the latter ceremony follows _pala-an_ after two or three years. [ ] the ceremony is so similar to the _tangpap_ just described that only the barest outline will be given here. the chief difference in the two is the type of structure built for the spirits. _kalangan_ has four supporting timbers to which the flooring is lashed, and from which kingposts go to ridge poles. a bamboo frame rests on this and, in turn, supports an overhanging grass roof (plate xxiii). the procedure is as follows: late in the afternoon, all the necessary articles are brought to the house, then the mediums dance for a time to the music of the _tongátong_. _basi_ is served to the guests, and for an hour or more the spirits are summoned. next morning the _kalangan_ is built, and two pigs are sacrificed beside it. their blood mixed with oil is offered to the spirits, and many acts, such as distributing the rice into ten dishes and then replacing it in the original container, the churning of sticks in the nose of a slaughtered animal and the like, are performed. spirits are summoned in the afternoon, and in the evening _da-eng_ is danced. on the third day new offerings are placed on the spirit shield and hanger; offerings are made at the new structure, numerous spirits appear, talk to and amuse the people, and finally _da-eng_ is danced until late evening. following the ceremony, all members of the family are barred from work for about one month. they may not eat the meat of the wild carabao, wild hog, beef, eels, nor may they use peppers in their food. wild fowl are barred for a period of one year. _kalangan_ is much more widespread than either _tangpap_ or the _sayang_ ceremony, and this spirit structure is often found in villages, where the other great ceremonies are lacking. _sayang_.--the greatest of all the ceremonies is the _sayang_, the ability to celebrate which proclaims the family as one of wealth and importance. in most cases the right is hereditary, but, as already indicated, a person may gain the privilege by giving, in order, and through a term of years, all the minor ceremonies. in such circumstances _sayang_ follows _kalangan_ after a lapse of from four to eight years. otherwise the ceremony will be held about once in seven years, or when the spirit structure known as _balaua_ is in need of repairs. originally this appears to have been a seventeen-day ceremony, as it still is in manabo, patok, lagangilang, and neighboring villages, but in san juan, lagayan, danglas, and some other settlements it now lasts only five or seven days. however, even in those towns where it occupies full time, the first twelve days are preliminary in nature. on the first day, the mediums go to the family dwelling and take great pains to see that all forbidden articles are removed, for wild ginger, peppers, shrimps, carabao flesh, and wild pork are tabooed, both during the ceremony and for the month following. the next duty is to construct a woven bamboo frame known as _talapitap_ on which the spirits are fed, and to prepare two sticks known as _dakidak_, one being a thin slender bamboo called _bolo_, the other a reed. these are split at one end, so they will rattle when struck on the ground, and thus call the attention of the spirit for whom food is placed on the rack. that evening a fire is built in the yard, and beside it the mediums dance _da-eng_ alone. meanwhile a number of women gather in the yard and pound rice out of the straw. this pounding of rice continues each evening of the first five days. the first night they beat out ten bundles, the second, twenty, and so on, until they clean fifty on the fifth day. little occurs during the second and third days, but on these evenings the young men and girls join the mediums and dance _da-eng_ by the fire in the yard. the fourth and fifth nights are known as _ginitbet_ ("dark"), for then no fires are lighted, and the mediums dance alone. it is supposed that the black spirits, those who are deformed, or who are too shy to appear before the people, will come out at this time and enjoy the ceremony. beginning with the sixth day the women pound rice in the early morning. starting with ten bundles, they increase the number by ten each day until on the thirteenth morning they pound out eighty bundles. a fire is lighted in the yard on the sixth day, and is kept burning continuously through the eighth, but the ninth and tenth are nights of darkness. when the fire is burning, it is a sign for all who wish, to come and dance, and each evening finds a jolly party of young people gathered in the yard, where they take part in the festivities, or watch the mediums, as they offer rice to the superior beings. on the eleventh day, a long white blanket (_tabing_) is stretched across one corner of the room, making a private compartment for the use of visiting spirits. that evening, as it grows dark, a jar of _basi_ is carried up into the house. all lights are extinguished both in the yard and the dwelling, so that the guests have to grope their way about. after the liquor is consumed, they go down into the yard, where, in darkness, they join the medium in dancing _da-eng._ the twelfth day is known as _pasa-ad_--"the building." during the preliminary days, the men have been bringing materials for use in constructing the great spirit-house called _balaua_, and on this morning the actual work is started. in form the _balaua_ resembles the _kalangan_, but it is large enough to accommodate a dozen or more people, and the supporting posts are trunks of small trees (plate xxi). after the framework is complete, one side of the roof is covered with cogon grass, but the other is left incomplete. meanwhile the women gather near by and pound rice in the ceremonial manner described in the _pala-an_ ceremony (cf. p. ). as soon as the building is over for the day, a jar of _basi_ is carried into the structure, a little of the liquor is poured into bamboo tubes and tied to each of the corner poles. the balance of the liquor is then served to the men who sit in the _balaua_ and play on copper gongs. next, a bound pig is brought in, and is tied to a post decorated with leaves and vines. soon the medium appears, and after placing prepared betel-nut and lime on the animal, she squats beside it, dips her fingers into coconut oil, and strokes its side, then later dips a miniature head-axe into the oil, and again strokes the animal, while she repeats a _diam_. this is a recital of how in ancient times kadaklan and agemen instructed the tinguian as to the proper method of celebrating the _sayang_ ceremony. [ ] a little later the pig is removed from the _balaua_, and its throat is cut, first with a metal blade, but the deep, mortal thrust is made with a bamboo spike. the animal is then singed, but its blood is carefully saved for future use (plate xxxiii). while all this is taking place, the men in the _balaua_ drink _basi_ and sing _dalengs_ in which they praise the liberality of their hosts, tell of the importance of the family, and express hope for their continued prosperity. as they sing, the chief medium goes from one to another of the guests, and after dipping a piece of lead in coconut oil, holds it to their nostrils as a protection against evil. when finally the pig has been singed and scraped, it is again brought into the _balaua_, and its body is opened by a transverse cut at the throat and two slits lengthwise of its abdomen. the intestines are removed and placed in a tray, but the liver is carefully examined for an omen. if the signs are favorable, the liver is cooked and is cut up, a part is eaten by the old men, and the balance is attached to the corner pole of the spirit structure. the head, one thigh, and two legs are laid on a crossbeam for the spirits, after which the balance of the meat is cooked and served with rice to the guests. that evening many friends gather in the yard to dance _da-eng_, to drink _basi_, or to sing _daleng_. according to tradition, it was formerly the custom to send golden betel-nuts to invite guests whom they wished especially to honor. [ ] nowadays one or more leading men from other villages may be especially invited by being presented with a bit of gold, a golden earring or bead. when such a one arrives at the edge of the yard, he is placed in a chair, is covered with a blanket, and is carried to the center of the dancing space by a number of women singing _diwas_ (cf. p. ). at frequent intervals the merry-making is interrupted by one of the mediums who places the _talapitap_ on the ground, puts rice and water on it, and then summons the spirits with the split sticks. once during the evening, she places eight dishes and two coconut shells of water on the rack. reaching into one of the dishes which contains rice, she takes out a handful and transfers it, a little at a time, into each of the others, then extracting a few grains from each, she throws it on the ground and sprinkles it with water from the two cups. the remaining rice is returned to the original holder, and the act is repeated eight times. the significance of this seems to be the same as in the _tangpap_ ceremony, where the life of the individual is symbolized by the rice, which is only partially taken away and is again returned. the next act is always carried out, but its meaning appears to be lost. the eight dishes are filled with rice, and are placed on the frame together with sixteen coconut shells of water, and eight men and eight women seat themselves on opposite sides. first they eat a little of the food, then taking a small amount in their fingers, they dip it into the water and place it in the mouth of the person opposite. the fourteenth day is known as _palay-lay_--"the seasoning"--and during the next twenty-four hours the people remain quietly in the village while the bamboo used in the _balaua_ "becomes good." next day is one of great activity. the roofing of the _balaua_ is completed, all necessary repairs are made to the dwelling, for dire results would follow should any part of the house break through during the concluding days of the ceremony. the balance of the day is taken up in dancing and in the construction of the following spirit-houses: the _aligang, balabago, talagan, idasan, balag, batog, alalot, pangkew_ and _sogayob_ (cf. pp. - ). also a little bench is built near the hearth, and on it are placed coconut shell cups and drinks for the use of the igorot spirits who usually come this night. the evening of this day is known as _libon_--"plenty" or "abundance." toward nightfall the mediums, and their helpers enter the dwelling and decorate it in a manner already described for the great ceremonies. cords cross the room from opposite corners and beneath, where they meet, the medium's mat is spread. on the cords are hung grasses, flowers, girdles, and wreaths of young coconut leaves. when all is ready, a small pig is brought into the room, while the men play frantically on their gongs and drums. on the medium's mat are many articles, _alangtin_ leaves, a rooster, a branch filled with young betel-nuts, cooked rice moulded into the form of an alligator, but with a wax head and seeds for eyes, a spear, and a bundle of rice straw. taking up a dish of water, the medium pours a part of it into the pig's ear; then, as the animal shakes its head, she again catches it in the dish. rolling up a mat, she dips it into the water, and with it touches the heads of all members of the family, for in the same manner that the pig has thrown the water out of its ear, so in a like fashion will illness and misfortune be thrown from all the family who have been sprinkled with it. this act finished, the medium dances before the doors and windows, while she waves the chicken, betel-nuts, or other objects taken from the mat. at her invitation, the host and his wife join her, but previously they have dressed themselves in good garments, and on their heads and at their waists they wear girdles and wreaths of _alangtin_, or wild grasses. the host is handed a long knife, and is instructed to cut the throat of the pig. his wife takes a rice winnower and a stick, and going to each window strikes the winnower five times, then drops it to the floor, at the same time crying, "wa-hui." next, she strikes a jar of liquor with the winnower, then shakes a coconut shell filled with rice against her abdomen; when finished she is handed a live chicken and again she approaches the jar. soon she is joined by her husband, armed with a spear and head-axe. as he passes the liquor, he stamps on the ground, while his wife waves the fowl, and all this time the medium continues to sprinkle them with a grass brush dipped in water. no explanation is given for the individual acts, but the purpose of the whole is to drive away sickness, "just as the rooster flaps his wings." ten dishes are placed on the spirit mat, and as the medium sings, she touches each one in turn with a split bamboo; after which she piles the dishes up and has the host come and squat over them three times. another sprinkling with water follows this act, and then the medium swings a bundle of rice and a lighted torch over the head of each member of the family, while she assures them that all evil spirits will now depart. the guests go down to the yard, where they are served with liquor, and where they dance _da-eng_ and _tadek_. on all former occasions, the liquor has been served in shell cups, but on this night a sort of pan-pipe, made of bamboo tubes, is filled with liquor. the guest drinks from the lowest of the series, and as he does so, the liquor falls from one to another, so that he really drinks from all at one time. bamboo tubes attached to poles by means of cords are likewise filled with _basi_ and served to the dancers. while the others are enjoying themselves, the mediums and the hosts are attending strictly to the business in hand. dressed in their best garments, the husband and wife go to each one of the spirit houses, and touch them with their feet, a circuit which has to be repeated ten times. each time as they pass the little porch-like addition, known as _sogayob_, the mediums sprinkle them with water. when they have completed their task, the mediums spread a mat in front of the pig, which lies below the _sogayob_, and on it they dance, pausing now and then to give the animal a vicious kick or to throw broken rice over it. and so the night is passed without sleep or rest for any of the principals in the ceremony. the sixteenth day is _kadaklan_,--"the greatest." soon after daybreak, the people accompany the medium to the guardian stones near the gate of the village, and watch her in silence, while she anoints the head of each stone with oil, and places a new yellow bark band around its "neck." as soon as she finishes, the musicians begin to play vigorously on their gongs and drums, while two old men kill a small pig and collect its blood. the carcass is brought to the medium, who places it beside four dishes, one filled with _basi_, one with salt, one with vinegar, and the last with the pig's blood. she drinks of the liquor, dips her fingers in coconut oil, and strokes the pig's stomach, after which it is cut up in the usual manner. the liver is studied eagerly, for by the markings on it the fate of the host can be foretold. should the signs be unfavorable, a chicken will be sacrificed in the hope that the additional offering may induce the spirits to change their verdict; but if the omens are good, the ceremony proceeds without a halt. the intestines and some pieces of meat are placed on the _ansi-silit,_--a small spirit frame or table near the stones. the host, who has been watching from a distance, is summoned, and is given a piece of the flesh to take back to his house for food, and then the rest of the meat is cooked and served to the guests. but before anything is eaten, the medium places prepared betel-nuts before the stones, mixes blood with rice, and scatters it broadcast, meanwhile calling the spirits from near and far to come and eat, and to go with her to the village, where she is to continue the ceremony. as the company approaches the _balaua_, the musicians begin to beat on their gongs, while women in the yard pound rice in ceremonial fashion. when they have finished, the family goes up into the _balaua_ and dances to the music of the gongs until the medium bids them stop. the pig which has been lying in front of the _sogayob_, and another from the yard, are killed, and are laid side by side near to the _balaua_ in a spot indicated by the medium. she places a bamboo tube of water between them, on their backs she lays several pieces of prepared betel-nut, then strokes their sides with oiled fingers. her next duty is to sprinkle _basi_ from the jar onto the ground with a small head-axe, at the same time calling the spirits to come and drink. (plate xxxiv). a bundle which has been lying beside the animals is opened, and from it the medium takes a red and yellow headband with chicken feathers attached, and boar's tusk armlets. these she places on the host, then hands him a blanket. holding the latter in his outstretched arms, as he would do if dancing _tadek_, he squats repeatedly over a dish of water. as he finishes, the medium takes the tube of water from between the pigs, and pouring a little of it on her hand, she applies it to the abdomen of the man's wife and children. the animals are now cooked in yard, while a quantity of rice is made ready in the house. during the preparation of the meal, the musicians play incessantly, but as the food is brought out, they cease and join the others in the feast. it is late in the afternoon before much activity is again manifest. at first a few gather and begin to dance _tadek_; little by little others come in until by nightfall the yard is full. _basi_ is served to all, and soon, above the noisy laughter of the crowd, is heard the voice of some leading man singing the _daleng_. the visitors listen respectfully to the song and to the reply, then resume the music and dancing. after a time a huge fire is built in the yard, and by the flickering light two lines of boys and girls or older people will form to sing and dance the _daeng._ [ ] on the morning of the seventeenth day, the men kill two pigs, usually by chasing them through the brush and spearing them to death. they are prepared in the usual way, and are placed, one in the _balaua_, the other in the _sogayob_, where they are cut up. a bit of the flesh is left in each structure, the fore half of one animal is carried into the yard, but the rest is prepared for food. on an inverted rice-mortar, in the yard, is placed a jar of _basi_, notched chicken feathers, and boar's tusks. the man and his wife are summoned before this, are decorated as on the day before, and are instructed to dance three times around the mortar. while this is going on, a shield and a rice winnower are leaned against each other so as to form an arch on which lies a sheaf of rice. from the middle hangs a piece of burning wood, while over all a fish net is thrown. as in a former ceremony (cf. p. ), the rice and fire represent the life of some member of the family, which the evil spirits may desire to seize, but they are prevented, since they are unable to pass through the meshes of the net. going to the half of the pig, which stands upright in a rice winnower, the medium places a string of beads--agate and gold--around its neck and attaches bits of gold to its legs. then she places a thin stick in each nostril and pumps them alternately up and down, as a smith would work his forge. after a little she removes the plungers, and with them strokes the bodies of members of the family. near to the pig stands a dish of water in which the heart is lying. the host goes to this, removes the heart, and placing it on his head-axe, takes it in front of the animal, where it lies, while he pumps the nostril-sticks up and down ten times. meanwhile his wife is decorated with wreathes of leaves and vines; a leaf containing the pig's tail and some of the flesh is placed on her head, and a spear is put in her left hand. as her husband completes his task, she goes to the mortar, where she finds one dish full of blood and rice and the empty coconut shells. the rice and blood represent the lives of the family, and following the instructions of the medium, she takes these lives and places them little by little on the shells, but before all is gone, the medium bids her return them to the big dish. in a like manner the spirits may take a part of the life of the family, but will return it again. this act is repeated ten times. next she takes a piece of woven bamboo, shaped like two triangles set end on end [ ], and goes to the _batog_, where her daughter sits under a fish-net holding a similar "shield." they press these together, and the mother returns to the mortar eight times. the mediums who have gathered beneath the _sogayob_ begin to sing, while one of them beats time with a split bamboo stick. at the conclusion of the song, one of them offers _basi_ to the spirits and guests, and then placing a bundle of green leaves on the ground, she pours water over it, while the host and his wife are made to tramp in the mud. the man is now carrying the spear, while the woman holds a cock in one hand, and an empty dish in the other. as they are stamping on the damp leaves, old women stand near by showering them with rice and water. since early morning a dog has been tied at the end of the house. it is now brought up to the bundle of leaves, and is knocked on the head with a club, its throat is cut, and some of its blood is applied with a head-axe to the backs of the man and woman. more water is poured on the bundle, again they tramp in the mud, and again they are showered with rice and water. the man goes to one side of the _balaua_, and throws a bundle of rice over it to his wife, who returns it eight times. a strange procession now forms and winds its way to the stream. in the lead is the host armed with spear, shield, and head-axe; next comes the medium carrying the bamboo rack--_talapitap_--like a shield, and the split bamboo--_dakidak_--as a spear; next is an old woman with a coconut shell dish, then another with a bundle of burning rice straw; behind her is the wife followed by a man who drags the dead dog. they stop outside of the village, while the medium hides the rack and split bamboo near the trail. soon the man with the dog leaves the line and drags the animal to a distant tree, where he ties it in the branches. as they arrive at the stream, the people pause, while the medium holds the shell cup beside the burning straw, and recites a _diam_. the writer tried on two occasions to get this _diam_, but it was given so low and indistinctly that its full content was not secured, neither was it possible to get the medium to repeat it after the ceremony. from what was heard it seems probable it is the _dawak diam_, [ ] a guess made more probable by the killing of the dog and the bathing which follows. as soon as the medium finishes, the whole party disrobes and bathes. upon their return to the village, they are met by a company of men and boys who assail them by throwing small green nuts. the host secures the spirit rack which the medium had hidden, and with it attempts to ward off the missiles. despite this show of hostility, the company proceeds to the _sogayob_, where the man and his wife wash their faces in water containing pieces of coconut leaves. during all the morning a number of women have been preparing food, and this is now served to the guests, a considerable company of whom have collected. late in the afternoon, all the spirits are remembered in a great offering of food. a framework is constructed in the yard, [ ] and on it are placed eggs, meat, fish, rice cakes, sugar, betel-nut, tobacco, _basi_, and rice mixed with blood. after allowing the superior beings a few moments to finish their repast, the viands are removed, and from then until sunset all the guests dance _tadek_. as darkness comes, a great fire is lighted in the yard, and within the circle of its light the company gathers, while the more important men sing _daleng_. in some of the villages men gather the next morning to do any necessary work on the _balaua_, and then the mediums celebrate the _dawak_, [ ] which always forms a part of this ceremony. in manabo the _dawak_ follows after an interval of three days. this great and final event is so much like the procedure which makes up the _tangpap_ ceremony that it seems necessary to give it only in skeleton form, adding explanations whenever they appear to be necessary. in the _balaua_ is spread a mat covered with gifts for the spirits who are expected. here also is the spirit shield from the dwelling, and a great heap of refuse made up of the leaves, vines and other articles used in the preceding days. when all is ready, a medium seats herself by the mat, dips oil from a shallow dish with a small head-axe, and lets it drip onto the ground; then she does the same with _basi_, and finally strokes a rooster which lies beside the jar, all the while reciting the proper _diam_. taking the spirit shield, which belongs in the dwelling, she puts oil at each corner, and then touches the heads of all the family with it. beads and betel-leaf are added, and the shield is carried to the house, where it is again fastened to the wall, as a testimony to all passing spirits that the ceremony has been made, and food provided for them. the time has now arrived for the spirits to appear. seating herself beside the mat, the medium strikes on a plate with her shells or a piece of lead, and then starts her song. she rubs her hands together with a revolving motion, swings her arms, and begins to tremble from head to foot. suddenly she is possessed by a spirit, and under his direction holds oil to the nostrils of the host, and beats him with a small whip of braided betel-leaf. this done, she drinks for the spirit, and it departs. again she sings, and again she is possessed. one spirit takes the rooster, and with its wings cleans up the rubbish in the _balaua_ and in the yard, empties it in a tray, and orders it taken from the village. in the same way all sickness and misfortune will be removed from the settlement. several spirits follow, and as the morning wears on, the medium becomes more and more intense. the muscles of her neck and the veins of her forehead stand out like cords, while perspiration streams from her bod. taking a shield and head-axe in her hand, she does a sort of muscle dance, then goes to each member of the family, and strikes the weapons together over their heads; from them she goes to the doors and windows, and strikes at them with the axe. finally she returns to the mat, balances a cup of _basi_ on the weapon, and causes the host to drink. another attack on the doors follows, and then in exhaustion she sinks beside the mat. after a short rest, she dips beads in oil, and with them touches the heads of the family. the musicians strike up a lively tattoo at this point, and again seizing her weapons, the medium dances in front of the spirit shield. going to the rooster on the mat, she cuts off a part of its comb, and presses the bloody fowl against the back or leg of each person in the room. the spirit drinks and disappears. the next visitor dances with the host, and then wrestles with him, but upon getting the worst of the match takes leave. as in the _tangpap_, large number of minor beings call for a moment or two and pass on. one spirit places the family beneath a blanket, cuts a coconut in two above their heads, and first allows the water to run over them; then finally the halves are allowed to drop. she waves burning rice-straw above them, and removes the blanket. it is explained that the water washes all evil away, and that as the shells fall from the family, so will sickness leave them. evil spirits are afraid of the fire, and leave when the burning rice-straw is waved about the blanket. as a final act the members of the family are instructed to hold, in their hands the head-axe, chicken feathers, agate beads, and other articles, and then to mount the rice-mortar in the yard. soon one or more of the mediums is possessed by spirits, who rush toward the mortar, and strive to seize the prized objects. before they can accomplish their design, they are met by old men and women, who fight them off. at last they abandon the attempt and, together with the host and his wife, go to the edge of the town, where they pick sweet smelling leaves and vines. these they carry back to the village to give to the guests, and to place in the house and spirit dwellings. as a final act _basi_ is served to all, and _tadek_ is danced until the guests are ready to return to their homes. in san juan they make the spirit raft--_taltalabong_--as in _tangpap_, and set it afloat at sunset. the mediums are paid off in rice, a portion of the slaughtered animals, beads, one or two blankets, and perhaps a weapon or piece of money. during the succeeding month the family is prevented from doing any work, from approaching a dead body, or entering the house of death. wild carabao, pig, beef, eels, and wild peppers may not be eaten during this period, and wild chickens are taboo for one year. section special ceremonies the two ceremonies which follow do not have a wide distribution, neither are they hereditary. they are given at this time because of their similarity to the great ceremonies just described. _pinasal_.--this rather elaborate rite seems to be confined to san juan and nearby settlements. the right to it is not hereditary, and any one who can afford the expense involved may celebrate it. however, it usually follows the _sayang_, if some member of the family is ill, and is not benefited by that ceremony, for "all the spirits are not present at each ceremony, and so it may be necessary to give others, until the one who caused the sickness is found." on the first day the house is decorated as in _tangpap_ and _sayang;_ a bound pig is placed beside the door, and over it the mediums recite a _diam_ and later summon several spirits. liquor is served to the guests, who dance _tadek_ or sing songs in praise of the family. early the next day, the pig is killed and, after its intestines have been removed, it is covered with a colored blanket, and is carried into the dwelling. here it is met by the mediums who wave rain coats above the animal, and then wail over the carcass. "the pig and its covering are in part payment for the life of the sick person. they cry for the pig, so they will not need to cry for the patient." later the pig is cut up and prepared as food, only the head and feet being left for the spirits. _gipas_, the dividing, follows. a chinese jar is placed on its side, and on each end a spear is laid, so that they nearly meet above the center of the jar. next a rolled mat is laid on the spears, and finally four beads and a headband are added. the mat then is cut through the middle, so as to leave equal parts of the headband and two beads on each half. "this shows that the spirit is now paid, and is separated from the house." the next act is to stretch a rattan cord across the center of the room and to place on it many blankets and skirts. a man and a woman, who represent the good spirits iwaginán and gimbagon, are dressed in fine garments, and hold in their hands pieces of gold, a fine spear, and other prized articles. they are placed on one side of the cord, and in front of them stand a number of men with their hands on each others' shoulders. now the mediums enter the other end of the room, spread a mat, and begin to summon the spirits. soon they are possessed by evil beings who notice the couple representing the good spirits, and seizing sticks or other objects, rush toward them endeavoring to seize their wealth. when they reach the line of men, they strive to break through, but to no avail. finally they give this up, but now attempt to seize the objects hanging on the line. again they are thwarted. "if the evil spirits get these things, they will come often, their children will marry, and they also will harm the family; but if the good beings keep their wealth, their children will marry, and will aid the owner of the house." later one of the mediums and an old woman count the colors in a fine blanket. usually there are five colors, so "the spirit is powerless to injure the people for five years." next the couple gamble, but the medium always loses. finally the spirit becomes discouraged and departs. the decorations are now taken from the room, and the sick person is carried down to the river by the members of the family. arrived at the water's edge, the oldest relative will cut off a dog's head as final payment for the life of the invalid. since the act is carried on beside the river, the spirits will either witness the act, or see the blood as it floats away, and hence will not need to visit the town. the rattan cord and vines used in the dwelling are thrown onto the water for the same reason. the whole family is covered with a large blanket, and a medium swings a coconut over them, then resting the halves on the head of each one for a moment, she releases them, meanwhile calling to the spirit, "you see this; this is your share; do not come any more." after assuring them that the sickness will now fall away from them, she waves burning _cogon_ grass over their heads while she cries, "go away, sickness." the blanket is removed, and the family bathes. while they are still in the water, the medium takes a spear and shield in her hands, and going to the edge of the stream, she begins to summon spirits, but all the while she keeps sharp watch of the old man who killed the dog, for he is now armed and appears to be her enemy. however, she is not molested until she starts toward the village. when quite near to the settlement, she is suddenly attacked by many people carrying banana stalks which they hurl at her. she succeeds in warding these off, but while she is thus engaged, an old man runs in and touches her with a spear. immediately she falls as if dead, and it is several moments before she again regains consciousness. this attack is made to show the spirit how unwelcome it is, and in hopes that such bad treatment will induce it to stay away. after the return of the family to the village, the guests drink _basi_, sing and dance, and usually several spirits are summoned by the mediums. the next morning two _pinalásang_ [ ] are constructed in the yard. each supports a plate containing beads, a string of beads is suspended from one of the poles, and a jar of _basi_ is placed beneath. in front of them the mediums call the spirits, then offer the heart, livers, and intestines, while they call out, "take me and do not injure the people." the final act of the ceremony is to construct the spirit raft _taltalabong_, load it with food, and set it afloat on the river, "so that all the spirits may see and know what has been done." in addition to the regular pay for their services, the mediums divide the jaw of a pig and carry the portions home with them, as their protection against lightning, and the spirits whose hostility they may have incurred. _binikwau_.--this ceremony, like the one just described, seems to be limited to the san juan region, and is given under similar circumstances. the room is decorated as usual, and a bound pig is laid in the center. this is known as "the exchange," since it is given in place of the patient's life. two mediums place betel-nut on the animal, then stroke it with oil, saying, "you make the liver favorable," i.e., give a good omen. after a time they begin summoning the spirits, and from then until late evening the guests divide their time between the mediums and the liquor jars. soon all are in a jovial mood, and before long are singing the praises of their hosts, or are greeting visiting spirits as old time friends. the pig is killed early next morning, and its liver is eagerly examined to learn whether or no the patient is destined to recover. a part of the flesh is placed on the house rafters, for the use of the spirits, while the balance is cooked and served. following the meal, the gongs and drums are brought up into the house, and the people dance or sing until the mediums appear, ready to summon the spirits. the first to come is sabían, the guardian of the dogs. he demands that eight plates and a coconut shell be filled with blood and rice; another shell is to be filled with uncooked rice, in which a silver coin is hidden; and finally a bamboo dog-trough must be provided. when his demands are met, he begins to call, "come, my dogs, come and eat." later the blood and rice are placed in the trough, and are carried to the edge of the town, where they are left. this done, the spirit pierces the pig's liver with a spear and, placing it on a shield, dances about the room. finally, stopping beside the mat, he lays them on the patient's stomach. the next and final act is to scrape up a little of the liver with a small head-axe, and to place this, mixed with oil, on the sick person. on the third and last day, the medium leads a big dog to the edge of the village, and then kills it with a club. a piece of the animal's ear is cut off, is wrapped in a cloth, and is hung around the patient's neck as a protection against evil, and as a sign to all spirits that this ceremony has been held. throughout the rest of the day many spirits visit the mediums, and at such a time kakalonan is sure to appear to give friendly advice. the final act is to set the spirit raft afloat on the stream. chapter vi social organization. government. the village the village is the social unit within which there are no clans, no political, or other divisions. the tinguian are familiar with the igorot town, made up of several _ato_ [ ] but there is no indication that they have ever had such an institution. the head of the village is known as _lakay_. he is usually a man past middle age whose wealth and superior knowledge have given him the confidence of his people. he is chosen by the older men of the village, and holds his position for life unless he is removed for cause. it is possible that, at his death, his son may succeed him, but this is by no means certain. the _lakay_ is supposed to be well versed in the customs of the ancestors, and all matters of dispute or questions of policy are brought to him. if the case is one of special importance he will summon the other old men, who will deliberate and decide the question at issue. they have no means of enforcing their decisions other than the force of public opinion, but since an offender is ostracised, until he has met the conditions imposed by the elders, their authority is actually very great. should a _lakay_ deal unjustly with the people, or attempt to alter long established customs, he would be removed from office and another be selected in his stead. no salary or fees are connected with this office, the holder receiving his reward solely through the esteem in which he is held by his people. in former times two or three villages would occasionally unite to form a loose union, the better to resist a powerful enemy, but with the coming of more peaceful times such beginnings of confederacies have vanished. during the spanish regime attempts were made to organize the pagan communities and to give titles to their officers, but these efforts met with little success. under american rule local self government, accompanied by several elective offices, has been established in many towns. the contest for office and government recognition of the officials is tending to break down the old system and to concentrate the power in the _presidente_ or mayor. it is probable that the early tinguian settlement consisted of one or more closely related groups. even to-day the family ties are so strong that it was found possible, in compiling the genealogical tables, to trace back the family history five or six generations. these families are not distinguished by any totems, guardian spirits, or stories of supernatural origin, but the right to conduct the more important ceremonies is hereditary. descent is traced through both the male and female lines, and inheritance is likewise through both sexes. there are no distinguishing terms for relations on the father's or mother's side, nor are there other traces of matriarchal institutions. families of means attain a social standing above that of their less fortunate townsmen, but there is no sharp stratification of the community into noble and serf, such as was coming into vogue along many parts of the coast at the time of the spanish conquest, neither has slavery ever gained a foothold with this people. the wealthy often loan rice to the poor, and exact usury of about fifty per cent. payment is made in service during the period of planting and harvesting, so that the labor problem is, to a large extent, solved for the land-holders. however, they customarily join the workers in the fields and take their share in all kinds of labor. the concubines, known as _pota_ (cf. p. ), are deprived of certain rights, and they are held somewhat in contempt by the other women, but they are in no sense slaves. they may possess property, and their children may become leaders in tinguian society. the only group which is sharply separated from the mass is composed of the mediums, and they are distinctive only during the ceremonial periods. at other times they are treated in all respects as other members of the community. on three occasions the writer has found men dressing like women, doing women's work, and spending their time with members of that sex. information concerning these individuals has always come by accident, the people seeming to be exceedingly reticent to talk about them. in plate xxxvi is shown a man in woman's dress, who has become an expert potter. the explanation given for the disavowal of his sex is that he donned women's clothes during the spanish regime to escape road work, and has since then retained their garb. equally unsatisfactory and unlikely reasons were advanced for the other cases mentioned. it should be noted that similar individuals have been described from zambales, panay, from the subanun of mindanao, and from borneo. [ ] it has been suggested, with considerable probability, that at least a part of these are hermaphrodites, but in borneo, where they act as priests, _roth_ states that they are unsexed before assuming their roles. _laws_.--law, government, and custom are synonymous. whatever the ancestors did is right, and hence has religious sanction. the _lakay_ and his advisors will give their decisions according to the decrees of the past, if that is possible, but when precedent is lacking, they will deliberate and decide on a course. the following may be taken as typical of the laws or customs which regulate the actions of the people, within a group, toward one another. _rules governing the family._--a man may have only one wife, but he may keep concubines. if the wife's relatives suspect that a mistress is causing the husband's affections to wane, they may hold the _nagkakalonan_ or "trial of affection" (cf. p. ), and if their charges are sustained, the husband must pay them a considerable amount, and, in addition, stand all the expenses of the gathering. if it is shown that they are not justified in their suspicions, the expense falls on the accusers. the wife may bring a charge of cruelty or laziness against her husband, and if it is substantiated, he will be compelled to complete the marriage agreement and give the woman her freedom. unfaithfulness on the part of a wife, or a betrothed girl, justifies the aggrieved in killing one or both of the offenders. he may, however, be satisfied by having the marriage gift returned to him, together with a fine and a decree of divorce. a man who has a child by an unmarried woman, not a _pota_, must give the girl's people about one hundred pesos, and must support the infant. later the child comes into his keeping, and is recognized as an heir to his estate. marriage is prohibited between cousins, between a man and his adopted sister, his sister-in-law, or mother-in-law. union with a second cousin is also tabooed. it is said that offenders would be cut off from the village; no one would associate with them, and their children would be disinherited. a widow may remarry after the _layog_ ceremony (cf. p. ), but all the property of her first husband goes to his children. if a wife has neglected her husband during his final illness, she may be compelled to remain under two blankets, while the body is in the house (cf. p. ), unless she pays a fine of ten or fifteen pesos to his family. children must care for and support infirm parents. should there be no children, this duty falls upon the nearest relative. _inheritance_.--although a price is paid for the bride, the tinguian woman is in no sense a slave. she may inherit property from her parents, hold it through life, and pass it on to her children. following the death of a man, enough is taken from his estate to pay up any part of the marriage agreement which may still be due, and the balance is divided among his children. if there are no children, it is probable that his personal possessions will go to his father or mother, if they are still living; otherwise, to his brothers and sisters. however, the old men in council may decide that the wife is entitled to a share. should she remarry and bear children to her second husband, she cannot give any part of this property to them, but upon her death it goes to the offspring of the first marriage, or reverts to the relatives. land is divided about equally between boys and girls, but the boys receive the major part of the animals, and the girls their mother's beads. oftentimes the old men will give the oldest child the largest share, "since he has helped his parents longest." whatever the husband and wife have accumulated in common during their married life is divided, and the man's portion is disposed of, as just indicated. illegitimate children and those of a _pota_ receive a share of their father's property, but not in the same proportion as the children of the wife. no part of the estate goes to a concubine unless, in the judgment of the old men, it is necessary to provide for her, because of sickness or infirmity. _transfer and sharing of property._--land and houses are seldom transferred, except at the death of the owner, but should a sale or trade be desired, the parties to the contract will make the bargain before the _lakay_ and old men, who thus become witnesses. a feast is given at such a time, and is paid for by either the seller or the buyer. the sale or barter of carabao, horses, valuable jars, and beads may be witnessed in this manner, but the transfer of personal property is purely a matter between the parties concerned. if a man works the property of another, he furnishes the seed and labor, and the crop is divided. if an owner places his animals in the care of another, the first of the increase goes to him, the second to the caretaker. should an animal die, the caretaker must skin it, and give the hide to the owner, after which he is freed from responsibility, but he is liable for the loss, theft, or injury to his charges. _murder and theft._--the relatives of a murdered man may kill his assailant without fear of punishment, but, if they are willing, the guilty party may settle with them by paying in chinese jars, carabao, or money. the usual payment varies from fifty to one hundred pesos. a thief is compelled to make restitution, and is also subject to a small fine. the practice of evil magic, and the breaking of a taboo, are considered serious crimes, but as they have been treated under religion and magic, they will not be repeated here. _lying, cheating, breaches of etiquette._--falling outside the realm of law are those things which may be considered right and wrong, but the infraction of which carries with it no penalty. lying, for instance, is not bad, if it is done to protect yourself or a friend, but falsifying without purpose is mean and to be despised. cheating is not wrong. your ability to outwit the other person is proof that you are the smarter man. it is bad manners for a man to sit with his legs far apart or to expose all of his clout, or for a woman to sit on the floor with one leg drawn up. a person should not walk about while others are singing or dancing. basi should never be drunk, until it has been offered to every one present, especially the elders. before eating, a person should invite all in the room to join him, even though he does not expect them to accept. a visitor should never eat with the wife of another during his absence. always call before entering a house. never enter a dwelling, when the owner is away, and has removed the ladder from the door. never enter a village dirty; stop and bathe at the spring before going up. only dogs enter the houses without bathing. _the village_ (plate xxxviii).--a village generally consists of two or three settlements, situated near together, and under the authority of a single _lakay_ or headman. there is no plan or set arrangement for the dwellings or other structures, but, as a rule, the house, spirit structure, and perhaps corrals are clustered closely together, while at the edge of the settlement are the rice granaries and garden plots. formerly a double bamboo stockade surrounded each settlement, but in recent years these have disappeared, and at the time of our visit only one town, abang, was so protected. the dwellings vary in size and shape. they conform in general to two types. the first and most common is a single room with a door at one end opening off from an uncovered porch (plate xxxix). the second consists of three rooms, or rather two rooms, between which is a porch or entry way, all under one roof. there is seldom an outer door to this entry way, but each room has its own door, and oftentimes windows opening on to it, so that one has the feeling that we have here two houses joined by the covered porch. in such buildings this entry way is a convenient place for hanging nets or for drying tobacco. in one room is the hearth, the water pots, and dishes, while the other is the family sleeping-room. the construction of the dwelling is shown in plates xl-xli. a number of heavy hard-wood posts are sunk deeply into the ground and project upward or more feet. at a height of or feet above the ground, crossbeams are lashed or pegged to form the floor supports, while at the tops are other beams on which the roof rests. plate xl shows the skeleton of this roof so plainly that further description is unnecessary. this framework, generally constructed on the ground, is raised on to the upright timbers, and is lashed in place. a closely woven mat of bamboo strips, or of bamboo beaten flat, covers each side of the roof, and on this the thatch is laid. bundles of _cogon_ grass are spread clear across the roof, a strip of bamboo is laid at the upper ends, and is lashed to the mat below. a second row of thatch overlaps the top of the first, and thus a waterproof covering is provided. another type of roofing is made by splitting long bamboo poles, removing the sectional divisions and then lashing them to the framework. the first set is placed with the concave sides up, and runs from the ridge pole to a point a few inches below the framework, so as to overhang it somewhat. a second series of halved bamboos is laid convex side up, the edges resting in the concavity of those below, thus making an arrangement similar to a tiled roof. for the side walls this tiled type of construction is commonly used (plate lxxviii). a coarse bamboo mat is likewise employed, while a crude interweaving of bamboo strips is by no means uncommon. such a wall affords little protection against a driving rain or wind, but the others are quite effective. well-to-do families often have the side walls and floors of their houses made of hard-wood boards. since planks are, or have been until recently, cut out with knives, head-axes, or adzes, much time and wealth is consumed in constructing such a dwelling. when completed, it is less well adapted to the needs of the people than the structures just described, but its possession is a source of gratification to the owner, and aids in establishing him as a man of affairs in his town. the floor is made of poles tied to the side-beams, and on these strips of bamboo are laid so as to leave small cracks between them. this assists in the house-cleaning, as all dirt and refuse is swept through the openings on to the ground. when the floor is made of wood, it is customary to leave one corner to be finished off in the bamboo slits, and it is here that the mother gives birth to her children. this is not compulsory, but it is custom, and indicates clearly that the planked floor is a recent introduction. entrance to the dwelling is by means of a bamboo ladder which is raised at night, or when the family is away. windows are merely square holes over which a bamboo mat is fitted at night, but the door is a bamboo-covered framework which turns in wooden sockets. such a house offers no barriers to mosquitoes, flies, flying roaches, or white ants, while rats, scorpions, and centipedes find friendly shelter in the thatch roof. quite commonly large but harmless snakes are encouraged to take up their residence in the cook room, as their presence induces the rats to move elsewhere. little house lizards are always present, and not infrequently a large lizard makes its home on the ridge pole, and from time to time gives its weird cry. the ground beneath the house is often enclosed with bamboo slats, and is used for storage purposes, or a portion may be used as a chicken coop. it is also customary to bury the dead beneath the dwelling, and above the grave are the boxes in which are placed supplies for the spirits of the deceased. with some modification this description of the tinguian house and village would apply to those of the western kalinga and the apayao, [ ] and likewise the christian natives of the coast, but a very different type of dwelling and grouping is found among the neighboring igorot. [ ] it is also to be noted that we do not find to-day any trace of tree dwellings, such as were described by _la gironière_ [ ] at the time of his visit scarcely a century ago. elevated watch-houses are placed near to the mountain fields, and it is possible that in times of great danger people might have had similar places of refuge in or near to their villages, but the old men emphatically deny that they were ever tree-dwellers, and there is nothing in the folk-tales to justify such a belief; on the contrary, the tales-indicate that the type of dwelling found to-day, was that of former times. [ ] _house furnishings_.--the average house has only one room. inside the door, at the left, one usually finds the stove, three stones sunk in a box of ashes or dirt, or a similar device of clay (fig , no. ). above the fire is suspended a hanger on which are placed dishes and food, in order that they may not be disturbed by insects. along the wall stands a small caldron, jars for water and rice, and the large chinese jars, tke latter as a general rule heirlooms or marriage gifts. these are sometimes used for _basi_, but more often they contain broken rice, cotton, or small articles. above the jars is a rack or hangar on which dishes or coconut shells are placed. at one end of the room a set of pegs, deer horns, or a cord supports a variety of clothes, blankets, a woman's switch, and perhaps a man's belt. the sleeping-mats either hang here or occupy a rack of their own. below the cord stand chests secured in early years through trade with the chinese. in these are the family treasures, valuable beads, coins, blankets, ceremonial objects, and the like. piled on the boxes is a variety of pillows, for no tinguian house is complete without a number of these (plate lxvi). the other house furnishings, consisting of a spinning wheel, loom, coconut rasp, and clothes beater (fig. , no. ) find space along the other wall. behind the door, except in the valley towns, stand the man's spear and shield; above or near the door will be the spirit offering in the form of a small hanger or a miniature shield fastened against the wall. the center of the floor affords a place for working, eating, and sleeping. if there are small children in the family a cradle or jumper will be found suspended from a beam or a bamboo pole placed across one corner of the room (cf. p. ). the type of jars made by the tinguian is shown in fig. , no. , while those of foreign introduction have been fully described in a previous publication. [ ] the native jars are used both for cooking and as water containers. with them will be found pot rings and lifters. the first is a simple ring of plaited bamboo, which fits on the head or sets on the floor, and forms a support for the rounded bottom of the jar. the second (figure , no. ) consists of a large rattan loop, which is placed over the neck of the jar. the hands are drawn apart, and the weight closes the loop, causing it to grip the jar. long bamboo tubes with sections removed are used as water containers, while smaller sections often serve as cups or dippers. gourds are also used in this manner (fig. , nos. - ). food is removed from the jars with spoons and ladles (fig. ) made of wood or coconut shells, but they are never put to the mouth. meat is cut up into small pieces, and is served in its own juice. the diner takes a little cooked rice in his fingers, and with this dips or scoops the meat and broth into his mouth. greens are eaten in the same manner. halved coconut shells serve both as cups and as dishes (fig. , no. ). wooden dishes are likewise used, but they are employed chiefly in ceremonies for the feeding of the spirits or to hold the rice from which a bride and groom receive the augury of the future (fig. , nos. - ). baskets, varying considerably in material, size and type, are much used, and are often scattered about the dwelling or, as in the case of the men's carrying baskets, are hung on pegs set into the walls. somewhere about the house will be found a coconut rasp (fig. , no. ). when this is used, the operator kneels on the wooden standard, and draws the half coconut toward her over the teeth of the blade. the inside of the shell is thus cleaned and prepared for use as an eating or drinking dish. torches or bamboo lamps formerly supplied the dwellings with light. lamps consisting of a section of bamboo filled with oil and fitted with a cord wick are still in use, but for the most part they have been superseded by tin lamps of chinese manufacture. oil for them is extracted from crushed seeds of the _tau-tau_ (_jatropha grandulifera_ roxb.) a very necessary article of house furnishing is the fire-making device. in many instances, the housewife will go to a neighboring dwelling and borrow a light rather than go to the trouble of building a fire, but if that is not convenient, a light may be secured by one or two methods. the first is by flint and steel, a method which is probably of comparatively recent introduction. the second and older is one which the tinguian shares with all the neighboring tribes. two notches are cut through a section of bamboo, and tree cotton is placed below them. a second section of bamboo is cut to a sharp edge, and this is rubbed rapidly back and forth in the notches until the friction produces a spark, which when caught on tinder can be blown into a flame. [ ] at the door of the house will be found a foot wiper (fig. , no. ) made of rice-straw drawn through an opening cut in a stick, or it may consist of coconut husks fastened together to make a crude mat, while near by is the broom made of rice-straw or grass. rice-mortars, pestles, and similar objects are found beneath the dwellings. _the village spring_.--each village is situated near to a spring or on the banks of a stream. in the latter case deep holes are dug in the sands, and the water that seeps in is used for household purposes. in the morning, a number of women and girls gather at the springs, carrying with them the plates and dishes used in the meals, also garments which need to be laundered. the pots and dishes are thoroughly scoured with sand and water, applied with a bundle of rice-straw or grass. the garments to be washed are laid in the water, generally in a little pool near to the main spring or beside the stream. ashes from rice-straw are then mixed with water and, after being strained through a bunch of grass, are applied to the cloth in place of soap. after being thoroughly soaked, the cloth is laid on a clean stone, and is beaten with a stick or wooden paddle. the garment is again rinsed, and later is hung up on the fence near the dwelling to dry. before returning to her home, the woman fills her pots with water, and then takes her bath in a pool below the main spring (plate xlii). all garments are removed except the girdle and clout, and then water, dipped up in a coconut shell, is poured on to the face, shoulders, and body. in some cases sand is applied to the body, and is rubbed in with the hand or a stone; rinsing water is applied and the garments are put back on without drying the body. every one, men, women, and children, takes a daily bath, and visitors will always stop to bathe at the spring or river before entering a village. promiscuous bathing is common, and is accepted as a matter of course, but there is no indication of embarrassment or self-consciousness. when she returns to the village, the woman will often be seen carrying one or two jars of water on her head, her washing under her arm, while a child sets astride her hip or lies against her back (plate xliii). chapter vii warfare, hunting, and fishing head-hunting and warfare are practically synonymous. to-day both are suffering a rapid decline, and a head is seldom taken in the valley of the abra. in the mountain district old feuds are still maintained, and sometimes lead to a killing, and here too the ancient funerary rites are still carried out in their entirety on rare occasions. however, this peaceful condition is not of long standing. in every village the older men tell with pride of their youthful exploits, of the raids they indulged in, the heads they captured; and they are still held in high esteem as men "who fought in the villages of their enemies." during the time of our stay in abra, the villages of the buklok valley were on bad terms with the people of the neighboring ikmin valley, and were openly hostile to the igorot on the eastern side of the mountain range. manabo and abang were likewise hostile to their igorot neighbors, and the latter village was surrounded with a double bamboo stockade, to guard against a surprise attack. manabo at this time anticipated trouble with the warriors of balatok and besao, as a result of their having killed six men from those towns. the victims had ostensibly come down to the abra river to fish, but, judging by previous experience, the tinguian believed them to be in search of heads, and acted accordingly. this feud is of old standing and appears to have grown out of a dispute over the hunting grounds on mt. posoey, the great peak which rises only a few miles from manabo. there have been many clashes between the rival hunters, the most serious of which occurred in , when the tinguian had twenty-nine of their number killed, and lost twenty-five heads to the igorot of besao. the people of agsimo and balantai suffered defeat in a raid carried on against dagara in , and at the time of our visit a number of the warriors still bore open wounds received in that fight. in the same year at least three unsuccessful attacks, probably by lone warriors, were made against individuals of lagangilang, likuan, and lakub. accounts of earlier travelers offer undoubted proof that head-hunting was rampant a generation ago; while the folk-tales feature the taking of heads as one of the most important events in tinguian life. the first incentive for head-taking is in connection with funeral rites. according to ancient custom it was necessary, following the death of an adult, for the men of the village to go out on a headhunt, and until they had done so, the relatives of the deceased were barred from wearing good clothing, from taking part in any pastimes or festivals, and their food was of the poorest and meanest quality. to remove this ban, the warriors would don white head-bands, arm themselves, and sally forth either to attack a hostile village or to ambush an unsuspecting foe. neighboring villages were, out of necessity, usually on good terms, but friendly relations seldom extended beyond the second or third settlement, a distance of ten or fifteen miles. beyond these limits most of the people were considered enemies and subject to attack. while such a raid was both justifiable and necessary to the village in which a death had occurred, it was considered an unprovoked attack by the raided settlement; a challenge and an insult which had to be avenged. thus feuds were established, some of which ran through many years, and resulted in considerable loss of life. a town, which had lost to another a greater number of heads than they had secured, was in honor bound to even the score, and thus another cause for battle was furnished. the man who actually succeeded in taking a head was received with great acclaim upon his return to the village; he was the hero in the festival which followed, and thereafter was held in high esteem, and so another motive was furnished. [ ] there is an indication in the _saloko_ ceremony that heads may have been taken to cure headache and similar ills (cf. p. ); while the presence of the head-basket, of the same name, in the fields suggests a possible connection between head-hunting and the rice culture, such as still exists among the neighboring kalinga. [ ] the tinguian do not now, and apparently never have practised human sacrifice, but this custom and head-hunting seem to be closely related, and to have as a primary cause the desire to furnish slaves or companions for the dead. this idea was found among the ancient tagalog, visayan, and zambal, and still exists among the apayao of northern luzon; the bagobo, mandaya, bila-an, and tagakaola of mindanao; as well as in borneo and the islands to the south. [ ] that it once had a strong hold on the ilocano of the coast is made evident by the mysterious cult known as _axibrong_, which at times terrifies whole communities. in the region about bangui, in ilocos norte, was greatly excited over several attempts to kill people of that settlement, and it was whispered that when a leading man, who had recently died, was placed in his coffin, his right hand had suddenly raised up with four fingers extended. this, it was said, was a demand on the part of the dead for four companions, and the subsequent attacks on the villagers were thought to be due to the activities of the bereaved family in complying with the wishes of the deceased. the raids following a death were usually carried out as a village affair, and many warriors participated, but it seems that by far the greater number of heads were secured by individuals or couples, who would lie in ambush near to the trails, or to the places, where the women had to pass in carrying water from the streams to the village. while the tinguian always chose to attack from ambush, yet he did not hesitate to fight in the open when occasion demanded it. for a distance of fifteen or twenty feet he depended on his spear, but for close quarters he relied on his shield and head-axe. an examination of plate xliv will show that the shield has three prongs at the top. these the warrior seeks to slip between the legs of his enemy to trip him up, then one stroke downward with the axe, and the opponent is put out of the fight. the two lower prongs are meant to be slipped about the neck. one more stroke of the head-axe, and the victor takes his trophy and starts for home, while the relatives of the dead man seek to secure the remains to carry them back to their village. as the loss of a head reflects on the whole party, and in a like manner its acquisition adds distinction to the victors, a hot fight usually develops over a man who is stricken down, and only ceases when the enemy is beaten off, or has been successful in getting away with the trophy. if a war party finds it necessary to make a night camp, or if they are hard pressed by the foe, they plant long, thin strips of bamboo or _palma brava_ [ ] in the grass. the ends of these are cut to sharp points, and they are so cleverly concealed that pursuers must use great care, and consequently lose much time, or they will have their legs and feet pierced with these needle-like blades. upon their return to the village, the warriors were formerly met at the gate by their relatives, who held two ladders in a shape, thus forming a pathway over which each had to climb. once inside the town, the heads were placed on a bamboo spike known as _sagang_ (cf. p. ), or in the _saloko_ (cf. p. ), and for three days were exhibited beside the gate. in the meantime messages were sent to friendly villages to invite the people to the celebration. on the morning of the last day, the heads were carried up to the center of the village, where, amid great rejoicing, the men sang the praises of the victors or examined the skulls of the victims. sometime during the morning, the men who had taken the heads split them open with their axes and removed the brains. to these they added the lobes of the ears and joints of the little fingers, and they placed the whole in the liquor which was afterwards served to the dancers. there seems to be no idea here of eating the brains of the slain as food. they are consumed solely to secure a part of their valor, an idea widespread among the tribes of mindanao. [ ] the writer does not believe that any people of the philippines indulges in cannibalism, if that term is used to signify the eating of human flesh as food. several, like the tinguian, have or still do eat a portion of the brain, the heart or liver of brave warriors, but always, it appears, with the idea of gaining the valor, or other desirable qualities of the victims. the balance of the head festival consisted in the drinking of sugar cane rum, of songs of praise by the headmen, and finally all joined in dancing _da-eng_. just before the guests were ready to depart, the skulls were broken into small bits, and the fragments were distributed to the guests so that they might taken them to their homes, and thus be reminded of the valor of the takers. [ ] this disposition of the skull agrees with that of many apayao towns, [ ] but it does not conform with the description of ancient times afforded us in the tales, [ ] nor with the practices of the kalinga and igorot people, both of whom preserve the trophy. the weapons of the warriors consists of a spear, head-axe, and shield, and the small bamboo spikes known as _soga_. they do not make use of the bow and arrow, although they have been credited as possessing them. [ ] the old men claim it has not been used in their lifetime, nor is mention made of it in the folk-tales. the only time it appears is in the crude weapons used in shooting fish in the rice-fields, and in the miniature bow and arrow, which hang above the heads of a newborn child. bolos, or long knives, are carried at the side suspended from the belt, and upon occasion may be used as weapons. however, they are generally considered as tools (fig. ). _the head-axe_, _aliwa_ or _gaman_ (see fig. ).--the axes made by the tinguian and kalinga are identical, probably due to the fact that the center of distribution, as well as the best iron work of this region, is found in balbalasang--a town of mixed tinguian and kalinga blood. the blade is long and slender with a crescent-shape cutting edge on one end, and a long projecting spine on the other. this projection is strictly utilitarian. it is driven into the ground so as to support the blade upright, when it is desired to have both hands free to draw meat or other articles over the cutting edge. it is also driven into the soil, and acts as a support when its owner is climbing steep or slippery banks. the blade fits into a long steel ferrule which, in turn, slips onto a wooden handle. the latter may be straight or plain, but commonly it has a short projection midway of its length, which serves as a finger-hold and as a hook for attachment to the belt. quite frequently the handle is decorated with thin circles or bands of brass, while ornamental designs sometimes appear on the blade. while the axe is primarily a weapon, its use is by no means confined to warfare. it is used in house and fence building, in cutting up game and forest products, and in many other ways. fig. shows three types of head-axes, the first two, the tinguian-kalinga axe; third, the igorot; fourth, the apayao. there is a noticeable difference between the slender blades of the first group and the short, thick blade of the igorot, yet they are of the same general type. the apayao weapon, on the other hand, presents a radical difference in form. despite these variations, the axes of these three tribes present an interesting problem. so far as it known, these are the only tribes in the philippines which make use of a head-axe, and it is believed that no similar weapon is found in the malayan islands. however, blades of striking resemblance do occur among the naga of assam. [ ] it is possible that the weapons of these far separated regions may hark back to a common source, from which they received their instruction in iron working. _the spear_, _pika_.--the various types of spears used by the tinguian are shown in fig. . a considerable part of these are made in the villages along the upper reaches of the buklok river and in balbalasang, but many come into abra through trade with the igorot and kalinga. they are used for hunting and fighting, and are intended both as thrusting and throwing weapons. in the lowlands the older type of spear-head is a modified leaf shape, attached to a ferrule which slips over the shaft. in the mountains, heads with two or more barbs are set into the handles, and are held in place by means of wooden wedges and by metal rings which surround the ends of the shafts. a metal end or shoe covers the butt end of the weapon, thus converting it into an excellent staff for mountain climbing. occasionally a hunting spear is fitted with a detachable head, which will pull out of the socket when an animal is struck. the shaft is attached to the point by means of a heavy line, and as this drags through the undergrowth, it becomes entangled and thus delays the flight of the game. _shields_, _kalásag_.--mention has already been made of the typical tinguian-kalinga shield (cf. p. ). while this is the common type of the region (fig. , nos. - a), others, which approach those of the bontoc igorot, are frequently used (fig. , no. ). as a rule, these come from balatok, lubuagan, guinaan and the villages along the malokbot river, all of which are strongly influenced in blood and culture by the igorot. in the latter shields we find the prongs at the top and bottom, but they are no longer of sufficient size and opening to be of practical value. the clue to their origin is probably afforded us in their use by the tinguian. across the top and bottom of each shield, near to the prongs, are two or three braided bands which appear to be ornamental, or to strengthen the weapon. their real use, however, is to hold the _soga_, the pointed bamboo sticks which are planted in the grass to delay pursuers. a half dozen or more of these are usually to be found under the braiding at the back of the shield. all shields are of very light wood, and can easily be pierced by a spear. they are intended to be used in deflecting missels rather than actually to stop them. to aid in this purpose, there is a hand grip cut into the center of the back. this is large enough to admit the first three fingers, while the thumb and little finger are left outside to tilt the shield to the proper angle. _hunting_ (plates xlv-xlvi).--hunting must be considered more in the nature of a sport than as a necessity, for, while a considerable amount of game is taken each year, it is not enough to furnish an important part of the food supply. as we have already noted, a great part of the country occupied by this tribe is devoid of forests. dense growths do occur in some valleys and ravines, and a few of the mountains, like posoey, are heavily forested, but for the most part the western slopes of the cordillera central are covered with rank _cogon_ grass. in the ravines and on the wooded slopes are deer, pig, wild carabao, and wild chickens, and during the dry season of the year it is no uncommon thing to see a considerable number of men leaving the village at daybreak with their dogs, spears, and nets. the customary method of hunting the larger animals is to stretch long nets across the runway of the game. a number of the hunters, armed with spears, conceal themselves near by, while the balance of the party take the dogs to a distance and then, spreading out fan-shape, will converge on the net, beating the brush and shouting in order to stir up the game. the dogs, sullen, half-starved brutes, take little interest in the chase until an animal is started, then they begin to bay, and the whole pack is in pursuit. as the quarry rushes into the net, the concealed hunters fall upon it and spear it to death, at the same time fighting back the hungry dogs which would quickly devour it. sometimes an animal escapes from the net, but if wounded, it is almost certain to fall a prey to the pack. many deer are taken by this method in the course of a year. sometimes a wild pig is netted, and on exceedingly rare occasions a carabao. however, the wild carabao is a dangerous animal, and hunters will not attack it unless it is so entangled in the nets that it is practically helpless. still hunting for deer, near to the feeding grounds, yields a few animals each year, and during the period when the _lumboy_ (_eugenia jambolana_ lam.) are in fruit, the hunters often hide themselves in the trees at night, and spear the pigs which come below them to feed. wild hogs are also secured by placing a close fence about a field. one or two small entrances are left open and inside of these, deep pits are dug, and are covered with brush. as the animal pushes in, it steps on the frail covering, and is hurled to the bottom of the pit, where it is easily dispatched with the spear. among the smaller game, the wild chicken is the most important. these fowls seldom fly, but seek safety by running through the underbrush. the tinguian takes advantage of this trait, and stretches nets loosely in the probable runway of the birds, and then drives them toward it in the same manner, as he does the deer. as the fowl runs full speed into the loose net, it folds about him, and he is easily taken. the most common method of securing wild roosters is by means of a series of slip nooses attached to a main cord or band (fig. ). this is set up so as to enclose a square or triangular space, and a tame rooster is put inside. the crowing of this bird attracts the attention of the wild fowl who comes in to fight. soon, in the excitement of the combat, one is caught in a noose, and the harder it pulls, the more securely it is held. at times the trap is baited with worms or grain. the snare is carried in a basket-like case, which is often fitted with a compartment for the decoy rooster. [ ] another type of chicken snare consists of a single noose, which rests on two elevated strips of bamboo. the other end of the cord is attached to a bent limb, held down by means of a small trigger, which slips under a cross strip. the game is led onto the trap by scattering grain. the weight of the bird releases the trigger, the bent twig flies up, and the noose is drawn tightly. small birds are captured in considerable numbers by the boys who, for this purpose, make use of three types of snares. the first and most common is a simple slip noose made of human or horse hair attached to a stick. several of these are driven into the ground close together, and grain is scattered between them. a second type of noose trap is shown in fig. , no. . a bamboo pole _a_ with sharpened end has a spring _b_ of the same material attached to its side. a cord from this passes through a small hole in the top of _a_, and then forms a slip noose. a small stick or trigger _c_ is forced into the hole until firm enough to keep the line held taut, and the noose is spread on it. bait is placed on the point of _a_ in such a manner that the bird has to alight on _c_ to secure it. its weight releases the trigger, and the noose is drawn tightly around its legs. another trap of this nature is illustrated by fig. , no. . here a branch is bent down and a line is attached. the trigger stick _a_ slips outside _b_, and the pressure holds the free stick _c_ in place against the crotch. bait is so placed on _d_ that a bird coming to secure it must stand inside the slip noose which is spread on _c_. the weight and movement of the victim releases the trigger, draws the line taut, and closes the noose about its legs. in the lowland villages, blowguns (_salbalana_) are used to a limited extent in hunting birds. two long strips of palm wood are grooved and fitted together. over these the intestines of a carabao are drawn, and the whole is wrapped tightly with cord and covered with beeswax. the guns vary from to feet in length, and are often excellently made, yet they are little better than toys, for the missels used are only clay balls. poison darts are unknown in this region, and the weapon is confined to the villages near to the coast. this, together with the fact that the blowgun does not appear in the lore or ceremonies, suggests that it of recent introduction (plate xlvii). locusts are considered excellent food, and when they are flying in great numbers, are taken by means of small nets. these are attached to poles, and are swung into the swarm. sometimes nearly the whole village will unite in such a hunt, the catch being stored in large bottle-shaped baskets until needed. bats and rats are not eaten, but the latter are trapped and killed because of the grain they destroy and the injury they do to the houses and their contents. the most common trap is made from a section of bamboo in one side of which a spring is inserted. a line attached to this leads to a slip noose which fits inside the tube. bait is attached to a trigger which, when disturbed, releases the spring and closes the loop around the intruder. _fishing_.--mention has already been made of the capture of fish by the children. older people likewise devote some time to fishing, but not to the extent of making it an occupation. nearly every family has a collection of traps and lines, and at times quite a number of fish and eels are secured. the common trap is shown in fig. , no. . the entrance is made of sharp bamboo splints, which converge toward a small hole opening into the trap proper. the device is then placed in the water in such a way that fish coming downstream will be diverted into the opening. the current and the natural inclination of the fish to go into a dark hiding-place causes them to force their way into the trap, and once in they cannot emerge. the water escapes through the bamboo slits, but the fish can only be released by opening the small end of the trap. many of the women carry baskets attached to the belt at the hip. the tops of these baskets have funnel-shaped openings, and are immediately available for use as traps, if a good catch is in prospect (fig. , no. ). these are usually employed for shrimps and minnows. eels are caught in long, round traps of rattan and bamboo. a frog is fastened in the far end of the tube, usually with a fish-hook. this is attached to a rattan spring, which is connected with the door of the trap. the eel enters and seizes the frog, but as it starts to back out, it releases the bent rattan, and the door is pulled shut. small hand nets, spread apart by means of sticks held in the hands, are used by women in scooping up small fish. ordinarily, it is scooped away from the body, but if a fish takes refuge under a rock, the net is placed under the opposite side, and the stone is turned over with the foot. the most effective fishing-device is a large throw net made cornucopia shape. the large net is open and weighted with many sinkers of lead. the man throws the net with a full arm sweeping motion, so that it spreads to its full extent, and all the sinkers strike the water at the same time. the splash causes all the fish inside the circle to dart inward, and as it sinks, the net settles over them. the fisherman draws in the cord attached to the small end, causing the sinkers to drag along to the bottom until directly beneath him, when their weight closes the net. it requires much skill and practice to throw this net properly, but once the art is mastered, the fisherman is very successful. blanket fishing similar to that in use by the neighboring igorot is found here. a large blanket is weighed down with stones, and is placed in the river. after one or two hours have elapsed, a number of men form a wide circle around it. often they drag between them a rope to which many corn husks are attached. as they advance toward the blanket, they turn the larger stones with their feet so that any fish hiding beneath them will be frightened away. the circle of men and corn husks causes the fish to go toward the blanket, and finally to take refuge under the stones piled upon it. when the blanket is reached, the men seize the corners and lift it out of the water on to the bank, where the stones are thrown out and the fish secured. a somewhat similar idea is found in the _lama_. quantities of leaf branches are sunk into a still pool, and are left for a few days until the fish have come to use them as a hiding-place. a number of men make a close fence of bamboo sticks about them, then go inside, throw out the branches, and catch the fish with their hands or with the nets. streams are often diverted from their course, for a time, and then returned, leaving the fish in the artificial channels stranded. a curious method of fishing was seen in the ikmin river. a hook was fastened in the end of a bamboo pole, and close to this a minnow was attached to a short line, to act as a lure. when the other fish approached the captive, the pole was jerked sharply, in an attempt to snag them. on one occasion the writer saw fifty fish taken by this method in less than an hour. short lines attached to sticks are often baited, and are set along the embankments of the flooded rice-fields. small fish spears with detachable heads are also used in the rice lands, as well as in the clear pools. the only occasion when the bow and arrow is used in this region is when the rice fields are flooded. at such times a short bow and an arrow with fork-shaped head are employed (fig. , nos. - a). a fish poison or stupifier is occasionally used. a small red berry known as _baiyatin_ is crushed, and the powder is thrown into or just above quiet pools, where fish abound. some of the fish become stupified and float on the surface, where they are quickly speared or scooped up. they are eaten without any ill effects. chapter viii economic life _rice culture_.--the most important crop raised by the tinguian is rice, and to its cultivation he devotes a considerable portion of his time. two distinct methods of growing are now found throughout the district--the mountain or upland fields, in which the rice is raised without irrigation; and the rice terraces with irrigation [ ] (plate xlviii). to prepare the first type of field, a piece of forest land is chosen if possible, or lacking this, a plot covered with second growth is selected. the purpose in using timber land is to escape the cogon grass (_imperata koenigii_), which quickly invades all open fields, and flourishes until the trees again shut out the sunlight. the trees and underbrush are cut down during the dry season, so that they may be ready for burning before the arrival of the first rains. should no timber land be available, an open piece will be selected, and after the grass is burned, the soil will be partially cleared of its stubborn roots by means of a large knife or adze-like instrument known as _pal'lek_ (fig. , no. ). after the clearing, the field is fenced in so as to protect it from deer, wild pigs, and carabao. the rudest type of protection consists of a barricade of brush, strengthened with forked sticks, in the crotches of which poles are laid. the more common method is to set bamboo tubes, at intervals, around the whole plot and to lash to them other tubes which have been split in half. a still better fence is made by cutting three holes, about a foot apart, through each upright and to insert smaller bamboo through these. when the rains begin, the men go to the fields, each with two hardwood sticks whittled to tapering rounded ends. these are driven alternately into the soil making shallow holes an inch or so in depth, into each of which the women drop several seed rice. the whole field is gone over in this way; soil is pushed into the holes with the feet, and frequently the task is finished by sowing a few handfuls of seed broadcast and distributing it by brushing back and forth with a leafy branch. [ ] in the valley districts the planting sticks are cut as needed, but in the mountains, where the upland rice is more important, strong bamboo poles fitted with hardwood points are in general use. these implements, known as _tepon_ (fig. , no. ), are invariably carefully decorated with incised designs, and are preserved from year to year. commonly, the divisions between the sections of the bamboo are knocked out and the tube used as a receptacle for the seed rice. as the mountain fields need special protection, it is customary to build near them little elevated houses in which the workers may rest, and in which the watchers can live during the time the grain must be guarded. if the plots are near to a village, such a house seldom consists of more than a rude framework of poles, which support a grass roof, and to which a bamboo floor is lashed, two or three feet above the ground; but if the fields are at a distance, these structures are provided with sides, and are raised high on strong logs. such high, well built houses are necessary, both to protect the occupants from surprise attacks of enemies, and to afford shelter against driving winds or rains. it is not an uncommon occurrence for a whole family to go to one of these isolated mountain dwellings and reside for a considerable period, particularly when the rice is approaching maturity. these upland fields produce much smaller crops than do the wet lands, and as they are quickly exhausted, it is not customary to plant them to rice for more than two seasons. at the end of this time, they may be used for _camotes_ (_convolvulus batatas_), sugar-cane, or cotton, but in the majority of cases they are allowed to lie unused for several seasons, when the grass or undergrowth is again removed and the fields replanted. the wet fields produce by far the greater part of the rice, and it is about them that most of the agricultural labors center. in the broad valleys, low embankments, of sufficient height to maintain the water at a depth of two or three inches, separate the fields. the lower plots are often of considerable length and width, some covering as much as an acre of ground, but as they begin to ascend the slopes, the walls rise higher, and the fields become narrower until they may be only a few feet in width. in the rugged mountain districts, the terraces often begin just above the flood water of the stream. at this point, a stone wall, four or five feet in height, is erected, and back of this the mountain side is cut away and filled in until it forms a step or terrace. back of this another wall is raised, and the process is repeated until at last the terraces extend for two or three hundred feet up the mountain side (plate xlix). when the field is first made, top soil, enriched with vegetable growth, is laid on the surface, often to a depth of several inches, but from this time on no fertilizer, other than the decaying straw of the previous crop, is added, although the field is used continuously for many years. water is conducted to many of the fields by means of ditches, usually by diverting the flow of some of the numerous springs or streams but in a few instances, stone dams have been thrown across the rivers and the water carried for considerable distances by flumes and ditches. the highest terraces are first inundated to the desired depth, and then openings are made in the side walls--so as to allow the lower fields to be flooded. this method of irrigation provides for the maximum use of the water, and also supplies a constant current which prevents the formation of stagnant pools. some of the fields are situated too far up the mountain side to be reached by ditches, and in such cases the growth of the rice is entirely dependent on the rainfall; however, in normal years, the precipitation is sufficient to mature the crop. at the beginning of the rainy season, some of the seed rice is sprouted in specially prepared beds in the villages. in such cases a small plot is surrounded with low dirt walls, the soil is enriched with manure, water is added, and the whole is worked until it becomes a thin mud, on which the rice is thickly sown. around this bed, a bamboo frame is erected to keep out pigs and chickens, while from time to time water is poured on the growing shoots. the more common method of sprouting, however, is to select a piece of land, which will receive the full benefit of the rainfall and to break this with a plow drawn by a carabao. when the seed beds have been planted, the people go to the fields, repair the embankments, and admit the water. the straw remaining from the previous crop is allowed to rot, for a time, and then the ground is gone over with a bamboo harrow (_pali-id_), [ ] as shown in fig. , no. , to remove weeds, branches, and the like. wherever it is possible, the soil is broken with a plow, _alado_ (plate l), but in fields to which animals cannot be taken, the ground is turned by means of sharpened sticks, or poles tipped with iron, which are driven into the soil and forced forward, thus pushing the earth above them into the water. [ ] as will be seen from the accompanying drawing (fig. , nos. - a), the plow is constructed entirely of wood except for the iron share, and conforms closely to that used in java, celebes, sumatra, burma, and annam. [ ] within a few days after the plowing, the soil is further broken by dragging it with a harrow, made by driving wooden pegs into a heavy board, or into large bamboo tubes (fig. , no. ). a worker stands on this, and is dragged about the field, leveling it, and at the same time pulling out sticks, roots, and any other matter of sufficient bulk to interfere with the planting. two types of sleds (fig. , nos. - ) are used in connection with the rice culture, as well as in general transportation. the first consists of rude wooden runners on which a bamboo flooring is laid. the second has narrow runners, which are hewn with considerable care, while sides of flattened bamboo convert the sled into an open box. the first type (_pasagad_) is used principally during the wet season for the transportation of plows, harrows, and the like, the wide runners slipping through the mud without becoming mired. the use of the latter (_kalison_) is restricted to the dry-season, when it is of particular advantage in moving the rice. wheeled vehicles are not employed in any part of the tinguian belt, although their use is now fairly common among the ilocano. it requires a month or six weeks to make ready the fields, and in the meantime the rice in the seed beds has grown to a height of twelve or fourteen inches. the shoots are then pulled up by the roots, are tied into bundles, and the tops are cut off (plate li). the bundles are distributed about the fields at convenient distances, and the workers then transplant the young rice--three or four together--in the soft ooze, using the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand for that purpose (plate lii). the preparation of the field is looked after by the men and boys, and oftentimes they aid in transplanting, but the latter is considered to be women's work, and is generally left to them. the rice is set so thickly that when a plot is planted it presents to the eye a solid mass of green. it is hard to imagine a more beautiful sight than to look down on these fields, which rise in wave above wave of brilliant green, until at last they give way to the yellower billows of _cogon_ grass which cover the mountain slopes. after the transplanting, the grain needs constant attention; at first, to keep it properly weeded and flooded; later, to protect it from animals and birds. hence many workers are always in the fields, but it is, nevertheless, the happy time for the people, and if one approaches a group of workers unawares, he will hear one or more singing the _daleng_, a song in which they compliment or chide the other workers, or relate some incident of the hunt or of village life. toward midday little groups will gather in the field shelters to partake of their lunches, to smoke, or to rest, and usually in such a gathering will be a good story-teller who amuses with fables, or tales of adventure. [ ] when the rice begins to mature, an even stricter watch must be kept, for, in addition to its other enemies, the rice birds [ ] now seek to feed on the crop and, while they are small in size, they often appear in such numbers that they work great havoc. the usual device employed in frightening both birds and animals is a bamboo pole cut into strips at the top, so that, as it is shaken, these strike together, producing a great clatter. many of these poles are planted, and then all are connected by means of rattan lines which finally lead to the little watch house. here a man or boy sits and occasionally gives the lines a sudden jerk, which sets up a clapping over the whole field (plate liii). a clever development of this device was seen by the writer in the ikmin river valley. here the stream flows swiftly and plunges headlong into pools every few yards. the rattan cord attached to the clappers is fastened to a small raft which is then set afloat in the pool. after a whirl in the eddy it is caught by the swift current, and is carried a few feet down stream, at the same time bending the clappers nearly to the ground; then as the raft enters calmer water, the tension is released, and it is thrown violently back into the pool from which it has just drifted; at the same time the clappers fly back into place with a great noise. another contrivance, used in keeping small birds from the fields, is a bird-like form cut from the bark of a banana or palm tree. many of these are suspended by lines from bamboo poles, and, as the wind blows them to and fro, they appear like giant birds hovering over the rice. a simple protection against deer is made by bending the white inner bark of bamboo into arches and planting these at intervals along possible places of entry, for it is said that these animals will not approach such a contrivance. soon after the water is turned into the fields, shells and fish begin to appear even in the higher terraces. doubtless a considerable part of these come in through the ditches, but the natives insist that most of the fish bury themselves deep in the mud at the approach of the dry season and hibernate until water again appears in the fields. [ ] these intruders are prized as food, and to secure them, short baited lines are placed along the edges of the terraces, while each woman has, attached to her belt, a small basket into which she places shells discovered during her work. the men likewise secure fish by means of hooks and lines, and also pierce them with short spears fitted with detachable points, but more commonly they shoot them with a small bow and peculiar arrows, the heads of which resemble flattened spoons cut into four or five teeth. [ ] as the grain begins to ripen, the land is allowed to dry, and when all is ready for the cutting, the people put on their best garments and go to the fields. each stalk is cut separately by means of a crescent-shaped blade (_lakom_ or _lakem_) attached to a small wooden cylinder (fig. , nos. - a). this handle is held between the thumb, first and fifth fingers, while the stalk is caught by the second and third fingers, and is pulled inward against the steel blade. [ ] many workers grasp the stalk near the head with the left hand, while the cutting blade is used with the right. both men and women may engage in cutting the rice, but as the latter are much the more dexterous workers, this task is generally assigned to them (plate liv). the grain is cut so as to leave stalks about ten inches in length; these are laid in the free hand until a bunch of considerable size has accumulated, when they are bound together with strips of bark. [ ] at the end of the day these bundles are carried to the drying yards, where they remain until the whole crop is harvested. a drying yard is a plot of ground surrounded by a bamboo fence of such a height that it is impossible for fowls and the like to gain entrance. when all the bundles are thoroughly dried, they are placed in the granary, and from that time on the handling of the rice is given over to the women. the granaries, or store-houses, of the tinguian and ilocano are identical (plate lv), but, barring the apayao, are different from any of the surrounding groups, except when their influence may have spread this peculiar type to a limited degree. it is worthy of note, however, that the granaries of some sumatran groups are of similar design and construction. such a store-house is raised high above the ground on four hard-wood poles; the framework is of bamboo, and the sides flare sharply from the floor to the grass roof. within the framework is a closely woven matting of flattened bamboo, which is nearly water-tight; but to secure still further protection from moisture, and also to allow for free circulation of air, a rack is built in such a way that the rice is kept several inches from the outside walls. just below the floor, each post supports a close-fitting pottery jar--without top or bottom--or a broad disk of wood, which effectually prevents the entrance of rodents. to thrash the grain, the woman places a bundle on a piece of carabao hide, and, as she rolls it beneath her feet, she pounds it with a long wooden pestle (_hala_) until all the kernels are beaten loose from the straw. [ ] it is then placed in a wooden mortar (_luson_) of hourglass form or with straight sides, where it is again beaten until the outside husks are loosened, and the grain is somewhat broken (plate lvi). winnowing is accomplished by tossing the contents of the mortar in shallow traps (_igau_), so that the chaff is blown away, while the grain falls back into the winnower (plate lvii). the rice is now ready for cooking; the chaff is collected, and is used as food for the pigs and dogs, while the stalks are saved to be burned, for the ashes are commonly used in lieu of soap. rice has also come to have great importance, both as a standard of value and as a medium of exchange. a single stalk is known as _sanga dawa_. when the stalks are equal in size to the leg, just above the ankle, the bundle is called _sang-abtek_. [ ] ten _sang-abtek_ equal _sanga-baal_. one hundred _sang-abtek_ make _sanga-oyon_. the measure of cleaned rice is as follows: two full hands (one coconut shell full)-- _sopa_ (ilocano _supa_; spanish / _ganta_). _sopa_-- _salop_ (spanish _ganta_ or about quarts). _salop_-- _kaban_. it is customary to pay laborers in rice; likewise the value of animals, beads, and the like are reckoned and paid in this medium. during the dry season rice is loaned, to be repaid after the harvest with interest of about fifty per cent. according to tradition, the tinguian were taught to plant and reap by a girl named dayapán. this woman, who was an invalid, was one day bathing in the stream, when the great spirit kaboniyan entered her body. he carried with him sugar-cane and unthreshed rice which he gave to the girl with explicit directions for its use. likewise he taught her the details of the _sayang_, the most important of the ceremonies. dayapán followed instructions faithfully, and after the harvest and conclusion of the ceremony, she found herself to be completely cured. after that she taught others, and soon the tinguian became prosperous farmers. [ ] in part i of this volume a reconstruction of the early life of this people was attempted from their mythology. the results seemed to indicate that the tales reflect a time before the tinguian possessed terraced rice-fields, when domestic work animals were still unknown, and the horse had not yet been introduced into the land. but it was also noted that we are not justified in considering these as recent events. at this time, with the more complete data before us, it may be well to again subject the rice culture to careful scrutiny, in the hope that it may afford some clue as to the source from which it spread into this region. it is possible that the tinguian may have brought it with them from their early home, which may be supposed to have been in southeastern asia; they may have acquired it through contact with chinese or japanese traders, or through commercial relations with the islands to the south; or again it may have developed locally in the tinguian, igorot, and ifugao territory. it should be noted at the outset that highly developed terrace cultivation is found in japan and china to the north; in parts of borneo, in the nias archipelago, in java, bali, lombok, sumatra, burma, and india proper, and it is probable that all within this broad belt developed from a single origin. when we compare the construction of igorot and tinguian terraces and the methods of irrigation, we find them quite similar, although those of the former are somewhat superior and of much greater extent. the planting of the seed rice and the breaking of the soil in the high fields are also much alike, but here the resemblances cease. in the lower fields, the tinguian employ the carabao, together with the plow and harrow; the igorot do not. the igorot fertilize their fields, the tinguian never. in harvesting, the tinguian make use of a peculiar crescent-shaped blade to cut the stalk, the igorot pull each head off separately. the tinguian and ilocano granaries are of a distinctive type radically different from the igorot, while the methods of thrashing in the two groups are entirely different. finally, the ceremonial observances of the tinguian, so far as the rice is concerned, are much more extensive and intricate than have been described for the igorot. in a like manner there are many striking differences between the methods of handling the grain by the tinguian and those found in japan and china. on the other hand, when we come to compare the rice culture of this region with the islands to the south, the similarities are very striking. the short description given by _marsden_ for sumatra [ ] would, with a few modifications, apply to the situation in abra. the use of the plow and harrow drawn by carabao is found in java and sumatra; the common reaping knife of both these islands is identical with the tinguian, although there is a slight difference in the way it is utilized; the peculiar type of granary found in abra again appears in sumatra, while the tinguian ceremonial acts associated with the cultivation and care of the rice-recall, in several instances, details of such ceremonies in java. if tinguian rice culture did come from the south, through trade or migration, in comparatively recent times we should expect to find evidences of the same culture distributed along the route by which it must have traveled. we find, however, that few terraces exist in mindanao and northern borneo; and the former, at least, are of recent introduction. [ ] there is also negative evidence that such fields were rare along the coasts at the time of the spanish invasion. in the early documents we meet with frequent statements that the people were agriculturists and raised considerable quantities of rice and vegetables in their clearings; but the writer has discovered only two instances in which mention is made of terraced fields. [ ] had extensive terraces existed on the coast, it seems certain that some notice must have been taken of them. yet in the mountains of central and northwestern luzon, in districts remote from coast influences, are found some of the most remarkable fields of this type in malaysia; terraces representing such an expenditure of labor that they argue for a long period of construction. the proof is not absolute, but, in view of the foregoing, the writer is inclined to the belief that the igorot and the tinguian brought their rice culture with them from the south, and that the latter received it from a source common to them and to the people of java and sumatra. many writers who have discussed the rice culture of the east indies are inclined to credit its introduction to indian colonists, [ ] but _campbell_ [ ] holds to the belief that it was practised centuries before the christian era and prior to the hindu invasion of java. there seems to be no dissent, however, among these writers to the belief that its introduction antedated the arrival of the european in the orient by several centuries. the fact that dry land farming, carried on with planting sticks and the like, is still found among the igorot and tinguian, and for that matter all over the philippines, cannot be advanced as an argument that the irrigated fields are of recent date, for upland fields and primitive tools are still used in java and sumatra, where, as we have just seen, the wet field culture is an old possession. _magical rites and ceremonies connected with the rice_.--the importance of rice to this people is nowhere better evidenced than in the numerous and, in some cases, elaborate rites with which its cultivation and care is attended. some of these observances appear to be purely magical, while others are associated with the consulting of omens, acts of sacrifice, propitiation, and finally of thanksgiving. all are interwoven with tribal law and custom to such an extent that neglect, on the part of the individual, amounts to a crime against the community, and hence is punished with public indignation and ostracism. when a new field is to be prepared, or a granary erected, strict watch must be kept for omens, for should the inhabitants of the spirit world be unfavorable to the project, they will indicate their feelings by sending snakes, large lizards, deer, wild hogs, or certain birds to visit the workers. should any of these appear, as the task is begun, the place is generally abandoned at once, but if doubt still exists, or it is deemed abvisable to try to persuade the spirits to reconsider, a small pig will be sacrificed. its blood, mixed with rice, is scattered about on the ground as an offering, while the medium recites a proper _diam_. [ ] after a suitable time has elapsed for the spirits to partake, the liver of the animal is removed, and is carefully examined (cf. p. ). if the omens are now favorable, the work may be resumed, but should they still be unpropitious, it is folly to proceed, for disaster is certain to follow. the next anxiety is to secure a lusty growth of plants in the seed beds, and to accomplish this, sticks known as _salogegey_, are stuck in each plot. the surface of such a stick has been pared so that shavings stand out on it in opposite directions, for such a decoration "is pleasing to the spirits;" while a piece of charcoal, placed in the notched end, compels the new leaves to turn the dark green of sturdy plants. the first seeds to be planted must always be sowed by the wife of the owner, "so that they will be fertile and yield a good crop." when a field has been constructed, or when the terraces are ready to receive the plants, a ceremony known as _dalau_, [ ] is held. the purpose of this is to secure the good will of the spirits in general, but more particularly to provide a dwelling place for the powerful being kaiba-an, who guards the crops. a medium, accompanied by the family and any others who may be interested, goes to the field carrying a large bamboo pole, _bolo_ [ ] branches, stalks of _lono [ ] bakoñ_, and _saklak_. [ ] the end of the bamboo is split open, and a _saloko_ [ ] is constructed to which are attached the other leaves and stalks. the _saloko_ is then placed on the dividing ridge of the field, and all is ready for the ceremony, unless it is considered wise to also construct a small house (_baubauwi_). if the field is near the village, the latter is generally dispensed with, but if it is distant, the house is erected so that the spirit will accept it as its dwelling, while it is guarding the crop. it is further explained that the spirit then stays in the small house or _saloko_ instead of in the rice stalks, and so they are able to grow. a female pig is presented to the medium who, after reciting a proper _diam_ above it, stabs the animal and collects its blood. this is mixed with rice, and a part is at once deposited in the _saloko_, while the balance is placed on a head-axe, and is carried about the field. when the whole plot has been traversed, this rice and blood is scattered in all directions, while the spirits are besought to come and eat. a part of the company has meanwhile been cooking the flesh of the slain animal, but before any of it is served, a skirt (_kinomayan_) is spread at the foot of the _saloko_, and on it are placed dishes of oil and of cooked rice. after the meal has been eaten, the family gathers up the skirt and dishes, to return them to the village, but the other offerings remain. rain, like all other things needed, is sent by kadaklan or kaboniyan. if it does not come as desired, or if the crop is not progressing favorably, a ceremony known as _komon_ or _ubaiya_ [ ] is held. each person of the village is assessed a _sopa_ of rice, a bundle of _palay_, or a small coin with which pigs, _basi_, and other things necessary, can be purchased. early in the morning of the appointed day, the mediums, accompanied by many people, go to the guardian stones, oil the head of each, and place a bark band around it. then having recited a proper _diam_ over a small pig, they slaughter it and scatter its blood mixed with rice among the stones. likewise they place a dish of _basi_ among them for the use of the spirits. a part of the slain animal is then cooked and eaten, after which all go back to the village. at some appointed place, rice, eggs, betel-nuts, and a large pig have been assembled, and to this spot the mediums go to conduct the rite known as _dawak_. [ ] before its conclusion a _diam_ is recited over the pig, which is then killed and prepared for food. meanwhile the chief medium beseeches the supreme being kadaklan to enter her body. he comes, and after telling the people what must be done to insure the crop, he designates some one man who must, on the following morning, celebrate _padiam_. after all the visiting spirits have been given food and drink, a small covered raft (_taltalabong_) is constructed, and in it are placed a live chick, a cooked rooster, and other articles of food. four sturdy men carry this to the river and set it afloat, while the people shout and beat on gongs to drive away evil spirits who might wish to steal the raft and its contents. the purpose of this offering is to supply food to any spirits who may be unable to attend the ceremony. early the next morning, the man who has been designated by kadaklan to perform the _padiam_ makes ready, at his own expense, a large pig and cooked rice, and carries these to the fields. he must be dressed in striped garments known as _ginalit_, must carry a headaxe, and wear on his head the cloth band of the medium, beneath which are thrust two _igam_, that is, chicken feathers notched or decorated with bits of colored thread (cf. p. ). he is accompanied by his wife, attired in a red jacket (_sinasáya_) and a skirt (_pinápa_), and by a medium who also wears the _igam_ beneath a headband of _sikag_; [ ] while the townspeople follow behind. arrived at the field, the medium squats before the bound pig, and holding a spear, betel-nuts, and oil, begins to recite a _diam_, meanwhile she strokes the animal from time to time with oiled fingers. this concluded, she stabs the pig, and having mixed its blood with rice, scatters it over the field, calling to the spirits to come and eat, and then to grant a full harvest. the people eat part of the animal while in the field, but before returning home, the head of each family receives a small strip of uncooked flesh, which he fastens above the door as a sign that the ceremony has been held. [ ] the following day, the owner and the medium return to the field and break a little soil with a spear, and the ceremony is complete, but for some days these two are barred from eating shrimp, carabao, or wild pig. the owner must also pay the medium ten bundles of rice for her assistance in insuring his own crops, as well as those of the community. should lightning strike a field or a tree in it, this ceremony is repeated, with the exception that the strips of flesh are not distributed, nor is the soil broken with a spear. [ ] in lumaba, a town strongly influenced by the igorot, the _ubaiya_ regularly precedes the rice planting, as well as the first use of a newly constructed field. while conforming, in general, to that already described, a part of the procedure is somewhat different. on the day before the ceremony, the men go to the mountains and gather _lono_ stalks, one for each house and two for the town gate. the two reeds are placed crosswise of the entrance to the village and serve as a sign of taboo, and thereafter no one may enter until they are officially removed. to do so would necessitate the repetition of the ceremony, and the offender would be obliged to provide all the things necessary for it. likewise, no one may wear a hat or prepare food during the period of taboo. the next day is known as _bignas_, and at dawn all the men arm themselves with bamboo poles. with these they beat about under the houses and throughout the town, in order to drive away any evil spirits who may be lurking about. having effectively rid the town, they force the invisible beings ahead of them to the river, where they deposit the poles. they return to the village singing and shouting, and are met at the gate by the women, who hold ladders, one on each side of the entrance, so that they meet at the top and thus form a path by which the men may enter without breaking the interdict. at the guardian stones, they pause long enough to sacrifice a pig and a rooster, and offer blood and rice to the spirits, and then they proceed to the center of the village, where they dance _tadek_ and _da-eng_ until dusk. at nightfall a pig is killed, its flesh is divided among the people, and a _lono_ stalk, after being dipped in the blood, is given to a member of each family. this is carried home, and is placed on the outside wall as a sign that the ceremony has been held. if the sun is shining the following morning, the _lakay_ will go outside the town to gather wood. upon his return the people are again free to fish and hunt, but work is forbidden until evening. should the sun fail to appear, all remain quietly in the village until the _lakay_ can remove the taboo by his wood gathering. in manabo the ceremony is a mixture of the two types just described, and is always held at the time of planting and when droughts occur. [ ] the procedure at harvest time varies considerably in different districts, but the usual custom is for a woman, from each family, to go to the fields and cut alone until she has harvested one hundred bundles. during this time she may use no salt, but a little sand is placed in her food as a substitute. no outsider may enter the dwelling during this preliminary cutting. so strictly is this rule observed that the writer has been absolutely excluded from homes where, on other occasions, he was a welcome guest. in lumaba and vicinity it is the custom to sacrifice a chicken two days before the harvest begins, and to cook its neck and intestines without salt. these are then divided into nine parts, are placed in dishes, and are carried to the spirit house in the field. at the end of the second day, the feathers of the fowl are stuck into the sides of the structure, and the spirits are entreated to grant a good harvest and health for the workers. the dishes are then returned to the village, and on the following morning the women may begin cutting. when the rice is ready to be stored, the _palpalaem_ [ ] ceremony is held in honor of the spirit of the granary. vines and shrubs [ ] are tied to each supporting post of the granary and above the door, while a bit of _sikag_ is also hidden inside a bundle of rice, which has been placed at each corner pole. near one post is a small pig with its head toward the east, and over it the medium recites a _diam_. as usual, the animal is killed, and its blood mixed with rice is offered to the spirits. a part of the flesh is wrapped in banana leaves, and a bundle is buried at the foot of each post. the skull is cooked, and after being cleaned, is hung up inside the roof. the rest of the meat is cooked, and is served with rice to the little company of friends who have gathered. each guest is also given a few stalks of the rice from the bundles at the corner posts. just before the new rice is placed in the granary, a jar of _basi_ is placed in the center of the structure, and beside it a dish filled with oil and the dung of worms. five bundles of _palay_ are piled over these, and the whole is presented to the spirit, who will now allow the rice to multiply until it is as plentiful as the dung. in buneg and nearby villages, all of which are strongly influenced by immigrants from the cagayan valley, a small clay house known as _lablabon_ or _adug_ is placed with the rice, and from time to time offerings are put in them for the spirit who multiplies the rice (plate xxix). certain restrictions always apply to the granary. it may never be opened after dark, for evil spirits are certain to enter, and the crop will vanish quickly. it can be opened only by a member of the family "whom the spirit knows;" and should another attempt to remove the grain, sickness or blindness will befall him. so rigorously is this enforced that a bride never opens her husband's granary until he has presented her with a string of beads, which she wears about her neck to identify her. it is further necessary that she receive a similar gift before she eats of his rice, otherwise she will become ill. however, this does not apply to others, even strangers being fed without this gift being made. a custom which formerly prevailed, but is now falling into disuse, was for the bride and groom to visit the family fields, where the youth cut a little grass along the dividing ridges. he then took up a bit of earth on his head-axe, and both tasted of it, "so that the ground would yield them good harvests, and they would become wealthy," _cultivated plants and trees_.--near every settlement will be found a number of small gardens, in which a variety of vegetables are grown. occasionally a considerable planting of bananas will be found, while many villages are buried beneath the shade of coconut trees, but in comparison with rice the cultivation of other crops becomes insignificant. nevertheless, a considerable amount of food stuff, as well as of plants and trees used in household industries, are planted in prepared land; while many of wild growths are utilized. the following list is doubtless incomplete, but still contains those of special value to this people. [ ] next to rice the _camote_ (_convolvulus batatas_) is the most important food product. occasionally it is raised in the gardens or rice terraces, but, as a rule, it is planted in hillside clearings from which one or two crops of rice have been removed. the tuber is cut into pieces, or runners from old plants are stuck into the ground, and the planting is complete. the vine soon becomes very sturdy, its large green leaves so carpeting the ground that it even competes successfully with the _cogon_ grass. if allowed, the plants multiply by their runners far beyond the space originally allotted to them. the tubers, which are about the size of our sweet potatoes, are dug up as needed, to replace or supplement rice in the daily menu. both roots and plants are also cooked and used as food for the pigs and dogs. _aba_ (_colocasia antiquorum_ schott) is raised, [ ] but as it requires a moist soil, and hence would occupy land adapted to rice, it is chiefly limited to the gardens. it has large fleshy roots which are used like those of the _camote_, while the leaves and young shoots are also cooked and eaten. other tubers known as _obi_ (_dioscorea sp_.), _gakad_ (_dioscorea divaricata_ blanco), _annaeg_ (_dioscorea fasciculata_), and _kamas_ (_pachyrhizus angulatus_ d.c.) are raised to a limited extent in the gardens. corn, _mais, bukel_, and red corn, _gasilan_ (_zea mays_ l.) seems to have been introduced into abra in comparatively late times, for despite the fact that it is one of the most important crops, it has neither gathered to itself ceremonial procedure, nor has it acquired a place in the folk-lore. a considerable amount is raised in the village gardens, but generally it is planted by dibbling in the high land. when ripe, the ears are broken from the stalk, the husks are turned back, and several are tied together. these bunches are then placed over horizontal poles, raised several feet from the ground (plate lviii), and after being thoroughly dried, are hung from the house rafters. the common method of grinding is to place the corn on a large stone, over which a smaller stone is rocked until a fine flour is produced (plate lix). stone disk grinders, imported from the coast, are also in use. these consist of grooved stones, the upper of which revolves on the lower. grain is fed into an opening at the top as needed. dried corn, popped in the embers of a fire, is much relished by the children. several varieties of squash, [ ] and beans, as well as peanuts (_mani_) are among the common products of the garden. the former are trained to run over a low trellis or frame to prevent injury to the blossoms from a driving rain. both blossoms and the mature vegetables are used as food. among the minor products are ginger, _laya_ (_zingiber officinale_ rosc.) and a small melon, locally known as _melod_, which is used as a sweetening. sugar cane, _onas_ (_saccharum_), is raised in considerable quantity, and is used in making an intoxicating drink known as _basi_. it is also eaten raw in place of a sweetmeat, but is never converted into sugar. nowadays the juice is extracted by passing the cane between two cylinders of wood with intermeshing teeth. motive power is furnished by a carabao attached to a long sweep. this is doubtless a recent introduction, but it has entirely superseded any older method. the cane is raised from cuttings which are set in mud-beds until ready to be transferred to the mountain-side clearings. these lands are prepared in the same manner as the upland rice fields already described. the men dig shallow holes and set each plant upright, while the women follow, filling the hole with water and then pressing earth in with fingers or toes. in addition to these food crops, considerable plantings of cotton or _kapas_ (_gossypium_ sp.) and tobacco or _tabá-o_ (_nicotiana tabacum_) are raised in the clearings. the former is planted on the hillsides, where it matures in three or four months. the plant seldom reaches a height of two feet, and the bolls are small, doubtless due to lack of care and suitable fertilization. [ ] tobacco seeds are sprouted in beds similar to those used for the rice, and the same magical device is used to insure a lusty growth. the young plants are carefully watered and shaded until they reach a height of five or six inches. they are then transplanted to hillside clearings, or to unused rice fields, where they are set out about three to a foot. this transfer generally takes place near the beginning of the dry season, so that the crop will be sure to mature without the damaging effect of water on the leaves. the plants while lusty do not attain the size of those grown in the valley regions of the interior. as soon as the leaves begin to turn a dark yellow, they are cut off and are strung on slender bamboo sticks (plate lx), which are then hung up in the house. when nearly dry, they are laid in piles, and are occasionally turned to prevent rust or mildew from forming. a small amount of indigo, _tayum_ (_indigofera tinctoria_) is raised, generally in open spots near the villages. the plants receive little or no attention, yet still attain a height of about three feet. the leaves and branches are placed in water for a few days, and are then boiled, together with a little lime, the resultant liquor being used as a dye for cotton thread. no product receives more attention in the lore of the tinguian than the climbing vine known as _lawed_ (_piper sp_.). [ ] it was formerly in universal use in connection with the chewing of betel-nut. to-day betel-nut is less common in this region, but this leaf and the areca-nut still play an important part in all ceremonies. according to tradition, it was possible in the old times to tell the fate of an absent friend by noting the condition of a _lawed_ vine planted by him prior to his departure. [ ] the vine is now trained on poles and trellises, near to many houses. among the larger cultivated plants and trees, the banana (_musa paradisiaca_), coconut (_cocos nucifera_), and bamboo (_bambusa sp_.) are the most important. at least twenty varieties of bananas are raised in abra. the fruit of some of these is scarcely larger than the forefinger, while others are quite large. the common type bears a rather small, yellow fruit locally known as _saba_. in manabo and several other villages, plantings covering three or four acres are to be found, but the usual plot is small, and is situated near to the house of the owner. suckers, which sprout from the roots of mature plants, are set out as needed, either to make new groves or to replace the old stalks, which are cut down after bearing. both bud and fruit are eaten. the latter are cut on the stem while still green, and are hung in the house to ripen, in order to protect them from bats and fruit-feeding birds. the coconut (_niog_) is not raised in groves, as in the christianized districts, but in many villages every house has two or three trees towering above it. even the interior mountain settlements, like lingey, ba-ay, and likuan, are hidden beneath these trees, thus incidentally disposing of the fable that "the coconut tree will not grow out of sight of the sea." young trees have to be protected by fences during the first two or three years of growth, or they will be uprooted by the pigs, but from that time on they require little or no care. they are not tapped for sap, as is customary in most parts of the philippines, but notches are cut in the tree trunks in order to supply foothold for the fruit gatherer. the nuts are cut off with a knife as soon as ripe, else they may fall and cause death or injury to people below. no other fruit serves the people in so many ways. the juice is relished as a drink, the meat as a food, the oil as a food and hair dressing; the shells serve as dishes and cups, or are carved into ladles, while the fibrous covering of the nut is converted into foot wipers, thread brushes, and the like. the betel-nut, _bwa_ (_areca catechu_ l.), is also found in some villages, particularly in the mountains. it is a tall, slender palm which yields the nut so prized throughout the islands for chewing. mango-treees, _mangga_ (_mangifera indica_ l.) appear here and there in valleys and on mountain sides, where the seeds have doubtless been carried by birds or travelers, but considerable groves are found in many districts. the fruit is picked before it is ripe, and is eaten as it becomes mellow. other trees and shrubs which are occasionally planted are: _atis_ (_anona squamosa_ l., an american plant) prized both for its fruit and bark--the latter being used in rope-making. _atatawa_ (_jathropha multifida_ l.). also found in a wild state. the fruit is used as a purgative. the _jathropha curcas_ l. is also used. _daligan_ (_averrhoa carambola_ l.) or coromandel gooseberry. the fruit is eaten without cooking. _lanka_ (_artocarpus integrifola_ l.). jackfruit. _maling-kapas_ or _kapas to insit_ (_ceiba pantadra_ gaertn.), also known by the ilocano as _kapas sanglay_. this so-called "chinese cotton" is a small tree with few, but perfectly straight, branches, which radiate from the trunk in horizontal lines. it produces elliptical pods which burst open when ripe, exposing a silky white cotton. the fiber is too short for spinning, but is used as tinder and as stuffing for pillows. orange (_lokban_) and lime (_lolokisen_) trees are greatly prized, but appear only occasionally. they receive no care, and consequently yield only inferior fruit. the _pias_ (_averrhoa bilimbi_ l.) is a garden tree which produces an acid fruit used in cooking. _santol_ (_sandoricum indicum_ cav.) trees are raised both for the fruit and for timber. it is said that house posts of this wood are not attacked by white ants. _wild plants and trees_.--few of the wild growths have escaped the attention of this people, and many are used as food and medicine, as well as for fiber materials and bark cloth. among those used for food, the following are the most important:-- _apang_ or _sapang_ (_bixa orellana_ l.). _alloseup_ (_antidesma ghesaembilla_ gaertn.). _bayabas_, or lemon guava (_psidium guayava_ l.), an american shrub which now grows wild, and in great abundance, in the mountains. _balatong_ (_phaseolus mungo_ l.). only the seeds are used. _damokes_ (_pithecolobium dulce_ benth.), an american tree which now grows spontaneously in northern luzon. the fruit is eaten, while the bark is sometimes used for tanning. _ipako_ (_psophocarpus tetragonolobus_ d.c.), a herbaceous vine infrequently seen in the gardens. the young pods are used as a condiment. _kochai_ (_alliuni tricoccum_) or wild leek. _katodai_ (_sesbania grandiflora_ p.). only the flowers are eaten. _kama-al_ (_allaeanthus luzonicus_ blanco. vill.). _kalot_ (_dioscorea daemona_ roxb.), a tuber, poisonous if eaten without special preparation. it is cut into small pieces, and is placed in running water for several days, after which it is cooked. _kamatis_ (_lycopersicum esculentum_ mill.), tiny tomatoes which are eaten raw or cooked. _labok_ (_colocasia antiquorum_ schott). _longboy_ (_eugenia jambolana_ lam.). _olo_ (_cissus sp_.), a low climbing herb, the stems and leaves of which are used in place of vinegar. _palda_ (_phaseolus lunatus_ l.), civet bean. _sili_ (_capsicum frutescens_ l.), small red peppers. the american chile. used as a condiment. specimens of about twenty other food plants and trees were obtained, but their identification was impossible. the wild growths used as medicines, or in the manufacture of string, rope, and bark cloth, will be mentioned under those headings. _plants and trees used in the treatment of disease_.--most sickness is thought to be caused by spirits, either with evil intent or to punish some wrong-doing or oversight on the part of the people. to placate or bribe these superior beings, elaborate ceremonies are held, but in addition to these a number of simple remedies are made use of. the efficacy of some of these medicines is explained by the fact that certain leaves or infusions are distasteful to the spirits of disease, which, consequently, take their departure. again, a trouble such as a tooth-ache is caused by a small worm which is gnawing at the tooth. to overcome this, the bark and leaves of the _alem_ tree are thoroughly beaten, and are applied to the face. the worm smells the crushed leaves, and straightway enters the poultice which is then burned. the spirits which bring the cholera can be driven away by burning the leaves of _sobosob_ (_blumea balsamifera_), _bangbangsit_ (_hyptis suavolens_ poir.) and _dala_ (?) beneath the house; likewise, the bark of the _bani_ (?) keeps the bearers of constipation at a distance. _bangbangsit_ is also considered as a cure for stomachache, diarrhoea, and is an aid in bringing on menstruation. when used for these purposes, the root is boiled, and the liquor is drunk. the fresh leaves will also relieve a pain in the stomach if applied to it, while the fruit is eaten to cure diarrhoea. if the patient is already affected with cholera or dysentery, the leaves of the _sobosob_ are placed in a jar of water at the mouth of which a clay ball is suspended, and the whole is then completely covered with banana leaves. the pot it placed over a fire, and the steam being unable to escape is absorbed by the clay. later this is crushed, is mixed with water, and is swallowed by the patient. lard burned to a crisp is likewise mixed with water, and is drunk to relieve diarrhoea. fever is a frequent ailment, and several medicines are employed against it. the most common is to crush the leaves of the _dangla_ (_vitex negundo_ l.) in vinegar made from _basi_, and to add to this a fourth part of urine. the patient drinks a shell cup of the liquor, is washed in cold water, and then is briskly rubbed with fine salt. young banana leaves are applied to the flesh, and over these blankets are placed. this is repeated twice daily until the fever is broken. wild tomato leaves, pounded and applied to the abdomen, are also considered valuable in causing the patient to sweat. if the trouble is unusually severe, a hot bath is prepared by boiling the leaves of the lemon, _atis_ (_anona squamosa_ l.), and _toltolang_ (?) trees in water. after the patient has been bathed in this, he is wrapped in blankets. the same remedy is used to cure fits. snake bite is treated by chewing the bark of the _alonen_ (_streblus_ _asper_ lour.), or _kasabong_ (_argemone mexicana_ l.), or the root of the _talabatab_ (_capparis micracantha_ d.c.), all of which cause vomiting. the fruit of the _soloyot_ (_corchorus olitorius_ l.), when baked and ground to a powder, likewise produces vomiting, and is used for any kind of poisoning. to relieve the itch, the juice of the _kabatiti_ (_luffa acutangula_ roxb.), _bayabas_ (_psidium guajava_ l.) or _lew-lew_ (_ficus haulili_ blanco) is mixed with vinegar and soot, and is applied to the skin. the milky exudation of the _kalinbwaya_ (_euphorbia nerüfolia_ l.) is also placed on the affected parts. during the rainy season the people are greatly troubled with small blisters which form between the toes and quickly break down, leaving open sores. to "harden" the feet, they hold them over burning straw. certain other aids against disease are also employed. cracked feet are treated with carabao dung; the nest of a small cave bird (_nido_) is crushed in water, and is drunk as a cure for coughs; while the flesh of the shell fish (_kool_) is applied to boils. a further cure for the itch is made by pounding a coconut shell into a fine powder. this is placed in a jar, over a hot fire, and a piece of iron is laid over the top. the "sweat" which collects on the iron is said to give instant relief. an infected ("bad") finger or limb is tightly bound "to keep the sickness from going up." _use of betel-nut, tobacco, and stimulants_.--a study of the tales and ceremonies makes it evident that the betel-nut (_bwa_) was at one time extensively used. to-day it occupies an exceedingly important place in the religious rites, but is seldom chewed. when it is offered to the spirits, it is still prepared in the way that is universal throughout malaysia. the nut of the areca palm (_areca catechu_ l.) is split into four pieces, fresh lime is spread on a piper leaf (_piper betel_ l.), this is wrapped about the piece of nut, and is ready for chewing. the areca palm grows well in this territory, and quite an extensive grove is to be found near the village of bakaok, yet this is the only place where any number of the people are addicted to its use. tobacco (_tabáo_), on the other hand, is in universal use, although it certainly was introduced after the arrival of the spaniards. the leaf is dried, and is rolled into thin cigars which are placed in tiny pipes (fig. ). the cigar itself is never held in the lips, nor is the leaf chewed. young and old of both sexes smoke frequently, but not a great deal at a time. after taking a few puffs, the pipe is stuck into the hair, or under the inner band of the hat, until again needed. the only intoxicating drink made and used by this people is the fermented juice of the sugar-cane, known as _basi_. the juice when extracted from the cane is boiled with water for four or five hours. it is placed in a large jar together with cinnamon bark, and is tightly covered over with leaves. fermentation begins almost at once, but for a month the drink is raw and little prized. in three or four months, it becomes quite mellow and pleasant to the taste. jars are sometimes stored away to be opened only for some important event, such as a marriage festival or the celebration of a great ceremony. at such a time a very definite procedure is followed. the most honored guest is invited to do the serving. he removes the covering, dips into the liquor, pours a little on the sides of the jar, and then a few drops on the ground as an offering to the spirits. a coconut shell cup is then dipped out, and is carried to the _lakay_ or some other old man. before he drinks, he raises the cup to the level of his face, and, beginning at his right, offers it to each person in the circle. the one saluted makes a gesture away from his body with his right hand, the palm upturned. when all have refused the cup, the man drinks, often he stops to sing the _daleng_, an improvised song in which he compliments his host, bespeaks the welfare of his family, or praises the other members of the gathering. one after another the guests are served, but always according to age and importance, the women and young people being left to the last. the liquor is quite intoxicating, two or three drinks being sufficient to put the company in a jovial mood. it often happens that one or more will become gloriously drunk, but, as a rule, they are not quarrelsome, and there seems to be no unpleasant after-effects. [ ] _domestic animals_.--dogs, pigs, chickens, and carabao appear to have been long in the possession of this tribe. horses, goats, and cattle are now owned by some of the people, but only the former are of sufficient number to be considered important. the dogs _(aso)_are surly, ill-kept creatures of mongrel breed. they are seldom treated as pets, but are kept for hunting. well-fed dogs are considered lazy, and hence they are fed only with a rice gruel, which seems to be neither fattening nor satisfactory. when in the village, the miserable creatures wander about under the houses, there to pick up and fight over morsels which may drop from above, or they lie in the ashes of the bonfires, the better to protect themselves from fleas and other enemies. when used in hunting, they are kept in leash until the game is started. when released, they follow the quarry at full cry, and if the game has been injured, they will seldom give up the chase. it is necessary for the hunters to follow the dogs closely and beat them off a slain animal, otherwise they will quickly devour it. they are always rewarded with a part of the intestines and some other portions, so that they may be keen for the next hunt. pigs (_babuy_) run at large throughout the villages or in the neighboring underbrush. they are fed at night close to the dwellings, and thus become at least half tame (plate lxi). many spend the hot hours of mid-day beneath the houses, from which they are occasionally driven by the irate housewives, when their squealing and fighting become unbearable. the domestic pigs are probably all descended from the wild stock with which they still constantly mix. most of the young pigs are born with yellow stripes like the young of the wild, but they lose these marks in a short time. castration of the young males is usually accomplished when the animals are about two months old. considerable numbers of chickens (_manok_) are raised. nets or coops are arranged for them beneath the houses, but they run at large during the day time. eggs are an important part of the food supply, but the fowls themselves are seldom killed or eaten, except in connection with the ceremonies. the domestic birds closely resemble the wild fowl of the neighborhood, and probably are descended from them. except for a few strongly influenced settlements, cock-fighting has no hold upon this people. the carabao or water buffalo (_nuang_) is the most prized and valuable animal possessed by this tribe. as a rule, it is handled and petted by the children from the time of its birth, and hence its taming and breaking is a matter of little moment. in the mountain region about lakub, where most of the animals are allowed to run half wild, only the strongest are broken. the animal is driven into a a-shaped pen, and a heavy pole is fastened across its neck just behind the horns. it is thus prevented from using its strength, and is loaded or ridden until it becomes accustomed to the treatment. carabao are used for drawing the sleds and for ploughing and harrowing in the lower fields. should one be seriously injured, it would be killed and eaten; but strong animals are slaughtered only on very rare occasions. wild carabao are fairly abundant in the mountains. they closely resemble the tame stock, and are generally considered to be derived from animals which have escaped. chapter ix products of industry _iron-working_.--little iron work is now done in the valley of the abra for the competition of the ilocano smiths of santa and narvacan, in ilocos sur, and the cheap products brought to the coast, and as far inland as bangued, by chinese traders, have swamped the native industry. forges are still found in many villages of eastern abra, particularly those of the upper buklok river, but the real center of the industry is in and around balbalasang, on the eastern side of the mountain range. we have in northern luzon a situation similar to that found throughout the archipelago, namely, that the most flourishing smithies are usually those farthest removed from the coast traders. where communication is easy and trade unrestricted, the native industry has vanished, or is on the wane. to-day the forges of the bontoc igorot, of the tinguian-kalinga border villages, and of apayao, are turning out superior weapons, but elsewhere in the northwestern districts the pagan people have either lost the art, or make only very inferior articles. it is certain that iron-working has long been known, not only in the philippines, but throughout malaysia, and it is likewise evident that these regions secured the art from the same source as did the people of assam, burma, and eastern madagascar, for the description of the tinguian forge and iron-working which follows would, with very little modification, apply equally well to those in use in southern mindanao, borneo, java, sumatra, assam, burma, and madagascar. [ ] long before the arrival of the spanish in the philippines, the chinese had built up such a lively trade in iron bars and caldrons that it was no longer necessary for the natives to smelt their own iron ore; if indeed they ever did so. [ ] this trade metal was widely distributed, and then reworked by the local smiths. even to-day the people of balbalasang make the long journey to bangued, or even to vigan, to secure chinese iron, which they carry back to their mountain forges. there is no positive proof that the filipinos formerly mined and smelted iron, but there is a strong probability that they did so, prior to the introduction of trade metal. it has already been noted that the tinguian type of forge and the method of handling and tempering iron is widespread in malaysia; and, as will be seen later, this process is not that in use among the chinese, so that it is unlikely that the art was introduced by them. in furnishing iron ready for forging, they were simply supplying in a convenient form an article already in use, and for which there was an urgent demand. in the islands to the south we find that many of the pagan tribes do now, or did until recently, mine and smelt the ore. _beccari_ [ ] tells us that the kayan of borneo extract iron ore found in their own country. _hose_ and _mcdougall_ say that thirty years ago nearly all the iron worked by the tribes of the interior of borneo was from ore found in the river beds. at present most of the pagans obtain the metal from the chinese and malay traders, but native ore is still smelted in the far interior. [ ] foreign iron is now used by the battak of sumatra, but deserted iron-works are known to exist in their country, while the menangkabau still possess smelting furnaces. [ ] it seems probable that the whole industry had a common source, and was spread or carried as a unit, but when trade relations made the arduous work of mining and smelting unnecessary, it was quickly given up. that native iron might have supplied the needs of many philippine tribes, including the tinguian, is certain, for important deposits of magnetite and hematite are found in abra, in ilocos norte, angat, bulacan, albay, and other parts of the islands. [ ] on several occasions, when on the trail, the natives have called our attention to boulders, apparently of hematite, which they recognized as iron. the smithies are small structures with grass roofs, but no sides or floors (plate lxii). at one end is a raised bamboo bench in front of which stands the forge. this consists of two upright wooden cylinders, usually logs hollowed out, known as _po-opan._ in each of these is a piston or plunger (_doeydoyog_) at the lower end of which is a wooden ring packed with corn husks and chicken feathers. when this is pushed downward in the cylinder, it compresses the air and forces it out of the small opening in the base, but when it is drawn up, the packing collapses and allows the plunger to be raised without effort. these pistons are worked so that one is rising, while the other is falling. the cylinders stand in a wooden block out of which bamboo tubes (_toloñgon_) conduct the air into a tube of fire clay (_ibong_), and this in turn carries it into the charcoal fire. there are no valves, as in the chinese bellows, but the bamboo tubes fit loosely, and the fire is not drawn back. near to the hearth is a stone anvil (_dalisdisan_), while a heavy stone hammer, a small iron hammer, and iron pinchers complete the outfit. the fire is lighted, and the operator sitting on the bench alternately raises and lowers the plungers in the cylinders until the fire burns brightly; then the smith puts metal into the coals and allows it to remain until it reaches a white heat. it is then removed and placed on the anvil, where his helper beats it out with the large hammer. this is a stone weighing twenty or more pounds, fitted inside the handles so that it can be used with both hands. as a rule, it is swung between the legs, and is allowed to strike the metal as it descends, but some of the men raise it above the shoulder and strike a much more powerful blow. if two pieces of metal are to be welded together, as is often the case when broken caldrons are used, they are laid, one overlapping the other, and are held together with damp fire-clay. in this condition they are placed in the fire and heated, and are then beaten together. it often takes several firings to bring about a perfect weld. after the initial shaping, the smith completes the work with the small hammer, and the blade is ready for tempering. a bamboo tube of water is placed near by, and the blade is again inserted in the fire and brought to a white heat. then the smith withdraws it and watches it intently until the white tone begins to turn to a greenish-yellow, when he plunges it into the water. the tempered blade is now smoothed down with sandstone, and is whetted to a keen edge. head-axes, spear-heads, adzes, a few knives, and the metal ends for the spear-shafts are the principal products of the forge. the blades are by no means of equal temper or perfection, but the smiths of the tinguian-kalinga border villages seldom turn out poor weapons, and as a result, their spears and head-axes have a wide distribution over northwestern luzon. in view of the wide distribution of this type of forge and method of iron-working; of its persistence in isolated communities, while it has vanished from the coast, or has been superseded by the chinese methods of work; as well as of other details here described, the writer is of the opinion that the art has not been introduced into the philippines through trade, but is a possession which many or all of the tribes brought with them from their ancient home, probably somewhere in southeastern asia. the effects of trade, in historic times, are evident throughout the christianized regions, in chinese and european forges and in foreign types of utensils. likewise the influence of the mohammedanized tribes is very marked in the sulu archipelago, the western coasts of mindanao, and even among many of the pagan tribes of that island, but the isolated forges throughout malaysia and the methods described by early explorers in this field, are practically identical with those just reviewed. _spinning and weaving_.--that cotton (_kapas_) was being raised and the fibre spun into cloth at the time of the spanish occupation of the islands, is amply proved by many references in the early chronicles. also there was a considerable trade in cotton, silk, and the like, carried on by the chinese and the brunei moro. [ ] the weaving industry seems to have reached its height in the ilocos provinces, where the processes of ginning, carding, spinning, and weaving were, for the most part, identical with those found in borneo, java, the malay peninsula, burma, and a large part of india. [ ] the same methods and utensils are used among the tinguian, but side by side with the more complicated devices, such as the ginning machine and spinning wheel, are found more simple contrivances; so it would appear that we are here dealing with older and more primitive methods of work than are found on the coast. [ ] every step in the manufacture of cloth is looked after by the women, who raise a limited amount of cotton in the upland fields, pick and dry the crop, and prepare it for weaving. the bolls are placed on racks, and are sun-dried, after which the husks are removed by hand. ginning is accomplished by two methods. the simplest, and doubtless the older, is to place the cotton on a smooth wooden block and to roll over it a wooden cylinder which tapers slightly toward each end (fig. , no. ). the palm of the hand, at the base of the fingers, is placed on the roller and the weight of the body applied, as the cylinder is moved slowly forward, forcing the seeds from the floss. [ ] the more common instrument (_lilidsan_) acts on the principle of a clothes wringer (plate lxiii). two horizontal cylinders of wood are geared together at one end, and are mounted in a wooden frame in such a manner that they are quite close together, yet not in contact. a handle is attached to the lower roller at the end opposite the gears, and as it is turned, it rotates the cylinders in opposite directions. a piece of cotton is pressed between the rollers, which seize the fibres and carry them through, while the seeds are forced back and fall to the ground. the cleaned cotton is never bowed or otherwise separated with a vibrating string, as is the case in java, india, and china, but the same result is obtained by placing it on a piece of carabao hide and beating it with two rattan sticks until it becomes soft and fluffy (plate lxiv). after the carding, the cotton is spun by placing it in a hollow cylinder of palm bark attached to a bamboo stick (_tibtibean_). a bit of thread is twisted from the cotton at the bottom of the cylinder, and is attached to a spindle, which is rubbed rapidly against the naked thigh, and is then allowed to turn in shallow basket, or on a piece of hide. as it spins it twists out new thread and the arm of the operator rises higher and higher, until at last the spindle stops. the position of the extended arm is then altered, and the spindle again set in motion in order to wind up the new thread on the shaft. while the spinning is progressing, the free hand of the operator is passed rapidly up and down the thread, keeping the tension uniform and rubbing out any inequalities (plate lxv). in many sections the spinning wheel used by the coast natives is beginning to replace the hand outfit (fig. , no. ). the mass of fiber is held in the left hand, and a thread from it is attached to a horizontal spindle, which is turned by a cord passing over a large wheel. this method is much more rapid than the hand device, but the thread is less uniform, and it is seldom utilized when a fine fabric is to be woven. bamboo bobbins, consisting of small tubes, are also wound by attaching them to the spindle shaft, so that the thread is transferred by the revolution of the wheel. as soon as the thread is spun, it is placed on a bamboo frame (_lalabayan_), fig. , no. , on which it is measured and made ready for the combing and sizing. as it is taken from the measuring frame, a bamboo rod is passed through each end of the loop, and these are fastened tightly inside the combing device (_agtatagodan_) by means of rattan bands. the thread is then carefully combed downward with a coconut husk which is dipped in a size of rice water (plate lxiii). after drying it is transferred to the shuttles and bobbins by means of the wheel described in the previous paragraph or by a more primitive device, called _ololau_ (fig. , nos. and a). this consists of four horn hooks attached to bamboo sticks, which pass through openings in a bamboo tube in such a manner that they slip on each other, and thus produce a wheel of any size desired. [ ] the tube fits loosely over a wooden peg sustaining the wheel in a horizontal position, yet turning readily. the loop of threads from the sizing frame is laid on the hooks, from which it is drawn by hand onto the bobbins and shuttles. the next step is to prepare the warp for the loom. the thread is drawn from bobbins on the floor, and is first fastened to peg no. of the warp winder (_gaganayan_), as shown in fig. , no. . from here it is carried the length of the board, around , thence to and back to , after again passing around . the peg a, which later serves as a lease rod in the loom, is encircled each time by the threads passing between and . as the warp is carried from toward , it passes outside , and , but when it is returned to , it is inside these pegs. these are the heddle rods of the loom, and loops from them enclose certain of the threads, thus determining the order in which the warp is to be raised in opening the shed. [ ] the loom, while primitive, is far from simple in its operation. the warp is attached at both ends to sticks or rollers, the far one of which is fastened to a cross timber of the living room (plate lxvi). the web is kept stretched by means of a strap or belt, which attaches to the near roller and then passes around the waist of the operator, who sits on the floor with her feet against a bamboo brace. [ ] the arrangement of the lease rod and heddle sticks has been already described; in addition to these the threads are further controlled by a reed board which acts both as warp spacer and beater-in. all being ready for the weaving, the shed is opened by raising one of the heddle sticks, and a heavy knife-shaped batten of wood is slipped into the opening. this is turned sideways to enlarge the shed, and a shuttle bearing the weft thread is shot through. by raising and lowering the heddle rods the position of the warp is changed as desired, while from time to time the weft threads are forced up against the fabric by means of the reed board, and are beaten in with the batten. tangling is prevented by means of several flat sticks which cross the warp at some distance from the operator; while threads which show signs of loosening are carefully rubbed with a waxed stick. on this loom the woman produces head-bands, belt, and narrow strips of cloth which are made up into blankets and the like. these fabrics are often in several colors and exhibit many tasty and intricate designs, some of which will be described in the chapter on decorative art. _manufacture of rope and string_.--at least eighteen trees, shrubs, and vines are used in the making of cordage. [ ] when small trees or limbs are used, and the bark does not adhere too tightly to the wood, sections about an arm's length are cut, and two or four splices are made at the top. these are loosened with a knife until there is enough for the hand to grasp, when the bark can be turned back like a glove. very large sections are held by two men, while a third peels off the bark. with some varieties of trees and shrubs it is found best to place the sections in the sun to dry, then a sharp bend in the stalk causes the bark to separate from the wood so that it is easily peeled off. when large trees are used, the bark is slit lengthwise every six of eight inches, and the log is beaten with hard wood sticks. in a short time the covering loosens from the wood and is pulled off. the outside layer is worthless, but the remainder is cut into strips about a half inch in width, and is then split lengthwise into thin layers. in rope-making three strips are laid side by side on the thigh or on a board, but with their ends at unequal distances (fig. , no. ). these are twisted together, toward the right, until a few inches have been turned, then the cord is put over one end of a double forked stick (_sikwan_), leaving an equal length on either side (fig. , no. ). the two halves are twisted together until the end of one strip of bark is reached; a new piece is laid on top of the others, and as they are turned, it becomes part of the twist. as other ends are met with, new strips are added in a like manner until all the bast desired has been made. it is then wound up on the forked stick until needed. the rope machine (_agtatalian_) consists of three wooden whirls, which constitute the forming device, and a single whirl for the traveler, while a grooved block serves to keep the strands apart (fig. , no. ). three equal lengths of the prepared bast are measured, and an end is attached to each of the whirls of the forming machine (fig. , no. a). however, only one cut is made in the bast, for strand . all are attached to the single whirl of the traveler, and the process begins. the operator at each end turns his whirl, or set of whirls, rapidly toward the right, the one with the traveler bracing his foot against the lower end, to keep the twisting bast under tension. a third operator guides the grooved piece of wood from the traveler toward the forming machine, as the three strands twist round each other into rope. the bast is known as _ginisgis_, the rope as _tali_. vines, rattan, and strips of bamboo are likewise twisted together to form crude, but strong cordage. the making of thread is described under spinning and weaving, but the cords used in snares and the like are prepared in a different manner. the operator squats on the ground, and taking a strip of fiber, places it on his thigh; then with open palm he rolls it toward the knee. the twisted bast is bent at the center; the thumb and forefinger of the left hand hold the loop, and the two strands are placed together. these are now rolled toward the knee as before, the hand giving extra pressure on the ulnar side, and then are rolled back toward the body with pressure on the radial side. when the end of a band is reached, a new one is rolled in, and the process is continued. a tie at the end keeps the cord from untwisting. when very long strips of fiber are used, two men will work together. one holds the end of the loop, while the other twists each half of the strip in the same direction. then placing them together on his thigh, he turns them, under pressure, in the opposite direction, thus making a cord. _bark cloth_.--bark cloth is still in common use for men's headbands and for clouts. it is secured from the same trees as the rope material, but wider strips are taken, and it is customary to beat the bark thoroughly before it is removed from the wood. it is then split to the desired thickness, after which it is beaten with wooden or bone mallets (_gikai_), which are generally grooved transversely (fig. ). the cloth produced is soft and pliable, but is not of the fineness of tapa, and it is always in comparatively narrow pieces. in no instance was the operator seen to beat two strips together to gain greater breadth or to repair breaks. _basket making_.--in most districts the men are the basket weavers, but in some towns, especially of ilocos norte, the women are skilled in this industry (plate lxvii). the materials used are rattan, which may be gathered at any time, or bamboo, which is cut only during the dry season and under the waning moon. it is firmly believed that boring insects will not injure bamboo cut at this time, and it is known that the dry period stalks are the strongest. the tools employed are a short knife or a miniature head-axe and an awl. with the former the operator scrapes the outer surface, and then splits the tube into strips of the desired width and thickness. a certain number of these strips, which are to be used for decoration, are rubbed with oil, and are held in the smoke of burning pine or of rice-straw until a permanent black is obtained. [ ] five weaves are recognized by the tinguian, but they are really variations of two--checkerwork and the diagonal or twilled. the first and most simple is known as _laga_, the technic of which is the passing of each element of the weft under one and over one of the warp elements. where the warp and weft are of uniform size, as in mats, it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other, but in many cases the weft is the smaller. fish traps and storage baskets for mangoes and cotton are generally of this type (fig. , nos. and ). a variation of the _laga_ known as _minmináta_--"many eyes"--(fig. , no. ), is found in certain types of carrying baskets, the woven tops of hats, and the like. here the warp is crossed, and the weft passes through it in regular order so as to produce hexagonal openings. another variant is known as _kaláwat_ [ ] (fig. , no. ). in this the warp stems are in threes. starting from a they are bent down, pass over and under similar sets of three, curve on themselves or other warp stems so as to leave open spaces between. the rattan wall-hangers for coconut shell dishes are usually in this weave. the greater part of the baskets are in the diagonal or twilled weave, in which each element of the weft passes over two or more warp elements. variations are numerous, either to produce certain effects or to accommodate designs. of these the most common are under over etc. under over etc. under over etc. the weaver also frequently constructs the bottom with over under ; then when the sides are made he changes to over under , until the center is reached; then of the warp passes over of the weft; for the balance the stitch is over under . this variation produces a chevron-like pattern which, in general, is known as _binakol_; but when it is desired to designate more closely, this name is applied to the weaving having an oblique effect (fig. , no. ), while the horizontal is known as _dinapálig_ (fig. , no. ). _types of baskets_:--plates lxviii and lxix show the most common types of baskets made and used in this territory. others of igorot and kalinga origin sometimes appear, but are seldom imitated by the local basket-makers. baskets and of plate lxviii are known as _kaba_, and are used principally to hold unthreshed rice, corn, and vegetables. smaller baskets of the same form are for broken rice and cooked vegetables. the larger specimens are often made of rattan, while the smaller are usually of bamboo. shallow bamboo baskets, _pidasen_ or _alodan_ (plate lxix, no. ) are used as eating dishes for cooked rice. clothing is put away in covered oval or rectangular baskets, _opigan_ (plate lxix, no. ), while cotton is stored in long cylindrical baskets _kolang_ (plate lxviii, no. ). the _pasikeng_ or _lagpi_(plate lxix, no. ), commonly called the "head basket," is the chief basket of the men. it is made of rattan, and is supported on the back by means of bands which pass over the shoulders. in it are carried extra garments and all necessities for the trail. recently some of the men have joined together two of these baskets by means of a wide, flat band, and this is fitted over the back of a horse or carabao,--an evident imitation of the saddle bags used by spaniards and americans. men also carry small containers for their pipes and trinkets, or else make use of a traveling basket, such as is shown in plate lxix, no. . rice winnowers and sieves (plate lvii) and the fish-traps shown in fig. conclude the list. no coiled baskets are made. aside from the decoration produced by variations in the weave, little ornamentation is found in the basketry from abra, but the tinguian of ilocos norte make and distribute large quantities of baskets with colored patterns. colored vines are sometimes woven in, but the common method is to employ blackened bamboo, both in warp and weft. the top of the basket is strengthened by two hoops of rattan or bamboo. one is placed outside, the other inside; on them is laid a small strip of the same material, and all three are sewed down by passing a thin strip of rattan through two holes punched in margin. this strip doubles on itself, encircles the rim, and after an interval again passes through two more holes, and so on around the entire basket. a square base, attached in the same manner as the rim, generally completes the basket. in the mountain districts near to apayao, the bases of the smaller eating dishes are drawn in toward the center at four points, giving the effect of a four-pointed star. _mats_ (_ikamin_).--mats are used as beds, never as floor coverings. they are rectangular in form, usually about six feet long and three wide, and are undecorated. they are made from strips of _pandanus_ in the _laga_ weave (cf. p. ). _dyes_.--in recent years analine dyes have come into favor in some villages, and a variety of colors appears in the articles made by their weavers, but the vegetable dyes used by the ancestors are still employed by most of the women. the commonest colors are blue, pink--"black red"--, red, and yellow. blue is ordinarily produced by placing the leaves and branches of the indigo plant, _tayuni (indigofera tinctoria)_in water for a few days; then to boil them, together with a little lime. the thread is dipped in the liquid. pink is secured by crushing _lynga_ (_sesamum indicum_ l.) seeds and boiling them in water. threads are placed in this for five nights, while during the day they are dried in the sun. the root of the _apatot_ (_morinda citrifolia_ or _umbellata_) is next crushed, and water is added. the threads are now transferred to this liquid, and for ten days and nights are alternately soaked and sunned. a copper color results, but this soon changes to pink. it is said that the _apatot_ alone produces a red dye. it is also claimed that the seeds of the _apang_ (_bixa orellana_ l.) and of a variety of rattan, when boiled, give a permanent red. [ ] a yellow dye is produced by boiling the leaves of the _tamarindus indica_ l. in water until a strong liquor is obtained. bark head-bands are stained a purplish-red by applying a liquid secured through boiling _kelyan_ (_diospyros cunalon_ d.c.?) bark. for ceremonial purposes they are also colored yellow by applying the juice of the _konig_ (_curcuma longa_), but as this has a disagreeable odor, and the color is not permanent, it is not much used in every-day garments. lemon juice is also applied to bark to give it a yellow hue. fish nets are colored brown by dipping them into a dye made by crushing the _katakot_ vine in water, or by staining with the juice of the _taotawa_ (_jatropha curcas_ l,). the bamboo strips used in decorating basketry are blackened by holding them in the smoke of burning rice-straw. black designs, such as appear in the ornamentation of lime holders and the like, are secured by rubbing oil and soot into incised lines, and then holding the object in the smoke of burning rice-straw. _net making_.--nets are used in fishing, in catching wild chickens and grasshoppers, and in hunting deer and pigs. the first three types are made of twine, but the fourth is of strong rope. all net work is done by the man who, for this purpose, employs a mesh stick and a needle of bamboo or carabao horn (fig. ). the needle (no. ) also serves as a shuttle, since it carries a considerable amount of thread between the tongue and notch. the size of the loop is determined by the width of the mesh stick or spreader (no. ). the operator generally sits on a rice winnower or squats on the ground with a net suspended above him (plate lxx). he forms the mesh by running the needle over and around the spreader, and up and through the loop above, thus forming a loop on the mesh stick. this is drawn tightly, the needle is again passed through, but without encircling the stick, and thus a knot is tied. this is repeated until a row of loops has been completed, when another series is started. _manufacture of pottery_.--in nearly every village there are two or three women who make jars and dishes, but the potters of abang and lakub are the only ones whose wares have a wide distribution. the clay is dampened, and is carefully kneaded with the hands to remove lumps and gravel, and to reduce it to the proper consistency. a handful is taken from the mass, and is roughly modeled with the fingers to form the base of the pot. this is set on a wooden plate which, in turn, is placed in a rice winnower (plate xxxvi). the plate takes the place of a potter's wheel, for it is turned with the right hand while with the left the woman shapes the clay, and smoothes it off with a dampened cloth. from time to time, she rolls out a coil of clay between the palms of her hands, lays it along the top of the vessel, and works and pinches it in. further shaping and thinning is done with a wooden paddle and the dampened hand, and then the jar is allowed to dry slightly. before the drying has progressed far enough to render the sides rigid, a smooth stone is placed inside, and the sides are tapped gently with a paddle until properly thinned and shaped. after allowing a couple of days for drying, the potter rubs the jar inside and out with smooth stones or _lipi_ seeds, so as to give it an even surface. when several jars or dishes have been prepared, they are placed in carabao dung or other slow burning material and fired. this generally takes place at night, and the jars are left undisturbed until morning, when they are ready for service. occasionally resin is rubbed over a jar while it is hot, thus giving it a glazed surface; this, however, is not common, as the resin quickly melts off the cooking utensils, while porous jars are preferred as water containers, since the seepage lowers the temperature of the contents. vessels made in lakub are often decorated with incised patterns (fig. , no. ), but otherwise the tinguian ware is plain. chinese jars are found in every village, and are highly prized, but the native potters do not imitate them in form or decoration. had chinese blood or influence ever been strong in the region, we might expect to find the potter's wheel and traces of true glazing, but both are lacking. _pipe making_.--both men and women smoke pipes, consisting of a short reed handle and a small bowl. men are the pipe makers, and often show considerable skill in the decoration of their product. the common pipe-bowl is of clay, which has been carefully shaped with the fingers and a short bamboo spatula. designs are incised, and the raised portions are further embellished by the addition of small pieces of brass wire (fig. , nos. - ). the bowls are baked in a slow fire, and the mouthpieces are added. a second type of pipe, or cigar holder, is made of bamboo (fig. , nos. - ). designs are incised in the sides, oil is applied, and the pipe is held in the smoke of burning rice-straw until the lines become permanently blackened (fig. , nos. - ). in recent years, ilocano jewelers have introduced silver pipes, made from coins. one tinguian pipe maker has learned the trade, and does a lively business. he has further beautified his product by attaching pendants representing fish (fig. , no. ). brass pipes of igorot origin are sometimes seen, but are not made in this region. _method of drying hides_.--hides of carabao, and sometimes of other animals, are stretched on bamboo frames and are sun-dried (plate lv). later they are placed in water containing tanbark, and are roughly cured. such leather is used in the manufacture of the back straps used by the weavers, and in making sheathes for knives, but more commonly it is placed on the ground, and on it rice and cotton are beaten out. chapter x decorative art in decorative art the tinguian offers sharp contrast to the igorot and ifugao, both of whom have developed wood carving to a considerable extent. they also have their bodies tattooed, while the colored lashings on spear shafts, pipe stems, and other objects show a nice appreciation for color and design. in all these the tinguian is deficient or lacking; he does no wood carving, tattooing is scanty, while his basket work, except that from two small regions, is plain. at times he does make some simple designs on canes, on bamboo rice-planters and weaving sticks, on lime boxes and pipe stems, but these are exceptions rather than the rule. in the region about lakub, he decorates his jars by cutting the ends of sticks to form small dies which he presses into the newly fashioned clay (fig. , no. ), while in manabo and some other villages the pipe makers cut the bowls of the clay pipes in floral designs or inlay small pieces of brass to form scroll patterns (fig. , nos. - ). these last mentioned designs are so restricted in their manufacture, and are so different from those found elsewhere in abra, that they cannot be considered as typical. the figures incised in bamboo show some realistic motives, such as the fish, birds, and flowers in fig. , no. ; the snake and lizard in no. ; the man in no. ; but the strictly geometrical is dominant in nearly every case. probably the most typical of this class of work is shown in nos. and and fig. , nos. , , and . it should be noted, however, that, where one decorated object is seen, many more entirely plain will be found. in short, ornamentation is uncommon and of minor importance. the one place where decoration is dominant is in the weaving, and this is done entirely by the women. figures and show typical designs which occur in the blankets. except for no. in fig. , they do not appear to be copies from nature, but all have realistic interpretations. fig. shows eight designs drawn by native weavers, which are identified as follows: . a fish. . weaving on a spanish bed or chair seat. . pineapple. . a heart. . fishhooks. . a crab. . cross section of a pineapple. . a horse. in fig. are five typical patterns taken from blankets, while no. is the ornamental stitching which unites two breadths of cloth, the latter is identified as "fingers and finger nails." no. is the turtle, no. a crab, no. a rice-mortar, no. the bobbin winder shown in fig. , no. ; no. pineapple. plate lxxi is a ceremonial blanket, such as is hung up over the dead. the figures are identified as _a_ a deer, _b_ horse, _c_ carabao calf, _d_ man. the textile in plate lxxii, no. is likewise used chiefly as a ceremonial piece, the designs representing _a_ man, _b_ horse, _c_ star. a very pleasing blanket is shown in plate lxxii, no. in which the designs are identified as a rice cake, and _b_ as a star, while the whole pattern is known as _kalayan_--the river. the textile in plate lxxiii, no. imitates a mat, while no. is known as _kosikos_--the circle. a part of these designs are evidently copies from real objects, others appear to be merely pattern names, while the weavers do not hesitate to borrow any likely patterns which strike their fancy. one quite frequently sees a blanket which shows a "lion," or some other animal or object, with which the people could only become acquainted through pictures or descriptions from outside sources. in addition to these designs already mentioned, there are certain common types of decoration effected through weaving or embroidery, for which no explanations are given. they are said to be only "to make pretty." among these are the ends of belts and clouts, as shown in plate lxxiv, or the raised diamond pattern shown in no. of the same plate, or the plaid effect in colors, which appear in some of the skirts. it has already been noted (cf. p. ) that the weaving methods of the tinguian are similar to those of the ilocano, and the same is true of a considerable part of the decorative patterns. the christianized natives have less of the realistic, a greater variety of geometrical designs, and a greater fondness for bright colors, made possible by the use of analine dyes, than the mountaineers. it seems probable that the tinguian-ilocano peoples brought the weaving industry with them into northern luzon, that the ilocano branch has borrowed improved methods of manufacture, as well as decorative motives from the people with whom they have been in contact through trade. the tinguian in turn have borrowed from them, but, in the main, they still retain the more primitive methods of weaving, and it is probable their types of ornamentation likewise approximate more closely those in use in earlier times. chapter xi personal adornment, dances, and musical instruments the dress of the man is the clout (_ba-al_), either of beaten bark or of cloth, and a woven belt (_balikes_) in which he keeps small articles (plates lxxv-lxxvi). on special occasions he wears a long-sleeved jacket (_bado_), open in front, and in a few instances, trousers. both these garments are recent acquisitions, and the latter, in particular, are not in favor, except where ilocano influence is very strong. the man is not inclined to adorn himself with brass and gold, neither does he use tattooing to any extent, as do his kalinga and igorot neighbors. some have small patterns on an arm or thigh, but these are usually property marks with which he brands his animals or other possessions. tattooing as an evidence of a successful head-hunt is not found in this region, nor are there other marks or garments to identify the warriors. the hair is worn long, and is parted straight down the middle; the two strands are twisted, crossed in the back, then carried to the forehead, where they are again crossed, and the ends are fastened by intertwining on each side of the head. a bark band (_ayabong_) holds the hair in place, but at times it is replaced by a cloth or a narrow ring of interwoven grass and rattan. round bamboo hats, with low dome-shaped tops, are commonly worn (plate xlv), but these are sometimes displaced by hats which go to a sharp peak, or by those made of a gourd or of wood. the woman's hair is parted in the middle, and is combed straight down to the nape of the neck, where it is caught by strings of beads; these are crossed in the back and encircle the head; the strand of hair is then twisted and a loop formed which is carried to the left side, where it is again caught under the beads, near to or above the ear. most of the tinguian have luxuriant heads of hair, but, nevertheless, switches are commonly used by both sexes. the hair is often washed with the ashes of rice-straw, or with the bark of the _gogo_ tree (_entada purseta_), and is moistened with coconut oil. strings of beads encircle the women's necks, but the typical ornament consists of strands above strands of beads reaching from the wrist to the elbow, and if the wealth of the owner permits, even covering the upper arm as well (plate lxxix). the strands are fastened tightly above the wrist, causing that portion of the arm to swell. slits of bamboo are usually placed under the beads, and may be removed if the pain or annoyance of the constriction is too severe. the upper arm beads are removed with little difficulty; but those on the forearm are taken off only once or twice a year, when new threads are substituted, or when the owner is in mourning. beneath these ornaments a delicate fretwork of blue lines is tattooed, so that the woman's arms may not be white and unsightly when she is without her beads. [ ] most of the women have their ears pierced, but in the valley towns only a small proportion wear earrings. in the mountain sections heavy ornaments of gold or copper are worn, the weight often drawing the lobe of the ear far down on the neck. when at work, the woman discards all clothing from the upper portion of her body, but at other times wears a short-sleeved jacket which reaches to her waist (plate lxxvii). the waist is cut so low in the neck that the head can pass through. there is no shoulder seam. a straight piece set over the shoulder extends down in square, both front and back, to a line about even with the breast, where it is sewed to the garment proper. a narrow skirt (_dingwa_), with colored border, extends from the waist to the knees. it is held in place by drawing it tightly and then tucking one corner under the upper edge, or by pressing it beneath the girdle (plate lxxviii). when a girl becomes a woman, she dons a girdle (_palingtan_) of braided grass or rattan which fits over the hips, and to which a clout is attached (plate lxxx). as a rule, the girdle and clout are not removed when bathing, as are the other garments. the woman seldom wears a hat, except when she is working in the fields, where sunshades large enough to protect the entire body are used (plate liv). frequently a cloth or a skirt is twisted about the head as a protection against the sun. on chilly mornings one often sees the people covered from head to ankles with their sleeping blankets, or a woman may draw a particularly wide skirt about her body just below the armpits so that she is protected from her breasts to the knees. the teeth of both sexes are blackened with iron salts and tan bark, [ ] but they are not cut or mutilated, as is common with many philippine peoples. while both sexes are proud of heavy heads of hair, they do not look with equal favor on face and body hairs. these are plucked out either by grasping them between a knife blade and the thumb nail, or with a bamboo device known as _iming_. this consists of a section of bamboo split into several strips at one end. a hair is placed in one end of the slits, and the bamboo is bent into a half circle, causing it to take a firm hold, when it is jerked outwards. prized necklaces (_paliget_) made of small strands of twisted silver wire, are placed on the neck of a corpse, and on some occasions are worn by the living. during dances the hair is adorned with notched chicken feathers attached to sticks, while circlets made of boar's tusks are placed on the arms. _dances_.--two dances, one ceremonial, the other suitable for all occasions, are very popular. the ceremonial dance known as _da-eng_ takes place at night, and is carried on to the accompaniment of a song. [ ] an equal number of men and women take part. the women form a line facing a similar row of men, about twenty feet distant. locking arms about one another's waists and with one foot advanced, they begin to sway their bodies backwards and forwards. suddenly they burst into song, at the same time stepping forward with the left foot. keeping perfect time to the music, they take three steps toward the men, then retreat to their original positions. the men then take up the song and in a similar manner advance and retreat. this is repeated several times, after which the two lines join to form a circle. with arms interlocked behind one another's backs, and singing in unison, they begin to move contra-clockwise. the left foot is thrown slightly backward and to the side, and the right is brought quickly up to it, causing a rising and falling of the body. the step, at first slow, becomes faster and faster till the dancers have reached the limit of their vocal and physical powers. the _da-eng_ is sacred in character, is danced only at night and then under the direction of the mediums. it is, however, in great favor, and often so many of the younger people wish to take part that double lines, or two or more groups, may be dancing at the same time. it sometimes happens, when the _basi_ has been flowing freely, that the participants become so boisterous and the pace so fast that spectators are run down or the dancers are piled in a heap, from which they emerge laughing and shouting. the common dance, the _tadek_, is a part of nearly all gatherings of a social and religious nature. the music for this dance usually is made with three _gansas_ [ ] and a drum. the _gansas_ are pressed against the thighs of the players who kneel on the ground. two of the coppers are beaten with a stick and the palm of the hand, while the third is played by the hands alone (plate lxxxi, fig. ). the stick or left hand gives the initial beat which is followed by three rapid strokes with the right palm. a man and a woman enter the circle, each holding a cloth about the size of a skirt. the man extends his cloth toward the woman, and bringing it suddenly down, causes it to snap, which is the signal to begin. with almost imperceptible movement of the feet and toes and a bending at the knees, he approaches the woman, who in a like manner goes toward him. they pass and continue until at a distance about equal to the start, when they again turn and pass. occasionally the man will take a few rapid steps toward the woman, with exaggerated high knee action and much stamping of feet, or he will dance backward a few steps. at times the cloth is held at arm's length in front or at the side; again it is wrapped about the waist, the woman always following the actions of the man. at last they meet; the man extends his hand, the woman does likewise, but instead of taking his, she moves her own in a circle about his, avoiding contact. again they dance away, only returning to repeat the performance. finally she accepts the proffered hand, the headman brings _basi_ for the couple to drink, and the dance is over. the man sometimes ends the dance by the sharp snapping of his cloth, or by putting it on his extended arms and dancing toward the woman, who places her cloth upon his (plate lxxxi, fig. ). _musical instruments, songs, and dances_.--the tinguian is naturally musical. he sings at his work, he beats time with his head-axe against his shield as he tramps the mountain trails, he chants the stories of long ago as the workers gather about the fires each evening of the dry season, he sings the praises of his host at feasts and festivals, [ ] joins with others in the dirge which follows a burial, and he and many others will sing together as they dance the _da-eng_. but his music does not stop with his vocal accomplishments. in the folk-tales the pan pipe (_dew-dew-as_) occupies a most important place, and to-day the maidens still play them in the evening hours. it is a simple device made of reeds of various lengths lashed together (fig. , no. ). the player holds the instrument just in front of her lips, and blows into the reeds, meanwhile moving them to and fro, producing a series of low notes without tune. another instrument of great importance in the legends is the nose flute (_kalaleng_). this is a long reed with holes cut in the side, to be stopped by the fingers in producing the notes. the player closes one nostril with a bit of cotton, and then forces the air from the other into a small hole cut in the end of the tube. the instrument is popular with the men, and often one can hear the plaintive note of the nose flute far into the night (plate lxxxii). the mouth flute (_tulali_) is similar to that found in civilized lands, but is constructed from a reed. a peculiar device used solely by the women is the _bunkaka_ (fig. , no. ). this consists of a bamboo tube with one end cut away so as to leave only two thin vibrating strips. these, when struck against the palm of the left hand, give out a note which can be changed by placing a finger over the opening at x. a jew's harp is constructed like a netting needle, but with a tongue of bamboo cut so that it will vibrate when struck, or when a cord attached to the end is jerked sharply (fig. , no. ). if made of bamboo, the instrument is known as _kolibau_; if brass, _agiweng_. it is often mentioned in the tales, and to-day is played by nearly all the men. bamboo guitars (_kuliteng_) are made by cutting narrow strips throughout the length of a section of bamboo, but not detaching them at the ends. they are raised and tuned by inserting small wedges of wood at the ends. small sections of thin bamboo are sometimes fitted over two strings, and are beaten with sticks, or the strings can be fingered like a guitar (plate lxxxiii). music for dances is furnished by an orchestra consisting of four men, three with copper gongs (_gangsas_), and one with a drum. the gongs are tambourine shape, with sides about an inch and a half high. they are placed against the thighs of the players who kneel on the ground, and are beaten with a stick and the palm of the hand or by the hands alone. [ ] they doubtless came into this region through trade, but at a time so remote that their origin is now credited to the spirits. the drum (_tambor_) is made of a short section of a tree hollowed out. the ends are covered with cow's hide or pig's skin. chapter xii music _introduction_.--that the songs might be delivered as nearly as possible at the same pitch which the singers used when making the records, investigation was made as to the usual speed used by manufacturers while recording. it was found to be revolutions per minute. accordingly the phonograph was carefully set at this speed during transcription. in determining the keys in which to transcribe the various songs, the pitch-pipe used was that of the "international," which was adopted at the vienna congress in nov. . this congress established c = double vibrations per second. all the records proved to be a shade flat by this standard, but were found to be almost exactly in accord with an instrument of fixed pitch, which in turn was found to be approximately eleven beats at variance with the pitch-pipe on c . assuming that the recording and transcribing speeds of the machines were the same, this would place the original singing almost exactly in accord with the old "philosophical standard of pitch" which places c at double vibrations per second. though the singing was not always in perfect accord with the notes set down in transcriptions, with the exception of those very marked departures especially indicated in the music, the variations were so slight that, so far as true intonation goes, the performances were fully up to the standard of those of the average natural singer. special ear tubes were used while transcribing the records, and resort made to a special device wherewith any order of whole, or even part measures could be consecutively played. thus it was possible to closely compare parts which were similar in either words or music. in some of the records two or more voices can be distinguished singing in unison. such unisons are shown in the transcription by single notes. no attempt has been made to indicate the several voices. but when such single notes are shown accompanied by the word "solo," it is to be understood that all of the performers have dropped out but one, probably the leader. when the voices split up into parts, it is so notated in the music. primitive people display more or less timidity in giving their songs for scientific purposes. such timidity is especially apt to be manifested in their attacks. in the _da-eng_, girls' part (record j), the delayed attack at the beginning of each new verse is very marked. the delay varies considerably from verse to verse, as indicated by the number of beats rest shown at the ends of the lines. similar pauses are found in the boys' part of the same ceremony (see record a). these beats rest or pauses are not to be taken as part of the legitimate rhythm, for it is more than likely that if the singers were giving their songs in their regular ceremonial and the performers unconscious of observation, these pauses would not occur. in transcribing those songs which have several verses on the record, the notation has been so arranged on the page that the measures line up vertically, making comparison easy between corresponding measures of the different verses. to indicate peculiar qualities, special signs are used in connection with the regular musical symbols. the table which follows shows these signs and also lists the qualities for which they stand. some of these qualities could have been represented by regular musical symbols, but it was thought best to use the special signs to make them stand out more prominently. the qualities thus indicated as well as those which are represented by the regular musical notation will be found listed and defined after the tabulation of qualities. words of the da-eng _part i_. sung in line. [ ] ma-li-dom ag-dag-da-gi yo-ma-yom yom-ma-yom ta yom-ma-yom ag-dag-da-gi yo-ma-yom. ma-la-nas ag-dag-da-gi na-sa-nas ma-sa-nas ta ma-sa-nas ag-dag-da-gi na-sa-nas. si on-na-i in-no-bi-yan ki-not-ko-tan na-to-tan na-to-tan ta na-to-tan ki-not ko-tan na-to-tan. kol-kol-dong si gi-nol-bat nga ag-moli-moli-yat mo-li-yat ta mo-li-yat ag-mo-li mo-li-yat. ka-lan-tag kal-la-yan-nen ag-ka-idig-na-yan dig-na-yan ta dig-na-yan ag-ka-i dig-na-yan. a-na-on si tak-la-yan na-ís-ti-lo ai bolo bin-no-lo ta bin-no-lo na-ís-ti-lo ai bo-lo. sok-bot ni ka-bin-bin-an adi ma-sil-si-li-ban si-li-ban ta si-li-ban adi ma-sil-si-liban ba-gai-ba-yem dem-ma-ngen si-nol-bo-dan ni kolat. ki-no-lat ta ki-no-lat ai ag-ki-no ki-no-lat. sabak ni am-mo-ga-wen mimog-go-mog di-kai-wen di-kai-wen ta ki-kai wen mimog-go-mog di-kai-wen. sabak ni an-na-a-wen mi-ka-li-ya li-ya-wen. li-ya-wen ta li-ya-wen ai ag-li-ya li-ya-wen _part ii_. sung in line. alin-to-bo ni ni-og ag-lam-pi-yok lam-pi-yok ta lam-pi-yok ag-lam-pi lam-pi-yok. al-in-to-bo ni aba ai adi nag-pada pi-na-da ta pi-na-da ai adi nag-pa-da. al-in-to-bo ni no-nang ag-ba-li ba-li-yang ba-li-yang ta ba-li-yang ai ag-ba-li ba-li-yang. al-in-to-bo ni lamai um-al-ali ma-ya-mai ma-ya-mai ta ma-ya-mai umal ali ma-ya-mai. al-in-to-bo ni bang-on ag-ba-la ba-la-ngon ba-la-ngon ta ba-la-ngon ag-ba-la ba-la-ngon. al-in-to-bo ni oway pel-sa-tem ket i-nom-lai i-nom-lai ta i-nom-lai pel-sa-tem ket i-nom-lai. al-in-to-bo ni oling bog-yo-ngem ket boom-li-sing boom-li-sing ta boom-li-sing bog-yo-ngem ket boom-li-sing. al-in-to-bo ni ba-kan umal ali ka-na-kan ka-na-kan ta ka-na-kan umal ali ka-na-kan. al-in-to-bo ni anis ai adi na-gi-nis gi-ni-nis ta gi-ni-nis ai adi nedey na-gi-nis. _part iii_. sung as they dance in circle. a-ya-mem si pa-ni-ki ag-sol-sol-wap si la-bi ni la-bi ta ni labi ag-sol-sol-wap si la-bi. a-ya-mem si bat-ta-teng ag-tiya ti ya-deng ti-ya-deng ta ti-ya-deng ag-ti-ya ti-ya-deng. a-ya-mem si bang-nga-an nga dum-ang-dang-lap si da-lan din-na-lan ta din-na-lan dum-ang-dang-lap si da-lan. a-ya-mem si om-om-bek nga ag-ma-si ma-sim-bek si nim-bek ta si-nim-bek nga ag-ma-si ma-sim-bek. a-ya-mem si po-na-yen nga omas-asi gai-ga-yen gai-ga-yen ta gai-ga-yen om-as asi gai-ga-yen. a-ya-mem si la-ga-dan nga tomal-la tal-la-dan tal-la-dan ta tal-la-dan nga ag-ta-la tal-la-dan. a-ya-mem si bal-ga-si nga agka-a ka-a-si ka-a-si ta ka-a-si nga ag-ka-a ka-a-si. _part iv_. bwa di la-od to-mo-bo nga lo-mok-bot lo-mok-bot ta lo-mok-bot to-mo-bo wa lo-mok-bot. bwa di ba-li-la-si-bis nga gi-i-tem ket ma-i-mis i-ni-mis ta i-ni-mis gi-i-tem ket ma-i-mis. bwa di mal-la-pa-ai gi-i-tem ket tom-ga-ey te-ga-ey ta te-ga-ey gi-i-tem ket tom ga-ey. bwa di mal-lo-sa-ak gi-i-tem ket tom-ga-ak te-ga-ak ta te-ga-ak gi-i-tem ket tom-ga-ak. bwa di tom-mo nga kom-ma-lab ket tom-mo-bo tom-mo-bo ta tom-mo-bo kom-ma-la-lab ket tom-mo-bo. _part v_. adi yo pai lau-lau-den lawed-ko nga do-la-wen do-la-wen ta do-la-wen adi yo pai lau-lau-den. la-wed ngaita di al-yo pang-lau-lau-dan ta ba-o bi-na-o ta bi-na-o pang-lau-lau-dan ta ba-o. la-wed di po-dok pang-lau-lau-dan ta bo-kod bi-no-kod ta bi-no-kod pang-lau-lau-dan ta bo-kod. la-wed di sab-lang, pang-lau-lau-dan ta ba-sang bi-na-sang ta bi-na-sang pang-lau-lau-dan ta ba-sang. la-wed di pa-wai pang-lau-lau-dan ta a-wai in-na-wai ta in-na-wai pang-lau-lau-dan ta a-wai. _part vi_. ka-wa-yan di po-da-yan na-tong-dan ta na-tong-dan na-tong-dan ta na-tong-dan ka-wa-yan di po-da-yan. ka-wa-yan di bal-li-weyan om-mi-weyan om-mi-weyan ta om-mi-weyan ka-wa-yan di bal-li-weyan. ka-wa-yan di ba-ta-an ko-ma omi-na-lan i-na-lan ta i-na-lan ka-wa-yan di ba-ta-an. sol-kod-ko nga ka-wa-yan na-kak-la-ang di dem-mang di dem-mang ta di dem-mang na-kak-la-ang di dem-mang. kawayan di pa-la-i ag-ka-i dong-la don-la-li dong-la-li ta dong-la-li ag-ka-i dong-la dong-la-li. _part vii_. da-num di la-od kom-mog-nod ket kom-mog-nod kom-mog-nod ta kom-mog-nod danum di la-od. dagsi-yan di pa-la-wang ko-ma ta sum-mi na-wang si-na-wang ta si-na-wang ko-ma ta sum-mi-na-wang. dagsi-yan di langiden mi-ka si-li si-li-ten sili-ten ta si-li-ten dag-si-yan di lang-i-den. dagsi-yan di ka-ba-lang-gan na-kal kalong go-kong-an ga-kong-an taga-kong-an na-kal ka-long ga-kong-an. danum di pa-da-ngi-tan ki-na-dang ta ka-witan ka-wi-tan ta ka-wi-tan ki-na-dang ta ka-wi-tan. dag-si-yan di lai-og-an nan-gol la-ol la-yo-san la-yo-san ta la-yo-san o-mal-la al-lo-yo-san. danum di abang sum-mol-wai ta sum-mol-wai sum-mol-wai ta sum-mol-wai da-num di a-bang. danum di abas inum-bas ket inum-bas inum-bas ta i-num-bas da-num di a-bas. danum di ba-ai nag-kat-lo nga sa-long-ai sa-long-ai ta sa-long-ai nag-kat-lo nga sa-long-ai. danum di da-ya nag-kil-la-yos nga si-pa si-ni-pa ta si-ni-pa nag-kil-la-yos nga sipa. danum di ngato ti-nung-dai ta a-nito a-nito ta a-nito ti-nun-dai ta a-nito. danum di aging ti-nung-dai ta ka-la-ding ka-lad-ing ta ka-la-ding ti-nung-dai ta ka-la-ding. danum di a-yeng ti-nung-dai ta ba-yeng-yeng ba-yeng-yeng ta ba-yeng-yeng ti-nung-dai ta ba-yeng-yeng. adi ka-pai man-gi-mon na-sal-li-bon ai bo-bon bin-no-bon ta bin-no-bon na-sal-li-bon ai bo-bon. _approximate translation of the da-eng_ [ ] i ? ? the malanus flows. flows, flows, flows onward. si (mr.) on-na-i and na-to-tan dig obi (taro) with their hands. dig, dig, dig with the hands. the firefly in the woods opens his eyes. opens, opens, opens his eyes. the bank caves into the river. caves, caves, caves in. here, your arm pretty bamboo (?) bamboo, bamboo, pretty bamboo. do not disturb the rest of the kabibinan (a bird). disturb, disturb, do not disturb. help the kolat (a plant) to grow. become kolat, become kolat, stir up to become kolat. the flower of the amogawen falls on you. on you, on you, falls on you. the flower of the ana-an plays with you. plays, plays, it plays. ii. the young leaves of the coconut wave. wave, wave, they wave. the leaves of the aba are not alike. alike, alike, are not alike. the leaves of the nonang turn back and forth. back and forth, back and forth, turn back and forth. the leaves of the lamay quake. quake, quake, they quake. the leaves of the bangon arise(?). arise, arise, they arise. the leaves of the rattan cut and twist. twist, twist, cut, and twist. the leaves of the oling rustle and rattle. rattle, rattle, rustle and rattle. the leaves of the bakan fall before time. fall, fall, fall before time. the leaves of the anis (a low shrub) are not clean. clean, clean, not clean. iii. you play mr. bat who fly by night. night, night, fly by night. you play grasshopper whose back is concave. concave, concave, whose back is concave. you play bang-nga-an who shines like gold by the trail. by the trail, by the trail, shines like gold by the trail. you play onombek who hiccoughs. hiccough, hiccough, who hiccoughs. you play dove who falls. falls, falls, who falls. you play lagadan (a bird) who flees(?). flees, flees, who flees. you play balgasi (?) who mourns for the dead. mourns, mourns, mourns for the dead. iv. betel-nut of the west which grows up like the gourd. grows up, grows up like the gourd. betel-nut of balasibis which smiles when it is cut. (literally--is cut and smiles.) it smiles, it smiles, is cut, and smiles. betel-nut of malapay which chuckles (like a woman) when it is cut. chuckles, chuckles, is cut, and chuckles. betel-nut of malosak which laughs (like a man) when it is cut. laughs, laughs, is cut, and laughs. betel-nut of tomo which climbs and grows. grows, grows, climbs, and grows. v. do not take the leaves of my lawed, who am rich. rich, rich, do not take lawed leaves. the widower takes often the top (best) lawed of alyo. the widower, the widower, the widower takes often. the lawed of the wooded hill the widow takes often. the widow, the widow, the widow takes often. the lawed of sablang the maiden takes often. the maiden, the maiden, the maiden takes often. the lawed of paway the hermit (country man) takes often. the hermit, the hermit, the hermit takes often. vi. bamboo of podayan, ever living, ever living. ever living, ever living, bamboo of podayan. bamboo of baliweyan sigh (literally "go wey") when the wind blows. sigh, sigh, bamboo of baliweyan. bamboo of bataan, like the sunshine. sunshine, sunshine, bamboo of bataan. my cane of bamboo gives out a clang. clang, clang, gives out a clang. bamboo of palai wave up and down. wave, wave, wave up and down. vii. water of the west, become less and less. less, less, water of the west. spring of palawang overflow. overflow, overflow, be like the overflow. spring of langiden flow fast. (literally "like lightning".) flow, flow, spring of langiden. spring of ka-ba-lang, flow like a chain. chain, chain, flow like a chain. water of padangitah be knee deep to the rooster. rooster, rooster, knee deep to the rooster. spring of layogan flow on. flow, flow, flow on. water of abang (?) ? water of abas, become dry. become dry, become dry, water of abas. water of ba-ay has three branches. branches, branches, has three branches. water of the east shaped like a ball. ball, ball, shaped like a ball. water from above the anito holds (stops). anito, anito, the anito holds. water of the uninhabited place the ghost holds. ghost, ghost, the ghost holds. water of ayeng the bamboo tube holds. bamboo tube, bamboo tube, the bamboo tube holds. do not be jealous, pretty spring. spring, spring, pretty spring. _da-eng_. boys' part. record a. sung while dancing in a religious ceremony. there are at least two voices in this record. possibly there were three or more singers taking part, though it is not possible to distinguish more than two. the song is cast in the pentatonic scale of a major. the notes g-natural and d-flat do not belong to this scale. at those places where they are put down in the notation, they are used to better define the glissandos. the singers pass over them rapidly, sliding from the topmost note of the group to the lowest with no perceptible dwelling on any of the intermediate tones. the glissandos are indicated by straight lines drawn obliquely underneath such groups (see _definition of qualities_, p. ). in each of measures and of verses , , and ; and in measure of verse , is shown a group of three notes with an asterisk above. these groups, as shown in the notation, are b, a, g; but in measure of verse , the corresponding group is c, b, a. in those measures marked *, the singers are very plainly striving to reach the tones c, b, a. there is that quality of tension in the voices with the accompanying forcing of tone which is peculiar to untrained singers striving for a tone near the limit of their highest range. as the tones actually sounded are neither b, a, g, nor c, b, a, but are instead a sort of compromise between the two, it is quite evident that the succession intended in each of the seven measures is the same as in the eighth or odd one, viz. c, b, a. if we assume this to be the case, it eliminates seven of the foreign g naturals shown in the notation. if, however, this conjecture is wrong, and the performers really feel that the groups in question all start on b, then the g naturals are eliminated by the glissandos. the only other g-natural is shown in measure of verse . by comparing this measure with the corresponding measure in each of the other three verses, it will be seen that the singers have taken great pains in those verses to avoid this note which does not belong to the pentatonic scale which they are using,--evidence that they do not sense the tone in the fourth verse, where it is taken glissando. the d-flat, also foreign to the scale, occurs but once. it is in measure of the top line. the glissando here eliminates this tone also, but, by comparing this measure with the corresponding measure of each of the other verses, we find the same avoidance as in the case of the g-natural,--evidence that the performers do not sense this other foreign tone. the song is therefore very markedly pentatonic in character. the assumption that the seven groups marked with asterisks do not represent the real intent of the singers, is based entirely on the "stress" heard in the record. this "stress" cannot be represented in notation. relying on the notation alone, one would be warranted in drawing a contrary conclusion and assuming that the odd measure should be made to conform to the other seven and all read, b, a, g; or, from the phonographic record, one might assume that the compromise, previously mentioned, was the intonation really intended. primitive peoples frequently do sing and play, quite intentionally, tones out of conformity with scale tones of present-day concert music. such tones cannot be represented by our musical notation without resort to special signs. this is not necessary in the present case, as the falling short of true intonation does not appear to be from deliberate intent on the part of the singers, but seems to be due to lack of ability. in eight of the measures, at least one of the voices departs from the melody proper, producing the harmony-intervals so frequently heard in the music of primitive peoples, namely, that of a th without the rd to complete the triad, and that of a th without the th to complete the chord. such thirdless ths are found in measures (verse ), and (verse ), (verse ), and and (verse ); and the interval of a th without the th is found in measures and of verse . in the last measure of the notation, however, the interval of a th there shown is caused by the leader's voice departing from the regular melodic succession instead of the accompanying voice or voices, as is the case in each of the other measures mentioned. in measures and of each of the four verses of the song, and also in measure of the second verse, the sign, "....." (mezzo staccato marks), is used to indicate the pulsating of the voice of one of the singers, probably the leader, marking the rhythm of the song. the metronome tempo is mostly , but varies at times and runs as-high as per minute in the last half of the th verse. between verses and the phonograph shows that the singers paused eight beats (two whole measures), and between verses and there was a similar, though shorter, pause of two beats (one-half measure). these pauses are not shown in the notation. there was no special change in dynamics throughout the song except as indicated by the sforzando marks in measures , , , , , and of verse . in general character this song resembles most the _dang-dang-ay_ (record m). _diwas_ record b. sung at night by the friends of a sick man. there are two singers on this record, both men with bass voices. one seems to be the leader, the accompanying singer dragging along behind. as the tempo is very slow and many of the tones long drawn out, this uncertainty on the part of the second performer is not so noticeable, except on the quick runs as the leader passes to another principal tone. the song is cast in the natural minor scale of d. the e-flat near the beginning of the second line does not belong to the scale. it is not well defined on the record, and so is indicated in the transcription with an interrogation-mark beneath. although not confined to the intervals of the pentatonic scale, the number is distinctly pentatonic in character. it is made up mostly of the tones a, c, d, and e. these tones belong to the pentatonic scales of c major and its relative minor a. in tonality, the song cannot be considered as belonging to either of these keys, as there is a very distinct feeling of b-flat in it, notwithstanding that the tone is seldom dwelt upon, but passed over quickly, almost glissando, in nearly every place where it occurs. the song ends on a. this is not the key note, however, but is the fifth of the key. the song is like a mournful chant. throughout there is a peculiar wailing which leaves a strange, haunting impression. the music admirably suits the hour when it is used. it would be decidedly incongruous given in broad daylight. these untutored savages could hardly have conjured up a more typical tone-picture of the "shadowy valley" than the song heard on this record. the peculiarly weird character is due in large part to the swelling out and dying away of the tones on certain syllables. (for comparison to effects found in igorot music, see "swelled tones" under _definition of qualities_, p. ). _sang-sangit_ record c. sung during the evening following a funeral. in this record we hear but one voice--a man's. the song is cast in the minor scale of g, but whether the natural minor or the harmonic, cannot be determined, as the singer does not use the th of the scale. it is not pentatonic in character. the song is given in the recitative style. there are several verses which vary but little in the music, except for the changes in the reiterated staccato tones which are made greater or less in number to accommodate the difference in number of syllables. with the exception of those starting the glissandos or trills, the repeated tones were given with a very decided staccato punch. much of the intonation is vague. in taking the glissandos shown near the middle of the top line, the upper tone is sung about half way between b-flat and b-natural. there is some abandon in the rhythm also. the group of six notes marked with an asterisk are trilled on the semitone interval. _dawak_ record d. the song of a medium when calling spirits into her (his) body. this song is doubtless the invention of the singer. it has that abandon which usually characterizes the songs of workers in the occult among primitive folk. the song is cast mostly in the relative minor (g-sharp) of the pentatonic scale of b-natural major. a-sharp does not belong to this scale. there are five measures, where this note appears, but in each instance the tonality of the phrase momentarily rests in d-sharp minor, the relative of the pentatonic major of f-sharp. a-sharp belongs to this scale, but b-natural does not. the singer, with his instinct for the five-note scale, avoids the b-natural until the tonality shifts back to the original key. the song is therefore classed as pentatonic in character. the melody is distinctly harmonic in structure, as nearly all of the successions are made up of triad intervals. though the song runs but a minute and a half, the tempo changes eight times. the performer takes nearly every new tempo with a well-defined rhythm. there is considerable freedom shown in the first movement when the tremolos between b-natural and the g-sharp below are taken. the singer shows quite remarkable flexibility of voice, excellent breath control, and a rather surprising quality of tone and accuracy of intonation. as a demonstration of flexibility, about the middle of the first movement, he takes the quarter note b-natural in falsetto and immediately drops into the waver a tenth below, at the same time assuming his natural voice. the falsetto tone is indicated in the transcription by a tiny circle above the note. all of the wavered tones, as well as the falsetto at the beginning and the turn at the end are sung with one breath to a single syllable. this is quite a remarkable performance considering that the singer had no voice training. near the opening of the first / movement is shown a group of five notes given in the time of four,--a rhythmic effect few trained musicians can execute well. of the various performers who took part in making the fourteen records, this singer shows the best voice technic and control. the fact that the singer scarcely repeats a single motive throughout the extent of the song, but is constantly introducing new tonal ideas argues an extempore performance. it would be interesting to have for comparison another record of the same song made at another time. _song of a spirit_ record e. sung by a medium when possessed by a spirit. melodically this song is quite in contrast with the _dawak_. this one is distinctly melodic in structure, though there are suggested harmonies. these harmonies are mostly tonic and dominant alternating one with the other. using a two-measure motive, which he announces at the very start, the singer works the material over and over, first in one harmonic mode and then in the other, frequently changing the form of the motive through embellishments or altered metric values, but always leaving an impression which harks back to the original motive. arrange the various tones of this melody in any order that we will, we cannot make them conform to any diatonic scale used in modern music. if, however, we ignore the c-flat, which occurs twice in the song, it gives us an incomplete ascending melodic-minor scale in d-flat. but the song is not minor in mode. it is distinctly major in tonality. it is formed mostly of the four tones d-flat, e-flat, a-flat, and b-flat. all of these belong to the pentatonic major scale of d-flat. this gives a very marked pentatonic flavor, yet the song is not in the pentatonic scale, for the singer introduces half steps, and there are no such intervals in the pentatonic scale. casting about among the scales used by various peoples, the nearest approach i find to the tonal succession of this song is one of the numerous scales or "tunings" used by the japanese. it is that known as the "hirajoshi." to make comparison easy, i have transposed this japanese koto-tuning into the same key as that of the song. along with it i show the tonal material of the tinguian song arranged in corresponding sequence. it will be seen that every note in the japanese scale is found also in the tinguian, though not always in the same octave. all of the tinguian tones are found in the japanese scale except the c-flat and d-flat. these exceptions are shown with their stems turned down. the notes shown in white in the tinguian scale are not sung at the pitch indicated, but occur in the song as octaves of these tones. the black notes therefore show the actual tones sung. it will be noticed that in the arrangement of the notes the opening tone is repeated a few notes later on. this is because the japanese usually tune the koto with the first and fifth strings in unison to facilitate the execution of certain passages in their music. the "jog," heard so frequently in the igorot songs, occurs eight times in this number. it is not quite so well defined here, however, as in the _dang-dang-ay,_ being modified in this song either by syncopation, by phrasing, or by lack of accent. it is interesting to note however, that it is always given on the tonic or the dominant, and also that it is repeated in true igorot style. the unconcern and skill with which the performer of this song unravels the mixed up duplet and triplet groups, is evidence of his inherent sense of rhythm, as it pertains to the symetry of note groups and their embodiment as beat-units into larger, varying measure-units; but his indifference, as he juggles his metric values of / , / , and / time, shows an entire absence of appreciation for form as revealed in even-measured sections, phrases, and periods of modern music. considered in the light of an oracle from the spirit himself speaking through the medium, the music would indicate that the spectre is not one of the gentle and kind disposition, but on the contrary is very domineering. he is of frightful mien, and tries to terrorize all who come under his sway. _song of a spirit_ record f. sung by a medium when possessed by a spirit. this song is very similar in general character to the _dawak_, and many qualities in it indicate that it is given by the same performer. it has the same general formation as the _dawak_. it is harmonic in construction. nearly all of its tones follow the triad intervals of either the minor or its relative major tonic chords or the minor dominant chord. there is no well-marked motive development but instead a succession of tones first from one triad, then from another, and so on, grouped in ever varying fashion. the key is g minor, but closes in the relative major b. while singing in the minor, the performer follows modern methods and raises his seventh or "leading tone," when the progression is upwards into the tonic (see measures , , , and ). the tempo is mostly , but at the tenth measure the movement slows down to . at this point is shown a note with a large circle above. this tone was taken with a very wide open mouth quite in contrast with the one preceeding. the next measure following shows two tones taken falsetto. like the dawak, this song is probably the composition of the singer. although very primitive in its general aspect, it has absorbed from some source a bit of modern influence. if the surmise is correct that the performer of this song is the same as the one who made the record of the _dawak_, and if the two songs were made at distinct times with a considerable period elapsing in which other records were made, it would indicate, as is frequently the case among primitive singers, that this performer almost invariably sings at the same pitch. in other words, he has to some degree the sense of absolute pitch. _bagoyas_ record g. a song of praise and compliment sung by a guest at a feast or party. words are extempore, but music constant. the singer is a tenor with considerable dramatic quality in his voice. the words of the song must be extemporized to suit each new occasion; so also, must the elemental tonal forms be extemporaneously combined, for the music must fit the words, and these will vary in rhythm and meter with each performance. the music may be considered constant, however, in that the form of each component motive is more or less fixed. the following five group-ingredients, used either in the pure form as shown, or with slight alterations, make up approximately one-half of the entire song. reiterated tones and glissandos pad out between these and make up practically the remainder of the number. turning our attention to the first of the above groups, which i have marked "m.m. ." (melodic motive), we find that it is used nearly a score of times throughout the extent of the song. a motive may be modified in ten different recognized ways and each form of modification employed in varying degrees, within certain limits, and yet the motive will not loose its identity. as an example of this we find in this song the first melodic motive _transposed_ from the fourth degree of the scale (where it is originally announced) to the first, the fifth, and the sixth degrees. we find the same motive given with _omissions_, with _additions_, with _augmentations_, with _contractions_, and with _altered rhythmic values_; in short, the composer has turned this motive over and over, and unwittingly developed it much after the manner used by musicians trained in the art of composition. the fact that this motive is given four times rhythmically and melodically intact, besides recurring frequently throughout the composition in one or another of the accepted forms of modification, argues that this melodic germ was a familiar tone-figure to the singer, one that he could apply to most any syllable on which he wished to dwell. in this connection it is interesting to note that this motive, in its purest form, is always used in a transitional way, not only musically, but rhetorically, thus "marking time," as it were, while the improvisator chooses his next words of praise. the second melodic motive (m.m. .) occurs at least five times, with some transformations to be sure, and sometimes even overlapping the first motive. the third (r.m.) is purely rhythmic, but seems to be a pet device of the singer and helps him out with syllables needing special emphasis. the fourth can hardly be dignified by the name of motive, in this case, but is simply a musical device (m.d.), used by the singer mostly in his terminations. i surmise that the song in its entirety, including the above elemental groups, is the invention of the singer. he has equipped himself with these particular tonal fragments, because they not only suit his fancy, but lie well within the range of his vocal attainments. he has used them so frequently and in such varied forms that he can instantly twist, turn, or alter them to fit the requirements of the various syllables of his ever changing flatteries. with a few such elemental groups of his own invention at command, any singer would be well equipped to extemporize for the delectation of his host and the entertainment of the other guests. the song is exceptional for strongly accented notes. the triplets giving the value of three quarter notes in the time of two are rather unusual in modern music. it is cast in the natural minor scale of b-flat. the singer never uses either the raised th or th in ascending, as do moderns in the melodic minor, but adheres strictly to the old _normal_ or _natural minor_ form. although diatonic, in that both the g-flat and c-natural appear frequently, yet the number savors much of the pentatonic. at three places where the singer uses one or the other of the tones foreign to the pentatonic scale, he makes half-step progressions. in the fourth line of the song we find the single instance in these records, where the performer takes an upward glissando. it is on the two-note embellishment f-natural g-flat shown in the last measure of that line. it is immediately followed by a downward glissando. balalognimas record ii. two singers are heard on this record. they seem to be women. possibly there are more than the two voices. as the song has such a well-defined swing and such a martial character, it must be wonderfully inspiring when given by a large company of singers. it is cast in the natural minor diatonic scale of c-sharp, though it is strongly pentatonic in character. the rhythm is partly / and partly / , but it swings along so naturally that it seems as if it could not be otherwise. the distribution of the accents, sometimes falling on the first and third beats and again on the second and fourth, helps to give it a character which puts it in a class by itself. it has the most character of any of the women's songs in this group. there are several verses to the song almost precisely alike in words and music. _da-eng_. boys and girls alternating. record i. sung while dancing in a religious ceremony. this song is in two distinct movements or parts varying one from the other in meter, in tempo, and in general style. part there are at least two voices discernible in this part. they seem to be the voices of girls or women. it is cast in the relative minor (c) of the pentatonic scale of e-flat major. the tones of this scale given in order are c, e-flat, f, g, b-flat, and then the octave c. the tones d-natural and a-flat are missing, thus avoiding the half step between d and e-flat, and between g and a-flat (see remarks in pentatonic scale under _definition of qualities_, p. ). the a-flat shown in the third from the last measure of this part is written there to define more clearly that particular glissando which seems to be of slightly different rhythmic construction than the one in the corresponding measure above. the fact that the tone is passed over glissando eliminates it from the scale. in the fourth measure of each line we find a peculiar splitting up of the parts, one voice holding the c, while the other skips to the e-flat above, thus producing the harmony-interval of a minor third. this behavior seems to be intentional on the part of the performers, as it occurs precisely the same in each of the four lines of the song, though not quite so well defined the last time owing to the fact that the upper voice does not come out so strong on the e-flat. this is indicated in the notation by a small square note. part is in the very unusual rhythm of / . the rhythm is not well defined, however, as there is considerable abandon in the style of rendition. the metronome tempo of applies practically throughout. sometimes the singers are a trifle in advance of the count and at others drag behind, but always sooner or later drop into the regular beat. a stress on each fifth count gives the number a rhythm of five. it is unique also in that each line has but five measures. part in this, the same number of voices is heard as in the first part. the performers seem to be the same ones who sang from the beginning. the scale is the same as that of part . the intonation is very distinct and the character unmistakably pentatonic. in measure there is the harmony-interval of a perfect fourth followed immediately by that of a minor third, the same succession as was used in the _da-eng_, girls' part (record j). in the fourth and fifth measures of this part are found unprepared minor thirds, which also appear in record j. these harmonies are not so primitive as those found in the boys' part of the same ceremony (see record a). the tempo throughout this part is and the rhythm strongly marked. there is a wait between the two lines. the machine was evidently stopped at this point or the needle raised and started again. each line has the uncommon number of five measures the same as the first part, but metrically the part is in / rhythm. the second time through, the singers seem to be striving to repeat the first line of the movement with embellishments consisting of inverted mordents, appogiature, and trills. musically, there seems to be absolutely no connection between this song and the other two of the same ceremony. in many ways this song is the most interesting of those submitted. in origin it probably dates between the other two. it is not given consecutively on the record, as there were breaks between each two lines while the needle was raised. _da-eng_. girls' part. record j. sung while dancing in a religious ceremony. the record shows but two voices one of which is greatly predominant in strength and confidence as if it were the leader's voice. the song is cast in the scale of b minor. it is not pentatonic. the singers would employ, so an interrogation-mark is; placed below that be either a-natural or a-sharp, according to whether the scale is the _natural_ minor or the _harmonic_ minor, it is not possible to determine which tone the singers would employ, so an interrogation mark is placed below that note. the raised fourth (e-sharp), shown in the fifth measure of four out of the six verses, is perfectly intentional on the part of the singers, but musically, is to be interpreted as an accidental, and does not affect the scale of the song. in this song we again have the interval of a fourth without the sixth above. it occurs four times, each time followed immediately by the less primitive and more harmonious interval of a minor third. the minor third harmony also occurs in three other measures,--in these without preparation. these minor thirds are all the same,--b-d, the foundation of the tonic chord of the key,--evidence that the singers have a keen sense of the minor tonality. the tempo alternates between and . the first half of each line is given at , but the second half is taken more rapidly at beats per minute. each of these rhythms is very evenly preserved, the time being well marked by accented notes and pulsations of the voice as shown in the score. the figures at the ends of the lines indicate the number of beats rest actually taken by the performers. twice they take the normal number four, which, if preserved throughout, would place the song in the regular eight-measure form. some of the measures are / , and some are / . in each verse of this song we find an example of the characteristic which i have termed a "jog." it is seen in each next-to-last measure with special sign beneath. the jogs in the nd, th, and th measures are the best defined (see table of special signs under _introduction_, p. ). there are three qualities in this song, which indicate that it is of more modern origin than either of the other two which belong to the same ceremony. the frequent and undoubtedly intentional use of the raised fourth giving the half step e-sharp to f-sharp; the persistent recurrence of the hardly primitive, minor-third harmony; and the fact that the song is not cast in the pentatonic scale, as are the other two records of the same ceremony, point to a more modern origin. it may be that in the earliest practice of this ceremony the girls or women did not participate, their parts having been a later addition. this could not be determined musically, however, without examining more records of songs from this or similar ceremonies. _bogoyas_ record k. sung by a woman. this is a woman's song of praise, complimentary to the host at a party. the singer makes use of all the scale tones of the major key of e-flat, except the d-natural. the b-natural found in the next-to-last measure is a passing tone, and does not affect the scale or tonality. at that point the suggested supporting harmony is an augmented triad upon the tonic leading into the subdominant. with the exception of this one measure, the song is in the five-note scale. notwithstanding that this measure contains two a-flats and also the passing tone b-natural, both of which tones are foreign to this particular five-note scale, the song is not robbed of its pentatonic character. the rhythm of this song is interesting. it alternates throughout between / and / . it might have been notated in / time instead, in which case it would have but five measures. the singer uses the downward glissandos, so characteristic of nearly all of the tinguian songs of this group. these glissandos are indicated by oblique lines drawn beneath the tones covered by the slide. in the second measure there is an almost inaudible tone at the end of the glissando. it is indicated by a small, square note. careful listening to the record at this point shows that the singer really leaves the principal tone e-flat and slides with a sudden dying-down of volume. the abruptness with which the sound of the voice fades as it starts the glissando, leaves the impression of e-flat still sounding. one tone in this song is given on the inhaled breath. it is indicated by a circle with a dot in the center placed beneath the note. this tone was produced well back in the throat, while the singer sharply inhaled the breath. this artifice, occasionally used by the tinguian, is seldom, if ever, heard in the singing of civilized peoples (for other examples, see analysis of record m, _dang-dang-ay_). this song, given by a woman, has not the well-marked motive development shown in the other _bogoyas_, sung by a man. however, we find two quite distinct, prevailing ideas set forth. the first includes the whole of the first measure and the first beat of the second. it seems to be in the nature of a question which finds its answer in the remainder of the second measure, and again in the third, and again in the fourth measure. it is the same answer, but expressed each time in a little different manner. in the fifth measure and carrying over into the sixth, the questioning is heard again. although put forth in a different arrangement of tones, it is the same musical thought as that expressed in the first measure. this time it is answered but once. the answer takes parts of two measures. now follows another query similar to the first, and again comes the answer fully expressed in each of the two concluding measures. the principal interest in this centers around the b-natural, indicating that the singer has a very decided appreciation of the half step and of the upward leading tendency of a tone raised a semitone by an accidental. _na-way_ record l. sung at the celebration which closes the period of mourning for the dead. there are two voices heard in the record, probably women. in ten of the measures there is a splitting up of the parts. in the first measure of each of the second and third lines, and also in the third measure of the third line, the difference in the parts is owing to uncertainty of attack, one of the singers, usually the leader, starting the syllable ahead of the other performer. in the second measure of the last line, the first divergence is caused by the leader taking e by way of embellishment; and the second divergence, producing a minor third, is caused by the other voice dropping to b too soon. these are not intentional harmonies. the other six departures from unison are caused by the leader embellishing her part. the appogiatura, shown with a tiny circle above, has the quality of falsetto. the singer yodles down to the principal tone b. the song is strictly pentatonic. peculiarly enough, it may be considered as belonging to any one of the following tonalities, b minor, e minor, or g major, though there is no g in the melody. the song seems the most primitive, however, when considered in the key of e minor, for the harmonies required to place it in this tonality carry more of the primitive atmosphere than do the chords which are required in either of the other tonalities. in this connection it would be interesting to know just how these various harmonizations would appeal to the tinguian. it is a well-known fact among musicians who have recorded the songs of primitive peoples, that though the songs are used with practically no harmonies, yet the singers feel an harmonic support which they do not express. experiments along this line have been tried with the american indians. various harmonizations of a given melody have been played for them, a melody which they themselves sing only in unison, and they have been very quick to choose the particular harmonic support which appeals to them as being an audible expression of the vague something which they feel within, but do not attempt to voice. the tones of this song when arranged to represent the scale of e minor coincide exactly with the scale tones of two of the tunings of the japanese stringed _koto_. these tunings were both borrowed by the japanese from the chinese by whom they were used as special tunings of the _ch'in_, or _kin_, one of the most ancient of musical instruments. in each of the eleven glissandos shown in the notation, the voices drop suddenly to approximately the tone shown by the small square note. the glides are taken diminuendo, the tone dying away completely. the sudden diminuation of tone taken with a glissando gives an effect something like a short groan. the song is in seven-measure periods. _dang-dang-ay_ record m. sung by women while pounding rice out of the straw and husks. only one voice can be distinguished in the record. it is that of a woman. though strongly pentatonic in character, the song is cast in the diatonic scale of f major. metrically there is considerable freedom. / , / , and / rhythms are thrown in with the most haphazard abandon, yet it has the even pulsing which should dominate a song of this character. the song is in two rather distinct movements. the first, in spite of the two triplets thrown in at the first and third measures, has a straight-away motion which offers a striking contrast to the more graceful, swaying second part which is mostly in triplets. the change from one style to the other is made by the singer with no variation in tempo. it is therefore admirably adapted to accompany the regular falling of the pestles while beating out the rice. near the close of the song are two notes with [sun] over them. these were vocalized on the inhaled breadth (for other examples of inhaled tones, see analysis of record k, _bogoyas_). this song contains seven examples of the "jog" (see _definition of qualities_, p. ). those in the second part of the song are the best defined. one of these is shown with open head. this jog is given the most nearly like the igorot manner of execution of any of the examples found in these fourteen songs. in general character, this song somewhat resembles the boys' part of the _da-eng_ ceremony (record a). _kuilay-kuilay_ record n. sung by women while passing liquor. there is one singer only on this record. it is a woman. the song is given in a lively, jolly, rollicking style. it is cast in the f major scale. the melody has good variety. at times it defines quite clearly the harmonic outline by following the tonal framework of the tonic, dominant, or subordinant chords. passing tones are used more freely and naturally in this song than in any of the others. in the third measure of the fifth line, the singer very plainly vocalizes a half step from f to e. the second and fourth lines also show semitones, though these are not so distinctly given on the record as the other example. in the last measure of the third line there is a modulation into the tonality of b-flat which carries through two measures. in the fifth line are three accents which make the meter rather elusive at that point. the two small notes shown at the beginning of the third line seem to be spoken with no attempt at vocalization. they are notated, however, at the pitch of the speaking voice. the small note shown in the bottom line is given very faintly in the record and seems more like a muffled exclamation than an intentionally vocalized tone. the tempo throughout is quite regular, following the indicated pulse of in both the / and / rhythms. in the latter part of the song there are a number of changes between duple and triple rhythm. the singer makes these changes with perfect ease and sings the groups with that exactness of proportion which characterizes the performance of most of the singers in these records. musically this song is strikingly adapted to the purpose for which it is intended. _tabulation of qualities and characteristics_.--the qualities found in the records have been tabulated under two main headings. under the caption, "rarely or never heard in modern music," are listed those qualities which, so far as present research goes, are so very unusual that they may be termed musical idiosyncrasies of the race. these qualities are so eccentric that if found in several of the songs, even if the number of songs be much in the minority, the qualities may be accepted as characteristics. [ ] to receive recognition as a characteristic, any quality found under the other heading, "commonly heard," would necessarily have to show that it quite persistently occurred throughout a large majority of the songs. the columns of the large table, when read horizontally, show which qualities appear in a given song. read vertically they show the degrees of dominance of the various qualities. the songs are grouped under two heads, those given by men and boys, and those given by women and girls. this will facilitate comparison of the degrees of dominance of the qualities found in the songs of each. [ ] numbers have been put down in some of the columns of the table. these figures indicate the number of times the quality appeared in the song. if the song has several verses on the record, and the quality appears the same number of times in each, then the tabulation gives the number of times in but a single verse. if the verses vary in the use of the quality, then an average has been struck and figure put down in the tabulation. in those songs where a certain quality occurs with such irregularity that it was impossible to represent the average without fractions, only the mark x has been put down in the table, simply to indicate that the quality was present. such qualities as tonality, character, structure, scale, etc., naturally, with few exceptions, run through the whole song, and they are indicated by the x. some songs have both of two opposed qualities. when this occurs, it is shown by checking both qualities. [ ] some qualities which were present, but indeterminable are indicated by an interrogation-point. [ ] following the tabulation is given a detailed explanation or definition of each of the qualities listed at the heads of the vertical columns. _dying tones_.--found only at the end of some few glissandos. on the glide, the volume of sound diminishes so rapidly that when the final tone of the group is reached, the sound has practically died out. the effect is something like a short groan with no anguish in it. sign,--same as a muted note, but written at the end of a glissando. _muted tones_.--sort of half-articulated tones, if i may use that expression. without more records of the same songs in which these are shown, it is not possible to determine whether they are intended by the singers as necessary parts of the records. sign,--note with small square head. _inhaled tones_.--tones produced well back in the throat while sharply inhaling the breath rather than exhaling it, as practiced almost universally by singers. sign,--circle with dot in center. _pulsated tones_.--tones of more than one beat sung with a rythmic stressing usually in accord with the time meter or some multiple of that meter. pulsation is rarely heard among modern musicians, except in drilling ensemble singing. it is heard quite frequently in the singing of our american indians and in the songs of several other primitive peoples. it occurs to some extent in nearly every one of the tinguian men's songs. it is found in but one of those sung by women. though pusation does serve to define the rhythm, i believe it is used by primitive peoples mostly as a purely æsthetic touch. it is indicated in the notation by the usual musical staccato sign thus, --..... _swelled tones_.--tones usually of from two to four beats which are sung with increasing volume to the center, finishing with a decrescendo to the end. the swell is sometimes applied to tones of more than four beats, but when so used, it looses some of its character. swelled tones must be given to single syllables only, and they are the most effective when introduced several times in succession with but few, if any, intervening tones. the sign which i have used is double diverging lines followed by double converging lines placed under the note. in it was my privilege to transcribe a number of native songs from the singing of a group of igorot. in these songs they made frequent use of swelled tones. _downward glissandos_.--an even sliding of the voice from the topmost tone of a group to the lowest with no perceptible dwelling on any intermediate tone and without in any manner defining any of the tones lying between the extremes. sign,--a straight line drawn obliquely downward beneath the group. _upward glissandos_.--an even sliding of the voice upward without sounding any of the intermediate tones. sign,--a straight line drawn obliquely upward beneath the group. _notes in group, beats in measure, or measures in period_.--groups of five seem to have no terrors for these people. in modern music it is extremely unusual to find notes grouped in fives, or measures having the rhythmic value of five beats, or periods made up of measures in fives. a study of the tabulation shows that the tinguian have a rather natural bent for groupings in this number. it seems easy for them to drop into that metric form. i consider this trait, evidenced in their melodies, one of the marked characteristics of their music. [ ] groups of notes, beats, or measures in seven are so few in these records that we are not warranted in accepting it as a characteristic. _jog_.--an over-emphasized short-appoggiatura with always either the tonic or dominant of the key as the principal tone. the first tone is usually an eighth or sixteenth in value, and must stand on the next degree above the principal tone. the principal tone is usually a quarter note or longer in value. in singing the jog, the short note is given a very pointed accent, the voice dropping quickly with a sort of jerk to the second, unaccented, sustained tone. it is executed without sliding, both tones being well-defined. to be most effective, it should be given two, three, or four times consecutively without intervening tones. this device was heard very frequently in the igorot songs; in fact, some of their songs consisted of little else than the jog sounded first on tonic two or three times, then the same number of times on the dominant, then again on the tonic, then on the dominant, and so on back and forth. it would be interesting to know just how commonly this device is used in the singing of the tinguian and also in the music of other tribes of these islands. from it we might learn something of the contact of other tribes with the igorot. japanese scales.--for structure of these scales, see analysis of those songs using one or another of the japanese "tunings" or approximations to them. tonality.--that entire group of harmonies which, intimately related to a foundation or "tonic" chord, may be considered as clustered around and drawn to it. major tonality. that tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of four and seven semitones respectively from it. minor tonality. that tonality in which the upper two of the three tones constituting its tonic chord, when ranged upward from its foundation tone, are found at distances of three and seven semitones respectively from it. pentatonic character. that peculiar essence or quality which a melody has when it is built up entirely or almost wholly of the tones of the pentatonic or five-note scale. the melody may employ sparingly one or both of the two tones foreign to the pentatonic scale, and yet its pentatonic character will not be destroyed. diatonic character. that quality which a melody takes on when the two tones which are foreign to the pentatonic scale of the same key or tonality are freely employed. i use this term in contradistinction to "pentatonic character," and not in contradistinction to "chromatic," as it is usually employed in musical literature. melodic structure. that form of flowing succession of tones in which the accented tones, if considered in sequence, show dominant non-adherence to chord intervals. _harmonic structure_. that form of tonal succession in which the tones of the melody follow rather persistently the structural outline of chords. _major pentatonic scale_. that scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and whole-and-a-half-step intervals,--(whole) (whole) (whole-and-a-half) (whole) (whole-and-a-half). _minor pentatonic scale_. that scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and whole-and-a-half step intervals,--(whole-and-a-half) (whole) (whole) (whole-and-a-half) (whole). the pentatonic scale is markedly primitive in character. it is known to have been in use anterior to the time of guido d'arezzo, which would give it a date prior to the beginning of the th century. [ ] rowbotham ascribes the invention of scales to those primitive musicians who, striving for greater variety in their one-toned chants, added first one newly-discovered tone, then another, and another. [ ] the pentatonic scale might have resulted from such chanting. most of the primitive peoples of the present day do not seem to feel or "hear mentally" the half step. if musicians of early days had this same failing, it was only natural for them to avoid that interval by eliminating from their songs one or the other of each couplet of tones which if sung would form a half step, thus their chants would be pentatonic. not only do people in the primitive state fail to sense the half step, but also people in modern environment who have heard very infrequently this smallest interval of modern music. inability to sense this interval may be better understood when we stop to consider that most of us find it unnatural and difficult to hear mentally the still smaller quarter-step interval or one of the even-yet-smaller sub-divisions of the octave which some peoples have come to recognize through cultivation, and have embodied in their music. this tendency to avoid the half step and develop along the line of pentatonic character is sometimes seen in our own children when they follow their natural bent in singing. it has been my observation that children with some musical creative ability, but unaccustomed to hearing modern music with its half steps, almost invariably hum their bits of improvised melody in the pentatonic scale. _major diatonic scale_. that scale in which the constituent tones if considered in upward sequence would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,--(whole) (whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (whole) (half). _natural minor diatonic scale_. that scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,--(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (half) (whole) (whole). _harmonic minor diatonic scale_. that scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of half, whole and whole-and-a-half step intervals,--(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (half) (whole-and-a-half) (half). _melodic minor diatonic scale_ (_ascending_). that scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,--(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (whole) (whole) (half). _falsetto_. artificial or strained head-tones which sound an octave above the natural tone. sign,--a tiny circle above the note. in record l. _naway_ is shown one falsetto tone. it is unusual to find this effect in a woman's voice. _semitones sung_. this needs no definition. the classification is put down to show to what extent these singers appreciate the half-step intervals, and are able to vocalize it (see preceeding definition of pentatonic scale for footnote relative to appreciation of this interval). sign,--curved bracket above or below the notes. in these records the men use the half-step interval in six of their seven songs, while the women make use of it in but three of their eight songs. _appoggiature_. these, with the exception of one double one shown in the _bagoyas_ (record g), are all of the single, short variety. the singers execute them with the usual quickness heard in modern music, but with the accent about equally divided between the appoggiatura and the principal tone. in the transcription they are indicated by the usual musical symbol,--a small eighth note with a slanting stroke through the hook. _mordents_. those used in these songs are all of the "inverted" kind, and were executed by the singers in the manner used by modern musicians; that is, by giving a quick, single alternation of the principal tone with the next scale tone above. indicated in the score by the usual musical symbol. _trills and wavers_. these need no comment except to call attention to the fact that there are none found in the regular songs of the women. the one shown in record i (_da-eng,_ boys and girls alternating) is in the boys' part. _changing between duple and triple rhythm_. i consider this quite a striking quality in these songs. some primitive peoples show little concern over such rhythmic changes, in fact, among some races where percussive instruments are used to accompany the singing, we frequently hear the two rhythms at the same time fitted perfectly one against the other. this is especially true among our american indians. while it is not uncommon to find compositions in modern music using these two rhythms alternately, they are alternated rather sparingly. a great many musicians have difficulty in passing smoothly from one to the other, preserving perfect proportions in the note values. in noting down in the table the findings under this head, i have put down under each song, not the number of duple or triple or quadruple groups in the song, but rather the number of "changes" which occur. after one has made the transition from one style of rhythm to the other, and has the new "swing" established, manifestly it is no special feat to follow along in that same kind of measure; but the real test is the "change" to the rhythm of the other sort. for instance, in the song of the spirit (record e), i find but measures and parts of measures which are in triple rhythm, yet the singer had to change his meter times to execute these. on the other hand, the _dang-dang-ay_ (record m), has in it triple-time measures and triplet groups of notes, but because of the persistence of the triple rhythm, when once established in the second part, the song requires a changing of swing but times. because of the frequency of changes found throughout these songs, and noting, as heard in the records, the precision with which, in nearly every instance, a new rhythm is taken, i conclude that the tinguian have a remarkable grasp of different metric values, which enables them to change readily from one to the other. naturally this trait would stamp itself upon their music, and i consider the use of such frequent metric changes a dominant characteristic. although frequent rhythmic change is also strongly characteristic of the music of some other peoples, as i have indicated elsewhere, it is important to tabulate it here to differentiate the tinguian from those peoples who do not make use of it. _minor rds, perfect ths, and perfect ths_. these are the only intentional harmonies found in these songs. it is interesting to note that the only examples are in the _da-eng_ ceremony, where all three are used, some in one part and some in another. among some primitive peoples, only the men take part in the songs. the early chanting of all peoples was quite likely by men. probably the most primitive harmony was a perfect fifth resulting from the attempt of men with different ranges to sing together. the difference between a bass and a tenor voice is just about a fifth. between an alto and a soprano it is about a fourth. the difference in these voices made it impossible to sing melodies of wide range in unison, and so the basses and tenors sang in consecutive fifths. when women took up the chanting, they sang either in fifths or in fourths. these harmonies appealed to them, and so continued in use even when there was no exigency on account of restricted range. referring again to the _da-eng_ ceremony, it is interesting to observe that the three different parts of this ceremony are in distinct scales, and that the part sung by the girls alone, is diatonic in character while the other two parts are pentatonic. _conclusion_.--i have long been of the opinion that the music of different peoples should be given more consideration by scientists in their endeavor to trace cultural relationships. in years gone by, ethnologists have attached too little importance to the bearing which music has on their science. i am of the opinion that every peculiarity, even to the smallest element that enters into the make-up of a given melody, has some influence back of it which has determined the element and shaped it into combination. it is not unlikely that a thorough study of the music would reveal these influences, and through them establish hitherto unknown ethnological facts. i believe that a careful study of a large number of the songs or instrumental pieces of a people will reveal a quite definite general scheme of construction which can be accepted as representative of that people alone; and if such an analysis be made of the music of many peoples and the findings so tabulated that the material will be comprehensible to ethnologists trained to that branch of musical research, many interesting and instructive side-lights will be thrown on the question of tribal relationship. i realize that to examine exhaustively and then tabulate the characteristics found in the music of just one of the many peoples of the globe would be something of an undertaking; but nevertheless i believe the work should be undertaken in this large way, and when it is, i am sure the results will justify the experiment. i appreciate that there is an intangible something about music, which may prove baffling when it comes to reducing it to cold scientific symbols and descriptions. take, for instance, quality of tone. each one of us knows perfectly the various qualities of the different speaking voices of friends and acquaintances, yet how many of us can so accurately describe those qualities to a stranger that he also may be able to identify the voices among a thousand others. the tabulation of such elusive qualities would have to be in very general terms. such indefinable characteristics would, to some extent, have to depend for comparison upon the memory of those workers who had received first-hand impressions. it would be something like a present-day musician identifying an unfamiliar composition as belonging to the "french school," the "italian school," or the "russian school;" and yet, this same musician might not be able to point out with definiteness a single characteristic of that particular so-called "school." though i have held these opinions for several years, i am more than ever convinced, since examining these few tinguian records, that something really tangible and worth while can be deduced from the music of various primitive peoples, and i trust this branch of ethnology will soon receive more serious recognition. manifestly it would be unwise to draw any unalterable conclusions from the examination of but fourteen records of a people. but even in this comparatively small number of songs, ranging as they do over such a variety of applications and uses, it is possible to see tendencies which the examination of more records may confirm as definite characteristics. while it would be presumptuous at this time to attempt to formulate a tinguian style, i trust that what i have tabulated may prove valuable in summing up the total evidence, which will accumulate as other surveys are made; and if perchance, the findings here set down and the conclusions tentatively drawn from them help to clear up any obscure ethnological point, the effort has been well spent. _albert gale_. conclusions the first impression gained by the student of philippine ethnology is that there is a fundamental unity of the philippine peoples, the negrito excepted, not only in blood and speech, but in religious beliefs and practices, in lore, in customs, and industries. it is realized that contact with outside nations has in many ways obscured the older modes of thought, and has often swamped native crafts, while each group has doubtless developed many of its present customs on philippine soil; yet it seems that enough of the old still remains to proclaim them as a people with a common ancestry. to what extent this belief is justified can be answered, in part, by the material in the preceding pages. a study of the physical types has shown that each group considered is made up of heterogeneous elements. pigmy blood is everywhere evident, but aside from this there is a well-marked brachycephalic and a dolichocephalic element. with the latter is a greater tendency than with the first for the face to be angular; the cheek bones are more outstanding, while there is a greater length and breadth of the nose. individuals of each type are found in all the groups considered, but taken in the average, it is found that the ilocano and valley tinguian fall into the first or round-headed class, the bontoc igorot are mesaticephalic, while between them are the mountain tinguian and apayao. judging from their habitat and the physical data, it appears that the igorot groups were the first comers; that the brachycephalic ilocano-tinguian arrived later and took possession of the coast, and that the two groups have intermarried to form the intermediate peoples. however, a comparison of our luzon measurements with the people of southern china and the perak malay leads us to believe that the tribes of northwestern luzon are all closely related to the dominant peoples of southern china, indo-china, and malaysia in general, in all of which the intermingling of these types is apparent. the dialects of northwestern luzon, while not mutually intelligible, are similar in morphology, and have a considerable part of their vocabularies in common. here again the igorot is at one extreme, the ilocano and valley tinguian at the other, while the intervening groups are intermediate, but with a strong leaning toward the coast tongue. considering, for the moment, the bontoc igorot and the tinguian, it is found that both have certain elements of culture which are doubtless old possessions, as, for instance, head-hunting, terraced rice-fields, iron-working, a peculiar type of shield, and a battle-axe which they share with the apayao of luzon and the naga of assam. a part or all of these may be due to a common heritage, at any rate, they help to strengthen the feeling that in remote times these peoples were closely related. but a detailed study of their social organizations; of their ceremonies, songs, and dances; of their customs at birth, marriage, death, and burial; of their house-building; as well as the details of certain occupations, such as the rice culture, pottery making, and weaving, indicates that not only have they been long separated, but that they have been subjected to very different outside influences, probably prior to their entry into the philippines. it is not in the province of this monograph to deal with the probable affiliations of the igorot, neither is it our intention to attempt to locate the ancient home of the tinguian, nor to connect them with any existing groups. however, our information seems to justify us in certain general conclusions. it shows that the oft repeated assertions of chinese ancestry are without foundation. it shows that, while trade with china had introduced hundreds of pieces of pottery and some other objects into this region, yet chinese influence had not been of an intimate enough nature to influence the language or customs, or to introduce any industry. on the other hand, we find abundant evidence that in nearly every phase of life the tinguian were at one time strongly influenced by the peoples to the south, and even to-day show much in common with java, sumatra, the malay peninsula, and through them with india. as a case in point we find in the procedure at birth that the tinguian are in accord with the peninsular malay in at least eight particulars, some of which, such as the burning of a fire beside the mother and newborn babe for a month or more, the frequent bathing of both in water containing leaves and herbs, the "fumigating" of the baby, the throwing of ashes to blind evil spirits, are sufficiently distinctive to indicate a common source, particularly when they still occur together in connection with one of the great events of life. frequent reference has been made to the parallels between tinguian customs and those practiced in sumatra, while the methods of rice-culture are so similar that they can have come only from the same source. in the weaving the influence of india seems evident, despite the fact that cotton is not bowed in abra, and the tinguian method of spinning seems unique. these methods, apparently distinctive, may once have been practised more broadly, but were superseded by more efficient instruments. the primitive method of ginning cotton by rolling it beneath a tapering rod appears to be found nowhere in the philippines outside of abra, but it is used in some remote sections of burma. part i of this volume presented a body of tales which showed many resemblances to the islands of the south, as well as incidents of indian lore. there is, in fact, a distinct feeling of indian influence in the tales of the mythical period; yet they lack the epics of that people, and the typical trickster tales are but poorly represented. the vocabulary shows comparatively little of indian influence; yet, at the time of the conquest, the ilocano was one of the coast groups making use of a native script which was doubtless of hindu origin. the many instances of indian influence do not justify the supposition that the tinguian were ever directly in contact with that people. the malay islands to the south were pretty thoroughly under hindu domination by the second century of the christian era, and it is probable that they were influenced through trade at a considerably earlier date. judging from our data, it would seem that the ilocano-tinguian group had left its southern home at a time after this influence was beginning to make itself felt, but before it was of a sufficiently intimate nature to stamp itself indelibly on the lore, the ceremonial and economic life of this people, as it did in java and some parts of sumatra. it is possible that these points of similarity may be due to trade, but if so, the contact was at a period antedating the fourteenth century, for in historic times the sea trade of the southern islands has been in the hands of the mohammedanized malay. their influence is very marked in the southern philippines, but is not evident in northwestern luzon. concerning the time of their arrival in luzon, and the course pursued by them, we have no definite proof; but it is evident that the tinguian did not begin to press inland until comparatively recent times. historical references and local traditions indicate that most of this movement has taken place since the arrival of the spaniards, while the distribution of the great ceremonies gives a further suggestion that the dominant element in the tinguian population has been settled in abra for no great period. the probable explanation for this distribution is that the interior valleys were sparsely settled with a population more akin to the igorot than to the tinguian, prior to the inland movement of the latter people; that the tinguian were already possessed of the highly developed ceremonial life, before they entered abra, and that this has been spread slowly, through intermarriage and migration, to the people on the outskirts of their territory. these ceremonies are still practised by some families now residing in christianized settlements in abra and ilocos sur, while discreet questioning soon brings out the fact that they were formerly present in towns which have long been recognized as ilocano. the relationship of the tinguian and ilocano has already been shown by the physical data and historical references; but were these lacking, it requires but a little inquiry and the compilation of geneaological tables to show that many ilocano families are related to the tinguian. it is a matter of common observation that the chief barrier between the two groups is religion, and, once let the pagan accept christianity, he and his family are quickly absorbed by the ilocano. uninterrupted trade with the coast in recent years, spanish and american influence, have doubtless affected considerable changes in the tinguian. if, however, we subtract recent introductions, it is probable that we have in the life of this tribe an approximate picture of conditions among the more advanced of the northern philippine groups prior to the entry of the european into their islands. notes [ ] the _bontoc_ igorot is taken as one of the least influenced and most typical of the igorot groups. [ ] on this point see _cole_, the distribution of the non-christian tribes of northwestern luzon (_american anthropologist_, n.s., vol. xi, , pp. - ). [ ] these are ballasio, nagbuquel, vandrell, rizal, mision, mambog, and masingit. kadangla-an, pila, kolongbuyan (sapang) and montero are mixed tinguian and igorot. [ ] see _cole_, the tinguian (_philippine journal of science_, vol. iii, no. , sect. a, , pp. , _et seq_.). [ ] _beyer_ (population of the philippine islands in , p. , manila, ) gives the population as , . [ ] north of abra it is known as the cordillera norte. [ ] this river traffic is entirely in the hands of the christianized ilocano. rafts seldom proceed up the river beyond bangued, the capital, and at low water even this distance is negotiated with difficulty. [ ] historical references to this trade, as well as to the spanish invasion of ilocos, will be found in _reyes_, historia de ilocos, manila, ; _fray gaspar de s. augustin_, conquista de las islas filipinas (manila, ), p. ; _medina_, historia, translated in _blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vol. xxiii, pp. , _et seq_. see also translation of _loarca_ and others in same publication, vol. iii, p. , note; vol. v, p. ; vol. xv, p. ; vol. xvii, p. . [ ] _loraca_, , translated in _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. v, p. . [ ] _laufer_, relations of the chinese to the philippine islands (_smithsonian miscellaneous collections_, vol. i, pp. , et seq.) [ ] _cole_ and _laufer_, chinese pottery in the philippines (field museum of natural history, vol. xii, no. ). [ ] _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. xvii, p. ; also iii, p. , note; v, p. ; xv, p. . [ ] _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. xxxiv, pp. , _et seq._ [ ] _colin_ (labor evangelica, chap. iv, madrid ), calls the manguian of mindoro and the zambal, tingues. _morga, chirino_, and _ribera_ also use the same name for the natives of basilan, bohol, and mindanao (see _blair_ and _robertson_, _op cit_., vols. iv, p. ; x, p. ; xiii, pp. , ). later writers have doubtless drawn on these accounts to produce the weird descriptions sometimes given of the tinguian now under discussion. it is said (_op. cit_., vol. xl, p. , note) that the radical _ngian_, in pampanga, indicates "ancient," a meaning formerly held in other philippine languages, and hence tinguian would probably mean "old or ancient, or aboriginal mountain dwellers." [ ] _reyes_, historia de ilocos, p. (manila, ), also filipinas articulos varios, p. (manila, ); _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. xiv, pp. - ; vol. xxviii, p. . [ ] _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. xxviii, p. . [ ] _antonio mozo_, _noticia_ histórico-natural (madrid, ), in _blair_ and _robertson_, vol. xlviii, p. . [ ] these were: tayum ; pidigan ; la paz and san gregorio ; bukay (labon) . for further details of this mission see _villacorta_, breve resumen de los progresos de la religion catolica en la admirable conversion de los indios igorotes y tinguianes (madrid, ). [ ] _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit_., vol. xxxviii, p. . [ ] discussions concerning the chinese origin of the tinguian will be found in _mallat_, les philippines, vol. i, pp. - ; vol. ii, pp. - , (paris, ); _plauchet_, l'archipel des philippines (_revue des deux mondes_, , p. ); _buzeto y bravo_, diccionario geografico estadistico historico; _semper_, die philippinen und ihre bewohner (würzburg, ); _blumentritt_, versuch einer ethnographie der philippinen (_peterman's mittheilungen_, , no. ); _reyes_, die tinguianen (_mittheilungen k. k. geogr. gesellschaft in wien_, , p. , _et seq._); _reyes_, filipinas articulos varios (manila, ); _sanchez y ruiz_, razas de filipinas, usos y custombres, memoria exposicion general, pp. , , (manila, ); _montblanc_, les isles philippines, p. (paris, ); _montero y vidal_, el archipelago filipino, p. (manila, ); _bowring_, a visit to the philippines, p. (london, ); _sawyer_, the inhabitants of the philippines, p. (london, ); _zuniga_, historia, pp. - (sampaloc, ); _colin_, labor evangelica, vol. i, chaps. , - (madrid, ); _blair_ and _robertson_ (the philippine islands, vol. xl, pp. , _et seq._) give a translation of _san antonio_ chronicas, written in manila between - , also of _colin_, labor evangelica, of ; _brinton_, the peoples of the philippines (_am. anthropologist_, vol. xi, , p. ). [ ] _paul de la gironière_, vingt années aux philippines (paris, ); _stuntz_, the philippines and the far east, p. (new york, ). [ ] quoted by _paterno_, la antigua civilizacion tagalog, pp. - (madrid, ). [ ] _brinton_, the peoples of the philippines (_am. anthropologist_, vol. xi, , p. ). see also _de quatrefages_, histoire générale des races humaines, pp. - , - . [ ] census of the philippine islands of , pp. - . [ ] the non-christian tribes of northern luzon (_philippine journal of science_, vol. i, pp. , , manila, ). [ ] _blumentritt_ (ethnographie der philippinen, introduction; also _american anthropologist_, vol. xi, , p. ) has advanced the theory of three malay invasions into the philippines. to the first, which is put at about b.c., belong the igorot, apayao, and tinguian, but the last are considered as of a later period. the second invasion occurred about a.d. - , and includes the tagalog, visaya, ilocano, and other alphabet-using peoples. the third is represented by the mohammedan groups which began to enter the islands in the fourteenth century. [ ] _brinton_ (_am. anthropologist_, vol. xi, , p. ) states that the ilocano of northwestern luzon are markedly chinese in appearance and speech, but he fails to give either authorities or examples to substantiate this claim. for indian influence on philippine dialects, see _pardo de tavera_, el sanscrito e la lingua tagalog (paris, ); also _williams_, manual and dictionary of ilocano (manila, ). [ ] a detailed study of the language is not presented in this volume. the author has a large collection of texts which will be published at a later date, together with a study of the principal tinguian dialects. a short description of the ilocano language, by the writer, will be found in the new international encyclopædia. [ ] a more detailed study of these tribes will be given in a forthcoming volume on philippine physical types. [ ] observations on ilocano skulls are tabulated by _koeze_ (crania ethnica philippinica, pp. - , haarlem, - ). [ ] a short series of igorot skull measurements is given by _koeze_ (crania ethnica philippinica, pp. - , haarlem, - ). [ ] _am. anthropologist_, , pp. - . [ ] notes sur les chinois du quang-si (_l'anthropologie_, vol. ix, , pp. - ). [ ] the races of man, pp. , , _et seq_.(london, ). [ ] _martin_, inlandstämme der malayischen halbinsel, pp. , , , (jena, ). [ ] for measurements on the northern chinese and the formosa chinese see _koganei_, messungen an chinesischen soldaten (_mitt. med. fak. k. japan. univ. tokio_, , vol. vi, no. ), und messungen an männlichen chinesen-schädeln (_internat. centralblatt für anthropologie_, , pp. , _et seq_.). [ ] for other observations on malaysia, in general, see _annandale_ and _robinson_ (_jour. anth. inst.,_ vol. xxxii, ); _keane_, ethnology (cambridge, ); _duckworth_ (_jour. anth. inst._, vol. xxxii); _hose_ and _mcdougall_ (the pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, pp. , _et seq._) give results by _haddon_; _hamy_ (_l'anthropologie_, vol. vii, paris, ); _hagen_, anthropologische studien aus insulinde (amsterdam, ); _sullivan_, racial types in the philippine islands (_anth. papers, american museum of nat. hist._, vol. xiii, pt. , new york, ). [ ] _sullivan_ (_anthropological papers, american museum nat. history_, vol. xxiii, pt. , p. ) gives a graphic correlation of stature, cephalic and nasal indices, which shows a striking similarity between the tagalog and pangasinan of the philippines, and the southern chinese. had he made use of jenks's measurements of the bontoc igorot, that group would also have approached quite closely to those already mentioned. the same method applied to the ilocano and tinguian shows them to conform to this type. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian (this volume, no. ). [ ] the eating of double bananas or vegetables is avoided, as it is thought to result in the birth of twins. the birth of twin girls is a particular misfortune; for their parents are certain to fare badly in any trades or sales to which they may be parties. [ ] the importance of gratifying the longings of pregnant women appears in the legends of the malay peninsula. see _wilkinson_, malay beliefs, p. (london, ). _hildebrandt_ states that the indian law books such as yajñavalkya (iii, ) make it a duty to fulfill the wishes of a woman at this time, since otherwise the embryo would be exposed to injury. encyclopædia of religion and ethics, vol. ii, p. . [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , pp. , . [ ] see _op. cit_., p. . [ ] see _op. cit_., pp. , _et seq_. [ ] see _op. cit_., p. . [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] to produce a miscarriage, a secret liquor is made from the bark of a tree. after several drinks of the brew, the abdomen is kneaded and pushed downward until the foetus is discharged. a canvass of forty women past the child-bearing age showed an average, to each, of five children, about per cent of whom died in infancy. apparently about the same ratio of births is being maintained at present. [ ] the gifts vary according to the ceremony. for this event, the offerings consist of a chinese jar with earrings fastened into the handles--"ears"--, a necklace of beads and a silver wire about its neck; a wooden spoon, a weaving stick, and some bone beads. [ ] this is known as _palwig_. [ ] this action is called _tolgi_. [ ] in the san juan district _gipas_ is a separate two-day ceremony, which takes place about nine months after the birth. in baak a part of the _dawak_ ceremony goes by this name. [ ] this is known as _inálson_, and is "such a blanket as is always possessed by a spirit." see p. . [ ] this is also the method of delivery among the kayan of borneo. see _hose_ and _mcdougall_, the pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. (london, ), also _cole_, the wild tribes of davao district, mindanao (field museum of natural history, vol. xii. no. , p. ). _skeat_ (malay magic, p. , london, ) describes a similar method among the malay. [ ] among the bukidnon and bila-an of mindanao a bamboo blade is always employed for this purpose. the same is true of the kayan of borneo. _hose_ and _mcdougall_, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. ; _cole_, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . it is also the belief of the peninsular malay that the incidental products of a confinement may be endowed with life (_wilkinson_, malay beliefs, p. ). [ ] the character e, which appears frequently in the native names, is used to indicate a sound between the obscure vowel _e_, as in sun, and the _ur_, in burrow. [ ] the number of days varies somewhat in different sections, and is generally longer for the first child than for the succeeding. [ ] the custom of building a fire beside the mother is practised among the malay, jakun and mantri of the peninsula. in india, the practice of keeping a fire beside the newborn infant, in order to protect it from evil beings, is widespread. see _tawney_, kathá sarit ságara, vol. i, pp. , , note; vol. ii, p. (calcutta, ). according to _skeat_ (malay magic, p. ), the malay keep the fire burning forty-four days. the custom is called the "roasting of the mother." the same custom is found in cambodia (see encyclopædia of religion and ethics, vol. iii, pp. , , ; vol. viii, p. ). [ ] this may be related to the malay custom of fumigating the infant (see _skeat_, _op. cit._, p. ). [ ] the following names are typical of this last class. for boys: ab'beng, a child's song; agdalpen, name of a spirit; baguio, a storm; bakileg, a glutton; kabato, from _bato_, a stone; tabau, this name is a slur, yet is not uncommon; it signifies "a man who is a little crazy, who is sexually impotent, and who will mind all the women say;" otang, the sprout of a vine; zapalan, from _zapal_, the crotch of a tree. for girls: bangonán, from _bangon_, "to rise, to get up;" igai, from _nigai_, a fish; giaben, a song; magilai, from _gilai_ the identifying slit made in an animal's ear; sabak, a flower; ugot, the new leaf. [ ] in madagascar children are oftentimes called depreciative names, such as rat, with the hope that evil spirits will leave tranquil an infant for which the parents have so little consideration (_grandidier_, ethnologie de madagascar, vol. ii). [ ] in selangor, a sick infant is re-named (_skeat_, _op. cit._, p. ). [ ] _reyes_, filipinas articulos varios, st ed., pp. - (manila, ). [ ] the malay of the peninsula bathe both mother and child morning and evening, in hot water to which certain leaves and blossoms are added. it is here described as an act of purification (_skeat_, _op. cit._, pp. - ). [ ] also called _salokang_ (cf. p. ). [ ] filipinas articulos varios, p. . [ ] _f. de lerena_, _ilustracion filipina_, no. , p. (manila, nov. , ). an equally interesting account of tinguian procedure at the time of birth will be found in the account of _polo de lara_, islas filipinas, tipos y costumbres, pp. , _et seq._ [ ] in san juan. ibal is always held in six months, unless illness has caused an earlier celebration. at this time the liver of a pig is carefully examined, in order to learn of the child's future. [ ] in likuan this takes place five days after the birth; in sallapadan it occurs on the first or second day. [ ] on the mat are placed, in addition to the medium's regular outfit, a small jar of _basi_, five pieces of betel-nut and pepper-leaf, two bundles of rice (_palay_) in a winnower, a head-axe, and a spear. [ ] this is a _dakidak_ (cf. p. ). [ ] such a taboo sign is here known as _kanyau_. it is not always used at the conclusion of this ceremony, but is strictly observed following the cutting of the first rice. [ ] that is, a premature child. [ ] ashes are used against evil spirits by the peninsular malay (_skeat_, malay magic, p. ). [ ] sagai is the sound made when scratching away the embers of a fire. [ ] from _maysa_, one; _dua_, two; _talo_, three. [ ] this is also used as mockery. it has no exact english equivalent, but is similar to our slang "rubber." [ ] in patok only the agate bead (_napodau_) is used. [ ] the less pretentious gathering, held by the very poor, is known as _pólya_. [ ] _worcester_, the non-christian tribes of northern luzon (_philippine jour. of science_, vol. i, no. , , p. ). [ ] it is necessary to use a shallow dish with a high pedestal known as _dias_ (fig. , no. ). [ ] in ba-ak the breaking and scattering of the rice ball is considered a good omen, as it presages many children. in san juan the youth throws a rice ball at the ridge pole of the house, and the girl's mother does the same. in this instance, each grain of rice which adheres to the pole represents a child to be born. [ ] the similarity of the tinguian rice ceremony to that of many other philippine tribes is so great that it cannot be due to mere chance. customs of a like nature were observed by the writer among the bukidnon, bagobo, bila-an, kulaman, and mandaya of mindanao, and the batak of palawan; they are also described by _reed_ and _worcester_ for the negrito of zambales and bataan; while _loarca_, writing late in the sixteenth century, records a very like ceremony practised by a coast group, probably the pintados. at the same time it is worthy of note that _jenks_ found among the bontoc igorot a great divergence both in courtship and marriage. among the dusun of british north borneo the marriage of children of the well-to-do is consummated by the eating of rice from the same plate. other instances of eating together, as a part of the marriage ceremony in malaysia, are given by _crawley_. see _cole_, the wild tribes of davao district, mindanao (field museum of natural history. vol. xii, no. , pp. , , , ); _reed_, negritos of zambales (_pub. ethnological survey,_ vol. ii, pt. , p. (manila, )); _worcester_, _philippine journal of science_, vol. i, p. (manila, ); _loarca_, relacion de las yslas filipinas, chap. x (arevalo, ), translated in _blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vol. v, pp. , _et seq_.; _jenks_, the bontoc igorot (_pub. ethnological survey_, vol. i, pp. , _et seq_., manila, ); _evans_, _journ. royal anth. inst_., vol. xlvii, p. ; _crawley_, the mystic rose (london, ), pp. , _et seq._ [ ] in manabo an old woman sleeps between them. among the bagobo and kulaman, of mindanao, a child is placed between the pair. see _cole_, _op. cit_., pp. , . [ ] in likuan they chew of the same betel-nut. among the batak of palawan they smoke of the same cigar. [ ] this part of the ceremony is now falling into disuse. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] here again the tinguian ceremony closely resembles the ancient custom described by _loarca_. in his account, the bride was carried to the house of the groom. at the foot of the stairway she was given a present to induce her to proceed; when she had mounted the steps, she received another, as she looked in upon the guests, another. before she could be induced to set down, to eat and drink, she was likewise given some prized object. _loarca_, relacion de las yslas filipinas, chap. x; also _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit._, vol. v, p. . [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . the origin of death is also given in the tales, _ibid_., p. . [ ] the spirit of the dead is generally known as _kalading_, but in manabo it is called _kal-kolayó_ and in likuan _alalya_; in ilokano, _al-aliá_ means "phantom" or "ghost." [ ] in some villages selday is the spirit against whom this precaution is taken. [ ] in daligan and some other villages in ilocos norte, a chicken is killed, is burned in a fire, and then is fastened beside the door in place of the live bird. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] during the funeral of malakay, in patok, august , , the wife kept wailing, "malakay, malakay, take me with you where you go. malakay, malakay, take me with you. i have no brother. we were together here, do not let us part. malakay, take me with you where you go." [ ] in manabo the wife is covered at night with a white blanket, but during the day she wears it bandoleer fashion over one shoulder. in ba-ak a white blanket with black border is used in a similar way. if the wife has neglected her husband during his illness, his relatives may demand that she be punished by having a second blanket placed over her, unless she pays them a small amount. it sometimes occurs that the lakay or old men impose both fine and punishment. in likuan the blanket is placed over the corpse and the wife. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] this is still the case among the apayao who live to the north of the tinguian (_cole_, _am. anthropologist_, vol. ii, no. , , p. ). the custom is reflected in the folk-tales (traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. ; cf. also p. ). [ ] the writer has known of instances, where towns were deserted following an epidemic of smallpox, and the dead were left unburied in the houses. such instances are unusual even for this dread disease, and the funeral observances usually expose large numbers of the people to infection. [ ] in san juan only thirty strokes are given. [ ] in manabo a rectangular hole is dug to about five feet, then at right angles to this a chamber is cut to receive the body. this is cut off from the main grave by a stone. a similar type of grave is found in sumatra (_marsden_, history of sumatra, d ed., p. , london, ). [ ] according to this author, the tinguian put the dried remains of their dead in subterranean tombs or galleries, six or seven yards in depth, the entrance being covered with a sort or trap door (_la gironière_, twenty years in the philippines, p. , london, ). [ ] _op. cit.,_ p. . [ ] as distinguished from those of the dead. [ ] several times the writer has seen friends place money inside the mat, "so that the spirit may have something to spend." [ ] the large spirit house, built only by well-to-do families having the hereditary right. [ ] in the folk tales a very different method of disposing of the dead is indicated (traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , pp. - , and note). [ ] among the tuaran dusun of british north borneo, a fire is built near the mat on which the corpse lies, to protect the body from evil spirits, who are feared as body snatchers (_evans_, _jour. ant. inst.,_ vol. xlvii, , p. ). [ ] these consist of dishes, food, tobacco, fire-making outfit, weapons, clothing, and the like. [ ] in ilocos sur a ceremony which lifts the ban off the relatives is held about five days after the funeral. three months later, the blood and oil are applied to the spouse, who is then released from all restrictions. in san juan and lakub, a ceremony known as _kilyas_ is held five days after the funeral. the anointing is done as described above, and then the medium drops a ball of rice under the house, saying, "go away sickness and death, do not come to our relatives." when she has finished, drums are brought out, all the relatives dance and "forget the sorrow," and are then released from all taboos. the layog is celebrated as in the valley towns. [ ] also known as _waxi_ in san juan, and _bagoñgon_ in sallapadin. in the latter village, as well as in manabo and ba-ak, this ceremony occurs a few days after the funeral. [ ] this is known as _apapáyag_ or _inapapayag_ (p. ). [ ] the foregoing ceremonies follow the death of any adult, male or female, but not of newborn children. if the first-born dies in infancy, it is buried in the middle of the night when no one can see the corpse, otherwise other babies will die. the parents don old garments, and are barred from leaving the town or engaging in pastimes, until the ten-day period has passed. no fire is built at the grave, nor are offerings placed over it. when some one else is holding a _layog_, the parents may join them "to relieve their sorrow and show respect for the dead." [ ] a folk-tale recorded in this town gives quite a different idea of the abode of the spirits (traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. ; also p. , note ). [ ] functions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures (paris, ). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , pp. - [ ] for a full discussion of this subject, see _cole_, relations between the living and the dead (_am. jour. of sociology,_ vol. xxi, no. , , pp. , et seq.). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] in manabo it is said that there are five sons, who reside in the spirit houses known as _tangpap, alalot,_ and _pungkew_. [ ] the people of manabo say, he resides in the spirit-structures known as _balaua, sogayab, batog,_and _balag_ (cf. pp. , _et seq.)_ [ ] among the ifugao, kabúnian is the lowest of the three layers which make up the heavens (_beyer_, origin myths among the mountain peoples of the philippines, _phil. jour. of science,_ vol. viii, no. , , p. ). [ ] traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] traditions of the tinguian, this volume. no. , p. . [ ] the medium is also sometimes called _manganito_. [ ] similar mediums and possession were observed among the ancient visayans. see _blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vol. v, p. ; _perez_ writing concerning zambales says of their mediums, "he commences to shiver, his whole body trembling, and making many faces by means of his eyes; he generally talks, sometimes between his teeth, without any one understanding him. sometimes he contents himself with wry faces which he makes with his eyes and the trembling of all his body. after a few moments he strikes himself on the knee, and says he is the _anito_ to whom the sacrifice is being made." see _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit.,_vol. xlvii, p. . [ ] among the ancient tagalog, charms made of herbs, stones, and wood, were used to infuse the heart with love (_blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vol vii, p. ). similar practices are found in india, among the selangor of the malay peninsula, among the bagobo of mindanao and in japan: see _roy_, _jour. royal anth, inst.,_vol. xliv, , p. ; _skeat_ and _blagden_, pagan races of the malay peninsula, p. ; _benedict_, bagobo ceremonial, magic and myth, p. _(annals n. y. academy of sciences,_ vol. xxv, ); _hildburgh_, _man_, nov. , pp. , _et seq.; trans. japan soc,_ vol. viii, pp. , _et seq._ [ ] the _salaksak_ was also the omen bird of the zambales (_blair_ and _robertson_, philippine islands, vol. xlvii, p. ). [ ] predicting of the future through the flight of birds, or by means of the entrails of slain animals, is widespread, not only in the philippines and malaysia generally, but was equally important in ancient babylonia and rome. the resemblances are so many that certain writers, namely, _hose_ and _mcdougall_, _kroeber_, and _laufer_ are inclined to credit them to common historical influences. see _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. (london, ); _kroeber_, peoples of the philippines (_american museum of natural history,_ handbook series, no. , p. , new york, ); _laufer_, _toung pao, _ , pp. - . [ ] for the _diam_ recited at this time, see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] more frequently the medium uses a piece of lead or one of the shells of her _piling_ for this purpose. in many villages the medium, while calling the spirits, wears one head-band for each time the family has made this ceremony. [ ] had they not possessed a _balaua_, they would have made this offering in the dwelling. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. i, pp. - . [ ] the _sagang_ is the sharpened pole, which was passed through the _foramen magnum_ of a captured skull. [ ] female spirits, who always stay in one place. [ ] see tradition of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] this _diam_ is sometimes repeated for the _saloko_ (see p. ). [ ] known as palasód in bakaok. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] _op. cit._, p. . [ ] in patok this offering is placed in a _saloko_, which is planted close to the stream. [ ] known in ba-ak and langiden as dayá, in patok and vicinity as komon or ubaiya. [ ] this part of the ceremony is often omitted in the valley towns. [ ] _canarium villosum_ bl. the resinous properties of this tree are supposed to make bright or clear, to the spirits, that the ceremony has been properly conducted. according to some informants, the _pala-an_ is intended as a stable for the horse of idadaya when he attends the ceremony, but this seems to be a recent explanation. [ ] this feeding of the spirits with blood and rice is known as _pisek_, while the whole of the procedure about the mortar is called _sangba_. [ ] this consists of two bundles of rice, a dish of broken rice, a hundred fathoms of thread, one leg of the pig, and a small coin. [ ] many spirits which appear here and in _sayang_ are not mentioned in the alphabetical list of spirits, as they play only a local or minor role in the life of the people. [ ] the spirit who lives in the _sagang_, the sharpened bamboo sticks on which the skulls of enemies were displayed. [ ] this is of particular interest, as the tinguian are hostile to the people of this region, and it is unlikely that either of the mediums had ever seen a native of that region. [ ] the name by which the tinguian designate their own people. [ ] the spirits' name for the tinguian. [ ] the term alzado is applied to the wilder head-hunting groups north and east of abra. [ ] when the _tangpap_ is built during the _sayang_ ceremony, it is a little house with two raised floors. on the lower are small pottery jars, daubed with white, and filled with _basi_ (plate xx). [ ] the _talagan_ (see p. ). [ ] this being lives in binogan. his brothers are gilen, ilongbosan, idodosan, iyangayang, and sagolo. [ ] the site of the old village of bukay. [ ] in addition to the writer and his wife, lieut. and mrs. h.b. rowell were initiated at this time. the lieutenant had long been a friend and adviser of the tribe, and was held in great esteem by them. the writer's full name was agonan dumalawi, mrs. cole's--ginobáyan gimpayan, lieut. rowell's--andonan dogyawi, and mrs. rowell's--gayankayan gidonan. [ ] this raft is the _taltalabong_, and is intended for the sons and servants of kadaklan. [ ] it is customary to place a jar of _basi_ under or near the house, so that kadaklan may drink, before he reaches the function. this offering had been neglected, hence his complaint. [ ] this is the case if a person is just acquiring the right to the ceremony. if the family is already privileged to give this rite, it will occur in about three years, and _sayang_ will follow some four years later. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] see _ibid._, p. . [ ] in patok, _diwas_ is sung as a part of _da-eng_ on the night of _libon_. [ ] this is the same form as the "shield," which hangs above the newborn infant (p. ). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] on two occasions an old bedstead of spanish type served instead of the frame. [ ] see p. . in some towns the spirits are summoned at different times during the ceremony, as in _tangpap_. [ ] see under idasan, p. . [ ] each with its dormitory for bachelors, and usually for unmarried girls. see _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. (manila, ). [ ] _combes_, historia de las islas de mindanao (madrid, ), translated by _blair_ and _robertson_, vol. xl, p. ; vol. xlvii, p. . _ling roth_, natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. ii, p. , _et seq._(london, ). [ ] for description of these villages, see _cole_, distribution of the non-christian tribes of northwestern luzon (_am. anthropologist_, vol. xi, p. ). [ ] see _jenks_, the bontoc igorot (manila, ). [ ] twenty years in the philippines, p. (london, ). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] see _cole_ and _laufer_, chinese pottery in the philippines (field museum of natural history, vol. xii, no. ). [ ] despite frequent assertions to the contrary, the fire syringe is not used by the tinguian. it is found among the tiagan igorot, the similarity of whose name has doubtless given rise to the error. [ ] head-hunting is widespread in this part of the world. it is found in assam, in the solomon islands, in borneo, formosa, and, it is said, was formerly practiced in japan. see _hodson_ (_folklore,_ june, , p. ); _rivers_, history of melanesian society, vol. ii, p. (cambridge, ); _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vols. i-ii (london, ); _shinji ishii_ (_transactions japan soc. of london,_ vol. xiv, pp. , _et seq.)._ [ ] see _worcester_, the non-christian tribes of northern luzon (_philippine journal of science,_ vol. i, p. , manila, ). [ ] see _blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vols. v, p. ; xxi, p. ; xxxiv, p. ; xl, pp. - ; xlvii, p. ; xlviii, p. . _cole_, distribution of the non-christian tribes of northwestern luzon _(am. anth_., n. s., vol. xi, , p. ); _cole_, the wild tribes of davao district, mindanao (pub. field museum of natural history, vol. xii no. , p. , _et seq._). [ ] these are called _soga_. their use is widespread in the philippines, in malaysia generally, and even extends into upper burma. see _shakespear_, history of upper assam, upper burmah and northeastern frontier, pp. , _et seq._(london, ). _marsden_, hist. of sumatra, p. (london, ). [ ] see _cole_, wild tribes of davao district (field museum of nat. hist., vol. xii, no. , p. ). [ ] this description is partially taken from the account of _paul p. de la gironière_, probably the one white man, who has witnessed this rite (see twenty years in the philippines, p. , london, ), and from the stories of many old men, who themselves have participated in the head-hunts and subsequent celebrations. [ ] see _cole_, distribution of the non-christian tribes of northwestern luzon (_am. anthropologist_, n. s., vol. xi, no. , , p. ). [ ] traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. (manila, ); _kroeber_, the peoples of the philippines (am. museum nat. hist., handbook series, no. , p. , new york, ). [ ] _egerton_, handbook of indian arms (wm. allen and co., london, ), p. ; _shakespear_, history of upper assam, burma and northeastern frontier (macmillan, london, ), p. , illustration. [ ] this type of snare is used by nearly all philippine tribes, and it is also widespread in malaysia. [ ] the mountain rice is known as _langpadan_, the lowland rice as pagey (ilocano _palay_). [ ] this is similar to the method followed in sumatra. see _marsden_, history of sumatra, d ed., pp. - (london, ). [ ] a similar device is employed in java. see _freeman_ and _chandler_, the world's commercial products, p. (boston, ). [ ] the latter is the customary method among the bontoc igorot. see _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. . [ ] _raffles_, history of java, d ed., vol. i, p. , also plate viii (london, ); _marsden_, _op. cit_., p. ; _freeman_ and _chandler_, _op. cit_., p. . both raffles and marsden consider this type of plow of chinese origin. the tinguian name _alado_ is doubtless a corruption of the spanish _arado_, but this of course would not prove that the plow itself was derived from the spaniards. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , pp. , _et seq_. [ ] _munia jagori_ (martens). locally known as _tikgi_. [ ] probably the _ophiocephalus_. see _dean_, _american museum journal_, vol. xii, , p. . [ ] this is the only occasion when men use the bow and arrow. [ ] the neighboring igorot do not use a cutter, but break the stalks with the fingers; however, the same instrument is used by the apayao, in parts of mindanao, in java and sumatra. see _marsden_, history of sumatra, p. ; _raffles_, history of java, pp. - , also plate ; _mayer_, een blik in het javaansche volksleven, vol. ii, p. , (leiden, ); _van der lith_, nederlandsch oost indië, vol. ii, p. , (leiden, ). [ ] rice in the bundle is known as _palay_ or _pagey_. [ ] the igorot woman pulls the grain from the straw with her hands. [ ] ilocano _sanga-reppet_ or the spanish _monojo_. [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] history of sumatra, pp. , _et seq_. [ ] _hose_ and _mcdougall_ (pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, pp. - ) consider the terraced rice culture of the murut, of northern borneo, a recent acquisition either from the philippines or from annam. [ ] _lavezaris_, writing in - , states that the natives, of no specified district, "have great quantities of provisions which they gathered from irrigated fields" (_blair_ and _robertson_, philippine islands, vol. iii, p. ). in vol. viii, pp. - , of the same publication, is a record of the expedition to tue, in the mountains at the southern end of nueva viscaya. according to this account, the natives of that section were, in , gathering two crops of rice, "one being irrigated, the other allowed to grow by itself." [ ] for the history and extent of terraced field rice-culture, see _freeman_ and _chandler_, the world's commercial products (boston, ); _ratzel_, history of mankind, vol. i, pp. , _et seq_. (london, ); _ferrars_, burma, pp. , _et seq_. (london, ); _bezemer_, door nederlandsch oost-indië, p. (groningen, ); _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. ; _perry_, _manchester memoirs_, vol. lx, pt. , - ; _wallace_, the malay archipelago, pp. , (london, ); _cabaton_, java and the dutch east indies, p. , note (london, ); _meyier_, irrigation in java, _transactions of the american soc. of civil engineers,_ vol. liv, pt. (new york, ); _bernard_, aménagement des eaux à java, irrigation des rizières (paris ); _crawfurd_, history of the indian archipelago, vol. , pp. , _et seq_. (edinburgh, ). [ ] _campbell_, java past and present, vol. ii, p. (london, ). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] also known as singá and baubauwi. in likuan it is held only in case the crops are not growing as they should; but in sisikan, patikian, and other towns of the saltan river valley it is celebrated both before the planting and after the harvesting. [ ] a slender cane similar to bamboo, but nearly white in color. [ ] _runo_, a reed. [ ] _justicia gendarussa_ l. [ ] also called _salokang_. see p. . [ ] the same ceremony may be held in order to stop the rainfall if it is too abundant. [ ] at this time the spirits enter the bodies of the mediums and through them talk with the people. [ ] _lygodium_ near _scandens_. [ ] in manabo leaves and grass dipped in the blood are attached to split sticks, (_sinobung_), and are fastened to a side wall of the house. [ ] lightning is recognized as the messenger of kadaklan. [ ] the igorot villages of lukuban and vicinity have a similar ceremony. it is here followed by a three-day period of taboo. should the bird known as _koling_ fly over the town during this period, uttering its peculiar cry, the ceremony will be repeated; otherwise, all is well. [ ] literally, "to give a taste." [ ] those used are _sikag_ (_lygodium_ near _scandens_), _talabibatab_ (_capparis micracantha_ d.c.) and _pedped_ (?). [ ] most of the identifications here given were made by dr. elmer d. merrill, botanist of the philippine bureau of science, from specimens collected by the writer. [ ] known generally throughout the philippines as _gabi_. [ ] the three common varieties of squash are _kalabasa_ (_benincasa certifera_), _tabongau_ and _tankoy_ (_curcubita sp_.). [ ] in the vicinity of bakaok a small amount of _maguey_ (_agave cantula_ roxb.) is raised. it is employed in the making of cords. [ ] a less esteemed species is known as _lalawed ta aso_ ("dog lawed"). [ ] see traditions of the tinguian, this volume, no. , p. . [ ] a similar drink was used ceremonially in pangasinan in . see _aduarte_, historia; _blair_ and _robertson_, vol. xxx, p. . it is still found in many portions of the archipelago. [ ] _cole_, the wild tribes of davao district, mindanao (field museum of natural history, vol. xii, no. , pp. - ); _hose_ and _mcdougall_, the pagan tribes of borneo, vol. i, pp. - (macmillan and co., london, ); _raffles_, history of java, vol. i, pp. - ; _marsden_, history of sumatra, rd edition (london, ), p. ; _ferrais_, burma, p. (low, marston and co., london, ); _peal_ (_journ. anth. inst. of great britain and ireland,_ vol. xxii, p. , also plate xiv, fig. no. ). [ ] _rockhill_, _t'oung pao_, vol. xvi, , pp. - ; _blair_ and _robertson_, _op. cit._, vols. ii, p. ; iii, p. ; iv, p. ; xxix, p. ; xl, p. , note; philippine census, vol. i, p. (washington, ). _de morga_, sucesos de las islas philipinas ( ), see hakluyt soc. edition, pp. , _et seq._ (london, ). [ ] wanderings in the great forests of borneo (constable, london, ), pp. - . see also _low_, sarawak--its inhabitants and productions, pp. , (london, ). [ ] _op. cit._, vol. i, pp. - . [ ] _ratzel_, history of mankind, vol. i, p. ; _marsden_, _op. cit._, pp. , , note. [ ] fifth annual report of the mining bureau of the philippine islands, p. ; official catalogue of the philippine exhibit, universal exposition, p. (st. louis, ). [ ] _blair_ and _robertson_, the philippine islands, vol. ii, pp. , ; vol. iii, pp. , ; vol. iv, p. ; vol. v, p. ; vol. viii, p. ; vol. xii, p. ; vol. xvi, p. . _zuniga_, estadismo (retana's edition), vol. ii, pp. , . [ ] _foreman_, the philippine islands, p. (london, ); _bezemer_, door nederlandsch oost-indië, p. (groningen, ); _skeat_, _man_, vol. i. , p. ; _raffles_, history of java, d ed., vol. i p. (london, ); _brendon_ _(journal of indian art and industry,_ vol. x, no. , pp. , _et seq._). [ ] weaving in cotton is a recent introduction among the neighboring bontoc igorot. formerly their garments were made of flayed bark, or were woven from local fiber plants. the threads from the latter were spun or twisted on the naked thigh under the palm of the hand. cf. _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. (manila, ). [ ] a similar device is used in burma. [ ] the same type of wheel is found in java. see _mayer_, een blik in het javaansche volksleven, vol. ii, p. (leiden, ). [ ] a similar warp winder is described for bombay (_brendon_, _journal of indian art and industry_, vol. x, no. , , pp. , _et seq_.). [ ] for the distribution of this semi-girdle or back strap, see _ling roth_, studies in primitive looms (_journal royal anthrop. inst_., vol. xlvi, , pp. , ). [ ] these are: _alinau_ (_grewia multiflora_ juss.); _babaket_ (_helicteres hirsuta_ lour.); _laynai_--a large tree, unidentified; _lapnek_ (_abroma_ sp.) _ka'a-ka'ag_, an unidentified shrub; _losoban_ (_grewia_); _pakak_, unidentified; _anabo_ (_hibiscus pungens_ roxb.); _bangal_ (_sterculia foctida_ l.); _saloyot_ (_corchoeus olitorius_ l.) _labtang_ (_anamirta cocculus_); _atis_ (_anona squamosa_ l.); _alagak_ (_anona_); _maling-kapas_ (_ceiba pentandra_ gaertn.); _betning_ and _daldalopang_, unidentified; _maguey_ (_agave cantula_ roxb.); _bayog_--a variety of bamboo. [ ] it is not essential that the oil be applied, and oftentimes whole sections are colored before being split. [ ] from _káwat_, the twisting of vines about a tree. [ ] this is the arnatto dye, an american plant. _watt_, dictionary, vol. i, p. . [ ] this tattooing is accomplished by mixing oil and the black soot from the bottom of a cooking pot, or the pulverized ashes of blue cloth. the paste is spread over the place to be treated, and is driven in with an instrument consisting of three or four needles set in a piece of bamboo. sometimes the piercing of the skin is done before the color is applied; the latter is then rubbed in. [ ] blackening of the teeth was practised by the zambal, also in sumatra and japan. _blair_ and _robertson_, vol. xvi, p. ; _marsden_, history of sumatra, p. . [ ] see pp. , for words and music. [ ] shallow copper gongs. [ ] reyes says that this song, _daleng_, is similar to the _dallot_ of the ilocano (artículos varios, p. ). [ ] similar instruments are used by the igorot who suspend them free and beat them as they dance. [ ] the first line is sung by the girls, the second by the boys. for the music see p. . [ ] the first line is sung by the girls, the second by the boys. [ ] i use the word "modern" in this connection, as it pertains to the music of those peoples who have developed music as an art, and among whom we find conformity to the same rules and system of notation. [ ] by reference to the analysis of record i, _da-eng_ (boys and girls alternating), it will be seen that the record seems to have been made by one set of singers, apparently women and girls, who sang together on both parts. the entire record has therefore been tabulated with the women's songs. [ ] record f, song of a spirit, shows both major and minor tonality (for explanation see analysis of this song, p. ). [ ] record j, _da-eng_ (girls' part), shows this mark in the "scale" given below the transcription (for explanation see analysis of this song, p. ). [ ] i find groups of five used occasionally in the singing of our american indians. _burton_ ("primitive american music") shows its frequent use among the chippeway. miss _fletcher_ also shows groups in five in her "omaha music," and miss _densmore_ gives similar grouping in her transcriptions of american indian songs. [ ] _grove_, dictionary of music and musicians, vol. iv. [ ] _rowbotham_, history of music. from mr. j.b. hare. for an html text with the illustrations from the original see his web site at http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/index.htm atlantis the antediluvian world. by ignatius donnelly. the world has made such comet-like advance lately on science, we may almost hope, before we die of sheer decay, to learn something about our infancy; when lived that great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race, whose knowledge, like the sea-sustaining rocks, hath formed the base of this world's fluctuous lore festus. frontpiece: the profile of atlantis contents. part i. the history of atlantis. i. the purpose of the book ii. plato's history of atlantis iii. the probabilities of plato's story iv. was such a catastrophe possible? v. the testimony of the sea vi. the testimony of the flora and fauna part ii. the deluge. i. the destruction of atlantis described in the deluge legends ii. the deluge of the bible iii. the deluge of the chaldeans iv. the deluge legends of other nations v. the deluge legends of america vi. some consideration of the deluge legends part iii the civilization of the old world and new compared. i. civilization an inheritance ii. the identity of the civilizations of the old world and the new iii. american evidences of intercourse with europe or atlantis iv. corroborating circumstances v. the question of complexion vi. genesis contains a history of atlantis vii. the: origin of our alphabet viii. the bronze age in europe ix. artificial deformation of the skull part iv. the mythologies of the old world a recollection of atlantis. i. traditions of atlantis ii. the kings of atlantis become the gods of the greeks iii. the gods of the phoenicians also kings of atlantis iv. the god odin, woden, or wotan v. the pyramid, the cross, and the garden of eden vi. gold and silver the sacred metals of atlantis part v. the colonies of atlantis. i. the central american and mexican colonies ii. the egyptian colony iii. the colonies of the mississippi valley iv. the iberian colonies of atlantis v. the peruvian colony vi. the african colonies vii. the irish colonies from atlantis viii. the oldest son of noah ix. the antiquity of some of our great inventions x. the aryan colonies from atlantis xi. atlantis reconstructed atlantis: the antediluvian world. part i. the history of atlantis. chapter i. the purpose of the book. this book is an attempt to demonstrate several distinct and novel propositions. these are: . that there once existed in the atlantic ocean, opposite the mouth of the mediterranean sea, a large island, which was the remnant of an atlantic continent, and known to the ancient world as atlantis. . that the description of this island given by plato is not, as has been long supposed, fable, but veritable history. . that atlantis was the region where man first rose from a state of barbarism to civilization. . that it became, in the course of ages, a populous and mighty nation, from whose overflowings the shores of the gulf of mexico, the mississippi river, the amazon, the pacific coast of south america, the mediterranean, the west coast of europe and africa, the baltic, the black sea, and the caspian were populated by civilized nations. . that it was the true antediluvian world; the garden of eden; the gardens of the hesperides; the elysian fields; the gardens of alcinous; the mesomphalos; the olympos; the asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations; representing a universal memory of a great land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness. . that the gods and goddesses of the ancient greeks, the phoenicians, the hindoos, and the scandinavians were simply the kings, queens, and heroes of atlantis; and the acts attributed to them in mythology are a confused recollection of real historical events. . that the mythology of egypt and peru represented the original religion of atlantis, which was sun-worship. . that the oldest colony formed by the atlanteans was probably in egypt, whose civilization was a reproduction of that of the atlantic island. . that the implements of the "bronze age" of europe were derived from atlantis. the atlanteans were also the first manufacturers of iron. . that the phoenician alphabet, parent of all the european alphabets, was derived from an atlantis alphabet, which was also conveyed from atlantis to the mayas of central america. . that atlantis was the original seat of the aryan or indo-european family of nations, as well as of the semitic peoples, and possibly also of the turanian races. . that atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabitants. . that a few persons escaped in ships and on rafts, and, carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the appalling catastrophe, which has survived to our own time in the flood and deluge legends of the different nations of the old and new worlds. if these propositions can be proved, they will solve many problems which now perplex mankind; they will confirm in many respects the statements in the opening chapters of genesis; they will widen the area of human history; they will explain the remarkable resemblances which exist between the ancient civilizations found upon the opposite shores of the atlantic ocean, in the old and new worlds; and they will aid us to rehabilitate the fathers of our civilization, our blood, and our fundamental ideas-the men who lived, loved, and labored ages before the aryans descended upon india, or the phoenician had settled in syria, or the goth had reached the shores of the baltic. the fact that the story of atlantis was for thousands of years regarded as a fable proves nothing. there is an unbelief which grows out of ignorance, as well as a scepticism which is born of intelligence. the people nearest to the past are not always those who are best informed concerning the past. for a thousand years it was believed that the legends of the buried cities of pompeii and herculaneum were myths: they were spoken of as "the fabulous cities." for a thousand years the educated world did not credit the accounts given by herodotus of the wonders of the ancient civilizations of the nile and of chaldea. he was called "the father of liars." even plutarch sneered at him. now, in the language of frederick schlegel, "the deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been, the more their regard and esteem for herodotus has increased." buckle says, "his minute information about egypt and asia minor is admitted by all geographers." there was a time when the expedition sent out by pharaoh necho to circumnavigate africa was doubted, because the explorers stated that after they had progressed a certain distance the sun was north of them; this circumstance, which then aroused suspicion, now proves to us that the egyptian navigators had really passed the equator, and anticipated by years vasquez de gama in his discovery of the cape of good hope. if i succeed in demonstrating the truth of the somewhat startling propositions with which i commenced this chapter, it will only be by bringing to bear upon the question of atlantis a thousand converging lines of light from a multitude of researches made by scholars in different fields of modern thought. further investigations and discoveries will, i trust, confirm the correctness of the conclusions at which i have arrived. chapter ii. plato's history of atlantis. plato has preserved for us the history of atlantis. if our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. plato lived years before the birth of christ. his ancestor, solon, was the great law-giver of athens years before the christian era. solon visited egypt. plutarch says, "solon attempted in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the atlantic island, which he had learned from the wise men of sais, and which particularly concerned the athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did not go through with it. these verses are a proof that business was not the hinderance: "'i grow in learning as i grow in age.' and again: "'wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.' "plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the atlantic island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which also he had some claim by reason of his being related to solon, laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, such as no other story, fable, or poem ever had. but, as he began it late, he ended his life before the work, so that the more the reader is delighted with the part that is written, the more regret he has to find it unfinished." there can be no question that solon visited egypt. the causes of his departure from athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by plutarch. he dwelt, he tells us, "on the canopian shore, by nile's deep mouth." there he conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the egyptian priests. he was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved to us, testify. there is no improbability in the statement that he commenced in verse a history and description of atlantis, which he left unfinished at his death; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant, plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. the egyptian priest had said to solon, "you have no antiquity of history, and no history of antiquity;" and solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of egypt; and he was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past. we know of no better way to commence a book about atlantis than by giving in full the record preserved by plato. it is as follows: critias. then listen, socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however, certainly true, as solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared. he was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, dropidas, as he himself says in several of his poems; and dropidas told critias, my grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that there were of old great and marvellous actions of the athenians, which have passed into oblivion through time and the destruction of the human race and one in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to you.... socrates. very good; and what is this ancient famous action of which critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the athenian state, which solon recounted! critias. i will tell an old-world story which i heard from an aged man; for critias was, as he said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and i was about ten years of age. now the day was that day of the apaturia which is called the registration of youth; at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of solon, which were new at the time. one of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he thought that he would please critias, said that, in his judgment, solon was not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. the old man, i well remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling: "yes, amynander, if solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in this country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as homer, or hesiod, or any poet." "and what was that poem about, critias?" said the person who addressed him. "about the greatest action which the athenians ever did, and which ought to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us." "tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and how and from whom solon heard this veritable tradition." he replied: "at the head of the egyptian delta, where the river nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of sais, and the great city of the district is also called sais, and is the city from which amasis the king was sprung. and the citizens have a deity who is their foundress: she is called in the egyptian tongue neith, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the hellenes called athene. now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. thither came solon, who was received by them with great honor; and he asked the priests, who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. on one occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world--about phoroneus, who is called 'the first,' and about niobe; and, after the deluge, to tell of the lives of deucalion and pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon how many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'o solon, solon, you hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an hellene.' solon, bearing this, said, 'what do you mean?' 'i mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. and i will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. there is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time phaëthon, the son of helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. when, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. the fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. and whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed--if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which states require; and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and thus you have to begin all over again as children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. as for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us, solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for, in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. and this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no sign. for there was a time, solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'you are welcome to hear about them, solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. she founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the earth and hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as years old. as touching the citizens of years ago, i will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure, in the sacred registers themselves. if you compare these very laws with your own, you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time. in the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next there are the artificers, who exercise their several crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other; and also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in egypt are separated from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and this the goddess taught first among you, and then in asiatic countries, and we among the asiatics first adopted. "'then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to health); and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. all this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected, and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. and there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of europe and asia, and to which your city put an end. this power came forth out of the atlantic ocean, for in those days the atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the columns of heracles: the island was larger than libya and asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the straits of heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a continent. now, in the island of atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, which had rule over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of the continent; and, besides these, they subjected the parts of libya within the columns of heracles as far as egypt, and of europe as far as tyrrhenia. the vast power thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was within the straits; and then, solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the hellenes. and when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of heracles. but afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island of atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. and that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.' ("plato's dialogues," ii., , timæus.)... "but in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, i would specially invoke mnemosyne; for all the important part of what i have to tell is dependent on her favor, and if i can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests, and brought hither by solon, i doubt not that i shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. to that task, then, i will at once address myself. "let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between all those who dwelt outside the pillars of heracles and those who dwelt within them: this war i am now to describe. of the combatants on the one side the city of athens was reported to have been the ruler, and to have directed the contest; the combatants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands of atlantis, which, as i was saying, once had an extent greater than that of libya and asia; and, when afterward sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to the ocean. the progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but i must begin by describing, first of all, the athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who fought with them; and i shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of them. let us give the precedence to athens.... "many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which i am speaking; and in all the ages and changes of things there has never been any settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains, as in other places, which is worth speaking of; it has always been carried round in a circle, and disappeared in the depths below. the consequence is that, in comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the country being left.... "and next, if i have not forgotten what i heard when i was a child, i will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries; for friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common. yet, before proceeding farther in the narrative, i ought to warn you that you must not be surprised if you should bear hellenic names given to foreigners. i will tell you the reason of this: solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, made an investigation into the meaning of the names, and found that the early egyptians, in writing them down, had translated them into their own language, and he recovered the meaning of the several names and retranslated them, and copied them out again in our language. my great-grandfather, dropidas, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when i was a child. therefore, if you bear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for i have told you the reason of them. "the tale, which was of great length, began as follows: i have before remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made themselves temples and sacrifices. and poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island which i will proceed to describe. on the side toward the sea, and in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and very fertile. near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain, not very high on any side. in this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was evenor, and he had a wife named leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named cleito. the maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother died; poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and, breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe out of the centre of the island, equidistant every way, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not yet heard of. he himself, as he was a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing two streams of water under the earth, which he caused to ascend as springs, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly in the earth. he also begat and brought up five pairs of male children, dividing the island of atlantis into ten portions: he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men and a large territory. and he named them all: the eldest, who was king, he named atlas, and from him the whole island and the ocean received the name of atlantic. to his twin-brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island toward the pillars of heracles, as far as the country which is still called the region of gades in that part of the world, he gave the name which in the hellenic language is eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, gadeirus. of the second pair of twins, he called one ampheres and the other evæmon. to the third pair of twins he gave the name mneseus to the elder, and autochthon to the one who followed him. of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder elasippus and the younger mestor. and of the fifth pair he gave to the elder the name of azaes, and to the younger diaprepes. all these and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in the other direction over the country within the pillars as far as egypt and tyrrhenia. now atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest branch always retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have, both in city and country. for, because of the greatness of their empire, many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. in the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and was then something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days. there was an abundance of wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals. moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island, and there was provision for animals of every kind, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, and therefore for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of them. also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated fruit of the earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of food, which we call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which may be used to play with, and are fruits which spoil with keeping--and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after dinner, when we are full and tired of eating--all these that sacred island lying beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance. all these things they received from the earth, and they employed themselves in constructing their temples, and palaces, and harbors, and docks; and they arranged the whole country in the following manner: first of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, and made a passage into and out of they began to build the palace in the royal palace; and then the habitation of the god and of their ancestors. this they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. and, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbor, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage for a single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed them over; and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the banks of the zones were raised considerably above the water. now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two, as well the zone of water as of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. the island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. this, and the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall, on either side placing towers, and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. the stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. one kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red; and, as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out docks double within, having roofs formed out of the native rock. some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, which they intermingled for the sake of ornament, to be a natural source of delight. the entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum. the palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed in this wise: in the centre was a holy temple dedicated to cleito and poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which they originally begat the race of the ten princes, and thither they annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, and performed sacrifices to each of them. here, too, was poiseidon's own temple, of a stadium in length and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a sort of barbaric splendor. all the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. in the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the walls and pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum. in the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses--and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them in that day. there were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private individuals. and around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings and of their wives; and there were many other great offerings, both of kings and of private individuals, coming both from the city itself and the foreign cities over which they held sway. there was an altar, too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of the work, and there were palaces in like manner which answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple. "in the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot springs; these were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by reason of the sweetness and excellence of their waters. they constructed buildings about them, and planted suitable trees; also cisterns, some open to the heaven, other which they roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths, there were the king's baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; also separate baths for women, and others again for horses and cattle, and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable for them. the water which ran off they carried, some to the grove of poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the bridges to the outer circles: and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. also there were guard-houses at intervals for the body-guard, the more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them in the lesser zone, which was nearer the acropolis; while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, and about the persons of the kings. the docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. enough of the plan of the royal palace. crossing the outer harbors, which were three in number, you would come to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone and harbor, and enclosed the whole, meeting at the mouth of the channel toward the sea. the entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day. i have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the ancient palace nearly as he gave them, and now i must endeavor to describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. the whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth and even, but of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, and going up the country from the sea through the centre of the island two thousand stadia; the whole region of the island lies toward the south, and is sheltered from the north. the surrounding mountains he celebrated for their number and size and beauty, in which they exceeded all that are now to be seen anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited villages, and rivers and lakes, and meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for every kind of work. i will now describe the plain, which had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. it was rectangular, and for the most part straight and oblong; and what it wanted of the straight line followed the line of the circular ditch. the depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. but i must say what i have heard. it was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. it received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain, and touching the city at various points, was there let off into the sea. from above, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the plain, and again let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals were at intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them they brought, down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth--in winter having the benefit of the rains, and in summer introducing the water of the canals. as to the population, each of the lots in the plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for military service, and the size of the lot was to be a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. "and of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom they were assigned according to their dwellings and villages. the leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders upon them, and a light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. such was the order of war in the royal city--that of the other nine governments was different in each of them, and would be wearisome to narrate. as to offices and honors, the following was the arrangement from the first: each of the ten kings, in his own division and in his own city, had the absolute control of the citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever he would. "now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the injunctions of poseidon as the law had handed them down. these were inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of poseidon, whither the people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number. and when they were gathered together they consulted about public affairs, and inquired if any one had transgressed in anything, and passed judgment on him accordingly--and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise: there were bulls who had the range of the temple of poseidon; and the ten who were left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices which were acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the column; the victim was then struck on the head by them, and slain over the sacred inscription. now on the column, besides the law, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. when, therefore, after offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire, after having made a purification of the column all round. then they drew from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the column, and would punish any one who had previously transgressed, and that for the future they would not, if they could help, transgress any of the inscriptions, and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father poseidon. this was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his family, at the same time drinking, and dedicating the vessel in the temple of the god; and, after spending some necessary time at supper, when darkness came on and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the sacrifices on which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave judgement, if any of them had any accusation to bring against any one; and, when they had given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their robes. there were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: that they were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over-throw the royal house. like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the family of atlas; and the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten kings. "such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the following pretext, as traditions tell: for many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. they despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, and friendship perishes with them. "by such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, all that which we have described waxed and increased in them; but when this divine portion began to fade away in them, and became diluted too often, and with too much of the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper-hand, then, they being unable to bear their fortune, became unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see, they began to appear base, and had lost the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they still appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous avarice and power. zeus, the god of gods, who rules with law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honorable race was in a most wretched state, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improved, collected all the gods into his most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, sees all things that partake of generation. and when he had called them together he spake as follows:" [here plato's story abruptly ends.] chapter iii. the probabilities of plato's story. there is nothing improbable in this narrative, so far as it describes a great, rich, cultured, and educated people. almost every part of plato's story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of egypt or peru; in fact, in some respects plato's account of atlantis falls short of herodotus's description of the grandeur of egypt, or prescott's picture of the wealth and civilization of peru. for instance, prescott, in his "conquest of peru" (vol. i., p. ), says: "the most renowned of the peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and the wonder of the empire, was at cuzco, where, under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name of coricancha, or 'the place of gold.'... the interior of the temple was literally a mine of gold. on the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. the figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones.... the walls and ceilings were everywhere incrusted with golden ornaments; every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal; the cornices were of the same material." there are in plato's narrative no marvels; no myths; no tales of gods, gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. it is a plain and reasonable history of a people who built temples, ships, and canals; who lived by agriculture and commerce: who in pursuit of trade, reached out to all the countries around them. the early history of most nations begins with gods and demons, while here we have nothing of the kind; we see an immigrant enter the country, marry one of the native women, and settle down; in time a great nation grows up around him. it reminds one of the information given by the egyptian priests to herodotus. "during the space of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they assert," says herodotus, "that no divinity has appeared in human shape, ... they absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's descent from a god." if plato had sought to draw from his imagination a wonderful and pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable a narrative. he would have given us a history like the legends of greek mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fauns, and satyrs. neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that plato sought to convey in it a moral or political lesson, in the guise of a fable, as did bacon in the "new atlantis," and more in the "kingdom of nowhere." there is no ideal republic delineated here. it is a straightforward, reasonable history of a people ruled over by their kings, living and progressing as other nations have lived and progressed since their day. plato says that in atlantis there was "a great and wonderful empire," which "aggressed wantonly against the whole of europe and asia," thus testifying to the extent of its dominion. it not only subjugated africa as far as egypt, and europe as far as italy, but it ruled "as well over parts of the continent," to wit, "the opposite continent" of america, "which surrounded the true ocean." those parts of america over which it ruled were, as we will show hereafter, central america, peru, and the valley of the mississippi, occupied by the "mound builders." moreover, he tells us that "this vast power was gathered into one;" that is to say, from egypt to peru it was one consolidated empire. we will see hereafter that the legends of the hindoos as to deva nahusha distinctly refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the known world. another corroboration of the truth of plato's narrative is found in the fact that upon the azores black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in color, are now found. he says they built with white, red, and black stone. sir c. wyville thomson describes a narrow neck of land between fayal and monte da guia, called "monte queimada" (the burnt mountain), as follows: "it is formed partly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate color, and partly of lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the centre, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a glorious display of fireworks at some period beyond the records of acorean history, but late in the geological annals of the island." ("voyage of the challenger," vol. ii., p. ). he also describes immense walls of black volcanic rock in the island. the plain of atlantis, plato tells us, "had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings." if, as we believe, agriculture, the domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and hog, and the discovery or development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this region, then this language of plato in reference to "the many ages, and the successive generations of kings," accords with the great periods of time which were necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized condition. in the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into which streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the original of the four rivers of paradise, and the emblem of the cross surrounded by a circle, which, as we will show hereafter, was, from the earliest pre-christian ages, accepted as the emblem of the garden of eden. we know that plato did not invent the name of poseidon, for the worship of poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of europe; "poseidon-worship seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies previous to the time of sidon." ("prehistoric nations," p. .) this worship "was carried to spain, and to northern africa, but most abundantly to italy, to many of the islands, and to the regions around the Ægean sea; also to thrace." (ibid., p. .) poseidon, or neptune, is represented in greek mythology as a sea-god; but he is figured as standing in a war-chariot drawn by horses. the association of the horse (a land animal) with a sea-god is inexplicable, except with the light given by plato. poseidon was a sea-god because he ruled over a great land in the sea, and was the national god of a maritime people; he is associated with horses, because in atlantis the horse was first domesticated; and, as plato shows, the atlanteans had great race-courses for the development of speed in horses; and poseidon is represented as standing in a war-chariot, because doubtless wheeled vehicles were first invented by the same people who tamed the horse; and they transmitted these war-chariots to their descendants from egypt to britain. we know that horses were the favorite objects chosen for sacrifice to poseidon by the nations of antiquity within the historical period; they were killed, and cast into the sea from high precipices. the religious horse-feasts of the pagan scandinavians were a survival of this poseidon-worship, which once prevailed along all the coasts of europe; they continued until the conversion of the people to christianity, and were then suppressed by the church with great difficulty. we find in plato's narrative the names of some of the phoenician deities among the kings of atlantis. where did the greek, plato, get these names if the story is a fable? does plato, in speaking of "the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments," refer to the cocoa nut? again: plato tells us that atlantis abounded in both cold and hot springs. how did he come to hit upon the hot springs if he was drawing a picture from his imagination? it is a singular confirmation of his story that hot springs abound in the azores, which are the surviving fragments of atlantis; and an experience wider than that possessed by plato has taught scientific men that hot springs are a common feature of regions subject to volcanic convulsions. plato tells us, "the whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea." one has but to look at the profile of the "dolphin's ridge," as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the challenger, given as the frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful description of that precipitous elevation. "the surrounding mountains," which sheltered the plain from the north, are represented in the present towering peaks of the azores. plato tells us that the destruction of atlantis filled the sea with mud, and interfered with navigation. for thousands of years the ancients believed the atlantic ocean to be "a muddy, shallow, dark, and misty sea, mare tenebrosum." ("cosmos," vol. ii., p. .) the three-pronged sceptre or trident of poseidon reappears constantly in ancient history. we find it in the hands of hindoo gods, and at the base of all the religious beliefs of antiquity. "among the numerals the sacred three has ever been considered the mark of perfection, and was therefore exclusively ascribed to the supreme deity, or to its earthly representative--a king, emperor, or any sovereign. for this reason triple emblems of various shapes are found on the belts, neckties, or any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the works of ancient art in yucatan, guatemala, chiapas, mexico, etc., whenever the object has reference to divine supremacy." (dr. arthur schott, "smith. rep.," , p. .) we are reminded of the "tiara," and the "triple round of sovereignty." in the same manner the ten kingdoms of atlantis are perpetuated in all the ancient traditions. "in the number given by the bible for the antediluvian patriarchs we have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various nations. ten are mentioned in the book of genesis. other nations, to whatever epoch they carry back their ancestors, whether before or after the deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevail, they are constant to this sacred number ten, which some have vainly attempted to connect with the speculations of later religious philosophers on the mystical value of numbers. in chaldea, berosus enumerates ten antediluvian kings whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of years. the legends of the iranian race commence with the reign of ten peisdadien (poseidon?) kings, 'men of the ancient law, who lived on pure homa (water of life)' (nectar?), 'and who preserved their sanctity.' in india we meet with the nine brahmadikas, who, with brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are called the ten petris, or fathers. the chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. the germans believed in the ten ancestors of odin, and the arabs in the ten mythical kings of the adites." (lenormant and chevallier, "anc. hist. of the east," vol. i., p. .) the story of plato finds confirmation from other sources. an extract preserved in proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is quoted by boeckh in his commentary on plato, mentions islands in the exterior sea, beyond the pillars of hercules, and says it was known that in one of these islands "the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors a remembrance of atlantis, an extremely large island, which for a long time held dominion over all the islands of the atlantic ocean." Ælian, in his "varia historia" (book iii., chap. xviii.), tells us that theopompus ( b.c.) related the particulars of an interview between midas, king of phrygia, and silenus, in which silenus reported the existence of a great continent beyond the atlantic, "larger than asia, europe, and libya together." he stated that a race of men called meropes dwelt there, and had extensive cities. they were persuaded that their country alone was a continent. out of curiosity some of them crossed the ocean and visited the hyperboreans. "the gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of atlantis which were collected by the roman historian timagenes, who lived in the first century before christ. he represents that three distinct people dwelt in gaul: . the indigenous population, which i suppose to be mongoloids, who had long dwelt in europe; . the invaders from a distant island, which i understand to be atlantis; . the aryan gauls." ("preadamites," p. .) marcellus, in a work on the ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the atlantic ocean--probably the canaries--and the inhabitants of these islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones." (didot müller, "fragmenta historicorum græcorum," vol. iv., p. .) diodorus siculus relates that the phoenicians discovered "a large island in the atlantic ocean, beyond the pillars of hercules, several days' sail from the coast of africa. this island abounded in all manner of riches. the soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests. it was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens. fish and game were found in great abundance; the climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year." homer, plutarch, and other ancient writers mention islands situated in the atlantic, "several thousand stadia from the pillars of hercules." silenus tells midas that there was another continent besides europe, asia, and africa--"a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron." st. clement, in his epistle to the corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean. attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in which allusion is made in the old testament to the "islands of the sea," especially in isaiah and ezekiel. what had an inland people, like the jews, to do with seas and islands? did these references grow out of vague traditions linking their race with "islands in the sea?" the orphic argonaut sings of the division of the ancient lyktonia into separate islands. he says, "when the dark-haired poseidon, in anger with father kronion, struck lyktonia with the golden trident." plato states that the egyptians told solon that the destruction of atlantis occurred years before that date, to wit, about years before the christian era. this looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in the caves of europe date back , years; and the fossil calaveras skull was found deep under the base of table mountain, california, the whole mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged lived and died. "m. oppert read an essay at the brussels congress to show, from the astronomical observations of the egyptians and assyrians, that , years before our era man existed on the earth at such a stage of civilization as to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena, and to calculate with considerable accuracy the length of the year. the egyptians, says he, calculated by cycles of years--zodiacal cycles, as they were called. their year consisted of days, which caused them to lose one day in every four solar years, and, consequently, they would attain their original starting-point again only after years ( x ). therefore, the zodiacal cycle ending in the year of our era commenced in the year b.c. on the other hand, the assyrian cycle was years, or , lunations. an assyrian cycle began b.c. the chaldeans state that between the deluge and their first historic dynasty there was a period of , years. now, what means, this number? it stands for egyptian zodiacal cycles plus assyrian lunar cycles. +--------------------+----------+ | x = , | | +--------------------+----------+ | | = , | +--------------------+----------+ | x = , | | +--------------------+----------+ "these two modes of calculating time are in agreement with each other, and were known simultaneously to one people, the chaldeans. let us now build up the series of both cycles, starting from our era, and the result will be as follows: +-----------------+--------------+ | zodiacal cycle. | lunar cycle. | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | | +-----------------+--------------+ | _____ | _____ | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | , | +-----------------+--------------+ | , | | +-----------------+--------------+ "at the year , b.c. the two cycles came together, and consequently they had on that year their common origin in one and the same astronomical observation." that observation was probably made in atlantis. the wide divergence of languages which is found to exist among the atlanteans at the beginning of the historical period implies a vast lapse of time. the fact that the nations of the old world remembered so little of atlantis, except the colossal fact of its sudden and overwhelming destruction, would also seem to remove that event into a remote past. herodotus tells us that he learned from the egyptians that hercules was one of their most ancient deities, and that he was one of the twelve produced from the eight gods, , years before the reign of amasis. in short, i fail to see why this story of plato, told as history, derived from the egyptians, a people who, it is known, preserved most ancient records, and who were able to trace their existence back to a vast antiquity, should have been contemptuously set aside as a fable by greeks, romans, and the modern world. it can only be because our predecessors, with their limited knowledge of the geological history of the world, did not believe it possible that any large part of the earth's surface could have been thus suddenly swallowed up by the sea. let us then first address ourselves to that question. chapter iv. was such a catastrophe possible? all that is needed to answer this question is to briefly refer to some of the facts revealed by the study of geology. in the first place, the earth's surface is a record of successive risings and fallings of the land. the accompanying picture represents a section of the anthracite coal-measures of pennsylvania. each of the coal deposits here shown, indicated by the black lines, was created when the land had risen sufficiently above the sea to maintain vegetation; each of the strata of rock, many of them hundreds of feet in thickness, was deposited under water. here we have twenty-three different changes of the level of the land during the formation of feet of rock and coal; and these changes took place over vast areas, embracing thousands of square miles. all the continents which now exist were, it is well understood, once, under water, and the rocks of which they are composed were deposited beneath the water; more than this, most of the rocks so deposited were the detritus or washings of other continents, which then stood where the oceans now roll, and whose mountains and plains were ground down by the action of volcanoes and earthquakes, and frost, ice, wind, and rain, and washed into the sea, to form the rocks upon which the nations now dwell; so that we have changed the conditions of land and water: that which is now continent was once sea, and that which is now sea was formerly continent. there can be no question that the australian archipelago is simply the mountain-tops of a drowned continent, which once reached from india to south america. science has gone so far as to even give it a name; it is called "lemuria," and here, it is claimed, the human race originated. an examination of the geological formation of our atlantic states proves beyond a doubt, from the manner in which the sedimentary rocks, the sand, gravel, and mud--aggregating a thickness of , feet--are deposited, that they came from the north and east. "they represent the detritus of pre-existing lands, the washings of rain, rivers, coast-currents, and other agencies of erosion; and since the areas supplying the waste could scarcely have been of less extent than the new strata it formed, it is reasonably inferred that land masses of continental magnitude must have occupied the region now covered by the north atlantic before america began to be, and onward at least through the palæozoic ages of american history. the proof of this fact is that the great strata of rocks are thicker the nearer we approach their source in the east: the maximum thickness of the palæozoic rocks of the appalachian formation is , to , feet in pennsylvania and virginia, while their minimum thickness in illinois and missouri is from to feet; the rougher and grosser-textured rocks predominate in the east, while the farther west we go the finer the deposits were of which the rocks are composed; the finer materials were carried farther west by the water." ("new amer. cyclop.," art. coal.) destruction of pompeii the history of the growth of the european continent, as recounted by professor geikie, gives an instructive illustration of the relations of geology to geography. the earliest european land, he says, appears to have existed in the north and north-west, comprising scandinavia, finland, and the northwest of the british area, and to have extended thence through boreal and arctic latitudes into north america. of the height and mass of this primeval land some idea may be formed by considering the enormous bulk of the material derived from its disintegration. in the silurian formations of the british islands alone there is a mass of rock, worn from the land, which would form a mountain-chain extending from marseilles to the north cape ( miles), with a mean breadth of over thirty-three miles, and an average height of , feet. as the great continent which stood where the atlantic ocean now is wore away, the continents of america and europe were formed; and there seems to have been from remote times a continuous rising, still going on, of the new lands, and a sinking of the old ones. within five thousand years, or since the age of the "polished stone," the shores of sweden, denmark, and norway have risen from to feet. professor winchell says ("the preadamites," p. ): "we are in the midst of great changes, and are scarcely conscious of it. we have seen worlds in flames, and have felt a comet strike the earth. we have seen the whole coast of south america lifted up bodily ten or fifteen feet and let down again in an hour. we have seen the andes sink feet in seventy years.... vast transpositions have taken place in the coast-line of china. the ancient capital, located, in all probability, in an accessible position near the centre of the empire, has now become nearly surrounded by water, and its site is on the peninsula of corea.... there was a time when the rocky barriers of the thracian bosphorus gave way and the black sea subsided. it had covered a vast area in the north and east. now this area became drained, and was known as the ancient lectonia: it is now the prairie region of russia, and the granary of europe." there is ample geological evidence that at one time the entire area of great britain was submerged to the depth of at least seventeen hundred feet. over the face of the submerged land was strewn thick beds of sand, gravel, and clay, termed by geologists "the northern drift." the british islands rose again from the sea, bearing these water-deposits on their bosom. what is now sicily once lay deep beneath the sea: it subsequently rose feet above the sea-level. the desert of sahara was once under water, and its now burning sands are a deposit of the sea. geologically speaking, the submergence of atlantis, within the historical period, was simply the last of a number of vast changes, by which the continent which once occupied the greater part of the atlantic had gradually sunk under the ocean, while the new lands were rising on both sides of it. we come now to the second question, is it possible that atlantis could have been suddenly destroyed by such a convulsion of nature as is described by plato? the ancients regarded this part of his story as a fable. with the wider knowledge which scientific research has afforded the modern world, we can affirm that such an event is not only possible, but that the history of even the last two centuries has furnished us with striking parallels for it. we now possess the record of numerous islands lifted above the waters, and others sunk beneath the waves, accompanied by storms and earthquakes similar to those which marked the destruction of atlantis. in iceland was visited by convulsions more tremendous than any recorded in the modern annals of that country. about a month previous to the eruption on the main-land a submarine volcano burst forth in the sea, at a distance of thirty miles from the shore. it ejected so much pumice that the sea was covered with it for a distance of miles, and ships were considerably impeded in their course. a new island was thrown up, consisting of high cliffs, which was claimed by his danish majesty, and named "nyöe," or the new island; but before a year had elapsed it sunk beneath the sea, leaving a reef of rocks thirty fathoms under water. the earthquake of in iceland destroyed people out of a population of , ; twenty villages were consumed by fire or inundated by water, and a mass of lava thrown out "greater than the entire bulk of mont blanc." on the th of october, , a great earthquake occurred on the island of java, near the mountain of galung gung. "a loud explosion was heard, the earth shook, and immense columns of hot water and boiling mud, mixed with burning brimstone, ashes, and lapilli, of the size of nuts, were projected from the mountain like a water-spout, with such prodigious violence that large quantities fell beyond the river tandoi, which is forty miles distant.... the first eruption lasted nearly five hours; and on the following days the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers, densely charged with mud, deluged the country far and wide. at the end of four days (october th), a second eruption occurred, more violent than the first, in which hot water and mud were again vomited, and great blocks of basalt were thrown to the distance of seven miles from the volcano. there was at the same time a violent earthquake, the face of the mountain was utterly changed, its summits broken down, and one side, which had been covered with trees, became an enormous gulf in the form of a semicircle. over persons were killed and villages destroyed." (lyell's "principles of geology," p. .) in a new island was born in the mediterranean, near the coast of sicily. it was called graham's island. it came up with an earthquake, and "a water-spout sixty feet high and eight hundred yards in circumference rising from the sea." in about a month the island was two hundred feet high and three miles in circumference; it soon, however, sank beneath the sea. the canary islands were probably a part of the original empire of atlantis. on the st of september, , the earth split open near yaiza, in the island of lancerota. in one night a considerable hill of ejected matter was thrown up; in a few days another vent opened and gave out a lava stream which overran several villages. it flowed at first rapidly, like water, but became afterward heavy and slow, like honey. on the th of september more lava flowed out, covering up a village, and precipitating itself with a horrible roar into the sea. dead fish floated on the waters in indescribable multitudes, or were thrown dying on the shore; the cattle throughout the country dropped lifeless to the ground, suffocated by putrid vapors, which condensed and fell down in drops. these manifestations were accompanied by a storm such as the people of the country had never known before. these dreadful commotions lasted for five years. the lavas thrown out covered one-third of the whole island of lancerota. calabrian peasants ingulfed by crevasses ( ). the gulf of santorin, in the grecian archipelago, has been for two thousand years a scene of active volcanic operations. pliny informs us that in the year b.c. the island of "old kaimeni," or the sacred isle, was lifted up from the sea; and in a.d. the island of "thia" (the divine) made its appearance. in a.d. another island was created, called "the small sunburnt island." in a volcanic convulsion of three months' duration created a great shoal; an earthquake destroyed many houses in thera, and the sulphur and hydrogen issuing from the sea killed persons and domestic animals. a recent examination of these islands shows that the whole mass of santorin has sunk, since its projection from the sea, over feet. the fort and village of sindree, on the eastern arm of the indus, above luckput, was submerged in by an earthquake, together with a tract of country square miles in extent. "in sir a. burnes went in a boat to the ruins of sindree, where a single remaining tower was seen in the midst of a wide expanse of sea. the tops of the ruined walls still rose two or three feet above the level of the water; and, standing on one of these, he could behold nothing in the horizon but water, except in one direction, where a blue streak of land to the north indicated the ullah bund. this scene," says lyell ("principles of geology," p. ), "presents to the imagination a lively picture of the revolutions now in progress on the earth--a waste of waters where a few years before all was land, and the only land visible consisting of ground uplifted by a recent earthquake." we give from lyell's great work the following curious pictures of the appearance of the fort of sindree before and after the inundation. fort of sindee, on the eastern branch of the indus, before it was submerged by the earthquake of . in april, , one of the most frightful eruptions recorded in history occurred in the province of tomboro, in the island of sumbawa, about two hundred miles from the eastern extremity of java. it lasted from april th to july of that year; but was most violent on the th and th of july. the sound of the explosions was heard for nearly one thousand miles. out of a population of , , in the province of tombora, only twenty-six individuals escaped. "violent whirlwinds carried up men, horses, and cattle into the air, tore up the largest trees by the roots, and covered the whole sea with floating timber." (raffles's "history of java," vol. i., p. .) the ashes darkened the air; "the floating cinders to the westward of sumatra formed, on the th of april, a mass two feet thick and several miles in extent, through which ships with difficulty forced their way." the darkness in daytime was more profound than the blackest night. "the town called tomboro, on the west side of sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which encroached upon the shore, so that the water remained permanently eighteen feet deep in places where there was land before." the area covered by the convulsion was english miles in circumference. "in the island of amboyna, in the same month and year, the ground opened, threw out water and then closed again." (raffles's "history of java," vol. i., p. .) view of the fort of sindree from the west in march, . but it is at that point of the european coast nearest to the site of atlantis at lisbon that the most tremendous earthquake of modern times has occurred. on the st of november, , a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterward a violent shock threw down the greater part of the city. in six minutes , persons perished. a great concourse of people had collected for safety upon a new quay, built entirely of marble; but suddenly it sunk down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface. a great number of small boats and vessels anchored near it, and, full of people, were swallowed up as in a whirlpool. no fragments of these wrecks ever rose again to the surface; the water where the quay went down is now feet deep. the area covered by this earthquake was very great. humboldt says that a portion of the earth's surface, four times as great as the size of europe, was simultaneously shaken. it extended from the baltic to the west indies, and from canada to algiers. at eight leagues from morocco the ground opened and swallowed a village of , inhabitants, and closed again over them. it is very probable that the centre of the convulsion was in the bed of the atlantic, at or near the buried island of atlantis, and that it was a successor of the great earth throe which, thousands of years before, had brought destruction upon that land. eruption of vesuvius in . ireland also lies near the axis of this great volcanic area, reaching from the canaries to iceland, and it has been many times in the past the seat of disturbance. the ancient annals contain numerous accounts of eruptions, preceded by volcanic action. in , at the ox mountains, sligo, one occurred by which one hundred persons and numbers of cattle were destroyed; and a volcanic eruption in may, , on the hill of knocklade, antrim, poured a stream of lava sixty yards wide for thirty-nine hours, and destroyed the village of ballyowen and all the inhabitants, save a man and his wife and two children. ("amer. cyclop.," art. ireland.) while we find lisbon and ireland, east of atlantis, subjected to these great earthquake shocks, the west india islands, west of the same centre, have been repeatedly visited in a similar manner. in jamaica suffered from a violent earthquake. the earth opened, and great quantities of water were cast out; many people were swallowed up in these rents; the earth caught some of them by the middle and squeezed them to death; the heads of others only appeared above-ground. a tract of land near the town of port royal, about a thousand acres in extent, sunk down in less than one minute, and the sea immediately rolled in. the azore islands are undoubtedly the peaks of the mountains of atlantis. they are even yet the centre of great volcanic activity. they have suffered severely from eruptions and earthquakes. in a volcano rose suddenly in san jorge to the height of feet, and burnt for six days, desolating the entire island. in a volcano rose from the sea, near san miguel, creating an island feet high, which was named sambrina, but which soon sunk beneath the sea. similar volcanic eruptions occurred in the azores in and . along a great line, a mighty fracture in the surface of the globe, stretching north and south through the atlantic, we find a continuous series of active or extinct volcanoes. in iceland we have oerafa, hecla, and rauda kamba; another in pico, in the azores; the peak of teneriffe; fogo, in one of the cape de verde islands: while of extinct volcanoes we have several in iceland, and two in madeira; while fernando de noronha, the island of ascension, st. helena, and tristan d'acunha are all of volcanic origin. ("cosmos," vol. v., p. .) the following singular passage we quote entire from lyell's "principles of geology," p. : "in the nautical magazine for , p. , and for , p. , and in the comptes rendus, april, , accounts are given of a series of volcanic phenomena, earthquakes, troubled water, floating scoria, and columns of smoke, which have been observed at intervals since the middle of the last century, in a space of open sea between longitudes ° and ' w., about half a degree south of the equator. these facts, says mr. darwin, seem to show that an island or archipelago is in process of formation in the middle of the atlantic. a line joining st. helena and ascension would, if prolonged, intersect this slowly nascent focus of volcanic action. should land be eventually formed here, it will not be the first that has been produced by igneous action in this ocean since it was inhabited by the existing species of testacea. at porto praya, in st. jago, one of the azores, a horizontal, calcareous stratum occurs, containing shells of recent marine species, covered by a great sheet of basalt eighty feet thick. it would be difficult to estimate too highly the commercial and political importance which a group of islands might acquire if, in the next two or three thousand years, they should rise in mid-ocean between st. helena and ascension." these facts would seem to show that the great fires which destroyed atlantis are still smouldering in the depths of the ocean; that the vast oscillations which carried plato's continent beneath the sea may again bring it, with all its buried treasures, to the light; and that even the wild imagination of jules verne, when he described captain nemo, in his diving armor, looking down upon the temples and towers of the lost island, lit by the fires of submarine volcanoes, had some groundwork of possibility to build upon. but who will say, in the presence of all the facts here enumerated, that the submergence of atlantis, in some great world-shaking cataclysm, is either impossible or improbable? as will be shown hereafter, when we come to discuss the flood legends, every particular which has come down to us of the destruction of atlantis has been duplicated in some of the accounts just given. we conclude, therefore: . that it is proven beyond question, by geological evidence, that vast masses of land once existed in the region where atlantis is located by plato, and that therefore such an island must have existed; . that there is nothing improbable or impossible in the statement that it was destroyed suddenly by an earthquake "in one dreadful night and day." chapter. v. the testimony of the sea. suppose we were to find in mid-atlantic, in front of the mediterranean, in the neighborhood of the azores, the remains of an immense island, sunk beneath the sea--one thousand miles in width, and two or three thousand miles long--would it not go far to confirm the statement of plato that, "beyond the strait where you place the pillars of hercules, there was an island larger than asia (minor) and libya combined," called atlantis? and suppose we found that the azores were the mountain peaks of this drowned island, and were torn and rent by tremendous volcanic convulsions; while around them, descending into the sea, were found great strata of lava; and the whole face of the sunken land was covered for thousands of miles with volcanic débris, would we not be obliged to confess that these facts furnished strong corroborative proofs of the truth of plato's statement, that "in one day and one fatal night there came mighty earthquakes and inundations which ingulfed that mighty people? atlantis disappeared beneath the sea; and then that sea became inaccessible on account of the quantity of mud which the ingulfed island left in its place." map of atlantis, with its islands and connecting ridges, from deep-sea soundings and all these things recent investigation has proved conclusively. deep-sea soundings have been made by ships of different nations; the united states ship dolphin, the german frigate gazelle, and the british ships hydra, porcupine, and challenger have mapped out the bottom of the atlantic, and the result is the revelation of a great elevation, reaching from a point on the coast of the british islands southwardly to the coast of south america, at cape orange, thence south-eastwardly to the coast of africa, and thence southwardly to tristan d'acunha. i give one map showing the profile of this elevation in the frontispiece, and another map, showing the outlines of the submerged land, on page . it rises about feet above the great atlantic depths around it, and in the azores, st. paul's rocks, ascension, and tristan d'acunha it reaches the surface of the ocean. evidence that this elevation was once dry land is found in the fact that "the inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could never have been produced in accordance with any laws for the deposition of sediment, nor by submarine elevation; but, on the contrary, must have been carved by agencies acting above the water level." (scientific american, july th, .) mr. j. starke gardner, the eminent english geologist, is of the opinion that in the eocene period a great extension of land existed to the west of cornwall. referring to the location of the "dolphin" and "challenger" ridges, he asserts that "a great tract of land formerly existed where the sea now is, and that cornwall, the scilly and channel islands, ireland and brittany, are the remains of its highest summits." (popular science review, july, .) here, then, we have the backbone of the ancient continent which once occupied the whole of the atlantic ocean, and from whose washings europe and america were constructed; the deepest parts of the ocean, fathoms deep, represent those portions which sunk first, to wit, the plains to the east and west of the central mountain range; some of the loftiest peaks of this range--the azores, st. paul's, ascension, tristan d'acunba--are still above the ocean level; while the great body of atlantis lies a few hundred fathoms beneath the sea. in these "connecting ridges" we see the pathway which once extended between the new world and the old, and by means of which the plants and animals of one continent travelled to the other; and by the same avenues black men found their way, as we will show hereafter, from africa to america, and red men from america to africa. and, as i have shown, the same great law which gradually depressed the atlantic continent, and raised the lands east and west of it, is still at work: the coast of greenland, which may be regarded as the northern extremity of the atlantic continent, is still sinking "so rapidly that ancient buildings on low rock-islands are now submerged, and the greenlander has learned by experience never to build near the water's edge," ("north amer. of antiq.," p. .) the same subsidence is going on along the shore of south carolina and georgia, while the north of europe and the atlantic coast of south america are rising rapidly. along the latter raised beaches, miles long and from to feet high, have been traced. when these connecting ridges extended from america to europe and africa, they shut off the flow of the tropical waters of the ocean to the north: there was then no "gulf stream;" the land-locked ocean that laved the shores of northern europe was then intensely cold; and the result was the glacial period. when the barriers of atlantis sunk sufficiently to permit the natural expansion of the heated water of the tropics to the north, the ice and snow which covered europe gradually disappeared; the gulf stream flowed around atlantis, and it still retains the circular motion first imparted to it by the presence of that island. the officers of the challenger found the entire ridge of atlantis covered with volcanic deposits; these are the subsided mud which, as plato tells us, rendered the sea impassable after the destruction of the island. it does not follow that, at the time atlantis was finally ingulfed, the ridges connecting it with america and africa rose above the water-level; these may have gradually subsided into the sea, or have gone down in cataclysms such as are described in the central american books. the atlantis of plato may have been confined to the "dolphin ridge" of our map. ancient islands between atlantis and the mediterranean, from deep-sea soundings the united states sloop gettysburg has also made some remarkable discoveries in a neighboring field. i quote from john james wild (in nature, march st, , p. ): "the recently announced discovery by commander gorringe, of the united states sloop gettysburg, of a bank of soundings bearing n. ° w., and distant miles from cape st. vincent, during the last voyage of the vessel across the atlantic, taken in connection with previous soundings obtained in the same region of the north atlantic, suggests the probable existence of a submarine ridge or plateau connecting the island of madeira with the coast of portugal, and the probable subaerial connection in prehistoric times of that island with the south-western extremity of europe."... "these soundings reveal the existence of a channel of an average depth of from to fathoms, extending in a northeasterly direction from its entrance between madeira and the canary islands toward cape st. vincent.... commander gorringe, when about miles from the strait of gibraltar, found that the soundings decreased from fathoms to fathoms in the distance of a few miles. the subsequent soundings (five miles apart) gave , , , and fathoms; and eventually a depth of fathoms was obtained, in which the vessel anchored. the bottom was found to consist of live pink coral, and the position of the bank in lat. ° ' n., long. ° ' w." the map on page shows the position of these elevations. they must have been originally islands;--stepping-stones, as it were, between atlantis and the coast of europe. sir c. wyville thomson found that the specimens of the fauna of the coast of brazil, brought up in his dredging-machine, are similar to those of the western coast of southern europe. this is accounted for by the connecting ridges reaching from europe to south america. a member of the challenger staff, in a lecture delivered in london, soon after the termination of the expedition, gave it as his opinion that the great submarine plateau is the remains of "the lost atlantis." chapter vi. the testimony of the flora and fauna. proofs are abundant that there must have been at one time uninterrupted land communication between europe and america. in the words of a writer upon this subject, "when the animals and plants of the old and new world are compared, one cannot but be struck with their identity; all or nearly all belong to the same genera, while many, even of the species, are common to both continents. this is most important in its bearing on our theory, as indicating that they radiated from a common centre after the glacial period.... the hairy mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, the irish elk, the musk-ox, the reindeer, the glutton, the lemming, etc., more or less accompanied this flora, and their remains are always found in the post-glacial deposits of europe as low down as the south of france. in the new world beds of the same age contain similar remains, indicating that they came from a common centre, and were spread out over both continents alike." (westminster review, january, , p. .) recent discoveries in the fossil beds of the bad lands of nebraska prove that the horse originated in america. professor marsh, of yale college, has identified the several preceding forms from which it was developed, rising, in the course of ages, from a creature not larger than a fox until, by successive steps, it developed into the true horse. how did the wild horse pass from america to europe and asia if there was not continuous land communication between the two continents? he seems to have existed in europe in a wild state prior to his domestication by man. the fossil remains of the camel are found in india, africa, south america, and in kansas. the existing alpacas and llamas of south america are but varieties of the camel family. the cave bear, whose remains are found associated with the bones of the mammoth and the bones and works of man in the caves of europe, was identical with the grizzly bear of our rocky mountains. the musk-ox, whose relics are found in the same deposits, now roams the wilds of arctic america. the glutton of northern europe, in the stone age, is identical with the wolverine of the united states. according to rutimeyer, the ancient bison (bos priscus) of europe was identical with the existing american buffalo. "every stage between the ancient cave bison and the european aurochs can be traced." the norway elk, now nearly extinct, is identical with the american moose. the cervus americanus found in kentucky was as large as the irish elk, which it greatly resembled. the lagomys, or tailless hare, of the european caves, is now found in the colder regions of north america. the reindeer, which once occupied europe as far down as france, was the same as the reindeer of america. remains of the cave lion of europe (felix speloæ), a larger beast than the largest of the existing species, have been found at natchez, mississippi. the european cave wolf was identical with the american wolf. cattle were domesticated among the people of switzerland during the earliest part of the stone period (darwin's "animals under domestication," vol. i., p. ), that is to say, before the bronze age and the age of iron. even at that remote period they had already, by long-continued selection, been developed out of wild forms akin to the american buffalo. m. gervais ("hist. nat. des mammifores," vol. xi., p. ) concludes that the wild race from which our domestic sheep was derived is now extinct. the remains of domestic sheep are found in the debris of the swiss lake-dwellings during the stone age. the domestic horse, ass, lion, and goat also date back to a like great antiquity. we have historical records years old, and during that time no similar domestication of a wild animal has been made. this fact speaks volumes as to the vast period, of time during which man must have lived in a civilized state to effect the domestication of so many and such useful animals. and when we turn from the fauna to the flora, we find the same state of things. an examination of the fossil beds of switzerland of the miocene age reveals the remains of more than eight hundred different species of flower-bearing plants, besides mosses, ferns, etc. the total number of fossil plants catalogued from those beds, cryptogamous as well as phænogamous, is upward of three thousand. the majority of these species have migrated to america. there were others that passed into asia, africa, and even to australia. the american types are, however, in the largest proportion. the analogues of the flora of the miocene age of europe now grow in the forests of virginia, north and south carolina, and florida; they include such familiar examples as magnolias, tulip-trees, evergreen oaks, maples, plane-trees, robinas, sequoias, etc. it would seem to be impossible that these trees could have migrated from switzerland to america unless there was unbroken land communication between the two continents. it is a still more remarkable fact that a comparison of the flora of the old world and new goes to show that not only was there communication by land, over which the plants of one continent could extend to another, but that man must have existed, and have helped this transmigration, in the case of certain plants that were incapable of making the journey unaided. otto kuntze, a distinguished german botanist, who has spent many years in the tropics, announces his conclusion that "in america and in asia the principal domesticated tropical plants are represented by the same species." he instances the manihot utilissima, whose roots yield a fine flour; the tarro (colocasia esculenta), the spanish or red pepper, the tomato, the bamboo, the guava, the mango-fruit, and especially the banana. he denies that the american origin of tobacco, maize, and the cocoa-nut is proved. he refers to the paritium tiliaceum, a malvaceous plant, hardly noticed by europeans, but very highly prized by the natives of the tropics, and cultivated everywhere in the east and west indies; it supplies to the natives of these regions so far apart their ropes and cordage. it is always seedless in a cultivated state. it existed in america before the arrival of columbus. but professor kuntze pays especial attention to the banana, or plantain. the banana is seedless. it is found throughout tropical asia and africa. professor kuntze asks, "in what way was this plant, which cannot stand a voyage through the temperate zone, carried to america?" and yet it was generally cultivated in america before . says professor kuntze, "it must be remembered that the plantain is a tree-like, herbaceous plant, possessing no easily transportable bulbs, like the potato or the dahlia, nor propagable by cuttings, like the willow or the poplar. it has only a perennial root, which, once planted, needs hardly any care, and yet produces the most abundant crop of any known tropical plant." he then proceeds to discuss how it could have passed from asia to america. he admits that the roots must have been transported from one country to the other by civilized man. he argues that it could not have crossed the pacific from asia to america, because the pacific is nearly thrice or four times as wide as the atlantic. the only way he can account for the plantain reaching america is to suppose that it was carried there when the north pole had a tropical climate! is there any proof that civilized man existed at the north pole when it possessed the climate of africa? is it not more reasonable to suppose that the plantain, or banana, was cultivated by the people of atlantis, and carried by their civilized agricultural colonies to the east and the west? do we not find a confirmation of this view in the fact alluded to by professor kuntze in these words: "a cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have been under culture for a very long period--we have not in europe a single exclusively seedless, berry-bearing, cultivated plant--and hence it is perhaps fair to infer that these plants were cultivated as early as the beginning of the middle of the diluvial period." is it possible that a plant of this kind could have been cultivated for this immense period of time in both asia and america? where are the two nations, agricultural and highly civilized, on those continents by whom it was so cultivated? what has become of them? where are the traces of their civilization? all the civilizations of europe, asia, and africa radiated from the mediterranean; the hindoo-aryans advanced from the north-west; they were kindred to the persians, who were next-door neighbors to the arabians (cousins of the phoenicians), and who lived along-side of the egyptians, who had in turn derived their civilization from the phoenicians. it would be a marvel of marvels if one nation, on one continent, had cultivated the banana for such a vast period of time until it became seedless; the nation retaining a peaceful, continuous, agricultural civilization during all that time. but to suppose that two nations could have cultivated the same plant, under the same circumstances, on two different continents, for the same unparalleled lapse of time, is supposing an impossibility. we find just such a civilization as was necessary, according to plato, and under just such a climate, in atlantis and nowhere else. we have found it reaching, by its contiguous islands, within one hundred and fifty miles of the coast of europe on the one side, and almost touching the west india islands on the other, while, by its connecting ridges, it bound together brazil and africa. but it may be said these animals and plants may have passed from asia to america across the pacific by the continent of lemuria; or there may have been continuous land communication at one time at behring's strait. true; but an examination of the flora of the pacific states shows that very many of the trees and plants common to europe and the atlantic states are not to be seen west of the rocky mountains. the magnificent magnolias, the tulip-trees, the plane-trees, etc., which were found existing in the miocene age in switzerland, and are found at the present day in the united states, are altogether lacking on the pacific coast. the sources of supply of that region seem to have been far inferior to the sources of supply of the atlantic states. professor asa gray tells us that, out of sixty-six genera and one hundred and fifty-five species found in the forests cast of the rocky mountains, only thirty-one genera and seventy-eight species are found west of the mountains. the pacific coast possesses no papaw, no linden or basswood, no locust-trees, no cherry-tree large enough for a timber tree, no gum-trees, no sorrel-tree, nor kalmia; no persimmon-trees, not a holly, only one ash that may be called a timber tree, no catalpa or sassafras, not a single elm or hackberry, not a mulberry, not a hickory, or a beech, or a true chestnut. these facts would seem to indicate that the forest flora of north america entered it from the east, and that the pacific states possess only those fragments of it that were able to struggle over or around the great dividing mountain-chain. we thus see that the flora and fauna of america and europe testify not only to the existence of atlantis, but to the fact that in an earlier age it must have extended from the shores of one continent to those of the other; and by this bridge of land the plants and animals of one region passed to the other. the cultivation of the cotton-plant and the manufacture of its product was known to both the old and new world. herodotus describes it ( b.c.) as the tree of india that bears a fleece more beautiful than that of the sheep. columbus found the natives of the west indies using cotton cloth. it was also found in mexico and peru. it is a significant fact that the cotton-plant has been found growing wild in many parts of america, but never in the old world. this would seem to indicate that the plant was a native of america; and this is confirmed by the superiority of american cotton, and the further fact that the plants taken from america to india constantly degenerate, while those taken from india to america as constantly improve. there is a question whether the potato, maize, and tobacco were not cultivated in china ages before columbus discovered america. a recent traveller says, "the interior of china, along the course of the yang-tse-kiang, is a land full of wonders. in one place piscicultural nurseries line the banks for nearly fifty miles. all sorts of inventions, the cotton-gin included, claimed by europeans and americans, are to be found there forty centuries old. plants, yielding drugs of great value, without number, the familiar tobacco and potato, maize, white and yellow corn, and other plants believed to be indigenous to america, have been cultivated there from time immemorial." bonafous ("histoire naturelle du mais," paris, ) attributes a european or asiatic origin to maize. the word maize, (indian corn) is derived from mahiz or mahis, the name of the plant in the language of the island of hayti. and yet, strange to say, in the lettish and livonian languages, in the north of europe, mayse signifies bread; in irish, maise is food, and in the old high german, maz is meat. may not likewise the spanish maiz have antedated the time of columbus, and borne testimony to early intercommunication between the people of the old and new worlds? it is to atlantis we must look for the origin of nearly all our valuable plants. darwin says ("animals and plants under domestication," vol. i., p. ), "it has often been remarked that we do not owe a single useful plant to australia, or the cape of good hope--countries abounding to an unparalleled degree with endemic species--or to new zealand, or to america south of the plata; and, according to some authors, not to america north of mexico." in other words, the domesticated plants are only found within the limits of what i shall show hereafter was the empire of atlantis and its colonies; for only here was to be found an ancient, long-continuing civilization, capable of developing from a wild state those plants which were valuable to man, including all the cereals on which to-day civilized man depends for subsistence. m. alphonse de candolle tells us that we owe useful plants to mexico, peru, and chili. according to the same high authority, of valuable cultivated plants can be traced back to their wild state; as to , there is doubt as to their origin; while are utterly unknown in their aboriginal condition. ("geograph. botan. raisonnée," , pp. - .) certain roses--the imperial lily, the tuberose and the lilac--are said to have been cultivated from such a vast antiquity that they are not known in their wild state. (darwin, "animals and plants," vol. i., p. .) and these facts are the more remarkable because, as de candolle has shown, all the plants historically known to have been first cultivated in europe still exist there in the wild state. (ibid.) the inference is strong that the great cereals--wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize--must have been first domesticated in a vast antiquity, or in some continent which has since disappeared, carrying the original wild plants with it. cereals of the age of stone in europe darwin quotes approvingly the opinion of mr. bentham ("hist. notes cult. plants"), "as the result of all the most reliable evidence that none of the ceralia--wheat, rye, barley, and oats--exist or have existed truly wild in their present state." in the stone age of europe five varieties of wheat and three of barley were cultivated. (darwin, "animals and plants," vol. i., p. .) he says that it may be inferred, from the presence in the lake habitations of switzerland of a variety of wheat known as the egyptian wheat, and from the nature of the weeds that grew among their crops, "that the lake inhabitants either still kept up commercial intercourse with some southern people, or had originally proceeded as colonists from the south." i should argue that they were colonists from the land where wheat and barley were first domesticated, to wit, atlantis. and when the bronze age came, we find oats and rye making their appearance with the weapons of bronze, together with a peculiar kind of pea. darwin concludes (ibid., vol. i., p. ) that wheat, barley, rye, and oats were either descended from ten or fifteen distinct species, "most of which are now unknown or extinct," or from four or eight species closely resembling our present forms, or so "widely different as to escape identification;" in which latter case, he says, "man must have cultivated the cereals at an enormously remote period," and at that time practised "some degree of selection." rawlinson ("ancient monarchies," vol. i., p. ) expresses the opinion that the ancient assyrians possessed the pineapple. "the representation on the monuments is so exact that i can scarcely doubt the pineapple being intended." (see layard's "nineveh and babylon," p. .) the pineapple (bromelia ananassa) is supposed to be of american origin, and unknown to europe before the time of columbus; and yet, apart from the revelations of the assyrian monuments, there has been some dispute upon this point. ("amer. cyclop.," vol. xiii., p. .) ancient irish pipes it is not even certain that the use of tobacco was not known to the colonists from atlantis settled in ireland in an age long prior to sir walter raleigh. great numbers of pipes have been found in the raths and tumuli of ireland, which, there is every reason to believe, were placed there by men of the prehistoric period. the illustration on p. represents some of the so-called "danes' pipes" now in the collection of the royal irish academy. the danes entered ireland many centuries before the time of columbus, and if the pipes are theirs, they must have used tobacco, or some substitute for it, at that early period. it is probable, however, that the tumuli of ireland antedate the danes thousands of years. ancient indian pipe, new jersey compare these pipes from the ancient mounds of ireland with the accompanying picture of an indian pipe of the stone age of new jersey. ("smithsonian rep.," , p. .) recent portuguese travellers have found the most remote tribes of savage negroes in africa, holding no commercial intercourse with europeans, using strangely shaped pipes, in which they smoked a plant of the country. investigations in america lead to the conclusion that tobacco was first burnt as an incense to the gods, the priest alone using the pipe; and from this beginning the extraordinary practice spread to the people, and thence over all the world. it may have crossed the atlantic in a remote age, and have subsequently disappeared with the failure of retrograding colonists to raise the tobacco-plant. part ii. the deluge. chapter i. the destruction of atlantis described in the deluge legends. having demonstrated, as we think successfully, that there is no improbability in the statement of plato that a large island, almost a continent, existed in the past in the atlantic ocean, nay, more, that it is a geological certainty that it did exist; and having further shown that it is not improbable but very possible that it may have sunk beneath the sea in the manner described by plato, we come now to the next question, is the memory of this gigantic catastrophe preserved among the traditions of mankind? we think there can be no doubt that an affirmative answer must be given to this question. an event, which in a few hours destroyed, amid horrible convulsions, an entire country, with all its vast population--that population the ancestors of the great races of both continents, and they themselves the custodians of the civilization of their age--could not fail to impress with terrible force the minds of men, and to project its gloomy shadow over all human history. and hence, whether we turn to the hebrews, the aryans, the phoenicians, the greeks, the cushites, or the inhabitants of america, we find everywhere traditions of the deluge; and we shall see that all these traditions point unmistakably to the destruction of atlantis. françois lenormant says (contemp. rev., nov., ): "the result authorizes us to affirm the story of the deluge to be a universal tradition among all branches of the human race, with the one exception, however, of the black. now, a recollection thus precise and concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. no religious or cosmogonic myth presents this character of universality. it must arise from the reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully impressing the imagination of the first ancestors of our race as never to have been forgotten by their descendants. this cataclysm must have occurred near the first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion of the families from which the principal races were to spring; for it would be at once improbable and uncritical to admit that, at as many different points of the globe as we should have to assume in order to explain the wide spread of these traditions, local phenomena so exactly alike should have occurred, their memory having assumed an identical form, and presenting circumstances that need not necessarily have occurred to the mind in such cases. "let us observe, however, that probably the diluvian tradition is not primitive, but imported in america; that it undoubtedly wears the aspect of an importation among the rare populations of the yellow race where it is found; and lastly, that it is doubtful among the polynesians of oceania. there will still remain three great races to which it is undoubtedly peculiar, who have not borrowed it from each other, but among whom the tradition is primitive, and goes back to the most ancient times, and these three races are precisely the only ones of which the bible speaks as being descended from noah--those of which it gives the ethnic filiation in the tenth chapter of genesis. this observation, which i hold to be undeniable, attaches a singularly historic and exact value to the tradition as recorded by the sacred book, even if, on the other hand, it may lead to giving it a more limited geographical and ethnological significance.... "but, as the case now stands, we do not hesitate to declare that, far from being a myth, the biblical deluge is a real and historical fact, having, to say the least, left its impress on the ancestors of three races--aryan, or indo-european, semitic, or syro-arabian, chamitic, or cushite--that is to say, on the three great civilized races of the ancient world, those which constitute the higher humanity--before the ancestors of those races had as yet separated, and in the part of asia they together inhabited." such profound scholars and sincere christians as m. schoebel (paris, ), and m. omalius d'halloy (bruxelles, ), deny the universality of the deluge, and claim that "it extended only to the principal centre of humanity, to those who remained near its primitive cradle, without reaching the scattered tribes who had already spread themselves far away in almost desert regions. it is certain that the bible narrative commences by relating facts common to the whole human species, confining itself subsequently to the annals of the race peculiarly chosen by the designs of providence." (lenormant and chevallier, "anc. hist. of the east," p. .) this theory is supported by that eminent authority on anthropology, m. de quatrefages, as well as by cuvier; the rev. r. p. bellynck, s.j., admits that it has nothing expressly opposed to orthodoxy. plato identifies "the great deluge of all" with the destruction of atlantis. the priest of sais told solon that before "the great deluge of all" athens possessed a noble race, who performed many noble deeds, the last and greatest of which was resisting the attempts of atlantis to subjugate them; and after this came the destruction of atlantis, and the same great convulsion which overwhelmed that island destroyed a number of the greeks. so that the egyptians, who possessed the memory of many partial deluges, regarded this as "the great deluge of all." chapter ii. the deluge of the bible we give first the bible history of the deluge, as found in genesis (chap. vi. to chap. viii.): "and it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. "and the lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. "there were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of god came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. "and god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. and it repented the lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. and the lord said, i will destroy man whom i have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that i have made them. but noah found grace in the eyes of the lord. ["these are the generations of noah: noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and noah walked with god. and noah begat three sons, shem, ham, and japheth.] "the earth also was corrupt before god; and the earth was filled with violence. and god looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. and god said unto noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, i will destroy them with the earth. make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. and this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. a window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. and, behold, i, even i, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. but with thee will i establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. and of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind; two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. and take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. "thus did noah; according to all that god commanded him, so did he. "and the lord said unto noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have i seen righteous before me in this generation. of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. for yet seven days, and i will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that i have made will i destroy from off the face of the earth. "and noah did according unto all that the lord commanded him. and noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. "and noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto noah into the ark, the male and the female, as god had commanded noah. "and it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. in the six hundredth year of noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. in the selfsame day entered noah, and shem, and ham, and japheth, the sons of noah, and noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. and they went in unto noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. and they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as god had commanded him: and the lord shut him in. "and the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. and the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. and every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. and the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. "and god remembered noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and god made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. and the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. and the ark rested in the seventh mouth, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of ararat. and the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the mouth, were the tops of the mountains seen. "and it came to pass at the end of forty days, that noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. and he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. and the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. and he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more. "and it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. and in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. "and god spake unto noah, saying, go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. "and noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. "and noah builded an altar unto the lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. and the lord smelled a sweet savour; and the lord said in his heart, i will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will i again smite any more every thing living, as i have done. while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." let us briefly consider this record. it shows, taken in connection with the opening chapters of genesis: . that the land destroyed by water was the country in which the civilization of the human race originated. adam was at first naked (gen., chap. iii., ); then he clothed himself in leaves; then in the skins of animals (chap. iii., ): he was the first that tilled the earth, having emerged from a more primitive condition in which he lived upon the fruits of the forest (chap. ii., ); his son abel was the first of those that kept flocks of sheep (chap. iv., ); his son cain was the builder of the first city (chap. iv., ); his descendant, tubal-cain, was the first metallurgist (chap. iv., ); jabal was the first that erected tents and kept cattle (chap. iv., ); jubal was the first that made musical instruments. we have here the successive steps by which a savage race advances to civilization. we will see hereafter that the atlanteans passed through precisely similar stages of development. . the bible agrees with plato in the statement that these antediluvians had reached great populousness and wickedness, and that it was on account of their wickedness god resolved to destroy them. . in both cases the inhabitants of the doomed land were destroyed in a great catastrophe by the agency of water; they were drowned. . the bible tells us that in an earlier age, before their destruction, mankind had dwelt in a happy, peaceful, sinless condition in a garden of eden. plato tells us the same thing of the earlier ages of the atlanteans. . in both the bible history and plato's story the destruction of the people was largely caused by the intermarriage of the superior or divine race, "the sons of god," with an inferior stock, "the children of men," whereby they were degraded and rendered wicked. we will see hereafter that the hebrews and their flood legend are closely connected with the phoenicians, whose connection with atlantis is established in many ways. it is now conceded by scholars that the genealogical table given in the bible (gen., chap. x.) is not intended to include the true negro races, or the chinese, the japanese, the finns or lapps, the australians, or the american red men. it refers altogether to the mediterranean races, the aryans, the cushites, the phoenicians, the hebrews, and the egyptians. "the sons of ham" were not true negroes, but the dark-brown races. (see winchell's "preadamites," chap. vii.) if these races (the chinese, australians, americans, etc.) are not descended from noah they could not have been included in the deluge. if neither china, japan, america, northern europe, nor australia were depopulated by the deluge, the deluge could not have been universal. but as it is alleged that it did destroy a country, and drowned all the people thereof except noah and his family, the country so destroyed could not have been europe, asia, africa, america, or australia, for there has been no universal destruction of the people of those regions; or, if there had been, how can we account for the existence to-day of people on all of those continents whose descent genesis does not trace back to noah, and, in fact, about whom the writer of genesis seems to have known nothing? we are thus driven to one of two alternative conclusions: either the deluge record of the bible is altogether fabulous, or it relates to some land other than europe, asia, africa, or australia, some land that was destroyed by water. it is not fabulous; and the land it refers to is not europe, asia, africa, or australia--but atlantis. no other land is known to history or tradition that was overthrown in a great catastrophe by the agency of water; that was civilized, populous, powerful, and given over to wickedness. that high and orthodox authority, françois lenormant, says ("ancient hist. of the east," vol. i., p. ), "the descendants of shem, ham, and japhet, so admirably catalogued by moses, include one only of the races of humanity, the white race, whose three chief divisions he gives us as now recognized by anthropologists. the other three races--yellow, black, and red--have no place in the bible list of nations sprung from noah." as, therefore, the deluge of the bible destroyed only the land and people of noah, it could not have been universal. the religious world does not pretend to fix the location of the garden of eden. the rev. george leo haydock says, "the precise situation cannot be ascertained; how great might be its extent we do not know;" and we will see hereafter that the unwritten traditions of the church pointed to a region in the west, beyond the ocean which bounds europe in that direction, as the locality in which "mankind dwelt before the deluge." it will be more and more evident, as we proceed in the consideration of the flood legends of other nations, that the antediluvian world was none other than atlantis. chapter iii. the deluge of the chaldeans. we have two versions of the chaldean story--unequally developed, indeed, but exhibiting a remarkable agreement. the one most anciently known, and also the shorter, is that which berosus took from the sacred books of babylon, and introduced into the history that he wrote for the use of the greeks. after speaking of the last nine antediluvian kings, the chaldean priest continues thus. "obartès elbaratutu being dead, his son xisuthros (khasisatra) reigned eighteen sares ( , years). it was under him that the great deluge took place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as follows: cronos (ea) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on the fifteenth of the month of daisios (the assyrian month sivan--a little before the summer solstice) all men should perish by a flood. he therefore commanded him to take the beginning, the middle, and the end of whatever was consigned to writing, and to bury it in the city of the sun, at sippara; then to build a vessel, and to enter it with his family and dearest friends; to place in this vessel provisions to eat and drink, and to cause animals, birds, and quadrupeds to enter it; lastly, to prepare everything for navigation. and when xisuthros inquired in what direction he should steer his bark, he was answered, 'toward the gods,' and enjoined to pray that good might come of it for men. "xisuthros obeyed, and constructed a vessel five stadia long and five broad; he collected all that had been prescribed to him, and embarked his wife, his children, and his intimate friends. "the deluge having come, and soon going down, xisuthros loosed some of the birds. these, finding no food nor place to alight on, returned to the ship. a few days later xisuthros again let them free, but they returned again to the vessel, their feet full of mud. finally, loosed the third time, the birds came no more back. then xisuthros understood that the earth was bare. he made an opening in the roof of the ship, and saw that it had grounded on the top of a mountain. he then descended with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot, who worshipped the earth, raised an altar, and there sacrificed to the gods; at the same moment he vanished with those who accompanied him. "meanwhile those who had remained in the vessel, not seeing xisutbros return, descended too, and began to seek him, calling him by his name. they saw xisuthros no more; but a voice from heaven was heard commanding them piety toward the gods; that he, indeed, was receiving the reward of his piety in being carried away to dwell thenceforth in the midst of the gods, and that his wife, his daughter, and the pilot of the ship shared the same honor. the voice further said that they were to return to babylon, and, conformably to the decrees of fate, disinter the writings buried at sippara in order to transmit them to men. it added that the country in which they found themselves was armenia. these, then, having heard the voice, sacrificed to the gods and returned on foot to babylon. of the vessel of xisuthros, which had finally landed in armenia, a portion is still to be found in the gordyan mountains in armenia, and pilgrims bring thence asphalte that they have scraped from its fragments. it is used to keep off the influence of witchcraft. as to the companions of xisuthros, they came to babylon, disinterred the writings left at sippara, founded numerous cities, built temples, and restored babylon." "by the side of this version," says lenormant, "which, interesting though it be, is, after all, second-hand, we are now able to place an original chaldeo-babylonian edition, which the lamented george smith was the first to decipher on the cuneiform tablets exhumed at nineveh, and now in the british museum. here the narrative of the deluge appears as an episode in the eleventh tablet, or eleventh chant of the great epic of the town of uruk. the hero of this poem, a kind of hercules, whose name has not as yet been made out with certainty, being attacked by disease (a kind of leprosy), goes, with a view to its cure, to consult the patriarch saved from the deluge, khasisatra, in the distant land to which the gods have transported him, there to enjoy eternal felicity. he asks khasisatra to reveal the secret of the events which led to his obtaining the privilege of immortality, and thus the patriarch is induced to relate the cataclysm. "by a comparison of the three copies of the poem that the library of the palace of nineveh contained, it has been possible to restore the narrative with hardly any breaks. these three copies were, by order of the king of assyria, asshurbanabal, made in the eighth century b.c., from a very ancient specimen in the sacerdotal library of the town of uruk, founded by the monarchs of the first chaldean empire. it is difficult precisely to fix the date of the original, copied by assyrian scribes, but it certainly goes back to the ancient empire, seventeen centuries at least before our era, and even probably beyond; it was therefore much anterior to moses, and nearly contemporaneous with abraham. the variations presented by the three existing copies prove that the original was in the primitive mode of writing called the hieratic, a character which must have already become difficult to decipher in the eighth century b.c., as the copyists have differed as to the interpretation to be given to certain signs, and in other cases have simply reproduced exactly the forms of such as they did not understand. finally, it results from a comparison of these variations, that the original, transcribed by order of asshurbanabal, must itself have been a copy of some still more ancient manuscript, it, which the original text had already received interlinear comments. some of the copyists have introduced these into their text, others have omitted them. with these preliminary observations, i proceed to give integrally the narrative ascribed in the poem to khasisatra: "'i will reveal to thee, o izdhubar, the history of my preservation--and tell to thee the decision of the gods. "'the town of shurippak, a town which thou knowest, is situated on the euphrates--it was ancient, and in it [men did not honor] the gods. [i alone, i was] their servant, to the great gods--[the gods took counsel on the appeal of] ann--[a deluge was proposed by] bel--[and approved by nabon, nergal and] adar. "'and the god [ea], the immutable lord, repeated this command in a dream.--i listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said to me:--" man of shurippak, son of ubaratutu--thou, build a vessel and finish it [quickly].--[by a deluge] i will destroy substance and life.--cause thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that has life.--the vessel thou shall build-- cubits shall be the measure of its length--and cubits the amount of its breadth and of its height. [launch it] thus on the ocean, and cover it with a roof."--i understood, and i said to ea, my lord:--"[the vessel] that thou commandest me to build thus--[when] i shall do it,--young and old [shall laugh at me.]"--[ea opened his mouth and] spoke.--he said to me, his servant:--"[if they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them:--[shall be punished] he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is over me.-- ... like to caverns ... -- ... i will exercise my judgment on that which is on high and that which is below ... -- ... close the vessel ... -- ... at a given moment that i shall cause thee to know,--enter into it, and draw the door of the ship toward thee.--within it, thy grains, thy furniture, thy provisions, thy riches, thy men-servants, and thy maid-servants, and thy young people--the cattle of the field, and the wild beasts of the plain that i will assemble--and that i will send thee, shall be kept behind thy door."--khasisatra opened his mouth and spoke;--he said to ea, his lord:--"no one has made [such a] ship.--on the prow i will fix ... --i shall see ... and the vessel ... --the vessel thou commandest me to build [thus] which in...." "'on the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised.--in its covering fourteen in all were its rafters--fourteen in all did it count above.--i placed its roof, and i covered it.--i embarked in it on the sixth day; i divided its floors on the seventh;--i divided the interior compartments on the eighth. i stopped up the chinks through which the water entered in;--i visited the chinks, and added what was wanting.--i poured on the exterior three times measures of asphalte,--and three times measures of asphalte within.--three times men, porters, brought on their heads the chests of provisions.--i kept chests for the nourishment of my family,--and the mariners divided among themselves twice chests.--for [provisioning] i had oxen slain;--i instituted [rations] for each day.--in [anticipation of the need of] drinks, of barrels, and of wine--[i collected in quantity] like to the waters of a river, [of provisions] in quantity like to the dust of the earth.--[to arrange them in] the chests i set my hand to.-- ... of the sun ... the vessel was completed.-- ... strong and--i had carried above and below the furniture of the ship.--[this lading filled the two-thirds.] "'all that i possessed i gathered together; all i possessed of silver i gathered together; all that i possessed of gold i gathered--all that i possessed of the substance of life of every kind i gathered together.--i made all ascend into the vessel; my servants, male and female,--the cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons of the people, i made them all ascend. "'shamash (the sun) made the moment determined, and he announced it in these terms:--"in the evening i will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door."--the fixed moment had arrived, which he announced in these terms:--"in the evening i will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven."--when the evening of that day arrived, i was afraid,--i entered into the vessel and shut my door.--in shutting the vessel, to buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot,--i confided this dwelling, with all that it contained. "'mu-sheri-ina-namari--rose from the foundations of heaven in a black cloud;--ramman thundered in the midst of the cloud,--and nabon and sharru marched before;--they marched, devastating the mountain and the plain;--nergal the powerful dragged chastisements after him;--adar advanced, overthrowing;--before him;--the archangels of the abyss brought destruction,--in their terrors they agitated the earth.--the inundation of ramman swelled up to the sky,--and [the earth] became without lustre, was changed into a desert. "'they broke ... of the surface of the earth like...;--[they destroyed] the living beings of the surface of the earth.--the terrible [deluge] on men swelled up to [heaven]. the brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer knew each other. in heaven--the gods became afraid of the water-spout, and--sought a refuge; they mounted up to the heaven of anu.--the gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one against another like dogs.--ishtar wailed like a child, the great goddess pronounced her discourse:--"here is humanity returned into mud, and--this is the misfortune that i have announced in the presence of the gods.--so i announced the misfortune in the presence of the gods,--for the evil i announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are mine.--i am the mother who gave birth to men, and--like to the race of fishes, there they are filling the sea;--and the gods, by reason of that--which the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me."--the gods on their seats were seated in tears,--and they held their lips closed, [revolving] future things. "'six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the diluvian rain were in all their strength. at the approach of the seventh day the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout--which had assailed after the fashion of an earthquake--grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up, and the wind and the water-spout came to an end. i looked at the sea, attentively observing--and the whole of humanity had returned to mud; like unto sea-weeds the corpses floated. i opened the window, and the light smote on my face. i was seized with sadness; i sat down and i wept;-and my tears came over my face. "'i looked at the regions bounding the sea: toward the twelve points of the horizon; not any continent.--the vessel was borne above the land of nizir,--the mountain of nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over.--a day and a second day the mountain of nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the third and fourth day the mountain of nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;--the fifth and sixth day the mountain of nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. at the approach of the seventh day, i sent out and loosed a dove. the dove went, turned, and--found no place to light on, and it came back. i sent out and loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and--found no place to light on, and it came back. i sent out and loosed a raven; the raven went and saw the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned, and came not back. "'i then sent out (what was in the vessel) toward the four winds, and i offered a sacrifice. i raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak of the mountain; seven by seven i disposed the measured vases,--and beneath i spread rushes, cedar, and juniper-wood. the gods were seized with the desire of it--the gods were seized with a benevolent desire of it;--and the gods assembled like flies above the master of the sacrifice. from afar, in approaching, the great goddess raised the great zones that anu has made for their glory (the gods). these gods, luminous crystal before me, i will never leave them; in that day i prayed that i might never leave them. "let the gods come to my sacrificial pile!--but never may bel come to my sacrificial pile! for he did not master himself, and he has made the water-spout for the deluge, and he has numbered my men for the pit." "'from far, in drawing near, bel--saw the vessel, and bel stopped;--he was filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels:-- "'"no one shall come out alive! no man shall be preserved from the abyss!"--adar opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior bel:--"what other than ea should have formed this resolution?--for ea possesses knowledge, and [he foresees] all."--ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior bel:--"o thou, herald of the gods, warrior,--as thou didst not master thyself, thou hast made the water-spout of the deluge.--let the sinner carry the weight of his sins, the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy.--please thyself with this good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in it never [shall be violated].--instead of thy making a new deluge, let lions appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge, let hyenas appear and reduce the number of men;--instead of thy making a new deluge, let there be famine, and let the earth be [devastated];--instead of thy making a new deluge, let dibbara appear, and let men be [mown down]. i have not revealed the decision of the great gods;--it is khasisatra who interpreted a dream and comprehended what the gods had decided." "'then, when his resolve was arrested, bel entered into the vessel.--he took my hand and made me rise.--he made my wife rise, and made her place herself at my side--he turned around us and stopped short; he approached our group.--"until now khasisatra has made part of perishable humanity;--but lo, now khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live like the gods,--and khasisatra will reside afar at the mouth of the rivers."--they carried me away, and established me in a remote place at the mouth of the streams.'" "this narrative," says lenormant, "follows with great exactness the same course as that, or, rather, as those of genesis; and the analogies are, on both sides, striking." when we consider these two forms of the same legend, we see many points wherein the story points directly to atlantis. . in the first place, berosus tells us that the god who gave warning of the coming of the deluge was chronos. chronos, it is well known, was the same as saturn. saturn was an ancient king of italy, who, far anterior to the founding of rome, introduced civilization from some other country to the italians. he established industry and social order, filled the land with plenty, and created the golden age of italy. he was suddenly removed to the abodes of the gods. his name is connected, in the mythological legends, with "a great saturnian continent" in the atlantic ocean, and a great kingdom which, in the remote ages, embraced northern africa and the european coast of the mediterranean as far as the peninsula of italy, and "certain islands in the sea;" agreeing, in this respect, with the story of plato as to the dominions of atlantis. the romans called the atlantic ocean "chronium mare," the sea of chronos, thus identifying chronos with that ocean. the pillars of hercules were also called by the ancients "the pillars of chronos." here, then, we have convincing testimony that the country referred to in the chaldean legends was the land of chronos, or saturn--the ocean world, the dominion of atlantis. . hea or ea, the god of the nineveh tablets, was a fish-god: he was represented in the chaldean monuments as half man and half fish; he was described as the god, not of the rivers and seas, but of "the abyss"--to wit, the ocean. he it was who was said to have brought civilization and letters to the ancestors of the assyrians. he clearly represented an ancient, maritime, civilized nation; he came from the ocean, and was associated with some land and people that had been destroyed by rain and inundations. the fact that the scene of the deluge is located on the euphrates proves nothing, for we will see hereafter that almost every nation had its especial mountain on which, according to its traditions, the ark rested; just as every greek tribe had its own particular mountain of olympos. the god bel of the legend was the baal of the phoenicians, who, as we shall show, were of atlantean origin. bel, or baal, was worshipped on the western and northern coasts of europe, and gave his name to the baltic, the great and little belt, balesbaugen, balestranden, etc.; and to many localities, in the british islands, as, for instance, belan and the baal hills in yorkshire. . in those respects wherein the chaldean legend, evidently the older form of the tradition, differs from the biblical record, we see that in each instance we approach nearer to atlantis. the account given in genesis is the form of the tradition that would be natural to an inland people. although there is an allusion to "the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep" (about which i shall speak more fully hereafter), the principal destruction seems to have been accomplished by rain; hence the greater period allowed for the deluge, to give time enough for the rain to fall, and subsequently drain off from the land. a people dwelling in the midst of a continent could not conceive the possibility of a whole world sinking beneath the sea; they therefore supposed the destruction to have been caused by a continuous down-pour of rain for forty days and forty nights. in the chaldean legend, on the contrary, the rain lasted but seven days; and we see that the writer had a glimpse of the fact that the destruction occurred in the midst of or near the sea. the ark of genesis (têbâh) was simply a chest, a coffer, a big box, such as might be imagined by an inland people. the ark of the chaldeans was a veritable ship; it had a prow, a helm, and a pilot, and men to manage it; and it navigated "the sea." . the chaldean legend represents not a mere rain-storm, but a tremendous cataclysm. there was rain, it is true, but there was also thunder, lightning, earthquakes, wind, a water-spout, and a devastation of mountain and land by the war of the elements. all the dreadful forces of nature were fighting together over the doomed land: "the archangel of the abyss brought destruction," "the water rose to the sky," "the brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer knew each other;" the men "filled the sea like fishes;" the sea was filled with mud, and "the corpses floated like sea-weed." when the storm abated the land had totally disappeared-there was no longer "any continent." does not all this accord with "that dreadful day and night" described by plato? . in the original it appears that izdhubar, when he started to find the deified khasisatra, travelled first, for nine days' journey, to the sea; then secured the services of a boatman, and, entering a ship, sailed for fifteen days before finding the chaldean noah. this would show that khasisatra dwelt in a far country, one only attainable by crossing the water; and this, too, seems like a reminiscence of the real site of atlantis. the sea which a sailing-vessel required fifteen days to cross must have been a very large body of water; in fact, an ocean. chapter iv. the deluge legends of other nations. a collection of the deluge legends of other nations will throw light upon the biblical and chaldean records of that great event. the author of the treatise "on the syrian goddess" acquaints us with the diluvian tradition of the arameans, directly derived from that of chaldea, as it was narrated in the celebrated sanctuary of hierapolis, or bambyce. "the generality of people," he says, "tells us that the founder of the temple was deucalion sisythes--that deucalion in whose time the great inundation occurred. i have also heard the account given by the greeks themselves of deucalion; the myth runs thus: the actual race of men is not the first, for there was a previous one, all the members of which perished. we belong to a second race, descended from deucalion, and multiplied in the course of time. as to the former men, they are said to have been full of insolence and pride, committing many crimes, disregarding their oath, neglecting the rights of hospitality, unsparing to suppliants; accordingly, they were punished by an immense disaster. all on a sudden enormous volumes of water issued from the earth, and rains of extraordinary abundance began to fall; the rivers left their beds, and the sea overflowed its shores; the whole earth was covered with water, and all men perished. deucalion alone, because of his virtue and piety, was preserved alive to give birth to a new race. this is how he was saved: he placed himself, his children, and his wives in a great coffer that he had, in which pigs, horses, lions, serpents, and all other terrestrial animals came to seek refuge with him. he received them all; and while they were in the coffer zeus inspired them with reciprocal amity, which prevented their devouring one another. in this manner, shut up within one single coffer, they floated as long as the waters remained in force. such is the account given by the greeks of deucalion. "but to this, which they equally tell, the people of hierapolis add a marvellous narrative: that in their country a great chasm opened, into which all the waters of the deluge poured. then deucalion raised an altar, and dedicated a temple to hera (atargatis) close to this very chasm. i have seen it; it is very narrow, and situated under the temple. whether it was once large, and has now shrunk, i do not know; but i have seen it, and it is quite small. in memory of the event the following is the rite accomplished: twice a year sea-water is brought to the temple. this is not only done by the priests, but numerous pilgrims come from the whole of syria and arabia, and even from beyond the euphrates, bringing water. it is poured out in the temple and goes into the cleft, which, narrow as it is, swallows up a considerable quantity. this is said to be in virtue of a religious law instituted by deucalion to preserve the memory of the catastrophe, and of the benefits that he received from the gods. such is the ancient tradition of the temple." "it appears to me difficult," says lenormant, "not to recognize an echo of fables popular in all semitic countries about this chasm of hierapolis, and the part it played in the deluge, in the enigmatic expressions of the koran respecting the oven (tannur) which began to bubble and disgorge water all around at the commencement of the deluge. we know that this tannur has been the occasion of most grotesque imaginings of mussulman commentators, who had lost the tradition of the story to which mohammed made allusion. and, moreover, the koran formally states that the waters of the deluge were absorbed in the bosom of the earth." here the xisuthros of berosus becomes deucalion-sisythes. the animals are not collected together by deucalion, as in the case of noah and khasisatra, but they crowded into the vessel of their own accord, driven by the terror with which the storm had inspired them; as in great calamities the creatures of the forest have been known to seek refuge in the houses of men. india affords us an account of the deluge which, by its poverty, strikingly contrasts with that of the bible and the chaldeans. its most simple and ancient form is found in the Çatapatha brâhmana of the rig-veda. it has been translated for the first time by max müller. "one morning water for washing was brought to mann, and when he had washed himself a fish remained in his hands, and it addressed these words to him: 'protect me, and i will save thee.' 'from what wilt thou save me?' 'a deluge will sweep all creatures away; it is from that i will save thee.' 'how shall i protect thee?' the fish replied, 'while we are small we run great dangers, for fish swallow fish. keep me at first in a vase; when i become too large for it, dig a basin to put me into. when i shall have grown still more, throw me into the ocean; then i shall be preserved from destruction.' soon it grew a large fish. it said to mann, 'the very year i shall have reached my full growth the deluge will happen. then build a vessel and worship me. when the waters rise, enter the vessel, and i will save thee.' "after keeping him thus, mann carried the fish to the sea. in the year indicated mann built a vessel and worshipped the fish. and when the deluge came he entered the vessel. then the fish came swimming up to him, and mann fastened the cable of the ship to the horn of the fish, by which means the latter made it pass over the mountain of the north. the fish said, 'i have saved thee; fasten the vessel to a tree, that the water may not sweep it away while thou art on the mountain; and in proportion as the waters decrease thou shalt descend.' mann descended with the waters, and this is what is called the descent of mann on the mountain of the north. the deluge had carried away all creatures, and mann remained alone." there is another form of the hindoo legend in the purânas. lenormant says: "we must also remark that in the purânas it is no longer mann vaivasata that the divine fish saves from the deluge, but a different personage, the king of the dâstas--i. e., fisher--satyravata, 'the man who loves justice and truth,' strikingly corresponding to the chaldean khasisatra. nor is the puranic version of the legend of the deluge to be despised, though it be of recent date, and full of fantastic and often puerile details. in certain aspects it is less aryanized than that of brâhmana or than the mahâbhârata; and, above all, it gives some circumstances omitted in these earlier versions, which must yet have belonged to the original foundation, since they appear in the babylonian legend; a circumstance preserved, no doubt, by the oral tradition--popular, and not brahmanic--with which the purânas are so deeply imbued. this has already been observed by pictet, who lays due stress on the following passage of the bhâgavata-purâna: 'in seven days,' said vishnu to satyravata, 'the three worlds shall be submerged.' there is nothing like this in the brâhmana nor the mahâbhârata, but in genesis the lord says to noah, 'yet seven days and i will cause it to rain upon the earth;' and a little farther we read, 'after seven days the waters of the flood were upon the earth.'... nor must we pay less attention to the directions given by the fish-god to satyravata for the placing of the sacred scriptures in a safe place, in order to preserve them from hayagriva, a marine horse dwelling in the abyss.... we recognize in it, under an indian garb, the very tradition of the interment of the sacred writings at sippara by khasisatra, such as we have seen it in the fragment of berosus." the references to "the three worlds" and the "fish-god" in these legends point to atlantis. the "three worlds" probably refers to the great empire of atlantis, described by plato, to wit, the western continent, america, the eastern continent, europe and africa, considered as one, and the island of atlantis. as we have seen, poseidon, the founder of the civilization of atlantis, is identical with neptune, who is always represented riding a dolphin, bearing a trident, or three-pronged symbol, in his hand, emblematical probably of the triple kingdom. he is thus a sea-god, or fish-god, and he comes to save the representative of his country. and we have also a new and singular form of the legend in the following. lenormant says: "among the iranians, in the sacred books containing the fundamental zoroastrian doctrines, and dating very far back, we meet with a tradition which must assuredly be looked upon as a variety of that of the deluge, though possessing a special character, and diverging in some essential particulars from those we have been examining. it relates how yima, who, in the original and primitive conception, was the father of the human race, was warned by ahuramazda, the good deity, of the earth being about to be devastated by a flood. the god ordered yima to construct a refuge, a square garden, vara, protected by an enclosure, and to cause the germs of men, beasts, and plants to enter it, in order to escape annihilation. accordingly, when the inundation occurred, the garden of yima, with all that it contained, was alone spared, and the message of safety was brought thither by the bird karshipta, the envoy of ahuramazda." ("vendûdid," vol. ii., p. .) this clearly signifies that, prior to the destruction of atlantis, a colony had been sent out to some neighboring country. these emigrants built a walled town, and brought to it the grains and domestic animals of the mother country; and when the island of atlantis sunk in the ocean, a messenger brought the terrible tidings to them in a ship. "the greeks had two principal legends as to the cataclysm by which primitive humanity was destroyed. the first was connected with the name of ogyges, the most ancient of the kings of boeotia or attica--a quite mythical personage, lost in the night of ages, his very name seemingly derived from one signifying deluge in aryan idioms, in sanscrit angha. it is said that in his time the whole land was covered by a flood, whose waters reached the sky, and from which he, together with some companions, escaped in a vessel. "the second tradition is the thessalian legend of deucalion. zeus having worked to destroy the men of the age of bronze, with whose crimes he was wroth, deucalion, by the advice of prometheus, his father, constructed a coffer, in which he took refuge with his wife, pyrrha. the deluge came; the chest, or coffer, floated at the mercy of the waves for nine days and nine nights, and was finally stranded on mount parnassus. deucalion and pyrrha leave it, offer sacrifice, and, according to the command of zeus, repeople the world by throwing behind them 'the bones of the earth'--namely, stones, which change into men. this deluge of deucalion is, in grecian tradition, what most resembles a universal deluge. many authors affirm that it extended to the whole earth, and that the whole human race perished. at athens, in memory of the event, and to appease the manes of its victims, a ceremony called hydrophoria was observed, having so close a resemblance to that in use at hierapolis, in syria, that we can hardly fail to look upon it as a syro-phoenician importation, and the result of an assimilation established in remote antiquity between the deluge of deucalion and that of khasisatra, as described by the author of the treatise 'on the syrian goddess.' close to the temple of the olympian zeus a fissure in the soil was shown, in length but one cubit, through which it was said the waters of the deluge had been swallowed up. thus, every year, on the third day of the festival of the anthestéria, a day of mourning consecrated to the dead--that is, on the thirteenth of the month of anthestérion, toward the beginning of march--it was customary, as at bambyce, to pour water into the fissure, together with flour mixed with honey, poured also into the trench dug to the west of the tomb, in the funeral sacrifices of the athenians." in this legend, also, there are passages which point to atlantis. we will see hereafter that the greek god zeus was one of the kings of atlantis. "the men of the age of bronze" indicates the civilization of the doomed people; they were the great metallurgists of their day, who, as we will see, were probably the source of the great number of implements and weapons of bronze found all over europe. here, also, while no length of time is assigned to the duration of the storm, we find that the ark floated but nine days and nights. noah was one year and ten days in the ark, khasisatra was not half that time, while deucalion was afloat only nine days. at megara, in greece, it was the eponym of the city, megaros, son of zeus and one of the nymphs, sithnides, who, warned by the cry of cranes of the imminence of the danger of the coming flood, took refuge on mount geranien. again, there was the thessalian cerambos, who was said to have escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings given him by the nymphs; and it was perirrhoos, son of eolus, that zeus naios had preserved at dodona. for the inhabitants of the isle of cos the hero of the deluge was merops, son of hyas, who there assembled under his rule the remnant of humanity preserved with him. the traditions of rhodes only supposed the telchines, those of crete sasion, to have escaped the cataclysm. in samothracia the same character was attributed to saon, said to be the son of zeus or of hermes. it will be observed that in all these legends the name of zeus, king of atlantis, reappears. it would appear probable that many parties had escaped from the catastrophe, and had landed at the different points named in the traditions; or else that colonies had already been established by the atlanteans at those places. it would appear impossible that a maritime people could be totally destroyed; doubtless many were on shipboard in the harbors, and others going and coming on distant voyages. "the invasion of the east," says baldwin ('prehistoric nations,' p. ), "to which the story of atlantis refers, seems to have given rise to the panathenæ, the oldest, greatest, and most splendid festivals in honor of athena celebrated in attica. these festivals are said to have been established by erichthonis in the most ancient times remembered by the historical traditions of athens. boeckh says of them, in his 'commentary on plato:' "'in the greater panathenæ there was carried in procession a peplum of minerva, representing the war with the giants and the victory of the gods of olympus. in the lesser panathenæ they carried another peplum (covered with symbolic devices), which showed how the athenians, supported by minerva, had the advantage in the war with the atlantes.' a scholia quoted from proclus by humboldt and boeckh says: 'the historians who speak of the islands of the exterior sea tell us that in their time there were seven islands consecrated to proserpine, and three others of immense extent, of which the first was consecrated to pluto, the second to ammon, and the third to neptune. the inhabitants of the latter had preserved a recollection (transmitted to them by their ancestors) of the island of atlantis, which was extremely large, and for a long time held sway over all the islands of the atlantic ocean. atlantis was also consecrated to neptune."' (see humboldt's "histoire de la géographie du nouveau continent," vol. i.) no one can read these legends and doubt that the flood was an historical reality. it is impossible that in two different places in the old world, remote from each other, religious ceremonies should have been established and perpetuated from age to age in memory of an event which never occurred. we have seen that at athens and at hierapolis, in syria, pilgrims came from a distance to appease the god of the earthquake, by pouring offerings into fissures of the earth said to have been made at the time atlantis was destroyed. more than this, we know from plato's history that the athenians long preserved in their books the memory of a victory won over the atlanteans in the early ages, and celebrated it by national festivals, with processions and religious ceremonies. it is too much to ask us to believe that biblical history, chaldean, iranian, and greek legends signify nothing, and that even religious pilgrimages and national festivities were based upon a myth. i would call attention to the farther fact that in the deluge legend of the isle of cos the hero of the affair was merops. now we have seen that, according to theopompus, one of the names of the people of atlantis was "meropes." but we have not reached the end of our flood legends. the persian magi possessed a tradition in which the waters issued from the oven of an old woman. mohammed borrowed this story, and in the koran he refers to the deluge as coming from an oven. "all men were drowned save noah and his family; and then god said, 'o earth, swallow up thy waters; and thou, o heaven, withhold thy rain;' and immediately the waters abated." in the bardic poems of wales we have a tradition of the deluge which, although recent, under the concise forms of the triads, is still deserving of attention. as usual, the legend is localized in the country, and the deluge counts among three terrible catastrophes of the island of prydian, or britain, the other two consisting of devastation by fire and by drought. "the first of these events," it is said, "was the eruption of llyn-llion, or 'the lake of waves,' and the inundation (bawdd) of the whole country, by which all mankind was drowned with the exception of dwyfam and dwyfach, who saved themselves in a vessel without rigging, and it was by them that the island of prydian was repeopled." pictet here observes: "although the triads in their actual form hardly date farther than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, some of them are undoubtedly connected with very ancient traditions, and nothing here points to a borrowing from genesis. "but it is not so, perhaps, with another triad, speaking of the vessel nefyddnaf-neifion, which at the time of the overflow of llyon-llion, bore a pair of all living creatures, and rather too much resembles the ark of noah. the very name of the patriarch may have suggested this triple epithet, obscure as to its meaning, but evidently formed on the principle of cymric alliteration. in the same triad we have the enigmatic story of the horned oxen (ychain banog) of hu the mighty, who drew out of llyon-llion the avanc (beaver or crocodile?), in order that the lake should not overflow. the meaning of these enigmas could only be hoped from deciphering the chaos of barbaric monuments of the welsh middle age; but meanwhile we cannot doubt that the cymri possessed an indigenous tradition of the deluge." we also find a vestige of the same tradition in the scandinavian edda. here the story is combined with a cosmogonic myth. the three sons of borr--othin, wili, and we--grandsons of buri, the first man, slay ymir, the father of the hrimthursar, or ice giants, and his body serves them for the construction of the world. blood flows from his wounds in such abundance that all the race of giants is drowned in it except bergelmir, who saves himself, with his wife, in a boat, and reproduces the race. in the edda of soemund, "the vala's prophecy" (stz. - , p. ), we seem to catch traditional glimpses of a terrible catastrophe, which reminds us of the chaldean legend: "then trembles yggdrasil's ash yet standing, groans that ancient tree, and the jötun loki is loosed. the shadows groan on the ways of hel (the goddess of death), until the fire of surt has consumed the tree. hyrm steers from the east, the waters rise, the mundane snake is coiled in jötun-rage. the worm beats the water and the eagle screams; the pale of beak tears carcasses; (the ship) naglfar is loosed. surt from the south comes with flickering flame; shines from his sword the valgod's sun. the stony hills are dashed together, the giantesses totter; men tread the path of hel, and heaven is cloven. the sun darkens, earth in ocean sinks, fall from heaven the bright stars, fire's breath assails the all-nourishing, towering fire plays against heaven itself." egypt does not contain a single allusion to the flood. lenormant says: "while the tradition of the deluge holds so considerable a place in the legendary memories of all branches of the aryan race, the monuments and original texts of egypt, with their many cosmogonic speculations, have not afforded one, even distant, allusion to this cataclysm. when the greeks told the egyptian priests of the deluge of deucalion, their reply was that they had been preserved from it as well as from the conflagration produced by phaëthon; they even added that the hellenes were childish in attaching so much importance to that event, as there had been several other local catastrophes resembling it. according to a passage in manetho, much suspected, however, of being an interpolation, thoth, or hermes trismegistus, had himself, before the cataclysm, inscribed on stelæ, in hieroglyphical and sacred language, the principles of all knowledge. after it the second thoth translated into the vulgar tongue the contents of these stelæ. this would be the only egyptian mention of the deluge, the same manetho not speaking of it in what remains to us of his 'dynasties,' his only complete authentic work. the silence of all other myths of the pharaonic religion on this head render it very likely that the above is merely a foreign tradition, recently introduced, and no doubt of asiatic and chaldean origin." to my mind the explanation of this singular omission is very plain. the egyptians had preserved in their annals the precise history of the destruction of atlantis, out of which the flood legends grew; and, as they told the greeks, there had been no universal flood, but only local catastrophes. possessing the real history of the local catastrophe which destroyed atlantis, they did not indulge in any myths about a universal deluge covering the mountain-tops of all the world. they had no ararat in their neighborhood. the traditions of the early christian ages touching the deluge pointed to the quarter of the world in which atlantis was situated. there was a quaint old monk named cosmos, who, about one thousand years ago, published a book, "topographia christiana," accompanied by a map, in which he gives his view of the world as it was then understood. it was a body surrounded by water, and resting on nothing. "the earth," says cosmos, "presses downward, but the igneous parts tend upward," and between the conflicting forces the earth hangs suspended, like mohammed's coffin in the old story. the accompanying illustration (page ) represents the earth surrounded by the ocean, and beyond this ocean was "the land where men dwelt before the deluge." he then gives us a more accurate map, in detail, of the known world of his day. i copy this map, not to show how much more we know than poor cosmos, but because he taught that all around this habitable world there was yet another world, adhering closely on all sides to the circumscribing walls of heaven. "upon the eastern side of this transmarine land he judges man was created; and that there the paradise of gladness was located, such as here on the eastern edge is described, where it received our first parents, driven out of paradise to that extreme point of land on the sea-shore. hence, upon the coming of the deluge, noah and his sons were borne by the ark to the earth we now inhabit. the four rivers he supposes to be gushing up the spouts of paradise." they are depicted on the above map: o is the mediterranean sea; p, the arabian gulf; l, the caspian sea; q, the tigris; m, the river pison; "and j, the land where men dwelt before the flood." it will be observed that, while he locates paradise in the east, he places the scene of the deluge in the west; and he supposes that noah came from the scene of the deluge to europe. this shows that the traditions in the time of cosmos looked to the west as the place of the deluge, and that after the deluge noah came to the shores of the mediterranean. the fact, too, that there was land in the west beyond the ocean is recognized by cosmos, and is probably a dim echo from atlantean times. map of europe, after cosmos the following rude cut, from cosmos, represents the high mountain in the north behind which the sun hid himself at night, thus producing the alternations of day and night. his solar majesty is just getting behind the mountain, while luna looks calmly on at the operation. the mountain is as crooked as culhuacan, the crooked mountain of atzlan described by the aztecs. the mountain the sun goes behind at night chapter v the deluge legends of america. "it is a very remarkable fact," says alfred maury, "that we find in america traditions of the deluge coming infinitely nearer to that of the bible and the chaldean religion than among any people of the old world. it is difficult to suppose that the emigration that certainly took place from asia into north america by the kourile and aleutian islands, and still does so in our day, should have brought in these memories, since no trace is found of them among those mongol or siberian populations which were fused with the natives of the new world.... the attempts that have been made to trace the origin of mexican civilization to asia have not as yet led to any sufficiently conclusive facts. besides, had buddhism, which we doubt, made its way into america, it could not have introduced a myth not found in its own scriptures. the cause of these similarities between the diluvian traditions of the nations of the new world and that of the bible remains therefore unexplained." the cause of these similarities can be easily explained: the legends of the flood did not pass into america by way of the aleutian islands, or through the buddhists of asia, but were derived from an actual knowledge of atlantis possessed by the people of america. atlantis and the western continent had from an immemorial age held intercourse with each other: the great nations of america were simply colonies from atlantis, sharing in its civilization, language, religion, and blood. from mexico to the peninsula of yucatan, from the shores of brazil to the heights of bolivia and peru, from the gulf of mexico to the head-waters of the mississippi river, the colonies of atlantis extended; and therefore it is not strange to find, as alfred maury says, american traditions of the deluge coming nearer to that of the bible and the chaldean record than those of any people of the old world. "the most important among the american traditions are the mexican, for they appear to have been definitively fixed by symbolic and mnemonic paintings before any contact with europeans. according to these documents, the noah of the mexican cataclysm was coxcox, called by certain peoples teocipactli or tezpi. he had saved himself, together with his wife xochiquetzal, in a bark, or, according to other traditions, on a raft made of cypress-wood (cupressus disticha). paintings retracing the deluge of coxcox have been discovered among the aztecs, miztecs, zapotecs, tlascaltecs, and mechoacaneses. the tradition of the latter is still more strikingly in conformity with the story as we have it in genesis, and in chaldean sources. it tells how tezpi embarked in a spacious vessel with his wife, his children, and several animals, and grain, whose preservation was essential to the subsistence of the human race. when the great god tezcatlipoca decreed that the waters should retire, tezpi sent a vulture from the bark. the bird, feeding on the carcasses with which the earth was laden, did not return. tezpi sent out other birds, of which the humming-bird only came back with a leafy branch in its beak. then tezpi, seeing that the country began to vegetate, left his bark on the mountain of colhuacan. "the document, however, that gives the most valuable information," says lenormant, "as to the cosmogony of the mexicans is one known as 'codex vaticanus,' from the library where it is preserved. it consists of four symbolic pictures, representing the four ages of the world preceding the actual one. they were copied at chobula from a manuscript anterior to the conquest, and accompanied by the explanatory commentary of pedro de los rios, a dominican monk, who, in , less than fifty years after the arrival of cortez, devoted himself to the research of indigenous traditions as being necessary to his missionary work." there were, according to this document, four ages of the world. the first was an age of giants (the great mammalia?) who were destroyed by famine; the second age ended in a conflagration; the third age was an age of monkeys. "then comes the fourth age, atonatiuh, 'sun of water,' whose number is x + , or . it ends by a great inundation, a veritable deluge. all mankind are changed into fish, with the exception of one man and his wife, who save themselves in a bark made of the trunk of a cypress-tree. the picture represents matlalcueye, goddess of waters, and consort of tlaloc, god of rain, as darting down toward earth. coxcox and xochiquetzal, the two human beings preserved, are seen seated on a tree-trunk and floating in the midst of the waters. this flood is represented as the last cataclysm that devastates the earth." the learned abbé brasseur de bourbourg translates from the aztec language of the "codex chimalpopoca" the following flood legend: "this is the sun called nahui-atl, ' water.' now the water was tranquil for forty years, plus twelve, and men lived for the third and fourth times. when the sun nahui-atl came there had passed away four hundred years, plus two ages, plus seventy-six years. then all mankind was lost and drowned, and found themselves changed into fish. the sky came nearer the water. in a single day all was lost, and the day nahui-xochitl, ' flower,' destroyed all our flesh. "and that year was that of cé-calli, ' house,' and the day nahui-atl all was lost. even the mountains sunk into the water, and the water remained tranquil for fifty-two springs. "now at the end of the year the god titlacahuan had warned nata and his spouse nena, saying, 'make no more wine of agave, but begin to hollow out a great cypress, and you will enter into it when in the month tozontli the water approaches the sky.' "then they entered in, and when the god had closed the door, he said, 'thou shalt eat but one ear of maize, and thy wife one also.' "but as soon as they had finished they went out, and the water remained calm, for the wood no longer moved, and, on opening it, they began to see fish. "then they lit a fire, by rubbing together pieces of wood, and they roasted fish. "the gods citlallinicué and citlalatonac, instantly looking down said: 'divine lord, what is that fire that is making there? why do they thus smoke the sky?' at once titlacahuan-tezcatlipoca descended. he began to chide, saying, 'who has made this fire here?' and, seizing hold of the fish, he shaped their loins and heads, and they were transformed into dogs (chichime)." here we note a remarkable approximation to plato's account of the destruction of atlantis. "in one day and one fatal night," says plato, "there came mighty earthquakes and inundations that ingulfed that warlike people." "in a single day all was lost," says the aztec legend. and, instead of a rainfall of forty days and forty nights, as represented in the bible, here we see "in a single day ... even the mountains sunk into the water;" not only the land on which the people dwelt who were turned into fish, but the very mountains of that land sunk into the water. does not this describe the fate of atlantis? in the chaldean legend "the great goddess ishtar wailed like a child," saying, "i am the mother who gave birth to men, and, like to the race of fishes, they are filling the sea." in the account in genesis, noah "builded an altar unto the lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. and the lord smelled a sweet savor; and the lord said in his heart, 'i will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake.'" in the chaldean legend we are told that khasisatra also offered a sacrifice, a burnt offering, "and the gods assembled like flies above the master of the sacrifice." but bel came in a high state of indignation, just as the aztec god did, and was about to finish the work of the deluge, when the great god ea took pity in his heart and interfered to save the remnant of mankind. these resemblances cannot be accidental; neither can they be the interpolations of christian missionaries, for it will be observed the aztec legends differ from the bible in points where they resemble on the one hand plato's record, and on the other the chaldean legend. the name of the hero of the aztec story, nata, pronounced with the broad sound of the a, is not far from the name of noah or noe. the deluge of genesis is a phoenician, semitic, or hebraic legend, and yet, strange to say, the name of noah, which occurs in it, bears no appropriate meaning in those tongues, but is derived from aryan sources; its fundamental root is na, to which in all the aryan language is attached the meaning of water--{greek} na'ein, to flow; {greek} na~ma, water; nympha, neptunus, water deities. (lenormant and chevallier, "anc. hist. of the east," vol. i., p. .) we find the root na repeated in the name of this central american noah, na-ta, and probably in the word "na-hui-atl"--the age of water. but still more striking analogies exist between the chaldean legend and the story of the deluge as told in the "popul vuh" (the sacred book) of the central americans: "then the waters were agitated by the will of the heart of heaven (hurakan), and a great inundation came upon the heads of these creatures.... they were ingulfed, and a resinous thickness descended from heaven; ... the face of the earth was obscured, and a heavy darkening rain commenced--rain by day and rain by night.... there was heard a great noise above their heads, as if produced by fire. then were men seen running, pushing each other, filled with despair; they wished to climb upon their houses, and the houses, tumbling down, fell to the ground; they wished to climb upon the trees, and the trees shook them off; they wished to enter into the grottoes (caves), and the grottoes closed themselves before them.... water and fire contributed to the universal ruin at the time of the last great cataclysm which preceded the fourth creation." observe the similarities here to the chaldean legend. there is the same graphic description of a terrible event. the "black cloud" is referred to in both instances; also the dreadful noises, the rising water, the earthquake rocking the trees, overthrowing the houses, and crushing even the mountain caverns; "the men running and pushing each other, filled with despair," says the "popul vuh;" "the brother no longer saw his brother," says the assyrian legend. and here i may note that this word hurakan--the spirit of the abyss, the god of storm, the hurricane--is very suggestive, and testifies to an early intercourse between the opposite shores of the atlantic. we find in spanish the word huracan; in portuguese, furacan; in french, ouragan; in german, danish, and swedish, orcan--all of them signifying a storm; while in latin furo, or furio, means to rage. and are not the old swedish hurra, to be driven along; our own word hurried; the icelandic word hurra, to be rattled over frozen ground, all derived from the same root from which the god of the abyss, hurakan, obtained his name? the last thing a people forgets is the name of their god; we retain to this day, in the names of the days of the week, the designations of four scandinavian gods and one roman deity. it seems to me certain the above are simply two versions of the same event; that while ships from atlantis carried terrified passengers to tell the story of the dreadful catastrophe to the people of the mediterranean shores, other ships, flying from the tempest, bore similar awful tidings to the civilized races around the gulf of mexico. the native mexican historian, ixtlilxochitl, gave this as the toltec legend of the flood: it is found in the histories of the toltecs that this age and first world, as they call it, lasted years; that men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightning from the sky, and even all the land, without the exception of anything, and the highest mountains, were covered up and submerged in water fifteen cubits (caxtolmolatli); and here they added other fables of how men came to multiply from the few who escaped from this destruction in a "toptlipetlocali;" that this word nearly signifies a close chest; and how, after men had multiplied, they erected a very high "zacuali," which is to-day a tower of great height, in order to take refuge in it should the second world (age) be destroyed. presently their languages were confused, and, not being able to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth. "the toltecs, consisting of seven friends, with their wives, who understood the same language, came to these parts, having first passed great land and seas, having lived in caves, and having endured great hardships in order to reach this land; ... they wandered years through different parts of the world before they reached hue hue tlapalan, which was in ce tecpatl, years after the flood." ("ixtlilxochitl relaciones," in kingsborough's "mex. ant.," vol. ix., pp. , .) it will of course be said that this account, in those particulars where it agrees with the bible, was derived from the teachings of the spanish priests; but it must be remembered that ixtlilxochitl was an indian, a native of tezeuco, a son of the queen, and that his "relaciones" were drawn from the archives of his family and the ancient writings of his nation: he had no motive to falsify documents that were probably in the hands of hundreds at that time. here we see that the depth of the water over the earth, "fifteen cubits," given in the toltec legend, is precisely the same as that named in the bible: "fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail." (gen., chap. vii., .) in the two curious picture-histories of the aztecs preserved in the boturini collection, and published by gamelli careri and others, there is a record of their migrations from their original location through various parts of the north american continent until their arrival in mexico. in both cases their starting-point is an island, from which they pass in a boat; and the island contains in one case a mountain, and in the other a high temple in the midst thereof. these things seem to be reminiscences of their origin in atlantis. in each case we see the crooked mountain of the aztec legends, the calhuacan, looking not unlike the bent mountain of the monk, cosmos. in the legends of the chibchas of bogota we seem to have distinct reminiscences of atlantis. bochica was their leading divinity. during two thousand years he employed himself in elevating his subjects. he lived in the sun, while his wife chia occupied the moon. this would appear to be an allusion to the worship of the sun and moon. beneath bochica in their mythology was chibchacum. in an angry mood he brought a deluge on the people of the table-land. bochica punished him for this act, and obliged him ever after, like atlas, to bear the burden of the earth on his back. occasionally be shifts the earth from one shoulder to another, and this causes earthquakes! here we have allusions to an ancient people who, during thousands of years, were elevated in the scale of civilization, and were destroyed by a deluge; and with this is associated an atlantean god bearing the world on his back. we find even the rainbow appearing in connection with this legend. when bochica appeared in answer to prayer to quell the deluge he is seated on a rainbow. he opened a breach in the earth at tequendama, through which the waters of the flood escaped, precisely as we have seen them disappearing through the crevice in the earth near bambyce, in greece. the toltecs traced their migrations back to a starting-point called "aztlan," or "atlan." this could be no other than, atlantis. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) "the original home of the nahuatlacas was aztlan, the location of which has been the subject of much discussion. the causes that led to their exodus from that country can only be conjectured; but they may be supposed to have been driven out by their enemies, for aztlan is described as a land too fair and beautiful to be left willingly in the mere hope of finding a better." (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) the aztecs also claimed to have come originally from aztlan. (ibid., p. .) their very name, aztecs, was derived from aztlan. (ibid., vol. ii., p. ). they were atlanteans. the "popul vuh" tells us that after the migration from aztlan three sons of the king of the quiches, upon the death of their father, "determined to go as their fathers had ordered to the east, on the shores of the sea whence their fathers had come, to receive the royalty, 'bidding adieu to their brothers and friends, and promising to return.' doubtless they passed over the sea when they went to the east to receive the royalty. now this is the name of the lord, of the monarch of the people of the east where they went. and when they arrived before the lord nacxit, the name of the great lord, the only judge, whose power was without limit, behold he granted them the sign of royalty and all that represents it ... and the insignia of royalty ... all the things, in fact, which they brought on their return, and which they went to receive from the other side of the sea--the art of painting from tulan, a system of writing, they said, for the things recorded in their histories." (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. "popul vuh," p. .) this legend not only points to the east as the place of origin of these races, but also proves that this land of the east, this aztlan, this atlantis, exercised dominion over the colonies in central america, and furnished them with the essentials of civilization. how completely does this agree with the statement of plato that the kings of atlantis held dominion over parts of "the great opposite continent!" professor valentini ("maya archæol.," p. ) describes an aztec picture in the work of gemelli ("il giro del mondo," vol. vi.) of the migration of the aztecs from aztlan: "out of a sheet of water there projects the peak of a mountain; on it stands a tree, and on the tree a bird spreads its wings. at the foot of the mountain-peak there comes out of the water the heads of a man and a woman. the one wears on his head the symbol of his name, coxcox, a pheasant. the other head bears that of a hand with a bouquet (xochitl, a flower, and quetzal, shining in green gold). in the foreground is a boat, out of which a naked man stretches out his hand imploringly to heaven. now turn to the sculpture in the flood tablet (on the great calendar stone). there you will find represented the flood, and with great emphasis, by the accumulation of all those symbols with which the ancient mexicans conveyed the idea of water: a tub of standing water, drops springing out--not two, as heretofore in the symbol for atl, water--but four drops; the picture for moisture, a snail; above, a crocodile, the king of the rivers. in the midst of these symbols you notice the profile of a man with a fillet, and a smaller one of a woman. there can be no doubt these are the mexican noah, coxcox, and his wife, xochiquetzal; and at the same time it is evident (the calendar stone, we know, was made in a.d., ) that the story of them, and the pictures representing the story, have not been invented by the catholic clergy, but really existed among these nations long before the conquest." the above figure represents the flood tablet on the great calendar stone. when we turn to the uncivilized indians of america, while we still find legends referring to the deluge, they are, with one exception, in such garbled and uncouth forms that we can only see glimpses of the truth shining through a mass of fable. the following tradition was current among the indians of the great lakes: "in former times the father of the indian tribes dwelt toward the rising sun. having been warned in a dream that a deluge was coming upon the earth, he built a raft, on which he saved himself, with his family and all the animals. he floated thus for several months. the animals, who at that time spoke, loudly complained and murmured against him. at last a new earth appeared, on which he landed with all the animals, who from that time lost the power of speech, as a punishment for their murmurs against their deliverer." according to father charlevoix, the tribes of canada and the valley of the mississippi relate in their rude legends that all mankind was destroyed by a flood, and that the good spirit, to repeople the earth, had changed animals into men. it is to j. s. kohl we owe our acquaintance with the version of the chippeways--full of grotesque and perplexing touches--in which the man saved from the deluge is called menaboshu. to know if the earth be drying, he sends a bird, the diver, out of his bark; then becomes the restorer of the human race and the founder of existing society. a clergyman who visited the indians north-west of the ohio in met, at a treaty, a party of indians from the west of the mississippi. "they informed him that one of their most ancient traditions was that, a great while ago, they had a common father, who lived toward the rising of the sun, and governed the whole world; that all the white people's heads were under his feet; that he had twelve sons, by whom he administered the government; that the twelve sons behaved very bad, and tyrannized over the people, abusing their power; that the great spirit, being thus angry with them, suffered the white people to introduce spirituous liquors among them, made them drunk, stole the special gift of the great spirit from them, and by this means usurped power over them; and ever since the indians' heads were under the white people's feet." (boudinot's "star in the west," p. .) here we note that they looked "toward the rising sun"--toward atlantis--for the original home of their race; that this region governed "the whole world;" that it contained white people, who were at first a subject race, but who subsequently rebelled, and acquired dominion over the darker races. we will see reason hereafter to conclude that atlantis had a composite population, and that the rebellion of the titans in greek mythology was the rising up of a subject population. in c. s. rafinesque published in philadelphia, pa., a work called "the american nations," in which he gives the historical songs or chants of the lenni-lenapi, or delaware indians, the tribe that originally dwelt along the delaware river. after describing a time "when there was nothing but sea-water on top of the land," and the creation of sun, moon, stars, earth, and man, the legend depicts the golden age and the fall in these words: "all were willingly pleased, all were easy-thinking, and all were well-happified. but after a while a snake-priest, powako, brings on earth secretly the snake-worship (initako) of the god of the snakes, wakon. and there came wickedness, crime, and unhappiness. and bad weather was coming, distemper was coming, with death was coming. all this happened very long ago, at the first land, netamaki, beyond the great ocean kitahikau." then follows the song of the flood: "there was, long ago, a powerful snake, maskanako, when the men had become bad beings, makowini. this strong snake had become the foe of the jins, and they became troubled, hating each other. both were fighting, both were spoiling, both were never peaceful. and they were fighting, least man mattapewi with dead-keeper nihaulowit. and the strong snake readily resolved to destroy or fight the beings or the men. the dark snake he brought, the monster (amanyam) he brought, snake-rushing water he brought (it). much water is rushing, much go to hills, much penetrate, much destroying. meanwhile at tula (this is the same tula referred to in the central american legends), at that island, nana-bush (the great hare nana) becomes the ancestor of beings and men. being born creeping, he is ready to move and dwell at tula. the beings and men all go forth from the flood creeping in shallow water or swimming afloat, asking which is the way to the turtle-back, tula-pin. but there are many monsters in the way, and some men were devoured by them. but the daughter of a spirit helped them in a boat, saying, 'come, come;' they were coming and were helped. the name of the boat or raft is mokol.... water running off, it is drying; in the plains and the mountains, at the path of the cave, elsewhere went the powerful action or motion." then follows song , describing the condition of mankind after the flood. like the aryans, they moved into a cold country: "it freezes was there; it snows was there; it is cold was there." they move to a milder region to hunt cattle; they divided their forces into tillers and hunters. "the good and the holy were the hunters; they spread themselves north, south, east, and west." meantime all the snakes were afraid in their huts, and the snake-priest nakopowa said to all, 'let us go.' eastwardly they go forth at snakeland (akhokink), and they went away earnestly grieving." afterward the fathers of the delawares, who "were always boating and navigating," find that the snake-people have taken possession of a fine country; and they collect together the people from north, south, east, and west, and attempt "to pass over the waters of the frozen sea to possess that land." they seem to travel in the dark of an arctic winter until they come to a gap of open sea. they can go no farther; but some tarry at firland, while the rest return to where they started from, "the old turtle land." here we find that the land that was destroyed was the "first land;" that it was an island "beyond the great ocean." in an early age the people were happy and peaceful; they became wicked; "snake worship" was introduced, and was associated, as in genesis, with the "fall of man;" nana-bush became the ancestor of the new race; his name reminds us of the toltec nata and the hebrew noah. after the flood came a dispersing of the people, and a separation into hunters and tillers of the soil. among the mandan indians we not only find flood legends, but, more remarkable still, we find an image of the ark preserved from generation to generation, and a religious ceremony performed which refers plainly to the destruction of atlantis, and to the arrival of one of those who escaped from the flood, bringing the dreadful tidings of the disaster. it must be remembered, as we will show hereafter, that many of these mandan indians were white men, with hazel, gray, and blue eyes, and all shades of color of the hair from black to pure white; that they dwelt in houses in fortified towns, and manufactured earthen-ware pots in which they could boil water--an art unknown to the ordinary indians, who boiled water by putting heated stones into it. i quote the very interesting account of george catlin, who visited the mandans nearly fifty years ago, lately republished in london in the "north american indians," a very curious and valuable work. he says (vol. i., p. ): "in the centre of the village is an open space, or public square, feet in diameter and circular in form, which is used for all public games and festivals, shows and exhibitions. the lodges around this open space front in, with their doors toward the centre; and in the middle of this stands an object of great religious veneration, on account of the importance it has in connection with the annual religious ceremonies. this object is in the form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of their choicest mysteries or medicines. they call it the 'big canoe.'" this is a representation of the ark; the ancient jews venerated a similar image, and some of the ancient greek states followed in processions a model of the ark of deucalion. but it is indeed surprising to find this practice perpetuated, even to our own times, by a race of indians in the heart of america. on page of the first volume of the same work catlin describes the great annual mysteries and religious ceremonials of which this image of the ark was the centre. he says: "on the day set apart for the commencement of the ceremonies a solitary figure is seen approaching the village. "during the deafening din and confusion within the pickets of the village the figure discovered on the prairie continued to approach with a dignified step, and in a right line toward the village; all eyes were upon him, and he at length made his appearance within the pickets, and proceeded toward the centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to receive him, which they did in a cordial manner by shaking hands, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name, nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man). the body of this strange personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white clay, so as to resemble at a distance a white man. he enters the medicine lodge, and goes through certain mysterious ceremonies. "during the whole of this day nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of each man's lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out and asked who he was, and what was the matter? to which he replied by narrating the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth's surface by the overflowing of the waters, saying that 'he was the only person saved from the universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high mountain in the west, where he now resides; that he has come to open the medicine lodge, which must needs receive a present of an edged tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be sacrificed to the water; for,' he says, 'if this is not done there will be another flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big canoe was made.' "having visited every lodge in the village during the day, and having received such a present from each as a hatchet, a knife, etc. (which is undoubtedly always prepared ready for the occasion), be places them in the medicine lodge; and, on the last day of the ceremony, they are thrown into a deep place in the river--'sacrificed to the spirit of the waters."' among the sacred articles kept in the great medicine lodge are four sacks of water, called eeh-teeh-ka, sewed together, each of them in the form of a tortoise lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle feathers attached to its tail. "these four tortoises," they told me, "contained the waters from the four quarters of the world--that those waters had been contained therein ever since the settling down of the waters," "i did not," says catlin, who knew nothing of an atlantis theory, "think it best to advance anything against such a ridiculous belief." catlin tried to purchase one of these water-sacks, but could not obtain it for any price; he was told they were "a society property." he then describes a dance by twelve men around the ark: "they arrange themselves according to the four cardinal points; two are painted perfectly black, two are vermilion color, some were painted partially white. they dance a dance called bel-lohck-na-pie,'" with horns on their heads, like those used in europe as symbolical of bel, or baal. could anything be more evident than the connection of these ceremonies with the destruction of atlantis? here we have the image of the ark; here we have a white man coming with the news that "the waters had overflowed the land," and that all the people were destroyed except himself; here we have the sacrifice to appease the spirit that caused the flood, just as we find the flood terminating, in the hebrew, chaldean, and central american legends, with a sacrifice. here, too, we have the image of the tortoise, which we find in other flood legends of the indians, and which is a very natural symbol for an island. as one of our own poets has expressed it, "very fair and full of promise lay the island of st. thomas; like a great green turtle slumbered on the sea which it encumbered." here we have, too, the four quarters of atlantis, divided by its four rivers, as we shall see a little farther on, represented in a dance, where the dancers arrange themselves according to the four cardinal points of the compass; the dancers are painted to represent the black and red races, while "the first and only man" represents the white race; and the name of the dance is a reminiscence of baal, the ancient god of the races derived from atlantis. but this is not all. the mandans were evidently of the race of atlantis. they have another singular legend, which we find in the account of lewis and clarke: "their belief in a future state is connected with this theory of their origin: the whole nation resided in one large village, underground, near a subterranean lake. a grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation, and gave them a view of the light. some of the most adventurous climbed up the vine, and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found covered with buffalo, and rich with every kind of fruit. returning with the grapes they had gathered, their countrymen were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms of the upper region. men, women, and children ascended by means of the vine, but, when about half the nation had reached the surface of the earth, a corpulent woman, who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her weight, and closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the sun." this curious tradition means that the present nation dwelt in a large settlement underground, that is, beyond the land, in the sea; the sea being represented by "the subterranean lake." at one time the people had free intercourse between this "large village" and the american continent, and they founded extensive colonies on this continent; whereupon some mishap cut them off from the mother country. this explanation is confirmed by the fact that in the legends of the iowa indians, who were a branch of the dakotas, or sioux indians, and relatives of the mandans (according to major james w. lynd), "all the tribes of indians were formerly one, and all dwelt together on an island, or at least across a large water toward the east or sunrise. they crossed this water in skin canoes, or by swimming; but they know not how long they were in crossing, or whether the water was salt or fresh." while the dakotas, according to major lynd, who lived among them for nine years, possessed legends of "huge skiffs, in which the dakotas of old floated for weeks, finally gaining dry land"--a reminiscence of ships and long sea-voyages. the mandans celebrated their great religious festival above described in the season when the willow is first in leaf, and a dove is mixed up in the ceremonies; and they further relate a legend that "the world was once a great tortoise, borne on the waters, and covered with earth, and that when one day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men, who had made holes in the earth to a great depth digging for badgers, at length pierced the shell of the tortoise, it sank, and the water covering it drowned all men with the exception of one, who saved himself in a boat; and when the earth re-emerged, sent out a dove, who returned with a branch of willow in its beak." the holes dug to find badgers were a savage's recollection of mining operations; and when the great disaster came, and the island sunk in the sea amid volcanic convulsions, doubtless men said it was due to the deep mines, which had opened the way to the central fires. but the recurrence of "white men" as the miners, and of a white man as "the last and only man," and the presence of white blood in the veins of the people, all point to the same conclusion--that the mandans were colonists from atlantis. and here i might add that catlin found the following singular resemblances between the mandan tongue and the welsh: +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | english. | mandan. | welsh. | pronounced. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | i | me. | mi. | me. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | you. | ne. | chwi. | chwe. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | he. | e. | a. | a. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | she. | ea. | e. | a. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | it. | ount. | hwynt. | hooynt. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | we. | noo. | ni. | ne. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | they. | eonah. | hona, fem. | hona. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | no; or there is not. | megosh. | nagoes. | nagosh. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | no. | | na. | | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | head. | pan. | pen. | pan. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ | the great spirit. | maho peneta. | mawr | mosoor | | | | penæthir. | panæther. | +----------------------+--------------+------------+-------------+ major lynd found the following resemblances between the dakota tongue and the languages of the old world: comparison of dakota, or sioux, with other languages. +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | latin. | english. | saxon | sanscrit. | german. | danish. | sioux. | other | primary | | | | | | | | | languages. | signification. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | see, | seon | | sehen | sigt | sin | | appearing, | | | seen | | | | | | | visible. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | pinso | pound | punian | | | | pau | w., | beating | | | | | | | | | pwynian | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | vado | went | wendan | | | | winta | | passage. | | | wend | | | | | | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | town | tun | | zaun | tun | tonwe | gaelic, | | | | | | | | | | dun | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | qui | who | hwa | kwas | wir | | tuwe | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | weapon | wepn | | wapen | vaapen | wipe | | sioux dimin. | | | | | | | | | | wipena | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | ego | i | ic | agam | ich | jeg | mish | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | cor | core | | | | | co | gr., kear | centre, heart | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | eight | achta | aute | acht | otte | shaktogan | gr., okto | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | canna | cane | | | | | can | heb., can | reed, weed, | | | | | | | | | w., cawn | wood. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | pock | pock | poc | | pocke | pukkel | poka | dutch, | swelling. | | | | | | | | | poca | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | with | with | | wider | | wita | goth., | | | | | | | | | | gewithan. | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | doughty | dohtig | | taugen | digtig | dita | | hot, brave, | | | | | | | | ditaya | | daring. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | tight | tian | | dicht | digt | titan | | strain. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | tango | touch | taecan | | ticken | tekkan | tan | | touch, take. | | tactus | take | | | | | htaka | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | child | cild | | kind | kuld | cin | | progeny. | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | work | wercan | | | | woccas | dutch, | labor, motion. | | | | | | | | hecon | werk | | | | | | | | | | span., | | | | | | | | | | hecho | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | | shackle | seoacul | | | | shka | ar., | to bind (a | | | | | | | | | schakala, | link). | | | | | | | | | dutch, | | | | | | | | | | schakel | | | | | | | | | | teton, | | | | | | | | | | shakalan | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | query | | | | | | kuiva | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ | shabby | | | | schabig | schabbig | shabya | | | +--------+----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+ according to major lynd, the dakotas, or sioux, belonged to the same race as the mandans; hence the interest which attaches to these verbal similarities. "among the iroquois there is a tradition that the sea and waters infringed upon the land, so that all human life was destroyed. the chickasaws assert that the world was once destroyed by water, but that one family was saved, and two animals of every kind. the sioux say there was a time when there was no dry land, and all men had disappeared from existence." (see lynd's "ms. history of the dakotas," library of historical society of minnesota.) "the okanagaus have a god, skyappe, and also one called chacha, who appear to be endowed with omniscience; but their principal divinity is their great mythical ruler and heroine, scomalt. long ago, when the sun was no bigger than a star, this strong medicine-woman ruled over what appears to have now become a lost island. at last the peace of the island was destroyed by war, and the noise of battle was heard, with which scomalt was exceeding wroth, whereupon she rose up in her might and drove her rebellious subjects to one end of the island, and broke off the piece of land on which they were huddled and pushed it out to sea, to drift whither it would. this floating island was tossed to and fro and buffeted by the winds till all but two died. a man and woman escaped in a canoe, and arrived on the main-land; and from these the okanagaus are descended." (bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) here we have the flood legend clearly connected with a lost island. the nicaraguans believed "that ages ago the world was destroyed by a flood, in which the most part of mankind perished. afterward the teotes, or gods, restored the earth as at the beginning." (ibid., p. .) the wild apaches, "wild from their natal hour," have a legend that "the first days of the world were happy and peaceful days;" then came a great flood, from which montezuma and the coyote alone escaped. montezuma became then very wicked, and attempted to build a house that would reach to heaven, but the great spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts. (bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) the pimas, an indian tribe allied to the papagos, have a peculiar flood legend. the son of the creator was called szeu-kha (ze-us?). an eagle prophesied the deluge to the prophet of the people three times in succession, but his warning was despised; "then in the twinkling of an eye there came a peal of thunder and an awful crash, and a green mound of water reared itself over the plain. it seemed to stand upright for a second, then, cut incessantly by the lightning, goaded on like a great beast, it flung itself upon the prophet's hut. when the morning broke there was nothing to be seen alive but one man--if indeed he were a man; szeu-kha, the son of the creator, had saved himself by floating on a ball of gum or resin." this instantaneous catastrophe reminds one forcibly of the destruction of atlantis. szeu-kha killed the eagle, restored its victims to life, and repeopled the earth with them, as deucalion repeopled the earth with the stones. chapter vi. some consideration of the deluge legends. the fountains of the great deep.--as atlantis perished in a volcanic convulsion, it must have possessed volcanoes. this is rendered the more probable when we remember that the ridge of land of which it was a part, stretching from north to south, from iceland to st. helena, contains even now great volcanoes--as in iceland, the azores, the canaries, etc.--and that the very sea-bed along the line of its original axis is, to this day, as we have shown, the scene of great volcanic disturbances. if, then, the mountains of atlantis contained volcanoes, of which the peaks of the azores are the surviving representatives, it is not improbable that the convulsion which drowned it in the sea was accompanied by great discharges of water. we have seen that such discharges occurred in the island of java, when four thousand people perished. "immense columns of hot water and boiling mud were thrown out" of the volcano of galung gung; the water was projected from the mountain "like a water-spout." when a volcanic island was created near sicily in , it was accompanied by "a waterspout sixty feet high." in the island of dominica, one of the islands constituting the leeward group of the west indies, and nearest to the site of atlantis, on the th of january, , occurred a series of convulsions which reminds us forcibly of the destruction of plato's island; and the similarity extends to another particular: dominica contains, like atlantis, we are told, numerous hot and sulphur springs. i abridge the account given by the new york herald of january th, : "a little after o'clock a.m., soon after high-mass in the roman catholic cathedral, and while divine service was still going on in the anglican and wesleyan chapels, all the indications of an approaching thunder-storm suddenly showed themselves; the atmosphere, which just previously had been cool and pleasant--slight showers falling since early morning--became at once nearly stifling hot; the rumbling of distant thunder was heard, and the light-blue and fleecy white of the sky turned into a heavy and lowering black. soon the thunder-peals came near and loud, the lightning flashes, of a blue and red color, more frequent and vivid; and the rain, first with a few heavy drops, commenced to pour as if the floodgates of heaven were open. in a moment it darkened, as if night had come; a strong, nearly overpowering smell of sulphur announced itself; and people who happened to be out in the streets felt the rain-drops falling on their heads, backs, and shoulders like showers of hailstones. the cause of this was to be noted by looking at the spouts, from which the water was rushing like so many cataracts of molten lead, while the gutters below ran swollen streams of thick gray mud, looking like nothing ever seen in them before. in the mean time the roseau river had worked itself into a state of mad fury, overflowing its banks, carrying down rocks and large trees, and threatening destruction to the bridges over it and the houses in its neighborhood. when the storm ceased--it lasted till twelve, mid-day--the roofs and walls of the buildings in town, the street pavement, the door-steps and back-yards were found covered with a deposit of volcanic débris, holding together like clay, dark-gray in color, and in some places more than an inch thick, with small, shining metallic particles on the surface, which could be easily identified as iron pyrites. scraping up some of the stuff, it required only a slight examination to determine its main constituents--sandstone and magnesia, the pyrites being slightly mixed, and silver showing itself in even smaller quantity. this is, in fact, the composition of the volcanic mud thrown up by the soufrières at watton waven and in the boiling lake country, and it is found in solution as well in the lake water. the devil's billiard-table, within half a mile of the boiling lake, is composed wholly of this substance, which there assumes the character of stone in formation. inquiries instituted on monday morning revealed the fact that, except on the south-east, the mud shower had not extended beyond the limits of the town. on the north-west, in the direction of fond colo and morne daniel, nothing but pure rain-water had fallen, and neither loubière nor pointe michel had seen any signs of volcanic disturbance.... "but what happened at pointe mulâtre enables us to spot the locale of the eruption. pointe mulâtre lies at the foot of the range of mountains on the top of which the boiling lake frets and seethes. the only outlet of the lake is a cascade which falls into one of the branches of the pointe mulâtre river, the color and temperature of which, at one time and another, shows the existence or otherwise of volcanic activity in the lake-country. we may observe, en passant, that the fall of the water from the lake is similar in appearance to the falls on the sides of roairama, in the interior of british guiana; there, is no continuous stream, but the water overleaps its basin like a kettle boiling over, and comes down in detached cascades from the top. may there not be a boiling lake on the unapproachable summit of roairama? the phenomena noted at pointe mulâtre on sunday were similar to what we witnessed in roseau, but with every feature more strongly marked. the fall of mud was heavier, covering all the fields; the atmospheric disturbance was greater, and the change in the appearance of the running water about the place more surprising. the pointe mulâtre river suddenly began to run volcanic mud and water; then the mud predominated, and almost buried the stream under its weight, and the odor of sulphur in the air became positively oppressive. soon the fish in the water--brochet, camoo, meye, crocro, mullet, down to the eel, the crawfish, the loche, the tétar, and the dormer--died, and were thrown on the banks. the mud carried down by the river has formed a bank at the month which nearly dams up the stream, and threatens to throw it back over the low-lying lands of the pointe mulâtre estate. the reports from the laudat section of the boiling lake district are curious. the bachelor and admiral rivers, and the numerous mineral springs which arise in that part of the island, are all running a thick white flood, like cream milk. the face of the entire country, from the admiral river to the solfatera plain, has undergone some portentous change, which the frightened peasants who bring the news to roseau seem unable clearly and connectedly to describe, and the volcanic activity still continues." from this account it appears that the rain of water and mud came from a boiling lake on the mountains; it must have risen to a great height, "like a water-spout," and then fallen in showers over the face of the country. we are reminded, in this boiling lake of dominica, of the welsh legend of the eruption of the llyn-llion, "the lake of waves," which "inundated the whole country." on the top of a mountain in the county of kerry, ireland, called mangerton, there is a deep lake known as poulle-i-feron, which signifies hell-hole; it frequently overflows, and rolls down the mountain in frightful torrents. on slieve-donart, in the territory of mourne, in the county of down, ireland, a lake occupies the mountain-top, and its overflowings help to form rivers. if we suppose the destruction of atlantis to have been, in like manner, accompanied by a tremendous outpour of water from one or more of its volcanoes, thrown to a great height, and deluging the land, we can understand the description in the chaldean legend of "the terrible water-spout," which even "the gods grew afraid of," and which "rose to the sky," and which seems to have been one of the chief causes, together with the earthquake, of the destruction of the country. and in this view we are confirmed by the aramæan legend of the deluge, probably derived at an earlier age from the chaldean tradition. in it we are told, "all on a sudden enormous volumes of water issued from the earth, and rains of extraordinary abundance began to fall; the rivers left their beds, and the ocean overflowed its banks." the disturbance in dominica duplicates this description exactly: "in a moment" the water and mud burst from the mountains, "the floodgates of heaven were opened," and "the river overflowed its banks." and here, again, we are reminded of the expression in genesis, "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up" (chap. vii., ). that this does not refer to the rain is clear from the manner in which it is stated: "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. and the rain was upon the earth," etc. and when the work of destruction is finished, we are told "the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped." this is a reminiscence by an inland people, living where such tremendous volcanic disturbances were nearly unknown, of the terrible water-spout which "rose to the sky," of the chaldean legend, and of "the enormous volumes of water issuing from the earth" of the aramæan tradition. the hindoo legend of the flood speaks of "the marine god hayagriva, who dwelt in the abyss," who produced the cataclysm. this is doubtless "the archangel of the abyss" spoken of in the chaldean tradition. the mountains of the north.--we have in plato the following reference to the mountains of atlantis: "the whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea.... the whole region of the island lies toward the south, and is sheltered from the north.... the surrounding mountains exceeded all that are to be seen now anywhere." these mountains were the present azores. one has but to contemplate their present elevation, and remember the depth to which they descend in the ocean, to realize their tremendous altitude and the correctness of the description given by plato. in the hindoo legend we find the fish-god, who represents poseidon, father of atlantis, helping mann over "the mountain of the north." in the chaldean legend khasisatra's vessel is stopped by "the mountain of nizir" until the sea goes down. the mud which stopped navigation.--we are told by plato, "atlantis disappeared beneath the sea, and then that sea became inaccessible, so that navigation on it ceased, on account of the quantity of mud which the ingulfed island left in its place." this is one of the points of plato's story which provoked the incredulity and ridicule of the ancient, and even of the modern, world. we find in the chaldean legend something of the same kind: khasisatra says, "i looked at the sea attentively, observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud." in the "popol vuh" we are told that a "resinous thickness descended from heaven," even as in dominica the rain was full of "thick gray mud," accompanied by an "overpowering smell of sulphur." the explorations of the ship challenger show that the whole of the submerged ridge of which atlantis is a part is to this day thickly covered with volcanic débris. we have but to remember the cities of pompeii and herculaneum, which were covered with such a mass of volcanic ashes from the eruption of a.d. that for seventeen centuries they remained buried at a depth of from fifteen to thirty feet; a new population lived and labored above them; an aqueduct was constructed over their heads; and it was only when a farmer, in digging for a well, penetrated the roof of a house, that they were once more brought to the light of day and the knowledge of mankind. we have seen that, in , the volcanic eruption in iceland covered the sea with pumice for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, "and ships were considerably impeded in their course." the eruption in the island of sumbawa, in april, , threw out such masses of ashes as to darken the air. "the floating cinders to the west of sumatra formed, on the th of april, a mass two feet thick and several miles in extent, through which ships with difficulty forced their way." it thus appears that the very statement of plato which has provoked the ridicule of scholars is in itself one of the corroborating features of his story. it is probable that the ships of the atlanteans, when they returned after the tempest to look for their country, found the sea impassable from the masses of volcanic ashes and pumice. they returned terrified to the shores of europe; and the shock inflicted by the destruction of atlantis upon the civilization of the world probably led to one of those retrograde periods in the history of our race in which they lost all intercourse with the western continent. the preservation of a record.--there is a singular coincidence in the stories of the deluge in another particular. the legends of the phoenicians, preserved by sanchoniathon, tell us that taautos, or taut, was the inventor of the alphabet and of the art of writing. now, we find in the egyptian legends a passage of manetho, in which thoth (or hermes trismegistus), before the deluge, inscribed on stelæ, or tablets, in hieroglyphics, or sacred characters, the principles of all knowledge. after the deluge the second thoth translated the contents of these stelæ into the vulgar tongue. josephus tells us that "the patriarch seth, in order that wisdom and astronomical knowledge should not perish, erected, in prevision of the double destruction by fire and water predicted by adam, two columns, one of brick, the other of stone, on which this knowledge was engraved, and which existed in the siriadic country." in the chaldean legends the god ea ordered khasisatra to inscribe the divine learning, and the principles of all sciences, on tables of terra-cotta, and bury them, before the deluge, "in the city of the sun at sippara." berosus, in his version of the chaldean flood, says: "the deity, chronos, appeared to him (xisuthros) in a vision, and warned him that, upon the th day of the month doesius, there would be a flood by which mankind would be destroyed. he therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to bury it in the city of the sun at sippara, and to build a vessel," etc. the hindoo bhâgavata-purâna tells us that the fish-god, who warned satyravata of the coming of the flood, directed him to place the sacred scriptures in a safe place, "in order to preserve them from hayagriva, a marine horse dwelling in the abyss." are we to find the original of these legends in the following passage from plato's history of atlantis? "now, the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the injunctions of poseidon, as the law had handed them down. these were inscribed by the first then on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of poseidon, whither the people were gathered together.... they received and gave judgments, and at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their robes. there were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the temples." (critias, p. .) a succession of disasters.--the central american books, translated by de bourbourg, state that originally a part of the american continent extended far into the atlantic ocean. this tradition is strikingly confirmed by the explorations of the ship challenger, which show that the "dolphin's ridge" was connected with the shore of south america north of the mouth of the amazon. the central american books tell us that this region of the continent was destroyed by a succession of frightful convulsions, probably at long intervals apart; three of these catastrophes are constantly mentioned, and sometimes there is reference to one or two more. "the land," in these convulsions, "was shaken by frightful earthquakes, and the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fires to overwhelm and ingulf it.... each convulsion swept away portions of the land until the whole disappeared, leaving the line of coast as it now is. most of the inhabitants, overtaken amid their regular employments, were destroyed; but some escaped in ships, and some fled for safety to the summits of high mountains, or to portions of the land which for a time escaped immediate destruction." (baldwin's "ancient america," p. .) this accords precisely with the teachings of geology. we know that the land from which america and europe were formed once covered nearly or quite the whole space now occupied by the atlantic between the continents; and it is reasonable to believe that it went down piecemeal, and that atlantis was but the stump of the ancient continent, which at last perished from the same causes and in the same way. the fact that this tradition existed among the inhabitants of america is proven by the existence of festivals, "especially one in the month izcalli, which were instituted to commemorate this frightful destruction of land and people, and in which, say the sacred books, 'princes and people humbled themselves before the divinity, and besought him to withhold a return of such terrible calamities.'" can we doubt the reality of events which we thus find confirmed by religious ceremonies at athens, in syria, and on the shores of central america? and we find this succession of great destructions of the atlantic continent in the triads of wales, where traditions are preserved of "three terrible catastrophes." we are told by the explorations of the ship challenger that the higher lands reach in the direction of the british islands; and the celts had traditions that a part of their country once extended far out into the atlantic, and was subsequently destroyed. and the same succession of destructions is referred to in the greek legends, where a deluge of ogyges--"the most ancient of the kings of boeotia or attica, a quite mythical person, lost in the night of ages"--preceded that of deucalion. we will find hereafter the most ancient hymns of the aryans praying god to hold the land firm. the people of atlantis, having seen their country thus destroyed, section by section, and judging that their own time must inevitably come, must have lived under a great and perpetual terror, which will go far to explain the origin of primeval religion, and the hold which it took upon the minds of men; and this condition of things may furnish us a solution of the legends which have come down to us of their efforts to perpetuate their learning on pillars, and also an explanation of that other legend of the tower of babel, which, as i will show hereafter, was common to both continents, and in which they sought to build a tower high enough to escape the deluge. all the legends of the preservation of a record prove that the united voice of antiquity taught that the antediluvians had advanced so far in civilization as to possess an alphabet and a system of writing; a conclusion which, as we will see hereafter, finds confirmation in the original identity of the alphabetical signs used in the old world and the new. part iii the civilization of the old world and new compared. chapter i. civilization an inheritance. material civilization might be defined to be the result of a series of inventions and discoveries, whereby man improves his condition, and controls the forces of nature for his own advantage. the savage man is a pitiable creature; as menabosbu says, in the chippeway legends, he is pursued by a "perpetual hunger;" he is exposed unprotected to the blasts of winter and the heats of summer. a great terror sits upon his soul; for every manifestation of nature--the storm, the wind, the thunder, the lightning, the cold, the heat--all are threatening and dangerous demons. the seasons bring him neither seed-time nor harvest; pinched with hunger, appeasing in part the everlasting craving of his stomach with seeds, berries, and creeping things, he sees the animals of the forest dash by him, and he has no means to arrest their flight. he is powerless and miserable in the midst of plenty. every step toward civilization is a step of conquest over nature. the invention of the bow and arrow was, in its time, a far greater stride forward for the human race than the steam-engine or the telegraph. the savage could now reach his game--his insatiable hunger could be satisfied; the very eagle, "towering in its pride of place," was not beyond the reach of this new and wonderful weapon. the discovery of fire and the art of cooking was another immense step forward. the savage, having nothing but wooden vessels in which to cook, covered the wood with clay; the day hardened in the fire. the savage gradually learned that he could dispense with the wood, and thus pottery was invented. then some one (if we are to believe the chippeway legends, on the shores of lake superior) found fragments of the pure copper of that region, beat them into shape, and the art of metallurgy was begun; iron was first worked in the same way by shaping meteoric iron into spear-heads. but it must not be supposed that these inventions followed one another in rapid succession. thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of years intervened between each step; many savage races have not to this day achieved some of these steps. prof. richard owen says, "unprepossessed and sober experience teaches that arts, language, literature are of slow growth, the results of gradual development." i shall undertake to show hereafter that nearly all the arts essential to civilization which we possess date back to the time of atlantis--certainly to that ancient egyptian civilization which was coeval with, and an outgrowth from, atlantis. in six thousand years the world made no advance on the civilization which it received from atlantis. phoenicia, egypt, chaldea, india, greece, and rome passed the torch of civilization from one to the other; but in all that lapse of time they added nothing to the arts which existed at the earliest period of egyptian history. in architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving, mining, metallurgy, navigation, pottery, glass-ware, the construction of canals, roads, and aqueducts, the arts of phoenicia and egypt extended, without material change or improvement, to a period but two or three hundred years ago. the present age has entered upon a new era; it has added a series of wonderful inventions to the atlantean list; it has subjugated steam and electricity to the uses of man. and its work has but commenced: it will continue until it lifts man to a plane as much higher than the present as the present is above the barbaric condition; and in the future it will be said that between the birth of civilization in atlantis and the new civilization there stretches a period of many thousands of years, during which mankind did not invent, but simply perpetuated. herodotus tells us ("euterpe," cxlii.) that, according to the information he received from the egyptian priests, their written history dated back , years before his era, or nearly , years prior to this time. they introduced him into a spacious temple, and showed him the statues of high-priests who had in turn succeeded each other; and yet the age of columbus possessed no arts, except that of printing (which was ancient in china), which was not known to the egyptians; and the civilization of egypt at its first appearance was of a higher order than at any subsequent period of its history, thus testifying that it drew its greatness from a fountain higher than itself. it was in its early days that egypt worshipped one only god; in the later ages this simple and sublime belief was buried under the corruptions of polytheism. the greatest pyramids were built by the fourth dynasty, and so universal was education at that time among the people that the stones with which they were built retain to this day the writing of the workmen. the first king was menes. "at the epoch of menes," says winchell, "the egyptians were already a civilized and numerous people. manetho tells us that athotis, the son of this first king, menes, built the palace at memphis; that he was a physician, and left anatomical books. all these statements imply that even at this early period the egyptians were in a high state of civilization." (winchell's "preadamites," p. .) "in the time of menes the egyptians had long been architects, sculptors, painters, mythologists, and theologians." professor richard owen says, "egypt is recorded to have been a civilized and governed community before the time of menes. the pastoral community of a group of nomad families, as portrayed in the pentateuch, may be admitted as an early step in civilization. but how far in advance of this stage is a nation administered by a kingly government, consisting of grades of society, with divisions of labor, of which one kind, assigned to the priesthood, was to record or chronicle the names and dynasties of the kings, the duration and chief events of their reigns!" ernest renan points out that "egypt at the beginning appears mature, old, and entirely without mythical and heroic ages, as if the country had never known youth. its civilization has no infancy, and its art no archaic period. the civilization of the old monarchy did not begin with infancy. it was already mature." we shall attempt to show that it matured in atlantis, and that the egyptian people were unable to maintain it at the high standard at which they had received it, as depicted in the pages of plato. what king of assyria, or greece, or rome, or even of these modern nations, has ever devoted himself to the study of medicine and the writing of medical books for the benefit of mankind? their mission has been to kill, not to heal the people; yet here, at the very dawn of mediterranean history, we find the son of the first king of egypt recorded "as a physician, and as having left anatomical books." i hold it to be incontestable that, in some region of the earth, primitive mankind must have existed during vast spaces of time, and under most favorable circumstances, to create, invent, and discover those arts and things which constitute civilization. when we have it before our eyes that for six thousand years mankind in europe, asia, and africa, even when led by great nations, and illuminated by marvellous minds, did not advance one inch beyond the arts of egypt, we may conceive what lapses, what aeons, of time it must have required to bring savage man to that condition of refinement and civilization possessed by egypt when it first comes within the purview of history. that illustrious frenchman, h. a. taine ("history of english literature," p. ), sees the unity of the indo-european races manifest in their languages, literature, and philosophies, and argues that these pre-eminent traits are "the great marks of an original model," and that when we meet with them "fifteen, twenty, thirty centuries before our era, in an aryan, an egyptian, a chinese, they represent the work of a great many ages, perhaps of several myriads of centuries.... such is the first and richest source of these master faculties from which historical events take their rise; and one sees that if it be powerful it is because this is no simple spring, but a kind of lake, a deep reservoir, wherein other springs have, for a multitude of centuries, discharged their several streams." in other words, the capacity of the egyptian, aryan, chaldean, chinese, saxon, and celt to maintain civilization is simply the result of civilized training during "myriads of centuries" in some original home of the race. i cannot believe that the great inventions were duplicated spontaneously, as some would have us believe, in different countries; there is no truth in the theory that men pressed by necessity will always hit upon the same invention to relieve their wants. if this were so, all savages would have invented the boomerang; all savages would possess pottery, bows and arrows, slings, tents, and canoes; in short, all races would have risen to civilization, for certainly the comforts of life are as agreeable to one people as another. civilization is not communicable to all; many savage tribes are incapable of it. there are two great divisions of mankind, the civilized and the savage; and, as we shall show, every civilized race in the world has had something of civilization from the earliest ages; and as "all roads lead to rome," so all the converging lines of civilization lead to atlantis. the abyss between the civilized man and the savage is simply incalculable; it represents not alone a difference in arts and methods of life, but in the mental constitution, the instincts, and the predispositions of the soul. the child of the civilized races in his sports manufactures water-wheels, wagons, and houses of cobs; the savage boy amuses himself with bows and arrows: the one belongs to a building and creating race; the other to a wild, hunting stock. this abyss between savagery and civilization has never been passed by any nation through its own original force, and without external influences, during the historic period; those who were savages at the dawn of history are savages still; barbarian slaves may have been taught something of the arts of their masters, and conquered races have shared some of the advantages possessed by their conquerors; but we will seek in vain for any example of a savage people developing civilization of and among themselves. i may be reminded of the gauls, goths, and britons; but these were not savages, they possessed written languages, poetry, oratory, and history; they were controlled by religious ideas; they believed in god and the immortality of the soul, and in a state of rewards and punishments after death. wherever the romans came in contact with gauls, or britons, or german tribes, they found them armed with weapons of iron. the scots, according to tacitus, used chariots and iron swords in the battle of the grampians--"enormes gladii sine mucrone." the celts of gaul are stated by diodorus siculus to have used iron-headed spears and coats-of-mail, and the gauls who encountered the roman arms in b.c. were armed with soft iron swords, as well as at the time when cæsar conquered their country. among the gauls men would lend money to be repaid in the next world, and, we need not add, that no christian people has yet reached that sublime height of faith; they cultivated the ground, built houses and walled towns, wove cloth, and employed wheeled vehicles; they possessed nearly all the cereals and domestic animals we have, and they wrought in iron, bronze, and steel. the gauls had even invented a machine on wheels to cut their grain, thus anticipating our reapers and mowers by two thousand years. the difference between the civilization of the romans under julius cæsar and the gauls under vercingetorix was a difference in degree and not in kind. the roman civilization was simply a development and perfection of the civilization possessed by all the european populations; it was drawn from the common fountain of atlantis. if we find on both sides of the atlantic precisely the same arts, sciences, religious beliefs, habits, customs, and traditions, it is absurd to say that the peoples of the two continents arrived separately, by precisely the same steps, at precisely the same ends. when we consider the resemblance of the civilizations of the mediterranean nations to one another, no man is silly enough to pretend that rome, greece, egypt, assyria, phoenicia, each spontaneously and separately invented the arts, sciences, habits, and opinions in which they agreed; but we proceed to trace out the thread of descent or connection from one to another. why should a rule of interpretation prevail, as between the two sides of the atlantic, different from that which holds good as to the two sides of the mediterranean sea? if, in the one case, similarity of origin has unquestionably produced similarity of arts, customs, and condition, why, in the other, should not similarity of arts, customs, and condition prove similarity of origin? is there any instance in the world of two peoples, without knowledge of or intercourse with each other, happening upon the same invention, whether that invention be an arrow-head or a steam-engine? if it required of mankind a lapse of at least six thousand years before it began anew the work of invention, and took up the thread of original thought where atlantis dropped it, what probability is there of three or four separate nations all advancing at the same speed to precisely the same arts and opinions? the proposition is untenable. if, then, we prove that, on both sides of the atlantic, civilizations were found substantially identical, we have demonstrated that they must have descended one from the other, or have radiated from some common source. chapter ii the identity of the civilizations of the old world and the new mosaics at mitla, mexico architecture.--plato tells us that the atlanteans possessed architecture; that they built walls, temples, and palaces. we need not add that this art was found in egypt and all the civilized countries of europe, as well as in peru, mexico, and central america. among both the peruvians and egyptians the walls receded inward, and the doors were narrower at the top than at the threshold. the obelisks of egypt, covered with hieroglyphics, are paralleled by the round columns of central america, and both are supposed to have originated in phallus-worship. "the usual symbol of the phallus was an erect stone, often in its rough state, sometimes sculptured." (squier, "serpent symbol," p. ; bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) the worship of priapus was found in asia, egypt, along the european shore of the mediterranean, and in the forests of central america. the mounds of europe and asia were made in the same way and for the same purposes as those of america. herodotus describes the burial of a scythian king; he says, "after this they set to work to raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other, and seeking to make it as tall as possible." "it must be confessed," says foster ("prehistoric races," p. ), "that these scythic burial rites have a strong resemblance to those of the mound builders." homer describes the erection of a great symmetrical mound over achilles, also one over hector. alexander the great raised a great mound over his friend hephæstion, at a cost of more than a million dollars; and semiramis raised a similar mound over her husband. the pyramids of egypt, assyria, and phoenicia had their duplicates in mexico and central america. carving on the buddhist tower, sarnath, india the grave-cists made of stone of the american mounds are exactly like the stone chests, or kistvaen for the dead, found in the british mounds. (fosters "prehistoric races," p. .) tumuli have been found in yorkshire enclosing wooden coffins, precisely as in the mounds of the mississippi valley. (ibid., p. .) the articles associated with the dead are the same in both continents: arms, trinkets, food, clothes, and funeral urns. in both the mississippi valley and among the chaldeans vases were constructed around the bones, the neck of the vase being too small to permit the extraction of the skull. (foster's "prehistoric races," p. .) the use of cement was known alike to the european and american nations. the use of the arch was known on both sides of the atlantic. the manufacture of bricks was known in both the old and new worlds. the style of ornamentation in architecture was much the same on both hemispheres, as shown in the preceding designs, pages , . metallurgy.--the atlanteans mined ores, and worked in metals; they used copper, tin, bronze, gold, and silver, and probably iron. the american nations possessed all these metals. the age of bronze, or of copper combined with tin, was preceded in america, and nowhere else, by a simpler age of copper; and, therefore, the working of metals probably originated in america, or in some region to which it was tributary. the mexicans manufactured bronze, and the incas mined iron near lake titicaca; and the civilization of this latter region, as we will show, probably dated back to atlantean times. the peruvians called gold the tears of the sun: it was sacred to the sun, as silver was to the moon. sculpture.--the atlanteans possessed this art; so did the american and mediterranean nations. dr. arthur schott ("smith. rep.," , p. ), in describing the "cara gigantesca," or gigantic face, a monument of yzamal, in yucatan, says, "behind and on both sides, from under the mitre, a short veil falls upon the shoulders, so as to protect the back of the head and the neck. this particular appendage vividly calls to mind the same feature in the symbolic adornments of egyptian and hindoo priests, and even those of the hebrew hierarchy." dr. schott sees in the orbicular wheel-like plates of this statue the wheel symbol of kronos and saturn; and, in turn, it may be supposed that the wheel of kronos was simply the cross of atlantis, surrounded by its encircling ring. painting.--this art was known on both sides of the atlantic. the paintings upon the walls of some of the temples of central america reveal a state of the art as high as that of egypt. engraving.--plato tells us that the atlanteans engraved upon pillars. the american nations also had this art in common with egypt, phoenicia, and assyria. agriculture.--the people of atlantis were pre-eminently an agricultural people; so were the civilized nations of america and the egyptians. in egypt the king put his hand to the plough at an annual festival, thus dignifying and consecrating the occupation of husbandry. in peru precisely the same custom prevailed. in both the plough was known; in egypt it was drawn by oxen, and in peru by men. it was drawn by men in the north of europe down to a comparatively recent period. public works.--the american nations built public works as great as or greater than any known in europe. the peruvians had public roads, one thousand five hundred to two thousand miles long, made so thoroughly as to elicit the astonishment of the spaniards. at every few miles taverns or hotels were established for the accommodation of travellers. humboldt pronounced these peruvian roads "among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man." they built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation some of which were five hundred miles long. they constructed magnificent bridges of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before they were introduced into europe. they had, both in peru and mexico, a system of posts, by means of which news was transmitted hundreds of miles in a day, precisely like those known among the persians in the time of herodotus, and subsequently among the romans. stones similar to mile-stones were placed along the roads in peru. (see prescott's "peru,") navigation.--sailing vessels were known to the peruvians and the central americans. columbus met, in , at an island near honduras, a party of the mayas in a large vessel, equipped with sails, and loaded with a variety of textile fabrics of divers colors. ancient irish vase of the bronze age mannfactures.--the american nations manufactured woollen and cotton goods; they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of egypt; they manufactured glass; they engraved gems and precious stones. the peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels and ornaments of gold that the inca paid with them a ransom for himself to pizarro of the value of fifteen million dollars. music.--it has been pointed out that there is great resemblance between the five-toned music of the highland scotch and that of the chinese and other eastern nations. ("anthropology," p. .) weapons.--the weapons of the new world were identically the same as those of the old world; they consisted of bows and arrows, spears, darts, short swords, battle-axes, and slings; and both peoples used shields or bucklers, and casques of wood or hide covered with metal. if these weapons had been derived from separate sources of invention, one country or the other would have possessed implements not known to the other, like the blow-pipe, the boomerang, etc. absolute identity in so many weapons strongly argues identity of origin. religion.--the religion of the atlanteans, as plato tells us, was pure and simple; they made no regular sacrifices but fruits and flowers; they worshipped the sun. in peru a single deity was worshipped, and the sun, his most glorious work, was honored as his representative. quetzalcoatl, the founder of the aztecs, condemned all sacrifice but that of fruits and flowers. the first religion of egypt was pure and simple; its sacrifices were fruits and flowers; temples were erected to the sun, ra, throughout egypt. in peru the great festival of the sun was called ra-mi. the phoenicians worshipped baal and moloch; the one represented the beneficent, and the other the injurious powers of the sun. religious beliefs.--the guanches of the canary islands, who were probably a fragment of the old atlantean population, believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and preserved their dead as mummies. the egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and preserved the bodies of the dead by embalming them. the peruvians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and they too preserved the bodies of their dead by embalming them. "a few mummies in remarkable preservation have been found among the chinooks and flatheads." (schoolcraft, vol. v., p. .) the embalmment of the body was also practised in central america and among the aztecs. the aztecs, like the egyptians, mummified their dead by taking out the bowels and replacing them with aromatic substances. (dorman, "origin prim. superst.," p. .) the bodies of the kings of the virginia indians were preserved by embalming. (beverly, p. .) here are different races, separated by immense distances of land and ocean, uniting in the same beliefs, and in the same practical and logical application of those beliefs. the use of confession and penance was known in the religious ceremonies of some of the american nations. baptism was a religious ceremony with them, and the bodies of the dead were sprinkled with water. vestal virgins were found in organized communities on both sides of the atlantic; they were in each case pledged to celibacy, and devoted to death if they violated their vows. in both hemispheres the recreant were destroyed by being buried alive. the peruvians, mexicans, central americans, egyptians, phoenicians, and hebrews each had a powerful hereditary priesthood. the phoenicians believed in an evil spirit called zebub; the peruvians had a devil called cupay. the peruvians burnt incense in their temples. the peruvians, when they sacrificed animals, examined their entrails, and from these prognosticated the future. i need not add that all these nations preserved traditions of the deluge; and all of them possessed systems of writing. the egyptian priest of sais told solon that the myth of phaëthon, the son of helios, having attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and thereby burning up the earth, referred to "a declination of the bodies moving round the earth and in the heavens" (comets), which caused a "great conflagration upon the earth," from which those only escaped who lived near rivers and seas. the "codex chimalpopoca"--a nahua, central american record--tells us that the third era of the world, or "third sun," is called, quia tonatiuh, or sun of rain, "because in this age there fell a rain of fire, all which existed burned, and there fell a rain of gravel;" the rocks "boiled with tumult, and there also arose the rocks of vermilion color." in other words, the traditions of these people go back to a great cataclysm of fire, when the earth possibly encountered, as in the egyptian story, one of "the bodies moving round the earth and in the heavens;" they had also memories of "the drift period," and of the outburst of plutonic rocks. if man has existed on the earth as long as science asserts, he must have passed through many of the great catastrophes which are written upon the face of the planet; and it is very natural that in myths and legends he should preserve some recollection of events so appalling and destructive. among the early greeks pan was the ancient god; his wife was maia. the abbé brasseur de bourbourg calls attention to the fact that pan was adored in all parts of mexico and central america; and at panuco, or panca, literally panopolis, the spaniards found, upon their entrance into mexico, superb temples and images of pan. (brasseur's introduction in landa's "relacion.") the names of both pan and maya enter extensively into the maya vocabulary, maia being the same as maya, the principal name of the peninsula; and pan, added to maya, makes the name of the ancient capital mayapan. in the nahua language pan, or pani, signifies "equality to that which is above," and pentecatl was the progenitor of all beings. ("north americans of antiquity," p. .) the ancient mexicans believed that the sun-god would destroy the world in the last night of the fifty-second year, and that he would never come back. they offered sacrifices to him at that time to propitiate him; they extinguished all the fires in the kingdom; they broke all their household furniture; they bung black masks before their faces; they prayed and fasted; and on the evening of the last night they formed a great procession to a neighboring mountain. a human being was sacrificed exactly at midnight; a block of wood was laid at once on the body, and fire was then produced by rapidly revolving another piece of wood upon it; a spark was carried to a funeral pile, whose rising flame proclaimed to the anxious people the promise of the god not to destroy the world for another fifty-two years. precisely the same custom obtained among the nations of asia minor and other parts of the continent of asia, wherever sun-worship prevailed, at the periodical reproduction of the sacred fire, but not with the same bloody rites as in mexico. (valentini, "maya archaeology," p. .) to this day the brahman of india "churns" his sacred fire out of a board by boring into it with a stick; the romans renewed their sacred fire in the same way; and in sweden even now a "need-fire is kindled in this manner when cholera or other pestilence is about." (tylor's "anthropology," p. .) a belief in ghosts is found on both continents. the american indians think that the spirits of the dead retain the form and features which they wore while living; that there is a hell and a heaven; that hell is below the earth, and heaven above the clouds; that the souls of the wicked sometimes wander the face of the earth, appearing occasionally to mortals. the story of tantalus is found among the chippewayans, who believed that bad souls stand up to their chins in water in sight of the spirit-land, which they can never enter. the dead passed to heaven across a stream of water by means of a narrow and slippery bridge, from which many were lost. the zuñis set apart a day in each year which they spent among the graves of their dead, communing with their spirits, and bringing them presents--a kind of all-souls-day. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the stygian flood, and scylla and charybdis, are found among the legends of the caribs. (ibid., p. .) even the boat of charon reappears in the traditions of the chippewayans. the oriental belief in the transmigration of souls is found in every american tribe. the souls of men passed into animals or other men. (schoolcraft, vol. i., p. .) the souls of the wicked passed into toads and wild beasts. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) among both the germans and the american indians lycanthropy, or the metamorphosis of men into wolves, was believed in. in british columbia the men-wolves have often been seen seated around a fire, with their wolf-hides hung upon sticks to dry! the irish legend of hunters pursuing an animal which suddenly disappears, whereupon a human being appears in its place is found among all the american tribes. that timid and harmless animal, the hare, was, singularly enough, an object of superstitious reverence and fear in europe, asia, and america. the ancient irish killed all the hares they found on may-day among their cattle, believing them to be witches. cæsar gives an account of the horror in which this animal was held by the britons. the calmucks regarded the rabbit with fear and reverence. divine honors were paid to the hare in mexico. wabasso was changed into a white rabbit, and canonized in that form. the white bull, apis, of the egyptians, reappears in the sacred white buffalo of the dakotas, which was supposed to possess supernatural power, and after death became a god. the white doe of european legend had its representative in the white deer of the housatonic valley, whose death brought misery to the tribe. the transmission of spirits by the laying on of hands, and the exorcism of demons, were part of the religion of the american tribes. the witches of scandinavia, who produced tempests by their incantations, are duplicated in america. a cree sorcerer sold three days of fair weather for one pound of tobacco! the indian sorcerers around freshwater bay kept the winds in leather bags, and disposed of them as they pleased. among the american indians it is believed that those who are insane or epileptic are "possessed of devils." (tylor, "prim. cult.," vol. ii., pp. - .) sickness is caused by evil spirits entering into the sick person. (eastman's "sioux.") the spirits of animals are much feared, and their departure out of the body of the invalid is a cause of thanksgiving. thus an omaha, after an eructation, says, "thank you, animal." (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the confession of their sins was with a view to satisfy the evil spirit and induce him to leave them. (ibid., p. .) in both continents burnt-offerings were sacrificed to the gods. in both continents the priests divined the future from the condition of the internal organs of the man or animal sacrificed. (ibid., pp. , .) in both continents the future was revealed by the flight of birds and by dreams. in peru and mexico there were colleges of augurs, as in rome, who practised divination by watching the movements and songs of birds. (ibid., p. .) animals were worshipped in central america and on the banks of the nile. (ibid., p. .) the ojibbeways believed that the barking of a fox was ominous of ill. (ibid., p. ). the peasantry of western europe have the same belief as to the howling of a dog. the belief in satyrs, and other creatures half man and half animal, survived in america. the kickapoos are darwinians. "they think their ancestors had tails, and when they lost them the impudent fox sent every morning to ask how their tails were, and the bear shook his fat sides at the joke." (ibid., p. .) among the natives of brazil the father cut a stick at the wedding of his daughter; "this was done to cut off the tails of any future grandchildren." (tylor, vol. i., p. .) jove, with the thunder-bolts in his hand, is duplicated in the mexican god of thunder, mixcoatl, who is represented holding a bundle of arrows. "he rode upon a tornado, and scattered the lightnings." (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) dionysus, or bacchus, is represented by the mexican god texcatzoncatl, the god of wine. (bancroft, vol. iii., p. .) atlas reappears in chibchacum, the deity of the chibchas; he bears the world on his shoulders, and when be shifts the burden from one shoulder to another severe earthquakes are produced. (bollært, pp. , .) deucalion repeopling the world is repeated in xololt, who, after the destruction of the world, descended to mictlan, the realm of the dead, and brought thence a bone of the perished race. this, sprinkled with blood, grew into a youth, the father of the present race. the quiche hero-gods, hunaphu and xblanque, died; their bodies were burnt, their bones ground to powder and thrown into the waters, whereupon they changed into handsome youths, with the same features as before. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) witches and warlocks, mermaids and mermen, are part of the mythology of the american tribes, as they were of the european races. (ibid., p. .) the mermaid of the ottawas was "woman to the waist and fair;" thence fish-like. (ibid., p. .) the snake-locks of medusa are represented in the snake-locks of at-otarho, an ancient culture-hero of the iroquois. a belief in the incarnation of gods in men, and the physical translation of heroes to heaven, is part of the mythology of the hindoos and the american races. hiawatha, we are told, rose to heaven in the presence of the multitude, and vanished from sight in the midst of sweet music. the vocal statues and oracles of egypt and greece were duplicated in america. in peru, in the valley of rimac, there was an idol which answered questions and became famous as an oracle. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the peruvians believed that men were sometimes metamorphosed into stones. the oneidas claimed descent from a stone, as the greeks from the stones of deucalion. (ibid., p. .) witchcraft is an article of faith among all the american races. among the illinois indians "they made small images to represent those whose days they have a mind to shorten, and which they stab to the heart," whereupon the person represented is expected to die. (charlevoix, vol. ii., p. .) the witches of europe made figures of wax of their enemies, and gradually melted them at the fire, and as they diminished the victim was supposed to sicken and die. a writer in the popular science monthly (april, , p. ) points out the fact that there is an absolute identity between the folk-lore of the negroes on the plantations of the south and the myths and stories of certain tribes of indians in south america, as revealed by mr. herbert smith's "brazil, the amazons, and the coast." (new york: scribner, .) mr. harris, the author of a work on the folk-lore of the negroes, asks this question, "when did the negro or the north american indian come in contact with the tribes of south america?" customs.--both peoples manufactured a fermented, intoxicating drink, the one deriving it from barley, the other from maize. both drank toasts. both had the institution of marriage, an important part of the ceremony consisting in the joining of hands; both recognized divorce, and the peruvians and mexicans established special courts to decide cases of this kind. both the americans and europeans erected arches, and had triumphal processions for their victorious kings, and both strewed the ground before them with leaves and flowers. both celebrated important events with bonfires and illuminations; both used banners, both invoked blessings. the phoenicians, hebrews, and egyptians practised circumcision. palacio relates that at azori, in honduras, the natives circumcised boys before an idol called icelca. ("carta," p. .) lord kingsborough tells us the central americans used the same rite, and mckenzie (quoted by retzius) says he saw the ceremony performed by the chippeways. both had bards and minstrels, who on great festivals sung the deeds of kings and heroes. both the egyptians and the peruvians held agricultural fairs; both took a census of the people. among both the land was divided per capita among the people; in judea a new division was made every fifty years. the peruvians renewed every year all the fires of the kingdom from the temple of the sun, the new fire being kindled from concave mirrors by the sun's rays. the romans under numa had precisely the same custom. the peruvians had theatrical plays. they chewed the leaves of the coca mixed with lime, as the hindoo to-day chews the leaves of the betel mixed with lime. both the american and european nations were divided into castes; both practised planet-worship; both used scales and weights and mirrors. the peruvians, egyptians, and chaldeans divided the year into twelve months, and the months into lesser divisions of weeks. both inserted additional days, so as to give the year three hundred and sixty-five days. the mexicans added five intercalary days; and the egyptians, in the time of amunoph i., had already the same practice. humboldt, whose high authority cannot be questioned, by an elaborate discussion ("vues des cordilleras," p. et. seq., ed. ), has shown the relative likeness of the nahua calendar to that of asia. he cites the fact that the chinese, japanese, calmucks, mongols, mantchou, and other hordes of tartars have cycles of sixty years' duration, divided into five brief periods of twelve years each. the method of citing a date by means of signs and numbers is quite similar with asiatics and mexicans. he further shows satisfactorily that the majority of the names of the twenty days employed by the aztecs are those of a zodiac used since the most remote antiquity among the peoples of eastern asia. cabera thinks he finds analogies between the mexican and egyptian calendars. adopting the view of several writers that the mexican year began on the th of february, he finds the date to correspond with the beginning of the egyptian year. the american nations believed in four great primeval ages, as the hindoo does to this day. "in the greeks of homer," says volney, "i find the customs, discourse, and manners of the iroquois, delawares, and miamis. the tragedies of sophocles and euripides paint to me almost literally the sentiments of the red men respecting necessity, fatality, the miseries of human life, and the rigor of blind destiny." (volney's "view of the united states.") the mexicans represent an eclipse of the moon as the moon being devoured by a dragon; and the hindoos have precisely the same figure; and both nations continued to use this expression long after they had discovered the real meaning of an eclipse. the tartars believe that if they cut with an axe near a fire, or stick a knife into a burning stick, or touch the fire with a knife, they will "cut the top off the fire." the sioux indians will not stick an awl or a needle into a stick of wood on the fire, or chop on it with an axe or a knife. cremation was extensively practised in the new world. the dead were burnt, and their ashes collected and placed in vases and urns, as in europe. wooden statues of the dead were made. there is a very curious and apparently inexplicable custom, called the "couvade," which extends from china to the mississippi valley; it demands "that, when a child is born, the father must take to his bed, while the mother attends to all the duties of the household." marco polo found the custom among the chinese in the thirteenth century. the widow tells hudibras-- "chineses thus are said to lie-in in their ladies' stead." the practice remarked by marco polo continues to this day among the hill-tribes of china. "the father of a new-born child, as soon as the mother has become strong enough to leave her couch, gets into bed himself, and there receives the congratulations of his acquaintances." (max müller's "chips from a german workshop," vol. ii., p. .) strabo (vol. iii., pp. , ) mentions that, among the iberians of the north of spain, the women, after the birth of a child, tend their husbands, putting them to bed instead of going themselves. the same custom existed among the basques only a few years ago. "in biscay," says m. f. michel, "the women rise immediately after childbirth and attend to the duties of the household, while the husband goes to bed, taking the baby with him, and thus receives the neighbors' compliments." the same custom was found in france, and is said to exist to this day in some cantons of béarn. diodorus siculus tells us that among the corsicans the wife was neglected, and the husband put to bed and treated as the patient. apollonius rhodius says that among the tibereni, at the south of the black sea, "when a child was born the father lay groaning, with his head tied up, while the mother tended him with food and prepared his baths." the same absurd custom extends throughout the tribes of north and south america. among the caribs in the west indies (and the caribs, brasseur de bourbourg says, were the same as the ancient carians of the mediterranean sea) the man takes to his bed as soon as a child is born, and kills no animals. and herein we find an explanation of a custom otherwise inexplicable. among the american indians it is believed that, if the father kills an animal during the infancy of the child, the spirit of the animal will revenge itself by inflicting some disease upon the helpless little one. "for six months the carib father must not eat birds or fish, for what ever animals he eats will impress their likeness on the child, or produce disease by entering its body." (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) among the abipones the husband goes to bed, fasts a number of days, "and you would think," says dobrizboffer, "that it was he that had had the child." the brazilian father takes to his hammock during and after the birth of the child, and for fifteen days eats no meat and hunts no game. among the esquimaux the husbands forbear hunting during the lying-in of their wives and for some time thereafter. here, then, we have a very extraordinary and unnatural custom, existing to this day on both sides of the atlantic, reaching back to a vast antiquity, and finding its explanation only in the superstition of the american races. a practice so absurd could scarcely have originated separately in the two continents; its existence is a very strong proof of unity of origin of the races on the opposite sides of the atlantic; and the fact that the custom and the reason for it are both found in america, while the custom remains in europe without the reason, would imply that the american population was the older of the two. the indian practice of depositing weapons and food with the dead was universal in ancient europe, and in german villages nowadays a needle and thread is placed in the coffin for the dead to mend their torn clothes with; "while all over europe the dead man had a piece of money put in his hand to pay his way with." ("anthropology," p. .) the american indian leaves food with the dead; the russian peasant puts crumbs of bread behind the saints' pictures on the little iron shelf, and believes that the souls of his forefathers creep in and out and eat them. at the cemetery of père-la-chaise, paris, on all-souls-day, they "still put cakes and sweetmeats on the graves; and in brittany the peasants that night do not forget to make up the fire and leave the fragments of the supper on the table for the souls of the dead." (ibid., p. .) the indian prays to the spirits of his forefathers; the chinese religion is largely "ancestor-worship;" and the rites paid to the dead ancestors, or lares, held the roman family together." ("anthropology," p. .) we find the indian practice of burying the dead in a sitting posture in use among the nasamonians, tribe of libyans. herodotus, speaking of the wandering tribes of northern africa, says, "they bury their dead according to the fashion of the greeks.... they bury them sitting, and are right careful, when the sick man is at the point of giving up the ghost, to make him sit, and not let him die lying down." the dead bodies of the caciques of bogota were protected from desecration by diverting the course of a river and making the grave in its bed, and then letting the stream return to its natural course. alaric, the leader of the goths, was secretly buried in the same way. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) among the american tribes no man is permitted to marry a wife of the same clan-name or totem as himself. in india a brahman is not allowed to marry a wife whose clan-name (her "cow-stall," as they say) is the same as his own; nor may a chinaman take a wife of his own surname. ("anthropology," p. .) "throughout india the hill-tribes are divided into septs or clans, and a man may not marry a woman belonging to his own clan. the calmucks of tartary are divided into hordes, and a man may not marry a girl of his own horde. the same custom prevails among the circassians and the samoyeds of siberia. the ostyaks and yakuts regard it as a crime to marry a woman of the same family, or even of the same name." (sir john lubbock, "smith. rep.," p. , .) sutteeism--the burning of the widow upon the funeral-pile of the husband--was extensively practised in america (west's "journal," p. ); as was also the practice of sacrificing warriors, servants, and animals at the funeral of a great chief (dorman, pp. - .) beautiful girls were sacrificed to appease the anger of the gods, as among the mediterranean races. (bancroft, vol. iii., p. .) fathers offered up their children for a like purpose, as among the carthaginians. the poisoned arrows of america had their representatives in europe. odysseus went to ephyra for the man-slaying drug with which to smear his bronze-tipped arrows. (tylor's "anthropology," p. .) "the bark canoe of america was not unknown in asia and africa" (ibid., p. ), while the skin canoes of our indians and the esquimaux were found on the shores of the thames and the euphrates. in peru and on the euphrates commerce was carried on upon rafts supported by inflated skins. they are still used on the tigris. the indian boils his meat by dropping red-hot stones into a water-vessel made of hide; and linnæus found the both land people brewing beer in this way--"and to this day the rude carinthian boor drinks such stone-beer, as it is called." (ibid., p. .) in the buffalo dance of the mandan indians the dancers covered their heads with a mask made of the head and horns of the buffalo. to-day in the temples of india, or among the lamas of thibet, the priests dance the demons out, or the new year in, arrayed in animal masks (ibid., p. ); and the "mummers" at yule-tide, in england, are a survival of the same custom. (ibid., p. .) the north american dog and bear dances, wherein the dancers acted the part of those animals, had their prototype in the greek dances at the festivals of dionysia. (ibid., p. .) tattooing was practised in both continents. among the indians it was fetichistic in its origin; "every indian had the image of an animal tattooed on his breast or arm, to charm away evil spirits." (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the sailors of europe and america preserve to this day a custom which was once universal among the ancient races. banners, flags, and armorial bearings are supposed to be survivals of the old totemic tattooing. the arab woman still tattoos her face, arms, and ankles. the war-paint of the american savage reappeared in the woad with which the ancient briton stained his body; and tylor suggests that the painted stripes on the circus clown are a survival of a custom once universal. (tylor's "anthropology," p. .) in america, as in the old world, the temples of worship were built over the dead., (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) says prudentius, the roman bard, "there were as many temples of gods as sepulchres." the etruscan belief that evil spirits strove for the possession of the dead was found among the mosquito indians. (bancroft, "native races," vol. i., p. .) the belief in fairies, which forms so large a part of the folklore of western europe, is found among the american races. the ojibbeways see thousands of fairies dancing in a sunbeam; during a rain myriads of them bide in the flowers. when disturbed they disappear underground. they have their dances, like the irish fairies; and, like them, they kill the domestic animals of those who offend them. the dakotas also believe in fairies. the otoes located the "little people" in a mound at the mouth of whitestone river; they were eighteen inches high, with very large heads; they were armed with bows and arrows, and killed those who approached their residence. (see dorman's "origin of primitive superstitions," p. .) "the shoshone legends people the mountains of montana with little imps, called nirumbees, two feet long, naked, and with a tail." they stole the children of the indians, and left in their stead the young of their own baneful race, who resembled the stolen children so much that the mothers were deceived and suckled them, whereupon they died. this greatly resembles the european belief in "changelings." (ibid., p. .) in both continents we find tree-worship. in mexico and central america cypresses and palms were planted near the temples, generally in groups of threes; they were tended with great care, and received offerings of incense and gifts. the same custom prevailed among the romans--the cypress was dedicated to pluto, and the palm to victory. not only infant baptism by water was found both in the old babylonian religion and among the mexicans, but an offering of cakes, which is recorded by the prophet jeremiah as part of the worship of the babylonian goddess-mother, "the queen of heaven," was also found in the ritual of the aztecs. ("builders of babel," p. .) in babylonia, china, and mexico the caste at the bottom of the social scale lived upon floating islands of reeds or rafts, covered with earth, on the lakes and rivers. in peru and babylonia marriages were made but once a year, at a public festival. among the romans, the chinese, the abyssinians, and the indians of canada the singular custom prevails of lifting the bride over the door-step of her husband's home. (sir john lubbock, "smith. rep.," , p. .) "the bride-cake which so invariably accompanies a wedding among ourselves, and which must always be cut by the bride, may be traced back to the old roman form of marriage by 'conferreatio,' or eating together. so, also, among the iroquois the bride and bridegroom used to partake together of a cake of sagamite, which the bride always offered to her husband." (ibid.) among many american tribes, notably in brazil, the husband captured the wife by main force, as the men of benjamin carried off the daughters of shiloh at the feast, and as the romans captured the sabine women. "within a few generations the same old habit was kept up in wales, where the bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride; and in ireland they used even to hurl spears at the bride's people, though at such a distance that no one was hurt, except now and then by accident--as happened when one lord hoath lost an eye, which mischance put an end to this curious relic of antiquity." (tylor's "anthropology," p. .) marriage in mexico was performed by the priest. he exhorted them to maintain peace and harmony, and tied the end of the man's mantle to the dress of the woman; he perfumed them, and placed on each a shawl on which was painted a skeleton, "as a symbol that only death could now separate them from one another." (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the priesthood was thoroughly organized in mexico and peru. they were prophets as well as priests. "they brought the newly-born infant into the religious society; they directed their training and education; they determined the entrance of the young men into the service of the state; they consecrated marriage by their blessing; they comforted the sick and assisted the dying." (ibid., p. .) there were five thousand priests in the temples of mexico. they confessed and absolved the sinners, arranged the festivals, and managed the choirs in the churches. they lived in conventual discipline, but were allowed to marry; they practised flagellation and fasting, and prayed at regular hours. there were great preachers and exhorters among them. there were also convents into which females were admitted. the novice had her hair cut off and took vows of celibacy; they lived holy and pious lives. (ibid., pp. , .) the king was the high-priest of the religious orders. a new king ascended the temple naked, except his girdle; he was sprinkled four times with water which had been blessed; he was then clothed in a mantle, and on his knees took an oath to maintain the ancient religion. the priests then instructed him in his royal duties. (ibid., p. .) besides the regular priesthood there were monks who were confined in cloisters. (ibid., p. .) cortes says the mexican priests were very strict in the practice of honesty and chastity, and any deviation was punished with death. they wore long white robes and burned incense. (dorman, "prim. superst.," p. .) the first fruits of the earth were devoted to the support of the priesthood. (ibid., p. .) the priests of the isthmus were sworn to perpetual chastity. the american doctors practised phlebotomy. they bled the sick man because they believed the evil spirit which afflicted him would come away with the blood. in europe phlebotomy only continued to a late period, but the original superstition out of which it arose, in this case as in many others, was forgotten. there is opportunity here for the philosopher to meditate upon the perversity of human nature and the persistence of hereditary error. the superstition of one age becomes the science of another; men were first bled to withdraw the evil spirit, then to cure the disease; and a practice whose origin is lost in the night of ages is continued into the midst of civilization, and only overthrown after it has sent millions of human beings to untimely graves. dr. sangrado could have found the explanation of his profession only among the red men of america. folk-lore.--says max müller: "not only do we find the same words and the same terminations in sanscrit and gothic; not only do we find the same name for zeus in sanscrit, latin, and german; not only is the abstract name for god the same in india, greece, and italy; but these very stories, these 'mährchen' which nurses still tell, with almost the same words, in the thuringian forest and in the norwegian villages, and to which crowds of children listen under the pippal-trees of india--these stories, too, belonged to the common heirloom of the indo-european race, and their origin carries us back to the same distant past, when no greek had set foot in europe, no hindoo had bathed in the sacred waters of the ganges." and we find that an identity of origin can be established between the folk-lore or fairy tales of america and those of the old world, precisely such as exists between the, legends of norway and india. mr. tylor tells us the story of the two brothers in central america who, starting on their dangerous journey to the land of xibalba, where their father had perished, plant each a cane in the middle of their grandmother's house, that she may know by its flourishing or withering whether they are alive or dead. exactly the same conception occurs in grimm's "mährchen," when the two gold-children wish to see the world and to leave their father; and when their father is sad, and asks them how he shall bear news of them, they tell him, "we leave you the two golden lilies; from these you can see how we fare. if they are fresh, we are well; if they fade, we are ill; if they fall, we are dead." grimm traces the same idea in hindoo stories. "now this," says max müller, "is strange enough, and its occurrence in india, germany, and central america is stranger still." compare the following stories, which we print in parallel columns, one from the ojibbeway indians, the other from ireland: +----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ | the ojibbeway story. | the irish story. | | | | | the birds met together one day | the birds all met together one | | to try which could fly the | day, and settled among themselves | | highest. some flew up very | that whichever of them could fly | | swift, but soon got tired, and | highest was to be the king of | | were passed by others of | all. well, just as they were on | | stronger wing. but the eagle | the hinges of being off, what | | went up beyond them all, and | does the little rogue of a wren | | was ready to claim the victory, | do but hop up and perch himself | | when the gray linnet, a very | unbeknown on the eagle's tail. so | | small bird, flew from the | they flew and flew ever so high, | | eagle's back, where it had | till the eagle was miles above | | perched unperceived, and, being | all the rest, and could not fly | | fresh and unexhausted, | another stroke, he was so tired. | | succeeded in going the highest. | "then," says he, "i'm king of the | | when the birds came down and | birds." "you lie!" says the wren, | | met in council to award the | darting up a perch and a half | | prize it was given to the | above the big fellow. well, the | | eagle, because that bird had | eagle was so mad to think how he | | not only gone up nearer to the | was done, that when the wren was | | sun than any of the larger | coming down he gave him a stroke | | birds, but it had carried the | of his wing, and from that day to | | linnet on its back. | this the wren was never able to | | | fly farther than a hawthorn-bush. | | for this reason the eagle's | | | feathers became the most | | | honorable marks of distinction | | | a warrior could bear. | | +----------------------------------+------------------------------------+ compare the following stories: +------------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | the asiatic story. | the american story. | | | | | in hindoo mythology urvasi came | wampee, a great hunter, once | | down from heaven and became the | came to a strange prairie, | | wife of the son of buddha only on | where he heard faint sounds of | | condition that two pet rams | music, and looking up saw a | | should never be taken from her | speck in the sky, which proved | | bedside, and that she should | itself to be a basket | | never behold her lord undressed. | containing twelve most | | the immortals, however, wishing | beautiful maidens, who, on | | urvasi back in heaven, contrived | reaching the earth, forthwith | | to steal the rams; and, as the | set themselves to dance. he | | king pursued the robbers with his | tried to catch the youngest, | | sword in the dark, the lightning | but in vain; ultimately he | | revealed his person, the compact | succeeded by assuming the | | was broken, and urvasi | disguise of a mouse. he was | | disappeared. this same story is | very attentive to his new wife, | | found in different forms among | who was really a daughter of | | many people of aryan and turanian | one of the stars, but she | | descent, the central idea being | wished to return home, so she | | that of a man marrying some one | made a wicker basket secretly, | | of an aerial or aquatic origin, | and, by help of a charm she | | and living happily with her till | remembered, ascended to her | | he breaks the condition on which | father. | | her residence with him depends, | | | stories exactly parallel to that | | | of raymond of toulouse, who | | | chances in the hunt upon the | | | beautiful melusina at a fountain, | | | and lives with her happily until | | | he discovers her fish-nature and | | | she vanishes. | | +------------------------------------+----------------------------------+ if the legend of cadmus recovering europa, after she has been carried away by the white bull, the spotless cloud, means that "the sun must journey westward until he sees again the beautiful tints which greeted his eyes in the morning," it is curious to find a story current in north america to the effect that a man once had a beautiful daughter, 'whom he forbade to leave the lodge lest she should be carried off by the king of the buffaloes; and that as she sat, notwithstanding, outside the house combing her hair, "all of a sudden the king of the buffaloes came dashing on, with his herd of followers, and, taking her between his horns, away be cantered over plains, plunged into a river which bounded his land, and carried her safely to his lodge on the other side," whence she was finally recovered by her father. games.--the same games and sports extended from india to the shores of lake superior. the game of the hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a cross-shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and draughts, with the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the spaniards entered mexico they found the aztecs playing a game called patolli, identical with the hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped board. the game of ball, which the indians of america were in the habit of playing at the time of the discovery of the country, from california to the atlantic, was identical with the european chueca, crosse, or hockey. one may well pause, after reading this catalogue, and ask himself, wherein do these peoples differ? it is absurd to pretend that all these similarities could have been the result of accidental coincidences. these two peoples, separated by the great ocean, were baptized alike in infancy with blessed water; they prayed alike to the gods; they worshipped together the sun, moon, and stars; they confessed their sins alike; they were instructed alike by an established priesthood; they were married in the same way and by the joining of hands; they armed themselves with the same weapons; when children came, the man, on both continents, went to bed and left his wife to do the honors of the household; they tattooed and painted themselves in the same fashion; they became intoxicated on kindred drinks; their dresses were alike; they cooked in the same manner; they used the same metals; they employed the same exorcisms and bleedings for disease; they believed alike in ghosts, demons, and fairies; they listened to the same stories; they played the same games; they used the same musical instruments; they danced the same dances, and when they died they were embalmed in the same way and buried sitting; while over them were erected, on both continents, the same mounds, pyramids, obelisks, and temples. and yet we are asked to believe that there was no relationship between them, and that they had never had any ante-columbian intercourse with each other. if our knowledge of atlantis was more thorough, it would no doubt appear that, in every instance wherein the people of europe accord with the people of america, they were both in accord with the people of atlantis; and that atlantis was the common centre from which both peoples derived their arts, sciences, customs, and opinions. it will be seen that in every case where plato gives us any information in this respect as to atlantis, we find this agreement to exist. it existed in architecture, sculpture, navigation, engraving, writing, an established priesthood, the mode of worship, agriculture, the construction of roads and canals; and it is reasonable to suppose that the same correspondence extended down to all the minor details treated of in this chapter. chapter iii. american evidences of intercourse with europe or atlantis. . on the monuments of central america there are representations of bearded men. how could the beardless american indians have imagined a bearded race? . all the traditions of the civilized races of central america point to an eastern origin. the leader and civilizer of the nahua family was quetzalcoatl. this is the legend respecting him: "from the distant east, from the fabulous hue hue tlapalan, this mysterious person came to tula, and became the patron god and high-priest of the ancestors of the toltecs. he is described as having been a white man, with strong formation of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. he wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long white robe reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. in his hand he held a sickle. his habits were ascetic, he never married, was most chaste and pure in life, and is said to have endured penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon himself, but as a warning to others. he condemned sacrifices, except of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace; for, when addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have stopped his ears with his fingers." ("north amer. of antiq.," p. .) "he was skilled in many arts: he invented" (that is, imported) "gem-cutting and metal-casting; he originated letters, and invented the mexican calendar. he finally returned to the land in the east from which he came: leaving the american coast at vera cruz, he embarked in a canoe made of serpent-skins, and 'sailed away into the east.'" (ibid., p. .) dr. le plongeon says of the columns at chichen: "the base is formed by the head of cukulcan, the shaft of the body of the serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapiter. on the chapiters of the columns that support the portico, at the entrance of the castle in chichen itza, may be seen the carved figures of long-bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act of worshipping sacred trees. they forcibly recall to mind the same worship in assyria." in the accompanying cut of an ancient vase from tula, we see a bearded figure grasping a beardless man. in the cut given below we see a face that might be duplicated among the old men of any part of europe. the cakchiquel ms. says: "four persons came from tulan, from the direction of the rising sun--that is one tulan. there is another tulan in xibalbay, and another where the sun sets, and it is there that we came; and in the direction of the setting sun there is another, where is the god; so that there are four tulans; and it is where the sun sets that we came to tulan, from the other side of the sea, where this tulan is; and it is there that we were conceived and begotten by our mothers and fathers." that is to say, the birthplace of the race was in the east, across the sea, at a place called tulan and when they emigrated they called their first stopping-place on the american continent tulan also; and besides this there were two other tulans. "of the nahua predecessors of the toltecs in mexico the olmecs and xicalaucans were the most important. they were the forerunners of the great races that followed. according to ixtlilxochitl, these people--which are conceded to be the ones who occupied the world in the third age; they came from the east in ships or barks to the land of potonchan, which they commenced to populate." . the abbé brasseur de bourbourg, in one of the notes of the introduction of the "popol vuh," presents a very remarkable analogy between the kingdom of xibalba, described in that work, and atlantis. he says: "both countries are magnificent, exceedingly fertile, and abound in the precious metals. the empire of atlantis was divided into ten kingdoms, governed by five couples of twin sons of poseidon, the eldest being supreme over the others; and the ten constituted a tribunal that managed the affairs of the empire. their descendants governed after them. the ten kings of xibalba, who reigned (in couples) under hun-came and vukub-came (and who together constituted a grand council of the kingdom), certainly furnish curious points of comparison. and there is wanting neither a catastrophe--for xibalba had a terrific inundation--nor the name of atlas, of which the etymology is found only in the nahuatl tongue: it comes from atl, water; and we know that a city of atlan (near the water) still existed on the atlantic side of the isthmus of panama at the time of the conquest." "in yucatan the traditions all point to an eastern and foreign origin for the race. the early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them." (landa's "relacion," p. .) "it was also believed that part of the population came into the country from the west. lizana says that the smaller portion, 'the little descent,' came from the east, while the greater portion, 'the great descent,' came from the west. cogolluda considers the eastern colony to have been the larger.... the culture-hero zamna, the author of all civilization in yucatan, is described as the teacher of letters, and the leader of the people from their ancient home.... he was the leader of a colony from the east." ("north amer. of antiq.," p. .) the ancient mexican legends say that, after the flood, coxcox and his wife, after wandering one hundred and four years, landed at antlan, and passed thence to capultepec, and thence to culhuacan, and lastly to mexico. coming from atlantis, they named their first landing-place antlan. all the races that settled mexico, we are told, traced their origin back to an aztlan (atlan-tis). duran describes aztlan as "a most attractive land." ("north amer. of antiq.," p. .) samé, the great name of brazilian legend, came across the ocean from the rising sun. he had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of the forests would recede to make room for him (cutting down the trees); the animals used to crouch before him (domesticated animals); lakes and rivers became solid for him (boats and bridges); and he taught the use of agriculture and magic. like him, bochica, the great law-giver of the muyscas, and son of the sun--he who invented for them the calendar and regulated their festivals--had a white beard, a detail in which all the american culture-heroes agree. the "samé" of brazil was probably the "zamna" of yucatan. elephant mound, wisconsin. . we find in america numerous representations of the elephant. we are forced to one of two conclusions: either the monuments date back to the time of the mammoth in north america, or these people held intercourse at some time in the past with races who possessed the elephant, and from whom they obtained pictures of that singular animal. plato tells us that the atlanteans possessed great numbers of elephants. there are in wisconsin a number of mounds of earth representing different animals--men, birds, and quadrupeds. elephant pipe, loisa county, iowa. among the latter is a mound representing an elephant, "so perfect in its proportions, and complete in its representation of an elephant, that its builders must have been well acquainted with all the physical characteristics of the animal which they delineated." we copy the representation of this mound on page . on a farm in louisa county, iowa, a pipe was ploughed up which also represents an elephant. we are indebted to the valuable work of john t. short ("the north americans of antiquity," p. ) for a picture of this singular object. it was found in a section where the ancient mounds were very abundant and rich in relics. the pipe is of sandstone, of the ordinary mound-builder's type, and has every appearance of age and usage. there can be no doubt of its genuineness. the finder had no conception of its archæological value. in the ruined city of palenque we find, in one of the palaces, a stucco bass-relief of a priest. his elaborate head-dress or helmet represents very faithfully the head of an elephant. the cut on page is from a drawing made by waldeck. the decoration known as "elephant-trunks" is found in many parts of the ancient ruins of central america, projecting from above the door-ways of the buildings. in tylor's "researches into the early history of mankind," p. , i find a remarkable representation of an elephant, taken from an ancient mexican manuscript. it is as follows: mexican representation of elephant. chapter iv. corroborating circumstances. . lenormant insists that the human race issued from ups merou, and adds that some greek traditions point to "this locality--particularly the expression me'ropes a?'nðwpoi, which can only mean 'the men sprung from merou.'" ("mannal," p. .) theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited atlantis were the meropes, the people of merou. . whence comes the word atlantic? the dictionaries tell us that the ocean is named after the mountains of atlas; but whence did the atlas mountains get their name? "the words atlas and atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any language known to europe. they are not greek, and cannot be referred to any known language of the old world. but in the nahuatl language we find immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head. (molina, "vocab. en lengua mexicana y castellana.") from this comes a series of words, such as atlan--on the border of or amid the water--from which we have the adjective atlantic. we have also atlaça, to combat, or be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the preterit makes atlaz. a city named atlan existed when the continent was discovered by columbus, at the entrance of the gulf of uraba, in darien. with a good harbor, it is now reduced to an unimportant pueblo named acla." (baldwin's "ancient america," p. .) plato tells us that atlantis and the atlantic ocean were named after atlas, the eldest son of poseidon, the founder of the kingdom. . upon that part of the african continent nearest to the site of atlantis we find a chain of mountains, known from the most ancient times as the atlas mountains. whence this name atlas, if it be not from the name of the great king of atlantis? and if this be not its origin, how comes it that we find it in the most north-western corner of africa? and how does it happen that in the time of herodotus there dwelt near this mountain-chain a people called the atlantes, probably a remnant of a colony from solon's island? how comes it that the people of the barbary states were known to the greeks, romans, and carthaginians as the "atlantes," this name being especially applied to the inhabitants of fezzan and bilma? where did they get the name from? there is no etymology for it east of the atlantic ocean. (lenormants "anc. hist. of the east," p. .) look at it! an "atlas" mountain on the shore of africa; an "atlan" town on the shore of america; the "atlantes" living along the north and west coast of africa; an aztec people from aztlan, in central america; an ocean rolling between the two worlds called the "atlantic;" a mythological deity called "atlas" holding the world on his shoulders; and an immemorial tradition of an island of atlantis. can all these things be the result of accident? . plato says that there was a "passage west from atlantis to the rest of the islands, as well as from these islands to the whole opposite continent that surrounds that real sea." he calls it a real sea, as contradistinguished from the mediterranean, which, as he says, is not a real sea (or ocean) but a landlocked body of water, like a harbor. now, plato might have created atlantis out of his imagination; but how could he have invented the islands beyond (the west india islands), and the whole continent (america) enclosing that real sea? if we look at the map, we see that the continent of america does "surround" the ocean in a great half-circle. could plato have guessed all this? if there had been no atlantis, and no series of voyages from it that revealed the half-circle of the continent from newfoundland to cape st. roche, how could plato have guessed it? and how could he have known that the mediterranean was only a harbor compared with the magnitude of the great ocean surrounding atlantis? long sea-voyages were necessary to establish that fact, and the greeks, who kept close to the shores in their short journeys, did not make such voyages. . how can we, without atlantis, explain the presence of the basques in europe, who have no lingual affinities with any other race on the continent of europe, but whose language is similar to the languages of america? plato tells us that the dominion of gadeirus, one of the kings of atlantis, extended "toward the pillars of heracles (hercules) as far as the country which is still called the region of gades in that part of the world." gades is the cadiz of today, and the dominion of gadeirus embraced the land of the iberians or basques, their chief city taking its name from a king of atlantis, and they themselves being atlanteans. dr. farrar, referring to the basque language, says: "what is certain about it is, that its structure is polysynthetic, like the languages of america. like them, it forms its compounds by the elimination of certain radicals in the simple words; so that ilhun, the twilight, is contracted from hill, dead, and egun, day; and belhaur, the knee, from belhar, front, and oin, leg.... the fact is indisputable, and is eminently noteworthy, that while the affinities of the basque roots have never been conclusively elucidated, there has never been any doubt that this isolated language, preserving its identity in a western corner of europe, between two mighty kingdoms, resembles, in its grammatical structure, the aboriginal languages of the vast opposite continent (america), and those alone." ("families of speech," p. .) if there was an atlantis, forming, with its connecting ridges, a continuous bridge of land from america to africa, we can understand how the basques could have passed from one continent to another; but if the wide atlantic rolled at all times unbroken between the two continents, it is difficult to conceive of such an emigration by an uncivilized people. . without atlantis, how can we explain the fact that the early egyptians were depicted by themselves as red men on their own monuments? and, on the other hand, how can we account for the representations of negroes on the monuments of central america? dêsirè charnay, now engaged in exploring those monuments, has published in the north american review for december, , photographs of a number of idols exhumed at san juan de teotihuacan, from which i select the following strikingly negroid faces: negro idols found in mexico. dr. le plongeon says: "besides the sculptures of long-bearded men seen by the explorer at chichen itza, there were tall figures of people with small heads, thick lips, and curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. 'we always see them as standard or parasol bearers, but never engaged in actual warfare.'" ("maya archæology," p. .) the following cut is from the court of the palace of palenque, figured by stephens. the face is strongly ethiopian. the figure below represents a gigantic granite head, found near the volcano of tuxtla, in the mexican state of vera cruz, at caxapa. the features are unmistakably negroid. as the negroes have never been a sea-going race, the presence of these faces among the antiquities of central america proves one of two things, either the existence of a land connection between america and africa via atlantis, as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the challenger, or commercial relations between america and africa through the ships of the atlanteans or some other civilized race, whereby the negroes were brought to america as slaves at a very remote epoch. and we find some corroboration of the latter theory in that singular book of the quiches, the "popol vuh," in which, after describing the creation of the first men "in the region of the rising sun" (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. ), and enumerating their first generations, we are told, "all seem to have spoken one language, and to have lived in great peace, black men and white together. here they awaited the rising of the sun, and prayed to the heart of heaven." (bancroft's "native races," p. .) how did the red men of central america know anything about "black men and white men?" the conclusion seems inevitable that these legends of a primitive, peaceful, and happy land, an aztlan in the east, inhabited by black and white men, to which all the civilized nations of america traced their origin, could only refer to atlantis--that bridge of land where the white, dark, and red races met. the "popol vuh" proceeds to tell how this first home of the race became over-populous, and how the people under balam-quitze migrated; how their language became "confounded," in other words, broken up into dialects, in consequence of separation; and how some of the people "went to the east, and many came hither to guatemala." (ibid., p. .) m. a. de quatrefages ("human species," p. ) says, "black populations have been found in america in very small numbers only, as isolated tribes in the midst of very different populations. such are the charruas, of brazil, the black carribees of saint vincent, in the gulf of mexico; the jamassi of florida, and the dark-complexioned californians.... such, again, is the tribe that balboa saw some representatives of in his passage of the isthmus of darien in ; ... they were true negroes." . how comes it that all the civilizations of the old world radiate from the shores of the mediterranean? the mediterranean is a cul de sac, with atlantis opposite its mouth. every civilization on its shores possesses traditions that point to atlantis. we hear of no civilization coming to the mediterranean from asia, africa, or europe--from north, south, or west; but north, south, east, and west we find civilization radiating from the mediterranean to other lands. we see the aryans descending upon hindostan from the direction of the mediterranean; and we find the chinese borrowing inventions from hindostan, and claiming descent from a region not far from the mediterranean. the mediterranean has been the centre of the modern world, because it lay in the path of the extension of an older civilization, whose ships colonized its shores, as they did also the shores of america. plato says, "the nations are gathered around the shores of the mediterranean like frogs around a marsh." dr. mccausland says: "the obvious conclusion from these facts is, that at some time previous to these migrations a people speaking a language of a superior and complicated structure broke up their society, and, under some strong impulse, poured out in different directions, and gradually established themselves in all the lands now inhabited by the caucasian race. their territories extend from the atlantic to the ganges, and from iceland to ceylon, and are bordered on the north and east by the asiatic mongols, and on the south by the negro tribes of central africa. they present all the appearances of a later race, expanding itself between and into the territories of two pre-existing neighboring races, and forcibly appropriating the room required for its increasing population." (mccausland's "adam and the adamites," p. .) modern civilization is atlantean. without the thousands of years of development which were had in atlantis modern civilization could not have existed. the inventive faculty of the present age is taking up the great delegated work of creation where atlantis left it thousands of years ago. . how are we to explain the existence of the semitic race in europe without atlantis? it is an intrusive race; a race colonized on sea-coasts. where are its old world affinities? . why is it that the origin of wheat, barley, oats, maize, and rye--the essential plants of civilization--is totally lost in the mists of a vast antiquity? we have in the greek mythology legends of the introduction of most of these by atlantean kings or gods into europe; but no european nation claims to have discovered or developed them, and it has been impossible to trace them to their wild originals. out of the whole flora of the world mankind in the last seven thousand years has not developed a single food-plant to compare in importance to the human family with these. if a wise and scientific nation should propose nowadays to add to this list, it would have to form great botanical gardens, and, by systematic and long-continued experiments, develop useful plants from the humble productions of the field and forest. was this done in the past on the island of atlantis? . why is it that we find in ptolemy's "geography of asia minor," in a list of cities in armenia major in a.d. , the names of five cities which have their counterparts in the names of localities in central america? +------------------+------------------------------+ | armenian cities. | central american localities. | +------------------+------------------------------+ | chol. | chol-ula | +------------------+------------------------------+ | colua. | colua-can. | +------------------+------------------------------+ | zuivana. | zuivan. | +------------------+------------------------------+ | cholima. | colima. | +------------------+------------------------------+ | zalissa. | xalisco. | +------------------+------------------------------+ (short's "north americans of antiquity," p. .) . how comes it that the sandals upon the feet of the statue of chacmol, discovered at chichen itza, are "exact representations of those found on the feet of the guanches, the early inhabitants of the canary islands, whose mummies are occasionally discovered in the caves of teneriffe?" dr. merritt deems the axe or chisel heads dug up at chiriqui, central america, "almost identical in form as well as material with specimens found in suffolk county, england." (bancroft's native races," vol. iv., p. .) the rock-carvings of chiriqui are pronounced by mr. seemann to have a striking resemblance to the ancient incised characters found on the rocks of northumberland, england. (ibid.) "some stones have recently been discovered in hierro and las palmas (canary islands), bearing sculptured symbols similar to those found on the shores of lake superior; and this has led m. bertholet, the historiographer of the canary islands, to conclude that the first inhabitants of the canaries and those of the great west were one in race." (benjamin, "the atlantic islands," p. .) . how comes it that that very high authority, professor retzius ("smithsonian report," , p. ), declares, "with regard to the primitive dolichocephalæ of america i entertain a hypothesis still more bold, namely, that they are nearly related to the guanches in the canary islands, and to the atlantic populations of africa, the moors, tuaricks, copts, etc., which latham comprises under the name of egyptian-atlantidæ. we find one and the same form of skull in the canary islands, in front of the african coast, and in the carib islands, on the opposite coast, which faces africa. the color of the skin on both sides of the atlantic is represented in these populations as being of a reddish-brown." . the barbarians who are alluded to by homer and thucydides were a race of ancient navigators and pirates called cares, or carians, who occupied the isles of greece before the pelasgi, and antedated the phoenicians in the control of the sea. the abbé brasseur de bourbourg claims that these carians were identical with the caribs of the west indies, the caras of honduras, and the gurani of south america. (landa's "relacion," pp. - .) . when we consider it closely, one of the most extraordinary customs ever known to mankind is that to which i have already alluded in a preceding chapter, to wit, the embalming of the body of the dead man, with a purpose that the body itself may live again in a future state. to arrive at this practice several things must coexist: a. the people must be highly religious, and possessed of an organized and influential priesthood, to perpetuate so troublesome a custom from age to age. b. they must believe implicitly in the immortality of the soul; and this implies a belief in rewards and punishments after death; in a heaven and a hell. c. they must believe in the immortality of the body, and its resurrection from the grave on some day of judgment in the distant future. d. but a belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body is not enough, for all christian nations hold to these beliefs; they must supplement these with a determination that the body shall not perish; that the very flesh and blood in which the man died shall rise with him on the last day, and not a merely spiritual body. now all these four things must coexist before a people proceed to embalm their dead for religious purposes. the probability that all these four things should coexist by accident in several widely separated races is slight indeed. the doctrine of chances is all against it. there is here no common necessity driving men to the same expedient, with which so many resemblances have been explained; the practice is a religious ceremony, growing out of religious beliefs by no means common or universal, to wit, that the man who is dead shall live again, and live again in the very body in which he died. not even all the jews believed in these things. if, then, it should appear that among the races which we claim were descended from atlantis this practice of embalming the dead is found, and nowhere else, we have certainly furnished evidence which can only be explained by admitting the existence of atlantis, and of some great religious race dwelling on atlantis, who believed in the immortality of soul and body, and who embalmed their dead. we find, as i have shown: first. that the guanches of the canary islands, supposed to be a remnant of the atlantean population, preserved their dead as mummies. second. that the egyptians, the oldest colony of atlantis, embalmed their dead in such vast multitudes that they are now exported by the ton to england, and ground up into manures to grow english turnips. third. that the assyrians, the ethiopians, the persians, the greeks, and even the romans embalmed their dead. fourth. on the american continents we find that the peruvians, the central americans, the mexicans, and some of the indian tribes, followed the same practice. is it possible to account for this singular custom, reaching through a belt of nations, and completely around the habitable world, without atlantis? . all the traditions of the mediterranean races look to the ocean as the source of men and gods. homer sings of "ocean, the origin of gods and mother tethys." orpheus says, "the fair river of ocean was the first to marry, and he espoused his sister tethys, who was his mothers daughter." (plato's "dialogues," cratylus, p. .) the ancients always alluded to the ocean as a river encircling the earth, as in the map of cosmos (see page ante); probably a reminiscence of the great canal described by plato which surrounded the plain of atlantis. homer (iliad, book xviii.) describes tethys, "the mother goddess," coming to achilles "from the deep abysses of the main:" "the circling nereids with their mistress weep, and all the sea-green sisters of the deep." plato surrounds the great statue of poseidon in atlantis with the images of one hundred nereids. . in the deluge legends of the hindoos (as given on page ante), we have seen mann saving a small fish, which subsequently grew to a great size, and warned him of the coming of the flood. in this legend all the indications point to an ocean as the scene of the catastrophe. it says: "at the close of the last calpa there was a general destruction, caused by the sleep of brahma, whence his creatures, in different worlds, were drowned in a vast ocean.... a holy king, named satyavrata, then reigned, a servant of the spirit which moved on the waves" (poseidon?), "and so devout that water was his only sustenance.... in seven days the three worlds" (remember poseidon's trident) "shall be plunged in an ocean of death."... "'thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it secure from the flood on one immense ocean.'... the sea overwhelmed its shores, deluged the whole earth, augmented by showers from immense clouds." ("asiatic researches," vol. i., p. .) all this reminds us of "the fountains of the great deep and the flood-gates of heaven," and seems to repeat precisely the story of plato as to the sinking of atlantis in the ocean. . while i do not attach much weight to verbal similarities in the languages of the two continents, nevertheless there are some that are very remarkable. we have seen the pan and maia of the greeks reappearing in the pan and maya of the mayas of central america. the god of the welsh triads, "hu the mighty," is found in the hu-nap-bu, the hero-god of the quiches; in hu-napu, a hero-god; and in hu-hu-nap-hu, in hu-ncam, in hu-nbatz, semi-divine heroes of the quiches. the phoenician deity el "was subdivided into a number of hypostases called the baalim, secondary divinities, emanating from the substance of the deity" ("anc. hist. east," vol. ii., p. ); and this word baalim we find appearing in the mythology of the central americans, applied to the semi-divine progenitors of the human race, balam-quitze, balam-agab, and iqui-balam. chapter v. the question of complexion. the tendency of scientific thought in ethnology is in the direction of giving more and more importance to the race characteristics, such as height, color of the hair, eyes and skin, and the formation of the skull and body generally, than to language. the language possessed by a people may be merely the result of conquest or migration. for instance, in the united states to-day, white, black, and red men, the descendants of french, spanish, italians, mexicans, irish, germans, scandinavians, africans, all speak the english language, and by the test of language they are all englishmen; and yet none of them are connected by birth or descent with the country where that language was developed. there is a general misconception as to the color of the european and american races. europe is supposed to be peopled exclusively by white men; but in reality every shade of color is represented on that continent, from the fair complexion of the fairest of the swedes to the dark-skinned inhabitants of the mediterranean coast, only a shade lighter than the berbers, or moors, on the opposite side of that sea. tacitus spoke of the "black celts," and the term, so far as complexion goes, might not inappropriately be applied to some of the italians, spaniards, and portuguese, while the basques are represented as of a still darker hue. tylor says ("anthropology," p. ), "on the whole, it seems that the distinction of color, from the fairest englishman to the darkest african, has no hard and fast lines, but varies gradually from one tint to another." and when we turn to america we find that the popular opinion that all indians are "red men," and of the same hue from patagonia to hudson's bay, is a gross error. prichard says ("researches into the physical history of mankind," vol. i., p. , th ed., ): "it will be easy to show that the american races show nearly as great a variety in this respect as the nations of the old continent; there are among them white races with a florid complexion, and tribes black or of a very dark hue; that their stature, figure, and countenance are almost equally diversified." john t. short says ("north americans of antiquity," p. ): "the menominees, sometimes called the 'white indians,' formerly occupied the region bordering on lake michigan, around green bay. the whiteness of these indians, which is compared to that of white mulattoes, early attracted the attention of the jesuit missionaries, and has often been commented on by travellers. while it is true that hybridy has done much to lighten the color of many of the tribes, still the peculiarity of the complexion of this people has been marked since the first time a european encountered them. almost every shade, from the ash-color of the menominees through the cinnamon-red, copper, and bronze tints, may be found among the tribes formerly occupying the territory east of the mississippi, until we reach the dark-skinned kaws of kansas, who are nearly as black as the negro. the variety of complexion is as great in south america as among the tribes of the northern part of the continent." in foot-note of p. of vol. iii. of "u. s. explorations for a railroad route to the pacific ocean," we are told, "many of the indians of zuni (new mexico) are white. they have a fair skin, blue eyes, chestnut or auburn hair, and are quite good-looking. they claim to be full-blooded zunians, and have no tradition of intermarriage with any foreign race. the circumstance creates no surprise among this people, for from time immemorial a similar class of people has existed among the tribe." winchell says: "the ancient indians of california, in the latitude of forty-two degrees, were as black as the negroes of guinea, while in mexico were tribes of an olive or reddish complexion, relatively light. among the black races of tropical regions we find, generally, some light-colored tribes interspersed. these sometimes have light hair and blue eyes. this is the case with the tuareg of the sahara, the afghans of india, and the aborigines of the banks of the oronoco and the amazon." (winchell's "preadamites," p. .) william penn said of the indians of pennsylvania, in his letter of august, : "the natives ... are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin.... their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-looked jew.... i have seen among them as comely european-like faces of both sexes as on your side of the sea; and truly an italian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the noses of several of them have as much of the roman.... for their original, i am ready to believe them to be of the jewish race--i mean of the stock of the ten tribes--and that for the following reasons: first, in the next place, i find them to be of the like countenance, and their children of so lively a resemblance that a man would think himself in duke's place or berry street in london when he seeth them. but this is not all: they agree in rites, they reckon by moons, they offer their first-fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles, they are said to lay their altars upon twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of women, with many other things that do not now occur." upon this question of complexion catlin, in his "indians of north america," vol. i., p. , etc., gives us some curious information. we have already seen that the mandans preserved an image of the ark, and possessed legends of a clearly atlantean character. catlin says: "a stranger in the mandan village is first struck with the different shades of complexion and various colors of hair which he sees in a crowd about him, and is at once disposed to exclaim, 'these are not indians.' there are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as light as half-breeds; and among the women particularly there are many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of feature; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and sweetness of expression and excessive modesty of demeanor, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful. why this diversity of complexion i cannot tell, nor can they themselves account for it. their traditions, so far as i can learn them, afford us no information of their having had any knowledge of white men before the visit of lewis and clarke, made to their village thirty-three years ago. since that time until now ( ) there have been very few visits of white men to this place, and surely not enough to have changed the complexions and customs of a nation. and i recollect perfectly well that governor clarke told me, before i started for this place, that i would find the mandans a strange people and half white. "among the females may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be seen in our own country except red or auburn, which is not to be found.... there are very many of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery-gray, and in some instances almost perfectly white. this unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit, but it is unquestionably an hereditary characteristic which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or intellect. and by passing this hair through my hands i have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse's mane, differing materially from the hair of other colors, which, among the mandans, is generally as fine and soft as silk. "the stature of the mandans is rather below the ordinary size of man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness and elasticity." catlin gives a group ( ) showing this great diversity in complexion: one of the figures is painted almost pure white, and with light hair. the faces are european. governor and other indians of the pueblo of san domingo, new mexico. major james w. lynd, who lived among the dakota indians for nine years, and was killed by them in the great outbreak of , says (ms. "hist. of dakotas," library, historical society, minnesota, p. ), after calling attention to the fact that the different tribes of the sioux nation represent several different degrees of darkness of color: "the dakota child is of lighter complexion than the young brave; this one lighter than the middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man lighter than the superannuated homo, who, by smoke, paint, dirt, and a drying up of the vital juices, appears to be the true copper-colored dakota. the color of the dakotas varies with the nation, and also with the age and condition of the individual. it may be set down, however, as a shade lighter than olive; yet it becomes still lighter by change of condition or mode of life, and nearly vanishes, even in the child, under constant ablutions and avoiding of exposure. those children in the mission at hazlewood, who are taken very young, and not allowed to expose themselves, lose almost entirely the olive shade, and become quite as white as the american child. the mandans are as light as the peasants of spain, while their brothers, the crows, are as dark as the arabs. dr. goodrich, in the 'universal traveller,' p. , says that the modern peruvians, in the warmer regions of peru, are as fair as the people of the south of europe." the aymaras, the ancient inhabitants of the mountains of peru and bolivia, are described as having an olive-brown complexion, with regular features, large heads, and a thoughtful and melancholy cast of countenance. they practised in early times the deformation of the skull. professor wilson describes the hair of the ancient peruvians, as found upon their mummies, as "a lightish brown, and of a fineness of texture which equals that of the anglo-saxon race." "the ancient peruvians," says short ("north americans of antiquity," p. ), "appear, from numerous examples of hair found in their tombs, to have been an auburn-haired race." garcilasso, who had an opportunity of seeing the body of the king, viracocha, describes the hair of that monarch as snow-white. haywood tells us of the discovery, at the beginning of this century, of three mummies in a cave on the south side of the cumberland river (tennessee), who were buried in baskets, as the peruvians were occasionally buried, and whose skin was fair and white, and their hair auburn, and of a fine texture. ("natural and aboriginal history of tennessee," p. .) choctaw. neither is the common opinion correct which asserts all the american indians to be of the same type of features. the portraits on this page and on pages and , taken from the "report of the u. s. survey for a route for a pacific railroad," present features very much like those of europeans; in fact, every face here could be precisely matched among the inhabitants of the southern part of the old continent. shawnees. on the other hand, look at the portrait of the great italian orator and reformer, savonarola, on page . it looks more like the hunting indians of north-western america than any of the preceding faces. in fact, if it was dressed with a scalp-lock it would pass muster anywhere as a portrait of the "man-afraid-of-his-horses," or "sitting bull." savonarola. adam was, it appears, a red man. winchell tells us that adam is derived from the red earth. the radical letters Âdâm are found in adamah, "something out of which vegetation was made to germinate," to wit, the earth. Âdôm and Âdom signifies red, ruddy, bay-colored, as of a horse, the color of a red heifer. "Âdâm, a man, a human being, male or female, red, ruddy." ("preadamites," p. .) "the arabs distinguished mankind into two races, one red, ruddy, the other black." (ibid.) they classed themselves among the red men. not only was adam a red man, but there is evidence that, from the highest antiquity, red was a sacred color; the gods of the ancients were always painted red. the wisdom of solomon refers to this custom: "the carpenter carved it elegantly, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the shape of a man, or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint, coloring it red, and covering every spot therein." the idols of the indians were also painted red, and red was the religious color. (lynd's ms. "hist. of dakotas," library, hist. society, minn.) the cushites and ethiopians, early branches of the atlantean stock, took their name from their "sunburnt" complexion; they were red men. the name of the phoenicians signified red. himyar, the prefix of the himyaritic arabians, also means red, and the arabs were painted red on the egyptian monuments. the ancient egyptians were red men. they recognized four races of men--the red, yellow, black, and white men. they themselves belonged to the "rot," or red men; the yellow men they called "namu"--it included the asiatic races; the black men were called "nahsu," and the white men "tamhu." the following figures are copied from nott and gliddon's "types of mankind," p. , and were taken by them from the great works of belzoni, champollion, and lepsius. in later ages so desirous were the egyptians of preserving the aristocratic distinction of the color of their skin, that they represented themselves on the monuments as of a crimson hue--an exaggeration of their original race complexion. in the same way we find that the ancient aryan writings divided mankind into four races--the white, red, yellow, and black: the four castes of india were founded upon these distinctions in color; in fact, the word for color in sanscrit (varna) means caste. the red men, according to the mahâbhârata, were the kshatriyas--the warrior caste-who were afterward engaged in a fierce contest with the whites--the brahmans--and were nearly exterminated, although some of them survived, and from their stock buddha was born. so that not only the mohammedan and christian but the buddhistic religion seem to be derived from branches of the hamitic or red stock. the great mann was also of the red race. the races of men according to the egyptians. the egyptians, while they painted themselves red-brown, represented the nations of palestine as yellow-brown, and the libyans yellow-white. the present inhabitants of egypt range from a yellow color in the north parts to a deep bronze. tylor is of opinion ("anthropology," p. ) that the ancient egyptians belonged to a brown race, which embraced the nubian tribes and, to some extent, the berbers of algiers and tunis. he groups the assyrians, phoenicians, persians, greeks, romans, andalusians, bretons, dark welshmen, and people of the caucasus into one body, and designates them as "dark whites." the himyarite arabs, as i have shown, derived their name originally from their red color, and they were constantly depicted on the egyptian monuments as red or light brown. herodotus tells us that there was a nation of libyans, called the maxyans, who claimed descent from the people of troy (the walls of troy, we shall see, were built by poseidon; that is to say, troy was an atlantean colony). these maxyans painted their whole bodies red. the zavecians, the ancestors of the zuavas of algiers (the tribe that gave their name to the french zouaves), also painted themselves red. some of the ethiopians were "copper-colored." ("'amer. cyclop.," art. egypt, p. .) tylor says ("anthropology," p. ): "the language of the ancient egyptians, though it cannot be classed in the semitic family with hebrew, has important points of correspondence, whether due to the long intercourse between the two races in egypt or to some deeper ancestral connection; and such analogies also appear in the berber languages of north africa." these last were called by the ancients the atlanteans. "if a congregation of twelve representatives from malacca, china, japan, mongolia, sandwich islands, chili, peru, brazil, chickasaws, comanches, etc., were dressed alike, or undressed and unshaven, the most skilful anatomist could not, from their appearance, separate them." (fontaine's "how the world was peopled," pp. , .) ferdinand columbus, in his relation of his father's voyages, compares the inhabitants of guanaani to the canary islanders (an atlantean race), and describes the inhabitants of san domingo as still more beautiful and fair. in peru the charanzanis, studied by m. angraud, also resemble the canary islanders. l'abbé brasseur de bourbourg imagined himself surrounded by arabs when all his indians of rabinal were around him; for they had, he said, their complexion, features, and beard. pierre martyr speaks of the indians of the parian gulf as having fair hair. ("the human species," p. .) the same author believes that tribes belonging to the semitic type are also found in america. he refers to "certain traditions of guiana, and the use in the country of a weapon entirely characteristic of the ancient canary islanders." when science is able to disabuse itself of the mortonian theory that the aborigines of america are all red men, and all belong to one race, we may hope that the confluence upon the continent of widely different races from different countries may come to be recognized and intelligently studied. there can be no doubt that red, white, black, and yellow men have united to form the original population of america. and there can be as little doubt that the entire population of europe and the south shore of the mediterranean is a mongrel race--a combination, in varying proportions, of a dark-brown or red race with a white race; the characteristics of the different nations depending upon the proportions in which the dark and light races are mingled, for peculiar mental and moral characteristics go with these complexions. the red-haired people are a distinct variety of the white stock; there were once whole tribes and nations with this color of hair; their blood is now intermingled with all the races of men, from palestine to iceland. everything in europe speaks of vast periods of time and long, continued and constant interfusion of bloods, until there is not a fair-skinned man on the continent that has not the blood of the dark-haired race in his veins; nor scarcely a dark-skinned man that is not lighter in hue from intermixture with the white stock. chapter vi. genesis contains a history of atlantis the hebrews are a branch of the great family of which that powerful commercial race, the phoenicians, who were the merchants of the world fifteen hundred years before the time of christ, were a part. the hebrews carried out from the common storehouse of their race a mass of traditions, many of which have come down to us in that oldest and most venerable of human compositions, the book of genesis. i have shown that the story of the deluge plainly refers to the destruction of atlantis, and that it agrees in many important particulars with the account given by plato. the people destroyed were, in both instances, the ancient race that had created civilization; they had formerly been in a happy and sinless condition; they had become great and wicked; they were destroyed for their sins--they were destroyed by water. but we can go farther, and it can be asserted that there is scarcely a prominent fact in the opening chapters of the book of genesis that cannot be duplicated from the legends of the american nations, and scarcely a custom known to the jews that does not find its counterpart among the people of the new world. even in the history of the creation we find these similarities: the bible tells us (gen. i., ) that in the beginning the earth was without form and void, and covered with water. in the quiche legends we are told, "at first all was sea--no man, animal, bird, or green herb--there was nothing to be seen but the sea and the heavens." the bible says (gen. i., ), "and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters." the quiche legend says, "the creator--the former, the dominator--the feathered serpent--those that give life, moved upon the waters like a glowing light." the bible says (gen. i., ), "and god said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." the quiche legend says, "the creative spirits cried out 'earth!' and in an instant it was formed, and rose like a vapor-cloud; immediately the plains and the mountains arose, and the cypress and pine appeared." the bible tells us, "and god saw that it was good." the quiche legend says, "then gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, 'blessed be thy coming, o heart of heaven, hurakan, thunder-bolt.'" the order in which the vegetables, animals, and man were formed is the same in both records. in genesis (chap. ii., ) we are told, "and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground." the quiche legend says. "the first man was made of clay; but he had no intelligence, and was consumed in the water." in genesis the first man is represented as naked. the aztec legend says, "the sun was much nearer the earth then than now, and his grateful warmth rendered clothing unnecessary." even the temptation of eve reappears in the american legends. lord kingsborough says: "the toltecs had paintings of a garden, with a single tree standing in the midst; round the root of the tree is entwined a serpent, whose head appearing above the foliage displays the face of a woman. torquemada admits the existence of this tradition among them, and agrees with the indian historians, who affirm that this was the first woman in the world, who bore children, and from whom all mankind are descended." ("mexican antiquities," vol. viii., p. .) there is also a legend of suchiquecal, who disobediently gathered roses from a tree, and thereby disgraced and injured herself and all her posterity. ("mexican antiquities," vol. vi., p. .) the legends of the old world which underlie genesis, and were used by milton in the "paradise lost," appear in the mexican legends of a war of angels in heaven, and the fall of zou-tem-que (soutem, satan--arabic, shatana?) and the other rebellious spirits. we have seen that the central americans possessed striking parallels to the account of the deluge in genesis. there is also a clearly established legend which singularly resembles the bible record of the tower of babel. father duran, in his ms. "historia antiqua de la nueva espana," a.d. , quotes from the lips of a native of cholula, over one hundred years old, a version of the legend as to the building of the great pyramid of cholula. it is as follows: "in the beginning, before the light of the sun had been created, this land (cholula) was in obscurity and darkness, and void of any created thing; all was a plain, without hill or elevation, encircled in every part by water, without tree or created thing; and immediately after the light and the sun arose in the east there appeared gigantic men of deformed stature and possessed the land, and desiring to see the nativity of the sun, as well as his occident, proposed to go and seek them. dividing themselves into two parties, some journeyed to the west and others toward the east; these travelled; until the sea cut off their road, whereupon they determined to return to the place from which they started, and arriving at this place (cholula), not finding the means of reaching the sun, enamored of his light and beauty, they determined to build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky. having collected materials for the purpose, they found a very adhesive clay and bitumen, with which they speedily commenced to build the tower; and having reared it to the greatest possible altitude, so that they say it reached to the sky, the lord of the heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants of the sky, 'have you observed how they of the earth have built a high and haughty tower to mount hither, being enamored of the light of the sun and his beauty? come and confound them, because it is not right that they of the earth, living in the flesh, should mingle with us.' immediately the inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of lightning; they destroyed the edifice, and divided and scattered its builders to all parts of the earth." ruins of the temple of cholula. one can recognize in this legend the recollection, by a ruder race, of a highly civilized people; for only a highly civilized people would have attempted such a vast work. their mental superiority and command of the arts gave them the character of giants who arrived from the east; who had divided into two great emigrations, one moving eastward (toward europe), the other westward (toward america). they were sun-worshippers; for we are told "they were enamored of the light and beauty of the sun," and they built a high place for his worship. the pyramid of cholula is one of the greatest constructions ever erected by human hands. it is even now, in its ruined condition, feet high, feet square at the base, and covers forty-five acres; we have only to remember that the greatest pyramid of egypt, cheops, covers but twelve or thirteen acres, to form some conception of the magnitude of this american structure. it must not be forgotten that this legend was taken down by a catholic priest, shortly after the conquest of mexico, from the lips of an old indian who was born before columbus sailed from spain. observe the resemblances between this legend and the bible account of the building of the tower of babel: "all was a plain without hill or elevation," says the indian legend. "they found a plain in the land of shinar, and they dwelt there," says the bible. they built of brick in both cases. "let us build us a tower whose top may reach unto heaven," says the bible. "they determined to build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky," says the indian legend. "and the lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had builded. and the lord said, behold ... nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. go to, let us go down and confound them," says the bible record. "the lord of the heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants of the sky, 'have you observed,' etc. come and confound them," says the indian record. "and the lord scattered them abroad from thence on all the face of the earth," says the bible. "they scattered its builders to all parts of the earth," says the mexican legend. can any one doubt that these two legends must have sprung in some way from one another, or from some common source? there are enough points of difference to show that the american is not a servile copy of the hebrew legend. in the former the story comes from a native of cholula: it is told under the shadow of the mighty pyramid it commemorates; it is a local legend which he repeats. the men who built it, according to his account, were foreigners. they built it to reach the sun--that is to say, as a sun-temple; while in the bible record babel was built to perpetuate the glory of its architects. in the indian legend the gods stop the work by a great storm, in the bible account by confounding the speech of the people. both legends were probably derived from atlantis, and referred to some gigantic structure of great height built by that people; and when the story emigrated to the east and west, it was in the one case affixed to the tower of the chaldeans, and in the other to the pyramid of cholula, precisely as we find the ark of the deluge resting upon separate mountain-chains all the way from greece to armenia. in one form of the tower of babel legend, that of the toltecs, we are told that the pyramid of cholula was erected "as a means of escape from a second flood, should another occur." but the resemblances between genesis and the american legends do not stop here. we are told (gen. ii., ) that "the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam," and while he slept god made eve out of one of his ribs. according to the quiche tradition, there were four men from whom the races of the world descended (probably a recollection of the red, black, yellow, and white races); and these men were without wives, and the creator made wives for them "while they slept." some wicked misanthrope referred to these traditions when he said, "and man's first sleep became his last repose." in genesis (chap. iii., ), "and the lord god said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:" therefore god drove him out of the garden. in the quiche legends we are told, "the gods feared that they had made men too perfect, and they breathed a cloud of mist over their vision." when the ancestors of the quiches migrated to america the divinity parted the sea for their passage, as the red sea was parted for the israelites. the story of samson is paralleled in the history of a hero named zipanca, told of in the "popol vuh," who, being captured by his enemies and placed in a pit, pulled down the building in which his captors had assembled, and killed four hundred of them. "there were giants in those days," says the bible. a great deal of the central american history is taken up with the doings of an ancient race of giants called quinames. this parallelism runs through a hundred particulars: both the jews and mexicans worshipped toward the east. both called the south "the right hand of the world." both burnt incense toward the four corners of the earth. confession of sin and sacrifice of atonement were common to both peoples. both were punctilious about washings and ablutions. both believed in devils, and both were afflicted with leprosy. both considered women who died in childbirth as worthy of honor as soldiers who fell in battle. both punished adultery with stoning to death. as david leaped and danced before the ark of the lord, so did the mexican monarchs before their idols. both had an ark, the abiding-place of an invisible god. both had a species of serpent-worship. great serpent mound, ohio. compare our representation of the great serpent-mound in adams county, ohio, with the following description of a great serpent-mound in scotland: "serpent-worship in the west.--some additional light appears to have been thrown upon ancient serpent-worship in the west by the recent archæological explorations of mr. john s. phené, f.g.s., f.r.g.s., in scotland. mr. phené has just investigated a curious earthen mound in glen feechan, argyleshire, referred to by him, at the late meeting of the british association in edinburgh, as being in the form of a serpent or saurian. the mound, says the scotsman, is a most perfect one. the head is a large cairn, and the body of the earthen reptile feet long; and in the centre of the head there were evidences, when mr. phené first visited it, of an altar having been placed there. the position with regard to ben cruachan is most remarkable. the three peaks are seen over the length of the reptile when a person is standing on the head, or cairn. the shape can only be seen so as to be understood when looked down upon from an elevation, as the outline cannot be understood unless the whole of it can be seen. this is most perfect when the spectator is on the head of the animal form, or on the lofty rock to the west of it. this mound corresponds almost entirely with one feet long in america, an account of which was lately published, after careful survey, by mr. squier. the altar toward the head in each case agrees. in the american mound three rivers (also objects of worship with the ancients) were evidently identified. the number three was a sacred number in all ancient mythologies. the sinuous winding and articulations of the vertebral spinal arrangement are anatomically perfect in the argyleshire mound. the gentlemen present with mr. phené during his investigation state that beneath the cairn forming the head of the animal was found a megalithic chamber, in which was a quantity of charcoal and burnt earth and charred nutshells, a flint instrument, beautifully and minutely serrated at the edge, and burnt bones. the back or spine of the serpent, which, as already stated, is feet long, was found, beneath the peat moss, to be formed by a careful adjustment of stones, the formation of which probably prevented the structure from being obliterated by time and weather." (pall mall gazette.) stone implements of europe and america we find a striking likeness between the works of the stone age in america and europe, as shown in the figures here given. the same singular custom which is found among the jews and the hindoos, for "a man to raise up seed for his deceased brother by marrying his widow," was found among the central american nations. (las casas, ms. "hist. apoloq.," cap. ccxiii., ccxv. torquemada, "monarq. ind.," tom. ii., - .) no one but the jewish high-priest might enter the holy of holies. a similar custom obtained in peru. both ate the flesh of the sacrifices of atonement; both poured the blood of the sacrifice on the earth; they sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, they smeared it upon walls and stones. the mexican temple, like the jewish, faced the east. "as among the jews the ark was a sort of portable temple, in which the deity was supposed to be continually present, so among the mexicans, the cherokees, and the indians of michoacan and honduras, an ark was held in the highest veneration, and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests." (kingsborough, "mex. antiq., "vol. viii., p. .) the peruvians believed that the rainbow was a sign that the earth would not be again destroyed by a deluge. (ibid., p. .) the jewish custom of laying the sins of the people upon the head of an animal, and turning him out into the wilderness, had its counterpart among the mexicans, who, to cure a fever, formed a dog of maize paste and left it by the roadside, saying the first passer-by would carry away the illness. (dorman, "prim. super.," p. .) jacob's ladder had its duplicate in the vine or tree of the ojibbeways, which led from the earth to heaven, up and down which the spirits passed. (ibid., p. .) both jews and mexicans offered water to a stranger that he might wash his feet; both ate dust in token of humility; both anointed with oil; both sacrificed prisoners; both periodically separated the women, and both agreed in the strong and universal idea of uncleanness connected with that period. both believed in the occult power of water, and both practised baptism. "then the mexican midwife gave the child to taste of the water, putting her moistened fingers in its mouth, and said, 'take this; by this thou hast to live on the earth, to grow and to flourish; through this we get all things that support existence on the earth; receive it.' then with moistened fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said, 'behold the pure water that washes and cleanses thy heart, that removes all filthiness; receive it: may the goddess see good to purify and cleanse thine heart.' then the midwife poured water upon the head of the child, saying, 'o my grandson--my son--take this water of the lord of the world, which is thy life, invigorating and refreshing, washing and cleansing. i pray that this celestial water, blue and light blue, may enter into thy body, and there live; i pray that it may destroy in thee and put away from thee all the things evil and adverse that were given thee before the beginning of the world.... wheresoever thou art in this child, o thou hurtful thing, begone! leave it, put thyself apart; for now does it live anew, and anew is it born; now again is it purified and cleansed; now again is it shaped and engendered by our mother, the goddess of water." (bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) here we find many resemblances to the christian ordinance of baptism: the pouring of the water on the head, the putting of the fingers in the mouth, the touching of the breast, the new birth, and the washing away of the original sin. the christian rite, we know, was not a christian invention, but was borrowed from ancient times, from the great storehouse of asiatic traditions and beliefs. the mexicans hung up the heads of their sacrificed enemies; this was also a jewish custom: "and the lord said unto moses, take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the lord may be turned away from israel. and moses said unto the judges of israel, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto baal-peor." (numb., xxv., , .) the scythians, herodotus tells us, scalped their enemies, and carried the scalp at the pommel of their saddles; the jews probably scalped their enemies: "but god shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses." (psa., lxviii., .) the ancient scandinavians practised scalping. when harold harefoot seized his rival, alfred, with six hundred followers, he "had them maimed, blinded, hamstrung, scalped, or embowelled." (taine's "hist. eng. lit.," p. .) herodotus describes the scythian mode of taking the scalp: "he makes a cut round the head near the ears, and shakes the skull out." this is precisely the indian custom. "the more scalps a man has," says herodotus, "the more highly he is esteemed among them." the indian scalp-lock is found on the egyptian monuments as one of the characteristics of the japhetic libyans, who shaved all the head except one lock in the middle. the mantchoos of tartary wear a scalp-lock, as do the modern chinese. byron describes the heads of the dead tartars under the walls of corinth, devoured by the wild dogs: "crimson and green were the shawls of their wear, and each scalp had a single long tuft of hair, all the rest was shaven and bare." these resemblances are so striking and so numerous that repeated attempts have been made to prove that the inhabitants of america are the descendants of the jews; some have claimed that they represented "the lost tribes" of that people. but the jews were never a maritime or emigrating people; they formed no colonies; and it is impossible to believe (as has been asserted) that they left their flocks and herds, marched across the whole face of asia, took ships and sailed across the greatest of the oceans to a continent of the existence of which they had no knowledge. if we seek the origin of these extraordinary coincidences in opinions and habits, we must go far back to the time of the lost tribes. we must seek it in the relationship of the jews to the family of noah, and in the identity of the noachic race destroyed in the deluge with the people of the drowned atlantis. nor need it surprise us to find traditions perpetuated for thousands upon thousands of years, especially among a people having a religious priesthood. the essence of religion is conservatism; little is invented; nothing perishes; change comes from without; and even when one religion is supplanted by another its gods live on as the demons of the new faith, or they pass into the folk-lore and fairy stories of the people. we see votan, a hero in america, become the god odin or woden in scandinavia; and when his worship as a god dies out odin survives (as dr. dasent has proved) in the wild huntsman of the hartz, and in the robin hood (oodin) of popular legend. the hellequin of france becomes the harlequin of our pantomimes. william tell never existed; he is a myth; a survival of the sun-god apollo, indra, who was worshipped on the altars of atlantis. "nothing here but it doth change into something rich and strange." the rite of circumcision dates back to the first days of phoenicia, egypt, and the cushites. it, too, was probably an atlantean custom, invented in the stone age. tens of thousands of years have passed since the stone age; the ages of copper, bronze, and iron have intervened; and yet to this day the hebrew rabbi performs the ceremony of circumcision with a stone knife. frothingham says, speaking of st. peter's cathedral, in rome: "into what depths of antiquity the ceremonies carried me back! to the mysteries of eleusis; to the sacrificial rites of phoenicia. the boys swung the censors as censors had been swung in the adoration of bacchus. the girdle and cassock of the priests came from persia; the veil and tonsure were from egypt; the alb and chasuble were prescribed by numa pompilius; the stole was borrowed from the official who used to throw it on the back of the victim that was to be sacrificed; the white surplice was the same as described by juvenal and ovid." although it is evident that many thousands of years must have passed since the men who wrote in sanscrit, in northwestern india, could have dwelt in europe, yet to this day they preserve among their ancient books maps and descriptions of the western coast of europe, and even of england and ireland; and we find among them a fuller knowledge of the vexed question of the sources of the nile than was possessed by any nation in the world twenty-five years ago. this perpetuation of forms and beliefs is illustrated in the fact that the formulas used in the middle ages in europe to exorcise evil spirits were assyrian words, imported probably thousands of years before from the magicians of chaldea. when the european conjurer cried out to the demon, "hilka, hilka, besha, besha," he had no idea that he was repeating the very words of a people who had perished ages before, and that they signified go away, go away, evil one, evil one. (lenormant, "anc. hist. east," vol. i., p. .) our circle of degrees; the division of a chord of the circle equal to the radius into equal parts, called degrees: the division of these into minutes, of the minute into seconds, and the second into thirds; the division of the day into hours, each hour into minutes, each minute into seconds; the division of the week into seven days, and the very order of the days--all have come down to us from the chaldeo-assyrians; and these things will probably be perpetuated among our posterity "to the last syllable of recorded time." we need not be surprised, therefore, to find the same legends and beliefs cropping out among the nations of central america and the people of israel. nay, it should teach us to regard the book of genesis with increased veneration, as a relic dating from the most ancient days of man's history on earth; its roots cross the great ocean; every line is valuable; a word, a letter, an accent may throw light upon the gravest problems of the birth of civilization. the vital conviction which, during thousands of years, at all times pressed home upon the israelites, was that they were a "chosen people," selected out of all the multitude of the earth, to perpetuate the great truth that there was but one god--an illimitable, omnipotent, paternal spirit, who rewarded the good and punished the wicked--in contradistinction from the multifarious, subordinate, animal and bestial demi-gods of the other nations of the earth. this sublime monotheism could only have been the outgrowth of a high civilization, for man's first religion is necessarily a worship of "stocks and stones," and history teaches us that the gods decrease in number as man increases in intelligence. it was probably in atlantis that monotheism was first preached. the proverbs of "ptah-hotep," the oldest book of the egyptians, show that this most ancient colony from atlantis received the pure faith from the mother-land at the very dawn of history: this book preached the doctrine of one god, "the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked." (reginald s. poole, contemporary rev., aug., , p. .) "in the early days the egyptians worshipped one only god, the maker of all things, without beginning and without end. to the last the priests preserved this doctrine and taught it privately to a select few." ("amer. encycl.," vol. vi., p. .) the jews took up this great truth where the egyptians dropped it, and over the heads and over the ruins of egypt, chaldea, phoenicia, greece, rome, and india this handful of poor shepherds--ignorant, debased, and despised--have carried down to our own times a conception which could only have originated in the highest possible state of human society. and even skepticism must pause before the miracle of the continued existence of this strange people, wading through the ages, bearing on their shoulders the burden of their great trust, and pressing forward under the force of a perpetual and irresistible impulse. the speech that may be heard to-day in the synagogues of chicago and melbourne resounded two thousand years ago in the streets of rome; and, at a still earlier period, it could be heard in the palaces of babylon and the shops of thebes--in tyre, in sidon, in gades, in palmyra, in nineveh. how many nations have perished, how many languages have ceased to exist, how many splendid civilizations have crumbled into ruin, how many temples and towers and towns have gone down to dust since the sublime frenzy of monotheism first seized this extraordinary people! all their kindred nomadic tribes are gone; their land of promise is in the hands of strangers; but judaism, with its offspring, christianity, is taking possession of the habitable world; and the continuous life of one people--one poor, obscure, and wretched people--spans the tremendous gulf between "ptah-hotep" and this nineteenth century. if the spirit of which the universe is but an expression--of whose frame the stars are the infinite molecules--can be supposed ever to interfere with the laws of matter and reach down into the doings of men, would it not be to save from the wreck and waste of time the most sublime fruit of the civilization of the drowned atlantis--a belief in the one, only, just god, the father of all life, the imposer of all moral obligations? chapter vii. the origin of our alphabet one of the most marvellous inventions for the advancement of mankind is the phonetic alphabet, or a system of signs representing the sounds of human speech. without it our present civilization could scarcely have been possible. no solution of the origin of our european alphabet has yet been obtained: we can trace it back from nation to nation, and form to form, until we reach the egyptians, and the archaic forms of the phoenicians, hebrews, and cushites, but beyond this the light fails us. the egyptians spoke of their hieroglyphic system of writing not as their own invention, but as "the language of the gods." (lenormant and cheval, "anc. hist. of the east," vol. ii., p. .) "the gods" were, doubtless, their highly civilized ancestors--the people of atlantis--who, as we shall hereafter see, became the gods of many of the mediterranean races. "according to the phoenicians, the art of writing was invented by taautus, or taut, 'whom the egyptians call thouth,' and the egyptians said it was invented by thouth, or thoth, otherwise called 'the first hermes,' in which we clearly see that both the phoenicians and egyptians referred the invention to a period older than their own separate political existence, and to an older nation, from which both peoples received it." (baldwin's "prehistoric nations," p. .) the "first hermes," here referred to (afterward called mercury by the romans), was a son of zeus and maia, a daughter of atlas. this is the same maia whom the abbé brasseur de bourbourg identifies with the maya of central america. sir william drummond, in his "origines," said: "there seems to be no way of accounting either for the early use of letters among so many different nations, or for the resemblance which existed between some of the graphic systems employed by those nations, than by supposing hieroglyphical writing, if i may be allowed the term, to have been in use among the tsabaists in the first ages after the flood, when tsabaisin (planet-worship) was the religion of almost every country that was yet inhabited." sir henry rawlinson says: "so great is the analogy between the first principles of the science of writing, as it appears to have been pursued in chaldea, and as we can actually trace its progress in egypt, that we can hardly hesitate to assign the original invention to a period before the hamitic race had broken up and divided." it is not to be believed that such an extraordinary system of sound-signs could have been the invention of any one man or even of any one age. like all our other acquisitions, it must have been the slow growth and accretion of ages; it must have risen step by step from picture-writing through an intermediate condition like that of the chinese, where each word or thing was represented by a separate sign. the fact that so old and enlightened a people as the chinese have never reached a phonetic alphabet, gives us some indication of the greatness of the people among whom it was invented, and the lapse of time before they attained to it. humboldt says: "according to the views which, since champollion's great discovery, have been gradually adopted regarding the earlier condition of the development of alphabetical writing, the phoenician as well as the semitic characters are to be regarded as a phonetic alphabet that has originated from pictorial writing; as one in which the ideal signification of the symbols is wholly disregarded, and the characters are regarded as mere signs for sounds." ("cosmos," vol. ii., p. .) baldwin says ("prehistoric nations," p. ): "the nation that became mistress of the seas, established communication with every shore, and monopolized the commerce of the known world, must have substituted a phonetic alphabet for the hieroglyphics as it gradually grew to this eminence; while isolated egypt, less affected by the practical wants and tendencies of commercial enterprise, retained the hieroglyphic system, and carried it to a marvellous height of perfection." it must be remembered that some of the letters of our alphabet are inventions of the later nations. in the oldest alphabets there was no c, the g taking its place. the romans converted the g into c; and then, finding the necessity for a g sign, made one by adding a tail-piece to the c (c, g). the greeks added to the ancient alphabet the upsilon, shaped like our v or y, the two forms being used at first indifferently: they added the x sign; they converted the t of the phoenicians into th, or theta; z and s into signs for double consonants; they turned the phoenician y (yod) into i (iota). the greeks converted the phoenician alphabet, which was partly consonantal, into one purely phonetic--"a perfect instrument for the expression of spoken language." the w was also added to the phoenician alphabet. the romans added the y. at first i and j were both indicated by the same sound; a sign for j was afterward added. we have also, in common with other european languages, added a double u, that is, vv, or w, to represent the w sound. the letters, then, which we owe to the phoenicians, are a, b, c, d, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, z. if we are to trace out resemblances with the alphabet of any other country, it must be with these signs. is there any other country to which we can turn which possessed a phonetic alphabet in any respect kindred to this phoenician alphabet? it cannot be the chinese alphabet, which has more signs than words; it cannot be the cuneiform alphabet of assyria, with its seven hundred arrow-shaped characters, none of which bear the slightest affinity to the phoenician letters. it is a surprising fact that we find in central america a phonetic alphabet. this is in the alphabet of the mayas, the ancient people of the peninsula of yucatan, who claim that their civilization came to them across the sea in ships from the east, that is, from the direction of atlantis. the mayas succeeded to the colhuas, whose era terminated one thousand years before the time of christ; from them they received their alphabet. it has come to us through bishop landa, one of the early missionary bishops, who confesses to having burnt a great number of maya books because they contained nothing but the works of the devil. he fortunately, however, preserved for posterity the alphabet of this people. we present it herewith. ### landa's alphabet (from "north amer. of antiquity," p. .) diego de landa was the first bishop of yucatan. he wrote a history of the mayas and their country, which was preserved in manuscript at madrid in the library of the royal academy of history.... it contains a description and explanation of the phonetic alphabet of the mayas. landa's manuscript seems to have lain neglected in the library, for little or nothing was heard of it until it was discovered by the french priest brasseur de bourbourg, who, by means of it, has deciphered some of the old american writings. he says, 'the alphabet and signs explained by landa have been to me a rosetta stone.' (baldwin's "ancient america," p. .) when we observe, in the table of alphabets of different european nations which i give herewith, how greatly the forms of the phoenician letters have been modified, it would surprise us to find any resemblance between the maya alphabet of two or three centuries since and the ancient european forms. it must, however, be remembered that the mayas are one of the most conservative peoples in the world. they still adhere with striking pertinacity to the language they spoke when columbus landed on san salvador; and it is believed that that language is the same as the one inscribed on the most ancient monuments of their country. señor pimental says of them, "the indians have preserved this idiom with such tenacity that they will speak no other; it is necessary for the whites to address them in their own language to communicate with them." it is therefore probable, as their alphabet did not pass from nation to nation, as did the phoenician, that it has not departed so widely from the original forms received from the colhuas. ### the alphabet but when we consider the vast extent of time which has elapsed, and the fact that we are probably without the intermediate stages of the alphabet which preceded the archaic phoenician, it will be astonishing if we find resemblances between any of the maya letters and the european forms, even though we concede that they are related. if we find decided affinities between two or three letters, we may reasonably presume that similar coincidences existed as to many others which have disappeared under the attrition of centuries. the first thought that occurs to us on examining the landa alphabet is the complex and ornate character of the letters. instead of the two or three strokes with which we indicate a sign for a sound, we have here rude pictures of objects. and we find that these are themselves simplifications of older forms of a still more complex character. take, for instance, the letter pp in landa's alphabet, ### : here are evidently the traces of a face. the same appear, but not so plainly, in the sign for x, which is ### . now, if we turn to the ancient hieroglyphics upon the monuments of central america, we will find the human face appearing in a great many of them, as in the following, which we copy from the tablet of the cross at palenque. we take the hieroglyphs from the left-hand side of the inscription. here it will be seen that, out of seven hieroglyphical figures, six contain human faces. and we find that in the whole inscription of the tablet of the cross there are figures out of that are made up in part of the human countenance. ### we can see, therefore, in the landa alphabet a tendency to simplification. and this is what we would naturally expect. when the emblems--which were probably first intended for religious inscriptions, where they could be slowly and carefully elaborated--were placed in the hands of a busy, active, commercial people, such as were the atlanteans, and afterward the phoenicians, men with whom time was valuable, the natural tendency would be to simplify and condense them; and when the original meaning of the picture was lost, they would naturally slur it, as we find in the letters pp and x of the maya alphabet, where the figure of the human face remains only in rude lines. the same tendency is plainly shown in the two forms of the letter h, as given in landa's alphabet; the original form is more elaborate than the variation of it. the original form is ### the variation is given as ### . now let us suppose this simplification to be carried a step farther: we have seen the upper and lower parts of the first form shrink into a smaller and less elaborate shape; let us imagine that the same tendency does away with them altogether; we would then have the letter h of the maya alphabet represented by this figure, ### ; now, as it takes less time to make a single stroke than a double one, this would become in time ### . we turn now to the archaic greek and the old hebrew, and we find the letter h indicated by this sign, ### , precisely the maya letter h simplified. we turn to the archaic hebrew, and we find ### . now it is known that the phoenicians wrote from right to left, and just as we in writing from left to right slope our letters to the right, so did the phoenicians slope their letters to the left. hence the maya sign becomes in the archaic phoenician this, ### . in some of the phoenician alphabets we even find the letter h made with the double strokes above and below, as in the maya h. the egyptian hieroglyph for h is ### while ch is ### . in time the greeks carried the work of simplification still farther, and eliminated the top lines, as we have supposed the atlanteans to have eliminated the double strokes, and they left the letter as it has come down to us, h. now it may be said that all this is coincidence. if it is, it is certainly remarkable. but let us go a step farther: we have seen in landa's alphabet that there are two forms of the letter m. the first is ### . but we find also an m combined with the letter o, a, or e, says landa, in this form, ### . the m here is certainly indicated by the central part of this combination, the figure ### ; where does that come from? it is clearly taken from the heart of the original figure wherein it appears. what does this prove? that the atlanteans, or mayas, when they sought to simplify their letters and combine them with others, took from the centre of the ornate hieroglyphical figure some characteristic mark with which they represented the whole figure. now let us apply this rule: we have seen in the table of alphabets that in every language, from our own day to the time of the phoenicians, o has been represented by a circle or a circle within a circle. now where did the phoenicians get it? clearly from the mayas. there are two figures for o in the maya alphabet; they are ### and ### ; now, if we apply the rule which we have seen to exist in the case of the maya m to these figures, the essential characteristic found in each is the circle, in the first case pendant from the hieroglyph; in the other, in the centre of the lower part of it. and that this circle was withdrawn from the hieroglyph, and used alone, as in the case of the m, is proved by the very sign used at the foot of landa's alphabet, which is, ### landa calls this ma, me, or mo; it is probably the latter, and in it we have the circle detached from the hieroglyph. we find the precise maya o a circle in a circle, or a dot within a circle, repeated in the phoenician forms for o, thus, ### and ### , and by exactly the same forms in the egyptian hieroglyphics; in the runic we have the circle in the circle; in one form of the greek o the dot was placed along-side of the circle instead of below it, as in the maya. are these another set of coincidences? take another letter: the letter n of the maya alphabet is represented by this sign, itself probably a simplification of some more ornate form, ### . this is something like our letter s, but quite unlike our n. but let us examine into the pedigree of our n. we find in the archaic ethiopian, a language as old as the egyptian, and which represents the cushite branch of the atlantean stock, the sign for n (na) is ### ; in archaic phoenician it comes still closer to the s shape, thus, ### , or in this form, ### ; we have but to curve these angles to approximate it very closely to the maya n; in troy this form was found, ### . the samaritan makes it ### ; the old hebrew ### ; the moab stone inscription gives it ### ; the later phoenicians simplified the archaic form still further, until it became ### ; then it passed into ### : the archaic greek form is ### ; the later greeks made ### , from which it passed into the present form, n. all these forms seem to be representations of a serpent; we turn to the valley of the nile, and we find that the egyptian hieroglyphic for n was the serpent, ### ; the pelasgian n was ### ; the arcadian, ### ; the etruscan, ### . can anything be more significant than to find the serpent the sign for n in central america, and in all these old world languages? now turn to the letter k. the maya sign for k is ### . this does not look much like our letter k; but let us examine it. following the precedent established for us by the mayas in the case of the letter m, let us see what is the distinguishing feature here; it is clearly the figure of a serpent standing erect, with its tail doubled around its middle, forming a circle. it has already been remarked by savolini that this erect serpent is very much like the egyptian uræus, an erect serpent with an enlarged body--a sacred emblem found in the hair of their deities. we turn again to the valley of the nile, and we find that the egyptian hieroglyphic for k was a serpent with a convolution or protuberance in the middle, precisely as in the maya, thus, ### ; this was transformed into the egyptian letter ### ; the serpent and the protuberance reappear in one of the phoenician forms of k, to wit, ### ; while in the punic we have these forms, ### and ### . now suppose a busy people trying to give this sign: instead of drawing the serpent in all its details they would abbreviate it into something like this, ### ; now we turn to the ancient ethiopian sign for k (ka), and we have ### , or the himyaritic arabian ### ; while in the phoenician it becomes ### ; in the archaic greek, ### ; and in the later greek, when they changed the writing from left to right, ### . so that the two lines projecting from the upright stroke of our english k are a reminiscence of the convolution of the serpent in the maya original and the egyptian copy. turn now to the maya sign for t: it is ### , . what is the distinctive mark about this figure? it is the cross composed of two curved lines, thus, ### . it is probable that in the maya sign the cross is united at the bottom, like a figure . here again we turn to the valley of the nile, and we find that the egyptian hieroglyph for t is ### and ### ; and in the syriac t it is ### . we even find the curved lines of the maya t which give it something of the appearance of the numeral , repeated accurately in the mediterranean alphabets; thus the punic t repeats the maya form almost exactly as ### and ### . now suppose a busy people compelled to make this mark every day for a thousand years, and generally in a hurry, and the cross would soon be made without curving the lines; it would become x. but before it reached even that simplified form it had crossed the atlantic, and appeared in the archaic ethiopian sign for tsa, thus, ### . in the archaic phoenician the sign for ### is ### and ### ; the oldest greek form is ### or ### and the later greeks gave it to the romans ### , and modified this into ### ; the old hebrew gave it as ### and ### ; the moab stone as ### ; this became in time ### and ### . take the letter a. in the maya there are three forms given for this letter. the first is ### ; the third is ### . the first looks very much like the foot of a lion or tiger; the third is plainly a foot or boot. if one were required to give hurriedly a rude outline of either of these, would he not represent it thus, ### ; and can we not conceive that this could have been in time modified into the phoenician a, which was ### ? the hieratic egyptian a was ### ; the ancient hebrew, which was ### or ### ; the ancient greek was the foot reversed, ### ; the later greek became our a. turn next to the maya sign for q (ku): it is ### . now what is the peculiarity of this hieroglyph? the circle below is not significant, for there are many circular figures in the maya alphabet. clearly, if one was called upon to simplify this, he would retain the two small circles joined side by side at the top, and would indicate the lower circle with a line or dash. and when we turn to the egyptian q we find it in this shape, ### ; we turn to the ethiopian q (khua), and we find it ### , as qua, ### ; while the phoenician comes still nearer the supposed maya form in ### ; the moab stone was ### ; the himyaritic arabian form became ### ; the greek form was ### , which graduated into the roman q. but a still more striking proof of the descent of the phoenician alphabet from the maya is found in the other form of the q, the maya cu, which is ### . now, if we apply the maya rule to this, and discard the outside circle, we have this left, ### . in time the curved line would be made straight, and the figure would assume this form, ### ; the next step would be to make the cross on the straight line, thus, ### . one of the ancient phoenician forms is ### . can all this be accident? the letter c or g (for the two probably gave the same sound as in the phoenician) is given in the maya alphabet as follows, ### . this would in time be simplified into a figure representing the two sides of a triangle with the apex upward, thus, ### . this is precisely the form found by dr. schliemann in the ruins of troy, ### . what is the phoenician form for g as found on the moab stone? it is ### . the carthaginian phoenicians gave it more of a rounded form, thus, ### . the hieratic egyptian figure for g was ### ; in the earlier greek form the left limb of the figure was shortened, thus, ### ; the later greeks reversed it, and wrote it ### ; the romans, changed this into ### and it finally became c. in the maya we have one sign for p, and another for pp. the first contains a curious figure, precisely like our r laid on its back ### . there is, apparently, no r in the maya alphabet; and the roman r grew out of the later phoenician r formed thus, ### ; it would appear that the earliest phoenician alphabet did not contain the letter r. but if we now turn to the phoenician alphabet, we will find one of the curious forms of the p given thus, ### , a very fair representation of an r lying upon its face. is it not another remarkable coincidence that the p, in both maya and phoenician, should contain this singular sign? the form of pp in the maya alphabet is this, ### . if we are asked, on the principle already indicated, to reduce this to its elements, we would use a figure like this, ### ; in time the tendency would be to shorten one of these perpendicular lines, thus, and this we find is very much like the phoenician p, ### . the greek ph is ### . the letter l in the maya is in two forms; one of these is ### , the other is ### . now, if we again apply the rule which we observed to hold good with the letter m--that is, draw from the inside of the hieroglyph some symbol that will briefly indicate the whole letter--we will have one of two forms, either a right-angled figure formed thus, ### , or an acute angle formed by joining the two lines which are unconnected, thus, ### ; and either of these forms brings us quite close to the letter l of the old world. we find l on the moab stone thus formed, ### . the archaic phoenician form of l was ### , or ### ; the archaic hebrew was ### and ### ; the hieratic egyptian was ### ; the greek form was ### --the roman l. the maya letter b is shaped thus, ### . now, if we turn to the phoenician, we find that b is represented by the same crescent-like figure which we find in the middle of this hieroglyph, but reversed in the direction of the writing, thus, ### ; while in the archaic hebrew we have the same crescent figure as in the maya, turned in the same direction, but accompanied by a line drawn downward, and to the left, thus, ### ; a similar form is also found in the phoenician ### , and this in the earliest greek changed into ### , and in the later greek into b. one of the etruscan signs for b was ### , while the pelasgian b was represented thus, ### ; the chaldaic b was ### ; the syriac sign for b was ### ; the illyrian b was ### . the maya e is ### ; this became in time ### ; then ### (we see this form on the maya monuments); the dots in time were indicated by strokes, and we reach the hieratic egyptian form, ### : we even find in some of the ancient phoenician inscriptions the original maya circles preserved in making the letter e, thus, ### ; then we find the old greek form, ### ; the old hebrew, ### ; and the later phoenician, ### : when the direction of the writing was changed this became ### . dr. schliemann found a form like this on inscriptions deep in the ruins of troy, ### . this is exactly the form found on the american monuments. the maya i is ### ; this became in time ### ; this developed into a still simpler form, ### ; and this passed into the phoenician form, ### . the samaritan i was formed thus, ### ; the egyptian letter i is ### : gradually in all these the left-hand line was dropped, and we come to the figure used on the stone of moab, ### and ### ; this in time became the old hebrew ### , or ### ; and this developed into the greek ### . we have seen the complicated symbol for m reduced by the mayas themselves into this figure, ### : if we attempt to write this rapidly, we find it very difficult to always keep the base lines horizontal; naturally we form something like this, ### : the distinctive figure within the sign for m in the maya is ### or ### . we see this repeated in the egyptian hieroglyphics for m, ### , and ### , and ### ; and in the chaldaic m, ### ; and in the ethiopic ### . we find one form of the phoenician where the m is made thus, ### ; and in the punic it appears thus, ### ; and this is not unlike the m on the stone of moab, ### , or the ancient phoenician forms ### , ### , and the old greek ### , or the ancient hebrew ### , ### . the ### , x, of the maya alphabet is a hand pointing downward ### , this, reduced to its elements, would be expressed some thing like this, ### or ### ; and this is very much like the x of the archaic phoenician, ### ; or the moab stone, ### ; or the later phoenician ### or the hebrew ### , ### , or the old greek, ### : the later greek form was ### . the maya alphabet contains no sign for the letter s; there is, however, a symbol called ca immediately above the letter k; it is probable that the sign ca stands for the soft sound of c, as, in our words citron, circle, civil, circus, etc. as it is written in the maya alphabet ca, and not k, it evidently represents a different sound. the sign ca is this, ### . a somewhat similar sign is found in the body of the symbol for k, thus, ### , this would appear to be a simplification of ca, but turned downward. if now we turn to the egyptian letters we find the sign k represented by this figure ### , simplified again into ### ; while the sign for k in the phoenician inscription on the stone of moab is ### . if now we turn to the s sound, indicated by the maya sign ca, ### , we find the resemblance still more striking to kindred european letters. the phoenician s is ### ; in the greek this becomes ### ### ; the hebrew is ### ### ; the samaritan, ### . the egyptian hieroglyph for s is ### ; the egyptian letter s is ### ; the ethiopic, ### ; the chaldaic, ### ; and the illyrian s c is ### . we have thus traced back the forms of eighteen of the ancient letters to the maya alphabet. in some cases the pedigree, is so plain as to be indisputable. for instance, take the h: maya, ### ; old greek, ### ; old hebrew, ### ; phoenician, ### . or take the letter o: maya, ### ; old greek, ### ; old hebrew, ### ; phoenician, ### . or take the letter t: maya, ### ; old greek, ### ; old phoenician, ### and ### . or take the letter q: maya, ### ; old phoenician, ### and ### ; greek, ### . or take the letter k: maya, ### ; egyptian, ### ; ethiopian, ### ; phoenician, ### . or take the letter n: maya, ### ; egyptian, ### ; pelasgian ### , arcadian, ### ; phoenician, ### . surely all this cannot be accident! but we find another singular proof of the truth of this theory: it will be seen that the maya alphabet lacks the letter d and the letter r. the mexican alphabet possessed a d. the sounds d and t were probably indicated in the maya tongue by the same sign, called t in the landa alphabet. the finns and lapps do not distinguish between these two sounds. in the oldest known form of the phoenician alphabet, that found on the moab stone, we find in the same way but one sign to express the d and t. d does not occur on the etruscan monuments, t being used in its place. it would, therefore, appear that after the maya alphabet passed to the phoenicians they added two new signs for the letters d and r; and it is a singular fact that their poverty of invention seems to have been such that they used to express both d and r, the same sign, with very little modification, which they had already obtained from the maya alphabet as the symbol for b. to illustrate this we place the signs side by side: ### it thus appears that the very signs d and r, in the phoenician, early greek, and ancient hebrew, which are lacking in the maya, were supplied by imitating the maya sign for b; and it is a curious fact that while the phoenician legends claim that taaut invented the art of writing, yet they tell us that taaut made records, and "delivered them to his successors and to foreigners, of whom one was isiris (osiris, the egyptian god), the inventor of the three letters." did these three letters include the d and r, which they did not receive from the atlantean alphabet, as represented to us by the maya alphabet? in the alphabetical table which we herewith append we have represented the sign v, or vau, or f, by the maya sign for u. "in the present so-called hebrew, as in the syriac, sabæic, palmyrenic, and some other kindred writings, the vau takes the place of f, and indicates the sounds of v and u. f occurs in the same place also on the idalian tablet of cyprus, in lycian, also in tuarik (berber), and some other writings." ("american cyclopædia," art. f.) since writing the above, i find in the "proceedings of the american philosophical society" for december, , p. , an interesting article pointing out other resemblances between the maya alphabet and the egyptian. i quote: it is astonishing to notice that while landa's first b is, according to valentini, represented by a footprint, and that path and footprint are pronounced be in the maya dictionary, the egyptian sign for b was the human leg. "still more surprising is it that the h of landa's alphabet is a tie of cord, while the egyptian h is a twisted cord.... but the most striking coincidence of all occurs in the coiled or curled line representing landa's u; for it is absolutely identical with the egyptian curled u. the mayan word for to wind or bend is uuc; but why should egyptians, confined as they were to the valley of the nile, and abhorring as they did the sea and sailors, write their u precisely like landa's alphabet u in central america? there is one other remarkable coincidence between landa's and the egyptian alphabets; and, by-the-way, the english and other teutonic dialects have a curious share in it. landa's d (t) is a disk with lines inside the four quarters, the allowed mexican symbol for a day or sun. so far as sound is concerned, the english day represents it; so far as the form is concerned, the egyptian 'cake,' ideograph for ( ) country and ( ) the sun's orbit is essentially the same." it would appear as if both the phoenicians and egyptians drew their alphabet from a common source, of which the maya is a survival, but did not borrow from one another. they followed out different characteristics in the same original hieroglyph, as, for instance, in the letter b. and yet i have shown that the closest resemblances exist between the maya alphabet and the egyptian signs--in the c, h, t, i, k, m, n, o, q, and s--eleven letters in all; in some cases, as in the n and k, the signs are identical; the k, in both alphabets, is not only a serpent, but a serpent with a protuberance or convolution in the middle! if we add to the above the b and u, referred to in the "proceedings of the american philosophical society," we have thirteen letters out of sixteen in the maya and egyptian related to each other. can any theory of accidental coincidences account for all this? and it must be remembered that these resemblances are found between the only two phonetic systems of alphabet in the world. let us suppose that two men agree that each shall construct apart from the other a phonetic alphabet of sixteen letters; that they shall employ only simple forms--combinations of straight or curved lines--and that their signs shall not in anywise resemble the letters now in use. they go to work apart; they have a multitudinous array of forms to draw from the thousand possible combinations of lines, angles, circles, and curves; when they have finished, they bring their alphabets together for comparison. under such circumstances it is possible that out of the sixteen signs one sign might appear in both alphabets; there is one chance in one hundred that such might be the case; but there is not one chance in five hundred that this sign should in both cases represent the same sound. it is barely possible that two men working thus apart should hit upon two or three identical forms, but altogether impossible that these forms should have the same significance; and by no stretch of the imagination can it be supposed that in these alphabets so created, without correspondence, thirteen out of sixteen signs should be the same in form and the same in meaning. it is probable that a full study of the central american monuments may throw stronger light upon the connection between the maya and the european alphabets, and that further discoveries of inscriptions in europe may approximate the alphabets of the new and old world still more closely by supplying intermediate forms. we find in the american hieroglyphs peculiar signs which take the place of pictures, and which probably, like the hieratic symbols mingled with the hieroglyphics of egypt, represent alphabetical sounds. for instance, we find this sign on the walls of the palace of palenque, ### ; this is not unlike the form of the phoenician t used in writing, ### and ### ; we find also upon these monuments the letter o represented by a small circle, and entering into many of the hieroglyphs; we also find the tau sign (thus ### ) often repeated; also the sign which we have supposed to represent b, ### ; also this sign, ### , which we think is the simplification of the letter k; also this sign, which we suppose to represent e, ### ; also this figure, ### ; and this ### . there is an evident tendency to reduce the complex figures to simple signs whenever the writers proceed to form words. although it has so far been found difficult, if not impossible, to translate the compound words formed from the maya alphabet, yet we can go far enough to see that they used the system of simpler sounds for the whole hieroglyph to which we have referred. bishop landa gives us, in addition to the alphabet, the signs which represent the days and months, and which are evidently compounds of the maya letters. for instance, we have this figure as the representative of the month mol ### . here we see very plainly the letter ### for m, the sign ### for o; and we will possibly find the sign for l in the right angle to the right of the m sign, and which is derived from the figure in the second sign for l in the maya alphabet. one of the most ancient races of central america is the chiapenec, a branch of the mayas. they claim to be the first settlers of the country. they came, their legends tell us, from the east, from beyond the sea. and even after the lapse of so many thousand years most remarkable resemblances have been found to exist between the chiapenec language and the hebrew, the living representative of the phoenician tongue. the mexican scholar, señor melgar ("north americans of antiquity," p. ) gives the following list of words taken from the chiapenec and the hebrew: +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | english. | chiapenec. | hebrew. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | son | been | ben. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | daughter | batz | bath. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | father | abagh | abba. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | star in zodiac | chimax | chimah. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | king | molo | maloc. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | name applied to adam | abagh | abah. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | afflicted | chanam | chanan. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | god | elab | elab. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | september | tsiquin | tischiri. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | more | chic | chi. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | rich | chabin | chabic. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | son of seth | enot | enos. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ | to give | votan | votan. | +----------------------+------------+-----------+ thus, while we find such extraordinary resemblances between the maya alphabet and the phoenician alphabet, we find equally surprising coincidences between the chiapenec tongue, a branch of the mayas, and the hebrew, a branch of the phoenician. attempts have been repeatedly made by european scholars to trace the letters of the phoenician alphabet back to the elaborate hieroglyphics from which all authorities agree they must have been developed, but all such attempts have been failures. but here, in the maya alphabet, we are not only able to extract from the heart of the hieroglyphic the typical sign for the sound, but we are able to go a step farther, and, by means of the inscriptions upon the monuments of copan and palenque, deduce the alphabetical hieroglyph itself from an older and more ornate figure; we thus not only discover the relationship of the european alphabet to the american, but we trace its descent in the very mode in which reason tells us it must have been developed. all this proves that the similarities in question did not come from phoenicians having accidentally visited the shores of america, but that we have before us the origin, the source, the very matrix in which the phoenician alphabet was formed. in the light of such a discovery the inscriptions upon the monuments of central america assume incalculable importance; they take us back to a civilization far anterior to the oldest known in europe; they represent the language of antediluvian times. it may be said that it is improbable that the use of an alphabet could have ascended to antediluvian times, or to that prehistoric age when intercourse existed between ancient europe and america; but it must be remembered that if the flood legends of europe and asia are worth anything they prove that the art of writing existed at the date of the deluge, and that records of antediluvian learning were preserved by those who escaped the flood; while plato tells us that the people of atlantis engraved their laws upon columns of bronze and plates of gold. there was a general belief among the ancient nations that the art of writing was known to the antediluvians. the druids believed in books more ancient than the flood. they styled them "the books of pheryllt," and "the writings of pridian or hu." "ceridwen consults them before she prepares the mysterious caldron which shadows out the awful catastrophe of the deluge." (faber's "pagan idolatry," vol. ii., pp. , .) in the first avatar of vishnu we are told that "the divine ordinances were stolen by the demon haya-griva. vishnu became a fish; and after the deluge, when the waters had subsided, he recovered the holy books from the bottom of the ocean." berosus, speaking of the time before the deluge, says: "oannes wrote concerning the generations of mankind and their civil polity." the hebrew commentators on genesis say, "our rabbins assert that adam, our father of blessed memory, composed a book of precepts, which were delivered to him by god in paradise." (smith's "sacred annals," p. .) that is to say, the hebrews preserved a tradition that the ad-ami, the people of ad, or adlantis, possessed, while yet dwelling in paradise, the art of writing. it has been suggested that without the use of letters it would have been impossible to preserve the many details as to dates, ages, and measurements, as of the ark, handed down to us in genesis. josephus, quoting jewish traditions, says, "the births and deaths of illustrious men, between adam and noah, were noted down at the time with great accuracy." (ant., lib. , cap. iii., see. .) suidas, a greek lexicographer of the eleventh century, expresses tradition when he says, "adam was the author of arts and letters." the egyptians said that their god anubis was an antediluvian, and it "wrote annals before the flood." the chinese have traditions that the earliest race of their nation, prior to history, "taught all the arts of life and wrote books." "the goths always had the use of letters;" and le grand affirms that before or soon after the flood "there were found the acts of great men engraved in letters on large stones." (fosbroke's "encyclopædia of antiquity," vol. i., p. .) pliny says, "letters were always in use." strabo says, "the inhabitants of spain possessed records written before the deluge." (jackson's "chronicles of antiquity," vol. iii., p. .) mitford ("history of greece," vol. i, p. ) says, "nothing appears to us so probable as that it (the alphabet) was derived from the antediluvian world." chapter viii. the bronze age in europe. there exist in europe the evidences of three different ages of human development: . the stone age, which dates back to a vast antiquity. it is subdivided into two periods: an age of rough stone implements; and a later age, when these implements were ground smooth and made in improved forms. . the bronze age, when the great mass of implements were manufactured of a compound metal, consisting of about nine parts of copper and one part of tin. . an age when iron superseded bronze for weapons and cutting tools, although bronze still remained in use for ornaments. this age continued down to what we call the historical period, and embraces our present civilization; its more ancient remains are mixed with coins of the gauls, greeks, and romans. the bronze period has been one of the perplexing problems of european scientists. articles of bronze are found over nearly all that continent, but in especial abundance in ireland and scandinavia. they indicate very considerable refinement and civilization upon the part of the people who made them; and a wide diversity of opinion has prevailed as to who that people were and where they dwelt. in the first place, it was observed that the age of bronze (a compound of copper and tin) must, in the natural order of things, have been preceded by an age when copper and tin were used separately, before the ancient metallurgists had discovered the art of combining them, and yet in europe the remains of no such age have been found. sir john lubbock says ("prehistoric times," p. ), "the absence of implements made either of copper or tin seems to me to indicate that the art of making bronze was introduced into, not invented in, europe." the absence of articles of copper is especially marked, nearly all the european specimens of copper implements have been found in ireland; and yet out of twelve hundred and eighty-three articles of the bronze age, in the great museum at dublin, only thirty celts and one sword-blade are said to be made of pure copper; and even as to some of these there seems to be a question. where on the face of the earth are we to find a copper age? is it in the barbaric depths of that asia out of whose uncivilized tribes all civilization is said to have issued? by no means. again we are compelled to turn to the west. in america, from bolivia to lake superior, we find everywhere the traces of a long-enduring copper age; bronze existed, it is true, in mexico, but it held the same relation to the copper as the copper held to the bronze in europe--it was the exception as against the rule. and among the chippeways of the shores of lake superior, and among them alone, we find any traditions of the origin of the manufacture of copper implements; and on the shores of that lake we find pure copper, out of which the first metal tools were probably hammered before man had learned to reduce the ore or run the metal into moulds. and on the shores of this same american lake we find the ancient mines from which some people, thousands of years ago, derived their supplies of copper. implements and ornaments of the bronze age sir w. r. wilde says, "it is remarkable that so few antique copper implements have been found (in europe), although a knowledge of that metal must have been the preliminary stage in the manufacture of bronze." he thinks that this may be accounted for by supposing that "but a short time elapsed between the knowledge of smelting and casting copper ore and the introduction of tin, and the subsequent manufacture and use of bronze." but here we have in america the evidence that thousands of years must have elapsed during which copper was used alone, before it was discovered that by adding one-tenth part of tin it gave a harder edge, and produced a superior metal. the bronze age cannot be attributed to the roman civilization. sir john lubbock shows ("prehistoric times," p. ) that bronze weapons have never been found associated with roman coins or pottery, or other remains of the roman period; that bronze articles have been found in the greatest abundance in countries like ireland and denmark, which were never invaded by roman armies; and that the character of the ornamentation of the works of bronze is not roman in character, and that the roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never the case in that of the bronze age. it has been customary to assume that the bronze age was due to the phoenicians, but of late the highest authorities have taken issue with this opinion. sir john lubbock (ibid., p. ) gives the following reasons why the phoenicians could not have been the authors of the bronze age: first, the ornamentation is different. in the bronze age "this always consists of geometrical figures, and we rarely, if ever, find upon them representations of animals and plants, while on the ornamented shields, etc., described by homer, as well as in the decoration of solomon's temple, animals and plants were abundantly represented." the cuts on p. will show the character of the ornamentation of the bronze age. in the next place, the form of burial is different in the bronze age from that of the phoenicians. "in the third place, the phoenicians, so far as we know them, were well acquainted with the use of iron; in homer we find the warriors already armed with iron weapons, and the tools used in preparing the materials for solomon's temple were of this metal." this view is also held by m. de fallenberg, in the "bulletin de la société des sciences" of berne. (see "smithsonian rep.," - , p. .) he says, ornaments of the bronze age "it seems surprising that the nearest neighbors of the phoenicians--the greeks, the egyptians, the etruscans, and the romans--should have manufactured plumbiferous bronzes, while the phoenicians carried to the people of the north only pure bronzes without the alloy of lead. if the civilized people of the mediterranean added lead to their bronzes, it can scarcely be doubted that the calculating phoenicians would have done as much, and, at least, with distant and half-civilized tribes, have replaced the more costly tin by the cheaper metal.... on the whole, then, i consider that the first knowledge of bronze may have been conveyed to the populations of the period under review not only by the phoenicians, but by other civilized people dwelling more to the south-east." professor e. desor, in his work on the "lacustrian constructions of the lake of neuchatel," says, "the phoenicians certainly knew the use of iron, and it can scarcely be conceived why they should have excluded it from their commerce on the scandinavian coasts.... the etruscans, moreover, were acquainted with the use of iron as well as the phoenicians, and it has already been seen that the composition of their bronzes is different, since it contains lead, which is entirely a stranger to our bronze epoch.... we must look, then, beyond both the etruscans and phoenicians in attempting to identify the commerce of the bronze age of our palafittes. it will be the province of the historian to inquire whether, exclusive of phoenicians and carthaginians, there may not have been some maritime and commercial people who carried on a traffic through the ports of liguria with the populations of the age of bronze of the lakes of italy before the discovery of iron. we may remark, in passing, that there is nothing to prove that the phoenicians were the first navigators. history, on the contrary, positively mentions prisoners, under the name of tokhari, who were vanquished in a naval battle fought by rhamses iii. in the thirteenth century before our era, and whose physiognomy, according to morton, would indicate the celtic type. now there is room to suppose that if these tokhari were energetic enough to measure their strength on the sea with one of the powerful kings of egypt, they must, with stronger reason, have been in a condition to carry on a commerce along the coasts of the mediterranean, and perhaps of the atlantic. if such a commerce really existed before the time of the phoenicians, it would not be limited to the southern slope of the alps; it would have extended also to the people of the age of bronze in switzerland. the introduction of bronze would thus ascend to a very high antiquity, doubtless beyond the limits of the most ancient european races." for the merchants of the bronze age we must look beyond even the tokhari, who were contemporaries of the phoenicians. the tokhari, we have seen, are represented as taken prisoners, in a sea-fight with rhamses iii., of the twentieth dynasty, about the thirteenth century b.c. they are probably the tochari of strabo. the accompanying figure represents one of these people as they appear upon the egyptian monuments. (see nott and gliddon's "types of mankind," p. .) here we have, not an inhabitant of atlantis, but probably a representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies. dr. morton thinks these people, as painted on the egyptian monuments, to have "strong celtic features. those familiar with the scotch highlanders may recognize a speaking likeness." it is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race who more than three thousand years ago left the west of europe in their ships to attack the mighty power of egypt. they were troublesome to the nations of the east for many centuries; for in b.c. we find them depicted on the assyrian monuments. this figure represents one of the tokhari of the time of sennacherib. it will be observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both portraits, al, though separated by a period of six hundred years. it is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the bronze age of europe were the people described by plato, who were workers in metal, who were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which we call ancient. it was this people who passed through an age of copper before they reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in america represented this older form of metallurgy as it existed for many generations. professor desor says: "we are asked if the preparation of bronze was not an indigenous invention which had originated on the slopes of the alps?... in this idea we acquiesced for a moment. but we are met by the objection that, if this were so, the natives, like the ancient tribes of america, would have commenced by manufacturing utensils of copper; yet thus far no utensils of this metal have been found except a few in the strand of lake garda. the great majority of metallic objects is of bronze, which necessitated the employment of tin, and this could not be obtained except by commerce, inasmuch as it is a stranger to the alps. it would appear, therefore, more natural to admit that the art of combining tin with copper--in other words, that the manufacture of bronze--was of foreign importation." he then shows that, although copper ores are found in the alps, the probability is that even "the copper also was of foreign importation. now, in view of the prodigious quantity of bronze manufactured at that epoch, this single branch of commerce must itself have necessitated the most incessant commercial communications." and as this commerce could not, as we have seen, have been carried on by the romans, greeks, etruscans, or phoenicians, because their civilizations flourished during the iron age, to which this age of bronze was anterior, where then are we to look for a great maritime and commercial people, who carried vast quantities of copper, tin, and bronze (unalloyed by the lead of the south of europe) to denmark, norway, sweden, ireland, england, france, spain, switzerland, and italy? where can we find them save in that people of atlantis, whose ships, docks, canals, and commerce provoked the astonishment of the ancient egyptians, as recorded by plato. the toltec root for water is atl; the peruvian word for copper is anti (from which, probably, the andes derived their name, as there was a province of anti on their slopes): may it not be that the name of atlantis is derived from these originals, and signified the copper island, or the copper mountains in the sea? and from these came the thousands of tons of copper and tin that must, during the bronze age, have been introduced into europe? there are no ancient works to indicate that the tin mines of cornwall were worked for any length of time in the early days (see "prehistoric times," p. ). morlot has pointed out that the bronze implements of hallstadt, in austria, were of foreign origin, because they contain no lead or silver. or, if we are to seek for the source of the vast amount of copper brought into europe somewhere else than in atlantis, may it not be that these supplies were drawn in large part from the shores of lake superior in america? the mining operations of some ancient people were there carried on upon a gigantic scale, not only along the shores of the lake but even far out upon its islands. at isle royale vast works were found, reaching to a depth of sixty feet; great intelligence was shown in following up the richest veins even when interrupted; the excavations were drained by underground drains. on three sections of land on this island the amount of mining exceeded that mined in twenty years in one of our largest mines, with a numerous force constantly employed. in one place the excavations extended in a nearly continuous line for two miles. no remains of the dead and no mounds are found near these mines: it would seem, therefore, that the miners came from a distance, and carried their dead back with them. henry gillman ("smithsonian rep.," , p. ) supposes that the curious so-called "garden beds" of michigan were the fields from which they drew their supplies of food. he adds, "the discoveries in isle royale throw a new light on the character of the 'mound builders,' giving us a totally distinct conception of them, and dignifying them with something of the prowess and spirit of adventure which we associate with the higher races. the copper, the result of their mining, to be available, must, in all probability, have been conveyed in vessels, great or small, across a treacherous and stormy sea, whose dangers are formidable to us now, being dreaded even by our largest craft, and often proving their destruction. leaving their homes, those men dared to face the unknown, to brave the hardships and perils of the deep and of the wilderness, actuated by an ambition which we to-day would not be ashamed to acknowledge." such vast works in so remote a land must have been inspired by the commercial necessities of some great civilization; and why not by that ancient and mighty people who covered europe, asia, and africa with their manufactures of bronze--and who possessed, as plato tells us, enormous fleets trading to all parts of the inhabited world--whose cities roared with the continual tumult of traffic, whose dominion extended to italy and egypt, and who held parts of "the great opposite continent" of america under their control? a continuous water-way led, from the island of atlantis to the gulf of mexico, and thence up the mississippi river and its tributaries almost to these very mines of lake superior. arthur mitchell says ("the past in the present," p. ), "the discovery of bronze, and the knowledge of how to make it, may, as a mere intellectual effort, be regarded as rather above than below the effort which is involved in the discovery and use of iron. as regards bronze, there is first the discovery of copper, and the way of getting it from its ore; then the discovery of tin, and the way to get it from its ore; and then the further discovery that, by an admixture of tin with copper in proper proportions, an alloy with the qualities of a hard metal can be produced. it is surely no mistake to say that there goes quite as much thinking to this as to the getting of iron from its ore, and the conversion of that iron into steel. there is a considerable leap from stone to bronze, but the leap from bronze to iron is comparatively small.... it seems highly improbable, if not altogether absurd, that the human mind, at some particular stage of its development, should here, there, and everywhere--independently, and as the result of reaching that stage--discover that an alloy of copper and tin yields a hard metal useful in the manufacture of tools and weapons. there is nothing analogous to such an occurrence in the known history of human progress. it is infinitely more probable that bronze was discovered in one or more centres by one or more men, and that its first use was solely in such centre or centres. that the invention should then be perfected, and its various applications found out, and that it should thereafter spread more or less broadly over the face of the earth, is a thing easily understood." we will find the knowledge of bronze wherever the colonies of atlantis extended, and nowhere else; and plato tells us that the people of atlantis possessed and used that metal. the indications are that the bronze age represents the coming in of a new people--a civilized people. with that era, it is believed, appears in europe for the first time the domesticated animals--the horse, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the hog. (morlot, "smithsonian rep.," , p. .) it was a small race, with very small hands; this is shown in the size of the sword-hilts: they are not large enough to be used by the present races of europe. they were a race with long skulls, as contradistinguished from the round heads of the stone period. the drawings on the following page represent the types of the two races. skulls of the age of stone, denmark this people must have sent out colonies to the shores of france, spain, italy, ireland, denmark, and norway, who bore with them the arts and implements of civilized life. they raised crops of grain, as is proved by the bronze sickles found in different parts of europe. it is not even certain that their explorations did not reach to iceland. says humboldt, "when the northmen first landed in iceland (a.d. ), although the country was uninhabited, they found there irish books, mass-bells, and other objects which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called papar; these papæ (fathers) were the clerici of dicuil. if, then, as we may suppose from the testimony here referred to, these objects belonged to irish monks (papar), who had come from the faroe islands, why should they have been termed in the native sagas 'west men' (vestmen), 'who had come over the sea from the westward' (kommer til vestan um haf)?" (humboldt's "cosmos," vol. ii., .) if they came "from the west" they could not have come from ireland; and the scandinavians may easily have mistaken atlantean books and bells for irish books and mass-bells. they do not say that there were any evidences that these relics belonged to a people who had recently visited the island; and, as they found the island uninhabited, it would be impossible for them to tell how many years or centuries had elapsed since the books and bells were left there. the fact that the implements of the bronze age came from some common centre, and did not originate independently in different countries, is proved by the striking similarity which exists between the bronze implements of regions as widely separated as switzerland, ireland, denmark, and africa. it is not to be supposed that any overland communication existed in that early age between these countries; and the coincidence of design which we find to exist can only be accounted for by the fact that the articles of bronze were obtained from some sea-going people, who carried on a commerce at the same time with all these regions. celts compare, for instance, these two decorated bronze celts, the first from ireland, the second from denmark; and then compare both these with a stone celt found in a mound in tennessee, given below. here we have the same form precisely. leaf shaped bronze swords compare the bronze swords in the four preceding illustrations--from ireland, sweden, switzerland, and denmark-and then observe the same very peculiar shape--the leaf-shape, as it is called--in the stone sword from big harpeth river, tennessee. we shall find, as we proceed, that the phoenicians were unquestionably identified with atlantis, and that it was probably from atlantis they derived their god baal, or bel, or el, whose name crops out in the bel of the babylonians, the elohim, and the beelzebub of the jews, and the allah of the arabians. and we find that this great deity, whose worship extended so widely among the mediterranean races, was known and adored also upon the northern and western coasts of europe. professor nilsson finds traces of baal worship in scandinavia; he tells us that the festival of baal, or balder, was celebrated on midsummer's night in scania, and far up into norway, almost to the loffoden islands, until within the last fifty years. the feast of baal, or beltinne, was celebrated in ireland to a late period. i argue from these facts, not that the worship of baal came to ireland and norway from assyria or arabia, but that the same great parent-race which carried the knowledge of baal to the mediterranean brought it also to the western coasts of europe, and with the adoration of baal they imported also the implements of bronze now found in such abundance in those regions. the same similarity of form exists in the bronze knives from denmark and switzerland, as represented in the illustrations on p. . in the central figure we have a representation of an egyptian-looking man holding a cup before him. we shall see, as we proceed, that the magnetic needle, or "mariner's compass," dates back to the days of hercules, and that it consisted of a bar of magnetized iron floating upon a piece of wood in a cup. it is possible that in this ancient relic of the bronze age we have a representation of the magnetic cup. the magnetic needle must certainly have been an object of great interest to a people who, through its agency, were able to carry on commerce on all the shores of europe, from the mediterranean to the baltic. the second knife represented above has upon its handle a wheel, or cross surrounded by a ring, which, we shall see here after, was pre-eminently the symbol of atlantis. if we are satisfied that these implements of bronze were the work of the artisans of atlantis--of the antediluvians--they must acquire additional and extraordinary interest in our eyes, and we turn to them to learn something of the habits and customs of "that great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race." we find among the relics of the bronze age an urn, which probably gives us some idea of the houses of the atlanteans: it is evidently made to represent a house, and shows us even the rude fashion in which they fastened their doors. the mandan indians built round houses very much of this appearance. the museum at munich contains a very interesting piece of pottery, which is supposed to represent one of the lake villages or hamlets of the era when the people of switzerland dwelt in houses erected on piles driven into the bottom of the lakes of that country. the accompanying illustration represents it. the double spiral ornament upon it shows that it belongs to the bronze age. among the curious relics of the bronze age are a number of razor-like knives; from which we may conclude that the habit of shaving the whole or some part of the face or head dates back to a great antiquity. the illustrations below represent them. these knives were found in denmark. the figures upon them represent ships, and it is not impossible that their curious appendages may have been a primitive kind of sails. bronze razor-knives. an examination of the second of these bronze knives reveals a singular feature: upon the handle of the razor there are ten series of lines; the stars in the sky are ten in number; and there were probably ten rings at the left-hand side of the figure, two being obliterated. there were, we are told, ten sub-kingdoms in atlantis; and precisely as the thirteen stripes on the american flag symbolize the thirteen original states of the union, so the recurrence of the figure ten in the emblems upon this bronze implement may have reference to the ten subdivisions of atlantis. the large object in the middle of this ship may be intended to represent a palm-tree--the symbol, as we shall see, in america, of aztlan, or atlantis. we have but to compare the pictures of the ships upon these ancient razor-knives with the accompanying representations of a roman galley and a ship of william the conqueror's time, to see that there can be no question that they represented the galleys of that remote age. they are doubtless faithful portraits of the great vessels which plato described as filling the harbors of atlantis. ship of william the conquerer. we give on page a representation of a bronze dagger found in ireland, a strongly-made weapon. the cut below it represents the only implement of the bronze age yet found containing an inscription. it has been impossible to decipher it, or even to tell to what group of languages its alphabet belongs. it is proper to note, in connection with a discussion of the bronze age, that our word bronze is derived from the basque, or iberian broncea, from which the spanish derive bronce, and the italians bronzo. the copper mines of the basques were extensively worked at a very early age of the world, either by the people of atlantis or by the basques themselves, a colony from atlantis. the probabilities are that the name for bronze, as well as the metal itself, dates back to plato's island. i give some illustrations on pages and of ornaments and implements of the bronze age, which may serve to throw light upon the habits of the ancient people. it will be seen that they had reached a considerable degree of civilization; that they raised crops of grain, and cut them with sickles; that their women ornamented themselves with bracelets, armlets, earrings, finger-rings, hair-pins, and amulets; that their mechanics used hammers, adzes, and chisels; and that they possessed very fair specimens of pottery. sir john lubbock argues ("prehistoric times," pp. , , etc.): "a new civilization is indicated not only by the mere presence of bronze but by the beauty and variety of the articles made from it. we find not only, as before, during the stone age, axes, arrows, and knives, but, in addition, swords, lances, sickles, fish-hooks, ear-rings, bracelets, pins, rings, and a variety of other articles." if the bronze implements of europe had been derived from the phoenicians, greeks, etruscans, or romans, the nearer we approached the site of those nations the greater should be the number of bronze weapons we would find; but the reverse is the case. sir john lubbock ("prehistoric times," p. ) shows that more than three hundred and fifty bronze swords have been found in denmark, and that the dublin museum contains twelve hundred and eighty-three bronze weapons found in ireland; "while," he says, "i have only been able to hear of six bronze swords in all italy." this state of things is inexplicable unless we suppose that ireland and denmark received their bronze implements directly from some maritime nation whose site was practically as near their shores as it was to the shores of the mediterranean. we have but to look at our map on page , ante, to see that atlantis was considerably nearer to ireland than it was to italy. the striking resemblance between the bronze implements found in the different portions of europe is another proof that they were derived from one and the same source--from some great mercantile people who carried on their commerce at the same time with denmark, norway, ireland, spain, greece, italy, egypt, switzerland, and hungary. mr. wright ("essays on archæology," p. ) says, "whenever we find the bronze swords or celts, vases from mounds in the mississippi valley. whether in ireland, in the far west, in scotland, in distant scandinavia, in germany, or still farther east, in the sclavonic countries, they are the same--not similar in character, but identical." says sir john lubbock ("prehistoric times," p. ), "not only are the several varieties of celts found throughout europe alike, but some of the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if they must have been cast by the same maker." what race was there, other than the people of atlantis, that existed before the iron age--before the greek, roman, etruscan, and phoenician--that was civilized, that worked in metals, that carried on a commerce with all parts of europe? does history or tradition make mention of any such? we find a great resemblance between the pottery of the bronze age in europe and the pottery of the ancient inhabitants of america. the two figures on page represent vases from one of the mounds of the mississippi valley. compare them with the following from the lake dwellings of switzerland: vases from switzerland. it will be seen that these vases could scarcely stand upright unsupported; and we find that the ancient inhabitants of switzerland had circles or rings of baked earth in which they placed them when in use, as in the annexed figure. the mound builders used the same contrivance. the illustrations of discoidal stones on page are from the "north americans of antiquity," p. . the objects represented were taken from an ancient mound in illinois. it would be indeed surprising if two distinct peoples, living in two different continents, thousands of miles apart, should, without any intercourse with each other, not only form their vases in the same inconvenient form, but should hit upon the same expedient as a remedy. we observe, in the american spear-head and the swiss hatchets, on the opposite page, the same overlapping of the metal around the staff, or handle--a very peculiar mode of uniting them together, which has now passed out of use. a favorite design of the men of the bronze age in europe is the spiral or double-spiral form. it appears on the face of the urn in the shape of a lake dwelling, which is given on p. ; it also appears in the rock sculptures of argyleshire, scotland, here shown. we find the same figure in an ancient fragment of pottery from the little colorado, as given in the "united states pacific railroad survey report," vol. iii., p. , art. pottery. it was part of a large vessel. the annexed illustration represents this. discoidal stones, illinois. copper spear-head, lake superior. bronze hatchets, switzerland. the same design is also found in ancient rock etchings of the zuñis of new mexico, of which the cut on p. is an illustration. we also find this figure repeated upon vase from a mississippi valley mound, which we give elsewhere. (see p. .) it is found upon many of the monuments of central america. in the treasure house of atreus, at mycenæ, greece, a fragment of a pillar was found which is literally covered with this double spiral design. (see "rosengarten's architectural styles," p. .) this treasure house of atreus is one of the oldest buildings in greece. we find the double-spiral figure upon a shell ornament found on the breast of a skeleton, in a carefully constructed stone coffin, in a mound near nashville, tennessee. lenormant remarks ("anc. civil.," vol. ii., p. ) that the bronze implements found in egypt, near memphis, had been buried for six thousand years; and that at that time, as the egyptians had a horror of the sea, some commercial nation must have brought the tin, of which the bronze was in part composed, from india, the caucasus, or spain, the nearest points to egypt in which tin is found. heer has shown that the civilized plants of the lake dwellings are not of asiatic, but of african, and, to a great extent, of egyptian origin. their stone axes are made largely of jade or nephrite, "a mineral which, strange to say, geologists have not found in place on the continent of europe." (foster's "prehistoric races," p. .) compare this picture of a copper axe from a mound near laporte, indiana, with this representation of a copper axe of the bronze age, found near waterford, ireland. professor foster pronounces them almost identical. compare this specimen of pottery from the lake dwellings of switzerland with the following specimen from san josé, mexico. professor foster calls attention to the striking resemblance in the designs of these two widely separated works of art, one belonging to the bronze age of europe, the other to the copper age of america. +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | fragment of pottery, lake | fragment of pottery, san josÉ, | | neufchatel, switzerland. | mexico. | +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ these, then, in conclusion, are our reasons for believing that the bronze age of europe has relation to atlantis: . the admitted fact that it is anterior in time to the iron age relegates it to a great antiquity. . the fact that it is anterior in time to the iron age is conclusive that it is not due to any of the known european or asiatic nations, all of which belong to the iron age. . the fact that there was in europe, asia, or africa no copper or tin age prior to the bronze age, is conclusive testimony that the manufacture of bronze was an importation into those continents from some foreign country. . the fact that in america alone of all the world is found the copper age, which must necessarily have preceded the bronze age, teaches us to look to the westward of europe and beyond the sea for that foreign country. . we find many similarities in forms of implements between the bronze age of europe and the copper age of america. . if plato told the truth, the atlanteans were a great commercial nation, trading to america and europe, and, at the same time, they possessed bronze, and were great workers in the other metals. . we shall see hereafter that the mythological traditions of greece referred to a bronze age which preceded an iron age, and placed this in the land of the gods, which was an island in the atlantic ocean, beyond the pillars of hercules; and this land was, as we shall see, clearly atlantis. . as we find but a small development of the bronze age in america, it is reasonable to suppose that there must have been some intermediate station between america and europe, where, during a long period of time, the bronze age was developed out of the copper age, and immense quantities of bronze implements were manufactured and carried to europe. chapter ix. artificial deformation of the skull. an examination of the american monuments shows (see figure on page ) that the people represented were in the habit of flattening the skull by artificial means. the greek and roman writers had mentioned this practice, but it was long totally forgotten by the civilized world, until it was discovered, as an unheard-of wonder, to be the usage among the carib islanders, and several indian tribes in north america. it was afterward found that the ancient peruvians and mexicans practised this art: several flattened peruvian skulls are depicted in morton's "crania americana." it is still in use among the flat-head indians of the north-western part of the united states. in a remarkable memoir appeared from the pen of m. rathke, showing that similar skulls had been found near kertsch, in the crimea, and calling attention to the book of hippocrates, "de aeris, aquis et locu," lib. iv., and a passage of strabo, which speaks of the practice among the scythians. in dr. fitzinger published a learned memoir on the skulls of the avars, a branch of the uralian race of turks. he shows that the practice of flattening the head had existed from an early date throughout the east, and described an ancient skull, greatly distorted by artificial means, which had lately been found in lower austria. skulls similarly flattened have been found in switzerland and savoy. the huns under attila had the same practice of flattening the heads. professor anders retzius proved (see "smithsonian report," ) that the custom still exists in the south of france, and in parts of turkey. "not long since a french physician surprised the world by the fact that nurses in normandy were still giving the children's heads a sugar-loaf shape by bandages and a tight cap, stucco bas-relief in the palace of palenque. while in brittany they preferred to press it round. no doubt they are doing so to this day." (tylor's "anthropology," p. .) professor wilson remarks: "trifling as it may appear, it is not without interest to have the fact brought under our notice, by the disclosures of ancient barrows and cysts, that the same practice of nursing the child and carrying it about, bound to a flat cradle-board, prevailed in britain and the north of europe long before the first notices of written history reveal the presence of man beyond the baltic or the english channel, and that in all probability the same custom prevailed continuously from the shores of the german ocean to behring's strait." ("smithsonian report," , p. .) dr. l. a. gosse testifies to the prevalence of the same custom among the caledonians and scandinavians in the earliest times; and dr. thurman has treated of the same peculiarity among the anglo-saxons. ("crania britannica," chap. iv., p. .) peruvian skull. chinook (flat-head), after catlin. here, then, is an extraordinary and unnatural practice which has existed from the highest antiquity, over vast regions of country, on both sides of the atlantic, and which is perpetuated unto this day in races as widely separated as the turks, the french, and the flat-head indians. is it possible to explain this except by supposing that it originated from some common centre? the annexed cut represents an ancient swiss skull, from a cemetery near lausanne, from a drawing of frederick troyon. compare this with the illustration given on page , which represents a peruvian flat-head, copied from morton's "ethnography and archæology of the american aborigines," . this skull is shockingly distorted. the dotted lines indicate the course of the bandages by which the skull was deformed. the following heads are from del rio's "account of palenque," copied into nott and gliddon's "types of mankind," p. . they show that the receding forehead was a natural characteristic of the ancient people of central america. the same form of head has been found even in fossil skulls. we may therefore conclude that the skull-flattening, which we find to have been practised in both the old and new worlds, was an attempt of other races to imitate the form of skull of a people whose likenesses are found on the monuments of egypt and of america. it has been shown that this peculiar form of the head was present even in the foetus of the peruvian mummies. hippocrates tells us that the practice among the scythians was for the purpose of giving a certain aristocratic distinction. heads from palenque. amedée thierry, in his "history of attila," says the huns used it for the same reason; and the same purpose influences the indians of oregon. dr. lund, a swedish naturalist, found in the bone caves of minas-geraes, brazil, ancient human bones associated with the remains of extinct quadrupeds. "these skulls," says lund, "show not only the peculiarity of the american race but in an excessive degree, even to the entire disappearance of the forehead." sir robert schomburgh found on some of the affluents of the orinoco a tribe known as frog indians, whose heads were flattened by nature, as shown in newly-born children. in the accompanying plate we show the difference in the conformation of the forehead in various races. the upper dotted line, a, represents the shape of the european forehead; the next line, b, that of the australian; the next, c, that of the mound builder of the united states; the next, d, that of the guanche of the canary islands; and the next, e, that of a skull from the inca cemetery of peru. we have but to compare these lines with the skulls of the egyptians, kurds, and the heroic type of heads in the statues of the gods of greece, to see that there was formerly an ancient race marked by a receding forehead; and that the practice of flattening the skull was probably an attempt to approximate the shape of the head to this standard of an early civilized and dominant people. not only do we find the same receding forehead in the skulls of the ancient races of europe and america, and the same attempt to imitate this natural and peculiar conformation by artificial flattening of the head, but it has been found (see henry gillman's "ancient man in michigan," "smithsonian report," , p. ) that the mound builders and peruvians of america, and the neolithic people of france and the canary islands, had alike an extraordinary custom of boring a circular bole in the top of the skulls of their dead, so that the soul might readily pass in and out. more than this, it has been found that in all these ancient populations the skeletons exhibit a remarkable degree of platicnemism, or flattening of the tibiæ or leg bones. (ibid., , p. .) in this respect the mound builders of michigan were identical with the man of cro magnon and the ancient inhabitants of wales. the annexed ancient egyptian heads, copied from the monuments, indicate either that the people of the nile deformed their heads by pressure upon the front of the skull, or that egyptian heads. there was some race characteristic which gave this appearance to their heads. these heads are all the heads of priests, and therefore represented the aristocratic class. the first illustration below is taken from a stucco relief found in a temple at palenque, central america. the second is from an egyptian monument of the time of rameses iv. the outline drawing on the following page shows the form of the skull of the royal inca line: the receding forehead here seems to be natural, and not the result of artificial compression. both illustrations at the bottom of the preceding page show the same receding form of the forehead, due to either artificial deformation of the skull or to a common race characteristic. we must add the fact that the extraordinary practice of deforming the skull was found all over europe and america to the catalogue of other proofs that the people of both continents were originally united in blood and race. with the couvade, the practice of circumcision, unity of religious beliefs and customs, folk-lore, and alphabetical signs, language and flood legends, we array together a mass of unanswerable proofs of prehistoric identity of race. part iv. the mythologies of the old world a recollection of atlantis. chapter i. traditions of atlantis. we find allusions to the atlanteans in the most ancient traditions of many different races. the great antediluvian king of the mussulman was shedd-ad-ben-ad, or shed-ad, the son of ad, or atlantis. among the arabians the first inhabitants of that country are known as the adites, from their progenitor, who is called ad, the grandson of ham. these adites were probably the people of atlantis or ad-lantis. "they are personified by a monarch to whom everything is ascribed, and to whom is assigned several centuries of life." ("ancient history of the east," lenormant and chevallier, vol. ii., p. .), ad came from the northeast. "he married a thousand wives, had four thousand sons, and lived twelve hundred years. his descendants multiplied considerably. after his death his sons shadid and shedad reigned in succession over the adites. in the time of the latter the people of ad were a thousand tribes, each composed of several thousands of men. great conquests are attributed to shedad; he subdued, it is said, all arabia and irak. the migration of the canaanites, their establishment in syria, and the shepherd invasion of egypt are, by many arab writers, attributed to an expedition of shedad." (ibid., p. .) shedad built a palace ornamented with superb columns, and surrounded by a magnificent garden. it was called irem. "it was a paradise that shedad had built in imitation of the celestial paradise, of whose delights he had heard." ("ancient history of the east," p. .) in other words, an ancient, sun-worshipping, powerful, and conquering race overran arabia at the very dawn of history; they were the sons of adlantis: their king tried to create a palace and garden of eden like that of atlantis. the adites are remembered by the arabians as a great and civilized race. "they are depicted as men of gigantic stature; their strength was equal to their size, and they easily moved enormous blocks of stone." (ibid.) they were architects and builders. they raised many monuments of their power; and hence, among the arabs, arose the custom of calling great ruins "buildings of the adites." to this day the arabs say "as old as ad." in the koran allusion is made to the edifices they built on "high places for vain uses;" expressions proving that their "idolatry was considered to have been tainted with sabæism or star-worship." (ibid.) "in these legends," says lenormant, "we find traces of a wealthy nation, constructors of great buildings, with an advanced civilization, analogous to that of chaldea, professing a religion similar to the babylonian; a nation, in short, with whom material progress was allied to great moral depravity and obscene rites. these facts must be true and strictly historical, for they are everywhere met with among the cushites, as among the canaanites, their brothers by origin." nor is there wanting a great catastrophe which destroys the whole adite nation, except a very few who escape because they had renounced idolatry. a black cloud assails their country, from which proceeds a terrible hurricane (the water-spout?) which sweeps away everything. the first adites were followed by a second adite race; probably the colonists who had escaped the deluge. the centre of its power was the country of sheba proper. this empire endured for a thousand years. the adites are represented upon the egyptian monuments as very much like the egyptians themselves; in other words, they were a red or sunburnt race: their great temples were pyramidal, surmounted by buildings. ("ancient history of the east," p. .) "the sabæans," says agatharchides ("de mari erythræo," p. ), "have in their houses an incredible number of vases, and utensils of all sorts, of gold and silver, beds and tripods of silver, and all the furniture of astonishing richness. their buildings have porticos with columns sheathed with gold, or surmounted by capitals of silver. on the friezes, ornaments, and the framework of the doors they place plates of gold incrusted with precious stones." all this reminds one of the descriptions given by the spaniards of the temples of the sun in peru. the adites worshipped the gods of the phoenicians under names but slightly changed; "their religion was especially solar... it was originally a religion without images, without idolatry, and without a priesthood." (ibid., p. .) they "worshipped the sun from the tops of pyramids." (ibid.) they believed in the immortality of the soul. in all these things we see resemblances to the atlanteans. the great ethiopian or cushite empire, which in the earliest ages prevailed, as mr. rawlinson says, "from the caucasus to the indian ocean, from the shores of the mediterranean to the mouth of the ganges," was the empire of dionysos, the empire of "ad," the empire of atlantis. el eldrisi called the language spoken to this day by the arabs of mahrah, in eastern arabia, "the language of the people of ad," and dr. j. h. carter, in the bombay journal of july, , says, "it is the softest and sweetest language i have ever heard." it would be interesting to compare this primitive tongue with the languages of central america. the god thoth of the egyptians, who was the god of a foreign country, and who invented letters, was called at-hothes. we turn now to another ancient race, the indo-european family--the aryan race. in sanscrit adim, means first. among the hindoos the first man was ad-ima, his wife was heva. they dwelt upon an island, said to be ceylon; they left the island and reached the main-land, when, by a great convulsion of nature, their communication with the parent land was forever cut off. (see "bible in india.") here we seem to have a recollection of the destruction of atlantis. mr. bryant says, "ad and ada signify the first." the persians called the first man "ad-amah." "adon" was one of the names of the supreme god of the phoenicians; from it was derived the name of the greek god "ad-onis." the arv-ad of genesis was the ar-ad of the cushites; it is now known as ru-ad. it is a series of connected cities twelve miles in length, along the coast, full of the most massive and gigantic ruins. sir william jones gives the tradition of the persians as to the earliest ages. he says: "moshan assures us that in the opinion of the best informed persians the first monarch of iran, and of the whole earth, was mashab-ad; that he received from the creator, and promulgated among men a sacred book, in a heavenly language, to which the mussulman author gives the arabic title of 'desatir,' or 'regulations.' mashab-ad was, in the opinion of the ancient persians, the person left at the end of the last great cycle, and consequently the father of the present world. he and his wife having survived the former cycle, were blessed with a numerous progeny; he planted gardens, invented ornaments, forged weapons, taught men to take the fleece from sheep and make clothing; he built cities, constructed palaces, fortified towns, and introduced arts and commerce." we have already seen that the primal gods of this people are identical with the gods of the greek mythology, and were originally kings of atlantis. but it seems that these ancient divinities are grouped together as "the aditya;" and in this name "ad-itya" we find a strong likeness to the semitic "adites," and another reminiscence of atlantis, or adlantis. in corroboration of this view we find, . the gods who are grouped together as the aditya are the most ancient in the hindoo mythology. . they are all gods of light, or solar gods. (whitney's oriental and linguistic studies," p. .) . there are twelve of them. (ibid.) . these twelve gods presided over twelve months in the year. . they are a dim recollection of a very remote past. says whitney, "it seems as if here was an attempt on the part of the indian religion to take a new development in a moral direction, which a change in the character and circumstances of the people has caused to fail in the midst, and fall back again into forgetfulness, while yet half finished and indistinct." (ibid.) . these gods are called "the sons of aditi," just as in the bible we have allusions to "the sons of adab," who were the first metallurgists and musicians. "aditi is not a goddess. she is addressed as a queen's daughter, she of fair children." . the aditya "are elevated above all imperfections; they do not sleep or wink." the greeks represented their gods as equally wakeful and omniscient. "their character is all truth; they hate and punish guilt." we have seen the same traits ascribed by the greeks to the atlantean kings. . the sun is sometimes addressed as an aditya. . among the aditya is varuna, the equivalent of uranos, whose identification with atlantis i have shown. in the vedas varuna is "the god of the ocean." . the aditya represent an earlier and purer form of religion: "while in hymns to the other deities long life, wealth, power, are the objects commonly prayed for, of the aditya is craved purity, forgiveness of sin, freedom from guilt, and repentance." ("oriental and linguistic studies," p. .) . the aditya, like the adites, are identified with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. yama is the god of the abode beyond the grave. in the persian story he appears as yima, and "is made ruler of the golden age and founder of the paradise." (ibid., p. .) (see "zamna," p. ante.) in view of all these facts, one cannot doubt that the legends of the "sons of ad," "the adites," and "the aditya," all refer to atlantis. mr. george smith, in the chaldean account of the creation (p. ), deciphered from the babylonian tablets, shows that there was an original race of men at the beginning of chaldean history, a dark race, the zalmat-qaqadi, who were called ad-mi, or ad-ami; they were the race "who had fallen," and were contradistinguished from "the sarku, or light race." the "fall" probably refers to their destruction by a deluge, in consequence of their moral degradation and the indignation of the gods. the name adam is used in these legends, but as the name of a race, not of a man. genesis (chap. v., ) distinctly says that god created man male and female, and "called their name adam." that is to say, the people were the ad-ami, the people of "ad," or atlantis. "the author of the book of genesis," says m. schoebel, "in speaking of the men who were swallowed up by the deluge, always describes them as 'haadam,' 'adamite humanity.'" the race of cain lived and multiplied far away from the land of seth; in other words, far from the land destroyed by the deluge. josephus, who gives us the primitive traditions of the jews, tells us (chap. ii., p. ) that "cain travelled over many countries" before he came to the land of nod. the bible does not tell us that the race of cain perished in the deluge. "cain went out from the presence of jehovah;" he did not call on his name; the people that were destroyed were the "sons of jehovah." all this indicates that large colonies had been sent out by the mother-land before it sunk in the sea. across the ocean we find the people of guatemala claiming their descent from a goddess called at-tit, or grandmother, who lived for four hundred years, and first taught the worship of the true god, which they afterward forgot. (bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) while the famous mexican calendar stone shows that the sun was commonly called tonatiuh but when it was referred to as the god of the deluge it was then called atl-tona-ti-uh, or at-onatiuh. (valentini's "mexican calendar stone," art. maya archæology, p. .) we thus find the sons of ad at the base of all the most ancient races of men, to wit, the hebrews, the arabians, the chaldeans, the hindoos, the persians, the egyptians, the ethiopians, the mexicans, and the central americans; testimony that all these races traced their beginning back to a dimly remembered ad-lantis. chapter ii the kings of atlantis become the gods of the greeks. lord bacon said: "the mythology of the greeks, which their oldest writers do not pretend to have invented, was no more than a light air, which had passed from a more ancient people into the flutes of the greeks, which they modulated to such descants as best suited their fancies." this profoundly wise and great man, who has illuminated every subject which he has touched, guessed very close to the truth in this utterance. the hon. w. e. gladstone has had quite a debate of late with mr. cox as to whether the greek mythology was underlaid by a nature worship, or a planetary or solar worship. peru, worshipping the sun and moon and planets, probably represents very closely the simple and primitive religion of atlantis, with its sacrifices of fruits and flowers. this passed directly to their colony in egypt. we find the egyptians in their early ages sun and planet worshippers. ptah was the object of their highest adoration. he is the father of the god of the sun, the ruler of the region of light. ra was the sun-god. he was the supreme divinity at on, or heliopolis, near memphis. his symbol was the solar disk, supported by two rings. he created all that exists below the heavens. the babylonian trinity was composed of idea, anu, and bel. bel represented the sun, and was the favorite god. sin was the goddess of the moon. the phoenicians were also sun-worshippers. the sun was represented by baal-samin, the great god, the god of light and the heavens, the creator and rejuvenator. "the attributes of both baal and moloch (the good and bad powers of the sun) were united in the phoenician god melkart, "king of the city," whom the inhabitants of tyre considered their special patron. the greeks called him "melicertes," and identified him with hercules. by his great strength and power he turned evil into good, brought life out of destruction, pulled back the sun to the earth at the time of the solstices, lessened excessive heat and cold, and rectified the evil signs of the zodiac. in phoenician legends he conquers the savage races of distant coasts, founds the ancient settlements on the mediterranean, and plants the rocks in the straits of gibraltar." ("american cyclopædia," art. mythology.) the egyptians worshipped the sun under the name of ra; the hindoos worshipped the sun under the name of rama; while the great festival of the sun, of the peruvians, was called ray-mi. sun-worship, as the ancient religion of atlantis, underlies all the superstitions of the colonies of that country. the samoyed woman says to the sun, "when thou, god, risest, i too rise from my bed." every morning even now the brahmans stand on one foot, with their hands held out before them and their faces turned to the east, adoring the sun. "in germany or france one may still see the peasant take off his hat to the rising sun." ("anthropology," p. .) the romans, even, in later times, worshipped the sun at emesa, under the name of elagabalus, "typified in the form of a black conical stone, which it was believed had fallen from heaven." the conical stone was the emblem of bel. did it have relation to the mounds and pyramids? sun-worship was the primitive religion of the red men of america. it was found among all the tribes. (dorman, "origin of primitive superstitions," p. .) the chichimecs called the sun their father. the comanches have a similar belief. but, compared with such ancient nations as the egyptians and babylonians, the greeks were children. a priest of sais said to solon, "you greeks are novices in knowledge of antiquity. you are ignorant of what passed either here or among yourselves in days of old. the history of eight thousand years is deposited in our sacred books; but i can ascend to a much higher antiquity, and tell you what our fathers have done for nine thousand years; i mean their institutions, their laws, and their most brilliant achievements." the greeks, too young to have shared in the religion of atlantis, but preserving some memory of that great country and its history, proceeded to convert its kings into gods, and to depict atlantis itself as the heaven of the human race. thus we find a great solar or nature worship in the elder nations, while greece has nothing but an incongruous jumble of gods and goddesses, who are born and eat and drink and make love and ravish and steal and die; and who are worshipped as immortal in presence of the very monuments that testify to their death. "these deities, to whom the affairs of the world were intrusted, were, it is believed, immortal, though not eternal in their existence. in crete there was even a story of the death of zeus, his tomb being pointed out." (murray's "mythology," p. .) the history of atlantis is the key of the greek mythology. there can be no question that these gods of greece were human beings. the tendency to attach divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implanted in human nature. the savages who killed captain cook firmly believed that he was immortal, that he was yet alive, and would return to punish them. the highly civilized romans made gods out of their dead emperors. dr. livingstone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a bushman for some time about the deity, he found that the savage thought he was speaking of sekomi, the principal chief of the district. we find the barbarians of the coast of the mediterranean regarding the civilized people of atlantis with awe and wonder: "their physical strength was extraordinary, the earth shaking sometimes under their tread. whatever they did was done speedily. they moved through space almost without the loss of a moment of time." this probably alluded to the rapid motion of their sailing-vessels. "they were wise, and communicated their wisdom to men." that is to say, they civilized the people they came in contact with. they had a strict sense of justice, and punished crime rigorously, and rewarded noble actions, though it is true they were less conspicuous for the latter." (murray's "mythology," p. .) we should understand this to mean that where they colonized they established a government of law, as contradistinguished from the anarchy of barbarism. "there were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among men, taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. they were conceived to possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to love and pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and grandest forms that could be imagined." (ibid.) another proof that the gods of the greeks were but the deified kings of atlantis is found in the fact that "the gods were not looked upon as having created the world." they succeeded to the management of a world already in existence. the gods dwelt on olympus. they lived together like human beings; they possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc.; "they dwelt in a social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system on earth. quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances as characterize human life, were ascribed to them." (ibid., p. .) where was olympus? it was in atlantis. "the ocean encircled the earth with a great stream, and was a region of wonders of all kinds." (ibid., p. .) it was a great island, the then civilized world. the encircling ocean "was spoken of in all the ancient legends. okeanos lived there with his wife tethys: these were the islands of the blessed, the garden of the gods, the sources of the nectar and ambrosia on which the gods lived." (murray's "mythology," p. .) nectar was probably a fermented intoxicating liquor, and ambrosia bread made from wheat. soma was a kind of whiskey, and the hindoos deified it. "the gods lived on nectar and ambrosia" simply meant that the inhabitants of these blessed islands were civilized, and possessed a liquor of some kind and a species of food superior to anything in use among the barbarous tribes with whom they came in contact. this blessed land answers to the description of atlantis. it was an island full of wonders. it lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk, with the mountains rising from it." (ibid.) on the highest point of this mountain dwelt zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain. these deities, including zeus, were twelve in number: zeus (or jupiter), hera (or juno), poseidon (or neptune), demeter (or ceres), apollo, artemis (or diana), hephæstos (or vulcan), pallas athena (or minerva), ares (or mars), aphrodite (or venus), hermes (or mercury), and hestia (or vesta)." these were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the egyptians derived their kings. where two names are given to a deity in the above list, the first name is that bestowed by the greeks, the last that given by the romans. it is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is a reminiscence of the twelve gods of atlantis. diodorus siculus tells us that among the babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a certain month of the year. the hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the aditya." moses erected twelve pillars at sinai. the mandan indians celebrated the flood with twelve typical characters, who danced around the ark. the scandinavians believed in the twelve gods, the aesir, who dwelt on asgard, the norse olympus. diligent investigation may yet reveal that the number of a modern jury, twelve, is a survival of the ancient council of asgard. "according to the traditions of the phoenicians, the gardens of the hesperides were in the remote west." (murray's "mannal of mythology," p. .) atlas lived in these gardens. (ibid., p. .) atlas, we have seen, was king of atlantis. "the elysian fields (the happy islands) were commonly placed in the remote west. they were ruled over by chronos." (ibid., p. .) tartarus, the region of hades, the gloomy home of the dead, was also located "under the mountains of an island in the midst of the ocean in the remote west." (ibid., p. .) atlas was described in greek mythology as "an enormous giant, who stood upon the western confines of the earth, and supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a region of the west where the sun continued to shine after he had set upon greece." (ibid., p. .) greek tradition located the island in which olympus was situated "in the far west," "in the ocean beyond africa," "on the western boundary of the known world," "where the sun shone when it had ceased to shine on greece," and where the mighty atlas "held up the heavens." and plato tells us that the land where poseidon and atlas ruled was atlantis. "the garden of the hesperides" (another name for the dwelling-place of the gods) "was situated at the extreme limit of africa. atlas was said to have surrounded it on every side with high mountains." (smith's "sacred annals, patriarchal age," p. .) here were found the golden apples. this is very much like the description which plato gives of the great plain of atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by precipitous mountains descending to the sea. the greek mythology, in speaking of the garden of the hesperides, tells us that "the outer edge of the garden was slightly raised, so that the water might not run in and overflow the land." another reminiscence of the surrounding mountains of atlantis as described by plato, and as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of modern times. chronos, or saturn, dionysos, hyperion, atlas, hercules, were all connected with "a great saturnian continent;" they were kings that ruled over countries on the western shores of the mediterranean, africa and spain. one account says: "hyperion, atlas, and saturn, or chronos, were sons of uranos, who reigned over a great kingdom composed of countries around the western part of the mediterranean, with certain islands in the atlantic. hyperion succeeded his father, and was then killed by the titans. the kingdom was then divided between atlas and saturn--atlas taking northern africa, with the atlantic islands, and saturn the countries on the opposite shore of the mediterranean to italy and sicily." (baldwin's "prehistoric nations," p. .) plato says, speaking of the traditions of the greeks ("dialogues, laws," c. iv., p. ), "there is a tradition of the happy life of mankind in the days when all things were spontaneous and abundant.... in like manner god in his love of mankind placed over us the demons, who are a superior race, and they, with great care and pleasure to themselves and no less to us, taking care of us and giving us place and reverence and order and justice never failing, made the tribes of men happy and peaceful ... for cronos knew that no human nature, invested with supreme power, is able to order human affairs and not overflow with insolence and wrong." in other words, this tradition refers to an ancient time when the forefathers of the greeks were governed by chronos, of the cronian sea (the atlantic), king of atlantis, through civilized atlantean governors, who by their wisdom preserved peace and created a golden age for all the populations under their control--they were the demons, that is, "the knowing ones," the civilized. plato puts into the mouth of socrates these words ("dialogues, cratylus," p. ): "my notion would be that the sun, moon, and stars, earth, and heaven, which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the only gods known to the aboriginal hellenes.... what shall follow the gods? must not demons and heroes and men come next?... consider the real meaning of the word demons. you know hesiod uses the word. he speaks of 'a golden race of men' who came first. he says of them, but now that fate has closed over this race, they are holy demons upon earth, beneficent averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.' he means by the golden men not men literally made of gold, but good and noble men; he says we are of the 'age of iron.' he called them demons because they were dah'mones (knowing or wise)." this is made the more evident when we read that this region of the gods, of chronos and uranos and zeus, passed through, first, a golden age, then a silver age--these constituting a great period of peace and happiness; then it reached a bronze age; then an iron age, and finally perished by a great flood, sent upon these people by zeus as a punishment for their sins. we read: "men were rich then (in the silver age), as in the golden age of chronos, and lived in plenty; but still they wanted the innocence and contentment which were the true sources of human happiness in the former age; and accordingly, while living in luxury and delicacy, they became overbearing in their manners to the highest degree, were never satisfied, and forgot the gods, to whom, in their confidence of prosperity and comfort, they denied the reverence they owed.... then followed the bronze age, a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence. instead of cultivated lands, and a life of peaceful occupations and orderly habits, there came a day when every where might was right, and men, big and powerful as they were, became physically worn out.... finally came the iron age, in which enfeebled mankind had to toil for bread with their hands, and, bent on gain, did their best to overreach each other. dike, or astræa, the goddess of justice and good faith, modesty and truth, turned her back on such scenes, and retired to olympus, while zeus determined to destroy the human race by a great flood. the whole of greece lay under water, and none but deucalion and his wife pyrrha were saved." (murray's "mythology" p. .) it is remarkable that we find here the same succession of the iron age after the bronze age that has been revealed to scientific men by the patient examination of the relics of antiquity in europe. and this identification of the land that was destroyed by a flood--the land of chronos and poseidon and zeus--with the bronze age, confirms the view expressed in chapter viii. (page , ante), that the bronze implements and weapons of europe were mainly imported from atlantis. and here we find that the flood that destroyed this land of the gods was the flood of deucalion, and the flood of deucalion was the flood of the bible, and this, as we have shown, was "the last great deluge of all," according to the egyptians, which destroyed atlantis. the foregoing description of the golden age of chronos, when "men were rich and lived in plenty," reminds us of plato's description of the happy age of atlantis, when "men despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property;" a time when, as the chants of the delaware indians stated it (page , ante), "all were willingly pleased, all were well-happified." while the description given by murray in the above extract of the degeneracy of mankind in the land of the gods, "a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence, when might was right," agrees with plato's account of the atlanteans, when they became "aggressive," "unable to bear their fortune," "unseemly," "base," "filled with unrighteous avarice and power,"--and "in a most wretched state." and here again i might quote from the chant of the delaware indians--"they became troubled, hating each other; both were fighting, both were spoiling, both were never peaceful." and in all three instances the gods punished the depravity of mankind by a great deluge. can all these precise coincidences be the result of accident? may we not even suppose that the very word "olympus" is a transformation from "atlantis" in accordance with the laws that regulate the changes of letters of the same class into each other? olympus was written by the greeks "olumpos." the letter a in atlantis was sounded by the ancient world broad and full, like the a in our words all or altar; in these words it approximates very closely to the sound of o. it is not far to go to convert otlontis into oluntos, and this into olumpos. we may, therefore, suppose that when the greeks said that their gods dwelt in "olympus," it was the same as if they said that they dwelt in "atlantis." nearly all the gods of greece are connected with atlantis. we have seen the twelve principal gods all dwelling on the mountain of olympus, in the midst of an island in the ocean in the far west, which was subsequently destroyed by a deluge on account of the wickedness of its people. and when we turn to plato's description of atlantis (p. , ante) we find that poseidon and atlas dwelt upon a mountain in the midst of the island; and on this mountain were their magnificent temples and palaces, where they lived, separated by great walls from their subjects. it may be urged that mount olympus could not have referred to any mountain in atlantis, because the greeks gave that name to a group of mountains partly in macedonia and partly in thessaly. but in mysia, lycia, cyprus, and elsewhere there were mountains called olympus; and on the plain of olympia, in elis, there was an eminence bearing the same designation. there is a natural tendency among uncivilized peoples to give a "local habitation" to every general tradition. "many of the oldest myths," says baldwin ("prehistoric nations," p. ), "relate to spain, north-western africa, and other regions on the atlantic, such as those concerning hercules, the cronidæ, the hyperboreans, the hesperides, and the islands of the blessed. homer described the atlantic region of europe in his account of the wanderings of ulysses.... in the ages previous to the decline of phoenician influence in greece and around the Ægean sea, the people of those regions must have had a much better knowledge of western europe than prevailed there during the ionian or hellenic period." the mythology of greece is really a history of the kings of atlantis. the greek heaven was atlantis. hence the references to statues, swords, etc., that fell from heaven, and were preserved in the temples of the different states along the shores of the mediterranean from a vast antiquity, and which were regarded as the most precious possessions of the people. they were relics of the lost race received in the early ages. thus we read of the brazen or bronze anvil that was preserved in one city, which fell from heaven, and was nine days and nine nights in falling; in other words, it took nine days and nights of a sailing-voyage to bring it from atlantis. the modern theory that the gods of greece never had any personal existence, but represented atmospheric and meteorological myths, the movements of clouds, planets, and the sun, is absurd. rude nations repeat, they do not invent; to suppose a barbarous people creating their deities out of clouds and sunsets is to reverse nature. men first worship stones, then other men, then spirits. resemblances of names prove nothing; it is as if one would show that the name of the great napoleon meant "the lion of the desert" (napo-leon), and should thence argue that napoleon never existed, that he was a myth, that he represented power in solitude, or some such stuff. when we read that jove whipped his wife, and threw her son out of the window, the inference is that jove was a man, and actually did something like the thing described; certainly gods, sublimated spirits, aerial sprites, do not act after this fashion; and it would puzzle the mythmakers to prove that the sun, moon, or stars whipped their wives or flung recalcitrant young men out of windows. the history of atlantis could be in part reconstructed out of the mythology of greece; it is a history of kings, queens, and princes; of love-making, adulteries, rebellions, wars, murders, sea-voyages, and colonizations; of palaces, temples, workshops, and forges; of sword-making, engraving and metallurgy; of wine, barley, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, and agriculture generally. who can doubt that it represents the history of a real people? uranos was the first god; that is to say, the first king of the great race. as he was at the commencement of all things, his symbol was the sky. he probably represented the race previous even to the settlement of atlantis. he was a son of gæa (the earth). he seems to have been the parent of three races--the titans, the hekatoncheires, and the kyklopes or cyclops. i incline to the belief that these were civilized races, and that the peculiarities ascribed to the last two refer to the vessels in which they visited the shores of the barbarians. the empire of atlantis. the empire of the titans was clearly the empire of atlantis. "the most judicious among our mythologists" (says dr. rees, "new british cyclopædia," art. titans)--"such as gerard vossius, marsham, bochart, and father thomassin--are of opinion that the partition of the world among the sons of noah--shem, ham, and japheth--was the original of the tradition of the same partition among jupiter, neptune, and pluto," upon the breaking up of the great empire of the titans. "the learned pezron contends that the division which was made of this vast empire came, in after-times, to be taken for the partition of the whole world; that asia remaining in the hands of jupiter (zeus), the most potent of the three brothers, made him looked upon as the god of olympus; that the sea and islands which fell to neptune occasioned their giving him the title of 'god of the sea;' and that spain, the extremity of the then known world, thought to be a very low country in respect of asia, and famous for its excellent mines of gold and silver, failing to pluto, occasioned him to be taken for the 'god of the infernal regions.'" we should suppose that pluto possibly ruled over the transatlantic possessions of atlantis in america, over those "portions of the opposite continent" which plato tells us were dominated by atlas and his posterity, and which, being far beyond or below sunset, were the "under-world" of the ancients; while atlantis, the canaries, etc., constituted the island division with western africa and spain. murray tells us ("mythology," p. ) that pluto's share of the kingdom was supposed to lie "in the remote west." the under-world of the dead was simply the world below the western horizon; "the home of the dead has to do with that far west region where the sun dies at night." ("anthropology," p. .) "on the coast of brittany, where cape raz stands out westward into the ocean, there is 'the bay of souls,' the launching-place where the departed spirits sail off across the sea." (ibid.) in like manner, odysseus found the land of the dead in the ocean beyond the pillars of hercules. there, indeed, was the land of the mighty dead, the grave of the drowned atlanteans. "however this be," continues f. pezron, "the empire of the titans, according to the ancients, was very extensive; they possessed phrygia, thrace, a part of greece, the island of crete, and several other provinces to the inmost recesses of spain. to these sanchoniathon seems to join syria; and diodorus adds a part of africa, and the kingdoms of mauritania." the kingdoms of mauritania embraced all that north-western region of africa nearest to atlantis in which are the atlas mountains, and in which, in the days of herodotus, dwelt the atlantes. neptune, or poseidon, says, in answer to a message from jupiter, no vassal god, nor of his train am i. three brothers, deities, from saturn came, and ancient rhea, earth's immortal dame; assigned by lot our triple rule we know; infernal pluto sways the shades below: o'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain ethereal jove extends his high domain; my court beneath the hoary waves i keep, and hush the roaring of the sacred deep. iliad, book xviii. homer alludes to poseidon as "the god whose liquid arms are hurled around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world." mythology tells us that when the titans were defeated by saturn they retreated into the interior of spain; jupiter followed them up, and beat them for the last time near tartessus, and thus terminated a ten-years' war. here we have a real battle on an actual battle-field. if we needed any further proof that the empire of the titans was the empire of atlantis, we would find it in the names of the titans: among these were oceanus, saturn or chronos, and atlas; they were all the sons of uranos. oceanus was at the base of the greek mythology. plato says ("dialogues," timæus, vol. ii., p. ): "oceanus and tethys were the children of earth and heaven, and from these sprung phorcys, and chronos, and rhea, and many more with them; and from chronos and rhea sprung zeus and hera, and all those whom we know as their brethren, and others who were their children." in other words, all their gods came out of the ocean; they were rulers over some ocean realm; chronos was the son of oceanus, and chronos was an atlantean god, and from him the atlantic ocean was called by the ancients "the chronian sea." the elder minos was called "the son of the ocean:" he first gave civilization to the cretans; he engraved his laws on brass, precisely as plato tells us the laws of atlantis were engraved on pillars of brass. the wanderings of ulysses, as detailed in the "odyssey" of homer, are strangely connected with the atlantic ocean. the islands of the phoenicians were apparently in mid-ocean: we dwell apart, afar within the unmeasured deep, amid its waves the most remote of men; no other race hath commerce with us.--odyssey, book vi. the description of the phæacian walls, harbors, cities, palaces, ships, etc., seems like a recollection of atlantis. the island of calypso appears also to have been in the atlantic ocean, twenty days' sail from the phæacian isles; and when ulysses goes to the land of pluto, "the under-world," the home of the dead, he "reached the far confines of oceanus," beyond the pillars of hercules. it would be curious to inquire how far the poems of homer are atlantean in their relations and inspiration. ulysses's wanderings were a prolonged struggle with poseidon, the founder and god of atlantis. "the hekatoncheires, or cetimæni, beings each with a hundred hands, were three in number--kottos, gyges or gyes, and briareus--and represented the frightful crashing of waves, and its resemblance to the convulsions of earthquakes." (murray's "mythology," p. .) are not these hundred arms the oars of the galleys, and the frightful crashing of the waves their movements in the water? "the kyklopes also were three in number--brontes, with his thunder; steropes, with his lightning; and arges, with his stream of light. they were represented as having only one eye, which was placed at the juncture between the nose and brow. it was, however, a large, flashing eye, as became beings who were personifications of the storm-cloud, with its flashes of destructive lightning and peals of thunder." we shall show hereafter that the invention of gunpowder dates back to the days of the phoenicians, and may have been derived by them from atlantis. it is not impossible that in this picture of the kyklopes we see a tradition of sea-going ships, with a light burning at the prow, and armed with some explosive preparation, which, with a roar like thunder, and a flash like lightning, destroyed those against whom it was employed? it at least requires less strain upon our credulity to suppose these monsters were a barbarian's memory of great ships than to believe that human beings ever existed with a hundred arms, and with one eye in the middle of the forehead, and giving out thunder and lightning. the natives of the west india islands regarded the ships of columbus as living creatures, and that their sails were wings. berosus tells us, speaking of the ancient days of chaldea, "in the first year there appeared, from that part of the erythræan sea which borders upon babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name oannes, whose whole body (according to the account of apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. his voice too and language was articulate and human, and a representation of him is preserved even unto this day. this being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season, and he gave them an insight into letters and arts of all kinds. he taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. he made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize their laws. from that time nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. and when the sun set, this being, oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep, for he was amphibious. after this there appeared other animals like oannes." this is clearly the tradition preserved by a barbarous people of the great ships of a civilized nation, who colonized their coast and introduced the arts and sciences among them. and here we see the same tendency to represent the ship as a living thing, which converted the war-vessels of the atlanteans (the kyklopes) into men with one blazing eye in the middle of the forehead. uranos was deposed from the throne, and succeeded by his son chronos. he was called "the ripener, the harvest-god," and was probably identified with the beginning of the agricultural period. he married his sister rhea, who bore him pluto, poseidon, zeus, hestia, demeter, and hera. he anticipated that his sons would dethrone him, as he had dethroned his father, uranos, and he swallowed his first five children, and would have swallowed the sixth child, zeus, but that his wife rhea deceived him with a stone image of the child; and zeus was conveyed to the island of crete, and there concealed in a cave and raised to manhood. subsequently chronos "yielded back to the light the children he had swallowed." this myth probably means that chronos had his children raised in some secret place, where they could not be used by his enemies as the instruments of a rebellion against his throne; and the stone image of zeus, palmed off upon him by rhea, was probably some other child substituted for his own. his precautions seem to have been wise; for as soon as the children returned to the light they commenced a rebellion, and drove the old gentleman from his throne. a rebellion of the titans followed. the struggle was a tremendous one, and seems to have been decided at last by the use of gunpowder, as i shall show farther on. we have seen chronos identified with the atlantic, called by the romans the "chronian sea." he was known to the romans under the name of saturn, and ruled over "a great saturnian continent" in the western ocean. saturn, or chronos, came to italy: he presented himself to the king, janus, "and proceeded to instruct the subjects of the latter in agriculture, gardening, and many other arts then quite unknown to them; as, for example, how to tend and cultivate the vine. by such means he at length raised the people from a rude and comparatively barbarous condition to one of order and peaceful occupations, in consequence of which he was everywhere held in high esteem, and, in course of time, was selected by janus to share with him the government of the country, which thereupon assumed the name of saturnia--'a land of seed and fruit.' the period of saturn's government was sung in later days by poets as a happy time, when sorrows were unknown, when innocence, freedom, and gladness reigned throughout the land in such a degree as to deserve the title of the golden age." (murray's "mythology," p. .) all this accords with plato's story. he tells us that the rule of the atlanteans extended to italy; that they were a civilized, agricultural, and commercial people. the civilization of rome was therefore an outgrowth directly from the civilization of atlantis. the roman saturnalia was a remembrance of the atlantean colonization. it was a period of joy and festivity; master and slave met as equals; the distinctions of poverty and wealth were forgotten; no punishments for crime were inflicted; servants and slaves went about dressed in the clothes of their masters; and children received presents from their parents or relatives. it was a time of jollity and mirth, a recollection of the golden age. we find a reminiscence of it in the roman "carnival." the third and last on the throne of the highest god was zeus. we shall see him, a little farther on, by the aid of some mysterious engine overthrowing the rebels, the titans, who rose against his power, amid the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder. he was called "the thunderer," and "the mighty thunderer." he was represented with thunder-bolts in his hand and an eagle at his feet. during the time of zeus atlantis seems to have reached its greatest height of power. he was recognized as the father of the whole world; he everywhere rewarded uprightness, truth, faithfulness, and kindness; he was merciful to the poor, and punished the cruel. to illustrate his rule on earth the following story is told: "philemon and baukis, an aged couple of the poorer class, were living peacefully and full of piety toward the gods in their cottage in phrygia, when zeus, who often visited the earth, disguised, to inquire into the behavior of men, paid a visit, in passing through phrygia on such a journey, to these poor old people, and was received by them very kindly as a weary traveller, which he pretended to be. bidding him welcome to the house, they set about preparing for their guest, who was accompanied by hermes, as excellent a meal as they could afford, and for this purpose were about to kill the only goose they had left, when zeus interfered; for he was touched by their kindliness and genuine piety, and that all the more because he had observed among the other inhabitants of the district nothing but cruelty of disposition and a habit of reproaching and despising the gods. to punish this conduct he determined to visit the country with a flood, but to save from it philemon and baukis, the good aged couple, and to reward them in a striking manner. to this end he revealed himself to them before opening the gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill into a splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and priestess, and granted their prayer that they might both die together. when, after many years, death overtook them, they were changed into two trees, that grew side by side in the neighborhood--an oak and a linden." (murray's "mythology," p. .) here we have another reference to the flood, and another identification with atlantis. zeus was a kind of henry viii., and took to himself a number of wives. by demeter (ceres) he had persephone (proserpine); by leto, apollo and artemis (diana); by dione, aphrodite (venus); by semele, dionysos (bacchus); by maia, hermes (mercury); by alkmene, hercules, etc., etc. we have thus the whole family of gods and goddesses traced back to atlantis. hera, or juno, was the first and principal wife of zeus. there were numerous conjugal rows between the royal pair, in which, say the poets, juno was generally to blame. she was naturally jealous of the other wives of zeus. zeus on one occasion beat her, and threw her son hephæstos out of olympus; on another occasion he hung her out of olympus with her arms tied and two great weights attached to her feet--a very brutal and ungentlemanly trick--but the greeks transposed this into a beautiful symbol: the two weights, they say, represent the earth and sea, "an illustration of how all the phenomena of the visible sky were supposed to hang dependent on the highest god of heaven!" (ibid., p. .) juno probably regarded the transaction in an altogether different light; and she therefore united with poseidon, the king's brother, and his daughter athena, in a rebellion to put the old fellow in a strait-jacket, "and would have succeeded had not thetis brought to his aid the sea-giant Ægæon," probably a war-ship. she seems in the main, however, to have been a good wife, and was the type of all the womanly virtues. poseidon, the first king of atlantis, according to plato, was, according to greek mythology, a brother of zeus, and a son of chronos. in the division of the kingdom he fell heir to the ocean and its islands, and to the navigable rivers; in other words, he was king of a maritime and commercial people. his symbol was the horse. "he was the first to train and employ horses;" that is to say, his people first domesticated the horse. this agrees with what plato tells us of the importance attached to the horse in atlantis, and of the baths and race-courses provided for him. he was worshipped in the island of tenos "in the character of a physician," showing that he represented an advanced civilization. he was also master of an agricultural people; "the ram with the golden fleece for which the argonauts sailed was the offspring of poseidon." he carried in his hand a three-pronged symbol, the trident, doubtless an emblem of the three continents that were embraced in the empire of atlantis. he founded many colonies along the shores of the mediterranean; "he helped to build the walls of troy;" the tradition thus tracing the trojan civilization to an atlantean source. he settled attica and founded athens, named after his niece athena, daughter of zeus, who had no mother, but had sprung from the head of zeus, which probably signified that her mother's name was not known--she was a foundling. athena caused the first olive-tree to grow on the acropolis of athens, parent of all the olive-trees of greece. poseidon seems to have had settlements at corinth, Ægina, naxos, and delphi. temples were erected to his honor in nearly all the seaport towns of greece. he sent a sea-monster, to wit, a slip, to ravage part of the trojan territory. in the "iliad" poseidon appears "as ruler of the sea, inhabiting a brilliant palace in its depths, traversing its surface in a chariot, or stirring the powerful billows until the earth shakes as they crash upon the shores.... he is also associated with well-watered plains and valleys." (murray's "mythology," p. .) the palace in the depths of the sea was the palace upon olympus in atlantis; the traversing of the sea referred to the movements of a mercantile race; the shaking of poseidon, or neptune. the earth was an association with earthquakes; the "well-watered plains and valleys" remind us of the great plain of atlantis described by plato. all the traditions of the coming of civilization into europe point to atlantis. for instance, keleos, who lived at eleusis, near athens, hospitably received demeter, the greek ceres, the daughter of poseidon, when she landed; and in return she taught him the use of the plough, and presented his son with the seed of barley, and sent him out to teach mankind how to sow and utilize that grain. dionysos, grandson of poseidon, travelled "through all the known world, even into the remotest parts of india, instructing the people, as he proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how to practise many other arts of peace, besides teaching them the value of just and honorable dealings." (murray's "mythology," p. .) the greeks celebrated great festivals in his honor down to the coming of christianity. "the nymphs of grecian mythology were a kind of middle beings between the gods and men, communicating with both, loved and respected by both; ... living like the gods on ambrosia. in extraordinary cases they were summoned, it was believed, to the councils of the olympian gods; but they usually remained in their particular spheres, in secluded grottoes and peaceful valleys, occupied in spinning, weaving, bathing, singing sweet songs, dancing, sporting, or accompanying deities who passed through their territories--hunting with artemis (diana), rushing about with dionysos (bacchus), making merry with apollo or hermes (mercury), but always in a hostile attitude toward the wanton and excited satyrs." the nymphs were plainly the female inhabitants of atlantis dwelling on the plains, while the aristocracy lived on the higher lands. and this is confirmed by the fact that part of them were called atlantids, offspring of atlantis. the hesperides were also "daughters of atlas;" their mother was hesperis, a personification of "the region of the west." their home was "an island in the ocean," off the north or west coast of africa. and here we find a tradition which not only points to atlantis, but also shows some kinship to the legend in genesis of the tree and the serpent. titæa, "a goddess of the earth," gave zeus a tree bearing golden apples on it. this tree was put in the care of the hesperides, but they could not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a serpent named ladon was put to watch the tree. hercules slew the serpent, and gave the apples to the hesperides. heracles (hercules), we have seen, was a son of zeus, king of atlantis. one of his twelve labors (the tenth) was the carrying off the cattle of geryon. the meaning of geryon is "the red glow of the sunset." he dwelt on the island of "erythea, in the remote west, beyond the pillars of hercules." hercules took a ship, and after encountering a storm, reached the island and placed himself on mount abas. hercules killed geryon, stole the cattle, put them on the ship, and landed them safely, driving them "through iberia, gaul, and over the alps down into italy." (murray's "mythology," p. .) this was simply the memory of a cattle raid made by an uncivilized race upon the civilized, cattle-raising people of atlantis. it is not necessary to pursue the study of the gods of greece any farther. they were simply barbarian recollections of the rulers of a great civilized people who in early days visited their shores, and brought with them the arts of peace. here then, in conclusion, are the proofs of our proposition that the gods of greece had been the kings of atlantis: . they were not the makers, but the rulers of the world. . they were human in their attributes; they loved, sinned, and fought battles, the very sites of which are given; they founded cities, and civilized the people of the shores of the mediterranean. . they dwelt upon an island in the atlantic," in the remote west.... where the sun shines after it has ceased to shine on greece." . their land was destroyed in a deluge. . they were ruled over by poseidon and atlas. . their empire extended to egypt and italy and the shores of africa, precisely as stated by plato. . they existed during the bronze age and at the beginning of the iron age. the entire greek mythology is the recollection, by a degenerate race, of a vast, mighty, and highly civilized empire, which in a remote past covered large parts of europe, asia, africa, and america. chapter iii. the gods of the phoenicians also kings of atlantis. not alone were the gods of the greeks the deified kings of atlantis, but we find that the mythology of the phoenicians was drawn from the same source. for instance, we find in the phoenician cosmogony that the titans (rephaim) derive their origin from the phoenician gods agrus and agrotus. this connects the phoenicians with that island in the remote west, in the midst of ocean, where, according to the greeks, the titans dwelt. according to sanchoniathon, ouranos was the son of autochthon, and, according to plato, autochthon was one of the ten kings of atlantis. he married his sister ge. he is the uranos of the greeks, who was the son of gæa (the earth), whom he married. the phoenicians tell us, "ouranos had by ge four sons: ilus (el), who is called chronos, and betylus (beth-el), and dagon, which signifies bread-corn, and atlas (tammuz?)." here, again, we have the names of two other kings of atlantis. these four sons probably represented four races, the offspring of the earth. the greek uranos was the father of chronos, and the ancestor of atlas. the phoenician god ouranos had a great many other wives: his wife ge was jealous; they quarrelled, and he attempted to kill the children he had by her. this is the legend which the greeks told of zeus and juno. in the phoenician mythology chronos raised a rebellion against ouranos, and, after a great battle, dethroned him. in the greek legends it is zeus who attacks and overthrows his father, chronos. ouranos had a daughter called astarte (ashtoreth), another called rhea. "and dagon, after he had found out bread-corn and the plough, was called zeus-arotrius." we find also, in the phoenician legends, mention made of poseidon, founder and king of atlantis. chronos gave attica to his daughter athena, as in the greek legends. in a time of plague he sacrificed his son to ouranos, and "circumcised himself, and compelled his allies to do the same thing." it would thus appear that this singular rite, practised as we have seen by the atlantidæ of the old and new worlds, the egyptians, the phoenicians, the hebrews, the ethiopians, the mexicans, and the red men of america, dates back, as we might have expected, to atlantis. "chronos visits the different regions of the habitable world." he gave egypt as a kingdom to the god taaut, who had invented the alphabet. the egyptians called him thoth, and he was represented among them as "the god of letters, the clerk of the under-world," bearing a tablet, pen, and palm-branch. this not only connects the phoenicians with atlantis, but shows the relations of egyptian civilization to both atlantis and the phoenicians. there can be no doubt that the royal personages who formed the gods of greece were also the gods of the phoenicians. we have seen the autochthon of plato reappearing in the autochthon of the phoenicians; the atlas of plato in the atlas of the phoenicians; the poseidon of plato in the poseidon of the phoenicians; while the kings mestor and mneseus of plato are probably the gods misor and amynus of the phoenicians. sanchoniathon tells us, after narrating all the discoveries by which the people advanced to civilization, that the cabiri set down their records of the past by the command of the god taaut, "and they delivered them to their successors and to foreigners, of whom one was isiris (osiris), the inventor of the three letters, the brother of chua, who is called the first phoenician." (lenormant and chevallier, "ancient history of the east," vol. ii., p. .) this would show that the first phoenician came long after this line of the kings or gods, and that he was a foreigner, as compared with them; and, therefore, that it could not have been the phoenicians proper who made the several inventions narrated by sanchoniathon, but some other race, from whom the phoenicians might have been descended. and in the delivery of their records to the foreigner osiris, the god of egypt, we have another evidence that egypt derived her civilization from atlantis. max müller says: "the semitic languages also are all varieties of one form of speech. though we do not know that primitive language from which the semitic dialects diverged, yet we know that at one time such language must have existed.... we cannot derive hebrew from sanscrit, or sanscrit from hebrew; but we can well understand how both may have proceeded from one common source. they are both channels supplied from one river, and they carry, though not always on the surface, floating materials of language which challenge comparison, and have already yielded satisfactory results to careful analyzers." ("outlines of philosophy of history," vol. i., p. .) there was an ancient tradition among the persians that the phoenicians migrated from the shores of the erythræan sea, and this has been supposed to mean the persian gulf; but there was a very old city of erythia, in utter ruin in the time of strabo, which was built in some ancient age, long before the founding of gades, near the site of that town, on the atlantic coast of spain. may not this town of erythia have given its name to the adjacent sea? and this may have been the starting-point of the phoenicians in their european migrations. it would even appear that there was an island of erythea. in the greek mythology the tenth labor of hercules consisted in driving away the cattle of geryon, who lived in the island of erythea, "an island somewhere in the remote west, beyond the pillars of hercules." (murray's "mythology," p. .) hercules stole the cattle from this remote oceanic island, and, returning drove them "through iberia, gaul, over the alps, and through italy." (ibid.) it is probable that a people emigrating from the erythræan sea, that is, from the atlantic, first gave their name to a town on the coast of spain, and at a later date to the persian gulf--as we have seen the name of york carried from england to the banks of the hudson, and then to the arctic circle. the builders of the central american cities are reported to have been a bearded race. the phoenicians, in common with the indians, practised human sacrifices to a great extent; they worshipped fire and water, adopted the names of the animals whose skins they wore--that is to say, they had the totemic system--telegraphed by means of fires, poisoned their arrows, offered peace before beginning battle, and used drums. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) the extent of country covered by the commerce of the phoenicians represents to some degree the area of the old atlantean empire. their colonies and trading-posts extended east and west from the shores of the black sea, through the mediterranean to the west coast of africa and of spain, and around to ireland and england; while from north to south they ranged from the baltic to the persian gulf. they touched every point where civilization in later ages made its appearance. strabo estimated that they had three hundred cities along the west coast of africa. when columbus sailed to discover a new world, or re-discover an old one, he took his departure from a phoenician seaport, founded by that great race two thousand five hundred years previously. this atlantean sailor, with his phoenician features, sailing from an atlantean port, simply re-opened the path of commerce and colonization which had been closed when plato's island sunk in the sea. and it is a curious fact that columbus had the antediluvian world in his mind's eye even then, for when he reached the mouth of the orinoco he thought it was the river gihon, that flowed out of paradise, and he wrote home to spain, "there are here great indications suggesting the proximity of the earthly paradise, for not only does it correspond in mathematical position with the opinions of the holy and learned theologians, but all other signs concur to make it probable." sanchoniathon claims that the learning of egypt, greece, and judæa was derived from the phoenicians. it would appear probable that, while other races represent the conquests or colonizations of atlantis, the phoenicians succeeded to their arts, sciences, and especially their commercial supremacy; and hence the close resemblances which we have found to exist between the hebrews, a branch of the phoenician stock, and the people of america. upon the syrian sea the people live who style themselves phoenicians.... these were the first great founders of the world-- founders of cities and of mighty states-- who showed a path through seas before unknown. in the first ages, when the sons of men knew not which way to turn them, they assigned to each his first department; they bestowed of land a portion and of sea a lot, and sent each wandering tribe far off to share a different soil and climate. hence arose the great diversity, so plainly seen, 'mid nations widely severed. dyonysius of susiana, a.d. . chapter iv. the god odin, woden, or wotan. in the scandinavian mythology the chief god was odin, the woden, wotan, or wuotan of the germans. he is represented with many of the attributes of the greek god zeus, and is supposed by some to be identical with him. he dwelt with the twelve Æsir, or gods, upon asgard, the norse olympus, which arose out of midgard, a land half-way between the regions of frost and fire (to wit, in a temperate climate). the scandinavian olympus was probably atlantis. odin is represented as a grave-looking elderly man with a long beard, carrying in his hand a spear, and accompanied by two dogs and two ravens. he was the father of poetry, and the inventor of runic writing. the chiapenese of central america (the people whose language we have seen furnishing such remarkable resemblances to hebrew) claim to have been the first people of the new world. clavigero tells us ("hist. antiq. del messico," eng. trans., , vol. i.) that according to the traditions of the chiapenese there was a votan who was the grandson of the man who built the ark to save himself and family from the deluge; he was one of those who undertook to build the tower that should reach to heaven. the lord ordered him to people america. "he came from the east." he brought seven families with him. he had been preceded in america by two others, igh and imox. he built a great city in america called "nachan," city of the serpents (the serpent that tempted eve was nahash), from his own race, which was named chan, a serpent. this nachan is supposed to have been palenque. the date of his journey is placed in the legends in the year of the world, and in the tenth century b.c. he also founded three tributary monarchies, whose capitals were tulan, mayapan, and chiquimala. he wrote a book containing a history of his deeds, and proofs that he belonged to the tribe of chanes (serpents). he states that "he is the third of the votans; that he conducted seven families from valum-votan to this continent, and assigned lands to them; that he determined to travel until he came to the root of heaven and found his relations, the culebres, and made himself known to them; that he accordingly made four voyages to chivim; that he arrived in spain; that he went to rome; that he saw the house of god building; that he went by the road which his brethren, the culebres, had bored; that he marked it, and that he passed by the houses of the thirteen culebres. he relates that, in returning from one of his voyages, he found seven other families of the tzequil nation who had joined the first inhabitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his own, that is, of the culebres; he speaks of the place where they built the first town, which from its founders received the name of tzequil; he affirms that, having taught them the refinement of manners in the use of the table, table-cloths, dishes, basins, cups, and napkins, they taught him the knowledge of god and his worship; his first ideas of a king, and obedience to him; that he was chosen captain of all these united families." it is probable that spain and rome are interpolations. cabrera claims that the votanites were carthaginians. he thinks the chivim of votan were the hivim, or givim, who were descended of heth, son of canaan, phoenicians; they were the builders of accaron, azotus, ascalon, and gaza. the scriptures refer to them as hivites (givim) in deuteronomy (chap. ii., verse ), and joshua (chap. xiii., verse ). he claims that cadmus and his wife hermione were of this stock; and according to ovid they were metamorphosed into snakes (culebres). the name hivites in phoenician signifies a snake. votan may not, possibly, have passed into europe; he may have travelled altogether in africa. his singular allusion to "a way which the culebres had bored" seems at first inexplicable; but dr. livingstone's last letters, published th november, , in the "proceedings of the royal geographical society," mention that "tribes live in underground houses in rua. some excavations are said to be thirty miles long, and have running rills in them; a whole district can stand a siege in them. the 'writings' therein, i have been told by some of the people, are drawings of animals, and not letters; otherwise i should have gone to see them. people very dark, well made, and outer angle of eyes slanting inward." and captain grant, who accompanied captain speke in his famous exploration of the sources of the nile, tells of a tunnel or subway under the river kaoma, on the highway between loowemba and marunga, near lake tanganyika. his guide manna describes it to him: "i asked manna if he had ever seen any country resembling it. his reply was, 'this country reminds me of what i saw in the country to the south of the lake tanganyika, when travelling with an arab's caravan from unjanyembeh. there is a river there called the kaoma, running into the lake, the sides of which are similar in precipitousness to the rocks before us.' i then asked, 'do the people cross this river in boats?' 'no; they have no boats; and even if they had, the people could not land, as the sides are too steep: they pass underneath the river by a natural tunnel, or subway.' he and all his party went through it on their way from loowemba to ooroongoo, and returned by it. he described its length as having taken them from sunrise till noon to pass through it, and so high that, if mounted upon camels, they could not touch the top. tall reeds, the thickness of a walking-stick, grew inside, the road was strewed with white pebbles, and so wide--four hundred yards--that they could see their way tolerably well while passing through it. the rocks looked as if they had been planed by artificial means. water never came through from the river overhead; it was procured by digging wells. manna added that the people of wambweh take shelter in this tunnel, and live there with their families and cattle, when molested by the watuta, a warlike race, descended from the zooloo kafirs." but it is interesting to find in this book of votan, however little reliance we may place in its dates or details, evidence that there was actual intercourse between the old world and the new in remote ages. humboldt remarks: "we have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this votan, or wodan, an american who appears of the same family with the wods or odins of the goths and of the people of celtic origin. since, according to the learned researches of sir william jones, odin and buddha are probably the same person, it is curious to see the names of bondvar, wodansday, and votan designating in india, scandinavia, and in mexico the day of a brief period." ("vues des cordilleras," p. , ed. .) there are many things to connect the mythology of the gothic nations with atlantis; they had, as we have seen, flood legends; their gods krodo and satar were the chronos and saturn of atlantis; their baal was the bel of the phoenicians, who were closely connected with poseidon and atlas; and, as we shall see hereafter, their language has a distinct relationship with the tongues of the arabians, cushites, chaldeans, and phoenicians. chapter v. the pyramid, the cross, and the garden of eden. no fact is better established than the reverence shown to the sign of the cross in all the ages prior to christianity. we cannot do better than quote from an able article in the edinburgh review of july, , upon this question: "from the dawn of organized paganism in the eastern world to the final establishment of christianity in the western, the cross was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments; and, to a remarkable extent, it is so still in almost every land where that of calvary is unrecognized or unknown. apart from any distinctions of social or intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity--the elastic girdle, so to say, which embraced the most widely separated heathen communities--the most significant token of a universal brotherhood, to which all the families of mankind were severally and irresistibly drawn, and by which their common descent was emphatically expressed, or by means of which each and all preserved, amid every vicissitude of fortune, a knowledge of the primeval happiness and dignity of their species. where authentic history is silent on the subject, the material relics of past and long since forgotten races are not wanting to confirm and strengthen this supposition. diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and, in not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean as well as superterranean structures, of tumuli as well as fanes. the extraordinary sanctity attaching to the symbol, in every age and under every variety of circumstance, justified any expenditure incurred in its fabrication or embellishment; hence the most persistent labor, the most consummate ingenuity, were lavished upon it. populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the highly-civilized and the demi-civilized, the settled and nomadic--vied with each other in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue among their latest posterities. the marvellous rock-hewn caves of elephanta and ellora, and the stately temples of mathura and terputty, in the east, may be cited as characteristic examples of one laborious method of exhibiting it; and the megalithic structures of callernish and newgrange, in the west, of another; while a third may be instanced in the great temple at mitzla, 'the city of the moon,' in ojaaca, central america, also excavated in the living rock, and manifesting the same stupendous labor and ingenuity as are observable in the cognate caverns of salsette--of endeavors, we repeat, made by peoples as intellectually as geographically distinct, and followers withal of independent and unassociated deities, to magnify and perpetuate some grand primeval symbol.... "of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as national or ecclesiastical emblems, in this and other european states, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of st. george, st. andrew, the maltese, the greek, the latin, etc., etc., there is not one among them the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. they were the common property of the eastern nations. no revolution or other casualty has wrought any perceptible difference in their several forms or delineations; they have passed from one hemisphere to the other intact; have survived dynasties, empires, and races; have been borne on the crest of each successive wave of aryan population in its course toward the west; and, having been reconsecrated in later times by their lineal descendants, are still recognized as military and national badges of distinction.... "among the earliest known types is the crux ansata, vulgarly called 'the key of the nile,' because of its being found sculptured or otherwise represented so frequently upon egyptian and coptic monuments. it has, however, a very much older and more sacred signification than this. it was the symbol of symbols, the mystical tau, 'the hidden wisdom,' not only of the ancient egyptians but also of the chaldeans, phoenicians, mexicans, peruvians, and of every other ancient people commemorated in history, in either hemisphere, and is formed very similarly to our letter t, with a roundlet, or oval, placed immediately above it. thus it was figured on the gigantic emerald or glass statue of serapis, which was transported ( b.c.) by order of ptolemy soter from sinope, on the southern shores of the black sea, re-erected within that famous labyrinth which encompassed the banks of lake moeris, and destroyed by the victorious army of theodosius (a.d. ), despite the earnest entreaties of the egyptian priesthood to spare it, because it was the emblem of their god and of 'the life to come.' sometimes, as may be seen on the breast of an egyptian mummy in the museum of the london university, the simple t only is planted on the frustum of a cone; and sometimes it is represented as springing from a heart; in the first instance signifying goodness; in the second, hope or expectation of reward. as in the oldest temples and catacombs of egypt, so this type likewise abounds in the ruined cities of mexico and central america, graven as well upon the most ancient cyclopean and polygonal walls as upon the more modern and perfect examples of masonry; and is displayed in an equally conspicuous manner upon the breasts of innumerable bronze statuettes which have been recently disinterred from the cemetery of juigalpa (of unknown antiquity) in nicaragua." when the spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of america, in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find the cross was as devoutly worshipped by the red indians as by themselves, and were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of st. thomas or to the cunning device of the evil one. the hallowed symbol challenged their attention on every hand and in almost every variety of form. it appeared on the bass-reliefs of ruined and deserted as well as on those of inhabited palaces, and was the most conspicuous ornament in the great temple of gozumel, off the coast of yucatan. according to the particular locality, and the purpose which it served, it was formed of various materials--of marble and gypsum in the open spaces of cities and by the way-side; of wood in the teocallis or chapels on pyramidal summits and in subterranean sanctuaries; and of emerald or jasper in the palaces of kings and nobles. when we ask the question how it comes that the sign of the cross has thus been reverenced from the highest antiquity by the races of the old and new worlds, we learn that it is a reminiscence of the garden of eden, in other words, of atlantis. professor hardwicke says: "all these and similar traditions are but mocking satires of the old hebrew story--jarred and broken notes of the same strain; but with all their exaggerations they intimate how in the background of man's vision lay a paradise of holy joy--a paradise secured from every kind of profanation, and made inaccessible to the guilty; a paradise full of objects that were calculated to delight the senses and to elevate the mind, a paradise that granted to its tenant rich and rare immunities, and that fed with its perennial streams the tree of life and immortality." to quote again from the writer in the edinburgh review, already cited; "its undoubted antiquity, no less than its extraordinary diffusion, evidences that it must have been, as it may be said to be still in unchristianized lands, emblematical of some fundamental doctrine or mystery. the reader will not have failed to observe that it is most usually associated with water; it was 'the key of the nile,' that mystical instrument by means of which, in the popular judgment of his egyptian devotees, osiris produced the annual revivifying inundations of the sacred stream; it is discernible in that mysterious pitcher or vase portrayed on the brazen table of bembus, before-mentioned, with its four lips discharging as many streams of water in opposite directions; it was the emblem of the water-deities of the babylonians in the east and of the gothic nations in the west, as well as that of the rain-deities respectively of the mixed population in america. we have seen with what peculiar rites the symbol was honored by those widely separated races in the western hemisphere; and the monumental slabs of nineveh, now in the museums of london and paris, show us how it was similarly honored by the successors of the chaldees in the eastern.... ancient irish cross--pre-christian--kilnaboy. "in egypt, assyria, and britain it was emblematical of creative power and eternity; in india, china, and scandinavia, of heaven and immortality; in the two americas, of rejuvenescence and freedom from physical suffering; while in both hemispheres it was the common symbol of the resurrection, or 'the sign of the life to come;' and, finally, in all heathen communities, without exception, it was the emphatic type, the sole enduring evidence, of the divine unity. this circumstance alone determines its extreme antiquity--an antiquity, in all likelihood, long antecedent to the foundation of either of the three great systems of religion in the east. and, lastly, we have seen how, as a rule, it is found in conjunction with a stream or streams of water, with exuberant vegetation, and with a hill or a mountainous region--in a word, with a land of beauty, fertility, and joy. thus it was expressed upon those circular and sacred cakes of the egyptians, composed of the richest materials--of flour, of honey, of milk--and with which the serpent and bull, as well as other reptiles and beasts consecrated to the service of isis and their higher divinities, were daily fed; and upon certain festivals were eaten with extraordinary ceremony by the people and their priests. 'the cross-cake,' says sir gardner wilkinson, 'was their hieroglyph for civilized land;' obviously a land superior to their own, as it was, indeed, to all other mundane territories; for it was that distant, traditional country of sempiternal contentment and repose, of exquisite delight and serenity, where nature, unassisted by man, produces all that is necessary for his sustentation." and this land was the garden of eden of our race. this was the olympus of the greeks, where "this same mild season gives the blooms to blow, the buds to harden and the fruits to grow." in the midst of it was a sacred and glorious eminence--the umbilicus orbis terrarum--"toward which the heathen in all parts of the world, and in all ages, turned a wistful gaze in every act of devotion, and to which they hoped to be admitted, or, rather, to be restored, at the close of this transitory scene." in this "glorious eminence" do we not see plato's mountain in the middle of atlantis, as he describes it: "near the plain and in the centre of the island there was a mountain, not very high on any side. in this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was evenor, and he had a wife named leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named cleito. poseidon married her. he enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all around, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water ... so that no man could get to the island.... he brought streams of water under the earth to this mountain-island, and made all manner of food to grow upon it. this island became the seat of atlas, the over-king of the whole island; upon it they built the great temple of their nation; they continued to ornament it in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and beauty.... and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates--as is not likely ever to be again." the gardens of alcinous and laertes, of which we read in homeric song, and those of babylon, were probably transcripts of atlantis. "the sacred eminence in the midst of a superabundant, happy region figures more or less distinctly in almost every mythology, ancient or modern. it was the mesomphalos of the earlier greeks, and the omphalium of the cretans, dominating the elysian fields, upon whose tops, bathed in pure, brilliant, incomparable light, the gods passed their days in ceaseless joys." "the buddhists and brahmans, who together constitute nearly half the population of the world, tell us that the decussated figure (the cross), whether in a simple or a complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy abode of their primeval ancestors--that 'paradise of eden toward the east,' as we find expressed in the hebrew. and, let us ask, what better picture, or more significant characters, in the complicated alphabet of symbolism, could have been selected for the purpose than a circle and a cross: the one to denote a region of absolute purity and perpetual felicity; the other, those four perennial streams that divided and watered the several quarters of it?" (edinburgh review, january, .) and when we turn to the mythology of the greeks, we find that the origin of the world was ascribed to okeanos, the ocean. the world was at first an island surrounded by the ocean, as by a great stream: "it was a region of wonders of all kinds; okeanos lived there with his wife tethys: these were the islands of the blessed, the gardens of the gods, the sources of nectar and ambrosia, on which the gods lived. within this circle of water the earth lay spread out like a disk, with mountains rising from it, and the vault of heaven appearing to rest upon its outer edge all around." (murray's "mannal of mythology," pp. , , et seq.) on the mountains dwelt the gods; they had palaces on these mountains, with store-rooms, stabling, etc. "the gardens of the hesperides, with their golden apples, were believed to exist in some island of the ocean, or, as it was sometimes thought, in the islands off the north or west coast of africa. they were far famed in antiquity; for it was there that springs of nectar flowed by the couch of zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest blessings of the gods; it was another eden." (ibid., p. .) homer described it in these words: "stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime, the fields are florid with unfading prime, from the bleak pole no winds inclement blow. mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow; but from the breezy deep the blessed inhale the fragrant murmurs of the western gale." "it was the sacred asgard of the scandinavians, springing from the centre of a fruitful land, which was watered by four primeval rivers of milk, severally flowing in the direction of the cardinal points, 'the abode of happiness, and the height of bliss.' it is the tien-chan, 'the celestial mountain-land, ... the enchanted gardens' of the chinese and tartars, watered by the four perennial fountains of tychin, or immortality; it is the hill-encompassed ilá of the singhalese and thibetians, 'the everlasting dwelling-place of the wise and just.' it is the sineru of the buddhist, on the summit of which is tawrutisa, the habitation of sekrá, the supreme god, from which proceed the four sacred streams, running in as many contrary directions. it is the slávratta, 'the celestial earth,' of the hindoo, the summit of his golden mountain meru, the city of brahma, in the centre of jambadwípa, and from the four sides of which gush forth the four primeval rivers, reflecting in their passage the colorific glories of their source, and severally flowing northward, southward, eastward, and westward." it is the garden of eden of the hebrews: "and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. and a river went out of eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. the name of the first is pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. and the name of the second river is gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of ethiopia. and the name of the third river is hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of assyria. and the fourth river is euphrates. and the lord god took the man and put him into the garden of eden to dress it and to keep it." (gen. ii., - - .) as the four rivers named in genesis are not branches of any one stream, and head in very different regions, it is evident that there was an attempt, on the part of the writer of the book, to adapt an ancient tradition concerning another country to the known features of the region in which he dwelt. josephus tells us (chap. i., p. ), "now the garden (of eden) was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts." here in the four parts we see the origin of the cross, while in the river running around the whole earth we have the wonderful canal of atlantis, described by plato, which was "carried around the whole of the plain," and received the streams which came down from the mountains. the streams named by josephus would seem to represent the migrations of people from atlantis to its colonies. "phison," he tells us, "denotes a multitude; it ran into india; the euphrates and tigris go down into the red sea while the geon runs through egypt." we are further told (chap. ii., p. ) that when cain, after the murder of abel, left the land of adam, "he travelled over many countries" before he reached the land of nod; and the land of nod was to the eastward of adam's home. in other words, the original seat of mankind was in the west, that is to say, in the direction of atlantis. wilson tells us that the aryans of india believed that they originally came "from the west." thus the nations on the west of the atlantic look to the east for their place of origin; while on the east of the atlantic they look to the west: thus all the lines of tradition converge upon atlantis. but here is the same testimony that in the garden of eden there were four rivers radiating from one parent stream. and these four rivers, as we have seen, we find in the scandinavian traditions, and in the legends of the chinese, the tartars, the singhalese, the thibetians, the buddhists, the hebrews, and the brahmans. and not only do we find this tradition of the garden of eden in the old world, but it meets us also among the civilized races of america. the elder montezuma said to cortez, "our fathers dwelt in that happy and prosperous place which they called aztlan, which means whiteness.... in this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which is called culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over toward the bottom; and for this cause it is called culhuacan, which means 'crooked mountain.'" he then proceeds to describe the charms of this favored land, abounding in birds, game, fish, trees, "fountains enclosed with elders and junipers, and alder-trees both large and beautiful." the people planted "maize, red peppers, tomatoes, beans, and all kinds of plants, in furrows." here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water which plato describes--the same mountain to which all the legends of the most ancient races of europe refer. the inhabitants of aztlan were boatmen. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) e. g. squier, in his "notes on central america," p. , says, "it is a significant fact that in the map of their migrations, presented by gemelli, the place of the origin of the aztecs is designated by the sign of water, atl standing for atzlan, a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree." this circumstance did not escape the attention of humboldt, who says, "i am astonished at finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. this tree certainly does not indicate a northern origin.... the possibility that an unskilful artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it hangs upon a slender thread." ("north americans of antiquity," p. .) the miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of mexico, had a tradition that the gods, "in the day of obscurity and darkness," built "a sumptuous palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they made their abode upon a mountain. the rock was called 'the place of heaven;' there the gods first abode on earth, living many years in great rest and content, as in a happy and delicious land, though the world still lay in obscurity and darkness. the children of these gods made to themselves a garden, in which they put many trees, and fruit-trees, and flowers, and roses, and odorous herbs. subsequently there came a great deluge, in which many of the sons and daughters of the gods perished." (bancroft's "native races," vol. iii., p. .) here we have a distinct reference to olympus, the garden of plato, and the destruction of atlantis. and in plato's account of atlantis we have another description of the garden of eden and the golden age of the world: "also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers and fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again the cultivated fruits of the earth, both the edible fruits and other species of food which we call by the name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments ... all these that sacred island, lying beneath the sun, brought forth in abundance.... for many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. they despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods were increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, and friendship perishes with them." all this cannot be a mere coincidence; it points to a common tradition of a veritable land, where four rivers flowed down in opposite directions from a central mountain-peak. and these four rivers, flowing to the north, south, east, and west, constitute the origin of that sign of the cross which we have seen meeting us at every point among the races who were either descended from the people of atlantis, or who, by commerce and colonization, received their opinions and civilization from them. let us look at the question of the identity of the garden of eden with atlantis from another point of view: if the alphabet of the phoenicians is kindred with the maya alphabet, as i think is clear, then the phoenicians were of the same race, or of some race with which the mayas were connected; in other words, they were from atlantis. now we know that the phoenicians and hebrews were of the same stock, used the same alphabet, and spoke almost precisely the same language. the phoenicians preserved traditions, which have come down to us in the writings, of sanchoniathon, of all the great essential inventions or discoveries which underlie civilization. the first two human beings, they tell us, were protogonos and aion (adam and 'havath), who produce genos and genea (qên and qênath), from whom again are descended three brothers, named phos, phur, and phlox (light, fire, and flame), because they "have discovered how to produce fire by the friction of two pieces of wood, and have taught the use of this element." in another fragment, at the origin of the human race we see in succession the fraternal couples of autochthon and technites (adam and quen--cain?), inventors of the manufacture of bricks; agros and agrotes (sade and cêd), fathers of the agriculturists and hunters; then amynos and magos, "who taught to dwell in villages and rear flocks." the connection between these atlantean traditions and the bible record is shown in many things. for instance, "the greek text, in expressing the invention of amynos, uses the words kw'mas kai` poi'mnas, which are precisely the same as the terms ôhel umiqneh, which the bible uses in speaking of the dwellings of the descendants of jabal (gen., chap. iv., v. ). in like manner lamech, both in the signification of his name and also in the savage character attributed to him by the legend attached to his memory, is a true synonyme of agrotes." "and the title of a?lh~tai, given to agros and agrotes in the greek of the phoenician history, fits in wonderfully with the physiognomy of the race of the cainites in the bible narrative, whether we take a?lh~tai simply as a hellenized transcription of the semitic elim, 'the strong, the mighty,' or whether we take it in its greek acceptation, 'the wanderers;' for such is the destiny of cain and his race according to the very terms of the condemnation which was inflicted upon him after his crime (gen. iv., ), and this is what is signified by the name of his grandson 'yirad. only, in sanchoniathon the genealogy does not end with amynos and magos, as that of the cainites in the bible does with the three sons of lamech. these two personages are succeeded by misôr and sydyk, 'the released and the just,' as sanchoniathon translates them, but rather the 'upright and the just' (mishôr and Çüdüq), 'who invent the use of salt.' to misôr is born taautos (taût), to whom we owe letters; and to sydyk the cabiri or corybantes, the institutors of navigation." (lenormant, "genealogies between adam and the deluge." contemporary review, april, .) we have, also, the fact that the phoenician name for their goddess astynome (ashtar no'emâ), whom the greeks called nemaun, was the same as the name of the sister of the three sons of lamech, as given in genesis--na'emah, or na'amah. if, then, the original seat of the hebrews and phoenicians was the garden of eden, to the west of europe, and if the phoenicians are shown to be connected, through their alphabets, with the central americans, who looked to an island in the sea, to the eastward, as their starting-point, the conclusion becomes irresistible that atlantis and the garden of eden were one and the same. the pyramid.--not only are the cross and the garden of eden identified with atlantis, but in atlantis, the habitation of the gods, we find the original model of all those pyramids which extend from india to peru. this singular architectural construction dates back far beyond the birth of history. in the purânas of the hindoos we read of pyramids long anterior in time to any which have survived to our day. cheops was preceded by a countless host of similar erections which have long since mouldered into ruins. if the reader will turn to page of this work he will see, in the midst of the picture of aztlan, the starting-point of the aztecs, according to the botturini pictured writing, a pyramid with worshippers kneeling before it. fifty years ago mr. faber, in his "origin of pagan idolatry," placed artificial tumuli, pyramids, and pagodas in the same category, conceiving that all were transcripts of the holy mountain which was generally supposed to have stood in the centre of eden; or, rather, as intimated in more than one place by the psalmist, the garden itself was situated on an eminence. (psalms, chap. iii., v. , and chap. lxviii., vs. , , .) the pyramid is one of the marvellous features of that problem which confronts us everywhere, and which is insoluble without atlantis. the arabian traditions linked the pyramid with the flood. in a manuscript preserved in the bodleian library, and translated by dr. sprenger, abou balkhi says: "the wise men, previous to the flood, foreseeing an impending judgment from heaven, either by submersion or fire, which would destroy every created thing, built upon the tops of the mountains in upper egypt many pyramids of stone, in order to have some refuge against the approaching calamity. two of these buildings exceeded the rest in height, being four hundred cubits high and as many broad and as many long. they were built with large blocks of marble, and they were so well put together that the joints were scarcely perceptible. upon the exterior of the building every charm and wonder of physic was inscribed." this tradition locates these monster structures upon the mountains of upper egypt, but there are no buildings of such dimensions to be found anywhere in egypt. is it not probable that we have here another reference to the great record preserved in the land of the deluge? were not the pyramids of egypt and america imitations of similar structures in atlantis? might not the building of such a gigantic edifice have given rise to the legends existing on both continents in regard to a tower of babel? how did the human mind hit upon this singular edifice--the pyramid? by what process of development did it reach it? why should these extraordinary structures crop out on the banks of the nile, and amid the forests and plains of america? and why, in both countries, should they stand with their sides square to the four cardinal points of the compass? are they in this, too, a reminiscence of the cross, and of the four rivers of atlantis that ran to the north, south, east, and west? "there is yet a third combination that demands a specific notice. the decussated symbol is not unfrequently planted upon what christian archæologists designate 'a calvary,' that is, upon a mount or a cone. thus it is represented in both hemispheres. the megalithic structure of callernish, in the island of lewis before mentioned, is the most perfect example of the practice extant in europe. the mount is preserved to this day. this, to be brief, was the recognized conventional mode of expressing a particular primitive truth or mystery from the days of the chaldeans to those of the gnostics, or from one extremity of the civilized world to the other. it is seen in the treatment of the ash yggdrasill of the scandinavians, as well as in that of the bo-tree of the buddhists. the prototype was not the egyptian, but the babylonian crux ansata, the lower member of which constitutes a conical support for the oval or sphere above it. with the gnostics, who occupied the debatable ground between primitive christianity and philosophic paganism, and who inscribed it upon their tombs, the cone symbolized death as well as life. in every heathen mythology it was the universal emblem of the goddess or mother of heaven, by whatsoever name she was addressed--whether as mylitta, astarte, aphrodite, isis, mata, or venus; and the several eminences consecrated to her worship were, like those upon which jupiter was originally adored, of a conical or pyramidal shape. this, too, is the ordinary form of the altars dedicated to the assyrian god of fertility. in exceptional instances the cone is introduced upon one or the other of the sides, or is distinguishable in the always accompanying mystical tree." (edinburgh review, july, .) if the reader will again turn to page of this work he will see that the tree appears on the top of the pyramid or mountain in both the aztec representations of aztlan, the original island-home of the central american races. the writer just quoted believes that mr. faber is correct in his opinion that the pyramid is a transcript of the sacred mountain which stood in the midst of eden, the olympus of atlantis. he adds: "thomas maurice, who is no mean authority, held the same view. he conceived the use to which pyramids in particular were anciently applied to have been threefold--namely, as tombs, temples, and observatories; and this view he labors to establish in the third volume of his 'indian antiquities.' now, whatever may be their actual date, or with whatsoever people they may have originated, whether in africa or asia, in the lower valley of the nile or in the plains of chaldea, the pyramids of egypt were unquestionably destined to very opposite purposes. according to herodotus, they were introduced by the hyksos; and proclus, the platonic philosopher, connects them with the science of astronomy--a science which, he adds, the egyptians derived from the chaldeans. hence we may reasonably infer that they served as well for temples for planetary worship as for observatories. subsequently to the descent of the shepherds, their hallowed precincts were invaded by royalty, from motives of pride and superstition; and the principal chamber in each was used as tombs." the pyramidal imitations, dear to the hearts of colonists of the sacred mountain upon which their gods dwelt, was devoted, as perhaps the mountain itself was, to sun and fire worship. the same writer says: "that sabian worship once extensively prevailed in the new world is a well-authenticated fact; it is yet practised to some extent by the wandering tribes on the northern continent, and was the national religion of the peruvians at the time of the conquest. that it was also the religion of their more highly civilized predecessors on the soil, south of the equator more especially, is evidenced by the remains of fire-altars, both round and square, scattered about the shores of lakes umayu and titicaca, and which are the counterparts of the gueber dokh mehs overhanging the caspian sea. accordingly, we find, among these and other vestiges of antiquity that indissolubly connected those long-since extinct populations in the new with the races of the old world, the well-defined symbol of the maltese cross. on the mexican feroher before alluded to, and which is most elaborately carved in bass-relief on a massive piece of polygonous granite, constituting a portion of a cyclopean wall, the cross is enclosed within the ring, and accompanying it are four tassel-like ornaments, graved equally well. those accompaniments, however, are disposed without any particular regard to order, but the four arms of the cross, nevertheless, severally and accurately point to the cardinal quarters. the same regularity is observable on a much smaller but not less curious monument, which was discovered some time since in an ancient peruvian huaca or catacomb--namely, a syrinx or pandean pipe, cut out of a solid mass of lapis ollaris, the sides of which are profusely ornamented, not only with maltese crosses, but also with other symbols very similar in style to those inscribed on the obelisks of egypt and on the monoliths of this country. the like figure occurs on the equally ancient otrusco black pottery. but by far the most remarkable example of this form of the cross in the new world is that which appears on a second type of the mexican feroher, engraved on a tablet of gypsum, and which is described at length by its discoverer, captain du paix, and depicted by his friend, m. baradère. here the accompaniments--a shield, a hamlet, and a couple of bead-annulets or rosaries--are, with a single exception, identical in even the minutest particular with an assyrian monument emblematical of the deity.... "no country in the world can compare with india for the exposition of the pyramidal cross. there the stupendous labors of egypt are rivalled, and sometimes surpassed. indeed, but for the fact of such monuments of patient industry and unexampled skill being still in existence, the accounts of some others which have long since disappeared, having succumbed to the ravages of time and the fury of the bigoted mussulman, would sound in our ears as incredible as the story of porsenna's tomb, which 'o'ertopped old pelion,' and made 'ossa like a wart.' yet something not very dissimilar in character to it was formerly the boast of the ancient city of benares, on the banks of the ganges. we allude to the great temple of bindh madhu, which was demolished in the seventeenth century by the emperor aurungzebe. tavernier, the french baron, who travelled thither about the year , has preserved a brief description of it. the body of the temple was constructed in the figure of a colossal cross (i. e., a st. andrew's cross), with a lofty dome at the centre, above which rose a massive structure of a pyramidal form. at the four extremities of the cross there were four other pyramids of proportionate dimensions, and which were ascended from the outside by steps, with balconies at stated distances for places of rest, reminding us of the temple of belus, as described in the pages of herodotus. the remains of a similar building are found at mhuttra, on the banks of the jumna. this and many others, including the subterranean temple at elephanta and the caverns of ellora and salsette, are described at length in the well-known work by maurice; who adds that, besides these, there was yet another device in which the hindoo displayed the all-pervading sign; this was by pyramidal towers placed crosswise. at the famous temple of chillambrum, on the coromandel coast, there were seven lofty walls, one within the other, round the central quadrangle, and as many pyramidal gate-ways in the midst of each side which forms the limbs of a vast cross." in mexico pyramids were found everywhere. cortez, in a letter to charles v., states that he counted four hundred of them at cholula. their temples were on those "high-places." the most ancient pyramids in mexico are at teotihuacan, eight leagues from the city of mexico; the two largest were dedicated to the sun and moon respectively, each built of cut stone, with a level area at the summit, and four stages leading up to it. the larger one is feet square at the base, about feet high, and covers an area of eleven acres. the pyramid of cholula, measured by humboldt, is feet high, feet square at the base, and covers forty five acres! the great pyramid of egypt, cheops, is feet square, feet high, and covers between twelve and thirteen acres. so that it appears that the base of the teotihuacan structure is nearly as large as that of cheops, while that of cholula covers nearly four times as much space. the cheops pyramid, however, exceeds very much in height both the american structures. señor garcia y cubas thinks the pyramids of teotihuacan (mexico) were built for the same purpose as those of egypt. he considers the analogy established in eleven particulars, as follows: , the site chosen is the same; , the structures are orientated with slight variation; , the line through the centres of the structures is in the astronomical meridian; , the construction in grades and steps is the same; , in both cases the larger pyramids are dedicated to the sun; , the nile has "a valley of the dead," as in teotihuacan there is "a street of the dead;" , some monuments in each class have the nature of fortifications; , the smaller mounds are of the same nature and for the same purpose; , both pyramids have a small mound joined to one of their faces; , the openings discovered in the pyramid of the moon are also found in some egyptian pyramids; , the interior arrangements of the pyramids are analogous. ("ensayo de un estudio.") it is objected that the american edifices are different in form from the egyptian, in that they are truncated, or flattened at the top; but this is not an universal rule. "in many of the ruined cities of yucatan one or more pyramids have been found upon the summit of which no traces of any building could be discovered, although upon surrounding pyramids such structures could be found. there is also some reason to believe that perfect pyramids have been found in america. waldeck found near palenque two pyramids in a state of perfect preservation, square at the base, pointed at the top, and thirty-one feet high, their sides forming equilateral triangles." (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) bradford thinks that "some of the egyptian pyramids, and those which with some reason it has been supposed are the most ancient, are precisely similar to the mexican teocalli." ("north americans of antiquity" p. .) and there is in egypt another form of pyramid called the mastaba, which, like the mexican, was flattened on the top; while in assyria structures flattened like the mexican are found. "in fact," says one writer, "this form of temple (the flat-topped) has been found from mesopotamia to the pacific ocean." the phoenicians also built pyramids. in the thirteenth century the dominican brocard visited the ruins of the phoenician city of mrith or marathos, and speaks in the strongest terms of admiration of those pyramids of surprising grandeur, constructed of blocks of stone from twenty-six to twenty eight feet long, whose thickness exceeded the stature of a tall man. ("prehistoric nations," p. .) "if," says ferguson, "we still hesitate to pronounce that there was any connection between the builders of the pyramids of suku and oajaca, or the temples of xochialco and boro buddor, we must at least allow that the likeness is startling, and difficult to account for on the theory of mere accidental coincidence." pyramids of egypt. the egyptian pyramids all stand with their sides to the cardinal points, while many of the mexican pyramids do likewise. the egyptian pyramids were penetrated by small passage-ways; so were the mexican. the pyramid of teotihuacan, according to almarez, has, at a point sixty-nine feet from the base, a gallery large enough to admit a man crawling on hands and knees, which extends, inward, on an incline, a distance of twenty feet, and terminates in two square wells or chambers, each five feet square and one of them fifteen feet deep. mr. löwenstern states, pyramids of teotihuacan. according to mr. bancroft ("native races," vol. iv., p. ), that "the gallery is one hundred and fifty-seven feet long, increasing in height to over six feet and a half as it penetrates the pyramid; that the well is over six feet square, extending (apparently) down to the base and up to the summit; and that other cross-galleries are blocked up by débris." in the pyramid of cheops there is a similar opening or passage-way forty-nine feet above the base; it is three feet eleven inches high, and three feet five and a half inches wide; it leads down a slope to a sepulchral chamber or well, and connects with other passage-ways leading up into the body of the pyramid. the great mound, near miamisburg, ohio. in both the egyptian the american pyramids the outside of the structures was covered with a thick coating of smooth, shining cement. humboldt considered the pyramid of cholula of the same type as the temple of jupiter belus, the pyramids of meidoun dachhour, and the group of sakkarah, in egypt. great pyramid of xcoch. in both america and egypt the pyramids were used as places of sepulture; and it is a remarkable fact that the system of earthworks and mounds, kindred to the pyramids, is found even in england. silsbury hill, at avebury, is an artificial mound one hundred and seventy feet high. it is connected with ramparts, avenues (fourteen hundred and eighty yards long), circular ditches, and stone circles, almost identical with those found in the valley of the mississippi. in ireland the dead were buried in vaults of stone, and the earth raised over them in pyramids flattened on the top. they were called "moats" by the people. we have found the stone vaults at the base of similar truncated pyramids in ohio. there can be no doubt that the pyramid was a developed and perfected mound, and that the parent form of these curious structures is to be found in silsbury hill, and in the mounds of earth of central america and the mississippi valley. we find the emblem of the cross in pre-christian times venerated as a holy symbol on both sides of the atlantic; and we find it explained as a type of the four rivers of the happy island where the civilization of the race originated. we find everywhere among the european and american nations the memory of an eden of the race, where the first men dwelt in primeval peace and happiness, and which was afterward destroyed by water. we find the pyramid on both sides of the atlantic, with its four sides pointing, like the arms of the cross, to the four cardinal points--a reminiscence of olympus; and in the aztec representation of olympos (aztlan) we find the pyramid as the central and typical figure. is it possible to suppose all these extraordinary coincidences to be the result of accident? we might just as well say that the similarities between the american and english forms of government were not the result of relationship or descent, but that men placed in similar circumstances had spontaneously and necessarily reached the same results. chapter vi. gold and silver the sacred metals of atlantis. money is the instrumentality by which man is lifted above the limitations of barter. baron storch terms it "the marvellous instrument to which we are indebted for our wealth and civilization." it is interesting to inquire into the various articles which have been used in different countries and ages as money. the following is a table of some of them: articles of utility. +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | india | cakes of tea. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | china | pieces of silk. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | abyssinia | salt. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | iceland and newfoundland | codfish. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | illinois (in early days) | coon-skins. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | bornoo (africa) | cotton shirts. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ancient russia | skins of wild animals. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | west india islands ( ) | cocoa-nuts. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | massachusetts indians | wampum and musket-balls. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | virginia ( ) | tobacco. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | british west india islands | pins, snuff, and whiskey. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | central south america | soap, chocolate, and eggs. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ancient romans | cattle. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ancient greece | nails of copper and iron. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | the lacedemonians | iron. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | the burman empire | lead. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | russia ( to ) | platinum. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | rome (under numa pompilius) | wood and leather. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | rome (under the cæsars) | land. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | carthaginians | leather. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ancient britons cattle, | slaves, brass, and iron. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | england (under james ii.) | tin, gun-metal, and pewter. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | south sea islands | axes and hammers. | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ articles of ornament. +-------------------------------+----------------+ | ancient jews | jewels. | +-------------------------------+----------------+ | the indian islands and africa | cowrie shells, | +-------------------------------+----------------+ conventional signs. +----------------+----------------------------+ | holland ( ) | pieces of pasteboard. | +----------------+----------------------------+ | china ( ) | bark of the mulberry-tree. | +----------------+----------------------------+ it is evident that every primitive people uses as money those articles upon which they set the highest value--as cattle, jewels, slaves, salt, musket-balls, pins, snuff, whiskey, cotton shirts, leather, axes, and hammers; or those articles for which there was a foreign demand, and which they could trade off to the merchants for articles of necessity--as tea, silk, codfish, coonskins, cocoa-nuts, and tobacco. then there is a later stage, when the stamp of the government is impressed upon paper, wood, pasteboard, or the bark of trees, and these articles are given a legal-tender character. when a civilized nation comes in contact with a barbarous people they seek to trade with them for those things which they need; a metal-working people, manufacturing weapons of iron or copper, will seek for the useful metals, and hence we find iron, copper, tin, and lead coming into use as a standard of values--as money; for they can always be converted into articles of use and weapons of war. but when we ask how it chanced that gold and silver came to be used as money, and why it is that gold is regarded as so much more valuable than silver, no answer presents itself. it was impossible to make either of them into pots or pans, swords or spears; they were not necessarily more beautiful than glass or the combinations of tin and copper. nothing astonished the american races more than the extraordinary value set upon gold and silver by the spaniards; they could not understand it. a west indian savage traded a handful of gold-dust with one of the sailors accompanying columbus for some tool, and then ran for his life to the woods lest the sailor should repent his bargain and call him back. the mexicans had coins of tin shaped like a letter t. we can understand this, for tin was necessary to them in hardening their bronze implements, and it may have been the highest type of metallic value among them. a round copper coin with a serpent stamped on it was found at palenque, and t-shaped copper coins are very abundant in the ruins of central america. this too we can understand, for copper was necessary in every work of art or utility. all these nations were familiar with gold and silver, but they used them as sacred metals for the adornment of the temples of the sun and moon. the color of gold was something of the color of the sun's rays, while the color of silver resembled the pale light of the moon, and hence they were respectively sacred to the gods of the sun and moon. and this is probably the origin of the comparative value of these metals: they became the precious metals because they were the sacred metals, and gold was more valuable than silver--just as the sun-god was the great god of the nations, while the mild moon was simply an attendant upon the sun. the peruvians called gold "the tears wept by the sun." it was not used among the people for ornament or money. the great temple of the sun at cuzco was called the "place of gold." it was, as i have shown, literally a mine of gold. walls, cornices, statuary, plate, ornaments, all were of gold; the very ewers, pipes, and aqueducts--even the agricultural implements used in the garden of the temple--were of gold and silver. the value of the jewels which adorned the temple was equal to one hundred and eighty millions of dollars! the riches of the kingdom can be conceived when we remember that from a pyramid in chimu a spanish explorer named toledo took, in , $ , , in gold and silver. ("new american cyclopædia," art. american antiquities.) the gold and silver of peru largely contributed to form the metallic currency upon which europe has carried on her commerce during the last three hundred years. gold and silver were not valued in peru for any intrinsic usefulness; they were regarded as sacred because reserved for the two great gods of the nation. as we find gold and silver mined and worked on both sides of the atlantic at the earliest periods of recorded history, we may fairly conclude that they were known to the atlanteans; and this view is confirmed by the statements of plato, who represents a condition of things in atlantis exactly like that which pizarro found in peru. doubtless the vast accumulations of gold and silver in both countries were due to the fact that these metals were not permitted to be used by the people. in peru the annual taxes of the people were paid to the inca in part in gold and silver from the mines, and they were used to ornament the temples; and thus the work of accumulating the sacred metals went on from generation to generation. the same process doubtless led to the vast accumulations in the temples of atlantis, as described by plato. now, as the atlanteans carried on an immense commerce with all the countries of europe and western asia, they doubtless inquired and traded for gold and silver for the adornment of their temples, and they thus produced a demand for and gave a value to the two metals otherwise comparatively useless to man--a value higher than any other commodity which the people could offer their civilized customers; and as the reverence for the great burning orb of the sun, master of all the manifestations of nature, was tenfold as great as the veneration for the smaller, weaker, and variable goddess of the night, so was the demand for the metal sacred to the sun ten times as great as for the metal sacred to the moon. this view is confirmed by the fact that the root of the word by which the celts, the greeks, and the romans designated gold was the sanscrit word karat, which means, "the color of the sun." among the assyrians gold and silver were respectively consecrated to the sun and moon precisely as they were in peru. a pyramid belonging to the palace of nineveh is referred to repeatedly in the inscriptions. it was composed of seven stages, equal in height, and each one smaller in area than the one beneath it; each stage was covered with stucco of different colors, "a different color representing each of the heavenly bodies, the least important being at the base: white (venus); black (saturn); purple (jupiter); blue (mercury); vermillion (mars); silver (the moon); and gold (the sun)." (lenormant's "ancient history of the east," vol. i., p. .) "in england, to this day the new moon is saluted with a bow or a courtesy, as well as the curious practice of 'turning one's silver,' which seems a relic of the offering of the moon's proper metal." (tylor's "anthropology", p. .) the custom of wishing, when one first sees the new moon, is probably a survival of moon-worship; the wish taking the place of the prayer. and thus has it come to pass that, precisely as the physicians of europe, fifty years ago, practised bleeding, because for thousands of years their savage ancestors had used it to draw away the evil spirits out of the man, so the business of our modern civilization is dependent upon the superstition of a past civilization, and the bankers of the world are to-day perpetuating the adoration of "the tears wept by the sun" which was commenced ages since on the island of atlantis. and it becomes a grave question--when we remember that the rapidly increasing business of the world, consequent upon an increasing population, and a civilization advancing with giant steps, is measured by the standard of a currency limited by natural laws, decreasing annually in production, and incapable of expanding proportionately to the growth of the world--whether this atlantean superstition may not yet inflict more incalculable injuries on mankind than those which resulted from the practice of phlebotomy. part v. the colonies of atlantis. chapter i. the central american and mexican colonies. the western shores of atlantis were not far distant from the west india islands; a people possessed of ships could readily pass from island to island until they reached the continent. columbus found the natives making such voyages in open canoes. if, then, we will suppose that there was no original connection between the inhabitants of the main-land and of atlantis, the commercial activity of the atlanteans would soon reveal to them the shores of the gulf. commerce implies the plantation of colonies; the trading-post is always the nucleus of a settlement; we have seen this illustrated in modern times in the case of the english east india company and the hudson bay company. we can therefore readily believe that commercial intercourse between atlantis and yucatan, honduras and mexico, created colonies along the shores of the gulf which gradually spread into the interior, and to the high table-lands of mexico. and, accordingly, we find, as i have already shown, that all the traditions of central america and mexico point to some country in the east, and beyond the sea, as the source of their first civilized people; and this region, known among them as "aztlan," lived in the memory of the people as a beautiful and happy land, where their ancestors had dwelt in peace for many generations. dr. le plongeon, who spent four years exploring yucatan, says: "one-third of this tongue (the maya) is pure greek. who brought the dialect of homer to america? or who took to greece that of the mayas? greek is the offspring of the sanscrit. is maya? or are they coeval?... the maya is not devoid of words from the assyrian." that the population of central america (and in this term i include mexico) was at one time very dense, and had attained to a high degree of civilization, higher even than that of europe in the time of columbus, there can be no question; and it is also probable, as i have shown, that they originally belonged to the white race. dêsirè charnay, who is now exploring the ruins of central america, says (north american review, january, , p. ), "the toltecs were fair, robust, and bearded. i have often seen indians of pure blood with blue eyes." quetzalcoatl was represented as large, "with a big head and a heavy beard." the same author speaks (page ) of "the ocean of ruins all around, not inferior in size to those of egypt." at teotihuacan he measured one building two thousand feet wide on each side, and fifteen pyramids, each nearly as large in the base as cheops. "the city is indeed of vast extent ... the whole ground, over a space of five or six miles in diameter, is covered with heaps of ruins--ruins which at first make no impression, so complete is their dilapidation." he asserts the great antiquity of these ruins, because he found the very highways of the ancient city to be composed of broken bricks and pottery, the débris left by earlier populations. "this continent," he says (page ), "is the land of mysteries; we here enter an infinity whose limits we cannot estimate.... i shall soon have to quit work in this place. the long avenue on which it stands is lined with ruins of public buildings and palaces, forming continuous lines, as in the streets of modern cities. still, all these edifices and halls were as nothing compared with the vast substructures which strengthened their foundations." we find the strongest resemblances to the works of the ancient european races: the masonry is similar; the cement is the same; the sculptures are alike; both peoples used the arch; in both continents we find bricks, glassware, and even porcelain (north american review, december, , pp. , ), "with blue figures on a white ground;" also bronze composed of the same elements of copper and tin in like proportions; coins made of copper, round and t-shaped, and even metallic candlesticks. dêsirè charnay believes that he has found in the ruins of tula the bones of swine, sheep, oxen, and horses, in a fossil state, indicating an immense antiquity. the toltecs possessed a pure and simple religion, like that of atlantis, as described by plato, with the same sacrifices of fruits and flowers; they were farmers; they raised and wove cotton; they cultivated fruits; they used the sign of the cross extensively; they cut and engraved precious stones; among their carvings have been found representations of the elephant and the lion, both animals not known in america. the forms of sepulture were the same as among the ancient races of the old world; they burnt the bodies of their great men, and enclosed the dust in funeral urns; some of their dead were buried in a sitting position, others reclined at full length, and many were embalmed like the egyptian mummies. when we turn to mexico, the same resemblances present themselves. the government was an elective monarchy, like that of poland, the king being selected from the royal family by the votes of the nobles of the kingdom. there was a royal family, an aristocracy, a privileged priesthood, a judiciary, and a common people. here we have all the several estates into which society in europe is divided. there were thirty grand nobles in the kingdom, and the vastness of the realm may be judged by the fact that each of these could muster one hundred thousand vassals from their own estates, or a total of three millions. and we have only to read of the vast hordes brought into the field against cortez to know that this was not an exaggeration. they even possessed that which has been considered the crowning feature of european society, the feudal system. the nobles held their lands upon the tenure of military service. but the most striking feature was the organization of the judiciary. the judges were independent even of the king, and held their offices for life. there were supreme judges for the larger divisions of the kingdom, district judges in each of the provinces, and magistrates chosen by the people throughout the country. there was also a general legislative assembly, congress, or parliament, held every eighty days, presided over by the king, consisting of all the judges of the realm, to which the last appeal lay "the rites of marriage," says prescott, "were celebrated with as much formality as in any christian country; and the institution was held in such reverence that a tribunal was instituted for the sole purpose of determining questions relating to it. divorces could not be obtained until authorized by a sentence of the court, after a patient hearing of the parties." slavery was tolerated, but the labors of the slave were light, his rights carefully guarded, and his children were free. the slave could own property, and even other slaves. their religion possessed so many features similar to those of the old world, that the spanish priests declared the devil had given them a bogus imitation of christianity to destroy their souls. "the devil," said they, "stole all he could." they had confessions, absolution of sins, and baptism. when their children were named, they sprinkled their lips and bosoms with water, and "the lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was given it before the foundation of the world." the priests were numerous and powerful. they practised fasts, vigils, flagellations, and many of them lived in monastic seclusion. the aztecs, like the egyptians, had progressed through all the three different modes of writing--the picture-writing, the symbolical, and the phonetic. they recorded all their laws, their tribute-rolls specifying the various imposts, their mythology, astronomical calendars, and rituals, their political annals and their chronology. they wrote on cotton-cloth, on skins prepared like parchment, on a composition of silk and gum, and on a species of paper, soft and beautiful, made from the aloe. their books were about the size and shape of our own, but the leaves were long strips folded together in many folds. they wrote poetry and cultivated oratory, and paid much attention to rhetoric. they also had a species of theatrical performances. their proficiency in astronomy is thus spoken of by prescott: "that they should be capable of accurately adjusting their festivals by the movements of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true length of the tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of antiquity, could be the result only of a long series of nice and patient observations, evincing no slight progress in civilization." "their women," says the same author, "are described by the spaniards as pretty, though with a serious and rather melancholy cast of countenance. their long, black hair might generally be seen wreathed with flowers, or, among the richer people, with strings of precious stones and pearls from the gulf of california. they appear to have been treated with much consideration by their husbands; and passed their time in indolent tranquillity, or in such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, and the like; while their maidens beguiled the hours by the rehearsal of traditionary tales and ballads. "numerous attendants of both sexes waited at the banquets. the balls were scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with odoriferous herbs and flowers, which were distributed in profusion among the guests as they arrived. cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed before them as they took their seats at the board. tobacco was then offered, in pipes, mixed with aromatic substances, or in the form of cigars inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver. it is a curious fact that the aztecs also took the dried tobacco leaf in the pulverized form of snuff. "the table was well supplied with substantial meats, especially game, among which the most conspicuous was the turkey. also, there were found very delicious vegetables and fruits of every variety native to the continent. their palate was still further regaled by confections and pastry, for which their maize-flower and sugar furnished them ample materials. the meats were kept warm with chafing-dishes. the table was ornamented with vases of silver and sometimes gold of delicate workmanship. the favorite beverage was chocolatl, flavored with vanilla and different spices. the fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets and acids, supplied various agreeable drinks of different degrees of strength." it is not necessary to describe their great public works, their floating gardens, their aqueducts, bridges, forts, temples, common form of arch, central america. palaces, and gigantic pyramids, all ornamented with wonderful statuary. section of the treasure-house of atreus at mycenae we find a strong resemblance between the form of arch used in the architecture of central america and that of the oldest buildings of greece. the palenque arch is made by the gradual overlapping of the strata of the building, as shown in the accompanying cut from baldwin's "ancient america," page . it was the custom of these ancient architects to fill in the arch itself with masonry, as shown in the picture arch of las monjas, palenque, central america on page of the arch of las monjas, palenque. if now we look at the representation of the "treasure-house of atreus" at mycenæ, on page --one of the oldest structures in greece--we find precisely the same form of arch, filled in in the same way. rosengarten ("architectural styles," p. ) says: "the base of these treasure-houses is circular, and the covering of a dome shape; it does not, however, form an arch, but courses of stone are laid horizontally over one another in such a way that each course projects beyond the one below it, till the space at the highest course becomes so narrow that a single stone covers it. of all those that have survived to the present day the treasure-house at atreus is the most venerable." the same form of arch is found among the ruins of that interesting people, the etruscans. "etruscan vaults are of two kinds. the more curious and probably the most ancient are false arches, formed of horizontal courses of stone, each a little overlapping the other, and carried on until the aperture at the top could be closed by a single superincumbent slab. such is the construction of the regulini-galassi vault, at cervetere, the ancient cære." (rawlinson's "origin of nations," p. .) it is sufficient to say, in conclusion, that mexico, under european rule, or under her own leaders, has never again risen to her former standard of refinement, wealth, prosperity, or civilization. chapter ii. the egyptian colony. what proofs have we that the egyptians were a colony from atlantis? . they claimed descent from "the twelve great gods," which must have meant the twelve gods of atlantis, to wit, poseidon and cleito and their ten sons. . according to the traditions of the phoenicians, the egyptians derived their civilization from them; and as the egyptians far antedated the rise of the phoenician nations proper, this must have meant that egypt derived its civilization from the same country to which the phoenicians owed their own origin. the phoenician legends show that misor, from whom the egyptians were descended, was the child of the phoenician gods amynus and magus. misor gave birth to taaut, the god of letters, the inventor of the alphabet, and taaut became thoth, the god of history of the egyptians. sanchoniathon tells us that "chronos (king of atlantis) visited the south, and gave all egypt to the god taaut, that it might be his kingdom." "misor" is probably the king "mestor" named by plato. . according to the bible, the egyptians were descendants of ham, who was one of the three sons of noah who escaped from the deluge, to wit, the destruction of atlantis. . the great similarity between the egyptian civilization and that of the american nations. . the fact that the egyptians claimed to be red men. . the religion of egypt was pre-eminently sun-worship, and ra was the sun-god of egypt, rama, the sun of the hindoos, rana, a god of the toltecs, raymi, the great festival of the sun of the peruvians, and rayam, a god of yemen. . the presence of pyramids in egypt and america. . the egyptians were the only people of antiquity who were well-informed as to the history of atlantis. the egyptians were never a maritime people, and the atlanteans must have brought that knowledge to them. they were not likely to send ships to atlantis. . we find another proof of the descent of the egyptians from atlantis in their belief as to the "under-world." this land of the dead was situated in the west--hence the tombs were all placed, whenever possible, on the west bank of the nile. the constant cry of the mourners as the funeral procession moved forward was, "to the west; to the west." this under-world was beyond the water, hence the funeral procession always crossed a body of water. "where the tombs were, as in most cases, on the west bank of the nile, the nile was crossed; where they were on the eastern shore the procession passed over a sacred lake." (r. s. poole, contemporary review, august, , p. .) in the procession was "a sacred ark of the sun." all this is very plain: the under-world in the west, the land of the dead, was atlantis, the drowned world, the world beneath the horizon, beneath the sea, to which the peasants of brittany looked from cape raz, the most western cape projecting into the atlantic. it was only to be reached from egypt by crossing the water, and it was associated with the ark, the emblem of atlantis in all lands. the soul of the dead man was supposed to journey to the under-world by "a water progress" (ibid., p. ), his destination was the elysian fields, where mighty corn grew, and where he was expected to cultivate the earth; "this task was of supreme importance." (ibid., p. .) the elysian fields were the "elysion" of the greeks, the abode of the blessed, which we have seen was an island in the remote west. the egyptian belief referred to a real country; they described its cities, mountains, and rivers; one of the latter was called uranes, a name which reminds us of the atlantean god uranos. in connection with all this we must not forget that plato described atlantis as "that sacred island lying beneath the sun." everywhere in the ancient world we find the minds of men looking to the west for the land of the dead. poole says, "how then can we account for this strong conviction? surely it must be a survival of an ancient belief which flowed in the very veins of the race." (contemporary review, , p. .) it was based on an universal tradition that under "an immense ocean," in "the far west," there was an "under-world," a world comprising millions of the dead, a mighty race, that had been suddenly swallowed up in the greatest catastrophe known to man since he had inhabited the globe. . there is no evidence that the civilization of egypt was developed in egypt itself; it must have been transported there from some other country. to use the words of a recent writer in blackwood, "till lately it was believed that the use of the papyrus for writing was introduced about the time of alexander the great; then lepsius found the hieroglyphic sign of the papyrus-roll on monuments of the twelfth dynasty; afterward he found the same sign on monuments of the fourth dynasty, which is getting back pretty close to menes, the protomonarch; and, indeed, little doubt is entertained that the art of writing on papyrus was understood as early as the days of menes himself. the fruits of investigation in this, as in many other subjects, are truly most marvellous. instead of exhibiting the rise and progress of any branches of knowledge, they tend to prove that nothing had any rise or progress, but that everything is referable to the very earliest dates. the experience of the egyptologist must teach him to reverse the observation of topsy, and to '`spect that nothing growed,' but that as soon as men were planted on the banks of the nile they were already the cleverest men that ever lived, endowed with more knowledge and more power than their successors for centuries and centuries could attain to. their system of writing, also, is found to have been complete from the very first.... "but what are we to think when the antiquary, grubbing in the dust and silt of five thousand years ago to discover some traces of infant effort--some rude specimens of the ages of magog and mizraim, in which we may admire the germ that has since developed into a wonderful art--breaks his shins against an article so perfect that it equals if it does not excel the supreme stretch of modern ability? how shall we support the theory if it come to our knowledge that, before noah was cold in his grave, his descendants were adepts in construction and in the fine arts, and that their achievements were for magnitude such as, if we possess the requisite skill, we never attempt to emulate?... "as we have not yet discovered any trace of the rude, savage egypt, but have seen her in her very earliest manifestations already skilful, erudite, and strong, it is impossible to determine the order of her inventions. light may yet be thrown upon her rise and progress, but our deepest researches have hitherto shown her to us as only the mother of a most accomplished race. how they came by their knowledge is matter for speculation; that they possessed it is matter of fact. we never find them without the ability to organize labor, or shrinking from the very boldest efforts in digging canals and irrigating, in quarrying rock, in building, and in sculpture." the explanation is simple: the waters of the atlantic now flow over the country where all this magnificence and power were developed by slow stages from the rude beginnings of barbarism. and how mighty must have been the parent nation of which this egypt was a colony! egypt was the magnificent, the golden bridge, ten thousand years long, glorious with temples and pyramids, illuminated and illustrated by the most complete and continuous records of human history, along which the civilization of atlantis, in a great procession of kings and priests, philosophers and astronomers, artists and artisans, streamed forward to greece, to rome, to europe, to america. as far back in the ages as the eye can penetrate, even where the perspective dwindles almost to a point, we can still see the swarming multitudes, possessed of all the arts of the highest civilization, pressing forward from out that other and greater empire of which even this wonderworking nile-land is but a faint and imperfect copy. look at the record of egyptian greatness as preserved in her works: the pyramids, still in their ruins, are the marvel of mankind. the river nile was diverted from its course by monstrous embankments to make a place for the city of memphis. the artificial lake of moeris was created as a reservoir for the waters of the nile: it was four hundred and fifty miles in circumference and three hundred and fifty feet deep, with subterranean channels, flood-gates, locks, and dams, by which the wilderness was redeemed from sterility. look at the magnificent mason-work of this ancient people! mr. kenrick, speaking of the casing of the great pyramid, says, "the joints are scarcely perceptible, and not wider than the thickness of silver-paper, and the cement so tenacious that fragments of the casing-stones still remain in their original position, notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries, and the violence by which they were detached." look at the ruins of the labyrinth, which aroused the astonishment of herodotus; it had three thousand chambers, half of them above ground and half below--a combination of courts, chambers, colonnades, statues, and pyramids. look at the temple of karnac, covering a square each side of which is eighteen hundred feet. says a recent writer, "travellers one and all appear to have been unable to find words to express the feelings with which these sublime remains inspired them. they have been astounded and overcome by the magnificence and the prodigality of workmanship here to be admired. courts, halls, gate-ways, pillars, obelisks, monolithic figures, sculptures, rows of sphinxes, are massed in such profusion that the sight is too much for modern comprehension." denon says, "it is hardly possible to believe, after having seen it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings collected on a single point--in their dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their construction required, and in the incalculable expense of so much magnificence." and again, "it is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasionally yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake." there were lakes and mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. "the cathedral of notre dame at paris could be set inside one of the halls of karnac, and not touch the walls!... the whole valley and delta of the nile, from the catacombs to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, pyramids, and pillars." every stone was covered with inscriptions. the state of society in the early days of egypt approximated very closely to our modern civilization. religion consisted in the worship of one god and the practice of virtue; forty-two commandments prescribed the duties of men to themselves, their neighbors, their country, and the deity; a heaven awaited the good and a hell the vicious; there was a judgment-day when the hearts of men were weighed: "he is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat." monogamy was the strict rule; not even the kings, in the early days, were allowed to have more than one wife. the wife's rights of separate property and her dower were protected by law; she was "the lady of the house;" she could "buy, sell, and trade on her own account;" in case of divorce her dowry was to be repaid to her, with interest at a high rate. the marriage-ceremony embraced an oath not to contract any other matrimonial alliance. the wife's status was as high in the earliest days of egypt as it is now in the most civilized nations of europe or america. slavery was permitted, but the slaves were treated with the greatest humanity. in the confessions, buried with the dead, the soul is made to declare that "i have not incriminated the slave to his master," there was also a clause in the commandments "which protected the laboring man against the exaction of more than his day's labor." they were merciful to the captives made in war; no picture represents torture inflicted upon them; while the representation of a sea-fight shows them saving their drowning enemies. reginald stuart poole says (contemporary review, august, , p. ): "when we consider the high ideal of the egyptians, as proved by their portrayals of a just life, the principles they laid down as the basis of ethics, the elevation of women among them, their humanity in war, we must admit that their moral place ranks very high among the nations of antiquity. "the true comparison of egyptian life is with that of modern nations. this is far too difficult a task to be here undertaken. enough has been said, however, to show that we need not think that in all respects they were far behind us." then look at the proficiency in art of this ancient people. they were the first mathematicians of the old world. those greeks whom we regard as the fathers of mathematics were simply pupils of egypt. they were the first land-surveyors. they were the first astronomers, calculating eclipses, and watching the periods of planets and constellations. they knew the rotundity of the earth, which it was supposed columbus had discovered! "the signs of the zodiac were certainly in use among the egyptians years before christ. one of the learned men of our day, who for fifty years labored to decipher the hieroglyphics of the ancients, found upon a mummy-case in the british museum a delineation of the signs of the zodiac, and the position of the planets; the date to which they pointed was the autumnal equinox of the year b.c. professor mitchell, to whom the fact was communicated, employed his assistants to ascertain the exact position of the heavenly bodies belonging to our solar system on the equinox of that year. this was done, and a diagram furnished by parties ignorant of his object, which showed that on the th of october, b.c. the moon and planets occupied the exact point in the heavens marked upon the coffin in the british museum." (goodrich's "columbus," p. .) they had clocks and dials for measuring time. they possessed gold and silver money. they were the first agriculturists of the old world, raising all the cereals, cattle, horses, sheep, etc. they manufactured linen of so fine a quality that in the days of king amasis ( years b.c.) a single thread of a garment was composed of three hundred and sixty-five minor threads. they worked in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and iron; they tempered iron to the hardness of steel. they were the first chemists. the word "chemistry" comes from chemi, and chemi means egypt. they manufactured glass and all kinds of pottery; they made boats out of earthenware; and, precisely as we are now making railroad car-wheels of paper, they manufactured vessels of paper. their dentists filled teeth with gold; their farmers hatched poultry by artificial heat. they were the first musicians; they possessed guitars, single and double pipes, cymbals, drums, lyres, harps, flutes, the sambric, ashur, etc.; they had even castanets, such as are now used in spain. in medicine and surgery they had reached such a degree of perfection that several hundred years b.c. the operation for the removal of cataract from the eye was performed among them; one of the most delicate and difficult feats of surgery, only attempted by us in the most recent times. "the papyrus of berlin" states that it was discovered, rolled up in a case, under the feet of an anubis in the town of sekhem, in the days of tet (or thoth), after whose death it was transmitted to king sent, and was then restored to the feet of the statue. king sent belonged to the second dynasty, which flourished b.c., and the papyrus was old in his day. this papyrus is a medical treatise; there are in it no incantations or charms; but it deals in reasonable remedies, draughts, unguents and injections. the later medical papyri contain a great deal of magic and incantations. "great and splendid as are the things which we know about oldest egypt, she is made a thousand times more sublime by our uncertainty as to the limits of her accomplishments. she presents not a great, definite idea, which, though hard to receive, is, when once acquired, comprehensible and clear. under the soil of the modern country are hid away thousands and thousands of relics which may astonish the world for ages to come, and change continually its conception of what egypt was. the effect of research seems to be to prove the objects of it to be much older than we thought them to be--some things thought to be wholly modern having been proved to be repetitions of things egyptian, and other things known to have been egyptian being by every advance in knowledge carried back more and more toward the very beginning of things. she shakes our most rooted ideas concerning the world's history; she has not ceased to be a puzzle and a lure: there is a spell over her still." renan says, "it has no archaic epoch." osborn says, "it bursts upon us at once in the flower of its highest perfection." seiss says ("a, miracle in stone," p. ), "it suddenly takes its place in the world in all its matchless magnificence, without father, without mother, and as clean apart from all evolution as if it had dropped from the unknown heavens." it had dropped from atlantis. rawlinson says ("origin of nations," p. ): "now, in egypt, it is notorious that there is no indication of any early period of savagery or barbarism. all the authorities agree that, however far back we go, we find in egypt no rude or uncivilized time out of which civilization is developed. menes, the first king, changes the course of the nile, makes a great reservoir, and builds the temple of phthah at memphis.... we see no barbarous customs, not even the habit, so slowly abandoned by all people, of wearing arms when not on military service." tylor says ("anthropology," p. ): "among the ancient cultured nations of egypt and assyria handicrafts had already come to a stage which could only have been reached by thousands of years of progress. in museums still may be examined the work of their joiners, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, wonderful in skill and finish, and in putting to shame the modern artificer.... to see gold jewellery of the highest order, the student should examine that of the ancients, such as the egyptian, greek, and etruscan." the carpenters' and masons' tools of the ancient egyptians were almost identical with those used among us to-day. there is a plate showing an aztec priestess in delafield's "antiquities of america," p. , which presents a head-dress strikingly egyptian. in the celebrated "tablet of the cross," at palenque, we see a cross with a bird perched upon it, to which (or to the cross) two priests are offering sacrifice. in mr. stephens's representation from the vocal memnon we find almost the same thing, the difference being that, instead of an ornamented latin cross, we have a crux commissa, and instead of one bird there are two, not on the cross, but immediately above it. in both cases the hieroglyphics, though the characters are of course different, are disposed upon the stone in much the same manner. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) even the obelisks of egypt have their counterpart in america. quoting from molina ("history of chili," tom. i., p. ), mccullough writes, "between the hills of mendoza and la punta is a pillar of stone one hundred and fifty feet high, and twelve feet in diameter." ("researches," pp. , .) the columns of copan stand detached and solitary, so do the obelisks of egypt; both are square or four-sided, and covered with sculpture. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) in a letter by jomard, quoted by delafield, we read, "i have recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the mexican nations, compared with those of asia, some very striking analogies between the toltec characters and institutions observed on the banks of the nile. among these analogies there is one which is worthy of attention--it is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary days, equally employed at thebes and mexico--a distance of three thousand leagues.... in reality, the intercalation of the mexicans being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes to the same thing as that of the julian calendar, which is one day in four years; and consequently supposes the duration of the year to be three hundred and sixty-five days six hours. now such was the length of the year among the egyptians--they intercalated an entire year of three hundred and seventy-five days every one thousand four hundred and sixty years.... the fact of the intercalation (by the mexicans) of thirteen days every cycle that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter--is a proof that it was borrowed from the egyptians, or that they had a common origin." ("antiquities of america," pp. , .) the mexican century began on the th of february, and the th of february was celebrated from the time of nabonassor, b.c., because the egyptian priests, conformably to their astronomical observations, had fixed the beginning of the month toth, and the commencement of their year, at noon on that day. the five intercalated days to make up the three hundred and sixty-five days were called by the mexicans nemontemi, or useless, and on them they transacted no business; while the egyptians, during that epoch, celebrated the festival of the birth of their gods, as attested by plutarch and others. it will be conceded that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge must have been necessary to reach the conclusion that the true year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours (modern science has demonstrated that it consists of three hundred and sixty-five days and five hours, less ten seconds); and a high degree of civilization was requisite to insist that the year must be brought around, by the intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain period of time, to its true relation to the seasons. both were the outgrowth of a vast, ancient civilization of the highest order, which transmitted some part of its astronomical knowledge to its colonies through their respective priesthoods. can we, in the presence of such facts, doubt the statements of the egyptian priests to solon, as to the glory and greatness of atlantis, its monuments, its sculpture, its laws, its religion, its civilization? in egypt we have the oldest of the old world children of atlantis; in her magnificence we have a testimony to the development attained by the parent country; by that country whose kings were the gods of succeeding nations, and whose kingdom extended to the uttermost ends of the earth. the egyptian historian, manetho, referred to a period of thirteen thousand nine hundred years as "the reign of the gods," and placed this period at the very beginning of egyptian history. these thirteen thousand nine hundred years were probably a recollection of atlantis. such a lapse of time, vast as it may appear, is but as a day compared with some of our recognized geological epochs. chapter iii. the colonies of the mississippi valley if we will suppose a civilized, maritime people to have planted colonies, in the remote past, along the headlands and shores of the gulf of mexico, spreading thence, in time, to the tablelands of mexico and to the plains and mountains of new mexico and colorado, what would be more natural than that these adventurous navigators, passing around the shores of the gulf, should, sooner or later, discover the mouth of the mississippi river; and what more certain than that they would enter it, explore it, and plant colonies along its shores, wherever they found a fertile soil and a salubrious climate. their outlying provinces would penetrate even into regions where the severity of the climate would prevent great density of population or development of civilization. the results we have presupposed are precisely those which we find to have existed at one time in the mississippi valley. the mound builders of the united states were pre-eminently a river people. their densest settlements and greatest works were near the mississippi and its tributaries. says foster ("prehistoric races," p. ), "the navigable streams were the great highways of the mound builders." mr. fontaine claims ("how the world was peopled") that this ancient people constructed "levees" to control and utilize the bayous of the mississippi for the purpose of agriculture and commerce. the yazoo river is called yazoo-okhinnah--the river of ancient ruins. "there is no evidence that they had reached the atlantic coast; no authentic remains of the mound builders are found in the new england states, nor even in the state of new york." ("north americans of antiquity," p. .) this would indicate that the civilization of this people advanced up the mississippi river and spread out over its tributaries, but did not cross the alleghany {sic} mountains. they reached, however, far up the missouri and yellowstone rivers, and thence into oregon. the head-waters of the missouri became one of their great centres of population; but their chief sites were upon the mississippi and ohio rivers. in wisconsin we find the northern central limit of their work; they seem to have occupied the southern counties of the state, and the western shores of lake michigan. their circular mounds are found in minnesota and iowa, and some very large ones in dakota. illinois and indiana were densely populated by them: it is believed that the vital centre of their colonies was near the junction of the ohio and mississippi rivers. the chief characteristic of the mound builders was that from which they derived their name--the creation of great structures of earth or stone, not unlike the pyramids of mexico and egypt. between alton and east st. louis is the great mound of cahokia, which may be selected as a type of their works: it rises ninety-seven feet high, while its square sides are and feet respectively. there was a terrace on the south side by feet, reached by a graded way; the summit of the pyramid is flattened, affording a platform by feet. it will thus be seen that the area covered by the mound of cahokia is about as large as that of the greatest pyramid of egypt, cheops, although its height is much less. the number of monuments left by the mound builders is extraordinarily great. in ohio alone there are more than ten thousand tumuli, and from one thousand to fifteen hundred enclosures. their mounds were not cones but four-sided pyramids--their sides, like those of the egyptian pyramids, corresponding with the cardinal points. (foster's "prehistoric races," p. .) the mound builders had attained a considerable degree of civilization; they were able to form, in the construction of their works, perfect circles and perfect squares of great accuracy, carried over the varying surface of the country. one large enclosure comprises exactly forty acres. at hopetown, ohio, are two walled figures--one a square, the other a circle--each containing precisely twenty acres. they must have possessed regular scales of measurement, and the means of determining angles and of computing the area to be enclosed by the square and the circle, so that the space enclosed by each might exactly correspond. "the most skilful engineer of this day would find it difficult," says mr. squier, "without the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate square of the great dimensions above represented, measuring, as they do, more than four-fifths of a mile in circumference.... but we not only find accurate squares and perfect circles, but also, as we have seen, octagons of great dimensions." they also possessed an accurate system of weights; bracelets of copper on the arms of a skeleton have been found to be of uniform size, measuring each two and nine-tenth inches, and each weighing precisely four ounces. they built great military works surrounded by walls and ditches, with artificial lakes in the centre to supply water. one work, fort ancient, on the little miami river, ohio, has a circuit of between four and five miles; the embankment was twenty feet high; the fort could have held a garrison of sixty thousand men with their families and provisions. not only do we find pyramidal structures of earth in the mississippi valley very much like the pyramids of egypt, mexico, and peru, but a very singular structure is repeated in ohio and peru: i refer to the double walls or prolonged pyramids, if i may coin an expression, shown in the cut page . grand way near piketon, ohio. the mound builders possessed chains of fortifications reaching from the southern line of new york diagonally across the country, through central and northern ohio to the wabash. it would appear probable, therefore, that while they walls at gran-chimu, peru. advanced from the south it was from the north-east the savage races came who drove them south or exterminated them. at marietta, ohio, we find a combination of the cross and pyramid. (see p. , ante.) at newark, ohio, are extensive cross and pyramid mound, ohio. and intricate works: they occupy an area two miles square, embraced within embankments twelve miles long. one of the mounds is a threefold symbol, like a bird's foot; the central mound is feet long, and the other two each feet it length. is this curious design a reminiscence of atlantis and the three-pronged trident of poseidon? (see th fig., p. , ante.) the mound builders made sun-dried brick mixed with rushes, as the egyptians made sun-dried bricks mixed with straw; they worked in copper, silver, lead, and there are evidences, as we shall see, that they wrought even in iron. copper implements are very numerous in the mounds. copper axes, spear-heads, hollow buttons, bosses for ornaments, bracelets, rings, etc., are found in very many of them strikingly similar to those of the bronze age in europe. in one in butler county, ohio, was found a copper fillet around the head of a skeleton, with strange devices marked upon it. silver ornaments have also been found, but not in such great numbers. they seem to have attached a high value to silver, and it is often found in thin sheets, no thicker than paper, wrapped over copper or stone ornaments so neatly as almost to escape detection. the great esteem in which they held a metal so intrinsically valueless as silver, is another evidence that they must have drawn their superstitions from the same source as the european nations. copper is also often found in this manner plated over stone pipes, presenting an unbroken metallic lustre, the overlapping edges so well polished as to be scarcely discoverable. beads and stars made of shells have sometimes been found doubly plated, first with copper then with silver. the mound builders also understood the art of casting metals, or they held intercourse with some race who did; a copper axe it "cast" has been found in the state of new york. (see lubbock's "prehistoric times," p. , note.) professor foster ("prehistoric races," p. ) also proves that the ancient people of the mississippi valley possessed this art, and he gives us representations of various articles plainly showing the marks of the mould upon them. a rude article in the shape of an axe, composed of pure lead, weighing about half a pound, was found in sinking a well within the trench of the ancient works at circleville. there can be no doubt it was the production of the mound builders, as galena has often been found on the altars in the mounds. it has been generally thought, by mr. squier and others, that there were no evidences that the mound builders were acquainted with the use of iron, or that their plating was more than a simple overlaying of one metal on another, or on some foreign substance. some years since, however, a mound was opened at marietta, ohio, which seems to have refuted these opinions. dr. s. p. hildreth, in a letter to the american antiquarian society, thus speaks of it: "lying immediately over or on the forehead of the body were found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or buckler; they are composed of copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver. the fronts are slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and they measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. on the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates by which they were fastened to the leather. two small pieces of leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of a mummy, and seem to have been preserved by the salts of copper. near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it is six inches in length, two in breadth, and weighs one ounce. it seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which remain in the silver. "two or three pieces of copper tube were also found, filled with iron rust. these pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. no signs of the sword itself were discovered, except the rust above mentioned. "the mound had every appearance of being as old as any in the neighborhood, and was at the first settlement of marietta covered with large trees. it seems to have been made for this single personage, as this skeleton alone was discovered. the bones were very much decayed, and many of them crumbled to dust upon exposure to the air." mr. squier says, "these articles have been critically examined, and it is beyond doubt that the copper bosses were absolutely plated, not simply overlaid, with silver. between the copper and the silver exists a connection such as, it seems to me, could only be produced by heat; and if it is admitted that these are genuine relics of the mound builders, it must, at the same time, be admitted that they possessed the difficult art of plating one metal upon another. there is but one alternative, viz., that they had occasional or constant intercourse with a people advanced in the arts, from whom these articles were obtained. again, if dr. hildreth is not mistaken, oxydized iron or steel was also discovered in connection with the above remains, from which also follows the extraordinary conclusion that the mound builders were acquainted with the use of iron, the conclusion being, of course, subject to the improbable alternative already mentioned." in connection with this subject, we would refer to the interesting evidences that the copper mines of the shore of lake superior had been at some very remote period worked by the mound builders. there were found deep excavations, with rude ladders, huge masses of rock broken off, also numerous stone tools, and all the evidences of extensive and long-continued labor. it is even said that the great ontonagon mass of pure copper which is now in washington was excavated by these ancient miners, and that when first found its surface showed numerous marks of their tools. there seems to be no doubt, then, that the mound builders were familiar with the use of copper, silver, and lead, and in all probability of iron. they possessed various mechanical contrivances. they were very probably acquainted with the lathe. beads of shell have been found looking very much like ivory, and showing the circular striæ, identical with those produced by turning in a lathe. in a mound on the scioto river was found around the neck of a skeleton triple rows of beads, made of marine shells and the tusks of some animal. "several of these," says squier, "still retain their polish, and bear marks which seem to indicate that they were turned in some machine, instead of being carved or rubbed into shape by hand." "not among the least interesting and remarkable relics," continues the same author, "obtained from the mounds are the stone tubes. they are all carved from fine-grained materials, capable of receiving a polish, and being made ornamental as well as useful. the finest specimen yet discovered, and which can scarcely be surpassed in the delicacy of its workmanship, was found in a mound in the immediate vicinity of chillicothe. it is composed of a compact variety of slate. this stone cuts with great clearness, and receives a fine though not glaring polish. the tube under notice is thirteen inches long by one and one-tenth in diameter; one end swells slightly, and the other terminates in a broad, flattened, triangular mouth-piece of fine proportions, which is carved with mathematical precision. it is drilled throughout; the bore is seven-tenths of an inch in diameter at the cylindrical end of the tube, and retains that calibre until it reaches the point where the cylinder subsides into the mouth-piece, when it contracts gradually to one-tenth of an inch. the inner surface of the tube is perfectly smooth till within a short distance of the point of contraction. for the remaining distance the circular striæ, formed by the drill in boring, are distinctly marked. the carving upon it is very fine." that they possessed saws is proved by the fact that on some fossil teeth found in one of the mounds the striæ of the teeth of the saw could be distinctly perceived. when we consider that some of their porphyry carvings will turn the edge of the best-tempered knife, we are forced to conclude that they possessed that singular process, known to the mexicans and peruvians of tempering copper to the hardness of steel. we find in the mounds adzes similar in shape to our own, with the edges bevelled from the inside. drills and gravers of copper have also been found, with chisel-shaped edges or sharp points. "it is not impossible," says squier, "but, on the contrary, very probable, from a close inspection of the mound pottery, that the ancient people possessed the simple approximation toward the potter's wheel; and the polish which some of the finer vessels possess is due to other causes than vitrification." their sculptures show a considerable degree of progress. they consist of figures of birds, animals, reptiles, and the faces of men, carved from various kinds of stones, upon the bowls of pipes, upon toys, upon rings, and in distinct and separate figures. we give the opinions of those who have examined them. mr. squier observes: "various though not abundant specimens of their skill have been recovered, which in elegance of model, delicacy, and finish, as also in fineness of material, come fully up to the best peruvian specimens, to which they bear, in many respects, a close resemblance. the bowls of most of the stone pipes are carved in miniature figures of animals, birds, reptiles, etc. all of them are executed with strict fidelity to nature, and with exquisite skill. not only are the features of the objects faithfully represented, but their peculiarities and habits are in some degree exhibited.... the two heads here presented, intended to represent the eagle, are far superior in point of finish, spirit, and truthfulness, to any miniature carvings, ancient or modern, which have fallen under the notice of the authors. the peculiar defiant expression of the king of birds is admirably preserved in the carving, which in this respect, more than any other, displays the skill of the artist." from the mounds of the ohio valley traces of cloth with "doubled and twisted fibre" have been found in the mounds; also matting; also shuttle-like tablets, used in weaving. there have also been found numerous musical pipes, with mouth-pieces and stops; lovers' pipes, curiously and delicately carved, reminding us of bryant's lines-- "till twilight came, and lovers walked and wooed in a forgotten language; and old tunes, from instruments of unremembered forms, gave the soft winds a voice." there is evidence which goes to prove that the mound builders had relations with the people of a semi-tropical region in the direction of atlantis. among their sculptures, in ohio, we find accurate representations of the lamantine, manatee, or sea-cow--found to-day on the shores of florida, brazil, and central america--and of the toucan, a tropical and almost exclusively south american bird. sea-shells from the gulf, pearls from the atlantic, and obsidian from mexico, have also been found side by side in their mounds. the antiquity of their works is now generally conceded. "from the ruins of nineveh and babylon," says mr. gliddon, "we have bones of at least two thousand five hundred years old; from the pyramids and the catacombs of egypt both mummied and unmummied crania have been taken, of still higher antiquity, in perfect preservation; nevertheless, the skeletons deposited in our indian mounds, from the lakes to the gulf, are crumbling into dust through age alone." all the evidence points to the conclusion that civilized or semi-civilized man has dwelt on the western continent from a vast antiquity. maize, tobacco, quinoa, and the mandico plants have been cultivated so long that their wild originals have quite disappeared. "the only species of palm cultivated by the south american indians, that known as the gulielma speciosa, has lost through that culture its original nut-like seed, and is dependent on the hands of its cultivators for its life. alluding to the above-named plants dr. brinton ("myths of the new world," p. ) remarks, 'several are sure to perish unless fostered by human care. what numberless ages does this suggest? how many centuries elapsed ere man thought of cultivating indian corn? how many more ere it had spread over nearly a hundred degrees of latitude and lost all resemblance to its original form?' in the animal kingdom certain animals were domesticated by the aborigines from so remote a period that scarcely any of their species, as in the case of the lama of peru, were to be found in a state of unrestrained freedom at the advent of the spaniards." (short's "north americans of antiquity," p. .) the most ancient remains of man found in europe are distinguished by a flattening of the tibia; and this peculiarity is found to be present in an exaggerated form in some of the american mounds. this also points to a high antiquity. "none of the works, mounds, or enclosures are found on the lowest formed of the river terraces which mark the subsidence of the streams, and as there is no good reason why their builders should have avoided erecting them on that terrace while they raised them promiscuously on all the others, it follows, not unreasonably, that this terrace has been formed since the works were erected." (baldwin's "ancient america," p. .) we have given some illustrations showing the similarity between the works of the mound builders and those of the stone and bronze age in europe. (see pp. , , , , , , ante.) the mound builders retreated southward toward mexico, and probably arrived there some time between a.d. and a.d. , under the name of nahuas. they called the region they left in the mississippi valley "hue hue tlapalan"--the old, old red land--in allusion, probably, to the red-clay soil of part of the country. in the mounds we find many works of copper but none of bronze. this may indicate one of two things: either the colonies which settled the mississippi valley may have left atlantis prior to the discovery of the art of manufacturing bronze, by mixing one part of tin with nine parts of copper, or, which is more probable, the manufactures of the mound builders may have been made on the spot; and as they had no tin within their territory they used copper alone, except, it may be, for such tools as were needed to carve stone, and these, perhaps, were hardened with tin. it is known that the mexicans possessed the art of manufacturing true bronze; and the intercourse which evidently existed between mexico and the mississippi valley, as proved by the presence of implements of obsidian in the mounds of ohio, renders it probable that the same commerce which brought them obsidian brought them also small quantities of tin, or tin-hardened copper implements necessary for their sculptures. the proofs, then, of the connection of the mound builders with atlantis are: . their race identity with the nations of central america who possessed flood legends, and whose traditions all point to an eastern, over-sea origin; while the many evidences of their race identity with the ancient peruvians indicate that they were part of one great movement of the human race, extending from the andes to lake superior, and, as i believe, from atlantis to india. . the similarity of their civilization, and their works of stone and bronze, with the civilization of the bronze age in europe. . the presence of great truncated mounds, kindred to the pyramids of central america, mexico, egypt, and india. . the representation of tropical animals, which point to an intercourse with the regions around the gulf of mexico, where the atlanteans were colonized. . the fact that the settlements of the mound builders were confined to the valley of the mississippi, and were apparently densest at those points where a population advancing up that, stream would first reach high, healthy, and fertile lands. . the hostile nations which attacked them came from the north; and when the mound builders could no longer hold the country, or when atlantis sank in the sea, they retreated in the direction whence they came, and fell back upon their kindred races in central america, as the roman troops in gaul and britain drew southward upon the destruction of rome. . the natchez indians, who are supposed to have descended from the mound builders, kept a perpetual fire burning before an altar, watched by old men who were a sort of priesthood, as in europe. . if the tablet said to have been found in a mound near davenport, iowa, is genuine, which appears probable, the mound builders must either have possessed an alphabet, or have held intercourse with some people who did. (see "north americans of antiquity," p. .) this singular relic exhibits what appears to be a sacrificial mound with a fire upon it; over it are the sun, moon, and stars, and above these a mass of hieroglyphics which bear some resemblance to the letters of european alphabets, and especially to that unknown alphabet which appears upon the inscribed bronze celt found near rome. (see p. of this work.) for instance, one of the letters on the celt is this, ###; on the davenport tablet we find this sign, ###; on the celt we have ###; on the tablet, ###; on the celt we have ###; on the tablet, ###. chapter iv. the iberian colonies of atlantis at the farthest point in the past to which human knowledge extends a race called iberian inhabited the entire peninsula of spain, from the mediterranean to the pyrenees. they also extended over the southern part of gaul as far as the rhone. "it is thought that the iberians from atlantis and the north-west part of africa," says winchell, "settled in the south-west of europe at a period earlier than the settlement of the egyptians in the north-east of africa. the iberians spread themselves over spain, gaul, and the british islands as early as or b.c.... the fourth dynasty (of the egyptians), according to brugsch, dates from about b.c. at this time the iberians had become sufficiently powerful to attempt the conquest of the known world." ("preadamites," p. .) "the libyan-amazons of diodorus--that is to say, the libyans of the iberian race--must be identified with the libyans with brown and grizzly skin, of whom brugsch has already pointed out the representations figured on the egyptian monuments of the fourth dynasty." (ibid.) the iberians, known as sicanes, colonized sicily in the ancient days. they were the original settlers in italy and sardinia. they are probably the source of the dark-haired stock in norway and sweden. bodichon claims that the iberians embraced the ligurians, cantabrians, asturians, and aquitanians. strabo says, speaking of the turduli and turdetani, "they are the most cultivated of all the iberians; they employ the art of writing, and have written books containing memorials of ancient times, and also poems and laws set in verse, for which they claim an antiquity of six thousand years." (strabo, lib. iii., p. .) the iberians are represented to-day by the basques. the basque are "of middle size, compactly built, robust and agile, of a darker complexion than the spaniards, with gray eyes and black hair. they are simple but proud, impetuous, merry, and hospitable. the women are beautiful, skilful in performing men's work, and remarkable for their vivacity and grace. the basques are much attached to dancing, and are very fond of the music of the bagpipe." ("new american cyclopædia," art. basques.) "according to paul broca their language stands quite alone, or has mere analogies with the american type. of all europeans, we must provisionally hold the basques to be the oldest inhabitants of our quarter of the world." (peschel, "races of men," p. .) the basque language--the euscara--"has some common traits with the magyar, osmanli, and other dialects of the altai family, as, for instance, with the finnic on the old continent, as well as the algonquin-lenape language and some others in america." ("new american cyclopædia," art. basques.) duponceau says of the basque tongue: "this language, preserved in a corner of europe by a few thousand mountaineers, is the sole remaining fragment of, perhaps, a hundred dialects constructed on the same plan, which probably existed and were universally spoken at a remote period in that quarter of the world. like the bones of the mammoth, it remains a monument of the destruction produced by a succession of ages. it stands single and alone of its kind, surrounded by idioms that have no affinity with it." we have seen them settling, in the earliest ages, in ireland. they also formed the base of the dark-haired population of england and scotland. they seem to have race affinities with the berbers, on the mediterranean coast of africa. dr. bodichon, for fifteen years a surgeon in algiers, says: "persons who have inhabited brittany, and then go to algeria, are struck with the resemblance between the ancient armoricans (the brètons) and the cabyles (of algiers). in fact, the moral and physical character is identical. the breton of pure blood has a long head, light yellow complexion of bistre tinge, eyes black or brown, stature short, and the black hair of the cabyle. like him, he instinctively hates strangers; in both are the same perverseness and obstinacy, same endurance of fatigue, same love of independence, same inflexion of the voice, same expression of feelings. listen to a cabyle speaking his native tongue, and you will think you bear a breton talking celtic." the bretons, he tells us, form a strong contrast to the people around them, who are "celts of tall stature, with blue eyes, white skins, and blond hair: they are communicative, impetuous, versatile; they pass rapidly from courage to despair. the bretons are entirely different: they are taciturn, hold strongly to their ideas and usages, are persevering and melancholic; in a word, both in morale and physique they present the type of a southern race--of the atlanteans." by atlanteans dr. bodichon refers to the inhabitants of the barbary states--that being one of the names by which they were known to the greeks and romans. he adds: "the atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations--to the egyptians, for example. in other words, the atlanteans were the first known navigators. like all navigators, they must have planted colonies at a distance. the bretons, in our opinion, sprung from one of them." neptune was poseidon, according to plato, founder of atlantis. i could multiply proofs of the close relationship between the people of the bronze age of europe and the ancient inhabitants of northern africa, which should be read remembering that "connecting ridge" which, according to the deep-sea soundings, united africa and atlantis. chapter v. the peruvian colony. if we look at the map of atlantis, as revealed by the deep sea soundings, we will find that it approaches at one point, by its connecting ridge, quite closely to the shore of south america, above the mouth of the amazon, and that probably it was originally connected with it. if the population of atlantis expanded westwardly, it naturally found its way in its ships up the magnificent valley of the amazon and its tributaries; and, passing by the low and fever-stricken lands of brazil, it rested not until it had reached the high, fertile, beautiful, and healthful regions of bolivia, from which it would eventually cross the mountains into peru. here it would establish its outlying colonies at the terminus of its western line of advance, arrested only by the pacific ocean, precisely as we have seen it advancing up the valley of the mississippi, and carrying on its mining operations on the shores of lake superior; precisely as we have seen it going eastward up the mediterranean, past the dardanelles, and founding aryan, hamitic, and probably turanian colonies on the farther shores of the black sea and on the caspian. this is the universal empire over which, the hindoo books tell us, deva nahusha was ruler; this was "the great and aggressive empire" to which plato alludes; this was the mighty kingdom, embracing the whole of the then known world, from which the greeks obtained their conception of the universal father of all men in king zeus. and in this universal empire señor lopez must find an explanation of the similarity which, as we shall show, exists between the speech of the south american pacific coast on the one hand, and the speech of gaul, ireland, england, italy, greece, bactria, and hindostan on the other. montesino tells us that at some time near the date of the deluge, in other words, in the highest antiquity, america was invaded by a people with four leaders, named ayar-manco-topa, ayar-chaki, ayar-aucca, and ayar-uyssu. "ayar," says señor lopez, "is the sanscrit ajar, or aje, and means primitive chief; and manco, chaki, aucca, and uyssu, mean believers, wanderers, soldiers, husbandmen. we have here a tradition of castes like that preserved in the four tribal names of athens." the laboring class (naturally enough in a new colony) obtained the supremacy, and its leader was named pirhua-manco, revealer of pir, light (p[~u]r, umbrian pir). do the laws which control the changes of language, by which a labial succeeds a labial, indicate that the mero or merou of theopompus, the name of atlantis, was carried by the colonists of atlantis to south america (as the name of old york was transplanted in a later age to new york), and became in time pérou or peru? was not the nubian "island of merou," with its pyramids built by "red men," a similar transplantation? and when the hindoo priest points to his sacred emblem with five projecting points upon it, and tells us that they typify "mero and the four quarters of the world," does he not refer to atlantis and its ancient universal empire? manco, in the names of the peruvian colonists, it has been urged, was the same as mannus, mann, and the santhal maniko. it reminds us of menes, minos, etc., who are found at the beginning of so many of the old world traditions. the quichuas--this invading people--were originally a fair skinned race, with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair; they had regular features, large heads, and large bodies. their descendants are to this day an olive-skinned people, much lighter in color than the indian tribes subjugated by them. they were a great race. peru, as it was known to the spaniards, held very much the same relation to the ancient quichua civilization as england in the sixteenth century held to the civilization of the empire of the cæsars. the incas were simply an offshoot, who, descending from the mountains, subdued the rude races of the sea-coast, and imposed their ancient civilization upon them. the quichua nation extended at one time over a region of country more than two thousand miles long. this whole region, when the spaniards arrived, "was a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and presenting a notable development of some of the more important arts of civilized life." (baldwin's "ancient america," p. .) the companions of pizarro found everywhere the evidences of a civilization of vast antiquity. cieça de leon mentions "great edifices" that were in ruins at tiahuanaca, "an artificial hill raised on a groundwork of stone," and "two stone idols, apparently made by skilful artificers," ten or twelve feet high, clothed in long robes. "in this place, also," says de leon, "there are stones so large and so overgrown that our wonder is excited, it being incomprehensible how the power of man could have placed them where we see them. they are variously wrought, and some of them, having the form of men, must have been idols. near the walls are many caves and excavations under the earth; but in another place, farther west, are other and greater monuments, such as large gate-ways with hinges, platforms, and porches, each made of a single stone. it surprised me to see these enormous gate-ways, made of great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen high, and six thick." the capital of the chimus of northern peru at gran-chimu was conquered by the incas after a long and bloody struggle, and the capital was given up to barbaric ravage and spoliation. but its remains exist to-day, the marvel of the southern continent, covering not less than twenty square miles. tombs, temples, and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable. immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a mile in circuit; vast areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water-tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of civilization, existed in the ancient chimu capital. one of the great pyramids, called the "temple of the sun," is feet long by wide, and high. these vast structures have been ruined for centuries, but still the work of excavation is going on. one of the centres of the ancient quichua civilization was around lake titicaca. the buildings here, as throughout peru, were all constructed of hewn stone, and had doors and windows with posts, sills, and thresholds of stone. at cuelap, in northern peru, remarkable ruins were found. "they consist of a wall of wrought stones feet long, broad, and high, constituting a solid mass with a level summit. on this mass was another feet long, broad, and high," making an aggregate height of three hundred feet! in it were rooms and cells which were used as tombs. very ancient ruins, showing remains of large and remarkable edifices, were found near huamanga, and described by cieça de leon. the native traditions said this city was built "by bearded white men, who came there long before the time of the incas, and established a settlement." "the peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with notable skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very substantial." one extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers. think of a stone aqueduct reaching from the city of new york to the state of north carolina! the public roads of the peruvians were most remarkable; they were built on masonry. one of these roads ran along the mountains through the whole length of the empire, from quito to chili; another, starting from this at cuzco, went down to the coast, and extended northward to the equator. these roads were from twenty to twenty-five feet wide, were macadamized with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement, and were walled in by strong walls "more than a fathom in thickness." in many places these roads were cut for leagues through the rock; great ravines were filled up with solid masonry; rivers were crossed by suspension bridges, used here ages before their introduction into europe. says baldwin, "the builders of our pacific railroad, with their superior engineering skill and mechanical appliances, might reasonably shrink from the cost and the difficulties of such a work as this. extending from one degree north of quito to cuzco, and from cuzco to chili, it was quite as long as the two pacific railroads, and its wild route among the mountains was far more difficult." sarmiento, describing it, said, "it seems to me that if the emperor (charles v.) should see fit to order the construction of another road like that which leads from quito to cuzco, or that which from cuzco goes toward chili, i certainly think he would not be able to make it, with all his power." humboldt said, "this road was marvellous; none of the roman roads i had seen in italy, in the south of france, or in spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the ancient peruvians." along these great roads caravansaries were established for the accommodation of travellers. these roads were ancient in the time of the incas. they were the work of the white, auburn-haired, bearded men from atlantis, thousands of years before the time of the incas. when huayna capac marched his army over the main road to invade quito, it was so old and decayed "that he found great difficulties in the passage," and he immediately ordered the necessary reconstructions. it is not necessary, in a work of this kind, to give a detailed description of the arts and civilization of the peruvians. they were simply marvellous. their works in cotton and wool exceeded in fineness anything known in europe at that time. they had carried irrigation, agriculture, and the cutting of gems to a point equal to that of the old world. their accumulations of the precious metals exceeded anything previously known in the history of the world. in the course of twenty-five years after the conquest the spaniards sent from peru to spain more than eight hundred millions of dollars of gold, nearly all of it taken from the peruvians as "booty." in one of their palaces "they had an artificial garden, the soil of which was made of small pieces of fine gold, and this was artificially planted with different kinds of maize, which were of gold, their stems, leaves, and ears. besides this, they had more than twenty sheep (llamas) with their lambs, attended by shepherds, all made of gold." in a description of one lot of golden articles, sent to spain in by pizarro, there is mention of "four llamas, ten statues of women of full size, and a cistern of gold, so curious that it excited the wonder of all." can any one read these details and declare plato's description of atlantis to be fabulous, simply because he tells us of the enormous quantities of gold and silver possessed by the people? atlantis was the older country, the parent country, the more civilized country; and, doubtless, like the peruvians, its people regarded the precious metals as sacred to their gods; and they had been accumulating them from all parts of the world for countless ages. if the story of plato is true, there now lies beneath the waters of the atlantic, covered, doubtless, by hundreds of feet of volcanic débris, an amount of gold and silver exceeding many times that brought to europe from peru, mexico, and central america since the time of columbus; a treasure which, if brought to light, would revolutionize the financial values of the world. i have already shown, in the chapter upon the similarities between the civilizations of the old and new worlds, some of the remarkable coincidences which existed between the peruvians and the ancient european races; i will again briefly, refer to a few of them: . they worshipped the sun, moon, and planets. . they believed in the immortality of the soul. . they believed in the resurrection of the body, and accordingly embalmed their dead. . the priest examined the entrails of the animals offered in sacrifice, and, like the roman augurs, divined the future from their appearance. . they had an order of women vowed to celibacy--vestal virgins-nuns; and a violation of their vow was punished, in both continents, by their being buried alive. . they divided the year into twelve months. . their enumeration was by tens; the people were divided into decades and hundreds, like the anglo-saxons; and the whole nation into bodies of , , and , , with a governor over each. . they possessed castes; and the trade of the father descended to the son, as in india. . they had bards and minstrels, who sung at the great festivals. . their weapons were the same as those of the old world, and made after the same pattern. . they drank toasts and invoked blessings. . they built triumphal arches for their returning heroes, and strewed the road before them with leaves and flowers. . they used sedan-chairs. . they regarded agriculture as the principal interest of the nation, and held great agricultural fairs and festivals for the interchange of the productions of the farmers. . the king opened the agricultural season by a great celebration, and, like the kings of egypt, he put his hand to the plough, and ploughed the first furrow. . they had an order of knighthood, in which the candidate knelt before the king; his sandals were put on by a nobleman, very much as the spurs were buckled on the european knight; he was then allowed to use the girdle or sash around the loins, corresponding to the toga virilis of the romans; he was then crowned with flowers. according to fernandez, the candidates wore white shirts, like the knights of the middle ages, with a cross embroidered in front. . there was a striking resemblance between the architecture of the peruvians and that of some of the nations of the old world. it is enough for me to quote mr. ferguson's words, that the coincidence between the buildings of the incas and the cyclopean remains attributed to the pelasgians in italy and greece "is the most remarkable in the history of architecture." owl-headed vases, troy and peru the illustrations on page strikingly confirm mr. ferguson's views. "the sloping jambs, the window cornice, the polygonal masonry, and other forms so closely resemble what is found in the old pelasgic cities of greece and italy, that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that there may be some relation between them." even the mode of decorating their palaces and temples finds a parallel in the old world. a recent writer says: "we may end by observing, what seems to have escaped señor lopez, that the interior of an inca palace, with its walls covered with gold, as described by spaniards, with its artificial golden flowers and golden beasts, must have been exactly like the interior of the house of alkinous or menelaus-- "'the doors were framed of gold, where underneath the brazen floor doth glass silver pilasters, which with grace uphold lintel of silver framed; the ring was burnished gold, and dogs on each side of the door there stand, silver and golden.'" "i can personally testify" (says winchell, "preadamites," p. ) "that a study of ancient peruvian pottery has constantly reminded me of forms with which we are familiar in egyptian archæology." dr. schliemann, in his excavations of the ruins of troy, found a number of what he calls "owl-headed idols" and vases. i give specimens on page and page . in peru we find vases with very much the same style of face. i might pursue those parallels much farther; but it seems to me that these extraordinary coincidences must have arisen either from identity of origin or long-continued ancient intercourse. there can be little doubt that a fair-skinned, light-haired, bearded race, holding the religion which plato says prevailed in atlantis, carried an atlantean civilization at an early day up the valley of the amazon to the heights of bolivia and peru, precisely as a similar emigration of aryans went westward to the shores of the mediterranean and caspian, and it is very likely that these diverse migrations habitually spoke the same language. señor vincente lopez, a spanish gentleman of montevideo, in published a work entitled "les races aryennes in pérou," in which he attempts to prove that the great quichua language, which the incas imposed on their subjects over a vast extent of territory, and which is still a living tongue in peru and bolivia, is really a branch of the great aryan or indo-european speech. i quote andrew lang's summary of the proofs on this point: owl-headed vase, troy "señor lopez's view, that the peruvians were aryans who left the parent stock long before the teutonic or hellenic races entered europe, is supported by arguments drawn from language, from the traces of institutions, from religious beliefs, from legendary records, and artistic remains. the evidence from language is treated scientifically, and not as a kind of ingenious guessing. señor lopez first combats the idea that the living dialect of peru is barbarous and fluctuating. it is not one of the casual and shifting forms of speech produced by nomad races. to which of the stages of language does this belong--the agglutinative, in which one root is fastened on to another, and a word is formed in which the constitutive elements are obviously distinct, or the inflexional, where the auxiliary roots get worn down and are only distinguishable by the philologist? as all known aryan tongues are inflexional, señor lopez may appear to contradict himself when he says that quichua is an agglutinative aryan language. but he quotes mr. max müller's opinion that there must have been a time when the germs of aryan tongues had not yet reached the inflexional stage, and shows that while the form of quichua is agglutinative, as in turanian, the roots of words are aryan. if this be so, quichua may be a linguistic missing link. "when we first look at quichua, with its multitude of words, beginning with hu, and its great preponderance of q's, it seems almost as odd as mexican. but many of these forms are due to a scanty alphabet, and really express familiar sounds; and many, again, result from the casual spelling of the spaniards. we must now examine some of the forms which aryan roots are supposed to take in quichua. in the first place, quichua abhors the shock of two consonants. thus, a word like ple'w in greek would be unpleasant to the peruvian's ear, and he says pillui, 'i sail.' the plu, again, in pluma, a feather, is said to be found in pillu, 'to fly.' quichua has no v, any more than greek has, and just as the greeks had to spell roman words beginning with v with ou, like valerius--ou?ale'rios--so, where sanscrit has v, quichua has sometimes hu. here is a list of words in hu: +----------------------+----------------------------+ | quichua. | sanscrit. | +----------------------+----------------------------+ | huakia, to call. | vacc, to speak. | +----------------------+----------------------------+ | huasi, a house. | vas, to inhabit. | +----------------------+----------------------------+ | huayra, air, au?'ra. | vâ, to breathe. | +----------------------+----------------------------+ | huasa, the back. | vas, to be able (pouvoir). | +----------------------+----------------------------+ "there is a sanscrit root, kr, to act, to do: this root is found in more than three hundred names of peoples and places in southern america. thus there are the caribs, whose name may have the same origin as that of our old friends the carians, and mean the braves, and their land the home of the braves, like kaleva-la, in finnish. the same root gives kara, the hand, the greek xei'r, and kkalli, brave, which a person of fancy may connect with kalo's. again, quichua has an 'alpha privative'--thus a-stani means 'i change a thing's place;' for ni or mi is the first person singular, and, added to the root of a verb, is the sign of the first person of the present indicative. for instance, can means being, and can-mi, or cani, is 'i am.' in the same way munanmi, or munani, is 'i love,' and apanmi, or apani, 'i carry.' so lord strangford was wrong when he supposed that the last verb in mi lived with the last patriot in lithuania. peru has stores of a grammatical form which has happily perished in europe. it is impossible to do more than refer to the supposed aryan roots contained in the glossary, but it may be noticed that the future of the quichuan verb is formed in s--i love, munani; i shall love, munasa--and that the affixes denoting cases in the noun are curiously like the greek prepositions." the resemblance between the quichua and mandan words for i or me--mi--will here be observed. very recently dr. rudolf falb has announced (neue freie presse, of vienna) that he has discovered that the relation of the quichua and aimara languages to the aryan and semitic tongues is very close; that, in fact, they "exhibit the most astounding affinities with the semitic tongue, and particularly the arabic," in which tongue dr. falb has been skilled from his boyhood. following up the lines of this discovery, dr. falb has found ( ) a connecting link with the aryan roots, and ( ) has ultimately arrived face to face with the surprising revelation that "the semitic roots are universally aryan." the common stems of all the variants are found in their purest condition in quichua and aimara, from which fact dr. falb derives the conclusion that the high plains of peru and bolivia must be regarded as the point of exit of the present human race. [since the above was written i have received a letter from dr. falb, dated leipsic, april th, . scholars will be glad to learn that dr. falb's great work on the relationship of the aryan and semitic languages to the quichua and aimara tongues will be published in a year or two; the manuscript contains over two thousand pages, and dr. falb has devoted to it ten years of study. a work from such a source, upon so curious and important a subject, will be looked for with great interest.] but it is impossible that the quichuas and aimaras could have passed across the wide atlantic to europe if there had been no stepping-stone in the shape of atlantis with its bridge-like ridges connecting the two continents. it is, however, more reasonable to suppose that the quichuas and aimaras were a race of emigrants from plato's island than to think that atlantis was populated from south america. the very traditions to which we have referred as existing among the peruvians, that the civilized race were white and bearded, and that they entered or invaded the country, would show that civilization did not originate in peru, but was a transplantation from abroad, and only in the direction of atlantis can we look for a white and bearded race. in fact, kindred races, with the same arts, and speaking the same tongue in an early age of the world, separated in atlantis and went east and west--the one to repeat the civilization of the mother-country along the shores of the mediterranean sea, which, like a great river, may be said to flow out from the black sea, with the nile as one of its tributaries, and along the shores of the red sea and the persian gulf; while the other emigration advanced up the amazon, and created mighty nations upon its head-waters in the valleys of the andes and on the shores of the pacific. chapter vi. the african colonies. africa, like europe and america, evidences a commingling of different stocks: the blacks are not all black, nor all woolly-haired; the africans pass through all shades, from that of a light berber, no darker than the spaniard, to the deep black of the iolofs, between senegal and gambia. the traces of red men or copper-colored races are found in many parts of the continent. prichard divides the true negroes into four classes; his second class is thus described: " . other tribes have forms and features like the european; their complexion is black, or a deep olive, or a copper color approaching to black, while their hair, though often crisp and frizzled, is not in the least woolly. such are the bishari and danekil and hazorta, and the darkest of the abyssinians. "the complexion and hair of the abyssinians vary very much, their complexion ranging from almost white to dark brown or black, and their hair from straight to crisp, frizzled, and almost woolly." (nott and gliddon, "types of mankind," p. .) "some of the nubians are copper-colored or black, with a tinge of red." (ibid., p. .) speaking of the barbary states, these authors further say (ibid., p. ): "on the northern coast of africa, between the mediterranean and the great desert, including morocco, algiers, tunis, tripoli, and benzazi, there is a continuous system of highlands, which have been included under the general term atlas--anciently atlantis, now the barbary states.... throughout barbary we encounter a peculiar group of races, subdivided into many tribes of various shades, now spread over a vast area, but which formerly had its principal and perhaps aboriginal abode along the mountain slopes of atlas.... the real name of the berbers is mazirgh, with the article prefixed or suffixed--t-amazirgh or amazirgh-t--meaning free, dominant, or 'noble race.'... we have every reason to believe the berbers existed in the remotest times, with all their essential moral and physical peculiarities.... they existed in the time of menes in the same condition in which they were discovered by phoenician navigators previously to the foundation of carthage. they are an indomitable, nomadic people, who, since the introduction of camels, have penetrated in considerable numbers into the desert, and even as far as nigritia.... some of these clans are white, others black, with woolly hair." speaking of the barbary moors, prichard says: "their figure and stature are nearly the same as those of the southern europeans, and their complexion, if darker, is only so in proportion to the higher temperature of the country. it displays great varieties." jackson says: "the men of temsena and showiah are of a strong, robust make, and of a copper color; the women are beautiful. the women of fez are fair as the europeans, but hair and eyes always dark. the women of mequinas are very beautiful, and have the red-and-white complexion of english women." spix and martins, the german travellers, depict the moors as follows: "a high forehead, an oval countenance, large, speaking, black eyes, shaded by arched and strong eyebrows, a thin, rather long, but not too pointed nose, rather broad lips, meeting in an acute angle, brownish-yellow complexion, thick, smooth, and black hair, and a stature greater than the middle height." hodgson states: "the tuarycks are a white people, of the berber race; the mozabiaks are a remarkably white people, and mixed with the bedouin arabs. the wadreagans and wurgelans are of a dark bronze, with woolly hair." the foolahs, fulbe (sing. pullo), fellani, or fellatah, are a people of west and central africa. it is the opinion of modern travellers that the foolahs are destined to become the dominant people of negro-land. in language, appearance, and history they present striking differences from the neighboring tribes, to whom they are superior in intelligence, but inferior, according to garth, in physical development. golbery describes them as "robust and courageous, of a reddish-black color, with regular features, hair longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes, and high mental capacity." dr. barth found great local differences in their physical characteristics, as bowen describes the foolahs of bomba as being some black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color, varying from dark to very bright. their features and skulls were cast in the european mould. they have a tradition that their ancestors were whites, and certain tribes call themselves white men. they came from timbuctoo, which lies to the north of their present location. the nubians and foolahs are classed as mediterraneans. they are not black, but yellowish-brown, or red-brown. the hair is not woolly but curly, and sometimes quite straight; it is either dark-brown or black, with a fuller growth of beard than the negroes. the oval face gives them a mediterranean type. their noses are prominent, their lips not puffy, and their languages have no connection with the tongues of the negroes proper. ("american cyclopædia," art. ethnology, p. .) "the cromlechs (dolmens) of algeria" was the subject of an address made by general faidherbe at the brussels international congress. he considers these structures to be simply sepulchral monuments, and, after examining five or six thousand of them, maintains that the dolmens of africa and of europe were all constructed by the same race, during their emigration from the shores of the baltic to the southern coast of the mediterranean. the author does not, however, attempt to explain the existence of these monuments in other countries--hindostan, for instance, and america. "in africa," he says, "cromlechs are called tombs of the idolaters"--the idolaters being neither romans, nor christians, nor phoenicians, but some antique race. he regards the berbers as the descendants of the primitive dolmen-builders. certain egyptian monuments tell of invasions of lower egypt one thousand five hundred years before our era by blond tribes from the west. the bones found in the cromlechs are those of a large and dolichocephalous race. general faidherbe gives the average stature (including the women) at . or . metre, while the average stature of french carabineers is only . metre. he did not find a single brachycephalous skull. the profiles indicated great intelligence. the egyptian documents already referred to call the invaders tamahu, which must have come from the invaders' own language, as it is not egyptian. the tuaregs of the present day may be regarded as the best representatives of the tamahus. they are of lofty stature, have blue eyes, and cling to the custom of bearing long swords, to be wielded by both hands. in soudan, on the banks of the niger, dwells a negro tribe ruled by a royal family (masas), who are of rather fair complexion, and claim descent from white men. masas is perhaps the same as mashash, which occurs in the egyptian documents applied to the tamahus. the masas wear the hair in the same fashion as the tamahus, and general faidherbe is inclined to think that they too are the descendants of the dolmen-builders. these people, according to my theory, were colonists from atlantis--colonists of three different races--white, yellow, and sunburnt or red. chapter vii. the irish colonies from atlantis. we have seen that beyond question spain and france owed a great part of their population to atlantis. let us turn now to ireland. we would naturally expect, in view of the geographical position of the country, to find ireland colonized at an early day by the overflowing population of atlantis. and, in fact, the irish annals tell us that their island was settled prior to the flood. in their oldest legends an account is given of three spanish fishermen who were driven by contrary winds on the coast of ireland before the deluge. after these came the formorians, who were led into the country prior to the deluge by the lady banbha, or kesair; her maiden name was h'erni, or berba; she was accompanied by fifty maidens and three men--bith, ladhra, and fintain. ladhra was their conductor, who was the first buried in hibernia. that ancient book, the "cin of drom-snechta," is quoted in the "book of ballymote" as authority for this legend. the irish annals speak of the formorians as a warlike race, who, according to the "annals of clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from cham, the son of noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world." were not these the inhabitants of atlantis, who, according to plato, carried their arms to egypt and athens, and whose subsequent destruction has been attributed to divine vengeance invoked by their arrogance and oppressions? the formorians were from atlantis. they were called fomhoraicc, f'omoraig afraic, and formoragh, which has been rendered into english as formorians. they possessed ships, and the uniform representation is that they came, as the name f'omoraig afraic indicated, from africa. but in that day africa did not mean the continent of africa, as we now understand it. major wilford, in the eighth volume of the "asiatic researches," has pointed out that africa comes from apar, aphar, apara, or aparica, terms used to signify "the west," just as we now speak of the asiatic world as "the east." when, therefore, the formorians claimed to come from africa, they simply meant that they came from the west--in other words, from atlantis--for there was no other country except america west of them. they possessed ireland from so early a period that by some of the historians they are spoken of as the aborigines of the country. the first invasion of ireland, subsequent to the coming of the formorians, was led by a chief called partholan: his people are known in the irish annals as "partholan's people." they were also probably atlanteans. they were from spain. a british prince, gulguntius, or gurmund, encountered off the hebrides a fleet of thirty ships, filled with men and women, led by one partholyan, who told him they were from spain, and seeking some place to colonize. the british prince directed him to ireland. ("de antiq. et orig. cantab.") spain in that day was the land of the iberians, the basques; that is to say, the atlanteans. the formorians defeated partholan's people, killed partholan, and drove the invaders out of the country. the formorians were a civilized race; they had "a fleet of sixty ships and a strong army." the next invader of their dominions was neimhidh; he captured one of their fortifications, but it was retaken by the formorians under "morc." neimhidh was driven out of the country, and the atlanteans continued in undisturbed possession of the island for four hundred years more. then came the fir-bolgs. they conquered the whole island, and divided it into five provinces. they held possession of the country for only thirty-seven years, when they were overthrown by the tuatha-de-dananns, a people more advanced in civilization; so much so that when their king, nuadha, lost his hand in battle, "creidne, the artificer," we are told, "put a silver hand upon him, the fingers of which were capable of motion." this great race ruled the country for one hundred and ninety-seven years: they were overthrown by an immigration from spain, probably of basques, or iberians, or atlanteans, "the sons of milidh," or milesius, who "possessed a large fleet and a strong army." this last invasion took place about the year b.c.; so that the invasion of neimhidh must have occurred about the year b.c.; while we will have to assign a still earlier date for the coming of partholan's people, and an earlier still for the occupation of the country by the formorians from the west. in the irish historic tales called "catha; or battles," as given by the learned o'curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought between the tuatha-de-dananns and the fir bolgs, from which it appears that these two races spoke the same language, and that they were intimately connected with the formorians. as the armies drew near together the fir-bolgs sent out breas, one of their great chiefs, to reconnoitre the camp of the strangers; the tuatha-de-dananns appointed one of their champions, named sreng, to meet the emissary of the enemy; the two warriors met and talked to one another over the tops of their shields, and each was delighted to find that the other spoke the same language. a battle followed, in which nunda, king of the fir-bolgs, was slain; breas succeeded him; he encountered the hostility of the bards, and was compelled to resign the crown. he went to the court of his father-in-law, elathe, a formorian sea-king or pirate; not being well received, he repaired to the camp of balor of the evil eye, a formorian chief. the formorian head-quarters seem to have been in the hebrides. breas and balor collected a vast army and navy and invaded ireland, but were defeated in a great battle by the tuatha-de-dananns. these particulars would show the race-identity of the fir-bolg and tuatha-de-dananns; and also their intimate connection, if not identity with, the formorians. the tuatha-de-dananns seem to have been a civilized people; besides possessing ships and armies and working in the metals, they had an organized body of surgeons, whose duty it was to attend upon the wounded in battle; and they had also a bardic or druid class, to preserve the history of the country and the deeds of kings and heroes. according to the ancient books of ireland the race known as "partholan's people," the nemedians, the fir-bolgs, the tuatha-de-dananns, and the milesians were all descended from two brothers, sons of magog, son of japheth, son of noah, who escaped from the catastrophe which destroyed his country. thus all these races were atlantean. they were connected with the african colonies of atlantis, the berbers, and with the egyptians. the milesians lived in egypt: they were expelled thence; they stopped a while in crete, then in scythia, then they settled in africa (see macgeoghegan's "history of ireland," p. ), at a place called gæthulighe or getulia, and lived there during eight generations, say two hundred and fifty years; "then they entered spain, where they built brigantia, or briganza, named after their king breogan: they dwelt in spain a considerable time. milesius, a descendant of breogan, went on an expedition to egypt, took part in a war against the ethiopians, married the king's daughter, scota: he died in spain, but his people soon after conquered ireland. on landing on the coast they offered sacrifices to neptune or poseidon"--the god of atlantis. (ibid., p. .) the book of genesis (chap. x.) gives us the descendants of noah's three sons, shem, ham, and japheth. we are told that the sons of japheth were gomer, and magog, and madai, and javan, and tubal, and meshech, and tiras. we are then given the names of the descendants of gomer and javan, but not of magog. josephus says the sons of magog were the scythians. the irish annals take up the genealogy of magog's family where the bible leaves it. the book of invasions, the "cin of drom-snechta," claims that these scythians were the phoenicians; and we are told that a branch of this family were driven out of egypt in the time of moses: "he wandered through africa for forty-two years, and passed by the lake of salivæ to the altars of the philistines, and between rusicada and the mountains azure, and he came by the river monlon, and by the sea to the pillars of hercules, and through the tuscan sea, and he made for spain, and dwelt there many years, and he increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied." from all these facts it appears that the population of ireland came from the west, and not from asia--that it was one of the many waves of population flowing out from the island of atlantis--and herein we find the explanation of that problem which has puzzled the aryan scholars. as ireland is farther from the punjab than persia, greece, rome, or scandinavia, it would follow that the celtic wave of migration must have been the earliest sent out from the sanscrit centre; but it is now asserted by professor schleicher and others that the celtic tongue shows that it separated from the sanscrit original tongue later than the others, and that it is more closely allied to the latin than any other aryan tongue. this is entirely inexplicable upon any theory of an eastern origin of the indo-european races, but very easily understood if we recognize the aryan and celtic migrations as going out about the same time from the atlantean fountain-head. there are many points confirmatory of this belief. in the first place, the civilization of the irish dates back to a vast antiquity. we have seen their annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of atlantis prior to the deluge, with no record that the people of ireland were subsequently destroyed by the deluge. from the formorians, who came before the deluge, to the milesians, who came from spain in the historic period, the island was continuously inhabited. this demonstrates ( ) that these legends did not come from christian sources, as the bible record was understood in the old time to imply a destruction of all who lived before the flood except noah and his family; ( ) it confirms our view that the deluge was a local catastrophe, and did not drown the whole human family; ( ) that the coming of the formorians having been before the deluge, that great cataclysm was of comparatively recent date, to wit, since the settlement of ireland; and ( ) that as the deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere not far from ireland to have come to their knowledge. a rude people could scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the heart of asia. there are many evidences that the old world recognized ireland as possessing a very ancient civilization. in the sanscrit books it is referred to as hiranya, the "island of the sun," to wit, of sun-worship; in other words, as pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was shared by all the ancient races of europe, asia, africa, and america. it is believed that ireland was the "garden of phoebus" of the western mythologists. the greeks called ireland the "sacred isle" and "ogygia." "nor can any one," says camden, "conceive why they should call it ogygia, unless, perhaps, from its antiquity; for the greeks called nothing ogygia unless what was extremely ancient." we have seen that ogyges was connected by the greek legends with a first deluge, and that ogyges was "a quite mythical personage, lost in the night of ages." it appears, as another confirmation of the theory of the atlantis origin of these colonies, that their original religion was sun-worship; this, as was the case in other countries, became subsequently overlaid with idol-worship. in the reign of king tighernmas the worship of idols was introduced. the priests constituted the order of druids. naturally many analogies have been found to exist between the beliefs and customs of the druids and the other religions which were drawn from atlantis. we have seen in the chapter on sun-worship how extensive this form of religion was in the atlantean days, both in europe and america. it would appear probable that the religion of the druids passed from ireland to england and france. the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls was one of the articles of their belief long before the time of pythagoras; it had probably been drawn from the storehouse of atlantis, whence it passed to the druids, the greeks, and the hindoos. the druids had a pontifex maximus to whom they yielded entire obedience. here again we see a practice which extended to the phoenicians, egyptians, hindoos, peruvians, and mexicans. the druids of gaul and britain offered human sacrifices, while it is claimed that the irish druids did not. this would appear to have been a corrupt after-growth imposed upon the earlier and purer sacrifice of fruits and flowers known in atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty and barbarism in their descendants. hence we find it practised in degenerate ages on both sides of the atlantic. the irish druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun worship. their chief god was bel or baal--the same worshipped by the phoenicians--the god of the sun. the irish name for the sun, grian, is, according to virgil, one of the names of apollo--another sun-god, gryneus. sun-worship continued in ireland down to the time of st. patrick, and some of its customs exist among the peasantry of that country to this day. we have seen that among the peruvians, romans, and other nations, on a certain day all fires were extinguished throughout the kingdom, and a new fire kindled at the chief temple by the sun's rays, from which the people obtained their fire for the coming year. in ireland the same practice was found to exist. a piece of land was set apart, where the four provinces met, in the present county of meath; here, at a palace called tlachta, the divine fire was kindled. upon the night of what is now all-saints-day the druids assembled at this place to offer sacrifice, and it was established, under heavy penalties, that no fire should be kindled except from this source. on the first of may a convocation of druids was held in the royal palace of the king of connaught, and two fires were lit, between which cattle were driven, as a preventive of murrain and other pestilential disorders. this was called beltinne, or the day of bel's fire. and unto this day the irish call the first day of may "lha-beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of bel's fire." the celebration in ireland of st. john's-eve by watch-fires is a relic of the ancient sun-worship of atlantis. the practice of driving cattle through the fire continued for a longtime, and kelly mentions in his "folk-lore" that in northamptonshire, in england, a calf was sacrificed in one of these fires to "stop the murrain" during the present century. fires are still lighted in england and scotland as well as ireland for superstitious purposes; so that the people of great britain, it may be said, are still in some sense in the midst of the ancient sun-worship of atlantis. we find among the irish of to-day many oriental customs. the game of "jacks," or throwing up five pebbles and catching them on the back of the hand, was known in rome. "the irish keen (caoine), or the lament over the dead, may still be heard in algeria and upper egypt, even as herodotus heard it chanted by the libyan women." the same practice existed among the egyptians, etruscans, and romans. the irish wakes are identical with the funeral feasts of the greeks, etruscans, and romans. (cusack's "history of ireland," p. .) the irish custom of saying "god bless you!" when one sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known to the romans, and referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past, whose first symptom was sneezing. we find many points of resemblance between the customs of the irish and those of the hindoo. the practice of the creditor fasting at the door-step of his debtor until he is paid, is known to both countries; the kindly "god save you!" is the same as the eastern "god be gracious to you, my son!" the reverence for the wren in ireland and scotland reminds us of the oriental and greek respect for that bird. the practice of pilgrimages, fasting, bodily macerations, and devotion to holy wells and particular places, extends from ireland to india. all these things speak of a common origin; this fact has been generally recognized, but it has always been interpreted that the irish came from the east, and were in fact a migration of hindoos. there is not the slightest evidence to sustain this theory. the hindoos have never within the knowledge of man sent out colonies or fleets for exploration; but there is abundant evidence, on the other hand, of migrations from atlantis eastward. and how could the sanscrit writings have preserved maps of ireland, england, and spain, giving the shape and outline of their coasts, and their very names, and yet have preserved no memory of the expeditions or colonizations by which they acquired that knowledge? another proof of our theory is found in "the round-towers" of ireland. attempts have been made to show, by dr. petrie and others, that these extraordinary structures are of modern origin, and were built by the christian priests, in which to keep their church-plate. but it is shown that the "annals of ulster" mention the destruction of fifty-seven of them by an earthquake in a.d. ; and giraldus cambrensis shows that lough neagh was created by an inundation, or sinking of the land, in a.d. , and that in his day the fishermen could "see the round-towers of other days in the waves beneath them shining." moreover, we find diodorus siculus, in a well-known passage, referring to ireland, and describing it as "an island in the ocean over against gaul, to the north, and not inferior in size to sicily, the soil of which is so fruitful that they mow there twice in the year." he mentions the skill of their harpers, their sacred groves, and their singular temples of round form. the burgh of moussa, in the shetlands we find similar structures in america, sardinia, and india. the remains of similar round-towers are very abundant in the orkneys and shetlands. "they have been supposed by some," says sir john lubbock, "to be scandinavian, but no similar buildings exist in norway, sweden, or denmark, so that this style of architecture is no doubt anterior to the arrival of the northmen." i give above a picture of the burgh or broch of the little island of moussa, in the shetlands. it is circular in form, forty-one feet in height. open at the top; the central space is twenty feet in diameter, the walls about fourteen feet thick at the base, and eight feet at the top. they contain a staircase, which leads to the top of the building. similar structures are found in the island of sardinia. round-tower of the canyon of the mancos, colorado, u.s. in new mexico and colorado the remains of round-towers are very abundant. the illustration below represents one of these in the valley of the mancos, in the south-western corner of colorado. a model of it is to be found in the smithsonian collection at washington. the tower stands at present, in its ruined condition, twenty feet high. it will be seen that it resembles the towers of ireland, not only in its circular form but also in the fact that its door-way is situated at some distance from the ground. it will not do to say that the resemblance between these prehistoric and singular towers, in countries so far apart as sardinia, ireland, colorado, and india, is due to an accidental coincidence. it might as well be argued that the resemblance between the roots of the various indo-european languages was also due to accidental coincidence, and did not establish any similarity of origin. in fact, we might just as well go back to the theory of the philosophers of one hundred and fifty years ago, and say that the resemblance between the fossil forms in the rocks and the living forms upon them did not indicate relationship, or prove that the fossils were the remains of creatures that had once lived, but that it was simply a way nature had of working out extraordinary coincidences in a kind of joke; a sort of "plastic power in nature," as it was called. we find another proof that ireland was settled by the people of atlantis in the fact that traditions long existed among the irish peasantry of a land in the "far west," and that this belief was especially found among the posterity of the tuatha-de-dananns, whose connection with the formorians we have shown. the abbé brasseur de bourbourg, in a note to his translation of the "popol vuh," says: "there is an abundance of legends and traditions concerning the passage of the irish into america, and their habitual communication with that continent many centuries before the time of columbus. we should bear in mind that ireland was colonized by the phoenicians (or by people of that race). an irish saint named vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was accused to pope zachary of having taught heresies on the subject of the antipodes. at first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charge, but afterward he went to rome in person to justify himself, and there he proved to the pope that the irish had been accustomed to communicate with a transatlantic world." "this fact," says baldwin, "seems to have been preserved in the records of the vatican." the irish annals preserve the memory of st. brendan of clonfert, and his remarkable voyage to a land in the west, made a.d. . his early youth was passed under the care of st. ita, a lady of the princely family of the desii. when he was five years old he was placed under the care of bishop ercus. kerry was his native home; the blue waves of the atlantic washed its shores; the coast was full of traditions of a wonderful land in the west. he went to see the venerable st. enda, the first abbot of arran, for counsel. he was probably encouraged in the plan he had formed of carrying the gospel to this distant land. "he proceeded along the coast of mayo, inquiring as he went for traditions of the western continent. on his return to kerry he decided to set out on the important expedition. st. brendan's hill still bears his name; and from the bay at the foot of this lofty eminence be sailed for the 'far west.' directing his course toward the southwest, with a few faithful companions, in a well-provisioned bark, he came, after some rough and dangerous navigation, to calm seas, where, without aid of oar or sail, he was borne along for many weeks." he had probably entered upon the same great current which columbus travelled nearly one thousand years later, and which extends from the shores of africa and europe to america. he finally reached land; he proceeded inland until he came to a large river flowing from east to west, supposed by some to be the ohio. "after an absence of seven years he returned to ireland, and lived not only to tell of the marvels he had seen, but to found a college of three thousand monks at clonfert." there are eleven latin mss. in the bibliothèque impériale at paris of this legend, the dates of which vary from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, but all of them anterior to the time of columbus. the fact that st. brendan sailed in search of a country in the west cannot be doubted; and the legends which guided him were probably the traditions of atlantis among a people whose ancestors had been derived directly or at second-hand from that country. this land was associated in the minds of the peasantry with traditions of edenic happiness and beauty. miss eleanor c. donnelly, of philadelphia, has referred to it in her poem, "the sleeper's sail," where the starving boy dreams of the pleasant and plentiful land: "'mother, i've been on the cliffs out yonder, straining my eyes o'er the breakers free to the lovely spot where the sun was setting, setting and sinking into the sea. "'the sky was full of the fairest colors pink and purple and paly green, with great soft masses of gray and amber, and great bright rifts of gold between. "'and all the birds that way were flying, heron and curlew overhead, with a mighty eagle westward floating, every plume in their pinions red. "'and then i saw it, the fairy city, far away o'er the waters deep; towers and castles and chapels glowing like blesséd dreams that we see in sleep. "'what is its name?' 'be still, acushla (thy hair is wet with the mists, my boy); thou hast looked perchance on the tir-na-n'oge, land of eternal youth and joy! "'out of the sea, when the sun is setting, it rises, golden and fair to view; no trace of ruin, or change of sorrow, no sign of age where all is new. "'forever sunny, forever blooming, nor cloud nor frost can touch that spot, where the happy people are ever roaming, the bitter pangs of the past forgot.' this is the greek story of elysion; these are the elysian fields of the egyptians; these are the gardens of the hesperides; this is the region in the west to which the peasant of brittany looks from the shores of cape raz; this is atlantis. the starving child seeks to reach this blessed land in a boat and is drowned. "high on the cliffs the light-house keeper caught the sound of a piercing scream; low in her hut the lonely widow moaned in the maze of a troubled dream; "and saw in her sleep a seaman ghostly, with sea-weeds clinging in his hair, into her room, all wet and dripping, a drownéd boy on his bosom bear. "over death sea on a bridge of silver the child to his father's arms had passed! heaven was nearer than tir-na-n'oge, and the golden city was reached at last." chapter viii. the oldest son of noah. that eminent authority, dr. max müller, says, in his "lectures on the science of religion," "if we confine ourselves to the asiatic continent, with its important peninsula of europe, we find that in the vast desert of drifting human speech three, and only three, oases have been formed in which, before the beginning of all history, language became permanent and traditional--assumed, in fact, a new character, a character totally different from the original character of the floating and constantly varying speech of human beings. these three oases of language are known by the name of turanian, aryan, and semitic. in these three centres, more particularly in the aryan and semitic, language ceased to be natural; its growth was arrested, and it became permanent, solid, petrified, or, if you like, historical speech. i have always maintained that this centralization and traditional conservation of language could only have been the result of religious and political influences, and i now mean to show that we really have clear evidence of three independent settlements of religion--the turanian, the aryan, and the semitic--concomitantly with the three great settlements of language." there can be no doubt that the aryan and another branch, which müller calls semitic, but which may more properly be called hamitic, radiated from noah; it is a question yet to be decided whether the turanian or mongolian is also a branch of the noachic or atlantean stock. to quote again from max müller: "if it can only be proved that the religions of the aryan nations are united by the same bonds of a real relationship which have enabled us to treat their languages as so many varieties of the same type--and so also of the semitic--the field thus opened is vast enough, and its careful clearing, and cultivation will occupy several generations of scholars. and this original relationship, i believe, can be proved. names of the principal deities, words also expressive of the most essential elements of religion, such as prayer, sacrifice, altar, spirit, law, and faith, have been preserved among the aryan and among the semitic nations, and these relics admit of one explanation only. after that, a comparative study of the turanian religions may be approached with better hope of success; for that there was not only a primitive aryan and a primitive semitic religion, but likewise a primitive turanian religion, before each of these primeval races was broken up and became separated in language, worship and national sentiment, admits, i believe, of little doubt.... there was a period during which the ancestors of the semitic family had not yet been divided, whether in language or in religion. that period transcends the recollection of every one of the semitic races, in the same way as neither hindoos, greeks, nor romans have any recollection of the time when they spoke a common language, and worshipped their father in heaven by a name that was as yet neither sanscrit, nor greek, nor latin. but i do not hesitate to call this prehistoric period historical in the best sense of the word. it was a real period, because, unless it was real, all the realities of the semitic languages and the semitic religions, such as we find them after their separation, would be unintelligible. hebrew, syriac, and arabic point to a common source as much as sanscrit, greek, and latin; and unless we can bring ourselves to doubt that the hindoos, the greeks, the romans, and the teutons derived the worship of their principal deity from their common aryan sanctuary, we shall not be able to deny that there was likewise a primitive religion of the whole semitic race, and that el, the strong one in heaven, was invoked by the ancestors of all the semitic races before there were babylonians in babylon, phoenicians in sidon and tyrus--before there were jews in mesopotamia or jerusalem. the evidence of the semitic is the same as that of the aryan languages: the conclusion cannot be different.... "these three classes of religion are not to be mistaken--as little as the three classes of language, the turanian, the semitic, and the aryan. they mark three events in the most ancient history of the world, events which have determined the whole fate of the human race, and of which we ourselves still feel the consequences in our language, in our thoughts, and in our religion." we have seen that all the evidence points to the fact that this original seat of the phoenician-hebrew family was in atlantis. the great god of the so-called semites was el, the strong one, from whose name comes the biblical names beth-el, the house of god; ha-el, the strong one; el-ohim, the gods; el-oah, god; and from the same name is derived the arabian name of god, al-lah. another evidence of the connection between the greeks, phoenicians, hebrews, and atlanteans is shown in the name of adonis. the greeks tell us that adonis was the lover of aphrodite, or venus, who was the offspring of uranus--"she came out of the sea;" uranus was the father of chronos, and the grandfather of poseidon, king of atlantis. now we find adonâi in the old testament used exclusively as the name of jehovah, while among the phoenicians adonâi was the supreme deity. in both cases the root ad is probably a reminiscence of ad-lantis. there seem to exist similar connections between the egyptian and the turanian mythology. the great god of egypt was neph or num; the chief god of the samoyedes is num; and max müller established an identity between the num of the samoyedes and the god yum-ala of the finns, and probably with the name of the god nam of the thibetians. that mysterious people, the etruscans, who inhabited part of italy, and whose bronze implements agreed exactly in style and workmanship with those which we think were derived from atlantis, were, it is now claimed, a branch of the turanian family. "at a recent meeting of the english philological society great interest was excited by a paper on etruscan numerals, by the rev. isaac taylor. he stated that the long-sought key to the etruscan language had at last been discovered. two dice had been found in a tomb, with their six faces marked with words instead of pips. he showed that these words were identical with the first six digits in the altaic branch of the turanian family of speech. guided by this clew, it was easy to prove that the grammar and vocabulary of the etruscan inscriptions were also altaic. the words denoting kindred, the pronouns, the conjugations, and the declensions, corresponded closely to those of the tartar tribes of siberia. the etruscan mythology proved to be essentially the same as that of the kalevala, the great finnic epic." according to lenormant ("ancient history of the east," vol. i., p. ; vol. ii., p. ), the early contests between the aryans and the turanians are represented in the iranian traditions as "contests between hostile brothers ... the ugro-finnish races must, according to all appearances, be looked upon as a branch, earlier detached than the others from the japhetic stem." if it be true that the first branch originating from atlantis was the turanian, which includes the chinese and japanese, then we have derived from atlantis all the building and metalworking races of men who have proved themselves capable of civilization; and we may, therefore, divide mankind into two great classes: those capable of civilization, derived from atlantis, and those essentially and at all times barbarian, who hold no blood relationship with the people of atlantis. humboldt is sure "that some connection existed between ancient ethiopia and the elevated plain of central asia." there were invasions which reached from the shores of arabia into china. "an arabian sovereign, schamar-iarasch (abou karib), is described by hamza, nuwayri, and others as a powerful ruler and conqueror, who carried his arms successfully far into central asia; he occupied samarcand and invaded china. he erected an edifice at samarcand, bearing an inscription, in himyarite or cushite characters, 'in the name of god, schamar-iarasch has erected this edifice to the sun, his lord." (baldwin's "prehistoric nations," p. .) these invasions must have been prior to b.c. charles walcott brooks read a paper before the california academy of sciences, in which he says: "according to chinese annals, tai-ko-fokee, the great stranger king, ruled the kingdom of china. in pictures he is represented with two small horns, like those associated with the representations of moses. he and his successor are said to have introduced into china 'picture-writing,' like that in use in central america at the time of the spanish conquest. he taught the motions of the heavenly bodies, and divided time into years and months; he also introduced many other useful arts and sciences. "now, there has been found at copan, in central america, a figure strikingly like the chinese symbol of fokee, with his two horns; and, in like manner, there is a close resemblance between the central american and the chinese figures representing earth and heaven. either one people learned from the other, or both acquired these forms from a common source. many physico-geographical facts favor the hypothesis that they were derived in very remote ages from america, and that from china they passed to egypt. chinese records say that the progenitors of the chinese race came from across the sea." the two small horns of tai-ko-fokee and moses are probably a reminiscence of baal. we find the horns of baal represented in the remains of the bronze age of europe. bel sometimes wore a tiara with his bull's horns; the tiara was the crown subsequently worn by the persian kings, and it became, in time, the symbol of papal authority. the atlanteans having domesticated cattle, and discovered their vast importance to humanity, associated the bull and cow with religious ideas, as revealed in the oldest hymns of the aryans and the cow-headed idols of troy, a representation of one of which is shown on the preceding page. upon the head of their great god baal they placed the horns of the bull; and these have descended in popular imagination to the spirit of evil of our day. burns says: "o thou! whatever title suit thee, auld hornie, satan, nick, or clootie." "clootie" is derived from the cleft hoof of a cow; while the scotch name for a bull is bill, a corruption, probably, of bel. less than two hundred years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on the th of august to the "god mowrie" and "his devilans" on the island of inis maree, scotland. ("the past in the present," p. .) the trident of poseidon has degenerated into the pitchfork of beelzebub! and when we cross the atlantic, we find in america the horns of baal reappearing in a singular manner. the first cut on page represents an idol of the moquis of new mexico: the head is very bull-like. in the next figure we have a representation of the war-god of the dakotas, with something like a trident in his hand; while the next illustration is taken from zarate's "peru," and depicts "the god of a degrading worship." he is very much like the traditional conception of the european devil-horns, pointed ears, wings, and poker. compare this last figure, from peru, with the representation on page of a greek siren, one of those cruel monsters who, according to grecian mythology, sat in the midst of bones and blood, tempting men to ruin by their sweet music. here we have the same bird-like legs and claws as in the peruvian demon. heeren shows that a great overland commerce extended in ancient times between the black sea and "great mongolia;" he mentions a "temple of the sun," and a great caravansary in the desert of gobi. arminius vámbéry, in his "travels in central asia," describes very important ruins near the eastern shore of the caspian sea, at a place called gömüshtepe; and connected with these are the remains of a great wall which he followed "ten geographical miles." he found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty miles long, extending to the persian mountains. he reports abundant ruins in all that country, extending even to china. the early history of china indicates contact with a superior race. "fuh-hi, who is regarded as a demi-god, founded the chinese empire b.c. he introduced cattle, taught the people how to raise them, and taught the art of writing." ("american cyclopædia," art. china.) he might have invented his alphabet, but he did not invent the cattle; he must have got them from some nation who, during many centuries of civilization, had domesticated them; and from what nation was he more likely to have obtained them than from the atlanteans, whose colonies we have seen reached his borders, and whose armies invaded his territory! "he instituted the ceremony of marriage." (ibid.) this also was an importation from a civilized land. "his successor, shin-nung, during a reign of one hundred and forty years, introduced agriculture and medical science. the next emperor, hwang-ti, is believed to have invented weapons, wagons, ships, clocks, and musical instruments, and to have introduced coins, weights, and measures." (ibid.) as these various inventions in all other countries have been the result of slow development, running through many centuries, or are borrowed from some other more civilized people, it is certain that no emperor of china ever invented them all during a period of one hundred and sixty-four years. these, then, were also importations from the west. in fact, the chinese themselves claim to have invaded china in the early days from the north-west; and their first location is placed by winchell near lake balkat, a short distance east of the caspian, where we have already seen aryan atlantean colonies planted at an early day. "the third successor of fuh-hi, ti-ku, established schools, and was the first to practise polygamy. in his son yau ascended the throne, and it is from his reign that the regular historical records begin. a great flood, which occurred in his reign, has been considered synchronous and identical with the noachic deluge, and to yau is attributed the merit of having successfully battled against the waters." there can be no question that the chinese themselves, in their early legends, connected their origin with a people who were destroyed by water in a tremendous convulsion of the earth. associated with this event was a divine personage called niu-va (noah?). sir william jones says: "the chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subsiding and separating the higher from the lower ages of mankind; that this division of time, from which their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of fo-hi on the mountains of chin." ("discourse on the chinese; asiatic researches," vol. ii., p. .) the following history of this destruction of their ancestors vividly recalls to us the convulsion depicted in the chaldean and american legends: "the pillars of heaven were broken; the earth shook to its very foundations; the heavens sunk lower toward the north; the sun, the moon, and the stars changed their motions; the earth fell to pieces, and the waters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence and overflowed it. man having rebelled against heaven, the system of the universe was totally disordered. the sun was eclipsed, the planets altered their course, and the grand harmony of nature was disturbed." a learned frenchman, m. terrien de la couperie, member of the asiatic society of paris, has just published a work ( ) in which he demonstrates the astonishing fact that the chinese language is clearly related to the chaldean, and that both the chinese characters and the cuneiform alphabet are degenerate descendants of an original hieroglyphical alphabet. the same signs exist for many words, while numerous words are very much alike. m. de la couperie gives a table of some of these similarities, from which i quote as follows: +------------+----------+----------+ | english. | chinese. | chaldee. | +------------+----------+----------+ | to shine | mut | mul. | +------------+----------+----------+ | to die | mut | mit. | +------------+----------+----------+ | book | king | kin. | +------------+----------+----------+ | cloth | sik | sik. | +------------+----------+----------+ | right hand | dzek | zag. | +------------+----------+----------+ | hero | tan | dun. | +------------+----------+----------+ | earth | kien-kai | kiengi. | +------------+----------+----------+ | cow | lub | lu, lup. | +------------+----------+----------+ | brick | ku | ku. | +------------+----------+----------+ this surprising discovery brings the chinese civilization still nearer to the mediterranean head-quarters of the races, and increases the probability that the arts of china were of atlantean origin; and that the name of nai hoang-ti, or nai korti, the founder of chinese civilization, may be a reminiscence of nakhunta, the chief of the gods, as recorded in the susian texts, and this, in turn, a recollection of the deva-nahusha of the hindoos, the dionysos of the greeks, the king of atlantis, whose great empire reached to the "farther parts of india," and embraced, according to plato, "parts of the continent of america." linguistic science achieved a great discovery when it established the fact that there was a continuous belt of languages from iceland to ceylon which were the variant forms of one mother-tongue, the indo-european; but it must prepare itself for a still wider generalization. there is abundant proof--proof with which pages might be filled--that there was a still older mother-tongue, from which aryan, semitic, and hamitic were all derived--the language of noah, the language of atlantis, the language of the great "aggressive empire" of plato, the language of the empire of the titans. the arabic word bin, within, becomes, when it means interval, space, binnon; this is the german and dutch binnen and saxon binnon, signifying within. the ethiopian word aorf, to fall asleep, is the root of the word morpheus, the god of sleep. the hebrew word chanah, to dwell, is the parent of the anglo-saxon inne and icelandic inni, a house, and of our word inn, a hotel. the hebrew word naval or nafal signifies to fall; from it is derived our word fall and fool (one who falls); the chaldee word is nabal, to make foul, and the arabic word nabala means to die, that is, to fall. from the last syllable of the chaldee nasar, to saw, we can derive the latin serra, the high german sagen, the danish sauga, and our word to saw. the arabic nafida, to fade, is the same as the italian fado, the latin fatuus (foolish, tasteless), the dutch vadden, and our to fade. the ethiopic word gaber, to make, to do, and the arabic word jabara, to make strong, becomes the welsh word goberu, to work, to operate, the latin operor, and the english operate. the arabic word abara signifies to prick, to sting; we see this root in the welsh bar, a summit, and pâr, a spear, and per, a spit; whence our word spear. in the chaldee, syriac, and arabic zug means to join, to couple; from this the greeks obtained zugos, the romans jugum, and we the word yoke; while the germans obtained jok or jog, the dutch juk, the swedes ok. the sanscrit is juga. the arabic sanna, to be old, reappears in the latin senex, the welsh hen, and our senile. the hebrew banah, to build, is the irish bun, foundation, and the latin fundo, fundare, to found. the arabic baraka, to bend the knee, to fall on the breast, is probably the saxon brecau, the danish bräkke, the swedish bräcka, welsh bregu, and our word to break. the arabic baraka also signifies to rain violently; and from this we get the saxon roegn, to rain, dutch regen, to rain, cimbric roekia, rain, welsh rheg, rain. the chaldee word braic, a branch, is the irish braic or raigh, an arm, the welsh braic, the latin brachium, and the english brace, something which supports like an arm. the chaldee frak, to rub, to tread out grain, is the same as the latin frico, frio, and our word rake. the arabic word to rub is fraka. the chaldee rag, ragag, means to desire, to long for; it is the same as the greek oregw, the latin porrigere, the saxon roeccan, the icelandic rakna, the german reichen, and our to reach, to rage. the arabic rauka, to strain or purify, as wine, is precisely our english word rack, to rack wine. the hebrew word bara, to create, is our word to bear, as to bear children: a great number of words in all the european languages contain this root in its various modifications. the hebrew word kafar, to cover, is our word to cover, and coffer, something which covers, and covert, a secret place; from this root also comes the latin cooperio and the french couvrir, to cover. the arabic word shakala, to bind under the belly, is our word to shackle. from the arabic walada and ethiopian walad, to beget, to bring forth, we get the welsh llawd, a shooting out; and hence our word lad. our word matter, or pus, is from the arabic madda; our word mature is originally from the chaldee mita. the arabic word amida signifies to end, and from this comes the noun, a limit, a termination, latin meta, and our words meet and mete. i might continue this list, but i have given enough to show that all the atlantean races once spoke the same language, and that the dispersion on the plains of shinar signifies that breaking up of the tongues of one people under the operation of vast spaces of time. philology is yet in its infancy, and the time is not far distant when the identity of the languages of all the noachic races will be as clearly established and as universally acknowledged as is now the identity of the languages of the aryan family of nations. and precisely as recent research has demonstrated the relationship between pekin and babylon, so investigation in central america has proved that there is a mysterious bond of union connecting the chinese and one of the races of mexico. the resemblances are so great that mr. short ("north americans of antiquity," p. ) says, "there is no doubt that strong analogies exist between the otomi and the chinese." señor najera ("dissertacion sobre la lingua othomi, mexico," pp. , ) gives a list of words from which i quote the following: +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | chinese. | othomi. | english. | chinese. | othomi | english. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | cho | to | the, that. | pa | da | to give. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | y | n-y | a wound. | tsun | nsu | honor. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | ten | gu, mu | head. | hu | hmu | sir, lord. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | siao | sui | night | na | na | that. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | tien | tsi | tooth | hu | he | cold. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | ye | yo | shining | ye | he | and. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | ky | hy (ji) | happiness. | hoa | hia | word. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | ku | du | death | nugo | nga | i | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | po | yo | no | ni | nuy | thou. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | na | ta | man | hao | nho | the good. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | nin | nsu | female | ta | da | the great. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | tseu | tsi, ti | son | li | ti | gain. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | tso | tsa | to perfect | ho | to | who. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | kuan | khuani | true | pa | pa | to leave. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ | siao | sa | to mock | mu, mo | me | mother. | +----------+---------+------------+----------+--------+------------+ recently herr forchhammer, of leipsic, has published a truly scientific comparison of the grammatical structure of the choctaw, chickasaw, muscogee, and seminole languages with the ural-altaic tongues, in which he has developed many interesting points of resemblance. it has been the custom to ascribe the recognized similarities between the indians of america and the chinese and japanese to a migration by way of behring's strait from asia into america; but when we find that the chinese themselves only reached the pacific coast within the historical period, and that they came to it from the direction of the mediterranean and atlantis, and when we find so many and such distinct recollections of the destruction of atlantis in the flood legends of the american races, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the resemblances between the othomi and the chinese are to be accounted for by intercourse through atlantis. we find a confirmation in all these facts of the order in which genesis names the sons of noah: "now these are the generations of the sons of noah: shem, ham, and japheth, and unto them were sons born after the flood." can we not suppose that those three sons represent three great races in the order of their precedence? the record of genesis claims that the phoenicians were descended from ham, while the hebrews were descended from shem; yet we find the hebrews and phoenicians united by the ties of a common language, common traditions, and common race characteristics. the jews are the great merchants of the world eighteen centuries after christ, just as the phoenicians were the great merchants of the world fifteen centuries before christ. moreover, the arabians, who are popularly classed as semites, or sons of shem, admit in their traditions that they are descended from "ad, the son of ham;" and the tenth chapter of genesis classes them among the descendants of ham, calling them seba, havilah, raamah, etc. if the two great so-called semitic stocks--the phoenicians and arabians--are hamites, surely the third member of the group belongs to the same "sunburnt" race. if we concede that the jews were also a branch of the hamitic stock, then we have, firstly, a semitic stock, the turanian, embracing the etruscans, the finns, the tartars, the mongols, the chinese, and japanese; secondly, a hamitic family, "the sunburnt" race--a red race--including the cushites, phoenicians, egyptians, hebrews, berbers, etc.; and, thirdly, a japhetic or whiter stock, embracing the greeks, italians, celts, goths, and the men who wrote sanscrit--in other words, the entire aryan family. if we add to these three races the negro race--which cannot be traced back to atlantis, and is not included, according to genesis, among the descendants of noah--we have the four races, the white, red, yellow, and black, recognized by the egyptians as embracing all the people known to them. there seems to be some confusion in genesis as to the semitic stock. it classes different races as both semites and hamites; as, for instance, sheba and havilah; while the race of mash, or meshech, is classed among the sons of shem and the sons of japheth. in fact, there seems to be a confusion of hamitic and semitic stocks. "this is shown in the blending of hamitic and semitic in some of the most ancient inscriptions; in the facility of intercourse between the semites of asia and the hamites of egypt; in the peaceful and unobserved absorption of all the asiatic hamites, and the semitic adoption of the hamitic gods and religious system. it is manifest that, at a period not long previous, the two families had dwelt together and spoken the same language." (winchell's "pre-adamites," p. .) is it not more reasonable to suppose that the so-called semitic races of genesis were a mere division of the hamitic stock, and that we are to look for the third great division of the sons of noah among the turanians? francis lenormant, high authority, is of the opinion that the turanian races are descended from magog, the son of japheth. he regards the turanians as intermediate between the white and yellow races, graduating insensibly into each. "the uzbecs, the osmanli turks, and the hungarians are not to be distinguished in appearance from the most perfect branches of the white race; on the other hand, the tchondes almost exactly resemble the tongouses, who belong to the yellow race. the turanian languages are marked by the same agglutinative character found in the american races. the mongolian and the indian are alike in the absence of a heavy beard. the royal color of the incas was yellow; yellow is the color of the imperial family in china. the religion of the peruvians was sun-worship; "the sun was the peculiar god of the mongols from the earliest times." the peruvians regarded pachacamac as the sovereign creator. camac-hya was the name of a hindoo goddess. haylli was the burden of every verse of the song composed in praise of the sun and the incas. mr. john ranking derives the word allah from the word haylli, also the word halle-lujah. in the city of cuzco was a portion of land which none were permitted to cultivate except those of the royal blood. at certain seasons the incas turned up the sod here, amid much rejoicing, and many ceremonies. a similar custom prevails in china: the emperor ploughs a few furrows, and twelve illustrious persons attend the plough after him. (du halde, "empire of china," vol. i., p. .) the cycle of sixty years was in use among most of the nations of eastern asia, and among the muyscas of the elevated plains of bogota. the "quipu," a knotted reckoning-cord, was in use in peru and in china. (bancroft's "native races," vol. v., p. .) in peru and china "both use hieroglyphics, which are read from above downward." (ibid.) "it appears most evident to me," says humboldt, "that the monuments, methods of computing time, systems of cosmogony, and many myths of america, offer striking analogies with the ideas of eastern asia--analogies which indicate an ancient communication, and are not simply the result of that uniform condition in which all nations are found in the dawn of civilization." ("exam. crit.," tom. ii., p. .) "in the ruined cities of cambodia, which lies farther to the east of burmah, recent research has discovered teocallis like those in mexico, and the remains of temples of the same type and pattern as those of yucatan. and when we reach the sea we encounter at suku, in java, a teocalli which is absolutely identical with that of tehuantepec. mr. ferguson said, 'as we advance eastward from the valley of the euphrates, at every step we meet with forms of art becoming more and more like those of central america.'" ("builders of babel," p. .) prescott says: "the coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize a belief that the civilization of anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of eastern asia; and, secondly, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back the communication to a very remote period." ("mexico," vol. iii., p. .) "all appearances," continues lenormant ("ancient history of the east," vol. i., p. ), "would lead us to regard the turanian race as the first branch of the family of japheth which went forth into the world; and by that premature separation, by an isolated and antagonistic existence, took, or rather preserved, a completely distinct physiognomy.... it is a type of the white race imperfectly developed." we may regard this yellow race as the first and oldest wave from atlantis, and, therefore, reaching farthest away from the common source; then came the hamitic race; then the japhetic. chapter ix. the antiquity of some of our great inventions. it may seem like a flight of the imagination to suppose that the mariner's compass was known to the inhabitants of atlantis. and yet, if my readers are satisfied that the atlantean were a highly civilized maritime people, carrying on commerce with regions as far apart as peru and syria, we must conclude that they possessed some means of tracing their course in the great seas they traversed; and accordingly, when we proceed to investigate this subject, we find that as far back as we may go in the study of the ancient races of the world, we find them possessed of a knowledge of the virtues of the magnetic stone, and in the habit of utilizing it. the people of europe, rising a few centuries since out of a state of semi-barbarism, have been in the habit of claiming the invention of many things which they simply borrowed from the older nations. this was the case with the mariner's compass. it was believed for many years that it was first invented by an italian named amalfi, a.d. . in that interesting work, goodrich's "life of columbus," we find a curious history of the magnetic compass prior to that time, from which we collate the following points: "in a.d. it was employed by the northmen." ("the landnamabok," vol. i., chap. .) an italian poem of a.d. refers to it as in use among the italian sailors at that date. in the ancient language of the hindoos, the sanscrit--which has been a dead language for twenty-two hundred years--the magnet was called "the precious stone beloved of iron." the talmud speaks of it as "the stone of attraction;" and it is alluded to in the early hebrew prayers as kalamitah, the same name given it by the greeks, from the reed upon which the compass floated. the phoenicians were familiar with the use of the magnet. at the prow of their vessels stood the figure of a woman (astarte) holding a cross in one hand and pointing the way with the other; the cross represented the compass, which was a magnetized needle, floating in water crosswise upon a piece of reed or wood. the cross became the coat of arms of the phoenicians--not only, possibly, as we have shown, as a recollection of the four rivers of atlantis, but because it represented the secret of their great sea-voyages, to which they owed their national greatness. the hyperborean magician, abaras, carried "a guiding arrow," which pythagoras gave him, "in order that it may be useful to him in all difficulties in his long journey." ("herodotus," vol. iv., p. .) the magnet was called the "stone of hercules." hercules was the patron divinity of the phoenicians. he was, as we have shown elsewhere, one of the gods of atlantis--probably one of its great kings and navigators. the atlanteans were, as plato tells us, a maritime, commercial people, trading up the mediterranean as far as egypt and syria, and across the atlantic to "the whole opposite continent that surrounds the sea;" the phoenicians, as their successors and descendants, and colonized on the shores of the mediterranean, inherited their civilization and their maritime habits, and with these that invention without which their great voyages were impossible. from them the magnet passed to the hindoos, and from them to the chinese, who certainly possessed it at an early date. in the year b.c. the emperor wang-ti placed a magnetic figure with an extended arm, like the astarte of the phoenicians, on the front of carriages, the arm always turning and pointing to the south, which the chinese regarded as the principal pole. (see goodrich's "columbus," p. , etc.) this illustration represents one of these chariots: in the seventh century it was used by the navigators of the baltic sea and the german ocean. chinese magnetic car the ancient egyptians called the loadstone the bone of haroeri, and iron the bone of typhon. haroeri was the son of osiris and grandson of rhea, a goddess of the earth, a queen of atlantis, and mother of poseidon; typhon was a wind-god and an evil genius, but also a son of rhea, the earth goddess. do we find in this curious designation of iron and loadstone as "bones of the descendants of the earth," an explanation of that otherwise inexplicable greek legend about deucalion "throwing the bones of the earth behind him, when instantly men rose from the ground, and the world was repeopled?" does it mean that by means of the magnet he sailed, after the flood, to the european colonies of atlantis, already thickly inhabited? a late writer, speaking upon the subject of the loadstone, tells us: "hercules, it was said, being once overpowered by the heat of the sun, drew his bow against that luminary; whereupon the god phoebus, admiring his intrepidity, gave him a golden cup, with which he sailed over the ocean. this cup was the compass, which old writers have called lapis heracleus. pisander says oceanus lent him the cup, and lucian says it was a sea-shell. tradition affirms that the magnet originally was not on a pivot, but set to float on water in a cup. the old antiquarian is wildly theoretical on this point, and sees a compass in the golden fleece of argos, in the oracular needle which nero worshipped, and in everything else. yet undoubtedly there are some curious facts connected with the matter. osonius says that gama and the portuguese got the compass from some pirates at the cape of good hope, a.d. . m. fauchet, the french antiquarian, finds it plainly alluded to in some old poem of brittany belonging to the year a.d. . paulo venetus brought it in the thirteenth century from china, where it was regarded as oracular. genebrand says melvius, a neapolitan, brought it to europe in a.d. . costa says gama got it from mohammedan seamen. but all nations with whom it was found associate it with regions where heraclean myths prevailed. and one of the most curious facts is that the ancient britons, as the welsh do to-day, call a pilot llywydd (lode). lodemanage, in skinner's 'etymology,' is the word for the price paid to a pilot. but whether this famous, and afterward deified, mariner (hercules) had a compass or not, we can hardly regard the association of his name with so many western monuments as accidental." hercules was, as we know, a god of atlantis, and oceanos, who lent the magnetic cup to hercules, was the name by which the greeks designated the atlantic ocean. and this may be the explanation of the recurrence of a cup in many antique paintings and statues. hercules is often represented with a cup in his hand; we even find the cup upon the handle of the bronze dagger found in denmark, and represented in the chapter on the bronze age, in this work. (see p. ante.) so "oracular" an object as this self-moving needle, always pointing to the north, would doubtless affect vividly the minds of the people, and appear in their works of art. when hercules left the coast of europe to sail to the island of erythea in the atlantic, in the remote west, we are told, in greek mythology (murray, p. ), that he borrowed "the cup" of helios, in (with) which "he was accustomed to sail every night." here we seem to have a reference to the magnetic cup used in night sailing; and this is another proof that the use of the magnetic needle in sea-voyages was associated with the atlantean gods. ancient coins of tyre lucian tells us that a sea-shell often took the place of the cup, as a vessel in which to hold the water where the needle floated, and hence upon the ancient coins of tyre we find a sea-shell represented. here, too, we have the pillars of hercules, supposed to have been placed at the mouth of the mediterranean, and the tree of life or knowledge, with the serpent twined around it, which appears in genesis; and in the combination of the two pillars and the serpent we have, it is said, the original source of our dollar mark [$]. coin from central america compare these phoenician coins with the following representation of a copper coin, two inches in diameter and three lines thick, found nearly a century ago by ordonez, at the city of guatemala. "m. dupaix noticed an indication of the use of the compass in the centre of one of the sides, the figures on the same side representing a kneeling, bearded, turbaned man between two fierce heads, perhaps of crocodiles, which appear to defend the entrance to a mountainous and wooded country. the reverse presents a serpent coiled around a fruit-tree, and an eagle on a hill." (bancroft's "native races," vol. iv., p. .) the mountain leans to one side: it is a "culhuacan," or crooked mountain. we find in sanchoniathon's "legends of the phoenicians" that ouranus, the first god of the people of atlantis, "devised bætulia, contriving stones that moved as having life, which were supposed to fall from heaven." these stones were probably magnetic loadstones; in other words, ouranus, the first god of atlantis, devised the mariner's compass. i find in the "report of united states explorations for a route for a pacific railroad" a description of a new mexican indian priest, who foretells the result of a proposed war by placing a piece of wood in a bowl of water, and causing it to turn to the right or left, or sink or rise, as he directs it. this is incomprehensible, unless the wood, like the ancient chinese compass, contained a piece of magnetic iron hidden in it, which would be attracted or repulsed, or even drawn downward, by a piece of iron held in the hand of the priest, on the outside of the bowl. if so, this trick was a remembrance of the mariner's compass transmitted from age to age by the medicine men. the reclining statue of chac-mol, of central america, holds a bowl or dish upon its breast. divination was the ars etrusca. the etruscans set their temples squarely with the cardinal points of the compass; so did the egyptians, the mexicans, and the mound builders of america. could they have done this without the magnetic compass? the romans and the persians called the line of the axis of the globe cardo, and it was to cardo the needle pointed. now "cardo was the name of the mountain on which the human race took refuge from the deluge... the primitive geographic point for the countries which were the cradle of the human race." (urquhart's "pillars of hercules," vol. i., p. .) from this comes our word "cardinal," as the cardinal points. navigation.--navigation was not by any means in a rude state in the earliest times: "in the wanderings of the heroes returning from troy, aristoricus makes menelaus circumnavigate africa more than years before neco sailed from gadeira to india." ("cosmos," vol. ii., p. .) "in the tomb of rameses the great is a representation of a naval combat between the egyptians and some other people, supposed to be the phoenicians, whose huge ships are propelled by sails." (goodrich's "columbus," p. .) the proportions of the fastest sailing-vessels of the present day are about feet long to wide and high; these were precisely the proportions of noah's ark-- cubits long, broad, and high. "hiero of syracuse built, under the superintendence of archimedes, a vessel which consumed in its construction the material for fifty galleys; it contained galleries, gardens, stables, fish-ponds, mills, baths, a temple of venus, and an engine to throw stones three hundred pounds in weight, and arrows thirty-six feet long. the floors of this monstrous vessel were inlaid with scenes from homer's 'iliad.'" (ibid., p. .) the fleet of sesostris consisted of four hundred ships; and when semiramis invaded india she was opposed by four thousand vessels. it is probable that in the earliest times the vessels were sheeted with metal. a roman ship of the time of trajan has been recovered from lake ricciole after years. the outside was covered with sheets of lead fastened with small copper nails. even the use of iron chains in place of ropes for the anchors was known at an early period. julius cæsar tells us that the galleys of the veneti were thus equipped. (goodrich's "columbus," p. .) gunpowder.--it is not impossible that even the invention of gunpowder may date back to atlantis. it was certainly known in europe long before the time of the german monk, berthold schwarz, who is commonly credited with the invention of it. it was employed in at the siege of niebla, in spain. it was described in an arab treatise of the thirteenth century. in a.d. the emperor leo employed fire-arms. "greek-fire" is supposed to have been gunpowder mixed with resin or petroleum, and thrown in the form of fuses and explosive shells. it was introduced from egypt a.d. . in a.d. the arabs used fire-arms against mecca, bringing the knowledge of them from india. in a.d. the chinese obtained from india a knowledge of gunpowder. there is reason to believe that the carthaginian (phoenician) general, hannibal, used gunpowder in breaking a way for his army over the alps. the romans, who were ignorant of its use, said that hannibal made his way by making fires against the rocks, and pouring vinegar and water over the ashes. it is evident that fire and vinegar would have no effect on masses of the alps great enough to arrest the march of an army. dr. william maginn has suggested that the wood was probably burnt by hannibal to obtain charcoal; and the word which has been translated "vinegar" probably signified some preparation of nitre and sulphur, and that hannibal made gunpowder and blew up the rocks. the same author suggests that the story of hannibal breaking loose from the mountains where he was surrounded on all sides by the romans, and in danger of starvation, by fastening firebrands to the horns of two thousand oxen, and sending them rushing at night among the terrified romans, simply refers to the use of rockets. as maginn well asks, how could hannibal be in danger of starvation when he had two thousand oxen to spare for such an experiment? and why should the veteran roman troops have been so terrified and panic-stricken by a lot of cattle with firebrands on their horns? at the battle of lake trasymene, between hannibal and flaminius, we have another curious piece of information which goes far to confirm the belief that hannibal was familiar with the use of gunpowder. in the midst of the battle there was, say the roman historians, an "earthquake;" the earth reeled under the feet of the soldiers, a tremendous crash was heard, a fog or smoke covered the scene, the earth broke open, and the rocks fell upon the heads of the romans. this reads very much as if the carthaginians had decoyed the romans into a pass where they had already planted a mine, and had exploded it at the proper moment to throw them into a panic. earthquakes do not cast rocks up in the air to fall on men's heads! and that this is not all surmise is shown by the fact that a city of india, in the time of alexander the great, defended itself by the use of gunpowder: it was said to be a favorite of the gods, because thunder and lightning came from its walls to resist the attacks of its assailants. as the hebrews were a branch of the phoenician race, it is not surprising that we find some things in their history which look very much like legends of gunpowder. when korah, dathan, and abiram led a rebellion against moses, moses separated the faithful from the unfaithful, and thereupon "the ground clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto korah, and all their goods.... and there came out a fire from the lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.... but on the morrow all the congregation of the children of israel murmured against moses and against aaron, saying, ye have killed the people of the lord." (numb. xvi., - .) this looks very much as if moses had blown up the rebels with gunpowder. roger bacon, who himself rediscovered gunpowder, was of opinion that the event described in judges vii., where gideon captured the camp of the midianites with the roar of trumpets, the crash caused by the breaking of innumerable pitchers, and the flash of a multitude of lanterns, had reference to the use of gunpowder; that the noise made by the breaking of the pitchers represented the detonation of an explosion, the flame of the lights the blaze, and the noise of the trumpets the thunder of the gunpowder. we can understand, in this wise, the results that followed; but we cannot otherwise understand how the breaking of pitchers, the flashing of lamps, and the clangor of trumpets would throw an army into panic, until "every man's sword was set against his fellow, and the host fled to beth-shittah;" and this, too, without any attack upon the part of the israelites, for "they stood every man in his place around the camp; and all the host ran and cried and fled." if it was a miraculous interposition in behalf of the jews, the lord could have scared the midianites out of their wits without the smashed pitchers and lanterns; and certain it is the pitchers and lanterns would not have done the work with out a miraculous interposition. having traced the knowledge of gunpowder back to the most remote times, and to the different races which were descended from atlantis, we are not surprised to find in the legends of greek mythology events described which are only explicable by supposing that the atlanteans possessed the secret of this powerful explosive. a rebellion sprang up in atlantis (see murray's "mannal of mythology," p. ) against zeus; it is known in mythology as the "war of the titans:" "the struggle lasted many years, all the might which the olympians could bring to bear being useless, until, on the advice of gæa, zeus set free the kyklopes and the hekatoncheires" (that is, brought the ships into play), "of whom the former fashioned thunder-bolts for him, while the latter advanced on his side with force equal to the shock of an earthquake. the earth trembled down to lowest tartarus as zeus now appeared with his terrible weapon and new allies. old chaos thought his hour had come, as from a continuous blaze of thunder-bolts the earth took fire, and the waters seethed in the sea. the rebels were partly slain or consumed, and partly hurled into deep chasms, with rocks and hills reeling after them." do not these words picture the explosion of a mine with a "force equal to the shock of an earthquake?" we have already shown that the kyklopes and hekatoncheires were probably great war-ships, armed with some explosive material in the nature of gunpowder. zeus, the king of atlantis, was known as "the thunderer," and was represented armed with thunder-bolts. some ancient nation must, in the most remote ages, have invented gunpowder; and is it unreasonable to attribute it to that "great original race" rather than to any one people of their posterity, who seem to have borrowed all the other arts from them; and who, during many thousands of years, did not add a single new invention to the list they received from atlantis? iron.--have seen that the greek mythological legends asserted that before the submergence of the great race over whom their gods reigned there had been not only an age of bronze but an age of iron. this metal was known to the egyptians in the earliest ages; fragments of iron have been found in the oldest pyramids. the iron age in northern europe far antedated intercourse with the greeks or romans. in the mounds of the mississippi valley, as i have shown, the remains of iron implements have been found. in the "mercurio peruano" (tom. i., p. , ) it is stated that "anciently the peruvian sovereigns worked magnificent iron mines at ancoriames, on the west shore of lake titicaca." "it is remarkable," says molina, "that iron, which has been thought unknown to the ancient americans, had particular names in some of their tongues." in official peruvian it was called quillay, and in chilian panilic. the mound builders fashioned implements out of meteoric iron. (foster's "prehistoric races," p. .) as we find this metal known to man in the earliest ages on both sides of the atlantic, the presumption is very strong that it was borrowed by the nations, east and west, from atlantis. paper.--the same argument holds good as to paper. the oldest egyptian monuments contain pictures of the papyrus roll; while in mexico, as i have shown, a beautiful paper was manufactured and formed into books shaped like our own. in peru a paper was made of plantain leaves, and books were common in the earlier ages. humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings among the panoes, which were "bundles of their paper resembling our volumes in quarto." silk mannfacture.--the manufacture of a woven fabric of great beauty out of the delicate fibre of the egg-cocoon of a worm could only have originated among a people who had attained the highest degree of civilization; it implies the art of weaving by delicate instruments, a dense population, a patient, skilful, artistic people, a sense of the beautiful, and a wealthy and luxurious class to purchase such costly fabrics. we trace it back to the most remote ages. in the introduction to the "history of hindostan," or rather of the mohammedan dynasties, by mohammed cassim, it is stated that in the year b.c. an indian king sent various silk stuffs as a present to the king of persia. the art of making silk was known in china more than two thousand six hundred years before the christian era, at the time when we find them first possessed of civilization. the phoenicians dealt in silks in the most remote past; they imported them from india and sold them along the shores of the mediterranean. it is probable that the egyptians understood and practised the art of manufacturing silk. it was woven in the island of cos in the time of aristotle. the "babylonish garment" referred to in joshua (chap. vii., ), and for secreting which achan lost his life, was probably a garment of silk; it was rated above silver and gold in value. it is not a violent presumption to suppose that an art known to the hindoos b.c., and to the chinese and phoenicians at the very beginning of their history--an art so curious, so extraordinary--may have dated back to atlantean times. civil government.--mr. baldwin shows ("prehistoric nations," p. ) that the cushites, the successors of the atlanteans, whose very ancient empire extended from spain to syria, were the first to establish independent municipal republics, with the right of the people to govern themselves; and that this system was perpetuated in the great phoenician communities; in "the fierce democracies" of ancient greece; in the "village republics" of the african berbers and the hindoos; in the "free cities" of the middle ages in europe; and in the independent governments of the basques, which continued down to our own day. the cushite state was an aggregation of municipalities, each possessing the right of self-government, but subject within prescribed limits to a general authority; in other words, it was precisely the form of government possessed to-day by the united states. it is a surprising thought that the perfection of modern government may be another perpetuation of atlantean civilization. agriculture.--the greek traditions of "the golden apples of the hesperides" and "the golden fleece" point to atlantis. the allusions to the golden apples indicate that tradition regarded the "islands of the blessed" in the atlantic ocean as a place of orchards. and when we turn to egypt we find that in the remotest times many of our modern garden and field plants were there cultivated. when the israelites murmured in the wilderness against moses, they cried out (numb., chap. xi., , ), "who shall give us flesh to eat? we remember the fish which we did eat in egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." the egyptians also cultivated wheat, barley, oats, flax, hemp, etc. in fact, if we were to take away from civilized man the domestic animals, the cereals, and the field and garden vegetables possessed by the egyptians at the very dawn of history, there would be very little left for the granaries or the tables of the world. astronomy.--the knowledge of the ancients as to astronomy was great and accurate. callisthenes, who accompanied alexander the great to babylon, sent to aristotle a series of chaldean astronomical observations which he found preserved there, recorded on tablets of baked clay, and extending back as far as b.c. humboldt says, "the chaldeans knew the mean motions of the moon with an exactness which induced the greek astronomers to use their calculations for the foundation of a lunar theory." the chaldeans knew the true nature of comets, and could foretell their reappearance. "a lens of considerable power was found in the ruins of babylon; it was an inch and a half in diameter and nine-tenths of an inch thick." (layard's "nineveh and babylon," pp. , .) nero used optical glasses when he watched the fights of the gladiators; they are supposed to have come from egypt and the east. plutarch speaks of optical instruments used by archimedes "to manifest to the eye the largeness of the sun." "there are actual astronomical calculations in existence, with calendars formed upon them, which eminent astronomers of england and france admit to be genuine and true, and which carry back the antiquity of the science of astronomy, together with the constellations, to within a few years of the deluge, even on the longer chronology of the septuagint." ("the miracle in stone," p. .) josephus attributes the invention of the constellations to the family of the antediluvian seth, the son of adam, while origen affirms that it was asserted in the book of enoch that in the time of that patriarch the constellations were already divided and named. the greeks associated the origin of astronomy with atlas and hercules, atlantean kings or heroes. the egyptians regarded taut (at?) or thoth, or at-hotes, as the originator of both astronomy and the alphabet; doubtless he represented a civilized people, by whom their country was originally colonized. bailly and others assert that astronomy "must have been established when the summer solstice was in the first degree of virgo, and that the solar and lunar zodiacs were of similar antiquity, which would be about four thousand years before the christian era. they suppose the originators to have lived in about the fortieth degree of north latitude, and to have been a highly-civilized people." it will be remembered that the fortieth degree of north latitude passed through atlantis. plato knew ("dialogues, phædo," ) that the earth "is a body in the centre of the heavens" held in equipoise. he speaks of it as a "round body," a "globe;" he even understood that it revolved on its axis, and that these revolutions produced day and night. he says--"dialogues, timæus"--"the earth circling around the pole (which is extended through the universe) be made to be the artificer of night and day." all this greek learning was probably drawn from the egyptians. only among the atlanteans in europe and america do we find traditions preserved as to the origin of all the principal inventions which have raised man from a savage to a civilized condition. we can give in part the very names of the inventors. starting with the chippeway legends, and following with the bible and phoenician records, we make a table like the appended: +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the invention or discovery. | the race. | the inventors. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | fire | atlantean | phos, phur, and phlox. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the bow and arrow | chippeway | manaboshu. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the use of flint | " | " | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the use of copper | " | " | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the manufacture of bricks | atlantean | autochthon and technites. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | agriculture and hunting | " | argos and agrotes. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | village life, and the | " | amynos and magos. | | rearing of flocks | | | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the use of salt | " | misor and sydyk. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the use of letters | " | taautos, or taut. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | navigation | " | the cabiri, or corybantes. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the art of music | hebrew | jubal. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | metallurgy, and the use of | " | tubal-cain. | | iron | | | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the syrinx | greek | pan. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ | the lyre | " | hermes. | +------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------+ we cannot consider all these evidences of the vast antiquity of the great inventions upon which our civilization mainly rests, including the art of writing, which, as i have shown, dates back far beyond the beginning of history; we cannot remember that the origin of all the great food-plants, such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize, is lost in the remote past; and that all the domesticated animals, the horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and the hog had been reduced to subjection to man in ages long previous to written history, without having the conclusion forced upon us irresistibly that beyond egypt and greece, beyond chaldea and china, there existed a mighty civilization, of which these states were but the broken fragments. chapter x. the aryan colonies from atlantis. we come now to another question: "did the aryan or japhetic race come from atlantis?" if the aryans are the japhetic race, and if japheth was one of the sons of the patriarch who escaped from the deluge, then assuredly, if the tradition of genesis be true, the aryans came from the drowned land, to wit, atlantis. according to genesis, the descendants of the japheth who escaped out of the flood with noah are the ionians, the inhabitants of the morea, the dwellers on the cilician coast of asia minor, the cyprians, the dodoneans of macedonia, the iberians, and the thracians. these are all now recognized as aryans, except the iberians. "from non-biblical sources," says winchell, "we obtain further information respecting the early dispersion of the japhethites or indo-europeans--called also aryans. all determinations confirm the biblical account of their primitive residence in the same country with the hamites and semites. rawlinson informs us that even aryan roots are mingled with presemitic in some of the old inscriptions of assyria. the precise region where these three families dwelt in a common home has not been pointed out." ("preadamites," p. .) i have shown in the chapter in relation to peru that all the languages of the hamites, semites, and japhethites are varieties of one aboriginal speech. the centre of the aryan migrations (according to popular opinion) within the historical period was armenia. here too is mount ararat, where it is said the ark rested--another identification with the flood regions, as it represents the usual transfer of the atlantis legend by an atlantean people to a high mountain in their new home. now turn to a map: suppose the ships of atlantis to have reached the shores of syria, at the eastern end of the mediterranean, where dwelt a people who, as we have seen, used the central american maya alphabet; the atlantis ships are then but two hundred miles distant from armenia. but these ships need not stop at syria, they can go by the dardanelles and the black sea, by uninterrupted water communication, to the shores of armenia itself. if we admit, then, that it was from armenia the aryans stocked europe and india, there is no reason why the original population of armenia should not have been themselves colonists from atlantis. but we have seen that in the earliest ages, before the first armenian migration of the historical aryans, a people went from iberian spain and settled in ireland, and the language of this people, it is now admitted, is aryan. and these iberians were originally, according to tradition, from the west. the mediterranean aryans are known to have been in southeastern europe, along the shores of the mediterranean, b.c. they at that early date possessed the plough; also wheat, rye, barley, gold, silver, and bronze. aryan faces are found depicted upon the monuments of egypt, painted four thousand years before the time of christ. "the conflicts between the kelts (an aryan race) and the iberians were far anterior in date to the settlements of the phoenicians, greeks, carthaginians, and noachites on the coasts of the mediterranean sea." ("american cyclopædia," art. basques.) there is reason to believe that these kelts were originally part of the population and empire of atlantis. we are told (rees's "british encyclopædia," art. titans) that "mercury, one of the atlantean gods, was placed as ruler over the celtæ, and became their great divinity." f. pezron, in his "antiquity of the celtæ," makes out that the celtæ were the same as the titans, the giant race who rebelled in atlantis, and "that their princes were the same with the giants of scripture." he adds that the word titan "is perfect celtic, and comes from tit, the earth, and ten or den, man, and hence the greeks very properly also called them terriginæ, or earth-born." and it will be remembered that plato uses the same phrase when he speaks of the race into which poseidon intermarried as "the earth-born primeval men of that country." the greeks, who are aryans, traced their descent from the people who were destroyed by the flood, as did other races clearly aryan. "the nations who are comprehended under the common appellation of indo-european," says max müller--"the hindoos, the persians, the celts, germans, romans, greeks, and slavs--do not only share the same words and the same grammar, slightly modified in each country, but they seem to have likewise preserved a mass of popular traditions which had grown up before they left their common home." "bonfey, l. geiger, and other students of the ancient indo-european languages, have recently advanced the opinion that the original home of the indo-european races must be sought in europe, because their stock of words is rich in the names of plants and animals, and contains names of seasons that are not found in tropical countries or anywhere in asia." ("american cyclopædia," art. ethnology.) by the study of comparative philology, or the seeking out of the words common to the various branches of the aryan race before they separated, we are able to reconstruct an outline of the civilization of that ancient people. max müller has given this subject great study, and availing ourselves of his researches we can determine the following facts as to the progenitors of the aryan stock: they were a civilized race; they possessed the institution of marriage; they recognized the relationship of father, mother, son, daughter, grandson, brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law, and had separate words for each of these relationships, which we are only able to express by adding the words "in-law." they recognized also the condition of widows, or "the husbandless." they lived in an organized society, governed by a king. they possessed houses with doors and solid walls. they had wagons and carriages. they possessed family names. they dwelt in towns and cities, on highways. they were not hunters or nomads. they were a peaceful people; the warlike words in the different aryan languages cannot be traced back to this original race. they lived in a country having few wild beasts; the only wild animals whose names can be assigned to this parent stock being the bear, the wolf, and the serpent. the name of the elephant, "the beast with a hand," occurs only twice in the "rig-veda;" a singular omission if the aryans were from time immemorial an asiatic race; and "when it does occur, it is in such a way as to show that he was still an object of wonder and terror to them." (whitney's "oriental and linguistic studies," p. .) they possessed nearly all the domestic animals we now have--the ox and the cow, the horse, the dog, the sheep, the goat, the hog, the donkey, and the goose. they divided the year into twelve months. they were farmers; they used the plough; their name as a race (aryan) was derived from it; they were, par excellence, ploughmen; they raised various kinds of grain, including flax, barley, hemp, and wheat; they had mills and millers, and ground their corn. the presence of millers shows that they had proceeded beyond the primitive condition where each family ground its corn in its own mill. they used fire, and cooked and baked their food; they wove cloth and wore clothing; they spun wool; they possessed the different metals, even iron: they had gold. the word for "water" also meant "salt made from water," from which it might be inferred that the water with which they were familiar was saltwater. it is evident they manufactured salt by evaporating salt water. they possessed boats and ships. they had progressed so far as to perfect "a decimal system of enumeration, in itself," says max müller, "one of the most marvellous achievements of the human mind, based on an abstract conception of quantity, regulated by a philosophical classification, and yet conceived, nurtured, and finished before the soil of europe was trodden by greek, roman, slav, or teuton." ancient egyptian plough and herein we find another evidence of relationship between the aryans and the people of atlantis. although plato does not tell us that the atlanteans possessed the decimal system of numeration, nevertheless there are many things in his narrative which point to that conclusion "there were ten kings ruling over ten provinces; the whole country was divided into military districts or squares ten stadia each way; the total force of chariots was ten thousand; the great ditch or canal was one hundred feet deep and ten thousand stadia long; there were one hundred nereids," etc. in the peruvian colony the decimal system clearly obtained: "the army had heads of ten, fifty, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand, ten thousand.... the community at large was registered in groups, under the control of officers over tens, fifties, hundreds, and so on." (herbert spencer, "development of political institutions," chap. x.) the same division into tens and hundreds obtained among the anglo-saxons. where, we ask, could this ancient nation, which existed before greek was greek, celt was celt, hindoo was hindoo, or goth was goth, have been located! the common opinion says, in armenia or bactria, in asia. but where in asia could they have found a country so peaceful as to know no terms for war or bloodshed--a country so civilized as to possess no wild beasts save the bear, wolf, and serpent? no people could have been developed in asia without bearing in its language traces of century-long battles for life with the rude and barbarous races around them; no nation could have fought for ages for existence against "man-eating" tigers, lions, elephants, and hyenas, without bearing the memory of these things in their tongue. a tiger, identical with that of bengal, still exists around lake aral, in asia; from time to time it is seen in siberia. "the last tiger killed in was on the lena, in latitude fifty-two degrees thirty minutes, in a climate colder than that of st. petersburg and stockholm." the fathers of the aryan race must have dwelt for many thousand years so completely protected from barbarians and wild beasts that they at last lost all memory of them, and all words descriptive of them; and where could this have been possible save in some great, long-civilized land, surrounded by the sea, and isolated from the attack of the savage tribes that occupied the rest of the world? and if such a great civilized nation had dwelt for centuries in asia, europe, or africa, why have not their monuments long ago been discovered and identified? where is the race who are their natural successors, and who must have continued to live after them in that sheltered and happy land, where they knew no human and scarcely any animal enemies? why would any people have altogether left such a home? why, when their civilization had spread to the ends of the earth, did it cease to exist in the peaceful region where it originated? savage nations cannot usually count beyond five. this people had names for the numerals up to one hundred, and the power, doubtless, of combining these to still higher powers, as three hundred, five hundred, ten hundred, etc. says a high authority, "if any more proof were wanted as to the reality of that period which must have preceded the dispersion of the aryan race, we might appeal to the aryan numerals as irrefragable evidence of that long-continued intellectual life which characterizes that period." such a degree of progress implies necessarily an alphabet, writing, commerce, and trade, even as the existence of words for boats and ships has already implied navigation. in what have we added to the civilization of this ancient people? their domestic animals were the same as our own, except one fowl adopted from america. in the past ten thousand years we have added one bird to their list of domesticated animals! they raised wheat and wool, and spun and wove as we do, except that we have added some mechanical contrivances to produce the same results. their metals are ours. even iron, the triumph, as we had supposed, of more modern times, they had already discovered. and it must not be forgotten that greek mythology tells us that the god-like race who dwelt on olympus, that great island "in the midst of the atlantic," in the remote west, wrought in iron; and we find the remains of an iron sword and meteoric iron weapons in the mounds of the mississippi valley, while the name of the metal is found in the ancient languages of peru and chili, and the incas worked in iron on the shores of lake titicaca. a still further evidence of the civilization of this ancient race is found in the fact that, before the dispersion from their original home, the aryans had reached such a degree of development that they possessed a regularly organized religion: they worshipped god, they believed in an evil spirit, they believed in a heaven for the just. all this presupposes temples, priests, sacrifices, and an orderly state of society. we have seen that greek mythology is really a history of the kings and queens of atlantis. when we turn to that other branch of the great aryan family, the hindoos, we find that their gods are also the kings of atlantis. the hindoo god varuna is conceded to be the greek god uranos, who was the founder of the royal family of atlantis. in the veda we find a hymn to "king varuna," in which occurs this passage: "this earth, too, belongs to varuna, the king, and this wide sky, with its ends far apart. the two seas are varuna's loins; he is contained also in this drop of water." again in the veda we find another hymn to king varuna: "he who knows the place of the birds that fly through the sky; who on the waters knows the ships. he, the upholder of order, who knows the twelve months with the offspring of each, and knows the month that is engendered afterward." this verse would seem to furnish additional proof that the vedas were written by a maritime people; and in the allusion to the twelve months we are reminded of the peruvians, who also divided the year into twelve parts of thirty days each, and afterward added six days to complete the year. the egyptians and mexicans also had intercalary days for the same purpose. but, above all, it must be remembered that the greeks, an aryan race, in their mythological traditions, show the closest relationship to atlantis. at-tika and at-hens are reminiscences of ad, and we are told that poseidon, god and founder of atlantis, founded athens. we find in the "eleusinian mysteries" an atlantean institution; their influence during the whole period of greek history down to the coming of christianity was extraordinary; and even then this masonry of pre-christian days, in which kings and emperors begged to be initiated, was, it is claimed, continued to our own times in our own freemasons, who trace their descent back to "a dionysiac fraternity which originated in attika." and just as we have seen the saturnalian festivities of italy descending from atlantean harvest-feasts, so these eleusinian mysteries can be traced back to plato's island. poseidon was at the base of them; the first hierophant, eumolpus, was "a son of poseidon," and all the ceremonies were associated with seed-time and harvest, and with demeter or ceres, an atlantean goddess, daughter of chronos, who first taught the greeks to use the plough and to plant barley. and, as the "carnival" is a survival of the "saturnalia," so masonry is a survival of the eleusinian mysteries. the roots of the institutions of to-day reach back to the miocene age. we have seen that zeus, the king of atlantis, whose tomb was shown at crete, was transformed into the greek god zeus; and in like manner we find him reappearing among the hindoos as dyaus. he is called "dyaus-pitar," or god the father, as among the greeks we have "zeus-pater," which became among the romans "jupiter." the strongest connection, however, with the atlantean system is shown in the case of the hindoo god deva-nahusha. we have seen in the chapter on greek mythology that dionysos was a son of zeus and grandson of poseidon, being thus identified with atlantis. "when he arrived at manhood," said the greeks, "he set out on a journey through all known countries, even into the remotest parts of india, instructing the people, as he proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how to practise many other arts of peace, besides teaching them the value of just and honorable dealings. he was praised everywhere as the greatest benefactor of mankind." (murray's "mythology," p. .) in other words, he represented the great atlantean civilization, reaching into "the remotest parts of india," and "to all parts of the known world," from america to asia. in consequence of the connection of this king with the vine, he was converted in later times into the dissolute god bacchus. but everywhere the traditions concerning him refer us back to atlantis. "all the legends of egypt, india, asia minor, and the older greeks describe him as a king very great during his life, and deified after death.... amon, king of arabia or ethiopia, married rhea, sister of chronos, who reigned over italy, sicily, and certain countries of northern africa." dionysos, according to the egyptians, was the son of amon by the beautiful amalthea. chronos and amon had a prolonged war; dionysos defeated chronos and captured his capital, dethroned him, and put his son zeus in his place; zeus reigned nobly, and won a great fame. dionysos succeeded his father amon, and "became the greatest of sovereigns. he extended his sway in all the neighboring countries, and completed the conquest of india.... he gave much attention to the cushite colonies in egypt, greatly increasing their strength, intelligence, and prosperity." (baldwin's "prehistoric nations," p. .) when we turn to the hindoo we still find this atlantean king. in the sanscrit books we find reference to a god called deva-nahusha, who has been identified by scholars with dionysos. he is connected "with the oldest history and mythology in the world." he is said to have been a contemporary with indra, king of meru, who was also deified, and who appears in the veda as a principal form of representation of the supreme being. "the warmest colors of imagination are used in portraying the greatness of deva-nahusha. for a time he had sovereign control of affairs in meru; he conquered the seven dwipas, and led his armies through all the known countries of the world; by means of matchless wisdom and miraculous heroism he made his empire universal." (ibid., p. .) here we see that the great god indra, chief god of the hindoos, was formerly king of meru, and that deva-nahusha (de(va)nushas--de-onyshas) had also been king of meru; and we must remember that theopompus tells us that the island of atlantis was inhabited by the "meropes;" and lenormant has reached the conclusion that the first people of the ancient world were "the men of mero." we can well believe, when we see traces of the same civilization extending from peru and lake superior to armenia and the frontiers of china, that this atlantean kingdom was indeed "universal," and extended through all the "known countries of the world." "we can see in the legends that pururavas, nahusha, and others had no connection with sanscrit history. they are referred to ages very long anterior to the sanscrit immigration, and must have been great personages celebrated in the traditions of the natives or dasyus.... pururavas was a king of great renown, who ruled over thirteen islands of the ocean, altogether surrounded by inhuman (or superhuman) personages; he engaged in a contest with brahmans, and perished. nahusha, mentioned by maull, and in many legends, as famous for hostility to the brahmans, lived at the time when indra ruled on earth. he was a very great king, who ruled with justice a mighty empire, and attained the sovereignty of three worlds." (europe, africa, and america?) "being intoxicated with pride, he was arrogant to brahmans, compelled them to bear his palanquin, and even dared to touch one of them with his foot" (kicked him?), "whereupon he was transformed into a serpent." (baldwin's "prehistoric nations," p. .) the egyptians placed dionysos (osiris) at the close of the period of their history which was assigned to the gods, that is, toward the close of the great empire of atlantis. when we remember that the hymns of the "rig-veda" are admitted to date back to a vast antiquity, and are written in a language that had ceased to be a living tongue thousands of years ago, we can almost fancy those hymns preserve some part of the songs of praise uttered of old upon the island of atlantis. many of them seem to belong to sun-worship, and might have been sung with propriety upon the high places of peru: "in the beginning there arose the golden child. he was the one born lord of all that is. he established the earth and the sky. who is the god to whom we shall offer sacrifice? "he who gives life; he who gives strength; whose command all the bright gods" (the stars?) "revere; whose light is immortality; whose shadow is death.... he who through his power is the one god of the breathing and awakening world. he who governs all, man and beast. he whose greatness these snowy mountains, whose greatness the sea proclaims, with the distant river. he through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm.... he who measured out the light in the air... wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and lit the fire, thence arose he who is the sole life of the bright gods.... he to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, trembling inwardly.... may he not destroy us; he, the creator of the earth; he, the righteous, who created heaven. he also created the bright and mighty waters." this is plainly a hymn to the sun, or to a god whose most glorious representative was the sun. it is the hymn of a people near the sea; it was not written by a people living in the heart of asia. it was the hymn of a people living in a volcanic country, who call upon their god to keep the earth "firm" and not to destroy them. it was sung at daybreak, as the sun rolled up the sky over an "awakening world." the fire (agni) upon the altar was regarded as a messenger rising from the earth to the sun: "youngest of the gods, their messenger, their invoker.... for thou, o sage, goest wisely between these two creations (heaven and earth, god and man) like a friendly messenger between two hamlets." the dawn of the day (ushas), part of the sun-worship, became also a god: "she shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go to his work. when the fire had to be kindled by man, she made the light by striking down the darkness." as the egyptians and the greeks looked to a happy abode (an under-world) in the west, beyond the waters, so the aryan's paradise was the other side of some body of water. in the veda (vii. , ) we find a prayer to the maruts, the storm-gods: "o, maruts, may there be to us a strong son, who is a living ruler of men; through whom we may cross the waters on our way to the happy abode." this happy abode is described as "where king vaivasvata reigns; where the secret place of heaven is; where the mighty waters are ... where there is food and rejoicing ... where there is happiness and delight; where joy and pleasure reside." (rig-veda ix. , .) this is the paradise beyond the seas; the elysion; the elysian fields of the greek and the egyptian, located upon an island in the atlantic which was destroyed by water. one great chain of tradition binds together these widely separated races. "the religion of the veda knows no idols," says max müller; "the worship of idols in india is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal gods." it was pure sun-worship, such as prevailed in peru on the arrival of the spaniards. it accords with plato's description of the religion of atlantis. "the dolphin's ridge," at the bottom of the atlantic, or the high land revealed by the soundings taken by the ship challenger, is, as will be seen, of a three-pronged form--one prong pointing toward the west coast of ireland, another connecting with the north-east coast of south america, and a third near or on the west coast of africa. it does not follow that the island of atlantis, at any time while inhabited by civilized people, actually reached these coasts; there is a strong probability that races of men may have found their way there from the three continents of europe, america, and africa; or the great continent which once filled the whole bed of the present atlantic ocean, and from whose débris geology tells us the old and new worlds were constructed, may have been the scene of the development, during immense periods of time, of diverse races of men, occupying different zones of climate. there are many indications that there were three races of men dwelling on atlantis. noah, according to genesis, had three sons--shem, ham, and japheth--who represented three different races of men of different colors. the greek legends tell us of the rebellions inaugurated at different times in olympus. one of these was a rebellion of the giants, "a race of beings sprung from the blood of uranos," the great original progenitor of the stock. "their king or leader was porphyrion, their most powerful champion alkyoneus." their mother was the earth: this probably meant that they represented the common people of a darker line. they made a desperate struggle for supremacy, but were conquered by zeus. there were also two rebellions of the titans. the titans seem to have had a government of their own, and the names of twelve of their kings are given in the greek mythology (see murray, p. ). they also were of "the blood of uranos," the adam of the people. we read, in fact, that uranos married gæa (the earth), and had three families: , the titans; , the hekatoncheires; and , the kyklopes. we should conclude that the last two were maritime peoples, and i have shown that their mythical characteristics were probably derived from the appearance of their ships. here we have, i think, a reference to the three races: , the red or sunburnt men, like the egyptians, the phoenicians, the basques, and the berber and cushite stocks; , the sons of shem, possibly the yellow or turanian race; and , the whiter men, the aryans, the greeks, kelts, goths, slavs, etc. if this view is correct, then we may suppose that colonies of the pale-faced stock may have been sent out from atlantis to the northern coasts of europe at different and perhaps widely separated periods of time, from some of which the aryan families of europe proceeded; hence the legend, which is found among them, that they were once forced to dwell in a country where the summers were only two months long. from the earliest times two grand divisions are recognized in the aryan family: "to the east those who specially called themselves arians, whose descendants inhabited persia, india, etc.; to the west, the yavana, or the young ones, who first emigrated westward, and from whom have descended the various nations that have populated europe. this is the name (javan) found in the tenth chapter of genesis." (lenormant and chevallier, "ancient history of the east," vol. ii., p. .) but surely those who "first emigrated westward," the earliest to leave the parent stock, could not be the "young ones;" they would be rather the elder brothers. but if we can suppose the bactrian population to have left atlantis at an early date, and the greeks, latins, and celts to have left it at a later period, then they would indeed be the "young ones" of the family, following on the heels of the earlier migrations, and herein we would find the explanation of the resemblance between the latin and celtic tongues. lenormant says the name of erin (ireland) is derived from aryan; and yet we have seen this island populated and named erin by races distinctly connected with spain, iberia, africa, and atlantis. there is another reason for supposing that the aryan nations came from atlantis. we find all europe, except a small corner of spain and a strip along the arctic circle, occupied by nations recognized as aryan; but when we turn to asia, there is but a corner of it, and that corner in the part nearest europe, occupied by the aryans. all the rest of that great continent has been filled from immemorial ages by non-aryan races. there are seven branches of the aryan family: . germanic or teutonic; . slavo-lithuanic; . celtic; . italic; . greek; . iranian or persian; . sanscritic or indian; and of these seven branches five dwell on the soil of europe, and the other two are intrusive races in asia from the direction of europe. the aryans in europe have dwelt there apparently since the close of the stone age, if not before it, while the movements of the aryans in asia are within the historical period, and they appear as intrusive stocks, forming a high caste amid a vast population of a different race. the vedas are supposed to date back to b.c., while there is every reason to believe that the celt inhabited western europe b.c. if the aryan race had originated in the heart of asia, why would not its ramifications have extended into siberia, china, and japan, and all over asia? and if the aryans moved at a comparatively recent date into europe from bactria, where are the populations that then inhabited europe--the men of the ages of stone and bronze? we should expect to find the western coasts of europe filled with them, just as the eastern coasts of asia and india are filled with turanian populations. on the contrary, we know that the aryans descended upon india from the punjab, which lies to the north-west of that region; and that their traditions represent that they came there from the west, to wit, from the direction of europe and atlantis. chapter xi. atlantis reconstructed. the farther we go back in time toward the era of atlantis, the more the evidences multiply that we are approaching the presence of a great, wise, civilized race. for instance, we find the egyptians, ethiopians, and israelites, from the earliest ages, refusing to eat the flesh of swine. the western nations departed from this rule, and in these modern days we are beginning to realize the dangers of this article of food, on account of the trichina contained in it; and when we turn to the talmud, we are told that it was forbidden to the jews, "because of a small insect which infests it." the egyptians, the ethiopians, the phoenicians, the hebrews, and others of the ancient races, practised circumcision. it was probably resorted to in atlantean days, and imposed as a religious duty, to arrest one of the most dreadful scourges of the human race--a scourge which continued to decimate the people of america, arrested their growth, and paralyzed their civilization. circumcision stamped out the disease in atlantis; we read of one atlantean king, the greek god ouranos, who, in a time of plague, compelled his whole army and the armies of his allies to undergo the rite. the colonies that went out to europe carried the practice but not the disease out of which it originated with them; and it was not until columbus reopened communication with the infected people of the west india islands that the scourge crossed the atlantic and "turned europe," as one has expressed it, "into a charnal-house." life-insurance statistics show, nowadays, that the average life and health of the hebrew is much greater than that of other men; and he owes this to the retention of practices and beliefs imposed ten thousand years ago by the great, wise race of atlantis. let us now, with all the facts before us, gleaned from various sources, reconstruct, as near as may be, the condition of the antediluvians. they dwelt upon a great island, near which were other smaller islands, probably east and west of them, forming stepping-stones, as it were, toward europe and africa in one direction, and the west india islands and america in the other. there were volcanic mountains upon the main island, rising to a height of fifteen hundred feet, with their tops covered with perpetual snow. below these were elevated table-lands, upon which were the royal establishments. below these, again, was "the great plain of atlantis." there were four rivers flowing north, south, east, and west from a central point. the climate was like that of the azores, mild and pleasant; the soil volcanic and fertile, and suitable at its different elevations for the growth of the productions of the tropical and temperate zones. the people represented at least two different races: a dark brown reddish race, akin to the central americans, the berbers and the egyptians; and a white race, like the greeks, goths, celts, and scandinavians. various battles and struggles followed between the different peoples for supremacy. the darker race seems to have been, physically, a smaller race, with small hands; the lighter-colored race was much larger--hence the legends of the titans and giants. the guanches of the canary islands were men of very great stature. as the works of the bronze age represent a small-handed race, and as the races who possessed the ships and gunpowder joined in the war against the giants, we might conclude that the dark races were the more civilized, that they were the metal-workers and navigators. the fact that the same opinions and customs exist on both sides of the ocean implies identity of origin; it might be argued that the fact that the explanation of many customs existing on both hemispheres is to be found only in america, implies that the primeval stock existed in america, the emigrating portion of the population carrying away the custom, but forgetting the reason for it. the fact that domestic cattle and the great cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, are found in europe and not in america, would imply that after the population moved to atlantis from america civilization was developed in atlantis, and that in the later ages communication was closer and more constant between atlantis and europe than between atlantis and america. in the case of the bulky domestic animals, it would be more difficult to transport them, in the open vessels of that day, from atlantis across the wider expanse of sea to america, than it would be to carry them by way of the now submerged islands in front of the mediterranean sea to the coast of spain. it may be, too, that the climate of spain and italy was better adapted to the growth of wheat, barley, oats and rye, than maize; while the drier atmosphere of america was better suited to the latter plant. even now comparatively little wheat or barley is raised in central america, mexico, or peru, and none on the low coasts of those countries; while a smaller quantity of maize, proportionately, is grown in italy, spain, and the rest of western europe, the rainy climate being unsuited to it. we have seen (p. , ante) that there is reason to believe that maize was known in a remote period in the drier regions of the egyptians and chinese. as science has been able to reconstruct the history of the migrations of the aryan race, by the words that exist or fail to appear in the kindred branches of that tongue, so the time will come when a careful comparison of words, customs, opinions, arts existing on the opposite sides of the atlantic will furnish an approximate sketch of atlantean history. the people had attained a high position as agriculturists. the presence of the plough in egypt and peru implies that they possessed that implement. and as the horns and ox-head of baal show the esteem in which cattle were held among them, we may suppose that they had passed the stage in which the plough was drawn by men, as in peru and egypt in ancient times, and in sweden during the historical period, and that it was drawn by oxen or horses. they first domesticated the horse, hence the association of poseidon or neptune, a sea-god, with horses; hence the race-courses for horses described by plato. they possessed sheep, and manufactured woollen goods; they also had goats, dogs, and swine. they raised cotton and made cotton goods; they probably cultivated maize, wheat, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, hemp, and flax, and possibly potatoes; they built aqueducts and practised irrigation; they were architects, sculptors, and engravers; they possessed an alphabet; they worked in tin, copper, bronze, silver, gold, and iron. during the vast period of their duration, as peace and agriculture caused their population to increase to overflowing, they spread out in colonies east and west to the ends of the earth. this was not the work of a few years, but of many centuries; and the relations between these colonies may have been something like the relation between the different colonies that in a later age were established by the phoenicians, the greeks, and the romans; there was an intermingling with the more ancient races, the autochthones of the different lands where they settled; and the same crossing of stocks, which we know to have been continued all through the historical period, must have been going on for thousands of years, whereby new races and new dialects were formed; and the result of all this has been that the smaller races of antiquity have grown larger, while all the complexions shade into each other, so that we can pass from the whitest to the darkest by insensible degrees. in some respects the atlanteans exhibited conditions similar to those of the british islands: there were the same, and even greater, race differences in the population; the same plantation of colonies in europe, asia, and america; the same carrying of civilization to the ends of the earth. we have seen colonies from great britain going out in the third and fifth centuries to settle on the shores of france, in brittany, representing one of the nationalities and languages of the mother-country--a race atlantean in origin. in the same way we may suppose hamitic emigrations to have gone out from atlantis to syria, egypt, and the barbary states. if we could imagine highland scotch, welsh, cornish, and irish populations emigrating en masse from england in later times, and carrying to their new lands the civilization of england, with peculiar languages not english, we would have a state of things probably more like the migrations which took place from atlantis. england, with a civilization atlantean in origin, peopled by races from the same source, is repeating in these modern times the empire of zeus and chronos; and, just as we have seen troy, egypt, and greece warring against the parent race, so in later days we have seen brittany and the united states separating themselves from england, the race characteristics remaining after the governmental connection had ceased. in religion the atlanteans had reached all the great thoughts which underlie our modern creeds. they had attained to the conception of one universal, omnipotent, great first cause. we find the worship of this one god in peru and in early egypt. they looked upon the sun as the mighty emblem, type, and instrumentality of this one god. such a conception could only have come with civilization. it is not until these later days that science has realized the utter dependence of all earthly life upon the sun's rays: "all applications of animal power may be regarded as derived directly or indirectly from the static chemical power of the vegetable substance by which the various organisms and their capabilities are sustained; and this power, in turn, from the kinetic action of the sun's rays. "winds and ocean currents, hailstorms and rain, sliding glaciers, flowing rivers, and falling cascades are the direct offspring of solar heat. all our machinery, therefore, whether driven by the windmill or the water-wheel, by horse-power or by steam--all the results of electrical and electro-magnetic changes--our telegraphs, our clocks, and our watches, all are wound up primarily by the sun. "the sun is the great source of energy in almost all terrestrial phenomena. from the meteorological to the geographical, from the geological to the biological, in the expenditure and conversion of molecular movements, derived from the sun's rays, must be sought the motive power of all this infinitely varied phantasmagoria." but the people of atlantis had gone farther; they believed that the soul of man was immortal, and that he would live again in his material body; in other words, they believed in "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." they accordingly embalmed their dead. the duke of argyll ("the unity of nature") says: "we have found in the most ancient records of the aryan language proof that the indications of religious thought are higher, simpler, and purer as we go back in time, until at last, in the very oldest compositions of human speech which have come down to us, we find the divine being spoken of in the sublime language which forms the opening of the lord's prayer. the date in absolute chronology of the oldest vedic literature does not seem to be known. professor max müller, however, considers that it may possibly take us back years.... all we can see with certainty is that the earliest inventions of mankind are the most wonderful that the race has ever made.... the first use of fire, and the discovery of the methods by which it can be kindled; the domestication of wild animals; and, above all, the processes by which the various cereals were first developed out of some wild grasses--these are all discoveries with which, in ingenuity and in importance, no subsequent discoveries may compare. they are all unknown to history--all lost in the light of an effulgent dawn." the atlanteans possessed an established order of priests; their religious worship was pure and simple. they lived under a kingly government; they had their courts, their judges, their records, their monuments covered with inscriptions, their mines, their founderies, their workshops, their looms, their grist-mills, their boats and sailing-vessels, their highways, aqueducts, wharves, docks, and canals. they had processions, banners, and triumphal arches for their kings and heroes; they built pyramids, temples, round-towers, and obelisks; they practised religious ablutions; they knew the use of the magnet and of gunpowder. in short, they were in the enjoyment of a civilization nearly as high as our own, lacking only the printing-press, and those inventions in which steam, electricity, and magnetism are used. we are told that deva-nahusha visited his colonies in farther india. an empire which reached from the andes to hindostan, if not to china, must have been magnificent indeed. in its markets must have met the maize of the mississippi valley, the copper of lake superior, the gold and silver of peru and mexico, the spices of india, the tin of wales and cornwall, the bronze of iberia, the amber of the baltic, the wheat and barley of greece, italy, and switzerland. it is not surprising that when this mighty nation sank beneath the waves, in the midst of terrible convulsions, with all its millions of people, the event left an everlasting impression upon the imagination of mankind. let us suppose that great britain should to-morrow meet with a similar fate. what a wild consternation would fall upon her colonies and upon the whole human family! the world might relapse into barbarism, deep and almost universal. william the conqueror, richard coeur de lion, alfred the great, cromwell, and victoria might survive only as the gods or demons of later races; but the memory of the cataclysm in which the centre of a universal empire instantaneously went down to death would never be forgotten; it would survive in fragments, more or less complete, in every land on earth; it would outlive the memory of a thousand lesser convulsions of nature; it would survive dynasties, nations, creeds, and languages; it would never be forgotten while man continued to inhabit the face of the globe. science has but commenced its work of reconstructing the past and rehabilitating the ancient peoples, and surely there is no study which appeals more strongly to the imagination than that of this drowned nation, the true antediluvians. they were the founders of nearly all our arts and sciences; they were the parents of our fundamental beliefs; they were the first civilizers, the first navigators, the first merchants, the first colonizers of the earth; their civilization was old when egypt was young, and they had passed away thousands of years before babylon, rome, or london were dreamed of. this lost people were our ancestors, their blood flows in our veins; the words we use every day were heard, in their primitive form, in their cities, courts, and temples. every line of race and thought, of blood and belief, leads back to them. nor is it impossible that the nations of the earth may yet employ their idle navies in bringing to the light of day some of the relics of this buried people. portions of the island lie but a few hundred fathoms beneath the sea; and if expeditions have been sent out from time to time in the past, to resurrect from the depths of the ocean sunken treasure-ships with a few thousand doubloons hidden in their cabins, why should not an attempt be made to reach the buried wonders of atlantis? a single engraved tablet dredged up from plato's island would be worth more to science, would more strike the imagination of mankind, than all the gold of peru, all the monuments of egypt, and all the terra-cotta fragments gathered from the great libraries of chaldea. may not the so-called "phoenician coins" found on corvo, one of the azores, be of atlantean origin? is it probable that that great race, pre-eminent as a founder of colonies, could have visited those islands within the historical period, and have left them unpeopled, as they were when discovered by the portuguese? we are but beginning to understand the past: one hundred years ago the world knew nothing of pompeii or herculaneum; nothing of the lingual tie that binds together the indo-european nations; nothing of the significance of the vast volume of inscriptions upon the tombs and temples of egypt; nothing of the meaning of the arrow-headed inscriptions of babylon; nothing of the marvellous civilizations revealed in the remains of yucatan, mexico, and peru. we are on the threshold. scientific investigation is advancing with giant strides. who shall say that one hundred years from now the great museums of the world may not be adorned with gems, statues, arms, and implements from atlantis, while the libraries of the world shall contain translations of its inscriptions, throwing new light upon all the past history of the human race, and all the great problems which now perplex the thinkers of our day? the end. none distributed proofreaders a philological essay concerning the pygmies of the ancients by edward tyson now edited, with an introduction by bertram c. a. windle to my dear mother prefatory note it is only necessary for me to state here, what i have mentioned in the introduction, that my account of the habits of the pigmy races of legend and myth makes no pretence of being in any sense a complete or exhaustive account of the literature of this subject. i have contented myself with bringing forward such tales as seemed of value for the purpose of establishing the points upon which i desire to lay emphasis. i have elsewhere expressed my obligations to m. de quatrefage's book on pigmies, obligations which will be at once recognised by those familiar with that monograph. to his observations i have endeavoured to add such other published facts as i have been able to gather in relation to these peoples. i have to thank professors sir william turner, haddon, schlegel, brinton, and topinard for their kindness in supplying me with information in response to my inquiries on several points. finally, i have to acknowledge my indebtedness to professor alexander macalister, president of the anthropological institute, and to mr. e. sidney hartland, for their kindness in reading through, the former the first two sections, and the latter the last two sections of the introduction, and for the valuable suggestions which both have made. these gentlemen have laid me under obligations which i can acknowledge, but cannot repay. bertram c. a. windle. mason college, birmingham, . introduction i. edward tyson, the author of the essay with which this book is concerned, was, on the authority of monk's roll of the royal college of physicians, born, according to some accounts, at bristol, according to others, at clevedon, co. somerset, but was descended from a family which had long settled in cumberland. he was educated at magdalene hall, oxford, as a member of which he proceeded bachelor of arts on the th of february , and master of arts on the th of november . his degree of doctor of medicine he took at cambridge in as a member of corpus christi college. dr. tyson was admitted a candidate of the college of physicians on the th of september , and a fellow in april . he was censor of the college in , and held the appointments of physician to the hospitals of bridewell and bethlem, and of anatomical reader at surgeons' hall. he was a fellow of the royal society, and contributed several papers to the "philosophical transactions." besides a number of anatomical works, he published in "a philosophical essay concerning the rhymes of the ancients," and in the same year the work by which his name is still known, in which the philological essay which is here reprinted finds a place. tyson died on the st of august , in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and is buried at st. dionis backchurch. he was the original of the carus not very flatteringly described in garth's "dispensary." the title-page of the work above alluded to runs as follows:-- _orang-outang, sive homo sylvestris_: or, the anatomy of a pygmie compared with that of a _monkey_, an _ape_, and a _man_. to which is added, a philological essay concerning the _pygmies_, the _cynocephali_, the _satyrs_, and _sphinges_ of the ancients. wherein it will appear that they are all either _apes_ or _monkeys_, and not _men_, as formerly pretended. by _edward tyson_ m.d. fellow of the colledge of physicians, and the royal society: physician to the hospital of _bethlem_, and reader of anatomy at _chirurgeons-hall_. _london_: printed for _thomas bennet_ at the _half-moon in st. paul's_ church-yard; and _daniel brown_ at the _black swan_ and _bible_ without _temple-bar_ and are to be had of mr. _hunt_ at the _repository_ in _gresham-colledge_. m dc xcix. it bears the authority of the royal society:-- ° _die maij_, . imprimatur liber cui titulus, _orang-outang, sive homo sylvestris,_ &c. authore _edvardo tyson_, m.d. r.s.s. john hoskins, _v.p.r.s_. the pygmy described in this work was, as a matter of fact, a chimpanzee, and its skeleton is at this present moment in the natural history museum at south kensington. tyson's granddaughter married a dr. allardyce, who was a physician of good standing in cheltenham. the "pygmie" formed a somewhat remarkable item of her dowry. her husband presented it to the cheltenham museum, where it was fortunately carefully preserved until, quite recently, it was transferred to its present position. at the conclusion of the purely scientific part of the work the author added four philological essays, as will have appeared from his title-page. the first of these is both the longest and the most interesting, and has alone been selected for republication in this volume. this is not the place to deal with the scientific merit of the main body of tyson's work, but it may at least be said that it was the first attempt which had been made to deal with the anatomy of any of the anthropoid apes, and that its execution shows very conspicuous ability on the part of its author. tyson, however, was not satisfied with the honour of being the author of an important morphological work; he desired to round off his subject by considering its bearing upon the, to him, wild and fabulous tales concerning pigmy races. the various allusions to these races met with in the pages of the older writers, and discussed in his, were to him what fairy tales are to us. like modern folk-lorists, he wished to explain, even to euhemerise them, and bring them into line with the science of his day. hence the "philological essay" with which this book is concerned. there are no pigmy races, he says; "the most diligent enquiries of late into all the parts of the inhabited world could never discover any such puny diminutive race of mankind." but there are tales about them, "fables and wonderful and merry relations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them," which surely require explanation. that explanation he found in his theory that all the accounts of pigmy tribes were based upon the mistakes of travellers who had taken apes for men. nor was he without followers in his opinion; amongst whom here need only be mentioned buffon, who in his _histoire des oiseaux_ explains the homeric tale much as tyson had done. the discoveries, however, of this century have, as all know, re-established in their essential details the accounts of the older writers, and in doing so have demolished the theories of tyson and buffon. we now know, not merely that there are pigmy races in existence, but that the area which they occupy is an extensive one, and in the remote past has without doubt been more extensive still. moreover, certain of these races have been, at least tentatively, identified with the pigmy tribes of pliny, herodotus, aristotle, and other writers. it will be well, before considering this question, and before entering into any consideration of the legends and myths which may possibly be associated with dwarf races, to sketch briefly their distribution throughout the continents of the globe. it is necessary to keep clearly in view the upper limit which can justly be assigned to dwarfishness, and with this object it may be advisable to commence with a statement as to the average heights reached by various representative peoples. according to topinard, the races of the world may be classified, in respect to their stature, in the following manner:-- tall ft. in. and upwards. above the average ft. in. to ft. in. below the average ft. in. to ft. in. short below ft. in. thus amongst ordinary peoples there is no very striking difference of height, so far as the average is concerned. it would, however, be a great mistake to suppose that all races reaching a lower average height than five feet four inches are, in any accurate sense of the word, to be looked upon as pigmies. we have to descend to a considerably lower figure before that appellation can be correctly employed. the stature must fall considerably below five feet before we can speak of the race as one of dwarfs or pigmies. anthropometrical authorities have not as yet agreed upon any upward limit for such a class, but for our present purposes it may be convenient to say that any race in which the average male stature does not exceed four feet nine inches--that is, the average height of a boy of about twelve years of age--may fairly be described as pigmy. it is most important to bear this matter of inches in mind in connection with points which will have to be considered in a later section. pigmy races still exist in considerable numbers in asia and the adjacent islands, and as it was in that continent that, so far as our present knowledge goes, they had in former days their greatest extension, and, if de quatrefages be correct, their place of origin, it will be well to deal first with the tribes of that quarter of the globe. "the negrito" (_i.e._, pigmy black) "type," says the authority whom i have just quoted, and to whom i shall have to be still further indebted,[a] "was first placed in south asia, which it without doubt occupied alone during an indeterminate period. it is thence that its diverse representatives have radiated, and, some going east, some west, have given rise to the black populations of melanesia and africa. in particular, india and indo-china first belonged to the blacks. invasions and infiltrations of different yellow or white races have split up these negrito populations, which formerly occupied a continuous area, and mixing with them, have profoundly altered them. the present condition of things is the final result of strifes and mixtures, the most ancient of which may be referred back to prehistoric times." the invasions above mentioned having in the past driven many of the races from the mainland to the islands, and those which remained on the continent having undergone greater modification by crossing with taller and alien races, we may expect to find the purest negritos amongst the tribes inhabiting the various archipelagoes situated south and east of the mainland. amongst these, the mincopies of the andaman islands offer a convenient starting-point. the knowledge which we possess of these little blacks is extensive, thanks to the labours in particular of mr. man[b] and dr. dobson,[c] which may be found in the journal of the anthropological institute, and summarised in de quatrefages' work. the average stature of the males of this race is four feet six inches, the height of a boy of ten years of age. like children, the head is relatively large in comparison with the stature, since it is contained seven times therein, instead of seven and a half times, as is the rule amongst most average-sized peoples. whilst speaking of the head, it may be well to mention that these negritos, and in greater or less measure other negritos and negrillos (_i.e._, pigmy blacks, asiatic or african), differ in this part of the body in a most important respect from the ordinary african negro. like him, they are black, often intensely so: like him, too, they have woolly hair arranged in tufts, but, unlike him, they have round (brachycephalic) heads instead of long (dolichocephalic); and the purer the race, the more marked is this distinction. the mincopie has a singularly short life; for though he attains puberty at much the same age as ourselves, the twenty-second year brings him to middle life, and the fiftieth, if reached, is a period of extreme senility. pure in race, ancient in history, and carefully studied, this race deserves some further attention here than can be extended to others with which i have to deal. the moral side of the mincopies seems to be highly developed; the modesty of the young girls is most strict; monogamy is the rule, and-- "their list of forbidden degrees an extensive morality shows," since even the marriage of cousins-german is considered highly immoral. "men and women," says man, "are models of constancy." they believe in a supreme deity, respecting whom they say, that "although he resembles fire, he is invisible; that he was never born, and is immortal; that he created the world and all animate and inanimate objects, save only the powers of evil. during the day he knows everything, even the thoughts of the mind; he is angry when certain sins are committed, and full of pity for the unfortunate and miserable, whom he sometimes condescends to assist. he judges souls after death, and pronounces on each a sentence which sends them to paradise or condemns them to a kind of purgatory. the hope of escaping the torments of this latter place influences their conduct. puluga, this deity, inhabits a house of stone; when it rains, he descends upon the earth in search of food; during the dry weather he is asleep." besides this deity, they believe in numerous evil spirits, the chief of whom is the demon of the woods. these spirits have created themselves, and have existed _ab immemorabili_. the sun, which is a female, and the moon, her husband, are secondary deities. [footnote a: the quotations from this author are taken from his work _les pygmées_. paris, j.b. baillière et fils, .] [footnote b: _jour. anthrop. inst_., vii.] [footnote c: _ibid_., iv.] south of the andaman islands are the nicobars, the aborigines of which, the shom pen,[a] now inhabit the mountains, where, like so many of their brethren, they have been driven by the malays. they are of small, but not pigmy stature (five feet two inches), a fact which may be due to crossing. [footnote a: man, _jour. anthrop. inst._, xviii. p. .] following the negritos east amongst the islands, we find in luzon the aetas or inagtas, a group of which is known in mindanao as manamouas. the aetas live side by side with the tagals, who are of malay origin. they were called negritos del monte by the spaniards who first colonised these islands. their average stature, according to wallace, ranges from four feet six inches to four feet eight inches. in new guinea, the karons, a similar race, occupy a chain of mountains parallel to the north coast of the great north-western peninsula. at port moresby, in the same island, the koiari appear to represent the most south-easterly group; but my friend professor haddon, who has investigated this district, tells me that he finds traces of a former existence of negritos at torres straits and in north queensland, as shown by the shape of the skulls of the inhabitants of these regions. the malay peninsula contains in perak hill tribes called "savages" by the sakays. these tribes have not been seen by europeans, but are stated to be pigmy in stature, troglodytic, and still in the stone age. farther south are the semangs of kedah, with an average stature of four feet ten inches, and the jakuns of singapore, rising to five feet. the annamites admit that they are not autochthonous, a distinction which they confer upon the moïs, of whom little is known, but whose existence and pigmy negrito characteristics are considered by de quatrefages as established. china no longer, so far as we know, contains any representatives of this type, but professor lacouperie[a] has recently shown that they formerly existed in that part of asia. according to the annals of the bamboo books, "in the twenty-ninth year of the emperor yao, in spring, the chief of the tsiao-yao, or dark pigmies, came to court and offered as tribute feathers from the mot." the professor continues, "as shown by this entry, we begin with the semi-historic times as recorded in the 'annals of the bamboo books,' and the date about b.c. the so-called feathers were simply some sort of marine plant or seaweed with which the immigrant chinese, still an inland people, were yet unacquainted. the mot water or river, says the shan-hai-king, or canonical book of hills and seas, was situated in the south-east of the tai-shan in shan-tung. this gives a clue to the localisation of the pigmies, and this localisation agrees with the positive knowledge we possess of the small area which the chinese dominion covered at this time. thus the negritos were part of the native population of china when, in the twenty-third century b.c., the civilised bak tribes came into the land." in japan we have also evidence of their existence. this country, now inhabited by the niphonians, or japanese, as we have come to call them, was previously the home of the ainu, a white, hairy under-sized race, possibly, even probably, emigrants from europe, and now gradually dying out in yezo and the kurile islands. prior to the ainu was a negrito race, whose connection with the former is a matter of much dispute, whose remains in the shape of pit-dwellings, stone arrow-heads, pottery, and other implements still exist, and will be found fully described by mr. savage landor in a recent most interesting work.[b] in the shan-hai-king, as professor schlegel[c] points out, their country is spoken of as the siao-jin-kouo, or land of little men, in distinction, be it noted, to the peh-min-kouo, or land of white people, identified by him with the ainu. these little men are spoken of by the ainu as koro-puk-guru, _i.e._, according to milne, men occupying excavations, or pit-dwellers. according to chamberlain, the name means dwellers under burdocks, and is associated with the following legend. before the time of the ainu, yezo was inhabited by a race of dwarfs, said by some to be two to three feet, by others only one inch in height. when an enemy approached, they hid themselves under the great leaves of the burdock (_koro_), for which reason they are called koro-puk-guru, i.e., the men under the burdocks. when they were exterminated by the wooden clubs of the ainu, they raised their eyes to heaven, and, weeping, cried aloud to the gods, "why were we made so small?" it should be said that professor schlegel and mr. savage landor both seem to prefer the former etymology. [footnote a: babylonian and oriental record, vol. v.] [footnote b: alone with the hairy ainu.] [footnote c: _problèmes géographiques. les peuples etrangers chez les historiens chinois_. extrait du t'oung-pao, vol. _iv_. no. . leide, e.j. brill.] passing to the north-west of the andamans, we find in india a problem of considerable difficulty. that there were at one period numerous negrito tribes inhabiting that part of asia is indubitable; that some of them persist to this day in a state of approximate purity is no less true, but the influence of crossing has here been most potent. races of lighter hue and taller stature have invaded the territory of the negritos, to a certain extent intermarried with them, and thus have originated the various dravidian tribes. these tribes, therefore, afford us a valuable clue as to the position occupied in former days by their ancestors, the negritos. in some of the early indian legends, de quatrefages thinks that he finds traces of these prehistoric connections between the indigenous negrito tribes and their invaders. the account of the services rendered to rama by hânuman and his monkey-people may, he thinks, easily be explained by supposing the latter to be a negrito tribe. another tale points to unions of a closer nature between the alien races. bhimasena, after having conquered and slain hidimba, at first resisted the solicitations of the sister of this monster, who, having become enamoured of him, presented herself under the guise of a lovely woman. but at the wish of his elder brother, youdhichshira, the king of justice, and with the consent of his mother, he yielded, and passed some time in the dwelling of this negrito or dravidian armida. it will now be necessary to consider some of these races more or less crossed with alien blood. in the centre of india, amongst the vindyah mountains, live the djangals or bandra-lokhs, the latter name signifying man-monkey, and thus associating itself with the tale of rama, above alluded to. like most of the dravidian tribes, they live in great misery, and show every sign of their condition in their attenuated figures. one of this tribe measured by rousselet was five feet in height. it may here be remarked that the stature of the dravidian races exceeds that of the purer negritos, a fact due, no doubt, to the influence of crossing. farther south, in the nilgherry hills, and in the neighbourhood of the todas and badagas, dwell the kurumbas. and irulas (children of darkness). both are weak and dwarfish, the latter especially so. they inhabit, says walhouse,[a] the most secluded, densely wooded fastnesses of the mountain slopes. they are by popular tradition connected with the aboriginal builders of the rude stone monuments of the district, though, according to the above-mentioned authority, without any claim to such distinction. they, however, worship at these cromlechs from time to time, and are associated with them in another interesting manner. "the kurumbas of nulli," says walhouse, "one of the wildest nilgherry declivities, come up annually to worship at one of the dolmens on the table-land above, in which they say one of their old gods resides. though they are regarded with fear and hatred as sorcerers by the agricultural b[)a]d[)a]gas of the table-land, one of them must, nevertheless, at sowing-time be called to guide the first plough for two or three yards, and go through a mystic pantomime of propitiation to the earth deity, without which the crop would certainly fail. when so summoned, the kurumba must pass the night by the dolmens alone, and i have seen one who had been called from his present dwelling for the morning ceremony, sitting after dark on the capstone of a dolmen, with heels and hams drawn together and chin on knees, looking like some huge ghostly fowl perched on the mysterious stone." mr. gomme has drawn attention to this and other similar customs in the interesting remarks which he makes upon the influence of conquered non-aryan races upon their aryan subduers.[b] [footnote a: _jour. anthrop. inst._, vii. .] [footnote b: ethnology and folk-lore, p. ; the village community, p. .] farther south, in ceylon, the veddahs live, whom bailey[a] considers to be identical with the hill-tribes of the mainland, though, if this be true, some at least must have undergone a large amount of crossing, judging from the wavy nature of their hair. the author just quoted says, "the tallest veddah i ever saw, a man so towering above his fellows that, till i measured him, i believed him to be not merely comparatively a tall man, was only five feet three inches in height. the shortest man i have measured was four feet one inch. i should say that of males the ordinary height is from four feet six inches to five feet one inch, and of females from four feet four inches to four feet eight inches." [footnote a: _trans. ethn. soc._, ii. .] in the east the santals inhabit the basin of the ganges, and in the west the jats belong to the punjab, and especially to the district of the indus. the kols inhabit the delta of the indus and the neighbourhood of gujerat, and stretch almost across central india into behar and the eastern extremities of the vindhya mountains. other dravidian tribes are the oraons, jouangs, buihers, and gounds. all these races have a stature of about five feet, and, though much crossed, present more or less marked negrito characteristics. passing farther west, the brahouis of beluchistan, a dravidian race, who regard themselves as the aboriginal inhabitants, live side by side with the belutchis. finally, in this direction, there seem to have been near lake zerrah, in persia, negrito tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the historic black guard of the ancient kings of susiana. an examination of the present localisation of these remnants of the negrito inhabitants shows how they have been split up, amalgamated with, or driven to the islands by the conquering invaders. an example of what has taken place may be found in the case of borneo, where negritos still exist in the centre of the island. the dyaks chase them like wild beasts, and shoot down the children, who take refuge in the trees. this will not seem in the least surprising to those who have studied the history of the relation between autochthonous races and their invaders. it is the same story that has been told of the anglo-saxon race in its dealings with aborigines in america, and notably, in our case, in tasmania. turning from asia to a continent more closely associated, at least in popular estimation, with pigmy races, we find in africa several races of dwarf men, of great antiquity and surpassing interest. the discoveries of stanley, schweinfurth, miani, and others have now placed at our disposal very complete information respecting the pigmies of the central part of the continent, with whom it will, therefore, be convenient to make a commencement. these pigmies appear to be divided into two tribes, which, though similar in stature, and alike distinguished by the characteristic of attaching themselves to some larger race of natives, yet present considerable points of difference, so much so as to cause mr. stanley to say that they are as unlike as a scandinavian is to a turk. "scattered," says the same authority,[a] "among the balessé, between ipoto and mount pisgah, and inhabiting the land between the ngaiyu and ituri rivers, a region equal in area to about two-thirds of scotland, are the wambutti, variously called batwa, akka, and bazungu. these people are under-sized nomads, dwarfs or pigmies, who live in the uncleared virgin forest, and support themselves on game, which they are very expert in catching. they vary in height from three feet to four feet six inches. a full-grown adult may weigh ninety pounds. they plant their village camps three miles around a tribe of agricultural aborigines, the majority of whom are fine stalwart people. they use poisoned arrows, with which they kill elephants, and they capture other kinds of game by the use of traps." [footnote a: in darkest africa, vol. ii. p. .] the two groups are respectively called batwa and wambutti. the former inhabit the northern parts of the above-mentioned district, the latter the southern. the former have longish heads, long narrow faces, and small reddish eyes set close together, whilst the latter have round faces and open foreheads, gazelle-like eyes, set far apart, and rich yellow ivory complexion. their bodies are covered with stiffish grey short hair. two further quotations from the same source may be given to convey an idea to those ignorant of the original work, if such there be, of the appearances of these dwarfs. speaking of the queen of a tribe of pigmies, stanley says,[a] "she was brought in to see me, with three rings of polished iron around her neck, the ends of which were coiled like a watch-spring. three iron rings were suspended to each ear. she is of a light-brown complexion with broad round face, large eyes, and small but full lips. she had a quiet modest demeanour, though her dress was but a narrow fork clout of bark cloth. her height is about four feet four inches, and her age may be nineteen or twenty. i notice when her arms are held against the light a whity-brown fell on them. her skin has not that silky smoothness of touch common to the zanzibaris, but altogether she is a very pleasing little creature." to this female portrait may be subjoined one of a male aged probably twenty-one years and four feet in height.[b] "his colour was coppery, the fell over the body was almost furry, being nearly half an inch long, and his hands were very delicate. on his head he wore a bonnet of a priestly form, decorated with a bunch of parrot feathers, and a broad strip of bark covered his nakedness." [footnote a: in darkest africa, vol. i. p. .] [footnote b: ibid., ii. .] jephson states[a] that he found continual traces of them from ' e. long., a few miles above the equator, up to the edge of the great forest, five days' march from lake albert. he also says that they are a hardy daring race, always ready for war, and are much feared by their neighbours. as soon as a party of dwarfs makes its appearance near a village, the chief hastens to propitiate them by presents of corn and such vegetables as he possesses. they never exceed four feet one inch in height, he informs us, and adds a characteristic which has not been mentioned by stanley, one, too, which is very remarkable when it is remembered how scanty is the facial hair of the negros and negritos--the men have often very long beards. the southern parts of the continent are occupied by the bushmen, who are vigorous and agile, of a stature ranging from four feet six inches to four feet nine inches, and sufficiently well known to permit me to pass over them without further description. the smallest woman of this race who has been measured was only three feet three inches in height, and barrow examined one, who was the mother of several children, with a stature of three feet eight inches. the akoas of the gaboon district were a race of pigmies who, now apparently extinct, formerly dwelt on the north of the nazareth river. a male of this tribe was photographed and measured by the french admiral fleuriot de l'angle. his age was about forty and his stature four feet six inches. [footnote a: emm pasha, p. , et seq.] flower[a] says that "another tribe, the m'boulous, inhabiting the coast north of the gaboon river, have been described by m. marche as probably the primitive race of the country. they live in little villages, keeping entirely to themselves, though surrounded by the larger negro tribes, m'pongos and bakalais, who are encroaching upon them so closely that their numbers are rapidly diminishing. in they were not more than ; in they were much less numerous. they are of an earthy-brown colour, and rarely exceed five feet three inches in height. another group living between the gaboon and the congo, in ashangoland, a male of which measured four feet six inches, has been described by du chaillu." in loango there is a tribe called babonko, which was described by battell in , in the work entitled "purchas his pilgrimes," in the following terms:--"to the north-east of mani-kesock are a kind of little people called matimbas; which are no bigger than boyes of twelve yeares old, but very thicke, and live only upon flesh, which they kill in the woods with their bows and darts. they pay tribute to mani-kesock, and bring all their elephants' teeth and tayles to him. they will not enter into any of the maramba's houses, nor will suffer any one to come where they dwell. and if by chance any maramba or people of longo pass where they dwell, they will forsake that place and go to another. the women carry bows and arrows as well as the men. and one of these will walk in the woods alone and kill the pongos with their poysoned arrows." it is somewhat surprising that tyson, who gives in his essay (p. ) the account of the same people published at a later date ( ) by dapper, should have missed his fellow-countryman's narrative. the existence of this tribe has been established by a german expedition, one of the members of which, dr. falkenstein, photographed and measured an adult male whose stature was four feet six inches. krapf[a] states that in the south of schoa, in a part of abyssinia as yet unworked, the dokos live, who are not taller than four feet. according to his account, they are of a dark olive colour, with thick prominent lips, flat noses, small eyes, and long flowing hair. they have no dwellings, temples, holy trees, chiefs, or weapons, live on roots and fruit, and are ignorant of fire. another group was described by mollieu in as inhabiting tenda-maié, near the rio grande, but very little is known about them. in a work entitled "the dwarfs of mount atlas," halliburton[b] has brought forward a number of statements to prove that a tribe of dwarfs, named like those of central africa, akkas, of a reddish complexion and with short woolly hair, live in the district adjoining soos. these dwarfs have been alluded to by harris and dönnenburg,[c] but mr. harold crichton browne,[d] who has explored neighbouring districts, is of opinion that there is no such tribe, and that the accounts of them have been based upon the examination of sporadic examples of dwarfishness met with in that as in other parts of the world. [footnote a: _morgenblatt_, (quoted by schaafhausen, _arch. f. anth._, , p. ).] [footnote b: london, nutt, .] [footnote c: _nature_, , ii. .] [footnote a: _nature_, , i. .] finally, in madagascar it is possible that there may be a dwarf race. oliver[a] states that "the vazimbas are supposed to have been the first occupants of ankova. they are described by rochon, under the name of kunios, as a nation of dwarfs averaging three feet six inches in stature, of a lighter colour than the negroes, with very long arms and woolly hair. as they were only described by natives of the coast, and have never been seen, it is natural to suppose that these peculiarities have been exaggerated; but it is stated that people of diminutive size still exist on the banks of a certain river to the south-west." there are many tumuli of rude work and made of rough stones throughout the country, which are supposed to be their tombs. in idolatrous days, says mullens,[b] the malagasy deified the vazimba, and their so-called tombs were the most sacred objects in the country. in this account may be found further evidence in favour of mr. gomme's theory, to which attention has already been called. [footnote a: _anthrop. memoirs_, iii. .] [footnote b: _jour. anthrop. inst._, v. .] in the great continent of america there does not appear to have ever been, so far as our present knowledge teaches, any pigmy race. dr. brinton, the distinguished american ethnologist, to whom i applied for information on this point, has been good enough to write to me that, in his opinion, there is no evidence of any pigmy race in america. the "little people" of the "stone graves" in tennessee, often supposed to be such, were children, as the bones testify. the german explorer hassler has alleged the existence of a pigmy race in brazil, but testimony is wanting to support such allegation. there are two tribes of very short but not pigmy stature in america, the yahgans of tierra del fuégo and the utes of colorado, but both of these average over five feet. leaving aside for the moment the lapps, to whom i shall return, there does not appear to have been at any time a really pigmy race in europe, so far as any discoveries which have been made up to the present time show. professor topinard, whose authority upon this point cannot be gainsaid, informs me that the smallest race known to him in central europe is that of the pre-historic people of the lozère, who were neolithic troglodytes, and are represented probably at the present day by some of the peoples of south italy and sardinia. their average stature was about five feet two inches. this closely corresponds with what is known of the stature of the platycnemic race of denbighshire, the perthi-chwareu. busk[a] says of them that they were of low stature, the mean height, deduced from the lengths of the long bones, being little more than five feet. as both sexes are considered together in this description, it is fair to give the male a stature of about five feet two inches,[b] it also corresponds with the stature assigned by pitt-rivers to a tribe occupying the borders of wiltshire and dorsetshire during the roman occupation, the average height of whose males and females was five feet two and a half inches and four feet ten and three-quarter inches respectively. [footnote a: _jour. ethn. soc._, - , p. .] [footnote b: since these pages were printed, prof. kollmann, of basle, has described a group of neolithic pigmies as having existed at schaffhausen. the adult interments consisted of the remains of full-grown european types and of small-sized people. these two races were found interred side by side under precisely similar conditions, from which he concludes that they lived peaceably together, notwithstanding racial difference. their stature (about three feet six inches) may be compared with that of the veddahs in ceylon. prof. kollmann believes that they were a distinct species of mankind.] dr. rahon,[a] who has recently made a careful study of the bones of pre-historic and proto-historic races, with special reference to their stature, states that the skeletons attributed to the most ancient and to the neolithic races are of a stature below the middle height, the average being a little over five feet three inches. the peoples who constructed the megalithic remains of roknia and of the caucasus, were of a stature similar to our own. the diverse proto-historic populations, gauls, franks, burgundians, and merovingians, considered together, present a stature slightly superior to that of the french of the present day, but not so much so as the accounts of the historians would have led us to believe. [footnote a: _recherches sur les ossements humaines, anciens et préhistonques. mém. de la soc. d'anthrop. de paris_, sér, ii. tom. iv. .] it remains now to deal with two races whose physical characters are of considerable importance in connection with certain points which will be dealt with in subsequent pages, i mean the lapps and the innuit or eskimo. the lapps, according to karonzine,[a] one of their most recent describers, are divisible into two groups, scandinavian and russian, the former being purer than the latter race. the average male stature is five feet, a figure which corresponds closely with that obtained by mantegazza and quoted by topinard. the extremes obtained by this observer amongst men were, on the one hand, five feet eight inches, and on the other four feet four inches. as, however, in a matter of this kind we have to deal with averages and not with extremes, we must conclude that the lapps, though a stunted race, are not pigmies, in the sense in which the word is scientifically employed. [footnote a: _l'anthropologie_, ii. .] the innuit or eskimo were called by the original norse explorers "skraelingjar," or dwarfs, a name now converted by the innuit into "karalit," which is the nearest approach that they are able to make phonetically to the former term. they are certainly, on the average, a people of less than middle stature, yet they can in no sense be described as pigmies. their mean height is five feet three inches. nansen[a] says of them, "it is a common error amongst us in europe to think of the eskimo as a diminutive race. though no doubt smaller than the scandinavian peoples, they must be reckoned amongst the middle-sized races, and i even found amongst those of purest breeding men of nearly six feet in height." [footnote a: _eskimo life_, p. .] ii. the _raison d'être_ of tyson's essay was to explain away the accounts of the older writers relating to pigmy races, on the ground that, as no such races existed, an explanation of some kind was necessary in order to account for so many and such detailed descriptions as were to be found in their works. having now seen not merely that there are such things as pigmy races, but that they have a wide distribution throughout the world, it may be well to consider to which of the existing or extinct races, the above-mentioned accounts may be supposed to have referred. in this task i am much aided in several instances by the labours of de quatrefages, and as his book is easily accessible, it will be unnecessary for me to repeat the arguments in favour of his decisions which he has there given. starting with asia, we have in the first place the statement of pliny, that "immediately after the nation of the prusians, in the mountains where it is said are pigmies, is found the indus." these pigmies may be identified with the brahouis, now dravidian, but still possessing the habit, attributed to them by pliny, of changing their dwellings twice a year, in summer and winter, migrations rendered necessary by the search for food for their flocks. the same author's allusion to the "spithamæi pygmæi" of the mountains in the neighbourhood of the ganges may apply to the santals or some allied tribe, though pliny's stature for them of two feet four inches is exaggeratedly diminutive, and he has confused them with homer's pigmies, who were, as will be seen, a totally different people. ctesias[a] tells us that "middle india has black men, who are called pygmies, using the same language as the other indians; they are, however, very little; that the greatest do not exceed the height of two cubits, and the most part only of one cubit and a half. but they nourish the longest hair, hanging down unto the knees, and even below; moreover, they carry a beard more at length than any other men; but, what is more, after this promised beard is risen to them, they never after use any clothing, but send down, truly, the hairs from the back much below the knees, but draw the beard before down to the feet; afterward, when they have covered the whole body with hairs, they bind themselves, using those in the place of a vestment. they are, moreover, apes and deformed. of these pygmies, the king of the indians has three thousand in his train; for they are very skilful archers." no doubt the actual stature has been much diminished in this account, and, as de quatrefages suggests, the garment of long floating grasses which they may well have worn, may have been mistaken for hair; yet, in the description, he believes that he is able to recognise the ancestors of the bandra-lokh of the vindhya mountains. ctesias' other statement, that "the king of india sends every fifth year fifty thousand swords, besides abundance of other weapons, to the nation of the cynocephali," may refer to the same or some other tribe. [footnote a: the quotation is taken from ritson, _fairy tales_, p. .] de quatrefages also thinks that an allusion to the ancestors of the jats, who would then have been less altered by crossing than now, may be found in herodotus' account of the army of xerxes when he says, "the eastern ethiopians serve with the indians. they resemble the other ethiopians, from whom they only differ in language and hair. the eastern ethiopians have straight hair, while those of lybia are more woolly than all other men." writing of isles in the neighbourhood of java, maundeville says,[a] "in another yle, ther ben litylle folk, as dwerghes; and thei ben to so meche as the pygmeyes, and thei han no mouthe, but in stede of hire mouthe, thei han a lytylle round hole; and whan thei schulle eten or drynken, thei taken thorghe a pipe or a penne or suche a thing, and sowken it in, for thei han no tongue, and therefore thei speke not, but thei maken a maner of hissynge, as a neddre dothe, and thei maken signes on to another, as monkes don, be the whiche every of hem undirstondethe the other." [footnote a: ed. halliwell, p. .] strip this statement of the characteristic maundevillian touches with regard to the mouth and tongue, and it may refer to some of the insular races which exist or existed in the district of which he is treating. a much fuller account[a] by the same author relates to pigmies in the neighbourhood of a river, stated by a commentator[b] to be the yangtze-kiang, "a gret ryvere, that men clepen dalay, and that is the grettest ryvere of fressche water that is in the world. for there, as it is most narow, it is more than myle of brede. and thanne entren men azen in to the lond of the great chane. that ryvere gothe thorge the lond of pigmaus, where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but span long, and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe the men and the women. and thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half zere of age and getten children. and thei lyven not, but zeer or at the moste. and he that lyveth zeer, men holden him there righte passynge old. theise men ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle such thinges, of ony other, that be in the world. and thei han often tymes werre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. this litylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. but thei han grete men amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren amonges the vynes for hem. and of the men of oure stature, han thei als grete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of geauntes, zif thei weren amonges us. there is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is duellynge gret plentee of the lytylle folk, and is a gret cytee and a fair, and the men ben grete that duellen amonges hem; but whan thei getten ony children, thei ben als litylle as the pygmeyes, and therefore thei ben alle, for the moste part, alle pygmeyes, for the nature of the land is suche. the great cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel, for it is his. and alle be it, that the pygmeyes ben litylle, zit thei ben fulle resonable, aftre here age and connen bothen wytt and gode and malice now." this passage, as will be noted, incorporates the homeric tale of the battles between the pigmies and the cranes, and is adorned with a representation of such an encounter. whether maundeville's dwarfs were the same as the siao-jin of the shan-hai-king is a question difficult to decide; but, in any case, both these pigmy races of legend inhabited a part of what is now the chinese empire. the same pigmies seem to be alluded to in the rubric of the catalan map of the world in the national library of paris, the date of which is a.d. . "here (n.w. of catayo-cathay) grow little men who are but five palms in height, and though they be little, and not fit for weighty matters, yet they be brave and clever at weaving and keeping cattle." if such an explanation may be hazarded, we may perhaps go further and suppose that paulus jovius may have been alluding to the koro-puk-guru, when, as pomponius mela tells us, he taught that there were pigmies beyond japan. in both these cases, however, it is well to remember that there is a river in macedon as well as in monmouth, and that it is hazardous to come to too definite a belief as to the exact location of the pigmies of ancient writers. [footnote a: _maundeville_, p. .] [footnote b: _quart. rev._, , p. .] the continent of africa yielded its share of pigmies to the same writers. the most celebrated of all are those alluded to by aristotle in his classical passage, "they (the cranes) come out of scythia to the lakes above egypt whence the nile flows. this is the place whereabouts the pigmies dwell. for this is no fable but a truth. both they and the horses, as 'tis said, are of a small kind. they are troglodytes and live in caves." leaving aside the crane part of the tale, which it has been suggested may really have referred to ostriches, aristotle's pigmy race may, from their situation, be fairly identified with the akkas described by stanley and others. that this race is an exceedingly ancient one is proved by the fact that marriette bey has discovered on a tomb of the ancient empire of egypt a figure of a dwarf with the name akka inscribed by it. this race is also supposed to have been that which, alluded to by homer, has become confused with other dwarf tribes in different parts of the world. "so when inclement winters vex the plain with piercing frosts or thick-descending rain, to warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, with noise and order, through the midway sky; to pigmy nations wounds and death they bring, and all the war descends upon the wing." attention may here be drawn to tyson's quotation (p. ) from vossius as to the trade driven by the pigmies in elephants' tusks, since, as we have seen, this corresponds with what we now know as to the habits of the akkas. the account which herodotus gives of the expedition of the nasamonians is well known. five men, chosen by lot from amongst their fellows, crossed the desert of lybia, and, having marched several days in deep sand, perceived trees growing in the midst of the plain. they approached and commenced to eat the fruit which they bore. scarcely had they begun to taste it, when they were surprised by a great number of men of a stature much inferior to the middle height, who seized them and carried them off. they were eventually taken to a city, the inhabitants of which were black. near this city ran a considerable river whose course was from west to east, and in which crocodiles were found. in his account of the akkas, mr. stanley believed that he had discovered the representatives of the pigmies mentioned in this history. speaking of one of these, he says,[a] "twenty-six centuries ago his ancestors captured the five young nasamonian explorers, and made merry with them at their villages on the banks of the niger." it may be correct to say that, at the period alluded to, the dwarf races of africa were in more continuous occupancy of the land than is now the case, but such an identification as that just mentioned gives a false idea of the position of the pigmies of herodotus. de quatrefages, after a most careful examination of the question in all its aspects, finds himself obliged to conclude, either that the pigmy race seen by the nasamonians still exists on the north of the niger, which has been identified with the river alluded to by herodotus, but has not, up to the present, been discovered; or that it has disappeared from those regions. [footnote a: _op. supra cit._, ii. .] pomponius mela has also his account of african pigmies. beyond the arabian gulf, and at the bottom of an indentation of the red sea, he places the panchæans, also called ophiophagi, on account of the fact that they fed upon serpents. more within the arabian bay than the panchæans are the pigmies, a minute race, which became exterminated in the wars which it was compelled to wage with the cranes for the preservation of its fruits. the region indicated somewhat corresponds with that which is assigned to the dokos by their describer. in this district, too, other dwarf races have been reported. the french writer whom i have so often cited says, "the tradition of eastern african pigmies has never been lost by the arabs. at every period the geographers of this nation have placed their river of pigmies much more to the south. it is in this region, a little to the north of the equator, and towards the ° of east longitude, that the rev. fr. léon des avanchers has found the wa-berrikimos or cincallès, whose stature is about four feet four inches. the information gathered by m. d'abbadie places towards the ° of north latitude the mallas or mazé-malléas, with a stature of five feet. everything indicates that there exist, at the south of the galla country, different negro tribes of small stature. it seems difficult to me not to associate them with the pigmies of pomponius mela. only they have retreated farther south. probably this change had already taken place at the time when the roman geographer wrote; it is, therefore, comprehensible that he may have regarded them as having disappeared." tyson (p. ) quotes the following passage from photius:--"that nonnosus sailing from pharsa, when he came to the farthermost of the islands, a thing very strange to be heard of happened to him; for he lighted on some (animals) in shape and appearance like men, but little of stature, and of a black colour, and thick covered with hair all over their bodies. the women, who were of the same stature, followed the men. they were all naked, only the elder of them, both men and women, covered their privy parts with a small skin. they seemed not at all fierce or wild; they had a human voice, but their dialect was altogether unknown to everybody that lived about them, much more to those that were with nonnosus. they lived upon sea-oysters and fish that were cast out of the sea upon the island. they had no courage for seeing our men; they were frighted, as we are at the sight of the greatest wild beast." it is not easy to identify this race with any existing tribe of pigmies, but the hairiness of their bodies, and above all their method of clothing themselves, leave no doubt that in this account we have a genuine story of some group of small-statured blacks. from the foregoing account it will be seen that it is possible with more or less accuracy and certainty to identify most of those races which, described by the older writers, had been rejected by their successors. time has brought their revenge to aristotle and pliny by showing that they were right, where tyson, and even buffon, were wrong. iii. the little people of story and legend have a much wider area of distribution than those of real life, and it is the object of this section to give some idea of their localities and dwellings. imperfect as such an account must necessarily be, it will yet suffice i trust in some measure to show that, like the england of arthurian times, all the world is "fulfilled of faëry." in dealing with this part of the subject, it would be possible, following the example of keightley, to treat the little folk of each country separately. but a better idea of their nature, and certainly one which for my purpose will be more satisfactory, can, i think, be obtained by classifying them according to the nature of their habitations, and mentioning incidentally such other points concerning them as it may seem advisable to bring out. . in the first place, then, fairies are found dwelling in mounds of different kinds, or in the interior of hills. this form of habitation is so frequently met with in scotch and irish accounts of the fairies, that it will not be necessary for me to burden these pages with instances, especially since i shall have to allude to them in a further section in greater detail. suffice it to say, that many instances of such an association in the former country will be found in the pages of mr. macritchie's works, whilst as to the latter, i shall content myself by quoting sir william wilde's statement, that every green "rath" in that country is consecrated to the "good people." in england there are numerous instances of a similar kind. gervase of tilbury in the thirteenth century mentions such a spot in gloucestershire: "there is in the county of gloucester a forest abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game that england produces. in a grovy lawn of this forest there is a little mount, rising in a point to the height of a man." with this mount he associates the familiar story of the offering of refreshment to travellers by its unseen inhabitants. in warwickshire, the mound upon which kenilworth castle is built was formerly a fairy habitation.[a] ritson[b] mentions that the "fairies frequented many parts of the bishopric of durham." there is a hillock or tumulus near bishopton, and a large hill near billingham, both of which used in former time to be "haunted by fairies." even ferry-hill, a well-known stage between darlington and durham, is evidently a corruption of "fairy-hill." in yorkshire a similar story attaches to the sepulchral barrow of willey how,[c] and in sussex to a green mound called the mount in the parish of pulborough.[d] the fairies formerly frequented bussers hill in st. mary's isle, one of the scilly group.[e] the bryn-yr-ellyllon,[f] or fairy-hill, near mold, may be cited as a similar instance in wales, which must again be referred to. [footnote a: _testimony of tradition_, p. .] [footnote b: _op. cit._, p. .] [footnote c: _folk lore_, ii. .] [footnote d: _folk lore record_, i. and .] [footnote e: _ritson_, p. .] [footnote f: dawkins, _early man in britain_, p. .] the pages of keightley's work contain instances of hill-inhabiting fairies in scandinavia, denmark, the isle of rugen, iceland, germany, and switzerland. it is not only in europe, however, that this form of habitation is to be met with; we find it also in america. the sioux have a curious superstition respecting a mound near the mouth of the whitestone river, which they call the mountain of little people or little spirits; they believe that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of about eighteen inches high and with remarkably large heads; they are armed with sharp arrows, in the use of which they are very skilful. these little spirits are always on the watch to kill those who should have the hardihood to approach their residence. the tradition is that many have suffered from their malice, and that, among others, three maha indians fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. this has inspired all the neighbouring nations, sioux, mahas, and ottoes, with such terror, that no consideration could tempt them to visit the hill.[a] [footnote a: lewis and clarke, _travels to the source of the missouri river._ quoted in _flint chips_, p. . the tale is also given in _folk lore, oriental and american_ (gibbings & co.), p. .] the mounds or hills inhabited by the fairies are, however, of very diverse kinds, as we discover when we attempt to analyse their actual nature. in some cases they are undoubtedly natural elevations. speaking of the exploration of the isle of unst, hunt[a] says that the term "fairy knowe" is applied alike to artificial and to natural mounds. "we visited," he states, "two 'fairy knowes' in the side of the hill near the turning of the road from reay wick to safester, and found that these wonderful relics were merely natural formations. the workmen were soon convinced of this, and our digging had the effect of proving to them that the fairies had nothing to do with at least two of these hillocks." the same may surely be said of that favourite and important fairy haunt tomnahurich, near inverness, though mr. macritchie seems to think that an investigation, were such possible, of its interior, might lead to a different explanation. [footnote a: _anthrop. mems._, ii. .] in other cases, and these are of great importance in coming to a conclusion as to the origin of fairy tales, the mounds inhabited by the little people are of a sepulchral nature. this is the case in the instance of willey how, which, when explored by canon greenwell, was found, in spite of its size and the enormous care evidently bestowed upon its construction, to be merely a cenotaph. a grave there was, sunk more than twelve feet deep in the chalk rock; but no corporeal tenant had ever occupied it. this fact is still more clearly shown in the remarkable case mentioned by professor boyd dawkins. a barrow called bryn-yr-ellyllon (fairy-hill), near mold, was said to be haunted by a ghost clad in golden armour which had been seen to enter it. the barrow was opened in the year , and was found to contain the skeleton of a man wearing a golden corselet of etruscan workmanship. the same may be said respecting that famous fairy-hill in ireland, the brugh of the boyne, though mr. macritchie seems to regard it as having been a dwelling-place. mr. coffey in a most careful study appears to me to have finally settled the question.[a] he speaks of the remains as those of probably the most remarkable of the pre-christian cemeteries of ireland. of the stone basins, whose nature mr. macritchie regards as doubtful, he says, "there can be hardly any doubt but that they served the purpose of some rude form of sarcophagus, or of a receptacle for urns." mr. coffey quotes the account from the leadhar na huidri respecting cemeteries, in which brugh is mentioned as amongst the chief of those existing before the faith (i.e. before the introduction of christianity). "the nobles of the tuatha de danann were used to bury at brugh (i.e. the dagda with his three sons; also lugaidh, and oe, and ollam, and ogma, and etan the poetess, and corpre, the son of etan), and cremthain followed them, because his wife nar was of the tuatha dea, and it was she solicited him that he should adopt brugh as a burial-place for himself and his descendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury at cruachan." mr. coffey also quotes o'hartagain's poem, which seems to bear in mr. macritchie's favour:-- "behold the sidhe before your eyes: it is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion, which was built by the firm dagda; it was a wonder, a court, a wonderful hill." [footnote a: _tumuli at new grange. trans. roy. irish academy_, xxx. .] but certain of the expressions in this are evidently to be taken figuratively, since mr. coffey states, in connection with this and other quotations, that their importance consists in that they establish the existence at a very early date of a tradition associating brugh na boinne, the burial-place of the kings of tara, with the tumuli on the boyne. the association of particular monuments with the dagda and other divinities and heroes of irish mythology implies that the actual persons for whom they were erected had been forgotten, the pagan traditions being probably broken by the introduction of christianity. the mythological ancestors of the heroes and kings interred at brugh, who probably were even contemporarily associated with the cemetery, no doubt subsequently overshadowed in tradition the actual persons interred there. finally, it seems that the fairy hills may have been actual dwelling-places, fortified or not, of prehistoric peoples. such were no doubt some of the picts' houses so fully dealt with by mr. macritchie, though petrie[a] seems to have considered that many of these were sepulchral in their nature. such were also the raths of ireland and fortified hills, like the white cater thun of forfarshire. [footnote a: _anthrop. mems._, ii. .] the interior of the mound-dwellings, as described in the stories, is a point to which allusion should be made. sometimes the mound contains a splendid palace, adorned with gold and silver and precious stones, like the palace of the king of elfland in the tale of "childe rowland." in the scandinavian mound-stories we find a curious incident, for they are described as being capable of being raised upon red pillars, and as being so raised when the occupants gave a feast to their neighbours. "there are three hills on the lands of bubbelgaard in funen, which are to this day called the dance-hills, from the following occurrence. a lad named hans was at service in bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great dancing and much merriment underneath."[a] this feature is met with in several of the stories collected by keightley, and is made use of in cruikshank's picture, which forms the frontispiece to that volume. lastly, in a number of cases there is not merely a habitation, but a vast country underneath the mound. an instance of this occurs in the tale of john dietrich from the isle of rügen. under the nine-hills he found "that there were in that place the most beautiful walks, in which he might ramble along for miles in all directions, without ever finding an end of them, so immensely large was the hill that the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed but a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it."[b] [footnote a: quoted by keightley (p. ), from thiele, i. .] [footnote b: keightley, .] . the haunts of the fairies may be in caves, and examples of this form of dwelling-place are to be met with in different parts of the world. the scandinavian hill people live in caves or small hills, and the elves or dwarfs of la romagna "dwell in lonely places, far away in the mountains, deep in them, in caves or among old ruins and rocks," as mr. leland,[a] who gives a tale respecting these little people, tells us. a lithuanian tale[b] tells "how the hero, martin, went into a forest to hunt, accompanied by a smith and a tailor. finding an empty hut, they took possession of it; the tailor remained in it to cook the dinner, and the others went forth to the chase. when the dinner was almost ready, there came to the hut a very little old man with a very long beard, who piteously begged for food. after receiving it, he sprang on the tailor's neck and beat him almost to death. when the hunters returned, they found their comrade groaning on his couch, complaining of illness, but saying nothing about the bearded dwarf. next day the smith suffered in a similar way; but when it came to martin's turn, he proved too many and too strong for the dwarf, whom he overcame, and whom he fastened by the beard to the stump of a tree. but the dwarf tore himself loose before the hunters came back from the forest and escaped into a cavern. tracing him by the drops of blood which had fallen from him, the three companions came to the mouth of the cavern, and martin was lowered into it by the two others. within it he found three princesses, who had been stolen by three dragons. these dragons he slew, and the princesses and their property he took to the spot above which his comrades kept watch, who hoisted them out of the cavern, but left martin in it to die. as he wandered about disconsolately, he found the bearded dwarf, whom he slew. and soon afterwards he was conveyed out of the cavern by a flying serpent, and was able to punish his treacherous friends, and to recover the princesses, all three of whom he simultaneously married." [footnote a: _etrusco roman remains_, p. .] [footnote b: _folk lore record_, i. . mr. hartland points out to me that this tale, being a marchen, does not afford quite such good evidence of belief as actually or recently existing as a saga.] amongst the magyars,[a] also, in some localities caves are pointed out as the haunts of fairies, such as the caves in the side of the rock named budvár, the cave borza-vára, near the castle of dame rapson; another haunt of the fairies is the cave near almás, and the cold wind known as the "nemere" is said to blow when the fairy in almás cave feels cold. on one occasion the plague was raging in this neighbourhood; the people ascribed it to the cold blast emanating from the cave; so they hung shirts before the mouth of the cave and the plague ceased. [footnote a: jones and kropf, _folk tales of the magyars_, pp. xxxvi. _et seq_.] in a widely distant part of the world, the battaks-karo,[a] of the high ground north of lake toba in sumatra, believe in three classes of mysterious beings, one of which closely corresponds with the fairies of europe. the first group are called hantous; they are giants and dead begous (i.e. definitely dead souls), who inhabit mount sampouran together with the second group. these are called omangs; they are dwarfs who marry and reproduce their species, live generally in mountains, and have their feet placed transversely. they must be propitiated, and those making the ascent of mount sébayak sacrifice a white hen to them, or otherwise the omangs would throw stones at them. they carry off men and women, and often keep them for years. they love to dwell amongst stones, and the roumah omang, which is one of their favourite habitations, is a cavern. the third group, or orangs boumans, resemble ordinary beings, but have the power of making themselves invisible. they come down from the mountains to buy supplies, but have not been seen for some time. westenberg, from whom this information is quoted, regards the last class as being proscribed battaks, who have fled for refuge to the mountains. passing to another continent, the iroquois[b] have several stories about pigmies, one of whom, by name go-ga-ah, lives in a little cave. [footnote a: _l'anthropologie_, iv. .] [footnote b: smith, _myths of the iroquois_. _american bureau of ethnology_, ii. .] . the little people may occupy a castle or house, or the hill upon which such a building is erected, or a cave under it. without dwelling upon the brownies and other similar distinctly household spirits, there are certain classes which must be mentioned in this connection. the magyar fairies live in castles on lofty mountain peaks. they build them themselves, or inherit them from giants. kozma enumerates the names of about twenty-three castles which belonged to fairies, and which still exist. although they have disappeared from earth, they continue to live, even in our days, in caves under their castles, in which caves their treasures lie hidden. the iron gates of zeta castle, which have subsided into the ground and disappeared from the surface, open once in every seven years. on one occasion a man went in there, and met two beautiful fairies whom he addressed thus, "how long will you still linger here, my little sisters?" and they replied, "as long as the cows will give warm milk." like the interior of some of the mound-dwellings already mentioned, these fairy caves are splendid habitations. "their subterranean habitations are not less splendid and glittering than were their castles of yore on the mountain peaks. the one at firtos is a palace resting on solid gold columns. the palace at tartod and the gorgeous one of dame rapson are lighted by three diamond balls, as big as human heads, which hang from golden chains. the treasure which is heaped up in the latter place consists of immense gold bars, golden lions with carbuncle eyes, a golden hen with her brood, and golden casks, filled with gold coin. the treasures of fairy helen are kept in a cellar under kovászna castle, the gates of the cellar being guarded by a magic cock. this bird only goes to sleep once in seven years, and anybody who could guess the right moment would be able to scrape no end of diamond crystals from the walls and bring them out with him. the fairies who guard the treasures of the pogányvár (pagan castle) in marosszék even nowadays come on moonlight nights to bathe in the lake below."[a] in brittany, "a number of little men, not more than a foot high, dwell under the castle of morlaix. they live in holes in the ground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating on basins. they possess great treasures, which they sometimes bring out; and if any one pass by at the time, allow him to take one handful, but no more. should any one attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is instantly assailed by a shower of boxes on the ear from invisible hands."[b] in the netherlands, the "gypnissen," "queer little women," lived in a castle which had been reared in a single night.[c] the ainu have tales of the poiyaumbe, a name which means literally "little beings residing on the soil" (mr. batchelor says that "little" is probably meant to express endearment or admiration, but one may be allowed to doubt this). the ainu, who is the hero of the story, "comes to a tall mountain with a beautiful house built on its summit. descending, for his path had always been through the air, by the side of the house, and looking through the chinks of the door, he saw a little man and a little woman sitting beside the fireplace."[d] [footnote a: _folk tales of the magyars_, p. xxxviii.] [footnote b: grimm, apud keightley, .] [footnote c: _testimony of tradition_, p. .] [footnote d: _folk lore journal_, vi. .] . the little people or fairies occupy rude stone monuments or are connected with their building. in brittany they are associated with several of the megalithic remains.[a] "at carnac, near quiberon," says m. de cambry, "in the department of morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the temple of carnac, called in breton 'ti goriquet' (house of the gories), one of the most remarkable celtic monuments extant. it is composed of more than four thousand large stones, standing erect in an arid plain, where neither tree nor shrub is to be seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on which they stand. if the inhabitants are asked concerning this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of cæsar's, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work of the crions or gories. these they describe as little men between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous masses on their hands; for, though little, they are stronger than giants. every night they dance around the stones, and woe betide the traveller who approaches within their reach! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst the peals of laughter of the crions. all vanish with the break of day. in the ruins of tresmalouen dwell the courils. they are of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. at night they sport around the druidical monuments. the unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their rounds with them till cockcrow; and the instances are not few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue. woe also to the ill-fated maiden who draws near the couril dance! nine months after, the family counts one member more. yet so great is the cunning and power of these dwarfs, that the young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they impart to it the features of some lad of the village." [footnote a: keightley, .] in india megalithic remains are also associated with little people. "dwarfs hold a distinct place in hindu mythology; they appear sculptured on all temples. siva is accompanied by a body-guard of dwarfs, one of whom, the three-legged bhringi, dances nimbly. but coming nearer to northern legend, the cromlechs and kistvaens which abound over southern india are believed to have been built by a dwarf race, a cubit high, who could, nevertheless, move and handle the huge stones easily. the villagers call them pandayar."[a] [footnote a: _folk lore_, iv. .] mr. meadows taylor, speaking of cromlechs in india, says, "wherever i found them, the same tradition was attached to them, that they were morie humu, or mories' houses; these mories having been dwarfs who inhabited the country before the present race of men." again, speaking of the cromlechs of koodilghee, he states, "tradition says that former governments caused dwellings of the description alluded to to be erected for a species of human beings called 'mohories,' whose dwarfish stature is said not to have exceeded a span when standing, and a fist high when in a sitting posture, who were endowed with strength sufficient to roll off large stones with a touch of their thumb." there are, he also tells us, similar traditions attaching to other places, where the dwarfs are sometimes spoken of as gujaries.[a] [footnote a: _jour. ethnol. soc_., - , p. .] of stone structures built by fairies or little people for the use of others, may be mentioned the churches built by dwarfs in scotland and brittany, and described by mr. macritchie, as also the two following instances, taken from widely distant parts of the globe. in brittany, the dolmen of manné-er hrock (montaigne de la fee), at locmariaquer, is said to have been built by a fairy, in order that a mother might stand upon it and look out for her son's ship.[a] in fiji the following tale is told about the nanga or sacred stone enclosure:--"this is the word of our fathers concerning the nanga. long ago their fathers were ignorant of it; but one day two strangers were found sitting in the rara (public square), and they said they had come up from the sea to give them the nanga. they were little men, and very dark-skinned, and one of them had his face and bust painted red, while the other was painted black. whether these were gods or men our fathers did not tell us, but it was they who taught our people the nanga. this was in the old times, when our fathers were living in another land--not in this place, for we are strangers here."[b] it is worthy of note that the term "nanga" applies not merely to the enclosure, but also to the secret society which held its meetings therein.[c] [footnote a: _flint chips_, p. .] [footnote b: fison, _journ. anthrop. inst._, xiv, .] [footnote c: joske, _internat. arch. f. ethnographie_, viii. .] . the little people make their dwellings either in the interior of a stone or amongst stones. i am not here alluding to the stones on the sides of mountains which are the doorways to fairy dwellings, but to a closer connection, which will be better understood from some of the following instances than from any lengthy explanation. the duergas of the scandinavian eddas had their dwelling-places in stones, as we are told in the story of thorston, who "came one day to an open part of the wood, where he saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a dwarf, who was horridly ugly."[a] in ireland, in innisbofin, co. galway, professor haddon relates that the men who were quarrying a rock in the neighbourhood of the harbour refused to work at it any longer, as it was so full of "good people" as to be hot.[b] in england the pixy-house of devon is in a stone, and a large stone is also connected with the story of the frensham caldron, though it is not clear that the fairies lived in the rock itself.[c] oseberrow or osebury (_vulgo_ rosebury) rock, in lulsey, worcestershire, was, according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the fairies.[d] in another part of worcestershire, on the side of the cotswolds, there is, in a little spinney, a large flat stone, much worn on its under surface, which is called the white lady's table. this personage is supposed to take her meals with the fairies at this rock, but what the exact relation of the little people to it as a dwelling-place may be, i have not been able to learn. [footnote a: keightley, .] [footnote b: _folklore_, iv. .] [footnote c: ritson, , quoting aubrey's _natural history of surrey_, iii. .] [footnote d: allies, _antiquities and folk-lore of worcestershire_, p. .] there is an iroquois tale of dwarfs, in which the summons to the pigmies was given by knocking upon a large stone.[a] the little people of melanesia seem also to be associated in some measure with stones. speaking of these beings, mr. codrington says,[b] "there are certain vuis having rather the nature of fairies. the accounts of them are vague, but it is argued that they had never left the islands before the introduction of christianity, and indeed have been seen since. not long ago there was a woman living at mota who was the child of one, and a very few years ago a female vui with a child was seen in saddle island. some of these were called nopitu, which come invisibly, or possess those with whom they associate themselves. the possessed are called nopitu. such persons would lift a cocoa-nut to drink, and native shell money would run out instead of the juice and rattle against their teeth; they would vomit up money, or scratch and shake themselves on a mat, when money would pour from their fingers. this was often seen, and believed to be the doing of a nopitu. in another manner of manifestation, a nopitu would make himself known as a party were sitting round an evening fire. a man would hear a voice in his thigh, 'here am i, give me food.' he would roast a little red yam, and fold it in the corner of his mat. he would soon find it gone, and the nopitu would begin a song. its voice was so small and clear and sweet, that once heard it never could be forgotten; but it sang the ordinary mota songs. such spirits as these, if seen or found, would disappear beside a stone; they were smaller than the native people, darker, and with long straight hair. but they were mostly unseen, or seen only by those to whom they took a fancy. they were the friendly trolls or robin goodfellows of the islands; a man would find a fine red yam put for him on the seat beside the door, or the money which he paid away returned within his purse. a woman working in her garden heard a voice from the fruit of a gourd asking for some food, and when she pulled up an arum or dug out a yam, another still remained; but when she listened to another spirit's panpipes, the first in his jealousy conveyed away garden and all." amongst the australians also supernatural beings dwell amongst the rocks, and the annamites and arabians know of fairies living amongst the rocks and hills.[c] [footnote a: smith, _myths of iroquois, ut supra._] [footnote b: _journ. anthrop. inst._, x. .] [footnote c: hartland, _science of fairy tales_, p. .] . the little people may have their habitation in forests or trees. such were the skovtrolde, or wood-trolls of thorlacius,[a] who made their home on the earth in great thick woods, and the beings in south germany who resemble the dwarfs, and are called wild, wood, timber and moss people.[b] "these generally live together in society, but they sometimes appear singly. they are small in stature, yet somewhat larger than the elf, being the size of children of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad in moss. their lives are attached, like those of the hamadryads, to the trees, and if any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen, a wood-woman dies." in scandinavia there is also a similarity between certain of the elves and hamadryads. the elves "not only frequent trees, but they make an interchange of form with them. in the churchyard of store heddinge, in zeeland, there are the remains of an oak-wood. these, say the common people, are the elle king's soldiers; by day they are trees, by night valiant soldiers. in the wood of rugaard, in the same island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole elle-people, and goes about all alive. it has no leaves upon it, yet it would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the underground people frequently hold their meetings under its branches. there is, in another place, an elder-tree growing in a farmyard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the children when they are alone. the linden or lime-tree is the favourite haunt of the elves and cognate beings, and it is not safe to be near it after sunset."[c] in england, the fairies also in some cases frequent the woods, as is their custom in the isle of man, and in wales, where there was formerly, in the park of sir robert vaughan, a celebrated old oak-tree, named crwben-yr-ellyl, or the elf's hollow tree. in formosa[d] there is also a tale of little people inhabiting a wood. "a young botan became too ardent in his devotion to a young lady of the tribe, and was slain by her relatives, while, as a warning as to the necessity for love's fervour being kept within bounds, his seven brothers were banished by the chief. the exiles went forth into the depths of the forest, and in their wanderings after a new land they crossed a small clearing, in which a little girl, about a span in height, was seated peeling potatoes. 'little sister,' they queried, 'how come you here? where is your home?' 'i am not of homes nor parents,' she replied. leaving her, they went still farther into the forest, and had not gone far when they saw a little man cutting canes, and farther on to the right a curious-looking house, in front of which sat two diminutive women combing their hair. things looked so queer that the travellers hesitated about approaching nearer, but, eager to find a way out of the forest, they determined in their extremity to question the strange people. the two women, when interrogated, turned sharply round, showing eyes of a flashing red; then looking upward, their eyes became dull and white, and they immediately ran into the house, the doors and windows of which at once vanished, the whole taking the form and appearance of an isolated boulder." amongst the maories also we have "te tini ote hakuturi," or "the multitude of the wood-elves," the little people who put the chips all back into the tree rata had felled and stood it up again, because he had not paid tribute to tane.[e] [footnote a: quoted by keightley, p. .] [footnote b: grimm ap. keightley, p. .] [footnote c: keightley, p. , quoting from thiele.] [footnote d: _folk lore journal_, v. .] [footnote e: tregear, _journ. anth. inst._, xix. .] . the association of little people with water as a home is a widespread notion. the sea-trows of the shetlanders inhabit a region of their own at the bottom of the sea. they here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and live in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine productions. they are, however, not always small, but may be of diverse statures, like the scandinavian necks. in germany the water-dwarfs are also known. at seewenheiher, in the black forest, a little water-man (_seemännlein_) used to come and join the people, work the whole day along with them, and in the evening go back into the lakes.[a] the size of the breton korrigs or korrigan, if we may believe villemarqué in his account of this folk, does not exceed two feet, but their proportions are most exact, and they have long flowing hair, which they comb out with great care. their only dress is a long white veil, which they wind round their body. seen at night or in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight their eyes appear red, their hair is white, and their faces wrinkled; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by day. they are fond of music, and have fine voices, but are not much given to dancing. their favourite haunts are the springs, by which they sit and comb their hair.[b] the maories also have their water-pigmies, the ponaturi, who are, according to mr. tregear, elves, little tiny people, mostly dwellers in water, coming ashore to sleep.[c] "the spirits most commonly met with in african mythology," says mr. macdonald, "are water or river spirits, inhabiting deep pools where there are strong eddies and under-currents. whether they are all even seen now-a-days it is difficult to determine, but they must at one time have either shown themselves willingly, or been dragged from their hiding-places by some powerful magician, for they are one and all described. they are dwarfs, and correspond to the scottish conception of kelpies or fairies. they are wicked and malevolent beings, and are never credited with a good or generous action. whatever they possess they keep, and greedily seize upon any one who comes within their reach. 'one of them, the incanti, corresponds to the greek python, and another, called hiti, appears in the form of a small and very ugly man, and is exceedingly malevolent' (brownlee). it is certain death to see an incanti, and no one but the magicians sees them except in dreams, and in that case the magicians are consulted, and advise and direct what is to be done."[d] [footnote a: grimm ap. keightley, p. .] [footnote b: villemarqué, ibid., .] [footnote c: tregear, _ut supra._] [footnote d: _journ. anthrop. inst._, xx. .] dr. nansen, speaking of the ignerssuit (plural of ignersuak, which means "great fire"), says that they are for the most part good spirits, inclined to help men. the entrance to their dwellings is on the sea-shore. according to the eskimo legend, "the first earth which came into existence had neither seas nor mountains, but was quite smooth. when the one above was displeased with the people upon it, he destroyed the world. it burst open, and the people fell down into the rifts and became ignerssuit and the water poured over everything."[a] the spirits here alluded to appear to be the same as those described by mr. boas as uissuit in his monograph on the central eskimo. he describes them as "a strange people that live in the sea. they are dwarfs, and are frequently seen between iglulik and netchillik, where the anganidjen live, an innuit tribe whose women are in the habit of tracing rings around their eyes. there are men and women among the uissuit, and they live in deep water, never coming to the surface. when the innuit wish to see them, they go in their boats to a place where they cannot see the bottom, and try to catch them with hooks which they slowly move up and down. as soon as they get a bite they draw in the line. the uissuit are thus drawn up; but no sooner do they approach the surface than they dive down headlong again, only their legs having emerged from the water. the innuit have never succeeded in getting one out of the water."[a] [footnote a: nansen, _ut supra_, p. .] [footnote a: _american bureau of ethnology_, vi. .] . amongst habitations not coming under any of the above categories may be mentioned the moors and open places affected by the cornish fairies, and lastly the curious residences of the kirkonwaki or church-folk of the finns. "it is an article of faith with the finns that there dwell under the altar in every church little misshapen beings which they call kirkonwaki, i.e., church-folk. when the wives of these little people have a difficult labour, they are relieved if a christian woman visits them and lays her hand upon them. such service is always rewarded by a gift of gold and silver."[a] these folk evidently correspond to the kirkgrims of scandinavian countries, and the traditions respecting both are probably referable to the practice of foundation sacrifices. [footnote a: grimm ap. keightley, p. .] iv. the subject of pigmy races and fairy tales cannot be considered to have been in any sense fully treated without some consideration of a theory which, put forward by various writers and in connection with the legends of diverse countries, has recently been formulated by mr. macritchie in a number of most interesting and suggestive books and papers. an early statement of this theory is to be found in a paper by mr. j.f. campbell, in which he stated, "it is somewhat remarkable that traditions still survive in the highlands of scotland which seem to be derived from the habits of scotch tribes like the lapps in our day. stories are told in sutherlandshire about a 'witch' who milked deer; a 'ghost' once became acquainted with a forester, and at his suggestion packed all her plenishing on a herd of deer, when forced to flit by another and a bigger 'ghost;' the green mounds in which 'fairies' are supposed to dwell closely resemble the outside of lapp huts. the fairies themselves are not represented as airy creatures in gauze wings and spangles, but they appear in tradition as small cunning people, eating and drinking, living close at hand in their green mound, stealing children and cattle, milk and food, from their bigger neighbours. they are uncanny, but so are the lapps. my own opinion is that these scotch traditions relate to the tribes who made kitchen-middens and lake-dwellings in scotland, and that they were allied to lapps."[a] such in essence is mr. macritchie's theory, which has been so admirably summarised by mr. jacobs in the first of that series of fairy-tale books which has added a new joy to life, that i shall do myself the pleasure of quoting his statement in this place. he says: "briefly put, mr. macritchie's view is that the elves, trolls, and fairies represented in popular tradition are really the mound-dwellers, whose remains have been discovered in some abundance in the form of green hillocks, which have been artificially raised over a long and low passage leading to a central chamber open to the sky. mr. macritchie shows that in several instances traditions about trolls or 'good people' have attached themselves to mounds which long afterwards, on investigation, turned out to be evidently the former residence of men of smaller build than the mortals of to-day. he goes on further to identify these with the picts-- fairies are called 'pechs' in scotland--and other early races, but with these ethnological equations we need not much concern ourselves. it is otherwise with the mound traditions and their relation, if not to fairy tales in general, to tales about fairies, trolls, elves, &c. these are very few in number, and generally bear the character of anecdotes. the fairies, &c., steal a child; they help a wanderer to a drink and then disappear into a green hill; they help cottagers with their work at night, but disappear if their presence is noticed; human midwives are asked to help fairy mothers; fairy maidens marry ordinary men, or girls marry and live with fairy husbands. all such things may have happened and bear no such _a priori_ marks of impossibility as speaking animals, flying through the air, and similar incidents of the folk-tale pure and simple. if, as archaeologists tell us, there was once a race of men in northern europe very short and hairy, that dwelt in underground chambers artificially concealed by green hillocks, it does not seem unlikely that odd survivors of the race should have lived on after they had been conquered and nearly exterminated by aryan invaders, and should occasionally have performed something like the pranks told of fairies and trolls."[b] in the same place, and also in another article,[c] the writer just quoted has applied this theory to the explanation of the story of "childe rowland." [footnote a: _journ. ethnol. soc._, - , p. .] [footnote b: _english fairy tales_, p. .] [footnote c: _folk lore_, ii. .] mr. macritchie has, in another paper,[a] collected a number of instances of the use of the word _sith_ in connection with hillocks and tumuli, which are the resort of the fairies. here also he discusses the possible connection of that word with that of _tshud_, the title of the vanished supernatural inhabitants of the land amongst the finns and other "altaic" turanian tribes of russia, as in other places he has endeavoured to trace a connection between the finns and the feinne. into these etymological questions i have no intention to enter, since i am not qualified to do so, nor is it necessary, as they have been fully dealt with by mr. nutt, whose opinion on this point is worthy of all attention.[b] but it may be permitted to me to inquire how far mr. macritchie's views tally with the facts mentioned in the foregoing section. i shall therefore allude to a few points which appear to me to show that the origin of the belief in fairies cannot be settled in so simple a manner as has been suggested, but is a question of much greater complexity--one in which, as mr. tylor says, more than one mythic element combines to make up the whole. [footnote a: _journ. roy. soc. antiq. ireland_, iii. .] [footnote a: _folk and hero tales from argyleshire_, p. .] ( .) in the first place, then, it seems clear, so far as our present knowledge teaches us, that there never was a really pigmy race inhabiting the northern parts of scotland. the scanty evidence which we have on this point, so far as it goes, proves the truth of this assertion. mr. carter blake found in the muckle heog of the island of unst, one of the shetlands, together with stone vessels, human interments of persons of considerable stature and of great muscular strength. speaking of the keiss skeletons, professor huxley says that the males are, the one somewhat above, and the other probably about the average stature; while the females are short, none exceeding five feet two inches or three inches in height.[a] and dr. garson, treating of the osteology of the ancient inhabitants of the orkneys, says that the female skeleton which he examined was about five feet two inches in height, i.e., about the mean height of the existing races of england.[b] there is no evidence that lapps and eskimo ever visited these parts of the world; and if they did, as we have seen, their stature, though stunted, cannot fairly be described as pigmy. even if we grant that the stature of the early races did not average more than five feet two inches, which, by the way, was the height of the great napoleon, it is more than doubtful whether it fell so far short of that of succeeding races as to cause us to imagine that it gave rise to tales about a race of dwarfs. [footnote a: laing, _prehistoric remains of caithness_, p. .] [footnote b: _journ. anthrop. inst._, xiii. .] ( .) the mounds with which the tales of little people are associated have not, in many cases, been habitations, but were natural or sepulchral in their nature. it may, of course, be argued that the story having once arisen in connection with one kind of mound, may, by a process easy to understand, have been transferred to other hillocks similar in appearance, though diverse in nature. it is difficult to see, however, how this could have occurred in yorkshire and other parts of england, where it is not argued that the stunted inhabitants of the north ever penetrated. it is still more difficult to explain how similar legends can have originated in america in connection with mounds, since there never were pigmy races in that continent. ( .) the rude and simple arrangements of the interior of these mound dwellings might have, in the process of time, become altered into the gorgeous halls, decked with gold and silver and precious stones, as we find them in the stories; they might even, though this is much more difficult to understand, have become possessed of the capacity for being raised upon red pillars. but there is one pitch to which, i think, they could never have attained, and that is the importance which they assume when they become the external covering of a large and extensive tract of underground country. here we are brought face to face with a totally different explanation, to which i shall recur in due course. ( .) the little people are not by any means associated entirely with mounds, as the foregoing section is largely intended to show. their habitations may be in or amongst stones, in caves, under the water, in trees, or amongst the glades of a forest; they may dwell on mountains, on moors, or even under the altars of churches. we may freely grant that some of these habitations fall into line with mr. macritchie's theory, but they are not all susceptible of such an explanation. ( .) the association of giants and dwarfs in certain places, even the confusion of the two races, seems somewhat difficult of explanation by this theory. in ireland the distinction between the two classes is sharper than in other places, since, as sir william wilde pointed out, whilst every green rath in that island is consecrated to the fairies or "good people," the remains attributed to the giants are of a different character and probably of a later date. in some places, however, a mound similar to those often connected with fairies is associated with a giant, as is the case at sessay parish, near thirsk,[a] and at fyfield in wiltshire. the chambered tumulus at luckington is spoken of as the giant's caves, and that at nempnet in somersetshire as the fairy's toot. in denmark, tumuli seem to be described indifferently as zettestuer (giants' chambers) or troldestuer (fairies' chambers).[b] in "beowulf" a chambered tumulus is described, in the recesses of which were treasures watched over for three hundred years by a dragon. this barrow was of stone, and the work of giants. seah on enta geweorc, looked on the giant's work, hû ða stân-bogan, how the stone arches, stapulinn-faeste, on pillars fast, êce eorð-reced the eternal earth-house innan healde. held within. [footnote a: _folk lore_, i. .] [footnote b: _flint chips_, p. .] the mounds have sometimes been made by giants and afterwards inhabited by dwarfs, as in the case of the nine-hills, already alluded to. in others, they are at the same time inhabited by giants, dwarfs, and others, as in the story of the dwarf's banquet,[a] and still more markedly in the wunderberg. "the celebrated wunderberg, or underberg, on the great moor near salzburg, is the chief haunt of the wild-women. the wunderberg is said to be quite hollow, and supplied with stately palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and springs of gold and silver. its inhabitants, beside the wild-women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it contains, and who at midnight repair to salzburg to perform their devotions in the cathedral; giants, who used to come to the church of grödich and exhort the people to lead a godly and pious life; and the great emperor charles v., with golden crown and sceptre, attended by knights and lords. his grey beard has twice encompassed the table at which he sits, and when it has the third time grown round it, the end of the world and the appearance of the antichrist will take place."[b] [footnote a: grimm ap. keightley, .] [footnote b: grimm ap. keightley, .] in the folk-tales of the magyars we meet with a still more remarkable confusion between these two classes of beings. some of the castles described in these stories are inhabited by giants, others by fairies. again, the giants marry; their wives are fairies, so are their daughters. they had no male issue, as their race was doomed to extermination. they fall in love, and are fond of courting. near bikkfalva, in háromszék, the people still point out the "lover's bench" on a rock where the amorous giant of csigavár used to meet his sweetheart, the "fairy of veczeltetö."[a] [footnote a: _folk tales of the magyars_, p. xxix.] ( .) tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never were any pigmy races. not to deal with other, and perhaps more debatable districts, we find an excellent example of this in north america. besides the instances mentioned in the foregoing section, the following may be mentioned. mr. leland, speaking of the un-a-games-suk, or indian spirits of the rocks and streams, says that these beings enter far more largely, deeply, and socially into the life and faith of the indians than elves or fairies ever did into those of the aryan race.[a] in his algonquin legends the same author also alludes to small people. [footnote a: _memoirs_, i. .] dr. brinton tells me that the micmacs have tales of similar pigmies, whom they call wig[)u]l[)a]d[)u]mooch, who tie people with cords during their sleep, &c. mr. l.l. frost, of susanville, lassen county, california, tells us how, when he requested an indian to gather and bring in all the arrow-points he could find, the indian declared them to be "no good," that they had been made by the lizards. whereupon mr. frost drew from him the following lizard-story. "there was a time when the lizards were little men, and the arrow-points which are now found were shot by them at the grizzly bear. the bears could talk then, and would eat the little men whenever they could catch them. the arrows of the little men were so small that they would not kill the bears when shot into them, and only served to enrage them." the indian could not tell how the little men became transformed into lizards.[a] again, the shoshones of california dread their infants being changed by ninumbees or dwarfs.[b] [footnote a: _folk lore journal_, vii. .] [footnote b: hartland, _ut supra_, p. .] finally, every one has read about the pukwudjies, "the envious little people, the fairies, the pigmies," in the pages of longfellow's "hiawatha."[a] it ought to be mentioned that mr. leland states that the red-capped, scanty-shirted elf of the algonquins was obtained from the norsemen; but if, as he says, the idea of little people has sunk so deeply into the indian mind, it cannot in any large measure have been derived from this source.[b] [footnote a: xviii.] [footnote b: _etrusco roman remains_, p. .] ( .) the stunted races whom mr. macritchie considers to have formed the subjects of the fairy legend have themselves tales of little people. this is true especially of the eskimo, as will have been already noticed, a fact to which my attention was called by mr. hartland. for the reasons just enumerated, i am unable to accept mr. macritchie's theory as a complete explanation of the fairy question, but i am far from desirous of under-estimating the value and significance of his work. mr. tylor, as i have already mentioned, states, in a sentence which may yet serve as a motto for a work on the whole question of the origin of the fairy myth, that "various different facts have given rise to stories of giants and dwarfs, more than one mythic element perhaps combining to form a single legend--a result perplexing in the extreme to the mythological interpreter."[a] and i think it may be granted that mr. macritchie has gone far to show that one of these mythic elements, one strand in the twisted cord of fairy mythology, is the half-forgotten memory of skulking aborigines, or, as mr. nutt well puts it, the "distorted recollections of alien and inimical races." but it is not the only one. it is far from being my intention to endeavour to deal exhaustively with the difficult question of the origin of fairy tales. knowledge and the space permissible in an introduction such as this would alike fail me in such a task. it may, however, be permissible to mention a few points which seem to impress themselves upon one in making a study of the stories with which i have been dealing. in the first place, one can scarcely fail to notice how much in common there is between the tales of the little people and the accounts of that underground world, which, with so many races, is the habitation of the souls of the departed. dr. callaway has already drawn attention to this point in connection with the ancestor-worship of the amazulu.[b] he says, "it may be worth while to note the curious coincidence of thought among the amazulu regarding the amatongo or abapansi, and that of the scotch and irish regarding the fairies or 'good people.' for instance, the 'good people' of the irish have assigned to them, in many respects the same motives and actions as the amatongo. they call the living to join them, that is, by death; they cause disease which common doctors cannot understand nor cure; they have their feelings, interests, partialities, and antipathies, and contend with each other about the living. the common people call them their friends or people, which is equivalent to the term _abakubo_ given to the amatongo. they reveal themselves in the form of the dead, and it appears to be supposed that the dead become 'good people,' as the dead among the amazulu become amatongo; and in funeral processions of the 'good people' which some have professed to see, are recognised the forms of those who have just died, as umkatshana saw his relatives amongst the abapansi. the power of holding communion with the 'good people' is consequent on an illness, just as the power to divine amongst the natives of this country. so also in the highland tales, a boy who had been carried away by the fairies, on his return to his own home speaks of them as 'our folks,' which is equivalent to _abakwetu_, applied to the amatongo, and among the highlands they are called the 'good people' and 'the folk.' they are also said to 'live underground,' and are therefore abapansi or subterranean. they are also, like the abapansi, called ancestors. thus the red book of clanranald is said not to have been dug up, but to have been found on the moss; it seemed as if the ancestors sent it." there are other points which make in the same direction. the soul is supposed by various races to be a little man, an idea which at once links the manes of the departed with pigmy people. thus dr. nansen tells us that amongst the eskimo a man has many souls. the largest dwell in the larynx and in the left side, and are tiny men about the size of a sparrow. the other souls dwell in other parts of the body, and are the size of a finger-joint.[c] and the macusi indians[d] believe that although the body will decay, "the man in our eyes" will not die, but wander about; an idea which is met with even in europe, and which perhaps gives us a clue to the conception of smallness in size of the shades of the dead. again, the belief that the soul lives near the resting-place of its body is widespread, and at least comparable with, if not equivalent to, the idea that the little people of scotland, ireland, brittany, and india live in the sepulchral mounds or cromlechs of those countries. closely connected with this is the idea of the underground world, peopled by the souls of the departed like the abapansi, the widespread nature of which idea is shown by dr. tylor. "to take one example, in which the more limited idea seems to have preceded the more extensive, the finns,[e] who feared the ghost of the departed as unkind, harmful beings, fancied them dwelling with their bodies in the grave, or else, with what castrén thinks a later philosophy, assigned them their dwelling in the subterranean tuonela. tuonela was like this upper earth; the sun shone there, there was no lack of land and water, wood and field, tilth and meadow; there were bears and wolves, snakes and pike, but all things were of a hurtful, dismal kind; the woods dark and swarming with wild beasts, the water black, the cornfields bearing seed of snake's teeth; and there stern, pitiless old tuoni, and his grim wife and son, with the hooked fingers with iron points, kept watch and ward over the dead lest they should escape." [footnote a: _primitive culture_, i. .] [footnote b: _religious system of the amazulu_, p. .] [footnote c: nansen, _ut supra_, p. .] [footnote d: tylor, _ut supra_, i. .] [footnote e: tylor, _ut supra_, ii. .] it is impossible not to see a connection between such conceptions as these and the underground habitations of the little people entered by the green mound which covered the bones of the dead. but the underground world was not only associated with the shades of the departed; it was in many parts of the world the place whence races had their origin, and here also we meet in at least one instance known to me with the conception of a little folk. a very widespread legend in europe, and especially in scandinavia, according to dr. nansen, tells how the underground or invisible people came into existence. "the lord one day paid a visit to eve as she was busy washing her children. all those who were not yet washed she hurriedly hid in cellars and corners and under big vessels, and presented the others to the visitor. the lord asked if these were all, and she answered 'yes;' whereupon he replied, 'then those which are _dulde_ (hidden) shall remain _hulde_ (concealed, invisible). and from them the huldre-folk are sprung."[a] there is also the widespread story of an origin underground, as amongst the wasabe, a sub-gens of the omahas, who believe that their ancestors were made under the earth and subsequently came to the surface.[b] there is a similar story amongst the z[=u]nis of western new mexico. in journeying to their present place of habitation, they passed through four worlds, all in the interior of this, the passage way from darkness to light being through a large reed. from the inner world they were led by the two little war-gods, ah-ai-[=u]-ta and m[=a]-[=a]-s[=e]-we, twin brothers, sons of the sun, who were sent by the sun to bring this people to his presence.[c] from these stories it would appear that the underground world, whether looked upon as the habitation of the dead or the place of origination of nations, is connected with the conception of little races and people. that it is thus responsible for some portion of the conception of fairies seems to me to be more than probable. [footnote a: nansen, _ut supra_, p. .] [footnote b: dorset, _omaha sociology. american bureau of ethnology_, iii. .] [footnote c: stevenson, _religious life of zuni child. american bureau of ethnology_, v. .] it is hardly necessary to allude to those spirits which animistic ideas have attached amongst other objects and places, to trees and wells. they are fully dealt with in dr. tylor's pages, and must not be forgotten in connection with the present question. to sum up, then, it appears as if the idea, so widely diffused, of little, invisible, or only sometimes visible, people, is of the most complex nature. from the darkness which shrouds it, however, it is possible to discern some rays of light. that the souls of the departed, and the underground world which they inhabit, are largely responsible for it, is, i hope, rendered probable by the facts which i have brought forward. that animistic ideas have played an important part in the evolution of the idea of fairy peoples, is not open to doubt. that to these conceptions were superadded many features really derived from the actions of aboriginal races hiding before the destroying might of their invaders, and this not merely in these islands, but in many parts of the world, has been, i think, demonstrated by the labours of the gentleman whose theory i have so often alluded to. but the point upon which it is desired to lay stress is that the features derived from aboriginal races are only one amongst many sources. possibly they play an important part, but scarcely, i think, one so important as mr. macritchie would have us believe. a philological essay concerning the pygmies, the cynocephali, the satyrs and sphinges of the ancients, wherein it will appear that they were all either apes or monkeys; and not men, as formerly pretended. by edward tyson m.d. a philological essay concerning the pygmies of the ancients. having had the opportunity of dissecting this remarkable creature, which not only in the _outward shape_ of the body, but likewise in the structure of many of the inward parts, so nearly resembles a man, as plainly appears by the _anatomy_ i have here given of it, it suggested the thought to me, whether this sort of _animal_, might not give the foundation to the stories of the _pygmies_ and afford an occasion not only to the _poets_, but _historians_ too, of inventing the many fables and wonderful and merry relations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them? i must confess, i could never before entertain any other opinion about them, but that the whole was a _fiction_: and as the first account we have of them, was from a _poet_, so that they were only a creature of the brain, produced by a warm and wanton imagination, and that they never had any existence or habitation elsewhere. in this opinion i was the more confirmed, because the most diligent enquiries of late into all the parts of the inhabited world, could never discover any such _puny_ diminutive _race_ of _mankind_. that they should be totally destroyed by the _cranes_, their enemies, and not a straggler here and there left remaining, was a fate, that even those _animals_ that are constantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. nothing therefore appeared to me more fabulous and romantick, than their _history_, and the relations about them, that _antiquity_ has delivered to us. and not only _strabo_ of old, but our greatest men of learning of late, have wholly exploded them, as a mere _figment_; invented only to amuse, and divert the reader with the comical narration of their atchievements, believing that there were never any such creatures in nature. this opinion had so fully obtained with me, that i never thought it worth the enquiry, how they came to invent such extravagant stories: nor should i now, but upon the occasion of dissecting this _animal_: for observing that 'tis call'd even to this day in the _indian_ or _malabar_ language, _orang-outang_, i.e. a _man_ of the _woods_, or _wild-men_; and being brought from _africa_, that part of the world, where the _pygmies_ are said to inhabit; and it's present _stature_ likewise tallying so well with that of the _pygmies_ of the ancients; these considerations put me upon the search, to inform my self farther about them, and to examine, whether i could meet with any thing that might illustrate their _history_. for i thought it strange, that if the whole was but a meer fiction, that so many succeeding generations should be so fond of preserving a _story_, that had no foundation at all in nature; and that the _ancients_ should trouble themselves so much about them. if therefore i can make out in this _essay_, that there were such _animals_ as _pygmies_; and that they were not a _race_ of _men_, but _apes_; and can discover the _authors_, who have forged all, or most of the idle stories concerning them; and shew how the cheat in after ages has been carried on, by embalming the bodies of _apes_, then exposing them for the _men_ of the country, from whence they brought them: if i can do this, i shall think my time not wholly lost, nor the trouble altogether useless, that i have had in this enquiry. my design is not to justifie all the relations that have been given of this _animal_, even by authors of reputed credit; but, as far as i can, to distinguish truth from fable; and herein, if what i assert amounts to a probability, 'tis all i pretend to. i shall accordingly endeavour to make it appear, that not only the _pygmies_ of the ancients, but also the _cynocephali_, and _satyrs_ and _sphinges_ were only _apes_ or _monkeys_, not _men_, as they have been represented. but the story of the _pygmies_ being the greatest imposture, i shall chiefly concern my self about them, and shall be more concise on the others, since they will not need so strict an examination. we will begin with the poet _homer_, who is generally owned as the first inventor of the fable of the _pygmies_, if it be a fable, and not a true story, as i believe will appear in the account i shall give of them. now _homer_ only mentions them in a _simile_, wherein he compares the shouts that the _trojans_ made, when they were going to joyn battle with the _græcians_, to the great noise of the _cranes_, going to fight the _pygmies_: he saith,[a] [greek: ai t' epei oun cheimona phygon, kai athesphaton ombron klangae tai ge petontai ep' okeanoio rhoaon 'andrasi pygmaioisi phonon kai kaera pherousai.] i.e. _quæ simul ac fugere imbres, hyememque nivalem cum magno oceani clangore ferantur ad undas pygmæis pugnamque viris, cædesque ferentes._ [footnote a: _homer. iliad_. lib. . ver. .] or as _helius eobanus hessus_ paraphrases the whole.[a] _postquam sub ducibus digesta per agmina stabant quæque fuis, equitum turmæ, peditumque cohortes, obvia torquentes danais vestigia troës ibant, sublato campum clamore replentes: non secus ac cuneata gruum sublime volantum agmina, dum fugiunt imbres, ac frigora brumæ, per coelum matutino clangore feruntur, oceanumque petunt, mortem exitiumque cruentum irrita pigmæis moturis arma ferentes._ [footnote a: _homeri ilias latino carmine reddita ab helio eobano hesso_.] by [greek: andrasi pygmaioisi] therefore, which is the passage upon which they have grounded all their fabulous relations of the _pygmies_, why may not _homer_ mean only _pygmies_ or _apes_ like _men_. such an expression is very allowable in a _poet_, and is elegant and significant, especially since there is so good a foundation in nature for him to use it, as we have already seen, in the _anatomy of the orang-outang_. nor is a _poet_ tied to that strictness of expression, as an _historian_ or _philosopher_; he has the liberty of pleasing the reader's phancy, by pictures and representations of his own. if there be a becoming likeness, 'tis all that he is accountable for. i might therefore here make the same _apology_ for him, as _strabo_[a] do's on another account for his _geography_, [greek: ou gar kat' agnoian ton topikon legetai, all' haedonaes kai terpseos charin]. that he said it, not thro' ignorance, but to please and delight: or, as in another place he expresses himself,[b] [greek: ou gar kat' agnoian taes istorias hypolaepteon genesthai touto, alla tragodias charin]. _homer_ did not make this slip thro' ignorance of the true _history_, but for the beauty of his _poem_. so that tho' he calls them _men pygmies_, yet he may mean no more by it, than that they were like _men_. as to his purpose, 'twill serve altogether as well, whether this bloody battle be fought between the _cranes_ and _pygmæan men_, or the _cranes_ and _apes_, which from their stature he calls _pygmies_, and from their shape _men_; provided that when the _cranes_ go to engage, they make a mighty terrible noise, and clang enough to fright these little _wights_ their mortal enemies. to have called them only _apes_, had been flat and low, and lessened the grandieur of the battle. but this _periphrasis_ of them, [greek: andres pygmaioi], raises the reader's phancy, and surprises him, and is more becoming the language of an heroic poem. [footnote a: _strabo geograph_. lib. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _strabo_ ibid. p.m. .] but how came the _cranes_ and _pygmies_ to fall out? what may be the cause of this mortal feud, and constant war between them? for _brutes_, like _men_, don't war upon one another, to raise and encrease their glory, or to enlarge their empire. unless i can acquit my self herein, and assign some probable cause hereof, i may incur the same censure as _strabo_[a] passed on several of the _indian historians_, [greek: enekainisan de kai taen 'omaerikaen ton pygmaion geranomachin trispithameis eipontes], for reviewing the _homerical_ fight of the _cranes_ and _pygmies_, which he looks upon only as a fiction of the poet. but this had been very unbecoming _homer_ to take a _simile_ (which is designed for illustration) from what had no foundation in nature. his _betrachomyomachia_, 'tis true, was a meer invention, and never otherwise esteemed: but his _geranomachia_ hath all the likelyhood of a true story. and therefore i shall enquire now what may be the just occasion of this quarrel. [footnote a: _strabo geograph_. lib. . p.m. .] _athenæus_[a] out of _philochorus_, and so likewise _Ælian_[b], tell us a story, that in the nation of the _pygmies_ the male-line failing, one _gerana_ was the queen; a woman of an admired beauty, and whom the citizens worshipped as a goddess; but she became so vain and proud, as to prefer her own, before the beauty of all the other goddesses, at which they grew enraged; and to punish her for her insolence, athenæus tells us that it was _diana_, but _Ælian_ saith 'twas _juno_ that transformed her into a _crane_, and made her an enemy to the _pygmies_ that worshipped her before. but since they are not agreed which goddess 'twas, i shall let this pass. [footnote a: _athenæi deipnosoph_. lib. p.m. .] [footnote b: _Ælian. hist. animal_. lib. . cap. .] _pomponius mela_ will have it, and i think some others, that these cruel engagements use to happen, upon the _cranes_ coming to devour the _corn_ the _pygmies_ had sowed; and that at last they became so victorious, as not only to destroy their corn, but them also: for he tells us,[a] _fuere interiùs pygmæi, minutum genus, & quod pro satis frugibus contra grues dimicando, defecit._ this may seem a reasonable cause of a quarrel; but it not being certain that the _pygmies_ used to sow _corn_, i will not insist on this neither. [footnote a: _pomp. mela de situ orbis_, lib. . cap. .] now what seems most likely to me, is the account that _pliny_ out of _megasthenes_, and _strabo_ from _onesicritus_ give us; and, provided i be not obliged to believe or justifie _all_ that they say, i could rest satisfied in great part of their relation: for _pliny_[b] tells us, _veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere, & ova, pullosque earum alitum consumere_: that in the spring-time the whole drove of the _pygmies_ go down to the sea side, to devour the _cranes_ eggs and their young ones. so likewise _onesicritus_,[b] [greek: pros de tous trispithamous polemon einai tais geranois (hon kai homaeron daeloun) kai tois perdixin, ous chaenomegetheis einai; toutous d' eklegein auton ta oa, kai phtheirein; ekei gar ootokein tas geranous; dioper maedamou maed' oa euriskesthai geranon, maet' oun neottia;] i.e. _that there is a fight between the_ pygmies _and the_ cranes (_as_ homer _relates_) _and the_ partridges _which are as big as_ geese; _for these_ pygmies _gather up their eggs, and destroy them; the_ cranes _laying their eggs there; and neither their eggs, nor their nests, being to be found any where else_. 'tis plain therefore from them, that the quarrel is not out of any _antipathy_ the _pygmies_ have to the _cranes_, but out of love to their own bellies. but the _cranes_ finding their nests to be robb'd, and their young ones prey'd on by these invaders, no wonder that they should so sharply engage them; and the least they could do, was to fight to the utmost so mortal an enemy. hence, no doubt, many a bloody battle happens, with various success to the combatants; sometimes with great slaughter of the _long-necked squadron_; sometimes with great effusion of _pygmæan_ blood. and this may well enough, in a _poet's_ phancy, be magnified, and represented as a dreadful war; and no doubt of it, were one a _spectator_ of it, 'twould be diverting enough. [footnote a: _plinij. hist. nat._ lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _strab. geograph_. lib. . pag. .] -----_si videas hoc gentibus in nostris, risu quatiere: sed illic, quanquam eadem assiduè spectantur prælia, ridet nemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno_.[a] [footnote a: _juvenal. satyr_. vers. .] this account therefore of these campaigns renewed every year on this provocation between the _cranes_ and the _pygmies_, contains nothing but what a cautious man may believe; and _homer's simile_ in likening the great shouts of the _trojans_ to the noise of the _cranes_, and the silence of the _greeks_ to that of the _pygmies_, is very admirable and delightful. for _aristotle_[b] tells us, that the _cranes_, to avoid the hardships of the winter, take a flight out of _scythia_ to the _lakes_ about the _nile_, where the _pygmies_ live, and where 'tis very likely the _cranes_ may lay their eggs and breed, before they return. but these rude _pygmies_ making too bold with them, what could the _cranes_ do less for preserving their off-spring than fight them; or at least by their mighty noise, make a shew as if they would. this is but what we may observe in all other birds. and thus far i think our _geranomachia_ or _pygmæomachia_ looks like a true story; and there is nothing in _homer_ about it, but what is credible. he only expresses himself, as a _poet_ should do; and if readers will mistake his meaning, 'tis not his fault. [footnote b: _aristotle. hist. animal_. lib. . cap. . edit. scalig.] 'tis not therefore the _poet_ that is to be blamed, tho' they would father it all on him; but the fabulous _historians_ in after ages, who have so odly drest up this story by their fantastical inventions, that there is no knowing the truth, till one hath pull'd off those masks and visages, wherewith they have disguised it. for tho' i can believe _homer_, that there is a fight between the _cranes_ and _pygmies_, yet i think i am no ways obliged to imagine, that when the _pygmies_ go to these campaigns to fight the _cranes_, that they ride upon _partridges_, as _athenæas_ from _basilis_ an _indian historian_ tells us; for, saith he,[a] [greek: basilis de en toi deuteroi ton indikon, oi mikroi, phaesin, andres oi tais geranois diapolemountes perdixin ochaemati chrontai;]. for presently afterwards he tells us from _menecles_, that the _pygmies_ not only fight the _cranes_, but the _partridges_ too, [greek: meneklaes de en protae taes synagogaes oi pygmaioi, phaesi, tois perdixi, kai tais geranois polemousi]. this i could more readily agree to, because _onesicritus_, as i have quoted him already confirms it; and gives us the same reason for this as for fighting the _cranes_, because they rob their nests. but whether these _partridges_ are as big as _geese_, i leave as a _quære_. [footnote a: _athenæi deipnesoph_. lib. p. . m. .] _megasthenes_ methinks in _pliny_ mounts the _pygmies_ for this expedition much better, for he sets them not on a _pegasus_ or _partridges_, but on _rams_ and _goats_: _fama est_ (saith _pliny[a]) insedentes arietum caprarumque dorsis, armatis sagittis, veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere_. and _onesicritus_ in strabo tells us, that a _crane_ has been often observed to fly from those parts with a brass sword fixt in him, [greek: pleistakis d' ekpiptein geranon chalkaen echousan akida apo ton ekeithen plaegmaton.][b] but whether the _pygmies_ do wear swords, may be doubted. 'tis true, _ctesias_ tells us,[c] that the _king_ of _india_ every fifth year sends fifty thousand swords, besides abundance of other weapons, to the nation of the _cynocephali_, (a fort of _monkeys_, as i shall shew) that live in those countreys, but higher up in the mountains: but he makes no mention of any such presents to the poor _pygmies_; tho' he assures us, that no less than three thousand of these _pygmies_ are the _kings_ constant guards: but withal tells us, that they are excellent _archers_, and so perhaps by dispatching their enemies at a distance, they may have no need of such weapons to lye dangling by their sides. i may therefore be mistaken in rendering [greek: akida] a sword; it may be any other sharp pointed instrument or weapon, and upon second thoughts, shall suppose it a sort of arrow these cunning _archers_ use in these engagements. [footnote a: _plinij. nat. hist._ lib. . cap. . p. .] [footnote b: _strabo geograph._ lib. . p. .] [footnote c: _vide photij. biblioth._] these, and a hundred such ridiculous _fables_, have the _historians_ invented of the _pygmies_, that i can't but be of _strabo_'s mind,[a] [greek: rhadion d' an tis haesiodio, kai homaeroi pisteuseien haeroologousi, kai tois tragikois poiaetais, hae ktaesiai te kai haerodotoi, kai hellanikoi, kai allois toioutois;] i.e. _that one may sooner believe_ hesiod, _and_ homer, _and the_ tragick poets _speaking of their_ hero's, _than_ ctesias _and_ herodotus _and_ hellanicus _and such like_. so ill an opinion had _strabo_ of the _indian historians_ in general, that he censures them _all_ as fabulous;[b] [greek: hapantes men toinun hoi peri taes indikaes grapsantes hos epi to poly pseudologoi gegonasi kath' hyperbolaen de daeimachos; ta de deutera legei megasthenaes, onaesikritos te kai nearchos, kai alloi toioutoi;] i.e. _all who have wrote of_ india _for the most part, are fabulous, but in the highest degree_ daimachus; _then_ megasthenes, onesicritus, _and_ nearchus, _and such like_. and as if it had been their greatest ambition to excel herein, _strabo_[c] brings in _theopompus_, as bragging, [greek: hoti kai mythous en tais historiais erei kreitton, ae hos haerodotos, kai ktaesias, kai hellanikos, kai hoi ta hindika syngrapsantes;] _that he could foist in fables into history, better than_ herodotus _and_ ctesias _and_ hellanicus, _and all that have wrote of_ india. the _satyrist_ therefore had reason to say, -----_et quicquid græcia mendax audet in historia._[d] [footnote a: _strabo geograph._ lib. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _strabo ibid._ lib. . p.m. .] [footnote c: _strabo ibid._ lib. p.m. .] [footnote d: _juvenal._ _satyr._ x. _vers._ .] _aristotle_,[a] 'tis true, tells us, [greek: holos de ta men agria agriotera en tae asia, andreiotera de panta ta en taei europaei, polymorphotata de ta en taei libyaei; kai legetai de tis paroimia, hoti aei pherei ti libyae kainon;] i.e. _that generally the beasts are wilder in_ asia, _stronger in_ europe, _and of greater variety of shapes in_ africa; _for as the_ proverb _saith_, africa _always produces something new_. _pliny_[b] indeed ascribes it to the heat of the _climate, animalium, hominumque effigies monstriferas, circa extremitates ejus gigni, minimè mirum, artifici ad formanda corpora, effigiesque cælandas mobilitate igneâ_. but _nature_ never formed a whole _species_ of _monsters_; and 'tis not the _heat_ of the country, but the warm and fertile imagination of these _historians_, that has been more productive of them, than _africa_ it self; as will farther appear by what i shall produce out of them, and particularly from the relation that _ctesias_ makes of the _pygmies_. [footnote a: _aristotle hist. animal_, lib. . cap. .] [footnote b: _plin. nat. hist._ lib. . cap. . p.m. .] i am the more willing to instance in _ctesias_, because he tells his story roundly; he no ways minces it; his invention is strong and fruitful; and that you may not in the least mistrust him, he pawns his word, that all that he writes, is certainly true: and so successful he has been, how romantick soever his stories may appear, that they have been handed down to us by a great many other authors, and of note too; tho' some at the same time have looked upon them as mere fables. so that for the present, till i am better informed, and i am not over curious in it, i shall make _ctesias_, and the other _indian historians_, the _inventors_ of the extravagant relations we at present have of the _pygmies_, and not old _homer_. he calls them, 'tis true, from something of resemblance of their shape, [greek: andres]: but these _historians_ make them to speak the _indian language_; to use the same _laws_; and to be so considerable a nation, and so valiant, as that the _king_ of _india_ makes choice of them for his _corps de guards_; which utterly spoils _homer's simile_, in making them so little, as only to fight _cranes_. _ctesias_'s account therefore of the _pygmies_ (as i find it in _photius_'s _bibliotheca_,[a] and at the latter end of some editions of _herodotus_) is this: [footnote a: _photij. bibliothec. cod._ . p.m. .] [greek: hoti en mesae tae indikae anthropoi eisi melanes, kai kalountai pygmaioi, tois allois homoglossoi indois. mikroi de eisi lian; hoi makrotatoi auton paecheon duo, hoi de pleistoi, henos haemiseos paecheos, komaen de echousi makrotataen, mechri kai hepi ta gonata, kai eti katoteron, kai pogona megiston panton anthropon; epeidan oun ton pogona mega physosin, ouketi amphiennyntai ouden emation: alla tas trichas, tas men ek taes kephalaes, opisthen kathientai poly kato ton gonaton; tas de ek tou po gonos, emprosthen mechri podon elkomenas. hepeita peripykasamenoi tas trichas peri apan to soma, zonnyntai, chromenoi autais anti himatiou, aidoion de mega echousin, hoste psauein ton sphyron auton, kai pachy. autoite simoi te kai aischroi. ta de probata auton, hos andres. kai hai boes kai hoi onoi, schedon hoson krioi? kai hoi hippoi auton kai hoi aemionoi, kai ta alla panta zoa, ouden maezo krion; hepontai de toi basilei ton indon, touton ton pygmaion andres trischilioi. sphodra gar eisi toxotai; dikaiotatoi de eisi kai nomoisi chrontai osper kai hoi indoi. dagoous te kai alopekas thaereuousin, ou tois kysin, alla koraxi kai iktisi kai koronais kai aetois.] _narrat præter ista, in media india homines reperiri nigros, qui pygmæi appellentur. eadem hos, qua inda reliqui, lingua uti, sed valde esse parvos, ut maximi duorum cubitorum, & plerique unius duntaxat cubiti cum dimidio altitudinem non excedant. comam alere longissimam, ad ipsa usque genua demissam, atque etiam infra, cum barba longiore, quàm, apud ullos hominum. quæ quidem ubi illis promissior esse cæperit, nulla deinceps veste uti: sed capillos multò infra genua à tergo demissos, barbámque præter pectus ad pedes usque defluentem, per totum corpus in orbem constipare & cingere, atque ita pilos ipsis suos vestimenti loco esse. veretrum illis esse crassum ac longum, quod ad ipsos quoque pedum malleolos pertingat. pygmeos hosce simis esse naribus, & deformes. ipsorum item oves agnorem nostrotum instar esse; boves & asinos, arietum fere magnitudine, equos item multosque & cætera jumenta omnia nihilo esse nostris arietibus majora. tria horum pygmæorum millia indorum regem in suo comitatu habere, quod sagittarij sint peritissimi. summos esse justitiæ cultores iisdemque quibus indi reliqui, legibus parere. venari quoque lepores vulpesque, non canibus, sed corvis, milvis, cornicibus, aquilis adhibitis._ in the middle of _india_ (saith _ctesias_) there are black men, they are call'd _pygmies_, using the same language, as the other _indians_; they are very little, the tallest of them being but two cubits, and most of them but a cubit and a half high. they have very long hair, reaching down to their knees and lower; and a beard larger than any man's. after their beards are grown long, they wear no cloaths, but the hair of their head falls behind a great deal below their hams; and that of their beards before comes down to their feet: then laying their hair thick all about their body, they afterwards gird themselves, making use of their hair for cloaths. they have a _penis_ so long, that it reaches to the ancle, and the thickness is proportionable. they are flat nosed and ill favoured. their sheep are like lambs; and their oxen and asses scarce as big as rams; and their horses and mules, and all their other cattle not bigger. three thousand men of these _pygmies_ do attend the _king_ of _india_. they are good _archers_; they are very just, and use the same _laws_ as the _indians_ do. they kill hares and foxes, not with dogs, but with ravens, kites, crows, and eagles.' well, if they are so good sports-men, as to kill hares and foxes with ravens, kites, crows and eagles, i can't see how i can bring off _homer_, for making them fight the _cranes_ themselves. why did they not fly their _eagles_ against them? these would make greater slaughter and execution, without hazarding themselves. the only excuse i have is, that _homer_'s _pygmies_ were real _apes_ like _men_; but those of _ctesias_ were neither _men_ nor _pygmies_; only a creature begot in his own brain, and to be found no where else. _ctesias_ was physician to _artaxerxes mnemon_ as _diodorus siculus_[a] and _strabo_[b] inform us. he was contemporary with _xenophon_, a little later than _herodotus_; and _helvicus_ in his _chronology_ places him three hundred eighty three years before _christ_: he is an ancient author, 'tis true, and it may be upon that score valued by some. we are beholden to him, not only for his improvements on the story of the _pygmies_, but for his remarks likewise on several other parts of _natural history_; which for the most part are all of the same stamp, very wonderful and incredible; as his _mantichora_, his _gryphins_, the _horrible indian worm_, a fountain of _liquid gold_, a fountain of _honey_, a fountain whose water will make a man confess all that ever he did, a root he calls [greek: paraebon], that will attract lambs and birds, as the loadstone does filings of steel; and a great many other wonders he tells us: all of which are copied from him by _Ælian, pliny, solinus, mela, philostratus_, and others. and _photius_ concludes _ctesias_'s account of _india_ with this passage; [greek: tauta graphon kai mythologon ktaesias. legei t' alaethestata graphein; epagon hos ta men autos idon graphei, ta de par auton mathon ton eidoton. polla de touton kai alla thaumasiotera paralipein, dia to mae doxai tois mae tauta theasamenois apista syngraphein;] i.e. _these things_ (saith he) ctesias _writes and feigns, but he himself says all he has wrote is very true. adding, that some things which he describes, he had seen himself; and the others he had learn'd from those that had seen them: that he had omitted a great many other things more wonderful, because he would not seem to those that have not seen them, to write incredibilities_. but notwithstanding all this, _lucian_[c] will not believe a word he saith; for he tells us that _ctesias_ has wrote of _india_, [greek: a maete autos eide, maete allou eipontos aekousen], _what he neither saw himself, nor ever heard from any body else._ and _aristotle_ tells us plainly, he is not fit to be believed: [greek: en de taei indikaei hos phaesi ktaesias, ouk on axiopistos.][d] and the same opinion _a. gellius_[e] seems to have of him, as he had likewise of several other old _greek historians_ which happened to fall into his hands at _brundusium_, in his return from _greece_ into _italy_; he gives this character of them and their performance: _erant autem isti omnes libri græci, miraculorum fabularumque pleni: res inauditæ, incredulæ, scriptores veteres non parvæ authoritatis_, aristeas proconnesius, & isagonus, & nicæensis, & ctesias, & onesicritus, & polystephanus, & hegesias. not that i think all that _ctesias_ has wrote is fabulous; for tho' i cannot believe his _speaking pygmies_, yet what he writes of the _bird_ he calls [greek: bittakos], that it would speak _greek_ and the _indian language_, no doubt is very true; and as _h. stephens_[f] observes in his apology for _ctesias_, such a relation would seem very surprising to one, that had never seen nor heard of a _parrot_. [footnote a: _diodor. siculi bibliothec_. lib. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _strabo geograph_. lib. . p. .] [footnote c: _lucian_ lib . _veræ histor_. p.m. .] [footnote d: _arist. hist. animal._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote e: _a. gellij. noctes. attic._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote f: _henr. stephani de ctesia historico antiquissimo disquisitio, ad finem herodoti._] but this story of _ctesias_'s _speaking pygmies_, seems to be confirm'd by the account that _nonnosus_, the emperour _justinian_'s ambassador into _Æthiopia_, gives of his travels. i will transcribe the passage, as i find it in _photius_,[a] and 'tis as follows: [footnote a: _photij. bibliothec._ cod. . p.m. .] [greek: hoti apo taes pharsan pleonti toi nonnosoi, epi taen eschataen ton naeson kataentaekoti toion de ti synebae, thauma kai akousai. enetuche gar tisi morphaen men kai idean echousin anthropinaen, brachytatois de to megethos, kai melasi taen chroan. hypo de trichon dedasysmenois dia pantos tou somatos. heiponto de tois andrasi kai gynaikes paraplaesiai kai paidaria eti brachytera, ton par autois andron. gymnoi de aesan hapantes; plaen dermati tini mikroi taen aido periekalypron, hoi probebaekotes homoios andres te kai gynaikes. agrion de ouden eped eiknynto oude anaemeron; alla kai phonaen eichon men anthropinaen, agnoston de pantapasi taen dialekton tois te perioikois hapasi, kai polloi pleon tois peri taen nonnoson, diezon de ek thalattion ostreion, kai ichthyon, ton apo taes thalassaes eis taen naeson aporrhiptomenon; tharsos de eichon ouden. alla kai horontes tous kath' haemas anthropous hypeptaesan, hosper haemeis ta meiso ton thaerion.] _naviganti à pharsa nonoso, & ad extremam usque insularum delato, tale quid occurrit, vel ipso auditu admirandum. incidit enim in quosdam forma quidem & figura humana, sed brevissimos, & cutem nigros, totúmque pilosos corpus. sequebantur viros æquales foeminæ, & pueri adhuc breviores. nudi omnes agunt, pelle tantum brevi adultiores verenda tecti, viri pariter ac foeminæ: agreste nihil, neque efferum quid præ se ferentes. quin & vox illis humana, sed omnibus, etiam accolis, prorsus ignota lingua, multoque amplius nonosi sociis. vivunt marinis ostreis, & piscibus è mari ad insulam projectis. audaces minime sunt, ut nostris conspectis hominibus, quemadmodum nos visa ingenti fera, metu perculsi fuerint._ 'that _nonnosus_ sailing from _pharsa_, when he came to the farthermost of the islands, a thing, very strange to be heard of, happened to him; for he lighted on some (_animals_) in shape and appearance like _men_, but little of stature, and of a black colour, and thick covered with hair all over their bodies. the women, who were of the same stature, followed the men: they were all naked, only the elder of them, both men and women, covered their privy parts with a small skin. they seemed not at all fierce or wild; they had a humane voice, but their _dialect_ was altogether unknown to every body that lived about them; much more to those that were with _nonnosus_. they liv'd upon sea oysters, and fish that were cast out of the sea, upon the island. they had no courage; for seeing our men, they were frighted, as we are at the sight of the greatest wild beast.' [greek: _phonaen eichon men anthropinaen_] i render here, _they had a humane voice_, not _speech_: for had they spoke any language, tho' their _dialect_ might be somewhat different, yet no doubt but some of the neighbourhood would have understood something of it, and not have been such utter strangers to it. now 'twas observed of the _orang-outang_, that it's _voice_ was like the humane, and it would make a noise like a child, but never was observed to speak, tho' it had the _organs_ of _speech_ exactly formed as they are in _man_; and no account that ever has been given of this animal do's pretend that ever it did. i should rather agree to what _pliny_[a] mentions, _quibusdam pro sermone nutus motusque membrorum est_; and that they had no more a speech than _ctesias_ his _cynocephali_ which could only bark, as the same _pliny_[b] remarks; where he saith, _in multis autem montibus genus hominum capitibus caninis, ferarum pellibus velari, pro voce latratum edere, unguibus armatum venatu & aucupio vesci, horum supra centum viginti millia fuisse prodente se ctesias scribit._ but in _photius_ i find, that _ctesias's cynocephali_ did speak the _indian language_ as well as the _pygmies_. those therefore in _nonnosus_ since they did not speak the _indian_, i doubt, spoke no _language_ at all; or at least, no more than other _brutes_ do. [footnote a: _plinij nat. hist._ lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _plinij. nat. hist._ lib. . cap. . p.m. .] _ctesias_ i find is the only author that ever understood what language 'twas that the _pygmies_ spake: for _herodotus_[a] owns that they use a sort of tongue like to no other, but screech like _bats_. he saith, [greek: hoi garamantes outoi tous troglodytas aithiopas thaereuousi toisi tetrippoisi. hoi gar troglodytai aithiopes podas tachistoi anthropon panton eisi, ton hymeis peri logous apopheromenous akouomen. siteontai de hoi troglodytai ophis, kai saurous, kai ta toiauta ton herpeton. glossan de oudemiaei allaei paromoiaen nenomikasi, alla tetrygasi kathaper hai nukterides;] i.e. _these_ garamantes _hunt the_ troglodyte Æthiopians _in chariots with four horses. the_ troglodyte Æthiopians _are the swiftest of foot of all men that ever he heard of by any report. the_ troglodytes _eat serpents and lizards, and such sort of reptiles. they use a language like to no other tongue, but screech like bats._ [footnote a: _herodot. in melpomene._ pag. .] now that the _pygmies_ are _troglodytes_, or do live in caves, is plain from _aristotle_,[a] who saith, [greek: troglodytai de' eisi ton bion]. and so _philostratus_,[b] [greek: tous de pygmaious oikein men hypogeious]. and methinks _le compte_'s relation concerning the _wild_ or _savage man_ in _borneo_, agrees so well with this, that i shall transcribe it: for he tells us,[c] _that in_ borneo _this_ wild _or_ savage man _is indued with extraordinary strength; and not withstanding he walks but upon two legs, yet he is so swift of foot, that they have much ado to outrun him. people of quality course him, as we do stags here: and this sort of hunting is the king's usual divertisement._ and _gassendus_ in the life of _peiresky_, tells us they commonly hunt them too in _angola_ in _africa_, as i have already mentioned. so that very likely _herodotus's troglodyte Æthiopians_ may be no other than our _orang-outang_ or _wild man_. and the rather, because i fancy their language is much the same: for an _ape_ will chatter, and make a noise like a _bat_, as his _troglodytes_ did: and they undergo to this day the same fate of being hunted, as formerly the _troglodytes_ used to be by the _garamantes_. [footnote a: _arist. hist. animal._, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _philostrat. in vita appollon. tyanæi_, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote c: _lewis le compte_ memoirs and observations on _china_, p.m. .] whether those [greek: andras mikrous metrion elassonas andron] which the _nasamones_ met with (as _herodotus_[a] relates) in their travels to discover _libya_, were the _pygmies_; i will not determine: it seems that _nasamones_ neither understood their language, nor they that of the _nasamones_. however, they were so kind to the _nasamones_ as to be their guides along the lakes, and afterwards brought them to a city, [greek: en taei pantas einai toisi agousi to megethos isous, chroma de melanas], i.e. _in which all were of the same stature with the guides, and black_. now since they were all _little black men_, and their language could not be understood, i do suspect they may be a colony of the _pygmies_: and that they were no farther guides to the _nasamones_, than that being frighted at the sight of them, they ran home, and the _nasamones_ followed them. [footnote a: _herodotus in euterpe_ seu lib. . p.m. .] i do not find therefore any good authority, unless you will reckon _ctesias_ as such, that the _pygmies_ ever used a language or speech, any more than other _brutes_ of the same _species_ do among themselves, and that we know nothing of, whatever _democritus_ and _melampodes_ in _pliny_,[a] or _apollonius tyanæus_ in _porphyry_[b] might formerly have done. had the _pygmies_ ever spoke any _language_ intelligible by mankind, this might have furnished our _historians_ with notable subjects for their _novels_; and no doubt but we should have had plenty of them. [footnote a: _plinij nat. hist._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote b: _porphyrius de abstinentia_, lib. . pag. m. .] but _albertus magnus_, who was so lucky as to guess that the _pygmies_ were a sort of _apes_; that he should afterwards make these _apes_ to _speak_, was very unfortunate, and spoiled all; and he do's it, methinks, so very awkwardly, that it is as difficult almost to understand his language as his _apes_; if the reader has a mind to attempt it, he will find it in the margin.[a] [footnote a: _si qui homines sunt silvestres, sicut pygmeus, non secundum unam rationem nobiscum dicti sunt homines, sed aliquod habent hominis in quadam deliberatione & loquela, &c._ a little after adds, _voces quædam (sc. animalia) formant ad diversos conceptus quos habent, sicut homo & pygmæus; & quædam non faciunt hoc, sicut multitudo fere tota aliorum animalium. adhuc autem eorum quæ ex ratione cogitativa formant voces, quædam sunt succumbentia, quædam autem non succumbentia. dico autem succumbentia, à conceptu animæ cadentia & mota ad naturæ instinctum, sicut pygmeus, qui non, sequitur rationem loquelæ sed naturæ instinctum; homo autem non succumbit sed sequitur rationem._ albert. magn. de animal. lib. . cap. . p.m. .] had _albertus_ only asserted, that the _pygmies_ were a sort of _apes_, his opinion possibly might have obtained with less difficulty, unless he could have produced some body that had heard them talk. but _ulysses aldrovandus_[a] is so far from believing his _ape pygmies_ ever spoke, that he utterly denies, that there were ever any such creatures in being, as the _pygmies_, at all; or that they ever fought the _cranes_. _cum itaque pygmæos_ (saith he) _dari negemus, grues etiam cum iis bellum gerere, ut fabulantur, negabimus, & tam pertinaciter id negabimus, ut ne jurantibus credemus._ [footnote a: _ulys. aldrovandi ornitholog._ lib. . p.m. .] i find a great many very learned men are of this opinion: and in the first place, _strabo_[a] is very positive; [greek: heorakos men gar oudeis exaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. _no man worthy of belief did ever see them_. and upon all occasions he declares the same. so _julius cæsar scaliger_[b] makes them to be only a fiction of the ancients, _at hæc omnia_ (saith he) _antiquorum figmenta & meræ nugæ, si exstarent, reperirentur. at cum universus orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi hæc naturæ excrementa reperiri certissimum est._ and _isaac casaubon_[c] ridicules such as pretend to justifie them: _sic nostra ætate_ (saith he) _non desunt, qui eandem de pygmæis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam è sacris literis, si deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. legi etiam bergei cujusdam galli scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. at non ego credulus illi, illi inquam omnium bipedum mendacissimo._ i shall add one authority more, and that is of _adrian spigelius,_ who produces a witness that had examined the very place, where the _pygmies_ were said to be; yet upon a diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of them.[d] _spigelius_ therefore tells us, _hoc loco de pygmæis dicendum erat, qui [greek: para pygonos] dicti à statura, quæ ulnam non excedunt. verùm ego poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen_ aristoteles _minimè haberi vult, sed veram esse historiam._ . hist. animal. . _asseverat. ego quo minùs hoc statuam, tum authoritate primùm doctissimi_ strabonis i. geograph. _coactus sum, tum potissimùm nunc moveor, quod nostro tempore, quo nulla mundi pars est, quam nautarum industria non perlustrarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum. accedit quod_ franciscus alvarez _lusitanus, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit, circa quæ aristoteles pygmæos esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam gentem à se conspectam tradidit, sed populum esse mediocris staturæ, &_ Æthiopes _tradit._ [footnote a: _strabo geograph._ lib. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _jul. cæs. scaliger. comment. in arist. hist. animal._ lib. . § . p.m. .] [footnote c: _isaac causabon notæ & castigat. in_ lib. . _strabonis geograph._ p.m. .] [footnote d: _adrian. spigelij de corporis humani fabrica_, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] i think my self therefore here obliged to make out, that there were such creatures as _pygmies_, before i determine what they were, since the very being of them is called in question, and utterly denied by so great men, and by others too that might be here produced. now in the doing this, _aristotle_'s assertion of them is so very positive, that i think there needs not a greater or better proof; and it is so remarkable a one, that i find the very enemies to this opinion at a loss, how to shift it off. to lessen it's authority they have interpolated the _text_, by foisting into the _translation_ what is not in the original; or by not translating at all the most material passage, that makes against them; or by miserably glossing it, to make him speak what he never intended: such unfair dealings plainly argue, that at any rate they are willing to get rid of a proof, that otherwise they can neither deny, or answer. _aristotle_'s text is this, which i shall give with _theodorus gaza's_ translation: for discoursing of the migration of birds, according to the season of the year, from one country to another, he saith:[a] [footnote a: _aristotel. hist. animal._ lib. . cap. .] [greek: meta men taen phthinoporinaen isaemerian, ek tou pontou kaiton psychron pheugonta ton epionta cheimona; meta de taen earinaen, ek ton therinon, eis tous topous tous psychrous, phoboumena ta kaumata; ta men, kai ek ton engus topon poioumena tas metabolas, ta de, kai ek ton eschaton hos eipein, hoion hai geranoi poiousi. metaballousi gar ek ton skythikon eis ta helae ta ano taes aigyptou, othen ho neilos rhei. esti de ho topos outos peri on hoi pigmaioi katoikousin; ou gar esti touto mythos, all' esti kata taen alaetheian. genos mikron men, hosper legetai, kai autoi kai hoi hippoi; troglodytai d' eisi ton bion.] _tam ab autumnali Æquinoctio ex ponto, locisque frigidis fugiunt hyemem futuram. a verno autem ex tepida regione ad frigidam sese conferunt, æstus metu futuri: & alia de locis vicinis discedunt, alia de ultimis, prope dixerim, ut grues faciunt, quæ ex scythicis campis ad paludes Ægypto superiores, unde nilus profluit, veniunt, quo in loco pugnare cum pygmæis dicuntur. non enim id fabula est, sed certe, genus tum hominum, tum etiam equorum pusillum (ut dicitur) est, deguntque in cavernis, unde nomen troglodytæ a subeundis cavernis accepere._ in english 'tis thus: 'at the _autumnal Æquinox_ they go out of _pontus_ and the cold countreys to avoid the winter that is coming on. at the _vernal Æquinox_ they pass from hot countreys into cold ones, for fear of the ensuing heat; some making their migrations from nearer places; others from the most remote (as i may say) as the _cranes_ do: for they come out of _scythia_ to the lakes above _Ægypt_, whence the _nile_ do's flow. this is the place, whereabout the _pygmies_ dwell: for this is no _fable_, but a _truth_. both they and the horses, as 'tis said, are a small kind. they are _troglodytes_, or live in caves.' we may here observe how positive the _philosopher_ is, that there are _pygmies_; he tells us where they dwell, and that 'tis no fable, but a truth. but _theodorus gaza_ has been unjust in translating him, by foisting in, _quo in loco pugnare cum pygmæis dicuntur_, whereas there is nothing in the text that warrants it: as likewise, where he expresses the little stature of the _pygmies_ and the horses, there _gaza_ has rendered it, _sed certè genus tum hominum, tum etiam equorum pusillum_. _aristotle_ only saith, [greek: genos mikron men hosper legetai, kai autoi, kai hoi hippoi]. he neither makes his _pygmies men_, nor saith any thing of their fighting the _cranes_; tho' here he had a fair occasion, discoursing of the migration of the _cranes_ out of _scythia_ to the _lakes_ above _Ægypt_, where he tells us the _pygmies_ are. cardan[a] therefore must certainly be out in his guess, that _aristotle_ only asserted the _pygmies_ out of complement to his friend _homer_; for surely then he would not have forgot their fight with the _cranes_; upon which occasion only _homer_ mentions them.[b] i should rather think that _aristotle_, being sensible of the many fables that had been raised on this occasion, studiously avoided the mentioning this fight, that he might not give countenance to the extravagant relations that had been made of it. [footnote a: _cardan de rerum varietate_, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _apparet ergo_ (saith _cardan_) pygmæorum historiam esse fabulosam, quod &_ strabo _sentit & nosira ætas, cum omnia nunc fermè orbis mirabilia innotuerint, declarat. sed quod tantum philosophum decepit, fuit homeri auctoritas non apud illium levis.] but i wonder that neither _casaubon_ nor _duvall_ in their editions of _aristotle_'s works, should have taken notice of these mistakes of _gaza_, and corrected them. and _gesner_, and _aldrovandus_, and several other learned men, in quoting this place of _aristotle_, do make use of this faulty translation, which must necessarily lead them into mistakes. _sam. bochartus_[a] tho' he gives _aristotle_'s text in greek, and adds a new translation of it, he leaves out indeed the _cranes_ fighting with the _pygmies_, yet makes them _men_, which _aristotle_ do's not; and by anti-placing, _ut aiunt_, he renders _aristotle_'s assertion more dubious; _neque enim_ (saith he in the translation) _id est fabula, sed reverâ, ut aiunt, genus ibi parvum est tam hominum quàm equorum. julius cæsar scaliger_ in translating this text of _aristotle_, omits both these interpretations of _gaza_; but on the other hand is no less to be blamed in not translating at all the most remarkable passage, and where the philosopher seems to be so much in earnest; as, [greek: ou gar esti touto mythos, all' esti kata taen alaetheian], this he leaves wholly out, without giving us his reason for it, if he had any: and scaliger's[b] insinuation in his comment, _viz. negat esse fabulam de his (sc. pygmeis)_ herodotus, _at philosophus semper moderatus & prudens etiam addidit_, [greek: hosper legetai], is not to be allowed. nor can i assent to sir _thomas brown_'s[c] remark upon this place; _where indeed_ (saith he) aristotle _plays the_ aristotle; _that is, the wary and evading asserter; for tho' with_ non est fabula _he seems at first to confirm it, yet at last he claps in,_ sicut aiunt, _and shakes the belief he placed before upon it. and therefore_ scaliger (saith he) _hath not translated the first, perhaps supposing it surreptitious, or unworthy so great an assertor._ but had _scaliger_ known it to be surreptitious, no doubt but he would have remarked it; and then there had been some colour for the gloss. but 'tis unworthy to be believed of _aristotle_, who was so wary and cautious, that he should in so short a passage, contradict himself: and after he had so positively affirmed the truth of it, presently doubt it. his [greek: hosper legetai] therefore must have a reference to what follows, _pusillum genus, ut aiunt, ipsi atque etiam equi_, as _scaliger_ himself translates it. [footnote a: _bocharti hierozoic. s. de animalib. s. script. part. posterior_. lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _scaliger. comment. in arist. hist. animal._ lib. . p.m. .] [footnote c: sir _thomas brown_'s _pseudodoxia_, or, _enquiries into vulgar errors_, lib. . cap. .] i do not here find _aristotle_ asserting or confirming any thing of the fabulous narrations that had been made about the _pygmies_. he does not say that they were [greek: andres], or [greek: anthropoi mikroi], or [greek: melanes]; he only calls them [greek: pygmaioi]. and discoursing of the _pygmies_ in a place, where he is only treating about _brutes_, 'tis reasonable to think, that he looked upon them only as such. _this is the place where the_ pygmies _are; this is no fable,_ saith aristotle, as 'tis that they are a dwarfish race of men; that they speak the _indian_ language; that they are excellent archers; that they are very just; and abundance of other things that are fabulously reported of them; and because he thought them _fables_, he does not take the least notice of them, but only saith, _this is no fable, but a truth, that about the lakes of_ nile such _animals_, as are called _pygmies_, do live. and, as if he had foreseen, that the abundance of fables that _ctesias_ (whom he saith is not to be believed) and the _indian historians_ had invented about them, would make the whole story to appear as a figment, and render it doubtful, whether there were ever such creatures as _pygmies_ in nature; he more zealously asserts the _being_ of them, and assures us, that _this is no fable, but a truth_. i shall therefore now enquire what sort of creatures these _pygmies_ were; and hope so to manage the matter, as in a great measure, to abate the passion these great men have had against them: for, no doubt, what has incensed them the most, was, the fabulous _historians_ making them a part of _mankind_, and then inventing a hundred ridiculous stories about them, which they would impose upon the world as real truths. if therefore they have satisfaction given them in these two points, i do not see, but that the business may be accommodated very fairly; and that they may be allowed to be _pygmies_, tho' we do not make them _men_. for i am not of _gesner_'s mind, _sed veterum nullus_ (saith he[a]) _aliter de pygmæis scripsit, quàm homunciones esse_. had they been a race of _men_, no doubt but _aristotle_ would have informed himself farther about them. such a curiosity could not but have excited his inquisitive _genius_, to a stricter enquiry and examination; and we might easily have expected from him a larger account of them. but finding them, it may be, a sort of _apes_, he only tells us, that in such a place these _pygmies_ live. [footnote a: _gesner. histor. quadruped._ p.m. .] herodotus[a] plainly makes them _brutes_: for reckoning up the _animals_ of _libya_, he tells us, [greek: kai gar hoi ophies hoi hypermegathees, kai hoi leontes kata toutous eisi, kai hoi elephantes te kai arktoi, kai aspides te kai onoi hoi ta kerata echontes; kai hoi kynokephaloi (akephaloi) hoi en toisi staethesi tous ophthalmous echontes (hos dae legetai ge hypo libyon) kai agrioi andres, kai gynaikes agriai kai alla plaethei polla thaeria akatapseusta;] i.e. _that there are here prodigious large serpents, and lions, and elephants, and bears, and asps, and asses that have horns, and cynocephali,_ (in the margin 'tis _acephali_) _that have eyes in their breast, (as is reported by the libyans) and wild men, and wild women, and a great many other wild beasts that are not fabulous._ tis evident therefore that _herodotus_ his [greek: agrioi andres, kai gynaikes agriai] are only [greek: thaeria] or wild beasts: and tho' they are called [greek: andres], they are no more _men_ than our _orang-outang_, or _homo_ _sylvestris_, or _wild man_, which has exactly the same name, and i must confess i can't but think is the same animal: and that the same name has been continued down to us, from his time, and it may be from _homer's_. [footnote a: _herodot. melpomene seu_ lib. . p.m. .] so _philostratus_ speaking of _Æthiopia_ and _Ægypt_, tells us,[a] [greek: boskousi de kai thaeria hoia ouch heterothi; kai anthropous melanas, ho mae allai aepeiroi. pygmaion te en autais ethnae kai hylaktounton allo allaei.] i.e. _here are bred wild beasts that are not in other places; and black men, which no other country affords: and amongst them is the nation of the pygmies, and the_ barkers, that is, the _cynocephali._ for tho' _philostratus_ is pleased here only to call them _barkers_, and to reckon them, as he does the _black men_ and the _pygmies_ amongst the _wild beasts_ of those countreys; yet _ctesias_, from whom _philostratus_ has borrowed a great deal of his _natural history_, stiles them _men_, and makes them speak, and to perform most notable feats in merchandising. but not being in a merry humour it may be now, before he was aware, he speaks truth: for _cælius rhodiginus's_[b] character of him is, _philostratus omnium qui unquam historiam conscripserunt, mendacissimus._ [footnote a: _philostratus in vita apollon. tyanæi_, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _cælij rhodigini lection. antiq._ lib. . cap. .] since the _pygmies_ therefore are some of the _brute beasts_ that naturally breed in these countries, and they are pleased to let us know as much, i can easily excuse them a name. [greek: andres agrioi], or _orang-outang_, is alike to me; and i am better pleased with _homer_'s [greek: andres pygmaioi], than if he had called [greek: pithaekoi]. had this been the only instance where they had misapplied the name of _man_, methinks i could be so good natur'd, as in some measure to make an apology for them. but finding them, so extravagantly loose, so wretchedly whimsical, in abusing the dignity of mankind, by giving the name of _man_ to such monstrous productions of their idle imaginations, as the _indian historians_ have done, i do not wonder that wise men have suspected all that comes out of their mint, to be false and counterfeit. such are their [greek: amykteres] or [greek: arrines], that want noses, and have only two holes above their mouth; they eat all things, but they must be raw; they are short lived; the upper part of their mouths is very prominent. the [greek: enotokeitai], whose ears reach down to their heels, on which they lye and sleep. the [greek: astomoi], that have no mouths, a civil sort of people, that dwell about the head of the _ganges_; and live upon smelling to boil'd meats and the odours of fruits and flowers; they can bear no ill scent, and therefore can't live in a camp. the [greek: monommatoi] or [greek: monophthalmoi], that have but one eye, and that in the middle of their foreheads: they have dog's ears; their hair stands an end, but smooth on the breasts. the [greek: sternophthalmoi], that have eyes in their breasts. the [greek: panai sphaenokephaloi] with heads like wedges. the [greek: makrokephaloi], with great heads. the [greek: hyperboreoi], who live a thousand years. the [greek: okypodes], so swift that they will out-run a horse. the [greek: opiothodaktyloi], that go with their heels forward, and their toes backwards. the [greek: makroskeleis], the [greek: steganopodes], the [greek: monoskeleis], who have one leg, but will jump a great way, and are call'd _sciapodes_, because when they lye on their backs, with this _leg_ they can keep off the sun from their bodies. now _strabo_[a] from whom i have collected the description of these monstrous sorts of _men_, and they are mentioned too by _pliny, solinus, mela, philostratus_, and others; and _munster_ in his _cosmography_[b] has given a _figure_ of some of them; _strabo_, i say, who was an enemy to all such fabulous relations, no doubt was prejudiced likewise against the _pygmies_, because these _historians_ had made them a puny race of _men_, and invented so many romances about them. i can no ways therefore blame him for denying, that there were ever any such _men pygmies_; and do readily agree with him, that no _man_ ever saw them: and am so far from dissenting from those great men, who have denied them on this account, that i think they have all the reason in the world on their side. and to shew how ready i am to close with them in this point, i will here examine the contrary opinion, and what reasons they give for the supporting it: for there have been some _moderns_, as well as the _ancients_, that have maintained that these _pygmies_ were real _men_. and this they pretend to prove, both from _humane authority_ and _divine_. [footnote a: _strabo geograph._ lib. . p.m. . & lib. . p. . _& alibi_.] [footnote b: _munster cosmograph._ lib. . p. .] now by _men pygmies_ we are by no means to understand _dwarfs_. in all countries, and in all ages, there has been now and then observed such _miniture_ of mankind, or under-sized men. _cardan_[a] tells us he saw one carried about in a parrot's cage, that was but a cubit high. _nicephorus_[b] tells us, that in _theodosius_ the emperour's time, there was one in _Ægypt_ that was no bigger than a partridge; yet what was to be admired, he was very prudent, had a sweet clear voice, and a generous mind; and lived twenty years. so likewise a king of _portugal_ sent to a duke of _savoy_, when he married his daughter to him, an _Æthiopian dwarf_ but three palms high.[c] and _thevenot_[d] tells us of the present made by the king of the _abyssins_, to the _grand seignior_, of several _little black slaves_ out of _nubia_, and the countries near _Æthiopia_, which being made _eunuchs_, were to guard the ladies of the _seraglio_. and a great many such like relations there are. but these being only _dwarfs_, they must not be esteemed the _pygmies_ we are enquiring about, which are represented as a _nation_, and the whole race of them to be of the like stature. _dari tamen integras pumilionum gentes, tam falsum est, quàm quod falsissimum_, saith _harduin_.[e] [footnote a: _cardan de subtilitate_, lib. . p. .] [footnote b: _nicephor. histor. ecclesiiast._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote c: _happelius in relat. curiosis_, no. . p. .] [footnote d: _thevenot. voyage de levant._ lib. . c. .] [footnote e: _jo. harduini notæ in plinij nat. hist._ lib. . cap. . p. .] neither likewise must it be granted, that tho' in some _climates_ there might be _men_ generally of less stature, than what are to be met with in other countries, that they are presently _pygmies_. _nature_ has not fixed the same standard to the growth of _mankind_ in all places alike, no more than to _brutes_ or _plants_. the dimensions of them all, according to the _climate_, may differ. if we consult the original, _viz. homer_ that first mentioned the _pygmies_, there are only these two _characteristics_ he gives of them. that they are [greek: pygmaioi] _seu cubitales_; and that the _cranes_ did use to fight them. 'tis true, as a _poet_, he calls them [greek: andres], which i have accounted for before. now if there cannot be found such _men_ as are _cubitales_, that the _cranes_ might probably fight with, notwithstanding all the romances of the _indian historians_, i cannot think these _pygmies_ to be _men_, but they must be some other _animals_, or the whole must be a fiction. having premised this, we will now enquire into their assertion that maintain the _pygmies_ to be a race of _men_. now because there have been _giants_ formerly, that have so much exceeded the usual stature of _man_, that there must be likewise _pygmies_ as defective in the other extream from this standard, i think is no conclusive argument, tho' made use of by some. old _caspar bartholine_[a] tells us, that because _j. cassanius_ and others had wrote _de gygantibus_, since no body else had undertaken it, he would give us a book _de pygmæis_; and since he makes it his design to prove the existence of _pygmies_, and that the _pygmies_ were _men_, i must confess i expected great matters from him. [footnote a: _caspar. bartholin. opusculum de pygmæis._] but i do not find he has informed us of any thing more of them, than what _jo. talentonius_, a professor formerly at _parma_, had told us before in his _variarum & reconditarum rerum thesaurus_,[a] from whom he has borrowed most of this _tract_. he has made it a little more formal indeed, by dividing it into _chapters_; of which i will give you the _titles_; and as i see occasion, some remarks thereon: they will not be many, because i have prevented my self already. the _first chapter_ is, _de homuncionibus & pumilionilus seu nanis à pygmæis distinctis_. the _second chapter, de pygmæi nominibus & etymologia_. the _third chapter, duplex esse pygmæorum genus; & primum genus aliquando dari_. he means _dwarfs_, that are no _pygmies_ at all. the _fourth chapter_ is, _alterum genus, nempe gentem pygmæorum esse, aut saltem aliquando fuisse autoritatibus humanis, fide tamen dignorum asseritur_. 'tis as i find it printed; and no doubt an error in the printing. the authorities he gives, are, _homer, ctesias, aristotle, philostratus, pliny, juvenal, oppian, baptista mantuan_, st. _austin_ and his _scholiast. ludovic. vives, jo. laurentius anania, joh. cassanius, joh. talentonius, gellius, pomp. mela_, and _olaus magnus_. i have taken notice of most of them already, as i shall of st. _austin_ and _ludovicus vives_ by and by. _jo. laurentius anania_[b] ex mercatorum relatione tradit (saith _bartholine_) eos _(sc. pygmæos) in septentrionali thraciæ parte reperiri, (quæ scythiæ est proxima) atque ibi cum gruibus pugnare_. and _joh. cassanius_[c] (as he is here quoted) saith, _de pygmæis fabulosa quidem esse omnia, quæ de iis narrari solent, aliquando existimavi. verùm cum videam non unum vel alterum, sed complures classicos & probatos autores de his homunculis multa in eandem fere sententiam tradidisse; eò adducor ut pygmæos fuisse inficiari non ausim._ he next brings in _jo. talentonius_, to whom he is so much beholden, and quotes his opinion, which is full and home, _constare arbitror_ (saith _talentonius_)[d] _debere concedi, pygmæos non solùm olim fuisse, sed nunc etiam esse, & homines esse, nec parvitatem illis impedimenta esse quo minùs sint & homines sint._ but were there such _men pygmies_ now in being, no doubt but we must have heard of them; some or other of our saylors, in their voyages, would have lighted on them. tho' _aristotle_ is here quoted, yet he does not make them _men_; so neither does _anania_: and i must own, tho' _talentonius_ be of this opinion, yet he takes notice of the faulty translation of this text of _aristotle_ by _gaza_: and tho' the parvity or lowness of stature, be no impediment, because we have frequently seen such _dwarf-men_, yet we did never see a _nation_ of them: for then there would be no need of that _talmudical_ precept which _job. ludolphus_[e] mentions, _nanus ne ducat nanam, ne fortè oriatur ex iis digitalis_ (in _bechor_. fol. ). [footnote a: _jo. talentionij. variar. & recondit. rerum. thesaurus._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote b: _joh. laurent. anania prope finem tractatus primi suæ geograph._] [footnote c: _joh. cassanius libello de gygantibus_, p. .] [footnote d: _jo. talentonius variar. & recondit. rerum thesaurus_, lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote e: _job ludolphi comment. in historiam Æthiopic._ p.m. .] i had almost forgotten _olaus magnus_, whom _bartholine_ mentions in the close of this chapter, but lays no great stress upon his authority, because he tells us, he is fabulous in a great many other relations, and he writes but by hear-say, that the _greenlanders_ fight the _cranes_; _tandem_ (saith _bartholine_) _neque ideo pygmæi sunt, si fortè sagittis & hastis, sicut alij homines, grues conficiunt & occidunt._ this i think is great partiality: for _ctesias_, an author whom upon all turns _bartholine_ makes use of as an evidence, is very positive, that the _pygmies_ were excellent _archers_: so that he himself owns, that their being such, illustrates very much that _text_ in _ezekiel_, on which he spends good part of the next _chapter_, whose title is, _pygmæorum gens ex ezekiele, atque rationibus probabilibus adstruitur_; which we will consider by and by. and tho' _olaus magnus_ may write some things by hear-say, yet he cannot be so fabulous as _ctesias_, who (as _lucian_ tells us) writes what he neither saw himself, or heard from any body else. not that i think _olaus magnus_ his _greenlanders_ were real _pygmies_, no more than _ctesias_ his _pygmies_ were real _men_; tho' he vouches very notably for them. and if all that have copied this fable from _ctesias_, must be look'd upon as the same evidence with himself; the number of the _testimonies_ produced need not much concern us, since they must all stand or fall with him. the _probable reasons_ that _bartholine_ gives in the _fifth chapter_, are taken from other _animals_, as sheep, oxen, horses, dogs, the _indian formica_ and plants: for observing in the same _species_ some excessive large, and others extreamly little, he infers, _quæ certè cum in animalibus & vegetabilibus fiant; cur in humana specie non sit probabile, haud video: imprimis cum detur magnitudinis excessus gigantæus; cur non etiam dabitur defectus? quia ergo dantur gigantes, dabuntur & pygmæi. quam consequentiam ut firmam, admittit cardanus,[a] licet de pygmæis hoc tantùm concedat, qui pro miraculo, non pro gente._ now cardan, tho' he allows this consequence, yet in the same place he gives several reasons why the _pygmies_ could not be _men_, and looks upon the whole story as fabulous. _bartholine_ concludes this _chapter_ thus: _ulteriùs ut probabilitatem fulciamus, addendum sceleton pygmæi, quod_ dresdæ _vidimus inter alia plurima, servatum in arce sereniss._ electoris saxoniæ, _altitudine infra cubitum, ossium soliditate, proportioneque tum capitis, tum aliorum; ut embrionem, aut artificiale quid nemo rerum peritus suspicari possit. addita insuper est inscriptio_ veri pygmæi. i hereupon looked into dr. _brown_'s travels into those parts, who has given us a large catalogue of the curiosities, the _elector_ of _saxony_ had at _dresden_, but did not find amongst them this _sceleton_; which, by the largeness of the head, i suspect to be the _sceleton_ of an _orang-outang_, or our _wild man_. but had he given us either a figure of it, or a more particular description, it had been a far greater satisfaction. [footnote a: _cardan. de rerum varietate_, lib. . cap. .] the title of _bartholine_'s _sixth chapter_ is, _pygmæos esse aut fuisse ex variis eorum adjunctis, accidentibus_, &c. _ab authoribus descriptis ostenditur_. as first, their _magnitude_: which he mentions from _ctesias, pliny, gellius_, and _juvenal_; and tho' they do not all agree exactly, 'tis nothing. _autorum hic dissensus nullus est_ (saith _bartholine_) _etenim sicut in nostris hominibus, ita indubiè in pygmæis non omnes ejusdem magnitudinis._ . the _place_ and _country_: as _ctesias_ (he saith) places them in the middle of _india_; _aristotle_ and _pliny_ at the lakes above _Ægypt_; _homer_'s _scholiast_ in the middle of _Ægypt_; _pliny_ at another time saith they are at the head of the _ganges_, and sometimes at _gerania_, which is in _thracia_, which being near _scythia_, confirms (he saith) _anania's relation_. _mela_ places them at the _arabian gulf_; and _paulus jovius docet pygmæos ultra japonem esse_; and adds, _has autorum dissensiones facile fuerit conciliare; nec mirum diversas relationes à_, plinio _auditas._ for (saith he) as the _tartars_ often change their seats, since they do not live in houses, but in tents, so 'tis no wonder that the _pygmies_ often change theirs, since instead of houses, they live in caves or huts, built of mud, feathers, and egg-shells. and this mutation of their habitations he thinks is very plain from _pliny_, where speaking of _gerania_, he saith, _pygmæorum gens_ fuisse _(non jam esse) proditur, creduntque à gruibus fugatos._ which passage (saith _bartholine_) had _adrian spigelius_ considered, he would not so soon have left _aristotle's_ opinion, because _franc. alvares_ the _portuguese_ did not find them in the place where _aristotle_ left them; for the _cranes_, it may be, had driven them thence. his third article is, their _habitation_, which _aristotle_ saith is in _caves_; hence they are _troglodytes_. _pliny_ tells us they build huts with mud, feathers, and egg-shells. but what _bartholine_ adds, _eò quod terræ cavernas inhabitent, non injuriâ dicti sunt olim pygmæi, terræ filii_, is wholly new to me, and i have not met with it in any author before: tho' he gives us here several other significations of the word _terræ filij_ from a great many authors, which i will not trouble you at present with. . the _form_, being flat nosed and ugly, as _ctesias_. . their _speech_, which was the same as the _indians_, as _ctesias_; and for this i find he has no other author. . their _hair_; where he quotes _ctesias_ again, that they make use of it for _clothes_. . their _vertues and arts_; as that they use the same laws as the _indians_, are very just, excellent archers, and that the king of _india_ has three thousand of them in his guards. all from _ctesias_. . their _animals_, as in _ctesias_; and here are mentioned their sheep, oxen, asses, mules, and horses. . their various _actions_; as what _ctesias_ relates of their killing hares and foxes with crows, eagles, &c. and fighting the _cranes_, as _homer, pliny, juvenal_. the _seventh chapter_ in _bartholine_ has a promising title, _an pygmæi sint homines_, and i expected here something more to our purpose; but i find he rather endeavours to answer the reasons of those that would make them _apes_, than to lay down any of his own to prove them _men_. and _albertus magnus's_ opinion he thinks absurd, that makes them part men part beasts; they must be either one or the other, not a _medium_ between both; and to make out this, he gives us a large quotation out of _cardan_. but _cardan_[a] in the same place argues that they are not men. as to _suessanus_[b] his argument, that they want _reason_, this he will not grant; but if they use it less or more imperfectly than others (which yet, he saith, is not certain) by the same parity of reason _children_, the _boeotians_, _cumani_ and _naturals_ may not be reckoned _men_; and he thinks, what he has mentioned in the preceding _chapter_ out of _ctesias_, &c. shews that they have no small use of reason. as to _suessanus_'s next argument, that they want religion, justice, &c. this, he saith, is not confirmed by any grave writer; and if it was, yet it would not prove that they are not _men_. for this defect (he saith) might hence happen, because they are forced to live in _caves_ for fear of the _cranes_; and others besides them, are herein faulty. for this opinion, that the _pygmies_ were _apes_ and not _men_, he quotes likewise _benedictus varchius_,[c] and _joh. tinnulus_,[d] and _paulus jovius_,[e] and several others of the moderns, he tells us, are of the same mind. _imprimis geographici quos non puduit in mappis geographicis loco pygmæorum simias cum gruibus pugnantes ridiculè dipinxisse._ [footnote a: _cardan. de rerum varietate_, lib. . cap. .] [footnote b: _suessanus comment. in arist. de histor. animal._ lib. . cap. .] [footnote c: _benedict. varchius de monstris. lingua vernacula._] [footnote d: _joh. tinnulus in glotto-chrysio._] [footnote e: _paulus jovius lib. de muscovit. legalione._] the title of _bartholine's eighth_ and last _chapter_ is, _argumenta eorum qui pygmæorum historiam fabulosam censent, recitantur & refutantur._ where he tells us, the only person amongst the ancients that thought the story of the _pygmies_ to be fabulous was _strabo_; but amongst the moderns there are several, as _cardan, budæus, aldrovandus, fullerus_ and others. the first objection (he saith) is that of _spigelius_ and others; that since the whole world is now discovered, how happens it, that these _pygmies_ are not to be met with? he has seven answers to this objection; how satisfactory they are, the reader may judge, if he pleases, by perusing them amongst the quotations.[a] _cardan_'s second objection (he saith) is, that they live but eight years, whence several inconveniences would happen, as _cardan_ shews; he answers that no good author asserts this; and if there was, yet what _cardan_ urges would not follow; and instances out of _artemidorus_ in _pliny_,[b] as a _parallel_ in the _calingæ_ a nation in _india, where the women conceive when five years old, and do not live above eight._ _gesner_ speaking of the _pygmies_, saith, _vitæ autem longitudo anni arciter octo ut_ albertus _refert._ _cardan_ perhaps had his authority from _albertus_, or it may be both took it from this passage in _pliny_, which i think would better agree to _apes_ than _men_. but _artemidorus_ being an _indian historian_, and in the same place telling other romances, the less credit is to be given to him. the third objection, he saith, is of _cornelius à lapide_, who denies the _pygmies_, because _homer_ was the first author of them. the fourth objection he saith is, because authors differ about the place where they should be: this, he tells us, he has answered already in the fifth chapter. the _fifth_ and last objection he mentions is, that but few have seen them. he answers, there are a great many wonders in sacred and profane history that we have not seen, yet must not deny. and he instances in three; as the _formicæ indicæ_, which are as big as great dogs: the _cornu plantabile_ in the island _goa_, which when cut off from the beast, and flung upon the ground, will take root like a _cabbage_: and the _scotland geese_ that grow upon trees, for which he quotes a great many authors, and so concludes. [footnote a: _respondeo._ . _contrarium testari mercatorum relationem apud_ ananiam _supra cap. ._ . _et licet non inventi essent vivi à quolibet, pari jure monocerota & alia negare liceret._ . _qui maria pernavigant, vix oras paucas maritimas lustrant, adeo non terras omnes à mari dissitas._ . _neque in oris illos habitare maritimis ex capite quinto manifestum est._ . _quis testatum se omnem adhibuisse diligentiam in inquirendo eos ut inveniret._ . _ita in terra habitant, ut in antris vitam tolerare dicantur._ . _si vel maximè omni ab omnibus diligentia quæsiti fuissent, nec inventi; fieri potest, ut instar gigantum jam desierint nec sint ampliùs_.] [footnote b: _plinij hist. nat._ lib. . cap. . p.m. .] now how far _bartholine_ in his treatise has made out that the _pygmies_ of the ancients were real _men_, either from the authorities he has quoted, or his reasonings upon them, i submit to the reader. i shall proceed now (as i promised) to consider the proof they pretend from _holy writ_: for _bartholine_ and others insist upon that _text_ in _ezekiel_ (_cap. . vers. _) where the _vulgar_ translation has it thus; _filij arvad cum exercitu tuo supra muros tuos per circuitum, & pygmæi in turribus tuis fuerunt; scuta sua suspenderunt supra muros tuos per circuitum._ now _talentonius_ and _bartholine_ think that what _ctesias_ relates of the _pygmies_, as their being good _archers_, very well illustrates this text of _ezekiel_: i shall here transcribe what sir _thomas brown_[a] remarks upon it; and if any one requires further satisfaction, they may consult _job ludolphus's comment_ on his _Æthiopic history_.[b] [footnote a: sir _thomas brown's enquiries into vulgar errors_, lib. . cap. . p. .] [footnote b: _comment. in hist. Æthiopic._ p. .] the _second testimony_ (saith sir _thomas brown_) _is deduced from holy scripture; thus rendered in the vulgar translation_, sed & pygmæi qui erant in turribus tuis, pharetras suas suspenderunt in muris tuis per gyrum: _from whence notwithstanding we cannot infer this assertion, for first the translators accord not, and the hebrew word_ gammadim _is very variously rendered. though_ aquila, vatablus _and_ lyra _will have it_ pygmæi, _yet in the_ septuagint, _it is no more than watchman; and so in the_ arabick _and_ high-dutch. _in the_ chalde, cappadocians, _in_ symmachus, medes, _and in the_ french, _those of_ gamed. theodotian _of old, and_ tremillius _of late, have retained the textuary word; and so have the_ italian, low dutch, _and_ english _translators, that is, the men of_ arvad _were upon thy walls round about, and the_ gammadims _were in thy towers._ _nor do men only dissent in the translation of the word, but in the exposition of the sense and meaning thereof; for some by_ gammadims _understand a people of_ syria, _so called from the city of_ gamala; _some hereby understand the_ cappadocians, _many the_ medes: _and hereof_ forerius _hath a singular exposition, conceiving the watchmen of_ tyre, _might well be called_ pygmies, _the towers of that city being so high, that unto men below, they appeared in a cubital stature. others expound it quite contrary to common acception, that is not men of the least, but of the largest size; so doth_ cornelius _construe_ pygmæi, _or_ viri cubitales, _that is, not men of a cubit high, but of the largest stature, whose height like that of giants, is rather to be taken by the cubit than the foot; in which phrase we read the measure of_ goliah, _whose height is said to be six cubits and span. of affinity hereto is also the exposition of_ jerom; _not taking_ pygmies _for dwarfs, but stout and valiant champions; not taking the sense of [greek: pygmae], which signifies the cubit measure, but that which expresseth pugils; that is, men fit for combat and the exercise of the fist. thus there can be no satisfying illation from this text, the diversity, or rather contrariety of expositions and interpretations, distracting more than confirming the truth of the story._ but why _aldrovandus_ or _caspar bartholine_ should bring in st. _austin_ as a favourer of this opinion of _men pygmies_, i see no reason. to me he seems to assert quite the contrary: for proposing this question, _an ex propagine_ adam _vel filiorum_ noe, _quædam genera hominum monstrosa prodierunt?_ he mentions a great many monstrous nations of _men_, as they are described by the _indian historians_, and amongst the rest, the _pygmies_, the _sciopodes_, &c. and adds, _quid dicam de_ cynocephalis, _quorum canina capita atque ipse latratus magis bestias quàm homines confitentur? sed omnia genera hominum, quæ dicuntur esse, esse credere, non est necesse._ and afterwards so fully expresses himself in favour of the _hypothesis_ i am here maintaining, that i think it a great confirmation of it. _nam & simias_ (saith he) _& cercopithecos, & sphingas, si nesciremus non homines esse, sed bestias, possent isti historici de sua curiositate gloriantes velut gentes aliquas hominum nobis impunitâ vanitate mentiri._ at last he concludes and determines the question thus, _aut illa, quæ talia de quibusdam gentibus scripta sunt, omnino nulla sunt, aut si sunt, homines non sunt, aut ex_ adam _sunt si homines sunt._ there is nothing therefore in st. _austin_ that justifies the being of _men pygmies_, or that the _pygmies_ were _men_; he rather makes them _apes_. and there is nothing in his _scholiast ludovicus vives_ that tends this way, he only quotes from other authors, what might illustrate the text he is commenting upon, and no way asserts their being _men_. i shall therefore next enquire into _bochartus_'s opinion, who would have them to be the _nubæ_ or _nobæ_. _hos nubas troglodyticos_ (saith[a] he) _ad avalitem sinum esse pygmæos veterum multa probant._ he gives us five reasons to prove this. as, . the authority of _hesychius_, who saith, [greek: noboi pygmaioi]. . because _homer_ places the _pygmies_ near the ocean, where the nubæ were. . _aristotle_ places them at the lakes of the _nile_. now by the _nile bochartus_ tells us, we must understand the _astaborus_, which the ancients thought to be a branch of the _nile_, as he proves from _pliny, solinus_ and _Æthicus_. and _ptolomy_ (he tells us) places the _nubæ_ hereabout. . because _aristotle_ makes the _pygmies_ to be _troglodytes_, and so were the _nubæ_. . he urges that story of _nonnosus_ which i have already mentioned, and thinks that those that _nonnosus_ met with, were a colony of the _nubæ_; but afterwards adds, _quos tamen absit ut putemus staturâ fuisse cubitali, prout poetæ fingunt, qui omnia in majus augent._ but this methinks spoils them from being _pygmies_; several other nations at this rate may be _pygmies_ as well as these _nubæ_. besides, he does not inform us, that these _nubæ_ used to fight the _cranes_; and if they do not, and were not _cubitales_, they can't be _homer_'s _pygmies_, which we are enquiring after. but the notion of their being _men_, had so possessed him, that it put him upon fancying they must be the _nubæ_; but 'tis plain that those in _nonnosus_ could not be a colony of the _nubæ_; for then the _nubæ_ must have understood their language, which the _text_ saith, none of the neighbourhood did. and because the _nubæ_ are _troglodytes_, that therefore they must be _pygmies_, is no argument at all. for _troglodytes_ here is used as an _adjective_; and there is a sort of _sparrow_ which is called _passer troglodytes_. not but that in _africa_ there was a nation of _men_ called _troglodytes_, but quite different from our _pygmies_. how far _bochartus_ may be in the right, in guessing the lakes of the _nile_ (whereabout _aristotle_ places the _pygmies_) to be the fountains of the river _astaborus_, which in his description, and likewise the _map_, he places in the country of the _avalitæ_, near the _mossylon emporium_; i shall not enquire. this i am certain of, he misrepresents _aristotle_ where he tells us,[b] _quamvis in ea fabula hoc saltem verum esse asserat philosophus, pusillos homines in iis locis degere_: for as i have already observed; _aristotle_ in that _text_ saith nothing at all of their being _men_: the contrary rather might be thence inferred, that they were _brutes_. and _bochart's_ translation, as well as _gaza's_ is faulty here, and by no means to be allowed, _viz. ut aiunt, genus ibi parvum est tam hominum, quàm equorum_; which had _bochartus_ considered he would not have been so fond it may be of his _nubæ_. and if the [greek: noboi pygmaioi] in _hesychius_ are such _pygmies_ as _bochartus_ makes his _nubæ, quos tamen absit ut putemus staturtâ fuisse cubitali_, it will not do our business at all; and neither _homer's_ authority, nor _aristotle's_ does him any service. [footnote a: _sam. bochart. geograph. sacræ_, part. . lib. . cap. . p.m. .] [footnote b: _bocharti hierozoici pars posterior_, lib. i. cap. ii. p. .] but this fable of _men pygmies_ has not only obtained amongst the _greeks_ and _indian historians_: the _arabians_ likewise tell much such stories of them, as the same learned _bochartus_ informs us. i will give his latin translation of one of them, which he has printed in _arabick_ also: _arabes idem_ (saith[a] _bochartus_) _referunt ex cujusdam_ græculi _fide, qui_ jacobo isaaci _filio_, sigariensi _fertur ita narrasse_. _navigabam aliquando in mari_ zingitano, _& impulit me ventus in quandam insulam_. _in cujus oppidum cum devenissem, reperi incolas cubitalis esse staturæ, & plerosque coclites. quorum multitudo in me congregata me deduxit ad regem suum. fussit is, ut captivus detinerer; & inquandam caveæ speciem conjectus sum; eos autem aliquando ad bellum instrui cum viderem, dixerunt hostem imminere, & fore ut propediem ingrueret. nec multò post gruum exercitus in eos insurrexit. atque ideo erant coclites, quod eorum oculos hæ confodissent. atque ego, virgâ assumptâ, in eas impetum feci, & illæ avolârunt atque aufugerunt; ob quod facinus in honore fui apud illos_. this author, it seems, represents them under the same misfortune with the _poet_, who first mentioned them, as being blind, by having their eyes peck'd out by their cruel enemies. such an accident possibly might happen now and then, in these bloody engagements, tho' i wonder the _indian historians_ have not taken notice of it. however the _pygmies_ shewed themselves grateful to their deliverer, in heaping _honours_ on him. one would guess, for their own sakes, they could not do less than make him their _generalissimo_; but our author is modest in not declaring what they were. [footnote a: _bochartus ibid_. p.m. .] isaac vossius seems to unsettle all, and endeavours utterly to ruine the whole story: for he tells us, if you travel all over _africa_, you shall not meet with either a _crane_ or _pygmie_: _se mirari_ (saith[a] _isaac vossius_) aristotelem, _quod tam seriò affirmet non esse fabellam, quæ de pygmæis & bello, quod cum gruibus gerant, narrantur. si quis totam pervadat_ africam, _nullas vel grues vel pygmæos inveniet_. now one would wonder more at _vossius_, that he should assert this of _aristotle_, which he never said. and since _vossius_ is so mistaken in what he relates of _aristotle_; where he might so easily have been in the right, 'tis not improbable, but he may be out in the rest too: for who has travelled all _africa_ over, that could inform him? and why should he be so peremptory in the negative, when he had so positive an affirmation of _aristotle_ to the contrary? or if he would not believe _aristotle's_ authority, methinks he should _aristophanes's_, who tells us,[b] [greek: speirein hotau men geranos kroizon es taen libyaen metachorae]. _'tis time to sow when the noisy cranes take their flight into_ libya. which observation is likewise made by _hesiod, theognis, aratus_, and others. and _maximus tyrius_ (as i find him quoted in _bochartus_) saith, [greek: hai geravoi ex aigyptou ora therous aphistamenai, ouk anechomenai to thalpos teinasai pterygas hosper istia, pherontai dia tou aeros euthy ton skython gaes]. i.e. _grues per æstatem ex_ Ægypto _abscedentes, quia calorem pati non possunt, alis velorum instar expansis, per aerem ad_ scythicam _plagam rectà feruntur_. which fully confirms that migration of the _cranes_ that _aristotle_ mentions. [footnote a: _isaac vossius de nili aliorumque stuminum origine_, cap. .] [footnote b: _aristophanes in nubibus_.] but _vossius_ i find, tho' he will not allow the _cranes_, yet upon second thoughts did admit of _pygmies_ here: for this story of the _pygmies_ and the _cranes_ having made so much _noise_, he thinks there may be something of truth in it; and then gives us his conjecture, how that the _pygmies_ may be those _dwarfs_, that are to be met with beyond the fountains of the _nile_; but that they do not fight _cranes_ but _elephants_, and kill a great many of them, and drive a considerable traffick for their teeth with the _jagi_, who sell them to those of _congo_ and the _portuguese_. i will give you _vossius's_ own words; _attamen_ (saith[a] he) _ut solent fabellæ non de nihilo fingi & aliquod plerunque continent veri, id ipsum quoque que hìc factum esse existimo. certum quippe est ultra_ nili _fontes multos reperiri_ nanos, _qui tamen non cum gruibus, sed cum elephantis perpetuum gerant bellum. præcipuum quippe eboris commercium in regno magni_ macoki _per istos transigitur homunciones; habitant in sylvis, & mira dexteritate elephantos sagittis conficiunt. carnibus vescuntur, dentes verô_ jagis _divendunt, illi autem_ congentibus & lusitanis. [footnote a: _isaac vossius ibid_.] _job ludolphus_[a] in his _commentary_ on his _Æthiopick history_ remarks, that there was never known a nation all of dwarfs. _nani quippe_ (saith _ludolphus_) _naturæ quodam errore ex aliis justæ staturæ hominibus generantur. qualis verô ea gens sit, ex qua ista naturæ ludibria tantâ copiâ proveniant, vossium docere oportelat, quia pumiliones pumiles alios non gignunt, sed plerunque steriles sunt, experientia teste; ut planè non opus habuerunt doctores talmudici nanorum matrimonia prohibere, ne digitales ex iis nascerentur. ludolphus_ it may be is a little too strict with _vossius_ for calling them _nani_; he may only mean a sort of men in that country of less stature than ordinary. and _dapper_ in his history of _africa_, from whom _vossius_ takes this account, describes such in the kingdom of _mokoko_, he calls _mimos_, and tells us that they kill _elephants_. but i see no reason why _vossius_ should take these men for the _pygmies_ of the ancients, or think that they gave any occasion or ground for the inventing this fable, is there was no other reason, this was sufficient, because they were able to kill the _elephants_. the _pygmies_ were scarce a match for the _cranes_; and for them to have encountered an _elephant_, were as vain an attempt, as the _pygmies_ were guilty of in _philostratus_[b] 'who to revenge the death of _antæus_, having found _hercules_ napping in _libya_, mustered up all their forces against him. one _phalanx_ (he tells us) assaulted his left hand; but against his right hand, that being the stronger, two _phalanges_ were appointed. the archers and slingers besieged his feet, admiring the hugeness of his thighs: but against his head, as the arsenal, they raised batteries, the king himself taking his post there. they set fire to his hair, put reaping-hooks in his eyes; and that he might not breath, clapp'd doors to his mouth and nostrils; but all the execution that they could do, was only to awake him, which when done, deriding their folly, he gather'd them all up in his lion's skin, and carried them (_philostratus_ thinks) to _euristhenes_.' this _antæus_ was as remarkable for his height, as the _pygmies_ were for their lowness of stature: for _plutarch_[c] tells us, that _q. sterorius_ not being willing to trust common fame, when he came to _tingis_ (now _tangier_) he caused _antæus's_ sepulchre to be opened, and found his corps full threescore cubits long. but _sterorius_ knew well enough how to impose upon the credulity of the people, as is evident from the story of his _white hind_, which _plutarch_ likewise relates. [footnote a: _job ludolphus in comment, in historiam Æthiopicam_, p.m. .] [footnote b: _philostratus. icon_. lib. . p.m. .] [footnote c: _plutarch. in vita q. sertorij_.] but to return to our _pygmies_; tho' most of the great and learned men would seem to decry this story as a fiction and mere fable, yet there is something of truth, they think, must have given the first rise to it, and that it was not wholly the product of phancy, but had some real foundation, tho' disguised, according to the different imagination and _genius_ of the _relator_: 'tis this that has incited them to give their several conjectures about it. _job ludolphus_ finding what has been offered at in relation to the _pygmies_, not to satisfie, he thinks he can better account for this story, by leaving out the _cranes_, and placing in their stead, another sort of bird he calls the _condor_. i will give you his own words: _sed ad pygmæos_ (saith [a] _ludolphus_) _revertamur; fabula de geranomachia pygmæorum seu pugna cum gruibus etiam aliquid de vero trahere videtur, si pro gruibus_ condoras _intelligas, aves in interiore_ africa _maximas, ut fidem penè excedat; aiunt enim quod ales ista vitulum elephanti in aerem extollere possit; ut infra docebimus. cum his pygmæos pugnare, ne pecora sua rapiant, incredibile non est. error ex eo natus videtur, quod primus relator, alio vocabulo destitutus, grues pro condoris nominârit, sicuti_ plautus _picos pro gryphilus_, & romani _boves lucas pro elephantis dixere_. [footnote a: _job ludolphus comment, in historiam suam Æthiopic_. p. .] 'tis true, if what _juvenal_ only in ridicule mentions, was to be admitted as a thing really done, that the _cranes_ could fly away with a _pygmie_, as our _kites_ can with a chicken, there might be some pretence for _ludovicus's condor_ or _cunctor_: for he mentions afterwards[a] out of _p. joh. dos santos_ the _portuguese_, that 'twas observed that one of these _condors_ once flew away with an ape, chain, clog and all, about ten or twelve pounds weight, which he carried to a neighbouring wood, and there devoured him. and _garcilasso de la vega_[b] relates that they will seize and fly away with a child ten or twelve years old. but _juvenal_[c] only mentions this in ridicule and merriment, where he saith, adsubitas thracum volucres, nubemque sonoram pygmæos parvis currit bellator in armis: mox impar hosti, raptusque per aera curvis unguibus à fævâ fertur grue. [footnote a: _job ludolphus ibid_. pag. .] [footnote b: _garcilasso de la vega royal comment_, of peru.] [footnote c: _juvenal satyr_. _vers_. .] besides, were the _condors_ to be taken for the _cranes_, it would utterly spoil the _pygmæomachia_; for where the match is so very unequal, 'tis impossible for the pygmies to make the least shew of a fight. _ludolphus_ puts as great hardships on them, to fight these _condors_, as _vossius_ did, in making them fight _elephants_, but not with equal success; for _vossius_'s _pygmies_ made great slaughters of the elephants; but _ludolphus_ his _cranes_ sweep away the _pygmies_, as easily as an _owl_ would a _mouse_, and eat them up into the bargain; now i never heard the _cranes_ were so cruel and barbarous to their enemies, tho' there are some nations in the world that are reported to do so. moreover, these _condor_'s i find are very rare to be met with; and when they are, they often appear single or but a few. now _homer_'s, and the _cranes_ of the ancients, are always represented in flocks. thus _oppian_[a] as i find him translated into latin verse: _et velut Æthiopum veniunt, nilique fluenta turmalim palamedis aves, celsoeque per altum aera labentes fugiunt athlanta nivosum, pygmæos imbelle genus, parvumque saligant, non perturbato procedunt ordine densæ instructis volucres obscurant aëra turmis._ to imagine these _grues_ a single gigantick bird, would much lessen the beauty of _homer's simile_, and would not have served his turn; and there are none who have borrowed homer's fancy, but have thought so. i will only farther instance in _baptista mantuan_: _pygmæi breve vulgus, iners plelecula, quando convenere grues longis in prælia rostris, sublato clamore fremunt, dumque agmine magno hostibus occurrit, tellus tremit indica, clamant littora, arenarum nimbis absconditur aër; omnis & involvit pulvis solemque, polumque, et genus hoc hominum naturâ imbelle, quietum, mite, facit mavors pugnax, immane cruentum._ [footnote: a _oppian lib. i. de piscibus_.] having now considered and examined the various opinions of these learned men concerning this _pygmaeomachia_; and represented the reasons they give for maintaining their conjectures; i shall beg leave to subjoyn my own: and if what at present i offer, may seem more probable, or account for this story with more likelyhood, than what hath hitherto been advanced, i shall not think my time altogether misspent: but if this will not do, i shall never trouble my head more about them, nor think my self any ways concerned to write on this argument again. and i had not done it now, but upon the occasion of dissecting this _orang-outang_, or _wild man_, which being a native of _africa_, and brought from _angola_, tho' first taken higher up in the country, as i was informed by the relation given me; and observing so great a resemblance, both in the outward shape, and, what surprized me more, in the structure likewise of the inward parts, to a _man_; this thought was easily suggested to me, that very probably this _animal_, or some other such of the same _species_, might give the first rise and occasion to the stories of the _pygmies_. what has been the [greek: proton pheudos], and rendered this story so difficult to be believed, i find hath been the opinion that has generally obtained, that these _pygmies_ were really a race of _little men_. and tho' they are only _brutes_, yet being at first call'd _wild men_, no doubt from the resemblance they bear to _men_; there have not been wanting those especially amongst the ancients, who have invented a hundred ridiculous stories concerning them; and have attributed those things to them, were they to be believed in what they say, that necessarily conclude them real _men_. to sum up therefore what i have already discoursed, i think i have proved, that the _pygmies_ were not an _humane species_ or _men_. and tho' _homer_, who first mentioned them, calls them [greek: andres pygmaioi], yet we need not understand by this expression any thing more than _apes_: and tho' his _geranomachia_ hath been look'd upon by most only as a poetical fiction; yet by assigning what might be the true cause of this quarrel between the _cranes_ and _pygmies_, and by divesting it of the many fabulous relations that the _indian historians_, and others, have loaded it with, i have endeavoured to render it a true, at least a probable story. i have instanced in _ctesias_ and the _indian historians_, as the authors and inventors of the many fables we have had concerning them: particularly, i have examined those relations, where speech or language is attributed to them; and shewn, that there is no reason to believe that they ever spake any language at all. but these _indian historians_ having related so many extravagant romances of the _pygmies_, as to render their whole history suspected, nay to be utterly denied, that there were ever any such creatures as _pygmies_ in _nature_, both by _strabo_ of old, and most of our learned men of late, i have endeavoured to assert the truth of their _being_, from a _text_ in _aristotle_; which being so positive in affirming their existence, creates a difficulty, that can no ways be got over by such as are of the contrary opinion. this _text_ i have vindicated from the false interpretations and glosses of several great men, who had their minds so prepossessed and prejudiced with the notion of _men pygmies_, that they often would quote it, and misapply it, tho' it contain'd nothing that any ways favoured their opinion; but the contrary rather, that they were _brutes_, and not _men_. and that the _pygmies_ were really _brutes_, i think i have plainly proved out of _herodotus_ and _philostratus_, who reckon them amongst the _wild beasts_ that breed in those countries: for tho' by _herodotus_ they are call'd [greek: andres agrioi], and _philostratus_ calls them [greek: anthropous melanas], yet both make them [greek: theria] or _wild beasts_. and i might here add what _pausanias_[a] relates from _euphemus car_, who by contrary winds was driven upon some islands, where he tells us, [greek: en de tautais oikein andras agrious], but when he comes to describe them, tells us that they had no speech; that they had tails on their rumps; and were very lascivious toward the women in the ship. but of these more, when we come to discourse of _satyrs_. [footnote a: _pausanias in atticis_, p.m. .] and we may the less wonder to find that they call _brutes men_, since 'twas common for these _historians_ to give the title of _men_, not only to _brutes_, but they were grown so wanton in their inventions, as to describe several nations of _monstrous men_, that had never any being, but in their own imagination, as i have instanced in several. i therefore excuse _strabo_, for denying the _pygmies_, since he could not but be convinced, they could not be such _men_, as these _historians_ have described them. and the better to judge of the reasons that some of the moderns have given to prove the being of _men pygmies_, i have laid down as _postulata's_, that hereby we must not understand _dwarfs_, nor yet a nation of _men_, tho' somewhat of a lesser size and stature than ordinary; but we must observe those two characteristicks that _homer_ gives of them, that they are _cubitales_ and fight _cranes_. having premised this, i have taken into consideration _caspar bartholine senior_ his _opusculum_ _de pygmæis_, and _jo. talentonius_'s dissertation about them: and upon examination do find, that neither the humane authorities, nor divine that they alledge, do any ways prove, as they pretend, the being of _men pygmies_. st. _austin_, who is likewise quoted on their side, is so far from favouring this opinion, that he doubts whether any such creatures exist, and if they do, concludes them to be _apes_ or _monkeys_; and censures those _indian historians_ for imposing such beasts upon us, as distinct races of _men_. _julius cæsar scaliger_, and _isaac casaubon_, and _adrian spigelius_ utterly deny the being of _pygmies_, and look upon them as a figment only of the ancients, because such little men as they describe them to be, are no where to be met with in all the world. the learned _bochartus_ tho' he esteems the _geranomachia_ to be a fable, and slights it, yet thinks that what might give the occasion to the story of the _pygmies_, might be the _nubæ_ or _nobæ_; as _isaac vossius_ conjectures that it was those _dwarfs_ beyond the fountains of the _nile_, that _dapper_ calls the _mimos_, and tells us, they kill _elephants_ for to make a traffick with their teeth. but _job ludolphus_ alters the scene, and instead of _cranes_, substitutes his _condors_, who do not fight the _pygmies_, but fly away with them, and then devour them. now all these conjectures do no ways account for _homer's pygmies_ and _cranes_, they are too much forced and strain'd. truth is always easie and plain. in our present case therefore i think the _orang-outang_, or _wild man_, may exactly supply the place of the _pygmies_, and without any violence or injury to the story, sufficiently account for the whole history of the _pygmies_, but what is most apparently fabulous; for what has been the greatest difficulty to be solved or satisfied, was their being _men_; for as _gesner_ remarks (as i have already quoted him) _sed veterum nullus aliter de pygmæis scripsit, quàm homunciones esse_. and the moderns too, being byassed and misguided by this notion, have either wholly denied them, or contented themselves in offering their conjectures what might give the first rise to the inventing this fable. and tho' _albertus_, as i find him frequently quoted, thought that the _pygmies_ might be only a sort of _apes_, and he is placed in the head of those that espoused this opinion, yet he spoils all, by his way of reasoning, and by making them speak; which was more than he needed to do. i cannot see therefore any thing that will so fairly solve this doubt, that will reconcile all, that will so easily and plainly make out this story, as by making the _orang-outang_ to be the _pygmie_ of the ancients; for 'tis the same name that antiquity gave them. for _herodotus_'s [greek: andres agrioi], what can they be else, than _homines sylvestres_, or _wild men_? as they are now called. and _homer_'s [greek: andres pygmaioi], are no more an humane kind, or men, then _herodotus_'s [greek: andres agrioi], which he makes to be [greek: theria], or _wild beasts_: and the [greek: andres mikroi] or [greek: melanes] (as they are often called) were just the same. because this sort of _apes_ had so great a resemblance to men, more than other _apes_ or _monkeys_; and they going naturally erect, and being designed by nature to go so, (as i have shewn in the _anatomy_) the ancients had a very plausible ground for giving them this denomination of [greek: andres] or [greek: anthropoi], but commonly they added an epithet; as [greek: agrioi, mikroi, pygmaioi, melanes], or some such like. now the ancient _greek_ and _indian historians_, tho' they might know these _pygmies_ to be only _apes_ like _men_, and not to be real _men_, yet being so extremely addicted to _mythology_, or making fables, and finding this so fit a subject to engraft upon, and invent stories about, they have not been wanting in furnishing us with a great many very romantick ones on this occasion. and the moderns being imposed upon by them, and misguided by the name of [greek: andres] or [greek: anthropoi], as if thereby must be always understood an _humane kind_, or _real men_, they have altogether mistaken the truth of the story, and have either wholly denied it, or rendered it as improbable by their own conjectures. this difficulty therefore of their being called _men_, i think, may fairly enough be accounted by what i have said. but it may be objected that the _orang-outang_, or these _wild_ or _savage men_ are not [greek: pygmaioi], or _trispithami_, that is, but two foot and a quarter high, because by some relations that have been given, it appears they have been observed to be of a higher stature, and as tall as ordinary men. now tho' this may be allowed as to these _wild men_ that are bred in other places; and probably enough like wise, there are such in some parts of the continent of _africa_; yet 'tis sufficient to our business if there are any there, that will come within our dimensions; for our scene lies in _africa_; where _strabo_ observes, that generally the beasts are of a less size than ordinary; and this he thinks might give rise to the story of the _pygmies_. for, saith he[a] [greek: ta de boskaemata autois esti mikra, probata kai aiges, kai kynes mikroi, tracheis de kai machimoi (oikountes mikroi ontes) tacha de kai tous pygmaious apo tes touton mikrophyias epenoaesan, kai aneplasan.] i.e. _that their beasts are small, as their sheep, goats and oxen, and their dogs are small, but hairy and fierce: and it may be_ (saith he) _from the [greek: mikrophyia] or littleness of the stature of these animals, they have invented and imposed on us the_ pygmies. and then adds, _that no body fit to be believed ever saw them_; because he fancied, as a great many others have done, that these _pygmies_ must be _real men_, and not a sort of _brutes_. now since the other _brutes_ in this country are generally of a less size than in other parts, why may not this sort of _ape_, the _orang-outang_, or _wild man_, be so likewise. _aristotle_ speaking of the _pygmies_, saith, [greek: genos mikron men kai autoi, kai oi hippoi.] _that both they and the horses there are but small_. he does not say _their_ horses, for they were never mounted upon _horses_, but only upon _partridges, goats_ and _rams_. and as the _horses_, and other _beasts_ are naturally less in _africa_ than in other parts, so likewise may the _orang-outang_ be. this that i dissected, which was brought from _angola_ (as i have often mentioned) wanted something of the just stature of the _pygmies_; but it was young, and i am therefore uncertain to what tallness it might grow, when at full age: and neither _tulpius_, nor _gassendus_, nor any that i have hitherto met with, have adjusted the full stature of this _animal_ that is found in those parts from whence ours was brought: but 'tis most certain, that there are sorts of _apes_ that are much less than the _pygmies_ are described to be. and, as other _brutes_, so the _ape-kind_, in different climates, may be of different dimensions; and because the other _brutes_ here are generally small, why may not _they_ be so likewise. or if the difference should be but little, i see no great reason in this case, why we should be over-nice, or scrupulous. [footnote a: _strabo geograph_. lib. . p.m. .] as to our _ape pygmies_ or _orang-outang_ fighting the _cranes_, this, i think, may be easily enough made out, by what i have already observed; for this _wild man_ i dissected was carnivorous, and it may be omnivorous, at least as much as _man_ is; for it would eat any thing that was brought to the table. and if it was not their hunger that drove them to it, their wantonness, it may be, would make them apt enough to rob the _cranes_ nests; and if they did so, no doubt but the _cranes_ would noise enough about it, and endeavour what they could to beat them off, which a poet might easily make a fight: tho' _homer_ only makes use of it as a _simile_, in comparing the great shouts of the _trojans_ to the noise of the _cranes_, and the silence of the _greeks_ to that of the _pygmies_ when they are going to engage, which is natural enough, and very just, and contains nothing, but what may easily be believed; tho' upon this account he is commonly exposed, and derided, as the inventor of this fable; and that there was nothing of truth in it, but that 'twas wholly a fiction of his own. those _pygmies_ that _paulus jovius_[a] describes, tho' they dwell at a great distance from _africa_, and he calls them _men_, yet are so like _apes_, that i cannot think them any thing else. i will give you his own words: _ultra lapones_ (saith he) _in regione inter corum & aquilonem perpetua oppressa caligine_ pygmæos _reperiri, aliqui eximiæ fidei testes retulerunt; qui postquam ad summum adoleverint, nostratis pueri denum annorum mensuram vix excedunt. meticulosum genus hominum, & garritu sermonem exprimens, adeo ut tam simiæ propinqui, quam statura ac sensibus ab justæ proceritatis homine remoti videantur_. now there is this advantage in our _hypothesis_, it will take in all the _pygmies_, in any part of the world; or wherever they are to be met with, without supposing, as some have done, that 'twas the _cranes_ that forced them to quit their quarters; and upon this account several authors have described them in different places: for unless we suppose the _cranes_ so kind to them, as to waft them over, how came we to find them often in islands? but this is more than can be reasonably expected from so great enemies. [footnote a: _paul. jovij de legatione muschovitar_. lib. p.m. .] i shall conclude by observing to you, that this having been the common error of the age, in believing the _pygmies_ to be a sort of _little men_, and it having been handed down from so great antiquity, what might contribute farther to the confirming of this mistake, might be, the imposture of the navigators, who failing to parts where these _apes_ are, they have embalmed their bodies, and brought them home, and then made the people believe that they were the _men_ of those countries from whence they came. this _m.p. venetus_ assures us to have been done; and 'tis not unlikely: for, saith he,[a] _abundat quoque regio ipsa_ (sc. basman in java majori) _diversis simiis magnis & parvis, hominibus simillimis, hos capiunt venatores & totos depilant, nisi quod, in barba & in loco secreto pilos relinquunt, & occisos speciebus aromaticis condiunt, & postea desiccant, venduntque negociatoribus, qui per diversas orbis partes corpora illa deferentes, homines persuadent tales homunciones in maris insulis reperiri. joh. jonston_[b] relates the same thing, but without quoting the author; and as he is very apt to do, commits a great mistake, in telling us, _pro homunculis marinis venditant_. [footnote a: _m. pauli veneti de regionibus oriental_. lib. . cap. . p. m. .] [footnote b: _jo. jonston. hist. nat. de quadruped_. p.m. .] i shall only add, that the servile offices that these creatures are observed to perform, might formerly, as it does to this very day, impose upon mankind to believe, that they were of the same _species_ with themselves; but that only out of sullenness or cunning, they think they will not _speak_, for fear of being made slaves. _philostratus_[a] tells us, that the _indians_ make use of the _apes_ in gathering the pepper; and for this reason they do defend and preserve them from the _lions_, who are very greedy of preying upon them: and altho' he calls them _apes_, yet he speaks of them as _men_, and as if they were the husbandmen of the _pepper trees_, [greek: kai ta dendra oi piperides, on georgoi pithekoi]. and he calls them the people of _apes_; [greek: ou legetai pithekon oikein demos en mychois tou orous]. _dapper_[b] tells us, _that the indians take the_ baris _when young, and make them so tame, that they will do almost the work of a slave; for they commonly go erect as men do. they will beat rice in a mortar, carry water in a pitcher_, &c. and gassendus[c] in the life of _pieresky_, tells us, us, _that they will play upon a pipe or cittern, or the like musick, they will sweep the house, turn the spit, beat in a mortar, and do other offices in a family_. and _acosta_, as i find him quoted by _garcilasso de la vega_[d] tells us of a _monkey_ he saw at the governour's house at _cartagena_, 'whom they fent often to the tavern for wine, with money in one hand, and a bottle in the other; and that when he came to the tavern, he would not deliver his money, until he had received his wine. if the boys met with him by the way, or made a houting or noise after him, he would set down his bottle, and throw stones at them; and having cleared the way he would take up his bottle, and hasten home, and tho' he loved wine excessively, yet he would not dare to touch it, unless his master gave him license.' a great many instances of this nature might be given that are very surprising. and in another place he tells us, that the natives think that they can speak, but will not, for fear of being made to work. and _bontius_[e] mentions that the _javans_ had the same opinion concerning the _orang-outang_, _loqui vero eos, easque javani aiunt, sed non velle, ne ad labores cogerentur_. [footnote a: _philostratus in vita apollonij tyanæi_, lib. . cap. i. p. m. , & .] [footnote b: _dapper description de l'afrique_, p.m. .] [footnote c: _gassendus in vita pierskij_, lib. . p.m. .] [footnote d: _garcilasso de la vega royal commentaries of peru_, lib. . cap. . p. .] [footnote e: _jac. bontij hist. nat. & med_. lib. . cap. . p.m. .] * * * * * [note.--a few obvious errors in the quotations have been corrected, but for the most part they stand as in tyson, who must, therefore, be held responsible for any inaccuracies which may exist.] odd people being a popular description of singular races of man by captain mayne reid published by ticknor and fields, boston. this edition dated . odd people, by captain mayne reid. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ odd people, by captain mayne reid. chapter one. bosjesmen, or bushmen. perhaps no race of people has more piqued the curiosity of the civilised world than those little yellow savages of south africa, known as the _bushmen_. from the first hour in which european nations became acquainted with their existence, a keen interest was excited by the stories told of their peculiar character and habits; and although they have been visited by many travellers, and many descriptions have been given of them, it is but truth to say, that the interest in them has not yet abated, and the bushmen of africa are almost as great a curiosity at this hour as they were when di gama first doubled the cape. indeed, there is no reason why this should not be, for the habits and personal appearance of these savages are just now as they were then, and our familiarity with them is not much greater. whatever has been added to our knowledge of their character, has tended rather to increase than diminish our curiosity. at first the tales related of them were supposed to be filled with wilful exaggerations, and the early travellers were accused of dealing too much in the marvellous. this is a very common accusation brought against the early travellers; and in some instances it is a just one. but in regard to the accounts given of the bushmen and their habits there has been far less exaggeration than might be supposed; and the more insight we obtain into their peculiar customs and modes of subsistence, the more do we become satisfied that almost everything alleged of them is true. in fact, it would be difficult for the most inventive genius to contrive a fanciful account, that would be much more curious or interesting than the real and _bona fide_ truth that can be told about this most peculiar people. where do the bushmen dwell? what is their country? these are questions not so easily answered, as in reality they are not supposed to possess any country at all, any more than the wild animals amidst which they roam, and upon whom they prey. there is no bushman's country upon the map, though several spots in southern africa have at times received this designation. it is not possible, therefore, to delineate the boundaries of their country, since it has no boundaries, any more than that of the wandering gypsies of europe. if the bushmen, however, have no country in the proper sense of the word, they have a "range," and one of the most extensive character-- since it covers the whole southern portion of the african continent, from the cape of good hope to the twentieth degree of south latitude, extending east and west from the country of the cafires to the atlantic ocean. until lately it was believed that the bushman-range did not extend far to the north of the orange river; but this has proved an erroneous idea. they have recently "turned up" in the land of the dammaras, and also in the great kalahari desert, hundreds of miles north from the orange river and it is not certain that they do not range still nearer to the equatorial line--though it may be remarked that the country in that direction does not favour the supposition, not being of the peculiar nature of a bushman's country. the bushman requires a desert for his dwelling-place. it is an absolute necessity of his nature, as it is to the ostrich and many species of animals; and north of the twentieth degree of latitude, south africa does not appear to be of this character. the heroic livingstone has dispelled the long-cherished illusion of the geography about the "_great-sanded level_" of these interior regions; and, instead, disclosed to the world a fertile land, well watered, and covered with a profuse and luxuriant vegetation. in such a land there will be no bushmen. the limits we have allowed them, however, are sufficiently large,-- fifteen degrees of latitude, and an equally extensive range from east to west. it must not be supposed, however, that they _populate_ this vast territory. on the contrary, they are only distributed over it _in spots_, in little communities, that have no relationship or connection with one another, but are separated by wide intervals, sometimes of hundreds of miles in extent. it is only in the desert tracts of south africa that the bushmen exist,--in the karoos, and treeless, waterless plains--among the barren ridges and rocky defiles--in the ravines formed by the beds of dried-up rivers--in situations so sterile, so remote, so wild and inhospitable as to offer a home to no other human being save the bushman himself. if we state more particularly the localities where the haunts of the bushman are to be found, we may specify the barren lands on both sides of the orange river,--including most of its headwaters, and down to its mouth,--and also the great kalahari desert. through all this extensive region the _kraals_ of the bushmen may be encountered. at one time they were common enough within the limits of the cape colony itself, and some half-caste remnants still exist in the more remote districts; but the cruel persecution of the _boers_ has had the effect of extirpating these unfortunate savages; and, like the elephant, the ostrich, and the eland, the true wild bushman is now only to be met with beyond the frontiers of the colony. about the origin of the bushmen we can offer no opinion. they are generally considered as a branch of the great hottentot family; but this theory is far from being an established fact. when south africa was first discovered and colonised, both hottentots and bushmen were found there, differing from each other just as they differ at this day; and though there are some striking points of resemblance between them, there are also points of dissimilarity that are equally as striking, if we regard the two people as one. in personal appearance there is a certain general likeness: that is, both are woolly-haired, and both have a chinese cast of features, especially in the form and expression of the eye. their colour too is nearly the same; but, on the other hand, the hottentots are larger than the bushmen. it is not in their persons, however, that the most essential points of dissimilarity are to be looked for, but rather in their mental characters; and here we observe distinctions so marked and antithetical, that it is difficult to reconcile them with the fact that these two people are of one race. whether a different habit of life has produced this distinctive character, or whether _it_ has influenced the habits of life, are questions not easily answered. we only know that a strange anomaly exists--the anomaly of two people being personally alike--that is, possessing physical characteristics that seem to prove them of the same race, while intellectually, as we shall presently see, they have scarce one character in common. the slight resemblance that exists between the languages of the two is not to be regarded as a proof of their common origin. it only shows that they have long lived in juxtaposition, or contiguous to each other; a fact which cannot be denied. in giving a more particular description of the bushman, it will be seen in what respect he resembles the true hottentot, and in what he differs from him, both physically and mentally, and this description may now be given. the bushman is the smallest man with whom we are acquainted; and if the terms "dwarf" and "pigmy" may be applied to any race of human beings, the south-african bushmen presents the fairest claim to these titles. he stands only feet inches upon his naked soles--never more than feet , and not unfrequently is he encountered of still less height-- even so diminutive as feet . his wife is of still shorter stature, and this lilliputian lady is often the mother of children when the crown of her head is just feet inches above the soles of her feet. it has been a very common thing to contradict the assertion that these people are such pigmies in stature, and even dr livingstone has done so in his late magnificent work. the doctor states, very jocosely, that they are "not dwarfish--that the specimens brought to europe have been selected, like costermongers' dogs, for their extreme ugliness." but the doctor forgets that it is but from "the specimens brought to europe" that the above standard of the bushman's height has been derived, but from the testimony of numerous travellers--many of them as trustworthy as the doctor himself--from actual measurements made by them upon the spot. it is hardly to be believed that such men as sparmann and burchell, barrow and lichtenstein, harris, campbell, patterson, and a dozen others that might be mentioned, should all give an erroneous testimony on this subject. these travellers have differed notoriously on other points, but in this they all agree, that a bushman of five feet in height is a _tall_ man in his tribe. dr livingstone speaks of bushmen "six feet high," and these are the tribes lately discovered living so far north as the lake nagami. it is doubtful whether these are bushmen at all. indeed, the description given by the doctor, not only of their height and the colour of their skin, but also some hints about their intellectual character, would lead to the belief that he has mistaken some other people for bushmen. it must be remembered that the experience of this great traveller has been chiefly among the _bechuana_ tribes, and his knowledge of the bushman proper does not appear to be either accurate or extensive. no man is expected to know everybody; and amid the profusion of new facts, which the doctor has so liberally laid before the world, it would be strange if a few inaccuracies should not occur. perhaps we should have more confidence if this was the only one we are enabled to detect; but the doctor also denies that there is anything either terrific or majestic in the "roaring of the lion." thus speaks he: "the same feeling which has induced the modern painter to caricature the lion has led the sentimentalist to consider the lion's roar as the most terrific of all earthly sounds. we hear of the `majestic roar of the king of beasts.' to talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle." the doctor is certainly in error here. does he suppose that any one is ignorant of the character of the lion's roar? does he fancy that no one has ever heard it but himself? if it be necessary to go to south africa to take the true measure of a bushman, it is not necessary to make that long journey in order to obtain a correct idea of the compass of the lion's voice. we can hear it at home in all its modulations; and any one who has ever visited the zoological gardens in regent's park--nay, any one who chances to live within half a mile of that magnificent menagerie--will be very much disposed to doubt the correctness of the doctor's assertion. if there be a sound upon the earth above all others "majestic," a noise above all others "terrific," it is certainly the _roar_ of the lion. ask albert terrace and saint john's wood! but let us not be too severe upon the doctor. the world is indebted to him much more than to any other modern traveller, and all great men indulge occasionally in the luxury of an eccentric opinion. we have brought the point forward here for a special purpose,--to illustrate a too much neglected truth. error is not always on the side of _exaggeration_; but is sometimes also found in the opposite extreme of a too-squeamish moderation. we find the learned professor lichtenstein ridiculing poor old hernandez, the natural historian of mexico, for having given a description of certain fabulous animals--_fabulous_, he terms them, because to him they were odd and unknown. but it turns out that the old author was right, and the _animals exist_! how many similar misconceptions might be recorded of the buffons, and other closet philosophers--urged, too, with the most bitter zeal! incredulity carried too far is but another form of credulity. but to return to our proper theme, and complete the portrait of the bushman. we have given his height. it is in tolerable proportion to his other dimensions. when young, he appears stout enough; but this is only when a mere boy. at the age of sixteen he has reached all the manhood he is ever destined to attain; and then his flesh disappears; his body assumes a meagre outline; his arms and limbs grow thin; the calf disappears from his legs; the plumpness from his cheeks; and altogether he becomes as wretched-looking an object as it is possible to conceive in human shape. older, his skin grows dry, corrugated, and scaly; his bones protrude; and his knee, elbow, and ankle-joints appear like horny knobs placed at the ends of what more resemble long straight sticks than the arms and limbs of a human being. the colour of this creature may be designated a yellow-brown, though it is not easy to determine it to a shade. the bushman appears darker than he really is; since his skin serves him for a towel, and every species of dirt that discommodes his fingers he gets rid of by wiping it off on his arms, sides, or breast. the result is, that his whole body is usually coated over with a stratum of grease and filth, which has led to the belief that he regularly anoints himself--a custom common among many savage tribes. this, however, the bushman does not do: the smearing toilet is merely occasional or accidental, and consists simply in the fat of whatever flesh he has been eating being transferred from his fingers to the cuticle of his body. this is never washed off again--for water never touches the bushman's hide. such a use of water is entirely unknown to him, not even for washing his face. should he have occasion to cleanse his hands--which the handling of gum or some like substance sometimes compels him to do--he performs the operation, not with soap and water, but with the dry dung of cattle or some wild animal. a little rubbing of this upon his skin is all the purification the bushman believes to be needed. of course, the dirt darkens his complexion; but he has the vanity at times to brighten it up--not by making it whiter--but rather a brick-red. a little ochreous earth produces the colour he requires; and with this he smears his body all over--not excepting even the crown of his head, and the scant stock of wool that covers it. bushmen have been washed. it requires some scrubbing, and a plentiful application either of soda or soap, to reach the true skin and bring out the natural colour; but the experiment has been made, and the result proves that the bushman is not so black as, under ordinary circumstances, he appears. a yellow hue shines through the epidermis, somewhat like the colour of the chinese, or a european in the worst stage of jaundice--the eye only not having that complexion. indeed, the features of the bushman, as well as the hottentot, bear a strong similarity to those of the chinese, and the bushman's eye is essentially of the mongolian type. his hair, however, is entirely of another character. instead of being long, straight, and lank, it is short, crisp, and curly,--in reality, wool. its scantiness is a characteristic; and in this respect the bushman differs from the woolly-haired tribes both of africa and australasia. these generally have "fleeces" in profusion, whereas both hottentot and bushman have not enough to half cover their scalps; and between the little knot-like "kinks" there are wide spaces without a single hair upon them. the bushman's "wool" is naturally black, but red ochre and the sun soon convert the colour into a burnt reddish hue. the bushman has no beard or other hairy encumbrances. were they to grow, he would root them out as useless inconveniences. he has a low-bridged nose, with wide flattened nostrils; an eye that appears a mere slit between the eyelids; a pair of high cheek-bones, and a receding forehead. his lips are not thick, as in the negro, and he is furnished with a set of fine white teeth, which, as he grows older, do not decay, but present the singular phenomenon of being regularly worn down to the stumps--as occurs to the teeth of sheep and other ruminant animals. notwithstanding the small stature of the bushman, his frame is wiry and capable of great endurance. he is also as agile as an antelope. from the description above given, it will be inferred that the bushman is no beauty. neither is the bushwoman; but, on the contrary, both having passed the period of youth, become absolutely ugly,--the woman, if possible, more so than the man. and yet, strange to say, many of the bush-girls, when young, have a cast of prettiness almost amounting to beauty. it is difficult to tell in what this beauty consists. something, perhaps, in the expression of the oblique almond-shaped eye, and the small well-formed mouth and lips, with the shining white teeth. their limbs, too, at this early age, are often well-rounded; and many of them exhibit forms that might serve as models for a sculptor. their feet are especially well-shaped, and, in point of size, they are by far the smallest in the world. had the chinese ladies been gifted by nature with such little feet, they might have been spared the torture of compressing them. the foot of a bushwoman rarely measures so much as six inches in length; and full-grown girls have been seen, whose feet, submitted to the test of an actual measurement, proved but a very little over four inches! intellectually, the bushman does not rank so low as is generally believed. he has a quick, cheerful mind, that appears ever on the alert,--as may be judged by the constant play of his little piercing black eye,--and though he does not always display much skill in the manufacture of his weapons, he can do so if he pleases. some tribes construct their bows, arrows, fish-baskets, and other implements and utensils with admirable ingenuity; but in general the bushman takes no pride in fancy weapons. he prefers having them effective, and to this end he gives proof of his skill in the manufacture of _most deadly poisons_ with which to anoint his arrows. furthermore, he is ever active and ready for action; and in this his mind is in complete contrast with that of the hottentot, with whom indolence is a predominant and well-marked characteristic. the bushman, on the contrary, is always on the _qui vive_; always ready to be doing where there is anything to do; and there is not much opportunity for him to be idle, as he rarely ever knows where the next meal is to come from. the ingenuity which he displays in the capture of various kinds of game,-- far exceeding that of other hunting tribes of africa,--as also the cunning exhibited by him while engaged in cattle-stealing and other plundering forays, prove an intellectual capacity more than proportioned to his diminutive body; and, in short, in nearly every mental characteristic does he differ from the supposed cognate race--the hottentot. it would be hardly just to give the bushman a character for high courage; but, on the other hand, it would be as unjust to charge him with cowardice. small as he is, he shows plenty of "pluck," and when brought to bay, his motto is, "no surrender." he will fight to the death, discharging his poisoned arrows as long as he is able to bend a bow. indeed, he has generally been treated to shooting, or clubbing to death, wherever and whenever caught, and he knows nothing of _quarter_. just as a badger he ends his life,--his last struggle being an attempt to do injury to his assailant. this trait in his character has, no doubt, been strengthened by the inhuman treatment that, for a century, he has been receiving from the brutal boers of the colonial frontier. the costume of the bushman is of the most primitive character,-- differing only from that worn by our first parents, in that the fig-leaf used by the men is a patch of jackal-skin, and that of the women a sort of fringe or bunch of leather thongs, suspended around the waist by a strap, and hanging down to the knees. it is in reality a little apron of dressed skin; or, to speak more accurately, two of them, one above the other, both cut into narrow strips or thongs, from below the waist downward. other clothing than this they have none, if we except a little skin _kaross_, or cloak, which is worn over their shoulders;-- that of the women being provided with a bag or hood at the top, that answers the naked "piccaninny" for a nest or cradle. sandals protect their feet from the sharp stones, and these are of the rudest description,--merely a piece of the thick hide cut a little longer and broader than the soles of the feet, and fastened at the toes and round the ankles by thongs of sinews. an attempt at ornament is displayed in a leathern skullcap, or more commonly a circlet around the head, upon which are sewed a number of "cowries," or small shells of the _cyprea moneta_. it is difficult to say where these shells are procured,--as they are not the product of the bushman's country, but are only found on the far shores of the indian ocean. most probably he obtains them by barter, and after they have passed through many hands; but they must cost the bushman dear, as he sets the highest value upon them. other ornaments consist of old brass or copper buttons, attached to the little curls of his woolly hair; and, among the women, strings of little pieces of ostrich egg-shells, fashioned to resemble beads; besides a perfect load of leathern bracelets on the arms, and a like profusion of similar circlets on the limbs, often reaching from the knee to the ankle-joint. red ochre over the face and hair is the fashionable toilette, and a perfumery is obtained by rubbing the skin with the powdered leaves of the "buku" plant, a species of _diosma_. according to a quaint old writer, this causes them to "stink like a poppy," and would be highly objectionable, were it not preferable to the odour which they have without it. they do not _tattoo_, nor yet perforate the ears, lips, or nose,-- practices so common among savage tribes. some instances of nose-piercing have been observed, with the usual appendage of a piece of wood or porcupine's quill inserted in the septum, but this is a custom rather of the caffres than bushmen. among the latter it is rare. a grand ornament is obtained by smearing the face and head with a shining micaceous paste, which is procured from a cave in one particular part of the bushman's range; but this, being a "far-fetched" article, is proportionably scarce and dear. it is only a fine belle who can afford to give herself a coat of _blink-slip_,--as this sparkling pigment is called by the colonists. many of the women, and men as well, carry in their hands the bushy tail of a jackal. the purpose is to fan off the flies, and serve also as a "wipe," to disembarrass their bodies of perspiration when the weather chances to be over hot. the domicile of the bushman next merits description. it is quite as simple and primitive as his dress, and gives him about equal trouble in its construction. if a cave or cleft can be found in the rocks, of sufficient capacity to admit his own body and those of his family--never a very large one--he builds no house. the cave contents him, be it ever so tight a squeeze. if there be no cave handy, an overhanging rock will answer equally as well. he regards not the open sides, nor the draughts. it is only the rain which he does not relish; and any sort of a shed, that will shelter him from that, will serve him for a dwelling. if neither cave, crevice, nor impending cliff can be found in the neighbourhood, he then resorts to the alternative of housebuilding; and his style of architecture does not differ greatly from that of the orang-outang. a bush is chosen that grows near to two or three others,--the branches of all meeting in a common centre. of these branches the builder takes advantage, fastening them together at the ends, and wattling some into the others. over this framework a quantity of grass is scattered in such a fashion as to cast off a good shower of rain, and then the "carcass" of the building is considered complete. the inside work remains yet to be done, and that is next set about. a large roundish or oblong hole is scraped out in the middle of the floor. it is made wide enough and deep enough to hold the bodies of three or four bush-people, though a single large caffre or dutchman would scarcely find room in it. into this hole is flung a quantity of dry grass, and arranged so as to present the appearance of a gigantic nest. this nest, or lair, becomes the bed of the bushman, his wife, or wives,--for he frequently keeps two,--and the other members of his family. coiled together like monkeys, and covered with their skin karosses, they all sleep in it,--whether "sweetly" or "soundly," i shall not take upon me to determine. it is supposed to be this fashion of literally "sleeping in the bush," as also the mode by which he skulks and hides among bushes,--invariably taking to them when pursued,--that has given origin to the name bushman, or _bosjesman_, as it is in the language of the colonial dutch. this derivation is probable enough, and no better has been offered. the bushman sometimes constructs himself a more elaborate dwelling; that is, some bushmen;--for it should be remarked that there are a great many tribes or communities of these people, and they are not all so very low in the scale of civilisation. none, however, ever arrive at the building of a house,--not even a hut. a tent is their highest effort in the building line, and that is of the rudest description, scarce deserving the name. its covering is a mat, which they weave out of a species of rush that grows along some of the desert streams; and in the fabrication of the covering they display far more ingenuity than in the planning or construction of the tent itself. the mat, in fact, is simply laid over two poles, that are bent into the form of an arch, by having both ends stuck into the ground. a second piece of matting closes up one end; and the other, left open, serves for the entrance. as a door is not deemed necessary, no further construction is required, and the tent is "pitched" complete. it only remains to scoop out the sand, and make the _nest_ as already described. it is said that the goths drew their ideas of architecture from the aisles of the oak forest; the chinese from their mongolian tents; and the egyptians from their caves in the rocks. beyond a doubt, the bushman has borrowed his from the nest of the ostrich! it now becomes necessary to inquire how the bushman spends his time? how he obtains subsistence? and what is the nature of his food? all these questions can be answered, though at first it may appear difficult to answer them. dwelling, as he always does, in the very heart of the desert, remote from forests that might furnish him with some sort of food--trees that might yield fruit,--far away from a fertile soil, with no knowledge of agriculture, even if it were near,--with no flocks or herds; neither sheep, cattle, horses, nor swine,--no domestic animals but his lean, diminutive dogs,--how does this bushman procure enough to eat? what are his sources of supply? we shall see. being neither a grazier nor a farmer, he has other means of subsistence,--though it must be confessed that they are of a precarious character, and often during his life does the bushman find himself on the very threshold of starvation. this, however, results less from the parsimony of nature than the bushman's own improvident habits,--a trait in his character which is, perhaps, more strongly developed in him than any other. we shall have occasion to refer to it presently. his first and chief mode of procuring his food is by the chase: for, although he is surrounded by the sterile wilderness, he is not the only animated being who has chosen the desert for his home. several species of birds--one the largest of all--and quadrupeds, share with the bushman the solitude and safety of this desolate region. the rhinoceros can dwell there; and in numerous streams are found the huge hippopotami; whilst quaggas, zebras, and several species of antelope frequent the desert plains as their favourite "stamping" ground. some of these animals can live almost without water; but when they do require it, what to them is a gallop of fifty miles to some well-known "vley" or pool? it will be seen, therefore, that the desert has its numerous denizens. all these are objects of the bushman's pursuit, who follows them with incessant pertinacity--as if he were a beast of prey, furnished by nature with the most carnivorous propensities. in the capture of these animals he displays an almost incredible dexterity and cunning. his mode of approaching the sly ostrich, by disguising himself in the skin of one of these birds, is so well-known that i need not describe it here; but the _ruses_ he adopts for capturing or killing other sorts of game are many of them equally ingenious. the pit-trap is one of his favourite contrivances; and this, too, has been often described,--but often very erroneously. the pit is not a large hollow,--as is usually asserted,--but rather of dimensions proportioned to the size of the animal that is expected to fall into it. for game like the rhinoceros or _eland_ antelope, it is dug of six feet in length and three in width at the top; gradually narrowing to the bottom, where it ends in a trench of only twelve inches broad. six or seven feet is considered deep enough; and the animal, once into it, gets so wedged at the narrow bottom part as to be unable to make use of its legs for the purpose of springing out again. sometimes a sharp stake or two are used, with the view of _impaling_ the victim; but this plan is not always adopted. there is not much danger of a quadruped that drops in ever getting out again, till he is dragged out by the bushman in the shape of a carcass. the bushman's ingenuity does not end here. besides the construction of the trap, it is necessary the game should be guided into it. were this not done, the pit might remain a long time empty, and, as a necessary consequence, so too might the belly of the bushman. in the wide plain few of the gregarious animals have a path which they follow habitually; only where there is a pool may such beaten trails be found, and of these the bushman also avails himself; but they are not enough. some artificial means must be used to make the traps pay--for they are not constructed without much labour and patience. the plan adopted by the bushman to accomplish this exhibits some points of originality. he first chooses a part of the plain which lies between two mountains. no matter if these be distant from each other: a mile, or even two, will not deter the bushman from his design. by the help of his whole tribe-- men, women, and children--he constructs a fence from one mountain to the other. the material used is whatever may be most ready to the hand: stones, sods, brush, or dead timber, if this be convenient. no matter how rude the fence: it need not either be very high. he leaves several gaps in it; and the wild animals, however easily they might leap over such a puny barrier, will, in their ordinary way, prefer to walk leisurely through the gaps. in each of these, however, there is a dangerous hole--dangerous from its depth as well as from the cunning way in which it is concealed from the view--in short, in each gap there is a _pit-fall_. no one--at least no animal except the elephant--would ever suspect its presence; the grass seems to grow over it, and the sand lies unturned, just as elsewhere upon the plain. what quadruped could detect the cheat? not any one except the sagacious elephant. the stupid eland tumbles through; the gemsbok goes under; and the rhinoceros rushes into it as if destined to destruction. the bushman sees this from his elevated perch, glides forward over the ground, and spears the struggling victim with his _poisoned assagai_. besides the above method of capturing game the bushman also uses the bow and arrows. this is a weapon in which he is greatly skilled; and although both bow and arrows are as tiny as if intended for children's toys, they are among the deadliest of weapons, their fatal effect lies not in the _size_ of the wound they are capable of inflicting, but in the peculiar mode in which the barbs of the arrows are prepared. i need hardly add that they are dipped in poison;--for who has not heard of the poisoned arrows of the african bushmen? both bow and arrows are usually rude enough in their construction, and would appear but a trumpery affair, were it not for a knowledge of their effects. the bow is a mere round stick, about three feet long, and slightly bent by means of its string of twisted sinews. the arrows are mere reeds, tipped with pieces of bone, with a split ostrich-quill lapped behind the head, and answering for a barb. this arrow the bushman can shoot with tolerable certainty to a distance of a hundred yards, and he can even project it farther by giving a slight elevation to his aim. it signifies not whether the force with which it strikes the object be ever so slight, if it only makes an entrance. even a scratch from its point will sometimes prove fatal. of course the danger dwells altogether in the poison. were it not for that, the bushman, from his dwarfish stature and pigmy strength, would be a harmless creature indeed. the poison he well knows how to prepare, and he can make it of the most "potent spell," when the "materials" are within his reach. for this purpose he makes use of both vegetable and animal substances, and a mineral is also employed; but the last is not a poison, and is only used to give consistency to the liquid, so that it may the better adhere to the arrow. the vegetable substances are of various kinds. some are botanically known: the bulb of _amaryllis disticha_,--the gum of a _euphorbia_,--the sap of a species of sumac (_rhus_),--and the nuts of a shrubby plant, by the colonists called _woolf-gift_ (wolf-poison). the animal substance is the fluid found in the fangs of venomous serpents, several species of which serve the purpose of the bushman: as the little "horned snake,"--so called from the scales rising prominently over its eyes; the "yellow snake," or south-african cobra (_naga haje_); the "puff adder," and others. from all these he obtains the ingredients of his deadly ointment, and mixes them, not all together; for he cannot always procure them all in any one region of the country in which he dwells. he makes his poison, also, of different degrees of potency, according to the purpose for which he intends it; whether for hunting or war. with sixty or seventy little arrows, well imbued with this fatal mixture, and carefully placed in his quiver of tree bark or skin,--or, what is not uncommon, stuck like a coronet around his head,--he sallies forth, ready to deal destruction either to game, animals, or to human enemies. of these last he has no lack. every man, not a bushman, he deems his enemy; and he has some reason for thinking so. truly may it be said of him, as of ishmael, that his "hand is against every man, and every man's hand against him;" and such has been his unhappy history for ages. not alone have the boers been his pursuers and oppressors, but all others upon his borders who are strong enough to attack him,--colonists, caffres, and bechuanas, all alike,--not even excepting his supposed kindred, the hottentots. not only does no fellow-feeling exist between bushman and hottentot, but, strange to say, they hate each other with the most rancorous hatred. the bushman will plunder a namaqua hottentot, a griqua, or a gonaqua,--plunder and murder him with as much ruthlessness, or even more, than he would the hated caffre or boer. all are alike his enemies,--all to be plundered and massacred, whenever met, and the thing appears possible. we are speaking of plunder. this is another source of supply to the bushman, though one that is not always to be depended upon. it is his most dangerous method of obtaining a livelihood, and often costs him his life. he only resorts to it when all other resources fail him, and food is no longer to be obtained by the chase. he makes an expedition into the settlements,--either of the frontier boers, caffres, or hottentots,--whichever chance to live most convenient to his haunts. the expedition, of course, is by night, and conducted, not as an open _foray_, but in secret, and by stealth. the cattle are _stolen_, not _reeved_, and driven off while the owner and his people are asleep. in the morning, or as soon as the loss is discovered, a pursuit is at once set on foot. a dozen men, mounted and armed with long muskets (_roers_), take the _spoor_ of the spoilers, and follow it as fast as their horses will _carry_ them. a dozen boers, or even half that number, is considered a match for a whole tribe of bushmen, in any fight which may occur in the open plain, as the boers make use of their long-range guns at such a distance that the bushmen are shot down without being able to use their poisoned arrows; and if the thieves have the fortune to be overtaken before they have got far into the desert, they stand a good chance of being terribly chastised. there is no quarter shown them. such a thing as mercy is never dreamt of,--no sparing of lives any more than if they were a pack of hyenas. the bushmen may escape to the rocks, such of them as are not hit by the bullets; and there the boers know it would be idle to follow them. like the klipspringer antelope, the little savages can bound from rock to rock, and cliff to cliff, or hide like partridges among crevices, where neither man nor horse can pursue them. even upon the level plain--if it chance to be stony or intersected with breaks and ravines--a horseman would endeavour to overtake them in vain, for these yellow imps are as swift as ostriches. when the spoilers scatter thus, the boer may recover his cattle, but in what condition? that he has surmised already, without going among the herd. he does not expect to drive home one half of them; perhaps not one head. on reaching the flock he finds there is not one without a wound of some kind or other: a gash in the flank, the cut of a knife, the stab of an assagai, or a poisoned arrow--intended for the boer himself--sticking between the ribs. this is the sad spectacle that meets his eyes; but he never reflects that it is the result of his own cruelty,--he never regards it in the light of retribution. had he not first hunted the bushman to make him a slave, to make bondsmen and bondsmaids of his sons and daughters, to submit them to the caprice and tyranny of his great, strapping _frau_, perhaps his cattle would have been browsing quietly in his fields. the poor bushman, in attempting to take them, followed but his instincts of hunger: in yielding them up he obeyed but the promptings of revenge. it is not always that the bushman is thus overtaken. he frequently succeeds in carrying the whole herd to his desert fastness; and the skill which he exhibits in getting them there is perfectly surprising. the cattle themselves are more afraid of him than of a wild beast, and run at his approach; but the bushman, swifter than they, can glide all around them, and keep them moving at a rapid rate. he uses stratagem also to obstruct or baffle the pursuit. the route he takes is through the driest part of the desert,--if possible, where water does not exist at all. the cattle suffer from thirst, and bellow from the pain; but the bushman cares not for that, so long as he is himself served. but how is he served? there is no water, and a bushman can no more go without drinking than a boer: how then does he provide for himself on these long expeditions? all has been pre-arranged. while off to the settlements, the bushman's wife has been busy. the whole _kraal_ of women--young and old--have made an excursion halfway across the desert, each carrying ostrich egg-shells, as much as her kaross will hold, each shell full of water. these have been deposited at intervals along the route in secret spots known by marks to the bushmen, and this accomplished the women return home again. in this way the plunderer obtains his supply of water, and thus is he enabled to continue his journey over the arid _karroo_. the pursuers become appalled. they are suffering from thirst--their horses sinking under them. perhaps they have lost their way? it would be madness to proceed further. "let the cattle go this time?" and with this disheartening reflection they give up the pursuit, turn the heads of their horses, and ride homeward. there is a feast at the bushman's kraal--and such a feast! not _one_ ox is slaughtered, but a score of them all at once. they kill them, as if from very wantonness; and they no longer eat, but raven on the flesh. for days the feasting is kept up almost continuously,--even at night they must wake up to have a midnight meal! and thus runs the tale, till every ox has been eaten. they have not the slightest idea of a provision for the future; even the lower animals seem wiser in this respect. they do not think of keeping a few of the plundered cattle at pasture to serve them for a subsequent occasion. they give the poor brutes neither food nor drink; but, having penned them up in some defile of the rocks, leave them to moan and bellow, to drop down and die. on goes the feasting, till all are finished; and even if the flesh has turned putrid, this forms not the slightest objection: it is eaten all the same. the kraal now exhibits an altered spectacle. the starved, meagre wretches, who were seen flitting among its tents but a week ago, have all disappeared. plump bodies and distended abdomens are the order of the day; and the profile of the bushwoman, taken from the neck to the knees, now exhibits the outline of the letter s. the little imps leap about, tearing raw flesh,--their yellow cheeks besmeared with blood,-- and the lean curs seem to have been exchanged for a pack of fat, petted poodles. but this scene must some time come to an end, and at length it does end. all the flesh is exhausted, and the bones picked clean. a complete reaction comes over the spirit of the bushman. he falls into a state of languor,--the only time when he knows such a feeling,--and he keeps his kraal, and remains idle for days. often he sleeps for twenty-four hours at a time, and wakes only to go to sleep again. he need not rouse himself with the idea of getting something to eat: there is not a morsel in the whole kraal, and he knows it. he lies still, therefore,-- weakened with hunger, and overcome with the drowsiness of a terrible lassitude. fortunate for him, while in this state, if those bold vultures-- attracted by the _debris_ of his feast, and now high wheeling in the air--be not perceived from afar; fortunate if they do not discover the whereabouts of his kraal to the vengeful pursuer. if they should do so, he has made his last foray and his last feast. when the absolute danger of starvation at length compels our bushman to bestir himself, he seems to recover a little of his energy, and once more takes to hunting, or, if near a stream, endeavours to catch a few fish. should both these resources fail, he has another,--without which he would most certainly starve,--and perhaps this may be considered his most important source of supply, since it is the most constant, and can be depended on at nearly all seasons of the year. weakened with hunger, then, and scarce equal to any severer labour, he goes _out hunting--this time insects, not quadrupeds_. with a stout stick inserted into a stone at one end and pointed at the other, he proceeds to the nests of the white ants (_termites_), and using the point of the stick,--the stone serving by its weight to aid the force of the blow,--he breaks open the hard, gummy clay of which the hillock is formed. unless the _aard-vark_ and the _pangolin_--two very different kinds of ant-eaters--have been there before him, he finds the chambers filled with the eggs of the ants, the insects themselves, and perhaps large quantities of their _larvae_. all are equally secured by the bushman, and either devoured on the spot, or collected into a skin bag, and carried back to his kraal. he hunts also another species of ants that do not build nests or "hillocks," but bring forth their young in hollows under the ground. these make long galleries or covered ways just under the surface, and at certain periods--which the bushman knows by unmistakable signs--they become very active, and traverse these underground galleries in thousands. if the passages were to be opened above, the ants would soon make off to their caves, and but a very few could be captured. the bushman, knowing this, adopts a stratagem. with the stick already mentioned he pierces holes of a good depth down; and works the stick about, until the sides of the holes are smooth and even. these he intends shall serve him as pitfalls; and they are therefore made in the covered ways along which the insects are passing. the result is, that the little creatures, not suspecting the existence of these deep wells, tumble head foremost into them, and are unable to mount up the steep smooth sides again, so that in a few minutes the hole will be filled with ants, which the bushman scoops out at his leisure. another source of supply which he has, and also a pretty constant one, consists of various roots of the tuberous kind, but more especially bulbous roots, which grow in the desert. they are several species of _ixias_ and _mesembryanthemums_,--some of them producing bulbs of a large size, and deeply buried underground. half the bushman's and bushwoman's time is occupied in digging for these roots; and the spade employed is the stone-headed staff already described. ostrich eggs also furnish the bushman with many a meal; and the huge shells of these eggs serve him for water-vessels, cups, and dishes. he is exceedingly expert in tracking up the ostrich, and discovering its nest. sometimes he finds a nest in the absence of the birds; and in a case of this kind he pursues a course of conduct that is _peculiarly bushman_. having removed all the eggs to a distance, and concealed them under some bush, he returns to the nest and ensconces himself in it. his diminutive body, when close squatted, cannot be perceived from a distance, especially when there are a few bushes around the nest, as there usually are. thus concealed he awaits the return of the birds, holding his bow and poisoned arrows ready to salute them as soon as they come within range. by this _ruse_ he is almost certain of killing either the cock or hen, and not infrequently both--when they do not return together. lizards and land-tortoises often furnish the bushman with a meal; and the shell of the latter serves him also for a dish; but his period of greatest plenty is when the locusts _appear_. then, indeed, the bushman is no longer in want of a meal; and while these creatures remain with him, he knows no hunger. he grows fat in a trice, and his curs keep pace with him--for they too greedily devour the locusts. were the locusts a constant, or even an annual visitor, the bushman would be a rich man--at all events his wants would be amply supplied. unfortunately for him, but fortunately for everybody else, these terrible destroyers of vegetation only come now and then--several years often intervening between their visits. the bushmen have no religion whatever; no form of marriage--any more than mating together like wild beasts; but they appear to have some respect for the memory of their dead, since they bury them--usually erecting a large pile of stones, or "cairn," over the body. they are far from being of a melancholy mood. though crouching in their dens and caves during the day, in dread of the boers and other enemies, they come forth at night to chatter and make merry. during fine moonlights they dance all night, keeping up the _ball_ till morning; and in their kraals may be seen a circular spot--beaten hard and smooth with their feet--where these dances are performed. they have no form of government--not so much as a head man or chief. even the father of the family possesses no authority, except such as superior strength may give him; and when his sons are grown up and become as strong as he is, this of course also ceases. they have no tribal organisation; the small communities in which they live being merely so many individuals accidentally brought together, often quarrelling and separating from one another. these communities rarely number over a hundred individuals, since, from the nature of their country, a large number could not find subsistence in any one place. it follows, therefore, that the bushman race must ever remain widely scattered--so long as they pursue their present mode of life--and no influence has ever been able to win them from it. missionary efforts made among them have all proved fruitless. the desert seems to have been created for them, as they for the desert; and when transferred elsewhere, to dwell amidst scenes of civilised life, they always yearn to return to their wilderness home. truly are these pigmy savages an odd people! chapter two. the amazonian indians. in glancing at the map of the american continent, we are struck by a remarkable analogy between the geographical features of its two great divisions--the north and the south,--an analogy amounting almost to a symmetrical parallelism. each has its "mighty" mountains--the _cordilleras of the andes_ in the south, and the _cordilleras of the sierra madre_ (rocky mountains) in the north--with all the varieties of volcano and eternal snow. each has its secondary chain: in the north, the _nevadas_ of california and oregon; in the south, the _sierras_ of caraccas and the group of guiana; and, if you wish to render the parallelism complete, descend to a lower elevation, and set the alleghanies of the united states against the mountains of brazil--both alike detached from all the others. in the comparison we have exhausted the mountain chains of both divisions of the continent. if we proceed further, and carry it into minute detail, we shall find the same correspondence--ridge for ridge, chain for chain, peak for peak;--in short, a most singular equilibrium, as if there had been a design that one half of this great continent should balance the other! from the mountains let us proceed to the rivers, and see how _they_ will correspond. here, again, we discover a like parallelism, amounting almost to a rivalry. each continent (for it is proper to style them so) contains the largest river in the world. if we make _length_ the standard, the north claims precedence for the mississippi; if _volume of water_ is to be the criterion, the south is entitled to it upon the merits of the amazon. each, too, has its numerous branches, spreading into a mighty "tree"; and these, either singly or combined, form a curious equipoise both in length and magnitude. we have only time to set list against list, tributaries of the great northern river against tributaries of its great southern compeer,--the ohio and illinois, the yellowstone and platte, the kansas and osage, the arkansas and red, against the madeira and purus, the ucayali and huallaga, the japura and negro, the xingu and tapajos. of other river systems, the saint lawrence may be placed against the la plata, the oregon against the orinoco, the mackenzie against the magdalena, and the rio bravo del norte against the tocantins; while the two colorados--the brazos and alabama--find their respective rivals in the essequibo, the paranahybo, the pedro, and the patagonian negro; and the san francisco of california, flowing over sands of gold, is balanced by its homonyme of brazil, that has its origin in the land of diamonds. to an endless list might the comparison be carried. we pass to the plains. _prairies_ in the north, _llanos_ and _pampas_ in the south, almost identical in character. _of the plateaux_ or tablelands, those of mexico, la puebla, perote, and silver potosi in the north; those of quito, bogota, cusco, and gold potosi in the south; of the desert plains, utah and the llano estacado against atacama and the deserts of patagonia. even the great salt lake has its parallel in titicaca; while the "salinas" of new mexico and the upland prairies, are represented by similar deposits in the gran chaco and the pampas. we arrive finally at the forests. though unlike in other respects, we have here also a rivalry in magnitude,--between the vast timbered expanse stretching from arkansas to the atlantic shores, and that which covers the valley of the amazon. these _were_ the two greatest forests on the face of the earth. i say _were_, for one of them no longer exists; at least, it is no longer a continuous tract, but a collection of forests, opened by the axe, and intersected by the clearings of the colonist. the other still stands in all its virgin beauty and primeval vigour, untouched by the axe, undefiled by fire, its path scarce trodden by human feet, its silent depths to this hour unexplored. it is with this forest and its denizens we have to do. here then let us terminate the catalogue of similitudes, and concentrate our attention upon the particular subject of our sketch. the whole _valley_ of the amazon--in other words, the tract watered by this great river and its tributaries--may be described as one unbroken forest. we now know the borders of this forest with considerable exactness, but to trace them here would require a too lengthened detail. suffice it to say, that lengthwise it extends from the mouth of the amazon to the foothills of the peruvian andes, a distance of , miles. in breadth it varies, beginning on the atlantic coast with a breadth of miles, which widens towards the central part of the continent till it attains to , , and again narrowing to about , , where it touches the eastern slope of the andes. that form of leaf known to botanists as "obovate" will give a good idea of the figure of the great amazon forest, supposing the small end or shank to rest on the atlantic, and the broad end to extend along the semicircular concavity of the andes, from bolivia on the south to new granada on the north. in all this vast expanse of territory there is scarce an acre of open ground, if we except the water-surface of the rivers and their bordering "lagoons," which, were they to bear their due proportions on a map, could scarce be represented by the narrowest lines, or the most inconspicuous dots. the grass plains which embay the forest on its southern edge along the banks of some of its brazilian tributaries, or those which proceed like spurs from the llanos of venezuela, do not in any place approach the amazon itself, and there are many points on the great river which may be taken as centres, and around which circles may be drawn, having diameters , miles in length, the circumferences of which will enclose nothing but timbered land. the main stream of the amazon, though it intersects this grand forest, does not _bisect_ it, speaking with mathematical precision. there is rather more timbered surface to the southward than that which extends northward, though the inequality of the two divisions is not great. it would not be much of an error to say that the amazon river cuts the forest in halves. at its mouth, however, this would not apply; since for the first miles above the embouchure of the river, the country on the northern side is destitute of timber. this is occasioned by the projecting spurs of the guiana mountains, which on that side approach the amazon in the shape of naked ridges and grass-covered hills and plains. it is not necessary to say that the great forest of the amazon is a tropical one--since the river itself, throughout its whole course, almost traces the line of the equator. its vegetation, therefore, is emphatically of a tropical character; and in this respect it differs essentially from that of north america, or rather, we should say, of canada and the united states. it is necessary to make this limitation, because the forests of the tropical parts of north america, including the west-indian islands, present a great similitude to that of the amazon. it is not only in the genera and species of trees that the _sylva_ of the temperate zone differs from that of the torrid; but there is a very remarkable difference in the distribution of these genera and species. in a great forest of the north, it is not uncommon to find a large tract covered with a single species of trees,--as with pines, oaks, poplars, or the red cedar (_juniperus virginiana_). this arrangement is rather the rule than the exception; whereas, in the tropical forest, the rule is reversed, except in the case of two or three species of palms (_mauritia_ and _euterpe_), which sometimes exclusively cover large tracts of surface. of other trees, it is rare to find even a clump or grove standing together--often only two or three trees, and still more frequently, a single individual is observed, separated from those of its own kind by hundreds of others, all differing in order, genus, and species. i note this peculiarity of the tropic forest, because it exercises, as may easily be imagined, a direct influence upon the economy of its human occupants--whether these be savage or civilised. even the habits of the lower animals--beasts and birds--are subject to a similar influence. it would be out of place here to enumerate the different kinds of trees that compose this mighty wood,--a bare catalogue of their names would alone fill many pages,--and it would be safe to say that if the list were given as now known to botanists, it would comprise scarce half the species that actually exist in the valley of the amazon. in real truth, this vast garden of god is yet unexplored by man. its border walks and edges have alone been examined; and the enthusiastic botanist need not fear that he is too late in the field. a hundred years will elapse before this grand _parterre_ can be exhausted. at present, a thorough examination of the botany of the amazon valley would be difficult, if not altogether impossible, even though conducted on a grand and expensive scale. there are several reasons for this. its woods are in many places absolutely impenetrable--on account either of the thick tangled undergrowth, or from the damp, spongy nature of the soil. there are no roads that could be traversed by horse or man; and the few paths are known only to the wild savage,--not always passable even by him. travelling can only be done by water, either upon the great rivers, or by the narrow creeks (igaripes) or lagoons; and a journey performed in this fashion must needs be both tedious and indirect, allowing but a limited opportunity for observation. horses can scarce be said to exist in the country, and cattle are equally rare--a few only are found in one or two of the large portuguese settlements on the main river--and the jaguars and blood-sucking bats offer a direct impediment to their increase. contrary to the general belief, the tropical forest is not the home of the larger mammalia: it is not their proper _habitat_, nor are they found in it. in the amazon forest but few species exist, and these not numerous in individuals. there are no vast herds--as of buffaloes on the prairies of north america, or of antelopes in africa. the tapir alone attains to any considerable size,--exceeding that of the ass,--but its numbers are few. three or four species of small deer represent the ruminants, and the hog of the amazon is the peccary. of these there are at least three species. where the forest impinges on the mountain regions of peru, bears are found of at least two kinds, but not on the lower plains of the great "montana,"--for by this general designation is the vast expanse of the amazon country known among the peruvian people. "montes" and "montanas," literally signifying "mountains," are not so understood among spanish americans. with them the "montes" and "montanas" are tracts of forest-covered country, and that of the amazon valley is the "montana" _par excellence_. sloths of several species, and opossums of still greater variety, are found all over the montana, but both thinly distributed as regards the number of individuals. a similar remark applies to the ant-eaters or "ant-bears," of which there are four kinds,--to the armadillos, the "agoutis," and the "cavies," one of which last, the _capibara_, is the largest rodent upon earth. this, with its kindred genus, the "paca," is not so rare in individual numbers, but, on the contrary, appears in large herds upon the borders of the rivers and lagoons. a porcupine, several species of spinous rats, an otter, two or three kinds of badger-like animals (the _potto_ and _coatis_), a "honey-bear" (_galera barbara_), and a fox, or wild dog, are widely distributed throughout the montana. everywhere exists the jaguar, both the black and spotted varieties, and the puma has there his lurking-place. smaller cats, both spotted and striped, are numerous in species, and squirrels of several kinds, with bats, complete the list of the terrestrial mammalia. of all the lower animals, monkeys are the most common, for to them the montana is a congenial home. they abound not only in species, but in the number of individuals, and their ubiquitous presence contributes to enliven the woods. at least thirty different kinds of them exist in the amazon valley, from the "coatas," and other howlers as large as baboons, to the tiny little "ouistitis" and "saimiris," not bigger than squirrels or rats. while we must admit a paucity in the species of the quadrupeds of the amazon, the same remark does not apply to the birds. in the ornithological department of natural history, a fulness and richness here exist, perhaps not equalled elsewhere. the most singular and graceful forms, combined with the most brilliant plumage, are everywhere presented to the eye, in the parrots and great macaws, the toucans, trogons, and tanagers, the _shrikes_, humming-birds, and orioles; and even in the vultures and eagles: for here are found the most beautiful of predatory birds,--the king vulture and the harpy eagle. of the feathered creatures existing in the valleys of the amazon there are not less than one thousand different species, of which only one half have yet been caught or described. reptiles are equally abundant--the serpent family being represented by numerous species, from the great water boa (_anaconda_), of ten yards in length, to the tiny and beautiful but venomous _lachesis_, or coral snake, not thicker than the shank of a tobacco-pipe. the lizards range through a like gradation, beginning with the huge "jacare," or crocodile, of several species, and ending with the turquoise-blue _anolius_, not bigger than a newt. the waters too are rich in species of their peculiar inhabitants--of which the most remarkable and valuable are the _manatees_ (two or three species), the great and smaller turtles, the porpoises of various kinds, and an endless catalogue of the finny tribes that frequent the rivers of the tropics. it is mainly from this source, and not from four-footed creatures of the forest, that the human denizen of the great montana draws his supply of food,--at least that portion of it which may be termed the "meaty." were it not for the _manatee_, the great porpoise, and other large fish, he would often have to "eat his bread dry." and now it is _his_ turn to be "talked about." i need not inform you that the aborigines who inhabit the valley of the amazon, are all of the so-called _indian_ race--though there are so many, distinct tribes of them that almost every river of any considerable magnitude has a tribe of its own. in some cases a number of these tribes belong to one _nationality_; that is, several of them may be found speaking nearly the same language, though living apart from each other; and of these larger divisions or nationalities there are several occupying the different districts of the montana. the tribes even of the same nationality do not always present a uniform appearance. there are darker and fairer tribes; some in which the average standard of height is less than among europeans; and others where it equals or exceeds this. there are tribes again where both men and women are ill-shaped and ill-favoured--though these are few--and other tribes where both sexes exhibit a considerable degree of personal beauty. some tribes are even distinguished for their good looks, the men presenting models of manly form, while the women are equally attractive by the regularity of their features, and the graceful modesty of expression that adorns them. a minute detail of the many peculiarities in which the numerous tribes of the amazon differ from one another would fill a large volume; and in a sketch like the present, which is meant to include them all, it would not be possible to give such a detail. nor indeed would it serve any good purpose; for although there are many points of difference between the different tribes, yet these are generally of slight importance, and are far more than counterbalanced by the multitude of resemblances. so numerous are these last, as to create a strong _idiosyncrasy_ in the tribes of the amazon, which not only entitles them to be classed together in an ethnological point of view, but which separates them from all the other indians of america. of course, the non-possession of the horse--they do not even know the animal--at once broadly distinguishes them from the horse indians, both of the northern and southern divisions of the continent. it would be idle here to discuss the question as to whether the amazonian indians have all a common origin. it is evident they have not. we know that many of them are from peru and bogota--runaways from spanish oppression. we know that others migrated from the south-- equally fugitives from the still more brutal and barbarous domination of the portuguese. and still others were true aboriginals of the soil, or if emigrants, when and whence came they? an idle question, never to be satisfactorily answered. there they now are, and _as they are_ only shall we here consider them. notwithstanding the different sources whence they sprang, we find them, as i have already said, stamped with a certain idiosyncrasy, the result, no doubt, of the like circumstances which surround them. one or two tribes alone, whose habits are somewhat "odder" than the rest, have been treated to a separate chapter; but for the others, whatever is said of one, will, with very slight alteration, stand good for the whole of the amazonian tribes. let it be understood that we are discoursing only of those known as the "indios bravos," the fierce, brave, savage, or wild indians--as you may choose to translate the phrase,--a phrase used throughout all spanish america to distinguish those tribes, or sections of tribes, who refused obedience to spanish tyranny, and who preserve to this hour their native independence and freedom. in contradistinction to the "indios bravos" are the "indios mansos," or "tame indians," who submitted tamely both to the cross and sword, and now enjoy a rude demi-semi-civilisation, under the joint protectorate of priests and soldiers. between these two kinds of american aborigines, there is as much difference as between a lord and his serf--the true savage representing the former and the demi-semi-civilised savage approximating more nearly to the latter. the meddling monk has made a complete failure of it. his ends were purely political, and the result has proved ruinous to all concerned;--instead of civilising the savage, he has positively demoralised him. it is not of his neophytes, the "indios mansos," we are now writing, but of the "infidels," who would not hearken to his voice or listen to his teachings--those who could never be brought within "sound of the bell." both "kinds" dwell within the valley of the amazon, but in different places. the "indios mansos" may be found along the banks of the main stream, from its source to its mouth--but more especially on its upper waters, where it runs through spanish (peruvian) territory. there they dwell in little villages or collections of huts, ruled by the missionary monk with iron rod, and performing for him all the offices of the menial slave. their resources are few, not even equalling those of their wild but independent brethren; and their customs and religion exhibit a ludicrous _melange_ of savagery and civilisation. farther down the river, the "indio manso" is a "tapuio," a hireling of the portuguese, or to speak more correctly, a _slave_; for the latter treats him as such, considers him as such, and though there is a law against it, often drags him from his forest-home and keeps him in life-long bondage. any human law would be a dead letter among such white-skins as are to be encountered upon the banks of the amazon. fortunately they are but few; a town or two on the lower amazon and rio negro,--some wretched villages between,--scattered _estancias_ along the banks--with here and there a paltry post of "militarios," dignified by the name of a "fort:" these alone speak the progress of the portuguese civilisation throughout a period of three centuries! from all these settlements the wild indian keeps away. he is never found near them--he is never seen by travellers, not even by the settlers. you may descend the mighty amazon from its source to its mouth, and not once set your eyes upon the true son of the forest--the "indio bravo." coming in contact only with the neophyte of the spanish missionary, and the skulking _tapuio_ of the portuguese trader, you might bring away a very erroneous impression of the character of an amazonian indian. where is he to be seen? where dwells he? what like is his home? what sort of a house does he build? his costume? his arms? his occupation? his habits? these are the questions you would put. they shall all be answered, but briefly as possible--since our limited space requires brevity. the wild indian, then, is not to be found upon the amazon itself, though there are long reaches of the river where he is free to roam--hundreds of miles without either town or _estancia_. he hunts, and occasionally fishes by the great water, but does not there make his dwelling--though in days gone by, its shores were his favourite place of residence. these were before the time when orellana floated down past the door of his "malocca"--before that dark hour when the brazilian slave-hunter found his way into the waters of the mighty _solimoes_. this last event was the cause of his disappearance. it drove him from the shores of his beloved river-sea; forced him to withdraw his dwelling from observation, and rebuild it far up, on those tributaries where he might live a more peaceful life, secure from the trafficker in human flesh. hence it is that the home of the amazonian indian is now to be sought for--not on the amazon itself, but on its tributary streams--on the "canos" and "igaripes," the canals and lagoons that, with a labyrinthine ramification, intersect the mighty forest of the montana. here dwells he, and here is he to be seen by any one bold enough to visit him in his fastness home. how is he domiciled? is there anything peculiar about the style of his house or his village? eminently peculiar; for in this respect he differs from all the other savage people of whom we have yet written, or of whom we may have occasion to write. let us proceed at once to describe his dwelling. it is not a tent, nor is it a hut, nor a cabin, nor a cottage, nor yet a cave! his dwelling can hardly be termed a house, nor his village a collection of houses-- since both house and village are one and the same, and both are so peculiar, that we have no name for such a structure in civilised lands, unless we should call it a "barrack." but even this appellation would give but an erroneous idea of the amazonian dwelling; and therefore we shall use that by which it is known in the "lingoa geral," and call it a _malocca_. by such name is his house (or village rather) known among the _tapuios_ and traders of the amazon. since it is both house and village at the same time, it must needs be a large structure; and so is it, large enough to contain the whole tribe--or at least the section of it that has chosen one particular spot for their residence. it is the property of the whole community, built by the labour of all, and used as their common dwelling--though each family has its own section specially set apart for itself. it will thus be seen that the amazonian savage is, to some extent, a disciple of the socialist school. i have not space to enter into a minute account of the architecture of the _malocca_. suffice it to say, that it is an immense temple-like building, raised upon timber uprights, so smooth and straight as to resemble columns. the beams and rafters are also straight and smooth, and are held in their places by "sipos" (tough creeping plants), which are whipped around the joints with a neatness and compactness equal to that used in the rigging of a ship. the roof is a thatch of palm-leaves, laid on with great regularity, and brought very low down at the eaves, so as to give to the whole structure the appearance of a gigantic beehive. the walls are built of split palms or bamboos, placed so closely together as to be impervious to either bullet or arrows. the plan is a parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end; and the building is large enough to accommodate the whole community, often numbering more than a hundred individuals. on grand festive occasions several neighbouring communities can find room enough in it--even for dancing--and three or four hundred individuals not unfrequently assemble under the roof of a single _malocca_. inside the arrangements are curious. there is a wide hall or avenue in the middle--that extends from end to end throughout the whole length of the parallelogram--and on both sides of the hall is a row of partitions, separated from each other by split palms or canes, closely placed. each of these sections is the abode of a family, and the place of deposit for the hammocks, clay pots, calabash-cups, dishes, baskets, weapons, and ornaments, which are the private property of each. the hall is used for the larger cooking utensils--such as the great clay ovens and pans for baking the cassava, and boiling the _caxire_ or _chicha_. this is also a neutral ground, where the children play, and where the dancing is done on the occasion of grand "balls" and other ceremonial festivals. the common doorway is in the gable end, and is six feet wide by ten in height. it remains open during the day, but is closed at night by a mat of palm fibre suspended from the top. there is another and smaller doorway at the semicircular end; but this is for the private use of the chief, who appropriates the whole section of the semicircle to himself and his family. of course the above is only the general outline of a _malocca_. a more particular description would not answer for that of all the tribes of the amazon. among different communities, and in different parts of the montana, the _malocca_ varies in size, shape, and the materials of which it is built; and there are some tribes who live in separate huts. these exceptions, however, are few, and as a general thing, that above described is the style of habitation throughout the whole montana, from the confines of peru to the shores of the atlantic. north and south we encounter this singular house-village, from the headwaters of the rio negro to the highlands of brazil. most of the amazonian tribes follow agriculture, and understood the art of tillage before the coming of the spaniards. they practise it, however, to a very limited extent. they cultivate a little manioc, and know how to manufacture it into _farinha_ or _cassava_ bread. they plant the _musaceae_ and yam, and understand the distillation of various drinks, both from the plantain and several kinds of palms. they can make pottery from clay,--shaping it into various forms, neither rude nor inelegant,--and from the trees and parasitical twiners that surround their dwellings, they manufacture an endless variety of neat implements and utensils. their canoes are hollow trunks of trees sufficiently well-shaped, and admirably adapted to their mode of travelling--which is almost exclusively by water, by the numerous _canos_ and _igaripes_, which are the roads and paths of their country--often as narrow and intricate as paths by land. the indians of the tropic forest dress in the very lightest costume. of course each tribe has its own fashion; but a mere belt of cotton cloth, or the inner bark of a tree, passed round the waist and between the limbs, is all the covering they care for. it is the _guayuco_. some wear a skirt of tree bark, and, on grand occasions, feather tunics are seen, and also plume head-dresses, made of the brilliant wing and tail feathers of parrots and macaws. circlets of these also adorn the arms and limbs. all the tribes paint, using the _anotto, caruto_, and several other dyes which they obtain from various kinds of trees, elsewhere more particularly described. there are one or two tribes who _tattoo_ their skins; but this strange practice is far less common among the american indians than with the natives of the pacific isles. in the manufacture of their various household utensils and implements, as well as their weapons for war and the chase, many tribes of amazonian indians display an ingenuity that would do credit to the most accomplished artisans. the hammocks made by them have been admired everywhere; and it is from the valley of the amazon that most of these are obtained, so much prized in the cities of spanish and portuguese america. they are the special manufacture of the women, the men only employing their mechanical skill on their weapons: the hammock, "rede," or "maqueira," is manufactured out of strings obtained from the young leaves of several species of palms. the _astrocaryum_, or "tucum" palm furnishes this cordage, but a still better quality is obtained from the "miriti" (_mauritia flexuosa_). the unopened leaf, which forms a thick-pointed column growing up out of the crown of the tree, is cut off at the base, and this being pulled apart, is shaken dexterously until the tender leaflets fall out. these being stripped of their outer covering, leave behind a thin tissue of a pale-yellowish colour, which is the fibre for making the cordage. after being tied in bundles this fibre is left awhile to dry, and is then twisted by being rolled between the hand and the hip or thigh. the women perform this process with great dexterity. taking two strands of fibre between the forefinger and thumb of the left hand, they lay them separated a little along the thigh; a roll downward gives them a twist, and then being adroitly brought together, a roll upwards completes the making of the cord. fifty fathoms in a day is considered a good day's spinning. the cords are afterwards dyed of various colours, to render them more ornamental when woven into the maqueira. the making of this is a simple process. two horizontal rods are placed at about seven feet apart, over which the cord is passed some fifty or sixty times, thus forming the "woof." the warp is then worked in by knotting the cross strings at equal distances apart, until there are enough. two strong cords are then inserted where the rods pass through, and these being firmly looped, so as to draw all the parallel strings together, the rod is pulled out, and the hammock is ready to be used. of course, with very fine "redes," and those intended to be disposed of to the traders, much pains are taken in the selection of the materials, the dyeing the cord, and the weaving it into the hammock. sometimes very expensive articles are made ornamented with the brilliant feathers of birds cunningly woven among the meshes and along the borders. besides making the hammock, which is the universal couch of the amazonian indian, the women also manufacture a variety of beautiful baskets. many species of palms and _calamus_ supply them with materials for this purpose, one of the best being the "iu" palm (_astrocaryum acaule_). they also make many implements and utensils, some for cultivating the plantains, melons, and _manioc root_, and others for manufacturing the last-named vegetable into their favourite "farinha" (_cassava_). the indians understood how to separate the poisonous juice of this valuable root from its wholesome farina before the arrival of white men among them; and the process by which they accomplish this purpose has remained without change up to the present hour, in fact, it is almost the same as that practised by the spaniards and portuguese, who simply adopted the indian method. the work is performed by the women, and thus: the roots are brought home from the manioc "patch" in baskets, and then washed and peeled. the peeling is usually performed by the teeth; after that the roots are grated, the grater being a large wooden slab about three feet long, a foot wide, a little hollowed out, and the hollow part covered all over with sharp pieces of quartz set in regular diamond-shaped patterns. sometime a cheaper grater is obtained by using the aerial root of the pashiuba palm (_iriartea exhorhiza_), which, being thickly covered over with hard spinous protuberances, serves admirably for the purpose. the grated pulp is next placed to dry upon a sieve, made of the rind of a water-plant, and is afterwards put into a long elastic cylinder-shaped basket or net, of the bark of the "jacitara" palm (_desmoncus macroacanthus_). this is the _tipiti_; and at its lower end there is a strong loop, through which a stout pole is passed; while the _tipiti_ itself, when filled with pulp, is hung up to the branch of a tree, or to a firm peg in the wall. one end of the pole is then rested against some projecting point, that serves as a fulcrum, while the indian woman, having seated herself upon the other end, with her infant in her arms, or perhaps some work in her hands, acts as the lever power. her weight draws the sides of the _tipiti_ together, until it assumes the form of an inverted cone; and thus the juice is gradually pressed out of the pulp, and drops into a vessel placed underneath to receive it. the mother must be careful that the little imp does not escape from under her eye, and perchance quench its thirst out of the vessel below. if such an accident were to take place, in a very few minutes she would have to grieve for a lost child; since the sap of the manioc root, the variety most cultivated by the indians, is a deadly poison. this is the "yucca amarga," or bitter manioc; the "yucca dulce," or sweet kind, being quite innoxious, even if eaten in its raw state. the remainder of the process consists in placing the grated pulp--now sufficiently dry--on a large pan or oven, and submitting it to the action of the fire. it is then thought sufficiently good for indian use; but much of it is afterwards prepared for commerce, under different names, and sold as _semonilla_ (erroneously called _semolina_), sago, and even as arrowroot. at the bottom of that, poisonous tub, a sediment has all the while been forming. that is the _starch_ of the manioc root--the _tapioca_ of commerce: of course that is not thrown away. the men of the tropic forest spend their lives in doing very little. they are idle and not much disposed to work--only when war or the chase calls them forth do they throw aside for awhile their indolent habit, and exhibit a little activity. they hunt with the bow and arrow, and fish with a harpoon spear, nets, and sometimes by poisoning water with the juice of a vine called barbasco. the "peixe boy," "vaca marina," or "manatee,"--all three names being synonymes--is one of the chief animals of their pursuit. all the waters of the amazon valley abound with manatees, probably of several species, and these large creatures are captured by the harpoon, just as seals or walrus are taken. porpoises also frequent the south-american rivers; and large fresh-water fish of numerous species. the game hunted by the amazonian indians can scarcely be termed noble. we have seen that the large _mammalia_ are few, and thinly distributed in the tropical forest. with the exception of the jaguar and peccary, the chase is limited to small quadrupeds--as the capibara, the paca, agouti--to many kinds of monkeys, and an immense variety of birds. the monkey is the most common game, and is not only eaten by all the amazonian indians, but by most of them considered as the choicest of food. in procuring their game the hunters sometimes use the common bow and arrow, but most of the tribes are in possession of a weapon which they prefer to all others for this particular purpose. it is an implement of death so original in its character and so singular in its construction as to deserve a special and minute description. the weapon i allude to is the "blow-gun," called "pucuna" by the indians themselves, "gravitana" by the spaniards, and "cerbatana" by the portuguese of brazil. when the amazonian indian wishes to manufacture for himself a _pucuna_ he goes out into the forest and searches for two tall, straight stems of the "pashiuba miri" palm (_iriartea setigera_). these he requires of such thickness that one can be contained within the other. having found what he wants, he cuts both down and carries them home to his molocca. neither of them is of such dimensions as to render this either impossible or difficult. he now takes a long slender rod--already prepared for the purpose--and with this pushes out the pith from both stems, just as boys do when preparing their pop-guns from the stems of the elder-tree. the rod thus used is obtained from another species of _iriartea_ palm, of which the wood is very hard and tough. a little tuft of fern-root, fixed upon the end of the rod, is then drawn backward and forward through the tubes, until both are cleared of any pith which may have adhered to the interior; and both are polished by this process to the smoothness of ivory. the palm of smaller diameter, being scraped to a proper size, is now inserted into the tube of the larger, the object being to correct any crookedness in either, should there be such; and if this does not succeed, both are whipped to some straight beam or post, and thus left till they become straight. one end of the bore, from the nature of the tree, is always smaller than the other; and to this end is fitted a mouthpiece of two peccary tusks to concentrate the breath of the hunter when blowing into the tube. the other end is the muzzle; and near this, on the top, a sight is placed, usually a tooth of the "paca" or some other rodent animal. this sight is glued on with a gum which another tropic tree furnishes. over the outside, when desirous of giving the weapon an ornamental finish, the maker winds spirally a shining creeper, and then the _pucuna_ is ready for action. sometimes only a single shank of palm is used, and instead of the pith being pushed out, the stem is split into two equal parts throughout its whole extent. the heart substance being then removed, the two pieces are brought together, like the two divisions of a cedarwood pencil, and tightly bound with a sipo. the _pucuna_ is usually about an inch and a half in diameter at the thickest end, and the bore about equal to that of a pistol of ordinary calibre. in length, however, the weapon varies from eight to twelve feet. this singular instrument is designed, not for propelling a bullet, but an arrow; but as this arrow differs altogether from the common kind it also needs to be described. the blow-gun arrow is about fifteen or eighteen inches long, and is made of a piece of split bamboo; but when the "patawa" palm can be found, this tree furnishes a still better material, in the long spines that grow out from the sheathing bases of its leaves. these are inches in length, of a black colour, flattish though perfectly straight. being cut to the proper length--which most of them are without cutting--they are whittled at one end to a sharp point. this point is dipped about three inches deep in the celebrated "curare" poison; and just where the poison mark terminates, a notch is made, so that the head will be easily broken off when the arrow is in the wound. near the other end a little soft down of silky cotton (the floss of the _bombax ceiba_) is twisted around into a smooth mass of the shape of a spinning-top, with its larger end towards the nearer extremity of the arrow. the cotton is held in its place by being lightly whipped on by the delicate thread or fibre of a _bromelia_, and the mass is just big enough to fill the tube by gently pressing it inward. the arrow thus made is inserted, and whenever the game is within reach the indian places his mouth to the lower end or mouthpiece, and with a strong "puff," which practice enables him to give, he sends the little messenger upon its deadly errand. he can hit with unerring aim at the distance of forty or fifty paces; but he prefers to shoot in a direction nearly vertical, as in that way he can take the surest aim. as his common game--birds and monkeys--are usually perched upon the higher branches of tall trees, their situation just suits him. of course it is not the mere wound of the arrow that kills these creatures, but the poison, which in two or three minutes after they have been hit, will bring either bird or monkey to the ground. when the latter is struck he would be certain to draw out the arrow; but the notch, already mentioned, provides against this, as the slightest wrench serves to break off the envenomed head. these arrows are dangerous things,--even for the manufacturer of them to play with: they are therefore carried in a quiver, and with great care,--the quiver consisting either of a bamboo joint or a neat wicker case. the weapons of war used by the forest tribes are the common bow and arrows, also tipped with _curare_, and the "macana," or war-club, a species peculiar to south america, made out of the hard heavy wood of the _pissaba_ palm. only one or two tribes use the spear; and both the "bolas" and lazo are quite unknown, as such weapons would not be available among the trees of the forest. these are the proper arms of the horse indian, the dweller on the open plains; but without them, for all war purposes, the forest tribes have weapons enough, and, unfortunately, make a too frequent use of them. chapter three. the water-dwellers of maracaibo. the andes mountains, rising in the extreme southern point of south america, not only extend throughout the whole length of that continent, but continue on through central america and mexico, under the name of "cordilleras de sierra madre;" and still farther north to the shores of the arctic sea, under the very inappropriate appellation of the "rocky mountains." you must not suppose that these stupendous mountains form one continuous elevation. at many places they furcate into various branches, throwing off spurs, and sometime parallel "sierras," between which lie wide "valles," or level plains of great extent. it is upon these high plateaux--many of them elevated , feet above the sea-- that the greater part of the spanish-american population dwells; and on them too are found most of the large cities of spanish south america and mexico. these parallel chains meet at different points, forming what the peruvians term "nodas" (knots); and, after continuing for a distance in one great cordillera, again bifurcate. one of the most remarkable of these bifurcations of the andes occurs about latitude degrees north. there the gigantic sierra separates into two great branches, forming a shape like the letter y, the left limb being that which is usually regarded as the main continuation of these mountains through the isthmus of panama, while the right forms the eastern boundary of the great valley of the magdalena river; and then, trending in an eastwardly direction along the whole northern coast of south america to the extreme point of the promontory of paria. each of these limbs again forks into several branches or spurs,--the whole system forming a figure that may be said to bear some resemblance to a genealogical tree containing the pedigree of four or five generations. it is only with one of the bifurcations of the right or eastern sierra that this sketch has to do. on reaching the latitude of degrees north, this chain separates itself into two wings, which, after diverging widely to the east and west, sweep round again towards each other, as if desirous to be once more united. the western wing advances boldly to this reunion; but the eastern, after vacillating for a time, as if uncertain what course to take, turns its back abruptly on its old comrade, and trends off in a due east direction, till it sinks into insignificance upon the promontory of paria. the whole mass of the sierra, however, has not been of one mind; for, at the time of its indecision, a large spur detaches itself from the main body, and sweeps round, as if to carry out the union with the left wing advancing from the west. although they get within sight of each other, they are not permitted to meet,--both ending abruptly before the circle is completed, and forming a figure bearing a very exact resemblance to the shoe of a racehorse. within this curving boundary is enclosed a vast valley,--as large as the whole of ireland,--the central portion of which, and occupying about one third of its whole extent, is a sheet of water, known from the days of the discovery of america, as the _lake of maracaibo_. it obtained this appellation from the name of an indian cazique, who was met upon its shores by the first discoverers; but although this lake was known to the earliest explorers of the new world,--although it lies contiguous to many colonial settlements both on the mainland and the islands of the caribbean sea,--the lake itself and the vast territory that surrounds it, remain almost as unknown and obscure as if they were situated among the central deserts of africa. and yet the valley of maracaibo is one of the most interesting portions of the globe,--interesting not only as a _terra incognita_, but on account of the diversified nature of its scenery and productions. it possesses a _fauna_ of a peculiar kind, and its _flora_ is one of the richest in the world, not surpassed,--perhaps not equalled,--by that of any other portion of the torrid zone. to give a list of its vegetable productions would be to enumerate almost every species belonging to tropical america. here are found the well-known medicinal plants,--the sassafras and sarsaparilla, guaiacum, copaiva, cinchona, and cuspa, or _cortex angosturae_; here are the deadly poisons of _barbasco_ and _mavacure_, and alongside them the remedies of the "palo sano," and _mikania guaco_. here likewise grow plants and trees producing those well-known dyes of commerce, the blue indigo, the red arnotto, the lake-coloured chica, the brazilletto, and dragon's-blood; and above all, those woods of red, gold, and ebon tints, so precious in the eyes of the cabinet and musical-instrument makers of europe. yet, strange to say, these rich resources lie, like treasures buried in the bowels of the earth, or gems at the bottom of the sea, still undeveloped. a few small lumbering establishments near the entrance of the lake,--here and there a miserable village, supported by a little coast commerce in dyewoods, or cuttings of ebony,--now and then a hamlet of fishermen,--a "hato" of goats and sheep; and at wider intervals, a "ganaderia" of cattle, or a plantation of cocoa-trees (_cocale_), furnish the only evidence that man has asserted his dominion over this interesting region. these settlements, however, are sparsely distributed, and widely distant from one another. between them stretch broad savannas and forests,--vast tracts, untitled and even unexplored,--a very wilderness, but a wilderness rich in natural resources. the lake of maracaibo is often, though erroneously, described as an arm of the sea. this description only applies to the _gulf of maracaibo_, which is in reality a portion of the caribbean sea. the lake itself is altogether different, and is a true fresh-water lake, separated from the gulf by a narrow neck or strait. within this strait--called "boca," or mouth--the salt water does not extend, except during very high tides or after long-continued _nortes_ (north winds), which have the effect of driving the sea-water up into the lake, and imparting to some portions of it a saline or brackish taste. this, however, is only occasional and of temporary continuance; and the waters of the lake, supplied by a hundred streams from the horseshoe sierra that surrounds it, soon return to their normal character of freshness. the shape of lake maracaibo is worthy of remark. the main body of its surface is of oval outline,--the longer diameter running north and south,--but taken in connection with the straits which communicate with the outer gulf, it assumes a shape somewhat like that of a jew's-harp, or rather of a kind of guitar, most in use among spanish americans, and known under the name of "mandolin" (or "bandolon"). to this instrument do the natives sometimes compare it. another peculiarity of lake maracaibo, is the extreme shallowness of the water along its shores. it is deep enough towards the middle part; but at many points around the shore, a man may wade for miles into the water, without getting beyond his depth. this peculiarity arises from the formation of the valley in which it is situated. only a few spurs of the sierras that surround it approach near the edge of the lake. generally from the bases of the mountains, the land slopes with a very gentle declination,--so slight as to have the appearance of a perfectly horizontal plain,--and this is continued for a great way under the surface of the water. strange enough, however, after getting to a certain distance from the shore, the shoal water ends as abruptly as the escarpment of a cliff, and a depth almost unfathomable succeeds,--as if the central part of the lake was a vast subaqueous ravine, bounded on both sides by precipitous cliffs. such, in reality, is it believed to be. a singular phenomenon is observed in the lake maracaibo, which, since the days of columbus, has not only puzzled the curious, but also the learned and scientific, who have unsuccessfully attempted to explain it. this phenomenon consists in the appearance of a remarkable light, which shows itself in the middle of the night, and at a particular part of the lake, near its southern extremity. this light bears some resemblance to the _ignis fatuus_ of our own marshes; and most probably is a phosphorescence of a similar nature, though on a much grander scale,-- since it is visible at a vast distance across the open water. as it is seen universally in the same direction, and appears fixed in one place, it serves as a beacon for the fishermen and dye-wood traders who navigate the waters of the lake,--its longitude being precisely that of the straits leading outward to the gulf. vessels that have strayed from their course, often regulate their reckoning by the mysterious "farol de maracaibo" (lantern of maracaibo),--for by this name is the natural beacon known to the mariners of the lake. various explanations have been offered to account for this singular phenomenon, but none seem to explain it in a satisfactory manner. it appears to be produced by the exhalations that arise from an extensive marshy tract lying around the mouth of the river zulia, and above which it universally shows itself. the atmosphere in this quarter is usually hotter than elsewhere, and supposed to be highly charged with electricity; but whatever may be the chemical process which produces the illumination, it acts in a perfectly silent manner. no one has ever observed any explosion to proceed from it, or the slightest sound connected with its occurrence. of all the ideas suggested by the mention of lake maracaibo, perhaps none are so interesting as those that relate to its native inhabitants, whose peculiar habits and modes of life not only astonished the early navigators, but eventually gave its name to the lake itself and to the extensive province in which it is situated. when the spanish discoverers, sailing around the shores of the gulf, arrived near the entrance of lake maracaibo, they saw, to their amazement, not only single houses, but whole villages, apparently floating upon the water! on approaching nearer, they perceived that these houses were raised some feet above the surface, and supported by posts or piles driven into the mud at the bottom. the idea of venice--that city built upon the sea, to which they had been long accustomed--was suggested by these _superaqueous_ habitations; and the name of _venezuela_ (little venice) was at once bestowed upon the coast, and afterwards applied to the whole province now known as the republic of venezuela. though the "water villages" then observed have long since disappeared, many others of a similar kind were afterwards discovered in lake maracaibo itself, some of which are in existence to the present day. besides here and there an isolated habitation, situated in some bay or "laguna," there are four principal villages upon this plan still in existence, each containing from fifty to a hundred habitations. the inhabitants of some of these villages have been "christianised," that is, have submitted to the teaching of the spanish missionaries; and one in particular is distinguished by having its little church--a regular _water_ church--in the centre, built upon piles, just as the rest of the houses are, and only differing from the common dwellings in being larger and of a somewhat more pretentious style. from the belfry of this curious ecclesiastical edifice a brazen bell may be heard at morn and eve tolling the "oracion" and "vespers," and declaring over the wide waters of the lake that the authority of the spanish monk has replaced the power of the cazique among the indians of the lake maracaibo. not to all sides of the lake, however, has the cross extended its conquest. along its western shore roams the fierce unconquered goajiro, who, a true warrior, still maintains his independence; and even encroaches upon the usurped possessions both of monk and "militario." the _water-dweller_, however, although of kindred race with the goajiro, is very different, both in his disposition and habits of life. he is altogether a man of peace, and might almost be termed a civilised being,--that is, he follows a regular industrial calling, by which he subsists. this is the calling of a fisherman, and in no part of the world could he follow it with more certainty of success, since the waters which surround his dwelling literally swarm with fish. lake maracaibo has been long noted as the resort of numerous and valuable species of the finny tribe, in the capture of which the indian fisherman finds ample occupation. he is betimes a fowler,--as we shall presently see,--and he also sometimes indulges, though more rarely, in the chase, finding game in the thick forests or on the green savannas that surround the lake, or border the banks of the numerous "riachos" (streams) running into it. on the savanna roams the graceful roebuck and the "venado," or south-american deer, while along the river banks stray the capibara and the stout tapir, undisturbed save by their fierce feline enemies, the puma and spotted jaguar. but hunting excursions are not a habit of the water indian, whose calling, as already observed, is essentially that of a fisherman and "fowler," and whose subsistence is mainly derived from two kinds of _water-dwellers_, like himself--one with fins, living below the surface, and denominated _fish_; another with wings, usually resting _on_ the surface, and known as _fowl_. these two creatures, of very different kinds and of many different species, form the staple and daily food of the indian of maracaibo. in an account of his habits we stall begin by giving a description of the mode in which he constructs his singular dwelling. like other builders he begins by selecting the site. this must be a place where the water is of no great depth; and the farther from the shore he can find a shallow spot the better for his purpose, for he has a good reason for desiring to get to a distance from the shore, as we shall presently see. sometimes a sort of subaqueous island, or elevated sandbank, is found, which gives him the very site he is in search of. having pitched upon the spot, his next care is to procure a certain number of tree-trunks of the proper length and thickness to make "piles." not every kind of timber will serve for this purpose, for there are not many sorts that would long resist decay and the wear and tear of the water insects, with which the lake abounds. moreover, the building of one of these aquatic houses, although it be only a rude hut, is a work of time and labour, and it is desirable therefore to make it as permanent as possible. for this reason great care is taken in the selection of the timber for the "piles." but it so chances that the forests around the lake furnish the very thing itself, in the wood of a tree known to the _spanish inhabitants_ as the "vera," of "palo sano," and to the natives as "guaiac." it is one of the zygophyls of the genus _guaiacum_, of which there are many species, called by the names of "iron-wood" or "lignum-vitae;" but the species in question is the _tree_ lignum-vitae (_guaiacum arboreum_), which attains to a height of feet, with a fine umbrella-shaped head, and bright orange flowers. its wood is so hard, that it will turn the edge of an axe, and the natives believe that if it be buried for a sufficient length of time under the earth it will turn to iron! though this belief is not literally true, as regards the _iron_, it is not so much of an exaggeration as might be supposed. the "palo de fierro," when buried in the soil of maracaibo or immersed in the waters of the lake, in reality does undergo a somewhat similar metamorphose; in other words, it turns into stone; and the petrified trunks of this wood are frequently met with along the shores of the lake. what is still more singular--the piles of the water-houses often become petrified, so that the dwelling no longer rests upon wooden posts, but upon real columns of stone! knowing all this by experience, the indian selects the guaiac for his uprights, cuts them of the proper length; and then, launching them in the water, transports them to the site of his dwelling, and fixes them in their places. upon this a platform is erected, out of split boards of some less ponderous timber, usually the "ceiba," or "silk-cotton tree" (_bombax ceiba_), or the "cedro negro" (_cedrela odorata_) of the order _meliaceae_. both kinds grow in abundance upon the shores of the lake,--and the huge trunks of the former are also used by the water indian for the constructing of his canoe. the platform, or floor, being thus established, about two or three feet above the surface of the water, it then only remains to erect, the walls and cover them over with a roof. the former are made of the slightest materials,--light saplings or bamboo poles,--usually left open at the interstices. there is no winter or cold weather here,--why should the walls be thick? there are heavy rains, however, at certain seasons of the year, and these require to be guarded against; but this is not a difficult matter, since the broad leaves of the "enea" and "vihai" (a species of _heliconia_) serve the purpose of a roof just as well as tiles, slates, or shingles. nature in these parts is bountiful, and provides her human creatures with a spontaneous supply of every want. even ropes and cords she furnishes, for binding the beams, joists, and rafters together, and holding on the thatch against the most furious assaults of the wind. the numerous species of creeping and twining plants ("llianas" or "sipos") serve admirably for this purpose. they are applied in their green state, and when contracted by exsiccation draw the timbers as closely together as if held by spikes of iron. in this manner and of such materials does the water indian build his house. why he inhabits such a singular dwelling is a question that requires to be answered. with the _terra firma_ close at hand, and equally convenient for all purposes of his calling, why does he not build his hut there? so much easier too of access would it be, for he could then approach it either by land or by water; whereas, in its present situation, he can neither go away from his house or get back to it without the aid of his "periagua" (canoe). moreover, by building on the beach, or by the edge of the woods, he would spare himself the labour of transporting those heavy piles and setting them in their places,--a work, as already stated, of no ordinary magnitude. is it for personal security against human enemies,--for this sometimes drives a people to seek singular situations for their homes? no; the indian of maracaibo has his human foes, like all other people; but it is none of these that have forced him to adopt this strange custom. other enemies? wild beasts? the dreaded jaguar, perhaps? no, nothing of this kind. and yet it is in reality a living creature that drives him to this resource,-- that has forced him to flee from the mainland and take to the water for security against its attack,--a creature of such small dimensions, and apparently so contemptible in its strength, that you will no doubt smile at the idea of its putting a strong man to flight,--a little insect exactly the size of an english gnat, and no bigger, but so formidable by means of its poisonous bite, and its myriads of numbers, as to render many parts of the shores of lake maracaibo quite uninhabitable. you guess, no doubt, the insect to which i allude? you cannot fail to recognise it as the _mosquito_? just so; it is the mosquito i mean, and in no part of south america do these insects abound in greater numbers, and nowhere are they more bloodthirsty than upon the borders of this great fresh-water sea. not only one species of mosquito, but all the varieties known as "jejens," "zancudos," and "tempraneros," here abound in countless multitudes,--each kind making its appearance at a particular hour of the day or night,--"mounting guard" (as the persecuted natives say of them) in turn, and allowing only short intervals of respite from their bitter attacks. now, it so happens, that although the various kinds of mosquitoes are peculiarly the productions of a marshy or watery region,--and rarely found where the soil is high and dry,--yet as rarely do they extend their excursions to a distance from the land. they delight to dwell under the shadow of leaves, or near the herbage of grass, plants, or trees, among which they were hatched. they do not stray far from the shore, and only when the breeze carries them do they fly out over the open water. need i say more? you have now the explanation why the indians of maracaibo build their dwellings upon the water. it is simply to escape from the "plaga de moscas" (the pest of the flies). like most other indians of tropical america, and some even of colder latitudes, those of maracaibo go naked, wearing only the _guayueo_, or "waist-belt." those of them, however, who have submitted to the authority of the monks, have adopted a somewhat more modest garb,-- consisting of a small apron of cotton or palm fibre, suspended from the waist, and reaching down to their knees. we have already stated, that the water-dwelling indian is a fisherman, and that the waters of the lake supply him with numerous kinds of fish of excellent quality. an account of these, with the method employed in capturing them, may not prove uninteresting. first, there is the fish known as "liza," a species of skate. it is of a brilliant silvery hue, with bluish corruscations. it is a small fish, being only about a foot in length, but is excellent to eat, and when preserved by drying, forms an article of commerce with the west-indian islands. along the coasts of cumana and magarita, there are many people employed in the _pesca de liza_ (skate-fishery); but although the liza is in reality a sea fish, it abounds in the fresh waters of maracaibo, and is there also an object of industrial pursuit. it is usually captured by seines, made out of the fibres of the _cocui aloe_ (_agave cocuiza_), or of cords obtained from the unexpanded leaflets of the moriche palm (_mauritia flexuosa_), both of which useful vegetable products are indigenous to this region. the roe of the liza, when dried in the sun, is an article in high estimation, and finds its way into the channels of commerce. a still more delicate fish is the "pargo." it is of a white colour tinged with rose; and of these great numbers are also captured. so, too, with the "doncella," one of the most beautiful species, as its pretty name of "doncella" (young maiden) would indicate. these last are so abundant in some parts of the lake, that one of its bays is distinguished by the name of _laguna de doncella_. a large, ugly fish, called the "vagre," with an enormous head and wide mouth, from each side of which stretches a beard-like appendage, is also an object of the indian's pursuit. it is usually struck with a spear, or killed by arrows, when it shows itself near the surface of the water. another monstrous creature, of nearly circular shape, and full three feet in diameter, is the "carite," which is harpooned in a similar fashion. besides these there is the "viegita," or "old-woman fish," which itself feeds upon lesser creatures of the finny tribe, and especially upon the smaller species of shell-fish. it has obtained its odd appellation from a singular noise which it gives forth, and which resembles the voice of an old woman debilitated with extreme age. the "dorado," or gilded fish--so called on account of its beautiful colour--is taken by a hook, with no other bait attached than a piece of white rag. this, however, must be kept constantly in motion, and the bait is played by simply paddling the canoe over the surface of the lake, until the dorado, attracted by the white meteor, follows in its track, and eventually hooks itself. many other species of fish are taken by the water-indians, as the "lebranche" which goes in large "schools," and makes its breeding-place in the lagunas and up the rivers, and the "guabina," with several kinds of sardines that find their way into the tin boxes of europe; for the maracaibo fisherman is not contented with an exclusive fish diet. he likes a little "casava," or maize-bread, along with it; besides, he has a few other wants to satisfy, and the means he readily obtains in exchange for the surplus produce of his nets, harpoons, and arrows. we have already stated that he is a fowler. at certain seasons of the year this is essentially his occupation. the fowling season with him is the period of northern winter, when the migratory aquatic birds come down from the boreal regions of prince rupert's land to disport their bodies in the more agreeable waters of lake maracaibo. there they assemble in large flocks, darkening the air with their myriads of numbers, now fluttering over the lake, or, at other times, seated on its surface silent and motionless. notwithstanding their great numbers, however, they are too shy to be approached near enough for the "carry" of an indian arrow, or a gun either; and were it not for a very cunning stratagem which the indian has adopted for their capture, they might return again to their northern haunts without being minus an individual of their "count." but they are not permitted to depart thus unscathed. during their sojourn within the limits of lake maracaibo their legions get considerably thinned, and thousands of them that settle down upon its inviting waters are destined never more to take wing. to effect their capture, the indian fowler, as already stated, makes use of a very ingenious stratagem. something similar is described as being practised in other parts of the world; but in no place is it carried to such perfection as upon the lake maracaibo. the fowler first provides himself with a number of large gourd-shells of roundish form, and each of them at least as big as his own skull. these he can easily obtain, either from the herbaceous squash (_cucurbita lagenaris_) or from the calabash tree (_crescentia cujete_), both of which grow luxuriantly on the shores of the lake. filling his periagua with these, he proceeds out into the open water to a certain distance from the land, or from his own dwelling. the distance is regulated by several considerations. he must reach a place which, at all hours of the day, the ducks and other waterfowl are not afraid to frequent; and, on the other hand, he must not go beyond such a depth as will bring the water higher than his own chin when wading through it. this last consideration is not of so much importance, for the water indian can swim almost as well as a duck, and dive like one, if need be; but it is connected with another matter of greater importance--the convenience of having the birds as near as possible, to save him a too long and wearisome "wade." it is necessary to have them so near, that at all hours they may be under his eye. having found the proper situation, which the vast extent of shoal water (already mentioned) enables him to do, he proceeds to carry out his design by dropping a gourd here and another there, until a large space of surface is covered by these floating shells. each gourd has a stone attached to it by means of a string, which, resting upon the bottom, brings the buoy to an anchor, and prevents it from being drifted into the deeper water or carried entirely away. when his decoys are all placed, the indian paddles back to his platform dwelling, and there, with watchful eye, awaits the issue. the birds are at first shy of these round yellow objects intruded upon their domain; but, as the hours pass, and they perceive no harm in them, they at length take courage and venture to approach. urged by that curiosity which is instinctive in every creature, they gradually draw nigher and nigher, until at length they boldly venture into the midst of the odd objects and examine them minutely. though puzzled to make out what it is all meant for, they can perceive no harm in the yellow globe-shaped things that only bob about, but make no attempt to do them any injury. thus satisfied, their curiosity soon wears off, and the birds no longer regarding the floating shells as objects of suspicion, swim freely about through their midst, or sit quietly on the water side by side with them. but the crisis has now arrived when it is necessary the indian should act, and for this he speedily equips himself. he first ties a stout rope around his waist, to which are attached many short strings or cords. he then draws over his head a large gourd-shell, which, fitting pretty tightly, covers his whole skull, reaching down to his neck. this shell is exactly similar to the others already floating on the water, with the exception of having three holes on one side of it, two on the same level with the indian's eyes, and the third opposite his mouth, intended to serve him for a breathing-hole. he is now ready for work; and, thus oddly accoutred, he slips quietly down from his platform, and laying himself along the water, swims gently in the direction of the ducks. he swims only where the water is too shallow to prevent him from crouching below the surface; for were he to stand upright, and wade,-- even though he were still distant from them,--the shy birds might have suspicions about his after-approaches. when he reaches a point where the lake is sufficiently deep, he gets upon his feet and wades, still keeping his shoulders below the surface. he makes his advance very slowly and warily, scarce raising a ripple on the surface of the placid lake, and the nearer he gets to his intended victims he proceeds with the greater caution. the unsuspecting birds see the destroyer approach without having the slightest misgiving of danger. they fancy that the new comer is only another of those inanimate objects by their side--another gourd-shell drifting out upon the water to join its companions. they have no suspicion that this wooden counterfeit--like the horse of troy--is inhabited by a terrible enemy. poor things! how could they? a stratagem so well contrived would deceive more rational intellects than theirs; and, in fact, having no idea of danger, they perhaps do not trouble themselves even to notice the new arrival. meanwhile the gourd has drifted silently into their midst, and is seen approaching the odd individuals, first one and afterwards another, as if it had some special business with each. this business appears to be of a very mysterious character; and in each case is abruptly brought to a conclusion, by the duck making a sudden dive under the water,--not head foremost, according to its usual practice, but in the reverse way, as if jerked down by the feet, and so rapidly that the creature has not time to utter a single "quack." after quite a number of individuals have disappeared in this mysterious manner, the others sometimes grow suspicious of the moving calabash, and either take to wing, or swim off to a less dangerous neighbourhood; but if the gourd performs its office in a skilful manner, it will be seen passing several times to and fro between the birds and the water village before this event takes place. on each return trip, when far from the flock, and near the habitations, it will be seen to rise high above the surface of the water. it will then be perceived that it covers the skull of a copper-coloured savage, around whose hips may be observed a double tier of dead ducks dangling by their necks from the rope upon his waist, and forming a sort of plumed skirt, the weight of which almost drags its wearer back into the water. of course a capture is followed by a feast; and during the fowling season of the year the maracaibo indian enjoys roast-duck at discretion. he does not trouble his head much about the green peas, nor is he particular to have his ducks stuffed with sage and onions; but a hot seasoning of red pepper is one of the indispensible ingredients of the south-american _cuisine_; and this he usually obtains from a small patch of capsicum which he cultivates upon the adjacent shore; or, if he be not possessed of land, he procures it by barter, exchanging his fowls or fish for that and a little maize or manioc flour, furnished by the coast-traders. the maracaibo indian is not a stranger to commerce. he has been "christianised,"--to use the phraseology of his priestly proselytiser,-- and this has introduced him to new wants and necessities. expenses that in his former pagan state were entirely unknown to him, have now become necessary, and a commercial effort is required to meet them. the church must have its dues. such luxuries as being baptised, married, and buried, are not to be had without expense, and the padre takes good care that none of these shall be had for nothing. he has taught his proselyte to believe that unless all these rites have been officially performed there is pot the slightest chance for him in the next world; and under the influence of this delusion, the simple savage willingly yields up his tenth, his fifth, or, perhaps it would be more correct to say, his all. between fees of baptism and burial, mulcts for performance of the marriage rite, contributions towards the shows and ceremonies of _dias de fiesta_, extravagant prices for blessed beads, leaden crucifixes, and images of patron saints, the poor christianised indian is compelled to part with nearly the whole of his humble gains; and the fear of not being able to pay for christian burial after death, is often one of the torments of his life. to satisfy the numerous demands of the church, therefore, he is forced into a little action in the commercial line. with the water-dweller of maracaibo, fish forms one of the staples of export trade,--of course in the preserved state, as he is too distant from any great town or metropolis to be able to make market of them while fresh. he understands, however, the mode of curing them,--which he accomplishes by sun-drying and smoking,--and, thus prepared, they are taken off his hands by the trader, who carries them all over the west indies, where, with boiled rice, they form the staple food of thousands of the dark-skinned children of ethiopia. the maracaibo indian, however, has still another resource, which occasionally supplies him with an article of commercial export. his country--that is, the adjacent shores of the lake--produces the finest _caoutchouc_. there the india-rubber tree, of more than one species, flourishes in abundance; and the true "seringa," that yields the finest and most valuable kind of this gummy juice, is nowhere found in greater perfection than in the forests of maracaibo. the caoutchouc of commerce is obtained from many other parts of america, as well as from other tropical countries; but as many of the bottles and shoes so well-known in the india-rubber shops, are manufactured by the indians of maracaibo, we may not find a more appropriate place to give an account of this singular production, and the mode by which it is prepared for the purposes of commerce and manufacture. as already mentioned, many species of trees yield india-rubber, most of them belonging either to the order of the "morads," or _euphorbiaceae_. some are species of _ficus_, but both the genera and species are too numerous to be given here. that which supplies the "bottle india-rubber" is a euphorbiaceous plant,--the _seringa_ above mentioned,--whose proper botanical appellation is _siphonia elastica_. it is a tall, straight, smooth-barked tree, having a trunk of about a foot in diameter, though in favourable situations reaching to much larger dimensions. the process of extracting its sap--out of which the caoutchouc is manufactured--bears some resemblance to the tapping of sugar-maples in the forests of the north. with his small hatchet, or tomahawk, the indian cuts a gash in the bark, and inserts into it a little wedge of wood to keep the sides apart. just under the gash, he fixes a small cup-shaped vessel of clay, the clay being still in a plastic state, so that it may be attached closely to the bark. into this vessel the milk-like sap of the _seringa_ soon commences to run, and keeps on until it has yielded about the fifth of a pint. this, however, is not the whole yield of a tree, but only of a single wound; and it is usual to open a great many gashes, or "taps," upon the same trunk, each being furnished with its own cup or receiver. in from four to six hours the sap ceases to run. the cups are then detached from the tree, and the contents of all, poured into a large earthen vessel, are carried to the place where the process of making the caoutchouc is to take place,--usually some dry open spot in the middle of the forest, where a temporary camp has been formed for the purpose. when the dwelling of the indian is at a distance from where the india-rubber tree grows,--as is the case with those of lake maracaibo,-- it will not do to transport the sap thither. there must be no delay after the cups are filled, and the process of manufacture must proceed at once, or as soon as the milky juice begins to coagulate,--which it does almost on the instant. previous to reaching his camp, the "seringero" has provided a large quantity of palm-nuts, with which he intends to make a fire for smoking the caoutchouc. these nuts are the fruit of several kinds of palms, but the best are those afforded by two magnificent species,--the "inaja" (_maximiliana regia_), and the "urucuri" (_attalea excelsa_). a fire is kindled of these nuts; and an earthen pot, with a hole in the bottom, is placed mouth downward over the pile. through the aperture now rises a strong pungent smoke. if it is a shoe that is intended to be made, a clay last is already prepared, with a stick standing out of the top of it, to serve as a handle, while the operation is going on. taking the stick in his hand, the seringero dips the last lightly into the milk, or with a cup pours the fluid gently over it, so as to give a regular coating to the whole surface; and then, holding it over the smoke, he keeps turning it, jack-fashion, till the fluid has become dry and adhesive. another dip is then given, and the smoking done as before; and this goes on, till forty or fifty different coats have brought the sides and soles of the shoe to a proper thickness. the soles, requiring greater weight, are, of course, oftener dipped than the "upper leather." the whole process of making the shoe does not occupy half an hour; but it has afterwards to receive some farther attention in the way of ornament; the lines and figures are yet to be executed, and this is done about two days after the smoking process. they are simply traced out with a piece of smooth wire, or oftener with the spine obtained from some tree,--as the thorny point of the _bromelia_ leaf. in about a week the shoes are ready to be taken from the last; and this is accomplished at the expense and utter ruin of the latter, which is broken into fragments, and then cleaned out. water is used sometimes to soften the last, and the inner surface of the shoe is washed after the clay has been taken out. bottles are made precisely in the same manner,--a round ball, or other shaped mass of clay, serving as the mould for their construction. it requires a little more trouble to get the mould extracted from the narrow neck of the bottle. it may be remarked that it is not the smoke of the palm-nuts that gives to the india-rubber its peculiar dark colour; that is the effect of age. when freshly manufactured, it is still of a whitish or cream colour; and only attains the dark hue after it has been kept for a considerable time. we might add many other particulars about the mode in which the indian of maracaibo employs his time, but perhaps enough has been said to show that his existence is altogether an _odd_ one. chapter four. the esquimaux. the esquimaux are emphatically an "odd people," perhaps the oddest upon the earth. the peculiar character of the regions they inhabit has naturally initiated them into a system of habits and modes of life different from those of any other people on the face of the globe; and from the remoteness and inaccessibility of the countries in which they dwell, not only have they remained an unmixed people, but scarce any change has taken place in their customs and manners during the long period since they were first known to civilised nations. the esquimaux people have been long known and their habits often described. our first knowledge of them was obtained from greenland,-- for the native inhabitants of greenland are true esquimaux,--and hundreds of years ago accounts of them were given to the world by the danish colonists and missionaries--and also by the whalers who visited the coasts of that inhospitable land. in later times they have been made familiar to us through the arctic explorers and whale-fishers, who have traversed the labyrinth of icy islands that extend northward from the continent of america. the esquimaux may boast of possessing the longest country in the world. in the first place, greenland is theirs, and they are found along the western shores of baffin's bay. in north america proper their territory commences at the straits of belle isle, which separate newfoundland from labrador, and thence extends all around the shore of the arctic ocean, not only to behring's straits, but beyond these, around the pacific coast of russian america, as far south as the great mountain saint elias. across behring's straits they are found occupying a portion of the asiatic coast, under the name of tchutski, and some of the islands in the northern angle of the pacific ocean are also inhabited by these people, though under a different name. furthermore, the numerous ice islands which lie between north america and the pole are either inhabited or visited by esquimaux to the highest point that discovery has yet reached. there can be little doubt that the laplanders of northern europe, and the samoyedes, and other littoral peoples dwelling along the siberian shores, are kindred races of the esquimaux; and taking this view of the question, it may be said that the latter possess all the line of coast of both continents facing northward; in other words, that their country extends around the globe--though it cannot be said (as is often boastingly declared of the british empire) that "the sun never sets upon it;" for, over the "empire" of the esquimaux, the sun not only sets, but remains out of sight of it for months at a time. it is not usual, however, to class the laplanders and _asiatic arctic_ people with the esquimaux. there are some essential points of difference; and what is here said of the esquimaux relates only to those who inhabit the northern coasts and islands of america, and to the native greenlanders. notwithstanding the immense extent of territory thus designated, notwithstanding the sparseness of the esquimaux population, and the vast distances by which one little tribe or community is separated from another, the absolute similarity in their habits, in their physical and intellectual conformation, and, above all, in their languages, proves incontestably that they are all originally of one and the same race. whatever, therefore, may be said of a "schelling," or native greenlander, will be equally applicable to an esquimaux of labrador, to an esquimaux of the mackenzie river or behring's straits, or we might add, to a khadiak islander, or a tuski of the opposite asiatic coast; always taking into account such differences of costume, dialect, modes of life, etc, as may be brought about by the different circumstances in which they are placed. in all these things, however, they are wonderfully alike; their dresses, weapons, boats, houses, and house implements, being almost the same in material and construction from east greenland to the tchutskoi noss. if their country be the longest in the world, it is also the _narrowest_. of course, if we take into account the large islands that thickly stud the arctic ocean, it may be deemed broad enough; but i am speaking rather of the territory which they possess on the continents. this may be regarded as a mere strip following the outline of the coast, and never extending beyond the distance of a day's journey inland. indeed, they only seek the interior in the few short weeks of summer, for the purpose of hunting the reindeer, the musk-ox, and other animals; after each excursion, returning again to the shores of the sea, where they have their winter-houses and more permanent home. they are, truly and emphatically, a _littoral_ people, and it is to the sea they look for their principal means of support. but for this source of supply, they could not long continue to exist upon land altogether incapable of supplying the wants even of the most limited population. the name _esquimaux_--or, as it is sometimes written, "eskimo,"--like many other national appellations, is of obscure origin. it is supposed to have been given to them by the canadian voyageurs in the employ of the hudson's bay company, and derived from the words _ceux qui miaux_ (those who mew), in relation to their screaming like cats. but the etymology is, to say the least, _suspicious_. they generally call themselves "inuit" (pronounced enn-oo-eet), a word which signifies "men;"--though different tribes of them have distinct tribal appellations. in personal appearance they cannot be regarded as at all prepossessing-- though some of the younger men and girls, when cleansed of the filth and grease with which their skin is habitually coated, are far from ill-looking. their natural colour is not much darker than that of some of the southern nations of europe--the portuguese, for instance--and the young girls often have blooming cheeks, and a pleasing expression of countenance. their faces are generally of a broad, roundish shape, the forehead and chin both narrow and receding, and the cheeks very prominent, though not angular. on the contrary, they are rather fat and round. this prominence of the cheeks gives to their nose the appearance of being low and flat; and individuals are often seen with such high cheeks, that a ruler laid from one to the other would not touch the bridge of the nose between them! as they grow older their complexion becomes darker, perhaps from exposure to the climate. very naturally, too, both men and women grow uglier, but especially the latter, some of whom in old age present such a hideous aspect, that the early arctic explorers could not help characterising them as _witches_. the average stature of the esquimaux is far below that of european nations, though individuals are sometimes met with nearly six feet in height. these, however, are rare exceptions; and an esquimaux of such proportions would be a giant among his people. the more common height is from four feet eight inches to five feet eight; and the women are still shorter, rarely attaining the standard of five feet. the shortness of both men and women appears to be a deficiency in length of limb, for their bodies are long enough; but, as the esquimaux is almost constantly in his canoe, or "kayak," or upon his dog-sledge, his legs have but little to do, and are consequently stunted in their development. a similar peculiarity is presented by the comanche, and other indians of the prairies, and also in the guachos and patagonian indians, of the south-american pampas, who spend most of their time on the backs of their horses. the esquimaux have no religion, unless we dignify by that name a belief in witches, sorcerers, "shamans," and good or evil spirits, with, some confused notion of a good and bad place hereafter. missionary zeal has been exerted among them almost in vain. they exhibit an apathetic indifference to the teachings of christianity. neither have they any political organisation; and in this respect they differ essentially from most savages known, the lowest of whom have usually their chiefs and councils of elders. this absence of all government, however, is no proof of their being lower in the scale of civilisation than other savages; but, perhaps, rather the contrary, for the very idea of chiefdom, or government, is a presumption of the existence of vice among a people, and the necessity of coercion and repression. to one another these rude people are believed to act in the most honest manner; and it could be shown that such was likewise their behaviour towards strangers until they were corrupted by excessive temptation. all arctic voyagers record instances of what they term petty theft, on the part of certain tribes of esquimaux,--that is, the pilfering of nails, hatchets, pieces of iron-hoops, etc,--but it might be worth while reflecting that these articles are, in the eyes of the esquimaux, what ingots of gold are are to europeans, and worth while inquiring if a few bars of the last-mentioned metal were laid loosely and carelessly upon the pavements of london, how long they would be in changing their owners? theft should be regarded along with the amount of temptation; and it appears even in these recorded cases that only a few of the esquimaux took part in it. i apprehend that something more than a few londoners would be found picking up the golden ingots. how many thieves have we among us, with no greater temptation than a cheap cotton kerchief?--more than a few, it is to be feared. in truth, the esquimaux are by no means the savages they have been represented. the only important point in which they at all assimilate to the purely savage state is in the filthiness of their persons, and perhaps also in the fact of their eating much of their food (fish and flesh-meat) in a raw state. for the latter habit, however, they are partially indebted to the circumstances in which they are placed--fires or cookery being at times altogether impossible. they are not the only people who have been forced to eat raw flesh; and europeans who have travelled in that inhospitable country soon get used to the practice, at the same time getting quite cured of their _degout_ for it. it is certainly not correct to characterise the esquimaux as mere _savages_. on the contrary, they may be regarded as a civilised people, that is, so far as civilisation is permitted by the rigorous climate in which they live; and it would be safe to affirm that a colony of the most polished people in europe, established as the esquimaux are, and left solely to their own resources, would in a single generation exhibit a civilisation not one degree higher than that now met with among the esquimaux. indeed, the fact is already established: the danish and norwegian colonists of west greenland, though backed by constant intercourse with their mother-land, are but little more civilised than the "skellings," who are their neighbours. in reality, the esquimaux have made the most of the circumstances in which they are placed, and continue to do so. among them _agriculture_ is impossible, else they would long since have taken to it. so too is commerce; and as to manufactures, it is doubtful whether europeans could excel them under like circumstances. whatever raw material their country produces, is by them both strongly and neatly fabricated, as indicated by the surprising skill with which they make their dresses, their boats, their implements for hunting and fishing; and in these accomplishments--the only ones practicable under their hyperborean heaven--they are perfect adepts. in such arts civilised europeans are perfect simpletons to them, and the theories of fireside speculators, so lately promulgated in our newspapers, that sir john franklin and his crew could not fail to procure a living where the simple esquimaux were able to make a home, betrayed only ignorance of the condition of these people. in truth, white men would starve, where the esquimaux could live in luxurious abundance, so far superior to ours is their knowledge both of fishing and the chase. it is a well-recorded fact, that while our arctic voyagers, at their winter stations, provided with good guns, nets, and every appliance, could but rarely kill a reindeer or capture a seal, the esquimaux obtained both in abundance, and apparently without an effort; and we shall presently note the causes of their superiority in this respect. the very dress of the esquimaux is a proof of their superiority over other savages. at no season of the year do they go either naked, or even "ragged." they have their changes to suit the seasons,--their summer dress, and one of a warmer kind for winter. both are made in a most complicated manner; and the preparation of the material, as well as the manner by which it is put together, prove the esquimaux women--for they are alike the tailors and dressmakers--to be among the best seamstresses in the world. captain lyon, one of the most observant of arctic voyagers, has given a description of the costume of the esquimaux of savage island, and those of repulse bay, where he wintered, and his account is so graphic and minute in details, that it would be idle to alter a word of his language. his description, with slight differences in make and material, will answer pretty accurately for the costume of the whole race. "the clothes of both sexes are principally composed of fine and well-prepared reindeer pelts; the skins of bears, seals, wolves, foxes, and marmottes, are also used. the sealskins are seldom employed for any part of the dress except boots and shoes, as being more capable of resisting water, and of far greater durability than other leather. "the general winter dress of the men is an ample outer coat of deer-skin, having no opening in front, and a large hood, which is drawn over the head at pleasure. this hood is invariably bordered with white fur from the thighs of the deer, and thus presents a lively contrast to the dark face which it encircles. the front or belly part of the coat is cut off square with the upper part of the thighs, but behind it is formed into a broad skirt, rounded at the lower end, which reaches to within a few inches of the ground. the lower edges and tails of these dresses are in some cases bordered with bands of fur of an opposite colour to the body; and it is a favourite ornament to hang a fringe of little strips of skin beneath the border. the embellishments give a very pleasing appearance to the dress. it is customary in blowing weather to tie a piece of skin or cord tight round the waist of the coat; but in other cases the dress hangs loose. "within the covering i have just described is another, of precisely the same form; but though destitute of ornaments of leather, it has frequently little strings of beads hanging to it from the shoulders or small of the back. this dress is of thinner skin, and acts as a shirt, the hairy part being placed near the body: it is the indoors habit. when walking, the tail is tied up by two strings to the back, so that it may not incommode the legs. besides these two coats, they have also a large cloak, or, in fact, an open deer-skin, with sleeves: this, from its size, is more frequently used as a blanket; and i but once saw it worn by a man at the ship, although the women throw it over their shoulders to shelter themselves and children while sitting on the sledge. "the trowsers, which are tightly tied round the loins, have no waistbands, but depend entirely by the drawing-string; they are generally of deer-skin, and ornamented in the same manner as the coats. one of the most favourite patterns is an arrangement of the skins of deer's legs, so as to form very pretty stripes. as with the jackets, there are two pair of these indispensables, reaching no lower than the knee-cap, which is a cause of great distress in cold weather, as that part is frequently severely frost-bitten; yet, with all their experience of this bad contrivance, they will not add an inch to the established length. "the boots reach to the bottom of the breeches, which hang loosely over them. in these, as in other parts of the dress, are many varieties of colour, material, and pattern, yet in shape they never vary. the general winter boots are of deer-skin; one having the hair next the leg, and the other with the fur outside. a pair of soft slippers of the same kind are worn between the two pair of boots, and outside of all a strong sealskin shoe is pulled to the height of the ankle, where it is tightly secured by a drawing-string. for hunting excursions, or in summer when the country is thawed, one pair of boots only is worn. they are of sealskin, and so well sewed and prepared without the hair, that although completely saturated, they allow no water to pass through them. the soles are generally of the tough hide of the walrus, or of the large seal called oo-ghioo, so that the feet are well protected in walking over rough ground. slippers are sometimes worn outside. in both cases the boots are tightly fastened round the instep with a thong of leather. the mittens in common use are of deer-skin, with the hair inside; but, in fact, every kind of skin is used for them. they are extremely comfortable when dry; but if once wetted and frozen again, in the winter afford as little protection to the hands as a case of ice would do. in summer, and in fishing, excellent sealskin mittens are used, and have the same power of resisting water as the boots of which i have just spoken. the dresses i have just described are chiefly used in winter. during the summer it is customary to wear coats, boots, and even breeches, composed of the prepared skins of ducks, with the feathers next the body. these are comfortable, light, and easily prepared. the few ornaments in their possession are worn by the men. these are some bandeaus which encircle the head, and are composed of various-coloured leather, plaited in a mosaic pattern, and in some cases having human hair woven in them, as a contrast to the white skins. from the lower edge foxes' teeth hang suspended, arranged as a fringe across the forehead. some wear a musk-ox tooth, a bit of ivory, or a small piece of bone. "the clothing of the women is of the same materials as that of the men, but in shape almost every part is different from the male dress. an inner jacket is worn next the skin, and the fur of the other is outside. the hind-flap, or tail, is of the same form before described, but there is also a small flap in front, extending about halfway down the thigh. the coats have each an immense hood, which, as well as covering the head, answers the purpose of a child's cradle for two or three years after the birth of an infant. in order to keep the burden of the child from drawing the dress tight across the throat, a contrivance, in a great measure resembling the slings of a soldier's knapsack, is affixed to the collar or neck part, whence it passes beneath the hood, crosses, and, being brought under the arms, is secured on each side the breast by a wooden button. the shoulders of the women's coat have a bag-like space, for the purpose of facilitating the removal of the child from the hood round to the breast without taking it out of the jacket. "a girdle is sometimes worn round the waist: it answers the double purposes of comfort and ornament; being composed of what they consider valuable trinkets, such as foxes' bones (those of the rableeaghioo), or sometimes of the ears of deer, which hang in pairs to the number of twenty or thirty, and are trophies of the skill of the hunter, to whom the wearer is allied. the inexpressibles of the women are in the some form as those of the men, but they are not ornamented by the same curious arrangement of colours; the front part is generally of white, and the back of dark fur. the manner of securing them at the waist is also the same; but the drawing-strings are of much greater length, being suffered to hang down by one side, and their ends are frequently ornamented with some pendent jewel, such as a grinder or two of the musk-ox, a piece of ivory, a small ball of wood, or a perforated stone. "the boots of the fair sex are, without dispute, the most extraordinary part of their equipment, and are of such an immense size as to resemble leather sacks, and to give a most deformed, and, at the same time, ludicrous appearance to the whole figure, the bulky part being at the knee; the upper end is formed into a pointed flap, which, covering the front of the thigh, is secured by a button or knot within the waistband of the breeches. "some of these ample articles of apparel are composed with considerable taste, of various-coloured skins; they also have them of parchment,-- seals' leather. two pairs are worn; and the feet have also a pair of sealskin slippers, which fit close, and are tightly tied round the ankle. "children have no kind of clothing, but lie naked in their mothers' hoods until two or three years of age, when they are stuffed into a little dress, generally of fawn-skin, which has jacket and breeches in one, the back part being open; into these they are pushed, when a string or two closes all up again. a cap forms an indispensable part of the equipment, and is generally of some fantastical shape; the skin of a fawn's head is a favourite material in the composition, and is sometimes seen with the ears perfect; the nose and holes for the eyes lying along the crown of the wearer's head, which in consequence, looks like that of an animal." the same author also gives a most graphic description of the curious winter dwellings of the esquimaux, which on many parts of the coast are built out of the only materials to be had,--_ice and snow_! snow for the walls and ice for the windows! you might fancy the house of the esquimaux to be a very cold dwelling; such, however, is by no means its character. "the entrance to the dwellings," says captain lyon, "was by a hole, about a yard in diameter, which led through a low-arched passage of sufficient breadth for two to pass in a stooping posture, and about sixteen feet in length; another hole then presented itself, and led through a similarly-shaped, but shorter passage, having at its termination a round opening, about two feet across. up this hole we crept one step, and found ourselves in a dome about seven feet in height, and as many in diameter, from whence the three dwelling-places, with arched roofs, were entered. it must be observed that this is the description of a large hut, the smaller ones, containing one or two families, have the domes somewhat differently arranged. "each dwelling might be averaged at fourteen or sixteen feet in diameter by six or seven in height, but as snow alone was used in their construction, and was always at hand, it might be supposed that there was no particular size, that being of course at the option of the builder. the laying of the arch was performed in such a manner as would have satisfied the most regular artist, the key-piece on the top, being a large square slab. the blocks of snow used in the buildings were from four to six inches in thickness, and about a couple of feet in length, carefully pared with a large knife. where two families occupied a dome, a seat was raised on either side, two feet in height. these raised places were used as beds, and covered in the first place with whalebone, sprigs of andromeda, or pieces of sealskin, over these were spread deer-pelts and deer-skin clothes, which had a very warm appearance. the pelts were used as blankets, and many of them had ornamental fringes of leather sewed round their edges. "each dwelling-place was illumined by a broad piece of transparent fresh-water ice, of about two feet in diameter, which formed part of the roof, and was placed over the door. these windows gave a most pleasing light, free from glare, and something like that which is thrown through ground glass. we soon learned that the building of a house was but the work of an hour or two, and that a couple of men--one to cut the slabs and the other to lay them--were labourers sufficient. "for the support of the lamps and cooking apparatus, a mound of snow is erected for each family; and when the master has two wives or a mother, both have an independent place, one at each end of the bench. "i find it impossible to attempt describing everything at a second visit, and shall therefore only give an account of those articles of furniture which must be always the same, and with which, in five minutes, any one might be acquainted. a frame, composed of two or three broken fishing-spears, supported in the first place a large hoop of wood or bone, across which an open-meshed, and ill-made net was spread or worked for the reception of wet or damp clothes, skins, etc, which could be dried by the heat of the lamp. on this contrivance the master of each hut placed his gloves on entering, first carefully clearing them of snow. "from the frame above mentioned, one or more coffin-shaped stone pots were suspended over lamps of the same material, crescent-shaped, and having a ridge extending along their back; the bowl part was filled with blubber, and the oil and wicks were ranged close together along the edge. the wicks were made of moss and trimmed by a piece of asbestos, stone, or wood; near at hand a large bundle of moss was hanging for a future supply. the lamps were supported by sticks, bones, or pieces of horn, at a sufficient height to admit an oval pot of wood or whalebone beneath, in order to catch any oil that might drop from them. the lamps varied considerably in size, from two feet to six inches in length, and the pots were equally irregular, holding from two or three gallons to half a pint. although i have mentioned a kind of scaffolding, these people did not all possess so grand an establishment, many being contented to suspend their pot to a piece of bone stuck in the wall of the hut. one young woman was quite a caricature in this way: she was the inferior wife of a young man, whose senior lady was of a large size, and had a corresponding lamp, etc, at one corner; while she herself, being short and fat, had a lamp the size of half a dessert-plate, and a pot which held a pint only. "almost every family was possessed of a large wooden tray, resembling those used by butchers in england; its offices, however, as we soon perceived, were more various, some containing raw flesh of seals and blubber, and others, skins, which were steeping in urine. a quantity of variously-sized bowls of whalebone, wood, or skin, completed the list of vessels, and it was evident that they were made to contain _anything_." the esquimaux use two kinds of boats,--the "oomiak" and "kayak." the oomiak is merely a large species of punt, used exclusively by the women; but the kayak is a triumph in the art of naval architecture, and is as elegant as it is ingenious. it is about twenty-five feet in length, and less than two in breadth of beam. in shape it has been compared to a weaver's shuttle, though it tapers much more elegantly than this piece of machinery. it is decked from stem to stern, excepting a circular hole very nearly amidships, and this round hatchway is just large enough to admit the body of an esquimaux in a sitting posture. around the rim of the circle is a little ridge, sometimes higher in front than at the back, and this ridge is often ornamented with a hoop of ivory. a flat piece of wood runs along each side of the frame, and is, in fact, the only piece of any strength in a kayak. its depth in the centre is four or five inches, and its thickness about three fourths of an inch; it tapers to a point at the commencement of the stem and stern projections. sixty-four ribs are fastened to this gunwale piece; seven slight rods run the whole length of the bottom and outside the ribs. the bottom is rounded, and has no keel; twenty-two little beams or cross-pieces keep the frame on a stretch above, and one strong batten runs along the centre, from stem to stern, being, of course, discontinued at the seat part. the ribs are made of ground willow, also of whalebone, or, if it can be procured, of good-grained wood. the whole contrivance does not weigh over fifty or sixty pounds; so that a man easily carries his kayak on his head, which, by the form of the rim, he can do without the assistance of his hands. an esquimaux prides himself in the neat appearance of his boat, and has a warm skin placed in its bottom to sit on. his posture is with the legs pointed forward, and he cannot change his position without the assistance of another person; in all cases where a weight is to be lifted, an alteration of stowage, or any movement to be made, it is customary for two kayaks to lie together; and the paddle of each being placed across the other, they form a steady double boat. an inflated seal's bladder forms, invariably, part of the equipage of a canoe, and the weapons are confined in their places by small lines of whalebone, stretched tightly across the upper covering, so as to receive the points or handles of the spears beneath them. flesh is frequently stowed within the stem or stern, as are also birds and eggs; but a seal, although round, and easily made to roll, is so neatly balanced on the upper part of the boat as seldom to require a lashing. when esquimaux are not paddling, their balance must be nicely preserved, and a trembling motion is always observable in the boat. the most difficult position for managing a kayak is when going before the wind, and with a little swell running. any inattention would instantly; by exposing the broadside, overturn this frail vessel. the dexterity with which they are turned, the velocity of their way, and the extreme elegance of form of the kayaks, render an esquimaux of the highest interest when sitting independently, and urging his course towards his prey. "the paddle is double-bladed, nine feet three inches in length, small at the grasp, and widening to four inches at the blades, which are thin, and edged with ivory for strength as well as ornament. "the next object of importance to the boat is the sledge, which finds occupation during at least three fourths of the year. a man who possesses both this and a canoe is considered a person of property. to give a particular description of the sledge would be impossible, as there are no two actually alike; and the materials of which they are composed are as various as their form. the best are made of the jaw-bones of the whale, sawed to about two inches in thickness, and in depth from six inches to a foot. these are the runners, and are shod with a thin plank of the same material; the side-pieces are connected by means of bones, pieces of wood, or deers' horns, lashed across, with a few inches space between each, and they yield to any great strain which the sledge may receive. the general breadth of the upper part of the sledge is about twenty inches; but the runners lean inwards, and therefore at bottom it is rather greater. the length of bone sledges is from four feet to fourteen. their weight is necessarily great; and one of moderate size, that is to say, about ten or twelve feet, was found to be two hundred and seventeen pounds. the skin of the walrus is very commonly used during the coldest part of the winter, as being hard-frozen, and resembling an inch board, with ten times the strength, for runners. another ingenious contrivance is, by casing moss and earth in seal's skin, so that by pouring a little water, a round hard bolster is easily formed. across all these kinds of runners there is the same arrangement of bones, sticks, etc, on the upper part; and the surface which passes over the snow is coated with ice, by mixing snow with fresh water, which assists greatly in lightening the load for the dogs, as it slides forwards with ease. boys frequently amuse themselves by yoking several dogs to a small piece of seal's skin, and sitting on it, holding by the traces. their plan is then to set off at full speed, and he who bears the greatest number of bumps before he relinquishes his hold is considered a very fine fellow. "the esquimaux possess various kinds of spears, but their difference is chiefly in consequence of the substances of which they are composed, and not in their general form. "one called ka-te-teek, is a large and strong-handled spear, with an ivory point made for despatching any wounded animal in the water. it is never thrown, but has a place appropriated for it on the kayak. "the oonak is a lighter kind than the former; also ivory-headed. it has a bladder fastened to it, and has a loose head with a line attached; this being darted into an animal, is instantly liberated from the handle which gives the impetus. some few of these weapons are constructed of the solid ivory of the unicorn's horn, about four feet in length, and remarkably well-rounded and polished. "ip-poo-too-yoo, is another kind of hand-spear, varying but little from the one last described. it has, however, no appendages. "the noogh-wit is of two kinds; but both are used for striking birds, young animals, or fish. the first has a double fork at the extremity, and there are three other barbed ones at about half its length, diverging in different directions, so that if the end pair should miss, some of the centre ones might strike. the second kind has only three barbed forks at the head. all the points are of ivory, and the natural curve of the walrus tusk favours and facilitates their construction. "amongst the minor instruments of the ice-hunting are a long bone feeler for plumbing any cracks through which seals are suspected of breathing, and also for trying the safety of the road. another contrivance is occasionally used with the same effect as the float of a fishing-line. its purpose it to warn the hunter, who is watching a seal-hole, when the animal rises to the surface, so that he may strike without seeing, or being seen, by his prey. this is a most delicate little rod of bone or ivory, of about a foot in length, and the thickness of a fine knitting-needle. at the lower end is a small knob like a pin's head, and the upper extremity has a fine piece of sinew tied to it, so as to fasten it loosely to the side of the hole. the animal, on rising, does not perceive so small an object hanging in the water, and pushes it up with his nose, when the watchful esquimaux, observing his little beacon in motion, strikes down, and secures his prize. "small ivory pegs or pins are used to stop the holes made by the spears in the animal's body; thus the blood, a great luxury to the natives, is saved. "the same want of wood which renders it necessary to find substitutes in the construction of spears, also occasions the great variety of bows. the horn of the musk-ox, thinned horns of deer, or other bony substances, are as frequently used or met with as wood, in the manufacture of these weapons, in which elasticity is a secondary consideration. three or four pieces of horn or wood are frequently joined together in one bow,--the strength lying alone in a vast collection of small plaited sinews; these, to the number of perhaps a hundred, run down the back of the bow, and being quite tight, and having the spring of catgut, cause the weapon, when unstrung, to turn the wrong way; when bent, their united strength and elasticity are amazing. the bowstring is of fifteen to twenty plaits, each loose from the other, but twisted round when in use, so that a few additional turns will at any time alter its length. the general length of the bows is about three feet and a half. "the arrows are short, light, and formed according to no general rule as to length or thickness. a good one has half the shaft of bone, and a head of hard slate, or a small piece of iron; others have sharply-pointed bone heads: none are barbed. two feathers are used for the end, and are tied opposite each other, with the flat sides parallel. a neatly-formed case contains the bow and a few arrows. sealskin is preferred for this purpose, as more effectually resisting the wet than any other. a little bag, which is attached to the side, contains a stone for sharpening, and some spare arrow-heads carefully wrapped up in a piece of skin. "the bow is held in a horizontal position, and though capable of great force, is rarely used at a greater distance than from twelve to twenty yards." their houses, clothing, sledges, boats, utensils, and arms, being now described, it only remains to be seen in what manner these most singular people pass their time, how they supply themselves with food, and how they manage to support life during the long dark winter, and the scarce less hospitable summer of their rigorous clime. their occupations from year to year are carried on with an almost unvarying regularity, though, like their dresses, they change according to the season. their short summer is chiefly employed in hunting the reindeer, and other quadrupeds,--for the simple reason that it is at this season that these appear in greatest numbers among them, migrating northward as the snow thaws from the valleys and hill-sides. not but that they also kill the reindeer in other seasons, for these animals do not all migrate southward on the approach of winter, a considerable number remaining all the year upon the shores of the arctic sea, as well as the islands to the north of them. of course, the esquimaux kills a reindeer when and where he can; and it may be here remarked, that in no part of the american continent has the reindeer been trained or domesticated as among the laplanders and the people of russian asia. neither the northern indians (tinne) nor the esquimaux have ever reached this degree in domestic civilisation, and this fact is one of the strongest points of difference between the american esquimaux and their kindred races in the north of asia. one tribe of true esquimaux alone hold the reindeer in subjection, viz the tuski, already mentioned, on the asiatic shore; and it might easily be shown that the practice reached them from the contiguous countries of northern asia. the american esquimaux, like those of greenland, possess only the dog as a domesticated animal; and him they have trained to draw their sledges in a style that exhibits the highest order of skill, and even elegance. the esquimaux dog is too well-known to require particular description. he is often brought to this country in the return ships of arctic whalers and voyagers; and his thick, stout body covered closely with long stiff hair of a whitish or yellowish colour, his cocked ears and smooth muzzle, and, above all, the circle-like curling of his bushy tail, will easily be remembered by any one who has ever seen this valuable animal. in summer, then, the esquimaux desert their winter houses upon the shore, and taking with them their tents make an excursion into the interior. they do not go far from the sea--no farther than is necessary to find the valleys browsed by the reindeer, and the fresh-water lakes, which, at this season, are frequented by flocks of swans, geese of various kinds, ducks, and other aquatic birds. hunting the reindeer forms their principal occupation at this time; but, of course, "all is fish that comes into the net" of an esquimaux; and they also employ themselves in capturing the wild fowl and the fresh-water fish, in which these lakes abound. with the wild fowl it is the breeding and moulting season, and the esquimaux not only rob them of their eggs, but take large numbers of the young before they are sufficiently fledged to enable them to fly, and also the old ones while similarly incapacitated from their condition of "moult." in their swift kayaks which they have carried with them on their heads, they can pursue the fluttering flocks over any part of a lake, and overtake them wherever they may go. this is a season of great plenty in the larder of the _inuit_. the fresh-water fish are struck with spears out of the kayaks, or, when there is ice on the water strong enough to bear the weight of a man, the fish are captured in a different manner. a hole is broken in the ice, the broken fragments are skimmed off and cast aside, and then the fisherman lets down a shining bauble--usually the white tooth of some animal--to act as a bait. this he keeps bobbing about until the fish, perceiving it afar off through the translucent water, usually approaches to reconnoitre, partly from curiosity, but more, perhaps, to see if it be anything to eat. when near enough the esquimaux adroitly pins the victim with his fish spear, and lands it upon the ice. this species of fishing is usually delivered over to the boys--the time of the hunters being too valuable to be wasted in waiting for the approach of the fish to the decoy, an event of precarious and uncertain occurrence. in capturing the reindeer, the esquimaux practises no method very different from that used by "still hunters" in other parts of america. he has to depend alone upon his bow and arrows, but with these poor weapons he contrives to make more havoc among a herd of deer than would a backwoods hunter with his redoubtable rifle. there is no mystery about his superior management. it consists simply in the exhibition of the great strategy and patience with which he makes his approaches, crawling from point to point and using every available cover which the ground may afford. but all this would be of little avail were it not for a _ruse_ which he puts in practice, and which brings the unsuspecting deer within reach of his deadly arrows. this consists in a close imitation of the cries of the animal, so close that the sharp-eared creature itself cannot detect the counterfeit, but, drawing nearer and nearer to the rock or bush from which the call appears to proceed, falls a victim to the deception. the silent arrow makes no audible sound; the herd, if slightly disturbed at seeing one of their number fall, soon compose themselves, and go on browsing upon the grass or licking up the lichen. another is attracted by the call, and another, who fall in their turn victims either to their curiosity or the instinct of amorous passions. for this species of hunting, the bow far excels any other weapon; even the rifle is inferior to it. sometimes the esquimaux take the deer in large numbers, by hunting them with dogs, driving the herd into some defile or _cul de sac_ among the rocks, and then killing them at will with their arrows and javelins. this, however, is an exceptional case, as such natural "pounds" are not always at hand. the indians farther south construct artificial enclosures; but in the esquimaux country there is neither time nor material for such elaborate contrivances. the esquimaux who dwell in those parts frequented by the musk-oxen, hunt these animals very much as they do the reindeer; but killing a musk bull, or cow either, is a feat of far grander magnitude, and requires more address than shooting a tiny deer. i have said that the esquimaux do not, even in these hunting excursions, stray very far into the interior. there is a good reason for their keeping close to the seashore. were they to penetrate far into the land they would be in danger of meeting with their _bitter_ foemen, the _tinne_ indians, who in this region also hunt reindeer and musk-oxen. war to the knife is the practice between these two races of people, and has ever been since the first knowledge of either. they often meet in conflict upon the rivers inland, and these conflicts are of so cruel and sanguinary a nature as to imbue each with a wholesome fear of the other. the indians, however, dread the esquimaux more than the latter fear them; and up to a late period took good care never to approach their coasts; but the musket and rifle have now got into the hands of some of the northern tribes, who avail themselves of these superior weapons, not only to keep the esquimaux at bay, but also to render them more cautious about extending their range towards the interior. when the dreary winter begins to make its appearance, and the reindeer grow scarce upon the snow-covered plains, the esquimaux return to their winter villages upon the coast. quadrupeds and birds no longer occupy their whole attention, for the drift of their thoughts is now turned towards the inhabitants of the great deep. the seal and the walrus are henceforth the main objects of pursuit. perhaps during the summer, when the water was open, they may have visited the shore for the purpose of capturing that great giant of the icy seas--a whale. if so, and they have been successful in only one or two captures, they may look forward to a winter of plenty--since the flesh of a full-grown whale, or, better still, a brace of such ample creatures, would be sufficient to feed a whole tribe for months. they have no curing process for this immense carcass; they stand in need of none. neither salt nor smoking is required in their climate. jack frost is their provision curer, and performs the task without putting them either to trouble or expense. it is only necessary for them to hoist the great flitches upon scaffolds, already erected for the purpose, so as to keep the meat from the wolves, wolverines, foxes, and their own half-starved dogs. from their aerial larder they can cut a piece of blubber whenever they feel hungry, or they have a mind to eat, and this _mind_ they are in so long as a morsel is left. their mode of capturing a whale is quite different from that practised by the whale-fishers. when the huge creature is discovered near, the whole tribe sally forth, and surround it in their kayaks; they then hurl darts into its body, but instead of these having long lines attached to them, they are provided with sealskins sewed up air-tight and inflated, like bladders. when a number of these become attached to the body of the whale, the animal, powerful though he be, finds great difficulty in sinking far down, or even progressing rapidly through the water. he soon rises to the surface, and the sealskin buoys indicate his whereabouts to the occupants of the kayaks, who in their swift little crafts, soon dart up to him again, and shoot a fresh volley into his body. in this way the whale is soon "wearied out," and then falls a victim to their larger spears, just as in the case where a capture is made by regular, whalers. i need scarcely add that a success of this kind is hailed as a jubilee of the tribe, since it not only brings a benefit to the whole community, but is also a piece of fortune of somewhat rare occurrence. when no whales have been taken, the long, dark winter may justly be looked forward to with some solicitude; and it is then that the esquimaux requires to put forth all his skill and energies for the capture of the walrus or the seal--the latter of which may be regarded as the staff of his life, furnishing him not only with food, but with light, fuel, and clothing for his body and limbs. of the seals that inhabit the polar seas there are several species; but the common seal (_calocephalus vitulina_) and the harp-seal (_calocephalus groenlandicus_) are those most numerous, and consequently the principal object of pursuit. the esquimaux uses various stratagems for taking these creatures, according to the circumstances in which they may be encountered; and simpletons as the seals may appear, they are by no means easy of capture. they are usually very shy and suspicious, even in places where man has never been seen by them. they have other enemies, especially in the great polar bear; and the dread of this tyrant of the icy seas keeps them ever on the alert. notwithstanding their watchfulness, however, both the bear and the biped make great havoc among them, and each year hundreds of thousands of them are destroyed. the bear, in capturing seals, exhibits a skill and cunning scarce excelled by that of the rational being himself. when this great quadruped perceives a seal basking on the edge of an ice-field, he makes his approaches, not by rushing directly towards it, which he well knows would defeat his purpose. if once seen by the seal, the latter has only to betake himself to the water, where it can soon sink or swim beyond the reach of the bear. to prevent this, the bear gets well to leeward, and then diving below the surface, makes his approaches under water, now and then cautiously raising his head to get the true bearings of his intended victim. after a number of these subaqueous "reaches," he gets close in to the edge of the floe in such a position as to cut off the seal's retreat to the water. a single spring brings him on the ice, and then, before the poor seal has time to make a brace of flounders, it finds itself locked in the deadly embrace of the bear. when seals are thus detected asleep, the esquimaux approaches them in his kayak, taking care to paddle cautiously and silently. if he succeed in getting between them and the open water, he kills them in the ordinary way--by simply knocking them on the snout with a club, or piercing them with a spear. sometimes, however, the seal goes to sleep on the surface of the open water. then the approach is made in a similar manner by means of the kayak, and the animal is struck with a harpoon. but a single blow does not always kill a seal, especially if it be a large one, and the blow has been ill-directed. in such cases the animal would undoubtedly make his escape, and carry the harpoon along with it, which would be a serious loss to the owner, who does not obtain such weapons without great difficulty. to prevent this, the esquimaux uses a contrivance similar to that employed in the capture of the whale,--that is, he attaches a float or buoy to his harpoon by means of a cord, and this so impedes the passage of the seal through the water, that it can neither dive nor swim to any very great distance. the float is usually a walrus bladder inflated in the ordinary way, and wherever the seal may go, the float betrays its track, enabling the esquimaux to follow it in his shuttle-shaped kayak, and pierce it again with a surer aim. in winter, when the sea is quite covered with ice, you might fancy that the seal-fishery would be at an end, for the seal is essentially a marine animal; and although it can exist upon the ice or on dry land, it could not _subsist_ there. access to the water it must have, in order to procure its food, which consists of small fish and molluscs. of course, when the ice forms on the surface, the seal is in its true element--the water underneath--but when this ice becomes, as it often does, a full yard in thickness, extending over hundreds of miles of the sea, how then is the seal to be got at? it could not be reached at all; and at such a season the esquimaux people would undoubtedly starve, were it not for a habit peculiar to this animal, which, happily for them, brings it within their reach. though the seal can live under water like a fish, and probably could pass a whole winter under the ice without much inconvenience, it likes now and then to take a little fresh air, and have a quiet nap upon the upper surface in the open air. with this design it breaks a hole through the ice, while the latter is yet thin, and this hole it keeps carefully open during the whole winter, clearing out each new crust as it forms. no matter to what thickness the ice may attain, this hole always forms a breathing-place for the seal, and a passage by which he may reach the upper surface, and indulge himself in--his favourite siesta in the open air. knowing this habit, the esquimaux takes advantage of it to make the seal his captive. when the animal is discovered on the ice, the hunter approaches with the greatest stealth and caution. this is absolutely necessary: for if the enemy is perceived, or makes the slightest noise, the wary seal flounders rapidly into his hole, and is lost beyond redemption. if badly frightened, he will not appear for a long time, denying himself his open air exercise until the patience of his persecutor is quite worn out, and the coast is again clear. in making his approaches, the hunter uses all his art, not only taking advantage of every inequality--such as snow-drifts and ice-hillocks--to conceal himself; but he also practises an ingenious deception by dressing himself in the skin of a seal of like species, giving his body the figure of the animal, and counterfeiting its motions, by floundering clumsily over the ice, and oscillating his head from side to side, just as seals are seen to do. this deception often proves successful, when the hunter under any other shape would in vain endeavour to get within striking distance of his prey. when seals are scarce, and the supply greatly needed, the esquimaux often lies patiently for hours together on the edge of a seal-hole waiting for the animal to come up. in order to give it time to get well out upon the ice, the hunter conceals himself behind a heap of snow, which he has collected and piled up for the purpose. a float-stick, ingeniously placed in the water of the breathing-hole, serves as a signal to tell when the seal is mounting through his trap-like passage, the motion of the stick betraying its ascent. the hunter then gets himself into the right attitude to strike, and summons all his energies for the encounter. even during the long, dark night of winter this mode of capturing the seal is practised. the hunter, having discovered a breathing-hole-- which its dark colour enables him to find--proceeds in the following manner: he scrapes away the snow from around it, and lifting up some water pours it on the ice, so as to make a circle of a darker hue around the orifice. he then makes a sort of cake of pure white snow, and with this covers the hole as with a lid. in the centre of this lid he punches a small opening with the shaft-end of his spear, and then sits down and patiently awaits the issue. the seal ascends unsuspiciously as before. the dark water, bubbling up through the small central orifice, betrays its approach, which can be perceived even in the darkest night. the hunter does not wait for its climbing out upon the ice. perhaps if he did so, the suspicious creature might detect the device, and dive down again. but it is not allowed time for reflection. before it can turn its unwieldly body, the heavy spear of the hunter--struck through the yielding snow--descends upon its skull, and kills it on the instant. the great "walrus" or "morse" (_trichecus rosmarus_) is another important product of the polar seas, and is hunted by the esquimaux with great assiduity. this splendid amphibious animal is taken by contrivances very similar to those used for the seal; but the capture of a walrus is an event of importance, second only to the striking of a whale. its great carcass not only supplies food to a whole village, but an oil superior to that of the whale, besides various other useful articles. its skin, bones, and intestines are employed by the esquimaux for many domestic purposes,--and, in addition, there are the huge molar tusks, that furnish one of the most valuable ivories of commerce, from which are manufactured those beautiful sets of teeth, of dazzling whiteness, that, gleaming between vermilion lips, you may often see at a ball or an evening party! chapter five. mundrucus, or beheaders. in our general sketch of the amazonian indians it was stated that there were some few tribes who differed in certain customs from all the rest, and who might even be regarded as _odd among the odd_. one of these tribes is the _mundrucu_, which, from its numbers and warlike strength, almost deserves to be styled a nation. it is, at all events, a powerful confederacy, of different tribes, linked together in one common nationality, and including in their league other indians which the mundrucus themselves first conquered, and afterwards associated with themselves on terms of equality; in other words, "annexed" them. the same sort of annexation or alliance is common among the tribes of north america; as in the case of the powerful comanche nation, who extend their protecting alliance over the wacoes, washites, and cayguaas or kioways. the _mahue_ is the principal tribe that is patronised in this fashion by the mundrucus, and the two together number at least , souls. before the days of the portuguese slave-hunting, the mundrucus occupied the south bank of the amazon, from the mouth of the tapajos to that of the madeira. this infamous traffic had the effect of clearing the banks of the great river of its native inhabitants,--except such of them as chose to submit to slavery, or become _neophytes_, by adopting the monkish faith. neither of these courses appeared pleasing in the eyes of the mundrucus, and they adopted the only alternative that was likely to insure their independence,--by withdrawing from the dangerous proximity of the sanguinary slave-trade. this retreat of the mundrucus, however, was by no means an ignominious flight. the withdrawal was voluntary on their part, and not compulsory, as was the case with weaker tribes. from the earliest times they had presented a firm front to the portuguese encroachments, and the latter were even forced into a sort of nefarious alliance with them. the leaving the amazon on the part of the mundrucus was rather the result of a negotiation, by which they conceded their territory--between the mouths of the tapajos and madeira--to the brazilian government; and to this hour they are not exactly unfriendly to brazilian _whites_, though to the mulattoes and negroes, who constitute a large proportion of the brazilian population, the mundrucu knows no other feeling than that of a deadly hostility. the origin of their hatred of the brazilian blacks is to be found in a revolt which occurred in the provinces of the lower amazon (at para) in . it was a _caste_ revolution against whites, but more especially against _european_ portuguese. in this affair the mundrucus were employed against the darker-skinned rebels--the _gabanos_, as they were called--and did great service in putting down the rebellion. hence they retain a lingering spark of friendship for their _ci-devant_ white allies; or perhaps it would be more correct to say they do not actually hate them, but carry on a little commerce with their traders. for all that, they occasionally cut the throats of a few of the latter,--especially those who do not come to deal directly with them, but who pass through their country in going from the amazon to the diamond mines of brazil. these last are called _moncaos_, and their business is to carry supplies from the towns on the amazon (santarem and para) to the miners of gold and washers of diamonds in the district of matto grosso, of which cuiaba is the capital. their route is by water and "portage" up the tapajos river, and through the territory of the dreaded mundrucus,--requiring a journey of six months, as perilous and toilsome as it is tedious. the present residence of the mundrucus is between the tapajos and madeira, as formerly, but far up on both rivers. on the tapajos, above what are known as the "caxoeiras," or cataracts, their villages are found. there they dwell, free from all molestation on the part of the whites; their borders extending widely around them, and limited only by contact with those of other warlike tribes like themselves, who are their deadly enemies. among these last are the _muras_, who dwell at the mouths of the madeira and rio negro. the mundrucus build the _malocca_, elsewhere described; only in their case it is not used as a dwelling, but rather as a grand arsenal, a council-chamber, a ballroom, and, if need be, a fortress. when fearing an attack, all sleep in it "under arms." it is a structure of large size and great strength, usually rendered more unassailable by being "chinked" and plastered with clay. it is in this building that are deposited those horrid trophies which have given to the mundrucus their terrible title of _decapitadores_, or "beheaders." the title and its origin shall be presently explained. around the great malocca the huts are placed, forming a village, and in these the people ordinarily dwell. the mundrucus are not without ample means of subsistence. like most other amazonian tribes, they cultivate a little manioc, plantains, and even maize; and they know how to prepare the _farinha_ meal, and, unfortunately, also the detestable _chicha_, the universal beverage of the south-american aborigines. they have their vessels of calabash-- both of the vegetable and arborescent kinds--and a full set of implements and utensils for the field and kitchen. their war weapons are those common to other amazonian tribes, and they sometimes also carry the spear. they have canoes of hollow trees; and, of course, fishing and hunting are the employments of the men,--the women, as almost everywhere else among indians, doing the drudgery,--the tilling and reaping, the "hewing of wood and the drawing of water," the making the household utensils and using them,--all such offices being beneath the dignity of the "lordly," or rather _lazy_ savage. i have said that they carry on a commercial intercourse with the white traders. it is not of much magnitude, and their exports consist altogether of the native and spontaneous productions of the soil, sarsaparilla being one of the chief articles. they gather this (the women and children do) during six months of the year. the other six months no industry is followed,--as this period is spent in hostile excursions against the neighbouring tribes. their imports consist of iron tools and pieces for weapons; but they more especially barter the product of their labour for ornamental gewgaws,--such as savages universally admire and desire. their sarsaparilla is good, and much sought for in the medical market. every one is acquainted with the nature and character of this valuable medicinal root, the appearance of which must also be known to almost everybody,--since it is so very common for our druggists to display the bundles of it in their shop windows. perhaps every one is not acquainted with the fact, that the sarsaparilla root is the product of a great many different species of plants most of them of the genus _simlax_, but not a few belonging to plants of other genera, as those of _carex_ and _herreria_ the roots of which are also sold as sarsaparilla. the species of simlax are widely distributed throughout the whole torrid zone, in asia, africa, and america, and some kinds are found growing many degrees outside the tropics,--as is the case in virginia and the valley of the mississippi, and also on the other side of the pacific on the great continent-island of australia. the best sarsaparilla, however, is that which is produced in tropical countries, and especially in moist situations, where the atmosphere is at once hot and humid. it requires these conditions to concentrate the virtue of its sap, and render it more active. it would be idle to give a list of the different species of simlax that furnish the sarsaparilla root of the pharmacopeia. there is an almost endless number of them, and they are equally varied in respect to excellence of quality; some kinds are in reality almost worthless, and for this reason, in using it as a medicine, great care should be taken in the selection of the species. like all other articles, either of food or medicine, the valuable kinds are the scarcest; the reason in this case being that the best sarsaparilla is found in situations not only difficult of access, but where the gathering of its root is attended with considerable danger, from the unhealthy nature of the climate and the hostility of the savages in whose territory it grows. as to the quantity that may be obtained, there is no limit, on the score of any scarcity of the plant itself, since it is found throughout all the countries of tropical america plenteously distributed both in species and individual plants. such quantities of it grow along the banks of some south-american rivers, that the indians have a belief that those streams known as _black waters_--such as the rio negro and others--derive their peculiar colour from the roots of this plant. this, however, is an erroneous supposition, as there are many of the _white-water_ rivers that run through regions abundantly supplied with the sarsaparilla root. the black water, therefore, must arise from some other cause, as yet unknown. as observed, the sarsaparilla of the mundrucu country is of the very best quality. it is the _simlax papyracea_ of soiret, and is known in commerce as the "lisbon," or "brazilian." it is a climbing plant, or under-shrub, the stem of which is flattened and angular, with rows of prickles standing along the prominent edges. its leaves are of an oval acuminated shape, and marked with _longitudinal_ nerves. it shoots without any support, to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, after which it embraces the surrounding branches of trees and spreads to a great distance in every direction. the main root sends out many long tendrils, all of like thickness, covered with a brownish bark, or sometimes of a dark-grey colour. these tendrils are fibrous, and about as thick as a quill. they present a constant tendency to become crooked, and they are also wrinkled longitudinally, with here and there some smaller lateral fibres branching off from the sides. it is in the bark or epidermis of the rhizomes that the medicinal virtue lies; but the tendrils--both rhizome and bark--are collected together, and no attempt is made to separate them, until they have reached their commercial destination. indeed, even these are sold together, the mode of preparing the root being left to the choice of the consumer, or the apothecary who procures it. the mundrucus collect it during the six months of the rainy season, partly because during the remaining six they are otherwise employed, and partly for the reason that, in the time of rain, the roots are more easily extracted from the damp soil. the process simply consists in digging them up or dragging them out of the earth--the latter mode especially where the tendrils lie near the surface, and they will pull up without breaking. if the main root be not dug out, it will send forth new tendrils, which in a short time would yield a new crop; but the improvident savages make no prudential calculations of this kind-- present convenience forming their sole consideration; and on this account both the root and plant are generally destroyed by them during the operation of collecting. as already stated, this labour devolves upon the women, who are also assisted in it by their children. they proceed into the depths of the forest--where the simlax grows in greatest abundance--and after collecting as much root as they can carry home with them, they return with their bundles to the malocca when fresh gathered the sarsaparilla is heavy enough--partly on account of the sap which it then contains, and partly from the quantity of the mud or earth that adheres to the corrugated surface of the roots. it is extremely probable that in this fresh state the virtue of the sarsaparilla, as a blood-purifier, is much greater than after it has passed through the channels of commerce; and the writer of this sketch has some reason, derived from personal experience, to believe that such is the case. certain it is, that the reputation of this invaluable drug is far less in countries where the plant does not grow, than in those where it is common and can be obtained in its fresh state. in all parts of spanish america its virtues are unquestioned, and experience has led to a more extensive use of it there than elsewhere. it is probable, therefore, that the virtue exists in the juice rather than the cortical integument of the rhizome; and this of course would be materially altered and deteriorated, if not altogether destroyed, in the process of exsiccation, which must necessarily take place in the time required for transporting it to distant parts of the world. in the european pharmacopeia it is the epidermis of the root which is supposed to contain the sanitary principle; and this, which is of a mucilaginous nature and slightly bitter taste, is employed, both in decoctions and infusions, as a tonic and alterative. in america, however, it is generally taken for what is termed _purifying the blood_--for the same purpose as the rhizomes of the _lauras sassafras_ and other plants are used; but the sarsaparilla is generally considered the best, and it certainly _is_ the best of all known medicines for this purpose. why it has fallen in the estimation of the old world practitioners, or why it never obtained so great a reputation as it has in america, may arise from two circumstances. first, that the root offered for sale is generally the product of the less valuable species; and second, that the sap, and not the rhizome, may be the part that contains the virtuous principle. when the collected roots have been kept for awhile they become dry and light, and for the convenience of stowage and carriage--an important consideration to the trader in his eight-ton _garratea_--it is necessary to have the roots done up in packages of a uniform length and thickness. these packages are formed by laying the roots side by side, and doubling in the ends of the longer ones. a bundle of the proper size for stowage contains an _arroba_ of twenty-five pounds, though the weight varies according to the condition of the root. uniformity in size is the chief object aimed at, and the bundles are made of a round or cylindrical shape, about five inches in diameter, and something more than a yard in length. they are trimmed off small at the ends--so as to admit of stowage without leaving any empty space between two tiers of them--and each bundle is tightly corded round from one end to the other with a "sipo," or creeping plant. it has been stated that this "sipo" is a root of the sarsaparilla itself, with the bark scraped off; and, indeed, its own root would serve well enough--were it not that putting it to such a use would destroy its medicinal value, and thus cause a considerable waste of the costly material. the sarsaparilla is not to be had for nothing even upon the banks of the tapajos. a bundle of the best quality does not leave the hands of the mundrucu until about four dollars' worth of exchange commodities have been put into them, which would bring the price of it to something over sixpence a pound. he is, therefore, a little particular about wasting a material that has cost him--or rather his wife and children--so much trouble in collecting. his cordage is obtained more cheaply, and consists of the long, flexible roots of a species of _pothos_, which roots--being what are termed _aerial_ and not buried in the ground--require no labour or digging to get at them. it is only necessary to stretch up the hand, and pull them down from the tops of lofty trees, from which they hang like streamers, often to the length of a hundred feet. these are toughened by the bark being scraped off; and when that is done they are ready for use, and serve not only to tie up the bundles of sarsaparilla, but for many other purposes in the domestic economy of the mundrucus. in addition to the sarsaparilla, the mundrucu furnishes the trader with several other items of commercial value--for his climate, although one of the most unhealthy in all the amazon region, on account of its great heat and humidity, is for that very reason one of the most fertile. nearly all those tropical vegetable products which are characteristics of brazilian export commerce can here be produced of the most luxuriant kind; but it is only those that grow spontaneously at his very doors that tempt the mundrucu to take the trouble of collecting them. there is one article however, which he not only takes some trouble to collect, but also to manufacture into an item of commercial exchange--a very rare item indeed. this is the _guarana_, which is manufactured from the fruit of a tree almost peculiar to the mundrucu territory-- since nowhere is it found so abundantly as on the tapajos. it is so prized in the brazilian settlements as to command almost its weight in silver when transported thither. it is the constituent element of a drink, which has a stimulating effect on the system, somewhat more powerful than tea or coffee. it will prevent sleep; but its most valuable property is, that it is a good febrifuge, equal to the best quinine. _guarana_ is prepared from the seeds of an inga--one of the _mimosacae_. it is a low, wide-spreading tree like most of the mimosa family. the legumes are gathered, and the seeds roasted in them. the latter are then taken out, and after being ground to powder, are mixed with water so as to make a tough paste, which is moulded into little bricks, and when dried is ready for use. the beverage is then prepared by scraping a table-spoonful of dust from the brick, and mixing it with about a pint of water; and the dry paste, keeping for any length of time, is ready whenever wanted. the _guarana_ bush grows elsewhere in the amazon valley, and on some headwaters of the orinoco, where certain tribes also know how to prepare the drink. but it is sparingly distributed, and is nowhere so common as on the upper tapajos hence its high price in the markets of brazil. the mundrucu manufactures it, not only for "home use," but for "exportation." he prepares another singular article of luxury, and this he makes exclusively for his own use,--not for the gratification of his lips or palate, but for his nose,--in other words, a snuff. do not fancy, however, that it is snuff of the ordinary kind--the pulverised produce of innocent tobacco. no such thing; but a composition of such a powerful and stimulating character, that he who inhales it feels as if struck by an electric shock; his body trembles; his eyes start forward as if they would forsake their sockets; his limbs fail to support him; and he drops to the earth like one in a state of intoxication! for a short time he is literally mad; but the fit is soon over,--lasting usually only a few minutes,--and then a feeling of renewed strength, courage, and joyousness succeeds. such are the consequences of taking snuff with a mundrucu. and now to describe the nature of the substance which produces these powerful effects. like the _guarana_ this snuff is a preparation, having for its basis the seeds of a leguminous tree. this time, however, it is an _acacia_, not an _inga_. it is the _acacia niopo_; so called because "niopo" is the name given to the snuff itself by certain tribes (the ottomacs and others), who, like the mundrucus, are snuff-takers. it is also called _curupa_, and the apparatus for preparing and taking it--for there is an apparatus of an extensive kind--is termed _parica_, in the general language (_lingoa geral_) of the amazonian regions. we shall describe the preparation, the apparatus, and the ceremonial. the pods of the _acacia niopo_--a small tree, with very delicate pinnate leaves--are plucked when ripe. they are then cut into small pieces and flung into a vessel of water. in this they remain until macerated, and until the seeds have turned black. these are then picked out, pounded in a mortar, which is usually the pericarp of the _sapucaia_, or "monkey-pot" tree (_lecythys ollaria_). the pounding reduces them to a paste, which is taken up, clapped between the hands and formed into little cakes--but not until it has been mixed with some manioc flour, some lime from a burnt shell (a _helix_), and a little juice from the fresh leaves of the "abuta"--a menispermous plant of the genus _cocculus_. the cakes are then dried or "barbecued" upon a primitive gridiron--the bars of which are saplings of hard wood--and when well-hardened the snuff is ready for the "box." in a box it is actually carried--usually one made out of some rare and beautiful shell. the ceremonial of taking the snuff is the most singular part of the performance. when a mundrucu feels inclined for a "pinch"--though it is something more than a _pinch_ that he inhales when he _does_ feel inclined--he takes the cake out of the box, scrapes off about a spoonful of it into a shallow, saucer-shaped vessel of the calabash kind, and then spreads the powder all over the bottom of the vessel in a regular "stratification." the spreading is not performed by the fingers, but with a tiny, pencil-like brush made out of the bristles of the great ant-eater (_myrmecophaga jubata_). he is in no hurry, but takes his time,--for as you may guess from its effects, the performance is not one so often repeated as that of ordinary snuff-taking. when the _niopo_ dust is laid to his liking, another implement is brought into play, the construction of which it is also necessary to describe. it is a "machine" of six to eight inches in length, and is made of two quills from the wing of the _gaviao real_, or "harpy eagle" (_harpyia destructor_). these quills are placed side by side for the greater part of their length, forming two parallel tubes, and they are thus neatly whipped together by a thread. at one end they are pressed apart so as to diverge to a width corresponding to the breadth between the mundrucu's nostrils,--where it is intended they shall be placed during the ceremony of snuff-taking. and thus are they placed,--one end of each quill being slightly intruded within the line of the septum, while the other end rests upon the snuff, or wanders over the surface of the saucer, till all the powder placed there is drawn up and inhaled, producing the convulsive effects already detailed. the shank-bone of a species of bird--thought to be a plover--is sometimes used instead of the quills. it is hollow, and has a forking-tube at the end. this kind is not common or easily obtained, for the niopo-taker who has one, esteems it as the most valuable item of his apparatus. snuffing the niopo is not exclusively confined to the mundrucu. we have seen elsewhere that it is also a habit of the dirt-eating ottomacs; and other tribes on the upper amazon practise it. but the mahues, already mentioned as the allies of the mundrucus, are the most confirmed snuff-takers of all. another odd custom of the mundrucus is their habit of "tatooing." i speak of real tatooing,--that is, marking the skin with dots and lines that cannot be effaced, in contradistinction to mere _painting_, or staining, which can easily be washed off. the mundrucus paint also, with the _anotto_, _kuitoc_, _caruta_, and other pigments, but in this they only follow the practice of hundreds of other tribes. the true _tatoo_ is a far different affair, and scarcely known among the aborigines of america, though common enough in the islands of the south sea. a few other indian tribes practise it to a limited extent,--as is elsewhere stated,--but among the mundrucus it is an "institution;" and painful though the process be, it has to be endured by every one in the nation, "every mother's son," and daughter as well, that are cursed with a mundrucu for their father. it is upon the young people the infliction is performed,--when they are about eight or ten years of age. the _tatoo_ has been so often described, that i should not repeat it here; but there are a few "points" peculiar to mundrucu tatooing, and a few others, not elsewhere understood. the performance is usually the work of certain old crones, who, from long practice, have acquired great skill in the art. the chief instrument used is a comb of thorns,--not a single thorn, as is generally stated,--but a tier or row of them set comb-fashion. these thorns are the spines of the "murumuru," or "pupunha" palm (_gullielmia speciosa_). humboldt states that this palm is smooth and spineless, but in this the great, good man was in error. its trunk is so covered with thorns or spines, that when the indians require to climb it--for the purpose of procuring the valuable fruits, which they eat variously prepared--they have to erect a staging, or rude sort of ladder, to be able to get at them. the comb, then, is pressed down upon the skin of the "tatooee," till all the points have penetrated the flesh, and a row of holes is laid open, from which the blood flows profusely. as soon as this can be wiped off, ashes of a burnt gum or pitch are rubbed into the wounds, which, when healed, appear like so many dots of a deep bluish or black colour. in this way the young mundrucus, both boys and girls, get those regular rows of dotted lines, which traverse their forehead and cheeks, their arms and limbs, breasts, and bodies in such eccentric fashion. it has often been asked how these lines of dots were carried over the skin in such straight and symmetrical rows, forming regular parallel lines, or other geometrical patterns. the "comb" will explain the mystery. the tatoo, with a few strings of shell-beads or necklaces, and bracelets of monkey and jaguar teeth, is all the dress which is permitted to the mundrucu belle. in mundrucu-land it is the reverse of what is practised among civilised people: the men are the exponents of the fashions, and keep exclusively to themselves the cosmetics and bijouterie. not contented with being tatooed, these also _paint_ their bodies, by way of "overcoat," and also adorn themselves with the bright feathers of birds. they wear on their heads the beautiful circlet of macaw-plumes, and on grand occasions appear in the magnificent "feather dress," so long celebrated as the peculiar costume of the tropical-forest indian. these dresses their women weave and border, at a sacrifice of much tedious labour. they also ornament their arms and legs with rows of feathers around them, the tips turned upward and backward. the tatooing is confined to the mundrucus proper,--their allies, the mahues not following the practice, but contenting themselves with a simple "coat" of paint. it is difficult to say what motive first inducted human beings into this singular and barbarous custom. it is easier to tell why it is still followed, and the "why" is answered by saying that the mundrucus "scarify" themselves, because their fathers did so before them. many a custom among civilised nations, but little less ridiculous, if we could only think so, rests upon a similar basis. perhaps our modern abominable hat--though it has a different origin--is not less ludicrous than the tatooed patterns of the savage. certainly it is quite equal to it in ugliness, and is likely to rival it in permanence,--to our sorrow be it said. but even _we_ deal slightly in the tatoo. our jolly jack would be nobody in the forecastle without "polly," in blue, upon his weather-beaten breast, and the _foul anchor_ upon his arm. but the mundrucu baptises his unfortunate offspring in a still more savage fashion. the tattoo may be termed the _baptism in blood_, performed at the tender age of ten. when the youth--fortunately it does not extend to the weaker sex--has attained to the age of eighteen, he has then to undergo the _tocandeira_, which deserves to be called _the baptism of fire_! this too merits description. when the mundrucu youth would become a candidate for manhood, a pair of "_gloves_" is prepared for him. these consist of two pieces of a palm-tree bark, with the pith hollowed out, but left in at one end. the hollow part is of sufficient diameter to draw over the hands loosely, and so long as to reach up to mid-arm, after the fashion of gauntlets. the "gloves" being got ready, are nearly filled with ants, not only the venomous red ants, but all other species, large or small, that can either bite or sting, of which tropical south america possesses an endless variety. with this "lining" the "mittens" are ready for use, and the "novice" is compelled to draw them on. should he refuse, or even exhibit a disposition to shrink from the fiery trial, he is a lost man. from that hour he need never hold up his head, much less offer his hand and heart, for there is not a maiden in all mundrucu-land that would listen to his softest speech. he is forever debarred from the pleasure of becoming a benedict. of course he does not refuse, but plunging his hands into the "mittens," into the very midst of the crawling host, he sets about the ceremony. he must keep on the gloves till he has danced before every door in the village. he must sing as if from very joy; and there is plenty of music to accompany him, drums and fifes, and human voices,--for his parents and relatives are by his side encouraging him with their songs and gestures. he is in pain,--in positive agony,--for these venomous ants both sting and bite, and have been busy at both from the very first moment. each moment his agony grows more intense, his sufferings more acute, for the poison is thrilling through his veins,--he turns pale,-- his eyes become blood-cast,--his breast quivers with emotion and his limbs tremble beneath him; but despite all this, woe to him if he utter a cry of weakness! it would brand him with an eternal stigma,--he would never be suffered to carry the mundrucu lance to battle,--to poise upon its point the ghastly trophy of the _beheaders_. on, on, through the howling throng, amidst friends and relatives with faces anxious as his own; on to the sound of the shrill-piping reed and the hoarse booming of the indian drum; on till he stands in front of the cabin of the chief! there again the song is sung, the "jig" is danced, both proudly prolonged till the strength of the performer becomes completely exhausted. then, and not till then, the gloves are thrown aside, and the wearer falls back, into the arms of his friends, "sufficiently punished!" this is the hour of congratulation. girls gather round him, and fling their tatooed arms about his neck. they cluster and cling upon him, singing his song of triumph; but just at that crisis he is not in the mood for soft caresses; and, escaping from their blandishments, he makes a rush towards the river. on reaching its bank he plunges bodily in, and there remains up to his neck in the water, till the cooling fluid has to some extent eased his aching arms, and tranquillised the current of his boiling blood. when he emerges from the water, he is a man, fit stuff for a mundrucu warrior, and eligible to the hand of a mundrucu maiden. it may be remarked that this terrible ordeal of the mundrucus, though, perhaps, peculiar among south-american indians, has its parallel among certain tribes of the north,--the mandans and others, as detailed by catlin, one of the most acute of ethnological observers. the _scalp trophy_, too, of the northern indian has its analogy in a mundrucu custom--that which distinguishes him most of all, and which has won for him the terrible title of "beheader." this singular appellation is now to be explained. when a mundrucu has succeeded in killing an enemy, he is not, like his northern compeer, satisfied with only the skin of the head. _he must have the whole head_, scalp and skull, bones, brains, and all! and he takes all, severing the head with his knife by a clean cut across the small of the neck, and leaving the trunk to the vulture king. with the ghastly trophy poised upon the point of his lance, he returns triumphant to the malocca to receive the greetings of his tribe and the praises of his chief. but the warlike exploit requires a memento--some token by which he may perpetuate its fame. the art of printing does not exist among the mundrucus, and there is no friendly pen to record the deed. it has been done,--behold the evidence! much clearer than often accompanies the exploits of civilised heroes. there is the evidence of an enemy slain; there is the grim, gory voucher, palpable both to sight and touch--proof positive that there is a dead body somewhere. of course, such evidence is sufficient for the present; but how about the future? as time passes, the feat may be forgotten, as great deeds are elsewhere. somebody may even deny it. some slanderous tongue may whisper, or insinuate, or openly declare that it was no exploit after all--that there was no dead man; for the vultures by this time would have removed the body, and the white ants (_termites_) would have equally extinguished all traces of the bones. how, then, are the proofs to be preserved? _by preserving the head_! and this is the very idea that is in the mind of the mundrucu warrior. he is resolved not to permit his exploit to be buried in oblivion by _burying the head_ of his enemy. that tongue, though mute, will tell the tale to posterity; that pallid cheek, though, perhaps, it may become a little shrivelled in the "drying," will still be smooth enough to show that there is no _tatoo_, and to be identified as the skin of an enemy. some young mundrucu, yet unborn, will read in the countenance of that grinning and gory witness, the testimony of his father's prowess. the head, therefore, must be preserved; and it is preserved with as much care as the cherished portrait of a famous ancestor. the cranial relic is even _embalmed_, as if out of affection for him to whom it belonged. the brains and eye-balls are removed, to facilitate the process of desiccation; but false eyes are inserted, and the tongue, teeth, and ears, scalp, skull, and hair, are all retained, not only retained, but "titivated" out in the most approved style of fashion. the long hair is carefully combed out, parted, and arranged; brilliant feathers of rock-cock and macaw are planted behind the ears and twisted in the hanging tresses. an ornamental string passes through the tongue, and by this the trophy is suspended from the beams of the great malocca. it is not permitted to remain there. in some dark niche of this golgotha--this mundruquin westminster--it might be overlooked and forgotten. to prevent this it is often brought forth, and receives many an airing. on all warlike and festive occasions does it appear, poised upon the point of the warrior's lance; and even in peaceful times it may be seen--along with hundreds of its like--placed in the circular row around the manioc clearing, and lending its demure countenance to the labours of the field. it is not a little singular that this custom of embalming the heads of their enemies is found among the dyaks of borneo, and the process in both places is ludicrously similar. another rare coincidence occurs between the amazonian tribes and the bornean savages, viz in both being provided with the blow-gun. the _gravitana_ of the american tribes is almost identical with the sumpitan of borneo. it furnishes a further proof of our theory regarding an original connection between the american indians and the savages of the great south sea. the mundrucu is rarely ill off in the way of food. when he is so, it is altogether his own fault, and chargeable to his indolent disposition. the soil of his territory is of the most fertile kind, and produces many kinds of edible fruits spontaneously, as the nuts of the _pupunha_ palm and the splendid fruits of the _bertholetia excelsa_, or juvia-tree, known in europe as "brazil-nuts." of these then are two kinds, as mentioned elsewhere, the second being a tree of the genus _lecythys_,-- the _lecythys ollaria_, or "monkey-pot" tree. it obtains this trivial name from the circumstance, first, of its great pericarp, almost as large as a child's head, having a movable top or lid, which falls off when the fruit ripens; and secondly, from the monkeys being often seen drawing the seeds or nuts out of that part of the shell which remains attached to the tree, and which, bearing a considerable resemblance to a pot in its shape, is thus very appropriately designated the pot of the monkeys. the common indian name of the monkey-pot tree is _sapucaia_, and the nuts of this species are so called in commerce, though they are also termed brazil-nuts. they are of a more agreeable flavour than the true brazil-nuts, and not so easily obtained, as the _lecythys_ is less generally distributed over the amazonian valley. it requires a peculiar soil, and grows only in those tracts that are subject to the annual inundations of the rivers. the true brazil-nuts are the "juvia" trees of the indians; and the season for collecting them is one of the _harvests_ of the mundrucu people. the great pericarps--resembling large cocoa-nuts when stripped of the fibres--do not open and shed their seeds, as is the case with the monkey-pot tree. the whole fruit falls at once; and as it is very heavy, and the branches on which it grows are often nearly a hundred feet from the ground, it may easily be imagined that it comes down like a ten-pound shot; in fact, one of them falling upon the head of a mundrucu would be very likely to crush his cranium, as a bullet would an egg-shell; and such accidents not unfrequently occur to persons passing imprudently under the branches of the bertholetia when its nuts are ripe. sometimes the monkeys, when on the ground looking after those that have fallen, become victims to the like accident; but these creatures are cunning reasoners, and being by experience aware of the danger, will scarce ever go under a juvia-tree, but when passing one always make a wide circuit around it. the monkeys cannot of themselves open the great pericarp, as they do that of the "sapucaia," but are crafty enough to get at the precious contents, notwithstanding. in doing this they avail themselves of the help of other creatures, that have also a motive in opening the juvia shells--cavies and other small rodent animals, whose teeth, formed for this very purpose, enable them to gnaw a hole in the ligneous pericarps, hard and thick as they are. meanwhile the monkeys, squatted around, watch the operation in a careless, nonchalant sort of way, as if they had no concern whatever in the result; but as soon as they perceive that an entrance has been effected, big enough to admit their hand, they rush forward, drive off the weaker creature, who has been so long and laboriously at work, and take possession of the prize. neither does the mundrucu nut-gatherer get possession of the juvia fruit without a certain degree of danger and toil. he has to climb the tallest trees, to secure the whole crop at one time; and while engaged in collecting those upon the ground, he is in danger of a blow from odd ones that are constantly falling. to secure his skull against accidents, he wears upon his head a thick wooden cap or helmet,--after the fashion of the hats worn by our firemen,--and he is always careful to keep his body in an upright attitude, stooping as seldom as he can avoid doing so, lest he might get a thump between the shoulders, or upon the spine of his back, which would be very likely to flatten him out upon the earth. these brazil-nuts furnish the mundrucu with a portion of his food,--as they also do many other tribes of amazonian indians,-- and they are also an item of indian commerce, being collected from among the different tribes by the portuguese and spanish traders. but the mundrucu does not depend altogether on the spontaneous productions of the forest, which at best furnish only a precarious supply. he does something in the agricultural line,--cultivating a little manioc root, with, plantains, yams, and other tropical plants that produce an enormous yield with the very slightest trouble or attention; and this is exactly what suits him. a few days spent by the little community in the yam patch--or rather, by the women and children, for these are the agricultural labourers in mundrucu-land--is sufficient to ensure an abundant supply of bread-stuff for the whole year. with regard to flesh-meat he is not so well off, for the domestic animals, and oxen more especially, do not thrive in the amazon country. in mundrucu-land, the carnivorous jaguar, aided by flies and vampire bats, would soon destroy them, even if the indian had the inclination to raise them, which he has not. instead of beef, therefore, he contents himself with fish, and occasionally a steak from the great tapir, or a griskin of _manati_. birds, too, furnish him with an occasional meal; but the staple article of his flesh diet is obtained from the _quadrumana_,--the numerous species of monkeys with which his forests abound. these he obtains by shooting them down from the trees with his bow and arrows, and also by various other hunting devices. his mode of cooking them is sufficiently peculiar to be described. a large log fire is first kindled and permitted to burn until a sufficient quantity of red cinders are produced. over these cinders a grating is erected with green saplings of wood, laid parallel to each other like the bars of a gridiron, and upon this the "joint" is laid. nothing is done to the monkey before its being placed on the gridiron. its skin is not removed, and even the intestines are not always taken out. the fire will singe off the hair sufficiently to content a mundrucu stomach, and the hide is broiled and eaten, with the flesh. it is thus literally "carne con cuero." it may be observed that this forest gridiron, or "barbecue," as it is properly termed, is not an idea exclusively confined to south america. it is in use among the indians of the north, and various uncivilised tribes in other parts of the world. sometimes the mundrucu does not take the trouble to construct the gridiron. when on the march in some warlike expedition that will not allow time for being particular about the mode of cooking, the joint is broiled upon a spit over the common fire. the spit is simply a stick, sharpened at both ends, one of which impales the monkey, and the other is stuck into the ground. the stick is then set with a lean towards the fire, so as to bring the carcass over the blaze. while on the spit the monkey appears in a sitting position, with its head upward, and its long tail hanging along the sapling,--just as if it were still living, and in one of its most natural attitudes, clinging to the branch of a tree! the sight is sufficiently comical; but sometimes a painful spectacle has been witnessed,--painful to any one but a savage: when the young of the monkey has been captured along with its dam, and still recognising the form of its parent,--even when all the hair has been singed off, and the skin has become calcined by the fire,--is seen rushing forward into the very flames, and with plaintive cry inviting the maternal embrace! such an affecting incident has been often witnessed amid the forests of amazopia. we conclude our sketch of the mundrucus, by stating that their form of government is despotic, though not to an extreme degree. the "tushao," or chief, has considerable power, though it is not absolute, and does not extend to the taking of life,--unless the object of displeasure be a slave, and many of these are held in abject bondage among the mundrucus. the mundrucu religion resembles that of many other tribes both in north and south america. it consists in absurd ceremonies, and appeals to the good and evil spirits of the other world, and is mixed up with a vast deal of quackery in relation to the ills that afflict the mundrucu in this life. in other words, it is a combination of the priest and doctor united in one, that arch-charlatan known to the north-american indians as the "medicine-man," and among the mundrucus as the "puge." chapter six. the centaurs of the "gran chaco." i have elsewhere stated that a broad band of independent indian territory--that is, territory never really subdued or possessed by the spaniards--traverses the interior of south america, extending longitudinally throughout the whole continent. beginning at cape horn, it ends in the peninsula of the free _goajiros_, which projects into the caribbean sea,--in other words, it is nearly , miles in length. in breadth it varies much. in patagonia and a portion of the pampas country it extends from the atlantic to the pacific, and it is of still wider extent on the latitude of the amazon river, where the whole country, from the atlantic to the peruvian andes,--with the exception of some thinly-placed brazilian settlements,--is occupied by tribes of independent indians. at either point this territory will appear--upon maps--to be interrupted by tracts of country possessing civilised settlements. the names of towns and villages are set as thickly as if the country were well peopled; and numerous roads are traced, forming a labyrinthine network upon the paper. a broad belt of this kind extends from the lower parana (la plate) to the andes of chili, constituting the upper provinces of the "argentine confederation;" another apparently joins the settlements of bolivia and brazil; and again in the north, the provinces of venezuela appear to be united to those of new granada. all this, however, is more apparent than real. the towns upon the maps are in general mere _rancherias_, or collections of huts; some of them are the names of fortified posts, and a large proportion are but ruins,--the ruins of monkish mission settlements long since gone to destruction, and with little else than the name on the map to testify that they ever had an existence. the roads are no roads at all, nothing more than tracings on the chart showing the general route of travel. even across the argentine provinces--where this nomenclature appears thickest upon the map--the horse indian of the pampas extends his forays at will; his "range" meeting, and, in some cases, "dovetailing" into that of the tribes dwelling upon the northern side of these settlements. the latter, in their turn, carry their plundering expeditions across to the campos parexis, on the headwaters of the amazon, whence stretches the independent territory, far and wide to the amazon itself; thence to the orinoco, and across the _llanos_ to the shores of the maracaibo gulf--the free range of the independent goajiros. this immense belt of territory, then, is in actual possession of the aborigines. although occupied at a few points by the white race,-- spanish and portuguese,--the occupation scarce deserves the name. the settlements are sparse and rather _retrograde_ than _progressive_. the indian ranges through and around them, wherever and whenever his inclination leads him; and only when some humiliating treaty has secured him a temporary respite from hostilities does the colonist enjoy tranquillity. at other times he lives in continual dread, scarce daring to trust himself beyond the immediate vicinity of his house or village, both of which he has been under the necessity of fortifying. it is true that at one period of south-american history things were not quite so bad. when the spanish nation was at the zenith of its power a different condition existed; but even then, in the territory indicated, there were large tracts circumstanced just as at the present hour,-- tracts which the spaniards, with all their boasted warlike strength, were unable even to _explore_, much less to subdue. one of these was that which forms the subject of our sketch, "el gran chaco." of all the tracts of wild territory existing in south america, and known by the different appellations of _pampas, paramos, campos parexis_, the _puna_, the _pajonal, llanos_, and _montanas_, there is none possessed of a greater interest than that of _el gran chaco_,--perhaps not one that equals it in this respect. it is interesting, not only from having a peculiar soil, climate, and productions, but quite as much from the character and history of its inhabitants, both of which present us with traits and episodes truly romantic. the "gran chaco" is , square miles in extent, or twice the size of the british isles. its eastern boundary is well-defined, being the paraguay river, and its continuation the parana, down to the point where the latter receives one of its great western tributaries, the salado; and this last is usually regarded as the southern and western boundary of the chaco. northward its limits are scarcely so definite; though the highlands of bolivia and the old missionary province of chiquitos, forming the water-shed between the rivers of the la plata and the amazonian basins--may be geographically regarded as the termination of the chaco in that direction. north and south it extends through eleven degrees of latitude; east and west it is of unequal breadth,--sometimes expanding, sometimes contracting, according to the ability of the white settlers along it borders to maintain their frontier. on its eastern side, as already stated, the frontier is definite, and terminates on the banks of the paraguay and parana. east of this line--coinciding almost with a meridian of longitude--the indian of the gran chaco does not roam, the well-settled province of corrientes and the dictatorial government of paraguay presenting a firmer front of resistance; but neither does the colonist of these countries think of crossing to the western bank of the boundary river to form any establishment there. he dares not even set his foot upon the territory of the chaco. for a thousand miles, up and down, the two races, european and american, hold the opposite banks of this great stream. they gaze across at each other: the one from the portico of his well-built mansion, or perhaps from the street of his town; the other, standing by his humble "toldo," or mat-covered tent,--more probably, upon the back of his half-wild horse, reined up for a moment on some projecting promontory that commands the view of the river. and thus have these two races gazed at each other for three centuries, with little other intercourse passing between them than that of a deadly hostility. the surface of the gran chaco is throughout of a champaign character. it may be described as a vast plain. it is not, however, a continuation of the pampas, since the two are separated by a more broken tract of country, in which lie the sierras of cordova and san luis, with the argentine settlements already mentioned. besides, the two great plains differ essentially in their character, even to a greater extent than do the pampas themselves from the desert steppes of patagonia. only a few of the animal and vegetable productions of the gran chaco are identical with those of the pampas, and its indian inhabitants are altogether unlike the sanguinary savages of the more southern plain. the chaco, approaching many degrees nearer to the equator, is more tropical in its character; in fact, the northern portion of it is truly so, lying as it does within the torrid zone, and presenting the aspect of a tropical vegetation. every inch of the chaco is within the palm region; but in its northern half these beautiful trees abound in numberless species, yet unknown to the botanist, and forming the characteristic features of the landscape. some grow in forests of many miles in extent, others only in "clumps," with open, grass-covered plains between, while still other species mingle their graceful fronds with the leaves and branches of dicotyledonous trees, or clasped in the embrace of luxuriant llianas and parasitical climbers form groves of the most variegated verdure and fantastic outlines. with such groves the whole surface of the chaco country is enamelled; the intervals between being occupied by plains of rich waving grass, now and then tracts of morass covered with tall and elegant reeds, a few arid spots bristling with singular forms of _algarobia_ and _cactus_, and, in some places, isolated rocky mounds, of dome or conical shape, rising above the general level of the plains, as if intended to be used as watch-towers for their guardianship and safety. such are the landscapes which the grand chaco presents to the eye--far different from the bald and uniform monotony exhibited in the aspect of either prairie or pampa; far grander and lovelier than either--in point of scenic loveliness, perhaps, unequalled on earth. no wonder, then, that the indian of south america esteems it as an earthly elysium; no wonder that the spaniard dreams of it as such,--though to the spanish priest and the spanish soldier it has ever proved more of a purgatory than a paradise. both have entered upon its borders, but neither has been able to dwell within its domain; and the attempts at its conquest, by sword and cross, have been alike unsuccessful,--equally and fatally repulsed, throughout a period of more than three hundred years. at this hour, as at the time of the peruvian conquest,--as on the day when the ships of mendoza sailed up the waters of the parana,--the gran chaco is an unconquered country, owned by its aboriginal inhabitants, and by them alone. it is true that it is _claimed_, both by spaniard and portuguese; and by no less than four separate claimants belonging to these two nationalities. brazil and bolivia, paraguay and the argentine confederation, all assert their title to a slice of this earthly paradise; and even quarrel as to how their boundary lines should intersect it! there is something extremely ludicrous in these claims,--since neither one nor other of the four powers can show the slightest basis for them. not one of them can pretend to the claim of conquest; and far less can they rest their rights upon the basis of occupation or possession. so far from possessing the land, not one of them dare set foot over its borders; and they are only too well pleased if its present occupants are contented to remain within them. the claim, therefore, of both spaniard and portuguese, has no higher title, than that some three hundred and fifty years ago it was given them by the pope,--a title not less ludicrous than their kissing the pope's toe to obtain it! in the midst of these four conflicting claimants, there appears a fifth, and that is the real owner,--the "red indian" himself. his claim has "three points of the law" in his favour,--possession,--and perhaps the fourth, too,--the power to keep possession. at all events, he has held it for three hundred years against all odds and all comers; and who knows that he may not hold it for three hundred years more?--only, it is to be hoped, for a different use, and under the influence of a more progressive civilisation. the indian, then, is the undoubted lord of the "gran chaco." let us drop in upon him, and see what sort of an indian he is, and how he manages this majestic domain. after having feasted our eyes upon the rich scenery of the land,--upon the verdant plains, mottled with copses of "quebracho" and clumps of the _caranday_ palm,--upon landscapes that resemble the most lordly parks, we look around for the mansions and the owners. the mansion is not there, but the owner stands before us. we are at once struck by his appearance: his person tall, and straight as a reed, his frame muscular, his limbs round and well-proportioned, piercing coal-black eyes, well-formed features, and slightly aquiline nose,--and perhaps we are a little surprised at the light colour of his skin. in this we note a decided peculiarity which distinguishes him from most other tribes of his race. it is not a _red_ indian we behold, nor yet a _copper-coloured_ savage; but a man whose complexion is scarce darker than that of the mulatto, and not at all deeper in hue than many a spaniard of andalusian descent, who boasts possession of the purest "sangre azul;" not one shade darker than thousands of portuguese dwelling upon the other side of the brazilian frontier. and remember, that it is the _true_ skin of the chaco indian we have before our view,--and not a _painted_ one,--for here, almost for the first time, do we encounter the native complexion of the aboriginal, undisfigured by those horrid pigments which in these pages have so often glared before the eyes of our readers. of paint, the chaco indian scarce knows the use; or, at all events, employs it sparingly, and only at intervals, on very particular and ceremonial occasions. we are spared, therefore, the describing his _escutcheon_, and a positive relief it is. it would be an interesting inquiry to trace out the cause of his thus abstaining from a custom almost universal among his race. why does he abjure the paint? is it because he cannot afford it, or that it is not procurable in his country? no; neither of these can be offered as a reason. the "annotto" bush (_bixa orellana_), and the wild-indigo, abound in his territory; and he knows how to extract the colours of both,--for his women do extract them, and use them in dying the yarn of their webs. other dyewoods--a multitude of others--he could easily obtain; and even the cochineal cactus, with its gaudy vermilion parasite, is indigenous to his land. it cannot be the scarcity of the material that prevents him from employing it,--what then? the cause is unexplained; but may it not be that this romantic savage, otherwise more highly gifted than the rest of his race, is endowed also with a truer sense of the beautiful and becoming? _quien sabe_? let it not be understood, however, that he is altogether free from the "taint,"--for he _does_ paint sometimes, as already admitted; and it must be remembered, moreover, that the chaco indians are not all of one tribe, nor of one community. there are many associations of them scattered over the face of this vast plain, who are not all alike, either in their habits or customs, but, on the contrary, very unlike; who are not even at all times friendly with each other, but occupied with feuds and _vendettas_ of the most deadly description. some of these tribes paint most frightfully, while others of them go still farther, and _scarify_ their faces with the indelible _tattoo_,--a custom that in america is almost confined to the indians of the chaco and a few tribes on the southern tributaries of the amazon. happily this custom is on the decline: the men practise it no longer; but, by a singular perversity of taste, it is still universal among the women, and no chaco belle would be esteemed beautiful without a cross of bluish-black dots upon her forehead, a line of like points extending from the angle of each eye to the ears, with a variety of similar markings upon her cheeks, arms, and bosom. all this is done with the point of a thorn,--the spine of a _mimosa_, or of the _caraguatay_ aloe; and the dark purple colour is obtained by infusing charcoal into the fresh and bleeding punctures. it is an operation that requires days to complete, and the pain from it is of the most acute and prolonged character, enduring until the poisoned wounds become cicatrised. and yet it is borne without a murmur,--just as people in civilised life bear the painful application of hair-dyes and tweezers. i need not say that the hair of the chaco indian does not need to be dyed,--that is, unless he were to fancy having it of a white, or a red, or yellow colour,--not an uncommon fancy among savages. his taste, however, does not run that way any more than among civilised dandies, and he is contented with its natural hue, which is that of the raven's wing. but he is not contented to leave it to its natural growth. only a portion of it,--that which covers the upper part of his head,--is permitted to retain its full length and flowing glories. for the remainder, he has a peculiar _tonsure_ of his own; and the hair immediately over the forehead--and sometimes a stripe running all around above the ears, to the back of the head--is either close shaven with a sharp shell, or plucked entirely out by a pair of horn tweezers of native manufacture. were it not that the long and luxuriant tresses that still remain,--covering his crown, as with a crest,--the shorn circle would assimilate him to some orders of friars; but, notwithstanding the similarity of tonsure, there is not much resemblance between a chaco indian and a brother of the crucifix and cowl. this mode of "dressing the hair" is not altogether peculiar to the indian of the gran chaco. it is also practised by certain prairie tribes,--the osage, pawnee, and two or three others; but all these carry the "razor" a little higher up, leaving a mere patch, or "scalp-lock," upon the crown. the chaco tribes are beardless by nature; and if a few hairs chance to show themselves upon cheek or chin, they are carefully "wed" out. in a like fashion both men and women serve their eyebrows and lashes,-- sacrificing these undoubted ornaments, as they say, to a principle of utility, since they allege that they can _see better without them_! they laugh at white men, who preserve these appendages, calling them "ostrich-eyed,"--from a resemblance which they perceive between hairy brows and the stiff, hair-like feathers that bristle round the eyes of the rhea, or american ostrich,--a well-known denizen of the gran chaco. the costume of the chaco indian is one of exceeding simplicity; and in this again we observe a peculiar trait of his mind. instead of the tawdry and tinsel ornaments, in which most savages delight to array themselves, he is contented with a single strip of cloth, folded tightly around his loins. it is usually either a piece of white cotton, or of wool woven in a tri-colour of red, white, and blue, and of hues so brilliant, as to produce altogether a pretty effect. the wear of the women scarce differs from that of the men, and the covering of both, scant as it is, is neither inelegant nor immodest. it is well adapted to their mode of life, and to their climate, which is that of an eternal spring. when cold winds sweep over their grassy plains, they seek protection under the folds of a more ample covering, with which they are provided,--a cloak usually made of the soft fur of the "nutria," or south-american otter, or a robe of the beautiful spotted skin of the jaguar. they wear neither head-dress nor _chaussure_,--neither pendants from the nose, not the hideous lip ornaments seen among other tribes of south america; but many of them pierce the ears; and more especially the women, who split the delicate lobes, and insert into them spiral appendages of rolled palm-leaf, that hang dangling to their very shoulders. it will be observed, therefore, that among the chaco tribes the women disfigure themselves more than the men, and all, no doubt, in the interest of _fashion_. it will be seen that the simple dress we have described leaves the limbs and most part of the body bare. to the superficial observer it might be deemed an inelegant costume, and perhaps so it would be among europeans, or so-called "whites." the deformed figures of european people-- deformed by ages of toil and monarchical serfdom--would ill bear exposure to the light, neither would the tripe-coloured skin, of which they are so commonly conceited. a very different impression is produced by the rich brunette hue,--bronze, if you will,--especially when, as in the case of the chaco indian, it covers a body of proper shape, with arms and limbs in symmetrical proportion. then, and then only, does costly clothing appear superfluous, and the eye at once admits that there is no fashion on earth equal to that of the human form itself. above all does it appear graceful on horseback, and almost universally in this attitude does the chaco indian exhibit it. scarce ever may we meet him afoot, but always on the back of his beautiful horse,--the two together presenting the aspect of the centaur. and probably in the resemblance he approaches nearer to the true ideal of the grecian myth, than any other horseman in the world; for the chaco indians differ not only from other "horse indians" in their mode of equitation, but also from every other equestrian people. the absurd high-peaked saddles of tartar and arab, with their gaudy trappings, are unknown to him,-- unknown, too, the ridiculous paraphernalia, half-hiding the horse, in use among mexicans, south-american spaniards, and even the indians of other tribes,--despised by him the plated bits, the embroidered bridles, and the tinkling spurs, so tickling to the vanity of other new-world equestrians. the chaco horseman needs no such accessories to his elegance. saddle he has none, or only the slightest patch of jaguar-skin,--spurs and stirrups are alike absent. naked he sits upon his naked horse, the beautiful curvature of whose form is interrupted by no extraneous trappings,--even the thong that guides him scarce observable from its slightness. who then can deny his resemblance to the centaur? thus mounted, with no other saddle than that described, no bridle but a thin strip of raw hide looped around the lower jaw of his horse, he will gallop wildly over the plain, wheel in graceful curves to avoid the burrows of the _viscacha_, pass at full speed through the close-standing and often thorny trunks of the palms, or, if need be, stand erect upon the withers of his horse, like a "star rider" of the hippodrome. in this attitude he looks abroad for his enemies, or the game of which he may be in search; and, thus elevated above surrounding objects, he discovers the ostrich far off upon the plain, the large deer (_cervus campestris_), and the beautiful spotted roebucks that browse in countless herds upon the grass-covered savannas. the dwelling of the chaco indian is a tent, not covered with skins, but usually with mats woven from the epidermis of young leaves of a palm-tree. it is set up by two long uprights and a ridge-pole, over which the mat is suspended--very much after the fashion of the _tente d'abri_ used by zouave soldiers. his bed is a hammock, swung between the upright poles, or oftener, between two palm-trees growing near. he only seeks shelter in his tent when it rains, and he prevents its floor getting wet by digging a trench around the outside. he cares little for exposure to the sun; but his wife is more delicate, and usually carries over her head a large bunch of _rhea_ feathers, _a la parasol_, which protects her face from the hot scorching beams. the tent does not stand long in one situation. ample as is the supply which nature affords in the wilds of the chaco, it is not all poured out in any one place. this would be too much convenience, and would result in an evil consequence. the receiver of such a benefit would soon become indolent, from the absence of all necessity for exertion; and not only his health, but his moral nature, would suffer from such abundance. fortunately no such fate is likely to befall the indian of the chaco. the food upon which he subsists is derived from many varied sources, a few of which only are to be found in any one particular place, and each only at its own season of the year. for instance, upon the dry plains he pursues the _rhea_ and _viscacha_, the jaguar, puma, _and partridges_; in woods and marshy places the different species of wild hogs (peccaries). on the banks of rivers he encounters the tapir and capivara, and in their waters, fish, _utrias_, geese, and ducks. in the denser forest-covered tracts he must look for the various kinds of monkeys, which also constitute a portion of his food. when he would gather the legumes, of the _algarobias_--of several species--or collects the sugary sap of the _caraguatay_, he must visit the tracts where the _mimosae_ and _bromelias_ alone flourish; and then he employs much of his time in searching for the nests of wild bees, from the honey of which and the seeds of the _algarobia_ he distils a pleasant but highly intoxicating drink. to his credit, however, he uses this but sparingly, and only upon grand occasions of ceremony; how different from the bestial chicha-drinking revellers of the pampas! these numerous journeys, and the avocations connecting with them, hinder the chaco indian from falling into habits of idleness, and preserve his health to a longevity that is remarkable: so much so, that "to live as long as a chaco indian," has become a proverbial expression in the settlements of south america. the old styrian monk dobrizhoffer has chronicled the astounding facts, that among these people a man of eighty is reckoned to be in the prime of manhood; that a hundred years is accounted a common age; and that many of them are still hale and hearty at the age of one hundred and twenty! allowing for a little exaggeration in the statements of the monk, it is nevertheless certain that the indians of the gran chaco, partly owing to their fine climate, and partly to their mode of life and subsistence, enjoy health and strength to a very old age, and to a degree unknown in less-favoured regions of the world. of this there is ample and trustworthy testimony. the food of the chaco indian is of a simple character, and he makes no use either of salt or spices. he is usually the owner of a small herd of cattle and a few sheep, which he has obtained by plundering the neighbouring settlements of the spaniards. it is towards those of the south and west that he generally directs his hostile forays; for he is at peace with the riverine provinces,--brazilian, paraguayan, and correntine. in these excursions he travels long distances, crossing many a fordless stream and river, and taking along with him wife, children, tents, and utensils, in short, everything which he possesses. he fords the streams by swimming, using one hand to guide his horse. with this hand he can also propel himself, while in the other, he carries his long lance, on the top of which he poises any object he does not wish should be wetted. a "balza," called "pelota," made of bull's hide, and more like a square box than a boat, carries over the house utensils and the puppies, of which there are always a large number. the "precious baby" is also a passenger by the balza. the _pelota_ is propelled, or rather, pulled over, by means of a tiller-rope, held in the teeth of a strong swimmer, or tied to the tail of a horse; and thus the crossing is effected. returning with his plunder--with herds of homed cattle or flocks of sheep--not unfrequently with human captives, women and children, the crossing becomes more difficult; but he is certain to effect it without loss, and almost without danger of being overtaken in the pursuit. his freebooting habits should not be censured too gravely. many extenuating circumstances must be taken into consideration,--his wrongs and sanguinary persecutions. it must be remembered that the hostilities commenced on the opposite side; and with the indian the habit is not altogether indigenous, but rather the result of the principle of retaliation. he is near kindred to the _incas_,--in fact, some of the chaco tribes are remnants of the scattered peruvian race, and he still remembers the sanguinary slaughter of his ancestors by the pizarros and almagros. therefore, using the phraseology of the french tribunals, we may say there are "extenuating circumstances in his favour." one circumstance undoubtedly speaks trumpet-tongued for the chaco indian; and that is, he does not _torture_ his captives, even when _white_ men have fallen into his hands! as to the captive women and children, their treatment is rather gentle than otherwise; in fact, they are adopted into the tribe, and share, alike with the rest, the pleasures as well as the hardships of a savage life. when the chaco indian possesses horned cattle and sheep, he eats mutton and beef; but if these are wanting, he must resort to the chase. he captures deer and ostriches by running them down with his swift steed, and piercing them with his long spear; and occasionally he uses the _bolas_. for smaller game he employs the bow and arrow, and fish are also caught by shooting them with arrows. the chaco indian is the owner of a breed of dogs, and large packs of these animals may be seen around his camping-ground, or following the cavalcade in its removal from place to place. they are small creatures,--supposed to be derived from a european stock, but they are wonderfully prolific, the female often bringing forth twelve puppies at a birth. they burrow in the ground, and subsist on the offal of the camp. they are used in running down the spotted roebuck, in hunting the capivara, the great ant-bear, _viscachas_, and other small animals. the tapir is taken in traps, and also speared, when the opportunity offers. his flesh is relished by the chaco indian, but his hide is of more consequence, as from it bags, whips, and various other articles can be manufactured. the peccary of two species (_dicotyles torquatus_ and _collaris_) is also pursued by the dogs, and speared by the hunter while pausing to bay the yelping pack; and the great american tiger (jaguar) is killed in a like manner. the slaying of this fierce and powerful quadruped is one of the feats of the chaco hunter, and both its skin and flesh are articles of eager demand. the latter is particularly sought for; as by eating the flesh of so strong and courageous a creature the indian fancies his own strength and courage will be increased. when a jaguar is killed, its carcass becomes the common property of all; and each individual of the tribe must have his slice, or "griskin,"--however small the piece may be after such multiplied subdivision! for the same reason, the flesh of the wild boar is relished; also that of the ant-bear--one of the most courageous of animals,--and of the tapir, on account of its great strength. the bread of the chaco indian is derived, as before mentioned, from several species of mimosae, called indefinitely _algarobias_, and by the missionary monks known as "saint john's bread." palms of various kinds furnish edible nuts; and there are many trees in the chaco forests that produce luscious fruits. with these the indian varies his diet, and also with wild honey,--a most important article, for reasons already assigned. in the chaco there are stingless bees, of numerous distinct species,--a proof of the many blossoms which bloom as it were "unseen" in that flowery elysium. the honey of these bees--of some of the species in particular--is known to be of the finest and purest quality. in the spanish settlements it commands the highest price, and is very difficult to be obtained,--for the chaco indian is but little given to commerce, and only occasionally brings it to market. he has but few wants to satisfy, and cares not for the tinsel of the trader: hence it is that most of the honey he gathers is reserved for his own use. he searches for the bees' nest by observing the flight of the insect, as it passes back and forward over the wild parterre; and his keenness of sight--far surpassing that of a european--enables him to trace its movements in the air, and follow it to its hoard. he alleges that he could not accomplish this so well, were he encumbered with eyebrows and lashes, and offers this as one of his reasons for extracting these hirsute appendages. there may be something in what he says,--strange as it sounds to the ear of one who is _not_ a bee-hunter. he finds the nest at length,--sometimes in a hollow tree, sometimes upon a branch,-- the latter kind of nest being a large mass, of a substance like blotting-paper, and hanging suspended from the twigs. sometimes he traces the insect to a subterranean dwelling; but it must be remarked that all these are different species of bees, that build their nests and construct the cells of their honeycombs each in its own favourite place, and according to its own fashion. the bee-hunter cares not how--so long as he can find the nest; though he would prefer being guided to one built upon a species of thick octagonal cactus, known as the habitat of the bee "tosimi." this preference is caused by the simple fact--that of all the honey in the chaco, that of the bee "tosimi" is the _sweetest_. it is to be regretted that, with his many virtues, and his fine opportunity of exercising them, the chaco indian will not consent to remain in peace and good-will with all men. it seems a necessity of his nature to have an occasional shy at some enemy, whether white or of his own complexion. but, indeed, it would be ridiculous to censure him for this, since it appears also to be a vice universal among mankind; for where is the tribe or nation, savage or civilised, who does not practise it, whenever it feels bold enough or strong enough to do so? the chaco indian is not alone in his disregard of of the sixth commandment,--not the only being on earth who too frequently goes forth to battle. he has two distinct kinds of enemies,--one of european, the other of his own race,--almost of his own kindred, you would say. but it must be remembered that there are several distinct tribes dwelling in the chaco; who, although presenting a certain similitude, are in many respects widely dissimilar; and, so far from forming one nation, or living in harmonious alliance with each other, are more frequently engaged in the most deadly hostilities. their wars are all conducted on horseback,-- all cavalry skirmishes,--the chaco indian disdaining to touch the ground with his foot. dismounted he would feel himself vanquished,--as much out of his element as a fish, out of water! his war weapons are of a primitive kind; they are the bow and lance, and a species of club, known in spanish phraseology as the "macana." this last weapon is also found in the hands of several of the amazonian tribes, though differing slightly in its construction. the "macana" of the chaco indian is a short, stout piece of heavy iron-wood,--usually a species known as the _quebracha_, or "axe-breaker," which grows plentifully throughout the paraguayan countries. numerous species are termed "quebracha" in spanish-american countries, as there are numerous "iron-woods." that of paraguay, like most others that have obtained this name, is a species of ebony-wood, or lignum-vitae,--in short, a true _guaiacum_. the wood is hard, solid, and heavy almost as metal; and therefore just the very stuff for a war-club. the macana of the chaco indian is short,--not much over two feet in length, and is used both for striking in the hand and throwing to a distance. it is thicker, and of course heavier, at both extremities; and the mode of grasping it is round the narrow part in the middle. the indian youths, while training for war, practise throwing the macana, as other people play at skittles or quoits. the _lazo_ and _bolas_ are both in the hands of the chaco tribes, but these contrivances are used sparingly, and more for hunting than war. they rarely trouble themselves with them on a real war expedition. their chief weapons against an enemy are their long lances,--for these are far the most effective arms for a man mounted on horseback. those of the chaco indian are of enormous length, their shafts being often fifteen feet from butt to barb. they use them also when mounting on horseback, in a fashion peculiar to themselves. they mount by the right side, contrary to our european mode; nor is there the slightest resemblance in any other respect between the two fashions of getting into the saddle. with the chaco indian there is no putting toes into stirrups,--no tugging at the poor steed's withers,--no clinging or climbing into the seat. he places the butt of his lance upon the ground, grasps it a little above his head with the right hand, and then raising his lithe body with an elastic spring, he drops like a cat upon the spine of his well-trained steed. a word,--a touch of his knee, or other well-understood signal,--and the animal is off like an arrow. when the chaco indian goes to war against the whites, his arms are those already described. he is not yet initiated into the use of guns and gunpowder, though he often experiences their deadly effects. indeed, the wonder is that he could have maintained his independence so long, with such weapons opposed to him. gunpowder has often given cowards the victory over brave men; but the chaco indian, even without gunpowder, has managed somehow or other to preserve his freedom. when he makes an expedition against the white settlements, he carries no shield or other defensive armour. he did so at one period of his history; but experience has taught him that these contrivances are of little use against leaden bullets; and he has thrown them away, taking them up again, however, when he goes to war with enemies of his own kind. in attacking a settlement or village of the whites, one of his favourite strategic plans is to set the houses on fire; and in this he very often succeeds,--almost certainly when the thatch chances to be dry. his plan is to project an arrow with a piece of blazing cotton fastened near the head. for this purpose he uses the strongest kind of bow, and lying upon his back, bends it with his feet. by this means a much longer range is obtained, and the aim is of little consequence, so long as the arrow falls upon the roof a house. on going to war with a hostile tribe of his own kind and colour, he equips himself in a manner altogether different his face is then painted most frightfully, and in the most hideous designs that his imagination can suggest, while his body is almost entirely covered by a complete suit of mail. the thick hide of the tapir furnishes him with the materials for helmet, cuirass, cuisses, greaves, everything,--and underneath is a lining of jaguar-skin. thus accoutred he is in little danger from the arrows of the enemy, though he is also sadly encumbered in the management of his horse; and were he upon a plundering expedition against the whites, such an encumbrance would certainly bring him to grief. he knows that very well, and therefore he never goes in such guise upon any foray that is directed towards the settlements. the chaco indian has now been at peace with his eastern neighbours--both spaniards and portuguese--for a considerable length of time; but he still keeps up hostility with the settlements on the south,--those of cordova and san luis,--and often returns from these wretched provinces laden with booty. if he should chance to bring away anything that is of no use to him, or that may appear superfluous in his savage home,--a harp or guitar, a piece of costly furniture, or even a handsome horse,-- he is not required to throw it away: he knows that he can find purchasers on the other side of the river,--among the spanish merchants of corrientes or paraguay, who are ready at any time to become the receivers of the property stolen from their kindred of the south! such queer three-cornered dealings are also carried on in the northern countries of spanish america,--in the provinces of chihuahua, new leon, and new mexico. they are there called "cosas de mexico." it appears they are equally "cosas de paraguay." chapter seven. the feegees, or man-eaters. have i a reader who has not heard of the "king of the cannibal islands?" i think i may take it for granted that there is not one in my large circle of boy-readers who has not heard of that royal anthropophagist, that "mighty king" who,-- "in one hut, had fifty wives as black as _sut_, and fifty of a double smut-- that king of the cannibal islands." and yet, strange as it may appear, the old song was no exaggeration-- neither as regards the number of his wives, nor any other particular relating to king "musty-fusty-shang." on the contrary, it presents a picture of the life and habits of his polygamous majesty that is, alas! too ludicrously like the truth. though the king of the cannibal islands has been long known by reputation, people never had any very definite idea in what quarter of the world his majesty's dominions lay. being, as the name implies, an island-kingdom, it was to be looked for of course, in some part of the ocean; and the pacific ocean or great south sea was generally regarded as that in which it was situated; but whether it was the tonga islands, or the marquesas, or the loo-choos, or the soo-loos--or some other group, that was entitled to the distinction of being the man-eating community, with the man-eating king at their head--was not very distinctly ascertained up to a recent period. on this head there is uncertainty no longer. though in several groups of south-sea islands the horrible propensity is known to exist, yet the man-eaters, _par excellence_, the real _bona-fide_ followers of the habit, are the _feegees_. beyond doubt these are the greatest cannibals in all creation, their islands the true "cannibal islands," and their king no other than "musty-fusty-shang" himself. alas! the subject is too serious to jest upon, and it is not without pain that we employ our pen upon it. the truth must needs be told; and there is no reason why the world should not know how desperately wicked men may become under the influence of a despotism that leaves the masses in the power of the irresponsible few, with no law, either moral or physical, to restrain their unbridled passions. you will find the feegee islands, in the pacific ocean, in the latitude of degrees south. this parallel passes nearly through the centre of the group. their longitude is remarkable: it is the complement of the meridian of greenwich--the line degrees. therefore, when it is noon in london, it is midnight among the feegees. take the intersection of these two lines, degrees latitude and degrees longitude as a centre; describe an imaginary circle, with a diameter of miles; its circumference, with the slight exception of a small outlying group, will enclose, in a "ring fence," as it were, the whole feegee archipelago. the group numbers, in all, no fewer than islands and islets, of which between and are at present inhabited--the whole population being not much under , . the estimates of writers differ widely on this point; some state , --others, more than double this amount. there is reason to believe that , is too low. say, then, , ; since the old adage: "in medias res," is generally true. only two of the islands are large,--"viti," and "vanua." viti is miles long, by in breadth, and vanua by . some are what are known as "coral islands;" others are "volcanic," presenting all varieties of mountain aspect, rugged and sublime. a few of the mountain-peaks attain the elevation of , feet above sea-level, and every form is known--table-topped, dome-shaped, needle, and conical. in fact, no group in the pacific affords so many varieties of form and aspect, as are to be observed in the feegee archipelago. in sailing through these islands, the most lovely landscapes open out before the eye, the most picturesque groupings of rocks, ridges, and mountain-peaks, ravines filled with luxuriant vegetation, valleys covered with soft verdure, so divinely fair as to appear the abode of angelic beings. "so beautiful was their aspect," writes one who visited them, "that i could scarcely bring my mind to the realising sense of the well-known fact, that they were the abode of a savage, ferocious, and treacherous race of cannibals." such, alas! is the fact, well-known, as the writer observes. perhaps to no part of the world has nature been more bountiful than to the feegee islands. she has here poured out her favours in very profusion; and the _cornucopia_ might be regarded as an emblem of the land. the richest products of a tropic vegetation flourish in an abundance elsewhere unknown, and the growth of valuable articles of food is almost spontaneous. many kinds are really of spontaneous production; and those under cultivation are almost endless in numbers and variety. yams grow to the length of six feet, weighing one hundred pounds each! and several varieties are cultivated. the sweet potato reaches the weight of five or six pounds, and the "taro" (_arum esculentum_) also produces a root of enormous size, which forms the staple article of the feegeean's food. still another great tuber, weighing twenty or thirty pounds, and used as a liquorice, is the produce of the "massawe," or ti-tree (_dracaena terminalis_); and the root of the _piper methisticum_ often attains the weight of one hundred and forty pounds! this last is possessed of highly narcotic properties; and is the material universally used in the distillation, or rather brewing, of the native drink called "yaqona"--the "kava" of the south-sea voyagers. breadfruit grows in abundance: there being no less than nine varieties of this celebrated tree upon the different islands of the group, each producing a distinct kind of fruit; and what is equally remarkable, of the _musaceae_--the plantain and banana--there are in the feegee isles thirty different kinds, either of spontaneous growth, or cultivated! all these are well distinguished from one another, and bear distinct appellations. three kinds of cocoa-palm add to the extraordinary variety of vegetable food, as well as to the picturesqueness of the scenery; but there is no lack of lovely forms in the vegetation, where the beautiful ti-tree grows,-- where the fern and the screw-pines flourish,--where plantains and bananas unfold their broad bright leaves to the sun; where _arums_ spread their huge fronds mingling with the thick succulent blades of the bromelia, and where pawpaws, shaddocks, orange and lime-trees exhibit every hue of foliage, from deep-green to the most brilliant golden. fruits of a hundred species are grown in the greatest plenty; the orange and the papuan apple, the shaddock and lemon; in short, almost every species of fruit that will flourish in a tropical clime. in addition, many indigenous and valuable kinds, both of roots and fruits, are peculiar to the feegee group, yet unknown and uncultivated in any other part of the world. even the very cloth of the country--and a beautiful fabric it makes--is the product of an indigenous tree, the "malo" or paper-mulberry (_brousonetia papyrifera_), the "tapa" of voyagers. not only the material for dresses, but the tapestry for the adornment of their temples, the curtains and hangings of their houses, are all obtained from this valuable tree. we have not space for a more detailed account of the productions of these isles. it would fill a volume to describe with any degree of minuteness the various genera and species of its plants alone. enough has been said to show how bountiful, or rather how prodigal, nature has been to the islands of the feegeean archipelago. of the animal kingdom there is not much to be said. of quadrupeds there is the usual paucity of species that is noticed everywhere throughout the polynesian islands. dogs and pigs are kept; the latter in considerable numbers, as the flesh forms an important article of food; but they are not indigenous to the feegee group, though the period of their introduction is unknown. two or three small rodents are the only quadrupeds yet known to be true natives of the soil. reptiles are alike scarce in species,--though the turtle is common upon the coasts, and its fishery forms the regular occupation of a particular class of the inhabitants. the species of birds are more numerous, and there are parrots, peculiar to the islands, of rich and beautiful plumage. but we are not allowed to dwell upon these subjects. interesting as may be the zoology and botany of the feegeean archipelago, both sink into insignificance when brought into comparison with its ethnology,--the natural history of its human inhabitants;--a subject of deep, but alas! of a terribly painful interest. by inquiry into the condition and character of these people, we shall see how little they have deserved the favours which nature has so bounteously bestowed upon them. in the portrait of the feegeean you will expect something frightfully hideous,--knowing, as you already do, that he is an eater of human flesh,--a man of gigantic stature, swarthy skin, bloodshot eyes, gaunt, bony jaws, and terrific aspect. you will expect this man to be described as being naked,--or only with the skin of a wild beast upon his shoulders,--building no house, manufacturing no household or other utensils, and armed with a huge knotted club, which he is ever ready to use:--a man who dwells in a cavern, sleeps indifferently in the open air or under the shelter of a bush; in short, a true savage. that is the sort of creature you expect me to describe, and i confess that just such a physical aspect--just such a condition of personal hideousness--would be exactly in keeping with the moral deformity of the feegeean. you would furthermore expect this savage to be almost devoid of intellectual power,--altogether wanting in moral sense,--without knowledge of right and wrong,--without knowledge of any kind,--without ideas. it seems but natural you should look for such characteristics in a _cannibal_. the portrait i am about to paint will disappoint you. i do not regret it, since it enables me to bring forward another testimony that man in his original nature is not a being of such desperate wickedness. that simple and primitive state, which men glibly call _savage_, is _not_ the condition favourable to cannibalism. i know that it is to such people that the habit is usually ascribed, but quite erroneously. the andaman islander has been blamed with it simply becauses he chances to go naked, and looks, as he is, hungry and emaciated. the charge is proved false. the bushman of south africa has enjoyed a similar reputation. it also turns out to be a libel. the carib long lived under the imputation, simply because he presented a fierce front to the spanish tyrant, who would have enslaved him; and we have heard the same stigma cast upon a dozen other tribes, the _lowest savages_ being usually selected; in other words, those whose condition appeared the most wretched. in such cases the accusation has ever been found, upon investigation, to be erroneous. in the most primitive state in which man appears upon the earth, he is either without social organisation altogether, or if any do exist, it is either patriarchal of republican. neither of these conditions is favourable to the development of vice,--much less the most horrible of all vices. it will not do to quote the character of the bushman, or certain other of the low tribes, to refute this statement. these are not men in their primitive state ascending upward, but a condition altogether the reverse. they are the decaying remnants of some corrupt civilisation, sinking back into the dust out of which they were created. no--and i am happy to say it--man, as he originally came from the hands of the creator, has no such horrid propensity as cannibalism. in his primitive state he has never been known to practise it,--except when the motives have been such as have equally tempted men professing the highest civilisation,--but this cannot be considered cannibalism. where that exists in its true unmitigated form,--and unhappily it does so,-- the early stages of social organisation must have been passed; the republican and patriarchal forms must both have given place to the absolute and monarchical. this condition of things is absolutely necessary, before man can obtain sufficient power to prey upon his fellow-man to the extent of eating him. there can be no "cannibal" without a "king." so far from the feegeean cannibals being _savages_, according to the ordinary acceptation of the term, they are in reality the very reverse. if we adhere to the usual meaning of the word civilisation, understanding by it a people possessing an intelligent knowledge of arts, living in well-built houses, fabricating fine goods, tilling their lands in a scientific and successful manner, practising the little politenesses and accomplishments of social life,--if these be the _criteria_ of civilisation, then it is no more than the truth to say that the standard possessed by the feegee islanders is incomparably above that of the lower orders of most european nations. it is startling to reflect--startling as sad--that a people possessed of such intellectual power, and who have ever exercised it to a wonderful extent, in arts, manufactures, and even in the accomplishing of their own persons, should at the same time exhibit moral traits of such an opposite character. an atrocious cruelty,--an instinct for oppression, brutal and ferocious,--a heart pitiless as that of the fiend himself,--a hand ever ready to strike the murderous blow, even though the victim be a brother,--lips that lie in every word they speak,--a tongue ever bent on barbaric boasting,--a bosom that beats only with sentiments of treachery and abject cowardice,--these are the revolting characteristics of the feegeean. dark as is his skin, his soul is many shades darker. it is time, however, to descend to a more particular delineation of this man-eating monster; and first, we shall give a description of his personal appearance. the feegeeans are above the average height of europeans or white men: men of six feet are common among them, though few reach the height of six feet six. corpulent persons are not common, though large and muscular men abound. their figure corresponds more nearly to that of the white man than any other race known. the proportions of their limbs resemble those of northern europeans, though some are narrower across the loins. their chests are broad and sinewy, and their stout limbs and short, well-set necks are conspicuous characters. the outline of the face is a good oval; the mouth large, with white teeth regularly arranged--ah! those horrid teeth!--the nose is well-shaped, with full nostrils; yet quite distinct, as are the lips also, from the type of the african negro. indeed, with the exception of their colour, they bear very little resemblance to the negro,--that is, the thick-lipped, flat-nosed negro of our fancy; for there are negro tribes in africa whose features are as fine as those of the feegeeans, or even as our own. in colour of skin the feegeean is nearly, if not quite, as dark as the negro; but it may be remarked that there are different shades, as there are also among pure ethiopians. in the feegee group there are many men of mulatto colour, but these are not of the original feegee stock. they are either a mixed offspring with the tonga islander, or pure-bred tonga islanders themselves who for the past two hundred years have been insinuating themselves into the social compact of the feegeeans. these light-coloured people are mostly found on the eastern or windward side of the feegee group,--that is, the side towards tonga itself,--and the trade-winds will account for their immigration, which was at first purely accidental. they at present play a conspicuous part in the affairs of the feegeeans, being in favour with the kings and great chiefs, partly on account of their being better sailors than the native feegeeans, and partly on account of other services which these tyrants require them to perform. in some arts the tongans are superior to the feegeeans, but not in all. in pottery, wood-carving, making of mats or baskets, and the manufacture of the tapa cloth, the feegeeans stand unrivalled over all the pacific ocean. we need say no more of the tongans here; they are elsewhere described. those dwelling in feegee are not all fixed there for life. some are so, and these are called tonga-feegeeans; the others are only visitors, giving their services temporarily to the feegeean chiefs, or occupied in ship-building,--in constructing those great war canoes that have been the astonishment of south-sea voyagers, and which feegee sends forth from her dockyards in the greatest perfection. these, when finished by the tongan strangers, are used to carry them back to their own islands, that lie about three hundred miles to the windward (southeast). but to continue the portrait of the feegeean. we have touched almost every part of it except the hair; but this requires a most elaborate limning, such as the owner himself gives it. in its natural state the head of the feegeean is covered by a mass of black hair, long, frizzled, and bushy, sometimes encroaching on the forehead, and joined by whiskers to a thick, round, or pointed beard, to which moustaches are often added. black is, of course, the natural colour of the hair, but it is not always worn of this hue. other colours are thought more becoming; and the hair, both of the men and women, is dyed in a variety of ways, lime burning it to a reddish or whitey-brown shade. a turmeric-yellow, or even a vermilion-red are not uncommon colours; but all these keep varying, according to the change of fashions at court! commodore wilkes, who has given a good deal of his time to an exploration of the feegee islands, states that the feegee hair, in its natural condition, is straight, and not "frizzled," as described above-- he says that the frizzling is the work of the barber; but the commodore is altogether mistaken in this idea. thousands of feegeeans, whose hair was never touched by a barber, nor dressed even by themselves, exhibit this peculiarity. we regret to add that this is only one of a thousand erroneous statements which the commodore has made during his gigantic exploration. he may have been excellent at his own speciality of making soundings and laying down charts; but on all matters pertaining to natural history or ethnology, the worthy commodore appears to have been purblind, and, indeed, his extensive staff of naturalists of every kind have produced far less than might have been expected from such excellent opportunities as they enjoyed. the observation of the commodore will not stand the test of time, and cannot be depended upon as safe guides, excepting in those cases where he was an actual eye-witness. about his truthful intentions there can be no doubt whatever. of one very peculiar performance among the feegees he appears to have had actual demonstration, and as he has described this with sufficient minuteness, we shall copy his account; though, after what we have said, we should apologise largely for the liberty. the performance referred to is that of "barberising" a barbarian monarch, and may be taken as a proof of high civilisation among the feegees. it will be seen that, with the exception of the tabooed fingers, there is not much difference between a barber of bond street and an artist of like calling in the cannibal islands. "the chiefs in particular," writes commodore wilkes, "pay great attention to the dressing of their heads, and for this purpose all of them have barbers, whose sole occupation is the care of their masters' heads. these barbers are called _a-vu-ni-ulu_. they are attached to the household of the chiefs in numbers of from two to a dozen. the duty is held to be of so sacred a nature, that their hands are tabooed from all other employment, and they are not even permitted to feed themselves. to dress the head of a chief requires several hours. the hair is made to spread out from the head, on every side, to a distance that is often eight inches. the beard, which is also carefully nursed, often reaches the breast, and when a feegeean has these important parts of his person well dressed, he exhibits a degree of conceit that is not a little amusing. "in the process of dressing the hair it is well anointed with oil, mixed with a carbonaceous black, until it is completely saturated. the barber then takes the hairpin, which is a long and slender rod, made of tortoise-shell or bone, and proceeds to twitch almost every separate hair. this causes it to frizzle and stand erect. the bush of hair is then trimmed smooth by singeing it, until it has the appearance of an immense wig. when this has been finished, a piece of tapa, so fine as to resemble tissue-paper, is wound in light folds around it, to protect the hair from the dew or dust. this covering, which has the look of a turban, is called _sala_, and none but the chiefs are allowed to wear it; any attempt to assume this head-dress by a kai-si, or common person, would be immediately punished with death. the sala, when taken proper care of, will last three weeks or a month, and the hair is not dressed except when it is removed; but the high chiefs and dandies seldom allow a day to pass without changing the sala and having the hair put in order." with this account, we conclude our description of the feegeean's person. his costume is of the simplest kind, and easily described. with the men it is merely a strip of "tapa" or "malo" cloth passed several times round the waist, and the ends left to hang down in front. the length of the hanging ends determines the rank of the wearer, and only in the case of kings or great chiefs are they allowed to touch the ground. a turban of the finest tapa cloth among the great mop of hair is another badge of rank, worn only by kings and chiefs; and this head-dress, which adds greatly to the dignified appearance of the wearer, is not always coiffed in the same fashion, but each chief adapts it to his own or the prevailing taste of the court. the dress of the women is a mere waist-belt, with a fringe from six to ten inches in length. it is worn longer after they have become wives, sometimes reaching near the knee, and forming a very picturesque garment. it is called the "liku," and many of them are manufactured with surprising skill and neatness, the material being obtained from various climbing plants of the forest. under the "liku" the women are tattooed, and there only. their men, on the contrary, do not undergo the tattoo; but on grand occasions paint their faces and bodies in the most fanciful colours and patterns. the kings and some chiefs suspend from their necks shell ornaments-- often as large as a dining-plate--that down upon the breast. some, instead of this, wear a necklace of whales' teeth, carved to resemble claws, and bearing a very close resemblance to the necklaces of the prairie indians, made of the claws of the grizzly bear. another kind of necklace--perhaps more appropriate to the feegee--is a string of human teeth; and this kind is not unfrequently worn by these ferocious dandies. it must not be supposed that the scantiness of the feegeean costume arises from poverty or stinginess on the part of the wearer. nothing of the kind. it is simply because such is the fashion of the time. were it otherwise, he could easily supply the materials, but he does not wish it otherwise. his climate is an eternal summer, and he has no need to encumber his body with extraneous clothing. with the exception of the turban upon his head, his king is as naked as himself. you may suppose that the feegeeans have but little notions of modesty; but, strange as it may appear, this is in reality not one of their failings. they regard the "malo" and "liku" as the most modest of garments; and a man or woman seen in the streets without these scanty coverings would be in danger of being clubbed to death! it must be acknowledged that they are not _altogether_ depraved--for in this respect they present the most astounding anomaly. certain virtues are ascribed to them, and as i have painted only the dark side of their character, it is but fair to give the other. indeed, it is a pleasure to do this--though there is not enough of the favourable to make any great alteration in the picture. the whole character is so well described by one of the most acute observers who has yet visited the south seas--the wesleyan missionary williams--that we borrow the description. "the aspect of the feegeean," says mr williams, "with reference to his mental character, so far from supporting the decision which would thrust him almost out of mankind, presents many points of great interest, showing that, if an ordinary amount of attention were bestowed on him, he would take no mean rank in the human family, to which, hitherto, he has been a disgrace. dull, barren stupidity forms no part of his character. his feelings are acute, but not lasting; his emotions easily roused, but transient; he can love truly, and hate deeply; he can sympathise with thorough sincerity, and feign with consummate skill; his fidelity and loyalty are strong and enduring, while his revenge never dies, but waits to avail itself of circumstances, or of the blackest treachery, to accomplish its purpose. his senses are keen, and so well employed, that he often excels the white man in ordinary things. tact has been called `ready cash,' and of this the native of feegee has a full share, enabling him to surmount at once many difficulties, and accomplish many tasks, that would have `fixed' an englishman. tools, cord, or packing materials, he finds directly, where the white man would be at a loss for either; and nature seems to him but a general store for his use, where the article he wants is always within reach. "in social diplomacy the feegeean is very cautious and clever. that he ever paid a visit merely _en passant_, is hard to be believed. if no request leaves his lips, he has brought the desire, and only waits for a good chance to present it now, or prepare the way for its favourable reception at some other time. his face and voice are all pleasantness; and he has the rare skill of finding out just the subject on which you most like to talk, or sees at once whether you desire silence. barely will he fail to read your countenance; and the case must be urgent indeed which obliges him to ask a favour when he sees a frown. the more important he feels his business the more earnestly he protests that he has none at all; and the subject uppermost in his thoughts comes last to his lips, or is not even named; for he will make a second, or even a third visit, rather than risk a failure through precipitancy. he seems to read other men by intuition, especially where selfishness or lust are prominent traits. if it serves his purpose, he will study difficult and peculiar characters, reserving the results for future use; if afterwards he wish to please them, he will know how, and if to annoy them, it will be done most exactly. "his sense of hearing is acute, and by a stroke of his nail he judges the ripeness of fruits, or soundness of various substances." from what source the feegeean has sprung is purely a matter of conjecture. he has no history,--not even a tradition of when his ancestors first peopled the archipelago in which we now find him. of his race we have not a much clearer knowledge. speculation places him in the same family as the "papuan negro," and he has some points of resemblance to this race, in the colour and frizzled hair; but there is as much difference between the wretched native of west australia and the finely-developed feegeean as there is between the stunted laplander and the stalwart norwegian; nor is the coarse rough skin of the true papuan to be recognised in the smooth, glossy epidermis of the feegee islander. this, however, may be the result of better living; and certainly among the mountain-tribes of the feegees, who lead lives of greater privation and hardship, the approach to the papuan appearance is observable. it is hardly necessary to add that the feegeean is of a race quite distinct from that known as the polynesian or south-sea islander. this last is different not only in form, complexion, and language, but also in many important mental characteristics. it is to this race the tongans belong, and its peculiarities will be sketched in treating of that people. were we to enter upon a minute description of the manners and customs of the feegees,--of their mode of house and canoe building,--of their arts and manufactures, for they possess both,--of their implements of agriculture and domestic use,--of their weapons of war,--their ceremonies of religion and court etiquette,--our task would require more space than is here allotted to us: it would in fact be as much as to describe the complete social economy of a civilised nation; and a whole volume would scarce suffice to contain such a description. in a sketch like the present, the account of these people requires to be given in the most condensed and synoptical form, and only those points can be touched upon that may appear of the greatest interest. it must be remembered that the civilisation of the feegees--of course, i allude to their proficiency in the industrial arts--is entirely an indigenous growth. they have borrowed ideas from the tongans,--as the tongans have also from them,--but both are native productions of the south sea, and not derived from any of the so-called great _centres_ of civilisation. such as have sprung from these sources are of modern date, and make but a small feature in the panorama of feegeean life. the houses they build are substantial, and suitable to their necessities. we cannot stay to note the architecture minutely. the private dwellings are usually about twenty-five feet long by fifteen in breadth, the interior forming one room, but with a sort of elevated divan at the end, sometimes screened with beautiful "tapa" curtains, and serving as the dormitory. the ground-plan of the house is that of an oblong square,--or, to speak more properly, a parallelogram. the walls are constructed of timber,-- being straight posts of cocoa-palm, tree-fern, bamboo, or breadfruit,-- the spaces between closely warped or otherwise filled in with reeds of cane or _calamus_. the thatch is of the leaves of the wild or cultivated sugar-cane,--sometimes of a _pandanus_,--thickly laid on, especially near the eaves, where it is carefully cropped, exposing an edge of from one to two feet in thickness. the roof has four faces,-- that is, it is a "hip roof." it is made with a very steep pitch, and comes down low, projecting fer over the heads of the upright timbers. this gives a sort of shaded veranda all around the house, and throws the rain quite clear of the walls. the ridge-pole is a peculiar feature; it is fastened to the ridge of the thatch by strong twisted ropes, that give it an ornamental appearance; and its carved ends project at both gables, or rather, over the "hip roofs," to the length of a foot, or more; it is further ornamented by white shells, those of the _cyprea ovula_ being most used for the purpose. the feegee house presents altogether a picturesque and not inelegant appearance. the worst feature is the low door. there are usually two of them, neither in each house being over three feet in height. the feegee assigns no reason why his door is made so low; but as he is frequently in expectation of a visitor, with a murderous bludgeon in his grasp, it is possible this may have something to do with his making the entrance so difficult. the houses of the chiefs, and the great council-house, or temple,-- called the "bure,"--are built precisely in the same style; only that both are larger, and the doors, walls, and ridge-poles more elaborately ornamented. the fashionable style of decoration is a plaiting of cocoa-fibre, or "sinnet," which is worked and woven around the posts in regular figures of "relievo." the house described is not universal throughout all the group. there are many "orders" of architecture, and that prevailing in the windward islands is different from the style of the leeward, and altogether of a better kind. different districts have different forms. in one you may see a village looking like an assemblage of wicker baskets, while in another you might fancy it a collection of rustic arbours. a third seems a collection oblong hayricks, with holes in their sides; while, in a fourth these ricks are conical. it will be seen that, with this variety in housebuilding, it would be a tedious task to illustrate the complete architecture of feegeeans. even master kuskin himself would surrender it up in despair. equally tedious would it be to describe the various implements or utensils which a feegee house contains. the furniture is simple enough. there are neither chairs, tables, nor bedsteads. the bed is a beautiful mat spread on the dais, or divan; and in the houses of the rich the floors are covered with a similar carpet. these mats are of the finest texture, far superior to those made elsewhere. the materials used are the _hibiscus tiliaceus, pandanus odoratissimus_, and a species of rush. they are in great abundance in every house,--even the poorest person having his mat to sit or lie upon; and it is they that serve for the broad-spreading sails of the gigantic canoes. in addition to the mats, plenty of tapa cloth may be seen, and baskets of every shape and size,--the wicker being obtained from the rattan (_flagellaria_), and other sources. one piece of furniture deserves especial mention,--this is the pillow upon which the feegee lord lays his head when he goes to sleep. it presents but little claim to the appellation of a _downy_ pillow; since it is a mere cylinder of hard polished wood, with short arched pedestals to it, to keep it firmly in its place. its object is to keep the great frizzled mop from being tossed or disarranged, during the hours of repose; and feegeean vanity enables the owner of the mop to endure this flinty bolster with the most uncomplaining equanimity. if he were possessed of the slightest spark of conscience, even this would be soft, compared with any pillow upon which he might rest his guilty head. in addition to the baskets, other vessels meet the eye. these are of pottery, as varied in shape and size as they are in kind. there are pots and pans, bowls, dishes, cups and saucers, jars and bottles,--many of them of rare and curious designs,--some red, some ornamented with a glaze obtained from the gum of the _kauri_ pine,--for this tree is also an indigenous production of the feegee islands. though no potter's wheel is known to the feegees, the proportions of their vessels are as just and true, and their polish as complete, as if stafford had produced them. there are cooking-pots to be seen of immense size. these are jars formed with mouths wide enough to admit the largest joint. i dare not mention the kind of joint that is frequently cooked in those great caldrons. ugh! the horrid pots! their implements are equally varied and numerous,--some for manufacturing purposes, and others for agriculture. the latter are of the simplest kind. the feegee plough is merely a pointed stick inserted deeply into the ground, and kept moving about till a lump of the soil is broken upward. this is crushed into mould, first by a light club, and afterwards pulverised with the fingers. the process is slow, but fast enough for the feegeean, whose farm is only a garden. he requires no plough, neither bullocks nor horses. with taro-roots and sweet potatoes that weigh ten pounds each, yams and yaqonas over one hundred, and plantains producing bunches of a hundred and fifty fruits to the single head, why need he trouble himself by breaking up more surface? his single acre yields him as much vegetable wealth as fifty would to an english farmer! it is not to be supposed that he has it all to himself; no, nor half of it either; nor yet the fifth part of it. at least four fifths of his sweat has to be expended in tax or tithe; and this brings us to the form of his government. we shall not dwell long upon this subject. suffice it to say that the great body of the people are in a condition of abject serfdom,--worse than slavery itself. they own nothing that they can call their own,--not their wives,--not their daughters,--not even their lives! all these may be taken from them at any hour. there is no law against despoiling them,--no check upon the will and pleasure of their chiefs or superiors; and, as these constitute a numerous body, the poor _canaille_ have no end of ruffian despoilers. it is an everyday act for a chief to rob, or _club to death_, one of the common people! and no unfrequent occurrence to be himself clubbed to death by his superior, the king! of these _kings_ there are eight in feegee,--not one, as the old song has it; but the words of the ballad will apply to each of them with sufficient appropriateness. any one of them will answer to the character of "musty-fusty-shang?" these kings have their residences on various islands, and the different parts of the group are distributed somewhat irregularly under their rule. some islands, or parts of islands, are only tributary to them; others connected by a sort of deferential alliance; and there are communities quite independent, and living under the arbitrary sway of their own chieftains. the kings are not all of equal power or importance; but in this respect there have been many changes, even during the feegeean historical period,--which extends back only to the beginning of the present century. sometimes one is the most influential, sometimes another; and in most cases the pre-eminence is obtained by him who possesses the greatest amount of truculence and treachery. he who is most successful in murdering his rivals, and ridding himself of opposition, by the simple application of the club, usually succeeds in becoming for the time head "king of the cannibal islands." i do not mean that he reigns over the whole archipelago. no king has yet succeeded in uniting all the islands under one government. he only gets so far as to be feared everywhere, and to have tributary presents, and all manner of debasing compliments offered to him. these kings have all their courts and court etiquette, just as their "royal brothers" elsewhere; and the ceremonials observed are quite as complicated and degrading to the dignity of man. the punishment for neglecting their observance is rather more severe in feegee than elsewhere. for a decided or wilful non-compliance, the skull of the delinquent is frequently crushed in by the club of his majesty himself,--even in presence of a full "drawing-room." lesser or accidental mistakes, or even the exhibition of an ungraceful _gaucherie_, are punished by the loss of a finger: the consequence of which is, that in feegee there are many fingers missing! indeed, a complete set is rather the exception than the rule. if a king or great chief should chance to miss his foot and slip down, it is the true _ton_ for all those who are near or around him to fall likewise,--the crowd coming down, literally like a "thousand of bricks!" i might detail a thousand customs to show how far the dignity of the human form is debased and disgraced upon feegee soil; but the subject could be well illustrated nearer home. flunkeyism is a fashion unfortunately not confined to the feegeean archipelago; and though the forms in which it exhibits itself there may be different, the sentiment is still the same. it must ever appear where men are politically unequal,--wherever there is a class possessed of hereditary privileges. i come to the last,--the darkest feature in the feegeean character,--the horrid crime and custom of cannibalism. i could paint a picture, and fill up the details with the testimony of scores of eyewitnesses,--a picture that would cause your heart to weep. it is too horrid to be given here. my pen declines the office; and, therefore, i must leave the painful story untold. chapter eight. the tongans, or friendly islanders. it is a pleasure to pass out of the company of the ferocious feegees into that of another people, which, though near neighbours of the former, are different from them in almost every respect,--i mean the tongans, or friendly islanders. this appellation scarce requires to be explained. every one knows that it was bestowed upon them by the celebrated navigator cook,--who although not the actual discoverer of the tonga group, was the first who thoroughly explored these islands, and gave any reliable account of them to the civilised world. tasman, who might be termed the "dutch captain cook," is allowed to be their discoverer, so long ago as ; though there is reason to believe that some of the spanish explorers from peru may have touched at these islands before his time. tasman, however, has fixed the record of his visit, and is therefore entitled to the credit of the discovery,--as he is also to that of australia, new zealand, van diemen's land, and other now well-known islands of the south-western pacific. tasman bestowed upon three of the tonga group the names--amsterdam, rotterdam, and middleburgh; but, fortunately, geographers have acted in this matter with better taste than is their wont; and tasman's dutch national titles have fallen into disuse,--while the true native names of the islands have been restored to the map. this is what should be done with other pacific islands as well; for it is difficult to conceive anything in worse taste than such titles as the caroline and loyalty isles, prince william's land, king george's island, and the ten thousand albert and victoria lands which the genius of flattery, or rather flunkeyism, has so liberally distributed over the face of the earth. the title of friendly isles, bestowed by cook upon the tonga archipelago, deserves to live; since it is not only appropriate, but forms the record of a pleasant fact,--the pacific character of our earliest intercourse with these interesting people. it may be here remarked, that mr wylde and other superficial map-makers have taken a most unwarrantable liberty with this title. instead of leaving it as bestowed by the great navigator,--applicable to the tonga archipelago alone,--they have _stretched_ it to include that of the samoans, and--would it be believed--that of the _feegees_? it is hardly necessary to point out the extreme absurdity of such a classification: since it would be difficult to find two nationalities much more unlike than those of tonga and feegee. that they have many customs in common, is due (unfortunately for the tongans) to the intercourse which proximity has produced; but in an ethnological sense, white is not a greater contrast to black, nor good to evil, than that which exists between a tongan and a feegeean. cook never visited the feegee archipelago,--he only saw some of these people while at tongataboo, and heard of their country as being _a large island_. had he visited that island,--or rather that group of over two hundred islands,--it is not at all likely he would have seen reason to extend to them the title which the map-makers have thought fit to bestow. instead of "friendly islands," he might by way of contrast have called them the "hostile isles," or given them that--above all others most appropriate, and which they truly deserve to bear--that old title celebrated in song! the "cannibal islands." an observer so acute as cook could scarce have overlooked the appropriateness of the appellation. the situation of the tonga, or friendly isles, is easily registered in the memory. the parallel of degrees south, and the meridian of degrees west, very nearly intersect each other in tofoa, which may be regarded as the central island of the group. it will thus be seen that their central point is degrees east and degrees south of the centre of the feegeean archipelago, and the nearest islands of the two groups are about three hundred miles apart. it is worthy of observation, however, that the tonga isles have the advantage, as regards the wind. the _trades_ are in their favour; and from tonga to feegee, if we employ a landsman's phraseology, it is "down hill," while it is all "up hill" in the contrary direction. the consequence is, that many tongans are constantly making voyages to the feegee group,--a large number of them having settled there (as stated elsewhere),--while but a limited number of feegeeans find their way to the friendly islands. there is another reason for this unequally-balanced migration: and that is, that the tongans are much bolder and better sailors than their western neighbours; for although fer excel any other south-sea islanders in the art of _building_ their canoes (or ships as they might reasonably be called), yet they are as far behind many others in the art of _sailing_ them. their superiority in ship-building may be attributed, partly, to the excellent materials which these islands abundantly afford; though this is not the sole cause. however much we may deny to the feegeeans the possession of moral qualities, we are at the same time forced to admit their great intellectual capacity,--as exhibited in the advanced state of their arts and manufactures. in intellectual capacity, however, the friendly islanders are their equals; and the superiority of the feegeeans even in "canoe architecture" is no longer acknowledged. it is true the tongans go to the feegee group for most of their large double vessels; but that is for the reasons already stated,--the greater abundance and superior quality of the timber and other materials produced there. in the feegee "dockyards," the tongans build for themselves; and have even improved upon the borrowed pattern. this intercourse,--partaking somewhat of the character of an alliance,-- although in some respects advantageous to the friendly islanders, may be regarded, upon the whole, as unfortunate for them. if it has improved their knowledge in arts and manufactures, it has far more than counterbalanced this advantage by the damage done to their moral character. it is always much easier to make proselytes to vice than to virtue,--as is proved in this instance: for his intercourse with the ferocious feegee has done much to deteriorate the character of the tongan. from that source he has imbibed a fondness for war and other wicked customs; and, in all probability, had this influence been permitted to continue uninterrupted for a few years longer, the horrid habit of cannibalism--though entirely repugnant to the natural disposition of the tongans--would have become common among them. indeed, there can be little doubt that this would have been the ultimate consequence of the alliance; for already its precursors--human sacrifices and the vengeful immolation of enemies--had made their appearance upon the friendly islands. happily for the tongan, another influence--that of the missionaries--came just in time to avert this dire catastrophe; and, although this missionary interference has not been the best of its kind, it is still preferable to the paganism which it has partially succeeded in subduing. the tongan archipelago is much less extensive than that of the feegees,--the islands being of a limited number, and only five or six of them of any considerable size. tongataboo, the largest, is about ninety miles in circumference. from the most southern of the group eoo, to yavan at the other extremity, it stretches, northerly or northeasterly, about two hundred miles, in a nearly direct line. the islands are all, with one or two exceptions, low-lying, their surface being diversified by a few hillocks or mounds, of fifty or sixty feet in height, most of which have the appearance of being artificial. some of the smaller islets, as kao, are mountains of some six hundred feet elevation, rising directly out of the sea; while tofoa, near the eastern edge of the archipelago, presents the appearance of an _elevated_ tableland. the larger number of them are clothed with a rich tropical vegetation, both natural and cultivated, and their botany includes most of the species common to the other islands of the south sea. we find the cocoa, and three other species of palm, the pandanus, the breadfruit in varieties, as also the useful musacaae,--the plantain, and banana. the ti-tree (_dracaena terminalis_), the paper-mulberry (_brousonetia papyrifera_), the sugar-cane, yams of many kinds, the tree yielding the well-known _turmeric_, the beautiful _casuarina_, and a hundred other sorts of plants, shrubs, or trees, valuable for the product of their roots or fruits, their sap and pith, of their trunks and branches, their leaves and the fibrous material of their bark. as a scenic decoration to the soil, there is no part of the world where more lovely landscapes are produced by the aid of a luxuriant vegetation. they are perhaps not equal in picturesque effect to those of the feegee group,--where mountains form an adjunct to the scenery,-- but in point of soft, quiet beauty, the landscapes of the tonga islands are not surpassed by any others in the tropical world; and with the climate they enjoy--that of an endless summer--they might well answer to the description of the "abode of the blessed." and, indeed, when tasman first looked upon these islands, they perhaps merited the title more than any other spot on the habitable globe; for, if any people on this earth might be esteemed happy and blessed, surely it was the inhabitants of these fair isles of the far southern sea. tasman even records the remarkable fact, that he saw no arms among them,--no weapons of war! and perhaps, at that time, neither the detestable trade nor its implements were known to them. alas! in little more than a century afterwards, this peaceful aspect was no longer presented. when the great english navigator visited these islands, he found the war-club and spear in the hands of the people, both of feegee pattern, and undoubtedly of the same ill-omened origin. the personal appearance of the friendly islanders differs not a great deal from that of the other south-sea tribes or nations. of course we speak only of the true polynesians of the brown complexion, without reference to the black-skinned islanders--as the feegees and others of the papuan stock. the two have neither resemblance nor relationship to one another; and it would not be difficult to show that they are of a totally distinct origin. as for the blacks, it is not even certain that they are themselves of one original stock; for the splendidly-developed cannibal of feegee presents very few features in common with the wretched kangaroo-eater of west australia. whether the black islanders (or melanesians as they have been designated) originally came from one source, is still a question for ethnologists; but there can be no doubt as to the direction whence they entered upon the colonisation of the pacific. that was certainly upon its western border, beyond which they have not made much progress: since the feegeean archipelago is at the present time their most advanced station to the eastward. the brown or polynesian races, on the contrary, began their migrations from the eastern border of the great ocean--in other words, they came from america; and the so-called indians of america are, in my opinion, the _progenitors_, not the _descendants_, of these people of the ocean world. if learned ethnologists will give their attention to this view of the subject, and disembarrass their minds of that fabulous old fancy, about an original stock situated somewhere (they know not exactly where) upon the steppes of asia, they will perhaps arrive at a more rational hypothesis about the peopling of the so-called new worlds, both the american and oceanic. they will be able to prove--what might be here done if space would permit--that the polynesians are emigrants from tropical america, and that the sandwich islanders came originally from california, and not the californians from the island homes of hawaii. it is of slight importance here how this question may be viewed. enough to know that the natives of the tonga group bear a strong resemblance to those of the other polynesian archipelagos--to the otaheitans and new zealanders, but most of all to the inhabitants of the samoan or navigators' islands, of whom, indeed, they may be regarded as a branch, with a separate political and geographical existence. their language also confirms the affinity, as it is merely a dialect of the common tongue spoken by all the polynesians. whatever difference exists between the tongans and other polynesians in point of personal appearance, is in favour of the former. the men are generally regarded as the best-looking of all south-sea islanders, and the women among the fairest of their sex. many of them would be accounted beautiful in any part of the world; and as a general rule, they possess personal beauty in a fer higher degree than the much-talked-of otaheitans. the tongans are of tall stature--rather above than under that of european nations. men of six feet are common enough; though few are seen of what might be termed gigantic proportions. in fact, the true medium size is almost universal, and the excess in either direction forms the exception. the bulk of their bodies is in perfect proportion to their height. unlike the black feegeeans--who are often bony and gaunt--the tongans possess well-rounded arms and limbs; and the hands and feet, especially those of the women, are small and elegantly shaped. to give a delineation of their features would be a difficult task--since these are so varied in different individuals, that it would be almost impossible to select a good typical face. indeed the same might be said of nearly every nation on the face of the earth; and the difficulty will be understood by your making an attempt to describe some face that will answer for every set of features in a large town, or even a small village; or still, with greater limitation, for the different individuals of a single family. just such a variety there will be found among the faces of the friendly islanders, as you might note in the inhabitants of an english town or county; and hence the difficulty of making a correct likeness. a few characteristic points, however, may be given, both as to their features and complexion. their lips are scarcely ever of a thick or negro form; and although the noses are in general rounded at the end, this rule is not universal;--many have genuine roman noses, and what may be termed a full set of the best italian features. there is also less difference between the sexes in regard to their features than is usually seen elsewhere--those of the women being only distinguished by their less size. the forms of the women constitute a more marked distinction; and among the beauties of tonga are many that might be termed models in respect to shape and proportions. in colour, the tongans are lighter than most other south-sea islanders. some of the better classes of women--those least exposed to the open air--show skins of a light olive tint; and the children of all are nearly white after birth. they become browner less from age than exposure to the sun; for, as soon as they are able to be abroad, they scarce ever afterwards enter under the shadow of a roof, except during the hours of night. the tongans have good eyes and teeth; but in this respect they are not superior to many other oceanic tribes--even the black feegeeans possessing both eyes and "ivories" scarce surpassed anywhere. the tongans, however, have the advantage of their dusky neighbours in the matter of hair--their heads being clothed with a luxuriant growth of true hair. sometimes it is quite straight, as among the american indians, but oftener with a slight wave or undulation, or a curl approaching, but never quite arriving at the condition of "crisp." his hair in its natural colour is jet black; and it is to be regretted that the tongans have not the good taste to leave it to its natural hue. on the contrary, their fashion is to stain it of a reddish-brown, a purple or an orange. the brown is obtained by the application of burnt coral, the purple from a vegetable dye applied poultice-fashion to the hair, and the orange is produced by a copious lathering of common turmeric,--with which the women also sometimes anoint their bodies, and those of their children. this fashion of hair-dyeing is also common to the feegees, and whether they obtained it from the tongans, or the tongans from them, is an unsettled point. the more probable hypothesis would be, that among many other ugly customs, it had its origin in feegee-land,--where, however, the people assign a reason for practising it very different from the mere motive of ornament. they allege that it also serves a useful purpose, in preventing the too great fructification of a breed of parasitic insects,--that would otherwise find--the immense mop of the frizzly feegeean a most convenient dwelling-place, and a secure asylum from danger. this may have had something to do with the origin of the custom; but once established for purposes of utility, it is now confirmed, and kept up by the tongans as a useless ornament. their taste in the colour runs exactly counter to that of european fashionables. what a pity it is that the two could not make an exchange of hair! then both parties, like a pair of advertisements in the "times," would exactly _fit_ each other. besides the varied fashion in colours, there is also great variety in the styles in which the tongans wear their hair. some cut it short on one side of their head, leaving it at full length on the other; some shave a small patch, or cut off only a single lock; while others--and these certainly display the best taste--leave it to grow out in all its full luxuriance. in this, again, we find the european fashion reversed, for the women are those who wear it shortest. the men, although they are not without beard, usually crop this appendage very close, or shave it off altogether,--a piece of shell, or rather a pair of shells, serving them for a razor. the mode is to place the thin edge of one shell underneath the hair,-- just as a hair-cutter does his comb,--and with the edge of the other applied above, the hairs are rasped through and divided. there are regular barbers for this purpose, who by practice have been rendered exceedingly dexterous in its performance; and the victim of the operation alleges that there is little or no pain produced,--at all events, it does not bring the tears to his eyes, as a dull razor often does with us poor thin-skinned europeans! the dress of the tongans is very similar to that of the otaheitans, so often described and well-known; but we cannot pass it here without remarking a notable peculiarity on the part of the polynesian people, as exhibited in the character of their costume. the native tribes of almost all other warm climates content themselves with the most scant covering,--generally with no covering at all, but rarely with anything that may be termed a skirt. in south america most tribes wear the "guayuco,"--a mere strip around the loins, and among the feegees the "malo" or "masi" of the men, and the scant "liku" of the women are the only excuse for a modest garment. in africa we find tribes equally destitute of clothing, and the same remark will apply to the tropical countries all around the globe. here, however, amongst a people dwelling in the middle of a vast ocean,--isolated from the whole civilised world, we find a natural instinct of modesty that does credit to their character, and is even in keeping with that character, as first observed by voyagers to the south seas. whatever acts of indelicacy may be alleged against the otaheitans, this has been much exaggerated by their intercourse with immoral white men; but none of such criminal conduct can be charged against the natives of the friendly isles. on the contrary, the behaviour of these, both among themselves and in presence of european visitors, has been ever characterised by a modesty that would shame either regent street or ratcliffe highway. a description of the national costume of the tongans, though often given, is not unworthy of a place here; and we shall give it as briefly as a proper understanding of it will allow. there is but one "garment" to be described, and that is the "pareu," which will be better understood, perhaps, by calling it a "petticoat." the material is usually of "tapa" cloth,--a fabric of native manufacture, to be described hereafter,--and the cutting out is one of the simplest of performances, requiring neither a tailor for the men, nor a dressmaker for the other sex, for every one can make their own pareu. it needs only to clip a piece of "tapa" cloth in the form of an "oblong square"-- an ample one, being about two yards either way. this is wrapped round the body,--the middle part against the small of the back,--and then both ends brought round to the front are lapped over each other as far as they will go, producing, of course, a double fold of the cloth. a girdle is next tied around the waist,--usually a cord of ornamental plait; and this divides the piece of tapa into body and skirt. the latter is of such a length as to stretch below the calf of the leg,-- sometimes down to the ankle,--and the upper part or body _would_ reach to the shoulders, if the weather required it, and often does _when the missionaries require it_. but not at any other time: such an ungraceful mode of wearing the pareu was never intended by the simple tongans, who never dreamt of there being any immodesty in their fashion until told of it by their puritanical preceptors! tongan-fashion, the pareu is a sort of tunic, and a most graceful garment to boot; methodist fashion, it becomes a gown or rather a sleeveless wrapper that resembles a sack. but if the body part is not to be used in this way, how, you will ask, is it to be disposed of? is it allowed to hang down outside, like the gown of a slattern woman, who has only half got into it? no such thing. the natural arrangement is both simple and peculiar; and produces, moreover, a costume that is not only characteristic but graceful to the eye that once becomes used to it. the upper half of the tapa cloth is neatly folded or turned, until it becomes a thick roll; and this roll, brought round the body, just above the girdle, is secured in that position. the swell thus produced causes the waist to appear smaller by contrast; and the effect of a well-formed bust, rising above the roll of tapa cloth, is undoubtedly striking and elegant. in cold weather, but more especially at night, the roll is taken out, and the shoulders are then covered; for it is to be observed that the pareu, worn by day as a dress, is also kept on at night as a sleeping-gown, more especially by those who possess only a limited wardrobe. it is not always the cold that requires it to be kept on at night. it is more used, at this time, as a protection against the mosquitoes, that abound amidst the luxuriant vegetation of the tongan islands. the "pareu" is not always made of the "tapa" cloth. fine mats, woven from the fibres of the screw-pine (pandanus), are equally in vogue; and, upon festive occasions, a full-dress pareu is embellished with red feather-work, adding greatly to the elegance and picturesqueness of its appearance. a coarser and scantier pareu is to be seen among the poorer people, the material of which is a rough tapa, fabricated from the bark of the breadfruit, and not unfrequently this is only a mere strip wrapped around the loins; in other words, a "malo," "maro," or "maso,"-- as it is indifferently written in the varied orthography of the voyagers. having described this only and unique garment, we have finished with the costume of the tongan islanders, both men and women,-- for both wear the pareu alike. the head is almost universally uncovered; and no head-dress is ever worn unless a cap of feathers by the great chiefs, and this only upon rare and grand occasions. it is a sort of chaplet encircling the head, and deeper in front than behind. over the forehead the plumes stand up to a height of twelve or fifteen inches, gradually lowering on each side as the ray extends backward beyond the ears. the main row is made with the beautiful tail-plumes of the tropic bird _phaeton aetherus_, while the front or fillet part of the cap is ornamented with the scarlet feathers of a species of parrot. the head-dress of the women consists simply of fresh flowers: a profusion of which--among others the beautiful blossoms of the orange-- is always easily obtained. an ear-pendant is also worn,--a piece of ivory of about two inches in length, passed through two holes, pierced in the lobe of the ear for this purpose. the pendant hangs horizontally, the two holes balancing it, and keeping it in position. a necklace also of pearl-shells, shaped into beads, is worn. sometimes a string of the seeds of the pandanus is added, and an additional ornament is an armlet of mother-o'-pearl, fashioned into the form of a ring. only the men tattoo themselves; and the process is confined to that portion of the body from the waist to the thighs, which is always covered with the pareu. the practice of tattooing perhaps first originated in the desire to equalise age with youth, and to hide an ugly physiognomy. but the tongan islander has no ugliness to conceal, and both men and women have had the good taste to refrain from disfiguring the fair features which nature has so bountifully bestowed upon them. the only marks of tattoo to be seen upon the women are a few fine lines upon the palms of their hands; nor do they disfigure their fair skins with the hideous pigments so much in use among other tribes, of what we are in the habit of terming _savages_. they anoint the body with a fine oil procured from the cocoanut, and which is also perfumed by various kinds of flowers that are allowed to macerate in the oil; but this toilet is somewhat expensive, and is only practised by the better classes of the community. all, however, both rich and poor, are addicted to habits of extreme cleanliness, and bathing in fresh water is a frequent performance. they object to bathing in the sea; and when they do so, always finish the bath by pouring fresh water over their bodies,--a practice which they allege prevents the skin from becoming rough, which the sea-water would otherwise make it. house architecture in the tongan islands is in rather a backward state. they have produced no wrens nor inigo joneses; but this arises from a natural cause. they have no need for great architects,--scarce any need for houses either,--and only the richer tongans erect any dwelling more pretentious than a mere shed. a few posts of palm-trunks are set up, and upon these are placed the cross-beams, rafters, and roof. pandanus leaves, or those of the sugar-cane, form the thatch; and the sides are left open underneath. in the houses of the chiefs and more wealthy people there are walls of pandanus mats, fastened to the uprights; and some of these houses are of considerable size and neatly built. the interiors are kept scrupulously clean,--the floors being covered with beautiful mats woven in coloured patterns, and presenting all the gay appearance of costly carpeting. there are neither chairs nor tables. the men sit tailor-fashion, and the women in a reclining posture, with both limbs turned a little to one side and backwards. a curious enclosure or partition is formed by setting a stiff mat, of about two feet width, upon its edge,--the roll at each end steadying it and keeping it in an upright position. the utensils to be observed are dishes, bowls, and cups,--usually of calabash or cocoa-shells,--and an endless variety of baskets of the most ingenious plait and construction. the "stool-pillow" is also used; but differing from that of the feegees in the horizontal piece having a hollow to receive the head. many kinds of musical instruments may be seen,--the pandean pipes, the nose-flute, and various kinds of bamboo drums, all of which have been minutely described by travellers. i am sorry to add that war-clubs and spears for a similar purpose are also to be observed conspicuous among the more useful implements of peace. bows and arrows, too, are common; but these are only employed for shooting birds and small rodents, especially rats, that are very numerous and destructive to the crops. for food, the tongans have the pig,--the same variety as is so generally distributed throughout the oceanic islands. it is stated that the feegeeans obtained this animal from the friendly isles; but i am of opinion that in this case the benefit came the other way, as the _sus papua_ is more likely to have entered the south sea from its leeward rather than its windward side. in all likelihood the dog may have been derived from the eastern edge; but the pigs and poultry would seem to be of western origin,--western as regards the position of the pacific. the principal food of the friendly islanders, however, is of a vegetable nature, and consists of yams, breadfruit, taro, plantains, sweet potatoes, and, in fact, most of those roots and fruits common to the other islands of the pacific. fish also forms an important article of their food. they drink the "kava," or juice of the _piper methisticum_--or rather of its roots chewed to a pulp; but they rarely indulge to that excess observed among the feegees, and they are not over fond of the drink, except as a means of producing a species of intoxication which gives them a momentary pleasure. many of them, especially the women, make wry faces while partaking of it; and no wonder they do, for it is at best a disgusting beverage. the time of the tongan islanders is passed pleasantly enough, when there is no wicked war upon hand. the men employ themselves in cultivating the ground or fishing; and here the woman is no longer the mere slave and drudge--as almost universally elsewhere among savage or even semi-civilised nations. this is a great fact, which tells a wondrous tale--which speaks trumpet-tongued to the credit of the tongan islander. not only do the men share the labour with their more delicate companions, but everything else--their food, conversation, and every enjoyment of life. both partake alike--eat together, drink together, and join at once in the festive ceremony. in their grand dances--or balls as they might more properly be termed--the women play an important part; and these exhibitions, though in the open air, are got up with an elegance and eclat that would not disgrace the most fashionable ballroom in christendom. their dances, indeed, are far more graceful than anything ever seen either at "almacks" or the "jardin mabille." the principal employment of the men is in the cultivation of their yam and plantain grounds, many of which extend to the size of fields, with fences that would almost appear to have been erected as ornaments. these are of canes, closely set, raised to the height of six feet--wide spaces being left between the fences of different owners to serve as roads for the whole community. in the midst of these fields stand the sheds, or houses, surrounded by splendid forms of tropic vegetation, and forming pictures of a softly beautiful character. the men also occupy themselves in the construction of their canoes,--to procure the large ones, making a voyage as already stated, to the feegee islands, and sometimes remaining absent for several years. these, however, are usually professional boat-builders, and form but a very small proportion of the forty thousand people who inhabit the different islands of the tongan archipelago. the men also occasionally occupy themselves in weaving mats and wicker baskets, and carving fancy toys out of wood and shells; but the chief part of the manufacturing business is in the hands of the women--more especially the making of the tapa cloth, already so often mentioned. an account of the manufacture may be here introduced, with the proviso, that it is carried on not only by the women of the feegee group, but by those of nearly all the other polynesian islands. there are slight differences in the mode of manufacture, as well as in the quality of the fabric; but the account here given, both of the making and dyeing, will answer pretty nearly for all. the bark of the malo-tree, or "paper-mulberry," is taken off in strips, as long as possible, and then steeped in water, to facilitate the separation of the epidermis, which is effected by a large volute shell. in this state it is kept for some time, although fit for immediate use. a log, flattened on the upper side, is so fixed as to spring a little, and on this the strips of bark--or _masi_, as it is called--are beaten with an _iki_, or mallet, about two inches square, and grooved longitudinally on three of its sides. two lengths of the wet _masi_ are generally beaten together, in order to secure greater strength--the gluten which they contain being sufficient to keep their fibres united. a two-inch strip can thus be beaten out to the width of a foot and a half; but the length is at the same time reduced. the pieces are neatly lapped together with the starch of the taro, or arrowroot, boiled whole; and thus reach a length of many yards. the "widths" are also joined by the same means laterally, so as to form pieces of fifteen or thirty feet square; and upon these, the ladies exhaust their ornamenting skill. the middle of the square is printed with a red-brown, by the following process:--upon a convex board, several feet long, are arranged parallel, at about a finger-width apart, thin straight slips of bamboo, a quarter of an inch wide. by the side of these, curved pieces, formed of the midrib of cocoanut leaflets, are arranged. on the board thus prepared the cloth is laid, and rubbed over with a dye obtained from the _lauci_ (_aleurites triloba_). the cloth of course, takes the dye upon those parts which receive pressure, being supported by the slips beneath; and thus shows the same pattern in the colour employed. a stronger preparation of the same dye, laid on with a sort of brush, is used to divide the square into oblong compartments, with large round or radiated dots in the centre. the _kesa_, or dye, when good, dries bright. blank borders, two or three feet wide, are still left on two sides of the square; and to elaborate the ornamentation of these, so as to excite applause, is the pride of every lady. there is now an entire change of apparatus. the operator works on a plain board; the red dye gives place to a jet black; the pattern is now formed of a strip of banana-leaf placed on the upper surface of the cloth. out of the leaf is cut the pattern--not more than an inch long--which the lady wishes to print upon the border, and holds by her first and middle finger, pressing it down with the thumb. then taking a soft pad of cloth steeped in the dye, in her right hand, she rubs it firmly over the stencil, and a sharp figure is made. the practised fingers of the operator move quickly, but it is, after all, a tedious process. i regret to add, that the men employ themselves in an art of less utility: the manufacture of war weapons--clubs and spears--which the people of the different islands, and even those of the same, too often brandish against one another. this war spirit is entirely owing to their intercourse with the ferocious feegees, whose boasting and ambitious spirit they are too prone to emulate. in fact, their admiration of the feegee habits is something surprising; and can only be accounted for by the fact, that while visiting these savages and professed warriors, the tongans have become imbued with a certain fear of them. they acknowledge the more reckless spirit of their allies, and are also aware that in intellectual capacity the black men are not inferior to themselves. they certainly are inferior in courage, as in every good moral quality; but the tongans can hardly believe this, since their cruel and ferocious conduct seems to give colour to the contrary idea. in fact, it is this that inspires them with a kind of respect, which has no other foundation than a vague sense of fear. hence they endeavour to emulate the actions that produce this fear, and this leads them to go to war with one another. it is to be regretted that the missionaries have supplied them with a motive. their late wars are solely due to missionary influence,--for methodism upon the tongan islands has adopted one of the doctrines of mahomet, and believes in the faith being propagated by the sword! a usurper, who wishes to be king over the whole group, has embraced the methodist form of christianity, and linked himself with its teachers,-- who offer to aid him with all their influence; and these formerly peaceful islands now present the painful spectacle of a divided nationality,--the "christian party," and the "devil's party." the object of conquest on the part of the former is to place the devil's party under the absolute sovereignty of a despot, whose laws will be dictated by his missionary ministers. of the mildness of these laws we have already some specimens, which of course extend only to the "christianised." one of them, which refers to the mode of wearing the pareu, has been already hinted at,--and another is a still more off-hand piece of legislation: being an edict that no one hereafter shall be permitted to smoke tobacco, under pain of a most severe punishment. when it is considered that the tongan islander enjoys the "weed" (and grows it too) more than almost any other smoker in creation, the severity of the "taboo" may be understood. but it is very certain, if his methodist majesty were once firmly seated on his throne, _bluer_ laws than this would speedily be proclaimed. the american commodore wilkes found things in this warlike attitude when he visited the tongan islands; but perceiving that the right was clearly on the side of the "devil's party," declined to interfere; or rather, his interference, which would have speedily brought peace, was rejected by the christian party, instigated by the sanguinary spirit of their "christian" teachers. not so, captain croker, of her britannic majesty's service, who came shortly after. this unreflecting officer--loath to believe that royalty could be in the wrong--at once took side with the king and christians, and dashed headlong into the affair. the melancholy result is well-known. it ended by captain croker leaving his body upon the field, alongside those of many of his brave tars; and a disgraceful retreat of the christian party beyond the reach of their enemies. this interference of a british war-vessel in the affairs of the tongan islanders, offers a strong contrast to our conduct when in presence of the feegees. there we have the fact recorded of british officers being eyewitnesses of the most horrid scenes,--wholesale murder and cannibalism,--with full power to stay the crime and full authority to punish it,--that authority which would have been freely given them by the accord and acclamation of the whole civilised world,--and yet they stood by, in the character of idle spectators, fearful of breaking through the delicate icy line of _non-intervention_! a strange theory it seems, that murder is no longer murder, when the murderer and his victim chance to be of a different nationality from our own! it is a distinction too delicate to bear the investigation of the philosophic mind; and perhaps will yet yield to a truer appreciation of the principles of justice. there was no such squeamishness displayed when royalty required support upon the tongan islands; nor ever is there when self-interest demands it otherwise. mercy and justice may both fail to disarrange the hypocritical fallacy of non-intervention; but the principle always breaks down at the call of political convenience. chapter nine. the turcomans. asia has been remarkable, from the earliest times, for having a large population without any fixed place of residence, but who lead a _nomade_ or wandering life. it is not the only quarter of the globe where this kind of people are found: as there are many _nomade_ nations in africa, especially in the northern division of it; and if we take the indian race into consideration, we find that both the north and south-american continents have their tribes of wandering people. it is in asia, nevertheless, that we find this unsettled mode of life carried out to its greatest extent,--it is there that we find those great pastoral tribes,--or "hordes," as they have been termed,--who at different historical periods have not only increased to the numerical strength of large nationalities, but have also been powerful enough to overrun adjacent empires, pushing their conquests even into europe itself. such were the invasions of the mongols under zenghis khan, the tartars under timour, and the turks, whose degenerate descendants now so feebly hold the vast territory won by their wandering ancestors. the pastoral life, indeed, has its charms, that render it attractive to the natural disposition of man, and wherever the opportunity offers of following it, this life will be preferred to any other. it affords to man an abundant supply of all his most prominent wants, without requiring from him any very severe exertion, either of mind or body; and, considering the natural indolence of asiatic people, it is not to be wondered at that so many of them betake themselves to this mode of existence. their country, moreover, is peculiarly favourable to the development of a pastoral race. perhaps not one third of the surface of the asiatic continent is adapted to agriculture. at least one half of it is occupied by treeless, waterless plains, many of which have all the characters of a desert, where an agricultural people could not exist, or at all events, where their labour would be rewarded by only the most scant and precarious returns. even a pastoral people in these regions would find but a sorry subsistence, were they confined to one spot; for the luxurious herbage which, for the most part, characterises the great savanna plains of america, is either altogether wanting upon the _steppes_ of asia, or at best very meagre and inconstant. a fixed abode is therefore impossible, except in the most fertile tracts or _oases_: elsewhere, the nomad life is a necessity arising from the circumstances of the soil. it would be difficult to define exactly the limits of the territory occupied by the wandering races in asia; but in a general way it may be said that the whole central portion of the continent is thus peopled: indeed, much more than the central portion,--for, if we except the rich agricultural countries of hindostan and a small portion of persia, arabia, and turkey, the whole of asia is of this character. the countries known as balk and bokara, yarkand and khiva, with several others of equal note, are merely the central points of oases,--large towns, supported rather by commerce than by the produce of agriculture, and having nomad tribes dwelling within sight of their walls. even the present boundaries of asiatic turkey, arabia and persia, contain within them a large proportion of nomadic population; and the same is true of eastern poland and russia in europe. a portion of the affghan and belochee country is also inhabited by nomad people. these wandering people are of many different types and races of men; but there is a certain similarity in the habits and customs of all: as might be expected from the similar circumstances in which they are placed. it is always the more sterile steppes that are thus occupied; and this is easily accounted for: where fertile districts occur the nomad life is no longer necessary. even a wandering tribe, entering upon such a tract, would no longer have a motive for leaving it, and would soon become attached to the soil,--in other words, would cease to be wanderers; and whether they turned their attention to the pursuit of agriculture, or not, they would be certain to give up their tent-life, and fix themselves in a permanent abode. this has been the history of many asiatic tribes; but there are many others, again, who from time immemorial, have shown a repugnance to the idea of fixing themselves to the soil. they prefer the free roving life which the desert enables them to indulge in; and wandering from place to place as the choice of pasture guides them, occupy themselves entirely in feeding their flocks and herds,--the sole means of their subsistence. these never have been, and never could be, induced to reside in towns or villages. nor is it that they have been driven into these desert tracts to seek shelter from political oppression,--as is the case with some of the native tribes of africa and america. on the contrary, these asiatic nomads are more often the aggressors than the objects of aggression. it is rather a matter of choice and propensity with them: as with those tribes of the arabian race,--known as "bedouins." the proportion of the asiatic wandering population to those who dwell in towns, or fixed habitations, varies according to the nature of the country. in many extensive tracts, the former greatly exceed the latter; and the more sterile steppes are almost exclusively occupied by them. in general, they acknowledge the sovereignty of some of the great powers,--such as the empires of china, russia, and turkey, the kingdom of persia, or that of several powerful khans, as those of khiva and bokara; but this sovereignty is, for the most part, little more than nominal, and their allegiance is readily thrown off, whenever they desire it. it is rarely so strong, as to enable any of the aforesaid powers to draw a heavy tribute from them; and some of the more warlike of the wandering tribes are much courted and caressed,--especially when their war services are required. in general they claim an hereditary right to the territories over which they roam, and pay but little heed to the orders of either king, khan, or emperor. as already stated, these wandering people are of different races; in fact, they are of nearly all the varieties indigenous to the asiatic continent; and a whole catalogue of names might be given, of which mongols, tartars, turcomans, usbecks, kirghees, and calmucks, are perhaps the most generally known. it has been also stated that in many points they are alike; but there are also many important particulars in which they differ,--physical, moral, and intellectual. some of the "hordes," or tribes, are purely pastoral in their mode of life, and of mild and hospital dispositions, exceedingly fond of strangers, and kind to such as come among them. others again are averse to all intercourse with others, than those of their own race and religion, and are shy, if not inhospitable, when visited by strangers. but there is a class of a still less creditable character,--a large number of tribes that are not only inhospitable, and hostile to strangers, but as ferocious and bloodthirsty as any savages in africa, america, or the south-sea islands. as a fair specimen of this class we select the turcomans; in fact, they may be regarded as its _type_; and our description henceforward may be regarded as applying particularly to these people. the country of the turcomans will be found upon the map without difficulty; but to define its exact boundary would be an impossibility, since none such exists. were you to travel along the whole northern frontier of persia, almost from the gates of teheran to the eastern frontier of the kingdom,--or even further towards balk,--you would be pretty sure of hearing of turcoman robbers, and in very great danger of being plundered by them,--which last misfortune would be of less importance, as it would only be the prelude to your being either murdered on the spot, or carried off by them into captivity. in making this journey along the northern frontier of persia, you would become acquainted with the whereabouts of the turcoman hordes; or rather you would discover that the whole north part of persia,--a good broad band of it extending hundreds of miles into its interior,--if not absolutely in possession of the turcomans, is overrun and plundered by them at will. this, however, is not their home,--it is only their "stamping-ground,"--the home of their victims. their place of habitual residence lies further to the north, and is defined with tolerable accuracy by its having the whole eastern shore of the caspian sea for its western border, while the amou river (the ancient oxus) may be generally regarded as the limit of their range towards the east. some tribes go still further east than the amou; but those more particularly distinguished for their plundering habits dwell within the limits described,--north of the elburz mountains, and on the great steppe of kaurezm, where they are contiguous to the usbeck community of khiva. the whole of this immense territory, stretching from the eastern shore of the caspian to the amou and aral sea, may be characterised as a true desert. here and there oases exist, but none of any importance, save the country of khiva itself: and even that is but a mere irrigated strip, lying on both banks of the oxus. indeed, it is difficult to believe that this territory of khiva, so insignificant in superficial extent, could have been the seat of a powerful empire, as it once was. the desert, then, between the caspian sea and the oxus river may be regarded as the true land of the turcomans, and is usually known as turcomania. it is to be remembered, however, that there are some kindred tribes not included within the boundaries of turcomania--for the turkistan of the geographers is a country of much larger extent; besides, an important division of the turcoman races are settlers, or rather wanderers in armenia. to turcomania proper, then, and its inhabitants, we shall confine our remarks. we shall not stay to inquire into the origin of the people now called turcomans. were we to speculate upon that point, we should make but little progress in an account of their habits and mode of living. they are usually regarded as of tartar origin, or of usbeck origin, or of mongolian race; and in giving this account of them, i am certain that i add very little to your knowledge of what they really are. the truth is, that the words tartar and mongol and some half-dozen other titles, used in relation to the asiatic races, are without any very definite signification,--simply because the relative distinctions of the different nations of that continent are very imperfectly known; and learned ethnologists are river loath to a confession of limited knowledge. one of this class, mr latham,--who requires only a few words of their language to decide categorically to what variety of the human race a people belongs,--has unfortunately added to this confusion by pronouncing nearly everybody _mongolian_: placing the proud turbaned turk in juxtaposition with the squat and stunted laplander! of course this is only bringing us back to the old idea, that all men are sprung from a single pair of first parents,--a doctrine, which, though popular, is difficult to reconcile with the rational knowledge derived from ethnological investigation. it matters little to our present purpose from what original race the turcoman has descended: whether he be a true turk, as some regard him, or whether he is a descendant of the followers of the great khan of the tartars. he possesses the tartar physiognomy to a considerable extent-- some of the tribes more than others being thus distinguished,--and high cheek-bones, flat noses, small oblique eyes, and scanty beards, are all characteristics that are very generally observed. some of these peculiarities are more common among the women than the men--many of the latter being tall, stout, and well-made, while a large number may be seen who have the regular features of a persian. perhaps it would be safest to consider the present turcoman tribes as not belonging to a pure stock, but rather an admixture of several; and their habit of taking slaves from other nations, which has for a long time existed among them, would give probability to this idea. at all events, without some such hypothesis, it is difficult to account for the wonderful variety, both in feature and form, that is found among them. their complexion is swarthy, in some cases almost brown as that of an american indian; but constant exposure to the open air, in all sorts of weather, has much to do in darkening the hue of their skin. the newborn children are nearly as white as those of the persians; and their young girls exhibit a ruddy brunette tint, which some consider even more pleasing than a perfectly white complexion. the costume of the turcoman, like that of most oriental nations, is rich and picturesque. the dress of the men varies according to rank. some of the very poorer people wear nothing but a short woollen tonic or shirt, with a pair of coarse woollen drawers. others, in place of this shirt, are clad in a longer garment, a sort of robe or wrapper, like a gentleman's dressing-gown, made of camel's-hair cloth, or some coarse brown woollen staff. but the true turcoman costume, and that worn by all who can afford it, consists of a garment of mixed silk and cotton,-- the _baronnee_,--which descends below the knee, and though open in front, is made to button over the breast quite up to the neck. a gay sash around the waist adds to the effect; and below the skirt are seen trowsers of cotton or even silk. cloth wrappers around the legs serve in the place of boots or gaiters; and on the feet are worn slippers of persian fashion, with socks of soft koordish leather. as the material of which the baronnee is made is of good quality--a mixture of silk and cotton--and as the fabric is always striped or checkered in colours of red, blue, purple, and green, the effect produced is that of a certain picturesqueness. the head-dress adds to this appearance--being a high fur cap, with truncated top, the fur being that beautiful kind obtained from the skins of the astracan lamb, well-known in commerce. these caps are of different colours, either black, red, or grey. another style of head-dress much worn is a round-topped or helmet-shaped cap, made of quilted cotton-stuff; but this kind, although in use among the turcomans, is a more characteristic costume of their enemies, the "koords," who wear it universally. the "jubba" is a kind of robe generally intended to go over the other garments, and is usually of woollen or camel's-hair cloth. it is also made like a dressing-gown, with wide sleeves,--tight, however, around the wrist. it is of ample dimensions, and one side is lapped over the other across the front, like a double-breasted coat. the "jubba" is essentially a national garment. the dress of the women is exceedingly picturesque. it is thus minutely described by a traveller:-- "the head-dress of these women is singular enough: most of them wear a lofty cap, with a broad crown, resembling that of a soldier's cap called a shako. this is stuck upon the back of the head; and over it is thrown a silk handkerchief of very brilliant colours, which covers the top, and falls down on each side like a veil. the front of this is covered with ornaments of silver and gold, in various shapes; more frequently gold coins, mohrs, or tomauns, strung in rows, with silver bells or buttons, and chains depending from them; hearts and other fanciful forms, with stones set in them. the whole gives rather the idea of gorgeous trappings for a horse, than ornaments for a female. "the frames of these monstrous caps are made of light chips of wood, or split reeds, covered with cloth; and when they do not wear these, they wrap a cloth around their heads in the same form; and carelessly throw another, like a veil over it. the veil or curtain above spoken of covers the mouth; descending to the breast. earrings are worn in the ears; and their long hair is divided, and plaited into four parts, disposed two on each side; one of which falls down behind the shoulders and one before, and both are strung with a profusion of gold ornaments, agates, cornelians, and other stones, according to the means and quality of the wearer. the rest of their dress consists of a long, loose vest or shirt, with sleeves, which covers the whole person down to the feet, and is open at the breast, in front, but buttons or ties close up to the neck: this is made of silk or cotton-stuff, red, blue, green, striped red, and yellow, checked, or various-coloured: underneath this, are the zere-jameh, or drawers, also of silk or cotton; and some wear a short _peerahn_ or shirt of the same. this, i believe, is all; but in the cold weather they wear, in addition, jubbas, or coats like those of the men, of striped stuff made of silk and cotton; on their feet they generally wear slippers like those of the persian women." the tents, or "portable houses" of the turcomans--as their movable dwellings rather deserve to be called--differ from most structures of the kind in use elsewhere. they are thus described by the same intelligent traveller:-- "the portable wooden houses of the turcomans have been referred to by several writers; but i am not aware that any exact description of their structure has been given. the frame is curiously constructed of light wood, disposed in laths of about an inch broad by three quarters thick, crossing one another diagonally, but at right angles, about a foot asunder, and pinned at each crossing with thongs of raw hide, so as to be movable; and the whole framework may be closed up or opened in the manner of those toys for children that represent a company of soldiers, and close or expand at will, so as to form open or close column. "one or more pieces thus constructed being stretched out, surround a circular space of from fifteen to twenty feet diameter; and form the skeleton of the walls,--which are made firm by bands of hair or woollen ropes, hitched round the end of each rod, to secure it in its position. from the upper ends of these, rods of a similar kind, bent near the wall end into somewhat less than a right angle, are so disposed that the longer portions slope to the centre, and being tied with ropes, form the framework of a roof. over this is thrown a covering of black _numud_, leaving in the centre a large hole to give vent to the smoke, and light to the dwelling. similar numuds are wrapped round the walls; and outside of these, to keep all tight, is bound another frame, formed of split reeds or cane, or of very light and tough wood, tied together with strong twine, the pieces being perpendicular. this is itself secured by a strong, broad band of woven hair-stuff, which firmly unites. the large round opening at top is covered, as occasion requires, by a piece of numud, which is drawn off or on by a strong cord, like a curtain. if the wind be powerful, a stick is placed to leeward, which supports the fabric. "in most of these houses they do not keep a carpet or numud constantly spread; but the better classes use a carpet shaped somewhat in the form of a horseshoe, having the centre cut out for the fireplace, and the ends truncated, that those of inferior condition, or who do not choose to take off their boots, may sit down upon the ground. upon this carpet they place one or two other numuds, as may be required, for guests of distinction. when they have women in the tent, a division of split reeds is made for their convenience; but the richer people have a separate tent for their private apartments. "the furniture consists of little more than camels and horses; _joals_, or bags in which their goods are packed, and which are often made of a very handsome species of worsted velvet carpet, of rich patterns; the swords, guns, spears, bows and arrows, and other implements of the family, with odds and ends of every description, may be seen hung on the ends of the wooden rods, which form very convenient pins for the purpose. among some tribes all the domestic utensils are made of wood,--calleeoons, trays for presenting food, milk-vessels, etc: among others, all these things are formed of clay or metal. upon the black tops of the tents may frequently be seen large white masses of sour curd, expressed from buttermilk, and set to dry as future store; this, broken down and mixed with water, forms a very pleasant acidulous drink, and is used as the basis of that intoxicating beverage called _kimmiz_. the most common and most refreshing drink which they offer to the weary and over-heated traveller in the forenoon is buttermilk, or sour curds and water; and, indeed, a modification of this, with some other simple sherbets, are the only liquors presented at their meals. "such are the wooden houses of the turcomans, one of which just makes a camel's load. there are poorer ones, of a less artificial construction, the framework of which is formed of reeds. "the encampment is generally square, enclosing an open space, or forming a broad street, the houses being ranged on either side, with their doors towards each other. at these may always be seen the most picturesque groups, occupied with their various domestic duties, or smoking their simple wooden _calleeoons_. the more important encampments are surrounded by a fence of reeds, which serve to protect the flocks from petty thefts." it is now our place to inquire how the turcomans occupy their time. we have already described them as a pastoral and nomadic people; and, under ordinary circumstances, their employment consists in looking after their flocks. in a few of the more fertile oases they have habitations, or rather camps, of a more permanent character, where they cultivate a little corn or barley, to supply them with the material for bread; but these settlements, if they deserve the name, are only exceptional; and are used chiefly as a kind of head-quarters, where the women and property are kept, while the men themselves are absent on their thieving expeditions. more generally their herds are kept on the move, and are driven from place to place at short intervals of a few weeks or even days. the striking and pitching of their tents gives them employment; to which is added that of milking the cattle, and making the cheese and butter. the women, moreover, fill up their idle hours in weaving the coarse blankets, or "numuds," in plaiting mats, and manufacturing various articles of dress or household use. the more costly parts of their costume, however, are not of native manufacture: these are obtained by trade. the men alone look after the camels and horses, taking special care of the latter. their flocks present a considerable variety of species. besides horses, cattle, and sheep, they own many camels, and they have no less than three distinct varieties of this valuable animal in their possession,-- the dromedary with two humps, and the common camel. the third sort is a cross breed--or "mule"--between these two. the dromedary is slightly made, and swifter than either of the others, but it is not so powerful as either; and being inferior as a beast of burden, is least cared for by the turcomans. the one-humped camel is in more general use, and a good one will carry a load of six or seven hundred pounds with ease. the mule camel is more powerful than either of its parents, and also more docile and capable of greater endurance. it grows to a very large size, but is low in proportion to its bulk, with stout, bony legs, and a large quantity of coarse, shaggy hair on its haunch, shoulders, neck, and even on the crown of its head, which gives it a strange, somewhat fantastic appearance. its colour varies from light grey to brown, though it is as often nearly black. this kind of camel will carry a load of from eight hundred to a thousand pounds. the turcoman sheep are of the large-tailed breed,--their tails often attaining enormous dimensions. this variety of sheep is a true denizen of the desert, the fat tail being unquestionably a provision of nature against seasons of hunger,--just as in the single protuberance, or "hump," upon the camel. the horse of the turcoman is the animal upon which he sets most value. the breed possessed by him is celebrated over all eastern asia, as that of the arab is in the west. they cannot be regarded, however, as handsome horses, according to the true standard of "horse beauty;" but the turcoman cares less for this than for other good qualities. in point of speed and endurance they are not excelled, if equalled, by the horses of any other country. their size is that of the common horse, but they are very different in make. their bodies are long in proportion to the bulk of carcass; and they do not appear to possess sufficient compactness of frame. their legs are also long, generally falling off in muscular development below the knee-joint; and they would appear to an english jockey too narrow in the counter. they have also long necks, with large heavy heads. these are the points which are generally observed in the turcoman horses; but it is to be remarked, that it is only when in an under-condition they look so ungraceful; and in this condition their owners are accustomed to keep them, especially when they have any very heavy service to perform. feeding produces a better shape, and brings them much nearer to the look of a well-bred english horse. their powers of endurance are indeed, almost incredible: when trained for a chappow, or plundering expedition, they will carry their rider and provisions for seven or eight days together, at the rate of twenty or even thirty fursungs--that is, from eighty to one hundred miles--a day. their mode of training is more like that of our pugilistic and pedestrian performers, than that adopted for race-horses. when any expedition of great length, and requiring the exertion of much speed, is in contemplation, they commence by running their horses every day for many miles together; they feed them sparingly on barley alone, and pile numuds upon them at night to sweat them, until every particle of fat has been removed, and the flesh becomes hard and tendonous. of this they judge by the feel of the muscles, particularly on the crest, at the back of the neck, and on the haunches; and when these are sufficiently firm and hard, they say in praise of the animal, that "his flesh is marble." after this sort of training, the horse will proceed with expedition and perseverance, for almost any length of time, without either falling off in condition or knocking up, while horses that set out fat seldom survive. they are taught a quick walk, a light trot, or a sort of amble, which carries the rider on easily, at the rate of six miles an hour; but they will also go at a round canter, or gallop, for forty or fifty miles, without ever drawing bridle or showing the least symptom of fatigue. their _yaboos_, or galloways, and large ponies are fully as remarkable, if not superior, to their horses, in their power of sustaining fatigue; they are stout, compact, spirited beasts, without the fine blood of the larger breeds, but more within the reach of the poorer classes, and consequently used in by far greater numbers than the superior and more expensive horses. "it is a common practice of the turcomans to teach their horses to fight with their heels, and thus assist their masters in the time of action. at the will of their riders they will run at and lay hold with their teeth of whatever man or animal may be before them. this acquirement is useful in the day of battle and plunder, for catching prisoners and stray cattle, but it at the same time renders them vicious and dangerous to be handled." in addition to the flocks and herds, the turcomans possess a breed of very large fierce dogs, to assist them in keeping their cattle. these are also necessary as watch-dogs, to protect the camp from thieves as well as more dangerous enemies to their peace; and so well-trained are those faithful creatures, that it would be impossible for either friend or enemy to approach a turcoman camp without the inmates being forewarned in time. two or three of these dogs may always be seen lying by the entrance of each tent; and throughout the night several others keep sentry at the approaches to the camp. other breeds of dogs owned by them are used for hunting,--for these wild wanderers sometimes devote their hours to the chase. they have two sorts,--a smooth-skinned dog, half hound half pointer, that hunts chiefly by the scent; and a greyhound, of great swiftness, with a coat of long, silky hair, which they make use of in coursing,--hares and antelopes being their game. they have a mode of hunting--also practised by the persians--which is peculiar. it should rather be termed hawking than hunting, as a hawk is employed for the purpose. it is a species of falcon denominated "goork," and is trained not only to dash at small game, such as partridges and bustards, but upon antelopes and even the wild ass that is found in plenty upon the plains of turcomania. you will wonder how a bird, not larger than the common falcon, could capture such game as this but it will appear simple enough when the method has been explained. the "goork" is trained to fly at the quadruped, and fix its claws in one particular place,--that is, upon the frontlet, just between the eyes. when thus attached, the bird, instead of closing its wings and remaining at rest, keeps them constantly in motion, flapping them over the eyes of the quadruped. this it does, no doubt, to enable it to retain its perch; while the unfortunate animal, thus assailed, knows not in what direction to run, and is soon overtaken by the pursuing sportsmen, and either speared or shot with the bow and arrow. wild boars are frequently hunted by the turcomans; and this, like everything else with these rude centaurs, is performed on horseback. the bow and arrow is but a poor weapon when employed against the thick, tough hide of the hyrcanian boar (for he is literally the hyrcanian boar), and of course the matchlock would be equally ineffective. how, then, does the turcoman sportsman manage to bag this bristly game? with all the ease in the world. it costs him only the effort of galloping his horse close up to the side of the boar after he has been brought to by the dogs, and then suddenly wheeling the steed. the latter, well-trained to the task, without further prompting, goes through the rest of the performance, which consists in administering to the boar such a slap with his iron-shod heel, as to prostrate the porcine quadruped, often killing it on the instant! such employments and such diversions occupy only a small portion of the turcoman's tune. he follows another calling of a far less creditable character, which unfortunately he regards as the most honourable occupation of his life. this is the calling of the robber. his pastoral pursuits are matters of only secondary consideration. he only looks to them as a means of supplying his daily wants,--his food and the more necessary portion of his clothing; but he has other wants that may be deemed luxuries. he requires to keep up his stock of horses and camels, and wishes to increase them. he needs costly gear for his horse, and costly garments for himself--and he is desirous of being possessed of fine weapons, such as spears, swords, bows, matchlocks, daggers, and pistols. his most effective weapons are the spear and sword, and these are the kinds he chiefly uses. his spear consists of a steel head with four flutes, and edges very sharp, fixed upon a slender shaft of from eight to ten feet in length. in using it he couches it under the left arm, and directs it with the right hand, either; straightforward, or to the right or left; if to the right, the butt of the shaft lies across the hinder part of the saddle; if to the left, the forepart of the spear rests on the horse's neck. the turcomans manage their horses with the left hand, but most of these are so well broken as to obey the movement of the knee, or the impulse of the body. when close to their object, they frequently grasp the spear with both hands, to give greater effect to the thrust. the horse, spurred to the full speed of a charge, in this way, offers an attack no doubt very formidable in appearance, but perhaps less really dangerous than the other, in which success depends so greatly on skill and address. the turcomans are all sufficiently dexterous with the sword, which is almost universally formed in the curved persian fashion, and very sharp; they also wear a dagger at the waist-belt. firearms are as yet little in use among them; they possess a few, taken from the travellers they have plundered, and procure a few more occasionally from the russians by the way of bokara. some use bows and arrows, but they are by no means so dexterous as their ancestors were in the handling of those weapons. mounted, then, upon his matchless steed, and armed with spear and sword, the turcoman goes forth to practise his favourite profession,--that of plunder. he does not go alone, nor with a small number of his comrades, either. the number depends altogether on the distance or danger of the expedition; and where these are considered great, a troop of five hundred, or even a thousand, usually proceed together upon their errand. you will be inquiring to what point they direct themselves,--east, west, north, or south? that altogether depends upon who may be their enemies for the time, for along with their desire for booty, there is also mixed up something like a sentiment of hostility. in this respect, however, the turcoman is a true ishmaelite, and in lack of other victim he will not hesitate to plunder the people of a kindred race. indeed, several of the turcoman tribes have long been at war with one another; and their animosity is quite as deadly among themselves as when directed against strangers to their race. the _butt_, however, of most of the turcoman expeditions is the northern part of persia,--korassan in particular. it is into this province that most of their great forays are directed, either against the peaceful citizens of the persian towns and villages, or as often against the merchant caravans that are constantly passing between teheran and the cities of the east,--mushed, balkh, bokara, herat, and kelat. i have already stated that these forays are pushed far into the interior of persia; and the fact of persia permitting such a state of things to continue will perhaps surprise you; but you would not be surprised were you better acquainted with the condition of that kingdom. from historic associations, you believe persia to be a powerful nation; and so it once was, both powerful and prosperous. that day is past; and at the present hour, this decaying monarchy is not only powerless to maintain order within its own borders, but is even threatened with annihilation from those very nomad races that have so often given laws to the great empires of asia. even at this moment, the more powerful tartar khans turn a longing look towards the tottering throne of nadir shah; and he of khiva has more than once made a feint at invasion. but the subject is too extensive to be discussed here. it is only introduced to explain with what facility a few hundreds of turcoman robbers can enter and harass the land. we find a parallel in many other parts of the world,--old as well as new. in the latter, the northern provinces of mexico, and the southern countries of la plata and paraguay, are in just such a condition: the weak, worn-out descendants of the spanish conquerors on one side, well representing the remnants of the race of nadir shah; while, on the other, the turcoman is type enough of the red indian. the comparison, however, is not just to the latter. he, at least, is possessed of courage and prowess; while the turcoman, notwithstanding his propensities for plunder, and the bloodthirsty ferocity of his character, is as arrant a coward as ever carried lance. even the persian can cope with him, when fairly matched; and the merchant caravans,--which are usually made up of true turks, and other races possessing a little "pluck," are never attacked, unless when outnumbered in the ratio of three to one. for all this, the whole northern portion of the persian kingdom is left to the mercy of these desert-robbers. the towns and villages have each their large fortress, into which the people retire whenever the plunderers make their appearance, and there dwell till the latter have ridden away,--driving off their flocks and herds to the desert fastnesses. even the poor farmer is obliged to build a fortress in the middle of his fields, to which he may retire upon the occasion of any sudden alarm, and his labourers till the ground with their swords by their sides, and their matchlocks lying near! these field fortresses of korassan are altogether so curious, both as to construction and purpose, that we cannot pass them without a word of description. they are usually placed in some conspicuous place, at a convenient distance from all parts of the cultivated tract. they are built of mud, and raised to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, of a circular form,--bearing some resemblance to the well-known round towers of ireland. a small aperture is left open at the bottom, through which those seeking shelter may just squeeze their bodies, and this being barricaded inside, the defence is complete. from the top--which can be reached easily on the inside--the farmer and his labourers can use their matchlocks with effect; but they are never called upon to do so,--as the cowardly freebooter takes good care to give the mud tower a wide birth. he has no weapons by which he might assail it; and, moreover, he has no time for sieges: since an hour's delay might bring him into danger from the force that is fast approaching. his only thought is to keep on his course, and sweep off such cattle, or make prisoners of such people as he may chance to find unwarned and unarmed. now and then he ventures upon an attack--where there is much booty to tempt him, and but a weak force to defend it. his enemies,--the hated "kuzzilbashes," as he calls the persians,--if defeated, have no mercy to expect from him. all who resist are killed upon the spot, and often torture is the mode of their death; but if they can be made prisoners, the desert-robber prefers letting them live, as a captive is to him a more valuable consideration than the death of an enemy. his prisoner, once secured, knows tolerably well what is to follow. the first thing the turcoman does is to bind the victim's hands securely behind his back; he then puts a long halter around his neck, attaching the other end of it to the tail of his horse, and in this fashion the homeward march commences. if the poor pedestrian does not keep pace with the horse, he knows what he may expect,--to be dragged at intervals along the ground, and perhaps torn to pieces upon the rocks. with this horrid fate before his fancy, he makes efforts almost superhuman to keep pace with the troop of his inhuman captors: though well aware that they are leading him off into a hopeless bondage. at night, his feet are also tied; and, thrown down upon the earth, he is covered with a coarse "numud." do not fancy that this is done to screen him from the cold: the object is very different indeed. the numud is placed over him in order that two of his captors may sleep upon its edges--one on each side of him--thus holding him down, and frustrating any chance of escape. on arriving at the robber-camp, the captive is not kept long in suspense as to his future fate. his owner--for he is now in reality a slave-- wants a new word, or a piece of silken cloth, or a camel, or some other article of luxury. that he can obtain either at khiva or bokara, in exchange for his slave; and therefore the new captive--or captives, as the chance may be--is marched off to the ready market. this is no isolated nor rare incident. it is one of everyday occurrence; and it is a noted fact, that of the three hundred thousand people who constitute the subjects of the khivan khan, nearly one half are persian slaves obtained from the robbers of turcomania! the political organisation of the turcomans is of the patriarchal character. from necessity they dwell in small communities that are termed "teers," the literal signification of which is "arrows,"--though for what reason they are so styled does not appear. perhaps it is on account of the rapidity of their movements: for, in hostile excursions, or moving from place to place, they proceed with a celerity that may be compared to arrows. over each tribe or teer there is a chief, similar to the "sheik" of the arab tribes,--and indeed, many of their customs offer a close analogy to those of the wandering bedouins of arabia and egypt, and the kabyles of morocco and the algerine provinces. the circumstances of life--almost alike to both--could not fail to produce many striking resemblances. the turcoman tribes, as already observed, frequently go to war with each other, but they oftener unite to rob the common enemy,--the caravan or the persian village. in these mere plundering expeditions they go in such numbers as the case may require; but when called forth to take side in anything like a national war, they can muster to the strength of many thousands; and then indeed, they become terrible,--even to the most potent sovereigns of central asia, by whom much diplomacy is employed to enlist them on one side or the other. it matters little to them what the cause be,--he who can promise them the largest booty in cattle or slaves is sure to have the help of their spears and swords. the turcomans are not pagans,--that is, they are not professedly so,-- though, for all the regard which they pay to religious observances, they might as well be termed true infidels. they profess a religion, however, and that is mohametanism in its worst and most bigoted form,-- the "sunnite." the persians, as is well-known, hold the milder sheean doctrines; and as the votaries of the two, in most countries where both are practised, cordially hate each other, so it is between turcomans and persians. the former even scorn the persian creed, calling its followers "infidel" dogs, or _kuzzilbashes_; and this bigoted rancour gives them a sort of plausible excuse for the hostile attitude which they hold towards them. taking them upon the whole, the turcomans may be looked upon as true savages,--savages dressed in _silk_ instead of in _skins_. chapter ten. the ottomacs, or dirt-eaters. on the banks of the orinoco, a short distance above the point where that mighty river makes its second great sweep to the eastward, dwells a remarkable people,--a tribe of savages that, even among savages, are remarkable for many peculiar and singular customs. these are the _ottomacs_. they have been long known,--and by the narratives of the early spanish missionaries, rendered notorious,--on account of some curious habits; but although the missionaries have resided among them, and endeavoured to bring them within "sound of the bell," their efforts have met with a very partial and temporary success; and at this present hour, the ottomacs are as savage in their habits; and as singular in their customs, as they were in the days of columbus. the ottomacs are neither a stunted nor yet a weak race of men. their bodies are strong, and their arms and limbs stout and muscular; but they are remarkably ill-featured, with an expression of countenance habitually stern and vindictive. their costume is easily described, or rather cannot be _described_ at all, since they have none. both, sexes go entirely naked,--if we except a little belt of three or four inches in width, made from cotton or the bark of trees, and called the _guayuco_, which they wear around the waist,--but even this is worn from no motives of modesty. what they regard in the light of a costume is a coat of paint, and about this they are as nice and particular as a parisian dandy. talk about "blooming up" a faded _belle_ for the ballroom, or the time spent by an exquisite in adjusting the tie of his cravat! these are trifles when compared with the lengthy and elaborate toilette of an ottomac lady or gentleman. the greater part of a day is often spent by them in a single dressing, with one or two helpers to assist in the operation; and this is not a _tattooing_ process, intended to last for a lifetime, but a costume certain to be disfigured, or entirely washed off, at the first exposure to a heavy shower of rain. add to this, that the pigments which are used for the purpose are by no means easily obtained: the vegetable substances which furnish them are scarce in the ottomac country; and it costs one of these indians the produce of several days of his labour to purchase sufficient paint to give his whole skin a single "coat." for this reason the ottomac paints his body only on grand occasions,-- contenting himself at ordinary times with merely staining his face and hair. when an ottomac wishes to appear in "full dress" he first gives himself a "priming" of red. this consists of the dye called "annotto," which is obtained from the fruit pulp of the _bixa orellana_, and which the indians knew how to prepare previous to their intercourse with europeans. over this red ground is then formed a lattice-work of lines of black, with a dot in the centre of every little square or diamond. the black dye is the "caruto," also a vegetable pigment, obtained from the _genipa americana_. if the gentleman be rich enough to possess a little "chica" which is a beautiful lake-coloured red,--also the produce of a plant,--the _bignoni, chica_, he will then feel all the ecstatic delight of a fashionable dandy who possesses a good wardrobe; and, with half a pound of turtle-oil rubbed into his long black tresses, he will regard himself as dressed "within an inch of his life." it is not always, however, that he can afford the _chica_,--for it is one of the costliest materials of which a south-american savage can manufacture his suit. the ottomac takes far less trouble in the building of his house. very often he builds none; but when he wishes to guard his body from the rays of the sun, or the periodical rains, he constructs him a slight edifice--a mere hut--out of saplings or bamboos, with a thatch of palm-leaves. his arms consist of the universal bow and arrows, which he manages with much dexterity; and he has also a harpoon which he employs in killing the manatee and the alligator. he has, besides, several other weapons, to aid him in the chase and fishing,--the latter of which forms his principal employment as well as his chief source of subsistence. the ottomac belongs to one of those tribes of indians termed by the spanish missionaries _indios andantes_, that is "wandering," or "vagabond indians," who instead of remaining in fixed and permanent villages, roam about from place to place, as necessity or inclination dictates. perhaps this arises from the peculiarity of the country which they inhabit: for the _indios andantes_ do not live in the thick forests, but upon vast treeless savannas, which stretch along the orinoco above its great bend. in these tracts the "juvia" trees (_bertholletia_ and _lecythys_), which produce the delicious "brazil-nuts"--and other plants that supply the savage spontaneously with food, are sparsely found; and as the savannas are annually inundated for several months, the ottomac is forced, whether he will or no, to shift his quarters and try for subsistence elsewhere. when the inundations have subsided and the waters become settled enough to permit of fishing, the ottomac "winter" is over, and he can obtain food in plenty from the alligators, the manatees, the turtles, the _toninas_ or dolphins, and other large fish that frequent the great stream upon which he dwells. of these the _manatee_ is the most important in the eyes of the ottomac--as it is the largest in size, and consequently furnishes him with the greatest amount of meat. this singular semi-cetaceous creature is almost too well-known to require description. it is found in nearly all the large rivers of tropical america, where it feeds upon the grass and aquatic plants growing along their banks. it is known by various names, according to the place and people. the spaniards call it _vaca marina_, or "sea-cow," and the portuguese _peixe hoi_, or "fish-ox,"--both being appellations equally inappropriate, and having their origin in a slight resemblance which there exists between the animal's "countenance" and that of an ox. the _west indian_ name is the one we though the true orthography is _manati_, not _manatee_, since the word is of indian origin. some writers deny this, alleging that it is a derivative from the spanish word "mano," a hand, signifying, therefore, the fish with hands,--in allusion to the rudimentary hands which form one of its distinguishing characteristics. this is the account of the historian oviedo, but another spanish missionary, father gili, offers a more correct explanation of the name,--in fact, he proves, what is neither more nor less than the simple truth, that "manati" was the name given to this animal by the natives of hayti and cuba,--where a species is also found,--and the word has no reference whatever to the "hands" of the creature. the resemblance to the spanish word which should signify "handed," is merely an accidental circumstance; and, as the acute humboldt very justly remarks, according to the genius of the spanish language, the word thus applied would have been written _manudo_, or _manon_, and not _manati_. the indians have almost as many different names for this creature as there are rivers in which it is found; but its appellation in the "lingo ageral" of the great amazon valley, is "juarua." among the ottomacs it is called the "apoia." it may be safely affirmed that there are several species of this amphibious animal in the rivers of tropical america; and possibly no one of them is identical with that of the west indies. all have hitherto been regarded as belonging to the same species, and described under the scientific title of _manatus americanus_--a name given to the american manati, to distinguish it from the "lamantin" of africa, and the "dugong" of the east-indian seas. but the west-indian species appears to have certain characteristic differences, which shows that it is a separate one, or, at all events, a variety. it is of much larger size than those of the south-american rivers generally are-- though there also a large variety is found, but much rarer than those commonly captured by the fishermen. the west-indian manati has nails well developed upon the outer edge of its fins, or forearms; while those on the other kinds are either not seen at all, or only in a very rudimentary state. that there are different species, may be deduced from the accounts of the natives, who employ themselves in its capture: and the observations of such people are usually more trustworthy than the speculations of learned anatomists. the amazon fishermen all agree in the belief that there are three kinds of manati in the amazon and its numerous tributaries, that not only differ greatly in size--from seven to twenty feet long--and in weight, from four hundred to two thousand pounds,--but also in the colour of their skin, and the shape of their tails and fins. the species found in the orinoco, and called "apoia" by the ottomacs, is usually about twelve feet in length, and weighs from five hundred to eight hundred pounds; but now and then a much larger individual is captured, perhaps owing to greater age, or other accidental circumstance. humboldt heard of one that weighed eight thousand pounds; and the french naturalist d'orbigny speaks of one killed in the bolivian waters of the amazon that was twenty feet in length. this size is often attained by the _manatus americanus_ of cuba and hayti. the manati is shaped somewhat like a large seal, and has certain resemblances to a fish. its body is of an oval oblong, with a large, flat, rounded tail, set horizontally, and which serves as a rudder to direct its course in the water. just behind its shoulders appear, instead of fins, a pair of flippers, which have a certain resemblance to hands set on to the body without arms. of these it avails itself, when creeping out against the bank, and the female also uses them in carrying her young. the mammae (for it must be remembered that this creature is a mammiferous animal) are placed just below and behind the flippers. the muzzle is blunt, with thick lips,--the upper projecting several inches beyond the lower, and covered with a delicate epidermis: showing evidently that it avails itself of this prominence--which possesses a keen sense of touch--just as the elephant of his proboscis. the lips are covered with bristles, or beard, which impart a kind of human-like expression to the animal's countenance,--a circumstance more observable in the "dugongs" of the oriental waters. "woman fish," too, these have been called, and no doubt such creatures, along with the seals and walruses, have given rise to many a story of sirens and mermaids. the "cow-face," however, from which the manati obtains its spanish and portuguese epithets, is the most characteristic; and in its food we find a still greater analogy to the bovine quadruped with which it is brought in comparison. beyond this the resemblance ceases. the body is that of a seal; but instead of being covered with hair, as the cetaceous animal, the manati has a smooth skin that resembles india-rubber more than anything else. a few short hairs are set here and there, but they are scarce observable. the colour of the manati is that of lead, with a few mottlings of a pinkish-white hue upon the belly; but in this respect there is no uniformity. some are seen with the whole under-parts of a uniform cream colour. the lungs of this animal present a peculiarity worthy of being noted. they are very voluminous,--being sometimes three feet in length, and of such a porous and elastic nature as to be capable of immense extension. when blown out, they present the appearance of great swimming bladders; and it is by means of this capacity for containing air that the manati is enabled to remain so long under water,--though, like the true _cetaceae_, it requires to come at intervals to the surface to obtain breath. the flesh of the manati is eaten by all the tribes of indians who can procure it,--though by some it is more highly esteemed than by others. it was once much relished in the colonial settlements of guiana and the west indies, and formed a considerable article of commerce; but in these quarters manatis have grown scarce,--from the incessant persecution of the fishermen. the flesh has been deemed unwholesome by some, and apt to produce fevers; but this is not the general opinion. it has a greater resemblance to pork than beef,--though it be the flesh of a cow,--and is very savoury when fresh, though neither is it bad eating when salted or dried in the sun. in this way it will keep for several months; and it has always been a stock article with the monks of the south-american missions,--who, in spite of its mammiferous character, find it convenient, during the days of lent, to regard it as a fish! the skin of the manati is of exceeding thickness,--on the back an inch and a half at least, though it becomes thinner as it approaches the under-parts of the body. it is cut into slips which serve various purposes, as for shields, cordage, and whips. "these whips of manati leather," bays humboldt, "are a cruel instrument of punishment for the unhappy slaves, and even for the indians of the missions, though, according to the laws, the latter ought to be treated as freemen." another valuable commodity obtained from this animal is oil, known in the missions as manati-butter (_manteca de manati_). this is produced by the layer of pure fat, of an inch and a half in thickness, which, lying immediately under the skin, envelops the whole body of the animal. the oil is used for lamps in the mission churches; but among the indians themselves it is also employed in the _cuisine_,--as it has not that fetid smell peculiar to the oil of whales and salt-water cetaceae. the food of the manati is grass exclusively, which it finds on the banks of the lakes and rivers it frequents. of this it will eat an enormous quantity; and its usual time of browsing is at night,--though this habit may have arisen from its observance of the fact, that night is the safest time to approach the shore. in those places, where is has been left undisturbed, it may be often seen browsing by day. i have been thus particular in my account of this animal, because it is more nearly connected with the history of ottomac habits than perhaps that of any other tribe of south-american indians,--the guamos alone excepted, who may themselves be regarded as merely a branch of the ottomac family. though, as already remarked, all the tribes who dwell upon manati rivers pursue this creature and feed upon its flesh, yet in no other part of south america is this species of fishery so extensively or so dexterously carried on as among the ottomacs and guamos,--the reason being, that, amidst the great grassy savannas which characterise the ottomac country, there are numerous streams and lagoons that are the favourite haunts of this herbivorous animal. in one river in particular, so great a number are found that it has been distinguished by the appellation of the _rio de manatis_ (river of manatis). the manati, when undisturbed, is gregarious in its habits, going in troops (or "herds," if we preserve the analogy) of greater or less numbers, and keeping the young "calves" in the centre, which the mothers guard with the tenderest affection. so attached are the parents to their young, that if the calf be taken, the mother can be easily approached; and the devotion is reciprocated on the filial side; since in cases where the mother has been captured and dragged ashore, the young one has often been known to follow the lifeless body up to the very bank! as the manati plays such an important part in the domestic economy of the ottomacs, of course the capturing of this animal is carried on upon the grandest scale among these people, and, like the "harvest of turtle-eggs," hereafter to be described, the manati fishery has its particular _season_. some writers have erroneously stated this season as being the period of inundation, and when the water is at its maximum height. this is quite contrary to the truth; since that period, both on the amazon and orinoco rivers, is just the time when all kinds of fishing is difficult and precarious. then is the true winter,--the "blue months" of the south-american river indians; and it is then, as will presently be seen, that the ottomac comes nearest the point of starvation,--which he approaches every year of his life. there are manati and other kinds of fish taken at all times of the year; but the true season of the manati-fishing is when the waters of the great flood have considerably subsided, and are still continuing to diminish rapidly. when the inundation is at its height, the manati passes out of the channel current of the great river, and in search of grass it finds its way into the lakes and surrounding marshes, remaining there to browse along their banks. when the flood is rapidly passing away from it, it begins to find itself a "little out of its element," and just then is the time when it is most easily captured. sometimes the indians assemble in a body with their canoes, forming a large fleet; and, proceeding to the best haunts of the "cow-fish," carry on the fishery in a wholesale manner. the monks of the missions also head the _tame_ tribes on these expeditions,--as they do when collecting the eggs of the turtle,--and a regular systematic course is carried on under the eye of discipline and authority. a camp is formed at some convenient place on the shore. scaffolds are erected for sun-drying the flesh and skins; and vessels and other utensils brought upon the ground to render the fat into oil. the manatis that have been captured are all brought in the canoes to this central point, and delivered up to be "_flensed_," cured, and cooked. there is the usual assemblage of small traders from angostura and other ports on the lower orinoco, who come to barter their indian trinkets for the _manteca de manati_ in the same manner as it will presently be seen they trade for the _manteca de tortugas_. i need not add that this is a season of joy and festivity, like the wine-gatherings and harvest-homes of the european peasantry. the mode of capturing the manati is very similar to that employed by the esquimaux in taking the seal, and which has been elsewhere described. there is not much danger in the fishery, for no creature could be more harmless and inoffensive than this. it makes not the slightest attempt either at defence or retaliation,--though the accident sometimes occurs of a canoe being swamped or drawn under water,--but this is nothing to the ottomac indian, who is almost as amphibious as the manati itself. at the proper hour the fisherman starts off in search of the manati. his fishing-boat is a canoe hollowed from a single trunk, of that kind usually styled a "dugout." on perceiving the cow-fish resting upon the surface of the water, the ottomac paddles towards it, observing the greatest caution; for although the organs of sight and hearing in this animal are, externally, but very little developed, it both hears and sees well; and the slightest suspicious noise would be a signal for it to dive under, and of course escape. when near enough to insure a good aim, the ottomac hurls his harpoon into the animal's body; which, after piercing the thick hide, sticks fast. to this harpoon a cord is attached, with a float, and the float remaining above water indicates the direction in which the wounded animal now endeavours to get off. when it is tired of struggling, the indian regains the cord; and taking it in, hand over hand, draws up his canoe to the side of the fish. if it be still too lively, he repeatedly strikes it with a spear; but he does not aim to kill it outright until he has got it "aboard." once there, he ends the creature's existence by driving a wooden plug into its nostrils, which in a moment deprives it of life. the ottomac now prepares himself to transport the carcass to his home; or, if fishing in company, to the common rendezvous. perhaps he has some distance to take it, and against a current; and he finds it inconvenient to tow such a heavy and cumbrous article. to remedy this inconvenience, he adopts the expedient already mentioned, of placing the carcass in his canoe. but how does he get it there? how can a single indian of ordinary strength raise a weight of a thousand pounds out of the water, and lift it over the gunwale of his unsteady craft? it is in this that he exhibits great cunning and address: for instead of raising the carcass above the canoe, he sinks the canoe below the carcass, by first filling the vessel nearly full of water; and then, after he has got his freight aboard, he bales out the water with his gourd-shell. he at length succeeds in adjusting his load, and then paddles homeward with his prize. on arriving at his village,--if it be to the village he takes it,--he is assisted in transporting the load by others of his tribe; but he does not carry it to his own house,--for the ottomacs are true socialists, and the produce both of the chase and the fishery is the common property of all. the chief of the village, seated in front of his hut, receives all that is brought home, and distributes it out to the various heads of families,--giving to each in proportion to the number of mouths that are to be fed. the manati is flayed,--its thick hide, as already observed, serving for many useful purposes; the strata of fat, or "blubber," which lies beneath is removed, to be converted into oil; and finally, the flesh, which is esteemed equal to pork, both in delicacy and flavour, is cut into thin slices, either to be broiled and eaten at the time, or to be preserved for a future occasion, not by salt, of which the ottomac is entirely ignorant, but by drying in the sun and smoking over a slow fire. fish and the flesh of the alligator are similarly "cured;" and when the process is carefully done, both will keep for months. the alligator is captured in various ways: sometimes by a baited hook with a strong cord attached,--sometimes he is killed by a stab of the harpoon spear, and not unfrequently is he taken by a noose slipped over his paw, the ottomac diving fearlessly under him and adjusting the snare. some of the indian tribes will not eat the musky flesh of the alligator; but the ottomacs are not thus particular. indeed, these people refuse scarce any article of food, however nasty or disagreeable; and it is a saying among their neighbours--the indians of other tribes--that "nothing is too loathsome for the stomach of an ottomac." perhaps the saying will be considered as perfectly true when we come to describe a species of food which these people eat, and which, for a long time, has rendered them famous--or rather infamous--under the appellation of "dirt-eaters." of them it may literally be said that they "eat dirt," for such, in reality, is one of their customs. this singular practice is chiefly resorted to during those months in the year when the rivers swell to their greatest height, and continue full. at this time all fishing ceases, and the ottomac finds it difficult to obtain a sufficiency of food. to make up for the deficiency, he fills his stomach with a kind of unctuous clay, which he has already stored up for the emergency, and of which he eats about a pound per diem! it does not constitute his sole diet, but often for several days together it is the only food which passes his lips! there is nothing nourishing in it,--that has been proved by analysis. it merely _fills_ the belly,-- producing a satiety, or, at least, giving some sort of relief from the pangs of hunger. nor has it been observed that the ottomac grows thin or unhealthy on this unnatural viand: on the contrary, he is one of the most robust and healthy of american indians. the earth which the ottomac eats goes by the name of _poya_. he does not eat clay of every kind: only a peculiar sort which he finds upon the banks of streams. it is soft and smooth to the touch, and unctuous, like putty. in its natural state it is of a yellowish-grey colour; but, when hardened before the fire, it assumes a tinge of red, owing to the oxide of iron which is in it. it was for a long time believed that the ottomac mixed this clay with cassava and turtle-oil, or some other sort of nutritive substance. even father gumilla--who was credulous enough to believe almost anything-- could not "swallow" the story of the clay in its natural state, but believed that it was prepared with some combination of farinha or fat. this, however, is not the case. it is a pure earth, containing (according to the analysis of vauquelin) silex and alumina, with three or four per cent of lime! this clay the ottomac stores up, forming it into balls of several inches in diameter; which; being slightly hardened before the fire, he builds into little pyramids, just as cannon-balls are piled in an arsenal or fortress. when the ottomac wishes to eat of the _poya_, he softens one of the balls by wetting it; and then, scraping off as much as he may require for his meal, returns the _poya_ to its place on the pyramid. the dirt-eating does not entirely end with the falling of the waters. the practice has begot a craving for it; and the ottomac is not contented without a little _poya_, even when more nutritious food may be obtained in abundance. this habit of eating earth is not exclusively ottomac. other kindred tribes indulge in it, though not to so great an extent; and we find the same unnatural practice among the savages of new caledonia and the indian archipelago. it is also common on the west coast of africa. humboldt believed it to be exclusively a tropical habit. in this the great philosopher was in error, since it is known to be practised by some tribes of northern indians on the frigid banks of the mackenzie river. when the floods subside, as already stated, the ottomac lives better. then he can obtain both fish and turtles in abundance. the former he captures, both with hooks and nets, or shoots with his arrows, when they rise near the surface. the turtles of the ottomac rivers are of two kinds the _arau_ and _terecay_. the former is the one most sought after, as being by far the largest. it is nearly a yard across the back, and weighs from fifty to a hundred pounds. it is a shy creature, and would be difficult to capture, were it not for a habit it has of raising its head above the surface of the water, and thus exposing the soft part of its throat to the indian's arrow. even then an arrow might fail to kill it; but the ottomac takes care to have the point well coated with _curare_ poison, which in a few seconds does its work, and secures the death of the victim. the _terecay_ is taken in a different and still more ingenious manner. this species, floating along the surface, or even when lying still, presents no mark at which a shaft can be aimed with the slightest chance of success. the sharpest arrow would glance off its flat shelly back as from a surface of steel. in order, therefore, to reach the vitals of his victim, the indian adopts an expedient, in which he exhibits a dexterity and skill that are truly remarkable. he aims his shaft, not at the turtle, but up into the air, describing by its course a parabolic curve, and so calculating its velocity and direction that it will drop perpendicularly, point foremost, upon the back of the unsuspecting swimmer, and pierce through the shell right into the vital veins of its body! it is rare that an indian will fail in hitting such a mark; and, both on the orinoco and amazon, thousands of turtles are obtained in this manner. the great season of ottomac festivity and rejoicing, however, is that of the _cosecha de tortugas_, or "turtle-crop." as has been already observed, in relation to the manati fishery, it is to him what the harvest-home is to the nations of northern europe, or the wine-gathering to those of the south; for this is more truly the character of the _cosecha_. it is then that he is enabled, not only to procure a supply of turtle-oil with which to lubricate his hair and skin, but he obtains enough of this delicious grease wherewith to fry his dried slices of manati and a surplus for sale to the turtle-traders from the lower orinoco. in this petty commerce no coin is required; harpoon spears, and arrow-heads of iron, rude knives, and hatchets; but, above all, a few cakes of _annotto_, _chica_, and _caruto_, are bartered in exchange for the turtle-oil. the thick hide of the manati,--for making slave-whips,--the spotted skin of the jaguar, and some other pelts which the chase produces, are also items of his export trade. the pigments above mentioned have already been procured by the trader, as the _export_ articles of commerce of some other tribe. the turtle-oil is the product of the eggs of the larger species,--the _arau_,--known simply by the name _tortuga_, or turtle. the eggs of the _terecay_ would serve equally as well; but, from a difference in the habit of this animal, its eggs cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity for oil-making. there is no such thing as a grand "cosecha," or crop of them--for the creature is not gregarious, like its congener, but each female makes her nest apart from the others, in some solitary place, and there brings forth her young brood. not but that the nests of the _terecay_ are also found and despoiled of their eggs,--but this only occurs at intervals; and as the contents of a single nest would not be sufficient for a "churning," no "butter" can be made of them. they are, therefore, gathered to be used only as _eggs_, and not as _butter_. the _arau_, on the other hand, although not gregarious under ordinary circumstances, becomes pre-eminently so during the "laying season." then all the turtles in the orinoco and its tributaries collect into three or four vast gangs--numbering in all over a million of individuals--and proceed to certain points of rendezvous which they have been in the habit of visiting from time immemorial. these common breeding-places are situated between the cataracts of the river and the great bend, where it meets the apure; and are simply broad beaches of sand, rising with a gentle slope from the edge of the water, and extending for miles along the bank. there are some small rookeries on tributary streams, but the three most noted are upon the shores of the main river, between the points already indicated. that frequented by the ottomacs is upon an island, at the mouth of the uruana river, upon which these people principally dwell. the laying season of the _arau_ turtle varies in the different rivers of tropical america,--occurring in the amazon and its tributaries at a different period from that of the orinoco. it is regulated by the rise, or rather the fall of the inundations; and takes place when the waters, at their lowest stage, have laid bare the low sand-banks upon the shores. this occurs (in the orinoco) in march, and early in this month the great assemblages are complete. for weeks before, the turtles are seen, in all parts of the river near the intended breeding-places, swimming about on the surface, or basking along the banks. as the sun grows stronger, the desire of depositing their eggs increases,--as though the heat had something to do with their fecundation. for some time before the final action, the creatures may be seen ranged in a long line in front of the breeding-place, with their heads and necks held high above the water; as if contemplating their intended nursery, and calculating the dangers to which they may be exposed. it is not without reason that they may dwell upon these. along the beach stalks the lordly jaguar, waiting to make a meal of the first that may set his foot on terra firma, or to fill his stomach with the delicious "new-laid" eggs. the ugly alligator, too, is equally _friand_ of a gigantic omelette; and not less so the "garzas" (white cranes), and the "zamuros" (black vultures), who hover in hundreds in the air. here and there, too, may be observed an indian sentinel, keeping as much as possible out of sight of the turtles themselves, but endeavouring to drive off all other enemies whose presence may give them fear. should a canoe or boat appear upon the river, it is warned by these sentinels to keep well off from the phalanx of the turtles,--lest these should be disturbed or alarmed,--for the indian well knows that if anything should occur to produce a panic among the araus, his _cosecha_ would be very much shortened thereby. when at length the turtles have had sun enough to warm them to the work, they crawl out upon the dry sand-beach, and the laying commences. it is at night that the operation is carried on: for then their numerous enemies--especially the vultures--are less active. each turtle scoops out a hole, of nearly a yard in diameter and depth; and having therein deposited from fifty to one hundred eggs, it covers them up with the sand, smoothing the surface, and treading it firmly down. sometimes the individuals are so crowded as to lay in one another's nests, breaking many of the eggs, and causing an inextricable confusion; while the creaking noise of their shells rubbing against each other may be heard afar off, like the rushing of a cataract. sometimes a number that have arrived late, or have been slow at their work, continue engaged in it till after daybreak, and even after the indians have come upon the ground--whose presence they no longer regard. impelled by the instinct of philo-progenitiveness, these "mad turtles," as the indians call them, appear utterly regardless of danger, and make no effort to escape from it; but are turned over on their backs, or killed upon the spot without difficulty. the beach being now deserted by the turtles, the egg-gatherers proceed to their work. as there are usually several tribes, who claim a share in the _cosecha_, the ground is measured out, and partitioned among them. the regularity with which the nests are placed, and the number of eggs in each being pretty nearly the same, an average estimate of the quantity under a given surface is easily made. by means of a pointed stick thrust into the sand, the outline of the deposit is ascertained-- usually running along the beach in a strip of about thirty yards in breadth. when the allotments are determined, the work of oil-making begins,--each tribe working by itself, and upon the social system. the covering of sand is removed, and the eggs placed in baskets, which are then emptied into large wooden troughs, as a common receptacle. the canoes, drawn up on the sand, are frequently made to do duty as troughs. when a sufficient number of eggs have been thrown in, they are broken and pounded together, and whipped about, as if intended for a gigantic omelette. water is added; and then the mixture is put into large caldrons, and boiled until the oil comes to the top; after which it is carefully skimmed off and poured into earthen jars ("botigas,") provided by the traders. it takes about two weeks to complete the operations, during which time many curious scenes occur. the sand swarms with young turtles about as big as a dollar, which have been prematurely hatched; and have contrived to crawl out of the shell. these are chased in all directions, and captured by the little naked ottomacs, who devour them "body, bones, and all," with as much gusto as if they were gooseberries. the cranes and vultures, and young alligators too, take a part in this by-play--for the offspring of the poor arau has no end of enemies. when the oil is all boiled and bottled, the trader displays his tempting wares, and makes the best market he can; and the savage returns to his palm-hut village,--taking with him the articles of exchange and a few baskets of eggs, which he has reserved for his own eating; and so ends the _cosecha de tortugas_. it is in this season that the ottomac indulges most in good living, and eats the smallest quantity of dirt. the waters afford him abundance of fish and turtle-flesh, beef from the sea-cow, and steaks from the tail of the alligator. he has his turtle and manati-butter, in which to fry all these dainties, and also to lubricate his hair and skin. he can dress, too, "within an inch of his life," having obtained for his oil a fresh supply of the precious pigments. he indulges, moreover, in fits of intoxication, caused by a beverage made from maize or manioc root; but oftener produced by a species of snuff which he inhales into his nostrils. this is the _niopo_, manufactured from the leaves of a _mimosa_, and mixed with a kind of lime, which last is obtained by burning a shell of the genus _helix_, that is found in the waters of the orinoco. the effect of the _niopo_ resembles that produced by chewing _betel_, tobacco, opium, or the narcotic _coca_ of peru. when freely taken, a species of intoxication or rather mania is produced; but this snuff and its effects are more minutely described elsewhere. it is here introduced because, in the case of the ottomac, the drug often produces most baneful consequences. during the continuance of his intoxication the ottomac is quarrelsome and disorderly. he picks a hole in the coat of his neighbour; but if there chance to be any "old sore" between him and a rival, the vindictive feeling is sure to exhibit itself on these occasions; and not unfrequently ends in an encounter, causing the death of one or both of the combatants. these duels are not fought either with swords or pistols, knives, clubs, nor any similar weapons. the destruction of the victim is brought about in a very different manner; and is the result of a very slight scratch which he has received during the fight from the _nail_ of his antagonist. that a wound of so trifling a nature should prove mortal would be something _very_ mysterious, did we not know that the nail which inflicted that scratch has been already enfiltrated with _curare_,--one of the deadliest of vegetable poisons, which the ottomac understands how to prepare in its most potent and virulent form. should it ever be your unfortunate fate therefore, to get into a "scrimmage" with an ottomac indian, you must remember to keep clear of his "claws!" chapter eleven. the comanches, or prairie indians. young reader, i need scarce tell you that the noblest of animals--the horse--is not indigenous to america. you already know that when columbus discovered the new world, no animal of the horse kind was found there; and yet the geologist has proved incontestably that at one time horses existed in the new world,--at a period too, geologically speaking, not very remote. the fossilised bones examined by one of the most accomplished of modern travellers--dr darwin--establish this truth beyond a doubt. the horse that at present inhabits america, though not indigenous, has proved a flourishing exotic. not only in a domestic state has he increased in numbers, but he has in many places escaped from the control of man, and now runs wild upon the great plains both of north and south america. although you may find in america almost every "breed" of horses known in europe, yet the great majority belong to two very distinct kinds. the first of these is the large english horse, in his different varieties, imported by the anglo-americans, and existing almost exclusively in the woodland territory of the united states. the second kind is the andalusian-arab,--the horse of the spanish conquerors,--a much smaller breed than the english-arabian, but quite equal to him in mettle and beauty of form. it is the andalusian horse that is found throughout all spanish america,--it is he that has multiplied to such a wonderful extent,--it is he that has "run wild." that the horse in his normal state is a dweller upon open plains, is proved by his habits in america,--for in no part where the forest predominates is he found wild,--only upon the prairies of the north, and the llanos and pampas of the south, where a timbered tract forms the exception. he must have found these great steppes congenial to his natural disposition,--since, only a very short time after the arrival of the spaniards in the new world, we find the horse a runaway from civilisation,--not only existing in a wild state upon the prairies, but in possession of many of the indian tribes. it would be an interesting inquiry to trace the change of habits which the possession of the horse must have occasioned among these arabs of the western world. however hostile they may have been to his european rider, they must have welcomed the horse as a friend. no doubt they admired the bold, free spirit of the noble animal so analogous to their own nature. he and they soon became inseparable companions; and have continued so from that time to the present hour. certain it is that the prairie, or "horse indians" of the present day, are in many respects essentially different from the staid and stoical sons of the forest so often depicted in romances; and almost equally certain is it, that the possession of the horse has contributed much to this dissimilarity. it could not be otherwise. with the horse new habits were introduced,--new manners and customs,--new modes of thought and action. not only the chase, but war itself, became a changed game,--to be played in an entirely different manner. we shall not go back to inquire what these indians _were_ when afoot. it is our purpose only to describe what they _are_ now that they are on horseback. literally, may we say _on horseback_; for, unless at this present writing they are asleep, we may safely take it for granted they are upon the backs of their horses,--young and old of them, rich and poor,--for there is none of them so poor as not to be the master of a "mustang" steed. in "prairie-land" every tribe of indians is in possession of the horse. on the north the crees, crows, and blackfeet, the sioux, cheyennes, and arapahoes; on the plains of the platte, the kansas, and osage, we find the pawnees, the kansas, and osages,--all horse indians. west of the great mountain range, the apache is mounted: so likewise the utah, the navajo, and the snake, or shoshonee,--the latter rather sparingly. other tribes, to a greater or less degree, possess this valuable animal; but the true type of the "horse indian" is to be found in the comanche, the lord of that wide domain that extends from the arkansas to the rio grande. he it is who gives trouble to the frontier colonists of texas, and equally harasses the spanish settlements of new mexico; he it is who carries his forays almost into the heart of new spain,--even to the gates of the populous durango. regarding the comanche, then, as the type of the horse indians, we shall speak more particularly of him. allowing for some slight difference in the character of his climate and country, his habits and customs will be found not very dissimilar to those of the other tribes who make the prairie their home. to say that the comanche is the finest horseman in the world would be to state what is not the fact. he is not more excellent in this accomplishment than his neighbour and bitter foeman, the pawnee,--no better than the "vaquero" of california, the "ranchero" of mexico, the "llanero" of venezuela, the "gaucho" of buenos ayres, and the horse indians of the "gran chaco" of paraguay, of the pampas, and patagonia. he is _equal_, however, to any of these, and that is saying enough,--in a word, that he takes rank among the finest horsemen in the world. the comanche is on horseback almost from the hour of infancy,-- transferred, as it were, from his mother's arms to the withers of a mustang. when able to walk, he is scarce allowed to practise this natural mode of progression, but performs all his movements on the back of a horse. a comanche would no more think of making a journey afoot-- even if it were only to the distance of a few hundred yards--than he would of crawling upon his hands and knees. the horse, ready saddled and bridled, stands ever near,--it differs little whether there is either saddle or bridle,--and flinging himself on the animal's back, or his neck, or his croup, or hanging suspended along his side, the indian guides him to the destined spot, usually at a rapid gallop. it is of no consequence to the rider how fast the horse may be going: it will not hinder him from mounting, or dismounting at will. at any time, by clutching the mane, he can spring upon the horse's shoulders,--just as may be often seen in the arena of the circus. the horse indian is a true type of the _nomadic_ races,--a dweller in tents, which his four-footed associate enables him to transport from place to place with the utmost facility. some of the tribes, however, and even some of the comanches, have fixed residences, or "villages," where at a certain season of the year they--or rather their women-- cultivate the maize, the pumpkin, the melon, the calabash, and a few other species of plants,--all being vegetable products indigenous to their country. no doubt, before the arrival of europeans, this cultivation was carried on more extensively than at present; but the possession of the horse has enabled the prairie tribes to dispense with a calling which they cordially contemn: the calling of the husbandman. these misguided savages, one and all, regard agricultural pursuits as unworthy of men; and wherever necessity compels them to practise them, the work falls to the lot of the women and slaves,--for be it known that the comanche is a slave-owner; and holds in bondage not only indians of other tribes, but also a large number of mestizoes and whites of the spanish race, captured during many a sanguinary raid into the settlements of mexico! it would be easy to show that it is this false pride of being hunters and warriors, with its associated aversion for an agricultural life, that has thinned the numbers of the indian race--far more than any persecution they have endured at the hands of the white man. this it is that starves them, that makes unendurable neighbours of them, and has rendered it necessary in some instances to "civilise them off the face of the earth." but they are not yet all civilised from off the face of the earth; nor is it their destiny to disappear so readily as short-seeing prophets have declared. their idle habits and internecine wars have done much to thin their numbers,--far more than the white man's hostility,--but wherever the white man has stepped in and put a stop to their tribal contentions,--wherever he has succeeded in conquering their aversion to industrial pursuits,--the indian is found not only to hold his ground, but to increase rapidly in numbers. this is the case with many tribes,--greeks, choctaws, and cherokees,--so that i can promise you, young reader, that by the time you get to be an old man, there will be as many indians in the world as upon that day when columbus first set his foot upon "cat" island. you will be inquiring how the horse could render the prairie indian more independent of agriculture? the answer is simple. with this valuable auxiliary a new mode of subsistence was placed within his reach. an article of food, which he had hitherto been able to obtain only in a limited quantity, was now procurable in abundance,--the flesh of the buffalo. the prairies of north america have their own peculiarities. they are not stocked with large droves of ruminant animals, as the plains of southern africa,--where the simplest savage may easily obtain a dinner of flesh-meat. a few species of deer, thinly distributed,--all swift, shy animals,--the prong-horn antelope, still swifter and shyer,--and the "big-horn," shyest of all,--were the only ruminants of prairie-land, with the exception of the great bison, or buffalo, as he is generally called. but even this last was not so easily captured in those days. the bison, though not a swift runner, is yet more than a match for the biped man; and though the indian might steal upon the great drove, and succeed in bringing down a few with his arrows, it was not always a sure game. moreover, afoot, the hunter could not follow the buffalo in its grand migrations,--often extending for hundreds of miles across plains, rivers, and ravines. once mounted, the circumstances became changed. the indian hunter could not only overtake the buffalo, but ride round him at will, and pursue him, if need be, to the most distant parts of prairie-land. the result, therefore, of the introduction of the horse was a plentiful supply of buffalo-meat, or, when that failed, the flesh of the horse himself,--upon which two articles of diet the prairie indian has almost exclusively subsisted ever since. the comanche has several modes of hunting the buffalo. if alone, and he wishes to make a grand _coup_, he will leave his horse at a distance,-- the animal being trained to remain where his master has left him. the hunter then approaches the herd with great caution, keeping to leeward,--lest he might be "winded" by the old sentinel bulls who keep watch. should there be no cover to shelter the approach of the hunter, the result would be that the bulls would discover him; and, giving out their bellow of alarm, cause the others to scamper off. to guard against this, the indian has already prepared himself by adopting a _ruse_,--which consists in disguising himself in the skin of a buffalo, horns and all complete, and approaching the herd, as if he were some stray individual that had been left behind, and was just on the way to join its fellows. even the motions of the buffalo, when browsing, are closely imitated by the red hunter; and, unless the wind be in favour of his being scented by the bulls, this device will insure the success of a shot. sometimes the skin of the large whitish-grey wolf is used in this masquerade with equal success. this may appear singular, since the animal itself is one of the deadliest enemies of the buffalo: a large pack of them hanging on the skirts of every herd, and patiently waiting for an opportunity to attack it. but as this attack is only directed against the younger calves,--or some disabled or decrepit individual who may lag behind,--the strong and healthy ones have no fear of the wolves, and permit them to squat upon the prairie within a few feet of where they are browsing! indeed, they could not hinder them, even if they wished: as the long-legged wolf in a few springs can easily get out of the way of the more clumsy ruminant; and, therefore, does not dread the lowering frontlet of the most shaggy and ill-tempered bull in the herd. of course the hunter, in the guise of a wolf, obtains the like privilege of close quarters; and, when he has arrived at the proper distance for his purpose, he prepares himself for the work of destruction. the bow is the weapon he uses,--though the rifle is now a common weapon in the hands of many of the horse indians. but the bow is preferred for the species of "still hunting" here described. the first crack of a rifle would scatter the gang, leaving the hunter perhaps only an empty gun for his pains; while an arrow at quarters is equally as deadly in its effect; and, being a _silent_ weapon, no alarm is given to any of the buffaloes, except that one which has felt the deadly shaft passing through its vitals. often the animal thus shot--even when the wound is a mortal one--does not immediately fall; but sinks gradually to the earth, as if lying down for a rest. sometimes it gets only to its knees, and dies in this attitude; at other times it remains a long while upon its legs, spreading its feet widely apart, as if to prop itself up, and then rocking from side to side like a ship in a ground-swell, till at last, weakened by loss of blood, it yields its body to the earth. sometimes the struggles of a wounded individual cause the herd to "stampede," and then the hunter has to content himself with what he may already have shot; but not unfrequently the unsuspicious gang keeps the ground till the indian has emptied his quiver. nay, longer than that: for it often occurs that the disguised buffalo or wolf (as the case may be) approaches the bodies of those that have fallen, recovers some of his arrows, and uses them a second time with like deadly effect! for this purpose it is his practice, if the aim and distance favour him, to send his shaft clear through the body of the bison, in order that the barb may not hinder it from being extracted on the other side! this feat is by no means of uncommon occurrence among the buffalo-hunters of the prairies. of course, a grand wholesale slaughter of the kind just described is not an everyday matter; and can only be accomplished when the buffaloes are in a state of comparative rest, or browsing slowly. more generally they detect the dangerous counterfeit in time to save their skins; or else keep moving too rapidly for the hunter to follow them on foot. his only resource, then, is to ride rapidly up on horseback, fire his arrows without dismounting, or strike the victim with his long lance while galloping side by side with it. if in this way he can obtain two or three fat cows, before his horse becomes _blown_, or the herd scatters beyond his reach, he considers that he has had good success. but in this kind of chase the hunter is rarely alone: the whole tribe takes part in it; and, mounted on their well-trained mustangs, often pursue the buffalo gangs for, an hour or more, before the latter can get off and hide themselves in the distance, or behind the swells of the prairie. the clouds of dust raised in a _melee_ of this kind often afford the buffalo a chance of escaping,--especially when they are running _with_ the wind. a "buffalo surround" is effected by a large party of hunters riding to a great distance; deploying themselves into a circle around the herd; and then galloping inward with loud yells. the buffaloes, thus attacked on all sides, become frightened and confused, and are easily driven into a close-packed mass, around the edges of which the mounted hunters wheel and deliver their arrows, or strike those that try to escape, with their long spears. sometimes the infuriated bulls rush upon the horses, and gore them to death; and the hunters, thus dismounted, often run a narrow risk of meeting with the same fate,--more than a risk, for not unfrequently they are killed outright. often are they obliged to leap up on the croup of a companion's horse, to get out of the way of danger; and many instances are recorded where a horseman, by the stumbling of his horse, has been pitched right into the thick of the herd, and has made his escape by mounting on the backs of the bulls themselves, and leaping from one to another until he has reached clear ground again. the buffalo is never captured in a "pound," as large mammalia are in many countries. he is too powerful a creature to be imprisoned by anything but the strongest stockade fence; and for this the prairie country does not afford materials. a contrivance, however, of a somewhat similar character is occasionally resorted to by various tribes of indians. when it is known that the buffaloes have become habituated to range in any part of the country, where the plain is intersected by deep ravines,--_canons_, or _barrancas_, as they are called,--then a grand _battue_ is got up by driving the animals pellmell over the precipitous bluffs, which universally form the sides of these singular ravines. to guide the herd to the point where it is intended they should take the fatal leap, a singular contrivance is resorted to. this consists in placing two rows of objects--which appear to the buffalo to be human beings--in such a manner that one end of each row abuts upon the edge of the precipice, not very distant from the other, while the lines extend far out into the plain, until they have diverged into a wide and extensive funnel. it is simply the contrivance used for guiding animals into a pound; but, instead of a pair of close log fences, the objects forming these rows stand at a considerable distance apart; and, as already stated, appear to the not very discriminating eye of the buffalo to be human beings. they are in reality designed to resemble the human form in a rude fashion; and the material out of which they are constructed is neither more nor less than the dung of the buffaloes themselves,--the _bois de vache_, as it is called, by the canadian trappers, who often warm their shins, and roast their buffalo ribs over a fire of this same material. the decoy being thus set, the mounted hunters next make a wide sweep around the prairie,--including in their deployment such gangs of buffaloes as may be browsing between their line and the mouth of the funnel. at first the buffaloes are merely guided forward, or driven slowly and with caution,--as boys in snow-time often drive larks toward their snares. when the animals, however, have entered between the converging lines of mock men, a rush, accompanied by hideous yells, is made upon them from behind: the result of which is, that they are impelled forward in a headlong course towards the precipice. the buffalo is, at best, but a half-blind creature. through the long, shaggy locks hanging over his frontlet he sees objects in a dubious light, or not at all. he depends more on his scent than his sight; but though he may scent a living enemy, the keenness of his organ does not warn him of the yawning chasm that opens before him,--not till it is too late to retire: for although he may perceive the fearful leap before taking it, and would willingly turn on his track, and refuse it, he finds it no longer possible to do so. in fact, he is not allowed time for reflection. the dense crowd presses from behind, and he is left no choice, except that of springing forward or suffering himself to be tumbled over upon his head. in either case it is his last leap; and, frequently, the last of a whole crowd of his companions. with such persecutions, i need hardly say that the buffaloes are becoming scarcer every year; and it is predicted that at no distant period this really valuable mammal will be altogether extinct. at present their range is greatly contracted within the wide boundaries which it formerly occupied. going west from the mississippi,--at any point below the mouth of the missouri,--you will not meet with buffalo for the first three hundred miles; and, though the herds formerly ranged to the south and west of the rio grande, the comanches on the banks of that river no longer know the buffalo, except by their excursions to the grand prairie far to the north of their country. the great slave lake is the northern terminus of the buffalo range; and westward the chain of the rocky mountains; but of late years stray herds have been observed at some points west of these,--impelled through the passes by the hunter-pressure of the horse indians from the eastward. speculators have adopted several ingenious and plausible reasons to account for the diminution of the numbers of the buffalo. there is but one cause worth assigning,--a very simple one too,--the horse. with the disappearance of the buffalo,--or perhaps with the thinning of their numbers,--the prairie indians may be induced to throw aside their roving habits. this would be a happy result both for them and their neighbours; though it is even doubtful whether it might follow from such a circumstance. no doubt some change would be effected in their mode of life; but unfortunately these bedouins of the western world can live upon the horse, even if the buffalo were entirely extirpated. even as it is, whole tribes of them subsist almost exclusively upon horse-flesh, which they esteem and relish more than any other food. but this resource would, in time, also fail them; for they have not the economy to raise a sufficient supply for the demand that would occur were the buffaloes once out of the way: since the _caballadas_ of wild mustangs are by no means so easy to capture as the "gangs" of unwieldy and lumbering buffaloes. it is to be hoped, however, that before the horse indians have been put to this trial, the strong arm of civilisation shall be extended over them, and, withholding them from those predatory incursions, which they annually make into the mexican settlements, will induce them to _dismount_, and turn peaceably to the tillage of the soil,--now so successfully practised by numerous tribes of their race, who dwell in fixed and flourishing homes upon the eastern border of the prairies. at this moment, however, the comanches are in open hostility with the settlers of the texan frontier. the _lex talionis_ is in active operation while we write, and every mail brings the account of some sanguinary massacre, or some act of terrible retaliation. the deeds of blood and savage cruelty practised alike by both sides--whites as well as indians--have had their parallel, it is true, but they are not the less revolting to read about. the colonists have suffered much from these ishmaelites of the west,--these lordly savages, who regard industry as a dishonourable calling; and who fancy that their vast territory should remain an idle hunting-ground, or rather a fortress, to which they might betake themselves during their intervals of war and plundering. the colonists have a clear title to the land,--that title acknowledged by all right-thinking men, who believe the good of the majority must not be sacrificed to the obstinacy of the individual, or the minority,--that title which gives the right to remove the dwelling of the citizen,--his very castle,--rather than that the public way be impeded. all admit this right; and just such a title has the texan colonist to the soil of the comanche. there may be guilt in the _mode_ of establishing the claim,--there may have been scenes of cruelty, and blood unnecessarily spilt,--but it is some consolation to know that there has occurred nothing yet to parallel in cold-blooded atrocity the annals of algiers, or the similar acts committed in southern africa. the crime of _smoke-murder_ is yet peculiar to pellisier and potgieter. in their present outbreak, the comanches have exhibited but a poor, short-sighted policy. they will find they have committed a grand error in mistaking the courageous colonists of texas for the weak mexicans,-- with whom they have long been at war, and whom they have almost invariably conquered. the result is easily told: much blood may be shed on both sides, but it is sure to end as all such contests do; and the comanche, like the caffre, must "go to the wall." perhaps it is better that things should be brought to a climax,--it will certainly be better for the wretched remnant of the spano-americans dwelling along the comanche frontiers,--a race who for a hundred years have not known peace. as this long-standing hostility with the mexican nation has been a predominant feature in the history of the comanche indian, it is necessary to give some account of how it is usually carried on. there was a time when the spanish nation entertained the hope of _christianising_ these rude savages,--that is, taming and training them to something of the condition to which they have brought the aztec descendants of montezuma,--a condition scarce differing from slavery itself. as no gold or silver mines had been discovered in texas, it was not their intention to make mine-labourers of them; but rather peons, or field-labourers, and tenders of cattle,--precisely as they had done, and were still doing, with the tribes of california. the soldier and the sword had proved a failure,--as in many other parts of spanish america,--in fact, everywhere, except among the degenerated remnants of monarchical misrule found in mexico, bogota, and peru. in these countries was encountered the _debris_ of a declining civilisation, and not, as is generally believed, the children of a progressive development; and of course they gave way,--as the people of all corrupted monarchies must in the end. it was different with the "indios bravos," or warrior tribes, still free and independent,--the so-called _savages_. against these the soldier and the sword proved a complete failure; and it therefore became necessary to use the other kind of conquering power,--the monk and his cross. among the comanches this kind of conquest had attained a certain amount of success. mission-houses sprung up through the whole province of texas,--the comanche country,--though the new neophytes were not altogether comanches, but rather indians of other tribes who were less warlike. many comanches, however, became converts; and some of the "missiones" became establishments on a grand scale,--each having, according to spanish missionary-fashion, its "presidio," or garrison of troops, to keep the new believers within sound of the bell, and to hunt and bring them back, whenever they endeavoured to escape from that christian vassalage for which they had too rashly exchanged their pagan freedom. all went well, so long as spain was a power upon the earth, and the mexican viceroyalty was rich enough to keep the presidios stocked with troopers. the monks led as jolly a life as their prototypes of "bolton abbey in the olden time." the neophytes were simply their slaves, receiving, in exchange for the sweat of their brow, baptism, absolution, little pewter crucifixes, and various like valuable commodities. but there came a time when they grew tired of the exchange, and longed for their old life of roving freedom. their brethren had obtained the horse; and this was an additional attraction which a prairie life presented. they grew tired of the petty tricks of the christian superstition,--to their view less rational than their own,--they grew tired of the toil of constant work, the childlike chastisements inflicted, and sick of the sound of that ever-clanging clapper,--the bell. in fine, they made one desperate effort, and freed themselves forever. the grand establishment of san saba, on the river of the same name, fell first. the troops were abroad on some convert-hunting expedition. the comanches entered the fort,--their tomahawks and war-clubs hidden under their great robes of buffalo-hide: the attack commenced, and ended only with the annihilation of the settlement. one monk alone escaped the slaughter,--a man renowned for his holy zeal. he fled towards san antonio, pursued by a savage band. a large river coursed across the route it was necessary for him to take; but this did not intercept him: its waters opened for a moment, till the bottom was bare from bank to bank. he crossed without wetting his feet. the waves closed immediately behind him, offering an impassable barrier to his pursuers, who could only vent their fury in idle curses! but the monk could curse too. he had, perhaps, taken some lessons at the vatican; and, turning round, he anathematised every "mother's son" of the red-skinned savages. the wholesale excommunication produced a wonderful effect. every one of the accursed fell back where he stood, and lay face upward upon the plain, dead as a post! the monk, after baptising the river "brazos de dios" (arm of god), continued his flight, and reached san antonio in safety,--where he duly detailed his miraculous adventure to the credulous converts of bejar, and the other missions. such is the supposed origin of the name brazos de dios, which the second river in texas bears to this day. it is to be remarked, however, that the river crossed by the monk was the present colorado, not the brazos: for, by a curious error of the colonists, the two rivers have made an exchange of titles! the comanches--freed from missionary rule, and now equal to their adversaries by possession of the horse--forthwith commenced their plundering expeditions; and, with short intervals of truce,--periods _en paz_,--have continued them to the present hour. all northern and western texas they soon recovered; but they were not content with territory: they wanted horses and cattle and chattels, and white wives and slaves; and it would scarce be credited, were i to state the number of these they have taken within the last half-century. nearly every year they have been in the habit of making an expedition to the mexican settlements of the provinces tamaulipas, new leon, and chihuahua,--every expedition a fresh conquest over their feeble and corrupt adversaries. on every occasion they have returned with booty, consisting of horses, cattle, sheep, household utensils, and, sad to relate, human captives. women and children only do they bring back,--the men they kill upon sight. the children may be either male or female,--it matters not which, as these are to be adopted into their tribe, to become future warriors; and, strange to relate, many of these, when grown up, not only refuse to return to the land of their birth, but prove the most bitter and dangerous foes to the people from whom they have sprung! even the girls and women, after a period, become reconciled to their new home, and no longer desire to leave it. some, when afterwards discovered and ransomed by their kindred, have refused to accept the conditions, but prefer to continue the savage career into which misfortune has introduced them! many a heartrending scene has been the consequence of such apparently unnatural predilections. you would wonder why such a state of things has been so long submitted to by a civilised people; but it is not so much to be wondered at. the selfishness that springs from constant revolutions has destroyed almost every sentiment of patriotism in the mexican national heart; and, indeed, many of these captives are perhaps not much worse off under the guardianship of the brave comanches than they would have been, exposed to the petty tyranny and robber-rule that has so long existed in mexico. besides, it is doubtful whether the mexican government, with all her united strength, could retake them. the comanche country is as inaccessible to a regular army as the territory of timbuctoo; and it will give even the powerful republic of the north no small trouble to reduce these red freebooters to subjection. mexico had quite despaired of being able to make an effort; and in the last treaty made between her and the united states, one of the articles was a special agreement on the part of the latter to restrain the comanches from future forays into the mexican states, and also cause them to deliver up the mexican captives then in the hands of the indians! it was computed that their number at the time amounted to four thousand! it is with regret i have to add, that these unfortunates are still held in bondage. the great republic, too busy with its own concerns, has not carried out the stipulations of the treaty; and the present comanche war is but the result of this criminal negligence. had energetic measures been adopted at the close of the mexico-american war, the comanche would not now be harrying the settlers of texas. to prove the incapacity of the mexicans to deal with this warlike race, it only needs to consider the present condition of the northern mexican states. one half the territory in that extensive region has returned to the condition of a desert. the isolated "ranchos" have been long since abandoned,--the fields are overgrown with weeds,--and the cattle have run wild or been carried off by the comanches. only the stronger settlements and large fortified haciendas any longer exist; and many of these, too, have been deserted. where children once played in the security of innocence,--where gaily-dressed cavaliers and elegant ladies amused themselves in the pleasant _dia de campo_, such scenes are no longer witnessed. the rancho is in ruins,--the door hangs upon its hinge, broken and battered, or has been torn off to feed the camp-fire of the savage; the dwelling is empty and silent, except when the howling wolf or coyote wakes up the echoes of its walls. about ten years ago, the proud governor of the state of chihuahua--one of the most energetic soldiers of the mexican republic--had a son taken captive by the comanches. powerful though this man was, he knew it was idle to appeal to arms; and was only too contented to recover his child by paying a large ransom! this fact, more than a volume of words, will illustrate the condition of unhappy mexico. the comanche leads a gay, merry life,--he is far from being the indian of cooper's description. in scarcely any respect does he resemble the sombre son of the forest. he is lively, talkative, and ever ready for a laugh. his butt is the mexican presidio soldier, whom he holds in too just contempt. he is rarely without a meal. if the buffalo fails him, he can draw a steak from his spare horses, of which he possesses a large herd: besides, there are the wild mustangs, which he can capture on occasions. he has no work to do except war and hunting: at all other times he has slaves to wait upon him, and perform the domestic drudgery. when idle, he sometimes bestows great pains upon his dress,--which is the usual deer-skin tunic of the prairie indian, with mocassins and fringed leggings. sometimes a head-dress of plumes is worn; sometimes one of the skin of the buffalo's skull, with the horns left on! the robe of buffalo pelt hangs from his shoulders, with all the grandeur of a toga; but when he proceeds on a plundering expedition, all these fripperies are thrown aside, and his body appears naked from the waist to the ears. then only the breech-clout is worn, with leggings and mocassins on his legs and feet. a coat of scarlet paint takes the place of the hunting-shirt,--in order to render his presence more terrific in the eyes of his enemy. it needs not this. without any disguise, the sight of him is sufficiently horrifying,--sufficiently suggestive of "blood and murder." chapter twelve. the pehuenches, or pampas indians. the vast plain known as the "pampas" is one of the largest tracts of level country upon the face of the earth. east and west it stretches from the mouth of the rio de la plata to the foothills of the andes mountains. it is interrupted on the north by a series of mountains and hill country, that cross from the andes to the paraguay river, forming the sierras of mendoza, san luis, and cordova; while its southern boundary is not so definitely marked, though it may be regarded as ending at the rio negro, where it meets, coming up from the south, the desert plains of patagonia. geologically, the pampas (or plains, as the word signifies, in the language of the peruvian indians) is an alluvial formation,--the bed of an ancient sea,--upheaved by some unknown cause to its present elevation, which is not much above the ocean-level. it is not, therefore, a _plateau_ or "tableland," but a vast natural meadow. the soil is in general of a red colour, argillaceous in character, and at all points filled with marine shells and other testimonies that the sea once rolled over it. it is in the pampas formation that many of the fossil monsters have been found,--the gigantic megatherium, the colossal _mylodon_, and the giant armadillo (_glyptodon_), with many other creatures, of such dimensions as to make it a subject of speculation how the earth could have produced food enough for their maintenance. in giving to the pampas the designation of a _vast meadow_, do not suffer yourself to be misled by this phrase,--which is here and elsewhere used in rather a loose and indefinite manner. many large tracts in the pampas country would correspond well enough to this definition,--both as regards their appearance and the character of the herbage which covers them; but there are other parts which bear not the slightest resemblance to a meadow. there are vast tracts thickly covered with tall thistles,--so tall as to reach to the head of a man mounted on horseback, and so thickly set, that neither man nor horse could enter them without a path being first cleared for them. other extensive tracts are grown over with tall grass so rank as to resemble reeds or rushes more than grass; and an equally extensive surface is timbered with small trees, standing thinly and without underwood, like the fruit-trees in an orchard. again, there are wide morasses and extensive lakes, many of them brackish, and some as salt as the sea itself. in addition to these, there are "salinas," or plains of salt,--the produce of salt lakes, whose waters have evaporated, leaving a stratum of pure salt often over a foot in thickness, and covering their beds to an extent of many square leagues. there are some parts, too, where the pampas country assumes a sterile and stony character,-- corresponding to that of the great desert of patagonia. it is not correct therefore, to regard the pampas as one unbroken tract of _meadow_. in one character alone is it uniform in being a country without mountains,--or any considerable elevations in the way of ridges or hills,--though a few scattered sierras are found both on its northern and southern edges. the _thistle pampas_, as we take the liberty of naming them, constitute perhaps the most curious section of this great plain; and not the less so that the "weed" which covers them is supposed not to be an indigenous production, but to have been carried there by the early colonists. about this, however, there is a difference of opinion. no matter whence sprung, the thistles have flourished luxuriantly, and at this day constitute a marked feature in the scenery of the pampas. their position is upon the eastern edge of the great plain, contiguous to the banks of the la plata; but from this river they extend backwards into the interior, at some points to the distance of nearly two hundred miles. over this vast surface they grow so thickly that, as already mentioned, it is not possible for either man or horse to make way through them. they can only be traversed by devious paths--already formed by constant use, and leading through narrow lanes or glades, where, for some reason, the thistles do not choose to grow. otherwise they cannot be entered even by cattle. these will not, unless compelled, attempt penetrating such an impervious thicket; and if a herd driven along the paths should chance to be "stampeded" by any object of terror, and driven to take to the thistles, scarce a head of the whole flock can ever afterwards be recovered. even the instincts of the dumb animals do not enable them to find their way out again; and they usually perish, either from thirst, or by the claws of the fierce pumas and jaguars, which alone find themselves at home in the labyrinthine "_cardonales_." the little _viscacha_ contrives to make its burrow among them, and must find subsistence by feeding upon their leaves and seed, since there is no other herbage upon the ground,--the well-armed thistle usurping the soil, and hindering the growth of any other plants. it may be proper to remark, however, that there are two kinds of these plants, both of which cover large tracts of the plain. one is a true thistle, while the other is a weed of the artichoke family, called by the spanish americans "cardoon." it is a species of _cardunculus_. the two do not mingle their stalks, though both form thickets in a similar manner and often in the same tract of country. the cardoon is not so tall as the thistle; and, being without spines, its "beds" are more easily penetrated; though even among these, it would be easy enough to get entangled and lost. it is proper to remark here, that these thistle-thickets do not shut up the country all the year round. only for a season,--from the time they have grown up and "shoot," till their tall ripened stalks wither and fall back to the earth, where they soon moulder into decay. the plains are then open and free to all creatures,--man among the rest,--and the gaucho, with his herds of horses, horned cattle, and sheep, or the troops of roving indians, spread over and take possession of them. the young thistles now present the appearance of a vast field of turnips; and their leaves, still tender, are greedily devoured by both cattle and sheep. in this condition the pampas thistles remain during their short winter; but as spring returns, they once more "bristle" up, till, growing taller and stouter, they present a _chevaux-de-frise_ that at length expels all intruders from their domain. on the western selvage of this thistle tract lies the grass-covered section of the pampas. it is much more extensive than that of the "cardonales,"--having an average width of three hundred miles, and running longitudinally throughout the whole northern and southern extension of the pampas. its chief characteristic is a covering of coarse grass,--which at different seasons of the year is short or tall, green, brown, or yellowish, according to the different degrees of ripeness. when dry, it is sometimes fired,--either by design or accident,--as are also the withered stems of the thistles; and on these occasions a conflagration occurs, stupendous in its effects,--often extending over vast tracts, and reducing everything to black ashes. nothing can be more melancholy to the eye than the aspect of a burnt pampa. the grass section is succeeded by that of the "openings," or scanty forests, already mentioned; but the trees in many places are more closely set; assuming the character of thickets, or "jungles." these tracts end among the spurs of the andes,--which, at some points, are thrown out into the plain, but generally rise up from it abruptly and by a well-defined border. the marshes and bitter lakes above mentioned are the produce of numerous streams, which have their rise in the great cordillera of the andes, and run eastward across the pampas. a few of these, that trend in a southerly direction, reach the atlantic by means of the two great outlets,--the "colorado" and "negro." all the others--and "their name is legion"--empty their waters into the morasses and lakes, or sink into the soil of the plains, at a greater or less distance from the cordillera, according to the body of water they may carry down. evaporation keeps up the equilibrium. who are the dwellers upon the pampas? to whom does this vast pasture-ground belong? whose flocks and herds are they that browse upon it? you will be told that the pampas belong to the republic of buenos ayres, or rather to the "states of the argentine confederation,"--that they are inhabited by a class of citizens called "gauchos," who are of spanish race, and whose sole occupation is that of herdsmen, breeders of cattle and horses,--men famed for their skill as horsemen, and for their dexterity in the use of the "lazo" and "bolas,"--two weapons borrowed from the aboriginal races. all this is but partially true. the proprietorship of this great plain was never actually in the hands of the buenos-ayrean government, nor in those of their predecessors,--the spaniards. neither has ever owned it--either by conquest or otherwise:--no further than by an empty boast of ownership; for, from the day when they first set foot upon its borders to the present hour, neither has ever been able to cross it, or penetrate any great distance into it, without a grand army to back their progress. but their possession virtually ceased at the termination of each melancholy excursion; and the land relapsed to its original owners. with the exception of some scanty strips along its borders, and some wider ranges, thinly occupied by the half-nomade gauchos, the pampas are in reality an indian territory, as they have always been; and the claim of the white man is no more than nominal,--a mere title upon the map. it is not the only vast expanse of spanish american soil that _never was spanish_. the true owners of the pampas, then, are the red aborigines,--the pampas indians; and to give some account of these is now our purpose. forming so large an extent, it is not likely it should all belong to one united tribe,--that would at once elevate them into the character of a nation. but they are not united. on the contrary, they form several distinct associations, with an endless number of smaller subdivisions or communities,--just in the same way as it is among their prairie cousin of the north. they may all, however, be referred to four grand tribal associations or nationalities,--the _pehuenches_, _puelches_, _picunches_, and _ranqueles_. some add the _puilliches_, who dwell on the southern rim of the pampas; but these, although they extend their excursions over a portion of the great plain, are different from the other pampas indians in many respects,--altogether a braver and better race of men, and partaking more of the character of the patagonians,--both in point of _physique_ and _morale_,--of which tribes, indeed, they are evidently only a branch. in their dealings with white men, when fairly treated, these have exhibited the same noble bearing which characterises the true patagonian. i shall not, therefore, lower the standard--neither of their bodies nor their minds--by classing them among "pampas indians." of these tribes--one and all of them--we have, unfortunately, a much less favourable impression; and shall therefore be able to say but little to their credit. the different names are all native. _puelches_ means the people living to the east, from "_puel_," east, and _che_, people. the _picunches_ derive this appellation, in a similar fashion, from "_picun_," signifying the north. the _pehuenches_ are the people of the pine-tree country, from "_pehuen_," the name for the celebrated "chili pine" (_araucaria_); and the _ranqueles_ are the men who dwell among the thistles, from _ranquel_, a thistle. these national appellations will give some idea of the locality which each tribe inhabits. the _ranqueles_ dwell, not among the thistles,-- for that would be an unpleasant residence, even to a red-skin; but along the western border of this tract. to the westward of them, and up into the clefts of the cordilleras extends the country of the pehuenches; and northward of both lies the land of the picunches. their boundary in that direction _should be_ the frontiers of the _quasi-civilised_ provinces of san luis and cordova, but they are _not_; for the picunche can at will extend his plundering forays as far north as he pleases: even to _dovetailing_ them into the similar excursions of his _guaycuru_ kinsmen from the "gran chaco" on the north. the puelche territory is on the eastern side of the pampas, and south from buenos ayres. at one time these people occupied the country to the banks of the la plata; and no doubt it was they who first met the spaniards in hostile array. even up to a late period their forays extended almost to buenos ayres itself; but rosas, tyrant as he may have been, was nevertheless a true soldier, and in a grand military expedition against them swept their country, and inflicted such a terrible chastisement upon both them and the neighbouring tribes, as they had not suffered since the days of mendoza. the result has been a retirement of the puelche frontier to a much greater distance from buenos ayres; but how long it may continue stationary is a question,--no longer than some strong arm--such as that of rosas--is held threateningly over them. it is usual to inquire whence come a people; and the question has been asked of the pampas indians. it is not difficult to answer. they came from the land of arauco. yes, they are the kindred of that famed people whom the spaniards could never subdue,--even with all their strength put forth in the effort. they are near kindred too,--the pehuenches especially,--whose country is only separated from that of the araucanians by the great cordillera of chili; and with whom, as well as the spaniards on the chilian side, they have constant and friendly intercourse. but it must be admitted, that the araucanians have had far more than their just meed of praise. the romantic stories, in that endless epic of the rhymer ercilla, have crept into history; and the credulous molina has endorsed them: so that the true character of the araucanian indian has never been understood. brave he has shown himself, beyond doubt, in defending his country against spanish aggression; but so, too, has the carib and guaraon,--so, too, has the comanche and apache, the yaqui of sonora, the savage of the mosquito shore, the guaycuru of the gran chaco, and a score of other indian tribes,--in whose territory the spaniard has never dared to fix a settlement. brave is the araucanian; but, beyond this, he has few virtues indeed. he is cruel in the extreme,--uncivil and selfish,--filthy and indolent,--a polygamist in the most approved fashion,--a very tyrant over his own,--in short, taking rank among the beastliest of semi-civilised savages,--for it may be here observed, that he is not exactly what is termed a _savage_: that is, he does not go naked, and sleep in the open air. on the contrary, he clothes himself in stuff of his own weaving,--or rather, that of his slave-wives,--and lives in a hut which they build for him. he owns land, too,--beautiful fields,--of which he makes no use: except to browse a few horses, and sheep, and cattle. for the rest, he is too indolent to pursue agriculture; and spends most of his time in drinking _chicha_, or tyrannising over his wives. this is the heroic araucanian who inhabits the plains and valleys of southern chili. unfortunately, by passing to the other side of the andes, he has not improved his manners. the air of the pampas does not appear to be conducive to virtue; and upon that side of the mountains it can scarce be said to exist,--even in the shape of personal courage. the men of the pines and thistles seem to have lost this quality, while passing through the snows of the cordilleras, or left it behind them, as they have also left the incipient civilisation of their race. on the pampas we find them once more in the character of the true savage: living by the chase or by plunder; and bartering the produce of the latter for the trappings and trinkets of personal adornment, supplied them by the unprincipled white trader. puelches and picunches, pehuenches and ranqueles, all share this character alike,--all are treacherous, quarrelsome, and cowardly. but we shall now speak more particularly of their customs and modes of life, and we may take the "pine people" as our text,--since these are supposed to be most nearly related to the true araucanians,--and, indeed, many of their "ways" are exactly the same as those of that "heroic nation." the "people of the pines" are of the ordinary stature of north-american indians, or of europeans; and their natural colour is a dark coppery hue. but it is not often you can see them in their natural colour: for the pampas indians, like nearly all the aboriginal tribes, are "painters." they have pigments of black and white, blue, red, and yellow,--all of which they obtain from different coloured stones, found in the streams of the cordilleras. "yama," they call the black stone; "colo," the red; "palan," the white; and "codin," the blue; the yellow they obtain from a sort of argillaceous earth. the stones of each colour they submit to a rubbing or grinding process, until a quantity of dust is produced; which, being mixed with suet, constitutes the paint, ready for being laid on. the pampas indians do not confine themselves to any particular "escutcheon." in this respect their fancy is allowed a wide scope, and their fashions change. a face quite black, or red, is a common countenance among them; and often may be seen a single band, of about two inches in width, extending from ear to ear across the eyes and nose. on war excursions they paint hideous figures: not only on their own faces and bodies, but on their trappings, and even upon the bodies of their horses,--aiming to render themselves as appalling as possible in the sight of their enemies. the same trick is employed by the warriors of the prairies, as well as in many other parts of the world. under ordinary circumstances, the pampas indian is not a _naked_ savage. on the contrary, he is well clad; and, so far from obtaining the material of his garments from the looms of civilised nations, he weaves it for himself,--that is, his wives weave it; and in such quantity that he has not only enough for his own "wear," but more than enough, a surplus for trade. the cloth is usually a stuff spun and woven from sheep's wool. it is coarse, but durable; and in the shape of blankets or "ponchos," is eagerly purchased by the spanish traders. silver spurs, long, pointed knives, lance-heads, and a few other iron commodities, constitute the articles of exchange, with various ornamental articles, as beads, rings, bracelets, and large-headed silver bodkins to fasten their cloaks around the shoulders of his "ladies." nor is he contented with mere tinsel, as other savages are,--he can tell the difference between the real metal and the counterfeit, as well as the most expert assayer; and if he should fancy to have a pair of silver spurs, not even a jew peddler could put off upon him the plated "article." in this respect the araucanian indian has been distinguished, since his earliest intercourse with europeans; and his pampas kindred are equally subtle in their appreciation. the pampas indian, when well dressed, has a cloak upon his shoulders of the thick woollen stuff already described. it is usually woven in colours; and is not unlike the "poncho" worn by the "gauchos" of buenos ayres, or the "serape" of the mexicans. besides the cloak, his dress consists of a mere skirt,--also of coloured woollen stuff, being an oblong piece swathed around his loins, and reaching to the knee. a sash or belt--sometimes elaborately ornamented--binds the cloth around the waist. boots of a peculiar construction complete the costume. these are manufactured in a very simple manner. the fresh skin taken from a horse's hind leg is drawn on--just as if it were a stocking--until the heel rests in that part which covered the hock-joint of the original wearer. the superfluous portion is then trimmed to accommodate itself as a covering for the foot; and the boot is not only finished, but put on,--there to remain until it is worn out, and a new one required! if it should be a little loose at first, that does not matter. the hot sun, combined with the warmth of the wearer's leg, soon contracts the hide, and brings it to "fit like a glove." the head is often left uncovered; but as often a sort of skullcap or helmet of horse-skin is worn; and not unfrequently a high, conical hat of palm fibre. this last is not a native production, but an importation of the traders. so also is a pair of enormous rings of brass, which are worn in the ears; and are as bulky as a pair of padlocks. in this costume, mounted on horseback with his long lance in hand, the pampas indian would be a picturesque, object; and really is so, when _clean_; but that is only on the very rarest occasions,--only when he has donned a new suit. at all other times, not only his face and the skin of his body, but every rag upon his back, are covered with grease and filth,--so as to produce an effect rather "tatterdemalion" than picturesque. the "squaw" is costumed somewhat differently. first, she has a long "robe," which covers her from neck to heels, leaving only her neck and arms bare. the robe is of red or blue woollen stuff of her own weaving. this garment is the "quedeto." a belt, embroidered with beads, called "quepique," holds it around the waist, by means of a large silver buckle. this belt is an article, of first fashion. over the shoulders hangs the "iquilla," which is a square piece of similar stuff,--but usually of a different dye; and which is fastened in front by a pin with a large silver head, called the "tupo." the shock of thick, black hair--after having received the usual anointment of mare's tallow, the fashionable hair-oil of the pampas indians--is kept in its place by a sort of cap or _coiffure_, like a shallow dish inverted, and bristling all over with trader's beads. to this a little bell is fastened; or sometimes a brace of them are worn as earrings. these tinkle so agreeably in the ears of the wearer, that she can scarce for a moment hold her head at rest, but keeps rocking it from side to side, as a spanish coquette would play with her fan. in addition to this varied wardrobe, the pampas belle carries a large stock of bijouterie,--such as beads and bangles upon her neck, rings and circlets upon her arms, ankles, and fingers; and, to set her snaky locks in order, she separates them by means of a stiff brush, made from the fibrous roots of a reed. _she_ is _picturesque_ enough, but never _pretty_. nature has given the araucanian woman a plain face; and all the adornment in the world cannot hide its homeliness. the pehuenche builds no house. he is a true nomade, and dwells in a tent, though one of the rudest construction. as it differs entirely from the tent of the prairie indians, it may be worth while describing it. its framework is of reeds,--of the same kind as are used for the long lances so often mentioned; and which resemble _bambusa_ canes. they grow in plenty throughout the pampas, especially near the mountains,-- where they form impenetrable thickets on the borders of the marshy lakes. any other flexible poles will serve as well, when the canes are not "handy." the poles being procured, one is first bent into a semicircle, and in this shape both ends are stuck into the ground, so as to form an arch about three feet in height. this arch afterwards becomes the doorway or entrance to the tent. the remaining poles are attached to this first one at one end, and at right angles; and being carried backward with a slight bend, their other ends are inserted into the turf. this forms the skeleton of the tent; and its covering is a horse-skin, or rather a number of horse-skins stitched together, making a sort of large tarpaulin. the skins are sewed with the sinews of the horse or ox,-- which are first chewed by the women, until their fibres become separated like hemp, and are afterwards spun by them into twine. the tent is not tall enough to admit of a man standing erect; and in it the pehuenche crouches, whenever it snows, rains, or blows cold. he has sheep-skins spread to sleep upon, and other skins to serve as bed-clothes,--all in so filthy a condition, that but for the cold, he might find it far more comfortable to sleep in the open air. he never attempts to sweep out this miserable lair; but when the spot becomes _very_ filthy, he "takes up his sticks" and shifts his penates to a fresh "location." he is generally, however, too indolent to make a "remove,"--until the dirt has accumulated so as to "be in the way." the pampas indian is less of a hunter than most other tribes of savages. he has less need to be,--at least, in modern days; for he is in possession of three kinds of valuable domestic animals, upon which he can subsist without hunting,--horses, horned cattle, and sheep. of course, these are of colonial origin. he hunts, nevertheless, for amusement, and to vary his food. the larger ostrich (_rhea americana_), the guanaco, and the great "gama" stag of the pampas (_cervus campestris_) are his usual game. these he captures with the _bolas_,-- which is his chief implement for the chase. in the flesh of the stag he may find a variety, but not a delicacy. its venison would scarce tempt a lucullian palate,--since even the hungriest gaucho will not eat it. it is a large beast, often weighing above three hundred pounds; and infecting the air with such a rank odour, that dogs decline to follow it in the chase. this odour is generated in a pair of glands situated near the eyes; and it has the power of projecting it at will,--just as skunks and polecats when closely chased by an enemy. if these glands are cut out immediately after the animal is killed, the flesh tastes well enough: otherwise it is too rank to be eatable. the indians cure it of the "bad smell" by burying it for several days in the ground; which has the effect of "sweetening" it, while at the same time it makes it more tender. but the pampas indian does not rely upon the chase for his subsistence. he is a small grazier in his way; and is usually accompanied in his wanderings by a herd of horned cattle and sheep. he has also his stud of horses; which furnish the staple of his food,--for whenever he hungers, a horse is "slaughtered." strictly speaking, it is not a horse, for it is the mare that is used for this purpose. in no part of the pampas region,--not even in the white settlement,--are the mares used for riding. it would be considered derogatory to the character of either gaucho or indian to mount a mare; and these are kept only for breeding purposes. not that the indian is much of a horse-breeder. he keeps up his stock in quite another way,--by stealing. the same remark will apply to the mode by which he recruits his herds of horned cattle, and his flocks of sheep. the last he values only for their wool; out of which his garments are woven; and which has replaced the scantier fleece of the vicuna and guanaco,--the material used by him in days gone by. from whom does he steal these valuable animals,--and in such numbers as almost to subsist upon them? that is a question that can be easily answered; though it is not exact language to say that he steals them. rather say that he _takes_ them, by main force and in open daylight,-- takes them from the creole spaniard,--the gaucho and _estanciero_. nay, he does not content himself always with four-footed plunder; but often returns from his forays with a crowd of captives,--women and children, with white skins and ruddy cheeks,--afterwards to be converted into his drudges and slaves. not alone to the frontier does he extend these plundering expeditions; but even into the heart of the spanish settlements,--to the estancias of grandees, and the gates of fortified towns; and, strange as it may read, this condition of things has been in existence, not for years, but, at intervals, extending over a century! but what may read stranger still--and i can vouch for it as true--is, that _white men_ actually purchase this plunder from him,--not the human part of it, but the four-footed and the _furniture_,--for this, too, sometimes forms part of his booty. yes, the surplus, of which the indian can make no use or cares nothing about,--more especially the large droves of fine horses, taken from the spaniards of buenos ayres,-- are driven through the passes of the cordilleras, and sold to the spaniards of chili! the people of one province actually encouraging the robbery of their kindred race in another! the very same condition of things exists in north america. the comanche, steals, or rather takes, from the white settler of tamaulipas and new leon,--the apache rieves from the white settler of chihuahua and sonora: both sell to the white settlers, who dwell along the banks of the rio del norte! and all these settlers are of one race,--one country,--one kindred! these things have hitherto been styled _cosas de mexico_. their signification may be extended to south america: since they are equally _cosas de las pampas_. we are not permitted to doubt the truth of these appalling facts,-- neither as regards the nefarious traffic, nor the captive women and children. at this very hour, not less than four thousand individuals of spanish-mexican race are held captives by the prairie tribes; and when rosas swept the pampas, he released fifteen hundred of similar unfortunates from their worse than egyptian taskmasters,--the puelches! with such facts as these before our eyes, who can doubt the decline of the spanish power? the utter enfeeblement of that once noble race? who can contradict the hypothetical prophecy--more than once offered in these pages--that if the two races be left to themselves, the aboriginal, before the lapse of a single century, will once more recover the soil; and his haughty victor be swept from the face of the american continent? nor need such a change be too keenly regretted. the spanish occupation of america has been an utter failure. it has served no high human purpose, but the contrary. it has only corrupted and encowardiced a once brave and noble race; and, savage as may be the character of that which would supplant it, still that savage has within him the elements of a future civilisation. not so the spaniard. the fire of his civilisation has blazed up with a high but fitful gleam. it has passed like the lightning's flash. its sparks have fallen and died out,--never to be rekindled again. chapter thirteen. the yamparicos, or root-diggers. it is now pretty generally known that there are many _deserts_ in north america,--as wild, waste, and inhospitable as the famed sahara of africa. these deserts occupy a large portion of the central regions of that great continent--extending, north and south, from mexico to the shores of the arctic sea; and east and west for several hundred miles, on each side of the great vertebral chain of the rocky mountains. it is true that in the vast territory thus indicated, the desert is not continuous; but it is equally true that the fertile stripes or valleys that intersect it, bear but a very small proportion to the whole surface. many tracts are there, of larger area than all the british islands, where the desert is scarce varied by an oasis, and where the very rivers pursue their course amidst rocks and barren sands, without a blade of vegetation on their banks. usually, however, a narrow selvage of green--caused by the growth of cotton woods, willows, and a few humbler plants--denotes the course of a stream,--a glad sight at all times to the weary and thirsting traveller. these desert wastes are not all alike, but differ much in character. in one point only do they agree,--they are all _deserts_. otherwise they exhibit many varieties,--both of aspect and nature. some of them are level plains, with scarce a hill to break the monotony of the view: and of this character is the greater portion of the desert country extending eastward from the rocky mountains to about degrees of west longitude. at this point the soil gradually becomes more fertile,-- assuming the character of timbered tracts, with prairie opening between,--at length terminating in the vast, unbroken forests of the mississippi. this eastern desert extends parallel with the rocky mountains,-- throughout nearly the whole of their length,--from the rio grande in mexico, northward to the mackenzie river. one tract of it deserves particular mention. it is that known as the _llano estacado_, or "staked plain," it lies in north-western texas, and consists of a barren plateau, of several thousand square miles in extent, the surface of which is raised nearly a thousand feet above the level of the surrounding plains. geologists have endeavoured to account for this singular formation, but in vain. the table-like elevation of the llano estacado still remains a puzzle. its name, however, is easier of explanation. in the days of spanish supremacy over this part of prairie-land, caravans frequently journeyed from santa fe in new mexico, to san antonio in texas. the most direct route between these two provincial capitals lay across the llano estacado; but as there were neither mountains nor other landmarks to guide the traveller, he often wandered from the right path,--a mistake that frequently ended in the most terrible suffering from thirst, and very often in the loss of life. to prevent such catastrophes, stakes were set up at such intervals as to be seen from one another, like so many "telegraph posts;" and although these have long since disappeared, the great plain still bears the name, given to it from this circumstance. besides the contour of surface, there are other respects in which the desert tracts of north america differ from one another. in their vegetation--if it deserves the name--they are unlike. some have no vegetation whatever; but exhibit a surface of pure sand, or sand and pebbles; others are covered with a stratum of soda, of snow-white colour, and still others with a layer of common salt, equally white and pure. many of these salt and soda "prairies"--as the trappers term them--are hundreds of square miles in extent. again, there are deserts of scoria, of lava, and pumice-stone,--the "cut-rock prairies" of the trappers,--a perfect contrast in colour to the above mentioned. all these are absolutely without vegetation of any sort. on some of the wastes--those of southern latitudes,--the cactus appears of several species, and also the wild agave, or "pita" plant; but these plants are in reality but emblems of the desert itself. so, also, is the _yucca_, which thinly stands over many of the great plains, in the south-western part of the desert region,--its stiff, shaggy foliage in no way relieving the sterile landscape, but rather rendering its aspect more horrid and austere. again, there are the deserts known as "chapparals,"--extensive jungles of brush and low trees, all of a thorny character; among which the "mezquite" of several species (_mimosas_ and _acacias_), the "stink-wood" or _creosote plant_ (_kaeberlinia_), the "grease-bush" (_obione canescens_), several kinds of _prosopis_, and now and then, as if to gratify the eye of the tired traveller, the tall flowering spike of the scarlet _fouquiera_. further to the north--especially throughout the upper section of the great salt lake territory--are vast tracts, upon which scarce any vegetation appears, except the _artemisia_ plant, and other kindred products of a sterile soil. of all the desert tracts upon the north-american continent, perhaps none possesses greater interest for the student of cosmography than that known as the "great basin." it has been so styled from the fact of its possessing a hydrographic system of its own,--lakes and rivers that have no communication with the sea; but whose waters spend themselves within the limits of the desert itself, and are kept in equilibrium by evaporation,--as is the case with many water systems of the continents of the old world, both in asia and africa. the largest lake of the "basin" is the "great salt lake,"--of late so celebrated in mormon story: since near its southern shore the chief city of the "latter-day saints" is situated. but there are other large lakes within the limits of the great basin, both fresh and saline,--most of them entirely unconnected with the great salt lake, and some of them having a complete system of waters of their own. there are "utah" and "humboldt," "walker's" and "pyramid" lakes, with a long list of others, whose names have been but recently entered upon the map, by the numerous very intelligent explorers employed by the government of the united states. large rivers, too, run in all directions through this central desert, some of them falling into the great salt lake, as the "bear" river, the "weber," the "utah," from utah lake,--upon which the mormon metropolis stands,--and which stream has been absurdly baptised by these free-living fanatics as the "jordan?" other rivers are the "timpanogos," emptying into lake utah; the "humboldt," that runs to the lake of that name; the "carson" river; besides many of lesser note. the limits assigned to the great basin are tolerably well-defined. its western rim is the _sierra nevada_, or "snowy range" of california; while the rocky and wahsatch mountains are its boundaries on the east. several cross-ranges, and spurs of ranges, separate it from the system of waters that empty northward into the columbia river of oregon; while upon its southern edge there is a more indefinite "divide" between it and the great desert region of the western "colorado." strictly speaking, the desert of the great basin might be regarded as only a portion of that vast tract of sterile, and almost treeless soil, which stretches from the mexican state of sonora to the upper waters of oregon; but the deserts of the colorado on the south, and those of the "forks" of the columbia on the north, are generally treated as distinct territories; and the great basin, with the limits already assigned, is suffered to stand by itself. as a separate country, then, we shall here consider it. from its name, you might fancy that the great basin was a low-lying tract of country. this, however, is far from being the case. on the contrary, nearly all of it is of the nature of an elevated tableland, even its lakes lying several thousand feet above the level of the sea. it is only by its "rim," of still more elevated mountain ridges, that it can lay claim to be considered as a "basin;" but, indeed, the name-- given by the somewhat speculative explorer, fremont--is not very appropriate, since later investigations show that this rim is in many places neither definite nor regular,--especially on its northern and southern sides, where the "great basin" may be said to be badly cracked, and even to have some pieces chipped out of its edge. besides the mountain chains that surround it, many others run into and intersect it in all directions. some are spurs of the main ranges; while others form "sierras"--as the spaniards term them--distinct in themselves. these sierras are of all shapes and of every altitude,-- from the low-lying ridge scarce rising above the plain, to peaks and summits of over ten thousand feet in elevation. their forms are as varied as their height. some are round or dome-shaped; others shoot up little turrets or "needles;" and still others mount into the sky in shapeless masses,--as if they had been flung upon the earth, and upon one another, in some struggle of titans, who have left them lying in chaotic confusion. a very singular mountain form is here observed,-- though it is not peculiar to this region, since it is found elsewhere, beyond the limits of the great basin, and is also common in many parts of africa. this is the formation known among the spaniards as _mesas_, or "table-mountains," and by this very name it is distinguished among the colonists of the cape. the _llano estacado_, already mentioned, is often styled a "mesa," but its elevation is inconsiderable when compared with the _mesa_ mountains that occur in the regions west of the great rocky chain,--both in the basin and on the deserts of the colorado. many of these are of great height,--rising several thousand feet above the general level; and, with their square truncated _table-like_ tops, lend a peculiar character to the landscape. the characteristic vegetation of the great basin is very similar to that of the other central regions of the north-american continent. only near the banks of the rivers and some of the fresh-water lakes, is there any evidence of a fertile soil; and even in these situations the timber is usually scarce and stunted. of course, there are tracts that are exceptional,--oases, as they are geographically styled. of this character is the country of the mormons on the jordan, their settlements on the utah and bear rivers, in tuilla and ogden valleys, and elsewhere at more remote points. there are also isolated tracts on the banks of the smaller streams and the shores of lakes not yet "located" by the colonist; and only frequented by the original dwellers of the desert, the red aborigines. in these oases are usually found cottonwood-trees, of several distinct species,--one or other of which is the characteristic, vegetation on nearly every stream from the mississippi to the mountains of california. willows of many species also appear; and now and then, in stunted forms, the oak, the elm, maples, and sycamores. but all these last are very rarely encountered within the limits of the desert region. on the mountains, and more frequently in the mountain ravines pines of many species--some of which produce edible cones--grow in such numbers as to merit the name of forests, of greater or less extent. among these, or apart from them, may be distinguished the darker foliage of the cedar (_juniperus_) of several varieties, distinct from the _juniperus virginiana_ of the states. the arid plains are generally without the semblance of vegetation. when any appears upon them, it is of the character of the "chapparal," already described; its principal growth being "tornilla," or "screw-wood," and other varieties of _mezquite_; all of them species of the extensive order of the _leguminosae_, and belonging to the several genera of _acacias_, _mimosas_, and _robinias_. in many places _cactacae_ appear of an endless variety of forms; and some,--as the "pitahaya" (_cereus giganteus_), and the "tree" and "cochineal" cacti (_opuntias_),--of gigantesque proportions. these, however, are only developed to their full size in the regions further south,--on the deserts of the colorado and gila,--where also the "tree yuccas" abound, covering tracts of large extent, and presenting the appearance of forests of palms. perhaps the most characteristic vegetation of the great basin--that is, if it deserve the name of a vegetation--is the wild sage, or _artemisia_. with this plant vast plains are covered, as far as the eye can reach; not presenting a hue of green, as the grass prairies do, but a uniform aspect of greyish white, as monotonous as if the earth were without a leaf to cover it. instead of relieving the eye of the traveller, the artemisia rather adds to the dreariness of a desert landscape,--for its presence promises food neither to man nor horse, nor water for them to drink, but indicates the absence of both. upon the hill-sides also is it seen, along the sloping declivities of the sierras, marbling the dark volcanic rocks with its hoary frondage. more than one species of this wild sage occurs throughout the american desert: there are four or five kinds, differing very considerably from each other, and known to the trappers by such names as "wormwood," "grease-bush," "stink-plant," and "rabbit-bush." some of the species attain to a considerable height,--their tops often rising above the head of the traveller on horseback,--while another kind scarce reaches the knee of the pedestrian. in some places the plains are so thickly covered with this vegetation, that it is difficult for either man or horse to make way through them,-- the gnarled and crooked branches twisting into each other and forming an impenetrable wattle. at other places, and especially where the larger species grow, the plants stand apart like apple-trees in an orchard, and bear a considerable resemblance to shrubs or small trees. both man and horse refuse the artemisia as food; and so, too, the less fastidious mule. even a donkey will not eat it. there are animals, however,--both birds and beasts, as will be seen hereafter,--that relish the sage-plant; and not only eat of it, but subsist almost exclusively on its stalks, leaves, and berries. the denizens of the great basin desert--i mean its human denizens--are comprehended in two great families of the aboriginal race,--the _utahs_ and _snakes_, or _shoshonees_. of the white inhabitants--the mormons and trap-settlers--we have nothing to say here. nor yet much respecting the above-mentioned indians, the utahs and snakes. it will be enough for our purpose to make known that these two tribes are distinct from each other,--that there are many communities or sub-tribes of both,-- that each claims ownership of a large tract of the central region, lying between the rocky mountains and the sierra nevada; and that their limits are not coterminal with those of the great basin: since the range of the snakes extends into oregon upon the north, while that of the utahs runs down into the valley of the rio del norte upon the south. furthermore, that both are in possession of the horse,--the utahs owning large numbers,--that both are of roving and predatory habits, and quite as wicked and warlike as the generality of their red brethren. they are also as well to do in the world as most indians; but there are many degrees in their "civilisation," or rather in the comforts of their life, depending upon the situation in which they may be placed. when dwelling upon a good "salmon-stream," or among the rocky mountain "parks," that abound in game, they manage to pass a portion of the year in luxuriant abundance. in other places, however, and at other times, their existence is irksome enough,--often bordering upon actual starvation. it may be further observed, that the utahs and snakes usually occupy the larger and more fertile oases of the desert,--wherever a tract is found of sufficient size to subsist a community. with this observation i shall dismiss both these tribes; for it is not of them that our present sketch is intended to treat. this is specially designed for a far _odder_ people than either,--for the _yamparicos_, or "root-diggers;" and having described their country, i shall now proceed to give some account of themselves. it may be necessary here to remark that the name "diggers," has of late been very improperly applied,--not only by the settlers of california, but by some of the exploring officers of the united states government. every tribe or community throughout the desert, found existing in a state of special wretchedness, has been so styled; and a learned ethnologist (!), writing in the "examiner," newspaper, gravely explains the name, by deriving it from the gold-diggers of california! this "conceit" of the london editor is a palpable absurdity,--since the digger indians were so designated, long before the first gold-digger of california put spade into its soil. the name is of "trapper" origin; bestowed upon these people from the observation of one of their most common practices,--viz, the _digging for roots_, which form an essential portion of their subsistence. the term "yamparico," is from a spanish source, and has a very similar meaning to that of "root-digger." it is literally "yampa-rooter," or "yampa-root eater," the root of the "yampa" (_anethum graviolens_) being their favourite food. the true "diggers" are not found in california west of the sierra nevada; though certain tribes of ill-used indians in that quarter are called by the name. the great deserts extending between the nevada and the rocky mountains are their locality; and their limits are more or less cotemporaneous with those of the shoshonees or snakes, and the utahs,--of both of which tribes they are supposed to be a sort of outcast kindred. this hypothesis, however, rests only on a slight foundation: that of some resemblance in habits and language, which are very uncertain _criteria_ where two people dwell within the same boundaries,--as, for instance, the whites and blacks in virginia. in fact, the language of the diggers can scarce be called a language at all: being a sort of gibberish like the growling of a dog, eked out by a copious vocabulary of signs: and perhaps, here and there, by an odd word from the shoshonee or utah,--not unlikely, introduced by the association of the diggers with these last-mentioned tribes. in the western and southern division of the great basin, the digger exists under the name of _paiute_, or more properly, _pah-utah_,-- so-called from his supposed relationship with the tribe of the utahs. in some respects the pah-utahs differ from the shoshokee, or snake-diggers; though in most of their characteristic habits they are very similar to each other. there might be no anomaly committed by considering them as one people; for in personal appearance and habits of life the pah-utah, and the "shoshokee"--this last is the national appellation of the yampa-eater,--are as like each other as _eggs_. we shall here speak however, principally of the shoshokees: leaving it to be understood, that their neighbours the "paiutes" will equally answer the description. although the shoshokees, as already observed, dwell within the same limits as their supposed kindred the shoshonees, they rarely or never associate with the latter. on the contrary, they keep well out of their way,--inhabiting only those districts of country where the larger shoshonee communities could not dwell. the very smallest oasis, or the tiniest stream, affords all the fertility that is required for the support of a digger family; and rarely are these people found living more than one, or at most, two or three families together. the very necessity of their circumstances precludes the possibility of a more extensive association; for on the deserts where they dwell, neither the earth nor the air, nor yet the water, affords a sufficient supply of food to support even the smallest "tribe." not in tribes, then, but in single families, or little groups of two or three, do the digger indians dwell,--not in the larger and more fertile valleys, but in those small and secluded; in the midst of the sage-plains, or more frequently in the rocky defiles of the mountains that stand thickly over the "basin." the shoshokee is no _nomade_, but the very reverse. a single and isolated mountain is often the abode of his group or family; and beyond this his wanderings extend not. there he is at home, knowing every nook and rat-hole in his own neighbourhood; but as ignorant of the world beyond as the "sand-rats" themselves,--whose pursuit occupies the greater portion of his time. in respect to his "settled" mode of life, the _shoshokee_ offers a striking contrast to the _shoshonee_. many of the latter are indians of noble type,--warriors who have tamed the horse, and who extend their incursions, both hunting and hostile, into the very heart of the rocky mountains,--up their fertile valleys, and across their splendid "parks," often bringing back with them the scalps of the savage and redoubtable blackfeet. far different is the character of the wretched shoshokee,--the mere semblance of a human being,--who rarely strays out of the ravine in which he was brought forth; and who, at sight of a human face--be it of friend or enemy--flies to his crag or cave like a hunted beast! the pah-utah diggers, however, are of a more warlike disposition; or rather a more wicked and hostile one,--hostile to whites, or even to such other indians as may have occasion to travel through the deserts they inhabit. these people are found scattered throughout the whole southern and south-western portion of the great basin,--and also in the north-western part of the colorado desert,--especially about the sevier river, and on several of the tributaries of the great colorado itself of the west it was through this part of the country that the caravans from california to new mexico used to make their annual "trips,"--long before alta calafornia became a possession of the united states,--and the route by which they travelled is known as the _spanish trail_. the object of these caravans was the import of horses, mules, and other animals,--from the fertile valleys of the san joaquin and sacramento rivers, to the more sterile settlements of new mexico. several kinds of goods were also carried into these interior countries. this spanish trail was far from running in a direct line. the sandy, waterless plain--known more particularly as the colorado desert--could not be crossed with safety, and the caravan-route was forced far to the north; and entered within the limits of the great basin--thus bringing it through the county inhabited by the pah-utah diggers. the consequence was, that these savages looked out annually for its arrival; and, whenever an opportunity offered, stole the animals that accompanied it, or murdered any of the men who might be found straggling from the main body. when bent on such purposes, these diggers for a time threw aside their solitary habits,--assembling in large bands of several hundred each, and following the caravan travellers, like wolves upon the track of a gang of buffaloes. they never made their attacks upon the main body, or when the white men were in any considerable force. only small groups who had lagged behind, or gone too rashly in advance, had to fear from these merciless marauders,--who never thought of such a thing as making captives, but murdered indiscriminately all who fell into their hands. when horses or mules were captured, it was never done with the intention of keeping them to ride upon. scarcely ever do the pah-utahs make such a use of the horse. only for food were these stolen or plundered from their owners; and when a booty of this kind was obtained, the animals were driven to some remote defile among the mountains, and there slaughtered outright. so long as a morsel of horse or mule flesh remained upon the bones, the diggers kept up a scene of feasting and merriment--precisely similar to the _carnivals_ of the african bushmen, after a successful foray upon the cattle of the dutch settlers near the cape. indeed there is such a very striking resemblance between the bushmen of africa and these digger indians of north america; that, were it not for the distinction of race, and some slight differences in personal appearance, they might pass as one people. in nearly every habit and custom, the two people resemble each other; and in many mental characteristics they appear truly identical. the pah-utah diggers have not yet laid aside their hostile and predatory habits. they are at the present hour engaged in plundering forays,-- acting towards the emigrant trains of californian adventurers just as they did towards the spanish caravans. but they usually meet with a very different reception from the more daring saxon travellers, who constitute the "trains" now crossing their country; and not unfrequently a terrible punishment is the reward of their audacity. for all that, many of the emigrants, who have been so imprudent as to travel in small parties, have suffered at their hands, losing not only their property, but their lives; since hundreds of the bravest men have fallen by the arrows of these insignificant savages! even the exploring parties of the united states government, accompanied by troops, have been attacked by them; and more than one officer has fallen a victim to their ishmaelitish propensities. it is not in open warfare that there is any dread of them. the smallest party of whites need not fear to encounter a hundred of them at once; but their attacks are made by stealth, and under cover of the night; and, as soon as they have succeeded in separating the horses or other animals from the travellers' camp, they drive them off so adroitly that pursuit is impossible. whenever a grand blow has been struck--that is, a traveller has been murdered--they all disappear as if by magic; and for several days after not one is to be seen, upon whom revenge might be taken. the numerous "smokes," rising up out of the rocky defiles of the mountains, are then the only evidence that human beings are in the neighbourhood of the travellers' camp. the digger is different from other north-american indians,--both in physical organisation and intellectual character. so low is he in the scale of both, as to dispute with the african bushman, the andaman islander, and the starving savage of tierra del fuego, the claim to that point in the transition, which is supposed to separate the monkey from the man. it has been variously awarded by ethnologists, and i as one have had my doubts, as to which of the three is deserving of the distinction. upon mature consideration, however, i have come to the conclusion that the digger is entitled to it. this miserable creature is of a dark-brown or copper colour,--the hue so generally known as characteristic of the american aborigines. he stands about five feet in height,--often under but rarely over this standard,-- and his body is thin and meagre, resembling that of a frog stretched upon a fish-hook. the skin that covers it--especially that of an old digger--is wrinkled and corrugated like the hide of an asiatic rhinoceros,--with a surface as dry as parched buck-skin. his feet, turned in at the toes,--as with all the aborigines of america,--have some resemblance to human feet; but in the legs this resemblance ends. the lower limbs are almost destitute of calves, and the knee-pans are of immense size,--resembling a pair of pads or callosities, like those upon goats and antelopes. the face is broad and angular, with high cheek-bones; the eyes small, black, and sunken, and sparkle in their hollow sockets, not with true intelligence, but that sort of vivacity which may often be observed in the lower animals, especially in several species of monkeys. throughout the whole physical composition of the digger, there is only one thing that appears luxuriant,--and that is his hair. like all indians he is amply endowed in this respect, and long, black tresses--sometimes embrowned by the sun, and matted together with mud or other filth--hang over his naked shoulders. generally he crops them. in the summer months, the digger's costume is extremely simple,--after the fashion of that worn by our common parents, adam and eve. in winter, however, the climate of his desert home is rigorous in the extreme,--the mountains over his head, and the plains under his feet, being often covered with snow. at this season he requires a garment to shelter his body from the piercing blast; and this he obtains by stitching together a few skins of the sage-hare, so as to form a kind of shirt or body-coat. he is not always rich enough to have even a good coat of this simple material; and its scanty skirt too often exposes his wrinkled limbs to the biting frost. between the digger and his wife, or "squaw," there is not much difference either in costume or character. the latter may be distinguished, by being of less stature, rather than by any feminine graces in her physical or intellectual conformation. she might be recognised, too, by watching the employment of the family; for it is she who does nearly all the work, stitches the rabbit-skin shirt, digs the "yampa" and "kamas" roots, gathers the "mezquite" pods, and gets together the larder of "prairie crickets." though lowest of all american indians in the scale of civilisation, the digger resembles them all in this,--he regards himself as lord and master, and the woman as his slave. as already observed, there is no such thing as a tribe of diggers,-- nothing of the nature of a political organisation; and the chief of their miserable little community--for sometimes there is a head man--is only he who is most regarded for his strength. indeed, the nature of their country would not admit of a large number of them living together. the little valleys or "oases"--that occur at intervals along the banks of some lone desert stream,--would not, any one of them, furnish subsistence to more than a few individuals,--especially to savages ignorant of agriculture,--that is, not knowing how to _plant_ or _sow_. the diggers, however, if they know not how to _sow_, may be said to understand something about how to _reap_, since _root-digging_ is one of their most essential employments,--that occupation from which they have obtained their distinctive appellation, in the language of the trappers. not being agriculturists, you will naturally conclude that they are either a pastoral people, or else a nation of hunters. but in truth they are neither one nor the other. they have no domestic animal,--many of them not even the universal dog; and as to hunting, there is no large game in their country. the buffalo does not range so far west; and if he did, it is not likely they could either kill or capture so formidable a creature; while the prong-horned antelope, which does inhabit their plains, is altogether too swift a creature, to be taken by any wiles a digger might invent. the "big-horn," and the black and white-tailed species of deer, are also too shy and too fleet for their puny weapons; and as to the grizzly bear, the very sight of one is enough to give a digger indian the "chills." if, then, they do not cultivate the ground, nor rear some kind of animals, nor yet live by the chase, how do these people manage to obtain subsistence? the answer to this question appears a dilemma,--since it has been already stated, that their country produces little else than the wild and worthless sage plant. were we speaking of an indian of tropical america, or a native of the lovely islands of the great south sea, there would be no difficulty whatever in accounting for his subsistence,--even though he neither planted nor sowed, tended cattle, nor yet followed the chase. in these regions of luxuriant vegetation, nature has been bountiful to her children; and, it may be almost literally alleged that the loaf of bread grows spontaneously on the tree. but the very reverse is the case in the country of the digger indian. even the hand of cultivation could scarce wring a crop from the sterile soil; and nature has provided hardly one article that deserves the name of food. perhaps you may fancy that the digger is a fisherman; and obtains his living from the stream, by the side of which he makes his dwelling. not even this is permitted to him. it is true that his supposed kindred, the shoshonees, occasionally follow the occupation of fishermen upon the banks of the great snake river,--which at certain seasons of the year swarms with the finest salmon; but the poor digger has no share in the finny spoil. the streams, that traverse his desert home, empty their waters into the briny bosom of the great salt lake,--a true _dead sea_, where neither salmon, nor any other fish could live for an instant. how then does the digger obtain his food? is he a manufacturer,--and perforce a merchant,--who exchanges with some other tribe his manufactured goods for provisions and "raw material?" nothing of the sort. least of all is he a manufacturer. the hare-skin shirt is his highest effort in the line of textile fabrics; and his poor weak bow, and flint-tipped arrows, are the only tools he is capable of making. sometimes he is even without these weapons; and may be seen with another,--a long stick, with a hook at one end,--the hook itself being the stump of a lopped branch, with its natural inclination to that which forms the stick. the object and purpose of this simple weapon we shall presently describe. the digger's wife may be seen with a weapon equally simple in its construction. this is also a stick--but a much shorter one--pointed at one end, and bearing some resemblance to a gardener's "dibble." sometimes it is tipped with horn,--when this can be procured,--but otherwise the hard point is produced by calcining it in the fire. this tool is essentially an implement of husbandry,--as will presently appear. let us now clear up the mystery, and explain how the digger maintains himself. there is not much mystery after all. although, as already stated, his country produces nothing that could fairly be termed _food_, yet there are a few articles within his reach upon which a human being _might_ subsist,--that is, might just keep body and soul together. one of these articles is the bean, or legume of the "mezquite" tree, of which there are many kinds throughout the desert region. they are known to spanish americans as _algarobia_ trees; and, in the southern parts of the desert, grow to a considerable size,--often attaining the dimension of twenty to twenty-five feet in height. they produce a large legume, filled with seeds and a pulp of sweetish-acid taste,--similar to that of the "honey-locust." these beans are collected in large quantities, by the squaw of the digger, stowed away in grass-woven baskets, or sometimes only in heaps in a corner of his cave, or hovel, if he chance to have one. if so, it is a mere wattle of artemisia, thatched and "chinked" with grass. the mezquite seeds, then, are the _bread_ of the digger; but, bad as is the quality, the supply is often far behind the demands of his hungry stomach. for vegetables, he has the "yampa" root, an umbelliferous plant, which grows along the banks of the streams. this, with another kind, known as "kamas" or "quamash" (_camassia esculenta_), is a spontaneous production; and the digging for these roots forms, at a certain season of the year, the principal occupation of the women. the "dibble-like" instrument already described is the _root-digger_. the roots here mentioned, before being eaten, have to undergo a process of cooking. the yampa is boiled in a very ingenious manner; but this piece of ingenuity is not native to the shoshokees, and has been obtained from their more clever kindred, the snakes. the pot is a _wooden one_; and yet they can boil meat in it, or make soup if they wish! moreover, it is only a basket, a mere vessel of wicker-work! how, then, can water be boiled in it? if you had not been already told how it is done, it would no doubt puzzle you to find out. but most likely you have read of a somewhat similar vessel among the chippewa indians,--especially the tribe known as the "assineboins," or stone boilers--who cook their fish or flesh in pots made of birch-bark. the phrase _stone boilers_ will suggest to you how the difficulty is got over. the birch-bark pot is not set over fire; but stones are heated and thrown into it,--of course already filled with water. the hot stones soon cause the water to simmer, and fresh ones are added until it boils, and the meat is sufficiently cooked. by just such a process the "snakes" cook their salmon and deer's flesh,--their wicker pots being woven of so close a texture that not even water can pass through the interstices. it is not often, however, that, the digger is rich enough to have one of these wicker pots,--and when he has, he is often without anything to put into it. the _kamas_ roots are usually baked in a hole dug in the earth, and heated by stones taken from the fire. it requires nearly two days to bake them properly; and then, when taken out of the "oven," the mass bears a strong resemblance to soft glue or size, and has a sweet and rather agreeable taste,--likened to that of baked pears or quinces. i have not yet specified the whole of the digger's larder. were he to depend altogether on the roots and seeds already mentioned, he would often have to starve,--and in reality he often _does_ starve,--for, even with the additional supplies which his sterile soil scantily furnishes him, he is frequently the victim of famine. there may be a bad season of the mezquite-crop, and the bears--who are as cunning "diggers" as he--sometimes destroy his "plantations" of yampa and kamas. he finds a resource, however, in the prairie cricket, an insect--or reptile, you may call it--of the _gryllus_ tribe, of a dark-brown colour, and more like a bug than any other crawler. these, at certain seasons of the year, make their appearance upon the desert plains, and in such numbers that the ground appears to be alive with them. an allied species has of late years become celebrated: on account of a visit paid by vast numbers of them to the mormon plantations; where, as may be remembered, they devastated the crops,--just as the locusts do in africa,--causing a very severe season of famine among these isolated people. it may be remembered also, that flocks of white birds followed the movements of these american locusts,--preying upon them, and thinning their multitudinous hosts. these birds were of the gull genus (_larus_), and one of the most beautiful of the species. they frequent the shores and islands of the rivers of _prairie-land_, living chiefly upon such insects as are found in the neighbourhood of their waters. it was but natural, therefore, they should follow the locusts, or "grasshoppers," as the mormons termed them; but the _pseudo-prophet_ of these deluded people could not suffer to pass such a fine opportunity of proving his divine inspiration: which he did by audaciously declaring that the birds were "heaven-born," and had been sent by the almighty (in obedience to a prayer from him, the prophet) to rid the country of the pest of the grasshoppers! these prairie crickets are of a dark-brown colour,--not unlike the _gryllus migratorius_ of africa, and with very similar habits. when settled thickly upon the ground, the whole surface assumes a darkish hue, as if covered with crape; and when they are all in motion,-- creeping to and fro in search of their food,--a very singular effect is produced. at this time they do not take to wing; though they attempt to get out of the way, by making short hops from place to place, and crawling with great rapidity. notwithstanding their efforts to escape, hundreds of them are "squashed" beneath the foot of the pedestrian, or hoofs of the traveller's horse. these crickets, with several bug-like insects of different species, furnish the digger with an important article of food. it may appear a strange provender for a human stomach; but there is nothing unnatural about it,--any more than about the eating of shrimps or prawns; and it will be remembered that the bushmen, and many other tribes of south africa eat the _gryllus migratorius_; while, in the northern part of that same continent, many nations regard them as a proper article of food. though some writers have asserted, that it was the legume of the locust-tree (an acacia) which was eaten by saint john the baptist in the wilderness, it is easily proved that such was not the case. that his food was the locust (_gryllus migratorius_) and wild honey, is strictly and literally true; and at the present day, were you to visit the "wilderness" mentioned by the apostle, you might see people living upon "locusts and wild honey," just as they did eighteen hundred years ago. the diggers _cook_ their crickets sometimes by boiling them in the pots aforementioned, and sometimes by "roasting." they also mix them with the mezquite seeds and pulp,--the whole forming a kind of plum-pudding, or "cricket-pasty,"--or, as it is jocosely termed by the trappers, "cricket-cake." their mode of collecting the grasshoppers is not without some display of ingenuity. when the insects are in abundance, there is not much difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply; but this is not always the case. sometimes they appear very sparsely upon the plains; and, being nimble in their movements, are not easily laid hold of. only one could be taken at a time; and, by gleaning in this way, a very limited supply would be obtained. to remedy this, the diggers have invented a somewhat ingenious contrivance for capturing them wholesale,--which is effected in the following manner:--when the whereabouts of the grasshoppers has been discovered, a round hole--of three or four feet in diameter, and of about equal depth--is scooped out in the centre of the plain. it is shaped somewhat after the fashion of a kiln; and the earth, that has been taken out, is carried out of the way. the digger community then all turn out--men, women, and children--and deploy themselves into a wide circle, enclosing as large a tract as their numbers will permit. each individual is armed with a stick, with which he beats the sage-bushes, and makes other violent demonstrations: the object being to frighten the grasshoppers, and cause them to move inward towards the pit that has been dug. the insects, thus beset, move as directed,--gradually approaching the centre,--while the "beaters" follow in a circle constantly lessening in circumference. after a time the crickets, before only thinly scattered over the plain,--grow more crowded as the space becomes contracted; until at length the surface is covered with a black moving swarm; and the beaters, still pressing upon them, and driving them onward, force the whole body pellmell over the edges of the pit. bunches of grass, already provided are now flung over them, and upon that a few shovelfuls of earth or sand; and then--horrible to relate!--a large pile of artemisia stalks is heaped upon the top and set on fire! the result is that, in a few minutes, the poor grasshoppers are smoked to death, and parched at the same time--so as to be ready for eating, whenever the _debris_ of the fire has been removed. the prairie cricket is not the only article of the _flesh-meat_ kind, found in the larder of the digger. another animal furnishes him with an occasional meal. this is the "sage-hare," known to hunters as the "sage-rabbit," but to naturalists as the _lepus artemisia_. it is a very small animal,--less in size than the common rabbit,--though it is in reality a true hare. it is of a silvery, or whitish-grey colour-- which adapts it to the hue of the _artemisia_ bushes on the stalks and berries of which it feeds. it is from the skins of this animal, that the digger women manufacture the rabbit-skin shirts, already described. its flesh would not be very agreeable to a european palate,--even with the addition of an onion,-- for it has the sage flavour to such a degree, as to be as bitter as wormwood itself. an onion with it would not be tasted! but tastes differ, and by the digger the flesh of the sage-hare is esteemed one of the nicest delicacies. he hunts it, therefore, with the greatest assiduity; and the chase of this insignificant animal is to the digger, what the hunt of the stag, the elephant, or the wild boar, is to hunters of a more pretentious ambition. with his bow and arrows he frequently succeeds in killing a single hare; but this is not always so easy,--since the sage-hare, like all of its kind, is shy, swift, and cunning. its colour, closely resembling the hue of the artemisia foliage, is a considerable protection to it; and it can hide among these bushes, where they grow thickly--as they generally do--over the surface of the ground. but the digger is not satisfied with the scanty and uncertain supply, which his weak bow and arrows would enable him to obtain. as in the case of the grasshoppers, he has contrived a plan for capturing the sage-hares by wholesale. this he accomplishes by making a "surround," and driving the animals, not into a _pit_, but into a _pound_. the pound is constructed something after the same fashion as that used by the chippewas, and other northern indians, for capturing the herds of reindeer; in other words, it is an enclosure, entered by a narrow mouth--from the _jaws_ of which mouth, two fences are carried far out into the plain, in a gradually diverging direction. for the deer and other large animals, the fences of the pound--as also those of the funnel that conducts to it, require to be made of strong stakes, stockaded side by side; but this work, as well as the timber with which to construct it, is far beyond the reach of the digger. his enclosure consists of a mere wattle of artemisia stalks and branches, woven into a row of those already standing--with here and there a patching of rude nets, made of roots and grass. the height is not over three feet; and the sage-hare might easily spring over it; but the stupid creature, when once "in the pound," never thinks of looking upward; but continues to dash its little skull against the wattle, until it is either "clubbed" by the digger, or impaled upon one of his obsidian arrows. other quadrupeds, constituting a portion of the digger's food, are several species of "gophers," or sand-rats, ground-squirrels, and marmots. in many parts of the great basin, the small rodents abound: dwelling between the crevices of rocks, or honeycombing the dry plains with their countless burrows. the digger captures them by various wiles. one method is by shooting them with blunt arrows; but the more successful plan is, by setting a trap at the entrance to their earthen caves. it is the "figure of trap," which the digger employs for this purpose, and which he constructs with ingenuity,--placing a great many around a "warren," and often taking as many as fifty or sixty "rats" in a single day! in weather too cold for the gophers to come out of their caves, the digger then "digs" for them: thus further entitling him to his special appellation. that magnificent bird, the "cock of the plains," sometimes furnishes the digger with "fowl" for his dinner. this is a bird of the grouse family (_tetrao urophasianus_), and the largest species that is known,-- exceeding in size the famed "cock of the woods" of northern europe. a full-fledged cock of the plains is as large as an eagle; and, unlike most of the grouse kind, has a long, narrow body. his plumage is of a silvery grey colour--produced by a mottle of black and white,--no doubt, given him by a nature to assimilate him to the hue of the artemisia,-- amidst which he habitually dwells, and the berries of which furnish him with most of his food. he is remarkable for two large _goitre-like_ swellings on the breast, covered with a sort of hair instead of feathers; but, though a fine-looking large bird, and a grouse too, his flesh is bitter and unpalatable--even more so than that of the sage-hare. for all that, it is a delicacy to the digger, and a rare one; for the cock of the plains is neither plentiful, nor easily captured when seen. there are several other small animals--both quadrupeds and birds-- inhabiting digger-land, upon which an occasional meal is made. indeed, the food of the digger is sufficiently varied. it is not in the quality but the quantity he finds most cause of complaint: for with all his energies he never gets enough. in the summer season, however, he is less stinted. then the berries of the buffalo-bush are ripe; and these, resembling currants, he collects in large quantities,--placing his rabbit-skin wrapper under the bush, and shaking down the ripe fruit in showers. a _melange_ of prairie crickets and buffalo-berries is esteemed by the digger, as much as would be the best specimen of a "currant-cake" in any nursery in christendom! the digger finds a very curious species of edible bug, which builds its nest on the ledges of the cliffs,--especially those that overhang a stream. these nests are of a conical or pine-apple shape, and about the size of this fruit. this bug,--not yet classified or described by entomologists,--is of a dark-brown colour, about the size of the ordinary cockroach; and when boiled is considered a proper article of food,--not only by the unfastidious diggers, but by indians of a more epicurean _gout_. besides the yampa and kamas, there are several other edible roots found in the digger country. among others may be mentioned a species of thistle (_circium virginiarum_),--the root of which grows to the size of an ordinary carrot, and is almost as well flavoured. it requires a great deal of roasting, or boiling, before it is sufficiently cooked to be eaten. the _kooyah_ is another article of food still more popular among digger gourmands. this is the root of the _valeriana edulis_. it is of a bright-yellow colour, and grows to a considerable size. it has the characteristic odour of the well-known plant; but not so strong as in the prepared substance of _valerian_. the plant itself does not grow in the arid soil of the desert, but rather in the rich fertile bottoms of the streams, or along the shores of marshy lakes,--in company with the kamas and yampa. it is when these roots are in season, that the shoshokees most frequent such localities; and, indeed, this same season is the time when all other articles of digger food are plenteous enough,--the summer. the winter months are to him the "tight times." in some parts of the desert country, as already observed, grow species of pines, with edible cones,--or rather edible seeds which the cones contain. these seeds resemble nuts, and are about the size of the common filberts. more than one species of pine produces this sort of food; but in the language of the spanish californians and new mexicans, they are all indifferently termed _pinon_, and the seeds simply _pinones_, or "pinons." where these are within the reach of the digger,--as they are in some districts,--he is then well provided for; since the pinons, when roasted, not only form an agreeable and nutritious article of food, but can be stored up as a winter stock,--that will keep for a considerable time, without danger of spoiling, or growing too stale. such is the _commissariat_ of the digger indian; and, poor in quality though it be, there are times when he cannot obtain a sufficient supply of it. at such times he has recourse to food of a still meaner kind,-- to roots, scarce eatable, and even to the seeds of several species of grass! worms, grubs, the _agama comuta_, or "horned-frog of the prairies," with other species of lizards, become his sole resource; and in the search and capture of these he occupies himself from morning to night. it is in this employment that he finds use for the long sapling, with the hooked end upon it,--the hook being used for dragging the lizards out of clefts in the rocks, within which they have sought shelter. in the accomplishment of this, the digger displays an adroitness that astonishes the traveller: often "jerking" the reptile out of some dark crevice within which it might be supposed to have found a retreat secure from all intruders. many other curious habits might be related of this abject and miserable race of human beings; but perhaps enough has been detailed, to secure them a place in the list of our "odd people." chapter fourteen. the guaraons, or palm-dwellers. young reader, i may take it for granted that you have heard of the great river orinoco,--one of the largest rivers not only of south america, but in the world. by entering at its mouth, and ascending to its source, you would have to make a journey of about one thousand five hundred miles; but this journey, so far from being direct, or in a straight line, would carry you in a kind of spiral curve,--very much like the figure , the apex of the figure representing the mouth of the river. in other words, the orinoco, rising in the unexplored mountains of spanish guiana, first runs eastward; and then, having turned gradually to every point of the compass, resumes its easterly course, continuing in this direction till it empties its mighty flood into the atlantic ocean. not by one mouth, however. on the contrary, long before the orinoco approaches the sea, its channel separates into a great many branches (or "canos," as they are called in the language of the country), each of which, slowly meandering in its own course, reaches the coast by a separate mouth, or "boca." of these canos there are about fifty, embracing within their ramifications a "delta" nearly half as large as england! though they have all been distinguished by separate names, only three or four of them are navigable by ships of any considerable size; and, except to the few pilots whose duty it is to conduct vessels into that main channel of the river, the whole delta of the orinoco may be regarded as a country still unexplored, and almost unknown. indeed, the same remark might be made of the whole river, were it not for the magnificent monument left by the great traveller von humboldt,--whose narrative of the exploration of the orinoco is, beyond all comparison, the finest book of travels yet given to the world. to him are we chiefly indebted for our knowledge of the orinoco; since the spanish nation, who, for more than three centuries, have held undisputed possession of this mighty stream, have left us scarce a line about it worth either credit or record. it is now more than half a century, since the date of humboldt's "personal narrative;" and yet, strange to say, during all that period, scarce an item has been added to our knowledge of the orinoco, beyond what this scientific traveller had already told us. indeed, there is not much to say: for there has been little change in the river since then,--either in the aspect of nature, or the condition of man. what change there has been possesses rather a retrograde, than a progressive character. still, now, as then, on the banks of the orinoco, we behold a languid commerce,--characteristic of the decaying spano-american race,--and the declining efforts of a selfish and bigoted missionary zeal, whose boasted aim of "christianising and civilising" has ended only in producing a greater brutalisation. after three centuries of _paternosters_ and bell-ringing, the red savage of the orinoco returns to the worship of his ancestral gods,--or to no worship at all,--and for this backsliding he can, perhaps, give a sufficient reason. pardon me, young reader, for this digression. it is not my purpose to discuss the polemical relations of those who inhabit the banks of the orinoco; but to give you some account of a very singular people who dwell near its mouth,--upon the numerous canos, already mentioned as constituting its delta. these are the "guaraons,"--a tribe of indians,--usually considered as a branch of the great carib family, but forming a community among themselves of seven or eight thousand souls; and differing so much from most other savages in their habits and mode of life, as fairly to entitle them to the appellation of an "odd people." the orinoco, like many other large rivers, is subject to a periodical rise and fall; that is, once every year, the river swells to a great height above its ordinary level. the swelling or "flood" was for a long time supposed to proceed from the melting of snow upon the cordilleras of the andes,--in which mountains several of the tributaries of the orinoco have their rise. this hypothesis, however, has been shown to be an incorrect one: since the main stream of the orinoco does not proceed from the andes, nor from any other snowcapped mountains; but has its origin, as already stated, in the _sierras_ of guiana. the true cause of its periodical rising, therefore, is the vast amount of rain which falls within the tropics; and this is itself occasioned by the sun's course across the torrid zone, which is also the cause of its being periodical or "annual." so exact is the time at which these rains fall, and produce the floods of the orinoco, that the inhabitants of the river can tell, within a few days, when the rising will commence, and when the waters will reach their lowest! the flood season very nearly corresponds to our own summer,--the rise commencing in april, and the river being at its maximum height in august,--while the minimum is again reached in december. the height to which the orinoco rises has been variously estimated by travellers: some alleging it to be nearly one hundred feet; while others estimate it to be only fifty, or even less! the reason of this discrepancy may be, that the measurements have been made at different points,--at each of which, the actual height to which the flood attains, may be greater or less than at the others. at any one place, however, the rise is the same--or very nearly so--in successive years. this is proved by observations made at the town of angostura,--the lowest spanish settlement of any importance upon the orinoco. there, nearly in front of the town, a little rocky islet towers up in the middle of the river; the top of which is just fifty feet above the bed of the stream, when the volume of water is at its minimum. a solitary tree stands upon the pinnacle of this rock; and each year, when the water is in full flood, the tree alone is visible,--the islet being entirely submerged. from this peculiar circumstance, the little islet has obtained the name of "orinocometer," or measurer of the orinoco. the rise here indicated is about fifty feet; but it does not follow from this, that throughout its whole course the river should annually rise to so great a height. in reality it does not. at angostura, as the name imports, the river is _narrowed_ to less than half its usual width,--being there confined between high banks that impinge upon its channel. above and below, it widens again; and, no doubt, in proportion to this widening will the annual rise be greater or less. in fact, at many places, the width of the stream is no longer that of its ordinary channel; but, on the contrary, a vast "freshet" or inundation, covering the country for hundreds of miles,--here flooding over immense marshes or grassy plains, and hiding them altogether,-- there flowing among forests of tall trees, the tops of which alone project above the tumult of waters! these inundations are peculiarly observable in the _delta_ of the orinoco,--where every year, in the months of july and august, the whole surface of the country becomes changed into a grand fresh-water sea: the tops of the trees alone rising above the flood, and proclaiming that there is _land_ at the bottom. at this season the ordinary channels, or _canos_, would be obliterated; and navigation through them become difficult or impossible, but for the tree-tops; which, after the manner of "buoys" and signal-marks, serve to guide the pilots through the intricate mazes of the "bocas del orinoco." now it is this annual inundation, and the semi-submergence of these trees under the flood, that has given origin to the peculiar people of whom we are about to speak,--the guaraons; or, perhaps, we should rather say, from these causes have arisen their strange habits and modes of life which entitle them to be considered an "odd people." during the period of the inundation, if you should sail up the southern or principal cano of the orinoco,--known as the "boca de navios," or "ships' mouth,"--and keep your face to the northward, you would behold the singular spectacle of a forest growing out of the water! in some places you would perceive single trees, with the upper portion of their straight, branchless trunks rising vertically above the surface, and crowned by about a dozen great fan-shaped leaves, radiating outwards from their summits. at other places, you would see many crowded together, their huge fronds meeting, and forming close clumps, or "water groves," whose deep-green colour contrasts finely as it flings its reflection on the glistening surface below. were it night,--and your course led you through one of the smaller canos in the northern part of the delta,--you would behold a spectacle yet more singular, and more difficult to be explained; a spectacle that astounded and almost terrified the bold navigators, who first ventured to explore these intricate coasts.--you would not only perceive a forest, growing out of the water; but, high up among the tops of the trees, you would behold blazing fires,--not the conflagration of the trees themselves, as if the forest were in flames,--but fires regularly built, glowing as from so many furnaces, and casting their red glare upwards upon the broad green leaves, and downwards upon the silvery surface of the water! if you should chance to be near enough to these fires, you would see cooking utensils suspended over them; human forms, both, of men and women seated or squatting around them; other human forms, flitting like shadows among the tops of the trees; and down below, upon the surface of the water, a fleet of canoes (_periaguas_), fastened with their mooring-ropes to the trunks. all this would surprise you,--as it did the early navigators,--and, very naturally, you would inquire what it could mean. fires apparently suspended in the air! human beings moving about among the tops of the trees, talking, laughing, and gesticulating! in a word, acting just as any other savages would do,--for these human beings _are_ savages,--amidst the tents of their encampment or the houses of their village. in reality it is a village upon which you are gazing,--a village suspended in the air,--a village of the guaraon indians! let us approach nearer; let us steal into this water village--for it would not be always safe to enter it, except by stealth--and see how its singular habitations are constructed, as also in what way their occupants manage to get their living. the village under our observation is now,--at the period of inundation,--nearly a hundred miles from shore, or from any dry land: it will be months before the waters can subside; and, even then, the country around will partake more of the nature of a quagmire, than of firm soil; impassable to any human being,--though _not_ to a guaraon, as we shall presently see. it is true, the canoes, already mentioned, might enable their owners to reach the firm shores beyond the delta; and so they do at times; but it would be a voyage too long and too arduous to be made often,--as for the supply of food and other daily wants,--and it is not for this purpose the canoes are kept. no: these guaraons visit terra firma only at intervals; and then for purposes of trade with a portion of their own and other tribes who dwell there; but they permanently reside within the area of the inundated forests; where they are independent, not only of foreign aggression, but also for their supply of all the necessaries of life. in these forests, whether flooded or not, they procure everything of which they stand in need,--they there find, to use an old-fashioned phrase, "meat, drink, washing, and lodging." in other words: were the inundation to continue forever, and were the guaraons entirely prohibited from intercourse with the dry land, they could still find subsistence in this, their home upon the waters. whence comes their subsistence? no doubt you will say that fish is their food; and drink, of course, they have in abundance; but this would not be the true explanation. it is true they eat fish, and turtle, and the flesh of the _manatee_, or "fish-cow,"--since the capturing of these aquatic creatures is one of the chief occupations of the guaraons,--but they are ofttimes entirely without such food; for, it is to be observed, that, during the period of the inundations fish are not easily caught, sometimes not at all. at these times the guaraons would starve--since, like all other savages, they are improvident--were it not that the singular region they inhabit supplies them with another article of food,--one that is inexhaustible. what is this food, and from whence derived? it will scarce surprise you to hear that it is the produce of the trees already mentioned; but perhaps you _will_ deem it singular when i tell you that the trees of this great _water-forest_ are all of one kind,--all of the same species,--so that here we have the remarkable fact of a single species of vegetable, growing without care or cultivation, and supplying all the wants of man,--his food, clothing, fuel, utensils, ropes, houses, and boats,--not even drink excepted, as will presently be seen. the name of this wonderful tree? "ita," the guaraons call it; though it is more generally known as "morichi" among the spanish inhabitants of the orinoco; but i shall here give my young reader an account of it, from which he will learn something more than its name. the _ita_ is a true palm-tree, belonging to the genus _mauritia_; and, i may remark, that notwithstanding the resemblance in sound, the name of the genus is not derived from the words "morichi," "murichi," or "muriti," all of which are different indian appellations of this tree. _mauritia_ is simply a latinised designation borrowed from the name of prince maurice of nassau, in whose honour the genus was named. the resemblance, therefore, is merely accidental. i may add, too, that there are many species of _mauritia_ growing in different parts of tropical america,--some of them palms of large size, and towering height, with straight, smooth trunks; while others are only tiny little trees, scarce taller than a man, and with their trunks thickly covered with conical protuberances or spines. some of them, moreover, affect a high, dry soil, beyond the reach of floods; while others do not prosper, except on tracts habitually marshy, or annually covered with inundations. of these latter, the _ita_ is perhaps the most conspicuous; since we have already stated, that for nearly six months of the year it grows literally out of the water. like all its congeners, the ita is a "fan-palm;" that is, its leaves, instead of being _pinnately_ divided, as in most species of palms, or altogether _entire_, as in some few, radiate from the midrib of the leaf-stalk, into a broad palmated shape, bearing considerable resemblance to a fan when opened to its full extent. at the tips these leaflets droop slightly, but at that end where they spring out of the midrib, they are stiff and rigid. the petiole, or leaf-stalk itself, is long, straight, and thick; and where it clasps the stem or trunk, is swollen out to a foot in width, hollowed, or concave on the upper side. a full-grown leaf, with its petiole, is a wonderful object to look upon. the stalk is a solid beam full twelve feet in length, and the leaf has a diameter of nearly as much. leaf and stalk together make a load, just as much as one man can carry upon his shoulders! set about a dozen of these enormous leaves on the summit of a tall cylindrical column of five feet in circumference, and about one hundred in height,--place them with their stalks clasping or sheathing its top,--so that the spreading fans will point in every direction outwards, inclining slightly upwards; do this, and you will have the great _morichi_ palm. perhaps, you may see the trunk swollen at its middle or near the top,--so that its lower part is thinner than above,--but more often the huge stem is a perfect cylinder. perhaps you may see several of the leaves drooping downward, as if threatening to fall from the tree; you may even see them upon the ground where they have fallen, and a splendid ruin they appear. you may see again rising upward out of the very centre of the crown of foliage, a straight, thick-pointed column. this is the young leaf in process of development,--its tender leaflets yet unopened, and closely clasped together. but the fervid tropical sun soon produces expansion; and a new fan takes the place of the one that has served its time and fallen to the earth,--there to decay, or to be swept off by the flood of waters. still more may be noticed, while regarding this noble palm. out of that part of the trunk,--where it is embraced by the sheathing bases of the petioles,--at a certain season of the year, a large spathe will be seen to protrude itself, until it has attained a length of several feet. this spathe is a bract-like sheath, of an imperfect tubular form. it bursts open; and then appears the huge spadix of flowers, of a whitish-green colour, arranged along the flower-stalk in rows,--_pinnately_. it will be observed, moreover, that these spadices are different upon different trees; for it must be remembered that the mauritia palm is _diaecious_,--that is, having the female flowers on one tree, and the male or staminiferous flowers upon another. after the former have glowed for a time in the heat of the sun, and received the fertilising pollen wafted to them by the breeze,--carried by bee or bird, or transported by some unknown and mysterious agency of nature,-- the fruits take form and ripen. these, when fully ripe, have attained to the size of a small apple, and are of a very similar form. they are covered with small brown, smooth scales,--giving them somewhat the appearance of fir-cones, except that they are roundish instead of being cone-shaped. underneath the scales there is a thinnish layer of pulp, and then the stone or _nut_. a single spadix will carry carry several hundreds--thousands, i might say--of these nuts; and the whole bunch is a load equal to the strength of two ordinary men! such is the ita palm. now for its uses,--the uses to which it is put by the guaraons. when the guaraon wishes to build himself a habitation, he does not begin by digging a foundation in the earth. in the spongy soil on which he stands, that would be absurd. at a few inches below the surface he would reach water; and he might dig to a vast depth without finding firm ground. but he has no idea of laying a foundation upon the ground, or of building a house there. he knows that in a few weeks the river will be rising; and would overtop his roof, however high he might make it. his foundation, therefore, instead of being laid in the ground, is placed far above it,--just so far, that when the inundation is at its height the floor of his dwelling will be a foot or two above it. he does not take this height from guesswork. that would be a perilous speculation. he is guided by certain marks upon the trunks of palm-trees,--notches which he has himself made on the preceding year, or the natural watermark, which he is able to distinguish by certain appearances on the trees. this point once determined, he proceeds to the building of his house. a few trunks are selected, cut down, and then split into beams of sufficient length. four fine trees, standing in a quadrangle, have already been selected to form the corner-posts. in each of these, just above the watermark, is cut a deep notch with a horizontal base to serve as a rest for the cross-beams that are to form the foundation of the structure. into these notches the beams are hoisted,--by means of ropes,--and there securely tied. to reach the point where the platform is to be erected--sometimes a very high elevation--ladders are necessary; and these are of native manufacture,--being simply the trunk of a palm-tree, with notches cut in it for the toes of the climber. these afterwards serve as a means of ascending and descending to the surface of the water, during the period of its rise and fall. the main timbers having been firmly secured in their places, cross-beams are laid upon them, the latter being either pieces of the split trunks, or, what is usually easier to obtain, the petioles of the great leaves,--each of which, as already stated, forms of itself a large beam, twelve feet in length and from six to twelves inches in breadth. these are next secured at both ends by ropes of the palm fibre. next comes a layer of palm-leaves, the strong, tough leaflets serving admirably as laths to uphold the coating of mud, which is laid thickly over them. the mud is obtained from below, without difficulty, and in any quantity required; and when trowelled smooth, and dry,--which it soon becomes under the hot sun,--constitutes an excellent floor, where a fire may be kindled without danger of burning either the laths or joists underneath. as yet the guaraon has completed only the floor of his dwelling, but that is his principal labour. he cares not for walls,--neither sides nor gables. there is no cold, frosty weather to chill him in his tropical home,--no snow to be kept out. the rain alone, usually falling in a vertical direction, has to be guarded against; and from this he secures himself by a second platform of lighter materials, covered with mats, which he has already woven for the purpose, and with palm-leaflets, so placed as to cast off the heaviest shower. this also shelters him against the burning sun,--an enemy which he dreads even more than the rain. his house is now finished; and, with the exception of the mud floor, is all of ita palm,--beams, cross-timbers, laths, ropes, and mats. the ropes he has obtained by stripping off the epidermis of the full-grown leaflets, and then twisting it into cordage of any thickness required. for this purpose it is equal to hemp. the mats he has made from the same material,--and well does he, or rather his wife--for this is usually the work of the females--know how to plait and weave them. having completed the building of his aerial dwelling, the guaraon would eat. he has fish, which has been caught in the neighbouring cano,-- perhaps turtle,--perhaps the flesh of the manatee, or the alligator,-- for his palate is by no means of a delicate fineness, and will not refuse a steak from the tail of the american crocodile. but when the flood time is on, fish become scarce, or cannot be had at all,--no more can turtles, or sea-cows, or alligators. besides, scarce or plenty, something else is wanted to vary the diet. bread is wanted; and for this the guaraon has not far to go. the ita again befriends him, for he finds, upon splitting open its trunk, a large deposit of medullary pith or fecula; which, when submitted to the process of bruising or grating, and afterwards stirred in water, forms a sediment at the bottom of the vessel, a substance not only eatable, but equal in excellence to the well-known produce of the _sago_ palm. this farinaceous pith, formed into cakes and roasted over the fire,--the fuel being supplied by leaves and leaf-stalks,--constitutes the _yuruma_,--the daily bread of the guaraon. the yuruma, or rather the sago out of which it is made, is not obtainable at all times. it is the male palm which produces it; and it must be extracted just as the tree is about to expand its spadix of flowers. the same curious fact is observed with regard to the _maguey_, or great american aloe, which produces the drink called "pulque." to procure the sap in any considerable quantity, the maguey must be tapped just on that day when the flower-stalk is about to shoot upward from among the leaves. the guaraon, having eaten his yuruma, would drink. does he have recourse to the water which flows in abundance beneath his dwelling? no. on ordinary occasions he may quench his thirst in that way; but he wishes for some beverage more cheering. again the ita yields it without stint, and even gives him a choice. he may tap the trunk, and draw forth the sap; which, after being submitted to a process of fermentation, becomes a wine,--"murichi wine," a beverage which, if the guaraon be so inclined, and drink to excess, will make him "as drunk as a lord!" but he may indulge in a less dangerous, and more delicate drink, also furnished by his favourite ita. this he obtains by flinging a few of the nuts into a vessel of water, and leaving them awhile to ferment; then beating them with a pestle, until the scales and pulp are detached; and, lastly, passing the water through a sieve of palm fibre. this done, the drink is ready to be quaffed. for all these purposes tools and utensils are required, but the ita also furnishes them. the trunk can be scooped out into dishes; or cut into spoons, ladles, and trenchers. the flower "spathes" also gives him cups and saucers. iron tools, such as hatchets and knives, he has obtained from commerce with europeans; but, before their arrival in the new world, the guaraon had his hatchet of flint, and his knife-blade of obsidian; and even now, if necessary, he could manage without metal of any kind. the bow and arrows which he uses are obtained from the tough, sinewy petiole of the leaf; so is the harpoon spear with which he strikes the great manatee, the porpoise, and the alligator; the canoe, light as cork, which carries him through the intricate channels of the delta, is the hollow trunk of a morichi palm. his nets and lines, and the cloth which he wears around his loins, are all plaited or woven from the young leaflets before they have expanded into the fan-like leaf. like other beings, the guaraon must at times sleep. where does he stretch his body,--on the floor?--on a mat? no. he has already provided himself with a more luxurious couch,--the "rede," or hammock, which he suspends between two trees; and in this he reclines, not only during the night, but by day, when the sun is too hot to admit of violent exertion. his wife has woven the hammock most ingeniously. she has cut off the column of young leaves, that projects above the crown of the morichi. this she has shaken, until the tender leaflets become detached from each other and fall apart. each she now strips of its outer covering,--a thin, ribbon-like pellicle of a pale-yellow colour,-- which shrivels up almost like a thread. these she ties into bundles, leaving them to dry awhile; after which she spins them into strings, or, if need be, twists them into larger cords. she then places two horizontal rods or poles about six feet apart, and doubles the string over them some forty or fifty times. this constitutes the _woof_; and the _warp_ is obtained by cross strings twisted or tied to each of the longitudinal ones, at intervals of seven or eight inches. a strong cord, made from the epidermis of the full-grown leaves, is now passed through the loop of all the strings, drawn together at both ends, and the poles are then pulled out. the hammock, being finished and hung up between two trees, provides the naked indian with a couch, upon which he may repose as luxuriantly as a monarch on his bed of down. thus, then, does a single tree furnish everything which man, in his primitive simplicity, may require. no wonder that the enthusiastic missionaries have given to the morichi palm the designation of "arbol de vida" (tree of life). it may be asked why does the guaraon live in such a strange fashion,-- especially when on all sides around him there are vast tracts of _terra firma_ upon which he might make his dwelling, and where he could, with far less difficulty, procure all the necessaries, and many of the luxuries of life? the question is easily answered; and this answer will be best given by asking others in, return. why do the esquimaux and laplanders cling to their inhospitable home upon the icy coasts of the arctic sea? why do tribes of men take to the cold, barren mountains, and dwell there, within sight of lovely and fertile plains? why do others betake themselves to the arid steppes and dreary recesses of the desert? no doubt the guaraon, by powerful enemies forced from his aboriginal home upon the firm soil, first sought refuge in the marshy flats where we now encounter him: there he found security from pursuit and oppression; there--even at the expense of other luxuries--he was enabled to enjoy the sweetest of fill,--the luxury of liberty. what was only a necessity at first, soon became a habit; and that habit is now an essential part of his nature. indeed, it is not so long since the necessity itself has been removed. even at the present hour, the guaraon would not be secure, were he to stray too far from his sheltering marshes,--for, sad though it be to say so, the poor indian, when beyond the protection of his tribe, is in many parts of south america still treated as a slave. in the _delta_ he feels secure. no slave-hunter,--no enemy can follow him there. even the foeman of his own race cannot compete with him in crossing the wide flats of spongy quagmire,--over which, from long habit, he is enabled to glide with the lightness and fleetness of a bird. during the season of overflow, or when the waters have fallen to their lowest, he is equally secure from aggression or pursuit; and, no doubt, in spite of missionary zeal,--in spite of the general progress of civilisation,--in this savage security he will long remain. chapter fifteen. the laplanders. one of the oldest "odd" people with which we are acquainted are the laps or laplanders. for many centuries the more civilised nations of europe have listened to strange accounts, told by travellers of these strange people; many of these accounts being exaggerated, and others totally untrue. some of the old travellers, being misled by the deer-skin dresses worn by the laps, believed, or endeavoured to make others believe, that they were born with hairy skins like wild beasts; and one traveller represented that they had only a single eye, and that in the middle of the breast! this very absurd conception about a one-eyed people gained credit, even so late as the time of sir walter raleigh,-- with this difference, that the locality of these gentry with the odd "optic" was south america instead of northern europe. in the case of the poor laplander, not the slightest exaggeration is needed to render him an interesting study, either to the student of ethnology, or to the merely curious reader. he needs neither the odd eye nor the hairy pelt. in his personal appearance, dress, dwelling, mode of occupation, and subsistence, he is so different from almost every other tribe or nation of people, as to furnish ample matter for a monograph at once unique and amusing. i shall not stay to inquire whence originated this odd specimen of humanity. such speculations are more suited to those so-called _learned_ ethnologists, who, resembling the anatomists in other branches of natural history, delight to deal in the mere pedantry of science,-- who, from the mere coincidence of a few words, can prove that two peoples utterly unlike have sprung from a common source: precisely as monsieur cuvier, by the examination of a single tooth, has proved that a rabbit was a rhinoceros! i shall not, therefore, waste time in this way, in hunting up the origin of the miserable laplander; nor does it matter much where he sprang from. he either came from somewhere else, or was created in lapland,-- one of the two; and i defy all the philosophers in creation to say which: since there is no account extant of when he first arrived in that cold northern land,--not a word to contradict the idea of his having been there since the first creation of the human race. we find him there _now_; and that is all that we have to do with his origin at present. were we to speculate, as to what races are kindred to him, and to which he bears the greatest resemblance, we should say that he was of either the same or similar origin with the esquimaux of north america, the greenlanders of greenland, and the samoeids, tuski, and other tribes dwelling along the northern shores of asia. among all these nations of little men, there is a very great similarity, both in personal appearance and habits of life; but it would not be safe to say that they all came from one common stock. the resemblances may be the result of a similarity in the circumstances, by which they are surrounded. as for language,--so much relied upon by the _scientific_ ethnologist,--there could scarce be a more unreliable guide. the black negro of carolina, the fair blue-eyed saxon, and the red-skinned, red-polled hibernian, all speak one language; the descendants of all three, thousands of years hence, will speak the same,--perhaps when they are widely scattered apart,--and the superficial philosopher of those future times will, no doubt, ascribe to them all one common origin! language, of itself, is no _proof_ of the natural affinities of two peoples. it is evidence of their once having been in juxtaposition,-- not much more. of course when other points correspond, similarity of speech becomes a valuable corroboration. it is not our purpose, then, to inquire whence the laplander came,--only _where_ he is now, and _what_ he is now. where is he now? if you take your map of europe, and draw a line from the gulf of kandalax, in the white sea, to the middle of the loffoden isles, on the norwegian coast, you will cut off the country which is now properly called lapland. the country at present inhabited by the people called laplanders, will be found north of this line. it is a boundary more imaginary than real: for in truth there is no political division known as lapland, nor has there been for hundreds of years. it is said there once was a kingdom of lapland, and a nation of laplanders; but there is no proof that either one or the other ever existed. there was a peculiar people, whom we now style laplanders, scattered over the whole northern part of the scandinavian peninsula, and wandering as far south as the shores of the gulf of bothnia; but, that this people had ever any general compact, or union, deserving the name of government or nation, there is no proof. there is no evidence that they ever enjoyed a higher degree of civilisation than they do at present; and that is not one iota higher than exists among the esquimaux of north america,-- notwithstanding the advantage which the laplander has in the domestication of a ruminating quadruped and a knowledge of the christian religion. the tract of country which i have above assigned to the modern laplander, is to be regarded rather as meaning that portion of northern europe, which can scarcely be said to be in the occupation of any other people. true laplanders may be found dwelling, or rather wandering, much to the south of the line here indicated,--almost to the head of the bothnian gulf,--but in these southern districts, he no longer has the range clear to himself. the finn--a creature of a very different kind-- here meets him; constantly encroaching as a colonist on that territory which once belonged to the laplander alone. it becomes necessary to say a few words about the names we are using: since a perfect chaos of confusion has arisen among travellers and writers, in relation to the nomenclature of these two people,--the finns and the laplanders. in the first place, then, there is in reality no such a people as laplanders in northern europe. the word is a mere geographical invention, or "synonyme," if you wish. the people to whom we apply the name, call themselves "samlash." the danes and norwegians term them "_finns_;" and the swedes and russians style them "_laps_." the people whom _we_ know as finns--and who are not laplanders in any sense--have received the appellation of finns erroneously. these finns have for a long period been making progress, as colonists, in the territory once occupied by the true finns, or laplanders; and have nothing in common with these last people. they are agriculturists, and dwell in fixed settlements; not pastoral and nomadic, as the laplanders eminently are. besides, there are many other essential points of difference between the two,--in mind,--in personal appearance, in habits, in almost everything. i am particular upon this point,--because the wrong application of the name _finns_, to this last-mentioned race, has led writers into a world of error; and descriptions given of them and their habits have been applied to the people who are the subjects of the present chapter,-- leading, of course, to the most erroneous conclusions. it would be like exhibiting the picture of a caffre as the likeness of a hottentot or bushman! the finns, as geography now designates them,--and which also assigns to them a country called finland,--are, therefore, not finns at all. where, they are found in the old lapland territory as colonists, they are called _quans_; and this name is given them alike by russians, swedes, danes, and norwegians. to return to our laplanders, who are the true finns. i have said that they are called by different names; by the danes and norwegians "finns," and by the russians and swedes simply "laps." no known meaning is attached to either name; nor can it be discovered at what period either came into use. enough to know that these are the designations by which they are now known to those four nations who have had chiefly to deal with them. since these people have received so many appellations,--and especially one that leads to much confusion,--perhaps it is better, for geography's sake, to accept the error: to leave the _new_ finns to their usurped title, and to give the old finns that distinctive name by which they are best known to the world, viz _laplanders_. so long as it is remembered, that this is merely a geographical title, no harm can result from employing it; and should the word _finns_ occur hereafter, it is to be considered as meaning not the finns of norwegian finmark, but the quans of finland, on the gulf of bothnia. i have spoken of the country of the laplanders, as if they _had_ a country. they have not. there is a territory in which they dwell; but it is not theirs. long, long ago the lordship of the soil was taken from them; and divided between three powerful neighbours. russia took her largest slice from the east; sweden fell in for its southern part; and norway claimed that northern and western portion, lying along the atlantic and arctic oceans. this afterwards became the property of denmark: when norway herself ceased to be independent. the country, therefore, which i have defined as lapland, in modern times is so styled, merely because it is almost exclusively occupied by these people: it not being worth the while of their danish, swedish, or russian masters to colonise it. all three, however, claim their share of it,--have their regular boundary lines,--and each mulcts the miserable laplander of an annual tribute, in the shape of a small poll-tax. each, too, has _forced_ his own peculiar views of christianity on those within his borders,--the russian has shaped the lap into a greek christian; while, under swedish influence, he is a disciple of martin luther. his faith, however, is not very rational, one way or the other; and, in out-of-the-way corners of his chaotic country, he still adheres to some of his old mythic customs of sorcery and witchcraft: in other words, he is a "pagan." before proceeding to describe the laplander, either personally or intellectually, a word about the country in which he dwells. i have called it a _chaotic_ land. it has been described as a "huge congeries of frightful rocks and stupendous mountains, with many pleasant valleys, watered by an infinite number of rivulets, that run into the rivers and lakes." some of the lakes are of large extent, containing a countless number of islands; one alone--the lake enaro--having so many, that it has been said no laplander has lived long enough to visit each particular island. there is a great variety in the surface of the land. in some parts of the country the eye rests only on peaks and ridges of bleak, barren mountains,--on summits covered with never-melting snow,-- on bold, rocky cliffs or wooded slopes, where only the firs and birches can flourish. in other parts there are dusky forests of pines, intersected here and there by wide morasses or bogs. elsewhere, are extensive tracts of treeless champaign, covered with the white reindeer-lichen, as if they were under a fall of snow! during summer there are many green and beautiful spots, where even the rose sheds its fragrance around, and many berry-bearing bushes blossom brightly; but the summer is of short duration, and in those parts where it is most attractive, the pest of gnats, mosquitoes, and gadflies, renders the country uninhabitable to the laplander. we shall see presently, that, in the summer months, he flees from such lowland scenes, as from a pestilence; and betakes himself and his herd to the bleak, barren mountains. having given this short sketch of the country inhabited by the laplander, we proceed to a description of himself. he is short,--not more than five feet five inches, average height,-- squat and stoutish,--rarely corpulent,--though there is a difference in all these respects, between those who inhabit different parts of the country. the laps of norwegian lapland are taller than those in the russian and swedish territory. his features are small, his eyes elongated, or slit-like, as among the mongolian tribes; his cheek-bones prominent,--his mouth large and wide, and his chin sharply-pointed. his hair is black, or sometimes brownish; though among some tribes settled along the coasts light hair is not uncommon. it is probable that this may have originated in some admixture of blood with norwegian, russian, and other fishermen who frequent these coasts. the laplander has little or no beard; and in this respect he resembles the greenlander and esquimaux. his body is ill-made, bony and muscular, and stronger than would be expected from his pigmy stature. he is active, and capable of enduring extreme fatigue and privation; though it is a mistake to suppose that he is the agile creature he has been represented,--this error arising no doubt from the surprising speed with which habit has enabled him to skate over the frozen snow; and which, to a person unused to it, would appear to prove an extraordinary degree of agility. the hands and feet are small,--another point in common with the esquimaux. the laplander's voice is far from being a manly one. on the contrary, it is of small compass, weak, and of a squeaking tone. the complexion of the laplander is generally regarded as _dark_. its natural hue is perhaps not much darker than that of the norwegian. certainly not darker than many portuguese or spaniards; but, as he is seen, he appears as swarth as an indian. this, however, arises from the long and almost constant exposure to smoke: in the midst of which the miserable creature spends more than half of his time. it may again be observed, that those dwelling on the seashore are of lighter complexion; but perhaps that is also due to a foreign admixture. we have given a picture of the laplander's person; now a word or two about his mind. both his intellectual and moral man are peculiar,--even more so than his physical,--differing essentially from that of all the other nationalities with which he is brought in contact. he is cold-hearted, selfish, and morose. to love he is almost a stranger; and when such a feeling does exist within his bosom, it is rather as a spark than a passion. his courtship and marriage are pure matters of business,-- rarely having any other motive than self-interest. one woman will do for his wife wife as well as another; and better, if she be richer by half a dozen reindeer! hospitality is a virtue equally unknown to him. he wishes to see no stranger; and even wonders why a stranger should stray into his wild, bleak country. he is ever suspicious of the traveller through his land; unless that traveller chance to come in the guise of a russian or norwegian merchant, to exchange strong brandy for his reindeer-skins, or the furs of the animals he may have trapped. in his dealings he exhibits a sufficient degree of cunning,--much more than might be expected from the low standard of his intellect; and he will take no paper-money or any kind of "scrip" in exchange. this caution, however, he has acquired from a terrible experience, which he once had in dealing with paper-money; and he is determined that the folly shall never again be repeated. even in _his_ out-of-the-way corner of the globe, there was at one time a bank speculation of the "anglo-bengalee" character, of which the poor lap was made an especial victim. he has no courage whatever. he will not resist oppression. the stranger--russ or norwegian--may strike, kick, or cuff him,--he will not return the blow. belike he will burst into tears! and yet, under some circumstances, he shows a feeling akin to courage. he is cool in moments of danger from the elements, or when opposed to fierce animals, as the wolf or the bear. he is also capable of enduring fatigue to an extreme degree; and it is known historically that he was once warlike,--at least much more so than at present. _now_, there is not a drop of warrior blood in his veins. on the contrary, he is timid and pacific, and rarely quarrels. he carries constantly upon his person a long ugly knife, of norwegian manufacture; but he has never been known to draw it,--never known to commit murder with it. these are certainly virtues; but it is to be feared that with him they owe their origin to timidity and the dread of consequences. now and then he has a quarrel with one of his fellows; but the knife is never used; and the "punishment" consists in giving and receiving various kicks, scratches, pullings of the hair and ears: genuine blows, however, are not attempted, and the long knife never leaves its sheath. in the olden time he was a great believer in witches; in fact, noted for his faith in sorcery. christianity, such as it is, has done much to eradicate this belief; but he is still troubled with a host of superstitions. of filial and parental affection his stock is but scanty. the son shifts for himself, as soon as he is able to do so; and but little anxiety is exhibited about him afterwards. the daughter goes to the highest bidder,--to him who is most liberal in presents of brandy to the parent. jealousy is little known. how could it be felt, where there is no love? one of the worst vices of the laplander is his fondness for drink,-- amounting almost to a passion. it is one of his costliest, too: since he often consumes the produce of his industry in its indulgence. his favourite beverage is strong, bad brandy,--a staple article kept by the traders, to exchange for the commodities which the country affords. as these men care little for the result, and have a far greater influence over the laplander than either the government officials, or the lazy, timeserving missionaries, it is not probable that temperance will ever be introduced among these wretched people. fortunately, only the coast laplanders are at all times subject to this influence. the mountain people or those who dwell most of their time in the interior, are too distant from the "tap" to be so grievously affected by it. it is only on their short annual visits to the merchant stations on the coast, that they fall extensively into the jaws of this degrading vice. the dress of the laplander is now to be described. the men wear on their heads tall caps, of a conical form, usually of a cloth called _wadmal_, or some species of kersey furnished by the merchants. this cap has a tassel at top, and around the bottom is turned up several inches,--where it is strengthened by a band of reindeer-skin, or the fur of the otter. the coat is a loose garment or frock: made of the skin of the reindeer, with the hairy side out, and fastened around the waist with a broad leathern belt. in this belt is stuck the pointed knife, and a pouch or two, for pipe, tobacco, and spoon, are also suspended from it. breeches of reindeer-skin--the hide of the young fawns--reach to the ankles; and buskins, or rather stockings, of the same material cover the feet. these are gartered over the ends of the breeches, in such a way that no snow can get in; and since there is neither shirt nor drawers worn, we have given every article of a laplander's dress. no. there are the gloves, or mittens, which must not be forgotten,--as they are one of the things most essential to his comfort. these are also the universal deer-hide. simple as is this dress of the lapland men, it is not more simple than that of the lapland women, since both one and the other are exactly alike. a slight difference is observable in the shape of the bonnet; but for the rest, the lady wears the deer-skin frock, the breeches, and boots,--and like her liege lord, she scorns to include linen in her wardrobe. this plain dress, however, is the everyday _winter_ costume. the summer one, and especially upon grand occasions, is somewhat different, and altogether gayer. the shape is much the same; but the tunic or frock is of cloth, sometimes plain, coarse _wadmal_; but in the case of the richer proprietors, of fine coloured cloth,--even scarlet being sometimes worn. no matter what the quality of the cloth, however, the trimmings are always of rich, bright-coloured stuffs; and consist of bands or cords around the skirt, sleeves, and collar, elaborately stitched by the females,--who are in all cases the tailors. the leathern belt, worn with this dress, is loaded with ornaments,--little square and triangular plates of brass or white metal, and often of heavy, solid silver. the belt is an esteemed article,--as much so as his wampum to a north-american savage,--and it requires a large sum to tempt a laplander to part with the precious equipment. a finer cap is also worn, on these summer and holiday occasions. not unfrequently, however, the laplander--especially the mountain lap--sticks to his deer-skin coat, the _paesk_, through all weathers, and throughout all seasons,--when it is too hot simply taking off the belt, and leaving the flaps loose and open. in cold weather, and especially when riding in his sledge, an additional garment is worn. this is a fur "tippet," which covers his shoulders down to the elbows. it is made from the shaggy skin of the brown bear,--with the claws left on and hanging down in front of the breast. before proceeding to describe the mode of life and occupation of the laplander, it is necessary to state that all of the people known as laplanders, are not occupied alike. on the contrary, they may be separated into three distinct classes, according to the lives which they lead; and it is absolutely necessary to make this classification in the illustration of their habits. they are all alike in race and national characteristics,--all laplanders,--and they differ but little in their-- style of dressing; but, in other respects, what might be said of one would not be true of the other two. i proceed, therefore, to point out the distinction. the first to be noticed are those we have already mentioned under the title of "coast," or "shore laplanders." the name will give an idea of their _habitat_,--as also their mode of life and subsistence. they dwell along the norwegian coasts, round to the north cape, and even beyond it. they build their _gammes_, or sod-thatched dwellings, in little villages around the numerous creeks and "fiords" that intersect this rock-bound shore. their calling is that of fishermen. they subsist almost entirely upon fish; and live by selling their surplus to the merchants and russian traders. they keep a few sheep, sometimes a poor cow, but rarely own the reindeer. the life they lead is entirely different from that of their kindred, who dwell habitually in the interior. as it differs little from that of poor fishermen elsewhere, i shall dismiss the coast laplander without another word. the second kind of lap who merits our consideration, is that known as the "wood laplander," or, more commonly, "wood lap." he is less known than either of the two other varieties; but, as already stated, he differs from them principally on account of his occupation. his home is to be found upon the extensive plain country of russian lapland, and not near the sea. he is a dweller in the pine and fir-forests; and builds him a rude hut, very similar to the gamme of the coast lap; but he is in possession of some reindeer,--not enough, however, to support him,--and he ekes out a subsistence by fishing in the rivers and fresh-water lakes of the interior, by shooting the elk and wild reindeer, and trapping the fur-bearing animals,--the ermine, the sable, the miniver-squirrel, the badger, glutton, foxes, and wolves. as his calling is chiefly that of a hunter and trapper, and therefore very similar to like occupations in many other parts of the world, we need not enter into details of it here. for the present, therefore, we must _shelve_ the _wood lap_ along with his kinsman of the coast. this brings us to the third class,--the "mountain," or, as he is often called, the "reindeer laplander:" since it is the possession of this animal that chiefly distinguishes him from the other two classes of his countrymen. his mode of life is altogether different from either,--in fact, resembling theirs in but few particulars. true, he fishes a little, and occasionally does a bit of amateur hunting; but these are mere adjuncts or pastimes. his main support is his antlered flock: it would be more truthful to call it his sole support. by the reindeer lives, by the reindeer he _moves_, by the reindeer he has his being. his life is purely pastoral; he is a nomade,--a wanderer. all the world knows this; but all the world does not know _why_ he wanders. writers have asserted that it was to seek new pasture for his flocks,--the old ground having been eaten bare. nothing of the sort. he leaves the fertile plains, just as the willows are putting forth their succulent shoots,--just as the rich grass begins to spring fresh and green,--and betakes himself to the bleak sides of the mountains. that does not look like seeking for a better pasture. it has nothing to do with it. let us follow him, however, throughout his wanderings,--through the circuit of a single year,--and, perhaps, we shall find out the motive that inducts him into the roving habit. first, then, to be a "reindeer laplander," he must be the owner of one hundred head of deer; fewer than that will be of no use. if he have only fifty, he must sell out, and betake himself to some settlement of quans or norwegians,--there to give his service for hire,--or else turn coast laplander and fisherman,--a calling which he despises. this would be a sinking in the social scale; but, if he has been imprudent or unfortunate, and his flock has got reduced to fifty head, there is no help for it. if he have one hundred, however, he may manage with great economy to rub on; and keep up his character as a _free reindeer lap_. with three hundred he can live comfortably; better with five hundred; but a thousand would render him affluent. with fifteen hundred he would be a grandee; and two thousand would give him the rank of a millionaire! there are very few millionaires in lapland, and not many grandees. proprietors of even a thousand head are scarce; there are more whose herds number from three hundred to five hundred each. and here, i may remark, that there is no government,--no tribal organisation. the owner of each herd is the head of a family; over them he is patriarch, but his power extends no further. it is not even great so far, if there chance to be grown-up unruly sons sharing the common tent. i have used the word tent. that is the reindeer laplander's home,-- winter and summer alike. notwithstanding the severity of his clime, he builds no house; and even his tent is of the very rudest kind known among tenting tribes. it consists of some birch saplings set up in the snow, bent towards each other, and then covered over with a piece of coarse cloth,--the _wadmal_. this he prefers to a covering of skins; and obtains it from the norwegian or russ trader in exchange for the latter. the tent, when standing, is only six feet high, and not much more in diameter. in this circumscribed space his whole family, wife, daughters, sons, often a retainer or two, and about a dozen dogs find shelter from the piercing blast,--seated, or lying beside, or on top of one another, higgledy-piggledy, any way they can. there is room found besides for a large iron or brass cooking-pot, some dishes and bowls of birch, a rude stone furnace, and a fire in the middle of the floor. above the fire, a rack forms a shelf for countless tough cheeses, pieces of reindeers' flesh, bowls of milk, bladders of deer's blood, and a multiplicity of like objects. the spring is just opening; the frost has thawed from the trees,--for the winter home is in the midst of a forest,--the ground is bare of snow, and already smiling with a carpet of green, enamelled by many brilliant flowers. it is time, therefore, for the reindeer laplander to decamp from the spot, and seek some other scene less inviting to the eye. you will naturally inquire why he does this? and perhaps you will express some surprise at a man showing so little judgment as to take leave of the fertile plain,--just now promising to yield him a rich pasture for his herds,--and transport his whole stock to the cold declivity of a bleak mountain? yes, it is natural this should astonish you,--not, however, when you have heard the explanation. were he to stay in that plain--in that wood where he has wintered--a month longer, he would run the risk of losing half of his precious herd: perhaps in one season find himself reduced to the necessity of becoming a _coast lap_. the reason is simple,--the great gadfly (_aestrus tarandi_), with numerous other tormentors, are about to spring forth from the morass; and, as soon as the hot sun has blown them into full strength and vitality, commence their work of desolation upon the deer. in a few short days or hours their eggs would be deposited in the skin,--even in the nostrils of the antlered creature,--there to germinate and produce disease and death. indeed, the torment of biting gnats and other insects would of itself materially injure the health and condition of the animals; and if not driven to the mountains, they would "stampede," and go there of their own accord. it becomes a necessity, then, for the reindeer lap to remove his habitation; and, having gathered a few necessary utensils, and packed them on his stoutest bucks, he is off to the mountains. he does not take the whole of his _penates_ along with him. that would be difficult, for the snow is now gone, and he cannot use his proper mode of travelling,--the sledge. this he leaves behind him; as well as all other implements and articles of household use, which he can do without in his summer quarters. the cooking-pot, and a few bowls and dishes, go along with him,--also the tent-cloth, and some skins for bedding. the smaller articles are deposited in panniers of wicker, which are slung over the backs of a number of pack-deer; and, if a balance be required, the infant lap, in its little boat-like cradle, forms the adjusting medium. the journey is often of immense length. there may be highlands near, but these are not to the laplander's liking. nothing will satisfy him but the bold mountain range that overlooks the sea, trending along the whole norwegian coast: only on the declivities of this, or on one of the thousand elevated rocky isles that guard this extensive seaboard, does the laplander believe that his deer will enjoy proper health. he has a belief, moreover, that at least once every year, the reindeer should drink sea-water to keep them in condition. certain it is, that on reaching the sea, these animals rush eagerly into the water, and drink the briny fluid; and yet ever after, during the same season, they refuse to taste it! it is the general opinion that the solitary draught thus taken has the effect of destroying such larvae, as may have already formed in their skins. this journey often costs the laplander great fatigue and trouble. it is not uncommon for him to go two hundred miles to the norwegian coast; for although his habitual home may lie much nearer to the shores of the bothnian gulf, it would not serve his purpose to take his flock there. the forest on that side grows to the water's edge; and the gadfly is as abundant there, as in the wooded districts of the interior. on reaching his destination, the laplander chooses his grazing-ground, sometimes on the mountains of the mainland; but he prefers one of the elevated islets so numerous along the shore. this insures him against all danger from the flies, and also saves him much trouble in herding his deer. the islet may be two miles from the main, or any other land. that does not signify. the reindeer can swim like ducks, and the herd is soon driven over. the wadmal tent is then pitched; and the work of the summer begins. this consists in milking, cheese-making, and looking after the young deer; and a little fishing adds to the keep of the family: for it is at this time that foreign support is most required. the season of summer is with the mountain lap his season of scarcity! he does not dream of killing his deer at this season,--that would be sheer waste,--nor does he drink their milk, only in very little quantity. it goes to the making of cheese, and the owner of the herd contents himself with the whey. butter is not made at all by the reindeer lap, though the quans and norwegians make some. the lap would have no use for it,--since he eats no bread,--and it would not keep so well, nor yet be so safe an article of merchandise as the cheese. the latter he regards as his staple article of profit. he sells it to the coast-merchant: receiving in exchange his favourite dram-stuff, and a few pieces of coarse cloth, or utensils. the merchant is near at hand: for just for this very purpose are several small ports and settlements kept in existence along the otherwise desert shores of norway. deer-skins and dried fish, oils of the seal, furs and pelts of various kinds, have drawn these little settlements to the coast. otherwise they would not be there. when the heat of the summer is over, the reindeer laplander commences his return to his winter abode,--back to the place whence he came. the gadflies are now gone, and he can drive his deer back with safety; and just as he travelled to the coast, he wends his way home again: for it is to be observed that he regards the winter residence as the real home, and the summer one only as a place of temporary sojourn. he does not look upon it, as we at such a season. to him it is no pleasant excursion: rather is it his period of toil and dearth,--his _tightest_ time. once home again, he has nothing to do but erect his wadmal tent and look after his deer,--that now find food upon their favourite lichen. it is buried inches deep under the snow. they care not for that. they can soon uncover the pasture with their broad hoofs; and their keen scent never allows them to scrape up the snow without finding the lichen underneath. upon it they thrive, and at this season are in the best condition for the knife. the laplander now also enjoys life. if rich, he has fresh venison every day; but even if only moderately well off, he "kills" two or three times a week. his mode of slaughtering is original. he sticks his long, knife-blade into the throat of the animal, leaving it there till the creature is dead! this precaution he takes to prevent waste. were he to pull out the blade, the blood would flow and be lost. the knife acts as a stopper to the wound it has made. the blood is preserved and carefully put away,--the bladder being used as the vessel to contain it. you must not imagine that the reindeer lap remains all the winter in one place; on the contrary, he moves repeatedly, always taking his tent and tent-utensils along with him. the tent is as easily set up as taken down. the ground in all sheltered places is, at this season, covered with snow. it is only necessary to shovel it off, clearing a circular space about the size of the ground-plan of the tent. the snow, thus removed, produces a sort of elevated ring or snow-dyke all round the bare spot; and into this the tent-poles are hammered. they are then bent inward, tied near the tops, and the _wadmal_ being laid on as before, the tent is ready for use. fresh branches of evergreen pines, and other trees, are strewed over the floor; and on top of these are laid the deer-skins that serve for beds, chairs, tables, and blankets. these, with the iron cooking-pot, a large iron or brass pail to hold melted snow-water for drinking, and a few other utensils, are the only furniture of the dwelling. i have already stated that the fire is built in the centre of the tent,--on some large stones, forming a rudely-constructed hearth. a hole in the roof is intended for a chimney; but its draught is so bad, that the tent is almost always filled with a cloud of bitter smoke,--so thick as to render objects invisible. in this atmosphere no other european, excepting a lap, could possibly exist; and travellers, passing through the lapland country, have often preferred braving the cold frost of the night air, to being half smothered by the smoke; and have consequently taken shelter under a neighbouring tree. the laplander himself feels but little inconvenienced by the very thickest smoke. habit is everything, and to this habit has he been used from his infancy. his eyes, however, are not so indifferent to the annoyance. these suffer from it; and the consequence is that the eyes of the laplanders are almost universally sore and watery. this is a notable characteristic of the race. smoke, however, is not the sole cause of it. the esquimaux equally suffer from sore eyes; and these, burning oil in their houses instead of wood, are seldom troubled with smoke. more likely it is the snow-glare to which the laplander, as well as the esquimaux, is much exposed, that brings about this copious _watering_ of the eyes. the laplander cooks the reindeer flesh by boiling. a large piece is put into the great family pot, and nothing added but a quantity of water. in this the meat boils and simmers till it is done tender. the oily fat is then skimmed off, and put into a separate vessel; and the meat is "dished" in a large tray or bowl of birch-bark. a piece is then cut off, for each individual of the family; and handed around the circle. it is eaten without bread, and even salt is dispensed with. a dip in the bowl of skim-fat is all the seasoning it gets; and it is washed down with the "liquor" in which it has been boiled, and which is nothing but greasy water, without vegetables or any other "lining." it has the flavour of the fat venison, however; and is by no means ill-tasted. the _angelica_ flourishes in the country of the laplander, and of this vegetable he makes occasional use, not eating the roots, but the stalks and leaves, usually raw and without any preparation. perhaps he is led to use it, by a knowledge of the antiscorbutic properties of the plant. several species of berry-producing bushes also furnish him with an occasional meal of fruit. there are wild currants, the cranberry, whortle, and bilberries. the fruits of these trees do not fall in the autumn, as with us; but remain all winter upon the branches. buried under the snow, they are preserved in perfect condition, until the thaw of the following spring once more brings them into view. at this time they are sweet and mellow; and are gathered in large quantities by the lap women. sometimes they are eaten, as they come from the tree; but it is more usual to make them into a "plum-pudding:" that is, they are mixed with a kind of curdled milk, and stored away in bladders. when wanted, a slice is cut from the mass,--including a piece of the bladder, within which they have now attained to the stiffness and consistence of a "cream-cheese." another great luxury of the laplander, is the reindeer's milk frozen into an "ice." this is easily obtained; and the process consists simply in filling a birchen bowl with milk, and exposing it to the open air during frost. it is soon converted into solid ice; and in this condition will keep perfectly sweet throughout the whole of the winter. as the reindeer are never milked in the depth of the winter season, the laplander takes care, before that period approaches, to lay in a stock of ice-milk: so that he may have a drink of it at all times, by simply setting one of his birchen bowls within reach of the fire. he even makes a merchandise of this article: for the frozen reindeer milk is highly prized by the foreign merchants; who are ready, at any time, to exchange for the delicious article a dram of their devilish fire-water. it is at this season that the laplander moves about, both on foot and in his sledge. he not only travels from place to place, in a circuit of twenty miles,--round the little solitary church which the swedish missionary has built for him,--but he makes an occasional journey to the distant coast. in his sledge, or even afoot, a hundred miles are to him as nothing: for the frozen snow enables him to perform such a distance in an incredibly short time. on his "skis," or snow-skates he could do a hundred miles in a couple of days; even though the paths led him over hills, mountains, lakes, and rivers. all are now alike,--all concealed under the common covering of a deep snow. the lakes and rivers are frozen and bridged for him; and the mountain declivities are rendered smooth and easily traversed,--either by the sledge or the "skis." with the former he would think little of a hundred miles in a single day; and if the occasion were a "killing" one, and relays could be had upon the route, twice that enormous distance he could easily accomplish. the mode of sleigh-travelling by the reindeer laplander, as also his snow-skimming, or skating, have been both often and elaborately described. i have only space here to present the more salient points of the picture. this sleigh or sledge is termed by him "pulka;" but he has three varieties of this article,--two for travelling, and the third for carrying luggage. the two first kinds are nearly alike; and, in fact, differ only in a little extra "furniture," which one of them has upon it,--that is, a covering over the top, to keep more comfortable the feet and legs of the traveller. in other respects it is only the common pulk, being similar to the latter in shape, size, _atelage_, and everything. to get an idea of the laplander's sledge, you must fancy a little boat, about six feet long, and sixteen inches in breadth of beam. this is the width at the stern, where it is broadest; but from the stern it narrows all the way forward, until, on reaching the stem, it has tapered almost to a point. its sides are exactly like those of a boat; and it rests upon a "keel" of about four inches breadth, which keel is the one and only "runner." a strong board boxes up the stern end, in front of which is the seat; and the board itself serves to support the back of the rider. his legs and feet are stretched out longitudinally; filling up the space between the quarter-deck and the "forward" part of the little craft; and, thus fixed, the laplander is ready for the road. in the best class of "pulk"--that used by the russ and swedish traders and travellers--the forward part is covered with a sort of half-deck of skins or leather; but the laplander does not often fancy this. it gives him too much trouble to get out and in; as he is often compelled to do to look after his train of deer. his pulk, therefore, is open from stem to stern; and his deer-skin coverings keep his legs warm enough. only one deer is used; and the mode of harnessing is of primitive simplicity. a band of skin acts as a collar round the neck of the animal; and from the lowest point of this a piece falls downwards below the animal's breast,--striking in on the counter like the pendants of a martingale. to this piece is attached the trace,--there is but one,-- which, passing between the forelegs, and afterwards the hind ones, is looped into an iron ring upon the stem of the sledge. upon this trace, which is a strong strap of raw hide or leather, the whole draught-power is exerted. a broad surcingle--usually of cloth, neatly stitched and ornamented--passes round the deer's body. its use is to hold up the trace underneath the belly, and prevent it from dragging the ground, or getting among the animal's feet. a similar band of cloth passes round its neck, giving a fine appearance to the noble creature. a single rein attached to the left horn, or fixed halter-fashion around the deer's head, is all that is necessary to guide it along; the movements of this, aided by the accents of its master's voice, are understood by this well-trained animal. for all that, the deer does not _always_ travel kindly. frequently he takes a fit of obstinacy or anger; and will then turn upon his trainer,--presenting his antlered front in an attitude of attack. on such occasions the lap takes shelter behind his "pulk," raising it in his arms, and holding it as a shield wherewith to defend himself; until he can pacify, or otherwise subdue, the irritated buck. the tumbling of the sledge, and consequent spilling of its load, is a thing of frequent occurrence, owing to the narrow base upon which the vehicle is supported; but the laplander thinks nothing of a trifling mishap of this nature. in a trice the "snow-boat" is righted, the voyager in his seat again, and off over the frozen snow with the speed of lightning. the reindeer can travel nearly twenty english miles an hour! this rate of speed has been proved and tested; and with fresh relays along the route, over four hundred miles might be made in a day. but the same thing could be done with horses,--that is, upon a desperate emergency. the luggage "pulk" of the laplander differs only from the other kinds of sledges in being longer, broader, deeper, and consequently of more capacity to carry goods. it is used for transporting the skins, and other merchantable commodities, from the interior to the trading depots on the coast. the _skis_ or snow-skates require very little description. they are on the same principle as the snow-shoes in use among the north-american indians; though from these they differ materially in construction. they are merely two long pieces of smooth board, a few inches in breadth, and slightly turned up at the ends. one is full six feet,--the right one; the left is about twelve inches shorter. near the middle they are lashed firmly to the feet by strong pieces of hide; and by means of these curious appendages, when the snow is crusted over, the laplander can skim over its surface with great rapidity. he uses a long pole to guide and assist him in his movements; and this pole has a piece of circular board, or a round ball, near its point,--to prevent it from sinking too deeply in the snow. going _up hill_ upon the skis is not so easy,--but the practised skater can ascend even the steep acclivities of the mountains with less difficulty than might be imagined. this is accomplished in zigzag lines,--each leading to a higher elevation. down hill, the course upon _skis_ is rapid almost as the flight of an arrow; and, by means of the long pole, rocks, ravines, and precipices, are shunned with a dexterity that is quite surprising. altogether a laplander, either in his reindeer sledge, or upon his long wooden "skis," is as interesting a sight as may be seen anywhere. after all that has been said, it will appear pretty clearly, that the laplander, though dwelling so very near to civilised lands, is still very far distant from _true civilisation_. chapter sixteen. the andamaners, or mud-bedaubers. on the eastern side of the bay of bengal lies a cluster, or archipelago, of islands known as the "andamans." they form a long string running nearly northward and southward; and with the nicobar group, still further to the south, they appear like a series of stepping-stones connecting cape negrais, in the burmese country, with the island of sumatra. independent of the nicobar islands, the andamans themselves have an extent of several hundred miles in length; while their breadth is nowhere over about twenty miles. until of late the greater portion of the group was supposed to form only one island,--known as the "great andaman;" but, in the year , this was discovered to have a channel across it that divided it into two distinct parts. the discovery of this channel was accidental; and the accident was attended with melancholy consequences. a vessel from madras had entered between the great andaman, and the opposite coast of burmah. this vessel was laden with provisions, intended for the supply of port cornwallis,--a convict settlement, which the british had formed the preceding year on the eastern side of the island. the master of the vessel, not knowing the position of port cornwallis, sent a boat to explore an opening which he saw in the land,--fancying that it might be the entrance to the harbour. it was not this, however; but the mouth of the channel above mentioned. the crew of the boat consisted of two europeans and six lascars. it was late in the afternoon when they stood into the entrance; and, as it soon fell dark upon them, they lost their way, and found themselves carried along by a rapid current that set towards the bay of bengal. the north-east monsoon was blowing at the time with great violence; and this, together with the rapid current, soon carried the boat through the channel; and, in spite of their efforts, they were driven out into the indian ocean, far beyond sight of land! here for eighteen days the unfortunate crew were buffeted about; until they were picked up by a french ship, almost under the equinoctial line, many hundreds of miles from the channel they had thus involuntarily discovered! the sad part of the story remains to be told. when relieved by the french vessel, the two europeans and three of the lascars were still living; the other three lascars had disappeared. shocking to relate, they had been killed and eaten by their companions! the convict settlement above mentioned was carried on only for a few years, and then abandoned,--in consequence of the unhealthiness of the climate, by which the sepoy guards of the establishment perished in great numbers. notwithstanding this, the andaman islands present a very attractive aspect. a ridge of mountains runs nearly throughout their whole extent, rising in some places to a height of between two and three thousand feet. these mountains are covered to their tops by dense forests, that might be called primeval,--since no trace of clearing or cultivation is to be found on the whole surface of the islands; nor has any ever existed within the memory of man, excepting that of the convict settlement referred to. some of the forest trees are of great size and height; and numerous species are intermixed. mangroves line the shores; and prickly ferns and wild rattans form an impenetrable brake on the sides of the hills; bamboos are also common, and the "gambier" or "cutch" tree (_agathis_), from which is extracted the _terra japonica_ of commerce. there are others that yield dyes, and a curious species of screw-pine (_pandanus_),--known as the "nicobar breadfruit." notwithstanding their favourable situation, the zoology of these islands is extremely limited in species. the only quadrupeds known to exist upon them are wild hogs, dogs, and rats; and a variety of the monkey tribe inhabits the forests of the interior. the land-birds are few,-- consisting of pigeons, doves, small parrots, and the indian crow; while hawks are seen occasionally hovering over the trees; and a species of humming-bird flies about at night, uttering a soft cry that resembles the cooing of doves. there are owls of several species; and the cliffs that front the coast are frequented by a singular swallow,--the _hirundo esculenta_, whose nests are eaten by the wealthy mandarins of china. along the shores there are gulls, kingfishers, and other aquatic birds. a large lizard of the _guana_ species is common, with several others; and a green snake, of the most venomous description, renders it dangerous to penetrate the jungle thickets that cover the whole surface of the country. in all these matters there is not much that is remarkable,--if we accept the extreme paucity of the zoology; and this is really a peculiarity,-- considering that the andaman islands lie within less than eighty leagues of the burman territory, a country so rich in mammalia; considering, too, that they are covered with immense forests, almost impenetrable to human beings, on account of their thick intertwining of underwood and parasitical plants,--the very home, one would suppose for wild beasts of many kinds! and withal we find only three species of quadrupeds, and these small ones, thinly distributed along the skirts of the forest. in truth, the andaman islands and their _fauna_ have long been a puzzle to the zoologist. but longer still, and to a far greater extent, have their human inhabitants perplexed the ethnologist; and here we arrive at the true peculiarity of the andaman islands,--that is to say, the _people_ who inhabit them. with perhaps no exception, these people are the most truly savage of any on the face of the globe; and this has been their character from the earliest times: for they have been known to the ancients as far back as the time of ptolemy. ptolemy mentions them under the title of _anthropophagi_ (man-eaters); and the arabs of the ninth century, who navigated the indian ocean, have given a similar account of them. marco polo adopts this statement, and what is still more surprising, one of the most noted ethnologists of our own time--dr latham--has given way to a like credulity, and puts the poor andamaners down as "pagan cannibals." it is an error: they are not cannibals in any sense of the word; and if they have ever eaten human flesh,--of which there is no proof,--it has been when impelled by famine. under like circumstances, some of every nation on earth have done the same,-- englishmen, germans, frenchmen, americans,--of late years frequently,-- in the mountains of new mexico and california. the charge of cannibalism against these miserable beings rests on no other foundation than the allegations of chinese sailors, and the vague statements of ptolemy and the arabs above mentioned. the chinese have occasion now and then to visit the andaman islands in their junks, to collect the edible nests of the swallow (_hirundo esculenta_),--which birds have extensive breeding-places on the cliffs that overhang the coast of the great andaman. the "trepang," or sea-slug, is also found in large quantities upon the rocks near the shore; and this is equally an object of commerce, and esteemed an article of the greatest luxury, among the mandarins, and other rich celestials who can afford to indulge in it. now and then, a junk has been wrecked among these rocks; and its miserable crew have fallen a victim to the hostility of the natives: just as they might have done on more civilised coasts, where no cannibalism was ever suspected to exist. crews of junks have been totally destroyed,--murdered, if you please,--but it would not be difficult to show, that this was done more from motives of revenge than from a mere sanguinary instinct or disposition; but there is no proof whatever of, even a single case, of true cannibalism. indeed there are strong reasons for our disbelief in this horrid custom,--so far as regards the poor savages of the andamans. an incident, that seems to give a flat contradiction to it, occurred during the occupancy of the island by the east-india company in the year ; and other proofs of non-cannibalism have been obtained at a still more recent period, to which we shall presently allude. the incident of was as follows: a party of fishers belonging to the settlement enticed an andaman woman to come near, by holding out presents of food. the woman was made captive by these treacherous men; who, instead of relieving her hunger, proceeded to behave to her in the most brutal and unfeeling manner. the cries of the poor creature brought a numerous troop of her people to the spot; who, rushing out of the thickets from every side, collected around the fishermen; and, having attacked them with spears and arrows, succeeded in killing two of their number. the rest with difficulty escaped to the settlement; and, having obtained assistance, a large party set out to search for the bodies of their companions. there was but little expectation that these would be recovered: as all were under the belief that the savages must have carried them away for the purpose of making a cannibal feast upon them. there had been ample time for the removing of them: since the scene of the struggle was at a considerable distance from the fort. the searchers, therefore, were somewhat astonished at finding both bodies on the spot where they had fallen, and the enemy entirely gone from the ground! the bodies were disfigured in the most shocking manner. the flesh was pierced in every part,--by spears, no doubt,--and the bones had been pounded with heavy stones, until they were mashed into fragments; but not a bit of flesh was removed, not even an arm or limb had been severed! the other instance to which we have promised to allude occurred at a much more recent period,--so late, in fact, as the period of the king of delhi's imprisonment. it will be fresh in the memory of my readers, that his hindoo majesty was carried to the island of great andaman, along with a number of "sepoy" rebels, who had been taken prisoners during the late indian revolt. the convict settlement was restored, especially for this purpose; and a detachment of "east-india company's troops" was sent along with the rebel sepoys to guard them. it was supposed that the troops would have great difficulty in the performance of their duty: since the number of their prisoners was larger than could be fairly looked after; and, it was well-known, that, if a prisoner could once get clear of the walls of the fort, it would be altogether idle to pursue him. the chase after a fugitive through the tangled forests of the andamans would be emphatically a "wild-goose" chase; and there would be ten chances to one against his being recaptured. such, in reality, did it appear, for the first week or two, after the settlement was re-established. numerous prisoners escaped into the woods, and as it was deemed idle to follow them, they were given up as "lost birds." in the end, however, it proved that they were not all lost,--though some of them were. after a week or two had expired, they began to straggle back to the fort, and voluntarily deliver themselves up to their old guards,--now one, now another, or two or three at a time,--but all of them in the most forlorn and deplorable condition. they had enjoyed a little, liberty on the andaman isles; but a taste of it had proved sufficient to satisfy them that captivity in a well-rationed guard-house was even preferable to freedom with a hungry stomach, added to the risk which they ran every hour of the day of being impaled upon the spears of the savages. many of them actually met with this fate; and others only escaped half dead from the hostile treatment they had received at the hands of the islanders. there was no account, however, that any of them had been _eaten_,--no evidence that their implacable enemies were cannibals. such are a few arguments that seem to controvert the accusation of ptolemy and the two arab merchants,--in whose travels the statement is found, and afterwards copied by the famous marco polo. probably the arabs obtained their idea from ptolemy, marco polo from the arabs, and dr latham from marco polo. indeed, it is by no means certain that ptolemy meant the andaman islands by his _islae bonae fortunae_, or "good-luck isles,"--certainly a most inappropriate appellation. he may have referred to sumatra and its battas,--who _are_ cannibals beyond a doubt. and, after all, what could ptolemy know about the matter except from vague report, or, more likely still, more vague _speculation_,--a process of reasoning practised in ptolemy's time, just as at the present day. we are too ready to adopt the errors of the ancient writers,--as if men were more infallible then than they are now; and, on the other hand, we are equally prone to incredulity,--often rejecting their testimony when it would conduct to truth. i believe there is no historic testimony--ancient or modern--before us, to prove that the andaman islanders are cannibals; and yet, with all the testimony to the contrary, there is one fact, or rather a hypothesis, which shall be presently adduced, that would point to the _probability_ of their being so. if they are not cannibals, however, they are not the less unmitigated _savages_, of the very lowest grade and degree. they are unacquainted with almost the very humblest arts of social life; and are not even so far advanced in the scale as to have an organisation. in this respect they are upon a par with the bushmen of africa and the diggers of north america: still more do they resemble the wretched starvelings of tierra del fuego. they have no tribal tie; but dwell in scattered groups or gangs,--just as monkeys or other animals of a gregarious nature. in person, the andaman is one of the very "ugliest" of known savages. he is of short stature, attaining to the height of only five feet; and his wife is a head shorter than himself. both are as black as pitch, could their natural colour be discovered; but the skin is usually hidden under a mask of rare material, which we shall presently have occasion to describe. the upper half of the andamaner's body is strongly and compactly built, and his arms are muscular enough. it is below, in the limbs, where he is most lacking in development. his legs are osseous and thin; and, only when he is in fine condition, is there the slightest swell on them that would indicate the presence of a calf. his feet are of monstrous length, and without any symmetry,--the heel projecting far backwards, in the fashion usually styled "lark-heeled." it is just possible that a good deal of practice, by running over mud-banks and quicksands in search of his shell-fish subsistence, may have added to the natural development of his pedal extremities; for there can be no longer any doubt, that like effects have been produced by such causes,--effects that are indeed, after all, more _natural_ than _artificial_. the andamaner exhibits the protuberance of belly noticed among other savages, who lead a starving life; and his countenance is usually marked with an expression that betrays a mixture of ferocity and famine. it is worthy of remark, however, that though these stunted proportions are generally observable among the natives of the andaman islands, they do not appear to be universal. it is chiefly on the island of the great andaman that the most wretched of these savages are found. the little andaman seems to produce a better breed: since parties have been met with on this last-named island, in which many individuals were observed nearly six feet in height, and stout in proportion. one of these parties, and the incident of meeting with it, are thus described by an officer who was present:-- "we had not gone far, when, at an angle of the jungle, which covers the island to within a few yards of the water's edge, we came suddenly upon a party of the natives, lying upon their bellies behind the bushes, armed with spears, arrows, and long-bows, which they bent at us in a threatening manner. our lascars, as soon as they saw them, fell back in great consternation, levelling their muskets and running into the sea towards the boats. it was with great difficulty we could prevent our cowardly rascals from firing; the tyndal was the only one who stood by the chief mate and myself. we advanced within a few paces of the natives, and made signs of drinking, to intimate the purpose of our visit. the tyndal salaamed to them, according to the different oriental modes of salutation,--he spoke to them in malay, and other languages; but they returned no answer, and continued in their crouching attitude, pointing their weapons at us whenever we turned. i held out my handkerchief but they would not come from behind the bushes to take it. i placed it upon the ground; and we returned, in order to allow them an opportunity of picking it up: still they would not move. "i counted sixteen strong and able-bodied men opposite to us, many of them very lusty; and further on, six more. they were very different in appearance from what the natives of the great andaman are represented to be,--that is, of a puny race. the whole party was completely naked, with the exception of one,--a stout man nearly six feet in height, who was standing up along with two or three women in the rear. he wore on his head a red cloth with white spots. "they were the most ferocious and wild-looking beings i ever beheld. those parts of their bodies that were not besmeared with mud, were of a sooty black colour. their faces seemed to be painted with a red ochre." notwithstanding the difference in stature and other respects,--the result no doubt of a better condition of existence,--the inhabitants of both islands, great and little andaman, are the same race of people; and in the portrait, the faces of both may be considered as one and the same. this brings us to the strangest fact in the whole history of the andaman islander. instead of a hindoo face, or a chinese mongolian face, or that of a malay,--any of which we might reasonably expect to find in an aboriginal of the bay of bengal,--we trace in the andaman islander the true physiognomy of a negro. not only have we the flat nose and thick lips, but the curly hair, the sooty complexion, and all the other negro characteristics. and the most ill-favoured variety at that; for, in addition to the ungraceful features already mentioned, we find a head large beyond all proportion, and a pair of small, red eyes deeply sunken in their sockets. truly the andaman islander has few pretensions to being a beauty! wretched, however, as the andaman islander may appear, and of little importance as he certainly is in the great social family of the human race, he is, ethnologically speaking, one of its most interesting varieties. from the earliest times he has been a subject of speculation, or rather his presence in that particular part of the world where he is now found: for, since it is the general belief that he is entirely isolated from the two acknowledged negro races, and surrounded by other types of the human family, far different from either, the wonder is how he came to be there. perhaps no other two thousand people on earth--for that is about the number of andaman islanders--have been honoured with a greater amount of speculation in regard to their origin. some ethnologists assign to them an african origin, and account for their presence upon the andaman islands by a singular story: that a portuguese ship laden with african slaves, and proceeding to the indian colonies, was wrecked in the bay of bengal, and, of course, off the coast of the andamans: that the crew were murdered by the slaves; who, set free by this circumstance, became the inhabitants of the island. this story is supported by the argument, that the hostility which the natives now so notoriously exhibit, had its origin in a spirit of revenge: that still remembering the cruel treatment received on the "middle passage" at the hands of their portuguese masters, they have resolved never to be enslaved again; but to retaliate upon the white man, whenever he may fall into their power! certainly the circumstances would seem to give some colour to the tale, if it had any foundation; but it has none. were we to credit it, it would be necessary to throw ptolemy and the arab merchants overboard, and marco polo to boot. all these have recorded the existence of the andaman islanders, long before ever a portuguese keel cleft the waters of the indian ocean,--long even before di gama doubled the cape! but without either the aid of ptolemy or the testimony of the arabian explorers, it can be established that the andaman islands were inhabited before the era of the portuguese in india; and by the same race of savages as now dwell upon them. another theory is that it was an _arabian_ slave-ship that was wrecked, and not a portuguese; and this would place the peopling of the islands at a much earlier period. there is no positive fact, however, to support this theory,--which, like the other, rests only on mere speculation. the error of these hypotheses lies in their mistaken _data_; for, although, we have stated that the andaman islanders are undoubtedly a negro race, they are not that negro race to which the speculation points,--in other words, they are not _african_ negroes. beyond certain marked features, as the flat nose and thick lips, they have nothing in common with these last. their hair is more of the kind called "frizzly," than of the "woolly" texture of that of the ethiopian negro; and in this respect they assimilate closely to the "papuan," or new guinea "negrillo," which every one knows is a very different being from the _african_ negro. their moral characteristics--such as there has been an opportunity of observing among them--are also an additional proof that they are not of african origin; while these point unmistakably to a kinship with the other side of the indian ocean. even some of their fashions, as we shall presently have occasion to notice, have a like tendency to confirm the belief that the andaman is a "negrillo," and not a "negro." the only obstacle to this belief has hitherto been the fact of their isolated situation: since it is alleged--rather hastily as we shall see--that the whole of the opposite continent of the burmese and other empires, is peopled by races entirely distinct: that none of the adjacent islands--the nicobars and sumatra--have any negro or negrillo inhabitants: and that the andamaners are thus cut off, as it were, from any possible line of migration which they could have followed in entering the bay of bengal. ethnologists, however, seem to have overlooked the circumstance that this allegation is not strictly true. the _samangs_--a tribe inhabiting the mountainous parts of the malayan peninsula--are also a negro or negrillo race; a fact which at once establishes a link in the chain of a supposed migration from the great indian archipelago. this lets the andaman islander into the great china sea; or rather, coming from that sea, it forms the stepping-stone to his present residence in the bay of bengal. who can say that he was not at one time the owner of the malayan peninsula? how can we account for the strange fact, that figures of boodh--the guadma of the burmese and siamese--are often seen in india beyond the ganges, delineated with the curly hair and other characteristic features of the negro? the theory that the samang and andaman islander once ruled the malay peninsula; that they themselves came from eastward,--from the great islands of the melanesian group, the centre and source of the negrillo race,--will in some measure account for this singular monumental testimony. the probability, moreover, is always in favour of a migration westward within the tropics. beyond the tropics, the rule is sometimes reversed. a coincidence of personal habit, between the andaman islander and the melanesian, is also observed. the former dyes his head of a brown or reddish colour,--the very fashion of the feegee! suppose, then, that the samang and andaman islander came down the trades, at a period too remote for even tradition to deal with it: suppose they occupied the malay peninsula, no matter how long; and that at a much more recent period, they were pushed out of place,--the one returning to the andaman islands, the other to the mountains of the quedah: suppose also that the party pushing them off were malays,--who had themselves been drifted for hundreds of years down the trades from the far shores of america (for this is _our_ "speculation"): suppose all these circumstances to have taken place, and you will be able to account for two facts that have for a long time puzzled the ethnologist. one is the presence of negroes on the islands of andaman,--and the other of malays in the south-eastern corner of asia. we might bring forward many arguments to uphold the probability of these hypotheses, had we space and time. both, however, compel us to return to the more particular subject of our sketch; and we shall do so after having made a remark, promised above, and which relates to the _probability_ of the andaman islander being a cannibal. this, then, _would lie in the fact of his being a papuan negro_. and yet, again, it is only a seeming; for it might be shown that with the papuan cannibalism is not a natural instinct. it is only where he has reached a high degree of _civilisation_, as in the case of the feegee islander. call the latter a monster if you will; but, as may be learnt from our account of him, he is anything but a _savage_, in the usual acceptation of the term. in fact, language has no epithet sufficiently vile to characterise such an anomalous animal as he. i have endeavoured to clear the andaman islander of the charge of this guilt; and, since appearances are so much against him, he ought to feel grateful. it is doubtful whether he would, should this fall into his hands, and he be able to read it. the portrait of his face without that stain upon it, he might regard as ugly enough; and that of his habits, which now follows, is not much more flattering. his house is little better than the den of a wild beast; and far inferior in ingenuity of construction to those which beavers build. a few poles stuck in the ground are leant towards each other, and tied together at the top. over these a wattle of reeds and rattan-leaves forms the roof; and on the floor a "shake-down" of withered leaves makes his bed, or, perhaps it should rather be called his "lair." this, it will be perceived, is just the house built by diggers, bushmen, and fuegians. there are no culinary utensils,--only a drinking-cup of the _nautilus_ shell; but implements of war and the chase in plenty: for such are found even amongst the lowest of savages. they consist of bows, arrows, and a species of javelin or dart. the bows are very long, and made of the bamboo cane,--as are also the darts. the arrows are usually pointed with the tusks of the small wild hogs which inhabit the islands. these they occasionally capture in the chase, hanging up the skulls in their huts as trophies and ornaments. with strings of the hog's teeth also they sometimes ornament their bodies; but they are not very vain in this respect. sometimes pieces of iron are found among them,--nails flattened to form the blades of knives, or to make an edge for their adzes, the heads of which are of hard wood. these pieces of iron they have no doubt obtained from wrecked vessels, or in the occasional intercourse which they have had with the convict establishment; but there is no regular commerce with them,--in fact, no commerce whatever,--as even the malay traders, that go everywhere, do not visit the andamaners, from dread of their well-known ishmaelitish character. some of the communities, more forward in civilisation, possess articles of more ingenious construction,--such as baskets to hold fruits and shell-fish, well-made bows, and arrows with several heads, for shooting fish. the only other article they possess of their own manufacture, is a rude kind of canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, by means of fire and their poor adze. a bamboo raft, of still ruder structure, enables them to cross the narrow bays and creeks by which their coast is indented. their habitual dwelling-place is upon the shore. they rarely penetrate the thick forests of the interior, where there is nothing to tempt them: for the wild hog, to which they sometimes give chase, is found only along the coasts where the forest is thinner and more straggling, or among the mangrove-bushes,--on the fruits of which these animals feed. strange to say, the forest, though luxuriant in species, affords but few trees that bear edible fruits. the cocoa-palm--abundant in all other parts of the east-indian territories, and even upon the cocos islands, that lie a little north of the andamans--does not grow upon these mountain islands. since the savages know nothing of cultivation, of course their dependence upon a vegetable diet would be exceedingly precarious. a few fruits and roots are eaten by them. the pandanus, above mentioned, bears a fine cone-shaped fruit, often weighing between thirty and forty pounds; and this, under the name of _mellori_, or "nicobar breadfruit," forms part of their food. but it requires a process of cooking, which, being quite unknown to the andamaners, must make it to them a "bitter fruit" even when roasted in the ashes of their fires, which is their mode of preparing it. they eat also the fruit of the mangrove, and of some other trees--but these are not obtainable at all seasons, or in such quantity as to afford them a subsistence. they depend principally upon fish, which they broil in a primitive manner over a gridiron of bamboos, sometimes not waiting till they are half done. they especially subsist upon shell-fish, several kinds abounding on their coasts, which they obtain among the rocks after the tide has gone out. to gather these is the work of the women, while the men employ themselves in fishing or in the chase of the wild hog. the species of shell-fish most common are the _murex tribulus, trochus telescopium, cypraea caurica_, and mussels. they are dexterous in capturing other fish with their darts, which they strike down upon the finny prey, either from their rafts, or by wading up to their knees in the water. they also take fish by torchlight,--that is, by kindling dry grass, the blaze of which attracts certain species into the shallow water, where the fishers stand in wait for them. when the fishery fails them, and the oysters and muscles become scarce, they are often driven to sad extremities, and will then eat anything that will sustain life,--lizards, insects, worms,--perhaps even _human flesh_. they are not unfrequently in such straits; and instances are recorded, where they have been found lying upon the shore in the last stages of starvation. an instance of this kind is related in connection with the convict settlement of . a coasting-party one day discovered two andamaners lying upon the beach. they were at first believed to be dead, but as it proved, they were only debilitated from hunger: being then in the very last stages of famine. they were an old man and a boy; and having been carried at once to the fort, every means that humanity could suggest was used to recover them. with the boy this result was accomplished; but the old man could not be restored: his strength was too far gone; and he died, shortly after being brought to the settlement. two women or young girls were also found far gone with hunger; so far, that a piece of fish held out was sufficient to allure them into the presence of a boat's crew that had landed on the shore. they were taken on board the ship, and treated with the utmost humanity. in a short time they got rid of all fears of violence being offered them; but seemed, at the same time, to be sensible of modesty to a great degree. they had a small apartment allotted to them; and though they could hardly have had any real cause for apprehension, yet it was remarked that the two never went to sleep at the same time: one always kept watch while the other slept! when time made them more familiar with the good intentions towards them, they became exceedingly cheerful, chattered with freedom, and were amused above all things at the sight of their own persons in a mirror. they allowed clothes to be put on them; but took them off again, whenever they thought they were not watched, and threw them away as a useless encumbrance! they were fond of singing; sometimes in a melancholy recitative, and sometimes in a lively key; and they often gave exhibitions of dancing around the deck, in the fashion peculiar to the andamans. they would not drink either wine or any spirituous liquor; but were immoderately fond of fish and sugar. they also ate rice when it was offered to them. they remained, or rather were retained, several weeks on board the ship; and had become so smooth and plump, under the liberal diet they indulged in, that they were scarce recognisable as the half-starved creatures that had been brought aboard so recently. it was evident, however, that they were not contented. liberty, even with starvation allied to it, appeared sweeter to them than captivity in the midst of luxury and ease. the result proved that this sentiment was no stranger to them: for one night, when all but the watchman were asleep, they stole silently through the captain's cabin, jumped out of the stern windows into the sea, and swam to an island full half a mile distant from the ship! it was thought idle to pursue them; but, indeed, there was no intention of doing so. the object was to retain them by kindness, and try what effect might thus be produced on their wild companions, when they should return to them. strange to say, this mode of dealing with the andaman islanders has been made repeatedly, and always with the same fruitless result. whatever may have been the original cause that interrupted their intercourse with the rest of mankind, they seem determined that this intercourse shall never be renewed. when plenty reigns among them, and there has been a good take of fish, they act like other starved wretches; and yield themselves up to feasting and gorging, till not a morsel remains. at such times they give way to excessive mirth,--dancing for hours together, and chattering all the while like as many apes. they are extremely fond of "tripping it on the light fantastic toe;" and their dance is peculiar. it is carried on by the dancers forming a ring, and leaping about, each at intervals saluting his own posteriors with a slap from his foot,--a feat which both the men and women perform with great dexterity. not unfrequently this mode of salutation is passed from one to the other, around the the whole ring,--causing unbounded merriment among the spectators. their fashion of dress is, perhaps, the most peculiar of all known costumes. as to clothing, they care nothing about it,--the females only wearing a sort of narrow fringe around the waist,--not from motives of modesty, but simply as an ornament; and in this scant garment we have a resemblance to the _liku_ of the feegeeans. it can hardly be said, however, that either men or women go entirely naked; for each morning, after rising from his couch of leaves, the andamaner plasters the whole of his body with a thick coat of mud, which he wears throughout the day. wherever this cracks from getting dry by the sun, the place is patched or mended up with a fresh layer. the black mop upon his head is not permitted to wear its natural hue; but, as already mentioned, is coloured by means of a red ochreous earth, which is found in plenty upon the islands. this reddening of his poll is the only attempt which the andamaner makes at personal adornment; for his livery of mud is assumed for a purpose of utility,--to protect his body from the numerous mosquitoes, and other biting insects, whose myriads infest the lowland coast upon which he dwells. a startling peculiarity of these islanders is the unmitigated hostility which they exhibit, and have always exhibited, towards every people with whom they have, come in contact. it is not the white man alone whom they hate and harass; but they also murder the malay, whose skin is almost as dark as their own. this would seem to contradict the hypothesis of a tradition of hostility preserved amongst them, and directed against white men who enslaved their ancestors; but, indeed, that story has been sufficiently refuted. a far more probable cause of their universal hatred is, that, at some period of their history, they have been grossly abused; so much so as to render suspicion and treachery almost an instinct of their nature. in these very characteristic moral features we find another of those striking analogies that would seem to connect them with the negrillo races of the eastern archipelago; but, whether they are or are not connected with them, their appearance upon the andaman is no greater mystery, than the solitary "fox-wolf" on the falkland islands, or the smallest wingless insect in some lone islet of the ocean? chapter seventeen. the patagonian giants. who has not heard of the _giants_ of patagonia? from the days of magellan, when they were first seen, many a tale has been told, and many a speculation indulged in about these colossal men: some representing them as very titans, of twelve feet in height, and stout in proportion: that, when standing a little astride, an ordinary-sized man could pass between their legs without even stooping his head! so talked the early navigators of the great south sea. since the time when these people were first seen by europeans, up to the present hour,--in all, three hundred and thirty years ago,--it is astonishing how little has been added to our knowledge of them; the more so, that almost every voyager who has since passed through the straits of magellan, has had some intercourse with them;--the more so, that spanish people have had settlements on the confines of their country; and one--an unsuccessful one, however--in the very heart of it! but these spanish settlements have all decayed, or are fast decaying; and when the spanish race disappears from america,--which sooner or later it will most certainly do,--it will leave behind it a greater paucity of monumental record, than perhaps any civilised nation ever before transmitted to posterity. little, however, as we have learnt about the customs of the patagonian people, we have at least obtained a more definite idea of their height. _they have been measured_. the twelve-feet giants can no longer be found; they never existed, except in the fertile imaginations of some of the old _navigators_,--whose embodied testimony, nevertheless, it is difficult to disbelieve. other and more reliable witnesses have done away with the titans; but still we are unable to reduce the stature of the patagonians to that of ordinary men. if not actual _giants_, they are, at all events, very tall men,--many of them standing seven feet in their boots of guanaco-leather, few less than six, and a like few rising nearly to eight! these measurements are definite and certain; and although the whole number of the indians that inhabit the plains of patagonia may not reach the above standard there are tribes of smaller men called by the common name patagonians,--yet many individuals certainly exist who come up to it. if not positive giants, then, it is safe enough to consider the patagonians as among the "tallest" of human beings,--perhaps the very tallest that exist, or ever existed, upon the face of the earth; and for this reason, if for no other, they are entitled to be regarded as an "odd people." but they have other claims to this distinction; for their habits and customs, although in general corresponding to those of other tribes of american indians, present us with many points that are peculiar. it may be remarked that the patagonian women, although not so tall as their men, are in the usual proportion observable between the sexes. many of them are more corpulent than the men; and if the latter be called _giants_, the former have every claim to the appellation of _giantesses_! we have observed, elsewhere, the very remarkable difference between the two territories, lying respectively north and south of the magellan straits,--the patagonian on the north, and the fuegian on the south. no two lands could exhibit a greater contrast than these,--the former with its dry sterile treeless plains,--the latter almost entirely without plains; and, excepting a portion of its eastern end, without one level spot of an acre in breadth; but a grand chaos of humid forest-clad ravines and snow-covered mountains. yet these two dissimilar regions are only separated by a narrow sea-channel,--deep, it is true; but so narrow, that a cannon-shot may be projected from one shore to the other. not less dissimilar are the people who inhabit these opposite shores; and one might fancy a strange picture of contrast presented in the straits of magellan: on some projecting bluff on the northern shore, a stalwart patagonian, eight feet in height, with his ample guanaco skin floating from his shoulders, and his long spear towering ten feet above his head;--on the southern promontory, the dwarfed and shrivelled figure of a fuegian,--scarce five feet tall,--with tiny bow and arrows in hand, and shivering under his patch of greasy sealskin!--and yet so near each other, that the stentorian voice of the giant may thunder in the ears of the dwarf; while the henlike cackle of the latter may even reach those of his colossal _vis-a-vis_! notwithstanding this proximity, there is no converse between them; for, unlike as are their persons, they are not more dissimilar than their thoughts, habits, and actions. the one is an aquatic animal, the other essentially terrestrial; and, strange to say, in this peculiarity the weaker creature has the advantage: since the fuegian can cross in his bark canoe to the territory of his gigantic neighbour, while the latter has no canoe nor water-craft of any kind, and therefore never thinks of extending his excursions to the "land of fire," excepting at one very narrow place where he has effected a crossing. in many other respects, more particularly detailed elsewhere,--in their natural dispositions and modes of life, these two peoples are equally dissimilar; and although learned craniologists may prove from their skulls, that both belong to one division of the human family, this fact proves also that craniology, like anatomy, is but a blind guide in the illustration of scientific truth,--whether the subject be the skull of a man or an animal. despite all the revelations of craniologic skill, an indian of patagonia bears about the same resemblance to an indian of tierra del fuego, as may be found between a bull and a bluebottle! before proceeding to describe the modes of life practised by the patagonian giants, a word or two about the country they inhabit. it may be generally described as occupying the whole southern part of south america,--from the frontier of the spanish settlements to the straits of magellan,--and bounded east and west by the two great oceans. now, the most southern spanish (buenos-ayrean) settlement is at the mouth of rio negro; therefore, the rio negro--which is the largest river south of the la plata--may be taken as the northern boundary of patagonia. not that the weak, vitiated spanish-american extends his sway from the atlantic to the andes: on the contrary, the indian aborigines, under one name or another, are masters of the whole interior,--not only to the north of the rio negro, but to the very shores of the caribbean sea! yes, the broad inland of south america, from cape horn to the sea of the antilles, is now, as it always has been, the domain of the red indian; who, so far from having ever been reduced by conquest, has not only resisted the power of the spanish sword, and the blandishments of the spanish cross; but at this hour is encroaching, with constant and rapid strides, upon the blood-stained territory wrested from him by that _christian conquest_! and this is the man who is so rapidly to disappear from the face of the earth! if so, it is not the puny spaniard who is destined to push him off. if he is to disappear, it will be at such a time, that no spaniard will be living to witness his extermination. let us take patagonia proper, then, as bordered upon the north by the rio negro, and extending from the atlantic to the pacific. in that case it is a country of eight hundred miles in length, with a breadth of at least two hundred,--a country larger than either france or spain. patagonia is usually described as a continuation of the great plains, known as the "pampas," which extend from the la plata river to the eastern slope of the andes. this idea is altogether erroneous. it is true that patagonia is a country of plains,--excepting that portion of it occupied by the andes, which is, of course, a mountain tract, much of it resembling tierra del fuego in character more than patagonia. indeed, patagonia proper can hardly be regarded as including this mountain strip: since the patagonian indians only inhabit the plains properly so called. these plains differ essentially from those of the pampas. the latter are based upon a calcareous formation: and produce a rank, rich herbage,--here of gigantic thistles and wild artichokes,-- there of tall grasses; and, still nearer the mountains, they are thinly covered with copses of low trees. the plains of patagonia on the other hand, are of tertiary formation, covered all over with a shingly pebble of porphyry and basalt, and almost destitute of vegetation. here and there are some tufts of scanty grass with a few stunted bushes in the valleys of the streams, but nothing that can be called a tree. a surface drear and arid, in places mottled with "salinas" or salt lakes; with fresh water only found at long intervals, and, when found, of scanty supply. there are many hilly tracts, but nothing that can be called mountains,--excepting the snow-covered cordilleras in the west. the patagonian plain is not everywhere of equal elevation: it rises by steps, as you follow it westward, beginning from the sea-level of the atlantic shore; until, having reached the _piedmont_ of the andes, you still find yourself on a plain, but one which is elevated three thousand feet above the point from which you started. at all elevations, however, it presents the same sterile aspect; and you perceive that patagonia is a true desert,--as much so as atacama, in peru, the desert of the colorado in the north, the "barren grounds" of hudson's bay, the sahara and kalahari, gobi, or the steppe of kaurezm. to the south-african deserts it bears a more striking resemblance than to any of the others,--a resemblance heightened by the presence of that most remarkable of birds,--the ostrich. two species stalk over the plains of patagonia,--the _struthio rhea_ and _struthio darwinii_. the former extends northward over the pampas, but not southward to the straits of magellan; the latter reaches the straits, but is never seen upon the pampas. the ranges of both meet and overlap near the middle of the patagonian plain. in addition to the ostrich, there are other large birds that frequent the steppes of patagonia. the great condor here crosses the continent, and appears upon the atlantic shores. he perches upon the cliffs of the sea,--as well as those that overhang the inland streams,--and builds his nest upon the bare rock. two species of _polyborus_, or vulture-eagles,--the "carrancha" and "chiniango,"--fly side by side with the condor; and the black turkey-vultures are also denizens of this desert land. the red puma, too, has his home here; the fox of azara; and several species of hawks and eagles. with the exception of the first-mentioned--the ostrich--all these beasts and birds are predatory creatures; and require flesh for their subsistence. where do they get it? upon what do they all prey? surely not upon the ostrich: since this bird is bigger than any of the birds of prey, and able to defend itself even against the great condor. there are only one or two other species of birds upon which the eagles might subsist,--a partridge and two kinds of plover; but the vultures could not get a living out of partridges and plovers. small quadrupeds are alike scarce. there are only two or three species; and very small creatures they are,--one a sort of mole, "terutero," and several kinds of mice. the latter are, indeed, numerous enough in some places,-- swarming over the ground in tracts so sterile, that it is difficult to understand upon what they subsist. but vultures do not relish food, which they require to kill for themselves. they are too indolent for that; and wherever they are found, there must be some source of supply,--some large quadrupeds to provide them with their favourite food,--carrion. otherwise, in this desert land, how should the ravenous puma maintain himself?--how the vultures and vulture-eagles? and, above all, upon what does the patagonian himself subsist,--a man of such great bulk, as naturally to require more than the ordinary amount of food? the answer to all these questions, then, is, that a quadruped _does_ exist in the deserts of patagonia; which, if it furnish not all these creatures with their full diet supplies, does a large proportion of it. this quadruped is the _guanaco_. before proceeding to give an account of the guanaco, let us paint the portrait of the patagonian himself. as already observed, he is nearly seven feet in height, without any exaggeration in the way of a hat. he wears none, but suffers his long black hair to hang loosely over his shoulders, or, more frequently, gathers it into a knot or club upon the crown of his head. to keep it from straggling into his eyes, he usually wears a narrow strap of guanaco skin around his forehead, or a plaited band of the hair of the same animal; but, although possessing ostrich-feathers at discretion, he rarely indulges in the fashion of wearing a plume,--he knows he is tall enough without one. over his shoulders, and hanging nearly to his heels, he wears a loose mantle of guanaco skins; which is of sufficient width to wrap round his body, and meet over his breast,--should he feel cold enough to require it. but he is not of a chilly nature; and he often throws this mantle entirely aside to give him the freedom of his arms; or more generally ties a girdle round it, and leaves the upper part to fall back from his shoulders, and hang down over the girdle. this mantle--with the exception of a small pouch-like apron in front--is the only "garment," the patagonian wears upon his body; but his lower limbs have a covering of their own. these are encased in a sort of boots or mocassins,--but differing from all other boots and mocassins, in the fact of their being without _soles_! they are made of the same material as the mantle,--that is, of the skin of the _guanaco_,--but sometimes also of the skin of a horse's shank,--for the patagonian, like the pampas indian, is in possession of this valuable animal. this soleless boot covers the leg all round from below the knee, passing over the top of the foot like a gaiter; it extends also around the heel, and a little under it, but not so far as the instep, thus leaving the greater part of the sole bare, and the toes peeping out in front! they are, in reality, nothing more or less than gaiters, but gaiters of _guanaco skin_, with the hair turned outward, and worn, not over a pair of boots or shoes, as gaiters usually are, but upon the naked shanks. i have been thus particular in my description of the patagonian _chaussure_; but you will understand my reasons, when i tell you that, from this trifling circumstance, not only has a vast territory of country, but the people who inhabit it, obtained the appellation by which both have long been known to the civilised world, that is, _patagonian_. when the sailors who accompanied magellan first saw these colossal men, they noticed a peculiar circumstance in relation to their feet. the flaps, or "uppers," of the gaiters, extending loosely across the tops of their feet, and exaggerated in breadth by the long hair that fringed out from their edges, gave to these indians the appearance of having paws or "patas;" and the name _patagones_, or "duck-feet," was given them by the sailors,--ever prone to the bestowal of a ludicrous epithet. this name, in a slightly altered form, they have borne ever since,--so that patagonia means the country of the _duck-footed_ men. the gaiters of the patagonians have their peculiar purpose. they are not worn merely for the sake of keeping the legs warm, but also as a protection against the thorny shrubs which in patagonia, as in all desert lands, are exceedingly abundant. the mantle and mocassins, then, constitute the patagonian's costume; and it does not differ so widely from that of his neighbour the fuegian,-- the chief points of difference being in the size and material. of course the guanaco skin is much larger than that of the common seal; and a good patagonian cloak would furnish "doublets" for a whole tribe of the diminutive fuegians. perhaps his ample garment has something to do in producing the exaggerated accounts that have been given of the stature of the patagonians. certain it is, that a man thus apparelled, looks larger than he otherwise would do; and presents altogether a _more_ imposing appearance. the caffre, in his civet-cat "kaross," and the pawnee indian, in his robe of shaggy buffalo-hide, loom very large upon karroo and prairie,--much larger in appearance than they really are. it is but natural, therefore, to suppose that the patagonian, attired in his guanaco mantle, and seen against the sky, standing upon the summit of a conspicuous cliff, would present a truly gigantic appearance. when first seen in this position he was on foot. it was in the year ,--before the spaniards had set foot upon south-american soil,--and of course before the horse became naturalised to that continent. in less than thirty years afterward, he appeared upon these same cliffs bestriding a steed: for this noble animal had extended his range over the plains of america,--even at an earlier period than his european owner. when the spaniards, in their after-attempts at conquering the indians of the pampas and those of the northern prairies, entered upon these great plains, they encountered, to their great astonishment, their red enemies upon horseback, brandishing long lances, and managing fiery chargers with a skill equal to their own! among the earliest tribes that obtained possession of the horse, were those of the pampas: since the first of these animals that ran wild on the plains of america were those landed in the la plata expedition of mendoza,--whence they became scattered over the adjacent pampas of buenos ayres. from the banks of the la plata, the horse passed rapidly southward to the straits of magellan; and from that hour the patagonian walked no more. with the exception of a spur,--usually a sharp stick of wood, upon his heel,--the only additional article of his "wear," the horse has made no change in his costume, nor in the fashion of his toilet. he still paints his face, as magellan first saw it,--with a white ring encircling one eye, and a black or red one around the other; with one half of his body coloured black, and a white sun delineated upon it, while the other half is white, forming the "ground" for a black moon! scarce two individuals, however, wear the same escutcheon; for the fashion of having eyes, arms, and legs of two different colours--just as our ancestors used to wear their doublets and hose--is that followed by the patagonians. notwithstanding this queer custom,--usually regarded as savage,--it would be unjust to call the patagonian a _savage_. if we overlook the circumstance of his painting himself,--which, after all, is scarce more absurd than numberless practices of civilised life,--if we excuse him for too scantily covering the nakedness of his person, and relishing his food a little "underdone," we find little else, either in his habits or his moral nature that would entitle him to be termed a savage. on the contrary, from all the testimony that can be obtained,--in all the intercourse which white men have had with him,--there is scarce an act recorded, that would hinder his claim to being considered as civilised as they. honourable and amiable, brave and generous, he has ever proved himself; and never has he exhibited those traits of vindictive ferocity supposed to be characteristic of the untutored man. he has not even harboured malice for the wrongs done him by the unprincipled adventurer magellan: who, in his treatment of these people, proved himself more of a savage than they. but the patagonian restrained his vengeance; and apparently burying the outrage in oblivion, has ever since that time treated the white man with a generous and dignified friendship. those who have been shipwrecked upon his solitary shores, have had no reason to complain of the treatment they have received at his hands. he is neither cannibal, nor yet barbarian,--but in truth a gentleman,--or, if you prefer it, a _gentleman savage_. but how does this gentleman maintain himself? we have already seen that he is not a fisherman,--for he owns no species of boat; and without that his chances of capturing fish would be slight and uncertain. we have stated, moreover, that his country is a sterile desert; and so it is,-- producing only the scantiest of herbage; neither plant, nor tree, that would furnish food; and incapable of being cultivated with any success. but he does not attempt cultivation,--he has no knowledge of it; nor is it likely he would feel the inclination, even if tempted by the most fertile soil. neither is he pastoral in his habits: he has no flocks nor herds. the horse and dog are his only domestic animals; and these he requires for other purposes than food. the former enables him to pass easily over the wide tracts of his sterile land, and both assist him in the chase,--which is his true and only calling. one of the chief objects of his pursuit is the ostrich; and he eats the flesh of this fine desert bird. he eats it, whenever he can procure it; but he could not live solely upon such food: since he could not obtain it in sufficient quantity; and were this bird the only means he had for supplying his larder, he would soon be in danger of starvation. true, the ostrich lays a great many eggs, and brings forth a large brood of young; but there are a great many hungry mouths, and a great many large stomachs among the patagonian people. the ostrich could never supply them all; and were it their only resource, the bird would soon disappear from the plains of patagonia, and, perhaps, the race of patagonian giants along with it. fortunately for the patagonian, his country furnishes him with another kind of game, from which he obtains a more sufficient supply; and that is the guanaco. behold yonder herd of stately creatures! there are several hundreds of them in all. their bodies are covered with long, woolly hair of a reddish-brown colour. if they had antlers upon their heads, you might mistake them for stags,--for they are just about the size of the male of the red deer. but they have no horns; and otherwise they are unlike these animals,--in their long slender necks, and coat of woolly hair. they are not deer of any kind,--they are _guanacos_. these, then, are the herds of the patagonian indian; they are the game he chiefly pursues; and their flesh the food, upon which he is mainly subsisted. i need not here give the natural history of the guanaco. suffice it to say that it is one of the four (perhaps five) species of _llamas_ or "camel-sheep" peculiar to the continent of south america,--the other three of which are the _vicuna_, the true _llama_, and the _paco_, or _alpaca_. the llama and alpaca are domesticated; but the vicuna, the most graceful of all, exists only in a wild state, like the guanaco. the four kinds inhabit the tablelands of the andes, from colombia to chili; but the guanaco has extended its range across to the atlantic side of the continent: this only in the territory south of the la plata river. on the plains of patagonia it is the characteristic quadruped: rarely out of sight, and usually seen in herds of twenty or thirty individuals; but sometimes in large droves, numbering as many as five hundred. there the puma--after the indian of course--is its greatest enemy,--and the _debris_ of _his_ feast constitutes the food of the vultures and vulture-eagles,--thus accounting for the presence of these great birds in such a desert land. the guanaco is among the shyest of quadrupeds; and its capture would be difficult to any one unacquainted with its habits. but these betray them to the skilled patagonian hunter,--who is well acquainted with every fact in the natural history of the animal. the patagonian mode of capturing these creatures is not without many peculiarities in hunting practice. his first care is to find out their whereabouts: for the haunts which the guanacos most affect are not the level plains, where they might be seen from afar, but rather those places where the ground is hilly or rolling. there they are to be met with, ranged in extended lines along the sides of the hills, with an old male keeping watch upon the summit of some eminence that overlooks the flock. should the sentinel espy any danger, or even suspect it, he gives the alarm by uttering a shrill, whistling cry, somewhat resembling a neigh. on hearing this well-known signal, the others at once take to flight, and gallop straight for the side of some other hill,--where they all halt in line, and stand waiting to see if they are followed. very often the first intimation which the hunter has of their presence, is by hearing their strange signal of flight,--which may be described as a sort of triangular cross between squealing, neighing, and whistling. shy as they are, and difficult to be approached, they have the strange peculiarity of losing all their senses when put into confusion. on these occasions they behave exactly like a flock of sheep: not knowing which way to ran; now dashing to one side, then to the other, and often rushing into the very teeth of that danger from which they are trying to escape! knowing their stupidity in this respect, the patagonian hunter acts accordingly. he does not go out to hunt the guanacos alone, but in company with others of his tribe, the hunting-party often comprising the whole tribe. armed with their "chuzos,"--light cane spears of eighteen feet in length,--and mounted on their well-trained steeds, they sally forth from their encampment, and proceed to the favourite pasturing-ground of the guanacos. their purpose is, if possible, to effect the "surround" of a whole herd; and to accomplish this, it is necessary to proceed with great skill and caution. the animals are found at length; and, by means of a deployment of dogs and horsemen, are driven towards some hill which may be convenient to the pasture. the instinct of the animal guiding it thither, renders this part of the performance easy enough. on reaching the hill, the guanacos dash onward, up to its summit; and there, halting in a compact crowd, make front towards their pursuers. these meanwhile have galloped into a circle,--surrounding the eminence on all sides; and, advancing upwards amidst loud yells and the yelping of their dogs, close finally around the herd, and rush forward to the attack. the long chuzos do their work with rapidity; and, in a few minutes, numbers of the guanacos lie lifeless among the rocks. the dogs, with some men, form an outer circle of assailants; and should any guanacos escape through the line of horsemen, they are seized upon by the dogs, and pinned to the spot,--for it is another sheep-like trait in the character of this animal, that the moment a dog--even though he be the merest cur--seizes hold of it, it neither attempts further flight nor resistance, but remains "pinned" to the spot as if under a paralysis of terror. they sometimes give battle, however, though never to a dog; and their mode of assault is by kicking behind them,--not with their hoofs as horses do, but with the knee-joints, the hind legs being both raised at once. among themselves the males fight terrible battles: biting each other with their teeth, and often inflicting cruel lacerations. strange to say, when the guanacos are found solitary, or only two or three together, they are far less shy than when assembled in large herds. at such times, the feeling of curiosity seems stronger than that of fear within them; and the hunter can easily approach within a dozen paces of one, by simply cutting a few capers, or holding up something that may be new to it,--such as a strip of coloured rag, or some showy article of any kind. it was by such devices that the patagonian captured these creatures, before possession of the horse enabled him to effect their destruction in the more wholesale fashion of the "surround." by tumbling about over the ground, he was enabled to bring the game within reach,--not of his bow and arrows; nor yet of his long spear,-- for he did not use it for such a purpose,--and, of course, not of a gun, for he never had heard of such a weapon. within reach of what then? of a weapon peculiarly his own,--a weapon of singular construction and deadly effect; which he knew how to employ before ever the white man came upon his shores, and which the spaniards who dwell in the pampas country have found both pride and profit in adopting. this weapon is the "bolas." it is simple and easily described. two round stones,--the women make them round by grinding the one against the other,--two round stones are covered with a piece of guanaco raw hide, presenting very much the appearance of cricket-balls, though of unequal size,--one being considerably smaller than the other. two thongs are cut; and one end of each is firmly attached to one of the balls. the other ends of the thongs are knotted to each other; and when the strings are at full stretch, the balls will then be about eight feet apart,--in other words, each thong should be four feet in length. the bolas are now made, and ready for use. the chief difficulty in their manufacture lies in the rounding of the stones; which, as above observed, is the work of the women; and at least two days are required to grind a pair of bola-stones to the proper spherical shape. to handle them requires long practice; and this the patagonian has had: for, ever since the young giant was able to stand upon his feet, he has been in the habit of playing with the bolas. they have been the toy of his childhood; and to display skill in their management has been the pride of his boyish days; therefore, on arriving at full maturity, no wonder he exhibits great dexterity in their use. he can then project them to a distance of fifty yards,--with such precision as to strike the legs of either man or quadruped, and with such force, that the thong not only whips itself around the object struck, but often leaves a deep weal in the skin and flesh. the mode of throwing them is well-known. the right hand only is used; and this grasps the thongs at their point of union, about halfway between the ends. the balls are then whirled in a circular motion around the head; and, when sufficient centrifugal power has been obtained, the weapon is launched at the object to be captured. the aim is a matter of nice calculation,--in which arm, eye, and mind, all bear a part,--and so true is this aim, in patagonian practice, that the hunter seldom fails to bring down or otherwise cripple his game,--be it ostrich, cavy, or guanaco. by these bolas, then, did the patagonian hunter capture the guanaco and ostrich in times past; and by the same weapon does he still capture them: for he can use it even better on horseback than on foot. either the bird or the quadruped, within fifty yards, has no chance of escape from his unerring aim. the bolas, in some districts, have been improved upon by the introduction of a third ball; but this the patagonian does not consider an _improvement_. wooden balls are sometimes employed; and iron ones, where they can be had,--the last sort can be projected to the greatest distance. the patagonian takes the young guanacos alive; and brings them up in a state of domestication. the little creatures may often be observed, standing outside the tents of a patagonian encampment,--either tied by a string, or held in hand by some "infant giant" of the tribe. it is not solely for the pleasure of making pets of them, that the young guanacos are thus cherished; nor yet to raise them for food. the object aimed at has a very different signification. these young guanacos are intended to be used as _decoys_: for the purpose of attracting their own relatives,--fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, and aunts, even to the most distant thirty-second cousinship,--within reach of the terrible bolas! this is effected by tying the innocent little creature to some bush,-- behind which the hunter conceals himself,--and then imitating the mother's call; which the indian hunter can do with all the skill of a ventriloquist. the young captive responds with the plaintive cry of captivity,--the parents are soon attracted to the spot, and fall victims to their instinct of natural affection. were it not for this, and similar stratagems adopted by the patagonian hunter, he would pursue the guanaco in vain. even with the help of his pack of dogs, and mounted upon the fleet spanish horse, the guanaco cannot be hunted with success. nature, in denying to these animals almost every means of defence, has also bestowed upon them a gift which enables them to escape from many kinds of danger. of mild and inoffensive habits,--defenceless as the hare,--they are also possessed of a like swiftness. indeed, there is perhaps no quadruped--not even the antelope--that can get over the ground as speedily as the guanaco or its kindred species the vicuna. both are swift as the wind; and the eye, following either in its retreat over the level plain, or up the declivity of a hill, is deluded into the fancy that it is watching some great bird upon the wing. there are certain seasons during which the guanaco is much more difficult to approach than at other times; but this is true of almost every species of animal,--whether bird or quadruped. of course, the tame season is that of sexual intercourse, when even the wild beasts become reckless under the influence of passion. at other times the guanacos are generally very shy; and sometimes extremely so. it is not uncommon for a herd of them to take the alarm, and scamper off from the hunter, even before the latter has approached near enough to be himself within sight of them! they possess great keenness of scent, but it is the eye which usually proves their friend, warning them of the approach of an enemy--especially if that enemy be a man upon horseback--before the latter is aware of their proximity. often a cloud of dust, rising afar off over the plain, is the only proof the hunter can obtain, that there was game within the range of his vision. it is a curious circumstance connected with hunting on these great plains,--both on the pampas and in patagonia,--that a man on foot can approach much nearer to any game than if he were mounted upon a horse. this is true not only in relation to the guanaco and ostrich, but also of the large pampas deer (_cervus campestris_); and indeed of almost every animal that inhabits these regions. the reason is simple enough. all these creatures are accustomed to seeing their human enemy only on horseback: for "still hunting," or hunting afoot, is rarely or never practised upon the plains. not only that, but a man on foot, would be a rare sight either to an ostrich or guanaco; and they would scarce recognise him as an enemy! curiosity would be their leading sentiment; and, being influenced by this, the hunter _on foot_ can often approach them without difficulty. the patagonian, knowing this peculiarity, not unfrequently takes advantage of it, to kill or capture both the bird and the quadruped. this sentiment of the brute creation, on the plains of patagonia, is directly the reverse of what may be observed in our own fields. the sly crow shows but little of this shyness, so long as you approach it on a horse's back; but only attempt to steal up to it on foot,--even with a thick hawthorn hedge to screen you,--and every fowler knows how wary the bird can prove itself. some people pronounce this _instinct_. if so, instinct and reason must be one and the same thing. besides hunting the guanaco, much of the patagonian's time is spent in the chase of the ostrich; and, to circumvent this shy creature, he adopts various _ruses_. the american ostrich, or more properly _rhea_, has many habits in common with its african congener. one of these is, when pursued it runs in a straight track, and, if possible, _against_ the wind. aware of this habit, the patagonians pursue it on horseback,--taking the precaution to place some of their party in ambush in the direction which the bird is most likely to run. they then gallop hastily up to the line of flight, and either intercept the rhea altogether, or succeed in "hoppling" it with the bolas. the moment these touch its long legs, both are drawn suddenly together; and the bird goes down as if shot! drake and other voyagers have recorded the statement that the patagonians attract the rhea within reach, by disguising themselves in a skin of this bird. this is evidently an untruth; and the error, whether wilful or otherwise, derives its origin from the fact, that a stratagem of the kind is adopted by the bushmen of africa to deceive the ostrich. but what is practicable and possible between a pigmy bushman and a gigantic african ostrich, becomes altogether impracticable and improbable, when the _dramatis persona_ are a gigantic patagonian and an american _rhea_. moreover, it is also worthy of remark, that the _rhea_ of the patagonian plains is not the larger of the two species of american ostrich, but the smaller one (_rhea darwinii_), which has been lately specifically named after the celebrated naturalist. and justly does mr darwin merit the honour: since he was the first to give a scientific description of the bird. he was not the first, however,--as he appears himself to believe,--to discover its existence, or to give a record of it in writing. the old styrian monk, dobrizhoffer, two centuries before mr darwin was born, in his "history of the abipones" clearly points to the fact that there were two distinct species of the "avestruz," or south-american ostrich. mr darwin, however, has confirmed dobrizhoffer's account; and brought both birds home with him; and he, who chooses to reflect upon the subject, will easily perceive how impossible it would be for a patagonian to conceal his bulky _corpus_ under the skin of a _rhea darwinii, or even_ that of its larger congener, the _rhea americana_. the skin of either would be little more than large enough to form a cap for the _colossus_ of the patagonian plains. in the more fertile parts of patagonia, the large deer (_cervus campestris_) is found. these are also hunted by the patagonian, and their flesh is esteemed excellent food; not, however, until it has lain several days buried underground,--for it requires this funereal process, to rid it of the rank, goat-like smell, so peculiar to the species. the mode of hunting this deer--at least that most likely to insure success-- is by stealing forward to it on foot. sometimes a man may approach it, within the distance of a few yards,-- even when there is no cover to shelter him,--by walking gently up to it. of all the other quadrupeds of the pampas,--and these plains are its favourite _habitat_,--the _cervus campestris_ most dreads the horseman:--since its enemy always appears in that guise; and it has learnt the destructive power of both lazo and bolas, by having witnessed their effects upon its comrades. the hunter dismounted has no terrors for it; and if he will only keep lazo and bolas out of sight,--for these it can distinguish, as our crow does the gun,--he may get near enough to fling either one or the other with a fatal precision. the "agouti" (_cavia patagonica_) frequently furnishes the patagonian with a meal. this species is a true denizen of the desert plains of patagonia; and forms one of the characteristic features of their landscape. i need not describe its generic characters; and specifically it has been long known as the "patagonian cavy." its habits differ very little from the other south-american animals of this rodent genus,-- except that, unlike the great capivara, it does not affect to dwell near the water. it is altogether a denizen of dry plains, in which it burrows, and upon which it may be seen browsing, or hopping at intervals from one point to another, like a gigantic rabbit or hare. in fact, the cavies appear to be the south-american representatives of the hare family,--taking their place upon all occasions; and, though of many different species,--according to climate, soil, and other circumstances,--yet agreeing with the hares in most of their characteristic habits. so much do some of the species assimilate to these last, that colonial sportsmen are accustomed to give them the old-world appellation of the celebrated swift-footed rodent. the patagonian cavies are much larger than english hares,--one of them will weigh twenty-five pounds,--but, in other respects, there is a great deal of resemblance. on a fine evening, three or four cavies may be seen squatted near each other, or hopping about over the plains, one following the other in a direct line, as if they were all proceeding on the same errand! just such a habit is frequently observed among hares and rabbits in a field of young corn or fallow. the patagonian boys and women often employ themselves in seeking out the ostriches' nests, and robbing them of their eggs,--which last they find good eating. in the nests of the smaller species which we have already stated to be the most common in the patagonian country,--they are not rewarded so liberally for their trouble. only from sixteen to twenty eggs are hatched by the _rhea darwinii_ and about twenty-five to thirty by the _rhea americana_. it will be seen, that this is far below the number obtained from the nest of the african ostrich (_struthio camelus_),--in which as many as sixty or seventy eggs are frequently found. it would appear, therefore, that the greater the size of the bird, belonging to this genus the greater the number of its brood. both the american rheas follow the peculiar habit of the true ostrich: that is, several hens deposit their eggs in the same nest; and the male bird assists in the process of incubation. indeed, in almost every respect-- except size and general colour of plumage--the american and african ostriches resemble each other very closely; and there is no reason in the world why a pedantic compiler should have bestowed upon them distinct generic names. both are true _camel birds_: both alike the offspring, as they are the ornament, of the desert land. another occupation in which the patagonian engages--and which sometimes rewards him with a meal--is the snaring of the pampas partridge (_nothuria major_). this is usually the employment of the more youthful giants; and is performed both on foot and on horseback. a small species of partridge is taken on foot; but the larger kind can be snared best from the back of a horse. the mode is not altogether peculiar to patagonia: since it is also practised in other parts of america,--both north and south,--and the bustard is similarly captured upon the _karoos_ of africa. during the noon hours of the day, the performance takes place: that is, when the sun no longer casts a shadow. the locality of the bird being first ascertained, the fowler approaches it, as near as it will allow. he then commences riding round, and round, and round,--being all the while watched by the _foolish_ bird, that, in constantly turning its head, appears to grow giddy, and loses all dread of danger. the indian each moment keeps lessening his circle; or, in other words, approaches by a spiral line, continually closing upon its centre. his only weapon is a long light reed,--something like the common kind of cane fishing-rod, seen in the hands of rustic youth in our own country. on the end of this reed he has adjusted a stiff snare; the noose of which is made from the epidermis of an ostrich plume, or a piece of the split quill; and which, being both stiff and elastic, serves admirably for the purpose for which it is designed. having at length arrived within a proper distance to reach the beguiled bird, the boy softly stops his horse, bends gently sidewards, and, adroitly passing his noose over the neck of the partridge, jerks the silly creature into the air. in this way an indian boy will capture a dozen of these birds in a few hours; and might obtain far more, if the sun would only stay all day in the zenith. but as the bright orb sinks westward, the elongated shadow of the horseman passes over the partridge before the latter is within reach of the snare; and this alarming the creature, causes it to take flight. the patagonian builds no house; nor does he remain long in one place at a time. the sterile soil upon which he dwells requires him to lead a nomade life; passing from place to place in search of game. a tent is therefore his home; and this is of the simplest kind: the tent-cloth consisting of a number of guanaco skins stitched together, and the poles being such as he can obtain from the nearest tract of thicket or _chapparal_. the poles are set bow-fashion in the ground, and over these the skin covering is spread,--one of the bent poles being left uncovered, to serve as a doorway. most of the patagonian's time is occupied in procuring game: which, as we have seen, is his sole sustenance; and when he has any leisure moments, they are given to the care of his horse, or to the making or repairing his weapons for the chase. above all, the bolas are his especial pride, and ever present with him. when not in actual use, they are suspended from his girdle, or tied sash-like around his waist,--the balls dangling down like a pair of tassels. only during his hours of sleep, is this national weapon ever out of the hands of the patagonian giant. had the wonderful giant of our nurseries been provided with such a sling, it is probable that little jack would have found in him an adversary more difficult to subdue! chapter eighteen. the fuegian dwarfs. the great continent of south america, tapering like a tongue to the southward, ends abruptly on the straits of magellan. these straits may be regarded as a sort of natural canal, connecting the atlantic with the pacific ocean, winding between high rocky shores, and indented with numerous bays and inlets. though the water is of great depth, the straits themselves are so narrow that a ship passing through need never lose sight of land on either side; and in many places a shell, projected from an ordinary howitzer, would pitch clear across them from shore to shore! the country extending northward from these straits is, as already seen, called _patagonia_; that which lies on their southern side is the famed "land of fire," _tierra del fuego_. the canal, or channel, of the straits of magellan does not run in a direct line from the atlantic to the pacific. on the contrary, a ship entering from the former, instead of passing due west, must first run in a south-west direction,--rather more south than west. this course will continue, until the ship is about halfway between the two oceans. she will then head almost at a right angle to her former course; and keep this direction--which is nearly due north-west--until she emerges into the pacific. it will thus be seen, that the straits form an angle near their middle; and the point of land which projects into the vertex of this angle, and known to navigators as cape forward, is the most southern land of the american _continent_. of course this is not meant to apply to the most southern point of american land,--since tierra del fuego must be considered as part of south america. the far-famed "cape horn" is the part of america nearest to the south pole; and this is a promontory on one of the small elevated islands lying off the southern coast of tierra del fuego itself. tierra del fuego was for a long time regarded as a single island; though, even in the voyage of magellan, several large inlets, that resembled channels, were observed running into the land; and it was suspected by that navigator, that these inlets might be passages leading through to the ocean. later surveys have proved that the conjectures of the spano-portuguese voyager were well founded; and it is now known that instead of a single island, the country called tierra del fuego is a congeries of many islands, of different shapes and sizes,--separated from one another by deep and narrow channels, or arms of the sea, with an endless ramification of sounds and inlets. in the western part--and occupying more than three fourths of their whole territory--these close-lying islands are nothing else than mountains,-- several of them rising five thousand feet above the level of the water; and stepping directly down to it, without any foothills intervening! some of them have their lower declivities covered with sombre forests; while, farther up, nothing appears but the bare brown rocks, varied with blue glaciers, or mottled with masses of snow. the more elevated peaks are covered with snow that never melts; since their summits rise considerably above the snow-line of this cold region. these mountain islands of tierra del fuego continue on to cape horn, and eastward to the straits of le maire, and the bleak islet of staaten land. they may, in fact, be considered as the continuation of the great chain of the andes, if we regard the intersecting channels--including that of magellan itself--as mere clefts or ravines, the bottoms of which, lying below the level of the sea, have been filled with sea-water. indeed, we may rationally take this view of the case: since these channels bear a very great resemblance to the stupendous ravines termed "barrancas" and "quebradas," which intersect the cordilleras of the andes in other parts of south america,--as also in the northern division of the american continent. regarding the straits of magellan, then, and the other channels of tierra del fuego, as great _water-barrancas_, we may consider the andes as terminating at cape horn itself, or rather at staaten land: since that island is a still more distant extension of this, the longest chain of mountains on the globe. another point may be here adduced, in proof of the rationality of this theory. the western, or mountainous part of tierra del fuego bears a strong resemblance to the western section of the continent,--that is, the part occupied by the andes. for a considerable distance to the north of the magellan straits, nearly one half of the continental land is of a mountainous character. it is also indented by numerous sounds and inlets, resembling those of tierra del fuego; while the mountains that hang over these deep-water ravines are either timbered, or bare of trees and snow-covered, exhibiting glacier valleys, like those farther south. the whole physical character is similar; and, what is a still more singular fact, we find that in the western, or mountainous part of patagonia, there are no true patagonians; but that there, the water-indians, or fuegians, frequent the creeks and inlets. again, upon the east,--or rather north-east of tierra del fuego,--that angular division of it, which lies to the north of the sebastian channel presents us with physical features that correspond more nearly with those of the plains of patagonia; and upon this part we find tribes of indians that beyond doubt are true patagonians,--and not fuegians, as they have been described. this will account for the fact that some navigators have seen people on the fuegian side that were large-bodied men, clothed in guanaco skins, and exhibiting none of those wretched traits which characterise the fuegians; while, on the other hand, miserable, stunted men are known to occupy the mountainous western part of patagonia. it amounts to this,--that the patagonians _have_ crossed the straits of magellan; and it is this people, and not fuegians, who are usually seen upon the champaign lands north of the sebastian channel. even the guanaco has crossed at the same place,--for this quadruped, as well as a species of deer, is found in the eastern division of tierra del fuego. perhaps it was the camel-sheep--which appears to be almost a necessity of the patagonian's existence--that first induced these water-hating giants to make so extensive a voyage as that of crossing the straits at cape orange! at cape orange the channel is so narrow, one might fancy that the patagonians, if they possessed one half the pedestrian stretch attributed to the giants of old, might have stepped from shore to shore without wetting their great feet! perhaps there are no two people on earth, living so near each other as the patagonians and fuegians, who are more unlike. except in the colour of the skin and hair, there is hardly a point of resemblance between them. the former seems to hate the sea: at all events he never goes out upon, nor even approaches its shore, except in pursuit of such game as may wander that way. he neither dwells near, nor does he draw any portion of his subsistence from the waters of the great deep,--fish constituting no part of his food. all this is directly the reverse with the fuegian. the beach is the situation _he_ chooses for his dwelling-place, and the sea or its shore is his proper element. he is more than half his time, either on it, or _in_ it,--on it in his canoe, and in it, while wading among the tidal shoals in search of fish, mussels, and limpets, which constitute very nearly the whole of his subsistence. it is very curious, therefore, while noting the difference between these two tribes of indians, to observe how each confines its range to that part of the magellanic land that appears best adapted to their own peculiar habits,--those of the patagonian being altogether _terrestrial_, while those of the fuegian are essentially _aquatic_. we have stated elsewhere the limits of the patagonian territory; and shown that, ethnologically speaking they do not occupy the whole northern shore of the magellan straits, but only the eastern half of it. westward towards the pacific the aspect of the land, on both sides of this famous channel, may be regarded as of the same character, though altogether different from that which is seen at the entrance, or eastern end. west of cape negro on one side, and the sebastian passage on the other, bleak mountain summits, with narrow wooded valleys intervening, become the characteristic features. there we behold an incongruous labyrinth of peaks and ridges, of singular and fantastic forms,--many of them reaching above the limits of perpetual snow,--which, in this cold climate descends to the height of four thousand feet. we have seen that these mountains are separated from each other,--not by plains, nor even valleys, in the ordinary understanding of the term; but by _ravines_, the steep sides of which are covered with sombre forests up to a height of one thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea: at which point vegetation terminates with a uniformity as exact as that of the snow-line itself! these forests grow out of a wet, peaty soil,--in many places impassable on account of its boggy nature; and of this character is almost the whole surface of the different islands. the trees composing the forests are few in species,--those of the greatest size and numbers being the "winter's bark" (_drymys_), of the order _magnoliacae_, a birch, and, more abundantly, a species of beech-tree, the _fagus betuloides_. these last-named trees are many of them of great size; and might almost be called evergreens: since they retain part of their foliage throughout the whole year; but it would be more appropriate to style them _ever-yellows_: since at no period do they exhibit a verdure, anything like the forests of other countries. they are always clad in the same sombre livery of dull yellow, rendering the mountain landscape around them, if possible, more dreary and desolate. the forests of tierra del fuego are essentially worthless forests; their timber offering but a limited contribution to the necessities of man, and producing scarce any food for his subsistence. many of the ravines are so deep as to end, as already stated, in becoming arms or inlets of the sea; while others again are filled up with stupendous glaciers, that appear like cataracts suddenly arrested in their fall, by being frozen into solid ice! most of these inlets are of great depth,--so deep that the largest ship may plough through them with safety. they intersect the islands in every direction,--cutting them up into numerous peninsulas of the most fantastic forms; while some of the channels are narrow _sounds_, and stretch across the land of tierra del fuego from ocean to ocean. the "land of fire" is therefore not an island,--as it was long regarded,--but rather a collection of islands, terminated by precipitous cliffs that frown within gunshot of each other. ofttimes vast masses of rock, or still larger masses of glacier ice, fall from these cliffs into the profound abysses of the inlets below; the concussion, as they strike the water, reverberating to the distance of miles; while the water itself, stirred to its lowest depths, rises in grand surging waves, that often engulf the canoe of the unwary savage. "tierra del fuego" is simply the spanish phrase for "land of fire." it was so called by magellan on account of the numerous fires seen at night upon its shores,--while he and his people were passing through the straits. these were signal fires, kindled by the natives,--no doubt to telegraph to one another the arrival of those strange leviathans, the spanish ships, then seen by them for the first time. the name is inappropriate. a more fit appellation would be the "land of water;" for, certainly, in no part of the earth is water more abundant: both rain and snow supplying it almost continually. water is the very plague of the island; it lies stagnant or runs everywhere,--forming swamps, wherever there is a spot of level ground, and rendering even the declivities of the mountains as spongy as a peat-bog. the climate throughout the whole year is excessively cold; for, though the winter is perhaps not more rigorous than in the same latitude of a northern land, yet the summer is almost as severe as the winter; and it would be a misnomer to call it summer at all. snow falls throughout the whole year; and even in the midsummer of tierra del fuego men have actually perished from cold, at no great elevation above the level of the sea! under these circumstances, it would scarce be expected that tierra del fuego should be inhabited,--either by men or animals of any kind; but no country has yet been reached, too cold for the existence of both. no part of the earth seems to have been created in vain; and both men and beasts are found dwelling under the chill skies of tierra del fuego. the land-animals, as well as the birds, are few in species, as in numbers. the _guanaco_ is found upon the islands; but whether indigenous, or carried across from the patagonian shore, can never be determined: since it was an inhabitant of the islands long anterior to the arrival of magellan. it frequents only the eastern side of the cluster,--where the ground is firmer, and a few level spots appear that might be termed plains or meadows. a species of deer inhabits the same districts; and besides these, there are two kinds of fox-wolves (_canis magellanicus_ and _canis azarae_), three or four kinds of mice, and a species of bat. of water-mammalia there is a greater abundance: these comprising the whale, seals, sea-lions, and the sea-otter. but few birds have been observed; only the white-tufted flycatcher, a large black woodpecker with scarlet crest, a creeper, a wren, a thrush, a starling, hawks, owls, and four or five kinds of finches. the water-birds, like the water-mammalia, muster in greater numbers. of these there are ducks of various kinds, sea-divers, and penguins, the albatross, and sheer-water, and, more beautiful than all, the "painted" or "magellan goose." reptiles do not exist, and insects are exceedingly rare. a few flies and butterflies are seen; but the mosquito--the plague of other parts of south america--does not venture into the cold, humid atmosphere of the land of fire. we now arrive at the _human_ inhabitants of this desolate region. as might be expected, these exhibit no very high condition of either physical or mental development, but the contrary. the character of their civilisation is in complete correspondence with that of their dreary dwelling-place,--at the very bottom of the scale. yes, at the very bottom, according to most ethnologists; even lower down than that of the digger indian, the andaman islander, the bushman of africa, or the esquimaux of the arctic ocean: in fact, any comparison of a fuegian with the last-mentioned would be ridiculous, as regards either their moral or physical condition. below the esquimaux, the fuegian certainly is, and by many a long degree. in height, the tallest fuegian stands about five feet,--not in his boots, for he wears none; but on his naked soles. his wife is just six inches shorter than himself--a difference which is not a bad proportion between the sexes, but in other respects they are much alike. both have small, misshapen limbs, with large knee-caps, and but little calf; both have long masses of coarse tangled hair, hanging like bunches of black snakes over their shoulders; and both are as naked as the hour in which they were born,--unless we call _that_ a dress,--that bit of stinking sealskin which is slung at the back, and covers about a fifth part of the whole body! hairy side turned inward, it extends only from the nape of the neck to a few inches below the hollow of the back; and is fastened in front by means of a thong or skewer passing over the breast. it is rarely so ample as to admit of being "skewered;" and with this scanty covering, in rain and snow, frost and blow,--some one of which is continuously going on,--the shivering wretch is contented. nay, more; if there should happen an interval of mild weather, or the wearer be at work in paddling his canoe, he flings this unique garment aside, as if its warmth were an incumbrance! when the weather is particularly cold, he shifts the sealskin to that side of his body which may chance to be exposed to the blast! the fuegian wears neither hat, nor shirt, waistcoat, nor breeches,--no shoes, no stockings,--nothing intended for clothing but the bit of stinking skin. his vanity, however, is exhibited, not in his dress, to some extent in his adornments. like all savages and many civilised people, he _paints_ certain portions of his person; and his "escutcheon" is peculiar. it would be difficult to detail its complicated labyrinth of "crossings" and "quarterings." we shall content ourselves by stating that black lines and blotches upon a white ground constitute its chief characteristic. red, too, is sometimes seen, of a dark or "bricky" colour. the black is simply charcoal; while the white-ground coat is obtained from a species of infusorial clay, which he finds at the bottom of the peaty streams, that pour down the ravines of the mountains. as additional ornaments, he wears strings of fish-teeth, or pieces of bone, about his wrists and ankles. his wife carries the same upon her neck; and both, when they can procure it, tie a plain band around the head, of a reddish-brown colour,--the material of which is the long hair of the guanaco. the "cloak," already described, is sometimes of sea-otter instead of sealskin; and on some of the islands, where the deer dwells, the hide of that animal affords a more ample covering. in most cases, however, the size of the garment is that of a pocket handkerchief; and affords about as much protection against the weather as a kerchief would. though the fuegian has abundance of hair upon his head, there is none, or almost none on any part of his body. he is beardless and whiskerless as an esquimaux; though his features,--without the adornment of hair,-- are sufficiently fierce in their expression. he not only looks ferocious, but in reality is so,--deformed in mind, as he is hideous in person. he is not only ungrateful for kindness done, but unwilling to remember it; and he is cruel and vindictive in the extreme. beyond a doubt he is a _cannibal_; not habitually perhaps, but in times of scarcity and famine,--a true cannibal, for he does not confine himself to eating his _enemies_, but his _friends_ if need be,-- and especially the old women of his tribe, who fall the first victims, in those crises produced by the terrible requirements of an impending starvation. unfortunately the fact is too well authenticated to admit of either doubt or denial; and, even while we write, the account of a massacre of a ship's crew by these hostile savages is going the rounds of the press,--that ship, too, a missionary vessel, that had landed on their shores with the humane object of ameliorating their condition. of course such unnatural food is only partaken of at long and rare intervals,--by many communities never,--and there is no proof that the wretched fuegian has acquired an appetite for it: like the feegee and some other savage tribes. it is to be hoped that he indulges in the horrid habit, only when forced to it by the necessities of extreme hunger. his ordinary subsistence is shell-fish; though he eats also the flesh of the seal and sea-otter; of birds, especially the penguin and magellanic goose, when he can capture them. his stomach will not "turn" at the blubber of a whale,--when by good chance one of these leviathans gets stranded on his coast,--even though the great carcass be far gone in the stages of decomposition! the only vegetable diet in which he indulges is the berry of a shrub--a species of arbutus--which grows abundantly on the peaty soil; and a fungus of a very curious kind, that is produced upon the trunks of the beech-tree. this fungus is of a globular form, and pale-yellow colour. when young, it is elastic and turgid, with a smooth surface; but as it matures it becomes shrunken, grows tougher in its texture, and presents the pitted appearance of a honeycomb. when fully ripe, the fuegians collect it in large quantities, eating it without cooking or other preparation. it is tough between the teeth; but soon changes into pulp, with a sweetish taste and flavour,--somewhat resembling that of our common mushroom. these two vegetables--a berry and a cryptogamic plant--are almost the only ones eaten by the natives of tierra del fuego. there are others upon the island that might enable them to eke out their miserable existence: there are two especially sought after by such europeans as visit this dreary land,--the "wild celery" (_opium antarcticum_), and the "scurvy grass" (_cardamine antiscorbutica_); but for these the fuegian cares not. he even knows not their uses. in speaking of other "odd people," i have usually described the mode of building their house; but about the house of the fuegian i have almost "no story to tell." it would be idle to call that a house, which far more resembles the lair of a wild beast; and is, in reality, little better than the den made by the orang-outang in the forests of borneo. such as it is, however, i shall describe it. having procured a number of long saplings or branches,--not always straight ones,--the fuegian sharpens them at one end by means of his mussel-shell knife; and then sticking the sharpened ends into the ground in a kind of circle, he brings the tops all together, and ties them in a bunch,--so as to form a rude hemispherical frame. upon this he lays some smaller branches; and over these a few armfuls of long coarse grass, and the house is "built". one side--that to leeward of the prevailing wind--is left open, to allow for an entrance and the escape of smoke. as this opening is usually about an eighth part of the whole circumference, the house is, in reality, nothing more than a shed or lair. its furniture does not contradict the idea; but, on the contrary, only strengthens the comparison. there is no table, no chair, no bedstead: a "shake-down" of damp grass answers for all. there are no implements or utensils,--if we except a rude basket used for holding the arbutus berries, and a sealskin bag, in which the shell-fish are collected. a bladder, filled with water, hangs upon some forking stuck against the side: in the top of this bladder is a hole, from which each member of the family takes a "suck," when thirst inclines them to drink! the "tools" observable are a bow and arrow, the latter headed with flint; a fish spear with a forked point, made from a bone of the sea-lion; a short stick,--a woman's implement for knocking the limpets from the rocks; and some knives, the blades of which are sharpened shells of the mussel,--a very large species of which is found along the coast. these knives are simply manufactured. the brittle edge of the shell--which is five or six inches in length--is first chipped off, and a new edge formed by grinding the shell upon the rocks. when thus prepared, it will cut not only the hardest wood, but even the bones of fish; and serves the fuegian for all purposes. outside the hut, you may see the canoe,--near at hand too,--for the shieling of the fuegian universally stands upon the beach. he never dwells in the interior of his island; and but rarely roams there,--the women only making such excursions as are necessary to procure the berry and the mushroom. the woods have no charms for him, except to afford him a little fuel; they are difficult to be traversed on account of the miry soil out of which the trees grow; and, otherwise, there is absolutely nothing to be found amidst their gloomy depths, that would in any way contribute to his comfort or sustenance. he is therefore essentially a dweller on the shore; and even there he is not free to come and go as he might choose. from the bold character of his coast, there are here and there long reaches, where the beach cannot be followed by land,--places where the water's edge can only be reached, and the shell-fish collected, by means of some sort of navigable craft. for this purpose the fuegian requires a canoe; and the necessity of his life makes him a waterman. his skill, however, both in the construction of his craft, and the management of it, is of a very inferior order,-- infinitely inferior to that exhibited either by the esquimaux or the water-indians of the north. his canoe is usually made of the bark of a tree,--the birch already mentioned. sometimes it is so rudely shaped, as to be merely a large piece of bark shelled from a single trunk, closed at each end, and tied tightly with thong of sealskin. a few cross-sticks prevent the sides from pressing inward; while as many stays of thong keep them from "bulging" in the contrary direction. if there are cracks in the bark, these are caulked with rushes and a species of resin, which the woods furnish. with this rude vessel the fuegian ventures forth, upon the numerous straits and inlets that intersect his land; but he rarely trusts himself to a tempestuous sea. if rich or industrious, he sometimes becomes the possessor of a craft superior to this. it is also a bark canoe, but not made of a single "flitch." on the contrary, there are many choice pieces used in its construction: for it is fifteen feet in length and three in width amidships. its "build" also is better,--with a high prow and stern, and cross-pieces regularly set and secured at the ends. the pieces of bark are united by a stitching of thongs; and the seams carefully caulked so that no water can enter. in this vessel, the fuegian may embark with his whole family,--and his whole furniture to boot,--and voyage to any part of his coast. and this in reality he does; for the "shanty" above described, is to him only a temporary home. the necessities of his life require him to be continually changing it; and a "removal," with the building of a new domicile, is a circumstance of frequent recurrence. not unfrequently, in removing from one part of the coast to another, he finds it safer making a land journey, to avoid the dangers of the deep. in times of high wind, it is necessary for him to adopt this course,-- else his frail bark might be dashed against the rocks and riven to pieces. in the land journey he carries the canoe along with him; and in order to do this with convenience, he has so contrived it, that the planks composing the little vessel can be taken apart, and put together again without much difficulty,--the seams only requiring to be freshly caulked. in the transport across land, each member of the family carries a part of the canoe: the stronger individuals taking the heavier pieces,--as the side and bottom planks,--while the ribs and light beams are borne by the younger and weaker. the necessity of removal arises from a very natural cause. a few days spent at a particular place,--on a creek or bay,--even though the community be a small one, soon exhausts the chief store of food,--the mussel-bank upon the beach,--and, of course, another must be sought for. this may lie at some distance; perhaps can only be reached by a tedious, and sometimes perilous water-journey; and under these circumstances the fuegian deems it less trouble to carry the mountain to mahomet, than carry mahomet so often to the mountain. the transporting his whole menage, is just as easy as bringing home a load of limpets; and as to the building of a new house, that is a mere bagatelle, which takes little labour, and no more time than the erection of a tent. some fuegians actually possess a tent, covered with the skins of animals; but this a rare and exceptional advantage; and the tent itself of the rudest kind. the fuegian has his own mode of procuring fire. he is provided with a piece of "mundic," or iron pyrites, which he finds high up upon the sides of his mountains. this struck by a pebble will produce sparks. these he catches upon a tinder of moss, or the "punk" of a dead tree, which he knows how to prepare. the tinder once ignited, is placed within a roundish ball of dry grass; and, this being waved about in circles, sets the grass in a blaze. it is then only necessary to communicate the flame to a bundle of sticks; and the work is complete. the process, though easy enough in a climate where "punk" is plenty, and dry grass and sticks can be readily procured, is nevertheless difficult enough in the humid atmosphere of tierra del fuego,--where moss is like a wet sponge, and grass, sticks, and logs, can hardly be found dry enough to burn. well knowing this, the fuegian is habitually careful of his fire: scarce ever permitting it to go out; and even while travelling in his canoe, in search of a "new home," side by side with his other "penates" he carries the fire along with him. notwithstanding the abundance of fuel with which his country provides him, he seems never to be thoroughly warm. having no close walls to surround him, and no clothing to cover his body, he suffers almost incessantly from cold. wherever met, he presents himself with a shivering aspect, like one undergoing a severe fit of the ague! the fuegians live in small communities, which scarce deserve the name of "tribes," since they have no political leader, nor chief of any description. the conjuror--and they have him--is the only individual that differs in any degree from the other members of the community; but his power is very slight and limited; nor does it extend to the exercise of any physical force. religion they have none,--at least, none more sacred or sanctified than a vague belief in devils and other evil spirits. although without leaders, they are far from being a peaceful people. the various communities often quarrel and wage cruel and vindictive war against one another; and were it not that the boundaries of each association are well-defined, by deep ravines and inlets of the sea, as well as by the impassable barriers of snow-covered mountains, these warlike dwarfs would thin one another's numbers to a far greater extent than they now do,--perhaps to a mutual extermination. fortunately the peculiar nature of their country hinders them from coming very often within fighting distance. their whole system of life is abject in the extreme. although provided with fires, their food is eaten raw; and a fish taken from the water will be swallowed upon the instant--almost before the life is gone out of it. seal and penguin flesh are devoured in the same manner; and the blubber of the whale is also a raw repast. when one of these is found dead upon the beach,--for they have neither the skill nor courage to capture the whale,--the lucky accident brings a season of rejoicing. a fleet of canoes--if it is to be reached only by water--at once paddle towards the place; or, if it be an overland journey, the whole community--man, woman, and child--start forth on foot. in an hour or two they may be seen returning to their hut village, each with a large "flitch" of blubber flapping over the shoulders, and the head just appearing above, through a hole cut in the centre of the piece,--just as a mexican ranchero wears his "serape," or a denizen of the pampas his woollen "poncho." a feast follows this singular procession. like the esquimaux of the north, the fuegian is very skilful in capturing the seal. his mode of capturing this creature, however, is very different from that employed by the "sealer" of the arctic seas; and consists simply in stealing as near as possible in his canoe, when he sees the animal asleep upon the surface, and striking it with a javelin,--which he throws with an unerring aim. we have already observed that the principal subsistence of the fuegian is supplied by the sea; and shell-fish forms the most important item of his food. these are mussels, limpets, oysters, and other kinds of shell-fish, and so many are annually consumed by a single family, that an immense heap of the shells may be seen not only in front of every hut, but all along the coast of the islands, above high-water mark,-- wherever a tribe has made its temporary sojourn. there is a singular fact connected with these conglomerations of shells, which appears to have escaped the observations of the magellanic voyagers. it is not by mere accident they are thus collected in piles. there is a certain amount of superstition in the matter. the fuegian believes that, were the shells scattered negligently about, ill-luck would follow; and, above all, if the emptied ones were thrown back into the sea: since this would be a warning of destruction that would frighten the living bivalves in their "beds," and drive them away from the coast! hence it is that the shell-heaps are so carefully kept together. in collecting these shell-fish, the women are the chief labourers. they do not always gather them from the rocks, after the tide has gone out; though that is the usual time. but there are some species not found in shallow water, and therefore only to be obtained by diving to the bottom after them. of this kind is a species of _echinus_, or "sea-urchin," of the shape of an orange, and about twice the bulk of one,--the whole outside surface being thickly set with spines, or protuberances. these curious shell-fish are called "sea-eggs" by the sailor navigators; and constitute an important article of the food of the fuegian. it is often necessary to dive for them to a great depth; and this is done by the fuegian women, who are as expert in plunging as the pearl-divers of california or the indian seas. fish is another article of fuegian diet; and many kinds are captured upon their coasts, some of excellent quality. they sometimes obtain the fish by shooting them with their arrows, or striking them with a dart; but they have a mode of catching the finny creatures, which is altogether peculiar: that is to say, _hunting them with dogs_! the fuegians possess a breed of small fox-like dogs, mean, wretched-looking curs, usually on the very verge of starvation,--since their owners take not the slightest care of them, and hardly ever trouble themselves about feeding them. notwithstanding this neglect, the fuegian dogs are not without certain good qualities; and become important auxiliaries to the fuegian fisherman. they are trained to pursue the fish through the water, and drive them into a net, or some enclosed creek or inlet, shallow enough for them to be shot with the arrow. in doing this the dogs dive to the bottom; and follow the fish to and fro, as if they were amphibious carnivora, like the seals and otters. for this useful service the poor brutes receive a very inadequate reward,--getting only the bones as their portion. they would undoubtedly starve, were it not that, being left to shift for themselves, they have learnt how to procure their own food; and understand how to catch a fish now and then _on their own account_. their principal food, however, consists in shell-fish, which they find along the shores, with polypi, and such other animal substances as the sea leaves uncovered upon the beach after the tide has retired. a certain kind of sea-weed also furnishes them with an occasional meal, as it does their masters,--often as hungry and starving as themselves. in his personal habits no human being is more filthy than the fuegian. he never uses water for washing purposes; nor cleans the dirt from his skin in any way. he has no more idea of putting water to such use, than he has of drowning himself in it; and in respect to cleanliness, he is not only below most other savages, but below the brutes themselves: since even these are taught cleanliness by instinct. but no such instinct exists in the mind of the fuegian; and he lives in the midst of filth. the smell of his body can be perceived at a considerable distance; and hotspur's fop might have had reasonable grounds of complaint, had it been a fuegian who came between the "wind and his nobility." to use the pithy language of one of the old navigators, "the fuegian stinks like a fox." fairly examined, then, in all his bearings,--fairly judged by his habits and actions,--the fuegian may claim the credit of being the most wretched of our race. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ the end. http://www.archive.org/details/anthropologyassc brinrich transcriber's note two typographical errors were identified but not corrected in this e-book. they are marked with [tn- ] and [tn- ], which refer to notes at the end of the text. anthropology: as a science and as a branch of university education in the united states. by daniel g. brinton, a.m., m.d., ll.d., professor of american archæology and linguistics in the university of pennsylvania, and of general ethnology at the academy of natural sciences, philadelphia; corresponding member of the anthropological societies of washington, new york, paris, berlin, st. petersburg, vienna, munich, florence, etc. philadelphia: . prefatory note. this very brief presentation of the claims of anthropology for a recognized place in institutions of the higher education in the united states will, i hope, receive the thoughtful consideration of the officers and patrons of our universities and post-graduate departments. the need of such a presentation was urged upon me not long since by the distinguished president of a new england university. impressed with the force of his words, i make an earnest appeal to our seats of advanced learning to establish a branch of anthropology on the broad lines herein suggested. it may be but one chair in their faculties of philosophy; but the rightful claims of this science will be recognized only when it is organized as a department by itself, with a competent corps of professors and docents, with well-appointed laboratories and museums, and with fellowships for deserving students. who is the enlightened and liberal citizen ready to found such a department, and endow it with the means necessary to carry out both instruction and original research? i do not plead for any one institution, or locality, or individual; but simply for the creation in the united states of the opportunity of studying this highest of the sciences in a manner befitting its importance. anthropology, as a science, and as a branch of university education. _what anthropology is._ man himself is the only final measure of his own activities. to his own force and faculties all other tests are in the end referred. all sciences and arts, all pleasures and pursuits, are assigned their respective rank in his interest by reference to those physical powers and mental processes which are peculiarly the property of his own species. hence, the study of man, pursued under the guidance of accurate observation and experimental research, embracing all his nature and all the manifestations of his activity, in the past as well as in the present, the whole co-ordinated in accordance with the inductive methods of the natural sciences--this study must in the future unfailingly come to be regarded as the crown and completion of all others--and this is _anthropology_. _the value of anthropology._ the value of the applications of this science can scarcely be overestimated. in government and law, in education and religion, men have hitherto been dealt with according to traditional beliefs or _a priori_ theories of what they may or ought to be. when we learn through scientific research what they really are, we shall then, and then only, have a solid foundation on which to build the social, ethical and political structures of the future. it is the appreciation of this which has given the extraordinary impetus to the study of sociology--a branch of anthropology--within the last decade. anthropology alone furnishes the key and clue to history. this also is meeting recognition. no longer are the best histories mainly chronicles of kings and wars, but records of the development and the decline of peoples; and what constitutes a "people," and shapes its destiny, is the very business of ethnology to explain. so likewise in hygiene and medicine, in ethics and religion, in language and arts, in painting, architecture, sculpture and music, the full import and often unconscious intention of human activity can only be understood, and directed in the most productive channels, by such a careful historical and physical analysis as anthropology aims to present. _societies and schools for the study of anthropology._ the world of science has been recognizing more fully, year by year, the paramount importance of the systematic study of anthropology to the aspirations of modern civilization. the first anthropological society--that of paris--was founded by paul broca, in may, . it has been rapidly followed by the organization of similar societies in london, berlin, st. petersburg, vienna, brussels, munich, madrid, florence, washington, new york, and many other centres of enlightened thought. in the american association for the advancement of science organized its section of anthropology; and in the british association for the advancement of science followed this example. it is a well known fact that these sections are more attractive to the general public, and are better supplied with material than any other sections in the associations. this augurs well for the zeal with which students would welcome the creation of special departments for instruction in all branches of the science. the first school of anthropology was founded also by broca, at paris, in the year . it began with a corps of five professors, a number which it has now doubled, the demand for more extended instruction having steadily increased. the courses have been as well attended as any others, either at the collége de france, or at the sorbonne. a second school is organized in connection with the museum of natural history at the jardin des plantes. it has counted among its instructors various illustrious names, and its courses have also been highly popular. several of the german universities have organized a department of anthropology. in those of munich, berlin, marburg, and buda pesth the chairs are filled respectively by ranke, bastian, von den steinen, and von török. in the university of leipzig, dr. e. schmidt is _docent_ in anthropology; and the same position is held in berlin by dr. von luschan. in a number of other institutions, lectures on the branch are given. the first degree in anthropology was conferred by the university of munich three years ago. the university of brussels has established a full chair of anthropology, occupied by professor houze; and a similar position is filled in the musée polytechnique, at moscow, by professor dimitri anoutchine. in the united states, regular courses on physical anthropology and ethnology have been given by me for the last six years, at the academy of natural sciences, philadelphia. but the only educational institutions which have distinctly recognized the branch are clark university, worcester, mass., where dr. franz boas is _docent_ in anthropology, and which, in march of this year, conferred the first degree in anthropology given in america; and the university of chicago, in which dr. frederick starr is assistant professor of anthropology. i cannot learn that any full professorship of the science has been established in this country. considerable attention has been paid to the subject by the scientists connected with the national museum, the smithsonian institution, the army medical museum, and especially the bureau of ethnology at washington. the last mentioned, under the efficient administration of major j. w. powell, has enriched the literature of anthropology with a series of publications not exceeded in value by those of any other government. _subdivisions of anthropology._ the study of man in accordance with the laws of inductive research is, therefore, the aim and meaning of anthropology. the subject is a broad one,--in space, as wide as the world; in time, longer than all history; in depth, reaching to the innermost consciousness. a man may be regarded merely as a specimen of a certain species of vertebrates; or, in his multifarious relations as a member of a social organization. we may study him as a living being; or seek to trace his actions and origin in ages long before history begins. hence, anthropology is divided into several associated departments devoted to the exploration of its varied realms of research. they may conveniently be divided into four, of nearly equal importance. an acquaintance with all of them is essential to the equipment of a sound anthropologist. the first is the study of the physical nature of man, his anatomy, physiology and biology, so far as these bear on the distinctions of races, peoples, and nations. psychology, so far as it is an experimental and inductive science, belongs in this department. this general division has been called by french writers "special anthropology", and by the germans "somatic anthropology"; but we need for it a single term, and none better could be found than that suggested by the german expression. i call it, therefore, _somatology_, a word long since,[tn- ] domesticated in the vocabulary of english and american medical science, and explained in the dictionaries as "a discourse or discussion on the human body". the second division is _ethnology_. this is, in its methods, historic and analytic. it contemplates man as a social creature. it is more concerned with the mental, the psychical part of man, than with his physical nature, and seeks to trace the intellectual development of communities by studying the growth of government, laws, arts, languages, religions, and society. the third division, _ethnography_, is geographic and descriptive in its plans of research. it studies the subdivision and migrations of races, local traits, peculiarities and customs, and confines itself to matters of present observation. finally, _archæology_ comes in to supply the material which neither history nor present observation can furnish. it pries into the obscurity of the remotest periods of man's life on earth, and gathers thousands of facts forgotten by historians and overlooked by contemporaries. often these unconsidered trifles prove of priceless value, and furnish the key to the real life of ancient nations. _means of practical instruction._ anthropology is not a theoretical science. it is essentially experimental and practical, a science of observation and operative procedures. it cannot be learned by merely reading books and attending lectures. the student must literally put his hand to the work. for that reason every institution for teaching anthropology must have a laboratory attached to it; and in that laboratory the best part of the work will be done. such a laboratory will naturally be divided into two departments; one devoted to the study of the physical characteristics of man, the other to the investigation of the products of his industry. the former will be more especially related to the branch of somatology; the latter, to those of ethnology, ethnography, and archæology. the efforts of the laboratory instructors will be directed to training the perceptions of the students in the requirements of this science and to giving them the practical knowledge and manual dexterity necessary to employ its tests. connected with the laboratory, and really forming part of it, will be a museum, of such extent as circumstances permit. it will include crania and osteological specimens; art-products, arranged both ethnologically, that is, in series showing their evolution, and ethnographically, that is, illustrating the geographical provinces and ethnic areas from which they are derived; and archæological specimens typical of prehistoric and proto-historic culture. hand in hand with the laboratory work should proceed library labor. there is a strong tendency in students of sciences of observation to read only for immediate purposes and on current topics. few acquaint themselves with the history even of their own special branches; an ignorance which often results injuriously on the effectiveness of their work. to correct this, a series of tasks in the literature of the science should regularly be assigned. finally, all that has been proposed must be supplemented by a course of field-work, in which the student must be trained to apply his acquirements in really adding to the stores of knowledge by independent and unaided exertion. i do not rest satisfied with presenting these general statements. more detail will very properly be demanded by any one seriously considering the foundation of a chair or department in this branch. i have drawn up, therefore, and append, a scheme for a course or courses of lectures; a plan for laboratory instruction; another for library work; a sketch of what should be done in the field; and finally, i name a few of the best text-books on the various subdivisions of the general science. i would ask the particular attention of those interested in this science to the classification and nomenclature which i here present. it is the result of a careful collation of all the leading european writers on the subject and of consultation with several of the most thoughtful in this country. there is, unfortunately, considerable diversity in the arrangements and terms adopted by different authors, and it is most desirable that a uniform phraseology be adopted in all countries. that which i offer aims to be exhaustive of the science and to adopt, wherever practicable, the expressions sanctioned by the greater number of distinguished living authorities in its literature. general scheme for instruction in anthropology. synopsis of lecture course. principal subdivisions. i. _somatology._--physical and experimental anthropology. ii. _ethnology._--historic and analytic anthropology. iii. _ethnography._--geographic and descriptive anthropology. iv. _archæology._--prehistoric and reconstructive anthropology. i.--_somatology._ a. internal somatology. _a._ osteology.--bones of the skeleton, names, forms, measures, proportions, peculiarities, such as flattened tibia, perforated humerus, form of pelvis, os calcis, etc. craniology; measurements of skull and face, sutures, angles, nasal and orbital indices, dentition, artificial deformations. _b._ myology and splanchnology.--the muscular system and viscera so far as they concern racial peculiarities, as deficient calves, proportions of liver and lungs, etc. steatopygy. b. external somatology. stature and proportion. anthropomometry. tests for strength and endurance. color of skin, hair, and eyes. color scales. shape and growth of hairs. canons of proportion. physical beauty. c. psychology. application of experimental psychology to races. comparative rates of nervous impulse, sensation, muscular movements, and mental processes. right- and left-handedness. anomalous brain actions. d. developmental and comparative somatology. embryology of man. doctrines of heredity and congenital transmission. teratology, or the production of varieties and monstrosities. ethnic and racial anatomy. evolution of man. comparative anatomy of man and anthropoids. simian and lemurian analogies. fossil remains of man. biology of man. changes produced by nutrition (food supply), climate, humidity, altitude, etc. comparative physiology and pathology. medical geography. comparative nosology of different races. criminal anthropology. pathology of races. fertility and sterility of races. reproduction and stirpiculture. comparative longevity. immunity from disease. vital statistics. anatomical classifications of races. (historical review; present opinions.) ii.--_ethnology._ a. definitions and methods. meaning of race, people (_ethnos_, folk), nation, tribe. culture and civilization. measures and stages of culture. causes and conditions of ethnic progress. ethnic aptitudes for special lines of progress. ethnic psychology (völkerpsychologie). b. sociology. _a._ government.--primitive forms. the gens; the tribe; the confederacy; chieftainship; monarchy; theocracy; democracy, etc. _b._ marriage.--theories of primitive marriage; promiscuity; polygamy; polyandry; monogamy. limitations of marriage. forms and rites of marriage. laws of descent and consanguinity. social position of woman. gynocracy. _c._ laws.--origin of laws. primitive ethics. dualism of ethics. evolution of the moral sense. the taboo. blood revenge. tenures of land. classes above law. castes. privileged classes. codified laws. international laws. c. technology. _a._ the utilitarian arts.--manufacture of tools, utensils, weapons, and agricultural, etc., implements. architecture and building. clothing and fashions. means of transportation by land and water. agriculture. domestication of plants and animals. weights, measures, and instruments of precision. media of exchange, currency, money, articles of barter and commerce. _b._ the esthetic arts.--theory of the sense of the beautiful. decorative designs in line and color. skin-painting. tattooing. sculpture and modeling. music and musical instruments. scents and flowers. games and festivals. d. religion. _a._ psychological origin of religions.--principles and method of the science of religion. personal, family, and tribal religions. ancestral worship. doctrines of animism; fetichism; polytheism; henotheism; monotheism; universal religions. _b._ mythology.--definition and growth of myths. solar light and storm myths. creation and deluge myths. relation of myths to language. _c._ symbolism and religious art.--relation of symbolism to fetichism. primitive idols. charms and amulets. tokens. tombs, temples, altars. sacrifice. symbolism of colors and numbers. special symbols; the bird; the serpent; trees; the cross; the svastika; the circle, etc. _d._ religious teachers and doctrines.--the priestly class. shamanism. theocracies. secret orders. initiations. diviners. augurs and prophets. doctrines of soul. fatalism. _e._ analysis of special religions.--egyptian religion; buddhism; judaism; christianity; mohammedanism, etc. e. linguistics. _a._ gesture and sign language.--examples. plan of thought in relation to picture writing. _b._ spoken language.--articulate and inarticulate speech. imitative sounds. the phonology of languages. universal alphabets. logical relations of the parts of speech. the vocabulary and the grammar of languages. distinctions between languages and dialects. mixed languages and jargons. relations of language to ethnography. polyglottic and monoglottic peoples. causes of changes in language. extent and nature of such changes. examples. classifications of languages. relative excellence of languages. criteria of superiority. rules for the scientific comparison of languages. _c._ recorded language.--systems of recording ideas. thought-writing. pictography. symbolic and ideographic writing. examples. sound-writing. evolution of the phonetic alphabets. egyptian, cuneiform, chinese, aztec, and other phonetic systems. _d._ forms of expression.--rhythmical. origin of meter. poetry of primitive peoples. rhythm and rhyme. characters of prose. relation of prose and poetry to national language and character. dramatic. the primitive drama and its development. f. folk-lore. definition, nature, and value of folk-lore. methods of its study. relations to history and character of a people. traditional customs. traditional narratives. folk-sayings. superstitious beliefs and practices. iii.--_ethnography._ a. the origin and subdivisions of races. theories of monogenism and polygenism. doctrine of "geographical provinces" or "areas of characterization." the continental areas at the date of man's appearance on the earth. eurafrica, austafrica, asia, america, oceanica. causes and consequences of the migrations of races and nations. _a._ the eurafrican race.--types of the white race. its first home. early migrations. the south mediterranean branch (hamitic and semitic stocks). the north mediterranean branch (euskaric, aryan, and caucasic stocks). _b._ the austafrican race.--former geography of africa. the negrillos or pigmies. the true negroes. the negroids. the race in other continents. negro slavery. _c._ the asian race.--the sinitic branch (chinese, thibetans, indo-chinese). the sibiric branch (the tungusic, mongolic, tataric, finnic, arctic, and japanese groups). _d._ the american race.--peopling of america. groups of north and south american tribes. _e._ insular and litoral peoples.--the negritic stock (negritos, papuans, melanesians). the malayic stock (western malayans, eastern, or polynesians). the australic stock (australian tribes; dravidians and kols, of india). iv.--_archæology._ a. general archæology. _a._ geology of the epoch of man. late tertiary and quaternary periods. glacial phenomena. river drift. diluvial and alluvial deposits. physical geography of the quaternary. prehistoric botany and zoölogy. _b._ prehistoric ages.--the age of stone (chipped stone, or palæolithic period; polished stone, or neolithic period). the age of bronze. the age of iron. epochs, stations, and examples. methods of study of stone and bone implements, pottery, and other ancient remains. indications of prehistoric commerce. palethnology. proto-historic epoch. b. special archæology. egyptian, assyrian, phenician, classical, and medieval archæology. archæology of the various areas in america. art in stone, bone, shell, wood, clay, paper, etc., in these areas. laboratory work. a. physical laboratory. comparing and identifying bones. measuring skulls. dissections of anthropoids and human subjects. examination of brains. study of embryology and teratology. practical study of the hair, skin, nails, etc., of different races. use of color scales, etc. practice in anthropomometry, with the necessary instruments. testing for sense perceptions. b. technological laboratory. study of stone implements; simple and compound; rough and polished; primary and secondary chipping; cleavage; firing; bulb of percussion; mineralogy of implements; patine, etc. bone implements. study of metal implements. hammering, smelting, casting. results of exposure. analysis of alloys. coins, etc. study of pottery. pastes; burning; glazing; forms; decorative designs; painting and coloring. textile materials; ancient cloth and basket work; feather work. methods of making casts and models; taking squeezes, rubbings, copies, and photographs. drawing, shading, and coloring ethnographic charts. practice in preserving, mounting, arranging, and classifying specimens. tests for the detection of frauds. incrustations, dendrites, etc. practice in reducing unknown tongues to writing, by the ear. practice in the repetition of unfamiliar phonetic elements. study of the actions of the lingual muscles in the production of sounds. library work. researches in the history of anthropology. making lists of works and articles on special subjects, with brief abstracts. notes of the proceedings of anthropological societies and the contents of journals. presentation of the theories of particular writers on the science. familiarize the student with the past and present literature of his branch. field work. methods of surveying, photographing, and plotting ancient remains. plans for taking field-notes. instruction in the proper methods of opening mounds, shell heaps, etc., and in excavating rock-shelters and caverns. the preserving and packing of specimens. study of quaternary geology; alluvial deposits; river terraces; glacial scratches; moraines; river drift; loess; elevation and subsidence. the collection of languages and dialects; of folk-lore, and local peculiarities. text-books. as the plan of study here proposed is largely that which i have pursued and developed in my own lectures and published works on the subject, i may be permitted to insert the following list of these:-- _anthropology and ethnology._ to, pp. . in vol. i of the iconographic encyclopædia (philadelphia, ). _prehistoric archæology._ to, pp. . in vol. ii of the iconographic encyclopædia (philadelphia, ). _races and peoples; lectures on the science of ethnography._ vo, pp. (n. d. c. hodges, new york, ). _the american race; a linguistic classification and ethnographic description of the native tribes of north and south america._ vo, pp. (n. d. c. hodges, new york, ). in addition to these i would name the following as among the best works for the student of this branch:-- _anthropologische methoden._ by dr. emil schmidt (leipzig, ). _eléments d'anthropologie générale._ by dr. paul topinard (paris). also l'homme dans la nature (paris, ), by the same author. _précis d'anthropologie._ by hovelacque and hervé (paris). _allgemeine ethnographie._ by friederich müller. _die urgeschichte des menschen._ by moritz hoernes (leipzig, ). _la préhistorique antiquité de l'homme._ by g. de mortillet (paris). _anthropology._ by dr. tylor (new york). _elements[tn- ] de sociologie._ by ch. letourneau (paris). to this list i add the names of some others of the distinguished foreign living writers on various departments of anthropology:-- in france: bertrand, collignon, letourneau, de nadaillac. in england: buckland, flower, gallon, m. müller. in germany: andree, bastian, meyer, f. müller, ranke, schaafhausen, steinthal, virchow, ratzel, gerland. in italy: giglioli, mantegazza. it is highly likely that many modifications and improvements on this scheme will suggest themselves to instructors; but i may say for it that it is the carefully considered result of a comparison of the methods employed in the european schools, combined with a personal experience of some years in the presentation of the topics to classes. of course, the amount of attention which will be given to the separate divisions of the subject will depend on the position which the branch occupies in the student's plan of studies--whether a major or a minor. if the latter, he should attend a course of thirty or forty lectures about equally divided between the four headings under which the science is here presented, and should give double as many hours to laboratory work. this is the minimum which would give him any adequate notion of the science. if, on the other hand, it be taken as a major, or principal subject, the greater part of his time for two or three years will be fully occupied in preparing himself for independent work, or for the instruction of others. * * * * * transcriber's note: the following misspelling and typographical error were not corrected: page error tn- since, should read since tn- elements should read eléments anthropological papers of the american museum of natural history vol. xvi, part iii the sun dance of the blackfoot indians by clark wissler [illustration] new york published by order of the trustees the sun dance of the blackfoot indians. by clark wissler. preface. the blackfoot tribes, particularly the piegan, have been more extensively studied than most other plains indians. the writer began a systematic investigation of their culture in . at that time, the only works treating them seriously were those of the younger henry, maximilian, and grinnell. there were some good fragmentary articles by mclean and hale. yet, since we began work on this problem, a number of excellent books have appeared. first, the long-forgotten journals of mathew cocking and anthony hendry who went to the blackfoot country in were printed. then followed mcclintock's delightful book, "the old north trail" and later, curtis's highly illustrated account of the piegan. linguistic studies had been undertaken by tims, but later, michelson, uhlenbeck, and josselin de jong brought out studies of the language and some aspects of social organization. of more popular books, the only one to be considered here is schultz's, "my life as an indian," which, though in the form of fiction, is full of true pictures of blackfoot life and thought. one unfortunate thing about all this subsequent activity is that it centered on the piegan and as the writer's work was largely with that division before these publications appeared, there was no chance to rectify this asymmetry. the publication of this study of the sun dance has been long delayed in the hope that circumstances would permit a more intensive study of the ceremony among the canadian divisions. but the time for making such a study has really passed, since those natives who had the knowledge essential to an accurate exposition of the sun dance are now dead. it seems advisable, therefore, to publish the data as they stand. the writer saw the piegan ceremony twice, so that this study is based both upon objective observation and discussion with the native authorities on the subject. later, mr. duvall checked over the data and conclusions with these and other informants. a large series of photographs was taken, but the important phases of the ceremony are so well shown in the published works of mcclintock and curtis that a repetition here is unnecessary. clark wissler. may, . contents. page. preface the sun dance preparation period program by days first day second day third day fourth day fifth day sixth day seventh day eighth day the vow ceremony of the tongues the medicine woman the procession to the dancing lodge the offering of cloth the hundred-willow sweathouse the dancing lodge cutting the thongs raising the sun pole the weather dancers dancing society dances the torture ceremony sun dance songs the sun dance camp mythological notes the blood and north blackfoot illustrations. text figures. . the offering of human flesh. drawn from a native sketch the sun dance. in our earlier paper upon the bundles of the blackfoot, we have concerned ourselves with ceremonial functions in which the ownership and chief responsibility, in theory, rested in a single individual. we come now to an affair initiated, it is true, by the owner of the natoas bundle, but yet a composite of other rituals and functions, each of which has a definite place in a program carried out by the whole tribal organization. the only trace of a similar tribal participation is in the now almost extinct tobacco-planting ceremonies conducted by the beaver owners; but here there was no complex of other unrelated ceremonies and functions. in short, the sun dance was for the blackfoot a true tribal festival, or demonstration of ceremonial functions, in which practically every important ritual owner and organization had a place. nevertheless, there were certain rituals peculiar to it which gave it its character. since the plan of this section is to give an ethnological presentation of the blackfoot sun dance, rather than a logically unfolding description of the ceremony as seen at a specified time, we shall present the general program now and take up later a somewhat analytical detailed discussion of the various phases of the ceremony. by this method, we shall be able to concentrate our attention upon a single ceremonial concept without the distraction arising from contemporaneous and intrusive procedures based upon other concepts, for as we shall see, this sun dance is a true composite. the following schedule is not given as the one observed by the writer, but as the one regarded as proper and believed to have been followed before the various divisions of the blackfoot were under the complete domination of the canadian and united states governments. preparation period. after making a vow to purchase a sun dance bundle, the woman and her husband make the necessary arrangements and perform the prescribed rites. this is an indefinite period. at the approach of summer, the invitation tobacco is sent to all the bands and the camp circle is formed. program by days. _first day._ the program opens with moving camp to a site previously selected. on the morning of this day, the medicine woman begins to fast, which may be taken as the real beginning of the ceremony. if the ceremony of "cutting the tongues" has not been previously performed or completed, it is now in order. in any event, the father and any male assistants he may choose to invite, spend a part of the day in "praying and singing over the tongues." a society brings in willows and a hundred-willow sweathouse is built. _second day._ in the morning, the camp moves again to a site still nearer that proposed for the sun dance. a few green boughs of cottonwood are kept around the base of the medicine woman's tipi as a sign of its sanctity. a sweathouse is made, as on the previous day. "praying and singing over the tongues" continues during the day and evening. _third day._ the same as the second day. _fourth day._ the camp moves again; this time to the site of the sun dance. in the afternoon, the fourth and last hundred-willow sweathouse is built and used. the singing continues during the evening in the medicine woman's tipi. _fifth day._ this is an active day.[ ] the various bands cut and drag in the poles and green cottonwood boughs to be used in constructing the dancing lodge. the center, or sun pole, is selected and brought in with the ceremonies pertaining thereto. during the day, the holes for the posts are dug and the sides of the dancing lodge put in place and prepared for the raising at sunset. a wind-break is erected at the west side, facing the forked end of the sun pole. later in the day, some medicinemen take up their stations here to receive offerings to the sun and place them on the pole. in the forenoon, the ceremony connected with the opening of the natoas bundle begins in the medicine woman's tipi. this is completed by the middle of the afternoon when there is a procession from the tipi to the wind-break facing the sun pole. the thongs for the poles are cut. while these are taking place, some food is distributed among the poor people. those women, who, during the past season, promised "to come forward to the tongues" now fulfil their vows by public declarations addressed to the setting sun. the pole raisers then approach from the four quarters, erecting first the sun pole and then the rafters, with as much speed as possible. the medicine woman then returns to her tipi and the father with his male companions goes into a sweathouse. _sixth day._ in the morning, a booth is erected in the dancing lodge for the medicinemen, or weather dancers. later in the day, they approach, with processions made up of their respective bands, and take their places in the booth. at various times during the day, they dance to the sun. people also come up to be painted and prayed for. as a rule, the medicine-pipes are brought out for these men to bless and smoke. during the afternoon, the "digging dance" occurs, when the fireplace is made and the fire kindled. _seventh day._ people still come to be painted or prayed for by the medicinemen. later in the day, the dancing of the societies begins. _eighth day._ the dancing may continue on this day; otherwise, camp is broken and the bands go their several ways. the dancing may continue several days, there being no definite time for closing the ceremony. indeed, to the blackfoot mind, the really vital part of the ceremony closes on the evening of the fifth day. the dancing of the societies is free to take its course as the various organizations see fit. in former times, however, it was customary to break camp any time between the seventh and tenth days. according to our information, the four camps of the medicine woman was the rule in olden times and a hundred-willow sweathouse was made at each camp. in recent times, but two moves seem to have been made; the first day marking the move from the regular home camp to the temporary one where the second day is also spent. but one of the hundred-willow sweathouses is now made--the one on the third day. also, where formerly they used the ordinary type of sweathouse, at the close of the fourth day, the men now return to the hundred-willow sweathouse. the time then was "when the service berries are ripe", perhaps august, instead of fourth-of-july week, as in recent years.[ ] even the fast is much abbreviated, usually but of two days' duration. footnotes: [ ] as in many other cases, there is a difference of opinion as to what was, or is, the correct schedule. some maintain that the timber and sun pole are brought in on the fourth day and the fifth day given over to the erection of the dancing lodge only. this is, however, a matter of no great moment. [ ] see grinnell, george bird, _blackfoot lodge tales_ (new york, ), , for program. the vow. the most important functionary in the blackfoot sun dance is a woman, known among the whites as the medicine woman, and upon a clear comprehension of her functions and antecedents depends our understanding of the ceremony itself. accordingly, we shall proceed with as complete an exposition of her office as the information at hand allows. in the first place, a sun dance cannot occur unless some woman qualifies for the office. on the other hand, it was almost inconceivable that there should be a summer in which such a qualification would not be made. this attitude of our informants implies that public opinion had sufficient force to call out volunteers against their own wills. there was a feeling that an annual sun dance was, from a religious and ethical point of view, necessary to the general welfare, for which some individual ought to sacrifice personal comfort and property to the extent required by custom. as we shall see later, this was no small price to pay for a doubtful honor. this feeling was sure to express itself in the subtle ways peculiar to indian society, if need be, to the direct suggestion of a candidate who in turn felt impelled to come forward as if prompted entirely from within. as a rule, however, the woman qualifies by a vow. oftimes, when a member of the family is dangerously ill, one of the women goes out of the tipi and raising her eyes to the sun calls upon it that health may be restored to the ailing one. in such an appeal she offers to make gifts to the sun, usually specifying that she will sacrifice a piece of cloth, a dress, a robe, an ax, etc., which are after a time, provided the sick one improves, hung in trees or deposited upon a hill. such appeals are still made with great frequency. it is believed that unless the woman has been industrious, truthful, and above all, true to her marriage vows, her appeal will not be answered. sometimes, when the woman addresses the sun she promises to be the medicine woman at the next sun dance. she herself may be ill and promise such a sacrifice in case she receives help. again, she may, out of gratitude for the satisfactory way in which her prayers have been answered, announce her intention to take this step. in such a case, a formal announcement is made to the sun. in company with a man, usually a medicineman experienced in the ceremonies, she steps out into the camp, where they face the sun whom the man addresses, explaining that as this woman asked for help in time of need and that inasmuch as it was granted, she in turn promises to be the medicine woman at the first opportunity. some such formal announcement is made in every case where the prayers have been answered. by this formality, the vow receives public registry. as indicated above, the prayers are not always granted. in such cases, the promises are not only not binding, but to proceed with the sun dance, or to take a secondary part in it, would be to the detriment of all concerned. the fault is said to lie in the woman's life and that only the wrath of the sun would be invoked by her participation in the ceremonies. it may be asked if a man can make such a vow. he may and does often call upon the sun, promising gifts of property or even scalps and may promise to furnish the material support for a wife, mother, sister, or in fact any woman who will come forward to perform the ceremony. thus, a blood chief once told us that he had been very ill all winter; that he had tried all kinds of doctors without relief, until he was stripped of all his property. at last, he recovered and then made a vow that with the help of his wife he would give the sun dance. this he did, but, as he expressed it, "with great difficulty because he was then poor and did not receive adequate help from his relatives." again, it must be noted that women who do not feel equal to the responsibility of the medicine woman's office, make a vow to announce publicly their virginity or faithfulness to their marriage vows, as the case may be, though for an unmarried woman to make such a pledge is the exception. this is spoken of as "the going forward to the tongues," the full meaning of which will appear later. the manner and occasion of making this vow are in most respects similar to the preceding. at a certain stage of the sun dance proceedings, all the women who made such a promise to the sun, come forward and make their statements subject to the challenge of any man present. this bears some resemblance to the virginity tests of the dakota, but applies more particularly to married women and marital virtue than otherwise. naturally, the number of women making promises of this kind was much greater than for the more important ceremony. thus, we have a custom of calling upon the sun in time of need which is an almost universal practice, a more restricted form of such appeal peculiar to women in so far that sexual morality is a necessary qualification, the more specific vow of "going forward to the tongues", and the exceptional vow to perform the medicine woman's functions at the sun dance, a fair illustration of the way in which most complex folk ceremonies are supported by a pyramid of less and less differentiated practices. in passing, it should be noted that when the vow is made to perform the medicine woman's functions, it is literally an obligation to purchase a natoas bundle, or if already the owner of a bundle, to perform its ritual.[ ] a woman may own more than one of these bundles at a time; indeed, we have heard of a woman purchasing new ones at several successive sun dances. this purchase is a fundamental feature in all bundle ceremonies to which the sun dance bundle offers no exception. on the other hand, the vow means more than the mere purchase of a bundle. we are told that the requirement as to virtue holds strictly for the vow and the tongue ceremony. a woman can buy a natoas in the ordinary sense and have it transferred with the ritual even though she has not been true to her husband. we are reminded that scabby-round-robe's wife[ ] was not true to her former husband and that when her husband received a beaver bundle there went with it a natoas and accessories; but that while she could use them by virtue of her relation to a beaver bundle, she was not competent to make a vow and initiate a sun dance.[ ] this is consistent with the tradition that the natoas was once bought from a beaver bundle by a woman who gave the sun dance for that year and used instead of a wreath of juniper as in former ceremonies. it also throws some light on the relation of the natoas to the beaver and the sun dance rituals. footnotes: [ ] this series, volume , . [ ] this series, vol. , . [ ] for example, we were told that some few years ago the widow of spotted-eagle took the part of the medicine woman and borrowed a natoas from the mother of curly-bear. recently ( ), the latter died. then the former claimed the natoas on the grounds that she had paid full value for it at the time and that she had now the most right to it. curly-bear consented. then, after an interval, this woman transferred it to the wife of ---- who made no vow to give the sun dance, for it was generally known that the reputation of the new owner permanently disqualified her for the function of medicine woman. ceremony of the tongues. while it is obvious from the preceding, that the medicine woman takes her vow at no fixed period in the year, the order of procedure is such that as a rule, she must have taken her vow not later than the spring of the year in which the sun dance occurs. there is no absolute prohibition to qualifying at a later time, as is often the case at present when the consent of the indian agent must be obtained before the ceremony is permitted, but the normal order seems to be as just stated. any way, in the spring, the medicine woman calls upon her relatives for buffalo tongues (in recent years, those of cattle). these are then saved as requested. in passing, it may be noted that in all ceremonies, the persons upon whom the burden of responsibility falls have not only an inherent right to call upon their blood relatives, but these in turn are under obligations to respond. the number of tongues required is uncertain, some informants claiming that there should be an even hundred, others, that four to five full parfleches was the standard. naturally, in recent years, the number has been much less. these tongues are to be sliced, parboiled, and dried like meat. the slices, however, must be perfect, without holes, and come from the interior of the tongue. the slicing of these tongues appears to have been the first ceremony of the cycle. it is conducted by a man, usually the father, who formally announced the woman's vow and who conducts all the ceremonies in which the medicine woman takes part. there is no stipulation that the same man must direct all parts of the ceremony, but, by custom, this office is performed annually by the same man so long as he is physically capable. to this ceremony are called the medicine woman, the women who have promised to "go forward to take the tongues", and sometimes those having previously performed these functions. the manner of formally registering the vow and of collecting the tongues is stated as follows:-- now the woman who made the vow calls on a man and woman who have been through the medicine lodge ceremony to announce it. the man and woman come to her tipi and paint her clothes and face and those of the relative for whom the vow was made with red paint. prayers are offered for them and a few songs sung. after this, the four stand in front of the tipi and the man announces the vow. he says, "sun, she is going to make a sun lodge for you. i think you and those who are above can hear what is said." then they move in turn to the south, west, and north side of the tipi, repeating the same words at each stop and finally enter the tipi. in the spring of the year, when the people run buffalo, the woman has her tipi a little towards the front or center. it may be that she is only with one of the bands, while the rest are camped elsewhere. her tipi stands alone a little to the west of the others. the people are then notified that the tongues are to be given to the woman. her husband mounts his horse and sets out, taking a pipe and tobacco, but no weapons with him. when he finds a man butchering, he sits down on a robe, fills his pipe, prays for those present, and smokes with them. the butcher cuts out the tongue, wipes it off with sagegrass, and places it near the man, who has spread some buffalo dung with sagegrass on top of it in a row before him. the tongues are placed on the sage and dung. the man then takes the tongues and rides to where the next man is butchering and goes through the same procedure. after he has gathered up all the tongues he takes them home. each time buffalo are killed the man rides out to gather in tongues until he has accumulated a hundred. the tongues having been collected, an important ceremony follows with their boiling and slicing. an experienced man and woman are invited to direct; these are spoken of as the father and the mother. also, all the women having made a vow "to go forward to the tongues" are invited. in addition, a number of women and men familiar with the ceremonies are called. the woman making the vow (the daughter) and her husband (the son) sit at the back of the fire; next to the former, sits the mother and then the other women; next to the latter, sits the father and then the men in order. the men sit on the north side and the women on the south. at the proper moment, the mother brings in the tongues, passing around to the south side, and lays them in rows on a half rawhide back of the fire. all the women having made vows are now called upon to slice the tongues. their husbands must be present. the tongues are slit open and the women are invited to slice and boil them. when all the guests are present, one of the tongues is taken and painted black on one edge and red on the other, and given to the woman who made the vow. the rest of the tongues are handed to the women for skinning and slicing; if there were more tongues than women, each was given more than one to slice. after all the women have the tongues, the woman with the painted tongue makes a confession, saying, "sun, i have been true to my husband ever since i have been with him and all my life. help me, for what i say is true. i will skin this tongue without cutting a hole in it or cutting my fingers." the next woman also makes a confession, and so on. after all have confessed, they commence to skin the tongues. as the first woman takes up the knife, the song runs: "a sharp thing i have taken; it is powerful." the knife is painted, one half red, the other black. should any of the women cut a hole in the tongue skin or cut their fingers, it is a sign that they must have lied and they are ordered from the tipi. at the outset, each woman carefully examines her tongue to see if the skin is perfect. should a hole be found, the tongue is passed to the director who marks it with black paint. after the tongues are all skinned and sliced, they are passed back to the woman who distributed them and placed in a wooden bowl. the skins of the tongues are tied in bunches with sinew so that they can tell to which woman the skins belong. the skins are to be boiled by two women. two sticks are given to one woman and one to the other. all this time singing is going on. the woman who has the two sticks paints them black, while the woman who has the other, paints it red. the three sticks are tied together at one end and are used as a tripod for hanging the kettle in which the skins of the tongues are to be boiled. the legs of the tripod, the wooden kettle hook, and all other sticks are painted half in red and half in black. also, the kettle is marked with four vertical bands of black and four of red. the four blunt sticks for stirring the pot are painted in pairs, red and black. a red and black painted stick is slipped through the bail, passed around to the north of the tipi, and handed to the two women. during all these movements there is praying and singing. the women each take hold of one end of the stick and go for water. they make four pauses on this journey, each time praying to the sun and asserting their marital rectitude and recounting such occasions as they have been improperly approached by a man. all this time, the father and his assistants sing in the tipi. one of the women takes a cup, makes four movements with it and dips the water. at this moment the song runs:-- "the water that i see. water is sacred." on the return, the women make four pauses as before. when the pail is finally within the tipi, incense is burned between the fireplace and the door and the pail held in the smudge. the father takes up the board upon which some of the tongues lie and while holding it up in one hand, shakes the cup about in the water, meanwhile making a noise like the buffalo, finally striking the pail a blow with the cup. here the song runs:-- "buffalo will drink." this may be taken as marking one stage of the ceremony. the boiling of the tongue is now in order. when all is ready, the father starts the songs in the next series. the two women hook the kettle on the tripods and while the kettle is heated, there are other songs and incense burned and the song runs:-- "where i (buffalo speaking) sit is sacred." while the water boils, the director takes up a tongue, holds it above the kettle, lowers it slowly, making a noise as if something were drinking. after this, the women place the tongues in the kettle and proceed with the boiling. here or elsewhere, songs accompany the ceremonial acts. the pot must not boil over. when the tongues have cooked, the two women rise and stand by the fire as the songs begin. at the proper moment, they remove the kettle and place it on the spot where the smudge was made. first, they take out the painted tongues and then the others. the father takes up a small piece, singing:-- "old man (sun), he wants pemmican. he wants to eat. old woman (moon), she wants back fat. she wants to eat. morningstar, he wants broth. he wants to eat." then the painted tongue is passed to the daughter. now, each of the women tears off a bit of the tongue skin and all hold up the pieces and pray. after the prayers, the pieces are placed in the earth and the tongues are hung up to dry. first, the rope is taken up and a song sung. the woman who made the vow, rises and ties one end of the rope to the tipi pole on the north side and the other end to the tipi pole on the south side, a little to the west of the fireplace. all the tongues, both painted and unpainted, are hung on this rope. during all these ceremonies there is no regular smudge. the smudges are made with sweetgrass on the grass near the rear of the tipi. the tongues are left to hang for two days before they are taken down to be cooked. when the tongues have been hung, all return to their homes, the women taking the tongue skins with them for their relatives to eat, as they are considered to be blessed and supposed to bring good luck. after two days, all meet again in the same tipi. the two women who went for the water place the tripods over the fire and while songs are sung, the pot is passed to them with the red painted sticks. the two women, each holding one end of the stick, go for water, praying on the way. when they return to the tipi a smudge, over which they hold the bucket of water, is made between the door and the fireplace. then the bucket is placed beside the smudge. while the others sing, the woman who made the vow rises and first takes the painted tongue and then the others from where they were hung. they are then placed on a buffalo hide and the woman returns to her place. four women sit down near the tongues; each one takes a tongue, one of which is the painted one. kneeling and swaying their bodies in time with the songs, they sing the buffalo songs. the painted tongue is placed in the kettle first and a song is sung: "when buffalo go to drink; it is powerful. where buffalo sit is powerful (natojiwa)." then the rest of the tongues are placed in the pot which is hooked on the tripod over the fire. songs are sung and four sticks, about the length of the forearm, for stirring the tongues, are placed where the tongues were first placed. one of the cooks takes a pair of the sticks and stirs the tongues with them. when removing the tongues from the kettle they are held between two of these sticks. another song, called the song of rest is sung, and all rest for a time and smoke. when the tongues are cooled, another song is sung, the two cooks rise, and taking the pot, place it over the smudge place near the door. to the singing of songs, the painted tongue first, and then the others, are taken out and placed on half a rawhide. the soup is poured into wooden bowls and distributed among those present. no tin cups must be used in drinking this soup. while all sing, the woman who made the vow rises and first takes the painted tongue and then all the others and hangs them up as before. this ends the ceremony. two days later, the same participants are called together to the same tipi and the woman rises and takes first the painted tongue and then the others from where they were hung. a parfleche is brought and a buffalo song sung: "buffalo i take. where i sit is powerful." the painted tongue and then the others are placed on the parfleche. wild peppermint is put in with the tongues, the parfleches are tied up and placed at the rear of the tipi. sometimes tongues are dried in front of the tipi on a stage made by setting up two travois with a lodge pole tied between them. the man and woman who lead the ceremony must not have any metal about them. brass rings, earrings, and all such trinkets must be taken off. nor must there be any knives in the vicinity. even the knives with which the tongues are cut are taken out. no one must spit in front of him, but always close to the wall under the beds. if they do, it will rain. no water is brought into the medicine lodge and when water is brought, it is covered. the only time when it is permitted to eat or drink is before sunrise and after sunset. they must be given food by the instructors. the prayers in this ceremony are prayers for good luck for everyone in the camp. this closes the preliminaries to the ceremonies leading to the sun dance and may be designated as the cutting of the tongues. as in most other cases, there seems to have been considerable variation in this procedure, both as to time and order. certainly, for a number of years, it has been much abbreviated. as implied in the program, this ceremony may be performed on the first day. the gathering of tongues was dependent upon circumstances and after the days of the great buffalo drives was a matter of gradual accumulation. thus, it was explained that by necessity, the "cutting" was often repeated, though naturally with less ceremony. the parfleches containing tongues are kept in the medicine woman's tipi where they are "prayed and sung over" during the first and second days of the program. the underlying thought seems to be that they are consecrated to the sun. in the procession of the fourth day, the parfleches are carried behind the medicine woman by her attendants. in former years, these were the women who had promised "to go forward to the tongues." they are present at the ceremony in the medicine woman's tipi and may be said to be in attendance during the entire fasting period. at the time indicated in the program, the parfleches are opened and the women in turn step out with some of the dried tongue, face the west, and each holding up a piece, address the sun then nearing the horizon. they declare their innocence of adultery, as at the time of making the vow and cutting the tongues. they also pray for themselves and their relatives after which they distribute dried tongue among them. finally, there is a general distribution of tongues among the people. however, there is another aspect of their appearance at this point. the blackfoot assume that many women have at one or more periods of their lives been invited by a man to commit the offence and that often the occasion is one of great temptation or calls for great presence of mind and will power. now, when addressing the sun, if so approached, the woman narrates the circumstances, naming the men committing the offence, and recounts the manner of her refusal. in naming the offender, they usually say, "i suppose he hears what i say." these women are also subject to challenge of their having committed adultery. it will be seen from this that the part they take in the ceremony is an ordeal for which most women have little liking and one which they will not undertake lightly. the blackfoot, themselves, regard it as one of the most solemn occasions in the ceremony. so far as we could learn, no one now living was ever present when one of these women was challenged, but the naming of men who were guilty of improper advances was not unusual. a retrospect of the concept of the tongues indicates that the entire ceremony, or their association with the medicine woman and those who are sexually pure, gives them a potency that may be acquired by eating. they seem most closely associated with sexual purity since they are less primary in the function of the medicine woman than in case of those who "go forward," the former being required to possess many virtues, the latter but one. while the medicine woman fasts and keeps to her tipi, the others do not. the medicine woman. we shall now give our attention to the medicine woman. as previously stated, she is in most respects the central figure in the whole ceremony, around whom centers its more serious and solemn aspects. on the fifth day, an elaborate ritual is demonstrated in her tipi, culminating in the procession to the dancing lodge. to this ritual belongs a medicine bundle with accessories, known as the natoas, though the name is primarily that of the headdress which the bundle contains. this bundle is transferred in the ritualistic way to the medicine woman by the ceremony and thus becomes hers to care for and guard until used again at another sun dance ceremony. the ritual and the bundle have been discussed in detail in volume of this series. in addition to the contents of the bundle, there must be a special robe of elkskin, a dress of the same material, and wristlets of strong elk teeth. a new travois must be provided for moving the medicine woman outfit. sometimes she herself rides on it. this travois is made by the past medicine woman, her attendant in the ceremonies. as previously stated, the natoas ritual in the sun dance has for its mythical basis the elk-woman and the woman-who-married-a-star, though scar-face, cuts-wood, otter-woman, and scabby-round-robe are said to have made minor contributions. versions of these myths may be consulted in volume , part of this series. the woman-who-married-a-star is credited with bringing down the digging-stick and the turnip, together with the songs pertaining thereto (p. ), also a wreath of juniper formerly worn in place of the natoas and the eagle feather worn by the man. it is also interesting to note that the crane-woman who transfers the ritualistic attributes of these objects makes a formal declaration of her marital virtue. in the case of elk-woman, we have again the incident of the crane and the digging-stick where it is implied that the latter symbolizes the bill of the former. we are informed that many animals were present at this transfer, each contributing something to the regalia. we also find it suggested that the bunches of feathers on the natoas represent the horns of the elk, the elk robe and elk teeth wristlets further symbolizing that animal. in one version of this myth is the antagonistic implication that elk-woman was not quite up to the standard of marital virtue. in the cuts-wood myth the "going forward to the tongues" is accounted for. scabby-round-robe is credited with adding the necklace and the arrow point to the natoas and otter-woman with the wild cat-tail. the following statement of an informant has a bearing upon this point:-- the natoas is said to have come from the elk. it was first owned by beaver bundle men, but it was the custom for the medicine woman in the sun dance to borrow it for her ceremony. this continued for a time, but ultimately the medicine woman bought it and kept it in a bundle of her own. the feathers on the front of the natoas are said to represent the horns of elk and the plumes at the sides, the leafy top of the large turnip. this is the same turnip which the woman who went to the sky land is supposed to have dug up. the digging-stick which accompanies the natoas also represents the stick with which she did this digging. some of the songs in the natoas ritual speak of little children running about and this refers to the ball-like image on the front of the natoas, for this image is stuffed with tobacco seeds, which, as you know, are often spoken of as children, or dwarfs (p. ). the broad band upon which the natoas is mounted is said to represent the lizard. all these things, it is said, were added to the natoas, one at a time, by some of the beaver men. so it came about that we have the natoas as it is. now, as to the story about the elk giving the natoas the robe and the wristlets used with it. the objection is sometimes made that this first woman who ran away from her husband to join the elk was not a true woman and that the facts are therefore inconsistent with the ideal of the natoas ritual. yet, some of our people claim that the woman was true and that though she went away with the elk it was merely for the sake of receiving the ritual and that this is evident because in the story it tells how she was able to hook down trees by her magical powers and it is not conceivable that she could do this if she had not been a true woman. the ceremonial transfer of the sun dance bundle really begins with the fasting of the medicine woman on the first day. neither she nor her husband are supposed to eat or drink while the sun is visible, and then but sparingly. on the evening before, they are put to bed by the father and mother. the mother places the daughter on the south side of the fire and the father the son on the north side. they must remain in the same position until morning. before the sun rises the father and mother go to the medicine woman's tipi, stand by the door and sing. they sing as they formally enter, the father raising up the son; the mother, the daughter. the man is taken out by the father and the daughter by the mother for the morning toilet. when they return a small amount of food is fed to the son and daughter, after which the father and mother take a little food and drink. this must be before sunrise. during the day the son and especially the daughter must sit quietly in their places with bowed heads and eyes cast down. she wears a buffalo robe, hair side in, painted red, covering her head as well as her body. her hair is not braided, but hangs down freely except for a horizontal band around the head. the hair may be allowed to conceal the entire face. the daughter must do nothing for herself. if she wishes to speak it must be in almost a whisper in the ear of the mother or other attendant, who in turn will announce the import, if necessary. a fire is kept burning in the middle of the tipi, the ears are closely drawn around the smoke hole, the door closed, and the tipi cover securely staked down at the edges. though this keeps the temperature high, the medicine woman cannot use a fan, but may use the skin of a muskrat to wipe the perspiration from her face and hands. during the fasting period no noise must be made in the tipi. all the attendants must avoid unnecessary conversation and speak in a very subdued tone; utensils must not be rattled or struck together. visitors may enter, but respectfully and quietly. no noises should be made in the vicinity of the medicine tipi and boisterous acts abstained from in all parts of the camp circle. if water is brought in the vessel must be covered. no one should spit in the tipi nor do the other things forbidden at the ceremony of the tongues. throughout the whole period there is a male attendant. he keeps the fire alive during the night and until camp is moved. he can only start the fire with an ember from some other tipi, striking fire in the tipi being strictly prohibited. pipes can only be lighted from the fire by this attendant with service berry sticks. a blaze must be avoided as much as possible. the attendant cuts the tobacco and fills the pipe and when burnt out he must empty the ashes into a small hole in the ground near his seat. everyone is expected to sit quietly, leaving the moving to him. he remains on duty during the night also. formerly, the tipi of the medicine woman was moved three times, four different camps resulting, the last being at its position in the circle for the sun dance. as a considerable journey was often necessary to reach the sun dance site these camps might be far apart. theoretically, the camp is pitched late in the afternoon of each day. at the sun dance a special sweathouse ceremony takes place. this will be discussed later. after this the evening and greater part of the night are spent by those in attendance at the medicine woman's tipi in rehearsing the songs and instructing the son and daughter. like everything else, moving the camp of the medicine woman is a formal matter. the travois is made, painted red, and reserved for the special use of the medicine woman. when the time for breaking camp in the medicine woman's band arrives, she and her husband are led out and seated upon a robe at the west or rear of their tipi, facing in the direction to move. the parfleche of tongues and other paraphernalia are brought out by the attending women and put down beside the couple. the mother directs the attending women in taking down the tipi and hitching the horse to the travois. the parfleche of tongues is packed on the travois. when all is ready, the woman and man are led to their horses and assisted to mount, the woman riding the horse to the travois. the father and the son go ahead in single file, next the mother and the daughter, or medicine woman. they pause four times, as songs are sung. after they get some distance out, they stop and wait for the camp, now moving for the first time. this procession of four always leads, the two men side by side and behind them the two women likewise. at noon, when they stop for lunch, the two are again seated on a robe, the travois unhooked and laid down before them. then follows the camp some distance behind. the old men form a circle and smoke near the pair. at this time the father orders one of the men's societies to go forward and mark out a camp site. when this spot is reached, tipis are pitched and when everything is in place the medicine woman and her husband are taken inside. on the morning of each day a society is given instructions to make the sweathouse at the camping place, a man to get the creeping juniper and another to cut out the smudge place. as the sweathouse procedure is a distinct ceremony, it will be treated under another head. the following account of the evening ceremonies in the medicine woman's tipi was given by red-plume:-- in the evening, after sunset, the first sweathouse is made. all those who took part in the ceremony before and a few other old men are invited. the man who fills the pipes and tends to the smoking during the ceremony remains on duty during the whole sun dance ceremony. four-bears is told to tell the mosquito society to sing that night in their own tipi which is inside of the circle. this society is to sing the sun dance songs, the weather-makers dancing songs, the rest of the people remaining quiet through the night. in the medicine lodge they sing until a little before day-break. the smudge place in the medicine lodge on the first day and for the first sweathouse is a square marked in the soft earth with a crescent in the middle of it. it is not painted. under the crescent is a dot where the smudge is made. when all the guests are assembled in the tipi the ceremony for the evening begins. food is given to all; the medicine woman and her husband have their meat cut up for them. while a song is sung a piece of meat is held over the smudge, four passes made with it, and then fed to the man and woman. the same thing is done with water. after this they may help themselves to the food. after the meal is over the singing begins. the sweetgrass is taken up and a song sung: "old man, takes spring grass. old woman comes in with her body." another man takes the smudge stick and places a live coal on the smudge place. the singer holds the grass over head and then brings it down on the coal. this song is for the morningstar: "morningstar says let us have a sweathouse." seven songs are sung for the sun and moon which are spoken of as the old man and old woman. these with the seven sung for the morningstar make fourteen sung thus far. since the men have been in the sweathouse where the paint has all washed off, five songs are sung to re-paint the man and woman. as the man sings, he takes some red earth paint with a ball of fat which he rolls in the palms of his hands. the song is: "old man says red face i take." he makes a streak crosswise on the man's forehead, vertically on his cheeks, and across the chin. the entire face is then covered with the same red paint. the robe is then taken from the man's shoulders. he sings another song as he takes up the sagegrass and brushes one side of the man's head, his arm, and then his body. at the same time, the woman is painted on the other side of the tipi. another song is sung and he takes the paint, rubs it in his hands, and sings: "this man i am making his body holy, powerful." the same words are sung for the woman. the man's body and robe are then painted. when the tongues were first taken in to be sliced, two round buffalo dungs together with a ball of sweetgrass were given to the man and woman. they keep these to wipe the paint from their hands. a song is sung for the dung. the two men and the two women hold their hands over the dung. they make four motions with the closed fists and then touch the ground to the southeast, southwest, northwest, and northeast of the dung. the words in this song are: "this may help me to live long, and help me through life." there is also part of a buffalo dung. the smudge stick is taken up, with the song: "timber i am looking for? timber i have found and taken." the two men and the two women all grasp the forked stick. they sing as they take up the dung with it and gradually move it up the stick until it rests on the fork. then it is held over the fire. someone knocks the dung into the fire and it is covered with ashes. the song is: "powerful, i start. powerful where i sit." to throw the dung off into the fire is a sign that enemies will be conquered. four songs are now sung for the muskrat skin used to wipe the faces of the man and woman: "man says, my medicine, i am looking for. i have found it." the skin is taken up. two songs are sung for the parfleche with tongues in it. it is taken up very slowly and the singing continues during all the movements made with it. it is held over the smudge and placed to one side, the cords untied, and the tongues taken out and distributed to all who are now in the tipi. the two medicinemen and women also eat. the song when first taking up the parfleche is: "buffalo i am powerfully starting. it is powerful where i sit." when undoing the cords the words are: "buffalo i take some." when the first tongue is taken out, a little piece is held up by everyone, prayers are said, the small pieces are placed on the ground, and they begin to eat them. seven songs for the eagle tail feather with which the sun is supposed to have brushed off the scar from scar-face's face and is supposed to be the feather brought down from the sun by scar-face follow: "old man says, hand me a feather." the feather is passed to the man. another song follows: "old man says he wants a hundred feathers. old woman wants different kinds of feathers." seven more songs are sung, the words of some of them are: "this man says that above have seen me. it is powerful. the ground i see is powerful. old man, says, white buffalo robe i want. old woman, says, elk i want. old man says, don't fool me. old woman says, don't fool me." the meaning of this is to be sure and give them what they ask for, that is, offerings made at the sun dance to the sun, moon, etc. seven songs are sung before they take up the rattles and the rawhide and five songs for the raven. at this time, the man takes hold of one of the rattles by the ball part touching it to the ground, while he holds the end of the handle straight up. the raven songs are: "raven says, buffalo i am looking for; buffalo i take. the wind is our medicine. the brush is our home. buffalo i take." the man pecks the rattle handle with one finger on both sides and crows. then they begin to beat the rattles on the rawhide and shake them in a circle once. now seven songs are sung for the smudge which is made of a species of fungus that grows on a kind of willow. the songs: "old man says, all right, may my lodge be put up. old woman says, all right may my lodge be put up or built." these words mean that the sun and moon are speaking and want the sun dance lodge built without any accidents. the next songs are for the natoas bundle which is not opened. the songs: "old man comes in, he says, i am looking for my bonnet. i have found it. it hears me. it is medicine." the old woman sings and uses the same words in her songs. there are six of these bonnet songs. the songs for the badger skin follow: "the man above hears me; he is powerful. the ground is my home; it is powerful." there are four songs for the badger. the badger skin and other things are not handled, the songs about them are simply sung. the songs for the natoas are: "old man says i am looking for my bonnet. i have found it: it is powerful." the woman then sings a song with the same words, which is followed by a song about the stone arrow points on the natoas. there is a song for everything which makes up the bonnet which is as follows: the leather band, the blue paint on the band, the stuffed weasel skin tied crosswise on the bonnet, the weasel tails hanging from the bonnet, two feathers in front, and two behind, two plumes on each side of the bonnet, a flint arrow point, a buffalo calf tail, a snipe, and a small doll the head of which is stuffed with tobacco seed. the song for the doll on the bonnet is: "children are running about. they are running from us. they are running towards us. they are boys. they are powerful." the man says, "give me the child," and makes the movement of reception. another song is sung: "child is crying," and the man imitates the crying of a child. the song for the little birds is: "bird says water is my medicine; it is powerful," for the calf tail: "man says calf tail i want," and for the arrow point: "sharp points are on both sides." then follows the song for the leather band which represents the lizard: "yonder man, i am angry and mad at you." this song of the lizard refers to the prairie dog chief. the blue paint on the band represents water and the song for it is: "the blue waters are our medicine." the song for the feathers is: "feathers i want." another song for the plume on the feathers: "red i want." this closes the evening ceremony. the man and woman are put to bed and all go home. this is the ceremony after the first sweathouse is made. three more moves of the entire camp and three more sweathouses must be made. the fourth move and sweathouse is where the sun dance takes place. nowadays, only one sweathouse is made for the sun dance. it seems that the final camp is marked out by a society laying rocks around its bounds, according to which the arriving bands find their proper places. at the fourth camp and on the fourth day, the natoas bundle is opened, or its formal ritual demonstrated. early in the day another tipi is pitched before the medicine tipi and the covers are joined, thus enlarging the space and providing for a few spectators. a few men and women are invited to assist in the ceremony: the men use the rattles and with the women aid in the singing. the father and other men sit on the north side of the tipi, the former next the medicine woman's husband; and the other women sit on the south side, the mother next to the medicine woman. she directs the medicine woman and the singing of the other women. the ceremony opens at about ten a. m. with the first series of songs in the ritual. three men hold a rattle in each hand, beating them upon the rawhide by a vigorous downward forward stroke, the seventh rattle is used by the father. the ritual of the natoas will be found in volume , pp. - . normally, this ceremony transfers the natoas to the daughter. she may, however, waive the right, in which case the bundle returns to the former owner. yet, she seems to enjoy all the privileges accorded to one having been an owner. theoretically, no one can perform a transfer ceremony without having first owned the bundle in question. in case of the natoas, even now, a beaver owner is regarded as competent to conduct the proceeding, though he may never have gone through the ritual with his wife. this is consistent with the tradition that formerly the natoas was a part of the beaver bundle.[ ] yet, the conditions here are slightly different from those for other bundles in that the father must provide or is charged with the responsibility to see that a natoas is provided. following the vow, either he or the son makes formal application to the owner of a natoas by the usual presentation of a pipe.[ ] when the daughter begins her fasting, the father has the natoas brought to her tipi. as a rule, the father's wife owns a natoas. some informants claim that even should the daughter own a natoas, the father must provide another. on the other hand, the daughter can select the eligible natoas. in any case, the father furnishes the daughter with a dress and an elk robe for which he must be paid liberally.[ ] in conclusion, it may be remarked that anyone can make up a natoas, if he has a dream so directing him; also, if he owned a natoas that was lost or otherwise destroyed; if he gave it away, without receiving payment; or if it was buried with someone. having owned a natoas and transferred it, he cannot duplicate it; should the new owner lose it, he may, if called upon, replace it; likewise, if buried, the surviving husband or wife could call upon him. in all such cases fees are given. when one transfers a medicine bundle and has been paid for it, he has no more right to it and cannot duplicate it on his own motion. should one sell the bundle without the ceremony of transfer, the ritual remains with him and he can again make up the bundle; should one make the transfer and fail to receive the pay, or waive the pay, he can make it up again. the relatives of one buried with a bundle can call upon a former owner to make it up, after which it must be formally transferred to one of them. men were sometimes killed on the warpath and their bundles lost; such were replaced as noted above. in every case these must be true duplicates; it is only a dream that authorizes new creations, or variations, however slight. an interesting sidelight is thrown upon the idealized qualities of this woman's function by the following narrative:-- once while a medicine woman was sleeping in the sacred tipi during the fasting, a nephew of her husband stole in and made improper advances. being a good and true woman, like all others who give the sun dance, she spurned him. next day she told her husband the whole story. he was very angry. he was not satisfied with the confession she made, but suspected that she must have given the young man some encouragement. so when all the medicinemen and women had come into the tipi to rehearse the songs as usual, he made a statement of these suspicions and as he had two wives, he proposed to have them change places. the medicinemen pleaded for the first wife because they believed her innocent, but the husband was obdurate. so the second wife was called in to take the place. then the first wife said, "it was i who saved this man's life when he was ill. i made the vow to give the sun dance and he got well. i have suffered much in fasting, all for him. now he disgraces me before all the people. but i will put my virtue to a test. if i am true, i have already acquired power." she filled a pipe, went outside and standing now on the east side of the tipi, then on the south, the west, and the north, she addressed the sun. the day was clear, but soon after the woman entered the tipi, thunder was heard. a storm came down with hail and blew over many tipis. but in spite of these proofs, her husband was obdurate and the second wife went on with the ceremony. not long after the sun dance this same man became ill again. finally, as a last resort, he called upon the first wife to save him again. this woman told him to call upon the other woman as he seemed to have so much faith in her. so he died and was properly punished for so unjustly treating his faithful wife. footnotes: [ ] in former times, the natoas and the medicine woman's costume were owned by a beaver man. when a woman gave a sun dance she gave a horse for their use. she just borrowed them. later on, a beaver man transferred them, whence they became a separate bundle.--tom kiyo. [ ] should the woman already own a natoas and the transferrer (father) own one; the woman must say which bundle shall be used. she can use her own, borrow, or purchase of the transferrer.--curly-bear. [ ] a piegan informant comments as follows: the woman can either buy or borrow a natoas. in the olden times she often borrowed because the natoas, the dress, the elk tooth wristlets, and the robe were owned by a beaver man's wife. after a time, however, these were transferred to a medicine woman and were thus separated from the beaver bundle. the procession to the dancing lodge. in our account of the natoas ritual we told how the father, son, etc., emerge from their tipi. the file is headed by the father, followed by the son, next the mother, then the medicine woman followed by women bearing the tongues. the father and the son are muffled in blankets (robes); the latter walks with bowed head, leaning heavily on a staff and bearing over his head a wild rhubarb stalk.[ ] the medicine woman wears the natoas on her head, an elkskin (often buckskin) dress and an elkskin robe, with the digging-stick on her back. for a staff, she uses one of the smudge sticks. the women in her rear bear parfleches containing the tongues, together with blankets and other ordinary objects. two or three old men act as conductors, or flankers, keeping the way clear of spectators, etc. the procession moves slowly and by stages. the four principal personages in it keep their eyes upon the ground. the course is southward past the entrance (east side) to the dancing lodge, around the south side, the rear of the shelter and entering from the north side. here the medicine woman remains until the dancing lodge is raised at sunset, when she returns to her tipi and breaks her fast with berry soup. the father and the son go to a sweathouse after which their responsibilities also end. during the continuance of the ceremonies in the sun lodge, the medicine woman cares for the natoas bundle, now her property, until transferred to another, but is otherwise free to do as she likes. she usually remains quietly at home receiving guests and resting. the part of the medicine woman is truly a sacrifice. she and her husband must pay liberally everyone called upon for ceremonial service directly connected with the tongues and the natoas ritual. they must also pay a considerable amount of property for the natoas itself. to give the ceremony means the sacrifice of all personal property. on the other hand, there is compensation, aside from fulfilling the vow. her relatives are very proud of her since she is so virtuous. she is highly respected by her husband and family. in a measure those who "take the tongues" are also respected. the medicine woman may act as the mother in a future sun dance for which she will receive presents and she may eventually realize something by transferring the natoas to another. should anything go wrong during the ceremony, the weather be unfavorable, etc., people will look with suspicion upon her and say she must have lied in her confession to the sun. should she become ill or have deaths in the family, the same charge will be made. _the offerings of cloth._ after the procession headed by the father and he is in position at the west side of the dancing lodge, offerings of cloth and clothing are brought up by the people. a man making such an offering hands the father a filled pipe and the cloth. the father holds the pipe and offers prayers for the giver and lights and passes the pipe to other old men sitting around. the cloth he lays in a pile. then he paints the giver: first the face is smeared over with red, then black spots are daubed on the cheeks, nose, forehead, and chin, four in all. a black circle is marked around each wrist. women bringing offerings and pipes go to the mother who prays for them and paints their faces red with a black spot on the nose and a black circle around the face. there is also a black circle around each wrist. footnotes: [ ] scar-face is said to have made a whistle (flageolet) of such a stalk. the pith of the growing plant is sometimes eaten for food. the hundred-willow sweathouse. as stated before, a sweathouse of special form is constructed on the third day. this is said to have originated with scar-face, it being the house into which he was taken by the sun. about the middle of the day a society is sent out for the willows. these were usually those of the younger men; the pigeons and mosquitoes. there is a belief, however, that in former times only warriors could be sent upon this errand. these persons are mounted and return in procession, singing and circling the medicine woman's tipi in the direction of the sun, and deposit their willows at the west side of the camp circle. they must not drink water while on this duty. an older society is called to build the sweathouse. they must not drink water while engaged in this operation and receive some of the tongues after the ceremonies of the fourth day. formerly, these men must have had a coup to their credit as a qualification and some informants claim that the sum total for the society should have totalled at least one hundred, the number of willows. the work begins some time before sunset by which time the sweathouse should be completed. the willows are stuck into the ground in an oval and their tops bent over and interlocked over the top. the ends point toward the east and the west, an opening or door being provided at each. the willows are then painted, one side red and the other black. next, a hole is dug in the center of the structure for the heated stones. in the meantime, a small heap of stones mixed with firewood has been placed some distance to the east. a buffalo skull is painted with red spots on one side and black on the other. sagegrass is thrust into the nose and eye-sockets. robes are then thrown over the willows and all is ready for the procession from the medicine woman's tipi. the procession from the medicine woman's tipi consists of the father and another man experienced in ceremonial affairs, the husband, the mother and the medicine woman. they approach slowly and by stages, passing around the south side of the sweathouse to the north and then to the east or entrance. all keep their eyes on the ground. the husband walks with a heavy staff; the medicine woman carries the natoas bundle with a smudge stick. the men enter the sweathouse, while the two women go to the west side and sit down facing the east. the medicine woman is on the north side with the bundle before her. after the men have entered, the fire is lighted and some of the attendants (builders of the sweathouse) lift the buffalo skull to the top of the sweathouse where it faces the east. prayers and the usual sweathouse procedure now follow while the stones and a pail of water are passed in by an attendant. the covers are then drawn down and the vapor bath taken. after the ceremony the procession returns to the medicine woman's tipi. the cover is removed from the sweathouse and the buffalo skull placed on top where it remains. should there be more than one medicine woman, another sweathouse is made on the east side of the camp circle and the others grouped around them equally. since after the sweathouse ceremony there is formal singing in the tipi until far into the night, it may be said that during the four days of the fast the ceremonies begin with the sweathouse at sundown, while on the fifth day the ceremony begins in the morning and ends at sundown. to this generalized statement the following account from a piegan may be added:-- now, when the first sweathouse is to be made, orders are given in the morning to one of the societies to get the willows to make the hundred-willow sweathouse. another man is to get the creeping juniper to use in the smudge place in the medicine lodge, and still another is to cut out the smudge place. the moves are short. the people all move camp, as before, and the society goes on ahead and stakes out the camping ground. when the tipis are pitched at the new camping ground, the society comes in with the willows and the rocks for the sweathouse. they circle once around to the right of the lodges and stop outside of the circle, west of the medicine lodge. they must neither eat nor drink while building the sweathouse. they gather wood from among the tipis until they have enough to heat the rocks. robes for covering the sweathouse are borrowed from the people of the camp. one man goes to the medicine lodge and digs out the smudge place. when the sweathouse is ready for the medicinemen, four of the men who helped in the construction go and inform the men and women. they carry the parfleche with the tongues in it on a robe, each man holding a corner. the two medicinemen take the lead, the two women follow, then come the four men with the parfleche. four stops are made before they reach the sweathouse. the instructor leads, and is followed in single file by the other man, and the two women walking very slowly and singing. they march once around the sweathouse in the direction of the sun. the other old men who are to join them and the two medicinemen go in while the two women remain seated on a robe just west of it with the parfleche beside them. a smudge is made with sweetgrass, and a crescent-shaped place marked out between the square hole and the rear of the sweathouse and live coals are placed on the dot in front of the crescent. a song is sung while the smudge stick is taken up and a man goes after the coal for the smudge. the sweetgrass is placed on the live coal and the two songs for the smudge are sung: "spring grass i take. where i sit is powerful." a pipe is handed in and the pipe bowl and stem painted red. the man holds the pipe over the smudge and prays for the one who gave it to him and then passes it to the last man to his right who lights it and all smoke it. when the pipe is all burnt out, the man who blessed it, takes it, and with a red-painted stick loosens the ashes and empties some of them on the southeast corner of the square hole in the sweathouse, then on the northwest corner, on the northeast, and finally in the center. after this the buffalo skull is brought in and the songs of the buffalo sung while the same man paints it with black and red dots, the left half black and the right half in red. grass is stuffed into the eyes and nose of the skull which is passed out through the west of the sweathouse and placed on the earth taken out of the hole in the sweathouse. an extra buffalo horn wrapped with swamp grass is brought in and given to the man who paints it red and sings while doing so: "chiefs of other tribes i want to hook." he throws the horn out and all the men of this society who remain near the sweathouse try to catch it. the one who captures it is considered lucky and he is supposed to capture a gun in the next battle he witnesses. the men in the sweathouse all undress and as they pass their robes and moccasins out through the west of the sweathouse and the door, the buffalo songs are sung. the two medicinemen only wear a robe and moccasins when they go into the sweathouse. while singing, the forked stick is taken up and one of the outsiders goes for the heated stones, stopping four times before he brings them in. one of the men who is inside takes the stone with two straight sticks and places it on the southeast corner of the hole, the same is done with four more stones which are placed on the southwest, the northwest, the northeast corner and the fifth is placed in the bottom of the hole at the center. when a sixth stone is placed in the hole, they are all rolled to the bottom of the hole. water and a horn spoon or wooden bowl is brought in. a little water is thrown on the stones to wash them, the curtains are lowered, and prayers to the sun, moon, and stars, and earth begin. in groups of four, sixteen medicine lodge songs are sung. the curtains are raised and four more songs are sung; the sweathouse is opened and four songs are sung, until the sixteen have been completed. the two medicinemen go out through the west of the sweathouse while the rest go through the door. the men dress, and the parfleche containing the tongues is opened and the tongues given to the members of the society who made the sweathouse. the medicinemen and women do not eat. after all are provided with the tongues a piece is broken off each and while all hold the pieces up a prayer is said and the piece of tongue placed on the ground. then they all begin to eat. after this the robes are all returned to their owners, the buffalo skull placed on top of the frame of the sweathouse with the nose pointed towards the east and the medicinemen and women return in single file while four men follow behind carrying the empty parfleche. the men who belong to the society may now eat and drink as they wish. the dancing lodge. the dancing lodge may be said to take its origin on the fourth day, by which time the medicine woman has her tipi in place near its site and the camp circle has been formed. in construction, nine forked tree trunks about nine feet in height are set in a circle. across their tops, except the eastern face, are laid stringers about fifteen feet long of the same material.[ ] in the center, is another forked tree trunk much higher than the other (this we shall call the sun pole) connected with each of the stringers by a rafter. green boughs are placed thickly against the outside of the lodge. on the inside, at the rear, is a booth screened and roofed with boughs. the material is cottonwood. that other woods were occasionally used, is attested by the fact that a locality is known as "the place of sweet pine dancing lodge." some informants claim that in former years each band was required to furnish two rafters, a post, a rail, and their proportionate amount of boughs. two rafters were used instead of one as now, each band furnishing the section opposite their place in the circle. the contradiction between the number of bands and the size of the dancing lodge seems not to have troubled our informants. now, the young men go out during the early part of the fourth day to cut the poles and boughs. this is done without ceremony. a crier usually rides around the camp circle reminding the various bands of their duty. formerly, the young women went out on horseback to drag in the poles and brush. on this occasion, they dressed in the best costumes and used the finest horse trappings obtainable. the men cut the poles and brush, hitching them to the drag ropes with their own hands. as the procession galloped toward the camp circle, the men rode behind, shooting and yelling. in recent years, the men bring the material in on wagons without demonstration. men of some prominence are selected to dig the holes for the posts. the posts are erected and the stringers put in place, excepting one on the west side nearly opposite the entrance. the rafters are leaned against the stringers, ready to be pushed in place and the green boughs piled up at convenient places near by. the cutting of the sun pole is attended with some ceremony. some informants claim that formerly this was to be carried out by the medicine woman's band; others that one of the men's societies was called upon for this service. in any event, they go out as a war party and locate a suitable tree. a man with a war record, preferably one having struck an enemy with an ax, comes forward, takes an ax, paints the blade as he recounts some event in which he killed an enemy, and then strikes the tree. four such deeds must be told before the tree can be felled. then one or two men cut the tree as the others stand around. as the tree begins to fall all give the war cry and shoot at its top, then rush up, and tearing off branches, wave them in the air as if they were trophies from an enemy. indeed, the whole proceeding, from start to finish, is a mimic attack on an enemy. the pole is cut to approximate form and taken to the site of the dancing lodge. one end is placed on a travois (in recent times on a wagon), while the riders assist with their ropes, their horses massed around the travois horse. the hole for the sun pole is dug without ceremony by relatives of the medicine woman. when it is in place, they tie a bundle of green boughs in the fork,[ ] making everything ready for the raising in the evening. the sun pole now lies on the ground with the butt over the hole and the forked end supported by a piece of timber. the fork points to the west. it seems that formerly the pole was painted. just below the fork it was circled by two black bands and two red ones beneath these. footnotes: [ ] obviously, this would make the dancing lodge very large. in reply to this objection it was said that they were large; that it was necessary to select as a site places where very long rafter poles could be cut; that formerly societies and others performed evolutions within on horseback. the late little-plume is credited with having introduced the present custom of reciting deeds, requiring horses, outside the dancing lodge. it may be of interest to note that the arapaho also made very large sun dance shelters. in mr. duvall measured the dancing lodge. the sun pole stood sixteen feet from the ground to the fork. the posts were eight feet and approximately sixteen feet apart. the diameter of the whole was fifty-two feet. the fireplace was east of the sun pole six feet and was four feet by two feet and five inches deep. the booth for medicinemen was five feet eight inches wide by seven feet six inches deep. the two holes were about a foot forward from the sod walls, eight inches across and six inches deep. the man who has been marking out the site for the lodge during the last few years, begins by selecting the place for the sun pole and stepping off seven paces as the radius. [ ] the bundle of boughs is neither spoken of as the thunderbird's nest nor given a name of any kind; though some old men seemed to know that other tribes so designated it. we made diligent inquiry on this point and feel that the above statement is correct. reference to published photographs will show that the brush is merely gathered into a bundle and not made into the form of a nest as in case of the crow. cutting the thongs. a fresh cowskin (formerly two buffalo hides) is provided that thongs may be cut for binding the rafters to the stringers and the objects placed on the sun pole. there seems to have been no hunting ceremony for providing this hide and there is now no symbolic hunting. after the medicine woman is in the shelter, the ceremony of cutting the thongs takes place. if no one volunteers, men are "caught." the men who cut the thongs last year may do the "catching" or engage representatives to do it. formerly, this function was exercised by old warriors who had captured enemies alive. the "catchers" go quietly about the camp looking for eligibles. while pretending to pass one by without notice, they suddenly lay hold of him. the victim may pull back, but is not allowed to resort to other means of resistance. he is then led up to the hides near the front of the medicine woman's shelter. in former times, four such men were brought up for the ceremony. they must have coups to their records, otherwise they would not have been selected. in the ceremony of we observed an attempt to "catch" a man on horseback, but the struggles of the horse enabled him to escape. in former times, the friends of the interested party would have gathered around the rear and sides of the horse forcing him forward in the lead of the "catcher". this whole catching procedure is said to symbolize the capture of an enemy. in order to understand the ceremony that now takes place, it is necessary to know that the right to cut the thong is to the blackfoot a medicine to be transferred for gifts of property as in case of other medicines. the men who did the cutting in the previous year are to "sell", or transfer, this year. it is they who do the "catching", either in person or by deputy. should no one be brought forward, those who performed the rite on the previous year must again serve. as soon as a man is caught, his relatives are notified; they come out with all kinds of property to support him in the transfer. the initiate is brought into the presence of the present owner of the right, his hands and face are painted, accompanied by ritualistic prayers. while this proceeds, an old man (usually a relative) stands somewhat apart and shouts out praise for the initiate. however, this may be done by a woman, if no man comes forward. a horse and other property is then given to the former owner of the right, whence it ceases to be his. the deputy "catcher", if there is one, then receives a small present or two from the former owner. the cutting of the thong then takes place. the new owner of the right, standing up by the hide, shouts out his coups. he holds the knife in his hand and while pointing in different directions with it, he tells of a war deed. at the end of each tale he makes a pass with the knife as if to cut the hide. after four deeds are told, he cuts the hide. for example, he may say, "at such a place i captured a horse which gives me the right to cut this, etc." if there are other men with the right, they follow in turn. after this, the thongs are cut with the assistance of other men and distributed at the places where they will be needed. a thong with the tail attached is used to bind the bunch of boughs to the sun pole, the tail hanging down. while this ceremony is going on, gifts of flour, beef, etc., made by white people are distributed among the old poor people. this is regarded as a recent intrusion. the following extract from an unpublished version of the scar-face myth accounts for the thong-cutting ceremony:-- her husband could tell by her eyes that she had been crying and he said, "i told you not to dig up that turnip, but nevertheless you have done so. since you are lonesome and wish to return to your people, i will take you back." then morningstar went out and killed some buffalo. after he had skinned all of them he cut the hides into long strands, fastened them together, and tied the woman and her child to one end and let her down from the sky to where her people were. before she reached the earth, a little sore-eyed boy was lying on his back, looking up at the sky and saw a very small object coming down. the boy told the men who were playing the wheel gambling game what he saw, but they laughed at him and threw dirt in his eyes and said, "you must see the gum on your eyelids or lashes." as the falling object came closer others noticed it and when it came among the group they knew that it was the woman who was missing from the camp. they untied the rawhide strand and noticed that some of the buffalo tails were on the ends of the long rope which lay piled up high before them. this woman came down with her digging-stick. as she was not a wicked woman and only lived with morningstar as her husband, she gave her digging-stick to the medicine lodge woman and the natoas was named for the turnip she dug up. when the sun dance was held, this woman told them always to cut up a rawhide into strands and tie the posts with them. also that the center post and the birch on it must be tied with them. the tail of the hide is to hang down from the center post. these rawhide strands are a representation of the rawhide rope with which this woman was let down to the earth. later, the moose hoofs are tied to this digging-stick. the plumes on the natoas are to represent the leaf of the large turnip this woman dug up while in the sky. raising the sun pole. while the hide is being cut, all the woman who made vows to take some of the tongues come forward to the parfleche placed near the medicinemen and women. each woman takes one of the tongues and stands with the person for whom her vow was made and makes a confession to the sun in a loud voice, so all may hear. then she prays to the sun for the beneficiary. after all the women have taken their tongues, some of the men tie the cloth offerings to the ends of the poles and a bunch of birch is tied between the forks of the center pole. the preceding ceremony comes to a close as the sun gets very low. about time for the sun to set, a procession of pole raisers starts from each of the four quarters of the camp circle. tipi poles are tied near the small ends in pairs, each pair carried by two men. the four parties advance in unison by four stages and at each pause sing a special song. in the last move, they rush upon the sun pole and raise it in place. in the meantime, the father and son go and stand on the center pole while their wives stand to the west. the men make wing movements with their arms toward the east. according to some informants, the medicine woman may make hooking motions at the pole, to symbolize the mythical elk-woman. four men are called upon to assist the father and son. as the latter stand upon the pole, they encircle and screen them with their blankets and join the father in singing. the songs call for good luck in erecting the dancing lodge. the son does not sing. four songs are sung. at the end of each the father blows a whistle while someone shakes the pole. the last time they jump off the pole. the son drops his blanket (some say the father also, some add moccasins) painted black as a sun offering. another blanket is handed him at once. as soon as the men leave the pole the advancing raisers rush in, raise the center pole, put on the rafters, tie them with the rawhide strands and place brush all around to form the wind-break. this is accompanied by much shouting, but without shooting. while the sun pole is being raised the daughter and mother stand watching it. they pray and make movements with the corners of their robes as though steering the rising pole. as it sways from side to side, they gesture as if righting it. as soon as the pole is set, the natoas, robe, and moccasins are taken off the daughter by the mother. she may call on someone to do this and pay a gun or a horse for the service. the mother and other attendants then lead the daughter to her tipi where she resumes her ordinary routine. the father and son go to a sweathouse where all the paint is washed off. this is not the hundred-willow sweathouse and is the fifth sweathouse, if it were counted. the two men go in and some sagegrass being handed to the father, he takes off the feathers tied to the son's hair, the hair necklace, and whistle. after the first opening of the sweathouse he takes the sagegrass and wipes off the black paint on the son and hands out through the west side of the sweathouse the necklace, whistle, and feathers which are to be taken home. at the same time, the two women are in the ceremonial lodge, the mother caring for the daughter. when the men have completed the sweathouse ceremony they go to the medicine woman's tipi. the father and his wife wrap up the natoas and place it in the badger skin. after this is done, they no longer have to eat sparingly. this ends the ceremony of the medicine woman. early the next day she and her husband must obtain the cottonwood brush with which the booth for the weather dancers is made. another man digs out the place in the booth, making it the same as the smudge place in the medicine woman's tipi, with the sod on three sides and creeping juniper on top of it. the fireplace is dug out to the west of the center post and is made as in the medicine woman's tipi. when going for and returning the brush, the woman rides one horse and leads the one dragging her travois. while when the other brush was brought in there was much shooting and shouting, there are now no demonstrations of any kind, but absolute silence. the weather dancers. early on the fifth day, a booth is built inside the dancing lodge opposite the entrance. a slight excavation about six feet square is made over which is erected a shelter of green cottonwood boughs, open on the side facing the sun pole. before the middle of the day, a procession of one or more men supposed to have power over the weather, attended by drummers, proceeds by stages from the medicine woman's tipi to this booth. they pause four times and dance, facing alternately the east and the west. they hold whistles of bone in their mouths, which are sounded in unison with the dancing. the procession is of two transverse lines, the dancers, in front, the drummers and singers behind. a great deal of dancing is done between the entrance to the dancing lodge and the booth. at intervals during the day they stand before the booth and dance to the east and west: the drummers are now stationed on the south side of the booth where women also assemble for the singing. the dancing is chiefly an up and down movement produced by flexing the knees, the eyes are directed toward the sun and wing-like movements of the hands are made in the same direction. the dancers wear breechcloth and moccasins and usually a robe around the waist. their faces and bodies are painted according to their own medicines and medicine objects worn on their heads. it is stated that there is but one weather dancer, but others may join under certain conditions. in practice this seems to amount to there being a director or leader in the dance, at least such was the case in and . in the two assistant dancers went to the medicine woman's tipi to paint themselves and began their procession from there, while the leader approached in a similar manner from his own tipi, the two forming one procession before the east side of the dancing lodge was reached. the leading dancer wore a special ceremonial robe, headdress, and several medicine objects, which have been described in volume (pp. - ). these objects and their medicine functions may be regarded as esoteric in so far as they are not absolutely essential to the office of leading dancer. yet, this same individual seems to have performed this function for a number of years. clark mentions strings of feathers tied to the finger of this dancer.[ ] in there were two assistant dancers. both wore headdresses somewhat like that of their leader. one was fully dressed with a blanket around his waist; the other was nude to the belt. the latter was painted chiefly in red with a circle in blue on the back and one on the breast. the former had a pair of horizontal lines on each cheek, those on the right, black, on the left, red. it is said that formerly these dancers were nude, except for the breechcloth and moccasins. the entire body was painted. there seemed to have been no fixed painting, but the sun, moon, and stars were usually represented. around the head, they wore a wreath of juniper and bands of sagegrass around the neck, wrists, and ankles. the weather dancers are not permitted to eat or drink during the day. formerly, they remained in the booth continuously until the evening of the fourth day of their dancing; in recent years, they spend the night at home and return to the booth in the morning. the functions of these dancers are not clearly understood. they seem to be held responsible for the weather: i. e., upon them falls the duty of preventing rain from interfering with the dancing. whether they do this because they happen to have independent shamanistic powers or whether it is a mere function of their temporary office in the ceremony, cannot be determined. other medicinemen often attempt to control the weather during the days preceding the formal entry into the booth as well as during the later days. in (piegan) there was a contest between a number of rival medicinemen some of whom conjured for rain, others for fair weather: strange to say, clouds would threaten and then pass away during these days, which coincidence was interpreted as proof of evenly matched powers. several times one of the partisans of fair weather came out near the site of the dancing lodge and danced to the sun, holding up a small pipe and occasionally shouting. he wore no regalia and danced in a different manner from that observed among the weather dancers at the booth. however, the man who led the weather dancers for many years until his death in , was famous for his control over the weather. once, it is told, he became enraged at the power making the weather bad, shouting out "now, you go ahead, if you want to. i have great power and can stop you when i will." in former times, the dreams of the weather dancers while sleeping in the booth were considered of special supernatural significance, since, it is said, they were _en rapport_ with the sun. this _rapport_ may account for what seems to be one of their chief functions--blessing the people. during the days they are in the booth, individuals come to them "to be prayed for." they come up and stand before the booth. the dancer takes black paint and paints their faces. then he prays to the sun for their welfare. during this part of the ceremony the recipient faces the sun. again, the medicine-pipes and other ritualistic objects are brought up for the dancer to present to the sun. the pipes he holds up with the stems towards the sun, whom he addresses at some length, offering him a smoke, making requests, etc., after which he smokes the pipe. all the persons present are then permitted to put their lips to the pipe from which they are supposed to derive great benefits. the dancer also receives offerings made to the sun. a young man may fill a pipe and approach with his offerings. the dancer takes the pipe, smokes, prays, paints the man's face, and makes the offering. a woman or child may do this; or a whole family. formerly, a great deal of old clothing was offered at this time, a custom still practised by the blood. also children's moccasins and clothing were offered in this way. as they grew out of them they were given to the sun to promote well-being. in last analysis, it seems that while these dancers are spoken of as weather priests, they are rather sun priests, since through them appeals to the sun are made. it should be noted that they are regarded as independent of and in no way associated with the medicine woman ceremonies or the erection of the dancing lodge, but upon entrance to the booth, the leading weather dancer is said to become the chief and director of all succeeding ceremonies. the length of the ceremony depends entirely upon him and formerly continued as long as he kept his place. like other rites this one was bought and sold, but it was usual to continue in ownership many years. anyone could make a vow to dance with the weather dancer and join him in his ceremonies, but such vows were usually made by former owners of the rite. when one makes a vow to purchase the rite, its owner must sell, however reluctant he may be. the transfer must be in the sun dance. it is said that two men once alternately sold to each other for many years so that both could appear in every sun dance. footnotes: [ ] clark, w. p., _the indian sign language_ (philadelphia, ), . dancing. the first ceremony of this character is named the cutting-out dance (to cut out a hole in a robe). it seems to have been performed by a society and occurs early on the fifth day. about four or six old men dance in line with a rawhide which they hold in front of them, singing and beating time on the rawhide with rattles similar to those of the beaver men. the society now divides into two parties, one placing itself north of the center pole, and the other party standing in line south of the center pole. the two parties dance back and forward in front of the pole shooting at it. the old men on the west side of the center pole dance in their places. the rawhide held in front of them, hangs down like an apron. they beat time on it, holding the rawhide in one hand, and the rattles in the other. an old man counts deeds and marks out with a knife the fireplace and the booth for the weather dancers. these are dug while the dancing and shooting take place.[ ] the hole, or fire pit, is dug between the sun pole and the entrance to the dancing lodge. it is about three feet by two and "two hands" deep. a warrior is then called to start the fire. warriors now come forward in turn to count their coups. in this a man took a piece of firewood and holding it up, called out in a loud voice how he once struck a sioux, a snake, etc., then placed it in the fire. when he had recounted all he gave way to the next. stories are told of men having enough coups to make a fire large enough to threaten the destruction of the dancing lodge. we were able to confirm the statement of clark[ ] that the height of the flame as determined by a buffalo tail hanging down was the criterion for determining a great warrior. one informant states as follows:-- there is always a cow tail hanging down from the center post. in olden times this was a buffalo tail, to the end of which a blackened plume was tied. this hangs down over the fireplace which was used at night to furnish light for the proceedings. the assembled people were entertained by narratives of warriors as they came forward to narrate their deeds; each threw a stick on the fire for each deed counted and he whose fire blazed high enough to reach the tail was considered a great warrior. it was a great honor when a man could tell enough war deeds to scorch the tail. all this time there was singing (the cheering songs) and drumming, while berry soup was served to all. the persons taking part are designated as those "who are about to make the fire." in recent years, this ceremony has been performed in a very perfunctory manner. after the ceremony, the fire was fed in the ordinary way and kept going during the greater part of the succeeding days. the origin of this dance is often ascribed to scar-face. footnotes: [ ] it will be recalled that in the sun dance of the dakota type (p. ) there is a ceremonial shooting at the sun pole. here the shooting takes place in a perfunctory way, while the pole is dragged to the sun dance site. yet, mcquesten claims to have witnessed the driving of evil power from the sun lodge at a blood ceremony in . ("the sun dance of the blackfeet" _rod and gun in canada_, march .) as this is not noted in older accounts and we failed to get information as to it, we suspect it to be due to foreign influences, or perhaps the author's own interpretation. [ ] clark, _ibid._, . society dances. in former times, the succeeding days were apportioned to the men's societies (the ikunukats) in the order of their rank, beginning at the lowest.[ ] there seems to have been no fixed allotment of time to each, only the order of succession being adhered to. the ceremonies were determined chiefly by the respective society rituals, though the recounting of deeds in war was given great prominence. as a rule, each society closed its ceremonies by offering parts of its regalia, etc., to the sun, a custom still observed by the blood (see vol. , this series, fig. , p. ). after the highest society had completed its function, the leading men of the tribe held a kind of a war dance in which coups were recounted. in this dance, again, rattles were beaten upon a rawhide. the organizations or persons having charge of the day's ceremonies must furnish the feast and all necessaries. the medicine woman and her husband usually repair to the dancing lodge each day. the man usually takes his pipe and tobacco and furnishes the smoking for the guests who sit around. his wife wears the buckskin dress and elk robe, but not the natoas. they sit on the north or right side of the booth and merely are spectators. this closes the ceremonies and camp is broken. footnotes: [ ] this series, vol. , - . the torture ceremony. the torture feature, especially prominent in the ceremonies of the mandan, hidatsa, and dakota, was formerly given a place among the dancing lodge ceremonies of the blackfoot. the information we have seems to indicate that this ceremony had not become thoroughly adjusted to its place in this series at the time of its prohibition by the united states and canadian governments. the claim is made by some of the piegan that it was borrowed from the arapaho and was not looked upon with much favor. as one man expressed it, "none of those taking the cutting lived to reach old age." it was said that a few blackfoot warriors once visited the arapaho at the time of their sun dance where they were put through the cutting ceremony. according to the blackfoot mode of thought, this means that the medicine rites (and rights) were transferred to them. when they returned, they induced others to take the cutting, to whom, of course, the rites were transferred. whether this historical statement is accurate or mythical, we have no means of knowing, but we are inclined to give it some weight as evidence. it seems, however, that warriors took the cutting because of a vow, similar to that of the medicine woman. sometimes a man dreamed that the sun required it of him. the giving of property and the conditions of the transfer were the same as for "cutting the thong," though we have no information that "catching" was permitted. such may, however, have been tolerated. the men taking the cutting were nude to the belt. sage was tied around the wrists and ankles. the hair hung down, held in place by a wreath of cedar (some informants say sage). they were painted white. rows of spots in blue extended down the sides of the face, over the shoulders and down the arms. wavy lines of the same color were also drawn down the arms. a circle representing the sun, was made on the breast, also upon the chin and probably on the back opposite the one over the heart. on the forehead was another circle representing the moon. other informants say a crescent moon in black was used instead of these circles. according to one informant, vows were made to purchase this ceremony when ill or in great danger. if the promise brought results, the vow was fulfilled at the next dance. the supplicant calls upon one having purchased the rite. they enter the booth of the weather dancers, a blanket is held up to shut out the gaze of the others. the transferrer then paints the purchaser. he cuts a hole through the skin of the right shoulder, over the scapula, and a hole over each breast. a small sharpened stick is thrust through each. a shield is hung on the back. long cords were fastened to those on the breast, the ends of which were tied fast, high up to the center pole. the purchaser goes up to the pole, embraces it, and cries for a time. then he backs off, and dancing, throws his weight on the ropes. the transferrer jerks the shield from his shoulders and if necessary, assists him in tearing loose. at once, the purchaser goes out into the hills and sleeps in different places to receive power. it is said that all who take this ceremony die in a few years, because it is equivalent to giving one's self to the sun. hence, the sun takes them for his own. the cutting was similar to that described by catlin and other writers as observed elsewhere. some informants say the dancers held whistles in their mouths and gazed at the sun as they danced. when all the thongs were torn out, some of the lacerated flesh was cut off as an offering to the sun. mclean reports the following observations upon this ceremony at a blood sun dance:-- ... the chief attraction to the pale-face is what has been ignorantly termed "making braves." i desired very much to see this ceremony _once_, that i might know the facts from personal observation, and draw my own conclusions after conversing with the indians. two young men having their whole bodies painted, wearing the loin-cloth only, and with wreaths of leaves around their heads, ankles and wrists, stepped into the center of the lodge. a blanket and a pillow were laid on the ground, and one of the young men stretched himself upon them. as he lay, an old man came forward and stood over him and then in an earnest speech told the people of the brave deeds, and noble heart of the young man. in the enumeration of his virtues and noble deeds, after each separate statement the musicians beat applause. when the aged orator ceased, the young man arose, placed his hands upon the old man's shoulders, and drew them downward, as a sign of gratitude for the favorable things said about him. he lay down, and four men held him while a fifth made the incisions in his breast and back. two places were marked in each breast denoting the position and width of each incision. this being done, the wooden skewers being in readiness, a double edged knife was held in the hand, the point touching the flesh, a small piece of wood was placed on the under side to receive the point of the knife when it had gone through, and the flesh was drawn out the desired length for the knife to pierce. a quick pressure and the incision was made, the piece of wood was removed, and the skewer inserted from the under-side as the knife was being taken out. when the skewer was properly inserted, it was beaten down with the palm of the hand of the operator, that it might remain firmly in its place. this being done to each breast, with a single skewer for each, strong enough to tear away the flesh, and long enough to hold the lariats fastened to the top of the sacred pole, a double incision was made on the back of the left shoulder, to the skewer of which was fastened an indian drum. the work being pronounced good by the persons engaged in the operation, the young man arose, and one of the operators fastened the lariats giving them two or three jerks to bring them into position. the young man went up to the sacred pole, and while his countenance was exceedingly pale, and his frame trembling with emotion, threw his arms around it, and prayed earnestly for strength to pass successfully through the trying ordeal. his prayer ended he moved backward until the flesh was fully extended, and placing a small bone whistle in his mouth, he blew continuously upon it a series of short sharp sounds, while he threw himself backward, and danced until the flesh gave way and he fell. previous to his tearing himself free from the lariats, he seized the drum with both hands and with a sudden pull tore the flesh on his back, dashing the drum to the ground amid the applause of the people. as he lay on the ground, the operators examined his wounds, cut off the flesh that was hanging loosely, and the ceremony was at an end. in former years the head of a buffalo was fastened by a rope on the back of the person undergoing the feat of self-immolation, but now a drum is used for that purpose. from two to five persons undergo this torture every sun-dance. its object is military and religious. it admits the young man into the noble band of warriors, whereby he gains the esteem of his fellows, and opens up the path to fortune and fame. but it is chiefly a religious rite. in a time of sickness, or danger, or in starting upon some dangerous expedition, the young man prays to natos for help, and promises to give himself to natos if his prayers are answered. upon his return, when the annual sun-dance is held, he fulfills his vow, gives himself to his god, and thus performs a twofold duty. of course the applause of the people and the exhibition of courage are important factors in this rite, but its chief feature is a religious one. instead of being a time of feasting and pleasure, the sun-dance is a military and religious festival, in connection with which there are occasions for joy, and the feast enhances the pleasure.[ ] it may be well to note that the offering of bits of flesh to the sun was a general practice not necessarily associated with the sun dance. many comparatively young men now living ( ) bear numerous scars testifying to such offerings. when in perilous situations a finger would sometimes be struck off with a call upon the sun for help. among the blood, such sacrifice of a finger by women as well as men was common at the sun dance.[ ] these facts concerning the more general practice of mutilating the body to win the approval of the sun suggest that if the cutting ceremony is intrusive, it either found on hand a series of analogous customs or brought with it a concept that afterwards gave birth to them. it may be observed that the form of costume and dance is strikingly like that employed by the present weather dancers. since there seems to be no good published data on the sacrificing of skin and fingers we append the narrative of split-ears:-- sometimes, when warriors are on an expedition and come in sight of the enemy they will sit in a circle while the leader, or the oldest member of the party, offers prayers that they may succeed in their undertaking. then they proceed to offer bits of their own skin to the sun. the one who prayed sits down by one of the party, takes up a needle or bodkin and a knife, thrusts the former under a small section of skin and raising it, cuts off a small slice with a knife. this leaves a circular wound a quarter of an inch or less in diameter. it is understood that the operator pulls the skin up with the needle and slices off a small section underneath that instrument. he then takes up some black paint and dips the bit of skin into it. then he holds it up to the sun and prays for the success of his victim. the bit of skin is then placed upon a piece of cloth and another is removed from the victim in the same manner and so the operator goes to each of the party in turn, each time removing a piece of skin, dipping it in black paint, and holding it up in a prayer to the sun. while each person is expected to give two pieces, they are not limited to the maximum number, some men giving four and some still more. the bits of skin thus collected are tied up in one corner of the cloth which is mounted upon a stick wrapped with wild sage, the whole being fastened in a tree or set up on the top of a high hill as the sun's offering. this sacrifice is always spoken of as feeding the sun with flesh from one's own body. the cloth is fastened to the stick in the form of a flag or banner so that it waves in the wind with the flesh offerings tied in one corner. this sacrifice is considered one of the greatest a man can make. now, as i have said, some men only give two small pieces of skin, while others give a great many more, but as they do this each time they go on an expedition, it so happens that a man who made many war expeditions has many small scars on his arms and legs. thus, we can still tell those of our old men who went upon the warpath many times in their youth. we can tell by the scars made from feeding the sun their own flesh. but, again, it so happens that men while at home may have dreams in which they are commanded to feed the sun. now it is believed that unless a man heeds such a command, he is certain to be visited by misfortune or even death, so he always makes haste to comply with the command. after such a dream he makes a sweathouse and invites in an old man who prays and makes the offering. the procedure here is the same as previously described and the offering is made into a banner and placed in a tree or upon a hill. then again, the men who are at home in the camp but who have relatives in a war party may so wish for the safety of these that they themselves offer bits of skin in their behalf. thus, you see, there are many times when people will offer bits of skin, so that it was not uncommon for a man to have one hundred or more scars upon his body. these are generally arranged in rows up and down the arms, down the legs, down the breasts and the back. i have even heard of cases where a man is said to have offered one hundred pieces of skin at one time. this, however, was unusual. [illustration: fig. . the offering of human flesh. the bits of flesh are tied in the corner of the banner. drawn from a native sketch.] sometimes, instead of offering skin, the warrior would offer a finger. thus, if beset by very great danger on the warpath a man may make a vow to the sun stating that if brought home safely he will sacrifice a finger. this sacrifice can be made at any time; either when on the warpath or when at home in camp or at the sun dance. in such cases, the finger is offered to the sun in the precise manner as the pieces of skin described above. there are, however, occasions upon which fingers are cut off that are not offerings to the sun. thus, people who are in mourning sometimes sacrifice a finger. in those cases it is usual to call upon some old woman who is skilled in the amputation. she cuts off the finger, usually reciting a kind of ritual, but it is not offered to the sun. it is simply thrown away. then again babies' fingers are sometimes cut off to give the child good luck. thus, if a woman lost many children she would call upon an old woman to make the sacrifice for her newly born. in this case, the tip end of a finger is cut off and wrapped up in a piece of meat which the mother is required to swallow. this is supposed to insure the child's living to maturity. it had no connection with the sun. i have told you how men are called upon to cut off pieces of skin and how certain old women were selected to amputate fingers. you should also know that in olden times there were some women and men who might be called upon to cut open dead persons for various reasons. sometimes they did this on their own account in order to get information as to the cause of death. these accounts show for one thing that the cutting ceremony in the sun dance is but one of a type of blood and flesh offerings made to the sun, in fulfillment of a vow. the sacrifice of a finger is more frequent and less specialized, though frequently done at the sun dance. then comes the very frequent offering of bits of skin, a sacrifice common in war raids at all times. the offering of bits of skin in the precise manner described here is found elsewhere in the plains. the writer has observed men so scarred among several divisions of the dakota. the method of removing the skin was here the same as followed by the blackfoot. the thrusting in of the awl has a curious similarity to the cutting and skewering in the sun dance; one may even be pardoned for wondering if it did not so arise. footnotes: [ ] mclean, john, "the blackfoot sun dance" (_proceedings of the canadian institute_, third series, vol. , toronto, ), - . [ ] mclean, as an eye-witness to such a sacrifice, gives the following:-- "as i stood outside the lodge, a young indian friend of mine, went to an old medicine-woman and presented his sacrifice to natos. during the year he had gone on a horse-stealing expedition and as is customary on such occasions had prayed to natos for protection and success, offering himself to his god if his prayers were answered. he had been successful and he now presented himself as a sacrifice. the old woman took his hand held it toward the sun and prayed, then laying a finger on a block of wood she severed it with one blow from a knife and deer's horn scraper. she held the portion of the finger cut off toward the sun and dedicated that to him as the young man's sacrifice." (p. .) sun dance songs. two songs have a special place in the ceremony. they are sung by the men as they ride into camp with the willows for the hundred-willow sweathouse. they are sung again when the procession of pole raisers moves up to raise the sun pole. formerly, they were sung by any considerable body of the tribe approaching the camp of strange indians. likewise, when they approached a post to open trade.[ ] red-plume, a piegan, has a smudge stick on which are notches said to represent the number of different songs used in the ceremonies of the medicine woman. there are which is said to be the full number of songs. these, as has been stated in volume , are in reality a part of the beaver bundle ritual. the singing at the dancing ceremonies after the sun lodge has been erected is usually confined to the songs of various societies concerned. there are, however, a few with characteristic airs that are regarded as peculiarly appropriate to the occasion, regardless of who may be dancing. footnotes: [ ] for musical notation see mcclintock, walter, _the old north trail, or life, legends and religion of the blackfoot indians_ (london, ), . the sun dance camp. in a previous paper, we called attention to the belief that the camp circle was formed expressly for the sun dance. our informants say that formerly the circle was formed by the assemblage of the bands some time before the medicine woman began her fast. in winter, the tribes scattered out, usually two to five bands in a camp, often many miles apart. at the approach of summer, the husband of a woman having made a vow to give the sun dance sends a man to look up the camps and invite them to join his band. he carries tobacco and presents some to each head man with the invitation. as the head men receive the invitation, they order their bands to move, forming the circle at the medicine woman's camp. once formed, the circle is not broken until after the sun dance, a period estimated at from two to four months. the whole body may move about and even make long journeys aside from the four ceremonial moves required while the medicine woman is fasting. after the sun dance, they split up into parties for the fall hunt and finally went into winter quarters. the import of our former statement is thus apparent. the suggestion is that the camp circle is intimately associated with the sun dance. at least, one point is clear, the camp circle is initiated by the woman who starts the sun dance and even so is one of the preparatory steps. as previously stated in volume of this series, there is much uncertainty as to the order of bands in the circle. we doubt if it ever was absolutely fixed beyond change at the will of those in charge of the sun dance proceedings. mythological notes. the way that several distinct myths are used to account for different features of the sun dance might be taken as a suggestion that the ceremony grew up among the blackfoot. we suspect, however, that we have here an example of pattern phenomena. those familiar with the detailed study of rituals in volume will recall that tradition recognized the obvious fact that rituals were not produced all at once, but grew by accretions. this is so marked in the mythical accounts of ritual origin that we may suspect its appearance in the mythology of the sun dance. on page we have enumerated the myths accounting for important features of the ceremony. among these are not included the parts taken by societies or the cutting sacrifices, they, as we have stated, not being regarded as integral parts of the sun dance. for the sake of completeness we offer some extracts from an unpublished version of the scar-face myth:-- we will take up this narrative at the point where scar face has killed the cranes and reported with their scalps. we are told that had not scar face killed these birds, they would always have killed people, but that since he overpowered them they now fear people and have done so ever since. now, the sun, the moon, scar face, and morningstar had a scalp dance while the sun and moon sang the praise songs in honor of scar face. the sun addressed scar face: "when your people kill enemies they should scalp them and then give a scalp dance. whenever anyone counts coup or recounts his war experiences, the praise songs should be sung." we have followed this custom ever since. whenever anyone related his war deeds, some old men or old woman sang the praise songs, repeating the narrator's name during the singing. the sun was pleased with scar face. he directed morningstar and scar face to build four sweathouses, standing side by side, with their entrances facing east. when they were completed, the sun, morningstar, and scar face entered one of them, the moon remaining outside to close the door. after the sun had worked over scar face, he ordered the moon to open the door and they went into the next sweathouse, again choosing the moon to be the door attendant. now, the sun asked the moon to point out her son. the moon designated morningstar. they moved into the third sweathouse where the sun had morningstar and scar face exchange seats. again, the moon was asked to pick out her son. though she noticed that the scar on the young man's face had disappeared, she pointed to her own son. they proceeded to the fourth sweathouse. again, the sun had the two men exchange places. the moon looked in and pointing to scar face said, "this is morningstar." the sun replied, "you have mistaken him for morningstar, the other is our son." ever since that time, scar face has always been called mistaken morningstar. then the sun gave scar face a buckskin suit decorated with porcupine quills. on the breast and back of the shirt were quill-worked rosettes representing the sun; the side seams of the leggings and sleeves were covered with strips of quillwork three or four inches wide. in addition, the sleeves and leggings bore hair fringes representing the scalps of cranes killed by scar face. the sun also gave scar face a bow with a lock of hair fastened to one end, a whistle made of a hollow reed, a bladder, and the robe worn by scar face. to represent the scalping, the sun painted the upper part black. the whistle and the bladder were to be used on the woman who had refused scar face. the bow too, is a reminder of the killing of the cranes and is still used in the sun dance lodge. the sun gave scar face a circle of creeping juniper which the women that build the lodge (the sun dance or medicine lodge) are to wear on their heads. the sun told scar face of the sun dance, the lodge, and the sweathouse, and added, "when you return to your people and wish to make an offering to me, you must first build a sweathouse and there make your offerings. then i will hear your prayers and accept them. you may also make offerings to me in the sun dance lodge." he covered scar face's face with the "seventh" or red paint, drew a black circle around his face and a black dot on the bridge of his nose, and a streak of black around each wrist. he said to scar face, "this is the way the people must paint when they make offerings to me in the sun dance lodge. for the victory or scalp dance they must paint their faces black." the sun also gave him a necklace, in the center of which were strung two small shells and a pendent lock of hair, flanked on either side by four beads. this is the necklace worn by the husband of the woman owning the natoas. the sun's lodge was made of white buffalo robes and some the color of beaver skins. the door of the sun's lodge faced the east. for this reason, tipis were always turned so the doors faced east. now scar face decided to return to the place where spider waited. the narrative then proceeds in the usual way, except that the hero calls all the men of the camp to take revenge on the young woman after which he by magic turns her into a cripple. the blood and north blackfoot. the writer has upon two occasions seen the ground where a blood sun dance had been held. the dancing lodge, the sweathouse, etc., were still standing and all these were just as noted among the piegan. the blood lodge was a little larger, but the piegan said that it was formerly so with them, they now having very poor timber to work with. we have in addition two brief published accounts of eyewitnesses.[ ] the chief difference we could detect was in the secondary dances of the society where the horns and the matoki[ ] took a very prominent part. as there are now no such organizations among the piegan, this gives merely an outward appearance of difference. the northern piegan, as may be expected, also had the same form. as to the north blackfoot, we have only the statement of other indians that the sun dance was the same. the sarsi[ ] also had the very same form and we may suspect the kutenai as well. at least, my piegan informants asserted that the kutenai had the sun dance from them. the problem here, however, must rest until we have more data, though hale is of the opinion that the blackfoot gradually displaced the kutenai and took over many plains traits from them.[ ] footnotes: [ ] mclean, _ibid._, - ; mcquesten, _ibid._, - . [ ] this series, volume , - , - . [ ] goddard, pliny earle, "sarsi texts" (_university of california publications in american archaeology and ethnology_, vol. , no. , berkeley, ), - . [ ] hale, h., "on the north-western tribes of canada" (_report, fifty-seventh meeting, british association for the advancement of sciences_, - , london, ), . the progress of ethnology an account of recent archÆological, philological and geographical researches in various parts of the globe. tending to elucidate the physical history of man. by john russell bartlett, cor. sec. of the american ethnological society, and foreign cor. sec. of the new york hist. society. second edition. new york: bartlett & welford, astor house. . new york: william van norden, printer, no. william street. contents. north america. explorations and discoveries in the mounds and other earth-works in ohio. similar researches and their results in mississippi and louisiana.... mr. jomard's essay on the tablet found in the grave creek mound in virginia, p. . california and new mexico--recent explorations in these countries, with accounts of the navijo and moqui indians; architectural remains on the banks of the gila.... french explorations in the isthmus of panama, p. . researches in greenland, and the arctic regions; geographical and historical results.... late attempts for exploring the northern portions of the american continent, p. . south america. details of the scientific expedition under count castelnau, sent by the french government for exploring the interior of south america.... english expedition under lord ranelagh--other scientific expeditions.... peruvian antiquities, etc. etc., p. . africa. recent attempts for exploring the interior of africa.... mr. thomson's journey from sierra leone.... mr. duncan's journey northward from dahomey. missionary operations at the gaboon.... mr. richardson's journey into the great desert of sahara.... the french expedition up the senegal, under mr. raffenel.... extensive project for the exploration of soudan, in central africa.... proposed expedition for penetrating the country from the eastern side.... contributions to the geography of southern africa.... mr. maizan's unfortunate attempt to reach the interior from zanzibar, p. . algiers--scientific explorations by the french government; interesting results; errors respecting the desert of sahara, p. . discovery of the ancient lybian alphabet, by m. de saulcy, p. . the berbers; late researches into their language, p. . madagascar; recent visits of the french, p. . egypt; results of the late explorations; state of hieroglyphic and coptic literature; egyptian history and chronology, p. . eastern archipelago. borneo--mr. brooke's colony; the dyaks.... the dutch and other european colonies in the east indies.... new caledonia islands.... the sooloo islands. the nicobar islands, p. . australia; accounts of late explorations, by count strzelecki, dr. leichardt and others, p. . asia. asia minor--interesting discoveries in lycia, p. . arabia--historical and philological results of the researches in southern arabia, the country of the ancient himyarites; importance of these discoveries in elucidating scriptural history, p. . the caucasus--exploration by m. hommaire de hell.... sclavonic mss. and inscriptions, p. . assyria and persia--history of the study of the ancient arrow-headed inscriptions.... extraordinary results therefrom.... the zendavesta.... the zend language.... the great inscription of darius.... explorations at nineveh. journeys of dr. robert; of prince waldemar, etc., p. . siberia--journeys of count middendorff and others; geographical and ethnographical results, p. . india--progress of civilization; importance of missionary labors, p. . siam--decline of boodhism; extension of christianity, p. . cochin-china--visit of mr. hedde to turon, in annam, p. . china--latest accounts from, p. . corea--efforts of the catholic missionaries to christianize the natives, p. . manchuria....mongolia--recent accounts from these countries; journey of rev. mr. huc, in mongolia, p. . lew-chew islands--attempt to establish a mission, by rev. mr. forcade; notices of the people, their manners, customs, and language, p. . japan--recent attempts to communicate with the japanese; peculiarities of this people.... general view of the languages of the japanese, coreans, chinese, and cochin-chinese, p. . the progress of ethnology and geography. north america. i have the pleasure of laying before the new york historical society a brief account of the progress which has been made during the past year towards extending our knowledge of the globe, particularly with reference to its geography, and to those nations whose history is imperfectly known. the subject is one that more properly belongs to ethnology, but the historical results which are deduced from these enquiries come within the scope of the objects, the elucidation of which belongs to this society. a new impulse has lately been given to the study of american antiquities. a brief account of recent investigations carried on in a portion of the west and south will show that we possess much that is interesting, and which will throw light on a neglected branch of aboriginal history and ethnology. every enquirer into the origin and purposes of the monuments and ancient remains of the mississippi valley has regretted the limited number and poorly attested character of the facts, of which the public are in possession, respecting them. the practical investigations made from time to time by various individuals, have not been sufficiently thorough and extensive, nor have they developed sufficient data to warrant or sustain any definite or satisfactory conclusions. they have served rather to provoke enquiries which they could in no degree satisfy, than to afford information on the subject with which they were connected. it was under a strong sense of the deficiencies in our stock of information in this branch of knowledge, that two gentlemen of chillicothe, ohio, dr. davis and mr. e.g. squier, undertook the exploration of the ancient remains which abound in the state of ohio, and particularly of those in the valley of the scioto river. it is known that there exists in this region vast numbers of mounds, of various dimensions, and extensive embankments of earth, enclosing in some instances many acres of ground. beside these there are ditches, walls, causeways and other works of a greater or less extent. the examination of these, by opening the mounds, and making accurate surveys of the other works constitute the labors of these gentlemen, some of the results of which may be stated in anticipation of a full account which will shortly appear. though their labors at first promised to end in increased doubt and uncertainty, they were abundantly rewarded as their enquiries progressed. out of confusion, system began to develope itself, and what seemed accidents, were found to be characteristics. what was regarded as anomalous, was recognized as a type and feature of a class, and apparent coincidences became proofs of design. for instance, it was remarked among the numerous tumuli opened, that certain ones were stratified, while others were homogeneous in their composition. further observation showed that stratified tumuli occupy a certain fixed position with regard to other works, which the unstratified tumuli do not. still further examinations demonstrated that the contents of those respective tumuli are radically and invariably different. here then was established: st. that the mounds are not, as is generally supposed, identical in character and purpose. d. that one class occupies a fixed position with regard to works of a different character, the design of which is to be determined, to some degree, by the peculiarities and the contents of this description of mounds, etc. it will be seen, at once, that a close observation of facts of this kind is absolutely essential, to arrive at any reasonable conclusions, regarding the purposes of these ancient structures, their origin, or the character or customs of the people by whom they were built. the investigations of dr. davis and mr. squier, were therefore conducted so as to permit the escape of no fact which might tend to elucidate the mystery in which our antiquities are shrouded. the excavations were made under their personal direction, and the results may be briefly stated, without detailing the facts in support of each conclusion, as follows. the number of enclosures or earthworks which have been surveyed by them, and of which they have taken careful admeasurements, exceeds _ninety_. the number of tumuli which have been excavated and their characteristics noted, amounts to _one hundred and fifteen_. of the first class of works, it has been sufficiently demonstrated, that a small proportion were intended for works of defence; that another portion were sacred places, or in some way connected with religious or superstitious rites, while a third and much the larger number are entirely inexplicable in our present state of information. the tumuli are divided into three grand classes, which are broadly marked in the aggregate, though there are individual instances of an anomalous character. these are: st. tumuli of sepulture, each containing a single skeleton enclosed in a rude, wooden coffin, or an envelope of bark or matting, and occurring in isolated or detached groups. d. tumuli of sacrifice, containing symmetrical altars of stone or burnt clay, occurring within or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures, and always stratified. d. places of observation, or mounds raised upon elevated or commanding positions. within these monuments have been found implements and ornaments of silver, copper, lead, stone, ivory and pottery, fashioned into a thousand forms, and evincing a skill in art, to which the existing race of indians, at the time of their discovery, could not approach. marine shells, mica from the primitive regions, native copper from the shores of lake superior, galena from the upper mississippi, cetacean teeth, pearls and instruments of _obsidian_, show the extent of communication and intercourse had by the authors of these ancient works. sculptures of animals, birds and reptiles have been found in great numbers and variety, exhibiting a skill which few could now surpass. also, sculptures of the human head, disclosing most probably the character of the physiognomy, as well as the manner of adjusting the hair, the head dress and ornaments of the mound-builders. careful admeasurements of the earth works which abound in the ohio valley, have been made by the gentlemen alluded to, in which the interesting fact has been developed, that many of them are perfect circles and squares, and hence that the people by whom they were constructed had some means of determining angles and of constructing circles. in some of those earth-heaps, sufficient remains to show that when in a perfect state, they resembled the _teocallis_ or terraced edifices of mexico and yucatan, though they were composed wholly of wood and earth. the number of works manifestly connected in some way with their religion, guide us to some estimate of the prominence which their superstitions occupied, and that a religious system existed among them, in some degree resembling that of the ancient mexicans. the immense tumuli heaped over the remains of the dead, show the regard which they attached to their chiefs, and the veneration in which they held their memory. the number and extent of their remains of all kinds, which occupy the fertile valleys, and which are confined almost entirely to them, indicate that an immense population once existed there, that it was stationary and therefore agricultural;[ ] and if agricultural and stationary, that a different organization of society, different manners and customs, different impulses and feelings existed among them, than are to be found among the hunter and nomadic tribes, discovered by europeans in possession of the country. another class of antiquities has been discovered by these gentlemen, of which we only have the particulars in a letter. these consist of rocks sculptured with figures of men, of birds and animals. they are cut in outline, the lines being from one half to three quarters of an inch deep by about the same width. only those on the sides of the rocks are visible. those on the upper or horizontal faces are nearly obliterated. one represents an elk and is said to be very spirited. what may result from the future researches of dr. davis and mr. squier, remains to be seen; but sufficient has been developed to show that a people, radically different from the existing race of indians, once occupied the valley of the mississippi, and built the singular monuments in which it abounds. these also show that they were to a certain extent advanced in the arts and civilization. in short that they closely resembled in the character of their structures, ornaments and implements of war and husbandry, the races of central america; if they were not indeed their progenitors or an offshoot from them. many facts strongly point to such a conclusion and farther observations carefully conducted, will probably enable us to settle the question beyond a doubt. a detailed account of the researches of the gentlemen alluded to, accompanied by numerous engravings representing the implements, ornaments and sculptures, &c., discovered in their excavations;--surveys of the various earth works, forts and enclosures in the scioto valley, will be given in the second volume of the transactions of the american ethnological society, now preparing for publication. they are still actively engaged in their labors, and intend, should the facilities be extended them to carry on their operations, to examine every ancient relic to be found in ohio and the adjacent parts, where these remains exist. among the explorations which have been carried on in the united states, none possess a greater interest than those of dr. m.w. dickeson, in the south western states, chiefly in mississippi, though in some instances extending to alabama, louisiana, and texas. dr. dickeson has laid open or examined one hundred and fifty mounds and tumuli, of various dimensions and collected a vast number of interesting relics, which illustrate the customs and arts of the ancient people who built them. the mounds vary from three to ninety feet in height, and from twelve to three hundred feet in diameter at the base. the seltzer town mound contains a superficies of eight acres on its summit. on digging into it vast quantities of human skeletons were found, chiefly with their heads flattened, and measuring generally six feet in length. numerous specimens of pottery, including finely finished vases filled with pigments, ashes, ornaments, and beads, were also found. the north side of this mound is supported with a wall two feet thick, of sun dried bricks, filled with grass, rushes and leaves. in order to ascertain whether this immense tumulus was artificial or not, dr. benbrook, sank a shaft forty two feet, and found it artificial or made ground to that depth. immense quantities of bones, both of men and animals, among the latter the head of a huge bear, were thrown out. other excavations were made in this tumulus with the same result, thus showing it to have been a vast mausoleum or cemetery of the ancient race. the mounds are generally in systems varying from seven to ten, which dr. dickeson has divided into six classes as follows: _out post_, _ramparts or walls_, _telegraphs or look outs_, _temples_, _cemeteries_, and _tent mounds_. the first is seldom more than thirty feet at the base by ten feet high. their shape varies, presenting sometimes a pyramid, at others a cone, or rhomboid. walls surround the second class, which are from ten to fifteen feet in heighth, the same across the top, and from forty to fifty feet at the base. the "_look out_" mounds are seldom under sixty feet high. of this class, dr. dickeson has examined upwards of ninety. they are generally on the summit of a hill, overlooking the bottom lands. here they stand some three hundred feet above the bottom lands, commanding an extensive prospect, and in some instances one may see the peaks of several systems of mounds in the distance. the "_temple mounds_" are seldom more than twenty feet high, and stratified with ashes, loam, gravel, &c. they all have an earthen floor. dr. dickeson has, but in a single instant, found a skeleton in these mounds, and in this, he thinks the subject a choctaw indian recently placed there. it lay in a horizontal position, differing from the usual mode of burial, which is the sitting posture. the "_cemeteries_" are oval, and from six to ten feet high, filled with bones, lying east and west, and when incased in sarcophagi, the rows run in the same direction. in some instances dr. dickeson found the bones lying in heaps, promiscuously. these he believes to have been the _canaille_. the "_tent or structure mounds_" are small, and a short distance below their surface, fragments of brick and cement are found in great quantities; sometimes skeletons and pottery. never more than six skeletons are found together, and more care is shown in the burial of these than in the "cemetery mounds." in one instance an angular tumulus was seen by the doctor, with the corners quite perfect, formed of large bricks, bearing the impression of an extended hand.[ ] many mounds and tumuli are advantageously situated on the tops of ridges, surrounded with walls. some of the latter have crumbled away, while others remain strong and perpendicular. in many instances, the walls that surround these groups of mounds, form perfect squares and circles. dr. dickeson adds that, "if from the centre of one of these groups a circle were traced, it would strike the centre of each mound, both large and small." they contain numerous fragments of walls, images, pottery, ornaments, etc. etc. the "temples" are generally situated among the hills and ravines, with perpendicular escarpments, improved by artificial fortifications. the enclosures often embrace upwards of thirty acres. the great enclosure at "the trinity" contains upwards of one hundred and fifty acres, and is partially faced with sundried brick. upon the plantation of mr. chamberlain in mississippi, the temple is flanked with several _bastions_, besides _squares_, _parallels_, _half moons_, and ravines with perpendicular escarpments for its defence. the ditches and small lakes are frequently chained for miles and filled with water, intended, the doctor thinks, for outworks. in these, bricks are found both at the bottom and on the sides. among the rubbish and vegetable deposits taken from them to put on the land, ornaments, and other relics are found. wells and reservoirs, completely walled with burnt clay, are found in louisiana; near which are "systems," or groups of mounds so regular and strongly fortified, that they became the retreat of pirates and robbers who infested the rivers, greatly disturbing the early settlers, after the massacre of the natchez indians by the french. the natchez built large dikes or ditches, and upon the counterscarp piled up huge ramparts, which they made almost impregnable, by having one side flanked by the slope of a hill, surrounded by precipices. they are sometimes situated on the level "bottoms."[ ] in these cases one side invariably faces a creek or bayou, or is in its bend, making the creek serve as a formidable ditch, offering a serious impediment to an enemy's approach. the other two sides are protected by parallel walls or half moons, with gateways leading to the citadel. these walls have indications of having been faced with dry masonry. the east and west corners are generally flanked with a small oval mound. in these tumuli and mounds numerous ornaments and pottery were found by dr. dickeson, buried with the occupants, such as idols, clay stamps, mica mirrors, stone axes, and arrow heads, silver and copper ornaments, rings, beads of jasper, chalcedony, agate, &c., similar to those found in peru and mexico. several pearls of great beauty and lustre, an inch in diameter, have been found. by an examination of the skulls, dr. d. discovered that _dentistry_ had been extensively practised by this ancient people, as plugging the teeth, and inserting artificial ones, was common. in one instance, five artificial teeth were found inserted in one subject. ovens were found containing pottery partially baked, three feet below the surface, with large trees covering them, exhibiting an age of upwards of five hundred years. magazines of arrow points, in one instance a "wagon body full," (about twenty bushels), lying within the space of a few feet. in a small mound in adams county, dr. d. found three large jars holding upwards of ten gallons of arrow points elaborately finished; and three similar in dimensions and finish, have lately been received by dr. morton, of philadelphia, from south carolina. carvings representing the english bull dog, the camel and lama, have been found by dr. dickeson, from forty to sixty feet below the surface of the mound. the bricks, to which allusion has been made, are of various colors; some of a bright red, others dark brown, various shades of purple and yellow. forty stamps of baked clay, containing a variety of figures used for stamping their skins. pieces of coin, two of which found near natches, had the figure of a bird on one side, and on the reverse an animal. the pottery found is quite extensive, some mounds have been opened in which were upwards of sixty vases, some quite plain, and others elaborately ornamented. of the pottery, dr. dickeson has succeeded in getting upwards of a hundred fine specimens to philadelphia, which are deposited with his other indian relics and fossils, in the museum of the academy of natural sciences. dr. dickeson has kindly furnished me a catalogue of his collection of relics, from which i have selected the following to give an idea of the extent and variety of the objects found: arrow points of jasper, chalcedony, obsidian, quartz, &c., &c. arrow points, finely polished, under one inch in length. arrow points, finely polished, under half an inch in length. unfinished arrow and spear points. small stone axes. quoits, weights, &c. paint mullers. corn grinders. large stone mortars. small earthen heads of men, women and boys. stone statues, erect and sitting. a great variety of personal ornaments of jasper, chalcedony, pottery, beads, pearls, war clubs, war axes, mica mirrors, carved ornaments, arm bracelets, bone carvings, earthen plates, handled saucers, earthen lamps, a variety of vessels for culinary purposes, stone chisels, two copper medals, the tusk of a mastodon, six feet long, elaborately carved with a serpent and human figures; cylindrical tubes of jasper perforated, ornaments in pumice, (lava), seals, bricks, jars, cups and vases in every variety. in addition to these, dr. dickeson has made a collection of upwards of sixty crania of the ancient mound builders, out of many thousand skeletons discovered by him in his several explorations. these possess much interest in an ethnographic point of view, for the rigid test to which all his results have been subjected, have satisfied him that these skulls belong to the ancient race. like the gentlemen in ohio, whose labors have been noticed, the doctor can at once detect the mounds and remains of the ancient, from those of the modern race. some mounds he has found to be the work of three periods. at the top were the remains of the present race of indians; digging lower he found these remains accompanied by ancient spanish relics, of the period of the earliest spanish visit to these parts; and below these, he discovered the remains and relics of the ancient race. the inscribed tablet discovered in the grave-creek mound, virginia, and which was noticed by mr. schoolcraft in the first volume of the transactions of the american ethnological society, continues to excite much interest. mr. jomard of the french institute, read a second paper on that subject last year, before the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres at paris, a copy of which he has transmitted to the society.[ ] he distinctly shows, that the letters of this curious inscription are identically the same as those of the libyan on the monument of thugga,[ ] and of the tuarycks used at this day. it is worthy of remark, that mr. hodgson in his "notes on africa,"[ ] arrived at the same conclusion, without the knowledge that mr. jomard, some years previously, had asserted the libyan character of this inscription, in a first note on the subject.[ ] such a coincidence gives force to the views adopted by both these gentlemen. the results to which the french savant has arrived, in his enquiry into this engraved stone or tablet, possess much interest, as it is the only relic yet discovered in north america, of an inscription bearing alphabetic characters,[ ] which have been satisfactorily identified as such. this numidian inscription, which title we may now apply to the engraved tablet in question, will be again alluded to, when we come to speak of the philological discoveries in northern africa, and of the libyan alphabet. in conclusion mr. jomard observes, that at a remote period the libyan language was spoken by various tribes in northern africa, and that it was a language written with characters, such as we now find on the thugga edifice and other monuments; that it is still written with the same characters, particularly in the vicinity of fezzan and in the deserts traversed by the tuarycks, although this method of writing has been to so great an extent supplanted by arabic letters that we must consider the berber language, the language of syouah, sokna, audjelah, and gherma, as representing the remains of the ancient libyan language in use in the most remote period; and finally, that in the interior of america, on a monument of which the age is unknown, but anterior to the settlement by europeans, we find an engraved stone, bearing signs perfectly resembling the characters traced by the modern tuarycks and by their ancestors, upon the rocks of libya. mr. jomard's pamphlet contains an engraved table, in which are given, in parallel columns, the characters on the american tablet, the tuaryck alphabet, the thugga characters, and their value in hebrew and arabic. in connexion with this subject it may be added, that m. berthelot, a learned traveller, states that there exists a striking affinity between the names of places and of men in the ancient language of the canaries and certain carib words.[ ] the contiguity of the canaries to the african continent is such, that we can readily suppose their ancient inhabitants to have had communication with it, whereby the libyan language became known to them. a new field of enquiry is thus opened to philologists, and we may here seek for the means to unravel one of the most difficult questions connected with the origin of the american race, and the means by which they reached this continent, for we never have been among those who believed that america derived the mass of her population, her men and animals, from asia, by the way of behring's straits. the author of a late work on california, new mexico, &c., brings to our notice a tribe of indians known as the munchies (mawkeys) or white indians.[ ] "this remarkable nation occupies a valley among the _sierra de los mimbros_ chain of mountains, upon one of the affluents of the river gila, in the extreme northwestern part of the province of sonora. they number about eight hundred persons. their country is surrounded by lofty mountains at nearly every point, is well watered and very fertile. their dwellings are excavated in the hill-sides, and frequently cut in the solid rock. they subsist by agriculture, and raise great numbers of horses, cattle and sheep. among them are many of the arts and comforts of civilized life. they spin and weave, and make butter and cheese, with many of the luxuries known to more enlightened nations. their government is after the patriarchal order, and is purely republican in its character. in morals they are represented as honest and virtuous. in religion they differ but little from other indians. their features correspond with those of europeans, with a fair complexion and a form equally if not more graceful. in regard to their origin, they have lost all knowledge or even tradition; neither do their characters, manners, customs, arts or government savor of modern europe." another tribe of indians called the navijos, of whom we know but little, except that they have long had a place on the maps, is noticed by the same author. they occupy the country between the del norte and the sierra anahuac, in the province of sonora, and have never succumbed to spanish domination. "they possess a civilization of their own. most of them live in houses built of stone, and cultivate the ground--raising vegetables and grain for a subsistence. they also raise large numbers of horses, cattle and sheep--make butter and cheese, and spin and weave." the blankets manufactured by these indians are superior in beauty of color, texture and durability to the fabrics of their spanish neighbors. their government is in strict accordance with the welfare of the whole community. dishonesty is held in check by suitable regulations, industry is encouraged by general consent, and hospitality by common practice. as warriors they are brave and daring, making frequent and bold excursions into the spanish settlements, driving off herds of cattle, horses and sheep, and spreading terror and dismay on every side. as diplomatists, in imitation of their neighbors, they make and break treaties whenever interest and inclination prompts them.[ ] the navijo country is shut in by high mountains, inaccessible from without, except by limited passes through narrow defiles, well situated for defence on the approach of an invading foe. availing themselves of these natural advantages, they have continued to maintain their ground against fearful odds, nor have they suffered the spaniards to set foot within their territory as conquerors. the relations above given of the mawkeys and navijos (pronounced _navihoes_, and sometimes so written), correspond with the accounts that from time to time have been brought to us, by hunters and trappers who have occasionally visited them. a few years since there appeared in the newspapers an account of both these tribes, by a trapper. he stated that the mawkeys had "light, flaxen hair, blue eyes and skins of the most delicate whiteness."[ ] i have two other accounts wherein both are described much as before stated. their manufactures are particularly dwelt upon. some of them wore shoes, stockings and other garments of their own make. their stone houses are noticed as well as their large herds of cattle,--also their cultivation of fruits and vegetables. they raise cotton, which they manufacture into cloth, as well as wool. fire arms are unknown to them. "their dress is different from that of other indians, and from their spanish neighbors. their shirts, coats and waistcoats are made of wool, and their small clothes and gaiters of deer skin." these accounts might be considered fanciful, had we not high authority which fully corroborates them. humboldt says, "the indians between the rivers gila and colorado, form a contrast with the wandering and distrustful indians of the savannas to the east of new mexico. father garces visited the country of the moqui, and was astonished to find there an indian town with two great squares, houses of several stories, and streets well laid out, and parallel to one another. the construction of the edifices of the moqui is the same with that of the _casas grandes_ on the banks of the gila."[ ] in mr. farnham's late work on california, is a notice of the navijos from dr. lyman's report. the author begins by saying, that "they are the most civilized of all the wild indians of north america."[ ] their extensive cultivation of maize and all kinds of vegetables--their rearing of "large droves of magnificent horses, equal to the finest horses of the united states in appearance and value," and their large flocks of sheep are also noticed. from the fleece of the sheep which is long and coarse resembling mohair, "they manufacture blankets of a texture so firm and heavy as to be perfectly impervious to water." they make a variety of colors with which they dye their cloths, besides weaving them in stripes and figures. they are constantly at war with the mexicans, but stand in fear of the american trappers, with whom they have had some severe skirmishes, which resulted much to their disadvantage.[ ] it is believed by baron humboldt and by others, that in the navijos and mawkeys we see the descendants of the same race of indians which cortez and the spanish conquerors found in mexico, in a semi-civilized state. we are unable to state whether any affinity exists between their language and the other mexican dialects, as no vocabularies have been collected. the whiteness of their skins, their knowledge of the useful arts and agriculture, and the mechanical skill exhibited in their edifices at the present day, bear a striking analogy with the mexican people at the period of the conquest, and as m. humboldt observes, "appears to announce traces of the cultivation of the ancient mexicans." the indians have a tradition that leagues north from the moqui, near the mouth of the rio zaguananas, the banks of the nabajoa were the first abode of the aztecs after their departure from atzlan. "on considering the civilization," adds baron humboldt, "which exists on several points of the northwest coast of america, in the moqui and on the banks of the gila, we are tempted to believe (and i venture to repeat it here) that at the period of the migration of the toltecs, the acolhues and the aztecs, several tribes separated from the great mass of the people to establish themselves in these northern regions."[ ] connected with this subject and in evidence of the identity of these tribes with the aztecs, it should be stated that there exists numerous edifices of stone in a ruined state, on the banks of the gila, some of great extent, resembling the terraced edifices and teocallis of mexico and yucatan. one of these structures measures four hundred and forty-five feet in length by two hundred and seventy in breadth, with walls four feet in thickness. it was three stories high, with a terrace. the whole surrounding plain is covered with broken pottery and earthen ware, painted in various colors. vestiges of an artificial canal are also to be seen.[ ] among the fragments are found pieces of obsidian, a volcanic substance not common to the country, and which is also found in the mounds in the mississippi and ohio valleys, in both cases applied to the same uses. some valuable contributions to the geography and ethnology of the vast region lying between the rocky mountains and upper california and oregon, have been made by capt. fremont of the u.s. corps of engineers. the expedition under his command traversed the great desert, and examined portions of the country not before visited by white men. the information collected by this enterprising traveller will be of much service to the country in the new relations which may arise between the united states and california, as well as to persons who are seeking new homes in oregon. the report of captain, (now col.) fremont has been so widely circulated, and rendered so accessible to all who feel an interest in the subject, that it would be superfluous to give any analysis of the work at this time. so satisfactory were the results of the expedition of this accomplished officer to the country and the government, that he has again been sent to make further explorations of the country south of that previously visited by him, and which lies between santa fé and the pacific ocean. colonel fremont has in this expedition already rendered important services to the country, having the command of a detachment of troops in upper california. this armed body of men will give him great advantages over an ordinary traveller in a wild and inhospitable country, where there are still tribes of indians which have not yet been subjugated by the spaniards, and which an unprotected traveller could not approach. much interest has been awakened from the accounts already received from col. fremont, and it is to be hoped that ere long we shall be placed in possession of full reports of his explorations, which must throw much light on the geography of this vast region, its aboriginal inhabitants, productions, climate, &c. an exploratory journey in the isthmus of panama has recently been made by m. hillert, which has resulted in adding much important information to our previous knowledge of the country. it is known that there have been many surveys of the isthmus, with the view of opening a water communication between the oceans on either side. such was the primary object of mr. hillert, who, it appears has also made enquiries as to the practicability of making a rail road across it. his observations on the junction of the two oceans by means of a canal have appeared in the bulletin of the geographical society of paris for , (pp. and ), together with various letters from him on other subjects which attracted his attention. among other things mr. hillert has made known a most valuable anti-venomous plant, the guaco, a creeping plant, which abounds in the forest of the isthmus, the virtues of which were made known to him by the indians. after rubbing the hands with the leaves of this plant, a person may handle scorpions and venomous insects with impunity, and mosquitoes after sucking the blood of those who had taken it inwardly died instantly. the geology and botany of the country received particular attention. m. hillert proposes to introduce several of the most useful plants and vegetables into the french dominions in senegal or algeria, among them the plant from which the panama hats are made. so valuable are the labors of this gentleman considered, that the french commission has awarded him the orleans prize, for having introduced into france the most useful improvement in agriculture. some ancient monumental edifices were discovered in the isthmus, not far from the river atrato, and others near the mines of cano; besides these an ancient canal cut through the solid rock in the interval which separates the rivers atrato and darien. note.--the following list embraces all the books relating to oregon, california, and mexico, printed during the last two years. narrative of the exploring expedition to the rocky mountains, in the year , and to oregon and north california, in the years - , by capt. j.c. fremont of the topographical engineers, under the orders of col. j.j. abert, vo. washington, . exploration du territoire de l'oregon, des californies, et de la mer vermeille, executée pendant les années , et , par m. duflot de mofras, attaché à la légation de france à mexico. vols. vo. and folio atlas of maps and plates. paris, . the oregon territory, claims thereto, of england and america considered, its condition and prospects. by alexander simpson, esq. vo. london, . the oregon territory, a geographical and physical account of that country and its inhabitants. by rev. c.g. nicholay. mo. london, . the oregon question determined by the rules of international law. by edward j. wallace of bombay. vo. london, . the oregon question. by the hon. albert gallatin. vo. new york, . the oregon question examined, in respect to facts and the laws of nations. by travers twiss, d.c.l. vo. london, . the oregon question as it stands. by m.b. sampson. london, . prairiedom; rambles and scrambles in texas and new estremadura. by a southron. mo. new york, . life in california during a residence of several years in that territory. by an american. to which is annexed an historical account of the origin, customs and traditions of the indians of alta california, from the spanish. post vo. new york, . an essay on the oregon question, written for the shakespeare club. by e.a. meredith. montreal, . the topic no. . the oregon question. to. london, . life in prairie land. by mrs. eliza w. farnham. mo. new york, . green's journal of the texan expedition against mier; subsequent imprisonment of the author; his sufferings, and final escape from the castle of perote. with reflections upon the present political and probable future relations of texas, mexico, and the united states. illustrated by drawings taken from life by charles m'laughlin, a fellow-prisoner. engravings. vo. travels over the table lands and cordilleras of mexico, in - . with an appendix on oregon and california. by albert m. gilliam, late u.s. counsul, california. vo. philadelphia, . recollections of mexico. by waddy thompson, esq., late minister plenipotentiary of the u.s. at mexico. vo. new york, . altowan; or incidents of life and adventure in the rocky mountains. by an amateur traveller. edited by james watson webb. vol. mo. new york, . scenes in the rocky mountains, oregon, california, new mexico, texas, and grand prairies, including descriptions of the different races inhabiting them, &c. by a new englander. mo. philadelphia, . history of oregon and california, and the other territories on the north west coast of north america: from their discovery to the present day. accompanied by a geographical view of those countries. by robert greenhow. vo. third edition. boston, . greenland and the arctic regions. the royal society of northern antiquaries published, in , grönlands historiske mindesmærker, (the historical monuments of greenland), vol. iii., ( pages, with copperplates), which closes this work. the st and d volumes, (pp. and respectively), were published in . after professor rafn had finished the compilation of his separate work, _antiquitates americanæ_, which was published by the society in , he connected himself with professor finn magnusen, for the purpose of editing--also under the auspices of the society--the great collection of original written sources of the ancient history of that remarkable polar land, which was first seen in , and colonized in . with a view of doing all that lay in its power to throw light on ancient greenland, the society, during the ten years from to , caused journies to be undertaken and explorations to be performed in such of the greenland firths as were of the greatest importance in respect of the ancient colonization. by excavations made among the ruins remaining from the ancient colony, there was obtained a collection of inscriptions and other antiquities, which are now preserved in the american museum erected by the society, and drawings were taken of the ground plans of several edifices. of the reports received on this occasion, we must in an especial manner notice, as exhibiting evidence of the most assiduous care, and as moreover embracing the most important part of the country, the exploration undertaken by the rev. george t. joergensen, of the firths of igalikko and tunnudluarbik, where the most considerable ruins are situated. the present, vol. iii., contains, extracts from annals, and a collection of documents relating to greenland, compiled by finn magnusen; (to this part appertains a plate exhibiting seals of the greenland bishops); ancient geographical writings, compiled by finn magnusen and charles c. rafn; the voyages of the brothers zeno, with introductory remarks and notes by dr. bredsdorff; a view of more recent voyages for the re-discovery of greenland, by dr. c. pingel, an antiquarian chorography of greenland, drawn up by j.j.a. warsaae, from the accounts furnished by various travellers of the explorations undertaken by them. the work is closed by a view of the ancient geography of greenland, by professor charles c. rafn, based on a collation of the notices contained in the ancient manuscripts and the accounts of the country furnished by the travellers. to which is added a list of the bishops and a chronological conspectus of the ancient and modern history of the country, a historical index of names, a geographical index, and an antiquarian index rerum. copperplate maps are annexed of the two most important districts of ancient greenland--the eastern settlement, (eystribygd), and the western settlement, (vestribygd), exhibiting the position of the numerous ruins. moreover, plans and elevations of the most important ecclesiastical ruins and other rudera; also delineations of runic stones and other northern antiquities found in greenland. _scripta historica islandorum_, latine reddita et apparatu critico instructa, curante societate regia antiquariorum septentrionalium. vol. xii. the edition first commenced by the society, of the historical sagas recording events which happened out of america, (iceland, greenland and vinland), particularly in norway, sweden and denmark, in the original icelandic text with two translations, one into latin, and another into danish, ( vols.) has now been brought to a completion, by the publication of the above mentioned volume, (pp. in vo.) wherein are contained regesta geographica to the whole work, which for this large cyclus of sagas may be considered as tantamount to an old northern geographical gazetteer, in as much as attention has also been paid to other old northern manuscripts of importance in a geographical point of view. complete, however, it cannot by any means be called, neither as regards iceland especially and other lands in america, whose copious historical sources have, in the present instance, been but partially made use of, nor also as regards the european countries without the scandinavian north, for whose remote history and ancient geography the old northern writings contain such important materials, but it is to be hoped that the society will in due time take an opportunity of extending its labors in that direction also. the present volume does, however, contain a number of names of places situated without the bounds of scandinavia in countries of which mention is made in the writings published in the work itself. to the name of each place is annexed its icelandic or old danish form, and the position of the place is investigated by means of comparison with other historical data and with modern geography. sir john franklin who left about two years on a voyage of exploration, in the arctic regions of america, remains in those inhospitable parts. much anxiety is felt for him as no tidings have been received from him. it is to be hoped that his voyage will prove successful and that before the close of the present year, he may return. the hudson's bay company has lately fitted out an expedition, for the purpose of surveying the unexplored portion of the coast on the northeast angle of the north american continent. the expedition, which consists of thirteen persons, is under the command of one of the company's officers. it started on the th july, in two boats, under favorable circumstances;--the ice having cleared away from the shores of the bay at an earlier period of the year than usual.[ ] a memoir on the indian tribes beyond the rocky mountains, and particularly those along the shores of the pacific ocean, from california to behring's straits, with comparative vocabularies of their languages, is preparing for publication by the hon. albert gallatin, from authentic materials. mr. hale, philologist of the united states exploring expedition, has made a valuable contribution to the ethnology of this region, in his volume, entitled "ethnology and philology," being the seventh volume of the u.s. exploring expedition. recent works on the arctic regions. barrow's (sir j.) voyages of discovery and research within the arctic regions, from the year to the present time, in search of a north-west passage, from the atlantic to the pacific; with two attempts to reach the north pole. abridged from the official narratives, with remarks by sir john barrow. vo. london, . americas arctiske landes gamle geographie efter de nordiske oldskriefter ved c.c. rafn. vo. copenhagen, . south america. the french expedition which has been engaged for the last three years in exploring the interior of south america, has at length reached lima, from which place count castelnau has transmitted a detailed report of his journey, to the french minister of public instruction.[ ] this expedition is by far the most important that has yet been sent out for the exploration of south america, and has already traversed a large portion of its central parts, little known to geographers. their first journey was across the country from rio janeiro to goyaz, on the head waters of the river araguay (lat. ° ´ s. long. ° ´ w.) which river they descended to its junction with the tocantiu, and then returned by the last named river and the desert of the chavantes. they made another journey to the north of cuyaba, to explore the diamond mines, and examine the sources of the paraguay and arenos. in the next journey,[ ] the particulars of which have just been communicated from lima, the expedition descended the rivers cuyaba and san lorenzo to paraguay. during this voyage they entered the country of the guatos indians, one of the most interesting tribes of the american aborigines. "the features of these indians," says the count, "are extremely interesting;--never in my life having seen finer, or any more widely differing from the ordinary type of the red man. their large, well opened eyes, with long lashes, nose aquiline and admirably modelled, and a long, black beard, would make them one of the finest races in the world, had not their habit of stooping in the canoe bowed the legs of the greater number. their arms, consisting of very large bows, with arrows seven feet long, demand great bodily strength--and their address in the use of them passes imagination. these savages are timid, nevertheless, and of extreme mildness. by taking them for our guides, and attaching them by small presents, we were enabled to explore parts wholly unknown, of that vast net-work of rivers which they are constantly traversing." in paraguay the party met a tribe of the celebrated guaycurus nation. these people are eminently equestrian--transporting their baggage, women and effects of every kind on horseback, across the most arid deserts. they are mortal foes to the spaniards, and a terror to the whole frontier. they wear their hair long, and paint themselves, black or red, after a very grotesque and irregular fashion; the two sides of their bodies are generally painted in a different manner. "their chief arms are the lance, knife, and a club, which they throw with great precision at a full gallop. their hats are made of hides. each warrior has his mark, which he burns with a red hot iron on all that belongs to him--his horses, dogs and even wives. one of the most atrocious traits in the manners of this people, is that of putting to death all children born of mothers under thirty years of age." after traversing the country between paraguay and brazil, the expedition proceeded north by the river paraguay, and passed the mouths of the san lorenzo, where it entered the great lake gaiva, and from thence the greater lake uberava, the limits of which could not be traced, being lost in the horizon. an indian told the count that he had travelled for three whole days in his canoe, without finding its extremity, which supposes a length of twenty-five or thirty leagues. this great inland sea is unknown to geographers. at villa maria a caravan of mules awaited the travellers, when they entered the desert or gran chaco, as it is called, and proceeded to the town of matto-grosso, which is considered the most pestiferous place in the world. out of a population of souls, there were found but four whites, of whom three were officers of the government; all the rest was composed of blacks and indians of every variety and color, who alone are able to support this terrible climate. from this place the expedition proceeded to santa cruz of the sierra, where they found bread, of which they had been deprived for two years; after a month's repose, a journey of eight days brought the party to chuquisaca, in bolivia, and from thence by potosi to lima. the results of this expedition are already of great interest. it will make known people, the names of which were unknown to geographers. rivers which appear on our maps are found not to exist, while hitherto unknown rivers and large bodies of water have been discovered. many geographical positions have been determined, and the particulars of the trade which is extensively carried on in the centre of this vast continent by means of caravans of mules, are made known. m. de castelnau has paid particular attention to the productions of the country, with a view of introducing such as are valuable into the french colony of algeria. large collections in natural history have already been received at the museum in paris; observations on terrestrial magnetism and meteorology have been made, in fact, no department of science seems to have been neglected by the expedition, which will reflect great credit on its distinguished head, count castelnau, as well as on the french government, by whose liberality and zeal for the promotion of science it has been supported. from lima, count castelnau intended to prosecute further researches in the country of the incas, after which he would proceed to the amazon river. peru. some interesting remains of the ancient peruvians, have lately been brought to light in the province of chachapoyas, about five hundred and fifty miles north of lima and two hundred and fifty miles from the coast. the particulars of these ruins were communicated by señor nieto to the prefect of the department.[ ] "the principal edifice is an immense wall of hewn stone, three thousand six hundred feet in length, five hundred and sixty feet in width and one hundred feet high.[ ] it is solid in the interior and level on the top, upon which is another wall six hundred feet in length, of the same breadth and height as the former, and like it solid to its summit. in this elevation, and also in that of the lower wall, are a great many rooms eighteen feet long and fifteen wide, in which are found neatly constructed niches, containing bones of the ancient dead, some naked and some in shrouds or blankets," placed in a sitting posture. from the base of this structure commences an inclined plane gradually ascending to its summit, on which is a small watch tower. from this point, the whole of the plain below, with a considerable part of the province, including the capital, eleven leagues distant, may be seen. in the second wall or elevation are also openings resembling ovens, six feet high, and from to feet in circumference. in these, skeletons were found. the cavities in the adjoining mountain were found to contain heaps of human remains perfectly preserved in their shrouds, which were made of cotton of various colors. still farther up this mountain was "a wall of square stones, with small apertures like windows, but which could not be reached without a ladder," owing to a perpendicular rock which intervened. the indians have a superstitious horror of the place, in consequence of the mummies it contains, and refused to assist the exploring party, believing that fatal diseases would be produced by touching these ghastly remains of their ancestors. they were therefore compelled to abandon their researches, though surrounded by objects of antiquity of great interest. mr. chas. frederick neumann, a distinguished oriental scholar of munich, has lately published a work "on the condition of mexico in the fifth century of our era, according to chinese writers." it purports to be an account of that country, called fu-sang, in the chinese annals. de guignes, in his celebrated work on china, supposes that america was the country referred to, while klaproth, on the contrary, believes it to be japan. it is stated in the english papers[ ] that an expedition, which promises the most important results, both to science and commerce, is at this moment fitting out for the purpose of navigating some of the great unexplored rivers of south america. it is to be under the command of lord ranelagh; and several noblemen and gentlemen have already volunteered to accompany his lordship. the enterprising and scientific band will sail as soon as the necessary arrangements are completed. he proposes to penetrate, by some of the great tributaries of the amazon, into the interior of bolivar--for which purpose a steamer will be taken out in pieces. returning to the amazon, he will ascend this great river to its highest sources. the distance and means of communication between the pacific and the basin of the amazon will be minutely examined. another scientific expedition has been sent out by the french government to its west india colonies and the northerly parts of south america, under m. charles deville, a report from whom was read at a meeting of the paris academy of sciences in june last. its publication was recommended. the french government gave notice to the same academy, at its meeting on the st august last, of an intended expedition by lieut. tardy montravel, to the amazon river and its branches, with the steamer alecton and the astrolabe corvette; and invited the academy to prepare a programme with a view to facilitate the researches which m. de montravel is charged to make. note.--the following is a list of the books relating to south america which have recently been published. historia fisica y politica de chile segun documentos adquiredos en esta republica durante doze anos de residencia en ella, y publicada bajo los auspicios del supremo gobierno. livr. vo. with an atlas of plates. paris. . memoria geografico economico-politica del departmento de venezuela, publicada en por el intendente de ejercito d. jose m. aurrecoechea, quien la reimprime con varias notas aclaratorias y un apendice. quarto. madrid. . twenty-four years in the argentine republic, embracing the author's personal adventures, with the history of the country, &c. &c., with the circumstances which led to the interposition of england and france. by col. j.a. king. vol. mo. new york. . travels in the interior of brazil, principally through the northern provinces, and the gold and diamond districts, in - . by george canning. vo. london. . travels in peru, during the years - , on the coast, and in the sierra, across the cordilleras and the andes, into the primeval forests. by dr. j.j. tschudi. vols. mo. new york. . mr. thomas ewbank is preparing for the press a work on brazil, being observations made during a twelve months' residence in that country. from a personal acquaintance with this gentleman, his reputation as a man of observation, and his well known capacity as a writer, we think a valuable book may be expected. africa. the zeal which was manifested a few years since for the discovery and exploration of the interior of africa, and which seemed to have terminated with the landers, and the unsuccessful voyage of the steamers up the niger, has again shown itself, and we now find as much curiosity awakened, and as much zeal manifested for geographical discovery in this vast continent, and the solution of questions for ages in doubt, as has been exhibited at any former period. the travels of m. d'abaddie, dr. beke, isenberg, and others make known to us the immense extent and windings of the bahr-el-abiad and the bahr-el-azrek, or the white and blue nile, but they have not yet been traced to their rise, and the solution of the question of the true source of the nile, remains still unsettled. we have received from mr. jomard, member of the french institute, a work entitled "observations sur le voyage au darfour" from an account given by the sheikh mohammed-el-tounsy, accompanied by a vocabulary of the language of the people, and remarks on the white nile by mr. jomard. this is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of a portion of the interior of africa, only known to us by the visit of mr. browne in , and forms a link in the chain between lake tchad and a region of country quite unexplored, and of which we have no knowledge whatever. we have some information of interest, relating to senegal, communicated to the royal geographical society of london,[ ] being a narrative of mr. thomson, linguist to the church missionary society at sierra leone, from that place to timbo, the capital of futah jallo. his place is about four hundred miles northeast of sierra leone. "the principal object of the mission, was to open a road for a regular line of traffic through that country, between the colony and the negro states on the joliba or niger." mr. thomson's narrative is full of interest and shows the great hardships to be encountered in effecting a communication with the interior. no man could be better prepared for such an enterprize, both by knowledge of the languages of the country, and the manners of the people; zeal, perseverance, and courage, also were prominent traits in his character; yet his enterprize failed and death cut him off, when on the point of starting for the eastward. an expedition more successful in its results, has been undertaken in dahomey on the guinea coast, the particulars of which are given in the journal of the royal geographical society of london, (vol. .) this journey was performed by mr. john duncan, from cape coast to whyddah, and from the latter about five hundred miles due north, through the dahomey country to adofoodiah. although the king of ashantee had refused permission for mr. duncan to pass through his territory, and had endeavored to prejudice the king of dahomey against him, he was received with great kindness by the latter, and every facility given him to travel in his dominions. a guard of one hundred men was furnished to accompany him--a path was cleared for upwards of one hundred miles, and arrangements made so that at every village through which he passed, provisions were always waiting, ready cooked for them. among the strange things seen by this traveller was a review of six thousand female troops, well armed and accoutred. their appearance, for an uncivilized nation, was surprising, and their performance still more so. the slave trade is carried on extensively in dahomey. in the market of adofoodiah, articles from the mediterranean, and from bornou in the interior were exposed for sale, showing the immense extent of the trade of the country. he met people from timbuctoo and gathered some particulars of that remarkable city, as well as some information respecting mungo park's death. this enterprising traveller has lately been provided with the means to enable him to set out on a new journey with a determination to penetrate the country to timbuctoo, from whence he will endeavour to follow the niger to its mouth. the american missionaries at the gaboon, (western africa), with a view of establishing a mission in the pong-wee country have been preparing a grammar of the pong-wee language, the peculiarities of which are such as to deserve notice. the missionaries call it "one of the most perfect languages of which they have any knowledge. it is not so remarkable for copiousness of words as for its great and almost unlimited flexibility. its expansions, contractions, and inflections though exceedingly numerous, and having, apparently, special reference to euphony, are all governed by grammatical rules, which seem to be well established in the minds of the people, and which enable them to express their ideas with the utmost precision. how a language so soft, so plaintive, so pleasant to the ear, and at the same time so copious and methodical in its inflections, should have originated, or how the people are enabled to retain its multifarious principles so distinctly in their minds as to express themselves with almost unvarying precision and, uniformity, are points which we do not pretend to settle. it is spoken coastwise nearly two hundred miles, and perhaps with some dialectic differences, it reaches the congo river. how far it extends into the interior is not satisfactorily known."[ ] an attempt to penetrate this continent from the north has been made by mr. james richardson, by advices from whom it appears that on the d november, , he had reached ghadames, in the great desert, where he had been residing for three months, and whence he was to start on the following day, with a negro and a moor, for soudan. if successful in reaching that country, he intended to proceed to timbuctoo and other parts of the interior. mr. richardson was well received by the people and sultan of ghadames; but his journey to sackatoo the capital of soudan, which would take three months to accomplish, through some of the wildest tribes and without any guarantee from the english or ottoman government, was considered foolhardy and desperate.[ ] later accounts state that mr. richardson had returned after a successful exploration in the very centre of the great zahara, and that he has collected important information relating to the slave trade, one of the objects of his undertaking. we shall look forward with interest to the publication of his travels.[ ] the details of the expedition under m. raffenel of the french navy and other scientific gentlemen, up the senegal, have just been published.[ ] the party ascended the senegal to the river falémé, and from the mouth of the falémé they penetrated the country to sansanzig. they then visited the gold mines of kenieba, on the bambouk, the country of galam, bondou and woolli, and returned by the river gambia. seven months were spent on this expedition. they found the country beautiful, but its cultivation neglected, and of course little was produced. they visited the place where the french were formerly established, with the view of making treaties with the natives for its occupation anew. few traces of the colony were to be found. they were kindly received by the various tribes of aborigines, wherever they went; though when at the extreme point of their journey, owing to the wars among the natives, they did not think it safe to proceed farther. the results of the expedition are interesting to science, as well as to the friends of humanity, who wish to improve the condition of this people. for the more complete exploration of this portion of the african continent, it has been proposed to send another expedition under m. raffenel for the purpose. this gentleman has submitted a memoir to the minister of marine, by whom it was presented to the geographical society of paris. the result was favorable, and mr. raffenel has been provided with instructions for his guidance in his proposed journey. a journey of exploration and civilization in soudan, is about to be undertaken by four jesuits from rome--bishop casolani, and fathers ryllo, knoblica, and vinco. casolani and ryllo will start from cairo in january, --having previously obtained a firman from constantinople; and, proceeding through upper egypt, nubia, and thence by kordofau and darfour, they hope to reach bornou,--and meet there their brethren, who travel by the way of tripoli and mouryok. should they be fortunate enough to meet, it will then be determined which route shall afterwards be followed. they have determined to accomplish what they have undertaken, or perish in the attempt. from the high character of all the parties, great hopes are entertained of the result of this journey. they are all men of extensive learning, and familiar with the languages, manners and customs of the east.[ ] a project is on foot in london and a prospectus has been issued for a new expedition of discovery to penetrate the interior of africa from the eastern side. many advantages are presented by beginning the work of exploration here; among them, the populousness and civilization of eastern africa, which is in general superior to that of the western coast. the languages of the former bear a close affinity to each other, and extend over a very large space, which is not the case with the latter. "the absence of foreign influence, (particularly of the portuguese, by whom the slave trade is carried on), and the readiness of the sultan of muscat to listen to british counsels," are strong inducements to carry out the scheme proposed.[ ] lieutenant ruxton of the royal navy, who has lately made an interesting journey into africa from the southwestern coast, near the island of ichaboe, is about to undertake a second journey with the intention of crossing the continent from this point to the eastern coast, under the sanction of the british government. some valuable contributions have been made to our knowledge of the geography of southern africa by mr. cooley[ ] and mr. mcqueen,[ ] which tend to elucidate portions of this continent hitherto enveloped in much obscurity. mr. cooley's investigations relate to the country extending from loango and congo, the portuguese settlements in western africa, to the eastern coast between zanzibar and sofala, in lat. ° south. he commences by examining the statements of the portuguese geographers of the th century, lopez, joao dos santos, do couto, and pigafetta. "the information collected by lopez, was elaborated by pigafetta into a system harmonizing with the prevalent opinions of the age, and in this form was published in . yet in the midst of this editor's theories, we can at times detect the simple truth." much confusion seems to have arisen by misapplying the names of lakes, rivers and people, as this information was in a great degree derived from natives, and not properly understood by the persons who received it from them. mr. cooley, by a rigid examination of these various statements, together with the accounts derived from later writers and from native traders, has been enabled to rectify the errors which had crept in, and clear up much that had been considered fabulous. the great lake called n'yassi, and the natives occupying the country around it, are among the most interesting subjects of our author's enquiries. this lake, or sea, as it is called by the natives, is some five or six hundred miles from the eastern coast. its breadth in some places is about fifteen miles, while in others, the opposite shores cannot be seen. its length is unknown, neither extremity having been traced. it probably exceeds five hundred miles, according to the best authority. numerous islands filled with a large population, are scattered among its waters. it is navigated by bark canoes, twenty feet long, capable of holding twenty persons. its waters are fresh, and it abounds in fish. the people seem more advanced in civilization than any african nations south of the equator, of which we have knowledge. pereira, who spent six months at cazembe, in , describes the people as similar, in point of civilization, to the mexicans and peruvians, at the time of the conquest. the nation called the monomoesi, or mucaranga, north of the lake, as well as the movisa, on its opposite shores, are a tall and handsome race, with a brown complexion. "they are distinguished for their industry, and retain the commercial habits for which they were noted two centuries and a half ago, when their existence was first known through the portuguese. they descend annually to zanzibar in large numbers. the journey to the coast and back again, takes nine or ten months, including the delay of awaiting the proper season for returning. they are clothed in cotton of their own manufacture; but the most obvious mark of their superiority above other nations of eastern africa is, that they employ beasts of burden, for their merchandize is conveyed to the coast laden on asses of a fine breed." mr. cooley believes that "the physical advantages and superior civilization of these tribes, who are not negroes," explain the early reports which led the portuguese to believe that the empire of prestor john was not far off. mr. m'queen's memoirs consist of the details of a journey made by lief ben saeid, a native of zanzibar, to the great lake n'yassi, or maravi, alluded to in mr. cooley's memoir. this visit was made in the year . the facts collected corroborate what has been stated by mr. cooley. he found the country level, filled with an active population, civil to strangers, and honest in their dealings. a very extensive trade was carried on in ivory, and a peculiar oil, of a reddish color. the manumuse (mono-moezi) are pagans, and both sexes go nearly naked. near the lake there are no horses or camels, but plenty of asses, and a few elephants. the houses on the road and at the lake, are made of wood and thatched with grass. dogs are numerous, and very troublesome. some are of a very large kind.[ ] the region which forms the subject of the memoirs just alluded to, is doubtless one of the most interesting fields for exploration of any on the african continent. the languages spoken by the several nations between the two oceans, which are here separated by a space of sixteen or seventeen hundred miles, in a direct line, are believed to belong to one great family, or at least to present such traces of affinity, that an expedition, if sufficiently strong, aided by interpreters from the zanzibar coast or the monomoezi tribes, might traverse the continent without difficulty. obstacles might be thrown in the way by the portuguese traders, who would naturally feel jealous at any encroachments by rival nations; but by a proper understanding, these might be overcome, and this interesting and hitherto unknown portion of central africa be laid open to commerce and civilization. the latest attempt to explore this region was that of m. maizan, a young officer in the french navy, who towards the close of the year , set out for the purpose. in april, , he left zanzibar, furnished with a firman from sultan said to the principal chiefs of the tribes of the interior, though in reality they enjoyed the most complete independence. having been warned that a chief, named pazzy, manifested hostile intentions towards him, he stopped some time on his way, and after having acquired information relating to the country he wished to survey, he made a grand _détour_ round the territory over which this savage chief exercised his authority. after a march of twenty days, he reached the village of daguélamohor, which is but three days' journey from the coast in a direct line, where he awaited the arrival of his baggage, which he had entrusted to an arab servant. this man, it appears, had communication with pazzy, and had informed him of the route his master had taken. pazzy, with some men of his tribe, overtook m. maizan towards the end of july, at daguelamohor, and surrounded the house in which he lived. after tying him with cords to a palisade, the savage ordered his men to cut the throat of their unfortunate victim.[ ] mr. m'queen gives some particulars obtained from a native african relating to the country between lake tchad, or tshadda and calabar. this portion of the african continent has never been visited by europeans, and although little can be gained of its geography from the statements of this man, there is much in them that is interesting on the productions of the country, the natives, their manners, customs, &c. algiers. the publication by the french government of the results of the great scientific expedition to algeria has thrown much light on the districts embraced in algiers and the regency of tunis, as well as on the countries far in the interior. among the subjects which have received the particular attention of the commission, are, . an examination of the routes followed by the arabs in the south of algiers and tunis; . researches into the geography and commerce of southern algiers, by capt. carette; . a critical analysis of the routes of the caravans between barbary and timbuctoo, with remarks on the nature of the western sahara, and on the tribes which occupy it, by m. renou; . a series of interesting memoirs on the successive periods of the political and geographical history of algiers from the earliest period to the present time, by m. pelissier; . the history of africa, translated from the arabic of mohammed-ben-abi-el-raini-el-kairouani, by m. remusat, giving a particular account of the earliest musselman period. gen. marey in an account of his expedition to laghouat in algeria, published in algiers in , has contributed important information on this country, which deserves a rank with the great work of the scientific expedition.[ ] in this work the author has corrected the erroneous opinion which has long been held, of the barrenness of the sahara. among the arabs this word _sahara_ does not convey the idea which the world has generally given it, of a desert or uninhabitable place, but the contrary. like every country, it presents some excellent and luxuriant spots, others of a medium quality as to soil, and others entirely barren, not susceptible of cultivation. by _sahara_, the arabs mean a country of pastures, inhabited by a pastoral people; while, to the provinces between the atlas mountains and the sea, they apply the name of _tell_, meaning a country of cereals, and of an agricultural people. m. carette, in his exploration of this region, has also discovered the false notion long imbibed in relation to it. "the sahara," says he, "was for a long time deformed by the exaggerations of geographers, and by the reveries of poets. called by some the great desert, from its sterility and desolation, by others the country of dates, the sahara had become a fanciful region, of which our ignorance increased its proportions and fashioned its aspect. from the mountains which border the horizon of tell, to the borders of the country of the blacks, it was believed that nature had departed from her ordinary laws, renouncing the variety which forms the essential character of her works, and had here spread an immense and uniform covering, composed of burning plains, over which troops of savage hordes carried their devastating sway. such is not the nature, such is not the appearance of the sahara." this region, occupying so large a portion of the african continent, "is a vast archipelago of oases, of which each presents an animated group of towns and villages. around each is a large enclosure of fruit trees. the palm is the king of these plantations, not only from the elevation of its trunk, but from the value of its product, yet it does not exclude other species. the fig, the apricot, the peach and the vine mingle their foliage with the palm." the algerine sahara has lately been the object of a special work of col. daumas who intends completing the researches begun by gen. marey and the members of the scientific commission. he has made an excursion to the borders of the desert, and has collected much that is new and interesting in ethnology, particularly relating to the tuarycks, a great division of the berber race whose numerous tribes occupy all the western part of the great desert.[ ] among the interesting ethnological facts which the late expeditions in this region have brought to light, is that of the existence of a white race, inhabiting the aures mountains, (_mons aurarius_) in the province of constantine.[ ] dr. guyon, of the french army of africa, took advantage of an expedition sent out by general bedeau to the aures, to collect information about this people, to whom other travellers had referred. he describes them as having a white skin, blue eyes and flaxen hair. they are not found by themselves, but predominate more or less among various tribes. they hold a middle rank, and go but rarely with the kabyles and the arabs. they are lukewarm in observances of the koran, on which account the arabs esteem them less than the kabyles. they are more numerous in the tribe of the mouchaïas, who speak a language in which words of teutonic origin have been recognized. in constantine where they are numerous, they exercise the trades of butcher and baker. late writers believe that they are the remains of the vandals driven from the country by belisarius. m. bory de saint vincent in making some observations to the academy of sciences, on the paper of dr. guyon, exhibited portraits of individuals of this white race, which had been engraved for the scientific commission, and stated his belief that they were evidently of the northern gothic and vandal type.[ ] in northern africa, an important discovery has lately been made of the ancient libyan alphabet, by mr. f. de saulcy, member of the french institute. this curious result has been produced, by a study of the bilingual inscription on the monument of thugga, which is published in the first volume of the transactions of the ethnological society of new york. the reading of the phoenician part of this bilingual inscription having been established, the value of the libyan or numidian letters of the counter part, has been as clearly proved, as the hieroglyphic part of the rosetta stone has been established, from a comparison with the greek text of that bilingual inscription. by this discovery, a vast progress has been made in the ethnography and history of ancient africa. two facts of the greatest consequence have been established by it:--that the libyan language was that of numidia, at the early period of its history, when the phoenicians were settled there; that the numidians of that early day, used their own peculiar letters for writing their own language. to these facts, may be added another of no less ethnographic value; that the present numidian or berber race of the great sahara, who are called tuarycks, make use of these identical letters at this day. for this recent and valuable acquisition to science, we are again indebted to mr. de saulcy,[ ] who has published a tuaryck alphabet as communicated to him by mr. boisonnet, captain of artillery at algiers. it was furnished to him by an educated native of the oasis of touat, in the great sahara, and is called by him _kalem-i-tefinag_.[ ] what the _writing of tefinag_ means, it would be curious to know. this touatee, abd-el-kader, has promised more extended information, in relation to the writing of the tuarycks, than which, no more valuable contribution to african ethnography can be imagined. he asserts that, the tuarycks engrave or scratch on the rocks of the sahara, numerous inscriptions, either historic or erotic. this subject has been alluded to by mr. hodgson, in his "_notes on africa_" in which he mentions the tuaryck letters copied by denham and clapperton. the impulse first given by our countryman mr. wm. b. hodgson, in his researches into the berber language, and the ethnographic facts which were the results of his elucidations, has extended to england, france and germany, and the last two years have been productive of several valuable and important works, including grammars and dictionaries of the berber language. these have added greatly to our previous knowledge of the ancient and primitive people, who at a remote period, coeval with that of the ancient egyptians occupied the northern part of africa. mr. de saulcy has already unravelled the intricacy of the demotic writing of egypt and the popular characters of ancient libya. he is thus working at both ends of the libyan chain. he will find the berber thread at the oasis of ammon, and at meröe. we shall thus probably find, that the berber language was the original tongue of that part of ethiopia. dr. lepsius found in that region, numerous inscriptions in the egyptian demotic, and in greek characters, but written in an unknown language. he strongly suspects, that the old ethiopian blood will be found in the berber veins; and that the nubian language has strong affinities with the berber. when these inscriptions in an unknown language are decyphered, it will be known how far the interpretation of egyptian mythology and the local names, heretofore proposed by mr. hodgson, is to be received as plausible. he has proposed the berber etymologies of aman or ammon as water; themis as fire or purity; thot as an eye; edfou and tadis as the sun. books on algiers. algeria and tunis in . an account of a journey made through the two regencies, by viscount fielding and capt. kennedy. vols, post vo. london, . le maroc et ses caravanes, ou relations de la france avec cet empire, par r. thomassy. vo. paris . exploration scientifique de l'algeria pendant les années , , . publié par l'ordre du gouvernment et avec le concours d'une commission académique. vols, folio. (now in the course of publication.) recherches sur la constitution de la propriété territoriale dans le pays mussulmans et subsidiairement en algeria; par m. worms. vo. paris, . a visit to the french possessions in algiers in . by count st. marie. post vo. london, . afrique (l') française, l'empire du maroc et les déserts de sahara. histoire nationale des conquêtes, victoires et nouvelles découvertes des français depuis la prise d'alger jusqu'à nos jours; par p. christian. vo. algeria en ; par j. desjobert. vo. paris, . guide du voyageur en algeria. itinéraire du savant, de l'artiste, de l'homme du monde et du colon; par quetin. mo. paris, . le sahara algerien. etude geographiques, statistiques et historiques sur la region au sud des établissements françaises en algérie; par col. daumas vo. paris, . l'afrique française l'empire de maroc et les deserts de sahara, conquêtes et découvértes des français. royal vo. dictionnaire de géographie économique, politique et historique de l'algérie. avec une carte. mo. paris, . géographie populaire de l'algérie, avec cartes. mo. . histoire de nos colonies françaises de l'algérie et du maroc; par m. christian. vols. vo. paris, . the following list embraces the latest publications on africa generally. voyage dans l'afrique occidentale, comprenant l'exploration du senegal depuis st. louis jusqu'à la félemé jusqu'à sansandig; des mines d'or de keniéba, dans le bambouk; des pays de galam, boudou et wooli; et de la gambia; par a. raffenel. vo. and folio atlas. paris, . viaggi nell' africa occidentale, di _toto omboni_, gia medico di consiglié nel regno d'angola e sue dispendenze, vo. milan, . a visit to the portuguese possessions in south western africa. by dr. tams. vols. vo. life in the wilderness; or, wanderings in south africa. by henry w. methuen. post vo. london, . voyage au darfour par le cheykh mohammed ebn-omar el-tounsy; traduit de l'arabe par dr. perron; publié par les soins de m. jomard. royal vo. maps. paris, . observations sur le voyage au darfour suivies d'un vocabulaire de la langue des habitans et de remarques sur le nil blanc supérieur; par m. jomard. . essai historique sur les races anciennes et modernes de l'afrique septentrionale, leurs origines, leurs mouvements et leurs transformations depuis l'antiquité jusqu'à nos jours; par pascal duprat. vo. paris, . madagascar.--the island of madagascar has recently attracted and continues to occupy attention in france. in m. guillian, in command of a french corvette, was sent by the governor of the isle of bourbon to this island, to select a harbor safe and convenient of access, and to obtain information relative to the country and its inhabitants. after visiting various parts of the island on its western side, in which fourteen months were spent, m. guillian returned to bourbon, and in the results of his visit were published in paris. the first part of this work gives a history of the sakalave people, who occupy the western parts of the island. the second details the particulars of the voyage made in and , embracing the geography, commerce and present condition of the country, an abstract of which is given in the bulletin of the geographical society of paris, feb. . so important were the results of the visit of m. guillian that a new expedition has been sent to madagascar under his direction, with instructions for a more extended examination, particularly in relation to its animal and vegetable productions. a more extensive work by m. de froberville, is preparing for publication in paris, in which more attention will be given to the ethnography of this important island. documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de la partie occidentale de l'île de madagascar; recueillis et redigés par m. guillian, vo. paris, . histoire d'établissement français de madagascar, pendant la restauration, précédée d'une description de cette île, et suivie de quelques considérations politiques et commerciales sur l'expédition et la colonisation de madagascar. par m. carayon, vo. paris, . histoire et géographie de madagascar, depuis la découverte de l'île en , jusqu'au récit des derniers événements de tamative; par m. descartes. vo. paris, . madagascar expedition de . par m. le capitaine de frégate jourdain. _revue de l'orient_, tom. ix. april, . a short memoir on madagascar is contained in the "bulletin de la société de géographie, july, ," by m. bona christave. etchings of a whaling voyage, with notes of a sojourn in the island of zanzibar, and a history of the whale fishery, by j.r. browne. vo. new york, . egypt. i have hesitated, in the superficial view i propose to take in noticing the ethnological and archæological researches of the day, as to whether i ought to speak of the land of the pharaohs. the explorations have been on so grand a scale, and the results so astounding, that one is lost in amazement in attempting to keep pace with them. in england, france, germany and italy, egyptian archæology is the most fruitful topic among the learned. in paris, it forms the theme of lectures by the most distinguished archæologists, and the subject absorbs so much interest in germany, that the king of prussia has established a professorship at the royal university for egyptian antiquities and history, which he has assigned to professor lepsius, the most accomplished scholar in egyptian learning, and who was at the head of the scientific commission sent by his majesty to explore the valley of the nile. it will be remembered that in addition to the immense and costly work published by napoleon, there have since been published the great national works of champollion, by the french government, and of rossellini by the tuscan government. these are to be immediately followed by the great work of lepsius, who has just returned from egypt, laden with innumerable treasures, the results of three years of most laborious and successful explorations. this undertaking is at the expense of the king of prussia, one of the most enlightened monarchs of europe, and who, at the present moment, is doing more in various parts of the world for the advancement of science than any now living. but the french government, which has always been foremost in promoting such explorations, is determined not to be superseded by the learned prussian's researches in egyptian lore. an expedition has been organized under m. prisse, for a new survey and exploration of egypt. mr. prisse is an accomplished scholar, versed in hieroglyphical learning, and author of a work on egyptian ethnology. he will be accompanied by competent artists, will go over the same ground as lepsius, and make additional explorations. as regards the eminent men who have won brilliant distinction in the career of egyptian studies, it is out of the question here to analyze their books: it must suffice to state, that all have marched boldly along the road opened by _champollion_, and that the science which owed its first illustration to young, to the champollions, to the humboldts, to salvolini, to rosellini, to nestor l'hote, and to whose soundness the great de sacy has furnished his testimony, counts at this day as adepts and ardent cultivators, such scholars as letronne, biot, prisse, bunsen, lepsius, burnouf, pauthiér, lanci, birch, wilkinson, sharpe, bonomi, and many more.[ ] a few important results of the late explorations in egypt, and researches into her hieroglyphics and history, it may be well to mention. prof. schwartze, of berlin, is publishing a work on egyptian philology, entitled _das alte Ægypten_. some idea may be formed of the erudition of german philologists, and the extent to which their investigations are carried, when we state that this savant has completed the first part of the first volume of this work, which embraces quarto pages! and this is but a beginning. de saulcy has made great advances in decyphering the demotic writing of egypt, in which, from champollion's death to , little had been done. he has now translated the whole of the demotic text on the rosetta stone, so that we may consider this portion of egyptian literature as placed on a firm basis. farther elucidations of the coptic language have been made. this, it will be remembered, is the language into which the ancient egyptian merged, and is the main instrument by which a knowledge of the latter must be obtained. recently a discovery has been made by arthur de rivière, at cairo, in an ancient coptic ms. containing part of the old testament. the manuscript was very large and thick, and on separating the leaves was found to contain a pagan manuscript in the same language, the only one yet discovered.[ ] on a farther examination of this manuscript, it proved to be a work on the religion of the ancient egyptians. the translation of this curious document is looked for with much interest. m. prisse is publishing at the expense of the french government, the continuation of champollion's great work on egypt and nubia-- plates are in press. mr. birch, of london, has nearly ready for the press a work on the titles of the officers of the pharaonic court. he has discovered in hieroglyphical writing those of the _chief butler_, _chief baker_, and others, coeval with the pyramids and anterior to joseph. he has also discovered upon a tablet at the louvre (age of thotmes iii. b.c. ) his conquest of nineveh, shinar, and babylon, and with the _tribute_ exacted from those conquered nations. the intense interest which egyptian archæology is exciting in europe will be seen from the list of new books on the subject. the most remarkable discoveries, and in which the greatest advances has been made, are in monumental chronology. through the indefatigable labors of the prussian savant, lepsius, primeval history has far transcended the bounds to which champollion and rosellini had carried it. they fixed the era of menes, the first pharaoh of egypt, at about , b.c. böckh, of berlin, from astronomical calculations, places it at b.c. henry of paris, in his "_l'Égypte pharaonique_," from historical deductions, places the era at b.c. barucchi, of turin, from critical investigations, at b.c., and bunsen, in his late work entitled "egypt's place in the world's history," from the most laborious hierological and critical deductions, places the era of menes at b.c. i should do wrong to speak of the labors of foreign savans, without alluding to what has been done in this country. dr. morton, it is known, has published a work on egyptian ethnography, from crania in his possession furnished by mr. gliddon, which reflects great credit on his scholarship, and has been highly commended in europe. the late mr. pickering, of boston, was one of the few who cultivated hieroglyphical literature in america. but perhaps the american people, as a mass, owe a deeper debt of gratitude to mr. geo. r. gliddon, for his interesting lectures on egypt and her literature, and to his work entitled chapters on egyptian antiquities and hieroglyphics, than to any other man. mr. gliddon, by a long residence in egypt, and by a close study subsequently of her monuments, has been enabled to popularize the subject, and by the aid of a truly magnificent and costly series of illustrations of the monuments, the sculptures, the paintings and hieroglyphics of egypt, to make this most interesting and absorbing subject, comprehensive to all. the results of these egyptian investigations will doubtless be startling to many; for if the facts announced are true, and we see no reason to believe otherwise, it places the creation of man far, very far, beyond the period usually assigned to him in the chronology of the hebrew bible. but again, it must be observed that the common chronology gives the shortest period for that event. if other scriptural chronologies are adopted, we gain two or three thousand years for the creation of man, which gives us quite time enough to account for the high state of civilization and the arts in egypt, four thousand years b.c. but we do not fear these investigations--truth will prevail, and its attainment can never be detrimental to the highest interests of man. i must also acknowledge the obligation i am under for the use of many splendid and valuable books relating to egypt, from mr. richard k. haight. this gentleman, with an ample fortune at his command, and with a taste for archæological studies, acquired by a personal tour among the monuments of egypt, has collected a large and valuable library of books on egypt, including all the great works published by the european governments on that country. this costly and unique collection, which few but princes or governments possess, he liberally places at the command of scholars, who, for purposes of study, may require them. mr. haight's interest in archæological researches has been noticed in paris, in an article by de saulcy, member of the institute of france, in a memoir entitled, "l'etude des hieroglyphics." speaking of mr. gliddon's success in the united states in popularizing hieroglyphical discoveries, de saulcy justly remarks--"il a été puissamment secondé, dans cette louable entreprise, par une de ces nobles intelligences dont un pays s'honore; m. haight, l'ami, le soutien, dévoué de tous les hommes de science, n'a pas peu contribué, par sa généreuse assistance, a répandre aux etats-unis les belles découvertes qui concernent les temps pharaoniques." _revue des deux mondes._ paris, june , . the following list embraces the late works relating to egypt: the oriental album; or historical, pictorial, and ethnographical sketches, illustrating the human families in the valley of the nile: by e. prisse. folio. london, . the history of egypt, from the earliest times till the conquest by the arabs, a.d. . by samuel sharpe. vo. london, . a pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of egypt, nubia, and palestine, in -' , by mrs. romer. vols. vo. london, . l'Égypte au xix siècle, histoire militaire et politique, anecdotique et pittoresque de mehemet ali, etc.; par e. gouin. illustrée de gravures. panorama d'Égypte et de nubie avec un texte orné, de vignettes; par hector horeau. folio. recherches sur les arts et métiers de la vie civile et domestique des anciens peuples de l'Égypte, de la nubie et de l'Éthiopie, suivi de détails sur les moeurs et coûtumes des peuples modernes des mêmes contrées; par m. frederic cailliand. folio. paris, -' . plates. das tödtenbuch der Ægypten nach dem hieroglyphischen papyrus in turin, von dr. r. leipsius. leipsig. schwartze. das alte Ægypten, oder sprache, geschichte, religion und verfassung d. alt. Ægypt. vols. to. leipsig. Ægyptens stelle in der weltgeschichte: von carl j. bunsen. vols. vo. manetho und die hundssternperiode, ein beitrag zur geschichte der pharaonen: von august böckh. vo. berlin, . macrizi's geschichte der copten. aus den handschriften zu gotha und wién, mit Übersetzungen and anmerkungen. von wüstenfeld. to. göttingen, . monuments de l'Égypte et de la nubie. notices descriptives conformes aux manuscrits autographes rédigés sur les lieux par champollion le jeune. folio. paris, -' . l'Égypte pharaonique, ou histoire des institutions qui régirent les Égyptiens sous leur rois nationaux. par d.m.j. henri. vols. vo. paris, . discorso critici sopra la cronologia egizia; del prof. barucchi. to. turin. voyage en Égypte, en nubie, dans les déserts de beyonda, des bycharís, et sur les côtes de la mer rouge: par e. combes. vols. vo. paris, . the eastern archipelago. borneo.--among the most remarkable and successful attempts to open a communication with the natives of the east india islands, is that of mr. james brooke. this gentleman, prompted solely by a desire to improve the condition of the people of borneo, and at the same time to explore this hitherto unknown region, has established himself at sarawak, on the northwestern part of the island, miles from singapore. such was the interest manifested by him on his arrival in the country to promote the good of the people, and to suppress the piracies which have been carried on for many years by the malays, and certain tribes associated with them, that the then reigning rajah, muda hassim, resigned to him his right and title to the government of the district, in which he was afterwards established by the sultan of borneo. the success that has attended mr. brooke's government, among a barbarous people, whose intercourse with foreigners had been confined to the malays and chinese, is most remarkable. possessed of an independent fortune, of the most enlarged benevolence; familiar with the language, manners, customs and institutions of the people by which he is surrounded, with a mind stored with knowledge acquired from extensive travel and intercourse with various rude nations, he seems to have been prepared by providence for the task which he has attempted, and which has thus far been crowned with success. capt. keppel's narrative of his expedition to borneo, and mr. brooke's journal, furnish some interesting ethnological facts. the dyaks, or aboriginal inhabitants of borneo, are divided into numerous lesser tribes, varying in a slight degree in their manners and customs. their language belongs to the polynesian stock, on which has been ingrafted, particularly along the coast, a large number of malayan words. it also exhibits evidences of migrations from india at remote periods. in speaking of the sibnowans, mr. brooke observes that "they have no idea of a god, and though they have a name for the deity, (battara, evidently of hindoo origin), with a faint notion of a future state, the belief seems a dead letter among them. they have no priests, say no prayers, make no offerings to propitiate the deity; and of course have no occasion for human sacrifices, in which respect they differ from all other people in the same state of civilization, who bow to their idols with the same feelings of reverence and devotion, of awe and fear, as civilized beings do to their invisible god."[ ] from their comparatively innocent state, mr. brooke believes they are capable of being easily raised in the scale of society. "their simplicity of manners, the purity of their morals and their present ignorance of all forms of worship, and all idea of future responsibility, render them open to conviction of truth and religious impression, when their minds have been raised by education."[ ] it is a well known fact, that since the establishment of europeans in the eastern archipelago, the tendency of the polynesian races has generally been to decay. the case of mr. brooke, however, now warrants us in hoping that such a result need not necessarily and inevitably ensue. while success has attended this gentleman at the north, the american missionaries, among the dutch possessions farther south, have totally failed in their objects. they attribute the unwillingness of the dyaks to submit to their instruction, to the influence of the malays, whose interests are necessarily opposed to those of the missionaries, for, it is evident that once under the guidance of the latter, the dyaks will see their own degraded and oppressed condition, and submit to it no longer. mr. youngblood says that "so prejudiced are the dyaks, that i have been unable to obtain a few boys to instruct, of which i was very desirous."[ ] the dutch have long had trading establishments in borneo, but they had made no efforts either to suppress the piracies, or improve the moral and social condition of its inhabitants. its great value has now become so apparent, that unless they keep pace with, and follow the example set by the english, they will be in danger of having it wrested from their hands by the more enlightened policy of the latter. borneo produces all the valuable articles of commerce common to other islands of the eastern archipelago. its mineral productions are equally rich, and include gold dust, diamonds, pearls, tin, copper, antimony, and coal. the interior is quite unknown. it is three times larger than great britain, and is supposed to contain about , , of people. i have purposely avoided speaking of the trade and commerce of the islands of the eastern archipelago, as they are subjects which do not fall within the sphere of our enquiries, in a review like the present; although the productions, the trade and commerce of nations are properly a branch of ethnological enquiry, in a more enlarged view. an interesting pamphlet, embodying much valuable information on the commerce of the east, has been lately published by our townsman, mr. aaron h. palmer. this gentleman is desirous that the united states government should send a special mission to the east indies, as well as to other countries of asia, with a view to extend our commercial relations. the plan is one that deserves the attention of our people and government, and i am happy to state that it has met with favor from many of our merchants engaged in the commerce of the east, as well as from some distinguished functionaries of the government.[ ] england, france, prussia, denmark, and holland, have at the present moment, expeditions in various parts of the east indies and oceanica, planned for the pursuit of various scientific enquiries and the extension of their commerce. with the exception of prussia, these nations seem to be desirous to establish colonies; and they have, within a few years, taken up valuable positions for the purpose. is it not then the duty of our government to be represented in this new and wide field? our dominions now extend from ocean to ocean, and we talk of the great advantages we shall possess in carrying on an eastern trade; but how greatly would our advantages be increased by having a depot or colony on one of the fertile islands contiguous to china, java, borneo, japan, the philippines, &c. an extended commerce demands it, and we hope the day is not distant when our government may see its importance. england, france, spain, portugal and holland have possessions in the east. the former, always awake to her commercial interests, now has three prominent stations in the china sea,--singapore, borneo, and hongkong. but even these important points do not satisfy her, and she looks with a longing eye towards chusan, a point of great importance, commanding the trade of the northern provinces of china, and contiguous to corea and japan. the "friend of india," a leading paper, "is possessed with a most vehement desire," says the editor of the "china mail," "that the british, without infringing their 'political morality,' could contrive some means of obtaining the cession of chusan, which, in their hands, he believes, could be converted into a second singapore, and become one of the largest mercantile marts of the east."[ ] it is evident from what has been stated, and from the opinions expressed in foreign journals, that the attention of the civilized world has been suddenly attracted to the eastern archipelago, and it is only surprising, considering the knowledge possessed by the european nations, of the rich productions of these islands, and the miserable state in which a large portion of their inhabitants live, that efforts have not before been made to colonize them, and bring them under european rule. the spaniards contented themselves with the philippines, but the dutch, more enterprising, as well as more ambitious, extended their conquests to sumatra, java, the moluccas, and recently to bali, sumbawa, timor and celebes. but these are not all, for wherever our ships push their way through these innumerable islands, they find scattered, far and wide, their unobtrusive commercial stations, generally protected by a fort and a cruiser. it is said that the natives feel no attachment for their dutch rulers, which, as they possess so wide spread a dominion in the archipelago, is much to be regretted; for this feeling of animosity against them, may effect the relations that may be hereafter formed between the aboriginal races and other christian people. attempts will doubtless be made to prejudice the natives against the english, but the popularity of mr. brooke at sarawak, in borneo, his kindness to the natives, and the destruction of the pirates by the british, will no doubt gain for them throughout the archipelago, a name and an influence which the jealousies of other nations cannot counteract. the natives of these islands except those of the interior, are strictly a trading and commercial people. addicted to a seafaring life, and tempted by a love of gain, they traverse these seas in search of the various articles of commerce which are eagerly sought after by traders for the european, india, and chinese markets. piracy, which abounds in this region, grows out of this love of trade--this desire for the accumulation of wealth--and we believe that nothing would tend to suppress crime so effectually as the establishment of commercial ports throughout the archipelago. it is said that the population embraced in the twelve thousand islands of which polynesia consists, amounts to about forty millions. no part of the world equals it in the great variety and value of its products. there is scarcely an island but is accessible in every direction, abounding in spacious bays and harbors, and the larger ones in navigable rivers. the people are generally intelligent, and susceptible of a higher degree of cultivation than the natives of africa, or of many parts of the adjacent continent. to obtain a station or an island in this vast archipelago, we should require neither the outlay of a large sum of money, nor the loss of human life; no governments would be subjected, or kings overthrown. civilization and its attendant blessings would take the place of barbarism, idolatry would be supplanted by christianity, and the poor natives, now bowed down by cruelty and oppression, would, under the care of an enlightened government, become elevated in the scale of social existence. the cultivation of spices in the archipelago, and the acts by which the monopoly is secured by the dutch in the moluccas, reflect little credit on human nature. "no where in the world have the aboriginal tribes been treated with greater cruelty; and in some cases literal extermination has overtaken them. their tribe has been extinguished, they have been cut off to a man, and that merely lest, in order to obtain a humble subsistence, they should presume to trade on their own account in those costly spices, the sale of which, without right or reason, holland has hitherto thought proper to appropriate to herself. no form of servitude, moreover, equals the slavery of those who are engaged in the culture of the nutmeg-tree. they toil without hope. no change ever diversifies their drudgery; no holiday gladdens them; no reward, however trifling, repays extra exertion, or acts as a stimulus for the future. the wretched slave's life is one monotonous round, a mere alternation of toil and sleep, to be terminated only by death."[ ] the northern portions of new guinea, as well as other islands, are in the same latitude as banda and amboyna, and produce the nutmeg and other spices. they might be extensively cultivated by the natives, if encouragement was given them; and a sufficient supply obtained for all the markets of europe and america. the island of bali, lying east of java, from which it is separated by a narrow strait, has recently been subjected by the dutch. some difficulty growing out of the commerce with the people, is the alleged cause. it is an island of great importance to holland, and would seriously injure her commerce with java, should any other european nation take it under its protection, or plant a colony there. a slight pretext therefore sufficed for its annexation. new caledonia islands. later information has been received from the catholic missionaries in new caledonia; for it seems that even in those distant and barbarous islands both protestant and catholic are represented. the propaganda annals contain some interesting accounts of the natives of these islands, and of other facts of importance in ethnology. two catholic missionaries, the rev. mr. rougeyron and the rev. mr. colin, had been twenty months on these islands, during which time they had accomplished nothing in the way of conversions, and but little towards improving the moral condition of the natives. it was hardly time to expect much, as they had only then begun to speak the language of the country, which they found very difficult to acquire. the natives are a most lazy and wretched people. they cultivate the ground with the aid of a piece of pointed wood, or with their nails, but never in proportion to their wants. for the greater part of the year they are compelled to live upon a few fish, shell-fish, roots and the bark of trees, and at times when pressed by hunger, worms, spiders and lizards are eagerly devoured by them. they are cannibals in every sense of the word, and openly feed on the flesh of their enemies. yet they possess the cocoa, banana and yam, with a luxuriant soil, from which, with a little labor, an abundance could be raised. among no savage tribes are the women worse treated than here. they are completely at the mercy of their cruel and tyrannical husbands. compelled to carry burdens, to collect food, and cultivate the fields, their existence promises them but little enjoyment; and when there is any fruit or article of delicacy procured, it is at once _tabooed_ by the husband, so that she cannot touch it but at the peril of her life. the missionaries had begun to expostulate with the natives on the horrors of eating their prisoners, and other vices to which they were addicted, and observe that "a happy change has already taken place among them; that they were less disposed to robbery, and that their wars are less frequent."[ ] they are beginning to understand the motive which brought the missionaries to them, and already show a desire to be instructed. the protestant missions have not accomplished any more than the catholic's among these savages. the latest accounts state that four of the native teachers who had been converted to christianity, had been cruelly murdered, and that such was the hostility of the chiefs at the isle of pines, that the prospects of the missionaries were most discouraging.[ ] sooloo islands.--mr. itier, attaché to the french mission in china, has recently visited a cluster of islands lying to the northeast of borneo, between that island and mindanao.[ ] his researches on the natural history and geology of these islands, are of much interest. the soil is exceedingly fertile, and the climate more healthy than is usual in intertropical climates. the sugar cane, cocoa, rice, cotton, the bread fruit, indigo, and spices of all kinds, are among their products. fruits and vegetables of a great variety, are abundant, and of a superior quality. nine-tenths of the soil is still covered with the primitive forest, of which teak-wood, so valuable in shipbuilding, forms a part. a considerable commerce with china and manilla is carried on, and from ten to twelve thousand chinese annually visit the island of basilan, the most northerly of the group, to cultivate its soil, and take away its products. the peculiar situation of these islands, and their contiguity to the philippines, to celebes, borneo, manilla, china, and singapore, make them well adapted for a european colony. in fact, there do not appear to be any islands of the east indies of equal importance, and there can be no doubt that with the present desire manifested by european nations for colonizing, this desirable spot will ere long be secured by one of them. the sooloo group embraces sixty inhabited islands, governed by a sultan, residing at soung. one of these would be an advantageous point for an american colony or station. the same gentleman has presented to the geographical society of paris, the journal of a voyage and visit to the philippine islands, from which it appears that that large and important croup is not inferior in interest to the sooloo islands. the natural history and geology, the soil and its products, the manners and customs of the people, their commerce and political history, are described in detail.[ ] the group embraces about twelve hundred islands, with a population of , , , of whom about , are chinese, , spaniards, , of a mixed race, and the remainder natives. the nicobar islands, a group nineteen in number, in the bay of bengal, have again attracted the attention of the danish government, by which an expedition has been sent with a view to colonize them anew. the danes planted a colony there in , but were compelled to abandon it in consequence of the insalubrity of the climate. subsequently the french made an attempt with no better success. recent publications on the eastern archipelago and polynesia. ethnology and philology. by horatio hale, philologist of the u.s. exploring expedition, imp. to. philadelphia, . reise nach java, und ausflüge nach den inseln mudura und s. helena; von dr. edward selberg, vo. oldenburg, . philippines (les), histoire, géographie, moeurs, agriculture, industrie et commerce des colonies espagnoles dans l'océanie; par _j. mallat_, vols. vo., avec un atlas in folio. paris, . the expedition of h.m.s. dido, for the suppression of piracy; by the hon. capt. keppell, with extracts from the journal of james brooke, esq. vols. vo. london, . reprinted in new york. trade and travel in the far east; or recollections of twenty-one years passed in java, singapore, australia and china, by g.f. davidson, post vo. london, . typee: narrative of a four months' residence among the natives of the marquesas islands, by herman melville. mo. new york, . besides these, the missionary herald, the baptist missionary magazine, the london evangelical magazine, the annals of the society for the propagation of the faith, as well as other similar journals, contain many articles of great interest on the various islands of the eastern archipelago and the south sea islands. australia. this vast island continues to attract the attention of geographers and naturalists. its interior remains unknown, notwithstanding the various attempts which have been made from various points to penetrate it. the explorations of scientific men during the last four years have been productive of valuable information relating to its geography, ethnography, geology and natural history. among the most eminent and successful in this field, is the count de strzelecki. this gentleman, as early as the year , made an extensive tour into the southwestern part of australia, in which he discovered an extensive tract called gipp's land, containing an extent of five thousand six hundred square miles, a navigable lake and several rivers, and from the richness of the soil, presenting an inviting prospect to settlers. his explorations were continued during the years ' and ' , and in the following year the results were given to the public,[ ] "comprehending the fruits of five years of continual labor during a tour of seven thousand miles on foot. this work treats, within a moderate compass, of the history and results of the surveys of those countries, of their climate, their geology, botany and zoology, as well as of the physical, moral and social state of the aborigines, and the state of colonial agriculture, the whole illustrated by comparisons with other countries visited by himself in the course of twelve years travel through other parts of the world." for these extensive explorations and discoveries, and for his valuable work in which they are embodied, the royal geographical society of london awarded the "founders" gold medal to count strzelecki.[ ] additional information to our knowledge of australia is contained in capt. stokes's late work detailing the discoveries made by himself and other officers attached to h.m.s. beagle. these discoveries consist of a minute examination of a large part of the coast of that island, of several rivers on its northern and northwestern sides, and of expeditions into the interior. natives were seen in small numbers in various parts, all of whom were in the lowest state of barbarism. a remarkable diversity of character was noticed, however, among the natives of different localities, some being most kindly disposed, and approaching the strangers without fear, as though they were old acquaintances, whilst others manifested the greatest hostility and aversion. in the instances referred to, they had never seen white men before. capt. stokes says his "whole experience teaches him that these were not accidental differences, but that there is a marked contrast in the disposition of the various tribes, for which he will not attempt to account."[ ] the natives at port essington, on the north, appear to be in some respects superior to those in other parts of the island. their implements of war and their canoes show a connexion with the malays. they also have a musical instrument made of bamboo, the only one yet found among them.[ ] the rite of circumcision was practised on the northern coast near the gulf of carpentaria. on the southern coast, at the head of the australian bight, it had before been noticed by mr. eyre.[ ] for the practice of this ancient rite at such remote distances, and confined to within such narrow limits, we can only account, by some early migration or visit of people by whom it was practised. nothing has yet been done towards a comparison of the languages spoken by the australian tribes. in the late cruise of capt. stokes, natives of the south were taken to the northern parts of the island, but in their intercourse with the people of the latter, they were unable to make themselves understood. it is possible, however, that like the languages of the american indians, though they may exhibit a wide difference in words for similar objects, the grammatical structure may be the same. this is a more important test in ethnological comparison, and should be applied before any of the aboriginal tribes of australia are extinct. by far the most important journey yet accomplished for the exploration of australia, is that of dr. leichardt. this gentleman, accompanied by mr. gilbert, a naturalist, and six others, started from moreton bay, on the southeastern shore of the island, in october, , to penetrate to port essington, on its most northerly point; in order, if possible, to open a direct route to sydney. several months after the party left, reports were brought to moreton bay that they had been cut off by the natives. this was proved to be untrue by an expedition sent out for the purpose, who traced the travellers four hundred miles into the interior. dr. leichardt found it impossible to penetrate into the interior in a direct course, on account of high table-land, and the absence of water; and this circumstance compelled him to keep within six or seven degrees of the coast. their six months' provisions being exhausted, the only resource of the party was the horses and stock bullocks,--and with these the strictest economy was necessary. one was killed as provision for a month--sometimes a horse, at others a bullock. for six months prior to reaching port essington, the party were reduced to a quarter of a pound of meat per day--frequently putrescent--unaccompanied with salt, bread, or any kind of vegetable. in the neighborhood of the gulf of carpentaria, mr. gilbert, the naturalist, was surprised by the natives, and killed. the remainder reached port essington on the d of december, .[ ] the narrative of dr. leichardt's expedition has not yet been published in detail. the report[ ] which has appeared consists chiefly of notices of the geography of the region traversed, the soil, productions, climate, &c. he encountered natives in many places, sometimes in considerable numbers. by some they were kindly received, by others treated as enemies. their characteristics are not noticed. the most extraordinary feature in dr. leichardt's narrative is the constant succession of water. although the season was an exceedingly dry one, no rain having fallen for seven months, yet from the commencement to the close of his year and a half's expedition, throughout the whole length and breadth of the vast region he traversed, he was continually meeting with fresh water, in the forms of "pools, lagoons, brooks, wells, water-holes, rocky basins, living springs, swamps, streams, creeks or rivers." the soil in many places was of the best kind, covered with luxuriant grass and herbs. of the former, some twenty kinds were seen. in lat. ° ´ he found a level country, openly timbered, with fine plains, extending many miles in length and breadth. the flats bordering the creeks and rivers were covered with tall grass, and the table-lands presented equally attractive features. "the whole country along the east coast of the gulf of carpentaria is highly adapted for pastoral pursuits. cattle and horses would thrive exceedingly well, but the climate and soil are not adapted to sheep. large plains, limited by narrow belts of open forest land; fine grassy meadows along frequent chains of lagoons, and shady forest land along the rivers, render this country inviting to the squatter." dr. leichardt thinks there are many districts suitable for the cultivation of rice and cotton. in regard to a communication between the settlements, it is the decided opinion of the doctor, that no line of road can be effected direct from fort bourke to the northern settlement. a route from moreton bay to the gulf of carpentaria will be easily constructed. the whole coast is backed by ranges of mountains, consisting, nearest the sea, generally of granite and basaltic rocks, which he calls the granite range; behind this is a second range of sandstone. descending from this and again rising, they entered upon the table-land; which they could nowhere penetrate, so as to determine what might be the character of the central country. it was covered with a dense shrub, had no water; and frequently there was difficulty in descending from it, owing to the perpendicular cliffs and deep ravines. they passed several rivers all of which ran easterly towards the coast. after reaching the gulf of carpentaria, they again ascended the table-land, and suffered extremely for want of water. the country beneath them was delightful to look at, but they were unable to descend to it, until they reached the dip towards the alligaters. here the country surpassed in fertility any thing that they had seen. by later advices from sydney, it appears that this enterprising and zealous traveller, is again making arrangements for another expedition to explore the interior of this great island.[ ] the doctor now proposes to leave moreton bay and endeavor to trace the sources of the rivers which flow into the gulf of carpentaria. he will then proceed northwest, penetrating directly across the unknown and unexplored interior, forming the are of a circle, to swan river. this will be the most daring journey yet attempted; but under the direction of one who has already shown so much perseverance and undergone such severe hardships, it is to be hoped that his efforts may be crowned with success. an expedition for the exploration of australia, under the command of sir thomas l. mitchell, is at present employed in traversing the unknown parts of this vast country. when last heard from, the expedition had reached the latitude of ° ´ longitude ° ´. the particulars of dr. leichardt's journey have been sent to him to guide him in his course of future operations.[ ] the following list embraces the latest works on australia. physical description of new south wales and van dieman's land, accompanied by a geographical map, by p.e. de strzelecki. vo. . south australia and its mines; with an account of captain grey's government, by fr. dutton. vo. london, . history of new south wales, from its settlement to the close of the year , by thomas h. braim. vols. post, vo. london, . reminiscences of australia, with hints on the squatters' life, by c.p. hodgson. post, vo. london, . a visit to the antipodes; with some reminiscences of a sojourn in australia. by a squatter. vo. london, . enterprise in tropical australia. by george w. earl. vo. london, . impressions of savage life, and scenes in australia and new zealand. by g.f. augas. vols. vo. london, . travels in new south wales. by alexander majoribanks. mo. lond. . simmonds' colonial magazine contains a vast deal of information relating to australia, as well as to other british colonies, and is unquestionably the best book of reference on subjects relating to the history and present condition of the british colonies of any work extant. asia. lycia, asia minor. this interesting region has been further explored by two english gentlemen, lieut. spratt, r.n., and professor forbes, who, accompanied by the reverend e.t. daniel, embarked from england in the year , in h.m. ship beacon, for the coast of lycia, for the purpose of bringing home the remarkable monuments of antiquity discovered by sir charles fellows. this gentleman, it will be remembered, was the first who in modern times successfully explored the interior. he visited the sites of many ancient cities and towns; copied numerous inscriptions, by means of which he was enabled to identify the names of fifteen out of eighteen cities; and made sketches of the most interesting sculptures and monuments. it is remarkable that a country so often spoken of by the greek and roman historians should not have sooner attracted attention, when districts contiguous to, as well as far beyond, have been so thoroughly explored. the ruins on the southern coast of asia minor, were first made known by captain beaufort, who discovered them when employed in making a survey of this coast. several travellers subsequently made short excursions into the country; but it was not until mr. now sir charles fellows, in and , made his visits and explorations, that the riches of the interior in historical monuments were disclosed. the relics of antiquity brought to light in these researches, consist first of the ruins of large cities, many of which, by reason of their isolated situation among the high lands and mountains, seem to have been preserved from the destruction which usually attends depopulated cities situated in more accessible places. these ruined cities contain amphitheatres more or less spacious, and generally in a good state of preservation, temples, aqueducts, and sepulchral monuments, together with numbers of lesser buildings, the dwelling houses of the inhabitants. the ruins of christian churches are also found in many places, and in one instance a large and elegant cathedral; the purposes of these are satisfactorily made out by their inscriptions; and the date of their erection, when not otherwise known, may be fixed by their style of architecture. the most numerous as well as the most interesting monuments of these ancient cities, are their sepulchres. in some instances where a mountain or high rock is contiguous, it is pierced with thousands of tombs, presenting an appearance similar to petræa in idumea, sometimes called the city of the dead. the roads in all directions are lined with tombs and sarcophagi, many of them covered with elaborate sculptures and inscriptions. it is by means of the latter, which abound and which exist in a fine state of preservation, that the names of the cities are identified and other historical facts brought to light. the following is a translation of the most common form of sepulchral inscription. "this tomb apollonides, son of molissas, made for his wife and children: and if any one violates it, let him pay a fine." coins too are found, which possess considerable historic interest. in architecture, we find excellent specimens of the several grecian orders, exhibiting both the perfection and declension of the art. the works of sir charles fellows abound in architectural representations. a pointed arch was discovered by lieut. spratt and professor forbes in the interior of a tomb (a sketch of which is given) among the ruins of antiphellas. this conclusively shows, that this peculiar form of the arch was not first introduced with gothic architecture, as has been generally believed, but belongs to a period anterior to the christian era. an inscription in the lycian and latin was found on the monument. the language of the ancient lycians is an important discovery which has resulted from these researches. a bilingual inscription in lycian and greek first led to the key, and similar inscriptions, subsequently discovered, have furnished sufficient materials for ascertaining the values of the several letters of the alphabet, which consists of twenty-seven letters, two of which are still doubtful. able disquisitions on the language have been written by mr. sharpe and professor grotefend. in regard to the antiquity of the monuments, and the people who spoke the language called lycian, now first made known through these inscriptions, we are enabled to arrive at conclusions which fix their era with some degree of certainty. the earliest inscription yet decyphered is a bilingual one, which consists of an edict, in which the name of harpagus, or his son, a well known personage, is mentioned; which would give a date of to b.c. this is about the period of the earliest arrow-head inscriptions yet known--namely, those at behistun, of the age of darius, decyphered by major rawlinson. the language belongs to the same family as the zend and old persian, and is supposed to have been in use in the same age as the former, and along with that of the persepolitan inscriptions. the sculptures too, bear some resemblance to the figures on the persian monuments, particularly the well known figure with an umbrella, so common on the latter. other reasons are adduced by scholars for fixing the date of the lycian language not before the fifth century b.c., or to the age of herodotus. this historian was from the adjoining province of caria; and as might be expected, gives accounts of the lycians before his time, but does not say that they spoke a language different from his own, or from that of the entire region,--a fact that he would not have overlooked had such been the case. it is believed that cyrus, when he subjected this country, brought in some people from his persian dominions, who afterwards became the dominant party, and introduced their language.[ ] it is surprising to find the names of these lycian cities so well preserved when the descendants of its ancient inhabitants have been so entirely swept out of the country, and replaced by a people differing in manners, in religion, and having no interest connected with the locality to induce them to respect the relics or names, and keep alive the memory, of the former possessors of the soil. travels in lycia, milytas and the cibyrates, in company with the late rev. e.t. daniel, by lieut. spratt, r.n., and prof. e. forbes. vols. vo. lond. . a journal written during an excursion in asia minor, by charles fellows. royal vo. london, . an account of discoveries in lycia, in . by charles fellows, royal vo. an essay on the lycian language. by daniel sharpe. (in the appendix to fellows' journal.) arabia. if we now turn to the discoveries that have recently been made in the southern part of arabia, we find much in them worthy of attention. this country, called in the scriptures hazarmaveth, by the natives hadramaut, and by the classical writers of antiquity, arabia felix, is celebrated as being the kingdom of the queen of sheba, who visited solomon, as well as for the gold, gems, frankincense and other precious productions, which it furnished in ancient times. it is represented by the greek and roman writers as a populous country, with many extensive cities, abounding in temples and palaces; though the palpable fables with which these accounts are intermingled, show that at least they had no personal knowledge of the facts, but retailed them at second hand. after europe had awoke from the intellectual slumber of the dark ages, the arabs were long regarded only as objects of religious and political abhorrence. the discovery of the route to india by the cape of good hope, at the close of the fifteenth century, by diverting the channel of indo-european traffic from the red sea, left the countries bordering upon it in such a state of solitude, that when better feelings began to prevail, there was no means of obtaining any direct information respecting them. in , the illustrious pococke, by the publication of his specimens of ancient arabian history, extracted from native authors, created a curiosity respecting southern arabia and its ancient inhabitants, which successive collections of a similar nature, down to our own times, have served rather to increase than to gratify. the researches of niebuhr, seetzen, and burckhardt, in the latter part of the last, and the beginning of the present century, made us somewhat acquainted with the western extremity of this country, along the shores of the red sea; but before the investigations of which we are about to speak, its southern coast had never been accurately explored, and the great body of the interior, with its once famous capital, mareb, remained, as it ever had been, completely unknown to and unvisited by the natives of europe. the hordes of pirates, which until twenty years ago infested the persian gulf, caused the government of british india to order a complete survey of its islands and both its shores, with the view of laying bare their haunts, and putting an end to their depredations. in , after this service had been performed, the project then recently set on foot of establishing a steam communication between england and bombay, caused orders to be issued for a similar examination of the red sea. the attention of the officers composing the expedition, was not restricted to the technical duties in which they were chiefly engaged. it was well known that information of every kind would be prized by the government which they served; and this, together with the monotony of life on board ship on the one hand, and the novelty of the scenes by which they were surrounded on the other, seems to have created among them a spirit of emulation that led to the most interesting discoveries respecting both the geography and the antiquities of the adjacent countries. among the most intelligent and enterprising of these officers was the late lieut. wellsted, who thus describes his reflections on joining the expedition in the red sea, on the th october, . "from the earliest dawn of history, the northern shores of the red sea have figured as the scene of events which both religious and civil records have united to render memorable. here moses and the patriarchs tended their flocks, and put in motion those springs of civilization, which, from that period, have never ceased to urge forward the whole human race in the career of improvement. on the one hand the valley of the wanderings, commencing near the site of memphis, and opening upon the red sea, conducts the fancy along the track pursued by the hebrews during their flight out of egypt; on the other hand are mount sinai, bearing still upon its face the impress of miraculous events, and beyond it that strange, stormy, and gloomy-looking sea, once frequented by phoenician merchants' ships, by the fleets of solomon and pharaoh, and those barks of later times which bore the incenses, the gems, the gold and spices of the east, to be consumed or lavishly squandered upon favorites at the courts of macedonia or rome. but the countries lying along this offshoot of the indian ocean, have another kind of interest, peculiar perhaps to themselves. on the arabian side we find society much what it was four thousand years ago; for amidst the children of ishmael it has undergone but trifling modifications. their tents are neither better nor worse than they were when they purchased joseph of his brethren, on their way to egypt; the sheikhs possess no other power or influence than they enjoyed then; the relations of the sexes have suffered little or no changes; they eat, drink, clothe themselves, educate their children, make war and peace, just as they did in the day of the exodus. but on the opposite shores, all has been change, fluctuation, and decay. while the bedouins have wandered with their camels and their flocks, unaspiring, unimproving, they have looked across the gulf and beheld the egyptian overthrown by the persian, the persian by the greek, the greek by the roman, and the roman in his turn by a daring band from their own burning deserts. they have seen empires grow up like jonah's gourd. war has swept away some; the varieties and luxuries of peace have brought others to the ground; and every spot along these shores is celebrated." when the northeastern and the western shores of the arabian peninsula had thus been investigated, there still remained to be explored the south eastern shore, the coast of the anciently renowned province of hadramaut, extending from tehama, on the red sea, to the province of oman, at the entrance to the persian gulf; and it is to the discoveries made in this almost unknown part of the world that i now wish more particularly to allude. in the year capt. haines, the commander of the expedition and the present governor of aden, published his survey of about two fifths of this coast, extending from the straits of bab-el-mandeb as far east as missenaat, in long. ° east of greenwich.[ ] in the year , he published his further survey of about an equal portion extending to cape isolette, in long. ° ´, leaving about one fifth of the whole extent on the eastern end still to be explored.[ ] in june, , adolphe baron wrede, a hanoverian gentleman, made an excursion from makallah on the coast, into the interior of the country. he visited among other places an extensive valley called wadi doan, which he thus describes. "the sudden appearance of the wadi doan, took me by surprise and impressed me much with the grandeur of the scene. the ravine, five hundred feet wide and six hundred feet in depth, is enclosed between perpendicular rocks, the debris of which form in one part a slope reaching to half their height. on this slope, towns and villages rise contiguously in the form of an amphitheatre; while below the date grounds, which are covered with a forest of trees, the river about twenty feet broad and enclosed by high and walled embankments is seen winding through fields laid out in terraces, then pursuing its course in the open plain, irrigated by small canals branching from it. my first view of the valley disclosed to me four towns and four villages, within the space of an hour's distance." he also gives an account of some curious spots of quicksand, in the midst of the great desert of el-akkaf, which are regarded with superstitious horror by the wandering bedouins. a cord of sixty fathoms in length with a plummet at the end, which he cast into one of them, disappeared in the course of five minutes. his narrative is published in the fourteenth volume of the journal of the royal geographical society of london. in spite of the glowing descriptions of ancient authors, the idea hitherto entertained of this region in modern times, has been that of a succession of desert plains and sand-hills, with nothing to give animation to the arid scene but solitary groups of bedouins and occasionally a passing caravan. the recent explorations, however, of which the one just quoted is a specimen, show that this is far from being a correct view of the entire country. the coast is thickly studded with fishing-villages and small seaports, which still carry on, though on a diminished scale, the trade with india and the persian gulf, which has existed ever since the dawn of history. it is true, the general appearance of the country along the coast, consisting as it does of successive ranges of sand-hills, is such as to naturally give rise to the views entertained and promulgated by navigators, who have had no opportunity of visiting the interior. but the deeper researches that have been made during the last ten or twelve years, show that these opinions are very erroneous; for besides that there are a number of green valleys running down to the coast, produced by streams provided with water for at least a good part of the year, no sooner has the traveller surmounted the first range of sand-hills, than his sight begins to be regaled with numerous well watered valleys and mountains covered with verdure. besides this, even in those parts of the country where the surface is naturally a desert plain, the inhabitants have possessed from the remotest times the art of forming flourishing oases, in which to establish their hamlets and towns; an operation which, as wellsted remarks, is effected with a labor and skill that seem more chinese than arabian. this traveller says: "the greater part of the face of the country being destitute of running streams on the surface, the arabs have sought in elevated places for springs or fountains beneath it. a channel from this fountain-head is then, with a very slight descent, bored in the direction in which it is to be conveyed, leaving apertures at regular distances, to afford light and air to those who are occasionally sent to keep it clean. in this manner water is frequently conducted from a distance of six or eight miles, and an unlimited supply is thus obtained. these channels are usually about four feet broad and two feet deep, and contain a clear and rapid stream. few of the large towns or oases but had four or five of these rivulets or feleji running into them. the isolated spots to which water is thus conveyed possess a soil so fertile, that nearly every grain, fruit, or vegetable, common to india, arabia, or persia, is produced almost spontaneously; and the tales of the oases will be no longer regarded as an exaggeration, since a single step conveys the traveller from the glare and sand of the desert into a fertile tract, watered by a hundred rills, teeming with the most luxuriant vegetation, and embowered by lofty and stately trees, whose umbrageous foliage the fiercest rays of a noontide sun cannot penetrate."[ ] these oases and the towns situated in them, date from various periods; some of those already discovered being evidently of considerable antiquity. in describing some of these towns, wellsted says: "the instant you step from the desert within the grove, a most sensible change of the atmosphere is experienced. the air feels cold and damp; the ground in every direction is saturated with moisture; and from the density of the shade, the whole appears dark and gloomy. to avoid the damp and catch an occasional beam of the sun above the trees, the houses are usually very lofty. a parapet encircling the upper part is turreted; and on some of the largest houses guns are mounted. the windows and doors have the saracenic arch; and every part of the building is profusely decorated with ornaments of stucco in bas relief, some in very good taste. the doors are also cased with brass, and have rings and other massive ornaments of the same metal." these descriptions relate to the province of oman, the eastern extremity of southern arabia. the glimpses already obtained of this ancient and famous land, sufficiently prove that the fortunate traveller who shall succeed in obtaining access into the interior of the country, which has always been a _terra incognita_ to europeans and their descendants, will find an abundance of objects of interest to reward his zeal and self-devotion. there is however another class of interesting objects, relating to the ancient history of the country, which i have not alluded to until now, because i wish to speak of them more particularly. these are the ancient _inscriptions_, of which a number have already been discovered and in part decyphered. several arabian writers have stated that there existed in the southern part of their country, before the time of mohammed, a kind of writing which they call himyaritic, after the name of the ancient inhabitants of the country, the beni himyar. but the confused nature of these accounts, together with the arab practice of giving the name of himyaritic to every ancient mode of writing which they were unable to read, caused the story to be regarded as little better than fabulous. in the year the late baron de sacy published a learned treatise on the subject, in which he collected all the arabian accounts; but no further progress was made in the enquiry, until the discovery of a number of inscriptions on various massy ruins situated along the coast and in the interior, by officers attached to the surveying expedition already spoken of, in the years and ' . copies of these inscriptions were transmitted to the late dr. gesenius of halle, one of the first orientalists of europe. after making some progress in the investigation, he gave up the subject to his colleague dr. rödiger, who had devoted himself to it with great ardor and success. the latter published a copious dissertation containing the results he had arrived at, which he reprinted in by way of an appendix to his german edition of wellsted's travels in arabia. by comparing the characters of the inscriptions with the himyaritic alphabets contained in some arabic manuscripts and with the present ethiopic alphabet, he was enabled to ascertain the powers of the letters, and even to interpret, with various degrees of certainty, many portions of the inscriptions themselves. thus, these venerable records, which in all probability have for many ages been dumb to every human being, are in a fair way of being made to yield up to modern scientific research whatever information they may contain. that this information must be interesting and valuable to the historian is inferred from the imposing nature of the structures on which they are found, and whose existence but a few years ago was as little looked for in this part of the world as in the forest wilds of oregon. a full account of these discoveries and of the attempts at decyphering the inscriptions was published in in the first volume of the transactions of the ethnological society of this city. i will therefore merely proceed to state what has been accomplished in the matter since the time when that account closes. in the beginning of , the same year in which m. wrede made his exploration, a french physician of the name of arnaud being then at jiddah, received from m. fresnel, the french consular agent at that port, accounts of the himyaritic inscriptions discovered by the officers of the indian navy, and of the interest they had created in europe. m. arnaud's enthusiasm being excited on the subject, he resolved to take a share in these arduous researches. the grand object of his ambition was to reach mareb, the ancient capital of hadramaut and the residence of the famous queen of sheba, whose name according to the arabians was balkis. two english officers had undertaken the journey several years ago, and had reached sana, a town within three or four days' journey of it; but the suspicions of the native authorities becoming excited, their further progress was prevented. the mode of proceeding adopted by m. arnaud, who spoke the arabic fluently, was to travel as a mussulman, in company with a caravan going to the place. his plan was happily crowned with success. in the middle of july he reached the city, where he saw the imposing remains of the ancient dam, said to have been built across the valley of mareb by balkis herself, and which, by collecting an immense body of water near the metropolis, whence the surrounding country was irrigated, had given rise to the fertility and beauty for which the region was celebrated in ancient times. on these remains m. arnaud discovered a number of inscriptions, as also among the ruins of the former city; among the most remarkable of these is one called harem balkis, which is thought to be the remains of the palace of the ancient sabean kings. the inscriptions of which mr. arnaud brought away copies with him amount to fifty-six in number. the tour of m. wrede was also not unproductive in this respect. he copied, among others, a long inscription in wadi doan; which, according to the interpretations that have since been made of it, contains a list of kings more copious than those which have been left us by albulfeda and other historians of the middle ages. when m. arnaud returned to jiddah from his hazardous and toilsome expedition, m. fresnel, who had originally moved him to the undertaking, set about studying the new inscriptions, aided by the previous labors of the german scholars and his own knowledge of arabic and the modern himyaritic. possessing a far more abundant supply of materials than had been collected before, he was able to assign to a few doubtful characters their proper values. he transmitted to paris a fair copy of the original inscriptions, and also a transcription of them in the arabic character, showing how they should be read. a fount of himyaritic types having been constructed for the express purpose at the imprimerie royale, they were all published in the course of last year in the journal asiatique, together with several letters on the subject from m. fresnel. the form of the characters in these inscriptions is essentially the same as in those discovered before; but, whereas the former ones all read from right to left like the arabic of the present day, some of the new ones are found to read alternately from right to left and from left to right, like some of the inscriptions of ancient greece. m. fresnel's attention has been mainly directed to the collection and identification of the proper names of persons, deities, and places, in which the inscriptions abound, and in which he recognises many names mentioned in scripture, and in greek, roman, and arabian authors. thus he identifies the deity 'athtor with the ashtoreth or venus of the hebrews. he finds in an inscription at hisn ghorab the word kaná, showing the correctness of the conclusion already arrived at that this is the _cane emporium_ of ptolemy. he identifies the ruins of kharibeh, a day's journey to the west of mareb, with the caripeta of pliny, the furthest point reached by the roman commander, Ælius gallus, in his expedition into arabia felix, in the reign of augustus cæsar. he has also recognised many names of himyaritic sovereigns mentioned by arabian writers, among others those of the grandfather and uncle of queen balkis. m. fresnel has also begun to translate the inscriptions connectedly, a work of great labor and difficulty. he has already furnished an improved reading and translation of one at sana, which had been copied before by english officers, and interpreted by gesenius and rödiger, and has offered a translation of another found by m. arnaud, on the hiram balkis at mareb. the discoveries already brought to light, merely serve to show the richness of the mine that yet remains to be explored. other expeditions are now planning, or in progress of execution, for penetrating into other parts of the country; and eminent scholars are busied in elucidating the treasures which the enterprize of travellers is bringing to light. their united exertions cannot fail, at least, to accumulate many curious particulars relative to the history of one of the most remarkable and least known nations of past ages. the rev. t. brockman, who was sent by the royal geographical society of england for the purpose of geographical and antiquarian research in the arabian peninsula, had proceeded up the coast from aden to shehar, midway between aden and muscat, and had coasted along to cape ras al-gat. subsequently in attempting to reach muscat, he was arrested by sickness at wadi beni jabor, where after a few days he died. his papers, which will be sent to the geographical society, are thought to contain matters of interest respecting this region.[ ] the following list embraces all of consequence that has been written on southern arabia and the himyaritic inscriptions. pococke, specimina historiæ veterum arabum. oxford, , reprinted . de sacy, sur divers Évènemens de l'histoire des arabes avant mahomet, in mém. de lit. de l'acad. française, vol. l. paris, . historia jemanæ, e cod. ms. arabico, ed. g.t. johannsen. bonn, . travels in arabia, by lieut. wellsted, vols. vo. london, . memoir on the south coast of arabia, by capt. harris. journal royal geographical society, vol. vi. ix. narrative of a journey from mokha to sana: by c.j. cruttenden.--ibid. vol. viii. gesenius, Über die himjaritischen sprache und schrift, halle, . rödiger, versuch über die himjaritischen schriftmonumente. halle, . this was republished, with many improvements, in an appendix to the author's german translation of wellsted's travels. vols. halle, . ewald, on an inscription recently dug up in aden, zeitschrift für die kunde des morgenlandes, . the historical geography of arabia, or the patriarchal evidences of revealed religion. by the rev. charles forster, vols. vo. london, . f. fresnel. letters to m. jules mohl, on the himyaritic inscriptions. paris, . account of an excursion to hadramaut, by adolph baron wrede. journal royal geographical society, vol. xiv. memoir of the south and east coast of arabia, by capt. s.b. harris.--ibid. vol. xv. sclavonic mss.--it is stated in the russian papers that m. grigorowitsch, professor of the sclavonic tongues in the imperial university of kasan, has returned to that capital from a two year's journey in the interior of turkey, by order of the russian government, in search of the graphic monuments of the ancient sclavonic nations. he has brought home fac-similes of many hundred inscriptions, and , sclavonian manuscripts-- of which are said to be very ancient, and of great importance. the caucasus.--the results of a scientific expedition for the exploration of the steppes of the caspian sea, the caucasus, and of southern russia, under the direction of m. hommaire de hell, has lately been published. this portion of the east has been little noticed by travellers, and the present work has therefore added much to our previous knowledge of the country. it is accompanied by a large map, on which the geographical and geological peculiarities are defined with great minuteness and elegance.[ ] assyria and persia. the discoveries recently made, and the researches now in progress in those regions of the world known in ancient times as assyria, babylonia and persia, are among the most interesting and important of the age. of the ancient assyrians and babylonians we know nothing, but what we find in the bible, or what has been preserved and handed down to us by the greek historians. unlike egypt, who has left so many records of her greatness, of her knowledge of the arts, and of her advancement in civilization, in the numerous and wonderful monumental remains in the valley of the nile, the assyrians were supposed to have left nothing, no existing monuments as evidences that they ever had an existence, save in the vast and misshapen heaps along the banks of the euphrates and tigris, believed to wash the spots where the great cities of nineveh and babylon once stood. the site of nineveh still remains doubtful; and so literally have the prophecies in regard to babylon been fulfilled, that nothing but vast heaps of rubbish, of tumuli, and traces of numerous canals, remains. the language of the assyrians is unknown, and the impressions of characters in the form of a wedge or arrow-head stamped upon the bricks and other relics dug from these heaps, have been looked upon as mysterious and cabalistic signs, rather than the representatives of sounds, or belonging to a regular form of speech. for more than twenty centuries, these countries have been as a blank on the page of history; and all we have gathered from them consists in the observations of curious travellers, who, at the risk of their lives, have ventured to extend their wanderings this way. pietro della valle, le brun, niebuhr, ker porter, rich, and ouseley, have given us descriptions of the ancient remains in persia and assyria, particularly those at persepolis, pasargadæ, and babylon. these consist of views of the monuments and sculptures, together with copies of the inscriptions in the cuneiform, or arrow-head character. the object of the edifices, the subject of the sculptures, and the meaning of the inscriptions, were wholly matters of conjecture; and it seemed a hopeless task to arrive at any conclusions in relation to them, until some key should be discovered, by the means of which the language should be made known, and the numerous inscriptions decyphered. no bilingual tablet, such as the rosetta stone of egypt, had been discovered; and, although it appeared that many of the inscriptions were recorded in three different languages, no means seemed to exist by which philologists could obtain a clue to their meaning. with this dark prospect in view, the task of decyphering the arrow-headed characters was attempted by m. grotefend, one of the most sagacious and distinguished philologists of europe. the particulars of the attempt and its results, we shall briefly state. at persepolis it is known are extensive ruins, chiefly belonging to a large edifice, with every indication that this edifice was originally a royal palace. history and tradition supported this belief; and the general character of the sculptures and architecture, together with the inscriptions, would carry its origin back to a period some centuries before the christian era. it was doubtless the work of one of the great monarchs of persia; of cyrus, cambyses, xerxes, darius, or some other with whom history is familiar.[ ] on some of the monuments at persepolis, are inscriptions in the pehlvi character, parts of which have been decyphered by m. de sacy. in one of these, the titles and name of a king are often repeated; these titles m. grotefend thought might be repeated in the same manner in the arrow-head characters.[ ] over the doorways and in other parts of this edifice, are portraits, evidently of kings, as there is always enough in the dress and insignia of a monarch to enable one to detect him on any ancient monument. over these portraits are inscriptions; these it was natural to suppose related to the person represented, and if so, contained the name of the king and his titles. such would be the conclusion of any one who reflected on the subject, and such was the belief of m. grotefend and other philologists. in these inscriptions one group of characters was repeated more frequently than any other, and all agreed that the decyphering of this group would furnish a key to the whole. on this group of characters then our savans set to work. according to the analogy of the pehlvi inscriptions, decyphered by de sacy, it was believed that the inscriptions then under consideration, mentioned the name of a king son of another king, that is the names of father and son. m. grotefend first examined the bas-reliefs at persepolis, to ascertain the particular age of the persian kings to which they belonged, in order that he might discover the names applicable to the inscription. a reference to the greek historians convinced him that he must look for the kings of the dynasty of the achæmenides, and he accordingly applied their names to the characters of the inscriptions. "these names could obviously not be cyrus and cambyses, because the names occurring in the inscriptions do not begin with the same letter; cyrus and artaxerxes were equally inapplicable, the first being too short and the latter too long; there only remained therefore the names of darius and xerxes;" and these latter agreed so exactly with the characters, that mr. grotefend did not hesitate to select them. the next step was to ascertain what these names were in the old persian language, as they come to us through the greek, and would of course differ somewhat from the original. the ancient zend, as preserved in the zendavesta, furnished the only medium through which the desired information could be obtained.[ ] he next ascertained that xerxes was called _kshershe_ or _ksharsha_; and darius, _dareush_. a farther examination gave him the name of _kshe_ or _ksheio_ for 'king.'[ ] the places or groups of characters corresponding with these names, were then analyzed and the value of each character ascertained. these were then applied to other portions of the inscriptions, and led to the translation of two short ones, as well as to the formation of a considerable portion of the alphabet. such was the result of professor grotefend's labors up to the year . his first discovery was made and announced as early as , but an account of his system of interpretation did not appear until , in the appendix to the third german edition of heeren's researches. this was afterwards enlarged in the translation of heeren published at oxford in , when it was first made known to english readers. in he published a treatise containing an account of all the persepolitan inscriptions in his possession, and another in on those of babylon. the brilliant success which attended grotefend's earlier efforts, soon attracted the attention of other philologists to the subject. m. saint martin read a memoir before the asiatic society of paris in , but did not make any additions to our previous knowledge. professor rask next took it up, and discovered the value of two additional characters. m. burnouf followed in , with an elaborate memoir, in which he disclosed some important discoveries.[ ] professor lassen, in his memoir published in , and in a series of papers continued up to the present day,[ ] has identified at least twelve characters, which had been mistaken by all his predecessors, and which, says maj. rawlinson, "may entitle him almost to contest with professor grotefend the palm of alphabetical discovery." in , major rawlinson, then residing in persia, turned his attention to the subject, and decyphered some of the proper names on the tablets at hamadan. in the following year he applied himself to the great inscription at behistun, the largest and most remarkable that is known in persia, and succeeded in making out several lines of its contents. the result of major rawlinson's first attempt at decyphering the behistun inscription, was the identification of several proper names, and consequently the values of additional characters towards the completion of the alphabet.[ ] but more was wanted than the alphabet, which only enabled the student to make out proper names, but not to advance beyond; and it was the lack of this knowledge which prevented the sagacious and indefatigable grotefend from carrying out to any great extent, the discoveries which he had so well begun. the language of the inscriptions must next be studied; and as the zend had been the medium through which the first links in the chain of interpretation had been obtained, it was naturally resorted to for aid to farther progress. the zendavesta, with the researches of anquetil du perron, and the commentary at the yaçna by m. burnouf, wherein the language of the zendavesta is critically analyzed, and its grammatical structure developed, furnished the necessary materials. to the latter work, and the luminous critique of m. burnouf, major rawlinson owes the success of his translations; as he acknowledges that by it he "obtained a general knowledge of the grammatical structure of the language of the inscriptions." but the zend was not of itself sufficient to make out all the words and expressions in the behistun and other inscriptions. other languages contemporary with that of the inscription and of the zend must be sought for, to elucidate many points which it left obscure.[ ] the sanscrit was the only one laying claim to a great antiquity, whose grammatical structure was sufficiently developed to render it useful in this enquiry. a knowledge of this language had previously been acquired by major rawlinson, and he was therefore fully prepared for the arduous task he had undertaken. neither of these, it must be observed, was the language of the inscriptions, which it is believed had ceased to be a living form of speech, at the period when the sanscrit and zend were in current use. it is unnecessary to note in detail the difficulties and great labor attending the decyphering of the behistun tablets, on which major rawlinson was occupied from time to time during a space of ten years. his discoveries were announced in london, in a memoir read before the royal asiatic society in , but were not published in extenso until . briefly to sum up the results of his labors, it will suffice to state that they present "a correct grammatical translation of nearly four hundred lines of cuneiform writing, a memorial of the time of darius hystaspes, the greater part of which is in so perfect a state as to afford ample and certain grounds for a minute orthographical and etymological analysis, and the purport of which to the historian, must be of fully equal interest with the peculiarities of the language to the philologist." in a few cases it may be found necessary to alter or modify some of the significations assigned; but there is no doubt but that the general meaning of every paragraph is accurately determined, and that the learned orientalist has thus been enabled "to exhibit a correct historical outline, possessing the weight of royal and contemporaneous recital, of many great events which preceded the rise and marked the career of one of the most celebrated of the early sovereigns of persia." such is the history of this great discovery, which has placed the name of major rawlinson among the most distinguished oriental scholars of the age. he will rank among the laborers in cuneiform writing, where champollion does among the decypherers of egyptian hieroglyphics; for though, like champollion, he did not make the first discoveries in his branch of palæography, he is certainly entitled to the honor of reducing it to a system, by ascertaining the true powers of a large portion of the alphabet, and by elucidating its grammatical peculiarities, so that future investigators will find little difficulty in translating any inscription in the particular class of characters in question. the cuneiform (wedge-shaped) or arrow-headed character is a system of writing peculiar to the countries between the euphrates and the persian frontier on the east. various combinations of a figure shaped like a wedge, together with one produced by the union of two wedges, constitute the system of writing employed by the ancient assyrians, babylonians, medes, and the achæmenian kings of persia. the character seems to have been as extensively employed in this portion of the world, as the roman letters now are in europe. particular arrangements or combinations of these characters apparently belonged to different nations, speaking different languages. when and where this system of writing originated is not known. professor westergaard[ ] thinks that "babylon was its cradle, whence it spread in two branches, eastward to susiana, and northward to the assyrian empire, from whence it passed into media, and lastly into ancient persia, where it was much improved and brought to its greatest perfection." major rawlinson makes of the arrow-headed writing three great classes or divisions, the _babylonian_, _median_ and _persian_. the first of these he thinks is unquestionably the oldest. "it is found upon the bricks excavated from the foundations of all the buildings in mesopotamia, babylonia, and chaldea, that possess the highest and most authentic claims to antiquity;" and he thinks it "not extravagant therefore to assign its invention to the primitive race which settled in the plain of shinar."[ ] in the recent excavations made by m. botta and mr. layard, on or near the site of ancient nineveh, numerous inscriptions in this form of the arrow-head character were found. it also occurs in detached inscriptions from the mediterranean to the persian mountains. a comparison of the various inscriptions in the babylonian class of writing has led major rawlinson to believe that it embraces five distinct varieties, which he calls the primitive babylonian, the achæmenian babylonian, the medo-assyrian, the assyrian, and the elymæan.[ ] the peculiarities of these several varieties, with the countries in which they are found, are pointed out in the second chapter of our author's learned memoir on cuneiform writing. the median and persian classes are peculiar to the trilingual tablets of persia, and are better known than the first class or babylonian. mr. westergaard[ ] divides the cuneiform writing into five classes: the _assyrian_; the _old babylonian_; and the three kinds on the trilingual tablets of persia, which embrace the _median_ and _persian_ varieties, and the one called by rawlinson the _achæmenian babylonian_. the history we have already given of the progress made in decyphering these characters applies exclusively to one of the varieties on the tablets of persia. the inscriptions on these monuments are almost invariably repeated in three sets of characters, and doubtless in three different languages. the characters of what appears in each case to be the primary or original inscription, of which the others are translations, are of the simplest construction, and consequently were the first to attract the attention of decypherers, and to yield to their efforts. the language in which they are written has been found to exhibit close affinities both to the sanscrit and to the zend, and is now termed by philologists the old persian. the system of writing is alphabetic, that is to say, each character represents a single articulate sound; whereas that of the other two species is at least in a great measure syllabic, which renders the task of decyphering them much more difficult. for our knowledge of the second variety of characters on the persian trilingual tablets, we are indebted to the labors and sagacity of professor westergaard.[ ] these characters had remained entirely undecyphered until the first kind had been completely made out. it was evident that the inscriptions in the second kind of character were but a translation of those in the first; and with this supposition, this learned orientalist began the task of decyphering, by identifying the proper names darius, hystaspes, cyrus, xerxes, persians, ionians, &c., which frequently occur in the inscriptions decyphered by major rawlinson. having obtained these, he next analyzed each and ascertained the phonetic values of the several characters of which they are composed. by this means, he was enabled to construct an alphabet. he next examined the introductory words and the titles of the sovereigns, and finally the entire inscriptions, all of which he has most satisfactorily made out, and with them has reconstructed the language in which they are written. in his learned and elaborate article detailing the process of this discovery, professor westergaard gives a systematic classification of the characters, one hundred in number, of which seventy-four are syllabic, twenty-four alphabetic, and two signs of division between words. the character of the language, which for convenience sake he terms median, he does not pretend to decide, though he considers that it belongs to the scythian rather than to the japhetic class of languages; in which opinion major rawlinson coincides. the oriental journal alluded to in the second note to p. , contains several learned papers by professors westergaard and lassen, on the arrow-headed inscriptions. in the third sort of persepolitan characters, termed the achæmenian babylonian, some advances have been made by major rawlinson. the contents of the other portions of these tablets being known, he pursued the course adopted by professor westergaard, namely that of identifying the groups of characters corresponding with the proper names in the other inscriptions. he has thus been enabled to ascertain the phonetic values of a large number of characters which must in time lead to a knowledge of the rest of the alphabet. a beginning in this direction was also made by professor grotefend, who in his memoirs of and , singles out and places in juxtaposition the names of cyrus, hystaspes, darius and xerxes, in the first and third species of persepolitan writing. there is every reason to hope that the labors of the three accomplished oriental scholars, rawlinson, lassen, and westergaard, which have been so far crowned with success, will add to their fame by making out the characters and language of this species of writing also. a high degree of interest is attached to it, not only on account of the information it embodies, but in regard to the nation to which it is assignable. it will be recollected, that besides these three sorts of persepolitan writing, there are two other distinct classes of arrow-head characters, called babylonian and assyrian. little or nothing has yet been accomplished towards decyphering them; which is owing to the fact that they are of a very complicated nature, and that they have hitherto been found alone, that is to say not accompanied by a version in any other language or character. a parisian savant, m.j. löwenstern, who has applied himself to the study of the assyrian tablets, published in an essay on the monument recently discovered by m. botta at khorsabad near mosul, in which he thinks he has made out the groups which stand for the words _great king_, and also several alphabetical characters. further investigations can alone determine whether or not his conclusions are correct. it will be necessary to state some of the historical facts brought to light by the labors of major rawlinson, to which we have alluded. the great tablet at behistun relates exclusively to darius. "to this monarch," says major rawlinson, "insatiable in his thirst of conquest, magnificent in his tastes, and possessed of an unlimited power, we are indebted for all that is most valuable in the palæography of persia. imbued, as it appears, with an ardent passion for monumental fame, he was not content to inscribe the palaces of his foundation at persepolis with a legend commemorative of their erection, or with prayers invoking the guardianship of ormuzd and his angels, but he lavished an elaborate workmanship on historic and geographic records in various quarters of his empire, which evince considerable political forethought, an earnest regard for truth, and an ambition to transmit the glories of his reign to future generations, to guide their conduct and invite their emulation. at persepolis, the high place of persian power, he aspired to elevate the moral feelings of his countrymen, and to secure their future dominancy in asia, by displaying to them their superiority over the feudatory provinces of the empire,[ ] while upon the sacred rock of baghistan, he addressed himself in the style of an historian, to collect the genealogical traditions of his race, to describe the extent and power of his kingdom, and to relate, with a perspicuous brevity worthy of imitation, the leading incidents of his reign. his grave relation of the means by which, under the care and favor of a beneficent providence, the crown of persia first fell into his hands, and of the manner in which he subsequently established his authority, by the successive overthrow of the rebels who opposed him, contrasts strongly but most favorably with the usual emptiness of oriental hyperbole." the following are some of the translations from the great inscription at behistun, which embraces upwards of four hundred lines in the arrow-headed characters. in major rawlinson's memoir, are given fac-similes of the original inscriptions, a transcription of the same in roman letters with an interlineal translation in latin, and a translation in english. accompanying these, is a critical commentary on each line, together with notes, rendering the whole as clear as possible. "i am darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of persia, the king of (the dependent) provinces, the son of hystaspes, the grandson of arsames, the achæmenian. "says darius the king:--my father was hystaspes; of hystaspes, the father was arsames; of arsames, the father was ariyaramnes; of ariyaramnes, the father was teispes; of teispes, the father was achæmenes. "says darius the king:--on that account, we have been called achæmenians: from antiquity we have been unsubdued; from antiquity those of our race have been kings. "says darius the king:--there are eight of my race who have been kings before me, i am the ninth; for a very long time we have been kings. "says darius the king:--by the grace of ormuzd, i am king; ormuzd has granted me the empire. "says darius the king:--these are the countries which have fallen into my hands--by the grace of ormuzd, i have become king of them--persia, susiana, babylonia, assyria, arabia, egypt; those which are of the sea, sparta and ionia; armenia, cappadocia, parthia, zarangea, aria, chorasmia, bactria, sogdiana, the sacæ, the sattagydes, arachosia, and the mecians; the total amount being twenty-one countries. "says darius the king:--these are the countries which have come to me; by the grace of ormuzd, they have become subject to me--they have brought tribute to me. that which has been said unto them by me, both by night and by day, it has been performed by them. "says darius the king:--ormuzd has granted me the empire. ormuzd has brought help to me until i have gained this empire. by the grace of ormuzd, i hold this empire. "says darius the king:-- ... he who was named cambyses, the son of cyrus of our race, he was here king before me. there was of that cambyses a brother named bartius; he was of the same father and mother as cambyses. cambyses slew this bartius. when cambyses slew that bartius, the troubles of the state ceased which bartius had excited. then cambyses proceeded to egypt. when cambyses had gone to egypt, the state became heretical; then the lie became abounding in the land, both in persia and in media, and in the other provinces." he then goes on to speak of the rebellions in his dominions after the death of cambyses, of the magian who declared himself king, and that no one dared to resist him. he continues: "every one was standing obediently around the magian, until i arrived. then i abode in the worship of ormuzd; ormuzd brought help to me. on the th day of the month bagayadish, i slew the magian and the chief men who were his followers. by the grace of ormuzd, i became king; ormuzd granted me the sceptre." he then says, he "established his race on the throne, as in the days of old," prohibited the sacrificial worship introduced by the magian, and restored the old families to office,--all of which was accomplished by the aid of ormuzd. the people of susiana and babylon then became rebellious. he slew the leader of the former. "says darius the king:--then i proceeded to babylon against that natitabirus, who was called nabokhadrosser (nebuchadnezzar). the forces of natitabirus held the tigris; there they had come and they had boats. then i placed a detachment on rafts. i brought the enemy into difficulty; i assaulted the enemy's position. ormuzd brought help to me; by the grace of ormuzd, i succeeded in passing the tigris. then i entirely defeated the army of that natitabirus. on the th day of the month of atriyata, then it was that we thus fought." darius then continued his march to babylon, where he was met by the army of natitabirus; he gave him battle and defeated him, driving his army into the water. he then took babylon. it would appear from what this monarch relates, that he had a pretty rebellious set of subjects, who took advantage of his absence at babylon. the inscription continues. "says darius the king:--whilst i was at babylon, these are the countries that revolted against me; persis, susiana, media, assyria, armenia, parthia, margiana, sattagydia and sacia." he then gives the names of the rebellious leaders and of the officers sent to subjugate them; the forts, villages, or cities, where battles were fought; the day of the month when they took place, and the result, in every case, by the help of ormuzd. one example will suffice. after speaking of the revolt of armenia, the inscription continues. "says darius the king:--then dadarses by name, an armenian, one of my servants, him i sent to armenia. i thus said to him: 'greeting to thee, the rebel state that does not obey me, smite it.' then dadarses marched. when he reached armenia, then the rebels having collected came before dadarses arraying their battle ... by name, a village of armenia, there they engaged. ormuzd brought help to me; by the grace of ormuzd, my forces entirely defeated that rebel army. on the th of the month thurawahara, then it was a battle was fought by them." in this manner we have the whole history of the reign of darius king of persia, who filled the throne b.c. and it may truly be said that no monument of remote antiquity which has been preserved to modern times, at all equals it in importance. the inscriptions of egypt are far more ancient, but consist of fragments, which, excepting the tables of kings, do not throw much light on history. nothing is more interesting in the details given by the persian king of his successes, than his acknowledgment of an overruling power, a supreme being, who protected him and aided him in all his battles. from the closing part of this remarkable tablet, which consists of twenty paragraphs, we select the following. "says darius the king:--this is what i have done. by the grace of ormuzd have i achieved the performance of the whole. thou whoever hereafter may peruse this tablet, let it be known to thee, that which has been done by me, that it has not been falsely related. "says darius the king:--ormuzd is my witness, that this record i have faithfully made of the performance of the whole. "says darius the king:--by the grace of ormuzd, there is much else that has been done by me that upon this tablet has not been inscribed.... if thou publish this tablet to the world, ormuzd shall be a friend to thee, and may thy offspring be numerous. "says darius the king:--if thou shalt conceal this record, thou shalt not thyself be recorded; may ormuzd be thy enemy, and mayest thou be childless. "says darius the king:--as long as thou mayest behold this tablet and these figures, thou mayest not dishonor them; and if from injury thou shalt preserve them, may ormuzd be a friend to thee, and may thy offspring be numerous, and mayest thou be long lived, and that which thou mayest do may ormuzd bless for thee in after times." the great inscription from which we have made these extracts, is sculptured in three languages, and in three different forms of the arrow-headed character, the particulars of which have been stated. there are a few imperfections and cracks in the stone which made certain words and sentences unintelligible; these will be corrected when the other two inscriptions are decyphered. in the midst of these records is a piece of sculpture in relief, representing darius followed by two of his officers, with his foot upon a man, who raises his hands before him, and nine other figures representing the rebellious leaders whom he had severally conquered. they are connected by a rope around their necks and have their hands tied behind, and are probably portraits of the persons they represent. beneath each is engraved his name, as in the extract given. "this natitabirus was an impostor: he thus declared, i am nabokhadrosser, the son of nabonidas; i am king of babylon." the discoveries of professor westergaard, to whom we are indebted for the key to the second or median form of the arrow-headed character, require notice. this accomplished orientalist, on his return from an archæological tour in india and persia, under the patronage of the king of denmark, brought with him, among other literary treasures, copies of a great number of inscriptions in the arrow-headed character. while in persepolis he carefully examined all the inscriptions which those wonderful ruins still retain. those which had already been published, he accurately compared with the original monuments, and the remainder he copied entire. this gentleman went thoroughly furnished with all the preparatory knowledge that could be gained in europe to ensure success. he had shown himself by his publications to be an excellent sanscrit scholar; besides which he had acquired as complete a knowledge of the zend language as it is possible to do at present, and was well acquainted with all that had been effected in the way of decyphering the inscriptions. having thus so greatly the advantage of his predecessors, niebuhr, ker porter, and rich, it is not to be wondered at that his transcripts are proportionably more accurate and complete. it has long been known that all the inscriptions at persepolis are triple, like those on the behistun tablets, before described. those of the first or simplest variety, have all been translated by professor lassen,[ ] to whom professor westergaard transmitted them. accompanying his translations are critical and explanatory remarks, proving conclusively the correctness of his version. the inscriptions at and near persepolis, relate to xerxes. they do not possess the historical value that the tablets of his father do on the rocks of behistun, but consist of praises of ormuzd for blessings he had received, and of himself for the additions he made to the royal palace at persepolis. the following is a translation of an inscription on the wall of an immense portal at nakshi regib, two miles from persepolis.[ ] "ormuzd (is) the great god. he created this earth; he created the heavens; he created mortals; he created the fortune of mortals. he made king xerxes the only king of many, the only emperor of many. "i xerxes (am) the great king, the king of kings, the king of realms inhabited by many nations; the sustainer, the author of this great land; the son of king darius, the achæmenide. "i (am) the noble xerxes, the great king. by the will of ormuzd, i have built this portal to be entered by the people. let the persians abide, let them congregate under this portal, and in this palace--the palace which my father built for abiding in. by the will of ormuzd we built them. "i (am) the noble king xerxes. protect me o ormuzd; and also this kingdom, and this my palace, and my father's palace protect, o admirable ormuzd." no inscriptions have yet been found in persia of artaxerxes, the first son of xerxes. a vase, however, was discovered at venice by sir j.g. wilkinson, bearing an inscription in hieroglyphics, and in the three species of arrow-headed characters so common in persia. this vase and its inscriptions have been examined by m. letronne and m. longpérier, who do not hesitate to ascribe it to artaxerxes the first, or longimanus, whose names and titles have been made out both in the hieroglyphics and cuneiform characters.[ ] an inscription of great historical interest of artaxerxes the third, has been found at persepolis.[ ] it is in only one species of the achæmenian writing, and is noticed by prof. westergaard as exhibiting "a most remarkable change and decay which the language must have undergone in the interval between the reigns of xerxes and this monarch." in a philological point of view, this fact is interesting as showing so early a decline of the persian language. but the most important part of this inscription consists of the genealogy of artaxerxes the third, from arsama, the greek arsames, the father of hystaspes, completely agreeing with that given by grecian historians. in this as well as in all the other inscriptions thus far decyphered, ormuzd is invariably invoked; he is called upon to aid them, and the several sovereigns acknowledge their gratitude to him as to an all-protecting providence for the blessings received. nineveh. we have received from m. mohl, of paris, an account of the researches of mm. botta and flandin,[ ] on or near the site of ancient nineveh. this volume contains letters from m. botta, giving the details of his discoveries, accompanied by fifty-five plates of sculptures, statues, and inscriptions. he penetrated into the interior of a large mound, where he found a series of halls and chambers, the walls of which were covered with paintings and relievos representing historical events, and scenes illustrating the manners and customs of the assyrians. the drawings and sculptures exhibit a higher state of art than the monuments of egypt. the figures are remarkably well drawn, both as it regards the anatomy and the costumes. the men appear to be more athletic than the egyptians--they wear long hair combed smooth over the top of the head, and curled behind. the beard is also long and always curled. their dresses are exceedingly rich and profuse in ornaments and trimmings. ear-rings, bracelets, and armlets, of various forms and elaborately wrought, are seen on most of the figures both of the men and women. the discoveries made by m. botta have induced others to explore the ground in that vicinity. an english traveller, mr. layard, has recently opened a mound many times larger than that excavated by the french. "it contains the remains of a palace, a part of which, like that at khorsabad, appears to have been burnt. there is a vast series of chambers, all built with marble, and covered with sculptures and inscriptions. the inscriptions are in the cuneiform character, of the class usually termed babylonian. it is possible that this edifice was built at an epoch prior to the overthrow of the assyrian empire by the medes and babylonians under cyaxares. many of the sculptures discovered by mr. layard are, even in the smallest details, as sharp and fresh as though they had been chiselled yesterday. among them is a pair of winged lions with human heads, about twelve feet high. they form the entrance to a temple. the execution of these figures is admirable, and gives the highest idea of the knowledge and civilization of the assyrians. there are many monsters of this kind, lions and bulls. the other reliefs consist of various divinities, some with eagles' heads--others entirely human but winged--with battle-pieces and sieges."[ ] other letters from mr. layard of a later date than that just mentioned, announce new discoveries. "another mine has been opened at nimroud; and every stroke of the pick-axe brings new wonders to light." old nineveh, whose very existence had become little better than a vague historic dream, is astonishing the world by her buildings her sculptures, and her many thousands of inscriptions, which have been brought to light by the explorations of mr. layard.[ ] "he has opened fourteen chambers and uncovered two hundred and fifty sculptured slabs. the grand entrance previously described led him into a hall above two hundred and fifty feet long and thirty broad--entirely built of slabs of marble covered with sculptures. the side walls are ornamented with bas-reliefs of the highest interest--battles, sieges, lion-hunts, &c.; many of them in the finest state of preservation, and all executed with extraordinary spirit. they afford a complete history of the military art of the assyrians; and prove their intimate knowledge of many of those machines of war, whose invention is attributed to the greeks and romans--such as the battering ram, the tower moving on wheels, the catapult, &c. nothing can exceed the beauty and elegance of the forms of various arms, swords, daggers, bows, spears, &c. in this great hall are several entrances, each formed by winged lions, or winged bulls.[ ] these lead to other chambers; which again branch off into a hundred ramifications. every chamber is built of marble slabs covered with sculptures or inscriptions." the excavations thus far only extend to one corner of a great mound, the largest on the plain, measuring about one thousand eight hundred feet by nine hundred. the wonders that may be brought to light from a more complete survey of this vast heap of ruins, will be looked forward to with intense interest. all are familiar with the accounts of the building of this city by asshur, (whence the name assyria), and of the first empire under nimrod. in this short record we have the first traces of political institutions and of great cities. they burst upon us, and as suddenly disappear from the world's history for more than a thousand years. a learned author of the last century[ ] has endeavored to throw distrust on all that the greek writers have written about these countries, because in the persian historians he could not recognise the great cyrus and other prominent characters which fill important places in the grecian annals. but the revelations already made through the arrow-headed inscriptions must remove these doubts, as they substantiate in a remarkable degree the assertions of the greek writers. the observations of a learned orientalist are so well adapted to this subject that i cannot forbear quoting them. "the formation of mighty and civilized states being admitted even by our strictest chronologers to have taken place at least twenty-five centuries before our era, it can but appear extraordinary, even after taking into account violent revolutions, that of so multitudinous and great existences, only such scanty documents have come down to us. but, strange to say, whenever a testimony has escaped the destruction of time, instead of being greeted with a benevolent though discerning curiosity, the unexpected stranger is approached with mistrustful scrutiny, his voice is stifled with severe rebuke, his credentials discarded with scorn, and by a predetermined and stubborn condemnation, resuscitating antiquity is repelled into the tomb of oblivion."[ ] a journey of much interest was undertaken by dr. robert in _ , who was directed by the french government to continue, in the west of the himalaya range and the high region adjacent, the geographical, physical, and ethnographical observations which had been begun by m. jaquemont. the latest accounts from this intrepid traveller left him in the inaccessible valleys of chinese tartary, from whence it was his intention to pass through turkestan, for the purpose of entering china on the north.[ ] in the same distant region we hear of the journeys of h.r.h. prince waldemar, of prussia (cousin to the king). "consulting only his ardor for science, and burthened with the usual load carried by a traveller on foot, he scaled the lofty himmalayah, crossed the frontier of the celestial empire, and reached the table-land of thibet."[ ] the prince has already transmitted a large collection of objects of natural history, many of which are new, to berlin. it is his intention to return to europe by way of affghanistan, persia, and asia minor. the following list embraces the late works on assyria and persia, as well as those relating to the arrow-head inscriptions. the persian cuneiform inscriptions at behistun, decyphered and translated; with a memoir on persian cuneiform inscriptions in general, and on that of behistun in particular, by major h.c. rawlinson, vo., in the journal of the royal asiatic society. vol. . london, . on the decyphering of the second achæmenian or median species of arrow-headed writing; by n.l. westergaard, vo., in the mémoires de la société royale des antiquaires du nord. copenhagen, . lettres de m. botta sur les découvertes à khorsabad, près de ninive, publiées par m.j. mohl, vo., with plates. paris, . essai sur la numismatique des satrapies et de la phénicie, sous les rois achæmenides, par h. de luynes, to. paris, . the manual, formation and early origin of the hebrew letters and points, demonstrated and explained; also an elucidation of the so-called arrow-headed or cuneiform characters. vo. london, . essai de déchiffrement de l'Écriture assyrienne pour servir à l'explication du monument de khorsabad. par j. löwenstern. vo. paris, . die grabscrift des darius zu nakschi rustum erläutert. von f. hitzig. zurich, vo. . remarks on the wedge inscription recently discovered on the upper euphrates by the prussian engineer, capt. von mülbach. being a commentary on certain fundamental principles in the art of decyphering the "cuneatic" characters of the ancient assyrians, by g.f. grotefend. vo. in the papers of the syro-egyptian society. vol. i. london, . voyage en perse. de mm. eugene flandin et p. coste. recueil d'architecture ancienne, bas reliefs, inscriptions cuneiformes et pehlvis, plans topographiques et vues pittoresques. folio. plates and text. this magnificent work, the result of an expedition sent out by order of the french government, under the directions of the institute, and now published by a commission of savans, consisting of messrs burnouf, le bas, and leclerc, is in the course of publication. it will unquestionably be the most complete work ever published on this interesting country and will include the antiquities of babylon and nineveh. g.f. grotefend, neue beiträge zur erläuterung der persopolitanischen keilschrift, nebst einem anhange über die vollkommenheit der ersten art-derselben. hanover, . g.f. grotefend, neue beiträge zur erläuterung der babylonischen keilschrift, nebst einem anhange über die beschaffensheit des ältesten schriftdruck. hanover, . the valuable oriental journal edited by prof. lassen, entitled "zeitschrift für die kunde des morgenlandes," contains many papers of great interest on these subjects. siberia. to the love of science which the enlightened emperor of russia, has always manifested, we are indebted for an expedition, the most successful which has yet been undertaken for the exploration of the northern and eastern parts of siberia. the results of this extensive exploration of a region not before examined by scientific men, are of the greatest interest to science, and have earned for its distinguished and undaunted leader, prof. von middendorff, the applause of the savans of europe. not having seen any detailed account of this journey, i am indebted to sir r. murchison for some particulars of its results.[ ] the expedition traversed the whole extent of siberia, from east to west, and from south to north, even to the extreme northern headland of taimyr. "undaunted by the severe privations he had undergone in obtaining his knowledge of the far northern lands of siberia, he next undertook the not less arduous task of traversing the whole of that vast continent to the shantar isles, at its southeastern extremity, and thence to return to nertchinsk, along the chinese frontier. his journey through thickly-wooded rocks, deep morasses and over swollen rivers, was so successfully accomplished, that the stores he has brought back to st. petersburgh, will fully lay open the fauna and flora of a region never previously explored by a man of science." "floating down the sea of okotsk from udskoi in frail canoes, m. middendorff and his friends, braving shoals of floating ice and perpetual rains, reached nitka on the great shantar island. the wild regions which were traversed, in many parts could only be threaded by _following the tracks formed by bears beneath the dense matting of underwood and birch trees_" in his return journey, he examined the frontier line of china, a tract never explored even by a cossack, and ascertained that between the udskoi of the russians and the mouth of the amur, there is a considerable tract quite independent both of russia and china, and occupied by a people called guilaiques, who pay no tribute to either emperor. in addition to the several arduous journeys performed by this intrepid traveller and his companions, many questions hitherto unsolved were investigated and much new light added to our previous knowledge on these respective points. one was the real state of the question of the frozen subsoil of siberia. "by placing thermometers at various depths in the shaft at yakutsk, he has found that at its bottom, or at feet below the surface, the cold is ° ´´ réaumur, and that it is probable the frozen subsoil reaches to the great depth of about feet! notwithstanding this extraordinary phenomenon, the lateral extent of which has still to be determined, it appears that the culture of rye succeeds perfectly under favorable local conditions in those regions, and that the crops of grain are more abundant than in livonia!" m. middendorff has also thrown new light on the boreal range of vegetation. he has ascertained "that whilst rye, turnips, beets, and potatoes grow on the yenisei to latitude ° ´, indigenous plants, requiring less warmth, flourish much farther north, and that even trees with vertical stems reach to about ° north latitude, in that parallel of longitude!" this fact will show that geographers can no longer mark the limit of vegetation by a rectilinear zone, but must accommodate such line to climatological and local conditions. in regard to the mammoths, the fossil bones of which have been found in siberia, m. middendorff has shown that, in accordance with the views of professor owen, (who states that these quadrupeds were specially organized to live on the branches and leaves of such shrubs and trees as grow in boreal latitudes) there are still trees in latitude ° which would suffice for their sustenance. the ethnology of this region has been elucidated by our traveller, who by investigating the languages and physical characteristics of these remote tribes, has been enabled to affiliate them with their parent stocks. our knowledge of the geology and geography of the northern and southeastern extremities of siberia have been greatly extended by this journey; in fact no enquiry for the advancement of science and a knowledge of this far distant and hitherto unknown region, seems to have been neglected.[ ] another scientific expedition of an ethnological character is employed in siberia under the direction of m. castren, who has devoted much of his first report to the geography of the country. after speaking of the river irtisch and its fisheries, he gives some account of the ostiaks, the most ancient people of its banks. surrounded by russians and tartars, they have lost all their nationality except their language. the tartar influence is feeble, but that of russia is felt in their religion, their manners, their customs and even in their general mode of thinking. a paper containing "ethnological notes on siberia," by prof. von middendorff, was read at the late meeting of the british association for the advancement of science. "in this paper, the geographical boundaries of the different tribes were set forth, the tribes were enumerated and some of the characteristic peculiarities described. the st, was the ostiaks; these were stated to be of finnish origin, on both physiological and philological evidence. d, the samoiedes, who were of mongol descent. rd, the tunguses. th, the yakuts; the extent to which mongol features were found in a nation speaking a language akin to turkish, was insisted on. th, the yukagins; the physical peculiarities of which placed them along with the samoiedes. th, the ainos; these were the inhabitants of the kinule islands at the mouth of the arnus; of these there were two types, the finnish and the japanese. th, the kachkell; these were only known through the ainos." a geographical society has lately been founded at st. petersburg, to which the emperor proposed to give ten thousand silver rubles annually. the first great exploratory expedition under the directions and patronage of this society will be directed along the eastern flank of the ural mountains, from the parallel of ° north (bogoslafsk) to the glacial sea. this survey is to be conducted by count a. von keyserling, already known to the public through his valuable geological co-operation in the work on russia, by sir r.i. murchison; and who by his sound acquirements in geology, zoology and geography, will it is presumed, during the ensuing three years, throw great additional light on the wild arctic ural which separates europe from asia, and which, inhabited by ostiaks and samoiedes, extends beyond the limits of arboreal vegetation. among numerous other objects, it is hoped that this expedition will elicit new results concerning the entombment and preservation of the mammoths.[ ] india. the obstacles which have existed in india, and which have retarded the extension of european civilization, will now be effectually removed by the noble step taken by lord hardinge, the governor general, for promoting education in that country.[ ] this benevolent and excellent man, whose well earned laurels on the field of battle are not more honorable than his philanthropic efforts in extending education among the natives of india, and in improving their social condition, "has directed the council of education and other authorities charged with the duty of superintending public instruction throughout the provinces subject to the government of bengal, to submit returns of the students who may be fitted according to their degrees of merit and capacity, for such of the various public offices, as with reference to their age, abilities and other circumstances, they may be deemed qualified to fill." as this order recognizes no distinction of schools, or castes, or religion, it will have a great influence on the people, towards inducing them to give their children the benefit of a good education, which to a great extent must be obtained through the christian missionaries. "it is," says the friend of india, "the most powerful impulse which the cause of education has received during the last twenty-five years. it makes the seminaries the nursery of the service, and the service the stimulant of the seminaries. it introduces the enlightened principles adopted by european governments, of recruiting the public service in every department from those who have earned distinctions in the public schools. at the same time it will be found instrumental in the highest degree in the general elevation of the country. it will transplant into the interior that european knowledge and science which has hitherto been confined to calcutta, and diffuse their influence through every district." the renunciation of idolatry must necessarily follow the first steps in this great work of reform, and we already see it noticed that in southern india, within the short period of three months, eight hundred and thirty-two persons renounced idolatry and embraced christianity. this large number was a part of the population of seven villages.[ ] such changes are not without their effects on the great mass of the natives, indeed it is only by removing from their minds the gross superstition in which they have been for ages immersed, that there can be a hope of improving their social condition. the wealthy hindoos cling to their ancient religion with greater tenacity as it totters towards its downfall, than when in its most flourishing state. alarmed at the innovations which european civilization and christianity have made, they are printing by subscription, a series of popular religious books in monthly numbers, on their doctrines, rites, superstitions and idolatry. fearing that the europeans and such as have been taught to observe these things with ridicule, might controvert them, they have confined the subscription to hindoos, and have directed that their books shall be rigidly kept from the hands of christians. the mahommedans too, in bengal, are greatly alarmed at the danger to which their religion is exposed. they have prepared tracts and books in opposition to christianity, and have sent, or are sending emissaries in every direction, with a view to strengthen the tottering cause of their false prophet.[ ] a mahommedan merchant in bombay has printed at his own expense, two thousand copies of the koran for gratuitous distribution, at a cost of several thousand dollars. in former times the efforts of the missionaries were directed to proselyting among the hindoos and other idolaters of the east, without first making themselves acquainted with the fabric which they were laboring so earnestly to demolish. nursed and educated as the natives were in the doctrines and superstitions which for ages their forefathers had venerated and professed, the efforts of the missionaries and of others who labored to improve their condition were unattended with success--and a conflict between oriental and european civilization--between hindooism and christianity--between the false science of the shastres and the enlightenment of europe, for a long time existed; and it seemed doubtful whether truth or falsehood would triumph. now, the system is changed, and a course is pursued which bids fair to produce the most wonderful effects on the people of india and china. it has been asserted that the missionary enterprise in india was a failure, and did not warrant the large sums expended there. those who are unfriendly to the cause do not see that more than half the amount there expended was for educating the people, for improving their social condition, for translating valuable books into their various languages and for establishing among them that mighty engine of civilization and reform, the printing press.[ ] but it is not merely in the translation and distribution of these books, that the missionaries have rendered so much service. in this labor it is true they have contributed greatly towards disseminating christian truth and useful knowledge among a large class of people, and have improved their religious, their moral and their social condition. but to europe and to the learned world they have also furnished a vast deal of philological knowledge, elucidating and developing languages scarcely known beyond the precincts of the several countries in which they were spoken. many of these languages, too, were previously unwritten; and from this rude state the missionaries have trained and moulded them into forms adapted to written speech. while speaking of the labors of the missionaries in the east, i should do great injustice to catholics not to speak of their efforts to improve the moral and religious condition of the people in these distant countries. in the most barbarous and secluded portions of the earth do we find these devoted men diligently laboring to elevate the condition of the natives. in many do we see a zeal and devotedness, an endurance of hardships, of the most severe privations, and often martyrdom itself, which has never been surpassed in the annals of missionary enterprise. neither françois xavier, nor ignatius loyola, so famous among the pioneers of the eastern missions, ever exhibited a greater zeal or devotedness than we now witness among the catholic missionaries in thibet, china, corea, the islands of the eastern archipelago and oceanica. they too have added much to our stock of knowledge of the inhabitants, their manners and customs, and their languages. their narratives give us particular accounts of the productions of the countries in which they reside, their trade, commerce, and all that interests us. siam. an interesting fact connected with the progress of european civilization, and the extension of christianity in the kingdom of siam, seems deserving of notice in this place. it was communicated by the american mission in that country. "the king of siam despatched one of his ships to ceylon about the close of last year, to carry back some ceylonese boodhists whom he had invited to siam, two or three years before, and also to send a fresh ecclesiastical embassy to that island--regarded by all boodhists as very sacred--to make further religious researches in the primitive nursery of their faith. that embassy fulfilled its mission, and returned to siam in june, bringing a letter to his majesty from a high priest of boodh in ceylon, written in english, and stating in substance, that the religion of boodh had become almost extinct in ceylon, chiefly through the influence of the christian religion, and the schools and seminaries of the missionaries and english residents in that part of the world; and that, if some aid from abroad could not be obtained to prop up crumbling boodhism in that island, it must soon become utterly extinct. the writer expressed much pain at the thought, that the very birth place of his religion should not have some permanent witness of it; and requested that his majesty, in his pious zeal for boodhism, would send him funds, with which he might build a _wat_ (religious house) and support priests in honor of his god. he suggested that this would be a noble work for a great king, and one that would confer upon him the highest honors of boodhism."[ ] the following list embraces the recent works on india. travels in the kashmir and the punjab; containing a particular account of the sikhs. from the german of baron hugel, with notes by major jervis, royal vo. london, . the punjaub; being a brief account of the country of the sikhs, its extent, history, commerce, productions, religion, &c., to the recent campaign of the sutelege. by lt. col. steinbach, post, vo. london, . a peep into turkistan; by capt. r. burslem, vo. london, . travels in the punjab, affghanistan and turkistan, to balk, bokhara and herat, by mohan lal, vo. london, . history of the punjab, and of the rise, progress and present condition of the sikhs, vols. post, vo. london, . the history of the sikhs, with a personal narrative of the war between the british and the sikhs. by w.l. mcgregor, vols. vo. london, . the sikhs and affghans, immediately before and after the death of runjeet singh. by shahamat ali, post, vo. london, . the hindoo castes; or history, manners and customs of the castes or sects of the brahmins of british india, with highly colored plates: by e.a. rodriguez, numbers. cochin-china, china, manchuria, corea, and japan. cochin-china. m. hedde has published a few notices of a visit to turon in annam in , on his passage from singapore to macao.[ ] he represents the country as altogether in a wretched, declining condition, misgoverned and beggared by despotic officers, presenting a painful contrast in its general prosperity with the chinese empire. the present monarch is named thieufri (or yuen-fuh-siuen in chinese) and succeeded his father ming-ming or minh-menh in , but no improvement in the domestic or foreign administration of the government has taken place. several cochin-chinese youth have been educated at singapore, and the king purchased two steamers several years ago from the dutch, but the natives probably were too little acquainted with the machinery and motive power to make the least use of them, as nothing has since been heard of them. the country is highly favored by its natural advantages and navigable rivers for maintaining a large population, but oppression on the part of the rulers and ignorance among the people, vitiate the sources of national prosperity. the port of turon alone, is open in annam for foreign trade, but no american vessels have been there for a cargo since lieut. white's unsuccessful voyage in the franklin in . capt. percival of the u.s. ship constitution anchored there in may, , but no official account of his visit has been published, which if the rumors of his firing upon the town are true, is not strange. the peacock and enterprize also anchored there in , but mr. roberts, the american diplomatic agent, was too ill to have any communications with the authorities. china. the late war between england and china has directed the attention of other nations towards that empire in an unusual degree. except the immediate details of the contest and the personal incidents connected with it, however, the works of those officers who have written upon that war, have not contained so much information as was expected by some, but quite as much as could be collected under the circumstances. the war was almost wholly a maritime one, confined to attacks upon cities and forts upon the coast and rivers, by both the army and navy, and few or none of the officers were acquainted with the language of the people, so that little information could be obtained from those natives whom suspicion or terror did not drive away. the region around ningpo, chusan and the mouth of the yangtsz kiang, has been described with more minuteness than any other part of the maritime provinces; and the careful survey of the coast from amoy to shanghai, with the chusan and pescadore archipelagoes by captains collinson, and kellet and others, has left little to be done for the navigator's benefit, in making known the hydrography of this part of china. the general topography of china is, however, but little better known now than it was at the close of the general survey of the jesuits in , and their maps form the basis of the best extant. the embassy sent by the french government in , under m. th. de lagrené, to form a commercial treaty with china, was furnished on a most liberal scale with everything necessary to make the greatest improvement of the opportunities offered to examine into the mechanical arts and productions of the land. four gentlemen were attached to the ambassador's suite, to make inquiries into the various agricultural and mechanical arts of the chinese, one of whom, m. isidore hedde, was especially designated to investigate everything relating to the growth and preparation of silk. in pursuance of this object, he visited the city of tuchan fu, which lies a few miles northwest of shanghai, and is the capital of the province of kiangsu. this place is probably the second or third city in the empire, canton or hangchau fu being the only ones which can compete with it for wealth and beautiful manufactures. it lies in a highly cultivated region, and is connected with peking and other large places, through the grand canal and the yangtsz kiang. m. hedde went in a chinese dress, and succeeded in visiting the principal buildings in the city, such as the provincial mint, the hall of examination, an establishment for the education of unhappy females destined for sale for the amusement of the opulent, and some manufactories. the suburbs of suchau, as is the case with most chinese cities, exceed that part within the walls, and here he found most of the craftsmen in iron, ivory, gold, silver, wood, bone, horn, glass, earth, paper, cotton and silk. his errand being chiefly to examine the silken fabrics, he noticed whatever was peculiar in spinning, dyeing and weaving, in the shops he entered. the chinese have no such immense establishments as are found in this country, where large buildings accommodate an immense quantity of machinery and numerous workmen, but all their products are made by manual labor in small establishments. m. hedde was struck with the immense population of the city and its environs, including a floating suburb of great extent, the whole comprising a population of not far from two millions. the chinese census gives an average of over nine hundred souls to a square mile in the province of kiangsu, and every opportunity which has been offered for examining it, has added new evidence to the truth of this statement, though closer investigation and further travel is necessary before we can give implicit reliance to the assertions made on this subject. two english missionaries have lately gone long journeys into the interior, but as protestants have no coadjutors among the people away from the ports, who would be willing to receive and conceal them; and as their system of operations aims rather to impart a true knowledge of christianity than to make many converts to a form of worship, these excursions have not been frequently made. one of the two here referred to, was across the country from ningpo to canton, by the same route lord macartney came, and the other was up the yangtsz kiang. two american missionaries visited the large city of changchau fu near amoy in , where they were received with civility though not with kindness. mr. robert fortune, sent out to china by the horticultural society, has lately returned to england, with new plants of great beauty, and a large collection of botanical and ornithological specimens, among which are doubtless many not heretofore described. mr. fortune visited all the ports, and made excursions in their neighborhoods, and his reception among the people was generally kind. the people in the cities of ningpo and shanghai, and their vicinities, compare favorably for their kindness and general courtesy, with the coarse mannered natives of canton. the opening of this great empire to the commercial enterprise of western nations, has given rise to anticipations of an extensive trade, and the importation of cotton and woolen fabrics during the last few years has been increasing; and if it was not for the abominable traffic in opium, which is both impoverishing and destroying the chinese, there would be every reason for believing the commerce with china would soon be one of the largest branches of trade. the principal articles in which it is most likely to increase are tea and silk, but there is a great assortment of other productions, which can be taken in exchange for the cloths, metals and wares of the west. mr. montgomery martin for a short time colonial treasurer of hongkong, has collected all the statistics bearing on this subject in his work, which will aid in forming an opinion on this point. commercially, politically and religiously, the chinese empire now presents a most interesting spectacle, and the experiment of regenerating it and introducing it into the family of nations, without completely disorganizing its present form of government and society, will constantly go on and attract still more and more the notice of christendom. the probabilities at present are in favor of a successful issue, but it is impossible to contemplate the desolating effects of the use of opium, brought to the people in such quantities, without great apprehension as to the result. the lava like progress of the power of great britain in asia, has just commenced on the borders of china, and when the country is drained of specie in payment for this drug, there is reason to fear that the native government will be unable to carry on its operations and maintain its authority. corea. since the extermination of the catholic priests from corea in , the most rigid measures have been adopted to exclude all foreigners; in fact, the determination on the part of the government of corea to prevent all intercourse between its people and those of other countries seems to have been adopted from its neighbor of japan. these measures are even extended to the chinese, against whom a strong natural antipathy exists, growing out of the persecutions formerly inflicted on the coreans by them. accurate descriptions of europeans are kept at the various posts on the frontier, and from their well known characteristics they are easily distinguished. the coreans themselves on leaving their country for china for purposes of trade, receive a passport, which on returning must be given back or they are not permitted to enter. many christians still remain in corea, and though they are subject to persecution, the minds of the people are well disposed towards the christian religion. the literary class hold it in the highest estimation, and seem only to be waiting for the moment when they will be free to declare in its favor.[ ] farther accounts from this country have lately appeared in the annals of the propaganda society,[ ] in a letter from keemay kim a native of corea, and a christian, who had just completed his studies at macao in china. he was sent on a mission to the christians in corea, but owing to the vigilance observed on the frontiers of that country, was unable to enter it. determined to persevere in the attempt, he posted on to hoong-tchoong, a small frontier town near the mouth of a river which separates corea from manchuria, where he waited until the period arrived when the great fair was to take place at kee-eu-wen, the nearest town in corea, four leagues distant. "they supply the coreans with dogs, cats, pipes, leather, stag's horns, copper, horses, mules and asses; and receive in exchange, baskets, kitchen utensils, rice, corn, swine, paper, mats, oxen, furs and small horses." a few officers are permitted to trade every year, but they are closely guarded. all others who pass the frontier are made slaves or massacred at once. our traveller here met a few corean christians in the immense crowd which had come to traffic, and whom he recognised by a badge previously agreed upon; but so great was the confusion and hurry on the occasion, added to the fear of being recognized, that the interview does not seem to have been productive of good, or increased our information of the people or country. since the great persecution a few years since, the church had been at rest; and though a few converts had been made, the faithful had retired to the southern provinces for better security. they still entertained the idea of introducing a european missionary through the north, though with the knowledge that if discovered by the authorities, instant death would follow. such is the zeal and perseverance with which these men pursue their philanthropic and christian labors. the fair to which allusion has been made, is thus described by our corean. the traders cannot begin their operations until a signal is given, by hoisting a flag and beating the gong, "when the immense and densely packed crowd rush to the market place; coreans, chinese, and manchus, are all mingled together. each speaks in his own tongue, and so great is the uproar produced by this mass of people, that the echoes of the neighboring mountains repeat their discordant shouts." "four or five hours is the whole time allowed for buying and selling; consequently, the tumult which takes place, the quarrels which arise, the blows which are exchanged, and the plundering which goes on, give the place more the look of a city taken by storm and given up to pillage, than that of a fair." at evening, when the signal is given, the strangers are driven out by the soldiers with the points of their lances. manchuria. the vast regions of manchuria, lying north of corea to the hing-an or yablonoi mountains, and east of the sialkoi to the ocean, are inhabited by various tribes speaking different dialects and subsisting principally by hunting and fishing. the manchus are now the dominant race, but some of the tribes near the sea and in taraka island, bear no tributary relations to them, if indeed they are much acquainted. since the conquest of china, the manchus have gone on steadily improving this part of their possessions by stationing agricultural troops at the principal ports of observation, and collecting the hunters around these points as much as possible. criminals are also constantly banished there, who carry with them their arts, and by their industry both maintain themselves and set an example to the nomads. the southern part called shingking, has become well cultivated in many parts, and considerable trade is carried on at kinchau with other parts of china. manchuria produces pulse, maize, (indian corn), millet, barley and buckwheat; pulse, drugs and cattle, form the leading articles of trade. the climate of this country is so inhospitable, as to prove a serious obstacle in the way of its settlement and cultivation. the manchus have no national literature; all the books written in their language are translations of chinese works, made under the superintendence of the academies at moukden and peking. their written characters are derived from the mongols, but have undergone many changes. the emperors have taken great pains to elevate their countrymen by providing them with the best books in chinese literature, and compelling them to go through the same examinations before they can attain any office; but the numerical superiority of the chinese and their active habits, give them so much the advantage, that except in their own country, the manchus find it difficult to preserve their native tongue to the second generation. mongolia. the last volume of the annals of the propaganda society contains an interesting narrative of a journey into mongolia, by the rev. mr. huc.[ ] this vast country, covering a million of square miles, consists of barren deserts and boundless steppes. in the limits allotted each corps, there is seldom more than one town, where the chief resides. the people live in tents, without any permanent residence. they move from place to place, with the changes of the seasons, or when their immense herds of oxen, camels and horses have exhausted the grass around their encampment. to-day presents an animated scene of hundreds of tents, filled with an active population; the children playing as happy and contented as though surrounded with every luxury a civilized life affords; the women cooking their food and drawing water from a well just dug; and the men, mounted on horseback, are galloping over the plain, keeping their countless herds from straying away. to-morrow, this picturesque and animated scene will be changed to a dreary and forbidding desert. men, flocks, and tents have vanished, and nought remains to mark the visit of this wandering race, but the curling smoke of their unquenched fires, or the birds of prey hovering over the carcase of some dying camel, or feeding on the remains of their late repast. the mongols are irreclaimable nomads, though some tribes of them, as the tsakhars, ortous, and solous, cultivate the soil. the four khanates of the kalkas are called outer mongolia, and comprise within their borders, several well built towns, though none of any size, compared with the cities in china. few chinese have settled among the mongols, except near the great wall, nor will they allow them to do so, as there is a deep antipathy between the two races. the mongols of the present day have probably made no advances in civilization over their ancestors in the days of genghis and kublai. the approaches of the british power up the valley of the sutlej, into the regions lying along the base of the western himalayas, are such that they will ere long come in contact with tibet through ladak, and with yarkand through badakshan. but there is probably more geographical than ethnological information to be gained by traversing these elevated regions, where stupendous mountains and arid deserts offer nothing to tempt man from the fertile plains of india and china. two romish missionaries have lately arrived in canton from h'lassa in tibet, by the overland route through patang in sz'chuen to the capital of kwangsi, and thence to canton. this route has never been described by any traveller. lewchew islands. this group of islands, including the madjico sima, lying between it and formosa, form a dependency of the principality of satzuma, in the southwest of japan, though the rulers are allowed a limited intercourse with china through fuhchau fu. during the late war between england and china, the transport indian oak was lost on lewchew,[ ] august , , and the crew were treated with great kindness, and provided with a vessel, in which they returned to chusan. every effort was made by the authorities to prevent the officers and men from examining the island, but their kindness to the unfortunate people thus cast on their shores, made such an impression, that a mission to the islanders was determined upon in london, by some naval gentlemen connected with the expedition, and a society formed. the rev. b.j. bettelheim was appointed to the post, and had reached canton in march, . he afterwards proceeded on his voyage, and his journal received at hongkong, from napa, contains a few details of interest, but shows plainly that the authorities are decided in refusing to allow foreigners to settle in their territories. an attempt has been made by the romish missionaries to establish a mission in this group.[ ] the rev. w. forcade and an associate were left on lewchew in may, , and after a residence of fifteen months were able to transmit some notices of their treatment to the directors, through sir edward belcher, r.n. who stopped at napa in august, . on their arrival, m. forcade and his companion were conducted to their dwelling, where they were surrounded by a numerous guard under the control of officers, and attended by domestics, as they were told, "to charm their leisure moments." their table was bountifully supplied, and everything they could ask to make them comfortable was granted them, except their liberty. whenever they went abroad, they were accompanied by a guard, but allowed to hold no intercourse with the natives; they had not been able to proceed beyond twelve miles into the interior, but as far as they had opportunities of conversing with the natives, found them simple and courteous in their manners, and disposed to talk when not under surveillance. it is probable, however, that under such restraint as these gentlemen were placed, it is not likely that they had attained to such fluency in the language as to be able to hold very ready communication with natives met in this hasty manner. the intentions of the government were plain, however, not to allow them to disseminate their doctrines, (if it had learned their real object), nor, by intercourse with the people, become acquainted with their character, or the state of the country. no assistance was granted them in learning the language, and they were forbidden to adopt the native costume. notwithstanding this opposition, they had been able to acquire a partial knowledge of the language, and to compile a vocabulary of six thousand words. permission to preach the christian religion was not granted them, lest, as the authorities said, the chinese, to whom they are tributary, would break off all intercourse; but the real reason was doubtless their fear of the japanese. yet these obstacles did not dishearten them, and they seem determined to persevere in their attempts, though it is not unlikely that when mr. bettelheim arrives, the authorities will take measures for deporting them all. the lewchewans are intimately connected with the japanese. the language is the same, with unimportant dialectical variations, and chinese letters and literature are in like manner cultivated by both. in personal appearance, however, the two people are very unlike. the lewchewans are not on an average over five feet four inches high, slightly built, and approach the malayan cast of features more than the chinese. they are darker than the chinese, and their mild traits of character, unwarlike habits, and general personal appearance, suggests the idea that they are akin to the aborigines of formosa and luçonia by descent, while their proximity and subjugation to their powerful neighbors on the north and west, have taught them a higher civilization, and introduced arts and sciences unknown to their early conquerors. when lewchew was subjugated by the japanese, it was agreed that embassies with tribute might be sent to peking, and according to the chinese account, they come to that court twice in three years.[ ] the secretary or deputy embassador in , was drowned in his passage from peking to fuhchau. this embassy is a source of considerable profit to the lewchewans, for their junks, which are built on the chinese model, have free entrance to fuhchau, and all the goods they import and export, are passed without duty. the travelling expenses of the embassy to and from the capital are also defrayed, and permission is given them to study chinese when in the country. this intercourse is therefore both honorable and profitable to the lewchewans, but the chinese are not allowed to trade there, and the only act of sovereignty the emperor exercises, according to m. forcade, is to send a delegate to sanction the accession of a new incumbent of the throne--whom, however, it would be ridiculous for him to refuse. he adds, "in conversation, if one is a stranger, the lewchewans will be continually dwelling on china, they will boast about it, they will relate its history, they will describe its provinces and its cities; but japan is never mentioned! such are the words, but the facts are quite another thing." the real character of the connection between lewchew and japan is not well ascertained. no japanese officers are seen on landing, and the officers appointed to attend the people of the indian oak, exhibited the greatest alarm when a few were seen at a distance, while the party were taking a walk. the trade between the two countries is confined to the ports of napa and kagosima, between which the vessels of both nations pass; the junks from other parts of japan are not permitted to resort to napa, but it is not probable that the prince of satzuma has the right of appointing the residents, or whatever authorities are sent thither. m. forcade says there were from ten to fifteen japanese vessels in the port, but when the american ship morrison was there, in , there were only five. lackered-ware, grass cloth, sugar, and earthen-ware, are exported to kagosima, and a great assortment of metallic articles, cloths, provisions, and stationery taken in exchange. the country in the vicinity of napa, and towards shudi, the capital, is highly cultivated, and the people appear to be as well clothed, and possess as many of the comforts and elegancies of life as their neighbors. they still retain enough of their own customs, however, to distinguish them from the japanese, even if their physical appearance did not point them out as distinct. m. forcade says that there is reason for supposing christianity to have been implanted in lewchew at the same time it was introduced into japan, but lewchew at that time seems to have been much less dependant upon japan than subsequently; and it is not probable that much was done to proselyte its inhabitants. he mentions that a cross is cut on the end of the rampart where foreigners land, who are thus obliged to trample on this symbol; but no other visitors mention any such sculpture or custom. the landing place at napa is a long stone jetty, stretching across the beach, which at low tide, prevents boats approaching the shore. japan. this country has recently attracted increased attention on the part of commercial nations, and several foreign ships have lately appeared on the coasts, whose reception has only shown the vigilance of the authorities in taking every precaution neither to offend nor receive their unwelcome visitors. the dutch and chinese are still the only nations allowed to trade with the japanese, and the news brought by the latter people of the troubles they have lately gone through with their foreign customers, has probably only more strongly convinced the siogoun and his ministers of the propriety of their seclusive policy. nor is there much reason to doubt that the chinese and japanese have avoided the fate of the natives of luçonia, java, and india, by shutting out foreigners from free access and intercourse with their people, and owing to their seclusion, have remained independent to this day. the works of siebold upon the natural history and political condition of the country and its inhabitants, are now slowly publishing in paris, but with such luxury of execution as to place them beyond the reach of most persons who might be desirous to examine them. the visits of two american ships to the bay of yedo, has directed the public eye again to the empire. the first was that of the whaler manhattan, captain cooper, who was led to think of going into the port by having taken eleven shipwrecked men off a small island near the bonin islands, in april, , lying southeast of nippon. as he was going north, he fell in with a water-logged junk from nambu, laden with rice and fish, from which he received eleven more, and soon after made the eastern coast in the principality of simosa. here he landed two men, and proceeding towards cape king, landed two more, who made their way to yedo. owing to north winds, he was blown off the coast twice, and when he approached the estuary leading to the capital, he was taken in tow and carried up to the anchorage. interpreters came off to the vessel, who could speak english sufficiently well to carry on an imperfect communication, who informed captain cooper that his wants would be supplied, but none of his company allowed to land. a triple cordon of boats was placed around the ship, consisting of upwards of a thousand small boats, displaying numerous flags, and containing as many armed men as if the country was in danger of attack. the ship was visited by crowds of natives of all ranks, who behaved with great decorum while gratifying their curiosity, but no trade was allowed. many officers of high rank came on board and examined the ship, and took an inventory of every article belonging to the rescued seamen, before they were allowed to land. the ship was gratuitously supplied with provisions and a few spars, to the value of about $ , but the captain was again and again enjoined not to return there on any account. when he inquired what he should do if he again came across the siogoun's subjects in like distress, and exposed to a cruel death, he was told, "leave them to their fate, or take them where the dutch can get them." the men rescued from starvation and death, were, however, deeply sensible of the kindness which had been shown them. after a stay of eight or ten days, captain cooper was towed out of the port, and down the bay to the coast, and the last injunction was only a repetition of the first order, not to come again. this reception, though it presents no encouragement to hope for a relaxation of the policy, deemed by the siogoun at once his safety and his profit, is less likely to call for summary chastisement than the rude repulse the american ship morrison received in , when she entered the bay of yedo on the same errand, and was driven away by cannon balls and armed gunboats. captain cooper represents the country in this portion of it as clothed with verdure, and under a high state of cultivation. the proximity of the mountains in idzu, produces constant showers, which covers the highest peaks with forests and shrubbery. terrace cultivation is extensively practiced, and constant labor is demanded to supply subsistence to the dense population, who still at times suffer severely for want of food. the capital could not well be seen from the ship, and its enceinte was so filled with trees, that its dimensions could not accurately be defined. no towers or pagodas were seen elevating themselves above the dull monotony of the buildings. the harbor was covered with vessels, at anchor and moving about; some of them unwieldy, open-stern junks, designed for the coast trade, others light skiffs and boats, used for communicating with vessels in the harbor and the shore. the greatest part of the coasting trade centres at yedo, owing to the large amount of taxes paid the siogoun in kind, and the supplies the princes receive from their possessions while they reside in the capital, both of which causes operate to develope the maritime skill of the people, and increase the amount of tonnage. the shortsighted policy which confines the energies and capital of a seagoing people like the japanese, within their own shores is, however, less a matter of wonder than the despotic power which could compel them to stay at home two centuries ago, at a time when their merchants and agents were found from acapulco to bangkok. the japanese empire presents the greatest feudal government now existing, and on that account is peculiarly interesting to the student of political science. in some respects, the people are superior to the chinese, but are inferior in the elements of national wealth and progress. they belong to the mongolian race, but are darker than the chinese, and not as tall, though superior in stature to the lewchewans. they approximate to the kamtschatdales in their square build, short necks, large heads, and short lower limbs. they are of a light olive complexion, but seldom exhibit a florid, ruddy countenance. among the articles obtained from the junk by captain cooper, was a map of japan, including part of yesso. it is four feet square, drawn on the proportion of less than one degree to two inches, and contains the names of all the places there is room for. it is cut on wood, and painted to show the outlines of the chief principalities; the relative importance of the places is shown by writing their names in different shaped cartouches, but from the space occupied by the chinese characters, there is probably not one-tenth of all the towns inserted. the distances between the principal points along the coast are stated, and on some of the leading thoroughfares inland. the map is evidently the original of krusenstern's "carte de nippon," published by the russian board of longitude, and is drawn up from trigonometrical surveys. the degrees of latitude bear the same numbers as upon european maps; the meridians are reckoned from yedo. the existence of such maps among the people indicates that a good knowledge of their own country is far more extensively diffused than among the chinese, whose common maps are a standing reproach to them, while they have others so much more accurate. the coast from cape king northward to simosa, for the space of two degrees, was found by captain cooper to be better delineated upon this map than upon his own charts. these seas present a fine field for hydrographic surveys, and it would greatly advance the security of navigation on the eastern shores of asia, and redound to the honor of our own land, if the american government would despatch two small vessels to survey the seas and shores between luçonia and kamtschatka. the visit of commodore biddle to the bay of yedo, has added nothing to our knowledge of its shores. his polite dismissal, and the refusal of the government to entertain any commercial relations with the americans, only add force to the injunction to captain cooper the year before, not to return, and shows more strongly that while the japanese rulers are determined to maintain their secluded policy, they wish to give no cause for retaliatory measures on the part of their unwelcome visitors, and mean to keep themselves as well informed as they can upon foreign politics. the subject of foreign intercourse between the two great nations of eastern asia and europeans since it commenced three centuries since, is an instructive one; and the general impression left upon the mind of the candid reader, is that foreign nations have themselves chiefly to thank for their present seclusion from those shores, and the restrictions in their commerce. rear-admiral cecille has also paid a visit to some part of japan, quite recently, but met with no success in his endeavors to enter into negotiation. the great object in view in making these attempts to improve the intercourse with japan, is to find new markets for western manufactures. it is quite doubtful, however, whether the japanese have many articles suitable for foreign markets. their lackered-ware is exceedingly beautiful, but it would not be so prized when it became more common. copper and tea would form the basis of exports, and perhaps some silk fabrics, but china furnishes now all that is wanted of them both, and can do so to any extent. until a taste for such foreign manufactures, as woolens, cutlery, glass-ware, calicoes, &c., is created among them, and they are willing to adapt their own products to the tastes of their customers, it does not seem likely that a trade at all proportioned to the estimated population and riches of the country, would soon be established. the japanese are afraid of the probable results of a more extended intercourse, and deem it to be the safest course to run no risks; and if they read the pages of their early intercourse with the portuguese, spanish and dutch, they must feel they would run many serious risks by granting a trade. if the siogoun and his advisers could be rightly informed, however, there are grounds for believing the present policy would be considerably relaxed. learning is highly honored in japan, and books are as cheap and common as in china. the written language is a singular and most difficult mixture of chinese characters, with the syllabic symbols adopted by the japanese, rendering its perusal a great labor, more so than that of chinese, because chinese must first be mastered. the spoken language is polysyllabic and harmonious, and possesses conjugations, tenses, cases, &c., to facilitate its perspicuity, and increase its variety of expressions. the arts in which they chiefly excel are in the manufacture of silken and linen goods, copper-ware, lackered-ware, porcelain and basket work. their cutlery is despicable, and the specimens of their carving, which are seen abroad, do not equal those produced by the chinese. agriculture is pursued on much the same system as in china--minute subdivision of the soil and constant manuring, together with frequent watering. rice and fish are the staples of food; vegetables are used in great abundance, but meats only sparingly. the habits and sports of the people are influenced so much by the peculiar notions attending a feudal society, such as adherence to the local prince, and maintenance of his honor, wearing coats of arms, privileged orders, and hereditary titles, that there is little similarity in the state of society in japan and china, notwithstanding a similar religion and literature. the japanese were called the spaniards of the east by xavier, and the comparison is good at this day. they have, perhaps, more genius and imagination than the chinese, but are not as peaceable or industrious. general view of the languages of the japanese, coreans, chinese and cochinchinese. the four nations here briefly noticed; viz., the japanese, coreans, chinese and cochinchinese, have been collectively called the _chinese language nations_, from the peculiar relations and connections they have had through the medium of that language. the relation has throughout been one of a literary character, fostered to some extent by religious prejudices, but depending chiefly for its permanence and extension upon the superiority of the writings of the chinese. it is, in some respects, without a parallel in the history of man. while european languages have all been indebted for many of their words to the two leading ancient tongues of that continent, their bases have been diverse, and the words they have imported from greek and latin have undergone various changes, so much so as sometimes hardly to be recognized. this is not the case with these four nations of eastern asia. they have all adopted the characters used by the leading nation without alteration, and with them, of course, have to a very great degree, taken her authors, her books, her knowledge and her opinions, as their own. one of the most observable features of the national character of the chinese, is its conservative inclinations. not only is it seen in the actions of government and in the writings of scholars, but still more in the habits of the people and their modes of thinking. it has been cherished by that government, as it is by all governments, as a sure and safe principle of preservation, but it is also advocated by the people. the geographical position of china has isolated it from all western nations, while the political, literary and social superiority of its people over the contiguous nations, has combined to foster their conceit and affectation of supremacy, and make them disinclined to have any intimate or equal relations with others. but one of the strongest and most comprehensive of these conservative influences has arisen from the nature of the language, strengthened by the extent to which education has been diffused among the people. the language is of such a character, combining mystery and difficulty with elegance and ingenuity, as greatly to captivate a people who have time and inclination to trace out the marks and veins on the pavement in the temple of science, but not the invention or investigation to seek out and explore its hidden chambers. the character of this language and the nature of the connection between the nations who use it, may here be briefly exhibited. the chinese ascribe the invention of their characters to tsang kieh, one of the principal ministers or scholars in the reign of hwangti, about years before christ; and although there is no very certain information recorded respecting their origin, there is nothing which seems to be fabulous or supernatural. the characters first depicted were the common objects in nature and art, as the sun, rain, man, parts of the body, animals, a house, &c., and were probably drawn sufficiently accurate to be detected without much if any explanation. they were all described in outline, and generally with far less completeness than the egyptian symbols. it is not known how many of the primitive characters were made, but one feature attached to them all,--none of them contained any clue to the sound. the inventors must necessarily, one would suppose, have soon perceived this radical defect in their symbols, but they either saw the incompatibility of uniting the phonetic and pictorial modes, or else were so pleased with their varied pictures and symbols, that they cared very little how the reader acquired the sounds. at first, too perhaps, the number of persons who spoke this language was so small, that there was little difficulty in making them all acquainted with the meaning of the symbols, and when once their meaning was learned, they were of course called by the name of the thing represented, which everybody knew. the necessity of incorporating some clue to the sound of the thing, or idea denoted, became more and more evident, however, as the variety of the symbols multiplied, and the number of people increased. one of the strongest evidences, that the designing of these symbols was contemporary with the earliest days of the chinese as a people, is deduced from the fact that they are all monosyllabic; the radical words in all languages are mostly of this character, but in nearly all others, the single sounds soon coalesce and combine, while in chinese this has been prevented by the nature of the written language. there is not, so far as the nature of the case goes, any reason why the sounds of chinese characters should all be monosyllabic, any more than the arabic numerals. but not only was the increase of inhabitants, as we suppose, a reason for making the symbols phonetic, the need of reducing the labor of learning the ever growing list, and the difficulty of distinguishing between species of the same genus and things of the same sort, was a still stronger motive. this was done by the combination of a leading type with some other well understood character, chosen quite arbitrarily, but possessing the _same sound_ as the new object to be represented. thus, supposing a new fish called _pih_ was to be represented by a character; by taking the symbol for _fish_ and joining it to any well known character pronounced _pih_, no matter what was its meaning, the compound symbol clearly expressed, to those who understood its elementary parts, the _fish pih_. but neither does this compound contain any more clue to its sound to those unacquainted with the component elements, than its marks and hooks do of its meaning to those who have never learned them. when once the form and meaning of the primitive symbols have been learned, however, the meaning and sounds of the compound ones can, in many cases, be inferred to a greater or less degree; but so varied has been the principle of combination, that no dependence can be placed upon such etymologies for the meaning. in the various mutations the written language has undergone, the sound is not now so certain as it was probably at first; but in the majority of characters, it can be inferred with a considerable degree of certainty, though the idea is exhibited so indefinitely as to afford almost no assistance in guessing at it. a dictionary is indispensable in ascertaining the meaning, and almost as necessary to learn the sound of all chinese characters. the meaning can be explained without any greater trouble than in other languages, but the sounds of characters can only be given by quoting other characters of the same sound, which the scholar is supposed to know, if he knows enough to use the dictionary. these remarks will, perhaps, explain the general composition of chinese characters. by far the greater part of them are now formed, either of the original pictorial symbols, greatly modified, indeed, and changed from their likeness to the things they stand for, or of those joined to each other in a compound character, partly symbolical and partly phonetic. the former part is called the _radical_, the latter the _primitive_. the chinese divide the characters into six classes, viz., imitative symbols, or those original figures which bore a resemblance to the forms of material objects; indicative symbols, where the position of the two parts point out the idea; symbols combining ideas, a class not very unlike the preceding, but more complex; inverted symbols; metaphoric symbols, as that of the natural heart, denoting the affections; and lastly, phonetic symbols. out of twenty-four thousand two hundred and thirty-five characters, (nearly all the different ones there are in the language), twenty-one thousand eight hundred and ten of them are phonetic, or as much so as the nature of their composition would allow, though there is no other clue to the sound than to learn the sound of the parts or of the whole, either from the people themselves or from a dictionary. the chinese tyro learns the sounds of most of the characters, as boys do the names of minerals, by tradition. as he stands before his master, he and the whole class hear from his mouth their names, and repeat them until they are remembered. consequently, almost an infinite variety in the sounds of the characters arise from this mode of learning them, while the meanings remain fixed; though there still remains enough resemblance in the sounds to show their common origin, as, _bien_, _meen_, _mien_, and _meeng_, all meaning _the face_, and written with the same character. the local differences in pronunciation are so great within a few hundred miles, in some parts of china, that the people barely understand each other when they speak; and even in two towns fifty miles apart, the local patois can be detected, though the dissimilarity is not so great as to prevent their inhabitants conversing together. for purposes of intercourse among civilians, who being from distant parts of the empire, might otherwise find considerable difficulty in making themselves understood if each spoke his own local patois, there is a court dialect which not only civilians, but all educated men are obliged or expected to understand. this is the common pronunciation over the northeastern provinces of chihli, shantung, nganhwui, and kiangsu, and somewhat in the contiguous provinces also, though everywhere in these regions with some slight local variations. this dialect is called _kwan hwa_, and has been usually termed the _mandarin[ ] dialect_, but it is properly the chinese spoken language, and the variations from it are the dialects and patois. it is evident, however, that one sound of a character is no more correct than another; for there being no sound in any character, each one calls it as he has been taught, while all give it the same meaning, exactly as europeans do with the numerals. of course, no one can read or write chinese before he has studied it, and the apparent singularity of people from china, japan, and annam all being able to communicate by writing but not converse by speech, is easily explained by the different sounds they give the characters. it is, however, really no more singular than that scholars in all christian nations understand each others' music and arithmetic, after they have learned those sciences and the mode of notation. the diversity of pronunciations tends naturally to break up the nation into small communities, and the chinese owe their present homogeneity and grandeur in no small degree to their written language; for, however, a man may differ in his speech, he is sure that he will be everywhere understood when he writes, and will understand every one who writes to him. it has also been a bond of union from its extensive literature, at once the pride of its own scholars, and the admiration of surrounding nations. it is perhaps owing to the fact that the literature of china contains the canons of the budhist religion and the ethics of confucius, that it was adopted by the japanese, coreans and annamese. these nations have taken the characters of the chinese language, and given them such names as pleased them. in japan and corea, there has been no uniform rule of adoption, but the annamese, who formerly had more intimate connexions with china than at present, approach much nearer to the sounds spoken by the chinese. the nature of the relations between these three nations and china, therefore, somewhat resembles that which european nations, we may suppose, now would have towards ancient greece and rome, if they still existed as independent powers, and should be visited by scholars from the shores of the baltic, whose native countries, however, had risen no higher in civilization and morals than their source. the comparison is not complete in all respects, but near enough for analogy. the japanese have never paid tribute to china, but have been invaded by her armies, and in their turn have ravaged the eastern coasts of the continent. the isolated policy their rulers have adopted, has prevented our tracing those philological comparisons between their original language and those of siberia or central asia, which would elucidate its origin. the japanese up to the time of the sixteenth daïri, named ouzin tenwo, had no written character, all the orders of government being proclaimed viva voce. in the year b.c. , this monarch sent an embassy to the southern part of corea, to obtain learned persons who could introduce the civilization and literature of china into his dominions, and obtained wonin, who fulfilled the royal wishes so satisfactorily, that the japanese have since accorded him divine honors. since his day, the chinese characters have been employed among the japanese. however, as the construction of the japanese language differs materially from that of the chinese, and as the same chinese character has many meanings, which would be expressed by different words in the native japanese, confusion and difficulty arose in the use of the symbolic characters. but it was not until the eighth century, that a remedy was provided by the invention of a syllabary, a middle contrivance, partaking chiefly of the nature of an alphabet but containing some traces of hieroglyphics. the characters of this syllabary were formed by taking chinese characters, either in whole or in part, and using them phonetically, but as indivisible syllables. consequently, every one of them contained a vowel sound, rendering the language very euphonous. the characters in this syllabary were called _katakana_, i. e. "parts of letters." there were at first forty-seven, but another was added some years after in order to express the final _n_, as _ma-mo-ra-n_, instead of _ma-mo-ra-nu_, making forty-eight, the present number. this syllabary and that invented for the cherokees by guess, are the only two in the world. the number of sounds has been increased from forty-eight to seventy-three, by the addition of diacritical marks to some of the syllables. this syllabary enabled the japanese to express the sounds of their vernacular without difficulty. but the long use of the chinese had already introduced a great number of sounds from that language into it, besides giving the people a liking for the elegant and ingenious combinations of that unwieldy medium of thought, so that the scholars in the country still cultivated the more difficult language, and wrote their books in it. the incorporation of chinese sounds into the native japanese, seems to have arisen from the necessity of distinguishing between the various meanings of the chinese character, so that while the native word would express one, the original sound would express another, but the unchangeable symbol stand for both to the eye. the admiration of the chinese characters, led in time to the invention of a second syllabary, having the same sounds but far more difficult to learn from the number of characters in it and their complicated forms. it is called _hirakana_, or "equal writing," because it is intelligible without the addition of chinese characters; it is now the common medium of communication, in epistolary composition of all kinds, story books, and other everyday uses. there are one hundred and one characters in the _hirakana_, or nearly three modes of writing each of the forty-eight syllables, and they are run together as rapidly and far more fancifully than in our own running-hand, when that is compared with the roman character. the characters are mostly contractions of chinese characters used simply as phonetic symbols, without any more reference to their meaning than in the _katakana_. the more ancient of the two is now usually employed in dictionaries, by the side of chinese characters in books to explain them to the reader, or at their bottom to indicate the case of the word. in reading a chinese book, a good japanese scholar makes a kind of running translation into his own vernacular, sometimes giving the sound, and sometimes giving the sense, and the _katakana_ is used in the latter case, to indicate the tense, or case of the native word. having the chinese language as well as its native stores to draw from, the japanese is both copious and flexible, and by its syllabic construction, also euphonious and mellifluous, in these respects being far superior to the chinese. the following stanza is from one of the dutch writers; it is written with thirty-one syllables. kokorodani makotono, michi ni kanai naba, inorazu totemo kamiya mamoran. there are still two other syllabaries, one called _manyo-kana_, and the other _yamato-kana_, both of which are formed of still more complicated chinese characters, also used phonetically. neither of these syllabaries is generally used entirely alone, but the three are joined together or interchanged somewhat according to the fancy of the writer, in a manner similar to archdeacon wrangham's famous echo poem. such a complicated mode of writing has this unfortunate result, however, of so seriously obstructing the avenues to the temple of science, that the greatest part of the common people are unable to enter, and must be content with admiring the structure afar off. most of them content themselves with learning to write and read in the _hirakana_, and get as much knowledge of chinese as will enable them to read the names of places, signs, people, &c., for which those characters are universally used. besides the phonetic use of chinese characters in these syllabaries, they are employed very extensively as words, with their own meanings, partly because they are more nervous and expressive in the estimation of the writer than the vernacular, and partly to show his learning and shorten his labor. commonly, characters so used are called by their japanese meanings, but sometimes too by their chinese names.[ ] the connection between the chinese and japanese, therefore, is very intimate, and presents a curious instance of assimilation between a symbolic and syllabic language, though at the cost of much hard study and labor to acquire the mongrel compound. it is another example of asiatic toil upon the media of thought, rather than investigations in the world of thought and science itself; for no people who possessed invention, research, or science, would ever have encumbered themselves with so burdensome a vehicle of communication. the chinese do not attend to the japanese language, and have no knowledge of its structure, or the principles on which it has combined with their own. their intercourse with japan is entirely commercial; that of the japanese with them, chiefly literary. the coreans have also adopted the chinese character, but without many of the elaborate modifications in use among the japanese. they have had more intercourse with the chinese, but have not been able to make their polysyllabic words assimilate with the monosyllables of the chinese. they have invented an alphabet, the letters of which combine to form syllables, and these syllabic compounds are then used like the japanese characters to express their own words. the original letters consist of fifteen consonants, called _ka_, _na_, _ta_, _la_ or _ra_, _ma_ or _ba_, _pa_, _sa_ or _sha_, _nga_, _tsa_ or _cha_, _ts´a_ or _ch´a_, _k´a_, _t´a_, _p´a_, _ha_, and _wa_; and eleven vowels, _a_, _ya_, _o_, _yo_, _oh_, _yoh_, _ú_, _yú_, _u_, _í_, and _âh_. the combinations of these form altogether one hundred and sixty-eight syllables, the last fourteen of which are triply combined by introducing the sound of _w_ between the consonants and some of the vowels, as _kwa_, _ts´hwo_, &c. the sounds and meanings of chinese characters are expressed in this syllabary in the duoglott works prepared by the coreans for learning chinese; while it is used by itself in works intended for the natives. the coreans have not, like the japanese, unnecessarily increased the difficulty of their own language by employing a great number of signs for the same sound, but are content with one series. it is to be hoped that this facility results in a greater diffusion of knowledge among the people. the japanese have the inflections of cases, moods, tenses and voices, in their language; but these features are denoted in corean by the collocation of the words, and the words themselves remain unchanged as in chinese. the sounds of the corean are pleasant, and both it and the japanese allow many alterations and elisions for the sake of euphony. further investigation will probably show some connection originally between the corean and manchu languages, though the former of these has been more modified by the chinese than the latter.[ ] the people of annam have adopted the chinese characters without making a syllabary or alphabet to express their own vernacular. the inhabitants of this country are evidently of the same race as the chinese, and now acknowledge a nominal subjection to the emperor of china by sending a triennial embassy to peking, partly commercial and partly tributary. the sounds given to the chinese characters are, however, so unlike those given them in china, that the two nations cannot converse with each other. the annamese have many sounds in their spoken language which no chinese can enunciate. the court dialect is learned by educated men, and books are written and printed in chinese. the sounds given to the characters are all monosyllabic, and slight analogies can be traced running through the variations; but they offer very little assistance to any one, who, knowing only one mode of pronunciation, wishes to learn the other. much of the interest connected with the investigation of the chinese and its cognate tongues, arises from the immense multitudes which speak and write them; and from the influence which china has, through the writings of her sages, exerted over the minds and progress of her neighbors. there is nothing like it in european history; but the spell cast over the intellects of the millions in eastern asia, by the writings of confucius, mencius, and their disciples, is likely erelong to be broken by the infusion of christian knowledge, the extension of commerce, and a better understanding of their political and social rights by the multitudes who now adopt them. for much of the information embraced in this memoir on china, japan, and the adjacent countries, i am indebted to the chinese repository, (a monthly journal printed at canton), and more especially to one of its accomplished editors, mr. s. wells williams. this gentleman during a residence of twelve years in china, has made himself familiar with the written and spoken language of the chinese, and is ranked, by some of the eminent sinologists of europe, among the profoundest adepts in that branch of literature and philology. mr. williams has also studied the japanese language, which he reads and speaks; and is probably the only man in america familiar with the languages of china and japan. several natives of japan, driven by adverse winds from their native shores, found their way to china, and were subsequently taken by an american ship to yedo, but were not permitted to land. from these men, mr. williams has learned the spoken japanese, and as much of the written language as they could impart. this gentleman is at present in new york making arrangements for getting founts of chinese, japanese, and manchu type, for printing in these languages. the chinese repository is a monthly journal, printed at canton, and is edited by the rev. dr. bridgman and mr. williams. it contains much valuable information relating to china, japan, and the eastern archipelago, and frequently memoirs, translated from the japanese and chinese. on the whole, it may with truth be said to embody more information than any other work extant, on these countries. mr. williams has now in press a new work on the chinese empire, which will contain an account of its general political divisions, including manchuria, mongolia, ili and tibet, their geographical and topographical features. the natural history of china; its government, laws, literature, language, science, industry and arts. social and domestic life--history and chronology--religion; christian missions; intercourse with other nations; and a full account of the late war with england. the history of the introduction of christianity into china, in the seventh century of the christian era, the traces of which still exist; and of the jews in china, are subjects which are now attracting attention. it would occupy too much space to give any particulars in this brief memoir. in the list of late works on china, will be found references to such books as treat of the subject, to which the attention of the reader is directed. the syrian monument which has been often referred to, is one of great interest, and is believed by all who have examined the subject, to be genuine. this monument was discovered by some chinese workmen, in the year , in or near the city of singan, the capital of the province of shensi, and once the metropolis of the empire. the monument was found covered with rubbish, and was immediately reported to the magistrate, who caused it to be removed to a pagoda, where it was examined by both natives and foreigners, christians and pagans. it was a slab of marble, about ten feet long and five broad. it contained on one side a chinese inscription, which was translated by father kircher into latin, and by dalquié into french. mr. bridgman has given an english translation, and has published the three versions, accompanied by the original chinese, with explanatory notes. this inscription commemorates the progress of christianity in china, and was erected in the year of the christian era . mr. bridgman who is one of the most learned in the chinese language, says in conclusion, that "there are strong internal evidences of its being the work of a professor of christianity, and such we believe it to be."[ ] other portions of this memoir might be very much enlarged, but would extend it beyond the bounds of the _resumé_, which it is intended to give. there are besides other countries and people, accounts of which it would be desirable to give place to, particularly those of central asia, but they are unavoidably passed over from the space that would be required to do them justice. the object of this paper is to awaken the attention of readers to the geographical and ethnographical discoveries made within the last few years, all of which have a bearing on the history and progress of the human race. if the author has succeeded in so doing, he will feel abundantly repaid for his labor. the recent works on china are embraced in the following list. china; political, commercial and social; with descriptions of the consular ports of canton, amoy, ningpo and shanghai, etc., etc. by r. montgomery martin. london, . chinese commercial guide. macao, . voyage of the nemesis; by w.d. barnard. vols. vo. london, . d ed. mo. . events in china. by granville loch, r.n. . war in china. by lieut. ochterlony. . the land of sinim, with a brief account of the jews and christians in china, by a missionary. mo. n.y., . sketches of china. by j.f. davis. vols. mo. . the jews in china. by j. finn. mo. london, . les juifs de la chine, par h. hirsch, (extrait des israélites de france). . relation des voyages faits par les arabes et les persans dans l'inde et à la chine, dans le ixth siècle de l'ère chrétienne, par m. reinaud. paris, . vols. mo. three years wanderings in china. by robert fortune. vo. london, . the philological and other works on china, by m. pauthier, a distinguished french scholar, are among the most valuable works in this department of learning. they embrace the following. sinico-Ægyptiaca, essai sur l'origine et la formation similaire des écritures figuratives chinoise et Égyptienne, etc. vo. de l'origine des différents systèmes d'écriture. to. examen méthodique des faits qui concernent le thian-tchu ou l'inde; traduit du chinois. vo. documents statistiques officiels sur l'empire de la chine; traduits du chinois. vo. la chine, avec planches. vo. la chine ouverte, aventures d'un fan-kouei dans le pays de tsin; illustré par auguste borget. vo. paris, . la chine et les chinois, par le même. vo. paris, . systema phoneticum scripturæ sinicæ, auctore. j.m. callery. vols. royal vo. macao, . narrative of the second campaign in china, by r.s. mackenzie. mo. london. a work by g. tradescant lay; and another by professor kid, have also been published on china. footnotes: [ ] in a paper read by mr. schoolcraft before the american ethnological society, it was clearly shown by existing remains, in michigan and indiana, plans of which were exhibited, that vast districts of country, now covered by forests and prairies, bear incontestable proofs of having been subject to cultivation at a remote period and before the forest had begun its growth. [ ] this figure of an extended hand is the most common of all the symbols of the aboriginal tribes of america. it is found on the ancient temples, and within the tombs of yucatan. at the earliest period it was used by the indians, in the united states, and at the present time, it is employed by the roving bands and large tribes from the mississippi to the rocky mountains, and from texas northward. [ ] "bottoms" and "bottom lands," are terms applied to the flat lands adjoining rivers. in the state of new york they are called "flats"--as the "mohawk flats." [ ] second note sur une pierre gravée trouvé dans un ancien tumulus americain, et à cette occasion, sur l'idiome libyen, par m. jomard. vo. paris, . [ ] see mr. catherwood's paper on the thugga monument and its inscriptions, in the ethnolg. trans. vol. i. p. . [ ] notes on africa. p. [ ] the essay here alluded to, was the reply of mr. jomard to a note addressed to him by mr. eugene vail, in , announcing the discovery of the inscribed tablet in the grave-creek mound, and requesting his opinion in relation to it. in this reply, mr. jomard stated that they were of the same character with the inscriptions found by major denham in the interior of africa, as well as in algiers and tunis. this note was inserted in mr. vail's work entitled "_notice sur les indiens de l'amerique du nord_." paris, . this work is scarcely known in the united states. [ ] i am aware that many believe the sculptures on the dighton rock to contain several alphabetic characters. prof. rafn in his learned and ingenious memoir on this inscription, supports this view. in fact, mr. jomard himself hints at their phoenician origin. [ ] histoire naturelle des canaries. tom. i. p. [ ] scenes in the rocky mountains, oregon, california, &c., by a new englander. p. . [ ] scenes in the rocky mountains, california, &c. by a new englander. p. . [ ] auburn (new york) banner, . [ ] political essay on new spain. vol. , p. . (london ed. in vols. vo.) [ ] life and travels in california. p. . [ ] dr. lyman states, that "in the autumn of , an american trader with thirty-five men, went from bents fort to the navijo country, built a breastwork with his bales of goods, and informed the astonished indians, that he had 'come into their country to trade or fight, which ever they preferred.' the campaigns of the old trappers were too fresh in their memory to allow hesitation. they chose to trade, and soon commenced a brisk business." [ ] humboldt's political essay on new spain. vol. , p. . on the testimony of the missionaries of the _collegio de queretaro_, versed in the aztec language, m. humboldt states, that the language spoken by the moqui indians is essentially different from the mexican language. in the seventeenth century, missionaries were established among the moquis and navijos, who were massacred in the great revolt of the indians in . [ ] clavigero, hist. mexico. vol. , p. . humboldt's polit. essay on new spain, vol. . p. . a more detailed account of these remains, may be found in the appendix to castaneda's "_relation du voyage de cibola en _," published in the "_relations et memoirs originaux_" of ternaux-compans. the state of the country, the manners and customs of the indians, and their peculiar state of civilization are given at length, and are interesting in this enquiry. the notice of the "_grande maison, dite de moctezuma_," is extracted from the journal of father pedro font, who traversed this country to monterey, on the pacific, in . [ ] report to the royal geographical society, london, nov. , . [ ] nouvelles annales des voyages. feb. . p. . [ ] london athenæum, aug. , , in which is a condensed account of this journey. [ ] simmond's colonial magazine. vol. v. p. . [ ] there is evidently some mistake in these dimensions, which would give a mass of masonry many times larger than the great pyramid at ghizeh. [ ] london athenæum, nov. . . [ ] journal of the geographical society. vol. . [ ] missionary herald, vol. . p. . [ ] london athenæum, march , . [ ] ibid. oct. , . [ ] bulletin de la société de géographie. rapport par m. roger. . p. . [ ] london athenæum, july , . [ ] london athenæum, july, . [ ] the geography of n'yassi, or the great lake of southern africa, investigated, with an account of the overland route from the quanza, in angola, to the zambezi, in the government of mozambique, by wm. desbrough cooley, in the journal of the royal geographical society, london. vol. xv. [ ] notes on african geography, by james m'queen.--_ibid._ contributions towards the geography of africa, by james mcqueen, in simmond's colonial magazine, vol. vi. [ ] journal of the royal geographical society, vol. , p. . [ ] nouvelles annales des voyages: may, , p. . [ ] bulletin de la société de géographie de france, for , p. . [ ] notice sur le progrès des découvertes géographiques pendant l'année, , par v. de st. martin. bulletin de la société de géographie, p. . [ ] nouvelles annales des voyages. notes ethnologiques, sur la race blanche des aures. par m. guyon. janvier, , p. . [ ] comptes-rendus de l'académie des sciences, dec. . [ ] revue archæologique, nov. . [ ] the incident which led to the discovery of this alphabet is deserving of notice. an algerine named sidy-hamdan-ben-otsman-khodja, who had gained the confidence of the duke of rovigo, then governor of algiers, was in correspondence with the bey of constantine. the hadji ahmed, to render this correspondence more sure, wrote his letters in conventional signs, known among certain arabs by the name of _romouz_. ali the son of sidy-hamdan, who was the bearer of these missives, had lived a long time in france as an officer in the employ of the sublime porte; and in his hands m. boisonnet one day discovered the letters of hadji ahmed. on glancing his eye over one of these documents he discovered at the top (_en vedette_) two groups of signs, which, from their situation, he readily imagined might be the equivalents of the arab sacramental words, _praise be to god_, with which all good musselmen generally begin an epistle. with this supposition he applied the alphabetic value to each character, and thus obtained the value of six of these strange cyphers. the next day he obtained two of these documents or letters from ali, who little suspected what use he intended making of them. with these materials he diligently applied himself, and on the following morning sent him a complete translation of the letters. ali was greatly alarmed that mr. boisonnet had solved the enigma, but more so that he had thereby become acquainted with the correspondence. struck with the analogy between these characters and the lybian characters on the thugga monument, he applied the alphabet discovered by him, and the result is known.--_revue archæologique_, november, . [ ] see de saulcy. revue des deux mondes, june, . [ ] the accident which led to this second discovery deserves to be mentioned. the person into whose hands the manuscript fell, while examining the leaves which were remarkably thick, accidentally spilt a tumbler of water on it. in order to dry it he placed it in the sun in a window, when the parchment that was wet separated. he opened the leaves which had been sealed and found the pagan manuscript between them. a farther examination showed that the entire volume was similarly formed. [ ] keppell's borneo, vol. i. p. . [ ] keppell's borneo, vol. i. p. . [ ] missionary herald, vol. , p. . [ ] letter to the hon. c.j. ingersoll, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, containing some brief notices respecting the present state, productions, trade, commerce, &c. of the comoro islands, abyssinia, persia, burma, cochin china, the indian archipelago, and japan; and recommending that a special mission be sent by the government of the united states, to make treaties and extend our commercial relations with those countries: by aaron h. palmer, councillor of the supreme court of the united states. [ ] see "china mail" newspaper, for march , . [ ] frazer's magazine, . in this magazine is an article of much interest on the commercial relations of the indian archipelago. [ ] annals of the propagation of the faith. sept. . [ ] london evangelical magazine, august, . [ ] bulletin de la société de géographie, . extrait d'une description de l'archipel des îles solo, p. . [ ] bulletin de la société de géographie, for , p. . [ ] physical description of new south wales and van dieman's land. [ ] address of lord colchester to count strzelecki on presenting him with the medal. [ ] discoveries in australia, vol. . p. . [ ] p. . [ ] vol. . p. . [ ] london athenæum, july , . ibid. aug. , . [ ] report of dr. leichardt's expedition, simmonds' colonial magazine, vol. , . [ ] london athenæum. nov. , . [ ] simmond's colonial magazine, nov. . [ ] herodotus, in speaking of the subjugation of lycia, by cyrus and harpagus, says; "when harpagus led his army towards xanthus, the lycians boldly advanced to meet him, and, though inferior in numbers, behaved with the greatest bravery. being defeated and pursued into their city, they collected their wives, children and valuable effects, into the citadel, and there consumed the whole in one immense fire.... of those who now inhabit lycia, calling themselves xanthians, _the whole are foreigners_, eighty families excepted."--_clio_, . see also _clio_, - . herodotus further states that the lycians originated from the cretans, a branch of the hellenic race; and strabo, in a fragment preserved from ephorus, states that the lycians were a people of greek origin, who had settled in the country previously occupied by the barbarous tribes of mylians and solymi. homer briefly alludes to the lycians, who, at the siege of troy, assisted the trojans under certain rulers whose names are mentioned.--_iliad_, b. v. and xii. [ ] journal of the royal geographical society of london. vol. ix. [ ] ibid. vol. xv. p. . [ ] wellsted's travels in arabia, vol. i. p. . [ ] particulars read to the meeting of royal geographical society of london, november , .--london ath. [ ] les steppes de la mer caspienne, le caucase, la crimée et la russie méridionale; voyage pittoresque, historique et scientifique; par x. hommaire de hell. vols. royal vo. and folio atlas of plates. paris, . [ ] i feel warranted in going back and tracing the progress of these discoveries, as so little is known of it by english readers. the translation of grotefend's essay in heeren's researches, was the only accessible original treatise on the subject, until the recent publications of major rawlinson and prof. westergaard. in germany, much has been written and some in france. these papers are chiefly in antiquarian or philological transactions and are scarcely known here. a full account of the discovery in question, of its progress and present state, seems therefore necessary. [ ] grotefend's essay on the cuneiform inscriptions, in heeren's asiatic nations. vol. ii. p. . [ ] the zendavesta is one of the most ancient as well as remarkable books that has come down to us from the east. it was first made known in europe in the year , by anquetil du perron, who brought it from surat in india, whither he went expressly to search for the ancient books of the east. he spent many years (seventeen it is said) in making a translation, which he accompanied with valuable notes, illustrative of the doctrines of zoroaster, and in elucidation of the zend language, in which this book was written. a great sensation was produced in europe among the learned at the appearance of the work. examined as a monument of the ancient religion and literature of the persians, it was differently appreciated by them. sir william jones[a] and others, not only questioned its authenticity, but denounced the translator in very harsh terms. but later writers, among these some of the most distinguished philologists of europe, are willing to let it rank among the earliest books of the east, and as entitled to an antiquity at least six centuries anterior to the christian era. the zendavesta (from _zend_ living, and _avesta_ word, i. e. "the living word") consists of a series of liturgic services for various occasions, and bears the same reference to the books of zoroaster that our breviaries and common-prayer books do to the bible. it embraces five books. . the _izechné_, "elevation of the soul, praise, devotion;" . the _vispered_, "the chiefs of the beings there named;" . the _vendidad_, which is considered as the foundation of the law; . the _yeshts sades_, or "a collection of compositions and of fragments;" . the book _siroz_, "thirty days," containing praises addressed to the genius of each day; and which is a sort of liturgical calendar.[b] the doctrines inculcated in the zendavesta are "the existence of a great first principle. time without beginning and without end. this incomprehensible being is the author of the two great active powers of the universe--ormuzd the principle of all good, and ahriman the principle of all evil. ormuzd is the first creative agent produced by the self-existent. he is perfectly pure, intelligent, just, powerful, active, benevolent,--in a word, the precise image of the element; the centre and author of the perfections of all nature." ahriman is the opposite of this. he is occupied in perverting and corrupting every thing good; he is the source of misery and evil. "ordained to create and govern the universe, ormuzd received the word, which in his mouth became an instrument of infinite power and fruitfulness."[c] "the first created man was composed of the four elements,--fire, air, water, and earth. "ormuzd to this perishable frame added an immortal spirit, and the being was complete." the soul of man consists of separate parts, each having peculiar offices. " . the principle of sensation. . the principle of intelligence. . the principle of practical judgment. . the principle of conscience. . the principle of animal life." after death, "the principle of animal life mingles with the winds," the body being regarded as a mere instrument in the power of the will. the first three are accountable for the deeds of the body, and are examined at the day of judgment. "this law or religion is still professed by the descendants of the persians, who, conquered by the mohammedans, have not submitted to the koran; they partly inhabit kirman and partly the western coast of india, to the north and south of surat."[d] the traces which are apparent in the zendavesta of hindoo superstitions, indicate that its author borrowed from the sacred books of india, while its sublime doctrines evidently point to the pentateuch. mr. eugene burnouf is now publishing at paris a new translation of the zendavesta from a sanscrit version under the title of "commentaire sur le yaçna," in which he has embodied a vast deal of oriental learning, illustrative of the geography, history, religion and language of ancient persia. the first volume was published in . [a] sir william jones's works. vol. x. p. . [b] see note to the "dabistan." pub. for the oriental translations fund. vol. i. p. . [c] frazer's history of persia. p. - . [d] note to the "dabistan." vol. . p. . by its editor, a. troyer. [ ] the modern title of the sovereign of persia, _shah_, is at once recognised in the ancient name _kshe_ or _ksha_ of the monuments. [ ] mémoire sur deux inscriptions cuneiforms, trouvées près d'hamadan. paris, . [ ] die alt-persischen keil-inschriften von persepolis. bonn, . the other papers of prof. lassen may be found in the "zeitschrift für die kunde des morgenlandes," a periodical work published at bonn, exclusively devoted to oriental subjects. it is the most learned work on oriental philology and archæology published in europe. [ ] while major rawlinson was occupied in persia, the subject was attracting much attention among the orientalists of europe. burnouf and lassen, as we have seen, then published the results of their investigations, which were afterwards found to be almost identical with those of major r. neither of these scholars was aware at the time of the others' labors. this is an interesting fact, and establishes the correctness of the conclusions at which they eventually arrived. [ ] the zend language is known to us chiefly by the "zendavesta." of its antiquity there is doubt. some philologists believe that it grew up with the decline of the old persian, or was formed on its basis, with an infusion from the sanscrit, median, and scythic languages. it was used in the time of darius hystaspes, b.c. , at which period zoroaster lived, who employed the zend in the composition of the "zendavesta." its antiquity has formed the subject of many memoirs; but late writers, among whom are rask, eugene burnouf, bopp, and lassen, have decided from the most severe tests of criticism, that the zend was an ancient language derived from the same source as the sanscrit, and that it was spoken before the christian era, particularly in the countries situated west of the caspian sea, in georgia, iran proper, and northern media. note to the dabistan, vol. i. p. . the only specimen of this language yet known, with the exception of a few mss. of little importance among the parsees, is the zendavesta. major rawlinson[a] adopts views at variance with those of the distinguished german philologists, in regard to the antiquity of the zend language. its "very elaborate vocalic organization," he thinks, "indicates a comparatively recent era for the formation of its alphabet;" and of the zend-avesta, he is of opinion that "the disfigurement of authentic history affords an argument of equal weight against the antiquity of its composition." he fully agrees, however, with all others as to the very remote composition of the books generally ascribed to zoroaster. in fact this is beyond all question, for plato mentions them (pol. b. xxx.). clemens of alexandria says they were known in the th century b.c. and many other ancient writers could be cited in proof of the same.[b] [a] see rawlinson. memoir on cuneiform inscriptions. note to page . [b] see a note to the "dabistan," vol. i. p. in which is given a list of all the ancient writers who mention zoroaster and his works. [ ] on the decyphering of the median species of arrow-headed writing, by n.l. westergaard, in the mémoires de la société royale des antiquaires du nord. copenhagen, . [ ] memoir on the cuneiform inscriptions, p. . [ ] ibid. p. . [ ] on the median variety of arrow-headed writing. mémoires de la société des antiquaires du nord, for . p. . [ ] zeitschrift für die kunde des morgenlandes. - . prof. westergaard has also published his paper in english, in the mémoires de la société royale des antiquaires du nord, copenhagen, , prefixing to it lassen's alphabet of the first sort of persepolitan writing. he was probably induced to do this by observing the limited extent to which the german language is cultivated by english scholars, insomuch that even rawlinson complains that he was unable to read any more of lassen's papers than his translations of the inscriptions, which are in latin. [ ] memoir on the persian cuneiform inscriptions. p. . [ ] zeitschrift für die kunde des morgenlandes, ' . [ ] for inscription see rich's babylon and persepolis, plate , and page . [ ] revue archæologique. october, . [ ] westergaard in mém. de la socié. royale des antiq. du nord, p. . ibid. p. . [ ] lettres de m. botta sur les découvertes à khorsabad, près de ninive; publiées par m.j. mohl. [ ] london times, june, . two interesting letters from mr. layard, dated august , , to mr. kellogg, of cincinnati, were read before the american ethnological society, at its meeting in february, giving further accounts of his discoveries. [ ] see london athenæum, oct. , , a letter from constantinople dated sept. . [ ] the prophet daniel in his vision of four beasts says, "the first was like a lion, and had eagles' wings; i beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man." _daniel, ch. vii. v. ._ the resemblance between the animal of daniel's vision and those recently discovered at nineveh is striking. [ ] richardson in the preface to his persian dictionary. [ ] preface to the "dabistan" published by the oriental trans. fund:--by a. troyer. vol. i. p. . [ ] annales des voyages, april, , p. . [ ] ld. colchester's address, journal of the royal geographical society, . [ ] address to the british association for the advancement of science, at its meeting, september, . [ ] the royal geographical society of london has conferred its victoria gold medal on prof. middendorff for his successful exploration. [ ] lord colchester's address before the royal geog. society. london, . [ ] missionary herald. vol. xli. p. . [ ] missionary herald. vol. xli. p. . [ ] english baptist missionary report for . p. . [ ] it appears that the baptist missionary society in the year ending in march, ,[a] expended in india $ , , of which sum nearly $ , , or rather more than one half, was expended in making translations of books into various languages. the remainder was for the support of the missionaries, their outfits and passages, the support of native teachers--schools &c. the languages and dialects which have been studied and elucidated and into which books have been translated may be summed up as follows. languages and dialects in india, do. do. in persia and the caucasian countries, do. in china and the indo-chinese countries, do. in polynesia. the translations consist of the whole or portions of the scriptures; books on religious or moral subjects; elementary works on science, popular histories, geography, &c. elementary books in the several departments of science and history constitute the greater variety, though of the whole number of works distributed, the bible and testament constitute by far the greatest part. for example, the english baptist missionary society printed and issued in the year ending march , fifty-five thousand copies of the bible and testament in the sanscrit, bengali, hindostani, and armenian languages. the number of books printed and distributed in india by the american board of commissioners for foreign missions was as follows. madras mission. in the tamil and english languages: the scriptures or portions of them--books of a religious character--elementary school books--tracts--periodicals and reports of benevolent associations bearing on the cause of christianity and the social and intellectual improvement of the population of india, there were printed at this single establishment, within a fraction of twenty-seven millions of pages--or, if in volumes of two hundred and seventy pages each, one hundred thousand volumes; but as there were many tracts, the number was doubtless double or treble. besides this there are six other large establishments in southern india, where books in the tamil language are printed, all under the control of missionary societies. ceylon mission. in the tamil and english languages were printed during the year, twenty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-four volumes, and one hundred and forty-five thousand tracts, amounting to six million one hundred and fifty-six thousand pages. siam mission. in the siamese language were printed in two years two million four hundred and sixty-two thousand pages. when so much is accomplished by one society, how vast must be the influence exerted by the various missionary and tract societies engaged in the same cause. [a] report of the english baptist missionary society for . [ ] missionary herald, vol. xlv. p. . [ ] chinese repository. vol. xv. p. . [ ] annals of the propaganda for . p. . [ ] ibid. july, . [ ] annals of the propaganda for september, . [ ] chinese repository, vol. xii. p. . [ ] annales de la propagation de la foi, july, . [ ] chinese repository, vol. xiv. p. . [ ] it is desirable that this word be expunged from all works on china and eastern asia, and the proper words _officers_, _authorities_, _magistrates_, &c., be used instead. every officer, from a prime minister to a constable or tide-waiter, is called a mandarin by foreigners, partly because those who write do not know the rank of the person, and partly from the common custom of calling many things in china by some peculiar term, as if they were unlike the same things elsewhere. [ ] chinese repository, vol. x, pp. - . [ ] chinese repository. vol. i., p. ; vol. ii., pp. - . [ ] chinese repository. vol. xiv. p. . transcriber's notes: obvious typesetting errors have been corrected. obvious spelling errors in foreign language references have been corrected. inconsistencies in spelling have been normalized unless otherwise noted below. questionable or vintage spelling has been left as printed in the original publication. footnotes in the original publication were marked with symbols at the page level. sequential footnote numbering has been applied and all footnotes have been relocated to the end of the text. variations in spelling for musselman/mussulman left as printed in original publication. punctuation marks to establish phrasing (i. e., commas and semi-colons) that were placed inside a closing parenthesis have been moved outside the parenthesis. page : a chapter heading entitled "north america." has been added for consistency with chapters listed in the publication's contents pages. page (footnote ): page number reference for "notes on africa" missing in original text. page (footnote ): "grande maison, dite de moetezuma" changed to "grande maison, dite de moctezuma". page : the second footnote on this page has been converted to appear as block text, consistent with the remainder of the publication in which lists of "recent works" appear at the conclusion of a given section. the footnote marker has been removed. page : removed stray opening quotation mark mid-sentence that was not closed. 'from the base of this structure "commences an inclined'. page : the footnote on this page has been converted to appear as block text, consistent with the remainder of the publication in which lists of "recent works" appear at the conclusion of a given section. the footnote marker has been removed. page : a chapter heading entitled "asia." has been added for consistency with chapters listed in the publication's contents pages. page (footnote ): the paragraph beginning "the first created man was composed of the four elements..." contains unmatched quotation marks in the original publication and has been left as printed. page (footnote b): opening text 'see a note to the "dabistan," vol. i. p. in which...' is missing the page number ("p.") in the original publication. page : changed "archæmenian" to "achæmenian" in the following sentence (as originally printed): "various combinations of a figure shaped like a wedge, together with one produced by the union of two wedges, constitute the system of writing employed by the ancient assyrians, babylonians, medes, and the archæmenian kings of persia." page : original publication is missing a numeral in what is presumably a year in the 's. transcribed here as " _ ". page : added a footnote marker for footnote at the end of this sentence: "the last volume of the annals of the propaganda society contains an interesting narrative of a journey into mongolia, by the rev. mr. huc." man past and present cambridge university press c. f. clay, manager london: fetter lane, e.c. new york: g. p. putnam's sons bombay } calcutta } macmillan and co., ltd. madras } toronto: j. m. dent and sons, ltd. tokyo: maruzen-kabushiki-kaisha all rights reserved man past and present by a. h. keane revised, and largely re-written, by a. hingston quiggin and a. c. haddon reader in ethnology, cambridge cambridge at the university press preface to new edition those who are familiar with the vast amount of ethnological literature published since the close of last century will realize that to revise and bring up to date a work whose range in space and time covers the whole world from prehistoric ages down to the present day, is a task impossible of accomplishment within the compass of a single volume. recent discoveries have revolutionized our conception of primeval man, while still providing abundant material for controversy, and the rapidly increasing pile of ethnographical matter, although a vast amount of spade work remains to be done, is but one sign of the remarkable interest in ethnology which is so conspicuous a feature of the present decade. even to keep abreast of the periodical literature devoted to his subject provides ample occupation for the ethnologist and few are those who can now lay claim to such an omniscient title. under such circumstances the faults of omission and compression could not be avoided in revising professor keane's work, but it is hoped that the copious references which form a prominent feature of the present edition will compensate in some measure for these obvious defects. the main object of the revisers has been to retain as much as possible of the original text wherever it fairly represents current opinion at the present time, but so different is our outlook from that of that certain sections have had to be entirely rewritten and in many places pages have been suppressed to make room for more important information. in every case where new matter has been inserted references are given to the responsible authorities and the fullest use has been made of direct quotation from the authors cited. mrs hingston quiggin is responsible for the whole work of revision with the exception of chapter xi, revised by miss lilian whitehouse, while dr a. c. haddon has criticized, corrected and supervised the work throughout. a. h. q. a. c. h. _october_, . contents chap. page i. general considerations ii. the metal ages--historic times and peoples iii. the african negro: i. sudanese iv. the african negro: ii. bantus--negrilloes--bushmen-- hottentots v. the oceanic negroes: papuasians (papuans and melanesians)--negritoes--tasmanians vi. the southern mongols vii. the oceanic mongols viii. the northern mongols ix. the northern mongols (_continued_) x. the american aborigines xi. the american aborigines (_continued_) xii. the pre-dravidians: jungle tribes of the deccan, sakai, australians xiii. the caucasic peoples xiv. the caucasic peoples (_continued_) xv. the caucasic peoples (_continued_) appendix index list of illustrations (at the end of the volume) plate i. . hausa slave of tunis (western sudanese negro). . zulu girl, south africa (bantu negroid). , . abraham lucas, age , south africa (koranna hottentot). , . swaartbooi, age , south africa (bushman). plate ii. . andamanese (negrito). . semang, malay peninsula (negrito). . aeta, philippines (negrito). . central african pygmy (negrillo). - . tapiro, netherlands new guinea (negrito). plate iii. , . jemmy, native of hampshire hills, tasmania (tasmanian). , . native of oromosapua, kiwai, british new guinea (papuan). , . native of hula, british new guinea (papuo-melanesian). plate iv. . chinese man (mixed southern mongol). . chinese woman of kulja (mixed southern mongol). , . kara-kirghiz of semirechinsk. . kara-kirghiz woman of semirechinsk. . solon of kulja (manchu-tungus). plate v. . jelai, an iban (sea-dayak) of the rejang river, sarawak, borneo (mixed proto-malay). . buginese, celebes (malayan). . bontoc igorot, luzon, philippines (malayan). . bagobo, mindanao, philippines (malayan). , . kenyah girls, sarawak, borneo (mixed proto-malay). plate vi. . samoyed, tavji. . tungus. . ostiak of the yenesei (palaeo-siberian). . kalmuk woman (western mongol). . gold of amur river (tungus). . gilyak woman (n.e. mongol). plate vii. . ainu woman, yezo, japan (palaeo-siberian). . ainu man, yezo, japan (palaeo-siberian). , . fine and coarse types of japanese men (mixed manchu-korean and southern mongol.) . korean (mixed tungus-eastern mongoloid). . lapp (finnish). plate viii. . eskimo, port clarence, west alaska. . indian of the north-west coast of north america. ?kwakiutl (wakashan stock). . cocopa, lower california (yuman stock). . navaho, arizona (athapascan linguistic stock). , . buffalo bull ghost, dakota of crow creek (siouan stock). plate ix. . carib, british guiana. . guatuso, costa rica. . native of otovalo, ecuador. . native of zámbisa, ecuador. . tehuel-che man, patagonia. . tehuel-che woman, patagonia. plate x. . sita wanniya, a henebedda vedda, ceylon (pre-dravidian). . sakai, perak, malay peninsula (pre-dravidian). . irula of chingleput, nilgiri hills, south india (pre-dravidian). . paniyan woman, malabar, south india (pre-dravidian). . kaitish, central australia (australian). . mulgrave woman (australian). plate xi. , . dane (nordic). . dane (mixed alpine). . breton woman of guingamp (mixed alpine). . swiss woman (nordic). . swiss woman (alpine). plate xii. . catalan man, spain (iberian). . irishman, co. roscommon (mediterranean). , . kababish, egyptian sudan (mixed semite). . egyptian bedouin (mixed semite). . afghan of zerafshán (iranian). plate xiii. , . bisharin, egyptian sudan (hamite). . beni amer, egyptian sudan (hamite). . masai, british east africa (mixed nilote and hamite). . shilluk, egyptian sudan (nilote, showing approach to hamitic type). . shilluk, egyptian sudan (nilote). plate xiv. , . kurd, nimrud-dagh, lake van, kurdistan, asia minor (nordic). , . armenian, kessab, djebel akrah, kurdistan (armenoid alpine). . tajik woman of e. turkestan (alpine). . tajik of tashkend (mixed alpine and turki). plate xv. , . sinhalese, ceylon (mixed "aryan"). . hindu merchant, western india (mixed "aryan"). . kling woman, eastern india (dravidian). . linga banajiga, south india (dravidian). . vakkaliga, canarese, south india (mixed alpine). plate xvi. , . ruatoka and his wife, raiatea (polynesian). . tiawhiao, maori, new zealand (polynesian). . maori woman, new zealand (polynesian). , . girls of the caroline islands (micronesian). we offer our sincere thanks for the use of the following photographs: a. h. keane, _ethnology_ ( ), iv. , , , , ; ix. , ; xii. ; xiv. , . a. h. keane, _man, past and present_ ( ), i. ; ii. ; v. ; vi. , , ; vii. ; ix. , ; x. , ; xii. . a. r. brown, ii. . prof. r. b. yapp, ii. . field museum of natural history, chicago, ii. ; v. ; vii. , ; viii. , , , ; ix. , ; xv. , . dr wollaston, cf. _pygmies and papuans_, p. ; ii. , , . dr g. landtman, iii. , . anthony wilkin, iii. , . prof. c. g. seligman, v. ; (_the veddas_, pl. v) x. ; xii. , ; xiii. , , , , . l. f. taylor, v. . a. c. haddon, i. , , , ; iii. , ; iv. ; v. , ; vii. ; xi. , , ; xii. , ; xiii. ; xvi. , , , . miss m. a. czaplicka, vi. , , . dr w. crooke (cf. _northern india_, pl. iii), xv. . baelz, vii. , . bureau of american ethnology, viii. , . e. thurston (_castes and tribes of southern india_, ii. p. ), x. ; (ibid. iv. pp. , ), xv. ; xv. . sir baldwin spencer and f. j. gillen and messrs macmillan & co. (_across australia_, ii. fig. ), x. . prof. j. kollmann, xi. , . p. w. luton, xii. . prof. f. von luschan and the council of the royal anthropological institute (_journ. roy. anth. inst._, xli., pl. xxiv, , , pl. xxx, , ), xiv. , , , . dr w. h. furness, xvi. , . chapter i general considerations the world peopled by migration from one centre by pleistocene man--the primary groups evolved each in its special habitat-- pleistocene man: _pithecanthropus erectus_; the mauer jaw, _homo heidelbergensis_; the piltdown skull, _eoanthropus dawsoni_--general view of pleistocene man--the first migrations--early man and his works--classification of human types: _h. primigenius_, neandertal or mousterian man; _h. recens_, galley hill or aurignacian man-- physical types--human culture: reutelian, mafflian, mesvinian, strepyan, chellean, acheulean, mousterian, aurignacian, solutrian, magdalenian, azilian--chronology--the early history of man a geological problem--the human varieties the outcome of their several environments--correspondence of geographical with racial and cultural zones. in order to a clear understanding of the many difficult questions connected with the natural history of the human family, two cardinal points have to be steadily borne in mind--the specific unity of all existing varieties, and the dispersal of their generalised precursors over the whole world in pleistocene times. as both points have elsewhere been dealt with by me somewhat fully[ ], it will here suffice to show their direct bearing on the general evolution of the human species from that remote epoch to the present day. it must be obvious that, if man is specifically one, though not necessarily sprung of a single pair, he must have had, in homely language, a single cradle-land, from which the peopling of the earth was brought about by migration, not by independent developments from different species in so many independent geographical areas. it follows further, and this point is all-important, that, since the world was peopled by pleistocene man, it was peopled by a generalised proto-human form, prior to all later racial differences. the existing groups, according to this hypothesis, have developed in different areas independently and divergently by continuous adaptation to their several environments. if they still constitute mere varieties, and not distinct species, the reason is because all come of like pleistocene ancestry, while the divergences have been confined to relatively narrow limits, that is, not wide enough to be regarded zoologically as specific differences. the battle between monogenists and polygenists cannot be decided until more facts are at our disposal, and much will doubtless be said on both sides for some time to come[ ]. among the views of human origins brought forward in recent years should be mentioned the daring theory of klaatsch[ ]. recognising two distinct human types, neandertal and aurignac (see pp. , below), and two distinct anthropoid types, gorilla and orang-utan, he derives neandertal man and african gorilla from one common ancestor, and aurignac man and asiatic orang-utan from another. though anatomists, especially those conversant with anthropoid structure[ ], are not able to accept this view, they admit that many difficulties may be solved by the recognition of more than one primordial stock of human ancestors[ ]. the questions of adaptation to climate and environment[ ], the possibilities of degeneracy, the varying degrees of physiological activity, of successful mutations, the effects of crossing and all the complicated problems of heredity are involved in the discussion, and it must be acknowledged that our information concerning all of these is entirely inadequate. nevertheless all speculations on the subject are not based merely on hypotheses, and three discoveries of late years have provided solid facts for the working out of the problem. these discoveries were the remains of _pithecanthropus erectus_[ ] in java, in , of the mauer jaw[ ], near heidelberg, in , and of the piltdown skull[ ] in sussex in . although the mauer jaw was accepted without hesitation, the controversy concerning the correct interpretation of the javan fossils has been raging for more than twenty years and shows no sign of abating, while _eoanthropus dawsoni_ is too recent an intruder into the arena to be fairly dealt with at present. certain facts however stand out clearly. in late pliocene or early pleistocene times certain early ancestral forms were already in existence which can scarcely be excluded from the _hominidae_. in range they were as widely distributed as java in the east to heidelberg and sussex in the west, and in spite of divergence in type a certain correlation is not impossible, even if the piltdown specimen should finally be regarded as representing a distinct genus[ ]. each contributes facts of the utmost importance for the tracing out of the history of human evolution. _pithecanthropus_ raises the vexed question as to whether the erect attitude or brain development came first in the story. the conjunction of pre-human braincase with human thighbone appeared to favour the popular view that the erect attitude was the earlier, but the evidence of embryology suggests a reverse order. and although at first the thighbone was recognised as distinctly human it seems that of late doubts have been cast on this interpretation[ ], and even the claim to the title _erectus_ is called in question. the characters of straightness and slenderness on which much stress was laid are found in exaggerated form in gibbons and lemurs. the intermediate position in respect of mental endowment (in so far as brain can be estimated by cranial capacity) is shown in the accompanying diagram in which the cranial measurements of _pithecanthropus_ are compared with those of a chimpanzee and prehistoric man. the teeth strengthen the evidence, for they are described as too large for a man and too small for an ape. thus _pithecanthropus_ has been confidently assigned to a place in a branch of the human family tree. [illustration: position of p. erectus. (manouvrier, _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. .)] the mauer jaw, the geological age of which is undisputed, also represents intermediate characters. the extraordinary strength and thickness of bone, the wide ascending ramus with shallow sigmoid notch (distinctly simian features) and the total absence of chin[ ] would deny it a place among human jaws, but the teeth, which are all fortunately preserved in their sockets, are not only definitely human, but show in certain peculiarities less simian features than are to be found in the dentition of modern man[ ]. [illustration: genealogical tree of man's ancestry. (a. keith, _the antiquity of man_, ; fig. , p. .)] the cranial capacity of the piltdown skull, though variously estimated[ ], is certainly greater than that of _pithecanthropus_, the general outlines with steeply rounded forehead resemble that of modern man, and the bones are almost without exception typically human. the jaw, however, though usually attributed to the same individual[ ], recalls the primitive features of the mauer specimen in its thick ascending portion and shallow notch, while in certain characters it differs from any known jaw, ancient or modern[ ]. the evidence afforded by the teeth is even more striking. the teeth of _pithecanthropus_ and of _homo heidelbergensis_ were recognised as remarkably human, and although primitive in type, are far more advanced in the line of human evolution than the lowly features with which they are associated would lead one to expect. the piltdown teeth are more primitive in certain characters than those of either the javan or the heidelberg remains. the first molar has been compared to that of taubach, the most ape-like of human or pre-human teeth hitherto recorded, but the canine tooth (found by p. teilhard in the same stratum in [ ]) finds no parallel in any known human jaw; it resembles the milk canine of the chimpanzee more than that of the adult dentition. it cannot be said that any clear view of pleistocene man can be obtained from these imperfect scraps of evidence, valuable though they are. rather may we agree with keith that the problem grows more instead of less complex. "in our first youthful burst of darwinianism we pictured our evolution as a simple procession of forms leading from ape to man. each age, as it passed, transformed the men of the time one stage nearer to us--one more distant from the ape. the true picture is very different. we have to conceive an ancient world in which the family of mankind was broken up into narrow groups or genera, each genus again divided into a number of species--much as we see in the monkey or ape world of to-day. then out of that great welter of forms one species became the dominant form, and ultimately the sole surviving one--the species represented by the modern races of mankind[ ]." we may assume therefore that the earth was mainly peopled by the generalised pleistocene precursors, who moved about, like the other migrating faunas, unconsciously, everywhere following the lines of least resistance, advancing or receding, and acting generally on blind impulse rather than of any set purpose. that such must have been the nature of the first migratory movements will appear evident when we consider that they were carried on by rude hordes, all very much alike, and differing not greatly from other zoological groups, and further that these migrations took place prior to the development of all cultural appliances beyond the ability to wield a broken branch or a sapling, or else chip or flake primitive stone implements[ ]. herein lies the explanation of the curious phenomenon, which was a stumbling-block to premature systematists, that all the works of early man everywhere present the most startling resemblances, affording absolutely no elements for classification, for instance, during the times corresponding with the chellean or first period of the old stone age. the implements of palaeolithic type so common in parts of south india, south africa, the sudan, egypt, etc., present a remarkable resemblance to one another. this, while affording a _prima facies_ case for, is not conclusive of, the migrations of a definite type of humanity. after referring to the identity of certain objects from the hastings kitchen-middens and a barrow near sevenoaks, w. j. l. abbot proceeds: "the first thing that would strike one in looking over a few trays of these implements is the remarkable likeness which they bear to those of dordogne. indeed many of the figures in the magnificent 'reliquiae aquitanicae' might almost have been produced from these specimens[ ]." and sir j. evans, extending his glance over a wider horizon, discovers implements in other distant lands "so identical in form and character with british specimens that they might have been manufactured by the same hands.... on the banks of the nile, many hundreds of feet above its present level, implements of the european types have been discovered, while in somaliland, in an ancient river valley, at a great elevation above the sea, seton-karr has collected a large number of implements formed of flint and quartzite, which, judging from their form and character, might have been dug out of the drift-deposits of the somme and the seine, the thames or the ancient solent[ ]." it was formerly held that man himself showed a similar uniformity, and all palaeolithic skulls were referred to one long-headed type, called, from the most famous example, the neandertal, which was regarded as having close affinities with the present australians. but this resemblance is shown by boule[ ] and others to be purely superficial, and recent archaeological finds indicate that more than one racial type was in existence in the palaeolithic age. w. l. h. duckworth on anatomical evidence constructs the following table[ ]. group i. early ancestral forms. _ex. gr. h. heidelbergensis._ group ii. _subdivision a. h. primigenius._ _ex. gr. la chapelle._ _subdivision b. h. recens_; with varieties { _h. fossilis. ex. gr. galley hill._ { _h. sapiens._ h. obermaier[ ] argues as follows: _homo primigenius_ is neither the representative of an intermediate species between ape and man, nor a lower or distinct type than _homo sapiens_, but an older primitive variety (race) of the latter, which survives in exceptional cases down to the present day[ ]. clearly then, according to the rules of zoological classification, we must term the two, _homo sapiens var. primigenius_, as compared with _homo sapiens var. recens_. whatever classification or nomenclature may be adopted the dual division in palaeolithic times is now generally recognised. the more primitive type is commonly called neandertal man, from the famous cranium found in the neandertal cave in , or mousterian man, from the culture associations. to this group belong the gibraltar skull[ ], and the skeletons from spy[ ], and krapina, croatia[ ], together with the later discoveries ( - ) at la chapelle[ ] (corrèze), le moustier[ ], la ferassie[ ] (dordogne) and many others. palaeolithic examples of the modern human type have been found at brüx (bohemia)[ ], brünn (moravia)[ ] and galley hill in kent[ ], but the most complete find was that at combe capelle in [ ]. the numerous skeletons found at cro-magnon[ ] and at the grottes de grimaldi at mentone[ ] though showing certain skeletal differences may be included in this group, the earliest examples of which are associated with aurignacian culture[ ]. from the evidence contributed by these examples the main characteristics of the two groups may be indicated, although, owing to the imperfection of the records, any generalisations must necessarily be tentative and subject to criticism. the la chapelle skull recalls many of the primitive features of the "ancestral types." the low receding forehead, the overhanging brow-ridges, forming continuous horizontal bars of bone overshadowing the orbits, the inflated circumnasal region, the enormous jaws, with massive ascending ramus, shallow sigmoid notch, "negative" chin and other "simian" characters seem reminiscent of _pithecanthropus_ and _homo heidelbergensis_. the cranial capacity however is estimated at over c.c., thus exceeding that of the average modern european, and this development, even though associated, as m. boule has pointed out, with a comparatively lowly brain, is of striking significance. the low stature, probably about mm. (under - / feet) makes the size of the skull and cranial capacity all the more remarkable. "a survey of the characters of neanderthal man--as manifested by his skeleton, brain cast, and teeth--have convinced anthropologists of two things: first, that we are dealing with a form of man totally different from any form now living; and secondly, that the kind of difference far exceeds that which separates the most divergent of modern human races[ ]." the earliest complete and authentic example of "aurignacian man" was the skeleton discovered near combe capelle (dordogne) in [ ]. the stature is low, not exceeding that of the neandertal type, but the limb bones are slighter and the build is altogether lighter and more slender. the greatest contrast lies in the skull. the forehead is vertical instead of receding, and the strongly projecting brow-ridges are diminished, the jaw is less massive and less simian with regard to all the features mentioned above. especially is this difference noticeable in the projection of the chin, which now for the first time shows the modern human outline. in short there are no salient features which cannot be matched among the living races of the present day. on the cultural side no less than on the physical, the thousands of years which the lowest estimate attributes to the early stone age were marked by slow but continuous changes. the reutelian (at the junction of the pliocene and pleistocene), mafflian and mesvinian industries, recognised by m. rutot in belgium, belong to the doubtful eolithic period, not yet generally accepted[ ]. the lowest palaeolithic deposit is the strepyan, so called from strépy, near charleroi, typically represented at st acheul, amiens, and recognised also in the thames valley[ ]. the tools exhibit deliberate flaking, and mark the transition between eolithic and palaeolithic work. the associated fauna includes two species of elephant, _e. meridionalis_ and _e. antiquus_, two species of rhinoceros, _r. etruscus_ and _r. merckii_, and the hippopotamus. it is possible that the mauer jaw and the piltdown skull belong to this stage. the chellean industry[ ], with the typical coarsely flaked almond-shaped implements, occurs abundantly in the south of england and in france, less commonly in belgium, germany, austria-hungary and russia, while examples have been recognised in palestine, egypt, somaliland, cape colony, madras and other localities, though outside europe the date is not always ascertainable and the form is not an absolute criterion[ ]. acheulean types succeed apparently in direct descent but the implements are altogether lighter, sharper, more efficient, and are characterised by finer workmanship and carefully retouched edges. a small finely finished lanceolate implement is typical of the sub-industry or local development at la micoque (dordogne). the chellean industry is associated with a warm climate and the remains of _elephas antiquus_, _rhinoceros merckii_ and hippopotamus. lower acheulean shows little variation, but with upper acheulean certain animals indicating a colder climate make their appearance, including the mammoth, _elephas primigenius_, and the woolly rhinoceros, _r. tichorhinus_, but no reindeer. the mousterian industry is entirely distinct from its predecessors. the warm fauna has disappeared, the reindeer first occurs together with the musk ox, arctic fox, the marmot and other cold-loving animals. man appears to have sought refuge in the caves, and from complete skeletons found in cave deposits of this stage we gain the first clear ideas concerning the physical type of man of the early palaeolithic period. typical mousterian implements consist of leaf-like or triangular points made from flakes struck from the nodule instead of from the dressed nodule itself, as in the earlier stages. the levallois flakes, occurring at the base of the mousterian (sometimes included in the acheulean stage), initiate this new style of workmanship, but the mousterian point shows an improvement in shape and a greater mastery in technique, producing a more efficient tool for piercing and cutting. scrapers, carefully retouched, with a curved edge are also characteristic, besides many other forms. the complete skeletons from le moustier itself, la chapelle, la ferassie, and krapina all belong to this stage, which marks the end of the lower palaeolithic period, the age of the mammoth. the upper palaeolithic or reindeer age is divided into aurignacian, solutrian, and magdalenian[ ] culture stages, with the azilian[ ] separating the magdalenian from the neolithic period. each stage is distinguished by its implements and its art. the aurignacian fauna, though closely resembling the mousterian, indicates an amelioration of climate, the most abundant animals being the bison, horse, cave lion, and cave hyena, and human settlements are again found in the open. among the typical implements are finely worked knife-like blades (châtelperron point, gravette point), keeled scrapers (tarté type), _burins_ or gravers, and various tools and ornaments of bone. art is represented by engravings and wall paintings, and to this stage belong statuettes representing nude female figures such as those of brassempouy, mentone, pont-à-lesse (belgium), predmost and willendorf, near krems. the neandertal type appears to have died out and aurignacian man belongs to the modern type represented at combe capelle. if the evidence of the figurines is to be accepted, a steatopygous race was at this time in existence, which sollas is inclined to connect with the bushmen[ ]. the solutrian stage is characterised by the abundance of the horse, replaced in the succeeding period by the reindeer. the solutrians seem to have been a warlike steppe people who came from the east into western europe. their subsequent fate has not been elucidated. the culture appears to have had a limited range, only a few stations being found outside dordogne and the neighbouring departments. the technique, as shown in the laurel-leaf and willow-leaf points, exhibits a perfection of workmanship unequalled in the palaeolithic age, and only excelled by late prehistoric knives of egypt. the rock shelter at la madeleine has given its name to the closing epoch of the palaeolithic age. the flint industry shows distinct decadence, but the working in bone and horn was at its zenith; indeed, so marked is the contrast between this and the preceding stage that breuil is convinced that "the first magdalenians were not evolved from the solutrians; they were new-comers in our region[ ]." the typical implements are barbed harpoons in reindeer antler (later that of the stag), often decorated with engravings. sculpture and engravings of animals in life-like attitudes are among the most remarkable records of the age, and the polychrome pictures in the caves of altamira, "the sistine chapel of quaternary art," are the admiration of the world[ ]. in the cave of mas-d'azil, between the magdalenian and neolithic deposits occurs a stratum, termed azilian, which, to some extent, bridges over the obscure transition between the palaeolithic and neolithic ages. the reindeer has disappeared, and its place is taken by the stag. the realistic art of the magdalenians is succeeded by a more geometric style. in flint working a return is made to aurignacian methods, and a particular development of pygmy flints has received the name _tardenoisian_[ ]. the characteristic implement is still the harpoon, but it differs in shape from the magdalenian implement, owing to the different structure of the material. painted pebbles, marked with red and black lines, in some cases suggesting a script, have given rise to much controversy. their meaning at present remains obscure[ ]. the question of prehistoric chronology is a difficult one, and the more cautious authorities do not commit themselves to dates. of late years, however, such researches as those of a. penck and e. brückner in the alps[ ] and of baron de geer and w. c. brøgger in sweden[ ], have provided a sound basis for calculations. penck recognises four periods of glaciation during the pleistocene period, which he has named after typical areas, the günz, mindel, riss and würm. he dates the würm maximum at between , and , years ago and estimates the duration of the riss-würm interglacial period at about , years. according to his calculations the chellean industry occurs in the mindel-riss, or even in the günz-mindel interval, but it is more commonly placed in the mild phase intervening before the last (würm) glaciation, this latter corresponding with the cold mousterian stage. at least four subsequent oscillations of climate have been recognised by penck, the achen, bühl, gschnitz and daun, and the correspondence of these with palaeolithic culture stages may be seen in the following table[ ]. penck and brückner obermaier and others rutot post-glacial {daun } azilian proto-neolithic} with {gschnitz} azilian } oscillations {bühl } magdalenian } neolithic {achen } magdalenian solutrian and } } aurignacian } iv. würm. th glacial } mousterian lower lower mousterian magdalenian and acheulean riss-würm. rd solutrian and chellean upper interglacial aurignacian mousterian warm mousterian iii. riss. rd glacial cold mousterian lower acheulean chellean mindel-riss. nd acheulean mauer jaw strepyan interglacial chellean pre-palaeolithic mesvinian mafflian ii. mindel. nd glacial } } } } günz-mindel. st } no artefacts } no artefacts interglacial } } } } i. günz. st glacial } } james geikie[ ], under the heading, "reliable and unreliable estimates of geological time," points out that the absolute duration of the pleistocene cannot be determined, but such investigations as those of penck "enable us to form some conception of the time involved." he accepts as a rough approximation penck's opinion that "the glacial period with all its climatic changes may have extended over half a million years, and as the chellean stage dates back to at least the middle of the period, this would give somewhere between , and , years for the antiquity of man in europe. but if, as recent discoveries would seem to indicate, man was an occupant of our continent during the first interglacial epoch, if not in still earlier times, we may be compelled greatly to increase our estimate of his antiquity" (p. ). w. j. sollas, on the other hand, is content with a far more contracted measure. basing his calculations mainly on the investigations of de geer, he concludes that the interval that separates our time from the beginning of the end of the last glacial episode is , years. he places the azilian age at b.c., the middle of the magdalenian age somewhere about b.c., mousterian , b.c., and the close of the chellean , b.c.[ ] but when all the changes in climate are taken into consideration, the periods of elevation and depression of the land, the transformations of the animals, the evolution of man, the gradual stages of advance in human culture, the development of the races of mankind, and their distribution over the surface of the globe, this estimate is regarded by many as insufficient. allen sturge claims "scores of thousands of years" for the neolithic period alone[ ], and sir w. turner points out the very remote times to which the appearance of neolithic man must be assigned in scotland. after showing that there is undoubted evidence of the presence of man in north britain during the formation of the carse clays, this careful observer explains that the carse cliffs, now in places to feet above the present sea-level, formed the bed of an estuary or arm of the sea, which in post-glacial times extended almost, if not quite across the land from east to west, thus separating the region south of the forth from north britain. he even suggests, after the separation of britain from the continent in earlier times, another land connection, a "neolithic land-bridge" by which the men of the new stone age may have reached scotland when the upheaved -foot terrace was still clothed with the great forest growths that have since disappeared[ ]. one begins to ask, are even , years sufficient for such oscillations of the surface, upheaval of marine beds, appearance of great estuaries, renewed connection of britain with the continent by a "neolithic land-bridge"? in the falkirk district neolithic kitchen-middens occur on, or at the base of, the bluffs which overlook the carse lands, that is, the old sea-coast. in the carse of gowrie also a dug-out canoe was found at the very base of the deposits, and immediately above the buried forest-bed of the tay valley[ ]. that the neolithic period was also of long duration even in scandinavia has been made evident by carl wibling, who calculates that the geological changes on the south-east coast of sweden (province of bleking), since its first occupation by the men of the new stone age, must have required a period of "at least , years[ ]." still more startling are the results of the protracted researches carried on by j. nüesch at the now famous station of schweizersbild, near schaffhausen in switzerland[ ]. this station was apparently in the continuous occupation of man during both stone ages, and here have been collected as many as , objects belonging to the first, and over referred to the second period. although the early settlement was only post-glacial, a point about which there is no room for doubt, l. laloy[ ] has estimated "the absolute duration of both epochs together at from , to , years." we may, therefore, ask, if a comparatively recent post-glacial station in switzerland is about , years old, how old may a pre- or inter-glacial station be in gaul or britain? from all this we see how fully justified is j. w. powell's remark that the natural history of early man becomes more and more a geological, and not merely an ethnological problem[ ]. we also begin to understand how it is that, after an existence of some five score millenniums, the first specialised human varieties have diverged greatly from the original types, which have thus become almost "ideal quantities," the subjects rather of palaeontological than of strictly anthropological studies. and here another consideration of great moment presents itself. during these long ages some of the groups--most african negroes south of the equator, most oceanic negroes (negritoes and papuans), and australian and american aborigines--have remained in their original habitats ever since what may be called the first settlement of the earth by man. others again, the more restless or enterprising peoples, such as the mongols, manchus, turks, ugro-finns, arabs, and most europeans, have no doubt moved about somewhat freely; but these later migrations, whether hostile or peaceable, have for the most part been confined to regions presenting the same or like physical and climatic conditions. wherever different climatic zones have been invaded, the intruders have failed to secure a permanent footing, either perishing outright, or disappearing by absorption or more or less complete assimilation to the aboriginal elements. such are some "black arabs" in egyptian sudan, other semites and hamites in abyssinia and west sudan (himyarites, fulahs and others), finns and turks in hungary and the balkan peninsula (magyars, bulgars, osmanli), portuguese and netherlanders in malaysia, english in tropical or sub-tropical lands, such as india, where eurasian half-breeds alone are capable of founding family groups. the human varieties are thus seen to be, like all other zoological species, the outcome of their several environments. they are what climate, soil, diet, pursuits and inherited characters have made them, so that all sudden transitions are usually followed by disastrous results[ ]. "to urge the emigration of women and children, or of any save those of the most robust health, to the tropics, may not be to murder in the first degree, but it should be classed, to put it mildly, as incitement to it[ ]." acclimatisation may not be impossible but in all extreme cases it can be effected only at great sacrifice of life, and by slow processes, the most effective of which is perhaps natural selection. by this means we may indeed suppose the world to have been first peopled. at the same time it should be remembered that we know little of the climatic conditions at the time of the first migrations, though it has been assumed that it was everywhere much milder than at present. consequently the different zones of temperature were less marked, and the passage from one region to another more easily effected than in later times. in a word the pleistocene precursors had far less difficulty in adapting themselves to their new surroundings than modern peoples have when they emigrate, for instance, from southern europe to brazil and paraguay, or from the british isles to rhodesia and nyassaland. what is true of man must be no less true of his works; from which it follows that racial and cultural zones correspond in the main with zones of temperature, except so far as the latter may be modified by altitude, marine influences, or other local conditions. a glance at past and existing relations the world over will show that such harmonies have at all times prevailed. no doubt the overflow of the leading european peoples during the last years has brought about divers dislocations, blurrings, and in places even total effacements of the old landmarks. but, putting aside these disturbances, it will be found that in the eastern hemisphere the inter-tropical regions, hot, moist and more favourable to vegetable than to animal vitality, are usually occupied by savage, cultureless populations. within the same sphere are also comprised most of the extra-tropical southern lands, all tapering towards the antarctic waters, isolated, and otherwise unsuitable for areas of higher specialisation. similarly the sub-tropical asiatic peninsulas, the bleak tibetan tableland, the pamir, and arid mongolian steppes are found mainly in possession of somewhat stationary communities, which present every stage between sheer savagery and civilisation. in the same way the higher races and cultures are confined to the more favoured north temperate zone, so that between the parallels of ° and ° (but owing to local conditions falling in the far east to ° and under, and in the extreme west rising to °) are situated nearly all the great centres, past and present, of human activities--the egyptian, babylonian, minoan (aegean), hellenic, etruscan, roman, and modern european. almost the only exceptions are the early civilisations (himyaritic) of yemen (arabia felix) and abyssinia, where the low latitude is neutralised by altitude and a copious rainfall. thanks also to altitude, to marine influences, and the contraction of the equatorial lands, the relations are almost completely reversed in the new world. here all the higher developments took place, not in the temperate but in the tropical zone, within which lay the seats of the peruvian, chimu, chibcha and maya-quiché cultures; the aztec sphere alone ranged northwards a little beyond the tropic of cancer. thus in both hemispheres the iso-cultural bands follow the isothermal lines in all their deflections, and the human varieties everywhere faithfully reflect the conditions of their several environments. footnotes: [ ] _ethnology_, chaps. v. and vii. [ ] see a. h. keane, _ethnology_, , chap. vii. [ ] h. klaatsch, "die aurignac-rasse und ihre stellung im stammbaum des menschen," _ztschr. f. eth._ lii. . see also _prähistorische zeitschrift_, vol. i. . [ ] cf. a. keith's criticisms in _nature_, vol. lxxxv. , p. . [ ] w. l. h. duckworth, _prehistoric man_, , p. . [ ] w. ridgeway, "the influence of environment on man," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._, vol. xl. , p. . [ ] e. dubois, "_pithecanthropus erectus_, transitional form between man and the apes," _sci. trans. r. dublin soc._ . [ ] o. schoetensack, _der unterkiefer des homo heidelbergensis_, etc., . [ ] c. dawson and a. smith woodward, "on the discovery of a palaeolithic skull and mandible," etc., _quart. journ. geol. soc._ . [ ] this was the view of a. smith woodward when the skull was first exhibited (_loc. cit._), but in his paper, "missing links among extinct animals," _brit. ass._ birmingham, , he is inclined to regard "piltdown man, or some close relative" as "on the direct line of descent with ourselves." for a. keith's criticism see _the antiquity of man_, , p. . [ ] w. l. h. duckworth, _prehistoric man_, , p. . [ ] for the relation between chin formation and power of speech, see e. walkhoff, "der unterkiefer der anthropomorphen und des menschen in seiner funktionellen entwicklung und gestalt," e. selenka, _menschenaffen_, ; h. obermaier, _der mensch der vorzeit_, , p. ; and w. wright, "the mandible of man from the morphological and anthropological points of view," _essays and studies presented to w. ridgeway_, . [ ] cf. w. l. h. duckworth, _prehistoric man_, , p. , and a. keith, _the antiquity of man_, , p. . [ ] a. smith woodward, c.c.; a. keith, c.c. [ ] g. g. maccurdy, following g. s. miller, _smithsonian misc. colls._ vol. , no. ( ), is convinced that "in place of _eoanthropus dawsoni_ we have two individuals belonging to different genera," a human cranium and the jaw of a chimpanzee. _science_, n.s. vol. xliii. , p. . see also appendix a. [ ] for a full description see _quart. journ. geol. soc._ march, . also a. keith, _the antiquity of man_, , p. , and pp. - . [ ] c. dawson and a. smith woodward, "supplementary note on the discovery of a palaeolithic human skull and mandible at piltdown (sussex)," _quart. journ. geol. soc._ april, . [ ] _the antiquity of man_, , p. . [ ] thus lucretius: "arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt, et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami." [ ] _jour. anthrop. inst._ , p. . [ ] _inaugural address_, brit. ass. meeting, toronto, . [ ] m. boule, "l'homme fossile de la chapelle-aux-saints," _annales de paléontologie_, ( ). cf. also h. obermaier, _der mensch der vorzeit_, , p. . [ ] _prehistoric man_, , p. . [ ] _der mensch der vorzeit_, , p. . [ ] this is not generally accepted. see a. keith's diagram, p. and pp. - . [ ] w. j. sollas, "on the cranial and facial characters of the neandertal race," _phil. trans._ , cxciv. [ ] j. fraipont and m. lohest, "recherches ethnographiques sur les ossements humains," etc., _arch. de biologie_, . [ ] gorjanovi[vc]-kramberger, _der diluviale mensch von krapina in kroatia_, . [ ] m. boule, "l'homme fossile de la chapelle-aux-saints," _l'anthr._ xix. , and _annales de paléontologie_, ( ). [ ] h. klaatsch, _prähistorische zeitschrift_, vol. i. . [ ] peyrony and capitan, _rev. de l'ecole d'anthrop._ ; _bull. soc. d'anthr. de paris_, . [ ] g. schwalbe, "der schädel von brüx," _zeitschr. f. morph. u. anthr._ . [ ] makowsky, "der diluviale mensch in löss von brünn," _mitt. anthrop. gesell. in wien_, . [ ] see a. keith, _the antiquity of man_, , chap. x. [ ] h. klaatsch, "die aurignac-rasse," etc., _zeitschr. f. ethn._ lii. . [ ] l. lartet, "une sépulture des troglodytes du périgord," and broca, "sur les crânes et ossements des eyzies," _bull. soc. d'anthr._ de paris, . [ ] r. verneau, _les grottes de grimaldi_, - . [ ] for a complete list with bibliographical references, see h. obermaier, "les restes humains quaternaires dans l'europe centrale," _anthr._ , p. , , p. . [ ] a. keith, _the antiquity of man_, , p. . see also w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , p. ff. [ ] h. klaatsch, "die aurignac-rasse," _zeitschr. f. eth._ , lii. p. . [ ] the mesvinian implements are now accepted as artefacts and placed by h. obermaier immediately below the chellean, though m. commont interprets them as acheulean or even later. see w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , p. ff. [ ] r. smith and h. dewey, "stratification at swanscombe," _archaeologia_, lxiv. . [ ] so called from chelles-sur-marne, near paris. [ ] cf. j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, i. , p. . [ ] from aurignac (haute-garonne), solutré (saône-et-loire), and la madeleine (dordogne). [ ] mas-d'azil, ariège. [ ] w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , pp. - . [ ] "les subdivisions de paléolithique supérieur," _congrès internat. d'anth._ , xiv. pp. - . [ ] h. breuil and e. cartailhac, _la caverne d'altamira_, . for a list of decorated caves, with the names of their discoverers, see j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, i. , p. . a complete _répertoire de l'art quaternaire_ is given by s. reinach, ; and for chronology see e. piette, "classifications des sédiments formés dans les cavernes pendant l'age du renne," _anthr._ . [ ] from la fère-en-tardenois, aisne. [ ] cf. w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , pp. , f. [ ] _die alpen in eiszeitalter_, - . see also "alter des menschengeschlechts," _zeit. f. eth._ xl. . [ ] see w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , p. . [ ] h. obermaier, _der mensch der vorzeit_, - , p. . [ ] _the antiquity of man in europe_, , p. . [ ] _ancient hunters_, , p. . [ ] _proc. prehist. soc. e. anglia_, . , p. . [ ] discourse at the r. institute, london, _nature_, jan. and , . [ ] _nature_, , p. . [ ] _tiden för blekings första bebyggande_, karlskrona, , p. . [ ] "das schweizersbild, eine niederlassung aus palaeolithischer und neolithischer zeit," in _nouveaux mémoires soc. helvétique des sciences naturelles_, vol. xxxv. zurich, . this is described by james geikie, _the antiquity of man in europe_, , pp. - . [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , p. . [ ] _forum_, feb. . [ ] the party of eskimo men and women brought back by lieut. peary from his arctic expedition in were unable to endure our temperate climate. many died of pneumonia, and the survivors were so enfeebled that all had to be restored to their icy homes to save their lives. even for the algonquians of labrador a journey to the coast is a journey to the grave. [ ] w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , p. . chapter ii the metal ages--historic times and peoples progress of archaeological studies--sequence of the metal ages--the copper age--egypt, elam, babylonia, europe--the bronze age--egypt and babylonia, western europe, the aegean, ireland--chronology of the copper and bronze ages--the iron age--hallstatt, la tène--man and his works in the metal ages--the prehistoric age in the west, and in china--historic times--evolution of writing systems-- hieroglyphs and cuneiforms--the alphabet--the persian and other cuneiform scripts--the mas-d'azil markings--alphabetiform signs on neolithic monuments--character and consequences of the later historic migrations--the race merges in the people--the distinguishing characters of peoples--scheme of classification. if, as above seen, the study of human origins is largely a geological problem, the investigation of the later developments, during the metal ages and prehistoric times, belongs mainly to the field of archaeology. hence it is that for the light which has in recent years been thrown upon the obscure interval between the stone ages and the strictly historic epoch, that is to say, the period when in his continuous upward development man gradually exchanged stone for the more serviceable metals, we are indebted chiefly to the pioneer labours of such men as worsaae, steenstrup, forchhammer, schliemann, sayce, layard, lepsius, mariette, maspero, montelius, brugsch, petrie, peters, haynes, sir j. evans, sir a. j. evans and many others, all archaeologists first, and anthropologists only in the second instance. from the researches of these investigators it is now clear that copper, bronze, and iron were successively in use in europe in the order named, so that the current expressions, "copper," "bronze," and "iron" ages remain still justified. but it also appears that overlappings, already beginning in late neolithic times, were everywhere so frequent that in many localities it is quite impossible to draw any well-marked dividing lines between the successive metal periods. that iron came last, a fact already known by vague tradition to the ancients[ ], is beyond doubt, and it is no less certain that bronze of various types intervened between copper and iron. but much obscurity still surrounds the question of copper, which occurs in so many graves of neolithic and bronze times, that this metal has even been denied an independent position in the sequence. but we shall not be surprised that confusion should prevail on this point, if we reflect that the metals, unlike stone, came to remain. once introduced they were soon found to be indispensable to civilised man, so that in a sense the "metal ages" still survive, and must last to the end of time. hence it was natural that copper should be found in prehistoric graves associated, first with polished stone implements, and then with bronze and iron, just as, since the arrival of the english in australia, spoons, clay pipes, penknives, pannikins, and the like, are now found mingled with stone objects in the graves of the aborigines. but that there was a true copper age[ ] prior to that of bronze, though possibly of not very long duration, except of course in the new world[ ], has been placed beyond reasonable doubt by recent investigations. considerable attention was devoted to the subject by j. h. gladstone, who finds that copper was worked by the egyptians in the sinaitic peninsula, that is, in the famous mines of the wadi maghára, from the fourth to the eighteenth dynasty, perhaps from to b.c.[ ] during that epoch tools were made of pure copper in egypt and syria, and by the amorites in palestine, often on the model of their stone prototypes[ ]. elliot smith[ ] claims that "the full story of the coming of copper, complete in every detail and circumstance, written in a simple and convincing fashion that he who runs may read," has been displayed in egypt ever since the year , though the full significance of the evidence was not recognised until reisner called attention to the record of pre-dynastic graves in upper egypt when superintending the excavations at naga-ed-dêr in [ ]. these excavations revealed the indigenous civilisation of the ancient egyptians and, according to elliot smith, dispose of the idea hitherto held by most archaeologists that egypt owed her knowledge of metals to babylonia or some other asiatic source, where copper, and possibly also bronze, may be traced back to the fourth millennium b.c. there was doubtless intercourse between the civilisations of egypt and babylonia but "reisner has revealed the complete absence of any evidence to show or even to suggest that the language, the mode of writing, the knowledge of copper ... were imported" (p. ). elliot smith justly claims (p. ) that in no other country has a similarly complete history of the discovery and the evolution of the working of copper been revealed, but until equally exhaustive excavations have been undertaken on contemporary or earlier sites in sumer and elam, the question cannot be regarded as settled. the work of j. de morgan at susa[ ] ( - ) shows the extreme antiquity of the copper age in ancient elam, even if his estimate of b.c. is regarded as a millennium too early[ ]. at the base of the mound on the natural soil, beneath meters of archaeological layers, were the remains of a town and a necropolis consisting of about tombs. those of the men contained copper axes of primitive type; those of the women, little vases of paint, together with discs of polished copper to serve as mirrors. at fara, excavations by koldewey in , and by andrae and nöldeke in on the site of shuruppak (the home of the babylonian noah) in the valley of the lower euphrates, revealed graves attributed to the prehistoric sumerians, containing copper spear heads, axes and drinking vessels[ ]. in europe, north italy, hungary and ireland[ ] may lay claim to a copper age, but there is very little evidence of such a stage in britain. to this period also may be attributed the nest or _cache_ of pure copper ingots found at tourc'h, west of the aven valley, finisterre, described by m. de villiers du terrage, and comprising pieces, with a total weight of nearly lbs.[ ] these objects, which belong to "the transitional period when copper was used at first concurrently with polished stone, and then disappeared as bronze came into more general use[ ]," came probably from hungary, at that time apparently the chief source of this metal for most parts of europe. of over copper objects described by mathaeus much[ ] nearly all were of hungarian or south german _provenance_, five only being accredited to britain and eight to france. the study of this subject has been greatly advanced by j. hampel, who holds on solid grounds that in some regions, especially hungary, copper played a dominant part for many centuries, and is undoubtedly the characteristic metal of a distinct culture. his conclusions are based on the study of about copper objects found in hungary and preserved in the buda pesth collections. reviewing all the facts attesting a copper age in central europe, egypt, italy, cyprus, troy, scandinavia, north asia, and other lands, he concludes that a copper age may have sprung up independently wherever the ore was found, as in the ural and altai mountains, italy, spain, britain, cyprus, sinai; such culture being generally indigenous, and giving evidence of more or less characteristic local features[ ]. in fact we know for certain that such an independent copper age was developed not only in the region of the great lakes of north america, but also amongst the bantu peoples of katanga and other parts of central africa. copper is not an alloy like bronze, but a soft, easily-worked metal occurring in large quantities and in a tolerably pure state near the surface in many parts of the world. the wonder is, not that it should have been found and worked at a somewhat remote epoch in several different centres, but that its use should have been so soon superseded in so many places by the bronze alloys. from copper to bronze, however, the passage was slow and progressive, the proper proportion of tin, which was probably preceded in some places by an alloy of antimony, having been apparently arrived at by repeated experiments often carried out with no little skill by those prehistoric metallurgists. as suggested by bibra in , the ores of different metals would appear to have been at first smelted together empirically, and the process continued until satisfactory results were obtained. hence the extraordinary number of metals, of which percentages are found in some of the earlier specimens, such as those of the elbing museum, which on analysis yielded tin, lead, silver, iron, antimony, arsenic, sulphur, nickel, cobalt, and zinc in varying quantities[ ]. some bronzes from the pyramid of medum analysed by j. h. gladstone[ ] yielded the high percentage of . of tin, from which we must infer, not only that bronze, but bronze of the finest quality, was already known to the egyptians of the fourth dynasty, _i.e._ b.c. the statuette of gudea of lagash ( b.c.) claimed as the earliest example of bronze in babylonia is now known to be pure copper, and though objects from tello (lagash) of earlier date contain a mixture of tin, zinc, arsenic and other alloys, the proportion is insignificant. the question of priority must, however, be left open until the relative chronology of egypt and babylonia is finally settled, and this is still a much disputed point[ ]. neither would all the difficulties with regard to the origin of bronze be cleared up should egypt or babylonia establish her claim to possess the earliest example of the metal, for neither country appears to possess any tin. the nearest deposit known in ancient times would seem to be that of drangiana, mentioned by strabo, identified with modern khorassan[ ]. strabo and other classical writers also mention the occurrence of tin in the west, in spain, portugal and the cassiterides or tin islands, whose identity has given rise to so much speculation[ ], but "though in after times egypt drew her tin from europe it would be bold indeed to suppose that she did so [in b.c.] and still bolder to maintain that she learned from northern people how to make the alloy called bronze[ ]." apart from the indigenous egyptian origin maintained by elliot smith (above) the hypothesis offering fewest difficulties is that the earliest bronze is to be traced to the region of elam, and that the knowledge spread from s. chaldaea (elam-sumer) to s. egypt in the third millennium b.c.[ ] there seems to be little doubt that the aegean was the centre of dispersal for the new metals throughout the mediterranean area, and copper ingots have been found at various points of the mediterranean, marked with cretan signs[ ]. bronze was known in crete before b.c. for a bronze dagger and spear head were found at hagios onuphrios, near phaistos, with seals resembling those of the sixth to eleventh dynasties[ ]. from the eastern mediterranean the knowledge spread during the second millennium along the ordinary trade routes which had long been in use. the mineral ores of spain were exploited in pre-mycenean times and probably contributed in no small measure to the industrial development of southern europe. from tribe to tribe, along the atlantic coasts the traffic in minerals reached the british isles, where the rich ores were discovered which, in their turn, supplied the markets of the north, the west and the south. even ireland was not left untouched by aegean influence, which reached it, according to g. coffey[ ], by way of the danube and the elbe, and thence by way of scandinavia, though this is a matter on which there is much difference of opinion. ireland's richness in gold during the bronze age made her "a kind of el dorado of the western world," and the discovery of a gold torc found by schliemann in the royal treasury in the second city of troy raises the question as to whether the model of the torc was imported into ireland from the south[ ], or whether (which j. déchelette[ ] regards as less probable) there was already an exportation of irish gold to the eastern mediterranean in pre-mycenean times. of recent years great strides have been made towards the establishment of a definite chronology linking the historic with the prehistoric periods in the aegean, in egypt and in babylonia, and as the estimates of various authorities differ sometimes by a thousand years or so, the subjoined table will be of use to indicate the chronological schemes most commonly followed; the dates are in all cases merely approximate. it has often been pointed out that there is no reason why iron should not have been the earliest metal to be used by man. its ores are more abundant and more easily reduced than any others, and are worked by peoples in a low grade of culture at the present day[ ]. iron may have been known in egypt almost as early as bronze, for a piece in the british museum is attributed to the fourth dynasty, and some beads of manufactured iron were found in a pre-dynastic grave at el gerzeh[ ]. but these and other less well authenticated occurrences of iron are rare, and the metal was not common in egypt before the middle of the second millennium. by the end of the second millennium the knowledge had spread throughout the eastern mediterranean[ ], and towards at latest iron was in common use in italy and central europe. chronological table. egypt[ ] babylonia[ ] aegean[ ] greece[ ] bronze age in europe[ ] dynasty i dynasty of opis ?early ?pre-mycenean dyn. of kish minoan i dyn. iii, dyn. of erech iv dyn. of akkad[ ] dyn. v nd dyn. of erech dyn. vi gutian early minoan ii period i. domination eneolithic dyn. of ur (implements dyn. ix of stone, dyn. of isin middle minoan i copper and dyn. xi mid. minoan ii bronze, poor dyn. xii st dyn. babylon mycenean i in tin) nd dyn. mid. minoan iii period ii dyn. xiii rd dyn. late minoan i dyn. xv period iii dyn. xviii late minoan mycenean ii ii late minoan iii dyn. xix period iv dyn. xx homeric age th dyn. dyn. xxi th to th dyn. close of bronze age[ ] dyn. xxii th dyn. hallstatt the introduction of iron into italy has often been attributed to the etruscans, who were thought to have brought the knowledge from lydia. but the most abundant remains of the early iron age are found not in tuscany, but along the coasts of the adriatic[ ], showing that iron followed the well-known route of the amber trade, thus reaching central europe and _hallstatt_ (which has given its name to the early iron age), where alone in europe the gradual transition from the use of bronze to that of iron has been clearly traced. w. ridgeway[ ] believes that the use of iron was first discovered in the hallstatt area and that thence it spread to switzerland, france, spain, italy, greece, the aegean area, and egypt rather than that the culture drift was in the opposite direction. there is no difference of opinion however as to the importance of this central european area which contained the most famous iron mines of antiquity. hallstatt culture extended from the iberian peninsula in the west to hungary in the east, but scarcely reached scandinavia, north germany, armorica or the british isles where the bronze age may be said to have lasted down to about b.c. over such a vast domain the culture was not everywhere of a uniform type and hoernes[ ] recognises four geographical divisions distinguished mainly by pottery and fibulae, and provisionally classified as illyrian in the south west, or adriatic region, in touch with greece and italy; celtic in the central or danubian area; with an off-shoot in western germany, northern switzerland and eastern france; and germanic in parts of germany, bohemia, moravia, silesia and posen. the hallstatt period ends, roughly, at b.c., and the later iron age takes its name from the settlement of _la tène_, in a bay of the lake of neuchâtel in switzerland. this culture, while owing much to that of hallstatt, and much also to foreign sources, possesses a distinct individuality, and though soon overpowered on the continent by roman influence, attained a remarkable brilliance in the late celtic period in the british isles. that the peoples of the metal ages were physically well developed, and in a great part of europe and asia already of aryan speech, there can be no reasonable doubt. a skull of the early hallstatt period, from a grave near wildenroth, upper bavaria, is described by virchow as long-headed, with a cranial capacity of no less than c.c., strongly developed occiput, very high and narrow face and nose, and in every respect a superb specimen of the regular-featured, long-headed north european[ ]. but owing to the prevalence of cremation the evidence of race is inadequate. the hallstatt population was undoubtedly mixed, and at glasinatz in bosnia, another site of hallstatt civilisation, about a quarter of the skulls examined were brachycephalic[ ]. their works, found in great abundance in the graves, especially of the bronze and iron periods, but a detailed account of which belongs to the province of archaeology, interest us in many ways. the painted earthenware vases and incised metal-ware of all kinds enable the student to follow the progress of the arts of design and ornamentation in their upward development from the first tentative efforts of the prehistoric artist at pleasing effects. human and animal figures, though rarely depicted, occasionally afford a curious insight into the customs and fashions of the times. on a clay vessel, found in at lahse in posen, is figured a regular hunting scene, where we see men mounted on horseback, or else on foot, armed with bow and arrow, pursuing the quarry (nobly-antlered stags), and returning to the penthouse after the chase[ ]. the drawing is extremely primitive, but on that account all the more instructive, showing in connection with analogous representations on contemporary objects, how in prehistoric art such figures tend to become conventionalised and purely ornamental, as in similar designs on the vases and textiles from the ancon necropolis, peru. "most ornaments of primitive peoples, although to our eye they may seem merely geometrical and freely-invented designs, are in reality nothing more than degraded animal and human figures[ ]." this may perhaps be the reason why so many of the drawings of the metal period appear so inferior to those of the cave-dwellers and of the present bushmen. they are often mere conventionalised reductions of pictorial prototypes, comparable, for instance, to the characters of our alphabets, which are known to be degraded forms of earlier pictographs. of the so-called "prehistoric age" it is obvious that no strict definition can be given. it comprises in a general way that vague period prior to all written records, dim memories of which--popular myths, folklore, demi-gods[ ], eponymous heroes[ ], traditions of real events[ ]--lingered on far into historic times, and supplied ready to hand the copious materials afterwards worked up by the early poets, founders of new religions, and later legislators. that letters themselves, although not brought into general use, had already been invented, is evident from the mere fact that all memory of their introduction beyond the vaguest traditions had died out before the dawn of history. the works of man, while in themselves necessarily continuous, stretched back to such an inconceivably remote past, that even the great landmarks in the evolution of human progress had long been forgotten by later generations. and so it was everywhere, in the new world as in the old, amongst eastern as amongst western peoples. in the chinese records the "age of the five emperors"--five, though nine are named--answers somewhat to our prehistoric epoch. it had its eponymous hero, fu hi, reputed founder of the empire, who invented nets and snares for fishing and hunting, and taught his people how to rear domestic animals. to him also is ascribed the institution of marriage, and in his time tsong chi is supposed to have invented the chinese characters, symbols, not of sounds, but of objects and ideas. then came other benevolent rulers, who taught the people agriculture, established markets for the sale of farm produce, discovered the medicinal properties of plants, wrote treatises on diseases and their remedies, studied astrology and astronomy, and appointed "the five observers of the heavenly bodies." but this epoch had been preceded by the "age of the three [six] rulers," when people lived in caves, ate wild fruits and uncooked food, drank the blood of animals and wore the skins of wild beasts (our old stone age). later they grew less rude, learned to obtain fire by friction, and built themselves habitations of wood or foliage (our early neolithic age). thus is everywhere revealed the background of sheer savagery, which lies behind all human culture, while the "golden age" of the poets fades with the "hesperides" and plato's "atlantis" into the region of the fabulous. little need here be said of strictly historic times, the most characteristic feature of which is perhaps the general use of letters. by means of this most fruitful of human inventions, everything worth preserving was perpetuated, and thus all useful knowledge tended to become accumulative. it is no longer possible to say when or where the miracle was wrought by which the apparently multifarious sounds of fully-developed languages were exhaustively analysed and effectively expressed by a score or so of arbitrary signs. but a comparative study of the various writing-systems in use in different parts of the world has revealed the process by which the transition was gradually brought about from rude pictorial representations of objects to purely phonetical symbols. as is clearly shown by the "winter counts" of the north american aborigines, and by the prehistoric rock carvings in upper egypt, the first step was a _pictograph_, the actual figure, say, of a man, standing for a given man, and then for any man or human being. then this figure, more or less reduced or conventionalised, served to indicate not only the term _man_, but the full sound _man_, as in the word _manifest_, and in the modern rebus. at this stage it becomes a _phonogram_, or _phonoglyph_, which, when further reduced beyond all recognition of its original form, may stand for the syllable _ma_ as in _ma-ny_, without any further reference either to the idea or the sound man. the phonogram has now become the symbol of a monosyllable, which is normally made up of two elements, a consonant and a vowel, as in the devanágari, and other syllabic systems. lastly, by dropping the second or vowel element the same symbol, further modified or not, becomes a _letter_ representing the sound _m_, that is, one of the few ultimate elements of articulate speech. a more or less complete set of such characters, thus worn down in form and meaning, will then be available for indicating more or less completely all the phonetic elements of any given language. it will be a true _alphabet_, the wonderful nature of which may be inferred from the fact that only two, or possibly three, such alphabetic systems are known with absolute certainty to have ever been independently evolved by human ingenuity[ ]. from the above exposition we see how inevitably the phoenician parent of nearly all late alphabets expressed at first the consonantal sounds only, so that the vowels or vowel marks are in all cases later developments, as in hebrew, syriac, arabic, greek, the italic group, and the runes. in primitive systems, such as the egyptian, sumerian, chinese, maya-quiché and mexican, one or more of the various transitional steps may be developed and used simultaneously, with a constant tendency to advance on the lines above indicated, by gradual substitution of the later for the earlier stages. a comparison of the sumerian cuneiform and egyptian hieroglyphic systems brings out some curious results. thus at an extremely remote epoch, some millenniums ago, the sumerians had already got rid of the pictorial, and to a great extent of the ideographic, but had barely reached the alphabetic phase. consequently their cuneiform groups, although possessing phonetic value, mainly express full syllables, scarcely ever letters, and rarely complete words. ideographs had given place first to phonograms and then to mere syllables, "complex syllables in which several consonants may be distinguished, or simple syllables composed of only one consonant and one vowel or _vice versa_[ ]." the egyptians, on the other hand, carried the system right through the whole gamut from pictures to letters, but retained all the intermediate phases, the initial tending to fall away, the final to expand, while the bulk of the hieroglyphs represented in various degrees the several transitional states. in many cases they "had kept only one part of the syllable, namely a mute consonant; they detached, for instance, the final _u_ from _bu_ and _pu_, and gave only the values _b_ and _p_ to the human leg [hieroglyph symbol] and to the mat [hieroglyph symbol]. the peoples of the euphrates stopped half way, and admitted actual letters for the vowel sounds _a_, _i_ and _u_ only[ ]." in the process of evolution, metaphor and analogy of course played a large part, as in the evolution of language itself. thus a lion might stand both for the animal and for courage, and so on. the first essays in phonetics took somewhat the form of a modern rebus, thus: [hieroglyph symbol] = _khau_ = sieve, [hieroglyph symbol] = _pu_ = mat; [hieroglyph symbol] = _ru_ = mouth, whence [hieroglyph symbol] = _kho-pi-ru_ = to be, where the sounds and not the meaning of the several components are alone attended to[ ]. by analogous processes was formed a true alphabet, in which, however, each of the phonetic elements was represented at first by several different characters derived from several different words having the same initial syllable. here was, therefore, an _embarras de richesses_, which could be got rid of only by a judicious process of elimination, that is, by discarding all like-sounding symbols but one for the same sound. when this final process of reduction was completed by the scribes, in other words, when all the phonetic signs were rejected except , _i.e._ one for each of the phonetic elements, the phoenician alphabet as we now have it was completed. such may be taken as the real origin of this system, whether the scribes in question were babylonians, egyptians, minaeans, or europeans, that is, whether the phoenician alphabet had a cuneiform, a hieroglyphic, a south arabian, a cretan (aegean), ligurian or iberian origin, for all these and perhaps other peoples have been credited with the invention. the time is not yet ripe for deciding between these rival claimants[ ]. but whatever be the source of the phoenician, that of the persian system current under the achaemenides is clear enough. it is a true alphabet of characters, derived by some selective process directly from the babylonian cuneiforms, without any attempt at a modification of their shapes. hence although simple compared with its prototype, it is clumsy enough compared with the phoenician script, several of the letters requiring groups of as many as four or even five "wedges" for their expression. none of the other cuneiform systems also derived from the sumerian (the assyrian, elamite, vannic, medic) appear to have reached the pure alphabetic state, all being still encumbered with numerous complex syllabic characters. the subjoined table, for which i have to thank t. g. pinches, will help to show the genesis of the cuneiform combinations from the earliest known pictographs. these pictographs themselves are already reduced to the merest outlines of the original pictorial representations. but no earlier forms, showing the gradual transition from the primitive picture writing to the degraded pictographs here given, have yet come to light[ ]. here it may be asked, what is to be thought of the already-mentioned pebble-markings from the mas-d'azil cave at the close of the old stone age? if they are truly phonetic, then we must suppose that palaeolithic man not only invented an alphabetic writing system, but did this right off by intuition, as it were, without any previous knowledge of letters. at least no one will suggest that the dordogne cave-dwellers were already in possession of pictographic or other crude systems, from which the mas-d'azil "script" might have been slowly evolved. yet e. piette, who groups these pebbles, painted with peroxide of iron, in the four categories of numerals, symbols, pictographs, and alphabetical characters, states, in reference to these last, that out of phoenician characters were equally azilian graphic signs. he even suggests that there may be an approach to an inscription in one group, where, however, the mark indicating a stop implies a script running semitic-fashion from right to left, whereas the letters themselves seem to face the other way[ ]. g. g. maccurdy[ ], who accepts the evidence for the existence of writing in azilian, if not in magdalenian times, notes the close similarity between palaeolithic signs and phoenician, ancient greek and cypriote letters. but j. déchelette[ ], reviewing (pp. , ) the arguments against piette's claims, points out in conclusion (p. ) the impossibility of admitting that the population of gaul could suddenly lose so beneficial a discovery as that of writing. yet thousands of years elapse before the earliest appearance of epigraphic monuments. [illustration: evolution of the sumerian cuneiforms.] a possible connection has been suggested by sergi between the mas-d'azil signs and the markings that have been discovered on the megalithic monuments of north africa, brittany, and the british isles. these are all so rudimentary that resemblances are inevitable, and of themselves afford little ground for necessary connections. primitive man is but a child, and all children bawl and scrawl much in the same way. nevertheless c. letourneau[ ] has taken the trouble to compare five such scrawls from "libyan inscriptions" now in the bardo museum, tunis, with similar or identical signs on brittany and irish dolmens. there is the familiar circle plain and dotted [symbol] [symbol], the cross in its simplest form [symbol], the pothook and segmented square [symbol], all of which recur in the phoenician, keltiberian, etruscan, libyan or tuareg systems. letourneau, however, who does not call them letters but only "signes alphabétiformes," merely suggests that, if not phonetic marks when first carved on the neolithic monuments, they may have become so in later times. against this it need only be urged that in later times all these peoples were supplied with complete alphabetic systems from the east as soon as they required them. by that time all the peoples of the culture-zone were well-advanced into the historic period, and had long forgotten the rude carvings of their neolithic forefathers. armed with a nearly perfect writing system, and the correlated cultural appliances, the higher races soon took a foremost place in the general progress of mankind, and gradually acquired a marked ascendancy, not only over the less cultured populations of the globe, but in large measure over the forces of nature herself. with the development of navigation and improved methods of locomotion, inland seas, barren wastes, and mountain ranges ceased to be insurmountable obstacles to their movements, which within certain limits have never been arrested throughout all recorded time. thus, during the long ages following the first peopling of the earth by pleistocene man, fresh settlements and readjustments have been continually in progress, although wholesale displacements must be regarded as rare events. with few exceptions, the later migrations, whether hostile or peaceful, were, for reasons already stated[ ], generally of a partial character, while certain insular regions, such as america and australia, remained little affected by such movements till quite recent times. but for the inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere the results were none the less far-reaching. continuous infiltrations could not fail ultimately to bring about great modifications of early types, while the ever-active principle of convergence tended to produce a general uniformity amongst the new amalgams. thus the great varietal divisions, though undergoing slow changes from age to age, continued, like all other zoological groups, to maintain a distinct regional character. flinders petrie has acutely observed that the only meaning the term "race" now can have is that of a group of human beings, whose type has become unified by their rate of assimilation exceeding the rate of change produced by foreign elements[ ]. we are also reminded by gustavo tosti that "in the actual state of science the word 'race' is a vague formula, to which nothing definite may be found to correspond. on the one hand, the original races can only be said to belong to palaeontology, while the more limited groups, now called races, are nothing but peoples, or societies of peoples, brethren by civilization more than by blood. the race thus conceived ends by identifying itself with nationality[ ]." hence it has been asked why, on the principle of convergence, a fusion of various races, if isolated long enough in a given area, may not eventually lead to a new racial type, without leaving any trace of its manifold origin[ ]. such new racial types would be normal for the later varietal groups, just as the old types were normal for the earlier groups, and a general application might be given to topinard's famous dictum that _les peuples seuls sont des réalités_[ ], that is, peoples alone--groups occupying definite geographical areas--have an objective existence. thus, the notion of race, as a zoological expression in the sense of a pure breed or strain, falls still more into the background, and, as virchow aptly remarks, "this term, which always implied something vague, has in recent times become in the highest degree uncertain[ ]." hence ehrenreich treats the present populations of the earth rather as zoological groups which have been developed in their several geographical domains, and are to be distinguished not so much by their bony structure as by their external characters, such as hair, colour, and expression, and by their habitats and languages. none of these factors can be overlooked, but it would seem that the character of the hair forms the most satisfactory basis for a classification of mankind, and this has therefore been adopted for the new edition of the present work. it has the advantage of simplicity, without involving, or even implying, any particular theory of racial or geographical origins. it has stood the test of time, being proposed by bory de saint vincent in , and adopted by huxley, haeckel, broca, topinard and many others. the three main varieties of hair are the _straight_, the _wavy_ and the so-called _woolly_, termed respectively _leiotrichous_, _cymotrichous_ and _ulotrichous_[ ]. straight hair usually falls straight down, though it may curl at the ends, it is generally coarse and stiff, and is circular in section. wavy hair is undulating, forming long curves or imperfect spirals, or closer rings or curls, and the section is more or less elliptical. woolly hair is characterised by numerous, close, often interlocking spirals, - mm. in diameter, the section giving the form of a lengthened ellipse. straight hair is usually the longest, and woolly hair the shortest, wavy hair occupying an intermediate position. scheme of classification. i. ulotrichi (woolly-haired). . the african negroes, negrilloes, bushmen. . the oceanic negroes: papuans, melanesians in part, tasmanians, negritoes. ii. leiotrichi (straight-haired). . the southern mongols. . the oceanic mongols, polynesians in part. . the northern mongols. . the american aborigines. iii. cymotrichi (curly or wavy-haired). . the pre-dravidians: vedda, sakai, etc., australians. . the "caucasic" peoples: a. southern dolichocephals: mediterraneans, hamites, semites, dravidians, indonesians, polynesians in part. b. northern dolichocephals: nordics, kurds, afghans, some hindus. c. brachycephals: alpines, including the short cevenoles of western and central europe, and tall adriatics or dinarics of eastern europe and the armenians of western asia. footnotes: [ ] thus lucretius: "posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta, sed prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus." [ ] j. déchelette points out that the term copper "age" is not justified for the greater part of europe, as it suggests a demarcation which does not exist and also a more thorough chemical analysis of early metals than we possess. he prefers the term aeneolithic (_aeneus_, copper, [greek: lithos], stone), coined by the italians, to denote the period of transition, dating, according to montelius, from about b.c. to b.c. _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _age du bronze_, , pp. - , . [ ] _eth._, chap. xiii. [ ] see g. elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , pp. - . [ ] paper on "the transition from pure copper to bronze," etc., read at the meeting of the brit. assoc. liverpool, . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . but cf. h. r. hall, _the ancient history of the near east_, , pp. and _n._ . [ ] g. a. reisner, _the early cemeteries of naga-ed-dêr_ (university of california publications), , and _report of the archaeological survey of nubia_, - . [ ] "campagnes de - ," _comptes rendus de l'académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres_, , p. . [ ] cf. j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _age du bronze_, , pp. - . [ ] cf. l. w. king, _a history of sumer and akkad_, , p. . [ ] g. coffey, _the bronze age in ireland_, , p. . [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. this antiquary aptly remarks that "l'expression âge de cuivre a une signification bien précise comme s'appliquant à la partie de la période de la pierre polie où les métaux font leur apparition." [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] in _die kupferzeit in europa_, . [ ] "neuere studien über die kupferzeit," in _zeitschr. f. eth._ , no. . [ ] otto helm, "chemische untersuchungen vorgeschichtlicher bronzen," in _zeitschr. f. eth._ , no. . this authority agrees with hampel's view that further research will confirm the suggestion that in transylvania (hungary) "eine kupfer-antimonmischung vorangegangen, welche zugleich die bronzekultur vorbereitete" (_ib._ p. ). [ ] _proc. soc. bib. archaeol._ , pp. - . [ ] for the chronology of the copper and bronze ages see p. . [ ] copper and tin are found together in abundance in southern china, but this is archaeologically speaking an unknown land; "to search for the birth-place of bronze in china is therefore barren of positive results," _british museum guide to the antiquities of the bronze age_, , p. . [ ] t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , pp. - . [ ] _british museum guide to the antiquities of the bronze age_, , p. . [ ] j. de morgan, _les premières civilisations_, , pp. , ff. [ ] j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _age du bronze_, , pp. and ff. [ ] j. déchelette, _loc. cit._ p. _n._ [ ] g. coffey, _the bronze age in ireland_, , pp. v, . [ ] j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _age du bronze_, , p. _n._ [ ] _guide to the antiquities of the early iron age_ (british museum), , p. . [ ] wainwright, "pre-dynastic iron beads in egypt," _man_, , p. . see also h. r. hall, "note on the early use of iron in egypt," _man_, , p. . [ ] w. belck attributes the introduction of iron into crete in b.c. to the phoenicians, whom he derives from the neighbourhood of the persian gulf. he suggests that these traders were already acquainted with the metal in s. arabia in the fourth millennium, and that it was through them that a piece found its way into egypt in the fourth dynasty. "die erfinder des eisentechnik," _zeitschrift f. ethnologie_, . see also f. stuhlmann, _handwerk und industrie in ostafrika_, , p. ff., who on cultural grounds derives the knowledge of iron in africa from an asiatic source. [ ] e. meyer, "aegyptische chronologie," _abh. berl. akad._ , and "nachträge," _ib._ . this chronology has been adopted by the berlin school and others, but is unsatisfactory in allowing insufficient time for dynasties xii to xviii, which are known to contain to rulers. flinders petrie therefore adds another sothic period ( years, calculated from sothis or sirius), thus throwing the earlier dynasties a millennium or two further back. dynasty i, according to this computation starts in b.c. and dynasty xii at . h. r. hall, _the ancient history of the near east_, , p. . [ ] l. w. king, _the history of sumer and akkad_, , and "babylonia," hutchinson's _history of the nations_, . [ ] c. h. hawes and h. boyd hawes, _crete the forerunner of greece_, . [ ] j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _age du bronze_, , p. . [ ] j. déchelette, _loc. cit._ p. ff. based on the work of o. montelius and p. reinecke. [ ] the dynasty of akkad is often dated a millennium earlier, relying on the statement of nabonidus ( - b.c.) that narâm-sin (the traditional son of sargon of akkad) reigned years before him; but this statement is now known to be greatly exaggerated. see the section on chronology in the art. "babylonia," in _ency. brit._ . [ ] _guide to the antiquities of the early iron age_ (british museum), , p. . [ ] cf. j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , _premier age du fer_, , pp. , - . [ ] _the early age of greece_, , pp. - . [ ] "die hallstattperiode," _ass. française p. l'av. des sciences_, , p. , and _kultur der urzeit_, iii. _eisenzeit_, , p. . [ ] "ein schädel aus der älteren hallstattzeit," in _verhandl. berlin. ges. f. anthrop._ , pp. - . [ ] _guide to the antiquities of the early iron age_ (british museum), , p. . [ ] hans seger, "figürliche darstellungen auf schlesischen gräbgefässen der hallstattzeit," _globus_, nov. , . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] homer's [greek: hêmitheôn genos andrôn], _il._ xii. , if the passage is genuine. [ ] such as the greek _andreas_, the "first man," invented in comparatively recent times, as shown by the intrusive _d_ in [greek: andres] for the earlier [greek: aneres], "men." andreas was of course a greek, sprung in fact from the river peneus and the first inhabitant of the orchomenian plain (pausanias, ix. , ). [ ] for instance, the flooding of the thessalian plain, afterwards drained by the peneus and repeopled by the inhabitants of the surrounding mountains (rocks, stones), whence the myth of deucalion and pyrrha, who are told by the oracle to repeople the world by throwing behind them the "bones of their grandmother," that is, the "stones" of mother earth. [ ] such instances as george guest's cherokee system, and the crude attempt of a vei (west sudanese) negro, if genuine, are not here in question, as both had the english alphabet to work upon. a like remark applies to the old irish and welsh ogham, which are more curious than instructive, the characters, mostly mere groups of straight strokes, being obvious substitutes for the corresponding letters of the roman alphabet, hence comparable to the cryptographic systems of wheatstone and others. [ ] maspero, _the dawn of civilisation_, , p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] see p. giles, art. "alphabet," _ency. brit._ . [ ] see a. j. booth, _the discovery and decipherment of the trilingual cuneiform inscriptions_, . [ ] _l'anthr_. xv. , p. . [ ] _recent discoveries bearing on the antiquity of man in europe_ (smithsonian report for ), , p. ff. [ ] _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, i. . [ ] "les signes libyques des dolmens," _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. . [ ] _eth._ chap. xiii. [ ] _address_, meeting british assoc. ipswich, . [ ] _amer. j. of sociology_, jan. , pp. - . [ ] a. vierkandt, _globus_, , p. . [ ] _Éléments d'anthropologie générale_, p. . [ ] _rassenbildung u. erblichkeit_; _bastian-festschrift_, , p. . [ ] from gk. [greek: leios], smooth, [greek: kuma], wave, [greek: oulos], fleecy, and [greek: thrix], [greek: trichos], hair. j. deniker (_the races of man_, , p. ) distinguishes four classes, the australians, nubians etc. being grouped as _frizzy_. he gives the corresponding terms in french and german:--straight, fr. _droit_, _lisse_, germ. _straff_, _schlicht_; wavy, fr. _ondé_, germ. _wellig_; frizzy, fr. _frisé_, germ. _lockig_; woolly, fr. _crépu_, germ. _kraus_. chapter iii the african negro: i. sudanese conspectus--the negro-caucasic "great divide"--the negro domain-- negro origins--persistence of the negro type--two main sections: sudanese and bantus--contrasts and analogies--sudanese and bantu linguistic areas--the "drum language"--west sudanese groups--_the wolofs_: primitive speech and pottery; religious notions--_the mandingans_: culture and industries; history; the guiné and mali empires--_the felups_: contrasts between the inland and coast peoples; felup type and mental characters--_timni_--african freemasonry--_the sierra leonese_--social relations--_the liberians_--_the krumen_--_the upper guinea peoples_--table of the gold coast and slave coast tribes--ashanti folklore--fetishism; its true inwardness--ancestry worship and the "customs"--the benin bronzes--_the mossi_--african agnostics--central sudanese--general ethnical and social relations--_the songhai_--domain--origins-- egyptian theories--songhai records--_the hausas_--dominant social position--speech and mental qualities--origins--_kanembu_; _kanuri_; _baghirmi_; _mosgu_--ethnical and political relations in the chad basin--the aborigines--islám and heathendom--slave-hunting--arboreal strongholds--mosgu types and contrasts--the cultured peoples of central sudan--kanem-bornu records--eastern sudanese--range of the negro in eastern sudan--_the mabas_--ethnical relations in wadai-- _the nubas_--the nubian problem--nubian origins and affinities-- the negro peoples of the nile-congo watersheds--political relations--two physical types--_the dinka_--linguistic groups-- mental qualities--cannibalism--the african cannibal zone--arts and industries--high appreciation of pictorial art--sense of humour. conspectus of sudanese negroes. #present range.# _africa south of the sahara, less abyssinia, galla, somali and masai lands; tripolitana, mauritania and egypt sporadically; several of the southern united states; west indies; guiana; parts of brazil and peru._ #hair#, _always black, rather short, and crisp, frizzly or woolly, flat in transverse section_; #skin-colour#, _very dark brown or chocolate and blackish, never quite black_; #skull#, _generally dolichocephalous_ (_index _); #jaws#, _prognathous_; #cheek-bone#, _rather small, moderately retreating, rarely prominent_; #nose#, _very broad at base, flat, small, platyrrhine_; #eyes#, _large, round, prominent, black with yellowish cornea_; #stature#, _usually tall, . m. ( ft. in.)_; #lips#, _often tumid and everted_; #arms#, _disproportionately long_; #legs#, _slender with small calves_; #feet#, _broad, flat, with low instep and larkspur heel_. #temperament#, _sensuous, indolent, improvident_; _fitful, passionate and cruel, though often affectionate and faithful_; _little sense of dignity, and slight self-consciousness, hence easy acceptance of yoke of slavery_; _musical_. #speech#, _almost everywhere in the agglutinating state, generally with suffixes_. #religion#, _anthropomorphic_; _spirits endowed with human attributes, mostly evil and more powerful than man_; _ancestry-worship, fetishism, and witchcraft very prevalent_; _human sacrifices to the dead a common feature_. #culture#, _low_; _cannibalism formerly rife, perhaps universal, still general in some regions_; _no science or letters_; _arts and industries confined mainly to agriculture, pottery, wood-carving, weaving, and metallurgy_; _no perceptible progress anywhere except under the influence of higher races_. main[ ] divisions. #west sudanese#: _wolof_; _mandingan_; _felup_; _timni_; _kru_; _sierra leonese_; _liberian_; _tshi, ewe, and yoruba_; _ibo_; _efik_; _borgu_; _mossi_. #central sudanese#: _songhai_; _hausa_; _mosgu_; _kanembu_; _kanuri_; _baghirmi_; _yedina_. #east sudanese#: _maba_; _fúr_; _nuba_; _shilluk_; _dinka_; _bari_; _abaka_; _bongo_; _mangbattu_; _zandeh_; _momfu_; _basé_; _barea_. * * * * * from the anthropological standpoint africa falls into two distinct sections, where the highest (caucasic) and the lowest (negro) divisions of mankind have been conterminous throughout all known time. mutual encroachments and interpenetrations have probably been continuous, and indeed are still going on. yet so marked is the difference between the two groups, and such is the tenacity with which each clings to its proper domain, that, despite any very distinct geographical frontiers, the ethnological parting line may still be detected. obliterated at one or two points, and at others set back always in favour of the higher division, it may be followed from the atlantic coast along the course of the senegal river east by north to the great bend of the niger at timbuktu; then east by south to lake chad, beyond which it runs nearly due east to khartum, at the confluence of the white and blue niles. from this point the now isolated negro groups (basé and barea), on the northern slope of the abyssinian plateau, show that the original boundary was at first continued still east to the red sea at or about massowa. but for many ages the line appears to have been deflected from khartum along the white nile south to the sobat confluence, then continuously south-eastwards round by the sobat valley to the albert nyanza, up the somerset nile to the victoria nyanza, and thence with a considerable southern bend round masailand eastwards to the indian ocean at the equator. all the land north of this irregular line belongs to the hamito-semitic section of the caucasic division, all south of it to the western (african) section of the ulotrichous division. throughout this region--which comprises the whole of sudan from the atlantic to the white nile, and all south of sudan except abyssinia, galla, somali and masai lands--the african negro, clearly, distinguished from the other main groups by the above summarised physical[ ] and mental qualities, largely predominates everywhere and in many places exclusively. the route by which he probably reached these intertropical lands, where he may be regarded as practically indigenous, has been indicated in _ethnology_, chs. x. and xi. as regards the date of this occupation, nothing can be clearly proved. "the history of africa reaches back but a short distance, except, of course, as far as the lower nile valley and roman africa is concerned; elsewhere no records exist, save tribal traditions, and these only relate to very recent events. even archaeology, which can often sketch the main outlines of a people's history, is here practically powerless, owing to the insufficiency of data. it is true that stone implements of palaeolithic and neolithic types are found sporadically in the nile valley[ ], somaliland, on the zambesi, in cape colony and the northern portions of the congo free state, as well as in algeria and tunisia; but the localities are far too few and too widely separated to warrant the inference that they are to be in any way connected. moreover, where stone implements are found they are, as a rule, very near, even actually on, the surface of the earth," and they are rarely, if ever, found in association with bones of extinct animals. "nothing occurs resembling the regular stratification of europe, and consequently no argument based on geological grounds is possible[ ]." the exceptions are the lower nile and zambesi where true palaeoliths have been found not only on the surface (which in this case is not inconsistent with great antiquity) but also in stratified gravel. implements of palaeolithic _type_ are doubtless common, and may be compared to chellean, mousterian and even solutrian specimens[ ], but primitive culture is not necessarily pleistocene. ancient forms persisted in egypt down to the historic period, and even patination is no sure test of age, so until further evidence is found the antiquity of man in africa must remain undecided[ ]. yet since some remote if undated epoch the specialised negro type, as depicted on the egyptian monuments some thousands of years ago[ ], has everywhere been maintained with striking uniformity. "within this wide domain of the black negro there is a remarkably general similarity of type.... if you took a negro from the gold coast of west africa and passed him off amongst a number of nyasa natives, and if he were not remarkably distinguished from them by dress or tribal marks, it would not be easy to pick him out[ ]." nevertheless considerable differences are perceptible to the practised eye, and the contrasts are sufficiently marked to justify ethnologists in treating the _sudanese_ and the _bantu_ as two distinct subdivisions of the family. in both groups the relatively full-blood natives are everywhere very much alike, and the contrasts are presented chiefly amongst the mixed or negroid populations. in sudan the disturbing elements are both hamitic (berbers and tuaregs) and semitic (arabs); while in bantuland they are mainly hamitic (galla) in all the central and southern districts, and arabs on the eastern seaboard from the equator to sofala beyond the zambesi. to the varying proportions of these several ingredients may perhaps be traced the often very marked differences observable on the one hand between such sudanese peoples as the wolof, mandingans, hausa, nubians, zandeh[ ], and mangbattu, and on the other between all these and the swahili, baganda, zulu-xosa, be-chuana, ova-herero and some other negroid bantu. but the distinction is based on social, linguistic, and cultural, as well as on physical grounds, so that, as at present constituted, the sudanese and bantu really constitute two tolerably well-defined branches of the negro family. thanks to muhammadan influences, the former have attained a much higher level of culture. they cultivate not only the alimentary but also the economic plants, such as cotton and indigo; they build stone dwellings, walled towns, substantial mosques and minarets; they have founded powerful states, such as those of the hausa and songhai, of ghana and bornu, with written records going back a thousand years, although these historical peoples are all without exception half-breeds, often with more semitic and hamitic than negro blood in their veins. no such cultured peoples are anywhere to be found in bantuland except on the east coast, where the "moors" founded great cities and flourishing marts centuries before the appearance of the portuguese in the eastern seas. among the results of the gold trade with these coastal settlements may be classed the zimbabwe monuments and other ruins explored by theodore bent in the mining districts south of the zambesi. but in all the negro lands free from foreign influences no true culture has ever been developed, and here cannibalism, witchcraft, and sanguinary "customs" are often still rife, or have been but recently suppressed by the direct action of european administrations. numberless authorities have described the negro as unprogressive, or, if left to himself, incapable of progress in his present physical environment. sir h. h. johnston, who knows him well, goes much further, and speaks of him as a fine animal, who, "in his wild state, exhibits a stunted mind and a dull content with his surroundings, which induces mental stagnation, cessation of all upward progress, and even retrogression towards the brute. in some respects i think the tendency of the negro for several centuries past has been an actual retrograde one[ ]." there is one point in which the bantu somewhat unaccountably compare favourably with the sudanese. in all other regions the spread of culture has tended to bring about linguistic unity, as we see in the hellenic world, where all the old idioms were gradually absorbed in the "common dialect" of the byzantine empire, again in the roman empire, where latin became the universal speech of the west, and lastly in the muhammadan countries, where most of the local tongues have nearly everywhere, except in sudan, disappeared before the arabic, persian, and turkish languages. but in negroland the case is reversed, and here the less cultured bantu populations all, without any known exception, speak dialects of a single mother-tongue, while the greatest linguistic confusion prevails amongst the semi-civilised as well as the savage peoples of sudan. although the bantu language may, as some suppose[ ], have originated in the north and spread southwards to the congo, zambesi, and limpopo basins, it cannot now be even remotely affiliated to any one of the numerous distinct forms of speech current in the sudanese domain. hence to allow time for its diffusion over half the continent, the initial movement must be assigned to an extremely remote epoch, and a corresponding period of great duration must be postulated for the profound linguistic disintegration that is everywhere witnessed in the region between the atlantic and abyssinia. here agglutination, both with prefixed and postfixed particles, is the prevailing morphological order, as in the mandingan, fulah, nubian, dinkan, and mangbattu groups. but every shade of transition is also presented between true agglutination and inflection of the hamito-semitic types, as in hausa, kanuri, kanem, dasa or southern and teda or northern tibu[ ]. elsewhere, and especially in upper guinea, the originally agglutinating tongues have developed on lines analogous to those followed by tibetan, burmese, chinese, and otomi in other continents, with corresponding results. thus the tshi, ewe, and yoruba, surviving members of a now extinct stock-language, formerly diffused over the whole region between cape palmas and the niger delta, have become so burdened with monosyllabic homophones (like-sounding monosyllables), that to indicate their different meanings several distinguishing tones have been evolved, exactly as in the indo-chinese group. in ewe (slave coast) the root _do_, according as it is toned may mean to put, let go, tell, kick, be sad, join, change, grow big, sleep, prick, or grind. so great are the ravages of phonetic decay, that new expedients have been developed to express quite simple ideas, as in tshi (gold coast) _addanmu_, room (_addan_ house, _mu_ interior); _akwancherifo_, a guide (_akwan_ road, _cheri_ to show, _fo_ person); _ensahtsiabah_, finger (_ensah_ hand, _tsia_ small, _abbah_ child = hand's-little-child); but middle-finger = "hand's-little-chief" (_ensahtsiahin_, where _ehin_ chief takes the place of _abbah_ child[ ]). common both to sudanese and bantus, especially about the western borderlands (upper guinea, cameruns, etc.) is the "drum-language," which affords a striking illustration of the negro's musical faculty. "two or three drums are usually used together, each producing a different note, and they are played either with the fingers or with two sticks. the lookers-on generally beat time by clapping the hands. to a european, whose ear and mind are untrained for this special faculty, the rhythm of a drum expresses nothing beyond a repetition of the same note at different intervals of time; but to a native it expresses much more. to him the drum can and does speak, the sounds produced from it forming words, and the whole measure or rhythm a sentence. in this way, when company drums are being played at an _ehsádu_ [palaver], they are made to express and convey to the bystanders a variety of meanings. in one measure they abuse the men of another company, stigmatising them as fools and cowards; then the rhythm changes, and the gallant deeds of their own company are extolled. all this, and much more, is conveyed by the beating of drums, and the native ear and mind, trained to select and interpret each beat, is never at fault. the language of drums is as well understood as that which they use in their daily life. each chief has his own call or motto, sounded by a particular beat of his drums. those of amankwa tia, the ashanti general who fought against us in the war of - , used to say _p[)i]r[)i]h[=u]h_, hasten. similar mottoes are also expressed by means of horns, and an entire stranger in the locality can at once translate the rhythm into words[ ]." similar contrasts and analogies will receive due illustration in the detailed account here following of the several more representative sudanese groups. west sudanese. _wolofs._ throughout its middle and lower course the senegal river, which takes its name from the zenaga berbers, forms the ethnical "divide" between the hamites and the sudanese negroes. the latter are here represented by the wolofs, who with the kindred _jolofs_ and _serers_ occupy an extensive territory between the senegal and the gambia rivers. whether the term "wolof" means "talkers," as if they alone were gifted with the faculty of speech, or "blacks" in contrast to the neighbouring "red" fulahs, both interpretations are fully justified by these senegambians, at once the very blackest and amongst the most garrulous tribes in the whole of africa. the colour is called "ebony," and they are commonly spoken of as "blacks of the black." they are also very tall even for negroes, and the serers especially may claim to be "the patagonians of the old world," men six feet six inches high and proportionately muscular being far from rare in the coast districts about st louis and dakar. their language, which is widespread throughout senegambia, may be taken as a typical sudanese form of speech, unlike any other in its peculiar agglutinative structure, and unaffected even in its vocabulary by the hamitic which has been current for ages on the opposite bank of the senegal. a remarkable feature is the so-called "article," always postfixed and subject to a two-fold series of modifications, first in accordance with the initial consonant of the noun, for which there are six possible consonantal changes (_w_, _m_, _b_, _d_, _s_, _g_), and then according as the object is present, near, not near, and distant, for which there are again four possible vowel changes (_i_, _u_, _o_, _a_), or twenty-four altogether, a tremendous redundancy of useless variants as compared with the single english form _the_. thus this protean particle begins with _b_, _d_ or _w_ to agree with _báye_, father, _digene_, woman, or _fos_, horse, and then becomes _bi_, _bu_, _bo_, _ba_; _di_, _du_ etc.; _wi_, _wu_ etc. to express the presence and the varying distances of these objects: _báye-bi_ = father-the-here; _báye-bu_ = father-the-there; _báye-bo_ = father-the-yonder; _báye-bá_ = father-the-away in the distance. all this is curious enough; but the important point is that it probably gives us the clue to the enigmatic alliterative system of the bantu languages as explained in _ethnology_, p. , the position of course being reversed. thus as in zulu _in_- kose requires _en_- kulu, so in wolof _baye_ requires _bi_, _di_gene _di_, and so on. there are other indications that the now perfected bantu grew out of analogous but less developed processes still prevalent in the sudanese tongues. equally undeveloped is the wolof process of making earthenware, as observed by m. f. regnault amongst the natives brought to paris for the exhibition of . he noticed how one of the women utilised a somewhat deep bowl resting on the ground in such a way as to be easily spun round by the hand, thus illustrating the transition between hand-made and turned pottery. kneading a lump of clay, and thrusting it into the bowl, after sprinkling the sides with some black dust to prevent sticking, she made a hollow in the mass, enlarging and pressing it against the bowl with the back of the fingers bent in, the hand being all the time kept in a vertical position. at the same time the bowl was spun round with the left palm, this movement combined with the pressure exerted by the right hand causing the sides of the vessel to rise and take shape. when high enough it was finished off by thickening the clay to make a rim. this was held in the right hand and made fast to the mouth of the vessel by the friction caused by again turning the bowl with the left hand. this transitional process is frequently met with in africa[ ]. most of the wolofs profess themselves muhammadans, the rest catholics, while all alike are heathen at heart; only the former have charms with texts from the koran which they cannot read, and the latter medals and scapulars of the "seven dolours" or of the trinity, which they cannot understand. many old rites still flourish, the household gods are not forgotten, and for the lizard, most popular of tutelar deities, the customary milk-bowl is daily replenished. glimpses are thus afforded of the totemic system which still survives in a modified form amongst the be-chuana, the mandingans, and several other african peoples, but has elsewhere mostly died out in negroland. the infantile ideas associated with plant and animal totem tokens have been left far behind, when a people like the serers have arrived at such a lofty conception as takhar, god of justice, or even the more materialistic tiurakh, god of wealth, although the latter may still be appealed to for success in nefarious projects which he himself might scarcely be expected to countenance. but the harmony between religious and ethical thought has scarcely yet been reached even amongst some of the higher races. _mandingans._ in the whole of sudan there is scarcely a more numerous or widespread people than the mandingans, who--with their endless ramifications, _kassonké_, _jallonké_, _soninké_, _bambara_, _vei_ and many others--occupy most of the region between the atlantic and the joliba (upper niger) basin, as far south as about ° n. latitude. within these limits it is often difficult to say who are, or who are not members of this great family, whose various branches present all the transitional shades of physical type and culture grades between the true pagan negro and the muhammadan negroid sudanese. even linguistic unity exists only to a limited extent, as the numerous dialects of the mandé stock-language have often diverged so greatly as to constitute independent tongues quite unintelligible to the neighbouring tribes. the typical mandingans, however--faidherbe's malinka-soninké group--may be distinguished from the surrounding populations by their more softened features, broader forehead, larger nose, fuller beard, and lighter colour. they are also distinguished by their industrious habits and generally higher culture, being rivalled by few as skilled tillers of the soil, weavers, and workers in iron and copper. they thus hold much the same social position in the west that the hausa do in the central region beyond the niger, and the french authorities think that "they are destined to take a position of ever increasing importance in the pacified sudan of the future[ ]." thus history brings about its revenges, for the mandingans proper of the kong plateau may fairly claim, despite their late servitude to the fulah conquerors and their present ready acceptance of french rule, to be a historical people with a not inglorious record of over years, as founders of the two great empires of melle and guiné, and of the more recent states of moasina, bambara, kaarta, kong, and others about the water-parting between the head-streams of the niger, and the rivers flowing south to the gulf of guinea. here is the district of manding, which is the original home of the _manding'ké_, _i.e._ "people of manding," as they are generally called, although _mandé_ appears to be the form used by themselves[ ]. here also was the famous city of mali or melle, from which the upper niger group take the name of _mali'nké_, in contradistinction to the _soni'nké_ of the senegal river, the _jalo'nké_ of futa-jallon, and the _bamana_ of bambara, these being the more important historical and cultured groups. according to native tradition and the annals of ahmed bábá, rescued from oblivion by barth[ ], the first mandingan state of guiné (ghána, ghánata), a name still surviving in the vague geographical term "guinea," goes back to pre-muhammadan times. wakayamangha, its legendary founder, is supposed to have flourished years before the hejira, at which date twenty-two kings had already reigned. sixty years after that time the moslem arabs or berbers are said to have already reached west sudan, where they had twelve mosques in ghána, first capital of the empire, and their chief stronghold till the foundation of jinni on the upper niger ( a.d.). two centuries later ( - ) the centre of the mandingan rule was transferred to mali, which under the great king mansa-musa ( - ) became the most powerful sudanese state of which there is any authentic record. for a time it included nearly the whole of west sudan, and a great part of the western sahara, beside the songhai state with its capital gogo, and timbuktu. mansa-musa, who, in the language of the chronicler, "wielded a power without measure or limits," entered into friendly relations with the emperor of morocco, and made a famous pilgrimage to mecca, the splendours of which still linger in the memory of the mussulman populations through whose lands the interminable procession wound its way. he headed , men of arms, says ahmed bábá, and wherever he passed he was preceded by slaves, each bearing a gold stick weighing mitkals ( lbs.), the whole representing a money value of about £ , , (?). the people of cairo and mecca were dazzled by his wealth and munificence; but during the journey a great part of his followers were seized by a painful malady called in their language _tuat_, and this word still lives in the oasis of tuat, where most of them perished. even after the capture of timbuktu by the tuaregs ( ), mali long continued to be the chief state in west nigritia, and carried on a flourishing trade, especially in slaves and gold. but this gold was still supposed to come from the earlier kingdom of guiné, which word consequently still remains associated with the precious metal in the popular belief. about the year mali was captured by the songhai king, omar askia, after which the empire fell to pieces, and its memory now survives only in the ethnical term _mali'nké_. _felups._ from the semi-civilised muhammadan negroid mandingans to the utterly savage full-blood negro felups the transition is abrupt, but instructive. in other regions the heterogeneous ethnical groups crowded into upland valleys, as in the caucasus, have been called the "sweepings of the plains." but in west sudan there are no great ranges towering above the lowlands, and even the "kong mountains" of school geographies have now been wiped out by l. g. binger[ ]. hence the rude aborigines of the inland plateau, retreating before the steady advance of islam, found no place of refuge till they reached the indented fjord-like atlantic seaboard, where many still hold their ground. this is the explanation of the striking contrasts now witnessed between the interior and so many parts of the west coast; on the one hand powerful political organisations with numerous, more or less homogeneous, and semi-civilised negroid populations, on the other an infinite tangle of ethnical and linguistic groups, all alike weltering in the sheerest savagery, or in grades of barbarism even worse than the wild state. even the _felups_, whose territory now stretches from the gambia to the cacheo, but formerly reached the geba and the bissagos islands, do not form a single group. originally the name of an obscure coast-tribe, the term felup or fulup has been extended by the portuguese traders to all the surrounding peoples--_ayamats_, _jolas_, _jigúshes_, _vacas_, _joats_, _karons_, _banyúns_, _banjars_, _fulúns_, _bayots_ and some others who amid much local diversity, presented a sufficiently general outward resemblance to be regarded as a single people by the first european settlers. the felups proper display the physical and mental characters of the typical negro even in an exaggerated form--black colour, flat nose, wide nostrils, very thick and everted lips, red on the inner surface, stout muscular frame, correlated with coarse animal passions, crass ignorance, no arts, industry, or even tribal organisation, so that every little family group is independent and mostly in a state of constant feud with its neighbours. all go naked, armed with bow and arrow, and live in log huts which, though strongly built, are indescribably filthy[ ]. mother-right frequently prevails, rank and property being transmitted in the female line. there is some notion of a superhuman being vaguely identified with the sky, the rain, wind or thunderstorm. but all live in extreme terror of the medicine-man, who is openly courted, but inwardly detested, so that whenever it can be safely done the tables are turned, the witch-doctor is seized and tortured to death. _timni, kru, sierra-leonese, liberians._ somewhat similar conditions prevail all along the seaboard from sierra leone to, and beyond, cape palmas, disturbed or modified by the liberian intruders from the north american plantations, and by the slaves rescued in the thirties and forties by the british cruisers and brought to sierra leone, where their descendants now live in settled communities under european influences. these "coloured" citizens of sierra leone and liberia, who are so often the butt of cheap ridicule, and are themselves perhaps too apt to scorn the kindred "niggers" of the bush, have to be carefully distinguished from these true aborigines who have never been wrenched from their natural environment. in sierra leone the chief aboriginal groups on the coastlands are the _timni_ of the rokelle river, flanked north and south by two branches of the _bulams_, and still further south the _gallinas_, _veys_ and _golas_; in the interior the _lokkos_, _limbas_, _konos_, and _kussas_, with _kurankos_, _mendis_, _hubus_, and other mandingans and fulahs everywhere in the hinterland. of all these the most powerful during the british occupation have always been the timni (timani, temné), who sold to the english the peninsula on which now stands freetown, but afterwards crying off the bargain, repeatedly tried to drive the white and coloured intruders into the sea. they are a robust people of softened negro type, and more industrious farmers than most of the other natives. like the wolofs they believe in the virtue both of christian and moslem amulets, but have hitherto lent a deaf ear to the preachers of both these religions. nevertheless the protestant missionaries have carefully studied the timni language, which possesses an oral literature rich in legends, proverbs, and folklore[ ]. the timni district is a chief centre of the so-called _porro_ fraternity[ ], a sort of secret society or freemasonry widely diffused throughout the coastlands, and possessing its own symbols, skin markings, passwords, and language. it presents curious points of analogy with the brotherhoods of the micronesian islanders, but appears to be even more potent for good and evil, a veritable religious and political state within the state. "when their mandates are issued all wars and civil strife must cease, a general truce is established, and bloodshed stopped, offending communities being punished by bands of armed men in masks. strangers cannot enter the country unless escorted by a member of the guild, who is recognised by passwords, symbolic gestures, and the like. their secret rites are celebrated at night in the depths of the forest, all intruders being put to death or sold as slaves[ ]." in studying the social conditions prevalent amongst the sierra leonese proper, it should be remembered that they are sprung, not only from representatives of almost every tribe along the seaboard, and even in the far interior, but also to a large extent from the freedmen and runaways of nova scotia and london, besides many maroons of jamaica, who were settled here under the auspices of the sierra leone company towards the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. others also have in recent years been attracted to the settlements from the timni and other tribes of the neighbouring districts. the sierra leonese are consequently not themselves a tribe, nor yet a people, but rather a people in course of formation under the influence of a new environment and of a higher culture. an immediate consequence of such a sudden aggregation of discordant elements was the loss of all the native tongues, and the substitution of english as the common medium of intercourse. but english is the language of a people standing on the very highest plane of culture, and could not therefore be properly assimilated by the _disjecta membra_ of tribes at the lowest rung of the social ladder. the resultant form of speech may be called ludicrous, so ludicrous that the sierra leonese version of the new testament had to be withdrawn from circulation as verging almost on the blasphemous[ ]. it has also to be considered that all the old tribal relations were broken up, while an attempt was made to merge these waifs and strays in a single community based on social conditions to which each and all were utter strangers. it is not therefore surprising that the experiment has not proved a complete success, and that the social relations in sierra leone leave something to be desired. although the freedmen and the rescued captives received free gifts of land, their dislike for the labours of the field induced many to abandon their holdings, and take to huckstering and other more pleasant pursuits. hence their descendants almost monopolise the petty traffic and even the "professions" in freetown and the other colonial settlements. although accused of laziness and dishonesty, they have displayed a considerable degree of industrial as well as commercial enterprise, and the sierra leone craftsmen--smiths, mechanics, carpenters, builders--enjoy a good reputation in all the coast towns. all are christians of various denominations, and even show a marked predilection for the "ministry." yet below the surface the old paganism still slumbers, and vodoo practices, as in the west indies and some of the southern states, are still heard of. morality also is admittedly at a low ebb, and it is curious to note that this has in part been attributed to the freedom enjoyed under the british administration. "they have passed from the sphere of native law to that of british law, which is brought to this young community like an article of ready-made clothing. is it a wonder that the clothes do not fit? is it a wonder that kings and chiefs around sierra leone, instead of wishing their people to come and see how well we do things, dread for them to come to this colony on account of the danger to their morals? in passing into this colony, they pass into a liberty which to them is license[ ]." an experiment of a somewhat different order, but with much the same negative results, has been tried by the well-meaning founders of the republic of liberia. here also the bulk of the "civilised aristocrats" are descended of emancipated plantation slaves, a first consignment of whom was brought over by a philanthropic american society in - . the idea was to start them well in life under the fostering care of their white guardians, and then leave them to work out their own redemption in their own way. all control was accordingly withdrawn in , and since then the settlement has constituted an absolutely independent negro state in the enjoyment of complete self-government. progress of a certain material kind was undoubtedly made. the original "free citizens" increased from in to perhaps , in [ ], and the central administration, modelled on that of the united states, maintained some degree of order among the surrounding aborigines, estimated at some two million within the limits of the republic. but these aborigines have not benefited perceptibly by contact with their "civilised" neighbours, who themselves stand at much the same level intellectually and morally as their repatriated forefathers. instead of attending to the proper administration of the republic, the "weegee," as they are called, have constituted themselves into two factions, the "coloured" or half-breeds, and the full-blood negroes who, like the "blancos" and "neros" of some south american states, spend most of their time in a perpetual struggle for office. all are of course intensely patriotic, but their patriotism takes a wrong direction, being chiefly manifested in their insolence towards the english and other european traders on the coast, and in their supreme contempt for the "stinking bush-niggers," as they call the surrounding aborigines. in internal and external difficulties led to the appointment of a commission by president roosevelt with the result that the american government took charge of the finances, military organisation, agriculture and boundary questions, besides arranging for a loan of £ , . the able administration of president barclay, a pure blooded negro, though not of liberian ancestry, is perhaps the happiest augury for the future of the republic[ ]. the _krus_ (kroomen, krooboys[ ]), whose numerous hamlets are scattered along the coast from below monrovia nearly to cape palmas, are assuredly one of the most interesting people in the whole of africa. originally from the interior, they have developed in their new homes a most un-african love of the sea, hence are regularly engaged as crews by the european skippers plying along those insalubrious coastlands. in this service, in which they are known by such nicknames as "bottle-of-beer," "mashed-potatoes," "bubble-and-squeak," "pipe-of-tobacco," and the like, their word may always be depended upon. but it is to be feared that this loyalty, which with them is a strict matter of business, has earned for them a reputation for other virtues to which they have little claim. despite the many years that they have been in the closest contact with the missionaries and traders, they are still at heart the same brutal savages as ever. after each voyage they return to the native village to spend all their gains and pilferings in drunken orgies, and relapse generally into sheer barbarism till the next steamer rounds the neighbouring headland. "it is not a comfortable reflection," writes bishop ingham, whose testimony will not be suspected of bias, "as we look at this mob on our decks, that, if the ship chance to strike on a sunken rock and become unmanageable, they would rise to a man, and seize all they could lay hands on, cut the very rings off our fingers if they could get them in no other way, and generally loot the ship. little has been done to christianise these interesting, hard-working, cheerful, but ignorant and greedy people, who have so long hung on the skirts of civilisation[ ]." it is only fair to the kru to say that this unflattering picture of them stands alone. "there is but one man of all of us who have visited west africa who has not paid a tribute to the kruboy's sterling qualities," says miss kingsley. her opinion coincides with that of the old coasters based on life-long experience, and she waxes indignant at the ingratitude with which kruboy loyalty is rewarded. "they have devoted themselves to us english, and they have suffered, laboured, fought, been massacred and so on with us generation after generation.... kruboys are, indeed, the backbone of white effort in west africa[ ]." but the very worst "sweepings of the sudanese plateau" seem to have gathered along the upper guinea coast, occupied by the already mentioned _tshi_, _ewe_, and _yoruba_ groups[ ]. they constitute three branches of one linguistic, and probably also of one ethnical family, of which, owing to their historic and ethnical importance, the reader may be glad to have here subjoined a somewhat complete tabulated scheme. the _ga_ of the volta delta are here bracketed with the tshi because a. b. ellis, our great authority on the guinea peoples[ ], considers the two languages to be distantly connected. he also thinks there is a foundation of fact in the native traditions, which bring the dominant tribes--ashanti, fanti, dahomi, yoruba, bini--from the interior to the coast districts at no very remote period. thus it is recorded of the ashanti and fanti, now hereditary foes, that ages ago they formed one people who were reduced to the utmost distress during a long war with some inland power, perhaps the conquering muhammadans of the ghana or mali empire. they were saved, however, some by eating of the _shan_, others of the _fan_ plant, and of these words, with the verb _di_, "to eat," were made the tribal names _shan-di_, _fan-di_, now _ashanti_, _fanti_. the _seppiriba_ plant, said to have been eaten by the fanti, is still called _fan_ when cooked. tribes of tshi tribes of ewe tribes of yoruba and ga speech speech speech _gold coast_ _slave coast west_ _slave coast east_ _and niger delta_ ashanti dahomi yoruba[ ] safwhi eweawo ibadan denkera agotine ketu bekwai anfueh egba nkoranza krepe jebu adansi avenor remo assin awuna ode wassaw agbosomi ilorin ahanta aflao ijesa fanti ataklu ondo agona krikor mahin akwapim geng benin (bini) akim attakpami kakanda akwamu aja wari kwao ewemi ibo[ ] ga appa efik[ ] other traditions refer to a time when all were of one speech, and lived in a far country beyond salagha, open, flat, with little bush, and plenty of cattle and sheep, a tolerably accurate description of the inland sudanese plateaux. but then came a red people, said to be the fulahs, muhammadans, who oppressed the blacks and drove them to take refuge in the forests. here they thrived and multiplied, and after many vicissitudes they came down, down, until at last they reached the coast, with the waves rolling in, the white foam hissing and frothing on the beach, and thought it was all boiling water until some one touched it and found it was not hot, and so to this day they call the sea _eh-huru den o nni shew_, "boiling water not hot," but far inland the sea is still "boiling water[ ]." to a. b. ellis we are indebted especially for the true explanation of the much used and abused term _fetish_, as applied to the native beliefs. it was of course already known to be not an african but a portuguese word[ ], meaning a charm, amulet, or even witchcraft. but ellis shows how it came to be wrongly applied to all forms of animal and nature worship, and how the confusion was increased by de brosses' theory of a primordial fetishism, and by his statement that it was impossible to conceive a lower form of religion than fetishism, which might therefore be assumed to be the beginning of all religion[ ]. on the contrary it represents rather an advanced stage, as ellis discovered after four or five years of careful observation on the spot. a fetish, he tells us, is something tangible and inanimate, which is believed to possess power in itself, and is worshipped for itself alone. nor can such an object be picked up anywhere at random, as is commonly asserted, and he adds that the belief "is arrived at only after considerable progress has been made in religious ideas, when the older form of religion becomes secondary and owes its existence to the confusion of the tangible with the intangible, of the material with the immaterial; to the belief in the indwelling god being gradually lost sight of until the power originally believed to belong to the god, is finally attributed to the tangible and inanimate object itself." but now comes a statement that may seem paradoxical to most students of the evolution of religious ideas. we are assured that fetishism thus understood is not specially or at all characteristic of the religion of the gold coast natives, who are in fact "remarkably free from it" and believe in invisible intangible deities. some of them may dwell in a tangible inanimate object, popularly called a "fetish"; but the idea of the indwelling god is never lost sight of, nor is the object ever worshipped for its own sake. true fetishism, the worship of such material objects and images, prevails, on the contrary, far more "amongst the negroes of the west indies, who have been christianised for more than half-a-century, than amongst those of west africa. hence the belief in obeah, still prevalent in the west indies, which formerly was a belief in indwelling spirits which inhabited certain objects, has now become a worship paid to tangible and inanimate objects, which of themselves are believed to possess the power to injure. in europe itself we find evidence amongst the roman catholic populations of the south, that fetishism is a corruption of a former _culte_, rather than a primordial faith. the lower classes there have confused the intangible with the tangible, and believe that the images of the saints can both see, hear and feel. thus we find the italian peasants and fishermen beat and ill-treat their images when their requests have not been complied with.... these appear to be instances of true fetishism[ ]." another phase of religious belief in upper guinea is ancestry worship, which has here been developed to a degree unknown elsewhere. as the departed have to be maintained in the same social position beyond the grave that they enjoyed in this world, they must be supplied with slaves, wives, and attendants, each according to his rank. hence the institution of the so-called "customs," or anniversary feasts of the dead, accompanied by the sacrifice of human victims, regulated at first by the status and afterwards by the whim and caprice of chiefs and kings. in the capitals of the more powerful states, ashanti, dahomey, benin, the scenes witnessed at these sanguinary rites rivalled in horror those held in honour of the aztec gods. details may here be dispensed with on a repulsive subject, ample accounts of which are accessible from many sources to the general reader. in any case these atrocities teach no lesson, except that most religions have waded through blood to better things, unless arrested in mid-stream by the intervention of higher powers, as happily in upper guinea, where the human shambles of kumassi, abomeh, benin and most other places have now been swept away. on the capture of benin by the english in a rare and unexpected prize fell into the hands of ethnologists. here was found a large assortment of carved ivories, woodwork, and especially a series of about bronze and brass plates or panels with figures of natives and europeans, armed and in armour, in full relief, all cast by the _cire perdue_ process[ ], some barbaric, others, and especially a head in the round of a young negress, showing high artistic skill. many of these remarkable objects are in the british museum, where they have been studied by c. h. read and o. m. dalton[ ], who are evidently right in assigning the better class to the sixteenth century, and to the aid, if not the hand, of some portuguese artificers in the service of the king of benin. they add that "casting of an inferior kind continues down to the present time," and it may here be mentioned that armour has long been and is still worn by the cavalry, and even their horses, in the muhammadan states of central sudan. "the chiefs (_kashelláwa_) who serve as officers under the sultan [of bornu] and act as his bodyguard wear jackets of chain armour and cuirasses of coats of mail[ ]." it is clear that metal casting in a large way has long been practised by the semi-civilised peoples of sudan. within the great bend of the niger the veil, first slightly raised by barth in the middle of the nineteenth century, has now been drawn aside by l. g. binger, f. d. lugard and later explorers. here the _mossi_, _borgu_ and others have hitherto more or less successfully resisted the moslem advance, and are consequently for the most part little removed from the savage state. even the "faithful" wear the cloak of islám somewhat loosely, and the level of their culture may be judged from the case of the imám of diulasu, who pestered binger for nostrums and charms against ailments, war, and misfortunes. what he wanted chiefly to know was the names of abraham's two wives. "tell me these," he would say, "and my fortune is made, for i dreamt it the other night; you must tell me; i really must have those names or i'm lost[ ]." in some districts the ethnical confusion is considerable, and when binger arrived at the court of the mossi king, baikary, he was addressed successively in mossi, hausa, songhai, and fulah, until at last it was discovered that mandingan was the only native language he understood. waghadugu, capital of the chief mossi state, comprises several distinct quarters occupied respectively by mandingans, marengas (songhai), zang-wer'os (hausas), chilmigos (fulahs), mussulman and heathen mossis, the whole population scarcely exceeding . however, perfect harmony prevails, the mossi themselves being extremely tolerant despite the long religious wars they have had to wage against the fanatical fulahs and other muhammadan aggressors[ ]. religious indifference is indeed a marked characteristic of this people, and the case is mentioned of a nominal mussulman prince who could even read and write, and say his prayers, but whose two sons "knew nothing at all," or, as we should say, were "agnostics." one of them, however, it is fair to add, is claimed by both sides, the moslems asserting that he says his prayers in secret, the heathens that he drinks _dolo_ (palm-wine), which of course no true believer is supposed ever to do. central sudanese. in central sudan, that is, the region stretching from the niger to wadai, a tolerably clean sweep has been made of the aborigines, except along the southern fringe and in parts of the chad basin. for many centuries islám has here been firmly established, and in negroland islám is synonymous with a greater or less degree of miscegenation. the native tribes who resisted the fiery arab or tuareg or tibu proselytisers were for the most part either extirpated, or else driven to the southern uplands about the congo-chad water-parting. all who accepted the koran became merged with the conquerors in a common negroid population, which supplied the new material for the development of large social communities and powerful political states. under these conditions the old tribal organisations were in great measure dissolved, and throughout its historic period of about a millennium central sudan is found mainly occupied by peoples gathered together in a small number of political systems, each with its own language and special institutions, but all alike accepting islám as the state religion. such are or were the songhai empire, the hausa states, and the kingdoms of bornu with kanem and baghirmi, and these jointly cover the whole of central sudan as above defined. _songhais_[ ]. how completely the tribe[ ] has merged in the people[ ] may be inferred from the mere statement that, although no longer an independent nation[ ], the negroid songhais form a single ethnical group of about two million souls, all of one speech and one religion, and all distinguished by somewhat uniform physical and mental characters. this territory lies mainly about the borderlands between sudan and the sahara, stretching from timbuktu east to the asben oasis and along both banks of the niger from lake debo round to the sokoto confluence, and also at some points reaching as far as the hombori hills within the great bend of the niger. here they are found in the closest connection with the ireghenaten ("mixed") tuaregs, and elsewhere with other tuaregs, and with arabs, fulahs or hausas[ ], so that exclusively songhai communities are now somewhat rare. but the bulk of the race is still concentrated in gurma and in the district between gobo and timbuktu, the two chief cities of the old songhai empire. they are a distinctly negroid people, presenting various shades of intermixture with the surrounding hamites and semites, but generally of a very deep brown or blackish colour, with somewhat regular features and that peculiar long, black, and ringletty hair, which is so characteristic of negro and caucasic blends, as seen amongst the trarsas and braknas of the senegal, the bejas, danakils, and many abyssinians of the region between the nile and the red sea. barth, to whom we still owe the best account of this historical people, describes them as of a dull, morose temperament, the most unfriendly and churlish of all the peoples visited by him in negroland. this writer's suggestion that they may have formerly had relations with the egyptians[ ] has been revived in an exaggerated form by m. félix dubois, whose views have received currency in england through uncritical notices of his _timbouctou la mystérieuse_ (paris, ). but there is no "mystery" in the matter. the songhai are a sudanese people, whose exodus from egypt is a myth, and whose kissur language, as it is called, has not the remotest connection with any form of speech known to have been at any time current in the nile valley[ ]. nor has it any evident affinities with any group of african tongues. h. h. johnston regards the songhai as the result of the mixing of "the libyan section of the hamitic peoples, reinforced by berbers (iberians) from spain," with the pre-existing fulah type and the negroids; as also from the far earlier intercourse between the fulah and the negro[ ]. the songhai empire, like that of the rival mandingans, claims a respectable antiquity, its reputed founder za-el-yemeni having flourished about a.d. za kasi, fifteenth in succession from the founder, was the first muhammadan ruler ( ); but about the country was reduced by the mandingans, and remained throughout the fourteenth and a great part of the fifteenth century virtually subject to the mali empire, although ali killun, founder of the new sonni dynasty, had acquired a measure of independence about - . but the political supremacy of the songhai people dates only from about , when sonni ali, sixteenth of the sonni dynasty, known in history as "the great tyrant and famous miscreant," threw off the mandingan yoke, "and changed the whole face of this part of africa by prostrating the kingdom of melle[ ]." under his successor, muhammad askia[ ], "perhaps the greatest sovereign that ever ruled over negroland[ ]," the songhai empire acquired its greatest expansion, extending from the heart of hausaland to the atlantic seaboard, and from the mossi country to the tuat oasis, south of morocco. although unfavourably spoken of by leo africanus, askia is described by ahmed bábá as governing the subject peoples "with justice and equity, causing well-being and comfort to spring up everywhere within the borders of his extensive dominions, and introducing such of the institutions of muhammadan civilisation as he considered might be useful to his subjects[ ]." askia also made the mecca pilgrimage with a great show of splendour. but after his reign ( - ) the songhai power gradually declined, and was at last overthrown by mulay hamed, emperor of morocco, in - . ahmed bábá, the native chronicler, was involved in the ruin of his people[ ], and since then the songhai nation has been broken into fragments, subject here to hausas, there to fulahs, elsewhere to tuaregs, and, since the french occupation of timbuktu ( ), to the hated giaur. _hausas._ in everything that constitutes the real greatness of a nation, the hausas may rightly claim preeminence amongst all the peoples of negroland. no doubt early in the nineteenth century the historical hausa states, occupying the whole region between the niger and bornu, were overrun and reduced by the fanatical fulah bands under othmán dan fodye. but the hausas, in a truer sense than the greeks, "have captured their rude conquerors[ ]," for they have even largely assimilated them physically to their own type, and the hausa nationality is under british auspices asserting its natural social, industrial and commercial predominance throughout central and even parts of western sudan. it could not well be otherwise, seeing that the hausas form a compact body of some five million peaceful and industrious sudanese, living partly in numerous farmsteads amid their well-tilled cotton, indigo, pulse, and corn fields, partly in large walled cities and great trading centres such as kano[ ], katsena, yacoba, whose intelligent and law-abiding inhabitants are reckoned by many tens of thousands. their melodious tongue, with a vocabulary containing perhaps , words[ ], has long been the great medium of intercourse throughout sudan from lake chad to and beyond the niger, and is daily acquiring even greater preponderance amongst all the settled and trading populations of these regions. but though showing a marked preference for peaceful pursuits, the hausas are by no means an effeminate people. largely enlisted in the british service, they have at all times shown fighting qualities of a high order under their english officers, and a well-earned tribute has been paid to their military prowess amongst others by sir george goldie and lieut. vandeleur[ ]. with the hausas on her side england need assuredly fear no rivals to her beneficent sway over the teeming populations of the fertile plains and plateaux of central sudan, which is on the whole perhaps the most favoured land in africa north of the equator. according to the national traditions, which go back to no very remote period[ ], the seven historical hausa states known as the "hausa bokoy" ("the seven hausas") take their name from the eponymous heroes _biram_, _daura_, _gober_, _kano_, _rano_, _katsena_ and _zegzeg_, all said to be sprung from the deggaras, a berber tribe settled to the north of munyo. from biram, the original seat, the race and its language spread to seven other provinces--_zanfara_, _kebbi_, _nupe_ (_nyffi_), _gwari_, _yauri_, _yariba_ and _kororofa_, which in contempt are called the "banza bokoy" ("the seven upstarts"). all form collectively the hausa domain in the widest sense. authentic history is quite recent, and even komayo, reputed founder of katsena, dates only from about the fourteenth century. ibrahim maji, who was the first moslem ruler, is assigned to the latter part of the fifteenth century, and since then the chief events have been associated with the fulah wars, ending in the absorption of all the hausa states in the unstable fulah empire of sokoto at the beginning of the nineteenth century. with the fall of kano and sokoto in british supremacy was finally established throughout the hausa states, now termed northern nigeria[ ]. _kanembu_; _kanuri_[ ]; _baghirmi_, _mosgu_. round about the shores of lake chad are grouped three other historical muhammadan nations, the kanembu ("people of kanem") on the north, the kanuri of bornu on the west, and the baghirmi on the south side. the last named was conquered by the sultan of wadai in , and overrun by rabah zobeir, half arab, half negro adventurer, in . but in emile gentil[ ], french commissioner for the district, placed the country under french protection, although french authority was not firmly established until the death of rabah and the rout of his sons in . at the same time kanem was brought under french control, and shortly afterwards bornu was divided between great britain, france and germany. in this region the ethnical relations are considerably more complex than in the hausa states. here islám has had greater obstacles to contend with than on the more open western plateaux, and many of the pagan aborigines have been able to hold their ground either in the archipelagos of lake chad (_yedinas, kuri, buduma_[ ]), or in the swampy tracts and uplands of the logon-shari basin (_mosgu_, _mandara_, _makari_, etc.). it was also the policy of the muhammadans, whose system is based on slavery, not to push their religious zeal too far, for, if all the natives were converted, where could they procure a constant supply of slaves, those who accept the teachings of the prophet being _ipso facto_ entitled to their freedom? hence the pagan districts were, and still are, regarded as convenient preserves, happy hunting-grounds to be raided from time to time, but not utterly wasted; to be visited by organised razzias just often enough to keep up the supply in the home and foreign markets. this system, controlled by the local governments themselves, has long prevailed about the borderlands between islám and heathendom, as we know from barth, nachtigal, and one or two other travellers, who have had reluctantly to accompany the periodical slave-hunting expeditions from bornu and baghirmi to the territories of the pagan mosgu people with their numerous branches (_margi, mandara, makari, logon, gamergu, keribina_) and the other aborigines (_bede, ngisem, so, kerrikerri, babir_) on the northern slopes of the congo-chad water-parting. as usual on such occasions, there is a great waste of life, many perishing in defence of their homes or even through sheer wantonness, besides those carried away captives. "a large number of slaves had been caught this day," writes barth, "and in the evening a great many more were brought in; altogether they were said to have taken one thousand, and there were certainly not less than five hundred. to our utmost horror, not less than full-grown men were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been severed from the body[ ]." there was probably just then a glut in the market. a curious result of these relations is that in the wooded districts some of the natives have reverted to arboreal habits, taking refuge during the raids in the branches of huge bombax-trees converted into temporary strongholds. round the vertical stem of these forest giants is erected a breast-high look-out, while the higher horizontal branches, less exposed to the fire of the enemy, support strongly-built huts and store-houses, where the families of the fugitives take refuge with their effects, including, as nachtigal assures us[ ], their domestic animals, such as goats, dogs, and poultry. during the siege of the aërial fortress, which is often successfully defended, long light ladders of withies are let down at night, when no attack need be feared, and the supply of water and provisions is thus renewed from _caches_ or hiding-places round about. in nachtigal accompanied a predatory excursion to the pagan districts south of baghirmi, when an attack was made on one of these tree-fortresses. such citadels can be stormed only at a heavy loss, and as the gaberi (baghirmi) warriors had no tools capable of felling the great bombax-tree, they were fain to rest satisfied with picking off a poor wretch now and then, and barbarously mutilating the bodies as they fell from the overhanging branches. some of these aborigines disfigure their faces by the disk-like lip-ornament, which is also fashionable in nyassaland, and even amongst the south american botocudos. the type often differs greatly, and while some of the widespread mosgu tribes are of a dirty black hue, with disagreeable expression, wide open nostrils, thick lips, high cheek-bones, coarse bushy hair, and disproportionate knock-kneed legs, other members of the same family astonished barth "by the beauty and symmetry of their forms, and by the regularity of their features, which in some had nothing of what is called the negro type. but i was still more astonished at their complexion, which was very different in different individuals, being in some of a glossy black, and in others of a light copper, or rather rhubarb colour, the intermediate shades being almost entirely wanting. i observed in one house a really beautiful female who, with her son, about eight or nine years of age, formed a most charming group, well worthy of the hand of an accomplished artist. the boy's form did not yield in any respect to the beautiful symmetry of the most celebrated grecian statues. his hair, indeed, was very short and curled, but not woolly. he, as well as his mother and the whole family, were of a pale or yellowish-red complexion, like rhubarb[ ]." there is no suggestion of albinism, and the explanation of such strange contrasts must await further exploration in the whole of this borderland of negroes and bantus about the divide between the chad and the congo basins. the country has until lately been traversed only at rare intervals by pioneers, interested more in political than in anthropological matters. of the settled and more or less cultured peoples in the chad basin, the most important are the _kanembu_[ ], who introduce a fresh element of confusion in this region, being more allied in type and speech to the hamitic tibus than to the negro stock, or at least taking a transitional position between the two; the _kanuri_, the ruling people in bornu, of somewhat coarse negroid appearance[ ]; and the southern _baghirmi_, also decidedly negroid, originally supposed to have come from the upper shari and white nile districts[ ]. their civilisation, such as it is, has been developed exclusively under moslem influences, but it has never penetrated much below the surface. the people are everywhere extremely rude, and for the most part unlettered, although the meagre and not altogether trustworthy kanem-bornu records date from the time of sef, reputed founder of the monarchy about a.d. duku, second in descent from sef, is doubtfully referred to about a.d. hamé, founder of a new dynasty, flourished towards the end of the eleventh century ( - ), and dunama, one of his successors, is said to have extended his sway over a great part of the sahara, including the whole of fezzan ( - ). under omar ( - ) a divorce took place between kanem and bornu, and henceforth the latter country has remained the chief centre of political power in the chad basin. a long series of civil wars was closed by ali ( - ), who founded the present capital, birni, and whose grandson, muhammad, brought the empire of bornu to the highest pitch of its greatness ( - ). under ahmed ( - ) began the wars with the fulahs, who, after bringing the empire to the verge of ruin, were at last overthrown by the aid of the kanem people, and since bornu has been ruled by the present kanemíyín dynasty, which though temporarily conquered by rabah in , was restored under british administration in [ ]. eastern sudanese. as some confusion prevails regarding the expression "eastern sudan," i may here explain that it bears a very different meaning, according as it is used in a political or an ethnical sense. politically it is practically synonymous with egyptian sudan, that is the whole region from darfur to the red sea which was ruled or misruled by the khedivial government before the revolt of the mahdi ( - ), and was restored to egypt by the british occupation of khartum in . ethnically eastern sudan comprises all the lands east of the chad basin, where the negro or negroid populations are predominant, that is to say, wadai, darfur, and kordofan in the west, the nile valley from the frontier of egypt proper south to albert nyanza, both slopes of the nile-congo divide (the western tributaries of the white nile and the welle-makua affluent of the congo), lastly the sobat valley with some negro enclaves east of the white nile, and even south of the equator (kavirondo, semliki valley). throughout this region the fusion of the aborigines with hamites and arabs, tuareg, or tibu moslem intruders, wherever they have penetrated, has been far less complete than in central and western sudan. thus in wadai the dominant maba people, whence the country is often called dar-maba ("mabaland"), are rather negro than negroid, with but a slight strain of foreign blood. in the northern districts the _zogháwa_, _gura'an_, _baele_ and _bulala_ tibus keep quite aloof from the blacks, as do elsewhere; the _aramkas_, as the arabs are collectively called in wadai. yet the _mahamíd_ and some other bedouin tribes have here been settled for over years, and it was through their assistance that the mabas acquired the political supremacy they have enjoyed since the seventeenth century, when they reduced or expelled the _tynjurs_[ ], the former ruling race, said to be nubians originally from dongola. it was abd-el-kerim, founder of the new moslem maba state, who gave the country its present name in honour of his grandfather, _wadai_. his successor kharúb i removed the seat of government to wara, where vogel was murdered in . abeshr, the present capital, dates only from the year . except for nachtigal, who crossed the frontier in , nothing was known of the land or its people until the french occupation at the end of the last century ( ). since that date it has been prominent as the scene of the attack on a french column and the death of its leader, colonel moll, in , and the tragic murder of lieutenant boyd alexander earlier in the same year[ ]. _nubas._ as in wadai, the intruding and native populations have been either imperfectly or not at all assimilated in darfur and kordofan, where the muhammadan semites still boast of their pure arab descent[ ], and form powerful confederacies. chief among these are the _baggara_ (baqqara, "cow-herds"), cattle-keepers and agriculturalists, of whom some are as dark as the blackest negroes, though many are fine-looking, with regular, well-shaped features. their form of arabic is notoriously corrupt. their rivals, the _jaalan_ (jalin, jahalin), are mostly riverain "arabs," a learned tribe, containing many scribes, and their language is said to be closer to classical arabic than the form current in egypt. these are the principal slave-hunters of the sudan, and the famous zobeir belonged to their tribe. the _yemanieh_ are largely traders, and trace their origin from south arabia. the _kababish_ are the wealthiest camel-owning tribe, perhaps less contaminated by negro blood than any other arab tribe in the sudan[ ]. the _nuba_ and the _nubians_ have been a source of much confusion, but recent investigations in the field such as those of c. g. seligman[ ] and h. a. macmichael[ ], and the publications of the archaeological survey of nubia conducted by g. a. reisner, help to elucidate the problem. we have first of all to get rid of the "nuba-fulah" family, which was introduced by fr. müller and accepted by some english writers, but has absolutely no existence. the two languages, although both of the agglutinative sudanese type, are radically distinct in all their structural, lexical, and phonetic elements, and the two peoples are equally distinct. the fulahs are of north african origin, although many have in recent times been largely assimilated to their black sudanese subjects. the nuba on the contrary belong originally to the negro stock, with hair of the common negro type, and are among the darkest skinned tribes in the sudan, their colour varying from a dark chocolate brown to the darkest shade of brown black. but rightly to understand the question we have carefully to avoid confusion between the nubians of the nile valley and the negro _nubas_, who gave their name to the nuba mountains, kordofan, where most of the aborigines (_kargo, kulfan, kolaji, tumali, lafofa, eliri, talodi_) still belong to this connection[ ]. kordofan is probably itself a nuba word meaning "land of the kordo" (_fán_ = arab, _dár_, land, country). there is a certain amount of anthropological evidence to connect the nuba with the _fur_ and the _kara_ of darfur to the west[ ]. but it is a different anthropological type that is represented in the three groups of _matokki_ (_kenus_) between the first cataract and wadi-el-arab, the _mahai_ (_marisi_) between korosko and wadi-halfa, at the second cataract, and the _dongolawi_, of the province of dongola between wadi-halfa and jebel deja near meroe. these three groups, all now muhammadans, but formerly christians, constitute collectively the so-called "nubians" of european writers, but call themselves _barabra_, plural of _berberi_, _i.e._ people of berber, although they do not at present extend so far up the nile as that town[ ]. possibly these are strabo's "noubai, who dwell on the left bank of the nile in libya [africa], a great nation etc.[ ]"; and are also to be identified with the _nobatae_, who in diocletian's time were settled, some in the kharga oasis, others in the nile valley about meroe, to guard the frontiers of the empire against the incursions of the restless blemmues. but after some time they appear to have entered into peaceful relations with these hamites, the present bejas, even making common cause with them against the romans; but the confederacy was crushed by maximinus in , though perhaps not before crossings had taken place between the nobatae and the caucasic bejas. then these bejas withdrew to their old homes, which they still occupy, between the nile and the red sea above egypt, while the nobatae, embracing christianity, as is said, in , established the powerful kingdom of dongola which lasted over years, and was finally overthrown by the arabs in the fourteenth century, since which time the nile nubians have been muhammadans. there still remains the problem of language which, as shown by lepsius[ ], differs but slightly from that now current amongst the kordofan nubas. but this similarity only holds in the north, and is now shown to be due to berberine immigration into kordofan[ ]. recent investigations show that the nuba and the barabra, in spite of this linguistic similarity which has misled certain authors[ ], are not to be regarded as belonging to the same race[ ]. "the nuba are a tall, stoutly built muscular people, with a dark, almost black skin. they are predominantly mesaticephalic, for although cephalic indices under and over both occur, nearly per cent. of the individuals measured are mesaticephals, the remaining being dolichocephalic and brachycephalic in about equal proportions." the hair is invariably woolly. the barabra, on the contrary, is of slight, or more commonly medium build, not particularly muscular and in skin colour varies from a yellowish to a chocolate brown. the hair is commonly curly or wavy and may be almost straight, while the features are not uncommonly absolutely non-negroid. "thus there can be no doubt that the two peoples are essentially different in physical characters and the same holds good on the cultural side" (p. ). barabra were identified by lepsius with the wawat, a people frequently mentioned in egyptian records, and recent excavations by the members of the archaeological survey of nubia show a close connection with the predynastic egyptians, a connection supported also on physical grounds. it seems strange, therefore, to meet with repeated reference on egyptian monuments to negroes in nubia when, as proved by excavations, the inhabitants were by no means negroes or even frankly negroid. seligman's solution of the difficulty is as follows (p. ). it seems that only one explanation is tenable, namely that for a period subsequent to the middle kingdom the country in the neighbourhood of the second cataract became essentially a negro country and may have remained in this condition for some little time. then a movement in the opposite direction set in; the negroes, diminished by war, were in part driven back by the great conquerors of the new empire; those that were left mixed with the egyptian garrisons and traders and once more a hybrid race arose which, however, preserved the language of its negro ancestors. although seligman regards the conclusion that this race gave rise directly to the present-day inhabitants of nubia as "premature," and suggests further mixture with the beja of the eastern deserts, elliot smith recognises the essential similarity between the homogeneous blend of egyptian and negro traits which characterise the middle nubian people (contemporary with the middle empire, xii-xvii dynasties), a type which "seems to have remained dominant in nubia ever since then, for the span of almost years[ ]." before the incursions of the nubian-arab traders and raiders, who began to form settlements (_zeribas_, fenced stations) in the upper nile regions above khartum about the middle of the nineteenth century, most of the nile-congo divide (white nile tributaries and welle-makua basin) belonged in the strictest sense to the negro domain. sudanese tribes, and even great nations reckoned by millions, had been for ages in almost undisturbed possession, not only of the main stream from the equatorial lakes to and beyond the sobat junction, but also of the sobat valley itself, and of the numerous south-western head-waters of the white nile converging about lake no above the sobat junction. nearly all the nile peoples--the _shilluks_ and _dinkas_ about the sobat confluence, the _bari_ and _nuers_ of the bahr-el-jebel, the _bongos_ (_dors_), _rols_, _golos_, _mittus_, _madis_, _makarakas_, _abakas_, _mundus_, and many others about the western affluents, as well as the _funj_ of senaar--had been brought under the khedivial rule before the revolt of the mahdi. the same fate had already overtaken or was threatening the formerly powerful _mombuttu_ (_mangbattu_) and _zandeh_[ ] nations of the welle lands, as well as the _krej_ and others about the low watersheds of the nile-congo and chad basins. since then the welle groups have been subjected to the jurisdiction of the congo free state, while the political destinies of the nilotic tribes must henceforth be controlled by the british masters of the nile lands from the great lakes to the mediterranean. although grouped as negroes proper, very few of the nilotic peoples present the almost ideal type of the blacks, such as those of upper guinea and the atlantic coast of west sudan. the complexion is in general less black, the nose less broad at the base, the lips less everted (shilluks and one or two others excepted), the hair rather less frizzly, the dolichocephaly and prognathism less marked. apart from the more delicate shades of transition, due to diverse interminglings with hamites and semites, two distinct types may be plainly distinguished--one black, often very tall, with long thin legs, and long-headed (_shilluks, dinkas, bari, nuers, alur_), the other reddish or ruddy brown, more thick-set, and short-headed (_bongos_, _golos_, _makarakas_, with the kindred _zandehs_ of the welle region). no explanation has been offered of their brachycephaly, which is all the more difficult to account for, inasmuch as it is characteristic neither of the aboriginal negro nor of the intruding hamitic and semitic elements. have we here an indication of the transition suspected by many between the true long-headed negro and the round-headed negrillo, who is also brownish, and formerly ranged as far north as the nile head-streams, as would appear from the early egyptian records (chap. iv.)? schweinfurth found that the bongos were "hardly removed from the lowest grade of brachycephaly[ ]," and the same is largely true of the zandehs and their makaraka cousins, as noticed by junker: "the skull also in many of these peoples approaches the round form, whereas the typical negro is assumed to be long-headed[ ]." but so great is the diversity of appearance throughout the whole of this region, including even "a striking semitic type," that this observer was driven to the conclusion that "woolly hair, common to all, forms in fact the only sure characteristic of the negro[ ]." dinka is the name given to a congeries of independent tribes spread over a vast area, stretching from miles south of khartum to within miles of gondokoro, and reaching many miles to the west in the bahr-el-ghazal province. all these tribes according to c. g. seligman[ ] call themselves _jieng_ or _jenge_, corrupted by the arabs into dinka; but no dinka nation has arisen, for the tribes have never recognised a supreme chief, as do their neighbours, the shilluk, nor have they even been united under a military despot, as the zulu were united under chaka. they differ in manners and customs and even in physique and are often at war with one another. one of the most obvious distinctions in habits is between the relatively powerful cattle-owning dinka and the small and comparatively poor tribes who have no cattle and scarcely cultivate the ground, but live in the marshes in the neighbourhood of the sudd, and depend largely for their sustenance on fishing and hippopotamus-hunting. their villages, which are generally dirty and evil-smelling, are built on ground which rises but little above the reed-covered surface of the country. the dinka community is largely autonomous under leadership of a chief or headman (_bain_) who is sometimes merely the local magician, but in one community in each tribe he is the hereditary rain-maker whose wish is law. "cattle form the economic basis of dinka society; ... they are the currency in which bride-price and blood-fines are paid; and the desire to acquire a neighbour's herds is the common cause of those inter-tribal raids which constitute dinka warfare." some uniformity appears to prevail amongst the languages of the nile-welle lands, and from the rather scanty materials collected by junker, fr. müller was able to construct an "equatorial linguistic family," including the mangbattu, zandeh, barmbo, madi, bangba, krej, golo and others, on both sides of the water-parting. leo reinisch, however, was not convinced, and in a letter addressed to the author declared that "in the absence of sentences it is impossible to determine the grammatical structure of mangbattu and the other languages. at the same time we may detect certain relations, not to the nilotic, but the bantu tongues. it may therefore be inferred that mangbattu and the others have a tolerably close relationship to the bantu, and may even be remotely akin to it, judging from their tendency to prefix formations[ ]." future research will show how far this conjecture is justified. although islám has made considerable progress, throughout the greater part of the sudanese region, though not among the nilotic tribes, the bulk of the people are still practically pagan. witchcraft continues to flourish amongst the equatorial peoples, and important events are almost everywhere attended by sanguinary rites. these are absent among the true nilotics. the dinka are totemic, with ancestor-worship. the shilluk have a cult of divine kings. cannibalism however, in some of its most repulsive forms, prevails amongst the zandehs, who barter in human fat as a universal staple of trade, and amongst the mangbattu, who cure for future use the bodies of the slain in battle and "drive their prisoners before them, as butchers drive sheep to the shambles, and these are only reserved to fall victims on a later day to their horrible and sickly greediness[ ]." in fact here we enter the true "cannibal zone," which, as i have elsewhere shown, was in former ages diffused all over central and south africa, or, it would be more correct to say, over the whole continent[ ], but has in recent times been mainly confined to "the region stretching west and east from the gulf of guinea to the western head-streams of the white nile, and from below the equator northwards in the direction of adamáwa, dar-banda and dar-fertit. wherever explorers have penetrated into this least-known region of the continent they have found the practice fully established, not merely as a religious rite or a privilege reserved for priests, but as a recognised social institution[ ]." yet many of these cannibal peoples, especially the mangbattus and zandehs, are skilled agriculturists, and cultivate some of the useful industries, such as iron and copper smelting and casting, weaving, pottery and wood-carving, with great success. the form and ornamental designs of their utensils display real artistic taste, while the temper of their iron implements is often superior to that of the imported european hardware. here again the observation has been made that the tribes most addicted to cannibalism also excel in mental qualities and physical energy. nor are they strangers to the finer feelings of human nature, and above all the surrounding peoples the zandeh anthropophagists are distinguished by their regard and devotion for their women and children. in one respect all these peoples show a higher degree of intelligence even than the arabs and hamites. "my later experiences," writes junker, "revealed the remarkable fact that certain negro peoples, such as the niam-niams, the mangbattus and the bantus of uganda and unyoro, display quite a surprising understanding of figured illustrations or pictures of plastic objects, which is not as a rule exhibited by the arabs and arabised hamites of north-east africa. thus the unyoro chief, riongo, placed photographs in their proper position, and was able to identify the negro portraits as belonging to the shuli, lango, or other tribes, of which he had a personal knowledge. this i have called a remarkable fact, because it bespoke in the lower races a natural faculty for observation, a power to recognise what for many arabs or egyptians of high rank was a hopeless puzzle. an egyptian pasha in khartum could never make out how a human face in profile showed only one eye and one ear, and he took the portrait of a fashionable parisian lady in extremely low dress for that of the bearded sun-burnt american naval officer who had shown him the photograph[ ]." from this one is almost tempted to infer that, amongst moslem peoples, all sense of plastic, figurative, or pictorial art has been deadened by the koranic precept forbidding the representation of the human form in any way. the welle peoples show themselves true negroes in the possession of another and more precious quality, the sense of humour, although this is probably a quality which comes late in the life of a race. anyhow it is a distinct negro characteristic, which junker was able to turn to good account during the building of his famous _lacrima_ station in ndoruma's country. "in all this i could again notice how like children the negroes are in many respects. once at work they seemed animated by a sort of childlike sense of honour. they delighted in praise, though even a frown or a word of reproach could also excite their hilarity. thus a loud burst of laughter would, for instance, follow the contrast between a piece of good and bad workmanship. like children, they would point the finger of scorn at each other[ ]." one morning ndoruma, hearing that they had again struck work, had the great war-drum beaten, whereupon they rushed to arms and mustered in great force from all quarters. but on finding that there was no enemy to march against, and that they had only been summoned to resume operations at the station, they enjoyed the joke hugely, and after a general explosion of laughter at the way they had been taken in, laid aside their weapons and returned cheerfully to work. some english overseers have already discovered that this characteristic may be utilised far more effectively than the cruel kurbash. ethnology has many such lessons to teach. footnotes: [ ] for a tentative classification of african tribes see t. a. joyce, art. "africa: ethnology," _ency. brit._ , p. . [ ] graphically summed up in the classical description of the negress: "afra genus, totâ patriam testante figurâ, torta comam labroque tumens, et fusca colorem, pectore lata, jacens mammis, compressior alvo, cruribus exilis, spatiosâ prodiga plantâ." [ ] see h. r. hall, papers and references in _man_, , . [ ] t. a. joyce, "africa: ethnology," _ency. brit._ , i. . [ ] j. p. johnson, _the prehistoric period in south africa_, . [ ] see h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. . [ ] the skeleton found by hans reck at oldoway in and claimed by him to be of pleistocene age exhibits all the typical negro features, including the filed teeth, characteristic of east african negroes at the present day, but the geological evidence is imperfect. [ ] h. h. johnston, _british central africa_, , p. . [ ] zandeh is the name usually given to the groups of tribes akin to nilotics, but probably with fulah element, which includes the _azandeh_ or niam niam, _makaraka_, _mangbattu_ and many others. cf. t. a. joyce, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _british central africa_, p. . but see r. e. dennett, _at the back of the black man's mind_, , and a. g. leonard, _the lower niger and its tribes_, , for african mentality. [ ] for theories of bantu migrations see h. h. johnston, _george grenfell and the congo_, , and "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xliii. , p. ff. also f. stuhlmann, _handwerk und industrie in ostafrika_, , p. , f. , with map, pl. . b. for the date see p. . [ ] even a tendency to polysynthesis occurs, as in vei, and in yoruba, where the small-pox god _shakpanna_ is made up of the three elements _shan_ to plaster, _kpa_ to kill, and _enia_ a person = one who kills a person by plastering him (with pustules). [ ] the nilotic languages are to a considerable extent tonic. [ ] a. b. ellis, _the tshi-speaking peoples_, etc., , pp. - . only one european, herr r. betz, long resident amongst the dualas of the cameruns district, has yet succeeded in mastering the drum language; he claims to understand nearly all that is drummed and is also able to drum himself. (_athenæum_, may , , p. .) [ ] cf. h. s. harrison, _handbook to the cases illustrating stages in the evolution of the domestic arts_. part ii. horniman museum and library. forest hill, s.e. [ ] e. t. hamy, "les races nègres," in _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] "chaque fois que j'ai demandé avec intention à un mandé, 'es-tu peul, mossi, dafina?' il me répondait invariablement, '_je suis mandé_.' c'est pourquoi, dans le cours de ma relation, j'ai toujours désigné ce peuple par le nom de _mandé_, qui est son vrai nom." (l. g. binger, _du niger au golfe de guinée_, , vol. ii. p. .) at p. this authority gives the following subdivisions of the mandé family, named from their respective _tenné_ (idol, fetish, totem): . _bamba_, the crocodile: _bammana_, not _bambara_, which means kafir or infidel, and is applied only to the non-moslem mandé groups. . _mali_, the hippopotamus: _mali'nké_, including the kagoros and the tagwas. . _sama_, the elephant: _sama'nké_. . _sa_, the snake: _sa-mokho_. of each there are several sub-groups, while the surrounding peoples call them all collectively _wakoré_, _wangara_, _sakhersi_, and especially _diula_. attention to this point will save the reader much confusion in consulting barth, caillié, and other early books of travel. [ ] _travels_, vol. iv. p. sqq. [ ] "la chaîne des montagnes de kong n'a jamais existé que dans l'imagination de quelques voyageurs mal renseignés," _du niger au golfe de guinée_, , i. p. . [ ] bertrand-bocandé, "sur les floups ou féloups," in _bul. soc. de géogr_. . [ ] a full account of this literature will be found in the rev. c. f. schlenker's valuable work, _a collection of temne traditions, fables and proverbs_, london, . here is given the curious explanation of the tribal name, from _o-tem_, an old man, and _né_, himself, because, as they say, the temné people will exist for ever. [ ] there is also a sisterhood--the _bondo_--and the two societies work so far in harmony that any person expelled from the one is also excluded from the other. [ ] reclus, keane's english ed., xii. p. . [ ] "da njoe testament, translated into the negro-english language by the missionaries of the unitas fratrum," brit. and for. bible soc., london, . here is a specimen quoted by ellis from _the artisan_ of sierra leone, aug. , , "those who live in ceiled houses love to hear the pit-pat of the rain overhead; whilst those whose houses leak are the subjects of restlessness and anxiety, not to mention the chances of catching cold, _that is so frequent a source of leaky roofs_." [ ] right rev. e. g. ingham (bishop of sierra leone), _sierra leone after a hundred years_, london, , p. . cf. h. c. lukach, _a bibliography of sierra leone_, , and t. j. alldridge, _a transformed colony_, . [ ] this increase, however, appears to be due to a steady immigration from the southern states, but for which the liberians proper would die out, or become absorbed in the surrounding native populations. [ ] h. h. johnston, _liberia_, . [ ] possibly the english word "crew," but more probably an extension of _kraoh_, the name of a tribe near settra-kru, to the whole group. [ ] _sierra leone after a hundred years_, p. . [ ] mary h. kingsley, _travels in west africa_, , pp. - . [ ] since the establishment of british authority in nigeria ( to ) much light has been thrown on ethnological problems. see among other works c. partridge, _the cross river natives_, ; a. g. leonard, _the lower niger and its tribes_, ; a. j. n. tremearne, _the niger and the western sudan_, , _the tailed head-hunters of nigeria_, ; r. e. dennett, _nigerian studies_, ; e. d. morel, _nigeria, its people and its problems_, , besides the _anthropological reports_ of n. w. thomas, , , and papers by j. parkinson in _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. , xxxvii. . [ ] the services rendered to african anthropology by this distinguished officer call for the fullest recognition, all the more that somewhat free and unacknowledged use has been made of the rich materials brought together in his classical works on _the tshi-speaking peoples_ ( ), _the ewe-speaking peoples_ ( ), and _the yoruba-speaking peoples_ ( ). [ ] n. w. thomas classifies yoruba, edo, ibo and efik as four main stocks in the western sudanic language group. "in the edo and ibo stocks people only a few miles apart may not be able to communicate owing to diversity of language" (p. ). _anthropological report of the ibo-speaking peoples of nigeria_, part . . [ ] _the tshi-speaking peoples_, p. sq. [ ] _feitiço_, whence also _feiticeira_, a witch, _feiticeria_, sorcery, etc., all from _feitiço_, artificial, handmade, from lat. _facio_ and _factitius_. [ ] _du culte des dieux fétiches_, . it is generally supposed that the word was invented, or at least first introduced, by de brosses; but ellis shows that this also is a mistake, as it had already been used by bosman in his _description of guinea_, london, . [ ] _the tshi-speaking peoples_, ch. xii. p. and _passim._ see also r. h. nassau, _fetichism in west africa_, . [ ] that is, from a wax mould destroyed in the casting. after the operation details were often filled in by chasing or executed in _repoussé_ work. [ ] "works of art from benin city," _journ. anthr. inst._ february, , p. sq. see h. ling roth, _great benin, its customs_, etc., . [ ] a. featherman, _social history of mankind_, the nigritians, p. . see also reclus, french ed., vol. xii. p. : "les cavaliers portent encore la cuirasse comme au moyen âge.... les chevaux sont recouverts de la même manière." in the mythical traditions of buganda also there is reference to the fierce wakedi warriors clad in "iron armour" (ch. iv.). cf. l. frobenius, _the voice of africa_, ii. , pl. p. . [ ] _du niger au golfe de guinée_, , i. p. . [ ] early in the fourteenth century they were strong enough to carry the war into the enemy's camp and make more than one successful expedition against timbuktu. at present the mossi power is declining, and their territory has been parcelled out between the british and french sudanese hinterlands. [ ] also _sonrhay_, _gh_ and _rh_ being interchangeable throughout north africa; _ghat_ and _rhat_, _ghadames_ and _rhadames_, etc. in the mouth of an arab the sound is that of the guttural [symbol], _ghain_, which is pronounced by the berbers and negroes somewhat like the northumberland _burr_, hence usually transliterated by _rh_ in non-semitic words. [ ] it should be noticed that these terms are throughout used as strictly defined in _eth._ ch. i. [ ] barth's account of wulu (iv. p. ), "inhabited by tawárek slaves, who are _trilingues_, speaking temáshight as well as songhay and fulfulde," is at present generally applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to most of the songhai settlements. [ ] as so much has been made of barth's authority in this connection, it may be well to quote his exact words: "it would seem as if they (the sonrhay) had received, in more ancient times, several institutions from the egyptians, with whom, i have no doubt, they maintained an intercourse by means of the energetic inhabitants of aujila from a relatively ancient period" (iv. p. ). barth, therefore, does not bring the people themselves, or their language, from egypt, but only some of their institutions, and that indirectly through the aujila oasis in cyrenaica, and it may be added that this intercourse with aujila appears to date only from about a.d. (iv. p. ). [ ] hacquard et dupuis, _manuel de la langue soñgay, parlée de tombouctou à say, dans la boucle du niger_, , _passim._ [ ] "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xliii. , p. . [ ] barth, iv. pp. - . [ ] the _ischia_ of leo africanus, who tells us that in his time the "linguaggio detto sungai" was current even in the provinces of walata and jinni (vi. ch. ). this statement, however, like others made by leo at second hand, must be received with caution. in these districts songhai may have been spoken by the officials and some of the upper classes, but scarcely by the people generally, who were of mandingan speech. [ ] barth, iv. p. . [ ] _ib._ p. . [ ] carried captive into marakesh, although later restored to his beloved timbuktu to end his days in perpetuating the past glories of the songhai nation; the one negroid man of letters, whose name holds a worthy place beside those of leo africanus, ibn khaldún, el tunsi, and other hamitic writers. [ ] "graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti latio." hor. _epist._ ii. , - . the epithet _agrestis_ is peculiarly applicable to the rude fulah shepherds, who were almost barbarians compared with the settled, industrious, and even cultured hausa populations, and whose oppressive rule has at last been relaxed by the intervention of england in the niger-benue lands. [ ] "one of their towns, kano, has probably the largest market-place in the world, with a daily attendance of from , to , people. this same town possesses, what in central africa is still more surprising, some thirty or forty schools, in which the children are taught to read and write" (rev. c. h. robinson, _specimens of hausa literature_, university press, cambridge, , p. x). [ ] see c. h. robinson, _hausaland, or fifteen hundred miles through the central soudan_, ; _specimens of hausa literature_, ; _hausa grammar_, ; _hausa dictionary_, . authorities are undecided whether to class hausa with the semitic or the hamitic family, or in an independent group by itself, and it must be admitted that some of its features are extremely puzzling. while sudanese negro in phonology and perhaps in most of its word roots, it is hamitic in its grammatical features and pronouns. but the hamitic element is thought by experts to be as much kushite, or even koptic, as libyan. "on the whole, it seems probable," says h. h. johnston, "that the hausa speech was shaped by a double influence: from egypt, and hamiticized nubia, as well as by libyan immigrants from across the sahara." "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xliii. , p. . cf. also julius lippert, "Über die stellung der hausasprache," _mitteilungen des seminärs für orientalische sprachen_, . it is noteworthy that hausa is the only language in tropical africa which has been reduced to writing by the natives themselves. [ ] _campaigning on the upper nile and niger_, by lt seymour vandeleur, with an introduction by sir george goldie, . "in camp," writes lt vandeleur, "their conduct was exemplary, while pillaging and ill-treatment of the natives were unknown. as to their fighting qualities, it is enough to say that, little over strong (on the bida expedition of ), they withstood for two days , or , of the enemy; that, former slaves of the fulahs, they defeated their dreaded masters," etc. [ ] the kano chronicle, translated by h. r. palmer, _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxviii. , gives a list of hausa kings (sarkis) from a.d. [ ] for references to recent literature see note on p. . also r. s. rattray, _hausa folk-lore_, ; a. j. n. tremearne, _hausa superstitions and customs_, , and _hausa folk-tales_, . [ ] by a popular etymology these are _ka-núri_, "people of light." but, as they are somewhat lukewarm muhammadans, the zealous fulahs say it should be _ka-nari_, "people of fire," _i.e._ foredoomed to gehenna! [ ] e. gentil, _la chute de l'empire de rabah_, . [ ] the buduma, who derive their legendary origin from the fulahs whom they resemble in physique, worship the _karraka_ tree (a kind of acacia). p. a. talbot, "the buduma of lake chad," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. . the anthropology of the region has lately been dealt with in _documents scientifiques de la mission tilho_ ( - ), _république française, ministère des colonies_, vol. iii. ; r. gaillard and l. poutrin, _Étude anthropologique des populations des régions du tchad et du kanem_, . [ ] iii. p. . [ ] _sahara and sudan_, ii. p. . [ ] ii. pp. - . [ ] that is "kanem-men," the postfix _bu_, _be_, as in _ti-bu_, _ful-be_, answering to the bantu prefix _ba_, _wa_, as in _ba-suto_, _wa-swahili_, etc. here may possibly be discovered a link between the sudanese, teda-daza, and bantu linguistic groups. the transposition of the agglutinated particles would present no difficulty; cf. umbrian and latin (_eth._ p. ). the kanembu are described by tilho, who explored the chad basin, - . his reports were published in . _république française ministère des colonies, documents scientifiques de la mission tilho_ ( - ), vol. iii. . [ ] barth draws a vivid picture of the contrasts, physical and mental, between the kanuri and the hausa peoples; "here we took leave of hausa with its fine and beautiful country, and its cheerful and industrious population. it is remarkable what a difference there is between the character of the ba-haushe and the kanuri--the former lively, spirited, and cheerful, the latter melancholic, dejected, and brutal; and the same difference is visible in their physiognomies--the former having in general very pleasant and regular features, and more graceful forms, while the kanuri, with his broad face, his wide nostrils and his large bones, makes a far less agreeable impression, especially the women, who are very plain and certainly among the ugliest in all negroland" (ii. pp. - ). [ ] see nachtigal, ii. p. . [ ] for recent literature see lady lugard's _a tropical dependency_, , and the references, note , p. . [ ] these are the same people as the _tunjurs_ (_tunzers_) of darfur, regarding whose ethnical position so much doubt still prevails. strange to say, they themselves claim to be arabs, and the claim is allowed by their neighbours, although they are not muhammadans. lejean thinks they are tibus from the north-west, while nachtigal, who met some as far west as kanem, concluded from their appearance and speech that they were really arabs settled for hundreds of years in the country (_op. cit._ ii. p. ). [ ] a. h. keane, "wadai," _travel and exploration_, july, ; and h. h. johnston, on lieut. boyd alexander, _geog. journ._ same date. [ ] h. a. macmichael has investigated the value of these racial claims in the case of the kababish and indicates the probable admixture of negro, mediterranean, hamite and other strains in the sudanese arabs. he says, "among the more settled tribes any important sheikh or faki can produce a table of his ancestors (_i.e._ a _nisba_) in support of his asseverations.... i asked a village sheikh if he could show me his pedigree, as i did not know from which of the exalted sources his particular tribe claimed descent. he replied that he did not know yet, but that his village had subscribed piastres the month before to hire a faki to compose a _nisba_ for them, and that he would show me the result when it was finished." "the kababish: some remarks on the ethnology of a sudan arab tribe," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , p. . [ ] see the kababish types, pl. xxxvii in c. g. seligman's "some aspects of the hamitic problem in the anglo-egyptian sudan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , but cf. also p. and n. . [ ] "the physical characters of the nuba of kordofan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , "some aspects of the hamitic problem," etc., _tom. cit._ xliii. . [ ] see h. a. macmichael, _the tribes of northern and central kordofán_, . [ ] cf. a. w. tucker and c. s. myers, "a contribution to the anthropology of the sudan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , p. . [ ] this term, however, has by some authorities been identified with the _barabara_, one of the tribes recorded in the inscription on a gateway of thutmes, by whom they were reduced about b.c. in a later inscription of rameses ii at karnak ( b.c.) occurs the form _beraberata_, name of a southern people conquered by him. hence brugsch (_reisebericht aus Ægypten_, pp. and ) is inclined to regard the modern _barabra_ as a true ethnical name confused in classical times with the greek and roman _barbarus_, but revived in its proper sense since the moslem conquest. see also the editorial note on the term _berber_, in the new english ed. of leo africanus, vol. . p. . [ ] [greek:'ex aristerôn de ruseôs tou neilou noubai katoikousin en tê libuê, mega ethnos], etc. (book xvii. p. , oxford ed. ). sayce, therefore, is quite wrong in stating that strabo knew only of "ethiopians," and not nubians, "as dwelling northward along the banks of the nile as far as elephantiné" (_academy_, april , ). [ ] _nubische grammatik_, , _passim._ [ ] b. z. seligman, "note on the languages of the nubas of s. kordofan," _zeitschr. f. kol.-spr._ i. - ; c. g. seligman, "some aspects of the hamitic problem," etc., _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. ff. [ ] see a. h. keane, _man, past and present_, , p. . [ ] c. g. seligman, "the physical characters of the nuba of kordofan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , p. , and "some aspects of the hamitic problem," etc., _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , _passim_. [ ] _archaeological survey of india_, bull. iii. p. . [ ] see note , p. . [ ] _op. cit._ i. p. . [ ] _travels in africa_, keane's english ed., vol. iii. p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] c. g. seligman, art. "dinka," _encyclopaedia of religion and ethics._ see also the same author's "cult of nyakangano the divine kings of the shilluk," _fourth report wellcome research lab. khartoum_, vol. b, , p. ; s. l. cummins, _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxiv. , and h. o'sullivan, "dinka laws and customs," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. . measurements of dinka, shilluk etc. are given by a. w. tucker and c. s. myers, "a contribution to the anthropology of the sudan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. . g. a. s. northcote, "the nilotic kavirondo," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. , describes an allied people, the _jaluo_. [ ] _travels in africa_, keane's eng. ed., iii. p. . thus the bantu _ba_, _wa_, _ama_, etc., correspond to the _a_ of the welle lands, as in _a-zandeh_, _a-barmbo_, _a-madi_, _a-bangba_, _i.e._ zandeh people, barmbo people, etc. cf. also kanem_bu_, ti_bu_, ful_be_, etc., where the personal particle (_bu, be_) is postfixed. it would almost seem as if we had here a transition between the northern sudanese and the southern bantu groups in the very region where such transitions might be looked for. [ ] schweinfurth, _op. cit._ ii. p. . [ ] g. elliot smith denies that cannibalism occurred in ancient egypt, _the ancient egyptians_, , p. . [ ] _africa_, , vol. ii. p. . in a carefully prepared monograph on "endocannibalismus," vienna, , dr rudolf s. steinmetz brings together a great body of evidence tending to show "dass eine hohe wahrscheinlichkeit dafür spricht den endocannibalismus (indigenous anthropophagy) als ständige sitte der urmenschen, sowie der niedrigen wilden anzunehmen" (pp. , ). it is surprising to learn from the ill-starred bòttego-grixoni expedition of - that anthropophagy is still rife even in gallaland, and amongst the white ("floridi") cormoso gallas. like the fans, these prefer the meat "high," and it would appear that all the dead are eaten. hence in their country bòttego found no graves, and one of his native guides explained that "questa gente seppellisce i suoi cari nel ventre, invece che nella terra," _i.e._ these people bury their dear ones in their stomach instead of in the ground. vittorio bòttego, _viaggi di scoperta_, etc. rome, . [ ] i. p. . [ ] ii. p. . chapter iv the african negro: ii. bantus--negrilloes--bushmen--hottentots the sudanese-bantu divide--frontier tribes--_the bonjo cannibals_-- _the baya nation_--a "red people"--the north-east door to bantuland--semitic elements of the bantu amalgam--malay elements in madagascar only--hamitic element everywhere--_the ba-hima_-- pastoral and agricultural clans--the bantus mainly a negro-hamitic cross--date of bantu migration--the _lacustrians_--their traditions--the kintu legend--_the ba-ganda_, past and present-- political and social institutions--totemic system--bantu peoples between lake victoria and the coast--_the wa-giryama_--primitive ancestry-worship--mulungu--_the wa-swahili_--the zang empire--_the zulu-xosas_--former and present domain--patriarchal institutions-- genealogies--physical type--social organisation--"common law"-- _ma-shonas_ and _ma-kalakas_--the mythical monomotapa empire--the zimbabwe ruins--_the be-chuanas_--_the ba-rotse_ empire--_the ma-kololo_ episode--spread of christianity amongst the southern bantus--king khama--_the ova-herero_--_cattle and hill damaras_-- _the kongo people_--old kongo empire--the kongo language--the kongo aborigines--perverted christian doctrines--_the kabindas_ and "_black jews_"--_the ba-shilange_ bhang-smokers--_the ba-lolo_ "men of iron"--the west equatorial bantus--_ba-kalai_--_the cannibal fans_--migrations, type, origin--_the camerun bantus_-- bantu-sudanese borderland--early bantu migrations--eastern ancestry and western nature-worshippers--conclusion--_vaalpens_-- _strandloopers_--_negrilloes_--negrilloes at the courts of the pharaohs--negrilloes and pygmy folklore--_the dume_ and _doko_ reputed dwarfs--_the wandorobbo_ hunters--_the wochua_ mimics-- _the bushmen and hottentots_--former and present range--_the wa-sandawi_--hottentot geographical names in bantuland--hottentots disappearing--bushman folklore literature--bushman-hottentot language and clicks--bushman mental characters--bushman race-names. conspectus. #present range.# bantu: _s. africa from the sudanese frontier to the cape_; negrillo: _west equatorial and congo forest zones_; bush.-hot.: _namaqualands_; _kalahari_; _lake ngami and orange basins_. #hair.# bantu: _same as sudanese, but often rather longer_; negrillo: _short, frizzly or crisp, rusty brown_; bush.-hot.: _much the same as sudanese, but tufty, simulating bald partings_. #colour.# bantu: _all shades of dark brown, sometimes almost black_; negrillo _and_ bush.-hot.: _yellowish brown_. #skull.# bantu: _generally dolicho, but variable_; negrillo: _almost uniformly mesati_; bush.-hot.: _dolicho_. #jaws.# bantu: _moderately prognathous and even orthognathous_; negrillo _and_ bush.-hot.: _highly prognathous_. #cheek-bones.# bantu: _moderately or not at all prominent_; negrillo _and_ bush.-hot.: _very prominent, often extremely so, forming a triangular face with apex at chin_. #nose.# bantu: _variable, ranging from platyrrhine to leptorrhine_; negrillo _and_ bush.-hot.: _short, broad at base, depressed at root, always platyrrhine_. #eyes.# bantu: _generally large, black, and prominent, but also of regular hamitic type_; negrillo _and_ bush.-hot.: _rather small, deep brown and black_. #stature.# bantu: tall, from . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft.); negrillo: _always much under . m. ( ft.), mean about . m. ( ft.)_; bushman: _short, with rather wide range, from . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft. in.)_; hot.: _undersized, mean . m. ( ft. in.)_. #temperament.# bantu: _mainly like the negroid sudanese, far more intelligent than the true negro, equally cruel, but less fitful and more trustworthy_; negrillo: _bright, active and quick-witted, but vindictive and treacherous, apparently not cruel to each other, but rather gentle and kindly_; bushman: _in all these respects very like the negrillo, but more intelligent_; hot.: _rather dull and sluggish, but the full-blood (nama) much less so than the half-caste (griqua) tribes_. #speech.# bantu: _as absolutely uniform as the physical type is variable, one stock language only, of the agglutinating order, with both class prefixes, alliteration and postfixes_[ ]; negrillo: _unknown_; hot.: _agglutinating with postfixes only, with grammatical gender and other remarkable features_; _of hamitic origin_. #religion.# bantu: _ancestor-worship mainly in the east, spirit-worship mainly in the west, intermingling in the centre, with witchcraft and gross superstitions everywhere_; negrillo: _little known_; bush.-hot.: _animism, nature-worship, and reverence for ancestors_; _among hottentots belief in supreme powers of good and evil_. #culture.# bantu: _much lower than the negroid sudanese, but higher than the true negro_; _principally cattle rearers, practising simple agriculture_; negrillo and bush.: _lowest grade, hunters_; hot.: _nomadic herdsmen_. main divisions. #bantus#[ ]: _bonjo_; _baya_; _ba-ganda_; _ba-nyoro_; _wa-pokomo_; _wa-giryama_; _wa-swahili_; _zulu-xosa_; _ma-shona_; _be-chuana_; _ova-herero_; _eshi-kongo_; _ba-shilange_; _ba-lolo_; _ma-nyema_; _ba-kalai_; _fan_; _mpongwe_; _dwala_; _ba-tanga_. #negrilloes#: _akka_; _wochua_; _dume(?)_; _wandorobbo(?)_; _doko(?)_; _obongo_; _wambutte (ba-mbute)_; _ba-twa_. #bushmen#: _family groups_; _no known tribal names_. #hottentots#: _wa-sandawi (?)_; _namaqua_; _griqua_; _gonaqua_; _koraqua_; _hill damaras_. * * * * * in ethnology the only intelligible definition of a bantu is a full-blood or a half-blood negro of bantu speech[ ]; and from the physical standpoint no very hard and fast line can be drawn between the northern sudanese and southern bantu groups, considered as two ethnical units. thanks to recent political developments in the interior, the linguistic divide may now be traced with some accuracy right across the continent. in the extreme west, sir h. h. johnston has shown that it coincides with the lower course of the rio del rey, while farther east the french expedition of under m. dybowski found that it ran at about the same parallel ( ° n.) along the elevated plateau which here forms the water-parting between the congo and the chad basin. from this point the line takes a south-easterly trend along the southern borders of the zandeh and mangbattu territories to the semliki valley between lakes albert edward and albert nyanza, near the equator. thence it pursues a somewhat irregular course, first north by the east side of the albert nyanza to the mouth of the somerset nile, then up that river to mruli and round the east side of usoga and the victoria nyanza to kavirondo bay, where it turns nearly east to the sources of the tana, and down that river to its mouth in the indian ocean. at some points the line traverses debatable territory, as in the semliki valley, where there are sudanese and negrillo overlappings, and again beyond victoria nyanza, where the frontiers are broken by the hamitic masai nomads and their wandorobbo allies. but, speaking generally, everything south of the line here traced is bantu, everything north of it sudanese negro in the western and central regions, and hamitic in the eastern section between victoria nyanza and the indian ocean. in some districts the demarcation is not quite distinct, as in the tana basin, where some of the galla and somali hamites from the north have encroached on the territory of the wa-pokomo bantus on the south side of the river. but on the central plateau m. dybowski passed abruptly from the territory of the bonjos, northernmost of the bantu tribes, to that of the sudanese bandziri, a branch of the widespread zandeh people. in this region, about the crest of the congo-chad water-parting, the contrasts appear to be all in favour of the sudanese and against the bantus, probably because here the former are negroids, the latter full-blood negroes. thus dybowski[ ] found the bonjos to be a distinctly negro tribe with pronounced prognathism, and altogether a rude, savage people, trading chiefly in slaves, who are fattened for the meat market, and when in good condition will fetch about twelve shillings. on the other hand the bandziri, despite their niam-niam connection, are not cannibals, but a peaceful, agricultural people, friendly to travellers, and of a coppery-brown complexion, with regular features, hence perhaps akin to the light-coloured people met by barth in the mosgu country. possibly the bonjos may be a degraded branch of the _bayas_ or _nderes_, a large nation, with many subdivisions widely diffused throughout the sangha basin, where they occupy the whole space between the kadei and the mambere affluents of the main stream ( ° to ° ' n.; ° to ° e.). they are described by m. f. j. clozel[ ] as of tall stature, muscular, well-proportioned, with flat nose, slightly tumid lips, and of black colour, but with a dash of copper-red in the upper classes. although cannibals, like the bonjos, they are in other respects an intelligent, friendly people, who, under the influence of the muhammadan fulahs, have developed a complete political administration, with a royal court, a chancellor, speaker, interpreter, and other officials, bearing sonorous titles taken chiefly from the hausa language. their own bantu tongue is widespread and spoken with slight dialectic differences as far as the nana affluents. m. clozel, who regards them as mentally and morally superior to most of the middle and lower congo tribes, tells us that the bayas, that is, the "red people," came at an unknown period from the east, "yielding to that great movement of migration by which the african populations are continually impelled westwards." the yangere section were still on the move some twelve years ago, but the general migration has since been arrested by the fulahs of adamawa. human flesh is now interdicted to the women; they have domesticated the sheep, goat, and dog, and believe in a supreme being called _so_, whose powers are manifested in the dense woodlands, while minor deities preside over the village and the hut, that is, the whole community and each separate family group. thus both their religious and political systems present a certain completeness, which recalls those prevalent amongst the semi-civilised peoples of the equatorial lake region, and is evidently due to the same cause--long contact or association with a race of higher culture and intelligence. in order to understand all these relations, as well as the general constitution of the bantu populations, we have to consider that the already-described black zone, running from the atlantic seaboard eastwards, has for countless generations been almost everywhere arrested north of the equator by the white nile. probably since the close of the old stone age the whole of the region between the main stream and the red sea, and from the equator north to the mediterranean, has formed an integral part of the hamitic domain, encroached upon in prehistoric times by semites and others in egypt and abyssinia, and in historic times chiefly by semites (arabs) in egypt, upper nubia, senaar, and somaliland. between this region and africa south of the equator there are no serious physical obstructions of any kind, whereas farther west the hamitic saharan nomads were everywhere barred access to the south by the broad, thickly-peopled plateaux of the sudanese black zone. all encroachments on this side necessarily resulted in absorption in the multitudinous negro populations of central sudan, with the modifications of the physical and mental characters which are now presented by the kanuri, hausas, songhai and other negroid nations of that region, and are at present actually in progress amongst the conquering fulah hamites scattered in small dominant groups over a great part of sudan from senegambia to wadai. it follows that the leavening element, by which the southern negro populations have been diversely modified throughout the bantu lands, could have been drawn only from the hamitic and semitic peoples of the north-east. but in this connection the semites themselves must be considered as almost _une quantité négligeable_, partly because of their relatively later arrival from asia, and partly because, as they arrived, they became largely assimilated to the indigenous hamitic inhabitants of egypt, abyssinia, and somaliland. belief in the presence of a semitic people in the interior of s.e. africa in early historic times was supported by the groups of ruins (especially those of zimbabwe), found mainly in southern rhodesia, described in j. t. bent's _ruined cities of mashonaland_. exploration in dispelled the romance hitherto connected with the "temples" and produced evidence to show that they were not earlier in date than the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries and were of native construction[ ]. they probably served as distributing centres for the gold traffic carried on with the semitic traders of the coast. for certainly in muhammadan times semites from arabia formed permanent settlements along the eastern seaboard as far south as sofala, and these intermingled more freely with the converted coast peoples (_wa-swahili_, from _sahel_ = "coast"), but not with the _kafirs_, or "unbelievers," farther south and in the interior. in our own days these swahili half-breeds, with a limited number of full-blood arabs[ ], have penetrated beyond the great lakes to the upper and middle congo basin, but rather as slave-hunters and destroyers than as peaceful settlers, and contracting few alliances, except perhaps amongst the wa-yao and ma-gwangara tribes of mozambique, and the cannibal ma-nyemas farther inland. to this extent semitism may be recognised as a factor in the constituent elements of the bantu populations. malays have also been mentioned, and some ethnologists have even brought the fulahs of western sudan all the way from malaysia. certainly if they reached and formed settlements in madagascar, there is no intrinsic reason why they should not have done the same on the mainland. but i have failed to find any evidence of the fact, and if they ever at any time established themselves on the east coast they have long disappeared, without leaving any clear trace of their presence either in the physical appearance, speech, usages or industries of the aborigines, such as are everywhere conspicuous in madagascar. the small canoes with two booms and double outriggers which occur at least from mombasa to mozambique are of indonesian origin, as are the fish traps that occur at mombasa. there remain the north-eastern hamites, and especially the galla branch, as the essential extraneous factor in this obscure bantu problem. to the stream of migration described by m. clozel as setting east and west, corresponds another and an older stream, which ages ago took a southerly direction along the eastern seaboard to the extremity of the continent, where are now settled the zulu-xosa nations, almost more hamites than negroes. the impulse to two such divergent movements could have come only from the north-east, where we still find the same tendencies in actual operation. during his exploration of the east equatorial lands, capt. speke had already observed that the rulers of the bantu nations about the great lakes (karagwe, ba-ganda, ba-nyoro, etc.) all belonged to the same race, known by the name of _ba-hima_, that is, "northmen," a pastoral people of fine appearance, who were evidently of galla stock, and had come originally from gallaland. since then schuver found that the negroes of the afilo country are governed by a galla aristocracy[ ], and we now know that several ba-hima communities bearing different names live interspersed amongst the mixed bantu nations of the lacustrian plateaux as far south as lake tanganyika and unyamweziland[ ]. here the wa-tusi, wa-hha, and wa-ruanda are or were all of the same hamitic type, and m. lionel dècle "was very much struck by the extraordinary difference that is to be found between them and their bantu neighbours[ ]." then this observer adds: "pure types are not common, and are only to be found amongst the aristocracy, if i may use such an expression for africans. the mass of the people have lost their original type through intermixture with neighbouring tribes." j. roscoe[ ] thus describes the inhabitants of ankole. "the pastoral people are commonly called bahima, though they prefer to be called banyankole; they are a tall fine race though physically not very strong. many of them are over six feet in height, their young king being six feet six inches and broad in proportion to his height.... it is not only the men who are so tall, the women also being above the usual stature of their sex among other tribes, though they do injustice to their height by a fashionable stoop which makes them appear much shorter than they really are. the features of these pastoral people are good: they have straight noses with a bridge, thin lips, finely chiselled faces, heads well set on fairly developed frames, and a good carriage; there is in fact nothing but their colour and their short woolly hair to make you think of them as negroids." the contrast and the relationship between the pastoral conquerors and the agricultural tribes is clearly seen among the ba-nyoro. "the pastoral people are a tall, well-built race of men and women with finely cut features, many of them over six feet in height. the men are athletic with little spare flesh, but the women are frequently very fat and corpulent: indeed their ideal of beauty is obesity, and their milk diet together with their careful avoidance of exercise tends to increase their size. the agricultural clans, on the other hand, are short, ill-favoured looking men and women with broad noses of the negro type, lean and unkempt. both classes are dark, varying in shade from a light brown to deep black, with short woolly hair. the pastoral people refrain, as far as possible, from all manual labour and expect the agricultural clans to do their menial work for them, such as building their houses, carrying firewood and water, and supplying them with grain and beer for their households." "careful observation and enquiry lead to the opinion that the agricultural clans were the original inhabitants and that they were conquered by the pastoral people who have reduced them to their present servile condition[ ]." from these indications and many others that might easily be adduced, it may be concluded with some confidence that the great mass of the bantu populations are essentially negroes, leavened in diverse proportions, for the most part by conquering galla or hamitic elements percolating for thousands of generations from the north-eastern section of the hamitic domain into the heart of bantuland. the date of the bantu migrations is much disputed. "as far as linguistic evidence goes," says h. h. johnston[ ], "the ancestors of the bantu dwelt in some region like the bahr-al-ghazal, not far from the mountain nile on the east, from kordofan on the north, or the benue and chad basins on the west. their first great movement of expansion seems to have been eastward, and to have established them (possibly with a guiding aristocracy of hamitic origin) in the region between mount elgon, the northern victoria nyanza, tanganyika, and the congo forest. at some such period as about b.c. their far-reaching invasion of central and south africa seems to have begun." the date is fixed by the date of the introduction of the fowl from nile-land, since the root word for fowl is the same almost throughout bantu africa, "obviously related to the persian words for fowl, yet quite unrelated to the semitic terms, or to those used by the kushites of eastern africa." f. stuhlmann, on the contrary, places the migrations practically in geological times. after bringing the sudan negroes from south asia at the end of the tertiary or beginning of the pleistocene (_pluvialperiod_), and the proto-hamites from a region probably somewhat further to the north and west of the former, he continues: from the mingling of the negroes and the proto-hamites were formed, probably in east africa, the bantu languages and the bantu peoples, who wandered thence south and west. the wanderings began in the latter part of the pleistocene period[ ]. he quotes th. arldt, who with greater precision places the occupation of africa by the negroes in the riss period ( , years ago) and that of the hamites in the mousterian period ( , to , years ago)[ ]. all these peoples resulting from the crossings of negroes with hamites now speak various forms of the same organic bantu mother-tongue. but this linguistic uniformity is strictly analogous to that now prevailing amongst the multifarious peoples of aryan speech in eurasia, and is due to analogous causes--the diffusion in extremely remote times of a mixed hamito-negro people of bantu speech in africa south of the equator. it might perhaps be objected that the present ba-hima pastors are of hamitic speech, because we know from stanley that the late king m'tesa of buganda was proud of his galla ancestors, whose language he still spoke as his mother-tongue. but he also spoke luganda, and every echo of galla speech has already died out amongst most of the ba-hima communities in the equatorial regions. so it was with what i may call the "proto-ba-himas," the first conquering galla tribes, schuver's and dècle's "aristocracy," who were gradually blended with the aborigines in a new and superior nationality of bantu speech, because "there are many mixed races, ... but there are no mixed languages[ ]." these views are confirmed by the traditions and folklore still current amongst the "lacustrians," as the great nations may be called, who are now grouped round about the shores of lakes victoria and albert nyanza. at present, or rather before the recent extension of the british administration to east central africa, these peoples were constituted in a number of separate kingdoms, the most powerful of which were buganda (uganda)[ ], bunyoro (unyoro), and karagwe. but they remember a time when all these now scattered fragments formed parts of a mighty monarchy, the vast kitwara empire, which comprised the whole of the lake-studded plateau between the ruwenzori range and kavirondoland. the story is differently told in the different states, each nation being eager to twist it to its own glorification; but all are agreed that the founder of the empire was kintu, "the blameless," at once priest, patriarch and ruler of the land, who came from the north hundreds of years ago, with one wife, one cow, one goat, one sheep, one chicken, one banana-root, and one sweet potato. at first all was waste, an uninhabited wilderness, but it was soon miraculously peopled, stocked, and planted with what he had brought with him, the potato being apportioned to bunyoro, the banana to buganda, and these form the staple food of those lands to this day. then the people waxed wicked, and kintu, weary of their evil ways and daily bloodshed, took the original wife, cow, and other things, and went away in the night and was seen no more. but nobody believed him dead, and a long line of his mythical successors appear to have spent the time they could spare from strife and war and evil deeds in looking for the lost kintu. kimera, one of these, was a mighty giant of such strength and weight that he left his footprints on the rocks where he trod, as may still be seen on a cliff not far from ulagalla, the old capital of buganda. there was also a magician, kibaga, who could fly aloft and kill the ba-nyoro people (this is the buganda version) by hurling stones down upon them, and for his services received in marriage a beautiful ba-nyoro captive, who, another delilah, found out his secret, and betrayed him to her people. at last came king ma'anda, who pretended to be a great hunter, but it was only to roam the woodlands in search of kintu, and thus have tidings of him. one day a peasant, obeying the directions of a thrice-dreamt dream, came to a place in the forest, where was an aged man on a throne between two rows of armed warriors, seated on mats, his long beard white with age, and all his men fair as white people and clothed in white robes. then kintu, for it was he, bid the peasant hasten to summon ma'anda thither, but only with his mother and the messenger. at the court ma'anda recognised the stranger whom he had that very night seen in a dream, and so believed his words and at once set out with his mother and the peasant. but the katikiro, or prime minister, through whom the message had been delivered to the king, fearing treachery, also started on their track, keeping them just in view till the trysting-place was reached. but kintu, who knew everything, saw him all the time, and when he came forward on finding himself discovered the enraged ma'anda pierced his faithful minister to the heart and he fell dead with a shriek. thereupon kintu and his seated warriors instantly vanished, and the king with the others wept and cried upon kintu till the deep woods echoed kintu, kintu-u, kintu-u-u. but the blood-hating kintu was gone, and to this day has never again been seen or heard of by any man in buganda. the references to the north and to kintu and his ghostly warriors "fair as white people" need no comment[ ]. it is noteworthy that in some of the nyassaland dialects _kintu_ (_caintu_) alternates with _mulungu_ as the name of the supreme being, the great ancestor of the tribe[ ]. then follows more traditional or legendary matter, including an account of the wars with the fierce wakedi, who wore iron armour, until authentic history is reached with the atrocious suna ii ( - ), father of the scarcely less atrocious m'tesa. after his death in buganda and the neighbouring states passed rapidly through a series of astonishing political, religious, and social vicissitudes, resulting in the present _pax britannica_, and the conversion of large numbers, some to islám, others to one form or another of christianity. at times it might have been difficult to see much religion in the ferocity of the contending factions; but since the establishment of harmony by the secular arm, real progress has been made, and the ba-ganda especially have displayed a remarkable capacity as well as eagerness to acquire a knowledge of letters and of religious principles, both in the protestant and the roman catholic communities. printing-presses, busily worked by native hands, are needed to meet the steadily increasing demand for a vernacular literature, in a region where blood had flowed continually from the disappearance of "kintu" till the british occupation. to the admixture of the hamitic and negro elements amongst the lacustrians may perhaps be attributed the curious blend of primitive and higher institutions in these communities. at the head of the state was a kabaka, king or emperor, although the title was also borne by the queen-mother and the queen-sister. this autocrat had his _lukiko_, or council, of which the members were the _katikiro_, prime minister and chief justice, the _kimbugwe_, who had charge of the king's umbilical cord, and held rank next to the _katikiro_, and ten district chiefs, for the administration of the ten large districts into which the country was divided, each rendering accounts to the _katikiro_ and through him to the king. each district chief had to maintain in good order a road some four yards wide, reaching from the capital to his country seat, a distance possibly of nearly miles. each district chief had sub-chiefs under him, independent of the chief in managing their own portion of land. these were responsible for keeping in repair the road between their own residence and that of the district chief. in each district was a supreme court, and every sub-chief, even with only a dozen followers, could hold a court and try cases among his own people. the people, however, could take their cases from one court to another until eventually they came before the _katikiro_ or the king. yet together with this highly advanced social and political development a totemic exogamous clan system was in force throughout uganda, all the ba-ganda belonging to one of _kika_ or clans, each possessing two totems held sacred by the clan. thus the lion (_mpologoma_) clan had the eagle (_mpungu_) for its second totem; the mushroom (_butiko_) clan had the snail (_nsonko_); the buffalo (_mbogo_) clan had a new cooking pot (_ntamu_). each clan had its chief, or father, who resided on the clan estate which was also the clan burial-ground, and was responsible for the conduct of the members of his branch. all the clans were exogamous[ ], and a man was expected to take a second wife from the clan of his paternal grandmother[ ]. no direct relations appear to exist between the lacustrians and the _wa-kikuyu_, _wa-kamba_, _wa-pokomo_, wa-gweno, _wa-chaga_, _wa-teita_, _wa-taveita_, and others[ ], who occupy the region east of victoria nyanza, between the tana, north-east frontier of bantuland, and the southern slopes of kilimanjaro. their affinities seem to be rather with the _wa-nyika_, _wa-boni_, _wa-duruma_, _wa-giryama_, and the other coast tribes between the tana and mombasa. all of these tribes have more or less adopted the habits and customs of the masai. we learn from sir a. harding[ ] that in the british east african protectorate there are altogether as many as twenty-five distinct tribes, generally at a low stage of culture, with a loose tribal organisation, a fully-developed totemic system, and a universal faith in magic; but there are no priests, idols or temples, or even distinctly recognised hereditary chiefs or communal councils. the gallas, who have crossed the tana and here encroached on bantu territory, have reminiscences of a higher civilisation and apparently of christian traditions and observances, derived no doubt from abyssinia. they tell you that they had once a sacred book, the observance of whose precepts made them the first of nations. but it was left lying about, and so got eaten by a cow, and since then when cows are killed their entrails are carefully searched for the lost volume. exceptional interest attaches to the wa-giryama, who are the chief people between mombasa and melindi, the first trustworthy accounts of whom were contributed by w. e. taylor[ ], and w. w. a. fitzgerald[ ]. here again bantus and gallas are found in close contact, and we learn that the wa-giryama, who came originally from the mount mangea district in the north-east, occupied their present homes only about a century ago "upon the withdrawal of the gallas." the language, which is of a somewhat archaic type, appears to be the chief member of a widespread bantu group, embracing the ki-nyika, and ki-pokomo in the extreme north, the ki-swahili of the zanzibar coast, and perhaps the ki-kamba, the ki-teita, and others of the interior between the coastlands and victoria nyanza. these inland tongues, however, have greatly diverged from the primitive ki-giryama[ ], which stands in somewhat the same relation to them and to the still more degraded and arabised ki-swahili[ ] that latin stands to the romance languages. but the chief interest presented by the wa-giryama is centred in their religious ideas, which are mainly connected with ancestry-worship, and afford an unexpected insight into the origin and nature of that perhaps most primitive of all forms of belief. there is, of course, a vague entity called a "supreme being" in ethnographic writings, who, like the algonquian manitu, crops up under various names (here _mulungu_) all over east bantuland, but on analysis generally resolves itself into some dim notion growing out of ancestry-worship, a great or aged person, eponymous hero or the like, later deified in diverse ways as the preserver, the disposer, and especially the creator. these wa-giryama suppose that from his union with the earth all things have sprung, and that human beings are mulungu's hens and chickens. but there is also an idea that he may be the manes of their fathers, and thus everything becomes merged in a kind of apotheosis of the departed. they think "the disembodied spirit is powerful for good and evil. individuals worship the shades of their immediate ancestors or elder relatives; and the _k'omas_ [souls?] of the whole nation are worshipped on public occasions." although the european ghost or "revenant" is unknown, the spirits of near ancestors may appear in dreams, and express their wishes to the living. they ask for sacrifices at their graves to appease their hunger, and such sacrifices are often made with a little flour and water poured into a coconut shell let into the ground, the fowls and other victims being so killed that the blood shall trickle into the grave. at the offering the dead are called on by name to come and partake, and bring their friends with them, who are also mentioned by name. but whereas christians pray to be remembered of heaven and the saints, the wa-giryama pray rather that the new-born babe be forgotten of mulungu, and so live. "well!" they will say on the news of a birth, "may mulungu forget him that he may become strong and well." this is an instructive trait, a reminiscence of the time when mulungu, now almost harmless or indifferent to mundane things, was the embodiment of all evil, hence to be feared and appeased in accordance with the old dictum _timor fecit deos_. at present no distinction is drawn between good and bad spirits, but all are looked upon as, of course, often, though not always, more powerful than the living, but still human beings subject to the same feelings, passions, and fancies as they are. some are even poor weaklings on whom offerings are wasted. "the shade of so-and-so's father is of no use at all; it has finished up his property, and yet he is no better," was a native's comment on the result of a series of sacrifices a man had vainly made to his father's shade to regain his health. they may also be duped and tricked, and when _pombe_ (beer) is a-brewing, some is poured out on the graves of the dead, with the prayer that they may drink, and when drunk fall asleep, and so not disturb the living with their brawls and bickerings, just like the wrangling fairies in _a midsummer night's dream_[ ]. far removed from such crass anthropomorphism, but not morally much improved, are the kindred wa-swahili, who by long contact and interminglings have become largely arabised in dress, religion, and general culture. they are graphically described by taylor as "a seafaring, barter-loving race of slave-holders and slave-traders, strewn in a thin line along a thousand miles of creeks and islands; inhabitants of a coast that has witnessed incessant political changes, and a succession of monarchical dynasties in various centres; receiving into their midst for ages past a continuous stream of strange blood, consisting not only of serviles from the interior, but of immigrants from persia, arabia, and western india; men that have come to live, and often to die, as resident aliens, leaving in many cases a hybrid progeny. of one section of these immigrants--the arabs--the religion has become the master-religion of the land, overspreading, if not entirely supplanting, the old bantu ancestor-worship, and profoundly affecting the whole family life." the wa-swahili are in a sense a historical people, for they formed the chief constituent elements of the renowned zang (zeng) empire[ ], which in edrisi's time (twelfth century) stretched along the seaboard from somaliland to and beyond the zambesi. when the portuguese burst suddenly into the indian ocean it was a great and powerful state, or rather a vast confederacy of states, with many flourishing cities--magdoshu, brava, mombasa, melindi, kilwa, angosha, sofala--and widespread commercial relations extending across the eastern waters to india and china, and up the red sea to europe. how these great centres of trade and eastern culture were one after the other ruthlessly destroyed by the portuguese corsairs _co' o ferro e fogo_ ("with sword and fire," camoens) is told by duarte barbosa, who was himself a portuguese and an eyewitness of the havoc and the horrors that not infrequently followed in the trail of his barbarous fellow-countrymen[ ]. beyond sofala we enter the domain of the _ama-zulu_, the _ama-xosa_, and others whom i have collectively called _zulu-xosas_[ ], and who are in some respects the most remarkable ethnical group in all bantuland. indeed they are by common consent regarded as bantus in a preeminent sense, and this conventional term _bantu_ itself is taken from their typical bantu language[ ]. there is clear evidence that they are comparatively recent arrivals, necessarily from the north, in their present territory, which was still occupied by bushman and hottentot tribes probably within the last thousand years or so. before the kafir wars with the english ( - ) this territory extended much farther round the coast than at present, and for many years the great kei river has formed the frontier between the white settlements and the xosas. but what they have lost in this direction the zulu-xosas, or at least the zulus, have recovered a hundredfold by their expansion northwards during the nineteenth century. after the establishment of the zulu military power under dingiswayo and his successor chaka ( - ), half the continent was overrun by organised zulu hordes, who ranged as far north as victoria nyanza, and in many places founded more or less unstable kingdoms or chieftaincies on the model of the terrible despotism set up in zululand. such were, beyond the limpopo, the states of gazaland and matabililand, the latter established about by umsilikatzi, father of lobengula, who perished in a hopeless struggle with the english in . gungunhana, last of the swazi (zulu) chiefs in gazaland, where the a-ngoni had overrun the ba-thonga (ba-ronga)[ ], was similarly dispossessed by the portuguese in . north of zambesi the zulu bands--ma-situ, ma-viti, ma-ngoni (a-ngoni), and others--nowhere developed large political states except for a short time under the ubiquitous mirambo in unyamweziland. but some, especially the a-ngoni[ ], were long troublesome in the nyasa district, and others about the lower zambesi, where they are known to the portuguese as "landins." the a-ngoni power was finally broken by the english early in , and the reflux movement has now entirely subsided, and cannot be revived, the disturbing elements having been extinguished at the fountain-head by the absorption of zululand itself in the british colony of natal ( ). nowhere have patriarchal institutions been more highly developed than among the zulu-xosas, all of whom, except perhaps the ama-fingus and some other broken groups, claim direct descent from some eponymous hero or mythical founder of the tribe. thus in the national traditions chaka was seventh in descent from a legendary chief zulu, from whom they take the name of _abantu ba-kwa-zulu_, that is "people of zulu's land," although the true mother-tribe appear to have been the now extinct ama-ntombela. once the supremacy and prestige of chaka's tribe were established, all the others, as they were successively reduced, claimed also to be true zulus, and as the same process went on in the far north, the term zulu has now in many cases come to imply political rather than blood relationship. here we have an object lesson, by which the ethnical value of such names as "aryan," "kelt," "briton," "slav," etc. may be gauged in other regions. so also most of the southern section claim as their founder and ancestor a certain _xosa_, sprung from zuide, who may have flourished about , and whom the ama-tembus and ama-mpondos also regard as their progenitor. thus the whole section is connected, but not in the direct line, with the xosas, who trace their lineage from galeka and khakhabe, sons of palo, who is said to have died about , and was himself tenth in direct descent from xosa. we thus get a genealogical table as under, which gives his proper place in the family tree to nearly every historical "kafir" chief in cape colony, where ignorance of these relations caused much bloodshed during the early kafir wars: zuide ( ?) _______________________/\________________________ / \ tembu xosa ( ?) mpondo | | _______|_______ ama-tembus palo ( ?) / \ (tembookies) ________________|______________ mpondumisi (mpondos) / \ galeka khakhabe | _________________|________________ klanta / \ | omlao mbalu ndhlambe hinza | | \______/ | gika (ob. ) gwali | kreli | | ama-ndhlambes \________/ | | (tslambies) | macomo velelo ama-galekas | | sandili baxa \________/ \________/ | | ama-gaikas ama-mbalus but all, both northern zulus and southern xosas, are essentially one people in speech, physique, usages and social institutions. the hair is uniformly of a somewhat frizzly texture, the colour of a light or clear brown amongst the ama-tembus, but elsewhere very dark, the swazis being almost "blue-black"; the head decidedly long ( . ) and high ( . ); nose variable, both negroid and perfectly regular; height above the mean . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft. in.); figure shapely and muscular, though fritsch's measurements show that it is sometimes far from the almost ideal standard of beauty with which some early observers have credited them. mentally the zulu-xosas stand much higher than the true negro, as shown especially in their political organisation, which, before the development of dingiswayo's military system under european influences, was a kind of patriarchal monarchy controlled by a powerful aristocracy. the nation was grouped in tribes connected by the ties of blood and ruled by the hereditary _inkose_, or feudal chief, who was supreme, with power of life and death, within his own jurisdiction. against his mandates, however, the nobles could protest in council, and it was in fact their decisions that established precedents and the traditional code of common law. "this common law is well adapted to a people in a rude state of society. it holds everyone accused of crime guilty unless he can prove himself innocent; it makes the head of the family responsible for the conduct of all its branches, the village collectively for all resident in it, and the clan for each of its villages. for the administration of the law there are courts of various grades, from any of which an appeal may be taken to the supreme council, presided over by the paramount chief, who is not only the ruler but also the father of the people[ ]." in the interior, between the southern coast ranges and the zambesi, the hottentot and bushman aborigines were in prehistoric ages almost everywhere displaced or reduced to servitude by other bantu peoples such as the ma-kalakas and ma-shonas, the be-chuanas and the kindred ba-sutos. of these the first arrivals (from the north) appear to have been the ma-shonas and ma-kalakas, who were being slowly "eaten up" by the ma-tabili when the process was arrested by the timely intervention of the english in rhodesia. both nations are industrious tillers of the soil, skilled in metal-work and in mining operations, being probably the direct descendants of the natives, whose great chief _monomotapa_, _i.e._ "lord of the mines," as i interpret the word[ ], ruled over the manica and surrounding auriferous districts when the portuguese first reached sofala early in the sixteenth century. apparently for political reasons[ ] this monomotapa was later transformed by them from a monarch to a monarchy, the vast empire of monomotapaland, which was supposed to comprise pretty well everything south of the zambesi, but, having no existence, has for the last two hundred years eluded the diligent search of historical geographers. but some centuries before the arrival of the portuguese the ma-kalakas with the kindred ba-nyai, ba-senga and others, may well have been at work in the mines of this auriferous region, in the service of the builders of the zimbabwe ruins explored and described by the late theodore bent[ ], and by him and many others attributed to some ancient cultured people of south arabia. this theory of prehistoric oriental origin was supported by a calculation of the orientation of the zimbabwe "temple," by reports of inscriptions and emblems suggesting "phoenician rites," and by the discovery, during excavation, of foreign objects. later investigation, however, showed that the orientation was based on inexact measurements; no authentic inscriptions were found either at zimbabwe or elsewhere in connection with the ruins; none of the objects discovered in the course of the excavations could be recognised as more than a few centuries old, while those that were not demonstrably foreign imports were of african type. in a scientific exploration of the ruins placed these facts beyond dispute. the medieval objects were found in such positions as to be necessarily contemporaneous with the foundation of the buildings, all of which could be attributed to the same period. finally it was established that the plan and construction of zimbabwe instead of being unique, as was formerly supposed, only differed from other rhodesian ruins in dimensions and extent. the explorers felt confident that the buildings were not earlier than the fourteenth or fifteenth century a.d., and that the builders were the bantu people, remains of whose stone-faced kraals are found at so many places between the limpopo and the zambesi. their conclusions, however, have not met with universal acceptance[ ]. with the be-chuanas, whose territory extends from the orange river to lake ngami and includes basutoland with a great part of the transvaal, we again meet a people at the totemic stage of culture. here the eponymous heroes of the zulu-xosas are replaced by baboons, fishes, elephants, and other animals from which the various tribal groups claim descent. the animal in question is called the _siboko_ of the tribe and is held in especial reverence, members (as a rule) refraining from killing or eating it. many tribes take their name from their _siboko_, thus the ba-tlapin, "they of the fish," ba-kuena, "they of the crocodile." the _siboko_ of the ba-rolong, who as a tribe are accomplished smiths, is not an animal, but the metal iron[ ]. with a section of the great be-chuana family, the ba-suto, and the ba-rotse is connected one of the most remarkable episodes in the turbulent history of the south african peoples during the nineteenth century. many years ago an offshoot of the ba-rotse migrated to the middle zambesi above the victoria falls, where they founded a powerful state, the "barotse (marotse) empire," which despite a temporary eclipse still exists as a british protectorate. the eclipse was caused by another migration northwards of a great body of ma-kololo, a branch of the ba-suto, who under the renowned chief sebituane reached the zambesi about and overthrew the barotse dynasty, reducing the natives to a state of servitude. but after the death of sebituane's successor, livingstone's sekeletu, the ba-rotse, taking advantage of their oppressors' dynastic rivalries, suddenly revolted, and after exterminating the ma-kololo almost to the last man, reconstituted the empire on a stronger footing than ever. it now comprises an area of some , square miles between the chobe and the kafukwe affluents[ ], with a population vaguely estimated at over , , , including the savage ba-shukulumbwe tribes of the kafukwe basin reduced in [ ]. yet, short as was the ma-kololo rule ( - ), it was long enough to impose their language on the vanquished ba-rotse[ ]. hence the curious phenomenon now witnessed about the middle zambesi, where the ma-kololo have disappeared, while their sesuto speech remains the common medium of intercourse throughout the barotse empire. how often have analogous shiftings and dislocations taken place in the course of ages in other parts of the world! and in the light of such lessons how cautious ethnographists should be in arguing from speech to race, and drawing conclusions from these or similar surface relations! referring to these stirring events, mackenzie writes: "thus perished the makololo from among the number of south african tribes. no one can put his finger on the map of africa and say, 'here dwell the makololo[ ].'" this will puzzle many who since the middle of the nineteenth century have repeatedly heard of, and even been in unpleasantly close contact with, ma-kololo so called, not indeed in barotseland, but lower down the zambesi about its shiré affluent. the explanation of the seeming contradiction is given by another incident, which is also not without ethnical significance. from livingstone's _journals_ we learn that in he was accompanied to the east coast by a small party of ma-kololo and others, sent by his friend sekeletu in quest of a cure for leprosy, from which the emperor was suffering. these ma-kololo, hearing of the ba-rotse revolt, wisely stopped on their return journey at the shiré confluence, and through the prestige of their name have here succeeded in founding several so-called "makololo states," which still exist, and have from time to time given considerable trouble to the administrators of british central africa. but how true are mackenzie's words, if the political be separated from the ethnical relations, may be judged from the fact that of the original founders of these petty shiré states only two were full-blood ma-kololo. all the others were, i believe, ba-rotse, ba-toka, or ba-tonga, these akin to the savage ba-shukulumbwe. thus the ma-kololo live on, in their speech above the victoria falls, in their name below the victoria falls, and it is only from history we know that since about the whole nation has been completely wiped out everywhere in the zambesi valley. but even amongst cultured peoples history goes back a very little way, , years at most anywhere. what changes and shiftings may, therefore, have elsewhere also taken place during prehistoric ages, all knowledge of which is now past recovery[ ]! few bantu peoples have lent a readier ear to the teachings of christian propagandists than the xosa, ba-suto, and be-chuana natives. several stations in the heart of kafirland--blythswood, somerville, lovedale, and others--have for some time been self-supporting, and prejudice alone would deny that they have worked for good amongst the surrounding gaika, galeka, and fingo tribes. sogo, a member of the blythswood community, has produced a translation of the _pilgrim's progress_, described by j. macdonald as "a marvel of accuracy and lucidity of expression[ ]"; numerous village schools are eagerly attended, and much land has been brought under intelligent cultivation. the french and swiss protestant teachers have also achieved great things in basutoland, where they were welcomed by moshesh, the founder of the present basuto nation. the tribal system has yielded to a higher social organisation, and the ba-tau, ba-puti, and several other tribal groups have been merged in industrious pastoral and agricultural communities professing a somewhat strict form of protestant christianity, and entirely forgetful of the former heathen practices associated with witchcraft and ancestry-worship. moshesh was one of the rare instances among the kafirs of a leader endowed with intellectual gifts which placed him on a level with europeans. he governed his people wisely and well for nearly fifty years, and his life-work has left a permanent mark on south african history[ ]. in bechuanaland one great personality dominates the social horizon. khama, king of the ba-mangwato nation, next to the ba-rotse the most powerful section of the be-chuana, may be described as a true father of his people, a christian legislator in the better sense of the term, and an enlightened reformer even from the secular point of view. when these triumphs, analogous to those witnessed amongst the lacustrians and in other parts of bantuland, are contrasted with the dull weight of resistance everywhere opposed by the full-blood negro populations to any progress beyond their present low level of culture, we are the better able to recognise the marked intellectual superiority of the negroid bantu over the pure black element. west of bechuanaland the continuity of the bantu domain is arrested in the south by the hottentots, who still hold their ground in namaqualand, and farther north by the few wandering bushman groups of the kalahari desert. even in damaraland, which is mainly bantu territory, there are interminglings of long standing that have given rise to much ethnical confusion. the ova-herero, who were here dominant, and the kindred ova-mpo of ovampoland bordering on the portuguese possessions, are undoubted bantus of somewhat fine physique, though intellectually not specially distinguished. owing to the character of the country, a somewhat arid, level steppe between the hills and the coast, they are often collectively called "cattle damaras," or "damaras of the plains," in contradistinction to the "hill damaras" of the coast ranges. to this popular nomenclature is due the prevalent confusion regarding these aborigines. the term "damara" is of hottentot origin, and is not recognised by the local tribes, who all call themselves ova-herero, that is, "merry people." but there is a marked difference between the lowlanders and the highlanders, the latter, that is, the "hill damaras," having a strong strain of hottentot blood, and being now of hottentot speech. the whole region is a land of transition between the two races, where the struggle for supremacy was scarcely arrested by the temporary intervention of german administrators. though annexed by germany in , fighting continued for ten years longer, and, breaking out again in , was not subdued until , after the loss to germany of lives and £ , , , while , to , of the herero are estimated to have perished. under the rule of the union of south africa this maltreatment of the natives will never occur again. clearness would be gained by substituting for hill damaras the expression _ova-zorotu_, or "hillmen," as they are called by their neighbours of the plains, who should of course be called hereros to the absolute exclusion of the expression "cattle damaras." these hereros show a singular dislike for salt; the peculiarity, however, can scarcely be racial, as it is shared in also by their cattle, and may be due to the heavy vapours, perhaps slightly charged with saline particles, which hang so frequently over the coastlands. no very sharp ethnical line can be drawn between portuguese west africa and the contiguous portion of the belgian congo south and west of the main stream. in the coastlands between the cunene and the congo estuary a few groups, such as the historical _eshi-kongo_[ ] and the _kabindas_, have developed some marked characteristics under european influences, just as have the cannibal _ma-nyema_ of the upper congo through association with the nubian-arab slave-raiders. but with the exception of the _ba-shilange_, the _ba-lolo_ and one or two others, much the same physical and mental traits are everywhere presented by the numerous bantu populations within the great bend of the congo. the people who give their name to this river present some points of special interest. it is commonly supposed that the old "kongo empire" was a creation of the portuguese. but mbanza, afterwards rechristened "san salvador," was already the capital of a powerful state when it was first visited by the expedition of , from which time date its relations with portugal. at first the catholic missionaries had great success, thousands were at least baptised, and for a moment it seemed as if all the congo lands were being swept into the fold. there were great rejoicings on the conversion of the _mfumu_ ("emperor") himself, on whom were lavished honours and portuguese titles still borne by his present degenerate descendant, the portuguese state pensioner, "dom pedro v, catholic king of kongo and its dependencies." but christianity never struck very deep roots, and, except in the vicinity of the imperial and vassal courts, heathenish practices of the worst description were continued down to the middle of the nineteenth century. about fresh efforts were made both by protestant and catholic missionaries to re-convert the people, who had little to remind them of their former faith except the ruins of the cathedral of san salvador, crucifixes, banners, and other religious emblems handed down as heirlooms and regarded as potent fetishes by their owners. a like fate, it may be incidentally mentioned, has overtaken the efforts of the portuguese missionaries to evangelise the natives of the east coast, where little now survives of their teachings but snatches of unintelligible songs to the blessed virgin, such as that still chanted by the lower zambesi boatmen and recorded by mrs pringle:-- sina mama, sina mamai, sina mama maria, sina mamai ... mary, i'm alone, mother i have none, mother i have none, she and father both are gone, etc.[ ] it is probable that at some remote period the ruling race reached the west coast from the north-east, and imposed their bantu speech on the rude aborigines, by whom it is still spoken over a wide tract of country on both sides of the lower congo. it is an extremely pure and somewhat archaic member of the bantu family, and w. holman bentley, our best authority on the subject, is enthusiastic in praise of its "richness, flexibility, exactness, subtlety of idea, and nicety of expression," a language superior to the people themselves, "illiterate folk with an elaborate and regular grammatical system of speech of such subtlety and exactness of idea that its daily use is in itself an education[ ]." kishi-kongo has the distinction of being the first bantu tongue ever reduced to written form, the oldest known work in the language being a treatise on christian doctrine published in lisbon in . since that time the speech of the "mociconghi," as pigafetta calls them[ ], has undergone but slight phonetic or other change, which is all the more surprising when we consider the rudeness of the present mushi-kongos and others by whom it is still spoken with considerable uniformity. some of these believe themselves sprung from trees, as if they had still reminiscences of the arboreal habits of a pithecoid ancestry. amongst the neighbouring _ba-mba_, whose sobas were formerly _ex officio_ commanders-in-chief of the empire, still dwells a potent being, who is invisible to everybody, and although mortal never dies, or at least after each dissolution springs again into life from his remains gathered up by the priests. all the young men of the tribe undergo a similar transformation, being thrown into a death-like trance by the magic arts of the medicine-man, and then resuscitated after three days. the power of causing the cataleptic sleep is said really to exist, and these strange rites, unknown elsewhere, are probably to be connected with the resurrection of christ after three days and of everybody on the last day as preached by the early portuguese evangelists. a volume might be written on the strange distortions of christian doctrines amongst savage peoples unable to grasp their true inwardness. in angola the portuguese distinguish between the _pretos_, that is, the "civilised," and the _negros_, or unreclaimed natives. yet both terms mean the same thing, as also does _ba-fiot_[ ], "black people," which is applied in an arbitrary way both to the eshi-kongos and their near relations, the _kabindas_ of the portuguese enclave north of the lower congo. these kabindas, so named from the seaport of that name on the loango coast, are an extremely intelligent, energetic, and enterprising people, daring seafarers, and active traders. but they complain of the keen rivalry of another dark people, the _judeos pretos_, or "black jews," who call themselves _ma-vambu_, and whose hooked nose combined with other peculiarities has earned for them their portuguese name. the kabindas say that these "semitic negroes" were specially created for the punishment of other unscrupulous dealers by their ruinous competition in trade. a great part of the vast region within the bend of the congo is occupied by the _ba-luba_ people, whose numerous branches--_ba-sange_ and _ba-songe_ about the sources of the sankuru, _ba-shilange_ (_tushilange_) about the lulua-kassai confluence, and many others--extend all the way from the kwango basin to manyemaland. most of these are bantus of the average type, fairly intelligent, industrious and specially noted for their skill in iron and copper work. iron ores are widely diffused and the copper comes from the famous mines of the katanga district, of which king mzidi and his wa-nyamwezi followers were dispossessed by the congo free state in [ ]. special attention is claimed by the _ba-shilange_ nation, for our knowledge of whom we are indebted chiefly to c. s. latrobe bateman[ ]. these are the people whom wissmann had already referred to as "a nation of thinkers with the interrogative 'why' constantly on their lips." bateman also describes them as "thoroughly honest, brave to foolhardiness, and faithful to each other. they are prejudiced in favour of foreign customs and spontaneously copy the usages of civilisation. they are the only african tribe among whom i have observed anything like a becoming conjugal affection and regard. to say nothing of such recommendations as their emancipation from fetishism, their ancient abandonment of cannibalism, and their national unity under the sway of a really princely prince (kalemba), i believe them to be the most open to the best influences of civilisation of any african tribe whatsoever[ ]." their territory about the lulua, affluent of the kassai, is the so-called lubuka, or land of "friendship," the theatre of a remarkable social revolution, carried out independently of all european influences, in fact before the arrival of any whites on the scene. it was initiated by the secret brotherhood of the _bena-riamba_, or "sons of hemp," established about , when the nation became divided into two parties over the question throwing the country open to foreign trade. the king having sided with the "progressives," the "conservatives" were worsted with much bloodshed, whereupon the barriers of seclusion were swept away. trading relations being at once established with the outer world, the custom of _riamba_ (bhang) smoking was unfortunately introduced through the swahili traders from zanzibar. the practice itself soon became associated with mystic rites, and was followed by a general deterioration of morals throughout tushilangeland. north of the ba-luba follows the great _ba-lolo_ nation, whose domain comprises nearly the whole of the region between the equator and the left bank of the congo, and whose kilolo speech is still more widely diffused, being spoken by perhaps , , within the horseshoe bend. these "men of iron" in the sense of cromwell's "ironsides," or "workers in iron," as the name has been diversely interpreted (from _lolo_, iron), may not be all that they have been depicted by the glowing pen of mrs h. grattan guinness[ ]; but nobody will deny their claim to be regarded as physically, if not mentally, one of the finest bantu races. but for the strain of negro blood betrayed by the tumid under lip, frizzly hair, and wide nostrils, many might pass for average hamites with high forehead, straight or aquiline nose, bright eye, and intelligent expression. they appear to have migrated about a hundred years ago from the east to their present homes, where they have cleared the land both of its forests and the aborigines, brought extensive tracts under cultivation, and laid out towns in the american chessboard fashion, but with the houses so wide apart that it takes hours to traverse them. they are skilled in many crafts, and understand the division-of-labour principle, "farmers, gardeners, smiths, boatbuilders, weavers, cabinet-makers, armourers, warriors, and speakers being already differentiated amongst them[ ]." from the east or north-east a great stream of migration has also for many years been setting right across the cannibal zone to the west coast between the ogowai and camerúns estuary. some of these cannibal bands, collectively known as _fans_, _pahuins_, _mpangwes_[ ], _oshyebas_ and by other names, have already swarmed into the gabún and lower ogowai districts, where they have caused a considerable dislocation of the coast tribes. they are at present the dominant, or at least the most powerful and dreaded, people in west equatorial africa, where nothing but the intervention of the french administration has prevented them from sweeping the _mpongwes_, _mbengas_, _okandas_, _ashangos_, _ishogos_, _ba-tekes_[ ], and the other maritime populations into the atlantic. even the great _ba-kalai_ nation, who are also immigrants, but from the south-east, and who arrived some time before the fans, have been hard pressed and driven forward by those fierce anthropophagists. they are still numerous, certainly over , , but confined mainly to the left bank of the ogowai, where their copper and iron workers have given up the hopeless struggle to compete with the imported european wares, and have consequently turned to trade. the ba-kalai are now the chief brokers and middlemen throughout the equatorial coastlands, and their pure bantu language is encroaching on the mpongwe in the ogowai basin. when first heard of by bowdich in , the paämways, as he calls the fans, were an inland people presenting such marked hamitic or caucasic features that he allied them with the west sudanese fulahs. since then there have been inevitable interminglings, by which the type has no doubt been modified, though still presenting distinct non-bantu or non-negro characters. burton, winwood reade, oscar lenz and most other observers separate them altogether from the negro connection, describing them as "well-built, tall and slim, with a light brown complexion, often inclining to yellow, well-developed beard, and very prominent frontal bone standing out in a semicircular protuberance above the superciliary arches. morally also, they differ greatly from the negro, being remarkably intelligent, truthful, and of a serious temperament, seldom laughing or indulging in the wild orgies of the blacks[ ]." m. h. kingsley adds that "the average height in mountain districts is five feet six to five feet eight ( . m. to . m.), the difference in stature between men and women not being great. their countenances are very bright and expressive, and if once you have been among them, you can never mistake a fan. the fan is full of fire, temper, intelligence and go; very teachable, rather difficult to manage, quick to take offence and utterly indifferent to human life." the cannibalism of the fans, though a prevalent habit, is not, according to miss kingsley, due to sacrificial motives. "he does it in his common sense way. he will eat his next door neighbour's relations and sell his own deceased to his next door neighbour in return; but he does not buy slaves and fatten them up for his table as some of the middle congo tribes do.... he has no slaves, no prisoners of war, no cemeteries, so you must draw your own conclusions[ ]." the fan language has been grouped by sir h. h. johnston among bantu tongues, but he describes it as so corrupt as to be only just recognisable as bantu. in linguistic, physical and mental features they thus show a remarkable divergence from the pure negro, suggesting hamitic probably fulah elements. in the camerún region, which still lies within bantu territory, sir h. h. johnston[ ] divides the numerous local tribes into two groups, the aborigines, such as the _ba-yong_, _ba-long_, _ba-sa_, _abo_ and _wuri_; and the later intruders--_ba-kundu_, _ba-kwiri_, _dwala_, "_great batanga_" and _ibea_--chiefly from the east and south-east. best known are the dwalas of the camerún estuary, physically typical bantus with almost european features, and well-developed calves, a character which would alone suffice to separate them from the true negro. nor are these traits due to contact with the white settlers on the coast, because the dwalas keep quite aloof, and are so proud of their "blue blood," that till lately all half-breeds were "weeded-out," being regarded as monsters who reflected discredit on the tribe[ ]. socially the camerún natives stand at nearly the same low level of culture as the neighbouring full-blood negroes of the calabar and niger delta. indeed the transition in customs and institutions, as well as in physical appearance, is scarcely perceptible between the peoples dwelling north and south of the rio del rey, here the dividing line between the negro and bantu lands. the _ba-kish_ of the meme river, almost last of the bantus, differ little except in speech from the negro _efiks_ of old calabar, while witchcraft and other gross superstitions were till lately as rife amongst the ba-kwiri and ba-kundu tribes of the western camerún as anywhere in negroland. it is not long since one of the ba-kwiri, found guilty of having eaten a chicken at a missionary's table, was himself eaten by his fellow clansmen. the law of blood for blood was pitilessly enforced, and charges of witchcraft were so frequent that whole villages were depopulated, or abandoned by their terror-stricken inhabitants. the island of ambas in the inlet of like name remained thus for a time absolutely deserted, "most of the inhabitants having poisoned each other off with their everlasting ordeals, and the few survivors ending by dreading the very air they breathed[ ]." having thus completed our survey of the bantu populations from the central dividing line about the congo-chad water-parting round by the east, south, and west coastlands, and so back to the sudanese zone, we may pause to ask, what routes were followed by the bantus themselves during the long ages required to spread themselves over an area estimated at nearly six million square miles? i have established, apparently on solid grounds, a fixed point of initial dispersion in the extreme north-east, and allusion has frequently been made to migratory movements, some even now going on, generally from east to west, and, on the east side of the continent, from north to south, with here an important but still quite recent reflux from zululand back nearly to victoria nyanza. if a parallel current be postulated as setting on the atlantic side in prehistoric times from south to north, from hereroland to the camerúns, or possibly the other way, we shall have nearly all the factors needed to explain the general dispersion of the bantu peoples over their vast domain. support is given to this view by the curious distribution of the two chief bantu names of the "supreme being," to which incidental reference has already been made. as first pointed out i think by dr bleek, _(m)unkulunkulu_ with its numerous variants prevails along the eastern seaboard, _nzambi_ along the western, and both in many parts of the interior; while here and there the two meet, as if to indicate prehistoric interminglings of two great primeval migratory movements. from the subjoined table a clear idea may be had of the general distribution: munkulunkulu nzambi { mpondo: ukulukulu | eshi-kongo: nzambi } { zulu: unkulunkulu | kabinda: nzambi pongo} { inhambane: mulungulu | lunda: zambi } { sofala: murungu | ba-teke: nza[~m] } { be-chuana: mulungulu | ba-rotse: nyampe } { lake moero: mulungu | bihé: nzambi } { lake tanganyika: mulungu | loango: zambi, nyambi} eastern { makua: moloko | bunda: onzambi }western seaboard{ quillimane: mlugu | ba-ngala: nsambi }seaboard and { lake bangweolo: mungu | ba-kele: nshambi }and parts { tete, zambesi: muungu | rungu: anyambi }parts of { nyasaland: murungu | ashira: aniembie }of interior{ swahili: muungu | mpongwe: njambi }interior { giryama: mulungu | benga: anyambi } { pokomo: mungo | dwala: nyambi } { nyika: mulungu | yanzi: nyambi } { kamba: mulungu | herero: ndyambi } { yanzi: molongo | { herero: mukuru | of _munkulunkulu_ the primitive idea is clear enough from its best preserved form, the zulu _unkulunkulu_, which is a repetitive of the root _inkulu_, great, old, hence a deification of the great departed, a direct outcome of the ancestry-worship so universal amongst negro and bantu peoples[ ]. thus unkulunkulu becomes the direct progenitor of the zulu-xosas: _unkulunkulu ukobu wetu_. but the fundamental meaning of _nzambi_ is unknown. the root does not occur in kishi-kongo, and bentley rightly rejects kolbe's far-fetched explanation from the herero, adding that "the knowledge of god is most vague, scarcely more than nominal. there is no worship paid to god[ ]." more probable seems w. h. tooke's suggestion that nzambi is "a nature spirit like zeus or indra," and that, while the eastern bantus are ancestor-worshippers, "the western adherents of nzambi are more or less nature-worshippers. in this respect they appear to approach the negroes of the gold, slave, and oil coasts[ ]." no doubt the cult of the dead prevails also in this region, but here it is combined with naturalistic forms of belief, as on the gold coast, where _bobowissi_, chief god of all the southern tribes, is the "blower of clouds," the "rain-maker," and on the slave coast, where the dahoman _mawu_ and the yoruba _olorun_ are the sky or rain, and the "owner of the sky" (the deified firmament), respectively[ ]. it would therefore seem probable that the munkulunkulu peoples from the north-east gradually spread by the indicated routes over the whole of bantuland, everywhere imposing their speech, general culture, and ancestor-worship on the pre-bantu aborigines, except along the atlantic coastlands and in parts of the interior. here the primitive nature-worship, embodied in nzambi, held and still holds its ground, both meeting on equal terms--as shown in the above table--amongst the ba-yanzi, the ova-herero, and the be-chuanas (_mulungulu_ generally, but _nyampe_ in barotseland), and no doubt in other inland regions. but the absolute supremacy of one on the east, and of the other on the west, side of the continent, seems conclusive as to the general streams of migration, while the amazing uniformity of nomenclature is but another illustration of the almost incredible persistence of bantu speech amongst these multitudinous illiterate populations for an incalculable period of time[ ]. the vaalpens and the strandloopers. among the ethnological problems of africa may be reckoned the _vaalpens_ and the _strandloopers_. along the banks of the limpopo between the transvaal and southern rhodesia there are scattered a few small groups of an extremely primitive people who are generally confounded with the bushmen, but differ in some important respects from that race. they are the "earthmen" of some writers, but their real name is _kattea_, though called by their neighbours either _ma sarwa_ ("bad people") or _vaalpens_ ("grey paunches") from the khaki colour acquired by their bodies from creeping on all fours into their underground hovels. but the true colour is almost a pitch black, and as they are only about four feet high they are quite distinct both from the tall bantus and the yellowish hottentot-bushmen. for the zulus they are mere "dogs" or "vultures," and are certainly the most degraded of all the aborigines, being undoubtedly cannibals, eating their own aged and infirm like some of the amazonian tribes. their habitations are holes in the ground, rock-shelters, or caves, or lately a few hovels of mud and foliage at the foot of the hills. of their speech nothing is known except that it is absolutely distinct both from the bantu and the bushman. there are no arts or industries of any kind, not even any weapons beyond those procured in exchange for ostrich feathers, skins or ivory. but they can make fire, and are thus able to cook the offal thrown to them by the boers in return for their help in skinning the captured game. whether they have any religious ideas it is impossible to say, all intercourse with the surrounding peoples being restricted to barter carried on with gesture language for nobody has ever yet mastered their tongue. a "chief" is spoken of, but he is merely a headman who presides over the little family groups of from thirty to fifty (there are no tribes properly so called), and whose purely domestic functions are acquired, not by heredity, but by personal worth, that is, physical strength. altogether the kattea is perhaps the most perfect embodiment of the pure savage still anywhere surviving[ ]. when the hottentots of south africa were questioned by scientific men a hundred years ago and more regarding their traditions, they were wont to refer to their predecessors on the coast of south africa as a savage race living on the seashore and subsisting on shellfish and the bodies of stranded whales. from their habits these were styled in dutch the strandloopers or "shore-runners[ ]." according to f. c. shrubsall the strandlooper of the cape colony caves preceded the bushman in south africa. they were a race of short but not dwarfish men with a much higher skull capacity than that of the average bush race. the extreme of cranial capacity in the strandloopers was a maximum of over c.c., while the extreme minimum among the bush people descends as low as c.c. the frontal region of the skull is much better developed than in the bush race, and in that respect is more like the negro. there is little or no brow prominence and one at least of the skulls is as orthognathous in facial angle as that of a european. l. peringuey remarks also that the type was less dolichocephalic than the bushmen and hottentots, under in cephalic index. "he was artistically gifted, like the race which occupied and decorated the altamira ... and other caves of spain and france. he painted; he possibly carved on rocks; he used bone tools; he made pottery; he perforated stones for either heading clubs or to be used as make-weights for digging tools; his ornaments consisted of sea-shells; and the ostrich egg-shell discs which he made may be said to be a typical product of his industry. and this culture is retained in south africa by a kindred race, but more dolichocephalic--the bushmen-hottentots. analogous are most of his tools and his expressions of culture to those of aurignacian man." the negrilloes. the proper domain of the african negrilloes is the intertropical forest-land, although they appear to be at present confined to somewhat narrow limits, between about six degrees of latitude north and south of the equator, unless the bushmen be included. but formerly they probably ranged much farther north, and in historic times were certainly known in egypt some or years ago. this is evident from the frequent references to them in the "book of the dead" as far back as the th dynasty. like the dwarfs in medieval times, they were in high request at the courts of the pharaohs, who sent expeditions to fetch these _danga_ (_tank_) from the "island of the double," that is, the fabulous region of shade land beyond punt, where they dwelt. the first of whom there is authentic record was brought from this region, apparently the white nile, to king assa ( b.c.) by his officer, baurtet. some years later heru-khuf, another officer, was sent by pepi ii "to bring back a pygmy alive and in good health," from the land of great trees away to the south[ ]. that the danga came from the south we know from a later inscription at karnak, and that the word meant dwarf is clear from the accompanying determinative of a short person of stunted growth. it is curious to note in this connection that the limestone statue of the dwarf nem-hotep, found in his tomb at sakkara and figured by ernest grosse, has a thick elongated head suggesting artificial deformation, unshapely mouth, dull expression, strong full chest, and small deformed feet, on which he seems badly balanced. it will be remembered that schweinfurth's akkas from mangbattuland were also represented as top-heavy, although the best observers, junker and others, describe those of the welle and congo forests as shapely and by no means ill-proportioned. kollmann also, who has examined the remains of the neolithic pygmies from the schweizersbild station, switzerland, "is quite certain that the dwarf-like proportions of the latter have nothing in common with diseased conditions. this, from many points of view, is a highly interesting discovery. it is possible, as nüesch suggests, that the widely-spread legend as to the former existence of little men, dwarfs and gnomes, who were supposed to haunt caves and retired places in the mountains, may be a reminiscence of these neolithic pygmies[ ]." this is what may be called the picturesque aspect of the negrillo question, which it seems almost a pity to spoil by too severe a criticism. but "ethnologic truth" obliges us to say that the identification of the african negrillo with kollmann's european dwarfs still lacks scientific proof. even craniology fails us here, and although the negrilloes are in great majority round-headed, r. verneau has shown that there may be exceptions[ ], while the theory of the general uniformity of the physical type has broken down at some other points. thus the _dume_, south of gallaland, discovered by donaldson smith[ ] in the district where the _doko_ negrilloes had long been heard of, and even seen by antoine d'abbadie in , were found to average five feet, or more than one foot over the mean of the true negrillo. d'abbadie in fact declared that his "dokos" were not pygmies at all[ ], while donaldson smith now tells us that "doko" is only a term of contempt applied by the local tribes to their "poor relations." "their chief characteristics were a black skin, round features, woolly hair, small oval-shaped eyes, rather thick lips, high cheekbones, a broad forehead, and very well formed bodies" (p. ). the expression of the eye was canine, "sometimes timid and suspicious-looking, sometimes very amiable and merry, and then again changing suddenly to a look of intense anger." pygmies, he adds, "inhabited the whole of the country north of lakes stephanie and rudolf long before any of the tribes now to be found in the neighbourhood; but they have been gradually killed off in war, and have lost their characteristics by inter-marriage with people of large stature, so that only this one little remnant, the dume, remains to prove the existence of a pygmy race. formerly they lived principally by hunting, and they still kill a great many elephants with their poisoned arrows" (pp. - ). some of these remarks apply also to the _wandorobbo_, another small people who range nearly as far north as the dume, but are found chiefly farther south all over masailand, and belong, i have little doubt, to the same connection. they are the henchmen of the masai, whom they provide with big game in return for divers services. those met by w. astor chanler were also "armed with bows and arrows, and each carried an elephant-spear, which they called _bonati_. this spear is six feet in length, thick at either end, and narrowed where grasped by the hand. in one end is bored a hole, into which is fitted an arrow two feet long, as thick as one's thumb, and with a head two inches broad. their method of killing elephants is to creep cautiously up to the beast, and drive a spear into its loin. a quick twist separates the spear from the arrow, and they make off as fast and silently as possible. in all cases the arrows are poisoned; and if they are well introduced into the animal's body, the elephant does not go far[ ]." from some of the peculiarities of the achua (wochua) negrilloes met by junker south of the welle one can understand why these little people were such favourites with the old egyptian kings. these were "distinguished by sharp powers of observation, amazing talent for mimicry, and a good memory. a striking proof of this was afforded by an achua whom i had seen and measured four years previously in rumbek, and now again met at gambari's. his comic ways and quick nimble movements made this little fellow the clown of our society. he imitated with marvellous fidelity the peculiarities of persons whom he had once seen; for instance, the gestures and facial expressions of jussuf pasha esh-shelahis and of haj halil at their devotions, as well as the address and movements of emin pasha, 'with the four eyes' (spectacles). his imitation of hawash effendi in a towering rage, storming and abusing everybody, was a great success; and now he took me off to the life, rehearsing after four years, down to the minutest details, and with surprising accuracy, my anthropometric performance when measuring his body at rumbek[ ]." a somewhat similar account is given by ludwig wolf of the ba-twa pygmies visited by him and wissmann in the kassai region. here are whole villages in the forest-glades inhabited by little people with an average height of about feet inches. they are nomads, occupied exclusively with hunting and the preparation of palm-wine, and are regarded by their ba-kubu neighbours as benevolent little people, whose special mission is to provide the surrounding tribes with game and palm-wine in exchange for manioc, maize, and bananas[ ]. despite the above-mentioned deviations, occurring chiefly about the borderlands, considerable uniformity both of physical and mental characters is found to prevail amongst the typical negrillo groups scattered in small hunting communities all over the welle, semliki, congo, and ogowai woodlands. their main characters are thus described. their skin is of a reddish or yellowish brown in colour, sometimes very dark. their height varies from . m. to . m. ( ft. - / in. to ft. - / in.[ ]). their hair is very short and woolly, usually of a dark rusty brown colour; the face hair is variable, but the body is usually covered with a light downy hair. the cephalic index is . the nose is very broad and exceptionally flattened at the root; the lips are usually thin, and the upper one long; the eyes are protuberant; the face is sometimes prognathic. steatopygia occurs. they are a markedly intelligent people, innately musical, cunning, revengeful and suspicious in disposition, but they never steal. they are nomadic hunters and collectors, never resorting to agriculture. they have no domestic animals. only meat is cooked. they wear no clothing. they use bows and poisoned arrows. their language is unknown. they live in small communities which centre round a cunning fighter or able hunter. their dead are buried in the ground. they differ from surrounding negroes in having no veneration for the departed, no amulets, no magicians or professional priests. they have charms for ensuring luck in hunting, but it is uncertain whether these charms derive their potency from the supreme being, though evidence of belief in a high-god is reported from various pygmy peoples.[ ] the bushmen and hottentots. towards the south the negrillo domain was formerly conterminous with that of the bushmen, of whom traces were discovered by sir h. h. johnston[ ] as far north as lakes nyasa and tanganyika, and who, it has been conjectured, belong to the same primitive stock. the differences mental and physical now separating the two sections of the family may perhaps be explained by the different environments--hot, moist and densely wooded in the north, and open steppes in the south--but until more is known of the african pygmies their affinities must remain undecided. the relationship between the bushmen and the hottentots is another disputed question. early authorities regarded the hottentots as the parent family, and the bushmen as the offspring, but the researches of gustav fritsch, e. t. hamy, f. shrubsall[ ] and others show that the hottentots are a cross between the bushmen--the primitive race--and the bantu, the bushman element being seen in the leathery colour, prominent cheek-bones, pointed chin, steatopygia and other special characters. in prehistoric times the hottentots ranged over a vast area. evidence has now been produced of the presence of a belated hottentot or hottentot-bushman group as far north as the kwa-kokue district, between kilimanjaro and victoria nyanza. the _wa-sandawi_ people here visited by oskar neumann are not bantus, and speak a language radically distinct from that of the neighbouring bantus, but full of clicks like that of the bushmen[ ]. two sandawi skulls examined by virchow[ ] showed distinct hottentot characters, with a cranial capacity of and c.c., projecting upper jaw and orthodolicho head[ ]. the geographical prefix _kwa_, common in the district (kwa-kokue, kwa-mtoro, kwa-hindi), is pure hottentot, meaning "people," like the postfix _qua_ (_kwa_) of kora-_qua_, nama-_qua_, etc. in the present hottentot domain. the transposition of prefixes and postfixes is a common linguistic phenomenon, as seen in the sumero-akkadian of babylonia, in the neo-sanskritic tongues of india, and the latin, oscan, and other members of the old italic group. farther south a widely-diffused hottentot-bushman geographical terminology attests the former range of this primitive race all over south africa, as far north as the zambesi. lichtenstein had already discovered such traces in the zulu country[ ], and vater points out that "for some districts the fact has been fully established; mountains and rivers now occupied by the koossa [ama-xosa] preserve in their hottentot names the certain proof that they at one time formed a permanent possession of this people[ ]." thanks to the custom of raising heaps of stones or cairns over the graves of renowned chiefs, the migrations of the hottentots may be followed in various directions to the very heart of south zambesia. here the memory of their former presence is perpetuated in the names of such water-courses as nos-ob, up, mol-opo, hyg-ap, gar-ib, in which the syllables _ob_, _up_, _ap_, _ib_ and others are variants of the hottentot word _ib_, _ip_, water, river, as in _gar-ib_, the "great river," now better known as the orange river. the same indications may be traced right across the continent to the atlantic, where nearly all the coast streams--even in hereroland, where the language has long been extinct--have the same ending[ ]. on the west side the bushmen are still heard of as far north as the cunene, and in the interior beyond lake ngami nearly to the right bank of the zambesi. but the hottentots are now confined mainly to great and little namaqualand. elsewhere there appear to be no full-blood natives of this race, the koraquas, gonaquas, griquas, etc. being all hottentot-boer or hottentot-bantu half-castes of dutch speech. in cape colony the tribal organisation ceased to exist in , when the last hottentot chief was replaced by a european magistrate. still the koraquas keep themselves somewhat distinct about the upper orange and vaal rivers, and the griquas in griqualand east, while the gonaquas, that is, "borderers," are being gradually merged in the bantu populations of the eastern provinces. there are at present scarcely , south of the orange river, and of these the great majority are half-breeds[ ]. despite their extremely low state of culture, or, one might say, the almost total lack of culture, the bushmen are distinguished by two remarkable qualities, a fine sense of pictorial or graphic art[ ], and a rich imagination displayed in a copious oral folklore, much of which, collected by bleek, is preserved in manuscript form in sir george grey's library at cape town[ ]. the materials here stored for future use, perhaps long after the race itself has vanished for ever, comprise no less than thick volumes of double-column pages, besides an unfinished bushman dictionary with , entries. there are two great sections, ( ) myths, fables, legends and poetry, with tales about the sun and moon, the stars, the _mantis_ and other animals, legends of peoples who dwelt in the land before the bushmen, songs, charms, and even prayers; ( ) histories, adventures of men and animals, customs, superstitions, genealogies, and so on. in the tales and myths the sun, moon, and animals speak either with their own proper clicks, or else use the ordinary clicks in some way peculiar to themselves. thus bleek tells us that the tortoise changes clicks in labials, the ichneumon in palatals, the jackal substitutes linguo-palatals for labials, while the moon, hare, and ant-eater use "a most unpronounceable click" of their own. how many there may be altogether, not one of which can be properly uttered by europeans, nobody seems to know. but grammarians have enumerated nine, indicated each by a graphic sign as under: cerebral [symbol] palatal [symbol] dental [symbol] lateral (faucal) [symbol] guttural [symbol] labial [symbol] spiro-dental [symbol] linguo-palatal [symbol] undefined [symbol] from bushman--a language in a state of flux, fragmentary as the small tribal or rather family groups that speak it[ ]--these strange inarticulate sounds passed to the number of four into the remotely related hottentot, and thence to the number of three into the wholly unconnected zulu-xosa. but they are heard nowhere else to my knowledge except amongst the newly-discovered wa-sandawi people of south masailand. at the same time we know next to nothing of the negrillo tongues, and should clicks be discovered to form an element in their phonetic system also[ ], it would support the assumption of a common origin of all these dwarfish races now somewhat discredited on anatomical grounds. m. g. bertin, to whom we are indebted for an excellent monograph on the bushman[ ], rightly remarks that he is not, at least mentally, so debased as he has been described by the early travellers and by the neighbouring bantus and boers, by whom he has always been despised and harried. "his greatest love is for freedom, he acknowledges no master, and possesses no slaves. it is this love of independence which made him prefer the wandering life of a hunter to that of a peaceful agriculturist or shepherd, as the hottentot. he rarely builds a hut, but prefers for abode the natural caves he finds in the rocks. in other localities he forms a kind of nest in the bush--hence his name of bushman--or digs with his nails subterranean caves, from which he has received the name of 'earthman.' his garments consist only of a small skin. his weapons are still the spear, arrow and bow in their most rudimentary form. the spear is a mere branch of a tree, to which is tied a piece of bone or flint; the arrow is only a reed treated in the same way. the arrow and spear-heads are always poisoned, to render mortal the slight wounds they inflict. he gathers no flocks, which would impede his movements, and only accepts the help of dogs as wild as himself. the bushmen have, however, one implement, a rounded stone perforated in the middle, in which is inserted a piece of wood; with this instrument, which carries us back to the first age of man, they dig up a few edible roots growing wild in the desert. to produce fire, he still retains the primitive system of rubbing two pieces of wood--another prehistoric survival." touching their name, it is obvious that these scattered groups, without hereditary chiefs or social organisation of any kind, could have no collective designation. the term _khuai_, of uncertain meaning, but probably to be equated with the hottentot _khoi_, "men," is the name only of a single group, though often applied to the whole race. _saan_, their hottentot name, is the plural of sa, a term also of uncertain origin; _ba-roa_, current amongst the be-chuanas, has not been explained, while the zulu _abatwa_ would seem to connect them even by name with wolf's and stanley's _ba-twa_ of the congo forest region. other so-called tribal names (there are no "tribes" in the strict sense of the word) are either nicknames imposed upon them by their neighbours, or else terms taken from the localities, as amongst the fuegians. we may conclude with the words of w. j. sollas: "the more we know of these wonderful little people the more we learn to admire and like them. to many solid virtues--untiring energy, boundless patience, and fertile invention, steadfast courage, devoted loyalty, and family affection--they added a native refinement of manners and a rare aesthetic sense. we may learn from them how far the finer excellences of life may be attained in the hunting stage. in their golden age, before the coming of civilised man, they enjoyed their life to the full, glad with the gladness of primeval creatures. the story of their later days, their extermination and the cruel manner of it, is a tale of horror on which we do not care to dwell. they haunt no more the sunlit veldt, their hunting is over, their nation is destroyed; but they leave behind an imperishable memory, they have immortalised themselves in their art[ ]." footnotes: [ ] c. meinhof holds that proto-bantu arose through the mixture of a sudan language with one akin to fulah. _an introduction to the study of african languages_, , p. sqq. [ ] bantu, properly aba-ntu, "people." _aba_ is one of the numerous personal prefixes, each with its corresponding singular form, which are the cause of so much confusion in bantu nomenclature. to _aba_, _ab_, _ba_ answers a sing. _umu_, _um_, _mu_, so that sing. _umu-ntu_, _um-ntu_ or _mu-ntu_, a man, a person; plu. _aba-ntu_, _ab-ntu_, ba-ntu. but in some groups mu is also plural, the chief dialectic variants being, _ama_, _aba_, _ma_, _ba_, _wa_, _ova_, _va_, _vua_, _u_, _a_, _o_, _eshi_, as in ama-zulu, mu-sarongo, ma-yomba, wa-swahili, ova-herero, vua-twa, ba-suto, eshi-kongo. for a tentative classification of african tribes see t. a. joyce, art. "africa: ethnology," _ency. brit._ , p. . for the classification of bantu tongues into groups consult h. h. johnston, art. "bantu languages," _loc. cit._ [ ] _eth._ ch. xi. [ ] _le naturaliste_, jan. . [ ] _tour de monde_, , i. p. sq.; and _les bayas_; _notes ethnographiques et linguistiques_, paris, . [ ] d. randall-maciver, _mediaeval rhodesia_, . but r. n. hall, _prehistoric rhodesia_, , strongly opposes this view. see below, p. . [ ] even tipu tib, their chief leader and "prince of slavers," was a half-caste with distinctly negroid features. [ ] "afilo wurde mir vom lega-könig als ein negerland bezeichnet, welches von einer galla-aristokratie beherrscht wird" (_petermann's mitt._ , v. p. ). [ ] the ba-hima are herdsmen in buganda, a sort of aristocracy in unyoro, a ruling caste in toro, and the dominant race with dynasties in ankole. the name varies in different areas. [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . for details of the ba-hima type see _eth._ p. . [ ] j. roscoe, _the northern bantu_, , p. . herein are also described the _bakene_, lake dwellers, the _bagesu_, a cannibal tribe, the _basoga_ and the nilotic tribes the _bateso_ and _kavirondo_. [ ] j. roscoe, _loc. cit._ pp. , . [ ] "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. . [ ] _handwerk und industrie in ostafrika_, , p. . [ ] "die erste ausbreitung des menschengeschlechts." _pol. anthropol. revue_, , p. . cf. chronology on p. above. [ ] _ethnology_, p. . [ ] uganda is the name now applied to the whole protectorate, buganda is the small kingdom, baganda, the people, muganda, one person, luganda, the language. h. h. johnston, _the uganda protectorate_, , and j. f. cunningham, _uganda and its peoples_, , cover much of the elementary anthropology of east central africa. [ ] the legend is given with much detail by h. m. stanley in _through the dark continent_, vol. i. p. sq. another and less mythical account of the migrations of "the people with a white skin from the far north-east" is quoted from emin pasha by the rev. r. p. ashe in _two kings of uganda_, p. . here the immigrant ba-hima are expressly stated to have "adopted the language of the aborigines" (p. ). [ ] sir h. h. johnston, _op. cit._ p. . [ ] except the lung-fish clan. [ ] j. roscoe, _the baganda_, . [ ] for the _wa-kikuyu_ see w. s. and k. routledge, _with a prehistoric people_, , and c. w. hobley's papers in the _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , and xli. . the _atharaka_ are described by a. m. champion, _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlii. , p. . consult for this region c. eliot, _the east africa protectorate_, ; k. weule, _native life in east africa_, ; c. w. hobley, _ethnology of the a-kamba and other east african tribes_, ; m. weiss, _die völkerstämme im norden deutsch-ostafrikas_, ; and a. werner, "the bantu coast tribes of the east africa protectorate," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlv. . [ ] _official report on the east african protectorate_, . [ ] _vocabulary of the giryama language_, s.p.c.k. . [ ] _travels in the coastlands of british east africa_, london, , p. sq. [ ] a. werner, "girijama texts," _zeitschr. f. kol.-spr._ oct. . [ ] having become the chief medium of intercourse throughout the southern bantu regions, ki-swahili has been diligently cultivated, especially by the english missionaries, who have wisely discarded the arab for the roman characters. there is already an extensive literature, including grammars, dictionaries, translations of the bible and other works, and even _a history of rome_ issued by the s.p.c.k. in . [ ] w. e. h. barrett, "notes on the customs and beliefs of the wa-giriama," etc., _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , gives further details. for a full review of the religious beliefs of bantu tribes see e. s. hartland, art. "bantu and s. africa," _ency. of religion and ethics_, . [ ] the name still survives in _zangue-bar_ ("zang-land") and the adjacent island of _zanzibar_ (an indian corruption). _zang_ is "black," and _bar_ is the same arabic word, meaning dry land, that we have in _mala-bar_ on the opposite side of the indian ocean. cf. also _barran wa bahran_, "by land and by sea." [ ] _viage por malabar y costas de africa_, , translated by the hon. henry e. j. stanley, hakluyt society, . [ ] in preference to the more popular form _zulu-kafir_, where _kafir_ is merely the arabic "infidel" applied indiscriminately to any people rejecting islám; hence the _siah posh kafirs_ ("black-clad infidels") of afghanistan; the _kufra_ oasis in the sahara, where _kufra_, plural of _kafir_, refers to the pagan tibus of that district; and the kafirs generally of the east african seaboard. but according to english usage _zulu_ is applied to the northern part of the territory, mainly zululand proper and natal, while kafirland or kaffraria is restricted to the southern section between natal and the great kei river. the bulk of these southern "kafirs" belong to the xosa connection; hence this term takes the place of _kafir_, in the compound expression _zulu-xosa_. _ama_ is explained on p. , and the _x_ of _xosa_ represents an unpronounceable combination of a guttural and a lateral click, this with two other clicks (a dental and a palatal) having infected the speech of these bantus during their long prehistoric wars with the hottentots or bushmen. see p. . [ ] see p. above. [ ] see the admirable monograph on the ba-thonga, by h. a. junod, _the life of a south african tribe_, . [ ] robert codrington tells us that these a-ngoni (aba-ngoni) spring from a zulu tribe which crossed the zambesi about , and established themselves south-east of l. tanganyika, but later migrated to the uplands west of l. nyasa, where they founded three petty states. others went east of the livingstone range, and are here still known as magwangwara. but all became gradually assimilated to the surrounding populations. intermarrying with the women of the country they preserve their speech, dress, and usages for the first generation in a slightly modified form, although the language of daily intercourse is that of the mothers. then this class becomes the aristocracy of the whole nation, which henceforth comprises a great part of the aborigines ruled by a privileged caste of zulu origin, "perpetuated almost entirely among themselves" ("central angoniland," _geograph. jour._ may, , p. ). see a. werner, _the natives of british central africa_, . [ ] rev. j. macdonald, _light in africa_, p. . among recent works on the zulu-xosa tribes may be mentioned dudley kidd, _the essential kafir_, , _savage childhood_, ; h. a. junod, _the life of a south african tribe_ (ba-thonga), - ; g. w. stow and g. m. theal, _the native races of south africa_, . [ ] from _mwana_, lord, master, and _tapa_, to dig, both common bantu words. [ ] the point was that portugal had made treaties with this mythical state, in virtue of which she claimed in the "scramble for africa" all the hinterlands behind her possessions on the east and west coasts (mozambique and angola), in fact all south africa between the orange and zambesi rivers. further details on the "monomotapa question" will be found in my monograph on "the portuguese in south africa" in murray's _south africa, from arab domination to british rule_, , p. sq. five years later mr g. mccall theal also discovered, no doubt independently, the mythical character of monomotapaland in his book on _the portuguese in south africa_, . [ ] _proc. r. geogr. soc._ may, , and _the ruined cities of mashonaland_, . [ ] d. randall-maciver, _mediaeval rhodesia_, . but r. n. hall strongly combats his views, _great zimbabwe_, , _prehistoric rhodesia_, , and _south african journal of science_, may, . h. h. johnston says, "i see nothing inherently improbable in the finding of gold by proto-arabs in the south-eastern part of zambezia; nor in the pre-islamic arab origin of zimbabwe," p. , "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. . [ ] g. w. stow, _the native races of south africa_, . [ ] the british protectorate was limited in to about , square miles. [ ] cf. a. st h. gibbons, _africa south to north through marotseland_, , and c. w. mackintosh, _coillard of the zambesi_, , with a bibliography. [ ] the ma-kololo gave the ba-rotse their present name. they were originally aälui, but the conquerors called them ma-rotse, people of the plain. [ ] _ten years north of the orange river._ [ ] cf. g. m. theal, _the history of south africa_ - , and _the beginning of south african history_, . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] g. lagden, _the basutos_, . [ ] variously termed _ba-kongo_, _bashi-kongo_ or _ba-fiot_. [ ] _towards the mountains of the moon_, , p. . [ ] _dictionary and grammar of the kongo language_, , p. xxiii. f. starr has published a _bibliography of the congo languages_, bull. v., dept. of anthropology, university of chicago, . [ ] "li mociconghi cosi nomati nel suo proprio idioma gli abitanti del reame di congo" (_relatione_, etc., rome, , p. ). this form is remarkable, being singular (_moci = mushi_) instead of plural (_eshi_); yet it is still currently applied to the rude "mushi-kongos" on the south side of the estuary. their real name however is bashi-kongo. see _brit. mus. ethnog. handbook_, p. . [ ] often written _ba-fiort_ with an intrusive _r_. [ ] under belgian administration much ethnological work has been undertaken, and published in the _annales du musée du congo_, notably the magnificent monograph on the _bushongo_ (_bakuba_) by e. torday and t. a. joyce, . see also h. h. johnston, _george grenfell and the congo_, ; m. w. hilton-simpson, _land and peoples of the kasai_, ; e. torday, _camp and tramp in african wilds_, ; j. h. weeks, _among congo cannibals_, , and _among the primitive bakongo_, ; and adolf friedrich, duke of mecklenburg, _from the congo to the niger and the nile_, . [ ] _the first ascent of the kassai_, , p. sq. see also my communication to the _academy_, april , , and _africa_ (stanford's compendium), , vol. ii. p. sq. [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] _the new world of central africa_, , p. sq. [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] these _mpangwe_ savages are constantly confused with the _mpongwes_ of the gabún, a settled bantu people who have been long in close contact, and on friendly terms, with the white traders and missionaries in this district. [ ] the scanty information about the ba-teke is given, with references, by e. torday and t. a. joyce, "notes on the ethnography of the ba-huana," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. . [ ] my _africa_, ii. p. . oscar lenz, who perhaps knew them best, says: "gut gebaut, schlank und kräftig gewachsen, hautfarbe viel lichter, manchmal stark ins gelbe spielend, haar und bartwuchs auffallend stark, sehr grosse kinnbärte" (_skizzen aus west-afrika_, , p. ). [ ] m. h. kingsley, _travels in west africa_, , pp. - . [ ] _official report_, . [ ] h. h. johnston, _george grenfell and the congo ... and notes on the cameroons_, . [ ] reclus, english ed., xii. p. . [ ] so also in minahassa, celebes, _empung_, "grandfather," is the generic name of the gods. "the fundamental ideas of primitive man are the same all the world over. just as the little black baby of the negro, the brown baby of the malay, the yellow baby of the chinaman are in face and form, in gestures and habits, as well as in the first articulate sounds they mutter, very much alike, so the mind of man, whether he be aryan or malay, mongolian or negrito, has in the course of its evolution passed through stages which are practically identical" (sydney j. hickson, _a naturalist in north celebes_, , p. ). [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] "the god of the ethiopians," in _nature_, may , . [ ] a. b. ellis, _tshi_, p. ; _ewe_, p. ; _yoruba_, p. . [ ] cf. e. s. hartland, art. "bantu and s. africa," _ency. of religion and ethics_, . [ ] this account of the vaalpens is taken from a. h. keane, _the world's peoples_, , p. . [ ] this summary of our information about the strandloopers, with quotations from f. c. shrubsall and l. peringuey, is taken from h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. . [ ] schiaparelli, _una tomba egiziana_, rome, . [ ] james geikie, _scottish geogr. mag._ sept. . [ ] thus he finds (_l'anthropologie_, , p. ) a presumably negrillo skull from the babinga district, middle sangha river, to be distinctly long-headed ( . ) with, for this race, the enormous cranial capacity of about c.c. cf. the akka measured by sir w. flower ( c.c.), and his andamanese ( ), the highest hitherto known being (virchow). [ ] _through unknown african countries_, etc., . [ ] _bul. soc. géogr._ xix. p. . [ ] _through jungle and desert_, , pp. - . [ ] _travels_, iii. p. . [ ] _im innern afrika's_, p. sq. as stated in _eth._ ch. xi. dr wolf connects all these negrillo peoples with the bushmen south of the zambesi. [ ] one of the mambute brought to england by col. harrison in measured just over - / feet. [ ] see a. c. haddon, art. "negrillos and negritos," _ency. of religion and ethics_, . [ ] "it would seem as if the earliest known race of man inhabiting what is now british central africa was akin to the bushman-hottentot type of negro. rounded stones with a hole through the centre, similar to those which are used by the bushmen in the south for weighting their digging-sticks, have been found at the south end of lake tanganyika. i have heard that other examples of these 'bushman' stones have been found nearer to lake nyasa, etc." (_british central africa_, p. ). [ ] g. fritsch, _die ein-geborenen sud-afrikas_, , "schilderungen der hottentotten," _globus_, , p. ff.; e. t. hamy, "les races nègres," _l'anthropologie_, , p. ff.; f. shrubsall, "crania of african bush races," _journ. anthr. inst._ . see also g. mccall theal, _the yellow and dark-skinned people south of the zambesi_, . [ ] "i have not been able to trace much affinity in word roots between this language and either bushman or hottentot, though it is noteworthy that the word for four ... is almost identical with the word for four in all the hottentot dialects, while the phonology of the language is reminiscent of bushmen in its nasals and gutturals" (h. h. johnston, "survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. ). [ ] _verhandl. berliner gesellsch. f. anthrop._ , p. . [ ] of another skull undoubtedly hottentot, from a cave on the transvaal and orange free state frontier, dr mies remarks that "seine form ist orthodolichocephal wie bei den wassandaui," although differing in some other characters (_centralbl. f. anthr._ , p. ). [ ] from which he adds that the hottentots "schon lange vor der portugiesischen umschiffung afrika's von kaffer-stämmen wieder zurückgedrängt wurden" (_reisen_, i. p. ). [ ] adelung und vater, berlin, , iii. p. . [ ] such are, going north from below walvisch bay, chuntop, kuisip, swakop, ugab, huab, uniab, hoanib, kaurasib, and khomeb. [ ] the returns for showed a "hottentot" population of , , but very few were pure hottentots. the official estimate of those in which hottentot blood was strongly marked was , . [ ] m. h. tongue and e. d. bleek, _bushman paintings_, . cf. w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , p. , with bibliography. [ ] w. h. i. bleek and l. c. lloyd, _bushman folklore_, . [ ] see w. planert, "Über die sprache der hottentotten und buschmänner," _mitt. d. seminars f. oriental. sprachen z. berlin_, viii. ( ), abt. iii. - . [ ] "in the pygmies of the north-eastern corner of the congo basin and amongst the bantu tribes of the equatorial east african coast there is a tendency to faucal gasps or explosive consonants which suggests the vanishing influence of clicks." h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. . [ ] "the bushmen and their language," in _journ. r. asiatic soc._ xviii. part . [ ] _ancient hunters_, , p. . chapter v the oceanic negroes: papuasians (papuans and melanesians)--negritoes-- tasmanians general ethnical relations in oceania--the terms papuan, melanesian and papuasian defined--the papuasian domain, past and present-- papuans and melanesians--physical characters: papuan, papuo-melanesian, melanesian--the _new caledonians_--physical characters--food question--general survey of melanesian ethnology--cultural problems--kava-drinking and betel-chewing--stone monuments--the dual people--summary of culture strata--melanesian culture--dress--houses--weapons--canoes, etc.--social life--secret societies--clubs--religion--western papuasia--ethnical elements-- region of transition by displacements and crossings--papuan and malay contrasts--ethnical and biological divides--the negritoes-- the _andamanese_--stone age--personal appearance--social life-- religion--speech--method of counting--grammatical structure-- the _semangs_--physical appearance--usages--speech--stone age-- the _aetas_--head-hunters--_new guinea pygmies_--negrito culture-- the _tasmanians_--tasmanian culture--fire making--tools and weapons--diet--dwellings--extinction. conspectus. #present range.# papuasian: _east malaysia, new guinea, melanesia_; tasmanian: _extinct_; negrito: _andamans, malay peninsula, philippines, new guinea_. #hair.# papuasian: _black, frizzly, mop-like, beard scanty or absent_; tasmanian: _black, shorter and less mop-like than papuasian_; negrito: _short, woolly or frizzly, black, sometimes tinged with brown or red_. #colour.# all: _very deep shades of chocolate brown, often verging on black, a very constant character, lighter shades showing mixture_. #skull.# papuasian: _extremely dolichocephalic ( - ) and high, but very variable in areas of mixture. ( - )_; tasmanian: _dolichocephalic or mesaticephalic ( )_; negrito: _brachycephalic ( - )_. #jaws.# papuasian: _moderately or not at all prognathous_; tasmanian _and_ negrito: _generally prognathous_. #cheek-bones.# all: _slightly prominent or even retreating_. #nose.# papuasian: _large, straight, generally aquiline in true papuans_; tasmanian _and_ negrito: _short, flat, broad, wide nostrils (platyrrhine) with large thick cartilage_. #eyes.# all: _moderately large, round and black or very deep brown, with dirty yellowish cornea, generally deep-set with strong overhanging arches_. #stature.# papuasian _and_ tasmanian: _above the average, but variable, with rather wide range from . m. to . or . m. ( ft. in. to ft. in. or ft.)_; negrito: _undersized, but taller than african negrillo, . m. to . m. ( . ft. in. to ft.)_. #temperament.# papuasian: _very excitable, voluble and laughter-loving, fairly intelligent and imaginative_; tasmanian: _distinctly less excitable and intelligent, but also far less cruel, captives never tortured_; negrito: _active, quick-witted or cunning within narrow limits, naturally kind and gentle_. #speech.# papuasian _and_ tasmanian: _agglutinating with postfixes, many stock languages in west papuasia, apparently one only in east papuasia (austronesian)_; negrito: _scarcely known except in andamans, where agglutination both by class prefixes and by postfixes has acquired a phenomenal development_. #religion.# papuasian: _reverence paid to ancestors, who may become beneficent or malevolent ghosts_; _general belief in_ mana _or supernatural power_; _no priests or idols_; negrito: _exceedingly primitive_; _belief in spirits, sometimes vague deities_. #culture.# papuasian: _slightly developed_; _agriculture somewhat advanced (n. guinea, n. caledonia)_; _considerable artistic taste and fancy shown in the wood-carving of houses, canoes, ceremonial objects, etc._ all others: _at the lowest hunting stage, without arts or industries, save the manufacture of weapons, ornaments, baskets, and rarely (andamanese) pottery_. main divisions. #papuasian#: . western papuasians (_true papuans_): _nearly all the new guinea natives_; _aru and other insular groups thence westwards to flores_; _torres straits and louisiade islands_. . eastern papuasians: _nearly all the natives of melanesia from bismarck archipelago to new caledonia, with most of fiji, and part of new guinea_. #negritoes#: . andamanese _islanders_. . semangs, _in the malay peninsula_. . aetas, _surviving in most of the philippine islands_. . _pygmies in new guinea._ * * * * * papuasians. from the data supplied in _ethnology_, chap. xi. a reconstruction may be attempted of the obscure ethnical relations in australasia on the following broad lines. . the two main sections of the ulotrichous division of mankind, now separated by the intervening waters of the indian ocean, are fundamentally one. . to the sudanese and bantu sub-sections in africa correspond, _mutatis mutandis_, the papuan and melanesian sub-sections in oceania, the former being distinguished by great linguistic diversity, the latter by considerable linguistic uniformity, and both by a rather wide range of physical variety within certain well-marked limits. . in africa the physical varieties are due mainly to semitic and hamitic grafts on the negro stock; in oceania mainly to mongoloid (malay) and caucasian (indonesian) grafts on the papuan stock. . the negrillo element in africa has its counterpart in an analogous negrito element in oceania (andamanese, semangs, aetas, etc.). . in both regions the linguistic diversity apparently presents similar features--a large number of languages differing profoundly in their grammatical structure and vocabularies, but all belonging to the same agglutinative order of speech, and also more or less to the same phonetic system. . in both regions the linguistic uniformity is generally confined to one or two geographical areas, bantuland in africa and melanesia in oceania. . in bantuland the linguistic system shows but faint if any resemblances to any other known tongues, whereas the melanesian group is but one branch, though the most archaic, of the vast austronesian family, diffused over the indian and pacific oceans. the papuan languages are entirely distinct from the melanesian. they are in some respects similar to the australian, but their exact positions are not yet proved[ ]. . owing to their linguistic, geographical, and to some extent their physical and social differences, it is desirable to treat the papuans and melanesians as two distinct though closely related sub-groups, and to restrict the use of the terms papuan and melanesian accordingly, while both may be conveniently comprised under the general or collective term papuasian[ ]. . here, therefore, by _papuans_ will be understood the true aborigines of new guinea with its eastern louisiade dependency[ ], and in the west many of the malaysian islands as far as flores inclusive, where the black element and non-malay speech predominate; by _melanesians_, the natives of melanesia as commonly understood, that is, the admiralty isles, new britain, new ireland and duke of york; the solomon islands; santa cruz; the new hebrides, new caledonia, loyalty, and fiji, where the black element and austronesian speech prevail almost exclusively. papuasia will thus comprise the insular world from flores to new caledonia. such appear to be the present limits of the papuasian domain, which formerly may have included micronesia also (the marianne, pelew, and caroline groups), and some writers suggest that it possibly extended over the whole of polynesia as far as easter island. the variation in the inhabitants of new guinea has often been recognised and is well described by c. g. seligman who remarks[ ] that the contrast between the relatively tall, dark-skinned, frizzly-haired inhabitants of torres straits, the fly river and the neighbouring parts of new guinea on the one hand, and the smaller lighter coloured peoples to the east, is so striking that the two peoples must be recognised as racially distinct. he restricts the name papuan to the congeries of frizzly-haired and often mop-headed peoples whose skin colour is some shade of brownish black, and proposes the term papuo-melanesian for the generally smaller, lighter coloured, frizzly-haired races of the eastern peninsula and the islands beyond. besides these conspicuous differences "the papuan is generally taller and is more consistently dolichocephalic than the papuo-melanesian: he is always darker, his usual colour being a dark chocolate or sooty brown; his head is high and his face, is, as a rule, long with prominent brow-ridges, above which his rather flat forehead commonly slopes backwards. the papuo-melanesian head is usually less high and the brow ridges less prominent, while the forehead is commonly rounded and not retreating. the skin colour runs through the whole gamut of shades of _café-au-lait_, from a lightish yellow with only a tinge of brown, to a tolerably dark bronze colour. the lightest shades are everywhere uncommon, and in many localities appear to be limited to the female sex. the papuan nose is longer and stouter and is often so arched as to present the outline known as 'jewish.' the character of its bridge varies, typically the nostrils are broad and the tip of the nose is often hooked downwards. in the papuo-melanesian the nose is generally smaller: both races have frizzly hair, but while this is universal among papuans, curly and even wavy hair is common among both [eastern and western] divisions of papuo-melanesians[ ]." the melanesians are as variable as the natives of new guinea; the hair may be curly, or even wavy, showing evidence of racial mixture, and the skin is chocolate or occasionally copper-coloured. the stature of the men ranges from . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft. in.), with an average between . m. and . m. ( ft. - / in. to ft. in.). the skull is usually dolichocephalic, but ranges from to and in certain parts brachycephaly is predominant; the nose shows great diversity. this type ranges with local variations from the admiralty islands and parts of new guinea through the bismarck archipelago, solomon islands, and the new hebrides and other island groups to fiji and new caledonia. the "kanakas," as the natives of new caledonia and the loyalty group are wrongly[ ] called by their present rulers, have been described by various french investigators. among the best accounts of them is that of m. augustin bernard[ ], based on the observations of de rochas, bourgard, vieillard, bertillon, meinicke, and others. apart from several sporadic polynesian groups in the loyalties[ ], all are typical melanesians, long-headed with very broad face at least in the middle, narrow boat-shaped skull (ceph. index )[ ], large, massive lower jaw, often with two supplementary molars[ ], colour a dark chocolate, often with a highly characteristic purple tinge; but de rochas' statement that for a few days after birth infants are of a light reddish yellow hue lacks confirmation; hair less woolly but much longer than the negro; beard also longish and frizzly, the peppercorn tufts with simulated bald spaces being an effect due to the assiduous use of the comb; very prominent superciliary arches and thick eyebrows, whence their somewhat furtive look; mean height ft. in.; speech melanesian with three marked varieties, that of the south-eastern districts being considered the most rudimentary member of the whole melanesian group[ ]. from the state of their industries, in some respects the rudest, in others amongst the most advanced in melanesia, it may be inferred that after their arrival the new caledonians, like the tasmanians, the andamanese, and some other insular groups, remained for long ages almost completely secluded from the rest of the world. owing to the poverty of the soil the struggle for food must always have been severe. hence the most jealously guarded privileges of the chiefs were associated with questions of diet, while the paradise of the dead was a region where they had abundance of food and could gorge on yams. the ethnological history of the whole of the melanesian region is obscure, but as the result of recent investigations certain broad features may be recognised. the earliest inhabitants were probably a black, woolly-haired race, now represented by the pygmies of new guinea, remnants of a formerly widely extended negrito population also surviving in the andaman islands, the malay peninsula (semang) and the philippines (aeta). a taller variety advanced into tasmania and formed the tasmanian group, now extinct, others spread over new guinea and the western pacific as "papuans," and formed the basis of the melanesian populations[ ]. the proto-polynesians in their migrations from the east indian archipelago to polynesia passed through this region and imposed their speech on the population and otherwise modified it. in later times other migrations have come from the west, and parts of melanesia have also been directly influenced by movements from polynesia. the result of these supposed influences has been to form the melanesian peoples as they exist to-day[ ]. g. friederici[ ] has accumulated a vast amount of evidence based chiefly on linguistics and material culture, to support the theory of melanesian cultural streams from the west. he regards the melanesians as having come from that part of indonesia which extends from the southern islands of the philippine group, through the minahasa peninsula of celebes, to the moluccas in the neighbourhood of buru and ceram. from the moluccan region they passed north of new guinea to the region about vitiaz and dampier straits, which friederici regards as the gateway of melanesia. here they colonised the northern shores of new britain, and part of the swarm settled along the eastern and south-eastern shores of new guinea. another stream passed to the northern louisiades, southern solomons, and northern new hebrides. the philippine or sub-philippine stream took a more northerly route, going by the admiralty group to new hanover, east new ireland and the solomons. the first serious attempt to disentangle the complex character of melanesian ethnography was made by f. graebner in [ ], followed by g. friederici, the references to whose work are given above. more recently w. h. r. rivers[ ] has attacked the cultural problem by means of the genealogical method and the results of his investigations are here briefly summarised. he has discovered several remarkable forms of marriage in melanesia and has deduced others which have existed previously. he argues that the anomalous forms of marriage imply a former dual organisation (_i.e._ a division of the community into two exogamous groups) with matrilineal descent, and he is driven to assume that in early times there was a state of society in which the elders had acquired so predominant a position that they were able to monopolise all the young women. some of the relationship systems are of great antiquity, and it is evident that changes have taken place due to cultural influences coming in from without. the distribution of kava-drinking and betel-chewing is of great interest. the former occurs all over polynesia (except easter island and new zealand) and throughout southern melanesia, including certain santa cruz islands, where it is limited to religious ceremonial. betel-chewing begins at these islands and extends northwards through new guinea and indonesia to india. kava and betel were introduced into melanesia by different cultural migrations. the introduction of betel-chewing was relatively late and restricted and may have taken place from indonesia after the invasion by the hindus. with it were associated strongly established patrilineal institutions, marriage with a wife of a father's brother, the special sanctity of the skull and the plank-built canoe. the use of pile dwellings is a more constant element of the betel-culture than of the kava-culture. the religious ritual centres round the skulls of ancestors and relatives, and the cult of the skull has taken a direction which gives the heads of enemies an importance equal to that of relatives, hence head-hunting has become the chief object of warfare. the skull of a relative is the symbol--if not the actual abiding place--of the dead, to be honoured and propitiated, while the skulls of enemies act as the means whereby this honour and propitiation are effected. the influence of the kava-using peoples was more extensive in time and space than that of the betel-chewing people. rivers supposes that they had neither clan organisation nor exogamy. some of them preserved the body after death and respect was paid to the head or skull. it is possible that the custom of payment for a wife came into existence in melanesia as the result of the need of the immigrant men for women of the indigenous people owing to their bringing few women with them, and the great development of shell money may be due in part to those payments. contact with the earlier populations also resulted in the development of secret societies. the immigrants introduced the cult of the dead and the institutions of taboo, totemism and chieftainship. they brought with them the form of outrigger canoe and the knowledge of plank-building for canoes (which however was only partially adopted), the rectangular house, and may have known the art of making pile dwellings. they introduced various forms of currency made of shells, teeth, feathers, mats, etc., the drill, the slit drum, or gong, the conch trumpet, the fowl, pig, dog, and megalithic monuments. there may have been two immigrations of peoples who made monuments of stone: . those who erected the more dolmen-like structures, probably had aquatic totems, and interred their dead in the extended position. . a later movement of people whose stone structures tended to take the form of pyramids, who had bird totems, practised a cult of the sun and cremated their dead. when the kava-using people came into melanesia they found it already inhabited. the earliest form of social organisation of which we have evidence was on the dual basis, associated with matrilineal descent, the dominance of the old men (gerontocracy) and certain peculiar forms of marriage. these people interred their dead in the contracted or sitting position, which also was employed in most parts of polynesia. evidently they feared the ghosts and removed their dead as completely as possible from the living. these people--whom we may speak of as the "dual-people"--were communistic in property and probably practised sexual communism; the change towards the institution of individual property and individual marriage were assisted by, if not entirely due to, the influence of the kava-people. they practised circumcision. magic was an indigenous institution. characteristic is the cult of _vui_, unnamed local spirits with definite haunts or abiding places whose rites are performed in definite localities. in the northern new hebrides the offerings connected with _vui_ are not made to the _vui_ themselves but to the man who owns the place connected with the _vui_. it would seem as if ownership of a locality carried with it ownership of the _vui_ connected with the locality. thus _vui_ are local spirits belonging to the indigenous owners of the soil, and there seems no reason to believe that they were ever ghosts of dead men. as totemism occurs among the dual-people of the bismarck archipelago (who live in parts of new britain and new ireland and duke of york island) it is possible that the kava-people were not the sole introducers of totemism into melanesia. the dual-people were probably acquainted with the bow, which they may have called _busur_, and the dug-out canoe which was used either lashed together in pairs or singly with an outrigger. the origin of a dual organisation is generally believed to be due to fission, but it is more reasonable to regard it as due to fusion, as hostility is so frequently manifest between the two groups despite the fact that spouses are always obtained from the other moiety. in new ireland (and elsewhere) each moiety is associated with a hero; one acts wisely but unscrupulously, the other is a fool who is always falling an easy victim to the first. each moiety has a totem bird: one is a fisher, clever and capable, while the second obtains its food by stealing from the other and does not go to sea. one represents the immigrants of superior culture who came by sea, the other the first people, aborigines, of lowly culture who were quite unable to cope with the wiles and stratagems of the people who had settled among them. in the gazelle peninsula of new britain, the dual groups are associated with light and dark coconuts; affiliated with the former are male objects and the clever bird, which is universally called _taragau_, or a variant of that term. the bird of the other moiety is named _malaba_ or _manigulai_, and is associated with female objects. the dark coconuts, the dark colour and flattened noses of the women who were produced by their transformation, and the projecting eyebrows of the _malaba_ bird and its human adherents seem to be records in the mythology of the bismarck archipelago of the negroid (or, rivers suggests, an australoid) character of the aboriginal population. the light coconut which was changed into a light-coloured woman seems to have preserved a tradition of the light colour of the immigrants. the autochthones of melanesia were a dark-skinned and ulotrichous people, who had neither a fear of the ghosts of their dead nor a manes cult, but had a cult of local spirits. the baining of the gazelle peninsula of new britain may be representatives of a stage of melanesian history earlier than the dual system; if so, they probably represent in a modified form, the aboriginal element. they are said to be completely devoid of any fear of the dead. the immigrants whose arrival caused the institution of the dual system were a relatively fair people of superior culture who interred their dead in a sitting position and feared their ghosts. they first introduced the austronesian language. all subsequent migrations were of austronesian-speaking peoples from indonesia. first came the kava-peoples in various swarms, and more recently the betel-people. possibly new caledonia shows the effects of relative isolation more than other parts of melanesia, but, except for polynesian influence (most directly recognisable in fiji and southern melanesia), melanesia may be regarded as possessing a general culture with certain characteristic features which may be thus summarised[ ]. the melanesians are a noisy, excitable, demonstrative, affectionate, cheery, passionate people. they could not be hunters everywhere, as in most of the islands there is no game, nor could they be pastors anywhere, as there are no cattle; the only resources are fishing and agriculture. in the larger islands there is usually a sharp distinction between the coast people, who are mainly fishers, and the inlanders who are agriculturalists; the latter are always by far the more primitive, and in many cases are subservient to the former. both sexes work in the plantations. in parts of new guinea and the western solomons the sago palm is of great importance; coconut palms grow on the shores of most islands, and bananas, yams, bread-fruit, taro and sweet potatoes supply abundant food. as for dress, the men occasionally wear none, but usually have belts or bands, of bark-cloth, plaits, or strings, and the women almost everywhere have petticoats of finely shredded leaves. the skin is decorated with scars in various patterns, and tattooing is occasionally seen, the former being naturally characteristic of the darker skinned people, and the latter of the lighter. every portion of the body is decorated in innumerable ways with shells, teeth, feathers, leaves, flowers, and other objects, and plaited bands encircle the neck, body, and limbs. shell necklaces, which constitute a kind of currency, and artificially deformed boars' tusks are especially characteristic, though each group usually has its peculiar ornaments, distinguishing it from any other group. there is a great variety of houses. the typical melanesian house has a gable roof, the ridge pole is supported by two main posts, side walls are very low, and the ends are filled in with bamboo screens. pile dwellings are found in the bismarck archipelago, the solomon islands and new guinea, and some new guinea villages extend out into the sea. the weapons typical of melanesia are the club and the spear (though the latter is not found in the banks islands), each group and often each island possessing its own distinctive pattern. stone headed clubs are found in new guinea, new britain and the new hebrides. the spears of the solomon islands are finely decorated and have bone barbs; those of new caledonia are pointed with a sting-ray spine; those of the admiralty islands have obsidian heads; and those of new britain have a human armbone at the butt end. the bow, the chief weapon of the papuans, occurs over the greater part of melanesia, though it is absent in s.e. new guinea, and is only used for hunting in the admiralty islands. the hollowed out tree trunk with or without a plank gunwale is general, usually with a single outrigger, though plank-built canoes occur in the solomons, characteristically ornamented with shell inlay. pottery is an important industry in parts of new guinea and in fiji; it occurs also in new caledonia, espiritu santo (new hebrides) and the admiralty islands. bark-cloth is made in most islands, but a loom for weaving leaf strips is now found only in santa cruz. a division of the community into two exogamous groups is very widely spread, no intermarriage being permitted within the group. mother-right is prevalent, descent and inheritance being counted on the mother's side, while a man's property descends to his sister's children. at the same time the mother is in no sense the head of the family; the house is the father's, the garden may be his, the rule and government are his, though the maternal uncle sometimes has more authority than the father. the transition to father-right has definitely occurred in various places, and is taking place elsewhere; thus, in some of the new hebrides, the father has to buy off the rights of his wife's relations or his sister's children. chiefs exist everywhere, being endowed with religious sanctity in fiji, where they are regarded as the direct descendants of the tribal ancestors. more often, a chief holds his position solely owing to the fact that he has inherited the cult of some powerful spirit, and his influence is not very extensive. probably everywhere public affairs are regulated by discussion among the old or important men, and the more primitive the society, the more power they possess. but the most powerful institutions of all are the secret societies, occurring with certain exceptions throughout melanesia. these are accessible to men only, and the candidates on initiation have to submit to treatment which is often rough in the extreme. the members of the societies are believed to be in close association with ghosts and spirits, and exhibit themselves in masks and elaborate dresses in which disguise they are believed by the uninitiated to be supernatural beings. these societies do not practise any secret cult, in fact all that the initiate appears to learn is that the "ghosts" are merely his fellows in disguise, and that the mysterious noises which herald their approach are produced by the bull-roarer and other artificial means. these organisations are most powerful agents for the maintenance of social order and inflict punishment for breaches of customary law, but they are often terrorising and blackmailing institutions. women are rigorously excluded. other social factors of importance are the clubs, especially in the new hebrides and banks islands. these are a means of attaining social rank. they are divided into different grades, the members of which eat together at their particular fire-place in the club-house. each rank has its insignia, sometimes human effigies, usually, but wrongly, called "idols." promotion from one grade to another is chiefly a matter of payment, and few reach the highest. those who do so become personages of very great influence, since no candidate can obtain promotion without their permission. totemism occurs in parts of new guinea and elsewhere and has marked socialising effects, as totemic solidarity takes precedence of all other considerations, but it is becoming obsolete. the most important religious factor throughout melanesia is the belief in a supernatural power or influence, generally called _mana_. this is what works to effect everything which is beyond the ordinary power of man or outside the common processes of nature; but this power, though in itself impersonal, is always connected with some person who directs it; all spirits have it, ghosts generally, and some men. a more or less developed ancestor cult is also universally distributed. human beings may become beneficent or malevolent ghosts, but not every ghost becomes an object of regard. the ghost who is worshipped is the spirit of a man who in his lifetime had _mana_. good and evil spirits independent of ancestors are also abundant everywhere. there is no established priesthood, except in fiji, but as a rule, any man who knows the particular ritual suitable to a definite spirit, acts as intermediary, and a man in communication with a powerful spirit becomes a person of great importance. life after death is universally believed in, and the soul is commonly pictured as undertaking a journey, beset with various perils, to the abode of departed spirits, which is usually represented as lying towards the west. as a rule only the souls of brave men, or initiates, or men who have died in fight, win through to the most desirable abode. magical practices occur everywhere for the gaining of benefits, plenteous crops, good fishing, fine weather, rain, children or success in love. harmful magic for producing sickness or death is equally universal[ ]. returning to the papuan lands proper, in the insular groups west of new guinea we enter one of the most entangled ethnical regions in the world. here are, no doubt, a few islands such as the aru group, mainly inhabited by full-blood papuans, men who furnished wallace with the models on which he built up his true papuan type, which has since been vainly assailed by so many later observers. but in others--ceram, buru, timor, and so on to flores--diverse ethnical and linguistic elements are intermingled in almost hopeless confusion. discarding the term "alfuro" as of no ethnical value[ ], we find the whole area west to about ° e. longitude[ ] occupied in varying proportions by pure and mixed representatives of three distinct stocks: negro (papuans), mongoloid (malayans), and caucasic (indonesians). from the data supplied by crawfurd, wallace, forbes, ten kate and other trustworthy observers, i have constructed the subjoined table, in which the east malaysian islands are disposed according to the constituent elements of their inhabitants[ ]: _aru group_--true papuans dominant; indonesians (korongoei) in the interior. _kei group_--malayans; indonesians; papuan strain everywhere. _timor; wetta; timor laut_--mixed papuans, malayans and indonesians; no pure type anywhere. _serwatti group_--malayans with slight trace of black blood (papuan or negrito). _roti and sumba_--malayans. _savu_--indonesians. _flores; solor; adonera; lomblen; pantar; allor_--papuans pure or mixed dominant; malayans in the coast towns. _buru_--malayans on coast; reputed papuans, but more probably indonesians in interior. _ceram_--malayans on coast; mixed malayo-papuans inland. _amboina; banda_--malayans; dutch-malay half-breeds ("perkeniers"). _goram_--malayans with slight papuan strain. _matabello; tior; nuso telo; tionfoloka_--papuans with malayan admixture. _misol_--malayo-papuans on coast; papuans inland. _tidor; ternate; sulla; makian_--malayans. _batjan_--malayans; indonesians. _gilolo_--mixed papuans; indonesians in the north. _waigiu; salwatti; batanta_--malayans on the coast; papuans inland. from this apparently chaotic picture, which in some places, such as timor, presents every gradation from the full-blood papuan to the typical malay, crawfurd concluded that the eastern section of malaysia constituted a region of transition between the yellowish-brown lank-haired and the dark-brown or black mop-headed stocks. in a sense this is true, but not in the sense intended by crawfurd, who by "transition" meant the actual passage by some process of development from type to type independently of interminglings. but such extreme transitions have nowhere taken place spontaneously, so to say, and in any case could never have been brought about in a small zoological area presenting everywhere the same climatic conditions. biological types may be, and have been, modified in different environments, arctic, temperate, or tropical zones, but not in the same zone, and if two such marked types as the mongol and the negro are now found juxtaposed in the malaysian tropical zone, the fact must be explained by migrations and displacements, while the intermediate forms are to be attributed to secular intermingling of the extremes. why should a man, passing from one side to another of an island or miles long, be transformed from a sleek-haired brown to a frizzly-haired black, or from a mercurial laughter-loving papuan to a malayan "slow in movement and thoroughly phlegmatic in disposition, rarely seen to laugh or become animated in conversation, with expression generally of vague wonder or weary sadness"[ ]? wallace's classical description of these western papuans, who are here in the very cradleland of the race, can never lose its charm, and its accuracy has been fully confirmed by all later observers. "the typical papuan race," he writes, "is in many respects the very opposite of the malay. the colour of the body is a deep sooty-brown or black, sometimes approaching, but never quite equalling, the jet-black of some negro races. the hair is very peculiar, being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or curls, which in youth are very short and compact, but afterwards grow out to a considerable length, forming the compact, frizzled mop which is the papuan's pride and glory.... the moral characteristics of the papuan appear to me to separate him as distinctly from the malay as do his form and features. he is impulsive and demonstrative in speech and action. his emotions and passions express themselves in shouts and laughter, in yells and frantic leapings.... the papuan has a greater feeling for art than the malay. he decorates his canoe, his house, and almost every domestic utensil with elaborate carving, a habit which is rarely found among tribes of the malay race. in the affections and moral sentiments, on the other hand, the papuans seem very deficient. in the treatment of their children they are often violent and cruel, whereas the malays are almost invariably kind and gentle." the ethnological parting-line between the malayan and papuasian races, as first laid down by wallace, nearly coincides with his division between the indo-malayan and austro-malayan floras and faunas, the chief differences being the positions of sumbawa and celebes. both of these islands are excluded from the papuasian realm, but included in the austro-malayan zoological and botanical regions. the oceanic negritoes. recent discoveries and investigations of the pygmy populations on the eastern border of the indian ocean tend to show that the problem is by no means simple. already two main stocks are recognised, differentiated by wavy and curly hair and dolichocephaly in the sakai, and so-called woolly hair in the andamanese islanders, semang (malay peninsula) and aeta (philippines), combined with mesaticephaly or low brachycephaly. in east sumatra and celebes a short, curly-haired dark-skinned people occur, racially akin to the sakai, and moszkowski suggests that the same element occupied geelvink bay (netherlands new guinea). these with the vedda of ceylon, and some jungle tribes of the deccan, represent remnants of a once widely distributed pre-dravidian race, which is also supposed to form the chief element in the australians[ ]. the "mincopies," as the andamanese used to be called, nobody seems to know why, were visited in by louis lapicque, who examined a large kitchen-midden near port blair, but some distance from the present coast, hence of great age[ ]. nevertheless he failed to find any worked stone implements, although flint occurs in the island. indeed, chipped or flaked flints, now replaced by broken glass, were formerly used for shaving and scarification. but, as the present natives use only fishbones, shells, and wood, lapicque somewhat hastily concluded that these islanders, like some other primitive groups, have never passed through a stone age at all. the shell-mounds have certainly yielded an arrow-head and polished adze "indistinguishable from any of the european or indian celts of the so-called neolithic period[ ]." but there is no reason to think that the archipelago was ever occupied by a people different from its present inhabitants. hence we may suppose that their ancestors arrived in their stone age, but afterwards ceased to make stone implements, as less handy for their purposes and more difficult to make than the shell or bone-tipped weapons and the nets with which they capture game and fish more readily "than the most skilful fisherman with hook and line[ ]." similarly they would seem to have long lost the art of making fire, having once obtained it from a still active volcano in the neighbouring barren island[ ]. the inhabitants of the andaman islands range in colour from bronze to sooty black. their hair is extremely frizzly, seeming to grow in spiral tufts and is seldom more than inches long when untwisted. the women usually shave their heads. their height is about . m. ( ft. - / in.), with well-proportioned body and small hands. the cephalic index averages . the face is broad at the cheek-bones, the eyes are prominent, the nose is much sunken at the root but straight and small; the lips are full but not thick, the chin is small but not retreating, nor do the jaws project. the natives are characterised by honesty, frankness, politeness, modesty, conjugal fidelity, respect for elders and real affection between relatives and friends. the women are on an equal footing with the men and do their full share of work. the food is mainly fish (obtained by netting, spearing or shooting with bow and arrow), wild yams, turtle, pig and honey. they do not till the soil or keep domestic animals. instead of clothing both sexes wear belts, necklaces, leg-bands, arm-bands etc. made of bones, wood and shell, the women wearing in addition a rudimentary leaf apron. when fully dressed the men wear bunches of shredded pandanus leaf at wrists and knees, and a circlet of the same leaf folded on the head. they make canoes, some of which have an outrigger, but never venture far from the shore. they usually live in small encampments round an oval dancing ground, their simple huts are open in front and at the sides, or in a large communal hut in which each family has its own particular space, the bachelors and spinsters having theirs. a family consists of a man and his wife and such of their children, own and adopted, as have not passed the period of the ceremonies of adolescence. between that period and marriage the boys and girls reside in the bachelors' and spinsters' quarters respectively. a man is not regarded as an independent member of the community till he is married and has a child. there is no organised polity. generally one man excels the rest in hunting, warfare, wisdom and kindliness, and he is deferred to, and becomes, in a sense, chief. a regular feature of andamanese social life is the meeting at intervals between two or more communities. a visit of a few days is paid and presents are exchanged between hosts and guests, the time being spent in hunting, feasting and dancing. no forms of worship have been noticed, but there is a belief in various kinds of spirits, the most important of whom is biliku, usually regarded as female, who is identified with the north-east monsoon and is paired with tarai the south-west monsoon. biliku and tarai are the producers of rain, storms, thunder and lightning. fire was stolen from biliku. there is always great fluidity in native beliefs, so some tribes regard puluga (biliku) as a male. three things make biliku angry and cause her to send storms; melting or burning of bees-wax, interfering in any way with a certain number of plants, and killing a cicada or making a noise during the time the cicadae are singing. a. r. brown[ ] gives an interesting explanation of this curious belief. biliku is supposed to have a human form but nobody ever sees her. her origin is unknown. the idea of her being a creator is local and is probably secondary, she does not concern herself with human actions other than those noted above. e. h. man has carefully studied and reduced to writing the andamanese language, of which there are at least nine distinct varieties, corresponding to as many tribal groups. it has no clear affinities to any other tongue[ ], the supposed resemblances to dravidian and australian being extremely slight, if not visionary. its phonetic system is astonishingly rich (no less than vowels and consonants, but no sibilants), while the arithmetic stops at _two_. nobody ever attempts to count in any way beyond _ten_, which is reached by a singular process. first the nose is tapped with the finger-tips of either hand, beginning with the little finger, and saying _úbatúl_ (one), then _íkpór_ (two) with the next, after which each successive tap makes _anká_, "and this." when the thumb of the second hand is reached, making _ten_, both hands are brought together to indicate + , and the sum is clenched with the word _àrdúru_ = "all." but this feat is exceptional, and usually after _two_ you get only words answering to several, many, numerous, countless, which flight of imagination is reached at about or . yet with their infantile arithmetic these paradoxical islanders have contrived to develop an astonishingly intricate form of speech characterised by an absolutely bewildering superfluity of pronominal and other elements. thus the possessive pronouns have as many as sixteen possible variants according to the class of noun (human objects, parts of the body, degrees of kinship, etc.) with which they are in agreement. for instance, _my_ is _día_, _dót_, _dóng_, _dig_, _dab_, _dar_, _dákà_, _dóto_, _dai_, _dár_, _ad_, _ad-en_, _deb_, with _man_, _head_, _wrist_, _mouth_, _father_, _son_, _step-son_, _wife_, etc. etc.; and so with _thy_, _his_, _our_, _your_, _their_! this grouping of nouns in classes is analogous to the bantu system, and it is curious to note that the number of classes is about the same. on the other hand there is a wealth of postfixes attached as in normal agglutinating forms of speech, so that "in adding their affixes they follow the principles of the ordinary agglutinative tongues; in adding their prefixes they follow the well-defined principles of the south african tongues. hitherto, as far as i know, the two principles in full play have never been found together in any other language.... in andamanese both are fully developed, so much so as to interfere with each other's grammatical functions[ ]." the result often is certain _sesquipedalia verba_ comparable in length to those of the american polysynthetic languages. a savage people, who can hardly count beyond two, possessed of about the most intricate language spoken by man, is a psychological puzzle which i cannot profess to fathom. in the malay peninsula the indigenous element is certainly the negrito, who, known by many names--semang, udai, pangan, hami, menik or mandi--forms a single ethnical group presenting some striking analogies with the andamanese. but, surrounded from time out of mind by malay peoples, some semi-civilised, some nearly as wild as themselves, but all alike slowly crowding them out of the land, these aborigines have developed defensive qualities unneeded by the more favoured insular negritoes, while their natural development has been arrested at perhaps a somewhat lower plane of culture. in fact, doomed to extinction before their time came, they never have had a chance in the race, as hugh clifford sings in _the song of the last semangs_: the paths are rough, the trails are blind the jungle people tread; the yams are scarce and hard to find with which our folk are fed. we suffer yet a little space until we pass away, the relics of an ancient race that ne'er has had its day. in physical features they in many respects resemble the andamanese. their hair is short, universally woolly and black, the skin colour dark chocolate brown approximating to glossy black[ ], sometimes with a reddish tinge[ ]. there is very little evidence for the stature but the males measured by annandale and robinson[ ] averaged . m. ( ft. - / in.). the average cephalic index is about to , extremes ranging from to . the face is round, the forehead rounded, narrow and projecting, or as it were "swollen." the nose is short and flattened, with remarkable breadth and distended nostrils. the nasal index of five adult males was . [ ]. the cheekbones are broad and the jaws often protrude slightly; the lips are as a rule thick. martin remarks that characteristic both of semang and sakai[ ] is the great thickening of the integumental part of the upper lip, the whole mouth region projecting from the lower edge of the nose. this convexity occurs in per cent., and is well shown in his photographs[ ]. hugh clifford, who has been intimately associated with the "orang-utan" (wild-men) as the malays often call them, describes those of the plus river valley as "like african negroes seen through the reverse end of a field-glass. they are sooty-black in colour; their hair is short and woolly, clinging to the scalp in little crisp curls; their noses are flat, their lips protrude, and their features are those of the pure negroid type. they are sturdily built and well set upon their legs, but in stature little better than dwarfs. they live by hunting, and have no permanent dwellings, camping in little family groups wherever, for the moment, game is most plentiful[ ]." their shelters--huts they cannot be called--are exactly like the frailest of the andamanese, mere lean-to's of matted palm-leaves crazily propped on rough uprights; clothes they have next to none, and their food is chiefly yams and other jungle roots, fish from the stream, and sun-dried monkey, venison and other game, this term having an elastic meaning. salt, being rarely obtainable, is a great luxury, as amongst almost all wild tribes. they are a nomadic people living by collecting and hunting; the wilder ones will often not remain longer than three days in one place. very few have taken to agriculture. they make use of bamboo rafts for drifting down stream but have no canoes. all men are on an equal footing, but each tribe has a head, who exercises authority. division of labour is fairly even between men and women. the men hunt, and the women build the shelters and cook the food. they are strictly monogamous and faithful. all the faculties are sharpened mainly in the quest of food and of means to elude the enemy now closing round their farthest retreats in the upland forests. when hard pressed and escape seems impossible, they will climb trees and stretch rattan ropes from branch to branch where these are too wide apart to be reached at a bound, and along such frail aërial bridges women and all will pass with their cooking-pots and other effects, with their babies also at the breast, and the little ones clinging to their mother's heels. for like the andamanese they love their women-folk and children, and in this way rescue them from the malay raiders and slavers. but unless the british raj soon intervenes their fate is sealed. they may slip from the malays, but not from their own traitorous kinsmen, who often lead the hunt, and squat all night long on the tree tops, calling one to another and signalling from these look-outs when the leaves rustle and the rattans are heaved across, so that nothing can be done, and another family group is swept away into bondage. from their physical resemblance, undoubted common descent, and geographical proximity, one might also expect to find some affinity in the speech of the andaman and malay negritoes. but h. clifford, who made a special study of the dialects on the mainland, discovered no points of contact between them and any other linguistic group[ ]. this, however, need cause no surprise, being in no discordance with recognised principles. as in the andamans, stone implements have been found in the peninsula, and specimens are now in the pitt-rivers collection at oxford[ ]. but the present aborigines do not make or use such tools, and there is good reason for thinking that they were the work of their ancestors, arriving, as in the andamans, in the remote past. hence the two groups have been separated for many thousands of years, and their speech has diverged too widely to be now traced back to a common source. with the negritoes of the philippines we enter a region of almost hopeless ethnical complications[ ], amid which, however, the dark dwarfish _aeta_ peoples crop out almost everywhere as the indigenous element. the aeta live in the mountainous districts of the larger islands, and in some of the smaller islands of the philippines, and the name is conveniently extended to the various groups of philippine negritoes, many of whom show the results of mixture with other peoples. their hair is universally woolly, usually of a dirty black colour, often sun-burnt on the top to a reddish brown. the skin is dark chocolate brown rather than black, sometimes with a yellowish tinge. the average stature of men was . m. ( ft. in.), but showed considerable range. the typical nose is broad, flat, and bridgeless, with prominent arched nostrils, the average nasal index for males being , and for females [ ]. the lips are thick, but not protruding, sometimes showing a pronounced convexity between the upper lip and the nose. john foreman[ ] noted the curious fact that the aeta were recognised as the owners of the soil long after the arrival of the malayan intruders. "for a long time they were the sole masters of luzon island, where they exercised seignorial rights over the tagalogs and other immigrants, until these arrived in such numbers, that the negritoes were forced to the highlands. "the taxes imposed upon the primitive malay settlers by the negritoes were levied in kind, and, when payment was refused, they swooped down in a posse, and carried off the head of the defaulter. since the arrival of the spaniards terror of the white man has made them take definitely to the mountains, where they appear to be very gradually decreasing[ ]." at first sight it may seem unaccountable that a race of such extremely low intellect should be able to assert their supremacy in this way over the intruding malayans, assumed to be so much their superiors in physical and mental qualities. but it has to be considered that the invasions took place in very remote times, ages before the appearance on the scene of the semi-civilised muhammadan malays of history. whether of indonesian or of what is called "malay" stock, the intruders were rude oceanic peoples, who in the prehistoric period, prior to the spread of civilising hindu or moslem influences in malaysia, had scarcely advanced in general culture much beyond the indigenous papuan and negrito populations of that region. even at present the gaddanes, itaves, igorrotes, and others of luzon are mere savages, at the head-hunting stage, quite as wild as, and perhaps even more ferocious than any of the aetas. indeed we are told that in some districts the negrito and igorrote tribes keep a regular debtor and creditor account of heads. wherever the vendetta still prevails, all alike live in a chronic state of tribal warfare; periodical head-hunting expeditions are organised by the young men, to present the bride's father with as many grim trophies as possible in proof of their prowess, the victims being usually taken by surprise and stricken down with barbarous weapons, such as a long spear with tridented tips, or darts and arrows carrying at the point two rows of teeth made of flint or sea-shells. to avoid these attacks some, like the central sudanese negroes, live in cabins on high posts or trees to feet from the ground, and defend themselves by showering stones on the marauders. a physical peculiarity of the full-blood negritoes, noticed by j. montano[ ], is the large, clumsy foot, turned slightly inwards, a trait characteristic also of the african negrilloes; but in the aeta the effect is exaggerated by the abnormal divergence of the great toe, as amongst the annamese. the presence of a pygmy element in the population of new guinea had long been suspected, but the actual existence of a pygmy people was first discovered by the british ornithologists' union expedition, , at the source of the mimika river in the nassau range[ ]. the description of these people, the tapiro, is as follows. their stature averages . m. ( ft. in.) ranging from . m. ( ft. - / in.) to . ( ft. - / in.). the skull is very variable giving indices from . to . . the skin colour is lighter than that of the neighbouring papuans, some individuals being almost yellow. the nose is straight, and though described as "very wide at the nostrils," the mean of the indices is only , the extremes being . and . the eyes are noticeably larger and rounder than those of papuans, and the upper lip of many of the men is long and curiously convex. a negrito element has also been recognised in the mafulu people investigated by r. w. williamson in the mekeo district[ ], here mixed with papuan and papuo-melanesian. their stature ranges from . m. ( ft. in.) to . m. ( ft. in.). the average cephalic index is ranging from . to . . the skin colour is dark sooty brown and the hair, though usually brown or black, is often very much lighter, "not what we in europe should call dark." the average nasal index is with extremes of . and . also partly of negrito origin are the p[)e]s[)e]g[)e]m of the upper waters of the lorentz river[ ]. all these negrito peoples, as has been pointed out, show considerable diversity in physical characters, none of the existing groups, with the exception of the andamanese, appearing to be homogeneous as regards cephalic or nasal index, while the stature, though always low, shows considerable range. they have certain cultural features in common[ ], and these as a rule differentiate them from their neighbours. they seldom practise any deformation of the person, such as tattooing or scarification, though the tapiro and mafulu wear a nose-stick. they are invariably collectors and hunters, never, unless modified by contact with other peoples, undertaking any cultivation of the soil. their huts are simple, the pile dwellings of the tapiro being evidently copied from their neighbours. all possess the bow and arrow, though only the semang and aeta use poison. the andamanese appear to be one of the very few peoples who possess fire but do not know how to make it afresh. there seems a certain amount of evidence that the negrito method of making fire was that of splitting a dry stick, keeping the ends open by a piece of wood or stone placed in the cleft, stuffing some tinder into the narrow part of the slit and then drawing a strip of rattan to and fro across the spot until a spark sets fire to the tinder[ ]. the social structure is everywhere very simple. the social unit appears to be the family and the power of the headman is very limited. strict monogamy seems to prevail even where, as among the aeta, polygyny is not prohibited. the dead are buried, but the bodies of those whom it is wished to honour are placed on platforms or on trees. related in certain physical characters to the pygmy negritoes, although not of pygmy proportions[ ], were the aborigines of tasmania, but their racial affinities are much disputed. huxley thought they showed some resemblance to the inhabitants of new caledonia and the andaman islands, but flower was disposed to bring them into closer connection with the papuans or melanesians. the leading anthropologists in france do not accept either of these views. topinard states that there is no close alliance between the new caledonians and the tasmanians, while quatrefages and hamy remark that "from whatever point of view we look at it, the tasmanian race presents special characters, so that it is quite impossible to discover any well-defined affinities with any other existing race." sollas, reviewing these conflicting opinions, concludes that "this probably represents the prevailing opinion of the present day[ ]." the tasmanians were of medium height, the average for the men being . m. ( ft. - / in.) with a range from . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft. in.); the average height for women being . m. ( ft. in.) with a range from . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft. - / in.). the skin colour was almost black with a brown tinge. the eyes were small and deep set beneath prominent overhanging brow-ridges. the nose was short and broad, with a deep notch at the root and widely distended nostrils. the skull was dolichocephalic or low mesaticephalic, with an average index of , of peculiar outline when viewed from above. other peculiarities were the possession of the largest teeth, especially noticeable in comparison with the small jaw, and the smallest known cranial capacity (averaging c.c. for both sexes, falling in the women to c.c.). the aboriginal tasmanians stood even at a lower level of culture than the australians. at the occupation the scattered bands, with no hereditary chiefs or social organisation, numbered altogether souls at most, speaking several distinct dialects, whether of one or more stock languages is uncertain. in the absence of sibilants and some other features they resembled the australian, but were of ruder or less developed structure, and so imperfect that according to joseph milligan, our best authority on the subject, "they observed no settled order or arrangement of words in the construction of their sentences, but conveyed in a supplementary fashion by tone, manner, and gesture those modifications of meaning which we express by mood, tense, number, etc.[ ]" abstract terms were rare, and for every variety of gum-tree or wattle-tree there was a name, but no word for "tree" in general, or for qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold, long, short, round, etc. anything hard was "like a stone," round "like the moon," and so on, "usually suiting the action to the word, and confirming by some sign the meaning to be understood." they made fire by the stick and groove method, but their acquaintance with the fire-drill is uncertain[ ]. the stone implements are the subject of much discussion. a great number are so rude and uncouth that, taken alone, we should have little reason to suspect that they had been chipped by man: some, on the other hand, show signs of skilful working. they were formerly classed as "eoliths" and compared to the plateau implements of kent and sussex, but the comparison cannot be sustained[ ]. sollas illustrates an implement "delusively similar to the head of an axe" and notes its resemblance to a levallois flake (acheulean). j. p. johnson[ ] points out the general likeness to pre-aurignacian forms and there is a remarkable similarity of certain examples to mousterian types. weapons were of wood, and consisted of spears pointed and hardened in the fire, and a club or waddy, about two feet long, sometimes knobbed at one end; the range is said to have been about yards. in the native diet were included "snakes, lizards, grubs and worms," besides the opossum, wombat, kangaroo, birds and fishes, roots, seeds and fruits, but not human flesh, at least normally. like the bushmen, they were gross feeders, consuming enormous quantities of food when they could get it, and the case is mentioned of a woman who was seen to eat from to eggs of the sooty petrel (larger than a duck's), besides a double allowance of bread, at the station on flinders island. they had frail bundles of bark made fast with thongs or rushes, half float, half boat, to serve as canoes, but no permanent abodes or huts, beyond branches of trees lashed together, supported by stakes, and disposed crescent-shape with the convex side to windward. on the uplands and along the sea-shore they took refuge in caves, rock-shelters and natural hollows. usually the men went naked, the women wore a loose covering of skins, and personal ornamentation was limited to cosmetics of red ochre, plumbago, and powdered charcoal, with occasionally a necklace of shells strung on a fibrous twine. being merely hunters and collectors, with the arrival of english colonists their doom was sealed. "only in rare instances can a race of hunters contrive to co-exist with an agricultural people. when the hunting ground of a tribe is restricted owing to its partial occupation by the new arrivals, the tribe affected is compelled to infringe on the boundaries of its neighbours: this is to break the most sacred 'law of the jungle,' and inevitably leads to war: the pressure on one boundary is propagated to the next, the ancient state of equilibrium is profoundly disturbed, and inter-tribal feuds become increasingly frequent. a bitter feeling is naturally aroused against the original offenders, the alien colonists; misunderstandings of all kinds inevitably arise, leading too often to bloodshed, and ending in a general conflict between natives and colonists, in which the former, already weakened by disagreements among themselves, must soon succumb. so it was in tasmania." after the war of to the few wretched survivors, numbering about , were gathered together into a settlement, and from onwards every effort was made for their welfare, "but 'the white man's civilisation proved scarcely less fatal than the white man's bullet,' and in , with the death of truganini, the last survivor, the race became extinct[ ]." footnotes: [ ] cf. s. h. ray, _reports camb. anthrop. exp. torres sts._ vol. iii. , pp. , . for melanesian linguistic affinities see also w. schmidt, _die mon-khmer völker_, . [ ] c. g. seligman limits the use of the term _papuasian_ to the inhabitants of new guinea and its islands, and following a suggestion of a. c. haddon's (_geograph. journ._ xvi. , pp. , ), recognises therein three great divisions, the _papuans_, the _western papuo-melanesians_, and the _eastern papuo-melanesians_, or _massim_. cf. c. g. seligman, "a classification of the natives of british new guinea," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ vol. xxxix. , and _the melanesians of british new guinea_, . [ ] that is, the indigenous papuans, who appear to form the great bulk of the new guinea populations, in contradistinction to the immigrant melanesians (motu and others), who are numerous especially along the south-east coast of the mainland and in the neighbouring louisiade and d'entrecasteaux archipelagoes (_eth._ ch. xi.). [ ] _the melanesians of british new guinea_, , pp. , . [ ] the curly or wavy hair appears more commonly among women than among men. [ ] _kanaka_ is a polynesian word meaning "man," and should therefore be restricted to the brown indonesian group, but it is indiscriminately applied by french writers to all south sea islanders, whether black or brown. this misuse of the term has found its way into some english books of travel even in the corrupt french form "canaque." [ ] _l'archipel de la nouvelle calédonie_, paris, . [ ] lifu, mare, uvea, and isle of pines. these polynesians appear to have all come originally from tonga, first to uvea island (wallis), and thence in the eighteenth century to uvea in the loyalties, cradle of all the new caledonian polynesian settlements. cf. c. m. woodford, "on some little-known polynesian settlements in the neighbourhood of the solomon islands," _geog. journ._ xlviii. . [ ] this low index is characteristic of most papuasians, and reaches the extreme of dolichocephaly in the extinct kai-colos of fiji ( °), and amongst some coast papuans of new guinea measured by miklukho-maclay. but this observer found the characters so variable in new guinea that he was unable to use it as a racial test. in the new hebrides, louisiades, and bismarck group also he found many of the natives to be broad-headed, with indices as high as and ; and even in the solomon islands guppy records cephalic indices ranging from to , but dolichocephaly predominates (_the solomon islands_, , pp. , ). thus this feature is no more constant amongst the oceanic than it is amongst the african negroes. (see also m.-maclay's paper in _proc. linn. soc. new south wales_, , p. sq.) [ ] _eth._ ch. viii. [ ] bernard, p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, _the races of man_, , p. . [ ] _wissenschaftliche ergebnisse einer amtlichen forschungsreise nach dem bismarck-archipel im jahre _; _untersuchungen über eine melanesische wanderstrasse, _; and _mitt. aus den deutschen schutzgebieten, ergänzungsheft_, nr , , nr , . see also s. h. ray, _nature_, clxxii. , and _man_, xiv. , . [ ] _zeitschr. f. ethnol._ xxxvii. p. , . his later writings should also be consulted, _anthropos_, iv. , pp. , ; _ethnologie_, , p. . [ ] _the history of melanesian society_, . [ ] a. c. haddon, _the races of man_, , pp. - , and _handbook to the ethnographical collections british museum_, , pp. - . [ ] besides the earlier works of h. h. romilly, _the western pacific and new guinea_, , _from my verandah in new guinea_, ; j. chalmers, _work and adventure in new guinea_, ; o. finsch, _samoafahrten: reisen in kaiser wilhelms-land und englisch neu-guinea_, ; c. m. woodford, _a naturalist among the head-hunters_, ; j. p. thompson, _british new guinea_, ; and r. h. codrington, _the melanesians_, , the following more recent works may be consulted:--a. c. haddon, _head-hunters, black, white, and brown_, , and _reports of the cambridge anthropological expedition to torres straits_, - ; r. parkinson, _dreissig jahre in der südsee_, ; g. a. j. van der sande, _nova guinea_, ; b. thompson, _the fijians_, ; g. brown, _melanesians and polynesians_, ; f. speiser, _südsee urwald kannibalen_, . [ ] _eth._ ch. xii. [ ] but excluding celebes, where no trace of papuan elements has been discovered. [ ] for details see f. h. h. guillemard, _australasia_, vol. ii. and reclus, vol. xiv. [ ] s. j. hickson, _a naturalist in north celebes_, , p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, "the pygmy question," appendix b to a. f. r. wollaston's _pygmies and papuans_, , p. . [ ] "a la recherche des negritos," etc., in _tour du monde_, new series, livr. - . the midden was ft. round, and over ft. high. [ ] e. h. man, _journ. anthr. inst._ vol. xi. , p. , and xii. , p. . [ ] _ib._ p. . [ ] close to barren is the extinct crater of _narcondam_, i.e. _narak-andam_ (_narak_ = hell), from which the _andaman_ group may have taken its name (sir h. yule, _marco polo_). man notes, however, that the andamanese were not aware of the existence of barren island until taken past in the settlement steamer (p. ). [ ] _folk-lore_, , p. . see also the criticisms of w. schmidt, "puluga, the supreme being of the andamanese," _man_, , , and a. lang, "puluga," _man_, , ; a. r. brown, _the andaman islands_ (in the press). [ ] "the andaman languages are one group; they have no affinities by which we might infer their connection with any other known group" (r. c. temple, quoted by man, _anthrop. jour._ , p. ). [ ] r. c. temple, quoted by man, _anthrop. jour._ , p. . [ ] w. w. skeat and c. d. blagden, _pagan races of the malay peninsula_, . [ ] r. martin, _die inlandstämme der malayischen halbinsel_, . [ ] n. annandale and h. c. robinson, "fasciculi malayensis," _anthropology_, . [ ] w. w. skeat and c. d. blagden, _loc. cit._ [ ] the sakai have often been classed among negritoes, but, although undoubtedly a mixed people, their affinities appear to be pre-dravidian. [ ] cf. a. c. haddon, "the pygmy question," appendix b to a. f. r. wollaston's _pygmies and papuans_, , p. . [ ] _in court and kampong_, , p. . [ ] senoi grammar and glossary in _jour. straits branch r. asiat. soc._ , no. . [ ] see l. wray's paper "on the cave dwellers of perak," in _jour. anthrop. inst._ , p. sq. this observer thinks "the earliest cave dwellers were most likely the negritoes" (p. ), and the great age of the deposits is shown by the fact that "in some of the caves at least feet of a mixture of shells, bones, and earth has been accumulated and subsequently removed again in the floors of the caves. in places two or three layers of solid stalagmite have been formed and removed, some of these layers having been five feet in thickness" (p. ). [ ] see on this point prof. blumentritt's paper on the manguians of mindoro in _globus_, lx. no. . [ ] one aeta woman of zambales had a nasal index of . . w. allen reed, "negritoes of zambales," _department of the interior: ethnological survey publications_, ii. , p. . for details of physical features see the following:--d. folkmar, _album of philippine types_, ; dean c. worcester, "the non-christian tribes of northern luzon," _the philippine journal of science_, i. ; and a. c. haddon, "the pygmy question," appendix b to a. f. r. wollaston's _pygmies and papuans_, . [ ] _the philippine islands_, etc., london and hongkong, . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] _voyage aux philippines_, etc., paris, . [ ] a. f. r. wollaston, _pygmies and papuans_, ; c. g. rawling, _the land of the new guinea pygmies_, . [ ] _the mafulu mountain people of british new guinea_, . [ ] _nova guinea_, vii. , . [ ] a. c. haddon, "the pygmy question," appendix b to a. f. r. wollaston's _pygmies and papuans_, , pp. - . [ ] it is not certain however that this method is known to the semang, and it occurs among peoples who are not negrito, such as the kayan of sarawak, and in other places where a negrito element has not yet been recorded. [ ] the term pygmy is usually applied to a people whose stature does not exceed . m. ( ft. in.). [ ] w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , and w. turner, "the aborigines of australia," _trans. r. soc. edin._ , xlvi. , and , xlvii. . [ ] paper in brough smyth's work, ii. p. . [ ] h. ling roth, _the aborigines of australia_ ( nd ed.), , appendix lxxxviii., and "tasmanian firesticks," _nature_, lix. , p. . [ ] w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , pp. , ff. [ ] _nature_, xcii. , p. . [ ] w. j. sollas, _ancient hunters_, , pp. - . chapter vi the southern mongols south mongol domain--tibet, the mongol cradle-land--stone age in tibet--the primitive mongol type--the balti and ladakhi--balti type and origins--the tibetans proper--type--the bhotiyas--prehistoric expansion of the tibetan race--sub-himalayan groups: the gurkhas--mental qualities of the tibetans--lamaism--the horsoks-- the tanguts--polyandry--the bonbo religion--buddhist and christian ritualism--the prayer-wheel--language and letters--diverse linguistic types--lepcha--angami-naga and kuki-lushai speech--naga tribes--general ethnic relations in indo-china--aboriginal and cultured peoples--the talaings--the manipuri--religion--the game of polo--the khel system--the chins--mental and physical qualities--gods, nats, and the after-life--the kakhyens--caucasic elements--the karens--type--temperament--christian missions--the burmese--type--character--buddhism--position of woman--tattooing-- the tai-shan peoples--the ahom, khamti and chinese shans--shan cradle-land and origins--caucasic contacts--tai-shan toned speech--shan, lolo, and mosso writing systems--mosso origins-- aborigines of south china and annam--man-tse origins and affinities--caucasic aborigines in south-east asia--the siamese shans--origins and early records--social system--buddhism--the annamese--origins--physical and mental characters--language and letters--social institutions--religious systems--the chinese-- origins--the babylonian theory--persistence of chinese culture and social system--letters and early records--traditions of the stone and metal ages--chinese cradle and early migrations-- absorption of the aborigines--survivals: hok-lo, hakka, pun-ti--confucianism, taoism, buddhism--fung-shui and ancestry worship--islam and christianity--the mandarin class. conspectus. #present range.# _tibet; s. himalayan slopes; indo-china to the isthmus of kra; china; formosa; parts of malaysia._ #hair#, _uniformly black, lank, round in transverse section_; _sparse or no beard, moustache common_. #colour#, _generally a dirty yellowish brown, shading off to olive and coppery brown in the south, and to lemon or whitish in n. china_. #skull#, _normally brachy ( to ), but in parts of china sub-dolicho ( ) and high_. #jaws#, _slightly prognathous_. #cheek-bones#, _very high and prominent laterally_. #nose#, _very small, and concave, with widish nostrils (mesorrhine), but often large and straight amongst the upper classes_. #eyes#, _small, black, and oblique (outer angle slightly elevated), vertical fold of skin over inner canthus_. #stature#, _below the average, . m. ( ft. in.), but in n. china often tall, . m. to . m. ( ft. in. to ft.)_. #lips#, _rather thin, sometimes slightly protruding_. #arms#, #legs#, _and_ #feet#, _of normal proportions, calves rather small_. #temperament.# _somewhat sluggish, with little initiative, but great endurance; cunning rather than intelligent; generally thrifty and industrious, but mostly indolent in siam and burma; moral standard low, with slight sense of right and wrong._ #speech.# _mainly isolating and monosyllabic, due to phonetic decay; loss of formative elements compensated by tone; some (south chinese, annamese) highly tonic, but others (in himalayas and north burma) highly agglutinating and consequently toneless._ #religion.# _ancestry and spirit-worship, underlying various kinds of buddhism; religious sentiment weak in annam, strong in tibet; thinly diffused in china._ #culture.# _ranges from sheer savagery (indo-chinese aborigines) to a low phase of civilisation; some mechanical arts (ceramics, metallurgy, weaving), and agriculture well developed; painting, sculpture, and architecture mostly in the barbaric stage; letters widespread, but true literature and science slightly developed; stagnation very general._ main divisions. #bod-pa.# _tibetan; tangut; horsok; si-fan; balti; ladakhi; gurkha; bhotiya; miri; mishmi; abor._ #burmese.# _naga; kuki-lushai; chin; kakhyen; manipuri; karen; talaing; arakanese; burmese proper._ #tai-shan.# _ahom; khamti; ngiou; lao; siamese._ #giao-shi.# _annamese; cochin-chinese._ #chinese.# _chinese proper; hakka; hok-lo; pun-ti._ * * * * * the mongolian stock may be divided into two main branches[ ]: the _mongolo-tatar_, of the western area, and the _tibeto-indo-chinese_ of the eastern area, the latter extending into a secondary branch, _oceanic mongols_. these two, that is, the main and secondary branch, which jointly occupy the greater part of south-east asia with most of malaysia, madagascar, the philippines and formosa, will form the subject of the present and following chapters. allowing for encroachments and overlappings, especially in manchuria and north tibet, the northern "divide" towards the mongolo-tatar domain is roughly indicated by the great wall and the kuen-lun range westwards to the hindu-kush, and towards the south-west by the himalayas from the hindu-kush eastwards to assam. the continental section thus comprises the whole of china proper and indo-china, together with a great part of tibet with little tibet (baltistan and ladakh), and the himalayan uplands including their southern slopes. this section is again separated from the oceanic section by the isthmus of kra--the malay peninsula belonging ethnically to the insular malay world. "i believe," writes warington smyth, "that the malay never really extended further south than the kra isthmus[ ]." from the considerations advanced in _ethnology_, chap. xii., it seems a reasonable assumption that the lacustrine tibetan tableland with its himalayan escarpments, all standing in pleistocene times at a considerably lower level than at present, was the cradle of the mongol division of mankind. here were found all the natural conditions favourable to the development of a new variety of the species moving from the tropics northwards--ample space such as all areas of marked specialisation seem to require; a different and cooler climate than that of the equatorial region, though, thanks to its then lower elevation, warmer than that of the bleak and now barely inhabitable tibetan plateau; extensive plains, nowhere perhaps too densely wooded, intersected by ridges of moderate height, and diversified by a lacustrine system far more extensive than that revealed by the exploration of modern travellers[ ]. under these circumstances, which are not matter of mere speculation, but to be directly inferred from the observations of intelligent explorers and of trained anglo-indian surveyors, it would seem not only probable but inevitable that the pleistocene indo-malayan should become modified and improved in his new and more favourable central asiatic environment. later, with the gradual upheaval of the land to a mean altitude of some , feet above sea-level, the climate deteriorated, and the present somewhat rude and rugged inhabitants of tibet are to be regarded as the outcome of slow adaptation to their slowly changing surroundings since the occupation of the country by the indo-malayan pleistocene precursor. to this precursor tibet was accessible either from india or from indo-china, and although few of his implements have yet been reported from the plateau, it is certain that tibet has passed through the stone as well as the metal ages. in bogle's time "thunder-stones" were still used for tonsuring the lamas, and even now stone cooking-pots are found amongst the shepherds of the uplands, although they are acquainted both with copper and iron. in india also and indo-china palaeoliths of rude type occur at various points--arcot, the narbada gravels, mirzapur[ ], the irawadi valley and the shan territory--as if to indicate the routes followed by early man in his migrations from indo-malaysia northwards. thus, where man is silent the stones speak, and so old are these links of past and present that amongst the shans, as in ancient greece, their origin being entirely forgotten, they are often mounted as jewellery and worn as charms against mishaps. usually the mongols proper, that is, the steppe nomads who have more than once overrun half the eastern hemisphere, are taken as the typical and original stem of the mongolian stock. but if ch. de ujfalvy's views can be accepted this honour will now have to be transferred to the tibetans, who still occupy the supposed cradle of the race. this veteran student of the central asiatic peoples describes two mongol types, a northern round-headed and a southern long-headed, and thinks that the latter, which includes "the ladakhi, the champas and tibetans proper," was "the primitive mongol type[ ]." owing to the political seclusion of tibet, the race has hitherto been studied chiefly in outlying provinces beyond the frontiers, such as ladakh, baltistan, and sikkim[ ], that is, in districts where mixture with other races may be suspected. indeed de ujfalvy, who has made a careful survey of baltistan and ladakh, assures us that, while the ladakhi represent two varieties of asiatic man with ceph. index , the balti are not tibetans or mongols at all, but descendants of the historical sacae, although now of tibetan speech and moslem faith[ ]. they are of the mean height or slightly above it, with rather low brow, very prominent superciliary arches, deep depression at nasal root, thick curved eyebrows, long, straight or arched nose, thick lips, oval chin, small cheek-bones, small flat ears, straight eyes, very black and abundant ringletty (_bouclé_) hair, full beard, usually black and silky, robust hairy body, small hands and feet, and long head (index ). in such characters it is impossible to recognise the mongol, and the contrast is most striking with the neighbouring ladakhi, true mongols, as shown by their slightly raised superciliary arches, square and scarcely curved eyebrows, slant eyes, large prominent cheek-bones, lank and coarse hair, yellowish and nearly hairless body. doubtless there has been a considerable intermingling of balti and ladakhi, and in recent times still more of balti and dards (hindu-kush "aryans"), whence leitner's view that the balti are dards at a remote period conquered by the bhóts (tibetans), losing their speech with their independence. but of all these peoples the balti were in former times the most civilised, as shown by the remarkable rock-carvings still found in the country, and attributed by the present inhabitants to a long vanished race. some of these carvings represent warriors mounted and on foot, the resemblance being often very striking between them and the persons figured on the coins of the sacae kings both in their physical appearance, attitudes, arms, and accoutrements. the balti are still famous horsemen, and with them is said to have originated the game of polo, which has thence spread to the surrounding peoples as far as chitral and irania. from all these considerations it is inferred that the balti are the direct descendants of the sacae, who invaded india about b.c., not from the west (the kabul valley) as generally stated, but from the north over the karakorum passes leading directly to baltistan[ ]. thus lives again a name renowned in antiquity, and another of those links is established between the past and the present, which it is the province of the historical ethnologist to rescue from oblivion. in tibet proper the ethnical relations have been confused by the loose way tribal and even national names are referred to by prjevalsky and some other modern explorers. it should therefore be explained that three somewhat distinct branches of the race have to be carefully distinguished: . the _bod-pa_[ ], "bodmen," the settled and more or less civilised section, who occupy most of the southern and more fertile provinces of which lhasa is the capital, who till the land, live in towns, and have passed from the tribal to the civic state. . the _dru-pa_[ ], peaceful though semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, who live in tents on the northern plateaux, over , feet above sea-level. . the _tanguts_[ ], restless, predatory tribes, who hover about the north-eastern borderland between koko-nor and kansu. all these are true tibetans, speak the tibetan language, and profess one or other of the two national religions, _bonbo_ and lamaism (the tibetan form of buddhism). but the original type is best preserved, not amongst the cultured bod-pa, who in many places betray a considerable admixture both of chinese and hindu elements, but amongst the dru-pa, who on their bleak upland steppes have for ages had little contact with the surrounding mongolo-turki populations. they are described by w. w. rockhill from personal observation as about five feet five inches high, and round-headed, with wavy hair, clear-brown and even hazel eye, cheek-bone less high than the mongol, thick nose, depressed at the root, but also prominent and even aquiline and narrow but with broad nostrils, large-lobed ears standing out to a less degree than the mongol, broad mouth, long black hair, thin beard, generally hairless body, broad shoulders, very small calves, large foot, coarse hand, skin coarse and greasy and of light brown colour, though "frequently nearly white, but when exposed to the weather a dark brown, nearly the colour of our american indians. rosy cheeks are quite common amongst the younger women[ ]." some of these characters--wavy hair, aquiline nose, hazel eye, rosy cheeks--are not mongolic, and despite w. w. rockhill's certificate of racial purity, one is led to suspect a caucasic strain, perhaps through the neighbouring salars. these are no doubt sometimes called kara-tangutans, "black tangutans," from the colour of their tents, but we learn from potanin, who visited them in [ ], that they are muhammadans of turki stock and speech, and we already know[ ] that from a remote period the turki people were in close contact with caucasians. the salars pitch their tents on the banks of the khitai and other yang-tse-kiang headstreams. that the national name bod-pa must be of considerable antiquity is evident from the sanskrit expression _bhotiya_, derived from it, and long applied by the hindus collectively to all southern tibetans, but especially to those of the himalayan slopes, such as the rongs (lepchas) of sikkim and the _lho-pa_ dominant in bhutan, properly _bhót-ánt_, that is, "land's end"--the extremity of tibet. eastwards also the tibetan race stretches far beyond the political frontiers into the koko-nor region (tanguts), and the chinese province of se-chuan, where they are grouped with all the other si-fan aborigines. towards the south-east are the kindred _tawangs_, _mishmi_, _miri_, _abor_[ ], _daflas_, and many others about the assam borderlands, all of whom may be regarded as true bhotiyas in the wild state. through these the primitive tibetan race extends into burma, where however it has become greatly modified and again civilised under different climatic and cultural influences. thus we see how, in the course of ages, the bod-pa have widened their domain, radiating in all directions from the central cradle-land about the upper brahmaputra (san-po) valley westwards into kashmir, eastwards into china, southwards down the himalayan slopes to the gangetic plains, south-eastwards to indo-china. in some places they have come into contact with other races and disappeared either by total extinction or by absorption (india, hindu-kush), or else preserved their type while accepting the speech, religion, and culture of later intruders. such are the _garhwali_, and many groups in nepal, especially the dominant _gurkhas_ (_khas_[ ]), of whom there are twelve branches, all aryanised and since the twelfth century speaking the _parbattia bhasha_, a prakrit or vulgar sanskrit tongue current amongst an extremely mixed population of about , , . in other directions the migrations took place in remote prehistoric times, the primitive proto-tibetan groups becoming more and more specialised as they receded farther and farther from the cradle-land into mongolia, siberia, china, farther india, and malaysia. this is at least how i understand the peopling of a great part of the eastern hemisphere by an original nucleus of mongolic type first differentiated from a pleistocene precursor on the tibetan tableland. strangely contradictory estimates have been formed of the temperament and mental characters of the bod-pa, some, such as that of turner[ ], no doubt too favourable, while others err perhaps in the opposite direction. thus desgodins, who nevertheless knew them well, describes the cultured tibetan of the south as "a slave towards the great, a despot towards the weak, knavish or treacherous according to circumstances, always on the look-out to defraud, and lying impudently to attain his end," and much more to the same effect[ ]. w. w. rockhill, who is less severe, thinks that "the tibetan's character is not as black as horace della penna and desgodins have painted it. intercourse with these people extending over six years leads me to believe that the tibetan is kindhearted, affectionate, and law-abiding[ ]." he concludes, however, with a not very flattering native estimate deduced from the curious national legend that "the earliest inhabitants of tibet descended from a king of monkeys and a female hobgoblin, and the character of the race perhaps from those of its first parents. from the king of monkeys [he was an incarnate god] they have religious faith and kindheartedness, intelligence and application, devotion to religion and to religious debate; from the hobgoblin they get cruelty, fondness for trade and money-making, great bodily strength, lustfulness, fondness for gossip, and carnivorous instinct[ ]." while they are cheerful under a depressing priestly regime, all allow that they are vindictive, superstitious, and cringing in the presence of the lamas, who are at heart more dreaded than revered. in fact the whole religious world is one vast organised system of hypocrisy, and above the old pagan beliefs common to all primitive peoples there is merely a veneer of buddhism, above which follows another and most pernicious veneer of lamaism (priestcraft), under the yoke of which the natural development of the people has been almost completely arrested for several centuries. the burden is borne with surprising endurance, and would be intolerable but for the relief found in secret and occasionally even open revolt against the more oppressive ordinances of the ecclesiastical rule. thus, despite the prescriptions regarding a strict vegetarian diet expressed in the formula "eat animal flesh eat thy brother," not only laymen but most of the lamas themselves supplement their frugal diet of milk, butter, barley-meal, and fruits with game, yak, and mutton--this last pronounced by turner the best in the world. the public conscience, however, is saved by a few extra turns of the prayer-wheel at such repasts, and by the general contempt in which is held the hereditary caste of butchers, who like the jews in medieval times are still confined to a "ghetto" of their own in all the large towns. these remarks apply more particularly to the settled southern communities living in districts where a little agriculture is possible. elsewhere the religious cloak is worn very loosely, and the nomad _horsoks_ of the northern steppes, although all nominal buddhists, pay but scant respect to the decrees supposed to emanate from the dalai lama enshrined in lhasa. horsok is an almost unique ethnical term[ ], being a curious compound of the two names applied by the tibetans to the _hor-pa_ and the _sok-pa_ who divide the steppe between them. the hor-pa, who occupy the western parts, are of turki stock, and are the only group of that race known to me who profess buddhism[ ], all the rest being muhammadans with some shamanists (yakuts) in the lena basin. the sok-pa, who roam the eastern plains and valleys, although commonly called mongols, are true tibetans or more strictly speaking tanguts, of whom there are here two branches, the _goliki_ and the _yegrai_, all, like the hor-pa, of tibetan speech. the yegrai, as described by prjevalsky, closely resemble the other north tibetan tribes, with their long, matted locks falling on their shoulders, their scanty whiskers and beard, angular head, dark complexion and dirty garb[ ]. besides stock-breeding and predatory warfare, all these groups follow the hunt, armed with darts, bows, and matchlock guns; the musk-deer is ensnared, and the only animal spared is the stag, "buddha's horse." the taste of these rude nomads for liquid blood is insatiable, and the surveyor, nain singh, often saw them fall prone on the ground to lick up the blood flowing from a wounded beast. as soon as weaned, the very children and even the horses are fed on a diet of cheese, butter, and blood, kneaded together in a horrible mess, which is greedily devoured when the taste is acquired. on the other hand alcoholic drinks are little consumed, the national beverage being coarse chinese tea imported in the form of bricks and prepared with _tsampa_ (barley-meal) and butter, and thus becoming a food as well as a drink. the lamas have a monopoly of this tea-trade, which could not stand the competition of the indian growers; hence arises the chief objection to removing the barriers of seclusion. tibet is one of the few regions where polyandrous customs, intimately associated with the matriarchal state, still persist almost in their pristine vigour. the husbands are usually but not necessarily all brothers, and the bride is always obtained by purchase. unless otherwise arranged, the oldest husband is the putative "father," all the others being considered as "uncles." an inevitable result of the institution is to give woman a dominant position in society; hence the "queens" of certain tribes, referred to with so much astonishment by the early chinese chroniclers. survivors of this "petticoat government" have been noticed by travellers amongst the lolos, mossos, and other indigenous communities about the indo-chinese frontiers. but it does not follow that polyandry and a matriarchal state always and necessarily preceded polygyny and a patriarchal state. on the contrary, it would appear that polyandry never could have been universal; possibly it arose from special conditions in particular regions, where the struggle for existence is severe, and the necessity of imposing limits to the increase of population more urgent than elsewhere[ ]. hence to me it seems as great a mistake to assume a matriarchate as it is to assume promiscuity as the universal antecedent of all later family relations. in tibet itself polygyny exists side by side with polyandry amongst the wealthy classes, while monogamy is the rule amongst the poor pastoral nomads of the northern steppe. great ethnical importance has been attached by some distinguished anthropologists to the treatment of the dead. but, as in the new stone and metal ages in europe cremation and burial were practised side by side[ ], so in tibet the dead are now simultaneously disposed of in diverse ways. it is a question not so much of race as of caste or social classes, or of the lama's pleasure, who, when the head has been shaved to facilitate the transmigration of the soul, may order the body to be burnt, buried, cast into the river, or even thrown to carrion birds or beasts of prey. strange to say, the last method, carried out with certain formalities, is one of the most honourable, although the lamas are generally buried in a seated posture, and high officials burnt, and (in ladakh) the ashes, mixed with a little clay, kneaded into much venerated effigies--doubtless a survival of ancestry worship. reference was above made to the primitive shamanistic ideas which still survive beneath the buddhist and the later lamaistic systems. in the central and eastern provinces of ui and tsang this pre-buddhist religion has again struggled to the surface, or rather persisted under the name of _bonbo_ (_boa-ho_) side by side with the national creed, from which it has even borrowed many of its present rites. from the colour of the robes usually worn by its priests, it is known as the sect of the "blacks," in contradistinction to the orthodox "yellow" and dissenting "red" lamaists, and as now constituted, its origin is attributed to shen-rab (gsen-rabs), who flourished about the fifth century before the new era, and is venerated as the equal of buddha himself. his followers, who were powerful enough to drive buddhism from tibet in the tenth century, worship chief deities, the best known being the red and black demons, the snake devil, and especially the fiery tiger-god, father of all the secondary members of this truly "diabolical pantheon." it is curious to note that the sacred symbol of the bonbo sect is the ubiquitous svastika, only with the hooks of the cross reversed, [symbol] instead of [symbol]. this change, which appears to have escaped the diligent research of thomas wilson[ ], was caused by the practice of turning the prayer-wheel from right to left as the red lamas do, instead of from left to right as is the orthodox way. the common buddhist formula of six syllables--_om-ma-ni-pad-me-hum_--is also replaced by one of seven syllables--_ma-tri-mon-tre-sa-ta-dzun_[ ]. buddhism itself, introduced by hindu missionaries, is more recent than is commonly supposed. few conversions were made before the fifth century of our era, and the first temple dates only from the year . reference is often made to the points of contact or "coincidences" which have been observed between this system and that of the oriental and latin christian churches. there is no question of a common dogma, and the numerous resemblances are concerned only with ritualistic details, such as the cross, the mitre, dalmatica, and other distinctive vestments, choir singing, exorcisms, the thurible, benedictions with outstretched hand, celibacy, the rosary, fasts, processions, litanies, spiritual retreats, holy water, scapulars or other charms, prayer addressed to the saints, relics, pilgrimages, music and bells at the service, monasticism; this last being developed to a far greater extent in tibet than at any time in any christian land, egypt not excepted. the lamas, representing the regular clergy of the roman church, hold a monopoly of all "science," letters, and arts. the block printing-presses are all kept in the huge monasteries which cover the land, and from them are consequently issued only orthodox works and treatises on magic. religion itself is little better than a system of magic, and the sole aim of all worship, reduced to a mere mechanical system of routine, is to baffle the machinations of the demons who at every turn beset the path of the wayfarer through this "vale of tears." for this purpose the prayer-wheels--an ingenious contrivance by which innumerable supplications, not less efficacious because vicarious, may be offered up night and day to the powers of darkness--are incessantly kept going all over the land, some being so cleverly arranged that the sacred formula may be repeated as many as , times at each revolution of the cylinder. these machines, which have also been introduced into korea and japan, have been at work for several centuries without any appreciable results, although fitted up in all the houses, by the river banks or on the hill-side, and kept in motion by the hand, wind, and water; while others of huge size, to feet high and to in diameter, stand in the temples, and at each turn repeat the contents of whole volumes of liturgical essays stowed away in their capacious receptacles. but despite all these everlasting revolutions, stagnation reigns supreme throughout the most priest-ridden land under the sun. with its religion tibet imported also its letters from india by the route of nepal or kashmir in the seventh century. since then the language has undergone great changes, always, like other members of the indo-chinese family, in the direction from agglutination towards monosyllabism[ ]. but the orthography, apart from a few feeble efforts at reform, has remained stationary, so that words are still written as they were pronounced years ago. the result is a far greater discrepancy between the spoken and written tongue than in any other language, english not excepted. thus the province of ui has been identified by sir a. cunningham with ptolemy's _debasae_ through its written form _dbus_, though now always pronounced _u_[ ]. this bears out de lacouperie's view that all words were really uttered as originally spelt, although often beginning with as many as three consonants. thus _spra_ (monkey) is now pronounced _deu_ in the lhasa dialect, but still _streu-go_ in that of the province of kham. the phonetic disintegration is still going on, so that, barring reform, the time must come when there will be no correspondence at all between sound and its graphic expression. on the other hand it is a mistake to suppose that all languages in the indo-chinese linguistic zone have undergone this enormous extent of phonetic decay. the indefatigable b. h. hodgson has made us acquainted with several, especially in nepal, which are of a highly conservative character. farther east the _lepcha_ (properly _rong_) of sikkim presents the remarkable peculiarity of distinct agglutination of the mongolo-turki, or perhaps i should say of the kuki-lushai type, combined with numerous homophones and a total absence of tone. thus _pano-sa_, of a king, _pano-sang_, kings, and _pano-sang-sa_, of kings, shows pure agglutination, while _mát_ yields no less than twenty-three distinct meanings[ ], which should necessitate a series of discriminating tones, as in chinese or siamese. their absence, however, is readily explained by the persistence of the agglutinative principle, which renders them unnecessary. a somewhat similar feature is presented by the angami naga, the chief language of the naga hills, of which r. b. mccabe writes that it is "still in a very primitive stage of the agglutinating class," and "peculiarly rich in intonation," although "for one naga who clearly marks these tonal distinctions twenty fail to do so[ ]." it follows that it is mainly spoken without tones, and although said to be "distinctly monosyllabic" it really abounds in polysyllables, such as _merenama_, orphan, _kehutsaporimo_, nowhere, _dukriwáché_, to kill, etc. there are also numerous verbal formative elements given by mccabe himself, so that angami must clearly be included in the agglutinating order. to this order also belongs beyond all doubt the _kuki-lushai_ of the neighbouring north kachar hills and parts of nagaland itself, the common speech in fact of the _rangkhols_, _jansens_, _lushai_, _roeys_ and other hill peoples, collectively called _kuki_ by the lowlanders, and _dzo_ by themselves[ ]. the highly agglutinating character of this language is evident from the numerous conjugations given by soppitt[ ], for some of which he has no names, but which may be called _acceleratives_, _retardatives_, _complementatives_, and so on. thus with the root, _ahong_, come, and infix _jám_, slow, is formed the retardative _náng ahongjámrangmoh_, "will-you-come-slowly?" (_rang_, future, _moh_, interrogative particle)[ ]. the kuki, the naga and the manipuri, none of which claim to be the original occupants of the country, have a tradition of a common ancestor, who had three sons who became the progenitors of the tribes. the kuki are found almost everywhere throughout manipur. "we are like the birds of the air," said a kuki to t. c. hodson, "we make our nests here this year, and who knows where we shall build next year[ ]?" the following description is given of the naga tribes, _tangkhuls_, _mao_ and _maram nagas_ (_angami nagas_), _kolya_, or _mayang khong_ group, _kabuis_, _quoirengs_, _chirus_ and _marrings_. "differences of stature, dress, coiffure and weapons make it easy to distinguish between the members of these tribes. in colour they are all brown with but little variety, though some of the tangkhuls who earn their living by salt making seem to be darker. among them all, as among the manipuris, there are persons who have a tinge of colour in their cheeks when still young. the nose also varies, for there are cases where it is almost straight, while in the majority of individuals it is flattened at the nostril. here and there one may see noses which in profile are almost roman. the eyes are usually brown, though black eyes are sometimes found to occur. the jaw is generally clean, not heavy, and the hair is of some variety, as there are many persons whose hair is decidedly curly, and in most there is a wave. beards are very uncommon, and hair on the face is very rare, so much so that the few who possess a moustache are known as _khoi-hao-bas_ (meithei words, meaning moustache grower). i am informed that the ladies do not like hirsute men, and that the men therefore pull out any stray hairs. the cheekbones are often prominent and the slope of the eye is not very marked[ ]." the stature is moderate varying from the slender lightly built marrings to the tall sturdy finely proportioned maos. the women are all much shorter than the men, but strongly built with a muscular development of which the men would not be ashamed. the land is thickly peopled with local deities and at maram the case is recorded of a rain deity who was once a man of the village specially cunning in rain making. among the points of special interest in this region are the stone monuments still erected in honour of the dead, and the custom of head-hunting, connected with simple blood feud, with agrarian rites, with funerary rites and eschatological belief, and in some cases no more than a social duty[ ]. through these naga and kuki aborigines we pass without any break of continuity from the bhotiya populations of the himalayan slopes to those of indo-china. here also, as indeed in nearly all semi-civilised lands, peoples at various grades of culture are found dwelling for ages side by side--rude and savage groups on the uplands or in the more dense wooded tracts, settled communities with a large measure of political unity (in fact nations and peoples in the strict sense of those terms) on the lowlands, and especially along the rich alluvial riverine plains of this well watered region. the common theory is that the wild tribes represent the true aborigines driven to the hills and woodlands by civilised invaders from india and other lands, who are now represented by the settled communities. whether such movements and dislocations have elsewhere taken place we need not here stop to inquire; indeed their probability, and in some instances their certainty may be frankly admitted. but i cannot think that the theory expresses the true relations in most parts of farther india. here the civilised peoples, and _ex hypothesi_ the intruders, are the manipuri, burmese, arakanese, and the nearly extinct or absorbed talaings or mons in the west; the siamese, shans or laos, and khamti in the centre; the annamese (tonkinese and cochin-chinese), cambojans, and the almost extinct champas in the east. nearly all of these i hold to be quite as indigenous as the hillmen, the only difference being that, thanks to their more favourable environment, they emerged at an early date from the savage state and thus became more receptive to foreign civilising influences, mostly hindu, but also chinese (in annam). all are either partly or mainly of mongolic or indonesian type, and all speak toned indo-chinese languages, except the cambojans and champas, whose linguistic relations are with the oceanic peoples, who are not here in question. the cultivated languages are no doubt full of sanskrit or prakrit terms in the west and centre, and of chinese in the east, and all, except annamese, which uses a chinese ideographic system, are written with alphabets derived through the square pali characters from the devanagari. it is also true that the vast monuments of burma, siam, and camboja all betray hindu influences, many of the temples being covered with brahmanical or buddhist sculptures and inscriptions. but precisely analogous phenomena are reproduced in java, sumatra, and other malaysian lands, as well as in japan and partly in china itself. are we then to conclude that there have been hindu invasions and settlements in all these regions, the most populous on the globe? during the historic period a few hinduized dravidians, especially telingas (telugus) of the coromandel coast, have from time to time emigrated to indo-china (pegu), where the name survives amongst the "talaings," that is, the mons, by whom they were absorbed, just as the mons themselves are now being absorbed by the burmese. others of the same connection have gained a footing here and there in malaysia, especially the malacca coastlands, where they are called "klings[ ]," _i.e._ telings, telingas. but beyond these partial movements, without any kind of influence on the general ethnical relations, i know of no hindu (some have even used the term "aryan," and have brought aryans to camboja) invasions except those of a moral order--the invasions of the zealous hindu missionaries, both brahman and buddhist, which, however, amply suffice to account for all the above indicated points of contact between the indian, the indo-chinese, and the malayan populations. that the civilised lowlanders and rude highlanders are generally of the same aboriginal stocks is well seen in the manipur district with its fertile alluvial plains and encircling naga and lushai hills on the north and south. the hinduized manipuri of the plains, that is, the politically dominant _meithis_, as they call themselves, are considered by george watt to be "a mixed race between the kukies and the nagas[ ]." the meithis are described as possessing in general the facial characteristics of mongolian type, but with great diversity of feature. "it is not uncommon to meet with girls with brownish-black hair, brown eyes, fair complexions, straight noses and rosy cheeks[ ]." in spite of the veneer of civilisation acquired by the meithis, the old order of things has by no means passed away. "the _maiba_, the doctor and priest of the animistic system, still finds a livelihood despite the competition on the one hand of the brahmin, and on the other of the hospital assistant. nevertheless the _maibas_ frequently adapt their methods to the altered circumstances in which they now find themselves, and realize that the combination of croton oil and a charm is more efficacious than the charm alone[ ]." "it is possible to discover at least four definite orders of spiritual beings who have crystallized out from the amorphous mass of animistic deities. there are the _lam lai_, gods of the country-side who shade off into nature gods controlling the rain, the primal necessity of an agricultural community; the _umang lai_ or deities of the forest jungle; the _imung lai_, the household deities, lords of the lives, the births and the deaths of individuals, and there are tribal ancestors, the ritual of whose worship is a strange compound of magic and nature-worship. beyond these divine beings, who possess in some sort a majesty of orderly decent behaviour, there are spirits of the mountain passes, spirits of the lakes and rivers, vampires and all the horrid legion of witchcraft.... it is difficult to estimate the precise effect of hinduism on the civilisation of the people, for to the outward observer they seem to have adopted only the festivals, the outward ritual, the caste marks and the exclusiveness of hinduism, while all unmindful of its spirit and inward essentials. colonel mcculloch remarked nearly fifty years ago that 'in fact their observances are only for appearance sake, not the promptings of the heart[ ].'" it is noteworthy that the manipuri are also devoted to the game of polo, which r. c. temple tells us they play much in the same way as do the balti and ladakhi at the opposite extremity of the himalayas. another remarkable link with the "far west" is the term _khel_, which has travelled all the way from persia or parthia through afghanistan to nagaland, where it retains the same meaning of clan or section of a village, and produces the same disintegrating effects as amongst the afghans. in angamiland each village is split into two or more khels, and "it is no unusual state of affairs to find khel a of one village at war with khel b of another, while not at war with khel b of its own village. the khels are often completely separated by great walls, the people on either side living within a few yards of each other, yet having no dealings whatever. each khel has its own headman, but little respect is paid to the chief: each khel maybe described as a small republic[ ]." there appears to be no trace even of a _jirga_, or council of elders, by which some measure of cohesion is imparted to the afghan khel system. from the kuki-nagas the transition is unbroken to the large group of _chins_ of the chindwin valley, named from them, and thence northwards to the rude _kakhyens_ (_kachins_) about the irawadi headstreams and southwards to the numerous _karen_ tribes, who occupy the ethnical parting-line between burma and siam all the way down to tenasserim. for the first detailed account of the chins we are indebted to s. carey and h. n. tuck[ ], who accept b. houghton's theory that these tribes, as well as the kuki-lushai, "originally lived in what we now know as tibet, and are of one and the same stock; their form of government, method of cultivation, manners and customs, beliefs and traditions, all point to one origin." the term chin, said to be a burmese form of the chinese _jin_, "men," is unknown to these aborigines, who call themselves _yo_ in the north and _lai_ in the south, while in lower burma they are _shu_. in truth there is no recognised collective name, and _shendu_ (_sindhu_) often so applied is proper only to the once formidable chittagong and arakan frontier tribes, _klangklangs_ and _hakas_, who with the _sokté_, _tashons_, _siyirs_, and others are now reduced and administered from falam. each little group has its own tribal name, and often one or two others, descriptive, abusive and so on, given them by their neighbours. thus the _nwengals_ (_nun_, river, _ngal_, across) are only that section of the soktés now settled on the farther or right bank of the manipur, while the soktés themselves (_sok_, to go down, _té_, men) are so called because they migrated from chin nwe ( miles from tiddim), cradle of the chin race, down to molbem, their earliest settlement, which is the mobingyi of the burmese. so with siyin, the burmese form of _sheyanté_ (_she_, alkali, _yan_, side, _té_, men), the group who settled by the alkali springs east of chin nwe, who are the _tauté_ ("stout" or "sturdy" people) of the lushai and southern chins. let these few specimens suffice as a slight object-lesson in the involved tribal nomenclature which prevails, not only amongst the chins, but everywhere in the tibeto-indo-chinese domain, from the north-western himalayas to cape st james at the south-eastern extremity of farther india. i have myself collected nearly a thousand such names of clans, septs, and fragmentary groups within this domain, and am well aware that the list neither is, nor ever can be, complete, the groups themselves often being unstable quantities in a constant state of fluctuation. most of the chin groups have popular legends to explain either their origin or their present reduced state. thus the tawyans, a branch of the tashons, claim to be torrs, that is, the people of the rawvan district, who were formerly very powerful, but were ruined by their insane efforts to capture the sun. building a sort of jacob's ladder, they mounted higher and higher; but growing tired, quarrelled among themselves, and one day, while half of them were clambering up the pole, the other half below cut it down just as they were about to seize the sun. so the whenohs, another tashon group, said to be lushais left behind in a district now forming part of chinland, tell a different tale. they say they came out of the rocks at sepi, which they think was their original home. they share, however, this legend of their underground origin with the soktés and several other chin tribes. amid much diversity of speech and physique the chins present some common mental qualities, such as "slow speech, serious manner, respect for birth and knowledge of pedigrees, the duty of revenge, the taste for a treacherous method of warfare, the curse of drink, the virtue of hospitality, the clannish feeling, the vice of avarice, the filthy state of the body, mutual distrust, impatience under control, the want of power of combination and of continued effort, arrogance in victory, speedy discouragement and panic in defeat[ ]." physically they are a fine race, taller and stouter than the surrounding lowlanders, men feet or inches being common enough among the independent southerners. there are some "perfectly proportioned giants with a magnificent development of muscle." yet dwarfs are met with in some districts, and in others "the inhabitants are a wretched lot, much afflicted with goître, amongst whom may be seen cretins who crawl about on all fours with the pigs in the gutter. at dimlo, in the sokté tract, leprosy has a firm hold on the inhabitants." although often described as devil-worshippers, the chins really worship neither god nor devil. the northerners believe there is no supreme being, and although the southerners admit a "kozin" or head god, to whom they sacrifice, they do not worship him, and never look to him for any grace or mercy, except that of withholding the plagues and misfortunes which he is capable of working on any in this world who offend him. besides kozin, there are _nats_ or spirits of the house, family, clan, fields; and others who dwell in particular places in the air, the streams, the jungle, and the hills. kindly _nats_ are ignored; all others can and will do harm unless propitiated[ ]. the departed go to _mithikwa_, "dead man's village," which is divided into _pwethikwa_, the pleasant abode, and _sathikwa_, the wretched abode of the _unavenged_. good or bad deeds do not affect the future of man, who must go to pwethikwa if he dies a natural or accidental death, and to sathikwa if killed, and there bide till avenged by blood. thus the vendetta receives a sort of religious sanction, strengthened by the belief that the slain becomes the slave of the slayer in the next world. "should the slayer himself be slain, then the first slain is the slave of the second slain, who in turn is the slave of the man who killed him." whether a man has been honest or dishonest in this world is of no consequence in the next existence; but, if he has killed many people in this world, he has many slaves to serve him in his future existence; if he has killed many wild animals, then he will start well-supplied with food, for all that he kills on earth are his in the future existence. in the next existence hunting and drinking will certainly be practised, but whether fighting and raiding will be indulged in is unknown. cholera and small-pox are spirits, and when cholera broke out among the chins who visited rangoon in they carried their _dahs_ (knives) drawn to scare off the _nat_, and spent the day hiding under bushes, so that the spirit should not find them. some even wanted to sacrifice a slave boy, but were talked over to substitute some pariah dogs. they firmly believe in the evil eye, and the hakas think the sujins and others are all wizards, whose single glance can bewitch them, and may cause lizards to enter the body and devour the entrails. a chin once complained to surgeon-major newland that a _nat_ had entered his stomach at the glance of a yahow, and he went to hospital quite prepared to die. but an emetic brought him round, and he went off happy in the belief that he had vomited the _nat_. ethnically connected with the kuki-naga groups are the _kakhyens_ of the irawadi headstreams, and the _karens_, who form numerous village communities about the burma-siamese borderland. the kakhyens, so called abusively by the burmese, are the _cacobees_ of the early writers[ ], whose proper name is _singpho_ (_chingpaw_), i.e. "men[ ]," and whose curious semi-agglutinating speech, spoken in an ascending tone, each sentence ending in a long-drawn _î_ in a higher key (bigandet), shows affinities rather with the mishmi and other north assamese tongues than with the cultured burmese. they form a very widespread family, stretching from the eastern himalayas right into yunnan, and presenting two somewhat marked physical types: ( ) the true chingpaws, with short round head, low forehead, prominent cheek-bones, slant eye, broad nose, thick protruding lips, very dark brown hair and eyes, dirty buff colour, mean height (about ft. or in.) with disproportionately short legs; ( ) a much finer race, with regular caucasic features, long oval face, pointed chin, aquiline nose. one kakhyen belle met with at bhamo, "with large lustrous eyes and fair skin, might almost have passed for a european[ ]." it is important to note this caucasic element, which we first meet here going eastwards from the himalayas, but which is found either separate or interspersed amongst the mongoloid populations all over the south-east asiatic uplands from tibet to cochin-china, and passing thence into oceanica[ ]. the kinship of the kakhyens with the still more numerous karens is now generally accepted, and it is no longer found necessary to bring the latter all the way from turkestan. they form a large section, perhaps one-sixth, of the whole population of burma, and overflow into the west siamese borderlands. their subdivisions are endless, though all may be reduced to three main branches, _sgaws_, _pwos_ and _bwais_, these last including the somewhat distinct group of _karenni_, or "red karens." although d. m. smeaton calls the language "monosyllabic," it is evidently agglutinating, of the normal sub-himalayan type[ ]. the karens are a short, sturdy race, with straight black and also brownish hair, black, and even hazel eyes, and light or yellowish brown complexion, so that here also a caucasic strain may be suspected. despite the favourable pictures of the missionaries, whose propaganda has been singularly successful amongst these aborigines, the karens are not an amiable or particularly friendly people, but rather shy, reticent and even surly, though trustworthy and loyal to those chiefs and guides who have once gained their confidence. in warfare they are treacherous rather than brave, and strangely cruel even to little children. their belief in a divine creator who has deserted them resembles that of the kuki people, and to the _nats_ of the kuki correspond the _la_ of the karens, who are even more numerous, every mountain, stream, rapid, crest, peak or other conspicuous object having its proper indwelling _la_. there are also seven specially baneful spirits, who have to be appeased by family offerings. "on the whole their belief in a personal god, their tradition as to the former possession of a 'law,' and their expectation of a prophet have made them susceptible to christianity to a degree that is almost unique. of this splendid opportunity the american mission has taken full advantage, educating, civilising, welding together, and making a people out of the downtrodden karen tribes, while christianizing them[ ]." in the burmese division proper are comprised several groups, presenting all grades of culture, from the sheer savagery of the mros, kheongs, and others of the arakan yoma range, and the agricultural mugs of the arakan plains, to the dominant historical burmese nation of the irawadi valley. here also the terminology is perplexing, and it may be well to explain that _yoma_, applied by logan collectively to all the arakan hill tribes, has no ethnic value at all, simply meaning a mountain range in burmese[ ]. _toung-gnu_, one of mason's divisions of the burmese family, was merely a petty state founded by a younger branch of the royal house, and "has no more claim to rank as a separate tribe than any other burman town[ ]. "_tavoyers_ are merely the people of the tavoy district, tenasserim, originally from arakan, and now speaking a burmese dialect largely affected by siamese elements; _tungthas_, like yoma, means "highlander," and is even of wider application; the tipperahs, mrungs, kumi, mros, khemis, and khyengs are all tungthas of burmese stock, and speak rude burmese dialects. the correlative of tungthas is _khyungthas_, "river people," that is, the arakan lowlanders comprising the more civilised peoples about the middle and lower course of the rivers, who are improperly called _mugs_ (_maghs_) by the bengali, and whose real name is _rakhaingtha_, _i.e._ people of rakhaing (arakan). they are undoubtedly of the same stock as the cultured burmese, whose traditions point to arakan as the cradle of the race, and in whose chronicles the rakhaingtha are called _m'ranmákríh_, "great m'ranmas," or "elder burmese." both branches call themselves _m'ranma, m'rama_ (the correct form of _barma, burma_, but now usually pronounced myamma), probably from a root _mro, myo_, "man," though connected by burnouf with brahma, the brahmanical having preceded the buddhist religion in this region. in any case the m'rama may claim a respectable antiquity, being already mentioned in the national records so early as the first century of the new era, when the land "was said to be overrun with fabulous monsters and other terrors, which are called to this day by the superstitious natives, the five enemies. these were a fierce tiger, an enormous boar, a flying dragon, a prodigious man-eating bird, and a huge creeping pumpkin, which threatened to entangle the whole country[ ]." the burmese type has been not incorrectly described as intermediate between the chinese and the malay, more refined, or at least softer than either, of yellowish brown or olive complexion, often showing very dark shades, full black and lank hair, no beard, small but straight nose, weak extremities, pliant figure, and a mean height[ ]. most europeans speak well of the burmese people, whose bright genial temperament and extreme friendliness towards strangers more than outweigh a natural indolence which hurts nobody but themselves, and a little arrogance or vanity inspired by the still remembered glories of a nation that once ruled over a great part of indo-china. perhaps the most remarkable feature of burmese society is the almost democratic independence and equality of all classes developed under an exceptionally severe asiatic autocracy. "they are perfectly republican in the freedom with which all ranks mingle together and talk with one another, without any marked distinction in regard to difference of rank or wealth[ ]." scott attributes this trait, i think rightly, to the great leveller, buddhism, the true spirit of which has perhaps been better preserved in burma than in any other land. the priesthood has not become the privileged and oppressive class that has usurped all spiritual and temporal functions in tibet, for in burma everybody is or has been a priest for some period of his life. all enter the monasteries--which are the national schools--not only for general instruction, but actually as members of the sacerdotal order. they submit to the tonsure, take "minor orders," so to say, and wear the yellow robe, if only for a few months or weeks or days. but for the time being they must renounce "the world, the flesh and the devil," and must play the mendicant, make the round of the village at least once with the begging-bowl hung round their neck in company with the regular members of the community. they thus become initiated, and it becomes no longer possible for the confraternity to impose either on the rulers or on the ruled. "teaching is all that the brethren of the order do for the people. they have no spiritual powers whatever. they simply become members of a holy society that they may observe the precepts of the master more perfectly, and all they do for the alms lavished on them by the pious laity is to instruct the children in reading, writing, and the rudiments of religion[ ]." r. grant brown denies the common report which "has appeared in almost every work in which religion in burma is dealt with" that burman buddhism is superficial. "the burman buddhist is at least as much influenced by his religion as the average christian. the monks are probably as strict in their religious observances as any large religious body in the world.... most laymen, too, obey the prohibitions against alcohol and the taking of life, though these run counter both to strong human instincts and to animistic practice[ ]." nor is the personal freedom here spoken of confined to the men. in no other part of the world do the women enjoy a larger measure of independent action than in burma, with the result that they are acknowledged to be far more virtuous, thrifty, and intelligent than those of all the surrounding lands. their capacity for business and petty dealings is rivalled only by their gallic sisters; and h. s. hallett tells us that in every town and village "you will see damsels squatted on the floor of the verandah with diminutive, or sometimes large, stalls in front of them, covered with vegetables, fruit, betel-nut, cigars and other articles. however numerous they may be, the price of everything is known to them; and such is their idea of probity, that pilfering is quite unknown amongst them. they are entirely trusted by their parents from their earliest years; even when they blossom into young women, _chaperons_ are never a necessity; yet immorality is far less customary amongst them, i am led to believe, than in any country in europe[ ]." this observer quotes bishop bigandet, a forty years' resident amongst the natives, to the effect that "in burmah and siam the doctrines of buddhism have produced a striking, and to the lover of true civilization a most interesting result--the almost complete equality of the condition of the women with that of the men. in these countries women are seen circulating freely in the streets; they preside at the _comptoir_, and hold an almost exclusive possession of the bazaars. their social position is more elevated, in every respect, than in the regions where buddhism is not the predominating creed. they may be said to be men's companions, and not their slaves." burma is one of those regions where tattooing has acquired the rank of a fine art. indeed the intricate designs and general pictorial effect produced by the burmese artists on the living body are rivalled only by those of japan, new zealand, and some other polynesian groups. hallett, who states that "the burmese, the shans, and certain burmanized tribes are the only peoples in the south of asia who are known to tattoo their body," tells us that the elaborate operation is performed only on the male sex, the whole person from waist to knees, and amongst some shan tribes from neck to foot, being covered with heraldic figures of animals, with intervening traceries, so that at a little distance the effect is that of a pair of dark-blue breeches[ ]. the pigments are lamp-black or vermilion, and the pattern is usually first traced with a fine hair pencil and then worked in by a series of punctures made by a long pointed brass style[ ]. east of burma we enter the country of the _shans_, one of the most numerous and widespread peoples of asia, who call themselves _tai_ (_t'hai_), "noble" or "free," although slavery in various forms has from time immemorial been a social institution amongst all the southern groups. here again tribal and national terminology is somewhat bewildering; but it will help to notice that _shan_, said to be of chinese origin[ ], is the collective burmese name, and therefore corresponds to _lao_, the collective siamese name. these two terms are therefore rather political than ethnical, shan denoting all the tai peoples formerly subject to burma and now mostly british subjects, lao all the tai peoples formerly subject to siam, and now (since ) mostly french subjects[ ]. the siamese group them all in two divisions, the _lau-pang-dun_, "black-paunch lao," so called because they clothe themselves as it were in a dark skin-tight garb by the tattooing process; and the _lau-pang-kah_, "white-paunch lao," who do not tattoo. the burmese groups call themselves collectively _ngiou_[ ], while the most general chinese name is _paï_ (_pa-y_). prince henri d'orléans, who is careful to point out that paï is only another name for lao[ ], constantly met paï groups all along the route from tonking to assam, and the bulk of the lowland population in assam itself belongs originally[ ] to the same family, though now mostly assimilated to the hindus in speech, religion, and general culture. assam in fact takes its name from the _ahoms_, the "peerless," the title first adopted by the mau shan chief, chukupha, who invaded the country from north-east burma, and in a.d. founded the ahom dynasty, which was overthrown in by the burmese, who were ejected in by the english[ ]. these ahoms came from the khamti (kampti) district about the sources of the irawadi, where prince henri was surprised to find a civilised and lettered buddhist people of paï (shan) speech still enjoying political autonomy in the dangerous proximity of _le léopard britannique_. they call themselves _padao_, and it is curious to note that both _padam_ and _assami_ are also tribal names amongst the neighbouring abor hillmen. the french traveller was told that the padao, who claimed to be _t'hais_ (tai) like the laotians[ ], were indigenous, and he describes the type as also laotian--straight eyes rather wide apart, nose broad at base, forehead arched, superciliary arches prominent, thick lips, pointed chin, olive colour, slightly bronzed and darker than in the lao country; the men ill-favoured, the young women with pleasant features, and some with very beautiful eyes. passing into china we are still in the midst of shan peoples, whose range appears formerly to have extended up to the right bank of the yang-tse-kiang, and whose cradle has been traced by de lacouperie to "the kiu-lung mountains north of sechuen and south of shensi in china proper[ ]." this authority holds that they constitute a chief element in the chinese race itself, which, as it spread southwards beyond the yang-tse-kiang, amalgamated with the shan aborigines, and thus became profoundly modified both in type and speech, the present chinese language comprising over thirty per cent. of shan ingredients. colquhoun also, during his explorations in the southern provinces, found that "most of the aborigines, although known to the chinese by various nicknames, were shans; and that their propinquity to the chinese was slowly changing their habits, manners, and dress, and gradually incorporating them with that people[ ]." this process of fusion has been in progress for ages, not only between the southern chinese and the shans, but also between the shans and the caucasic aborigines, whom we first met amongst the kakhyens, but who are found scattered mostly in small groups over all the uplands between tibet and the cochin-chinese coast range. the result is that the shans are generally of finer physique than either the kindred siamese and malays in the south, or the more remotely connected chinese in the north. the colour, says bock, "is much lighter than that of the siamese," and "in facial expression the laotians are better-looking than the malays, having good high foreheads, and the men particularly having regular well-shaped noses, with nostrils not so wide as those of their neighbours[ ]." still more emphatic is the testimony of kreitner of the szechenyi expedition, who tells us that the burmese shans have "a nobler head than the chinese; the dark eyes are about horizontal, the nose is straight, the whole expression approaches that of the caucasic race[ ]." notwithstanding their wide diffusion, interminglings with other races, varied grades of culture, and lack of political cohesion, the tai-shan groups acquire a certain ethnical and even national unity from their generally uniform type, social usages, buddhist religion, and common indo-chinese speech. amidst a chaos of radically distinct idioms current amongst the surrounding indigenous populations, they have everywhere preserved a remarkable degree of linguistic uniformity, all speaking various more or less divergent dialects of the same mother-tongue. excluding a large percentage of sanskrit terms introduced into the literary language by their hindu educators, this radical mother-tongue comprises about distinct words or rather sounds, which have been reduced by phonetic decay to so many monosyllables, each uttered with five tones, the natural tone, two higher tones, and two lower[ ]. each term thus acquires five distinct meanings, and in fact represents five different words, which were phonetically distinct dissyllables, or even polysyllables in the primitive language. the same process of disintegration has been at work throughout the whole of the indo-chinese linguistic area, where all the leading tongues--chinese, annamese, tai-shan, burmese--belong to the same isolating form of speech, which, as explained in _ethnology_, chap. ix., is not a primitive condition, but a later development, the outcome of profound phonetic corruption. the remarkable uniformity of the tai-shan member of this order of speech may be in part due to the conservative effects of the literary standard. probably over years ago most of the shan groups were brought under hindu influences by the brahman, and later by the buddhist missionaries, who reduced their rude speech to written form, while introducing a large number of sanskrit terms inseparable from the new religious ideas. the writing systems, all based on the square pali form of the devanagari syllabic characters, were adapted to the phonetic requirements of the various dialects, with the result that the tai-shan linguistic family is encumbered with four different scripts. "the western shans use one very like the burmese; the siamese have a character of their own, which is very like pali; the shans called lü have another character of their own; and to the north of siam the lao shans have another[ ]." these shan alphabets of hindu origin are supposed by de lacouperie to be connected with the writing systems which have been credited to the mossos, lolos, and some other hill peoples about the chinese and indo-chinese borderlands. at lan-chu in the lolo country prince henri found that mss. were very numerous, and he was shown some very fine specimens "enluminés." here, he tells us, the script is still in use, being employed jointly with chinese in drawing up legal documents connected with property. he was informed that this lolo script comprised characters, read from top to bottom and from left to right[ ], although other authorities say from right to left. of the lolo he gives no specimens[ ], but reproduces two or three pages of a mosso book with transliteration and translation. other specimens, but without explanation, were already known through gill and desgodins, and their decipherment had exercised the ingenuity of several chinese scholars. their failure to interpret them is now accounted for by prince henri, who declares that, "strictly speaking the mossos have no writing system. the magicians keep and still make copy-books full of hieroglyphics; each page is divided into little sections (_cahiers_) following horizontally from left to right, in which are inscribed one or more somewhat rough figures, heads of animals, men, houses, conventional signs representing the sky or lightning, and so on." some of the magicians expounded two of the books, which contained invocations, beginning with the creation of the world, and winding up with a catalogue of all the evils threatening mortals, but to be averted by being pious, that is, by making gifts to the magicians. the same ideas are always expressed by the same signs; yet the magicians declared that there was no alphabet, the hieroglyphs being handed down bodily from one expert to another. nevertheless prince henri looks on this as one of the first steps in the history of writing; "originally many of the chinese characters were simply pictorial, and if the mossos, instead of being hemmed in, had acquired a large expansion, their sacred books might also perhaps have given birth to true characters[ ]." although now "hemmed in," the mossos are a historical and somewhat cultured people, belonging to the same group as the _iungs_ (_njungs_), who came from the regions north-east of tibet, and appeared on the chinese frontiers about b.c. they are referred to in the chinese records of a.d., when they were reduced by the king of nanchao. after various vicissitudes they recognised the chinese suzerainty in the fourteenth century, and were finally subdued in the eighteenth. de lacouperie[ ] thinks they are probably of the same origin as the lolos, the two languages having much in common, and the names of both being chinese, while the lolos and the mossos call themselves respectively _nossu_ (_nesu_) and _nashi_ (_nashri_). everywhere amongst these border tribes are met groups of aborigines, who present more or less regular features which are described by various travellers as "caucasic" or "european." thus the _kiu-tse_, who are the _khanungs_ of the english maps, and are akin to the large _lu-tse_ family (_melam_, _anu_, _diasu_, etc.), reminded prince henri of some europeans of his acquaintance[ ], and he speaks of the light colour, straight nose and eyes, and generally fine type of the yayo (yao), as the chinese call them, but whose real name is _lin-tin-yu_. the same caucasic element reappears in a pronounced form amongst the indigenous populations of tonking, to whom a. billet has devoted an instructive monograph[ ]. this observer, who declares that these aborigines are quite distinct both from the chinese and the annamese, groups them in three main divisions--_tho_, _nong_, and _man_[ ]--all collectively called _moi_, _muong_, and _myong_ by the annamese. the thos, who are the most numerous, are agriculturists, holding all the upland valleys and thinning off towards the wooded heights. they are tall compared to the mongols ( ft. or in.), lighter than the annamese, round-headed, with oval face, deep-set straight eyes, low cheek-bones, straight and even slightly aquiline nose not depressed at root, and muscular frames. they are a patient, industrious, and frugal people, now mainly subject to chinese and annamese influences in their social usages and religion. very peculiar nevertheless are some of their surviving customs, such as the feast of youth, the pastime of swinging, and especially chess played with living pieces, whose movements are directed by two players. the language appears to be a shan dialect, and to this family the writer affiliates both the thos and the nongs. the latter are a much more mixed people, now largely assimilated to the chinese, although the primitive type still persists, especially amongst the women, as is so often the case. a. billet tells us that he often met nong women "with light and sometimes even red hair[ ]." it is extremely interesting to learn that the mans came traditionally "from a far-off western land where their forefathers were said to have lived in contact with peoples of white blood thousands of years ago." this tradition, which would identify them with the above-mentioned man-tse, is supported by their physical appearance--long head, oval face, small cheek-bones, eyes without the mongol fold, skin not yellowish but rather "browned by the sun," regular features--in nothing recalling the traits of the yellow races. let us now turn to m. r. verneau's comments on the rich materials brought together by a. billet, in whom, "being not only a medical man, but also a graduate in the natural sciences, absolute confidence may be placed[ ]." "the máns-tien, the máns-coc, the máns-meo (miao, miao-tse, or mieu) present a pretty complete identity with the pan-y and the pan-yao of south kwang-si; they are the debris of a very ancient race, which with t. de lacouperie may be called pre-chinese. this early race, which bore the name of _pan-hu_ or _ngao_, occupied central china before the arrival of the chinese. according to m. d'hervey de saint-denys, the mountains and valleys of kwei-cháu where these miao-tse still survive were the cradle of the pan-hu. in any case it seems certain that the t'hai and the man race came from central asia, and that, from the anthropological standpoint, they differ altogether from the mongol group represented by the chinese and the annamese. the man especially presents striking affinities with the aryan type." thus is again confirmed by the latest investigations, and by the conclusions of some of the leading members of the french school of anthropology, the view first advanced by me in , that peoples of the caucasic (here called "aryan") division had already spread to the utmost confines of south-east asia in remote prehistoric times, and had in this region even preceded the first waves of mongolic migration radiating from their cradle-land on the tibetan plateau[ ]. reference was above made to the singular lack of political cohesion at all times betrayed by the tai-shan peoples. the only noteworthy exception is the siamese branch, which forms the bulk of the population in the menam basin. in this highly favoured region of vast hill-encircled alluvial plains of inexhaustible fertility, traversed by numerous streams navigable for light craft, and giving direct access to the inland waters of malaysia, the southern shans were able at an early date to merge the primitive tribal groups in a great nationality, and found a powerful empire, which at one time dominated most of indo-china and the malay peninsula. siam, alone of all the shan states, even still maintains a precarious independence, although now again reduced by european aggression to little more than the natural limits of the fluvial valley, which is usually regarded by the southern shans as the home of their race. yet they appear to have been here preceded by the caucasic khmers (cambojans), whose advent is referred in the national chronicles to the year b.c. and who, according to the hindu records, were expelled about a.d. it was through these khmers, and not directly from india, that the "sayamas" received their hindu culture, and the siamese annals, mingling fact with fiction, refer to the miraculous birth of the national hero, phra-ruang, who threw off the foreign yoke, declared the people henceforth t'hai, "freemen," invented the present siamese alphabet, and ordered the khom (cambojan) to be reserved in future for copying the sacred writings. the introduction of buddhism is assigned to the year a.d., one of the first authentic dates in the native records. the ancient city of labong had already been founded ( ), and other settlements now followed rapidly, always in the direction of the south, according as the shan race steadily advanced towards the seaboard, driving before them or mingling with khmers, lawas, karens, and other aborigines, some now extinct, some still surviving on the wooded uplands and plateaux encircling the menam valley. ayuthia, the great centre of national life in later times, dates only from the year , when the empire had received its greatest expansion, comprising the whole of camboja, pegu, tenasserim, and the malay peninsula, and extending its conquering arms across the inland waters as far as java[ ]. then followed the disastrous wars with burma, which twice captured and finally destroyed ayuthia ( ), now a picturesque elephant-park visited by tourists from the present capital, bangkok, founded in a little lower down the menam. but the elements of decay existed from the first in the institution of slavery or serfdom, which was not restricted to a particular class, as in other lands, but, before the modern reforms, extended in principle to all the kings' subjects in mockery declared "freemen" by the founders of the monarchy. this, however, may be regarded as perhaps little more than a legal fiction, for at all times class distinctions were really recognised, comprising the members of the royal family--a somewhat numerous group--the nobles named by the king, the _leks_ or vassals, and the people, these latter being again subdivided into three sections, those liable to taxation, those subject to forced labour, and the slaves proper. but so little developed was the sentiment of personal dignity and freedom, that anybody from the highest noble to the humblest citizen might at any moment lapse into the lowest category. like most mongoloid peoples, the siamese are incurable gamblers, and formerly it was an everyday occurrence for a freeman to stake all his goods and chattels, wives, children, and self, on the hazard of the die. yet the women, like their burmese sisters, have always held a somewhat honourable social position, being free to walk abroad, go shopping, visit their friends, see the sights, and take part in the frequent public feastings without restriction. those, however, who brought no dower and had to be purchased, might again be sold at any time, and many thus constantly fell from the dignity of matrons to the position of the merest drudges without rights or privileges of any kind. these strange relations were endurable, thanks to the genial nature of the national temperament, by which the hard lot of the thralls was softened, and a little light allowed to penetrate into the darkest corners[ ] of the social system. the open slave-markets, which in the vassal lao states fostered systematic raiding-expeditions amongst the unreduced aborigines, were abolished in , and since all born in slavery are free on reaching their st year. siamese buddhism is a slightly modified form of that prevailing in ceylon, although strictly practised but by few. there are two classes or "sects," the reformers who attach more importance to the observance of the canon law than to meditation, and the old believers, some devoted to a contemplative life, others to the study of the sunless wilderness of buddhist writings. but, beneath it all, spirit or devil-worship is still rife, and in many districts pure animism is practically the only religion. even temples and shrines have been raised to the countless gods of land and water, woods, mountains, villages and households. to these gods are credited all sorts of calamities, and to prevent them from getting into the bodies of the dead the latter are brought out, not through door or window, but through a breach in the wall, which is afterwards carefully built up. similar ideas prevail amongst many other peoples, both at higher and lower levels of culture, for nothing is more ineradicable than such popular beliefs associated with the relations presumed to exist between the present and the after life. incredible sums are yearly lavished in offerings to the spirits, which give rise to an endless round of feasts and revels, and also in support of the numerous buddhist temples, convents, and their inmates. the treasures accumulated in the "royal cloisters" and other shrines represent a great part of the national savings--investments for the other world, among which are said to be numerous gold statues glittering with rubies, sapphires, and other priceless gems. but in these matters the taste of the _talapoins_[ ], as the priests were formerly called, is somewhat catholic, including pictures of reviews and battle-scenes from the european illustrated papers, and sometimes even statues of napoleon set up by the side of buddha. so numerous, absurd, and exacting are the rules of the monastic communities that, but for the aid of the temple servants and novices, existence would be impossible. a list of such puerilities occupies several pages in a. r. colquhoun's work _amongst the shans_ ( - ), and from these we learn that the monks must not dig the ground, so that they can neither plant nor sow; must not boil rice, as it would kill the germ; eat corn for the same reason; climb trees lest a branch get broken; kindle a flame, as it destroys the fuel; put out a flame, as that also would extinguish life; forge iron, as sparks would fly out and perish; swing their arms in walking; wink in speaking; buy or sell; stretch the legs when sitting; breed poultry, pigs, or other animals; mount an elephant or palanquin; wear red, black, green, or white garments; mourn for the dead, etc., etc. in a word all might be summed up by a general injunction neither to do anything, nor not to do anything, and then despair of attaining _nirvana_; for it would be impossible to conceive of any more pessimistic system in theory[ ]. practically it is otherwise, and in point of fact the utmost religious indifference prevails amongst all classes. within the mongolic division it would be difficult to imagine any more striking contrast than that presented by the gentle, kindly, and on the whole not ill-favoured siamese, and their hard-featured, hard-hearted, and grasping annamese neighbours. let anyone, who may fancy there is little or nothing in blood, pass rapidly from the bright, genial--if somewhat listless and corrupt--social life of bangkok to the dry, uncongenial moral atmosphere of ha-noi or saigon, and he will be apt to modify his views on that point. few observers have a good word to say for the tonkingese, the cochin-chinese, or any other branch of the annamese family, and some even of the least prejudiced are so outspoken that we must needs infer there is good ground for their severe strictures on these strange, uncouth materialists. buddhists of course they are nominally; but of the moral sense they have little, unless it be (amongst the lettered classes) a pale reflection of the pale chinese ethical code. the whole region in fact is a sort of attenuated china, to which it owes its arts and industries, its letters, moral systems, general culture, and even a large part of its inhabitants. _giao-shi_ (_kiao-shi_), the name of the aborigines, said to mean "bifurcated," or "cross-toes[ ]," in reference to the wide space between the great toe and the next, occurs in the legendary chinese records so far back as b.c., since which period the two countries are supposed to have maintained almost uninterrupted relations, whether friendly or hostile, down to the present day. at first the giao-shi were confined to the northern parts of lu-kiang, the present tonking, all the rest of the coastlands being held by the powerful champa (tsiampa) people, whose affinities are with the oceanic populations. but in b.c., lu-kiang having been reduced and incorporated with china proper, a large number of chinese emigrants settled in the country, and gradually merged with the giao-shi in a single nationality, whose twofold descent is still reflected in the annamese physical and mental characters. this term annam[ ], however, did not come into use till the seventh century, when it was officially applied to the frontier river between china and tonking, and afterwards extended to the whole of tonking and cochin-china. tonking itself, meaning the "eastern court[ ]," was originally the name only of the city of ha-noi when it was a royal residence, but was later extended to the whole of the northern kingdom, whose true name is _yüeh-nan_. to this corresponded the southern kwe-chen-ching, "kingdom of chen-ching," which was so named in the ninth century from its capital chen-ching, and of which our cochin-china appears to be a corrupt form. but, amid all this troublesome political nomenclature, the dominant annamese nation has faithfully preserved its homogeneous character, spreading, like the siamese shans, steadily southwards, and gradually absorbing the whole of the champa domain to the southern extremity of the peninsula, as well as a large part of the ancient kingdom of camboja about the mekhong delta. they thus form at present the almost exclusive ethnical element throughout all the lowland and cultivated parts of tonking, upper and lower cochin-china and south camboja, with a total population in of about twenty millions. the annamese are described in a semi-official report[ ] as characterised by a high broad forehead, high cheek-bones, small crushed nose, rather thick lips, black hair, scant beard, mean height, coppery complexion, deceitful (_rusée_) expression, and rude or insolent bearing. the head is round (index to ) and the features are in general flat and coarse, while to an ungainly exterior corresponds a harsh unsympathetic temperament. the abbé gagelin, who lived years in their midst, frankly declares that they are at once arrogant and dishonest, and dead to all the finer feelings of human nature, so that after years of absence the nearest akin will meet without any outward sign of pleasure or affection. others go further, and j. g. scott summed it all up by declaring that "the fewer annamese there are, the less taint there is on the human race." no doubt lord curzon gives a more favourable picture, but this traveller spent only a short time in the country, and even he allows that they are "tricky and deceitful, disposed to thieve when they get the chance, mendacious, and incurable gamblers[ ]." yet they have one redeeming quality, an intense love of personal freedom, strangely contrasting with the almost abject slavish spirit of the siamese. the feeling extends to all classes, so that servitude is held in abhorrence, and, as in burma, a democratic sense of equality permeates the social system[ ]. hence, although the state has always been an absolute monarchy, each separate commune constitutes a veritable little oligarchic commonwealth. this has come as a great surprise to the present french administrators of the country, who frankly declare that they cannot hope to improve the social or political position of the people by substituting european for native laws and usages. the annamese have in fact little to learn from western social institutions. their language, spoken everywhere with remarkable uniformity, is of the normal indo-chinese isolating type, possessing six tones, three high, and three low, and written in ideographic characters based on the chinese, but with numerous modifications and additions. but, although these are ill-suited for the purpose, the attempt made by the early portuguese missionaries to substitute the so-called _quôc-ngù_, or roman phonetic system, has been defeated by the conservative spirit of the people. primary instruction has long been widely diffused, and almost everybody can read and write as many of the numerous hieroglyphs as are needed for the ordinary purpose of daily intercourse. every village has its free school, and a higher range of studies is encouraged by the public examinations to which, as in china, all candidates for government appointments are subjected. under such a scheme surprising results might be achieved, were the course of studies not based exclusively on the empty formulas of chinese classical literature. the subjects taught are for the most part puerile, and true science is replaced by the dry moral precepts of confucius. one result amongst the educated classes is a scoffing, sceptical spirit, free from all religious prejudice, and unhampered by theological creeds or dogmas, combined with a lofty moral tone, not always however in harmony with daily conduct. even more than in china, the family is the true base of the social system, the head of the household being not only the high-priest of the ancestral cult, but also a kind of patriarch enjoying almost absolute control over his children. in this respect the relations are somewhat one-sided, the father having no recognised obligations towards his offspring, while these are expected to show him perfect obedience in life and veneration after death. besides this worship of ancestry and the confucian ethical philosophy, a national form of buddhism is prevalent. some even profess all three of these so-called "religions," beneath which there still survive many of the primitive superstitions associated with a not yet extinct belief in spirits and the supernatural power of magicians. while the buddhist temples are neglected and the few bonzes[ ] despised, offerings are still made to the genii of agriculture, of the waters, the tiger, the dolphin, peace, war, diseases, and so forth, whose rude statues in the form of dragons or other fabulous monsters are even set up in the pagodas. since the early part of the seventeenth century roman catholic missionaries have laboured with considerable success in this unpromising field, where the congregations were estimated in at about , . from annam the ethnical transition is easy to china[ ] and its teeming multitudes, regarding whose origins, racial and cultural, two opposite views at present hold the field. what may be called the old, but by no means the obsolete school, regards the chinese populations as the direct descendants of the aborigines who during the stone ages entered the hoang-ho valley probably from the tibetan plateau, there developed their peculiar culture independently of foreign influences, and thence spread gradually southwards to the whole of china proper, extirpating, absorbing, or driving to the encircling western and southern uplands the ruder aborigines of the yang-tse-kiang and si-kiang basins. in direct opposition to this view the new school, championed especially by t. de lacouperie[ ], holds that the present inhabitants of china are late intruders from south-western asia, and that they arrived not as rude aborigines, but as a cultured people with a considerable knowledge of letters, science, and the arts, all of which they acquired either directly or indirectly from the civilised akkado-sumerian inhabitants of babylonia. not merely analogies and resemblances, but what are called actual identities, are pointed out between the two cultures, and even between the two languages, sufficient to establish a common origin of both, mesopotamia being the fountain-head, whence the stream flowed by channels not clearly defined to the hoang-ho valley. thus the chin. _yu_, originally _go_, is equated with akkad _gu_, to speak; _ye_ with _ge_, night, and so on. then the astronomic and chronologic systems are compared, berossus and the cuneiform tablets dividing the prehistoric akkad epoch into periods of kings, lasting sari, or , years, while the corresponding chinese astronomic myth also comprises kings (or dynasties) covering the same period of , years. the astronomic system credited to the emperor yao ( b.c.) similarly corresponds with the akkadian, both having the same five planets with names of like meaning, and a year of months and days, with the same cycle of intercalated days, while several of the now obsolete names of the chinese months answer to those of the babylonians. even the name of the first chinese emperor who built an observatory, nai-kwang-ti, somewhat resembles that of the elamite king, kuder-na-hangti, who conquered chaldaea about b.c. all this can hardly be explained away as a mere series of coincidences; nevertheless neither sinologues nor akkadists are quite convinced, and it is obvious that many of the resemblances may be due to trade or intercourse both by the old overland caravan routes, and by the seaborne traffic from eridu at the head of the persian gulf, which was a flourishing emporium or years ago. but, despite some verbal analogies, an almost insurmountable difficulty is presented by the akkadian and chinese languages, which no philological ingenuity can bring into such relation as is required by the hypothesis. t. g. pinches has shown that at a very early period, say some years ago, akkadian already consisted, "for the greater part, of words of one syllable," and was "greatly affected by phonetic decay, the result being that an enormous number of homophones were developed out of roots originally quite distinct[ ]." this akkadian scholar sends me a number of instances, such as _tu_ for _tura_, to enter; _ti_ for _tila_, to live; _du_ for _dumu_, son; _du_ for _dugu_, good, as in _eridu_, for _gurudugu_, "the good city," adding that "the list could be extended indefinitely[ ]." but de lacouperie's bak tribes, that is, the first immigrants from south-west asia, are not supposed to have reached north china till about or b.c., at which time the chinese language was still in the untoned agglutinating state, with but few monosyllabic homophones, and consequently quite distinct from the akkadian, as known to us from the assyrian syllabaries, bilingual lists, and earlier tablets from nippur or lagash. hence the linguistic argument seems to fail completely, while the babylonian origin of the chinese writing system, or rather, the derivation of chinese and sumerian from some common parent in central asia, awaits further evidence. many of the chinese and akkadian "line forms" collated by c. j. ball[ ] are so simple and, one might say, obvious, that they seem to prove nothing. they may be compared with such infantile utterances as _pa_, _ma_, _da_, _ta_, occurring in half the languages of the world, without proving a connection or affinity between any of them. but even were the common origin of the two scripts established, it would prove nothing as to the common origin of the two peoples, but only show cultural influences, which need not be denied. but if chinese origins cannot be clearly traced back to babylonia, chinese culture may still, in a sense, claim to be the oldest in the world, inasmuch as it has persisted with little change from its rise some years ago down to present times. all other early civilisations--mesopotamian, egyptian, assyrian, persian, hellenic--have perished, or live only in their monuments, traditions, oral or written records. but the chinese, despite repeated political and social convulsions, is still as deeply rooted in the past as ever, showing no break of continuity from the dim echoes of remote prehistoric ages down to the last revolution, and the establishment of the republic. these things touch the surface only of the great ocean of chinese humanity, which is held together, not by any general spirit of national sentiment (all sentiment is alien from the chinese temperament), nor by any community of speech, for many of the provincial dialects differ profoundly from each other, but by a prodigious power of inertia, which has hitherto resisted all attempts at change either by pressure from without, or by spontaneous impulse from within. what they were thousands of years ago, the chinese still are, a frugal, peace-loving, hard-working people, occupied mainly with tillage and trade, cultivating few arts beyond weaving, porcelain and metal work, but with a widely diffused knowledge of letters, and a writing system which still remains at the cumbrous ideographic stage, needing as many different symbols as there are distinct concepts to be expressed. yet the system has one advantage, enabling those who speak mutually unintelligible idioms to converse together, using the pencil instead of the tongue. for this very reason the attempts made centuries ago by the government to substitute a phonetic script had to be abandoned. it was found that imperial edicts and other documents so written could not be understood by the populations speaking dialects different from the literary standard, whereas the hieroglyphs, like our ciphers , , ..., could be read by all educated persons of whatever allied form of speech. originally the chinese system, whether developed on the spot or derived from akkadian or any other foreign source, was of course pictographic or ideographic, and it is commonly supposed to have remained at that stage ever since, the only material changes being of a graphic nature. the pictographs were conventionalised and reduced to their present form, but still remained ideograms supplemented by a limited number of phonetic determinants. but de lacouperie has shown that this view is a mistake, and that the evolution from the pictograph to the phonetic symbol had been practically completed in china many centuries before the new era. the _ku-wen_ style current before the ninth century b.c. "was really the phonetic expression of speech[ ]." but for the reason stated it had to be discontinued, and a return made to the earlier ideographic style. the change was effected about b.c. by she chöu, minister of the emperor süen wang, who introduced the _ta-chuen_ style in which "he tried to speak to the eye and no longer to the ear," that is, he reverted to the earlier ideographic process, which has since prevailed. it was simplified about b.c. (_siao chuen_ style), and after some other modifications the present caligraphic form (_kiai shu_) was introduced by wang hi in a.d. thus one consequence of the "expansion of china" was a reversion to barbarism, in respect at least of the national graphic system, by which chinese thought and literature have been hampered for nearly years. written records, though at first mainly of a mythical character, date from about b.c.[ ] reference is made in the early documents to the rude and savage times, which in china as elsewhere certainly preceded the historic period. three different prehistoric ages are even discriminated, and tradition relates how fu-hi introduced wooden, thin-ming stone, and shi-yu metal implements[ ]. later, when their origin and use were forgotten, the jade axes, like those from yunnan, were looked on as bolts hurled to the earth by the god of thunder, while the arrow-heads, supposed to be also of divine origin, were endowed in the popular fancy with special virtues and even regarded as emblems of sovereignty. thus may perhaps be explained the curious fact that in early times, before the twelfth century b.c., tribute in flint weapons was paid to the imperial government by some of the reduced wild tribes of the western uplands. these men of the stone and metal ages are no doubt still largely represented, not only amongst the rude hill tribes of the southern and western borderlands, but also amongst the settled and cultured lowlanders of the great fluvial valleys. the "hundred families," as the first immigrants called themselves, came traditionally from the north-western regions beyond the hoang-ho. according to the yu-kung their original home lay in the south-western part of eastern turkestan, whence they first migrated east to the oases north of the nan-shan range, and then, in the fourth millennium before the new era, to the fertile valleys of the hoang-ho and its hoeï-ho tributary. thence they spread slowly along the other great river valleys, partly expelling, partly intermingling with the aborigines, but so late as the seventh century b.c. were still mainly confined to the region between the peï-ho and the lower yang-tse-kiang. even here several indigenous groups, such as the hoeï, whose name survives in that of the hoeï river, and the laï of the shantong peninsula, long held their ground, but all were ultimately absorbed or assimilated throughout the northern lands as far south as the left bank of the yang-tse-kiang. beyond this river many were also merged in the dominant people continually advancing southwards; but others, collectively or vaguely known as si-fans, mans, miao-tse, paï, tho, y-jen[ ], lolo, etc., were driven to the south-western highlands which they still occupy. even some of the populations in the settled districts, such as the _hok-los_[ ], and _hakkas_[ ], of kwang-tung, and the _pun-ti_[ ] of the canton district, are scarcely yet thoroughly assimilated. they differ greatly in temperament, usages, appearance, and speech from the typical chinese of the central and northern provinces, whom in fact they look upon as "foreigners," and with whom they hold intercourse through "pidgin english[ ]," the _lingua franca_ of the chinese seaboard[ ]. nevertheless a general homogeneous character is imparted to the whole people by their common political, social, and religious institutions, and by that principle of convergence in virtue of which different ethnical groups, thrown together in the same area and brought under a single administration, tend to merge in a uniform new national type. this general uniformity is conspicuous especially in the religious ideas which, except in the sceptical lettered circles, everywhere underlie the three recognised national religions, or "state churches," as they might almost be called: _ju-kiao_, confucianism; _tao-kiao_, taoism; and _fo-kiao_, buddhism (fo = buddha). the first, confined mainly to the educated upper classes, is not so much a religion as a philosophic system, a frigid ethical code based on the moral and matter-of-fact teachings of confucius[ ]. confucius was essentially a social and political reformer, who taught by example and precept; the main inducement to virtue being, not rewards or penalties in the after-life, but well- or ill-being in the present. his system is summed up in the expression "worldly wisdom," as embodied in such popular sayings as: a friend is hardly made in a year, but unmade in a moment; when safe remember danger, in peace forget not war; filial father, filial son, unfilial father, unfilial son; in washing up, plates and dishes may get broken; don't do what you would not have known; thatch your roof before the rain, dig the well before you thirst; the gambler's success is his ruin; money goes to the gambling den as the criminal to execution (never returns); money hides many faults; stop the hand, stop the mouth (stop work and starve); to open a shop is easy, to keep it open hard; win your lawsuit and lose your money. although he instituted no religious system, confucius nevertheless enjoined the observance of the already existing forms of worship, and after death became himself the object of a widespread cult, which still persists. "in every city there is a temple, built at the public expense, containing either a statue of the philosopher, or a tablet inscribed with his titles. every spring and autumn worship is paid to him in these temples by the chief official personages of the city. in the schools also, on the first and fifteenth of each month, his title being written on red paper and affixed to a tablet, worship is performed in a special room by burning incense and candles, and by prostrations[ ]." taoism, a sort of pantheistic mysticism, called by its founder, lao-tse ( b.c.), the _tao_, or "way of salvation," was embodied in the formula "matter and the visible world are merely manifestations of a sublime, eternal, incomprehensible principle." it taught, in anticipation of sakya-muni, that by controlling his passions man may escape or cut short an endless series of transmigrations, and thus arrive by the tao at everlasting bliss--sleep? unconscious rest or absorption in the eternal essence? nirvana? it is impossible to tell from the lofty but absolutely unintelligible language in which the master's teachings are wrapped. but it matters little, because his disciples have long forgotten the principles they never understood, and taoism has almost everywhere been transformed to a system of magic associated with the never-dying primeval superstitions. originally there was no hierarchy of priests, the only specially religious class being the ascetics, who passed their lives absorbed in the contemplation of the eternal verities. but out of this class, drawn together by their common interests, was developed a kind of monasticism, with an organised brotherhood of astrologers, magicians, shamanists, somnambulists, "mediums," "thought-readers," charlatans and impostors of all sorts, sheltered under a threadbare garb of religion. buddhism also, although of foreign origin, has completely conformed to the national spirit, and is now a curious blend of hindu metaphysics with the primitive chinese belief in spirits and a deified ancestry. in every district are practised diverse forms of worship between which no clear dividing line can be drawn, and, as in annam, the same persons may be at once followers of confucius, lao-tse, and buddha. in fact such was the position of the emperor, who belonged _ex officio_ to all three of these state religions, and scrupulously took part in their various observances. there is even some truth in the chinese view that "all three make but one religion," the first appealing to man's moral nature, the second to the instinct of self-preservation, the third to the higher sphere of thought and contemplation. but behind, one might say above it all, the old animism still prevails, manifested in a multitude of superstitious practices, whose purport is to appease the evil and secure the favour of the good spirits, the _feng-shui_ or _fung-shui_, "air and water" genii, who have to be reckoned with in all the weightiest as well as the most trivial occurrences of daily life. these with the ghosts of their ancestors, by whom the whole land is haunted, are the bane of the chinaman's existence. everything depends on maintaining a perfect balance between the fung-shui, that is, the two principles represented by the "white tiger" and the "azure dragon," who guard the approaches of every dwelling, and whose opposing influences have to be nicely adjusted by the well-paid professors of the magic arts. at the death of the emperor tung chih ( ) a great difficulty was raised by the state astrologers, who found that the realm would be endangered if he were buried, according to rule, in the imperial cemetery miles west of pekin, as his father reposed in the other imperial cemetery situated the same distance east of the capital. for some subtle reason the balance would have been disturbed between tiger and dragon, and it took nine months to settle the point, during which, as reported by the american legation, the whole empire was stirred, councils of state agitated, and £ , expended to decide where the remains of a worthless and vicious young man should be interred. owing to the necessary disturbance of the ancestral burial places, much trouble has been anticipated in the construction of the railways, for which concessions have now been granted to european syndicates. but an englishman long resident in the country has declared that there will be no resistance on the part of the people. "the dead can be removed with due regard to fung shui; a few dollars will make that all right." this is fully in accordance with the thrifty character of the chinese, which overrides all other considerations, as expressed in the popular saying: "with money you may move the gods; without it you cannot move men." but the gods may even be moved without money, or at least with spurious paper money, for it is a fixed belief of their votaries that, like mortals, they may be outwitted by such devices. when rallied for burning flash notes at a popular shrine, since no spirit-bank would cash them, a chinaman retorted: "why me burn good note? joss no can savvy." in a similar spirit the god of war is hoodwinked by wooden boards hung on the ramparts of pekin and painted to look like heavy ordnance. in fact appearance, outward show, observance of the "eleventh commandment," in a word "face" as it is called, is everything in china. "to understand, however imperfectly, what is meant by 'face,' we must take account of the fact that as a race the chinese have a strong dramatic instinct. upon very slight provocation any chinese regards himself in the light of an actor in a drama. a chinese thinks in theatrical terms. if his troubles are adjusted he speaks of himself as having 'got off the stage' with credit, and if they are not adjusted he finds no way to 'retire from the stage.' the question is never of facts, but always of form. once rightly apprehended, 'face' will be found to be in itself a key to the combination-lock of many of the most important characteristics of the chinese[ ]." of foreign religions islam, next to buddhism, has made most progress. introduced by the early arab and persian traders, and zealously preached throughout the jagatai empire in the twelfth century, it has secured a firm footing especially in kan-su, shen-si, and yunnan, and is of course dominant in eastern (chinese) turkestan. despite the wholesale butcheries that followed the repeated insurrections between and , the _hoeï-hoeï_, _panthays_, or _dungans_, as the muhammadans are variously called, were still estimated, in , at about , , in the whole empire. islam was preceded by christianity, which, as attested by the authentic inscription of si-ngan-fu, penetrated into the western provinces under the form of nestorianism about the seventh century. the famous roman catholic missions with headquarters at pekin date from the close of the sixteenth century, and despite internal dissensions have had a fair measure of success, the congregations comprising altogether over one million members. protestant missions date from (london missionary society) and in claimed over , church members and baptized christians, the total having more than doubled since [ ]. the above-mentioned dissensions arose out of the practices associated with ancestry worship, offerings of flowers, fruits and so forth, which the jesuits regarded merely as proofs of filial devotion, but were denounced by the dominicans as acts of idolatry. after many years of idle controversy, the question was at last decided against the jesuits by clement xi in the famous bull, _ex illa die_ ( ), and since then, neophytes having to renounce the national cult of their forefathers, conversions have mainly been confined to the lower classes, too humble to boast of any family tree, or too poor to commemorate the dead by ever-recurring costly sepulchral rites. in china there are no hereditary nobles, indeed no nobles at all, unless it be the rather numerous descendants of confucius who dwell together and enjoy certain social privileges, in this somewhat resembling the _shorfa_ (descendants of the prophet) in muhammadan lands. if any titles have to be awarded for great deeds they fall, not on the hero, but on his forefathers, and thus at a stroke of the vermilion pencil are ennobled countless past generations, while the last of the line remains unhonoured until he goes over to the majority. between the emperor, "patriarch of his people," and the people themselves, however, there stood an aristocracy of talent, or at least of chinese scholarship, the governing mandarin[ ] class, which was open to the highest and the lowest alike. all nominations to office were conferred exclusively on the successful competitors at the public examinations, so that, like the french conscript with the hypothetical marshal's bâton in his knapsack, every chinese citizen carried the buttoned cap of official rank in his capacious sleeve. of these there are nine grades, indicated respectively in descending order by the ruby, red coral, sapphire, opaque blue, crystal, white shell, gold (two), and silver button, or rather little globe, on the cap of office, with which correspond the nine birds--manchu crane, golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail, and jay--embroidered on the breast and back of the state robe. theoretically the system is admirable, and at all events is better than appointments by court favour. but in practice it was vitiated, first by the narrow, antiquated course of studies in the dry chinese classics, calculated to produce pedants rather than statesmen, and secondly by the monopoly of preference which it conferred on a lettered caste to the exclusion of men of action, vigour, and enterprise. moreover, appointments being made for life, barring crime or blunder, the mandarins, as long as they approved themselves zealous supporters of the reigning dynasty, enjoyed a free hand in amassing wealth by plunder, and the wealth thus acquired was used to purchase further promotion and advancement, rather than to improve the welfare of the people. they have the reputation of being a courteous people, as punctilious as the malays themselves; and they are so amongst each other. but their attitude towards strangers is the embodiment of aggressive self-righteousness, a complacent feeling of superiority which nothing can disturb. even the upper classes, with all their efforts to be at least polite, often betray the feeling in a subdued arrogance which is not always to be distinguished from vulgar insolence. "after the courteous, kindly japanese, the chinese seem indifferent, rough, and disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. their rude stare, and the way they hustle you in the streets and shout their 'pidjun' english at you is not attractive[ ]." but the stare, the hustling and the shouting may not be due to incivility. no doubt the chinaman regards the foreigner as a "devil" but he has reason, and he never ceases to be astonished at foreign manners and customs "extremely ferocious and almost entirely uncivilised[ ]." footnotes: [ ] _ethnology_, p. . [ ] _geogr. journ._, may, , p. . this statement must of course be taken as having reference only to the historical malays and their comparatively late migrations. [ ] for the desiccation of asia see p. kropotkin, _geogr. journ._ xxiii. ; e. huntington, _the pulse of asia_, . [ ] see j. cockburn's paper "on palæolithic implements," etc., in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq. [ ] "le type. primitif des mongols est pour nous dolichocéphale" (_les aryens au nord et au sud de l'hindou-kouch_, , p. ). [ ] thus risley's tibetan measurements were all of subjects from sikkim and nepal (_tribes and castes of bengal_, calcutta, , _passim_). in the east, however, desgodins and other french missionaries have had better opportunities of studying true tibetans amongst the si-fan ("western strangers"), as the frontier populations are called by the chinese. [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . here we are reminded that, though the sacae are called "scythians" by herodotus and other ancient writers, under this vague expression were comprised a multitude of heterogeneous peoples, amongst whom were types corresponding to all the main varieties of mongolian, western asiatic, and eastern european peoples. "aujourd'hui l'ancien type sace, adouci parmi les mélanges, reparaît et constitue le type si caractéristique, si complexe et si différent de ses voisins que nous appelons le type balti" (p. ). [ ] w. w. rockhill, our best living authority, accepts none of the current explanations of the widely diffused term _bod_ (_bhót, bhot_), which appears to form the second element in the word _tibet_ (_stod-bod_, pronounced _teu-beu_, "upper bod," _i.e._ the central and western parts in contradistinction to _män-bod_, "lower bod," the eastern provinces). _notes on the ethnology of tibet_, washington, , p. . this writer finds the first mention of tibet in the form _tobbat_ (there are many variants) in the arab istakhri's works, about a.h., while t. de lacouperie would connect it with the tatar kingdom of _tu-bat_ ( - a.d.). this name might easily have been extended by the chinese from the tatars of kansu to the neighbouring tanguts, and thus to all tibetans. [ ] _hbrog-pa_, _drok-pa_, pronounced _dru-pa_. [ ] the mongols apply the name _tangut_ to tibet and call all tibetans _tangutu_, "which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the people inhabiting this section of the country are pure tibetans" (rockhill, p. ). it is curious to note that the mongol tangutu is balanced by the tibetan _sok-pa_, often applied to all mongolians. [ ] _notes on the ethnology of tibet_, , p. ; see also s. chandra das, _journey to lhasa and central tibet_, ; f. grenard, _tibet: the country and its inhabitants_, ; g. sandberg, _tibet and the tibetans_, ; and l. a. waddell, _lhasa and its mysteries, with a record of the expedition of - _, . [ ] _isvestia_, xxi. . [ ] _ethnology_, p. . [ ] _abor_, _i.e._ "independent," is the name applied by the assamese to the east himalayan hill tribes, the _minyong_, _padam_ and _hrasso_, who are the _slo_ of the tibetans. these are all affiliated by desgodins to the lho-pa of bhutan (_bul. soc. géogr._, october, , p. ), and are to be distinguished from the _bori_ (_i.e._ "dependent") tribes of the plains, all more or less hinduized bhotiyas (dalton, _ethnology of bengal_, p. sq.). see a. hamilton, _in abor jungles_, . [ ] not to be confused with the _khas_, as the wild tribes of the lao country (siam) are collectively called. capt. eden vansittart thinks in nepal the term is an abbreviation of kshatriya, or else means "fallen." this authority tells us that, although the khas are true gurkhas, it is not the khas who enlist in our gurkha regiments, but chiefly the magars and gurungs, who are of purer bhotiya race and less completely hinduized ("the tribes, clans, and castes of nepal," in _journ. as. soc. bengal_; lxiii. i, no. ). [ ] _embassy to the court of the teshoo lama_, p. sq. [ ] "voilà, je crois, le vrai tibetain des pays cultivés du sud, qui se regarde comme bien plus civilisé que les pasteurs ou bergers du nord" (_le thibet_, p. ). [ ] _notes on the ethnology_, etc., p. . it may here be remarked that the unfriendliness of which travellers often complain appears mainly inspired by the buddhist theocracy, who rule the land and are jealous of all "interlopers." [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] with it may be compared the chinese province of _kan-su_, so named from its two chief towns _kan_-chau and _su_-chau (yule's _marco polo_, i. p. ). [ ] "buddhist turks," says sir h. h. howorth (_geogr. journ._ , p. ). [ ] e. delmar morgan, _geogr. journ._ , p. . [ ] "whatever may have been the origin of polyandry, there can be no doubt that poverty, a desire to keep down population, and to keep property undivided in families, supply sufficient reason to justify its continuance. the same motives explain its existence among the lower castes of malabar, among the jat (sikhs) of the panjab, among the todas, and probably in most other countries in which this custom prevails" (rockhill, p. ). [ ] t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , pp. and - . [ ] at least no reference is made to the bonbo practice in his almost exhaustive monograph on _the swastika_, washington, . the reversed form, however, mentioned by max müller and burnouf, is figured at p. and elsewhere. [ ] sarat chandra das, _journ. as. soc. bengal_, - . [ ] this point, so important in the history of linguistic evolution, has i think been fairly established by t. de lacouperie in a series of papers in the _oriental and babylonian record_, - . see g. a. grierson's _linguistic survey of india_, iii. tibeto-burman family, , by sten konow. [ ] _ladák_, london, . [ ] g. b. mainwaring, _a grammar of the rong (lepcha) language_, etc., calcutta, , pp. - . [ ] _outline grammar of the angámi-naga language_, calcutta, , pp. , . for an indication of the astonishing number of distinct languages in the whole of this region see gertrude m. godden's paper "on the naga and other frontier tribes of north-east india," in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . under the heading tibeto-burman languages sten konow recognises _tibetan_, _himalayan_, _north assam_, _bodo_, _naga_, _kuki-chin_, _meitei_ and _kachin_. the naga group comprises dialects of very different kinds; some approach tibetan and the north assam group, others lead over to the bodo, others connect with tibeto-burman. meitei lies midway between kuki-chin and kachin, and these merge finally in burmese. grierson's _linguistic survey of india_, vol. iii. - . [ ] almost hopeless confusion continues to prevail in the tribal nomenclature of these multitudinous hill peoples. the official sanction given to the terms _kuki_ and _lushai_ as collective names may be regretted, but seems now past remedy. _kuki_ is unknown to the people themselves, while _lushai_ is only the name of a single group proud of their head-hunting proclivities, hence they call themselves, or perhaps are called _lu-shai_, "head-cutters," from _lu_ head, _sha_ to cut (g. h. damant). other explanations suggested by c. a. soppitt (_kuki-lushai tribes, with an outline grammar of the rangkhol-lushai language_, shillong, ) cannot be accepted. [ ] _op. cit._ [ ] see g. a. grierson and sten konow in grierson's _linguistic survey of india_, vol. iii. part ii. bodo, n[=a]g[=a] and kachin, , part iii. kuki-chin and burma, . [ ] _the n[=a]ga tribes of manipur_, , p. . cf. j. shakespear, "the kuki-lushai clans," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxix. . [ ] _op. cit. p. ._ [ ] _op. cit._ p. . a custom of human sacrifice among the naga is described in the _journal of the burma research society_, , "human sacrifices near the upper chindwin." [ ] it is a curious phonetic phenomenon that the combinations _kl_ and _tl_ are indistinguishable in utterance, so that it is immaterial whether this term be written _kling_ or _tling_, though the latter form would be preferable, as showing its origin from _telinga_. [ ] "the aboriginal tribes of manipur," _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . [ ] r. brown, _statistical account of manipur_, . [ ] t. c. hodson, _the meitheis_, , p. . [ ] t. c. hodson, _the meitheis_, , pp. - . [ ] g. watt, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _the chin hills_, etc., vol. i., rangoon, . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] r. c. temple, art. "burma," hastings, _ency. religion and ethics_, . [ ] dalton, _ethnology of bengal_, p. . [ ] prince henri d'orléans writes "que les singphos et les katchins [kakhyens] ne font qu'un, que le premier mot est _thai_ et le second birman." _du tonkin aux indes_, , p. . this is how the ethnical confusion in these borderlands gets perpetuated. _singpho_ is not _thai_, i.e. shan or siamese, but a native word as here explained. [ ] john anderson, _mandalay to momein_, , p. . [ ] three skulls discovered by m. mansuy in a cave at pho-binh-gia (indo-china) associated with neolithic culture were markedly dolichocephalic, resembling in some respects the cro-magnon race of the reindeer period. cf. r. verneau, _l'anthropologie_, xx. . [ ] _the loyal karens of burma_, . [ ] r. c. temple, _academy_, jan. , , p. . [ ] forbes, _languages of further india_, p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] g. w. bird, _wanderings in burma_, , p. . [ ] the burmese is the most mixed race in the province. "originally dravidians of some sort, they seem to have received blood from various sources--hindu, musalm[=a]n, chinese, sh[=a]n, talaing, european and others." w. crooke, "the stability of caste and tribal groups in india," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xliv. , p. , quoting the _ethnographic survey of india_, . [ ] j. g. scott, _burma_, etc., , p. . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] "the taungbyôn festival, burma," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xlv. , p. . [ ] _amongst the shans_, etc., , p. . [ ] cf. the shans of yunnan, who are nearly all "tatoués, depuis la ceinture jusqu'au genou, de dessins bleus si serrés qu'ils paraissent former une vraie culotte," pr. henri d'orléans, _du tonkin aux indes_, , p. . [ ] for recent literature on burma and the burmese consult besides the _ethnographic survey of india_, , and the _census report_ of , j. g. scott, _the burman_, , and _burma_, ; a. ireland, _the province of burma_, ; h. fielding hall, _the soul of a people_, , and _a people at school_, . [ ] probably for _shan-ts[)e], shan-yen_, "highlanders" (_shan_, mountain), _shan_ itself being the same word as _siam_, a form which comes to us through the portuguese _sião_. [ ] for the laos see l. de reinach, _le laos_, , with bibliography. [ ] carl bock, ms. note. this observer notes that many of the ngiou have been largely assimilated in type to the burmese and in one place goes so far as to assert that "the ngiou are decidedly of the same race as the burmese. i have had opportunities of seeing hundreds of both countries, and of closely watching their features and build. the ngiou wear the hair in a topknot in the same way as the burmese, but they are easily distinguished by their tattooing, which is much more elaborate" (_temples and elephants_, , p. ). of course all spring from one primeval stock, but they now constitute distinct ethnical groups, and, except about the borderlands, where blends may be suspected, both the physical and mental characters differ considerably. bock's _ngiou_ is no doubt the same name as _ngnio_, which h. s. hallett applies in one place to the mossé shans north of zimme, and elsewhere to the burmese shans collectively (_a thousand miles on an elephant_, , pp. and ). [ ] "les paï ne sont autres que des laotiens" (prince henri, p. ). [ ] one shan group, the deodhaings, still persist, and occupy a few villages near sibsagar (s. e. peal, _nature_, june , , p. ). dalton also mentions the _kamjangs_, a khamti (tai) tribe in the sadiya district, assam (_ethnology of bengal_, p. ). [ ] much unexpected light has been thrown upon the early history of these ahoms by e. gait, who has discovered and described in the _journ. as. soc. bengal_, , a large number of _puthis_, or mss. ( in the sibsagar district alone), in the now almost extinct ahom language, some of which give a continuous history of the ahom rajas from to a.d. most of the others appear to be treatises on religious mysticism or divination, such as "a book on the calculation of future events by examining the leg of a fowl" (_ib._). [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] a. r. colquhoun, _amongst the shans_, , introduction, p. lv. [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] _temples and elephants_, p. . [ ] "der gesichtsausdruck überhaupt nähert sich der kaukasischen race" (_im fernen osten_, p. ). [ ] low's _siamese grammar_, p. . [ ] r. g. woodthorpe, "the shans and hill tribes of the mekong," in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] this omission, however, is partly supplied by t. de lacouperie, who gives us an account of a wonderful lolo ms. on satin, red on one side, blue on the other, containing nearly words written in black, "apparently with the chinese brush." the ms. was obtained by e. colborne baber from a lolo chief, forwarded to europe in , and described by de lacouperie, _journ. r. as. soc._ vol. xiv. part i. "the writing runs in lines from top to bottom and from left to right, as in chinese" (p. ), and this authority regards it as the link that was wanting to connect the various members of a widely diffused family radiating from india (harapa seal, indo-pali, vatteluttu) to malaysia (batta, rejang, lampong, bugis, makassar, tagal), to indo-china (lao, siamese, lolo), korea and japan, and also including the siao-chuen chinese system "in use a few centuries b.c." (p. ). it would be premature to say that all these connections are established. [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] _beginnings of writing in central and eastern asia, passim._ for the lolos see a. f. legendre, "les lolos. Étude ethnologique et anthropologique," _t'oung pao ii._ vol. x. . [ ] "quelques-uns de ces kiou-tsés me rappellent des européens que je connais." (_op. cit._ p. ). [ ] _deux ans dans le haut-tonkin_, etc., paris, . [ ] with regard to _man_ (_man-tse_) it should be explained that in chinese it means "untameable worms," that is, _wild_ or _barbarous_, and we are warned by desgodins that "il ne faut pas prendre ces mots comme des noms propres de tribus" (_bul. soc. géogr._ xii. p. ). in capt. w. gill visited a large nation of _man-tse_ with tribal divisions, reaching from west yunnan to the extreme north of sechuen, a sort of federacy recognising a king, with chinese habits and dress, but speaking a language resembling sanskrit (?). these were the _sumu_, or "white man-tse," apparently the same as those visited in by mrs bishop, and by her described as semi-independent, ruled by their own chiefs, and in appearance "quite caucasian, both men and women being very handsome," strict buddhists, friendly and hospitable, and living in large stone houses (letter to _times_, aug. , ). [ ] "des paysannes nóngs dont les cheveux étaient blonds, quelquefois même roux." _op. cit._ [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] "on the relations of the indo-chinese and inter-oceanic races and languages." paper read at the meeting of the brit. association, sheffield, , and printed in the _journ. anthr. inst._, february, . [ ] in the javanese annals the invaders are called "cambojans," but at this time (about ) camboja had already been reduced, and the siamese conquerors had brought back from its renowned capital, angkor wat, over , captives. these were largely employed in the wars of the period, which were thus attributed to camboja instead of to siam by foreign peoples ignorant of the changed relations in indo-china. [ ] how very dark some of these corners can be may be seen from the sad picture of maladministration, vice, and corruption still prevalent so late as , given by hallett in _a thousand miles on an elephant_, ch. xxxv.; and even still later by h. warington smyth in _five years in siam, from to _ ( ). this observer credits the siamese with an undeveloped sense of right and wrong, so that they are good only by accident. "to do a thing because it is right is beyond them; to abstain from a thing because it is against their good name, or involves serious consequences, is possibly within the power of a few; the question of right and wrong does not enter the calculation." but he thinks they may possess a high degree of intelligence, and mentions the case of a peasant, who from an atlas had taught himself geography and politics. p. a. thompson, _lotus land_, , gives an account of the country and people of southern siam. [ ] probably a corruption of _talapat_, the name of the palm-tree which yields the fan-leaf constantly used by the monks. [ ] "in conversation with the monks m'gilvary was told that it would most likely be countless ages before they would attain the much wished for state of nirvana, and that one transgression at any time might relegate them to the lowest hell to begin again their melancholy pilgrimage" (hallett, _a thousand miles on an elephant_, p. ). [ ] "le gros orteil est très développé et écarté des autres doigts du pied. a ce caractère distinctif, que l'on retrouve encore aujourd'hui chez les indigènes de race pure, on peut reconnaître facilement que les giao-chi sont les ancêtres des annamites" (_la cochinchine française en _, p. ). see also a note on the subject by c. f. tremlett in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . [ ] properly _an-nan_, a modified form of _ngan-nan_, "southern peace." [ ] cf. _nan-king_, _pe-king_, "southern" and "northern" courts (capitals). [ ] _la gazette géographique_, march , . [ ] _geogr. journ._, sept. , p. . [ ] "parmi les citoyens règne la plus parfaite égalité. point d'esclavage, la servitude est en horreur. aussi tout homme peut-il aspirer aux emplois, se plaindre aux mêmes tribunaux que son adversaire" (_op. cit._ p. ). [ ] from _bonzo_, a portuguese corruption of the japanese _busso_, a devout person, applied first to the buddhist priests of japan, and then extended to those of china and neighbouring lands. [ ] this name, probably the chinese _jin_, men, people, already occurs in sanskrit writings in its present form: [sanskrit symbol], _chína_, whence the hindi [arabic symbol], _chín_, and the arabo-persian [arabic symbol], _sín_, which gives the classical _sinae_. the most common national name is chûng-kûe, "middle kingdom" (presumably the centre of the universe), whence chûng-kûe-jín, the chinese people. some have referred _china_ to the _chin_ (_tsin_) dynasty ( b.c.), while marco polo's _kataia_ (russian _kitai_) is the _khata_ (north china) of the mongol period, from the manchu _k'î-tan_, founders of the liâo dynasty, which was overthrown a.d. by the nü-ch[)a]n tatars. ptolemy's _thinae_ is rightly regarded by edkins as the same word as _sinae_, the substitution of t for s being normal in annam, whence this form may have reached the west through the southern seaport of kattigara. [ ] _western origin of the early chinese civilization, from b.c. to a.d., or chapters on the elements derived from the old civilizations of west asia in the formation of the ancient chinese culture_, london, . [ ] "observations upon the languages of the early inhabitants of mesopotamia," in _journ. r. as. soc._ xvi. part . [ ] ms. note, may , . [ ] c. j. ball, _chinese and sumerian_, . [ ] _history of the archaic chinese writing and texts_, , p. . [ ] the first actual date given is that of tai hao (fu-hi), b.c., but this ruler belongs to the fabulous period, and is stated to have reigned years. the first certain date would appear to be that of yau, first of the chinese sages and reformer of the calendar ( b.c.). the date b.c. for confucius's model king shun seems also established. but of course all this is modern history compared with the now determined babylonian and egyptian records. [ ] amongst the metals reference is made to iron so early as the time of the emperor ta yü ( b.c.), when it is mentioned as an article of tribute in the _shu-king_. f. hirth, who states this fact, adds that during the same period, if not even earlier, iron was already a flourishing industry in the liang district (paper on the "history of chinese culture," munich anthropological society, april, ). at the discussion which followed the reading of this paper montelius argued that iron was unknown in western asia and egypt before b.c., although the point was contested by hommel, who quoted a word for iron in the earliest egyptian texts. montelius, however, explained that terms originally meaning "ore" or "metal" were afterwards used for "iron." such was certainly the case with the gk. [greek: chalkos], at first "copper," then metal in general, and used still later for [greek: sidêros], "iron"; hence [greek: chalkeus] = coppersmith, blacksmith, and even goldsmith. so also with the lat. _aes_ (sanskrit _ayas_, akin to _aurora_, with simple idea of brightness), used first especially for copper (_aes cyprium, cuprum_), and then for _bronze_ (lewis and short). for hirth's later views see his _ancient history of china_, (from the fabulous ages to b.c.). [ ] this term _y-jen_ (_yi-jen_), meaning much the same as _man_, _man-tse_, savage, rude, untameable, has acquired a sort of diplomatic distinction. in the treaty of tien-tsin ( ) it was stipulated that it should no longer, as heretofore, be applied in official documents to the english or to any subjects of the queen. [ ] see j. edkins, _china's place in philology_, p. . the hok-los were originally from fo-kien, whence their alternative name, _fo-lo_. the _lo_ appears to be the same word as in the reduplicated _lo-lo_, meaning something like the greek and latin _bar-bar_, stammerers, rude, uncultured. [ ] the _hakkas_, _i.e._ "strangers," speak a well-marked dialect current on the uplands between kwang-tung, kiang-si, and fo-kien. j. dyer ball, _easy lessons in the hakka dialect_, . [ ] numerous in the western parts of kwang-tung and in the canton district. j. dyer ball, _cantonese made easy_, hongkong, . [ ] in this expression "pidgin" appears to be a corruption of the word _business_ taken in a very wide sense, as in such terms as _talkee-pidgin_ = a conversation, discussion; _singsong pidgin_ = a concert, etc. it is no unusual occurrence for persons from widely separated chinese provinces meeting in england to be obliged to use this common jargon in conversation. [ ] for the aboriginal peoples, with bibliography, see m. kennelly's translation of l. richard's _comprehensive geography of the chinese empire and its dependencies_, , pp. - . [ ] _kung-tse_, "teacher kung," or more fully _kung-fu-tse_, "the eminent teacher kung," which gives the latinised form _confucius_. [ ] _kwong ki chiu_, , p. . confucius was born in and died in b.c., and to him are at present dedicated as many as temples, in which are observed real sacrificial rites. for these sacrifices the state yearly supplies , sheep, pigs, rabbits and other animals, besides , pieces of silk, most of which things, however, become the "perquisites" of the attendants in the sanctuaries. [ ] arthur h. smith, _chinese characteristics_, new york, . the good, or at least the useful, qualities of the chinese are stated by this shrewd observer to be a love of industry, peace, and social order, a matchless patience and forbearance under wrongs and evils beyond cure, a happy temperament, no nerves, and "a digestion like that of an ostrich." see also h. a. giles, _china and the_ _chinese_, ; e. h. parker, _john chinaman and a few others_, ; j. dyer ball, _things chinese_, ; and m. kennelly in richard's _comprehensive geography of the chinese empire and its dependencies_, . [ ] see _contemporary review_, feb. , "report on christian missions in china," by mr f. w. fox, professor macalister and sir alexander simpson. [ ] a happy portuguese coinage from the malay _mantri_, a state minister, which is the sanskrit _mantrin_, a counsellor, from _mantra_, a sacred text, a counsel, from aryan root _man_, to think, know, whence also the english _mind_. [ ] miss bird (mrs bishop), _the golden chersonese_, , p. . [ ] h. a. giles, _the civilisation of china_, , p. . see especially chap. xi., "chinese and foreigners," for the etiquette of street regulations and the habit of shouting conversation. chapter vii the oceanic mongols range of the oceanic mongols--the terra "malay"--the historical malays--malay cradle--migrations and present range--the malayans--the javanese--balinese and sassaks--hindu legends in bali--the malayan seafarers and rovers--malaysia and pelasgia: a historical parallel--malayan folklore--borneo--punan--klemantan-- bahau-kenyah-kayan--iban (sea dayak)--summary--religion--early man and his works in sumatra--the mentawi islanders--javanese and hindu influences--the malaysian alphabets--the battas: cultured cannibals--hindu and primitive survivals--the achinese--early records--islam and hindu reminiscences--ethnical relations in madagascar--prehistoric peoples--oceanic immigrants--negroid element--arab element--uniformity of language--malagasy gothamites--partial fusion of races--hova type--black element from africa--mental qualities of the malagasy--spread of christianity--culture--malagasy folklore--the philippine natives--effects of a christian theocratic government on the national character--social groups: the indios, the infielos, and the moros--malayans and indonesians in formosa--the chinese settlers--racial and linguistic affinities--formosa a connecting link between the continental and oceanic populations--the nicobarese. conspectus. #present range.# _indonesia, philippines, formosa, nicobar is., madagascar._ #hair#, _same as southern mongols, scant or no beard_. #colour#, _yellowish or olive brown, yellow tint sometimes very faint or absent, light leathery hue common in madagascar_. #skull#, _brachy or sub-brachycephalic ( to )_. #jaws#, _slightly projecting_. #cheek-bones#, _prominent, but less so than true mongol_. #nose#, _rather small, often straight with widish nostrils (mesorrhine)_. #eyes#, _black, medium size, horizontal or slightly oblique, often with mongol fold_. #stature#, _undersized, from . m. to . m. ( ft. to ft. in.)_. #lips#, _thickish, slightly protruding, and kept a little apart in repose_. #arms# _and_ #legs#, _rather small, slender and delicate_; #feet#, _small_. #temperament.# _normally quiet, reserved and taciturn, but under excitement subject to fits of blind fury_; _fairly intelligent, polite and ceremonious, but uncertain, untrustworthy, and even treacherous_; _daring, adventurous and reckless_; _musical_; _not distinctly cruel, though indifferent to physical suffering in others_. #speech#, _various branches of a single stock language_--_the_ #austronesian# (#oceanic# _or_ #malayo-polynesian#), _at different stages of agglutination_. #religion#, _of the primitive malayans somewhat undeveloped--a vague dread of ghosts and other spirits, but rites and ceremonies mainly absent although human sacrifices to the departed occurred in borneo_; _the cultured malayans formerly hindus (brahman and buddhist), now mostly moslem, but in the philippines and madagascar christian_; _belief in witchcraft, charms, and spells everywhere prevalent_. #culture#, _of the primitive malayans very low--head-hunting, mutilation, common in borneo_; _hunting, fishing; no agriculture; simple arts and industries_; _the moslem and christian malayans semi-civilised_; _the industrial arts--weaving, dyeing, pottery, metal-work, also trade, navigation, house and boat-building--well developed_; _architecture formerly flourishing in java under hindu influences_; _letters widespread even amongst some of the rude malayans, but literature and science rudimentary_; _rich oral folklore_. #malayans (proto-malays)#: _lampongs, rejangs, battas, achinese, and palembangs in sumatra_; _sundanese, javanese proper, and madurese in java_; _dayaks in borneo_; _balinese_; _sassaks (lombok)_; _bugis and mangkassaras in celebes_; _tagalogs, visayas, bicols, ilocanos and pangasinanes in philippines_; _aborigines of formosa_; _nicobar islanders_; _hovas, betsimisarakas, and sakalavas in madagascar_. #malays proper# (_historical malays_): _menangkabau (sumatra)_; _malay peninsula_; _pinang, singapore, lingga, bangka_; _borneo coastlands_; _tidor, ternate_; _amboina_; _parts of the sulu archipelago_. * * * * * in the oceanic domain, which for ethnical purposes begins at the neck of the malay peninsula, the mongol peoples range from madagascar eastwards to formosa and micronesia, but are found in compact masses chiefly on the mainland, in the sunda islands (sumatra, java, bali, lombok, borneo, celebes) and in the philippines. even here they have mingled in many places with other populations, forming fresh ethnical groups, in which the mongol element is not always conspicuous. such fusions have taken place with the negrito aborigines in the malay peninsula and the philippines; with papuans in micronesia, flores, and other islands east of lombok; with dolichocephalic indonesians in sumatra, borneo, celebes, halmahera (jilolo), parts of the philippines[ ], and perhaps also timor and ceram; and with african negroes (bantu) in madagascar. to unravel some of these racial entanglements is one of the most difficult tasks in anthropology, and in the absence of detailed information cannot yet be everywhere attempted with any prospect of success. the problem has been greatly, though perhaps inevitably complicated by the indiscriminate extension of the term "malay" to all these and even to other mixed oceanic populations farther east, as, for instance, in the expression "malayo-polynesian," applied by many writers not only in a linguistic, but also in an ethnical sense, to most of the insular peoples from madagascar to easter island, and from hawaii to new zealand. it is now of course too late to hope to remedy this misuse of terms by proposing a fresh nomenclature. but much of the consequent confusion will be avoided by restricting _malayo-polynesian_[ ] altogether to linguistic matters, and carefully distinguishing between _indonesian_, the pre-malay dolichocephalic element in oceania[ ], _malayan_ or _proto-malayan_, collective name of all the oceanic mongols, who are brachycephals, and _malay_, a particular branch of the malayan family, as fully explained in _ethnology_, pp. - [ ]. the essential point to remember is that the true malays--who call themselves _orang-maláyu_, speak the standard but quite modern malay language, and are all muhammadans--are a historical people who appear on the scene in relatively recent times, ages after the insular world had been occupied by the mongol peoples to whom their name has been extended, but who never call themselves malays. the orang-maláyu, who have acquired such an astonishing predominance in the eastern archipelago, were originally an obscure tribe who rose to power in the menangkabau district, sumatra, not before the twelfth century, and whose migrations date only from about the year a.d. at this time, according to the native records[ ], was founded the first foreign settlement, singapore, a pure sanskrit name meaning the "lion city," from which it might be inferred that these first settlers were not muhammadans, as is commonly assumed, but brahmans or buddhists, both these forms of hinduism having been propagated throughout sumatra and the other sunda islands centuries before this time. it is also noteworthy that the early settlers on the mainland are stated to have been pagans, or to have professed some corrupt form of hindu idolatry, till their conversion to islam by the renowned sultan mahmud shah about the middle of the thirteenth century. it is therefore probable enough that the earlier movements were carried out under hindu influences, and may have begun long before the historical date . menangkabau, however, was the first mussulman state that acquired political supremacy in sumatra, and this district thus became the chief centre for the later diffusion of the cultured malays, their language, usages, and religion, throughout the peninsula and the archipelago. here they are now found in compact masses chiefly in south sumatra (menangkabau, palembang, the lampongs); in all the insular groups between sumatra and borneo; in the malay peninsula as far north as the kra isthmus, here intermingling with the siamese as "sam-sams," partly buddhists, partly muhammadans; round the coast of borneo and about the estuaries of that island; in tidor, ternate, and the adjacent coast of jilolo; in the banda, sula, and sulu groups; in batavia, singapore, and all the other large seaports of the archipelago. in all these lands beyond sumatra the orang-maláyu are thus seen to be comparatively recent arrivals[ ], and in fact intruders on the other malayan populations, with whom they collectively constitute the oceanic branch of the mongol division. their diffusion was everywhere brought about much in the same way as in ternate, where a. r. wallace tells us that the ruling people "are an intrusive malay race somewhat allied to the macassar people, who settled in the country at a very early epoch, drove out the indigenes, who were no doubt the same as those of the adjacent island of gilolo, and established a monarchy. they perhaps obtained many of their wives from the natives, which will account for the extraordinary language they speak--in some respects closely allied to that of the natives of gilolo, while it contains much that points to a malayan [malay] origin. to most of these people the malay language is quite unintelligible[ ]." the malayan populations, as distinguished from the malays proper, form socially two very distinct classes--the _orang benua_, "men of the soil," rude aborigines, numerous especially in the interior of the malay peninsula, borneo, celebes, jilolo, timor, ceram, the philippines, formosa, and madagascar; and the cultured peoples, formerly hindus but now mostly muhammadans, who have long been constituted in large communities and nationalities with historical records, and flourishing arts and industries. they speak cultivated languages of the austronesian family, generally much better preserved and of richer grammatical structure than the simplified modern speech of the orang-maláyu. such are the achinese, rejangs, and passumahs of sumatra; the bugis, mangkassaras and some minahasans of celebes[ ]; the tagalogs and visayas of the philippines; the sassaks and balinese of lombok and bali (most of these still hindus); the madurese and javanese proper of java; and the hovas of madagascar. to call any of these "malays[ ]," is like calling the italians "french," or the germans "english," because of their respective romance and teutonic connections. preëminent in many respects amongst all the malayan peoples are the _javanese_--_sundanese_ in the west, _javanese proper_ in the centre, _madurese_ in the east--who were a highly civilised nation while the sumatran malays were still savages, perhaps head-hunters and cannibals like the neighbouring battas. although now almost exclusively muhammadans, they had already adopted some form of hinduism probably over years ago, and under the guidance of their indian teachers had rapidly developed a very advanced state of culture. "under a completely organised although despotic government, the arts of peace and war were brought to considerable perfection, and the natives of java became famous throughout the east as accomplished musicians and workers in gold, iron and copper, none of which metals were found in the island itself. they possessed a regular calendar with astronomical eras, and a metrical literature, in which, however, history was inextricably blended with romance. bronze and stone inscriptions in the kavi, or old javanese language, still survive from the eleventh or twelfth century, and to the same dates may be referred the vast ruins of brambanam and the stupendous temple of boro-budor in the centre of the island. there are few statues of hindu divinities in this temple, but many are found in its immediate vicinity, and from the various archaeological objects collected in the district it is evident that both the buddhist and brahmanical forms of hinduism were introduced at an early date. "but all came to an end by the overthrow of the chief hindu power in , after which event islam spread rapidly over the whole of java and madura. brahmanism, however, still holds its ground in bali and lombok, the last strongholds of hinduism in the eastern archipelago[ ]." on the obscure religious and social relations in these lesser sundanese islands much light has been thrown by capt. w. cool, an english translation of whose work _with the dutch in the east_ was issued by e. j. taylor in . here it is shown how hinduism, formerly dominant throughout a great part of malaysia, gradually yielded in some places to a revival of the never extinct primitive nature-worship, in others to the spread of islam, which in bali alone failed to gain a footing. in this island a curious mingling of buddhist and brahmanical forms with the primordial heathendom not only persisted, but was strong enough to acquire the political ascendancy over the mussulman sassaks of the neighbouring island of lombok. thus while islam reigns exclusively in java--formerly the chief domain of hinduism in the archipelago--bali, lombok, and even sumbawa, present the strange spectacle of large communities professing every form of belief, from the grossest heathendom to pure monotheism. as i have elsewhere pointed out[ ], it is the same with the cultures and general social conditions, which show an almost unbroken transition from the savagery of sumbawa to the relative degrees of refinement reached by the natives of lombok and especially of bali. here, however, owing to the unfavourable political relations, a retrograde movement is perceptible in the crumbling temples, grass-grown highways, and neglected homesteads. but it is everywhere evident enough that "just as hinduism has only touched the outer surface of their religion, it has failed to penetrate into their social institutions, which, like their gods, originate from the time when polynesian heathendom was all powerful[ ]." a striking illustration of the vitality of the early beliefs is presented by the local traditions, which relate how these foreign gods installed themselves in the lesser sundanese islands after their expulsion from java by the muhammadans in the fifteenth century. being greatly incensed at the introduction of the koran, and also anxious to avoid contact with the "foreign devils," the hindu deities moved eastwards with the intention of setting up their throne in bali. but bali already possessed its own gods, the wicked rakshasas, who fiercely resented the intrusion, but in the struggle that ensued were annihilated, all but the still reigning mraya dewana. then the new thrones had to be erected on heights, as in java; but at that time there were no mountains in bali, which was a very flat country. so the difficulty was overcome by bodily transferring the four hills at the eastern extremity of java to the neighbouring island. gunong agong, highest of the four, was set down in the east, and became the olympus of bali, while the other three were planted in the west, south, and north, and assigned to the different gods according to their respective ranks. thus were at once explained the local theogony and the present physical features of the island. despite their generally quiet, taciturn demeanour, all these sundanese peoples are just as liable as the orang-maláyu himself, to those sudden outbursts of demoniacal frenzy and homicidal mania called by them _m[)e]ng-ámok_, and by us "running amok." indeed a. r. wallace tells us that such wild outbreaks occur more frequently (about one or two every month) amongst the civilised mangkassaras and bugis of south celebes than elsewhere in the archipelago. "it is the national and therefore the honourable mode of committing suicide among the natives of celebes, and is the fashionable way of escaping from their difficulties. a roman fell upon his sword, a japanese rips up his stomach, and an englishman blows out his brains with a pistol. the bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically inclined. a man thinks himself wronged by society--he is in debt and cannot pay--he is taken for a slave or has gambled away his wife or child into slavery--he sees no way of recovering what he has lost, and becomes desperate. he will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will be revenged on mankind and die like a hero. he grasps his kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon and stabs a man to the heart. he runs on, with bloody kris in his hand, stabbing at everyone he meets. 'amok! amok!' then resounds through the streets. spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him. he rushes madly forward, kills all he can--men, women, and children--and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all the excitement of a battle[ ]." possibly connected with this blind impulse may be the strange nervous affection called _látah_, which is also prevalent amongst the malayans, and which was first clearly described by the distinguished malay scholar, sir frank athelstane swettenham[ ]. no attempt has yet been made thoroughly to diagnose this uncanny disorder[ ], which would seem so much more characteristic of the high-strung or shattered nervous system of ultra-refined european society, than of that artless unsophisticated child of nature, the orang-maláyu. its effects on the mental state are such as to disturb all normal cerebration, and swettenham mentions two látah-struck malays, who would make admirable "subjects" at a séance of theosophic psychists. any simple device served to attract their attention, when by merely looking them hard in the face they fell helplessly in the hands of the operator, instantly lost all self-control, and went passively through any performance either verbally imposed or even merely suggested by a sign. a peculiar feminine strain has often been imputed to the malay temperament, yet this same oceanic people displays in many respects a curiously kindred spirit with the ordinary englishman, as, for instance, in his love of gambling, boxing, cock-fighting, field sports[ ], and adventure. no more fearless explorers of the high seas, formerly rovers and corsairs, at all times enterprising traders, are anywhere to be found than the menangkabau malays and their near kinsmen, the renowned bugis "merchant adventurers" of south celebes. their clumsy but seaworthy praus are met in every seaport from sumatra to the aru islands, and they have established permanent trading stations and even settlements in borneo, the philippines, timor, and as far east as new guinea. on one occasion wallace sailed from dobbo in company with fifteen large makassar praus, each with a cargo worth about £ , and as many of the bugis settle amongst the rude aborigines of the eastern isles, they thus cooperate with the sumatran malays in extending the area of civilising influences throughout papuasia. formerly they combined piracy with legitimate trade, and long after the suppression of the north bornean corsairs by keppel and brooke, the inland waters continued to be infested especially by the _bajau_ rovers of celebes, and by the _balagnini_ of the sulu archipelago, most dreaded of all the _orang-laut_, "men of the sea," the "sea gypsies" of the english. these were the "cellates" (_orang-selat_, "men of the straits") of the early portuguese writers, who described them as from time immemorial engaged in fishing and plundering on the high seas[ ]. in those days, and even in comparatively late times, the relations in the eastern archipelago greatly resembled those prevailing in the aegean sea at the dawn of greek history, while the restless seafaring populations were still in a state of flux, passing from island to island in quest of booty or barter before permanently settling down in favourable sites[ ]. with the greek historian's philosophic disquisition on these pelasgian and proto-hellenic relations may be compared a. r. wallace's account of the batjan coastlands when visited by him in the late fifties. "opposite us, and all along this coast of batchian, stretches a row of fine islands completely uninhabited. whenever i asked the reason why no one goes to live in them, the answer always was 'for fear of the magindano pirates[ ].' every year these scourges of the archipelago wander in one direction or another, making their rendezvous on some uninhabited island, and carrying devastation to all the small settlements around; robbing, destroying, killing, or taking captive all they meet with. their long, well-manned praus escape from the pursuit of any sailing vessel by pulling away right in the wind's eye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally enables them to hide in some shallow bay, or narrow river, or forest-covered inlet, till the danger is passed[ ]." thus, like geographical surroundings, with corresponding social conditions, produce like results in all times amongst all peoples. this fundamental truth receives further illustration from the ideas prevalent amongst the malayans regarding witchcraft, the magic arts, charms and spells, and especially the belief in the power of certain malevolent human beings to transform themselves into wild beasts and prey upon their fellow-creatures. such superstitions girdle the globe, taking their local colouring from the fauna of the different regions, so that the were-wolf of medieval europe finds its counterpart in the human jaguar of south america, the human lion or leopard of africa[ ], and the human tiger of the malay peninsula. hugh clifford, who relates an occurrence known to himself in connection with a "were-tiger" story of the perak district, aptly remarks that "the white man and the brown, the yellow and the black, independently, and without receiving the idea from one another, have all found the same explanation for the like phenomena, all apparently recognising the truth of the malay proverb, that we are like unto the _táman_ fish that preys upon its own kind[ ]." the story in question turns upon a young bride, whose husband comes home late three nights following, and the third time, being watched, is discovered by her in the form of a full-grown tiger stretched on the ladder, which, as in all malay houses, leads from the ground to the threshold of the door. "patímah gazed at the tiger from a distance of only a foot or two, for she was too paralysed with fear to move or cry out, and as she looked a gradual transformation took place in the creature at her feet. slowly, as one sees a ripple of wind pass over the surface of still water, the tiger's features palpitated and were changed, until the horrified girl saw the face of her husband come up through that of the beast, much as the face of a diver comes up to the surface of a pool. in another moment patímah saw that it was haji ali who was ascending the ladder of his house, and the spell that had hitherto bound her was snapped." these same malays of perak, h. h. rajah dris tells us, are still specially noted for many strange customs and superstitions "utterly opposed to muhammadan teaching, and savouring strongly of devil-worship. this enormous belief in the supernatural is possibly a relic of the pre-islam state[ ]." we do not know who were the primitive inhabitants of borneo. one would expect to find negritoes in the interior, but despite the assertion of a. de quatrefages[ ] it is impossible to overlook the conclusions of a. b. meyer[ ] that no authoritative evidence of their occurrence is forthcoming, and a. c. haddon[ ] confidently states that there are none in sarawak. it might be supposed that the pre-dravidian element found in sumatra and celebes might occur also in borneo, but the only indication of such influence is the "black skin" noticed among certain ulu ayar of the upper kapuas in western dutch borneo[ ]. with the exception of certain peoples such as europeans, indians, chinese, and orang-maláyu, whose foreign origin is obvious, the population as a whole may be regarded as being composed of two main races, the indonesian and proto-malay. probably all tribes are of mixed origin, but some, such as the _murut_, _dusun_, _kalabit_, and _land dayak_ are more indonesian while the _iban_ (_sea dayak_) are distinctly proto-malay. the _land dayak_ have doubtless been crossed with indo-javans. scattered over a considerable part of the jungle live the nomad _punan_ and _ukit_. they are a slender pale people with a slightly broad head. they are grouped in small communities and inhabit the dense jungle at the head waters of the principal rivers of borneo. they live on whatever they can find in the jungle, and do not cultivate the soil, nor live in permanent houses. their few wants are supplied by barter from friendly settled peoples, or in return for iron implements, calico, beads, tobacco, etc., they offer jungle produce, mainly gutta, indiarubber, camphor, dammar and ratans. they are very mild savages, not head-hunters, they are generous to one another, moderately truthful, kind to the women and very fond of their children. hose and haddon have introduced the term _klemantan_ (_kalamantan_) for the weak agricultural tribes such as the _murut_, _kalabit_, _land dayak_, _sebop_, _barawan_, _milanau_, etc.[ ] brook low[ ], who knew the land dayak well, gives a very favourable account of the people and this opinion has been confirmed by other travellers. they are described as amiable, honest, grateful, moral and hospitable. crimes of violence, other than head-hunting, are unknown. the circular _panga_ is a "house set apart for the residence of young unmarried men, in which the trophy-heads are kept, and here also all ceremonial receptions take place[ ]." the _baloi_ of the ot danom of the kahajan river is very similar[ ]. the very energetic and dominating _bahau-kenyah-kayan_ group are rather short in stature, with slightly broad heads. they occupy the best tracts of land which lie in the undulating hills at the upper reaches of the rivers, between the swampy low country and the mountains. the kayan more especially have almost exterminated some of the smaller tribes. the klemantan and kenyah-kayan tribes are agriculturalists. they clear the jungle off the low hills that flank the tributaries of the larger rivers, but always leave a few scattered trees standing; irrigation is attempted by the kalabits only, as _padi_ rice is grown like any other cereals on dry ground; swamp _padi_ is also grown on the low land. in their gardens they grow yams, pumpkins, sugar cane, bananas, and sometimes coconuts and other produce. they hunt all land animals that serve as food, and fish, usually with nets, in the rivers, or spear those fish that have been stupefied with _tuba_; river prawns are also a favourite article of diet. they all live in long communal houses which are situated on the banks of the rivers. among the klemantan tribes the headman has not much influence, unless he is a man of exceptional power and energy, but among the larger tribes and especially among the kayan and kenyah the headmen are the real chiefs and exercise undisputed sway. the kenyah are perhaps the most advanced in social evolution, holding their own by superior solidarity and intelligence against the turbulent kayan. all the agricultural tribes are artistic, but in varying degrees; they are also musical and sing delightful chorus songs. in some tribes the ends of the beams of the houses are carved to represent various animals, in some the verandah is decorated with boldly carved planks, or with painted boards and doors. the bamboo receptacles carved in low relief, the bone handles of their swords and the minor articles of daily life, are decorated in a way that reveals the true artistic spirit. both kenyah and kayan smelt iron and make spear heads and sword blades, the former being especially noted for their good steel. the forge with two bellows is the form widely spread in malaysia. the truculent _iban_ (_sea dayak_) have spread from a restricted area in sarawak[ ]. they are short and have broader heads than the other tribes; the colour is on the whole darker than among the cinnamon coloured inland tribes. they have the same long, slightly wavy, black hair showing a reddish tinge in certain lights, that is characteristic of the borneans generally. most of the iban inhabit low lying land; they prefer to live on the low hills, but as this is not always practicable they plant swamp _padi_; all those who settle at the heads of rivers plant _padi_ on the hills in the same manner as the up-river natives. they also cultivate maize, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, gourds, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, mustard, ginger and other vegetables. generally groups of relations work together in the fields. although essentially agricultural, they are warlike and passionately devoted to head-hunting. the iban of the batang lupar and saribas in the olden days joined the malays in their large war praus on piratical raids along the coast and up certain rivers and they owe their name of sea dayaks to this practice. the raids were organised by malays who went for plunder but they could always ensure the aid of iban by the bribe of the heads of the slain as their share. the iban women weave beautiful cotton cloths on a very simple loom. intricate patterns are made by tying several warp strands with leaves at varying intervals, then dipping the whole into the dye which does not penetrate the tied portions. this process is repeated if a three-colour design is desired. the pattern is produced solely in the warp, the woof threads are self-coloured and are not visible in the fabric, which is therefore a cotton rep. little tattooing is seen among the iban women though the men have adopted the custom from the kayan. it is probable that the iban belong to the same stock as the original malay and if so, their migration may be regarded as the first wave of the movement that culminated in the malay empire. the malays must have come to borneo not later than the early part of the fifteenth century as brunei was a large and wealthy town in . probably the malays came directly from the malay peninsula, but they must have mixed largely with the _kadayan_, _milanau_ and other coastal people. the sarawak and brunei malays are probably mainly coastal borneans with some malay blood, but they have absorbed the malay culture, spirit and religion. from the sociological point of view the punan, living by the chase and on exploitation of jungle produce, represent the lowest grade of culture in borneo. without social organisation they are alike incapable of real endemic improvement or of seriously affecting other peoples. the purely agricultural tribes that cultivate _padi_ on the low hills or in the swamps form the next social stratum. these indigenous tillers of the soil have been hard pressed by various swarms of foreigners. the kenyah-kayan migration was that of a people of a slightly higher grade of culture. they were agriculturalists, but the social organisation was firmer and they were probably superior in physique. if they introduced iron weapons, this would give them an enormous advantage. these immigrant agricultural artisans, directed by powerful chiefs, had no difficulty in taking possession of the most desirable land. from an opposite point of the compass in early times came another agricultural people who strangely enough have strong individualistic tendencies, the usually peaceable habits of tillers of the soil having been complicated by a lust for heads and other warlike propensities. but the iban do not appear to have gained much against the kenyah and kayan. conquest implies a strong leader, obedience to authority and concerted action. the iban appear to be formidable only when led and organised by europeans. the malay was of a yet higher social type. his political organisation was well established, and he had the advantage of religious enthusiasm, for islam has no small share in the expansion of the malay. he is a trader, and still more an exploiter, having a sporting element in his character not altogether compatible with steady trade. then appeared on the scene the anglo-saxon overlord. the quality of firmness combined with justice made itself felt. at times the lower social types hurled themselves, but in vain, against the instrument that had been forged and tempered in a similar turmoil of iberian, celt, angle and viking in northern europe. now they acknowledge that safety of life and property and almost complete liberty are fully worth the very small price that they have to pay for them[ ]. the cult of omen animals, most frequently birds, is indigenous to borneo. these are possessed with the spirit of certain invisible beings above, and bear their names, and are invoked to secure good crops, freedom from accident, victory in war, profit in exchange, skill in discourse and cleverness in all native craft. the iban have a belief in _ngarong_ or spirit-helpers, somewhat resembling that of the _manitu_ of north america. the _ngarong_ is the spirit of a dead relative who visits a dreamer, who afterwards searches for the outward and visible sign of his spiritual protector, and finds it in some form, perhaps a natural object, or some one animal, henceforth held in special respect[ ]. in sumatra there occur some remains of hindu temples[ ], as well as other mysterious monuments in the passumah lands inland from benkulen, relics of a former culture, which goes back to prehistoric times. they take the form of huge monoliths, which are roughly shaped to the likeness of human figures, with strange features very different from the malay or hindu types. the present sarawi natives of the district, who would be quite incapable of executing such works, know nothing of their origin, and attribute them to certain legendary beings who formerly wandered over the land, turning all their enemies into stone. further research may possibly discover some connection between these relics of a forgotten past and the numerous prehistoric monuments of easter island and other places in the pacific ocean. of all the indonesian peoples still surviving in malaysia, none present so many points of contact with the eastern polynesians, as do the natives of the mentawi islands which skirt the south-west coast of sumatra. "on a closer inspection of the inhabitants the attentive observer at once perceives that the mentawi natives have but little in common with the peoples and tribes of the neighbouring islands, and that as regards physical appearance, speech, customs, and usages they stand almost entirely apart. they bear such a decided stamp of a polynesian tribe that one feels far more inclined to compare them with the inhabitants of the south sea islands[ ]." the survival of an indonesian group on the western verge of malaysia is all the more remarkable since the _nias_ islanders, a little farther north, are of mongol stock, like most if not all of the inhabitants of the sumatran mainland. here the typical malays of the central districts (menangkabau, korinchi, and siak) merge southwards in the mixed malayo-javanese peoples of the _rejang_, _palembang_, and _lampong_ districts. although muhammadans probably since the thirteenth century, all these peoples had been early brought under hindu influences by missionaries and even settlers from java, and these influences are still apparent in many of the customs, popular traditions, languages, and letters of the south sumatran settled communities. thus the lampongs, despite their profession of islam, employ, not the arabic characters, like the malays proper, but a script derived from the peculiar javanese writing system. this system itself, originally introduced from india probably over years ago, is based on some early forms of the devanagari, such as those occurring in the rock inscriptions of the famous buddhist king as'oka (third century b.c.)[ ]. from java, which is now shown beyond doubt to be the true centre of dispersion[ ], the parent alphabet was under hindu influences diffused in pre-muhammadan times throughout malaysia, from sumatra to the philippines. but the thinly-spread indo-javanese culture, in few places penetrating much below the surface, received a rude shock from the muhammadan irruption, its natural development being almost everywhere arrested, or else either effaced or displaced by islam. no trace can any longer be detected of graphic signs in borneo, where the aborigines have retained the savage state even in those southern districts where buddhism or brahmanism had certainly been propagated long before the arrival of the muhammadan malays. but elsewhere the javanese stock alphabet has shown extraordinary vitality, persisting under diverse forms down to the present day, not only amongst the semi-civilised mussulman peoples, such as the sumatran rejangs[ ], korinchi, and lampongs, the bugis and mangkassaras of celebes, and the (now christian) tagalogs and visayas of the philippines, but even amongst the somewhat rude and pagan palawan natives, the wild manguianes of mindoro, and the cannibal battas[ ] of north sumatra. these battas, however, despite their undoubted cannibalism[ ], cannot be called savages, at least without some reserve. they are skilful stock-breeders and agriculturists, raising fine crops of maize and rice; they dwell together in large, settled communities with an organised government, hereditary chiefs, popular assemblies, and a written civil and penal code. there is even an effective postal system, which utilises for letter-boxes the hollow tree-trunks at all the cross-roads, and is largely patronised by the young men and women, all of whom read and write, and carry on an animated correspondence in their degraded devanagari script, which is written on palm-leaves in vertical lines running upwards and from right to left. the battas also excel in several industries, such as pottery, weaving, jewellery, iron work, and house-building, their picturesque dwellings, which resemble swiss chalets, rising to two stories above the ground-floor reserved for the live stock. for these arts they are no doubt largely indebted to their hindu teachers, from whom also they have inherited some of their religious ideas, such as the triune deity--creator, preserver, and destroyer--besides other inferior divinities collectively called _diebata_, a modified form of the indian _devaté_[ ]. in the strangest contrast to these survivals of a foreign culture which had probably never struck very deep roots, stand the savage survivals from still more ancient times. conspicuous amongst these are the cannibal practices, which if not now universal still take some peculiarly revolting forms. thus captives and criminals are, under certain circumstances, condemned to be eaten alive, and the same fate is or was reserved for those incapacitated for work by age or infirmities. when the time came, we are told by the early european observers and by the reports of the arabs, the "grandfathers" voluntarily suspended themselves by their arms from an overhanging branch, while friends and neighbours danced round and round, shouting, "when the fruit is ripe it falls." and when it did fall, that is, as soon as it could hold on no longer, the company fell upon it with their krisses, hacking it to pieces, and devouring the remains seasoned with lime-juice, for such feasts were generally held when the limes were ripe[ ]. grouped chiefly round about lake toba, the battas occupy a very wide domain, stretching south to about the parallel of mount ophir, and bordering northwards on the territory of the achin people. these valiant natives, who have till recently stoutly maintained their political independence against the dutch, were also at one time hinduized, as is evident from many of their traditions, their malayan language largely charged with sanskrit terms, and even their physical appearance, suggesting a considerable admixture of hindu as well as of arab blood. with the arab traders and settlers came the koran, and the achinese people have been not over-zealous followers of the prophet since the close of the twelfth century. the muhammadan state, founded in , acquired a dominant position in the archipelago early in the sixteenth century, when it ruled over about half of sumatra, exacted tribute from many vassal princes, maintained powerful armaments by land and sea, and entered into political and commercial relations with egypt, japan, and several european states. there are two somewhat distinct ethnical groups, the _orang-tunong_ of the uplands, a comparatively homogeneous malayan people, and the mixed _orang-baruh_ of the lowlands, who are described by a. lubbers[ ] as taller than the average malay ( feet or in.), also less round-headed (index . ), with prominent nose, rather regular features, and muscular frames; but the complexion is darker than that of the orang-maláyu, a trait which has been attributed to a larger infusion of dravidian blood (klings and tamuls) from southern india. the charge of cruelty and treachery brought against them by the dutch may be received with some reserve, such terms as "patriot" and "rebel" being interchangeable according to the standpoints from which they are considered. in any case no one denies them the virtues of valour and love of freedom, with which are associated industrious habits and a remarkable aptitude for such handicrafts as metal work, jewellery, weaving, and ship-building. the achinese do not appear to be very strict muhammadans; polygamy is little practised, their women are free to go abroad unveiled, nor are they condemned to the seclusion of the harem, and a pleasing survival from buddhist times is the _kanduri_, a solemn feast, in which the poor are permitted to share. another reminiscence of hindu philosophy may perhaps have been an outburst of religious fervour, which took the form of a pantheistic creed, and was so zealously preached, that it had to be stamped out with fire and sword by the dominant moslem monotheists[ ]. since the french occupation of madagascar, the malagasy problem has naturally been revived. but it may be regretted that so much time and talent have been spent on a somewhat thrashed-out question by a number of writers, who did not first take the trouble to read up the literature of the subject. by what race madagascar was first peopled it is no longer possible to say. the local reports or traditions of primitive peoples, either extinct or still surviving in the interior, belong rather to the sphere of malagasy folklore than to that of ethnological research. in these reports mention is frequently made of the _kimos_, said to be now or formerly living in the bara country, and of the _vazimbas_, who are by some supposed to have been gallas (_ba-simba_)--though they had no knowledge of iron--whose graves are supposed to be certain monolithic monuments which take the form of menhirs disposed in circles, and are believed by the present inhabitants of the land to be still haunted by evil spirits, that is, the ghosts of the long extinct vazimbas. much of the confusion prevalent regarding the present ethnical relations may be avoided if certain points (ably summarised by t. a. joyce[ ]) are borne in mind. the greater part of the population is negroid; the language spoken over the whole of the island and many institutions and customs are malayo-polynesian. a small section (antimerina commonly called hovas)--forming the dominant people in the nineteenth century--is of fairly pure malay (or javanese) blood, but is composed of sixteenth-century immigrants, whereas the language belongs to a very early branch of the malayo-polynesian (austronesian) family. it would be natural to suppose that the negroid element was african[ ], for in later times large numbers of africans have been brought over by arabs and other slavers; but there are several objections to this view. in the first place, the natives of the neighbouring coast are not seamen, and the voyage to madagascar offers peculiar difficulties owing to the strong currents. in the second place, it seems impossible that the first inhabitants, supposing them to be african, should have abandoned their own language in favour of one introduced by a small minority of immigrants; the few bantu words found in madagascar may well have been adopted from the slaves. in the third place, the culture exhibits no distinctively african features, but is far more akin to that of south-east asia. there is much to be said, therefore, for the view that the earliest and negroid inhabitants of madagascar were oceanic negroids, who have always been known as expert seamen. since the coming of the negroid population, which probably arrived in very early days, various small bands of immigrants or castaways have landed on the shores of madagascar and imposed themselves as reigning dynasties on the surrounding villages, each thus forming the nucleus of what now appears as a tribe. among these were immigrants from arabia, and j. t. last, who identifies madagascar with the island of _menuthias_ described by arrian in the third century a.d.[ ], suggests the "possibility that madagascar may have been reached by arabs before the christian era." this "possibility" is converted almost into a certainty by the analysis of the arabo-malagasy terms made by dahle, who clearly shows that such terms "are comparatively very few," and also "very ancient," in fact that, as already suggested by fleischer of leipzig, many, perhaps the majority of them, "may be traced back to himyaritic influence[ ]," that is, not merely to pre-muhammadan, but to pre-christian times, just like the sanskritic elements in the oceanic tongues. the evidence that malagasy is itself one of these oceanic tongues, and not an offshoot of the comparatively recent standard malay is overwhelming, and need not here detain us[ ]. the diffusion of this austronesian language over the whole island--even amongst distinctly negroid bantu populations, such as the betsileos and tanalas--to the absolute exclusion of all other forms of speech, is an extraordinary linguistic phenomenon more easily proved than explained. there are, of course, provincialisms and even what may be called local dialects, such as that of the antankarana people at the northern extremity of the island who, although commonly included in the large division of the western sakalavas, really form a separate ethnical group, speaking a somewhat marked variety of malagasy. but even this differs much less from the normal form than might be supposed by comparing, for instance, such a term as _maso-mahamay_, sun, with the hova _maso-andro_, where _maso_ in both means "eye," _mahamay_ in both = "burning," and _andro_ in both = "day." thus the only difference is that one calls the sun "burning eye," while the hovas call it the "day's eye," as do so many peoples in malaysia[ ]. so also the fish-eating _anorohoro_ people, a branch of the _sihanakas_ in the alaotra valley, are said to have "quite a different dialect from them[ ]." but the statement need not be taken too seriously, because these rustic fisherfolk, who may be called the gothamites of madagascar, are supposed, by their scornful neighbours, to do everything "contrariwise." of them it is told that once when cooking eggs they boiled them for hours to make them soft, and then finding they got harder and harder threw them away as unfit for food. others having only one slave, who could not paddle the canoe properly, cut him in two, putting one half at the prow, the other at the stern, and were surprised at the result. it was not to be expected that such simpletons should speak malagasy properly, which nevertheless is spoken with surprising uniformity by all the malayan and negro or negroid peoples alike. in madagascar, however, the fusion of the two races is far less complete than is commonly supposed. various shades of transition between the two extremes are no doubt presented by the _sakalavas_ of the west, and the _betsimisarakas_, _sitanakas_, and others of the east coast. but, strange to say, on the central tableland the two seem to stand almost completely apart, so that here the politically dominant hovas still present all the essential characteristics of the oceanic mongol, while their southern neighbours, the _betsileos_, as well as the _tanalas_ and _ibaras_, are described as "african pure and simple, allied to the south-eastern tribes of that continent[ ]." specially remarkable is the account given by a careful observer, g. a. shaw, of the betsileos, whose "average height is not less than six feet for the men, and a few inches less for the women. they are large-boned and muscular, and their colour is several degrees darker than that of the hovas, approaching very close to a black. the forehead is low and broad, the nose flatter, and the lips thicker than those of their conquerors, whilst their hair is _invariably_ crisp and woolly. no pure betsileo is to be met with having the smooth long hair of the hovas. in this, as in other points, there is a very clear departure from the malayan type, and a close approximation to the negro races of the adjacent continent[ ]." now compare these brawny negroid giants with the wiry undersized malayan hovas. as described by a. vouchereau[ ], their type closely resembles that of the javanese--short stature, yellowish or light leather complexion, long, black, smooth and rather coarse hair, round head ( . ), flat and straight forehead, flat face, prominent cheek-bones, small straight nose, tolerably wide nostrils, small black and slightly oblique eyes, rather thick lips, slim lithesome figure, small extremities, dull restless expression, cranial capacity c.c., superior to both negro and sakalava[ ]. except in respect of this high cranial capacity, the measurements of three malagasy skulls in the cambridge university anatomical museum, studied by w. l. h. duckworth[ ], correspond fairly well with these descriptions. thus the cephalic index of the reputed betsimisaraka (negroid) and that of the betsileo (negro) are respectively and . , while that of the hova is . ; the first two, therefore, are long-headed, the third round-headed, as we should expect. but the cubic capacity of the hova (presumably mongoloid) is only as compared with and of two others, presumably african negroes. duckworth discusses the question whether the black element in madagascar is of african or oceanic (melanesian-papuan) origin, about which much diversity of opinion still prevails, and on the evidence of the few cranial specimens available he decides in favour of the african. despite the low cubic capacity of duckworth's hova, the mental powers of these, and indeed of the malagasy generally, are far from despicable. before the french occupation the london missionary society had succeeded in disseminating christian principles and even some degree of culture among considerable numbers both in the hova capital and surrounding districts. the local press had been kept going by native compositors who had issued quite an extensive literature both in malagasy and english. agricultural and industrial methods had been improved, some engineering works attempted, and the hova craftsmen had learnt to build but not to complete houses in the european style, because, although they could master european processes, they could not, christians though they were, get the better of the old superstitions, one of which is that the owner of a house always dies within a year of its completion. longevity is therefore ensured by not completing it, with the curious result that the whole city looks unfinished or dilapidated. in the house where mrs colvile stayed, "one window was framed and glazed, the other nailed up with rough boards; part of the stair-banister had no top-rail; outside only a portion of the roof had been tiled; and so on throughout[ ]." the culture has been thus summarised by t. a. joyce[ ]. clothing is entirely vegetable, and the malay _sarong_ is found throughout the east; bark-cloth in the south-east and west. hairdressing varies considerably, and among the bara and sakalava is often elaborate. silver ornaments are found amongst the antimerina and some other eastern tribes, made chiefly from european coins dating from the sixteenth century. circumcision is universal. in the east the tribes are chiefly agricultural; in the north, west and south, pastoral. fishing is important among those tribes situated on coast, lake or river. houses are all rectangular and pile-dwellings are found locally. rice is the staple crop and the cattle are of the humped variety. the antimerina excel the rest in all crafts. weaving, basket-work (woven variety) and iron-working are all good; the use of iron is said to have been unknown to the bara and vazimba until comparatively recent times. pottery is poor. carvings in the round (men and animals) are found amongst the sakalava and bara, in relief (arabesques, etc.) among the betsileo and others. before the introduction of firearms, the spear was the universal weapon; bows are rare and possibly of late introduction; slings and the blowgun are also found. shields are circular, made of wood covered with hide. the early system of government was patriarchal, and villages were independent; the later immigrants introduced a system of feudal monarchy with themselves as a ruling caste. thus the antimerina have three main castes; _andriana_ or nobles (_i.e._ pure-blooded descendants of the conquerors), _hova_, or freemen (descendants of the incorporated vazimba more or less mixed with the conquerors), and _andevo_ or slaves. the king was regarded almost as a god. an institution thoroughly suggestive of malayo-polynesian sociology is that of _fadi_ or tabu, which enters into every sphere of human activity. an indefinite creator-god was recognized, but more important were a number of spirits and fetishes, the latter with definite functions. signs of tree worship and of belief in transmigration are sporadic. at the present time, half the population of the island is, at least nominally, christian. a good deal of fancy is displayed in the oral literature, comprising histories, or at least legends, fables, songs, riddles, and a great mass of folklore, much of which has already been rescued from oblivion by the "malagasy folklore society." some of the stories present the usual analogies to others in widely separated lands, stories which seem to be perennial, and to crop up wherever the surface is a little disturbed by investigators. one of those in dahle's extensive collection, entitled the "history of andrianarisainaboniamasoboniamanoro" might be described as a variant of our "beauty and the beast." besides this prince with the long name, called _bonia_ "for short," there is a princess "golden beauty," both being of miraculous birth, but the latter a cripple and deformed, until found and wedded by bonia. then she is so transfigured that the "beast" is captivated and contrives to carry her off. thereupon follows an extraordinary series of adventures, resulting of course in the rescue of golden beauty by bonia, when everything ends happily, not only for the two lovers, but for all other people whose wives had also been abducted. these are now restored to their husbands by the hero, who vanquishes and slays the monster in a fierce fight, just as in our nursery tales of knights and dragons. in the philippines, where the ethnical confusion is probably greater than in any other part of malaysia, the great bulk of the inhabitants appear to be of indonesian and proto-malayan stocks. except in the southern island of mindanao, which is still mainly muhammadan or heathen, most of the settled populations have long been nominal roman catholics under a curious theocratic administration, in which the true rulers are not the civil functionaries, but the priests, and especially the regular clergy[ ]. one result has been over three centuries of unstable political and social relations, ending in the occupation of the archipelago by the united states ( ). another, with which we are here more concerned, has been such a transformation of the subtle malayan character that those who have lived longest amongst the natives pronounce their temperament unfathomable. having to comply outwardly with the numerous christian observances, they seek relief in two ways, first by making the most of the catholic ceremonial and turning the many feast-days of the calendar into occasions of revelry and dissipation, connived at if not even shared in by the padres[ ]; secondly by secretly cherishing the old beliefs and disguising their true feelings, until the opportunity is presented of throwing off the mask and declaring themselves in their true colours. a franciscan friar, who had spent half his life amongst them, left on record that "the native is an incomprehensible phenomenon, the mainspring of whose line of thought and the guiding motive of whose actions have never yet been, and perhaps never will be, discovered. a native will serve a master satisfactorily for years, and then suddenly abscond, or commit some such hideous crime as conniving with a brigand band to murder the family and pillage the house[ ]." in fact nobody can ever tell what a tagal, and especially a visaya, will do at any moment. his character is a succession of surprises; "the experience of each year brings one to form fresh conclusions, and the most exact definition of such a kaleidoscopic creature is, after all, hypothetical." after centuries of misrule, it was perhaps not surprising that no kind of sympathy was developed between the natives and the whites. foreman fells us that everywhere in the archipelago he found mothers teaching their little ones to look on their white rulers as demoniacal beings, evil spirits, or at least something to be dreaded. "if a child cries, it is hushed by the exclamation, _castila!_ (spaniard); if a white man approaches a native dwelling, the watchword always is _castila!_ and the children hasten to retreat from the dreadful object." for administrative purposes the natives were classed in three social divisions--_indios_, _infieles_, and _moros_--which, as aptly remarked by f. h. h. guillemard, is "an ecclesiastical rather than a scientific classification[ ]." the _indios_ were the christianized and more or less cultured populations of all the towns and of the settled agricultural districts, speaking a distinct malayo-polynesian language of much more archaic type than the standard malay. according to the census of the total population of the islands was , , , of whom nearly , , were classed as civilised, and the rest as wild, including , negritoes (_aeta_, see p. ). at the time of the spanish occupation in the sixteenth century the _visayas_ of the central islands and part of mindanao were the most advanced among the native tribes, but this distinction is now claimed for the _tagalogs_, who form the bulk of the population in manila and other parts of luzon, and also in mindanao, and whose language is gradually displacing other dialects throughout the archipelago. other civilised tribes are the _ilocano_, _bicol_, _pangasinan_, _pampangan_ and _cagayan_, all of luzon. less civilised tribes are the _manobo_, _mandaya_, _subano_ and _bagobo_ of mindanao, the _bukidnon_ of mindanao and the central islands, the _tagbanua_ and _batak_ of palawan, and the _igorots_ of luzon, some of whom are industrious farmers, while among others, head-hunting is still prevalent. these have been described by a. e. jenks in a monograph[ ]. the head form is very variable. of men measured by jenks the extremes of cephalic index were . and . . the stature is always low, averaging . m. ( ft. in.) but with an appearance of greater height. the hair is black, straight, lank, coarse and abundant but "i doubt whether to-day an entire tribe of perfectly straight-haired primitive malayan people exists in the archipelago[ ]." under _moros_ ("moors") are comprised the muhammadans exclusively, some of whom are malayans (chiefly in mindanao, basilan, and palawan), some true malays (chiefly in the sulu archipelago). many of these are still independent, and not a few, if not actually wild, are certainly but little removed from the savage state. yet, like the sumatran battas, they possess a knowledge of letters, the sulu people using the arabic script, as do all the orang-maláyu, while the palawan natives employ a variant of the devanagari prototype derived directly from the javanese, as above explained. they number nearly , , of whom more than one half are in mindanao, and they form the bulk of the population in some of the islands of the sulu archipelago. some of these sulu people, till lately fierce sea-rovers, get baptized now and then; but, says foreman, "they appeared to be as much christian as i was mussulman[ ]." they keep their harems all the same, and when asked how many gods there are, answer "four," presumably allah plus the athanasian trinity. so the ba-fiots of angola add crucifying to their "penal code," and so in king m'tesa's time the baganda scrupulously kept two weekly holidays, the mussulman friday, and the christian sunday. lofty creeds superimposed too rapidly on primitive beliefs are apt to get "mixed"; they need time to become assimilated. that in the aborigines of formosa are represented both mongol (proto-malayan) and indonesian elements may now probably be accepted as an established fact. the long-standing reports of negritoes also, like the philippine aeta, have never been confirmed, and may be dismissed from the present consideration. probably five-sixths of the whole population are chinese immigrants, amongst whom are a large number of hakkas and hok-los from the provinces of fo-kien and kwang-tung[ ]. they occupy all the cultivated western lowlands, which from the ethnological standpoint may be regarded as a seaward outpost of the chinese mainland. the rest of the island, that is, the central highlands and precipitous eastern slopes, may similarly be looked on as a north-eastern outpost of malaysia, being almost exclusively held by indonesian and malayan aborigines from malaysia (especially the philippines), with possibly some early intruders both from polynesia and from the north (japan). all are classed by the chinese settlers after their usual fashion in three social divisions:-- . the _pepohwans_ of the plains, who although called "barbarians," are sedentary agriculturists and quite as civilised as their chinese neighbours themselves, with whom they are gradually merging in a single ethnical group. the pepohwans are described by p. ibis as a fine race, very tall, and "fetishists," though the mysterious rites are left to the women. their national feasts, dances, and other usages forcibly recall those of the micronesians and polynesians. they may therefore, perhaps, be regarded as early immigrants from the south sea islands, distinct in every respect from the true aborigines. . the _sekhwans_, "tame savages[ ]," who are also settled agriculturists, subject to the chinese (since to the japanese) administration, but physically distinct from all the other formosans--light complexion, large mouth, thick lips, remarkably long and prominent teeth, weak constitution. p. ibis suspects a strain of dutch blood dating from the seventeenth century. this is confirmed by the old books and other curious documents found amongst them, which have given rise to so much speculation, and, it may be added, some mystification, regarding a peculiar writing system and a literature formerly current amongst the formosan aborigines[ ]. . the _chinhwans_, "green barbarians"--that is, utter savages--the true independent aborigines, of whom there are an unknown number of tribes, but regarding whom the chinese possess but little definite information. not so their japanese successors, one of whom, kisak tamai[ ], tells us that the chinhwans show a close resemblance to the malays of the malay peninsula and also to those of the philippines, and in some respects to the japanese themselves. when dressed like japanese and mingling with japanese women, they can hardly be distinguished from them. the vendetta is still rife amongst many of the ruder tribes, and such is their traditional hatred of the chinese intruders that no one can either be tattooed or permitted to wear a bracelet until he has carried off a celestial head or two. in every household there is a frame or bracket on which these heads are mounted, and some of their warriors can proudly point to over seventy of such trophies. it is a relief to hear that with their new japanese masters they have sworn friendship, these new rulers of the land being their "brothers and sisters." the oath of eternal alliance is taken by digging a hole in the ground, putting a stone in it, throwing earth at each other, then covering the stone with the earth, all of which means that "as the stone in the ground keeps sound, so do we keep our word unbroken." it is interesting to note that this japanese ethnologist's remarks on the physical resemblances of the aborigines are fully in accord with those of european observers. thus to hamy "they recalled the igorrotes of north luzon, as well as the malays of singapore[ ]." g. taylor also, who has visited several of the wildest groups in the southern and eastern districts[ ] (_tipuns_, _paiwans_, _diaramocks_, _nickas_, _amias_ and many others), traces some "probably" to japan (tipuns); others to malaysia (the cruel, predatory paiwan head-hunters); and others to the liu-kiu archipelago (the pepohwans now of chinese speech). he describes the diaramocks as the most dreaded of all the southern groups, but doubts whether the charge of cannibalism brought against them by their neighbours is quite justified. whether the historical malays from singapore or elsewhere, as above suggested, are really represented in formosa may be doubted, since no survivals either of hindu or muhammadan rites appear to have been detected amongst the aborigines. it is of course possible that they may have reached the island at some remote time, and since relapsed into savagery, from which the orang-laut were never very far removed. but in the absence of proof, it will be safer to regard all the wild tribes as partly of indonesian, partly of proto-malayan origin. this view is also in conformity with the character of the numerous formosan dialects, whose affinities are either with the gyarung and others of the asiatic indonesian tongues, or else with the austronesian organic speech generally, but not specially with any particular member of that family, least of all with the comparatively recent standard malay. thus arnold schetelig points out that only about a sixth part of the formosan vocabulary taken generally corresponds with modern malay[ ]. the analogies of all the rest must be sought in the various branches of the oceanic stock language, and in the gyarung and the non-chinese tongues of eastern china[ ]. formosa thus presents a curious ethnical and linguistic connecting link between the continental and oceanic populations. in the nicobar archipelago are distinguished two ethnical groups, the coast people, _i.e._ the _nicobarese_[ ] proper, and the _shom pen_, aborigines of the less accessible inland districts in great nicobar. but the distinction appears to be rather social than racial, and we may now conclude with e. h. man that all the islanders belong essentially to the mongolic division, the inlanders representing the pure type, the others being "descended from a mongrel malay stock, the crosses being probably in the majority of cases with burmese and occasionally with natives of the opposite coast of siam, and perchance also in remote times with such of the shom pen as may have settled in their midst[ ]." among the numerous usages which point to an indo-chinese and oceanic connection are pile-dwellings; the chewing of betel, which appears to be here mixed with some earthy substance causing a dental incrustation so thick as even to prevent the closing of the lips; distention of the ear-lobe by wooden cylinders; aversion from the use of milk; and the _couvade_, as amongst some bornean dayaks. the language, which has an extraordinarily rich phonetic system (as many as consonantal and vowel sounds), is polysyllabic and untoned, like the austronesian, and the type also seems to resemble the oceanic more than the continental mongol subdivision. mean height ft. in. (shom pen one inch less); nose wide and flat; eyes rather obliquely set; cheekbones prominent; features flat, though less so than in the normal malayan; complexion mostly a yellowish or reddish brown (shom pen dull brown); hair a dark rusty brown, rarely quite black, straight, though not seldom wavy and even ringletty, but shom pen generally quite straight. on the other hand they approach nearer to the burmese in their mental characters; in their frank, independent spirit, inquisitiveness, and kindness towards their women, who enjoy complete social equality, as in burma; and lastly in their universal belief in spirits called _iwi_ or _síya_, who, like the _nats_ of indo-china, cause sickness and death unless scared away or appeased by offerings. like the burmese, also, they place a piece of money in the mouth or against the cheek of a corpse before burial, to help in the other world. one of the few industries is the manufacture of a peculiar kind of rough painted pottery, which is absolutely confined to the islet of chowra, miles north of teressa. the reason of this restriction is explained by a popular legend, according to which in remote ages the great unknown decreed that, on pain of sudden death, an earthquake, or some such calamity, the making of earthenware was to be carried on only in chowra, and all the work of preparing the clay, moulding and firing the pots, was to devolve on the women. once, a long time ago, one of these women, when on a visit in another island, began, heedless of the divine injunction, to make a vessel, and fell dead on the spot. thus was confirmed the tradition, and no attempt has since been made to infringe the "chowra monopoly[ ]." all things considered, it may be inferred that the archipelago was originally occupied by primitive peoples of malayan stock now represented by the shom pen of great nicobar, and was afterwards re-settled on the coastlands by indo-chinese and malayan intruders, who intermingled, and either extirpated or absorbed, or else drove to the interior the first occupants. nicobar thus resembles formosa in its intermediate position between the continental and oceanic mongol populations. another point of analogy is the absence of negritoes from both of these insular areas, where anthropologists had confidently anticipated the presence of a dark element like that of the andamanese and philippine aeta. footnotes: [ ] here e. t. hamy finds connecting links between the true malays and the indonesians in the bicols of albay and the bisayas of panay ("les races malaïques et américaines," in _l'anthropologie_, , p. ). used in this extended sense, hamy's _malaïque_ corresponds generally to our _malayan_ as defined presently. [ ] ethnically malayo-polynesian is an impossible expression, because it links together the malays, who belong to the mongol, and the polynesians, who belong to the caucasic division. but as both undoubtedly speak languages of the same linguistic stock the expression is permitted in philology, although, as p. w. schmidt points out, "malay" and "polynesian" are not of equal rank: and the combination is as unbalanced as "indo-bavarian" for "indo-germanic"; it is best therefore to adopt schmidt's term _austronesian_ for this family of languages (_die mon-khmer völker_, , p. ). [ ] indonesian type: undulating black hair, often tinged with red; tawny skin, often rather light; low stature, . m.- . m. ( ft. - / in.- ft. - / in.); mesaticephalic head ( - ) probably originally dolichocephalic; cheek-bones sometimes projecting; nose often flattened, sometimes concave. it is difficult to isolate this type as it has almost everywhere been mixed with a brachycephalic proto-malay stock, but the muruts of borneo (cranial index ) are probably typical (a. c. haddon, _the races of man_, , p. ). [ ] recent literature on this area includes f. a. swettenham, _the real malay_, , _british malaya_, ; w. w. skeat, _malay magic_, ; n. annandale and h. c. robinson, _fasciculi malayenses_, ; w. w. skeat and c. o. blagden, _pagan races of the malay peninsula_, . [ ] j. leyden, _malay annals_, , p. . [ ] in some places quite recent, as in rembau, malay peninsula, whose inhabitants are mainly immigrants from sumatra in the seventeenth century; and in the neighbouring group of petty negri sembilan states, where the very tribal names, such as _anak acheh_, and _sri lemak menangkabau_, betray their late arrival from the sumatran districts of achin and menangkabau. [ ] _the malay archipelago_, p. . [ ] for celebes see von paul und fritz sarasin, _reisen in celebes ausgeführt in den jahren - und - _, , and _versuch einer anthropologie der insel celebes_, . [ ] in a troop of javanese minstrels visited london, and one of them, whom i addressed in a few broken malay sentences, resented in his sleepy way the imputation that he was an orang-maláyu, explaining that he was _orang java_, a javanese, and (when further questioned) _orang solo_, a native of the solo district, east java. it was interesting to notice the very marked mongolic features of these natives, vividly recalling the remark of a. r. wallace, on the difficulty of distinguishing between a javanese and a chinaman when both are dressed alike. the resemblance may to a small extent be due to "mixture with chinese blood" (b. hagen, _jour. anthrop. soc._ vienna, ); but occurs over such a wide area that it must mainly be attributed to the common origin of the chinese and javanese peoples. [ ] a. h. keane, _eastern geography_, nd ed. , p. . [ ] _academy_, may , , p. . [ ] cool, p. . [ ] _the malay archipelago_, p. . [ ] in _malay sketches_, . [ ] cf. m. a. czaplicka on arctic hysteria in _aboriginal siberia_, , p. . [ ] on these national pastimes see sir hugh clifford, _in court and kampong_, , p. sq. [ ] _cujo officio he rubar e pescar_, "whose business it is to rob and fish" (barros). many of the bajaus lived entirely afloat, passing their lives in boats from the cradle to the grave, and praying allah that they might die at sea. [ ] thucydides, _pel. war_, i. - . [ ] these are the noted _illanuns_, who occupy the south side of the large philippine island of mindanao, but many of whom, like the bajaus of celebes and the sulu islanders, have formed settlements on the north-east coast of borneo. "long ago their warfare against the spaniards degenerated into general piracy. their usual practice was not to take captives, but to murder all on board any boat they took. those with us [british north borneo] have all settled down to a more orderly way of life" (w. b. pryer, _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. ). [ ] _the malay archipelago_, p. . [ ] in central africa "the belief in 'were' animals, that is to say in human beings who have changed themselves into lions or leopards or some such harmful beasts, is nearly universal. moreover there are individuals who imagine they possess this power of assuming the form of an animal and killing human beings in that shape." sir h. h. johnston, _british central africa_, p. . [ ] _in court and kampong_, p. . [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . the rajah gives the leading features of the character of his countrymen as "pride of race and birth, extraordinary observance of punctilio, and a bigoted adherence to ancient custom and tradition." [ ] _the pygmies_ (translation), , p. , fig. . [ ] _the distribution of the negritos_, , p. . [ ] in the appendix to c. hose and w. mcdougall, _the pagan tribes of borneo_, , p. . [ ] j. h. kohlbrugge, _l'anthropologie_, ix. . [ ] a. c. haddon, "a sketch of the ethnography of sarawak," _archivio per l'antropologia e l'etnologia_, xxxi. ; c. hose and w. mcdougall, _the pagan tribes of borneo_, , appendix, p. . [ ] h. ling roth, _the natives of sarawak and british north borneo_, . [ ] o. beccari, _wanderings in the great forests of borneo_, , p. . [ ] schwaner, in h. ling roth, _the natives of sarawak_, etc., . [ ] a. c. haddon, _head-hunters, black, white and brown_, , p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, _head-hunters, black, white and brown_, , pp. - . [ ] for further literature on borneo see w. h. furness, _the home-life of the borneo head-hunters_, ; a. w. nieuwenhuis, _quer durch borneo_, ; e. h. gomes, _seventeen years among the sea-dyaks of borneo_, ; c. hose and w. mcdougall, _journ. anthr. inst._, xxxi. , and _the pagan tribes of borneo_, . [ ] not only in the southern districts for centuries subject to javanese influences, but also in battaland, where they were first discovered by h. von rosenberg in , and figured and described in _der malayische archipel_, leipzig, , vol. i. p. sq. "nach ihrer form und ihren bildwerken zu urtheilen, waren die gebäude tempel, worin der buddha-kultus gefeiert wurde" (p. ). these are all the more interesting since hindu ruins are otherwise rare in sumatra, where there is nothing comparable to the stupendous monuments of central and east java. [ ] von rosenberg, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. . amongst the points of close resemblance may be mentioned the outriggers, for which mentawi has the same word (_abak_) as the samoan (_va'r_ = _vaka_); the funeral rites; taboo; the facial expression; and the language, in which the numerical systems are identical; cf. ment. _limongapula_ with sam. _limagafulu_, the malay being _limapulah_ (fifty), where the sam. infix _ga_ (absent in malay) is pronounced _gna_, exactly as in ment. [ ] see fr. müller, _ueber den ursprung der schrift der malaiischen völker_, vienna, ; and my appendix to stanford's _australasia_, first series, , p. . [ ] _die mangianenschrift von mindoro, herausgegeben von a. b. meyer u. a. schadenberg_, speciell bearbeitet von w. foy, dresden, ; see also my remarks in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq. [ ] the rejang, which certainly belongs to the same indo-javanese system as all the other malaysian alphabets, has been regarded by sayce and renan as "pure phoenician," while neubauer has compared it with that current in the fourth and fifth centuries b.c. the suggestion that it may have been introduced by the phoenician crews of alexander's admiral, nearchus (_archaeol. oxon._ , no. ), could not have been made by anyone aware of its close connection with the lampong of south, and the batta of north sumatra (see also prof. kern, _globus_, , p. ). [ ] sing. _batta_, pl. _battak_, hence the current form _battaks_ is a solecism, and we should write either _battas_ or _battak_. lassen derives the word from the sanskrit _b'háta_, "savage." [ ] again confirmed by volz and h. von autenrieth, who explored battaland early in , and penetrated to the territory of the "cannibal pakpaks" (_geogr. journ._, june, , p. ); not however "for the first time," as here stated. the pakpaks had already been visited in by von rosenberg, who found cannibalism so prevalent that "niemand anstand nimmt das essen von menschenfleisch einzugestehen" (_op. cit._ . p. ). [ ] it is interesting to note that by the aid of the lampong alphabet, south sumatra, john mathew reads the word _daibattah_ in the legend on the head-dress of a gigantic figure seen by sir george grey on the roof of a cave on the glenelg river, north-west australia ("the cave paintings of australia," etc., in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq.). he quotes from coleman's _mythology of the hindus_ the statement that "the battas of sumatra believe in the existence of one supreme being, whom they name _debati hasi asi_. since completing the work of creation they suppose him to have remained perfectly quiescent, having wholly committed the government to his three sons, who do not govern in person, but by vakeels or proxies." here is possibly another confirmation of the view that early malayan migrations or expeditions, some even to australia, took place in pre-muhammadan times, long before the rise and diffusion of the orang-maláyu in the archipelago. [ ] _memoir of the life etc. of sir t. s. raffles_, by his widow, . [ ] "anthropologie des atjehs," in _rev. med._, batavia, xxx. , . [ ] see c. snouck hurgronje, _the achenese_, . [ ] _handbook to the ethnographical collections, british museum_, , p. . [ ] this opinion is still held by many competent authorities. cf. j. deniker, _the races of man_, , p. ff. [ ] "his remarks would scarcely apply to any other island off the east african coast, his descriptions of the rivers, crocodiles, land-tortoises, canoes, sea-turtles, and wicker-work weirs for catching fish, apply exactly to madagascar of the present day, but to none of the other islands" (_journ. anthr. inst._ , p. ). [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . thus, to take the days of the week, we have:--malagasy _alahady_, _alatsinainy_; old arab. (himyar.) _al-áhadu_, _al-itsnáni_; modern arab. _el-áhad_, _el-etnén_ (sunday, monday), where the mal. forms are obviously derived not from the present, but from the ancient arabic. from all this it seems reasonable to infer that the early semitic influences in madagascar may be due to the same sabaean or minaean peoples of south arabia, to whom the zimbabwe monuments in the auriferous region south of the zambesi were accredited by theodore bent. [ ] those who may still doubt should consult m. aristide marre, _les affinités de la langue malgache_, leyden, ; last's above quoted paper in the _journ. anthr. inst._ and r. h. codrington's _melanesian languages_, oxford, . [ ] malay _mata-ari_; bajau _mata-lon_; menado _mata-ro[=u]_; salayer _mato-allo_, all meaning literally "day's eye" (_mata_, _mato_ = malagasy _maso_ = eye; _ari_, _allo_, etc. = day, with normal interchange of _r_ and _l_). [ ] j. sibree, _antananarivo annual_, , p. . [ ] w. d. cowan, _the bara land_, antananarivo, , p. . [ ] "the betsileo, country and people," in _antananarivo annual_, , p. . [ ] "note sur l'anthropologie de madagascar," etc., in _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] the contrast between the two elements is drawn in a few bold strokes by mrs z. colvile, who found that in the east coast districts the natives (betsimisarakas chiefly) were black "with short, curly hair and negro type of feature, and showed every sign of being of african origin. the hovas, on the contrary, had complexions little darker than those of the peasantry of southern europe, straight black hair, rather sharp features, slim figures, and were unmistakably of the asiatic type" (_round the black man's garden_, , p. ). but even amongst the hovas a strain of black blood is betrayed in the generally rather thick lips, and among the lower classes in the wavy hair and dark skin. [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq. [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . [ ] _handbook to the ethnological collection, british museum_, , pp. - . [ ] augustinians, dominicans, recollects (friars minor of the strict observance), and jesuits. [ ] in fact there is no great parade of morality on either side, nor is it any reflection on a woman to have children by the priest. [ ] j. foreman, _the philippine islands_, , p. . [ ] _australasia_, , ii. p. . [ ] _the bontoc igorot_, eth. survey pub. vol. i. . further information concerning the philippines is published in the _census report in _, ; _ethnological survey publications_, - ; c. a. koeze, _crania ethnica philippinica, ein beitrag zur anthropologie der philippinen_, - ; henry gannett, _people of the philippines_, ; r. b. bean, _the racial anatomy of the philippine islanders_, ; fay-cooper cole, _wild tribes of davao district, mindanao_, . [ ] a. e. jenks, _the bontoc igorot_, , p. . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . [ ] girard de rialle, _rev. d'anthrop._, jan. and april, . these studies are based largely on the data supplied by m. paul ibis and earlier travellers in the island. nothing better has since appeared except g. taylor's valuable contributions to the _china review_ (see below). the census of gave , , chinese, , japanese and , aborigines. [ ] lit. "ripe barbarians" (_barbares mûrs_, ibis). [ ] see facsimiles of bilingual and other mss. from formosa in t. de lacouperie's _formosa notes on mss., languages, and races_, hertford, . the whole question is here fully discussed, though the author seems unable to arrive at any definite conclusion even as to the _bona_ or _mala fides_ of the noted impostor george psalmanazar. [ ] _globus_, , p. sq. [ ] "les races malaïques," etc., in _l'anthropologie_, . [ ] "the aborigines of formosa," in _china review_, xiv. p. sq., also xvi. no. ("a ramble through southern formosa"). the services rendered by this intelligent observer to formosan ethnology deserve more general recognition than they have hitherto received. see also the _report on the control of the aborigines of formosa_, bureau of aboriginal affairs, formosa, . [ ] "sprachen der ureinwohner formosa's," in _zeitschr. f. völkerpsychologie_, etc., v. p. sq. this anthropologist found to his great surprise that the polynesian and maori skulls in the london college of surgeons presented striking analogies with those collected by himself in formosa. here at least is a remarkable harmony between speech and physical characters. [ ] de lacouperie, _op. cit._ p. . [ ] the natives of course know nothing of this word, and speak of their island homes as _mattai_, a vague term applied equally to land, country, village, and even the whole world. [ ] "the nicobar islanders," in _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq. cf. c. b. kloss, _in the andamans and nicobars_, . [ ] e. h. man, _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . chapter viii the northern mongols domain of the mongolo-turki section--early contact with caucasic peoples--primitive man in siberia--and mongolia--early man in korea and japan--in finland and east europe--early man in babylonia--the sumerians--the akkadians--babylonian chronology--elamite origins--historical records--babylonian religion--social system--general culture--the mongols proper--physical type--ethnical and administrative divisions--buddhism--the tunguses--cradle and type--mental characters--shamanism--the manchus--origins and early records--type--the dauri--mongolo-turki speech--language and racial characters--mongol and manchu script--the yukaghirs--a primitive writing system--chukchis and koryaks--chukchi and eskimo relations--type and social state--koryaks and kamchadales--the gilyaks--the koreans--ethnical elements--korean origins and records--religion--the korean script--the japanese--origins-- constituent elements--the japanese type--japanese and liu-kiu islanders--their languages and religions--cult of the dead-- shintoism and buddhism. conspectus. #present range.# _the northern hemisphere from japan to lapland, and from the arctic ocean to the great wall and tibet_; _aralo-caspian basin_; _parts of irania_; _asia minor_; _parts of east russia, balkan peninsula, and lower danube_. #hair#, _generally the same as south mongol, but in mongolo-caucasic transitional groups brown, chestnut, and even towy or light flaxen, also wavy and ringletty_; _beard mostly absent except amongst the western turks and some koreans_. #colour#, _light or dirty yellowish amongst all true mongols and siberians_; _very variable (white, sallow, swarthy) in the transitional groups (finns, lapps, magyars, bulgars, western turks), and many manchus and koreans_; _in japan the unexposed parts of the body also white_. #skull#, _highly brachycephalic in the true mongol( to )_; _variable (sub-brachy and sub-dolicho) in most transitional groups and even some siberians (ostyaks and voguls )_. #jaws#, #cheek-bones#, #nose#, _and_ #eyes# _much the same as in south mongols_; _but nose often large and straight, and eyes straight, greyish, or even blue in finns, manchus, koreans, and some other mongolo-caucasians_. #stature#, _usually short (below . m., ft. in.), but many manchus and koreans tall, . m. to . m. ( ft. or in.)_. #lips#, #arms#, #legs#, _and_ #feet#, _usually the same as south mongols_; _but japanese legs disproportionately short_. #temperament#, _of all true mongols and many mongoloids, dull, reserved, somewhat sullen and apathetic_; _but in some groups (finns, japanese) active and energetic_; _nearly all brave, warlike, even fierce, and capable of great atrocities, though not normally cruel_; _within the historic period the character has almost everywhere undergone a marked change from a rude and ferocious to a milder and more humane disposition_; _ethical tone higher than south mongol, with more developed sense of right and wrong_. #speech#, _very uniform_; _apparently only one stock language_ (#finno-tatar# _or_ #ural-altaic family#), _a highly typical agglutinating form with no prefixes, but numerous postfixes attached loosely to an unchangeable root, by which their vowels are modified in accordance with subtle laws of vocalic harmony_; _the chief members of the family (finnish, magyar, turkish, mongol, and especially korean and japanese) diverge greatly from the common prototype_. #religion#, _originally spirit-worship through a mediator_ (shaman), _perhaps everywhere, and still exclusively prevalent amongst siberian and all other uncivilised groups_; _all mongols proper, manchus, and koreans nominal buddhists_; _all turki peoples moslem_; _japanese buddhists and shintoists_; _finns, lapps, bulgars, magyars, and some siberians real or nominal christians_. #culture#, _rude and barbaric rather than savage amongst the siberian aborigines, who are nearly all nomadic hunters and fishers with half-wild reindeer herds but scarcely any industries_; _the mongols proper, kirghiz, uzbegs and turkomans semi-nomadic pastors_; _the anatolian and balkan turks, manchus, and koreans settled agriculturists, with scarcely any arts or letters and no science_; _japanese, finns, bulgars and magyars civilised up to, and in some respects beyond the european average (magyar and finnish literature, japanese art)_. #mongol proper.# _sharra (eastern), kalmak (western), buryat (siberian) mongol._ #tungus.# _tungus proper, manchu, gold, oroch, lamut._ #korean#; #japanese# _and_ #liu-kiu#. #turki.# _yakut; kirghiz; uzbeg; taranchi; kara-kalpak; nogai; turkoman; anatolian; osmanli._ #finno-ugrian.# _baltic finn; lapp; samoyed; cheremiss; votyak; vogul; ostyak; bulgar; magyar._ #east siberian.# _yukaghir; chukchi; koryak; kamchadale; gilyak._ * * * * * by "northern mongols" are here to be understood all those branches of the mongol division of mankind which are usually comprised under the collective geographical expression _ural-altaic_, to which corresponds the ethnical designation _mongolo-tatar_, or more properly _mongolo-turki_[ ]. their domain is roughly separated from that of the southern mongols (chap. vi.) by the great wall and the kuen-lun range, beyond which it spreads out westwards over most of western asia, and a considerable part of north europe, with many scattered groups in central and south russia, the balkan peninsula, and the middle danube basin. in the extreme north their territory stretches from the shores of the pacific with japan and parts of sakhalin continually westwards across korea, siberia, central and north russia to finland and lapland. but its southern limits can be indicated only approximately by a line drawn from the kuen-lun range westwards along the northern escarpments of the iranian plateau, and round the southern shores of the caspian to the mediterranean. this line, however, must be drawn in such a way as to include afghan turkestan, much of the north persian and caucasian steppes, and nearly the whole of asia minor, while excluding armenia, kurdestan, and syria. nor is it to be supposed that even within these limits the north mongol territory is everywhere continuous. in east europe especially, where they are for the most part comparatively recent intruders, the mongols are found only in isolated and vanishing groups in the lower and middle volga basin, the crimea, and the north caucasian steppe, and in more compact bodies in rumelia, bulgaria, and hungary. throughout all these districts, however, the process of absorption or assimilation to the normal european physical type is so far completed that many of the nogai and other russian "tartars," as they are called, the volga and baltic finns, the magyars, and osmanli turks, would scarcely be recognised as members of the north mongol family but for their common finno-turki speech, and the historic evidence by which their original connection with this division is established beyond all question. in central asia also (north irania, the aralo-caspian and tarim basins) the mongols have been in close contact with caucasic peoples probably since the new stone age, and here intermediate types have been developed, by which an almost unbroken transition has been brought about between the yellow and the white races. during recent years much light has been shed on the physiographical conditions of central asia in early times. stein's[ ] explorations in - and - in chinese turkestan, the pumpelly expeditions[ ] in and in russian turkestan, the travels of sven hedin[ ] in - , and - , of carruthers[ ] in n.w. mongolia, and the researches of ellsworth huntington[ ] (a member of the first pumpelly expedition) in - all bear testimony to the variation in climate which the districts of central asia have undergone since glacial times. there has been a general trend towards arid conditions, alternating with periods of greater humidity, when tracts, now deserted, were capable of maintaining a dense population. abundant evidence of man's occupation has been found in delta oases formed by snow-fed mountain streams, or on the banks of vanished rivers, where now-a-days all is desolation, though, as t. peisker[ ] points out, climate was not the sole or even the main factor in many areas. in some places, as at merv, the earliest occupation was only a few centuries before the christian era, but at anau near askhabad some miles east of the caspian, explored by the pumpelly expedition, the earliest strata contained remains of stone age culture. the north kurgan or tumulus, rising some or feet above the plain, showed a definite stratification of structures in sun-dried bricks, raised by successive generations of occupants. h. schmidt, who was in charge of the excavations, was able to collect a valuable series of potsherds, showing a gradual evolution in form, technique and ornamentation, from the earliest to the latest periods. one point of great significance for establishing cultural if not physical relationships in this obscure region is the resemblance between the geometrical designs on pots of the early period and similar pottery found by mm. gautier and lampre[ ] at mussian, and by m. j. de morgan[ ] at susa, while clay figurines from the south kurgan (copper culture) are clearly of babylonian type, the influence of which is seen much later in terra-cotta figurines discovered by stein[ ] at yotkan. with the progress of archaeological research, it becomes daily more evident that the whole of the north mongol domain, from finland to japan, has passed through the stone and metal ages, like most other habitable parts of the globe. during his wanderings in siberia and mongolia in the early nineties, hans leder[ ] came upon countless prehistoric stations, kurgans (barrows), stone circles, and many megalithic monuments of various types. in west siberia the barrows, which consist solely of earth without any stone-work, are by the present inhabitants called _chudskiye kurgani_, "chudish graves," and, as in north russia, this term "chude" is ascribed to a now vanished unknown race which formerly inhabited the land. to them, as to the "toltecs" in central america, all ancient monuments are credited, and while some regard them as prehistoric finns, others identify them with the historic scythians, the scythians of herodotus. there are reasons, however, for thinking that the chudes may represent an earlier race, the men of the stone age, who, migrating from north europe eastwards, had reached the tom valley (which drains to the obi) before the extinction of the mammoth, and later spread over the whole of northern asia, leaving everywhere evidence of their presence in the megalithic monuments now being daily brought to light in east siberia, mongolia, korea, and japan. this view receives support from the characters of two skulls found in by a. p. mostitz in one of the five prehistoric stations on the left bank of the sava affluent of the selenga river, near ust-kiakta in trans-baikalia. they differ markedly from the normal buryat (siberian mongol) type, recalling rather the long-shaped skulls of the south russian kurgans, with cephalic indices . and . , as measured by m. j. d. talko-hryncewicz[ ]. thus, in the very heart of the mongol domain, the characteristically round-headed race would appear to have been preceded, as in europe, by a long-headed type. in east siberia, and especially in the lake baikal region, leder found extensive tracts strewn with kurgans, many of which have already been explored, and their contents deposited in the irkutsk museum. amongst these are great numbers of stone implements, and objects made of bone and mammoth tusks, besides carefully worked copper ware, betraying technical skill and some artistic taste in the designs. in trans-baikalia, still farther east, with the kurgans are associated the so-called _kameni babi_, "stone women," monoliths rough-hewn in the form of human figures. many of these monoliths bear inscriptions, which, however, appear to be of recent date (mostly buddhist prayers and formularies), and are not to be confounded with the much older rock inscriptions deciphered by w. thomsen through the turki language. continuing his investigations in mongolia proper, leder here also discovered earthen kurgans, which, however, differed from those of siberia by being for the most part surmounted either with circular or rectangular stone structures, or else with monoliths. they are called _kürüktsúr_ by the present inhabitants, who hold them in great awe, and never venture to touch them. unfortunately strangers also are unable to examine their contents, all disturbance of the ground with spade or shovel being forbidden under pain of death by the chinese officials, for fear of awakening the evil spirits, now slumbering peacefully below the surface. the siberian burial mounds have yielded no bronze, a fact which indicates considerable antiquity, although no date can be set for its introduction into these regions. better evidence of antiquity is found in the climatic changes resulting in recent desiccation, which must have taken place here as elsewhere, for the burials bear witness to the existence of a denser population than could be supported at the present time[ ]. such an antiquity is indeed required to explain the spread of neolithic remains to the pacific seaboard, and especially to korea and japan. in korea w. gowland examined a dolmen miles from seul, which he describes and figures[ ], and which is remarkable especially for the disproportionate size of the capstone, a huge undressed megalith - / by over feet. he refers to four or five others, all in the northern part of the peninsula, and regards them as "intermediate in form between a cist and a dolmen." but he thinks it probable that they were never covered by mounds, but always stood as monuments above ground, in this respect differing from the japanese, the majority of which are all buried in tumuli. in some of their features these present a curious resemblance to the brittany structures, but no stone implements appear to have been found in any of the burial mounds, and the japanese chambered tombs, according to hamada, professor of archaeology in kyoto university, are usually attributed to the iron age (fifth to seventh centuries a.d.[ ]). in many districts japan contains memorials of a remote past--shell mounds, cave-dwellings, and in yezo certain pits, which are not occupied by the present ainu population, but are by them attributed to the _koro-pok-guru_, "people of the hollows," who occupied the land before their arrival, and lived in huts built over these pits. similar remains on an islet near nemuro on the north-east coast of yezo are said by the japanese to have belonged to the _kobito_, a dwarfish race exterminated by the ainu, hence apparently identical with the koro-pok-guru. they are associated by john milne with some primitive peoples of the kurile islands, sakhalin, and kamchatka, who, like the eskimo of the american coast, had extended formerly much farther south than at present. in a kitchen-midden, by feet, near shiidzuka in the province of ibaraki, the japanese antiquaries s. yagi and m. shinomura[ ] have found numerous objects belonging to the stone age of japan. amongst them were flint implements, worked bones, ashes, pottery, and a whole series of clay figures of human beings. the finders suggest that these remains may have belonged to a homogeneous race of the stone period, who, however, were not the ancestors of the ainu--hitherto generally regarded as the first inhabitants of japan. in the national records vague reference is made to other aborigines, such as the "long legs," and the "eight wild tribes," described as the enemies of the first japanese settlers in kiu-shiu, and reduced by jimmu tenno, the semi-mythical founder of the present dynasty; the _ebisu_, who are probably to be identified with the ainu; and the _seki-manzi_, "stone-men," also located in the southern island of kiu-shiu. the last-mentioned, of whom, however, little further is known, seem to have some claim to be associated with the above described remains of early man in japan[ ]. in the extreme west the present mongol peoples, being quite recent intruders, can in no way be connected with the abundant prehistoric relics daily brought to light in that region (south russia, the balkan peninsula, hungary). the same remark applies even to finland itself, which was at one time supposed to be the cradle of the finnish people, but is now shown to have been first occupied by germanic tribes. from an exhaustive study of the bronze-yielding tumuli a. hackman[ ] concludes that the population of the bronze period was teutonic, and in this he agrees both with montelius and with w. thomsen. the latter holds on linguistic grounds that at the beginning of the new era the finns still dwelt east of the gulf of finland, whence they moved west in later times. it is unfortunate that, owing probably to the character of the country, remains of the stone age in babylonia are wanting so that no comparison can yet be made with the neolithic cultures of egypt and the aegean. the constant floods to which babylonia was ever subject swept away all traces of early occupations until the advent of the sumerians, who built their cities on artificial mounds. the question of akkado-sumerian[ ] origins is by no means clear, for many important cities are unexplored and even unidentified, but the general trend of recent opinion may be noted. the linguistic problem is peculiarly complicated by the fact that almost all the sumerian texts show evidence of semitic influence, and consist to a great extent of religious hymns and incantations which often appear to be merely translations of semitic ideas turned by semitic priests into the formal religious sumerian language. j. halévy, indeed, followed by others, regarded sumerian as no true language, but merely a priestly system of cryptography[ ], based on semitic. as regards linguistic affinities, k. a. hermann[ ] endeavoured to establish a connection between the early texts and ural-altaic, more especially with ugro-finnish. a more recent suggestion that the language is of indo-european origin and structure rests on equally slight resemblances. the comparison with chinese has already been noticed. j. d. prince[ ] utters a word of caution against comparing ancient texts with idioms of more recent peoples of western asia, in spite of many tempting resemblances, and claims that until further light has been shed on the problem sumerian should be regarded as standing quite alone, "a prehistoric philological remnant." e. meyer[ ] claims for the sumerians not only linguistic but also physical isolation. the sumerian type as represented on the monuments shows a narrow pointed nose, with straight bridge and small nostrils, cheeks and lips not fleshy, like the semites, with prominent cheek-bones, small mouth, narrow lips finely curved, the lower jaw very short, with angular sharply projecting chin, oblique mongolian eyes, low forehead, usually sloping away directly from the root of the nose. in fact the nose has almost the appearance of a bird's beak, projecting far in advance of mouth and chin, while the forehead almost disappears. the hair and beard are closely shaven. the sumerians were undoubtedly a warlike people, fighting not like the semites in loosely extended battle array, but in close phalanx, their large shields protecting their bodies from neck to feet, forming a rampart beyond which projected the inclined spears of the foremost rank. battle axe and javelin were also used. helmets protected head and neck. besides lance or spear the royal leaders carried a curved throwing weapon, formed of three strands bound together at intervals with thongs of leather or bands of metal; this seems to have developed later into a sign of authority and hence into a sceptre. the bow, the typical weapon of the semites and the mountainous people to the east, was unrepresented. the gods carried clubs with stone heads. it is important to notice that, in direct contrast to the sumerians themselves, their gods had abundant hair on their heads, carefully curled and dressed, and a long curly beard on the chin, though cheeks and lips were closely shaven; these fashions recall those of the semites. thus, although the general view is to regard the sumerians as the autochthones and the semites as the later intruders in babylonia, the semitic character of the sumerian gods points to an opposite conclusion. but the time has not yet come for any definite conclusion to be reached. all that can be said is that according to our present knowledge the assumption that the earliest population was sumerian and that the semites were the conquering intruders is only slightly more probable than the reverse[ ]. recent archaeological discoveries make sumerian origins a little clearer. explorations in central asia (as mentioned above p. ) show that districts once well watered, and capable of supporting a large population, have been subject to periods of excessive drought, and this no doubt is the prime cause of the racial unrest which has ever been characteristic of the dwellers in these regions. a cycle of drought may well have prompted the sumerian migration of the fourth millennium b.c., as it is shown to have prompted the later invasions of the last two thousand years[ ]. although there is no evidence to connect the original home of the sumerians with any of the oases yet excavated in central asia, yet signs of cultural contact are not wanting, and it may safely be inferred that their civilisation was evolved in some region to the east of the euphrates valley before their entrance into babylonia[ ]. since semitic influence was first felt in the north of babylonia, at akkad, it is assumed that the immigration was from the north-west from arabia by way of the syrian coastlands, and in this case also the impulse may have been the occurrence of an arid period in the centre of the arabian continent. the semites are found not as barbarian invaders, but as a highly cultivated people. they absorbed several cultural elements of the sumerians, notably their script, and were profoundly influenced by sumerian religion. the akkadians are represented with elaborately curled hair and beard, and hence, in contradistinction to the shaven sumerians, are referred to as "the black-headed ones." their chief weapon was the bow, but they had also lances and battle axes. as among the sumerians the sign of kingship was a boomerang-like sceptre[ ]. except for babylon and sippar, which throw little light on the early periods, no systematic excavation has been undertaken in northern babylonia, and the site of akkad is still unidentified. the chronology of this early age of babylonia is much disputed. the very high dates of or b.c. formerly assigned by many writers to the earliest remains of the sumerians and the babylonian semites, depended to a great extent on the statement of nabonidus ( b.c.) that years separated his own age from that of naram-sin, the son of sargon of agade; for to sargon, on this statement alone, a date of has usually been assigned[ ]. this date presents many difficulties, leaving many centuries unrepresented by any royal names or records. even the suggested emendation of the text reducing the estimate by a thousand years is not generally acceptable. most authorities hesitate to date any babylonian records before b.c.[ ] and agree that the time has not arrived for fixing any definite dates for the early period. despite the legendary matter associated with his memory, shar-gani-sharri, commonly called sargon of akkad, about b.c. (meyer), b.c. (king), was beyond question a historical person though it seems that there has been some confusion with sharru-gi, or sharrukin, also called sargon, earliest king of kish[ ]. tradition records how his mother, a royal princess, concealed his birth by placing him in a rush basket closed with bitumen and sending him adrift on the stream, from which he was rescued by akki the water-carrier, who brought him up as his own child. the incident, about which there is nothing miraculous, presents a curious parallel to, if it be not the source of, similar tales related of moses, cyrus, and other ancient leaders of men. sargon also tells us that he ruled from his capital, agade, for years over upper and lower mesopotamia, governed the black-headed ones, as the akkads are constantly called, rode in bronze chariots over rugged lands, and made expeditions thrice to the sea-coast. the expeditions are confirmed by inscriptions from syria, though the cylinder of his son, naram-sin, found by cesnola in cyprus, is now regarded as of later date[ ]. as they also penetrated to sinai their influence appears to have extended over the whole of syria and north arabia. they erected great structures at nippur, which was at that time so ancient that naram-sin's huge brick platform stood on a mass feet thick of the accumulated debris of earlier buildings. among the most interesting of recent discoveries at nippur are pre-semitic tablets containing accounts similar to those recorded in the book of genesis, from which in some cases the latter have clearly been derived. the "deluge fragment" published in relates the warning given by the god ea to utnapishtim, the babylonian noah, and the directions for building a ship by means of which he and his family may escape, together with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven[ ]. a still later discovery agrees more closely with the bible version, giving the name of the one pious man as tagtog, semitic nûhu, and assigning nine months as the period of the duration of the flood. the same tablet also contains an account of the fall of man; but it is noah, not adam, who is tempted and falls, and the forbidden fruit is cassia[ ]. sennacherib's grandson, ashurbanipal, who belongs to the late assyrian empire when the centre of power had been shifted from babylonia to nineveh, has left recorded on his brick tablets how he overran elam and destroyed its capital, susa ( b.c.). he states that from this place he brought back the effigy of the goddess, nana, which had been carried away from her temple at erech by an elamite king by whom akkad had been conquered years before, _i.e._ b.c. over akkad elam ruled years, and it was a king of this dynasty, khudur-lagamar, who has been identified by t. g. pinches with the "chedorlaomer, king of elam" routed by abraham (gen. xiv. - )[ ]. thus is explained the presence of elamites at this time so far west as syria, their own seat being amid the kurdish mountains in the upper tigris basin. the elamites do not appear to have been of the same stock as the sumerians. they are described as peaceful, industrious, and skilful husbandmen, with a surprising knowledge of irrigating processes. the non-semitic language shows possible connections with mitanni[ ]. yet the type would appear to be on the whole rather semitic, judging at least from the large arched nose and thick beard of the susian god, ramman, brought by ashurbanipal out of elam, and figured in layard's _monuments of nineveh_, st series, plate . this, however, may be explained by the fact that the elamites were subdued at an early date by intruding semites, although they afterwards shook off the yoke and became strong enough to conquer mesopotamia and extend their expeditions to syria and the jordan. the capital of elam was the renowned city of susa (shushan, whence susiana, the modern khuzistan). recent excavations show that the settlement dates from neolithic times[ ]. even after the capture of susa by ashurbanipal, elam again rose to great power under cyrus the great, who, however, was no persian adventurer, as stated by herodotus, but the legitimate elamite ruler, as inscribed on his cylinder and tablet now in the british museum:--"cyrus, the great king, the king of babylon, the king of sumir and akkad, the king of the four zones, the son of kambyses, the great king, the king of elam, the grandson of cyrus the great king," who by the favour of merodach has overcome the black-headed people (_i.e._ the akkads) and at last entered babylon in peace. on an earlier cylinder nabonidus, last king of babylon, tells us how this same cyrus subdued the medes--here called _mandas_, "barbarians"--and captured their king astyages and his capital ekbatana. but although cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a persian and a zoroastrian monotheist, here appears as an elamite and a polytheist, "it is pretty certain that although descended from elamite kings, these were [at that time] kings of persian race, who, after the destruction of the old [elamite] monarchy by ashurbanipal, had established a new dynasty at the city of susa. cyrus always traces his descent from achæmenes, the chief of the leading persian clan of pasargadæ[ ]." hence although wrong in speaking of cyrus as an adventurer, herodotus rightly calls him a persian, and at this late date elam itself may well have been already aryanised in speech[ ], while still retaining its old sumerian religion. the babylonian pantheon survived, in fact, till the time of darius hystaspes, who introduced zoroastrianism with its supreme gods, ahura-mazda, creator of all good, and ahriman, author of all evil. it is now possible to gain some idea of the gradual growth of the city states of babylonia. beginning with a mere collection of rude reed huts, these were succeeded by structures of sun-dried bricks, built in a group for mutual protection, probably around a centre of a local god, and surrounded by a wall. the land around the settlement was irrigated by canals, and here the corn and vegetables were grown and the flocks and herds were tended for the maintenance of the population. the central figure was always the god, who occasionally gave his name to the site, and who was the owner of all the land, the inhabitants being merely his tenants who owed him rent for their estates. it was the god who waged wars with the neighbours, and with whom treaties were made. the treaty between lagash and umma fixing the limitations of their boundaries, a constant matter of dispute, was made by ningirsu, god of lagash, and the city god of umma, under the arbitration of enlil, the chief of the gods, whose central shrine was at nippur. with the growth of the cities disputes of territory were sure to arise, and either by conquest or amalgamation, cities became absorbed into states. the problem then was the adjustment of the various city gods, each reigning supreme in his own city, but taking a higher or lower place in the babylonian pantheon. when one city gained a supremacy over all its neighbours, its governor might assume the title of king. but the king was merely the _patesi_, the steward of the city god. even when the supremacy was sufficiently permanent for the establishment of a dynasty, this was a dynasty of the city rather than of a family, for the successive kings were not necessarily of the same family[ ]. among the city gods who developed into powerful deities were anu of uruk (erech), enlil of nippur and ea of eridu (originally a sea-port). these became the supreme triad, anu ruling over the heavens, enthroned on the northern pole, as king and father of the gods; enlil, the semitic bel, god of earth, lord of the lands, formerly chief of all the gods; and ea, god of the water-depths, whose son was ultimately to eclipse his father as marduk of babylon. a second triad is composed of the local deities who developed into sin, the moon-god of ur, shamash the sun-god of larsa, and the famous ishtar, the great mother, goddess of love and queen of heaven. the realm of the dead was a dark place under the earth, where the dead lived as shadows, eating the dust of the earth. their lot depended partly on their earlier lives, and partly on the devotion of their surviving relatives. although their dead kings were deified there seems to be no evidence for a belief in a general resurrection or in the transmigration of souls. the hymns and prayers to the gods however show a very high religious level in spite of the important part played by soothsaying and exorcism, relics of earlier culture. the permanence of these may be partly ascribed to the essentially theocratic character of babylonian government. the king was merely the agent of the god, whose desires were interpreted by the priestly soothsayers and exorcists, and no action could be undertaken in worldly or in religious concerns without their superintendence. the kings occasionally attempted to free themselves from the power of the priests, but the attempt was always vain. the power of the priests had often a sound economic basis, for the temples of the great cities were centres of vast wealth and of far-reaching trade, as is proved by the discovery of the commercial contracts stored in the temple archives[ ]. how the family expands through the clan and tribe into the nation, is clearly seen in the babylonian social system, in which the inhabitants of each city were still "divided into clans, all of whose members claimed to be descended from a common ancestor who had flourished at a more or less remote period. the members of each clan were by no means all in the same social position, some having gone down in the world, others having raised themselves; and amongst them we find many different callings--from agricultural labourers to scribes, and from merchants to artisans. no natural tie existed among the majority of these members except the remembrance of their common origin, perhaps also a common religion, and eventual rights of succession or claims upon what belonged to each one individually[ ]." the god or goddess, it is suggested, who watched over each man, and of whom each was the son, was originally the god or goddess of the clan (its totem). so also in egypt, the members of the community were all supposed to come of the same stock (_páit_), and to belong to the same family (_páitu_), whose chiefs (_ropáitu_) were the guardians of the family, several groups of such families being under a _ropáitú-há_, or head chief[ ]. amongst the local institutions, it is startling to find a fully developed ground-landlord system, though not quite so bad as that still patiently endured in england, already flourishing ages ago in babylonia. "the cost of repairs fell usually on the lessee, who was also allowed to build on the land he had leased, in which case it was declared free of all charges for a period of about ten years; but the house and, as a rule, all he had built, then reverted to the landlord[ ]." in many other respects great progress had been made, and it is the belief of von ihring[ ], hommel[ ] and others that from babylonia was first diffused a knowledge of letters, astronomy, agriculture, navigation, architecture, and other arts, to the nile valley, and mainly through egypt to the western world, and through irania to china and india. in this generalisation there is probably a large measure of truth, although it will be seen farther on that the asiatic origin of egyptian culture is still far from being proved[ ]. one element the two peoples certainly had in common--a highly developed agricultural system, which formed the foundation of their greatness, and was maintained in a rainless climate by a stupendous system of irrigation works. such works were carried out on a prodigious scale by the ancient babylonians six or eight thousand years ago. the plains of the lower euphrates and tigris, since rendered desolate under turkish misrule, are intersected by the remains of an intricate network of canalisation covering all the space between the two rivers, and are strewn with the ruins of many great cities, whose inhabitants, numbering scores of thousands, were supported by the produce of a highly cultivated region, which is now an arid waste varied only by crumbling mounds, stagnant waters, and the camping-grounds of a few arab tent-dwellers. * * * * * those who attach weight to distinctive racial qualities have always found a difficulty in attributing this wonderful civilisation to the same mongolic people, who in their own homes have scarcely anywhere advanced beyond the hunting, fishing, or pastoral states. but it has always to be remembered that man, like all other zoological forms, necessarily reflects the character of his environment. the mongols might in time become agriculturalists in the alluvial mesopotamian lands, though the kindred people who give their name to the whole ethnical division and present its physical characters in an exaggerated form, ever remain tented nomads on the dry central asiatic steppe, which yields little but herbage, and is suitable for tillage only in a few more favoured districts. here the typical mongols, cut off from the arable lands of south siberia by the tian-shan and altai ranges, and to some extent denied access to the rich fluvial valleys of the middle kingdom by the barrier of the great wall, have for ages led a pastoral life in the inhabitable tracts and oases of the gobi wilderness and the ordos region within the great bend of the hoang-ho. during the historic period these natural and artificial ramparts have been several times surmounted by fierce mongol hordes, pouring like irresistible flood-waters over the whole of china and many parts of siberia, and extending their predatory or conquering expeditions across the more open northern plains westwards nearly to the shores of the atlantic. but such devastating torrents, which at intervals convulsed and caused dislocations amongst half the settled populations of the globe, had little effect on the tribal groups that remained behind. these continued and continue to occupy the original camping-grounds, as changeless and uniform in their physical appearance, mental characters, and social usages as the arab bedouins and all other inhabitants of monotonous undiversified steppe lands. de ujfalvy's suggestion that the typical mongols of the plains, with whom we are now dealing, were originally a long-headed race, can scarcely be taken seriously. at present and, in fact, throughout historic times, all true mongol peoples are and have been distinguished by a high degree of brachycephaly, with cephalic index generally from upwards, and it may be remembered that the highest known index of any undeformed skull was that of huxley's mongol ( . ). but, as already noticed, those recovered from prehistoric, or neolithic kurgans, are found to be dolichocephalous like those of palaeolithic and early neolithic man in europe. taken in connection with the numerous prehistoric remains above recorded from all parts of central asia and siberia, this fact may perhaps help to bring de ujfalvy's view into harmony with the actual conditions. everything will be explained by assuming that the proto-mongolic tribes, spreading from the tibetan plateau over the plains now bearing their name, found that region already occupied by the long-headed caucasic peoples of the stone ages, whom they either exterminated or drove north to the altai uplands, and east to manchuria and korea, where a strong caucasic strain still persists. de ujfalvy's long-heads would thus be, not the proto-mongols who were always round-headed, but the long-headed neolithic pre-mongol race expelled by them from mongolia who may provisionally be termed proto-nordics. that this region has been their true home since the first migrations from the south there can be no doubt. here land and people stand in the closest relation one to the other; here every conspicuous physical feature recalls some popular memory; every rugged crest is associated with the name of some national hero, every lake or stream is still worshipped or held in awe as a local deity, or else the abode of the ancestral shades. here also the mongols proper form two main divisions, _sharra_ in the east and _kalmúk_ in the west, while a third group, the somewhat mixed _buryats_, have long been settled in the siberian provinces of irkutsk and trans-baikalia. under the chinese semi-military administration all except the buryats, who are russian subjects, are constituted since the seventeenth century in _aimaks_ (large tribal groups or principalities with hereditary khans) and _koshungs_, "banners," that is, smaller groups whose chiefs are dependent on the khans of their respective aimaks, who are themselves directly responsible to the imperial government. subjoined is a table of these administrative divisions, which present a curious but effective combination of the tribal and political systems, analogous to the arrangement in pondoland and some other districts in cape colony, where the hereditary tribal chief assumes the functions of a responsible british magistrate. tribal or territorial aimaks koshungs divisions (principalities) (banners) khalkas inner mongolia with ordos chakars ala-shan koko-nor and tsaidam sungaria uriankhai -- --- since their organisation in aimaks and koshungs, the mongols have ceased to be a terror to the surrounding peoples. the incessant struggles between these tented warriors and the peaceful chinese populations, which began long before the dawn of history, were brought to a close with the overthrow of the sungarian power in the eighteenth century, when their political cohesion was broken, and the whole nation reduced to a state of abject helplessness, from which they cannot now hope to recover. the arm of chinese rule could be replaced only by the firmer grip of the northern autocrat, whose shadow already lies athwart the gobi wilderness. thus the only escape from the crushing monotony of a purely pastoral life, no longer relieved by intervals of warlike or predatory expeditions, lies in a survival of the old shamanist superstitions, or a further development of the degrading tibetan lamaism represented at urga by the _kutukhtu_, an incarnation of the buddha only less revered than the dalai lama himself[ ]. besides this high priest at urga, there are over a hundred smaller incarnations--_gigens_, as they are called--and these saintly beings possess unlimited means of plundering their votaries. the smallest favour, the touch of their garments, a pious ejaculation or blessing, is regarded as a priceless spiritual gift, and must be paid for with costly offerings. even the dead do not escape these exactions. however disposed of, whether buried or cremated, like the khans and lamas, or exposed to beasts and birds of prey, as is the fate of the common folk, "masses," which also command a high price, have to be said for forty days to relieve their souls from the torments of the buddhist purgatory. it is a singular fact, which, however, may perhaps admit of explanation, that nearly all the true mongol peoples have been buddhists since the spread of sakya-muni's teachings throughout central asia, while their turki kinsmen are zealous followers of the prophet. thus is seen, for instance, the strange spectacle of two mongolic groups, the kirghiz of the turki branch and the kalmuks of the west mongol branch, encamped side by side on the lower volga plains, the former all under the banner of the crescent, the latter devout worshippers of all the incarnations of buddha. but analogous phenomena occur amongst the european peoples, the teutons being mainly protestants, those of neo-latin speech mainly roman catholics, and the easterns orthodox. from all this, however, nothing more can be inferred than that the religions are partly a question of geography, partly determined by racial temperament and political conditions; while the religious sentiment, being universal, is above all local or ethnical considerations. under the first term of the expression _mongolo-turki_ (p. ) are comprised, besides the mongols proper, nearly all those branches of the division which lie to the east and north-east of mongolia, and are in most respects more closely allied with the mongol than with the turki section. such are the _tunguses_, with the kindred _manchus_, _golds_, _orochons_, _lamuts_, and others of the amur basin, the upper lena head-streams, the eastern affluents of the yenisei, and the shores of the sea of okhotsk; the _gilyaks_ about the amur estuary and in the northern parts of sakhalin; the _kamchadales_ in south kamchatka; in the extreme north-east the _koryaks_, _chukchis_, and _yukaghirs_; lastly the _koreans_, _japanese_, and _liu-kiu (lu-chu) islanders_. to the mongol section thus belong nearly all the peoples lying between the yenisei and the pacific (including most of the adjacent archipelagos), and between the great wall and the arctic ocean. the only two exceptions are the _yakuts_ of the middle and lower lena and neighbouring arctic rivers, who are of turki stock; and the _ainus_ of yezo, south sakhalin, and some of the kurile islands, who belong to the caucasic division. m. a. czaplicka proposes a useful classification of the various peoples of siberia, usually grouped on account of linguistic affinities as ural-altaians, and as "no other part of the world presents a racial problem of such complexity and in regard to no other part of the world's inhabitants have ethnologists of the last hundred years put forward such widely differing hypotheses of their origin[ ]," her tabulation may serve to clear the way. she divides the whole area[ ] into _palaeo-siberians_, representing the most ancient stock of dwellers in siberia, and _neo-siberians_, comprising the various tribes of central asiatic origin who are sufficiently differentiated from the kindred peoples of their earlier homes as to deserve a generic name of their own. the palaeo-siberians thus include the _chukchi_, _koryak_, _kamchadale_, _ainu_, _gilyak_, _eskimo_, _aleut_, _yukaghir_, _chuvanzy_ and _ostyak_ of yenisei. the neo-siberians include the finnic tribes (ugrian _ostyak_, and _vogul_), samoyedic tribes, turkic tribes (_yakut_ and turko-tatars of tobolsk and tomsk governments), mongolic tribes (western mongols or _kalmuk_, eastern mongols, and _buryat_), and tungusic tribes (_tungus_, _chapogir_, _gold_, _lamut_, _manchu_, _manyarg_, _oroch_, _orochon_ ("reindeer tungus"), _oroke_). a striking illustration of the general statement that the various cultural states are a question not of race, but of environment, is afforded by the varying social conditions of the widespread tungus family, who are fishers on the arctic coast, hunters in the east siberian woodlands, and for the most part sedentary tillers of the soil and townspeople in the rich alluvial valleys of the amur and its southern affluents. the russians, from whom we get the term tungus[ ], recognise these various pursuits, and speak of _horse_, _cattle_, _reindeer_, _dog_, _steppe_, and _forest_ tunguses, besides the settled farmers and stock-breeders of the amur. their original home appears to have been the shan-alin uplands, where they dwelt with the kindred _niu-chi_ (manchus) till the thirteenth century, when the disturbances brought about by the wars and conquests of jenghiz-khan drove them to their present seat in east siberia. the type, although essentially mongolic in the somewhat flat features, very prominent cheek-bones, slant eyes, long lank hair, yellowish brown colour and low stature, seems to show admixture with a higher race in the shapely frame, the nimble, active figure, and quick, intelligent expression, and especially in the variable skull. while generally round (indices ° to °), the head is sometimes flat on the top, like that of the true mongol, sometimes high and short, which, as hamy tells us, is specially characteristic of the turki race[ ]. all observers speak in enthusiastic language of the temperament and moral qualities of the tunguses, and particularly of those groups that roam the forests about the tunguska tributaries of the yenisei, which take their name from these daring hunters and trappers. "full of animation and natural impulse, always cheerful even in the deepest misery, holding themselves and others in like respect, of gentle manners and poetic speech, obliging without servility, unaffectedly proud, scorning falsehood, and indifferent to suffering and death, the tunguses are unquestionably an heroic people[ ]." a few have been brought within the pale of the orthodox church, and in the extreme south some are classed as buddhists. but the great bulk of the tungus nation are still shamanists. indeed the very word _shaman_ is of tungus origin, though current also amongst the buryats and yakuts. it is often taken to be the equivalent of priest; but in point of fact it represents a stage in the development of natural religion which has scarcely yet reached the sacerdotal state. "although in many cases the shamans act as priests, and take part in popular and family festivals, prayers, and sacrifices, their chief importance is based on the performance of duties which distinguish them sharply from ordinary priests[ ]." their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest, especially in his capacity as exorcist, and in his general power to influence, control, or even coerce the good and evil spirits on behalf of their votaries. but as all spirits are, or were originally, identified with the souls of the departed, it follows that in its ultimate analysis shamanism resolves itself into a form of ancestry-worship. the system, of which there are many phases reflecting the different cultural states of its adherents, still prevails amongst all the siberian aborigines[ ], and generally amongst all the uncivilised ural-altaic populations, so that here again the religions strictly reflect the social condition of the peoples. thus the somewhat cultured finns, turks, mongols, and manchus are all either christians, muhammadans, or buddhists; while the uncultured but closely related samoyeds, ostyaks, orochons, tunguses, golds, gilyaks, koryaks, and chukchi, are almost without exception shamanists. the shamans do not appear to constitute a special caste or sacerdotal order, like the hierarchies of the christian churches. some are hereditary, some elected by popular vote, so to say. they may be either men, or women (_shamanka_), married or single; and if "rank" is spoken of, it simply means greater or less proficiency in the performance of the duties imposed on them. everything thus depends on their personal merits, which naturally gives rise to much jealousy between the members of the craft. thus amongst the "whites" and the "blacks," that is, those whose dealings are with the good and the bad spirits respectively, there is in some districts a standing feud, often resulting in fierce encounters and bloodshed. the buryats tell how the two factions throw axes at each other at great distances, the struggle usually ending in the death of one of the combatants. the blacks, who serve the evil spirits, bringing only disease, death, or ill-luck, and even killing people by eating up their souls, are of course the least popular, but also the most dreaded. many are credited with extraordinary and even miraculous powers, and there can be no doubt that they often act up to their reputation by performing almost incredible conjuring tricks in order to impose on the credulity of the ignorant, or outbid their rivals for the public favour. old richard johnson of chancelour's expedition to muscovy records how he saw a samoyed shaman stab himself with a sword, then make the sword red hot and thrust it through his body, so that the point protruded at the back, and johnson was able to touch it with his finger. they then bound the wizard tight with a reindeer-rope, and went through some performances curiously like those of the davenport brothers and other modern conjurers[ ]. to the much-discussed question whether the shamans are impostors, the best answer has perhaps been given by castrèn, who, speaking of the same samoyed magicians, remarks that if they were merely cheats, we should have to suppose that they did not share the religious beliefs of their fellow-tribesmen, but were a sort of rationalists far in advance of the times. hence it would seem much more probable that they deceived both themselves and others[ ], while no doubt many bolster up a waning reputation by playing the mountebank where there is no danger of detection. "shamanism amongst the siberian peoples," concludes our russian authority, "is at the present time in a moribund condition; it must die out with those beliefs among which alone such phenomena can arise and flourish. buddhism on the one hand, and muhammadanism on the other, not to mention christianity, are rapidly destroying the old ideas of the tribes among whom the shamans performed. especially has the more ancient black faith suffered from the yellow faith preached by the lamas. but the shamans, with their dark mysterious rites, have made a good struggle for life, and are still frequently found among the native christians and muhammadans. the mullahs and lamas have even been obliged to become shamans to a great extent, and many siberian tribes, who are nominally christians, believe in shamans, and have recourse to them." of all members of the tungusic family the manchus alone can be called a historical people. if they were really descended from the _khitans_ of the sungari valley, then their authentic records will date from the tenth century a.d., when these renowned warriors, after overthrowing the pu-haï ( ), founded the liao dynasty and reduced a great part of north china and surrounding lands. the khitans, from whom china was known to marco polo as _khitai_ (cathay), as it still is to the russians, were conquered in by the _niu-chi_ (_yu-chi, nu-chin_) of the shan-alin uplands, reputed cradle of the manchu race. these niu-chi, direct ancestors of the manchus, founded ( ) the state known as that of the "golden tartars," from _kin_, "gold," the title adopted by their chief aguta, "because iron (in reference to the _liao_, 'iron' dynasty) may rust, but gold remains ever pure and bright." the kins, however, retained their brightness only a little over a century, having been eclipsed by jenghiz-khan in . but about the middle of the fourteenth century the niu-chi again rose to power under aishiu-gioro, who, although of miraculous birth and surrounded by other legendary matter, appears to have been a historical person. he may be regarded as the true founder of the manchu dynasty, for it was in his time that this name came into general use. sing-tsu, one of his descendants, constructed the palisade, a feeble imitation of the great wall, sections of which still exist. thai-tsu, a still more famous member of the family, greatly extended the manchu kingdom ( - ), and it was his son tai-dsung who first assumed the imperial dignity under the title of tai-tsing. after his death, the ming dynasty having been overthrown by a rebel chief, the manchus were invited by the imperialists to aid in restoring order, entered peking in triumph, and, finding that the last of the mings had committed suicide, placed tai-dsung's nephew on the throne, thus founding the manchu dynasty ( ) which lasted down to . such has been the contribution of the manchu people to history; their contributions to arts, letters, science, in a word, to the general progress of mankind, have been _nil_. they found the middle kingdom, after ages of a sluggish growth, in a state of absolute stagnation, and there they have left it. on the other hand their assumption of the imperial administration brought about their own ruin, their effacement, and almost their very extinction as a separate nationality[ ]. manchuria, like mongolia, is organised in a number of half military, half civil divisions, the so-called _paki_, or "eight banners," and the constant demand made on these reserves, to support the dynasty and supply trustworthy garrisons for all the strongholds of the empire, has drawn off the best blood of the people, in fact sapped its vitality at the fountain-head. then the rich arable tracts thus depleted were gradually occupied by agricultural settlers from the south, with the result that the manchu race has nearly disappeared. from the ethnical standpoint the whole region beyond the great wall as far north as the amur has practically become an integral part of china, and from the political standpoint since an integral part of the russian empire. towards the middle of the nineteenth century the eight banners numbered scarcely more than a quarter of a million, and about that time the abbé huc declared that "the manchu nationality is destroyed beyond recovery. at present we shall look in vain for a single town or a single village throughout manchuria which is not exclusively inhabited by chinese. the local colour has been completely effaced, and except a few nomad groups nobody speaks manchu[ ]." similar testimony is afforded by later observers, and henry lansdell, amongst others, remarks that "the manchu, during the two centuries they have reigned in china, may be said to have been working out their own annihilation. their manners, language, their very country has become chinese, and some maintain that the manchu proper are now extinct[ ]." but the type, so far from being extinct, may be said to have received a considerable expansion, especially amongst the populations of north-east china. the taller stature and greatly superior physical appearance of the inhabitants of tien-tsin and surrounding districts[ ] over those of the southern provinces (fokien, kwang-tung), who are the chief representatives of the chinese race abroad, seem best explained by continual crossings with the neighbouring manchu people, at least since the twelfth century, if not earlier. closely related to the manchus (of the same stock says sir h. h. howorth, the distinction being purely political) are the _dauri_, who give their name to the extensive daur plateau, and formerly occupied both sides of the upper amur. daur is, in fact, the name applied by the buryats to all the tungus peoples of the amur basin. the dauri proper, who are now perhaps the best representatives of the original manchu type, would seem to have intermingled at a remote time with the long-headed pre-mongol populations of central asia. they are "taller and stronger than the oronchons [tungus groups lower down the amur]; the countenance is oval and more intellectual, and the cheeks are less broad. the nose is rather prominent, and the eyebrows straight. the skin is tawny, and the hair brown[ ]." most of these characters are such as we should expect to find in a people of mixed mongolo-caucasic descent, the latter element being derived from the long-headed race who had already reached the present mongolia, manchuria, korea, and the adjacent islands during neolithic times. thus may be explained the tall stature, somewhat regular features, brown hair, light eyes, and even florid complexion so often observed amongst the present inhabitants of manchuria, korea, and parts of north china. but no admixture, except of chinese literary terms, is seen in the manchu language, which, like mongolic, is a typical member of the agglutinating ural-altaic family. despite great differences, lexical, phonetic, and even structural, all the members of this widespread order of speech have in common a number of fundamental features, which justify the assumption that all spring from an original stock language, which has long been extinct, and the germs of which were perhaps first developed on the tibetan plateau. the essential characters of the system are:--( ) a "root" or notional term, generally a closed syllable, nominal or verbal, with a vowel or diphthong, strong or weak (hard or soft) according to the meaning of the term, hence incapable of change; ( ) a number of particles or relational terms somewhat loosely postfixed to the root, but incorporated with it by the principle of ( ) vowel harmony, a kind of vocal concordance, in virtue of which the vowels of all the postfixes must harmonise with the unchangeable vowel of the root. if this is strong all the following vowels of the combination, no matter what its length, must be strong; if weak they must conform in the same way. with nominal roots the postfixes are necessarily limited to the expression of a few simple relations; but with verbal roots they are in principle unlimited, so that the multifarious relations of the verb to its subject and object are all incorporated in the verbal compound itself, which may thus run at times to inordinate lengths. hence we have the expression "incorporating," commonly applied to this agglutinating system, which sometimes goes so far as to embody the notions of causality, possibility, passivity, negation, intensity, condition, and so on, besides the direct pronominal objects, in one interminable conglomerate, which is then treated as a simple verb, and run through all the secondary changes of number, person, tense, and mood. the result is an endless number of theoretically possible verbal forms, which, although in practice naturally limited to the ordinary requirements of speech, are far too numerous to allow of a complete verbal paradigm being constructed of any fully developed member of the ural-altaic group, such, for instance, as yakut, tungus, turki, mordvinian, finnish, or magyar. in this system the vowels are classed as strong or hard (_a, o, u_), weak or soft (the same _umlauted_: _ä_, _ö_, _ü_), and neutral (generally _e_, _i_), these last being so called because they occur indifferently with the two other classes. thus, if the determining root vowel is _a_ (strong), that of the postfixes may be either _a_ (strong), _e_ or _i_ (neutral); if _ä_ (weak), that of the postfixes may be either _ä_ (weak), or _e_ or _i_ as before. the postfixes themselves no doubt were originally notional terms worn down in form and meaning, so as to express mere abstract relation, as in the magyar _vel_ = with, from _veli_ = companion. tacked on to the root _fa_ = tree, this will give the ablative case, first unharmonised, _fa-vel_, then harmonised, _fa-val_ = tree-with, with a tree. in the early magyar texts of the twelfth century inharmonic compounds, such as _halál-nek_, later _halák-nak_ = at death, are numerous, from which it has been inferred that the principle of vowel harmony is not an original feature of the ural-altaic languages, but a later development, due in fact to phonetic decay, and still scarcely known in some members of the group, such as votyak and highland cheremissian (volga finn). but m. lucien adam holds that these idioms have lost the principle through foreign (russian) influence, and that the few traces still perceptible are survivals from a time when all the ural-altaic tongues were subject to progressive vowel harmony[ ]. but however this be, dean byrne is disposed to regard the alternating energetic utterance of the hard, and indolent utterance of the soft vowel series, as an expression of the alternating active and lethargic temperament of the race, such alternations being themselves due to the climatic conditions of their environment. "certainly the life of the great nomadic races involves a twofold experience of this kind, as they must during their abundant summer provide for their rigorous winter, when little can be done. their character, too, involves a striking combination of intermittent indolence and energy; and it is very remarkable that this distinction of roots is peculiar to the languages spoken originally where this great distinction of seasons exists. the fact that the distinction [between hard and soft] is imparted to all the suffixes of a root proves that the radical characteristic which it expresses is thought with these; and consequently that the radical idea is retained in the consciousness while these are added to it[ ]." this is a highly characteristic instance of the methods followed by dean byrne in his ingenious but hopeless attempt to explain the subtle structure of speech by the still more subtle temperament of the speaker, taken in connection with the alternating nature of the climate. the feature in question cannot be due to such alternation of mood and climate, because it is persistent throughout all seasons, while the hard and soft elements occur simultaneously, one might say, promiscuously, in conversation under all mental states of those conversing. the true explanation is given by schleicher, who points out that progressive vocal assimilation is the necessary result of agglutination, which by this means binds together the idea and its relations in their outward expression, just as they are already inseparately associated in the mind of the speaker. hence it is that such assonance is not confined to the ural-altaic group, analogous processes occurring at certain stages of their growth in all forms of speech, as in wolof, zulu-xosa, celtic (expressed by the formula of irish grammarians: "broad to broad, slender to slender"), and even in latin, as in such vocalic concordance as: _annus, perennis_; _ars, iners_; _lego, diligo_. in these examples the root vowel is influenced by that of the prefix, while in the mongolo-turki family the root vowel, coming first, is unchangeable, but, as explained, influences the vowels of the postfixes, the phonetic principle being the same in both systems. both mongol and manchu are cultivated languages employing modified forms of the uiguric (turki) script, which is based on the syriac introduced by the christian (nestorian) missionaries in the seventh century. it was first adopted by the mongols about , and perfected by the scribe tsorji osir under jenezek khan ( - ). the letters, connected together by continuous strokes, and slightly modified, as in syriac, according to their position at the beginning, middle, or end of the word, are disposed in vertical columns from left to right, an arrangement due no doubt to chinese influence. this is the more probable since the manchus, before the introduction of the mongol system in the sixteenth century, employed the chinese characters ever since the time of the kin dynasty. none of the other tungusic or north-east siberian peoples possess any writing system except the yukaghirs of the yasachnaya affluent of the kolymariver, who were visited in by the russian traveller, s. shargorodsky. from his report[ ], it appears that this symbolic writing is carved with a sharp knife out of soft fresh birch-bark, these simple materials sufficing to describe the tracks followed on hunting and fishing expeditions, as well as the sentiments of the young women in their correspondence with their sweethearts. specimens are given of these curious documents, some of which are touching and even pathetic. "thou goest hence, and i bide alone, for thy sake still to weep and moan," writes one disconsolate maid to her parting lover. another with a touch of jealousy: "thou goest forth thy russian flame to seek, who stands 'twixt thee and me, thy heart from me apart to keep. in a new home joy wilt thou find, while i must ever grieve, as thee i bear in mind, though another yet there be who loveth me." or again: "each youth his mate doth find; my fate alone it is of him to dream, who to another wedded is, and i must fain contented be, if only he forget not me." and with a note of wail: "thou hast gone hence, and of late it seems this place for me is desolate; and i too forth must fare, that so the memories old i may forget, and from the pangs thus flee of those bright days, which here i once enjoyed with thee." details of domestic life may even be given, and one accomplished maiden is able to make a record in her note-book of the combs, shawls, needles, thimble, cake of soap, lollipops, skeins of wool, and other sundries, which she has received from a yakut packman, in exchange for some clothes she has made him. without illustrations no description of the process would be intelligible. indeed it would seem these primitive documents are not always understood by the young folks themselves. they gather at times in groups to watch the process of composition by some expert damsel, the village "notary," and much merriment, we are told, is caused by the blunders of those who fail to read the text aright. it is not stated whether the system is current amongst the other yukaghir tribes, who dwell on the banks of the indigirka, yana, kerkodona, and neighbouring districts. they thus skirt the frozen ocean from near the lena delta to and beyond the kolyma, and are conterminous landwards with the yakuts on the south-west and the chukchi on the north-east. with the chukchi, the koryaks, the kamchadales, and the gilyaks they form a separate branch of the mongolic division sometimes grouped together as "hyperboreans," but distinguished from other ural-altaic peoples perhaps strictly on linguistic grounds. although now reduced to scarcely , the yukaghirs were formerly a numerous people, and the popular saying that their hearths on the banks of the kolyma at one time outnumbered the stars in the sky seems a reminiscence of more prosperous days. but great inroads have been made by epidemics, tribal wars, the excessive use of coarse ukraine tobacco and of bad spirits, indulged in even by the women and children. "a yukaghir, it is said, never intoxicates himself alone, but calls upon his family to share the drink, even children in arms being supplied with a portion[ ]." their language, which a. schiefner regards as radically distinct from all others[ ], is disappearing even more rapidly than the people themselves, if it be not already quite extinct. in the eighties it was spoken only by about a dozen old persons, its place being taken almost everywhere by the turki dialect of the yakuts[ ]. there appears to be a curious interchange of tribal names between the chukchi and their koryak neighbours, the term _koryak_ being the chukchi _khorana_, "reindeer," while the koryaks are said to call themselves _chauchau_, whence some derive the word _chukchi_. hooper, however, tells us that the proper form of chukchi is _tuski_, "brothers," or "confederates[ ]," and in any case the point is of little consequence, as dittmar is probably right in regarding both groups as closely related, and sprung originally from one stock[ ]. jointly they occupy the north-east extremity of the continent between the kolyma and bering strait, together with the northern parts of kamchatka; the chukchi lying to the north, the koryaks to the south, mainly round about the north-eastern inlets of the sea of okhotsk. reasons have already been advanced for supposing that the chukchi were a tungus people who came originally from the amur basin. in their arctic homes they appear to have waged long wars with the onkilon (ang-kali) aborigines, gradually merging with the survivors and also mingling both with the koryaks and chuklukmiut eskimo settled on the asiatic side of bering strait. but their relations to all these peoples are involved in great obscurity, and while some connect them with the itelmes of kamchatka[ ], by others they have been affiliated to the eskimo, owing to the eskimo dialect said to be spoken by them. but this "dialect" is only a trading jargon, a sort of "pidgin eskimo" current all round the coast, and consisting of chukchi, innuit, koryak, english, and even hawaii elements, mingled together in varying proportions. the true chukchi language, of which nordenskiöld collected words, is quite distinct from eskimo, and probably akin to koryak[ ], and the swedish explorer aptly remarks that "this race, settled on the primeval route between the old and new world, bears an unmistakable stamp of the mongols of asia and the eskimo and indians of america." he was much struck by the great resemblance of the chukchi weapons and household utensils to those of the greenland eskimo, while signe rink shows that even popular legends have been diffused amongst the populations on both sides of bering strait[ ]. such common elements, however, prove little for racial affinity, which seems excluded by the extremely round shape of the chukchi skull, as compared with the long-headed eskimo. but the type varies considerably both amongst the so-called "fishing chukchi," who occupy permanent stations along the seaboard, and the "reindeer chukchi," who roam the inland districts, shifting their camping-grounds with the seasons. there are no hereditary chiefs, and little deference is paid to the authority even of the owner of the largest reindeer herds, on whom the russians have conferred the title of _jerema_, regarding him as the head of the chukchi nation, and holding him responsible for the good conduct of his rude subjects. although nominal christians, they continue to sacrifice animals to the spirits of the rivers and mountains, and also to practise shamanist rites. they believe in an after-life, but only for those who die a violent death. hence the resignation and even alacrity with which the hopelessly infirm and the aged submit, when the time comes, to be dispatched by their kinsfolk, in accordance with the tribal custom of _kamitok_, which still survives in full vigour amongst the chukchi, as amongst the sumatran battas, and may be traced in many other parts of the world. "the doomed one," writes harry de windt, "takes a lively interest in the proceedings, and often assists in the preparation for his own death. the execution is always preceded by a feast, where seal and walrus meat are greedily devoured, and whisky consumed till all are intoxicated. a spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled roll of walrus-hide drums then herald the fatal moment. at a given signal a ring is formed by the relations and friends, the entire settlement looking on from the background. the executioner (usually the victim's son or brother) then steps forward, and placing his right foot behind the back of the condemned, slowly strangles him to death with a walrus-thong. a kamitok took place during the latter part of our stay[ ]." this custom of "voluntary death" is sometimes due to sorrow at the death of a near relative, a quarrel at home, or merely weariness of life, and bogoras thinks that the custom of killing old people does not exist as such, but is voluntarily chosen in preference to the hard life of an invalid[ ]. most recent observers have come to look upon the chukchi and _koryaks_ as essentially one and the same people, the chief difference being that the latter are if possible even more degraded than their northern neighbours[ ]. like them they are classed as sedentary fisherfolk or nomad reindeer-owners, the latter, who call themselves tumugulu, "wanderers," roaming chiefly between ghiyiginsk bay and the anadyr river. through them the chukchi merge gradually in the _itelmes_, who are better known as kamchadales, from the kamchatka river, where they are now chiefly concentrated. most of the itelmes are already russified in speech and--outwardly at least--in religion; but they still secretly immolate a dog now and then, to propitiate the malevolent beings who throw obstacles in the way of their hunting and fishing expeditions. yet their very existence depends on their canine associates, who are of a stout, almost wolfish breed, inured to hunger and hardships, and excellent for sledge work. somewhat distinct both from all these hyperboreans and from their neighbours, the orochons, golds, manegrs and other tungus peoples, are the _gilyaks_, formerly widespread, but now confined to the amur delta and the northern parts of sakhalin[ ]. some observers have connected them with the ainu and the korean aborigines, while a. anuchin detects two types--a mongoloid with sparse beard, high cheek-bones, and flat face, and a caucasic with bushy beard and more regular features[ ]. the latter traits have been attributed to russian mixture, but, as conjectured by h. von siebold, are more probably due to a fundamental connection with their ainu neighbours[ ]. mentally the gilyaks take a low position--h. lansdell thought the lowest of any people he had met in siberia[ ]. despite the zeal of the russian missionaries, and the inducements to join the fold, they remain obdurate shamanists, and even fatalists, so that "if one falls into the water the others will not help him out, on the plea that they would thus be opposing a higher power, who wills that he should perish.... the soul of the gilyak is supposed to pass at death into his favourite dog, which is accordingly fed with choice food; and when the spirit has been prayed by the shamans out of the dog, the animal is sacrificed on his master's grave. the soul is then represented as passing underground, lighted and guided by its own sun and moon, and continuing to lead there, in its spiritual abode, the same manner of life and pursuits as in the flesh[ ]." a speciality of the gilyaks, as well as of their gold neighbours, is the fish-skin costume, made from the skins of two kinds of salmon, and from this all these aborigines are known to the chinese as _yupitatse_, "fish-skin-clad-people." "they strip it off with great dexterity, and by beating with a mallet remove the scales, and so render it supple. clothes thus made are waterproof. i saw a travelling-bag, and even the sail of a boat, made of this material[ ]." like the ainu, the gilyaks may be called bear-worshippers. at least this animal is supposed to be one of their chief gods, although they ensnare him in winter, keep him in confinement, and when well fattened tear him to pieces, devouring his mangled remains with much feasting and jubilation. since the opening up of korea, some fresh light has been thrown upon the origins and ethnical relations of its present inhabitants. in his monograph on the yellow races[ ] hamy had included them in the mongol division, but not without reserve, adding that "while some might be taken for tibetans, others look like an oceanic cross; hence the contradictory reports and theories of modern travellers." since then the study of some skulls forwarded to paris has enabled him to clear up some of the confusion, which is obviously due to interminglings of different elements dating from remote (neolithic) times. on the data supplied by these skulls hamy classes the koreans in three groups:-- . the natives of the northern provinces (ping-ngan-tao and hienking-tao), strikingly like their mongol [tungus] neighbours; . those of the southern provinces (klingchang-tao and thsiusan-lo-tao), descendants of the ancient chinhans and pien-hans, showing japanese affinities; . those of the inner provinces (hoanghae-tao and ching-tsing-tao), who present a transitional form between the northerns and southerns, both in their physical type and geographical position[ ]. caucasic features--light eyes, large nose, hair often brown, full beard, fair and even white skin, tall stature--are conspicuous, especially amongst the upper classes and many of the southern koreans[ ]. they are thus shown to be a mixed race, the mongol element dominating in the north, as might be expected, and the caucasic in the south. these conclusions seem to be confirmed by what is known of the early movements, migrations, and displacements of the populations in north-east asia about the dawn of history. in these vicissitudes the koreans, as they are now called[ ], appear to have first taken part in the twelfth century b.c., when the peninsula was already occupied, as it still is, by mongols, the _sien-pi_, in the north, and in the south by several branches of the _hans_ (_san-san_), of whom it is recorded that they spoke a language unintelligible to the sien-pi, and resembled the japanese in appearance, manners, and customs. from this it may be inferred that the hans were the true aborigines, probably direct descendants of the caucasic peoples of the new stone age, while the sien-pi were mongolic (tungusic) intruders from the present manchuria. for some time these sien-pi played a leading part in the political convulsions prior and subsequent to the erection of the great wall by shih hwang ti, founder of the tsin dynasty ( - b.c.)[ ]. soon after the completion of this barrier, the _hiung-nu_, no longer able to scour the fertile plains of the middle kingdom, turned their arms against the neighbouring _yué-chi_, whom they drove westwards to the sungarian valleys. here they were soon displaced by the _usuns_ (_wusun_), a fair, blue-eyed people of unknown origin, who have been called "aryans," and even "teutons," and whom ch. de ujfalvy identifies with the tall long-headed western blonds (de lapouge's _homo europaeus_), mixed with brown round-headed hordes of white complexion[ ]. accepting this view, we may go further, and identify the usuns, as well as the other white peoples of the early chinese records, with the already described central asiatic caucasians of the stone ages, whose osseous remains we now possess, and who come to the surface in the very first chinese documents dealing with the turbulent populations beyond the great wall. the white element, with all the correlated characters, existed beyond all question, for it is continuously referred to in those documents. how is its presence in east central asia, including manchuria and korea, to be explained? only on two assumptions--_proto-historic_ migrations from the far west, barred by the proto-historic migrations from the far east, as largely determined by the erection of the great wall; or _pre-historic_ (neolithic) migrations, also from the far west, but barred by no serious obstacle, because antecedent to the arrival of the proto-mongolic tribes from the tibetan plateau. the true solution of the endless ethnical complications in the extreme east, as in the oceanic world, will still be found in the now-demonstrated presence of a caucasic element antecedent to the mongol in those regions. when the hiung-nu[ ] power was weakened by their westerly migrations to sungaria and south-west siberia (upper irtysh and lake balkash depression), and broken into two sections during their wars with the two han dynasties ( b.c.- a.d.), the korean sien-pi became the dominant nation north of the great wall. after destroying the last vestiges of the unstable hiung-nu empire, and driving the mongolo-turki hordes still westwards, the yuan-yuans, most powerful of all the sien-pi tribes, remained masters of east central asia for about years and then disappeared from history[ ]. at least after the sixth century a.d. no further mention is made of the sien-pi principalities either in manchuria or in korea. here, however, they appear still to form a dominant element in the northern (mongol) provinces, calling themselves ghirin (khirin), from the khirin (sungari) valley of the amur, where they once held sway. since those days korea has been alternately a vassal state and a province of the middle kingdom, with interludes of japanese ascendancy, interrupted only by the four centuries of koraï ascendancy ( - ). this was the most brilliant epoch in the national records, when korea was rather the ally than the vassal of china, and when trade, industry, and the arts, especially porcelain and bronze work, flourished in the land. but by centuries of subsequent misrule, a people endowed with excellent natural qualities have been reduced to the lowest state of degradation. before the reforms introduced by the political events of - , "the country was eaten up by officialism. it is not only that abuses without number prevailed, but the whole system of government was an abuse, a sea of corruption, without a bottom or a shore, an engine of robbery, crushing the life out of all industry[ ]." but an improvement was speedily remarked. "the air of the men has undergone a subtle and real change, and the women, though they nominally keep up their habits by seclusion, have lost the hang-dog air which distinguished them at home. the alacrity of movement is a change also, and has replaced the conceited swing of the _yang-ban_ [nobles] and the heartless lounge of the peasant." this improvement was merely temporary. the last years of the century were marked by the waning of japanese influence, due to russian intrigues, the restoration of absolute monarchy together with its worst abuses, the abandonment of reforms and a retrograde movement throughout the kingdom. the successes of japan in - resulted in the restoration of her ascendancy, culminating in in the cession of sovereignty by the emperor of korea to the emperor of japan. the religious sentiment is perhaps less developed than among any other asiatic people. buddhism, introduced about a.d., never took root, and while the _literati_ are satisfied with the moral precepts of confucius, the rest have not progressed beyond the nature-worship which was the ancient religion of the land. every mountain, pass, ford or even eddy of a river has a spirit to whom offerings are made. honour is also paid to ancestors, both royal and domestic, at their temples or altars, and chapels are built and dedicated to men who have specially distinguished themselves in loyalty, virtue or lofty teaching. philologists now recognise some affinity between the korean and japanese languages, both of which appear to be remotely connected with the ural-altaic family. the koreans possess a true alphabet of letters, which, however, is not a local invention, as is sometimes asserted. it appears to have been introduced by the buddhist monks about or before the tenth century, and to be based on some cursive form of the indian (devanagari) system[ ], although scarcely any resemblance can now be traced between the two alphabets. this script is little used except by the lower classes and the women, the _literati_ preferring to write either in chinese, or else in the so-called _nido_, that is, an adaptation of the chinese symbols to the phonetic expression of the korean syllables. the _nido_ is exactly analogous to the japanese _katakana_ script, in which modified forms of chinese ideographs are used phonetically to express syllables (the so-called _i-ro-fa_ syllabary), raised to by the _nigori_ and _maru_ diacritical marks. the present population of japan, according to e. baelz, shows the following types. the first and most important is the manchu-korean type, characteristic of north china and korea, and most frequent among the upper classes in japan. the stature is conspicuously tall, the effect being heightened by slender and elegant figure. the face is long, with more or less oblique eyes but no marked prominence of the cheek-bones. the nose is aquiline, the chin slightly receding. with this type is associated a narrow chest, giving an air of elegance rather than of muscularity, an effect which is enhanced by the extremely delicate hands with long slender fingers. the second type is the mongol, and presents a distinct contrast, with strong and squarely built figure, broad face, prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, flat nose and wide mouth. this type is not common in the japanese islands. the third type, more conspicuous than either of the preceding, is the malay. the stature is small, with well-knit frame, and broad, well-developed chest. the face is generally round, the nose short, jaws and chin frequently projecting. none of these three types represents the aboriginal race of japan, for there seems to be no doubt that the ainu, who now survive in parts of the northern island of yezo, occupied a greater area in earlier times and to them the prehistoric shell-mounds and other remains are usually attributed[ ]. the ainu are thickly and strongly built, but differ from all other oriental types in the hairiness of face and body. the head is long, with a cephalic index of . . face and nose are broad, and the eyes are horizontal, not oblique, lacking the mongolian fold. it is generally assumed that this population represents the easterly migration of that long-headed type which can be traced across the continents of europe and asia in the stone age, and that their entrance into the islands was effected at a time when the channel separating them from the mainland was neither so wide nor so deep as at the present time. later manchu-korean invaders from the west, mongols from the south, and malays from the east pressed the aborigines further and further north, to yezo, sakhalin and the kuriles. but it is possible that the ainu were not the earliest inhabitants of japan, for they themselves bear witness to predecessors, the _koro-pok-guru_, mentioned above (p. ). neither is the assumption of kinship between the ainu and prehistoric populations of western europe accepted without demur. deniker, while acknowledging the resemblance to certain european types, classes the ainu as a separate race, the _palaeasiatics_. for while in head-length, prominent superciliary ridges, hairiness and the form of the nose they may be compared to russians, todas, and australians, their skin colour, prominent cheek-bones, and other somatic features make any close affinity impossible[ ]. in spite of these various ingredients the japanese people may be regarded as fairly homogeneous. apart from some tall and robust persons amongst the upper classes, and athletes, acrobats, and wrestlers, the general impression that the japanese are a short finely moulded race is fully borne out by the now regularly recorded military measurements of recruits, showing for height an average of . m. ( ft. - / in.) to . m. ( ft. - / in.), for chest in., and disproportionately short legs. other distinctive characters, all tending to stamp a certain individuality on the people, taken as a whole and irrespective of local peculiarities, are a flat forehead, great distance between the eyebrows, a very small nose with raised nostrils, no glabella, no perceptible nasal root[ ]; an active, wiry figure; the exposed skin less yellow than the chinese, and rather inclining to a light fawn, but the covered parts very light, some say even white; the eyes also less oblique, and all other characteristically mongol features generally softened, except the black lank hair, which in transverse section is perhaps even rounder than that of most other mongol peoples[ ]. with this it will be instructive to compare f. h. h. guillemard's graphic account of the liu-kiu islanders, whose koreo-japanese affinities are now placed beyond all doubt: "they are a short race, probably even shorter than the japanese, but much better proportioned, being without the long bodies and short legs of the latter people, and having as a rule extremely well-developed chests. the colour of the skin varies of course with the social position of the individual. those who work in the fields, clad only in a waist-cloth, are nearly as dark as a malay, but the upper classes are much fairer, and are at the same time devoid of any of the yellow tint of the chinaman. to the latter race indeed they cannot be said to bear any resemblance, and though the type is much closer to the japanese, it is nevertheless very distinct.... in liu-kiu the japanese and natives were easily recognised by us from the first, and must therefore be possessed of very considerable differences. the liu-kiuan has the face less flattened, the eyes are more deeply set, and the nose more prominent at its origin. the forehead is high and the cheek-bones somewhat less marked than in the japanese; the eyebrows are arched and thick, and the eyelashes long. the expression is gentle and pleasing, though somewhat sad, and is apparently a true index of their character[ ]." this description is not accepted without some reserve by chamberlain, who in fact holds that "the physical type of the luchuans resembles that of the japanese almost to identity[ ]." in explanation however of the singularly mild, inoffensive, and "even timid disposition" of the liu-kiuans, this observer suggests "the probable absence of any admixture of malay blood in the race[ ]." but everybody admits a malay element in japan. it would therefore appear that guillemard must be right, and that, as even shown by all good photographs, differences do exist, due in fact to the presence of this very malay strain in the japanese race. elsewhere[ ] chamberlain has given us a scholarly account of the liu-kiu language, which is not merely a "sister," as he says, but obviously an _elder_ sister, more archaic in structure and partly in its phonetics, than the oldest known form of japanese. in the verb, for instance, japanese retains only one past tense of the indicative, with but one grammatical form, whereas liu-kiuan preserves the three original past tenses, each of which possesses a five-fold inflection. all these racial, linguistic, and even mental resemblances, such as the fundamental similarity of many of their customs and ways of thought, he would explain with much probability by the routes followed by the first emigrants from the mainland. while the great bulk spread east and north over the great archipelago, everywhere "driving the aborigines before them," a smaller stream may have trended southward to the little southern group, whose islets stretch like stepping-stones the whole way from japan to great liu-kiu[ ]. amongst the common mental traits, mention is made of the shinto religion, "the simplest and most rustic form" of which still survives in liu-kiu. here, as in japan, it was originally a rude system of nature-worship, the normal development of which was arrested by chinese and buddhist influences. later it became associated with spirit-worship, the spirits being at first the souls of the dead, and although there is at present no cult of the dead, in the strict sense of the expression, the liu-kiu islanders probably pay more respect to the departed than any other people in the world. in japan, shintoism, as reformed in recent times, has become much more a political institution than a religious system. the _kami-no-michi_, that is, the japanese form of the chinese _shin-to_, "way of the gods," or "spirits," is not merely the national faith, but is inseparably bound up with the interests of the reigning dynasty, holding the mikado to be the direct descendant of the sun-goddess hence its three cardinal precepts now are:-- . honour the _kami_ (spirits), of whom the emperor is the chief representative on earth; . revere him as thy sovereign; . obey the will of his court, and that is the whole duty of man. there is no moral code, and loyal expositors have declared that the mikado's will is the only test of right and wrong. but apart from this political exegesis, shintoism in its higher form may be called a cultured deism, in its lower a "blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates[ ]." there are dim notions about a supreme creator, immortality, and even rewards and penalties in the after-life. some also talk vaguely, as a pantheist might, of a sublime being or essence pervading all nature, too vast and ethereal to be personified or addressed in prayer, identified with the _tenka_, "heavens," from which all things emanate, to which all return. yet, although a personal deity seems thus excluded, there are shinto temples, apparently for the worship of the heavenly bodies and powers of nature, conceived as self-existing personalities--the so-called _kami_, "spirits," "gods," of which there are "eight millions," that is, they are countless. one cannot but suspect that some of these notions have been grafted on the old national faith by buddhism, which was introduced about a.d. and for a time had great vogue. it was encouraged especially by the shoguns, or military usurpers of the mikado's[ ] functions, obviously as a set-off against the shinto theocracy. during their tenure of power ( - a.d.) the land was covered with buddhist shrines and temples, some of vast size and quaint design, filled with hideous idols, huge bells, and colossal statues of buddha. but with the fall of the shogun the little prestige still enjoyed by buddhism came to an end, and the temples, spoiled of their treasures, have more than ever become the resort of pleasure-seekers rather than of pious worshippers. "to all the larger temples are attached regular spectacles, playhouses, panoramas, besides lotteries, games of various sorts, including the famous 'fan-throwing,' and shooting-galleries, where the bow and arrow and the blow-pipe take the place of the rifle. the accumulated treasures of the priests have been confiscated, the monks driven from their monasteries, and many of these buildings converted into profane uses. countless temple bells have already found their way to america, or have been sold for old metal[ ]." besides these forms of belief, there is a third religious, or rather philosophic system, the so-called _siza_, based on the ethical teachings of confucius, a sort of refined materialism, such as underlies the whole religious thought of the nation. siza, always confined to the _literati_, has in recent years found a formidable rival in the "english philosophy," represented by such writers as buckle, mill, herbert spencer, darwin, and huxley, most of whose works have already been translated into japanese. thus this highly gifted people are being assimilated to the western world in their social and religious, as well as their political institutions. their intellectual powers, already tested in the fields of war, science, diplomacy, and self-government, are certainly superior to those of all other asiatic peoples, and this is perhaps the best guarantee for the stability of the stupendous transformation that a single generation has witnessed from an exaggerated form of medieval feudalism to a political and social system in harmony with the most advanced phases of modern thought. the system has doubtless not yet penetrated to the lower strata, especially amongst the rural populations. but their natural receptivity, combined with a singular freedom from "insular prejudice," must ensure the ultimate acceptance of the new order by all classes of the community. footnotes: [ ] as fully explained in _eth._ p. . [ ] mark aurel stein, _sand-buried cities of khotan_, , and _geog. journ._, july, sept. . [ ] r. pumpelly, _explorations in turkestan_, , and _explorations in turkestan; expedition of _, . [ ] sven hedin, _scientific results of a journey in central asia_, - , , and _geog. journ._, april, . [ ] douglas carruthers, _unknown mongolia_, (with bibliography). [ ] ellsworth huntington, _the pulse of asia_, . [ ] "the asiatic background," _cambridge medieval history_, vol. i. . [ ] _mémoires de la délégation en perse; recherches archéologiques_ (from ). [ ] _sand-buried cities of khotan_, . [ ] "ueber alte grabstätten in sibirien und der mongolei," in _mitt. d. anthrop. ges._, vienna, , xxv. . [ ] th. volkov, in _l'anthropologie_, , p. . [ ] too much stress must not, however, be laid upon the theory of gradual desiccation as a factor in depopulation. there are many causes such as earthquake, water-spouts, shifting of currents, neglect of irrigation and, above all, the work of enemies to account for the sand-buried ruins of populous cities in central asia. see t. peisker, "the asiatic background," _cambridge medieval history_, vol. i. , p. . [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. sq. [ ] cf. _archæologia cambrensis_, th ser. xiv. part , , p. , and _zeitschr. f. ethnol._ , p. . [ ] "zur prähistorik japans," _globus_, , no. . [ ] the best account of the archaeology of japan will be found in _prehistoric japan_, by n. g. munro, . [ ] _die bronzezeit finnlands_, helsingfors, . [ ] "akkadian," first applied by rawlinson to the non-semitic texts found at nineveh, is still often used by english writers in place of the more correct _sumerian_, the akkadians being now shown to be semitic immigrants into northern babylonia (p. ). [ ] cf. l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , pp. , . [ ] _ueber die summerische sprache_, paper read at the russian archaeological congress, riga, . [ ] "sumer and sumerian," _ency. brit._ , with references. [ ] _geschichte des altertums_, i. , nd ed. , p. . [ ] e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , nd ed. , p. . l. w. king (_history of sumer and akkad_, ) discusses meyer's arguments and points out that the earliest sumerian gods appear to be free from semitic influence (p. ). he is inclined, however, to regard the sumerians as displacing an earlier semitic people (hutchinson's _history of the nations_, , pp. and ). [ ] ellsworth huntington, _the pulse of asia_, , p. . [ ] l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , p. . [ ] e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , nd ed. , p. . [ ] l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , p. , and the article, "chronology. babylonia and assyria," _ency. brit._ . cf. also e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , nd ed. , §§ and . [ ] the cylinder-seals and tablets of fara, excavated by koldewey, andrae and noeldeke in - may go back to b.c. cf. l. w. king, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] c. h. w. johns, _ancient babylonia_, , regards sharrukin as "sargon of akkad," p. . [ ] l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , pp. , , where the seal is referred to a period not much earlier than the first dynasty of babylon. [ ] h. v. hilprecht, _the babylonian expedition of the university of pennsylvania_, series d, vol. v. . . [ ] see _the times_, june , . [ ] "babylonia and elam four thousand years ago," in _knowledge_, may , , p. sq. and elsewhere. [ ] the term "elam" is said to have the same meaning as "akkad" (_i.e._ highland) in contradistinction to "sumer" (lowland). it should be noted that neither akkad nor sumer occurs in the oldest texts, where akkad is called _kish_ from the name of its capital, and sumer _kiengi_ (_kengi_), probably a general name meaning "the land." kish has been identified with the kush of gen. x., one of the best abused words in palethnology. for this identification, however, there is some ground, seeing that kush is mentioned in the closest connection with "babel, and erech, and accad, and calneh, in the land of shinar" (mesopotamia) _v._ . [ ] j. de morgan, _mémoires de la délégation en perse_, - . [ ] s. laing, _human origins_, p. . [ ] and it has remained so ever since, the present lur and bakhtiari inhabitants of susiana speaking, not the standard neo-persian, but dialects of the ruder kurdish branch of the iranian family, as if they had been aryanised from media, the capital of which was ekbatana. we have here, perhaps, a clue to the origin of the medes themselves, who were certainly the above-mentioned mandas of nabonidus, their capital being also the same ekbatana. now sayce (_academy_, sept. , , p. ) identified the kimmerians with these manda nomads, whose king tukdammé (tugdammé) was the lygdanis of strabo (i. , ), who led a horde of kimmerians into lydia and captured sardis. we know from esarhaddon's inscriptions that by the assyrians these kimmerians were called manda, their prince teupsa (teispe) being described as "of the people of the manda." an oracle given to esar-haddon begins: "the kimmerian in the mountains has set fire in the land of ellip," _i.e._ the land where ekbatana was afterwards founded, which is now shown to have already been occupied by the kimmerian or manda hordes. it follows that kimmerians, mandas, medes with their modern kurd and bakhtiari representatives, were all one people, who were almost certainly of aryan speech, if not actually of proto-aryan stock. "the kurds are the descendants of aryan invaders and have maintained their type and their language for more than years," f. v. luschan, "the early inhabitants of western asia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , p. . for a classification of kurds see mark sykes, "the kurdish tribes of the ottoman empire," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxviii. , p. . cf. also d. g. hogarth, _the nearer east_, . [ ] c. h. w. johns, _ancient babylonia_, , p. . [ ] cf. h. zimmern, article "babylonians and assyrians," _ency. religion and ethics_, . [ ] g. maspero, _dawn of civilisation_, p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] _vorgeschichte_, etc., book ii. _passim_. [ ] _geschichte babyloniens u. assyriens._ [ ] g. maspero, _the struggle of the nations, egypt, syria and assyria_, . [ ] it is noteworthy that _dalai_, "ocean," is itself a mongol word, though _lama_, "priest," is tibetan. the explanation is that in the thirteenth century a local incarnation of buddha was raised by the then dominant mongols to the first rank, and this title of _dalai lama_, the "ocean priest," _i.e._ the priest of fathomless wisdom, was bestowed on one of his successors in the sixteenth century, and still retained by the high pontiff at lhasa. [ ] _aboriginal siberia_, , p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] either from the chinese _tunghu_, "eastern barbarians," or from the turki _tinghiz_, as in isaac massa: _per interpretes se tingoesi vocari dixerunt_ (_descriptio_, etc., amsterdam, ). but there is no collective national name, and at present they call themselves _don-ki_, _boía_, _boíe_, etc., terms all meaning "men," "people." in the chinese records they are referred to under the name of _i-lu_ so early as a.d., when they dwelt in the forest region between the upper temen and yalu rivers on the one hand and the pacific ocean on the other, and paid tribute in kind--sable furs, bows, and stone arrow-heads. arrows and stone arrow-heads were also the tribute paid to the emperors of the shang dynasty ( - b.c.) by the _su-shen_, who dwelt north of the liao-tung peninsula, so that we have here official proof of a stone age of long duration in manchuria. later, the chinese chronicles mention the _u-ki_ or _mo-ho_, a warlike people of the sungari valley and surrounding uplands, who in the th century founded the kingdom of _pu-ha[=i]_, overthrown in by the khitans of the lower sungari below its noni confluence, who were themselves tunguses and according to some chinese authorities the direct ancestors of the manchus. [ ] "c'est la tendance de la tête à se développer en hauteur, juste en sens inverse de l'aplatissement vertical du mongol. la tête du turc est donc à la fois plus haute et plus courte" (_l'anthropologie_, vi. , p. ). [ ] reclus, vi.; eng. ed. p. . [ ] v. m. mikhailovskii, _shamanism in siberia and european russia_, translated by oliver wardrop, _journ. anthr. inst._ , p. . [ ] m. a. czaplicka, _aboriginal siberia_, . part iii. discusses shamanism, pp. - . [ ] hakluyt, ed., i. p. sq. [ ] quoted by mikhailovskii, p. . [ ] cf. h. a. giles, _china and the manchus_, . [ ] _souvenirs d'un voyage dans la tartarie_, , i. . [ ] _through siberia_, , vol. ii. p. . [ ] european visitors often notice with surprise the fine physique of these natives, many of whom average nearly six feet in height. but there is an extraordinary disparity between the two sexes, perhaps greater than in any other country. the much smaller stature and feebler constitution of the women is no doubt due to the detestable custom of crippling the feet in childhood, thereby depriving them of natural exercise during the period of growth. it may be noted that the anti-foot-bandaging movement is making progress throughout china, the object being to abolish the cruel practice by making the _kin lien_ ("golden lilies") unfashionable, and the _ti mien_, the "heavenly feet,"--_i.e._ the natural--popular in their stead. [ ] h. lansdell, _through siberia_, , ii. p. . [ ] _de l'harmonie des voyelles dans les langues uralo-altaïques_, , p. sq. [ ] _general principles of the structure of language_, , vol. i. p. . the evidence here chiefly relied upon is that afforded by the yakutic, a pure turki idiom, which is spoken in the region of extremest heat and cold (middle and lower lena basin), and in which the principle of progressive assonance attains its greatest development. [ ] explained and illustrated by general krahmer in _globus_, , p. sq. [ ] h. lansdell, _through siberia_, , i. p. . [ ] "ueber die sprache der jukagiren," in _mélanges asiatiques_, , iii. p. sq. [ ] w. i. jochelson recently discovered two independent yukaghir dialects. "essay on the grammar of the yukaghir language," _annals n. y. ac. sc._ ; _the yukaghir and the yukaghirized tungus._ _memoir of the jesup north pacific expedition_, vol. ix. . for the koryak see his monograph in the same series, vol. vi. - . [ ] _ten months among the tents of the tuski._ [ ] "ueber die koriaken u. ihnen nahe verwandten tchouktchen," _in bul. acad. sc._, st petersburg, xii. p. . [ ] peschel, _races of man_, p. , who says the chukchi are "as closely related to the itelmes in speech as are spaniards to portuguese." [ ] _petermann's mitt._ vol. , , p. . [ ] "the girl and the dogs, an eskimo folk-tale," _amer. anthropologist_, june , p. sq. [ ] _through the gold fields of alaska to bering strait_, . [ ] cf. w. bogoras, _the chukchee, memoir of the jesup north pacific expedition_, vol. vii. - [ ] this, however, applies only to the fishing koryaks, for g. kennan speaks highly of the domestic virtues, hospitality, and other good qualities of the nomad groups (_tent life in siberia_, ). [ ] see l. sternberg, _the tribes of the amur river, memoirs of the jesup north pacific expedition_, vol. iv. . [ ] _mem. imp. soc. nat. sc._ xx. supplement, moscow, . [ ] "scheinen grosse aenlichkeit in sprache, gesichtsbildung und sitten mit den aino zu haben" (_ueber die aino_, berlin, , p. ). [ ] _through siberia_, , ii. p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] _l'anthropologie_, vi. no. . [ ] _bul. du muséum d'hist. nat._ , no. . all the skulls were brachy or sub-brachy, varying from to . and . . the author remarks generally that "photographes et crânes diffèrent, du tout au tout, des choses similaires venues jusqu'à présent de mongolie et de chine, et font plutôt penser au japon, à formose, et d'une manière plus générale à ce vaste ensemble de peuples maritimes que lesson désignait jadis sous le nom de 'mongols-pélasgiens,'" p. . [ ] on this juxtaposition of the yellow and blond types in korea v. de saint-martin's language is highly significative: "cette dualité de type, un type tout à fait caucasique à côté du type mongol, est un fait commun à toute la ceinture d'îles qui couvre les côtes orientales de l'asie, depuis les kouriles jusqu'à formose, et même jusqu'à la zone orientale de l'indo-chine" (_art. corée_, p. ). [ ] from _koraï_, in japanese _kome_ (chinese _kaoli_), name of a petty state, which enjoyed political predominance in the peninsula for about years (tenth to fourteenth century a.d.). an older designation still in official use is _tsio-sien_, that is, the chinese _chao-sien_, "bright dawn" (klaproth, _asia polyglotta_, p. sq.). [ ] this stupendous work, on which about , , hands are said to have been engaged for five years, possesses great ethnical as well as political importance. running for over miles across hills, valleys, and rivers along the northern frontier of china proper, it long arrested the southern movements of the restless mongolo-turki hordes, and thus gave a westerly direction to their incursions many centuries before the great invasions of jenghiz-khan and his successors. it is strange to reflect that the ethnological relations were thus profoundly disturbed throughout the eastern hemisphere by the work of a ruthless despot who reigned only twelve years, and in that time waged war against all the best traditions of the empire, destroying the books of confucius and the other sages, and burying alive men of letters for their efforts to rescue those writings from total extinction. [ ] _les aryens au nord et au sud de l'hindou-kouch_, , p. . this writer does not think that the usuns should be identified with the tall race of horse-like face, large nose, and deep-set eyes mentioned in the early chinese records, because no reference is made to "blue eyes," which would not have been omitted had they existed. but, if i remember, "green eyes" are spoken of, and we know that none of the early writers use colour terms with strict accuracy. [ ] i have not thought it desirable to touch on the interminable controversy respecting the ethnical relations of the hiung-nu, regarding them, not as a distinct ethnical group, but like the huns, their later western representatives, as a heterogeneous collection of mongol, tungus, turki, and perhaps even finnish hordes under a mongol military caste. at the same time i have little doubt that mongolo-tungus elements greatly predominated in the eastern regions (mongolia proper, manchuria) both amongst the hiung-nu and their yuan-yuan (sien-pi) successors, and that all the founders of the first great empires prior to that of the turki assena in the altai region (sixth century a.d.) were full-blood mongols, as indeed recognised by jenghiz-khan himself. for the migrations of these and neighbouring peoples, consult a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , pp. and . [ ] on the authority of the wei-shu documents contained in the wei-ch[=i], e. h. parker gives (in the _china review_ and _a thousand years of the tartars_, shanghai, ) the dates - a.d. as the period covered by the "sien-pi tartar dynasty of wei." this is not to be confused with the chinese dynasty of wei ( - , or according to kwong ki-chiu - a.d.). the term "tartar" (ta-ta), it may be explained, is used by parker, as well as by the chinese historians generally, in a somewhat wide sense, so as to include all the nomad populations north of the great wall, whether of tungus (manchu), mongol, or even turki stock. the original tribes bearing the name were mongols, and jenghiz-khan himself was a tata on his mother's side. [ ] mrs bishop, _korea and her neighbours_, . [ ] t. de lacouperie says on "a tibeto-indian base" (_beginnings of writing in central and eastern asia_, , p. ); and e. h. parker: "it is demonstrable that the korean letters are an adaptation from the sanskrit," _i.e._ the devanagari (_academy_, dec. , , p. ). [ ] see p. . also koganei, "ueber die urbewohner von japan," _mitt. d. deutsch. gesell. f. natur- u. völkerkunde ostasiens_, ix. , , containing an exhaustive review of recent literature, and n. g. munro, _prehistoric japan_, . [ ] j. deniker, _races of man_, , pp. - . see also j. batchelor, _the ainu of japan_, , and the article "ainus" in _ency. of religion and ethics_, . [ ] g. baudens, _bul. soc. geogr._ x. p. . [ ] see especially e. baelz, "die körperlichen eigenschaften der japaner," in _mitt. der deutsch. gesell. f. natur- u. völkerkunde ostasiens_, and . [ ] _cruise of the marchesa_, , i. p. . [ ] _geogr. journ._ , ii. p. . [ ] _geogr. journ._ , ii. p. . [ ] _journ. anthrop. soc._ , p. sq. [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] ripley and dana, _amer. cyc._ ix. . [ ] _shogun_ from _sho_ = general, and _gún_ = army, hence commander-in-chief; _mikado_ from _mi_ = sublime, and _kado_ = gate, with which cf. the "sublime porte" (j. j. rein, _japan nach reisen u. studien,_ , i. p. ). but mikado has become somewhat antiquated, being now generally replaced by the title _kotei,_ "emperor." [ ] keane's _asia_, i. p. . chapter ix the northern mongols (_continued_) the finno-turki peoples--assimilation to the caucasic type--turki cradle--ural-altaian invasions--the scythians--parthians and turkomans--massagetae and yué-chi--indo-scythians and graeco-baktrians--dahae, ját, and rájput origins--the "white huns"--the uigurs--orkhon inscriptions--the assena turki dynasty--toghuz-uigur empire--kashgarian and sungarian populations--the oghuz turks and their migrations--seljuks and osmanli--the yakuts--the kirghiz--kazák and kossack--the kara-kirghiz--the finnish peoples--former and present domain--late westward spread of the finns--the bronze and iron ages in the finnish lands--the baltic finns--relations to goths, letts, and slavs--finno-russ origins--tavastian and karelian finns--the kwæns--the lapps--samoyeds and permian finns--lapp origins and migrations--temperament--religion--the volga finns--the votyak pagans--human sacrifices--the bulgars--origins and migrations--an ethnical transformation--great and little bulgaria--avars and magyars--magyar origins and early records--present position of the magyars--ethnical and linguistic relations in eastern europe. in a very broad way all the western branches of the north mongol division may be comprised under the collective designation of finno-turki mongols. jointly they constitute a well-marked section of the family, being distinguished from the eastern section by several features which they have in common, and the most important of which is unquestionably a much larger infusion of caucasic blood than is seen in any of the mongolo-tungusic groups. so pronounced is this feature amongst many finnish as well as turkish peoples, that some anthropologists have felt inclined to deny any direct connection between the eastern and western divisions of mongolian man and to regard the baltic finns, for instance, rather as "allophylian whites" than as original members of the yellow race. prichard, to whom we owe this now nearly obsolete term "allophylian," held this view[ ], and even sayce is "more than doubtful whether we can class the mongols physiologically with the turkish-tatars [the turki peoples], or the ugro-finns[ ]." it may, indeed, be allowed that at present the great majority of the finno-turki populations occupy a position amongst the varieties of mankind which is extremely perplexing for the strict systematist. when the whole division is brought under survey, every shade of transition is observed between the siberian samoyeds of the finnic branch and the steppe kirghiz of the turki branch on the one hand, both of whom show mongol characters in an exaggerated form, and on the other the osmanli turks and hungarian magyars, most of whom may be regarded as typical caucasians. moreover, the difficulty is increased by the fact, already pointed out, that these mixed mongolo-caucasic characters occur not only amongst the late historic groups, but also amongst the earliest known groups--"chudes," usuns, uigurs and others--who may be called proto-finnish and proto-turki peoples. but precisely herein lies the solution of the problem. most of the region now held by turki and finnish nations was originally occupied by long-headed caucasic men of the late stone ages (see above). then followed the proto-mongol intruders from the tibetan table-land, who partly submerged, partly intermingled with their neolithic neighbours, many thus acquiring those mixed characters by which they have been distinguished from the earliest historic times. later, further interminglings took place according as the finno-turki hordes, leaving their original seats in the altai and surrounding regions, advanced westwards and came more and more into contact with the european populations of caucasic type. we may therefore conclude that the majority of the finno-turki were almost from the first a somewhat mixed race, and that during historic times the original mongol element has gradually yielded to the caucasic in the direction from east to west. such is the picture now presented by these heterogeneous populations, who in their primeval eastern seats are still mostly typical mongols, but have been more and more assimilated to the european type in their new anatolian, baltic, danubian, and balkan homes. observant travellers have often been impressed by this progressive conformity of the mongolo-turki to europeans. during his westward journey through central asia younghusband, on passing from mongolia to eastern turkestan, found that the people, though tall and fine-looking, had at first more of the mongol cast of feature than he had expected. "their faces, however, though somewhat round, were slightly more elongated than the mongol, and there was considerably more intelligence about them. but there was more roundness, less intelligence, less sharpness in the outlines than is seen in the inhabitants of kashgar and yarkand." then he adds: "as i proceeded westwards i noticed a gradual, scarcely perceptible, change from the round of a mongolian type to a sharper and yet more sharp type of feature.... as we get farther away from mongolia, we notice that the faces become gradually longer and narrower; and farther west still, among some of the inhabitants of afghan turkestan, we see that the tartar or mongol type of feature is almost entirely lost[ ]." to complete the picture it need only be added that still further west, in asia minor, the balkan peninsula, hungary, and finland, the mongol features are often entirely lost. "the turks of the west have so much aryan and semitic blood in them, that the last vestiges of their original physical characters have been lost, and their language alone indicates their previous descent[ ]." before they were broken up and dispersed over half the northern hemisphere by mongol pressure from the east, the primitive turki tribes dwelt, according to howorth, mainly between the ulugh-dagh mountains and the orkhon river in mongolia, that is, along the southern slopes and spurs of the altai-sayan system from the head waters of the irtysh to the valleys draining north to lake baikal. but the turki cradle is shifted farther east by richthofen, who thinks that their true home lay between the amur, the lena, and the selenga, where at one time they had their camping-grounds in close proximity to their mongol and tungus kinsmen. there is nothing to show that the yakuts, who are admittedly of turki stock, ever migrated to their present northern homes in the lena basin, which has more probably always been their native land[ ]. but when they come within the horizon of history the turki are already a numerous nation, with a north-western and south-eastern division[ ], which may well have jointly occupied the whole region from the irtysh to the lena, and both views may thus be reconciled. in any case the turki domain lay west of the mongol, and the altai uplands, taken in the widest sense, may still be regarded as the most probable zone of specialisation for the turki physical type. the typical characteristics are a yellowish white complexion, a high brachycephalic head, often almost cuboid, due to parieto-occipital flattening (especially noticeable among the yakuts), an elongated oval face, with straight, somewhat prominent nose, and non-mongolian eyes. the stature is moderate, with an average of . m. ( ft. in.), and a tendency to stoutness. intermediate between the typical turki and the mongols hamy places the uzbegs, kirghiz, bashkirs, and nogais; and between the turks and finns those extremely mixed groups of east russia commonly but wrongly called "tartars," as well as other transitions between turk, slav, greek, arab, osmanli of constantinople, kurugli of algeria and others, whose study shows the extreme difficulty of accurately determining the limits of the yellow and the white races[ ]. analogous difficulties recur in the study of the northern (siberian) groups--samoyeds, ostyaks, voguls and other ugrians--who present great individual variations, leading almost without a break from the mongol to the lapp, from the lapp to the finn, from finn to slav and teuton. thus may be shown a series of observations continuous between the most typical mongol, and those aberrant mongolo-caucasic groups which answer to prichard's "allophylian races." thus also is confirmed by a study of details the above broad generalisation in which i have endeavoured to determine the relation of the finno-turki peoples to the primary mongol and caucasic divisions. peisker's description of the scythian invasions of irania[ ] may be taken as typical of the whole area, and explains the complexity of the ethnological problems. the steppes and deserts of central asia are an impassable barrier for the south asiatics, the aryans, but not for the north asiatic, the altaian; for him they are an open country, providing him with the indispensable winter pastures. on the other hand, for the south asiatic aryan these deserts are an object of terror, and besides he is not impelled towards them as he has winter pastures near at hand. it is this difference in the distance of summer and winter pastures that makes the north asiatic altaian an ever-wandering herdsman, and the grazing part of the indo-european race cattle-rearers settled in limited districts. thus, while the native iranian must halt before the trackless region of steppes and deserts and cannot follow the well-mounted robber-nomad thither, iran itself is the object of greatest longing to the nomadic altaian. here he can plunder and enslave to his heart's delight, and if he succeeds in maintaining himself for a considerable time among the aryans, he learns the language of the subjugated people and, by mingling with them, loses his mongol characteristics more and more. if the iranian is now fortunate enough to shake off the yoke, the dispossessed iranised altaian intruder inflicts himself upon other lands. so it was with the scythians. leaving their families behind in the south russian steppes, the scythians invaded media _c._ b.c. , and advanced into mesopotamia as far as egypt. in media they took median wives and learned the median language. after being driven out by cyaxares, on their return, some years later, they met with a new generation, the offspring of the wives and daughters whom they had left behind, and slaves of an alien race. a hundred and fifty years later hippocrates remarked their yellowish red complexion, corpulence, smooth skins, and their consequent eunuch-like appearance--all typically mongol characteristics. hippocrates was the most celebrated physician and natural philosopher of the ancient world. his evidence is unshakeable and cannot be invalidated by the aryan speech of the scythians. their mongol type was innate in them, whereas their iranian speech was acquired and is no refutation of hippocrates' testimony. on the later greek vases from south russian excavations they already appear strongly demongolised and the altaian is only suggested by their hair, which is as stiff as a horse's mane--hence aristotle's epithet [greek: euthytriches]--the characteristic that survives longest among all ural-altaian hybrid peoples. e. h. parker unfortunately lent the weight of his authority to the statement that the word "türkö" [turki] "goes no farther back than the fifth century of our era," and that "so far as recorded history is concerned the name of turk dates from this time[ ]." but turki tribes bearing this national name had penetrated into east europe hundreds of years before that time, and were already seated on the tanais (don) about the new era. they are mentioned by name both by pomponius mela[ ] and by pliny[ ], and to the same connection belonged, beyond all doubt, the warlike _parthians_, who years earlier were already seated on the confines of iran and turan, routed the legions of crassus and antony, and for five centuries ( b.c.- a.d.) usurped the throne of the "king of kings," holding sway from the euphrates to the ganges, and from the caspian to the indian ocean. direct descendants of the parthians are the fierce turkoman nomads, who for ages terrorised over all the settled populations encircling the aralo-caspian depression. their power has at last been broken by the russians, but they are still politically dominant in persia[ ]. they have thus been for many ages in the closest contact with caucasic iranians, with the result that the present turkoman type is shown by j. l. yavorsky's observations to be extremely variable[ ]. both the parthians and the _massagetae_ have been identified with the _yué-chi_, who figured so largely in the annals of the han dynasties, and are above mentioned as having been driven west to sungaria by the hiung-nu after the erection of the great wall. it has been said that, could we follow the peregrinations of the yué-chi bands from their early seats at the foot of the kinghan mountains to their disappearance amid the snows of the western himalayas, we should hold the key to the solution of the obscure problems associated with the migrations of the mongolo-turki hordes since the torrent of invasion was diverted westwards by shih hwang ti's mighty barrier. one point, however, seems clear enough, that the yué-chi were a different people both from the parthians who had already occupied hyrcania (khorasan) at least in the third century b.c., if not earlier, and from the massagetae. for the latter were seated on the yaxartes (sir-darya) in the time of cyrus (sixth century b.c.), whereas the yué-chi still dwelt east of lake lob (tarim basin) in the third century. after their defeat by the hiung-nu and the usuns ( and b.c.), they withdrew to sogdiana (transoxiana), reduced the _ta-hia_ of baktria, and in b.c. overthrew the graeco-baktrian kingdom, which had been founded after the death of alexander towards the close of the fourth century. but in the kabul valley, south of the hindu-kush, the greeks still held their ground for over years, until kadphises i., king of the kushans--a branch of the yué-chi--after uniting the whole nation in a single indo-scythian state, extended his conquests to kabul and succeeded hermaeus, last of the greek dynasty ( - b.c.?). kadphises' son kadaphes ( a.d.) added to his empire a great part of north india, where his successors of the yué-chi dynasty reigned from the middle of the first to the end of the fourth century a.d. here they are supposed by some authorities to be still represented by the _játs_ and _rájputs_, and even prichard allows that the supposition "does not appear altogether preposterous," although "the physical characters of the játs are very different from those attributed to the yuetschi [yué-chi] and the kindred tribes [suns, kushans, etc.] by the writers cited by klaproth and abel remusat, who say that they are of sanguine complexion with blue eyes[ ]." we now know that these characters present little difficulty when the composite origin of the turki people is borne in mind. on the other hand it is interesting to note that the above-mentioned ta-hia have by some been identified with the warlike scythian dahae[ ], and these with the dehiya or dhé one of the great divisions of the indian játs. but if rawlinson[ ] is right, the term _dahae_ was not racial but social, meaning _rustici_,--the peasantry as opposed to the nomads; hence the dahae are heard of everywhere throughout irania, just as _dehwar_[ ] is still the common designation of the tajik (persian) peasantry in afghanistan and baluchistan. this is also the view taken by de ujfalvy, who identifies the ta-hia, not with the scythian dahae, or with any other particular tribe, but with the peaceful rural population of baktriana[ ], whose reduction by the yué-chi, possibly strabo's tokhari, was followed by the overthrow of the graeco-baktrians. the solution of the puzzling yué-chi-ját problem would therefore seem to be that the dehiya and other játs, always an agricultural people, are descended from the old iranian peasantry of baktriana, some of whom followed the fortunes of their greek rulers into kabul valley, while others accompanied the conquering yué-chi founders of the indo-scythian empire into northern india. then followed the overthrow of the yué-chi themselves by the _yé-tha_ (_ye-tha-i-li-to_) of the chinese records, that is, the _ephthalites_, or so-called "white huns," of the greek and arab writers, who about a.d. overran transoxiana, and soon afterwards penetrated through the mountain passes into the kabul and indus valleys. although confused by some contemporary writers (zosimus, am. marcellinus) with attila's huns, m. drouin has made it clear that the yé-tha were not huns (mongols) at all, but, like the yué-chi, a turki people, who were driven westwards about the same time as the hiung-nu by the yuan-yuans (see above). of hun they had little but the name, and the more accurate procopius was aware that they differed entirely from "the huns known to us, not being nomads, but settled for a long time in a fertile region." he speaks also of their white colour and regular features, and their sedentary life[ ] as in the chinese accounts, where they are described as warlike conquerors of twenty kingdoms, as far as that of the a-si (arsacides, parthians), and in their customs resembling the tu-kiu (turks), being in fact "of the same race." on the ruins of the indo-scythian (yué-chi) empire, the white huns ruled in india and the surrounding lands from to the middle of the sixth century. a little later came the arabs, who in captured samarkand, and under the abassides were supreme in central asia till scattered to the winds by the oghuz turki hordes. from all this it has been suggested that--while the baktrian peasants entered india as settlers, and are now represented by the agricultural játs--the yué-chi and yé-tha, both of fair turki stock, came as conquerors, and are now represented by the rájputs, "sons of kings," the warrior and land-owning race of northern india. it is significant that these thákur, "feudal lords," mostly trace their genealogies from about the beginning of the seventh century, as if they had become hinduized soon after the fall of the foreign yé-tha dynasty, while on the other hand "the country legends abound with instances of the conflict between the rájput and the bráhman in prehistoric times[ ]." this supports the conjecture that the rájputs entered india, not as "aryans" of the kshatriya or military caste, as is commonly assumed, but as aliens (turki), the avowed foes of the true aryans, that is, the bráhman or theocratic (priestly) caste. thus also is explained the intimate association of the rájputs and the játs from the first--the rájputs being the turki leaders of the invasions; and the játs their peaceful baktrian subjects following in their wake. the theory that the haughty rájputs are of unsullied "aryan blood" is scarcely any longer held even by the rájputs themselves; they are undoubtedly of mixed origin. but the definite physical type which h. h. risley[ ] describes as characteristic of rájputs and játs in the kashmir valley, punjab and rajputana, shows them to be wavy-haired dark-skinned dolichocephals, linked rather with the "caucasic" than the "mongolian" division. nearly related to the white huns were the _uigurs_, the _kao-che_ of the chinese annals, who may claim to be the first turki nation that founded a relatively civilised state in central asia. before the general commotion caused by the westward pressure of the hiung-nu, they appear to have dwelt in eastern turkestan (kashgaria) between the usuns and the sacae, and here they had already made considerable progress under buddhist influences about the fourth or fifth century of the new era. later, the buddhist missionaries from tibet were replaced by christian (nestorian) evangelists from western asia, who in the seventh century reduced the uigur language to written form, adapting for the purpose the syriac alphabet, which was afterwards borrowed by the mongols and the manchus. this syriac script--which, as shown by the authentic inscription of si-ngan-fu, was introduced into china in a.d.--is not to be confused with that of the orkhon inscriptions[ ] dating from a.d., and bearing a certain resemblance to some of the runic characters, as also to the korean, at least in form, but never in sound. yet although differing from the uiguric, prof. thomsen, who has successfully deciphered the orkhon text, thinks that this script may also be derived, at least indirectly through some of the iranian varieties, from the same aramean (syriac) form of the semitic alphabet that gave birth to the uiguric[ ]. it is more important to note that all the non-chinese inscriptions are in the turki language, while the chinese text refers by name to the father, the grandfather, and the great-grandfather of the reigning khan bilga, which takes us back nearly to the time when sinjibu (dizabul), great khan of the altai turks, was visited by the byzantine envoy, zimarchus, in a.d. in the still extant report of this embassy[ ] the turks ([greek: tourkoi]) are mentioned by name, and are described as nomads who dwelt in tents mounted on wagons, burnt the dead, and raised to their memory monuments, statues, and cairns with as many stones as the foes slain by the deceased in battle. it is also stated that they had a peculiar writing system, which must have been that of these orkhon inscriptions, the uiguric having apparently been introduced somewhat later. originally the uigurs comprised nineteen clans, which at a remote period already formed two great sections:--the on-uigur ("ten uigurs") in the south, and the toghuz-uigur ("nine uigurs") in the north. the former had penetrated westwards to the aral sea[ ] as early as the second century a.d., and many of them undoubtedly took part in attila's invasion of europe. later, all these western uigurs, mentioned amongst the hordes that harassed the eastern empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, in association especially with the turki avars, disappear from history, being merged in the ugrian and other finnish peoples of the volga basin. the toghuz section also, after throwing off the yoke of the mongol or tungus geugen (jeu-jen) in the fifth century, were for a time submerged in the vast empire of the altai turks, founded in by tumen of the house of assena (a-shi-na), who was the first to assume the title of kha-khan, "great khan," and whose dynasty ruled over the united turki and mongol peoples from the pacific to the caspian, and from the frozen ocean to the confines of china and tibet. both the above-mentioned sinjibu, who received the byzantine envoy, and the bilga khan of the orkhon _stele_, belonged to this dynasty, which was replaced in by pei-lo (huei-hu), chief of the toghuz-uigurs. this is how we are to understand the statement that all the turki peoples who during the somewhat unstable rule of the assena dynasty from to had undergone many vicissitudes, and about were even broken into two great sections (eastern turks of the karakoram region and western turks of the tarim basin), were again united in one vast political system under the toghuz-uigurs. these are henceforth known in history simply as uigurs, the on branch having, as stated, long disappeared in the west. the centre of their power seems to have oscillated between karakoram and turfan in eastern turkestan, the extensive ruins of which have been explored by d. a. klements, sven hedin and m. a. stein. their vast dominions were gradually dismembered, first by the _hakas_, or _ki-li-kissé_, precursors of the present kirghiz, who overran the eastern (orkhon) districts about , and then by the muhammadans of máwar-en-nahar (transoxiana), who overthrew the "lion kings," as the uigur khans of turfan were called, and set up several petty mussulman states in eastern turkestan. later they fell under the yoke of the kara-khitais, and were amongst the first to join the devastating hordes of jenghiz-khan; their name, which henceforth vanishes from history[ ], has been popularly recognised under the form of "ogres," in fable and nursery tales, but the derivation lacks historical foundation. at present the heterogeneous populations of the tarim basin (kashgaria, eastern turkestan), where the various elements have been intermingled, offer a striking contrast to those of the ili valley (sungaria), where one invading horde has succeeded and been superimposed on another. hence the complexity of the kashgarian type, in which the original "horse-like face" everywhere crops out, absorbing the later mongolo-turki arrivals. but in sungaria the kalmuk, chinese, dungan, taranchi, and kirghiz groups are all still sharply distinguished and perceptible at a glance. "amongst the kashgarians--a term as vague ethnically as 'aryan'--richthofen has determined the successive presence of the su, yué-chi, and usun hordes, as described in the early chinese chronicles[ ]." the recent explorations of m. a. stein have thrown some light on the ethnology of this region, and a preliminary survey of results was prepared and published by t. a. joyce. he concludes that the original inhabitants were of alpine type, with, in the west, traces of the indo-afghan, and that the mongolian has had very little influence upon the population[ ]. in close proximity to the toghuz-uigurs dwelt the _oghuz_ (_ghuz, uz_), for whom eponymous heroes have been provided in the legendary records of the eastern turks, although all these terms would appear to be merely shortened forms of toghuz[ ]. but whether true uigurs, or a distinct branch of the turki people, the ghuz, as they are commonly called by the arab writers, began their westward migrations about the year . after occupying transoxiana, where they are now represented by the uzbegs[ ] of bokhara and surrounding lands, they gradually spread as conquerors over all the northern parts of irania, asia minor, syria, the russian and caucasian steppes, ukrainia, dacia, and the balkan peninsula. in most of these lands they formed fresh ethnical combinations both with the caucasic aborigines, and with many kindred turki as well as mongol peoples, some of whom were settled in these regions since neolithic times, while others had either accompanied attila's expeditions, or followed in his wake (pechenegs, komans, alans, kipchaks, kara-kalpaks), or else arrived later in company with jenghiz-khan and his successors (kazan and nogai "tatars"[ ]). in russia, rumania (dacia), and most of the balkan peninsula these mongolo-turki blends have been again submerged by the dominant slav and rumanian peoples (great and little russians, servo-croatians, montenegrini, moldavians, and walachians). but in south-western asia they still constitute perhaps the majority of the population between the indus and constantinople, in many places forming numerous compact communities, in which the mongolo-turki physical and mental characters are conspicuous. such, besides the already mentioned turkomans of parthian lineage, are all the nomad and many of the settled inhabitants of khiva, ferghana, karategin, bokhara, generally comprised under the name of uzbegs and "sartes." such also are the turki peoples of afghan turkestan, and of the neighbouring uplands (hazaras and aimaks who claim mongol descent, though now of persian speech); the aderbaijani and many other more scattered groups in persia; the nogai and kumuk tribes of caucasia, and especially most of the nomad and settled agricultural populations of asia minor. the anatolian peasantry form, in fact, the most numerous and compact division of the turki family still surviving in any part of their vast domain between the bosporus and the lena. out of this prolific oghuz stock arose many renowned chiefs, founders of vast but somewhat unstable empires, such as those of the gasnevides, who ruled from persia to the indus; the seljuks, who first wrested the asiatic provinces from byzantium; the osmanli, so named from othman, the arabised form of athman, who prepared the way for orkhan ( - ), true builder of the ottoman power, which has alone survived the shipwreck of all the historical turki states. the vicissitudes of these monarchies, looked on perhaps with too kindly an eye by gibbon, belong to the domain of history, and it will suffice here to state that from the ethnical standpoint the chief interest centres in that of the seljukides, covering the period from about the middle of the eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century. it was under togrul-beg of this dynasty ( - ) that "the whole body of the turkish nation embraced with fervour and sincerity the religion of mahomet[ ]." a little later began the permanent turki occupation of asia minor, where, after the conquest of armenia ( - ) and the overthrow of the byzantine emperor romanus diogenes ( ), numerous military settlements, followed by nomad turkoman encampments, were established by the great seljuk rulers, alp arslan and malek shah ( - ), at all the strategical points. these first arrivals were joined later by others fleeing before the mongol hosts led by jenghiz-khan's successors down to the time of timur-beg. but the christians (greeks and earlier aborigines) were not exterminated, and we read that, while great numbers apostatised, "many thousand children were marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives were devoted to the service or the pleasures of their masters" (_ib._). in other words, the already mixed turki intruders were yet more modified by further interminglings with the earlier inhabitants of asia minor. those who, following the fortunes of the othman dynasty, crossed the bosporus and settled in rumelia and some other parts of the balkan peninsula, now prefer to call themselves _osmanli_, even repudiating the national name "turk" still retained with pride by the ruder peasant classes of asia minor. the latter are often spoken of as "seljuk turks," as if there were some racial difference between them and the european osmanli, and for the distinction there is some foundation. as pointed out by arminius vambéry[ ], the osmanli have been influenced and modified by their closer association with the christian populations of the balkan lands, while in anatolia the seljuks have been able better to preserve the national type and temperament. the true turki spirit ("das türkentum") survives especially in the provinces of lykaonia and kappadokia, where the few surviving natives were not only islamised but ethnically fused, whereas in europe most of them (bosnians, albanians) were only islamised, and here the turki element has always been slight. at present the original turki type and temperament are perhaps best preserved amongst the remote _yakuts_ of the lena, and the _kirghiz_ groups (_kirghiz kazaks_ and _kara kirghiz_) of the west siberian steppe and the pamir uplands. the turki connection of the yakuts, about which some unnecessary doubts had been raised, has been set at rest by v. a. sierochevsky[ ], who, however, describes them as now a very mixed people, owing to alliances with the tunguses and russians. they are of short stature, averaging scarcely ft. in., and this observer thought their dark but not brilliant black eyes, deeply sunk in narrow orbits, gave them more of a red indian than of a mongol cast. they are almost the only progressive aboriginal people in siberia, although numbering not more than , souls, concentrated chiefly along the river banks on the plateau between the lena and the aldan. in the yakuts we have an extreme instance of the capacity of man to adapt himself to the _milieu_. they not merely exist, but thrive and display a considerable degree of energy and enterprise in the coldest region on the globe. within the isothermal of - ° fahr., verkhoyansk, in the heart of their territory, is alone included, for the period from november to february, and in this temperature, at which the quicksilver freezes, the yakut children may be seen gambolling naked in the snow. in midwinter r. kennan met some of these "men of iron," as wrangel calls them, airily arrayed in nothing but a shirt and a sheepskin, lounging about as if in the enjoyment of the balmy zephyrs of some genial sub-tropical zone. although nearly all are orthodox christians, or at least baptized as such, they are mere shamanists at heart, still conjuring the powers of nature, but offering no worship to a supreme deity, of whom they have a vague notion, though he is too far off to hear, or too good to need their supplications. the world of good and evil spirits, however, has been enriched by accessions from the russian calendar and pandemonium. thanks to their commercial spirit, the yakut language, a very pure turki idiom, is even more widespread than the race, having become a general medium of intercourse for tungus, russian, mongol and other traders throughout east siberia, from irkutsk to the sea of okhotsk, and from the chinese frontier to the arctic ocean[ ]. to some extent w. radloff is right in describing the great kirghiz turki family as "of all turks most nearly allied to the mongols in their physical characters, and by their family names such as kyptshak [kipchak], argyn, naiman, giving evidence of mongolian descent, or at least of intermixture with mongols[ ]." but we have already been warned against the danger of attaching too much importance to these tribal designations, many of which seem, after acquiring renown on the battle-field, to have passed readily from one ethnic group to another. there are certain hindu-kush and afghan tribes who think themselves greeks or arabs, because of the supposed descent of their chiefs from alexander the great or the prophet's family, and genealogical trees spring up like the conjurer's mango plant in support of such illustrious lineage. the chagatai (jagatai) tribes, of turki stock and speech, take their name from a full-blood mongol, chagatai, second son of jenghiz-khan, to whom fell eastern turkestan in the partition of the empire. in the same way many uzbeg and kirghiz turki tribes are named from famous mongol chiefs, although no one will deny a strain of true mongol blood in all these heterogeneous groups. this is evident enough from the square and somewhat flat mongol features, prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, large mouth, feet and hands, yellowish brown complexion, ungainly obese figures and short stature, all of which are characteristic of both sections, the kara-kirghiz highlanders, and the kazaks of the lowlands. some ethnologists regard these kirghiz groups, not as a distinct branch of the mongolo-turki race, but rather as a confederation of several nomad tribes stretching from the gobi to the lower volga, and mingled together by jenghiz-khan and his successors[ ]. the true national name is _kazák_, "riders," and as they were originally for the most part mounted marauders, or free lances of the steppe, the term came to be gradually applied to all nomad and other horsemen engaged in predatory warfare. it thus at an early date reached the south russian steppe, where it was adopted in the form of _kossack_ by the russians themselves. it should be noted that the compound term kirghiz-kazak, introduced by the russians to distinguish these nomads from their own cossacks, is really a misnomer. the word "kirghiz," whatever its origin, is never used by the kazaks in reference to themselves, but only to their near relations, the kirghiz, or kara-kirghiz[ ], of the uplands. these highlanders, who roam the tian-shan and pamir valleys, form two sections:--_on_, "right," or east, and _sol_, "left," or west. they are the _diko kamennyi_, that is, "wild rock people," of the russians, whence the expression "block kirghiz" still found in some english books of travel. but they call themselves simply kirghiz, claiming descent from an original tribe of that name, itself sprung from a legendary kirghiz-beg, from whom are also descended the chiliks, kitars and others, all now reunited with the ons and the sols. the kazaks also are grouped in long-established and still jealously maintained sections--the _great_, _middle_, _little_, and _inner horde_--whose joint domain extends from lake balkash round the north side of the caspian down to the lower volga[ ]. all accepted the teachings of islam many centuries ago, but their muhammadanism[ ] is of a somewhat negative character, without mosques, mollahs, or fanaticism, and in practice not greatly to be distinguished from the old siberian shamanism. kumiss, fermented mare's milk, their universal drink, as amongst the ancient scythians, plays a large part in the life of these hospitable steppe nomads. one of the lasting results of castrèn's labours has been to place beyond reasonable doubt the altai origin of the finnish peoples[ ]. their cradle may now be localised with some confidence about the head waters of the yenisei, in proximity to that of their turki kinsmen. here is the seat of the _soyotes_ and of the closely allied _koibals_, _kamassintzi_, _matores_, _karagasses_ and others, who occupy a considerable territory along both slopes of the sayan range, and may be regarded as the primitive stock of the widely diffused finnish race. some of these groups have intermingled with the neighbouring turki peoples, and even speak turki dialects. but the original finnish type and speech are well represented by the soyotes, who are here indigenous, and "from these their ... kinsmen, the samoyeds have spread as breeders of reindeer to the north of the continent from the white sea to the bay of chatanga[ ]." others, following a westerly route along the foot of the altai and down the irtysh to the urals, appear to have long occupied both slopes of that range, where they acquired some degree of culture, and especially that knowledge of, and skill in working, the precious and other metals, for which the "white-eyed chudes" were famous, and to which repeated reference is made in the songs of the _kalevala_[ ]. as there are no mines or minerals in finland itself, it seems obvious that the legendary heroes of the finnish national epic must have dwelt in some metalliferous region, which could only be the altai or the urals, possibly both. in any case the urals became a second home and point of dispersion for the finnish tribes (_ugrian finns_), whose migrations--some prehistoric, some historic--can be followed thence down the pechora and dvina to the frozen ocean[ ], and down the kama to the volga. from this artery, where permanent settlements were formed (_volga finns_), some conquering hordes went south and west (_danubian finns_), while more peaceful wanderers ascended the great river to lakes ladoga and onega, and thence to the shores of the baltic and lapland (_baltic and lake finns_). thus were constituted the main branches of the widespread finnish family, whose domain formerly extended from the katanga beyond the yenisei to lapland, and from the arctic ocean to the altai range, the caspian, and the volga, with considerable _enclaves_ in the danube basin. but throughout their relatively short historic life the finnish peoples, despite a characteristic tenacity and power of resistance, have in many places been encroached upon, absorbed, or even entirely eliminated, by more aggressive races, such as the siberian "tatars" in their altai cradleland, the turki kirghiz and bashkirs in the west siberian steppes and the urals, the russians in the volga and lake districts, the germans and lithuanians in the baltic provinces (kurland, livonia, esthonia), the rumanians, slavs, and others in the danube regions, where the ugrian bulgars and magyars have been almost entirely assimilated in type (and the former also in speech) to the surrounding european populations. few anthropologists now attach much importance to the views not yet quite obsolete regarding a former extension of the finnish race over the whole of europe and the british isles. despite the fact that all the finns are essentially round-headed, they were identified first with the long-headed cavemen, who retreated north with the reindeer, as was the favourite hypothesis, and then with the early neolithic races who were also long-headed. elaborate but now forgotten essays were written by learned philologists to establish a common origin of the basque and the finnic tongues, which have nothing in common, and half the myths, folklore, and legendary heroes of the western nations were traced to finno-ugrian sources. now we know better, and both archaeologists and philologists have made it evident that the finnish peoples are relatively quite recent arrivals in europe, that the men of the bronze age in finland itself were not finns but teutons, and that at the beginning of the new era all the finnish tribes still dwelt east of the gulf of finland[ ]. not only so, but the eastern migrations themselves, as above roughly outlined, appear to have taken place at a relatively late epoch, long after the inhabitants of west siberia had passed from the new stone to the metal ages. j. r. aspelin, "founder of finno-ugrian archaeology," points out that the finno-ugrian peoples originally occupied a geographical position between the indo-germanic and the mongolic races, and that their first iron age was most probably a development, between the yenisei and the kama, of the so-called ural-altai bronze age, the last echoes of which may be traced westwards to finland and north scandinavia. in the upper yenisei districts iron objects had still the forms of the bronze age, when that ancient civilisation, associated with the name of the "chudes," was interrupted by an invasion which introduced the still persisting turki iron age, expelled the aboriginal inhabitants, and thus gave rise to the great migrations first of the finno-ugrians, and then of the turki peoples (bashkirs, volga "tatars" and others) to and across the urals. it was here, in the permian territory between the irtysh and the kama, that the west siberian (chudish) iron age continued its normal and unbroken evolution. the objects recovered from the old graves and kurgans in the present governments of tver and iaroslav, and especially at ananyino on the kama, centre of this culture, show that here took place the transition from the bronze to the iron age some years before the new era, and here was developed a later iron age, whose forms are characteristic of the northern finno-ugrian lands. the whole region would thus appear to have been first occupied by these immigrants from asia after the irruption of the turki hordes into western siberia during the first iron age, at most some or years before the christian era. the finno-ugrian migrations are thus limited to a period of not more than years from the present time, and this conclusion, based on archaeological grounds, agrees fairly well with the historical, linguistic, and ethnical data. it is especially in this obscure field of research that the eminent danish scholar, vilhelm thomsen, has rendered inestimable services to european ethnology. by the light of his linguistic studies a. h. snellman[ ] has elucidated the origins of the baltic finns, the proto-esthonians, the now all but extinct livonians, and the quite extinct kurlanders, from the time when they still dwelt east and south-east of the baltic lands, under the influence of the surrounding lithuanian and gothic tribes, till the german conquest of the baltic provinces. we learn from jordanes, to whom is due the first authentic account of these populations, that the various finnish tribes were subject to the gothic king hermanarich, and thomsen now shows that all the western finns (esthonians, livonians, votes, vepses, karelians, tavastians, and others of finland) must in the first centuries of the new era have lived practically as one people in the closest social union, speaking one language, and following the same religious, tribal, and political institutions. earlier than the gothic was the letto-lithuanian contact, as shown by the fact that its traces are perceptible in the language of the volga finns, in which german loan-words are absent. from these investigations it becomes clear that the finnish domain must at that time have stretched from the present esthonia, livonia, and lake ladoga south to the western dvina. the westward movement was connected with the slav migrations. when the slavs south of the letts moved west, other slav tribes must have pushed north, thus driving both letts and finns west to the baltic provinces, which had previously been occupied by the germans (goths). some of the western finns must have found their way about a.d., scarcely earlier, into parts of this region, where they came into hostile and friendly contact with the norsemen. these relations would even appear to be reflected in the norse mythology, which may be regarded as in great measure an echo of historic events. the wars of the swedish and danish kings referred to in these oral records may be interpreted as plundering expeditions rather than permanent conquests, while the undoubtedly active intercourse between the east and west coasts of the baltic may be explained on the assumption that, after the withdrawal of the goths, a remnant of the germanic populations remained behind in the baltic provinces. from nestor's statement that all three of the varangian princes settled, not amongst slavish but amongst finnish peoples, it may be inferred that the finnish element constituted the most important section in the newly founded russian state; and it may here be mentioned that the term "russ" itself has now been traced to the finnish word _ruost_ (_ruosti_), a "norseman." but although at first greatly outnumbering the slavs, the finnish peoples soon lost the political ascendancy, and their subsequent history may be summed up in the expression--gradual absorption in the surrounding slav populations. this inevitable process is still going on amongst all the volga, lake and baltic finns, except in finland and lapland, where other conditions obtain[ ]. most finnish ethnologists agree that however much they may now differ in their physical and mental characters and usages, finns and lapps were all originally one people. some variant of _suoma_[ ] enters into the national name of all the baltic groups--_suomalaiset_, the finns of finland, _somelaïzed_, those of esthonia, _samelats_ (sabmelad), the lapps, _samoyad_, the samoyeds. in ohthere's time the norsemen called all the lapps "finnas" (as the norwegians still do), and that early navigator already noticed that these "finns" seemed to speak the same language as the beormas, who were true finns[ ]. nor do the present inhabitants of finland, taken as a whole, differ more in outward appearance and temperament from their lapp neighbours than do the tavastians and the karelians, that is, their western and eastern sections, from each other. the tavastians, who call themselves hémelaiset, "lake people," have rather broad, heavy frames, small and oblique blue or grey eyes, towy hair and white complexion, without the clear florid colour of the north germanic and english peoples. the temperament is somewhat sluggish, passive and enduring, morose and vindictive, but honest and trustworthy. very different are the tall, slim, active karelians (_karialaiset_, "cowherds," from _kari_, "cow"), with more regular features, straight grey eyes, brown complexion, and chestnut hair, like that of the hero of the kalevala, hanging in ringlets down the shoulders. many of the karelians, and most of the neighbouring _ingrians_ about the head of the gulf of finland, as well as the votes and vepses of the great lakes, have been assimilated in speech, religion, and usages to the surrounding russian populations. but the more conservative tavastians have hitherto tenaciously preserved the national sentiment, language, and traditions. despite the pressure of sweden on the west, and of russia on the east, the finns still stand out as a distinct european nationality, and continue to cultivate with success their harmonious and highly poetical language. since the twelfth century they have been christians, converted to the catholic faith by "saint" eric, king of sweden, and later to lutheranism, again by the swedes[ ]. the national university, removed in from abo to helsingfors, is a centre of much scientific and literary work, and here e. lönnrot, father of finnish literature, brought out his various editions of the _kalevala_, that of consisting of some , strophes[ ]. a kind of transition from these settled and cultured finns to the lapps of scandinavia and russia is formed by the still almost nomad, or at least restless _kwæns_, who formerly roamed as far as the white sea, which in alfred's time was known as the _cwen sæ_ (kwæn sea). these kwæns, who still number nearly , , are even called nomads by j. a. friis, who tells us that there is a continual movement of small bands between finland and scandinavia. "the wandering kwæns pass round the gulf of bothnia and up through lappmarken to kittalä, where they separate, some going to varanger, and others to alten. they follow the same route as that which, according to historians, some of the norsemen followed in their wanderings from finland[ ]." the references of the sagas are mostly to these primitive bothnian finns, with whom the norsemen first came in contact, and who in the sixth and following centuries were still in a rude state not greatly removed from that of their ugrian forefathers. as shown by almqvist's researches, they lived almost exclusively by hunting and fishing, had scarcely a rudimentary knowledge of agriculture, and could prepare neither butter nor cheese from the milk of their half-wild reindeer herds. such were also, and in some measure still are, the kindred lapps, who with the allied _yurak samoyeds_ of arctic russia are the only true nomads still surviving in europe. a. h. cocks, who travelled amongst all these rude aborigines in , describes the kwæns who range north to lake enara, as "for the most part of a very rough class," and found that the russian lapps of the kola peninsula, "except as to their clothing and the addition of coffee and sugar to their food supply, are living now much the same life as their ancestors probably lived or more years ago, a far more primitive life, in fact, than the reindeer lapps [of scandinavia]. they have not yet begun to use tobacco, and reading and writing are entirely unknown among them. unlike the three other divisions of the race [the norwegian, swedish, and finnish lapps], they are a very cheerful, light-hearted people, and have the curious habit of expressing their thoughts aloud in extempore sing-song[ ]." similar traits have been noticed in the samoyeds, whom f. g. jackson describes as an extremely sociable and hospitable people, delighting in gossip, and much given to laughter and merriment[ ]. he gives their mean height as nearly ft. in., which is about the same as that of the lapps (von düben, ft. in., others rather less), while that of the finns averages ft. in. (topinard). although the general mongol appearance is much less pronounced in the lapps than in the samoyeds, in some respects--low stature, flat face with peculiar round outline--the latter reminded jackson of the ziryanians, who are a branch of the beormas (permian finns), though like them now much mixed with the russians. the so-called prehistoric "lapp graves," occurring throughout the southern parts of scandinavia, are now known from their contents to have belonged to the norse race, who appear to have occupied this region since the new stone age, while the lapp domain seems never to have reached very much farther south than trondhjem. all these facts, taken especially in connection with the late arrival of the finns themselves in finland, lend support to the view that the lapps are a branch, not of the suomalaiset, but of the permian finns, and reached their present homes, not from finland, but from north russia through the kanin and kola peninsulas, if not round the shores of the white sea, at some remote period prior to the occupation of finland by its present inhabitants. this assumption would also explain ohthere's statement that lapps and permians seemed to speak nearly the same language. the resemblance is still close, though i am not competent to say to which branch of the finno-ugrian family lapp is most nearly allied. of the mongol physical characters the lapp still retains the round low skull (index ), the prominent cheek-bones, somewhat flat features, and ungainly figure. the temperament, also, is still perhaps more asiatic than european, although since the eighteenth century they have been christians--lutherans in scandinavia, orthodox in russia. in pagan times shamanism had nowhere acquired a greater development than among the lapps. a great feature of the system were the "rune-trees," made of pine or birch bark, inscribed with figures of gods, men, or animals, which were consulted on all important occasions, and their mysterious signs interpreted by the shamans. even foreign potentates hearkened to the voice of these renowned magicians, and in england the expression "lapland witches" became proverbial, although it appears that there never were any witches, but only wizards, in lapland. such rites have long ceased to be practised, although some of the crude ideas of a material after-life still linger on. money and other treasures are often buried or hid away, the owners dying without revealing the secret, either through forgetfulness, or more probably of set purpose in the hope of thus making provision for the other world. amongst the kindred samoyeds, despite their russian orthodoxy, the old pagan beliefs enjoy a still more vigorous existence. "as long as things go well with him, he is a christian; but should his reindeer die, or other catastrophe happen, he immediately returns to his old god _num_ or _chaddi_.... he conducts his heathen services by night and in secret, and carefully screens from sight any image of chaddi[ ]." jackson noticed several instances of this compromise between the old and the new, such as the wooden cross supplemented on the samoyed graves by an overturned sledge to convey the dead safely over the snows of the under-world, and the rings of stones, within which the human sacrifices were perhaps formerly offered to propitiate chaddi; and although these things have ceased, "it is only a few years ago that a samoyad living on novaia zemlia sacrificed a young girl[ ]." similar beliefs and practices still prevail not only amongst the siberian finns--ostyaks of the yenisei and obi rivers, voguls of the urals--but even amongst the votyaks, mordvinians, cheremisses and other scattered groups still surviving in the volga basin. so recently as the year a number of votyaks were tried and convicted for the murder of a passing mendicant, whom they had beheaded to appease the wrath of kiremet, spirit of evil and author of the famine raging at that time in central russia. besides kiremet, the votyaks--who appear to have migrated from the urals to their present homes between the kama and the viatka rivers about a.d., and are mostly heathens--also worship inmar, god of heaven, to whom they sacrifice animals as well as human beings whenever it can be safely done. we are assured by baron de baye that even the few who are baptized take part secretly in these unhallowed rites[ ]. to the ugrian branch, rudest and most savage of all the finnish peoples, belong these now moribund volga groups, as well as the fierce bulgar and magyar hordes, if not also their precursors, the _jazyges_ and _rhoxolani_, who in the second century a.d. swarmed into pannonia from the russian steppe, and in company with the germanic quadi and marcomanni twice ( and ) advanced to the walls of aquileia, and were twice arrested by the legions of marcus aurelius and verus. of the once numerous jazyges, whom pliny calls sarmates, there were several branches--_maeotae_, metanastae, _basilii_ ("royal")--who were first reduced by the goths spreading from the baltic to the euxine and lower danube, and then overwhelmed with the dacians, getae, bastarnae, and a hundred other ancient peoples in the great deluge of the hunnish invasion. from the same south russian steppe--the plains watered by the lower don and dnieper--came the _bulgars_, first in association with the huns, from whom they are scarcely distinguished by the early byzantine writers, and then as a separate people, who, after throwing off the yoke of the avars ( a.d.), withdrew before the pressure of the khazars westwards to the lower danube ( ). but their records go much farther back than these dates, and while philologists and archaeologists are able to trace their wanderings step by step north to the middle volga and the ural mountains, authentic armenian documents carry their history back to the second century b.c. under the arsacides numerous bands of bulgars, driven from their homes about the kama confluence by civil strife, settled on the banks of the aras, and since that time ( - b.c.) the bulgars were known to the armenians as a great nation dwelling away to the north far beyond the caucasus. originally the name, which afterwards acquired such an odious notoriety amongst the european peoples, may have been more geographical than ethnical, implying not so much a particular nation as all the inhabitants of the _bulga_ (volga) between the kama and the caspian. but at that time this section of the great river seems to have been mainly held by more or less homogeneous branches of the finno-ugrian family, and palethnologists have now shown that to this connection beyond all question belonged in physical appearance, speech, and usages those bands known as bulgars, who formed permanent settlements in moesia south of the lower danube towards the close of the seventh century[ ]. here "these bold and dexterous archers, who drank the milk and feasted on the flesh of their fleet and indefatigable horses; whose flocks and herds followed, or rather guided, the motions of their roving camps; to whose inroads no country was remote or impervious, and who were practised in flight, though incapable of fear[ ]," established a powerful state, which maintained its independence for over seven hundred years ( - ). acting at first in association with the slavs, and then assuming "a vague dominion" over their restless sarmatian allies, the bulgars spread the terror of their hated name throughout the balkan lands, and were prevented only by the skill of belisarius from anticipating their turki kinsmen in the overthrow of the byzantine empire itself. procopius and jornandes have left terrible pictures of the ferocity, debasement, and utter savagery, both of the bulgars and of their slav confederates during the period preceding the foundation of the bulgar dynasty in moesia. wherever the slavs (antes, slavini) passed, no soul was left alive; thrace and illyria were strewn with unburied corpses; captives were shut up with horse and cattle in stables, and all consumed together, while the brutal hordes danced to the music of their shrieks and groans. indescribable was the horror inspired by the bulgars, who killed for killing's sake, wasted for sheer love of destruction, swept away all works of the human hand, burnt, razed cities, left in their wake nought but a picture of their own cheerless native steppes. of all the barbarians that harried the empire, the bulgars have left the most detested name, although closely rivalled by the slavs. to the ethnologist the later history of the bulgarians is of exceptional interest. they entered the danubian lands in the seventh century as typical ugro-finns, repulsive alike in physical appearance and mental characters. their dreaded chief, krum, celebrated his triumphs with sanguinary rites, and his followers yielded in no respects to the huns themselves in coarseness and brutality. yet an almost complete moral if not physical transformation had been effected by the middle of the ninth century, when the bulgars were evangelised by byzantine missionaries, exchanged their rude ugrian speech for a slavonic tongue, the so-called "church slav," or even "old bulgarian," and became henceforth merged in the surrounding slav populations. the national name "bulgar" alone survives, as that of a somewhat peaceful southern "slav" people, who in our time again acquired the political independence of which they had been deprived by bajazet i. in . nor did this name disappear from the volga lands after the great migration of bulgar hordes to the don basin during the third and fourth centuries a.d. on the contrary, here arose another and a greater bulgar empire, which was known to the byzantines of the tenth century as "black bulgaria," and later to the arabs and western peoples as "great bulgaria," in contradistinction to the "little bulgaria" south of the danube[ ]. it fell to pieces during the later "tatar" wars, and nothing now remains of the volga bulgars, except the volga itself from which they were named. in the same region, but farther north[ ], lay also a "great hungary," the original seat of those other ugrian finns known as hungarians and magyars, who followed later in the track of the bulgars, and like them formed permanent settlements in the danube basin, but higher up in pannonia, the present kingdom of hungary. here, however, the magyars had been preceded by the kindred (or at least distantly connected) avars, the dominant people in the middle danube lands for a great part of the period between the departure of the huns and the arrival of the magyars[ ]. rolling up like a storm cloud from the depths of siberia to the volga and euxine, sweeping everything before them, reducing kutigurs, utigurs, bulgars, and slavs, the avars presented themselves in the sixth century on the frontiers of the empire as the unwelcome allies of justinian. arrested at the elbe by the austrasian franks, and hard pressed by the gepidae, they withdrew to the lower danube under the ferocious khagan bayan, who, before his overthrow by the emperor mauritius and death in , had crossed the danube, captured sirmium, and reduced the whole region bordering on the byzantine empire. later the still powerful avars with their slav followers, "the avar viper and the slav locust," overran the balkan lands, and in nearly captured constantinople. they were at last crushed by pepin, king of italy, who reoccupied sirmium in , and brought back such treasure that the value of gold was for a time enormously reduced. then came the opportunity of the _hunagars_ (hungarians), who, after advancing from the urals to the volga ( a.d.), had reached the danube about . here they were invited to the aid of the germanic king arnulf, threatened by a formidable coalition of the western slavs under the redoubtable zventibolg, a nominal christian who would enter the church on horseback followed by his wild retainers, and threaten the priest at the altar with the lash. in the upland transylvanian valleys the hunagars had been joined by eight of the derelict khazar tribes, amongst whom were the _megers_ or _mogers_, whose name under the form of _magyar_ was eventually extended to the united hunagar-khazar nation. under their renowned king arpad, son of almuth, they first overthrew zventibolg, and then with the help of the surviving avars reduced the surrounding slav populations. thus towards the close of the ninth century was founded in pannonia the present kingdom of hungary, in which were absorbed all the kindred mongol and finno-turki elements that still survived from the two previous mongolo-turki empires, established in the same region by the huns under attila ( - ), and by the avars under khagan bayan ( - ). after reducing the whole of pannonia and ravaging carinthia and friuli, the hunagars raided bavaria and italy ( - ), imposed a tribute on the feeble successor of arnulf ( ), and pushed their plundering expeditions as far west as alsace, lorraine, and burgundy, everywhere committing atrocities that recalled the memory of attila's savage hordes. trained riders, archers and javelin-throwers from infancy, they advanced to the attack in numerous companies following hard upon each other, avoiding close quarters, but wearing out their antagonists by the persistence of their onslaughts. they were the scourge and terror of europe, and were publicly proclaimed by the emperor otto i. ( ) the enemies of god and humanity. this period of lawlessness and savagery was closed by the conversion of saint stephen i. ( - ), after which the magyars became gradually assimilated in type and general culture, but not in speech, to the western nations[ ]. their harmonious and highly cultivated language still remains a typical member of the ural-altaic family, reflecting in its somewhat composite vocabulary the various finno-ugric and turki elements (ugrians and permians from the urals, volga finns, turki avars and khazars), of which the substratum of the magyar nation is constituted[ ]. "the modern magyars," says peisker, "are one of the most varied race-mixtures on the face of the earth, and one of the two chief magyar types of today--traced to the arpad era [end of ninth century] by tomb-findings--is dolichocephalic with a narrow visage. there we have before us altaian origin, ugrian speech and indo-european type combined[ ]." politically the magyars continue to occupy a position of vital importance in eastern europe, wedged in between the northern and southern slav peoples, and thus presenting an insurmountable obstacle to the aspirations of the panslavist dreamers. the fiery and vigorous magyar nationality, a compact body of about , , ( ), holds the boundless plains watered by the middle danube and the theiss, and thus permanently separates the chechs, moravians, and slovaks of bohemia and the northern carpathians from their kinsmen, the yugo-slavs ("southern slavs") of servia and the other now slavonised balkan lands. these yugo-slavs are in their turn severed by the rumanians of neo-latin speech from their northern and eastern brethren, the ruthenians, poles, great and little russians. had the magyars and rumanians adopted any of the neighbouring slav idioms, it is safe to say that, like the ugrian bulgarians, they must have long ago been absorbed in the surrounding panslav world, with consequences to the central european nations which it would not be difficult to forecast. here we have a striking illustration of the influence of language in developing and preserving the national sentiment, analogous in many respects to that now witnessed on a larger scale amongst the english-speaking populations on both sides of the atlantic and in the austral lands. from this point of view the ethnologist may unreservedly accept ehrenreich's trenchant remark that "the nation stands and falls with its speech[ ]." footnotes: [ ] _natural history of man_, ed. pp. - . [ ] _science of language_, , ii. p. . [ ] _the heart of a continent,_ , p. . [ ] o. peschel, _races of man,_ , p. . [ ] see ch. de ujfalvy, _les aryens_, etc., , p. . reference should perhaps be also made to e. h. parker's theory (_academy_, dec. , ) that the turki cradle lay, not in the altai or altun-dagh ("golden mountains") of north mongolia, but miles farther south in the "golden mountains" (_kin-shan_) of the present chinese province of kansu. but the evidence relied on is not satisfactory, and indeed in one or two important instances is not evidence at all. [ ] j. b. bury, _english historical rev.,_ july, . [ ] _l'anthropologie,_ vi. no. . [ ] t. peisker, "the asiatic background," _cambridge medieval history,_ vol. i. , p. . [ ] _academy,_ dec. , , p. . [ ] "budini gelonion urbem ligneam habitant; juxta thyssagetae _turcaeque_ vastas silvas occupant, alunturque venando" (i. , p. of leipzig ed. ). [ ] "dein tanain amnem gemino ore influentem incolunt sarmatae ... tindari, thussagetae, _tyrcae_, usque ad solitudines saltuosis convallibus asperas, etc." (bk. viii. , vol. i. p. of berlin ed. ). the variants _turcae_ and _tyrcae_ are noteworthy, as indicating the same vacillating sound of the root vowel (_u_ and _y = ü_) that still persists. [ ] not only was the usurper nadir shah a turkoman of the afshár tribe but the present reigning family belongs to the rival clan of qajar turkomans long settled in khorasan, the home of their parthian forefathers. [ ] of turkomans the hair was generally a dark brown; the eyes brown ( ) and light grey ( ); face orthognathous ( ) and prognathous ( ); eyes mostly _not_ oblique; cephalic index . to . , mean . ; dolicho , sub-dolicho , mesati, sub-brachy. five skulls from an old graveyard at samarkand were also very heterogeneous, cephalic index ranging from . to . . this last, unless deformed, exceeds in brachycephaly "le célèbre crâne d'un slave vende qu'on cite dans les manuels d'anthropologie" (th. volkov, _l'anthropologie,_ , pp. - ). [ ] quoted by w. crooke, who points out that "the opinion of the best indian authorities seems to be gradually turning to the belief that the connection between játs and rájputs is more intimate than was formerly supposed" (_the tribes and castes of the north-western provinces and oudh_, calcutta, , iii. p. ). [ ] virgil's "indomiti dahae" (_aen._ viii. ): possibly the dehavites (dievi) of ezra iv. . [ ] _herodotus_, vol. i. p. . [ ] from pers. [arabic symbol], _dih, dah_, village (parsi _dahi_). [ ] _les aryens_, etc., p. sq. [ ] _de bello persico, passim._ [ ] crooke, _op. cit._ iv. p. . [ ] _the tribes and castes of bengal_, ; _the people of india_, . [ ] discovered in by n. m. yadrintseff in the orkhon valley, which drains to the selenga affluent of lake baikal. the inscriptions, one in chinese and three in turki, cover the four sides of a monument erected by a chinese emperor to the memory of kyul-teghin, brother of the then reigning turki khan bilga (mogilan). in the same historical district, where stand the ruins of karakoram--long the centre of turki and later of mongol power--other inscribed monuments have also been found, all apparently in the same turki language and script, but quite distinct from the glyptic rock carvings of the upper yenisei river, siberia. the chief workers in this field were the finnish archaeologists, j. r. aspelin, a. snellman and axel o. heikel, the results of whose labours are collected in the _inscriptions de l'jénisséi recueillies et publiées par la société finlandaise d'archéologie_, helsingfors, ; and _inscriptions de l'orkhon_, etc., helsingfors, . [ ] "la source d'où est tirée l'origine de l'alphabet turc, sinon immédiatement, du moins par intermédiaire, c'est la forme de l'alphabet sémitique qu'on appelle araméenne" (_inscriptions de l'orkhon déchiffrées_, helsingfors, ). [ ] see klaproth, _tableau historique de l'asie_, p. sq. [ ] they are the _onoi_, the "tens," who at this time dwelt beyond the scythians of the caspian sea (dionysius periegetes). [ ] it still persists, however, as a tribal designation both amongst the kirghiz and uzbegs, and in potanin visited the _yegurs_ of the edzin-gol valley in south-east mongolia, said to be the last surviving representatives of the uigur nation (h. schott, "zur uigurenfrage," in _abhandl. d. k. akad. d. wiss._, berlin, , pp. - ). [ ] ch. de ujfalvy, _les aryens au nord et au sud de l'hindou-kouch_, p. . [ ] "notes on the physical anthropology of chinese turkestan and the pamirs," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlii. . [ ] "the uzi of the greeks are the gozz [ghuz] of the orientals. they appear on the danube and the volga, in armenia, syria, and chorasan, and their name seems to have been extended to the whole turkoman [turki] race" [by the arab writers]; gibbon, ch. lvii. [ ] who take their name from a mythical uz-beg, "prince uz" (_beg_ in turki = a chief, or hereditary ruler). [ ] both of these take their name, not from mythical but from historical chiefs:--_kazan khan_ of the volga, "the rival of cyrus and alexander," who was however of the house of jenghiz, consequently not a turk, like most of his subjects, but a true mongol (_ob._ ); and _noga_, the ally and champion of michael palaeologus against the mongols marching under the terrible holagu almost to the shores of the bosporus. [ ] gibbon, chap. lvii. by the "turkish nation" is here to be understood the western section only. the turks of máwar-en-nahar and kashgaria (eastern turkestan) had been brought under the influences of islam by the first arab invaders from persia two centuries earlier. [ ] "die stellung der türken in europa," in _geogr. zeitschrift_, leipzig, , part , p. sq. [ ] "ethnographic researches," edited by n. e. vasilofsky for the _imperial geogr. soc._ , quoted in _nature_, dec. , , p. . [ ] a. erman, _reise um die erde_, , vol. iii. p. . [ ] quoted by peschel, _races of man_, p. . [ ] m. balkashin in _izvestia russ. geogr. soc._, april, . [ ] _kara_ = "black," with reference to the colour of their round felt tents. [ ] on the obscure relations of these hordes to the kara-kirghiz and prehistoric usuns some light has been thrown by the investigations of n. a. aristov, a summary of whose conclusions is given by a. ivanovski in _centralblatt für anthropologie_, etc., , p. . [ ] although officially returned as muhammadans of the sunni sect, levchine tells as that it is hard to say whether they are moslem, pagan (shamanists), or manichean, this last because they believe god has made good angels called _mankir_ and bad angels called _nankir_. two of these spirits sit invisibly on the shoulders of every person from his birth, the good on the right, the bad on the left, each noting his actions in their respective books, and balancing accounts at his death. it is interesting to compare these ideas with those of the uzbeg prince who explained to lansdell that at the resurrection, the earth being flat, the dead grow out of it like grass; then god divides the good from the bad, sending these below and those above. in heaven nobody dies, and every wish is gratified; even the wicked creditor may seek out his debtor, and in lieu of the money owing may take over the equivalent in his good deeds, if there be any, and thus be saved (_through central asia_, , p. ). [ ] see especially his _reiseberichte u. briefe aus den jahren - _, p. sq.; and _versuch einer koibalischen u. karagassischen sprachlehre_, , vol. i. _passim_. but cf. j. szinnyei, _finnisch-ugrische sprachwissenschaft_, , pp. - . [ ] peschel, _races of man_, p. . [ ] in a suggestive paper on this collection of finnish songs c. u. clark (_forum_, april, , p. sq.) shows from the primitive character of the mythology, the frequent allusions to copper or bronze, and the almost utter absence of christian ideas and other indications, that these songs must be of great antiquity. "there seems to be no doubt that some parts date back to at least years ago, before the finns and the hungarians had become distinct peoples; for the names of the divinities, many of the customs, and even particular incantations and bits of superstitions mentioned in the kalevala are curiously duplicated in ancient hungarian writings." [ ] when ohthere made his famous voyage round north cape to the cwen sea (white sea) all this arctic seaboard was inhabited, not by samoyeds, as at present, but by true finns, whom king alfred calls _beormas_, _i.e._ the _biarmians_ of the norsemen, and the _permiaki_ (_permians_) of the russians (_orosius_, i. ). in medieval times the whole region between the white sea and the urals was often called permia; but since the withdrawal southwards of the zirynians and other permian finns this arctic region has been thinly occupied by samoyed tribes spreading slowly westward from siberia to the pechora and lower dvina. [ ] see a. hackman, _die bronzezeit finnlands_, helsingfors, ; also m. aspelin, o. montelius, v. thomsen and others, who have all, on various grounds, arrived at the same conclusion. even d. e. d. europaeus, who has advanced so many heterodox views on the finnish cradleland, and on the relations of the finnic to the mongolo-turki languages, agrees that "vers l'époque de la naissance de j. c., c'est-à-dire bien longtemps avant que ces tribus immigrassent en finlande, elles [the western finns] étaient établies immédiatement au sud des lacs d'onéga et de ladoga." (_travaux géographiques exécutés en finlande jusqu'en_ , helsingfors, , p. .) [ ] _finska forminnesföreningens tidskrift, journ. fin. antiq. soc._ , p. sq. [ ] "les finnois et leurs congénères ont occupé autrefois, sur d'immenses espaces, les vastes régions forestières de la russie septentrionale et centrale, et de la sibérie occidentale; mais plus tard, refoulés et divisés par d'autres peuples, ils furent réduits à des tribus isolées, dont il ne reste maintenant que des débris épars" (_travaux géographiques_, p. ). [ ] a word of doubtful meaning, commonly but wrongly supposed to mean _swamp_ or _fen_, and thus to be the original of the teutonic _finnas_, "fen people" (see thomsen, _einfluss d. ger. spr. auf die finnisch-lappischen_, p. ). [ ] "Þa finnas, him þuhte, and þa beormas spræcon neah án geðeode" (orosius, i. ). [ ] see my paper on the finns in cassel's _storehouse of information_, p. . [ ] the fullest information concerning finland and its inhabitants is found in the _atlas de finlande_, with _texte_ ( vols.) published by the _soc. géog. finland_ in . [ ] _laila_, earl of ducie's english ed., p. . the swedish _bothnia_ is stated to be a translation of _kwæn_, meaning low-lying coastlands; hence _kainulaiset_, as they call themselves, would mean "coastlanders." [ ] _a boat journey to inari_, viking club, feb. , . [ ] _the great frozen land_, , p. . [ ] _the great frozen land_, p. . [ ] cf. m. a. czaplicka, _aboriginal siberia_, , pp. , _n._ [ ] _notes sur les votiaks payens des gouvernements de kazan et viatka_, paris, . they are still numerous, especially in viatka, where they numbered , in . [ ] see especially schafarik's classical work _slavische alterthümer_, ii. p. sq. and v. de saint-martin, _Études de géographie ancienne et d'ethnographie asiatique_, ii. p. sq., also the still indispensable gibbon, ch. xlii., etc. [ ] _decline and fall_, xlii. [ ] rubruquis (thirteenth century): "we came to the etil, a very large and deep river four times wider than the seine, flowing from 'great bulgaria,' which lies to the north." farther on he adds: "it is from this great bulgaria that issued those bulgarians who are beyond the danube, on the constantinople side" (quoted by v. de saint-martin). [ ] evidently much nearer to the ural mountains, for jean du plan carpin says this "great hungary was the land of _bascart_," that is, _bashkir_, a large finno-turki people, who still occupy a considerable territory in the orenburg government about the southern slopes of the urals. [ ] with them were associated many of the surviving fugitive on-uigurs (gibbon's "ogors or varchonites"), whence the report that they were not true avars. but the turki genealogies would appear to admit their claim to the name, and in any case the uigurs and avars of those times cannot now be ethnically distinguished. _kandish_, one of their envoys to justinian, is clearly a turki name, and _varchonites_ seems to point to the warkhon (orkhon), seat in successive ages of the eastern turks, the uigurs, and the true mongols. [ ] _ethnology_, p. . [ ] vambéry, perhaps the best authority on this point, holds that in its structure magyar leans more to the finno-ugric, and in its vocabulary to the turki branch of the ural-altaic linguistic family. he attributes the effacement of the physical type partly to the effects of the environment, partly to the continuous interminglings of the ugric, turki, slav, and germanic peoples in pannonia ("ueber den ursprung der magyaren," in _mitt. d. k. k. geograph. ges._, vienna, , xl. nos. and ). [ ] t. peisker, "the asiatic background," _cambridge medieval history_, vol. i. , p. . [ ] "das volk steht und fällt mit der sprache" (_urbewohner brasiliens_, , p. ). chapter x the american aborigines american origins--fossil man in america--the lagoa-santa race--physical type in north america--cranial deformation--the toltecs--type of n.w. coast indians--date of migrations--evidence from linguistics--stock languages--culture--classification-- by linguistics--ethnic movements--archaeological classification--cultural classification--_eskimo area_--material culture--origin and affinities--physical type--social life--_mackenzie area_--the déné--material culture--physical type--social life--_north pacific coast area_--material culture--physical type--social life--_plateau area_--material culture--interior salish--social organisation--_californian area_--material culture--social life--_plains area_--material culture--dakota--religion--the sun dance--pawnee--blackfeet-- arapaho--cheyenne--_eastern woodland area_--material culture-- central group--eastern group--iroquoian tribes: ojibway-- religion--iroquois--_south-eastern area_--material culture-- creeks--yuchi--mound-builders--_south-western area_--material culture--transitional or intermediate tribes--pueblos--cliff dwellings--religion--physical type--social life. conspectus. #present range.# _n. w. pacific coastlands; the shores of the arctic ocean, labrador, and greenland; the unsettled parts of alaska and the dominion; reservations and agencies in the dominion and the united states; parts of florida, arizona, and new mexico; most of central and south america with fuegia either wild and full-blood, or semi-civilised half-breeds._ #hair#, _black, lank, coarse, often very long, nearly round in transverse section; very scanty on face and practically absent on body_; #colour#, _differs, according to localities, front dusky yellowish white to that of solid chocolate, but the prevailing colour is brown_; #skull#, _generally mesaticephalous ( ), but with wide range from (some eskimo) to or (some british columbians, peruvians); the_ #os incae# _more frequently present than amongst other races, but the_ #os linguae# _(hyoid bone) often imperfectly developed_; #jaws#, _massive, but moderately projecting_; #cheek-bone#, _as a rule rather prominent laterally, and also high_; #nose#, _generally large, straight or even aquiline, and mesorrhine_; #eyes#, _nearly always dark brown, with a yellowish conjunctiva, and the eye-slits show a prevailing tendency to a slight upward slant_; #stature#, _usually above the medium . m. ( ft. or in.), but variable--under . m. ( ft. in.) on the western plateaux (peruvians, etc.), also in fuegia and alaska; . m. ( ft.) and upwards in patagonia (tehuelches), central brazil (bororos) and prairie (algonquians, iroquoians); the relative proportions of the two elements of the arms and of the legs (radio-humeral and tibio-femoral indices) are intermediate between those of whites and negroes_. #temperament#, _moody, reserved, and wary; outwardly impassive and capable of enduring extreme physical pain; considerate towards each other, kind and gentle towards their women and children, but not in a demonstrative manner; keen sense of justice, hence easily offended, but also easily pacified. the outward show of dignity and a lofty air assumed by many seems due more to vanity or ostentation than to a feeling of true pride. mental capacity considerable, much higher than the negro, but on the whole inferior to the mongol_. #speech#, _exclusively polysynthetic, a type unknown elsewhere; is not a primitive condition, but a highly specialised form of agglutination, in which all the terms of the sentence tend to coalesce in a single polysyllabic word; stock languages very numerous, perhaps more so than all the stock languages of all the other orders of speech in the rest of the world_. #religion#, _various grades of spirit and nature worship, corresponding to the various cultural grades; a crude form of shamanism prevalent amongst most of the north american aborigines, polytheism with sacrifice and priestcraft amongst the cultured peoples (aztecs, mayas, etc.); the monotheistic concept nowhere clearly evolved; belief in a natural after-life very prevalent, if not universal_. #culture#, _highly diversified, ranging from the lowest stages of savagery through various degrees of barbarism to the advanced social state of the more or less civilised mayas, aztecs, chibchas, yungas, quichuas, and aymaras; amongst these pottery, weaving, metal-work, agriculture, and especially architecture fairly well developed; letters less so, although the maya script seems to have reached the true phonetic state; navigation and science rudimentary or absent; savagery generally far more prevalent and intense in south than in north america, but the tribal state almost everywhere persistent_. i. _eskimo._ ii. _mackenzie area._ déné tribes. yellow knives, dog rib, hares, slavey, chipewyan, beaver, nahane, sekani, babine, carrier, loucheux, ahtena, khotana. iii. _north pacific area._ tlingit, haida, kwakiutl, bellacoola, coast salish, nootka, chinook, kalapooian. iv. _plateau area._ shahapts or nez percés, shoshoni, interior salish, thompson, lillooet, shushwap. v. _californian area._ wintun, pomo, miwok, yokut. vi. _plains area._ assiniboin, arapaho, siksika or blackfoot, blood, piegan, crow, cheyenne, comanche, gros ventre, kiowa, sarsi, teton-dakota (sioux), arikara, hidatsa, mandan, iowa, missouri, omaha, osage, oto, pawnee, ponca, santee-dakota (sioux), yankton-dakota (sioux), wichita, wind river shoshoni, plains-ojibway, plains-cree. vii. _eastern woodland area._ ojibway, saulteaux, wood cree, montagnais, naskapi, huron, wyandot, erie, susquehanna, iroquois, algonquin, ottawa, menomini, sauk and fox, potawatomi, peoria, illinois, kickapoo, miami, abnaki, micmac. viii. _south-eastern area._ shawnee, creek, chickasaw, choctaw, seminole, cherokee, tuscarora, yuchi, powhatan, tunican, natchez. ix. _south-western area._ pueblo tribes. hopi, zuñi, rio grande, navaho, pima, mohave, jicarilla, mescalero. [illustration: map of areas of material culture in north america (after c. wissler, _am. anth._ xvi. ).] #north america#: _eskimauan_ (innuit, aleut, karalit); _athapascan_ (déné, pacific division, apache, navaho); _koluschan_; _algonquian_ (delaware, abnaki, ojibway, shawnee, arapaho, sauk and fox, blackfeet); _iroquoian_ (huron, mohawk, tuscarora, seneca, cayuga, onondaga); _siouan_ (dakota, omaha, crow, iowa, osage, assiniboin); _shoshonian_ (comanche, ute); _salishan_; _shahaptian_; _caddoan_; _muskhogean_ (creek, choctaw, chickasaw, seminole); _pueblo_ (zuñian, keresan, tanoan). #central america#: _nahuatlan_ (aztec, pipil, niquiran); _huaxtecan_ (maya, quiché); _totonac_; _miztecan_; _zapotecan_; _chorotegan_; _tarascan_; _otomitlan_; _talamancan_; _choco_. #south america#: _muyscan_ (chibcha); _quichuan_ (inca, aymara); _yungan_ (chimu); _antisan_; _jivaran_; _zaparan_; _betoyan_; _maku_; _pana_ (cashibo, karipuna, setebo); _ticunan_; _chiquitan_; _arawakan_ (arua, maypure, vapisiana, ipurina, mahinaku, layana, kustenau, moxo); _cariban_ (bakaïri, nahuqua, galibi, kalina, arecuna, macusi, ackawoi); _tupi-guaranian_ (omagua, mundurucu, kamayura, emerillon); _gesan_ (botocudo, kayapo, cherentes); _charruan_; _bororo_; _karayan_; _guaycuruan_ (abipones, mataco, toba); _araucanian_ or _moluchean_; _patagonian_ or _tehuelchean_ (pilma, yacana, ona); _enneman_ (lengua, sanapana, angaites); _fuegian_ (yahgan, alakaluf). * * * * * it is impossible to dissociate the ethnological history of the new world from that of the old. the absence from america at any period of the world's history not only of anthropoid apes but also of the _cercopithecidae_, in other words of the catarrhini, entirely precludes the possibility of the independent origin of man in the western hemisphere. therefore the population of the americas must have come from the old world. in prehistoric times there were only two possible routes for such immigration to have taken place. for the mid-atlantic land connection was severed long ages before the appearance of man, and the connection of south america with antarctica had also long disappeared[ ]. we are therefore compelled to look to a farther extension of land between north america and northern europe on the one hand, and between north-west america and north-east asia on the other. we know that in late tertiary times there was a land-bridge connecting north-west europe with greenland, and scharff[ ] believes that the barren-ground reindeer took this route to norway and western europe during early glacial times, but that "towards the latter part of the glacial period the land-connection ... broke down." other authorities are of opinion that the continuous land between the two continents in higher latitudes remained until post-glacial times. brinton[ ] considered that it was impossible for man to have reached america from asia, because siberia was covered with glaciers and not peopled until late neolithic times, whereas man was living in both north and south america at the close of the glacial age. he acknowledged frequent communication in later times between asia and america, but maintained that the movement was rather from america to asia than otherwise. he was therefore a strong advocate of the european origin of the american race. there is no doubt that north america was connected with asia in tertiary times, though some geologists assert that "the far north-west did not rise from the waves of the pacific ocean (which once flowed with a boundless expanse to the north pole) until after the glacial period." in that case "the first inhabitants of america certainly did not get there in this way, for by that time the bones of many generations were already bleaching on the soil of the new world[ ]." the "miocene bridge," as the land connecting asia and america in late geological times has been called, was probably very wide, one side would stretch from kamchatka to british columbia, and the other across behring strait. if, as seems probable, this connection persisted till, or was reconstituted during, the human period, tribes migrating to america by the more northerly route would enter the land east of the great barrier of the rocky mountains. the route from the old world to the new by the pacific margin probably remained nearly always open. thus, while not denying the possibility of a very early migration from north europe to north america through greenland, it appears more probable that america received its population from north asia. we have next to determine what were the characteristics of the earliest inhabitants of america, and the approximate date of their arrival. there have been many sensational accounts of the discoveries of fossil man in america, which have not been able to stand the criticism of scientific investigation. it must always be remembered that the evidence is primarily one of stratigraphy. assuming, of course, that the human skeletal remains found in a given deposit are contemporaneous with the formation of that deposit and not subsequently interred in it, it is for the geologist to determine the age. the amount of petrifaction and the state of preservation of the bones are quite fallacious nor can much reliance be placed upon the anatomical character of the remains. primordial human remains may be expected to show ancestral characters to a marked degree, but as we have insufficient data to enable us to determine the rate of evolution, anatomical considerations must fit into the timescale granted by the geologist. apart from pure stratigraphy associated animal remains may serve to support or refute the claims to antiquity, while the presence of artifacts, objects made or used by man, may afford evidence for determining the relative date if the cultural stratigraphy of the area has been sufficiently established. fortunately the fossil human remains of america have been carefully studied by a competent authority who says, "irrespective of other considerations, in every instance where enough of the bones is preserved for comparison the somatological evidence bears witness against the geological antiquity of the remains and for their close affinity to, or identity with those of the modern indian. under these circumstances but one conclusion is justified, which is that thus far on this continent, no human bones of undisputed geological antiquity are known[ ]." hrdli[vc]ka subsequently studied the remains of south america and says, "a conscientious, unbiased study of all the available facts has shown that the whole structure erected in support of the theory of geologically ancient man on that continent rests on very imperfectly and incorrectly interpreted data and in many instances on false premises, and as a consequence of these weaknesses must completely collapse when subjected to searching criticism.--as to the antiquity of the various archaeological remains from argentina attributed to early man, all those to which particular importance has been attached have been found without tenable claim to great age, while others, mostly single objects, without exception fall into the category of the doubtful[ ]." the conclusions of w. h. holmes, bailey willis, f. e. wright and c. n. fenner, who collaborated with hrdli[vc]ka, with regard to the evidence thus far furnished, are that, "it fails to establish the claim that in south america there have been brought forth thus far tangible traces of either geologically ancient man himself or of any precursors of the human race[ ]." hrdli[vc]ka is careful to add, however, "this should not be taken as a categorical denial of the existence of early man in south america, however improbable such a presence may now appear." according to j. w. gidley[ ] the evidence of vertebrate paleontology indicates ( ) that man did not exist in north america at the beginning of the pleistocene although there was a land connection between asia and north america at that time permitting a free passage for large mammals. ( ) that a similar land connection was again in existence at the close of the last glacial epoch, and probably continued up to comparatively recent times, as indicated by the close resemblance of related living mammalian species on either side of the present behring strait. ( ) that the first authentic records of prehistoric man in america have been found in deposits that are not older than the last glacial epoch, and probably of even later date, the inference being that man first found his way into north america at some time near the close of the existence of this last land bridge. ( ) that this land bridge was broad and vegetative, and the climate presumably mild, at least along its southern coast border, making it habitable for man. rivet[ ] points out that from brazil to terra del fuegia on the atlantic slope, in bolivia and peru, on the high plateaux of the andes, on the pacific coast and perhaps in the south of california, traces of a distinct race are met with, sometimes in single individuals, sometimes in whole groups. this race of lagoa santa is an important primordial element in the population of south america, and has been termed by deniker the palaeo-american sub-race[ ]. the men were of low stature but considerable strength, the skull was long, narrow and high, of moderate size, prognathous, with strong brow ridges, but not a retreating forehead. there is no reliable evidence as to the age of these remains. hrdli[vc]ka, after reviewing all the evidence says, "besides agreeing closely with the dolichocephalic american type, which had an extensive representation throughout brazil, including the province of minas geraes, and in many other parts of south america, it is the same type which is met with farther north among the aztec, tarasco, otomi, tarahumare, pima, californians, ancient utah cliff dwellers, ancient north-eastern pueblos, shoshoni, many of the plains tribes, iroquois, eastern siouan, and algonquian. but it is apart from the eskimo, who form a distinct subtype of the yellow-brown strain of humanity[ ]." rivet[ ] adds that an examination of the present distribution of the descendants of the lagoa-santa type shows that they are all border peoples, in east brazil, and the south of patagonia and terra del fuegia, where the climate is rigorous, in desert islands of west and southern chili, on the coast of ecuador, and perhaps in california. this suggests that they have been driven out in a great eccentric movement from their old habitat, into new environment producing fresh crossings. there is an absence of this high narrow-headed type throughout the northern part of south america, and a prevalence of medium or sub-brachycephalic heads which are always low in the crown. these are now represented by the caribs and arawaks, but there was more than one migration of brachycephalic peoples from the north. to return to north america. as we have just seen hrdli[vc]ka recognises a dolichocephalic element in north america, and various ethnic groups range to pronounced brachycephaly. nevertheless he believes in the original unity of the indian race in america, basing his conclusions on the colour of the skin, which ranges from yellowish white to dark brown, the straight black hair, scanty beard, hairless body, brown and often more or less slanting eye, mesorrhine nose, medium prognathism, skeletal proportions and other essential features. in all these characters the american indians resemble the yellowish brown peoples of eastern asia and a large part of polynesia[ ]. he also believes that there were many successive migrations from asia. the differences of opinion between hrdli[vc]ka and other students is probably more a question of nomenclature than of fact. the eastern asiatics and polynesians are mixed peoples, and if there were numerous migrations from asia, spread over a very long period of time, people of different stocks would have found their way into america. "it is indeed probable," hrdli[vc]ka adds, "that the western coast of america, within the last two thousand years, was on more than one occasion reached by small parties of polynesians, and that the eastern coast was similarly reached by small groups of whites; but these accretions have not modified greatly, if at all, the mass of the native population[ ]." the inhabitants of the plains east of the rocky mountains and the eastern wooded area are characterised by a head which varies about the lower limit of brachycephaly, and by tall stature. this stock probably arrived by the north pacific bridge before the end of the last glacial period, and extended over the continent east of the great divide. finally bands from the north, east and south migrated into the prairie area. the markedly brachycephalic immigrants from asia appear to have proceeded mainly down the pacific slope and to have populated central and south america, with an overflow into the south of north america. it is probable that there were several migrations of allied but not similar broad-headed peoples from asia in early days, and we know that recently there have been racial and cultural drifts between the neighbouring portions of america and asia[ ]. indeed bogoras[ ] suggests that ethnographically the line separating asia and america should lie from the lower kolyma river to gishiga bay. owing to these various immigrations and subsequent minglings the cranial forms show much variation, and are not sufficiently significant to serve as a basis of classification. in parts of north america the round-headed mound-builders and others were encroached upon by populations of increasingly dolichocephalic type--plains indians and cherokees, chichimecs, tepanecs, acolhuas. even still dolichocephaly is characteristic of iroquois, coahuilas, sonorans, while the intermediate indices met with on the prairies and plateaux undoubtedly indicate the mixture between the long-headed invaders and the round-heads whom they swept aside as they advanced southwards. thus the minnetaris are highly dolicho; the poncas and osages sub-brachy; the algonquians variable, while the siouans oscillate widely round a mesaticephalous mean. the athapascans alone are homogeneous, and their sub-brachycephaly recurs amongst the apaches and their other southern kindred, who have given it an exaggerated form by the widespread practice of artificial deformation, which dates from remote times. the most typical cases both of brachy and dolicho deformation are from the cerro de las palmas graves in south-west mexico. deformation prevails also in peru and bolivia, as well as in ceara and the rio negro on the atlantic side. the flat-head form, so common from the columbia estuary to peru, occurs amongst the broad-faced huaxtecs, their near relations the maya-quichés, and the nahuatlans. it is also found amongst the extinct cebunys of cuba, hayti and jamaica, and the so-called "toltecs," that is, the people of tollan (tula), who first founded a civilised state on the mexican table-land (sixth and seventh centuries a.d.), and whose name afterwards became associated with every ancient monument throughout central america. on this "toltec question" the most contradictory theories are current; some hold that the toltecs were a great and powerful nation, who after the overthrow of their empire migrated southwards, spreading their culture throughout central america; others regard them as "fabulous," or at all events "nothing more than a sept of the nahuas themselves, the ancestors of those mexicans who built tenochtitlan," _i.e._ the present city of mexico. a third view, that of valentini, that the toltecs were not nahuas but mayas, is now supported both by e. p. dieseldorff[ ] and by förstemann[ ]. t. a. joyce[ ] suggests that the vanguard of the nahuas on reaching the mexican valley adopted and improved the culture of an agricultural people of tarascan affinities whose culture was in part due to mayan inspiration, whom they found settled there. later migrations of nahua were greatly impressed with the "toltec" culture which had thus arisen through the impact of a virile hunting people on more passive agriculturalists. on the north-west pacific coast similar ethnical interminglings recur, and franz boas[ ] here distinguishes as many as four types, the northern (tsimshian and others), the kwakiutl, the lillooet of the harrison lake region and the inland salishan (flat-heads, shuswaps, etc.). all are brachycephalic, but while the tsimshians are of medium height . m. ( ft. in.) with low, concave nose, very large head, and enormously broad face, exceeding the average for north america by mm., the kwakiutls are shorter . m. ( ft. - / in.) with very high and relatively narrow hooked nose, and quite exceptionally high face; the harrison lake very short . m. ( ft in.) with exceedingly short and broad head (c. i. nearly ), "surpassing in this respect all other forms known to exist in north america"; lastly, the inland salish of medium height . m. ( ft. in.) with high and wide nose of the characteristic indian form and a short head. it would be difficult to find anywhere a greater contrast than that which is presented by some of these british columbian natives, those, for instance, of harrison lake with almost circular heads ( . ), and some of the labrador eskimo with a degree of dolichocephaly not exceeded even by the fijian kai-colos ( )[ ]. but this violent contrast is somewhat toned by the intermediate forms, such as those of the tlingits, the aleutian islanders, and the western (alaskan) eskimo, by which the transition is effected between the arctic and the more southern populations. it is not possible at present to indicate even in outline the chronology of any of the ethnic movements outlined above. warren k. moorehead[ ] agrees with the great majority of american archaeologists in holding the existence of palaeolithic man in north america as not proven[ ], the so-called palaeoliths being either rejects or rude tools for rough purposes. when man migrated to america from north and east asia whenever that period may have been, he appears to have been in that stage of culture--or rather of stone technique--which we term neolithic, and the drifting movement ceased before he had learnt the use of metals. a further proof of the antiquity of the migrations is afforded by linguistics. a. f. chamberlain asserts[ ] that "it may be said with certainty, so far as all data hitherto presented are concerned, that no satisfactory proof whatever has been put forward to induce us to believe that any single american indian tongue or group of tongues has been derived from any old world form of speech now existing or known to have existed in the past. in whatever way the multiplicity of american indian languages and dialects may have arisen, one can be reasonably sure that the differentiation and divergence have developed here in america and are in no sense due to the occasional intrusion of old world tongues individually or _en masse_.... certain real relationships between the american indians and the peoples of north-eastern asia, known as 'paleo-asiatics,' have, however, been revealed as a result of the extensive investigations of the jesup north pacific expedition.... the general conclusion to be drawn from the evidence is that the so-called 'paleo-asiatic' peoples of north-eastern asia, _i.e._ the chukchee, koryak, kamchadale, gilyak, yukaghir, etc. really belong physically and culturally with the aborigines of north-western america.... like the modern asiatic eskimo they represent a reflex from america and asia, and not _vice versa_.... it is the opinion of good authorities also that the 'paleo-asiatic' peoples belong linguistically with the american indians rather than with the other tribes and stocks of northern or southern asia. here we have then the only real relationship of a linguistic character that has ever been convincingly argued between tongues of the new world and tongues of the old." it is not merely that the american languages differ from other forms of speech in their general phonetic, structural and lexical features; they differ from them in their very morphology, as much, for instance, as in the zoological world class differs from class, order from order. they have all of them developed on the same polysynthetic lines, from which if a few here and there now appear to depart, it is only because in the course of their further evolution they have, so to say, broken away from that prototype[ ]. take the rudest or the most highly cultivated anywhere from alaska to fuegia--eskimauan, iroquoian, algonquian, aztec, tarascan, ipurina, peruvian, yahgan--and you will find each and all giving abundant evidence of this universal polysynthetic character, not one true instance of which can be found anywhere in the eastern hemisphere. there is incorporation with the verb, as in basque, many of the caucasus tongues, and the ural-altaic group; but it is everywhere limited to pronominal and purely relational elements. but in the american order of speech there is no such limitation, and not merely the pronouns, which are restricted in number, but the nouns with their attributes, which are practically numberless, all enter necessarily into the verbal paradigm. thus in tarascan (mexico): _hopocuni_ = to wash the hands; _hopodini_ = to wash the ears, from _hoponi_ = to wash, which cannot be used alone[ ]. so in ipurina (amazonia): _nicuçacatçaurumatinií_ = i draw the cord tight round your waist, from _ni_, i; _cuçaca_, to draw tight; _tça_, cord; _túruma_, waist; _tini_, characteristic verbal affix; _í_, thy, referring to waist[ ]. we see from such examples that polysynthesis is not a primitive condition of speech, as is often asserted, but on the contrary a highly developed system, in which the original agglutinative process has gone so far as to attract all the elements of the sentence to the verb, round which they cluster like swarming bees round their queen. in eskimauan the tendency is shown in the construction of nouns and verbs, by which other classes of words are made almost unnecessary, and one word, sometimes of interminable length, is able to express a whole sentence with its subordinate clauses. h. rink, one of the first eskimo scholars of modern times, gives the instance: "suérúkame-autdlásassoq-tusaramiuk-tuningingmago-iluarín-gilát = they did not approve that he (_a_) had omitted to give him (_b_) something, as he (_a_) heard that he (_b_) was going to depart on account of being destitute of everything[ ]." such monstrosities "are so complicated that in daily speech they could hardly ever occur; but still they are correct and can be understood by intelligent people[ ]." he gives another and much longer example, which the reader may be spared, adding that there are altogether about particles, as many as ten of which may be piled up on any given stem. the process also often involves great phonetic changes, by which the original form of the elements becomes disguised, as, for instance, in the english _hap'oth_ = half-penny-worth. the attempt to determine the number of words that might be formed in this way on a single stem, such as _igdlo_, a house, had to be given up after getting as far as the compound _igdlorssualiortugssarsiumavoq_ = he wants to find one who will build a large house. it is clear that such a linguistic evolution implies both the postulated isolation from other influences, which must have disturbed and broken up the cumbrous process, and also the postulated long period of time to develop and consolidate the system throughout the new world. but time is still more imperiously demanded by the vast number of stock languages, many already extinct, many still current all over the continent, all of which differ profoundly in their vocabulary, often also in their phonesis, and in fact have nothing in common except this extraordinary polysynthetic groove in which they are cast. there are probably about stock languages in north america, of which occur north of mexico. but even that conveys but a faint idea of the astonishing diversity of speech prevailing in this truly linguistic babel. j. w. powell[ ] points out that the practically distinct idioms are far more numerous than might be inferred even from such a large number of mother tongues. thus, in the algonquian[ ] linguistic family he tells us there are about , no one of which could be understood by a people speaking another; in athapascan from to ; in siouan over ; and in shoshonian a still greater number[ ]. the greatest linguistic diversity in a relatively small area is found in the state of california, where, according to powell's classification, distinct stocks of languages are spoken. r. b. dixon and a. l. kroeber[ ] show however that these fall into three morphological groups which are also characterised by certain cultural features. it is the same, or perhaps even worse, in central and in south america, where the linguistic confusion is so great that no complete classification of the native tongues seems possible. clements r. markham in the third edition of his exhaustive list of the amazonian tribes[ ] has no less than entries. he concludes that these may be referred to distinct tribes in all the periods, since the days of acuña ( ). deducting some as extinct or nearly so, the total amounts to " at the outside" (p. ). but for such linguistic differences, large numbers of these groups would be quite indistinguishable from each other, so great is the prevailing similarity in physical appearance and usages in many districts. thus ehrenreich tells us that, "despite their ethnico-linguistic differences, the tribes about the head-waters of the xingu present complete uniformity in their daily habits, in the conditions of their existence, and their general culture[ ]," though it is curious to note that the art of making pottery is restricted here to the arawak tribes[ ]. yet amongst them are represented three of the radically distinct linguistic groups of brazil, some (bakaïri and nahuqua) belonging to the carib, some (auetö and kamayura) to the tupi-guarani, and some (mehinaku and vaura) to the arawak family. obviously these could not be so discriminated but for their linguistic differences. on the other hand the opposite phenomenon is occasionally presented of tribes differing considerably in their social relations, which are nevertheless of the same origin, or, what is regarded by ehrenreich as the same thing, belong to the same linguistic group. such are the ipurina, the paumari and the yamamadi of the purus valley, all grouped as arawaks because they speak dialects of the arawakan stock language. at the same time it should be noted that the social differences observed by some modern travellers are often due to the ever-increasing contact with the whites, who are now encroaching on the gran chaco plains, and ascending every amazonian tributary in quest of rubber and the other natural produce abounding in these regions. the consequent displacement of tribes is discussed by g. e. church[ ]. in the introduction to his valuable list clements markham observes that the evidence of language favours the theory that the amazonian tribes, "now like the sands on the sea-shore for number, originally sprang from two or at most three parent stocks. dialects of the _tupi_ language extend from the roots of the andes to the atlantic, and southward into paraguay ... and it is established that the differences in the roots, between the numerous amazonian languages, are not so great as was generally supposed[ ]." this no doubt is true, and will account for much. but when we see it here recorded that of the carabuyanas (japura river) there are or were branches, that the chiquito group (bolivia) comprises tribes speaking "seven different languages"; that of the juris (upper amazons) there are ten divisions; of the moxos (beni and mamoré rivers) branches, "speaking nine or, according to southey, thirteen languages"; of the uaupés (rio negro) divisions, and so on, we feel how much there is still left to be accounted for. attempts have been made to weaken the force of the linguistic argument by the assumption, at one time much in favour, that the american tongues are of a somewhat evanescent nature, in an unstable condition, often changing their form and structure within a few generations. but, says powell, "this widely spread opinion does not find warrant in the facts discovered in the course of this research. the author has everywhere been impressed with the fact that savage tongues are singularly persistent, and that a language which is dependent for its existence upon oral tradition is not easily modified[ ]." a test case is the delaware (leni lenapé), an algonquian tongue which, judging from the specimens collected by th. campanius about , has undergone but slight modification during the last years. in this connection the important point to be noticed is the fact that some of the stock languages have an immense range, while others are crowded together in indescribable confusion in rugged upland valleys, or about river estuaries, or in the recesses of trackless woodlands, and this strangely irregular distribution prevails in all the main divisions of the continent. thus of powell's linguistic families in north america as many as are restricted to the relatively narrow strip of coastland between the rocky mountains and the pacific, ten are dotted round the gulf of mexico from florida to the rio grande, and two disposed round the gulf of california, while nearly all the rest of the land--some six million square miles--is occupied by the six widely diffused eskimauan, athapascan, algonquian, iroquoian, siouan, and shoshonian families. the same phenomenon is presented by central and south america, where less than a dozen stock languages--opatan, nahuatlan, huastecan, chorotegan, quichuan, arawakan, gesan (tapuyan), tupi-guaranian, cariban--are spread over millions of square miles, while many scores of others are restricted to extremely narrow areas. here the crowding is largely determined, as in caucasia, by the altitude (andes in colombia, ecuador, peru, and bolivia; sierras in mexico). it is strongly held by many american ethnologists that the various cultures of america are autochthonous, nothing being borrowed from the old world. j. w. powell[ ], who rendered such inestimable services to american anthropology, affirmed that "the aboriginal peoples of america cannot be allied preferentially to any one branch of the human race in the old world"; that "there is no evidence that any of the arts of the american indians were borrowed from the orient"; that "the industrial arts of america were born in america, america was inhabited by tribes at the time of the beginning of industrial arts. they left the old world before they had learned to make knives, spear and arrowheads, or at least when they knew the art only in its crudest state. thus primitive man has been here ever since the invention of the stone knife and the stone hammer." he further contended that "the american indian did not derive his forms of government, his industrial or decorative arts, his languages, or his mythological opinions from the old world, but developed them in the new"; and that "in the demotic characteristics of the american indians, all that is common to tribes of the orient is universal, all that distinguishes one group of tribes from another in america distinguishes them from all other tribes of the world." this view has been emphasised afresh by fewkes[ ], though of recent years it has met with vigorous opposition. at the conclusion of his article "die melanesische bogenkultur und ihre verwandten[ ]" graebner attempts to trace the cultural connection of south america with south-east asia rather than with the south seas, the main links being represented by head-hunting, certain types of skin-drum and of basket, and in particular three types of crutch-handled paddle. according to him the spread of culture has taken place by the land route and behring strait, not across the pacific by way of the south seas, a view to which he adheres in his later work. an ingenious and detailed attempt has also been made by pater schmidt[ ] to trace the various cultures determined for oceania and africa in south america. apart from the great linguistic groups usually adopted as the basis of classification, schmidt would divide the south american indians according to their stage of economic development into collectors, cultivators, and civilised peoples of the andean highlands. though this series may have the appearance of evolution, in point of fact "each group is composed of peoples differing absolutely in language and race, who brought with them to south america in historically distinct migrations at all events the fundamentals of their respective cultures.... as we pass in review the cultural elements of the separate groups, their weapons, implements, dwellings, their sociology, mythology, and religion we discover the innate similarity of these groups to the culture-zones of the old world in all essential features[ ]." the author proceeds to work out his theory in great detail; the earlier cultures he too considers have travelled by the enormously lengthy land route by way of north america, only the "free patrilineal culture" (polynesia and indonesia) having reached the west coast directly by sea[ ]. w. h. holmes[ ] draws attention to analogies between american and foreign archaeological remains, for example the stone gouge of new england and europe. he hints at influences coming from the mediterranean and even from africa. "even more remarkable and diversified are the correspondences between the architectural remains of yucatan and those of cambodia and java in the far east. on the pacific side of the american continent strange coincidences occur in like degree, seeming to indicate that the broad pacific has not proved a complete bar to intercourse of peoples of the opposing continents ... it seems highly probable considering the nature of the archaeological evidence, that the western world has not been always and wholly beyond the reach of members of the white, polynesian, and perhaps even the black races." walter hough[ ] gives various cultural parallels between america and the other side of the pacific but does not commit himself. s. hagar[ ] brings forward some interesting correspondences between the astronomy of the new and of the old worlds, but adopts a cautious attitude. more recently the problem has been attacked with great energy by g. elliot smith[ ]. his investigations into the processes of mummification and the tombs of ancient egypt led him to comparative studies, and he notes that certain customs seem to be found in association, forming what is known as a culture-complex. for example, "in most regions the people who introduced the habit of megalithic building and sun worship also brought with them the practice of mummification." also associated with these are:--stories of dwarfs and giants, belief in the indwelling of gods and great men in megalithic monuments, the use of these structures in a particular manner for special council, the practice of hanging rags on trees in association with such monuments, serpent worship, tattooing, distension of the lobe of the ear, the use of pearls, the conch-shell trumpet, etc. in a map showing the distribution of this "heliolithic" culture-complex he indicates the main lines of migration to america, one across the aleutian chain and down the west coast to california, the other and more important one, across the pacific to peru, and thence to various parts of south america, through central america to the southern half of the united states. contrary to schmidt, elliot smith postulates contact of cultures rather than actual migrations of people; he considers it possible that a small number of aliens arriving by sea in peru, for example, might introduce customs of a highly novel and subversive character which would take root and spread far and wide. the peruvian custom of embalming the dead certainly presents analogies to that of ancient egypt, and elliot smith is convinced that "the rude megalithic architecture of america bears obvious evidence of the same inspiration which prompted that of the old world." in a later paper elliot smith[ ] adduces further evidence in support of his thesis "that the essential elements of the ancient civilization of india, further asia, the malay archipelago, oceania, and america were brought in succession to each of these places by mariners, whose oriental migrations (on an extensive scale) began as trading intercourse between the eastern mediterranean and india some time after b.c. and continued for many centuries." this dissemination was in the first instance due to the phoenicians and there are "unmistakable tokens that the same phoenician methods which led to the diffusion of this culture-complex in the old world also were responsible for planting it in the new[ ] some centuries after the phoenicians themselves had ceased to be" (_l.c._ p. ). further evidence along the same lines is offered by w. j. perry[ ] who has noted the geographical distribution of terraced cultivation and irrigation and finds that it corresponds to a remarkable extent with that of the "heliolithic" culture-complex, and by j. wilfrid jackson[ ] who has investigated the aztec moon-cult and its relation to the chank cult of india, the money cowry as a sacred object among north american indians[ ], shell trumpets and their distribution in the old and new world[ ] and the geographical distribution of the shell purple industry[ ]. he points out that we have ample evidence of the practice of this ancient industry in several places in central america, and refers to zelia nuttall's interesting paper on the subject[ ]. elliot smith also discusses "pre-columbian representations of the elephant in america[ ]" and remarks "coincidences of so remarkable a nature cannot be due to chance. they not only confirm the identification of the elephant in designs in america, but also incidentally point to the conclusion that the hindu god indra was adopted in central america with practically all the attributes assigned to him in his asiatic home." elliot smith believes that practically every element of the early civilisation of america was derived from the old world. small groups of immigrants from time to time brought certain of the beliefs, customs, and inventions of the mediterranean area, egypt, ethiopia, arabia, babylonia, indonesia, eastern asia and oceania, and the confused jumble of practices became assimilated and "americanised" in the new home across the pacific as the result of the domination of the great uncultured aboriginal populations by small bands of more cultured foreigners. these highly suggestive studies will force adherents of the theory of the indigenous origin of american culture to reconsider the grounds for their opinions and will lead them to turn once more to the writings of bancroft[ ], tylor[ ], nuttall[ ], macmillan brown[ ], enoch[ ] and others. there is no satisfactory scheme of classification of the american peoples. although there is a good deal of scattered information about the physical anthropology of the natives it has not yet been systematised and no classification can at present be based thereon. a linguistic classification is therefore usually adopted, but a geographical or cultural grouping, or a combination of the two, has much practical convenience. as farrand[ ] points out "it must never be forgotten that the limits of physical, linguistic and cultural groups do not correspond; and the overlapping of stocks determined by those criteria is an unavoidable complication." an inspection of the map of the distribution of linguistic stocks of north america prepared by j. w. powell[ ] which represents the probable state of affairs about a.d. shows that a few linguistic stocks have a wide distribution while there is a large number of restricted stocks crowded along the pacific slope. the following are the better known tribes of the more important stocks together with their distribution. _eskimauan_ (eskimo), along the arctic coasts from ° n. lat. in the west, to ° in the east. _athapascan_, northern group, déné or tinneh (including many tribes), interior of alaska, northern british columbia and the mackenzie basin, and the sarsi of south-eastern alberta and northern montana; southern group, navaho and apache in arizona, new mexico and northern mexico; the pacific group, a small band in southern british columbia, others in washington, oregon and northern california. _algonquian_, south and west of canada, the united states east of the mississippi, the whole valley of the ohio, and the states of the atlantic coast. blackfoot of montana, alberta, south and further east, cheyenne and arapaho of minnesota. the main group of dialects is divided into the massachusett, ojibway (ojibway, ottawa, illinois, miami, etc.) and cree types. the latter include the cree, montagnais, sauk and fox, menomini, shawnee, abnaki, etc. _iroquoian_, in the provinces of ontario and quebec; hurons in the valley of the st lawrence and lake simcoe. neutral confederacy in western new york and north and west of lake erie. the great confederacy of the iroquois or "five nations" (seneca, cayuga, oneida, onondaga and mohawk, to which the tuscarora were added in ) in central new york; the conestoga and susquehanna to the south. a southern group was located in eastern virginia and north carolina, and the cherokee, centred in the southern appalachians from parts of virginia and kentucky to northern alabama. _muskhogean_ of georgia, alabama and mississippi, including the choctaw, chickasaw, creek, seminole, etc. and the natchez. there are several small groups about the mouth of the mississippi. _caddoan_. the earliest inhabitants of the central and southern plains beyond the missouri belonged to this stock, the largest group occupied parts of louisiana, arkansas, oklahoma and texas, it consists of the caddo, wichita, etc. and the kichai, the pawnee tribes in parts of nebraska and kansas and an offshoot, the arikara in north dakota. _siouan_, a small group in virginia, carolina, catawba, etc. and a very large group, practically occupying the basins of the missouri and arkansas, with a prolongation through wisconsin, where were the winnebago. the main tribes are the mandan, crow, dakota, assiniboin, omaha and osage. _shoshonian_ of the great plateau and southern california. the two outlying tribes were the hopi of north arizona and the comanche who ranged over the southern plains. among the plateau tribes are the ute, shoshoni, mono and luiseño. _yuman_, from arizona to lower california. from the data available j. r. swanton and r. b. dixon draw the following conclusions[ ]. "it appears that the origin of the tribes of several of our stocks may be referred back to a swarming ground, usually of rather indefinite size but none the less roughly indicated. that for the muskhogeans, including probably some of the smaller southern stocks, must be placed in louisiana, arkansas and perhaps the western parts of mississippi and tennessee, although a few tribes seem to have come from the region of the ohio. that for the iroquoians would be along the ohio and perhaps farther west, and that of the siouans on the lower ohio and the country to the north including part at least of wisconsin. the dispersion area for the algonquians was farther north about the great lakes and perhaps also the st lawrence, and that for the eskimo about hudson bay or between it and the mackenzie river. the caddoan peoples seem to have been on the southern plains from earliest times. on the north pacific coast we have indications that the flow of population has been from the interior to the coast. this seems certain in the case of the indians of the chimmesayan stock and some tlinglit subdivisions. some tlinglit clans, however, have moved from the neighbourhood of the nass northward. looking farther south we find evidence that the coast salish have moved from the inner side of the coast ranges, while a small branch has subsequently passed northward to the west of it. the athapascan stock in all probability has moved southward, sending one arm down the pacific coast, and a larger body presumably through the plains which reached as far as northern mexico. most of the stocks of the great plateau and of oregon and california show little evidence of movement, such indications as are present, however, pointing toward the south as a rule. the pueblo indians appear to have had a mixed origin, part of them coming from the north, part from the south. in general there is to be noted a striking contrast between the comparatively settled condition of those tribes west of the rocky mountains and the numerous movements, particularly in later times, of those to the east." with regard to the pacific coast dixon[ ] notes that it "has apparently been occupied from the earliest times by peoples differing but little in their culture from the tribes found in occupancy in the sixteenth century. cut off from the rest of the country by the great chain of the cordilleras and the inhospitable and arid interior plateaus, the tribes of this narrow coastal strip developed in comparative seclusion their various cultures, each adopted to the environment in which it was found.... "in several of the ingenious theories relating to the development and origin of american cultures in general, it has been contended that considerable migrations both of peoples and of cultural elements passed along this coastal highway from north to south. if, however, the archaeological evidence is to be depended on, such great sweeping movements, involving many elements of foreign culture, could hardly have taken place, for no trace of their passage or modifying effect is apparent.... we can feel fairly sure that the prehistoric peoples of each area were in the main the direct ancestors of the local tribes of today.... "in comparison with the relative simplicity of the archaeological record on the pacific coast, that of the eastern portion of the continent is complex, and might indeed be best described as a palimpsest. this complexity leads inevitably to the conclusion that here there have been numerous and far-reaching ethnic movements, resulting in a stratification of cultures." w. h. holmes has compiled a map marking the limits of eleven areas which can be recognised by their archaeological remains[ ]. he points out that the culture units are, as a matter of course, not usually well-defined. cultures are bound to over-lap and blend along the borders and more especially along lines of ready communication. in some cases evidence has been reported of early cultures radically distinct from the type adopted as characteristic of the areas, and ancestral forms grading into the later and into the historic forms are thought to have been recognised. holmes frankly acknowledges the tentative character of the scheme, which forms part of a synthesis that he is preparing of the antiquities of the whole american continent. north america is customarily divided into nine areas of material culture, and though this is convenient, a more correct method, as c. wissler points out[ ], is to locate the respective groups of typical tribes as culture centres, classifying the other tribes as intermediate or transitional. the geographical stability of the material culture centres is confirmed by archaeological evidence which suggests that the striking individuality they now possess resulted from a more or less gradual expansion along original lines. the material cultures of these centres possess great vitality and are often able completely to dominate intrusive cultural unity. thus tribes have passed from an intermediate state to a typical, as when the cheyenne were forced into the plains centre, and the shoshonian hopi adopted the typical pueblo culture. wissler comes to the conclusion that "the location of these centres is largely a matter of ethnic accident, but once located and the adjustments made, the stability of the environment doubtless tends to hold each particular type of material culture to its initial locality, even in the face of many changes in blood and language." it is from his valuable paper that the material culture traits of the following areas have been obtained. i. eskimo area. the fact that the eskimo live by the sea and chiefly upon sea food does not differentiate them from the tribes of the north pacific coast, but they are distinguished from the latter by the habit of camping in winter upon sea ice and living upon seal, and in the summer upon land animals. the kayak and "woman's boat," the lamp, harpoon, float, woman's knife, bowdrill, snow goggles, trussed-bow, and dog traction are almost universal. the type of winter shelter varies considerably, but the skin tent is general in summer and the snow house, as a more or less permanent winter house, prevails east of point barrow. the mode of life of all the eskimo, as f. boas[ ] has pointed out, is fairly uniform and depends on the distribution of food at the different seasons. the migrations of game compel the natives to move their habitations from time to time, and as the inhospitable country does not produce vegetation to an extent sufficient to support human life they are forced to depend entirely upon animal food. the abundance of seals in arctic america enables man to withstand the inclemency of the climate and the sterility of the soil. the skins of seals furnish the materials for summer garments and for the tent, their flesh is almost their only food, and their blubber their indispensable fuel during the long dark winter when they live in solid snow houses. when the ice breaks up in the spring the eskimo establish their settlements at the head of the fiords where salmon are easily caught. when the snow on the land has melted in july the natives take hunting trips inland in order to obtain the precious skins of the reindeer, or of the musk-ox, of whose heavy pelts the winter garments are made. walrus and the ground seal also arrive and birds are found in abundance and eaten raw. the eskimo[ ] occupy more than miles of seaboard from north-east greenland to the mouth of the copper river in western alaska. many views have been advanced as to the position of their centre of dispersion; most probably it lay to the west of hudson bay. rink[ ] is of opinion that they originated as a distinct people in alaska, where they developed an arctic culture; but boas[ ] regards them "as, comparatively speaking, new arrivals in alaska, which they reached from the east." a westward movement is supported by myths and customs, and by the affinities of the eskimo with northern asiatics. there was always hostility between the eskimo and the north american indians, which, apart from their very specialised mode of life, precluded any eskimo extension southwards. the expansion of the eskimo to greenland is explained by steensby[ ] as follows:--the main southern movement would have followed the west coast from melville bay, rounded the southern point and proceeded some distance up the east coast. from the barren grounds north-west of hudson bay the polar eskimo followed the musk-ox, advanced due north to ellesmere land, then crossed to greenland, and, still hunting the musk-ox, advanced along the north coast and down the east coast towards scoresby sound. another line of migration apparently started from the vicinity of southampton island and pursued the reindeer northwards into baffin land; on reaching ponds inlet these reindeer-hunting eskimo for the most part turned along the east coast. physically the eskimo constitute a distinct type. they are of medium stature, but possess uncommon strength and endurance; their skin is light brownish yellow with a ruddy tint on the exposed parts; hands and feet are small and well formed; their heads are high, with broad faces, and narrow high noses, and eyes of a mongolian character. but great varieties are found in different parts of the vast area over which they range. the polar eskimo of greenland, studied by steensby, were more of american indian than of asiatic type[ ]. of their psychology this writer says, "for the polar eskimos life is deadly real and sober, a constant striving for food and warmth which is borne with good humour, and all dispensations are accepted as natural consequences, about which it is of no use to reason or complain." "the hard struggle for existence has not permitted the polar eskimo to become other than a confirmed egoist, who knows nothing of disinterestedness. towards his enemies he is crafty and deceitful--he does not attack them openly, but indulges in backbiting.... it is only during the hunt that a common interest and a common danger engender a deeper feeling of comradeship[ ]." still less mongolian in type are the "blond eskimo" recently encountered by stefánsson in south-west victoria island[ ], who are regarded by him as very possibly the mixed descendants of scandinavian ancestors who had drifted there from west greenland. it is known that eric the red discovered greenland in the year and that years later settlers went there from the norse colony in iceland. the winter snow houses, which are about × ft. in diameter and ft. high, usually with annexes, are always occupied by two families, each woman having her own lamp and sitting on the ledge in front of it. if more families join in making a snow house, they make two main rooms. whenever it is possible the men spend the short days in hunting and each woman prepares the food for her husband. the long nights are mainly spent in various recreations. the social life in the summer settlement is somewhat different. the families do not cook their own meals, but a single one suffices for the whole settlement. the day before it is her turn to cook the woman goes to the hills to fetch enough shrubs for the fire. when a meal is ready the master of the house calls out and everybody comes out of his tent with a knife, the men sit in one circle and the women in another. these dinners, which are always held in the evening, are almost always enlivened by a mimic performance. the great religious feasts take place just before the beginning of winter. there are three forms of social grouping: the family, house-mates, and place-mates. ( ) the family consists of a man, his wife or wives, their children and adopted children; widows and their children may be adopted, but the woman retains her own fireplace. sometimes men are adopted, such as bachelors without any relatives, cripples, or impoverished men. joint ownership and use of a boat and house, and common labour and toil in obtaining the means of support define the real community of the family. ( ) house-mates are families that join together to build and occupy and maintain the same house. this form of establishment is especially common in greenland, but each family keeps its separate establishment inside the common house. ( ) place-fellows. the inhabitants of the same hamlet or winter establishment form one community although no chief is elected or authority acknowledged. generally children are betrothed when very young. the newly married pair usually live at first with the wife's family. both polygyny and polyandry occur. a man may lend or exchange his wife for a whole season or longer, as a sign of friendship. on certain occasions it is even commanded by religious law. there is no government, but there is a kind of chief in the settlement, though his authority is very limited. he is called the "pimain," _i.e._ he who knows everything best. he decides the proper time to shift the huts from one place to another, he may ask some men to go sealing, others to go deer hunting, but there is not the slightest obligation to obey him. the men in a community may form themselves into an informal council for the regulation of affairs. the decorative art of the eskimo is not remarkably developed, but the pictorial art consists of clever sketches of everyday scenes and there is a well developed plastic art. many of the carvings are toys and are made for the pleasure of the work. "the religious views and practices of the eskimo while, on the whole, alike in their fundamental traits, show a considerable amount of differentiation in the extreme east and in the extreme west. it would seem that the characteristic traits of shamanism are common to all the eskimo tribes. the art of the shaman (angakok) is acquired by the acquisition of guardian spirits.... besides the spirits which may become guardian spirits of men, the eskimo believes in a great many others which are hostile and bring disaster and death.... the ritualistic development of eskimo religion is very slight[ ]." ii. mackenzie area. skirting the eskimo area is a belt of semi-arctic lands almost cut in two by hudson bay. to the west are the déné tribes, who are believed to fall into three culture groups, an eastern group, yellow knives, dog rib, hares, slavey, chipewyan and beaver; a south-western group, nahane, sekani, babine and carrier; and a north-western group, comprising the kutchin, loucheux, ahtena and khotana. the material culture of the south-western group is deduced from the writings of father morice[ ]. all the tribes are hunters of large or small game, caribou are often driven into enclosures, small game taken in snares or traps; various kinds of fish are largely used, and a few of the tribes on the head waters of the pacific take salmon; large use of berries is made, they are mashed and dried by a special process; edible roots and other vegetable foods are used to some extent; utensils are of wood and bark; there is no pottery; bark vessels are used for boiling with or without stones; travel in summer is largely by canoe, in winter by snowshoe; dog sleds are used to some extent, but chiefly since trade days, the toboggan form prevailing; clothing is of skins; mittens and caps are worn; there is no weaving except rabbit-skin garments, but fine network occurs on snowshoes, bags, and fish nets, materials being of bark fibre, sinew and babiche; there is also a special form of woven quill work; the typical habitation seems to be the double lean-to, though many intrusive forms occur; other material culture traits include the making of fish-hooks and spears; a limited use of copper; and poorly developed work in stone. the physical characteristics vary very much from tribe to tribe. the sekani, according to morice, are slender and bony, in stature rather below the average, with a narrow forehead, hollow cheeks, prominent cheekbones, small eyes deeply sunk in their orbit, the upper lip very thin and the lower somewhat protruding, the chin very small and the nose straight. the carriers, on the contrary, are tall and stout, without as a rule being too corpulent. the men average . m. in height. their forehead is much broader than that of the sekani, and less receding than is usual with american aborigines. the face is full, and the nose aquiline. all the tribes are remarkably unwarlike, timid, and even cowardly. weapons are seldom used and in personal combat, which consists in a species of wrestling, knives are previously laid aside. the fear of enemies is a marked feature, due in part, doubtless, to traditional recollection of the raids of earlier days. their honesty is noted by all travellers. morice records that among the sekani a trader will sometimes go on a trapping expedition, leaving his store unlocked, without fear of any of its contents going amiss. meantime a native may call in his absence, help himself to as much powder and shot or any other item as he may need, but he will never fail to leave there an exact equivalent in furs. the eastern déné are nomad hunters who gather berries and roots, while the western are semi-sedentary, living for most of the year in villages when they subsist largely on salmon. the former are patrilineal and the latter are grouped into matrilineal exogamic totemic clans. the headmen of the clans formed a class of privileged nobles who alone owned the hunting grounds. morice speaks of clan, honorific and personal totems. the first two were adopted from coastal tribes, the honorific was assumed by some individuals in order to attain a rank to which they were not entitled by heredity. the "personal totem" is the guardian spirit or genius, the belief in which is common to nearly all north american peoples. shamanism prevails throughout the area. the mythology almost always refers to a "transformer" who visited the world when incomplete and set things in order. they have the custom of the potlatch[ ]. if a man desires another man's wife he can challenge the husband to a wrestling match, the winner keeps the woman[ ]. iii. north pacific coast area. this culture is rather complex with tribal variations, but it can be treated under three subdivisions, a northern group, tlingit, haida and tsimshian; a central group, the kwakiutl tribes and the bellacoola; and a southern group, the coast salish, nootka, chinook, kalapooian, waiilatpuan, chimakuan and some athapascan tribes. the first of these seem to be the type and are characterised by: the great dependence upon sea food, some hunting upon the mainland, large use of berries (dried fish, clams and berries are the staple food); cooking with hot stones in boxes and baskets; large rectangular gabled houses of upright cedar planks with carved posts and totem poles; travel chiefly by water in large seagoing dug-out canoes some of which had sails; no pottery nor stone vessels, except mortars; baskets in checker, those in twine reaching a high state of excellence among the tlingit; coil basketry not made; mats of cedar bark and soft bags in abundance; no true loom, the warp hanging from a bar and weaving with the fingers downwards; clothing rather scanty, chiefly of skin, a wide basket hat (the only one of the kind on the continent, apparently for protection against rain); feet usually bare, but skin moccasins and leggings occasionally made; for weapons the bow, club and a peculiar dagger, no lances; slat, rod and skin armour; wooden helmets, no shields; practically no chipped stone tools, but nephrite or green stone used; wood work highly developed; work in copper possibly aboriginal but, if so, weakly developed. the central group differs in a few minor points; twisted and loosely woven bark or wool takes the place of skins for clothing and baskets are all in checkerwork. among the southern group appears a strong tendency to use stone arrowheads, and a peculiar flat club occurs, vaguely similar to the new zealand type[ ]. physically the typical north pacific tribes are of medium stature, with long arms and short bodies. among the northern branches the stature averages . m. ( ft. in.), the head is very large with an average index of . . the face is very broad, the nose concave or straight, seldom convex, with slight elevation. among the southern tribes, notably the kwakiutl, the stature averages . m. ( ft. - / in.), the cephalic index is . , the face very broad but also of great length, the nose very high, rather narrow and frequently convex. the social relations of these peoples vary from tribe to tribe, but on the whole they fall into a sequence from north to south. in the northern portion descent is matrilineal, but patrilineal in the south. j. g. frazer does not accept the view of boas "that the northern kwakiutl have borrowed both the rule of maternal descent and the division into totemic clans from their more northerly neighbours of alien stocks; in other words, that totemism and mother-kin have spread southward among a people who had father-kin and no totemic system[ ]." he inclines "to the other view, formerly favoured by boas himself, namely, that the kwakiutl are in a stage of transition from mother-kin to father-kin[ ]." each village is autonomous and originally may have been restricted to a single totem clan. the population is divided into three ranks, nobles, common people and a low caste consisting of poor people and serfs who cannot participate in the secret societies. in addition there is a totemic grouping. there may be several totemic clans in one village and the same totem may not only occur in every village, but may extend from one tribe to another. this suggests that there were originally two, or in some cases more than two, totemic clans which in process of time became subdivided into sub-clans; these, while retaining the crest of the original clan, acquired fresh ones, and the families contained in each sub-clan may have their special crest or crests in addition. new crests and names are constantly being introduced. marriage is forbidden between people of the same crest, irrespective of the tribe. the natives according to boas do not consider themselves descendants from their totem. a wife brings her father's position, crest and privileges as a dower to her husband, who is not allowed to use them himself, but acquires them for the use of his son, in other words this inheritance is in the female line. the widely spread american custom of a youth acquiring a guardian spirit is far more prevalent among the southern section than the northern, but among the kwakiutl he can only obtain as his patron, one or more of a limited number of spirits which are hereditary in his clan. in the northern tribes the secret societies are coextensive with the totemic clans; among the kwakiutl they are connected with guardian spirits and it is significant that during the summer, when the people are scattered, society is based on the old clan system, but when the people live together in villages in the winter, society is reorganised on the basis of the secret societies. there is a highly developed system of barter of which the blanket is now the unit of value, formerly the units were elk-skins, canoes or slaves. certain symbolic objects have attained fanciful values. a vast credit system has grown up based on the custom of loaning property at high interest, at the great festivals called "potlatch" and by it the giver gains great honour. the religion is closely related to the totemic beliefs; supernatural aid is given by the spirits to those who win their favour. the raven is the chief figure in the mythology; he regulates the phenomena of nature, procures fire, daylight, and fresh water, and teaches men the arts. to the south, and extending inland to the divide, forming a much less characteristic group are the salish or flat-heads who are allied to the athapascans. the coastal salish assimilate the culture just described, but the plateau salish are more democratic, less settled and more individualistic in religious matters[ ]. the chinooks or flat-heads of the lower reaches of the columbia river are nearly extinct. they deformed the heads of infants. these tribes and the shahapts or nez percés are differentiated by garments of raw hides, cranial deformation, absence of tattooing and plain bows, but they still have communal houses though without totem posts. they cook by means of heated stones and have zoomorphic masks[ ]. iv. plateau area. the plateau area lies between the north pacific coast area and the plains. it is far less uniform than either in its topography, the south being a veritable desert while the north is moist and fertile. the traits may be summarised as: extensive use of salmon, deer, roots (especially camas) and berries; the use of a handled digging stick, cooking with hot stones in holes and baskets; the pulverisation of dried salmon and roots for storage; winter houses, semi-subterranean, a circular pit with a conical roof and smoke hole entrance; summer houses, movable or transient, mat or rush-covered tents and the lean-to, double and single; the dog sometimes used as a pack animal; water transportation weakly developed, crude dug-outs and bark canoes being used; pottery not known; basketry highly developed, coil, rectangular shapes, imbricated technique; twine weaving in flexible bags and mats; some simple weaving of bark fibre for clothing; clothing for the entire body usually of deerskins; skin caps for the men, and in some cases basket caps for women; blankets of woven rabbit-skin; the sinew-backed bow prevailed; clubs, lances, and knives, and rod and slat armour were used in war, also heavy leather shirts; fish spears, hooks, traps and bag nets were used; dressing of deerskins highly developed; upright stretching frames and straight long handled scrapers; wood work more advanced than among plains tribes, but insignificant compared to north pacific coast area; stone work confined to the making of tools and points, battering and flaking; work in bone, metal, and feathers very weak[ ]. of the tribes of this area, the interior salish, the thompson, shushwap and lillooet, appear to be the most typical of those concerning which any information is available. the shahapts or nez percés, and the shoshoni show some marked plains traits. "the interior salish are landsmen and hunters, and from time immemorial have been accustomed to follow their game over mountainous country. this mode of life has engendered among them an active, slender, athletic type of men; they are considerably taller and possess a much finer physique than their congeners of the coastal region, who are fishermen, passing the larger portion of their time on the water squatting in their canoes, never walking to any place if they can possibly reach it by water. the typical coast salish are a squat thick-set people, with disproportionate legs and bodies, slow and heavy in their movements, and as unlike their brothers of the interior as it is possible for them to be[ ]." the thompsons represented the salish at their highest and best, both morally and physically, and their ethical precepts and teaching set a very high standard of virtue before the advent of the europeans. hill-tout says that receptiveness and a wholesale adoption of foreign fashions and customs are their striking qualities, and "if they have fallen away from these high standards, as we fear they have, the fault is not theirs but ours.... we assumed a grave responsibility when we undertook to civilise these races[ ]." the simplest form of social organisation is found among the interior hunting tribes, where a state of pure anarchy may be said to have formerly prevailed, each family being a law unto itself and acknowledging no authority save that of its own elderman. each local community was composed of a greater or less number of these self-ruling families. there was a kind of headship or nominal authority given to the oldest and wisest of the eldermen in some of the larger communities, where occasion called for it or where circumstances arose in which it became necessary to have a central representative. this led in some centres to the regular appointing of local chiefs or heads whose business it was to look after the material interest of the commune over which they presided; but the office was always strictly elective and hedged with manifold limitations as to authority and privilege. for example, the local chief was not necessarily the head of all undertakings. he would not lead in war or the chase unless he happened to be the best hunter or the bravest and most skilful warrior among them; and he was subject to deposition at a moment's notice if his conduct did not meet with the approval of the elders of the commune. his office or leadership was therefore purely a nominal one. all hunting, fishing, root, and berry grounds were common property and shared in by all alike.... in one particular tribe even the food was held and meals were taken in common, the presiding elder or headman calling upon a certain family each day to provide and prepare the meals for all the rest, every one, more or less, taking it in turn to discharge this social duty[ ]. v. californian area. of the four sub-culture areas noted by kroeber[ ] the central group is the most extensive and typical. its main characteristics are: acorns as the chief vegetable food, supplemented by wild seeds, while roots and berries are scarcely used; the acorns are made into bread by a roundabout process; hunting is mostly of small game, fishing wherever possible; the houses are of many forms, all simple shelters of brush or tule, or more substantial conical lean-to structures of poles; the dog was not used for packing and there were no canoes, but rafts of tule were used for ferrying; no pottery but high development of basketry both coil and twine; bags and mats scanty; cloth or other weaving of simple elements not known; clothing simple and scanty; feet usually bare; the bow the only weapon, usually sinew-backed; work in skins, wood, bone etc., weak, in metals absent, in stone work not advanced. in the south modifications enter with large groups of yuman and shoshonian tribes where pottery, sandals and wooden war clubs are intrusive. the extinct santa barbara were excellent workers in stone, bone and shell, and made plank canoes. topographical variation produces consequent changes in mode of life as the well watered and wooded country of oregon and northern california gradually merges into the warm dry climate of south california with decreasing moisture towards the tropics. as kroeber says[ ], "from the time of the first settlement of california, its indians have been described as both more primitive and more peaceful than the majority of the natives of north america.... the practical arts of life, the social institutions and the ceremonies of the californian indians are unusually simple and undeveloped. there was no war for its own sake, no confederation of powerful tribes, no communal stone pueblos, no totems, or potlatches. the picturesqueness and the dignity of the indians are lacking. in general rudeness of culture the californian indians are scarcely above the eskimo.... if the degree of civilisation attained by people depends in any large measure on their habitat, as does not seem likely, it might be concluded from the case of the californian indians that natural advantages were an impediment rather than an incentive to progress.... it is possible to speak of typical californian indians and to recognise a typical californian culture area. a feature that should not be lost sight of is the great stability of population.... the social organisation was both simple and loose.... beyond the family the only bases of organisation were the village and the language." in so simple a condition of society difference of rank naturally found but little scope. the influence of chiefs was comparatively small, and distinct classes, as of nobility or slaves, were unknown. individual property rights were developed and what organisation of society there was, was largely on the basis of property. the ceremonies are characterised by a very slight development of the extreme ritualism that is so characteristic of the american indians, and by an almost entire absence of symbolism of any kind. fetishism is also unusual. one set of ceremonies was usually connected with a secret religious society; during initiation members were disguised by feathers and paint, but masks were not worn. there was also an annual tribal spectacular ceremony held in remembrance of the dead. in the north-west portion of the state a somewhat more highly developed and specialised culture existed which has some affinities with that of the north-west tribes, as is indicated by a greater advance in technology, a social organisation largely upon a property basis and a system of mythology that is suggestive of those further north. the now extinct tribes of the santa barbara islands and adjacent mainland were more advanced. they alone employed a plank-built canoe instead of the balsas or canoe-shaped bundles of rushes of the greater part of california. they made stone bowls and did inlaid work. like the north californians and tribes further north they buried instead of burning their dead. the eastern tribes shade off into their neighbours. the luiseño, the southernmost of the shoshonians, had puberty rites for girls and boys[ ]. the belief in a succession of births "is reminiscent of oceanic and asiatic ways of thought[ ]." [about] a secret cult arose inculcating, with penalties, obedience, fasting, and self-sacrifice on initiates[ ]. vi. plains area. the chief traits of this culture are the dependence upon the bison ("buffalo") and the very limited use of roots and berries; absence of fishing; lack of agriculture; the _tipi_ or tent as the movable dwelling and transportation by land only, with the dog and the travois (in historic times, with the horse); no baskets, pottery, or true weaving; clothing of bison and deerskins; there is high development of work in skins and special bead technique and raw-hide work (parfleche, cylindrical bag etc.), and weak development of work in wood, stone and bone. this typical culture is manifested in the assiniboin, arapaho, blackfoot, crow, cheyenne, comanche, gros ventre, kiowa, kiowa-apache, sarsi and teton-dakota[ ]. among the tribes of the eastern border a limited use of pottery and basketry may be added, some spinning and weaving of bags, and rather extensive agriculture. here the tipi alternates with larger and more permanent houses covered with grass, bark or earth, and there was some attempt at water transportation. these tribes are the arikara, hidatsa, iowa, kansa, mandan, missouri, omaha, osage, oto, pawnee, ponca, santee-dakota[ ], yankton-dakota[ ] and wichita. on the western border other tribes (wind river shoshoni, uinta and uncompahgre ute) lack pottery but produce a rather high type of basketry, depending far less on the bison but more on deer and small game, making large use of wild grass seeds. on the north-eastern border the plains-ojibway and plains-cree combine many traits of the forest hunting tribes with those found in the plains. the dakota or sioux are universally conceded to be of the highest type, physically, mentally and probably morally of any of the western tribes. their bravery has never been questioned by white or indian and they conquered or drove out every rival except the ojibway. their physical characteristics are as follows: dark skin faintly tinged with red, facial features more strongly marked than those of the pacific coast indians, nose and lower jaw particularly prominent and heavy, head generally mesocephalic and not artificially deformed. they are a free and dominant race of hunters and warriors, necessarily strong and active. their weapons of stone, wood, bone and horn are tomahawk, club, flint knife, and bow and arrow. all their habits centre in the bison, which provided the staple materials of nutrition and industry. drawing and painting were done on prepared bison skins and elaborately carved pipes were made for ceremonial use. they are divided into kinship groups, with inheritance as a rule in the male line. the woman is autocrat of the home. exogamy was strictly enforced in the clan but marriage within the tribe or with related tribes was encouraged. the marriage was arranged by the parents and polygyny was common where means would permit. government consisted in chieftainship acquired by personal merit, and the old men exercised considerable influence. religious conceptions were based on a belief in _wakonda_ or _manito_[ ], an all-pervading spirit force, whose cult involved various shamanistic ceremonials consisting of dancing, chanting, feasting and fasting. most distinctive of these is the sun dance, practised by almost all the tribes of the plains except the comanche. it is an annual festival lasting several days, in honour of the sun, for the purpose of obtaining abundant produce throughout the year. the sun dance was not only the greatest ceremony of the plains tribes but was a condition of their existence. more than any other ceremony or occasion, it furnished the tribe the opportunity for the expression of emotion in rhythm, and was the occasion of the tribe becoming more closely united. it gave opportunity for the making and renewing of common interests, the inauguration of tribal policies, and the renewing of the rank of the chiefs; for the exhibition, by means of mourning feasts, of grief over the loss of members of families; for the fulfilment of social obligations by means of feasts; and, finally, for the exercise and gratification of the emotions of love on the part of the young in the various social dances which always formed an interesting feature of the ceremony[ ]. being strongly opposed by the missionaries because it was utterly misunderstood[ ], and finding no favour in official circles, the sun dance has been for many years an object of persecution, and in consequence is extinct among the dakota, crows, mandan, pawnee, and kiowa, but it is still performed by the cree, siksika (blackfoot), arapaho, cheyenne, assiniboin, ponca, shoshoni and ute, though in many of these tribes its disappearance is near at hand, for it has lost part of its rites and has become largely a spectacle for gain rather than a great religious ceremony[ ]. the pawnee do not differ at all widely from the dakota, but have a somewhat finer cast of features. they are more given to agriculture, raising crops of maize, pumpkins, etc. the pawnee type of hut is characteristic, consisting of a circular framework of poles or logs, covered with brush, bark and earth. their religious ceremonies were connected with the cosmic forces and the heavenly bodies. the dominating power was tirawa generally spoken of as "father." the winds, thunder, lightning and rain were his messengers. among the skidi the morning and evening stars represented the masculine and feminine elements, and were connected with the advent and perpetuation on earth of all living forms. a series of ceremonies relative to the bringing of life and its increase began with the first thunder in the spring and culminated at the summer solstice in human sacrifice, but the series did not close until the maize, called "mother corn," was harvested. at every stage of the series certain shrines or "bundles" became the centre of a ceremony. each shrine was in charge of an hereditary keeper, but its rituals and ceremonies were in the keeping of a priesthood open to all proper aspirants. through the sacred and symbolic articles of the shrines and their rituals and ceremonies a medium of communication was believed to be opened between the people and the supernatural powers, by which food, long life and prosperity were obtained. the mythology of the pawnee is remarkably rich in symbolism and poetic fancy and their religious system is elaborate and cogent. the secret societies, of which there were several in each tribe, were connected with the belief in supernatural animals. the functions of these societies were to call the game, to heal diseases, and to give occult powers. their rites were elaborate and their ceremonies dramatic[ ]. the blackfeet or siksika[ ], an algonquian confederacy of the northern plains, agree in culture with the plains tribes generally, though there is evidence of an earlier culture, approximately that of the eastern woodland tribes. they are divided into the siksika proper, or blackfeet, the kainah or bloods, and the piegan, the whole being popularly known as blackfoot or blackfeet. formerly bison and deer were their chief food and there is no evidence that they ever practised agriculture, though tobacco was grown and used entirely for ceremonial purposes. the doors of their tipis always faced east. they have a great number of dances--religious, war and social--besides secret societies for various purposes, together with many "sacred bundles" around every one of which centres a ritual. practically every adult has his personal "medicine." the principal deities are the sun, and a supernatural being known as _napi_ "old man," who may be an incarnation of the same idea. the religious activity of a blackfoot consists in putting himself into a position where the cosmic power will take pity upon him and give him something in return. there was no conception of a single personal god[ ]. the arapaho, another algonquian plains tribe, were once according to their own traditions a sedentary agricultural people far to the north of their present range, apparently in north minnesota. they have been closely associated with the cheyenne for many generations[ ]. the annual sun dance is their greatest tribal ceremony, and they were active propagators of the ghost-dance religion of the last century which centred in the belief in the coming of a messiah and the restoration of the country to the indians[ ]. the cheyenne, also of agricultural origin, have been for generations a typical prairie tribe, living in skin tipis, following the bison over large areas, travelling and fighting on horseback. in character they are proud, contentious, and brave to desperation, with an exceptionally high standard for women. under the old system they had a council of elective chiefs, of whom four constituted a higher body, with power to elect one of their number as head chief of the tribe. in all councils that concerned the relations with other tribes, one member of the council was appointed to argue as proxy or "devil's advocate" for the alien people. the council of is still symbolised by a bundle of invitation sticks, kept with the sacred medicine-arrows, and formerly sent round when occasion arose to convene the assembly. the four medicine-arrows constitute the tribal palladium which they claim to have had from the beginning of the world. it was exposed once a year with appropriate rites, and is still religiously preserved. no woman, white man, or even mixed blood of the tribe has ever been allowed to come near the sacred arrows. in priestly dignity the keepers of the medicine-arrows and the priests of the sun dance rites stood first and equal[ ]. vii. eastern woodland area[ ]. the culture north of the great lakes and east of the st lawrence is comparable to that of the déné (see p. ), the main traits being: the taking of caribou in pens; the snaring of game; the importance of small game and fish, also of berries; the weaving of rabbit-skins; the birch canoe; the toboggan; the conical skin or bark-covered shelter; the absence of basketry and pottery and the use of bark and wooden utensils. to this northern group belong the ojibway north of the lakes, including the saulteaux, the wood cree, the montagnais and the naskapi. further south the main body falls into three large divisions: iroquoian tribes (huron, wyandot, erie, susquehanna and five nations); central algonquian to the west of the iroquois (some ojibway, ottawa, menomini, sauk and fox[ ], potawatomi, peoria, illinois, kickapoo, miami, piankashaw, shawnee and siouan winnebago); eastern algonquian (abnaki group and micmac). the central group west of the iroquois appears to be the most typical and the best known and the following are the main culture traits: maize, squashes and bean were cultivated, wild rice where available was a great staple, and maple sugar was manufactured; deer, bear and even bison were hunted; also wild fowl; fishing was fairly developed, especially sturgeon fishing on the lakes; pottery poor, but formerly used for cooking vessels, vessels of wood and bark common; some splint basketry; two types of shelter prevailed, a dome-shaped bark or mat-covered lodge for winter and a rectangular bark house for summer, though the ojibway used the conical type of the northern border group; dug-out and bark canoes and snowshoes were used, occasionally the toboggan and dog traction; weaving was of bark fibre (downward with fingers), and soft bags, pack lines and fish nets were made; clothing was of skins; soft-soled moccasins with drooping flaps, leggings, breech-cloth and sleeved shirts for men, for women a skirt and jacket, though a one-piece dress was known; robes of skin or woven rabbit-skin; no armour or lances; bows of plain wood and clubs; in trade days, the tomahawk; work in wood, stone and bone weakly developed; probably considerable use of copper in prehistoric times; feather-work rare. in the eastern group agriculture was more intensive (except in the north) and pottery was more highly developed. woven feather cloaks were common, there was a special development of work in steatite, and more use was made of edible roots. the iroquoian tribes were even more intensive agriculturalists and potters. they made some use of the blow-gun, developed cornhusk weaving, carved elaborate masks from wood, lived in rectangular houses of peculiar pattern, built fortifications and were superior in bone work[ ]. in physical type the ojibways[ ], who may be taken as typical of the central algonquians, were . m. ( ft. in.) in height, with brachycephalic heads ( in the east, in the west, but variable), heavy strongly developed cheek-bones and heavy and prominent nose. they were hard fighters and beat back the raids of the iroquois on the east and of the foxes on the south, and drove the sioux before them out upon the plains. according to schoolcraft, who was personally acquainted with them and married a woman of the tribe, the warriors equalled in physical appearance the best formed of the north-west indians, with the possible exception of the foxes. they were organised in many exogamous clans; descent was patrilineal although it was matrilineal in most algonquian tribes. the clan system was totemic. there was a clan chief and generally a tribal chief as well, chosen from one clan in which the office was hereditary. his authority was rather indefinite. as regards religion w. jones[ ] notes their belief in a cosmic mystery present throughout all nature, called "manito." it was natural to identify the manito with both animate and inanimate objects and the impulse was strong to enter into personal relations with the mystic power. there was one personification of the cosmic mystery; and this was an animate being called the great manito. although they have long been in friendly relations with the whites christianity has had but little effect on them, largely owing to the conservatism of the native medicine-men. the _medewiwin_, or grand medicine society, was a powerful organisation, which controlled all the movements of the tribe[ ]. the iroquois[ ] are not much differentiated in general culture from the stocks around them, but in political development they stand unique. the five nations, mohawk, onondaga, oneida, cayuga and seneca (subsequently joined by the tuscarora), formed the famous league of the iroquois about the year . each tribe remained independent in matters of local concern, but supreme authority was delegated to a council of elected sachems. they were second to no other indian people north of mexico in political organisation, statecraft and military prowess, and their astute diplomats were a match for the wily french and english statesmen with whom they treated. so successful was this confederacy that for centuries it enjoyed complete supremacy over its neighbours, until it controlled the country from hudson bay to north carolina. the powerful ojibway at the end of lake superior checked their north-west expansion, and their own kindred the cherokee stopped their progress southwards. the social organisation was as a rule much more complex and cohesive than that of any other indians, and the most notable difference was in regard to the important position accorded to the women. among the cherokee, the iroquois and the hurons the women performed important and essential functions in their government. every chief was chosen and retained his position and every important measure was enacted by the consent and cooperation of the child-bearing women, and the candidate for a chieftainship was nominated by the suffrages of the matrons of this group. his selection from among their sons had to be confirmed by the tribal and the federal councils respectively, and finally he was installed into office by federal officers. lands and the "long houses" of related families belonged solely to the women. viii. south-eastern area. this area is conveniently divided by the mississippi, the typical culture occurring in the east. the powhatan group and the shawnee are intermediate, and the chief tribes are the muskhogean (creek, choctaw, chickasaw, seminole, etc.) and iroquoian tribes (cherokee and tuscarora) with the yuchi, eastern siouan, tunican and quapaw. the main culture traits are: great use of vegetable food and intensive agriculture; maize, cane (a kind of millet), pumpkins, watermelons and tobacco being raised. large use of wild vegetables, the dog, the only domestic animal, eaten; later chickens, hogs, horses and cattle quickly adopted; large game, deer, bear and bison, in the west; turkeys and small game also hunted; some fishing (with fish poison); of manufactured foods bears' oil, hickory-nut oil, persimmon bread and hominy are noteworthy, together with the famous black drink[ ]; houses generally rectangular with curved roofs, covered with thatch or bark, often with plaster walls, reinforced with wicker work; towns were fortified with palisades; dug-out canoes were used for transport. clothing chiefly of deerskins and bison robes, shirt-like garments for men, skirts and toga-like, upper garments for women, boot-like moccasins in winter; there were woven fabrics of bark fibre, fine netted feather cloaks, and some bison hair weaving in the west (the weaving being downwards with the fingers); baskets of cane and splints, the double or netted basket and the basket meal sieve being special forms; knives of cane, darts of cane and bone; blow-guns in general use; pottery good, coil process, with paddle decorations; a particular method of skin dressing (macerated in mortars), good work in stone, but little in metal[ ]. the creek women were short though well formed, while the warrior according to pickett[ ] was "larger than the ordinary race of europeans, often above ft. in height, but was invariably well formed, erect in his carriage, and graceful in every movement. they were proud, haughty and arrogant, brave and valiant in war." as a people they were more than usually devoted to decoration and ornament; they were fond of music and ball play was their most important game. each creek town had its independent government, under an elected chief who was advised by the council of the town in all important matters. certain towns were consecrated to peace ceremonies and were known as "white towns," while others, set apart for war ceremonials, were known as "red towns." the solemn annual festival of the creeks was the "busk" or _puskita_, a rejoicing over the first-fruits of the year. each town celebrated its busk whenever the crops had come to maturity. all the worn-out clothes, household furniture, pots and pans and refuse, grain and other provisions were gathered together into a heap and consumed. after a fast, all the fires in the town were extinguished and a priest kindled a new fire from which were made all the fires in the town. a general amnesty was proclaimed, all malefactors might return to their towns and their offences were forgiven. indeed the new fire meant the new life, physical and moral, which had to begin with the new year[ ]. the yuchi houses are grouped round a square plot of ground which is held as sacred, and here the religious ceremonies and social gatherings take place. on the edges stand four ceremonial lodges, in conformity with the four cardinal points, in which the different clan groups have assigned places. the square ground symbolises the rainbow, where in the sky-world, sun, the mythical culture-hero, underwent the ceremonial ordeals which he handed down to the first yuchi. the sun, as chief of the sky-world, author of the life, the ceremonies and the culture of the people, is by far the most important figure in their religious life. various animals in the sky-world and vegetation spirits are recognised, besides the totemic ancestral spirits, who play an important part. according to speck[ ] "the members of each clan believe that they are relatives and, in some vague way, the descendants of certain pre-existing animals whose names and identity they now bear. the animal ancestors are accordingly totemic. in regard to the living animals, they, too, are the earthly types and descendants of the pre-existing ones, hence, since they trace their descent from the same sources as the human clans, the two are consanguinely related." thus the members of a clan feel obliged not to do violence to the wild animals having the form or name of their tutelaries, though the flesh and fur may be obtained from the members of other clans who are under no such obligations. the different individuals of the clan inherit the protection of the clan totems at the initiatory rites, and thenceforth retain them as their protectors through life. public religious worship centres in the complex annual ceremony connected with the corn harvest and includes the making of new fire, clan dances impersonating totemic ancestors, dances to propitiate maleficent spirits and acknowledge the assistance of beneficent ones in the hope of a continuance of their benefits, scarification of the males for sacrifice and purification, taking an emetic as a purifier, the partaking of the first green corn of the season, and the performance of a characteristic ball game with two sticks. the middle and lower portions of the mississippi valley with out-lying territories exhibit archaeological evidence of a remarkable culture, higher than that of any other area north of mexico. this culture was characterised by "well established sedentary life, extensive practice of agricultural pursuits, and construction of permanent works--domiciliary, religious, civic, defensive and mortuary, of great magnitude and much diversity of form." the people, some, if not all of whom were mound-builders, were of numerous linguistic stocks, siouan, algonquian, iroquoian, muskhogean, tunican, chitimachan, caddoan and others, and "these historic peoples, remnants of which are still found within the area, were doubtless preceded by other groups not of a distinct race but probably of the same or related linguistic families. this view, in recent years, has gradually taken the place of the early assumption that the mound culture belonged to a people of high cultural attainments who had been succeeded by indian tribes. that mound building continued down to the period of european occupancy is a well established fact, and many of the burial mounds contain as original inclusions articles of european make[ ]." these general conclusions are in no way opposed to de nadaillac's suggestion that the mounds were certainly the work of indians, but of more civilised tribes than the present algonquians, by whom they were driven south to florida, and there found with their towns, council-houses, and other structures by the first white settlers[ ]. it would appear, however, from f. h. cushing's investigations, that these tribal council-houses of the seminole indians were a local development, growing up on the spot under conditions quite different from those prevailing in the north. many of the vast shell-mounds, especially between tampa and cape sable, are clearly of artificial structure, that is, made with definite purpose, and carried up symmetrically into large mounds comparable in dimensions with the indian mounds of the interior. they originated with pile dwellings in shallow water, where the kitchen refuse, chiefly shells, accumulates and rises above the surface, when the building appears to stand on posts in a low mound. then this type of structure comes to be regarded as the normal for house-building everywhere. "through this natural series of changes in type there is a tendency to the development of mounds as sites for habitations and for the council-house of the clan or tribe, the sites being either separate mounds or single large mounds, according to circumstances. thus the study of the living seminole indians and of the shell-mounds in the same vicinity ... suggests a possible origin for a custom of mound-building at one time so prevalent among the north american indians[ ]." but if this be the genesis of such structures, the custom must have spread from the shores of the gulf inland, and not from the ohio valley southwards to florida. ix. south-western area. on account of its highly developed state and its prehistoric antecedents, the pueblo culture appears as the type, though this is by no means uniform in the different villages. three geographical groups may be recognised, the hopi[ ], the zuñi[ ] and the rio grande[ ]. the culture of the whole may be characterised by: main dependence upon maize and other cultivated foods (men doing the cultivating and cloth-weaving instead of women); use of a grinding stone instead of a mortar; the art of masonry; loom or upward weaving; cultivated cotton as a textile material; pottery decorated in colour; unique style of building and the domestication of the turkey. though the main dependence was on vegetable food there was some hunting; the eastern villages hunted bison and deer, especially taos. drives of rabbits and antelopes were practised, the unique hunting weapon being the curved rabbit stick. woven robes were usual. men wore aprons and a robe when needed. women wore a garment reaching from shoulder to knee fastened on the right shoulder only. in addition to cloth robes some were woven of rabbit-skin and some netted with turkey feathers. hard-soled moccasins were worn, those for women having long strips of deerskin wound round the leg. pottery was highly developed, not only for practical use. basketry was known but not so highly developed as among the non-pueblo tribes. the dog was not used for transportation and there were no boats. work in stone and wood not superior to that of other areas; some work in turquoise, but none in metal. many tribes appear to be transitional to the pueblo type. thus the pima once lived in adobe houses, though not of pueblo type, they developed irrigation but also made extensive use of wild plants, raised cotton, wove cloth, were indifferent potters but experts in basketry. the mohave, yuma, cocopa, maricopa and yavapai built a square flat-roofed house of wood, had no irrigation, were not good basket-makers (except the yavapai) but otherwise resembled the pima. the walapai and havasupai were somewhat more nomadic. the athapascan tribes to the east show intermediate cultures. the jicarilla and mescalero used the plains tipi, gathered wild vegetable food, hunted bison, had no agriculture or weaving, but dressed in skins, and had the glass-bead technique of the plains. the western apache differed little from these, but rarely used tipis and gave a little more attention to agriculture. in general the apache have certain undoubted pueblo traits, they also remind one of the plains, the plateaus, and, in a lean-to like shelter, of the mackenzie area. the navaho seem to have taken their most striking features from european influence, but their shelter is of the northern type, while costume, pottery and feeble attempts at basketry and formerly at agriculture suggest pueblo influence[ ]. pueblo culture takes its name from the towns or villages of stone or adobe houses which form the characteristic feature of the area. these vary according to the locality, those in the north being generally of sandstone, while adobe or sun-dried brick was employed to the south. the groups of dwellings were generally compact structures of several stories, with many small rooms, built in terrace fashion, the roof of one storey forming a promenade for the storey next above. thus from the front the structure is like a gigantic staircase, from the back a perpendicular wall. the upper houses were and still are reached by means of movable ladders and a hatchway in the roof. mainly in the north but scattered throughout the area are the remains of dwellings built in natural recesses of cliffs, while in some places the cliff face is honeycombed with masonry to provide habitations. although doubtless designed for purposes of hiding and defence, many of the cliff houses were near streams and fields and were occupied because they afforded shelter and were natural dwelling places; many were storage places for maize and other property: others again were places for outlook from which the fields could be watched or the approach of strangers observed. in some districts evidence of post-spanish occupancy exists. from intensive investigation of the cliff dwellings it is evident that the inhabitants had the same material culture as that of existing pueblo indians, and from the ceremonial objects which have been discovered and the symbolic decoration that was employed it is equally clear that their religion was essentially similar. moreover the various types of skulls that have been recovered are similar to those of the present population of the district. it may therefore be safely said that there is no evidence of the former general occupancy of the region by peoples other than those now classed as pueblo indians or their neighbours. j. w. fewkes points out that the district is one of arid plateaus, separated and dissected by deep cañons, frequently composed of flat-lying rock strata forming ledge-marked cliffs by the erosive action of the rare storms. "only along the few streams heading in the mountains does permanent water exist, and along the cliff lines slabs of rock suitable for building abound; and the primitive ancients, dependent as they were on environment, naturally produced the cliff dwellings. the tendency toward this type was strengthened by intertribal relations; the cliff dwellers were probably descended from agricultural or semi-agricultural villagers who sought protection against enemies, and the control of land and water through aggregation in communities.... locally the ancient villages of canyon de chelly are known as aztec ruins, and this designation is just so far as it implies relationship with the aborigines of moderately advanced culture in mexico and central america, though it would be misleading if regarded as indicating essential difference between the ancient villagers and their modern descendants and neighbours still occupying the pueblos[ ]." each pueblo contains at least one _kiva_, either wholly or partly underground, entered by means of a ladder and hatchway, forming a sacred chamber for the transaction of civil or religious affairs, and also a club for the men. in some villages each totemic clan has its own _kiva_. the indians are eminently a religious people and much time is devoted to complicated rites to ensure a supply of rain, their main concern, and the growth of crops. among the hopi from four to sixteen days in every month are employed by one society or another in the carrying out of religious rites. the secret portions of these complicated ceremonies take place in the _kiva_, while the so-called "dances" are performed in the open. the clan ancestors may be impersonated by masked men, called _katcinas_, the name being also applied to the religious dramas in which they appear[ ]. in reference to j. walter fewkes' account of the "tusayan snake ceremonies," it is pointed out that "the pueblo indians adore a plurality of deities, to which various potencies are ascribed. these zoic deities, or beast gods, are worshipped by means of ceremonies which are sometimes highly elaborate; and, so far as practicable, the mystic zoic potency is represented in the ceremony by a living animal of similar species or by an artificial symbol. prominent among the animate representatives of the zoic pantheon throughout the arid region is the serpent, especially the venomous and hence mysteriously potent rattlesnake. to the primitive mind there is intimate association, too, between the swift-striking and deadly viper and the lightning, with its attendant rain and thunder; there is intimate association, too, between the moisture-loving reptile of the subdeserts and the life-giving storms and freshets; and so the native rattlesnake plays an important rôle in the ceremonies, especially in the invocations for rain, which characterize the entire arid region[ ]." fewkes pursues the same fruitful line of thought in his monograph on _the feather symbol in ancient hopi designs_[ ], showing how amongst the tusayan pueblos, although they have left no written records, there survives an elaborate paleography, the feather _motif_ in the pottery found in the old ruins, which is in fact "a picture writing often highly symbolic and complicated," revealing certain phases of hopi thought in remote times. "thus we come back to a belief, taught by other reasoning, that ornamentation of ancient pottery was something higher than simple effort to beautify ceramic wares. the ruling motive was a religious one, for in their system everything was under the same sway. esthetic and religious feelings were not differentiated, the one implied the other, and to elaborately decorate a vessel without introducing a religious symbol was to the ancient potter an impossibility[ ]." physically the pueblo indians are of short stature, with long, low head, delicate face and dark skin. they are muscular and of great endurance, able to carry heavy burdens up steep and difficult trails, and to walk or even run great distances. it is said to be no uncommon thing for a hopi to run miles over a burning desert to his cornfield, hoe his corn, and return home within hours. distances of miles are frequently made within hours[ ]. in disposition they are mild and peaceable, industrious, and extraordinarily conservative, a trait shown in the fidelity with which they retain and perpetuate their ancient customs[ ]. labour is more evenly divided than among most indian tribes. the men help the women with the heavier work of house-building, they collect the fuel, weave blankets and make moccasins, occupations usually regarded as women's work. the women carry the water, and make the pottery for which the region is famous[ ]. a. l. kroeber has made a careful study of zuñi sociology[ ] and come to the conclusion that the family is fundamental and the clan secondary, though kinship terms are applied to clan mates in a random fashion, and even the true kinship terms are applied loosely. in view of the obvious preëminence of the woman, who receives the husband into her and her mother's house, it is worthy of note that she and her children recognise her husband's relatives as their kin as fully as he adopts hers. the zuñi are not a woman-ruled people. as regards government, women neither claim nor have any voice whatever, nor are there women priests, nor fraternity officers. even within the house, so long as a man is a legitimate inmate thereof, he is master of it and of its affairs. they are a monogamous people. divorce is more easy than marriage, and most men and women of middle age have been married to several partners. marriage in the mother's clan is forbidden; in the father's clan, disapproved. the phratries have no social significance, there is no central clan house, no recognised head, no meeting, council or any organisation, nor does the clan as such ever act as a body. the clans have little connection with the religious societies or fraternities. there are no totemic tabus nor is there worship of the clan totem. people are reckoned as belonging to the father's clan almost as much as to that of the mother. if one of the family of a person who belongs to a fraternity falls sick the fraternity is called in to cure the patient, who is subsequently received into its ranks. the zuñi fraternity is largely a body of religious physicians, membership is voluntary and not limited by sex. at hopi we hear of rain-making more than of doctoring, more of "priests" than of "theurgists." the religious functions of the zuñi are most marked in the ceremonies of the ko-tikkyanne, the "god-society" or "masked-dancer society," and it is with these that the _kivas_ are associated. they are almost wholly concerned with rain. only men can become members and entrance is compulsory. kroeber believes that "the truest understanding of zuñi life, other than its purely practical manifestation, can be had by setting the ettowe ['fetish'] as a centre. around these, priesthoods, fraternities, clan organisation, as well as most esoteric thinking and sacred tradition, group themselves; while, in turn, kivas, dances, and acts of public worship can be construed as but the outward means of expression of the inner activities that radiate around the nucleus of the physical fetishes and the ideas attached to them[ ]." footnotes: [ ] a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , p. . [ ] r. f. scharff, _the history of the european fauna_, , pp. , . [ ] d. g. brinton, _the american race_, . [ ] k. haebler, _the world's history_ (ed. helmolt), i. , p. . [ ] a. hrdli[vc]ka, "skeletal remains suggesting or attributed to early man in north america," _bureau am. eth. bull._ , , p. . [ ] a. hrdli[vc]ka, "early man in south america," _bureau am. eth. bull._ , . [ ] _loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] _american anthropologist_, xiv. , p. . [ ] p. rivet, "la race de lagoa-santa chez les populations précolombiennes de l'Équateur," _bull. soc. d'anth._ v. , , p. . [ ] j. deniker, _the races of man_, , p. . [ ] _bur. am. eth. bull._ , , pp. - . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] a. hrdli[vc]ka, _am. anth._ xiv. , p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , pp. - . [ ] w. bogoras, _am. anth._ iv. , p. . [ ] _bur. am. eth. bull._ , , p. . [ ] _globus_, lxx. no. . [ ] _mexican archaeology_, , p. ff. [ ] "the social organization, etc. of the kwakiutl indians," _rep. u.s. nat. mus._ , washington ( ), p. sq. and _ann. arch. rep._ , toronto, , p. . [ ] w. l. h. duckworth, _journ. anthr. inst._, august, . [ ] _the stone age in north america_, . [ ] on the other hand there are a few american archaeologists who believe in the occurrence of implements of palaeolithic type in the united states, but there is no corroborative evidence on the part of contemporaneous fossils. see n. h. winchell, "the weathering of aboriginal stone artifacts," no. . _collection of the minnesota hist. soc._ vol. xvi. . [ ] _am. anth._ xiv. , p. . [ ] such disintegration is clearly seen in the carib still surviving in dominica, of which j. numa rat contributed a somewhat full account to the _journ. anthr. inst._ for nov. , p. sq. here the broken form _arametakuahátina buka_ appears to represent the polysynthetic _arametakuanientibubuka_ (root _arameta_, to hide), as in père breton's _grammaire caraibe_, p. , where we have also the form _arametakualubatibubasubutuiruni_ = know that he will conceal thee (p. ). it may at the same time be allowed that great inroads have been made on the principle of polysynthesis even in the continental (south american) carib, as well as in the colombian chibcha, the mexican otomi and pima, and no doubt in some other linguistic groups. but that the system must have formerly been continuous over the whole of america seems proved by the persistence of extremely polysynthetic tongues in such widely separated regions as greenland (eskimo), mexico (aztec), peru (quichuan), and chili (araucanian). [ ] r. de la grasserie and n. léon, _langue tarasque_, paris, . [ ] j. e. r. polak, _ipurina grammar_, etc., london, . [ ] _the eskimo tribes, their distribution and characteristics_, copenhagen, , i. p. sq. [ ] in fact this very word was first given "as an ordinary example" by kleinschmidt, _gram. d. grönlandischen sprache_, sect. , and is also quoted by byrne, who translates: "they disapproved of him, because he did not give to him, when he heard that he would go off, because he had nothing" (_principles_, etc., i. p. ). [ ] "indian linguistic families of america north of mexico," _seventh ann. rept. bureau of ethnology_, - ( ). see also the "handbook of american indian languages," part i by franz boas and others, _bureau of american ethnology, bulletin _, . the introduction by f. boas gives a good general idea of the characteristics of these languages and deals shortly with related problems. [ ] following this ethnologist's convenient precedent, i use both in _ethnology_ and here the final syllable _an_ to indicate stock races and languages in america. thus _algonquin_ = the particular tribe and language of that name; _algonquian_ = the whole family; _iroquois_, _iroquoian_, _carib_, _cariban_, etc. [ ] _forum_, feb. , p. . [ ] studies of these languages by kroeber and others will be found in _university of california publications; american archaeology and ethnology_, l. onwards. cf. also a. l. kroeber, "the languages of the american indians," _pop. sci. monthly_, lxxviii. . [ ] _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , p. . [ ] _urbewohner brasiliens_, , p. . [ ] karl v. d. steinen, _unter den naturvölkern zentral-brasiliens_, , p. . [ ] _aborigines of south america_, . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _indian linguistic families_, p. . [ ] "whence came the american indians?" _forum_, feb. . [ ] j. walter fewkes, "great stone monuments in history and geography," _pres. add. anthrop. soc., washington_, . [ ] f. graebner, _anthropos_, iv. , esp. pp. - . cf. also his _ethnologie_, . [ ] w. schmidt, "kulturkreise und kulturschichten in südamerika," _zeitschrift für ethnologie_, jg. , , p. ff. [ ] _loc. cit._ pp. , . [ ] _ibid._ p. ; cf. also p. where the peruvian sailing balsa is traced to polynesia, sailing rafts being still used in the eastern paumotu islands. [ ] _am. anth._ xiv. , pp. - . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] g. elliot smith, _the migrations of early culture_, . [ ] g. elliot smith, "the influence of ancient egyptian civilization in the east and in america," _bull. of the john rylands library_, jany.--march, , pp. , . [ ] cf. w. j. perry, "the relationship between the geographical distribution of megalithic monuments and ancient mines," reprinted from _manchester memoirs_, vol. lx. ( ), pt. . [ ] w. j. perry, _mem. and proc. manchester lit. and phil. soc._ lx. , no. . [ ] _loc. cit._ no. . [ ] _loc. cit._ no. . [ ] _loc. cit._ no. . [ ] _loc. cit._ no. . [ ] _putnam anniversary volume_, , p. . [ ] _nature_, nov. and dec. , . [ ] h. h. bancroft, _the native races of the pacific states of north america_, . [ ] e. b. tylor, "on the game of patolli in ancient mexico and its probably asiatic origin," _journ. anthr. inst._ viii. , p. . _rep. brit. ass._ , p. . [ ] zelia nuttall, "the fundamental principles of old and new world civilisations," _arch. and eth. papers, peabody mus. cambridge, mass._ ii. . [ ] j. macmillan brown, _maori and polynesian_, . [ ] c. r. enoch, _the secret of the pacific_, . [ ] livingston farrand, _basis of american history_, , pp. - . [ ] _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _ ( ). [ ] "primitive american history," _am. anth._ xvi. , pp. - . [ ] roland b. dixon, _am. anth._ xv. , pp. - . [ ] "areas of american culture characterization tentatively outlined as an aid in the study of the antiquities," _am. anth._ xvi. , pp. - . [ ] clark wissler, "material cultures of the north american indians," _am. anth._ xvi. , pp. - . [ ] "the central eskimo," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _ ( ), p. . [ ] the name is said to come from the abnaki _esquimantsic_, or from _ashkimeq_, the ojibway equivalent, meaning "eaters of raw flesh." they call themselves innuit, meaning "people." [ ] h. rink, "the eskimo tribes, their distribution and characteristics," _meddelelser om grönland_, ii. . [ ] f. boas, "ethnological problems in canada," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. , p. . [ ] h. p. steensby, "contributions to the ethnology and anthropogeography of the polar eskimos," _meddelelser om grönland_, xxxiv. . [ ] h. p. steensby, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _loc. cit_. pp. , . [ ] v. stefánsson, _my life with the eskimo_, , p. ff. [ ] f. boas, "the eskimo," _annual archaeological report_, , toronto ( ), p. ff. [ ] a. g. morice, "notes on the western dénés," _trans. canadian inst._ iv. ; "the western dénés," _proc. canadian inst._ xxv. ( rd series, vii.) ; "the canadian dénés," _ann. arch. rep. _ ( ), p. . [ ] from the nootka word _potlatsh_, "giving" or "a gift," so called because these great winter ceremonials were especially marked by the giving away of quantities of goods, commonly blankets. cf. j. r. swanton in _handbook of american indians_ (f. w. hodge, editor), . [ ] besides c. wissler, _loc. cit._ p. and a. g. morice, _loc. cit._, cf. j. jette, _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. , p. ; c. hill-tout, _british north america_, ; and g. t. emmons, "the tahltan indians," _anthr. pub. university of pennsylvania_, iv. , . [ ] c. wissler, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] j. g. frazer, _totemism and exogamy_, iii. , p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] f. boas, _brit. ass. reports_, - ; _social organisation of the kwakiutl indians_, ; a. p. niblack, "the coast indians," _u.s. nat. mus. report_, . [ ] for this area consult j. teit, "the thompson indians of british columbia," "the lillooet indians," and "the shushwap," in _memoirs, am. mus. nat. hist._ vol. ii. , ; vol. iv. , ; and vol. iv. , ; f. boas, "the salish tribes of the interior of british columbia," _ann. arch. rep._ (toronto, ); c. hill-tout, "the salish tribes of the coast and lower fraser delta," _ann. arch. rep._ (toronto, ); h. j. spinden, "the nez percés indians," _memoirs, am. anth. ass._ ii. , ; r. h. lowie, "the northern shoshone," _anth. papers, am. mus. nat. hist._ ii. , ; a. b. lewis, "tribes of the columbia valley," etc., _memoirs, am. anth. ass._ i. , . [ ] c. hill-tout, _british north america_, , p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] a. l. kroeber, "types of indian culture in california," _university of california publications am. arch. and eth._ ii. , ; cf. also the special anthropological publications of the university of california. [ ] _loc. cit._ p. ff. [ ] p. s. spartman, _university of california publications, am. arch. and eth._ viii. , p. ff.; a. l. kroeber, "types of indian culture in california," _ibid._ ii. , p. ff. [ ] a. l. kroeber, _ibid._ viii. , p. . [ ] c. g. dubois, "the religion of the luiseño indians," _tom. cit._ p. ff. [ ] dakota is the name of the largest division of the siouan linguistic family, commonly called sioux; santee, yankton and teton constituting, with the assiniboin, the four main dialects. [ ] see note , p. . [ ] _wakonda_ is the term employed "when the power believed to animate all natural forms is spoken to or spoken of in supplications or rituals" by many tribes of the siouan family. _manito_ is the algonquian name for "the mysterious and unknown potencies and powers of life and of the universe." "_wakonda_," says miss fletcher, "is difficult to define, for exact terms change it from its native uncrystallized condition to something foreign to aboriginal thought. vague as the concept seems to be to one of another race, to the indian it is as real and as mysterious as the starry night or the flush of the coming day," "handbook of american indians" (ed. f. w. hodge), _bur. am. eth. bull._ , . [ ] see g. a. dorsey, "handbook of american indians" (ed. f. w. hodge), _bur. am. eth. bull._ , . [ ] g. b. grinnell points out that the personal torture often associated with the ceremonies has no connection with them, but represents the fulfilment of individual vows. "the cheyenne medicine lodge," _am. anth._ xvi. , p. . [ ] see g. a. dorsey, "arapaho sun dance," _pub. field col. mus. anth._ iv. (chicago), ; "the cheyenne," _tom. cit._ ix. . [ ] a. c. fletcher, in "handbook of american indians" (ed. f. w. hodge), _bur. am. eth.,_ bull. , ; _am. anth._ iv. , ; "the hako, a pawnee ceremony," _ nd ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _, ( ); g. a. dorsey, "traditions of the skidi pawnee," _mem. am. folklore soc._ viii. . [ ] from _siksinam_ "black," and _ka_, the root of _oqkatsh_ "foot." the origin of the name is commonly given as referring to the blackening of their moccasins by the ashes of the prairie fires. [ ] j. mooney, "handbook of american indians" (ed. f. w. hodge), _bur. am. eth._, bull. , ; c. wissler, "material culture of the blackfoot indians," _anth. papers, am. mus. nat. hist._ v. , ; j. w. schultz, _my life as an indian_, . [ ] a. l. kroeber. "the arapaho," _bull. am. mus. nat. hist._ xviii. ; g. a. dorsey and a. l. kroeber, "traditions of the arapaho," _pub. field col. mus. anth._ v. ; g. a. dorsey, "arapaho sun dance," _ib._ iv. . [ ] j. mooney, "the ghost dance religion," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ . [ ] g. a. dorsey, "the cheyenne," _pub. field col. mus. anth._ ix. ; g. b. grinnell, "social organisation of the cheyennes," _rep. int. cong. am._ xiii. . [ ] consult the following: a. c. parker, "iroquois uses of maize and other food plants," bull. , _university of california pub., arch. and eth._ vii. , ; w. j. hoffman, "the menomini indians," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _, i. ( ); a. e. jenks, "the wild rice gatherers of the upper lakes," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _, ii. ( ); a. f. chamberlain, "the kootenay indians and indians of the eastern provinces of canada," _ann. arch. rep. _ ( ); a. skinner, "notes on the eastern cree and northern saulteaux," _anth. papers, am. mus. nat. hist._ ix. , ; _the indians of greater new york_, ; j. n. b. hewitt, "iroquoian cosmology," _ st ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ - ( ), etc. [ ] for the foxes (properly musquakie) see m. a. owen, _folklore of the musquakie indians_, . [ ] c. wissler, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] ojibway, meaning "to roast till puckered up," referred to the puckered seam on the moccasins. chippewa is the popular adaptation of the word. [ ] w. jones, _ann. arch. rep._ (toronto), , p. . cf. note on p. . [ ] w. j. hoffman, "the midewiwin or 'grand medicine society' of the ojibwa," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ ( ). [ ] from the algonkin word meaning "real adders" with french suffix. [ ] a decoction made by boiling the leaves of _ilex cassine_ in water, employed as "medicine" for ceremonial purification. it was a powerful agent for the production of the nervous state and disordered imagination necessary to "spiritual" power. [ ] c. wissler,_ loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] a. j. pickett, _hist. of alabama_, (ed. ), p. . [ ] cf. a. s. gatschet, "a migration legend of the creek indians," _trans. acad. sci. st louis_, v. . [ ] f. g. speck, "some outlines of aboriginal culture in the s. e. states," _am. anth._ n. s. ix. ; "ethnology of the yuchi indians," _anth. pub. mus. univ. pa._ i. , . [ ] w. h. holmes, "areas of american culture," etc., _am. anth._ xvi. , p. . [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._, washington, , p. lvi sq. [ ] walpi, sichumovi, hano (tewa), shipaulovi, mishongnovi, shunopovi and oraibi. [ ] zuñi proper, pescado, nutria and ojo caliente. [ ] taos, picuris, san juan, santa clara, san ildefonso, tesuque, pojoaque, nambe, jemez, pecos, sandia, isleta, all of tanoan stock; san felipe, cochiti, santo domingo, santa ana, sia laguna and acoma, of keresan stock. [ ] for this area see a. f. bandelier, "final report of investigations among the indians of the s. w. united states," _arch. inst. of am. papers_, - ; p. e. goddard, "indians of the southwest," _handbook series, am. mus. nat. hist._ , ; f. russell, "the pima indians," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ - ( ); g. nordenskiöld, _the cliff dwellers of mesa verde, s. w. colorado_, ; c. mindeleff, "aboriginal remains in verde valley, arizona," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ - ( ). for chronology cf. l. spier, _am. mus. nat. hist. anth._ xviii. [ ] _ th ann. report_, p. xciv. cf. e. huntington, "desiccation in arizona," _geog. journ._, sept. and oct. . [ ] for the religion consult f. h. cushing, "zuñi creation myths," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ - ( ); _zuñi folk tales_, ; matilda c. stevenson, "the religious life of the zuñi child," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ ; "the zuñi indians, their mythology, esoteric fraternities, and ceremonies," _ rd rep._ ; j. w. fewkes, "tusayan katcinas," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ - ( ); "tusayan snake ceremonies," _ th rep._ - ( ); "tusayan flute and snake ceremonies," _ th rep._ - , . ( ); "hopi katcinas," _ st rep._ - ( ), and other papers. for dances see w. hough, _moki snake dance_, ; g. a. dorsey and h. r. voth, "mishongnovi ceremonies of the snake and antelope fraternities," _pub. field col. mus. anth._ iii. , ; j. w. fewkes, "snake ceremonials at walpi," _jour. am. eth. and arch._ iv. and "tusayan snake ceremonies," _ th ann, rep. bur. am. eth._ ; h. hodge, "pueblo snake ceremonies," _am. anth._ ix. . [ ] p. xcvii. [ ] _amer. anthropologist_, jan. . [ ] p. . [ ] g. w. james, _indians of the painted desert region_, , p. . [ ] l. farrand, _basis of american history_, , p. . [ ] w. h. holmes, "pottery of the ancient pueblos," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _ ( ); f. h. cushing, "a study of pueblo pottery," etc., _ib,_; j. w. fewkes, "archaeological expedition to arizona," _ th rep. - _ ( ); w. hough, "archaeological field work in n.e. arizona" ( ), _rep. u.s. nat. mus._ . [ ] "zuñi kin and clan," _anth. papers, am. mus. nat. hist._ xviii. , p. . [ ] p. . chapter xi the american aborigines (_continued_) mexican and central american cultures--aztec and maya scripts and calendars--nahua and shoshoni--chichimec and aztec empires-- uncultured mexican peoples: _otomi_; _seri_--early man in yucatan--the maya to-day--transitions from north to south america--_chontal_ and _choco_--the _catio_--cultures of the andean area--the colombian _chibcha_--empire of the inca--_quichuan_ race and language--inca origins and history--the _aymara_--_chimu_ culture--peruvian politico-social system--the _araucanians_--the _pampas indians_--the _gauchos_--_patagonians_ and _fuegians_-- linguistic relations--the _yahgans_--the _cashibo_--the _pana family_--the _caribs_--_arawakan family_--the _ges (tapuyan) family_--the _botocudo_--the _tupi-guaranian family_--the _chiquito_--_mataco_ and _toba_ of the gran chaco. in mexico and central america interest is centred chiefly in two great ethnical groups--the _nahuatlan_ and _huaxtecan_--whose cultural, historical, and even geographical relations are so intimately interwoven that they can scarcely be treated apart. thus, although their civilisations are concentrated respectively in the anahuac (mexican) plateau and yucatan and guatemala, the two domains overlap completely at both ends, so that there are isolated branches of the huaxtecan family in mexico (the huaxtecs (totonacs) of vera cruz, from whom the whole group is named, and of the nahuatlan in nicaragua (pipils, niquirans, and others)[ ]. this very circumstance has no doubt tended to increase the difficulties connected with the questions of their origins, migrations, and mutual cultural influences. some of these difficulties disappear if the "toltecs" be eliminated (see p. ), who had hitherto been a great disturbing element in this connection, and all the rest have in my opinion been satisfactorily disposed of by e. förstemann, a leading authority on all aztec-maya questions[ ]. this eminent archaeologist refers first to the views of seler[ ], who assumes a southern movement of maya tribes from yucatan, and a like movement of aztecs from tabasco to nicaragua, and even to yucatan. on the other hand dieseldorff holds that maya art was independently developed, while the link between it and the aztec shows that an interchange took place, in which process the maya was the giver, the aztec the recipient. he further attributes the overthrow of the maya power or years before the conquest to the aztecs, and thinks the aztecs or nahuas took their god quetzalcoatl from the "toltecs," who were a maya people. ph. j. valentini also infers that the maya were the original people, the aztecs "mere parasites[ ]." now förstemann lays down the principle that any theory, to be satisfactory, should fit in with such facts as:--( ) the agreement and diversity of both cultures; ( ) the antiquity and disappearance of the mysterious toltecs; ( ) the complete isolation at ° n. lat. of the huaxtecs from the other maya tribes, and their difference from them; ( ) the equally complete isolation of the guatemalan pipils, and of the other southern (nicaraguan) aztec groups from the rest of the nahua peoples; ( ) the remarkable absence of aztec local names in yucatan, while they occur in hundreds in chiapas, guatemala, honduras and nicaragua, where scarcely any trace is left of maya names. to account for these facts he assumes that in the earliest known times central america from about ° to ° n. was mainly inhabited by maya tribes, who had even reached cuba. while these mayas were still at quite a low stage of culture, the aztecs advanced from as far north as at least ° n. but only on the pacific side, thus leaving the huaxtecs almost untouched in the east. the aztecs called the mayas "toltecs" because they first came in contact with one of their northern branches living in the region about tula (north of mexico city)[ ]. but when all the relations became clearer, the toltecs fell gradually into the background, and at last entered the domain of the fabulous. now the aztecs borrowed much from the mayas, especially gods, whose names they simply translated. a typical case is that of cuculcan, which becomes quetzalcoatl, where _cuc_ = _quezal_ = the bird _trogon resplendens_, and _can_ = _coatl_ = snake[ ]. with the higher culture developed in guatemala the aztecs came first in contact after passing through mixtec and zapotec territory, not long before columbian times, so that they had no time here to consolidate their empire and assimilate the mayas. on the contrary the aztecs were themselves merged in these, all but the pipils and the settlements on lake nicaragua, which retained their national peculiarities. but whence came the hundreds of aztec names in the lands between chiapas and nicaragua? here it should be noted that these names are almost exclusively confined to the more important stations, while the less prominent places have everywhere names taken from the tongues of the local tribes. but even the aztec names themselves occur properly only in official use, hence also on the charts, and are not current to-day amongst the natives who have kept aloof from the spanish-speaking populations. hence the inference that such names were mainly introduced by the spaniards and their mexican troops during the conquest of those lands, say, up to about , and do not appear in yucatan which was not conquered from mexico. förstemann reluctantly accepts this view, advanced by sapper[ ], having nothing better to suggest. the coastal towns of yucatan visited by spaniards from cuba in and onwards were decidedly inferior architecturally to the great temple structures of the interior, though doubtless erected by the same people. the inland cities of chichen-itza and uxmal by that time had fallen from their ancient glory though still religious centres[ ]. the maya would thus appear to have stood on a higher plane of culture than their aztec rivals, and the same conclusion may be drawn from their respective writing systems. of all the aborigines these two alone had developed what may fairly be called a script in the strict sense of the term, although neither of them had reached the same level of efficiency as the babylonian cuneiforms, or the chinese or the egyptian hieroglyphs, not to speak of the syllabic and alphabetic systems of the old world. some even of the barbaric peoples, such as most of the prairie indians, had reached the stage of graphic symbolism, and were thus on the threshold of writing at the discovery. "the art was rudimentary and limited to crude pictography. the pictographs were painted or sculptured on cliff-faces, boulders, the walls of caverns, and even on trees, as well as on skins, bark, and various artificial objects. among certain mexican tribes, also, autographic records were in use, and some of them were much better differentiated than any within the present area of the united states. the records were not only painted and sculptured on stone and moulded in stucco, but were inscribed in books or codices of native parchment and paper; while the characters were measurably arbitrary, _i.e._ ideographic rather than pictographic[ ]." the aztec writing may be best described as pictographic, the pictures being symbolical or, in the case of names, combined into a rebus. no doubt much diversity of opinion prevails as to whether the maya symbols are phonetic or ideographic, and it is a fact that no single text, however short, has yet been satisfactorily deciphered. it seems that many of the symbols possessed true phonetic value and were used to express sounds and syllables, though it cannot be claimed that the maya scribes had reached that advanced stage where they could indicate each letter sound by a glyph or symbol[ ]. according to cyrus thomas, a symbol was selected because the name or word it represented had as its chief phonetic element a certain consonant sound or syllable. if this were _b_ the symbol would be used where _b_ was the prominent element of the word to be indicated, no reference, however, to its original signification being necessarily retained. thus the symbol for _cab_, 'earth,' might be used in writing _caban_, a day name, or _cabil_, 'honey,' because _cab_ is their chief phonetic element.... one reason why attempts at decipherment have failed is a misconception of the peculiar character of the writing, which is in a transition stage from the purely ideographic to the phonetic[ ]. from the example here given, the maya script would appear to have in part reached the rebus stage, which also plays so large a part in the egyptian hieroglyphic system. _cab_ is obviously a rebus, and the transition from the rebus to true syllabic and alphabetic systems has already been explained[ ]. the german americanists on the other hand have always regarded maya writing as more ideographic, and h. beuchat adopts this view, for "no symbol has ever been read phonetically with a different meaning from that which it possesses as an ideogram[ ]." but not only were the maya day characters phonetic; the maya calendar itself, afterwards borrowed by the aztecs, has been described as even more accurate than the julian itself. "among the plains indians the calendars are simple, consisting commonly of a record of winters ('winter counts'), and of notable events occurring either during the winter or during some other season; while the shorter time divisions are reckoned by 'nights' (days), 'dead moons' (lunations), and seasons of leafing, flowering, or fruiting of plants, migrating of animals, etc., and there is no definite system of reducing days to lunations or lunations to years. among the pueblo indians calendric records are inconspicuous or absent, though there is a much more definite calendric system which is fixed and perpetuated by religious ceremonies; while among some of the mexican tribes there are elaborate calendric systems combined with complete calendric records. the perfection of the calendar among the maya and nahua indians is indicated by the fact that not only were days reckoned as a year, but the bissextile was recognized[ ]." in another important respect the superiority of the maya-quiché peoples over the northern nahuans is incontestable. when their religious systems are compared, it is at once seen that at the time of the discovery the mexican aztecs were little better than ruthless barbarians newly clothed in the borrowed robes of an advanced culture, to which they had not had time to adapt themselves properly, and in which they could but masquerade after their own savage fashion. it has to be remembered that the aztecs were but one branch of the nahuatlan family, whose affinities buschmann[ ] has traced northwards to the rude shoshonian aborigines who roamed from the present states of montana, idaho, and oregon down into utah, texas, and california[ ]. to this nahuatlan stock belonged the barbaric hordes who overthrew the civilisation which flourished on the anahuac (mexican) table-land about the sixth century a.d. and is associated with the ruins of tula and cholula. it now seems clear that the so-called "toltecs," the "pyramid-builders," were not nahuatlans but huaxtecans, who were absorbed by the immigrants or driven southwards. to north and north-west of the settled peoples of the valley lived nomadic hunting tribes called chichimec[ ], merged in a loose political system which was dignified in the local traditions by the name of the "chichimec empire." the chief part was played by tribes of nahuan origin[ ], whose ascendancy lasted from about the eleventh to the fifteenth century, when they were in their turn overthrown and absorbed by the historical nahuan confederacy of the _aztecs_[ ] whose capital was tenochtitlan (the present city of mexico), the _acolhuas_ (capital tezcuco), and the _tepanecs_ (capital tlacopan). thus the aztec empire reduced by the conquistadores in had but a brief record, although the aztecs themselves as well as many other tribes of nahuatl speech, must have been in contact with the more civilised huaxtecan peoples for centuries before the appearance of the spaniards on the scene. it was during these ages that the nahuas "borrowed much from the mayas," as förstemann puts it, without greatly benefiting by the process. thus the maya gods, for the most part of a relatively mild type like the maya themselves, become in the hideous aztec pantheon ferocious demons with an insatiable thirst for blood, so that the teocalli, "god's houses," were transformed to human shambles, where on solemn occasions the victims were said to have numbered tens of thousands[ ]. besides the aztecs and their allies, the elevated mexican plateaus were occupied by several other relatively civilised nations, such as the _miztecs_ and _zapotecs_ of oajaca, the _tarasco_ and neighbouring _matlaltzinca_, of michoacan[ ], all of whom spoke independent stock languages, and the _totonacs_ of vera cruz, who were of huaxtecan speech, and were in touch to the north with the huaxtecs, a primitive maya people. the high degree of civilisation attained by some of these nations before their reduction by the aztecs is attested by the magnificent ruins of mitla, capital of the zapotecs, which was captured and destroyed by the mexicans in [ ]. of the royal palace viollet-le-duc speaks in enthusiastic terms, declaring that "the monuments of the golden age of greece and rome alone equal the beauty of the masonry of this great building[ ]." in general their usages and religious rites resembled those of the aztecs, although the zapotecs, besides the civil ruler, had a high priest who took part in the government. "his feet were never allowed to touch the ground; he was carried on the shoulders of his attendants; and when he appeared all, even the chiefs themselves, had to fall prostrate before him, and none dared to raise their eyes in his presence[ ]." the zapotec language is still spoken by about natives in the state of oajaca. farther north the plains and uplands continued to be inhabited by a multitude of wild tribes speaking an unknown number of stock languages, and thus presenting a chaos of ethnical and linguistic elements comparable to that which prevails along the north-west coast. of these rude populations one of the most widespread are the otomi of the central region, noted for the monosyllabic tendencies of their language, which najera, a native grammarian, has on this ground compared with chinese, from which, however, it is fundamentally distinct. still more primitive are the seri indians of tiburon island in the gulf of california and the adjacent mainland, who were visited in by w. j. mcgee, and found to be probably more isolated and savage than any other tribe remaining on the north american continent. they hunt, fish, and collect vegetable food, and most of their food is eaten raw, they have no domestic animals save dogs, they are totally without agriculture, and their industrial arts are few and rude. they use the bow and arrow but have no knife. their houses are flimsy huts. they make pottery and rafts of canes. the seri are loosely organised in a number of exogamic, matrilineal, totemic clans. mother-right obtains to a greater extent perhaps than in any other people. at marriage the husband becomes a privileged guest in the wife's mother's household, and it is only in the chase or on the war-path that men take an important place. polygyny prevails. the most conspicuous ceremony is the girls' puberty feast. the dead are buried in a contracted position. "the strongest tribal characteristic is implacable animosity towards aliens.... in their estimation the brightest virtue is the shedding of alien blood, while the blackest crime in their calendar is alien conjugal union[ ]." it is noteworthy that but few traces of such savagery have yet been discovered in yucatan. the investigations of henry mercer[ ] in this region lend strong support to förstemann's views regarding the early huaxtecan migrations and the general southward spread of maya culture from the mexican table-land. nearly thirty caves examined by this explorer failed to yield any remains either of the mastodon, mammoth, and horse, or of early man, elsewhere so often associated with these animals. hence mercer infers that the mayas reached yucatan already in an advanced state of culture, which remained unchanged till the conquest. in the caves were found great quantities of good pottery, generally well baked and of symmetrical form, the oldest quite as good as the latest where they occur in stratified beds, showing no progress anywhere. the caves of loltun (yucatan) and copan (honduras), examined by e. h. thompson and g. byron-gordon, yielded pre-mayan débris from the deep strata. perhaps this very ancient population was of the same race as the little known tribes still living in the forests of honduras and san salvador[ ]. since the conquest the aztecs, and other cultured nations of anahuac, have yielded to european influences to a far greater extent than the maya-quiché of yucatan and guatemala. in the city of mexico the nahuatl tongue has almost died out, and this place has long been a leading centre of spanish arts and letters[ ]; yet the mexicans yearly celebrate a feast in memory of their great ancestors who died in defence of their country[ ]. but merida, standing on the site of the ancient ti-hoó, has almost again become a maya town, where the white settlers themselves have been largely assimilated in speech and usages to the natives. the very streets are still indicated by the carved images of the hawk, flamingo, or other tutelar deities, while the houses of the suburbs continue to be built in the old maya style, two or three feet above the street level, with a walled porch and stone bench running round the enclosure. one reason for this remarkable contrast may be that the nahua culture, as above seen, was to a great extent borrowed in relatively recent times, whereas the maya civilisation is now shown to date from the epoch of the tolan and cholulan pyramid-builders. hence the former yielded to the first shock, while the latter still persists to some extent in yucatan. here about a.d. the cities of chichen-itza, uxmal and mayapan formed a confederacy in which each was to share equally in the government of the country. under the peaceful conditions of the next two centuries followed the second and last great maya epoch, the age of architecture, as it has been termed, as opposed to the first epoch, the age of sculpture, from the second to the sixth century a.d. during this earlier epoch flourished the great cities of the south, palenque, quirigua, copan, and others[ ]. despite their more gentle disposition, as expressed in the softer and almost feminine lines of their features, the mayas held out more valiantly than the aztecs against the spaniards, and a section of the nation occupying a strip of territory between yucatan and british honduras, still maintains its independence. the "barbarians," as the inhabitants of this district are called, would appear to be scarcely less civilised than their neighbours, although they have forgotten the teachings of the padres, and transformed the catholic churches to wayside inns. even as it is the descendants of the spaniards have to a great extent forgotten their mother-tongue, and maya-quiché dialects are almost everywhere current except in the campeachy district. those also who call themselves catholics preserve and practise many of the old rites. after burial the track from the grave to the house is carefully chalked, so that the soul of the departed may know the way back when the time comes to enter the body of some new-born babe. the descendants of the national astrologers everywhere pursue their arts, determining events, forecasting the harvests and so on by the conjunctions of the stars, and every village has its native "zadkiel" who reads the future in the ubiquitous crystal globe. even certain priests continue to celebrate the "field mass," at which a cock is sacrificed to the mayan aesculapius, with invocations to the trinity and their associates, the four genii of the rain and crops. "these tutelar deities, however, have taken christian names, the red, or god of the east, having become st dominic; the white, or god of the north, st gabriel; the black, or god of the west, st james; and the 'yellow goddess' of the south, mary magdalene[ ]." * * * * * to the observer passing from the northern to the southern division of the new world no marked contrasts are at first perceptible, either in the physical appearance, or in the social condition of the aborigines. the substantial uniformity, which in these respects prevails from the arctic to the austral waters, is in fact well illustrated by the comparatively slight differences presented by the primitive populations dwelling north and south of the isthmus of panama. at the discovery the west indies were inhabited by two distinct peoples, both apparently of south american origin. the populations of the greater antilles, cuba, jamaica, santo domingo and porto rico were of arawak stock, as were also the lucayans of the bahamas. the lesser antilles were peopled by caribs, whose culture had been somewhat modified by the arawaks who had preceded them. as regards influences from the north-west and west, joyce considers that intercourse between yucatan and western cuba was confined to occasional trading voyages and did not long antedate the arrival of the spaniards. the same applies to florida where, however, antillean influences may be traced, especially in pottery designs[ ]. according to beuchat, however, the guacanabibes of cuba are of common origin with the tekestas of florida. other tribes from florida spread to the bahamas, cuba[ ], and perhaps hayti, but were checked by arawaks from south america who mastered the whole of the west indies. last came the more vigorous but less advanced caribs, also from the southern mainland (of arawak origin according to joyce and beuchat). the statement of columbus that the lucayans[ ] were "of good size, with large eyes and broader foreheads than he had ever seen in any other race of men" is fully borne out by the character of some old skulls from the bahamas measured by w. k. brooks, who regarded them as belonging to "a well-marked type of the north american indian race which was at that time distributed over the bahama islands, hayti, and the greater part of cuba. as these islands are only a few miles from the peninsula of florida, this race must at some time have inhabited at least the south-eastern extremity of the continent, and it is therefore extremely interesting to note that the north american crania which exhibit the closest resemblance to those from the bahama islands have been obtained from florida[ ]." this observer dwells on the solidity and massiveness of the lucayan skulls, which bring them into direct relation with the races both of the mississippi plains and of the brazilian and venezuelan coast-lands, though the general ethnography of panama and costa rica reveals no active influence exerted by tribes of colombia and venezuela, except in eastern panama[ ]. equally close is the connection established between the surviving isthmian and colombian peoples of the atrato and magdalena basins. the chontal of nicaragua are scarcely to be distinguished from some of the santa marta hillmen, while the choco and perhaps the cuna of panama have been affiliated to the choco of the atrato and san juan rivers. the cultural connection between the tribes of the isthmus and of colombia appears especially in the gold-work and pottery of the chiriqui; at the chiriqui lagoon, however, nahuan influence is perceptible[ ]. attempts, which however can hardly be regarded as successful, have even been made to establish linguistic relations between the costa rican guatuso and the timote of the merida uplands of venezuela, who are themselves a branch of the formerly widespread muyscan family. but with these muyscans we at once enter a new ethnical and cultural domain, in which may be studied the resemblances due to the common origin of all the american aborigines, and the divergences due obviously to long isolation and independent local developments in the two continental divisions. in general the southern populations present more violent contrasts than the northern in their social and intellectual developments, so that while the wild tribes touch a lower depth of savagery, some at least of the civilised peoples rise to a higher degree of excellence, if not in letters--where the inferiority is manifest--certainly in the arts of engineering, architecture, agriculture, and political organisation. thus we need not travel many miles inland from the isthmus without meeting the catio, a wild tribe between the atrato and the cauca, more degraded even than the seri of tiburon island, most debased of all north american hordes. these catio, a now nearly extinct branch of the choco stock, were said to dwell like the anthropoid apes, in the branches of trees; they mostly went naked, and were reported, like the mangbattus and other congo negroes, to "fatten their captives for the table." their darien neighbours of the nore valley, who gave an alternative name to the panama peninsula, were accustomed to steal the women of hostile tribes, cohabit with them, and carefully bring up the children till their fourteenth year, when they were eaten with much rejoicing, the mothers ultimately sharing the same fate[ ]; and the cocoma of the marañon "were in the habit of eating their own dead relations, and grinding their bones to drink in their fermented liquor. they said it was better to be inside a friend than to be swallowed up by the cold earth[ ]." in fact of the colombian aborigines herrera tells us that "the living are the grave of the dead; for the husband has been seen to eat his wife, the brother his brother or sister, the son his father; captives also are eaten roasted[ ]." thus is raised the question of cannibalism in the new world, where at the discovery it was incomparably more prevalent south than north of the equator. compare the eskimo and the fuegians at the two extremes, the former practically exonerated of the charge, and in distress sparing wives and children and eating their dogs; the latter sparing their dogs because useful for catching otters, and smoking and eating their old women because useless for further purposes[ ]. in the north the taste for human flesh had declined, and the practice survived only as a ceremonial rite, chiefly amongst the british columbians and the aztecs, except of course in case of famine, when even the highest races are capable of devouring their fellows. but in the south cannibalism in some of its most repulsive forms was common enough almost everywhere. killing and eating feeble and aged members of the tribe in kindness is still general; but the mayorunas of the upper amazon waters do not wait till they have grown lean with years or wasted with disease[ ]; and it was a baptized member of the same tribe who complained on his death-bed that he would not now provide a meal for his christian friends, but must be devoured by worms[ ]. in the southern continent the social conditions illustrated by these practices prevailed everywhere, except on the elevated plateaus of the western cordilleras, which for many ages before the discovery had been the seats of several successive cultures, in some respects rivalling, but in others much inferior to those of central america. when the conquistadores reached this part of the new world, to which they were attracted by the not altogether groundless reports of fabulous wealth embodied in the legend of _el dorado_, the "man of gold," they found it occupied by a cultural zone which extended almost continuously from the present republic of colombia through ecuador, peru, and bolivia right into chili. in the north the dominant people were the semi-civilised chibcha, already mentioned under the name of muysca[ ], who had developed an organised system of government on the bogota table-land, and had succeeded in extending their somewhat more refined social institutions to some of the other aborigines of colombia, though not to many of the outlying members of their own race. as in mexico many of the nahuatlan tribes remained little better than savages to the last, so in colombia the civilised muyscans were surrounded by numerous kindred tribes--coyaima, natagaima, tocaima and others, collectively known as panches--who were real savages with scarcely any tribal organisation, wearing no clothes, and according to the early accounts still addicted to cannibalism. the muysca proper had a tradition that they owed their superiority to their culture-hero bochica, who came from the east long ago, taught them everything, and was then placed with chiminigagua, the creator, at the head of their pantheon, and worshipped with solemn rites and even human sacrifices. amongst the arts thus acquired was that of the goldsmith, in which they surpassed all other peoples of the new world. the precious metal was even said to be minted in the shape of discs, which formed an almost solitary instance of a true metal currency amongst the american aborigines[ ]. brooches, pendants, and especially grotesque figurines of gold, often alloyed with silver and copper, have been found in great numbers and still occasionally turn up on the plateau. these finds are partly accounted for by the practice of offering such objects in the open air to the personified constellations and forces of nature, for the primitive religion of all the andean tribes consisted of nature-, in particular sun-cults. near bogota was a temple of the sun, where children were reared for sacrifice[ ]. any mysterious sound emanating from a forest, a rock, a mountain pass, or gloomy gorge, was accepted as a manifestation of some divine presence; a shrine was raised to the embodied spirit, and so the whole land became literally crowded with local deities. this world itself was upborne on the shoulders of chibchacum, a national atlas, who now and then eased himself by shifting the burden, and thus caused earthquakes. in most lands subject to underground disturbances analogous ideas prevail, and when their source is so obvious, it seems unreasonable to seek for explanations in racial affinities, contacts, foreign influences, and so forth. it has often been remarked that at the advent of the whites the native civilisations seemed generally stricken as if by the hand of death, so that even if not suddenly arrested by the intruders they must sooner or later have perished of themselves. such speculations are seldom convincing, because we never know what recuperative forces may be at work to ward off the evil day. when the spaniards arrived in colombia they found at one end of the scale naked and savage cannibals, at the other a people with a feudal form of government, whose political system was progressive, who, though possessing no form of writing, had a system of measures and a calendar, and who were skilled in the arts of weaving, pottery, and metallurgy[ ]. the chiefs of the chibcha were all absolute monarchs and the appointment of priests rested with them. succession to the chieftainship was matrilineal, and installation in the office was attended by much ceremony. a great gulf separated nobles and commoners; slavery existed as an institution but slaves were well treated. polygyny was permitted, but relatives within certain degrees might not marry[ ]. this feebly organised political system broke to pieces at the first shock from without, and so disheartened had the people become under their half theocratic rulers, that they scarcely raised a hand in defence of a government which in their minds was associated only with tyranny and oppression. the conquest was in any case facilitated by the civil war at the time raging between the northern and southern kingdoms which with several other semi-independent states constituted the muyscan empire. this empire was almost conterminous southwards with that of the incas. at least the numerous terms occurring in the dialects of the paes, coconucos, and other south colombian tribes, show that peruvian influences had spread beyond the political frontiers far to the north, without, however, quite reaching the confines of the muyscan domain. but for several centuries prior to the discovery the sway of the peruvian incas had been established throughout nearly the whole of the andean lands, and the territory directly ruled by them extended from the quito district about the equator for some miles southwards to the rio maule in chili, with an average breadth of miles between the pacific and the eastern slopes of the cordilleras. their dominion thus comprised a considerable part of the present republics of ecuador, peru, bolivia, chili, and argentina, with a roughly estimated area of , , square miles, and a population of over , , . here the ruling race were the quichua, whose speech, called by themselves _ruma-simi_, "the language of men," is still current in several well-marked dialects throughout all the provinces of the old empire. in lima and all the seaports and inland towns spanish prevails, but in the rural districts quichuan remains the mother-tongue of over , , natives, and has even become the _lingua franca_ of the western regions, just as tupi-guarani is the _lingoa geral_, "general language," of the eastern section of south america. the attempts to find affinities with aryan (especially sanskrit), and other linguistic families of the eastern hemisphere, have broken down before the application of sound philological principles to these studies, and quichuan is now recognised as a stock language of the usual american type, unconnected with any other except that of the bolivian aymaras. even this connection is regarded by some students as verbal rather than structural, an interchange of a considerable number of terms being easily explained by the close contact in which the two peoples have long dwelt. as to the origin of the incas we cannot do better than follow the views of sir clements markham, who has made a careful study of the various early authorities. his account (_the incas of peru,_ ) is based largely on the works of spanish military writers such as ciezo de leon and pedro pizarro (cousin of the conqueror), of priests like molina, montesinos, and the half-breed blas valera, and on those of the inca garcilasso de la vega, son of a spanish knight and an inca princess. the megalithic ruins of tiahuanacu, at the southern end of lake titicaca, mark the earliest known centre of culture in southern peru. they are situated on a lofty plateau, over , feet above the sea, and are the remains of a great city built by highly skilled masons who used enormous stones. the placing of such monoliths, unrivalled except by those of ancient egypt, indicates a dense and well-organised population. the famous monolithic doorway is elaborately carved, the central figure apparently representing the deity, while on either side are figures, human- or bird-headed, kneeling in adoration (_op. cit._, pls. at pp. , ). now it seems probable that the builders of this megalithic city were the ancestors of the incas, assuming that a substratum of truth underlies the paccari-tampu myth. the end of the early civilisation is stated to have been caused by a great invasion from the south, when the king was killed in a battle in the collao, north of lake titicaca. a state of barbarism ensued. a remnant of the royal house took refuge in a district called tampu-tocco ("window tavern")[ ] and there preserved a vestige of their ancient traditions and civilisation. elsewhere religion deteriorated to nature worship, here the kings declared themselves to be children of the sun. montesinos' list of kings gives names for this period of tampu-tocco, which may cover years. the myth, which is "certainly the outcome of a real tradition, ... the fabulous version of a distant historical event," tells how manco ccapac and the three other ayars, his brothers, the children of the sun, came forth with their wives from the central opening or window in the hill tampu-tocco. they advanced slowly at the head of several _ayllus_ (lineages). ayar manco took the lead, and he had with him a falcon-like bird revered as sacred, and a golden staff which he flung ahead; when it reached soil so fertile that the whole length sank in, there the final halt was to be made. this happened in the fertile vale of cuzco. the date of these events would be about four centuries before the spanish conquest. farther north at about ° s. lat. the inca civilisation was preceded, according to uhle, by the very ancient one of ica and nazca, where dwelt a people who made pottery but were ignorant of weaving. the same authority has also discovered about lima the remains of a tall people, who made rude pottery, nets, and objects of bone[ ]. manco established himself in the cuzco valley, his third successor finally subjugating the tribes there. the early position of the incas, cemented by judicious marriages, seems to have been one of priority in a very loose confederacy. the rise of the incas was due to the ambition of the lady siuyacu whose son, inca rocca, appears to have been the pioneer of empire; material prosperity began under him, schools were erected and irrigation works begun. then from a strip of land miles long between the gorge of the apurimac and the wide fertile valley of vilcamayu, the empire was extended to form the ttahua-ntin-suyu, "the four provinces," of which the northern one, chinchay-suyu, reached to quito, and the southern, colla-suyu, into chili. this southward extension was due to the efforts of pachacuti who succeeded after hard fighting in annexing the region around lake titicaca, and the new territory was named after the collas, the largest and most powerful tribe thereabouts. in order to pacify the region permanently large numbers of collas were sent as _mitimaes_, or colonists, as far as the borders of quito, while their places were filled by loyal colonists from inca districts. among these were a number of aymaras from the quichuan region of the pachachaca, a left bank tributary of the apurimac, who were settled among the remaining lupacas on the west shore of lake titicaca at juli. thither came jesuit fathers in and learnt the language of the lupacas from these aymara colonists, who had been there three generations; the name aymara was given by the priests not only to the lupaca language but to those spoken by collas and other titicacan tribes. thus the name aymara is now generally but quite erroneously applied to the language and people of this region; it was first so used in . it must be pointed out, however, that other authorities regard the aymara and quichua as entirely distinct. a. chervin[ ] discusses the physical differences at great length and concludes that they are two separate brachycephalic peoples. the peruvians were primarily agriculturists, maize and at higher altitudes the potato being their chief crops. their aqueducts and irrigation systems moved the admiration of early chroniclers, as did also their roads and suspension bridges[ ]. the supreme deity and creator was uira-cocha, who was worshipped by the more intellectual and had a temple at cuzco. the popular religion was the worship of the founder of each _ayllu_, or clan, and all joined in adoration of the sun as ancestor of the sovereign incas. sun-worship was attended by a magnificent ritual, the high priest was an official of highest rank, often a brother of the sovereign, and there were over virgins of the sun (_aclla_) connected with the cult at cuzco. the peasants put their trust in _conopas_, or household gods, which controlled their crops and their llamas. the calendar had been calculated with considerable ingenuity, and certain festivals took place annually and were usually accompanied with much chicha-drinking. it is remarkable that so advanced a people kept all their elaborate records by means of _quipus_ (coloured strings with knots). here is not the place to enter into the details of the astonishing architectural, engineering, and artistic remains, often assigned to the incas, whose empire had absorbed in the north the old civilisation of the _chimu_, perhaps of the _atacameño_, and other cultured peoples whose very names have perished. the yunga (mochica or chimu), conquered by the inca tupac yupanqui, had a language radically distinct from quichuan, but have long been assimilated to their conquerors. the ruins of grand chimu (modern trujillo) cover a vast area, nearly miles by , which is everywhere strewn with the remains of palaces, reservoirs, aqueducts, ramparts, and especially _huacas_, that is, truncated pyramids not unlike those of mexico, whence the theory that the chimus, of unknown origin, were "toltecs" from central america. one of these huacas is described by squier as feet high with a base feet square, and an area of acres, presenting from a distance the appearance of a huge crater[ ]. still larger is the so-called "temple of the sun," by feet, feet high, and covering an area of acres. an immense population of hundreds of thousands was assigned to this place in pre-inca times; but from some rough surveys made in it would appear that much of the space within the enclosures consists of waste lands, which had never been built over, and it is calculated that at no time could the number of inhabitants have greatly exceeded , . we need not stop to describe the peculiar civil and social institutions of the peruvians, which are of common knowledge. enough to say that here everything was planned in the interests of the theocratic and all-powerful incas, who were more than obeyed, almost honoured with divine worship by their much bethralled and priest-ridden subjects. "the despotic authority of the incas was the basis of government; that authority was founded on the religious respect yielded to the descendant of the sun, and supported by a skilfully combined hierarchy[ ]." from remote antiquity the peoples of this area were organised into _ayllus_ each occupying part of a valley or a limited area. it was a patriarchal system, land belonging to the _ayllu_, which was a group of families. the incas systematised this institution, the _ayllu_ was made to comprise families under a village officer who annually allotted land to the heads of families. each family was divided by the head into classes based on age. ten _ayllus_ (now termed _pachacas_) formed a _huaranca_. a valley with a varying number of _huarancas_ was termed a _hunu_; over four _hunus_ there was an imperial officer. "this was indeed socialism," markham observes, "existing under an inexorable despotism" (p. ). beyond the maule, southernmost limits of all these effete civilisations, man reasserted himself in the "south american iroquois," as those chilian aborigines have been called who called themselves _molu-che_, "warriors," but are better known by their quichuan designation of _aucaes_, "rebels," whence the spanish aucans (araucan, araucanian). these "rebels," who have never hitherto been overcome by the arms of any people, and whose heroic deeds in the long wars waged by the white intruders against their freedom form the topic of a noble spanish epic poem[ ], still maintain a measure of national autonomy as the friends and faithful allies of the chilian republic. individual freedom and equality were leading features of the social system which was in the main patriarchal. the araucanians were led by four independent chiefs, each supported by five _ulmen_, or district chiefs, whose office was hereditary but whose authority was little more than nominal. it was only in time of national warfare that the tribes united under a war-chief[ ]. not only are all the tribes absolutely free, but the same is true of every clan, sept, and family group. needless to say, there are no slaves or serfs. "the law of retaliation was the only one understood, although the commercial spirit of the araucano led him to forego personal revenge for its accruing profit. thus every injury had its price[ ]." the basis of their belief is a rude form of nature worship, the principal deities being malignant and requiring propitiation. the chief god was pillan, the thunder god. spirits of the dead go west over the sea to a place of abundance where no evil spirits have entry[ ]. and this simple belief is almost the only substitute for the rewards and punishments which supply the motive for the observance of an artificial ethical code in so many more developed religious systems. in the sonorous araucanian language, which is still spoken by about , full-blood natives, the term _che_, meaning "people," occurs as the postfix of several ethnical groups, which, however, are not tribal but purely territorial divisions. thus, while _molu-che_ is the collective name of the whole nation, the _picun-che_, _huilli-che_, and _puel-che_ are simply the north, south, and east men respectively. the central and most numerous division are the _puen-che_, that is, people of the pine district, who are both the most typical and most intelligent of all the araucanian family. ehrenreich's remark that many of the american aborigines resemble europeans as much as or even more than the asiatic mongols, is certainly borne out by the facial expression of these puenche. the resemblance is even extended to the mental characters, as reflected in their oral literature. amongst the specimens of the national folklore preserved in the puenche dialect and edited with spanish translations by rodolfo lenz[ ], is the story of a departed lover, who returns from the other world to demand his betrothed and carries her off to his grave. although this might seem an adaptation of bürger's "lenore," lenz is of opinion that it is a genuine araucanian legend. of the above-mentioned groups the puelche are now included politically in argentina. their original home seems to have been north of the rio negro, but they raided westwards and some adopted the araucanian language[ ] and to them also the chilian affix _che_ has also been extended. indeed the term puelche, meaning simply "easterns," is applied not only to the argentine moluche, whose territory stretches east of the cordilleras as far as mendoza in cuyo, but also to all the aborigines commonly called _pampeans_ (_pampas indians_) by the europeans and _penek_ by the patagonians. under the designation of puelche would therefore be comprised the now extinct _ranqualche_ (ranqueles), who formerly raided up to buenos-ayres and the other spanish settlements on the plate river, the _mapoche_ of the lower salado, and generally all the nomads as far south as the rio negro. these aborigines are now best represented by the _gauchos_, who are mostly spaniards on the father's side and indians on the mother's, and reflect this double descent in their half-nomadic, half-civilised life. these gauchos, who are now also disappearing before the encroachments of the "gringos[ ]," _i.e._ the white immigrants from almost every country in europe, have been enveloped in an ill-deserved halo of romance, thanks mainly to their roving habits, splendid horsemanship, love of finery, and genial disposition combined with that innate grace and courtesy which belongs to all of spanish blood. but those who knew them best described them as of sordid nature, cruel to their women-kind, reckless gamblers and libertines, ruthless political partisans, at times even religious fanatics without a spark of true religion, and at heart little better than bloodthirsty savages. beyond the rio negro follow the gigantic patagonians, that is, the _tehuelche_ or _chuelche_ of the araucanians, who have no true collective name unless it be _tsoneca_, a word of uncertain use and origin. most of the tribal groups--_yacana_, _pilma_, _chao_ and others--are broken up, and the former division between the northern tehuelche (tehuelhet), comprising the _callilehet_ (serranos or highlanders) of the upper chupat, with the calilan between the rios chupat and negro, and the southern tehuelche (yacana, sehuan, etc.), south to fuegia, no longer holds good since the general displacement of all these fluctuating nomad hordes. a branch of the tehuelche are unquestionably the _ona_ of the eastern parts of fuegia, the true aborigines of which are the _yahgans_ of the central and the _alakalufs_ of the western islands. hitherto to the question whence came these tall patagonians, no answer could be given beyond the suggestion that they may have been specialised in their present habitat, where nevertheless they seem to be obviously intruders. now, however, one may perhaps venture to look for their original home amongst the _bororo_ of matto grosso, a once powerful race who held the region between the rios cuyaba and paraguay. these bororo, who had been heard of by martius, were visited by ehrenreich[ ] and by karl von den steinen[ ], who found them to be a nomadic hunting people with a remarkable social organisation centring in the men's club-house (_baitó_). their physical characters, as described by the former observer, correspond closely with those of the patagonians: "an exceptionally tall race rivalling the south sea islanders, patagonians, and redskins; by far the tallest indians hitherto discovered within the tropics," their stature ranging nearly up to ft. in., with very large and rounded heads (men . ; women . ). with this should be compared the very large round old patagonian skull from the rio negro, measured by rudolf martin[ ]. the account reads like the description of some forerunner of a prehistoric bororo irruption into the patagonian steppe lands. to the perplexing use of the term puelche above referred to is perhaps due the difference of opinion still prevailing on the number of stock languages in this southern section of the continent. d'orbigny's emphatic statement[ ] that the puelche spoke a language fundamentally distinct both from the araucanian and the patagonian has been questioned on the strength of some puelche words, which were collected by hale at carmen on the rio negro, and differ but slightly from patagonian. but the rio negro lies on the ethnical divide between the two races, which sufficiently accounts for the resemblances, while the words are too few to prove anything. hale calls them "southern puelche," but they were in fact tehuelche (patagonian), the true pampean puelche having disappeared from that region before hale's time[ ]. i have now the unimpeachable authority of t. p. schmid, for many years a missionary amongst these aborigines, for asserting that d'orbigny's statement is absolutely correct. his puelche were the pampeans, because he locates them in the region between the rios negro and colorado, that is, north of patagonian and east of araucanian territory, and schmid assures me that all three--araucanian, pampean, and patagonian--are undoubtedly stock languages, distinct both in their vocabulary and structure, with nothing in common except their common polysynthetic form. in a list of patagonian and araucanian words he found only two alike, _patac_ = , and _huarunc_ = , numerals obviously borrowed by the rude tehuelche from the more cultured moluche. in fuegia there is at least one radically distinct tongue, the yahgan, studied by bridges. here the ona is probably a patagonian dialect, and alakaluf perhaps remotely allied to araucanian. thus in the whole region south of the plate river the stock languages are not known to exceed four: araucanian; pampean (puelche); patagonian (tehuelche); and yahgan. few aboriginal peoples have been the subject of more glaringly discrepant statements than the yahgans, to whom several lengthy monographs have been devoted during the last few decades. how contradictory are the statements of intelligent and even trained observers, whose good faith is beyond suspicion and who have no cause to serve except the truth, will best be seen by placing in juxtaposition the accounts of the family relations by g. bove, a well-known italian observer, and p. hyades of the french cape horn expedition, both summarised[ ]:-- _bove._ the women are treated as slaves. the greater the number of wives or slaves a man has the easier he finds a living; hence polygamy is deep-rooted and four wives common. owing to rigid climate and bad treatment the mortality of children under years is excessive; the mother's love lasts till the child is weaned, after which it rapidly wanes, and is completely gone when the child attains the age of or years. the fuegian's only lasting love is the love of self. as there are no family ties, the word "authority" is devoid of meaning. _hyades._ the fuegians are capable of great love which accounts for the jealousy of the men over their wives and the coquetry sometimes manifested by the women and girls. some men have two or more wives, but monogamy is the rule. children are tenderly cared for by their parents, who in return are treated by them with affection and deference. the fuegians are of a generous disposition and like to share their pleasures with others. the husbands exercise due control, and punish severely any act of infidelity. these seeming contradictions may be partly explained by the general improvement in manners due to the beneficent action of the english missionaries in recent years, and great progress has certainly been made since the accounts of king, fitz-roy and darwin[ ]. but even in the more favoured regions of the parana and amazon basins many tribes are met which yield little if at all to the fuegians of the early writers in sheer savagery and debasement. thus the _cashibo_ or _carapache_ of the ucayali, who are described as "white as germans, with long beards[ ]," may be said to answer almost better than any other human group to the old saying, _homo homini lupus_. they roam the forests like wild beasts, living almost entirely upon game, in which is included man himself. "when one of them is pursuing the chase in the woods and hears another hunter imitating the cry of an animal, he immediately makes the same cry to entice him nearer, and, if he is of another tribe, he kills him if he can, and (as is alleged) eats him." hence they are naturally "in a state of hostility with all their neighbours[ ]." these cashibo, _i.e._ "bats," are members of a widespread linguistic family which in ethnological writings bears the name of _pano_, from the pano of the huallaga and marañon, who are now broken up or greatly reduced, but whose language is current amongst the cashibo, the conibo, the karipuna, the setebo, the sipivio (shipibo) and others about the head waters of the amazons in peru, bolivia, and brazil, as far east as the madeira. amongst these, as amongst the moxo and so many other riverine tribes in amazonia, a slow transformation is in progress. some have been baptized, and while still occupying their old haunts and keeping up the tribal organisation, have been induced to forego their savage ways and turn to peaceful pursuits. they are beginning to wear clothes, usually cotton robes of some vivid colour, to till the soil, take service with the white traders, or even trade themselves in their canoes up and down the tributaries of the amazons. beyond the rubber belt, however, many tribes are quite untouched by outside influences. the cannibal boro and witoto, living between the issa and japura, are ignorant of any method of producing fire, and their women go entirely nude, though some of their arts and crafts exhibit considerable skill, notably the plaitwork and blow-pipes of the boro[ ]. in this boundless amazonian region of moist sunless woodlands fringed north and east by atlantic coast ranges, diversified by the open venezuelan llanos, and merging southwards in the vast alluvial plains of the parana-paraguay basin, much light has been brought to bear on the obscure ethnical relations by the recent explorations especially of paul ehrenreich and karl von den steinen about the xingu, purus, madeira and other southern affluents of the great artery[ ]. these observers comprise the countless brazilian aborigines in four main linguistic divisions, which in conformity with powell's terminology may here be named the cariban, arawakan, gesan and tupi-guaranian families. there remain, however, numerous groups which cannot be so classified, such as the bororo and karaya of matto grosso, while in the relatively small area between the japura and the waupes koch-grünberg found two other language groups, betoya and maku in addition to carib and arawak[ ]. hitherto the caribs were commonly supposed to have had their original homes far to the north, possibly in the alleghany uplands, or in florida, where they have been doubtfully identified with the extinct timuquanans, and whence they spread through the antilles southwards to venezuela, the guianas, and north-east brazil, beyond which they were not known to have ranged anywhere south of the amazons. but this view is now shown to be untenable, and several carib tribes, such as the bakaïri and nahuqua[ ] of the upper xingu, all speaking archaic forms of the carib stock language, have been met by the german explorers in the very heart of brazil; whence the inference that the cradle of this race is to be sought rather in the centre of south america, perhaps on the goyaz and matto grosso table-lands, from which region they moved northwards, if not to florida, at least to the caribbean sea which is named from them[ ]. the wide diffusion of this stock is evidenced by the existence of an unmistakably carib tribe in the basin of the rio magdalena beyond the andes[ ]. in the north the chief groups are the makirifare of venezuela and the macusi, kalina, and galibi of british, dutch, and french guiana[ ] respectively. in general all the caribs present much the same physical characters, although the southerners are rather taller ( ft. in.) with less round heads (index . ) than the guiana caribs ( ft in., and . ). perhaps even a greater extension has been given by the german explorers to the arawakan family, which, like the cariban, was hitherto supposed to be mainly confined to the region north of the amazons, but is now known to range as far south as the upper paraguay, about ° s. lat. (_layana_, _kwana_, etc.), east to the amazons estuary (_aruan_), and north-west to the goajira peninsula. to this great family--which von den steinen proposes to call _nu-aruak_ from the pronominal prefix _nu_ = i, common to most of the tribes--belong also the _maypures_ of the orinoco; the _atarais_ and _vapisiana_ of british guiana; the _manao_ of the rio negro; the _yumana_; the _paumari_ and _ipurina_ of the ipuri basin; the _moxo_ of the upper mamoré, and the _mehinaku_ and _kustenau_ of the upper xingu. physically the arawaks differ from the caribs scarcely, if at all, more than their amazonian and guiana sections differ from each other. in fact, but for their radically distinct speech it would be impossible to constitute these two ethnical divisions, which are admittedly based on linguistic grounds. but while the caribs had their cradle in central brazil and migrated northwards, the arawaks would appear to have originated in eastern bolivia, and spread thence east, north-east and south-east along the amazons and orinoco and into the paraguay basin[ ]. our third great brazilian division, the gesan family, takes its name from the syllable ges which, like the araucan _che_, forms the final element of several tribal names in east brazil. of this the most characteristic are the _aimores_ of the serra dos aimores coast range, who are better known as botocudo, and it was to the kindred tribes of the province of goyaz that the arbitrary collective name of "ges" was first applied by martius. a better general designation would perhaps have been _tapuya_, "strangers," "enemies," a term by which the tupi people called all other natives of that region who were not of their race or speech, or rather who were not "tupi," that is, "allies" or "associates." tapuya had been adopted somewhat in this sense by the early portuguese writers, who however applied it rather loosely not only to the aimores, but also to a large number of kindred and other tribes as far north as the amazons estuary. to the same connection belong several groups in goyaz already described by milliet and martius, and more recently visited by ehrenreich, von den steinen and krause. such are the kayapo or suya, a large nation with several divisions between the araguaya and xingu rivers; and the akua, better known as cherentes, about the upper course of the tocantins. isolated tapuyan tribes, such as the kamés or kaingangs, wrongly called "coroados," and the chogleng of santa catharina and rio grand do sul, are scattered over the southern provinces of brazil. the tapuya would thus appear to have formerly occupied the whole of east brazil from the amazons to the plate river for an unknown distance inland. here they must be regarded as the true aborigines, who were in remote times already encroached upon, and broken into isolated fragments, by tribes of the tupi-guarani stock spreading from the interior seawards[ ]. but in their physical characters and extremely low cultural state, or rather the almost total absence of anything that can be called "culture," the tapuya are the nearest representatives and probably the direct descendants of the primitive race, whose osseous remains have been found in the lagoa santa caves, and the santa catharina shell-mounds (_sambaqui_). on anatomic grounds the botocudo are allied both to the lagoa santa fossil man and to the _sambaqui_ race by j. r. peixoto, who describes the skull as marked by prominent glabella and superciliary arches, keel or roof-shaped vault, vertical lateral walls, simple sutures, receding brow, deeply depressed nasal root, high prognathism, massive lower jaw, and long head (index . ) with cranial capacity c.c. for men, and for women[ ]. it is also noteworthy that some of the botocudo[ ] call themselves _nacnanuk_, _nac-poruc_, "sons of the soil," and they have no traditions of ever having migrated from any other land. all their implements--spears, bow and arrows, mortars, water-vessels, bags--are of wood or vegetable fibre, so that they may be said not to have yet reached even the stone age. they are not, however, in the promiscuous state, as has been asserted, for the unions, though temporary, are jealously guarded while they last, and, as amongst the fuegians whom they resemble in so many respects, the women are constantly subject to the most barbarous treatment, beaten with clubs or hacked about with bamboo knives. one of those in ribeiro's party, who visited london in , had her arms, legs, and whole body covered with scars and gashes inflicted during momentary fits of brutal rage by her ephemeral partner. their dwellings are mere branches stuck in the ground, bound together with bast, and though seldom over ft. in height accommodating two or more families. the botocudo are pure nomads, roaming naked in the woods in quest of the roots, berries, honey, frogs, snakes, grubs, man, and other larger game which form their diet, and are eaten raw or else cooked in huge bamboo canes. formerly they had no hammocks, but slept without any covering, either on the ground strewn with bast, or in the ashes of the fire kindled for the evening meal. about their cannibalism, which has been doubted, there is really no question. they wore the teeth of those they had eaten strung together as necklaces, and ate not only the foe slain in battle, but members of kindred tribes, all but the heads, which were stuck as trophies on stakes and used as butts for the practice of archery. at the graves of the dead, fires are kept up for some time to scare away the bad spirits, from which custom the botocudo might be credited with some notions concerning the supernatural. all good influences are attributed by them to the "day-fire" (sun), all bad things to the "night-fire" (moon), which causes the thunderstorm, and is supposed itself at times to fall on the earth, crushing the hill-tops, flooding the plains and destroying multitudes of people. during storms and eclipses arrows are shot up to scare away the demons or devouring dragons, as amongst so many indo-chinese peoples. but beyond this there is no conception of a supreme being, or creative force, the terms _yanchong_, _tapan_, said to mean "god," standing merely for spirit, demon, thunder, or at most the thunder god. owing to the choice made by the missionaries of the tupi language as the _lingoa geral_, or common medium of intercourse amongst the multitudinous populations of brazil and paraguay, a somewhat exaggerated idea has been formed of the range of the tupi-guarani family. many of the tribes about the stations, after being induced by the padres to learn this convenient _lingua franca_, were apt in course of time to forget their own mother-tongue, and thus came to be accounted members of this family. but allowing for such a source of error, there can be no doubt that at the discovery the tupi or eastern, and the guarani or western, section occupied jointly an immense area, which may perhaps be estimated at about one-fourth of the southern continent. tupi tribes were met as far west as peru, where they were represented by the omagua ("flatheads[ ]"), in french guiana the emerillons and the oyampi belong to this stock, as do the kamayura and auetö on the upper xingu, and the mundurucu of the middle tapajoz. some attention has been paid to the speech of the ticuna of the marañon, which appears to be a stock language with strong pana and weak aymara[ ] affinities. although its numeral system stops at , it is still in advance of a neighbouring _chiquito_ tongue, which is said to have no numerals at all, _etama_, supposed to be , really meaning "alone." yet it would be a mistake to infer that these bolivian chiquito, who occupy the southernmost headstreams of the madeira, are a particularly stupid people. on the contrary, the naquiñoñeis, "men," as they call themselves, are in some respects remarkably clever, and, strange to say, their otherwise rich and harmonious language (presumably the dominant _moncoca_ dialect is meant) has terms to express such various distinctions as the height of a tree, of a house, of a tower, and other subtle shades of difference disregarded in more cultured tongues[ ]. but it is to be considered that, _pace_ max müller, the range of thought and of speech is not the same, and all peoples have no doubt many notions for which they have no equivalents in their necessarily defective languages. the chiquito, _i.e._ "little folks," were so named because, "when the country was first invaded, the indians fled to the forests; and the spaniards came to their abandoned huts, where the doorways were so exceedingly low that the indians who had fled were supposed to be dwarfs[ ]." they are a peaceful industrious nation, who ply several trades, manufacture their own copper boilers for making sugar, weave ponchos and straw hats, and when they want blue trousers they plant a row of indigo, and rows of white and yellow cotton when striped trousers are in fashion. hence the question arises, whether these clever little people may not after all have originally possessed some defective numeral system, which was merely superseded by the spanish numbers. the gran chaco is another area of considerable modification induced by european influence, and there only remain hybridised descendants of many of the ancient peoples, for example, the abipone of the guaycuru family. pure survivals of this family are the mataco and toba of the vermejo and pilcomayo rivers. these two tribes were visited by ehrenreich, who noticed their disproportionately short arms and legs, and excessive development of the thorax[ ]. the daily life, customs, and beliefs of these and other chaco indians have been admirably described and illustrated by erland nordenskiöld[ ], who lived and travelled among them. the toba and mataco frequently fall out with the neighbouring choroti and ashluslays of the pilcomayo anent fishing rights and so on, but the conflict consists in ambuscades and treachery rather than in pitched battles. weapons consist of bows and arrows and clubs, and lances are used on horseback. enemies are scalped and these trophies are greatly prized, being hung outside the victor's hut when fine and playing a part on great occasions. on the conclusion of peace both sides pay the blood-price for those slain by them in sheep, horses, etc. within the choroti or ashluslay village all are equal, and though property is held individually, the fortunate will always share with those in want, so that theft is unknown. to kill old people or young children is regarded as no crime[ ]. footnotes: [ ] some nahuas, whom the spaniards called "mexicans" or "chichimecs," were met by vasquez de coronado even as far south as the chiriqui lagoon, panama. these seguas, as they called themselves, have since disappeared, and it is no longer possible to say how they strayed so far from their northern homes. [ ] "recent maya investigations," _bur. am. eth. bull._ , , p. . [ ] _alterthümer aus guatemala_, p. . [ ] _analysis of the pictorial text inscribed on two palenque tablets_, n. york, . [ ] h. beuchat however considers that "the toltec question remains insoluble"; though the hypothesis that the toltecs formed part of the north to south movement is attractive, it is not yet proved, _manuel d'archéologie américaine_, paris, , pp. - . [ ] quetzalcoatl, the "bright-feathered snake," was one of the three chief gods of the nahuan pantheon. he was the god of wind and inventor of all the arts, round whom clusters much of the mythology, and of the pictorial and plastic art of the mexicans. [ ] _globus_, lxvi. pp. - . [ ] herbert j. spinden, "a study of maya art," _mem. peabody mus._ vi., cambridge, mass. , p. ff., and _proc. nineteenth internat. congress americanists_, , p. . [ ] j. w. powell, _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ , p. xcv. [ ] sylvanus griswold morley ("an introduction to the study of the maya hieroglyphs," _bur. am. eth. bull._ , ), briefly summarises the theories advanced for the interpretation of maya writing (pp. - ). "the theory now most generally accepted is, that while chiefly ideographic, the glyphs are sometimes phonetic." this author is of opinion "that as the decipherment of maya writing progresses, more and more phonetic elements will be identified, though the idea conveyed by a glyph will always be found to overshadow its phonetic value" (p. ). [ ] "day symbols of the maya year," _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ , p. . [ ] p. ff. [ ] _manuel d'archéologie américaine_, p. . [ ] _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth._ , p. xcvi. in "the maya year" ( ) cyrus thomas shows that "the year recorded in the dresden codex consisted of months of days each, with supplemental days, or of days" (_ib._). s. g. morley points out (_bur. am. eth. bull._ , pp. - ) that though the maya doubtless knew that the true length of the year exceeded days by hours, yet no interpolation of intercalary days was actually made, as this would have thrown the whole calendar into confusion. the priests apparently corrected the calendar by additional calculations to show how far the recorded year was ahead of the true year. those who have persistently appealed to these maya-aztec calendric systems as convincing proofs of asiatic influences in the evolution of american cultures will now have to show where these influences come in. as a matter of fact the systems are fundamentally distinct, the american showing the clearest indications of local development, as seen in the mere fact that the day characters of the maya codices were phonetic, _i.e._ largely rebuses explicable only in the maya language, which has no affinities out of america. a careful study of the maya calendric system based both on the codices and the inscriptions has been made by c. p. bowditch, _the numeration, calendar systems and astronomical knowledge of the mayas_, cambridge, mass. . the aztec month of days is also clearly indicated by the corresponding signs on the great calendar stone now fixed in the wall of the cathedral tower of mexico. this basalt stone, which weighs tons and has a diameter of feet, is briefly described and figured by t. a. joyce, _mexican archaeology_, , pp. , ; cf. pl. viii. fig. . see also the account by alfredo chavero in the _anales del museo nacional de mexico_, and an excellent reproduction of the calendar stone in t. u. brocklehurst's _mexico to-day_, , p. ; also zelia nuttall's study of the "mexican calendar system," _tenth internat. congress of americanists_, stockholm, . "the regular rotation of market-days and the day of enforced rest every days were the prominent and permanent features of the civil solar year" (_ib._). [ ] _spuren der aztek. sprache_, , _passim_. [ ] linguistic and mythological affinities also exist according to spence between the nahuan people and the tsimshian-nootka group of columbia. cf. _the civilization of ancient mexico_, , p. . [ ] "chiefly of the nahuatl race" (de nadaillac, p. ). it should, however be noted that this general name of chichimec (meaning little more than "nomadic hunters") comprised a large number of barbarous tribes--pames, pintos, etc.--who are described as wandering about naked or wearing only the skins of beasts, living in caves or rock-shelters, armed with bows, slings, and clubs, constantly at war amongst themselves or with the surrounding peoples, eating raw flesh, drinking the blood of their captives or treating them with unheard-of cruelty, altogether a horror and terror to all the more civilised communities. "chichimec empire" may therefore be taken merely as a euphemistic expression for the reign of barbarism raised up on the ruins of the early toltec civilisation. yet it had its dynasties and dates and legendary sequence of events, according to the native historian, ixtlilxochitl, himself of royal lineage, and he states that xolotl, founder of the empire, had under orders , , men and women, that his decisive victory over the toltecs took place in , that he assumed the title of "chichimecatl tecuhti," great chief of the chichimecs, and that after a succession of revolts, wars, conspiracies, and revolutions, maxtla, last of the dynasty, was overthrown in by the aztecs and their allies. [ ] h. beuchat, _manuel d'archéologie américaine_, pp. - . [ ] named from the shadowy land of aztlan away to the north, where they long dwelt in the seven legendary caves of chicomoztoc, whence they migrated at some unknown period to the lacustrine region, where they founded tenochtitlan, seat of their empire. [ ] "the gods of the mayas appear to have been less sanguinary than those of the nahuas. the immolation of a dog was with them enough for an occasion that would have been celebrated by the nahuas with hecatombs of victims. human sacrifices did however take place" (de nadaillac, p. ), though they were as nothing compared with the countless victims demanded by the aztec gods. "the dedication by ahuizotl of the great temple of huitzilopochtli in is alleged to have been celebrated by the butchery of , victims," and "under montezuma ii. , captives are said to have perished" on one occasion (_ib._ p. ); all no doubt gross exaggerations, but leaving a large margin for perhaps the most terrible chapter of horrors in the records of natural religions. cf. t. a. joyce, _mexican archaeology_, pp. - . [ ] a popular and well-illustrated account of huichols and tarascos, as also of the tarahumare farther north, is given by carl lumholtz, _unknown mexico_, vols. new york, . [ ] cf. hans gadow, _through southern mexico_, , map p. , also p. . [ ] quoted by de nadaillac, p. . [ ] p. . [ ] _ th ann. rep. bur. am. eth. - _, pt. ( ), p. . [ ] _the hill caves of yucatan_, new york, . [ ] h. beuchat, _manuel d'achéologie américaine_, , p. . [ ] "in the city of mexico everything has a spanish look" (brocklehurst, _mexico to-day_, p. ). the aztec language however is still current in the surrounding districts and generally in the provinces forming part of the former aztec empire. [ ] c. lumholtz, _unknown mexico_, ii. p. ; cf. pp. - . [ ] sylvanus griswold morley, "an introduction to the study of the maya hieroglyphs," _bur. am. eth. bull. _, , pp. - . [ ] e. reclus, _universal geography_, xvii. p. . [ ] t. a. joyce, _central american and west indian archaeology_, , pp. , - . an admirable account is given of the material culture and mode of life of these peoples at the time of the discovery. [ ] the rapid disappearance of the cuban aborigines has been the subject of much comment. between the years - all but some had perished, although they are supposed to have originally numbered about a million, distributed in tribal groups, whose names and territories have all been carefully preserved. but they practically offered no resistance to the ruthless conquistadores, and it was a cuban chief who even under torture refused to be baptized, declaring that he would never enter the same heaven as the spaniard. one is reminded of the analogous cases of jarl hakon, the norseman, and the saxon witikind, who rejected christianity, preferring to share the lot of their pagan forefathers in the next world. [ ] h. beuchat, pp. - , - . [ ] paper read before the national academy of sciences, america, . [ ] t. a. joyce, p. , who deals with the archaeology, as far as it is known as yet, of nicaragua, costa rica and panama. cf. especially linguistic map at p. for distribution of tribes. [ ] t. a. joyce, _south american archaeology_, , p. . [ ] "the travels of p. de cieza de leon" (hakluyt soc. , p. f.). [ ] sir c. r. markham, "list of tribes," etc., _journ. roy. anth. inst._ xi. , p. . "this idea was widespread, and many amazonian peoples declared they preferred to be eaten by their friends than by worms." [ ] quoted by steinmetz, _endokannibalismus_, p. . [ ] c. darwin, _journal of researches_, , p. . thanks to their frequent contact with europeans since the expeditions of fitzroy and darwin, the fuegians have given up the practice, hence the doubts or denials of bridges, hyades, and other later observers. [ ] v. martius, _zur ethnographie brasiliens_, , p. . [ ] herbert spencer, _the principles of ethics_, , i. p. . [ ] the national name was _muysca_, "men," "human body," and the number twenty (in reference to the ten fingers and ten toes making up that score). _chibcha_ was a mimetic name having allusion to the sound _ch_ (as in charles), which is of frequent recurrence in the muysca language. with man = , cf. the bellacoola (british columbia) = man - ; = man, etc.; and this again with lat. _undeviginti_. [ ] w. bollaert, _antiquarian, ethnological, and other researches in new granada_, etc. , _passim_. [ ] t. a. joyce, _south american archaeology_, , p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] t. a. joyce, _loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] markham locates it in the province of paruro, department of cuzco; hiram bingham, director of the peruvian expeditions of the nat. geog. soc. and yale university, identifies it with machu picchu (_nat. geog. mag.,_ washington, d. c., feb. , p. ). [ ] h. beuchat, pp. - . for culture sequences in the andean area see p. a. means, _proc. nineteenth internat. congress of americanists,_ , p. ff., and _man_, , no. . [ ] _anthropologie bolivienne_, vols. paris, - . [ ] an admirable account of the material culture of peru is given by t. a. joyce, _south american archaeology_, , cap. vi. [ ] _peru_, p. . [ ] de nadaillac, _pre-historic america_, , p. . [ ] alonzo de ercilla's _araucana_. [ ] t. a. joyce, _south american archaeology_, , p. ; r. e. latham, "ethnology of the araucanos," _journ. roy. anth. inst._ xxxix. , p. . [ ] latham, p. . [ ] _ibid._ pp. - . [ ] in the _anales de la universidad de chile_ for . [ ] t. a. joyce, p. . [ ] properly _griegos_, "greeks," so called because supposed to speak "greek," _i.e._ any language other than spanish. [ ] _urbewohner brasiliens_, , pp. , , . [ ] _unter den naturvölkern zentral-brasiliens_, , pp. - , ff. [ ] _quarterly journal of swiss naturalists_, zurich, , p. ff.; cf. t. a. joyce, _south american archaeology_, , pp. - . [ ] _l'homme américain_, ii. p. . [ ] they were replaced or absorbed partly by the patagonians, but chiefly by the araucanian puelche, who many years ago migrated down the rio negro as far as el carmen and even to the coast at bahia blanca. hence hale's puelche were in fact araucanians with a patagonian strain. [ ] _mission scientifique de cap horn_, vii., par p. hyades et j. deniker, , pp. , , . [ ] for the latest information and full bibliography see j. m. cooper, _bureau am. eth. bull. _, , and _proc. nineteenth internat. congress americanists_, , p. ; also, c. w. furlong, _ibid._ pp. ff., ff. [ ] markham, "list of tribes," etc., _journ. roy. anth. inst._ xi. , pp. - . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] t. whiffen, _the north-west amazons_, , pp. , , , etc. [ ] for the material culture of the araguayan tribes, cf. fritz krause, _in den wildnissen brasiliens_, . [ ] t. koch-grünberg, _zwei jahre unter den indianern_, vols. berlin, . see vol. ii. map after p. . [ ] ehrenreich, _loc. cit._ p. ff.; von den steinen, _loc. cit._ p. ff. [ ] it should be stated that a like conclusion was reached by lucien adam from the vocabularies brought by crevaux from the upper japura tribes--witotos, corequajes, kariginas and others--all of carib speech. [ ] a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, cambridge, , p. . [ ] described by e. f. im thurn, _among the indians of guiana_, london, . [ ] a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, pp. - . [ ] v. d. steinen, _unter den naturvölkern zentral-brasiliens_, p. . "d'après gonçalves dias les tribus brésiliennes descendraient de deux races absolument distinctes: la race conquérante des tupi ... et la race vaincue, pourchassée, des tapuya...."; v. de saint-martin, p. , _nouveau dictionnaire de géographie universelle_, , a--c. [ ] _novos estudios craniologicos sobre os botocudos_, rio janeiro, , _passim_. [ ] possibly so called from the portuguese _botoque_, a barrel plug, from the wooden plug or disc formerly worn by all the tribes both as a lip ornament and an ear-plug, distending the lobes like great leathern bat's-wings down to the shoulders. but this embellishment is called _tembeitera_ by the brazilians, and botocudo may perhaps be connected with _betó-apoc_, the native name of the ear-plug. [ ] they are the _cambebas_ of the tupi, a term also meaning flatheads, and they are so called because "apertão aos recemnacidos as cabeças entre duas taboas afim de achatál-as, costume que actualmente han perdido" (milliet, ii. p. ). [ ] such "identities" as tic. _drejà_ = aym. _chacha_ (man); _etai_ = _utax_ (house) etc., are not convincing, especially in the absence of any scientific study of the laws of _lautverschiebung_, if any exist between the aymara-ticuna phonetic systems. and then the question of loan words has to be settled before any safe conclusions can be drawn from such assumed resemblances. the point is important in the present connection, because current statements regarding the supposed reduction of the number of stock languages in south america are largely based on the unscientific comparison of lists of words, which may have nothing in common except perhaps a letter or two like the _m_ in macedon and monmouth. two languages (cf. turkish and arabic) may have hundreds or thousands of words in common, and yet belong to fundamentally different linguistic families. [ ] a. balbi, _atlas ethnographique du globe_, xxvii. with regard to the numerals this authority tells us that "il a emprunté à l'espagnol ses noms de nombres" (_ib._). [ ] markham, _list of the tribes_, p. . [ ] _urbewohner brasiliens_, p. . [ ] "la vie des indiens dans le chaco," trans. by h. beuchat, _rev. de géog. annuelle_, t. vi. paris, . cf. also the forthcoming book by r. karsten of helsingfors who has recently visited some of these tribes. [ ] while this account of central and south america was in the press clark wissler's valuable book was published, _the american indian_, new york, . he describes (pp. - ) the following culture areas: x. the nahua area (the ancient maya and the later aztec cultures). xi. the chibcha area (from the chibcha-speaking talamanca and chiriqui of costa rica to and including colombia and western venezuela). xii. the inca area (ecuador, peru and northern chili). xiii. the guanaco area (lower half of chili, argentine, patagonia, tierra del fuego). xiv. the amazon area (all the rest of south america). xv. the antilles (west indies, linking on to the amazon area). chapter xii the pre-dravidians: jungle tribes of the deccan, vedda, sakai, australians the pre-dravidians--the _kadir_--the _paniyan_--the _irula_--the _kurumba_--the _vedda_--the _sakai_--the _toala_--australia: physical conditions--physical type--australian origins--evidence from language and culture--four successive immigrations--earlier views--material culture--sociology--initiation ceremonies-- totemism--the family--kinship--property and trade--magic and religion. conspectus. #present range.# _jungle tribes, deccan; vedda, ceylon; sakai, malay peninsula and east sumatra; australians, unsettled parts of australia and reservations._ #hair#, _wavy to curly, long, usually black_. #colour#, _dark brown_. #skull#, _typically dolichocephalic_. _vedda skull dolichocephalic ( . ) and very small, sakai mesaticephalic ( ), toala (mixed) low brachycephalic ( )._ #jaws#, _orthognathous_. _australians, generally prognathous._ #nose#, _usually platyrrhine_. #stature#, _low_. _vedda . m. ( ft. - / in.) to australian . m. ( ft. in.)_ #speech#, _jungle tribes, usually borrowed from neighbours_. _australian languages agglutinative, not uniform throughout the continent and unconnected with any other group._ #culture#, _lowest hunting stage, simple agriculture has been adopted by a few tribes from their neighbours_. * * * * * the term pre-dravidian, the first use of which seems to be due to lapicque, is now employed to include certain jungle tribes of south india, the vedda of ceylon, the sakai of the southern malay peninsula, the basal element in certain tribes in the east india archipelago and the main element in the australians. pre-dravidian characters are coarse hair, more or less wavy or curly, a narrow head, a very broad nose, dark brown skin and short stature. the following may be taken as examples of the pre-dravidian jungle tribes of southern india[ ]. the _kadir_ of the anaimalai hills and the mountain ranges south into travancore, are of short stature ( . m. ft. in.), with a dark skin, dolichocephalic and platyrrhine. they chip their incisor teeth, as do the _mala-vadan_, and dilate the lobes of their ears, but do not tattoo. they wear bamboo combs similar to those of the sakai. they speak a tamil patois. "the kadirs," according to thurston, "afford a typical example of happiness without culture"; they are nomad hunters and collectors of jungle products, with scarcely any tillage; they do not possess land but have the right to collect all minor forest produce and sell it to the government. they deal most extensively in wax and honey. they are polygynous. their dead are buried in the jungle, the head is entirely covered with leaves and placed towards the east; there are no monuments. their religion is a crude polytheism with a vague worship of stone images or invisible gods; it is "an ejaculatory religion." the _paniyan_, who live in malabar, the wynad and the nilgiris, have thick and sometimes everted lips and the hair is in some a mass of short curls, in others long wavy curls. they are dark skinned, dolichocephalic (index ), platyrrhine and of short stature ( . m. ft. in.). they sometimes tattoo, and the lobes of the ears are dilated. fire is made by the sawing method. they are agriculturalists and were practically serfs; they are bold and reckless and were formerly often employed as thieves. they speak a debased malayalam patois. their dead are buried; they practise monogamy and have beliefs in various spirits. the _irula_ are the darkest of the nilgiri tribes. they are dolichocephalic (index . ), platyrrhine and of low stature ( . m. nearly ft. in.). no tattooing is recorded, but they dilate the lobes of their ears. their language is a corrupt form of tamil. they are agriculturalists and eat all kinds of meat except that of buffaloes and cattle. they are as a rule monogamous. their dead are buried in a sitting posture and the grave is marked by a stone. professedly they are worshippers of vishnu. the jungle _kurumba_ of the nilgiris appear to be remnants of a great and widely spread people who erected dolmens. they have slightly broader heads (index ) than allied tribes, but resemble them in their broad nose, dark skin and low stature ( . m. ft. in.). they cultivate the ground a little, but are essentially woodcutters, hunters, and collectors of jungle produce. there is said to be no marriage rite, and several brothers share a wife. some bury their dead. after a death a long waterworn stone is usually placed in one of the old dolmens which are scattered over the nilgiri plateau, but occasionally a small dolmen is raised to mark the burial. they have a great reputation for magical powers. some worship siva, others worship kuribattraya (lord of many sheep), and the wife of siva. they also worship a rough stone, setting it up in a cave or in a circle of stones to which they make _puja_ and offer cooked rice at the sowing time. the kadu kurumba of mysore bury children but cremate adults; there is a separate house in each village for unmarried girls and another at the end of the village for unmarried males. the _vedda_ of ceylon have long black coarse wavy or slightly curly hair. the cephalic index is . , the nose is depressed at the root, almost platyrrhine; the broad face is remarkably orthognathous and the forehead is slightly retreating with prominent brow arches; the lips are thin, and the skin is dark brown. the stature is extremely low, only . m. ( ft. - / in.). the coast and less pure vedda average mm. ( - / in.) taller and have broader heads. the true vedda are a grave but happy people, quiet, upright, hospitable with a strong love of liberty. lying and theft are unknown. they are timid and have a great fear of strangers. the bow and arrow are their only weapons and the arrow tipped with iron obtained from the sinhalese forms a universal tool. they speak a modified sinhali, but employ only one numeral and count with sticks. they live under rock shelters or in simple huts made of boughs. they are strictly monogamous and live in isolated families with no chiefs and have no regular clan meetings. each section of the vedda had in earlier days its own hunting grounds where fish, game, honey, and yams constituted their sole food. the wild vedda simply leave their dead in a cave, which is then deserted. the three things that loom largest in the native mind are hunting, honey, and the cult of the dead. the last constitutes almost the whole of the religious life and magical practices of the people; it is the _motif_ of almost every dance and may have been the source of all. after a death they perform certain dances and rites through a _shaman_ in connection with the recently departed ghost, _yaka_. they also propitiate powerful _yaku_, male and female, by sacrifices and ceremonial dances[ ]. the _sakai_ or _senoi_ are jungle folk, some of whom have mixed with semang and other peoples. their skin is of a medium brown colour. their hair is long, mainly wavy or loosely curly, and black with a reddish tinge. the average stature may be taken to be from . m. to . m. ( to inches), the head index varies from about to . the face is fairly broad, with prominent cheek-bones and brow ridges; the low broad nose has spreading alae and short concave ridge; the lips are thick but not everted. they are largely nomadic, and their agriculture is of the most primitive description, their usual implement being the digging stick. their houses are built on the ground and as a rule are rectangular in plan though occasionally conical, and huts are sometimes built in trees as refuges from wild beasts. a scanty garment of bark cloth was formerly worn, and, like the semang, they make fringed girdles from a black thread-like fungus. their distinctive weapon is the blow-pipe which they have brought to great perfection, and their food consists in jungle produce, including many poisonous roots and tubers which they have learnt how to treat, so as to render them innocuous. they do not make canoes and rarely use rafts. in the marriage ceremony the man has to chase the girl round a mound of earth and catch her before she has encircled it a third time. the marriage tie is strictly observed. each village has a petty chief, whose influence is purely personal. individual property does not exist, only family property. cultivation is also communal. the inhabitants of the upper heaven consist of tuhan or peng, the "god" of the sakai and a giantess named "granny long-breasts" who washes sin-blackened human souls in hot water; the good souls ultimately go to a cloud-land. there are numerous demons and whenever the sakai have done wrong tuhan gives the demons leave to attack them, and there is no contending against his decree. he is not prayed to, as his will is unalterable[ ]. the _toala_ of the south-west peninsula of the celebes are at base, according to the sarasins[ ], a pre-dravidian people, though some mixture with other races has taken place. the hair is very wavy and even curly, the skin darkish brown, the head low brachycephalic (index ) and the stature . m. ( ft. in.). the face is somewhat short with very broad nose and thick lips. possibly the _ulu ayar_ of west borneo who are related to the land dayaks may be partly of pre-dravidian origin and other traces of this race will probably be found in the east india archipelago[ ]. australia resembles south africa in the arid conditions characterising the interior, the eastern range of mountains precipitating the warm moisture-laden winds from the pacific. as a result of the restricted rainfall there is no river system of importance except that of the murray and its tributary the darling. in the north and north-east, owing to heavier rainfall, there are numerous water-courses, but they do not open up the interior of the country. the lack of uniformity in the water supply has a far-reaching effect on all living beings. the arid conditions, the irregularity and short duration of the rainfall oblige the natives to be continually migrating, and prevent these unsettled bands from ever attaining any size, indeed they are sometimes hard pressed to obtain enough food to keep alive. it may be assumed that the backwardness of the culture of the australians is due partly to the low state of culture of their ancestors when they arrived in the country, and partly to the peculiar character of the country as well as of its flora and fauna, since australia has never been stocked with wild animals dangerous to human life, or with any suitable for domestication. the relative isolation from other peoples has had a retarding effect and the australian has developed largely along his own lines without the impetus given by competition with other peoples. records of simple migration are rare. there have been no waves of aggression, and intertribal feuds are not very serious affairs. the australians have never influenced any other peoples and they are doomed gradually to disappear. baldwin spencer says "in the matter of personal appearance while conforming generally to what is known as the australian type, there is considerable variation. the man varies from, approximately, a maximum of ft. in. to a minimum of ft. in.... as a general rule, few of them are taller than ft. in. the women vary between ft. in. and ft. in. their average height is not more than ft. in. the brow ridges are strongly marked, especially in the man, and the forehead slopes back. the nose is broad with the root deep set. in colour the native is dark chocolate brown, not black. the hair ... may be almost straight, decidedly wavy--its usual feature--or almost, but never really, frizzly.... the beard also may be well developed or almost absent[ ]." the skull is dolichocephalic with an average cranial index of , prognathous and platyrrhine. there has been much speculation with regard to the origin of the present australian race. according to baldwin spencer "there can be no doubt but that in past times the whole of the continent, including tasmania, was occupied by one race. this original, and probably negritto[ ] population, at an early period; was widely spread over malayasia and australia including tasmania, which at that time was not shut off by bass strait. the tasmanians had no boats capable of crossing the latter and [it is assumed that their ancestors] must have gone over on land[ ]." subsequently when the land sank a remnant of the old ulotrichous population "was thus left stranded in tasmania, where _homo tasmanianus_ survived until he came in contact with europeans and was exterminated." he had frizzly hair. "his weapons and implements were of the most primitive kind; long pointed unbarbed spears, no spear thrower, no boomerang, simple throwing stick and only the crudest form of chipped stone axes, knives and scrapers that were never hafted. unfortunately of his organisation, customs, and beliefs we know but little in detail[ ]." it is now generally held that at a later date an immigration of a people in a somewhat higher stage of culture took place; these are regarded by some as belonging to the dravidian, and by others, and with more probability, to the pre-dravidian race. j. mathew[ ] suggests that "the two races are represented by the two primary classes, or phratries, of australian society, which were generally designated by names indicating a contrast of colour, such as eaglehawk and crow. the crow, black cockatoo, etc., would represent the tasmanian element; the eaglehawk, white cockatoo, etc., the so-called dravidian." baldwin spencer does not think that the moiety names lend any serious support to the theory of the mixture of two races differing in colour. he goes on to say "mr mathew also postulates a comparatively recent slight infusion of malay blood in the northern half of australia. there is, however, practically no evidence of malay infusion. one of the most striking features of the malay is his long, lank hair, and yet it is just in these north parts that the most frizzly hair is met with[ ]." as concerns linguistics s. h. ray says "there is no evidence of an african, andaman, papuan, or malay connection with the australian languages. there are reasons for regarding the australian as in a similar morphological stage to the dravidian, but there is no genealogical relationship proved[ ]." no connection has yet been proved between the australian languages and the austronesian or oceanic branch of the austric family of languages, first systematically described by w. schmidt[ ]. the study of australian languages is particularly difficult owing to the very few serviceable grammars and dictionaries, and the large number of very incomplete vocabularies scattered about in inaccessible works and journals. the main conclusion to which schmidt has arrived[ ] is that the australian languages are not, as had been supposed, a mainly uniform group. though over the greater part of australia languages possess strong common elements, north australia has languages showing no similarities in vocabulary and very few in grammar with that larger group or with each other. the area of the north australian languages is included in a line from south of roebuck bay in the west to cape flattery in the east, with a southward bend to include arunta (aranda), interrupted by a branch of southern languages running up north down flinders and leichhardt rivers[ ]. the area contains two or three linguistic groups, best distinguished by their terminations which consist respectively of vowels and consonants, the oldest group; vowels alone, the latest group; and vowels and liquids, probably representing a transition between the two. in south australia, though differences occur, the languages possess common features both in grammar and vocabulary, having similar personal pronouns, and certain words for parts of the body in common. linguistic differences are associated with differences in social grouping, the area of purely vowel endings coinciding with the area of the -class system and matrilinear descent, while the area of liquid endings is partly coterminous with the -class system and (often) patrilinear succession. schmidt endeavours to trace the connection between the distribution of languages with that of types of social groupings, more particularly in connection with the culture zones which graebner[ ] has traced throughout the pacific area, representing successive waves of migration. the first immigration, corresponding with graebner's _ur-period_, is represented by languages with postposed genitive, the earliest stratum being pure only in tasmania; remnants of the first stratum and a second stratum occur in victoria, and remnants of the second stratum to the north and north-east. according to schmidt this cultural stratum is characterised by absence of group or marriage totemism, and presence of sex patrons ("sex-totemism"). the second immigration is represented by languages with preposition of the genitive, initial _r_ and _l_, vowel and explosive endings, and is found fairly pure only in the extreme north-west and north, and in places in the north-east. the great multiplicity of languages belonging to this stratum may be attributed to the predominance of the strictly local type of totem-groups. these are the languages of graebner's "totem-culture." the third immigration is represented by languages with preposition of the genitive, no initial _r_ and _l_, and purely vowel terminations. these are the languages of the south central group of tribes with a -class system and matrilinear descent. this uniform group has the largest area and has influenced the whole mass of australian languages, only north australia and tasmania remaining immune. their sociological structure with no localisation of totems and classes contributed to their power of expansion. the fourth immigration is represented by languages of an intermediate type, with vowel and liquid endings but no initial _r_ and _l_. these are the tribes with -class and -class systems, universal father-right (proving the strong influence of older totemic ideas), curious fertility rites, conception ideas and migration myths. it will be seen that schmidt's conclusions confute the evolutionary theory developed by frazer, hartland, howitt, spencer and gillen, durkheim and (in part) andrew lang, that australia was essentially homogeneous in fundamental ideas which have developed differently on account of geographic and climatic variation. schmidt's view is that australia was entered successively by a number of entirely different tribes, so that the variation now met with is due to radical diversities and to the numerous intermixtures arising from migrations and stratifications of peoples. the linguistic data dispose of the idea that the oldest tribes with mother-right, -class system, traces of group-marriage, and lack of moral and religious ideas live in the centre, and that from thence advancement radiated towards the coast bringing about father-right, abandonment of class system and totemism, individual marriage, and higher ethical and religious ideas. on the contrary it would appear that the centre of the continent is the great channel in which movements are still taking place; the older peoples are driven out towards the margin and there preserve the old sociological, ethical and religious conditions. in fact, the older the people, judging from their linguistic stratum, the less one finds among them what has been assumed to be the initial stage for central australia[ ]. these are schmidt's views and they confirm the cultural results established by graebner. but as the whole question of the culture layers in the pacific is still under discussion it is inadvisable at this stage of our knowledge to make any definite statements. it is worth noting, however, that[ ] the distribution of simple burial of the dead coincides in the main with schmidt's south australian language area, and the area roughly enclosed on the east by long. ° e. and the north by lat. ° s. appears to form a technological province distinct from the rest of australia[ ]. rarely can the australian depend on regular supplies of food. he feeds on flesh, fish, grubs and insects, and wild vegetable food; probably everything that is edible is eaten. cannibalism is widely spread, but human flesh is nowhere a regular article of food. clothing, apart from ornament, is rarely worn, but in the south, skin cloaks and fur aprons are fairly common. scarification of the body is frequent and conspicuous. the men usually let their hair grow long, and the women keep theirs short. dwellings are of the simplest character, usually merely breakwinds or slight huts, but where there is a large supply of vegetable food, huts are made of boughs covered with bark or grass and are sometimes coated with clay. implements are made of shell, bone, wood and stone. baldwin spencer remarks "it is not too much to say that at the present time we can parallel amongst australian stone weapons all the types known in europe under the names chellean, mousterian, aurignacian etc.... the terms eolithic, palaeolithic, and neolithic do not apply in australia as indicating either time periods or levels of culture[ ]." spears and wooden clubs are universal, and the use of the spear-thrower is generally distributed. the boomerang is found almost throughout australia; the variety that returns when it is thrown is as a rule only a plaything or for throwing at birds. the forms of the various implements vary in different parts of the country and in some districts certain implements may be entirely absent. for example the boomerang is not found in the northern parts of cape york peninsula or of the northern territory, and the spear-thrower is absent from south-east queensland. bows and arrows are unknown and pottery making does not occur. rafts are made of one or more logs, and the commonest form of canoe is that made of a single sheet of bark. dug-outs occur in a few places, and both single and double outriggers are found only on the queensland coast. these sporadic occurrences give additional support to the modern view that the racial and cultural history of australia is by no means so simple as has till lately been assumed[ ]. students of australian sociology have been so much impressed with certain prominent features of social organisation that they have paid insufficient attention to kinship and the family; the former has however recently been investigated by a. r. brown[ ], while information concerning the latter has been carefully sifted by b. malinowski[ ]. the main features of social groupings are the tribe, the local groups, the classes, the totemic clans and the families. a tribe is composed of a number of local groups and these are perpetuated in the same tracts by the sons, who hunt over the grounds of their fathers; this is the "local organisation." the local group is the only political unit, and _intra_-group justice has been extended to _inter_-group justice, where the units of reference are not based on kinship; this may be regarded as the earliest stage of what is known as international law[ ]. in the so-called "social organisation," the tribe as a community is divided into two parts (moieties or phratries), which are quite distinct from the local groups, though rarely they may be coincident. each moiety may be subdivided into two or four exogamous sections which are generally called "classes" and are peculiar to australia. descent in the classes is as a rule indirect matrilineal or indirect patrilineal, that is to say, while the child still belongs to its mother's or father's moiety (as the case may be) it is assigned to the class to which the mother or the father does not belong; but the grandchildren belong to the class of a grandmother or grandfather. in diagram i (below) _a_ and _c_ are classes of one moiety, #b# and _d_ those of the other. thus when _a_ man marries _b_ woman the children are _d_. _b_ man marries _a_ woman and the children are _c_ and so on. when there are four classes in each moiety the diagram works out as follows (ii)[ ]: [illustration] very important in social life are the initiation ceremonies by means of which a youth is admitted to the status of tribal manhood. these ceremonies vary greatly from tribe to tribe but they agree in certain fundamental points. "( ) they begin at the age of puberty. ( ) during the initiation ceremonies the women play an important part. ( ) at the close of the first part of the ceremonies, such as that of tooth knocking out or circumcision, a definite performance is enacted emblematic of the fact that the youths have passed out of the control of the women. ( ) during the essential parts the women are typically absent and the youths are shown the bull-roarer, have the secret beliefs explained to them and are instructed in the moral precepts and customs, including food restrictions, that they must henceforth observe under severe penalties. ( ) the last grade is not passed through until a man is quite mature[ ]." practically universal is the existence of a grouping of individuals under the names of plants, animals or various objects; these are termed totems and the human groups are termed totem clans. the members of a totem clan commonly believe themselves to be actually descended from or related to their totem, and all members of a clan, whatever tribe they may belong to, are regarded as brethren, who have mutual duties, prohibitions and privileges. thus a member of a totem clan must help and never injure any fellow member. "speaking generally it may be said that every totemic group has certain ceremonies associated with it and that these refer to old totemic ancestors. in all tribes they form part of a secret ritual in which only the initiated may take part. in most tribes a certain number are shown to the youths during the early stages of initiation, but at a later period he sees many more[ ]." in several tribes, and probably it was very general, certain magical ceremonies were performed to render the totem abundant or efficacious. the sex patron ("sex totem"), when the women have one animal, such as the owlet night-jar associated with them, and the men another, such as the bat; and the guardian genius (mis-called "individual totem"), acquired by dreaming of some animal, are of rare occurrence. the individual family has been shown by malinowski[ ] to be "a unit playing an important part in the social life of the natives and well defined by a number of moral, customary and legal norms; it is further determined by the sexual division of labour, the aboriginal mode of living, and especially by the intimate relation between the parents and children. the individual relation between husband and wife (marriage) is rooted in the unity of the family ... and in the well-defined, though not always exclusive, sexual right the husband acquires over his wife." all sexual licence is regulated by and subject to strict rules. the _pirrauru_ custom, by which individuals are allocated accessory spouses, "proves that the relationship involved does not possess the character of marriage. for it completely differs from marriage in nearly all the essential points by which marriage in australia is defined. and above all the pirrauru relation does not seem to involve the facts of family life in its true sense" (p. ). a. r. brown[ ] asserts that so far as our information goes, the only method of regulating marriage is by means of the relationship system. in every tribe there is a law to the effect that a man may only marry women who stand to him in a certain relationship, and there is no evidence that there is any other method of regulating marriage. the so-called class rule by which a man of a special division or group is required to marry a woman of another division is merely the law of relationship stated in a less exact form. it is the fact that a man may only marry a relative of a certain kind that necessitates the marrying into a particular relationship division. the rule of totemic exogamy, according to a. r. brown, is equally seen to have no existence apart from the relationship rule. where a totemic group is a clan and consists of relations all of one line of descent, a man is prohibited from marrying a woman of his own group by the ordinary rule of relationship. on the other hand, where the totemic group is not a clan, but is a local group (as in the burduna tribe) or a cult society (as in the arunta tribe) there is no rule prohibiting a man from marrying a woman of the same totemic group as himself. the so-called rule of local exogamy in some tribes (perhaps in all) is merely a result of the fact that the local group is a clan, _i.e._ a group of persons related in one line of descent only. only two methods of regulating marriage are known to exist in the greater part of australia[ ]: type i. a man marries the daughter of one of the men he denotes by the same term as his mother's brother. type ii. a man marries a woman who is the daughter's daughter of some man whom he denotes by the same term as his mother's mother's brother. in either case he may not marry any other kind of relative. the existence of two phratries or moieties or four named divisions ("classes") in a tribe conveys no information whatever as to the marriage rule of the tribe. the term "class" and "sub-class," according to a. r. brown, had better be discarded as writers use them to denote several totally distinct kinds of divisions. the tribe has collecting and hunting rights over an area with recognised limits, smaller communities down to the family unit having similar rights within the tribal boundaries. in some cases a tribe which had no stone suitable for making stone implements within its own boundaries was allowed to send tribal messengers to a quarry to procure what was needed without molestation, though howitt speaks of family ownership of quarries[ ]. implements are personal property. an extensive system of intertribal communication and exchange is carried on, apparently by recognised middlemen, and tribes meet on certain occasions at established trade centres for a regulated barter. beneficent and malevolent magic are universally practised and totemism possesses a religious besides a social aspect. an emotional relation often exists between the members of a totem clan and their totem, and the latter are believed at times to warn or protect their human kinsmen. it may be noted that the widely spread and elaborate ceremonies designed to render the totem prolific or to ensure its abundance, though performed solely by members of the totem clan concerned, are less for their own benefit than for that of the community[ ]. owing perhaps to the difficulty of distinguishing between the purely social and the religious institutions of primitive peoples great diversity of opinion prevails even amongst the best observers regarding the religious views of the australian aborigines. the existence of a "tribal all-father" is perhaps most clearly emphasised by a. w. howitt[ ], who finds this belief widespread in the whole of victoria and new south wales, up to the eastern boundaries of the tribes of the darling river. amongst those of new south wales are the euahlayi, whom k. langloh parker describes[ ] as having a more advanced theology and a more developed worship (including prayers, pp. - ) than any other australian tribe. these now eat their hereditary totem without scruple--a sure sign that the totemic system is dying out, although still outwardly in full force. amongst the arunta, kaitish, and the other central and northern tribes studied by spencer and gillen, totemism still survives, and totems are even assigned to the mysterious _iruntarinia_ entities, vague and invisible incarnations of the ghosts of ancestors who lived in the _alcheringa_ time, the dim remote past at the beginning of everything. these are far more powerful than living men, because their spirit part is associated with the so-called _churinga_, consisting of stones, pieces of wood or any other objects which are deemed sacred as possessing a kind of _mana_ which makes the yams and grass to grow, enables a man to capture game, and so forth. "that the _churinga_ are simply objects endowed with _mana_ is the happy suggestion of sidney hartland[ ] whose explanation has dispelled the dense fog of mystification hitherto enveloping the strange beliefs and observances of these central and northern tribes[ ]." n. w. thomas[ ] reviews the whole question of australian religion, and after describing twanjiraka, malbanga and ulthaana, of the arunta, baiame or byamee, famous in anthropological controversy[ ], daramulun of the yuin, mungan-ngaua (our father) of the kurnai, nurrundere of the narrinyeri, bunjil or pundjel, often called mamingorak (our father) of victoria, and others, he concludes "these are by no means the only gods known to australian tribes; on the contrary it can hardly be definitely asserted that there is or was any tribe which had not some such belief[ ]." footnotes: [ ] e. thurston, _castes and tribes of southern india_, . [ ] p. and f. sarasin, _ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher forschungen auf ceylon. die steinzeit auf ceylon_, ; h. parker, _ancient ceylon_, . the most complete account is given by c. g. and b. z. seligman, _the veddas_, . [ ] w. w. skeat and c. o. blagden, _pagan races of the malay peninsula_, ; r. martin, _die inlandstämme der malayischen halbinseln_, . [ ] fritz sarasin, _versuch einer anthropologie der insel celebes_. _zweiter teil: die varietäten des menschen auf celebes_, . [ ] a. c. haddon, appendix to c. hose and w. mcdougall, _the pagan tribes of borneo_, ii. . [ ] _federal handbook, brit. ass. for advancement of science_, , p. . [ ] the tasmanians can scarcely be termed negritoes. the important point to be noted is that this early population was ulotrichous, cf. p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . or the strait may then have been very narrow. [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _two representative tribes of queensland_, , p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _reports camb. exped. to torres straits_, iii. , p. . [ ] _die mon-khmer völker_, . schmidt has for many years studied the australian languages and has published his results in _anthropos_, vols, vii., viii. , , from which, and also from _man_, no. , , the following summarised extracts are taken. [ ] see _man_, no. , , pp. - . [ ] see the map constructed by p. w. schmidt and p. k. streit, _anthropos_, vii. . [ ] see _globus_, xc. , and "die sozialen systeme d. südsee," _ztschr. f. sozialwissenschaft_, xi. . schmidt's divergence from graebner's views are dealt with in _zeitschr. f. ethnologie_, , pp. - , and _anthropos_, vii. , p. ff. [ ] _anthropos_, vii. , pp. , . [ ] n. w. thomas, "the disposal of the dead in australia," _folklore_, xix. . [ ] a. r. brown, ms. [ ] _federal handbook, british association for the advancement of science_, , p. . [ ] a. c. haddon, "the outrigger canoes of torres straits and north queensland," _essays and studies presented to w. ridgeway_, , p. , and w. h. r. rivers, "the contact of peoples," in the same volume, p. . [ ] _man_, no. , . [ ] _the family among the australian aborigines_, . [ ] g. c. wheeler, _the tribe, and intertribal relations in australia_, , p. . [ ] a. r. brown, "marriage and descent in north australia," _man_, no. , . [ ] w. baldwin spencer, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] w. baldwin spencer, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _the family among the australian aborigines_, , p. . [ ] ms. [ ] a. r. brown, "three tribes of western australia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. . [ ] a. w. howitt, _the native tribes of south-east australia_, , p. . [ ] w. baldwin spencer and f. j. gillen, _the native tribes of central australia_, , chap. vi., and _the northern tribes of central australia_, , chap. ix. [ ] _the native tribes of south-east australia_, , p. . [ ] _the euahlayi tribe_, . [ ] presidential address (section h) brit. ass. york, . [ ] a. h. keane, art. "australasia," in hastings' _encyclopaedia of religion and ethics_, , p. . [ ] _the natives of australia_, , chap. xiii. religion. [ ] e. b. tylor, _journ. anthr. inst._ xxi. p. ; a. lang, _magic and religion_, p. ; _myth, ritual and religion_, chap. xii.; k. langloh parker, _the euahlayi tribe_, , chap. ii.; m. f. v. leonhardi, _anthropos_, iv. , p. , and many others. [ ] the following should be consulted: original memoirs: c. strehlow, _die aranda- und loritza-stämme in zentral-australien_, ; w. e. roth, _ethnological studies among the north-west-central queensland aborigines_, ; _north queensland ethnography, bulletins_ - , - , and _bulletins_ - ; _records of the australian museum_, vi.-viii. sydney, - . compilations and discussions: e. durkheim, _the elementary forms of the religious life: a study in religious sociology_ (translated by j. w. swain), a very suggestive study based on australian custom and belief; j. g. frazer, _exogamy and totemism_, i. ; _the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead_, i. pp. - , . chapter xiii the caucasic peoples general considerations--constituent elements--past and present range--cradle-land: africa north of sudan--quaternary "sahara"--early european and mauretanian types--the _guanches_, types and affinities--origin of the european brachycephals-- summary of orthodox view--linguistic evidence--the _basques_-- the _iberians_--the _ligurians_ in rhineland and italy. sicilian origins--_sicani_; _siculi_--_sard_ and _corsican_ origins--ethnological relations in italy--sergi's mediterranean domain--range of the mediterraneans--the _pelasgians_-- theory of pre-hellenic pelasgians--pelasgians and mykenean civilisation--aegean culture--other views--range of the hamites in africa--the eastern hamites--the western "moors"--general hamitic type--foreign elements in mauretania--arab and berber contrasts-- the _tibus_--the egyptian hamites--origins--theory of asiatic origins--proto-egyptian type--armenoid type--asiatic influence on egyptian culture--negroid mixture--the _fulah_--other eastern hamites--_bejas_--_somals_--somal genealogies--the _galla_--the _masai_. conspectus. #present range.# _all the extra-tropical habitable lands, except chinese empire, japan, and the arctic zone; intertropical america, arabia, india, and indonesia; sporadically everywhere._ _three main types_:-- . _southern dolichocephals_, #mediterranean#; . _northern dolichocephals_, #nordic#; . _brachycephals_, #alpine#. #hair#: . _very dark brown or black, wiry, curly or ringletty._ . _very light brown, flaxen, or red, rather long, straight or wavy, smooth and glossy._ . _light chestnut or reddish brown, wavy, rather short and dull. all oval in section; beard of all full, bushy, straight, or wavy, often lighter than hair of head, sometimes very long._ #colour#: . _very variable--white, light olive, all shades of brown and even blackish (eastern hamites and others)._ . _florid._ . _pale white, swarthy or very light brown._ #skull#: _ and long ( to ); round ( to and upwards); all orthognathous_. _cheek-bone of all small, never projecting laterally, sometimes rather high (some berbers and scotch)._ #nose#, _mostly large, narrow, straight, arched or hooked, sometimes rather broad, heavy, concave and short_. #eyes#: . _black or deep brown, but also blue._ . _mainly blue. . brown, hazel-grey and black._ #stature#: . _under-sized (mean . m. ft. in.), but variable (some hamites, hindus, and others medium or tall)._ . _tall (mean . m. ft. or in.)._ . _medium (mean ft. in.), but also very tall (indonesians . m. to . m. ft. to ft.)._ #lips#, _mostly rather full and well-shaped, but sometimes thin, or upper lip very long (many irish), and under lip pendulous (many jews)_. #arms#, _rather short as compared with negro_. #legs#, _shapely, with calves usually well developed_. #feet#: _ and small with high instep_; _ rather large_. #temperament#: and . _brilliant, quick-witted, excitable and impulsive; sociable and courteous, but fickle, untrustworthy, and even treacherous (iberian, south italian); often atrociously cruel (many slavs, persians, semites, indonesians and even south europeans); aesthetic sense highly, ethic slightly developed. all brave, imaginative, musical, and richly endowed intellectually._ . _earnest, energetic, and enterprising; steadfast, solid, and stolid; outwardly reserved, thoughtful, and deeply religious; humane, firm, but not normally cruel._ #speech#, _mostly of the inflecting order with strong tendency towards analytical forms_; _very few stock languages (aryan, ibero-hamito-semitic), except in the caucasus, where stock languages of highly agglutinating types are numerous, and in indonesia, where one agglutinating stock language prevails_. #religion#, _mainly monotheistic, with or without priesthood and sacrifice (jewish, christian, muhammadan)_; _polytheistic and animistic in parts of caucasus, india, indonesia, and africa_. _gross superstitions still prevalent in many places._ #culture#, _generally high--all arts, industries, science, philosophy and letters in a flourishing state now almost everywhere except in africa and indonesia, and still progressive_. _in some regions civilisation dates from an early period (egypt, south arabia, babylonia; the minoan, hellenic, hittite, and italic cultures). indonesians and many hamites still rude, with primitive usages, few arts, no science or letters, and cannibalism prevalent in some places (gallaland)._ #mediterranean type#: _most iberians, corsicans, sards, sicilians, italians_; _some greeks_; _berbers and other hamites_; _arabs and other semites_; _some hindus_; _dravidians, todas, ainus, indonesians, some polynesians_. #nordic type#: _scandinavians, north-west germans, dutch, flemings, most english, scotch, some irish, anglo-americans, anglo-australasians, english and dutch of s. africa_; _thrako-hellenes, true kurds, most west persians, afghans, dards and siah-post kafirs_. #alpine type#: _most french, south germans, swiss and tyrolese_; _russians, poles, chekhs, yugo-slavs_; _some albanians and rumanians_; _armenians, tajiks (east persians), galchas_. * * * * * it is a remarkable fact that the caucasic division of the human family, of which nearly all students of the subject are members, with which we are in any case, so to say, on the most intimate terms, and with the constituent elements of which we might consequently be supposed to be best acquainted, is the most debatable field in the whole range of anthropological studies. why this should be so is not at first sight quite apparent, though the phenomenon may perhaps be partly explained by the consideration that the component parts are really of a more complex character, and thus present more intricate problems for solution, than those of any other division. but to some extent this would also seem to be one of those cases in which we fail to see the wood for the trees. to put it plainly, few will venture to deny that the inherent difficulties of the subject have in recent times been rather increased than diminished by the bold and often mutually destructive theories, and, in some instances one might add, the really wild speculations put forward in the earnest desire to remove the endless obscurities in which the more fundamental questions are undoubtedly still involved. controversial matter which seemed thrashed out has been reopened, several fresh factors have been brought into play, and the warfare connected with such burning topics as aryan origins, ibero-pelasgic relations, european round-heads and long-heads, has acquired renewed intensity amid the rival theories of eminent champions of new ideas. the question is not made any simpler by the frequent attacks that have been directed from more than one quarter against the long-established caucasic terminology, and well-supported objections are raised to the use of such time-honoured names as "hamitic," "semitic," and even "caucasic" itself. but no really satisfactory substitute for "caucasic" has yet been suggested, and it is doubtful if any name could be found sufficiently comprehensive to include all the races, long-headed and short-headed, fair and dark, tall and short, that we are at present content to group under this non-committal heading. undoubtedly the term "caucasic" cannot be defended on ethnical grounds. "nowhere else in the world probably is so heterogeneous a lot of people, languages and religions gathered together in one place as along the chain of the caucasus mountains[ ]." but we are no more called upon to believe that the "caucasic" peoples originated in the caucasus, than that the semites are all descendants of shem or hamites of ham. "caucasic" has one claim that can never be disputed, that of priority, and it would be well if innovators in these matters were to take to heart the sober language of ehrenreich, who reminds us that the accepted names are, what they ought to be, "purely conventional," and "historically justified," and "should be held as valid until something better can be found to take their place[ ]." it was considerations such as these, weighing so strongly in favour of current usage, that induced me _stare per vias antiquas_ in the _ethnology_, and consequently also in the present work. hence, here as there, the caucasic division retains its title, together with those of its main subdivisions--hamitic, semitic, keltic, slavic, hellenic, teutonic, iranic, galchic and so on. the chief exception is "aryan," a linguistic expression forced by the philologists into the domain of ethnology, where it has no place or meaning. there was of course a time when a community, or group of communities, existed probably in the steppe region between the carpathians and the hindu-kush[ ], by whom the aryan mother-tongue was evolved, and who still for a time presented a certain uniformity in their physical characters, were, in fact, of aryan speech and type. but while their aryan speech persists in endlessly modified forms, they have themselves long disappeared as a distinct race, merged in the countless other races on whom they, perhaps as conquerors, imposed their aryan language. hence we can and must speak of aryan tongues, and of an aryan linguistic family, which continues to flourish and spread over the globe. but of an aryan race there can be no further question since the absorption of the original stock in a hundred other races in remote prehistoric times. where comprehensive references have to be made, i therefore substitute for aryans and aryan race the expression peoples of aryan speech, at least wherever the unqualified term aryan might lead to misunderstandings. this way of looking at the question, which has now become more thorny than ever, has the signal advantage of being indifferent to any preconceived theories regarding the physical characters of that long vanished proto-aryan race. how great this advantage is may be judged from the mere statement that, while german anthropologists are still almost to a man loyal to the traditional view that the first aryans were best represented by the tall, long-headed, tawny-haired, blue-eyed teutonic barbarians of tacitus--who, virchow tells us, have completely disappeared from sight in the present population--the italian school, or at least its chief exponent, sergi, was equally convinced that the picture was a myth, that such aryans never existed, that "the true primitive aryans were not long, but round-headed, not fair but dark, not tall but short, and are in fact to-day best represented by the round-headed kelts, slavs, and south germans[ ]." the fact is that the aryan prototype has vanished as completely as has the aryan mother-tongue, and can be conjecturally restored only by processes analogous to those by which schleicher and other philologists have endeavoured with dubious success to restore the organic aryan speech as constituted before the dispersion. but here arises the more important question, by what right are so many and such diverse peoples grouped together and ticketed "caucasians"? are they to be really taken as objectively one, or are they merely artificial groupings, arbitrarily arranged abstractions? certainly this caucasic division consists apparently of the most heterogeneous elements, more so than perhaps any other. hence it seems to require a strong mental effort to sweep into a single category, however elastic, so many different peoples--europeans, north africans, west asiatics, iranians and others all the way to the indo-gangetic plains and uplands, whose complexion presents every shade of colour, except yellow, from white to the deepest brown or even black. but they are grouped together in a single division, because of certain common characteristics, and because, as pointed out by ehrenreich, who himself emphasises these objections, their substantial uniformity speaks to the eye that sees below the surface. at the first glance, except perhaps in a few extreme cases for which it would be futile to create independent categories, we recognise a common racial stamp in the facial expression, the structure of the hair, partly also the bodily proportions, in all of which points they agree more with each other than with the other main divisions. even in the case of certain black or very dark races, such as the beja, somali, and a few other eastern hamites, we are reminded instinctively more of europeans or berbers than of negroes, thanks to their more regular features and brighter expression. "those who will accept nothing unless it can be measured, weighed, and numbered, may think perhaps that according to modern notions this appeal to the outward expression is unscientific. nevertheless nobody can deny the evidence of the obvious physical differences between caucasians, african negroes, mongols, australians and so on. after all, physical anthropology itself dates only from the moment when we became conscious of these differences, even before we were able to give them exact expression by measurements. it was precisely the general picture that spoke powerfully and directly to the eye[ ]." the argument need not here be pursued farther, as it will receive abundant illustration in the details to follow. since the discovery of the new and the austral worlds, the caucasic division as represented by the chief european nations has received an enormous expansion. here of course it is necessary to distinguish between political and ethnical conquests, as, for instance, those of india, held by military tenure, and of australia by actual settlement. politically the whole world has become caucasic with the exception of half-a-dozen states such as china, turkey, japan, siam, marocco, still enjoying a real or fictitious autonomy. but, from the ethnical standpoint, those regions in which the caucasic peoples can establish themselves and perpetuate their race as colonists are alone to be regarded as fresh accessions to the original and later (historical) caucasic domains. such fresh accessions are however of vast extent, including the greater part of siberia and adjoining regions, where slav branches of the aryan-speaking peoples are now founding permanent new homes; the whole of australia, tasmania, and new zealand, which have become the inheritance of the caucasic inhabitants of the british isles; large tracts in south africa, already occupied by settlers chiefly from holland and great britain; lastly the new world, where most of the northern continent is settled by full-blood europeans, mainly british, french and german, while in the rest (central and south america) the caucasic immigrants (chiefly from the iberian peninsula) have formed new ethnical groups by fusion with the aborigines. these new accessions, all acquired within the last years, may be roughly estimated at about million square miles, which with some millions held throughout the historic period (africa north of sudan, most of europe, south-west and parts of central and south asia, indonesia) gives an extent of million square miles to the present caucasic domain, either actually occupied or in process of settlement. as the whole of the dry land scarcely exceeds millions, this leaves not more than about millions for the now reduced domains of all the other divisions, and even of this a great part (_e.g._ tibetan table-land, gobi, tundras, greenland) is barely or not at all inhabitable. this, it may be incidentally remarked, is perhaps the best reply to those who have in late years given expression to gloomy forebodings regarding the ultimate fate of the caucasic races. the "yellow scare" may be dismissed with the reflection that the caucasian populations, who have inherited or acquired nearly four-fifths of the earth's surface besides the absolute dominion of the high seas, is not destined to be submerged by any conceivable combination of all the other elements, still less by the mongol alone[ ]. where have we to seek the primeval home of this most vigorous and dominant branch of the human family? since no direct evidence can be cited, the answer necessarily takes the form of a hypothesis, and must rely mainly on the indirect evidence supplied by our vague knowledge of geographical conditions in pleistocene times, on past and present zoological distributions, with here and there, the assistance of a hint gleaned from archaeological discoveries. we may deal first with the arguments brought forward in favour of africa north of sudan. here were found in quaternary times all the physical elements which zoologists demand for great specialisations--ample space, a favourable climate and abundance of food, besides continuous land connection at two or three points across the mediterranean, by which the pliocene and early pleistocene faunas moved freely between the two continents. many of the speculations on the subject failed to convince, largely because the writers took, so to say, the ground from under their own feet, by submerging most of the land under a vast "quaternary sahara sea," which had no existence, and which, moreover, reduced the whole of north africa to a mauretanian island, a mere "appendix of europe," as it is in one place expressly called. then this inconvenient inland basin was got rid of, not by an outflow--being on the same level as the atlantic, of which it was, in fact figured as an inlet--but by "evaporation," which process is however somehow confined to this inlet, and does not affect either the mediterranean or the atlantic itself. nor is it explained how the oceanic waters were prevented from rushing in according "as the sahara sea evaporated to become a desert." the attempt to evolve a "eurafrican race" in such an impossible area necessarily broke down, other endless perplexities being involved in the initial geological misconception. not only was the sahara dry land in pleistocene times, but it stood then at a considerably higher altitude than at present, although its mean elevation is still estimated by chavanne at feet above sea-level. "quaternary deposits cover wide areas, and were at one time supposed to be of marine origin. it was even held that the great sand dunes must have been formed under the sea; but at this date it is scarcely necessary to discuss such a view. the advocates of a quaternary sahara sea argued chiefly from the discovery of marine shells at several points in the middle of the sahara. but tournouër has shown that to call in the aid of a great ocean in order to explain the presence of one or two shells is a needless expenditure of energy[ ]." at an altitude of probably over feet the sahara must have enjoyed an almost ideal climate during late pliocene and pleistocene times, when europe was exposed to more than one glacial invasion, and to a large extent covered at long intervals by a succession of solid ice-caps. we now know that these stony and sandy wastes were traversed in all directions by great rivers, such as the massarawa trending south to the niger, or the igharghar[ ] flowing north to the mediterranean, and that these now dry beds may still be traced for hundreds of miles by chains of pools or lakelets, by long eroded valleys and by other indications of the action of running waters. nor could there be any lack of vegetable or animal life in a favoured region, which was thus abundantly supplied with natural irrigation arteries, while the tropical heats were tempered by great elevation and at times by the refreshing breezes from sub-arctic europe. from these well-watered and fertile lands, some of which continued even in roman times to be the granary of the empire, came that succession of southern animals--hippopotamus, hyaena, rhinoceros, elephant, cave-lion--which made europe seem like a "zoological appendix of africa." in association with this fauna may have come man himself, for although north africa has not yet yielded evidence of a widespread culture comparable to that of the palaeolithic age in europe, yet the negroid characters of the grimaldi skeletons have been held to prove an early connection between the opposite shores of the mediterranean. the hypothesis of african origin is supported by archaeological evidence of the presence of early man all over north africa from the shores of the mediterranean through egypt to somaliland. thus one of j. de morgan's momentous conclusions was that the existence of civilised men in egypt might be reckoned by thousands, and of the aborigines by myriads of years. these aborigines he identified with the men of the old stone age, of whom he believed four stations to have been discovered--dahshur, abydos, tukh, and thebes[ ]. of tunisia arsène dumont declared that "the immense period of time during which man made use of stone implements is nowhere so strikingly shown." here some of the flints were found in abundance under a thick bed of quaternary limestone deposited by the waters of a stream that has disappeared. hence "the origin of man in mauretania must be set back to a remote age which deranges all chronology and confounds the very fables of the mythologies[ ]." the skeleton found in by hans reck at oldoway (then german east africa) was claimed to be of pleistocene age, but according to a. keith "the evidence ... cannot be accepted as having finally proved this degree of antiquity[ ]." the doctrine of the specialisation of the dolichocephalic european types in africa, before their migrations northwards, lies at the base of sergi's views regarding the african origin of those types. arguing against the asiatic origin of the hamites, as held by prichard, virchow, sayce and others, he points out that this race, scarcely if at all represented in asia, has an immense range in africa, where its several sub-varieties must have been evolved before their dispersion over a great part of that continent and of europe. then, regarding hamites and semites as essentially one, he concludes that africa is the cradle whence this primitive stock "spread northwards to europe, where it still persists, especially in the mediterranean and its three principal peninsulas, and eastwards to west asia[ ]." the theory of an african cradle for the dolichocephalic mediterranean type does not lack supporters, but when, relying on the undeniable presence of brachycephals, some writers would derive the alpine type from the same area, the larger aspect of continental migrations appears to be overlooked (see pp. - below). to constitute a distinct race, says zaborowski, a wide geographical area is needed, such as is presented by both shores of the mediterranean "with the whole of north africa including the sahara, which was till lately still thickly peopled[ ]." then to the question by whom has this north african and mediterranean region been inhabited since quaternary times, he answers "by the ancestors of our libyans, egyptians, pelasgians, iberians"; and after rejecting the asiatic theory, he elsewhere arrives at "the grand generalisation that the whole of north africa, connected by land with europe in the quaternary epoch, formed part of the geographical area of the ancient white race, of which the egyptians, so far from being the parent stem, would appear to be merely a branch[ ]." coming to details, bertholon[ ], from the human remains found by carton at bulla-regia, determined for tunisia and surrounding lands two main long-headed types, one like the neandertal (occurring both in khumeria, and in the stations abounding in palaeoliths), the other like the later cro-magnon dolmen-builders, whom de quatrefages had already identified with the tall, long-headed, fair, and even blue-eyed berbers still met in various parts of mauretania, and formerly represented in the canary islands[ ]. bertholon agrees with collignon that the mauretanian megalith-builders are of the same race as those of europe, and besides the two long-headed races describes ( ) a short round-headed type in gerba island and east tunisia[ ] representing the libyans proper, and ( ) a blond type of the sahel, khumeria, and other parts, whom he identifies with the mazices of herodotus, with the "afri," whose name has been extended to the whole continent, and the blond getulians of the aures mountains. it has been objected that, as established by de lapouge and ripley, there are three distinct ethnical zones in europe:--( ) nordic: the tall, fair, long-headed northern type, commonly identified by the germans with the race represented by the osseous remains from the "reihengräber," _i.e._ the "germanic," which the french call kymric or aryan, for which de lapouge reserves linné's _homo europaeus_, and to which ripley applies the term "teutonic," because the whole combination of characters "accords exactly with the descriptions handed down to us by the ancients. such were the goths, ostrogoths, visigoths, vandals, lombards, together with the danes, norsemen, saxons.... history is thus corroborated by natural science." ( ) mediterranean: the southern zone of short, dark, long-heads, _i.e._ the primitive element in iberia, italy, south france, sicily, corsica, sardinia, and greece, called iberians by the english, and identified by many with the ligurians, pelasgians, and allied peoples, grouped together by ripley as mediterraneans[ ]. ( ) alpine: the central zone of short, medium-sized round-heads with light or chestnut hair, and gray or hazel eye, de lapouge's and ripley's _homo alpinus_, the kelts or kelto-slavs of the french, the ligurians or arvernians of beddoe and other english writers. here belong the tall armenoids, the armenians being descendants of the hittites. the question is, can all these have come from north africa? we have seen that this region has yielded the remains of one round-headed and two long-headed prehistoric types. henri malbot pointed out that, as far back as we can go, we meet the two quite distinct long-headed berber types, and he holds that this racial duality is proved by the megalithic tombs (dolmens) of roknia between jemmapes and guelma, possibly some or years old. the remains here found by l. l. c. faidherbe belong to two different races, both dolichocephalic, but one tall, with prominent zygomatic arches and very strong nasal spine (it reads almost like the description of a brawny caledonian), the other short, with well-balanced skull and small nasal spine[ ]. the earliest (egyptian) records refer to brown and blond populations living in north africa some years ago, and it has been claimed that the raw materials, so to say, were here to hand both of the fair northern and dark southern european long-heads. these different races were represented even amongst the extinct guanches of the canary islands, as shown by a study of the heads procured in by h. meyer from caves in the archipelago[ ]. three distinct types are determined: ( ) guanche, akin to the cro-magnon, tall ( ft. in. to ft. in.), robust, dolicho ( ), low, broad face; large eyes, rather short nose; fair, reddish or light chestnut hair; skin and eyes light; ranged throughout the islands, but centred chiefly in tenerife; ( ) "_semitic_," short ( ft. or in.), slim, narrow mesocephalic head ( ), narrow, long face, black hair, light brown skin, dark eyes; range, grand canary, palma, and hierro; ( ) _armenoid_, akin to von luschan's pre-semitic of asia minor; shorter than and ; very short, broad, and high skull (hyperbrachy, ); hair, skin and eyes very probably of the west asiatic brunette type; range, mainly in gomera, but met everywhere. many of the skulls had been trepanned, and these are brought into direct association with the full-blood berbers of the aures mts. in algeria, who still practise trepanning for wounds, headaches, and other reasons. this type is scarcely to be distinguished from lapouge's short brown _homo alpinus_, which dates from the stone ages, and is found in densest masses in the central alpine regions, but the true armenoids are differentiated by their taller stature[ ]. how numerous were the inhabitants of france at that time may be inferred from the long list of no less than neolithic stations given for that region by ph. salmon. of the skulls from those stations measured by him, . per cent. are classed as dolicho, . as brachycephalic, and . as intermediate. this distinguished palethnologist regards the intermediates as the result of crossings between the two others, and of these he thinks the first arrivals were the round-heads, who ranged over a vast area between brittany, the channel, the pyrenees, and the mediterranean, per cent. of the graves hitherto studied containing skulls of this type[ ]. belgium also, where a mixture of long- and round-heads is found amongst the men of furfooz, must be included in this neolithic brachy domain, which can be traced as far westward as the british isles[ ]. attempts have been made, as indicated above, to derive these brachycephals, as well as the dolichocephals, from north africa, in accordance with the view that the latter region was the true centre of evolution and of dispersion for all the main branches of the caucasic family, but this theory has few supporters at the present time. sergi recognised the asiatic origin of the neolithic round-heads and regarded them as "peaceful infiltrations[ ]," forerunners of the great invasions of the later metal ages. verneau points out[ ] that when all the neolithic stations in which brachycephalic skulls have been discovered are plotted out on a map of europe it is easy to recognise a current running almost directly from east to west. moreover towards the west this current divides, being clearly separated by zones of dolichocephaly. evidence of the presence in early times of tall blond peoples in africa, side by side with a short dark population, and of brachycephals together with dolichocephals, proves that even in the stone age ethnic mixtures had already taken place, and racial purity--if indeed it ever existed--must be sought for in still remoter periods. with sergi's view which traces the neolithic inhabitants of the northern shores of the mediterranean (iberians, ligurians, messapians, siculi and other itali, pelasgians), to north africa, most anthropologists agree[ ]. also that all or most of these were primarily of a dark (brown), short, dolicho type, which still persists both in south europe and north africa, and in fact is the race which ripley properly calls "mediterranean," although in the west they almost certainly ranged into brittany and the british isles. but there are some who hold that the migration was in the opposite direction, and derive the north african branch from europe, rather than the european branches from africa. "anthropologists who have specially studied the question of the berbers or kabyles have concluded that they are descendants of prehistoric european invaders who occupied the tracts that suited them best[ ]." in france the neolithic "mediterranean type" has been regarded as lineally descended from palaeolithic predecessors _in situ_[ ]. some would even go further still, and claim europe as the place of origin not only of the mediterranean but also of the alpine and northern branches. "the so-called three races of europe are in the main the result of variation from a common european stock, a variation due to isolation and natural selection[ ]." without making any claim to finality the following perhaps best represents orthodox opinion at the present time. it may be assumed that man evolved somewhere in southern asia in pliocene times, and that the early groups possessed a tendency to variability which was directed to some extent by geographical conditions and became fixed by isolation. the tall fair blue-eyed dolichocephals (northern race) and the short dark dolichocephals (mediterranean race) may be regarded as two varieties of a common stock, the former having their area of characterisation in the steppes north of the plateaus of eur-asia, and migrating eastwards and westwards as the country dried after the last glacial phase. the southern branch, entering east africa from southern asia, spread all over north africa; those in the east were the archaic egyptians; to the west were the libyans whose descendants are the berbers; those who crossed the mediterranean formed the european branches of the mediterranean race. with regard to the third type, while the central plateaus of asia were the centre of dispersal for the true mongols the western plateaus were the area of characterisation of a non-mongolian brachycephalic race, which includes short and tall varieties. this is the alpine race, which extends from the hindu kush to brittany, and formerly spread further westwards into the british isles[ ]. the problem of european origins has often in the past been obscured rather than enlightened by an appeal to linguistics, but linguistic factors cannot altogether be ignored. no doubt the earliest populations of the mediterranean shores during the stone age spoke non-aryan languages, but it is only here and there that traces--mostly indecipherable--can be discovered. on the african side we have the berber language still in its full vigour; and apparently little changed for thousands of years. but in europe the primitive tongues have everywhere been swept away by the aryan (hellenic, italic, keltic) except in the region of the pyrenees. in italy etruscan is the only language which can with safety be called non-aryan[ ], though the place of ligurian is still under dispute[ ]. of pelasgian, nothing survives except the statement of herodotus, a dangerous guide in this matter, that it was a barbaric tongue like the peoples themselves[ ], but ridgeway considers it indo-european[ ]. further east, in asia minor, neither karian inscriptions and glosses nor occasional lydian[ ] and mysian glosses afford any safe basis for establishing relationships[ ]; the fuller evidence of lycian leaves its position indeterminate[ ] and the cretan script is still undeciphered[ ]. but in iberia besides the iberian inscriptions, which, so far, remain indecipherable[ ], there survives the basque of the western pyrenees, which beyond question represents a form of speech which was current in the peninsula in pre-aryan times, and on the assumption of a common origin of the populations on both sides of the strait of gibraltar might be expected to show traces of kinship with berber. in a posthumous work on this subject[ ], the eminent philologist g. von der gabelenz goes much further than mere traces, and claims to establish not only phonetic and verbal resemblances, but structural correspondences, so that his editor graf von der schulenberg was satisfied as to the relationship of the two languages[ ]. this conclusion has not, however, met with general acceptance[ ] and the affinities of basque with finno-ugrian cannot be overlooked[ ]. a study of the physical features of the modern basques adds complexity to the problem. most observers are agreed that a distinct basque type exists, and this physical and linguistic singularity has led to various more or less fanciful theories "connecting the basques with every outlandish language and bankrupt people under the sun[ ]," while g. hervé[ ] would regard them as forming by themselves a separate ethnic group, "a fourth european race." on the other hand feist[ ] has grounds for claiming that the basques are not, in anthropological respects, essentially different from their spanish or french neighbours (p. ) and jullian[ ] denies them more than a superficial unity. these apparently conflicting opinions are reconciled by the conclusions of r. collignon[ ], himself one of the best authorities on the subject. "the physical traits characteristic of the basques attach them unquestionably ('indiscutablement') to the great hamitic branch of the white races, that is to say, to the ancient egyptians and to the various groups commonly comprised under the collective name of berbers. their brachycephaly, slight as it is, cannot outweigh the aggregate of the other characters which they present.... it is therefore in this direction and not amongst finns or esthonians that is to be sought the parent stem of this paradoxical race. it is north african or european, assuredly not asiatic." collignon's explanation of the basque type is that it is a sub-species of the mediterranean stock evolved by long-continued and complete isolation, and in-and-in breeding, primarily engendered by peculiarity of language. the effects of heredity, aided perhaps by artificial selection, have generated local peculiarities and have developed them to an extreme[ ]. "the iberian question," says rice holmes, "is the most complicated and difficult of all the problems of gallic ethnology[ ]." from the testimony of greek and roman authors, he draws the following conclusions. "the name iberian was probably applied, in the first instance, only to the people who dwelt between the ebro and the pyrenees. the iberians once occupied the seaboard of gaul between the rhône and the pyrenees; but ligurians encroached upon this part of their territory. they also probably occupied the whole eastern region of the spanish peninsula. but," he adds, "we must bear in mind that the data are both insufficient and uncertain" (p. ). later (p. ), reviewing the evidence collected by philologists and by craniologists, he continues, "it seems to me probable that the iberians comprised both people who spoke, or whose ancestors had spoken, basque, and people who spoke the language or languages[ ] of the 'iberian' inscriptions; that to observers who had not learned to measure skulls and knew nothing of scientific methods, they appeared to be homogeneous; that the prevailing type was that which is now called iberian and is seen at its purest in sardinia, corsica and sicily; but that a certain proportion of the whole population may have been characterised by physical features more or less closely resembling those which the modern basques--french and spanish--possess in common, and which, as mm. broca and collignon tell us, distinguish them from all other european peoples. finally it seems probable that the true iberians were the people who spoke the languages of the inscriptions, and that basque was spoken by a people who occupied spain and southern gaul before the iberians arrived. but unless and until the key to those appalling inscriptions is found, the problem will never be solved." the ligurian question is still more complex than the iberian. for while no facts can be brought forward in direct contradiction of the assumption that the iberians were a short dark dolichocephalic population occupying the iberian peninsula in the stone age, and speaking a non-indo-european language, no such generalisations with regard to race, physical type, culture, geographical distribution or language are accepted for the ligurians. some, with sergi[ ], consider the ligurians merely as another branch of the mediterranean race. others, with zaborowski[ ], tracing their presence among the modern inhabitants of liguria, regard them as representing the small, dark, brachycephalic race at its purest. while many who recognise the ligurians as belonging to the mediterranean physical type deny their affinity with the iberians. meyer[ ] considers such a relationship "not improbable," but déchelette[ ] shows that it is absolutely untenable on archaeological grounds. the geographical range is equally uncertain. c. jullian[ ] distributes ligurians not only over the whole of gaul, but also throughout western europe, and attributes to them all the glories of neolithic civilisation; a. bertrand[ ] thinks that they played even in gaul merely a secondary rôle; déchelette[ ], on archaeological evidence, proves that the ligurian period was _par excellence_ the age of bronze, and ridgeway[ ] identifies it with the terramare civilisation. finally, if we follow sergi, the ligurians must have spoken a non-indo-european language; but the most eminent authorities are in the main agreed that such traces of ligurian as remain show affinities with indo-european[ ]. with regard to their physical type sergi puts forward the view that the true ligurians were like the iberians, a section of the long-headed mediterranean (afro-european) stock. from prehistoric stations in the valley of the po he collected skulls, all of this type, and all ligurian; history and tradition being of accord that before the arrival of the kelts this region belonged to the ligurian domain. "if it be true that prehistoric italy was occupied by the mediterranean race and by two branches--ligurian and pelasgian--of that race, the ancient inhabitants of the po valley, now exhumed in those skulls, were ligurian[ ]." these ligurians have been traced from their homes on the mediterranean into central europe. from a study of the neolithic finds made in germany, in the district between neustadt and worms, c. mehlis[ ] infers that here the first settlers were ligurians, who had penetrated up the rhone and saône into rhineland. in the kircherian museum in rome he was surprised to find a marked analogy between objects from the riviera and from the rhine; skulls (both dolicho), vases, stone implements, mill-stones, etc., all alike. such ligurian objects, found everywhere in north italy, occur in the rhine lands chiefly along the left bank of the main stream between basel and mainz, and farther north in the rheingau at wiesbaden, and in the lahn valley. the ligurians may of course have reached the riviera round the coast from illiberis and iberia; but the same race is found as the aboriginal element also at the "heel of the boot," and in fact throughout the whole of italy and all the adjacent islands. this point is now firmly established, and not only sergi, but several other leading italian authorities hold that the early inhabitants of the peninsula and islands were ligurians and pelasgians, whom they look upon as of the same stock, all of whom came from north africa, and that, despite subsequent invasions and crossings, this mediterranean stock still persists, especially in the southern provinces and in the islands--sicily, sardinia, and corsica. hence it seems more reasonable to bring this aboriginal element straight from africa by the stepping stones of pantellaria, malta, and gozzo (formerly more extensive than at present, and still strewn with megalithic remains comparable to those of both continents), than by the roundabout route of iberia and southern gaul[ ]. this is a simple solution of the problem, but it is a question if it is justifiable to extend the name ligurian to all that branch of the mediterranean race which undoubtedly forms the substratum of population in italy and parts of gaul, ignoring the presence or absence of "ligurian" culture or traces of ligurian language. déchelette[ ], relying chiefly upon archaeological and cultural evidence, sums up as follows: we must consider the ligurians as indo-european tribes, whose area of domination had its centre, during the bronze age, in north italy, and the left bank of the rhone. they were enterprising and energetic in agriculture and in commerce. together with neighbouring peoples of illyrian stock they engaged in an indirect but nevertheless regular trade with the northern regions where amber was collected. among the ligurians, as among the illyrians and hyperboreans, a form of heliolatry was prevalent, popularising the old solar myths in which the swan appears to have played an important rôle. rice holmes[ ] defines more closely their geographical range. "ligurians undoubtedly lived in south-eastern gaul, where they were found at least as far north as bellegarde in the department of the ain; and, mingled more or less with iberians, in the departments of the gard, hérault, aude and pyrénées-orientales. most probably they had once occupied the whole eastern region as far north as the marne, but had been submerged by celts: and perhaps they had also pushed westward as far as aquitania." he continues, "were it possible to regard the theory of mm. d'arbois de jubainville and jullian as more than an interesting hypothesis, we should have to conclude that the ligurians were simply the long-headed and short-headed peoples who, reinforced perhaps from time to time by hordes of immigrants, had inhabited the whole of gaul since the neolithic age, and of whom the former, or many of them, were descended from palaeolithic hunters; in other words that they were the same people who, after they had been conquered by, or had coalesced with, the celtic invaders, called themselves _celtae_: but to say which of them were first known as ligurians or introduced the ligurian language would be utterly hopeless. finally the little evidence we possess tends to show that the people called ligurians, when they became known to the greek writers who described them, were a medley of different races." for sicily, with which may practically be included the south of italy, we have the conclusions of g. patroni based on years of intelligent and patient labours[ ]. to africa this archaeologist traces the palaeolithic men of the west coast of sicily and of the caves near syracuse explored by von adrian[ ]. "we are forced to conclude that man arrived in sicily from africa at a time when the isthmus connecting the island with that continent still stood above sea-level. he made his appearance about the same time as the elephant, whose remains are associated with human bones especially in the west. he followed the sea coasts, the shells of which offered him sufficient food[ ]." he was followed by the neolithic man, whose presence has been revealed by the researches of paolo orsi at the station of stentinello on the coast north of syracuse. to orsi is also due the discovery of what he calls the "aeneolithic epoch[ ]," represented by the bronzes of the girgenti district. orsi assigns this culture to the _siculi_, and divides it into three periods, while regarding the neolithic men of stentinello as _pre-siculi_. but patroni holds that the aeneolithic peoples have a right to the historic name of _sicani_, and that the true siculi were those that arrived from italy in orsi's second period. it seems no longer possible to determine the true relations of these two peoples, who stand out as distinct throughout early historic times. they are by many[ ] regarded as of one race, although both ([greek: sikanos, sikelos]) are already mentioned in the odyssey. but the evidence tends to show that the sicani represent the oldest element which came direct from africa in the stone age, while the siculi were a branch of the ligurians driven in the metal age from italy to the island, which was already occupied by the sicani, as related by dionysius halicarnassus[ ]. in fact this migration of the siculi may be regarded as almost an historical event, which according to thucydides took place "about years before the hellenes came to sicily[ ]." the siculi bore this national name on the mainland, so that the modern expression "kingdom of the two sicilies" (the late kingdom of naples) has its justification in the earliest traditions of the people. later, both races were merged in one, and the present sicilian nation was gradually constituted by further accessions of phoenician (carthaginian), greek, roman, vandal, arab, norman, french and spanish elements. very remarkable is the contrast presented by the conditions prevailing in this ethnical microcosm and those of sardinia, inhabited since the stone ages by one of the most homogeneous groups in the world. from the statistics embodied in r. livi's _antropologia militare_[ ] the sards would almost seem to be cast all in one mould, the great bulk of the natives having the shortest stature, the brownest eyes and hair, the longest heads, the swarthiest complexion of all the italian populations. "they consequently form quite a distinct variety amongst the italian races, which is natural enough when we remember the seclusion in which this island has remained for so many ages[ ]." they seem to have been preserved as if in some natural museum to show us what the ligurian branch of the mediterranean stock may have been in neolithic times. yet they were probably preceded by the microcephalous dwarfish race described by sergi as one of the early mediterranean stocks. their presence in sardinia has now been determined by a. niceforo and e. a. onnis, who find that of about skulls from old graves thirty have a capacity of only c.c. or under, while several living persons range in height from ft. in. to ft. in. niceforo agrees with sergi in bringing this dwarfish race also from north africa[ ]. with remarkable cranial uniformity, similar phenomena are presented by the corsicans who show "the same exaggerated length of face and narrowness of the forehead. the cephalic index drops from and above in the alps to about all along the line. coincidently the colour of hair and eyes becomes very dark, almost black. the figure is less amply proportioned, the people become light and rather agile. it is certain that the stature at the same time falls to an exceedingly low level: fully inches below the average for teutonic europe," although "the people of northern africa, pure mediterranean europeans, are of medium size[ ]." in the italian peninsula sergi holds not only that the aborigines were exclusively of ligurian, _i.e._ mediterranean stock, but that this stock still persists in the whole of the region south of the tiber, although here and there mixed with "aryan" elements. north of that river these elements increase gradually up to the italian alps, and at present are dominant in the valley of the po[ ]. in this way he would explain the rising percentage of round-heads in that direction, the ligurians being for him, as stated, long-headed, the "aryans" round-headed. similarly beddoe, commenting on livi's statistics, showing predominance of tall stature, round heads, and fair complexion in north italy, infers "that a type, the one we usually call the mediterranean, does really predominate in the south, and exists in a state of comparative purity in sardinia and calabria; while in the north the broad-headed alpine type is powerful, but is almost everywhere more or less modified by, or interspersed with other types--germanic, slavic, or of doubtful origin--to which the variations of stature and complexion may probably be, at least in part, attributed[ ]." similar relations prevail in the balkan peninsula, where the mediterranean stock is represented by the "pelasgic[ ]" substratum. invented, as has been said, for the purpose of confounding future ethnologists, these pelasgians certainly present an extremely difficult racial problem, the solution of which has hitherto resisted the combined attacks of ancient and modern students. when dionysius tells us bluntly that they were greeks[ ], we fancy the question is settled off-hand, until we find herodotus describing them a few hundred years earlier as aliens, rude in speech and usages, distinctly not greeks, and in his time here and there (thrace, hellespont) still speaking apparently non-hellenic dialects[ ]. then homer several centuries still earlier, with his epithet of [greek: dioi], occurring both in the _iliad_ and the _odyssey_[ ], exalts them almost above the level of the greeks themselves. it would seem, therefore, almost impossible to discover a key to the puzzle, one which will also fit in both with sergi's mediterranean theory, and with the results of recent archaeological researches in the aegean lands. the following hypothesis is supported by a certain amount of evidence. if the pre-mykenaean culture revealed by schliemann and others in the troad, mykenae, argos, tiryns, by evans and others in crete, by cesnola in cyprus, be ascribed to a pre-hellenic rather than to a proto-hellenic people, then the classical references will explain themselves, while this pre-hellenic race will be readily identified with the pelasgians, as this term is understood by sergi. it is, i suppose, universally allowed that greece really was peopled before the arrival of the hellenes, which term is here to be taken as comprising all the invading tribes from the north, of which the achaeans were perhaps the earliest. on their arrival the hellenes therefore found the land not only inhabited, but inhabited by a cultured people more civilised than themselves, who could thus be identified with sergi's pelasgian branch of the mediterranean or afro-european stock, whom the proto-hellenes naturally regarded as their superiors, and whom their first singers also naturally called [greek: dioi pelasgoi][ ]. but in the course of a few centuries[ ] these pelasgians became hellenised, all but a few scattered groups, which lagging behind in the general social progress are now also looked upon as barbarians, speaking barbaric tongues, and are so described by contemporary historians. then these few remnants of a glorious but forgotten past are also merged in the hellenic stream, and can no longer be distinguished from other greeks by contemporary writers. hence for dionysius the pelasgians are simply greeks, which in a sense may be true enough. all the heterogeneous elements have been fused in a single hellenic nationality, built upon a rough pelasgic substratum, and adorned with all the graces of hellenic culture. now to make good this hypothesis, it is necessary to show, first, that the pelasgians were not an obscure tribe, a small people confined to some remote corner of hellas, but a widespread nation diffused over all the land; secondly, that this nation, as far as can now be determined, presented mental and other characters answering to those of sergi's mediterraneans, and also such as might be looked for in a race capable of developing the splendid aegean culture of pre-hellenic times. on the first point it has been claimed that the pelasgians were so widely distributed[ ] that the difficulty rather is to discover a district where their presence was unknown. they fill the background of hellenic origins, and even spread beyond the hellenic horizon, to such an extent that there seems little room for any other people between the adriatic and the hellespont. thus ridgeway[ ] has brought together a good many passages which clearly establish their universal range, as well as their occupation especially of those places where have been found objects of mykenaean and pre-mykenaean culture, such as engraved gems, pottery, implements, buildings, inscriptions in pictographic and syllabic scripts. in crete they had the "great city of knossos" in homer's time[ ]; not only was mykenae theirs, but the whole of peloponnesus took the name of pelasgia; the kings of tiryns were pelasgians, and aeschylus calls argos a pelasgian city; an old wall at athens was attributed to them, and the people of attica had from all time been pelasgians[ ]. orchomenus in boeotia was founded by a colony from pelasgiotis in thessaly; lesbos also was called pelasgia, and homer knew of pelasgians in the troad. their settlements are further traced to egypt, to rhodes, cyprus, epirus--where dodona was their ancient shrine--and lastly to various parts of italy. moreover, the pelasgians were traditionally the civilising element, who taught people to make bread, to yoke the ox to the plough, and to measure land. it would appear from these and other allusions that there were memories of still earlier aborigines, amongst whom the pelasgians appear as a cultured people, introducing perhaps the arts and industries of the pre-mykenaean age. but the assumption, based on no known data, is unnecessary, and it seems more reasonable to look on this culture as locally developed, to some extent under eastern (egyptian, babylonian, hittite?) influences[ ]. here it is important to note that the pelasgians were credited with a knowledge of letters[ ], and all this has been advanced as sufficient confirmation of our second postulate. nevertheless it must be acknowledged that the difficulties are not all overcome by this hypothesis, and the further question of language divides even its stanchest supporters into opposing groups, for while sergi's mediterraneans necessarily speak a non-indo-european language[ ], ridgeway's pelasgians speak aeolic greek[ ]. the range and importance of the pelasgians are most strictly limited by j. l. myres[ ], who thinks that the alpine type may even be primitive in the morea, mediterranean man being an intruder from the south merely fringing the coast and never penetrating inland. the researches of von luschan in lycia support this view[ ], and ripley's map of the present inhabitants of the balkan peninsula shows the "greek contingent closely confined to the sea-coast[ ]." ripley, however, though carefully avoiding any dragging of "pelasgians" into the question, assumes a primitive substratum of mediterranean type all over greece. "the testimony of these ancient greek crania is perfectly harmonious. all authorities agree that the ancient hellenes were decidedly long-headed, betraying in this respect their affinity to the mediterranean race.... whether from attica, from schliemann's successive cities excavated upon the site of troy, or from the coast of asia minor[ ]; at all times from b.c. to the third century of our era, it would seem proved that the greeks were of this dolichocephalic type.... every characteristic of their modern descendants and every analogy with the neighbouring populations, leads us to the conclusion that the classical hellenes were distinctly of the mediterranean racial type, little different from the phoenicians, the romans or the iberians[ ]." nevertheless dörpfeld[ ] claims that there were, from the first, two races in greece, a southern, or aegean, and a northern, who were the aryan achaeans of history, and recent archaeological discoveries certainly support this view. another attempt to solve the pelasgian problem is that of e. meyer[ ]. after enumerating the various areas said to have been occupied by the pelasgians "_ein grosses urvolk_" who ranged from asia minor to italy, he pricks the bubble by saying that in reality there were no pelasgians save in thessaly, in the fruitful plain of peneus, hence called "pelasgic argos[ ]," and later pelasgiotis. they, like the dorians, invaded crete from thessaly and at the beginning of the first millennium were defeated and enslaved by the incoming thessalians. these are the only true pelasgians. the other so-called pelasgians are the descendants of an eponymous pelasgos who in genealogical poetry becomes the ancestor of mankind. since the arcadians were regarded as the earliest of the indigenous peoples, pelasgos was made the ancestor of the arcadians. the name "pelasgic argos" was transferred from thessaly to the peloponnesian city. attic pelasgians were derived from a mistake of hecataeus[ ]. so the legend grew. the only real pelasgian problem, concludes meyer, is whether the thessalian pelasgians were a greek or pre-greek people, and he is inclined to favour the latter view. the identity of "the most mysterious people of antiquity" is further obscured by philology, for, as p. giles points out, their name appears merely to mean "the people of the sea," so that "they do not seem to be in all cases the same stock[ ]." whether we call them pelasgians or no, there would seem to be little doubt that the splendours of aegean civilisation which have been and still are being gradually revealed by the researches of british, italian, american and german archaeologists are to be attributed to an indigenous people of mediterranean type, occupying an area of which crete was the centre, from the stone age, right through the bronze age, down to the northern invasions of the second millennium and the introduction of iron. in range this culture included greece with its islands, cyprus, and western anatolia, and its influence extended westwards to sicily, italy, sardinia and spain, and eastwards to syria and egypt. its chief characteristics are ( ) an indigenous script both pictographic and linear, with possible affinities in hittite, cypriote and south-west anatolian scripts, but hitherto indecipherable; ( ) a characteristic art attempting "to express an ideal in forms more and more closely approaching to realities[ ]," exhibited in frescoes, pottery, reliefs, sculptures, jewelry etc.; ( ) a distinctive architectural style, and ( ) type of tomb, which have no parallels elsewhere. excavations at cnossos go far towards establishing a chronology for the aegean area. at the base is an immensely thick neolithic deposit, above which come pottery and other objects of minoan period i. , which are correlated by petrie with objects found at abydos, referred by him to the st dynasty ( b.c.). minoan period ii. corresponds with the egyptian xii dynasty ( b.c.), characteristic cretan pottery of this period being found in the fayum. minoan period iii. and synchronises with dynasty xviii ( to b.c.). iron begins to be used for weapons after period iii. , and is commonly attributed to incursions from the north, the dorian invasion of the greek authors, about b.c. which led to the destruction of the palace of cnossos and the substitution of "geometric" for "mykenaean" art. turning to the african branch of the mediterranean type, we find it forming not merely the substratum, but the great bulk of the inhabitants throughout all recorded time from the atlantic to the red sea, and from the mediterranean to sudan, although since muhammadan times largely intermingled with the kindred semitic stock (mainly arabs) in the north and west, and in the east (abyssinia) with the same stock since prehistoric times. all are comprised by sergi[ ] in two main divisions:-- . eastern hamites, answering to the _ethiopic branch_ of some writers, of somewhat variable type, comprising the _old_ and _modern egyptians_ now mixed with semitic (arab) elements; the _nubians_, the _bejas_, the _abyssinians_, collective name of all the peoples between khor barka and shoa (with, in some places, a considerable infusion of himyaritic or early semitic blood from south arabia); the _gallas_ (gallas proper, somals, and afars or danákils); the _masai_ and _ba-hima_. . northern hamites, the _libyan race_ or _berber (western) branch_ of some writers, comprising the _mediterranean berbers_ of algeria, tunis, and tripoli; the _atlantic berbers_ (_shluhs_ and others) of morocco; the _west saharan berbers_ commonly called _tuaregs_; the _tibus_ of the east sahara; the _fulahs_, dispersed amongst the sudanese negroes; the _guanches_ of the canary islands. of the eastern hamites he remarks generally that they do not form a homogeneous division, but rather a number of different peoples either crowded together in separate areas, or dispersed in the territories of other peoples. they agree more in their inner than in their outer characters, without constituting a single ethnical type. the cranial forms are variable, though converging, and evidently to be regarded as very old varieties of an original stock. the features are also variable, converging and characteristic, with straight or arched (aquiloid) nose quite different from the negro; lips rather thick, but never everted as in the negro; hair usually frizzled, not wavy; beard thin; skin very variable, brown, red-brown, black-brown, ruddy black, chocolate and coffee-brown, reddish or yellowish, these variations being due to crossings and the outward physical conditions. in this assumption sergi is supported by the analogous case of the western berbers between the senegal and morocco, to whom collignon and deniker[ ] restrict the term "moor," as an ethnical name. the chief groups, which range from the atlantic coast east to the camping grounds of the true tuaregs[ ], are the trarsas and braknas of the senegal river, and farther north the dwaïsh (idoesh), uled-bella, uled-embark, and uled-en-nasúr. from a study of four of these moors, who visited paris in , it appears that they are not an arabo-berber cross, as commonly supposed, but true hamites, with a distinct negro strain, shown especially in their frizzly hair, bronze colour, short broad nose, and thickish lips, their general appearance showing an astonishing likeness to the bejas, afars, somals, abyssinians, and other eastern hamites. this is not due to direct descent, and it is more reasonable to suppose "that at the two extremities of the continent the same causes have produced the same effects, and that from the infusion of a certain proportion of black blood in the egyptian [eastern] and berber branches of the hamites, there have sprung closely analogous mixed groups[ ]." from the true negro they are also distinguished by their grave and dignified bearing, and still more by their far greater intelligence. both divisions of the hamites, continues sergi, agree substantially in their bony structure, and thus form a single anthropological group with variable skull--pentagonoid, ovoid, ellipsoid, sphenoid, etc., as expressed in his terminology--but constant, that is, each variety recurring in all the branches; face also variable (tetragonal, ellipsoid, etc.), but similarly identical in all the branches; profile non-prognathous; eyes dark, straight, not prominent; nose straight or arched; hair smooth, curly, long, black or chestnut; beard full, also scant; lips thin or slightly tumid, never protruding; skin of various brown shades; stature medium or tall. such is the great anthropological division, which was diffused continuously over the greater part of africa, and round the northern shores of the mediterranean. according to stuhlmann[ ] it had its origin in south arabia, if not further east, and entered africa in the region of erythrea. he regards the red sea as offering no obstacle to migrations, but suggests a possible land connection between the opposite shores. nothing is more astonishing than the strange persistence not merely of the berber type, but of the berber temperament and nationality since the stone ages, despite the successive invasions of foreign peoples during the historic period. first came the sidonian phoenicians, founders of carthage and utica probably about b.c. the greek occupation of cyrenaica ( b.c.) was followed by the advent of the romans on the ruins of the carthaginian empire. the romans have certainly left distinct traces of their presence, and some of the aures highlanders still proudly call themselves _rumaníya_. these _shawías_ ("pastors") form a numerous group, all claiming roman descent, and even still keeping certain roman and christian feasts, such as _bu ini_, _i.e._ christmas; _innar_ or _january_ (new year's day); spring (easter), etc. a few latin words also survive such as _urtho_ = hortus; _kerrúsh_ = quercus (evergreen oak); _milli_ = milliarium (milestone). after the temporary vandal occupation came the great arab invasions of the seventh and later centuries, and even these had been preceded by the kindred _ruadites_, who had in pre-moslem times already reached mauretania from arabia. with the jews, some of whom had also reached tripolitana before the new era, a steady infiltration of negroes from sudan, and the recent french, spanish, italian, and maltese settlers, we have all the elements that go to make up the cosmopolitan population of mauretania. but amid them all the berbers and the arabs stand out as the immensely predominant factors, still distinct despite a probably common origin in the far distant past and later interminglings. the arab remains above all a nomad herdsman, dwelling in tents, without house or hamlet, a good stock-breeder, but a bad husbandman, and that only on compulsion. "the ploughshare and shame enter hand in hand into the family," says the national proverb. to find space for his flocks and herds he continues the destructive work of carthaginian and roman, who ages ago cleared vast wooded tracts for their fleets and commercial navies, and thus rendered large areas barren and desolate. the berber on the contrary loves the sheltering woodlands; he is essentially a highlander who carefully tills the forest glades, settles in permanent homes, and often develops flourishing industries. arab society is feudal and theocratic, ruled by a despotic sheikh, while the berber with his _jemaa_, or "witenagemot," and his _kanun_ or unwritten code, feels himself a freeman; and it may well have been this democratic spirit, inherited by his european descendants, that enabled the western nations to take the lead in the onward movement of humanity. the arab again is a fanatic, ever to be feared, because he blindly obeys the will of allah proclaimed by his prophets, marabouts, and mahdis[ ]. but the berber, a born sceptic, looks askance at theological dogmas; an unconscious philosopher, he is far less of a fatalist than his semitic neighbour, who associates with allah countless demons and jins in the government of the world. in their physical characters the two races also present some striking contrasts, the arab having the regular oval brain-cap and face of the true semite, whereas the berber head is more angular, less finely moulded, with more prominent cheekbones, shorter and less aquiline nose, which combined with a slight degree of sub-nasal prognathism, imparts to the features coarser and less harmonious outlines. he is at the same time distinctly taller and more muscular, with less uniformity in the colour of the eye and the hair, as might be expected from the numerous elements entering into the constitution of present berber populations. in the social conflict between the arab and berber races, the curious spectacle is presented of two nearly equal elements (same origin, same religion, same government, same or analogous tribal groupings, at about the same cultural development) refusing to amalgamate to any great extent, although living in the closest proximity for over a thousand years. in this struggle the arab seems so far to have had the advantage. instances of berberised arabs occur, but are extremely rare, whereas the berbers have not only everywhere accepted the koran, but whole tribes have become assimilated in speech, costume, and usages to the semitic intruders. it might therefore seem as if the arab must ultimately prevail. but we are assured by the french observers that in algeria and tunisia appearances are fallacious, however the case may stand in morocco and the sahara. "the arab," writes malbot, to whom i am indebted for some of these details, "an alien in mauretania, transported to a soil which does not always suit him, so far from thriving tends to disappear, whereas the berber, especially under the shield of france, becomes more and more aggressive, and yearly increases in numbers. at present he forms at least three-fifths of the population in algeria, and in morocco the proportion is greater. he is the race of the future as of the past[ ]." this however would seem to apply only to the races, not to their languages, for we are elsewhere told that arabic is encroaching steadily on the somewhat ruder berber dialects[ ]. considering the enormous space over which they are diffused, and the thousands of years that some of the groups have ceased to be in contact, these dialects show remarkably slight divergence from the long extinct speech from which all have sprung. whatever it be called--kabyle, zenatia, shawia, tamashek, shluh--the berber language is still essentially one, and the likeness between the forms current in morocco, algeria, the sahara, and the remote siwah oasis on the confines of egypt, is much closer, for instance, than between norse and english in the sub-aryan teutonic group[ ]. but when we cross the conventional frontier between the contiguous tuareg and tibu domains in the central sahara the divergence is so great that philologists are still doubtful whether the two languages are even remotely or are at all connected. ever since the abandonment of the generalisation of lepsius that hamitic and negro were the sole stock languages, the complexity of african linguistic problems has been growing more and more apparent, and tibu is only one among many puzzles, concerning which there is great discordance of opinion even among the most recent and competent authorities[ ]. the tibu themselves, apparently direct descendants of the ancient garamantes, have their primeval home in the tibesti range, _i.e._ the "rocky mountains," whence they take their name[ ]. there are two distinct sections, the northern _tedas_, a name recalling the _tedamansii_, a branch of the garamantes located by ptolemy somewhere between tripolitana and phazania (fezzan), and the southern _dazas_, through whom the tibu merge gradually in the negroid populations of central sudan. this intermingling with the blacks dates from remote times, whence ptolemy's remark that the garamantes seemed rather more "ethiopians" than libyans[ ]. but there can be no doubt that the full-blood tibu, as represented by the northern section, are mainly mediterranean, and although the type of the men is somewhat coarser than that of their tuareg neighbours, that of the women is almost the finest in africa. "their women are charming while still in the bloom of youth, unrivalled amongst their sisters of north africa for their physical beauty; pliant and graceful figures[ ]." it is interesting to notice amongst these somewhat secluded saharan nomads the slow growth of culture, and the curious survival of usages which have their explanation in primitive social conditions. "the tibu is always distrustful; hence, meeting a fellow-countryman in the desert he is careful not to draw near without due precaution. at sight of each other both generally stop suddenly; then crouching and throwing the litham over the lower part of the face in tuareg fashion, they grasp the inseparable spear in their right and the shanger-mangor, or bill-hook, in their left. after these preliminaries they begin to interchange compliments, inquiring after each other's health and family connections, receiving every answer with expressions of thanksgiving to allah. these formalities usually last some minutes[ ]." obviously all this means nothing more than a doffing of the hat or a shake-hands amongst more advanced peoples; but it points to times when every stranger was a _hostis_, who later became the _hospes_ (host, guest). it will be noticed that the tibu domain, with the now absolutely impassable libyan desert[ ], almost completely separates the mediterranean branch from the hamites proper. continuity, however, is accorded, both on the north along the shores of the mediterranean to the nile delta (lower egypt), and on the south through darfur and kordofan to the white nile, and thence down the main stream to upper egypt, and through abyssinia, galla and somali lands to the indian ocean. between the nile and the east coast the domain of the hamites stretches from the equator northwards to egypt and the mediterranean. it appears therefore that egypt, occupied for many thousands of years by an admittedly hamitic people, might have been reached either from the west by the mediterranean route, or down the nile, or, lastly, it maybe suggested that the hamites were specialised in the nile valley itself. the point is not easy to decide, because, when appeal is made to the evidence of the stone ages, we find nothing to choose between such widely separated regions as somaliland, upper egypt, and mauretania, all of which have yielded superabundant proofs of the presence of man for incalculable ages, estimated by some palethnologists at several hundred thousand years. in egypt the palaeoliths indicate not only extreme antiquity, but also that the course of civilisation was uninterrupted by any such crises as have afforded means of chronological classification in western europe. the differences in technique are local and geographical, not historic. the neolithic period tells the same tale, and the use of copper at the beginning of the historic period only slowly replaced the flint industry, which continued during the earlier dynasties down to the period of the middle empire and attained a degree of perfection nowhere surpassed. prehistoric pottery strengthens the evidence of a slow, gradual development, the newer forms nowhere jostling out the old, but co-existing side by side[ ]. it might seem therefore that the question of egyptian origins was settled by the mere statement of the case, and that there could be no hesitation in saying that the egyptian hamites were evolved on egyptian soil, consequently are the true autochthones in the nile valley. yet there is no ethnological question more hotly discussed than this of egyptian origins and culture, for the two seem inseparable. there are broadly speaking two schools: the african, whose fundamental views are thus briefly set forth, and the asiatic, which brings the egyptians with all their works from the neighbouring continent. but, seeing that the egyptians are now admitted to be hamites, that there are no hamites to speak of (let it be frankly said, none at all) in asia, and that they have for untold ages occupied large tracts of africa, there are several members of the asiatic school who allow that, not the people themselves, but their culture only came from western asia (mesopotamia). if so, this culture would presumably have its roots in the delta, which is first reached by the isthmus of suez from asia, and spread thence, say, from memphis up the nile to thebes and upper egypt, and here arises a difficulty. for at that time there was no delta[ ], or at least it was only in process of formation, a kind of debatable region between land and water, inhabitable mainly by crocodiles, and utterly unsuited to become the seat of a culture whose characteristic features are huge stone monuments, amongst the largest ever erected by man, and consequently needing solid foundations on _terra firma_. it further appears that although memphis is very old, thebes is much older, in other words, that egyptian culture began in upper egypt, and spread not up but down the nile. on the other hand the egyptians themselves looked upon the delta as the cradle of their civilisation, although no traces of material culture have survived, or could be expected to survive, in such a soil[ ]. moreover it is not necessary to introduce asiatic invaders by way of lower egypt. f. stuhlmann postulates a land connection between africa and arabia, but even without this assumption he regards the red sea as affording no hindrance to early infiltrations[ ]. flinders petrie, while rejecting any considerable water transport for the uncultured prehistoric egyptians (whom he derives from libya), detects a succession of subsequent invasions from asia, the dynastic race crossing the red sea to the neighbourhood of koptos, and syrian invasions leading to the civilisation of the twelfth dynasty, besides the later hyksos invasions of semito-babylonian stock[ ]. the theory of asiatic origins is clearly summed up by h. h. johnston[ ]. he regards the earliest inhabitants of egypt as a dwarfish negro-like race, not unlike the congo pygmies of to-day (p. ), with possibly some trace of bushman (p. ), but this population was displaced more than , years ago by mediterranean man, who may have penetrated as far as abyssinia, and may have been linguistically parent of the fulah[ ]. the fulah type was displaced by the invasions of the hamites and the libyans or berbers. "the hamites were no doubt of common origin, linguistically and racially, with the semites, and perhaps originated in that great breeding ground of conquering peoples, south-west asia. they preceded the semites, and (we may suppose) after a long stay and concentration in mesopotamia invaded and colonised arabia, southern palestine, egypt, abyssinia, somaliland and north africa to its atlantic shores. the dynastic egyptians were also hamites in a sense, both linguistically and physically; but they seem to have attained to a high civilisation in western arabia, to have crossed the red sea in vessels, and to have made their first base on the egyptian coast near berenice in the natural harbour formed by ras benas. from here a long, broad wadi or valley--then no doubt fertile--led them to the nile in the thebaid, the first seat of their kingly power[ ]. the ancestors of the dynastic egyptians may have originated the great dams and irrigation works in western arabia; and such long struggles with increasing drought may have first broken them in to the arts of quarrying stone blocks and building with stone. over population and increasing drought may have caused them to migrate across the red sea in search of another home; or their migration may have been partly impelled by the semitic hordes from the north, whom we can imagine at this period--some to , years ago--pressing southwards into arabia and conquering or fusing with the preceding hamites; just as these latter, no doubt, at an earlier day, had wrested arabia from the domain of the negroid and dravidian" (p. ). that the founding of the first dynasty was coincident with a physical change in the population, is proved by the thousands of skeletons and mummies examined by elliot smith[ ], who regards the pre-dynastic egyptians as "probably the nearest approximation to that anthropological abstraction, a pure race, that we know of (p. )." he describes the type as follows (chap. iv.). the proto-egyptian (_i.e._ pre-dynastic) was a man of small stature, his mean height, estimated at a little under ft. in., in the flesh for men, and almost ft. in the case of women, being just about the average for mankind in general, whereas the modern egyptian _fellah_ averages about ft. in. he was of very slender build with indications of poor muscular development. in fact there is a suggestion of effeminate grace and frailty about his bones, which is lacking in the more rugged outlines of the skeletons of his more virile successors. the hair of the proto-egyptian was precisely similar to that of the brunet south european or iberian people of the present day. it was a very dark brown or black colour, wavy or almost straight and sometimes curly, never "woolly." there can be no doubt whatever that this dark hair was associated with dark eyes and a bronzed complexion. elliot smith emphatically endorses sergi's identification of the ancient egyptian as belonging to his mediterranean race. "so striking is the family likeness between the early neolithic peoples of the british isles and the mediterranean and the bulk of the population, both ancient and modern, of egypt and east africa, that a description of the bones of an early briton might apply in all essential details to an inhabitant of somaliland." but he points out also that there is an equally close relationship linking the proto-egyptians with the populations to the east, from the red sea as far as india, including semites as well as hamites. rejecting the terms "mediterranean" or "hamite" as inadequate he would classify his mediterranean-hamite-semite group as the "brown race[ ]." a most fortunate combination of circumstances afforded elliot smith an opportunity for determining the ethnic affinities of the egyptian people. the hearst expedition of the university of california, under the direction of g. a. reisner, was occupied from onwards with excavations at naga-ed-dêr in the thebaid, where a cemetery, excavated by a. m. lythgoe, contained well-preserved bodies and skeletons of the earliest known pre-dynastic period. close by was a series of graves of the first and second dynasties; a few hundred yards away tombs of the second to the fifth dynasties (examined by a. c. mace), with a large number of tombs ranging from the time of the sixth dynasty to the twelfth. "thus there was provided a chronologically unbroken series of human remains representing every epoch in the history of upper egypt from prehistoric times, roughly estimated at b.c., up till the close of the middle empire, more than two thousand years later." to complete the story coptic (christian egyptian) graves of the fifth and sixth centuries were discovered on the same site. "the study of this extraordinarily complete series of human remains, providing in a manner such as no other site has ever done the materials for the reconstruction of the racial history of one spot during more than forty-five centuries, made it abundantly clear that the people whose remains were buried just before the introduction of islâm into egypt were of the same flesh and blood as their forerunners in the same locality before the dawn of history. and nine years' experience in the anatomical department of the school of medicine in cairo," continues elliot smith, "has left me in no doubt that the bulk of the present population in egypt conforms to precisely the same racial type, which has thus been dominant in the northern portion of the valley of the nile for sixty centuries[ ]." as early as the second dynasty certain alien traits began to appear, which became comparatively common in the sixth to twelfth series. the non-egyptian characters are observable in remains from numerous sites excavated by flinders petrie in lower and middle egypt, and are particularly marked in the cemetery round the giza pyramids (excavated by the hearst expedition, ), containing remains of more than five hundred individuals, who had lived at the time of the pyramid-builders; they are therefore referred to by elliot smith as "giza traits," and attributed to armenoid influence. soon after the amalgamation of the egyptian kingdoms of upper and lower egypt by menes (mena), consequent perhaps upon the discovery of copper and the invention of metal implements[ ], expeditions were sent beyond the frontiers of the united kingdom to obtain copper ore, wood and other objects. even in the times of the first dynasty the egyptians began the exploitation of the mines in the sinai peninsula for copper ore. it is claimed by meyer[ ] that palestine and the phoenician coast were egyptian dependencies, and there is ample evidence that there was intimate intercourse between egypt and palestine as far north as the lebanons before the end of the third dynasty. from this time forward the physical characters of the people of lower egypt show the results of foreign admixture, and present marked features of contrast to the pure type of upper egypt. the curious blending of characters suggests that the process of racial admixture took place in syria rather than in egypt itself[ ]. the alien type is best shown in the giza necropolis, and its representatives may be regarded as the builders and guardians of the pyramids. the stature is about the same as that of the proto-egyptians, possibly rather lower, but they were built on far sturdier lines, their bones being more massive, with well-developed muscular ridges and impressions, and none of the effeminacy or infantilism of the prehistoric skeletons. the brain-case has greater capacity with no trace of the meagre ill-filled character exhibited by the latter. characteristic peculiarities were the "grecian profile" and a jaw closely resembling those of the round-headed alpine races. these "giza traits" were not a local development, for they have been noted in all parts of palestine and asia minor, and abundantly in persia and afghanistan. they occur in the punjab but are absent from india, having an area of greatest concentration in the neighbourhood of the pamirs; while in a westerly direction, besides being sporadically scattered over north africa, they are recognised again in the extinct guanches of the canary islands. from these considerations elliot smith shapes the following "working hypothesis." "the egyptians, arabs and sumerians may have been kinsmen of the brown race, each diversely specialized by long residence in its own domain; and in pre-dynastic times, before the wider usefulness of copper as a military instrument of tremendous power was realized, the middle pre-dynastic phase of culture became diffused far and wide throughout arabia and sumer. then came the awakening to the knowledge of the supremacy which the possession of metal weapons conferred upon those who wielded them in combat against those not so armed. upper egypt vanquished lower egypt in virtue of this knowledge and the possession of such weapons. the united kingdom pushed its way into syria to obtain wood and ore, and incidentally taught the arabs the value of metal weapons. the arabs thereby obtained the supremacy over the armenoids of northern syria, and the hybrid race of semites formed from this blend were able to descend the euphrates and vanquish the more cultured sumerians, because the latter were without metal implements of war. the non-semitic armenoids of asia minor carried the new knowledge into europe[ ]." this hypothesis might explain some of the difficult problems connecting egypt and babylonia[ ]. the non-asiatic origin of the egyptian people appears to be indicated by recent excavations, but, as mentioned above, there are still many who hold that egyptian culture and civilisation were derived mainly, if not wholly, from asiatic (probably sumerian) sources. the semitic elements existing in the ancient egyptian language, certain resemblances between names of sumerian and egyptian gods, and the similarity of hieroglyphic characters to the sumerian system of writing have been cited as proofs of the dependence of the one culture upon the other; while the introduction of the knowledge of metals, metal-working and the crafts of brick-making and tomb construction have, together with the bulbous mace-head, cylinder-seal and domesticated animals and plants[ ], been traced to babylonia. but the excavations of reisner at naga-ed-dêr and those of naville at abydos ( - ) appear to place the indigenous development of egyptian culture beyond question. reisner's conclusions[ ] are that there was no sudden break of continuity between the neolithic and early dynastic cultures of egypt. no essential change took place in the egyptian conception of life after death, or in the rites and practices accompanying interment. the most noticeable changes, in the character of the pottery and household vessels, in the materials for tools and weapons and the introduction of writing, were all gradually introduced, and one period fades into another without any strongly marked line of division between them. egypt no doubt had trading relations with surrounding countries. egyptians and babylonians must have met in the markets of syria, and in the tents of bedouin chiefs. still, as meyer points out, far from egypt taking over a ready-made civilisation from babylonia, egypt, as regards cultural influence, was the giver not the receiver[ ]. one more alien element in egypt remains to be discussed. most writers on egyptian ethnology detect a negro or at least negroid element in the caucasoid population, and although usually assigning priority to the negro, assume the co-existence of the two races from time immemorial to the present day. measurements on more than individuals were made by c. s. myers, and these are his conclusions. "there is no anthropometric (despite the historic) evidence that the population of egypt, past or present, is composed of several different races. our new anthropometric data favour the view which regards the egyptians always as a homogeneous people, who have varied now towards caucasian, now towards negroid characters (according to environment), showing such close anthropometric affinity to libyan, arabian and like neighbouring peoples, showing such variability and possibly such power of absorption, that from the anthropometric standpoint no evidence is obtainable that the modern egyptians have been appreciably affected by other than sporadic sudanese admixture[ ]." it was seen above (chap. iii.) that non-negro elements are found throughout the sudan from senegal nearly to darfur, nowhere forming the whole of the population, but nearly always the dominant native race. these are the fulah (fula, fulbe or fulani), whose ethnic affinities have given rise to an enormous amount of speculation. their linguistic peculiarity had led many ethnologists to regard them as the descendants of the first white colonists of north africa, "caucasoid invaders," , years ago, prior to hamitic intrusions from the east[ ]. thus would be explained the fact that their language betrays absolutely no structural affinity with semitic or libyo-hamitic groups, or with any other speech families outside africa, though offering faint resemblances in structure with the lesghian[ ] speech of the caucasus and the dravidian tongues of baluchistan and india. physically there seems to be nothing to differentiate them from other blends[ ] of hamite-negro. the physical type of the pure-bred fulah h. h. johnston describes as follows: "tall of stature (but not gigantic, like the nilote and south-east sudanese), olive-skinned or even a pale yellow; well-proportioned, with delicate hands and feet, without steatopygy, with long, oval face, big nose (in men), straight nose in women (nose finely cut, like that of the caucasian), eyes large and "melting," with an egyptian look about them, head-hair long, black, kinky or ringlety, never quite straight[ ]." they were at first a quiet people, herdsmen and shepherds with a high and intricate type of pagan religion which still survives in parts of nigeria. but large numbers of them became converted to islam from the twelfth century onwards and gained some knowledge of the world outside africa by their pilgrimages to mecca. at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries an uprise of muhammadan fanaticism and a proud consciousness of their racial superiority to the mere negro armed them as an aristocracy to wrest political control of all nigeria from the hands of negro rulers or the decaying power of tuareg and songhai. this race was all unconsciously carrying on the caucasian invasion and penetration of africa. a less controversial problem is presented by the eastern hamites, who form a continuous chain of dark caucasic peoples from the mediterranean to the equator, and whose ethnical unity is now established by sergi on anatomical grounds[ ]. bordering on upper egypt, and extending thence to the foot of the abyssinian plateau, is the beja section, whose chief divisions--ababdeh, hadendoa, bisharin, beni amer--have from the earliest times occupied the whole region between the nile and the red sea. c. g. seligman has analysed the physical and cultural characters of the beja tribes (_bisharin_, _hadendoa_ and _beni amer_), the _barabra_, nomad arabs (such as the _kababish_ and _kawahla_), nilotes (_shilluk, dinka, nuer_) and half-hamites (_ba-hima, masai_), in an attempt by eliminating the negro and semitic elements to deduce the main features which may be held to indicate hamitic influence. he regards the _beni amer_ as approximating most closely to the original _beja_ type which he thus describes. "summarizing their physical characteristics it may be said that they are moderately short, slightly built men, with reddish-brown or brown skins in which a greater or less tinge of black is present, while in some cases the skin is definitely darker and presents some shade of brown-black. the hair is usually curly, in some instances it certainly might be described as wavy, but the method of hair dressing adopted tends to make difficult an exact description of its condition. often, as is everywhere common amongst wearers of turbans, the head is shaved.... the face is usually long and oval, or approaching the oval in shape, the jaw is often lightly built, which with the presence of a rather pointed chin may tend to make the upper part of the face appear disproportionately broad. the nose is well shaped and thoroughly caucasian in type and form[ ]." among the hadendoa the "armenoid" or so-called "jewish" nose is not uncommon. seligman draws attention to the close resemblance between the _beja_ type and that of the ancient egyptians. through the afars (danákil) of the arid coastlands between abyssinia and the sea, the bejas are connected with the numerous hamitic populations of the somali and galla lands. for the term "somal," which is quite recent and of course unknown to the natives, h. m. abud[ ] suggests an interesting and plausible explanation. being a hospitable people, and milk their staple food, "the first word a stranger would hear on visiting their kraals would be 'só mál,' _i.e._ 'go and bring milk.'" strangers may have named them from this circumstance, and other tribal names may certainly be traced to more improbable sources. the natives hold that two races inhabit the land: ( ) asha, true somals, of whom there are two great divisions, _dáród_ and _ishák_, both claiming descent from certain noble arab families, though no longer of arab speech; ( ) hÁwÍya, who are not counted by the others as true somals, but only "pagans," and also comprise two main branches, _aysa_ and _gadabursi_. in the national genealogies collected by abud and cox, many of the mythical heroes are buried at or near meit, which may thus be termed the cradle of the somal race. from this point they spread in all directions, the dáróds pushing south and driving the galla beyond the webbe shebel, and till lately raiding them as far as the tana river. it should be noticed that these genealogical tables are far from complete, for they exclude most of the southern sections, notably the _rahanwín_ who have a very wide range on both sides of the jub. in the statements made by the natives about true somals and "pagans," race and religion are confused, and the distinction between asha and háwíya is merely one between moslem and infidel. the latter are probably of much purer stock than the former, whose very genealogies testify to interminglings of the moslem arab intruders with the heathen aborigines. despite their dark colour c. keller[ ] has no difficulty in regarding the somali as members of the "caucasic race." the semitic type crops out decidedly in several groups, and they are generally speaking of fine physique, well grown, with proud bearing and often with classic profile, though the type is very variable owing to arab and negro grafts on the hamitic stock. the hair is never woolly, but, like that of the beja, ringlety and less thick than the abyssinian and galla, sometimes even quite straight. the forehead is finely rounded and prominent, eye moderately large and rather deep-set, nose straight, but also snub and aquiline, mouth regular, lips not too thick, head sub-dolichocephalic. great attention has been paid to all these eastern hamitic peoples by ph. paulitschke[ ], who regards the galla as both intellectually and morally superior to the somals and afars, the chief reason being that the baneful influences exercised by the arabs and abyssinians affect to a far greater extent the two latter than the former group. the galla appear to have reached the african coast before the danákil and somali, but were driven south-east by pressure from the latter, leaving galla remnants as serfs among the southern somali, while the presence of servile negroid tribes among the galla gives proof of an earlier population which they partially displaced. subsequent pressure from the masai on the south forced the galla into contact with the danákil, and a branch penetrating inland established themselves on the north and east of victoria nyanza, where they are known to-day as the ba-hima, wa-tusi, wa-ruanda and kindred tribes, which have been described on p. . the masai, the terror of their neighbours, are a mixture of galla and nilotic negro, producing what has been described as the finest type in africa. the build is slender and the height often over six feet, the face is well formed, with straight nose and finely cut nostrils, the hair is usually frizzly, and the skin dark or reddish brown. they are purely pastoral, possessing enormous herds of cattle in which they take great pride, but they are chiefly remarkable for their military organisation which was hardly surpassed by that of the zulu. they have everywhere found in the agricultural peoples an easy prey, and until the reduction of their wealth by rinderpest (since ) and the restraining influence of the white man, the masai were regarded as an ever-dreaded scourge by all the less warlike inhabitants of eastern africa[ ]. amongst the abyssinian hamites we find the strangest interminglings of primitive and more advanced religious ideas. on a seething mass of african heathendom, already in pre-historic times affected by early semitic ideas introduced by the himyarites from south arabia, was somewhat suddenly imposed an undeveloped form of christianity by the preaching of frumentius in the fourth century, with results that cannot be called satisfactory. while the heterogeneous ethnical elements have been merged in a composite abyssinian nationality, the discordant religious ideas have never yet been fused in a consistent uniform system. hence "abyssinian christianity" is a sort of by-word even amongst the eastern churches, while the social institutions are marked by elementary notions of justice and paradoxical "shamanistic" practices, interspersed with a few sublime moral precepts. many things came as a surprise to the members of the rennell rodd mission[ ], who could not understand such a strange mixture of savagery and lofty notions in a christian community which, for instance, accounted accidental death as wilful murder. the case is mentioned of a man falling from a tree on a friend below and killing him. "he was adjudged to perish at the hands of the bereaved family, in the same manner as the corpse. but the family refused to sacrifice a second member, so the culprit escaped." dreams also are resorted to, as in the days of the pharaohs, for detecting crime. a priest is sent for, and if his prayers and curses fail, a small boy is drugged and told to dream. "whatever person he dreams of is fixed on as the criminal; no further proof is needed.... if the boy does not dream of the person whom the priest has determined on as the criminal, he is kept under drugs until he does what is required of him." to outsiders society seems to be a strange jumble of an iron despotism, which forbids the selling of a horse for over £ under severe penalties, and a personal freedom or licence, which allows the labourer to claim his wages after a week's work and forthwith decamp to spend them, returning next day or next month as the humour takes him. yet somehow things hold together, and a few semitic immigrants from south arabia have for over years contrived to maintain some kind of control over the hamitic aborigines who have always formed the bulk of the population in abyssinia[ ]. footnotes: [ ] _the races of europe: a sociological study_, w. z. ripley, , p. . [ ] "diese namen sind natürlich rein conventionell. sie sind historisch berechtigt ... und mögen geltung behalten, so lange wir keine zutrefferenden an ihre stelle setzen können" (_anthropologische studien_, etc., p. ). [ ] e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, , l. , discussing the original home of the indo-europeans (§ , _das problem der heimat und ausbreitung der indogermanen_) remarks (p. ) that the discovery of tocharish (sieg und siegling, "tocharish, die sprache der indo-skythen," _sitz. d. berl. ak._ , p. ff.), a language belonging apparently to the _centum_ (western and european) group, overthrows all earlier conceptions as to the distribution of the indogermans and gives weight to the hypothesis of their asiatic origin. [ ] "io non dubito di denominare _aria_ questa stirpe etc." (_umbri_, _italici_, _arii_, bologna, , p. , and elsewhere). [ ] _anthrop. studien_, p. , "diese gemeinsamkeit der charakteren beweist uns die blutverwandtschaft" (_ib._). [ ] sir w. crooke's anticipation of a possible future failure of the wheat supply as affecting the destinies of the caucasic peoples (_presidential address at meeting br. assoc._ bristol, ) is an economic question which cannot here be discussed. [ ] ph. lake, "the geology of the sahara," in _science progress_, july, . [ ] this name, meaning in berber "running water," has been handed down from a time when the igharghar was still a mighty stream with a northerly course of some miles, draining an area of many thousand square miles, in which there is not at present a single perennial brooklet. it would appear that even crocodiles still survive from those remote times in the so-called lake miharo of the tassili district, where von bary detected very distinct traces of their presence in . a. e. pease also refers to a frenchman "who had satisfied himself of the existence of crocodiles cut off in ages long ago from watercourses that have disappeared" (_contemp. review_, july, ). [ ] _recherches sur les origines de l'egypte: l'age de la pierre et des métaux_, . [ ] _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. . this indefatigable explorer remarks, in reference to the continuity of human culture in tunisia throughout the old and new stone ages, that "ces populations fortement mélangées d'éléments néanderthaloïdes de la kromirie fabriquent encore des vases de tous points analogues à la poterie néolithique" (_ib._). [ ] _the antiquity of man_, , p. . [ ] _africa, antropologia della stirpe camitica_, turin, , p. sq. [ ] "le nord de l'afrique entière, y compris le sahara naguère encore fort peuplé," _i.e._ of course relatively speaking, "du dniester à la caspienne," in _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. sq. [ ] _ibid._ p. sq. [ ] _résumé de l'anthropologie de la tunisie_, , p. sq. [ ] this identity is confirmed by the characters of three skulls from the dolmens of madracen near batna, algeria, now in the constantine museum, found by letourneau and papillaut to present striking affinities with the long-headed cro-magnon race (ceph. index , , ); leptoprosope with prominent glabella, notable alveolar prognathism, and sub-occipital bone projecting chignon-fashion at the back (_bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. ). [ ] he shows ("exploration anthropologique de l'ile de gerba," in _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq.) that the north african brown brachycephalics, forming the substratum in mauretania, and very pure in gerba, resemble the european populations the more they have avoided contact with foreign races. he quotes h. martin: "le type brun qui domine dans la grande kabylie du jurjura ressemble singulièrement en majorité au type français brun. si l'on habillait ces hommes de vêtements européens, vous ne les distingueriez pas de paysans ou de soldats français." he compares them especially to the bretons, and agrees with martin that "il y a parmi les berbères bruns des brachycéphales; je croirais volontiers que les brachycéphales bruns sont des ligures. libyens et ligures paraissent avoir été originairement de la même race." he thinks the very names are the same: "[greek: libyes] est exactement le même mot que [greek: ligyes]; rien n'était plus fréquent dans les dialectes primitifs que la mutation du _b_ en _g_." [ ] _the races of europe_, , _passim._ [ ] "les chaouias," etc., in _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] _ueber eine schädelsammlung von den kanarischen inseln_, with f. von luschan's appendix; also "ueber die urbewohner der kanarischen inseln," in _bastian-festschrift_, , p. . the inferences here drawn are in substantial agreement with those of henry wallack, in his paper on "the guanches," in _journ. anthr. inst._ june, , p. sq.; and also with j. c. shrubsall, who, however, distinguishes four pre-spanish types from a study of numerous skulls and other remains from tenerife in _proc. cambridge phil. soc._ ix. - . the cave skulls measured by von detloff von behr, _metrische studien an guanchenschädeln_, , agree in the main with earlier results. [ ] for an interpretation of the significance of armenoid skulls in the canary is. see g. elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , pp. - . [ ] "dénombrement et types des crânes néolithiques de la gaule," in _rev. mens. de l'École d'anthrop._ . [ ] t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , p. . [ ] "infiltrazioni pacifiche." (_arii e italici_, p. .) [ ] _l'anthr._ xii. , pp. - . [ ] cf. g. elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , p. ff. [ ] t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. , with list of authorities. see also sigmund feist, _kultur_, _ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , p. , and h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , pp. and . [ ] t. rice holmes, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] w. wright, _middlesex hospital journal_, xii. , p. . [ ] see a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , pp. , , . [ ] r. s. conway, _the italic dialects_, , and art. "etruria: language," _ency. brit._ . [ ] cf. t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. . "the truth is that linguistic data are insufficient." [ ] i. . [ ] see p. . [ ] for lydian see e. littmann, _sardis_, "lydian inscriptions," , briefly summarised by p. giles, "some notes on the new lydian inscriptions," _camb. univ. rep._ , p. . [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , p. . [ ] "the attempts to connect the language with the indo-european family have been unsuccessful," a. h. sayce, art. "lycia," _ency. brit._ . but cf. also s. feist, _loc. cit._ pp. - ; and th. kluge, _die lykier, ihre geschichte und ihre inschriften_, . [ ] a. j. evans, _scripta minoa_, . [ ] t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. _n._ . [ ] _die verwandtschaft des baskischen mit den berbersprachen nord-afrikas nachgewiesen_, . [ ] "die sprachen waren mit einander verwandt, das stand ausser zweifel." (pref. iv.) [ ] j. vinson (_rev. de linguistique_, xxxviii. , p. ) says, "no more absurd book on basque has appeared of late years." see t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. _n._ . [ ] "in the general series of organised linguistic families it [basque] would take an intermediate place between the american on the one side and the ugro-altaic or ugrian on the other." wentworth webster and julien vinson, _ency. brit._ , "basques." [ ] see w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , chap. viii. "the basques," pp. - . [ ] _rev. mensuelle de l'École d'anthr._ x. , pp. - . [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, . [ ] _hist. de la gaule_, i. , p. . [ ] "la race basque," _l'anthrop._ . [ ] w. z. ripley, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. . cf. j. déchelette (_manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , p. ), "as a rule it is wise to attach to this expression (iberian) merely a geographical value." reviewing the problems of iberian origins (which he considers remain unsolved), he quotes as an example of their range, the opinion of c. jullian (_revue des Études anciennes_, , p. ), "there is no iberian race. the iberians were a state constituted at latest towards the th century, in the valley of the ebro, which received, either from strangers or from the indigenous peoples, the name of the river as _nom de guerre_." [ ] j. vinson (_rev. de linguistique_, xl. , pp. , ) divides the iberian inscriptions into three groups, each of which, he believes, represents a different language. [ ] _the mediterranean race_, . [ ] _dict. des sc. anthr._ p. , and _rev. de l'École d'anthr._ xvii. , p. . [ ] _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , p. . [ ] _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , p. _n._, see also p. for archaeological proofs of "ethnographic distinctions." [ ] _hist. de la gaule_, i. chap. iv. the author makes it clear, however, that his "ligurians" are not necessarily an ethnic unit, "de l'unité de nom, ne concluons pas à l'unité de race" ( ), and later (p. ), "ne considérons donc pas les ligures comme les représentants uniformes d'une race déterminée. ils sont la population qui habitait l'europe occidentale avant les invasions connues des celtes ou des Étrusques, avant la naissance des peuples latin ou ibère. ils ne sont pas autre chose." [ ] _gaule av. gaulois_, p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. _n._ i. [ ] _early age of greece_, , p. ff., and "who were the romans?" _proc. brit. acad._ iii. , , p. . [ ] see r. s. conway, art. "liguria," _ency. brit._ . it may be noted, however, as feist points out (_ausbreitung und herkunft des indogermanen_, , p. ), this hypothesis rests on slight foundations ("ruht auf schwachen füßen"). [ ] _arii e italici_, p. . [ ] _corresbl. d. d. ges. f. anthrop._, feb. , p. . [ ] yet ligurians are actually planted on the north atlantic coast of spain by s. sempere y miguel (_revista de ciencias historicas_, i. v. ). [ ] _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , p. . [ ] _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. . [ ] "la civilisation primitive dans la sicilie orientale," in _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq.; and p. sq. [ ] _præhistorische studien aus sicilien_, quoted by patroni. [ ] p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] it may be mentioned that while penka makes the siculi illyrians from upper italy ("zur paläoethnologie mittel-u. südeuropas," in _wiener anthrop. ges._ , p. ), e. a. freeman holds that they were not only aryans, but closely akin to the romans, speaking "an undeveloped latin," or "something which did not differ more widely from latin than one dialect of greek differed from another" (_the history of sicily_, etc., i. p. ). on the siculi and sicani, see e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, , i. , p. , also art. "sicily, history," _ency. brit._ . déchelette (_manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, ii. , p. ) suggests that sikelos or siculus, the eponymous hero of sicily, may have been merely the personification of the typical ligurian implement, the bronze _sickle_ (lat. secula, sicula). [ ] i. . [ ] vi. . [ ] _parte i. dati antropologici ed etnologici_, rome, . [ ] p. . [ ] _atti soc. rom. d' antrop._ , pp. and . [ ] cf. w. z. ripley, "racial geography of europe," _pop. sci. monthly_, new york, - , and _the races of europe_, , pp. , . [ ] _arii e italici_, p. . hence for these italian ligurians he claims the name of "italici," which he refuses to extend to the aryan intruders in the peninsula. "a questi primi abitatori spetta legittimamente il nome di italici, non a popolazioni successive [aryan umbrians], che avrebbero sloggiato i primi abitanti" (p. ). the result is a little confusing, "italic" being now the accepted name of the italian branch of the aryan linguistic family, and also commonly applied to the aryans of this italic speech, although the word _italia_ itself may have been indigenous (ligurian) and not introduced by the aryans. it would perhaps be better to regard "italia" as a "geographical expression" applicable to all its inhabitants, whatever their origin or speech. [ ] _science progress_, july, . it will be noticed that the facts, accepted by all, are differently interpreted by beddoe and sergi, the latter taking the long-headed element in north italy as the aboriginal (ligurian), modified by the later intrusion of round-headed aryan slavs, teutons, and especially kelts, while beddoe seems to regard the broad-headed alpine as the original, afterwards modified by intrusive long-headed types "germanic, slavic, or of doubtful origin." either view would no doubt account for the present relations; but sergi's study of the prehistoric remains (see above) seems to compel acceptance of his explanation. from the statistics an average height of not more than ft. in. results for the whole of italy. [ ] for the identification of the mediterranean race in greece with the pelasgians, see w. ridgeway, _early age of greece_, i. , though ripley contends (_the races of europe_, , p. ), "positively no anthropological data on the matter exist." [ ] [greek: to tôn pelasgôn genos hellênikon.] [ ] i. . [ ] _il._ x. ; _od._ xix. . [ ] "we recognize in the pelasgi an ancient and honourable race, ante-hellenic, it is true, but distinguished from the hellenes only in the political and social development of their age.... herodotus and others take a prejudiced view when, reasoning back from the subsequent tyrrhenian pelasgi, they call the ancient pelasgians a rude and worthless race, their language barbarous, and their deities nameless. numerous traditionary accounts, of undoubted authenticity, describe them as a brave, moral, and honourable people, which was less a distinct stock and tribe, than a race united by a resemblance in manners and the forms of life" (w. wachsmuth, _the historical antiquities of the greeks_, etc., engl. ed. , i. p. ). remarkable words to have been written before the recent revelations of archaeology in hellas. [ ] that the two cultures went on for a long time side by side is evident from the different social institutions and religious ideas prevailing in different parts of hellas during the strictly historic period. [ ] [greek: kata tên hellada pasan epepolase] (strabo, v. ). this might almost be translated, "they flooded the whole of greece." [ ] _early age of greece_, , chaps. i. and ii. [ ] _od._ xix. [ ] thuc. i. . [ ] this idea of an independent evolution of western (european) culture is steadily gaining ground, and is strenuously advocated, amongst others, by m. salomon reinach, who has made a vigorous attack on what he calls the "oriental mirage," _i.e._ the delusion which sees nothing but asiatic or egyptian influences everywhere. sergi of course goes further, regarding the mediterranean (iberian, ligurian, pelasgian) cultures not only as local growths, but as independent both of asiatics and of the rude aryan hordes, who came rather as destroyers than civilisers. this is one of the fundamental ideas pervading the whole of his _arii e italici_, and some earlier writings. [ ] pausanias, iii. . . [ ] g. sergi, _the mediterranean race_, . in the main he is supported by philologists. "the languages of the indigenous peoples throughout asia minor and the aegean area are commonly believed to have been non-indo-european." h. m. chadwick, _the heroic age_, , p. n. [ ] w. ridgeway, _the early age of greece_, , p. ff. [ ] _the dawn of history_, , p. . for his views on pelasgians, see _journ. hell. st._ , p. , and the art. "pelasgians" in _ency. brit._ . [ ] e. petersen and f. von luschan, _reisen in lykien_, . [ ] w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, p. ff. the map (facing p. ) does not include greece, and the grouping is based on language, not race. [ ] the mykenaean skull found by bent at antiparos is described as "abnormally dolichocephalic." w. ridgeway, _early age of greece_, i. , p. . [ ] but in ridgeway's view the "classical hellenes" were descendants of tall fair-haired invaders from the north, and in this he has the concurrence of j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, , p. . [ ] _mitt. d. k. d. inst. athen._ xxx. see h. r. hall, _ancient history of the near east_, , pp. - . [ ] _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , § . [ ] for a discussion of the meaning of "pelasgic argos" see h. m. chadwick, _the heroic age_, , pp. ff. and - , and for his criticism of meyer, p. . [ ] but see w. ridgeway, _early age of greece_, i. , p. ff. [ ] art. "indo-european languages," _ency. brit._ . [ ] r. s. conway, art. "aegean civilisation," in _ency. brit._ , whence this summary is derived, including the chronology, which is not in all respects universally adopted (see p. ). for a full discussion of the chronology see j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, vol. ii. , _archéologie celtique ou protohistorique_, ch. ii. § v. chronologie égéenne, p. ff. [ ] in his valuable and comprehensive work, _africa: antropologia della stirpe camitica_, turin, . it must not be supposed that this classification is unchallenged. t. a. joyce, "hamitic races and languages," _ency. brit._ , points out that it is impossible to prove the connection between the eastern and northern hamites. the former have a brown skin, with frizzy hair, and are nomadic or semi-nomadic pastors; the latter, whom he would call not hamites at all, but the libyan variety of the mediterranean race, are a white people, with curly hair, and their purest representatives, the berbers, are agriculturalists. for the fullest and most recent treatment of the subject see the monumental work of oric bates, _the eastern libyans: an essay_, , with bibliography. [ ] "les maures du sénégal," _l'anthropologie_, , p. sq. [ ] that is, the _sanhaja-an litham_, those who wear the _litham_ or veil, which is needed to protect them from the sand, but has now acquired religious significance, and is never worn by the "moors." [ ] p. . [ ] see f. stuhlmann's invaluable work on african culture and race distribution, _handwerk und industrie in ostafrika_, , especially the map showing the distribution of the hamites, pl. ii. b. [ ] the kababish and baggara tribes, chief mainstays of former sudanese revolts, claim to be of unsullied arab descent with long fictitious pedigrees going back to early muhammadan times (see p. ). [ ] "les chaouias," _l'anthropologie_, , p. . [ ] p. . [ ] the words collected by sir h. h. johnston at dwirat in tunis show a great resemblance with the language of the saharan tuaregs, and the sheikh of that place "admitted that his people could understand and make themselves understood by those fierce nomads, who range between the southern frontier of algeria and tunis and the sudan" (_geogr. jour._, june, , p. ). [ ] cf. meinhof, _die moderne sprachforschung in africa_, . [ ] _ti-bu_ = "rock people"; cf. _kanem-bu_ = "kanem people," southernmost branch of the family on north side of lake chad. [ ] [greek: ontôn de kai autôn êdê mallon aithiopôn] (i. ). i take [greek: êdê], which has caused some trouble to commentators, here to mean that, as you advance southwards from the mediterranean seaboard, you find yourself on entering garamantian territory already rather amongst ethiopians than libyans. [ ] reclus, eng. ed. vol. xi. p. . for the complicated ancestral mixture producing the tibu see sir h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. . [ ] reclus, eng. ed. vol. xi. p. . [ ] from the enormous sheets of tuffs near the kharga oasis zettel, geologist of g. rohlf's expedition in , considered that even this sandy waste might have supported a rich vegetation in quaternary times. [ ] see _histoire de la civilisation Égyptienne_, g. jéquier, , p. ff. also, concerning pottery, e. naville, "the origin of egyptian civilisation," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. , p. . [ ] the egyptians themselves had a tradition that when menes moved north he found the delta still under water. the sea reached almost as far as the fayum, and the whole valley, except the thebais, was a malarious swamp (herod. ii. ). thus late into historic times memories still survived that the delta was of relatively recent formation, and that the _retu_ (_romitu_ of the pyramid texts, later _rotu_, _romi_, etc.) had already developed their social system before the lower nile valley was inhabitable. hence whether the nile took , years (schweinfurth) or over , , as others hold, to fill in its estuary, the beginning of the egyptian prehistoric period must still be set back many millenniums before the new era. "ce que nous savons du sahara, lui-même alors sillonné de rivières, atteste qu'il [the delta] ne devait pas être habitable, pas être constitué à l'époque quaternaire" (m. zaborowski, _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. ). [ ] g. jéquier, _histoire de la civilisation Égyptienne_, , p. , but see e. naville, "the origin of egyptian civilisation," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. , p. . [ ] _handwerk und industrie in ostafrika_, , p. . [ ] "migrations," _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. . [ ] "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. . [ ] see p. below. [ ] for an alternative route see e. naville, "the origin of egyptian civilisation," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. , p. ; j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, , pp. - , also p. , and the criticism of elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , pp. - . [ ] _the ancient egyptians_, . [ ] _the ancient egyptians_, , pp. , , . [ ] _the ancient egyptians_, , pp. - . [ ] g. elliot smith, _loc. cit._ pp. and . [ ] e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , §§ , , . [ ] g. elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , p. , but for a different interpretation see j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, pp. and . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] h. r. hall (_the ancient history of the near east_, , p. _n._ ) sees "no resemblance whatever between the facial traits of the memphite grandees of the old kingdom and those of hittites, syrians, or modern anatolians, armenians or kurds. they were much more like south europeans, like modern italians or cretans." [ ] cf. h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. soc._ xliii. , p. , and also e. naville, "the origin of egyptian civilisation," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. , p. . [ ] g. a. reisner, "the early dynastic cemeteries of naga-ed-dêr," part . vol. ii. of _university of california publications_, , summarised by l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , pp. , . [ ] _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , p. . [ ] _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxiii. , xxxv. , xxxvi. , and _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxviii. . [ ] cf. h. h. johnston, "a survey of the ethnography of africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. . [ ] no physical affinity is suggested. the lesghian tribes "betray an accentuated brachycephaly, equal to that of the pure mongols about the caspians." w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, p. . [ ] j. deniker, _the races of man_, , p. , places the fulahs in a separate group, the fulah-zandeh group. cf. also a. c. haddon, _the wanderings of peoples_, , p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ p. _n._ [ ] _africa_, , _passim_. [ ] "some aspects of the hamitic problem in the anglo-egyptian sudan," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliii. , p. . see also c. crossland, _desert and water gardens of the red sea_, . [ ] _genealogies of the somal_, . [ ] "reisestudien in den somaliländern," _globus_, lxx. p. sq. [ ] _ethnographie nord-ost-afrikas: die geistige kultur der danákil, galla u. somâl_, , vols. [ ] m. merker, _die masai_, ; a. c. hollis, _the masai, their language and folklore_, . c. dundas, "the organization and laws of some bantu tribes in east africa," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlv. , pp. - , thinks that the power of the masai was over-rated, and that the galla were really a fiercer race. he quotes krapf, "give me the galla and i have central africa." the _nandi_ (an allied tribe) are described by a. c. hollis, , and _the suk_ by m. w. h. beech, . [ ] a. e. w. gleichen, _rennell rodd's mission to menelik_, . [ ] among recent works on abyssinia may be mentioned a. b. wylde, _modern abyssinia_, ; h. weld blundell, "a journey through abyssinia," _geog. journ._ xv. , and "exploration in the abai basin," _ib._ xxvii. ; the _anthropological survey of abyssinia_ published by the french government in ; and various publications of the princeton university expedition to abyssinia, edited by e. littmann. chapter xiv the caucasic peoples (_continued_) the semites--cradle, origins, and migrations--divisions: semitic migrations--babylonia, people and civilisation--assyria, people and civilisation--syria and palestine--_canaanites_: _amorites_: _phoenicians_--_the jews_--origins--early and later dispersions-- diverse physical types--present range and population-- the hittites--conflicting theories--_the arabs_--spread of the arab race and language--semitic monotheism--its evolution. the himyaritic immigrants, who still hold sway in a foreign land, have long ceased to exist as a distinct nationality in their own country, where they had nevertheless ages ago founded flourishing empires, centres of one of the very oldest civilisations of which there is any record. should future research confirm the now generally received view that hamites and semites are fundamentally of one stock, a view based both on physical and linguistic data[ ], the cradle of the semitic branch will also probably be traced to south arabia, and more particularly to that south-western region known to the ancients as arabia felix, _i.e._ the yemen of the arabs. while asia and africa were still partly separated in the north by a broad marine inlet before the formation of the nile delta, easy communication was afforded between the two continents farther south at the head of the gulf of aden, where they are still almost contiguous. by this route the primitive hamito-semitic populations may have moved either westwards into africa, or, as has also been suggested, eastwards into asia, where in the course of ages the semitic type became specialised. on this assumption south arabia would necessarily be the first home of the semites, who in later times spread thence north and east. they appear as _babylonians_ and _assyrians_ in mesopotamia; as _phoenicians_ on the syrian coast; as _arabs_ on the nejd steppe; as _canaanites_, _moabites_ and others in and about palestine; as _amorites_ (_aramaeans, syrians_) in syria and asia minor. this is the common view of semitic origins and early migrations, but as practically no systematic excavations have been possible in arabia, owing to political conditions and the attitude of the inhabitants, definite archaeological or anthropological proofs are still lacking. the hypothesis would, however, seem to harmonise well with all the known conditions. in the first place is to be considered the very narrow area occupied by the semites, both absolutely and relatively to the domains of the other fundamental ethnical groups. while the mongols are found in possession of the greater part of asia, and the hamites with the mediterraneans are diffused over the whole of north africa, south and west europe since the stone ages, the semites, excluding later expansions--himyarites to abyssinia, phoenicians to the shores of the mediterranean, moslem arabs to africa, irania, and transoxiana--have always been confined to the south-west corner of asia, comprising very little more than the arabian peninsula, mesopotamia, syria, and (doubtfully) parts of asia minor. moreover the whole mental outlook of the semites, their mode of thought, their religion and organisation, indicate their derivation from a desert people; while in arabia are found at the present time the purest examples not only of semitic type, but also of semitic speech[ ]. their early history, however, as pointed out above, still awaits the spade of the archaeologist, and the earliest migrations that can be definitely traced are in the form of invasions of already established states[ ]. the first great wave of semitic migration from arabia is placed in the fourth millennium b.c., to or earlier; it affected babylonia and probably syria and palestine, judging from the palestinian place-names belonging to this "babylonian-semitic" period, and the close connection between palestine and babylonia in culture and in religious ideas, indicating prehistoric relationship[ ]. a second wave, winckler's canaanitic or amoritic migration, followed in the third millennium, covering babylonia, laying the foundations of the assyrian empire, invading syria and palestine (phoenicians, amorites) and possibly later egypt (_hyksos_). a third wave, the aramaean, which spread over babylonia, mesopotamia and syria in the second millennium, was preceded by the swarming into syria from the desert of the khabiri (habiru) or hebrews (edomites, moabites, ammonites and israelites among others). from the same area the suti pressed into babylonia about , followed by another branch, the chaldeans from eastern arabia. these are but a few of the earlier waves of migration from the south of which traces can be detected in western asia. of all invasions from the north, that of the hittites is the most important and the most confusing. the hittites appear to have moved south from cappadocia about b.c., and they are found warring against babylonia in the eighteenth century. a hittite dynasty flourished at mittanni - and in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries they conquered and largely occupied syria[ ]. invasions of phrygians and philistines from the west followed the breaking up of the hittite empire. the last great semitic migration was the most widespread of all. "it issued, like its predecessors, along the whole margin of the desert, and in the course of a century had flooded not only syria and egypt, but all north africa and spain; it had occupied sicily, raided constance, and in france was only checked at poitiers in . eastward it flooded persia, founded an empire in india, and carried war and commerce by sea past singapore[ ]." "thus western asia has been swept times and again, almost without number, by conquering hordes and the no less severe ethnical disturbances of peaceful infiltrations converging from every point of the compass in turn.... how, then, is it possible to learn anything today from the contents of this cauldron, filled with such an assortment of ingredients and still seething from the effects of the disturbance incidental to the harsh mixing of such incompatible elements[ ]?" some of the problems must for the present be regarded as insoluble, but with the evidence provided by archaeologists and anthropologists an attempt may be made to read the ethnological history in these obscure regions. the earliest semitic wave was traceable in babylonia, but, as seen above, opinions differ as to its origin and date. "at what period the semites first invaded babylonia, when and where they first attained supremacy, are not yet matters of history. we find semites in the land and in possession of considerable power almost as early as we can go back[ ]." the characteristic semitic features are clearly marked, and the language is closely connected with canaanitic and assyrian[ ]. from the monuments we learn that the babylonian semites had full beards and wore their hair long, contrasting sharply with the shaven sumerians, and thus gaining the epithet "the black-headed ones." in nose and lips, as in dress, they are clearly distinct from the sumerian type[ ]. when history commences, the inhabitants of babylonia were already highly civilised. they lived in towns, containing great temples, and were organised in distinct classes or occupations, and possessed much wealth in sheep and cattle, manufactured goods, gold, silver and copper. engraving on metals and precious stones, statuary, architecture, pottery, weaving and embroidery, all show a high level of workmanship. they possessed an elaborate and efficient system of writing, extensively used and widely understood, consisting of a number of signs, obviously descended from a form of picture writing, but conventionalised to an extent that usually precludes the recognition of the original pictures. this writing was made by the impression of a stylus on blocks or cakes of fine clay while still quite soft. these "tablets" were sun-dried, but occasionally baked hard. this cuneiform writing was adopted by, or was common to, many neighbouring nations, being freely used in elam, armenia and northern mesopotamia as far as cappadocia. assyrian culture was founded upon that of babylonia, but the assyrians appear to have differed from the babylonians in character, though not in physical type[ ], while they were closely related in speech. "the assyrians differed markedly from the babylonians in national character. they were more robust, warlike, fierce, than the mild industrial people of the south. it is doubtful if they were much devoted to agriculture or distinguished for manufactures, arts and crafts. they were essentially a military folk. the king was a despot at home, but the general of the army abroad. the whole organisation of the state was for war. the agriculture was left to serfs or slaves. the manufactures, weaving at any rate, were done by women. the guilds of workmen were probably foreigners, as the merchants mostly were. the great temples and palaces, walls and moats, were constructed by captives.... for the greater part of its existence assyria was the scourge of the nations and sucked the blood of other races. it lived on the tribute of subject states, and conquest ever meant added tribute in all necessaries and luxuries of life, beside an annual demand for men and horses, cattle and sheep, grain and wool to supply the needs of the army and the city[ ]." the early history of syria and palestine is by no means clear, although much light has been shed in recent years by the excavations of r. a. s. macalister at gezer[ ], where remains were found of a pre-semitic race, of ernst sellin at tell ta'anek and jericho[ ], and the labours of the _deutscher palästina-verein_ and especially g. schumacher at megiddo[ ]. caves apparently occupied by man in the neolithic period were discovered at gezer, and are dated at about to b.c. from their position below layers in which egyptian scarabs appear. fragments of bones give indications of the physical type. none of the individuals exceeded ft. inches ( . m.) in height, and most were under ft. inches ( . m.). they were muscular, with elongated crania and thick heavy skull-bones. from their physical characters it could be clearly seen that they did not belong to the semitic race. they burned their dead, a non-semitic custom, a cave being fitted up as a crematorium, with a chimney cut up through the solid rock to secure a good draught[ ]. the first great influx of semitic nomads is conjectured to have reached babylonia, not from the south, but from the north-west, after traversing the syrian coast lands. they left colonists behind them in this region, who afterwards as the amurru (amorites) pressed on in their turn into babylonia and established the earliest independent dynasty in babylon[ ]. the second great wave of semitic migration appears to have included the phoenicians[ ], so called by the greeks, though they called themselves canaanites and their land canaan[ ], and are referred to in the old testament, as in inscriptions at tyre, as "sidonians." they themselves had a tradition that their early home was on the persian gulf, a view held by theodore bent and others[ ], and recent discoveries emphasise the close cultural (not necessarily racial) connection between palestine and babylonia[ ]. the weakening of egyptian hold upon palestine about the fourteenth century b.c. encouraged incursions of restless habiru (habiri) from the syrian deserts, commonly identified with the hebrews, and invasions of hittites from the north. in the thirteenth century egypt recovered palestine, leaving the hittites in possession of syria. about this time the coast was invaded by levantines, including the purasati, in whom may perhaps be recognised the philistines, who gave their name to palestine[ ]. with the hebrew or israelitish inhabitants of south syria (canaan, palestine, "land of promise") we are here concerned only in so far as they form a distinct branch of the semitic family. the term "jews[ ]," properly indicating the children of judah, fourth son of jacob, has long been applied generally to the whole people, who since the disappearance of the ten northern tribes have been mainly represented by the tribe of judah, a remnant of benjamin and a few levites, _i.e._ the section of the nation which to the number of some , returned to south palestine (kingdom of judaea) after the babylonian captivity. these were doubtless later joined by some of the dispersed northern tribes, who from jacob's alternative name were commonly called the "ten tribes of israel." but all such israelites had lost their separate nationality, and were consequently absorbed in the royal tribe of judah. since the suppression of the various revolts under the empire, the judaei themselves have been a dispersed nationality, and even before those events numerous settlements had been made in different parts of the greek and roman worlds, as far west as tripolitana, and also in arabia and abyssinia. but most of the present communities probably descend from those of the great dispersion after the fall of jerusalem ( a.d.), increased by considerable accessions of converted "gentiles," for the assumption that they have made few or no converts is no longer tenable. in exile they have been far more a religious body than a broken nation, and as such they could not fail under favourable conditions to spread their teachings, not only amongst their christian slaves, but also amongst peoples, such as the abyssinian falashas, of lower culture than themselves. in pre-muhammadan times many arabs of yemen and other districts had conformed, and some of their jewish kings (asad abu-karib, dhu nowas, and others) are still remembered. about the seventh century all the khazars--a renowned turki people of the volga, the crimea, and the caspian--accepted judaism, though they later conformed to russian orthodoxy. the visigoth persecution of the spanish jews (fifth and sixth centuries) was largely due to their proselytising zeal, against which, as well as against jewish and christian mixed marriages, numerous papal decrees were issued in medieval times. to this process of miscegenation is attributed the great variety of physical features observed amongst the jews of different countries[ ], while the distinctly red type cropping out almost everywhere has been traced by sayce and others to primordial interminglings with the amorites ("red people"). "uniformity only exists in the books and not in reality. there are jews with light and with dark eyes, jews with straight and with curly hair, jews with high and narrow and jews with short and broad, noses; their cephalic index oscillates between and --as far as this index ever oscillates in the _genus homo_[ ]!" nevertheless certain marked characteristics--large hooked nose, prominent watery eyes, thick pendulous and almost everted under lip, rough frizzly lustreless hair--are sufficiently general to be regarded as racial traits. the race is richly endowed with the most varied qualities, as shown by the whole tenour of their history. originally pure nomads, they became excellent agriculturists after the settlement in canaan, and since then they have given proof of the highest capacity for science, letters, erudition of all kinds, finance, music, and diplomacy. the reputation of the medieval arabs as restorers of learning is largely due to their wise tolerance of the enlightened jewish communities in their midst, and on the other hand spain and portugal have never recovered from the national loss sustained by the expulsion of the jews in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. in late years the persecutions, especially in russia, have caused a fresh exodus from the east of europe, and by the aid of philanthropic capitalists flourishing agricultural settlements have been founded in palestine and argentina. from statistics taken in various places up to the jewish communities are at present estimated at about , , , of whom three-fourths are in europe, , in africa, , in asia, the rest in america and australia[ ]. intimately associated with all these aramaic canaanitic semites were a mysterious people who have been identified with the _hittites_[ ] of scripture, and to whom this name has been extended by common consent. they are also identified with the _kheta_ of the egyptian monuments[ ], as well as with the _khatti_ of the assyrian cuneiform texts. indeed all these are, without any clear proof, assumed to be the same people, and to them are ascribed a considerable number of stones, cylinders, and gems from time to time picked up at various points between the middle euphrates and the mediterranean, engraved in a kind of hieroglyphic or rather pictorial script, which has been variously deciphered according to the bias or fancy of epigraphists. this simply means that the "hittite texts" have not yet been interpreted, and are likely to remain unexplained, until a clue is found in some bilingual document, such as the rosetta stone, which surrendered the secret of the egyptian hieroglyphs. l. messerschmidt, editor of a number of hittite texts[ ], declared (in ) that only one sign in two hundred had been interpreted with any certainty[ ], and although the system of a. h. sayce[ ] is based on a scientific plan, his decipherments must for the present remain uncertain. the important tablets found by h. winckler in [ ] at boghaz keui in cappadocia, identified with khatti, the hittite capital, have thrown much light on hittite history, and support many of sayce's conjectures. the records show that the hittites were one of the great nations of antiquity, with a power extending at its prime from the asiatic coast of the aegean to mesopotamia, and from the black sea to kadesh on the orontes, a power which neither egypt nor assyria could withstand. "it is still not certain to which of the great families of nations they belonged. the suggestion has been made that their language has certain indo-european characteristics; but for the present it is safer to regard them as an indigenous race of asia minor. their strongly-marked facial type, with long, straight nose and receding forehead and chin, is strikingly reproduced on all their monuments, and suggests no comparison with aryan or semitic stocks[ ]." f. von luschan, however, is able to throw some light on the ethnological history of the hittites. when investigating the early inhabitants of western asia he was constantly struck by the appearance of a markedly non-semitic type, which he called "armenoid." the most typical were the tahtadji or woodcutters of western lycia living up in the mountains and totally distinct in every way from their mohammedan neighbours. "their somatic characters are remarkably homogeneous; they have a tawny white skin, much hair on the face, straight hair, dark brown eyes, a narrow, generally aquiline nose, and a very short and high head. the cephalic index varies only from to , with a maximum frequency of [ ]." similar types were found in the bektash, who are town-dwellers in lycia, and in the ansariyeh in northern syria. in upper mesopotamia these features occur again among the kyzylbash, and in western kurdistan among the yezidi. "we find a small minority of groups possessing a similarity of creed and a remarkable uniformity of type, scattered over a vast part of western asia. i see no other way to account for this fact than to assume that the members of all these sects are the remains of an old homogeneous population, which have preserved their religion and have therefore refrained from intermarriage with strangers and so preserved their old physical characteristics[ ]." they all speak the languages of their orthodox neighbours, turkish, arabic and kurdish, but are absolutely homogeneous as to their somatic characters. two other groups with the same physical type are the druses of the lebanon and antilebanos country, who speak arabic and pass officially as mohammedans, though their secret creed contains many christian, jewish and pantheistic elements. to the north of the druses are the christian maronites, said to be the descendants of a monophysite sect, separated from the common christian church after the council of chalcedon in a.d. "partly through their isolation in the mountains, partly through their not intermarrying with their mahometan or druse neighbours, the maronites of today have preserved an old type in almost marvellous purity. in no other oriental group is there a greater number of men with extreme height of the skull and excessive flattening of the occipital region than among the maronites.... very often their occiput is so steep that one is again and again inclined to think of artificial deformation." but "no such possibility is found[ ]." these hypsibrachycephalic groups with high narrow noses, found also in persia, among turks, greeks, and still more commonly among armenians, were first ( ) called by von luschan "armenoid," but "there can be no doubt that they are all descended from tribes belonging to the great hittite empire. so it is the type of the hittites that has been preserved in all these groups for more than years[ ]." as to their primordial home von luschan connects them with the "alpine race" of central europe, but leaves it an open question whether the hittites came from central europe, or the alpine race from western asia, though inclining to the latter view. the high narrow nose (the essential somatic difference between the hittites and the other brachycephalic arabs) "originated as a merely accidental mutation and was then locally fixed, either by a certain tendency of taste and fashion or by long, perhaps millennial in-breeding. the 'hittite nose' has finally become a dominant characteristic in the mendelian sense, and we see it, not only in the actual geographical province of the alpine race, but often enough also here in england[ ]." in arabia itself inscriptions point to the early existence of civilised kingdoms, among which those of the sabaeans[ ] and the minaeans[ ] stand out most clearly, though their dates and even their chronological order are much disputed. possibly both lasted until the rise of the himyarites at the beginning of the christian era. all are agreed however that arabian civilisation reached a very high level in the centuries preceding the birth of the prophet, before the increase in shipping led to the abandonment of the caravan trade. the modern inhabitants are divided into the southern arabians, mainly settled agriculturalists of yemen, hadramaut and oman, who trace their descent from shem, and the northern arabians (bedouin[ ]), pastoral tribes, who trace their descent from ishmael. the two groups have even been considered ethnologically distinct, but, as von luschan points out, "peninsular arabia is the least-known land in the world, and large regions of it are even now absolutely _terrae incognitae_, so great caution is necessary in forming conclusions, from the measurements of a few dozens of men, concerning the anthropology of a land more than five times as great as france[ ]." his measurements of "the only real semites, the bedawy," gave a cephalic index ranging from to , while the nose was short and fairly broad, very seldom of a "jewish type." recently seligman[ ] has shown that whereas the semites of northern arabia conform more or less to the type just mentioned those of southern arabia are of low or median stature ( . - . m., - / - in.), and are predominantly brachycephalic, the cephalic index ranging from to , with an average of about . elsewhere--iberia, sicily, malta[ ], irania, central asia, malaysia--the arab invaders have failed to preserve either their speech or their racial individuality. in some places (spain, portugal, sicily) they have disappeared altogether, leaving nothing behind them beyond some slight linguistic traces, and the monuments of their wonderful architecture, crumbling alhambras or stupendous mosques re-consecrated as christian temples. but in the eastern lands their influence is still felt by multitudes, who profess islám and use the arabic script in writing their persian, turki, or malay languages, because some centuries ago those regions were swept by a tornado of rude bedouin fanatics, or else visited by peaceful traders and missionaries from the arabian peninsula. the monotheism proclaimed by these zealous preachers is often spoken of as a special inheritance of the semitic peoples, or at least already possessed by them at such an early period in their life-history as to seem inseparable from their very being. but it was not so. before the time of allah or of jahveh every hill-top had its tutelar deity; the caves and rocks and the very atmosphere swarmed with "jins"; assyrian and phoenician pantheons, with their baals, and molochs, and astartes and adonais, were as thickly peopled as those of the hellenes and hindus, and in this, as in all other natural systems of belief, the monotheistic concept was gradually evolved by a slow process of elimination. nor was the process perfected by all the semitic peoples--canaanites, assyrians, amorites, phoenicians, and others having always remained at the polytheistic stage--but only by the hebrews and the arabs, the two more richly endowed members of the semitic family. even here a reservation has to be made, for we now know that there was really but one evolution, that of jahveh, the adoption of the idea embodied in allah being historically traceable to the jewish and christian systems. as jastrow points out, the higher religious and ethical movement began with moses, who invested the national jahveh with ethical traits, thus paving the way for the wider conceptions of the prophets. "the point of departure in the hebrew religion from that of the semitic in general did not come until the rise of a body of men who set up a new ideal of divine government of the universe, and with it as a necessary corollary a new standard of religious conduct. throwing aside the barriers of tribal limitations to the jurisdiction of a deity, it was the hebrew prophets who first prominently and emphatically brought forth the view of a divine power conceived in spiritual terms, who, in presiding over the universe and in controlling the fates of nations and individuals, acts from self-imposed laws of righteousness tempered with mercy[ ]." footnotes: [ ] the divergent views of orientalists concerning semitic (linguistic) origins are summarised by w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , p. . [ ] e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , § . o. procksch, however, while regarding the origin of the semites as an unsolved problem, considers arabia as their centre of dispersal rather than their original home. as far as early semitic migrations can be traced he thinks they indicate a north to south direction, and he sees no cause for disputing the biblical account (_gen._ ii. ff.) deriving the descendants of shem "from the neighbourhood of ararat, i.e. armenia, across the taurus to the north syrian plain." "die völker altpalästinas," _das land der bibel_, i. , , p. . cf. also j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, , p. . [ ] for the discussion as to whether semites or sumerians were the earlier occupants of babylonia see p. above. [ ] hugo winckler, "die völker vorderasiens," _der alte orient_, i. , pp. - and _auszug aus der vorderasiatische geschichte_, , p. . [ ] cf. a. c. haddon, _wanderings of peoples_, , p. . [ ] j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, , pp. - . for an admirable description of the semitic migrations see pp. - , and for the geographical aspect, see e. c. semple, _influences of geographic environment: on the basis of ratzel's system of anthropo-geography_, , pp. - and under "nomads" in the index. [ ] g. elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, , p. . [ ] c. h. w. johns, _ancient babylonia_, , pp. - . for culture see pp. - . [ ] o. procksch, "die völker altpalästinas," _das land der bibel_, i. , . [ ] cf. e. meyer, "sumerier und semiten in babylonien," _abh. der königl. preuss. akad. der wissenschaft_. ; l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , p. ff. [ ] in the assyrians von luschan detects traces of the hyperbrachycephalic people of asia minor and armenia, for they appear to differ from the pure semites especially in the shape of the nose. meyer regards this variation as possibly due to a prehistoric population, but, he adds, studies of physical types both historically and anthropologically are in their infancy. e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , § a. [ ] c. h. w. johns, _ancient assyria_, , p. . [ ] _palestine exploration fund quarterly statements_, onwards. see also l. b. paton, art. "canaanites," in hastings' _encyclopaedia of religion and ethics_. [ ] tell ta'anek, , _denkschriften_, vienna academy, and "the german excavations at jericho," _pal. expl. fund quart. st._ . [ ] _tell el-mutesellim_, . [ ] _palestine exploration fund quarterly statements_, , p. ff. [ ] l. w. king, _history of sumer and akkad_, , p. ; c. h. w. johns, _ancient babylonia_, , pp. - ; l. b. paton, art. "canaanites," hastings' _ency. of religion and ethics_, ; e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, i. , , §§ , ; o. procksch, "die völker altpalästinas," _das land der bibel_, i. , , p. ff.; g. maspero, _the struggle of the nations, egypt, syria, and assyria_, . [ ] [greek: phoinikes], probably meaning red, either on account of their sun-burnt skin, or from the dye for which they were famous. for the phoenician physical type cf. w. z. ripley, _races of europe_, , pp. , . [ ] in the old testament "canaanite" and "amorite" are usually synonymous. [ ] a. c. haddon, _wanderings of peoples_, , p. . for a general account of phoenician history see j. p. mahaffy, in hutchinson's _history of the nations_, , p. ff. [ ] cf. morris jastrow, _hebrew and babylonian traditions_ (haskell lectures), . [ ] see s. a. cook, art. "jews," _ency. brit._ ; o. procksch, "die völker altpalästinas," _das land der bibel_, i. , , p. ff. [ ] from old french _juis_, lat. _judaei_, _i.e._ sons of jehúdah (judah). see my article, "jews," in cassell's _storehouse of general information_, , from which i take many of the following particulars. [ ] w. m. flinders petrie attributes the variation to environment, not miscegenation. "history and common observation lead us to the equally legitimate conclusion that the country and not the race determines the cranium." "migrations," _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. , p. . he is here criticising the excellent discussion of the whole question in w. z. ripley's _the races of europe_, , chap. xiv. "the jews and semites," pp. - , with bibliography. cf. also r. n. salaman, "heredity and the jews," _journ. of genetics_, i. p. . [ ] f. von luschan, "the early inhabitants of western asia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , p. . [ ] m. fishberg, _the jews_, , p. . [ ] as heth, settled in hebron (_gen._ xxiii. ) and the central uplands (_num._ xiii. ) but also as a confederacy of tribes to the north ( _kings_ x. , _kings_ vii. ). [ ] this identification is based on "the casts of hittite profiles made by petrie from the egyptian monuments. the profiles are peculiar, unlike those of any other people represented by the egyptian artists, but they are identical with the profiles which occur among the hittite hieroglyphs" (a. h. sayce, _acad._, sept. , p. ). [ ] "corpus insc. hetticarum," _zeitschr. d. d. morgenländ. gesellsch._ , , , etc. [ ] "die hettiter," _der alte orient_, i. , , p. n. the sign in question, a bisected oval, is interpreted "god." [ ] "decipherment of the hittite inscriptions," _soc. of bibl. archaeology_, , and "hittite inscriptions," _ib._ , . [ ] _orient. literaturzeitung_, , and _orient-gesellsch._ . see d. g. hogarth, "recent hittite research," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvi. , p. . [ ] l. w. king, "the hittites," hutchinson's _history of the nations_, , p. . for this type see the illustration of hittite divinities, pl. xxxi. of f. von luschan's paper referred to below. for language see now c. j. s. marstrander, "caractère indo-européen de la langue hittite," _videnskapsselskapets skrifter ii hist. filos. klasse_, , no. . [ ] "the early inhabitants of western asia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , p. . for this region see d. g. hogarth, _the nearer east_, , with ethnological map. [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] f. von luschan, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] _loc. cit._ pp. - . [ ] saba', sheba of the old testament, where there are various allusions to its wealth and trading importance from the time of solomon to that of cyrus. [ ] ma'[=i]n of the inscriptions. [ ] arabic _badaw[=i]y_, a dweller in the desert. [ ] _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] c. g. seligman, "the physical characters of the arabs," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlvii. , p. ff. [ ] the rude semitic dialect still current in this island appears to be fundamentally phoenician (carthaginian), later affected by arabic and italian influences. (m. mizzi, _a voice from malta_, , _passim_.) [ ] m. jastrow, _hebrew and babylonian traditions_, . chapter xv the caucasic peoples (_continued_) the peoples of aryan speech--european trade routes--"aryan" migrations--indo-european cradle--indo-european type--date of indo-european expansion--origin of nordic peoples--the _cimbri_ and _teutoni_--_the bastarnae_--_the moeso-goths_--scandinavia-- modification of the nordic type--the celto-slavs: their ethnical position defined--aberrant _tyrolese_ type--_rhaetians_ and _etruscans_--etruscan origins--the celts--definitions--celts in britain--the picts--brachycephals in britain--round barrow type--alpine type--ethnic relations--formation of the english nation--ethnic relations in ireland--scotland--and in wales--present constitution of the british peoples--the english language--_the french nation_--constituent elements--mental traits--_the spaniards and portuguese_--ethnic relations in italy--_ligurian_, _illyrian_, and _aryan elements_--the present _italians_--art and ethics--_the rumanians_--ethnic relations in greece--_the hellenes_--origins and migrations--the _lithuanian_ factor--_aeolians_; _dorians_; _ionians_--the hellenic legend--the greek language--the slavs-- origins and migrations--_sarmatians_ and _budini_--_wends_, _chekhs_, and _poles_--the southern slavs--migrations--_serbs_, _croats_, _bosnians_--_the albanians_--_the russians_-- panslavism--russian origins--_alans_ and _ossets_--aborigines of the caucasus--the iranians--ethnic and linguistic relations-- _persians_, _tajiks_ and _galcha_--_afghans_--lowland and hill tajiks--the galchic linguistic family--galcha and tajik types-- _homo europaeus_ and _h. alpinus_ in central asia--the hindus-- ethnic relations in india--classification of types--_the kóls_-- _the dravidians_--dravidian and aryan languages--the hindu castes--oceania--_indonesians_--_micronesians_--_eastern polynesians_--origins, types, and divisions--migrations-- polynesian culture. as the result of recent researches there is an end of the theory that bronze came in with the "aryans," and it is from this standpoint that the revelation of an independent aegean culture in touch with babylonia and egypt some four millenniums before the new era is of such momentous import in determining the ethnical relations of the historical, _i.e._ the present european populations. some idea of cultured relations in prehistoric times may be obtained from a review of the trade communications as indicated by archaeology during the bronze age which lasted through the whole of the third millennium down to the middle of the second. as we have seen, in the nile valley, in mesopotamia and in the aegean area, remains characteristic of bronze age culture rest on a neolithic substratum, and a transitional stage, when gold and copper were the only metals known, often connects the two. from the time of this dawning of the age of metals, the inhabitants of the nile valley, of crete, of cyprus and of the mainland of greece freely exchanged their products. navigation was already flourishing, and the sea united rather than divided the insular and coastal populations. gradually egeo-mykenaean civilisation extended from crete and the greek lands to the west, influencing sicily directly, and leaving distinct traces in southern italy, sardinia and the iberian peninsula, while iberia in its turn contributed to the development of western gaul and the british isles. the knowledge of copper, and, soon after, that of bronze, spread by the atlantic route to ireland, while central europe was reached directly from the south. thanks to the trade in amber, always in demand by the mediterranean populations, there was a continuous trade route to scandinavia, which thus had direct communication with southern europe. as civilisation developed, the lands of the north and west became exporters as well as importers, each developing a distinct industry not always inferior to the more precocious culture of the south[ ]. with trade communications thus stretching across europe from south to north, and from east to extreme west, it would seem not improbable that movements of peoples were equally unrestricted, and this would account for the appearance on the threshold of history of various peoples formerly grouped together on account of their language, as "aryan." j. l. myres, however, is inclined to attribute "the coming of the north" to the same type of climatic impulse which induced the semitic swarms described above (p. ). after referring to the earliest occurrence of indo-european names[ ], he continues "before the time of the eighteenth dynasty of egypt there had been a very extensive raid of indo-european-speaking folk by way of the persian plateau, as far as the syrian coastland and the interior of asia minor." these raids coincide with a new cultural feature of great significance. "it is of the first importance to find that it is in the dark period which immediately precedes the eighteenth dynasty revival--when egypt was prostrate under mysterious 'shepherd kings,' and babylon under kassite invaders equally mysterious--that the civilized world first became acquainted with one of the greatest blessings of civilisation, the domesticated horse. the period of arabian drought, which drove forth the 'canaanite' emigrants, may have had its counterpart on the northern steppe, to provoke the migration of these horsemen." he adds, however, "our knowledge both of the extent of these droughts and of the chronology of both these migrations, is too vague for this to be taken as more than a provisional basis for more exact enquiry[ ]." the attempt has often been made to locate the original home of the indo-european people by an appeal to philology, and idyllic pictures have been drawn up of the "aryan family" consisting of the father the protector, the mother the producer, and the children "whose name implied that they kept everything clean and neat[ ]." they were regarded as originally pastoral and later agricultural, ranging over a wide area with bactria for its centre. with advancing knowledge of what is primitive in indo-european this circumstantial picture crumbled to pieces, and feist[ ] reduces all inferences deducible from linguistic palaeontology to the sole "argumentum ex silencio" (which he regards as distinctly untrustworthy in itself), that the "urheimat" was a country in which in the middle of the third millennium b.c. such southern animals as lion, elephant, and tiger, were unknown. it was commonly assumed that the "aryan cradle" was in asia, and the suggestion of r. g. latham in that the original home was in europe was scouted by one of the most eminent writers on the subject--victor hehn--as lunacy possible only to one who lived in a country of cranks[ ]. but since this date, there has been a shifting of the "urheimat" further and further west. o. schrader[ ] places it in south russia, g. kossinna[ ] and h. hirt[ ] support the claims of germany, while k. penka and many others go still further north, deriving both language and tall fair dolichocephalic speakers (proto-teutons) from scandinavia[ ]. f. kauffmann[ ], noting the contrast between the cultures associated with pre-neolithic and with neolithic kitchen-middens, is prepared to attribute the former to aboriginal inhabitants, ligurians, and, further north, kvaens (finns, lapps), and the neolithic civilisation of europe to indo-europeans. "thus the neolithic indo-europeans would already have advanced as far as south sweden in the litorina period of the baltic, during the oak-period." on the other hand the discovery of tocharish has inclined e. meyer[ ] to reconsider an asiatic origin, but the information as to this language is too fragmentary to be conclusive on this point. after reviewing the various theories giles[ ] concludes "in the great plain which extends across europe north of the alps and carpathians and across asia north of the hindu kush there are few geographical obstacles to prevent the rapid spread of peoples from any part of its area to any other, and, as we have seen, the celts and the hungarians etc. have in the historical period demonstrated the rapidity with which such migrations could be made. such migrations may possibly account for the appearance of a people using a _centum_ language so far east as turkestan[ ]." more acrimonious than the discussion of the original home is the dispute as to the original physical type of the indo-european-speaking people. it was almost a matter of faith with germans that the language was introduced by tall fair dolichocephals of nordic type. on the other hand the gallic school sought to identify the alpine race as the only and original aryans. the futility of the whole discussion is ably demonstrated by w. z. ripley in his protest against the confusion of language and race[ ]. feist[ ] summarises our information as follows. all that we can say about the physical type of the "urvolk" is that since the indo-europeans came from a northerly region[ ] (not yet identified) it is surmised that they belonged to the light-skinned people. the observation that mountain folk of indo-germanic speech in southern areas, such as the ossets of the caucasus, the kurds of the uplands of armenia and irania, and the tajiks of the western pamirs not infrequently exhibit fair hair or blue eyes supports this view. nevertheless, as he points out, brachycephals are not hereby excluded. his own conclusion, which naturally results from a review of the whole evidence, is that the "urvolk" was not a pure race, but a mixture of different types. already in neolithic times races in europe were no longer pure, and in france "formed an almost inextricable medley" and feist assumes with e. de michelis[ ] that the indo-europeans were a conglomerate of peoples of different origins who in prehistoric times were welded together into an ethnic unity, as the present english have been formed from pre-indo-european caledonians (picts and scots), celts, roman traders and soldiers and later teutonic settlers[ ]. the evidence that indo-europeans were already in existence in mesopotamia, syria and irania about the middle of the second millennium b.c. has already been mentioned. about the same time the vedic hymns bear witness to the appearance of the aryans of western india. the formation of an aryan group with a common language, religion and culture is a process necessarily requiring considerable length of time, so that their swarming off from the indo-european parent group must be pushed back to far into the third millennium. at this period there are indications of the settling of the greeks in the southern promontories of the balkan peninsula at latest about b.c., while thracian and illyrian peoples may have filled the mainland, though the dorians occupied epirus, macedonia, and perhaps southern illyria. indo-european stocks were already in occupation of central italy. it would appear therefore that the period of the indo-european community, before the migrations, must be placed at the end of the stone ages, at the time when copper was first introduced. thus it seems legitimate to infer that the expansion of the indo-europeans began about b.c. and the furthest advanced branches entered into the regions of the older populations and cultures at latest after the beginning of the second millennium[ ]. about b.c. we find three areas occupied by indo-european-speaking peoples, all widely separated from each other and apparently independent. these are ( ) the aryan groups in asia; ( ) the balkan peninsula together with central and lower italy, and the mysians and phrygians of asia minor (possibly the thracians had already advanced across the danube); and ( ) teutons, celts and letto-slavs over the greater part of germany and scandinavia, perhaps also already in eastern france and in poland. the following centuries saw the advance of iranians to south russia and further west, the pressing of the phrygians into armenia, and lastly the celtic migrations in western europe. from the linguistic and botanical evidence brought forward by the polish botanist rostafínski[ ] the ancestors of the celts, germans and balto-slavs must have occupied a region north of the carpathians, and west of a line between königsberg and odessa (the beech and yew zone). the balto-slavs subsequently lost the word for beech and transferred the word for yew to the sallow and black alder (both with red wood) but their possession of a word for hornbeam locates their original home in polesie--the marshland traversed by the pripet but not south or east of kiev. although, owing to the absence of teutonic inscriptions before the third or fourth century a.d. it is difficult to trace the nordic peoples with any certainty during the bronze or early iron ages, yet the fairly well-defined group of bronze age antiquities, covering the basin of the elbe, mecklenburg, holstein, jutland, southern sweden and the islands of the belt have been conjectured with much probability to represent early teutonic civilisation. "whether we are justified in speaking of a teutonic race in the anthropological sense is at least doubtful, for the most striking characteristics of these peoples [as deduced from prehistoric skeletons, descriptions of ancient writers and present day statistics] occur also to a considerable extent among their eastern and western neighbours, where they can hardly be ascribed altogether to teutonic admixture. the only result of anthropological investigation which so far can be regarded as definitely established is that the old teutonic lands in northern germany, denmark and southern sweden have been inhabited by people of the same type since the neolithic age if not earlier[ ]." this type is characterised by tall stature, long narrow skull, light complexion with light hair and eyes[ ]. during the age of national migrations, from the fourth to the sixth century, the territories of the nordic peoples were vastly extended, partly by conquest, and partly by arrangement with the romans. but these movements had begun before the new era, for we hear of the _cimbri_ invading illyricum, gaul and italy in the second century b.c. probably from jutland[ ], where they were apparently associated with the _teutoni_. still earlier, in the third century b.c., the _bastarnae_, said by many ancient writers to have been teutonic in origin, invaded and settled between the carpathians and the black sea. already mentioned doubtfully by strabo as separating the germani from the scythians (tyragetes) about the dniester and dnieper, their movements may now be followed by authentic documents from the baltic to the euxine. furtwängler[ ] shows that the earliest known german figures are those of the adamklissi monument, in the dobruja, commemorating the victory of crassus over the bastarnae, getae, and thracians in b.c. the bastarnae migrated before the cimbri and teutons through the vistula valley to the lower danube about b.c. they had relations with the macedonians, and the successes of mithridates over the romans were due to their aid. the account of their overthrow by crassus in dio cassius is in striking accord with the scenes on the adamklissi monument. here they appear dressed only in a kind of trowsers, with long pointed beards, and defiant but noble features. the same type recurs both on the column of trajan, who engaged them as auxiliaries in his dacian wars, and on the arch of marcus aurelius, here however wearing a tunic, a sign perhaps of later roman influences. and thus after years are answered strabo's doubts by modern archaeology. much later there followed along the same beaten track between the baltic and black sea a section of the goths, whom we find first settled in the baltic lands in proximity to the finns. the exodus from this region can scarcely have taken place before the second century of the new era, for they are still unknown to strabo, while tacitus locates them on the baltic between the elbe and the vistula. later cassiodorus and others bring them from scandinavia to the vistula, and up that river to the euxine and lower danube. although often regarded as legendary[ ], this migration is supported by archaeological evidence. in a gold torque with a gothic inscription was found at petroassa in wallachia, and in an iron spear-head with a gothic name in the same script, which dates from the first iron age, turned up near kovel in volhynia. the spear-head is identical with one found in at münchenberg in brandenburg, on which wimmer remarks that "of runic inscriptions in germany the two earliest occur on iron pikes. there is no doubt that the runes of the kovel spear-head and of the ring came from gothic tribes[ ]." these southern goths, later called moeso-goths, because they settled in moesia (bulgaria and servia), had certain physical and even moral characters of the old teutons, as seen in the emperor maximinus, born in thrace of a goth by an alan woman--very tall, strong, handsome, with light hair and milk-white skin[ ], temperate in all things and of great mental energy. before their absorption in the surrounding bulgar and slav populations the moeso-goths were evangelised in the fourth century by their bishop ulfilas ("wolf"), whose fragmentary translation of scripture, preserved in the _codex argenteus_ of upsala, is the most precious monument of early teutonic speech extant. to find the pure nordic type at the present day we must seek for it in scandinavia, which possesses one of the most highly individualised populations in europe. the osterdal, and the neighbourhood of vaage in upper gudbrandsdal in norway, and the dalarna district in sweden contain perhaps the purest teutonic type in all europe, the cephalic index falling well below . but along the norwegian coasts there is a strong tendency to brachycephaly (the index rising to - ), combined with a darkening of the hair and eye colour (the type occurs also in denmark), indicating an outlying lodgement of the alpine race from central europe. the anthropological history of scandinavia, according to ripley, is as follows: "norway has ... probably been peopled from two directions, one element coming from sweden and another from the south by way of denmark. the latter type, now found on the sea coast and especially along the least attractive portion of it, has been closely hemmed in by the teutonic immigration from sweden[ ]." brachycephalic people already occupied parts of denmark in the stone age[ ], and, according to the scanty information available, the present population is extremely mixed. one-third of the children have light hair and light eyes, and tall stature coincides in the main with fair colouring, but in bornholm where the cephalic index is there is a taller dark type and a shorter light type, the latter perhaps akin to the eastern variety of the alpine race[ ]. the original nordic type is by no means universally represented among the present germanic peoples. from the examination made some years ago of , , school children[ ], it would appear that about per cent. of living germans may be classed as blonds, as brunettes, and as mixed; and further that of the blonds about per cent. are centred in north, in central and in south germany. the brunettes increase, generally speaking, southwards, south bavaria showing only about per cent. of blonds, and the same law holds good of the long-heads and the round-heads respectively. to what cause is to be attributed this profound modification of this branch of the nordic type in the direction of the south? that the teutons ranged in considerable numbers far beyond their northern seats is proved by the spread of the german language to the central highlands, and beyond them down the southern slopes, where a rude high german dialect lingered on in the so-called "seven communes" of the veronese district far into the nineteenth century. but after passing the main, which appears to have long formed the ethnical divide for central europe, they entered the zone of the brown alpine round-heads[ ], to whom they communicated their speech, but by whom they were largely modified in physical appearance. the process has for long ages been much the same everywhere--perennial streams of teutonism setting steadily from the north, all successively submerged in the great ocean of dark round-headed humanity, which under many names has occupied the central uplands and eastern plains since the neolithic age, overflowing also in later times into the balkan peninsula. this absorption of what is assumed to be the superior in the inferior type, may be due to the conditions of the general movement--warlike bands, accompanied by few women, appearing as conquerors in the midst of the alpines and merging with them in the great mass of brachycephalic peoples. or is the transformation to be explained by de lapouge's doctrine, that cranial forms are not so much a question of race as of social conditions, and that, owing to the increasingly unfavourable nature of these conditions, there is a general tendency for the superior long-heads to be absorbed in the inferior round-heads[ ]. the fact that dolichocephaly is more prevalent in cities and brachycephaly in rural areas has been interpreted in various ways. de lapouge[ ] contended that in france the restless and more enterprising long-heads migrated from the rural districts in disproportionate numbers to the towns, where they died out. for the department of aveyron he gives a table showing a steady rise of the cephalic index from . in prehistoric times to . in , and attributes this to the dolichos gravitating chiefly to the large towns, as o. ammon has also shown for baden. l. laloy summed up the results thus: france is being depopulated, and, what is worse, it is precisely the best section of the inhabitants that disappears, the section most productive in eminent men in all departments of learning, while the ignorant and rude _pecus_ alone increase. these views have met with favour even across the atlantic, but are by no means universally accepted. the ground seems cut from the whole theory by a. macalister, who read a paper at the toronto meeting of the british association, , on "the causes of brachycephaly," showing that the infantile and primitive skull is relatively long, and that there is a gradual change, phylogenetic (racial) as well as ontogenetic (individual) toward brachycephaly, which is certainly correlated with, and is apparently produced by, cerebral activity and growth; in the process of development in the individual and the race the frontal lobes of the brain grow the more rapidly and tend to fill out and broaden the skull[ ]. the tendency would thus have nothing to do with rustic and urban life, nor would the round be necessarily, if at all, inferior to the long head. some of de lapouge's generalisations are also traversed by livi[ ], deniker[ ], sergi[ ] and others, and the whole question is admirably summarised by w. z. ripley[ ]. but whatever be the cause, the fact must be accepted that _homo europaeus_ (the nordics) becomes merged southwards in _homo alpinus_ whose names, as stated, are many. broca and many continental writers use the name _kelt_ or _slavo-kelt_, which has led to much confusion. but it merely means for them the great mass of brachycephalic peoples in central europe, where, at various times, celtic and slavonic languages have prevailed. it is remarkable that in the alpine region, especially tyrol, where the brachy element comes to a focus, there is a peculiar form of round-head which has greatly puzzled de lapouge, but may perhaps be accounted for on the hypothesis of two brachy types here fused in one. to explain the exceedingly round tyrolese head, which shows affinities on the one hand with the swiss, on the other with the illyrian and albanian, that is, with the normal alpine, a mongol strain has been suggested, but is rightly rejected by franz tappeiner as inadmissible on many grounds[ ]. de ujfalvy[ ], a follower of de lapouge, looks on the hyperbrachy tyrolese as descendants of the ancient rhaetians or rasenes, whom so many regard as the parent stock of the etruscans. but montelius (with most other modern ethnologists) rejects the land route from the north, and brings the etruscans by the sea route direct from the aegean and lydia (asia minor). they are the thessalian pelasgians whom hellanikos of lesbos brings to campania, or the tyrrhenian pelasgians transported by antiklides from asia minor to etruria, and he is "quite sure that the archaeological facts in central and north italy ... prove the truth of this tradition[ ]." of course, until the affinities of the etruscan language are determined, from which we are still as far off as ever[ ], etruscan origins must remain chiefly an archaeological question. even the help afforded by the crania from the etruscan tombs is but slight, both long and round heads being here found in the closest association. sergi, who also brings the etruscans from the east, explains this by supposing that, being pelasgians, they were of the same dolicho mediterranean stock as the italians (ligurians) themselves, and differed only from the brachy umbrians of aryan speech. hence the skulls from the tombs are of two types, the intruding aryan, and the mediterranean, the latter, whether representing native ligurians or intruding etruscans, being indistinguishable. "i can show," he says, "etruscan crania, which differ in no respect from the italian [ligurian], from the oldest graves, as i can also show heads from the etruscan graves which do not differ from those still found in aryan lands, whether slav, keltic, or germanic[ ]." perhaps the difficulty is best explained by feist's suggestion that the etruscans were merely a highly civilised warlike aristocracy, spreading thinly over the conquered population by which they were ultimately absorbed[ ]. the migrations of the celts preceded those of the teutonic peoples to whom they were probably closely related in race as in language[ ]. at the beginning of the historical period celts are found in the west of germany in the region of the rhine and the weser. possibly about b.c. they occupied gaul and parts of the iberian peninsula, subsequently crossing over into the british isles. in italy they came into conflict with the rising power of rome, and, after the battle of the allia ( b.c.) occupied rome itself. descents were also made into the danube valley and the balkans, and later ( b.c.) into thessaly. at the height of their power they extended from the north of scotland to the southern shores of spain and portugal, and from the northern coasts of germany to a little south of senegaglia. to the west their boundary was the atlantic, to the east, the black sea[ ]. unfortunately the indiscriminate use of the term celt has led to much confusion. for historians and geographers the celts are the people in the centre and west of europe referred to by writers of antiquity under the names of _keltoi_, _celtae_, _galli_ and _galatae_. but many anthropologists, especially on the continent, regard celts and gauls as representing two well-determined physical types, the former brachycephalic, with short sturdy build and chestnut coloured hair (alpine type), and the latter dolichocephalic with tall stature, fair complexion and light hair (nordic type). linguists, ignoring physical characters, class as celts those people who speak an indo-european language characterised in particular by the loss of p and by the modifications undergone by mutation of initial consonants, while for many archaeologists the celts were the people responsible for the spread of the civilisation of the hallstatt and la tène periods, that is of the earlier and later iron age[ ]. it is not surprising therefore that it has been proposed to drop the word celt out of anthropological nomenclature, as having no ethnical significance. but this, says rice holmes[ ], "is because writers on ethnology have not kept their heads clear." and in particular one point has been overlooked. "just as the french are called after one conquering people, the franks; just as the english are called after one conquering people, the angles; so the heterogeneous celtae of transalpine gaul were called after one conquering people; and that people were the celts, or rather a branch of the celts in the true sense of the word. the celts, in short, were the people who introduced the celtic language into gaul, into asia minor, and into britain; the people who included the victors of the allia, the conquerors of gallia celtica, and the conquerors of gallia bel['g]ica; the people whom polybius called indifferently gauls and celts; the people who, as pausanius said, were originally called celts and afterwards called gauls. if certain ancient writers confounded the tall fair celts who spoke celtic with the tall fair germans who spoke german the ancient writers who were better informed avoided such a mistake.... let us therefore restore to the word 'celt' the ethnical significance which of right belongs to it." it is not certain at what date the celtic tribes effected settlements in great britain, but it is held by many that the earliest invasions were not prior to the sixth or possibly even the fifth century. at the time of the roman conquest the celts were divided into two linguistic groups, _goidelic_, represented at the present day by irish, manx and scotch gaelic, and _brythonic_, including welsh, cornish and breton. these groups must have been virtually identical save in two particulars. in brythonic the labial velar q became p (a change which apparently took place before the time of pytheas), whilst in goidelic the sound remained unaltered. q is retained in the earlier ogham inscriptions, but by the end of the seventh century it had lost the labial element, appearing in old irish as c. thus o. irish _cenn_, head, as in kenmare, kintyre, kinsale, equates with brythonic _pen_, as in penryn (cornwall), penrhyn (wales), penkridge (staffordshire), penruddock, penrith and many others. the two groups are therefore distinguished as the q celts and the p celts[ ]. from the fact that goidelic retained the q it has been commonly assumed that the goidels were separated from the main celtic stock at a time before the labialisation had taken place, but many scholars maintain that the parent goidelic was evolved in ireland, and was carried from that island to man and scotland in the early centuries of our era[ ]. from an anthropological point of view, the picts are if possible more difficult to identify than the celts. but the question is not between tall fair long-heads and short dark round-heads, but between short dark long-heads (neolithic aborigines) and celts. the pictish question is summed up by rice holmes[ ] and the various theories have been more recently reviewed by windisch[ ] giving a valuable summary of earlier writings. on the one hand it is maintained as "the most tenable hypothesis that the picts were non-aryans, whom the first celtic migrations found already settled here ... descendants of the aborigines[ ]." windisch[ ] at the other extreme, regards them as late comers into north britain, when scotland was already occupied by brythonic tribes. but the geographical distribution of the picts in historical times suggests rather a people driven into mountainous regions by successive conquerors, than the settlements of successful invaders. also it is not improbable that the language of the bronze age lingered in these wilder districts, and this would account for the fact that st columba had to employ an interpreter in his relations with the picts; though this is explained by others on the assumption that pictish was brythonic. the linguistic evidence is however extremely slight, only a few words presumably pictish having survived and these through celtic writers. "the one absolutely certain conclusion to which the student of ethnology can come is that the name of the picts has not been proved to be of pre-aryan origin[ ]." "for me," continues rice holmes (p. ), "the picts were a mixed people comprising descendants of the neolithic aborigines, of the round barrow race, and of the celtic invaders--a mixed people who [or at least whose aristocracy] spoke a celtic dialect." before attempting a survey of the ethnology of britain it is necessary to ascertain what ethnic elements the area contained before the arrival of the celts. the neolithic inhabitants, the short, dark dolichocephals of mediterranean type have already been described (ch. xiii.). their remains are associated with the characteristic forms of sepulchral monuments the dolmens and the long barrows. but towards the end of the stone age a brachycephalic race was already penetrating into the islands. this appears to have been a peaceful infiltration, at any rate in certain districts, where remains of the two types are found side by side and there is evidence of racial intermixture. the brachycephals introduced a new form of sepulture, making their burial mounds circular instead of elongated, whence thurnam's convenient formula, "long barrow, long skull; round barrow, round skull." but the earlier view that there was a definite transition from long heads, neolithic culture and long barrows, to round heads, bronze culture and round barrows can no longer be maintained. "it is often taken for granted that no round barrows were erected in britain before the close of the neolithic age, and that the earliest of the brachycephalic invaders whose remains have been found in them landed with bronze weapons in their hands[ ]." but there is abundant evidence that the brachycephalic element preceded the knowledge of metals, and a number of round barrows in yorkshire and further north show no trace of bronze. nevertheless the majority of the round barrows belong to the bronze age, and the physical type of their builders is sufficiently well marked. the stature is remarkably tall, attaining a height of . m. or over ft. ins. the skull is brachycephalic with an average index of about . it is also characterised by great strength and ruggedness of outline, with (often) a sloping forehead, prominent supraciliary ridges, and a certain degree of prognathism. according to rolleston's description "the eyebrows must have given a beetling and probably even formidable appearance to the upper part of the face, whilst the boldly outstanding and heavy cheekbones must have produced an impression of raw and rough strength. overhung at its root, the nose must have projected boldly forward." and thurnam adds "the prominence of the large incisor and canine teeth is so great as to give an almost bestial expression to the skull[ ]." although this type is conveniently called the round barrow type, or even the round barrow race, the round barrows also contain remains of a different racial character. the skull form shows a more extreme brachycephaly, with an index of or , and exhibits none of the rugged features associated with the true round barrow type. on the contrary, of the two typical groups, one from round barrows in glamorganshire, and the other from short cists in aberdeenshire not one of the skulls is prognathous, the supraciliary ridges are but slightly developed, the cheek bones are not prominent, the face is both broad and short and the lower jaw is small. but the greatest contrast is in the height, which averages in the two groups, . m. and . m. respectively, _i.e._ ft. - / ins. and ft. ins. all these characters connect this type closely with the alpine type on the continent. these round-headed peoples have been the subject of much discussion ably summarised and criticised by rice holmes, whose conclusion perhaps best represents the view now taken of their affinities and origins. "the great mistake that has been made in discussing the question is the not uncommon assumption that the brachycephalic immigrants who buried their dead in round barrows arrived in britain at one time, and came from one place. some of them certainly appeared before the end of the neolithic age: others may have introduced bronze implements or ornaments; others doubtless came, in successive hordes, during the course of the bronze age. some of those who belonged to the grenelle race [alpine type], who certainly came from eastern europe and possibly from asia, and whose centre of dispersion was the alpine region, may have started from gaul; others could have traced their origin to some rhenish tribe; and i am inclined to believe that those who belonged to the characteristic rugged round barrow type crossed over, for the most part, from denmark or the out-lying islands[ ]." after the passage of the romans, who mingled little with the aborigines and made, perhaps, but slight impression on the speech or type of the british populations, a great transformation was effected in these respects by the arrival of the historical teutonic tribes. hand in hand with the teutonic invasions went a lust for expansion on the part of the peoples in ireland. settlements were effected by them in south wales and anglesey, the isle of man and argyll, probably also in north devon and cornwall. for many generations the south and east of england were the scenes of fierce struggles, during which the romano-british civilisation perished. only in more inaccessible districts, such as the fen country, may a british population have survived, though celtic languages are not yet dislodged from their mountain strongholds in wales and scotland, and lingered for many centuries in strathclyde and cornwall. after the strengthening of the teutonic element by the arrival of the scandinavians and normans, all very much of the same physical type, no serious accessions were made to this composite ethnical group, which on the east side ranged uninterruptedly from the channel to the grampians. later the expansion was continued northwards beyond the grampians, and westwards through strathclyde to ireland, while now the spread of education and the development of the industries are already threatening to absorb the last strongholds of celtic speech in wales, the highlands, and ireland. thanks to its isolation in the extreme west, ireland had been left untouched by some of the above described ethnical movements. it is doubtful whether palaeolithic man ever reached this region, and but few even of the round-heads ranged so far west during the bronze age[ ]. the land oscillations during post-glacial times appear to have been practically identical over an area including northern ireland, the southern half of scotland, and northern england. there was a period of depression followed by one of elevation. the larne beach-deposits prove that neolithic man was in existence from almost the beginning of the deposition of that series until after its conclusion. the estuarine clays of belfast lough correspond to the depression, and the neolithic period extended from at least near the top of the lower estuarine clay to the beach-deposit of yellow sand which overlies it, or possibly till later. it is to this period of elevation that the neolithic sites among the sand dunes of north ireland belong; those of whitepark bay and portstewart, for example, extend to the maximum elevation. a slight movement of subsidence of about five feet in recent times has left the surface as we now find it. the implements found in the larne gravels correspond to some extent with those of danish kitchen-middens; this was not a dwelling site but a quarry-shop or roughing-out place, the serviceable flakes being taken away for further manipulation; it thus belongs to the earliest phase of neolithic times. the sandhill sites were occupied, continuously and occasionally, during neolithic times, through the bronze age, and into the iron and christian periods[ ]. nina f. layard has recently studied the larne raised beach and exposed a new section. she states that "taken as a whole the flints certainly do not correspond at all closely either to the palæoliths or neoliths so far found in england.... some are strongly reminiscent of well-known drift type.... again, there are shapes that bear a closer resemblance to some of the earliest neolithic types[ ]." she believes that, from their rolled condition, they were derived from another source. f. j. bigger[ ] described some kitchen-middens at portnafeadog, near roundstone, connemara, which yielded stone hammers but no worked flints, pottery or metal-ware. the chief interest of this paper is due to the fact that it is the first record of the occurrence of vast quantities of the shells of _purpura lapillus_, all of which were broken in such a manner that the animal could easily be extracted. there can be no doubt that the purple dye was manufactured here in prehistoric times[ ]. w. j. knowles[ ] suggests from the close resemblance--in fact identity--of a great number of neolithic objects in ireland with palaeolithic forms in france (saint-acheul, moustier, solutré, la madeleine types), that the irish objects bridge over the gap between the two ages, and were worked by tribes from the continent following the migration of the reindeer northwards. these peoples may have continued to make tools of palaeolithic types, while at the same time coming under the influence of the neolithic culture gradually arriving from some southern region. the astonishing development of this neolithic culture in the remote island on the confines of the west, as illustrated in w. c. borlase's sumptuous volumes[ ], is a perpetual wonder, but is rendered less inexplicable if we assume an immense duration of the new stone age in the british isles. the irish dolmen-builders were presumably of the same long-headed stock as those of britain[ ], and they were followed by celtic-speaking goidels who may have come directly from the continent[ ], and there is evidence in ptolemy and elsewhere of the presence of brythonic tribes from gaul in the east. since these early historic times the intruders have been almost exclusively of teutonic race, and viking invaders from norway and denmark founded the earliest towns such as dublin, waterford and limerick. now all alike, save for an almost insignificant and rapidly dwindling minority, have assumed the speech of the english and lowland scotch intruders, who began to arrive late in the th century, and are now chiefly massed in ulster, leinster, and all the large towns. the rich and highly poetic irish language has a copious medieval literature of the utmost importance to students of european origins. in scotland few ethnical changes or displacements have occurred since the colonisation of portions of the west by gaelic-speaking scottic tribes from ireland, and the english (angle) occupation of the lothians. the grampians have during historic times formed the main ethnical divide between the two elements, and brooklets which can be taken at a leap are shown where the opposite banks have for hundreds of years been respectively held by formerly hostile, but now friendly communities of gaelic and broad scotch speech. here the chief intruders have been scandinavians, whose descendants may still be recognised in caithness, the hebrides, and the orkney and shetland groups. faint echoes of the old norrena tongue are said still to linger amongst the sturdy shetlanders, whose assimilation to the dominant race began only after their transfer from norway to the crown of scotland. since the researches of gray and tocher[ ] on the pigmentation of some , school children of scotland have increased our information as to racial distribution. the average percentage of boys with fair hair is nearly for the whole of the country, and when this is compared with in schleswig holstein "we are driven to the conclusion that the pure norse or anglo-saxon element in our population is by no means predominant. there is evidently also a dark or brunette element which is at least equal in amount and probably greater than that of the norse element" (p. ). pure blue eyes for the whole of scotland average . per cent., which may be compared with . in prussia. the greatest density for fair hair and eyes is to be found in the great river valleys opening on to the german ocean, and also in the western isles. the tweed, forth, tay and don all show indications of settlements of a blonde race "probably due to anglo-saxon invasions," but the maximum is to be found at the mouth of the spey. the high percentage here and in the hebrides and opposite coasts, the authors trace to viking invasions. the percentage of dark hair for boys and girls is . as compared with . in prussian school children, the maximum density as we should expect being in the west. jet black hair ( . %) has its maximum density in the central highlands and wild west coast. beddoe[ ] commenting on gray and tocher's results calculates an even higher percentage of black hair (over %) "either within or astride of the highland frontier. except paisley, there is not a single instance south of the forth, nor one between the spey and the firth of tay. surely there is something 'racial' here." beddoe's map, constructed from gray and tocher's statistics, clearly indicates the distribution of racial types. the work carried on in wales for a number of years by h. j. fleure and t. c. james[ ] has produced some extremely interesting results. the chief types (based on measurements and observations of head, face, nose, skin, hair and eye colour, stature, etc.) fall into the following groups. . "the fundamental type is certainly the long-headed brunet of the moorlands and their inland valleys. he is universally recognised as belonging to the mediterranean race of sergi and as dating back in this country to early neolithic times." the cephalic index is about , with high colouring, dark hair and eyes, and stature rather below the average. a possible mixture of earlier stocks is shown in a longer-headed type (c.i. about ), with well-marked occiput, very dark hair and eyes, swarthy complexion, and average stature (about mm. = ft. - / ins.). occasionally in north wales the occurrence of lank black hair, a sallow complexion and prominent cheekbones suggests a "mongoloid" type; and a type with small stature, black, closely curled hair and a rather broad nose has negroid reminiscences. the plynlymon moorlands contain a "nest" of extreme dolichocephaly and an unusually high percentage of red hair. . nordic-alpine type, with cephalic index mainly between and . this group includes (_a_) a "local version of the nordic type" occurring at newcastle emlyn and in south and south-west pembrokeshire with fair hair and eyes, usually tall stature and great strength of brow, jaw and chin; (_b_) a heavier variant on the welsh border, often with cephalic index above , and extremely tall stature; (_c_) the borreby or beaker-maker type, broad-headed and short-faced with darker pigmentation, probably a cross between alpine and nordic, characteristic of the long cleft from corwen _via_ bala to tabyllyn and towyn. . dark bullet-headed short thick-set men of the general type denoted by the term alpine or more exactly perhaps by the term cevenole are found, though not commonly, in north montgomeryshire valleys. . powerfully built, often intensely dark, broad-headed, broad-faced, strong and square jawed men are characteristic of the ardudwy coast, the south glamorgan coast, newquay district (cardiganshire) and elsewhere. the authors observe that type with its variations contributes "considerable numbers to the ministries of the various churches, possibly in part from inherent and racial leanings, but partly also because these are the people of the moorlands. the idealism of such people usually expresses itself in music, poetry, literature and religion rather than in architecture, painting and plastic arts generally. they rarely have a sufficiency of material resources for the latter activities. these types also contribute a number of men to the medical profession.... the successful commercial men, who have given the welsh their extraordinarily prominent place in british trade (shipping firms for example) usually belong to types or , rather than to , as also do the majority of welsh members of parliament, though there are exceptions of the first importance. the nordic type is marked by ingenuity and enterprise in striking out new lines. type (_c_) in wales is remarkable for governmental ability of the administrative kind as well as for independence of thought and critical power" (p. ). we have now all the elements needed to unravel the ethnical tangle of the present inhabitants of the british isles. the astonishing prevalence everywhere of the moderately dolicho heads is at once explained by the absence of brachy immigrants except in the bronze period, and these could do no more than raise the cephalic index from about or to the present mean of about . with the other perhaps less stable characters the case is not always quite so simple. the brunettes, representing the mediterranean type, certainly increase, as we should expect, from north-east to south-west, though even here there is a considerable dark patch, due to local causes, in the home shires about london[ ]. but the stature, almost everywhere a troublesome factor, seems to wander somewhat lawlessly over the land. although a short stature more or less coincides with brunetteness in england and wales, and the observations in ireland are too few to be relied on, no such parallelism can be traced in scotland. the west (inverness and argyllshire), though as dark as south wales, shows an average stature of . m. to . m. ( ft. ins. to ft. - / ins.), which is higher than the average for the whole of britain. and south-west scotland, where the type is fairly dark, contains the tallest population in europe, if not in the world. ripley suggests either that "some ethnic element of which no pure trace remains, served to increase the stature of the western highlanders without at the same time conducing to blondness; or else some local influences of natural selection or environment are responsible for it[ ]"; and he hints also that the linguistic distinction between gaels and brythons may have been associated with physical variation. the english tongue need not detain us long. its qualities, illustrated in the noblest of all literatures, are patent to the world[ ], indeed have earned for it from jacob grimm the title of _welt-sprache_, the "world speech." it belongs, as might be anticipated from the northern origin of the teutonic element in britain, to the low german division of the teutonic branch of the aryan family. despite extreme pressure from norman french, continued for over years ( - ), it has remained faithful to this connection in its inner structure, which reveals not a trace of neo-latin influences. the phonetic system has undergone profound changes, which can be only indirectly and to a small extent due to french action. what english owes to french and latin is a very large number, many thousands, of words, some superadded to, some superseding their saxon equivalents, but altogether immensely increasing its wealth of expression, while giving it a transitional position between the somewhat sharply contrasted germanic and romance worlds. amongst the romance peoples, that is, the french, spaniards, portuguese, italians, rumanians, many swiss and belgians, who were entirely assimilated in speech and largely in their civil institutions to their roman masters, the paramount position, a sort of international hegemony, has been taken by the french nation since the decadence of spain under the feeble successors of philip ii. the constituent elements of these gallo-romans, as they may be called, are much the same as those of the british peoples, but differ in their distribution and relative proportions. thus the iberians (aquitani, pictones, and later vascones), who may perhaps be identified with the neolithic long-heads[ ], do not appear ever to have ranged much farther north than brittany, and were aryanised in pre-roman times by the p-speaking celts everywhere north of the garonne. the prehistoric teutons again, who had advanced beyond the rhine at an early period (caesar says _antiquitus_) into the present belgium, were mainly confined to the northern provinces. even the historic teutons (chiefly franks and burgundians) penetrated little beyond the seine in the north and the present burgundy in the east, while the vandals, visigoths and a few others passed rapidly through to iberia beyond the pyrenees. thus the greater part of the land, say from the seine-marne basin to the mediterranean, continued to be held by the romanised mass of alpine type throughout all the central and most of the southern provinces, and elsewhere in the south by the romanised long-headed mediterranean type. this great preponderance of the romanised alpine masses explains the rapid absorption of the teutonic intruders, who were all, except the fleming section of the belgae, completely assimilated to the gallo-romans before the close of the tenth century. it also explains the perhaps still more remarkable fact that the norsemen who settled ( ) under rollo in normandy were all practically frenchmen when a few generations later they followed their duke william to the conquest of saxon england. thus the only intractable groups have proved to be the basques[ ] and the bretons, both of whom to this day retain their speech in isolated corners of the country. with these exceptions the whole of france, save the debateable area of alsace-lorraine, presents in its speech a certain homogeneous character, the standard language (_langue d'oil_[ ]) being current throughout all the northern and central provinces, while it is steadily gaining upon the southern form (_langue d'oc_[ ]) still surviving in the rural districts of limousin and provence. but pending a more thorough fusion of such tenacious elements as basques, bretons, auvergnats, and savoyards, we can scarcely yet speak of a common french type, but only of a common nationality. tall stature, long skulls, fair or light brown colour, grey or blue eyes, still prevail, as might be expected, in the north, these being traits common alike to the prehistoric belgae, the franks of the merovingian and carlovingian empires, and rollo's norsemen. with these contrast the southern peoples of short stature, olive-brown skin, round heads, dark brown or black eyes and hair. the tendency towards uniformity has proceeded far more rapidly in the urban than in the rural districts. hence the citizens of paris, lyons, bordeaux, marseilles and other large towns, present fewer and less striking contrasts than the natives of the old historical provinces, where are still distinguished the loquacious and mendacious gascon, the pliant and versatile basque, the slow and wary norman, the dreamy and fanatical breton, the quick and enterprising burgundian, and the bright, intelligent, more even-tempered native of touraine, a typical frenchman occupying the heart of the land, and holding, as it were, the balance between all the surrounding elements. in spain and portugal we have again the same ethnological elements, but also again in different proportions and differently distributed, with others superadded--proto-phoenicians and later phoenicians (carthaginians), romans, visigoths, vandals, and still later berbers and arabs. here the celtic-speaking mixed peoples mingled in prehistoric times with the long-headed mediterraneans, an ethnical fusion known to the ancients, who labelled it "keltiberian[ ]." but, as in britain, the other intruders were mostly long-heads, with the striking result that the peninsula presents to-day exactly the same uniform cranial type as the british isles. even the range ( to ) and the mean ( ) of the cephalic index are the same, rising in spain to only in the basque corner. as ripley states, "the average cephalic index of occurs nowhere else so uniformly distributed in europe" except in norway, and this uniformity "is the concomitant and index of two relatively pure, albeit widely different, ethnic types--mediterranean in spain, teutonic in norway[ ]." in other respects the social, one might almost say the national, groups are both more numerous and perhaps even more sharply discriminated in the peninsula than in france. besides the basques and portuguese, the latter with a considerable strain of negro blood[ ], we have such very distinct populations as the haughty and punctilious castilians, who under an outward show of pride and honour, are capable of much meanness; the sprightly and vainglorious andalusians, who have been called the gascons of spain, yet of graceful address and seductive manners; the morose and impassive murcians, indolent because fatalists; the gay valencians given to much dancing and revelry, but also to sudden fits of murderous rage, holding life so cheap that they will hire themselves out as assassins, and cut their bread with the blood-stained knife of their last victim; the dull and superstitious aragonese, also given to bloodshed, and so obdurate that they are said to "drive nails in with their heads"; lastly the catalans, noisy and quarrelsome, but brave, industrious, and enterprising, on the whole the best element in this motley aggregate of unbalanced temperaments. the various aspects of spanish temperament are regarded by havelock ellis[ ] as manifestations of an aboriginally primitive race, which, under the stress of a peculiarly stimulating and yet hardening environment, has retained through every stage of development an unusual degree of the endowment of fresh youth, of elemental savagery, with which it started. this explains the fine qualities of spain and her defects, the splendid initiative, and lack of sustained ability to carry it out, the importance of the point of honour and the glorification of the primitive virtue of valour. in italy the past and present relations, as elucidated especially by livi and sergi, may be thus briefly stated. after the first stone age, of which there are fewer indications than might be expected[ ], the whole land was thickly settled by dark long-headed mediterranean peoples in neolithic times. these were later joined by pelasgians of like type from greece, and by illyrians of doubtful affinity from the balkan peninsula. indeed c. penka[ ], who has so many paradoxical theories, makes the illyrians the first inhabitants of italy, as shown by the striking resemblance of the _terramara_ culture of aemilia with that of the venetian and laibach pile-dwellings. the recent finds in bosnia also[ ], besides the historically proved (?) migration of the siculi from upper italy to sicily, and their illyrian origin, all point in the same direction. but the facts are differently interpreted by sergi[ ], who holds that the whole land was occupied by the mediterraneans, because we find even in switzerland pile-dwellers of the same type[ ]. then came the peoples of aryan speech, celtic-speaking alpines from the north-west and slavs from the north-east, who raised the cephalic index in the north, where the brachy element, as already seen, still greatly predominates but diminishes steadily southwards[ ]. they occupied the whole of umbria, which at first stretched across the peninsula from the adriatic to the mediterranean, but was later encroached upon by the intruding etruscans on the west side. then also some of these umbrians, migrating southwards to latium beyond the tiber, intermingled, says sergi, with the italic (ligurian) aborigines, and became the founders of the roman state[ ]. with the spread of the roman arms the latin language, which sergi claims to be a kind of aryanised ligurian, but must be regarded as a true member of the aryan family, was diffused throughout the whole of the peninsula and islands, sweeping away all traces not only of the original ligurian and other mediterranean tongues, but also of etruscan and its own sister languages, such as umbrian, oscan, and sabellian. at the fall of the empire the land was overrun by ostrogoths, heruli, and other teutons, none of whom formed permanent settlements except the longobards, who gave their name to the present lombardy, but were themselves rapidly assimilated in speech and general culture to the surrounding populations, whom we may now call italians in the modern sense of the term. when it is remembered that the aegean culture had spread to italy at an early date, that it was continued under hellenic influences by etruscans and umbrians, that greek arts and letters were planted on italian soil (_magna graecia_) before the foundation of rome, that all these civilisations converged in rome itself and were thence diffused throughout the west, that the traditions of previous cultural epochs never died out, acquired new life with the renascence and were thus perpetuated to the present day, it may be claimed for the gifted italian people that they have been for a longer period than any others under the unbroken sway of general humanising influences. these "latin peoples," as they are called because they all speak languages of the latin stock, are not confined to the west. to the italian, french, spanish, portuguese, with the less known and ruder walloon of belgium and romansch of switzerland, tyrol, and friuli, must be associated the _rumanian_ current amongst some nine millions of so-called "daco-rumanians" in moldavia and wallachia, _i.e._ the modern kingdom of rumania. the same neo-latin tongue is also spoken by the _tsintsars_ or _kutzo-vlacks_[ ] of the mount pindus districts in the balkan peninsula, and by numerous rumanians who have in later times migrated into hungary. they form a compact and vigorous nationality, who claim direct descent from the roman military colonists settled north of the lower danube by trajan after his conquest of the dacians ( a.d.). but great difficulties attach to this theory, which is rejected by many ethnologists, especially on the ground that, after trajan's time, dacia was repeatedly swept clean by the huns, the finns, the avars, magyars and other rude mongolo-turki hordes, besides many almost ruder slavic peoples during the many centuries when the eastern populations were in a state of continual flux after the withdrawal of the roman legionaries from the lower danube. besides, it is shown by roesler[ ] and others that under aurelian ( a.d.) trajan's colonists withdrew bodily southwards to and beyond the hemus to the territory of the old bessi (thracians), _i.e._ the district still occupied by the macedo-rumanians. but in the th century, during the break-up of the byzantine empire, most of these fugitives were again driven north to their former seats beyond the danube, where they have ever since held their ground, and constituted themselves a distinct and far from feeble branch of the neo-latin community. the pindus, therefore, rather than the carpathians, is to be taken as the last area of dispersion of these valiant and intelligent descendants of the daco-romans. this seems the most rational solution of what a. d. xenopol calls "an historic enigma," although he himself rejects roesler's conclusions in favour of the old view so dear to the national pride of the present rumanian people[ ]. the composite character of the rumanian language--fundamentally neo-latin or rather early italian, with strong illyrian (albanian) and slav affinities--would almost imply that dacia had never been romanised under the empire, and that in fact this region was _for the first time_ occupied by its present romance speaking inhabitants in the th century[ ]. the nomadic life of the rumanians is in itself, as peisker points out[ ], a refutation of their descent from settled roman colonists, and indicates a central asiatic origin. the mounted nomads grazed during the summer "on most of the mountains of the balkan peninsula, and took up their winter quarters on the sea-coasts among a peasant population speaking a different language. thence they gradually spread, unnoticed by the chroniclers, along all the mountain ranges, over all the carpathians of transylvania, north hungary, and south galicia, to moravia; towards the north-west from montenegro onwards over herzegovina, bosnia, istria, as far as south styria; towards the south over albania far into greece.... and like the peasantry among which they wintered (and winter) long enough, they became (and become) after a transitory bilingualism, greeks, albanians, servians, bulgarians, ruthenians, poles, slovaks, chekhs, slovenes, croatians ... a mobile nomad stratum among a strange-tongued and more numerous peasant element, and not till later did they gradually take to agriculture and themselves become settled." the pelasgians and minoan civilisation have been briefly discussed above (ch. xiii.). later problems in greek ethnology are still under dispute. sergi, who regards the proto-aryans as round-headed barbarians of celtic, slav, and teutonic speech, makes no exception in favour of the hellenes. these also enter greece not as civilisers, but rather as destroyers of the flourishing mykenaean culture developed here, as in italy, by the mediterranean aborigines. but in course of time the intruders become absorbed in the pelasgic or eastern branch of the mediterraneans, and what we call hellenism is really pelasgianism revived, and to some extent modified by the aryan (hellenic) element. if it may be allowed that at their advent the hellenes were less civilised than the native aegeans on whom they imposed their aryan speech, whence and when came they? by penka[ ], for whom the baltic lands would be the original home not merely of the germanic branch but of all the aryans, the hellenic cradle is located in the oder basin between the elbe and the vistula. as the doric, doubtless the last greek irruption into hellas, is chronologically fixed at b.c., the beginning of the hellenic migrations may be dated back to the th century. when the hellenes migrated from central europe to greece, the period of the general ethnic dispersion was already closed, and the migratory period which next followed began with the hellenes, and was continued by the itali, gauls, germans, etc. the difficulties created by this view are insurmountable. thus we should have to suppose that from this relatively contracted aryan cradle countless tribes swarmed over europe since the th century b.c., speaking profoundly different languages (greek, celtic, latin, etc.), all differentiated since that time on the shores of the baltic. the proto-aryans with their already specialised tongues had reached the shores of the mediterranean long before that time and, according to maspero[ ], were known to the egyptians of the th dynasty ( - b.c.) if not earlier. allowing that these may have rather been pre-hellenes (pelasgians), we still know that the achaeans had traditionally arrived about b.c. and they were already speaking the language of homer. "the indications of archaeology and of legend agree marvellously well with those of the egyptian records," says h. r. hall[ ], "in making the third late minoan period one of incessant disturbance.... the whole basin of the eastern mediterranean seems to have been a seething turmoil of migrations, expulsions, wars and piracies, started first by the mycenaean (achaian) conquest of crete, and then intensified by the constant impulse of the northern iron-users into greece." herodotus speaks of the great invasion of the thesprotian tribes from beyond pindus, which took place probably in the th century b.c.[ ] as a result "an overwhelming aryan and iron-using population was first brought into greece. the earlier achaian (?) tribes of aryans in thessaly, who had perhaps lived there from time immemorial, and had probably already infiltrated southwards to form the mixed ionian population about the isthmus, were scattered, only a small portion of the nation remaining in its original home, while of the rest part conquered the south and another part emigrated across the sea to the phrygian coast. of this emigration to asia the first event must have been the war of troy.... the boeotian and achaian invasion of the south scattered the minyae, pelasgians, and ionians. the remnant of the minyae emigrated to lemnos, the pelasgi and ionians were concentrated in attica and another body of ionians in the later achaia, while the southern achaeans pressed forward into the peloponnese[ ]." it is evident from the national traditions that the proto-greeks did not arrive _en bloc_, but rather at intervals in separate and often hostile bands bearing different names. but all these groups--achaeans, danai, argians, dolopes, myrmidons, leleges and many others, some of which were also found in asia minor--retained a strong sense of their common origin. the sentiment, which may be called racial rather than national, received ultimate expression when to all of them was extended the collective name of hellenes (sellenes originally), that is, descendants of deucalion's son hellen, whose two sons aeolus and dorus, and grandson ion, were supposed to be the progenitors of the aeolians, dorians, and ionians. but such traditions are merely reminiscences of times when the tribal groupings still prevailed, and it may be taken for granted that the three main branches of the hellenic stock did not spring from a particular family that rose to power in comparatively recent times in the thessalian district of phthiotis. whatever truth may lie behind the hellenic legend, it is highly probable that, at the time when hellen is said to have flourished (about b.c.), the aeolic-speaking communities of thessaly, arcadia, boeotia, the closely-allied dorians[ ] of phocaea, argos, and laconia, and the ionians of attica, had already been clearly specialised, had in fact formed special groups before entering greece. later their dialects, after acquiring a certain polish and leaving some imperishable records of the many-sided greek genius, were gradually merged in the literary neo-ionic or attic, which thus became the [greek: koinê dialektos], or current speech of the greek world. admirable alike for its manifold aptitudes and surprising vitality, the language of aeschylus, thucydides, and the other great athenians outlived all the vicissitudes of the byzantine empire, during which it was for a time banished from southern greece, and even still survives, although in a somewhat degraded form, in the romaic or neo-hellenic tongue of modern hellas. romaic, a name which recalls a time when the byzantines were known as "romans" throughout the east, differs far less from the classical standard than do any of the romance tongues from latin. since the restoration of greek independence great efforts have been made to revive the old language in all its purity, and some modern writers now compose in a style differing little from that of the classic period. yet the hellenic race itself has almost perished on the mainland. traces of the old greek type have been detected by lenormant and others, especially amongst the women of patras and missolonghi. but within living memory attica was still an albanian land, and fallmerayer has conclusively shown that the peloponnesus and adjacent districts had become thoroughly slavonised during the th and th centuries[ ]. "for many centuries," writes the careful roesler, "the greek peninsula served as a colonial domain for the slavs, receiving the overflow of their population from the sarmatian lowlands[ ]." their presence is betrayed in numerous geographical terms, such as _varsova_ in arcadia, _glogova_, _tsilikhova_, etc. nevertheless, since the revival of the hellenic sentiment there has been a steady flow of greek immigration from the archipelago and anatolia; and the albanian, slav, italian, turkish, rumanian, and norman elements have in modern greece already become almost completely hellenised, at least in speech. of the old dialects doric alone appears to have survived in the tsaconic of the laconian hills. the greek language has, however, disappeared from southern italy, sicily, syria, and the greater part of egypt and asia minor, where it was long dominant. to understand the appearance of slavs in the peloponnesus we must go back to the eurasian steppe, the probable cradle of these multitudinous populations. here they have often been confused with the ancient sarmatae, who already before the dawn of history were in possession of the south russian plains between the scythians towards the east and the proto-germanic tribes before their migration to the baltic lands. but even at that time, before the close of the neolithic age, there must have been interminglings, if not with the western teutons, almost certainly with the eastern scythians, which helps to explain the generally vague character of the references made by classical writers both to the sarmatians and the scythians, who sometimes seem to be indistinguishable from savage mongol hordes, and at others are represented as semi-cultured peoples, such as the aryans of the bronze period might have been round about the district of olbia and the other early miletian settlements on the northern shores of the euxine. owing to these early crossings andré lefèvre goes so far as to say that "there is no slav race[ ]," but only nations of divers more or less pure types, more or less crossed, speaking dialects of the same language, who later received the name of slavs, borne by a prehistoric tribe of _sarmatians_, and meaning "renowned," "illustrious[ ]." both their language and mythologies, continues lefèvre, point to the vast region near irania as the primeval home of the slav, as of the celtic and germanic populations. the sauromatae or sarmatae of herodotus[ ], who had given their name to the mass of slav or slavonised peoples, still dwelt north of the caucasus and south of the _budini_ between the caspian, the don and sea of azov; "after crossing the tanais (don) we are no longer in scythia; we begin to enter the lands of the sauromatae, who, starting from the angle of the palus moeotis (sea of azov), occupy a space of days' march, where are neither trees, fruit-trees, nor savages. above the tract fallen to them the budini occupy another district, which is overgrown with all kinds of trees[ ]." then herodotus seems to identify these sarmatians with the scythians, whence all the subsequent doubts and confusion. both spoke the same language, of which seven distinct dialects are mentioned, yet a number of personal names preserved by the greeks have a certain iranic look, so that these scythian tongues seem to have been really aryan, forming a transition between the asiatic and the european branches of the family. the probable explanation is that the scythians[ ] were a horde which came down from upper asia, conquered an iranian-speaking people, and in time adopted the speech of its subjects. e. h. minns[ ] suggests that the settled scythians represent the remains of the iranian population, and the nomads the conquering peoples. these were displaced later by the sarmatians, and scythia becomes merely a geographical term. skulls dug up in scythic graves throw no light on racial affinities, some being long, and some short, but in customs there is a close analogy with the mongols, though, as minns points out, "the natural conditions of steppe-ranging dictated the greater part of them." both slav and germanic tribes had probably in remote times penetrated up the danube and the volga, while some of the former under the name of _wends_ (venedi[ ]), appear to have reached the carpathians and the baltic shores down the vistula. the movement was continued far into medieval times, when great overlappings took place, and when numerous slav tribes, some still known as wends, others as _sorbs_, _croats_, or _chekhs_, ranged over central europe to pomerania and beyond the upper elbe to suabia. most of these have long been teutonised, but a few of the _polabs_[ ] survive as wends in prussian and saxon lausatz, while the chekhs and _slovaks_ still hold their ground in bohemia and moravia, as the _poles_ do in posen and the vistula valley, and the _rusniaks_ or _ruthenes_ with the closely allied "little russians," in the carpathians, galicia, and ukrania. it was from the carpathian[ ] lands that came those _yugo-slavs_ ("southern slavs") who, under the collective name of sorbs (serbs, servians), moved southwards beyond the danube, and overran a great part of the balkan peninsula and nearly the whole of greece in the th and th centuries. they were the khorvats[ ] or khrobats[ ] from the upland valleys of the oder and vistula, whom, after his persian wars, heraclius invited to settle in the wasted provinces south of the danube, hoping, as nadir shah did later with the kurds in khorasan, to make them a northern bulwark of the empire against the incursions of the avars and other mongolo-turki hordes. thus was formed the first permanent settlement of the yugo-slavs in croatia, istria, dalmatia, bosnia, and the nerenta valley in , under the five brothers klukas, lobol, kosentses, múkl, and khrobat, with their sisters tuga and buga. these were followed by the kindred srp (sorb) tribes from the elbe, who left their homes in misnia and lusatia, and received as their patrimony the whole region between macedonia and epirus, dardania, upper moesia, the dacia of aurelian, and illyria, _i.e._ bosnia and servia. the lower danube was at the same time occupied by the _severenses_, "seven nations," also slavs, who reached to the foot of the hemus beyond the present varna. nothing could stem this great slav inundation, which soon overflowed into macedonia (rumelia), thessaly, and peloponnesus, so that for a time nearly the whole of the balkan lands, from the danube to the mediterranean, became a slav domain--parts of illyria and epirus (albania) with the greek districts about constantinople alone excepted. hellas, as above seen, has recovered itself, and the _albanians_[ ], direct descendants of the ancient illyrians, still hold their ground and keep alive the last echoes of the old illyrian language, which was almost certainly a proto-aryan form of speech probably intermediate, as above-mentioned, between the italic and hellenic branches. they even retain the old tribal system, so that there are not only two main sections, the northern _ghegs_ and the southern _toshks_, but each section is divided into a number of minor groups[ ], such as the malliesors (klementi, pulati, hoti, etc.) and mirdites (dibri, fandi, matia, etc.) in the north, and the toxides (whence toshk) and the yapides (lapides) in the south. the southerners are mainly orthodox greeks, and in other respects half-hellenised epirotes, the northerners partly moslem and partly roman catholics of the latin rite. from this section came chiefly those albanians who, after the death ( ) of their valiant champion, george castriota (_scanderbeg_, "alexander the great"), fled from turkish oppression and formed numerous settlements, especially in calabria and sicily, and still retain their national traditions. in their original homes, located by some between the bug and the dnieper, the slavs have not only recovered from the fierce mongolo-turki and finn tornadoes, by which the eastern steppes were repeatedly swept for over years after the building of the great wall, but have in recent historic times displayed a prodigious power of expansion second only to that of the british peoples. the _russians_ (great, little, and white russians), whose political empire now stretches continuously from the baltic to the pacific, have already absorbed nearly all the mongol elements in east europe, have founded compact settlements in caucasia and west siberia, and have thrown off numerous pioneer groups of colonists along all the highways of trade and migration, and down the great fluvial arteries between the ob and the amur estuary. they number collectively over millions, with a domain of some nine million square miles. the majority belong to deniker's eastern race[ ] (a variety of the alpine type), being blond, sub-brachycephalic and short, . m. ( ft. - / ins.). the little russians in the south on the black mould belt are more brachycephalic and have darker colouring and taller stature. the white russians in the west between poland and lithuania are the fairest of all. we need not be detained by the controversy carried on between sergi and zaborowski regarding a prehistoric spread of the mediterranean race to russia[ ]. the skulls from several of the old kurgans, identified by sergi with his mediterranean type, have not been sufficiently determined as to date or cultural periods to decide the question, while their dolicho shape is common both to the mediterraneans and to the proto-aryans of the north european type[ ]. to this stock the proto-slavs are affiliated by zaborowski and many others[ ], although the present slavs are all distinctly round-headed. ripley asks, almost in despair, what is to be done with the present slav element, and decides to apply "the term _homo alpinus_ to this broad-headed group wherever it occurs, whether on mountains or plains, in the west or in the east[ ]." we are beset by the same difficulties as we pass with the _ossets_ of the caucasus into the iranian and indian domains of the proto-aryan peoples. these ossets, who are the only aborigines of aryan speech in caucasia, are by zaborowski[ ] identified with the alans, who are already mentioned in the st century a.d. and were scythians of iranian speech, blonds, mixed with medes, and perhaps descendants of the massagetae. we know from history that the goths and alans became closely united, and it may be from the goths that the osset descendants of the alans (some still call themselves alans) learned to brew beer. elsewhere[ ] zaborowski represents the ossets as of european origin, till lately for the most part blonds, though now showing many scythian traits. but they are not physically iranians "despite the iranian and asiatic origin of their language," as shown by max kowalewsky[ ]. on the whole, therefore, the ossets may be taken as originally blond europeans, closely blended with scythians, and later with the other modern caucasus peoples, who are mostly brown brachys. but ernest chantre[ ] allies these groups to their brown and brachy tatar neighbours, and denies that the ossets are the last remnants of germanic immigrants into caucasia. we have therefore in the caucasus a very curious and puzzling phenomenon--several somewhat distinct groups of aborigines, mainly of de lapouge's alpine type, but all except the ossets speaking an amazing number of non-aryan stock languages. philologists have been for some time hard at work in this linguistic wilderness, the "mountain of languages" of the early arabo-persian writers, without greatly reducing the number of independent groups, while many idioms traceable to a single stem still differ so profoundly from each other that they are practically so many stocks. of the really distinct families the more important are:--the _kartweli_ of the southern slopes, comprising the historical georgian, cultivated since the th century, the mingrelian, imeritian, laz of lazistan, and many others; the _cherkess_ (circassian), the _abkhasian_ and _kabard_ of the western and central caucasus; the _chechenz_ and _lesghian_, the _andi_, the _ude_, the _kubachi_ and _duodez_ of daghestan, _i.e._ the eastern caucasus. where did this babel of tongues come from? we know that years ago the relations were much the same as at present, because the greeks speak of scores of languages current in the port of dioscurias in their time. if therefore the aborigines are the "sweepings of the plains," they must have been swept up long before the historic period. did they bring their different languages with them, or were these specialised in their new upland homes? the consideration that an open environment makes for uniformity, secluded upland valleys for diversity, seems greatly to favour the latter assumption, which is further strengthened by the now established fact that, although there are few traces of the palaeolithic epoch, the caucasus was somewhat thickly inhabited in the new stone age. crossing into irania we are at once confronted with totally different conditions. for the ethnologist this region comprises, besides the tableland between the tigris and indus, both slopes of the hindu-kush, and the pamir, with the uplands bounded south and north by the upper courses of the oxus and the sir-darya. overlooking later mongolo-turki encroachments, a general survey will, i think, show that from the earliest times the whole of this region has formed part of the caucasic domain; that the bulk of the indigenous populations must have belonged to the dark, round-headed alpine type; that these, still found in compact masses in many places, were apparently conquered, but certainly aryanised in speech, in very remote prehistoric times by long-headed blond aryans of the iranic and galchic branches, who arrived in large numbers from the contiguous eurasian steppe, mingled generally with the brachy aborigines, but also kept aloof in several districts, where they still survive with more or less modified proto-aryan features. thus we are at once struck by the remarkable fact that absolute uniformity of speech, always apart from late mongol intrusions, has prevailed during the historic period throughout irania, which has been in this respect as completely aryanised as europe itself; and further, that all current aryan tongues, with perhaps one trifling exception[ ], are members either of the iranic or the galchic branch of the family. both iranic and galchic are thus rather linguistic than ethnic terms, and so true is this that a philologist always knows what is meant by an iranic language, while the anthropologist is unable to define or form any clear conception of an iranian, who may be either of long-headed nordic or round-headed alpine type. here confusion may be avoided by reserving the historic name of persian[ ] for the former, and comprising all the alpines under the also time-honoured though less known name of tajiks. khanikoff has shown that these tajiks constitute the primitive element in ancient iran. to the true persians of the west, as well as to the kindred afghans in the east, both of dolicho type, the term is rarely applied. but almost everywhere the sedentary and agricultural aborigines are called tajiks, and are spoken of as _parsiván_, that is, _parsizabán_[ ], "of persian speech," or else _dihkán_[ ], that is, "peasants," all being mainly husbandmen "of persian race and tongue[ ]." they form endless tribal, or at least social, groups, who keep somewhat aloof from their proto-aryan conquerors, so that, in the east especially, the ethnic fusion is far from complete, the various sections of the community being still rather juxtaposed than fused in a single nationality. when to these primeval differences is added the tribal system still surviving in full vigour amongst the intruding afghans themselves, we see how impossible it is yet to speak of an afghan nation, but only of heterogeneous masses loosely held together by the paramount tribe--at present the _durani_ of kabul. the tajiks are first mentioned by herodotus, whose _dadikes_[ ] are identified by hammer and khanikoff with them[ ]. they are now commonly divided into lowland, and highland or hill tajiks, of whom the former were always parsiván, whereas the hill tajiks did not originally speak persian at all, but, as many still do, an independent sister language called galchic, current in the pamir, zerafshan and sir-darya uplands, and holding a somewhat intermediate position between the iranic and indic branches. this term galcha, although new to science, has long been applied to the aryans of the pamir valleys, being identified with the _calcienses populi_ of the lay jesuit benedict goez, who crossed the pamir in , and describes them as "of light hair and beard like the belgians." meyendorff also calls those of zerafshan "eastern persians, galchi, galchas." the word has been explained to mean "the hungry raven who has withdrawn to the mountains," probably in reference to those lowland tajiks who took refuge in the uplands from the predatory turki hordes. but it is no doubt the persian _galcha_, a peasant or clown, then a vagabond, etc., whence _galchagi_, rudeness. as shown by j. biddulph[ ], the tribes of galchic speech range over both slopes of the hindu-kush, comprising the natives of sarakol, wakhan, shignan, munjan (with the yidoks of the upper lud-kho or chitral river), sanglich, and ishkashim. to these he is inclined to add the pakhpus and the shakshus of the upper yarkand-darya, as well as those of the kocha valley, with whom must now be included the zerafshan galchas (maghians, kshtuts, falghars, machas and fans), but not the yagnobis. all these form also one ethnic group of alpine type, with whom on linguistic grounds biddulph also includes two other groups, the khos of chitral with the siah posh of kafiristan, and the shíns (dards), górs, chilási and other small tribes of the upper indus and side valleys, all these apparently being long-heads of the blond aryan type. keeping this distinction in view, biddulph's valuable treatise on the hindu-kush populations may be followed with safety. he traces the galcha idioms generally to the old baktrian (east persia, so-called "zend avesta"), the shín however leaning closely to sanskrit, while khowar, the speech of the chitrali (khos), is intermediate between baktrian and sanskrit. but differences prevail on these details, which will give occupation to philologists for some time to come. speaking generally, all the galchas of the northern slopes (most of biddulph's first group) are physically connected with all the other lowland and hill tajiks, with whom should also probably be included elphinstone's[ ] southern tajiks dwelling south of the hindu-kush (kohistani, berraki, purmuli or fermuli, sirdehi, sistani, and others scattered over afghanistan and northern baluchistan). their type is pronouncedly alpine, so much so that they have been spoken of by french anthropologists as "those belated savoyards of kohistan[ ]." de ujfalvy, who has studied them carefully, describes them as tall, brown or bronzed and even white, with ruddy cheeks recalling the englishman, black or chestnut hair, sometimes red and even light, smooth, wavy or curly, full beard, brown, ruddy or blond (he met two brothers near penjakend with hair "blanc comme du lin"); brown, blue, or grey eyes, never oblique, long, shapely nose slightly curved, thin, straight lips, oval face, stout, vigorous frame, and round heads with cephalic index as high as . . this description, which is confirmed by bonvalot and other recent observers, applies to the darwazi, wakhi, badakhshi, and in fact all the groups, so that we have beyond all doubt an eastern extension of the alpine brachycephalic zone through armenia and the bakhtiari uplands to the central asiatic highlands, a conclusion confirmed by the explorations of m. a. stein in chinese turkestan and the pamirs ( - )[ ]. indeed this asiatic extension of the alpine type inclines v. luschan[ ] to regard the european branch as one offshoot, and the high and narrow ("hittite") nosed type as another, or rather as a specialised group, of which the armenians, persians, druses, and other sectarian groups of syria and asia minor represent the purest examples. according to his summary of this complicated region "all western asia was originally inhabited by a homogeneous melanochroic race, with extreme hypsi-brachycephaly and with a 'hittite' nose. about b.c. began a semitic invasion from the south-east, probably from arabia, by people looking like the modern bedawy. two thousand years later commenced a second invasion, this time from the north-west, by xanthrochroous and long-headed tribes like the modern kurds, half savage, and in some way or other, perhaps, connected with the historic harri, amorites, tamehu and galatians[ ]." but the eventful drama is not yet closed. arrested perhaps for a time by the barrier of the hindu-kush and sulimán ranges, proto-aryan conquerors burst at last, probably through the kabul river gorges, on to the plains of india, and thereby added another world to the caucasic domain. here they were brought face to face with new conditions, which gave rise to fresh changes and adaptations resulting in the present ethnical relations in the peninsula. there is good reason to think that in this region the leavening aryan element never was numerous, while even on their first arrival the aryan invaders found the land already somewhat thickly peopled by the aborigines[ ]. the marked linguistic and ethnical differences between eastern and western hindustan have given rise to the theory of two separate streams of immigration, perhaps continued over many centuries[ ]. the earlier entered from the north-west, bringing their herds and families with them, whose descendants are the homogeneous and handsome populations of the punjab and rajputana. later swarms entered by way of the difficult passes of gilgit and chitral, a route which made it impossible for their women to accompany them. "here they came in contact with the dravidians; here by the stress of that contact caste was evolved; here the vedas were composed and the whole fantastic structure of orthodox ritual and usage was built up.... the men of the stronger race took to themselves women of the weaker, and from these unions was evolved the mixed type which we find in hindustan and bihar[ ]." an attempt to analyse the complicated ethnic elements contained in the vast area of india was made by h. h. risley[ ], who recognised seven types, his classification being based on theories of origin. . the turko-iranian type, including the _baloch_, _brahui_, and _afghans_ of baluchistan and the north-west frontier provinces, all muhammadans, with broad head, long prominent nose, abundant hair, fair complexion and tall stature. . indo-aryan type in the punjab, rajputana and kashmir, with its most conspicuous members the _rájputs_, _khatri_ and _játs_ in all but colour closely resembling the european type and showing little difference between upper and lower social strata. their characteristics are tall stature, fair complexion, plentiful hair on face, long head, and narrow prominent nose. . aryo-dravidian or hindustani type in the united provinces, parts of rajputana, bihar, and ceylon, with lower stature, variable complexion, longish head, and a nose index exactly corresponding to social station. . scytho-dravidian of western india, including the _maratha brahmans_, _kunbi_, and _coorgs_, of medium stature, fair complexion, broad head with scanty hair on the face, and a fine nose. . dravidian, generally regarded as representing the indigenous element. the characteristics are fairly uniform from ceylon to the ganges valley throughout madras, hyderabad, the central provinces, central india and chota nagpur, and the name is now used to include the mass of the population unaffected by foreign (aryan, scythian, mongoloid) immigration. the _nairs_ of malabar and the _santal_ of chota nagpur are typical representatives. the stature is short, complexion very dark, almost black, hair plentiful with a tendency to curl, head long and nose very broad[ ]. . mongolo-dravidian or bengali type of bengal and orissa, showing fusion with tibeto-burman elements. the stature is medium, complexion dark, and head conspicuously broad, nose variable. . mongoloid of the himalayas, nepal, assam, and burma, represented by the _kanet_ of lahoul and kulu, the _lepcha_ of darjiling, the _limbu_, _murmi_ and _gurung_ of nepal, the _bodo_ of assam and the _burmese_. the stature is short, the complexion dark with a yellowish tinge, the hair on the face scanty. the head is broad with characteristic flat face and frequently oblique eyes. this classification while more or less generally adopted in outline is not allowed to pass unchallenged, especially with regard to the theories of origin implied. concerning the brachycephalic element of western india risley's belief that it was the result of so-called "scythian" invasions is not supported by sufficient evidence. "the foreign element is certainly alpine, not mongolian, and it may be due to a migration of which the history has not been written[ ]." ramaprasad chanda[ ] goes further and traces the broad-headed elements in both "scytho-dravidians" (gujaratis, marathas and coorgs) and "mongolo-dravidians" (bengalis and oriyas) to one common source, "the _homo alpinus_ of the pamirs and chinese turkestan," and attempts to reconstruct the history of the migration of the alpine invaders from central asia over gujarat, deccan, bihar and bengal. his conclusions are supported by the reports of sir aurel stein of the _homo alpinus_ type discovered in the region of lob nor, dating from the first centuries a.d. this type "still supplies the prevalent element in the racial constitution of the indigenous population of chinese turkestan, and is seen in its purest form in the iranian-speaking tribes near the pamirs[ ]." but any scheme of classification must be merely tentative, subject to modification as statistics of the vast area are gradually collected. and w. crooke[ ], while acknowledging the value of risley's scheme[ ] points out the need of caution in accepting measurements of skull and nose forms applied to the mixed races and half-breeds which form the majority of the people. "the race migrations are all prehistoric, and the amalgamation of the races has continued for ages among a people to whom moral restraints are irksome and unfamiliar. the existing castes are quite a modern creation, dating only from the later buddhist age." "the present population thus represents the flotsam and jetsam collected from many streams of ethnical movement, and any attempt to sort out the existing races into a set of pigeon-holes, each representing a defined type of race, is, in the present state of our knowledge, impossible[ ]." in features, says dalton, the kols[ ] show "much variety, and i think in a great many families there is a considerable admixture of aryan blood. many have high noses and oval faces, and young girls are at times met with who have delicate and regular features, finely-chiselled straight noses, and perfectly formed mouths and chins. the eyes, however, are seldom so large, so bright, and gazelle-like as those of pure hindu maidens, and i have met strongly marked mongolian features. in colour they vary greatly, the copper tints being about the most common [though the mirzapur kols are very dark]. eyes dark brown, hair black, straight or wavy [as all over india]. both men and women are noticeable for their fine, erect carriage and long, free stride[ ]." the same variations are found among the dravidians, where, as should be expected, there are many aberrant groups showing divergences in all directions, as amongst the _kurumba_ and _toda_ of the nilgiris, the former approximating to the mongol, the latter to the aryan standard. w. sikemeier, who lived amongst them for years, notes that "many of the kurumbas have decided mongoloid face and stature, and appear to be the aborigines of that region[ ]." the same correspondent adds that much nonsense has been written about the todas, who have become the trump card of popular ethnographists. "being ransacked by european visitors they invent all kinds of traditions, which they found out their questioners liked to get, and for which they were paid." still the type is remarkable and strikingly european, "well proportioned and stalwart, with straight nose, regular features and perfect teeth," the chief characteristic being the development of the hairy system, less however than amongst the ainu, whom they so closely resemble[ ]. from the illustrations given in thurston's valuable series one might be tempted to infer that a group of proto-aryans had reached this extreme limit of their asiatic domain, and although w. h. r. rivers has cleared away the mystery and established links between the todas and tribes of malabar and travancore, the problem of their origin is not yet entirely solved[ ]. the dravidians occupy the greater part of the deccan, where they are constituted in a few great nations--telugus (telingas), tamils (numbers of whom have crossed into ceylon and occupied the northern and central parts of that island, working in the coffee districts), kanarese, and the malayalim of the west coast. these with some others were brought at an early date under aryan (hindu) influences, but have preserved their highly agglutinating dravidian speech, which has no known affinities elsewhere, unless perhaps with the language of the brahuis, who are regarded by many as belated dravidians left behind in east baluchistan. but for this very old, but highly cultivated dravidian language, which is still spoken by about millions between the ganges and ceylon, it would no longer be possible to distinguish these southern hindus from those of aryan speech who occupy all the rest of the peninsula together with the southern slopes of the hindu-kush and parts of the western himalayas. their main divisions are the kashmiri, many of whom might be called typical aryans; the punjabis with several sub-groups, amongst which are the sikhs, religious sectaries half moslem half hindu, also of magnificent physique; the gujaratis, mahratis, hindis, bengalis, assamis, and oraons of orissa, all speaking neo-sanskritic idioms, which collectively constitute the indic branch of the aryan family. hindustani or urdu, a simplified form of hindi current especially in the doab, or "two waters," the region between the ganges and jumna above allahabad, has become a sort of _lingua franca_, the chief medium of intercourse throughout the peninsula, and is understood by certainly over millions, while all the population of neo-sanskritic speech numbered in considerably over millions. classification derives little help from the consideration of caste, whatever view be taken of the origin of this institution. the rather obvious theory that it was introduced by the handful of aryan conquerors to prevent the submergence of the race in the great ocean of black or dark aborigines, is now rejected by many investigators, who hold that its origin is occupational, a question rather of social or industrial pursuits becoming hereditary in family groups than of race distinctions sanctioned by religion. they point out that the commentator's interpretation of the _pancha ksitaya_, "five classes," as _bráhmans_ (priests), _kshatriyas_ (fighters), _vaisya_ (traders), _sudra_ (peasants and craftsmen of all kinds), and _nisháda_ (savages or outcasts) is recent, and conveys only the current sentiment of the age. it never had any substantial base, and even in the comparatively late institutes of manu "the rules of food, connubium and intercourse between the various castes are very different from what we find at present"; also that, far from being eternal and changeless, caste has been subject to endless modifications throughout the whole range of hindu myth and history. nor is it an institution peculiar to india, while even here the stereotyped four or five divisions neither accord with existing facts, nor correspond to so many distinct ethnical groups. all this is perfectly true, and it is also true that for generations the recognised castes, say, social pursuits, have been in a state of constant flux, incessantly undergoing processes of segmentation, so that their number is at present past counting. nevertheless, the system may have been, and probably was, first inspired by racial motives, an instinctive sense of self-preservation, which expressed itself in an informal way by local class distinctions which were afterwards sanctioned by religion, but eventually broke down or degenerated into the present relations under the outward pressure of imperious social necessities[ ]. * * * * * beyond the mainland and ceylon no caucasic peoples of aryan speech are known to have ranged in neolithic or prehistoric times. but we have already followed the migrations of a kindred[ ], though mixed race, here called indonesians, into malaysia, the philippines, formosa, and the japanese archipelago, which they must have occupied in the new stone age. here there occurs a great break, for they are not again met till we reach micronesia and the still more remote insular groups beyond melanesia. in micronesia the relations are extremely confused, because, as it seems, this group had already been occupied by the papuans from new guinea before the arrival of the indonesians, while after their arrival they were followed at intervals by malays perhaps from the philippines and formosa, and still later by japanese, if not also by chinese from the mainland. hence the types are here as varied as the colour, which appears, going eastwards, to shade off from the dark brown of the pelew and caroline islanders to the light brown of the marshall and gilbert groups, where we already touch upon the skirts of the true indonesian domain[ ]. a line drawn athwart the pacific from new zealand through fiji to hawaii will roughly cut off this domain from the rest of the oceanic world, where all to the west is melanesian, papuan or mixed, while all to the right--_maori_, some of the eastern _fijians_, _tongans_, _samoans_, _tahitians_, _marquesans_, _hawaiians_ and _easter islanders_--is grouped under the name polynesian, a type produced by a mixture of proto-malayan and indonesian. dolichocephaly and mesaticephaly prevail throughout the region, but there are brachycephalic centres in tonga, the marquesas and hawaiian islands. the hair is mostly black and straight, but also wavy, though never frizzly or even kinky. the colour also is of a light brown compared to cinnamon or café-au-lait, and sometimes approaching an almost white shade, while the tall stature averages . m. ( ft. - / ins.). migrating at an unknown date eastwards from the east indian archipelago[ ], the first permanent settlements appear to have been formed in samoa, and more particularly in the island of _savaii_, originally _savaiki_, which name under divers forms and still more divers meanings accompanied all their subsequent migrations over the pacific waters. thus we have in tahiti _havaii_[ ], the "universe," and the old capital of raiatea; in rarotonga _avaiki_, "the land under the wind"; in new zealand _hawaiki_, "the land whence came the maori"; in the marquesas _havaiki_, "the lower regions of the dead," as in _to fenua havaiki_, "return to the land of thy forefathers," the words with which the victims in human sacrifices were speeded to the other world; lastly in _hawaii_, the name of the chief island of the sandwich group. the polynesians are cheerful, dignified, polite, imaginative and intelligent, varying in temperament between the wild and energetic and politically capable maori to his indolent and politically sterile kinsmen to the north, who have been unnerved by the unvarying uniformity of temperature. wherever possible, they are agriculturalists, growing yams, sweet potatoes and taro. coconuts, bread-fruit and bananas form the staple food in many islands. scantily endowed with fertile soil and edible plants the polynesians have gained command over the sea which everywhere surrounds them, and have developed into the best seamen among primitive races. large sailing double canoes were formerly in use, and single canoes with an outrigger are still made. native costume for men is made of bark cloth, and for women ample petticoats of split and plaited leaves. ornaments, with the exception of flowers, are sparingly worn. the bow and arrow are unknown, short spears, clubs and slings are used, but no shields. the arts of writing, pottery making, loom-weaving and the use of metals were, with few exceptions, unknown, but mat-making, basketry and the making of _tapa_ were carried to a high pitch, and polynesian bark-cloth is the finest in the world. throughout polynesia the community is divided into nobles or chiefs, freemen and slaves, which divisions are, by reason of _tabu_, as sharp as those of caste. they fall into those which participate in the divine, and those which are wholly excluded from it. women have a high position, and men do their fair share of work. polygyny is universal, being limited only by the wealth of the husband, or the numerical preponderance of the men. priests have considerable influence, there are numerous gods, sometimes worshipped in the outward form of idols, and ancestors are deified. polynesian culture has been analysed by w. h. r. rivers[ ], and the following briefly summarises his results. at first sight the culture appears very simple, especially as regards language and social structure, while there is a considerable degree of uniformity in religious belief. everywhere we find the same kind of higher being or god and the resemblance extends even to the name, usually some form of the word _atua_. in material culture also there are striking similarities, though here the variations are more definite and obvious, and the apparent uniformity is probably due to the attention given to the customs of chiefs, overlooking the culture of the ordinary people where more diversity is discoverable. there is much that points to the twofold nature of polynesian culture. the evidence from the study of the ritual indicates the presence of two peoples, an earlier who interred their dead in a sitting posture like the dual people of melanesia[ ], and a later, who became chiefs and believed in the need for the preservation of the dead among the living. all the evidence available, physical and cultural, points to the conjecture that the early stratum of the population of polynesia was formed by an immigrant people who also found their way to melanesia. the later stream of settlers can be identified with the kava-people[ ]. kava was drunk especially by the chiefs, and the accompanying ceremonial shows its connection with the higher ranks of the people. the close association of the _areoi_ (secret society) of eastern polynesia with the chiefs is further proof. thus both in melanesia and in polynesia the chiefs who preserved their dead are identified with the founders of secret societies--organisations which came into being through the desire of an immigrant people to practise their religious rites in secret. burial in the extended position occurs in tikopia, tonga and samoa--perhaps it may have been the custom of some special group of the kava-people. chiefs were placed in vaults constructed of large stones--a feature unknown elsewhere in oceania. it is safe also to ascribe the human design which has undergone conventionalisation in polynesia to the kava-people. the geometric art through which the conventionalisation was produced belonged to the earlier inhabitants who interred their dead in the sitting position. money, if it exists at all, occupies a very unimportant place in the culture of the people. there is no evidence of the use of any object in polynesia with the definite scale of values which is possessed by several kinds of money in melanesia. the polynesians are largely communistic, probably more so than the melanesians, and afford one of the best examples of communism in property with which we are acquainted. this feature may be ascribed to the earlier settlers. the suggestion that the kava-people never formed independent communities in polynesia, but were accepted at once as chiefs of those among whom they settled would account for the absence of money (for which there was no need), and the failure to disturb in any great measure the communism of the earlier inhabitants. communism in property was associated with sexual communism. there is evidence that polynesian chiefs rarely had more than one wife, while the licentiousness which probably stood in a definite relation to the communism of the people is said to have been more pronounced among the lower strata of the community. both communism and licentiousness appear to have been much less marked in the samoan and tongan islands, and here there is no evidence of interment in the sitting position. these and other facts support the view that the influence of the kava-people was greater here than in the more eastern islands: probably it was greatest in tikopia, which in many respects differs from other parts of polynesia. magic is altogether absent from the culture of tikopia and it probably took a relatively unimportant place throughout polynesia. in tikopia the ghosts of dead ancestors and relatives as well as animals are _atua_ and this connotation of the word appears to be general in other parts of polynesia. these may be regarded as the representatives of the ghosts and spirits of melanesia. the _vui_ of melanesia may be represented by the _tii_ of tahiti, beings not greatly respected, who had to some extent a local character. this comparison suggests that the ancestral ghosts belong to the culture of the kava-people, and that the local spirits are derived from the culture of the people who interred their dead in the sitting position, from which people the dual people of melanesia derived their beliefs and practices. to sum up. polynesian culture is made up of at least two elements, an earlier, associated with the practice of interring the dead in a sitting position, communism, geometric art, local spirits and magical rites, and a later, which practised preservation of the dead. these latter may be identified with the kava-people while the earlier polynesian stratum is that which entered into the composition of the dual-people of melanesia at a still earlier date, and introduced the austronesian language into oceania[ ]. footnotes: [ ] cf. j. déchelette, _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique_, vol. ii. , p. , and for neolithic trade routes, _ib._ vol. i. p. . [ ] the tell-el-amarna correspondence contains names of chieftains in syria and palestine about b.c., including the name of tushratta, king of mitanni; the boghaz keui document with iranian divine names, and babylonian records of iranian names from the persian highlands, are a little later in date. [ ] j. l. myres, _the dawn of history_, , p. . [ ] cf. p. giles, art. "indo-european languages" in _ency. brit._ . [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , pp. and - . [ ] o. schrader, _sprachvergleichung und urgeschichte_, rd ed. - . [ ] g. kossinna, _die herkunft der germanen_, . [ ] h. hirt, _die indogermanen, ihre verbreitung, ihre urheimat und ihre kultur_, - . [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , pp. and - . [ ] _deutsche altertumskunde_, i. , p. . [ ] see note , p. above. [ ] art. "indo-european languages," _ency. brit._ , p. . [ ] centum (hard guttural) group is the name applied to the western and entirely european branches of the indo-european family, as opposed to the satem (sibilant) group, situated mainly in asia. [ ] _the races of europe_, , p. and chap. xvii. european origins: race and language: the aryan question. [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , pp. , ff. [ ] cf. t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. . [ ] e. de michelis, _l'origine degli indo-europei_, . [ ] even sweden, regarded as the home of the purest nordic type, already had a brachycephalic mixture in the stone age. see g. retzius, "the so-called north european race of mankind," _journ. roy. anthrop. inst._ xxxix. , p. . [ ] cf. e. meyer, _geschichte des altertums_, , l. , § . [ ] for the working out of this hypothesis see t. peisker, "the expansion of the slavs," _cambridge medieval history_, vol. ii. . [ ] h. m. chadwick, art. "teutonic peoples" in _ency. brit._ . cf. s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , p. . [ ] see r. much, art. "germanen," j. hoops' _reallexikon d. germ. altertumskunde_, . [ ] h. m. chadwick, _the origin of the english nation_, , pp. - . for a full account of the affinities of the _cimbri_ and _teutoni_ see t. rice holmes, _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , pp. - . [ ] paper read at the meeting of the ger. anthrop. soc., spiers, . figures of bastarnae from the adamklissi monument and elsewhere are reproduced in h. hahne's _das vorgeschichtliche europa: kulturen und völker_, , figs. , . cf. t. peisker, "the expansion of the slavs," _camb. med. hist._ vol. ii. , p. . [ ] cf. h. m. chadwick, _the origin of the english nation_, , pp. and . [ ] _monuments runiques_ in _mém. soc. r. ant. du nord_, . [ ] "lactea cutis" (sidonius apollinaris). [ ] w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , p. ff. see also o. montelius, _kulturgeschichte schwedens_, ; g. retzius and c. m. fürst, _anthropologica suecica_, . [ ] commonly called the borreby type from skulls found at borreby in the island of falster, which resemble round barrow skulls in britain. [ ] for denmark consult _meddelelser om danmarks antropologi_ udgivne af den antropologiske komité, with english summaries, bd. i. - , bd. ii. . [ ] the results were tabulated by virchow and may be seen, without going to german sources, in w. z. ripley's map, p. , of _the races of europe_, , where the whole question is fully dealt with. [ ] see ripley's craniological chart in "une carte de l'indice céphalique en europe," _l'anthropologie_, vii. , p. . [ ] the case is stated in uncompromising language by alfred fouillée: "une autre loi, plus généralement admise, c'est que depuis les temps préhistoriques, les brachycéphales tendent à éliminer les dolichocéphales par l'invasion progressive des couches inférieures et l'absorption des aristocraties dans les démocraties, où elles viennent se noyer" (_rev. des deux mondes_, march , ). [ ] _recherches anthrop. sur le problème de la dépopulation_, in _rev. d'Économie politique_, ix. p. ; x. p. ( - ). [ ] _nature_, , p. . cf. also a. thomson, "consideration of ... factors concerned in production of man's cranial form," _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxiii. , and a. keith, "the bronze age invaders of britain," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlv. . [ ] livi's results for italy (_antropometria militare_) differ in some respects from those of de lapouge and ammon for france and baden. thus he finds that in the brachy districts the urban population is less brachy than the rural, while in the dolicho districts the towns are more brachy than the plains. [ ] dealing with some studies of the lithuanian race, deniker writes: "ainsi donc, contrairement aux idées de mm. de lapouge et ammon, en pologne, comme d'ailleurs en italie, les classes les plus instruites, dirigeantes, urbaines, sont plus brachy que les paysans" (_l'anthropologie_, , p. ). similar contradictions occur in connection with light and dark hair, eyes, etc. [ ] "e qui non posso tralasciare di avvertire un errore assai diffuso fra gli antropologi ... i quali vorrebbero ammettere una trasformazione del cranio da dolicocefalo in brachicefalo" (_arii e italici_, p. ). [ ] w. z. ripley's _the races of europe_, , p. ff. [ ] this specialist insists "dass von einer mongolischen einwanderung in europa keine rede mehr sein könne" (_der europäische mensch. u. die tiroler_, ). he is of course speaking of prehistoric times, not of the late (historical) mongol irruptions. cf. t. peisker, "the expansion of the slavs," _camb. med. hist._ vol. ii. , p. , with reference to mongoloid traits in bavaria. [ ] "malgré les nombreuses invasions des populations germaniques, le tyrolien est resté, quant à sa conformation cranienne, le rasène ou rhætien des temps antiques--hyperbrachycéphale" (_les aryens_, p. ). the mean index of the so-called disentis type of rhaetian skulls is about (his and rütimeyer, _crania helvetica_, p. and plate e. ). [ ] "the tyrrhenians in greece and italy," in _journ. anthrop. inst._ , p. . in this splendidly illustrated paper the date of the immigration is referred to the th century b.c. on the ground that the first etruscan saeculum was considered as beginning about b.c., presumably the date of their arrival in italy (p. ). but sergi thinks they did not arrive till about the end of the th century (_arii e italici_, p. ). [ ] see r. s. conway, art. etruria: language, _ency. brit._ . [ ] _op. cit._ p. . by german he means the round-headed south german. [ ] s. feist, _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , p. . [ ] s. feist, _loc. cit._ p. . for cultural and linguistic influence of celts on germans see pp. ff. evidence of celtic names in germany is discussed by h. m. chadwick "some german river names," _essays and studies presented to william ridgeway_, . [ ] h. d'arbois de jubainville, _les celtes depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu'en l'an avant notre ère_, , p. . [ ] g. dottin, _manuel pour servir à l'étude de l'antiquité celtique_, , p. . [ ] t. rice holmes, caesar's _conquest of gaul_, , p. . w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , reviewing the "_celtic question_, than which no greater stumbling-block in the way of our clear thinking exists" (p. ) comes to a different conclusion. he states that "the term _celt_, if used at all, belongs to the ... brachycephalic, darkish population of the alpine highlands," and he claims for this view "complete unanimity of opinion among physical anthropologists" (p. ). his own view however is that "the linguists are best entitled to the name _celt_" while the broad-headed type commonly called celtic by continental writers "we shall ... everywhere ... call ... alpine" (p. ). [ ] cf. the similar dual treatment in italic. [ ] "no gael [_i.e._ q celt] ever set his foot on british soil save on a vessel that had put out from ireland." kuno meyer, _trans. hon. soc. cymmrodorion_, - , p. . [ ] _ancient britain_, , pp. - . [ ] _das keltische britannien_, , pp. - . [ ] j. rhys, _the welsh people_, , pp. - . [ ] _das keltische britannien_, , pp. - . [ ] _ancient britain_, , p. . the name of the picts is apparently indo-european in form, and if the celts were late comers into britain (see above) they may well have been preceded by invaders of indo-european speech. [ ] t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , p. . cf. a. keith, "the bronze age invaders of britain," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlv. . [ ] quoted in t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , pp. - . [ ] t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , p. . see also john abercromby, _a study of the bronze age pottery of great britain and ireland and its associated grave goods_, , tracing the distribution and migration of pottery forms: and the following papers of h. j. fleure, "archaeological problems of the west coast of britain," _archaeologia cambrensis_, oct. ; "the early distribution of population in south britain," _ib._ april, ; "the geographical distribution of anthropological types in wales," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlvi. , and "a proposal for local surveys of the british people," _arch. camb._ jan. . [ ] w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , p. ; t. rice holmes, _ancient britain_, , p. . [ ] g. coffey and r. lloyd praeger, "the antrim raised beach: a contribution to the neolithic history of the north of ireland," _proc. roy. irish acad._ xxv. (c.) . see also the valuable series of "reports on prehistoric remains from the sandhills of the coast of ireland," _p. r. i. a._ xvi. [ ] _man_, ix. , no. . [ ] _proc. roy. irish acad._ ( ), iii. , p. . [ ] cf. also j. wilfred jackson, "the geographical distribution of the shell-purple industry," _mem. and proc. manchester lit. and phil. soc._ lx. no. , . [ ] _survivals from the palaeolithic age among irish neolithic implements_, . [ ] _the dolmens of ireland_, . [ ] they need not, however, have come from britain, and the allusions in irish literature to direct immigration from spain, probable enough in itself, are too numerous to be disregarded. thus, geoffrey of monmouth:--"hibernia basclensibus [to the basques] incolenda datur" (_hist. reg. brit._ iii. § ); and giraldus cambrensis:--"de gurguntio brytonum rege, qui rasclenses [read basclenses] in hiberniam transmisit et eandem ipsis habitandam concessit." i am indebted to wentworth webster for these references (_academy_, oct. , ). [ ] h. zimmer, "auf welchen wege kamen die goidelen vom kontinent nach irland?" _abh. d. k. preuss. akad. d. wiss._ . [ ] j. gray, "memoir on the pigmentation survey of scotland," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxvii. . [ ] "a last contribution to scottish ethnology," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xxxviii. . [ ] "the geographical distribution of anthropological types in wales," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlvi. . [ ] for the explanation see w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_, , p. ff. [ ] w. z. ripley, _loc. cit._ p. . [ ] "the frenchman, the german, the italian, the englishman, to each of whom his own literature and the great traditions of his national life are most dear and familiar, cannot help but feel that the vernacular in which these are embodied and expressed is, and must be, superior to the alien and awkward languages of his neighbours." l. pearsall smith, _the english language_, p. . [ ] see above p. . t. rice holmes points out that the aquitani were already mixed in type. _caesar's conquest of gaul_, , p. . [ ] see above p. . [ ] that is, the languages whose affirmatives were the latin pronouns _hoc illud_ (_oil_) and _hoc_ (_oc_), the former being more contracted, the latter more expanded, as we see in the very names of the respective northern and southern bards: _trouvères_ and _troubadours_. it was customary in medieval times to name languages in this way, dante, for instance, calling italian _la lingua del si_, "the language of _yes_"; and, strange to say, the same usage prevails largely amongst the australian aborigines, who, however, use both the affirmative and the negative particles, so that we have here _no_- as well as _yes_-tribes. [ ] s. feist points out that two physical types were recognised in antiquity, one dark and one fair, and reference to red hair and fair skin suggests celtic infusion. _kultur, ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen_, , p. . [ ] _science progress_, p. . [ ] "the portuguese are much mixed with negroes more particularly in the south and along the coast. the slave trade existed long before the negroes of guinea were exported to the plantations of america. damião de goes estimated the number of blacks imported into lisbon alone during the th century at , or , per annum. if contemporary eye-witnesses can be trusted, the number of blacks met with in the streets of lisbon equalled that of the whites. not a house but had its negro servants, and the wealthy owned entire gangs of them" (reclus, i. p. ). [ ] "the spanish people," _cont. rev._ may, , and _the soul of spain_, . [ ] t. e. peet, _stone and bronze ages in italy and sicily_, , gives a full account of the archaeology. [ ] "zur paläoethnologie mittel- u. südeuropas" in _mitt. wiener anthrop. ges._ , p. . it should here be noted that in his _history of the greek language_ ( ) kretschmer connects the inscriptions of the veneti in north italy and of the messapians in the south with the illyrian linguistic family, which he regards as aryan intermediate between the greek and the italic branches, the present albanian being a surviving member of it. in the same illyrian family w. m. lindsay would also include the "old sabellian" of picenum, "believed to be the oldest inscriptions on italian soil. the manifest identity of the name _aodatos_ and the word _meitimon_ with the illyrian names [greek: audata] and _meitima_ is almost sufficient of itself to prove these inscriptions to be illyrian. further the whole character of their language, with its greek and its italic features, corresponds with what we know and what we can safely infer about the illyrian family of languages" (_academy_, oct. , ). cf. r. s. conway, _the italic dialects_, . [ ] r. munro, _bosnia, herzegovina and dalmatia_, . see also w. ridgeway, _the early age of greece_, , ch. v., showing that remains of the iron age in bosnia are closely connected with hallstatt and la tène cultures. [ ] _arii e italici_, p. sq. [ ] "liguri e pelasgi furono i primi abitatori d'italia; e liguri sembra siano stati quelli che occupavano la valle del po e costrussero le palafitte, e liguri forse anche i costruttori delle palafitte svizzere: mediterranei tutti" (_ib._ p. ). [ ] ripley's chart shows a range of from in piedmont to and in calabria, puglia, and sardinia, and and under in corsica. _the races of europe_, , p. . [ ] but cf. w. ridgeway, _who were the romans?_ . [ ] the true name of these southern or macedo-rumanians, as pointed out by gustav weigland (_globus_, lxxi. p. ), is _aramáni_ or _armáni_, _i.e._ "romans." _tsintsar_, _kutzo-vlack_, etc. are mere nicknames, by which they are known to their macedonian (bulgar and greek) neighbours. see also w. r. morfill in _academy_, july , . the vlachs of macedonia are described by e. pears, _turkey and its people_, , and a full account of the balkan vlachs is given by a. j. b. wace and m. s. thompson, _the nomads of the balkans_, . [ ] _romänische studien_, leipzig, . [ ] _les roumains au moyen age, passim._ hunfalvy, quoted by a. j. patterson (_academy_, sept. , ), also shows that "for a thousand years there is no authentic mention of a latin or romance speaking population north of the danube." [ ] this view is held by l. réthy, also quoted by patterson, and the term _vlack_ (_welsch_, whence wallachia) applied to the rumanians by all their slav and greek neighbours points in the same direction. [ ] t. peisker, "the asiatic background," _camb. med. hist._ vol. i. , p. , and "the expansion of the slavs," _ib._ vol. ii. , p. . [ ] _mitt. wiener anthrop. ges._ , p. . [ ] _dawn of civilization_, p. . [ ] _the ancient history of the near east_, , p. . [ ] hall notes (p. ) that "it is to the thesprotian invasion, which displaced the achaians, that, in all probability, the general introduction of iron into greece is to be assigned. the invaders came ultimately from the danube region, where iron was probably first used in europe, whereas their kindred, the achaians, had possibly already lived in thessaly in the stone age, and derived the knowledge of metal from the aegeans. the speedy victory of the new-comers over the older aryan inhabitants of northern greece may be ascribed to their possession of iron weapons." ridgeway, however, has little difficulty in proving that the achaeans themselves were tall fair celts from central europe. _the early age of greece_, , especially chap. iv., "whence came the acheans?" the question is dealt with from a different point of view by j. l. myres, in _the dawn of history_, , chap. ix., "the coming of the north," tracing the invasion from the eurasian steppes. [ ] h. r. hall, _loc. cit._ p. ; cf. h. peake, _journ. roy. anth. inst._ , p. . [ ] c. h. hawes, "some dorian descendants," _ann. brit. school ath._ no. xvi. - , proves that the dorian or illyrian (alpine) type still persists in south greece and crete. [ ] _geschichte der halbinsel morea, stuttgart_, . see also g. finlay's _mediaeval greece_, and the _anthrop. rev._ , vi. p. . [ ] _romänische studien_, . [ ] _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. sq. [ ] by a sort of grim irony the word has come to mean "slave" in the west, owing to the multitudes of slavs captured and enslaved during the medieval border warfare. but the term is by many referred to the root _slovo_, word, speech, implying a people of intelligible utterance, and this is supported by the form _slovene_ occurring in nestor and still borne by a southern slav group. see t. peisker, "the expansion of the slavs," _camb. med. hist._ vol. ii. , p. _n._ . [ ] iv. . [ ] these budini are described as a large nation with "remarkably blue eyes and red hair," on which account zaborowski thinks they may have been ancestors of the present finns. but they may also very well have been belated proto-germani left behind by the body of the nation _en route_ for their new baltic homes. [ ] cf. p. . [ ] _scythians and greeks_, . [ ] the meaning of wend is uncertain. it has led to confusion with the armorican _veneti_, the paphlagonian _enetae_, and the adriatic _enetae-venetae_, all non-slav peoples. shakhmatov regards it as a name inherited by slavs from their conquerors, the celtic venedi, who occupied the vistula region in the rd or nd centuries b.c. see t. peisker, "the expansion of the slavs," _camb. med. hist._ vol. ii. , p. _n._ . [ ] that is, the elbe slaves, from _po_=by, near, and _labe_=elbe; cf. _pomor_ (pomeranians), "by the sea"; borussia, porussia, prussia, originally peopled by the _pruczi_, a branch of the lithuanians germanised in the th century. [ ] _carpath_, _khrobat_, _khorvat_ are all the same word, meaning highlands, mountains, hence not strictly an ethnic term, although at present so used by the _crovats_ or _croatians_, a considerable section of the yugo-slavs south of the danube. [ ] see note , p. . [ ] that is, "highlanders" (root _alb_, _alp_, height, hill). from _albanites_ through the byzantine _arvanites_ comes the turkish _arnaut_, while the national name _skipetar_ has precisely the same meaning (root _skip_, _scop_, as in [greek: skopelos], scopulus, cliff, crag). [ ] there are about twenty of these _phis_ or _phar_ (phratries) amongst the ghegs, and the practice of exogamous marriage still survives amongst the mirdites south of the drin, who, although catholics, seek their wives amongst the surrounding hostile turkish and muhammadan gheg populations. [ ] j. deniker, "les six races composant la population actuelle de l'europe," _journ. anthr. inst._ xxxiv. , pp. , . [ ] _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ vii. . [ ] hence virchow (meeting ger. anthrop. soc. ) declared that the extent and duration of the slav encroachments in german territory could not be determined by the old skulls, because it is impossible to say whether a given skull is slav or not. [ ] especially lubor niederle, for whom the proto-slavs are unquestionably long-headed blonds like the teutons, although he admits that round skulls occur even of old date, and practically gives up the attempt to account for the transition to the modern slav. [ ] "the racial geography of europe," in _popular science monthly_, june, . [ ] _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. sq. [ ] _bul. soc. d'anthrop._ , p. . [ ] _droit coutumier osséthien_, . [ ] quoted by ujfalvy, _les aryens_ etc. p. . [ ] the _yagnobi_ of the river of like name, an affluent of the zerafshan; yet even this shows lexical affinities with iranic, while its structure seems to connect it with leitner's kajuna and biddulph's burish, a non-aryan tongue current in ghilghit, yasin, hunza and nagar, whose inhabitants are regarded by biddulph as descendants of the yué-chi. the yagnobi themselves, however, are distinctly alpines, somewhat short, very hirsute and brown, with broad face, large head, and a savoyard expression. they have the curious custom of never cutting but always breaking their bread, the use of the knife being sure to raise the price of flour. [ ] f. v. luschan points out that very little is known of the anthropology of persia. "in a land inhabited by about ten millions not more than twenty or thirty men have been regularly measured and not one skull has been studied." the old type preserved in the parsi is short-headed and dark. "the early inhabitants of western asia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , p. . [ ] _dih, deh_, village. _zabán_, tongue, language. [ ] h. walter, _from indus to tigris_, p. . of course this traveller refers only to the tajiks of the plateau (persia, afghanistan). of the galchic tajiks he knew nothing; nor indeed is the distinction even yet quite understood by european ethnologists. [ ] iii. . [ ] even ptolemy's [greek: pasichai] appear to be the same people, [greek: p] being an error for [greek: t], so that [greek: tasikai] would be the nearest possible greek transcription of _tajik_. [ ] _tribes of the hindoo-koosh_, , _passim._ [ ] _an account of the kingdom of caubul_, . [ ] "ces savoyards attardés du kohistan" (ujfalvy, _les aryens_ etc.). [ ] the anthropological data are dealt with by t. a. joyce, "notes on the physical anthropology of chinese turkestan and the pamirs," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xlii. . "the original inhabitant ... is that type of man described by lapouge as _homo alpinus_," p. . [ ] f. v. luschan, "the early inhabitants of asia," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xli. , p. . [ ] for the evidence of the extension of this element in east central asia see ch. ix. [ ] r. b. foote, _madras government museum_. _the foote collection of indian prehistoric and protohistoric antiquities. notes on their ages and distribution_, , is the most recent contribution to the prehistoric period, but the conclusions are not universally accepted. [ ] a. f. r. hoernle, _a grammar of eastern hindi compared with the other gaudian languages_, , first suggested (p. xxxi. ff.) the distinction between the languages of the midland and the outer band, which has been corroborated by g. a. grierson, _languages of india_, , p. ; _imperial gazetteer of india_, - , vol. i. pp. - . [ ] h. h. risley, _the people of india_, , p. . see also j. d. anderson, _the peoples of india_, , p. . [ ] _tribes and castes of bengal_ etc. , _indian census report_, , and _imperial gazetteer_, vol. i. ch. vi. [ ] the jungle tribes of this group, such as the _paniyan_, _kurumba_ and _irula_ are classed as pre-dravidian. see chap. xii. [ ] a. c. haddon, _wanderings of peoples_, , p. . [ ] _the indo-aryan races_, , pp. - and - . [ ] "a third journey of exploration in central asia - ," _geog. journ._ . [ ] _natives of northern india_, , pp. , . see also his article "r[=a]jputs and mar[=a]thas," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xl. . [ ] "his report, compiled during the inevitable distractions incident to the enumeration of a population of some millions, was a notable performance, and will remain one of the classics of indian anthropology." "the stability of caste and tribal groups in india," _journ. roy. anthr. inst._ xliv. , p. . [ ] a vast amount of material has been collected in recent years besides _ethnographical surveys_ of the various provinces, the _imperial gazetteer_ of , and the magnificent _census reports_ of and . some of the more important works are as follows:--h. h. risley, _ethnography of india_, , _the people of india_, ; e. thurston, _ethnographical notes on southern india_, , _castes and tribes of southern india_, ; h. a. rose, _glossary of the tribes and castes of the punjab and n.w. frontier province_, ; e. a. de brett, _gazetteer, chhatisgarh feudatory states_, ; c. e. luard, _ethnographic survey, central india_, ; l. k. anantha krishna iyer, _the cochin tribes and castes_, , _tribes and castes of cochin_, ; m. longworth dames, _the baloch race_, ; w. h. r. rivers, _the todas_, ; p. r. t. gurdon, _the khasis_, ; t. c. hodson, _the meitheis_, , _the naga tribes of manipur_, ; e. stack and c. j. lyall, _the mikirs_, ; a. playfair, _the garos_, ; s. endle, _the kacharis_, ; c. g. and b. z. seligman, _the veddas_, ; j. shakespear, _the lushei kuki clans_, ; s. chandra roy, _the mundas and their country_, , _the oraons_, ; and r. v. russell, _tribes and castes of the n.w. central provinces_, . [ ] the term _kol_, which occurs as an element in a great many tribal names, and was first introduced by campbell in a collective sense ( ), is of unknown origin, but probably connected with a root meaning "man" (w. crooke, _tribes and castes_, iii. p. ). [ ] _descriptive ethnology of bengal_, p. . [ ] in a letter to the author, june , . [ ] edgar thurston, _anthropology_ etc., bul. , madras, , pp. - . for fuller details see his _castes and tribes of s. india_, . [ ] _the todas_, . see chap. xxx. "the origin and history of the todas." [ ] for the discussion of caste see e. a. gait's article in _ency. of religion and ethics_, , with bibliography; also v. a. smith, _caste in india, east and west_, . [ ] see ch. vii. [ ] see a. krämer, _hawaii, ostmikronesien und samoa_, . [ ] for polynesian wanderings see s. percy smith, _hawaiki: the original home of the maori_, ; j. m. brown, _maori and polynesian; their origin, history and culture_, ; w. churchill, _the polynesian wanderings_, . [ ] _h_ everywhere takes the place of _s_, which is preserved only in the samoan mother-tongue; cf. gr. [greek: hepta] with lat. _septem_, eng. _seven_. [ ] _the history of melanesian society_, . [ ] cf. p. ff. [ ] among recent works on polynesia see h. mager, _le monde polynésien_, ; b. h. thomson, _savage island_, ; a. krämer, _die samoa-inseln_, ; j. m. brown, _maori and polynesian_, ; g. brown, _melanesians and polynesians_, ; f. w. christian, _eastern pacific islands_, . appendix a. (p. ) since the first few pages of this book were in print an important memoir on the "phylogeny of recent and extinct anthropoids with special reference to the origin of man" has been published by w. k. gregory (_bull. am. mus. nat. hist._ vol. xxxv., article xix, pp. ff., new york, ). as gregory's lucid statement of the problems involved is based on a prolonged examination of very varied and abundant material we have considered it advisable to present his summary. the chief conclusions, which appear to be of a conservative character, are as follows (p. ). _the origin of man._ . comparative anatomical (including embryological) evidence alone has shown that man and the anthropoids have been derived from a primitive anthropoid stock and that man's existing relatives are the chimpanzee and the gorilla. . the chimpanzee and gorilla have retained, with only minor changes, the ancestral habits and habitus in brain, dentition, skull and limbs, while the forerunners of the hominidæ, through a profound change in function, lost the primitive anthropoid habitus, gave up arboreal frugivorous adaptations and early became terrestrial, bipedal and predatory, using crude flints to cut up and smash the varied food. . the ancestral chimpanzee-gorilla-man stock appears to be represented by the upper miocene genera _sivapithecus_ and _dryopithecus_, the former more closely allied to, or directly ancestral to, the hominidæ, the latter to the chimpanzee and gorilla. . many of the differences that separate man from anthropoids of the _sivapithecus_ type are retrogressive changes, following the profound change in food habits above noted. here belong the retraction of the face and dental arch, the reduction in size of the canines, the reduction of the jaw muscles, the loss of the prehensile character of the hallux. many other differences are secondary adjustments in relative proportions, connected with the change from semi-arboreal, semi-erect and semi-quadrupedal progression to fully terrestrial bipedal progression. the earliest anthropoids being of small size doubtless had slender limbs; later semi-terrestrial semi-erect forms were probably not unlike a very young gorilla, with fairly short legs and not excessively elongate arms. the long legs and short arms of man are due, i believe, to a secondary readjustment of proportions. the very short legs and very long arms of old male gorillas may well be a specialization. . at present i know no good evidence for believing that the separation of the hominidæ from the simiidæ took place any earlier than the miocene, and probably the upper miocene. the change in structure during this vast interval (two or more million years) is much greater in the hominidæ than in the conservative anthropoids, but it is not unlikely that during a profound change of life habits evolution sometimes proceeds more rapidly than in the more familiar cases where uninterrupted adaptations proceed in a single direction. . _homo heidelbergensis_ appears to be directly ancestral to all the later hominidæ. _on the evolution of human food habits._ while all the great apes are prevailingly frugivorous, and even their forerunners in the lower oligocene have the teeth well adapted for piercing the tough rinds of fruits and for chewing vegetable food, yet they also appear to have at least a latent capacity for a mixed diet. the digestive tract, especially of the chimpanzee and gorilla, is essentially similar to that of man and at least some captive chimpanzees thrive upon a mixed diet including large quantities of fruits, vegetables and bread and small quantities of meat[ ]. mr r. l. garner, who has spent many years in studying the african anthropoids in their wild state, states[ ] that "their foods are mainly vegetable, but that flesh is an essential part of their diet." other observers state[ ] that the gorilla and chimpanzee greedily devour young birds as well as eggs, vermin and small rodents. even the existing anthropoids, although highly conservative both in brain development and general habits, show the beginning of the use of the hands, and trained anthropoids can perform quite elaborate acts. at a time when tough-rined tubers and fruits were still the main element of the diet the nascent hominidæ may have sought out the lairs and nesting places of many animals for the purpose of stealing the young and thus they may have learned to fight with and kill the enraged parents. they had also learned to fight in protecting their own nesting places and young. and possibly they killed both by biting, as in carnivores, and by strangling, or, in the case of a small animal, by dashing it violently down. we may conceive that the upper tertiary ape-men, in the course of their dispersal from a south central asiatic centre[ ], entered regions where flint-bearing formations were abundant. in some way they learned perhaps that these "eolith" flints could be used to smash open the head of a small strangled animal, to crack open tough vegetables, or to mash substances into an edible condition. much later, after the mental association of hand and flint had been well established, they may have struck at intruders with the flints with which they were preparing their food and in this way they may have learned to use the heavier flints as hand axes and daggers. at a very early date they learned to throw down heavy stones upon an object to smash it, and this led finally to the hurling of flints at men and small game. very early also they had learned to swing a heavy piece of wood or a heavy bone as a weapon. for all such purposes shorter and stockier arms are more advantageous than the long slender arms of a semi-quadrupedal ancestral stage and i have argued above (p. ) that a secondary shortening and thickening of the arms ensued. one of the first medium-sized animals that the nascent hominidæ would be successful in killing was the wild boar, which in the pleistocene had a wide palæarctic distribution. from the very first the ape-men were more or less social in habits and learned to hunt in packs. whether the art of hunting began in south central asia or in europe, perhaps one of the first large animals that men learned to kill after they had invaded the open country was the horse, because, when a pack of men had surrounded a horse, a single good stroke with a coup-de-poing upon the brain-case might be sufficient to kill it. i have argued above (p. ) that the retraction of the dental arch and the reduction of the canines is not consistent with the use of meat as food, because men learned to use rough flints, in place of their teeth, to tear the flesh and to puncture the bones, and because the erect incisors, short canines and bicuspids were highly effective in securing a powerful hold upon the tough hide and connective tissue. it must be remembered that with a given muscular power small teeth are more easily forced into meat than large teeth. after every feast there would be a residuum of hide and bones which would gradually assume economic value. the hides of animals were at first rudely stripped off simply to get at the meat. small sharp-edged natural flints could be used for this purpose as well as to cut the sinews and flesh. after a time it was found that the furry sides of these hides were useful to cover the body at night or during a storm. thus the initial stage in the making of clothes may have been a byproduct of the hunting habit. dr matthew (_loc. cit._ pp. , ) has well suggested that man may have learned to cover the body with the skins of animals in a cool temperate climate (such as that on the northern slopes of the himalayas) and that afterward they were able to invade colder regions. the use of rough skins to cover the body must have caused exposure to new sources of annoyance and infection, but we cannot affirm that natural selection was the cause of the reduction of hair on the body and of the many correlated modifications of glandular activity. we can only affirm that a naked race of mammals must surely have had hairy ancestors and that the loss of hair on the body was probably subsequent to the adoption of predatory habits. the food habits of the early hominidæ, and thus indirectly the jaws and teeth, were later modified through the use of fire for softening the food. men had early learned to huddle round the dying embers of forest fires that had been started by lightning, to feed the fire-monster with branches, and to carry about firebrands. they learned eventually that frozen meat could be softened by exposing it to the fire. thus the broiling and roasting of meat and vegetables might be learned even before the ways of kindling fire through percussion and friction had been discovered. but the full art of cooking and the subsequent stages in the reduction of the jaws and teeth in the higher races probably had to await the development of vessels for holding hot water, perhaps in neolithic times. this account of the evolution of the food habits of the hominidæ will probably be condemned by experimentalists, who have adduced strong evidence for the doctrine that "acquired characters" cannot be inherited. but, whatever the explanation may be, it is a fact that progressive changes in food-habits and correlated changes in structure have occurred in thousands of phyla, the history of which is more or less fully known. nobody with a practical knowledge of the mechanical interactions of the upper and lower teeth of mammals, or of the progressive changes in the evolution of shearing and grinding teeth, can doubt that the dentition has evolved _pari passu_ with changes in food habits. whether, as commonly supposed, the food habits changed before the dentition, or _vice versa_, the evidence appears to show that the hominidæ passed through the following stages of evolution: . a chiefly frugivorous stage, with large canines and parallel rows of cheek teeth (cf. _sivapithecus_). . a predatory, omnivorous stage, with reduced canines and convergent tooth rows (cf. _homo heidelbergensis_). . a stage in which the food is softened by cooking and the dentition is more or less reduced in size and retrograde in character, as in modernized types of _h. sapiens_. the following is an abbreviation of gregory's arrangement of the primates (pp. , ). order primates suborder lemuroidea suborder anthropoidea series platyrrhinæ [new world monkeys] fam. cebidæ fam. hapalidæ [marmosets] series catarrhinæ [old world monkeys] fam. parapithecidæ [extinct] fam. cercopithecidæ fam. simiidæ sub-fam. hylobatinæ [gibbons] sub-fam. simiinæ [simians or anthropoid apes] by the courtesy of the author we are permitted to reproduce his provisional diagram of the phylogeny of the hominidæ and simiidæ (p. ). [illustration] the following explanation is offered for the convenience of those who may not be familiar with the technical terms here employed. _simia_, the genus containing the orang-utan. _pan_, a name occasionally employed for the genus containing the chimpanzee. most authorities place the chimpanzee and the gorilla in the genus anthropopithecus. _hylobatinæ_, the sub-family containing the gibbons. _palæopithecus_, _dryopithecus_, _palæosimia_, and _sivapithecus_ are extinct simians. _pan vetus_ is the name suggested by miller[ ] for the supposed chimpanzee whose jaw was found associated with the piltdown cranium. he says "the piltdown remains include parts of a brain-case showing fundamental characters not hitherto known except in members of the genus _homo_, and a mandible, two molars, and an upper canine showing equally diagnostic features hitherto unknown, except in members of the genus _pan_ [_anthropopithecus_]. on the evidence furnished by these characters the fossils must be supposed to represent either a single individual belonging to an otherwise unknown extinct genus (_eoanthropus_) or to two individuals belonging to two now-existing families (_hominidæ_ and _pongidæ_)." he argues that the jaw was actually that of a chimpanzee and that the cranium was that of a true man, whom he terms _homo dawsoni_. gregory accepts this hypothesis. w. p. pycraft[ ] has submitted miller's data and conclusions to searching criticism and bases his deductions on far more ample material than that at the disposal of miller. he says "that the piltdown jaw does present many points of striking resemblance to that of the chimpanzee is beyond dispute. dr smith woodward pointed out these resemblances long ago, in his original description of the jaw. but mr miller contends that because of these resemblances therefore it _is_ the jaw of a chimpanzee" (_loc. cit._ p. ). pycraft points out that there is more variability in the jaws of chimpanzees than miller was aware of, and that most of the features of the piltdown jaw are well within the limits of human variation; in discussing the conformation of the inner surface of the body of the jaw he says "between the two extremes seen in the jaws of chimpanzees every gradation will be found, but in no case would there be any possibility of confusing the piltdown fragment, or any similar fragment of a modern human jaw, with similar fragments of chimpanzee jaws" (p. ). footnotes: [ ] a. keith, "on the chimpanzees and their relationship to the gorilla," _proc. zool. soc. london_, , i. p. . [ ] _science_, vol. xlii. dec. , , p. . [ ] a. h. keane, _ethnology_, , p. . [ ] w. d. matthew, "climate and evolution," _ann. new york acad. sci._ xxiv. , pp. , . [ ] gerrit s. miller, "the jaw of piltdown man," _smithsonian misc. coll._ vol. , no. , . [ ] "the jaw of the piltdown man, a reply to mr gerrit s. miller," _science progress_, no. , , p. . index thanks are due to hilary and patrick quiggin for help in the preparation, and to miss l. whitehouse for help in the revision, of the index. ababdeh, the, abaka, the, abbadie, a. d', abbot, w. j. l., abipone, the, abkhasian language, the, abnaki, the, , , and map, pp. - abo, the, abor, the, _n._ abud, h. m., sq. abydos, excavations at, abyssinians, the, sq. achaeans, the, , , sq. acheulean culture, , achinese, the, , sq. acolhuas, the, , acoma, the, _n._ adam, l., , _n._ adelung, j. c., _n._ aderbaijani, the, aegean, the, culture of, sq., sqq., sq., sq.; prehistoric chronology of, ; race, aeneolithic period, , aeta, the, , , sqq., and pl. ii fig. afars, the, sq., sqq. afghans, the, sq., ahoms, the, ahtena, the, , and map, pp. - aimaks, the, aimores. _see_ botocudos ainu, the, , sq., and pl. vii figs. , akkadians, the, sqq., akua. _see_ cherentes alakalufs, the, ; language of, alans, the, , albanians, the, , sq. algonquian linguistic stock, the, , , sq., sqq., algonquin, the, _n._ and map, pp. - alldridge, t. j., _n._ alpine race, the, , sq., pl. xi figs. , , , and pl. xiv figs. - ; in the morea, ; in western asia, , ; in scandinavia, ; in germany, sq.; in france, , sqq.; in the tyrol, ; and the celts, sq.; in britain, sqq.; in italy, ; in russia, sq.; in irania, sqq.; in central asia, sq.; in india, sq. altamira cave art, alur, the, ama-fingu, the, ama-tembu, the, ama-xosa, the, ama-zulu, the, amias, the, ammon, o., ammonites, the, amorites, the, sq., , anau, exploration of, sq. andaman islanders, the, , sqq., , , and pl. ii fig. anderson, j. d., _n._ anderson, john, _n._ andi language, the, andrae, w., _n._ angami naga, the, ; language, a-ngoni, the, annamese, the, , sqq. annandale, n., , _n._ anorohoro, the, ansariyeh, the, antankarana, the, antimerina. _see_ hova anu, the, anuchin, a., apaches, the, , , aquitani, the, arabs, the, , sqq., , , , sqq. arakanese, the, aramaeans, the, sq. aramka, the, arapaho, the, , , , , and map, pp. - araucanians, the, sqq.; language, arawakan linguistic stock, sq. arawaks, the, , , arbois de jubainville, m. h. d', , _n._ arcadians, the, argentina, fossil man in, arikara, the, , , and map, pp. - aristov, n. a., _n._ arldt, t., armenians, the, , , , and pl. xiv figs. , armenoids, the, , sq., , , sq. aruan, the, arunta, the, , sqq. arvernians. _see_ alpine race aryan languages. _see_ indo-european languages "aryans," the, sq., , sqq.; "cradle" of, sq. aryans, the, in india, sq., sq., and pl. xv figs. - aryo-dravidian type, risley's, asha, the, ashango, the, ashanti, the, sq. ashe, r. p., _n._ ashluslays, the, aspelin, j. r., _n._, assami, the, , assiniboin, the, , , , and map, pp. - assyrians, the, sq., atacameños, the, atarais, the, athapascan linguistic stock, the, , , , , atharaka, the, _n._ aucaes. _see_ araucanians auetö, the, , aurignacian man, , , ; culture, , australians, the, , - , and pl. x figs. , ; languages of, sqq. austronesian languages, , , autenrieth, h. von, _n._ avars, the, , , sq., ayamats, the, aymara, the, , aysa, the, azandeh, the, azilian culture, sqq. aztecs, the, , - , babine, the, , and map, pp. - babir, the, babylonia, copper age in, ; bronze age in, ; chronology, , sq.; writing, sqq.; influence of, on china, sq.; inhabitants, sqq., sq., sqq.; religion, ; social system, ; culture, sq., ; connection with egypt, badakhshi, the, baele, the, baelz, e., , _n._ ba-fiot. _see_ eshi-kongo ba-ganda, the, , sqq., ba-gesu, the, _n._ baggara, the, , _n._ baghirmi, the, , bagobo, the, bahau, the, ba-hima, the, , , , , ba-huana, the, baining, the, bajau, the, ba-kalai, the, bakaïri, the, , ba-kene, the, ba-kish, the, ba-kundu, the, ba-kwiri, the, balagnini, the, balbi, a., _n._ balinese, the, balkashin, m., _n._ ball, c. j., _n._ ball, j., dyer, _n._, _n._ baloch, the, ba-lolo, the, , ba-long, the, balti, the, balto-slavs, the, ba-luba, the, ba-mangwato, the, ba-mba, the, bambara, the, , bancroft, h. h., bandelier, a. f., _n._ bandziri, the, banjars, the, bantu, the, compared with sudanese negro, sqq.; chap. iv. _passim_; in madagascar, sq. ba-nyai, the, ba-nyoro, the, banyuns, the, ba-puti, the, bara, the, sq. barabra, the, sqq., barawan, the, barea, the, bari, the, , ba-rolong, the, ba-rotse, the, sqq. barrett, w. e. h., _n._ barth, h., , _n._, sq., sq., _n._ bary, e. von, _n._ ba-sa, the, ba-sange, the, basé, the, ba-senga, the, ba-shilange, the, , bashkirs, the, , sq., _n._ ba-soga, the, _n._ ba-songe, the, basques, the, sqq., sq. bastarnae, the, , ba-suto, the, , batak, the, ba-tanga, the, ba-tau, the, batchelor, j., _n._ ba-teke, the, bateman, c. s. l., bates, o., ba-teso, the, _n._ ba-thonga, the, ba-tlapin, the, batta, the, sq. ba-twa, the, , bavaria, blond type in, ; mongoloid traits in, _n._ baya, the, ba-yanzi, the, ba-yong, the, bayots, the, bean, r. b., beaver, the, , and map, pp. - beccari, o., _n._ be-chuana, the, , , , , sq. beddoe, j., , , bede, the, bedouin, the, sq., , and pl. xii fig. beech, m. w. h., _n._ behr, v. d. v., _n._ beja, the, sq., , sq., sq. bektash, the, belck, w., _n._ belgae, the, sq. belgium, neolithic inhabitants of, bellacoola, the, , and map, pp. - bengali, the, , beni amer, the, sq. bent, j. t., , , , _n._, bentley, w. h., , berbers, the, , _n._, sqq., , - , ; language of, sqq., sq. bernard, a., berrakis, the, bertholon, l., bertin, g., bertrand, a., bertrand-bocandé, m., _n._ betoya, linguistic stock, betsileo, the, sqq. betsimisaraka, the, sq. beuchat, h., _n._, , _n._, _n._, , _n._, _n._ bhotiya, the, sq. bicol, the, _n._, biddulph, j., _n._, sq. bigandet, p., , bigger, f. j., billet, a., sq. binger, l. g., _n._, , bingham, h., _n._ bini, the, sq. bird, g. w., _n._ bisayas, the, bisharin, the, sq., and pl. xiii figs. , bishop, i. (bird), _n._, _n._, _n._ blackfoot. _see_ siksika blagden, c. o., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ bleek, e. d., _n._ bleek, w. h. i., , sq. blood indians. _see_ kainah blumentritt, f., _n._ blundell, h. weld, _n._ boas, f., , _n._, sq., sqq., _n._ bock, carl, _n._, bodo, the, bod-pa, the, sq., bogoras, w., , boghaz keui, , _n._ bollaert, w., _n._ bongo, the, sq. bonjo, the, bonvalot, p. g., booth, a. j., _n._ borgu, the, bori, the, _n._ borlase, w. c., borneo, natives of, sqq. boro, the, bororo, the, sq., borreby type, the, _n._ botocudo, the, sqq. bòttego, v., _n._ boule, m., sq. bove, g., bowditch, c. p., _n._ brahui, the, , braknas, the, bretons, the, _n._, sq. brett, e. a. de, _n._ breuil, h., _n._ bridges, t., _n._, brinton, d. g., britain, neolithic inhabitants of, sqq.; and prehistoric trade routes, ; races of, sqq., broca, p., , brocklehurst, t. u., _n._, _n._ brøgger, w. c., brooks, w. k., brown, a. r., , _n._, sqq. brown, g., _n._, _n._ brown, j. m., , _n._, _n._ brown, r., _n._ brown, r. grant, brückner, e., sqq. brünn, skeleton, the, brüx skull, the, brythons, the, budini, the, buduma, the, bugis, the, , sqq., bukidnon, the, bulala, the, bulams, the, bulgarians, the, bulgars, the, , sqq., burduna, the, burish dialect, _n._ burmese, the, , sqq., ; language, _n._ burton, sir r., bury, j. b., _n._ buryats, the, , buschmann, k. e., bushmen, the, , , sqq., and pl. i figs. , ; traces of, in egypt, bwais, the, byrne, j., , _n._ byron-gordon g., caddo, the, caddoan linguistic stock, the, , cagayans, the, california, indians of, sqq. _see_ map, pp. - callilehet, the, cambeba, the, _n._ cambojans, the, canaanites, the, sq., , canary islands, natives of the, , , capitan, l., _n._ carabuyanas, the, carapaches, the, carey, s., cariban linguistic stock, caribs, the, , sq., and pl. ix fig. carpin, j. du p., _n._ carrier, the, sq., and map, pp. - carruthers, d., cartailhac, e., _n._ cashibos, the, castrèn, m. a., , catios, the, sq. "caucasic," definition of, sq.; peoples, chaps. xiii, xiv, xv; type in central asia, sq.; in finno-turki mongols, sqq. caucasus, racial elements in the, sq. cayuga, the, , cebunys, the, celts, the, , , , _n._, , sqq., ; language of, , , cesnola, l. p. di, chadwick, h. m., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ chaldeans, the, chalmers, j., _n._ chamberlain, a. f., , _n._ chamberlain, b. h., sq. champas, the, , , champion, a. m., _n._ chanda, ramaprasad, chandra das, s., _n._, _n._ chanler, w. a., chantre, e., chao, the, chatelperron industry, the, chavanne, j., chavero, a., _n._ chechenz language, chekhs, the, , , chellean culture, , , sq. cheremisses, the, cherentes, the, cherokee, the, _n._, , , , and map, pp. - chervin, a., cheyenne, the, , , , , , and map, pp. - chibcha, the, sqq., _n._ chichimecs, the, , _n._, chickasaw, the, , , and map, pp. - chilási, the, chiliks, the, chimakuan, the, chimmesayan, the, chimu, the, sq. china, prehistoric age in, sq. chinese, the, sqq., sqq. chingpaws. _see_ singpho chinhwans, the, chinook, the, , , and map, pp. - chins, the, sqq. chipewyan, the, , and map, pp. - chiquito, the, , chiriqui, the, , _n._ chiru, the, chitimachan, the, chocos, the, sq. choctaw, the, , , and map, pp. - choglengs, the, chontals, the, choroti, the, christian, f. w., _n._ chudes, the, , , , sq. chukchi, the, sq., , sqq., church, g. e., churchill, w., _n._ cimbri, the, circassians, the, clark, c. u., _n._ clifford, h., sqq., _n._, clozel, f. j., , coahuila, the, cochiti, the, _n._ cockburn, j., _n._ cocks, a. h., cocoma, the, cocopa, the, , and pl. viii fig. coconuco, the, codrington, r., _n._ codrington, r. h., _n._, _n._ coffey, g., _n._, , _n._ cole, fay-cooper, _n._ collas, the, sq. collignon, r., , sq., colquhoun, a. r., _n._, colvile, z., _n._, comanche, the, , , , and map, pp. - combe capelle skeleton, the, , conestoga, the, conibos, the, conway, r. s., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, congo pygmies, the, , ; in egypt, , , cook, s. a., _n._ cool, w., cooper, j. m., _n._ coorgs, the, sq. corequajes, the, _n._ coroados. _see_ kamés corsicans, the, cowan, w. d., _n._ coyaima, the, crawfurd, j., sq. cree, the, ; plains-cree, ; wood-cree, , and map, pp. - creek, the, , sq., and map, pp. - crete, bronze in, ; iron in, ; exploration in, , ; pelasgians in, , ; language, ; and prehistoric trade routes, crevaux, j., _n._ croatians, the, , sq. cro-magnon skeletons, the, , , crook, dr w., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, crossland, c., _n._ crow, the, , , , and map, pp. - cummins, s. l., _n._ cunas, the, cunningham, a., cunningham, j. f., _n._ curzon, g. n., lord, cushing, f. h., , _n._, _n._ cyprus, ; pelasgians in, , ; and prehistoric trade routes, czaplicka, m. a., , _n._, dadikes. _see_ tajiks daflas, the, dahae, the, sq. dahle, l., , dahomi, the, sq. dakota, the, , sqq., and pl. viii figs. , dalton, e. t., _n._, _n._, _n._, dalton, o. m., damant, g. h., _n._ damara. see ova-herero dames, m. longworth, _n._ danákil. see afars danes, the, , and pl. xi figs. - dards, the, dáród, the, darwazi, the, darwin, c., _n._, dauri, the, dawson, c., _n._, _n._ daza, the, déchelette, j., on the prehistoric period, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, , _n._, _n._, ; iberians, _n._; ligurians, sqq.; siculi, _n._; Ægean chronology, _n._; trade routes, _n._ dècle, l., deggaras, the, dehiya. _see_ dahae dehwar. _see_ tajik delaware (leni lenapé), language, déné (tinneh), the, , sqq., and map, pp. - deniker, j., _n._, _n._, , , _n._, , _n._, , denmark, alpine type in, dennett, r. e., _n._, _n._ deodhaings, the, desgodins, p., _n._, _n._, , , _n._ dewey, h., _n._ dhé. _see_ dahae diaramocks, the, diasu, the, dieseldorff, e. p., , dinka, the, , sqq., dittmar, c. von, diula, the, _n._ dixon, r. b., , sq. dog rib, the, , and map, pp. - doko, the, dongolawi, the, dorians, the, , , , dörpfeld, w., dorsey, g. a., _n._ sqq., _n._ dottin, g., _n._ dravidians, the, , sq., sqq., and pl. xv figs. , ; language, dris, rajah, drouin, m., dru-pa, the, druses, the, , du bois, c. g., dubois, e., _n._ dubois, f., duckworth, w. l. h., _n._, _n._, _n._, , , _n._ dume, the, sq. dumont, a., dundas, c., _n._ dungan, the, duodez language, durani, the, durkheim, e., dusun, the, sq. dwaïsh, the, dwala (duala), the, _n._, dybowski, m., sq. dzo, the, ebisu, the, edkins, j., _n._ edomites, the, efiks, the, egypt, copper age in, sq.; bronze age in, sq.; iron age in, ; prehistoric chronology, ; writing, sq.; pelasgian influence in, ; racial elements in, - ; and babylonia, , ; and palestine, egyptians, the, , , , , - ehrenreich, p., , , sq., sq., , , , , elam, copper age in, ; bronze age in, elamites, the, eliot, c., _n._ eliri, the, ellis, a. b., _n._, _n._, sqq., ellis, havelock, elphinstone, mountstuart, emerillons, the, emmons, g. t., _n._ endle, s., _n._ enoch, c. r., _eoanthropus dawsoni._ _see_ piltdown eolithic period, ephthalites. _see_ yé-tha ercilla, a. de, _n._ erie, the, , and map, pp. - eshi-kongo, the, , , eskimauan linguistic stock, the, eskimo, the, alaskan, , sq., ; labrador, , sq.; asiatic, ; "blonde," ; _see also_ map, pp. - , and pl. viii fig. esthonians, the, ethiopians. _see_ eastern hamites etruscan language, etruscans, the, sq. euahlayi, the, europaeus, d. e. d., _n._ evans, sir a. j., _n._, evans, sir j., ewe, the, , faidherbe, l. l. c., falghars, the, fallmerayer, j. p., fans, the (west africa), _n._, fans, the (zerafshan), fanti, the, sq. farrand, l., , _n._ featherman, a., _n._ feist, s., , , _n._, _n._, sq., _n._, , _n._ felups, the, sq. fenner, c. n., fermuli. _see_ purmuli fewkes, j. w., , sqq., _n._ finlay, g., _n._ finno-turki mongols, the, chap. ix. _passim_ finno-ugrians, the, sq.; language, finns, the, sqq., , , , _n._; danubian, ; volga, , ; baltic, sq.; tavastian, , ; karelian, _ib._ finsch, o., _n._ fishberg, m., _n._ fitzgerald, w. w. a., fitz-roy, r., five nations, the, , , flat-heads (columbia river). _see_ chinook flat-heads (inland salish), the, , fleischer, h. l., fletcher, a. c., _n._ sq. fleure, h. j., flower, sir w., förstemann, e., , sq., , folkmar, d., _n._ foote, r. b., _n._ forbes, c. j. f. s., , _n._ foreman, j., , _n._, sq. formosa, aborigines of, sqq. fouillée, a., _n._ foy, w., _n._ fraipont, j., _n._ france, neolithic inhabitants of, sq.; racial elements in, sq., sqq. frazer, sir j. g., , freeman, e. a., _n._ friederici, g., sq. friis, j. a., fritsch, g., frobenius, l., _n._ fuegians, the, , , fulah, the, , , , sq., , , , , , sq. fulani. _see_ fulah fulbe. _see_ fulah fuluns, the, funj, the, fur, the, furfooz brachycephals, the, furlong, c. w., _n._ furness, w. h., _n._ furtwängler, a., ga, the, sq. gabelenz, g. v. d., gadabursi, the, gaddanes, the, gadow, h., _n._ gagelin, abbé, gaillard, r., _n._ gait, e. a., _n._, _n._ galatians, the, galcha, the, , sq. galchic language, sqq. galibi, the, galla, the, sqq., , , sq. galley hill skeleton, the, sq. gallinas, the, gamergu, the, gannett, h., _n._ garamantes, the, garhwali, the, garner, r. l., gatschet, a. s., _n._ gauchos, the, gautier, j. e., geer, baron g. de, sq. geikie, j., , _n._, _n._ gentil, e., georgians, the, gepidae, the, germanic race. _see_ nordic race germans, the, , germany, racial elements in, sq. gesan linguistic stock, sq. getae, the, ghegs, the, ghuz. _see_ oghuz giao-shi, the, gibbons, a. st h., _n._ gibraltar skull, the, gidley, j. w., giles, h. a., _n._, _n._, _n._ giles, p., _n._, _n._, , _n._, gill, w., _n._ gillen, f. j., , _n._ gilyaks, the, sq., , , sq., , and pl. vi fig. gladstone, j. h., , gleichen, a. e. w., _n._ goddard, p. e., _n._ godden, g. m., _n._ goez, b., goidels, the, gola, the, golds, the, sq., , , and pl. vi fig. goliki, the, golo, the, sq. gomes, e. h., _n._ gonaqua, the, gorjanovi[vc]-kramberger, _n._ górs, the, goths, the, , , gowland, w., graebner, f., , , sqq. grasserie, r. de la, _n._ gravette industry, the, gray, j., greece, prehistoric chronology of, greeks, the, sqq., , sqq. gregory, w. k., , sqq. grenard, f., _n._ grey, sir g., grierson, g. a., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ grimaldi skeletons, the, grinnell, g. b., _n._, _n._ griqua, the, gros ventre, the, , and map, pp. - guacanabibes, the, guanches, the, , , guarani, the, . _see also_ tupi-guarani guatusos, the, , and pl. ix fig. guillemard, f. h. h., _n._, , sq. guinness, h. g. (mrs), gujarati, the, , guppy, h. b., gura'an, the, gurdon, p. r. t., _n._ gurkhas, the, gurungs, the, _n._, habiru. _see_ khabiri hackman, a., , _n._ hacquard, père, _n._ haddon, a. c., on negrilloes, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._; melanesia, _n._, _n._, _n._; indonesians, _n._; borneo, sqq., _n._; america, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._; australia, _n._; racial migrations, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ hadendoa, the, sq. haebler, k., _n._ hagar, s., hagen, b., hahne, h., _n._ haida, the, , and map, pp. - hakas (ki-li-kissé), the, hakas, (burma), the, , hakkas, the, , hale, h., halévy, j., hall, h. fielding, _n._ hall, h. r. h., on prehistoric periods, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._; greece, _n._, , _n._ hall, r. n., _n._, _n._ hallett, h. s., sq., _n._, _n._, _n._ hallstatt, iron age, culture of, sq. hamada, k., hamilton, a., _n._ hamites, the, , , - , , and pl. xiii; abyssinian, sq.; eastern, sqq., sqq., - ; egyptian, , sqq.; northern, sqq. hammer, g., hampel, j., , _n._ hamy, e. t., _n._, , _n._, , , hano, the, _n._ hans (san-san), the, harding, sir a., hares, the, , and map, pp. - harri, the, harrison, h. s., _n._ harrison lake. _see_ lillooet hartland, e. s., _n._, _n._, , hausa, the, , sqq., and pl. i fig. i havasupai, the, hawes, c. h., _n._, _n._ hawes, h. b., _n._ háwíya, the, hazaras, the, hebrews. _see_ khabiri hedin, sven, , heikel, a. o., hellenes, the, sq., , helm, o., _n._ hermann, k. a., hervé, g., hewitt, j. n. b., _n._ hickson, s. j., _n._, _n._ hidatsa, the, , and map, pp. - hill-tout, c., _n._, hilprecht, h. v., _n._ hilton-simpson, m. w., _n._ himyarites, the, sq., hirt, h., _n._ hirth, f., _n._ hittites, the, , , , , sqq. hiung-nu, the, sq., hobley, c. w., _n._ hodge, h., _n._ hodgson, b. h., hodson, t. c., , , _n._, _n._ hoeï, the, hoernle, a. f. r., _n._ hoffman, w. j., _n._ hogarth, d. g., _n._, _n._, _n._ hok-los, the, , hollis, a. c., _n._ holmes, t. rice, _n._, _n._, _n._; on the mediterranean race, - , ; indo-europeans, _n._, _n._; celts, ; picts, ; british round-heads, _n._, ; _n._ holmes, w. h., , , , _n._, _n._ hommel, f., _n._, _homo alpinus_, sq. _see also_ alpine race ---- _europaeus_, . _see also_ nordic race ---- _heidelbergensis_, , . _see also_ mauer jaw ---- _primigenius_, , . _see also_ neandertal man ---- _recens_, sqq. hooper, w. h., hoops, j., _n._ hopi, the, , , , , and map, pp. - hor-pa, the, horsoks, the, hose, c., hottentots, the, sqq., and pl. i figs. , hough, w., , _n._, _n._ houghton, b., hova, the, , , sqq., sq. howitt, a. w., , _n._, howorth, sir h. h., _n._, , hrasso, the, hrdli[vc]ka, a., sqq. huaxtecans, the, , sqq., huaxtecs (totonacs), the, , sq., huc, e. r. (abbé), huichols, the, _n._ huilli-che, the, hungarians, the, _n._, sqq. hungary, copper age in, huns, the, , sqq., huntington, e., _n._, , _n._, _n._ hurgronje, c. s., _n._ huron, the, , , , and map, pp. - hyades, p. d. j., _n._, hyksos, the, , "hyperboreans," the, iban, the, , sqq. ibara, the, ibea, the, iberians, the, , , sq., , ; language of, ibis, p., idoesh. _see_ dwaïsh igorots (igorrotes), the, , ihring, h. v., illanuns, the, _n._ illinois, the, , and map, pp. - illinois dialect, the, illyrians, the, _n._, _n._, ilocano, the, imeritian language, inca, the, - , _n._ indo-aryan type, risley's, indo-european languages, sq., , sq., sqq.; type, sq.; migrations, sqq. indo-germanic. _see_ indo-european indonesians, the, , , , sq., sq. ingham, e. g., _n._, ingrians, the, iowa, the, , and map, pp. - ipurina, the, , iranians, the, , sqq., and pl. xii fig. ireland, copper age in, ; bronze age in, sq., ; racial elements in, sqq. ireland, a., _n._ iroquoian linguistic stock, the, sq., sqq., iroquois, the, , sq., sqq., and map, pp. - irula, the, , and pl. x fig. ishák, the, ishogo, the, isleta, the, _n._ israelites, the, , italic language, _n._ "italici" of sergi, _n._ italy, racial elements in, sqq. itaves, the, itelmes. _see_ kamchadales iungs (njungs), the, ivanovski, a., _n._ iyer, l. k. a. k., _n._ jaalin, the, jackson, f. g., jackson, j. wilfred, , _n._ jallonké the, , jaluo, the, james, a. w., _n._ james, g. c., jansens, the, japan, stone age in, sq. japanese, the, , sqq.; language, ; religion, sqq., and pl. vii figs. , jastrow, m., _n._, játs, the, sqq., java, fossil man in, javanese, the, , jazyges, the, jemez, the, _n._ jenks, a. e., sq., _n._ jéquier, g., _n._ jette, j., jews, the, sqq. jicarilla, the, , and map, pp. - jigúshes, the, joats, the, jochelson, w. i., _n._ johns, c. h. w., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ johnston, sir h. h., on the sudanese, _n._, , _n._, , _n._, ; bantu, sq., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, , _n._; bushman, _n._, , _n._, _n._; berbers, _n._, _n._; egypt, sq., _n._; fulah, johnson, j. p., _n._, jola, the, jolof, the, jones, w., _n._ joyce, t. a., on africa, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._; madagascar, , sq.; central asia, , _n._; mexico, , _n._, _n._; central america, ; south america, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ jullian, c., , , junker, w., sq., sq., , junod, h. a., _n._, _n._ juris, the, kababish, the, , _n._, , and pl. xii figs. , kabard language, the, kabinda, the, , sq. kabuis, the, kabyles, the, kachins. _see_ kakhyens kadayans, the, kadir, the, kai-colo, the, _n._, kainah, the, , and map, pp. - kaingangs. _see_ kamés kaitish, the, , and, pl. x fig. kajuna dialect, the, _n._ kakhyens, the, , , kalabit, the, sq. kalapooian, the, , and map, pp. - kalina, the, kalmuks, the, , sq., , and pl. vi fig. kamassintzi, the, kamayura, the, , kamchadales, the, sq., sqq., kamés, the, kamjangs, the, "kanakas," the, kanarese, the, , and pl. xv fig. kanembu, the, , sq. kanet, the, kansa, the, kanuri, the, , kara, the, karagasses, the, kara-kalpaks, the, kara-kirghiz, the, , kara-tangutans, the, karaya, the, karenni, the, karens, the, , sq., kargo, the, karian inscriptions, karigina, the, _n._ karipuna, the, karons, the, karsten, r., _n._ kartweli, the, kasak, the, kashgarians, the, , _n._ kashmiri, the, kassonké, the, kattea. _see_ vaalpens kauffmann, f., kavirondo, the, _n._ kawahla, the, kayan, the, _n._, sqq. kayapos, the, keith, a., _n._, _n._, _n._, , _n._, , , _n._, _n._, _n._ keller, c., kelt (celt), use of term, , , "keltiberians," the, kelto-slavs, the, kennan, g., _n._ kennan, r., kennelly, m., _n._, _n._ kenyah, the, sqq. keresans, the, _n._ keribina, the, kerrikerri, the, khabiri (hebrews), the, , sq.; religion of the, khamti, the, khanikoff, n. v., sq. khanungs. _see_ kiu-tse khas (gurkha), the, khas (of siam), the, _n._ khatri, the, khatti, the, khazars, the, , khemis, the, kheongs, the, kheta, the, khitans, the, khmers, the, khorvats. _see_ croatians khos, the, khotana, the, , and map, pp. - khyengs, the, khyungthas, the, kiao-shi. _see_ giao-shi kichai, the, kickapoo, the, , and map, pp. - kidd, d., _n._ kimmerians, the, _n._ kimos, the, king, l. w., _n._, _n._, _n._ sqq., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ king, p. p., kingsley, m. h., , kiowa, the, , , and map, pp. - kiowa-apache, the, kipchaks, the, , kirghiz, the, , , , sq., sqq. kitars, the, kiu-tse, the, klaatsch, h., , _n._, _n._ klangklangs, the, klaproth, h. j., , _n._ kleinschmidt, s., _n._ klemantan, the, sqq. klements, d. a., kloss, c. b., _n._ kobito, the, knowles, w. j., koch-grünberg, t., koeze, c. a., _n._ koganei, y., _n._ kohistani, the, kohlbrugge, j. h., _n._ koibals, the, kolaji, the, koldewey, k., _n._ kollmann, j., kols, the, sq. kolya, the, komans, the, kono, the, konow-sten, _n._, _n._, _n._ koraqua, the, koreans, the, , sqq., and pl. vii fig. ; korean script, korinchi, the, koro-pok-guru, the, , koryak, the, sq., , sqq., kossacks. _see_ kasak kossinna, g., _n._ kowalewsky, m., krämer, a., _n._, _n._ krapina skeletons, the, , krause, f., _n._, kreitner, g., krej, the, kretschmer, p., _n._ kroeber, a. l., , sqq., _n._ kropotkin, p. a., prince, _n._ kru, the, , sq. kshtuts, the, kubachi language, the, kuki, the, sq., , kuki-lushai, the, _n._, sqq., ; language, kulfan, the, kumi, the, kumuks, the, kunbi, the, kurankos, the, kurds, the, _n._, , , and pl. xiv figs. , kuri, the, kurlanders, the, kurnai, the, kurugli, the, kurumba, the, , _n._, kussas, the, kustenaus, the, kutchin, the, kutigurs, the, kwæns, the, kwakiutl, the, , sqq., _see_ map, pp. - , and pl. viii fig. kwana, the, kymric race. _see_ nordic race kyzylbash, the, la chapelle-aux-saints skull, the, , , lacouperie, t. de, _n._, _n._, , sq., sqq., _n._, _n._, _n._ ladakhi, the, sq. la ferassie skeleton, the, , lafofa, the, lagden, g., _n._ lagoa santa race, the, sq., laguna, the, _n._ lai, the, laï, the, laing, s., _n._ lake, p., _n._ laloy, l., , la micoque industry, the, lampongs, the, sq. lampre, g., lamut, the, sq. land dayak, the, sq., lang, andrew, , , _n._ lansdell, h., , _n._, _n._, laos, the, , sq., lapicque, l., sq., lapouge, g. v. de, , , , lapps, the, sqq., , and pl. vii fig. ; physical characters of, lartet, l., _n._ last, j. t., la tène, later iron age culture of, latham, r. e., _n._ lawas, the, layana, the, layard, n. f., laz language, leder, h., sqq. lefèvre, a., legendre, a. f., _n._ leitner, g. w., , _n._ le moustier, culture, , , ; skeleton, , lenormant, f., lenz, o., _n._ lenz, r., léon, n., _n._ leonard, a. g., _n._, _n._ leonhardi, m. f. v., _n._ lepcha, the, ; language, lepsius, k. r., sq., lesghians, the, ; language of, letourneau, c., , letto-slavs, the, letts, the, levallois industry, the, levchine, a. de, _n._ lewis, a. b., _n._ leyden, j., _n._ lho-pa, the, liberians, the, , sq. libyan race. _see_ northern hamites libyans, the, sq., , lichtenstein, m. h. k., ligurians, the, , - , sq., , , ; language of, lillooet, the, , , and map, pp. - limba, the, limbu, the, lindsay, w. m., _n._ lin-tin-yu. _see_ yayo lippert, j., _n._ lithuanians, the, littmann, e., _n._, _n._ liu-kiu (lu-chu), the, , sq. livi, r., , , , livingstone, d., livonians, the, logon, the, lohest, m., _n._ lokko, the, lolos, the, , sq., lombards, the, loucheux, the, , and map, pp. - low, brook, lowie, r. h., _n._ luard, c. e., _n._ lubbers, a., lucayans, the, sq. luchuans. _see_ liu-kiu lugard, f. d., lugard, f. s. (lady), _n._ luiseño, the, , lukach, h. c., _n._ lumholtz, c, _n._, _n._ lupacas, the, luschan, f. v., _n._, , , _n._, _n._, sqq., _n._, lushai, the, lu-tse, the, lyall, c. j., _n._ lycia, inhabitants of, ; language, lydian dialect, the, lythgoe, a. m., maba, the, sq. macalister, a., macalister, r. a. s., maccurdy, g. g., _n._, macdonald, j., _n._, mace, a. c., machas, the, mackintosh, c. w., _n._ macmichael, h. a., , _n._ macusi, the, madagascar, sqq. madi, the, madurese, the, mafflian industry, the, , mafulu, the, magars, the, _n._ magdalenian culture, sqq. mager, h., _n._ maghians, the, magyars, the, , , , sqq., ; language of, mahaffy, j. p., _n._ mahai, the, mahamid, the, mahrati, the, mainwaring, g. b., _n._ ma-kalaka, the, sq. makaraka, the, sq. makari, the, sq. makirifares, the, ma-kololo, the, sqq. makowsky, a., _n._ maku, linguistic stock, malagasy, the, sqq.; language, ; mental qualities, mala-vadan, the, malayalim, the, malayans, the, sqq., ; folklore of, sq. malayo-polynesian. _see_ austronesian malays, the, sqq., ; in borneo, , sqq.; in madagascar, ; in australia, , malbot, h., , malinowski, b., , malliesors, the, malta, inhabitants of, man, e. h., _n._, , sqq. man, the, sq., manaos, the, manchu, the, sq., sqq. manda, the, _n._ mandan, the, , sq., and map, pp. - mandara, the, sq. mandaya, the, mandingans, the, , , sqq., mangbattu, the, , , , sqq. mangkassaras, the, , , manguianes, the, manipuri, the, sqq., manobo, the, máns-coc, the, máns-meo, the, , máns-tien, the, mansuy, m., _n._ man-tse. _see_ man mao nagas, the, sq. maori, the, , and pl. xvi figs. , mapoches, the, maram nagas, the, sq. maratha brahmans, the, sq. margi, the, maricopa, the, markham, sir c. r., sq., _n._, , , _n._, _n._ maronites, the, marre, a., _n._ marrings, the, sq. marstrander, c. j. s., _n._ martin, h., _n._ martin, r., _n._, , , _n._ martius, v., _n._, , sq. masai, the, , , , mas-d'azil, ; pebbles, sqq. ma-shona, the, maspero, g., , _n._, massagetae, the, sq. ma-tabili, the, mataco, the, sq. mathew, j., _n._, matlaltzincas, the, matokki, the, matores, the, matthew, w. d., _n._ mauer jaw, the, sqq., , ma-vambu, the, maya, the, - mayang khong, the, maya-quiché the, , , sq. mayorunas, the, maypures, the, mbenga, the, mccabe, r. b., mcdougall, w., _n._ mcgee, w. j., means, p. a., _n._ mecklenberg, a. f., duke of, _n._ medes, the, _n._ mediterranean race, the, sq., ; in europe, - ; in africa, - ; language of, sq. mehinaku, the, , mehlis, c., meinhof, c., _n._ meithis, the, ; language of, _n._ melam, the, melanesians, the, sqq.; analysis of, sq.; culture of, - mendi, the, menominee, the, , , and map, pp. - mentawi, the, natives of, mentone, grottes de grimaldi, the, mercer, h., merker, m., _n._ mescalero, the, , and map, pp. - messapians, the, , _n._ messerschmidt, l., mesvinian industry, the, , meyer, a. b., meyer, e., _n._, sqq.; on indo-europeans, _n._, , , _n._, _n._; pelasgians, sqq.; egyptians, , ; semites, _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ meyer, h., meyer, kuno, _n._ miami, the, , , and map, pp. - miao-tse. _see_ máns-meo michelis, e. de, micmac, the, , and map, pp. - micronesians, the, , and pl. xvi figs. , mikhailovskii, v. m., _n._, _n._ miklukho-maclay, n. v., _n._ milanau, the, , miller, gerrit s., _n._, milliet. _see_ saint adolphe milligan, j., milne, j., minaeans, the, minahasans, the, mindeleff, c., _n._ mingrelian language, the, minnetari, the, minns, e. h., minoan culture, sqq., , minyong, the, mirdites, the, _n._, miri, the, mishmi, the, mishongnovi, the, _n._ missouri, the, , and map, pp. - mittu, the, miwok, the, pp. - miztecs, the, , mizzi, m., _n._ moabites, the, sq. mochicas, the, moeso-goths, the, mohave, the, , and map, pp. - mohawk, the, , moi, the, molu-che. _see_ araucanians mongolia, prehistoric remains in, sq. mongoloid type, risley's, mongolo-dravidian type, risley's, mongolo-tatar. _see_ mongolo-turki mongolo-turki, the, sq., , sqq. mongols, northern, chap. viii mongols, oceanic, chap. vii ---- southern, chap. vi mono, the, mons, the, montagnais, the, , , and map, pp. - montano, j., montelius, o., , _n._, _n._, mooney, j., _n._ moorehead, w. k., "moors," the, moravians, the, mordvinians, the, morel, e. d., _n._ morgan, j. de, , _n._, , _n._, morgan, e. delmar, _n._ morfill, w. r., morice, a. g., sq. morley, s. g., _n._, _n._, _n._ mosgu, the, , mossi, the, mossos, the, , sq. mostitz, a. p., moszkowski, max, mousterian man. _see_ le moustier moxos, the, , , mpangwe. _see_ fans mpongwe, the, mros, the, sq. mrungs, the, much, m., much, r., _n._ müller, f., _n._ mugs, the, sq. mundu, the, mundurucu, the, munro, n. g., _n._ munro, r., _n._ muong, the, murmi, the, murut, the, sq. muskhogean linguistic stock, the, , musquakie. _see_ sauk and fox mussian, explorations at, muyscans, the, , myers, c. s., _n._, _n._, mycenaean (mykenaean). _see_ minoan myong, the, myres, j. l., , _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._, , _n._ mysians, the, ; language of, nachtigal, g., sqq., _n._ nadaillac, marquis de, j. f. a., , _n._, _n._, _n._ naga, the, sq.; language, naga-ed-dêr, excavations at, , nahane the, , and map, pp. - nahua, the, sq., _n._, sqq., , , _n._ nahuatlans, the, , , sqq., nahuqua, the, , nairs, the, najera, nambe, the, _n._ narrinyeri, the, nashi (nashri). _see_ mossos naskapi, the, , and map, pp. - nassau, r. h., _n._ natagaima, the, natchez, the, , and map, pp. - navaho, the, , , _see_ map, pp. - , and pl. viii fig. . naville, e., _n._, _n._, neandertal man, , sqq., , negrilloes, the, sqq., and pl. ii fig. negritoes, the, sqq., and pl. ii figs. , , , - ; culture of, - , neumann, o., nez-percés. _see_ shahapts ngao, the, ngiou. _see_ burmese ngisem, the, nias, the, niblack, a. p., _n._ niceforo, a., nickas, the, nicobarese, the, sqq. niederle, l., _n._ nieuwenhuis, a. w., _n._ nilotes, the, , and pl. xiii niquirans, the, niu-chi (yu-chi, nu-chin), the, njungs. _see_ iungs nogai, the, nong, the, sq. nootka, the, , _n._, and map, pp. - nordenskiöld, a. e. von, nordenskiöld, e., nordenskiöld, g., _n._ nordic race, the, , sq., , sqq., pl. xi figs. , , , and pl. xiv figs. , ; in scandinavia, norsemen, the, , sq. northcote, g. a. s., _n._ norway, racial elements in, nossu (nesu). _see_ lolos nu-aruak, the, nuba, the, sqq. nubians, the, sqq., nuer, the, sq., nüesch, j., , nutria, the, _n._ nuttall, z., , _n._ nwengals, the, obermaier, h., _n._, , _n._, _n._ oghuz, the, sqq. ojibway, the, , , sqq., and map, pp. - ojo caliente, the, _n._ okanda, the, oldoway skeleton, the, _n._, omagua (flat-heads), the, omaha, the, , , and map, pp. - onas, the, ; language of, oneida, the, , onnis, e. a., onondaga, the, , ons, the, oraibi, the, _n._ orang-baruh, the, ---- -benua, the, ---- -maláyu. _see_ malays ---- -selat, the, ---- -tunong, the, oraons, the, orbigny, a. d. d', oriyas, the, orléans, h., prince d', _n._, _n._, sq., sqq. oroch, the, orochon, the, sq., oroke, the, orsi, p., osage, the, , , , and map, pp. - oshyeba. _see_ fans ossets, the, , o'sullivan, h., _n._ ostrogoths, the, ostyaks, the, , , , , and pl. vi fig. otomi, the, ottawa, the, , and map, pp. - ; language, oto, the, , and map, pp. - ova-herero, the, , sqq., sq. ---- -mpo, the, ---- -zorotu, the, oyampi, the, padam, the, _n._, padao, the, paes, the, pahuins. _see_ fans (west africa) paiwans, the, paï, the, (laos) of assam, pa-ï, the, of s.w. china, pakhpu, the, pakpaks, the, _n._ palaeasiatics, deniker's, palaeo-siberians, the, , palawans, the, palembang, the sq. paleo-asiatics. _see_ palaeo-siberians palmer, h. r., _n._ pames, the, _n._ pampangan, the, pampeans, the, ; language of, panches, the, pangasinan, the, paniyan, the, , and pl. x fig. pano, the, , pan-y, the, pan-yao, the, papuans, the, sq., , sqq., , and pl. iii figs. , papuasians, the, chap. v. _passim_ papuo-melanesians, the, sq., and pl. iii figs. , parker, a. c., _n._ parker, e. h., _n._, _n._, _n._, parker, h., _n._ parker, k. langloh, , _n._ parkinson, j., _n._ parkinson, r., parthians, the, sq. partridge, c., _n._ passumahs, the, patagonians, the, sq., and pl. ix figs. , ; language of, sq. paton, l. b., _n._, _n._ patroni, g., sq. patterson, a. j., _n._ paulitschke, p., paumari, the, , pawnee, the, , sqq., , and map, pp. - peal, s. e., _n._ pears, e., _n._ pease, a. e., _n._ pechenegs, the, pecos, the, _n._ peet, t. e., _n._ peisker, t., , _n._, sq., , _n._, _n._, _n._, , _n._, _n._ peixoto, j. r., pelasgians, the, , , , - , sq.; in italy, ; in greece, sq.; language of, , penck, a., sqq. penek, the, penka, c., _n._, , peoria, the, , and map, pp. - pepohwans, the, peringuey, l., permians, (beormas, permian finns), the, _n._, , , persians, the, , pescado, the, _n._ perry, w. j., peschel, o., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ p[)e]s[)e]g[)e]m, the, petersen, e., _n._ petrie, w. m. flinders, _n._, , , , , _n._ peyrony, m., _n._ philippines, the, sqq. philistines, the, , phoenicians, the, , sq., , phrygians, the, , piankashaw, the, pickett, a. j., _n._ pictones, the, picts, the, sq. picun-che, the, picuris, the, _n._ piegan, the, , and map, pp. - piette, e., , , pilma, the, piltdown skull, the, sqq., , sq. pima, the, sq., and map, pp. - pinches, t. g., , , pintos, the, _n._ pipils, the, sqq. _pithecanthropus erectus_, sqq., plains indians, the, , - , and map, pp. - planert, w., _n._ playfair, a., _n._ pojoaque, the, _n._ polabs, the, polak, j. e. r., _n._ poles, the, , polynesians, the, , sqq., and pl. xvi figs. - pomo, the, pp. - ponca, the, , sq., and map, pp. - portugal, racial elements in, sq. potanin, g. n., , _n._ potawatomi, the, , and map, pp. - poutrin, l., _n._ powell, j. w., , , , , _n._ powhatan, the, , and map, pp. - praeger, r. lloyd, _n._ pre-dravidians, the, , , chap. xii, , and pl. x figs. - prichard, j. c., , , , prince, j. d., prjevalsky, n. m., , procksch, o., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ proto-malays, the, proto-polynesians, the, pryer, w. b., _n._ pueblo indians, the, , - , ; and map, pp. - puelche, the, , puenche, the, pumpelly, r., punan, the, sq., punjabi, the, pun-ti, the, purasati, the, purmuli, the, pwos, the, pycraft, w. p., quapaw, the, quatrefages, a. de, quoirengs, the, quichuas, the, sq., radloff, w., raffles, sir t. s., rahanwín, the, rájputs, the, sqq., rakhaingtha, the, randall-maciver, d., _n._, _n._ rangkhols, the, ranqualches, the, rat, j. numa, _n._ rattray, r. s., _n._ rawling, c. g., _n._ rawlinson, g., _n._, ray, s. h., _n._, _n._, read, c. h., reade, w. winwood, reck, hans, _n._, reclus, e., _n._, _n._ reed, w. a., _n._ regnault, m. f., rein, j. j., _n._ reinach, l. de, _n._ reinach, s., _n._, _n._ reinecke, p., reinisch, l., reisner, g. a., , , , rejang, the, , sq. retu, the, _n._ retzius, g., _n._ reutelian culture, rhaetians (rasenes), the, rhoxolani, the, rhys, sir j., _n._ rialle, g. de, _n._ richthofen, f. von, , ridgeway, sir w., _n._, ; on pelasgians, , _n._, sq., _n._, _n._; ligurians, ; romans, _n._; achaeans, _n._ rink, h. j., , rink, s., ripley, w. z., _n._, _n._, ; on the mediterranean race, , _n._; basques, _n._, _n._; greeks, _n._, , _n._; phoenicians, _n._; jews and semites, _n._, ; scandinavia, ; central europe, _n._, _n._; celts, _n._; britain, , ; italy, _n._ risley, h. h., _n._, , sqq. rivers, w. h. r., sqq., _n._, _n._, , rivet, p., sq. robinson, c. h., _n._ robinson, h. c., , _n._ rockhill, w. w., sqq., , roesler, r., , roeys, the, rol, the, rolleston, j., romans in north africa, the, romilly, h. h., _n._ rong, the, , roscoe, j., sq., _n._ rose, h. a., _n._ rosenberg, h. von, _n._, _n._, _n._ rostafínski, j., roth, h. ling, _n._, _n._, _n._ routledge, w. s. and k., _n._ roy, s. c., _n._ ruadites, the, rumanians, the, , , sqq. rumaníya, the, russell, f., _n._ russell, r. v., _n._ russians, the, , sq. ruthenians, the, , rutot, m., , sabaeans, the, sacæ, the, sq. saint-adolphe, milliet de, , _n._ saint-denys, d'h. de, saint-martin, v. de, _n._, _n._, _n._ sakai, the, , , sq., sq., and pl. x fig. sakalava, the, sq., sakhersi, the, _n._ salaman, r. n., _n._ salars, the, salish, the coast, , sq., and map, pp. - salish, the inland, , sqq., and map, pp. - salmon, p., sambaqui (shell-mound) race, the, samoyeds, the, , , , , sq., and pl. vi fig. ; religion of, sq., sandberg, g., _n._ sande, g. a. j. van der, sandia, the, _n._ san felipe (indians), the, _n._ san ildefonso (indians), the, _n._ san juan (indians), the, _n._ santa ana (indians), the, _n._ santa barbara (indians), the, sq. santa clara (indians), the, santo domingo (indians), the, _n._ santal, the, santee-dakota, the, , and map, pp. - sapper, k., sarasin, f., _n._, _n._, sarasin, p., _n._, _n._, sards, the, sq. sarmatians (sarmatae), the, , sq. sarsi, the, , , and map, pp. - "sartes," the, sassaks, the, sq. sauk and fox, the, , , , and map, pp. - saulteaux, the, , and map, pp. - saxons, the, sayce, a. h., _n._, _n._, , , sq. scandinavia and amber trade, ; "aryan cradle" in, ; population of, schafarik, p. j., _n._ scharff, r. f., schetelig, a., schiefner, a., schleicher, a., , schliemann, h., schlenker, c. f., _n._ schmid, t. p., schmidt, h., schmidt, w., _n._, _n._, _n._, , sqq. schoetensack, o., _n._ schoolcraft, h. r., schott, h., _n._ schrader, o., _n._ schultz, j. w., _n._ schumacher, g., schwalbe, g., _n._ schweinfurth, g., _n._ scotland, racial elements in, sqq. scott, j. g., _n._, _n._, scythians, the, _n._, , , sqq.; in india, scytho-dravidian type, risley's, sea dayak. _see_ iban sebop, the, seger, h., _n._ seguas, the, _n._ sekani, the, sq., and map, pp. - sekhwans, the, seki-manzi, the, seler, e., seligman, b. z., _n._, _n._ seligman, c. g., _n._, , _n._, _n._, , , _n._, , , _n._ seljuks, the, sellin, e., semang, the, , , sqq., , , and pl. ii fig. seminole, the, , , , and map, pp. - semites, the, in babylonia, sqq., , , ; arabs, sqq., sqq.; in africa, , ; chap, xiv semple, e. c., _n._ seneca, the, , senoi. _see_ sakai serbians, the, , serer, the, sqq. sergi, g., , , ; on the mediterranean race, sq., sqq., sqq., ; in italy, _n._, , sq.; in greece, ; in russia, ; hamites, sq., seri indians, the, , setebos, the, sgaws, the, shahapts, the, sq., and map, pp. - shakespear, j., _n._, _n._ shakshu, the, shans, the, , , sqq.; alphabets of, , sq. shargorodsky, s., sharra, the, shaw, g. a., shawías, the, shawnee, the, , , , and map, pp. - shendu, the, sheyanté, the, shilluk, the, sqq., shinomura, m., shíns, the, shipaulovi, the, _n._ shipibos. _see_ sipivios shluhs, the, shom pen, the, sqq. shoshoni, the, , , sq., and map, pp, - shoshonian linguistic stock, the, , shrubsall, f. c., , , _n._ shu, the, shunopovi, the, _n._ shushwap, the, , , and map, pp. - sia, the, _n._ siah posh, the, siamese, the, , sq.; writing system, sibree, j., _n._ sicani, the, sichumovi, the, _n._ siculi, the, , , sidonians. _see_ phoenicians siebold, h. v., sien-pi, the, sqq. sierochevsky, v. a., sierra-leonese, the, sqq. sifans, the, sihanakas, the, sikemeier, w., sikhs, the, siksika, the, , , sqq., and map, pp. - singpho, the, siouan linguistic stock, the, , , , sqq., ; eastern, sioux. _see_ dakota sipivios, the, sirdehi, the, sistani, the, siyirs, the, skeat, w. w., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ skidi, the, skinner, a., _n._ slavey, the, , and map, pp. - slavo-kelt, use of term, slavs, the, , , sqq., , , , , sqq. slovaks, the, , , slovenes, the, , _n._ smeaton, d. m., smith, a. h., _n._ smith, donaldson, smith, g. elliot, sq., , , _n._, sqq., _n._, _n._, sqq., , _n._ smith, r., _n._ smith, s. percy, _n._ smith, v. a., _n._ smyth, r. brough, _n._ smyth-warington, h., , _n._ snellman, a. h., _n._, so, the, sok-pa, the, _n._, sokté, the, sollas, w. j., , _n._, sqq., _n._, , , sols, the, solutrian culture, , somali, the, , sq., sqq. songhai, the, sqq. soninké the, , sonorans, the, soppitt, c. a., soyotes, the, spain, racial elements in, sq. spartman, p. s., _n._ speck, f. g., speiser, f., _n._ speke, j. h., spence, l., _n._ spencer, h., _n._ spencer, sir w. baldwin, sq., sq., , _n._, spinden, h. j., _n._, _n._ spy skeletons, the, squier, e. g., stack, e., _n._ stanley, h. e. j., _n._ stanley, h. m., _n._ starr, f., _n._ steensby, h. p., stefánsson, v., stein, sir m. a., sq., sq., , steinen, k. v. d., _n._, , sqq. steinmetz, r. s., _n._, n sternberg, l., _n._ stevenson, m. c., _n._ stow, g. w., _n._, _n._ strandloopers, the, strepyan culture, stuhlmann, f., _n._, _n._, , , sturge, allen, subano, the, sudanese negro, chap. iii sumerians, the, sqq., sq., ; _see also_ babylonia sumu, the, sundanese, the, susa, explorations at, , susquehanna, the, , , and map, pp. - suti, the, suyas. _see_ kayapos swahili. _see_ wa-swaheli swanton, j. r., , _n._ swazi, the, sweden, alpine type in, _n._, ; nordic type in, swettenham, sir f. a., _n._, swiss pile-dwellers, the, sykes, sir m., _n._ syrians, the, sq. szinnyei, j., tagalogs, the, , , , sq. tagbanua, the, ta-hia, the, tahltan indians, the, _n._ tahtadji, the, tai (t'hai). _see_ shans tai-shan language, the, sq. tajiks, the, , , sqq., and pl. xiv figs. , talaings, the, talamanca, the, _n._ talbot, p. a., _n._ talko-hryncewicz, j. d., talodi, the, tamai, k., tamehu, the, tamils, the, tanala, the, tangkhuls, the, tanguts, the, , tanoans, the, _n._ taos, the, _n._ tapiro, the, , and pl. ii figs. - tappeiner, f., tapuya, the, tarahumare, the, _n._ taranchi, the, tarascan language, the, tarascos, the, tardenoisian industry, the, "tartars," the, _n._, ; kazan, ; nogai, _ib._; siberian, ; volga, tarté industry, the, tashons, the, sq. tasmanians, the, sqq., sqq., and pl. iii figs. , taubach tooth, the, tauté the, tavoyers, the, tawangs, the, tawyans, the, taylor, e. j., taylor, g., _n._ taylor, w. e., , teda, the, tehuelche. _see_ patagonians teilhard, p., teit, j., _n._ tekestas, the, telinga (telugu, tling), the, , temple, sir r. c., sq., , _n._, _n._ ten kate, h. f. c., tepanecs, the, , terrage, m. de v. du, tesuque, the, _n._ teton-dakota, the, , and map, pp. - teutoni, the, teutonic race. _see_ nordic race teutons, the, historic and prehistoric, , sq., theal, g. m., _n._, _n._, _n._, _n._ thessalians, the, tho, the, sq., thomas, cyrus, , _n._ thomas, n. w., _n._, _n._, _n._, thompson, basil, _n._ thompson, e. h., thompson, j. p., _n._ thompson, m. s., _n._ thompson, p. a., _n._ thompson, the, , and map, pp. - thomsen, wilhelm, , , , _n._, thomson, a., _n._ thomson, b. h., thracians, the, sq., thurn, sir e. f. im, _n._ thurnam, j., thurston, e., , _n._, tibetans, the, sqq.; language of, tibeto-indo-chinese branch, tibu, the, , sq. ticuna, the, tilho, m., _n._, _n._ timni, the, sq. timotes, the, timuquanans, the, tipperahs, the, tipuns, the, tling. _see_ telinga tlingit, the, , , sq., and map, pp. - toala, the, toba, the, sq. tocaima, the, tocharish, _n._, tocher, j. f., toda, the, toghuz, the, sq. toltecs, the, , sq., , _n._ tongue, m. h., _n._ tooke, w. h., topinard, p., torday, e., _n._, _n._ toshks, the, sq. tosti, g., totonacs. _see_ huaxtecs toung-gnu, the, toxides, the, trarsas, the, tremearne, a. j. n., _n._, _n._ tremlett, c. f., _n._ tshi, the, , tsiampa. _see_ champa tsimshian, the, , , _n._ tsintsars, the, tsoneca. _see_ tehuelche tuaregs, the, sq., tuck, h. n., tucker, a. w., _n._, _n._ tumali, the, tungthas, the, tungus, the, sqq., and pl. vi figs. , tunican, the, , , and map, pp. - tunisia, natives of, sq. tupi, the, , ; language, tupi-guarani, the, ; language, ; linguistic stock, , , turki, the, , , sqq.; physical features, ; in india, ; in central asia, sqq.; in asia minor, sq.; in siberia, sqq. turko-iranian type, risley's, turkomans, the, , sq. turks, osmanli, , , sq. turner, s., turner, sir william, , _n._ tusayans, the, sq. tuscarora, the, , sq., and map, pp. - tylor, sir e. b., , _n._ tynjur, the, tyrol, the, brachycephaly in, uaupés, the, ude language, ugrian finns, the, sqq., sq. uigurs, the, , sqq., _n._ uinta, the, ujfalvy, c. de, sq., sq., , _n._, , _n._, , ukit, the, sq. uled-bella, the, uled-embark, the, uled-en-nasúr, the, ulu ayar, the, , umbrians, the, , ural-altaic peoples. _see_ northern mongols ---- languages, sqq. usuns (wusun), the, , , ute, the, , sq. utigurs, the, uzbegs, the, , , vaalpens, the, sq. vacas, the, valentini, p. j. j., , vambéry, a., , _n._ vandals, the, , vandeleur, s., _n._ vansittart, e., _n._ vapisianas, the, vascones, the, vasilofsky, n. e., _n._ vater, j. s., vauru, the, vazimba, the, , sq. vedda, the, , , , and pl. x fig. vei, the, _n._, _n._, venedi, the, veneti, the, _n._, _n._ vepses, the, , verneau, r., _n._, , _n._, , vierkandt, a., _n._ vinson, j., _n._, _n._ virchow, r., , , , , , _n._ visayas, the, , visigoths, the, vlachs, the, voguls, the, , volkov, t., _n._, _n._ volz, w., _n._ votes, the, , voth, h. r., _n._ votyaks, the, vouchereau, a., wa-boni, the, wace, a. j. b., _n._ wa-chaga, the, wachsmuth, w., _n._ waddell, l. a., _n._ wa-duruma, the, wa-giryama, the, sqq. wa-gweno, the, wa-hha, the, wahuma. _see_ ba-hima waiilatpuan, the, wainwright, g. a., _n._ wa-kamba, the, wa-kedi, the, _n._, wakhi, the, wa-kikuyu, the, _n._ wakoré, the, _n._ walapai, the, wales, racial elements in, sqq. walkhoff, e., _n._ wallace, a. r., , _n._, sqq. wallack, h., walpi, the, _n._ walter, h., _n._ wandorobbo, the, wangara, the, _n._ wa-nyika, the, wa-pokomo, the, wa-ruanda, the, , wa-sandawi, the, , wa-swahili, the, , wa-taveita, the, wa-teita, the, watt, g., , _n._ wa-tusi, the, , webster, w., _n._, _n._ weeks, j. h., _n._ weigland, g., _n._ weiss, m., _n._ wends, the, werner, a., _n._, _n._, _n._ weule, k., _n._ wheeler, g. c., _n._ whenohs, the, whiffen, t., _n._ wibling, carl, wichita, the, , , and map, pp. - williamson, r. w., willis, b., wilson, thomas, winchell, n. h., winckler, h., , windisch, e., windt, h. de, winnebago, the, , wintun, the, pp. - wissler, c., - _passim_ wissmann, h. von, witoto, the, , _n._ wochua, the, wolf, l., wollaston, a. f. r., _n._, _n._, _n._ wolof, the, , sqq. woodford, c. m., _n._, _n._ woodthorpe, r. g., _n._ woodward, a. smith, _n._, _n._, _n._ worcester, d. c., _n._ wray, l., _n._ wright, f. e., wright, w., _n._, _n._ wuri, the, wyandot, the, , and map, pp. - wylde, a. b., _n._ xenopol, a. d., yacana, the, yadrintseff, n. m., _n._ yagi, s., yagnobi, the, _n._ yahgans, the, , ; language of, yakut, the, , sq.; language, _n._, , sq. yamamadi, the, yankton-dakota, the, , and map, pp. - yavapai, the, yavorsky, j. l., yayo (yao), the, yedina, the, yegrai, the, yegurs, the, _n._ yellow knives, the, , and map, pp. - yemanieh, the, yé-tha, the, sq. yezidi, the, yidoks, the, y-jen, the, yo, the, yokut, the, pp. - yoma, the, yoruba, the, , sq. yotkan, explorations at, younghusband, sir f., sq. yuan-yuans, the, , yuchi, the, sqq., and map, pp. - yué-chi, the, , sqq., _n._ yugo-slavs, the, , yuin, the, yukaghir, the, sq.; writing system, sq., yuma, the, yuman linguistic stock, the, , yumanas, the, yungas, the, zaborowski, s., , , _n._, sq. zandeh, the, , sq., sq. zapotecs, the, , zimbabwe monuments, the, , sq., , _n._ zimmer, h., _n._ zimmern, h., _n._ ziryanians, the, zoghawa, the, zulu-xosa, the, , sqq., , and pl. i fig. zuñi, the, , and map, pp. - cambridge: printed by j. b. peace, m.a., at the university press plate i [illustration: . hausa, western sudanese negro] [illustration: . zulu, bantu negroid] [illustration: . koranna hottentot] [illustration: . koranna hottentot] [illustration: . bushman] [illustration: . bushman] plate ii [illustration: . andamanese, negrito] [illustration: . semang, negrito] [illustration: . aeta, negrito] [illustration: . central african, negrillo] [illustration: - . tapiro, negrito] plate iii [illustration: . tasmanian] [illustration: . tasmanian] [illustration: . kiwai, papuan] [illustration: . kiwai, papuan] [illustration: . hula, papuo-melanesian] [illustration: . hula, papuo-melanesian] plate iv [illustration: . chinese] [illustration: . chinese] [illustration: . kara-kirghiz, mongolo-turki] [illustration: . kara-kirghiz, mongolo-turki] [illustration: . kara-kirghiz] [illustration: . manchu-tungus] plate v [illustration: . iban, mixed proto-malay] [illustration: . buginese, malayan] [illustration: . bontoc igorot, malayan] [illustration: . bagobo, malayan] [illustration: , . kenyah, mixed proto-malay] plate vi [illustration: . samoyed] [illustration: . tungus] [illustration: . yenesei ostiak, palaeo-siberian] [illustration: . kalmuk, western mongol] [illustration: . gold of amur river, tungus] [illustration: . gilyak, n. e. mongol] plate vii [illustration: . ainu, palaeo-siberian] [illustration: . ainu, palaeo-siberian] [illustration: , . japanese, mixed manchu-korean and southern mongol] [illustration: . korean] [illustration: . lapp] plate viii [illustration: . eskimo] [illustration: . indian, north-west coast of north america] [illustration: . cocopa, yuman] [illustration: . navaho, athapascan] [illustration: . dakota, siouan] [illustration: . dakota, siouan] plate ix [illustration: . carib] [illustration: . guatuso, costa rica] [illustration: . native of otovalo, ecuador] [illustration: . native of zambisa, ecuador] [illustration: . tehuel-che, patagonia] [illustration: . tehuel-che, patagonia] plate x [illustration: . vedda, pre-dravidian] [illustration: . sakai, pre-dravidian] [illustration: . irula, pre-dravidian] [illustration: . paniyan, pre-dravidian] [illustration: . kaitish, australian] [illustration: . australian] plate xi [illustration: . dane, nordic] [illustration: . dane, nordic] [illustration: . dane, mixed alpine] [illustration: . breton, mixed alpine] [illustration: . swiss, nordic] [illustration: . swiss, alpine] plate xii [illustration: . catalan, iberian] [illustration: . irishman, mediterranean] [illustration: . kababish, mixed semite] [illustration: . kababish, mixed semite] [illustration: . egyptian bedouin, mixed semite] [illustration: . afghán, iranian] plate xiii [illustration: . bisharin, hamite] [illustration: . bisharin, hamite] [illustration: . ben amer, hamite] [illustration: . masai, mixed nilotic hamite] [illustration: . shilluk, hamitic nilote] [illustration: . shilluk, nilote] plate xiv [illustration: . kurd, nordic] [illustration: . kurd, nordic] [illustration: . armenian, armenoid alpine] [illustration: . armenian, armenoid alpine] [illustration: . tajik, alpine] [illustration: . tajik, mixed alpine and turki] plate xv [illustration: . sinhalese, mixed "aryan"] [illustration: . sinhalese, mixed "aryan"] [illustration: . hindu, mixed "aryan"] [illustration: . kling, dravidian] [illustration: . linga, dravidian] [illustration: . vakkaliga, mixed alpine] plate xvi [illustration: , . raiatea, polynesian] [illustration: . maori, polynesian] [illustration: . maori, polynesian] [illustration: , . caroline islands, micronesian] transcriber's notes: . passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. . passages in bold are indicated by #bold#. . images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break. . footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the chapter in which they are referenced. . obvious punctuation errors have been corrected. . this text contains certain characters with diacritical marks, which are marked within square brackets. for example, [)e] represents small letter "e" with breve. . the original text includes greek characters. for this text version, these letters have been replaced with transliterations. . the following misprints have been corrected: "identity" corrected to "identify" (page ) "archeological" corrected to "archaeological" (page ) "momenclature" corrected to "nomenclature" (page ) . sidenotes have been removed from this text version. . other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained. [illustration: simplified map of fiji showing four regional divisions of population made by the author.] a racial study of the fijians by norman e. gabel anthropological records vol. , no. i university of california anthropological records editors: c. w. meighan, harry hoijer. eshref shevky volume , no. . pp. - , plates - submitted by editors april , issued march , price. $ . university of california press berkeley and los angeles california cambridge university press london, england manufactured in the united states of america contents _page_ introduction the problem and procedure the habitat history population racial background acknowledgments measurements and indices general weight stature span span-stature index the trunk sitting height relative sitting height biacromial relative shoulder breadth bi-iliac shoulder-hip chest breadth chest depth thoracic arms and legs arm length humeral length radial length radial-humeral leg length tibial length calf circumference the head head circumference head length head breadth cephalic index head height length-height breadth-height cranial module minimum frontal fronto-parietal the face bizygomatic cephalo-facial zygo-frontal total face height total facial index upper face height upper facial index bigonial fronto-gonial zygo-gonial nasal height nasal breadth nasal index nasal depth nasal-depth index mouth breadth lip thickness ear length ear breadth ear index bicanine breadth morphological observations pigmentation skin color: exposed skin color: unexposed hair color eye color hair hair form hair texture head hair quantity hair length baldness beard quantity body hair grayness: head grayness: beard the face prognathism: total prognathism: mid-facial prognathism: alveolar malar projection: lateral malar projection: frontal gonial angles palate shape chin prominence chin type the head temporal fullness occipital protrusion lambdoidal flattening occipital flattening median sagittal crest parietal bosses cranial asymmetry facial asymmetry eyes eye folds: external eye fold: median eye folds: internal eye obliquity eye opening forehead brow ridges forehead height forehead slope nose nasion depression root height root breadth nasal septum bridge height bridge breadth nasal profile nasal-tip thickness nasal-tip inclination nasal wings mouth lip thickness: membranous lip thickness: integumental lip eversion lip seam teeth bite caries crowding tooth eruption wear ears ear helix darwin's point ear-lobe type ear-lobe size ear protrusion ear slant body build body build: endomorph body build: mesomorph body build: ectomorph summary conclusions literature cited plates map simplified map of fiji showing four regional divisions of population made by the author ... frontispiece a racial study of the fijians by norman e. gabel introduction this paper concerns itself with a physical survey of the native male population of fiji. the main objective is a description of these people by means of anthropometric procedure.[ ] the treatment includes, first, a description of the fijians as a whole, second, a comparison with neighboring people, and third, regional differences among the fijians themselves. the problem and procedure the data used in this survey were secured in during a stay of seven months in fiji. my plan was to obtain anthropometric samples from several parts of the archipelago; this plan was only slightly altered as time and transportation facilities directed. each of the three main administrative districts into which the islands are divided were visited and within each district samples were secured from most of the constituent provinces. the original sample consisted of subjects. later, subjects were excluded for various reasons: some were part samoan or tongan, a few were rotumans, and others were immature. the number finally used stands at . a limited amount of comparative material has been included in order to help locate the fijians in the overall pacific picture. these data were drawn from w. w. howells, "anthropometry and blood types in fiji and the solomon islands" in the american museum of natural history, anthropological papers, volume , part , , and from l. r. sullivan, "a contribution to tongan somatology" based on the field studies of e. w. gifford and w. c. mckern, in memoires of the bernice p. bishop museum, volume , number , . the latter report provides comparison with what may be termed western polynesians who are also the nearest polynesians to the fijians. the fijian data in howell's paper make it possible for me to check some of my own fijian material, and the solomon island data in the same report provide a melanesian measuring stick. since an over-all description of the fijians is the initial concern of this paper, each physical trait measured or derived from measurement is tabulated according to range, average, and deviation. traits observed but not measured are presented according to degree of development, e.g., absent, medium, and pronounced, and according to percentage of occurrence. further statistical manipulation is not deemed necessary for the writer's purposes. it is well established that the fijians are a mixed people. they are regarded, and with good reason, as a hybrid of, mainly, melanesian and polynesian components. their geographical location, their history, and their physical appearance bear this out. the proportions of polynesian and melanesian elements are, of course, not evenly distributed throughout fiji. even superficial observation indicates that the natives range from strongly melanesian to markedly polynesian. to demonstrate how this variability follows certain regional trends, the data have been broken down into four geographical areas. this subdivision rests on several considerations and merits further comment. one of the subgroups represents the people of the mountainous interior of viti levu, the main island of fiji (see accompanying map). this region may be regarded as something of a refuge area. fijians from this relatively isolated locality might reasonably be expected to exhibit more of the earlier racial elements of the total composition. it should be pointed out, however, that the degree of isolation associated with this; interior; group is not extreme. fiji tradition and history indicate extensive interregional movement. particularly in early historic times, when the advent of firearms and other western culture greatly stimulated intergroup warfare and cannibalism, there was much moving about from one region to another. with all this, the interior people still remained, as indeed they are today, more apart from the rest of the population and less subject to outside influence. the second segment chosen for interregional comparison is in the central lau islands and is designated in this paper as the "eastern" group. lying as they do, at the eastern end of fiji, they are closest to tonga, the nearest polynesian neighbors. tongan contact with fiji in prehistoric as well as more recent times is well established.[ ] it is in the lau islands that polynesian cultural affinities are most marked. hence, it seems a logical choice for a second and separate glance in the racial history. the third comparative sample might be termed an intermediate group. it is taken from the coastal villages of eastern viti levu, largely from the provinces of rewa and tailevu. this area is geographically between the "interior" and "eastern" groups and is referred to in this paper as the "coastal" group. the final regional division represents the northwestern parts of viti levu. this is the place where, according to fiji tradition, their ancestors first landed after migrating from the west.[ ] fijian legend, which gives this hint of their ancestry, does not include a physical description of these immigrants. nor does it define the physical appearance of the earlier people whom the newcomers encountered and with whom they mingled. on the rather slim hope that anthropometry might shed a little light on this questionable phase of fijian history, this area, along with the first three, has received separate treatment. the habitat the islands of fiji are centrally located in the southwest pacific. over three hundred islands and islets make up the archipelago, which spreads between latitudes ' and ' south of the equator for miles. the international date line runs through fiji at the koro sea and the moala island group. the total land area of the islands is about the equivalent of the state of delaware, somewhat over , square miles. two great islands account for nearly per cent of the total area: viti levu, the largest, is over , square miles, and vanua levu, about half as large. over per cent of the native population lives on these two islands although nearly a hundred other islands are inhabited. most of the islands are made up of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. the largest islands rest on a submerged portion of an ancient land mass, sometimes called the melanesian continent, which goes back in time to the paleozoic and, in its prime, intermittently connected fiji with southeastern asia and australia. subsequent submergence, followed by cycles of volcanic upbuilding, erosion, and more submergence over eons of time, gave the big islands their upper foundations. the last extensive volcanic activity and land uplift occurred in the pleistocene and accounts for many of the present mountain masses. the final touches to the fiji profile have been wrought by more recent weathering and erosion. sedimentation is still going on at river mouths and along the coasts, where deltas are being built and mangrove thickets flourish. many of the smaller islands are old limestone masses that were pushed up from the sea. unlike the high craggy volcanic islands, these are lower and flat-topped. typically, they contain a basin-shaped depressed area that is surrounded by a rim. these depressions are usually fertile and heavily forested. coral islands make up the third variety of land forms. these are always small and low. their small size, thinner soil, and lack of fresh water make them much less suitable for human habitation. but even a thin layer of soil produces a luxurious vegetation. fringing and barrier reefs are abundant throughout the archipelago, surrounding nearly every island. the most striking of these formations is the great sea reef, which forms an arc of nearly miles along the western fringe of fiji and encloses large areas of coral-infested sea. moderately high mountains give to the larger islands a generally rugged terrain. the more extensive ranges lie across the path of the prevailing south and easterly winds producing windward and leeward climatic areas. on the windward side rainfall is heavy and rather evenly distributed over the year. here the valleys and mountain slopes support a typical dense tropical growth. the leeward side, however, receives much less moisture and has wet and dry seasons. scattered patches of trees and grasses cover the ground, whereas heavy stands of forest are confined to valley bottoms and higher mountain slopes. the mountainous interior of viti levu contains a number of peaks over , feet, the highest of which is mt. victoria, , feet. surface water is abundant on the bigger islands. several large and navigable rivers drain viti levu and vanua levu. the rewa river, on the east side of viti levu is the largest and is navigable for small craft for miles. smaller rivers and hundreds of streams are important sources of food and drink for the people of the interior. great flood plains are formed at the mouths of the larger rivers. these and the fertile flats that run back along the valleys contain the greatest population densities. the climate is generally pleasant and healthful. tropical extremes of heat and humidity are moderated by the prevailing trades, which usually supply cool and pleasant breezes from the east. still, days of uncomfortable heat and oppressive humidity are not unknown; however, such periods are protracted only in the interior. the climate is far from uniform throughout the islands. the windward sides, where rainfall often exceeds a hundred inches, have a more even temperature and sunshine is more moderate. on the leeward sides there is less general cloudiness and more sunshine, especially during the dry season. the smaller islands generally resemble the leeward areas in climate. native plant and animal life, like much of the southwest pacific, is southeastern asiatic in type and in origin. in the more profuse and varied windward sides there are several general vegetation zones. along the coasts and in the larger river basins occur alluvial vegetation largely dominated by several kinds of mangrove, which is densest in mud flats washed by the tide. in this zone trees are scattered, and many of them bear useful nuts and fruits. on the slopes and ridges behind the coastal belts are the great tropical rain forests. they make up a dense cover of evergreen trees interwoven with wild creepers and vines. thick stands of shrubs and smaller trees add to the tropical profusion. above , feet the forests thin out and become more heavily coated with moss and lichens, and ferns and orchids attach themselves to the branches. beyond , feet is the cloud belt, and above this trees become stunted and are finally replaced by hardy shrubs that cling to the rocks and crags. on the leeward sides, patches of rain forest are found only in the moister areas. more typical of this zone are thin-leaved trees interspersed in large expanses of meadow and grassland. a number of native plants are very vital to the fijian livelihood and some have modern economic importance. several timber trees are essential to house building, canoe construction, and wood carving. the ubiquitous palms, here as elsewhere in the pacific, are vital sources of food, drink, building, and weaving materials and cordage. the mangrove provides firewood, house poles, fishing fences, and traps, laths for bows and black dye for their hair and tapa. valuable starch is secured from the sago palm, which is cut just before flowering, and the leaves are a common thatching material. various reeds, canes, and bamboos and lianas are useful to fiji economy. in the drier areas reeds and grasses provide material for house walls, thatch, fish fences, and arrow shafts. several kinds of trees yield edible nuts and fruits. like other central-pacific island groups, fiji is poorly provided with indigenous mammals. a small gray rat is a considerable pest in gardens and homes, and a large nocturnal bat, which is called a flying fox, lives in tree colonies and is often seen at dusk in banana groves or other feeding places. all the economically important animals of fiji have been introduced, such as pigs, fowl, dogs, cattle, horses, sheep, and goats. bird life is diverse and interesting, although in a number of places introduced forms, like mynahs and turtle doves, have forced the native varieties back into the jungle. several game birds such as doves, pigeons, and ducks are occasionally hunted. snakes and lizards are fairly common on the islands; none is poisonous. some are eaten, but the practice is not usual. snakes had a more important place in the former religious and totemic practices. much more vital to the native economy is the abundant and varied marine life. this, with gardening, provides the foundation of fijian subsistence. turtles, crabs, prawns, eels, to say nothing of scores of fishes, are hunted, trapped, poisoned, speared, and netted. the cycle of the balolo worm has here the same importance as in other pacific islands. history the first western contact with fiji was made in when captain abel tasman entered fijian waters and sighted several islands and reefs without realizing the nature of his discovery. over a hundred years later, captain cook made a second contact by stopping at one of the southern lau islands. real knowledge of the area began in when captain bligh sailed through the archipelago from the southeast to the northwest, following the famous mutiny of the _bounty_. bligh made an attempt to land, was attacked by natives, and continued through the islands with no more landings. he did, however, make a record of most of the islands he passed. in the nineteenth century, commercial contacts began in the form of sandalwood trade. this profitable commodity brought europeans and americans first to the sandalwood coast on the west side of vanua levu. during this period the first systematic survey of fijian waters was made by the u.s. exploring expedition in . after little more than a decade the sandalwood supply was depleted to the point where trade virtually ceased. as a result of this initial commercial contact, which was mainly around western vanua levu and eastern viti levu, some marked changes were effected in fijian culture. after the sandalwood traders abandoned fiji for more profitable fields, a number of deserters and ship-wrecked men remained. these beachcombers, along with firearms that had been introduced by trade or salvaged from wrecks, brought about the first striking alterations. rival chiefs competed for the acquisition of muskets, gunpowder, and beachcombers. the latter in some instances became attached to royal households as dubious advisors and instructors in the use of guns, powder, and shot. some of these coaches enjoyed a status resembling that of household pets. the introduction of firearms changed the native political scene and increased the scope and destructiveness of warfare. for a time the rulers of mbau in eastern viti nearly monopolized the supply of muskets and white men. this established their political supremacy over rival leaders. larger and stronger political and military alliances, some resembling small kingdoms, developed for purposes of defense or aggression. as warfare grew more frequent, new diseases entered the islands and trade in liquor advanced. after the third decade of the nineteenth century better elements began to enter fiji and ensuing culture contact was not so consistently deplorable. _bêche-de-mer_ traders and whalers began to visit the islands for trade goods and supplies. some began to settle at the east end of viti levu. missionaries came in the 's and the christianization of fiji began. internal conflict between rival chiefs, attacks on french, british, and american ships, with subsequent reprisals, continued and intensified. by mid-century, rivalry between the local kingdoms of mbau and rewa reached a peak. at this time the powerful ruler of mbau, thakombau, who dominated a large segment of eastern viti levu, had become hard pressed by his rewa enemies. thakombau submitted to the missionaries who had been pressing his conversion. with his support of the missionaries, the native struggles became a religious war between christianity and paganism as well as between nativism and westernism. thakombau's cause was rescued in when king george of tonga brought an army of , warriors to fiji and combined his strength with that of the kingdom of mbau. thenceforth thakombau remained the paramount chief in eastern fiji and for some twenty ensuing years ruled under the dominance of tongan princes. another tongan chief, ma'afu, arrived in and set up a political domain that rivaled the kingdom of thakombau. throughout these struggles and particularly with the conversion of thakombau and the leadership of the already christianized tongan chiefs, native religion, including cannibalism, rapidly declined. meanwhile, english, australian, and new zealand settlers were augmenting earlier trade contacts. plantations and trade centers developed, and in a british consul was appointed and set up at levuka on the east coast of viti levu. a few years later thakombau sought relief from the payment of indemnities to foreign powers and from internal harassments by an offer to cede his dominions to great britain. the initial offer was declined and the british consul was recalled in . the next ten years saw a continuation of political and military turmoil stemming from rival interests of native rulers, tongan interlopers, and european immigrants. a second appeal to the british government resulted in an unconditional deed of cession on october , , which marks the beginning of fiji's status as a british crown colony. population over , people live in the fiji islands. of these about , are native fijians. the others are arranged in the following divisions:[ ] indians , europeans , part european , polynesians } melanesians } , micronesians } rotumans , chinese , others when fiji became a british crown colony in the population was entirely native except for a handful of outsiders. at that time the population has been variously estimated at approximately , . shortly thereafter a measles epidemic reduced their number severely. this, with other epidemics and maladies for which they had little or no immunity or resistence, continued the decimation until by there were only , . during the next decade they held their own, until in the influenza scourge brought them to their lowest level of , . this was the last serious setback to their number; since that time the population has been on the upgrade. a present threat to fijian population, in the opinion of many, stems not from disease but from the indian presence. this began in the latter part of the nineteenth century when indian immigration of indentured laborers began. the influx went on until by which time some , to , indians had come to fiji and very few had returned to india. since then, the indians have increased more rapidly than the fijians until they now outnumber them. this situation has, of course, created numerous problems beyond the scope of this paper. it is significant to point out that intermarriage or interbreeding between fijians and indians is relatively slight. the amount of mingling of fijians with europeans or orientals cannot be demonstrated statistically, but it has not been extensive. the fijians, on the whole, retain pretty much of their prehistoric racial make-up. racial background it is well established that the fijians are a mixed people, derived mainly from melanesian and polynesian sources. both of these parental strains in turn are commonly believed to be racial blends. hooton describes the melanesians as oceanic negroes whose composition includes negrito, australoid, "plus convex-nosed mediterranean plus minor fractions of malay and polynesian."[ ] birdsell sees the same three strains in melanesia which he believes contribute to the australians, namely negrito, murrayan, and carpentarian, plus a small amount of mongoloid. he believes they differ from australians in being "basically negritic in their genetic composition as a result of the rain forest environment."[ ] polynesians, however, are usually thought to be derived from caucasoid, mongoloid, and negroid strains in which the caucasoid component is more often the strongest. the composite character of the fijians has been variously explained as far as order and time of the contributing elements are concerned. one theory regards a negroid stock as aboriginal to which a polynesian strain was later added. an early explanation of this sort is that of fornander who held that the ancestors of the modern polynesians coming from southeastern asia via indonesia in the early centuries a.d. made a prolonged stopover in fiji as they moved eastward. this left a polynesian imprint on the native fijian physical appearance as well as on their language and culture.[ ] later on, churchill added a second movement of polynesians from the west about a thousand years later. this was used to explain a certain amount of mongoloid elements that needed accounting for in western polynesia.[ ] a differing interpretation brings the polynesian influence into fiji from the east in relatively recent times. thomson, for example, regards it as mainly tongan. there are many references in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to tongan presence in fiji; they came to trade, to fight, and merely to visit. hocart believes the polynesians at one time occupied most of fiji until they were driven eastward to tonga and samoa by native melanesians.[ ] howells tentatively suggests another possibility: originally all of fiji was occupied by polynesians except perhaps for some melanesian tribes in the mountainous interior of viti levu. around the eleventh century a wave of immigrants from the west reached fiji. "the newcomers, taking possession of the archipelago, partly amalgamated with and partly pushed out the polynesian tenants, just as did the hill tribes of hocart's theory, the refugees fleeing to somoa and tonga."[ ] howells associates this immigration with the fijian tradition of an arrival of ancestral families from across the western sea. this fijian tradition of their own origin includes a landing on the west coast of viti levu at nandi by an ancestral chief and his sons who came across the sea from the west. several of his sons moved eastward and eventually founded families with native wives in various parts of the archipelago. these families ultimately became consolidated into present-day tribes or federations. most fijian social units derive their origin from this or similar legendary immigrations. these eposodes occurred eight or ten and, in one case, fifteen generations ago.[ ] where these ancestors came from or what their racial affiliations were is not described in the stories. on the basis of supposed similarities of place-names, claims have been made for africa as the place of origin, but the validity of them is dubious. it is likely that these traditions refer only to the more recent immigrations from the west. as to the racial make-up of the ancestors, it is commonly believed that they were polynesians who, after settling in various parts of fiji, took native wives, presumably melanesian, and originated many of the existing family lines. this assumption does not rest on any actual physical reference to their appearance but on such cultural data as their patrilineal succession and their tradition of strong hereditary chieftainship. acknowledgments i am indebted to a number of people of fiji whose assistance and coöperation were helpful. thanks are due to sir ronald garvey, governor of fiji, whose approval of my project gave administrative sanction. mr. g. kingsley roth, the secretary for fijian affairs, secured for me the coöperation of the fijian affairs department, which in turn gave me access to the proper native officers and leaders, furnished me with necessary transportation; he also gave me some sound advice. also of the fijian affairs office, ratu dr. dobi helped me make the necessary contacts as my work took me from one area to another. mr. robbin h. yarrow, safety officer of the emperor gold mining company, was most helpful during my stay at vatukoula, where i secured an excellent sample of the northern provinces. the young fijian who acted as my interpreter, guide, and recorder was joji qalelawe; my especial thanks to him for his intelligent and cheerful coöperation. measurements and indices general _weight_[ ] no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the average weight of pounds, coupled with their rather tall stature, describes the fijian as a large person, on the whole. their generous weight does not reflect excessive obesity; the body build, as will be pointed out later, is prevailingly muscular and athletic. variation among the regional samples is not significant; all the groups average more than pounds. _stature_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample . - . . . . interior . - . . . . east . - . . . . coast . - . . . . n.w. . - . . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . the stature of the fijians is moderately tall. howells' series of fijians, as well as mine, indicate this category. in this measurement, the fijians are similar to the tongans. they are cm. taller than the melanesians. among the fijian themselves, the interior people of the highlands are definitely shorter than the rest of the population. rumors still persist of remnants of pygmoid people in the interior mountains of viti levu. i found no evidence of them either in my travels in the interior or by extensive inquiries among natives and europeans who had thorough knowledge of the whole island. _span_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample . - . . . . interior . - . . . . east . - . . . . coast . - . . . . n.w. . - . . . . span of the arms also reflects the generous proportions of the fijians. regional difference is not marked. relative to stature, the hill people have the longer arms and the eastern natives the shortest. the greater relative arm length of the hill tribes seems to be owing more to deficiency of stature than to excessive arm length or shoulder breadth. _span-stature index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample . - . . . . interior . - . . . . east . - . . . . coast . - . . . . n.w. . - . . . . the trunk _sitting height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample . - . . . interior . - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . a total sitting height average of cm. attests the generous general body length. a regional trend follows the same curve as that for stature. the eastern body length is greatest; it exceeds the over-all average by - / cm. and is more than cm. larger than the interior people who fall at the bottom of the scale of sitting height. howells' fijian series is close to my eastern average. compared with the solomon islands natives, the fijians are much more elongated. _relative sitting height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . the relative sitting height ratio for all fijians is . per cent. the eastern average of per cent indicates a little more legginess, whereas the interior groups tend somewhat to longer trunks. _biacromial_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the fijians are generally a broad-shouldered people. the inhabitants of ra and ba have the highest average and the interior people are least broad-shouldered. _relative shoulder breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . relative to total stature, shoulder breadth averages . per cent. no significant regional differences are indicated. _bi-iliac_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the fijians, as a whole, are fairly broad-hipped; this condition holds with little variation in all the provinces. _shoulder-hip_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the total shoulder-hip ratio describes the shoulders as . per cent as wide as the hips. these ratios do not vary greatly in different parts of fiji. the somewhat higher index of the hill groups is owing largely to their narrower shoulders, whereas the superior shoulder breadth of the northwest provinces contributes mostly to the lower hip-shoulder index. _chest breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . broad chests are also characteristic in fiji. the eastern men surpass the viti levu males, and the interior groups have the narrowest chests, but the regional variations are small. _chest depth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the chests of the fijians are also fairly deep. the close similarity in chest depth of the interior group and the eastern sample is rather striking inasmuch as the former are nearly cm. shorter in stature. this would indicate that the interior group, for their size, are relatively deep-chested. _thoracic_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the thoracic index shows that the fijians are deep-chested relative to thoracic breadth as well as in absolute values. again the interior people stand out for their deeper chests. arms and legs _arm length_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the over-all arm length is . cm. shorter arms seem to be characteristic of the interior population where the average is nearly cm. less than the over-all average. the eastern group has the longest arms; the other samples are intermediate. _humeral length_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . length of the upper arm averages cm. for all fijians; the several provinces are closely similar in this trait. _radial length_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . lower arm length is . cm. and also varies but little among the regional samples. _radial-humeral_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the radial-humeral ratio indicates that the lower arm of fijians is per cent as long as the upper arm. none of the subgroups deviates markedly from this average. _leg length_[ ] no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . average leg length is . cm., and some regional differences are manifest. the legs of the hill people are shorter by cm. than are the other groups. their neighbors to the northwest and east have the longest legs, and the eastern are intermediate. _tibial length_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . lower leg length is around cm. for all fijians. the regional pattern is similar to that of total leg length: shortest in the highlands, intermediate in the east, and longest in the coastal and northwestern districts. _calf circumference_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the generous girth of the calf of the fijians reflects their sturdily muscled legs. the eastern groups excel the other fijians in this respect, whereas the interior groups have the lowest average for calf circumference. the head _head circumference_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the head circumference average of . mm. probably is a little on the large size because of the thick wiry hair of most fijians; the eastern groups appear to have the largest heads and the northwestern groups show a rather abrupt drop. _head length_[ ] no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . total head length for all fijians is . mm; longest heads occur in the interior. both howells' fijian average and the solomon islands series are close to the above value. gifford's tongan head length of mm. somewhat exceeds the fijian. _head breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . general head breadth is . mm., and considerable regional variation is shown. fijians of the interior have the narrowest heads, whereas the coastal and eastern people have appreciably wider heads. howells' series of fijians are closest to my highland groups. the solomon islanders are markedly narrower headed than the fijians, whereas sullivan's tongan series is nearer the fijian average. _cephalic index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . most fijians tend to brachycephaly. the eastern natives and those of the coastal series have the broadest heads. the interior people show definitely lesser values in this ratio than do the other groups. howells' fijian series is close to the northwestern fijians in their mesocephaly, and so is the tongan mean. the solomon series borders on dolicocephaly. _head height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . head height averages do not differ greatly among the provinces. the interior and northwestern people have somewhat lower heads; the coastal and eastern people show slight superiority. _length-height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . relative to head length, the cranial vault of fijians is high. the mountain people show the lowest relative head height, whereas the other provinces are nearer to the over-all average. _breadth-height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . head height relative to total breadth is per cent. in this ratio the interior groups have the highest index, a condition owing more to deficiency in cranial breadth than to superior head height. _cranial module_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . head size as expressed by the cranial module averages . mm. for all fijians. regional fluctuation is unimportant. _minimum frontal_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . a minimum frontal diameter of . mm. indicates a fairly ample forehead breadth for the total sample. none of the subgroups depart much from this value. _fronto-parietal_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . forehead breadth relative to total cranial width is . per cent. the greatest deviation from this average occurs in the interior where the fronto-parietal ratio is . per cent and lesser head breadth more than greater forehead width causes the higher index. the face _bizygomatic_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . broad faces are the rule among most of these people, as the total average of . mm. shows. regional values for this criterion are closely alike in all parts of fiji, the eastern showing a slight superiority in bizygomatic breadth. howells' fiji series is slightly lower in this diameter as is the tongan average. the solomon islands natives have definitely narrower faces. _cephalo-facial_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . face breadth relative to head width averages . per cent for all fijians; howell's series is much the same. the narrower heads of the interior people largely account for their higher index; otherwise there is general similarity in the several provinces. _zygo-frontal_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . the ratio of forehead width to face breadth is . . all of the regional averages for the zygo-frontal index are strikingly alike among the fijians in every instance; the forehead is about three-quarters the breadth of the face. the tongan ratio is a little lower. _total face height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . fijian faces have the moderate average height of . mm. slightly shorter faces occur in the interior people, whereas the greatest total face height average occurs in the east. the fijian of howells' series is close to mine. the tongan value for face height describes them as definitely longer faced. the solomon islanders depart in the other direction with decidedly shorter faces. _total facial index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . relative to maximum breadth, the fijian face tends to shortness, although this is due largely to their generous facial breadth rather than absolute deficiency of height. the interior groups have the lowest values and the eastern groups show relatively broad faces. the tongan average is much higher than any of the fijian values, whereas the solomon islanders show similarity to the fijians in this feature. _upper face height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the ratio of the upper face height to maximum facial breadth shows the fijians of the interior to be relatively shorter faced and the eastern people longest. the coastal and northwestern series are intermediate. _upper facial index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . the ratio of the upper face height to maximum facial breadth shows the fijians of the interior to be relatively shorter faced and the eastern people longest. the coastal and northwestern series are intermediate. _bigonial_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . lower jaw breadth as expressed by the bigonial diameter indicates a tendency to broadness shared with little variation among all the subgroups. the tongan value is considerably smaller. _fronto-gonial_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . similarly the bigonial diameter in relation to forehead breadth is much the same in all groups, the general average nearly per cent. _zygo-gonial_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . relative to face breadth, jaw width is . per cent with very little geographic variation. _nasal height_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . the fijian nose may be called medium long. greatest nasal heights occur in the eastern and in the coastal series. the interior and northwestern groups have shorter noses. the fijians of howells' series fall near the short end of my averages. natives of the solomons are definitely lower in nasal height, whereas the tongan's average is so much higher that one suspects a difference in the location of the nasion. _nasal breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . broad noses are common to most fijians. the greatest contrast is between the narrower-nosed eastern people and the interior people, among whom the widest noses occur. the nose of the solomon islanders is somewhat narrower, according to howells' data, and the tongan average is also lower. _nasal index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . fiji (howells) - . . . solomons (howells) - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . platyrrhini is the rule in fiji, but individual and regional variations are great. there are some leptorrine subjects in every province, and there are some whose noses are broader than long. the interior people and the northwestern groups have the relatively broadest noses, whereas the eastern index is more moderate. the noses of sullivan's tongans are relatively longer than the lauans. the solomon island average is identical with the fijian. _nasal depth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . nasal depth averages mm.; the regional variation is very small. _nasal-depth index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . _mouth breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . mouth breadth averages show the interior groups to have widest mouths, the eastern people least wide, and the coastal and northwestern people intermediate. _lip thickness_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . thick lips are characteristic of most fijians. the interior average is highest for this diameter, whereas the northwestern fijians have least-thick lips. _ear length_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . fijian ears on the whole tend to be long, as the average . mm. indicates. regional differences are slight. tongans closely resemble fijians. _ear breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . ear breadth is also generous, and regional differences hardly exceed . mm., including the tongans. _ear index_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . tonga (sullivan) - . . . length-breadth ear ratios indicate that coastal groups have somewhat broader, and the northwestern people the relative longest, ears. _bicanine breadth_ no. range mean s.d. c.v. total sample - . . . interior - . . . east - . . . coast - . . . n.w. - . . . bicanine breadth is characteristically great among fijians, reflecting the ample jaws and teeth. widest diameters are seen in the east, followed by the hill people of the interior. the northwestern groups have the least bicanine diameter. morphological observations pigmentation _skin color: exposed_ brunet swarthy lt. brn med. brn dk. brn black total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample . . interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons tonga (range from lt. brown to dk. brown.) color of skin includes exposed and unexposed areas. the former was observed on the face, since the fijians do not use any kind of face or head covering. this condition in the total series divides itself quite evenly between medium brown and dark brown. a few have light-brown skin; only six individuals are classified as swarthy and brunet. none was judged to be completely black. the fijians of howells' series are described as per cent medium brown[ ] and per cent dark brown, a discrepancy i would attribute to personal judgment difference. the solomon islanders are markedly darker than the fijians, the majority have dark-brown skin and per cent are black, whereas per cent have medium-brown complexions. tongan data on skin color cannot be directly adjusted to my statistics. sullivan's comment on their skin color states that it is "a medium yellowish-brown where it is unexposed to the sun. exposed parts of the skin of a few of the persons were a very dark chocolate" (sullivan, , p. ). among the fijians themselves, the greatest contrasts occur between the eastern and the interior groups of viti levu. where per cent of the latter have dark-brown skin, only per cent of eastern fall into this category. the bulk of eastern ( per cent) have medium-brown skin as against per cent of hill people. the coastal and northwestern provinces are, like the total series, more evenly divided between medium and dark brown. _skin color: unexposed_ brunet swarthy lt. brn med. brn dk. brn black total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons unexposed skin color was observed on the under surface of the upper arm near the armpit. the anticipated shift in color range results in a reduction of dark-skin incidence to a mere per cent, and an increase in medium brown to per cent and of light brown to per cent. howells' describes per cent of his fijians as medium brown, per cent dark brown, and none light brown. the solomon islanders seem definitely darker than the fijians whether they are compared with howells' or my series. the eastern groups continues to contrast with the interior people. the former show a majority of per cent in the light-brown category as compared with per cent among the interior groups; the latter have a medium-brown incidence of per cent against per cent among lauans. _hair color_ black dk. brn med. brn lt. brn red-brown total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons tonga black hair is the usual color, although per cent are described as dark brown and a few red-brown. this latter variation is a rufous color (reddish-brown) and it may be a little more frequent than the data indicate because the fijians frequently dye their hair with a substance extracted from mangrove bark. this intensifies the usual blackness of the hair and adds a satisfying gloss. more sophisticated natives have access to modern hair dye and lacking this, some have been known to resort to black shoe polish. hair bleaching is no longer practiced in fiji. the hair of the solomons islands is not so uniformly black, nearly a third have dark-brown hair and a few are light brown. _eye color_ black dk. brown med. brown lt. brown total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons tonga a little more than two-thirds of fijians' eyes are described as dark brown. the remaining third have medium-brown eyes. there were four individuals who were light brown. howells, with his fijian series, is more generous with the darker designation; he designated per cent as dark brown and per cent light brown. his solomons sample is described as dark brown without exception. the tongan data also is recorded as more uniformly dark brown than my fijians. the fijians of the interior of viti levu have more deeply pigmented eyes than the others; per cent are classed as dark brown and only per cent medium brown. hair _hair form_ straight low wave deep wave curl frizz wool total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample . . . interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons . . frizzly hair is the condition of over per cent of fijians; per cent are curly-haired, whereas over twenty individuals have wavy hair. straight hair is absent. the fiji ii series of howell distinguishes between frizzly and wooly hair, which i do not. their combined incidence is per cent, quite close to my frequency of frizzly. whether one does or does not distinguish between frizzly and wooly hair, there is no doubt that most fijians have negroid hair form. the solomon islanders are surprising with somewhat less negroid hair form than the fijians. their combined percentage of frizzly and wooly is , which is nearly per cent less than that of the fijians. twenty per cent have curly hair against per cent among fijians. also, the only instances of straight hair occur in the solomons. in the fijian breakdown, the interior groups have the most negroid hair; per cent have frizzly hair and per cent have curly hair. the eastern people are the least negroid in this respect; frizzly hair drops to per cent, whereas curly hair advances to per cent and wavy hair to per cent. the coastal and northwestern series are closer to the interior groups with about per cent frizzly hair. _hair texture_ course medium fine total no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. hair texture is prevailingly coarse; only per cent of the total series shows medium coarseness and none have fine hair. this preponderance of coarse hair is much the same in all the provinces, although the eastern people do depart slightly with a per cent incidence of medium-coarse hair. it might be added that fijian hair is quite stiff or wiry. for example, when the hair is unshorn, it stands out like a mop. a fijian can insert a long stemmed flower in his hair and it will stay in place with no additional fastening. _head hair quantity_ absent subm. +[ ] ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons head hair quantity is pronounced in the majority of fijians ( per cent); it is moderate in per cent and submedium in per cent. howells describes nearly all the fijians as having very pronounced head hair-- per cent, which would appear to be a personal difference in appraisal. in any case, the two series agree that fijians have hair of more than moderate quantity. the melanesians of the solomons are also characterized by much head hair. regionally, the only significant variation in this trait is shown in the east, where more individuals have a submedium designation. in the absence of age data, this contrast cannot be fairly interpreted. _hair length_ it might be observed here that although hair length was not included in this survey, on the basis of personal but unrecorded observation, the fijians conform to the melanesian pattern. most fijian men now cut their hair short in the western style, but some still do not. women generally trim their hair but not short. the natural length of head hair is intermediate between the short-haired african negroes and the long-haired caucasians and mongolians. _baldness_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. the lack of age correlations also limits the value of data on baldness, but some meaning can nevertheless be extracted. regardless of age, with an incidence of pronounced baldness of per cent among all adult males and of per cent for a moderate condition, it is a clear indication that fijians are not prone to loss of head hair. _beard quantity_ absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample . interior east coast n.w. fiji ii cheeks skin solomons cheeks chin tonga chin lower chk. moderate beard quantity is shown by per cent of fijians; the remainder are fairly evenly divided between the submedium and pronounced categories. howells' series, which records beard quantity for the cheeks and chin separately, shows a higher frequency of pronounced and very pronounced designations. however, his data includes many individuals who have no beards at all. both series are doubtless influenced by the fact that they contain a preponderance of young adult; a greater proportion of older men would have greatly raised the incidence of the pronounced categories. nearly all modern fijians have adopted the western practice of shaving. examination of earlier pictures and written description of fijians leaves no doubt that the majority of mature men possess luxurious beards when nature is unrestrained. the natives of the solomon islands, according to howells, are a little less bearded than the fijians. the tongans are a little more heavily bearded than the fijians. some geographical variation is indicated by my data. the interior people of fiji have the highest incidence of face hair; per cent are recorded as pronounced. least endowed are the eastern fijians, where per cent have pronounced beards and per cent are submedium. the coastal and northwestern series conform more closely to the overall distribution. _body hair_[ ] absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. tonga the body hair endowment is also not unimpressive. forty per cent show a moderate condition, per cent are pronounced, and per cent very pronounced; none are totally devoid of body hair; per cent are submedium. chest hair among the tongans is somewhat less in evidence; although the majority range from submedium to pronounced, per cent are described as hairless. the provincial distribution in fiji follows that of face hair: the interior groups are hairiest and the eastern people least so. the anatomical distribution of body hair deserves some comment, even though specific observations were made on the chest. not infrequently the hair is heavier on the upper legs than on the chest. occasionally, too, the back of the shoulders is quite hairy as well as the belly. _grayness: head_ absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. _grayness: beard_ absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % total sample interior east coast n.w. grayness of the hair data without corresponding age incidence is not particularly significant. it is clear, nevertheless, that premature grayness is not common. i would hazard the judgment that on the whole the fijians show less tendency to grayness than do caucasians. the higher incidence of grayness of the interior sample of fijians is likely due to a larger number of older men in that series. the face _prognathism: total_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. tonga _prognathism: mid-facial_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i / interior east coast n.w. _prognathism: alveolar_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i / interior east coast / / n.w. { } slight and moderate total prognathism characterizes most fijians but it is pronounced in only of the subjects. a quarter of the series show no prognathism. the eastern people are least prognathic with a zero incidence of per cent. the other regional sample are close to the general condition. mid-facial prognathism has a submedium incidence of per cent and a medium of per cent; the remainder lack the condition, except three individuals who are pronounced. the coastal and northwestern groups have more frequent medium designations. alveolar prognathism is almost entirely lacking in all groups. _malar projection: lateral_ absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _malar projection: frontal_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i / interior east coast n.w. the facial contours generally include lateral malar projection; two-thirds show a pronounced condition and the balance are medium. the eastern people have high cheek bones oftener than do the others. frontal malar projection is also common but more often moderately so; per cent show medium projection and per cent are pronounced. _gonial angles_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _palate shape_ parabolic sm. u lg. u square total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. a fairly strong tendency to well-developed gonial angles is indicated; per cent show pronounced angles and nearly all the rest are medium. these proportions hold pretty much for all groups. palate shape also attests to the well-developed jaws of fijians; it is a large u in per cent of the subjects; per cent are square and the remainder parabolic. _chin prominence_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _chin type_ median bilateral total no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. a well-developed chin further typifies most fijian faces; nearly three-quarters have a moderate chin prominence, per cent are pronounced, and the remainder are submedium. this range is much the same in the subgroups. the chin is commonly median although per cent have the bilateral type. the bilateral chin is least frequent in lau ( per cent). the head _temporal fullness_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _occipital protrusion_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. a narrowness in the temporal part of the head is indicated. sixty-nine per cent of the subject show submedium temporal fullness, whereas the remainder are moderate. this condition is not marked and may best be described as a discernable tendency. the back of the head is generally rather flat as the per cent incidence of occipital protrusion indicates. this is a natural condition; no intentional flattening is practiced by fijians. _lambdoidal flattening_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _occipital flattening_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _median sagittal crest_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _parietal bosses_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. a median sagittal crest though not striking is recorded in a number of cases. it has a submedium incidence of per cent and pronounced per cent. among the interior people, the crest is more common. because of the heavy, bushy, and wiry hair of fijians it is probable that some instances of this feature were not detected by simple palpation, and the incidence may be higher than the data indicate. submedium development of the parietal bosses is rather common occurring in per cent of the series. it is very common in the interior ( per cent). _cranial asymmetry_ absent left right total no. % no. % no. % fiji interior east coast n.w. _facial asymmetry_ absent left right total no. % no. % no. % fiji interior east coast n.w. cranial and facial assymetry are generally lacking, at least in any marked degree. normal asymmetries of the face and head were ignored in this description. eyes _eye folds: external_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji interior east coast n.w. _eye fold: median_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i / / interior east coast n.w. _eye folds: internal_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. fiji ii - / - / solomons - / - / tonga eye folds are not a feature of the fijian facial make-up. the external fold is present in only per cent of the total series. the median fold shows a per cent absence. the eastern groups exceed the other provinces with a per cent occurrence. the internal eye fold has a total presence of per cent and is also commoner in the east ( per cent). _eye obliquity_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _eye opening_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i - / / interior east coast n.w. some degree of eye obliquity is present in the majority of cases; per cent show a submedium condition; per cent are medium and three individuals have pronouncedly oblique eyes. the remainder, or per cent, have no obliquity. in the east, the natives depart from this total distribution in opposite directions. the interior groups have much less eye obliquity; the eastern people, a great deal more. the other provinces are quite close to the total frequencies. eye opening height is preponderately moderate ( per cent). the remaining per cent with one exception show submedium eye opening. regional variation is not great. the eastern and interior groups have a little higher frequency in the submedium class. forehead _brow ridges_ absent subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. brow ridges are a marked feature of fijians in general. none of them lack some supraorbital development. forty-four per cent have medium brow ridges, per cent are pronounced, and per cent are very pronounced. the other per cent are small. the interior and eastern groups share a little higher incidence of pronounced brow ridges; the other regions are nearer the total distribution of variations. _forehead height_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _forehead slope_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. tonga forehead height is submedium in more than half the cases ( per cent); the others are all medium. there is no significant variation among the subgroups. a sloping forehead is quite characteristic of the fijian head; per cent are moderately sloping, per cent are pronounced, and per cent are submedium. only per cent have foreheads with no recession. regional differences are very slight. nose _nasion depression_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _root height_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _root breadth_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _nasal septum_ straight concave convex total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _bridge height_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. tonga _bridge breadth_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _nasal profile_ concave straight convex total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. moderate nasion depression characterizes the majority of noses ( per cent). pronounced depression is recorded for per cent, and submedium occurrence in per cent. only one individual lacks any depression. this distribution does not vary much among the provinces. a well-elevated nasal root is also characteristic; per cent show moderate elevation and per cent pronounced, whereas per cent are submedium; one individual is without any elevation. the interior fijians have a little higher frequency of low nasal root ( per cent), whereas the eastern people, with a per cent incidence, excel in the pronounced category. more striking is the breadth of the fijian nasal root. it is pronounced in per cent and moderate in the remainder of the series. pronounced breadth is commoner among the interior people ( per cent) and least preponderant in the east ( per cent). the nasal septum is nearly always straight; the only departure from this condition is a per cent incidence of convexity. regional differences are not significant. nasal bridge height is commonly medium ( per cent) in the totality of noses. fourteen percent are pronouncedly high and per cent are submedium. the several provinces do not depart very far from this distribution. the fijian nose shows a strong tendency to broadness of the bridge. two-thirds show pronounced breadth of bridge and the remainder are medium. pronounced broadness increases in the interior groups ( per cent) and shows a marked decline in the east ( per cent). nasal profiles are most often straight ( per cent), but convex noses are not uncommon ( per cent). convexity is slightly more frequent in the east ( percent), whereas in the coastal people its incidence drops to per cent. _nasal-tip thickness_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _nasal-tip inclination_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _nasal wings_ compressed medium flaring total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. the nasal tip is pronounced more often than not, per cent showing this condition. the remaining per cent have tips of medium thickness. thicker tips occur more often in the interior ( per cent) and in the northwest ( per cent), least often in the east ( per cent). usually the nasal tip is not inclined downward. slight and moderate inclination has a combined incidence of only per cent. flaring nasal wings are a common condition ( per cent). this incidence rises to per cent in the interior and drops to per cent in the east. mouth _lip thickness: membranous_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast / / n.w. tonga _lip thickness: integumental_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i / interior / east coast n.w. fiji ii / solomons _lip eversion_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _lip seam_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. fijian lips are negroid in thickness in many instances. membranous lips are thick in per cent of the series, medium in per cent, and submedium in per cent. thickest lips occur in the interior and coastal areas where the pronounced type registers per cent and per cent, respectively. in the east, lips are more moderate in thickness, and the pronounced category drops to per cent. integumental lips also tend to be heavy but not so much as the mucous parts. twenty-five per cent of the total fijians have thick integumental lips and the remainder are moderate. howells' fiji ii series classes per cent as very pronounced and the remainder as pronounced. the solomon islanders, with an per cent incidence of very pronounced, have the heaviest lips of all. lip eversion varies largely between moderate and submedium, percent and per cent, respectively. the interior and coastal fijians show this trait a little more often than the others, whereas the eastern people have least lip eversion. the lip seam is present in nearly all cases, but not to a pronounced degree. fifty-three per cent are submedium and per cent are moderate. the eastern groups are definitely less endowed with this trait. the other provinces vary but little from the total distribution. teeth _bite_ under e-e subm. over + over total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. fiji ii solomons _caries_ absent subm.( - ) + ( - ) ++ ( - ) +++ ( -x) total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _crowding_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _tooth eruption_ complete incomplete total no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _wear_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior { } { } { } { } east { } { } { } { } coast { } { } { } { / } n.w. { } { } { } { } the jaws of fijians have a rather distinctive frequency of edge-to-edge bite. i recorded this as per cent, but howells' series indicates a per cent incidence. the quality of fijian teeth as reflected by frequency of caries is excellent. nearly per cent of the total show no tooth decay. the soundest teeth from this standpoint occur in the interior, the east, and the northwest. the coastal people show the highest incidence of caries, an interesting point since many of this sample come from around suva and have more access to the western processed foods. tooth crowding is quite uncommon to fijians, a condition consistent with their generous jaw conformation. crowding is noted in only per cent of the series, and most of it is slight. tooth eruption is complete in nearly all the subjects. a per cent incidence of incomplete eruption is entirely due to the immaturity of some of the young adults. no pathological suppression was noted. some wear of the teeth is recorded for more than three-quarters of the series, but lacking age incidence, the data has limited meaning. the fijian diet is not abrasive the way, for instance, it is for the indians of our southwest, where the staple food is ground in stone mills. ears _ear helix_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _darwin's point_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _ear-lobe type_ soldered attached free total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _ear-lobe size_ subm. + ++ +++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _ear protrusion_ absent subm. + ++ total no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _ear slant_ absent subm. + total no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. the fijian ear is a moderately distinctive appendage from a racial standpoint. the helix shows moderate development on the whole and is submedium otherwise except for a per cent incidence of pronounced appearance. regional variation is small. the darwin's point is noted in a number of cases: per cent to a submedium degree and per cent medium. the ear lobe is somewhat distinctive with a per cent incidence of the attached condition and per cent soldered. the remaining per cent is free. this distinctiveness is more marked among the interior groups where the soldered type of lobe increases to percent. ear-lobe size is moderate in more than half the series, pronounced in per cent, and submedium in per cent. small lobes are commoner in the interior province. moderate ear protrusion is the commonest form followed by submedium. marked projection is recorded as per cent. ear slant either is lacking or slight in most instances; the series is rather evenly divided between these two categories, the zero category having a small majority. moderate slant is noted for per cent. body build _body build: endomorph_ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i interior east coast n.w. _body build: mesomorph_ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i { . } { . } interior east coast n.w. _body build: ectomorph_ total no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % fiji i { . } interior east coast n.w. variations in body build have been expressed with the sheldon method of somatotyping.[ ] accordingly, the fijians are primarily and definitely mesomorphic, with endomorphy the second strongest component, and ectomorphy, third. about per cent of the total series had a mesomorphic rating of and which leaves no doubt as to the prevailingly athletic physique. endomorphy is seldom pronounced so that obesity may be described as no more than occasional. a pronounced linear build is likewise relatively infrequent. the fijian subgroups do not vary markedly from the over-all pattern. summary the preceding data may be summarized from three points of view. the first will emphasize the physical features that are common to most fijians. at the outset it should be pointed out that a "typical" fijian does not exist, except as a statistical abstraction. the racial composition of the fijian is complex and far from being homogeneous. there is no doubt, from the physical and cultural evidence, as well as the geographical location, that fijians are related to both melanesians and polynesians. the second point is to give a precise indication of these affinities with melanesia and polynesia. a third concern of this analysis is the geographical variability within fiji. this consists of a regional breakdown of the fijian data into interior, eastern, coastal, and northwestern divisions, in order to demonstrate some of the local variation of the melanesian-polynesian ingredients and their possible meaning. _body (pl. )._--in general size and appearance, the fijian is tall and well proportioned. his body is fairly tall and well muscled, that is, predominately athletic in build. obesity is relatively uncommon except in moderate degrees. this rather tall stature allies the fijians more closely with the polynesians. shoulder, chest, and hip diameters also indicate that fijians are generously endowed. the fijians who occupy the mountainous interior of the main island are less tall than the coastal and eastern people; they also have narrower shoulders, relatively deeper and narrower chests, whereas their arms and legs are somewhat shorter. the eastern fijians are tallest of all subgroups. _skin color._--most fijians have either medium- or dark-brown skin on the exposed facial surfaces. the more protected body areas show higher frequencies of medium brown and light brown. the fijians are definitely less dark than the melanesians but are darker, on the whole, than the polynesians. the interior hill tribes are darker than the eastern and coastal groups. the lightest average skin shade occurs in the east. _hair (pls. and )._--in several respects the hair is the most consistent endowment of the fijians. in nearly all instances it is black, frizzly, and coarse. the only departure from this condition is an occasional instance of dark brown and a few instances of rufous shade. curly hair is a more common exception in the east. the coastal and northwestern people are nearer to the interior condition of frizzly hair. all in all, the hair form is definitely melanesian. hair length conforms to the general melanesian condition, that is, intermediate between short negroid and long caucasiod or mongoloid. considerable beard and body hair is common to fijians (pls. and ). moderate to pronounced beard is shown by nearly three-quarters of the total series, and body hair is even more prevelant. general hairiness is also exhibited by the solomon islanders and the tongans in the comparative data. the interior tribes of fiji are more hairy than the other groups. this prevelence of body and face hair seems to conform to parts of melanesia where it may be regarded as an australoid element. its presence in the tongan data does not seem to be representative of other polynesians, who are generally described as more glabrous. _head (pl. )._--moderate brachycephaly is the commonest head form of fijians, although the total range is great. in this respect the fijians resemble the broad-headed tongans, and are quite distinct from the longer-headed melanesians. the fijian head, despite its general brachycephaly, is rather compressed in the temporal area and submedium in parietal elevation. the back of the cranium is characteristically flattened, a natural conformation as no deformation is practiced. the interior mountain tribes of fiji have narrower heads and lower cranial indices than do the coastal and eastern groups. the interior people also have lesser head heights and a higher breadth-height index. _forehead (pl. )._--moderate to strongly developed supraorbital ridges are a common fijian endowment. similarly are low and sloping foreheads. these features have been observed in western melanesia, where, like hairiness, they suggest australoid of archaic caucasoid elements. _face._--broadness characterizes the fijian face. bizygomatic breadth locates them nearer to the polynesians than to the narrower-faced melanesians. strongly developed malars are common, and they tend to project laterally more than frontally. widest faces appear among the eastern people. bigonial and bicanine widths show that generous breadth includes the lower parts of the face, a condition born out by strong gonial angles. face length falls between the long-faced tongans and the definitely shorter-faced melanesians (pls. and ). some prognathism is common among fijians, both total and mid-facial, but the condition is not universal nor pronounced. the eastern fijians are the least prognathic (pl. ). _eyes._--dark brown is the prevailing eye color, although many subjects have medium-brown eyes. eye folds are only occasional and eye-opening height is usually moderate. slight eye obliquity is common, more so in the eastern sample. _nose (pl. )._--great variability marks the nasal area. the commonest condition is a broad and moderately long nose. medium nasion depression is frequent; the root is wide and moderately elevated. bridge breadth is often pronounced and the nasal profile is straight to convex. the nasal tip is characteristically thickened and nasal wings are usually flaring. on the whole, there is a great deal of melanesian in the fijian nose; it is negroid, but not pronouncedly. those aspects of the nose which may be termed negroid are commoner in the interior hill people and the northwest and least evident in the east. _lips (pl. )._--thick and moderately everted lips occur in nearly half the series. this negroid combination is more manifest in the interior and least in the east. integumental lips tend to be heavy. _teeth._--the condition of the teeth is generally excellent. most fijians have broad, roomy jaws that permit complete and uncrowded tooth development. dental caries are very infrequent. a rather high incidence of edge-to-edge bite is interesting. _ears (pl. )._--the ears are usually moderate in length and tend to protrude. ear lobes are commonly large and are more often attached or soldered than free. conclusions on the whole the fijians are predominately melanesian but with numerous polynesian affinities that vary with locality. the melanesian qualities are in part negroid or negritoid and in part australoid. the negroid resemblances are best illustrated by frizzly black hair, broad noses with depressed nasion and flaring nostrils, thick lips, and dark pigmentation (pls. and ). australoid elements are general hairiness, strong brow ridges, low, sloping foreheads, compressed parietal and temporal areas, and some prognathism (pl. ). the presence of australoid suggestions need not mean that they come from australia, but that they form a part of the melanesian make-up. this interpretation of the melanesians as a hybrid people conforms with similar designations by such students as birdsell[ ] and hooton.[ ] polynesian influence in fiji is most clearly demonstrated by lighter pigmentation, tall and muscular body build, moderate brachycephaly, broad faces and jaws, high and fairly long noses and strong chins. i found much the same resemblances between fijians and polynesians as did howells;[ ] however, in my comparisons the polynesian similarities are outweighed and outnumbered by a greater array of melanesian characters. the essential melanesian character of the fijian population is further demonstrated by recent blood-analysis comparisons; the conclusions of simmons _et al._, identify the fijians as melanesian.[ ] the fijians who live in the interior of viti levu show the most frequent melanesian traits (pls. and ). these people are shorter, have narrower shoulders and chests; their heads are narrower and lower vaulted; they have broader noses, thicker lips, are hairier, and have darker skins. this condition, occurring as it does in the mountainous interior, which may be regarded as a refuge area, supports the theory that the melanesian is the earlier component in fiji. the eastern fijians stand in considerable contrast to the interior tribes and are the most polynesian in appearance (pl. ). they have lighter skins, greater stature, and heavier musculature. their heads are broader, as are their faces and jaws; their noses are larger, narrower, and higher bridged, and their chins are more pronounced. the coastal sample might be called intermediate or a more even blend of melanesian and polynesian. the northwestern people resemble the coastal tribes. this means they show fewer departures in either a melanesian or polynesian direction. this also means they do not tell us whether the legendary ancestors, who are supposed to have first landed in fiji on the northwest coast of viti levu,[ ] were melanesian or polynesian. these data may mean one of three things: ( ) the fijian tradition of a landing at this place eight or ten generations ago is groundless, ( ) the immigration did take place but whatever racial traits predominated, whether melanesian or polynesian, have been homogenized and obscured by subsequent intermixture and by movements back and forth on viti levu, ( ) the landing did occur but the ancestors were already a melanesian-polynesian blend when they arrived. literature cited birdsell. j. b. . racial origin of the extinct tasmanians. records of the queen victoria museum, tasmania, vol. ii, no. . churchill, w. . the polynesian wanderings. carnegie institute of washington, publ. no. , washington. derrick, r. a. . history of fiji. printing and stationery dept., suva, fiji. fornander, a. . the polynesian race. london. hocart, a. m. . lau islands, fiji. bernice p. bishop museum, bull. , honolulu. hooton, e. a. . up from the ape. macmillan co., new york. howells. w. w. . anthropometry and blood types in fiji and the solomon islands. american museum of natural history. anthropological papers, vol. , pt. . roth, g. k. . the fijian way of life. oxford university press, london. simmon, r. t., j. j. graydon, and g. barnes . the medical journal of australia, may . sullivan, l. r. . a contribution to tongan somotology. bernice p. bishop museum, vol. viii, no. . thomson, b. . the fijians: a study of the decay of custom. wm. heinemann, london. plates [illustration: plate . near-average body features stature: . cm. weight: . lbs. arm length: . cm. leg length: . cm. shoulder breadth: cm. hip breadth: . cm. shoulder-hip index: . chest breadth: . cm. chest depth: . cm. thoracic index: . sitting height: . cm. sitting height-stature index: . body build: strongly mesomorphic] [illustration: plate . near-average cranial features head length: . mm. head breadth: . mm. cephalic index: . head height: . mm. length-height index: . length-breadth index: . minimum frontal diameter: . mm. fronto-parietal index: . ] [illustration: plate . near-average facial features bizygomatic breadth: . mm. cephalo-facial index: . zygo-frontal index: . bigonial breadth: . mm. fronto-gonial index: . zygo-gonial index: . bicanine breadth: . total facial height: . mm. total facial index: . upper facial height: . upper facial index: . nasal height: . nasal breadth: . nasal index: . ] [illustration: plate . near-average face and nose features _face_ pronounced malars moderately long face wide gonia moderate chin moderate prognathism _nose_ broad bridge wide root moderate length thick tip flaring nostrils straight profile] [illustration: plate . near-average lip and ear features _lips_ moderately thick pronounced lip seam moderate eversion _ears_ moderate size small lobe attached lobe moderate protrusion] [illustration: plate . near-average hair features black color frizzly form pronounced quantity coarse texture intermediate length] [illustration: plate . hair form variants curly hair wavy hair] [illustration: plate . pronounced body hair per cent occurrence] [illustration: plate . pronounced beard per cent occurrence] [illustration: plate . facial variations no prognathism high forehead moderate browridges moderate prognathism low, receding forehead pronounced browridges pronounced prognathism low, receding forehead very pronounced browridges] [illustration: plate . interior subject (more negroid) shorter stature narrower shoulders deeper chest darker skin narrower head broader nose thicker lips] [illustration: plate . "negroid" fijian] [illustration: plate . interior subject (more australoid) heavier beard and body hair lower, more sloping forehead more compressed parietals more pronounced brow ridges more prognathic] [illustration: plate . "australoid" fijians] [illustration: plate . eastern subject (more polynesian) lighter skin less beard and body hair wavy hair wider head higher, steeper forehead less prognathic higher, narrower nose moderately thick lips] [illustration: plate . "polynesian" fijians] [footnote : hooton, , pp. - .] [footnote : derrick, , pp. - .] [footnote : ibid., pp. - .] [footnote : population statistics from "fiji information," of , issued by public relations office, suva, fiji.] [footnote : hooton, , p. .] [footnote : birdsell, , p. .] [footnote : fornander, .] [footnote : churchill, .] [footnote : hocart, , p. .] [footnote : howells, , p. .] [footnote : roth, , pp. , .] [footnote : one pound deducted for dress (usually shorts only).] [footnote : by subtracting sitting height from total stature.] [footnote : cranial measurements are not distorted by cradling practice or other causes of deformation.] [footnote : howells records skin color with the von luschan scale. i have adjusted this scale to my own.] [footnote : + means medium or moderate; ++ means pronounced; +++ means very pronounced.] [footnote : observation taken on the chest.] [footnote : w. h. sheldon, _the variation of human physique_, harper and bros., .] [footnote : birdsell, , p. .] [footnote : hooton, , p. .] [footnote : howells, , p. .] [footnote : simmons _et al._, , pp. - ] [footnote : see pp. and of introduction.] [transcriber's note: figures incorrectly entered as zero have been calculated and inserted in {}.] generously made available by the internet archive.) finger prints finger prints [illustration: finger prints of the author] by francis galton, f.r.s., etc. london macmillan and co. and new york _all rights reserved_ contents chapter i page introduction distinction between creases and ridges origin of the inquiry summaries of the subsequent chapters - viz. of ii., ; iii., ; iv., ; v., ; vi., ; vii., ; viii., ; ix., ; x., ; xi., ; xii., ; xiii., ; chapter ii previous use of finger prints superstition of personal contact rude hand-prints seals to documents chinese finger marks the _tipsahi_ of bengal nail-marks on assyrian bricks nail-mark on chinese coins ridges and cheiromancy--china, japan, and by negroes modern usage--bewick, fauld, tabor, and g. thompson their official use by sir w. j. herschel chapter iii methods of printing impression on polished glass or razor the two contrasted methods of printing general remarks on printing from reliefs--ink; low relief of ridges; layer of ink; drying due to oxidisation - apparatus at my own laboratory--slab; roller; benzole (or equivalent); funnel; ink; cards - method of its manipulation - pocket apparatus rollers and their manufacture other parts of the apparatus folders--long serviceable if air be excluded lithography water colours and dyes sir w. herschel's official instructions printing as from engraved plates--prof. ray lankester; dr. l. robinson methods of dr. forgeot smoke prints--mica; adhesive paper, by licking with tongue - plumbago; whitening casts--sealing-wax; dentist's wax; gutta-percha; undried varnish; collodion - photographs prints on glass and mica for lantern enlargements--photographic, by camera lucida, pantagraph - chapter iv the ridges and their uses general character of the ridges systems on the palm--principal ones; small interpolated systems - cheiromantic creases--their directions; do not strictly correspond with those of ridges - ridges on the soles of the feet pores development:--embryology; subsequent growth; disintegration by age, by injuries - evolution apparent use as regards pressure--theoretic; experiment with compass points - apparent use as regards rubbing--thrill thereby occasioned - chapter v patterns: their outlines and cores my earlier failures in classifying prints; their causes - the triangular plots outlines of patterns--eight sets of ten digits given as examples - supplies of ridges to pattern letters that read alike when reversed magnifying glasses, spectacles, etc. rolled impressions, their importance standard patterns, cores, and their nomenclature - direction of twist, nomenclature arches, loops, whorls transitional cases the nine genera measurements--by ridge-intervals; by aid of bearings like compass - purkenje--his _commentatio_ and a translation of it in part - chapter vi persistence evidence available about thirty-five points of reference in each print photo-enlargement; orientation; tracing axes of ridges - ambiguities in minutiæ v. h. hd. as child and boy, a solitary change in one of the minutiæ eight couplets from other persons one from sir w. g. summary of comparisons ball of a thumb results as to persistence chapter vii evidential value method of rough comparison chance against guessing a pattern number of independent elements in a print--squares respectively of one, six, and five ridge-intervals in side - interpolation, three methods of - local accidents inside square uncertainties outside it compound results effect of failure in one, two, or more prints final conclusions--jezebel - chapter viii peculiarities of the digits frequency per cent of arches, loops, and whorls generally, and on the several digits - characteristic groups of digits - relationships between the digits centesimal scale of relationship - digits of same and of different names chapter ix methods of indexing use of an index method of few conspicuous differences in many fingers specimen index order in which the digits are noted examples of indexing effect of regarding slopes number of index-heads required for sets in each of twelve different methods - _i_ and _o_ in forefingers only list of commonest index-headings number of headings to sets, according to the digits that are noted transitional cases; sub-classifications - symbols for patterns storing cards number of entries under each head when only the first three fingers are noted chapter x personal identification printers and photographers use of means of identification to honest persons; in regard to criminals - major ferris, mr. tabor, n. borneo - best digits for registration purposes registration of criminals--m. bertillon details of _bertillonage_; success attributed to it; a theoretic error - verification on a small scale - experiences in the united states body marks; teeth - value of finger prints for search in a register identification by comparison remarks by m. herbette chapter xi heredity different opinions larger meaning of heredity connection between filial and fraternal relationships fraternity, a faulty word but the best available a and b brothers test case of calculated randoms fraternities by double a. l. w. events the c. standard patterns limitation of couplets in large fraternities test of accurate classification fraternities by double c. events centesimal scale applied twins children of like-patterned parents simple filial relationship influences of father and mother chapter xii races and classes data for races racial differences are statistical only calculations by mr. f. h. collins hebrew peculiarities negro peculiarities, questionable data for different classes in temperament, faculty, etc., and results m. féré chapter xiii genera type, meaning of law of frequency of error discussion of three elements in the loops on either thumb - proportions of typical loops the patterns are transmitted under conditions of panmixia, yet do not blend their genera are not due to selection; inference sports; variations description of the tables page summary of evidence in favour of finger marks being persistent interpolation of ridges i. percentage frequency of arches, loops, and whorls on the different digits, as observed in the digits of different persons ii. distribution of the a. l. w. patterns on the corresponding digits of the two hands iii. percentage frequency of arches on the digits of the two hands iv. percentage frequency of loops on the digits of the two hands v. percentage frequency of whorls on the digits of the two hands vi_a_. percentage of cases in which the same class of pattern occurs in the same digits of the two hands vi_b_. percentage of cases in which the same class of pattern occurs in various couplets of different digits vii. couplets of fingers of different names in the same and in the opposite hands viii. measures of relationship between the digits on a centesimal scale ix. index to sets of finger prints x. number of different index-heads in sets, according to the number of digits noted xi. number of entries under the same heads in sets xii. index-headings under which more than per cent of the sets were registered in sets xiii. percentage of entries falling under a single head in , , and sets xiv. number of different index-headings in sets, according to the number of fingers in each set, and to the method of indexing xv. number of entries in sets, each of the fore, middle, and ring-fingers only xvi. number of cases of various anthropometric data that severally fell in the three classes of large, medium, and small, when certain limiting values were adopted xvii. distribution of sets of measures, each set consisting of five elements, into classes xviii. number of the above sets that fell under the same headings xix. further analysis of the two headings that contained the most numerous entries xx. observed random couplets xxi. calculated random couplets xxii. observed fraternal couplets xxiii. fraternal couplets--random, observed, and utmost feasible xxiv. three fingers of right hand in fraternal couplets xxv. three fingers of right hand in fraternal couplets-- random and observed xxvi. three fingers of right hand in fraternal couplets-- resemblance measured on centesimal scale xxvii. twins xxviii. children of like-patterned parents xxix. paternal and maternal influence xxx. different races, percentage frequency of arches in fore-finger xxxi. distribution of number of ridges in ah, and of other measures in loops xxxii. ordinates to their schemes of distribution xxxiii. comparison of the above with calculated values xxxiv. proportions of a typical loop on the right and left thumbs respectively description of the plates page i.--fig. . chinese coin with the symbol of the nail-mark of the empress wen-teh fig. . order on a camp sutler by mr. gilbert thompson, who used his finger print for the same purpose as the scroll-work in cheques, viz. to ensure the detection of erasures ii.--fig. . form of card used at my anthropometric laboratory for finger prints. it shows the places where they are severally impressed, whether dabbed or rolled (p. ), and the hole by which they are secured in their box fig. . small printing roller, used in the pocket apparatus, actual size. it may be covered either with india-rubber tubing or with roller composition iii.--fig. . diagram of the chief peculiarities of ridges, called here _minutiæ_ (the scale is about eight times the natural size) fig. . the systems of ridges and the creases in the palm, indicated respectively by continuous and by dotted lines. nos. , , , and show variations in the boundaries of the systems of ridges, and places where smaller systems are sometimes interpolated iv.--fig. . the effects of scars and cuts on the ridges: _a_ is the result of a deep ulcer; _b_ the finger of a tailor (temporarily) scarred by the needle; _c_ the result of a deep cut fig. . formation of the interspace: filled in ( ) by a loop; in ( ) by a scroll. the triangular plot or plots are indicated. in ( ) there is no interspace, but a succession of arches are formed, gradually flattening into straight lines v.--fig. . specimens of rolled thumb prints, of the natural size, in which the patterns have been outlined, p. , and on which lines have been drawn for orientation and charting vi.--fig. . specimens of the outlines of the patterns on the ten digits of eight different persons, not selected but taken as they came. its object is to give a general idea of the degree of their variety. the supply of ridges from the _inner_ (or thumb side) are coloured blue, those from the _outer_ are red (the scale is of the natural size) vii.--fig. . standard patterns of arches, together with some transitional forms, all with their names below fig. . as above, with respect to loops viii.--fig. . as above, with respect to whorls fig. . cores to loops, which may consist either of single lines, here called _rods_, or of a recurved line or _staple_, while the ridges that immediately envelops them is called an _envelope_ fig. . cores to whorls ix.--fig. . transitional patterns, enlarged three times, between arches and either loops or whorls x.--fig. . transitional patterns, as above, but between loops and whorls xi.--fig. . diagram showing the nine genera formed by the corresponding combinations of the two letters by which they are expressed, each being _i_, _j_, or _o_ as the case may be. the first two diagrams are arches, and not strictly patterns at all, but may with some justice be symbolised by _jj_ fig. . ambiguities in minutiæ, showing that certain details in them are not to be trusted, while others are xii.--fig. . the illustrations to purkenje's _commentatio_. they are photo-lithographed from the original, which is not clearly printed xiii.--fig. . enlarged impressions of the same two fingers of v. h. hd., first when a child of - / , and subsequently when a boy of years of age. the lower pair are interesting from containing the unique case of failure of exact coincidence yet observed. it is marked a. the numerals indicate the correspondences xiv.--fig. . contains portions on an enlarged scale of eight couplets of finger prints, the first print in each couplet having been taken many years before the second, as shown by the attached dates. the points of correspondence in each couplet are indicated by similar numerals xv.--fig. . the fore-finger of sir w. j. herschel as printed on two occasions, many years apart (enlarged scale). the numerals are here inserted on a plan that has the merit of clearness, but some of the lineations are thereby sacrificed fig. . shows the periods of life over which the evidence of identity extends in figs - . [by an oversight, not perceived until too late for remedy, the bottom line begins at æt. instead of ] chapter i introduction the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are covered with two totally distinct classes of marks. the most conspicuous are the creases or folds of the skin which interest the followers of palmistry, but which are no more significant to others than the creases in old clothes; they show the lines of most frequent flexure, and nothing more. the least conspicuous marks, but the most numerous by far, are the so-called papillary ridges; they form the subject of the present book. if they had been only twice as large as they are, they would have attracted general attention and been commented on from the earliest times. had dean swift known and thought of them, when writing about the brobdingnags, whom he constructs on a scale twelve times as great as our own, he would certainly have made gulliver express horror at the ribbed fingers of the giants who handled him. the ridges on their palms would have been as broad as the thongs of our coach-whips. let no one despise the ridges on account of their smallness, for they are in some respects the most important of all anthropological data. we shall see that they form patterns, considerable in size and of a curious variety of shape, whose boundaries can be firmly outlined, and which are little worlds in themselves. they have the unique merit of retaining all their peculiarities unchanged throughout life, and afford in consequence an incomparably surer criterion of identity than any other bodily feature. they may be made to throw welcome light on some of the most interesting biological questions of the day, such as heredity, symmetry, correlation, and the nature of genera and species. a representation of their lineations is easily secured in a self-recorded form, by inking the fingers in the way that will be explained, and pressing them on paper. there is no prejudice to be overcome in procuring these most trustworthy sign-manuals, no vanity to be pacified, no untruths to be guarded against. my attention was first drawn to the ridges in when preparing a lecture on personal identification for the royal institution, which had for its principal object an account of the anthropometric method of bertillon, then newly introduced into the prison administration of france. wishing to treat the subject generally, and having a vague knowledge of the value sometimes assigned to finger marks, i made inquiries, and was surprised to find, both how much had been done, and how much there remained to do, before establishing their theoretical value and practical utility. enough was then seen to show that the subject was of real importance, and i resolved to investigate it; all the more so, as the modern processes of photographic printing would enable the evidence of such results as might be arrived at, to be presented to the reader on an enlarged and easily legible form, and in a trustworthy shape. those that are put forward in the following pages, admit of considerable extension and improvement, and it is only the fact that an account of them seems useful, which causes me to delay no further before submitting what has thus far been attained, to the criticism of others. i have already published the following memoirs upon this subject: . "personal identification." _journal royal inst._ th may , and _nature_, th june . . "patterns in thumb and finger marks." _phil. trans. royal society_, vol. clxxxii. ( ) b. pp. - . [this almost wholly referred to thumb marks.] . "method of indexing finger marks." _proc. royal society_, vol. xlix. ( ). . "identification by finger tips." _nineteenth century_, august . this first and introductory chapter contains a brief and orderly summary of the contents of those that follow. the second chapter treats of the previous employment of finger prints among various nations, which has been almost wholly confined to making daubs, without paying any regard to the delicate lineations with which this book is alone concerned. their object was partly superstitious and partly ceremonial; superstitious, so far as a personal contact between the finger and the document was supposed to be of mysterious efficacy: ceremonial, as a formal act whose due performance in the presence of others could be attested. a few scattered instances are mentioned of persons who had made finger prints with enough care to show their lineations, and who had studied them; some few of these had used them as signatures. attention is especially drawn to sir william herschel, who brought the method of finger prints into regular official employment when he was "collector" or chief administrator of the hooghly district in bengal, and my large indebtedness to him is expressed in this chapter and in other places. in the third chapter various methods of making good prints from the fingers are described at length, and more especially that which i have now adopted on a somewhat large scale, at my anthropometric laboratory, which, through the kindness of the authorities of south kensington, is at present lodged in the galleries of their science collections. there, the ten digits of both hands of all the persons who come to be measured, are impressed with clearness and rapidity, and a very large collection of prints is steadily accumulating, each set being, as we shall see, a sign-manual that differentiates the person who made it, throughout the whole of his life, from all the rest of mankind. descriptions are also given of various methods of enlarging a finger print to a convenient size, when it is desired to examine it closely. photography is the readiest of all; on the other hand the prism (as in a camera lucida) has merits of its own, and so has an enlarging pantagraph, when it is furnished with a small microscope and cross wires to serve as a pointer. in the fourth chapter the character and purpose of the ridges, whose lineations appear in the finger print, are discussed. they have been the topic of a considerable amount of careful physiological study in late years, by writers who have investigated their development in early periods of unborn life, as well as their evolutionary history. they are perfectly defined in the monkeys, but appear in a much less advanced stage in other mammalia. their courses run somewhat independently of the lines of flexure. they are studded with pores, which are the open mouths of ducts proceeding from the somewhat deeply-seated glands which secrete perspiration, so one of their functions is to facilitate the riddance of that excretion. the ridges increase in height as the skin is thickened by hard usage, until callosities begin to be formed, which may altogether hide them. but the way in which they assist the touch and may tend to neutralise the dulling effect of a thick protective skin, is still somewhat obscure. they certainly seem to help in the discrimination of the character of surfaces that are variously rubbed between the fingers. these preliminary topics having been disposed of, we are free in the fifth chapter to enter upon the direct course of our inquiry, beginning with a discussion of the various patterns formed by the lineations. it will be shown how systems of parallel ridges sweep in bold curves across the palmar surface of the hand, and how, whenever the boundaries of two systems diverge, the interspace is filled up by a compact little system of its own, variously curved or whorled, having a fictitious resemblance to an eddy between two currents. an interspace of this kind is found in the bulb of each finger. the ridges run in parallel lines across the finger, up to its last joint, beyond which the insertion of the finger-nail causes a compression of the ridges on either side; their intermediate courses are in consequence so much broadened out that they commonly separate, and form two systems with an interspace between them. the independent patterns that appear in this interspace upon the bulbs of the fingers, are those with which this book is chiefly concerned. at first sight, the maze formed by the minute lineations is bewildering, but it is shown that every interspace can be surely outlined, and when this is done, the character of the pattern it encloses, starts conspicuously into view. examples are given to show how the outlining is performed, and others in which the outlines alone are taken into consideration. the cores of the patterns are also characteristic, and are described separately. it is they alone that have attracted the notice of previous inquirers. the outlines fall for the most part into nine distinct genera, defined by the relative directions of the divergent ridges that enclose them. the upper pair (those that run towards the finger-tip) may unite, or one or other of them may surmount the other, thus making three possibilities. there are three similar possibilities in respect to the lower pair; so, as any one of the first group may be combined with any one of the second, there are × , or nine possibilities in all. the practice of somewhat rolling the finger when printing from it, is necessary in order to impress enough of its surface to ensure that the points at which the boundaries of the pattern begin to diverge, shall be always included. plates are given of the principal varieties of patterns, having regard only to their more fundamental differences, and names are attached for the convenience of description; specimens are also given of the outlines of the patterns in all the ten digits of eight different persons, taken at hazard, to afford a first idea of the character of the material to be dealt with. another and less minute system of classification under three heads is then described, which is very useful for rough preliminary purposes, and of which frequent use is made further on. it is into arches, loops, and whorls. in the arches, there is no pattern strictly speaking, for there is no interspace; the need for it being avoided by a successive and regular broadening out of the ridges as they cross the bulb of the finger. in loops, the interspace is filled with a system of ridges that bends back upon itself, and in which no one ridge turns through a complete circle. whorls contain all cases in which at least one ridge turns through a complete circle, and they include certain double patterns which have a whorled appearance. the transitional cases are few; they are fully described, pictured, and classified. one great advantage of the rude a. l. w. system is that it can be applied, with little risk of error, to impressions that are smudged or imperfect; it is therefore very useful so far as it goes. thus it can be easily applied to my own finger prints on the title-page, made as they are from digits that are creased and roughened by seventy years of life, and whose impressions have been closely clipped in order to fit them into a limited space. a third method of classification is determined by the origin of the ridges which supply the interspace, whether it be from the thumb side or the little-finger side; in other words, from the inner or the outer side. lastly, a translation from the latin is given of the famous thesis or _commentatio_ of purkenje, delivered at the university of breslau in , together with his illustrations. it is a very rare pamphlet, and has the great merit of having first drawn attention to the patterns and attempted to classify them. in the sixth chapter we reach the question of persistence: whether or no the patterns are so durable as to afford a sure basis for identification. the answer was different from what had been expected. so far as the proportions of the patterns go, they are _not_ absolutely fixed, even in the adult, inasmuch as they change with the shape of the finger. if the finger is plumped out or emaciated, or variously deformed by usage, gout, or age, the proportions of the pattern will vary also. two prints of the same finger, one taken before and the other after an interval of many years, cannot be expected to be as closely alike as two prints similarly made from the same woodcut. they are far from satisfying the shrewd test of the stereoscope, which shows if there has been an alteration even of a letter in two otherwise duplicate pages of print. the measurements vary at different periods, even in the adult, just as much if not more than his height, span, and the lengths of his several limbs. on the other hand, the numerous bifurcations, origins, islands, and enclosures in the ridges that compose the pattern, are proved to be _almost beyond change_. a comparison is made between the pattern on a finger, and one on a piece of lace; the latter may be stretched or shrunk as a whole, but the threads of which it is made retain their respective peculiarities. the evidence on which these conclusions are founded is considerable, and almost wholly derived from the collections made by sir w. herschel, who most kindly placed them at my disposal. they refer to one or more fingers, and in a few instances to the whole hand, of fifteen different persons. the intervals before and after which the prints were taken, amount in some cases to thirty years. some of them reach from babyhood to boyhood, some from childhood to youth, some from youth to advanced middle age, one from middle life to incipient old age. these four stages nearly include the whole of the ordinary life of man. i have compared altogether some points of reference in these couplets of impressions, and only found a single instance of discordance, in which a ridge that was cleft in a child became united in later years. photographic enlargements are given in illustration, which include between them a total of pairs of points of reference, all bearing distinctive numerals to facilitate comparison and to prove their unchangeableness. reference is made to another illustrated publication of mine, which raises the total number of points compared to , all of which were successful, with the single exception above mentioned. the fact of an almost complete persistence in the peculiarities of the ridges from birth to death, may now be considered as determined. they existed before birth, and they persist after death, until effaced by decomposition. in the seventh chapter an attempt is made to appraise the evidential value of finger prints by the common laws of probability, paying great heed not to treat variations that are really correlated, as if they were independent. an artifice is used by which the number of portions is determined, into which a print may be divided, in each of which the purely local conditions introduce so much uncertainty, that a guess derived from a knowledge of the outside conditions is as likely as not to be wrong. a square of six ridge-intervals in the side was shown by three different sets of experiments to be larger than required; one of four ridge-intervals in the side was too small, but one of five ridge-intervals appeared to be closely correct. a six-ridge interval square was, however, at first adopted, in order to gain assurance that the error should be on the safe side. as an ordinary finger print contains about twenty-four of these squares, the uncertainty in respect to the entire contents of the pattern _due to this cause alone_, is expressed by a fraction of which the numerator is , and the denominator is multiplied into itself twenty-four times, which amounts to a number so large that it requires eight figures to express it. a further attempt was made to roughly appraise the neglected uncertainties relating to the outside conditions, but large as they are, they seem much inferior in their joint effect to the magnitude of that just discussed. next it was found possible, by the use of another artifice, to obtain some idea of the evidential value of identity when two prints agree in all but one, two, three, or any other number of particulars. this was done by using the five ridge-interval squares, of which thirty-five may be considered to go into a single finger print, being about the same as the number of the bifurcations, origins, and other points of comparison. the accidental similarity in their numbers enables us to treat them roughly as equivalent. on this basis the well-known method of binomial calculation is easily applied, with the general result that, notwithstanding a failure of evidence in a few points, as to the identity of two sets of prints, each, say, of three fingers, amply enough evidence would be supplied by the remainder to prevent any doubt that the two sets of prints were made by the same person. when a close correspondence exists in respect to all the ten digits, the thoroughness of the differentiation of each man from all the rest of the human species is multiplied to an extent far beyond the capacity of human imagination. there can be no doubt that the evidential value of identity afforded by prints of two or three of the fingers, is so great as to render it superfluous to seek confirmation from other sources. the eighth chapter deals with the frequency with which the several kinds of patterns appear on the different digits of the same person, severally and in connection. the subject is a curious one, and the inquiry establishes unexpected relationships and distinctions between different fingers and between the two hands, to whose origin there is at present no clue. the relationships are themselves connected in the following way;--calling any two digits on one of the hands by the letters a and b respectively, and the digit on the other hand, that corresponds to b, by the symbol b , then the kinship between a and b is identical, in a statistical sense, with the kinship between a and b. the chief novelty in this chapter is an attempt to classify nearness of relationship upon a centesimal scale, in which the number of correspondences due to mere chance counts as °, and complete identity as °. it seems reasonable to adopt the scale with only slight reservation, when the average numbers of the arches, loops, and whorls are respectively the same in the two kinds of digit which are compared together; but when they differ greatly, there are no means free from objection, of determining the ° division of the scale; so the results, if noted at all, are subject to grave doubt. applying this scale, it appears that digits on opposite hands, which bear the same name, are more nearly related together than digits bearing different names, in about the proportion of three to two. it seems also, that of all the digits, none are so nearly related as the middle finger to the two adjacent ones. in the ninth chapter, various methods of indexing are discussed and proposed, by which a set of finger prints may be so described by a few letters, that it can be easily searched for and found in any large collection, just as the name of a person is found in a directory. the procedure adopted, is to apply the arch-loop-whorl classification to all ten digits, describing each digit in the order in which it is taken, by the letter _a_, _l_, or _w_, as the case may be, and arranging the results in alphabetical sequence. the downward direction of the slopes of loops on the fore-fingers is also taken into account, whether it be towards the inner or the outer side, thus replacing l on the fore-finger by either _i_ or _o_. many alternative methods are examined, including both the recognition and the non-recognition of all sloped patterns. also the gain in differentiation, when all the ten digits are catalogued, instead of only a few of them. there is so much correlation between the different fingers, and so much peculiarity in each, that theoretical notions of the value of different methods of classification are of little worth; it is only by actual trial that the best can be determined. whatever plan of index be adopted, many patterns must fall under some few headings and few or no patterns under others, the former class resembling in that respect the smiths, browns, and other common names that occur in directories. the general value of the index much depends on the facility with which these frequent forms can be broken up by sub-classification, the rarer forms being easily dealt with. this branch of the subject has, however, been but lightly touched, under the belief that experience with larger collections than my own, was necessary before it could be treated thoroughly; means are, however, indicated for breaking up the large battalions, which have answered well thus far, and seem to admit of considerable extension. thus, the number of ridges in a loop (which is by far the commonest pattern) on any particular finger, at the part of the impression where the ridges are cut by the axis of the loop, is a fairly definite and effective datum as well as a simple one; so also is the character of its inmost lineation, or core. in the tenth chapter we come to a practical result of the inquiry, namely, its possible use as a means of differentiating a man from his fellows. in civil as well as in criminal cases, the need of some such system is shown to be greatly felt in many of our dependencies; where the features of natives are distinguished with difficulty; where there is but little variety of surnames; where there are strong motives for prevarication, especially connected with land-tenure and pensions, and a proverbial prevalence of unveracity. it is also shown that the value to honest men of sure means of identifying themselves is not so small among civilised nations even in peace time, as to be disregarded, certainly not in times of war and of strict passports. but the value to honest men is always great of being able to identify offenders, whether they be merely deserters or formerly convicted criminals, and the method of finger prints is shown to be applicable to that purpose. for aid in searching the registers of a criminal intelligence bureau, its proper rank is probably a secondary one; the primary being some form of the already established bertillon anthropometric method. whatever power the latter gives of successfully searching registers, that power would be multiplied many hundredfold by the inclusion of finger prints, because their peculiarities are entirely unconnected with other personal characteristics, as we shall see further on. a brief account is given in this chapter of the bertillon system, and an attempt is made on a small scale to verify its performance, by analysing five hundred sets of measures made at my own laboratory. these, combined with the quoted experiences in attempting to identify deserters in the united states, allow a high value to this method, though not so high as has been claimed for it, and show the importance of supplementary means. but whenever two suspected duplicates of measurements, bodily marks, photographs and finger prints have to be compared, the lineations of the finger prints would give an incomparably more trustworthy answer to the question, whether or no the suspicion of their referring to the same person was justified, than all the rest put together. besides this, while measurements and photographs are serviceable only for adults, and even then under restrictions, the finger prints are available throughout life. it seems difficult to believe, now that their variety and persistence have been proved, the means of classifying them worked out, and the method of rapidly obtaining clear finger prints largely practised at my laboratory and elsewhere, that our criminal administration can long neglect the use of such a powerful auxiliary. it requires no higher skill and judgment to make, register, and hunt out finger prints, than is to be found in abundance among ordinary clerks. of course some practice is required before facility can be gained in reading and recognising them, but not a few persons of whom i have knowledge, have interested themselves in doing so, and found no difficulty. the eleventh chapter treats of heredity, and affirmatively answers the question whether patterns are transmissible by descent. the inquiry proved more troublesome than was expected, on account of the great variety in patterns and the consequent rarity with which the same pattern, other than the common loop, can be expected to appear in relatives. the available data having been attacked both by the arch-loop-whorl method, and by a much more elaborate system of classification--described and figured as the c system, the resemblances between children of either sex, of the same parents (or more briefly "fraternal" resemblances, as they are here called, for want of a better term), have been tabulated and discussed. a batch of twins have also been analysed. then cases have been treated in which both parents had the same pattern on corresponding fingers; this pattern was compared with the pattern on the corresponding finger of the child. in these and other ways, results were obtained, all testifying to the conspicuous effect of heredity, and giving results that can be measured on the centesimal scale already described. but though the qualitative results are clear, the quantitative are as yet not well defined, and that part of the inquiry must lie over until a future time, when i shall have more data and when certain foreseen improvements in the method of work may perhaps be carried out. there is a decided appearance, first observed by mr. f. howard collins, of whom i shall again have to speak, of the influence of the mother being stronger than that of the father, in transmitting these patterns. in the twelfth chapter we come to a branch of the subject of which i had great expectations, that have been falsified, namely, their use in indicating race and temperament. i thought that any hereditary peculiarities would almost of necessity vary in different races, and that so fundamental and enduring a feature as the finger markings must in some way be correlated with temperament. the races i have chiefly examined are english, most of whom were of the upper and middle classes; the others chiefly from london board schools; welsh, from the purest welsh-speaking districts of south wales; jews from the large london schools, and negroes from the territories of the royal niger company. i have also a collection of basque prints taken at cambo, some twenty miles inland from biarritz, which, although small, is large enough to warrant a provisional conclusion. as a first and only an approximately correct description, the english, welsh, jews, negroes, and basques, may all be spoken of as identical in the character of their finger prints; the same familiar patterns appearing in all of them with much the same degrees of frequency, the differences between groups of different races being not larger than those that occasionally occur between groups of the same race. the jews have, however, a decidedly larger proportion of whorled patterns than other races, and i should have been tempted to make an assertion about a peculiarity in the negroes, had not one of their groups differed greatly from the rest. the task of examination has been laborious thus far, but it would be much more so to arrive with correctness at a second and closer approximation to the truth. it is doubtful at present whether it is worth while to pursue the subject, except in the case of the hill tribes of india and a few other peculiarly diverse races, for the chance of discovering some characteristic and perhaps a more monkey-like pattern. considerable collections of prints of persons belonging to different classes have been analysed, such as students in science, and students in arts; farm labourers; men of much culture; and the lowest idiots in the london district (who are all sent to darenth asylum), but i do not, still as a first approximation, find any decided difference between their finger prints. the ridges of artists are certainly not more delicate and close than those of men of quite another stamp. in chapter xiii. the question is discussed and answered affirmatively, of the right of the nine fundamentally differing patterns to be considered as different genera; also of their more characteristic varieties to rank as different genera, or species, as the case may be. the chief test applied, respected the frequency with which the various loops that occurred on the thumbs, were found to differ, in successive degrees of difference, from the central form of all of them; it was found to accord with the requirements of the well-known law of frequency of error, proving the existence of a central type, from which the departures were, in common phraseology, accidental. now all the evidence in the last chapter concurs in showing that no sensible amount of correlation exists between any of the patterns on the one hand, and any of the bodily faculties or characteristics on the other. it would be absurd therefore to assert that in the struggle for existence, a person with, say, a loop on his right middle finger has a better chance of survival, or a better chance of early marriage, than one with an arch. consequently genera and species are here seen to be formed without the slightest aid from either natural or sexual selection, and these finger patterns are apparently the only peculiarity in which panmixia, or the effect of promiscuous marriages, admits of being studied on a large scale. the result of panmixia in finger markings, corroborates the arguments i have used in _natural inheritance_ and elsewhere, to show that "organic stability" is the primary factor by which the distinctions between genera are maintained; consequently, the progress of evolution is not a smooth and uniform progression, but one that proceeds by jerks, through successive "sports" (as they are called), some of them implying considerable organic changes, and each in its turn being favoured by natural selection. the same word "variation" has been indiscriminately applied to two very different conceptions, which ought to be clearly distinguished; the one is that of the "sports" just alluded to, which are changes in the position of organic stability, and may, through the aid of natural selection, become fresh steps in the onward course of evolution; the other is that of the variations proper, which are merely strained conditions of a stable form of organisation, and not in any way an overthrow of them. sports do not blend freely together; variations proper do so. natural selection acts upon variations proper, just as it does upon sports, by preserving the best to become parents, and eliminating the worst, but its action upon mere variations can, as i conceive, be of no permanent value to evolution, because there is a constant tendency in the offspring to "regress" towards the parental type. the amount and results of this tendency have been fully established in _natural inheritance_. it is there shown, that after a certain departure from the central typical form has been reached in any race, a further departure becomes impossible without the aid of these sports. in the successive generations of such a population, the average tendency of filial regression towards the racial centre must at length counterbalance the effects of filial dispersion; consequently the best of the produce cannot advance beyond the level already attained by the parents, the rest falling short of it in various degrees. * * * * * in concluding these introductory remarks, i have to perform the grateful duty of acknowledging my indebtedness to mr. f. howard collins, who materially helped me during the past year. he undertook the numerous and tedious tabulations upon which the chapters on heredity, and on races and classes, are founded, and he thoroughly revised nearly the whole of my ms., to the great advantage of the reader of this book. chapter ii previous use of finger prints the employment of impressions of the hand or fingers to serve as sign-manuals will probably be found in every nation of importance, but the significance attached to them differs. it ranges from a mere superstition that personal contact is important, up to the conviction of which this book will furnish assurance, that when they are properly made, they are incomparably the most sure and unchanging of all forms of signature. the existence of the superstitious basis is easily noted in children and the uneducated; it occupies a prominent place in the witchcrafts of barbarians. the modern witness who swears on the bible, is made to hold it and afterwards to kiss it; he who signs a document, touches a seal or wafer, and declares that "this is my act and deed." students of the primitive customs of mankind find abundant instances of the belief, that personal contact communicates some mysterious essence from the thing touched to the person who touches it, and _vice versa_; but it is unnecessary here to enter further into these elementary human reasonings, which are fully described and discussed by various well-known writers. the next grade of significance attached to an impression resembles that which commends itself to the mind of a hunter who is practised in tracking. he notices whether a footprint he happens to light upon, is larger or smaller, broader or narrower, or otherwise differs from the average, in any special peculiarity; he thence draws his inferences as to the individual who made it. so, when a chief presses his hand smeared with blood or grime, upon a clean surface, a mark is left in some degree characteristic of him. it may be that of a broad stumpy hand, or of a long thin one; it may be large or small; it may even show lines corresponding to the principal creases of the palm. such hand prints have been made and repeated in many semi-civilised nations, and have even been impressed in vermilion on their state documents, as formerly by the sovereign of japan. though mere smudges, they serve in a slight degree to individualise the signer, while they are more or less clothed with the superstitious attributes of personal contact. so far as i can learn, no higher form of finger printing than this has ever existed, in regular and well-understood use, in any barbarous or semi-civilised nation. the ridges dealt with in this book could not be seen at all in such rude prints, much less could they be utilised as strictly distinctive features. it is possible that when impressions of the fingers have been made in wax, and used as seals to documents, they may sometimes have been subjected to minute scrutiny; but no account has yet reached me of trials in any of their courts of law, about disputed signatures, in which the identity of the party who was said to have signed with his finger print, had been established or disproved by comparing it with a print made by him then and there. the reader need be troubled with only a few examples, taken out of a considerable collection of extracts from books and letters, in which prints, or rather daubs of the above kind, are mentioned. a good instance of their small real value may be seen in the _trans. china branch of the royal asiatic society_, part , , published at hong-kong, which contains a paper on "land tenure in china," by t. meadows taylor, with a deed concerning a sale of land, in facsimile, and its translation: this ends, "the mother and the son, the sellers, have in the presence of all the parties, received the price of the land in full, amounting to sixty-four taels and five mace, in perfect dollars weighed in scales. _impression of the finger of the mother, of the maiden name of chin._" the impression, as it appears in the woodcut, is roundish in outline, and was therefore made by the tip and not the bulb of the finger. its surface is somewhat mottled, but there is no trace of any ridges. the native clerks of bengal give the name of _tipsahi_ to the mark impressed by illiterate persons who, refusing to make either a x or their caste-mark, dip their finger into the ink-pot and touch the document. the tipsahi is not supposed to individualise the signer, it is merely a personal ceremony performed in the presence of witnesses. [illustration: plate . fig. . chinese coin, tang dynasty, about a.d., with nail mark of the empress wen-teh, figured in relief. fig. . order on a camp sutler, by the officer of a surveying party in new mexico. .] many impressions of fingers are found on ancient pottery, as on roman tiles; indeed the latin word _palmatus_ is said to mean an impression in soft clay, such as a mark upon a wall, stamped by a blow with the palm. nail-marks are used ornamentally by potters of various nations. they exist on assyrian bricks as signatures; for instance, in the assyrian room of the british museum, on the west side of the case c , one of these bricks contains a notice of sale and is prefaced by words that were translated for me thus: "nail-mark of nabu-sum-usur, the seller of the field, (used) like his seal." a somewhat amusing incident affected the design of the chinese money during the great tang dynasty, about a.d. a new and important issue of coinage was to be introduced, and the secretary of the censors himself moulded the design in wax, and humbly submitted it to the empress wen-teh for approval. she, through maladroitness, dug the end of her enormously long finger-nail into its face, marking it deeply as with a carpenter's gouge. the poor secretary of the censors, ngeu-yang-siun, who deserves honour from professional courtiers, suppressing such sentiments as he must have felt when his work was mauled, accepted the nail-mark of the empress as an interesting supplement to the design; he changed it into a crescent in relief, and the new coins were stamped accordingly. (see _coins and medals_, edited by stanley lane poole, , p. .) a drawing of one of these is given in plate , fig. . the european practitioners of palmistry and cheiromancy do not seem to have paid particular attention to the ridges with which we are concerned. a correspondent of the american journal _science_, viii. , states, however, that the chinese class the striæ at the ends of the fingers into "pots" when arranged in a coil, and into "hooks." they are also regarded by the cheiromantists in japan. a curious account has reached me of negroes in the united states who, laying great stress on the possession of finger prints in wax or dough for witchcraft purposes, are also said to examine their striæ. leaving purkenje to be spoken of in a later chapter, because he deals chiefly with classification, the first well-known person who appears to have studied the lineations of the ridges as a means of identification, was bewick, who made an impression of his own thumb on a block of wood and engraved it, as well as an impression of a finger. they were used as fanciful designs for his illustrated books. occasional instances of careful study may also be noted, such as that of mr. fauld (_nature_, xxii. p. , oct. , ), who seems to have taken much pains, and that of mr. tabor, the eminent photographer of san francisco, who, noticing the lineations of a print that he had accidentally made with his own inked finger upon a blotting-paper, experimented further, and finally proposed the method of finger prints for the registration of chinese, whose identification has always been a difficulty, and was giving a great deal of trouble at that particular time; but his proposal dropped through. again mr. gilbert thompson, an american geologist, when on government duty in in the wild parts of new mexico, paid the members of his party by order of the camp sutler. to guard against forgery he signed his name across the impression made by his finger upon the order, after first pressing it on his office pad. he was good enough to send me the duplicate of one of these cheques made out in favour of a man who bore the ominous name of "lying bob" (plate , fig. ). the impression took the place of the scroll work on an ordinary cheque; it was in violet aniline ink, and looked decidedly pretty. from time to time sporadic instances like these are met with, but none are comparable in importance to the regular and official employment made of finger prints by sir william herschel, during more than a quarter of a century in bengal. i was exceedingly obliged to him for much valuable information when first commencing this study, and have been almost wholly indebted to his kindness for the materials used in this book for proving the persistence of the lineations throughout life. sir william herschel has presented me with one of the two original "contracts" in bengali, dated , which suggested to his mind the idea of using this method of identification. it was so difficult to obtain credence to the signatures of the natives, that he thought he would use the signature of the hand itself, chiefly with the intention of frightening the man who made it from afterwards denying his formal act; however, the impression proved so good that sir w. herschel became convinced that the same method might be further utilised. he finally introduced the use of finger prints in several departments at hooghly in , after seventeen years' experience of the value of the evidence they afforded. a too brief account of his work was given by him in _nature_, xxiii. p. (nov. , ). he mentions there that he had been taking finger marks as sign-manuals for more than twenty years, and had introduced them for practical purposes in several ways in india with marked benefit. they rendered attempts to repudiate signatures quite hopeless. finger prints were taken of pensioners to prevent their personation by others after their death; they were used in the office for registration of deeds, and at a gaol where each prisoner had to sign with his finger. by comparing the prints of persons then living, with their prints taken twenty years previously, he considered he had proved that the lapse of at least that period made no change sufficient to affect the utility of the plan. he informs me that he submitted, in , a report in semi-official form to the inspector-general of gaols, asking to be allowed to extend the process; but no result followed. in , at the request of the governor of the gaol at greenwich (sydney), he sent a description of the method, but no further steps appear to have been taken there. if the use of finger prints ever becomes of general importance, sir william herschel must be regarded as the first who devised a feasible method for regular use, and afterwards officially adopted it. his method of printing for those purposes will be found in the next chapter. chapter iii methods of printing it will be the aim of this chapter to show how to make really good and permanent impressions of the fingers. it is very easy to do so when the principles of the art are understood and practised, but difficult otherwise. one example of the ease of making good, but not permanent impressions, is found, and should be tried, by pressing the bulb of a finger against well-polished glass, or against the highly-polished blade of a razor. the finger must be _very slightly_ oiled, as by passing it through the hair; if it be moist, dry it with a handkerchief before the oiling. then press the bulb of the finger on the glass or razor, as the case may be, and a beautiful impression will be left. the hardness of the glass or steel prevents its surface from rising into the furrows under the pressure of the ridges, while the layer of oil which covers the bottom of the furrows is too thin to reach down to the glass or steel; consequently the ridges alone are printed. there is no capillary or other action to spread the oil, so the impression remains distinct. a merely moist and not oily finger leaves a similar mark, but it soon evaporates. this simple method is often convenient for quickly noting the character of a finger pattern. the impression may be made on a window-pane, a watch-glass, or even an eye-glass, if nothing better is at hand. the impression is not seen to its fullest advantage except by means of a single small source of bright light. the glass or steel has to be so inclined as just _not_ to reflect the light into the eye. that part of the light which falls on the oily impression is not so sharply reflected from it as from the surface of the glass or steel. consequently some stray beams of the light which is scattered from the oil, reach the eye, while all of the light reflected from the highly-polished glass or steel passes in another direction and is unseen. the result is a brilliantly luminous impression on a dark background. the impression ceases to be visible when the glass or steel is not well polished, and itself scatters the light, like the oil. there are two diametrically opposed methods of printing, each being the complement of the other. the method used in ordinary printing, is to ink the projecting surfaces only, leaving the depressed parts clean. the other method, used in printing from engraved plates, is to ink the whole surface, and then to clean the ink from the projecting parts, leaving the depressions only filled with it. either of these two courses can be adopted in taking finger prints, but not the two together, for when they are combined in equal degrees the result must be a plain black blot. the following explanations will be almost entirely confined to the first method, namely, that of ordinary printing, as the second method has so far not given equally good results. the ink used may be either printer's ink or water colour, but for producing the best work, rapidly and on a large scale, the method of printer's ink seems in every respect preferable. however, water colour suffices for some purposes, and as there is so much convenience in a pad, drenched with dye, such as is commonly used for hand stamps, and which is always ready for use, many may prefer it. the processes with printer's ink will be described first. the relief formed by the ridges is low. in the fingers of very young children, and of some ladies whose hands are rarely submitted to rough usage, the ridges are exceptionally faint; their crests hardly rise above the furrows, yet it is the crests only that are to be inked. consequently the layer of ink on the slab or pad on which the finger is pressed for the purpose of blackening it, must be _very thin_. its thickness must be less than half the elevation of the ridges, for when the finger is pressed down, the crests displace the ink immediately below them, and drives it upwards into the furrows which would otherwise be choked with it. it is no violent misuse of metaphor to compare the ridges to the crests of mountain ranges, and the depth of the blackening that they ought to receive, to that of the newly-fallen snow upon the mountaintops in the early autumn, when it powders them from above downwards to a sharply-defined level. the most desirable blackening of the fingers corresponds to a snowfall which covers all the higher passes, but descends no lower. with a finger so inked it is scarcely possible to fail in making a good imprint; the heaviest pressure cannot spoil it. the first desideratum is, then, to cover the slab by means of which the finger is to be blackened, with an extremely thin layer of ink. this cannot be accomplished with printer's ink unless the slab is very clean, the ink somewhat fluid, and the roller that is used to spread it, in good condition. when a plate of glass is used for the slab, it is easy, by holding the inked slab between the eye and the light, to judge of the correct amount of inking. it should appear by no means black, but of a somewhat light brown. the thickness of ink transferred by the finger to the paper is much less than that which lay upon the slab. the ink adheres to the slab as well as to the finger; when they are separated, only a portion of the ink is removed by the finger. again, when the inked finger is pressed on the paper, only a portion of the ink that was on the finger is transferred to the paper. owing to this double reduction, it seldom happens that a clear impression is at the same time black. an ideally perfect material for blackening would lie loosely on the slab like dust, it would cling very lightly to the finger, but adhere firmly to the paper. the last preliminary to be noticed is the slowness with which the printer's ink hardens on the slab, and the rapidity with which it dries on paper. while serviceable for hours in the former case, in the latter it will be dry in a very few seconds. the drying or hardening of this oily ink has nothing whatever to do with the loss of moisture in the ordinary sense of the word, that is to say, of the loss of the contained water: it is wholly due to oxidisation of the oil. an extremely thin oxidised film soon forms on the surface of the layer on the slab, and this shields the lower-lying portions of the layer from the air, and retards further oxidisation. but paper is very unlike a polished slab; it is a fine felt, full of minute interstices. when a printed period (.) is placed under the microscope it looks like a drop of tar in the middle of a clean bird's-nest. the ink is minutely divided among the interstices of the paper, and a large surface being thereby exposed to the air, it oxidises at once, while a print from the finger upon glass will not dry for two or three days. one effect of oxidisation is to give a granulated appearance to the ink on rollers which have been allowed to get dirty. this granulation leaves clots on the slab which are fatal to good work: whenever they are seen, the roller must be cleaned at once. the best ink for finger printing is not the best for ordinary printing. it is important to a commercial printer that his ink should dry rapidly on the paper, and he does not want a particularly thin layer of it; consequently, he prefers ink that contains various drying materials, such as litharge, which easily part with their oxygen. in finger prints this rapid drying is unnecessary, and the drying materials do harm by making the ink too stiff. the most serviceable ink for our purpose is made of any pure "drying" oil (or oil that oxidises rapidly), mixed with lampblack and very little else. i get mine in small collapsible tubes, each holding about a quarter of an ounce, from messrs. reeve & sons, cheapside, london, w.c. some thousands of fingers may be printed from the contents of one of these little tubes. let us now pass on to descriptions of printing apparatus. first, of that in regular use at my anthropometric laboratory at south kensington, which has acted perfectly for three years; then of a similar but small apparatus convenient to carry about or send abroad, and of temporary arrangements in case any part of it may fail. then lithographic printing will be noticed. in all these cases some kind of printer's ink has to be used. next, smoke prints will be described, which at times are very serviceable; after this the methods of water colours and aniline dyes; then casts of various kinds; last of all, enlargements. _laboratory apparatus._--mine consists of: , slab; , roller; , bottle of benzole (paraffin, turpentine, or solution of washing soda); , a funnel, with blotting-paper to act as a filter; , printer's ink; , rags and duster; , a small glass dish; , cards to print on. the _slab_ is a sheet of polished copper, - / inches by , and about / inch thick, mounted on a solid board / inch thick, with projecting ears for ease of handling. the whole weighs - / lbs. each day it is cleaned with the benzole and left bright. [a slab of more than double the length and less than half the width might, as my assistant thinks, answer better.] the _roller_ is an ordinary small-sized printer's roller, inches long and in diameter, obtained from messrs. harrild, farringdon street, london. mine remained in good condition for quite a year and a half. when it is worn the maker exchanges it for a new one at a trifling cost. a good roller is of the highest importance; it affords the only means of spreading ink evenly and thinly, and with quickness and precision, over a large surface. the ingenuity of printers during more than four centuries in all civilised nations, has been directed to invent the most suitable composition for rollers, with the result that particular mixtures of glue, treacle, etc., are now in general use, the proportions between the ingredients differing according to the temperature at which the roller is intended to be used. the roller, like the slab, is cleansed with benzole every day (a very rapid process) and then put out of the reach of dust. its clean surface is smooth and shining. the _benzole_ is kept in a pint bottle. sometimes paraffin or turpentine has been used instead; washing soda does not smell, but it dissolves the ink more slowly. they are otherwise nearly equally effective in cleansing the rollers and fingers. when dirty, the benzole can be rudely filtered and used again. the _funnel_ holds blotting-paper for filtering the benzole. where much printing is going on, and consequent washing of hands, it is worth while to use a filter, as it saves a little daily expense, though benzole is very cheap, and a few drops of it will clean a large surface. the _ink_ has already been spoken of. the more fluid it is the better, so long as it does not "run." a thick ink cannot be so thinned by adding turpentine, etc., as to make it equal to ink that was originally fluid. the variety of oils used in making ink, and of the added materials, is endless. for our purpose, any oil that dries and does not spread, such as boiled or burnt linseed oil, mixed with lampblack, is almost all that is wanted. the burnt oil is the thicker of the two, and dries the faster. unfortunately the two terms, burnt and boiled linseed oil, have no definite meaning in the trade, boiling or burning not being the simple processes these words express, but including an admixture of drying materials, which differ with each manufacturer; moreover, there are two, if not three, fundamentally distinct qualities of linseed, in respect to the oil extracted from it. the ink used in the laboratory and described above, answers all requirements. many other inks have suited less well; less even than that which can be made, in a very homely way, with a little soot off a plate that had been smoked over a candle, mixed with such boiled linseed oil as can be bought at unpretentious oil and colour shops, its only fault being a tendency to run. _rags_, and a comparatively clean duster, are wanted for cleaning the slab and roller, without scratching them. the small _glass dish_ holds the benzole, into which the inked fingers are dipped before wiping them with the duster. soap and water complete the preliminary cleansing. _cards_, lying flat, and being more easily manipulated than paper, are now used at the laboratory for receiving the impressions. they are of rather large size, - / × inches, to enable the prints of the ten digits to be taken on the same card in two rather different ways (see plate , fig. ), and to afford space for writing notes. the cards must have a smooth and yet slightly absorbent surface. if too highly glazed they cease to absorb, and more ink will remain on the fingers and less be transferred from them to the paper. a little trial soon determines the best specimen from among a few likely alternatives. "correspondence cards" are suitable for taking prints of not more than three fingers, and are occasionally employed in the laboratory. paper books and pads were tried, but their surfaces are inferior to cards in flatness, and their use is now abandoned. the cards should be _very_ white, because, if a photographic enlargement should at any time be desired, a slight tint on the card will be an impediment to making a photograph that shall be as sharp in its lines as an engraving, it being recollected that the cleanest prints are brown, and therefore not many shades darker than the tints of ordinary cards. the method of printing at the laboratory is to squeeze a drop or so of ink on to the slab, and to work it thoroughly with the roller until a thin and even layer is spread, just as is done by printers, from one of whom a beginner might well purchase a lesson. the thickness of the layer of ink is tested from time to time by taking a print of a finger, and comparing its clearness and blackness with that of a standard print, hung up for the purpose close at hand. if too much ink has been put on the slab, some of it must be cleaned off, and the slab rolled afresh with what remains on it and on the roller. but this fault should seldom be committed; little ink should be put on at first, and more added little by little, until the required result is attained. the right hand of the subject, which should be quite passive, is taken by the operator, and the bulbs of his four fingers laid flat on the inked slab and pressed gently but firmly on it by the flattened hand of the operator. then the inked fingers are laid flat upon the upper part of the right-hand side of the card (plate , fig. ), and pressed down gently and firmly, just as before, by the flattened hand of the operator. this completes the process for one set of prints of the four fingers of the right hand. then the bulb of the thumb is slightly _rolled_ on the inked slab, and again on the lower part of the card, which gives a more extended but not quite so sharp an impression. each of the four fingers of the same hand, in succession, is similarly rolled and impressed. this completes the process for the second set of prints of the digits of the right hand. then the left hand is treated in the same way. the result is indicated by the diagram, which shows on what parts of the card the impressions fall. thus each of the four fingers is impressed twice, once above with a simple dab, and once below with a rolled impression, but each thumb is only impressed once; the thumbs being more troublesome to print from than fingers. besides, the cards would have to be made even larger than they are, if two impressions of each thumb had to be included. it takes from two and a half to three minutes to obtain the eighteen impressions that are made on each card. the _pocket apparatus_ is similar to one originally made and used by sir william j. herschel (see plate , fig. , in which the roller and its bearings are drawn of the same size as those i use). a small cylinder of hard wood, or of brass tube, say - / inch long, and / or / inch in diameter, has a pin firmly driven into each end to serve as an axle. a piece of tightly-fitting india-rubber tubing is drawn over the cylinder. the cylinder, thus coated with a soft smooth compressible material, turns on its axle in two brackets, each secured by screws, as shown in plate , fig. , to a board (say × - / × / inch) that serves as handle. this makes a very fair and durable roller; it can be used in the heat and damp of the tropics, and is none the worse for a wetting, but it is by no means so good for delicate work as a cylinder covered with roller composition. these are not at all difficult to make; i have cast them for myself. the mould is a piece of brass tube, polished inside. a thick disc, with a central hole for the lower pin of the cylinder, fits smoothly into the lower end of the mould, and a ring with a thin bar across it, fits over the other end, the upper pin of the cylinder entering a hole in the middle of the bar; thus the cylinder is firmly held in the right position. after slightly oiling the inside of the mould, warming it, inserting the disc and cylinder, and fitting on the ring, the melted composition is poured in on either side of the bar. as it contracts on cooling, rather more must be poured in than at first appears necessary. finally the roller is pushed out of the mould by a wooden ramrod, applied to the bottom of the disc. the composition must be melted like glue, in a vessel surrounded by hot water, which should never be allowed to boil; otherwise it will be spoilt. harrild's best composition is more than twice the cost of that ordinarily used, and is expensive for large rollers, but for these miniature ones the cost is unimportant. the mould with which my first roller was made, was an old pewter squirt with the nozzle cut off; its piston served the double purpose of disc and ramrod. the _slab_ is a piece of thick plate glass, of the same length and width as the handle to the roller, so they pack up easily together; its edges are ground to save the fingers and roller alike from being cut. (porcelain takes the ink better than glass, but is not to be commonly found in the shops, of a convenient shape and size; a glazed tile makes a capital slab.) a collapsible tube of printer's ink, a few rags, and a phial of washing soda, complete the equipment (benzole may spoil india-rubber). when using the apparatus, spread a newspaper on the table to prevent accident, have other pieces of newspaper ready to clean the roller, and to remove any surplus of ink from it by the simple process of rolling it on the paper. take care that the washing soda is in such a position that it cannot be upset and ruin the polish of the table. with these precautions, the apparatus may be used with cleanliness even in a drawing-room. the roller is of course laid on its back when not in use. my assistant has taken good prints of the three first fingers of the right hands of more than school children, say fingers, in a few hours during the same day, by this apparatus. hawksley, oxford street, w., sells a neatly fitted-up box with all the necessary apparatus. _rougher arrangements._--a small ball made by tying chamois leather round soft rags, may be used in the absence of a roller. the fingers are inked from the ball, over which the ink has been evenly distributed, by dabbing it many times against a slab or plate. this method gives good results, but is slow; it would be intolerably tedious to employ it on a large scale, on all ten digits of many persons. it is often desirable to obtain finger prints from persons at a distance, who could not be expected to trouble themselves to acquire the art of printing for the purpose of making a single finger print. on these occasions i send folding-cases to them, each consisting of two pieces of thin copper sheeting, fastened side by side to a slip of pasteboard, by bending the edges of the copper over it. the pasteboard is half cut through at the back, along the space between the copper sheets, so that it can be folded like a reply post-card, the copper sheets being thus brought face to face, but prevented from touching by the margin of an interposed card, out of which the middle has been cut away. the two pieces of copper being inked and folded up, may then be sent by post. on arrival the ink is fresh, and the folders can be used as ordinary inked slabs. (see also smoke printing, page .) the fluidity of even a very thin layer of ink seems to be retained for an indefinite time if the air is excluded to prevent oxidisation. i made experiments, and found that if pieces of glass (photographic quarter plates) be inked, and placed face to face, separated only by narrow paper margins, and then wrapped up without other precaution, they will remain good for a year and a half. a slight film of oxidisation on the surface of the ink is a merit, not a harm; it is cleaner to work with and gives a blacker print, because the ink clings less tenaciously to the finger, consequently more of it is transferred to the paper. if a blackened plate becomes dry, and is re-inked without first being cleaned, the new ink will rob the old of some of its oxygen and it will become dry in a day or even less. _lithography._--prints may be made on "transfer-paper," and thence transferred to stone. it is better not to impress the fingers directly upon the stone, as the print from the stone would be reversed as compared with the original impression, and mistakes are likely to arise in consequence. the print is re-reversed, or put right, by impressing the fingers on transfer-paper. it might sometimes be desirable to obtain rapidly a large number of impressions of the finger prints of a suspected person. in this case lithography would be easier, quicker, and cheaper than photography. _water colours and dyes._--the pads most commonly used with office stamps are made of variously prepared gelatine, covered with fine silk to protect the surface, and saturated with an aniline dye. if the surface be touched, the finger is inked, and if the circumstances are all favourable, a good print may be made, but there is much liability to blot. the pad remains ready for use during many days without any attention, fresh ink being added at long intervals. the advantage of a dye over an ordinary water colour is, that it percolates the silk without any of its colour being kept back; while a solution of lampblack or indian ink, consisting of particles of soot suspended in water, leaves all its black particles behind when it is carefully filtered; only clear water then passes through. a serviceable pad may be made out of a few thicknesses of cloth or felt with fine silk or cambric stretched over it. the ink should be of a slowly drying sort, made, possibly, of ordinary ink, with the admixture of brown sugar, honey, glycerine or the like, to bring it to a proper consistence. mr. gilbert thompson's results by this process have already been mentioned. a similar process was employed for the bengal finger prints by sir w. herschel, who sent me the following account: "as to the printing of the fingers themselves, no doubt practice makes perfect. but i took no pains with my native officials, some dozen or so of whom learnt to do it quite well enough for all practical purposes from bengali written instructions, and using nothing but a kind of lampblack ink made by the native orderly for use with the office seal." a batch of these impressions, which he was so good as to send me, are all clear, and in most cases very good indeed. it would be easier to employ this method in a very damp climate than in england, where a very thin layer of lampblack is apt to dry too quickly on the fingers. _printing as from engraved plates._--professor ray lankester kindly sent me his method of taking prints with water colours. "you take a watery brushful or two of the paint and rub it over the hands, rubbing one hand against the other until they feel sticky. a _thin_ paper (tissue is best) placed on an oval cushion the shape of the hand, should be ready, and the hand pressed not too firmly on to it. i enclose a rough sample, done without a cushion. you require a cushion for the hollow of the hand, and the paint must be rubbed by the two hands until they feel sticky, not watery." this is the process of printing from engravings, the ink being removed from the ridges, and lying in the furrows. blood can be used in the same way. the following is extracted from an article by dr. louis robinson in the _nineteenth century_, may , p. :-- "i found that direct prints of the infant's feet on paper would answer much better [than photography]. after trying various methods i found that the best results could be got by covering the foot by means of a soft stencil brush with a composition of lampblack, soap, syrup, and blue-black ink; wiping it gently from heel to toe with a smoothly-folded silk handkerchief to remove the superfluous pigment, and then applying a moderately flexible paper, supported on a soft pad, direct to the foot." a curious method with paper and ordinary writing ink, lately contrived by dr. forgeot, is analogous to lithography. he has described in one of the many interesting pamphlets published by the "laboratoire d'anthropologie criminelle" of lyon (_stenheil_, rue casimir-delavigne, paris), his new process of rendering visible the previously invisible details of such faint finger prints as thieves may have left on anything they have handled, the object being to show how evidence may sometimes be obtained for their identification. it is well known that pressure of the hand on the polished surface of glass or metal leaves a latent image very difficult to destroy, and which may be rendered visible by suitable applications, but few probably have suspected that this may be the case, to a considerable degree, with ordinary paper. dr. forgeot has shown that if a slightly greasy hand, such for example as a hand that has just been passed through the hair, be pressed on clean paper, and if common ink be afterwards brushed lightly over the paper, it will refuse to lie thickly on the greasy parts, and that the result will be a very fair picture of the minute markings on the fingers. he has even used these productions as negatives, and printed good photographs from them. he has also sent me a photographic print made from a piece of glass which had been exposed to the vapour of hydrofluoric acid, after having been touched by a greasy hand. i have made many trials of his method with considerable success. it affords a way of obtaining serviceable impressions in the absence of better means. dr. forgeot's pamphlet describes other methods of a generally similar kind, which he has found to be less good than the above. _smoke printing._--when other apparatus is not at hand, a method of obtaining very clear impressions is to smoke a plate over a lighted candle, to press the finger on the blackened surface, and then on an adhesive one. the following details must, however, be borne in mind: the plate must not be smoked too much, for the same reason that a slab must not be inked too much; and the adhesive surface must be only slightly damped, not wetted, or the impression will be blurred. a crockery plate is better than glass or metal, as the soot does not adhere to it so tightly, and it is less liable to crack. professor bowditch finds mica (which is sold at photographic stores in small sheets) to be the best material. certainly the smoke comes wholly off the mica on to the parts of the finger that touch it, and a beautiful negative is left behind, which can be utilised in the camera better than glass that has been similarly treated; but it does not serve so well for a plate that is intended to be kept ready for use in a pocket-book, its softness rendering it too liable to be scratched. i prefer to keep a slip of very thin copper sheeting in my pocket-book, with which, and with the gummed back of a postage stamp, or even the gummed fringe to a sheet of stamps, impressions can easily be taken. the thin copper quickly cools, and a wax match supplies enough smoke. the folders spoken of (p. ) may be smoked instead of being inked, and are in some cases preferable to carry in the pocket or to send by post, being so easy to smoke afresh. luggage labels that are thickly gummed at the back furnish a good adhesive surface. the fault of gummed paper lies in the difficulty of damping it without its curling up. the gummed paper sold by stationers is usually thinner than luggage labels, and still more difficult to keep flat. paste rubbed in a very thin layer over a card makes a surface that holds soot firmly, and one that will not stick to other surfaces if accidentally moistened. glue, isinglass, size, and mucilage, are all suitable. it was my fortune as a boy to receive rudimentary lessons in drawing from a humble and rather grotesque master. he confided to me the discovery, which he claimed as his own, that pencil drawings could be fixed by licking them; and as i write these words, the image of his broad swab-like tongue performing the operation, and of his proud eyes gleaming over the drawing he was operating on, come vividly to remembrance. this reminiscence led me to try whether licking a piece of paper would give it a sufficiently adhesive surface. it did so. nay, it led me a step further, for i took two pieces of paper and licked both. the dry side of the one was held over the candle as an equivalent to a plate for collecting soot, being saved by the moisture at the back from igniting (it had to be licked two or three times during the process), and the impression was made on the other bit of paper. an ingenious person determined to succeed in obtaining the record of a finger impression, can hardly fail altogether under any ordinary circumstances. physiologists who are familiar with the revolving cylinder covered with highly-glazed paper, which is smoked, and then used for the purpose of recording the delicate movements of a tracer, will have noticed the beauty of the impression sometimes left by a finger that had accidentally touched it. they are also well versed in the art of varnishing such impressions to preserve them in a durable form. a cake of blacklead (plumbago), such as is sold for blackening grates, when rubbed on paper leaves a powdery surface that readily blackens the fingers, and shows the ridges distinctly. a small part of the black comes off when the fingers are pressed on sticky paper, but i find it difficult to ensure good prints. the cakes are convenient to carry and cleanly to handle. whitening, and still more, whitening mixed with size, may be used in the same way, but it gathers in the furrows, not on the ridges. _casts_ give undoubtedly the most exact representation of the ridges, but they are difficult and unsatisfactory to examine, puzzling the eye by showing too conspicuously the variation of their heights, whereas we only want to know their courses. again, as casts must be of a uniform colour, the finer lines are indistinctly seen except in a particular light. lastly, they are both cumbrous to preserve and easily broken. a sealing-wax impression is the simplest and best kind of cast, and the finger need not be burnt in making it. the plan is to make a considerable pool of flaming sealing-wax, stirring it well with the still unmelted piece of the stick, while it is burning. then blow out the flame and wait a little, until the upper layer has cooled. sealing-wax that has been well aflame takes a long time to harden thoroughly after it has parted with nearly all its heat. by selecting the proper moment after blowing out the flame, the wax will be cool enough for the finger to press it without discomfort, and it will still be sufficiently soft to take a sharp impression. dentist's wax, which is far less brittle, is easily worked, and takes impressions that are nearly as sharp as those of sealing-wax; it has to be well heated and kneaded, then plunged for a moment in cold water to chill the surface, and immediately impressed. gutta-percha can also be used. the most delicate of all impressions is that left upon a thick clot of varnish, which has been exposed to the air long enough for a thin film to have formed over it. the impression is transient, but lingers sufficiently to be easily photographed. it happened, oddly enough, that a few days after i had noticed this effect, and had been experimenting upon it, i heard an interesting memoir "on the minute structure of striped muscle, with special allusion to a new method of investigation by means of 'impressions' stamped in collodion," submitted to the royal society by dr. john berry haycraft, in which an analogous method was used to obtain impressions of delicate microscopic structures. _photographs_ are valuable in themselves, and the negatives serve for subsequent _enlargements_. they are unquestionably accurate, and the labour of making them being mechanical, may be delegated. if the print be in printer's ink on white paper, the process is straightforward, first of obtaining a negative and afterwards photo-prints from it. the importance of the paper or card used to receive the finger print being quite white, has already been pointed out. an imprint on white crockery-ware is beautifully clear. some of the photographs may be advantageously printed by the ferro-prussiate process. the paper used for it does not curl when dry, its texture is good for writing on, and the blue colour of the print makes handwriting clearly legible, whether it be in ink or in pencil. prints on glass have great merits for use as lantern slides, but it must be recollected that they may take some days to dry, and that when dry the ink can be only too easily detached from them by water, which insinuates itself between the dry ink and the glass. of course they could be varnished, if the trouble and cost were no objection, and so preserved. the negative print left on an inked slab, after the finger has touched it, is sometimes very clear, that on smoked glass better, and on smoked mica the clearest of all. these have merely to be placed in the enlarging camera, where the negative image thrown on argento-bromide paper will yield a positive print. (see p. .) i have made, by hand, many enlargements with a prism (camera lucida), but it is difficult to enlarge more than five times by means of it. so much shade is cast by the head that the prism can hardly be used at a less distance than inches from the print, or one quarter the distance ( inches) at which a book is usually read, while the paper on which the drawing is made cannot well be more than inches below the prism; so it makes an enlargement of ( × )/ or five-fold. this is a very convenient method of analysing a pattern, since the lines follow only the axes of the ridges, as in plate , fig. . the prism and attached apparatus may be kept permanently mounted, ready for use at any time, without the trouble of any adjustment. an enlarging pantagraph has also been of frequent use to me, in which the cross-wires of a low-power microscope took the place of the pointer. it has many merits, but its action was not equally free in all directions; the enlarged traces were consequently jagged, and required subsequent smoothing. all hand-made enlargements are tedious to produce, as the total length of lineations to be followed is considerable. in a single finger print made by dabbing down the finger, their actual length amounts to about inches; therefore in a five-fold enlargement of the entire print the pencil has to be carefully directed over five times that distance, or more than feet. large copies of tracings made on transparent paper, either by the camera lucida or by the pantagraph, are easily printed by the ferro-prussiate photographic process mentioned above, in the same way that plans are copied by engineers. chapter iv the ridges and their uses the palmar surface of the hands and the soles of the feet, both in men and monkeys, are covered with minute ridges that bear a superficial resemblance to those made on sand by wind or flowing water. they form systems which run in bold sweeps, though the courses of the individual ridges are less regular. each ridge (plate , fig. ) is characterised by numerous minute peculiarities, called _minutiæ_ in this book, here dividing into two, and there uniting with another (_a_, _b_), or it may divide and almost immediately reunite, enclosing a small circular or elliptical space (_c_); at other times its beginning or end is markedly independent (_d_, _e_); lastly, the ridge may be so short as to form a small island (_f_). whenever an interspace is left between the boundaries of different systems of ridges, it is filled by a small system of its own, which will have some characteristic shape, and be called a _pattern_ in this book. [illustration: plate . fig. . characteristic peculiarities in ridges (about times the natural size). fig. . systems of ridges, and the creases in the palm.] there are three particularly well-marked systems of ridges in the palm of the hand marked in plate , fig. , ~ ~, as th, ab, and bc. the system th is that which runs over the ball of the thumb and adjacent parts of the palm. it is bounded by the line _a_ which starts from the middle of the palm close to the wrist, and sweeps thence round the ball of the thumb to the edge of the palm on the side of the thumb, which it reaches about half an inch, more or less, below the base of the fore-finger. the system ab is bounded towards the thumb by the above line _a_, and towards the little finger by the line _b_; the latter starts from about the middle of the little-finger side of the palm, and emerges on the opposite side just below the fore-finger. consequently, every ridge that wholly crosses the palm is found in ab. the system bc is bounded thumbwards by the line _b_, until that line arrives at a point immediately below the axis of the fore-finger; there the boundary of bc leaves the line _b_, and skirts the base of the fore-finger until it reaches the interval which separates the fore and middle fingers. the upper boundary of bc is the line _c_, which leaves the little-finger side of the palm at a small distance below the base of the little finger, and terminates between the fore and middle fingers. other systems are found between _c_ and the middle, ring, and little fingers; they are somewhat more variable than those just described, as will be seen by comparing the five different palms shown in fig. . an interesting example of the interpolation of a small and independent system occurs frequently in the middle of one or other of the systems ab or bc, at the place where the space covered by the systems of ridges begins to broaden out very rapidly. there are two ways in which the necessary supply of ridges makes its appearance, the one is by a series of successive embranchments (fig. , ~ ~), the other is by the insertion of an independent system, as shown in ~ ~, ~ ~. another example of an interpolated system, but of rarer occurrence, is found in the system th, on the ball of the thumb, as seen in ~ ~. far more definite in position, and complex in lineation, are the small independent systems which appear on the bulbs of the thumb and fingers. they are more instructive to study, more easy to classify, and will alone be discussed in this book. in the diagram of the hand, fig. , ~ ~, the three chief cheiromantic creases are indicated by dots, but are not numbered. they are made ( ) by the flexure of the thumb, ( ) of the four fingers simultaneously, and ( ) of the middle, ring, and little fingers simultaneously, while the fore-finger remains extended. there is no exact accordance between the courses of the creases and those of the adjacent ridges, less still do the former agree with the boundaries of the systems. the accordance is closest between the crease ( ) and the ridges in th; nevertheless that crease does not agree with the line _a_, but usually lies considerably within it. the crease ( ) cuts the ridges on either side, at an angle of about degrees. the crease ( ) is usually parallel to the ridges between which it runs, but is often far from accordant with the line _c_. the creases at the various joints of the thumb and fingers cut the ridges at small angles, say, very roughly, of degrees. the supposition is therefore untenable that the courses of the ridges are wholly determined by the flexures. it appears, however, that the courses of the ridges and those of the lines of flexure may be in part, but in part only, due to the action of the same causes. the fact of the creases of the hand being strongly marked in the newly-born child, has been considered by some to testify to the archaic and therefore important character of their origin. the crumpled condition of the hand of the infant, during some months before its birth, seems to me, however, quite sufficient to account for the creases. i possess a few specimens of hand prints of persons taken when children, and again, after an interval of several years: they show a general accordance in respect to the creases, but not sufficiently close for identification. the ridges on the feet and toes are less complex than those on the hands and digits, and are less serviceable for present purposes, though equally interesting to physiologists. having given but little attention to them myself, they will not be again referred to. * * * * * the ridges are studded with minute pores which are the open mouths of the ducts of the somewhat deeply-seated glands, whose office is to secrete perspiration: plate , _n_, is a good example of them. the distance between adjacent pores on the same ridge is, roughly speaking, about half that which separates the ridges. the lines of a pattern are such as an artist would draw, if dots had been made on a sheet of paper in positions corresponding to the several pores, and he endeavoured to connect them by evenly flowing curves; it would be difficult to draw a pattern under these conditions, and within definite boundaries, that cannot be matched in a living hand. the embryological development of the ridges has been studied by many, but more especially by dr. a. kollmann,[ ] whose careful investigations and bibliography should be consulted by physiologists interested in the subject. he conceives the ridges to be formed through lateral pressures between nascent structures. [illustration: plate . fig. . scars and cuts, and their effects on the ridges. fig. . formation of interspace and examples of the enclosed patterns.] the ridges are said to be first discernible in the fourth month of foetal life, and fully formed by the sixth. in babies and children the delicacy of the ridges is proportionate to the smallness of their stature. they grow simultaneously with the general growth of the body, and continue to be sharply defined until old age has set in, when an incipient disintegration of the texture of the skin spoils, and may largely obliterate them, as in the finger prints on the title-page. they develop most in hands that do a moderate amount of work, and they are strongly developed in the foot, which has the hard work of supporting the weight of the body. they are, as already mentioned, but faintly developed in the hands of ladies, rendered delicate by the continual use of gloves and lack of manual labour, and in idiots of the lowest type who are incapable of labouring at all. when the skin becomes thin, the ridges simultaneously subside in height. they are obliterated by the callosities formed on the hands of labourers and artisans in many trades, by the constant pressure of their peculiar tools. the ridges on the side of the left fore-finger of tailors and seamstresses are often temporarily destroyed by the needle; an instance of this is given in plate , fig. , _b_. injuries, when they are sufficiently severe to leave permanent scars, destroy the ridges to that extent. if a piece of flesh is sliced off, or if an ulcer has eaten so deeply as to obliterate the perspiratory glands, a white cicatrix, without pores or ridges, is the result (fig. , _a_). lesser injuries are not permanent. my assistant happened to burn his finger rather sharply; the daily prints he took of it, illustrated the progress of healing in an interesting manner; finally the ridges were wholly restored. a deep clean cut leaves a permanent thin mark across the ridges (fig. , _c_), sometimes without any accompanying puckering; but there is often a displacement of the ridges on both sides of it, exactly like a "fault" in stratified rocks. a cut, or other injury that is not a clean incision, leaves a scar with puckerings on all sides, as in fig. , _a_, making the ridges at that part undecipherable, even if it does not wholly obliterate them. the latest and best investigations on the evolution of the ridges have been made by dr. h. klaatsch.[ ] he shows that the earliest appearance in the mammalia of structures analogous to ridges is one in which small eminences occur on the ball of the foot, through which the sweat glands issue in no particular order. the arrangement of the papillæ into rows, and the accompanying orderly arrangement of the sweat glands, is a subsequent stage in evolution. the prehensile tail of the howling monkey serves as a fifth hand, and the naked concave part of the tail, with which it grasps and holds on to boughs, is furnished with ridges arranged transversely in beautiful order. the numerous drawings of the hands of monkeys by allix[ ] may be referred to with advantage. the uses of the ridges are primarily, as i suppose, to raise the mouths of the ducts, so that the excretions which they pour out may the more easily be got rid of; and secondarily, in some obscure way, to assist the sense of touch. they are said to be moulded upon the subcutaneous papillæ in such a manner that the ultimate organs of touch, namely, the pacinian bodies, etc.--into the variety of which it is unnecessary here to enter--are more closely congregated under the bases of the ridges than under the furrows, and it is easy, on those grounds, to make reasonable guesses how the ridges may assist the sense of touch. they must concentrate pressures, that would otherwise be spread over the surface generally, upon the parts which are most richly supplied with the terminations of nerves. by their means it would become possible to neutralise the otherwise dulling effect of a thick protective epidermis. their existence in transverse ridges on the inner surface of the prehensile tails of monkeys admits of easy justification from this point of view. the ridges so disposed cannot prevent the tail from curling, and they must add materially to its sensitiveness. they seem to produce the latter effect on the hands of man, for, as the epidermis thickens under use within moderate limits, so the prominence of the ridges increases. supposing the ultimate organs of the sense of touch to be really congregated more thickly under the ridges than under the furrows--on which there has been some question--the power of tactile discrimination would depend very much on the closeness of the ridges. the well-known experiment with the two points of a pair of compasses, is exactly suited to test the truth of this. it consists in determining the smallest distance apart, of the two points, at which their simultaneous pressure conveys the sensation of a double prick. those persons in whom the ridge-interval was short might be expected to perceive the double sensation, while others whose ridge-interval was wide would only perceive a single one, the distance apart of the compass points, and the parts touched by them, being the same in both cases. i was very glad to avail myself of the kind offer of mr. e. b. titchener to make an adequate course of experiments at professor wundt's psycho-physical laboratory at leipzig, to decide this question. he had the advantage there of being able to operate on fellow-students who were themselves skilled in such lines of investigation, so while his own experience was a considerable safeguard against errors of method, that safety was reinforced by the fact that his experiments were conducted under the watchful eyes of competent and critical friends. the result of the enquiry was decisive. it was proved to demonstration that the fineness or coarseness of the ridges in different persons had no effect whatever on the delicacy of their tactile discrimination. moreover, it made no difference in the results, whether one or both points of the compass rested on the ridges or in the furrows. the width of the ridge-interval is certainly no test of the relative power of discrimination of the different parts of the same hand, because, while the ridge-interval is nearly uniform over the whole of the palmar surface, the least distance between the compass points that gives the sensation of doubleness is more than four times greater when they are applied to some parts of the palm than when they are applied to the bulbs of the fingers. the ridges may subserve another purpose in the act of touch, namely, that of enabling the character of surfaces to be perceived by the act of rubbing them with the fingers. we all of us perform this, as it were, intuitively. it is interesting to ask a person who is ignorant of the real intention, to shut his eyes and to ascertain as well as he can by the sense of touch alone, the material of which any object is made that is afterwards put into his hands. he will be observed to explore it very carefully by rubbing its surface in many directions, and with many degrees of pressure. the ridges engage themselves with the roughness of the surface, and greatly help in calling forth the required sensation, which is that of a thrill; usually faint, but always to be perceived when the sensation is analysed, and which becomes very distinct when the indentations are at equal distances apart, as in a file or in velvet. a thrill is analogous to a musical note, and the characteristics to the sense of touch, of different surfaces when they are rubbed by the fingers, may be compared to different qualities of sound or noise. there are, however, no pure over-tones in the case of touch, as there are in nearly all sounds. chapter v patterns: their outlines and cores the patterns on the thumb and fingers were first discussed at length by purkenje in , in a university thesis or _commentatio_. i have translated the part that chiefly concerns us, and appended it to this chapter together with his corresponding illustrations. subsequent writers have adopted his standard types, diminishing or adding to their number as the case may be, and guided as he had been, by the superficial appearance of the lineations. in my earlier trials some three years ago, an attempt at classification was made upon that same principle, when the experience gained was instructive. it had seemed best to limit them to the prints of a single digit, and the thumb was selected. i collected enough specimens to fill fourteen sheets, containing in the aggregate prints of right thumbs, arranged in six lines and six columns ( × × = ), and another set of fourteen sheets containing the corresponding left thumbs. then, for the greater convenience of study these sheets were photographed, and enlargements upon paper to about two and a half times the natural size made from the negatives. the enlargements of the right thumb prints were reversed, in order to make them comparable on equal terms with those of the left. the sheets were then cut up into rectangles about the size of small playing-cards, each of which contained a single print, and the register number in my catalogue was entered on its back, together with the letters l. for left, or r.r. for reversed right, as the case might be. on trying to sort them according to purkenje's standards, i failed completely, and many analogous plans were attempted without success. next i endeavoured to sort the patterns into groups so that the central pattern of each group should differ by a unit of "equally discernible difference" from the central patterns of the adjacent groups, proposing to adopt those central patterns as standards of reference. after tedious re-sortings, some sixty standards were provisionally selected, and the whole laid by for a few days. on returning to the work with a fresh mind, it was painful to find how greatly my judgment had changed in the interim, and how faulty a classification that seemed tolerably good a week before, looked then. moreover, i suffered the shame and humiliation of discovering that the identity of certain duplicates had been overlooked, and that one print had been mistaken for another. repeated trials of the same kind made it certain that finality would never be reached by the path hitherto pursued. on considering the causes of these doubts and blunders, different influences were found to produce them, any one of which was sufficient by itself to give rise to serious uncertainty. a complex pattern is capable of suggesting various readings, as the figuring on a wall-paper may suggest a variety of forms and faces to those who have such fancies. the number of illusive renderings of prints taken from the same finger, is greatly increased by such trifles as the relative breadths of their respective lineations and the differences in their depths of tint. the ridges themselves are soft in substance, and of various heights, so that a small difference in the pressure applied, or in the quantity of ink used, may considerably affect the width of the lines and the darkness of portions of the print. certain ridges may thereby catch the attention at one time, though not at others, and give a bias to some false conception of the pattern. again, it seldom happens that different impressions of the same digit are printed from exactly the same part of it, consequently the portion of the pattern that supplies the dominant character will often be quite different in the two prints. hence the eye is apt to be deceived when it is guided merely by the general appearance. a third cause of error is still more serious; it is that patterns, especially those of a spiral form, may be apparently similar, yet fundamentally unlike, the unaided eye being frequently unable to analyse them and to discern real differences. besides all this, the judgment is distracted by the mere size of the pattern, which catches the attention at once, and by other secondary matters such as the number of turns in the whorled patterns, and the relative dimensions of their different parts. the first need to be satisfied, before it could become possible to base the classification upon a more sure foundation than that of general appearance, was to establish a well-defined point or points of reference in the patterns. this was done by utilising the centres of the one or two triangular plots (see plate , fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~, ~ ~) which are found in the great majority of patterns, and whose existence was pointed out by purkenje, but not their more remote cause, which is as follows: the ridges, as was shown in the diagram (plate ) of the palm of the hand, run athwart the fingers in rudely parallel lines up to the last joint, and if it were not for the finger-nail, would apparently continue parallel up to the extreme finger-tip. but the presence of the nail disturbs their parallelism and squeezes them downwards on both sides of the finger. (see fig. , ~ ~.) consequently, the ridges that run close to the tip are greatly arched, those that successively follow are gradually less arched until, in some cases, all signs of the arch disappear at about the level of the first joint (fig. , ~ ~). usually, however, this gradual transition from an arch to a straight line fails to be carried out, causing a break in the orderly sequence, and a consequent interspace (fig. , ~ ~). the topmost boundary of the interspace is formed by the lowermost arch, and its lowermost boundary by the topmost straight ridge. but an equally large number of ducts exist within the interspace, as are to be found in adjacent areas of equal size, whose mouths require to be supported and connected. this is effected by the interpolation of an independent system of ridges arranged in loops (fig. , ~ ~; also plate , fig. , _a_, _f_), or in scrolls (fig. , ~ ~; also fig. , _g_, _h_), and this interpolated system forms the "pattern." now the existence of an interspace implies the divergence of two previously adjacent ridges (fig. , ~ ~), in order to embrace it. just in front of the place where the divergence begins, and before the sweep of the pattern is reached, there are usually one or more very short cross-ridges. their effect is to complete the enclosure of the minute triangular plot in question. where there is a plot on both sides of the finger, the line that connects them (fig. , ~ ~) serves as a base line whereby the pattern may be oriented, and the position of any point roughly charted. where there is a plot on only one side of the finger (fig. , ~ ~), the pattern has almost necessarily an axis, which serves for orientation, and the pattern can still be charted, though on a different principle, by dropping a perpendicular from the plot on to the axis, in the way there shown. these plots form corner-stones to my system of outlining and subsequent classification; it is therefore extremely important that a sufficient area of the finger should be printed to include them. this can always be done by slightly _rolling_ the finger (p. ), the result being, in the language of map-makers, a cylindrical projection of the finger (see plate , fig. , _a-h_). large as these impressions look, they are of the natural size, taken from ordinary thumbs. [illustration: plate . fig. . examples of outlined patterns (the specimens are rolled impressions of natural size).] _the outlines._--the next step is to give a clear and definite shape to the pattern by drawing its outline (fig. ). take a fine pen, pencil, or paint brush, and follow in succession each of the two diverging ridges that start from either plot. the course of each ridge must be followed with scrupulous conscientiousness, marking it with a clean line as far as it can be traced. if the ridge bifurcates, always follow the branch that trends towards the middle of the pattern. if it stops short, let the outline stop short also, and recommence on a fresh ridge, choosing that which to the best of the judgment prolongs the course of the one that stopped. these outlines have an extraordinary effect in making finger markings intelligible to an untrained eye. what seemed before to be a vague and bewildering maze of lineations over which the glance wandered distractedly, seeking in vain for a point on which to fix itself, now suddenly assumes the shape of a sharply-defined figure. whatever difficulties may arise in classifying these figures, they are as nothing compared to those experienced in attempting to classify unoutlined patterns, the outlines giving a precision to their general features which was wanting before. after a pattern has been treated in this way, there is no further occasion to pore minutely into the finger print, in order to classify it correctly, for the bold firm curves of the outline are even more distinct than the largest capital letters in the title-page of a book. a fair idea of the way in which the patterns are distributed, is given by plate . eight persons were taken in the order in which they happened to present themselves, and plate shows the result. for greater clearness, colour has been employed to distinguish between the ridges that are supplied from the inner and outer sides of the hand respectively. the words right and left _must be avoided_ in speaking of patterns, for the two hands are symmetrically disposed, only in a reversed sense. the right hand does not look like a left hand, but like the reflection of a left hand in a looking-glass, and _vice versa_. the phrases we shall employ will be the _inner_ and the _outer_; or thumb-side and little-finger side (terms which were unfortunately misplaced in my memoir in the _phil. trans._ ). there need be no difficulty in remembering the meaning of these terms, if we bear in mind that the great toes are undoubtedly innermost; that if we walked on all fours as children do, and as our remote ancestors probably did, the thumbs also would be innermost, as is the case when the two hands are impressed side by side on paper. inner and outer are better than thumb-side and little-finger side, because the latter cannot be applied to the thumbs and little fingers themselves. the anatomical words radial and ulnar referring to the two bones of the fore-arm, are not in popular use, and they might be similarly inappropriate, for it would sound oddly to speak of the radial side of the radius. [illustration: plate . fig. . outlines of the patterns of the digits of eight persons, taken at random.] the two plots just described will therefore be henceforth designated as the inner and the outer plots respectively, and symbolised by the letters i and o. the system of ridges in fig. that comes from the inner side "i" are coloured blue; those from the outer "o" are coloured red. the employment of colour instead of variously stippled surfaces is of conspicuous advantage to the great majority of persons, though unhappily nearly useless to about one man in every twenty-five, who is constitutionally colour-blind. it may be convenient when marking finger prints with letters for reference, to use those that look alike, both in a direct and in a reversed aspect, as they may require to be read either way. the print is a reversed picture of the pattern upon the digit that made it. the pattern on one hand is, as already said, a reversed picture of a similar pattern as it shows on the other. in the various processes by which prints are multiplied, the patterns may be reversed and re-reversed. thus, if a finger is impressed on a lithographic stone, the impressions from that stone are reversals of the impression made by the same finger upon paper. if made on transfer paper and thence transferred to stone, there is a re-reversal. there are even more varied possibilities when photography is employed. it is worth recollecting that there are twelve capital letters in the english alphabet which, if printed in block type, are unaffected by being reversed. they are a.h.i.m.o.t.u.v.w.x.y.z. some symbols do the same, such as, * + - = :. these and the letters h.o.i.x. have the further peculiarity of appearing unaltered when upside down. _lenses._--as a rule, only a small magnifying power is needed for drawing outlines, sufficient to allow the eye to be brought within six inches of the paper, for it is only at that short distance that the _minutiæ_ of a full-sized finger print begin to be clearly discerned. persons with normal sight, during their childhood and boy- or girlhood, are able to read as closely as this without using a lens, the range in adjustment of the focus of the eye being then large. but as age advances the range contracts, and an elderly person with otherwise normal eyesight requires glasses to read a book even at twelve inches from his eye. i now require much optical aid; when reading a book, spectacles of -inch focus are necessary; and when studying a finger print, -inch eye-glasses in addition, the double power enabling me to see clearly at a distance of only six inches. perhaps the most convenient focus for a lens in ordinary use is inches. it should be mounted at the end of a long arm that can easily be pushed in any direction, sideways, backwards, forwards, and up or down. it is undesirable to use a higher power than this unless it is necessary, because the field of view becomes narrowed to an inconvenient degree, and the nearer the head is to the paper, the darker is the shadow that it casts; there is also insufficient room for the use of a pencil. every now and then a closer inspection is wanted; for which purpose a doublet of / -inch focus, standing on three slim legs, answers well. for studying the markings on the fingers themselves, a small folding lens, sold at opticians' shops under the name of a "linen tester," is very convenient. it is so called because it was originally constructed for the purpose of counting the number of threads in a given space, in a sample of linen. it is equally well adapted for counting the number of ridges in a given space. * * * * * whoever desires to occupy himself with finger prints, ought to give much time and practice to drawing outlines of different impressions of the same digits. his own ten fingers, and those of a few friends, will furnish the necessary variety of material on which to work. he should not rest satisfied until he has gained an assurance that all patterns possess definite figures, which may be latent but are potentially present, and that the ridges form something more than a nondescript congeries of ramifications and twists. he should continue to practise until he finds that the same ridges have been so nearly followed in duplicate impressions, that even in difficult cases his work will rarely vary more than a single ridge-interval. when the triangular plot happens not to be visible, owing to the print failing to include it, which is often the case when the finger is not rolled, as is well shown in the prints of my own ten digits on the title-page, the trend of the ridges so far as they are seen, usually enables a practised eye to roughly estimate its true position. by means of this guidance an approximate, but fairly correct, outline can be drawn. when the habit of judging patterns by their outlines has become familiar, the eye will trace them for itself without caring to draw them, and will prefer an unoutlined pattern to work upon, but even then it is essential now and then to follow the outline with a fine point, say that of a penknife or a dry pen. in selecting standard forms of patterns for the convenience of description, we must be content to disregard a great many of the more obvious characteristics. for instance, the size of generally similar patterns in fig. will be found to vary greatly, but the words large, medium, or small may be applied to any pattern, so there is no necessity to draw a standard outline for each size. similarly as regards the inwards or outwards slope of patterns, it is needless to print here a separate standard outline for either slope, and equally unnecessary to print outlines in duplicate, with reversed titles, for the right and left hands respectively. the phrase "a simple spiral" conveys a well-defined general idea, but there are four concrete forms of it (see bottom row of plate , fig. , _oj_, _jo_, _ij_, _ji_) which admit of being verbally distinguished. again the internal proportions of any pattern, say those of simple spirals, may vary greatly without affecting the fact of their being simple spirals. they may be wide or narrow at their mouths, they may be twisted up into a point (plate , fig. , ~ ~), or they may run in broad curls of uniform width (fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~). perhaps the best general rule in selecting standard outlines, is to limit them to such as cannot be turned into any other by viewing them in an altered aspect, as upside down or from the back, or by magnifying or deforming them, whether it be through stretching, shrinking, or puckering any part of them. subject to this general rule and to further and more particular descriptions, the sets (plates and , figs. , , ) will be found to give considerable help in naming the usual patterns. [illustration: plate . fig. . arches. fig. . loops.] [illustration: plate . fig. . whorls. cores to loops. fig. . rods:--their envelopes are indicated by dots. staples:--their envelopes are indicated by dots. envelopes whether to rods or staples:--here staples only are dotted. fig. . cores to whorls.] it will be observed that they are grouped under the three principal heads of arches, loops, and whorls, and that under each of these heads some analogous patterns as ~ ~, ~ ~, ~ ~, ~ ~, etc., are introduced and underlined with the word "see" so and so, and thus noted as really belonging to one of the other heads. this is done to indicate the character of the transitional cases that unite respectively the arches with the loops, the arches with the whorls, and the loops with the whorls. more will follow in respect to these. the "tented arch" (~ ~) is extremely rare on the thumb; i do not remember ever to have seen it there, consequently it did not appear in the plate of patterns in the _phil. trans._ which referred to thumbs. on the other hand, the "banded duplex spiral" (~ ~) is common in the thumb, but rare elsewhere. there are some compound patterns, especially the "spiral in loop" (~ ~) and the "circlet in loop" (~ ~), which are as much loops as whorls; but are reckoned as whorls. the "twinned loop" (~ ~) is of more frequent occurrence than would be supposed from the examination of _dabbed_ impressions, as the only part of the outer loop then in view resembles outside arches; it is due to a double separation of the ridges (plate , fig. ), and a consequent double interspace. the "crested loop" (~ ~) may sometimes be regarded as an incipient form of a "duplex spiral" (~ ~). the reader may also refer to plate , which contains what is there called the c set of standard patterns. they were arranged and used for a special purpose, as described in chapter xi. they refer to impressions of the right hand. as a variety of cores, differing in shape and size, may be found within each of the outlines, it is advisable to describe them separately. plate , fig. shows a series of the cores of loops, in which the innermost lineations may be either straight or curved back; in the one case they are here called rods (~ ~ to ~ ~); in the other (~ ~ to ~ ~), staples. the first of the ridges that envelops the core, whether the core be a rod, many rods, or a staple, is also shown and named (~ ~ to ~ ~). none of the descriptions are intended to apply to more than the _very end_ of the core, say, from the tip downwards to a distance equal to two average ridge-intervals in length. if more of the core be taken into account, the many varieties in their lower parts begin to make description confusing. in respect to the "parted" staples and envelopes, and those that are single-eyed, the description may further mention the side on which the parting or the eye occurs, whether it be the inner or the outer. at the bottom of fig. , ~ - ~, is given a series of rings, spirals, and plaits, in which nearly all the clearly distinguishable varieties are included, no regard being paid to the direction of the twist or to the number of turns. ~ ~ is a set of concentric circles, ~ ~ of ellipses: they are rarely so in a strict sense throughout the pattern, usually breaking away into a more or less spiriform arrangement as in ~ ~. a curious optical effect is connected with the circular forms, which becomes almost annoying when many specimens are examined in succession. they seem to be cones standing bodily out from the paper. this singular appearance becomes still more marked when they are viewed with only one eye; no stereoscopic guidance then correcting the illusion of their being contour lines. another curious effect is seen in ~ ~, which has the appearance of a plait or overlap; two systems of ridges that roll together, end bluntly, the end of the one system running right into a hollow curve of the other, and there stopping short; it seems, at the first glance, to run beneath it, as if it were a plait. this mode of ending forms a singular contrast to that shown in ~ ~ and ~ ~, where the ridges twist themselves into a point. ~ ~ is a deep spiral, sometimes having a large core filled with upright and nearly parallel lines; occasionally they are bulbous, and resemble the commoner "monkey" type, see ~ ~. when the direction of twist is described, the language must be unambiguous: the following are the rules i adopt. the course of the ridge is always followed _towards_ the _centre_ of the pattern, and not away from it. again, the direction of its course when so followed is specified at the place where it attains its _highest_ point, or that nearest to the finger-tip; its course at that point must needs be horizontal, and therefore directed either towards the inner or the outer side. the amount of twist has a strong tendency to coincide with either one, two, three, four, or more half-turns, and not to stop short in intermediate positions. here are indications of some unknown fundamental law, analogous apparently to that which causes loops to be by far the commonest pattern. * * * * * the classification into arches, loops, and whorls is based on the degree of curvature of the ridges, and enables almost any pattern to be sorted under one or other of those three heads. there are a few ambiguous patterns, and others which are nondescript, but the former are uncommon and the latter rare; as these exceptions give little real inconvenience, the classification works easily and well. arches are formed when the ridges run from one side to the other of the bulb of the digit without making any backward turn or twist. loops, when there is a single backward turn, but no twist. whorls, when there is a turn through at least one complete circle; they are also considered to include all duplex spirals. [illustration: plate . fig. . transitional patterns--arches and loops (enlarged three times).] [illustration: plate . fig. . transitional patterns--loops and whorls (enlarged three times).] the chief theoretical objection to this threefold system of classification lies in the existence of certain compound patterns, by far the most common of which are whorls enclosed within loops (plates , , fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~, ~ ~, and fig. , ~ - ~). they are as much loops as whorls, and properly ought to be relegated to a fourth class. i have not done so, but called them whorls, for a practical reason which is cogent. in an imperfect impression, such as is made by merely dabbing the inked finger upon paper, the enveloping loop is often too incompletely printed to enable its existence to be surely ascertained, especially when the enclosed whorl is so large (fig. , ~ ~) that there are only one or two enveloping ridges to represent the loop. on the other hand, the whorled character of the core can hardly fail to be recognised. the practical difficulties lie almost wholly in rightly classifying a few transitional forms, diagrammatically and roughly expressed in fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~, and fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~, ~ ~, with the words "see" so and so written below, and of which actual examples are given on an enlarged scale in plates and , figs. and . here fig. , _a_ is an undoubted arch, and _c_ an undoubted nascent loop; but _b_ is transitional between them, though nearer to a loop than an arch, _d_ may be thought transitional in the same way, but it has an incipient curl which becomes marked in _e_, while it has grown into a decided whorl in _f_; _d_ should also be compared with _j_, which is in some sense a stage towards _k_. _g_ is a nascent tented-arch, fully developed in _i_, where the pattern as a whole has a slight slope, but is otherwise fairly symmetrical. in _h_ there is some want of symmetry, and a tendency to the formation of a loop on the right side (refer back to plate , fig. , ~ ~, and fig. , ~ ~); it is a transitional case between a tented arch and a loop, with most resemblance to the latter. plate , fig. illustrates eyed patterns; here _l_ and _m_ are parts of decided loops; _p_, _q_, and _r_ are decided whorls, but _n_ is transitional, inclining towards a loop, and _o_ is transitional, inclining towards a whorl. _s_ is a nascent form of an invaded loop, and is nearly related to _l_; _t_ and _u_ are decidedly invaded loops. the arch-loop-whorl, or, more briefly, the a. l. w. system of classification, while in some degree artificial, is very serviceable for preliminary statistics, such as are needed to obtain a broad view of the distribution of the various patterns. a minute subdivision under numerous heads would necessitate a proportional and somewhat overwhelming amount of statistical labour. fifty-four different standard varieties are by no means an extravagant number, but to treat fifty-four as thoroughly as three would require eighteen times as much material and labour. effort is economised by obtaining broad results from a discussion of the a. l. w. classes, afterwards verifying or extending them by special inquiries into a few of the further subdivisions. [illustration: plate . fig. . origin of supply of ridges to patterns of prints of right hand. fig. . ambiguities in prints of the minutiæ.] the divergent ridges that bound any simple pattern admit of nine, and only nine, distinct variations in the first part of their course. the bounding ridge that has attained the summit of any such pattern must have arrived either from the inner plot (i), the outer plot (o), or from both. similarly as regards the bounding ridge that lies at the lowest point of the pattern. any one of the three former events may occur in connection with any of the three latter events, so they afford in all × , or nine possible combinations. it is convenient to distinguish them by easily intelligible symbols. thus, let _i_ signify a bounding line which starts from the point i, whether it proceeds to the summit or to the base of the pattern; let _o_ be a line that similarly proceeds from o, and let _u_ be a line that unites the two plots i and o, either by summit or by base. again, let two symbols be used, of which the first shall always refer to the summit, and the second to the base of the pattern. then the nine possible cases are--_uu_, _ui_, _uo_; _iu_, _ii_, _io_; _ou_, _oi_, _oo_. the case of the arches is peculiar, but they may be fairly classed under the symbol _uu_. this easy method of classification has much power. for example, the four possible kinds of simple spirals (see the st, nd, and the th and th diagrams in the lowest row of plate , fig. ) are wholly determined by the letters _oj_, _jo_, _ij_, _ji_ respectively. the two forms of duplex spirals are similarly determined by _oi_ and _io_ (see th and th diagrams in the upper row of fig. ), the two slopes of loops by _oo_ and _ii_ ( rd and th in the lower row). it also shows very distinctly the sources whence the streams of ridges proceed that feed the pattern, which itself affords another basis for classification. the resource against uncertainty in respect to ambiguous or difficult patterns is to compile a dictionary of them, with the heads under which it is advisable that they should severally be classed. it would load these pages too heavily to give such a dictionary here. moreover, it ought to be revised by many experienced eyes, and the time is hardly ripe for this; when it is, it would be no difficult task, out of the large number of prints of separate fingers which for instance i possess (some , ), to make an adequate selection, to enlarge them photographically, and finally to print the results in pairs, the one untouched, the other outlined and classified. it may be asked why ridges are followed and not furrows, the furrow being the real boundary between two systems. the reply is, that the ridges are the easiest to trace; and, as the error through following the ridges cannot exceed one-half of a ridge-interval, i have been content to disregard it. i began by tracing furrows, but preferred the ridges after trial. _measurements._--it has been already shown that when both plots are present (plate , fig. , ~ ~), they form the termini of a base line, from which any part of the pattern may be triangulated, as surveyors would say. also, that when only one plot exists (~ ~), and the pattern has an axis (which it necessarily has in all ordinary _ii_ and _oo_ cases), a perpendicular can be let fall upon that axis, whose intersection with it will serve as a second point of reference. but our methods must not be too refined. the centres of the plots are not determinable with real exactness, and repeated prints from so soft a substance as flesh are often somewhat dissimilar, the one being more or less broadened out than the other, owing to unequal pressure. it is therefore well to use such other more convenient points of reference as the particular pattern may present. in loops, the intersection of the axis with the summit of the innermost bend, whether it be a staple or the envelope to a rod (fig. , second and third rows of diagrams), is a well-defined position. in spirals, the centre of the pattern is fairly well defined; also a perpendicular erected from the middle of the base to the outline above and below (fig. , ~ ~) is precise and convenient. in prints of adults, measurements may be made in absolute units of length, as in fractions of an inch, or else in millimetres. an average ridge-interval makes, however, a better unit, being independent of growth; it is strictly necessary to adopt it in prints made by children, if present measurements are hereafter to be compared with future ones. the simplest plan of determining and employing this unit is to count the number of ridges to the nearest half-ridge, within the space of one-tenth of an inch, measured along the axis of the finger at and about the point where it cuts the _summit_ of the outline; then, having already prepared scales suitable for the various likely numbers, to make the measurements with the appropriate scale. thus, if five ridges were crossed by the axis at that part, in the space of one-tenth of an inch, each unit of the scale to be used would be one-fiftieth of an inch; if there were four ridges, each unit of the scale would be one-fortieth of an inch; if six ridges one-sixtieth, and so forth. there is no theoretical or practical difficulty, only rough indications being required. it is unnecessary to describe in detail how the bearings of any point may be expressed after the fashion of compass bearings, the direction i-o taking the place of east-west, the uppermost direction that of north, and the lowermost of south. little more is practically wanted than to be able to describe roughly the position of some remarkable feature in the print, as of an island or an enclosure. a ridge that is characterised by these or any other marked peculiarity is easily identified by the above means, and it thereupon serves as an exact basis for the description of other features. _purkenje's "commentatio."_ reference has already been made to purkenje, who has the honour of being the person who first described the inner scrolls (as distinguished from the outlines of the patterns) formed by the ridges. he did so in a university thesis delivered at breslau in , entitled _commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei_ (a physiological examination of the visual organ and of the cutaneous system). the thesis is an ill-printed small vo pamphlet of fifty-eight pages, written in a form of latin that is difficult to translate accurately into free english. it is, however, of great historical interest and reputation, having been referred to by nearly all subsequent writers, some of whom there is reason to suspect never saw it, but contented themselves with quoting a very small portion at second-hand. no copy of the pamphlet existed in any public medical library in england, nor in any private one so far as i could learn; neither could i get a sight of it at some important continental libraries. one copy was known of it in america. the very zealous librarian of the royal college of surgeons was so good as to take much pains at my instance, to procure one: his zeal was happily and unexpectedly rewarded by success, and the copy is now securely lodged in the library of the college. _the title_ commentatio de examine physiologico organi visus et systematis cutanei quam pro loco in gratioso medicorum ordine rite obtinendo die dec. , . h.x.l.c. publice defendit johannes evangelista purkenje, med. doctor, phys. et path. professor publicus ordinarius des. assumto socio guilielmo kraus medicinae studioso. _translation_, p. . "our attention is next engaged by the wonderful arrangement and curving of the minute furrows connected with the organ of touch[ ] on the inner surfaces of the hand and foot, especially on the last phalanx of each finger. some general account of them is always to be found in every manual of physiology and anatomy, but in an organ of such importance as the human hand, used as it is for very varied movements, and especially serviceable to the sense of touch, no research, however minute, can fail in yielding some gratifying addition to our knowledge of that organ. after numberless observations, i have thus far met with nine principal varieties of curvature according to which the tactile furrows are disposed upon the inner surface of the last phalanx of the fingers. i will describe them concisely, and refer to the diagrams for further explanation (see plate , fig. ). . _transverse flexures._--the minute furrows starting from the bend of the joint, run from one side of the phalanx to the other; at first transversely in nearly straight lines, then by degrees they become more and more curved towards the middle, until at last they are bent into arches that are almost concentric with the circumference of the finger. . _central longitudinal stria._--this configuration is nearly the same as in , the only difference being that a perpendicular stria is enclosed within the transverse furrows, as if it were a nucleus. . _oblique stria._--a solitary line runs from one or other of the two sides of the finger, passing obliquely between the transverse curves in , and ending near the middle. . _oblique sinus._--if this oblique line recurves towards the side from which it started, and is accompanied by several others, all recurved in the same way, the result is an oblique sinus, more or less upright, or horizontal, as the case may be. a junction at its base, of minute lines proceeding from either of its sides, forms a triangle. this distribution of the furrows, in which an oblique sinus is found, is by far the most common, and it may be considered as a special characteristic of man; the furrows that are packed in longitudinal rows are, on the other hand, peculiar to monkeys. the vertex of the oblique sinus is generally inclined towards the radial side of the hand, but it must be observed that the contrary is more frequently the case in the fore-finger, the vertex there tending towards the ulnar side. scarcely any other configuration is to be found on the toes. the ring finger, too, is often marked with one of the more intricate kinds of pattern, while the remaining fingers have either the oblique sinus or one of the other simpler forms. [illustration: plate . fig. . the standard patterns of purkenje.] . _almond._--here the oblique sinus, as already described, encloses an almond-shaped figure, blunt above, pointed below, and formed of concentric furrows. . _spiral._--when the transverse flexures described in do not pass gradually from straight lines into curves, but assume that form suddenly with a more rapid divergence, a semicircular space is necessarily created, which stands upon the straight and horizontal lines below, as it were upon a base. this space is filled by a spiral either of a simple or composite form. the term 'simple' spiral is to be understood in the usual geometric sense. i call the spiral 'composite' when it is made up of several lines proceeding from the same centre, or of lines branching at intervals and twisted upon themselves. at either side, where the spiral is contiguous to the place at which the straight and curved lines begin to diverge, in order to enclose it, two triangles are formed, just like the single one that is formed at the side of the oblique sinus. . _ellipse_, or _elliptical whorl_.--the semicircular space described in is here filled with concentric ellipses enclosing a short single line in their middle. . _circle_, or _circular whorl_.--here a single point takes the place of the short line mentioned in . it is surrounded by a number of concentric circles reaching to the ridges that bound the semicircular space. . _double whorl._--one portion of the transverse lines runs forward with a bend and recurves upon itself with a half turn, and is embraced by another portion which proceeds from the other side in the same way. this produces a doubly twisted figure which is rarely met with except on the thumb, fore, and ring fingers. the ends of the curved portions may be variously inclined; they may be nearly perpendicular, of various degrees of obliquity, or nearly horizontal. in all of the forms , , , and , triangles may be seen at the points where the divergence begins between the transverse and the arched lines, and at both sides. on the remaining phalanges, the transverse lines proceed diagonally, and are straight or only slightly curved." (he then proceeds to speak of the palm of the hand in men and in monkeys.) chapter vi persistence the evidence that the minutiæ persist throughout life is derived from the scrutiny and comparison of various duplicate impressions, one of each pair having been made many years ago, the other recently. those which i have studied more or less exhaustively are derived from the digits of fifteen different persons. in some cases repeated impressions of one finger only were available; in most cases of two fingers; in some of an entire hand. altogether the whole or part of repeated impressions of between twenty and thirty different digits have been studied. i am indebted to sir w. j. herschel for almost all these valuable data, without which it would have been impossible to carry on the inquiry. the only other prints are those of sir w. g----, who, from curiosity, took impressions of his own fingers in sealing-wax in , and fortunately happened to preserve them. he was good enough to make others for me last year, from which photographic prints were made. the following table gives an analysis of the above data. it would be well worth while to hunt up and take the present finger prints of such of the hindoos as may now be alive, whose impressions were taken in india by sir w. j. herschel, and are still preserved. many years must elapse before my own large collection of finger prints will be available for the purpose of testing persistence during long periods. the pattern in every distinct finger print, even though it be only a dabbed impression, contains on a rough average thirty-five different points of reference, in addition to its general peculiarities of outline and core. they consist of forkings, beginnings or ends of ridges, islands, and enclosures. these minute details are by no means peculiar to the pattern itself, but are distributed with almost equal abundance throughout the whole palmar surface. in order to make an exhaustive comparison of two impressions they ought to be photographically enlarged to a size not smaller than those shown in plate . two negatives of impressions can thus be taken side by side on an ordinary quarter-plate, and any number of photographic prints made from them; but, for still more comfortable working, a further enlargement is desirable, say by the prism, p. . some of the prints may be made on ferro-prussiate paper, as already mentioned pp. , ; they are more convenient by far than prints made by the silver or by the platinum process. having placed the enlarged prints side by side, two or three conspicuous and convenient points of reference, whether islands, enclosures, or particularly distinct bifurcations, should be identified and marked. by their help, the position of the prints should be readjusted, so that they shall be oriented exactly alike. from each point of reference, in succession, the spines of the ridges are then to be followed with a fine pencil, in the two prints alternately, neatly marking each new point of comparison with a numeral in coloured ink (plate ). when both of the prints are good and clear, this is rapidly done; wherever the impressions are faulty, there may be many ambiguities requiring patience to unravel. at first i was timid, and proceeded too hesitatingly when one of the impressions was indistinct, making short alternate traces. afterwards on gaining confidence, i traced boldly, starting from any well-defined point of reference and not stopping until there were reasonable grounds for hesitation, and found it easy in this way to trace the unions between opposite and incompletely printed ends of ridges, and to disentangle many bad impressions. an exact correspondence between the _details_ of two minutiæ is of secondary importance. thus, the commonest point of reference is a bifurcation; now the neck or point of divergence of a new ridge is apt to be a little low, and sometimes fails to take the ink; hence a new ridge may appear in one of the prints to have an independent origin, and in the other to be a branch. the _apparent_ origin is therefore of little importance, the main fact to be attended to is that a new ridge comes into existence at a particular point; _how_ it came into existence is a secondary matter. similarly, an apparently broken ridge may in reality be due to an imperfectly printed enclosure; and an island in one print may appear as part of an enclosure in the other. moreover, this variation in details may be the effect not only of imperfect inking or printing, but of disintegration due to old age, which renders the impressions of the ridges ragged and broken, as in my own finger prints on the title-page. plate , fig. explains the nature of the apparent discrepancies better than a verbal description. in _a_ a new ridge appears to be suddenly intruded between two adjacent ones, which have separated to make room for it; but a second print, taken from the same finger, may have the appearance of either _b_ or _c_, showing that the new ridge is in reality a fork of one or other of them, the low connecting neck having failed to leave an impression. the second line of examples shows how an enclosure which is clearly defined in _d_ may give rise to the appearance of broken continuity shown in _e_, and how a distinct island _f_ in one of the prints may be the remnant of an enclosure which is shown in the other. these remarks are offered as a caution against attaching undue importance to disaccord in the details of the minutiæ that are found in the same place in different prints. usually, however, the distinction between a fork and the beginning of a new ridge is clear enough; the islands and enclosures are also mostly well marked. [illustration: plate . fig. . v. h. h-d æt. - / in , and again as a boy in nov. .] plate gives impressions taken from the fingers of a child of - / years in , and again in , when a boy of . they are enlarged photographically to the same size, and are therefore on different scales. the impressions from the baby-hand are not sharp, but sufficiently distinct for comparison. every bifurcation, and beginning or ending of a ridge, common to the two impressions, is marked with a numeral in blue ink. there is only one island in the present instance, and that is in the upper pair of prints; it is clearly seen in the right hand print, lying to the left of the inscribed number , but the badness of the left hand print makes it hardly decipherable, so it is not numbered. there are a total of twenty-six good points of comparison common to the upper pair of prints; there are forty-three points in the lower pair, forty-two of which appear in both, leaving a single point of disagreement; it is marked a on the fifth ridge counting from the top. here a bifurcated ridge in the baby is filled up in the boy. this one exception, small though it be, is in my experience unique. the total result of the two pairs of prints is to afford sixty-eight successes and one failure. the student will find it well worth his while to study these and the following prints step by step, to satisfy himself of the extraordinarily exact coincidences between the two members of either of the pairs. of course the patterns generally must be the same, if the ridges composing them are exactly alike, and the most cursory glance shows them to be so. [illustration: plate . fig. .] plate , fig. contains rather less than a quarter of each of eight pairs that were published in the _phil. trans._ memoir above alluded to. they were there enlarged photographically to twice their natural size, which was hardly enough, as it did not allow sufficient space for inserting the necessary reference numbers. consequently they have been again considerably enlarged, so much so that it is impossible to put more than a portion of each on the page. however, what is given suffices. the omitted portions may be studied in the memoir. the cases of ~ ~ and ~ ~ are prints of different fingers of the same individual, first as a child years old, and then as a boy of . they have been enlarged on the same scale but not to the same size; so the print of the child includes a larger proportion of the original impression than that of the boy. it is therefore only a part of the child's print which is comparable with that of the boy. the remaining six cases refer to four different men, belonging to three quite different families, although their surnames happen to have the same initial, h. they were adults when the first print was made, and from to years older on the second occasion. there is an exact agreement throughout between the two members of each of the eight several couplets. in the pair . a. e. h. hl., there is an interesting dot at the point ~ ~ (being an island it deserved to have had two numbers, one for the beginning and one for the end). small as it is, it persists; its growth in size corresponding to the growth of the child in stature. [illustration: plate . fig. . right forefinger of sir w. j. h. in and in .] fig. . distribution of the periods of life, to which the evidence of persistency refers. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | age | | age | ages, -- years. | |persons. | at |interval| at | | | |first| in |second| | | |print| years |print | | |------------------------------------|----|----|----|----|----|----|----| | h. h--d| | | |----+-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | a. h--l| | | | ---+--- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | j. h--l| | | | --+----+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | e. h--l| | | | |----+-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |w.j. h--l| | | | | | --+----+----+-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |r.f. h--n| | | | | | --+----+----+--- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |n.h. t--n| | | | | | -+----+----+-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |f.h. h--t| | | | | | -+----+----+- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | w. g--e| | | | | | | | | |----+----| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ for the sake of those who are deficient in the colour sense and therefore hardly able, if at all, to distinguish even the blue numerals in figs. , , i give an eleventh example, plate , fig. , printed all in black. the numerals are here very legible, but space for their insertion had to be obtained by sacrificing some of the lineations. it is the right fore-finger of sir w. herschel and has been already published twice; first in the account of my lecture at the royal institution, and secondly, in its present conspicuous form, in my paper in the _nineteenth century_. the number of years that elapsed between the two impressions is thirty-one, and the prints contain twenty-four points of comparison, all of which will be seen to agree. i also possess a later print than this, taken in from the same finger, which tells the same tale. the final result of the prints in these pages is that they give photographic enlargements of the whole or portions of eleven couplets belonging to six different persons, who are members of five unrelated families, and which contain between them points of comparison, of which only one failed. adding the portions of the prints that are omitted here, but which will be found in the _phil. trans._, the material that i have thus far published contains points of comparison, of which one failed. the details are given in the annexed table:-- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | order | initials. |digit | age |dates of| years | total points | | in | | of | at |the two |elapsed| of agreement in | | the | |right | date |prints. |between|-------------------| | figs. | |hand. | of |--------|the two|figs. |figs. , | | | | |first | |prints.|and . | , and in| | | | |print.| st nd| | |ph. trans.| |-------|------------|------|------|--------|-------|--------|----------| |fig. | | | | | | | | | . |v. h. hd. |fore | - / | - | | | | | . |v. h. hd. |ring | - / | - | | | | | | | | | | | | | |fig. | | | | | | | | | . |a. e. h. hl.|fore | | - | | | | | . |a. e. h. hl.|ring | | - | | | | | . |n. h. tn. |fore | | - | | | | | . |n. h. tn. |middle| | - | | | | | . |f. k. ht. |fore | | - | | | | | . |r. f. hn. |middle| | - | | | | | . |w. j. hl. |thumb | | - | | | | | . |w. j. hl. |ring | | - | | | | | | | | | | | | | |fig. | | | | | | | | | . |w. j. hl. |fore | | - | | | | |---------------------------------------------------|--------|----------| | total points of agreement | | | | do. of disagreement | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ it is difficult to give a just estimate of the number of points of comparison that i have studied in other couplets of prints, because they were not examined as exhaustively as in these. there were no less than one hundred and eleven of them in the ball of the thumb of the child v. h. hd., besides twenty-five in the imperfect prints of his middle and little fingers; these alone raise the total of to . i must on the whole have looked for more than points of comparison, and have found agreement in every single case that was examined, except the one already mentioned in fig. , of a ridge that was split in the child, but had closed up some few years later. the prints in the two plates cover the intervals from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to early manhood, from manhood to about the age of , and another set--that of sir w. g.--covers the interval from to . this is clearly expressed by the diagram (plate , fig. ). as there is no sign, except in one case, of change during any one of these four intervals, which together almost wholly cover the ordinary life of man, we are justified in inferring that between birth and death there is absolutely no change in, say, out of of the numerous characteristics in the markings of the fingers of the same person, such as can be impressed by them whenever it is desirable to do so. neither can there be any change after death, up to the time when the skin perishes through decomposition; for example, the marks on the fingers of many egyptian mummies, and on the paws of stuffed monkeys, still remain legible. very good evidence and careful inquiry is thus seen to justify the popular idea of the persistence of finger markings, that has hitherto been too rashly jumped at, and which wrongly ascribed the persistence to the general appearance of the pattern, rather than to the minutiæ it contains. there appear to be no external bodily characteristics, other than deep scars and tattoo marks, comparable in their persistence to these markings, whether they be on the finger, on other parts of the palmar surface of the hand, or on the sole of the foot. at the same time they are out of all proportion more numerous than any other measurable features; about thirty-five of them are situated on the bulb of each of the ten digits, in addition to more than on the ball of the thumb, which has not one-fifth of the superficies of the rest of the palmar surface. the total number of points suitable for comparison on the two hands must therefore be not less than one thousand and nearer to two; an estimate which i verified by a rough count on my own hand; similarly in respect to the feet. the dimensions of the limbs and body alter in the course of growth and decay; the colour, quantity, and quality of the hair, the tint and quality of the skin, the number and set of the teeth, the expression of the features, the gestures, the handwriting, even the eye-colour, change after many years. there seems no persistence in the visible parts of the body, except in these minute and hitherto too much disregarded ridges. it must be emphasised that it is in the minutiæ, and _not_ in the measured dimensions of any portion of the pattern, that this remarkable persistence is observed, not even if the measurements be made in units of a ridge-interval. the pattern grows simultaneously with the finger, and its proportions vary with its fatness, leanness, usage, gouty deformation, or age. but, though the pattern as a whole may become considerably altered in length or breadth, the number of ridges, their embranchments, and other minutiæ remain unchanged. so it is with the pattern on a piece of lace. the piece as a whole may be stretched in this way, or shrunk in that, and its outline altogether altered; nevertheless every one of the component threads, and every knot in every thread, can easily be traced and identified in both. therefore, in speaking of the persistence of the marks on the finger, the phrase must be taken to apply principally to the minutiæ, and to the general character of the pattern; not to the measure of its length, breadth, or other diameter; these being no more constant than the stature, or any other of the ordinary anthropometric data. chapter vii evidential value the object of this chapter is to give an approximate numerical idea of the value of finger prints as a means of personal identification. though the estimates that will be made are professedly and obviously far below the truth, they are amply sufficient to prove that the evidence afforded by finger prints may be trusted in a most remarkable degree. our problem is this: given two finger prints, which are alike in their minutiæ, what is the chance that they were made by different persons? the first attempt at comparing two finger prints would be directed to a rough general examination of their respective patterns. if they do not agree in being arches, loops, or whorls, there can be no doubt that the prints are those of different fingers, neither can there be doubt when they are distinct forms of the same general class. but to agree thus far goes only a short way towards establishing identity, for the number of patterns that are promptly distinguishable from one another is not large. my earlier inquiries showed this, when endeavouring to sort the prints of thumbs into groups that differed each from the rest by an "equally discernible" interval. while the attempt, as already mentioned, was not successful in its main object, it showed that nearly all the collection could be sorted into groups, in each of which the prints had a fairly near resemblance. moreover, twelve or fifteen of the groups referred to different varieties of the loop; and as two-thirds of all the prints are loops, two-thirds of the specimens fell into twelve or fifteen groups. the chance that an unseen pattern is some particular variety of loop, is therefore compounded of to against its being a loop at all, and of to or , as the case may be, against its being the specified kind of loop. this makes an adverse chance of only to , or to , say as to , or as to . this very rude calculation suffices to show that on the average, no great reliance can be placed on a general resemblance in the appearance of two finger prints, as a proof that they were made by the same finger, though the obvious disagreement of two prints is conclusive evidence that they were made by different fingers. when we proceed to a much more careful comparison, and collate successively the numerous minutiæ, their coincidence throughout would be an evidence of identity, whose value we will now try to appraise. let us first consider the question, how far may the minutiæ, or groups of them, be treated as _independent_ variables? suppose that a tiny square of paper of only one average ridge-interval in the side, be cut out and dropped at random on a finger print; it will mask from view a minute portion of one, or possibly of two ridges. there can be little doubt that what was hidden could be correctly interpolated by simply joining the ends of the ridge or ridges that were interrupted. it is true, the paper might possibly have fallen exactly upon, and hidden, a minute island or enclosure, and that our reconstruction would have failed in consequence, but such an accident is improbable in a high degree, and may be almost ignored. repeating the process with a much larger square of paper, say of twelve ridge-intervals in the side, the improbability of correctly reconstructing the masked portion will have immensely increased. the number of ridges that enter the square on any one side will perhaps, as often as not, differ from the number which emerge from the opposite side; and when they are the same, it does not at all follow that they would be continuous each to each, for in so large a space forks and junctions are sure to occur between some, and it is impossible to know which, of the ridges. consequently, there must exist a certain size of square with more than one and less than twelve ridge-intervals in the side, which will mask so much of the print, that it will be an even chance whether the hidden portion can, on the average, be rightly reconstructed or not. the size of that square must now be considered. if the reader will refer to plate , in which there are eight much enlarged photographs of portions of different finger prints, he will observe that the length of each of the portions exceeds the breadth in the proportion of to . consequently, by drawing one line down the middle and two lines across, each portion may be divided into six squares. moreover, it will be noticed that the side of each of these squares has a length of about six ridge-intervals. i cut out squares of paper of this size, and throwing one of them at random on any one of the eight portions, succeeded almost as frequently as not in drawing lines on its back which comparison afterwards showed to have followed the true course of the ridges. the provisional estimate that a length of six ridge-intervals approximated to but exceeded that of the side of the desired square, proved to be correct by the following more exact observations, and by three different methods. i. the first set of tests to verify this estimate were made upon photographic enlargements of various thumb prints, to double their natural size. a six-ridge-interval square of paper was damped and laid at random on the print, the core of the pattern, which was too complex in many cases to serve as an average test, being alone avoided. the prints being on ordinary albuminised paper, which is slightly adherent when moistened, the patch stuck temporarily wherever it was placed and pressed down. next, a sheet of tracing-paper, which we will call no. , was laid over all, and the margin of the square patch was traced upon it, together with the course of the surrounding ridges up to that margin. then i interpolated on the tracing-paper what seemed to be the most likely course of those ridges which were hidden by the square. no. was then removed, and a second sheet, no. , was laid on, and the margin of the patch was outlined on it as before, together with the ridges leading up to it. next, a corner only of no. was raised, the square patch was whisked away from underneath, the corner was replaced, the sheet was flattened down, and the actual courses of the ridges within the already marked outline were traced in. thus there were two tracings of the margin of the square, of which no. contained the ridges as i had interpolated them, no. as they really were, and it was easy to compare the two. the results are given in the first column of the following table:-- interpolation of ridges in a six-ridge-interval square. +---------------------------------------------------------+ |result.| double |six-fold scale| twenty-fold |total.| | |enlargements.| with prism. | scale with | | | | | |chequer-work.| | |-------|-------------|--------------|-------------|------| |right | | | | | |wrong | | | | | |-------|-------------|--------------|-------------|------| |total | | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------+ ii. in the second method the tracing-papers were discarded, and the prism of a camera lucida used. it threw an image three times the size of the photo-enlargement, upon a card, and there it was traced. the same general principle was adopted as in the first method, but the results being on a larger scale, and drawn on stout paper, were more satisfactory and convenient. they are given in the second column of the table. in this and the foregoing methods two different portions of the same print were sometimes dealt with, for it was a little more convenient and seemed as good a way of obtaining average results as that of always using portions of different finger prints. the total number of fifty-two trials, by one or other of the two methods, were made from about forty different prints. (i am not sure of the exact number.) the results in each of the two methods were sometimes quite right, sometimes quite wrong, sometimes neither one nor the other. the latter depended on the individual judgment as to which class it belonged, and might be battled over with more or less show of reason by advocates on opposite sides. equally dividing these intermediate cases between "right" and "wrong," the results were obtained as shown. in one, and only one, of the cases, the most reasonable interpretation had not been given, and the result had been wrong when it ought to have been right. the purely personal error was therefore disregarded, and the result entered as "right." iii. a third attempt was made by a different method, upon the lineations of a finger print drawn on about a twenty-fold scale. it had first been enlarged four times by photography, and from this enlargement the axes of the ridges had been drawn with a five-fold enlarging pantagraph. the aim now was to reconstruct the entire finger print by two successive and independent acts of interpolation. a sheet of transparent tracing-paper was ruled into six-ridge-interval squares, and every one of its alternate squares was rendered opaque by pasting white paper upon it, giving it the appearance of a chess-board. when this chequer-work was laid on the print, exactly one half of the six-ridge squares were masked by the opaque squares, while the ridges running up to them could be seen. they were not quite so visible as if each opaque square had been wholly detached from its neighbours, instead of touching them at the extreme corners, still the loss of information thereby occasioned was small, and not worth laying stress upon. it is easily understood that when the chequer-work was moved parallel to itself, through the space of one square, whether upwards or downwards, or to the right or left, the parts that were previously masked became visible, and those that were visible became masked. the object was to interpolate the ridges in every opaque square under one of these conditions, then to do the same for the remaining squares under the other condition, and finally, by combining the results, to obtain a complete scheme of the ridges wholly by interpolation. this was easily done by using two sheets of tracing-paper, laid in succession over the chequer-work, whose position on the print had been changed meanwhile, and afterwards tracing the lineations that were drawn on one of the two sheets upon the vacant squares of the other. the results are given in the third column of the table. the three methods give roughly similar results, and we may therefore accept the ratios of their totals, which is to , or say to , as representing the chance that the reconstruction of any six-ridge-interval square would be correct under the given conditions. on reckoning the chance as to , which will be done at first, it is obvious that the error, whatever it may be, is on the safe side. a closer equality in the chance that the ridges in a square might run in the observed way or in some other way, would result from taking a square of five ridge-intervals in the side. i believe this to be very closely the right size. a four-ridge-interval square is certainly too small. when the reconstructed squares were wrong, they had none the less a natural appearance. this was especially seen, and on a large scale, in the result of the method by chequer-work, in which the lineations of an entire print were constructed by guess. being so familiar with the run of these ridges in finger prints, i can speak with confidence on this. my assumption is, that any one of these reconstructions represents lineations that might have occurred in nature, in association with the conditions outside the square, just as well as the lineations of the actual finger print. the courses of the ridges in each square are subject to uncertainties, due to petty _local_ incidents, to which the conditions outside the square give no sure indication. they appear to be in great part determined by the particular disposition of each one or more of the half hundred or so sweat-glands which the square contains. the ridges rarely run in evenly flowing lines, but may be compared to footways across a broken country, which, while they follow a general direction, are continually deflected by such trifles as a tuft of grass, a stone, or a puddle. even if the number of ridges emerging from a six-ridge-interval square equals the number of those which enter, it does not follow that they run across in parallel lines, for there is plenty of room for any one of the ridges to end, and another to bifurcate. it is impossible, therefore, to know beforehand in which, if in any of the ridges, these peculiarities will be found. when the number of entering and issuing ridges is unequal, the difficulty is increased. there may, moreover, be islands or enclosures in any particular part of the square. it therefore seems right to look upon the squares as independent variables, in the sense that when the surrounding conditions are alone taken into account, the ridges within their limits may either run in the observed way or in a different way, the chance of these two contrasted events being taken (for safety's sake) as approximately equal. in comparing finger prints which are alike in their general pattern, it may well happen that the proportions of the patterns differ; one may be that of a slender boy, the other that of a man whose fingers have been broadened or deformed by ill-usage. it is therefore requisite to imagine that only one of the prints is divided into exact squares, and to suppose that a reticulation has been drawn over the other, in which each mesh included the corresponding parts of the former print. frequent trials have shown that there is no practical difficulty in actually doing this, and it is the only way of making a fair comparison between the two. these six-ridge-interval squares may thus be regarded as independent units, each of which is equally liable to fall into one or other of two alternative classes, when the surrounding conditions are alone known. the inevitable consequence from this datum is that the chance of an exact correspondence between two different finger prints, in each of the six-ridge-interval squares into which they may be divided, and which are about in number, is at least as to multiplied into itself times (usually written { }), that is as to about ten thousand millions. but we must not forget that the six-ridge square was taken in order to ensure under-estimation, a five-ridge square would have been preferable, so the adverse chances would in reality be enormously greater still. it is hateful to blunder in calculations of adverse chances, by overlooking correlations between variables, and to falsely assume them independent, with the result that inflated estimates are made which require to be proportionately reduced. here, however, there seems to be little room for such an error. we must next combine the above enormously unfavourable chance, which we will call _a_, with the other chances of not guessing correctly beforehand the surrounding conditions under which _a_ was calculated. these latter are divisible into _b_ and _c_; the chance _b_ is that of not guessing correctly the general course of the ridges adjacent to each square, and _c_ that of not guessing rightly the number of ridges that enter and issue from the square. the chance _b_ has already been discussed, with the result that it might be taken as to for two-thirds of all the patterns. it would be higher for the remainder, and very high indeed for some few of them, but as it is advisable always to underestimate, it may be taken as to ; or, to obtain the convenience of dealing only with values of multiplied into itself, the still lower ratio of to { }, that is as to . as to the remaining chance _c_ with which _a_ and _b_ have to be compounded, namely, that of guessing aright the number of ridges that enter and leave each side of a particular square, i can offer no careful observations. the number of the ridges would for the most part vary between five and seven, and those in the different squares are certainly not quite independent of one another. we have already arrived at such large figures that it is surplusage to heap up more of them, therefore, let us say, as a mere nominal sum much below the real figure, that the chance against guessing each and every one of these data correctly is as to , or say to { } (= ). the result is, that the chance of lineations, constructed by the imagination according to strictly natural forms, which shall be found to resemble those of a single finger print in all their minutiæ, is less than to { } × { } × { }, or to { }, or to about sixty-four thousand millions. the inference is, that as the number of the human race is reckoned at about sixteen thousand millions, it is a smaller chance than to that the print of a _single_ finger of any given person would be exactly like that of the same finger of any other member of the human race. when two fingers of each of the two persons are compared, and found to have the same minutiæ, the improbability of to { } becomes squared, and reaches a figure altogether beyond the range of the imagination; when three fingers, it is cubed, and so on. a single instance has shown that the minutiæ are _not_ invariably permanent throughout life, but that one or more of them may possibly change. they may also be destroyed by wounds, and more or less disintegrated by hard work, disease, or age. ambiguities will thus arise in their interpretation, one person asserting a resemblance in respect to a particular feature, while another asserts dissimilarity. it is therefore of interest to know how far a conceded resemblance in the great majority of the minutiæ combined with some doubt as to the remainder, will tell in favour of identity. it will now be convenient to change our datum from a six-ridge to a five-ridge square of which about thirty-five are contained in a single print, × { } or × being much the same as × { } or × . the reason for the change is that this number of thirty-five happens to be the same as that of the minutiæ. we shall therefore not be acting unfairly if, with reservation, and for the sake of obtaining some result, however rough, we consider the thirty-five minutiæ themselves as so many independent variables, and accept the chance now as to { }. this has to be multiplied, as before, into the factor of { } × { } (which may still be considered appropriate, though it is too small), making the total of adverse chances to { }. upon such a basis, the calculation is simple. there would on the average be instances, out of the total { } combinations, of similarity in all but one particular; ( × )/( × ) in all but two; ( × × )/( × × ) in all but three, and so on according to the well-known binomial expansion. taking for convenience the powers of to which these values approximate, or rather with the view of not overestimating, let us take the power of that falls short of each of them; these may be reckoned as respectively equal to { }, { }, { }, { }, etc. hence the roughly approximate chances of resemblance in all particulars are as { } to ; in all particulars but one, as { - }, or { } to ; in all but two, as { } to ; in all but three, as { } to ; in all but four, as { } to . even { } is so large as to require a row of nine figures to express it. hence a few instances of dissimilarity in the two prints of a single finger, still leave untouched an enormously large residue of evidence in favour of identity, and when two, three, or more fingers in the two persons agree to that extent, the strength of the evidence rises by squares, cubes, etc., far above the level of that amount of probability which begins to rank as certainty. whatever reductions a legitimate criticism may make in the numerical results arrived at in this chapter, bearing in mind the occasional ambiguities pictured in fig. , the broad fact remains, that a complete or nearly complete accordance between two prints of a single finger, and vastly more so between the prints of two or more fingers, affords evidence requiring no corroboration, that the persons from whom they were made are the same. let it also be remembered, that this evidence is applicable not only to adults, but can establish the identity of the same person at any stage of his life between babyhood and old age, and for some time after his death. * * * * * we read of the dead body of jezebel being devoured by the dogs of jezreel, so that no man might say, "this is jezebel," and that the dogs left only her skull, the palms of her hands, and the soles of her feet; but the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are the very remains by which a corpse might be most surely identified, if impressions of them, made during life, were available. chapter viii peculiarities of the digits the data used in this chapter are the prints of different digits, namely, the ten digits of different persons; each digit can thus be treated, both separately and in combination, in cases. five hundred cannot be called a large number, but it suffices for approximate results; the percentages that it yields may, for instance, be expected to be trustworthy, more often than not, within two units. when preparing the tables for this chapter, i gave a more liberal interpretation to the word "arch" than subsequently. at first, every pattern between a forked-arch and a nascent-loop (plate ) was rated as an arch; afterwards they were rated as loops. the relative frequency of the three several classes in the digits was as follows:-- arches · per cent. loops · " whorls · " ------ total · from this it appears, that on the average out of every or digits, one has an arch; out of every digits, two have loops; out of every digits, one has a whorl. this coarse statistical treatment leaves an inadequate impression, each digit and each hand having its own peculiarity, as we shall see in the following table:-- table i. _percentage frequency of arches, loops, and whorls on the different digits, from observations of the digits of persons._ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | right hand. || left hand. | | digit. |-----------------------------------------------------| | |arch.|loop.|whorl.|total.||arch.|loop.| whorl.|total.| |-----------+-----------------------------------------------------| |thumb | | | | || | | | | |fore-finger| | | | || | | | | |middle do. | | | | || | | | | |ring do. | | | | || | | | | |little do. | | | | || | | | | |-----------+-----+-----+------+------||-----+-----+-------+------| | total | | | | || | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ the percentage of arches on the various digits varies from to ; of loops, from to ; of whorls, from to , consequently the statistics of the digits must be separated, and not massed indiscriminately. are the a. l. w. patterns distributed in the same way upon the corresponding digits of the two hands? the answer from the last table is distinct and curious, and will be best appreciated on rearranging the entries as follows:-- table ii. +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | arches. || loops. || whorls. | | digit. |----------------||----------------||----------------| | | right. | left. || right. | left. || right. | left. | |------------|--------|-------||--------|-------||----------------| | fore-finger| | || | || | | | middle do. | | || | || | | | little do. | | || | || | | | | | || | || | | | thumb | | || | || | | | ring do. | | || | || | | |------------|--------|-------||--------|-------||----------------| | total | | || | || | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ the digits are seen to fall into two well-marked groups; the one including the fore, middle, and little fingers, the other including the thumb and ring-finger. as regards the first group, the frequency with which any pattern occurs in any named digit is statistically the same, whether that digit be on the right or on the left hand; as regards the second group, the frequency differs greatly in the two hands. but though in the first group the two fore-fingers, the two middle, and the two little fingers of the right hand are severally circumstanced alike in the frequency with which their various patterns occur, the difference between the frequency of the patterns on a fore, a middle, and a little finger, respectively, is very great. in the second group, though the thumbs on opposite hands do not resemble each other in the statistical frequency of the a. l. w. patterns, nor do the ring-fingers, there is a great resemblance between the respective frequencies in the thumbs and ring-fingers; for instance, the whorls on either of these fingers on the left hand are only two-thirds as common as those on the right. the figures in each line and in each column are consistent throughout in expressing these curious differences, which must therefore be accepted as facts, and not as statistical accidents, whatever may be their explanation. one of the most noticeable peculiarities in table i. is the much greater frequency of arches on the fore-fingers than on any other of the four digits. it amounts to per cent on the fore-fingers, while on the thumbs and on the remaining fingers the frequency diminishes (table iii.) in a ratio that roughly accords with the distance of each digit from the fore-finger. table iii. +--------------------------------------------+ | _percentage frequency of arches._ | |--------------------------------------------| |hand.|thumb.| fore- |middle | ring- |little | | | |finger.|finger.|finger.|finger.| |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |right| | | | | | |left | | | | | | |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |mean | | | · | · | · | +--------------------------------------------+ the frequency of loops (table iv.) has two maxima; the principal one is on the little finger, the secondary on the middle finger. table iv. +--------------------------------------------+ | _percentage frequency of loops._ | |--------------------------------------------| |hand.|thumb.|fore- |middle |ring- |little | | | |finger.|finger.|finger.|finger.| |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |right| | | | | | |left | | | | | | |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |mean | | | | · | | +--------------------------------------------+ whorls (table v.) are most common on the thumb and the ring-finger, most rare on the middle and little fingers. table v. +--------------------------------------------+ | _percentage frequency of whorls._ | |--------------------------------------------| |hand.|thumb.|fore- |middle |ring- |little | | | |finger.|finger.|finger.|finger.| |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |right| | | | | | |left | | | | | | |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |mean | | | · | | · | +--------------------------------------------+ the fore-finger is peculiar in the frequency with which the direction of the slopes of its loops differs from that which is by far the most common in all other digits. a loop _must_ have a slope, being caused by the disposition of the ridges into the form of a pocket, opening downwards to one or other side of the finger. if it opens towards the inner or thumb side of the hand, it will be called an inner slope; if towards the outer or little-finger side, it will be called an outer slope. in all digits, except the fore-fingers, the inner slope is much the more rare of the two; but in the fore-fingers the inner slope appears two-thirds as frequently as the outer slope. out of the percentage of loops of the one or other kind on the right fore-finger, of them have an inner and an outer slope; out of the percentage of loops on the left fore-finger, have inner and have outer slopes. these subdivisions - and - corroborate the strong statistical similarity that was observed to exist between the frequency of the several patterns on the right and left fore-fingers; a condition which was also found to characterise the middle and little fingers. it is strange that purkenje considers the "inner" slope on the fore-finger to be more frequent than the "outer" (p. , ~ ~). my nomenclature differs from his, but there is no doubt as to the disagreement in meaning. the facts to be adduced hereafter make it most improbable that the persons observed were racially unlike in this particular. the tendencies of digits to resemble one another will now be considered in their various combinations. they will be taken two at a time, in order to learn the frequency with which both members of the various couplets are affected by the same a. l. w. class of pattern. every combination will be discussed, except those into which the little finger enters. these are omitted, because the overwhelming frequency of loops in the little fingers would make the results of comparatively little interest, while their insertion would greatly increase the size of the table. table vi_a_. _percentage of cases in which the same class of pattern occurs in the_ same digits _of the two hands_. (from observation of digits of persons.) +----------------------------------------------------+ | couplets of digits. |arches.|loops.|whorls.|total.| |----------------------|-------|------|-------|------| |the two thumbs | | | | | | " fore-fingers | | | | | | " middle fingers| | | | | | " ring-fingers | | | | | |----------------------------------------------------| | mean of the totals | +----------------------------------------------------+ table vi_b_. _percentage of cases in which the same class of pattern occurs in various couplets of_ different digits. (from persons as above.) +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | couplets of | of same hands. || of opposite hands. | | digits. |---------------------------||---------------------------| | |arch.|loops.|whorls.|total.||arch.|loops.|whorls.|total.| |--------------|-----|------|-------|------||-----|------|-------|------| |thumb and | | | | || | | | | | fore-finger | | | | || | | | | |thumb and | | | | || | | | | | middle finger| | | | || | | | | |thumb and | | | | || | | | | | ring-finger | | | | || | | | | |fore and | | | | || | | | | | middle finger| | | | || | | | | |fore and | | | | || | | | | | ring-finger | | | | || | | | | |middle and | | | | || | | | | | ring-finger | | | | || | | | | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | means of the totals || | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ a striking feature in this last table is the close similarity between corresponding entries relating to the same and to the opposite hands. there are eighteen sets to be compared; namely, six couplets of different names, in each of which the frequency of three different classes of patterns is discussed. the eighteen pairs of corresponding couplets are closely alike in every instance. it is worth while to rearrange the figures as below, for the greater convenience of observing their resemblances. table vii. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | arches in || loops in || whorls in | | |--------------||--------------||--------------| | couplet. |same |opposite||same |opposite||same |opposite| | |hand.| hand. ||hand.| hand. ||hand.| hand. | |----------------|-----|--------||-----|--------||-----|--------| |thumb and | | || | || | | | fore-finger | | || | || | | |thumb and | | || | || | | | middle finger | | || | || | | |thumb and ring- | | || | || | | | finger | | || | || | | |fore and middle | | || | || | | | finger | | || | || | | |fore and ring- | | || | || | | | finger | | || | || | | |middle and ring-| | || | || | | | finger | | || | || | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ the agreement in the above entries is so curiously close as to have excited grave suspicion that it was due to some absurd blunder, by which the same figures were made inadvertently to do duty twice over, but subsequent checking disclosed no error. though the unanimity of the results is wonderful, they are fairly arrived at, and leave no doubt that the relationship of any one particular digit, whether thumb, fore, middle, ring or little finger, to any other particular digit, is the same, whether the two digits are on the same or on opposite hands. it would be a most interesting subject of statistical inquiry to ascertain whether the distribution of malformations, or of the various forms of skin disease among the digits, corroborates this unexpected and remarkable result. i am sorry to have no means of undertaking it, being assured on good authority that no adequate collection of the necessary data has yet been published. it might be hastily inferred from the statistical identity of the connection between, say, the right thumb and each of the two fore-fingers, that the patterns on the two fore-fingers ought always to be alike, whether arch, loop, or whorl. if x, it may be said, is identical both with y and with z, then y and z must be identical with one another. but the statement of the problem is wrong; x is not identical with y and z, but only bears an identical amount of statistical resemblance to each of them; so this reasoning is inadmissible. the character of the pattern on any digit is determined by causes of whose precise nature we are ignorant; but we may rest assured that they are numerous and variable, and that their variations are in large part independent of one another. we can in imagination divide them into groups, calling those that are common to the thumb and the fore-finger of either hand, and to those couplets exclusively, the a causes; those that are common to the two thumbs and to these exclusively, the b causes; and similarly those common to the two fore-fingers exclusively, the c causes. then the sum of the variable causes determining the class of pattern in the four several digits now in question are these:-- right thumb a + b + an unclassed residue called x(= =) left thumb a + b + " " " x(= =) right fore-finger a + c + " " " z(= =) left fore-finger a + c + " " " z(= =) the nearness of relationship between the two thumbs is sufficiently indicated by a fraction that expresses the proportion between all the causes common to the two thumbs exclusively, and the totality of the causes by which the a. l. w. class of the patterns of the thumbs is determined, that is to say, by a + b ----------------------- ( ). a + b + x(= =) + x(= =) similarly, the nearness of the relationship between the two fore-fingers by a + c ----------------------- ( ). a + c + z(= =) + z(= =) and that between a thumb and a fore-finger by a --------------------------------------------------- ( ). a + b + c + x(= =) (or x(= =)) + z(= =) (or z(= =)) the fractions ( ) and ( ) being both greater than ( ), it follows that the relationships between the two thumbs, or between the two fore-fingers, are closer than that between the thumb and either fore-finger; at the same time it is clear that neither of the two former relationships is so close as to reach identity. similarly as regards the other couplets of digits. the tabular entries fully confirm this deduction, for, without going now into further details, it will be seen from the "mean of the totals" at the bottom line of table vi_b_ that the average percentage of cases in which two different digits have the same class of patterns, whether they be on the same or on opposite hands, is or (say ), while the average percentage of cases in which right and left digits bearing the same name have the same class of pattern (table vi_a_) is . this is barely two-thirds of the which would imply identity. at the same time, the considerably exceeds the . let us now endeavour to measure the relationships between the various couplets of digits on a well-defined centesimal scale, first recalling the fundamental principles of the connection that subsists between relationships of all kinds, whether between digits, or between kinsmen, or between any of those numerous varieties of related events with which statisticians deal. relationships are all due to the joint action of two groups of variable causes, the one common to both of the related objects, the other special to each, as in the case just discussed. using an analogous nomenclature to that already employed, the peculiarity of one of the two objects is due to an aggregate of variable causes that we may call c+x, and that of the other to c+z, in which c are the causes common to both, and x and z the special ones. in exact proportion as x and z diminish, and c becomes of overpowering effect, so does the closeness of the relationship increase. when x and z both disappear, the result is identity of character. on the other hand, when c disappears, all relationship ceases, and the variations of the two objects are strictly independent. the simplest case is that in which x and z are equal, and _in this_, it becomes easy to devise a scale in which ° shall stand for no relationship, and ° for identity, and upon which the intermediate degrees of relationship may be marked at their proper value. upon this assumption, but with some misgiving, i will attempt to subject the digits to this form of measurement. it will save time first to work out an example, and then, after gaining in that way, a clearer understanding of what the process is, to discuss its defects. let us select for our example the case that brings out these defects in the most conspicuous manner, as follows:-- table v. tells us that the percentage of whorls in the right ring-finger is , and in the left ring-finger . table vi_a_ tells us that the percentage of the double event of a whorl occurring on both the ring-fingers of the same person is . it is required to express the relationship between the right and left ring-fingers on a centesimal scale, in which ° shall stand for no relationship at all, and ° for the closest possible relationship. if no relationship should exist, there would nevertheless be a certain percentage of instances, due to pure chance, of the double event of whorls occurring in both ring-fingers, and it is easy to calculate their frequency from the above data. the number of possible combinations of right ring-fingers with left ones is × , and of these × would be double events as above (call these for brevity "double whorls"). consequently the chance of a double whorl in any single couplet is ( × )/( × ), and their average frequency in couplets,--in other words, their average percentage is ( × )/ = · , say . if, then, the observed percentage of double whorls should be only , it would be a proof that the a. l. w. classes of patterns on the right and left ring-fingers were quite independent; so their relationship, as expressed on the centesimal scale, would be °. there could never be less than double whorls under the given conditions, except through some statistical irregularity. now consider the opposite extreme of the closest possible relationship, subject however, and this is the weak point, to the paramount condition that the average frequencies of the a. l. w. classes may be taken as _pre-established_. as there are per cent of whorls on the right ring-finger, and only on the left, the tendency to form double whorls, however stringent it may be, can only be satisfied in cases. there remains a superfluity of per cent cases in the right ring-finger which perforce must have for their partners either arches or loops. hence the percentage of frequency that indicates the closest feasible relationship under the pre-established conditions, would be . the range of all possible relationships in respect to whorls, would consequently lie between a percentage frequency of the minimum and the maximum , while the observed frequency is of the intermediate value of . subtracting the from these three values, we have the series of , , . these terms can be converted into their equivalents in a centesimal scale that reaches from ° to ° instead of from ° to °, by the ordinary rule of three, :_x_:: : ; _x_= or , whence the value _x_ of the observed relationship on the centesimal scale would be ° or °, neglecting decimals. this method of obtaining the value of ° is open to grave objection in the present example. we have no right to consider that the per cent of whorls on the right ring-finger, and the on the left, can be due to pre-established conditions, which would exercise a paramount effect even though the whorls were due entirely to causes common to both fingers. there is some self-contradiction in such a supposition. neither are we at liberty to assume that the respective effects of the special causes x and z are equal in average amount; if they were, the percentage of whorls on the right and on the left finger would invariably be equal. in this particular example the difficulty of determining correctly the scale value of ° is exceptionally great; elsewhere, the percentages of frequency in the two members of each couplet are more alike. in the two fore-fingers, and again in the two middle fingers, they are closely alike. therefore, in these latter cases, it is not unreasonable to pass over the objection that x and z have not been proved to be equal, but we must accept the results in all other cases with great caution. when the digits are of different names,--as the thumb and the fore-finger,--whether the digits be on the same or on opposite hands, there are two cases to be worked out; namely, such as ( ) right thumb and left fore-finger, and ( ) left thumb and right fore-finger. each accounts for per cent of the observed cases; therefore the mean of the two percentages is the correct percentage. the relationships calculated in the following table do not include arches, except in two instances mentioned in a subsequent paragraph, as the arches are elsewhere too rare to furnish useful results. it did not seem necessary to repeat the calculation for couplets of digits of different names, situated on opposite hands, as those that were calculated on closely the same data for similar couplets situated on the same hands, suffice for both. it is evident from the irregularity in the run of the figures that the units in the several entries cannot be more than vaguely approximate. they have, however, been retained, as being possibly better than nothing at all. table viii. _approximate measures of relationship between the various digits, on a centesimal scale._ ( ° = no relationship; ° = the utmost feasible likeness.) +------------------------------------------------------------+ | couplets. | loops. | whorls.| means. | |---------------------------------|--------|--------|--------| | _digits of the same name._ | | | | | | | | | | right and left thumbs | | | | | " " fore-fingers | | | | | " " middle fingers | | | | | " " ring fingers | | | | |---------------------------------|--------|--------|--------| | means | ° | ° | ° | |---------------------------------|--------|--------|--------| | _digits of different names on | | | | | the same or on opposite hands._ | | | | | | | | | | thumb and fore-finger | | | | | " middle finger | | | | | " ring-finger | | | | | fore and middle finger | | | | | " ring finger | | | | | middle and ring finger | | | | |---------------------------------|--------|--------|--------| | means | ° | ° | ° | +------------------------------------------------------------+ the arches were sufficiently numerous in the fore-fingers ( per cent) to fully justify the application of this method of calculation. the result was °, which agrees fairly with °, the mean of the loops and the whorls. in the middle finger the frequency of the arches was only half the above amount and barely suffices for calculation. it gave the result of °, which also agrees fairly with °, the mean of the loops and the whorls for that finger. some definite results may be gathered from this table notwithstanding the irregularity with which the figures run. its upper and lower halves clearly belong to different statistical groups, the entries in the former being almost uniformly larger than those in the latter, in the proportion of ° to °, say to , which roughly represents in numerical terms the nearer relationship between digits of the same name, as compared to that between digits of different names. it seems also that of the couplets of digits bearing different names, the relationship is closest between the middle finger and the two adjacent ones ( ° and °, as against °, °, ° and °). it is further seen in every pair of entries that whorls are related together more closely than loops. i note this, but cannot explain it. so far as my statistical inquiries into heredity have hitherto gone, all peculiarities were found to follow the same law of transmission, none being more surely inherited than others. if there were a tendency in any one out of many alternative characters to be more heritable than the rest, that character would become universally prevalent, in the absence of restraining influences. but it does not follow that there are no peculiar restraining influences here, nor that what is true for heredity, should be true, in all its details, as regards the relationships between the different digits. chapter ix methods of indexing in this chapter the system of classification by arches, loops, and whorls described in chapter v. will be used for indexing two, three, six or ten digits, as the case may be. an index to each set of finger marks made by the same person, is needful in almost every kind of inquiry, whether it be for descriptive purposes, for investigations into race and heredity, or into questions of symmetry and correlation. it is essential to possess an index to the finger marks of known criminals before the method of finger prints can be utilised as an organised means of detection. the ideal index might be conceived to consist of a considerable number of compartments, or their equivalents, each bearing a different index-heading, into which the sets of finger prints of different persons may be severally sorted, so that all similar sets shall lie in the same compartment. the principle of the proposed method of index-headings is, that they should depend upon a few conspicuous differences of pattern in many fingers, and not upon many minute differences in a few fingers. it is carried into effect by distinguishing the a. l. w. class of pattern on each digit in succession, by a letter,--_a_ for arch, _l_ for loop, _w_ for whorl; or else, as an alternative method, to subdivide _l_ by using _i_ for a loop with an inner slope, and _o_ for one with an outer slope, as the case may be. in this way, the class of pattern in each set of ten digits is described by a sequence of ten letters, the various combinations of which are alphabetically arranged and form the different index-headings. let us now discuss the best method of carrying out this principle, by collating the results of alternative methods of applying it. we have to consider the utility of the _i_ and _o_ as compared to the simple _l_, and the gain through taking all ten digits into account, instead of only some of them. it will be instructive to print here an actual index to the finger prints of different persons, who were not in any way selected, but taken as they came, and to use it as the basis of a considerable portion of the following remarks, to be checked where necessary, by results derived from an index to cases, in which these hundred are included. this index is compiled on the principle shortly to be explained, entitled the "_i_ and _o_ fore-finger" method. table ix.--index to sets of finger prints. +------------------------------------+ | | a b c d | |order | right. left. rt. lt. | | of |-----------------------------| |entry.| f.m.r. f.m.r. t.l. t.l. | |------|-----------------------------| | | _a a a a a a a a l a_ | | | _ " " a l a l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " w l l l_ | | | _a a l a a l a l a l_ | | | _ " " l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " a a w l l l l_ | | | _ " a l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " l w w l_ | | | _ " o l l l l l l_ | | | _a a w a a l l l l l_ | | | _ " a l l l l l l_ | | | _a l a a a a l a l a_ | | | _ " " l a l w_ | | | _ " o l l w l l l_ | | | _a l l a a l l l a l_ | | | _ " " l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " a l w l l l l_ | | | _ " i l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _a l l i l l w l l l_ | | | _ " o a l w l l l_ | | | _ " o l l w l l l_ | | | _ " w w w w l l l_ | | | _a l w i l w l l l l_ | | | _ " o a l l l l l_ | | | _ " o l l l w l l_ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " o l w a l a l_ | | | _i l l a l l w l l l_ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " i l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _i l l i l l w l l l_ | | | _ " i w w w l w l_ | | | _i l w i l l l l w l_ | | | _ " " w w w l_ | | | _ " i l w w w w l_ | | | _ " i w l l l l l_ | | | _ " w l w w l w l_ | | | _ " w w l l l l l_ | | | _i w w a l l w l w l_ | | | _ " w w w w l w l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _o a w o l l l l l l_ | | | _o l l o l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " i l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " o l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " w a l l l w l_ | | | _ " w w w l l w l_ | | | _o l w a l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " i l l w l w l_ | | | _ " o l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " o l w l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _w l l i l l l l w l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _w l l w l l l l l l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " w l w l l l l_ | | | _w l w o l w l l l l_ | | | _ " " l l a l_ | | | _ " " w l l l_ | | | _ " w w w w l w l_ | | | _ " " w w l l_ | | | _ " " w w l w_ | | | _ " " w w w w_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _w w l i l l l l l l_ | | | _ " w l l w l l l_ | | | _w w w o l w w l l l_ | | | _ " w l w w l w l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " w w l l l l w_ | | | _ " w w w i l l l_ | | | _ " " w l l l_ | | | _ " " w l w l_ | | | _ " " w w w l_ | | | _ " " " " _ | | | _ " " w w w w_ | +------------------------------------+ the sequence in which the digits have been registered is not from the thumb outwards to the little finger, but, on account of various good reasons that will be appreciated as we proceed, in the following order. the ten digits are registered in four groups, which are distinguished in the index by the letters a, b, c, d:-- a. _first._ the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the _right_ hand taken in that order. b. _second._ the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the _left_ hand taken in that order. c. _third._ the thumb and little finger of the _right_ hand. d. _fourth._ the thumb and little finger of the _left_ hand. consequently an index-heading will be of the form-- first second third fourth group. group. group. group. _a a l_ _a a w_ _l l_ _l l_ these index-headings are catalogued in alphabetical order. the method used in the index is that which takes note of no slopes, except those of loops in the fore-finger of either hand. consequently the index-heading for my own digits, printed on the title-page, is _wlw oll wl wl_. those of the eight sets in plate vi. are as follows:-- _i l w i l l w w w l_ _o l w o l w w l l l_ _o l w o l w w l l l_ _o l w o l l l l l l_ _i l w i l w w l w l_ _i l w i w l l l l l_ _i l l w w l l l l l_ _o l l a a l l l a l_ _o a a a a a l a l a_ for convenience of description and reference, the successive entries in the specimen index have been numbered from to , but that is no part of the system: those figures would be replaced in a real index by names and addresses. a preliminary way of obtaining an idea of the differentiating power of an index is to count the number of the different headings that are required to classify a specified number of cases. a table is appended which shows the numbers of the headings in the three alternative methods ( ) of noting slopes of all kinds in all digits, ( ) of noting slopes of loops only and in the fore-fingers only, and ( ) of disregarding the slopes altogether. also in each of these three cases taking account of-- (_a_) all the ten digits; (_b_) the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of both hands; (_c_) those same three fingers, but of the right hand only; (_d_) the fore and middle fingers of the right hand. table x. _no. of different index-heads in sets of finger prints._ +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | account taken of | | no. of | |------------------------------| | digits | digits noted. | all |_i_ and _o_| no | | regarded. | | slopes. | in fore- | slope. | | | | | fingers. | | |-----------|--------------------|---------|-----------|--------| | | all the digits | | | | | | | | | | | | fore, middle, | | | | | | and ring-fingers | | | | | | of both hands | | | | | | | | | | | | of right hand only | | | | | | | | | | | | fore and middle of | | | | | | right hand only | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ the column headed "all slopes" refers to the method first used with success, and described in my memoir, already alluded to (_proc. roy. soc._, ), accompanied by a specimen index, from which the present one was derived. there the direction of the slope of every pattern that has one, is taken into account, and in order to give as much scope as possible to the method, the term arch (i then called it a primary) was construed somewhat over-liberally (see p. ). it was made to include the forked-arch fig. (~ ~), and even the nascent-loop (~ ~), so long as not more than a single recurved ridge lay within the outline of the pattern; therefore many of the so-called arches had slopes. it is not necessary to trouble the reader with the numerical nomenclature that was then used, the method itself being now obsolete. full particulars of it are, however, given in the memoir. a somewhat large experience in sorting finger prints in various ways and repeatedly, made it only too evident that the mental strain and risk of error caused by taking all slopes into account was considerable. the judgment became fatigued and the eye puzzled by having to assign opposite meanings to the same actual direction of a slope in the right and left hands respectively. there was also a frequent doubt as to the existence of a slope in large whorls of the spiral- and circlet-in-loop patterns (fig. , ~ ~, ~ ~) when the impressions had not been rolled. a third objection is the rarity of the inner slopes in any other digit than the fore-finger. it acted like a soporific to the judgment not only of myself but of others, so that when an inner slope did occur it was apt to be overlooked. the first idea was to discard slopes altogether, notwithstanding the accompanying loss of index power, but this would be an unnecessarily trenchant measure. the slope of a loop, though it be on the fore-finger alone, decidedly merits recognition, for it differentiates such loops into two not very unequal classes. again, there is little chance of mistake in noting it, the impression of the thumb on the one side and those of the remaining fingers on the other, affording easy guidance to the eye and judgment. these considerations determined the method i now use exclusively, by which table ix. was compiled, and to which the second column of table x., headed "_i_ and _o_ in fore-fingers," refers. the heading of the third column, "no slope," explains itself, no account having been there taken of any slopes whatever, so _i_ and _o_ disappear, having become merged under _l_. the table gives a very favourable impression of the differentiating power of all these methods of indexing. by the "_i_ and _o_ fore-finger" method, it requires as many as different index-headings to include the finger prints of different persons, of persons, and of . the number of entries under each index-heading varies greatly; reference to the index of sets showing no less than six entries (nos. - ) under one of them, and four entries (nos. - and - ) under each of two others. thus, although a large portion of the sets are solitary entries under their several headings, and can be found by a single reference, the remainder are grouped together like the commoner surnames in a directory. they are troublesome to distinguish, and cannot be subdivided at all except by supplementary characteristics, such as the number of ridges in some specified part of the pattern, or the character of the cores. in other respects the difference of merit between the three methods is somewhat greater, as is succinctly indicated by the next table. table xi.--_in sets._ +-----------------------------------------------------+ | |no. of different index-headings.| | number of entries |--------------------------------| |under the same head.| all | _i_ and _o_ | no | | | slopes. | fore-fingers | slope.| | | | only. | | |--------------------|---------|--------------|-------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ... | | | | | ... | ... | ... | | | | ... | ... | | | ... | ... | | |--------------------|---------|--------------|-------| | total | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ hence it is evident that the second method of "_i-o_ fore-finger" is capable of dealing rapidly with cases, but that the method of "no slope" will give trouble in twelve out of the hundred cases. table xii. _index-headings under which more than per cent of the sets of finger prints were registered._ ( sets observed.) +---------------------------------------------------- | _i_ and _o_ in fore-fingers. || |---------------------------------------------------- | no. | |frequency|| | for | index-heading. | per || |reference.| | cent. || |----------|-----------------------------|---------|| | | _a l l a l l l l l l_ | · || | | _a l l i l l " " _ | · || |----------|-----------------------------|---------|| | | _i l l i l l " " _ | · || | | _o l l i l l " " _ | · || | | _o l l o l l " " _ | · || |----------|-----------------------------|---------|| | | _i l l o l l w l l l_ | · || | | _o l l o l l " " _ | · || |----------|-----------------------------|---------|| | | _o l l a l l l l l l_ | · || | | _o l w u l l " " _ | · || | | _w l l w l l " " _ | · || | | _w w w w w w w w w w_ | · || +---------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------+ no slope. | --------------------------------------------------| no. | |frequency| for | index-heading. | per | reference.| | cent. | ----------|-----------------------------|---------| i. | _a l l a l l l l l l_ | · | ii. | _a l l l l l " " _ | · | ----------|-----------------------------|---------| | | | iii. | _l l l l l l " " _ | · | | | | ----------|-----------------------------|---------| iv. | _l l l l l l w l l l_ | · | | | | ----------|-----------------------------|---------| v. | _l l l a l l l l l l_ | · | vi. | _l l w l l l " " _ | · | vii. | _w l l w l l " " _ | · | viii. | _w w w w w w w w w w_ | · | --------------------------------------------------+ the headings in the right half of the table include more cases than the left half, because a combination of two or more cases that severally contain less than per cent of the finger prints, and are therefore ignored in the first half of the table, may exceed per cent and find a place in the second half. the entries in table xii. are derived from a catalogue of sets, and include all entries that appeared more than five times; in other words, whose frequency exceeded per cent. these are the index-headings that give enough trouble to deserve notice in catalogues of, say, from to sets. in the left half of table xii. all the index-headings are given, under each of which more than per cent of the sets fell, when the method of "_i_ and _o_ in fore-fingers" was adopted; also the respective percentage of the cases that fell under them. in the right half of the table are the corresponding index-headings, together with the percentages of frequency, when the "no slope" method is employed. these are distinguished by roman numerals. the great advantage of the "_i_ and _o_ fore-finger" method lies in its power of breaking up certain large groups which are very troublesome to deal with by the "no slope" method. according to the latter as many as · per cent of all the entries fall under the index-heading marked iii., but according to the "_i-o_ fore-finger" method these are distributed among the headings , , and . the "all slopes" method has the peculiar merit of breaking up the large group nos. and viii. of "all whorls," but its importance is not great on that account, as whorls are distinguishable by their cores, which are less troublesome to observe than their slopes. the percentage of all the entries that fall under a single index-heading, according to the "_i-o_ fore-finger" method, diminishes with the number of entries at the following rate:-- table xiii. +----------------------------------------------------------+ | | total number of entries. | | |--------------------------| | | | | | |-------------------------------|--------|--------|--------| | percentage of entries falling | | | | | under a single head | | · | · | +----------------------------------------------------------+ it may be that every one of the { } × { }, or one hundred and five thousand possible varieties of index-headings, according to the "_i-o_ fore-finger" method, may occur in nature, but there is much probability that some of them may be so rare that instances of no entry under certain heads would appear in the register, even of an enormous number of persons. * * * * * hitherto we have supposed that prints of the ten fingers have in each case been indexed. the question now to be considered is the gain through dealing in each case with all ten digits, instead of following the easier practice of regarding only a few of them. the following table, drawn up from the hundred cases by the "all slopes" method, will show its amount. table xiv.--_from sets._ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | no. of different index-headings. | | digits. | no. of |------------------------------------| | | digits. | all | _i_ and _o_ | no slope. | | | | slopes. | fore-finger. | | |-----------------------|---------|---------|--------------|-----------| | fore and middle of | | | | | | right hand | | | | | | | | | | | | fore, middle and ring | | | | | | of right hand | | | | | | | | | | | | fore, middle and ring | | | | | | of both hands | | | | | | | | | | | | all ten digits | | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ the trouble of printing, reading off, and indexing the ten digits, is practically twice that of dealing with the six fingers; namely, three on each of the hands; the thumb being inconvenient to print from, and having to be printed separately, even for a dabbed impression, while the fingers of either hand can be dabbed down simultaneously. for a large collection the ten digit method is certainly the best, as it breaks up the big battalions; also in case of one or more fingers having been injured, it gives reserve material to work upon. * * * * * we now come to the great difficulty in all classifications; that of transitional cases. what is to be done with those prints which cannot be certainly classed as arches, loops, or whorls, but which lie between some two of them? these occur about once in every forty digits, or once in every four pairs of hands. the roughest way is to put a mark by the side of the entry to indicate doubt, a better one is to make a mark that shall express the nature of the peculiarity; thus a particular eyed pattern (plate , fig. , _n_) may be transitional between a loop and a whorl; under whichever of the two it is entered, the mark might be an _e_ to show that anyhow it is an eye. then, when it is required to discover whether an index contains a duplicate of a given specimen in which a transitional pattern occurs, the two headings between which the doubt lies have to be searched, and the marked entries will limit the search. many alternative ways of marking may be successfully used, but i am not yet prepared to propose one as being distinctly the best. when there are two of these marks in the same set, it seldom happens that more than two references have to be made, as it is usual for the ambiguity to be of the same kind in both of the doubtful fingers. if the ambiguities were quite independent, then two marks would require four references, and three marks would require nine. there are a few nondescript prints that would fall under a separate heading, such as z. similarly, as regards lost or injured fingers. i have tried various methods of sub-classification, and find no difficulty in any of them, but general rules seem inadvisable; it being best to treat each large group on its own merits. one method that i have adopted and described in the _proc. royal soc._, is to sketch in a cursive and symbolic form the patterns of the several fingers in the order in which they appear in the print, confining myself to a limited number of symbols, such as might be used for printer's types. they sufficed fairly for some thousands of the finger marks upon which they were tried, but doubtless they could be improved. a little violence has of course to be used now and then, in fitting some unusual patterns to some one or other of these few symbols. but we are familiar with such processes in ordinary spelling, making the same letter do duty for different sounds, as _a_ in the words _as_, _ale_, _ask_, and _all_. the plan of using symbols has many secondary merits. it facilitates a leisurely revision of first determinations, it affords a pictorial record of the final judgment that is directly comparable with the print itself, and it almost wholly checks blunders between inner and outer slopes. a beginner in finger reading will educate his judgment by habitually using them at first. [illustration: plate . fig. . form of card used for impressions of the ten digits. - / × inches. fig. . roller and its bearings, of a pocket printing apparatus.] the cores give great assistance in breaking up the very large groups of all-loops (see table xii., nos. and viii.); so does an entry of the approximate number of ridges in some selected fingers, that lie between the core and the upper outline of the loop. * * * * * the plan i am now using for keeping finger prints in regular order, is this:--in the principal collection, the prints of each person's ten digits are taken on the same large card; the four fingers of either hand being _dabbed_ down simultaneously above, and all the ten digits _rolled_ separately below. (plate , fig. .) each card has a hole three-eighths of an inch in diameter, punched in the middle near to the bottom edge, and the cards are kept in trays, which they loosely fit, like the card catalogues used in many libraries. each tray holds easily cards, which are secured by a long stout wire passing like a skewer through the ends of the box and the holes in the cards. the hinder end of the box is sloped, so the cards can be tilted back and easily examined; they can be inserted or removed after withdrawing the wire. it will be recollected that the leading and therefore the most conspicuous headings in the index refer to the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hand, as entered in column a of the specimen register (table ix.) the variety of these in the "_i_ and _o_ fore-finger" method, of which we are now speaking, cannot exceed thirty-six, there being only four varieties (_a_, _i_, _o_, _w_) in the fore-finger, and three varieties (_a_, _l_, _w_) in each of the other two; so their maximum number is × × = . the actual number of such index-headings in cases, and the number of entries that fell under each, was found to be as follows:-- table xv. _no. of entries in cases, under each of the thirty-six possible index-letters for the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hand by the "i-o fore-finger" method._ +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | _a a a_ | || _i a a_ | || _o a a_ | || _w a a_ | -- | | _l_ | || _l_ | || _l_ | || _l_ | -- | | _w_ | || _w_ | -- || _w_ | || _w_ | | | | || | || | || | | | _a l a_ | || _i l a_ | -- || _o l a_ | || _w l a_ | | | _l_ | || _l_ | || _l_ | || _l_ | | | _w_ | || _w_ | || _w_ | || _w_ | | | | || | || | || | | | _a w a_ | -- || _i w a_ | -- || _o w a_ | -- || _w w a_ | -- | | _l_ | -- || _l_ | || _l_ | -- || _l_ | | | _w_ | -- || _w_ | || _w_ | || _w_ | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ _a_ = arch. _i_ = inward-sloped loop on the fore-finger. _o_ = outward-sloped loop on the fore-finger. _l_ = loop of either kind on the middle or ring finger. _w_ = whorl. these cases supply no entries at all to eleven of the thirty-six index-headings, less than five entries (or under per cent) to ten others, and the supply is distributed very unevenly among the remaining fifteen. this table makes it easy to calculate beforehand the spaces required for an index of any specified number of prints, whether they be on the pages of a register, or in compartments, or in drawers of movable cards. chapter x personal identification we shall speak in this chapter of the aid that finger prints can give to personal identification, supposing throughout that facilities exist for taking them well and cheaply, and that more or less practice in reading them has been acquired by many persons. a few introductory words will show this supposition to be reasonable. at the present moment any printer, and there are many printers in every town, would, at a small charge, blacken a slab and take the prints effectively, after being warned to use very little ink, as described in chapter iii. the occupation of finger printing would, however, fall more naturally into the hands of photographers, who, in addition to being found everywhere, are peculiarly well suited to it, for, taken as a class, they are naturally gifted with manual dexterity and mechanical ingenuity. having secured good impressions, they could multiply them when necessary, and enlarge when desired, while the ticketing and preservation of the negatives would fall into their usual business routine. as they already occupy themselves with one means of identification, a second means of obtaining the same result is allied to their present work. were it the custom for persons about to travel to ask for prints of their fingers when they were photographed, a familiarity with the peculiarities of finger prints, and the methods of describing and classifying them, would become common. wherever finger prints may be wanted for purposes of attestation and the like, the fact mentioned by sir w. herschel (p. ) as to the readiness with which his native orderlies learnt to take them with the ink of his office stamp, must not be forgotten. the remarks about to be made refer to identification generally, and are not affected by the fact that the complete process may or may not include the preliminary search of a catalogue; the two stages of search and of comparison will be treated separately towards the close of the chapter. in civilised lands, honest citizens rarely need additional means of identification to their signatures, their photographs, and to personal introductions. the cases in which other evidence is wanted are chiefly connected with violent death through accident, murder, or suicide, which yield the constant and gruesome supply to the morgue of paris, and to corresponding institutions in other large towns, where the bodies of unknown persons are exposed for identification, often in vain. but when honest persons travel to distant countries where they have few or no friends, the need for a means of recognition is more frequently felt. the risk of death through accident or crime is increased, and the probability of subsequent identification diminished. there is a possibility not too remote to be disregarded, especially in times of war, of a harmless person being arrested by mistake for another man, and being in sore straits to give satisfactory proof of the error. a signature may be distrusted as a forgery. there is also some small chance, when he returns to his own country after a long absence, of finding difficulty in proving who he is. but in civilised lands and in peaceable times, the chief use of a sure means of identification is to benefit society by detecting rogues, rather than to establish the identity of men who are honest. is this criminal an old offender? is this new recruit a deserter? is this professed pensioner personating a man who is dead? is this upstart claimant to property the true heir, who was believed to have died in foreign lands? in india and in many of our colonies the absence of satisfactory means for identifying persons of other races is seriously felt. the natives are mostly unable to sign; their features are not readily distinguished by europeans; and in too many cases they are characterised by a strange amount of litigiousness, wiliness, and unveracity. the experience of sir w. herschel, and the way in which he met these unfavourable conditions by the method of finger prints, has been briefly described in p. . lately major ferris, of the indian staff corps, happening to visit my laboratory during my absence, and knowing but little of what sir w. herschel had done, was greatly impressed by the possibilities of finger prints. after acquainting himself with the process, we discussed the subject together, and he very kindly gave me his views for insertion here. they are as follow, with a few trifling changes of words:-- "during a period of twenty-three years, eighteen of which have been passed in the political department of the bombay government, the great need of an official system of identification has been constantly forced on my mind. "the uniformity in the colour of hair, eyes, and complexion of the indian races renders identification far from easy, and the difficulty of recording the description of an individual, so that he may be afterwards recognised, is very great. again, their hand-writing, whether it be in persian or devanagri letters, is devoid of character and gives but little help towards identification. "the tenacity with which a native of india cleaves to his ancestral land, his innate desire to acquire more and more, and the obligation that accrues to him at birth of safeguarding that which has already been acquired, amounts to a religion, and passes the comprehension of the ordinary western mind. this passion, or religion, coupled with a natural taste for litigation, brings annually into the civil courts an enormous number of suits affecting land. in a native state at one time under my political charge, the percentage of suits for the possession of land in which the title was disputed amounted to no less than , while in per cent of these the writing by which the transfer of title purported to have been made, was repudiated by the former title-holder as fraudulent and not executed by him. when it is remembered that an enormous majority of the landholders whose titles come into court are absolutely illiterate, and that their execution of the documents is attested by a mark made by a third party, frequently, though not always apparently, interested in the transfer, it will be seen that there is a wide door open to fraud, whether by false repudiation or by criminal attempt at dispossession. "it has frequently happened in my experience that a transfer of title or possession was repudiated; the person purporting to have executed the transfer asserting that he had no knowledge of it, and never authorised any one to write, sign, or present it for registration. this was met by a categorical statement on the part of the beneficiary and of the attesting witnesses, concerning the time, date, and circumstances of the execution and registration, that demolished the simple denial of the man whom it was sought to dispossess. without going into the ethics of falsehood among western and eastern peoples, it would be impossible to explain how what is repugnant to the one as downright lying, is very frequently considered as no more than venial prevarication by the other. this, however, is too large a subject for present purposes, but the fact remains that perjury is perpetrated in indian courts to an extent unknown in the united kingdom. "the interests of landholders are partially safeguarded by the act that requires all documents effecting the transfer of immovable property to be registered, but it could be explained, though not in the short space of this letter, how the provisions of the act can be, and frequently are, fulfilled in the absence of the principal person, the executor. "enough has been said to show that if some simple but efficient means could be contrived to identify the person who has executed a bond, cases of fraud such as these would practically disappear from the judicial registers. were the legislature to amend the registration act and require that the original document as well as the copy in the registration book should bear the imprint of one or more fingers of the parties to the deed, i have little hesitation in saying that not only would fraud be detected, but that in a short time the facility of that detection would act as a deterrent for the future. [this was precisely the experience of sir w. herschel.--f.g.] in the majority of cases, the mere question would be, is the man a the same person as b, or is he not? and of that question the finger marks would give unerring proof. for example, to take the simplest case, a is sued for possession of some land, the title of which he is stated to have parted with to another for a consideration. the document and the registration book both bear the imprint of the index finger of the right hand of a. a repudiates, and a comparison shows that whereas the finger pattern of a is a whorl, the imprint on the document is a loop; consequently a did not execute it. "in the identification of government pensioners the finger print method would be very valuable. at one period, i had the payment of many hundreds of military pensioners. personation was most difficult to detect in persons coming from a distance, who had no local acquaintances, and more especially where the claimants were women. the marks of identification noted in the pension roll were usually variations of:--"hair black--eyes brown--complexion wheat colour--marks of tattooing on fore-arm"--terms which are equally appropriate to a large number of the pensioners. the description was supplemented in some instances, where the pensioner had some distinguishing mark or scar, but such cases are considerably rarer than might be supposed, and in women the marks are not infrequently in such a position as to practically preclude comparison. here also the imprint of one or more finger prints on the pension certificate, would be sufficient to settle any doubt as to identity. "as a large number of persons pass through the indian gaols not only while undergoing terms of imprisonment, but in default of payment of a fine, it could not but prove of value were the finger prints of one and all secured. they might assist in identifying persons who have formerly been convicted, of whom the local police have no knowledge, and who bear a name that may be the common property of half a hundred in any small town." whatever difficulty may be felt in the identification of hindoos, is experienced in at least an equal degree in that of the chinese residents in our colonies and settlements, who to european eyes are still more alike than the hindoos, and in whose names there is still less variety. i have already referred (p. ) to mr. tabor, of san francisco, and his proposal in respect to the registration of the chinese. remarks showing the need of some satisfactory method of identifying them, have reached me from various sources. the _british north borneo herald_, august , , that lies before me as i write, alludes to the difficulty of identifying coolies, either by photographs or measurements, as likely to become important in the early future of that country. for purposes of registration, the method of printing to be employed, must be one that gives little trouble on the one hand, and yields the maximum of efficiency for that amount of trouble on the other. sir w. herschel impressed simultaneously the fore and middle fingers of the right hand. to impress simultaneously the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hand ought, however, to be better, the trouble being no greater, while three prints are obviously more effective than two, especially for an off-hand comparison. moreover, the patterns on the ring-finger are much more variable than those on the middle finger. much as rolled impressions are to be preferred for minute and exhaustive comparisons, they would probably be inconvenient for purposes of registration or attestation. each finger has to be rolled separately, and each separate rolling takes more time than a dab of all the fingers of one hand simultaneously. now a dabbed impression of even two fingers is more useful for registration purposes than the rolled impression of one; much more is a dabbed impression of three, especially when the third is the variable ring-finger. again, in a simultaneous impression, there is no doubt as to the sequence of the finger prints being correct, but there may be some occasional bungling when the fingers are printed separately. * * * * * for most criminal investigations, and for some other purposes also, the question is not the simple one just considered, namely, "is a the same person, or a different person from b?" but the much more difficult problem of "who is this unknown person x? is his name contained in such and such a register?" we will now consider how this question may be answered. registers of criminals are kept in all civilised countries, but in france they are indexed according to the method of m. alphonse bertillon, which admits of an effective search being made through a large collection. we shall see how much the differentiating power of the french or of any other system of indexing might be increased by including finger prints in the register. m. bertillon has described his system in three pamphlets:-- ( ) _une application pratique de l'anthropometrie_, extrait des annales de démographie interne. paris . ( ) _les signalements anthropometriques_, conference faite au congrès penitentiare international de rome, nov. , . ( ) _sur le fonctionnement du service des signalements_. all the above are published by masson, boulevard st. germain, paris. to these must be added a very interesting but anonymous pamphlet, based on official documents, and which i have reason to know is authorised by m. bertillon, namely, ( ) _l'anthropometrie judiciare en paris, en _: g. stenheil, rue casimir-delavigne, paris. besides these a substantial volume is forthcoming, which may give a satisfactory solution to some present uncertainties. the scale on which the service is carried on, is very large. it was begun in , and by the end of no less than , sets of measures were in hand, but thus far only about one half of the persons arrested in paris were measured, owing to the insufficiency of the staff. arrangements were then made for its further extension. there are from to prisoners sentenced each day by the courts of law in paris to more than a few days' imprisonment, and every one of these is sent to the dépôt for twenty-four hours. while there, they are now submitted to _bertillonage_, a newly coined word that has already come into use. this is done in the forenoon, by three operators and three clerks; six officials in all. about half of the prisoners are old offenders, of whom a considerable proportion give their names correctly, as is rapidly verified by an alphabetically arranged catalogue of cards, each of which contains front and profile photographs, and measurements. the remainder are examined strictly; their bodily marks are recorded according to a terse system of a few letters, and they are variously measured. each person occupies seven or eight minutes. they are then photographed. from sixty to seventy-five prisoners go through this complete process every forenoon. in the afternoon the officials are engaged in making numerous copies of each set of records, one of which is sent to lyon, and another to marseille, where there are similar establishments. they also classify the copies of records that are received from those towns and elsewhere in france, of which from seventy to one hundred arrive daily. lastly, they search the registers for duplicate sets of measures of those, whether in paris or in the provinces, who were suspected of having given false names. the entire staff consists of ten persons. it is difficult to rightly interpret the figures given in the pamphlet ( ) at pp. - , as they appear to disagree, but as i understand them, prisoners who gave false names in the year were recognised by _bertillonage_, and only four other persons were otherwise discovered to have been convicted previously, who had escaped recognition by its means. i had the pleasure of seeing the system in operation in paris a few years ago, and was greatly impressed by the deftness of the measuring, and with the swiftness and success with which the assistants searched for the cards containing entries similar to the measures of the prisoner then under examination. it is stated in the _signalements_ (p. ) that the basis of the classification are the four measurements ( ) head-length, ( ) head-breadth, ( ) middle-finger-length, ( ) foot-length, their constancy during adult life nearly always [as stated] holding good. each of these four elements severally is considered as belonging to one or other of three equally numerous classes--small, medium, and large; consequently there are { } or principal headings, under some one of which the card of each prisoner is in the first instance sorted. each of these primary headings is successively subdivided, on the same general principle of a three-fold classification, according to other measures that are more or less subject to uncertainties, namely, the height, the span, the cubit, the length and breadth of the ear, and the height of the bust. the eye-colour alone is subjected to seven divisions. the general result is (pp. , ) that a total of twelve measures are employed, of which eleven are classed on the three-fold principle, and one on the seven-fold, giving a final result of { } × , or more than a million possible combinations. m. bertillon considers it by no means necessary to stop here, but in his chapter (p. ) on the "infinite extension of the classification," claims that the method may be indefinitely extended. the success of the system is considered by many experts to be fully proved, notwithstanding many apparent objections, one of which is the difficulty due to transitional cases: a belief in its success has certainly obtained a firm hold upon the popular imagination in france. its general acceptance elsewhere seems to have been delayed in part by a theoretical error in the published calculations of its efficiency: the measures of the limbs which are undoubtedly correlated being treated as independent, and in part by the absence of a sufficiently detailed account of the practical difficulties experienced in its employment. thus in the _application pratique_, p. : "we are embarrassed what to choose, the number of human measures which vary independently of each other being considerable." in the _signalements_, p. : "it has been shown" (by assuming this independent variability) "that by seven measurements, , photographs can be separated into batches of less than ten in each." (by the way, even on that assumption, the result is somewhat exaggerated, the figures having been arrived at by successively taking the higher of the two nearest round values.) in short, the general tone of these two memoirs is one of enthusiastic belief in the method, based almost wholly, so far as is there shown, on questionable _theoretic_ grounds of efficiency. to learn how far correlation interferes with the regularity of distribution, causing more entries to be made under some index-heads than others, as was the case with finger prints, i have classified on the bertillon system, sets of measures taken at my laboratory. it was not practicable to take more than three of the four primary measures, namely, the head-length, its breadth, and the middle-finger-length. the other measure, that of foot-length, is not made at my laboratory, as it would require the shoes to be taken off, which is inconvenient since persons of all ranks and both sexes are measured there; but this matters little for the purpose immediately in view. it should, however, be noted that the head-length and head-breadth have especial importance, being only slightly correlated, either together or with any other dimension of the body. many a small man has a head that is large in one or both directions, while a small man rarely has a large foot, finger, or cubit, and conversely with respect to large men. the following set of five measures of each of the persons were then tabulated: ( ) head-length; ( ) head-breadth; ( ) span; ( ) body-height, that is the height of the top of the head from the seat on which the person sits; ( ) middle-finger-length. the measurements were to the nearest tenth of an inch, but in cases of doubt, half-tenths were recorded in ( ), ( ), and ( ). with this moderate minuteness of measurement, it was impossible so to divide the measures as to give better results than the following, which show that the numbers in the three classes are not as equal as desirable. but they nevertheless enable us to arrive at an approximate idea of the irregular character of the distribution. table xvi. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | medium |nos. in the three classes respectively.| | dimensions | measures in |---------------------------------------| | measured. | inches and | - | | + | total. | | | tenths. | below. | medium. | above. | | |----------------|--------------|--------|---------|---------|----------| | . head-length | · to · | | | | | | . head-breadth | · " · | | | | | | . span | · " · | | | | | | . body-height | · " · | | | | | | . middle-finger| · " · | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ the distribution of the measures is shown in table xvii. table xvii. _distribution of sets of measures into classes. each set consists of five elements; each element is classed as + or above medium class; m, or mediocre; -, or below medium class._ (total number of classes is { } = .) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | +---- span. | | | | | | | | +-- body- | head-length, head-breadth. | | | | height.| | | | | | | | | | middle-|-----------------------------------------------| | | | | finger.| | | | | | | | |---------------|---------------|---------------| | | | | | - - - m - + | m - m m m + | + - + m + + | |----------------|---------------|---------------|---------------| | - - - | | | | | m | - - | | - | | + | - - - | - - | - - - | | | | | | | - m - | | | | | m | - - | | - | | + | - - - | - - - | - - | | | | | | | - + - | - - | | - - | | m | - - | - - - | - | | + | - - - | - - | - - | |----------------|---------------|---------------|---------------| | m - - | - | | | | m | - | | - | | + | - - - | - | - - | | | | | | | m m - | | | | | m | - | | | | + | | - | | | | | | | | m + - | | - | - | | m | - | | | | + | - - | - - | | |----------------|---------------|---------------|---------------| | + - - | - - | - - | - - - | | m | - - | - | - | | + | - | - | - - | | | | | | | + m - | - | - | - - | | m | - | - | | | + | - | | | | | | | | | + + - | - | - | | | m | - - | | | | + | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ the frequency with which , , , , etc., sets were found to fall under the same index-heading, is shown in table xviii. table xviii. +----------------------------------------------------+ | no. of sets | | | | under same | frequency of its | no. of entries. | | index-heading.| occurrence. | | |---------------|------------------|-----------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------------------------------------------| | total entries | +----------------------------------------------------+ no example was found of , say of one-third, of the possible combinations. in one case no less than sets fell under the same head; in another case did so, and there were two cases in which , , and severally did the same. thus, out of sets (see the five bottom lines in the last column of the above table) no less than sets fell into four classes, each of which included from to entries. the sets whose index-number is + m, + + + admit of being easily subdivided and rapidly sorted by an expert, into smaller groups, paying regard to considerable differences only, in the head-length and head-breadth. after doing this, two comparatively large groups remain, with five cases in each, which require further analysis. they are as follow, the height and eye-colour being added in each case, and brackets being so placed as to indicate measures that do not differ to a sufficient amount to be surely distinguished. no two sets are alike throughout, some difference of considerable magnitude always occurring to distinguish them. nos. and come closest together, and are distinguished by eye-colour alone. table xix. five cases of head-length · , and head-breadth · . span. body. finger. height. eye-colour. . { · · · { · { br. grey . { · { · { · { · { br. grey . { · { · { · { · blue . · · · · brown . · · · · blue five cases of head-length · , and head-breadth · . . · · { · { · brown . { · · { · { · blue . { · { · { · { · brown . · { · · · blue . · { · · · blue grey this is satisfactory. it shows that each one of the sets may be distinguished from all the others by means of only seven elements; for if it is possible so to subdivide twenty-four entries that come under one index-heading, we may assume that we could do so in the other cases where the entries were fewer. the other measures that i possess--strength of grasp and breathing capacity--are closely correlated with stature and bulk, while eyesight and reaction-time are uncorrelated, but the latter are hardly suited to test the further application of the bertillon method. it would appear, from these and other data, that a purely anthropometric classification, irrespective of bodily marks and photographs, would enable an expert to deal with registers of considerable size. bearing in mind that mediocrities differ less from one another than members of either of the extreme classes, and would therefore be more difficult to distinguish, it seems probable that with comparatively few exceptions, _at least_ two thousand adults of the same sex might be individualised, merely by means of twelve careful measures, on the bertillon system, making reasonable allowances for that small change of proportions that occurs after the lapse of a few years, and for inaccuracies of measurement. this estimate may be far below the truth, but more cannot, i think, be safely inferred from the above very limited experiment. the system of registration adopted in the american army for tracing suspected deserters, was described in a memoir contributed to the "international congress of demography," held in london in . the memoir has so far been only published in the _abstracts of papers_, p. (eyre and spottiswoode). its phraseology is unfortunately so curt as sometimes to be difficult to understand; it runs as follows:-- personal identity as determined by scars and other body marks by colonel charles r. greenleaf and major charles smart, medical department, u.s. army. desertions from united states army believed to greatly exceed deserters, owing to repeaters. detection of repeaters possible if all body marks of all recruits recorded, all deserters noted, and all recruits compared with previous deserters. in like manner men discharged for cause excluded from re-entry. bertillon's anthropometric method insufficient before courts-martial, because possible inaccuracies in measurement, and because of allowable errors. but identity acknowledged following coincident indelible marks, when height, age, and hair fairly correspond. that is, bertillon's collateral evidence is practically primary evidence for such purposes. there is used for each man an outline figure card giving anterior and posterior surfaces, divided by dotted lines into regions. these, showing each permanent mark, are filed alphabetically at the surgeon-general's office, war department. as a man goes out for cause, or deserts, his card is placed in a separate file. the cards of recruits are compared with the last-mentioned file. to make this comparison, a register in two volumes is opened, one for light-eyed and one for dark-eyed men. each is subdivided into a fair number of pages, according to height of entrants, and each page is ruled in columns for body regions. tattooed and non-tattooed men of similar height and eyes are entered on opposite pages. recruits without tattoos are not compared with deserters with tattoos; but recruits with tattoos are compared with both classes. on the register s t b m, etc., are used as abbreviations for scar, tattoo, birth-mark, mole, etc. one inch each side of recorded height allowed for variation or defective measurement. when probability of identity appears, the original card is used for comparison. owing to obstacles in inaugurating new system, its practical working began with , and, to include may [= months, f.g.], out of sixty-two cases of suspected fraud sixty-one proved real. there was some interesting discussion, both upon this memoir and on a verbal communication concerning the french method, that had been made by m. jacques bertillon the statistician, who is a brother of its originator. it appeared that there was room for doubt whether the anthropometric method had received a fair trial in america, the measurements being made by persons not specially trained, whereas in france the establishments, though small, are thoroughly efficient. there are almost always moles or birth-marks, serving for identification, on the body of every one, and a record of these is, as already noted, an important though subsidiary part of the bertillon system. body-marks are noted in the english registers of criminals, and it is curious how large a proportion of these men are tattooed and scarred. how far the body-marks admit of being usefully charted on the american plan, it is difficult to say, the success of the method being largely dependent on the care with which they are recorded. the number of persons hitherto dealt with on the american plan appears not to be very large. as observations of this class require the person to be undressed, they are unsuitable for popular purposes of identification, but the marks have the merit of serving to identify at all ages, which the measurements of the limbs have not. it seems strange that no register of this kind, so far as i know, takes account of the teeth. if a man, on being first registered, is deficient in certain teeth, they are sure to be absent when he is examined on a future occasion. he may, and probably will in the meantime, have lost others, but the fact of his being without specified teeth on the first occasion, excludes the possibility of his being afterwards mistaken for a man who still possesses them. we will now separately summarise the results arrived at, in respect to the two processes that may both be needed in order to effect an identification. first, as regards _search in an index_.--some sets of measures will give trouble, but the greater proportion can apparently be catalogued with so much certainty, that if a second set of measures of any individual be afterwards taken, no tedious search will be needed to hunt out the former set. including the bodily marks and photographs, let us rate the bertillon method as able to cope with a register of , adults of the same sex, with a small and definable, but as yet unknown, average dose of difficulty, which we will call _x_. a catalogue of sets of finger prints easily fulfils the same conditions. i could lay a fair claim to much more, but am content with this. now the finger patterns have been shown to be so independent of other conditions that they cannot be notably, if at all, correlated with the bodily measurements or with any other feature, not the slightest trace of any relation between them having yet been found, as will be shown at p. , and more fully in chapter xii. for instance, it would be totally impossible to fail to distinguish between the finger prints of twins, who in other respects appeared exactly alike. finger prints may therefore be treated without the fear of any sensible error, as varying quite independently of the measures and records in the bertillon system. their inclusion would consequently increase its power fully five-hundred fold. suppose one moderate dose of difficulty, _x_, is enough for dealing with the measurements, etc., of , adult persons of the same sex by the bertillon method, and a similar dose of difficulty with the finger prints of persons, then two such doses could deal with a register of , × , or , , . we now proceed to consider the second and final process, namely, that of identification by _comparison_. when the data concerning a suspected person are discovered to bear a general likeness to one of those already on the register, and a minute comparison shows their finger prints to agree in all or nearly all particulars, the evidence thereby afforded that they were made by the same person, far transcends in trustworthiness any other evidence that can ordinarily be obtained, and vastly exceeds all that can be derived from any number of ordinary anthropometric data. _by itself it is amply sufficient to convict._ _bertillonage_ can rarely supply more than grounds for very strong suspicion: the method of finger prints affords certainty. it is easy, however, to understand that so long as the peculiarities of finger prints are not generally understood, a juryman would be cautious in accepting their evidence, but it is to be hoped that attention will now gradually become drawn to their marvellous virtues, and that after their value shall have been established in a few conspicuous cases, it will come to be popularly recognised. let us not forget two great and peculiar merits of finger prints; they are self-signatures, free from all possibility of faults in observation or of clerical error; and they apply throughout life. an abstract of the remarks made by m. herbette, director of the penitentiary department of the ministère de l'intérieur, france, at the international penitentiary congress at rome, after the communication by m. alphonse bertillon had been read, may fitly follow. "proceeding to a more extended view of the subject and praising the successful efforts of m. bertillon, m. herbette pointed out how a verification of the physical personality, and of the identity of people of adult age, would fulfil requirements of modern society in an indisputable manner under very varied conditions. "if it were a question, for instance, of giving to the inhabitants of a country, to the soldiers of an army, or to travellers proceeding to distant lands, notices or personal cards as recognisable signs, enabling them always to prove who they are; if it were a question of completing the obligatory records of civil life by perfectly sure indications, such as would prevent all error, or substitution of persons; if it were a question of recording the distinctive marks of an individual in documents, titles or contracts, where his identity requires to be established for his own interest, for that of third parties, or for that of the state,--there the anthropometric system of identification would find place. "should it be a question of a life certificate, of a life assurance, or of a proof of death, or should it be required to certify the identity of a person who was insane, severely wounded, or of a dead body that had been partly destroyed, or so disfigured as to be hardly recognisable from a sudden or violent death due to crime, accident, shipwreck, or battle--how great would be the advantage of being able to trace these characters, unchangeable as they are in each individual, infinitely variable as between one individual and another, indelible, at least in part, even in death. "there is still more cause to be interested in this subject when it is a question of identifying persons who are living at a great distance, and after the lapse of a considerable time, when the physiognomy, the features, and the physical habits may have changed from natural or artificial causes, and to be able to identify them without taking a journey and without cost, by the simple exchange of a few lines or figures that may be sent from one country or continent to another, so as to give information in america as to who any particular man is, who has just arrived from france, and to certify whether a certain traveller found in rome is the same person who was measured in stockholm ten years before. "in one word, to fix the human personality, to give to each human being an identity, an individuality that can be depended upon with certainty, lasting, unchangeable, always recognisable and easily adduced, this appears to be in the largest sense the aim of the new method. "consequently, it may be said that the extent of the problem, as well as the importance of its solution, far exceeds the limits of penitentiary work and the interest, which is however by no means inconsiderable, that penal action has excited amongst various nations. these are the motives for giving to the labours of m. bertillon and to their practical utilisation the publicity they merit." these full and clear remarks seem even more applicable to the method of finger prints than to that of anthropometry. chapter xi heredity some of those who have written on finger marks affirm that they are transmissible by descent, others assert the direct contrary, but no inquiry hitherto appears to justify a definite conclusion. chapter viii. shows a close correlation to exist between the patterns on the several fingers of the same person. hence we are justified in assuming that the patterns are partly dependent on constitutional causes, in which case it would indeed be strange if the general law of heredity failed in this particular case. after examining many prints, the frequency with which some peculiar pattern was found to characterise members of the same family convinced me of the reality of an hereditary tendency. the question was how to submit the belief to numerical tests; particular kinships had to be selected, and methods of discussion devised. it must here be borne in mind that "heredity" implies more than its original meaning of a relationship between parent and child. it includes that which connects children of the same parents, and which i have shown (_natural inheritance_) to be just twice as close in the case of stature as that which connects a child and either of its two parents. moreover, the closeness of the fraternal and the filial relations are to a great extent interdependent, for in any population whose faculties remain _statistically_ the same during successive generations, it has been shown that a simple algebraical equation must exist, that connects together the three elements of filial relation, fraternal relation, and regression, by which a knowledge of any two of them determines the value of the third. so far as regression may be treated as being constant in value, the filial and the fraternal relations become reciprocally connected. it is not possible briefly to give an adequate explanation of all this now, or to show how strictly observations were found to confirm the theory; this has been fully done in _natural inheritance_, and the conclusions will here be assumed. the fraternal relation, besides disclosing more readily than other kinships the existence or non-existence of heredity, is at the same time more convenient, because it is easier to obtain examples of brothers and sisters alone, than with the addition of their father and mother. the resemblance between those who are twins is also an especially significant branch of the fraternal relationship. the word "fraternities" will be used to include the children of both sexes who are born of the same parents; it being impossible to name the familiar kinship in question either in english, french, latin, or greek, without circumlocution or using an incorrect word, thus affording a striking example of the way in which abstract thought outruns language, and its expression is hampered by the inadequacy of language. in this dilemma i prefer to fall upon the second horn, that of incorrectness of phraseology, subject to the foregoing explanation and definition. the first preliminary experiments were made with the help of the arch-loop-whorl classification, on the same principle as that already described and utilised in chapter viii., with the following addition. each of the two members of any couplet of fingers has a distinctive name--for instance, the couplet may consist of a finger and a thumb: or again, if it should consist of two fore-fingers, one will be a right fore-finger and the other a left one, but the two brothers in a couplet of brothers rank equally as such. the plan was therefore adopted of "ear-marking" the prints of the first of the two brothers that happened to come to hand, with an a, and that of the second brother with a b; and so reducing the questions to the shape:--how often does the pattern on the finger of a b brother agree with that on the corresponding finger of an a brother? how often would it occur between two persons who had no family likeness? how often would it correspond if the kinship between a and b were as close as it is possible to conceive? or transposing the questions, and using the same words as in chapter viii., what is the relative frequency of ( ) random occurrences, ( ) observed occurrences, ( ) utmost possibilities? it was shown in that chapter how to find the value of ( ) upon a centesimal scale in which "randoms" ranked as ° and "utmost possibilities" as °. the method there used of calculating the frequency of the "random" events will be accepted without hesitation by all who are acquainted with the theory and the practice of problems of probability. still, it is as well to occasionally submit calculation to test. the following example was sent to me for that purpose by a friend who, not being mathematically minded, had demurred somewhat to the possibility of utilising the calculated "randoms." the prints of (by mistake for ) couplets of prints of the right fore-fingers of school children were taken by him from a large collection, the two members, a and b, being picked out at random and formed into a couplet. it was found that among the a children there were arches, loops, and whorls, and among the b children , , and respectively, as is shown by the _italic_ numerals in the last column, and again in the bottom row of table xx. the remainder of the table shows the number of times in which an arch, loop, or whorl of an a child was associated with an arch, loop, or whorl of a b child. table xx. _observed random couplets._ +----------------------------------------------------+ | | a children. | totals in | | b children. |------------------------| b children. | | | arches.| loops.|whorls.| | |-------------|--------|-------|-------|-------------| | arches | | | | _ _ | | loops | | | | _ _ | | whorls | | | | _ _ | |-------------|--------|-------|-------|-------------| |totals in a} | | | | | | children } | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | | +----------------------------------------------------+ table xxi. _calculated random couplets._ +----------------------------------------------------+ | | a children. | totals in | | b children. |------------------------| b children. | | | arches.| loops.|whorls.| | |-------------|--------|-------|-------|-------------| | arches | · | · | · | _ _ | | loops | · | · | · | _ _ | | whorls | · | · | · | _ _ | |-------------|--------|-------|-------|-------------| |totals in a} | | | | | | children } | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | | +----------------------------------------------------+ the question, then, was how far calculations from the above data would correspond with the contents of table xx. the answer is that it does so admirably. multiply each of the italicised a totals into each of the italicised b totals, and after dividing each result by , enter it in the square at which the column that has the a total at its base, is intersected by the row that has the b total at its side. we thus obtain table xxi. we will now discuss in order the following relationships: the fraternal, first in the ordinary sense, and then in the special case of twins of the same set; filial, in the special case in which both parents have the same particular pattern on the same finger; lastly, the relative influence of the father and mother in transmitting their patterns. _fraternal relationship._--in fraternities the _observed_ figures were as in table xxii.:-- table xxii. _observed fraternal couplets._ +----------------------------------------------------+ | | a children. | totals in | | b children. |----------------------| b children. | | |arches.|loops.|whorls.| | |--------------|-------|------|-------|--------------| |arches | | | | _ _ | | |-------+------| | | |loops | | | | _ _ | | |-------|------|-------| | |whorls | | | | _ _ | |--------------|-------+------+-------|--------------| |totals in a } | | | | | | children } | _ _ | _ _ | _ _ | | +----------------------------------------------------+ the squares that run diagonally from the top at the left, to the bottom at the right, contain the double events, and it is with these that we are now concerned. are the entries in those squares larger or not than the randoms, calculated as above, viz. the values of × , × , × , all divided by ? the calculated randoms are shown in the first line of table xxiii., the third line gives the greatest feasible number of correspondences which would occur if the kinship were as close as possible, subject to the reservation explained in p. . as there shown, the _lower_ of the a and b values is taken in each case, for arches, loops, and whorls respectively. table xxiii. +----------------------------------------------+ | | a and b both being | | |----------------------------| | | arches. | loops. | whorls. | |-----------------|---------|--------|---------| | random | · | · | · | | observed | · | · | · | | utmost feasible | · | · | · | +----------------------------------------------+ in every instance, the observed values are seen to exceed the random. many other cases of this description were calculated, all yielding the same general result, but these results are not as satisfactory as can be wished, owing to their dilution by inappropriate cases, the a. l. w. system being somewhat artificial. [illustration: plate . fig. . the "c" set of standard patterns, for prints of the right hand.] with the view of obtaining a more satisfactory result the patterns were subdivided under fifty-three heads, and an experiment was made with the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of fraternal couplets ( individuals and digits) by mr. f. howard collins, who kindly undertook the considerable labour of indexing and tabulating them. the provisional list of standard patterns published in the _phil. trans._ was not appropriate for this purpose. it related chiefly to thumbs, and consequently omitted the tented arch; it also referred to the left hand, but in the following tabulations the right hand has been used; and its numbering is rather inconvenient. the present set of fifty-three patterns has faults, and cannot be considered in any way as final, but it was suitable for our purposes and may be convenient to others; as mr. collins worked wholly by it, it may be distinguished as the "c. set." the banded patterns, - , are very rarely found on the fingers, but being common on the thumb, were retained, on the chance of our requiring the introduction of thumb patterns into the tabulations. the numerals refer to the patterns as seen in impressions of the _right hand_ only. [they would be equally true for the patterns as seen on the _fingers themselves_ of the left hand.] for impressions of the left hand the numerals up to inclusive would be the same, but those of all the rest would be changed. these are arranged in couplets, the one member of the couplet being a reversed picture of the other, those in each couplet being distinguished by severally bearing an odd and an even number. therefore, in impressions of the left hand, would have to be changed into , and into ; into , and into ; and so on, up to the end, viz. and . the numeral was used to express nondescript patterns. the finger prints had to be gone through repeatedly, some weeks elapsing between the inspections, and under conditions which excluded the possibility of unconscious bias; a subject of frequent communication between mr. collins and myself. living at a distance apart, it was not easy at the time they were made, to bring our respective interpretations of transitional and of some of the other patterns, especially the invaded loops, into strict accordance, so i prefer to keep his work, in which i have perfect confidence, independent from my own. whenever a fraternity consisted of more than two members, they were divided, according to a prearranged system, into as many couplets as there were individuals. thus, while a fraternity of three individuals furnished all of its three possible varieties of couplets, ( , ), ( , ), ( , ), one of four individuals was not allowed to furnish more than four of its possible couplets, the two italicised ones being omitted, ( , ), ( , ), (_ , _), (_ , _), ( , ), ( , ), and so on. without this precaution, a single very large family might exercise a disproportionate and even overwhelming statistical influence. it would be essential to exact working, that the mutual relations of the patterns should be taken into account; for example, suppose an arch to be found on the fore-finger of one brother and a nascent loop on that of the other; then, as these patterns are evidently related, their concurrence ought to be interpreted as showing some degree of resemblance. however, it was impossible to take cognizance of partial resemblances, the mutual relations of the patterns not having, as yet, been determined with adequate accuracy. the completed tabulations occupied three large sheets, one for each of the fingers, ruled crossways into fifty-three vertical columns for the a brothers, and fifty-three horizontal rows for the b brothers. thus, if the register number of the pattern of a was , and that of b was , then a mark would be put in the square limited by the ninth and tenth horizontal lines, and by the forty-first and forty-second vertical ones. the marks were scattered sparsely over the sheet. those in each square were then added up, and finally the numbers in each of the rows and in each of the columns were severally totalled. if the number of couplets had been much greater than they are, a test of the accuracy with which their patterns had been classed under the appropriate heads, would be found in the frequency with which the same patterns were registered in the corresponding finger of the a and b brothers. the a and b groups are strictly homogeneous, consequently the frequency of their patterns in corresponding fingers ought to be alike. the success with which this test has been fulfilled in the present case, is passably good, its exact degree being shown in the following paragraphs, where the numbers of entries under each head are arranged in as orderly a manner as the case admits, the smaller of the two numbers being the one that stands first, whether it was an a or a b. all instances in which there were at least five entries under either a or b, are included; the rest being disregarded. the result is as follows:-- i. thirteen cases of more or less congruity between the number of a and b entries under the same head:-- - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - . (this last refers to loops on the middle finger.) ii. six cases of more or less incongruity:-- - ; - ; - ; - ; - ; - . the three tables, xxiv., xxv., xxvi., contain the results of the tabulations and the deductions from them. table xxiv. _comparison of three fingers of the right hand in fraternal couplets._ +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | fore-fingers. || middle fingers. || ring-fingers. | | |--------------------||--------------------||--------------------| | index | down |along|double|| down |along|double|| down |along|double| | no. of|columns|lines|events||columns|lines|events||columns|lines|events| |pattern|-------|-----|------||-------|-----|------||-------|-----|------| | | | | a || | | a || | | a | | | a | b | and || a | b | and || a | b | and | | | | | b || | | b || | | b | |-------|-------|-----|------||-------|-----|------||-------|-----|------| | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | | | | | || | | || | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ table xxv. _comparison between random and observed events._ +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | fore. || middle. || ring. | |-------------------||-------------------||-------------------| | random.| observed.|| random.| observed.|| random.| observed.| |--------|----------||--------|----------||--------|----------| | · | || · | || · | | | · | ... || · | || · | ... | | · | || · | ... || · | ... | | · | ... || · | ... || · | | | · | ... || · | ... || · | ... | | · | || · | || · | | | · | ... || · | || · | | | · | || · | ... || · | ... | | · | || | || · | | | · | || | || · | | | · | ... || | || · | ... | | · | || | || · | | |--------| || | || | | | all | || | || | | | others.| || | || | | | · | || · | || · | | |--------|----------||--------|----------||--------|----------| | · | || · | || · | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ table xxvi. _centesimal scale (to nearest whole numbers)._ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | fraternal|random.|observed.| utmost |reduced | reduced to | | couplets. | | |possibilities.|to lower | upper | | | | | |limit= . | limit= . | |-------------|-------|---------|--------------|---------|--------------| | | | | | | centesimal | | | | | | | scale. | | | | | | |--------------| |fore-finger | · | | | | ° ° °| |middle | · | | | | ° ° °| |ring | · | | | | ° ° °| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | mean | ° ° °| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | additional| | | | | | | couplets. | | | | | | |-------------| | | | | | |middle finger| | | | | | |only | · | | | | ° ° °| |-------------|-------|---------|--------------|---------|--------------| | loops only, | | | | | | |and on middle| | | | | | | finger only.| | | | | | |-------------| | | | | | | couplets | · | | | | ° - / ° °| | couplets | · | | | · | ° ° °| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ table xxiv. contains all the observed events, and is to be read thus, beginning at the first entry. pattern no. occurs on the right fore-finger fifteen times among the a brothers, and twelve times among the b brothers; while in four of these cases both brothers have that same pattern. table xxv. compares the random events with the observed ones. every case in which the calculated expectation is equal to or exceeds · , is inserted in detail; the remaining group of petty cases are summed together and their totals entered in the bottom line. for fear of misapprehension or forgetfulness, one other example of the way in which the randoms are calculated will be given here, taking for the purpose the first entry in table xxiv. thus, the number of all the different combinations of the a with the b individuals in the couplets, is × . out of these, the number of double events in which pattern no. would appear in the same combination, is × = . therefore in trials, the double event of pattern no. would appear upon the average, on divided by , or on · occasions. as a matter of fact, it appeared four times. these figures will be found in the first line of table xxv.; the rest of its contents have been calculated in the same way. leaving aside the randoms that exceed but are less than , there are nineteen cases in which the random may be compared with the observed values; in all but two of these the observed are the highest, and in these two the random exceed the observed by only trifling amounts, namely, · random against · observed; · random against · observed. it is impossible, therefore, to doubt from the steady way in which the observed values overtop the randoms, that there is a greater average likeness in the finger marks of two brothers, than in those of two persons taken at hazard. table xxvi. gives the results of applying the centesimal scale to the measurement of the average closeness of fraternal resemblance, in respect to finger prints, according to the method and under the reservations already explained in page . the average value thus assigned to it is a little more than °. the values obtained from the three fingers severally, from which that average was derived, are °, °, and °; they agree together better than might have been expected. the value obtained from a set of fifty additional couplets of the middle fingers only, of fraternals, is wider, being °. its inclusion with the rest raises the average of all to between and . in the pre-eminently frequent event of loops with an outward slope on the middle finger, it is remarkable that the random cases are nearly equal to the observed ones; they are · to · . it was to obtain some assurance that this equality was not due to statistical accident, that the additional set of fifty couplets were tabulated. they tell, however, the same tale, viz. · randoms to · observed. the loops on the fore-fingers confirm this, showing · randoms to · observed; those on the ring-finger have the same peculiarity, though in a slighter degree, to : the average of other patterns shows a much greater difference than that. i am unable to account for this curious behaviour of the loops, which can hardly be due to statistical accident, in the face of so much concurrent evidence. _twins._--the signs of heredity between brothers and sisters ought to be especially apparent between twins of the same sex, who are physiologically related in a peculiar degree and are sometimes extraordinarily alike. more rarely, they are remarkably dissimilar. the instances of only a moderate family resemblance between twins of the same sex are much less frequent than between ordinary brothers and sisters, or between twins of opposite sex. all this has been discussed in my _human faculty_. in order to test the truth of the expectation, i procured prints of the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of seventeen sets of twins, and compared them, with the results shown in table xxvii. table xxvii. sets of twins (a and b). _comparison between the patterns on the fore, middle, and ring-fingers respectively of the right hand._ agreement (=), cases; partial (··), cases; disagreement (×), cases. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | a b | a b | a b | a b | a b | |----------------------------------------------------------------| |fore | = | = | = | = | = | |middle| = | = | × | ·· | = | |ring | = | = | = | = | × | | | | | | | | |fore | = | × | = | × | ·· | |middle| = | ·· | × | = | = | |ring | ·· | = | ·· | × | × | | | | | | | | |fore | ·· | × | ·· | × | × | |middle| = | × | × | ·· | × | |ring | ·· | ·· | ·· | × | × | | | | | | | | |fore | × |(loop) × | | | | |middle| × | × | | | | |ring | ·· | ·· | | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ the result is that out of the seventeen sets (= couplets), two sets agree in all their three couplets of fingers; four sets agree in two; five sets agree in one of the couplets. there are instances of partial agreement in five others, and a disagreement throughout in only one of the seventeen sets. in another collection of seventeen sets, made to compare with this, six agreed in two of their three couplets, and five agreed in one of them. there cannot then be the slightest doubt as to the strong tendency to resemblance in the finger patterns in twins. this remark must by no means be forced into the sense of meaning that the similarity is so great, that the finger print of one twin might occasionally be mistaken for that of the other. when patterns fall into the same class, their general forms may be conspicuously different (see p. ), while their smaller details, namely, the number of ridges and the minutiæ, are practically independent of the pattern. it may be mentioned that i have an inquiry in view, which has not yet been fairly begun, owing to the want of sufficient data, namely to determine the minutest biological unit that may be hereditarily transmissible. the minutiæ in the finger prints of twins seem suitable objects for this purpose. _children of like-patterned parents._--when two parents are alike, the average resemblance, in stature at all events, which their children bear to them, is as close as the fraternal resemblance between the children, and twice as close as that which the children bear to either parent separately, when the parents are unlike. the fifty-eight parentages affording fifty couplets of the fore, middle, and ring-fingers respectively give × = parental couplets in all; of these, or per cent are alike in their pattern, as shown by table xxviii. the total number of children to these twenty-seven pairs is , of which (or per cent) have the same pattern as their parents. this fact requires analysis, as on account of the great frequency of loops, and especially of the pattern no. on the middle finger, a large number of the cases of similarity of pattern between child and parents would be mere random coincidences. table xxviii.--_children of like-patterned parents._ +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | the | patterns of-- f. m. | --of sons. | alike. | total | | cases. | | | | sons. | |--------|-----------------------|-----------------|--------|-------| | | fore | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ... | | | | | | ... | | | | | | | | | | middle | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | , , , | | | | | | | | | | | | , , | | | | | | | | | | | | | ... | | | | | | ... | | | | | | | | | | | , , | | | | | | , | | | | | | | | | | | | ... | ... | ... | | | | | | | | | ring | , , | | | | | | , | ... | | | | | | ... | | | | | | ... | | | | | , , | | | | | | ... | ... | ... | | | | , | | | | | | , | ... | | | | | , , | ... | | | | | |--------|-------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | --of daughters. | alike. | total || total |alike.| | | | daughters. ||children.| | |----------------------------|--------|------------||---------|------| | , | | || | | | , | ... | || | | | , | | || | | | | | || | | | | | || | | | | | || | | | ... | ... | ... || | | | | ... | || | | | , | ... | || | | | , | | || | | | , , , , | | || | | | , | ... | || | | | , , , | | || | | | ... | ... | ... || | ... | | , , | | || | | | , , , , , , | | || | | | , | | || | | | , , | | || | | | , (twins) | | || | | | | | || | | | , | ... | || | | | , , , | | || | | | , , , , | | || | | | | ... | || | ... | | , | | || | | | , | | || | | | , , | | || | | | , , | | || | | | , | ... | || | ... | | |--------|------------||---------|------| | daughters | | || | | | sons | | || | | | |--------|------------|| | | | total children | | || | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ there are nineteen cases of both parents having the commonest of the loop patterns, no. , on a corresponding finger. they have between them seventy-five children, of whom forty-eight have the pattern no. , on the same finger as their parents, and eighteen others have loops of other kinds on that same finger, making a total of sixty-six coincidences out of the possible , or per cent, which is a great increase upon the normal proportion of loops of the no. pattern in the fore, middle, and ring-fingers collectively. again, there are three cases of both parents having a tendrilled-loop no. , which ranks as a whorl. out of their total number of seventeen children, eleven have whorls and only six have loops. lastly, there is a single case of both parents having an arch, and all their three children have arches; whereas in the total of children in the table, there are only four other cases of an arch. this partial analysis accounts for the whole of the like-patterned parents, except four couples, which are one of no. , two of no. , and one of no. . these concur in telling the same general tale, recollecting that no. might almost be reckoned as a transitional case between a loop and a whorl. the decided tendency to hereditary transmission cannot be gainsaid in the face of these results, but the number of cases is too few to justify quantitative conclusions. it is not for the present worth while to extend them, for the reason already mentioned, namely, an ignorance of the allowance that ought to be made for related patterns. on this account it does not seem useful to print the results of a large amount of tabulation bearing on the simple filial relationship between the child and either parent separately, except so far as appears in the following paragraph. _relative influence of the father and the mother._--through one of those statistical accidents which are equivalent to long runs of luck at a gaming table, a concurrence in the figures brought out by mr. collins suggested to him the existence of a decided preponderance of maternal influence in the hereditary transmission of finger patterns. his further inquiries have, however, cast some doubt on earlier and provisional conclusions, and the following epitomises all of value that can as yet be said in favour of the superiority of the maternal influence. the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hands of the father, mother, and all their accessible children, in many families, were severally tabulated under the fifty-three heads already specified. the total number of children was , namely sons and daughters. the same pattern was found on the same finger, both of a child and of one or other of his parents, in the following number of cases:-- table xxix. _relative influence of father and mother._ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |fore.|middle.|ring.|| totals. | corrected | | | | | | || | totals. | | |---------------------|-----|-------|-----||---------|-----------|-----| | father and son | | | || | |} | | " " daughter | | | || ( ) | |} | | | | | || | | | | mother and son | | | || | |} | | " " daughter | | | || ( ) | |} | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ the entries in the first three columns are not comparable on equal terms, on account of the large difference between the numbers of the sons and daughters. this difference is easily remedied by multiplying the number of daughters by / , that is by · , as has been done in the fifth column headed corrected totals. it would appear from these figures, that the maternal influence is more powerful than the paternal in the proportion of to , or as to ; but, as some of the details from which the totals are built up, vary rather widely, it is better for the present to reserve an opinion as to their trustworthiness. chapter xii races and classes the races whose finger prints i have studied in considerable numbers are english, pure welsh, hebrew, and negro; also some basques from cambo in the french pyrenees, twenty miles south-east of bayonne. for the welsh prints i am primarily indebted to the very obliging help of mr. r. w. atkinson, of cardiff, who interested the masters of schools in purely welsh-speaking mountainous districts on my behalf; for the hebrew prints to mr. isidore spielman, who introduced me to the great hebrew schools in london, whose head-masters gave cordial assistance; and for the negro prints to sir george taubman goldie, dep. governor of the royal niger co., who interested dr crosse on my behalf, from whom valuable sets of prints were received, together with particulars of the races of the men from whom they were made. as to the basques, they were printed by myself. it requires considerable patience and caution to arrive at trustworthy conclusions, but it may emphatically be said that there is no _peculiar_ pattern which characterises persons of any of the above races. there is no particular pattern that is special to any one of them, which when met with enables us to assert, or even to suspect, the nationality of the person on whom it appeared. the only differences so far observed, are statistical, and cannot be determined except through patience and caution, and by discussing large groups. i was misled at first by some accidental observations, and as it seemed reasonable to expect to find racial differences in finger marks, the inquiries were continued in varied ways until hard fact had made hope no longer justifiable. after preliminary study, i handed over the collection of racial finger prints to mr f. howard collins, who kindly undertook the labour of tabulating them in many ways, of which it will be only necessary to give an example. thus, at one time attention was concentrated on a single finger and a single pattern, the most instructive instance being that of arches on the right fore-finger. they admit of being defined with sufficient clearness, having only one doubtful frontier of much importance, namely that at which they begin to break away into nascent-loops, etc. they also occur with considerable frequency on the fore-finger, so the results from a few hundred specimens ought to be fairly trustworthy. it mattered little in the inquiry, at what level the limit was drawn to separate arches from nascent-loops, so long as the same limit was observed in all races alike. much pains were taken to secure uniformity of treatment, and mr. collins selected two limits, the one based on a strict and the other on a somewhat less strict interpretation of the term "arches," but the latter was not so liberal as that which i had used myself in the earlier inquiries (see p. ). his results showed no great difference in the proportionate frequency of arches in the different races, whichever limit was observed; the following table refers to the more liberal limit:-- table xxx. _frequency of arches in the right fore-finger._ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | no. of | race. | no. of | per cents. | | persons. | | arches. | | |----------|----------------------------------|---------|------------| | | english | | · | | | welsh | | · | | | hebrew | | · | | | negro | | · | | | | | | | | _hebrews in detail_-- | | | | | boys, bell lane school | | · | | | girls, bell lane school | | · | | | boys, tavistock st. & hanway st. | | · | | | girls, hanway street school | | · | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ the two contrasted values here are the english and the hebrew. the cases of the latter give a percentage result of · , which differs as may be seen less than per cent from that of any one of the four large groups upon which the average is based. the cases of english are comparatively few, but the experience i have had of other english prints is so large as to enable me to say confidently that the percentage result of · is not too great. it follows, that the percentage of arches in the english and in the hebrew differs in the ratio of · to · , or nearly as to . this is the largest statistical difference yet met with. the deficiency in arches among the hebrews, and to some extent in loops also, is made up by a superiority in whorls, chiefly of the tendril or circlet-in-loop patterns. it would be very rash to suppose that this relative infrequency of arches among the hebrews was of fundamental importance, considering that such totally distinct races as the welsh and the negro have them in an intermediate proportion. still, why does it occur? the only answer i can suggest is that the patterns being in some degree hereditary, such accidental preponderances as may have existed among a not very numerous ancestry might be perpetuated. i have some reason to believe that local peculiarities of this sort exist in england, the children in schools of some localities seeming to be statistically more alike in their patterns than english children generally. another of the many experiments was the tabulation separately by mr. collins of the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hand of fifty persons of each of the five races above-mentioned: english, welsh, basque, hebrew, and different groups of negroes. the number of instances is of course too small for statistical deductions, but they served to make it clear that no very marked characteristic distinguished the races. the impressions from negroes betray the general clumsiness of their fingers, but their patterns are not, so far as i can find, different from those of others, they are not simpler as judged either by their contours or by the number of origins, embranchments, islands, and enclosures contained in them. still, whether it be from pure fancy on my part, or from the way in which they were printed, or from some real peculiarity, the general aspect of the negro print strikes me as characteristic. the width of the ridges seems more uniform, their intervals more regular, and their courses more parallel than with us. in short, they give an idea of greater simplicity, due to causes that i have not yet succeeded in submitting to the test of measurement. the above are only a few examples of the laborious work so kindly undertaken for me by mr. f. h. collins, but it would serve no useful purpose to give more in this book, as no positive results have as yet been derived from it other than the little already mentioned. the most hopeful direction in which this inquiry admits of being pursued is among the hill tribes of india, australian blacks, and other diverse and so-called aboriginal races. the field of ethnology is large, and it would be unwise as yet to neglect the chance of somewhere finding characteristic patterns. * * * * * differences between finger prints of different classes might continue to exist although those of different races are inconspicuous, because every race contains men of various temperaments and faculties, and we cannot tell, except by observation, whether any of these are correlated with the finger marks. several different classes have been examined both by mr. collins and myself. the ordinary laboratory work supplies finger prints of persons of much culture, and of many students both in the art and in the science schools. i took a large number of prints from the worst idiots in the london district, through the obliging assistance of dr. fletcher beech, of the darenth asylum; my collections made at board schools are numerous, and i have one of field labourers in dorsetshire and somersetshire. but there is no notable difference in any of them. for example; the measurements of the ridge-interval gave the same results in the art-students and in the science-students, and i have prints of eminent thinkers and of eminent statesmen that can be matched by those of congenital idiots.[ ] no indications of temperament, character, or ability are to be found in finger marks, so far as i have been able to discover. of course these conclusions must not be applied to the general shape of the hand, which as yet i have not studied, but which seems to offer a very interesting field for exact inquiry. chapter xiii genera the same familiar patterns recur in every large collection of finger prints, and the eye soon selects what appear to be typical forms; but are they truly "typical" or not? by a type i understand an ideal form around which the actual forms are grouped, very closely in its immediate neighbourhood, and becoming more rare with increasing rapidity at an increasing distance from it, just as is the case with shot marks to the right or left of a line drawn vertically through the bull's eye of a target. the analogy is exact; in both cases there is a well-defined point of departure; in both cases the departure of individual instances from that point is due to a multitude of independently variable causes. in short, both are realisations of the now well-known theoretical law of frequency of error. the problem then is this:--take some one of the well-marked patterns, such as it appears on a particular digit,--say a loop on the right thumb; find the average number of ridges that cross a specified portion of it; then this average value will determine an ideal centre from which individual departures may be measured; next, tabulate the frequency of the departures that attain to each of many successive specified distances from that ideal centre; then see whether their diminishing frequency as the distances increase, is or is not in accordance with the law of frequency of error. if it is, then the central form has the attributes of a true type, and such will be shown to be the case with the loops of either thumb. i shall only give the data and the results, not the precise way in which they are worked out, because an account of the method employed in similar cases will be found in _natural inheritance_, and again in the memoir on finger prints in the _phil. trans._; it is too technical to be appropriate here, and would occupy too much space. the only point which need be briefly explained and of which non-mathematical readers might be ignorant, is how a single numerical table derived from abstract calculations can be made to apply to such minute objects as finger prints, as well as to the shot marks on a huge target; what is the common unit by which departures on such different scales are measured? the answer is that it is a self-contained unit appropriate to _each series severally_, and technically called the probable error, or more briefly, p.e., in the headings to the following tables. in order to determine it, the range of the central half of the series has to be measured, namely, of that part of the series which remains after its two extreme quarters have been cut off and removed. the series had no limitation before, its two ends tailing away indefinitely into nothingness, but, by the artifice of lopping off a definite fraction of the whole series from both ends of it, a sharply-defined length, call it pq, is obtained. such series as have usually to be dealt with are fairly symmetrical, so the position of the half-way point m, between p and q, corresponds with rough accuracy to the average of the positions of all the members of the series, that is to the point whence departures have to be measured. mp, or mq,--or still better, / (mp + mq) is the above-mentioned probable error. it is so called because the amount of error, or departure from m of any one observation, falls just as often within the distance pe as it falls without it. in the calculated tables of the law of frequency, pe (or a multiple of it) is taken as unity. in each observed series, the actual measures have to be converted into another scale, in which the pe of that series is taken as unity. then observation and calculation may be compared on equal terms. [illustration] observations were made on the loops of the right and left thumbs respectively. ahb is taken as the primary line of reference in the loop; it is the line that, coinciding with the axis of the _uppermost portion_, and that only, of the core, cuts the summit of the core at h, the upper outline at a, and the lower outline, if it cuts it at all, as it nearly always does, at b. k is the centre of the single triangular plot that appears in the loop, which may be either i or o. knl is a perpendicular from k to the axis, cutting it at n, and the outline beyond at l. in some loops n will lie above h, as in plate , fig. ; in some it may coincide with h. (see plate for numerous varieties of loop.) these points were pricked in each print with a fine needle; the print was then turned face downwards and careful measurements made between the prick holes at the back. also the number of ridges in ah were counted, the ridge at a being reckoned as , the next ridge as , and so on up to h. whenever the line ah passed across the neck of a bifurcation, there was necessarily a single ridge on one side of the point of intersection and two ridges on the other, so there would clearly be doubt whether to reckon the neck as one or as two ridges. a compromise was made by counting it as - / . after the number of ridges in ah had been counted in each case, any residual fractions of / were alternately treated as and as . finally, six series were obtained; three for the right thumb, and three for the left. they referred respectively ( ) to the number of ridges in ah; ( ) to kl/nb; ( ) to an/ah, all the three being independent of stature. the number of measures in each of the six series varied from to ; they are reduced to percentages in table xxxi. we see at a glance that the different numbers of ridges in ah do not occur with equal frequency, that a single ridge in the thumb is a rarity, and so are cases above fifteen in number, but those of seven, eight, and nine are frequent. there is clearly a rude order in their distribution, the number of cases tailing away into nothingness, at the top and bottom of the column. a vast amount of statistical analogy assures us that the orderliness of the distribution would be increased if many more cases had been observed, and later on, this inference will be confirmed. there is a sharp inferior limit to the numbers of ridges, because they cannot be less than , but independently of this, we notice the infrequency of small numbers as well as of large ones. there is no strict limit to the latter, but the trend of the entries shows that forty, say, or more ridges in ah are practically impossible. therefore, in no individual case can the number of ridges in ah depart very widely from seven, eight, or nine, though the range of possible departures is not sharply defined, except at the lower limit of . the range of variation is _not_ "rounded off," to use a common but very inaccurate expression often applied to the way in which genera are isolated. the range of possible departures is not defined by any rigid boundary, but the rarity of the stragglers rapidly increases with the distance at which they are found, until no more of them are met with. the values of kl/nb and of an/ah run in a less orderly sequence, but concur distinctly in telling a similar tale. considering the paucity of the observations, there is nothing in these results to contradict the expectation of increased regularity, should a large addition be made to their number. table xxxi. +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | no. of cases || | no. of cases || | no. of cases | | | reduced || | reduced || | reduced | |no. of| to per cents.|| kl | to per cents.|| an | to per cents.| |ridges|--------------|| -- |--------------|| -- |--------------| |in ah.| right.| left.|| nb | right.| left.|| ah | right.| left.| | |-------|------|| |-------|------|| |-------|------| | | | || | | || | | | | | cases.| cases|| | cases.| cases|| | cases | cases| |------|-------|------||-------|-------|------||-------|-------|------| | | | ... || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || · - · | | || · - · | | | | | | || above | | || · - · | ... | ... | | | | || ... | ... | ... || · - · | | | | | | || ... | ... | ... || · - · | ... | | | | | ... || ... | ... | ... || · - · | ... | | | | | ... || ... | ... | ... || · - · | ... | | |above | | ... || ... | ... | ... || above | | | | |-------|------|| |-------|------|| |-------|------| | | | || | | || | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ table xxxii. +---------------------------------------------+ | |ordinates to the six schemes of | | |distribution, being the ordinates| | |drawn from the base of each | | |scheme at selected centesimal | | |divisions of the base. | | abscissae |---------------------------------| | reckoned | | | in | no. of ridges in ah. | | centesimal| | | parts of |---------------------------------| | the | right. | left. | | interval |----------------|----------------| | between | o |calculated| o |calculated| | the limits| b |from | b |from | | of the | s |m= · | s |m= · | | scheme. | e |p.e.= · | e |p.e.= · | | ° to | r | | r | | | °. | v | | v | | | | e | | e | | | | d | | d | | |-----------|-----|----------|-----|----------| | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | | | · | · | · | · | +---------------------------------------------+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | kl || an | | values of -- || values of -- | | nb || ah | |---------------------------------||----------------------------------| | right. | left. || right. | left. | |----------------|----------------||----------------|-----------------| | o |calculated| o |calculated|| o |calculated| o |calculated | | b |from | b |from || b |from | b |from | | s |m= · | s |m= · || s |m= · | s |m= · | | e |p.e.= · | e |p.e.= · || e |p.e.= · | e |p.e.= · | | r | | r | || r | | r | | | v | | v | || v | | v | | | e | | e | || e | | e | | | d | | d | || d | | d | | |-----|----------|-----|----------||-----|----------|-----|-----------| | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | l· | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | | · | · | · | · || · | · | · | · | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ table xxxiii. +------------------------------------------------------- | | ordinates to the six curves of | | | distribution, drawn from the axis of | | | each curve at selected centesimal | | | divisions of it. | | | | | | they are here reduced to a common | | | measure, by dividing the observed | | | deviations in each series by the | |abscissae | probable error appropriate to the | |reckoned in | series, and multiplying by . for the | |centesimal | values of m, whence the deviations are | |parts of the| measured, and for those of the | |interval | corresponding probable error, see the | |between the | headings to the columns in table ii. | |limits of |-----------------------------------------| |the curve. | no. of | kl | an | | ° to °. | ridges |values of -- |values of -- | | | in ah. | nb | ah | | |-------------|-------------|-------------| | |right.| left.|right.| left.|right.| left.| |------------|------|------|------|------|-------------| | | - | - | - | - | - | - | | | - | - | - | - | - | - | | | - | - | - | - | - | - | |(p) | - | - | - | - | - | - | | | - | - | - | - | - | - | | | - | - | - | - | - | - | |(m) | + | | | | | | | | + | + | + | + | + | + | | | + | + | + | + | + | + | |(q) | + | + | + | + | + | + | | | + | + | + | + | + | + | | | + | + | + | + | + | + | | | + | + | + | + | + | + | +------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------+ | | | | observed. | calculated. | |------------------|-----------------| | mean of the | | | corresponding | | | ordinates in | | | the six curves | | | after reduction | | | to the common | ordinates to | | scale of | the normal curve| | p.e. = . | of distribution,| | observations | probable error | | in all. | = . | |------------------|-----------------| | - | - | | - | - | | - | - | | - | - | | - | - | | - | - | | + | | | + | + | | + | + | | + | + | | + | + | | + | + | | + | + | -------------------------------------+ table xxxii. is derived from table xxxi. by a process described by myself in many publications, more especially in _natural inheritance_, and will now be assumed as understood. each of the six pairs of columns contain, side by side, the observed and calculated values of one of the six series, the data on which the calculations were made being also entered at the top. the calculated figures agree with the observed ones very respectably throughout, as can be judged even by those who are ignorant of the principles of the method. let us take the value that per cent of each of the six series falls short of, and per cent exceed; they are entered in the line opposite ; we find for the six pairs successively, _obs._: · · · · · · _calc._: · · · · · · the correspondence between the more mediocre cases is much closer than these, and very much closer than between the extreme cases given in the table, namely, the values that per cent fall short of, and exceed. these are of course less regular, the observed instances being very few; but even here the observations are found to agree respectably well with the proportions given by calculation, which is necessarily based upon the supposition of an infinite number of cases having been included in the series. as the want of agreement between calculation and observation must be caused in part by the paucity of observations, it is worth while to make a larger group, by throwing the six series together, as in table xxxiii., making a grand total of observations. their value is not so great as if they were observations taken from that number of different persons, still they are equivalent to a large increase of those already discussed. the six series of observed values were made comparable on equal terms by first reducing them to a uniform pe and then by assigning to m, the point of departure, the value of . the results are given in the last column but one, where the orderly run of the observed data is much more conspicuous than it was before. though there is an obvious want of exact symmetry in the observed values, their general accord with those of the calculated values is very fair. it is quite close enough to establish the general proposition, that we are justified in the conception of a typical form of loop, different for the two thumbs; the departure from the typical form being usually small, sometimes rather greater, and rarely greater still. i do not see my way to discuss the variations of the arches, because they possess no distinct points of reference. but their general appearance does not give the impression of clustering around a typical centre. they suggest the idea of a fountain-head, whose stream begins to broaden out from the first. as regards other patterns, i have made many measurements altogether, but the specimens of each sort were comparatively few, except in whorled patterns. in all cases where i was able to form a well-founded opinion, the existence of a typical centre was indicated. it would be tedious to enumerate the many different trials made for my own satisfaction, to gain assurance that the variability of the several patterns is really of the quasi-normal kind just described. in the first trial i measured in various ways the dimensions of about enlarged photographs of loops, and about as many of other patterns, and found that the measurements in each and every case formed a quasi-normal series. i do not care to submit these results, because they necessitate more explanation and analysis than the interest of the corrected results would perhaps justify, to eliminate from them the effect of variety of size of thumb, and some other uncertainties. those measurements referred to some children, a few women, many youths, and a fair number of adults; and allowance has to be made for variability in stature in each of these classes. the proportions of a typical loop on the thumb are easily ascertained if we may assume that the most frequent values of its variable elements, taken separately, are the same as those that enter into the most frequent combination of the elements taken collectively. this would necessarily be true if the variability of each element separately, and that of the sum of them in combination, were all strictly normal, but as they are only quasi-normal, the assumption must be tested. i have done so by making the comparisons (_a_) and (_b_) shown in table xxxiv., which come out correctly to within the first decimal place. table xxxiv. +------------------------------------------------------+ | |right | left | | |thumb.|thumb.| |----------------------------------------|------|------| |(_a_) median of all the values of kl | · | · | |(_b_) median of all the values of nb | · | · | | |------|------| |(_a_) value of _a/b_ | · | · | |(_a_) median of all the fractions kl/nb| · | · | |========================================|======|======| |(_c_) median of all the values of an | · | · | |(_d_) median of all the values of ah | · | · | | |------|------| |(_b_) value of _c/d_ | · | · | |(_b_) median of all the fractions an/ah| · | · | +------------------------------------------------------+ it has been shown that the patterns are hereditary, and we have seen that they are uncorrelated with race or temperament or any other noticeable peculiarity, inasmuch as groups of very different classes are alike in their finger marks. they cannot exercise the slightest influence on marriage selection, the very existence both of the ridges and of the patterns having been almost overlooked; they are too small to attract attention, or to be thought worthy of notice. we therefore possess a perfect instance of promiscuity in marriage, or, as it is now called, panmixia, in respect to these patterns. we might consequently have expected them to be hybridised. but that is not the case; they _refuse to blend_. their classes are as clearly separated as those of any of the genera of plants and animals. they keep pure and distinct, as if they had severally descended from a thorough-bred ancestry, each in respect to its own peculiar character. as regards other forms of natural selection, we know that races are kept pure by the much more frequent destruction of those individuals who depart the more widely from the typical centre. but natural selection was shown to be inoperative in respect to individual varieties of patterns, and unable to exercise the slightest check upon their vagaries. yet, for all that, the loops and other classes of patterns are isolated from one another just as thoroughly and just in the same way as are the genera or species of plants and animals. there is no statistical difference between the form of the law of distribution of individual loops about their respective typical centres, and that of the law by which, say, the shrimps described in mr. weldon's recent memoirs (_proc. roy. soc._, and ) are distributed about theirs. in both cases the distribution is in quasi-accordance with the theoretical law of frequency of error, this form of distribution being entirely caused in the patterns, by _internal_ conditions, and in no way by natural selection in the ordinary sense of that term. it is impossible not to recognise the fact so clearly illustrated by these patterns in the thumbs, that natural selection has no monopoly of influence in the construction of genera, but that it could be wholly dispensed with, the internal conditions acting by themselves being sufficient. when the internal conditions are in harmony with the external ones, as they appear to be in all long-established races, their joint effects will curb individual variability more tightly than either could do by itself. the normal character of the distribution about the typical centre will not be thereby interfered with. the probable divergence (= probable error) of an individual taken at random, will be lessened, and that is all. not only is it impossible to substantiate a claim for natural selection, that it is the sole agent in forming genera, but it seems, from the experience of artificial selection, that it is scarcely competent to do so by favouring mere _varieties_, in the sense in which i understand the term. my contention is that it acts by favouring small _sports_. mere varieties from a common typical centre blend freely in the offspring, and the offspring of every race whose _statistical_ characters are constant, necessarily tend, as i have often shown, to regress towards their common typical centre. sports, on the other hand, do not blend freely; they are fresh typical centres or sub-species, which suddenly arise we do not yet know precisely through what uncommon concurrence of circumstance, and which observations show to be strongly transmissible by inheritance. a mere variety can never establish a sticking-point in the forward course of evolution, but each new sport affords one. a substantial change of type is effected, as i conceive, by a succession of small changes of typical centre, each more or less stable, and each being in its turn favoured and established by natural selection, to the exclusion of its competitors. the distinction between a mere variety and a sport is real and fundamental. i argued this point in _natural inheritance_, but had then to draw my illustrations from non-physiological experiences, no appropriate physiological ones being then at hand: this want is now excellently supplied by observations of the patterns on the digits. index ah, number of ridges in, allix, a. l. w. system, ambiguities in minutiæ, , america, anthropometric laboratory, , arches, , , ; interpretations of, , artisans, artists, assyrian bricks, atkinson, r. f., author, the, finger prints of, , , axis of pattern, ball for inking, ball of thumb, basques, , bearings as by compass, beech, dr. fletcher, benzole, , bertillon, , , , ; _bertillonage_, , , bewick, bible, the, bifurcations, binomial law, , bird's nest, blacklead, blood as ink, bowditch, h. p., professor, british museum, brobdingnags, brothers, burns of finger, c. set of standard patterns, callosities, cambo, , camera lucida, , cards, ; keeping in order, casts, centesimal scale, , , , , cheiromancy, , ; creases, chequer-work, chess board, chinese deed, ; money, ; cheiromancy, ; registration of chinese, , cicatrix, circular patterns, optical illusion, collins, f. h., , , , , collodion, colour-blindness, comparison of prints, , compass bearings, compasses, test by the points of, copper sheeting for inking, ; for smoking, cores, , , correlation, couplets of digits, ; of a and b brothers, creases, , ; in infant, criminals, crosse, dr., cylinder, revolving, dabs by the finger, , , darenth asylum, , demography, congress of, deserters, , development, digits, peculiarities of, direction of twist, divergence of ridges, drawing master, ducts, dyes, ear-marking the a, b sets of brothers, embryology, enclosures within ridges, english, the, , enlargements, envelopes to rods or staples, error, law of, , ; "probable," evidential value, chap. vii., evolution, , eyes in patterns, fauld, mr., feet, prints of, ; ridges on, , féré, m., ferris, major, ferro-prussiate process, , , file, flexure, lines of, in palm, focus of eye, range of, folders;--inked, ; smoked, foot-paths, forgeot, dr., forks, fraternity, , frequency of error, law of, , funnel, furrows, not followed, g----, sir w., , genera, chap. xiii., ; the nine chief genera, , glass, temporary prints on, ; etched, ; for lantern, glue, goldie, sir g. t., granulations on rollers, greenleaf, col. c. r., gulliver, gum, gutta-percha, hand, , harrild, messrs., , hawksley, haycraft, dr. j. b., head-length and breadth, hebrews, , , herbette, m., heredity, chap. xi., ; _see also_ herschel, sir w. j., , , ; instructions for printing, ; data for persistence, ; right fore-finger of, ; official experience, , , hindoos, i (or inner side), identification, ; _see_ jezebel, idiots, , , , illusion, , indexing, power of, , , ; methods of, ; specimen of, ; search in, india-rubber for roller, ink, printer's, ; for stamp, inner side, interpolation of ridges, , interspace, , interval, equally discernible, , islands, japan, , jews, , , jezebel, kensington, s., my laboratory at, , klaatsch, dr. h., kollmann, dr. a., labels, gummed, as for luggage, laboratory, anthropometric, , labourers, , lace, , ladies' hands, ridges on, language, inadequacy of, lankester, prof. ray, left and right, lenses, letters, alike when reversed, licked paper, linen-tester (lens), linseed oil, litharge, lithography, loops, , , ; predominance of, ; relationships of, ; on thumbs, ; typical shape of, lying bob, lyon, mammalia, marseille, measurement of patterns, memoirs by the author, methods of indexing, chap. ix., methods of printing, chap. iii., mica, , minutiæ, ; ambiguities in, , monkey pattern, , , ; ridges on tail, ; purkenje on, , ; stuffed, morgue, ; _see_ jezebel, mould for casting rollers, mountain ranges, mucilage, mummies, ridges still visible, nail-marks, , natural selection, , negro, , , ; cheiromancy, ngeu-yang-siun, notes, musical, oil, oxidisation of, , ; for ink, orientation, outer side, outlines, , ; followed with a point, overtones, pacinian bodies, pad for stamp, , ; of paper, palm of the hand, , , palmistry, , ; _see_ cheiromancy, panmixia, , pantagraph, paper in pads, ; _see_ cards papillæ, paraffin, paris, passports, , paste, patterns: their outlines and cores, chap. v., ; _see also_ , , ; number of easily distinguishable patterns, ; standard, , ; ditto c. set, ; percentage frequency of, peculiarities of the digits, chap. viii., persistence, chap. vi., personal identification, chap. x., ; _see also_ , ; lecture on, photographers, ; photographs, , plots, triangular, , plumbago, pocket printing apparatus, points of reference, poole, mr. s. l., pores, previous use of finger prints, chap. ii., printing, the methods of, ; printer's ink, prism, , purkenje's _commentatio_, ; _see also_ , , ; on slope of loop, races and classes, chap. xii., ; _see also_ radial, random events, ; _see also_ razor, prints on, reconstruction of hidden ridges, reeves and co., registration in india, , regression, , relationship in fingers, , ; fraternal, , ; in twins, ; filial, ; ditto of like-patterned parents, ; in patterns, ; paternal and maternal, reticulation, reversals, , ridges and their uses, chap. iv., ; _see also_ low relief of ridges, ; counting them, ; ridge-interval, :--measurement by, ; squares of one in the side, ; of six, ; of five, , right and left, robinson, dr. louis, rods, rolled prints, , , roller, ; small, royal institution, sand, ridges on, scars, , seal, ; sealing-wax casts, seamstresses, selection, , shrimps, _signalements_, size (glue), , skin disease on fingers, slab, , , slopes, ; on fore-finger, smart, major charles, smoke-prints, snow on mountain ranges, soda (washing), , spielman, isidore, mr., spirals, sports, , squares (interpolations), , standard patterns, , ; the c. set, staples, , stereoscope, students, in art and science, surnames, hindoo and chinese, , swift, dean, symbols for patterns, systems of ridges on palm, tables, _see_ list of, p. xiii. tabor, mr., tabulations, tang dynasty, tattoo marks, taylor, t. meadows, mr., teeth, tests of calculated randoms, ; of classification, thompson, gilbert, mr., , thrills, their relation to notes, thumb, loops on, ; ball of, , _tipsahi_, titchener, e. b., mr., title-page, prints on, , , ; index-number to them, toes, tools, callosities caused by, transitional patterns, , , triangular plots, , , turpentine, twins, , , twist, direction of, type, , ulnar, united states, system used in, , variation, , varnish, prints on when undried, velvet, wall-paper, water colours, wax;--sealing, ; dentist's, weldon, prof., welsh, the, , wen-teh, the empress, whitening, whorls, , , wundt, professor, laboratory at leipzig, the end _printed by_ r. & r. clark, _edinburgh_. footnotes: [ ] _der tastapparat der hand der menschlichen rassen und der affen._ dr. arthur kollmann. leopold voss, leipzig, . he has also published a more recent memoir. [ ] "morphologie der tastballen der saugethiere," _jahrbuch_, xiv. p. . leipzig, . [ ] _ann. sc. nat._, th series, vol. ix. . [ ] the latin is obscure. "mira vallecularum tangentium in interna parte manus pedisque ... dispositio flexuraque attentionem ... in se trahit." there are three ways of translating "tangentium," and none of them makes good sense. in the index of prints he uses the phrase "vallecularum tactui." it would seem that he looked upon the furrows, and not the ridges, as the special seat of touch. [ ] the results arrived at by m. féré in a memoir (_comptes rendus, soc. biologie_, july , ; masson, boulevard st. germain, paris) may be collated with mine. the memoir is partly a review of my paper in the _phil. trans._, and contains many observations of his own. his data are derived from epileptics and others mentally affected. he has, by the way, curiously misinterpreted my views about symmetry. transcriber's notes: passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. subscripted characters are indicated by =subscript=. characters in smaller font are indicated by ~small~. punctuation has been corrected without note. anthropological papers of the american museum of natural history vol. xix, part i the whale house of the chilkat by george t. emmons lieutenant u.s. navy new york published by order of the trustees transcriber's note: the first part of the publications in anthropology has been moved to the end of this text and merged with the last part of that list. the whale house of the chilkat. by george t. emmons. lieutenant u.s. navy. preface. the material here presented has been gathered from the most reliable native sources throughout a period of twenty-five years of intimate personal acquaintance and association with the tlingit, and treats of their past, before the exodus from their old villages to the mining camps and salmon canneries of the white man so reduced their numbers that communal life in the large old houses, upon which their social customs and practices depended, was rendered impossible, and the seed of a new life was sown. i first visited the chilkat in , when little influenced by our civilization. they were a comparatively primitive people, living under their own well-established code of laws, subsisting on the natural products of the country, clothed in skins, furs, and trade blankets, practising ancestor worship in their elaborate ceremonial, cremating the dead, dominated by the superstitions of witchcraft and the practice of shamanism, proud, vain, sensitive, but withal, a healthy, honest, independent race, and friendly when fairly met. their villages then represented the best traditions of the past in both architecture and ornamentation. the houses of heavy hewn timbers, split from the giant spruces, were fortresses of defense, with narrow doorways for entrance and the smoke hole in the roof for light and ventilation. but today this is all changed. the old houses have disappeared, the old customs are forgotten, the old people are fast passing, and with the education of the children and the gradual loss of the native tongue, there will be nothing left to connect them with the past. so on behalf of native history and my deep interest in the people, i offer this paper, describing in accurate detail one of the last relics of their culture. had the chilkat been able to work stone instead of wood, their country would now be the archaeological wonder of the pacific coast. the illustrations in color are from sketches made upon the ground and are reasonably accurate both as to form and color. for their final form i am indebted to mr. s. ichikawa. to winter and pond i am under obligations for permission to use the photograph of the two chilkat chiefs. george t. emmons. princeton, new jersey, april, . contents. page. preface introduction the old whale house detail of the house posts gonakatate-gars duck-toolh-gars yehlh-gars tluke-ass-a-gars objects associated with the house the present whale house list of illustrations. plates. . decorative figure on edge of house platform. . carved and painted screen over the front of the chief's private apartment at rear of the house. . carved posts inside the entrance to the house, gonakatate-gars and duck-toolh-gars, respectively. . carved posts flanking screen in plate , yehlh-gars and tluke-ass-a-gars, respectively. text figures. . coudahwot and yehlh-gouhu, chiefs of the con-nuh-ta-di . an old house, kluckwan . con-nuh-ta-di grave houses, kluckwan . the whale house of the chilkat . groundplan of the whale house . wood-worm dish, as seen in the house [illustration: fig. . coudahwot and yehlh-gouhu, chiefs of the con-nuh-ta-di. _photograph copyrighted by winter and pond._] introduction. upon the discovery of the northwest coast of america, the tlingit were found in possession of southeastern alaska with possibly the exception of the southernmost portion of prince of wales island, which had been wrested from them by invading haida from masset on the queen charlotte islands, during the latter half of the eighteenth century. from the testimony of the early explorers, this occupation seems to have been of sufficient age to have developed a racial type, speaking the same tongue, acknowledging established laws, and bound by like conventions. what knowledge we can gather of their origin and early life from their family traditions, songs, and geographical names, although fragmentary and vague, consistently tells of a uniform northward migration by water, along the coast and through the inland channels from the tsimshian peninsula and prince of wales island, which was constantly augmented by parties of interior people descending the greater rivers to the sea. an indefinite belief in an earlier coast population is current among the older people, and in confirmation of this, they refer to some family songs and local names still used but not understood. as the tlingit are unquestionably a mixed race, this aboriginal element must have been absorbed and contributed its racial characteristics to the evolution of the present race. the social organization of the tlingit is founded on matriarchy and is dependent upon two exogamic parties, the members of which intermarry and supplement each other upon the many ceremonial occasions that mark their intercourse. the one claiming the raven crest is known particularly among the northern tlingit as klar-de-nar, "one party," the other, more generally represented by the wolf emblem has several names, local in character, referring to old living places, as shen-ku-ka-de, "belonging to shenk," sit-ka-de, "belonging to sit," said to refer to the separation of the people after the flood when this branch settled at sit, gee-ya-de, etc. outside of these there is one family claiming the eagle crest that has no phratral standing, the members of which, as strangers, marry indiscriminately in either division, but in all cases the children belong to the mother's clan. the two parties are subdivided into fifty-six existing consanguineal families or clans, and the names of some other's now extinct are remembered. each of these, while retaining its phratral functions and privileges, is absolutely independent in government, succession, inheritance, and territory, and besides the phratral crest common to all, assumes others that are fully as prominent and often more in evidence. within the family there is a well-defined aristocracy wholly dependent upon birth, from which the chiefs are chosen, an intermediate class consisting of those who have forced themselves to the front, through wealth, character, or artistic ability, and the poorer people. in earlier days there were many slaves who had no recognized rights. geographically considered, there are sixteen tribal divisions known as kwans, a contraction of ka (man) and an (land-lived on or claimed). these are purely accidental aggregations, with little cohesion, a grouping of one or more families of each phratry through migratory meeting or continual intermarriage, that live together in fixed villages for mutual protection and social advantages, but recognize no tribal head or authority, each family being a unit in itself. very often the bitterest feuds existed between families within the tribe and of the same phratry, although if attacked by a stranger people all would unite for mutual protection. of these several tribes the chilkat-kwan has been the most prominent since our acquaintance with alaska. the relative importance of a primitive people measured by an abundant food supply, natural resources and geographic position as to favorable trade conditions was fully satisfied in their case. in their country about the head of lynn canal, with its two river systems flowing from lakes, the spawning beds of countless salmon furnished a nutritious and limitless staple food which was augmented by various other sea fish and seal in the inlets; bear, goat, and smaller mammals on the land; and exhaustless berry patches on the mountain sides. their commanding position at the head of the inland channels controlling the mountain passes to the interior, gave them the monopoly of the fur trade of the upper yukon valley, and the placer copper fields of the white river region. these products, unknown to the coastal area, were economically important in primitive days, and after the advent of europeans the increased demand for furs, and their greater value, made this trade even more lucrative. that they fully realized its value is demonstrated by their determination to retain control of it, for when the hudson's bay company established the factory of fort selkirk at the mouth of the pelly river in , a war party under the celebrated chief chartrich, trailed in some three hundred miles, surprised, captured, and burned the post, and warned the occupants against any further encroachment upon their established zone of trade, and they continued to enjoy these rights until the discovery of the klondike gold fields, when the influx of whites over-ran the country and destroyed their industries. the earliest mention of this people occurs in a report of the russian pilot ismaïlof who, when visiting yakutat in , notes the presence of a large body of chilkat. in a boat expedition from vancouver's vessels, while exploring the head of lynn canal, met with a hostile reception from a considerable number of natives and only averted trouble by a hasty retreat. lieutenant whitby, the commander of the party, was told of eight chiefs of great consequence who had their homes on and about the chilkat river, indicating an extensive population. [illustration: fig. . an old house, kluckwan.] under the russian régime, beyond the mere claim of sovereignty, no jurisdiction was exercised over this people except the distribution of national flags and imperial medals. all trading was guardedly carried on from the decks of armed vessels, and long after the american occupation they were permitted to live unmolested, until their country became the highway of travel to the interior. the tlingit were a canoe people and might be termed semi-nomadic, as they were on their hunting grounds in the early spring and late fall, while the summer season was spent in the fishing camps by the salmon streams, but notwithstanding these long absences they built substantial villages where, except for social activities, they spent the winter in comparative idleness. [illustration: fig. . con-nuh-ta-di grave houses, kluckwan.] as they looked to the sea for their principal food supply, their villages were directly on the shore just above the high water mark, in sheltered coves where they could land and launch their canoes in any weather and at any stage of the tide. but the chilkat, differing from all of the other tlingit, lived just beyond the open water, in a rather restricted territory, on rivers that were veritable storehouses of food, bringing their abundance of fish life to their very doors, and so permitting them to remain at home throughout the year, except when on their trading trips to the interior, which gave their habitations a more permanent character, and contributed to the unity of communal life. of the four principal old villages, all of which have survived the ravages of constant strife and the still more deadly by-products of civilization--liquor and disease--kluckwan (mother town) has always held the first place in size, wealth, and the character of its people. it retained its supremacy long after the larger of the more southern coast villages had gone to decay, as its more interior and isolated position and the independent and aggressive reputation of its population kept white traders at a distance. the discovery of gold near juneau and the establishment of the several salmon canneries at the mouth of the river drew away its people, and communal life in the large old houses, that was dependent upon the united efforts of the whole household was made impossible by the absence of many, and the want of coöperation of others who elected to live by themselves. with the introduction of schools and the efforts of missionaries to break up the old customs, the village has undergone a complete change and the old houses have disappeared or have been modernized. the village lies at the edge of a gradual slope on the north bank of the chilkat, twenty miles from its mouth, where the swift current concentrated in a single channel forms a strong eddy that permits the landing of canoes at any stage of the river. the houses in a single and double row follow the trend of the shore for upwards of three-quarters of a mile, but far enough back to allow for the smoke houses, fish drying frames, and canoe shelters, and in the rear are the grave houses (fig. ) and the now disused cremation grounds strewn with charred logs and partly burnt funeral pyres. just beyond the village at either end, in the cottonwood groves, hidden in the underbrush and covered with moss, are the crumbling remains of the shaman's dead houses, guarded by elaborately carved spirit figures and decayed canoes. the houses of each of the four resident totemic families are grouped about that of the chief for mutual protection, giving the appearance of three separate villages, as the two centrally located families through increase of numbers, have been brought into closer union. in each group the houses of the aristocracy and those of the poorer classes are of like construction, differing however in size, strength of material, interior appointments, and ornamentation. of the five totemic families that form the chilkat-kwan, not including a sixth subdivision, four are resident here, while individuals of the others through intermarriage are scattered through the village but without house standing. the traditions of all of these speak of a migration from the southern border northward through the inland channels. the wolf phratry is represented by three families: the kágwantan, tuck-este-nar, and duck-clar-way-di. the first two are closely related and claim to be offshoots of a parent stock and to have migrated north from the coast between the mouths of the nass and the skeena rivers and in earlier times they lived inland on these rivers. the last-named is unquestionably of interior origin and it is possible that all three are of like ancestry. the sole representative of the raven party is the kon-nuh-ta-di with which this paper deals. their legendary history, so imaginary and interesting, is closely associated with the wanderings and antics of "yehlh," the raven creator, while the earliest family traditions are centered about the south and west coast of the prince of wales and contiguous islands. there is a hazy belief in the minds of the older people, handed down through generations, that in the earliest days there came to these shores from seaward, a people of unknown origin who landed and lived on dall island, and later spread along the southern coast of prince of wales island. the descendants of one of the two original women, represented as sisters, later crossed dixon entrance and peopled the queen charlotte islands, founding the haida, while those who remained, uniting with migratory bands from the interior were the progenitors of the tlingit. the three principal families forming the tanta-kwan that lived thereabouts in the eighteenth century, until expelled by the haida invasion from masset, and then crossed over to the mainland where they are still found, are the ta-qway-di, kik-sat-di, and kon-nuh-hut-di, all of which have formed factors of great importance in peopling the coast of alaska as far north as comptroller bay, and are still represented in all of the more important tlingit tribes. the tribal name tanta, was taken from their country, the prince of wales island, tan, "sealion" so named from the abundance of this animal on the seaward coast. the kon-nuh-hut-di are said to have removed, at some early day, to port stewart within the mainland entrance of beam canal, which they called "con-nuh," (safe, sheltered) and from which they derived their family name (people of, or belonging to, con-huh), but finding the climate more severe than that of the islands, and with no compensating advantages of food, they returned to their former home. a slight variation of the name kon-nuh-ta-di which is not accounted for, distinguishes the chilkat and more northern branches of the family from the tanta and taku. another name seldom used, but very pretentious and tribal in character, is shuck-ka-kwan "highest or first-man tribe" or shuck-ka-kon-nuh-ta-di, claiming superiority through a relationship with yehlh, in reference to his struggle with gun-nook, the supernatural keeper of fresh water, when in his efforts to escape through the smoke hole of the house with what he had stolen he was caught and held fast until he was smoked black. at a very early period they must have lived on the central west coast of prince of wales island, near klawak, in a village or country called tuck-anee "outside town" where the people were known locally as tuckanadi "outside town people" as the scene of one of their principal hero tales is laid hereabouts (the struggle of duck-toolh with the sealions) which it is claimed was the cause of one of the northward migrations of a body of the family. it was certainly after this happening, and possibly connected with it, that a considerable party separated and traveled north through the inland channels to the head of tidewater, and then up the chilkat river until they reached the site of kluckwan where they finally settled and have ever since remained. this movement must date back many years, for the russian pilot ismaïlof, as previously noted, in visiting yakutat in met "a chief ilk-hak with a large force of one hundred warriors who had journeyed up the coast from their winter home on the chilkat river to trade." ilk-hak or yehlh-kok "raven fragrance or smell" is an hereditary name belonging strictly to the kon-nuh-ta-di family (and as a coincidence it happens to be that of the present chief to whom i am indebted for certain information herein contained), and to have extended their commercial activities to such a distance and with such a numerous retinue would bespeak a considerable age and settled state in their new home. other migrations northward are known to have occurred at later periods; one party following the outside coast settled in a bay above cape spencer where much glacial ice collected and they took the name tih-ka-di (people of or belonging to the icebergs) but of these none remain. another body, taking a more easterly course among the islands, stopped at chyeek on the chatham straits shore of admiralty island with the hootz-ah-tar-kwan, but trouble with the dasheton clan arose over a woman and they removed in a body to stevens passage and joined the taku-kwan of which they form an integral part today under the original name kon-nuh-hut-di. in the latter portion of the eighteenth century, the tanta-kwan including this family, was driven out of the southern portion of the prince of wales island by the haida and crossing clarence straits settled on annette and adjacent islands. their principal village was tark-an-ee (winter town) at port chester where new metlakatla now stands, and was a very large settlement, a totem pole village, as the decayed remains showed thirty years ago. in war with the stickheen, this village was destroyed and also a later one across the island, chake-an-ee (thimble berry town) at port tamgass, when they crossed to cat island and then to the mainland and made a last stand at tongass where they remained until the founding of saxman and ketchikan. none of this family is found today on prince of wales island, their original home. the principal branch lives at chilkat where they have always been accorded the highest place with the ka-gwan-tan, with whom they have so intermarried through generations, that it often happens that the chiefs of each family are father and son. the personal names more frequently refer to the raven, their most honored crest, as they claim to be the first family of this phratry, and it is the more conspicuously displayed on the totemic headdress and ceremonial paraphernalia. they claim and use a great many other emblems as the whale, frog, wood-worm, silver salmon, hawk, owl, moon, starfish, and in their house carvings and painting they illustrate the hero deeds and conquests of their ancestors in their early struggles with mythical animals and supernatural beings. facial painting played an important rôle in tlingit life. the several pigments differently applied in various characters depended upon the purpose and the occasion. as a protection against snowblindness, the glare of the sunshine on the water, the bite of insects and as a cosmetic to preserve and whiten the complexion, a hemlock fungus was charred, powdered, and applied to the face, which had previously been covered with a mixture of melted suet and spruce gum, to which it adhered and hardened, forming a red-black covering impervious to water. for mourning and anger the face was blackened with charcoal. when on war parties, the painting was in red or black or both, in fanciful and hideous characters, but if suddenly surprised, they would grab a piece of charcoal from the fire and rub it over the face to disguise their personality and hide any expression of fear. the most elaborate painting was used in the winter ceremonials and dances. the designs were almost entirely totemic in character even when improvised for the occasion and apparently expressionless. they were either geometric and symbolic in figure, or represented the animal form in profile or some characteristic feature which distinguished it. in the latter case the figure was stamped on the cheek or forehead with a wood die. the primitive colors were black, from powdered charcoal, and red, from pulverized ocher, but after the advent of europeans, vermilion of commerce took the place of the duller mineral red. yellow, white, and greenish blue were occasionally used, more particularly by the southern tribes, but seldom, if ever, by the chilkat. the most important painting of the face was that of the dead when placed in state awaiting cremation, and this represented the crest of the phratry rather than one of the assumed emblems of the family or subdivisions. most all of the raven party, certainly all of the older and more important families, and particularly the kon-nuh-ta-di used yehlh-thluou, "raven's nose," in the form of an isosceles triangle, in black, the apex at the bridge of the nose, the sides enclosing the nose and mouth, the base extending across the chin. this painting seems to have been the right of all of the raven families and was almost universally used by them, although minor crest figures were sometimes employed, as the kon-nuh-hut-di of the southern tribes are said to have painted the starfish figure although i have never seen it so used, although it was a festival decoration. it was an old custom, but rather a privilege claimed by the chiefs and house masters of the aristocracy, to give names to the communal houses upon the occasion of their dedication, after the walls were up and the roof was on, when those of the opposite phratry who had assisted in the construction were feasted and compensated. of course, in the evolution of society, men of strong character, successful in war, with wealth and many followers would compel such recognition as would permit them to found a house and give it a name, but in order to do so, the potlatch would have to be of undue proportion. the strongest characteristics of the tlingit are pride, vanity, and a dread of ridicule, so unless one was absolutely assured of more than a formal acceptance of the act by both his own and the other tribal families he would hesitate to place himself in a false position, subject to criticism. the highest and most honored names thus given, were those of the totemic emblem, or referring to some particular feature of the crest figure, as "raven house," "brown bear house," "eagle nest house," "killer-whale dorsal fin house," etc. other names meaning less were those of position, shape, material, etc., as "point house," "box house", "bark house," "drum house," "big house," "lookout house," etc. in any case a name once given survived the mere structure. it was a dedication of the site and without any further ceremony belonged to all future houses built thereon. the old whale house. when i first visited kluckwan in , the large old communal houses of the kon-nuh-ta-di were still standing, the principal one of which, that of the hereditary chief, yough-hit, "whale house," was in the last stages of decay and uninhabitable, although the interior fittings were intact and it was still used upon festival occasions. it was unquestionably the most widely known and elaborately ornamented house, not only at chilkat, but in alaska. it occupied the site of much older houses and it is claimed much larger ones. it is said to have been built by kate-tsu about or prior to and stood in the middle of the village. it represented the best type of tlingit architecture, a broad low structure of heavy hewn spruce timbers, with noticeably high corner posts, that gave it a degree of character wholly wanting in the larger houses of the vancouver island people. it faced the river with a frontage of feet inches and a depth of feet which was approximately the proportions of tlingit houses large and small. the four broad, neatly finished corner posts, and the intermediate ones on the sides and back were mortised in length, to receive the ends of the wall planks of spruce or hemlock that were laid horizontally along the sides and back, while the front was formed by two heavy bed pieces placed one above the other extending across the front, dove-tailed into the corner posts, and reaching to the height of the door sill, cut out along the upper edge to receive the lower ends of the broad vertical planks that extend to the roof, and fitted under corresponding grooves in the cornice cappings that in the rear of the corner posts were notched and grooved to fit in the post. it will thus be seen that the old houses formed a solid structure, the frame and planking supporting each other without the use of spikes. the doorway, that was the only opening in the walls, was approached by two steps over three feet above the ground, it was narrow and low as a defensive measure, so that but one could enter at a time, and then only in a stooping posture equally impossible for attack or defense. the roof covering consisted of a confusion of overlapping spruce boards and slabs of bark that originally had been held down by smaller tree trunks extending the depth of the structure and held in place by heavy boulders at the ends. the smoke hole in the center of the roof which both lighted and ventilated the interior had been protected by a movable shutter balanced on a cross bar resting on two supports so that it could be shifted to either side as desired. [illustration: fig. . the whale house of the chilkat.] [illustration: fig. . groundplan of the whale house. in size, it was ft. in. front by ft. deep. from a plan drawn by the author.] the interior formed an excavation four feet nine inches below the ground level, with two receding step-like platforms. the lower square floor space feet by feet inches, constituted the general living and working room common to all, except that portion in the rear and opposite the entrance, which was reserved for the use of the house chief, his immediate family and most distinguished guests. this was the place of honor in all tlingit houses upon all occasions, ceremonial or otherwise. the flooring of heavy, split, smoothed planks of varying widths extended around a central gravelled fireplace six feet by six feet and a half, where all of the cooking was done, over a wood fire which also heated the house in winter. in front of and a little to the right of the fire space entered by a small trap door in the floor barely large enough to admit a person, was a small cellar-like apartment used as a steam bath, by heating boulders in the nearby fire, dropping them on the floor below with split wood tongs, and pouring water upon them to generate the vapor when the bather entered and the opening was covered over. the first platform extending around the main floor at an elevation of - / feet, comparatively narrow, with a width of - / feet along the sides, and slightly more at the ends, served both as a step, and a lounging place in the daytime, and that in front, broken by the steps descending from the doorway, was utilized for firewood, fresh game, fish, water baskets, and such larger household articles and implements as were in general use. the retaining walls of this platform consisted of four heavy hewn spruce timbers approximately feet long, feet wide, and inches thick, and so fitted with mortise and tenon at opposite ends that they supported each other without artificial fastenings. the faces of these timbers were beautifully finished in the finest adze work, and those on either side and at the back were carved in low relief to represent a remarkable extended figure, neither wholly human nor animal, with widely outstretched arms and legs, painted in red. it may be that the artist conceived and executed this form merely as a decorative feature, without meaning, or if it was his purpose to present a recognizable figure he followed that characteristic and well established privilege of native art in exaggeration to make the subject conform to the decorative field. the old chief, yehlh-guou, "raven's slave," said that the figure symbolized "kee-war-kow" the highest heaven where those who were killed in war and died violent deaths went, and are seen at play in the aurora borealis. another explanation is that it merely represented a man warming himself before the central fire. (plate .) the upper and broader platform, rising two feet above that below, was at the ground level, and was floored with heavy planks. it had a depth of ten feet on the sides which was greatly increased at the back and correspondingly diminished in front. the four heavy retaining timbers forming the walls and supporting the platform were thirty-one feet at the front and back and thirty-three feet along the sides, two feet wide, and five inches in thickness, and were fitted together at the ends as previously described, and shown in the house plan. on the carefully adzed face carved in low relief, equidistant from the corners and from each other, arranged in echelon, were three representations of the "tinneh" the ceremonial copper and in connection with this it may be noted that one of the names of the house chief was tinneh-sarta "keeper of the copper." this platform constituted the sleeping place of the inmates. each family occupied a certain space according to number and relative importance, the poorer members being nearer the door. the spaces were separated from each other by walls of chests, baskets, and bundles containing the family wealth in skins, blankets, clothing, ceremonial paraphernalia, and food products. on the walls were hung weapons, traps, snares, and hunting gear. cedarbark mats covered the floor over which was laid the bedding consisting of pelts of the caribou, mountain sheep, goat, and bear, and blankets of lynx, fox, and squirrel, which in the daytime were ordinarily rolled up for economy of space. sometimes these chambers were partly enclosed by skins or old canoe sails. the back compartment occupying the space between the two rear interior posts was partitioned off by a very beautiful carved wood screen which will be described later. this was the chamber of the chief and his immediate family. (plate ) at the level of this upper platform, firmly imbedded in the ground equidistant from the sides and nearer the front than the back wall, were four vertical elaborately carved posts "gars" nine feet three inches high and two feet six inches wide, which supported the roof structure. the heads were hollowed to receive two neatly rounded tree trunks almost two feet in diameter extending from front to rear, on top of these at intervals were placed heavy cross bars which in turn supported two smaller rounded longitudinal beams placed that distance towards the center that would give the necessary pitch to the roof, lighter cross pieces spanned these, on which rested the ridge pole in two sections to allow for the smoke hole. the private apartment of the house chief occupied the central portion of the upper rear platform, and was partitioned off in front, by a screen of thin native-split red cedar planks of varying widths, neatly fitted vertically, and sewed together with withes of spruce root, countersunk, to make it appear a solid piece. it extended between the two rear carved posts that supported the roof structure, and was twenty feet long by nine and a half feet high. the front surface was smoothed with dogfish skin or equisetum, and elaborately carved in low relief and painted to represent the rain spirit, which was symbolized by the great central figure with outstretched arms, while the small crouching figures in the border around the sides and top known as su-con-nutchee "raindrops splash up," represented the splash of the falling drops after striking the ground. the whole partition was called su-kheen "rain wall." the round hole through the body, over which was formerly hung a dressed caribou or goatskin, formed the entrance to the chamber, which received its only light and ventilation over the top of the screen from the smoke hole in the roof. there seems to be a difference of opinion today as to who executed this work. yehlh-kok the present chief of the family says that it was done by kate-tsu, the chief who built the house, and that the painting was the work of skeet-lah-ka, a later chief and an artist of wide repute, the father of chartrich, who in just prior to the lease of the littoral by the russian government to the hudson's bay company, accompanied the first russians who ascended the chilkat river, which would carry it well back in the early portion of the last century which was the victorian age of northwest coast art. others, while agreeing as to the painting, claim that the carving was designed and executed by a tsimshian. but whether the work of the former or the latter, the conventionalized design, and particularly the multiplicity of small figures around the principal one is essentially tsimshian in character and entirely different from the realism of tlingit art. it is unquestionably the finest example of native art, either tlingit or tsimshian, in alaska, in boldness of conception,--although highly conventionalized in form,--in execution of detail, and in the selection and arrangement of colors. the four interior posts "gars" on which rest the heavy longitudinal beams that support the roof structure are elaborately carved in high relief, a commingling of human and animal forms. each one illustrates some hero tale or important incident in the early life of the family, or a tradition of the wanderings and antics of yehlh, "the raven" with whom they claim a certain relationship. each post is named from the story told. they are of red cedar, brought from the south, and were carved by a tsimshian who also carved the figures on the faces of the retaining timbers of the first platform. for all of this work he received in payment ten slaves, fifty dressed moose-skins, and a number of blankets. besides these there were four other posts known as teetle-gars "dog salmon post." they presented a slightly rounded surface, carved in low relief, painted in dull colors, inlaid with opercula and representing, as the name indicated, the dog salmon. they were much decayed and only two were standing at the height of the upper platform at the sides in . they had been used originally as interior posts in some house but had passed their period of usefulness and were preserved simply as relics of the past. detail of the house posts. gonakatate-gars. the carved interior post to the right of the doorway entering was known as gonakatate-gars and told a story of yehlh, the raven. (plate _a_.) gonakatate was believed to be a great sea monster, half animal and half fish, variously represented according to the imagination of the artist, but generally shown with fore feet, a characteristic dorsal fin, and the tail of a fish, but again it is said that in rising from the water it appeared as a beautifully ornamented house front. it brought great good fortune to one who saw it. the principal figure extending from near the top to the bottom with front and hind paws represents this monster holding a whale by the flipper with the tail in its mouth and the head between the hind feet, for the gonakatate is believed to capture and eat whales. the figure of a woman on the back of the whale is called stah-ka-dee-shawut which is an older name of the qwash-qwa-kwan, a family that came from the interior and settled on the coast about yakutat, and as the scene of this adventure is placed thereabouts and with the matriarchal system the woman would indicate the family. the use of her figure would serve to mark the locality which is the only explanation for her appearance. in the blow hole of the whale is the head of the raven which is the significant feature of the whole carving that illustrates the story. the smaller head at the top, ornamented with human hair is called gonakatate-yuttee, "gonakatate's child," that holds the head of the hawk in its paws. while the hawk is an emblem of the family, these figures are merely ornamental and have no connection with the story. the story of the gonakatate-gars is as follows:-- during the wanderings of yehlh "raven" along the coast of alaska above the mouth of the alsech river, he saw a whale blowing, far out to sea, and being always hungry he greatly wanted to capture it, but he had neither spear nor line and only his fire bag of flint, stone, and tinder. he thought that he might kill the whale if he could only get inside, so when it came up to breathe he flew in the blow hole and reaching the stomach, struck a light, and made a fire that soon killed it. when it floated inshore and was rolled on the beach by the breakers, he tried to escape as he had entered, but the blow hole had partly closed and he could only get his head out. he saw a young man coming down to the shore and he commenced to sing in a loud voice. this greatly surprised him and he hastened back to the camp to tell the old people that there was strange singing in a stranded whale, which brought all the villagers to the scene, and they proceeded to cut open the whale at the blow hole when the raven flew out singing khoonee, khoonee, "cleaned out the blow hole." when the people had cut up the whale and tried out the blubber into grease the raven returned in human form, and asked them how they got the whale, and if they had heard singing within, for he told them that long ago this had happened in his country, and all of those who ate the grease had died. this so frightened the people that they left the grease boxes on the shore and returned to the village, when the raven sat down and ate all the grease they had prepared. duck-toolh-gars. the carved interior post, to the left of the doorway entering, was named duck-toolh-gars, and illustrates a hero tale of the family that occurred before their northern migration. the human figure represents duck-toolh "black-skin" (typifying strength), tearing the sealion in two. the head at the base symbolizes the rock island on which the sealion hauled, when this incident took place. the head of duck-toolh is wrapped around with sealion intestines and is ornamented with human hair hanging down over the face. the sealion forms the central figure; the protruding tongue indicates death, as the body is split in half. the fore flippers are parallel with the body under the man's forearms and the back flippers rest on his shoulders. it is said that in the early life of the kon-nuh-hut-di, before their migration north, when they lived on the west coast of prince of wales island, at or near the present site of klawak, at tuck-anee "just by the outside" from which the inhabitants took the local name tuck-an-a-di "outside country people" from their home on the ocean coast, there was a young man, the nephew of the chief, named duck-toolh "black-skin," but nicknamed at-kaharsee "nasty man" from his generally dirty condition. the villagers depended largely upon the flesh of the sealion for food, its hide was used for armor and other economic purposes while the whisker bristles were greatly prized for the crown of the ceremonial headdress. these animals were found in great numbers on a rocky island far to seaward (supposed to have been foresters island), but the ocean passage in their frail canoes was very dangerous and with their primitive spears and clubs it took courage and strength to succeed in the hunt, and so they prepared themselves for the undertaking by much exercise, and hardened their bodies by sea bathing in the early morning throughout the winter. but duck-toolh seemingly practised none of these things, he slept late and although of great size was looked upon as lazy and weak until he became the laughing stock even of the children. in the household was a powerful man named kash-ka-di, who in passing for his morning plunge would kick duck-toolh and call him by his nickname, which he never resented. upon coming out of the water each morning the bathers would test their strength by trying to pull up and break smaller trees. all of this time duck-toolh was shamming, for every night after all had gone to sleep he would steal out and sit in the ice cold water by the hour, and coming out would beat himself with bundles of brush to keep up his circulation, then he would enter the house and throwing a little water on the hot coals to make steam, and wrapping himself in his bark mat would lie down and go to sleep in the ashes which covered his body and gave him his nickname. one night while he was sitting in the water he heard a whistle, and saw a heavily built man rise out of the sea. he came to him and told him to get up, when he whipped him on the back four times and with each stroke he fell down. then he gave duck-toolh the sticks and told him to whip him, which had no effect upon him and he said, "you have not gained strength yet." this operation was again repeated which gave duck-toolh great strength, and then they wrestled with each other, but neither could throw the other. the strange man said, "now you are very powerful i have given you my strength," when a heavy fog suddenly drove in from the sea and enveloped him and he disappeared. then duck-toolh ran about and broke the limbs off the trees with little effort, but he put them together again and they froze in place for he did not want any one to know that strength had come to him. he felt very happy, and was very willing to do anything for any one or to accept the ridicule and abuse heaped upon him. in the morning, kash-ka-di, after coming out of the water, ran about trying his strength and he took the great limb that was stuck together in his hands and pulled it apart. he boasted to everyone that strength had come to him and that he was ready now to go out against the sealion. duck-toolh said, "yes, he would go too," which made every one laugh. even the girls made fun of him and asked him what he could do, for he was like them, and he said that he could bail the canoe, which was a woman's or child's work. he washed and put on clean clothes and going to his grandmother said, "you have no tlhan," (strips of fur woven into blankets); "you have no da" (martin skin). she answered, "yes" and gave him a strip of fur with which he tied up his front hair, taken in a bunch (this was done when one felt angry), and he dabbed his mouth with red paint, but still the people laughed at him, although he looked like a chief. then the canoe started for the sealion grounds and while kash-ka-di boasted of his great strength and what he would do, duck-toolh sat silently in the bottom of the canoe. when they reached the rocks kash-ka-di jumped out and grabbing a great sealion by its hind flippers tried to tear it in two, but he was thrown high in the air and killed on the rocks. then duck-toolh laughed and said, "who broke the tree," "i break it," and he jumped on the rock and grabbed the sealion and tore it apart, beat the brains out of the smaller ones, and for some unknown reason he wound the intestines of the animals around his head. then they loaded the canoe with the carcasses and returned home and everyone knew that duck-toolh was strength and he became a very powerful and wealthy man. some versions of this story say that he remained alone on the island for some time during which the spirit of the doctor came to him, but my informant knew nothing of this. yehlh-gars. the carved post on the right of the ornamental screen was named yehlh-gars "raven post," and told the story of the capture of ta "the king salmon." the main figure shows the raven in human form holding a head with a projecting blade-like tongue, which is known as tsu-hootar "jade adze." at the bottom is the head of a fish which should have been that of the king salmon, but through a mistake of the carver it resembles more nearly that of the sculpin. coming out of the mouth of the raven is a bird form called tu-kwut-lah-yehlh, "telling lies raven," which symbolizes the lies the raven told to the little birds mentioned in the story. (plate _a_.) many of the myths relative to the later wanderings of the raven after the release of the elements necessary to life on the earth, and particularly those in connection with animals, represent him as always hungry, unscrupulous and deceptive, and friendly only for selfish purposes. in the early spring before the salmon had come into the rivers, or the berries had ripened on the mountain sides, the season of little food, yehlh happened to be on the seashore near dry bay and very hungry. he saw a king salmon jumping in the ocean and he commenced to plan how he could take it, for he had neither canoe, spear, nor line. going back from the shore he found in a deserted camp a piece of an old cedarbark mat, an old woven spruce root hat, an eagle skin, and a jade adze "tsu-hootar." putting on the hat, folding the mat about his body, and dressing his hair with eagle down, he took the jade and seating himself on a big boulder at the edge of the water said to the salmon, "tsu-hootar is calling you bad names, he says that you have an ugly black mouth and that you are afraid to come up to the shore." this so enraged the salmon that he came towards the shore, when tehlh said, "wait a little, i have to go to the woods" for he had no club and the salmon must always be killed by striking it on the head with a club. when he returned, he again reviled the salmon and when it came and jumped in shallow water he killed it. he then kindled a fire with his rubbing sticks and prepared the fish for cooking. in the meantime many small birds came around hoping to get something to eat, and the raven sent them off to gather skunk cabbage leaves to wrap the fish in, but those that they brought he condemned as too small or smelling bad, and told them to go to the far mountain where the proper kind grew. as soon as they had disappeared he wrapped the fish in the discarded leaves, scraped away the fire and the gravel beneath, buried the fish, and covered it with the hot stones and the fire. when the fish was cooked, he ate all of it and collecting the bones, carefully wrapped them in the old leaves and covered them with the fire and when the little birds returned with the mountain leaves he showed them the bones, saying that the fire had eaten the flesh. then all of the birds felt very badly, the little chickadee cried bitterly and continually wiping its eyes with its feet wore away the feathers which ever after showed a white stripe from the corners down. the blue jay was so angry that he tied up the feathers on top of his head which have ever since formed a crest, for when the tlingit are angry they tie the front hair up in a knot; while the robin in his grief sat too close to the fire and burned his breast red. tluke-ass-a-gars. the carved post on the left of the ornamental screen was named tluke-ass-a-gars "wood-worm post" and illustrated a very important happening in the early life of the family that is believed to have caused the separation of the body that first migrated northward. the large upper figure represents ka-kutch-an, "the girl who fondled the wood-worm," which she holds in front of her body with both hands. over her head are two wood-worms whose heads form her ears. beneath is shown a frog in the bill of a crane. the whole post symbolizes the tree in which the wood-worm lives, the crane lights on the outer surface and the frog lives underneath among the roots. it is said that in early days in a village that would seem to have been near klawak, on the west coast of prince of wales island, there was a chief of the tlow-on-we-ga-dee family whose wife was of the kon-nuh-ta-di. they had a daughter just reaching womanhood. one day after the members of the household had returned from gathering firewood, the daughter, picking up a piece of bark found a wood-worm which she wrapped up in her blanket and carried in the house. after the evening meal she took it into the back compartment and offered it some food, but it would not eat, and then she gave it her breast and it grew very rapidly and she became very fond of it, as if it were her child, and as time went on her whole life seemed to be absorbed by her pet which she kept secreted. her constant abstraction and absences grew so noticeable that the mother's suspicions were aroused and one day she detected her fondling the worm that had now grown as large as a person. she called the chief and they wondered greatly for no one had ever seen anything like it. as she played with the worm she sang to it all the time:-- "da-a-a see-ok bus k-e-e-e. tchi-ok kon nok they have small faces. sit down here. tu usk-k ka tel kin ka tchi-ok kon nok they have small fat cheeks. sit down here." the father told the uncle and he sent for his niece and set food before her, and while she ate he stole away to see the worm, which she had hidden behind the food chests in the back apartment. that evening the uncle called the people together and told them that his niece had a great "living creature" kutze-ce-te-ut that might in time kill them all and they decided to kill the worm. another reason given for the destruction of the creature was that it was held accountable for the loss of much food that had been mysteriously disappearing from the grease boxes for some time past. the following day the aunt invited her to come and sew her martin skin robe, and in her absence the men sharpened their long wooden spears and going to the house killed the worm. upon her return she cried bitterly and said they had killed her child and she sang her song night and day until she died. then her family left this place and migrated north. in commemoration of this event the tlow-on-we-ga-du family display the tail of the worm on their dance dress, pipes, etc., as they attacked that part, while the kon-nuh-ta-di display the whole worm figure as they killed the head which was the most important part. objects associated with the house. closely associated with the "whale house," and in the keeping of the chief, were many ceremonial objects in crest form, that were never exhibited except upon such important occasions as when the whole family was assembled and much property was distributed to those of the opposite phratry who had assisted at house and grave building, cremation, etc. most prominent among these was a great wood feast dish, and an exceptionally large basket. the former was known as thluke-hotsick "wood-worm dish," and as a crest object it told the same story as the carved interior post previously described. it was hollowed out of a tree trunk feet inches long, feet inches wide and foot high. it was shaped and ornamentally carved and painted to represent a wood-worm and inlaid along the rounded upper edge with opercula. in it had so far decayed that its usefulness was past although it was still displayed upon ceremonial occasions (fig. ). [illustration: fig. . wood-worm dish, as seen in the house.] the basket although at least two generations old, has been carefully cared for so that it is in an excellent state of preservation. it is named kuhk-claw "basket mother" on account of its great size, measuring inches in both height and diameter. it was woven of split spruce root in cylindrical form, by a woman of the family, in the characteristic weave of the chilkat, where alternate spirals of woof are in the double twining and plaiting, giving a rough and irregular appearance to the wall surface. the only variation on the outside are four short darker colored lines of weave which mark its capacity at different heights as we mark a commercial measure. it is fitted with twisted root handle for carriage. both of these receptacles were used at feasts, filled with native food, and are generally known throughout southeastern alaska. the present whale house. in this house and yehlh-hit (raven) house adjoining were torn down and preparations for the erection of new buildings were gotten under way, and in the winter of , after the walls were up and the roof on, a great potlach was given by the kon-nuh-ta-di, to the three wolf families of the opposite phratry in the tribe and the ka-gwan-tan of sitka, in which over ten thousand dollars in property, food, and money were distributed. the head chief of the family the master of the whale house yehlh-guou "raven's slave," welcomed his guest upon landing, wearing the raven hat. the new house although modern in form and of two stories took the old name, and it stands today windowless and doorless, the interior grown up in weeds, a monument of the last great potlatch of the chilkat, as the chief died soon afterwards and his successor has neither the means to finish it nor the desire to live in it and the elaborate carvings have never been placed but are stored and will probably so remain. plate . decorative figures carved in bas-relief on the face of the retaining timbers supporting the two interior superimposed platforms. for their positions in the house see fig. . the three upper figures represent the native hammered copper plate, "tinneh," which was an important feature in the ceremonial life of the northwest coast and was the most valued of possessions, while that below was said to symbolize "kee-war-kow," the highest heaven. (see p. .) [illustration: plate .] plate . carved and painted screen at the back of the house partitioning off the chief's apartment. it is called su-kheen, or "rain wall." the central figure with outstretched arms represents the rain spirit, while the small crouching figures in the border are called su-cou-nutchee, "raindrops splash up," or the splash of falling drops after striking the ground. a portion of the screen has been broken off and the otherwise unsymmetrical form of the drawing is due to photographic distortion. its position in the house is indicated by fig. . the hole through the body of the symbolic figure is the door or entrance to the apartment behind. (see p. .) [illustration: plate .] plate . _a_ carved interior post to the right of the entrance, gonakatate-gars, representing the mythical sea monster that brings good fortune to one who sees it and illustrates a story in the early wanderings of yehlh, the raven. at the top is "gonakatate's child" who holds a hawk in its paws. next is the head of "gonakatate," the principal figure whose body extends to the bottom of the post. he holds in front of him a whale, peeping from whose blow hole is the head of the raven. on the back of the whale is the figure of a woman. (see p. .) _b_ carved interior post to the left of the entrance, duck-toolh-gars representing the legendary hero, "black-skins" rending the sealion. the large human figure is duck-toolh, who holds a sealion by the hind flippers. the head at the base of the post represents the island upon which he stood while tearing the sealion asunder. (see p. .) [illustration: plate .] plate . _a_ carved interior post to the right of the decorative screen in the rear of the house, yehlh-gars, raven post, telling the story of the raven capturing the king salmon. the main figure with head at the top represents the raven, holding the head of tsu-hootar, or "jade adze," and standing upon the head of a fish. from the mouth of raven is issuing a bird representing lies. (see p. .) _b_ carved interior post to the left of the decorative screen in the rear of the house, tluke-ass-a-gars, illustrating the story of the girl and the wood-worm. the human figure above is that of ka-kutch-an, "the girl who fondled the wood-worm." she holds the wood-worm in front in her hands. two worms are peeping around her head. the lower figure represents a crane holding a frog in its bill. (see p. .) [illustration: plate .] american museum of natural history. publications in anthropology. in the present series of anthropological papers was authorized by the trustees of the museum to record the results of research conducted by the department of anthropology. the series comprises octavo volumes of about pages each, issued in parts at irregular intervals. previous to articles devoted to anthropological subjects appeared as occasional papers in the bulletin and also in the memoir series of the museum. a complete list of these publications with prices will be furnished when requested. all communications should be addressed to the librarian of the museum. the recent issues are as follows:-- volume x. i. chipewyan texts. by pliny earle goddard. pp. - . . price, $ . . ii. analysis of cold lake dialect, chipewyan. by pliny earle goddard. pp. - , and text figures. . price, $ . . iii. chipewyan tales. by robert h. lowie. pp. - . . price, $. . iv. the beaver indians. by pliny earle goddard. pp. - , and text figures. . price, $ . . v. 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(in preparation). _the cosmos press, cambridge, massachusetts_ transcriber notes: words contained within underscores, i.e. _a_, are in italics in the original. footnotes have been moved closer to their reference point in the text. additional transcriber notes can be found at the end of this project. anthropological papers of the american museum of natural history. vol. vi, part i. the archaeology of the yakima valley. by harlan i. smith. new york: published by order of the trustees. june, . anthropological papers of the american museum of natural history vol. vi, part i. the archaeology of the yakima valley. by harlan i. smith. contents. page introduction geographical description archaeological sites resources the securing of food points chipped out of stone points rubbed out of stone points rubbed out of bone bows snares notched sinkers grooved sinkers shell heaps digging sticks basketry preparation of food mortars pestles rollers fish knives fire making caches boiling habitations semi-subterranean house sites circles of stones (summer house sites) tools used by men wedges hammerstones celts hand-adze whetstones drills scrapers arrow-shaft smoothers tools used by women scrapers chipped from stone scrapers rubbed from bone awls rubbed from bone needles mat-pressers processes of manufacture life histories of manufactured objects war implements used in warfare grooved pebbles, club-heads, or sinkers stone clubs 'slave-killers' war costume fortifications wounds dress and adornment skins matting ornaments combs beads dentalium shells pendants bracelets a costumed human figure deformation games, amusements, and narcotics games narcotics art paintings petroglyphs incised designs notches circle and dot designs pecked grooves animal and human forms coast art method of burial burials in domes of volcanic ash rock-slide graves cremation circles position of the body property with the dead horse sacrifices diseases conclusion bibliography appendix illustrations. plates. i. chipped points. fig. (museum no. - ), length cm.; fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ). ii. chipped points. fig. (museum no. - ), length . cm.; fig. ( - a); fig. ( - a); fig. ( - b); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ); fig. ( - ): fig. ( - ). iii. quarry near naches river. house site near naches river. iv. house sites near naches river. v. camp sites near sentinal bluffs. vi. fort near rock creek. rock-slide grave on yakima ridge. vii. terraced rock-slide on yakima ridge. viii. rock-slide graves on yakima ridge. ix. cremation circle near mouth of naches river. grave in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. x. opened grave in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. xi. petroglyphs near sentinal bluffs. xii. petroglyphs in selah canon. xiii. petroglyph in selah canon. petroglyph near wallula junction. xiv. pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. xv. pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. xvi. pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. text figures. page. . chipped point made of chalcedony . chipped point made of chalcedony . chipped point made of white chalcedony . serrated chipped point made of petrified wood . chipped point made of obsidian . fragment of a leaf-shaped point made of chert . point made of bone . point made of bone . scorched point made of bone . point made of bone . point or barb made of bone . point or barb made of bone . net sinkers made of pebbles . sinker, a grooved boulder bearing a design in intaglio . sinker, a grooved boulder bearing a design in intaglio . sinker, a perforated boulder . fragment of basket of splint foundation and bifurcated stitch . fragment of a mortar made of stone . mortar made of stone . mortar made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle pecked from stone . pestle pecked from stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of sandstone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of stone . pestle made of steatite . pestle or roller made of stone . pestle or roller made of stone . fragment of hearth of fire drill . wedge made of antler . hammerstone . hammerstone . hammerstone made of a hard, water-worn pebble . hammerstone . hammerstone made of a close-grained yellow volcanic pebble . celt made of serpentine . hand-adze made of stone . point for a drill, chipped from chalcedony . point for a drill, chipped from chert . scraper chipped from petrified wood . scraper chipped from agate . scraper chipped from chalcedony . scraper chipped from chalcedony . scraper chipped from a flat circular pebble . scraper or knife chipped from a pebble . scraper or knife chipped from a pebble . awl made of bone . awl made of bone . spatulate object made of bone _a_. object made of steatite, probably a mat presser. _b_. part of incised pictograph on object shown in _a_ . grooved pebble . club-head or sinker made of lava . club made of serpentine . club made of serpentine . club made of stone . club made of stone . club made of stone . club made of stone . club made of stone . war implement or slave killer, made of friable stone . diagram of stitch of fragment of rush matting _a_. fragment of matting, made of twined rush stitched together with twisted cord. _b_ diagram of stitch of _a_ . fragment of open-twine matting, made of rush . comb made of antler . beads made of copper, glass and sections of dentalium shells . bead made of brass . beads made of shell . drilled and perforated disk made of slate . pendant made of copper, thong and copper bead . button made of shell with attached bead made of metal . perforated disk made of bone . pendants made of slate . pendant made of copper . pendant made of copper . pendant made of brass and bead made of copper . pendant made of iron . pendant made of iron . pendant or bead made of an olivella shell . pendant made of (_pectunculus_) shell . pendant made of iridescent shell . pendant made of (_haliotis_) shell . pendant made of (_haliotis_) shell . pendant or nose ornament, made of (_haliotis_) shell . pendant made of shell . pendant made of oyster shell . bracelet made of copper . bracelet made of iron . bone tube . bone tube bearing incised lines, charred . perforated cylinder made of steatite . tubular pipe made of steatite . tubular pipe made of green stone with stem . pipe made of steatite used by the thompson river indians at spences bridge in . form of the flange-shaped mouth of the bowl of some thompson river indian pipes . tubular pipe made of steatite . fragment of a sculptured tubular pipe made of steatite . pipe made of limestone . pipe made of sandstone . pipe made of bluestone . pipe made of stone . pipe made of soft sandstone . pipe made of steatite . pipe made of soft sandstone . pipe made of steatite _a_. incised design on a fragment of a wooden bow. _b_ section of fragment of bow shown in _a_ . incised design on bowl of pipe shown in fig. . incised design on stone dish . incised designs on dentalium shells . incised designs on dentalium shells . incised pendant made of steatite with red paint (mercury) in some of the holes and lines . circle and dot design on whetstone made of slate . costumed human figure made of antler . quill-flattener made of antler . fragments of a figure . fragment of a sculpture with hoof-like part . sculptured animal form made of lava . handle of digging stick made of horn of rocky mountain sheep . pipe made of stone . sculptured and inlaid pipe made of steatite with wooden stem . sketch map of the yakima valley introduction. the following pages contain the results of archaeological investigations carried on by the writer for the american museum of natural history from may to august, ,[ ] in the yakima valley between clealum of the forested eastern slope of the cascade mountains and kennewick, between the mouths of the yakima and snake rivers in the treeless arid region, and in the columbia valley in the vicinity of priest rapids. my preliminary notes on the archaeology of this region were published in science.[ ] definite age cannot be assigned to the archaeological finds, since here, as to the north, the remains are found at no great depth or in soil the surface of which is frequently shifted. some of the graves are known to be of modern indians, but many of them antedate the advent of the white race in this region or at least contain no objects of european manufacture, such as glass beads or iron knives. on the other hand, there was found no positive evidence of the great antiquity of any of the skeletons, artifacts or structures found in the area. the greater part of the area was formerly inhabited by sahaptian speaking people, including the yakima, atanum, topinish, chamnapum, and wanapum, while the northern part of it was occupied by the piskwans or winatshmpui of the salish linguistic stock.[ ] [ ] a brief report of the operations of this expedition appeared in the american museum journal, vol. iv, no. , pp. - , january, . it was slightly revised and appeared in science n. s. vol. xix, no. , pp. - , april , , and records of the past, vol. iv, part , pp. - , april . [ ] n. s. vol. xxiii, no. , p. - , april , . reprinted in the seattle post intelligencer for march, , the scientific american supplement, vol. lxii, no. , september , , and in the washington magazine, vol. i, no. , june . abstracted in the bulletin of the american geographical society, may, . [ ] mooney, plate lxxxviii near north yakima we examined graves in the rock-slides along the yakima and naches rivers; a site, where material, possibly boulders, suitable for chipped implements had been dug and broken with pebble hammers, on the north side of the naches about one mile above its mouth; pictographs on the basaltic columns on the south side of the naches river to the west of the mouth of cowiche creek; petroglyphs pecked into basaltic columns in selah canon; ancient house sites on the north side of the naches river near its mouth, and on the north side of the yakima river below the mouth of the naches; remains of human cremations, each surrounded by a circle of rocks on the point to the northwest of the junction of the naches and yakima rivers; recent rock-slide graves on the eastern side of the yakima river above union gap below old yakima (old town); the surface along the eastern side of the yakima river, as far as the vicinity of sunnyside; graves in the domes of volcanic ash in the ahtanum valley near tampico; and rock-slide graves in the cowiche valley. we then moved our base about thirty miles up the yakima river to ellensburg, mr. albert a. argyle examining the surface along the western side, en route. from ellensburg, rock-slide graves and human remains, surrounded by circles of rocks, as well as a village site upon the lowland, were examined near the mouth of cherry creek. a day spent at clealum failed to develop anything of archaeological interest in that vicinity, except that a human skeleton had been removed in the sinking of a shaft for a coal mine. from ellensburg we went to fort simcoe by way of north yakima and near the indian agency observed circles of rocks, like those around the cremated human remains near north yakima, and a circular hole surrounded by a ridge, the remains of an underground house. crossing the divide from ellensburg and going down to priest rapids in the columbia valley, no archaeological remains were observed except chips of stone suitable for chipped implements which were found on the eastern slope of the divide near the top and apparently marked the place where material for such implements, probably float quartz, had been quarried. on the western side of the columbia, on the flat between sentinal bluffs and the river at the head of priest rapids, considerable material was found. this was on the surface of the beach opposite the bluffs and on a village site near the head of priest rapids. graves in the rock-slides, back from the river about opposite this site, were also examined. some modern graves were noticed in a low ridge near the river, a short distance above the village site. crossing the columbia, some material was found on the surface of the beach and further up, petroglyphs pecked in the basaltic rocks at the base of sentinal bluffs were photographed. the writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to mr. d. w. owen of kennewick for information, for permission to examine his collection, to make notes and sketches of specimens in it, and for presenting certain specimens;[ ] to mr. frank n. mccandless of tacoma for permission to study and photograph the specimens[ ] in his collection containing part of the york collection in the ferry museum, city hall, tacoma; to mr. louis o. janeck of north nd. st., north yakima for information and for permission to study and photograph the specimens[ ] in his collection as well as for supplementary information since received from him; to hon. austin mires of ellensburg for information and permission to study and photograph specimens[ ] in his collection; to mrs. o. hinman of ellensburg for permission to photograph specimens[ ] in her collection; to mrs. j. b. davidson of ellensburg for information and permission to study her collection and to make drawings of specimens[ ] in it, and for the pipe shown in fig. ; to mr. w. h. spalding of ellensburg for permission to photograph specimens[ ] in his collection; to mrs. jay lynch of fort simcoe, for information and permission to photograph specimens[ ] in her collection; to mr. w. z. york of old yakima for permission to sketch and study specimens[ ] in his collection, and to others credited specifically in the following pages. the accompanying drawings are by mr. r. weber and the photographs are by the author, unless otherwise credited. [ ] see figs. , , , , , and . [ ] see figs. , , , and . [ ] see figs. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . [ ] see figs. , , , , , , , and . [ ] see figs. , and . [ ] see figs. , and ; see also p. . [ ] see figs. and . [ ] see figs. , , and . [ ] see figs. , , , , and . geographical description. clealum is situated on the yakima river, at a point on the northern pacific railway, miles east of the humid, heavily forested coast at puget sound. although situated not over miles from copalis, on the ocean at the western edge or furthest limit of the temperate humid coast country, the summers are hot and dry and the winters severe. it is feet above the sea level and far enough towards the summit of the cascade mountains, that marks the line between the humid coast and the arid almost treeless interior, to find considerable moisture and many trees. ellensburg is situated near the eastern side of the yakima river, miles below clealum, at an altitude of feet above the sea level and in the wide somewhat flat kittitas valley which was, in former geologic times, a lake bottom. the river flows rapidly and its low banks at places are high enough to form gravel bluffs. the surrounding country is arid and there is no natural forest growth. cherry creek, one of a number of small streams on this side of the river, flows through the eastern part of this valley, and empties into the yakima river about one mile below thrall on section , town , north of range east. here, the river enters yakima canon which cuts through umptanum ridge and the western foothills of saddle mountains. there are some pines in this canon. selah creek flows through selah canon from the east and empties into the yakima, about one mile above selah at the northwest corner of section , town , north of range east. this is in a broad valley below yakima canon. at the time of our visit, however, the lower portion of this creek was dry. wenas creek empties into the yakima from the west, nearly opposite selah. north yakima is on the western side of the yakima river, about two miles below the mouth of the naches, which empties into the yakima from the west, immediately below where the latter breaks through yakima ridge. this break is called the gap or the upper gap. north yakima is at an altitude of feet above the sea level. the soil of the valley is made up of a rich volcanic ash and the region is arid and practically treeless except on the banks of the rivers and creeks or where irrigation has been successfully practised. the climate in most respects resembles that of the southern interior of british columbia, lying to the north, but in general, there is less vegetation except on irrigated land. cowiche creek flows from the southwest and empties into the south side of the naches, at a point about three miles above its mouth. tampico is situated on section , town , north of range east, on the north side of ahtanum creek, which flows nearly east along the base of the north side of rattlesnake range and empties into the yakima at union gap or lower gap, below old yakima. fort simcoe is located in a cluster of live oak trees, on one of the branches of simcoe creek, which flows in an easterly direction and empties into the toppenish river, a western feeder of the yakima. this place is at an altitude of feet above the sea level and is surrounded by 'scab' land. going west from fort simcoe, up the slopes of the cascade mountains, a mile or so, one notices timber in the valleys, and as one proceeds still further up the mountains, the timber becomes thicker and of greater size. this is the beginning of the forest, which at the west side of the cascades becomes so remarkably dense. to the east of fort simcoe, however, no trees are seen, except in the bottoms along the streams, while on the lower reaches of the yakima and on the banks of the columbia, east of here, there are absolutely no trees. kennewick is located on the western side of the columbia river about six miles below the mouth of the yakima. it is opposite pasco, which is about three miles above the mouth of snake river. the place is only feet above the sea level and except where irrigation has been practised, there are no trees in sight, the vegetation being that typical of the desert among which are sagebrush, grease-wood and cactus. lewis and clark, when here on their way to the pacific coast, october , ,[ ] saw the indians drying salmon on scaffolds for food and fuel. captain clark said, "i do not think [it] at all improbable that those people make use of dried fish as fuel. the number of dead salmon on the shores & floating in the river is incrediable to say ... how far they have to raft their timber they make their scaffolds of i could not learn; but there is no timber of any sort except small willow bushes in sight in any direction." [ ] lewis and clark, iii, p. . sentinal bluffs is the name given to both sides of the gap where the columbia river breaks through saddle mountains. it is a short distance above the head of priest rapids. crab creek empties into the columbia from the east on the north side of these mountains. on the western side of the river, between the bluffs and the head of priest rapids, there is a flat place of considerable area, portions of which the columbia floods during the winter. going northwest from here to ellensburg, the trail leads up a small valley in which are several springs surrounded by some small trees. one ascends about feet to the top of the divide and then descends perhaps feet into the kittitas valley. archaeological sites. at clealum, we found no archaeological remains, except a single human skeleton unearthed in the sinking of a shaft for a coal mine. here, however, our examination of the vicinity was limited to one day, and it is possible that a more thorough search might bring to light archaeological sites. specimens from the vicinity of clealum are unknown to the writer, although there are a number of collections from the vicinity of ellensburg, priest rapids, kennewick and other places lower down. the abundance of specimens on the surface near priest rapids and kennewick in proportion to those found near north yakima and ellensburg, suggests that the high parts of the valley were less densely inhabited and that the mountains were perhaps only occasionally visited. it would seem possible that the prehistoric people of the yakima valley had their permanent homes on the columbia, and possibly in the lower parts of the yakima region. this is indicated by the remains of underground houses, some of which are as far up as ellensburg. these remains are similar to those found in the thompson river region, where such houses were inhabited in the winter. the people of the yakima area probably seldom went up to the higher valleys and the mountains, except on hunting expeditions or to gather berries, roots and wood for their scaffolds, canoes and other manufactures. if this be correct, it would account for the scarcity of specimens upon the surface along the higher streams, since all the hunting parties, berry, root and wood-gathering expeditions were not likely to leave behind them so much material as would be lost or discarded in the vicinity of the permanent villages. spinden states[ ] that in the nez perce region to the east of the yakima country, permanent villages were not built in the uplands, although in a few places where camas and kouse were abundant, temporary summer camps were constructed. [ ] spinden, p. . in the vicinity of ellensburg, we found no archaeological specimens except the chipped point mentioned on page , but this may be due in part to the modern cultivation of the soil and to the fact that the irrigated crops, such as are grown here, hide so much of the surface of the ground. a search along portions of the level country west of the town and even in such places as those where the river cuts the bank, failed to reveal signs of house or village sites. in ellensburg, i saw a summer lodge, made up of a conical framework of poles covered with cloth and inhabited by an old blind indian and his wife. east of the city, near the little stream below the city reservoir was another summer lodge made similarly, but among the covering cloths was some matting of native manufacture. the remains of an underground house, possibly feet in diameter were seen to the east of the northern pacific railway, between ellensburg and thrall. on the little bottom land along the western side of cherry creek, near its mouth, at the upper end of yakima canon, we found objects which show that the place had been a camping ground. this is immediately south of where an east and west road crosses the creek on the farm of mr. bull. on this village site were found the specimens catalogued under numbers - to , of which two are shown in plate ii, fig. , and fig. . the opposite side of this stream strikes one of the foothills of the uplands, the western extension of saddle mountains. on the top of this foothill, which overlooks the above mentioned village site, were a number of burials marked by circles of rocks.[ ] in the rock-slide on the side of this hill, between these circles and the village site below, were a number of graves which are described in detail under numbers - - and - - on pages to . some of the objects found, many of which are recent and show contact with the white race, are shown in figs. a, , , , , - , , , , and . [ ] see - , page . on the western side of the yakima, about opposite the above mentioned village site, a rock-slide appears at the head of yakima canon. in it are a number of rock-slide graves marked by sticks. in selah canon, on the north side of selah creek, about a mile and a half above where it empties into the yakima are three groups of petroglyphs pecked into the vertical surface of the low basaltic cliffs of the canon wall. two of these groups (plate xii) are upon eastern faces of the rock, while the one shown in fig. , plate xiii, is upon a southern exposure. in the rock-slide on the south side of selah canon, about three quarters of a mile above the yakima or about half way between these petroglyphs and the yakima, were found a number of graves, one of them marked by a much weathered twig. these were the only archaeological remains seen by us in selah canon, although we examined it for at least two miles from its mouth. on the north slope of yakima ridge, near its base, at a point where the moxee canal and the river road turn and run west along the base of the ridge or about southeast of the largest ranch there, possibly two miles northeasterly from the gap, were a number of scattered graves covered with rock-slide material. about one quarter of a mile west from here, a little west of south of the ranch, was a large rock-slide, covering a short northerly spur of the ridge. this is shown from the southwest in plate vii. it is about three quarters of a mile northeast from where the yakima river, after flowing through bottom lands, strikes the base of the yakima ridge. in this slide were a large number of shallow parallel nearly horizontal ditches below each of which is a low ridge or terrace of the angular slide-rock. among these terraces, as shown in fig. of the plate, were a few pits surrounded by a low ridge, made up of jagged slide-rock, apparently from out of the pits. it was naturally larger at the side of the pit towards the bottom of the slide. in none of these did we find human remains or specimens. some of them are larger than similar pits that we found to be rock-slide graves. their close resemblance to graves found to have been disturbed, part of their remains being scattered near by and to other graves, as they appeared after our excavations, suggests that these pits are the remains of such rock-slide graves from which the bodies have been removed by the indians possibly since the land became the property of the united states government. on the other hand, these pits remind us of rifle pits, though it does not seem probable that they would be built in such a place for that purpose and there is no local account of the site having been used for such pits. this rock-slide is particularly interesting because of the terraces into which most of its surface had been formed. the character of the rock-slide material is such that one may walk over these for some little time without noticing them, but once having been noticed, they always force themselves upon the attention. standing near the top of the slide, they remind one of rows of seats in a theatre. each terrace begins at the edge of the slide and runs horizontally out around its convex surface to the opposite side. some of them are wider than others. they resemble the more or less horizontal and parallel terraces formed by horses and cattle while feeding on steep slopes. the yakima ridge has been so terraced by stock in many places and over large areas. however, there is no vegetation on the rock-slide to entice stock and the difficulty of walking over the cruelly sharp rocks as well as the presence of rattlesnakes would seem sufficient to cause both cattle and horses to pass either below or above it. the outer edge of each terrace is probably little lower than the inner edge, but viewed from the slope it seems so, and this suggests that these terraces may have been entrenchments, though it would seem that they would be useless for such a purpose since one can easily reach the land above from either side. moreover, it would not seem necessary to make parallel entrenchments down the entire slope. that they were made to facilitate the carrying of the dead to the rock-slide graves is possible but not probable. it seems unlikely that they could have been made for the seating of spectators to overlook games or ceremonies; for the sharpness of the rocks would make them very uncomfortable. there is a much higher rock-slide on the east side of a small steep ravine near where the yakima river flows close to the base of the ridge, about a mile northeast of the naches river or upper gap. near the top of this slide, possibly three hundred feet above the river, were similar pits larger than those just described. two or three of these were bounded along the edge towards the top of the slide by an unusually wide terrace. near the bottom of this slide were graves[ ] (nos. and ) which are described in detail on page . grave no. was in the base of the rock-slide as shown in the figure and was indicated by a cedar stick projecting from a slight depression in the top of the heap of rock-slide material covering it. it was on a slight terrace about eighty feet above the river, and commanded a view over the valley of the yakima to the north. the presence of the brass tube shown in fig. suggests that this grave is not of great antiquity. grave no. was in the same rock-slide about fifty feet down the ravine or to the north, and about forty feet above the moxee flume. it was indicated by a hole in a pile of rock, like an old well. it was found to contain nothing, the remains having been removed. on the south side of the yakima ridge, near the bridge over the yakima, at the upper gap, rock-slide graves are said to have been disturbed during the construction of the flume which carries the waters of the moxee ditch around the western end of the yakima ridge, and during the gathering of stone on this point for commercial purposes. some of these graves are said to have been above the flume. [ ] sec fig. , plate vi from the north of west. here and there, near the base of the ridge from this point easterly for about a mile, were found small pits, such as one shown in fig. , plate viii. apparently, these were rock-slide graves from which the human remains had been removed, either by the indians in early times or more recently by visitors from the neighboring town of north yakima. possibly some of them are old cache holes. one of these graves near the top of a small rock-slide above the flume contained a human skeleton and is shown in fig. , plate viii. below these graves, on the narrow flat between the base of the ridge and the yakima river at a point about three quarters of a mile below the upper gap at the mouth of the naches river, were discovered a number of small pits each surrounded by a low ridge of earth which were probably the remains of cache holes made by the indians during the last twenty years. on this flat, close to the river were two pits surrounded by a circular ridge which indicated ancient semi-subterranean house sites, further described on page . it is said, that above the flume at a point about a mile and a half below the upper gap, rock-slide graves, some of which were marked by pieces of canoes were excavated by school boys. the writer was also informed by small boys that near the top of the ridge immediately above here, they frequently found chipped points for arrows but on examination discovered only chips of stone suitable for such points, the boys either having mistaken the chips for points or having collected so many of the points that they were scarce. on the west side of the yakima, at the upper gap, there is a raised flat top or terrace that overlooks the mouth of the naches river to the southeast. here were a number of circles made up of angular rocks. within each we found the remains of human cremations. unburned fragments of the bones of several individuals with shell ornaments were often present in a single circle.[ ] [ ] see p. and fig. , plate ix. continuing westward, along the slope of the ridge, cut along its southern base by the naches river, at a point about one and a quarter miles west of the mouth of the river, a small ravine cuts down from the top of the ridge. this has formed a little flat through the middle of which it has again cut down towards the river. east of this ravine on the flat is a circle of angular rocks such as are found scattered over the ridge. this circle no doubt marks a house site, the interior having been cleared of stone and the circle of rocks probably having been used to hold down the lodge covering.[ ] to the west of the ravine, where the flat is somewhat higher than to the east, there are the remains of two semi-subterranean houses. each of these is represented by a pit surrounded by a ridge of earth, and on the top, are large angular rocks.[ ] at a point where the ridge meets this flat, close to the western side of the ravine was a slight depression in a small rock-slide which marked what seemed to be a grave, but which, on excavation, revealed nothing. still further westward at a point probably two miles above the mouth of the naches river and overlooking the stream at an altitude of perhaps feet, we found scattered over the ground along the eastern summit of a deep ravine, the first one west of the house sites above mentioned, numerous small chips of material suitable for chipped implements. these became more numerous as we proceeded northward up the eastern side of the ravine for a distance of about a quarter of a mile. here we came upon the small quarry in the volcanic soil, shown in fig. , plate iii. immediately to the west of the pit was a pile of earth, apparently excavated from it. [ ] see p. and fig. , plate iv. [ ] see p. and fig. , plate iv. on the top of this heap of soil and among the broken rock to the south and east of it, were found several water-worn pebbles, used as hammers in breaking up the rock, as indicated by the battered condition of their ends (p. ). we saw no other water-worn pebbles on the surface of the ridge, but they were numerous in the gravel of the bottom-lands subject to the overflow of the rivers. it would seem that these pebbles were brought up from the river below for use as hammers. scattered to the south of the pit were found large fragments of float quartz material containing small pieces of stone suitable for chipped implements but made up mainly of stone which was badly disintegrated. lying on the slope of the ravine were many small fragments of this same stone which were clear of flaws. it would seem that a mass of float quartz much of which was suitable for chipped implements had been found here. it had been excavated, leaving the pile of earth and then broken up with the river pebbles which were left behind with the waste. probably there were fairly large pieces of the material, suitable for chipped implements; that were carried away while small pieces were left lying about a pile of unsuitable material. in other words, it would seem that these specimens mark a place for the roughing out of material for chipped implements.[ ] on the same side of the river, on the side of a rather low ridge or table-land overlooking it, at a point about twelve miles above its mouth, are some rock-slides. here it is said that graves have been found. they were probably typical rock-slide graves. on a point of land perhaps fifty feet above these and a few hundred feet to the north, master james mcwhirter pointed out a grave on his farm. it was then surrounded by a ring made up of water-worn pebbles, apparently brought up from the river. he stated that an attempt had been made to excavate it which possibly accounts for the pebbles being in a circle rather than a heap over the grave. this grave was found to contain a slab of wood, shell ornaments, probably modern, and an adult skeleton, no. ( ), - , p. . [ ] see p. . there are a number of painted pictographs on the vertical faces of the basaltic columns, facing north on the south side of the naches river, immediately to the west of the mouth of cowiche creek. these are below the flume and may be reached from the top of the talus slope which has been added to by the blasting away of the rock above, during the construction of the flume. in fact, debris from this blasting has covered part of the pictographs. some of the pictures are in red, others in white and there are combinations of the two colors.[ ] local merchants have defaced these pictographs with advertisements. [ ] further described under the subject of art on p. and shown in plates xiv-xvi. in the cowiche valley, there are several rock-slide graves, but these seem to have been rifled. northeast of the fair grounds at north yakima, the remains of an underground house are said to exist. a short distance east of tampico, about miles above the mouth of the ahtanum, on the north side of the river and east of the road from the north where it meets the river road and immediately across it from the house of mr. sherman eglin, was a grave located in a volcanic dome left by the wind, which mr. eglin pointed out to us. the site is about feet north of the north branch of the ahtanum and about fifteen feet above the level of the river. a pile of rocks about eight feet in diameter covered this grave, no. , p. . on the land of mr. a. d. eglin, between the above-mentioned grave and tampico on the north side of the road were seen the signs of two graves, destroyed by plowing. near here, an oblong mound six or eight inches high and ten feet wide by eight feet long, supposedly covering a grave, marked by a stone on the level at each side and each end, and feet apart respectively was reported by mr. eglin's son. a little distance further north and up the slope of the land, were a number of volcanic ash heaps left by the wind. the surrounding land is what is locally known as "scab land." in some of these knolls, graves have been found and one which has been explored is shown in fig. , plate ix. it is located near the pasture gate, and was marked by a circle of stones as shown in the figure. on excavating, nothing was found. it is possible that the remains were entirely disintegrated. graves in rock-slides on hill sides, and a village site near this place were reported by mr. eglin's son. along the north side of ahtanum creek between ahtanum and tampico, below the rim rock of the uplands parallel to the creek are a number of rock-slide graves. on the western side of union gap, through which the yakima river flows, below the mouth of ahtanum creek, a short distance below old yakima, on a little flat or terrace projecting from the south side of rattle snake range is a modern indian cemetery surrounded by a fence. to the east of union gap, on the northwestern slope of rattle snake range, we examined some rock-slide graves which had been made since the advent of objects of white manufacture. a mile or so south of union gap not far from the uplands to the east of the river was a ridge of earth extending north and south nearly parallel with the river road. this, however, i believe may be the remains of some early irrigation project. on the west side of the yakima river about two miles south of union gap was seen a summer lodge made by covering a conical framework with mats. at fort simcoe, immediately south of the indian agency, on the north edge of the "scab land," overlooking a small ravine, is a large pit surrounded by an embankment of earth, the remains of a semi-subterranean house. perhaps an eighth of a mile south of this, on higher "scab land" was a rather low long mound upon which were several piles of stone that probably marked graves. this mound was lower and more oblong than the usual dome in which such graves were made. mrs. lynch, who pointed these out has excavated similar piles at this place and found them to mark graves. we were informed that chipped implements were frequently found along the yakima river at a point near prosser. above kennewick, while digging a flume, a number of graves were discovered, from which mr. sonderman made his collection. some of these graves contained modern material (p. ). on the surface of the western beach of the columbia at kennewick and on the flat land back of it we found chips of material suitable for making chipped implements, and a large pebble, probably a net sinker.[ ] these, together with the fact that mr. d. w. owen has also frequently found specimens here, suggest that this place was an ancient camping ground. that lewis and clark saw indians here and in the vicinity, as well as that the indians still camp here on the beach of the river, sheltered from the wind by the bank and depending upon the river driftwood for their fuel, strengthens this suggestion. specimens have been found on the large island in the columbia at the mouth of the yakima. (see p. .) at a point four miles below kennewick or perhaps a mile below a point opposite the mouth of the snake, a grave which contained material of white manufacture is said to have been discovered by a man while hauling water up the bank of the columbia. [ ] see p. . schoolcraft states[ ] that there was an earthwork on the left bank of the lower yakima on the edge of a terrace about fifteen feet high a short distance from the water. this terrace was banked on either side by a gully. this consisted of two concentric circles of earth about eighty yards in diameter by three feet high, with a ditch between. within were about twenty "cellars", situated without apparent design, except economy of room. they were some thirty feet across, and three feet deep. a guide stated that it was unique and made very long ago by an unknown people. outside, but near by, were other "cellars" in no way differing from the remains of villages of the region. what may be an earthwork near by is described by schoolcraft[ ] as follows: "the indians also pointed out, near by, a low hill or spur, which in form might be supposed to resemble an inverted canoe, and which he had said was a ship." schoolcraft suggests a possible relation of this to the mounds of the sacramento valley and continues:-- "in this connection may also be mentioned a couple of modern fortifications, erected by the yakamas upon the sunkive fork. they are situated between two small branches, upon the summits of a narrow ridge some two hundred yards long, and thirty feet in height, and are about twenty-five yards apart. the first is a square with rounded corners, formed by an earthen embankment capped with stones; the interstices between which served for loop-holes, and without any ditch. it is about thirty feet on the sides, and the wall three feet high. the other is built of adobes, in the form of a rectangle, twenty by thirty-four feet, the walls three feet high, and twelve to eighteen inches thick, with loop-holes six feet apart. both are commanded within rifle-shot by neighboring hills. they were erected in by skloo, as a defence against the cayuse. we did not hear whether they were successfully maintained, accounts varying greatly in this respect. in the same neighborhood captain m'clellan's party noticed small piles of stones raised by the indians on the edges of the basaltic walls which enclose these valleys, but were informed that they had no purpose; they were put up through idleness. similar piles are, however, sometimes erected to mark the fork of a trail. at points on these walls there were also many graves, generally made in regular form, covered with loose stones to protect them from the cayotes, and marked by poles decorated with tin cups, powder-horns, and articles of dress. during the summer the indians for the most part live in the small valleys lying well into the foot of the mountains. these are, however, uninhabitable during the winter, and they move further down, or to more sheltered situations. the mission which, in summer, is maintained in the a-tá-nam valley, is transferred into that of the main river."[ ] [ ] schoolcraft, vi. p. . [ ] schoolcraft, vi. p. . [ ] cf. also bancroft, iv. p. ; stevens, pp. - ; gibbs, (a), pp. - . after passing the top of the divide, to the left of the trail from ellensburg to priest rapids, chips and fragments of variegated float quartz suitable for chipped implements were found. this apparently marked a place where a fragment of float rock had been broken up, but fine fragments were hardly numerous enough to indicate that the place had been a shop site, or at least a large one. the quantity of material broken up, judging from the amount of refuse, was small. on the western side of the columbia, at the base of the basaltic rocks where they meet the bottom-land, perhaps a mile from the river were rock-slide graves in the talus slope. at the head of priest rapids, the river turns towards the west and then southward, flowing close to the southern end of this escarpment. on the flat, at the very head of priest rapids, the river, during high water had washed out the remains of a village or camp site, where pestles and animal bones were numerous. a short distance above this, in a low ridge near the river were some modern graves some of which were marked with sticks at the head and foot. the bodies, judging from the mounds of earth, were laid full length and many, if not all of them, judging from the size of the head and foot sticks, were placed with the feet towards the east. perhaps a mile above here near the home of mr. britain everette craig, several large and deep pits, the sites of ancient semi-subterranean houses were seen. above and near his house, the river had washed out what was apparently a village site, and perhaps a few graves. here was found the small fresh water shell heap, shown in fig. , plate v, and the pile of flat oval pebbles which probably marked a cooking place, shown in fig. . on the west beach of the columbia at sentinal bluffs perhaps another mile further up the river, notched sinkers and other indications of a camp or fishing ground were found. on the eastern side of the river near the head of priest rapids some material was found on the surface of the beach where the floods of the river had uncovered it. a mile or more above here, pecked on the basaltic columns of sentinal bluffs, which may be seen in both figures of plate v were a number of petroglyphs, shown in plate xi and described on page . those shown in fig. , photographed from the west, are on the columns to the east of the road, blasted through the rocks at this point, and perhaps fifteen feet from the river. those in fig. , photographed from the north, are to the west of the road on the columns which rise abruptly from the river. some specimens and indications of habitation were found scattered between this point and the mouth of crab creek, the bed of which was dry in most places when we visited it. resources. the resources of the prehistoric people of the yakima valley, as indicated by the specimens found in the graves and about the village sites, were chiefly of stone, copper, shell, bone, antler, horn, feathers, skin, tule stalks, birch bark and wood. they employed extensively various kinds of stone for making a variety of objects. obsidian,[ ] glassy basalt or trap, petrified wood, agate, chalcedonic quartz with opaline intrusions, chert and jasper were used for chipping into various kinds of points, such as those used for arrows, spears, knives, drills and scrapers. according to spinden,[ ] obsidian was used in the nez perce region to the east where it was obtained from the john day river and in the mountains to the east, possibly in the vicinity of the yellowstone national park. the people of the yakima valley may have secured it from the nez perce. as on the coast, objects made of glassy basalt were rare here, although it will be remembered that they were the most common among chipped objects in the thompson river region.[ ] mr. james teit believes that glassy basalt is scarce in the yakima region and that this is the reason why the prehistoric people there did not use it extensively. some agate, chalcedony and similar materials were used in the thompson river region, but while there is a great quantity of the raw material of these substances there, the indians say that the black basalt was easier to work and quite as effective when finished. several small quarries of float quartz had been excavated and broken up to be flaked at adjacent work shops, p. . river pebbles were made into net sinkers, pestles, mortars, hammerstones, scrapers, clubs, slave killers, sculptures, and similar objects, and were also used for covering some of the graves in the knolls. serpentine was used for celts and clubs; lava for sculptures. slate was used for ornamental or ceremonial tablets steatite for ornaments and pipes, though rarely for pestles and other objects; and impure limestone for pipes. fragments of basaltic rock were used for covering graves in the rock-slides and in some of the knolls. places on the basaltic columns and cliffs served as backgrounds upon which pictures were made, some being pecked,[ ] others painted.[ ] no objects made of mica or nephrite were found. siliceous sandstone was made into pestles, pipes and smoothers for arrow-shafts, but the last were rare. copper clay, white earth and red ochre were not found, but red and white paint were seen on the basaltic cliffs and mrs. lynch reports blue paint from a grave near fort simcoe (p. ). [ ] see fig. and - , p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] smith, (d) p. and (c) p. . [ ] see plates xi-xiii. [ ] see plates xiv-xvi. copper was used for beads, pendants and bracelets. while all of this copper may have been obtained by barter from the whites, yet some of it may have been native. copper, according to spinden, was probably not known to the nez perce before the articles of civilization had reached that region, but he states that large quantities of copper have been taken from graves and that the edges of some of the specimens are uneven, such as would be more likely to result from beating out a nugget than from working a piece of cut sheet copper.[ ] the glass beads, iron bracelets,[ ] and bangles,[ ] the brass rolled beads,[ ] brass pendant[ ] and the white metal inlay,[ ] which we found, all came from trade with the white race during recent times and do not belong to the old culture. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] see fig. . [ ] see figs. and . [ ] see fig. . [ ] see fig. . [ ] see fig. . shells of the fresh water unio, in a bed five or six feet in diameter and two or three inches thick, at the priest rapids village site and described on p. indicate that this animal had been used for food. shells of the little salt water clam (_pectunculus_ - , fig. ), haliotis ( - b, , , , figs. - ), dentalium ( - , , , , - , , - , - , , , , , figs. , , and ) olivella ( - , fig. ), and oyster ( - , fig. ) which were made into various ornaments must have been obtained from the coast. no shells of _pecten caurinus_ were found. deer bones were seen in great numbers in the earth of a village site at the head of priest rapids where they probably are the remains of cooking. animal bones were made into points for arrows or harpoon barbs, awls and tubes that were probably used in gambling. fish bones ( - ) found in the village sites suggest that fish were used for food. no bones of the whale were found. antler was used for wedges, combs and as material upon which to carve. horns of the rocky mountain sheep were used for digging-stick handles. mountain sheep horns were secured by the nez perce who lived to the east of the yakima region, and were traded with indians westward as far as the lower columbia.[ ] no objects made of teeth were found although a piece of a beaver tooth ( - ) was seen in grave no. , and mrs. lynch reports elk teeth from a grave near fort simcoe (p. ). pieces of thong, skin, fur, and feathers of the woodpecker, all of which were probably used as articles of wearing apparel, were found in the graves preserved by the action of copper salts or the dryness of the climate. [ ] spinden, p. . wood was used as the hearth of a fire drill[ ] and for a bow, a fragment of which is shown in fig. . sticks which had not decayed in this dry climate, marked some of the graves in the rock-slides (p. ). charcoal was also found in the graves and village sites. a fragment of birch bark, tightly rolled ( - ) was found in a grave; roots were woven into baskets;[ ] rushes were stitched and woven into mats.[ ] [ ] see fig. . [ ] see fig. . [ ] see fig. - . the securing of food. _points chipped out of stone._ many implements used in procuring food were found. in general, they are similar in character to those found in the thompson river region.[ ] the most numerous perhaps, were points of various sizes and shapes, made by chipping and flaking, for arrows, knives and spears. many of these are small and finely wrought and most of them are of bright colored agates, chalcedonies and similar stones. as before mentioned, several small quarries of such material with adjacent workshops were found. a very few specimens were made of glassy basalt, and it will be remembered (p. ) that this was the prevailing material for chipped implements in the thompson river region to the north, where there was perhaps not such a great variety of material used.[ ] in the nez perce region to the east, according to spinden, a great variety of forms of arrow points chipped from stone of many kinds is found,[ ] and the extreme minuteness of some of them is noteworthy. the war spear sometimes had a point of stone, usually lance-shaped, but sometimes barbed.[ ] he further states that iron supplanted flint and obsidian at an early date, for the manufacture of arrow-heads.[ ] [ ] smith, (d) p. ; and (c) p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] cf. spinden, figs. - , plate vii. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . no caches of chipped implements were found in the yakima region. judging from the collections which i have seen, i am under the impression that chipped points are not nearly so numerous in this region as they are near the dalles and in the columbia valley immediately south of this area, and perhaps not even as numerous as in the thompson river country to the north. we found no fantastic forms such as were rather common in the thompson river country.[ ] it will be remembered[ ] that the art of chipping stone was not extensively practised on the coast of british columbia or washington, no specimens having been found in that area north of vancouver island except at bella coola, where only two were discovered. they were frequent at saanich and in the fraser delta and became still more common as one approached the mouth of the columbia on the west coast of washington where, on the whole, they seem to resemble, especially in the general character of the material, the chipped points of the columbia river valley in the general region from portland to the dalles. [ ] smith, (d) p. ; and (c) p. . [ ] smith, (b) p. ; (a) p. ; (e) p. ; and (f), p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). chipped point made of chalcedony. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] the range of forms and sizes is well shown in figs. to and in plates i and ii.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. is very small, apparently made from a thin flake of chalcedony that has not been much chipped. its edges are slightly serrated and it was found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. deeply serrated points are found in the nez perce region to the east, but they are unusual.[ ] the one shown in fig. is also made of chalcedony and is from the same place. it is larger and the barbs are not so deep. the specimen shown in fig. , chipped from white chalcedony was found at the same place and may be considered as a knife point rather than as an arrow point. the one shown in fig. is made of petrified wood and has serrated edges. it was found at priest rapids and is in the collection of mr. mires. fig. illustrates a point with a straight base chipped from obsidian, one of the few made of this material that have been found in the whole region. this is also from priest rapids in the collection of mr. mires. the straight based arrow-head is very common in the nez perce region.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. is leaf shaped, the base being broken off. it is made of chert, was collected at wallula near the columbia river in oregon by judge james kennedy in and is in the james terry collection of this museum. plate i shows a rather large and crudely chipped point made of basalt, from the surface near the head of priest rapids on the bank of the columbia river. the second is made of red jasper and the third of white chert. they were found near the head of priest rapids, the latter also on the bank of the river. these three specimens may be considered as finished or unfinished spear or knife points. the specimens shown in plate ii are more nearly of the average size. the first is made of buff jasper and was found on the surface at kennewick. it is slightly serrated. the second is made of brownish fissile jasper and was found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of the naches river. the third, chipped from mottled quartz was found in grave no. ( ) near the skull in a rock-slide about three miles west of the mouth of cowiche creek. the fourth of white quartzite is also from grave no. ( ) near the skull. the breadth of the base of these last two specimens and the notches would facilitate their being fastened very securely in an arrow-shaft, while the basal points would probably project far enough beyond the shaft to make serviceable barbs. the fifth specimen, chipped from brown chert was found among the refuse of a fire in grave no. , in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. the sixth is made of glassy basalt and is remarkable for having two sets of notches. it is rather large, which suggests that it may have served as a knife point. it is from the head of priest rapids and was collected and presented by mrs. j. b. davidson. double notched arrow points are found in the nez perce region.[ ] the seventh is chipped from pale fulvous chalcedony and is from the surface at the same place. the eighth is chipped from similar material and was found near by. the ninth is made of opaline whitish chalcedony and is from the same place. the tenth is chipped from yellow agate, and somewhat resembles a drill, while the eleventh is of brown horn stone, both of them being from the surface near the head of priest rapids. [ ] photographs by mr. wm. c. orchard. [ ] cf. spinden, fig. , plate vii. [ ] cf. spinden, fig. , plate vii. [ ] cf. spinden, fig. , plate vii. [illustration: fig. ( - ). chipped point made of chalcedony. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). chipped point made of white chalcedony. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . serrated chipped point made of petrified wood. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. mires.)] the twelfth which is chipped from clove brown jasper was found on the surface of the cherry creek camp site near ellensburg. the thirteenth is made of reddish white chert and was found on the surface near the mouth of wenas creek. the fourteenth is of pale yellow chalcedony and comes from the surface near the head of priest rapids. most of these specimens seem to be suitable for arrow points, although some of them probably served for use as knives. [illustration: fig. . chipped point made of obsidian. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. mires.)] [illustration: fig. . (t- , ii- .) fragment of a leaf-shaped point made of chert. from wallula near the columbia river, oregon. collected by judge james kennedy in . / nat. size.] _points rubbed out of stone._ no points rubbed out of stone have been found in this region, although it will be remembered that two such points were found in the thompson river region[ ] and were thought to represent an intrusion from the coast where they were common as in the fraser delta[ ] at both port hammond and eburne where they are more than one half as numerous as the chipped points, and at comox[ ] where at least seven of this type to three chipped from stone were found. they were also found at saanich,[ ] where they were in proportion of nineteen to twenty-four, near victoria[ ] and on the san juan islands.[ ] [ ] smith, (c), p. . [ ] smith, (a), pp. and . [ ] smith, (b), p. . [ ] smith, (b), p. . [ ] p. and , _ibid._ [ ] p. , _ibid._ _points rubbed out of bone._ points rubbed out of bone which were so common on the coast everywhere, but rare in the thompson river country are still more scarce here. only ten specimens from the whole region can be identified as clearly intended for the points or barbs of arrows, harpoon heads or spears. the types are shown in figs. to . the first was found in the west, northwest part of grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about a half mile above the mouth of the naches river. it is nearly circular in cross section, mm. long with a point only mm. in length and was apparently intended for a salmon harpoon head, similar to those used in the thompson river region[ ] both in ancient and modern times but which are much more common on the coast. the specimen shown in fig. is circular in cross section and was seen in the collection of mrs. davidson. it is from kennewick and is of the shape of one of the most frequent types of bone points found in the fraser delta.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. was found with three others in grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. this and two of the others were scorched. they are circular in cross section and sharp at both ends but the upper end is much the more slender. the point shown in fig. somewhat resembles these, but it is slightly larger and tends to be rectangular in cross section except at the base. it was found with a similar specimen in a grave on the snake river, five miles above its mouth, and was collected and presented by mr. owen who still has the other specimen. diagonal striations may still be seen on its much weathered brown surface. these were probably caused by rubbing it on a stone in its manufacture. a slightly different type of bone point is shown in figs. and . these seem to be barbs for fish spears such as were found in the thompson river region,[ ] among both ancient and modern specimens. the one shown in fig. has traces of the marrow canal on the reverse. it was found in the yakima valley below prosser and is in the collection of mr. spalding. while the specimen shown in fig. is from the surface near the head of priest rapids. [ ] smith, (c), p. ; teit, (a), fig. . [ ] cf. smith, (a), fig. _ h_. [ ] smith, (c), p. ; teit, (a), fig. . bone points and barbs were used in the nez perce region to the east, where three types of spears with bone points were known, two of them at least being similar to those found in the thompson river region to the north.[ ] the war spears sometimes had a point of bone, usually lance-shaped, but sometimes barbed.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. and fig. ^s, ^ , ^ . [ ] spinden, p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). point made of bone. from the w., n. w. part of grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about half a mile above the mouth of naches river. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . point made of bone. from kennewick. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mrs. davidson.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). scorched point made of bone. from grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( . - ). point made of bone. found in a grave on an island in the snake river, five miles above its mouth, / nat. size. (collected and presented by mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. . point or barb made of bone. from the yakima valley below prosser. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. spalding.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). point or barb made of bone. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _bows._ the only information which we have regarding bows is from the specimen shown in fig. . the object seems to be a fragment of a bow which was lenticular in cross section although rather flat. it is slightly bent and the concave side bears transverse incisions. (p. .) the specimen was found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about one hundred and fifty feet up the slope on the north side of the naches river, about half a mile above its mouth. the presence of several perishable objects in the grave suggest it to be modern, but no objects of white manufacture were found. this is the only object indicating the sort of bow used in this region and with the exception of the chipped points previously described, some of which were undoubtedly for arrows, is the only archaeological object tending to prove the use of the bow. it will be remembered[ ] that fragments of a bow of lenticular cross section ornamented with parallel irregularly arranged cuneiform incisions, were found in a grave near nicola lake in the thompson river region and that pieces of wood, some of which may have been part of a bow, were found in a grave at the mouth of nicola lake; also that pieces of wood found at kamloops resemble a bow of the type shown in fig. of mr. teit's paper on the present thompson indians.[ ] in the nez perce region to the east, war clubs with heads made of unworked river boulders, according to spinden,[ ] were sometimes used in killing game and such may have been the case in this region. [ ] smith, (c), p. . [ ] teit, (a), fig. . [ ] spinden, p. and , also fig. ^ . _snares._ fragments of thongs, skin, fur and woodpecker feathers merely suggest methods of hunting or trapping which are not proven by any of our finds. it is barely possible although not probable that the bone tubes considered to have been used in gambling and illustrated in figs. and and also the perforated cylinder of serpentine shown in fig. may be portions of snares. traps and snares of various kinds were common among the indians of the larger plateau area of which this is a part.[ ] [ ] lewis, p. . mr. j. s. cotton informs me that in the vicinity of mr. turner's home, section , town north , range east, on rock creek, about six miles below rock lake, and in the vicinity of the graves described on p. and the so-called fort mentioned on p. , there is a long line of stones running from rock creek in a southeasterly direction across the coule to a small draw on the other side. this chain of rocks is about five miles long. the stones have evidently sunk into the ground and show signs of having been there a long time. they have been in the same condition since about when first seen by the whites, even the oldest indians claiming to know nothing about them. according to lewis, game was surrounded and driven in by a large number of hunters or was run down by horses, in the great area of which this is part.[ ] it seems altogether probable that a line of stone heaps may have been made to serve either as a line of scarecrows, possibly to support flags or similar objects, which would have the effect of a fence to direct the flight of the game or as a guide to enable the hunters to drive the game towards a precipice where it would be killed, or a corral where it would be impounded. [ ] lewis, p. ; ross, (a), p. ; de smet iii, p. ; lewis and clark, iv, p. . _notched sinkers._ sinkers for fish nets or lines were made of disk-shaped river pebbles. a pebble and the different types of sinkers are shown in fig. . these were numerous on the surface of the beach of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. they have two or four notches chipped from each side in the edges. when there are two, the notches are usually at each end; when there are four, they are at the end and side edges. sometimes, the notches are so crudely made that the edge of the pebble is simply roughened so that a string tied about it at this place would hold. one of these sinkers from priest rapids was seen in mr. mires' collection. _grooved sinkers._ some large thick pebbles have grooves pecked around their shortest circumference. they may have been used as canoe smashers or anchors, but seem more likely to be net sinkers. two of these are shown in figs. and . they are from priest rapids and are in the collection of mr. mires. both are battered along the lower edge, from the groove on the left to within a very short distance of it on the right and over a considerable portion of the edge of the top. in the second specimen, this battering forms a considerable groove on the lower edge, but a groove only the size of those shown in the illustration on the upper edge. this battering suggests that they may have been used as hammers, but the battered ends of hammers are not often grooved. there are certain grooves pecked on one side of each which seem to be of a decorative or ceremonial significance and are consequently discussed on p. under the section devoted to art. the first specimen is made of granite or yellow quartzite with mica, the second is of granite or yellowish gray quartz with augite and feldspar. one specimen similar to these two, but without any decoration or grooving ( - ) was found by us on the beach at kennewick as was also a large pebble grooved nearly around the shortest circumference ( - ) at priest rapids. one object of this type made of a boulder but grooved around the longest circumference was seen in mr. owen's collection. it was found on the bank of the columbia river two miles below pasco. the specimen described on p. which has a notch pecked in each side edge and is battered slightly on one end may have been used as a net sinker, although it has been considered a hammer. this specimen ( - ) in a way resembles the small flat notched sinkers except that the notch is pecked instead of chipped and that it is larger and thicker in proportion. other specimens which are considered as net sinkers, anchors or "canoe smashers" instead of being grooved, are perforated by a hole which tapers from each side and has apparently been made by pecking. sometimes this hole is in the center, while in other cases it passes through one end. fig. illustrates such a specimen. it was found at priest rapids and is in the collection of mr. mires. it is made from a river pebble of yellowish-gray volcanic rock. the perforation is in the broadest end. a similar specimen perforated near one end and one pierced near the middle were seen in mr. owen's collection. he believes that these were used for killing fish, an indian having told him that such stones were thrown at the fish and retrieved with a cord which was tied through the hole. probably all of these were sinkers for nets or at least anchors for the ends of nets, set lines or for small boats. [illustration: fig. _a_ ( - ), _b_ ( - ), _c_ ( - ), _d_ ( - ). pebble and net sinkers made of pebbles. from the surface of the bank of columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size. fig. . sinker, a grooved boulder bearing a design in intaglio. from priest rapids, / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] sinkers were not seen by us among archaeological finds in the thompson river region but mr. james teit has informed the writer of their use there on both nets and lines, particularly on the former. nets, excepting the bag net, were very little used in the kamloops-lytton region along the thompson river and that may account for a scarcity of sinkers among archaeological finds. nets were more extensively used on the fraser river, but were very much used near large lakes and consequently one would expect to find sinkers in the vicinity of such places as kamloops, shushwap, anderson, seaton, lillooet, nicola, kootenay and arrow lakes. now, as the shushwap generally made little bags of netting in which they put their sinkers to attach them to nets, this would greatly militate against the finding of grooved, notched or perforated sinkers in the shushwap part of this region. they probably thought this method was more effective or took up less time than notching, grooving or perforating stones, and attaching lines to them. it is unknown which of these methods is the most primitive. unworked pebbles, chosen for their special adaptation in shape, and others grooved or perforated were used in some parts of the interior of british columbia for sinkers which were not enclosed in netting. unworked pebbles attached to lines have been seen in use among the thompson river indians by mr. teit who sent a specimen of one to the museum.[ ] these were of various shapes, some of them being egg-shaped. a deeply notched oval pebble was found on the site of an old semi-subterranean winter house on the west side of fraser river at the month of churn creek in the country of the fraser river division of the shushwap. the thompson indians said it had been intended for a war ax and accordingly one of them mounted it in a handle. it is now cat. no. - in this museum. mr. teit believes the stone to be too heavy for a war club of any kind and that possibly it may originally have been a sinker, although it is chipped more than necessary for the latter. in , he saw a perforated sinker found near the outlet of kootenay lake, on the borders of the lake division of the colville tribe and the flat-bow or kootenay lake branch of the kootenay tribe. it was made of a smooth flat water-worn beach pebble mm. long by mm. wide and mm. thick. the perforation was drilled from both sides near the slightly narrower end and a groove extended from it over the nearest end where it formed a notch somewhat deeper than the groove. mr. teit heard that several such sinkers had been picked up around kootenay lake and also along the arrow lakes of the columbia river on the borders of the shushwap and lake divisions of the colville tribe. [ ] teit, (a), fig. . [illustration: fig. . sinker, a grooved boulder bearing a design in intaglio. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] [illustration: fig. . sinker, a perforated boulder. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] in the nez perce region[ ] to the east, no sinkers were used with fish lines, but roughly grooved river boulders were employed as net sinkers.[ ] a grooved sinker has been found at comox, grooved stones which may have been used as sinkers occur at saanich, on the west coast of washington and the lower columbia. on the coast of washington some of them have a second groove at right angles to the first which in some cases extends only half way around; that is, from the first groove over one end to meet the groove on the opposite side. one of the specimens found at saanich was of this general type. perforated specimens have been found in the fraser delta,[ ] at comox,[ ] at saanich,[ ] point gray,[ ] marietta,[ ] at gray's harbor and in the lower columbia valley. on the whole, however, sinkers are much more numerous in the yakima region than on the coast. the fish bones which were found, as mentioned under resources, tend to corroborate the theory that the notched, grooved and perforated pebbles were net sinkers and that the bone barbs were for harpoons used in fishing. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, pp. and . [ ] smith, (a), fig. . [ ] smith, (b), p. , , , . _shell heaps._ small heaps of fresh water clam shells, as before mentioned among the resources of the region on p. , were seen; but these being only about five feet in diameter and two or three inches thick are hardly comparable to the immense shell heaps of the coast. these fresh water shells were probably secured from the river near by, where such mollusks now live. shell fish probably formed only a small part of the diet of the people although dried sea clams may have been secured from the coast by bartering. the objects made of sea shell mentioned among the resources of this region as probably secured from the coast through channels of trade, suggest that the same method was employed for obtaining certain food products from a distance. in fact, lewis and clark inform us that the tribes of this general region carried on considerable trade with those of the lower columbia. shell heaps of this character, however, are found in the nez perce region. spinden[ ] states that no shell heaps except of very small size are found, but occasionally those of a cubic foot or more in size are seen in the loamy banks of the rivers, noting a few near the junction of the south and middle forks of clearwater river, and also near the confluence of the north fork with the clearwater. these seem to be the remains of single meals that had been buried or cast into holes. [ ] spinden, p. . _digging sticks._ the gathering of roots is suggested by the presence of digging stick handles. one of these (fig. ) is made of the horn of a rocky mountain sheep and was secured from an indian woman living near union gap below old yakima. the perforation, near the middle of one side for the reception of the end of the digging stick, is nearly square but has bulging sides and rounded corners. the smaller end of the object is carved, apparently to represent the head of an animal. similar handles, some of them of wood, others of antler and with perforations of the same shape, were seen in mr. janeck's collection. it will be remembered that such digging stick handles made of antler were found in the thompson river region among both archaeological finds and living natives,[ ] the archaeological specimens being of antler, the modern handles of wood or horn. [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. ; teit, (a), p. . the digging stick was one of the most necessary and characteristic implements of the nez perce region to the east, the handle consisting of a piece of bone or horn perforated in the middle for the reception of the end of the digging stick, or, according to spinden, an oblong stone with a transverse groove in the middle lashed at right angles to the stick.[ ] no archaeological specimens which are certainly digging stick handles were found on the coast. no sap scrapers such as were collected in the thompson river region[ ] were identified and they have not been recognized among specimens from the coast. [ ] spinden, p. . fig. , plate vii. [ ] smith, (c), p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). fragment of coiled basket of splint foundation and bifurcated stitch. from grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about half a mile above the mouth of naches river. / nat. size.] _basketry._ the gathering of berries as well as of roots is suggested by fragments of baskets which have been found. one of these is shown in fig. . it was found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about a half mile above the mouth of the naches river. it is coiled with splint foundation and bifurcated stitch. judging from other baskets of the same kind, it was probably once imbricated. this type of basketry is widely distributed towards the north and with grass foundation is even found in siberia.[ ] commonly the coiled basketry in the nez perce region to the east was made with bifurcated stitch,[ ] by means of a sharpened awl which was the only instrument used in weaving it. some were imbricated, although this style has not been made for many years, and only a few of the older natives remember women who could make them.[ ] some similar basketry of a finer technique was found with this fragment. [ ] jochelson, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . preparation of food. [illustration: fig. ( - ). fragment of a mortar made of stone. from among covering boulders of grave no. ( ) of adult in sand at the western edge of columbia river about twelve miles above the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _mortars._ mortars made of stone for crushing food, such as dried salmon, other meat and berries, were not uncommon in this region and pestles of the same material were numerous. flat oval pebbles were found scattered on the surface of a village site on the west bank of the columbia at the head of priest rapids, and were probably used as lap stones or as objects upon which to crush food. a somewhat circular one ( - ) about mm. in diameter has a notch, formed by chipping from one side, opposite one naturally water-worn, which suggests that it may have been used as a sinker; but it seems more likely that it was simply an anvil or lap stone. similar pebbles were used in the thompson river region,[ ] some of them having indications of pecking or a slight pecked depression in the middle of one or both sides. in the nez perce region to the east, basketry funnels were used in connection with flat stones for mortars. these funnels were of rather crude coil technique.[ ] another specimen ( - b) found at the same place is merely a water-worn boulder somewhat thinner at one end than at the other, the surface of which apparently has been rubbed from use as a mortar or milling stone. a few large chips have been broken from the thinner edge. still another specimen ( - ) from here is a fragment of a pebble only mm. in diameter with a saucer-shaped depression about mm. deep, in the top. [ ] smith, (d), p. . [ ] cf. spinden, p. . [illustration: fig. . mortar made of stone. from the yakima reservation near union gap. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] a somewhat disk-shaped pebble of gray lava mm. in diameter with a saucer-shaped depression in the top and a large pecked pit in the bottom ( . - ) was collected at fort simcoe by dr. h. j. spinden. a fragment of a mortar about mm. in diameter with a nearly flat or slightly convex base and a depression mm. deep in the top ( - ) was found on the surface near the head of priest rapids and another fragment nearly twice as large, the base of which is concave over most of its surface and shows marks of pecking, apparently the result of an attempt to make it either quite flat or concave like many other mortars that have a concavity in each side, is shown in fig. . it was found among the covering boulders of the grave of an adult, no. ( ), in the sand at the western edge of the columbia river about twelve miles above the head of priest rapids. the mortar shown in fig. , is hollowed in the top of a symmetrical, nearly circular pebble and has a convex base. it was found on the yakima reservation near union gap and is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] this reminds us of a similar mortar found in the thompson river region,[ ] but such simple mortars made from pebbles are rarely found in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] the mortar shown in fig. also from the same place and in the same collection has a nearly flat base and three encircling grooves.[ ] these grooves find their counterpart in four encircling incisions on the little mortar found in the thompson river region.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. . - . [ ] smith, (c) fig. . [ ] spinden, figs. and , plate vi. [ ] museum negative no. . - . [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [illustration: fig. . mortar made of stone. from the yakima reservation near union gap. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the specimen shown in fig. , which may be considered as a dish rather than a mortar, was seen in the collection of mrs. hinman who obtained it from priest rapids. it is apparently of sandstone, mm. in diameter, mm. high, the upper part being mm. high and of disk shape with slightly bulging sides which are decorated with incised lines,[ ] the lower part being also roughly disk shaped mm. by mm. in diameter by about mm. high with slightly convex bottom and edges curved out to the base of the upper part. there is a disk shaped dish in the top mm. in diameter by mm. in depth.[ ] [ ] see p. . [ ] museum negative no. . - . the animal form shown in fig. bears a mortar or dish in its back. the object is mm. in length, mm. high and mm. wide. the length of the bowl is mm., the width mm., and the depth mm. the object is made of porous lava and was secured from an indian who claimed to have found it in a grave near fort simcoe on the yakima reservation two miles below union gap which is immediately below old yakima.[ ] [ ] here reproduced from photographs , - , , - , and , - and the original which is catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck. it seems strange that so many of the mortars are broken since they would be hard to break. it will be remembered that one of the broken mortars came from a grave and it may be that the others were on or in graves but had been removed in some way. my general impression is that mortars are much more numerous among archaeological finds both in this region and in the interior of british columbia than on the coast. _pestles._ in addition to the probable use of pestles with flat stones or mortars with basket funnels, some of them, especially where nearly flat or concave on the striking head as in the thompson river region to the north and on the coast may also have been used as hammers for driving wedges, splitting wood and like industries, if indeed they were not made solely for the latter uses. some of the pestles differ from those found either to the north or on the coast, many of them being much longer, although mr. james teit informs me that very long pestles are occasionally found in the thompson river region. he has seen four, and heard of one or two more. one two feet long was found in the nicola valley about . one of the pestles of the yakima valley has a top in the form of an animal hoof, as is shown in fig. . others like animal heads are shown in figs. , - . the range of forms of pestles is shown in figs. to . the specimens shown in figs. to inclusive are apparently all of the shorter type, while those shown in the remaining figures are variations of the longer type. by far the greater number of pestles, about forty, are of the type shown in fig. , and of these two thirds come from the vicinity of priest rapids. they are merely natural pebbles, all more or less of suitable size, shape and material, which have been used as pestles until one end has become flattened. some of them are also flattened on the top, the battered ends often giving the only indication that they were used. such as were not of exactly the right form for grasping have had their excrescences or the more projecting surfaces removed by pecking. a few of these objects seem to have been made from small basaltic columns, the corners of which have been pecked into a more suitable shape. some of them have been pecked so that they taper gradually from the small upper end to the base. the specimen considered as a "slave-killer" and shown in fig. , may have been used as a pestle. simple short cylindrical or conoid pebbles, only slightly changed from their natural form, are used for pestles in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] [ ] cf. spinden, figs. - , and , plate viii. a pebble mm. long by mm. wide and mm. thick, with rounded corners and ends, found by mr. john lacy near the yakima river in north yakima, has longitudinal grooves pecked in three sides to where they begin to round over to form the end, and a similar groove, except that it is only about mm. long, in the middle of the fourth side.[ ] these grooves were probably made as part of a process of grooving and battering down the intervening ridges in order to bring the specimen into a desired form. similarly grooved pebbles found on the northern part of vancouver island were explained to professor franz boas as having been implements in such process of manufacture. so far as i am aware, prof. boas' announcement of this at a meeting of the american association for the advancement of science was the first explanation of the sort of grooving or fluting of specimens found in northwestern america. one similar large specimen ( . - ) found at lewiston, idaho, in the nez perce region by dr. h. j. spinden, bears two longitudinally pecked grooves in addition to pecking on much of its surface. a yellowish gray boulder about mm. long, nearly circular in sections and with rounded ends, from priest rapids, bears a pecked groove mm. long by mm. wide and mm. deep across the middle of one side. this may have been made to cut it into the length desired for a pestle.[ ] this specimen is much too large to be considered as the handle of a digging stick, similar to the object from the nez perce region considered as such by spinden.[ ] [ ] in the collection of mr. janeck and museum negative nos. , - and , - . [ ] in the collection of mr. mires, and museum negative no. , - . [ ] cf. spinden, plate vii, fig. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). pestle made of stone. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pestle pecked from stone. probably unfinished. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pestle pecked from stone. probably unfinished. from the surface, eight miles above the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] the object shown in fig. , one of those from the surface near the head of priest rapids, judging from the battered end, has apparently been used as a pestle, yet it is still apparently in process of manufacture into a form somewhat like that shown in fig. . the pecking at the top is possibly the result of an attempt to remove that portion of the rock, while the transversely pecked surface seems to be a beginning towards the formation of the shaft of the pestle, whereas the longitudinal groove between these two surfaces was necessary to reduce an excrescence on the rim of what was apparently intended to be the knob at the top of the pestle. if this supposition be true, when finished, this object would have a large striking head resembling more in shape and size those of the pestles of the region near the dalles than any yet found in this region. the specimen shown in fig. is much more clearly an unfinished pestle. the ends are pecked flat and the entire middle section has been pecked, apparently to reduce it to the desired size of the shaft. it seems that the striking head of this specimen, when finished, would be rather short. it was found on the surface eight miles above the head of priest rapids. the pestle shown in fig. has a conoid body with no striking head and in this respect resembles the pestles of the thompson river country;[ ] but the top is roughly disk-shaped, being neither hat-shaped nor in the form of an animal head, as are most pestles of the thompson region nor is it exactly of the shape of the typical pestles of northern and western vancouver island.[ ] the material is a soft gray stone which shows the marks of the pecking by means of which it was shaped. [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [ ] smith, (b), fig. _ a_. [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] fig. illustrates a pestle, the top of which is broken off. there are two grooves encircling the somewhat cylindrical striking head. the material is a light blue hard porphoritic rock. these two specimens are from priest rapids.[ ] the pestle shown in fig. is from the yakima river, five miles below old yakima. it has a hat-shaped top and a cylindrical striking head a little larger at the top than at the bottom, is somewhat like the typical pestles of the thompson river region,[ ] and is in the collection of mr. york. another has a slightly wider brim to the hat-shaped top, a body concave in outline and the striking head is larger at the top than at the bottom, while a third has a medium sized brim, a body bulging in the middle and a long cylindrical striking head. the last two specimens are in the collection of mr. janeck, and are from the yakima valley within eight miles of north yakima.[ ] [ ] in the collection of mr. mires, and museum negative no. , - . [ ] smith, (d), p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . the specimen shown in fig. was found in a grave with beads and resembles the typical pestles of lytton except that it has no nipple on the top, which is of the shape of the tops of the typical pestles of northern and western vancouver island. another of nearly the same shape but less regular was found on the surface of the yakima valley within eight miles of north yakima. a third specimen mm. long, also found within the above mentioned limits, is made of a concavely flaring pebble. a groove is pecked part way around near the top as if to carve the knob and begin the reduction of the top of the shaft. there is also a pecked surface on one side near the base, apparently the beginning of an attempt to form a striking head by first removing irregularities. the one shown in fig. was found within eight miles of north yakima and is of rather unusual shape, having a short striking head of the shape of the typical pestles of northern and western vancouver island. the slightly bulging body and exceedingly small, nearly flat knob at the top are entirely different from those of the pestles usually found in any of this area, or the country adjacent to it on the north and west. these four specimens are in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . there are found in the nez perce region[ ] short pestles with dome-shaped tops, cylindrical bodies and rather long striking heads of the form of triangular or quadrangular prisms with rounded corners slightly larger at the top than at the bottom[ ] and such pestles with hat-shaped tops, although one has a flat top, slightly expanding shafts and long striking heads, larger at the top than at the bottom. [ ] cf. spinden, figs. , , , , plate vi; also plate viii, figs. , . [ ] spinden, p. , plate viii, fig. . fig. is the first of those showing the longer type of pestle from the yakima region. this specimen was found at satus on the yakima reservation near old yakima and is in the collection of mr. york. the top is somewhat spherical and the body elongated. its conoid shape may class it with the one shown in fig. . it somewhat reminds us of the pestles of the santa catalina islands of california, but until we have a more definite knowledge of the forms in the vast intervening area, this resemblance must be considered as merely a coincidence, especially since long simple conoid pestles are found in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] a somewhat similar pestle in mr. york's collection is mm. long, and has a tapering body, circular in sections, a knob at the top about the size of the base and a convex striking face. it was found at fort simcoe. [ ] cf. spinden, plate vi, figs. - , plate viii, fig. . [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from yakima river five miles below old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. york.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from a grave in the yakima valley. about / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from the surface in the yakima valley within eight miles of north yakima. about / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the pestle shown in fig. is made of sandstone, was found at priest rapids and is in the collection of mrs. hinman. the shaft is a long cylinder, expanding somewhat towards the base which is only slightly convex. like the preceding, it has no striking head. it has a hemispherical top, is unusually large and is decorated with an encircling line of circles and dots. there is also a circle and dot in the top. this decoration is again mentioned in the consideration of art on p. .[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . the pestle shown in fig. is mm. long. it has a conoid body perhaps more pronounced than the one shown in fig. but much less typical than the one shown in fig. . the top is apparently intended to represent an animal head. it is made of very hard breccia and well polished. at each side of the lower part of the body is a design made by four parallel zigzag grooves, further discussed on p. . it was found in the yakima valley, and is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] a pestle figured by spinden, as from the nez perce indians,[ ] is somewhat similar to this in that it has a knob protruding slightly to one side, but there is a notch or groove made longitudinally in the top of this knob. [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] spinden, fig. , plate viii. the pestle shown in fig. might perhaps be considered as a war club. it was found at priest rapids and is in the collection of mr. mires. the top is somewhat flat and smoothed. there is a groove around the specimen near this end. from here it constricts gradually to the lower end which is broken off. it was made from a triangular piece of gray basalt, probably a column, the natural angles and parts of the faces of which have been reduced by pecking.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . the specimen shown in fig. from the yakima valley, is in the collection of mr. janeck and is mm. long. the top apparently represents an animal head indicated by three nipples the larger of which is interpreted as representing the nose, the others as indicating the ears. the body is of circular cross section and expands evenly to a cylindrical striking head mm. in diameter by mm. long.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . a long pestle with a knob at the top which is divided into four pyramidal or dome-shaped nipples was found at five mile rapids on snake river and was seen in mr. owen's collection. the next figure represents a stone pestle of somewhat similar shape but more specialized. it was found in the yakima valley and is in the collection of mr. janeck. it is mm. long. the top is roughly the form of the fustrum of a cone, being circular in cross section and gradually expanding downward, but it is somewhat celt-shaped, the sides for some distance being ground off nearly flat. they approach each other more closely towards the front than they do towards the back. in each of these surfaces there is an incision which represents one side of an animal's mouth and a pecked dot indicating an eye. the tip of the nose is broken off. across the curved part behind the flat surfaces or on the back of this animal head are four incisions. below this portion the object is circular in section until near its middle, or mm. from the top, where there is a band roughly sub-pentagonal in section with rounded corners mm. long. following this band it is nearly cylindrical, being mm. in diameter for mm. until it expands suddenly into the striking head which is unusually bulging, mm. long by mm. in diameter.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from satus on the yakima reservation near old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. york.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of sandstone. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mrs. hinman.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the object mm. long shown in fig. is made of steatite, material seemingly unsuited by its softness for a pestle, and may possibly be a war club. mr. mccandless, in whose collection it is, calls the material a soft sandstone which he says is found at the head of the wenatchie river. he says the specimen is from lake chelan and that he obtained it from a man above wenatchie on the columbia river. this man told him that he secured it from chief moses' tribe on lake chelan, and that the indians there call it a war club and a family heirloom. the upper end is of the form of a truncated pyramid with two flat sides, two bulging edge's and rounded corners. it shows peck marks and is engraved as described under art, on p. , and is said by the indians to represent the head of a snake. the shaft is circular in cross section and gradually enlarges towards the base where it suddenly constricts. the specimen has been polished by the natural sand blast.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . the noise of the women at one of the nez perce villages, pounding roots, reminded lewis of a nail factory.[ ] beyond the nez perce country which bounds this area on the east, according to spinden,[ ] the use of stone pestles disappears until the region of the great lakes is reached, but i have seen pestles in collections in wyoming which are said to have been found in that state. [ ] lewis and clark, v, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . _rollers._ another class of specimens considered as pestles or rollers is shown in figs. and . these do not seem to have been used as pestles. [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of stone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle made of steatite. from lake chelan. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mccandless.)] [illustration: fig. . pestle or roller made of stone. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mrs. hinman.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pestle or roller made of stone. from the surface, about one mile east of fort simcoe. / nat. size.] the one shown in fig. from priest rapids is in the collection of mrs. hinman. the convex ends of this cylindrical form present the natural surface of a pebble and they are not battered. the material is a yellowish quartzite or closely allied rock. it is mm. long, mm. in diameter and the entire cylindrical surface has been pecked apparently to bring it to form. if it had been used as a pestle the ends would show the signs of battering or grinding. the cylindrical surface does not seem to show any signs of its having been used as a roller or grinder. it may possibly be a pestle in process of manufacture although it seems very strange that so much work should have been expended on the cylindrical surface in a region where natural pebbles very nearly of this shape were common.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. is apparently made of basalt and was found on the surface about a mile east of fort simcoe. the ends are considerably chipped and one of them has apparently been somewhat battered since. if the object were used as a pestle the chipping of the ends is unusually great. the cylindrical surface has been formed by pecking except in one place where the natural surface shows. this bit of natural surface is such that it suggests the specimen to have been made of a prismatic basaltic column. while these two specimens may have been intended for pestles, it seems possible that they were made for rollers. several such objects made of stone were seen in mr. owen's collection. he says that they were used like rolling pins for crushing camas and kouse roots in making bread. both of these roots were extensively used in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] spinden, pp. - . [illustration: fig. ( - ). fragment of hearth of fire drill. from grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about half a mile above the mouth of naches river. / nat. size.] _fish knives._ no fish knives made of slate were found, as in the thompson river region, at lytton,[ ] rarely at kamloops,[ ] and commonly on the coast at fraser delta,[ ] comox,[ ] and nanaimo.[ ] [ ] smith, (d), p. . [ ] smith, (c) p. . [ ] smith, (a), p. . [ ] smith, (b), p. . [ ] p. , _ibid._ _fire making._ the method of making fire formerly employed in this region is suggested by a fragment of the hearth of a fire drill found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide about one half a mile above the mouth of the naches river and is shown in fig. . it is made of porous wood, of light cellular structure, possibly cottonwood. this is similar to the fire drill hearths of the thompson river region,[ ] where i have seen the thompson river indians make fire with the palm drill, using cottonwood root for the hearth. in the nez perce region to the east, also, fire was made with the palm drill, the hearth stick being of the root of the light leaved willow or the stem of "smoke wood." it was of the shape of the hearth here described. the twirling stick was made of the dead tips of red fir.[ ] [ ] teit, (a), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . _caches._ a number of small circular holes about four feet in diameter, encircled by a slight ridge, as mentioned on p. , were seen which are possibly the remains of ancient food caches. the nez perce indians in the region to the east referred to a field at kamiah, near the mouth of lawyer's creek which has the appearance of being "hilled" like an old hop field, as being the site of winter cache pits.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. . _boiling._ natural pebbles were plentiful in the river bottoms near the village sites. such were no doubt used in boiling food in baskets or boxes, as fragments of burned and cracked pebbles were also found while pottery was entirely absent. these facts suggest that it was the custom to boil the food in baskets or even in boxes as on the coast to the west. this idea is strengthened by the fact that in the nez perce region to the east, watertight coiled baskets were regularly used in cooking.[ ] we may naturally suppose that roasting before open fires was also customary in this region. no fireplaces such as were probably used in this area and are found in the nez perce region,[ ] were recognized by us, although beds of clam shells previously mentioned, may indicate the sites of ancient hearths. [ ] spinden, pp. and . [ ] spinden, p. . habitations. _semi-subterranean house sites._ sites of ancient semi-subterranean winter houses, modern lodges and what may possibly have been a shell heap were seen and photographed by us in this region. two of the examples of the remains of semi-subterranean house sites found here, as shown in fig. , plate iv, had stones on top of the surrounding embankments. although on the top of the embankments of the remains of similar underground winter houses in the thompson river region,[ ] we saw no stones other than those of the soil. i am informed by mr. james teit that such are occasionally to be found there also, but that these stones are generally found only in those places where boulders were removed during the excavation for the houses. he was told that it was the custom to place these boulders around the base of the house. two semi-subterranean winter house sites, as mentioned on pp. and , may be seen on the flat along the north side of the yakima river about a mile below the mouth of the naches. one of these may be seen in fig. , plate iii.[ ] there are water-worn boulders in and on the embankments surrounding them. these boulders were probably uncovered during the excavation for the house. the holes are situated within twenty-five feet of the river and between it and the yakima ridge which rises by perpendicular cliffs, almost immediately behind these winter house sites. in fact, the photograph reproduced in the figure was taken from the hill side north of the pit and just up stream from the cliffs. they are on a little terrace about three feet high which gives them the appearance of having been connected by a ridge. the hole shown in the figure measured from the top of the ridge was nine feet deep. the top of the bank measured at points on the flat between it and the river, up stream from it, and between it and the hill, was four feet, two feet, and two feet, four inches, respectively. averaging these measurements, the height of the embankment above the level is thirty-three and one third inches. the hole was so near the level of the river, and was so deep that when we visited it on june , , which was during high water, the waters of the yakima had soaked through the terrace and were about two feet deep in the bottom of the hole where it was about eight feet in diameter, measuring north and south. measuring in the same direction the diameter of the top of the hole from points inside of the surrounding ridge was twenty-two feet, from points on top thirty-three feet, from points outside forty-seven feet, and from points outside of the wash from the ridge fifty-one feet. these measurements give us twelve and a half feet as an approximate width of the ridge or fourteen and a half feet if we measure from the bottom of the wash. the two sites mentioned on pp. and were also examined and photographed by us. one is plainly shown from the north of west in fig. , plate iv. they are located on a high terrace on the north side of the naches river about one and a half miles above its mouth. there are angular rocks on each encircling ridge. some of the large angular rocks found on the embankment of this ridge, may also have been dug out during the excavation for the house if such rocks are found under the surface of the soil in this terrace. similar rocks are scattered about on the surface so thickly that it must have been necessary to remove a number of them from the site where the house was to stand and possibly others that were scattered about may have been put up around the base of the house in order to clear the immediate vicinity especially since many of them are disagreeably sharp angular fragments.[ ] [ ] smith, (d), p. and fig. , plate xiii; (c), p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - from the north. negative no. , - shows the same from the northwest. [ ] these two sites are represented by museum negatives nos. , - reproduced in the figure; , from the west; and , - nearer from the west. measuring the site best shown in the figure, east and west, the level floor inside the extreme wash from the ridge is nine feet in diameter, the rocks fallen from the ridge thirteen feet, the inner edge of the ridge feet, the points on the top of the embankment, twenty-five and a half feet; the outside of the rocks, thirty feet; the extremes of the embankment thirty-five feet. these measurements north and south are respectively, nine feet, thirteen and a half feet, sixteen and a half feet, twenty-one feet, twenty-five and a half feet and thirty-three feet. judging from these measurements, the original dimensions were probably thirty feet by twenty-five and a half feet over all, twenty-five and a half feet by twenty-one feet for the top of the embankment, twenty by sixteen and a half feet for the inside of the embankment and sixteen and a half feet by fifteen feet for the bottom of the floor. these measurements are also east and west and north and south respectively. the present depth of the hole below the top of the rocks is twenty-nine inches and from the top of the earth embankment is twenty-six and twenty-one inches. the measurements were taken east and west and north and south respectively. the slope of the hill from north to south and its attendant wash, of course, affect the north and south measurements, while the east and west measurements are probably near the original dimensions. contiguous to this hole on the south, or in the sage brush to the right in the figure, is the other site. it is on the slope of the hill and not so clearly shown in the plate. this hole measures ten and a half feet by eleven feet across the level floor inside; thirteen by fourteen feet inside of the rocks; nineteen by eighteen feet at the top of the embankment twenty-three by twenty-three feet outside of the rocks; and twenty-seven by twenty-six feet outside of the embankment; fourteen and eighteen inches in depth from the top of the rocks and ten and twelve inches from the top of the earth, the measurements being taken east and west and north and south respectively. mr. g. r. shafer informed me that there were holes, the remains of old houses on the flat in the naches valley, twelve miles above the nelson bridge which crosses the river a short distance above the mouth of cowiche creek. at fort simcoe, immediately south of the indian agency, on the north edge of "scab land" overlooking a small ravine as mentioned on p. , is a large pit surrounded by an embankment of earth, the remains of a winter house site. this hole is so deep and the embankment is so high that both mrs. lynch and the indians call it a fort. about fifteen miles above kennewick on the eastern side of the columbia river, according to mr. d. w. owen, there were the remains of hundreds of semi-underground winter houses and we saw several large and deep sites immediately below mr. craig's house above priest rapids as mentioned on page . a semi-subterranean winter house, with an entrance through the roof, seen by lewis and clark[ ] on the north side of the columbia near the mouth of white salmon river, was uninhabited at that time ( ). as described, it does not differ from the winter house of the thompson indians. the chinook, so far as we know, never erected such houses. the pit of an underground house, according to clark[ ] was found among the nez perce. gibbs[ ] mentions what were probably similar pits on the lower yakima. kane[ ] describes a somewhat similar house used by the walla walla but much ruder. such houses were used by the klamath.[ ] [ ] lewis, p. ; lewis and clark, iv, p. . [ ] lewis and clark, v, p. . [ ] gibbs, (a), p. . [ ] kane, p. . [ ] gatschet, pp. , ; abbott in the pacific railroad report, vi, p. . not far from the ranch of mr. frank turner on rock creek about six miles below rock lake on section , town north, range east in the country locally known as "the rocks," there are two pits that are supposed to be the remains of houses which with other remains (pp. , , ) have been in their present condition since about when they were first seen by the whites. both the pioneers and the old indians are said to know nothing about them. mr. turner's place is best reached from sprague on the northern pacific railroad, although his post office is winona. my information regarding these two pits is from mr. j. s. cotton, then in charge of cooperative range work in washington. it is quite possible as pointed out by lewis[ ] that the introduction of the buffalo skin covered lodge which probably came after the advent of the horse into this region, had something to do with the apparent scarcity of the semi-subterranean winter house in the yakima region in historic times, the buffalo skin lodge possibly having taken the place of the earth-covered dwellings. [ ] lewis, p. . the so-called cremation circles near cherry creek and near the mouth of the naches which were mentioned on pp. and and described on pp. and , may be the remains of small houses of the type of semi-subterranean winter house sites that were made especially as grave houses. as before mentioned, this type of semi-subterranean circular lodge is found as far north as the thompson river country, and i have seen one site on the prairie near rochester, thurston co., probably of this type. in the nez perce region to the east, remains that appear like those of semi-subterranean houses consisting of ridges of earth about a foot above the general level of the ground, surrounding a circular pit, from three to five feet deep, measuring from the top of the ridge; and about seventy feet in diameter, are found near the mouth of tammany creek on the east bank of snake river, a few miles above lewiston. the site may be identified with hasutin.[ ] the place is known to have been used as a camp until about , especially during the season of lamprey eel fishing. these house rings are in several groups. a little charcoal, some unio shell, flint chips, a digging stick with a bone handle, glass beads and other objects are reported to have been found in them. somewhat similar house rings about twenty-five feet in diameter were found on the south bank of the middle fork of clearwater river, near the town of kooskia. spinden[ ] refers to lewis and clark[ ] for evidence of considerable antiquity for the circular house rings in this nez perce region. they mention one as being about thirty feet in diameter with a rim over three feet high and the floor sunken four feet below the surface of the ground or seven feet below the top of the rim. the mountain snakes, according to ross[ ] never used underground houses. [ ] spinden p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] lewis and clark, v, p. . [ ] ross, (b), ii, p. . at the site near kooskia there is another type of house site such as i have not seen in the yakima, thompson or coast regions. spinden describes them as long and narrow, about sixty to eighty-five feet long by eighteen feet wide. the interior is sunken from one to three feet and surrounded by well marked elevated rims. as a rule, these pits are not so deep or clearly marked as those of the circular type. the axis of the house is parallel with the river. he states that these house sites have not been used for a long time and that trees, some of which are eighteen inches in diameter grow directly out of them. excavation revealed a number of fireplaces about twelve feet apart along the axis of these houses suggesting that they were communal lodges.[ ] we discovered no indications of communal dwellings in the yakima region. [ ] spinden, p. . _circles of stones (summer house sites)._ a circle of stones which marked a small lodge site was examined and photographed. the stones were no doubt cleared from the interior and all or part of these possibly with others, were no doubt used to hold down the lodge covers. although i saw no such circle of stones in the thompson river region i am informed by mr. teit that they are occasionally to be seen there and that they represent old lodge sites. the circle of stones above-mentioned as described on p. was found on a terrace somewhat lower than the one on which were situated the remains of the two semi-subterranean houses described on p. . this terrace is a few yards down stream from the one on which they stand, and is separated from it by a small ravine. the site is a little further down the stream and towards the southeast. it is shown in fig. , plate iv,[ ] from the point on the hillside a few feet above it to the north, shown on the lower end of the slope in fig. , plate iv and in negative nos. , - , and , - . this circle of stones on the level ground was made up of angular rocks such as are scattered on the immediate surface. it measures ten by eleven feet in diameter inside; fifteen by seventeen feet from the top of the circle; and twenty-two by twenty-three feet over all. the top of the highest stones was from fourteen to twelve inches above the middle of the space enclosed which as before stated, seemed to be on a level with the outside, all measuring being east to west and north to south respectively. among the rocks was found a chipped piece of jasper or brown chalcedony. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the north. no saucer-shaped depressions were seen in the yakima region, although it is quite probable that they formerly existed and have been obliterated by weathering. it will be remembered that such saucer-shaped depressions are often made by sweeping out the summer lodges in the thompson river region[ ] and that they marked the sites of such houses. [ ] smith, (c), p. . two summer lodges photographed[ ] by us near ellensburg which were mentioned on page and the one seen below union gap down stream from old yakima, resemble those of the thompson river region to the north. it will be remembered that mat covered tipis are found in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] lewis and clark[ ] mention but one buffalo skin lodge among the nez perce in and that was apparently reserved for special occasions, but a few years later this type of lodge had practically supplanted the mat lodge among that tribe and was in common use among all the interior salish and sahaptin tribes. the mat houses of the yakima are mentioned by gibbs in the pacific railroad reports.[ ] [ ] summer lodge, covered with cloth, japanese matting and indian matting july, ; east of ellensburg. museum negatives no. , - from the southeast; no. , - , from the west; and no. , - a nearer view; and summer lodge covered with cloth, july , in the northern part of ellensburg, museum negative no. , - from the east. [ ] spinden, fig. , plate x. [ ] lewis and clark, v, p. . [ ] gibbs, (a), i, p. . a pile of stones shown in fig. , plate v[ ] and mentioned on p. as uncovered by the wash of the flood waters of the columbia, was seen on the bottom-lands on the western side of the columbia, south of sentinal bluffs and within a hundred feet north of the house of mr. britain everette craig. it is possible that this may have been a house hearth or ancient cooking place, although the presence of human bones among these stones, suggests that it was a grave covered with flat oval river pebbles. near by, uncovered by the same wash, was a small patch of fresh water unio shells shown from the west of south in fig. , plate v.[ ] this was probably kitchen refuse. the little pits, each encircled with a slight embankment made up of the soil thrown out in making it, p. , are probably the remains of food caches near the houses. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the southwest. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the west of south. tools used by men. a number of objects which seem to be tools intended to be used by men are found in this region. among these may be mentioned a wedge, hammerstones, a celt, a hand-adze, drills, scrapers, and an arrow-shaft smoother. _wedges._ wedges made of antler were not frequently found by us as in the thompson river region,[ ] although according to lewis, elk horn wedges or chisels were used for splitting wood in the general plateau region of which this is a part.[ ] one specimen, however ( - b), was found on the surface near the head of priest rapids, which is apparently a longitudinal fragment of a wedge broken off at the top and cut by longitudinal grooving along one edge, the other edge being a portion of the surface of the wedge formed by cutting convexly across the antler. the specimen is bleached from exposure on the surface. another wedge, shown in fig. , was found on the surface near the columbia river below the mouth of the snake. it is made of antler which has since been bleached from exposure on the surface of the ground. [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] lewis, p. . [illustration: fig. ( . - ). wedge made of antler. from the surface near the columbia river below the mouth of the snake. / nat. size. (collected and presented by mr. owen.)] the top was partly cut off and then broken across, while one side edge shows where the antler was grooved lengthwise for over half its length, from the inner surface and then broken out. this shows that the process of cutting up pieces of antler in this region was similar to that employed in cutting both antler and nephrite, in the thompson river region and on the coast of british columbia and washington. it has since been battered. one side shows the nearly flat outer surface of part of the antler, the other has been cut off to form the wedge, which is constricted towards the point so that it assumes a somewhat spatulate form. this specimen is twisted, until the point is in a plane about ° from the poll. it was collected by mr. owen who believes it to have been used as a spatula for grinding paint upon the surface of a rock. wedges made of elk antler are common in the nez perce region where they are said to have almost completely supplanted celts.[ ] [ ] spinden, pp. and , fig. ^ . although no wedges were found by us in the yakima valley proper, and we can mention only these two specimens in the whole yakima region yet it seems probable that they were here used and for the same purposes as in the thompson river region to the north, the nez perce area to the east and on the coast to the west for splitting timber, for cutting firewood and for general carpenter work. perhaps their relative scarcity here, as compared with the thompson and the nez perce country, may be explained by supposing that wooden wedges, such as are more common than antler wedges on the coast, and which may have decayed were here used more than those made of antler. while the stone hammers or pestles with convex bases, which are described on p. et seq. were probably largely used for crushing food and other material; yet some of them and those with concave bases, were undoubtedly sometimes used as hammers for driving wedges, setting stakes, pinning out skins and for similar purposes. _hammerstones._ the deeply pitted hammer, such as is found in the mississippi valley, was not seen here, and it will be remembered[ ] that they were not found in the thompson river region. tough pebbles, however, were used for pounding. at the quarry shop mentioned on p. , we found a number of pebbles that were evidently used in breaking up the material out of which to make chipped implements. one of these ( - ) is merely a water-worn pebble, mm. long, an edge of which has been broken off, and a sharp corner shows signs of its having been used as a hammer, as it has been battered and shows where one large chip has come off. it will be remembered that in the vicinity of the shop where the specimen was found, pebbles were rarely if ever seen, although the surface of the ground was covered with weathered fragments of volcanic rock. another specimen ( - ) found at the same place, shown southeast of the quarry pit, in fig. , plate iii, is mm. long and of a rather irregular cross section. the ends are battered and fractured from use. apparently it may have been held between the two hands and used in breaking off large pieces of material. a longer hammer pebble, bearing the same catalogue number, and found at the same place, shows on the top of the quarry dump to the left centre in fig. , plate iii. it is about mm. long. in cross section it tends to be triangular with rounded corners. the ends are battered and long slivers have been broken off. the specimen shown in fig. is from the same place, shorter, but similar in that the section is sub-triangular and that each end is both battered and slivered. other battered pebbles and fragments slivered from them were found at the same place. the hammerstone shown in fig. was found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. it is an oval pebble, nearly twice as wide as it is thick, of yellowish brown color, which has been used for a hammer, as is indicated by the battered and chipped condition of its ends. [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), pp. and , fig. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). hammerstone. from quarry on north side of naches river about two miles above its mouth. / nat. size.] another specimen, shown in fig. , is made of a hard, dark green or bluish, water-worn pebble. it was found in the snake river valley, twenty miles above the mouth of the river, and is in the collection of mr. owen. both ends are battered and the margins of the battered surfaces are chipped. mr. owen says such objects were used in pecking pestles, mortars, and similar implements into shape. fig. illustrates one of these hammerstones, found on the surface at kennewick. it is a part of a pebble of tough dark blue material, apparently glassy basalt. one side edge and one end have been chipped and show large scars on each side of the side edge and several on one side of the top. near the middle of one side, and opposite it on the other side edge, there are signs of pecking which suggest an attempt at grooving. the lower corner of the pebble shows signs of having been used as a hammer for pecking. a small spatulate pebble slightly curved ( - ), found at the same place, is battered entirely around the edge of its larger end and in one place on the side of the narrow end. the battering has given it a smooth surface in places which suggests that it was used for pecking, rather than chipping. a large, rather flat, oval pebble ( - ) from the same place has large chips off from both sides of its edge in three places, three fourths of its edge being so chipped. this seems more likely to be a hammerstone used for chipping. [illustration: fig. ( - a). hammerstone. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids, / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . hammerstone made of a hard, water-worn pebble. from snake river valley twenty miles above its mouth. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). hammerstone. from the surface, kennewick. / nat. size.] the long, narrow, oval pebble, shown in fig. , is about mm. long, of a yellow, volcanic, coarse-grained rock, and is in the collection of mr. austin mires of ellensburg. this was found at priest rapids. the top is battered and slightly chipped, the other end has been battered to a rather flat edge, and this battered surface extends one half way up one side of the specimen and two thirds of the way up the other.[ ] a large flat oval pebble ( - ), found on the cherry creek camp site, has a notch pecked in each side edge and is battered slightly on one end. it may have been notched for hafting as a hammer, or for use as a net sinker, but the battered end suggests the former use. these pebbles which have been used as hammerstones, remind us of the unbattered pebbles found with pieces of glassy basalt in certain caches near kamloops.[ ] pebbles used as hammerstones are also found in the nez perce region to the east[ ] and according to lewis stone hammers were used for splitting wood in the general plateau region of which this is a part.[ ] [ ] museum negative, no. , - . [ ] described by smith, (c), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] lewis, p. ; lewis and clark, iii, p. . a pebble, oval in outline and in cross section ( - ), found on the surface of the bank of the columbia river, near the head of priest rapids, is battered on one side edge near the middle in a way that suggests that the place was for the reception of the end of a handle. the lower edge is battered and the top has a large chip off of each side. it was probably used as a hammerstone. another flat oval pebble of lava ( - ) found at the same place, is chipped on both sides of the entire edge; but the edge is not sharp, apparently having been dulled by scraping, the natural sand blast or weathering. a disk or sub-oblong-shaped pebble ( - ) also found at the same place is chipped from one side only across the entire edge at a slight bevel so that it has a nearly flat edge. the high places of the edge are smoothed as if from its use in pecking, yet it does not seem to have been much used for such a purpose or to need to have been chipped into disk form for that use. none of the pebbles which were notched and supposed to be net sinkers, as mentioned on p. and that were found in this region, show battered ends or appear as if they had been used as hammers. on the other hand, some of the grooved pebbles described as net sinkers are battered, p. . it will be remembered[ ] that no notched hammers or those grooved entirely around, like those found here, were found in the thompson river region, although a pebble which had been notched or grooved on two edges was found and figured as a hammer.[ ] nor was the grooved stone maul used by the nez perce to the east according to spinden[ ] although many specimens are found on the umatilla in northern oregon to the south.[ ] [ ] smith, (c), p. . [ ] _ibid._, fig. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] lewis, p. ; lewis and clark, iii, p. . [illustration: fig. . hammerstone made of a close-grained yellow volcanic pebble. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mires.)] [illustration: fig. . celt made of serpentine. from an indian at ellensburg. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mccandless.)] _celts._ celts made of stone such as were common in the thompson river region[ ] were not found by us in the yakima region; but one typical specimen which apparently resembles the celts found on puget sound, more than it does those found in the thompson river region is shown in fig. . it may be seen in the collection of mr. mccandless who secured it from an indian at ellensburg. this celt is made of serpentine and is mm. long.[ ] a similar specimen, in the same collection, resembles this one but shows grooves along the side edges by means of which it was cut out. there is a celt made of green serpentine, only about mm. thick in the collection of mr. owen, but it was found at umatilla, oregon. [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . celts of jadeite (?) narrow and oblong were found on snake river above lewiston in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] spinden states that these were evidently acquired by trade from natives of the northwest coast and that they have been cut by grooving and breaking. also, that this method and material was not employed by the nez perce who considered the objects to have been used as wedges. i am inclined to believe, therefore, that these more nearly resemble the celts of the thompson river country[ ] than they do those of the coast. at least one celt of this general style has been found near lake chelan lying between the thompson river region and both the yakima and nez perce regions. it is a long stone celt and was found in an ancient grave on the bank of the chelan river near the house of hon. amos edmunds, of chelan, washington. in the graves of this group, according to mr. c. g. ridout, who cooperated with mr. edmunds in excavating at this place, and from whom all of our information on this specimen was obtained, stone knives and skinning and scraping tools were found. this celt is of a mottled green "marble resembling onyx" (probably serpentine or nephrite) mm. long, mm. wide and mm. thick. it is slightly concave on the two sides, while one side edge is flat and the other is concavely bevelled. the poll is of the natural unworked stone and judging from the drawing furnished by mr. ridout, was broken off. it is raggedly diagonal. the cutting edge is sharpened by long convexly ground surfaces of nearly equal size and curve. the bevel of the side edge suggests that the material for the celt was cut out by grooving and breaking as was the case in the thompson river region, where the celts showed similar traces of grooving.[ ] it is true that similar grooving may be seen on celts from the coast, but in that region the celts are short, while in the thompson river area they are long like this one and the material is more often of the mottled green color than on the coast. the specimen is owned by mr. edmunds and is in the collection of mr. ridout. [ ] spinden, p. and figs. , , plate ix. [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [ ] cf. smith, (c), fig. . no pieces of antler or other material which may possibly have served as celt hafts were found in this region, although it will be remembered that one specimen, thought possibly to have been such, was found at kamloops in the thompson river[ ] region, another in the lillooet valley[ ] and that celt hafts made of antler were common on the coast at port hammond,[ ] comox,[ ] saanich,[ ] and utsalady.[ ] a piece of antler ( - a), found on the surface near the head of priest rapids, is much bleached and shows signs of having been daubed with red paint. it consists of a piece which has been cut around below a fork with some sharp instrument and then broken off. the prongs seem to be simply broken off. [ ] smith, (c), fig. , p. . [ ] teit, (b), fig. . [ ] smith, (a), figs. and . [ ] smith, (b), fig. . [ ] _ibid._, figs. - . [ ] _ibid._, fig. . [illustration: fig. . hand-adze made of stone. from the surface in an old burial ground of the indians near the mouth of the yakima river on mcneals island. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.)] _hand-adze._ only one hand-adze has been found in this area, so far as i am aware. it is catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck, made of stone and found near the surface of an old burial ground of the indians near the mouth of the yakima river on what is known as mcneals island. this specimen is shown in fig. , and is mm. long, mm. in greatest circumference which is around the part corresponding to the edge of the striking head of a pestle, mm. in diameter at the top and mm. along the edge of the blade. it is made of rock resembling diorite or diabase. the natural surface of the pebble from which it was made shows on the ridge of the striking head of the pestle-like part. the convex side of the celt-like part of the object is very smooth. this is apparently partly due to the fact that it presents the smooth natural surface of the pebble from which the object was made, and also to more or less friction which must have been received here when in use. it probably served as an adze. this specimen is perhaps the most ideal form of this type that i have seen, the upper end comparing closely to a pestle, with a slight indication of a knob at the top, a flaring body, and a short striking head, the sides of which extend as a ridge nearly if not entirely around the specimen. the celt-like part is to one side of the axis, so that one side expands to meet the ridge above mentioned, forming a concavity; the other contracts to meet it forming a convex sweep from the cutting edge to the beginning of the body of the pestle-like part.[ ] such hand-adzes have been found at portland, columbia slough about ten miles below portland,[ ] and mr. e. d. zimmerman of philadelphia has informed me that there are five or six specimens of this type in his collection but the discovery of this specimen at mcneals island marks the most eastern occurrence of this type, so far as i know at present.[ ] [ ] museum negatives nos. , - and , - . [ ] first mentioned on pp. - , noteworthy archaeological specimens from lower columbia valley, by harlan i. smith, american anthropologist, (n. s.) vol. viii, no. , april-june, . _whetstones._ whetstones, recognized as such, are rare in the yakima region but a fragment ( - ) of a sandstone pebble, which is apparently rubbed on the irregular sides was found on the surface of the little camp site, west of cherry creek, near ellensburg. it probably served as a rough whetstone or for grinding implements into shape. the cigar-shaped object made of friable stone, shown in fig. , and considered on p. as a war implement or "slave-killer," is suitable for use as a whetstone and may have been such. the object thought to be a whetstone shown in fig. , is in the collection of mr. janeck, and is said to be from the yakima valley. it is made of friable slate; the top is broken off. it is mm. long, mm. wide and mm. thick with rounded edges. the circle and dot design incised on the specimen is described on p. . it would seem that use as a whetstone would destroy the design.[ ] from the whole region, i have seen only these three specimens that can be considered as whetstones. this scarcity seems somewhat remarkable when we consider their abundance in the thompson river region,[ ] and also on the coast at port hammond and eburne in the fraser delta,[ ] comox,[ ] north saanich[ ] victoria,[ ] new dungeness,[ ] and port williams.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] smith (a), p. . [ ] smith (b), p. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . beaver teeth sharpened for use as knives, such as were found in the thompson river region,[ ] were not found by us in this whole area any more than in the fraser delta,[ ] although they were present at comox,[ ] and though not certainly identified at both saanich[ ] and burton.[ ] however, a beaver tooth was found ( - ) in cremation rectangle no. ( ) on the flat overlooking the mouth of the naches river. objects that are considered as knife handles, such as were found at lytton,[ ] though not certainly at kamloops[ ] were absent here as in the fraser delta.[ ] objects made of bone or antler and thought to have been used for flaking stone implements were also absent. [ ] smith (d), p. ; (c). p. . [ ] smith (a), p. . [ ] smith (b), p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] smith (d), fig. . [ ] smith (c), p. . [ ] smith (a), p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). point for a drill, chipped from chalcedony. from the head of priest rapids. / nat. size. (collected by mrs. j. b. davidson.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). point for a drill, chipped from chert. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _drills._ drill points chipped from stone are perhaps less abundant in the yakima country than in the thompson river region[ ] to the north. they are found of various shapes in the nez perce region[ ] to the east but it will be remembered that they were not certainly identified among finds from the coast.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. , was collected at the head of priest rapids, and presented by mrs. j. b. davidson of ellensburg. it is chipped from a grayish chalcedony. the shaft is rather blunt at the end, possibly having been broken off, and is somewhat lozenge-shaped in cross section although one side has a less pronounced ridge than the other which causes the section to tend towards the sub-triangular. the base expands sidewise and is somewhat thinner at the end than at the shaft although it is thicker than the point. a point somewhat similar in shape, but mm. long, chipped from white chalcedony, and found at priest rapids, was seen in the collection of mr. austin mires. another drill point chipped from black trap, mm. long, and also found at priest rapids, was seen in the same collection. the shaft expands sidewise into a base of the form of a truncated triangle which is rather thin. fig. shows a drill point chipped from reddish brown chert that was found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. the upper portion resembles the first-mentioned specimen and the lower part is somewhat similar to it but more lenticular in cross section. in other words, the implement is either double-pointed or it was intended to chip away the lower part. the lower point is so well chipped to form that it seems more likely to be a double-pointed drill. [ ] smith (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] spinden, p. , figs. - , plate vii. [ ] smith (a), p. ; (b), p. . holes which have been drilled and apparently with such drills as these are seen in the stone objects shown in figs. , , , , , . the shell object shown in fig. probably was broken; but in figs. , , , , and , the shell seems drilled and in fig. the antler is drilled. _scrapers._ for scraping and shaving, the objects shown in figs. - would have been useful. one side of these consists of a large facet, as in the case of fig. , or is but slightly chipped. this surface on the first two specimens shows the bulb of percussion, while on the fourth all signs of the bulb have apparently been obliterated by secondary chipping along a longitudinal third, probably done to flatten the side, although as this scraper was made from a fragment of a flake rather than from the whole flake it is possible that the bulb was not on this piece. in the third specimen the bulb does not show as the object was not made from a flake but from a thin piece of chalcedony which shows striations upon both surfaces suggesting that it may have been the filling or cast of a seam from which it has separated. the upper ends of the first two specimens are somewhat convex on this surface probably because of the bulb of percussion. the lower or wider ends, which are chipped to a scraping edge from the opposite side on all the specimens are somewhat concave or at least flat as in the third specimen. the other two are not so regular in outline, but are also chipped like a scraper at the broad end and the side edges. the specimen shown in fig. was found on the surface of the little camp site on cherry creek, near ellensburg, and is of a waxy, yellowish brown chalcedony. it is shaped something like a gun flint. there is a scraper mm. long made of a greenish slate in the collection of mrs. davidson to whom it was presented by mr. owen. it is somewhat tongue-shaped and slightly concave-convex. the base is broken while the curved edge is slightly chipped on the convex side to form an edge. the point is rather thin and has been somewhat rubbed. red paint has been daubed on the specimen which suggests that it may have been found in a grave. it will be remembered that scrapers were found, although not so frequently, in the thompson river region[ ] to the north and that in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] they are usually irregular in form, flat on one side and convex on the other. while their chief use may have been for skin scraping, they are found by experiment to be excellent implements for planing wood, and may well have served for the scraping down of arrow-shafts, spear-shafts, and for similar work. [ ] smith (c), p. . [ ] spinden, p. and fig. ^ . [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper chipped from petrified wood. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper chipped from agate. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper chipped from chalcedony. from the surface, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper chipped from chalcedony. from the surface of the cherry creek camp site near ellensburg. / nat. size.] some of the chipped points described on p. may have been used for knife points. among these there are a number of specimens which were particularly suited for this use. the specimen shown in fig. may have served as a knife, possibly one used for ceremonial purposes although it may have been used as a spear point. these knives, being somewhat symmetrical differ from the one found at kamloops[ ] in the thompson river region which was similar in shape to the knives used until recently by the thompson river indians.[ ] these knives from the thompson river region are chipped much more from one side than from the other and have curved points. the specimen shown in fig. ( - ) has an absolutely flat base which is apparently an unworked portion of the block from which the object was chipped. it is possibly an unfinished arrow point, but its outline suggests that it is a knife point. the specimen shown in fig. is chipped from waxy red chalcedony. it has a straight end and one edge of the point is slightly more curved than the other, which together with the fact that one side is nearly flat suggests that it may have been one of those points which are considered to have been used for knives rather than for arrow or spear points. the specimen ( - ) shown in fig. may have served either as the tip for an arrow or as a knife point, and it may be compared with the much more deeply serrated points found in the thompson river region.[ ] [ ] smith (c), p. , fig. d. [ ] teit, (a), figs. - . [ ] smith (d), figs. to ; (c), figs. i-j and . _arrow-shaft smoothers._ arrow-shaft smoothers, made of coarse sandstone like those from the thompson river region,[ ] were not found by us in this area nor on the coast;[ ] but one of these grooved stones was seen in the collection of mr. e. r. mcdonald at ellensburg. it was collected by mr. dick williams, of the same place, who found it on the west bank of the columbia river, twenty miles north of priest rapids, kittitas county. it is made of a salmon-colored gritstone, and is of the usual type, semi-cylindrical with a longitudinal groove on the flat side, in this case a very small groove such as might occur if it had not been much used. in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] according to spinden, there have been found an arrow-shaft smoother made up of two somewhat rectangular blocks of light tufa, each with a semi-cylindrical groove in one side and a soapstone object which he considers to be an arrow-shaft polisher, but i have considered this as a mat presser. [ ] smith (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] smith (a), p. ; (b), p. . [ ] spinden, p. , fig. , plate vii. tools used by women. a number of implements were found which may have served for the preparation of skins and for sewing. among these may be mentioned skin scrapers, awls, a needle, and a mat presser. [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper chipped from a flat circular pebble. from the surface of the bank of columbia river near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper or knife chipped from a pebble. from the surface of the bank of columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _scrapers chipped from stone._ the scrapers chipped from stone, shown in figs. to , and considered among tools used by men on pp. - , may possibly have been used on skins although they seem rather small for such a purpose. the specimen shown in fig. , made from a flat circular pebble was found on the surface of the bank of the columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. the edges are chipped in such a way that it has been brought somewhat to the form of a square. this object would serve well as a skin scraper if hafted in the split end of a stick and used like similar implements seen in use by us among the natives of the thompson river region.[ ] it resembles archaeological specimens from the same area.[ ] in the nez perce region to the east[ ] a disk-shaped spall struck from a boulder was used for skin scraping. another form, shown in fig. , is chipped from a pebble, probably a flat circular one. along one side, the surface of the pebble shows, but on the other it has been completely chipped away. in outline, the object is elliptical, but has a slight tendency to be pointed at each end. it is lenticular in section, with the edges jaggedly sharp. this reminds us of certain specimens found at columbus and the dalles, which have the same general shape, but are ground and polished, so that no signs of chipping remain on some of them. it seems probable that this specimen is a roughed-out form of the same kind, which may have been used in its present condition, or was intended to be finished by grinding and polishing. it seems quite likely that this implement may have been hafted in the end of a split stick and used as a skin scraper, similar to those previously mentioned. on the other hand, it may have been held in the hand and used in scraping skins or perhaps as a knife. it was found with another on the surface of the bank of the columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. another of these ( - ) was found on the surface at kennewick. the specimen shown in fig. is simply an oval water-worn pebble with one edge chipped on both sides. it is mm. long by mm. thick, may be an unfinished object, if not a scraper or knife, and was found on the surface of the bank of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. [ ] teit (a), fig. , plate xiv, and fig. . [ ] smith (d), fig. ; (c), fig. . [ ] spinden, p. . _scrapers rubbed from bone._ scrapers made of bone, similar to those found by us in the thompson river region and in the vicinity of puget sound[ ] were not seen in the yakima region. [ ] smith (d), figs. and ; (c), fig. ; (a), fig. ; teit (a), figs. and . [illustration: fig. ( - ). scraper or knife chipped from a pebble. from the surface of the bank of columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _awls rubbed from bone._ awls made of bone have been found in this area. the specimens made of stone, mentioned on p. among chipped points, and on p. among drills may have been used by women for the same purposes. the specimen shown in fig. , was found on the surface of an island in the columbia river near the mouth of the snake, and it is bleached from exposure. it was collected and presented by mr. d. w. owen. the specimen shown in fig. , was found on an island in the columbia river, forty miles above the mouth of the snake, and it is bleached from exposure on the surface. the shaft is nearly circular in cross section and tapers to a point for one half its length. the base ends in a flat elbow piece. the outline of the end of this projection is rounded. the specimen was collected and presented by mr. d. w. owen. no awls made from the proximal part of the ulna of the deer were seen by us in this area, although it will be remembered they were found in the thompson river region[ ] and are reported from the nez perce region to the east by spinden who says that they were used in braiding rope.[ ] we found them on the coast of british columbia and washington.[ ] the same remarks are true of awls made of the distal end of the metapodial of the deer.[ ] [ ] smith (c), fig. . [ ] spinden, p. , plate vii, fig. . [ ] smith (a), p. (_eburne and hammond_); (b), p. , (_comox_); p. (_saanich_); p. , (_stanwood_); p. , (_new dungeness_). [ ] smith (d), fig. ; (c), fig. ; (a), fig. , (_eburne_); (b), p. , (_comox_); p. , (_saanich_). [illustration: fig. ( . - ). awl made of bone. from the surface of an island in columbia river near the mouth of the snake. / nat. size. (collected and presented by mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. ( . - ). awl made of bone. from an island in columbia river, forty miles above the mouth of the snake. / nat. size. (collected and presented by mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. . spatulate object made of bone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.)] this seems rather interesting since these two kinds of awls, each made of a special bone are so commonly found and so widely distributed in america that it seems hardly possible that they may not yet be found in this region. simple sharpened bone implements which are said to have been used as awls are found in the nez perce region[ ] where according to spinden, a small awl was used in making basketry but we saw none in the yakima region not considered to be points for arrows or spears. [ ] spinden, p. , plate vii, figs. and . _needles._ only one object which may be considered as a needle was seen by us in the yakima region, and it will be remembered that they are rare on the coast of british columbia and washington, except in the lower fraser[ ] country, although they were common in the thompson river region.[ ] this specimen shown in fig. is a long needle-like object, no. , in the collection of mr. janeck. the object is warped or bent like the needles used in the puget sound country to string cat-tail stalks together in order to make mats. this specimen is mm. long. the point is sharpened and although the side edges are flat, it somewhat resembles a paper knife. at a point nearly one third of its length from the base, it is perforated through the middle by gouging from each side. the base is notched, in such a way that the object is bilaterally symmetrical as shown in the illustration. it may possibly but not probably have served as a sap scraper.[ ] [ ] smith, (a), fig. . [ ] smith (d), figs. - ; (c), fig. . [ ] museum negative no. ( - ). [illustration: fig. _a_. object made of steatite, probably a mat presser. from prosser. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. spalding). _b_, part of incised pictograph on object shown in _a_.] _mat pressers._ mat pressers, or objects that are considered to be such, made of stone are commonly found in the area immediately to the south. no objects recognized as such were found by us in the thompson river region, and from the coast of british columbia and washington there is only one. it is made of stone[ ] and was found at cadboro bay near victoria. specimens made of wood are very common among the present natives of the same coast. a ground soapstone object from the nez perce region is considered by spinden an arrow-shaft polisher,[ ] but seems to me more likely to be a mat presser of the type found in the region immediately south of the yakima area. [ ] smith (b), fig. . [ ] spinden, plate vii, fig. . the object shown in fig. which may be an unfinished pipe, is of the form of a flattened cylinder, made of steatite and was found at prosser in the southern part of the area here considered. the surface is marked with incised figures, part of which are illustrated in fig. b and described on p. . the groove on one side suggests that it may have been used as a mat presser such as are used to string cat-tails and tule stalks. the cylindrical bore in the top is mm. deep by mm. in diameter and its top is funnel-shaped. the original is in the collection of mr. spalding.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . processes of manufacture. the processes of manufacture employed in this area as indicated by the archaeological objects found include fracturing by chipping and flaking, pecking or bruising, grinding, polishing, cutting by grooving and breaking, incising, whittling and gouging, and drilling. the materials worked by each of these processes may be seen among the specimens here figured and described. spinden states[ ] that in the nez perce area chipped implements were made by the men and that the pecked artifacts were made by the women. [ ] spinden, p. . life histories of manufactured objects. the story of the manufacture of the objects found from the securing of the raw material to their finished and to their worn out and broken condition is not shown completely in the case of more than one class of objects, viz., chipped implements, but in a number of cases the signs of manufacture have not been entirely obliterated and some specimens are figured and described which are undoubtedly in process of manufacture. plate iii, fig. shows a quarry from which material for the manufacture of chipped implements was obtained. a description of this has been given on p. . here could be seen the hammers, one of which is illustrated in fig. , that were used in breaking up the raw material, and the material in various stages of chipping and flaking together with the waste products. in plates i and ii may be seen the more or less completed chipped implements. if points of antler were used as flakers, they were either not found or recognized by us. according to mr. cotton, there are numerous chips within the "fort" mentioned on p. . one other example of a series illustrating the life history of an object may be mentioned, namely, that of the pestles. many oblong pebbles suitable for pestles without being changed from their natural form were seen in both the yakima and the columbia valleys. other pebbles required but slight shaping to bring them to the required form. fig. illustrates such a pebble which is in process of shaping by pecking or bruising and fig. shows a suitable tool for executing the work. after being fully shaped by this process such pestles were polished but the materials used for this purpose, whether sandstones and similar abrasives, the horse tail rush or the bare hand, are not known. war. _implements used in warfare._ the objects considered under hunting on p. _et seq._, such as chipped points for spears, arrows and knives may have served in warfare; so also may bows, mentioned on p. . others that were considered as tools, on p. _et seq._, such as the celt and hand-adze, may have been used as weapons in war times; but there are some objects that were probably useful only in warfare. prominent among these are the club-heads and clubs, made of stone, shown in figs. - . no clubs made of copper, antler or whale's bone have been seen by us that are certainly from this region although it will be remembered[ ] that such were found in the thompson river region, lying to the north, that the latter are common on the coast of british columbia and washington[ ] to the west of this area and that one of whale's bone labeled from the upper columbia river has been figured in my report on the archaeology of puget sound.[ ] [ ] smith (d), figs. and ; (c), fig. . [ ] smith, (b), figs. - . [ ] smith (b), fig. d. [illustration: fig. . grooved pebble. from the yakima reservation near the gap. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . club-head or sinker made of lava. from the yakima reservation near the gap. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] _grooved pebbles, club-heads, or sinkers._ the grooved spheroid pebble, shown in fig. , was found on the yakima reservation near union gap and is in the collection of mr. janeck. there are two encircling grooves which cross each other at nearly right angles. these have been made by pecking. at one intersection of the grooves, the object shows signs of battering such as may have resulted from pounding with it, or such as may have been made to form a pit for the reception of a handle end. it is probably a club-head, net sinker or gaming stone[ ] similar to those used in the thompson river region.[ ] in the nez perce region[ ] to the east unworked river boulders sewed in skin, were used for the heads of war clubs which were sometimes also used in killing game. this kind of club is the same used by the eastern indians, according to lewis[ ] and was probably introduced. the spheroid specimen made of hard lava, possibly trap, shown in fig. , was found on the yakima reservation near union gap, and is also in the collection of mr. janeck. there are three grooves, marking great circles at right angles to each other. these have been made by pecking. at each pole or the intersection of two of these grooves, at the top and bottom in the illustration, and in each area marked out by the grooves is a pit making a total of ten. in the equatorial grooves are the remains of two parallel strings, each twisted to the right or contra-screw-wise, made up of two strings twisted to the left and remains of a fabric of loose mesh overlying the strings. it measures mm. by mm. by mm.[ ] a club-head made of stone with a handle covered with rawhide and horsehair, was seen by us in the collection of mr. janeck. the head is grooved, circular in cross section, and has conoid ends. it consequently resembles the stone clubs of the eastern plains. the objects shown in figs. - and considered as sinkers, may have been fastened to handles and used as heads for war clubs or as 'canoe smashers' in warfare. [ ] smith (d), fig. ; (c), p. ; teit (a), p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] spinden, pp. and , also fig. ^ . [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . _stone clubs._ the club[ ] shown in fig. , is made of serpentine. the handle is oval but approaches a lenticular form in cross section. there are eighteen notches across one edge of the knob and eight on the other. the blade is of the characteristic form with lenticular cross section but thicker than the thin type of stone clubs of this form such as are found near the coast.[ ] the tip is rather blunt. the reverse is the same as the obverse. it is from methow river, okanogan county and here illustrated from a sketch by mr. charles c. willoughby of the original in the peabody museum, harvard university. [ ] first mentioned on p. and fig. a, smith (b). [ ] smith (b), fig. a, b. [illustration: fig. . club made of serpentine. from methow river, okanogan county. / nat. size. (drawn from sketches by mr. charles c. willoughby. original catalogue no. in the peabody museum, cambridge, mass.)] [illustration: fig. . club made of serpentine. from the yakima valley, between wenas station and the gap above north yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , and , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the club shown in fig. was found in the yakima valley on the west side of the river between wenas station and upper gap above north yakima. it is made of serpentine of a mottled yellow, brown and green color. it is mm. long, and of the form of a rather thick, elongated apple seed, with the upper and lower ends cut off. the top is of the form of a symmetrical celt with a dull edge and is bevelled about equally from each side. the handle, which is mm. thick, is the thickest part of the object, rather oval in section and merges into the blade, which is paddle-shaped, lenticular in cross section and terminates in a celt-like end which is dull and bevelled about equally from each side.[ ] it is catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] a club of this general type has been found as far east as sand point, idaho, the most eastern occurrence, as was mentioned on p. of my "archaeology of the gulf of georgia and puget sound," where all the clubs of this type from northwestern america are discussed. on the west, they seem to range from the klamath valley to the head of puget sound. [ ] smith (b), p. . [ ] museum negatives nos. , - , and , - . the club, shown in fig. [ ] is made of stone and has a blade rather lenticular in cross section, but bulging somewhat so that it reminds us of the clubs of the lozenge-shaped cross section.[ ] it is mm. long, by mm. thick. the handle is somewhat lenticular, but tends to be hexagonal in section, with rounded corners and meets the blade abruptly. there is a saddle-shaped knob at the top with an incised geometric design in the hollow. the upper part of the right edge of this knob is flat with two incisions across it, while the lower part is rounded. a stone club with similar handle is known from puget sound.[ ] the specimen is catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck, and was secured by him from the york collection. it was originally collected from an indian woman on the yakima reservation.[ ] [ ] first shown in smith (b), fig. a. [ ] smith (b), p. . [ ] smith (b), fig. b. [ ] museum negatives, nos. , - and , - . the club shown in fig. is made of diabase or allied material and is mm. in length. it is bilaterally symmetrical and the reverse and obverse are alike. the handle is oval in cross section and terminates in a knob from which it is separated by a slight groove. in the top of the knob is a depression as if there had been a hole pecked through the form, tapering from each side, as in the clubs or slave-killers having lozenge-shaped cross section from the coast there[ ] the top broken off and the broken edges rounded, as in the club with lozenge-shaped cross section from copalis on the coast of washington.[ ] but such is not the case; the notch resembles that of the club shown in fig. , slightly the one shown in fig. , both from this region, and one from burton on puget sound.[ ] the blade is paddle-shaped like the large end of an apple seed, lenticular in cross section, with a mid-rib on each side which runs out about mm. from the end of the club.[ ] it was found on the surface at union gap, below old yakima, and is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] [ ] smith (b), figs. and . [ ] _ibid._, fig. e. [ ] _ibid._, fig. b. [ ] first mentioned, smith, (b), p. and fig. c. [ ] museum negatives, nos. , - , and , - . [illustration: fig. . club made of stone. from yakima reservation. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , and , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . club made of stone. from the surface at union gap below old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , and , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . club made of stone. from the surface at union gap below old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , and , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the stone club, shown in fig. , was found on the surface at union gap, below old yakima. it is of a purplish gray lava-like material. the handle is oval in cross section with a knob at the end which is somewhat flattened on each side and slopes towards the rounded top like a blunt symmetrical celt. the blade has convex side edges which are nearly flat and about mm. wide. it is thicker in the middle than at the edges and bears a mid-rib of the shape of a railroad embankment with rounded angles, from the handle to the end. on each side of this mid-rib, the surface is nearly flat. the end of the blade is nearly flat. the specimen is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] [ ] museum negatives nos. , - , and , - . first mentioned on p. and figured in smith, (b), fig. d. it will be noted that the thin stone clubs found here have no mid-rib. clubs made of stone, whale's bone or wood with such mid-ribs are unknown from the coast but are found with median decoration in place of a mid-rib,[ ] those of whale's bone being common and a thin club made of copper with a median decoration was found at spuzzum in the interior of southern british columbia.[ ] [ ] smith (b), figs. a, b; a; a, c-g; a, b, d-g; a-d; a, c, d; f and a. [ ] _ibid._, fig. d. _'slave-killers.'_ a 'slave-killer' or club, made of friable stone shown in fig. , was found on the surface of union gap, below old yakima. it is in the collection of mr. janeck. the object has a blade which sets out from the handle and resembles in shape the typical 'slave-killer' in that it is lozenge-shaped in cross section with bulging sides and rounded angles. the handle is oval or nearly circular in cross section, and slightly larger at the top where there is no knob or perforation as in the typical club of this type.[ ] the object is mm. long, mm. wide, and mm. thick.[ ] the club or 'slave-killer' made of stone, shown in fig. , was found at lake chelan, and is mm. long. it is owned by mr. c. g. ridout of chelan, chelan county. the handle terminates in a knob, which resembles the form of an animal head. this knob is somewhat heart-shaped, the two lobes possibly representing ears, and the lower tip projects beyond the handle of the object. one side, the larger surface, stands at about degrees to the axis of the club and is bisected by a deep incision, on each side of which are two circles, which probably represent eyes. on either edge of this knob are thirteen incisions. the handle which is nearly circular in cross section, bears four vertical rows of horizontally arranged incisions and expands suddenly edgewise to form the blade which, however, on its upper and lower surfaces is practically continuous with the handle. the blade is nearly circular in cross section and tapers gradually to a rather blunt point. the object is probably a ceremonial implement. [ ] _ibid._, figs. , and e. [ ] first mentioned _ibid._, p. . museum negatives nos. , - and , - . [illustration: fig. . club made of stone. from the surface at union gap below old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , and , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . club made of stone. from lake chelan. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch furnished by mr. c. g. ridout. original in his collection.)] [illustration: fig. . war implement or slave killer, made of friable stone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] the stone objects considered as pestles and shown in figs. and may have been used as war clubs. the object made of friable stone, shown in fig. was mentioned on p. us possibly having been used as a pestle and again on p. as being suitable for use as a whetstone. it seems most likely, however, that it served as an implement of war or as a 'slave-killer.' it is roughly of the shape of a cigar. the upper end is nearly flat and circular. from here the object gradually expands for about half its length and then contracts to a point, being nearly circular in cross section throughout. it is mm. long, mm. in maximum diameter, and mm. in diameter at the top. it was found in the yakima valley and is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] the object considered as a hand-adze and shown in fig. , may have been used as a 'slave-killer.' no objects considered as daggers or knives and made of antler were found by us in this region. although it will be remembered[ ] that several, over mm. in length, were found in the thompson river region. [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] smith (d), fig. ; (c), p. and fig. . _war costume._ the costume indicated on the figure carved in antler, described under the section of dress and adornment, p. , referred to in the discussion of art on p. , and shown in fig. , may be that of a warrior as is suggested by the similarity of the headdress to the war-bonnet of the tribes of the plains. that the war-bonnet was used in this region is strongly suggested not only by this headdress but also by those represented in the pictographs and petroglyphs as well as by the wearing of it by the modern indians of this area. this idea is further strengthened by the fact that the war-bonnet is worn in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] where it has no doubt been used for a long time, although it may originally have been derived from the plains. the nez perce sometimes wore streamers with these war-bonnets. spinden states that the early nez perce war-bonnets differed from the type used by them to-day, and that exact information about them is difficult to obtain. [ ] spinden, p. . _fortifications._ a so-called "indian fort" is situated near rock creek about six miles below rock lake. it is about a mile south of the ranch of mr. frank turner (p. ), and shown in the photographs reproduced in figs. [ ] and [ ], plate vi. these were taken and presented by mr. j. s. cotton, then in charge of the cooperative range work at the washington state experiment station at pullman, who furnished from his notebook all our data on this subject. the "fort" is built on a flat knoll of about fifteen feet in height and with precipitous sides. it is in the form of a circle, being enclosed about four fifths of the way around. the wall is built of flat rocks which are tilted in such a manner that they will glance all projectiles into the air. there were numerous arrow chip pings within the "fort." there are many indian graves supposed to be very old, two pits believed to mark building sites, and a long line of stones in the vicinity (pp. , , ). [ ] from the interior. [ ] from the exterior. _wounds._ the skull of skeleton no. - , found in rock-slide grave no. ( ) on the north side of the naches river half a mile above its mouth, showed where the right side of the orbit had been pierced in such a way that the malar bone was partly severed and repair had taken place, leaving a large anterior lateral projection on the malar bone. one rib had two articular surfaces at the anterior end. dress and adornment. _skins._ tanned skin and skin bearing hair of animals, including the deer, and feathers of the woodpecker have been found in the graves and were evidently portions of garments or of pouches; but graves containing these materials are apparently more modern than some of the others. no skins of birds were found by us in this whole region. the scrapers mentioned on page and the hammers as well possibly as the grooved stones mentioned on pages and may have contributed to the making of clothing: the former for scraping skins, the latter for beating and softening them. skin ( - ), resembling buckskin or leather in its decomposed condition, was found in grave no. ( ) ( - ), in the rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, immediately below ellensburg. that this grave may not be as ancient as some of the artifacts here described is suggested by the fact that a small piece of a wooden post, not completely decayed, was found projecting from the rock-slide above the grave, and by the presence of four more posts, one at each corner of the grave, extending down from the level of the rock-slide, the upper parts apparently being entirely decomposed. the remains of matting which had been wrapped around the body, glass beads ( - ) and three bracelets made of iron ( - ), one of which is shown in fig. , also suggest that this grave was modern, although it must be remembered that in this dry climate, wooden posts, matting and iron resist decomposition for a long time. the form of the garment or other object made up of this skin has not been identified, but pieces of the skin are joined in some places by over-casting with skin thread; in others, with a double skin thong and still in others with some sort of vegetable fibre. a piece of deer skin ( - ) with the hair on was found in grave no. ( ) ( - ), in the same rock-slide. here again, the presence of sticks about three feet long, decayed at the tops and arranged in three rows of matting made of reeds ( - and - , figs. - ), and of beads apparently made of factory-rolled copper, suggest that the entire contents of this grave are modern. fragments of skin of a small mammal, with the hair on, which had been stitched along one edge with what appears to be twisted vegetable fibre made into a cord of two strings ( - ), was found in grave no. ( ) ( - ) in the same rock-slide. here again were found evidences suggesting the grave to be modern. these consisted of decayed posts cut off at the surface of the slide. among the other objects in the grave were matting ( - ), beads ( - , fig. ), made of what is apparently factory-rolled copper, coarse string and thong, some of which is wound at the ends and pieces of coarse twisted plant fibre upon which some of the beads were strung, two ornaments ( - , fig. ) made of haliotis shell, two pendants made of what appears to be factory-rolled copper ( - ), four bracelets apparently made of similar copper ( - , fig. ), a square pendant ( - , fig. ), a disk ( - , fig. ), both of which seem to be made of factory-rolled copper and a piece of iron ( - ). among the rocks above the grave were found a copper ornament ( - ), a brass pendant ( - , fig. ), with thong and copper bead, and a copper pendant ( - , fig. ). [illustration: fig. ( - ). diagram of stitch of fragment of rush matting. from near the skin on skeleton in grave no. ( ) of an adult in a rock-slide on the east side of the escarpment near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size.] _matting._ fragments of matting of vegetable fibre sewed or twined with cords made of plant material were found; but only in recent graves. such graves contained objects introduced into the region since the advent of the whites. these fabrics were probably modern but were in no way affected by the coming of the white man or the materials secured from him, being simply found in these modern graves associated with artifacts made from material secured from the white man. in the old graves they have probably long since decayed. spindle-whorls were not found. fig. illustrates the stitch of a piece of matting ( - ) of a well known type consisting of a single strand warp of rushes pierced at intervals by the weft which is a two-strand string. it is similar to that commonly found in the thompson river region.[ ] this specimen was found in grave no. ( ) ( - ) in a rock-slide on the west side of the columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. the grave was probably modern as is suggested by stakes nearly six feet long which projected about three feet above the surface of the rock-slide and a roll of birch bark[ ] ( - ). the vegetable fibre used in sewing these stalks was probably the same as that used by the present indians as was thought to be the case in the thompson river region.[ ] spinden does not mention this simple type of sewed mat as found in the nez perce area.[ ] fig. shows a piece of matting ( - ) of a new type consisting of two strands of what seem to be small stalks of tule, twisted loosely and pierced at each half turn by a cord. the cord is a two-strand string, the vegetable fibre of the individual strands not seeming to be twisted. the interstices are wide. it was found under the pelvis of a skeleton of a youth ( - ) in a recent grave, no. ( ), in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. this piece of matting, so far as i am aware, is the first specimen of a new type collected and figured. it was first brought to the attention of students in through correspondence when professor otis t. mason stated that he had never seen an example, a picture or a description of just that technique. it was shown at the annual exhibition of the new york academy of sciences, in december of the same year, but reference to the type was first published in november by spinden.[ ] in the thompson river region this type has not been found. mr. james teit informs me that he asked all the old thompson indian women of the vicinity of spences bridge about this type of matting, submitting a model of it to them which i sent him. they all stated that they never saw that particular type made in the thompson river region and if ever made there it must have been before the memory of those now living. the only pierced matting made there as far as they have ever known is the tule tent mat,[ ] but the strands of this were not twisted, being like those shown in fig. . they had a weave similar to this and the same in general effect in the common mat used for beds and on which to sit, known as the floor mat, but the strands were woven and not stitched.[ ] certain rush bags of the quinault and the makah resemble this type of matting but the rushes are not pierced. [ ] teit (a), fig. c. [ ] _cf._ smith (d), fig. . [ ] smith (c), p. , teit (a), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] teit (a), fig. c. [ ] teit (a), fig. d. [illustration: fig. _a_ ( - ). fragment of matting, made of twined rush, stitched together with twisted cord. from under the pelvis of skeleton in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide, near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. _b_ diagram of stitch of _a_. / nat. size.] matting ( - ) made of tule stalks stitched together with cords twisted to the right, but made of large stalks was found in a recent grave, no. ( ) in the rock-slide on the north side of the naches river, half a mile above its mouth. part of this was of a similar type and stitched with similar cords and part was of the more common form of sewed matting such as is shown in fig. . this grave had been rifled, and the presence of bark, a portion of a fire drill ( - ), part of a wooden bow ( - ), two pieces of a finely woven basket ( - ) and copper tubes apparently of rolled copper, suggest that it was modern. fig. illustrates the technique of a piece of matting of open twine weaving made of rush which was found under the pelvis of the skeleton in grave no. ( ) of a youth in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. spinden states that mats were made in the nez perce area, of cat-tail stalks held together by two twined cords and that mats were used for house and floor coverings and as sheets upon which to dry berries.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. . the string of all these fragments of matting was too much decayed or fragmentary for determination. it will be remembered that both sewed and woven matting were found in the graves of the thompson river region,[ ] as well as among the living indians. it seems probable that these mats were made and used one above the other like great shingles for covering the summer house, for beds and for wrapping the dead, while the thinner pieces may have served for garments. food was probably spread on them to dry and they no doubt served many other purposes. the art of weaving was practised to a considerable extent in the nez perce region to the east, although it had very slight development in the plains area, still further east.[ ] [ ] smith (c), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . cord made of vegetable fibre ( - ) found in grave no. ( ) ( - ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg, upon which copper and shell beads were strung was made of two strands, some twisted to the right, others, to the left and in some cases a single cord was used for stringing the beads, while in other cases three cords were used. a roll of birch bark ( - ) was found in grave no. ( ) ( - ) in a rock-slide, on the west side of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. it is the only specimen of this kind that was found by us in the whole area although it will be remembered[ ] that such rolls of birch bark were frequently found in graves of the thompson river region. as stated on p. , we considered this grave to be modern. [ ] smith, (d), fig. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). fragment of open-twine matting, made of rush. from under the pelvis of skeleton in grave no. ( ) of a youth in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] _ornaments._ a great variety of ornaments was found, but most of these were in graves considered to be modern. among the finds which appear to be old, none of them having been found in graves considered to be modern, none of them appearing to be made of commercial material and all of which seem to be of native technique are perforated disks of stone ( - ), and bone, ( - ), a perforated and engraved sea shell ( - ), and haliotis shell from the pacific ocean ( - ), both plain and polished dentalium shells, pendants made of what is apparently haliotis shell, a nose ornament also apparently made of haliotis shell ( - ), and beads made of shell. red and yellow ochre, blue copper clay, and white earth, which may have been used for paint such as was found in the thompson river region[ ] were not seen by us in this area. although charcoal, which may have been mixed with grease and used for paint, was frequently found there was no evidence of such use. [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. . [illustration: fig. . comb made of antler. from a grave at fort simcoe. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mrs. lynch.)] _combs._ only one comb was seen and nowhere throughout the area were found any objects known to have been used as head scratchers such as were not uncommon in the thompson river region.[ ] the comb (fig. ) is made of antler and was found where a creek had washed it out of an old grave at fort simcoe. the teeth are convex in outline, the back is nearly straight but not quite parallel with the line of the teeth and the ends convex, the rear end being shorter than the other. the nineteen teeth (one perhaps being rather wide to be considered) are set out from each other by grooves on each side of the comb. this edge of the object is somewhat sharpened making the lower end of each tooth resemble the shape of a celt or wedge. near the back of the comb are three perforations, one in the middle and one at each end, the latter being about equi-distant from both the back and the end of the comb. the hole near the short end of the comb was drilled tapering from the reverse, while the two other holes were drilled tapering part way through from each side, but slightly farther from the reverse than the obverse. the specimen is in the collection of mrs. jay lynch at fort simcoe.[ ] a comb made of antler was found by us at lytton[ ] but none were seen among archaeological finds from the other parts of the thompson river region,[ ] although wooden combs are found among the indians there, as in the nez perce region where modern combs were made of narrow strips of wood lashed together.[ ] a comb of antler was found by us in the main shell heap at eburne in the fraser delta.[ ] [ ] smith, (c), p. ; teit (a), p. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] smith, (d), fig. . [ ] smith, (c), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] smith, (a), fig. . _beads._ among beads, some made of glass are certainly modern. judging from these glass beads, others found associated with them or with things of white manufacture in the same grave are also modern; while some seem to be old and from sites believed to be ancient. besides objects truly of the shape of beads, there are others, as for instance the tubes of copper such as are shown in figs. and , some of which were found strung with simple bead forms. otherwise, they might possibly not have been considered as beads. fig. suggests how such tubular beads of copper may have been worn on armlets and headdresses. in fig. are illustrated two fragmentary strings of several types of beads from a number which were found on the neck, arms and legs of a skeleton in grave number ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek below ellensburg. the short cylinders are sections of dentalium shells, longer sections appearing occasionally. the longest cylinders are sheet copper rolled into cylindrical form. the lapping edge, in most of the beads illustrated is irregular and varies in thickness, which suggests that they were beaten out of native copper rather than cut out of factory-rolled copper. of course this appearance might be given to the latter by beating it. such rolled beads made of copper are found in the nez perce region to the east[ ] and in the thompson river area to the north.[ ] these shell and copper beads consequently might be considered ancient from their individual appearance, but on the shorter string are some more or less spherical beads made of glass which of course shows that all these beads were used in comparatively recent times. the beads on the longer string are strung upon coarse plant fiber twisted into a two strand string while the shorter string is upon a much smaller fiber also of two strands which are twisted. some of the other beads in this lot were strung upon thongs. [ ] spinden, plate ix, figs. - . [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). beads made of copper, glass and sections of dentalium shells. from neck, arms and legs of skeleton in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] the tubular bead shown in fig. is made of brass, proving conclusively that it is recent. it was found in grave no. of the yakima ridge, which contained a number of other objects that might characterize the grave as ancient were it not for the presence of brass beads. a smaller but slightly shorter brass bead was found with this. it contained a piece of stick, but this may be merely the remains of a rootlet many of which had penetrated into the grave. the edges of the outer fold as well as the ends of the bead are irregular and thinned out similar to the corresponding parts of the copper beads shown in fig. . this suggests that the brass may have been pounded into sheets by the natives or at least that factory-rolled brass was pounded by them in manufacturing the bead. it also shows that this characteristic of the edges of copper objects, while it may suggest that they were beaten out of native copper and are consequently ancient, does not prove it. tubular copper beads with short sections of dentalium shell were found mixed all the way from the top to the bottom of grave number ( ) in a rock-slide on the north side of the naches river about half a mile above its mouth. some of these were slightly larger than those shown in fig. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). bead made of brass. from grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. nat. size.] the bone tubes shown in figs. and and those described on p. under games, may possibly have been intended for beads or ornaments. beads were made of bones of birds in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] the perforated cylinder made of serpentine or steatite shown in fig. may also have been used as a bead or ornament instead of for gambling. shell beads of disk shape such as are shown in fig. were found in three places. those figured were among the refuse of a grave in a rock-slide near the head of priest rapids. two were found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide on the northern side of the yakima ridge. a brass button and three glass beads were found with them. twenty-eight of them were found in the grave of a child in a rock-slide on the west side of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. all these beads seem to be drilled from both sides or at least each end of the bore is slightly larger than the middle. somewhat similar disk-shaped beads, apparently made of shell are found in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] the thompson area to the north[ ] and in the fraser delta[ ] of the coast country to the west. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, plate ix, figs. and . [ ] smith, (d), p. ; (c), p. . [ ] smith, (a), p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). beads made of shell. from refuse of a grave in a rock-slide near the head of priest rapids. nat. size.] _dentalium shells._ dentalium shells, some broken or cut into short sections, were found in twelve of the graves of this region. two of these graves were in domes of volcanic ash and probably old; five of them were cremation circles, also ancient, while five were rock-slide graves of which three were surely modern, and two probably so. it will be seen that the dentalia beads are found in about equal proportions in old and recent graves, there being seven examples of the former and five of the latter. one lot of dentalia found in a cremation circle was charred. none of the dentalia found in the rock-slide graves were incised while in one of the graves in a dome of volcanic ash incised dentalia were found together with the sculptured human form in antler shown in fig. on which are represented what appear to be dentalium shells forming parts of ear or hair pendants. incised dentalia were also found in two of the five cremation circles containing dentalium shells. some of the incised designs on dentalium shells are shown in figs. and . an idea of how the dentalium shells may have been used as ornaments on arm bands and headdresses may be had by reference to fig. and p. . somewhat similarly incised dentalium shells were found at the large burial place at kamloops in the southern interior of british columbia to the north,[ ] and in the nez perce region to the east bits of engraved dentalium shells are found in the graves of children.[ ] strings of them were hung from the ears or fastened to the braids of hair and dentalia were attached to the dresses of the women.[ ] among antiquities they are found as far east as central wyoming. there are some dentalium shells decorated with windings along lines somewhat similar in the collections from the hupa of california. dentalium shells used as nose ornaments, ear pendants or parts of ornaments and as beads were also found in the thompson region.[ ] a few were found on the coast in the fraser delta,[ ] but while they are to be seen in collections from living indians and recent graves they were not found among antiquities elsewhere on the coast of british columbia and washington.[ ] it seems noteworthy that while the shells are plentiful on the coast where they are used by the modern people they could only have been obtained in the thompson river region and the yakima valley by barter. in the north, they were imported until recently through the chilcotin country from the region north of vancouver island.[ ] in the yakima valley, however, they were probably brought in by a more southern route and from places further south on the coast. my impression is that the fraser valley was not used as a route for the importation. [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [ ] spinden, p. , plate ix, fig. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] smith, (c), pp. and , (d), pp. and . [ ] smith, (a), p. . [ ] smith, (b), pp. and . [ ] smith, (c), p. . _pendants._ somewhat circular objects which might possibly be considered as beads are shown in figs. to and are considered as pendants perforated near the centre. the first is a slightly asymmetrical disk, made of slate, which was found in grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. it is perforated at the centre with a large hole and at each end with a small hole. these perforations taper from each end and were apparently drilled. on each side there are four conoid pits about equi-distant from each other and the end holes arranged to form an oval about parallel with the edge of the object. on the reverse, there are only two of these pits, one on each side. the disk is mm. thick. [illustration: fig. ( - ). drilled and perforated disk made of slate. from grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. nat. size.] fig. illustrates a thin square of copper with rounded corners, a thong of skin and a copper bead, found in grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek below ellensburg. the hole in the centre of this little pendant has been punched. the presence of glass beads and iron in the same grave suggests that possibly this copper pendant was made of factory-rolled metal. [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of copper, thong and copper bead. from grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . button made of shell with attached bead made of metal. from an indian at ellensburg. nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mccandless.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). perforated disk made of bone. from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. nat. size.] the object shown in fig. is a sort of button made of shell attached to which is a metal bead. it was secured from an indian at ellensburg and is in the collection of mr. mccandless.[ ] the edge of the shell disk is rounded. there are two perforations through the disk, one a short distance from the centre. the other is in the centre, into which the metal bead is welded. the hole in the bead is parallel to the surface of the shell disk but does not go through the bead. [ ] museum negative no. , - . fig. illustrates a disk of bone about mm. thick found in grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek below ellensburg. the edge is rounded, the perforation has straight sides and is slightly worn at the ends. this, together with certain faint parallel grooves running diagonally across the grain of the bone suggests that the object may be a portion of a factory-made button. [illustration: fig. . pendants made of slate. from mcneals island near the mouth of yakima river. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck).] pendants perforated at the end or edge are shown in figs. to , arranged according to material, as stone, copper, brass, iron and shell. fig. a illustrates a pendant made of slate which was found with five others in a grave on mcneals island near the mouth of the yakima river by mr. janeck. it is mm. long, mm. thick by mm. wide. the upper end is narrower than the lower and perforated closer to the end of the object than to the side edges. the perforation tapers from each side and shows striations caused by drilling. the lower end of the pendant is somewhat thicker than the upper end.[ ] the pendant shown next in the figure bears the same catalogue number in mr. janeck's collection and was one of the same lot of six specimens. it is mm. long by mm. wide and mm. thick, is made of slate and similar to the other five specimens except that it bears six notches spaced about equi-distant from each other on one edge, and that the perforation is irregular, apparently having been broken through rather than drilled. the edges of this pendant are rather flat and the lower end is bevelled off somewhat from each side like a celt. this pendant may have been made to represent the tooth of an animal.[ ] [ ] it is no. in the collection of mr. janeck and museum negative no. , - . [ ] museum negative no. , - . a pendant made of steatite and bearing an incised design in which part of the lines and holes are colored with red paint (mercury) is shown in fig. . this was found on the manubrium of an adult skeleton supposed to be that of a man, in a grave covered with rocks on a low ridge about two and a half miles south of fort simcoe. the object is not necessarily recent because the coloring matter being mineral may have lasted a long time. in outline, it is of the form of a tall truncated pyramid. it is only about mm. thick and its edges are rounded or somewhat sharp. across the base of the side shown in fig. a extends a ridge which on the opposite side of the specimen is raised for only a short distance on the left. the agency physician is of the opinion that the grave was very old and that steatite does not occur near by but that the material must have been brought from puget sound. as the character of the art more closely resembles that of the thompson river region where steatite is frequently found, at least in the form of artifacts, it would seem that the material more likely came from there, if indeed it was not from a nearer source, perhaps in this very valley. the specimen is in the collection of mrs. lynch. fig. illustrates a long pendant made of copper found about one foot deep among the rocks over grave ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek below ellensburg. the perforation at the top is punched, which together with the fact that glass beads and a piece of iron were also found in this grave, suggests that the copper is factory-rolled. the edges are rounded and thinned, possibly by disintegration, to almost a cutting edge. the thong by which it was suspended is of skin and attached by being passed through the perforation and looped through a slit in the tip of the thong. two somewhat similar pendants, ( - a, b) made of copper, were found near the legs in this same grave. the first is narrow at the top which is slightly concave in outline, and the perforation is punched. the sides are nearly straight. the lower end is about three times as wide as the top and is deeply concave in the middle and convex in outline from this concavity to the side edges. in each of the concavities is a notch. these suggest that they are worn out perforations from which other pendants may have been suspended. the second pendant is of almost the same size and shape as that shown in fig. . it has a somewhat fluted lower end but this characteristic may be partly the result of worn and decomposed perforations or merely of decomposition. the perforation at the top was punched and still retains a fragment of a leather thong. a small triangular pendant only mm. in length, made of copper, ( - ) was found inside the skull of a child in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. it is perforated near the most acute angle and also through the base. the perforations seem to have been punched and the corners have been rounded, possibly by decomposition. fig. shows a thin disk-shaped pendant made of copper from the same grave as the one shown in fig. . the perforation near the upper edge is also punched. a fragment of copper ( - ) was found in the northwestern part of cremation circle no. ( ) on the terrace northwest of the mouth of the naches river. this may be a fragment of a copper ornament. it, and the specimen found in circle no. constitute the only finds of copper which were made in cremation circles. in its decomposed state it does not look like factory-rolled copper and may be native. the other fragment ( - ) found in cremation circle no. ( ) at the same place may be factory-rolled copper. in the nez perce area to the east, small pieces of copper were attached to the dresses of women.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of copper. from about one foot deep among the rocks over grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of copper. from grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of brass and bead made of copper. from about one foot deep among the rocks over grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] the pendant shown in fig. , also found near the one shown in fig. was made of brass. there are two perforations near the upper edge, the larger one of which is not circular, and a perforation tapering more from the concave side than from the other as well as a notch at the lower edge. the peculiarities of these perforations suggest that they were gouged out. the object is slightly concavo-convex. a skin thong is attached to the larger perforation at the upper edge by looping as in the case of the pendant shown in fig. . on this is strung a cylindrical copper bead. fig. illustrates a pendant made of iron found in grave no. ( ) of a youth in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. the next figure represents one of thirteen cone-shaped bangles or pendants also made of iron, found in the same grave. these were made by bending a thin sheet of the metal into the conical form. [illustration: fig. ( - a). pendant made of iron. from grave no. ( ) of a youth in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - a). pendant made of iron. from grave no. ( ) of a youth in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant or bead made of an olivella shell. from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the head of priest rapids. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of (_pectunculus_) shell. from grave of a child in a rock-slide west of columbia river, near the head of priest rapids. nat. size.] the remaining pendants are all made of shell. the one shown in fig. is a natural olivella shell with the top of the cone missing and found in grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the head of priest rapids. a shell somewhat similar to this made into a bead was found in the nez perce region.[ ] the pendant shown in fig. was found in the grave of a child in a rock-slide west of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. it is made of a small marine clam shell (_pectunculus_), probably a young _pectunculus gigantea_. the perforation passes through the apex and has apparently been gouged from the outside. the ribs on the convex surface of the shell have been nearly effaced by grinding or polishing and the hinge also seems to have been smoothed so that only slight scars mark the depths of the teeth. this shell certainly came from the pacific coast either in its natural condition or after having been made into this form. it is the only object made of this kind of shell which i have seen in the whole northwest. the pendant shown in fig. is made of iridescent shell possibly unio but probably haliotis. if the latter, it must have come from the pacific coast. it was found in the same grave. this grave contained no objects of white man's manufacture or anything suggesting that it was modern. a list of its contents will be found on p. . this pendant is of the form of an isosceles triangle. it is perforated through the more acute angle by a small hole which tapers as if drilled from each side of the object. the edges of the pendant are rather sharp in places and the lower one is concave in outline. this object may be compared with the pendant made of bone, found at lytton,[ ] which was considered to be a sap scraper.[ ] [ ] spinden, plate ix, fig. . [ ] smith, (d), fig. . [ ] smith, (c), p. ; (b), fig. . the pendant shown in fig. , from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek below ellensburg, is made of haliotis shell which must have come from the coast and is rectangular in outline with slightly worn or rounded corners. the perforation at the top is larger at each end, while the one in the side is much larger on the convex side and only slightly larger on the concave side than in the middle. this perforation has been broken out. a somewhat similar pendant but smaller and with only an end perforation ( - ) was found together with the shell pendant described on p. near the lower jaw in the same grave. a larger pendant of this general rectangular form, with worn or rounded corners, perforated near the middle of one end, and with a second perforation lower down ( - ) was found with this. one perforation is larger at one side of the object, the other at the other side. three somewhat similar pendants or fragments of such pendants, one with the perforation broken out, another with a single perforation and still another with a double perforation like the one just described ( - ) except two dentalium shells were the only shell ornaments found in cremation circle no. ( ) on the flat northwest of the mouth of the naches river. these were in the northeastern part of the circle. in the northern and northwestern parts of cremation circle no. ( ) on this same flat were found a number of such pendants and fragments of pendants which have only one perforation so far as can be identified. a much decomposed and fragmentary piece of shell, apparently of claw shape with a perforation at the base, several other pieces of similar shape and two triangular pieces of shell ( - - ) all of which were apparently burned, were found in cremation circle no. ( ) at the same place. a fragment of a shell ornament ( - ) was also found in cremation circle no. ( ) at this place. the pendant shown in fig. is nearly of disk form and made of haliotis shell. it is perforated at the more convex edge and was found with one very much like it in grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. one was near the head and the other near the pelvis. another specimen and a fragment of still another ( - a, b) and several other small fragments of decomposed shell ( - ) were found near the lower jaw in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of iridescent shell. from the grave of a child in a rock-slide west of columbia river near the head of priest rapids. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of (_haliotis_) shell. from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - b). pendant made of (_haliotis_) shell. from grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant or nose ornament, made of (_haliotis_) shell. from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] the pendant or nose ornament shown in fig. is made of shell which in its much decomposed condition appears to be haliotis. this object was found on the lower jaw of a very much decomposed skeleton of a child in the same grave. the fact that a piece of copper, apparently factory-rolled, ( ) was found inside the broken skull suggests that this grave was modern. the object is nearly circular in outline, although slightly wider than high. the sides have disintegrated or were rounded off, to a rather sharp edge. there were apparently three perforations near the upper edge of the object, and it is broken so that it is impossible to see whether they were perforations for suspension or were made merely as a means of cutting out a portion of the shell in such a way that it could be clasped on to the septum of the nose. portions of this specimen and several other shell objects, found in the same grave were of a peculiar pink color. [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of shell. from near neck at south side of adult skeleton in grave no. ( ) covered with pebbles in bluff on north side of naches river about twelve miles above its mouth. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pendant made of oyster shell. from near neck at south side of adult skeleton in grave no. ( ) covered with pebbles in bluff on north side of naches river about twelve miles above its mouth. nat. size.] the shell shown in fig. was found near the neck at the south side of an adult skeleton in grave no. ( ) covered with pebbles in the bluff on the north side of the naches river about miles above its mouth. it has two perforations and what appears to have been a third perforation now broken out. a somewhat similar circular shell pendant which appears to have been made from the shell of the oyster was found with this and is shown in fig. . one of these pendants was at the south shoulder, the other at the south side of the skull. a piece of wood in this grave suggests that it may not be an old one and that these disks may have been obtained from traders. the grave was apparently unique. the lower part of the inner decoration on each side of the face shown in fig. probably represents a shell pendant for the ear or hair. disks of haliotis shells were used as ear pendants in the nez perce region to the east.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. . _bracelets._ bracelets are shown in figs. and . the one shown in fig. represents four of about the same size, all made of copper and from the arm of the skeleton found in grave no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. the presence of glass beads in this grave suggests that the bracelets may be of drawn copper. they are not made of wire but seem to be rolled out of rather thick sheet copper. the edges of the fold are somewhat irregular but i do not consider that this proves the material to be native copper. the bracelet shown in fig. is one of three made of iron found in grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. the use of armlets of skin decorated with shells or quills is suggested by the incisions on the arms of the costumed human figure made of antler shown in fig. . in the nez perce region to the east arm and leg bands were worn[ ] while in the thompson area dentalium shells were sometimes fastened parallel to each other on arm bands. [ ] spinden, p. . [illustration: fig. ( - b). bracelet made of copper. from arm of skeleton no. ( ) of an infant in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). bracelet made of iron. from grave no. ( ) of a child in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek, below ellensburg. / nat. size.] _a costumed human figure._ a costumed human figure made of antler[ ] is shown in fig. . it was found in grave no. [ ] in a dome of volcanic ash near tampico. there was nothing to indicate that the grave was recent and so this gives an idea of the costume, but possibly merely of ceremonial costume as formerly worn in this region. it apparently shows a feather headdress like that of the present indians of the region and as far east as the dakotas; the hair dressed and ornamented with dentalium shells, the arms, body, legs and feet apparently bare and ornamented with ceremonial paintings and about the waist a fringed apron. the general style of the costume indicated is unlike that of the northwest coast but resembles that of the plateaus to the south and the plains to the east. above the face is a zigzag line which may represent tattooing, painting or a head-ring. spinden says that tattooing was not practised in the nez perce region to the east[ ] but teit reports it as practised in the thompson river region[ ] where he supposed that when applied to the wrists the custom was derived from the coast tribes.[ ] head-rings among the thompson river indians were decorated with dentalium shells.[ ] in the nez perce region[ ] the face and body were painted, red and yellow being much used for this purpose. in the thompson river area[ ] the face and body were painted with several shades of red, head-bands being painted across the brows. [ ] cf. p. . [ ] see plate x. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] teit (a), pp. and . [ ] see report of the british association for the advancement of science, p. . [ ] teit, (a), . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. and . the zigzag is a common form of decoration of the head-bands among the sioux. above the zigzag arranged in a semi-circular row, are certain oblong forms which indicate feathers. the middle form, however, is marked with a circle. both above and below this row are three incised lines forming an ark. based on the outer one of these incisions are isosceles triangles slightly in relief. if these triangles represent the feathers of the headdress, they are certainly in the correct position. between them are incised arks forming hachure parallel to the arks previously mentioned. two of these extend above the tips of the triangles. beyond this, much of the object is missing, but to the right may be seen a surface similar to the areas interpreted later on as hair ornaments. further evidence of the use of such a headdress is offered by the red and white pictographs and by the petroglyphs of this region, samples of which are shown in plates xi, xiv-xvi. on each side of the face is what is apparently a hair ornament, perhaps made of buckskin, which was attached to the rolled up braids or curls of the front hair on each side of the head and hung down as in this representation. the three horizontal bands of vertical lines apparently represent dentalium shells although they may be intended for tubular copper or bone beads, while the oval figure at the bottom of each of these flaps probably represents a pendant of haliotis shell. shell ornaments in the thompson river region were sometimes of similar proportions and shape. such hair ornaments were used until recently in the thompson river region to the north where they were of different types and differed in the richness and style of their ornamentation. one of the common styles was to cover the flap of buckskin thickly with rows of the largest dentalia placed vertically side by side. mr. james teit informs me that the outer portion of the figure, bearing five bands of vertical lines, evidently represents part of the headdress and the buckskin flaps such as were worn in the thompson river region attached to the sides of the head-bands. these were ornamented generally with dentalia among the women and more commonly with designs embroidered with quills or made with paint among the men. in the nez perce region[ ] ear pendants in the form of disks were made from haliotis shells and strings of dentalia were hung from the ears or fastened to the braids of hair and dentalia and small pieces of copper were attached to the dresses of women. these vertical bands, however, may represent the lines of attachment of additional hair by means of glue covered with lime in which manner the hair is dressed by some plains tribes. below the nose are faint suggestions of an ornament possibly similar to the shell pendant shown in fig. . [ ] spinden, p. . the two ridges, extending from near the chin to the shoulders, seem to indicate collar bones. the body is thin and narrows downward. paint or tattooing, representing the ribs, or the ribs themselves, are indicated by ridges. there are horizontal hachure on the body above the waist. the arms are separated from the body by incisions made from both the front and the back, and the outer edges of the object, being rounded off, are like portions of a carving. a bracelet, band, or figure painted or tattooed, on the apparently bare arm is indicated in the middle of each by vertical hachure connecting pairs of parallel lines. the vertical arrangement of lines of the horizontal band suggests that these were arm bands, bearing vertically arranged copper or shell beads, if not dentalium shells similar to those which are supposed to be represented by the bands of vertical lines on the headdress on each side of the face. mr. teit considers the bands around the elbows as representing armlets of skin embroidered with dentalia or quills like those formerly used in the thompson river region, although the indians there were in the habit of painting their bodies in imitation of clothing. head-bands were painted across the brows, fringed kilts or aprons around the middle and upper part of the legs and fringed short leggings along the lower part of the legs. the fringes were represented as long. imitations of wristlets, armlets and anklets were also painted on the body. as before mentioned, arm and leg bands were worn by the nez perce indians[ ] and as indicated by the previously described specimens, bracelets were worn in the yakima area. at the wrist is a slight horizontal incision, where the hand expands somewhat sidewise. the fingers and thumb are separated by four vertical incisions. below these and extending across the body are four horizontal lines, the space between the two in the middle being slightly wider than the other two spaces. these lines seem to indicate the upper edge of an apron which is covered by vertical hachure. [ ] spinden, p. . the legs begin at the bottom of the apron from which they are set off by two horizontal incisions. the apron at the outline of the object projects slightly beyond them. on each leg are five incised isosceles triangles,--three at the top and two at the bottom, with their long points extending towards the knees. at each side of the lower triangles is one line which seems to represent a continuation of the designs around the legs. on each triangle are horizontal hachure. on both knees are faint traces of two concentric incisions, forming figures with rounded corners and bulging sides. between these are radiating hachure. close inside is a concentric incised line and there may be seen two parallel lines, nearly horizontal, above the right knee and one below it, and one above the left knee. the triangles may be considered as pointing from these concentric designs rather than towards them, and in that case the lines, suggesting the continuation of the design around the leg, appear at the top instead of the bottom. it does not seem probable that these triangles represent part of a circular design radiating from the knees, the sides of which are folded around the legs, but rather that the two series of triangles extend horizontally. the incisions on the legs probably represent painting or tattooing, since the designs seem to be horizontal and to extend all around the legs, while on leggings the patterns are usually vertical and on a flap at the outer side of the leg, the knee being disregarded. catlin[ ] figures paintings on the arms and legs of the mandan similar to the patterns on this carving. the custom is not rare, especially in connection with elaborate ceremonial costumes such as are no doubt represented by this figure. the vertical incisions on the feet probably represent the toes, or designs painted or tattooed on the feet. these lines argue against any idea that the feet are encased in moccasins, unless bead or quill work on, or improbable wrinkles in, the moccasins are indicated by them. porcupine quills, embroidery, beadwork and painting on moccasins were used in the general plateau region of which this is a part.[ ] [ ] catlin, plates v and vi. [ ] lewis, p. . lewis suggests[ ] that the tribes depending largely on the hunt, would be better supplied with skins for clothing than those subsisting generally on fish, and that in most of the plateau region, the scanty vegetation makes clothing from plant materials difficult, if not practically out of the question. in this connection, it will be remembered that this carving of antler which gives us our general archaeological information regarding ancient costume, comes from the higher or hunting region of the valley. it will also be remembered that sage brush and other plant materials were used for clothing in the thompson river region to the north, where the vegetation is nearly as scanty as in the yakima valley. [ ] lewis, p. . perhaps some suggestion as to the sex of the individual which this figure was intended to represent may be gleaned from the fact that in the nez perce region the costume of the men differed greatly from that of the women. the former wore moccasins, leggings, breech clout, shirt, blanket, and also the war-bonnet, while the latter wore moccasins, a long loose gown and a fez-shaped cap made of basketry, also occasionally leggings and less decoration on their costume than on that of the men. the ornamentation consisted of fringes, bead and quill work, shells, elk teeth, beads, and copper.[ ] the men's clothing was decorated with fringes, and some with beads, porcupine quills and paint. considering this figure from these facts it would seem that it was clearly intended to represent a man. [ ] spinden, p. . some feathers of the flicker ( - ) were found in grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of cherry creek. one of them had bound to its tip a little piece of fabric, another a bit of fur. these may have been part of a costume or ceremonial paraphernalia. of the different articles of clothing worn by the nez perce, lewis says,[ ] "these are formed of various skins and are in all respects like those particularly described of the shoshones." along the columbia, the similarity was not so complete,[ ] but as far down as the upper chinook many articles described as similar to those of the shoshone were found.[ ] all these, however, they declared were, obtained by trade from other tribes and from those who sometimes visit the missouri.[ ] according to lewis,[ ] the clothing and equipment of the shoshone living on lemhi and salmon rivers in idaho were much the same as the plains type, and it is quite probable that they had formerly lived farther east. there are two certain indications that this extensive introduction of eastern clothing took place about the time of lewis and clark's visit. when they went down the columbia in , they found the women wore quite a different dress, consisting merely of a breech clout of buckskin with occasionally the addition of a small robe of skin.[ ] this is exactly the same dress as was worn by the chinook women above the mouth of the willamette.[ ] when these explorers returned up the columbia the following year they found the indians particularly the women, much better dressed, and in the eastern or shoshone style.[ ] a few years later, cox[ ] mentioned the older type of dress as found only among a few miserable tribes along the columbia, above the mouth of the yakima.[ ] [ ] lewis and clark, v, p. . [ ] _ibid._, iii, p. , iv, p. . [ ] _ibid._, iv, pp. , , . [ ] _ibid._, iv, . [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] lewis and clark, iii, pp. - , and . [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] lewis and clark, iv, pp. and . [ ] cox, p. . [ ] lewis, pp. - . _deformation._ all of the skulls secured in this area by our party showed antero-posterior deformation, although not so extreme as is found in the lower columbia region. accompanying this in many cases was a concave depression in the anterior parietal region. the flattening of the head was practised to a limited extent by tribes living along the columbia river above the chinook, but limited, according to lewis, almost entirely to the women, and gradually died out towards the east.[ ] [ ] lewis, p. ; lewis and clark, iii, pp. and ; iv, p. ; hale. p. ; whitman, pp. and ( ). games, amusements and narcotics. _games._ dice made of beaver teeth or woodchuck teeth, such as were found in the thompson river region,[ ] but which were not found in the shell heaps of the lower fraser, or in fact, in any of those of the coast of washington or british columbia, were absent among our finds in this region although a beaver tooth was seen in the cremation rectangle no. ( ) near the mouth of the naches river. [ ] smith, (d), fig. ; (c), p. . a number of small tubes, made of bone which may have been used in gambling, were found here. four of them, about mm. long and mm. in diameter, with the ends ground squarely across, but with the edges somewhat rounded possibly by wear, were found in the east northeastern part of the bottom of grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide on the north side of the naches river about half a mile above its mouth. fig. shows one of two other bone tubes of similar size and shape, the ends ground somewhat more perfectly flat, which were found in grave no. , in the rock-slide on the north side of the yakima ridge to the southeast of the yakima river. another bone tube from this same grave (fig. ) is mm. long and mm. in diameter, and the ends are ground off flat. this bears nine about equi-distant incised lines, which run around it in such a way that the lower end of each line is on the opposite side of the bone from its upper end. it is charred. such bone tubes were found at lytton,[ ] in pouches in the graves, in other parts of the thompson river region[ ] to the north and in the shell heaps of the lower fraser river[ ] to the west. in the nez perce region dice and gaming pieces were commonly made of bone.[ ] cylindrical sections of the long bone of the deer were used in gambling,[ ] and whistles were made of the long bones of the sand hill crane.[ ] [ ] smith, (d), p. . [ ] teit, (a), p. . [ ] smith, (a), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [illustration: fig. ( - ). bone tube. from grave no. , in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). bone tube, bearing incised lines, charred. from grave no. in a rock-slide of the yakima ridge. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). perforated cylinder made of steatite. from near centre of grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of naches river. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . tubular pipe made of steatite. from yakima indians. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. mccandless.)] the perforated cylinder shown in fig. , made of serpentine is mm. long and mm. in diameter, rounded at the edges and was found in about the centre of grave no. ( ). there are five small pits about equi-distant from each other around this cylinder near the top, and four near the bottom. there are two transverse incised lines just below the five pits, and there is an incision about mm. above the bottom of the specimen, below which the diameter is perhaps half a mm. greater than at the top. near the middle of the object it is pierced by a hole which tapers from each end. while this object also may have been used in gambling, it seems possible that it may be an amulet. _narcotics._ pipes of seven distinct types were found in this region; a tube, a simple bowl, a disk with both bowl and stem made in the periphery, an elbow form, a modern inlaid pipe similar to the typical form of the catlinite pipe of the plains, a tomahawk-pipe in stone, and a pipe carved in the art of the north pacific coast. [illustration: fig. . tubular pipe made of green stone with stem. from lemhi river, idaho. (reproduced from p. , vol. ii, lewis and clark. bowl about - / inches long.)] a tubular pipe made of steatite is shown in fig. . it was collected by mr. frank n. mccandless from the yakima indians. mr. mccandless says the stone differs from that found at the head of wenatchee lake, which is sometimes used for pipes in this region. this pipe is no. in his collection deposited in the ferry museum in the city hall at tacoma. it is mm. long and the bowl has been broken off irregularly, about half of it apparently having been broken away. the bowl flares rather more abruptly than is the case in the pipes usually found either in this region or that of the thompson river. in this respect it resembles the tubular pipes made of steatite, found on the coast of british columbia.[ ] in outline, it is nearly straight, while most pipes of this type have bowls convexly curved in a form characteristic of the type found in the interior of british columbia and of washington. the bowl has been gouged out. there is a ridge or ring around the pipe where the bowl meets the stem. oblique incisions slanting downward from left to right, at an angle of about °, mark this ridge, making it suggest a twisted cord. the end of the stem is similarly marked. these lines are again mentioned under art on p. . the stem expands from the ridge to the end. the outline of the stem is rather straight or slightly concave, while most pipes of this type have more slender or nearly cylindrical stems. the interior of the stem was apparently formed by whittling. the pipe is stained by tobacco which suggests that while it may be old, it has nevertheless been recently smoked.[ ] in the nez perce region to the east the earliest form of pipe, according to spinden, was doubtless the straight tubular type.[ ] one of the pipes figured by him has a flange for a mouthpiece similar to those found in the thompson river region, and this flange is perforated near one end. this particular type of pipe is also found in oregon.[ ] a pipe of this type, but which much more nearly resembles the typical form of tubular pipe of this region, especially the shorter specimens, is reproduced in fig. from lewis and clark.[ ] this specimen which is made of green stone and has a stem, was seen among the shoshone indians at the headwaters of the lemhi river, idaho, by lewis, august thirteenth, . it marks the eastern limits of the occurrence of this type of pipe, so far as i am aware at present, the short forms having been found at fulford harbor, north saanich, sidney[ ] and port hammond,[ ] on the southern coast of british columbia, damon[ ] on the coast of washington, lytton[ ] in the interior of british columbia, umatilla[ ] and blalock island,[ ] near umatilla, both in the interior of washington. in the journal for tuesday, august , , lewis refers to this pipe, as follows:--"the chief then lit his pipe at the fire kindled in this little magic circle ... pointed the stem to the four cardinal points of the heavens first beginning at the east and ending with the north. he now presented the pipe to me, as if desirous that i should smoke, but when i reached my hand to receive it, he drew it back and repeated the same c[e]remony three times, after which he pointed the stem first to the heavens then to the center of the magic circle smoked himself with three whifs and held the pipe until i took as many as i thought proper; he then held it to each of the white persons and then gave it to be consumed by his warriors. this pipe was made of a dense semi-transparent green stone very highly polished about - / inches long and of an oval figure, the bowl being in the same direction with the stem. a small piece of birned clay is placed in the bottom of the bowl to seperate the tobacco from the end of the stem and is of an irregularly rounded figure not fitting the tube perfectly close in order that the smoke may pass. this is the form of the pipe. their tobacco is of the same kind of that used by the minnetares mandans and ricares of the missouri. the shoshonees do not cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the rocky mountain indians and some of the bands of their own nation who live further south."[ ] [ ] smith, (a), figs. and ; (b), fig. . [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] spinden, p. , figs. and , plate ix. [ ] moorehead, fig. , p. , figs. , , and . [ ] lewis and clark, ii, p. . [ ] smith, (b), fig. . [ ] smith, (a), fig. . [ ] smith, (b), fig. . [ ] smith, (h), p. . [ ] _ibid._, fig. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] lewis and clark. ii, p. . mr. james teit informs me that a flange like the end of a spool at the mouth of the stem of a tubular pipe, makes it of a type which seems to him peculiarly characteristic of the thompson river region. in some cases this peculiarity is carried over into the stems of pipes of the modern or elbow type, which have wooden stems, as is shown in fig. . mr. teit has never seen or heard of tubular pipes from the thompson river region with holes through the flanges. it seems possible that the hole in such specimens as one from umatilla, oregon,[ ] may have been made for the attachment of ornaments or symbolic material such as feathers or for a cleaner. ornaments were sometimes attached to pipes of the elbow type in the thompson river region. this was done by tying in a hole bored through the hatchet-shaped piece underneath the shank close to the elbow. pipes of the simple bowl type often had an extension at the foot of the bowl, sometimes perforated, to which ornaments could be attached. on the other hand, the hole may have been to facilitate attaching the pipe to its wooden stem. the pipes that have been perforated through the flange,[ ] however, seem to have too small a bore for a wooden stem; yet, a pipe of this type with a wooden stem has been shown in fig. . one reason given mr. teit by the indians for the making of the flange or other thickening at the mouth of the pipe stem was to prevent the string used in attaching the pipe to the wooden stem slipping off. according to all of them, wooden stems were always used with tubular pipes as with elbow and simple bowl pipes; for a person cannot smoke any kind of stone pipe more than a few draws before it becomes too hot for the lips. to mr. teit's mind, no matter how small the bore of the pipe, a regular stem must have been used for smoking. [ ] smith, (h), fig. a. [ ] smith, (h), fig. . [illustration: fig. . pipe made of steatite used by the thompson river indians at spences bridge in . about / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch by mr. james teit.)] [illustration: fig. . form of the flange-shaped mouth of the bowl of some thompson river indian pipes. about / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch by mr. james teit.)] some tubular pipes are said to have had a flange around the mouth of the bowl, similar to that on elbow pipes as in fig. ; but this flange meets the body of the bowl with an even curve. mr. teit does not distinctly remember having seen such flanged tubular pipe bowls among the thompson river indians who gave him this information, but he saw one specimen at least, of the elbow type with flanged bowl. he further states that to his knowledge there is only one part of the country where the semi-transparent green steatite is obtained; that is, on the west side of the fraser river, over twenty miles north of lytton, which as is well known is at the mouth of the thompson river. this stone, when polished and used, takes on a much darker hue than its original color. the fire may be seen through the stone of the pipes when smoked in the dark. the bluish gray steatite is the most commonly employed and it turns black when polished and used. the thompson river indians can usually tell from what part of the country the stone comes of which any particular pipe is made. the tubular form of pipe is remembered by the old indians to have been in use in the thompson river region, although not so common as the simple pipe bowls and elbow pipes, and one was seen in use in eastern washington as late as .[ ] on the other hand, no simple pipe bowls known to be such, or elbow pipes have been seen among archaeological finds. the bowl and elbow pipes are affiliated with forms found farther east. this fact suggests that the tubular pipe was supplanted recently by bowl and elbow forms brought in from the southeast, or at least from the east. the westward movement of tribes due to the encroachment of our settlements may have brought them, or some of them, and they may be patterned after pipes seen in the hands of fur traders and their indian employees. the tubular pipe made of steatite, shown in fig. , was purchased from mr. w. z. york of old yakima (old town), who secured it from shaw-wa-way, an indian known as "young chief aleck," who lives on a ranch three miles south of old yakima. this indian is known to have frequently visited the okanogon region and it is possible that he secured the pipe, decorated as it is, or got the idea for this particular sort of decoration from that region. this is suggested by the fact that this particular kind of decoration is common, especially on more recent ornaments, in the thompson river region, the people of which in turn frequently visited the okanogon country. the bowl of the pipe is cut squarely across at the end where the outer edge has been rounded. it is of the typical shape of this form of pipes, and has been hollowed out by gouging contra-screw-wise. it meets the stem abruptly and the latter is slightly larger than the base of the bowl, so that it seems to be separated from it. the stem is very short and cylindrical and the end is cut squarely off; but it is bevelled on each side so that about one third of the end is left and the bevelled surfaces extend over half the length of the stem. this beveling may have been to form the mouthpiece; but it seems more likely that the pipe had a long stem similar to those found in the thompson river region.[ ] this seems to have been broken off obliquely near the bowl, then cut squarely across, and the other side bevelled to give bilateral symmetry because one of these bevelled surfaces appears as if it had been broken and then only slightly smoothed; both of these surfaces and the square end of the stem seem to have been more recently cut than the rest of the pipe. these three surfaces seem less polished and as if they were made with a steel knife. the bore of the stem measures mm. in diameter. a portion of the bowl is decorated by incised lines into which red paint has been daubed, suggesting that it was recently applied; while the design itself, which is further described on p. under the section of art, is of figures which suggest that it was made lately. possibly the pipe is old, but was recently broken and decorated with the incised design and paint. [ ] teit, (a), p. . [ ] smith, (d), figs. , and ; (c), figs. a, b. the fragment of a sculptured tubular pipe made of steatite shown in fig. is apparently about half of the original object. it was found in an indian grave about a quarter of a mile from the bank of the yakima river at a point about nine miles above its mouth, in august , by mr. w. f. sonderman of kennewick. mr. sonderman's collection from the immediate vicinity contained glass beads, a metallic handle and buttons, as well as chipped points. as the contents of the three graves from which he obtained this collection, during the construction of an irrigation canal were mixed, it seems that this pipe may belong to the same period as that of the glass beads and other objects of european manufacture and consequently may be modern, although it may be an old specimen, deposited in a modern grave. the general form of the pipe was thought to be that of a cone. the portion towards the front of the carving, however, is somewhat longer than that towards the rear, and the back is nearly flat, although this may be caused simply by the carving. the bore is somewhat smaller at the mouth of the bowl than lower down. it was apparently gouged out. some traces of dirt, perhaps the remains of the material smoked in the pipe may be seen towards its larger opening. the carving, which represents a human form, is further described under the section of art on p. . as the tubular form of pipe seems to be common to this region, as well as to the thompson river region, further north, it would seem that this specimen may be a variation from the type or merely one of these pipes made by an artist. it may be that such sculptured forms of this type of pipe may not be found in the thompson river region, and that the carving of tubular pipes in this way may be characteristic of the yakima region, although the style of art suggests that found in the thompson river region and more especially in the lillooet valley. [illustration: fig. ( - ). tubular pipe made of steatite. from an indian living three miles south of old yakima. / nat. size. (collected by mr. york.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). fragment of a sculptured tubular pipe made of steatite. from near kennewick. / nat. size. (collected by mr. w. f. sonderman.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). pipe made of limestone. from near the head of priest rapids. / nat. size. (collected and presented by mrs. j. b. davidson.)] [illustration: fig. ( . ). pipe made of sandstone. from the snake river indians. / nat. size. (collected and presented by mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. . pipe made of blue stone. from the yakima valley, / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. . pipe made of stone. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.)] only one specimen of the second or simple bowl type was seen by us in the whole region. it is shown in fig. , and was found near the head of priest rapids by a boy from whom mrs. j. b. davidson obtained it for her collection. she afterwards presented it to our expedition. it is made of schistose rock, apparently limestone, of gray color with lighter veins. the object is oval in section, slightly longer than it is wide, and a little wider than it is thick being mm. long, mm. wide, and mm. thick. if slightly flatter, this pipe would resemble in shape the third type. the inside of the bowl which was apparently gouged out, is mm. in diameter; while the opening for the stem seems to have been drilled. this opening is mm. in diameter. the rim of the bowl is flattened, and this flat surface resembles that of the part of a hammerstone used for pecking. this style of pipe somewhat resembles some of the pipes used by the thompson river indians of the present day and together with elbow pipes, supplemented the tubular pipe in that region. this suggests them to be more modern than the tubular pipes in this region where also they are not as numerous. the type is not found among the archaeological remains in the thompson region, but mr. teit sent one simple bowl pipe to the museum from a very old grave at spuzzum besides two from the thompson indians.[ ] the absence of this form of pipe among archaeological specimens from the areas to the north and west suggests that the culture of this region is somewhat more closely related to that further east than are the cultures of the areas further north and west. the pipe is ornamented with a circle and dot design again mentioned under the section of art on p. .[ ] [ ] teit, (a), figs. and . [ ] museum negative no. , - . specimens of the third or disk-shaped type are shown in figs. , and . the first, made of sandstone, is from the snake river indians, was a part of mr. d. w. owen's collection, and was presented by him to our expedition. it is nearly of the form of a disk but has slightly bulging sides, mm. long, mm. wide, and mm. thick. the mouth of the bowl is mm. in diameter; while the opening for the stem, at right angles to it, is mm. in diameter. the convex appearance of the sides or ends of the disk is due to the beveling of these surfaces near their edges. on each of these sides is an incised design. these are again mentioned under the section of art on p. . the second specimen, shown in fig. , is oval in outline with slightly convex sides. the object is made of blue stone and was found in the yakima valley. it is about mm. long, mm. wide, and mm. thick. parallel scratches on the surface suggest that it was brought into shape by grinding with a piece of sandstone, although these marks may be interpreted as those made with a file. the opening in the bowl tapers evenly towards its base, from one of the longer edges of the discoid; while the somewhat longer drilling for the stem from one of the shorter edges of the disk, at right angles to the bore of the bowl, is of nearly the same diameter throughout. the specimen is in the collection of mr. louis o. janeck of north yakima.[ ] the third specimen of this type which is shown in fig. is no. in the collection of mr. janeck, and was also found in the yakima valley. it is made of stone resembling quartzite in appearance and is of a waxy, yellowish brown color. it is nearly circular in outline, almost flat on the rim, and the sides are somewhat convex. it is mm. long by mm. wide and mm. thick. the bore of the bowl is mm. in diameter at the mouth, and is somewhat larger than that of the stem, which is mm. in diameter at its end, and at right angles to the bowl. each bore tapers from its outer opening to the point of juncture. in the nez perce region to the east near asotin city, this disk-shaped type of pipe is found.[ ] mr. fay cooper cole of the field museum of natural history believes the tlingit have a variation of this type of pipe and that it is also found in california. its occurrence in oregon is mentioned by moorehead.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] spinden, p. , fig. , plate ix. [ ] moorehead, fig. , p. . the fourth or rectangular bowl type is shown in figs. , and . the first shows the axis of the bowl and that of the stein, at nearly, if not exactly, a right angle. the specimen is in the collection of mr. york, and is made of soft grit or sandstone. the outer opening of the bowl is somewhat larger than that of the stem. there was a band around the bowl, made up of a single thickness of thread which is not shown in the figure. [illustration: fig. . pipe made of soft sandstone. locality unknown. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. york.)] [illustration: fig. . pipe made of steatite. locality unknown. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. york.)] [illustration: fig. . pipe made of soft sandstone. locality unknown. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. york.)] the second of these specimens, shown in fig. , is a simple elbow pipe with the angle between the axis of the bowl and the stem, slightly greater than degrees. it is also in the collection of mr. york and is made of steatite, which he calls wenatchee pipe stone. the outer opening of the bowl is slightly larger than that of the stem. the third specimen, shown in fig. , is also of the simple elbow type and the axis of the bowl is nearly at right angles to that of the stem. it is in the collection of mr. york, and is made of soft grit or sandstone of a yellowish gray color. in the thompson river region to the north, according to mr. teit, there seems to be little doubt but that the tubular pipe has been supplanted by the simple bowl and elbow types.[ ] this change may have been brought about by the copying of the early trader's pipes but mr. teit believes it more likely to have come from influence from the southeast, passed from tribe to tribe about the same time as the advent of the horse or a little later. the thompson river indians tell him that the tubular pipe continued to be the one in common use as long as native tobacco only was used, but after the introduction of manufactured tobacco the elbow type came to be exclusively used because very much better adapted for holding the latter kind of tobacco. in the nez perce region to the east, pipes with rectangular bowls were found.[ ] one of these bowls has an incised design representing a tomahawk, which with the character of other incisions on it suggest that it is modern. only two finds of elbow pipes have been reported on the coast. these,[ ] which were of fragments, were said by mr. edmond croft to have been found by him in a shell heap near markham on grey's harbor, washington. they are made of fine-grained sandstone of a gray color. both were apparently intended to be used with a wooden stem and one of them has a ventral mid-rib from the mouth of the stem nearly to the base of the bowl which reminds one somewhat of a similar appendage on the pipe from the yakima valley shown in fig. and one from the thompson indians.[ ] my supposition has been that they reached the coast recently from this general region possibly by way of the columbia or were taken there by employees of the fur companies in early historic times. [ ] teit, (a), figs. and . [ ] spinden, p. , figs. and , plate ix. [ ] smith, (b). fig. . [ ] teit. (a), fig. . the fifth type is illustrated by the specimen shown in fig. . it is the only specimen of this type which i have seen from the region. it is now in the collection of mrs. jay lynch at fort simcoe who obtained it from chief moses. it is made of black steatite which mrs. lynch calls wenatchee pipe stone, inlaid with white metal and has a wooden stem. it is comparatively modern as is shown by the presence of inlaid white metal. the mouth of the bowl is mm. in diameter, but tapers suddenly, the rest of the bowl cavity being nearly cylindrical. the opening for the wooden stem is mm. in diameter, and also tapers suddenly to a nearly even bore. it is of the same form as many of the pipes made of red pipe stone (catlinite). this form of pipe is found throughout the minnesota-dakota region. this specimen, however, bears four carvings, which together with the inlaid white metal design are further mentioned under the section of art on pp. and . it would seem that this type of pipe belongs to the region further east, and as no ancient pipe of this form has been found in this whole region, as well as from the fact that this specimen marks the most westerly occurrence of this form, so far as we know, we may conclude that it was introduced from the east in comparatively modern times. the type of carving, however, may be of more local origin. the bringing together of several animal forms may be associated with the idea of the totem poles found to the west; but no more so than the wooden pipe stems of the plains which the general character of the carving more closely resembles.[ ] in this connection, it may be well to remember that in the nez perce region, catlinite for pipes seems to have been acquired from the plains tribes.[ ] a pipe made from stone found in the cascade mountains of washington, is in the collection of mr. c. g. ridout, of chelan, washington, who states that it has a representation of a bear and a man on the shaft back of the bowl. [ ] museum negative no. , - , - , - . [ ] spinden, p. . a specimen of the sixth type is shown in fig. . it is the only one of this style which i have seen in the whole region, and was obtained from a yakima indian. it is in the collection of mr. mccandless. it is made of steatite, which mr. mccandless calls "sandstone from the northern part of wenatchee lake." the form of the pipe seems to be a conventionalized tomahawk pipe. the bowl is circular in section and somewhat urn-shaped and rests upon the part that is drilled for the stem and which is rather square in cross section with slightly convex sides. projecting from the lower part of this is the form which represents the tomahawk blade. it is wider at its convex edges than where it joins the base of the stem part. its three edges are flat, and it is of about equal thickness throughout. the pipe is somewhat stained by tobacco. it seems likely that this was modelled after the metal hatchet, tomahawk or tomahawk pipe, introduced by the traders,[ ] being a rather modern pipe, since such objects do not seem to have been used in early times in the great plateau region according to lewis.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . [ ] lewis, p. . [illustration: fig. . pipe made of steatite. from a yakima indian. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. mccandless.)] the seventh type is illustrated in fig. . the specimen is the only one of the style which i have seen from this whole region and so closely resembles in its carving the work of the kwakiutl, haida and tsimshian indians of the coast to the northwest, that i am inclined to believe it was brought in as a gift or by trade. the material is apparently soft slate, but is rather light in color, possibly having been burned. its appearance suggests that it is the same as that used by the haida indians on the queen charlotte islands, for the carving of such things as dishes, miniature totem poles, and pipes. the pipe is made up of carvings representing among other things a bird, a human form and a human face, which are more fully described under the section of art on p. . this specimen was found two feet deep in earth at one side of a grave in a little hillside on toppenish creek, four miles southeast of fort simcoe. above the earth were rocks, and the grave was marked by a circle of stones. in the grave were found elk teeth, and a sea shell, filled with a blue powder, evidently paint, and covered with what appears to be gut or a bladder-like skin. what is described as a silver coin, afterwards lost, was found with this pipe. it is possible that it may have been a silver disk or medal. the bowl of the pipe, which was gouged out, is in the middle of the carving, and the tube for the reception of the stem projects from the end under the human form. the upper part of the human figure is broken off. a hole was drilled in the opposite end of the pipe through the lower part of the bird form, but if it had any connection with the bowl, this is not now discernible.[ ] the specimen shown in fig. and considered as a mat presser reminds one of an unfinished pipe. [ ] museum negative no. , - , - , - . art. the graphic and plastic art of the early people of this region is illustrated by pictographic line paintings in red and white on the basaltic columns of the cliffs;[ ] petroglyphs of the same general style pecked into similar cliffs; incised designs on stone, bone, antler and dentalium shells, and carvings both incised and pecked in stone. some of the objects found are colored by red ochre or have it rubbed into the lines of their incised designs. examples of graphic art seem to be more common than those of plastic art. [ ] a few of which were figured and described in smith, (g), pp. - , and abstracted in the scientific american supplement, pp. - , vol. lviii, no. , july , , and in records of the past, pp. - , vol. iv, part iv, april, . the paintings and pecked designs on cliffs are more or less geometric although pictographic in character. the incised designs are still more geometric and include the circle and dot commonly found in the thompson river region.[ ] this design is also common on modern objects from the coast of british columbia and washington, but was not there present among archaeological finds. lewis[ ] states that according to the early writers, in the general area of which this is a part, porcupine quills were much used for decorating articles of clothing and that later, beads were used for this purpose. the modern designs are largely floral. among the nez perce, floral and plant designs in beadwork are particularly common although some geometric designs occur, as on belts, the decoration of which is largely geometric, as squares, triangles and similar figures.[ ] lewis[ ] believes that the designs of the general region were originally geometric and that some of the modern geometric designs are survivals, while others suggest eastern influence. he further states that floral designs are found among the salish tribes but to a much less extent. we found no floral designs among the archaeological specimens in the yakima area. some of the incised work, on certain of the carvings is of good technique, and artistic execution. this is noticeable in the object made of antler, carved on one surface to represent a human figure in costume, shown in fig. and on the dish shown in fig. . inlaying with white metal was practised in comparatively modern times. animal heads are represented by the specialization of knobs on pestles, an animal form by a mortar and human forms by some of the pictographs, and petroglyphs, the incised antler figure and several of the pipes. [ ] smith, (c), figs. b and ; (d), figs. , and . [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] lewis, p. . many of the representations are realistic, others are highly conventional. some conventional representations are explained by similar figures. for instance, the radiating lines of the pictographs shown in plate xvi are probably explained satisfactorily by similar figures in plate xi, fig. , such radiations on the costumed figure in antler shown in fig. or by the feather headdresses worn by the present natives. spinden states that in the nez perce region, realistic figures are probably of recent origin.[ ] one of the carvings is clearly of the art of the northwest coast, from which the object or the artist who executed it must have come. some of the pictographic-geometric and conventional figures probably represent guardian spirits and illustrate dreams done in symbols. a few art forms are evenly spaced on objects but only a few are distorted to fit the shape of the field. pictographic symbols and conventional figures may be placed in groups to form designs as in the arrangement of the circles and dots on the pipe shown in fig. . [ ] spinden, p. . in general, the art of the region tends toward line work of geometric and a slightly pictographic nature. it shows little resemblance to that of the coast, but a strong relationship to that of the plains. the decorative art of the nez perce region includes motives from the plains and also from the pacific coast.[ ] some of their designs partake strongly of motives from the plains, while here in the yakima valley there are perhaps more examples of coast art and still much influence from the plains. spinden says that in early times the nez perce were very poor in decorative ideas and that the richness and variety found in their modern art may be ascribed to the absorbing of ideas from other cultures. this is perhaps equally true of the yakima region where the influence of coast art in proportion to that from the plains is perhaps greater than in the nez perce region. [ ] spinden, p. . _paintings._ pictographic line paintings somewhat geometric in character, made on the basaltic columns on the west of the mouth of cowiche creek, on the south side of the naches river, about four miles northwest from north yakima, are shown in plates xiv-xvi. these pictures, some in red, and some in white, were probably painted with mineral matter mixed with grease. their antiquity is unknown. in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] pictographs in red, yellow and black occur, while in the thompson river area[ ] and in the lillooet valley,[ ] pictographs in red are found. some of the yakima pictographs have been destroyed during the construction of the irrigation flume which runs along the top of this cliff. others are partly covered by the talus slope. all those remaining, are here represented by those reproduced in the plates. they extend from the top of the talus slope upward a distance of perhaps five feet. many of them are indistinct, and appear more easily seen, if they are not actually clearer, in the photographs here reproduced than in the originals. many of the paintings represent human heads and headdresses and one of them the whole figure with such a headdress. these headdresses may be compared to similar designs in the petroglyphs (plate xi) at sentinal bluffs, thirty-three miles to the northeast (fig. , plate xii and fig. , plate xiii) at selah canon, eight miles to the northeast and the headdress pecked on the grooved net sinker shown in fig. . also, taken together with the pictographs representing the full figure with similar headdress shown in fig. , plate xiv, may be compared to the petroglyphs of men each with a headdress among those at sentinal bluffs, the human figure with a headdress carved in antler found near tampico, only fourteen miles to the southwest and shown in fig. , petroglyphs which apparently represent human forms somewhat similar to this, on buffalo rock, in the nez perce region to the east[ ] and the quill flattener carved to represent a human form with headdress or hair from the dakota shown in fig. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] teit, (a), p. and . [ ] teit, (b), pl. ix. [ ] spinden, plate x, fig. . the human figure with feather headdress indicated by ten lines shown in fig. , plate xiv is all in red. it is the next to the westernmost pictograph at this site. it is mm. high, the ends of the legs are mm. apart, the tip of the arms mm., the width of the headdress mm. and the height of the middle feather mm. there are four horizontal red lines on the overhanging column above the figure.[ ] fig. , plate xiv shows human heads with feather headdresses in white.[ ] fig. , plate xv shows similar human heads with feather headdresses also in white.[ ] fig. , plate xv shows human heads with feather headdresses in white and a double star figure in white and red.[ ] plate xvi[ ] shows human heads with feather headdresses in white and red. in addition, fig. shows the advertisement of a modern business man over the pictographs. some of the pictographs at the same place have every alternate radiating line in red, while others are in white. [ ] museum negative no. , - taken from the east. first reproduced in smith, (g), fig. , plate viii. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the north. first reproduced _ibid._, fig. , plate viii. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the north. [ ] museum negative no. , - from the north. [ ] museum negatives nos. , - , - from the north. mr. g. r. shafer informed me that he knows of painted rocks in the teton river valley, miles above the nelson bridge, which crosses the naches a short distance above the mouth of cowiche creek. mr. w. h. wilcox of north yakima stated to me that there are pictures on rocks on the west side of the columbia river ten miles south of wenatchee. bancroft[ ] refers to painted and "carved" pictures on the perpendicular rocks between yakima and pisquouse. according to mallery, "capt. charles bendire, u. s. army, states in a letter that col. henry c. merriam, u. s. army, discovered pictographs on a perpendicular cliff of granite at the lower end of lake chelan, lat. ° n., near old fort o'kinakane, on the upper columbia river. the etchings appear to have been made at widely different periods, and are evidently quite old. those which appeared the earliest were from twenty-five to thirty feet above the present water level. those appearing more recent are about ten feet above water level. the figures are in black and red colors, representing indians with bows and arrows, elk, deer, bear, beaver, and fish. there are four or five rows of these figures, and quite a number in each row. the present native inhabitants know nothing whatever regarding the history of these paintings."[ ] apparently only paintings are meant. [ ] bancroft, iv., p. ; lord, ii, pp. and ; gibbs, i, p. . [ ] mallery, p. . red ochre is rubbed in the circle and dot designs and the grain of the stone of the pestle shown in fig. and also in the incised lines on the pipe shown in fig. . red paint (mercury) partly fills some of the holes and lines on the pendant made of steatite shown in fig. . because of the mineral nature of this paint, it may have remained a long time and its presence does not necessarily prove that the supposedly old grave in which the object was found is recent. red paint also fills the circles and dots in the slate object shown in fig. while vermilion paint is found in the grooves of the animal form shown in fig. and as this is probably a mineral which would be rather enduring, it does not indicate that the painting was recently done. painting was done on moccasins in the general plateau area of which this is a part.[ ] spinden states that in the nez perce region the natives depended upon minerals for dyes, except in the cases of a wood, which produced a brown dye, and rock slime which produced green[ ] and that white, red, blue and yellow earth paints were obtained by them further east from the vicinity of the grande ronde valley;[ ] also, that rock surfaces were painted over with brown as a field upon which to peck petroglyphs.[ ] in the same region moreover, white clay[ ] was used for cleaning clothing. [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . _petroglyphs._ the petroglyphs pecked into the weathered surface of the basaltic columns found in this region, are similar in style to the paintings, being largely line designs of geometric or conventional representation together with a few realistic figures. the pictures are formed by pecking away the weathered surface and exposing the lighter color of the basalt below. some of them may be very old, but the bruised surfaces making up the lines are not weathered very much in comparison with the surrounding rock surface and yet there is no history of their manufacture. in the nez perce region[ ] such pecked pictographs are also found, some of them being upon fields painted brown. [ ] spinden, p. . in plate xi are shown petroglyphs on the vertical basaltic columns on the eastern side of the columbia river at sentinal bluffs, immediately above priest rapids. they are at the base of the cliffs shown in plate v. those shown in fig. are to the east of the road which runs along a notch blasted in the top of the columns that rise from the river at this point, while those shown in fig. are about fifteen feet to the southwest on the columns that rise shear from the river. some of those shown in fig. [ ] represent human figures each with a feather headdress which may be compared with that of the antler figure found at tampico (fig. ) and the pictographs of cowiche creek. this place is only about miles northeast from tampico, and miles in the same direction from the mouth of cowiche creek. one of these is shown in fig. .[ ] the long form in the centre has a headdress which taken with its shape reminds us especially of the human form in antler from tampico. the general shape of the body and the row of dots on each side edge suggest a resemblance to the quill flattener made of antler from the dakota shown in fig. . on each side are human heads, each with a similar feather headdress that might be interpreted as rising suns with eyes and mouths. on the left are some similar figures without eyes and mouths. below, is a horizontal figure resembling five links of a chain. there is also a goat which resembles the two pecked in a granite boulder near buffalo rock in the nez perce area, eighteen miles above lewiston on the east bank of the snake river.[ ] the star at the bottom, the rays of which end in dots, a small oval with radiating lines at the left, and two connected ovals with radiating lines at the top, remind us of the stars at selah canon, shown in fig. , plate xii, the petroglyphs near wallula junction, shown in fig. , plate xiii, somewhat similar figures on the large petroglyph at nanaimo[ ] and perhaps even more than of the nanaimo figures, those in the petroglyphs beyond nanaimo at yellow island, near comox.[ ] however, the two connected ovals with the radiating lines may represent hands of a human figure with a headdress having radiating feathers. all of these headdresses remind us of the others at this place shown in fig. , the rising suns at selah canon next described, the pictographs at the mouth of cowiche creek, and the incised human form in antler. [ ] first reproduced. smith, (g), fig. , plate ix; negative no. , - , taken from the west. [ ] _ibid._, fig. ; negative no. , - as viewed from the north. [ ] spinden, fig. , plate x. [ ] smith, (b), plate xi. [ ] _ibid._, fig. . in plate xii and fig. , plate xiii are shown petroglyphs which appear fresher and whiter or yellower than the naturally weathered reddish basaltic columns into which they are pecked. they are on the north side of selah canon about one and a half miles from the yakima river at a point about a mile north of selah station or one half a mile south of the intake of the moxee canal. it is about twenty-five miles west southwest of sentinal bluffs, eight northeast from the mouth of cowiche creek and twenty-two miles northeast from tampico. they are more easily made out from a distance than close by. the petroglyph shown in fig. , plate xii, is the most northeasterly of the group. this seems to be made up of circles with a dot in the middle and radiating lines, some of which end in dots. they remind us of some of the same series of figures as the oval with radiating lines at priest rapids.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - from the east and from a greater distance, showing its relation to the next in negative catalogue no. , - . the one shown in fig. , is about eight feet to the southwest and a little lower down. the upper part of the left figure and the two main parts on the right, each consisting of a curve with short radiating lines like a representation of the rising sun, may be compared with the top of the petroglyph on the rocks a few feet to the southwest shown in fig. , plate xiii, next described, and with some of those at sentinal bluffs, shown in plate xi; also, with the pictographs at the mouth of cowiche creek.[ ] [ ] represented in museum, with the one shown in fig. , by negative no. , - and from a nearer point as shown in this figure in negative no. , - . the petroglyph shown in fig. , plate xiii, is a few feet southwest of those shown in plate xii, taken from the south. the segment with radiating lines like the rising sun at the top reminds us of similar figures among the other petroglyphs here just described, those at sentinal bluffs and pictographs at the mouth of cowiche creek, but the other lines are not interpreted and are not suggestive to us of other figures in the neighborhood. a small figure, similar in that it consists of two nearly vertical lines crossing each other and topped by a curved line, shows very faintly above, a little to the right.[ ] a design similar to the part of some of these pictures interpreted as representing a headdress was also found pecked in the surface of the grooved net sinker shown in fig. . [ ] museum negative no. , - , is also represented from a greater distance in negative no. , - . the petroglyph shown in fig. , plate xiii, is pecked on the top of a rock which projects about three feet from the surface of the ground near mile post between it and above the spokane branch of the o. r. & n. on the south side of the columbia river about four miles west of wallula junction and is here illustrated as one twentieth of the natural size, from a tracing made by mr. j. p. newell, of portland, assistant chief engineer on that road. we are indebted to mr. w. e. elliott of new york city, formerly engineer with mr. newell for permission to copy this tracing.[ ] the top of the rock forms an east and west ridge. the pecked grooves are all of about equal depth and there are no other petroglyphs on the rock. the large figure at the left reminds us of the dog-like figures with "spines" in the petroglyphs at nanaimo,[ ] on vancouver island, especially as it has waved parallel lines, a fin or "spine" and two concentric curves at the top similar in shape to the lines indicating the back of the head and the mouth of the nanaimo figure. this is less suggestive of certain harpoon points that are incised apparently to represent fish found in the main shell heap in the fraser delta at eburne[ ] although eburne is nearer than nanaimo and en route, and although these harpoon points have parallel lines, a fin-like projection and two lines representative of the back of the head or cheek and the mouth. the small circles some with lines radiating from them, remind us of similar marks on the same large petroglyph at nanaimo and even more so of the petroglyphs beyond nanaimo at yellow island near comox.[ ] the large figure on the right reminds us of the human form of the petroglyph at nanaimo.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. . [ ] smith, (b), fig. a and plate xi. [ ] smith, (a), fig. . [ ] smith, (b), fig. . [ ] _ibid._, fig. a. i am informed by mr. owen that there is a petroglyph on the north side of the columbia river below kennewick and that it has been destroyed by recent railroad construction; by mr. w. h. willcox of north yakima that there are petroglyphs or pictographs on the rocks ten miles south of wenatchee on the western side of the columbia river; and by prof. mark harrington that it is said that there are "engravings" on the cliffs overhanging lake chelan. mallery[ ] refers to etchings at the lower end of lake chelan but his information seems to refer to painted figures only (see p. ). the late prof. israel c. russell informed me that there are etchings close to the river on both sides in the snake canon at buffalo rock in the extreme southeast corner of the state of washington.[ ] [ ] mallery, p. . [ ] cf. spinden, figs. and , plate x. _incised designs._ among the designs incised on stone, attention may be called to the top of the pestle made of steatite shown in fig. , which bears two parallel longitudinal incisions and notches, ten on the left and eleven on the right of each side edge of the obverse. there are fifteen fine incisions running obliquely down from the notches on the left to the first longitudinal incision. they begin at the eighth notch from the bottom and extend to the lower notch. on the reverse are three longitudinal incisions apparently more recently made, and eleven notches on each side edge. this incised knob is said by the indians to represent the head of a snake. on the reverse of the steatite object, possibly a mat-presser, shown in fig. a, is an incised pictographic sketch which unfortunately, with the exception of the nine short lines above, was re-scratched by its owner. it is reproduced in fig. b. the first figure beginning at the left possibly represents a tree. the middle figure has not been identified but it is clear that the one on the right represents a human being. on the left of the groove in the object are incised two hands pointing towards the left. these also were re-cut and are not reproduced in fig. . the incision in the edge of the top of the club shown in fig. and the incisions at right angles to this were probably intended for decorative purposes. there is an incised design on the rounded surface of the saddle-shaped hollow of the club shown in fig. . this design is made of transverse notches above and a zigzag line below. the upper part of the right edge of this knob is flat with two incisions across it. incised lines arranged parallel to each other in rows may be seen on the handle and knob of the club shown in fig. . there are thirteen of these lines on either edge of the knob. the other incisions are arranged in four vertical rows on the handle. the lines on the top of the shell pendant shown in fig. may be merely the depths of the teeth rather than incisions artificially made, but in this case they may have been considered as decorative and the shell may even have been chosen because of these lines. there are nine incised lines on the bone tube shown in fig. . these run around it in a spiral direction in such a way that the lower end of each line is on the opposite side from the upper end. the three transverse incisions on the top of the steatite specimen shown in fig. may be for decorative purposes or merely as tallies as also the five small drilled pits arranged about equi-distant from each other around the top and the four similarly arranged near the bottom. [illustration: fig. _a_ ( - ). incised design on a fragment of a wooden bow. from grave no. ( ) in a rock-slide near the mouth of naches river. / nat. size. _b_ section of fragment of bow shown in _a_.] the oblique incised lines on the edge of the mouthpiece and on the ridge about the middle of the pipe shown in fig. , which slant outward from left to right at an angle of about ° and make the ridge at least suggest a twisted cord, were no doubt made for decorative purposes. pictographic scratches may be seen on the disk-shaped stone pipe, shown in fig. . those on the reverse are shown in fig. . a simple geometric incised line decoration on wood may be seen on a fragment of a bow shown in fig. . it will be remembered that parallel irregularly arranged cuneiform incisions decorated a fragment of a bow found in the thompson river region.[ ] the incised design on the stone dish previously mentioned on p. and shown in fig. consists of two horizontal incisions running around the upper part of the dish a little below its middle and a zigzag line made up of twenty-five v-shaped marks which fills the space between the flat rim of this dish and the upper horizontal line. [ ] smith, (c), p. . [illustration: fig. . incised design on bowl of pipe shown in fig. . / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. . incised design on stone dish. from priest rapids. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mrs. hinman.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). incised designs on dentalium shells. from under the skeleton in grave no. of a child in a stone cyst in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - ). incised designs on dentalium shells. from among broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals in cremation circle no. ( ) on terrace northwest of the junction of the naches and yakima rivers.] incised designs on dentalium shells are shown in figs. and . the first four were found under the skeleton in grave no. . this skeleton was of a child and was surrounded by a stone cyst buried in a dome of volcanic ash near tampico, as shown in plate x. this lot contained two shells ornamented with designs of the type shown in _a_, but in the one not figured the diamond points met and formed a checker pattern. there were four of the type shown in _b_, one of the type shown in _c_, and two like the type shown in _d_. the specimens shown in fig. were found among broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals in cremation circle no. ( ) on the terrace northwest of the mouth of the naches river. while there was only one specimen of the type shown in _a_, there were two of the type shown in _b_, and one like the four represented by fig. b. another cremation circle containing incised dentalium shells is known as no. ( ) and was located on the same terrace. the specimens are mere fragments, one of them, from the tip of the shell, bears a design similar to that shown in fig. b, the other bears a simple incised spiral, the space between one incision and another being about equal to the width of the incision itself. the character of both the technique and the motive of these designs resembles that of those found on similar shells at kamloops in the thompson river region[ ] and in the nez perce area to the east.[ ] the design shown in fig. a at least reminds us of paintings on the parfleches found among the modern sahaptin and plains tribes. [ ] smith, (c), fig. . [ ] spinden, p. and plate ix, fig. . [illustration: fig. . incised pendant made of steatite with red paint (mercury) in some of the holes and lines. from manubrium of adult male skeleton in grave covered with rocks on a low ridge about two and a half miles south of fort simcoe. nat. size. (original in the collection of mrs. lynch.)] the incised design on the pendant made of steatite (p. , fig. ) does not seem to differ greatly in technique or motive from other incised designs found in this area and in the thompson river region to the north. while most of the lines and pits can be considered as forming symmetrical or geometric designs, the central figure on the side shown in fig. b may be interpreted as a conventional representation of a life form, namely, a fish. red paint is rubbed into some of the lines and pits. the human figure described under costume (p. , fig. ) is a somewhat conventionalized realistic form indicated by incisions on one surface of a piece of antler to mm. thick.[ ] it was found in the grave of an infant under the vertebrae, no. in a dome of volcanic ash. it is of good technique and artistic execution. the eyes are of the shape of a parallelogram with rounded corners. these, with similarly shaped figures on the headdress or inner hair-rolls, and on the hands, knees, and insteps, slightly resemble a motive common in the art of the coast to the northwest. the crescent-shaped mouth and thick lips are indicated by incised lines, while the cheeks are full, and the entire head is somewhat set out in relief from the rest of the object. the radiating figures above the head do not represent feathers in a realistic way, but closely resemble the conventional paintings made by the dakota on buffalo robes. these paintings have been called sun symbols, but are interpreted by the dakota as the feathers of a war-bonnet or other headdress. the fingers and thumb are set off from the palm by two lines, which, with the mark at the wrist, make a figure resembling the eye-form so common in northwest coast art. the concentric design on the knees is probably related to the wheel, sun, or spider-web pattern common as a symbol on the shirts, blankets, and tents of some plains tribes. the feet jutting out at the sides are slightly wider than the legs. the inside of the foot is straight with the inside of the leg, while the outer part is curved. the two, taken together with the lower portion of the legs, resemble a divided hoof. the divided hoof is a common design among plains tribes. [ ] first described and figured, smith, (g). see also abstract in scientific american supplement pp. - , vol. lviii, no. , july , and in records of the past, l. c.; the saturday evening post, sept. , and the washington magazine. there are only two specimens, of which i am aware, that resemble this. one (t- , ii) consists of seven fragments of a thin piece of antler found by mrs. james terry at umatilla, oregon, only about miles in a southerly direction from tampico. the back of this specimen is largely disintegrated, except on the two dog heads, and these being only about mm. thick suggest that the whole figure was thin. the carving (fig. ) is in much greater relief than in the specimen from tampico, although some of the lines are merely incisions. the tongue projects between, but not beyond, the lips. the cheeks are raised and there is considerable character to the face. the nose is aquiline and narrow, but the alæ are indicated. the orbits are sunken and horizontal oblong pits evidently indicate the eyes. the eyebrows are raised. two horizontal incisions extend across the brow. below the chin, at the left, are four incisions in a raised piece. this seems to represent a hand held with the fingers to the neck. a similar hand was probably at the right. a foot, with four toes in relief projecting above the brow as high as do the eyebrows, rests immediately above the upper horizontal incision and apparently indicates that some animal, possibly a bird, stood upon the human head. the fragment, however, is not sufficiently large to settle these points. two of the other fragments are apparently intended to represent the heads of dogs. the eyes are indicated by the common circle and dot design; while the nostrils in one are represented by drilled dots. the shape of the heads is brought out by the carving of the edge of the object. the fragments are broken off at the neck, and the lower side of each shows the finished surface of the back of the object. the remaining fragments show little or nothing. the animal heads and the feet and hands suggest the possibility that in some cases animal forms were combined in such figures, as on the northwest coast, although the general style of art of the object is like neither haida nor kwakiutl work, but more like the carvings of puget sound and the lower columbia river. the fact that the carving of this face is more in relief helps to explain the intent of the author of the tampico specimen. the other specimen ( - a, b, c) is a quill-flattener, made of antler (fig. ). it was obtained by dr. clark wissler from the dakota at pine ridge, south dakota, who also made reference to other objects of the same sort among the tribe. porcupine quills were flattened on it with the thumb nail until after it had been broken, when the lower or pointed end had been used as a brush in applying color to form designs on various articles made of buckskin. this end is stained a deep red and the point is much worn. the object, in general, resembles in shape and size the specimen from tampico. its sides are somewhat thinner and sharper. the slight indications of hair or headdress, the deeply cut eyes and mouth in the concave side, the holes or ears at the sides of the head, and the method of indicating the arms by slits, setting them off, from the body, are all details which emphasize this general resemblance. the technical work is about as good as that of the tampico specimen, but the art work is inferior. one edge of the convex or outer surface of the bone has twenty-five notches, and in each tooth left between them, as well as above the top one, is a small drilled dot. some of the notches on the other side are broken away with the arm, which is missing. on the same surface are twenty-six horizontal incisions, which were interpreted as year counts. the general shape of the body and the rows of dots are similar to those of the figure pecked on the cliff at sentinal bluffs (plate xi, fig. ). the tampico specimen may have developed from a quill-flattener, which implement was probably of common and characteristic use among indian mothers, not only of the plains but also as far west as tampico. if the result of such a development, it had probably lost its domestic use and become entirely symbolic. mr. teit has heard the thompson indians speak of figures carved by some men in their spare time, and valued highly as curiosities and works of art. they had no practical value, and were generally used as ornaments inside the house. they were in wood, bark, stone and antler, more generally in the last three, and usually represented the human figure. although the indians aver that they were sometimes very elaborately and truthfully carved, it is impossible to say, in the absence of a good specimen from the thompson indians whether there was any resemblance in style to that of this figure. the thompson sometimes, placed such figures on the tops of houses, but the great majority were shown inside the houses. the indian who made the one illustrated[ ] told mr. teit that he had seen some of larger size which had taken a carver's spare time for many months. [ ] teit, (a), p. . fig. . the headdress seems to be a so-called war-bonnet, and would indicate that the figure was that of an important personage; perhaps a suggestion of what had been hoped for the child's position in the tribe or after death. the arms, body, legs, and feet are apparently bare and ornamented with ceremonial paintings, while about the waist is an apron. the whole object seems of a rather high order of art to be a mere child's doll, and it would seem more plausible to consider it as an emblematical figure. the general style of art and costume indicated show little or no resemblance to those of the northwest coast, but a strong relationship to those of the plains. there are some incised lines on the pipe shown in fig. . those on the pipe shown in fig. are described on p. . in the nez perce region, according to spinden, incised designs, some of them of a pictographic character and probably modern are found on pipes, and designs of ladder shape are found on a flat plummet-shaped bone object.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. and plate vii, fig. . _notches._ the notch in the base of the spatulate object made of bone shown in fig. and the two notches in each side of the base may be for practical purposes but were probably intended to be artistic, while the six notches in the edge of the pendant made of slate shown in fig. probably also have been intended for decoration or even to make the object represent something although possibly the representation may be rather conventional. in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] a notched stone has been found near asotin and notches occur as decorations on objects found in the thompson river region to the north, but, of this type, they are rare if not absent among archaeological finds on the coast to the west from fort rupert on northern vancouver island to tacoma. [ ] _ibid._, p. , plate ix, fig. . _circle and dot designs._ the circle and dot design is commonly found in this region. it may be seen on the top of the pestle shown in fig. . there is one of these designs in the tip and eleven about equi-distant in a row around the edge of the knob. in the nez perce region to the east[ ] the design is found on bone gambling pieces. further east, this design is also found. this motive may be seen around the top of the bowl on a pipe ( - a, b) from the gros ventre indians of montana collected by dr. clark wissler, which, however, is considered to be recent. to the west, it is not found among ancient things on the coast but among recent objects it may be seen on certain bone gambling cylinders and on beaver teeth used for dice. the design is common in the thompson river region[ ] and the lillooet valley between there and the coast.[ ] it is perhaps even more frequently seen on the modern things among the thompson river indians[ ] who often visit the okanogan country. [ ] spinden, p. , plate vii, fig. . [ ] smith, (c), fig. ; (d), fig. . [ ] teit, (b), fig. . [ ] teit, (a), figs. and . the pipe shown in fig. was secured from an indian who is known to have frequently visited the okanogan area so that if he did not bring the pipe from there, he may at least have gotten the idea for this style of decoration there. this suggests an explanation for the occurrence of the circle and dot design on what are apparently older specimens from the yakima country. on the lower end of this specimen is a design made up of a zigzag line based upon an incision running around where the stem meets the bowl. the five triangles thus formed are nearly equilateral and there is a circle and dot design in each. other circles and dots are arranged in seven equi-distant longitudinal pairs about the middle of the bowl. in addition, parallel to these, and between two of the pairs, there is a double-headed figure each end of which resembles the form of a crude fleur-de-lis. all of the incisions on this pipe are colored with red paint. the circle and dot design may be seen on the limestone pipe shown in fig. . there is one circle and dot on the tip of the base, encircling this is a row of eight of them and outside of this still another circle of nine. around the opening for the stem is a circle made up of eight, around the mouth of the bowl are ten and between the circle around the bowl and the one around the stem are three of the circles and dots. a typical circle and dot decoration is shown in fig. of what, as stated on p. , may possibly have been used as a whetstone. the object is made of slate and the top is broken off. it is mm. long, mm. wide and mm. thick. the lower end and side edges are rounded. on the reverse, the design is similar except that it is continued upward by three circles and dots arranged in the same order as the uppermost three on the obverse and that there are several slightly incised marks on it, one of which, of x form, makes a tangent and a cord with the next to the lower circle and dot. all the circles and dots are filled with red paint. there are twelve incisions, possibly tally marks, on one side edge near the point. the original is in the collection of mr. janeck.[ ] [ ] museum negative no. , - . the symmetrical arrangement of the perforations and the pits on both sides of the object shown in fig. was no doubt due to artistic motives. _pecked grooves._ some designs were made by pecking grooves in stone. part of these, those forming petroglyphs, have been mentioned on p. and are shown in plates xi-xiii. the upper portion of the marking on the grooved stone shown in fig. is made in this way. it may represent a feather headdress, such as is mentioned on p. and such as is so common in the pictographs as well as in the petroglyphs. the design on the lower part of the same object was formed in the same way and on the obverse of the net sinker shown in fig. are pecked grooves forming three concentric semi-circles on each side of the groove and nearly parallel with the edges of the object. taken together, they give the suggestion of a spiral. there are three pecked grooves encircling the stone mortar shown in fig. and two around the head of the pestle shown in fig. . on each side of the lower part of the pestle shown in fig. is a longitudinal design made up of four parallel zigzag pecked grooves. the two pecked grooves at right angles to each other on the specimen shown in fig. while they are probably made for use may have been interpreted as decorative or artistic. this may also be said of the three pecked grooves at right angles to each other on the club-head shown in fig. , and it seems likely that the eight pecked pits made in the middle of the spaces between these grooves and possibly even the two pits at either pole of the object were intended to embellish it. pecking was also the process employed in forming the sculpture shown in fig. . the four pyramidal or dome-shaped nipples on the top of the knob of a pestle found at five mile rapids mentioned on p. were probably made by pecking, followed by polishing and they may have served a ceremonial as well as a decorative purpose. [illustration: fig. . circle and dot design on whetstone made of slate. from the yakima valley. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - . original in the collection of mr. janeck.)] [illustration: fig. ( - ). costumed human figure made of antler. from grave no. of a child in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. / nat. size.] [illustration: fig. ( - a, b, c). quill-flattener made of antler. from the dakota at pine ridge, south dakota. / nat. size. (collected by dr. clark wissler.)] [illustration: fig. (t- , - ). fragments of a figure made of antler. from umatilla, oregon. / nat. size. (collected by mrs. james terry.)] _animal and human forms._ there are a number of sculptures that apparently were intended to represent heads of animals, whole animals and human forms. the top of the pestle shown in fig. is sculptured to represent what is apparently an animal head. the top of the one shown in fig. has three nipples one of which is longer than the others. this sculpture also seems to represent an animal head, the ears being indicated by the short nipples and the nose by the long one. the top of the pestle shown in fig. apparently represents an animal head, the mouth being indicated by the groove, each eye by a pit and there are four incisions across the top or back of the head. a sculptured animal head, with wide open mouth, pits for eyes, and projections for ears on what may be a pestle top, has been found in the nez perce region to the east[ ] and pestles with heads are found in the thompson river area to the north.[ ] the knob shown in fig. (p. ) is interpreted as representing a snake's head. the heart-shaped knob on the top of the club shown in fig. resembles the form of an animal head and stands at an angle of about ° to the axis of the club. two of the incised circles probably represent the eyes. the top of the handle of a digging stick made of horn of the rocky mountain sheep, shown in fig. is sculptured to represent an animal head. it was obtained from an indian woman living near union gap below old yakima. [ ] spinden, plate ix, fig. . [ ] smith, (c), fig. a; teit, (a), fig. . [illustration: fig. . fragment of a sculpture with hoof-like part. from pasco. / nat. size. (drawn from a sketch. original in the collection of mr. owen.)] [illustration: fig. . sculptured animal form made of lava. from an indian who claimed to have found it in a grave on the yakima reservation two miles below union gap below old yakima. / nat. size. (drawn from photographs , - , , - , and , - . original catalogue no. in the collection of mr. janeck.)] fig. illustrates a fragment of sculpture from pasco. it is hoof-shaped and is here reproduced from a sketch of the original in the collection of mr. owen. the sculptured animal form made of lava shown in fig. which was mentioned on p. , bears a mortar or dish in its back. it is a good example of an art form which has been specialized so that it may be used or at least so that the useful part is less prominent than the animal figure. it has been sculptured by pecking. the raised eyes are almond-shaped rather than elliptical, and the ears are indicated by raised places on the transverse ridge at the top of the head. the mid-rib or dewlap under the chin is about mm. wide and of the three transverse grooves in this, only the upper one is deep. the tail is slightly under cut. the grooves are all more or less colored with vermilion, apparently a mineral paint and consequently sufficiently lasting so that we need not consider even the painting as necessarily modern. the general form and especially the four elephantine legs remind us of a somewhat similar animal form with a dish in its back found in a shell heap in the delta of the fraser river[ ] and the animal form with the dish in its back resembles slightly carvings found in the lillooet valley[ ] and the thompson river region. [ ] smith, (a), fig. . [ ] teit, (b), fig. . the pipe made of steatite shown in fig. [ ] illustrates the modern type of carving in soft, easily cut stone, as well as the style of white metal inlaying employed here during recent years. in this case, the inlaying is nearly bilaterally symmetrical as may be seen by comparing fig. a with the outlines in _c_ and _d_. the carving is not symmetrical, the human form holding a fish-like form appearing on one side only, while the rear figure evidently represents a turtle which animal is found in the valley. the other two figures are not easily identified but the forward one perhaps represents a dog, the white metal inlay on it possibly representing a harness, but as likely was merely for decoration. the figure on the base of the pipe might represent a lizard or any quadruped with a long tail. this form and the way it is represented as clinging to the cylindrical part of the pipe at least remind us of similar forms seen on totem poles in the region from puget sound to victoria.[ ] the technique is rather crude and the style of art does not closely resemble that of the coast, but reminds us of certain sculptures found on pipes and on the carved wooden stems of pipes in the plains where this particular shape of pipe is much more common than here. [ ] first figured on p. , archaeology of the yakima valley by harlan i. smith, washington magazine, june, . [ ] cf. also smith, (b), fig. a. [illustration: fig. ( - ). handle of digging stick made of horn of rocky mountain sheep. from an indian woman living near union gap below old yakima. / nat. size.] in fig. is illustrated a fragment of a sculptured tubular pipe made from steatite by cutting or scratching and drilling the soft material rather than by pecking. it was apparently intended to represent an anthropoid form. the mouth is indicated by an incision, the other features of the head are more difficult to determine, but both the arm and the leg stand out in high relief. as previously suggested on p. , this style of art slightly resembles that found in the region from the lillooet valley to the lower willamette and as far east at least as the dalles.[ ] it is possible that some of the sculptures found in the thompson river region[ ] adjoining the lillooet valley on the east and the yakima region on the north, may be somewhat related to the style of art of this fragmentary pipe. the human form shown in fig. has been discussed on p. as it is incised rather than carved in the round. clark mentions a "malet of stone curiously carved,"[ ] which he says was used by the indians near the mouth of the snake river and eells[ ] mentions two stone carvings from the general area of which this is a part which he describes as horses' heads. if this interpretation be correct, the carvings are evidently modern. the fish form shown in fig. has been mentioned on p. . [ ] teit, (b), figs. and - ; smith, (d), fig. and especially figs. b and . [ ] smith, (d), fig. ; (b), fig. a. [ ] lewis and clark, iii, p. . [ ] eells, p. . [illustration: fig. . pipe made of stone. from a hillside grave on toppenish creek near fort simcoe. collected by mrs. lynch. / nat. size. (now in the collection of mr. george g. heye, new york.)] the very form of the pestle shown in fig. and the symmetrical outline of the club shown in fig. are in themselves somewhat artistic, while the fact that the pipe shown in fig. somewhat represents a tomahawk or hatchet suggests that it may have been sculptured as representative art. it seems likely that it was modelled after the metal tomahawk pipe introduced by the traders which of course would indicate that it was recently made. [illustration: fig. . sculptured and inlaid pipe made of steatite with wooden stem. from chief moses of the yakima region. / nat. size. (drawn from photograph , - , - , - . original in the collection of mrs. lynch.)] _coast art._ the pipe shown in fig. which was mentioned on p. is clearly of the art of the northwest coast. it must have been brought to this region from as far at least, as the kwakiutl and haida region, and may be the work of an artist from that part of the coast, on vancouver island, north of comox. although in a fragmentary condition, this sculpture exhibits an excellent technique of its style of art. astride of the stem is a human figure with the left hand to the chest, and the right one resting on the right knee. the head is missing, the chest muscular. the other end of the pipe apparently represents the thunder bird. the head and most of the figure are bilaterally symmetrical. the beak is cut off in such a manner as to form a flat surface at the tip. the feathers of the rear portion of the left wing extend in a different direction from those on the tip, while those of the right wing are parallel with those on the rear part of the left wing. the lower side or tail of this bird figure is broken off, but it probably extended to the broken place shown at the neck of the human face on the base of the pipe. in it, may be seen a groove, the half of a longitudinal perforation which does not connect with the pipe bowl. the carving on the right side of the pipe bowl, the top of which is broken away, is practically the same as that on the left, while the base is carved to represent a human head. method of burial. in ancient times, there were three principal methods of disposing of the dead: in graves in domes of volcanic ash, in rock-slide graves, and in cremation circles. in all of these they were covered with stones.[ ] detailed descriptions of the graves explored by us, are given in the appendix. there are also burials covered with pebbles, some of which may be old; and recent graves (p. ), where the bodies were apparently buried at length with the feet to the east, and both head and foot marked by a stake, the one at the head being the larger. simple graves in the level ground known to be old were not found. gibbs saw bodies wrapped in blankets and tied upright to tree trunks at some distance above the ground near the mouth of the okanogan river.[ ] [ ] cf. also yarrow, p. ; gibbs, (b), p. . [ ] gibbs, (a), p. . _burials in domes of volcanic ash._ in this arid region are stretches of country locally known as 'scab land,' on which are occasionally groups of low dome-shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred feet in diameter, by three to six feet in height.[ ] these knolls consist of fine volcanic ash, and apparently have been left by the wind because held in place by roots of sage brush and other vegetation. this ashy material has been swept from the intervening surface leaving the 'scab land' paved with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard soil. the prehistoric indians of this region, have used many of these knolls, each as a site for a single grave (fig. , plate ix).[ ] these graves, which are located in the tops of the knolls, are usually marked by large river pebbles, or, in some cases, by fragments of basalt that appear as a circular pavement projecting slightly above the surface of the soil. none of them are known to be recent. on the other hand, there is no positive evidence of their great antiquity. in these we sometimes find a box or cyst. this box (plate x) was formed of thin slabs of basaltic rock some placed on edge and large flat slabs covering the cyst so formed. above this, as was usually the case, above the skeletons in this kind of grave, the space was filled with irregular rocks or pebbles. the rocks and cyst were entirely different from those of the cairns of the coast of washington and british columbia.[ ] the skeletons were found flexed, on the side. in the graves, artifacts such as dentalium shells were deposited at the time of burial. [ ] see museum negative nos. , - , and , - . [ ] see museum negative no. , - , taken from the north of east. see also pp. and . first mentioned in smith, (g), vi. [ ] see smith and fowke. the kalapuya of the willamette valley to the southwest, buried their dead in the earth. one writer described the process as follows:--"when the grave was dug they placed slabs on the bottom and sides, and when they had lowered the wrapped body down, placed another over, resting on the side ones, and filled in the earth."[ ] the account does not seem to indicate whether these slabs were of wood or stone, but in either case there is a certain similarity to the graves with the stone cyst found near tampico. [ ] lewis, p. ; galschet, p. ; american antiquarian, iv, , p. . a grave which may be of this type, found about two and one half miles south of fort simcoe was reported to me by mrs. lynch who furnished the following information about it. it was on a low ridge with the usual cairn of rocks about three feet high covering it. this cairn was made up of two distinct layers of rocks, both lying above the contents of the grave which included the skeleton of an adult man estimated to be at least six feet tall and that of a child about six to eight years of age, according to identifications made by the physician of the united states indian service stationed at fort simcoe. the man's skull which was well preserved though brittle, was found four feet below the ground or approximately seven feet below the top of the cairn and on the eastern side of the grave. the pelvis of the child was completely decayed, and few of the bones were intact except the maxilla which was found in the western part of the grave between the patellæ of the man. near them were found four "links" [beads] of a copper necklace. the maxilla was deeply copper-stained. the steatite ornament shown in fig. was found on the man's manubrium. _rock-slide graves._ the rock-slides on the hill and canon sides as in the region to the north had frequently been used as burial places. the graves are found from top to bottom. some of them seem very old. others were proven to be recent by the character of the objects found in them. the skeletons were in or on the ground and the rocks of the slide had been piled or caused to slide over them (fig. , plate viii).[ ] the skeleton was buried from one to five, six or even ten feet deep. in some cases, the rocks seemed to have sunk as the body decayed, in others they formed a pile as if placed there to mark the grave. some graves were marked with sticks (fig. , plate vi). in others, probably always the older graves, sticks were not seen having doubtless decayed. one of the graves found rifled feet above the little flat at the edge of the north side of the naches river about a mile and a half above its mouth, seemed to lie walled up with rocks like a well and slabs of a broken canoe, part of which had been thrown out surrounded a few of the disturbed bones. the skeletons were always in a flexed position (fig. , plate viii) and objects were found to have been placed in some of these graves. [ ] see museum negative no. , - , from the south in base of rock-slide on the north side of the yakima river about a mile below the mouth of the naches river, see p. . spinden states that cemeteries are readily located by the heaps of "river-worn or rock-slide boulders" piled over the graves in the nez perce country.[ ] they are usually on the first bench above the river bottom and are found near the traditional village sites, from which they can be seen. the more common method of disposing of the dead there, was by burial in the ground, especially on stony hillsides, and covering the graves with stones to keep off the wild animals. this seems to have been the prevailing method throughout the whole columbia region of which this is a part.[ ] rock-slide graves were sometimes made in basaltic cliffs in the nez perce region. one of these is known to have been used in recent times from the presence of a lewis and clark medal,[ ] and graves marked by pieces of upright cedar and covered by large piles of stone are reported by spinden on the east bank of the snake river, beside the mouth of the grande ronde.[ ] [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] lewis, p. ; lewis and clark. iv, pp. - , , v, p. ; ross, (a), pp. - ; cox, p. ; douglas, p. ; gibbs, (a), p. . [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, pp. and . indian graves filled up with stones are numerous in the vicinity of the several remains (pp. , and ) near mr. turner's home, according to mr. j. s. cotton. mr. turner told him that all the graves that had been excavated contained bones in a greatly decayed condition, which suggested to him that they were very old. these graves, like the other remains of the vicinity previously mentioned, have been in the same condition since about . the terraces mentioned on p. (fig. , plate vii)[ ] may have been made to facilitate reaching rock-slide graves in the same slide; while the pits which were found in the slides (fig. , plate vii)[ ] walled up on the outer sides like balconies, with the rocks that apparently came both from the pits and the disturbed slide above them, have been considered as rifled graves or graves from which the burials had been removed (p. ). [ ] see museum negative no. , - , from the southwest, about a mile above the mouth of the naches river, (p. ). [ ] see museum negative no. , - . the same slide from the southwest (p. ). the following quotation may refer to rock-slide pits:[ ] "in the eastern part of marion county, oregon, there stands an isolated and most strikingly regular and beautiful butte some three hundred feet in height and covering nearly a section of land. it was fringed about its base, at the time of which i write, with fir groves, but its sides and well rounded and spacious top were devoid of timber, except a few old and spreading oaks, and perhaps a half dozen gigantic firs, whose weighty limbs were drooping with age. a meridian section line passes over the middle of this butte, and four sections corner near its top. while running this line and establishing these corners in , i observed many semi-circular walls of stone, each enclosing space enough for a comfortable seat, and as high as one's shoulders when in a sitting posture, upon cross-sticks as high as the knee ... the older white residents said the indians made them, but for what purpose they could not say. i became a witness to the use, and was particularly impressed with the fitness for what i saw. indians from the north and south traveling that way generally camped upon the banks of the abiqua creek, a rapid stream of pure, cold water, just issued from the mountains upon the plain. the butte was near, and this they ascended and, taking seats within the stone sanctuaries, communed in silence with the great spirit. bowing the head upon the hands and resting them upon the knees for a few moments, then sitting erect and gazing to the west over the enchanting valley interspersed with meadow, grove and stream." the author states that the place is now called mount angel, is surmounted by a roman catholic cathedral and that the indians called this butte tap-a-lam-a-ho, signifying mount of communion; and the plain to the west chek-ta, meaning beautiful or enchanting. [ ] pp. and of an article entitled "extract from t. w. davenport's, recollections of an indian agent (not yet published)." the quarterly of the oregon historical society, march, , vol. v, no. . possibly the burials in the domes of volcanic ash and those in the rock-slides are practically the results of a common motive by the same people in the same time and the differences may be due simply to the difference in the character of the near by topography and the relative convenience of securing the material to cover the graves. this idea is strengthened by information given me by mr. w. h. hindshaw who stated that from sixteen to thirty miles above the mouth of the snake river where it cuts through canons there are rock burial heaps immediately above flood level and burials in the flood sand below, both of which he found to contain human bones and implements. he also stated that graves are found on the bluff overlooking the river. one was curbed with the remains of a cedar canoe. the grave had a bottom of plank and a cover over the body--that of a small child--which was wrapped in a fur, apparently a beaver skin. there were a number of beads and brass buttons and a large fragment of the shell of the _schizothoerus nuttallii_ which must have come from the coast. _cremation circles._ rings of stones (fig. , plate ix)[ ] were also seen and on excavation within them cremated human remains were found usually several in each circle. in some cases the ring was irregular and in others assumed the form of a rectangle. none of them are known to be recent. in such places, dentalium shells, flat shell beads, and shell ornaments were usually seen. mr. teit says that rings of stones were also put on top of graves in the thompson river region. along the columbia, below the mouth of the snake river, vaults or burial houses like those found among the upper chinook were used.[ ] a somewhat similar method was observed even among the nez perce.[ ] this suggests that the cremation circles here described, may be the caved-in remains of earth-covered burial lodges built somewhat on the plan of the semi-subterranean winter houses. [ ] museum negative no. , - of circle no. from the east on the terrace northwest of the junction of the yakima and the naches rivers (p. and ). cf. also museum negative no. , - . [ ] cf. lewis, p. ; lewis and clark, ii, pp. - . [ ] lewis and clark, iv, p. ; lewis, p. . _position of the body._ in all the old graves the skeletons were flexed and usually on the side (plate viii, fig. ).[ ] the graves where the body was buried at length with the feet to the east were doubtless recent and probably placed that way due to the teachings of christians. in the nez perce region to the east, the body was placed in a variety of positions, either flexed or at length[ ] and sometimes upon the side. considering the difference between the costume and objects used by the men and those by the women, in the nez perce region to the east,[ ] it would seem that the contents of the graves in this near by region may be used to check the determination of the sex of the skeletons. [ ] museum negative no. , - , see grave no. , p. . [ ] spinden, pp. and . [ ] cf. spinden, p. . _property with the dead._ objects are usually found with the remains of the dead in all classes of old burials but some of the graves contained nothing; others very little. there was apparently no radical difference in the character of the material in the graves in volcanic domes and those in the rock-slides; but the more modern rock-slide graves seemed, on the whole, to contain a greater number of objects than the older graves or the graves in domes. on the coast, objects are found with recent burials, but rarely in ancient graves. the cremation circles often contained dentalium shells and bits of shell objects but little else. in the nez perce region to the east a considerable amount of property, ornaments and utensils is found buried with the dead.[ ] [ ] spinden, pp. and . _horse sacrifices._ we discovered no graves containing horse bones or over which a skeleton of a horse was found, although it will be remembered that such were found in the nez perce region east of here.[ ] there, the killing of horses over the graves of their owners became the usual practice when horses were plentiful. sometimes a horse was buried over the body.[ ] in this region, however, we found no evidences of the horse in connection with the graves other than the presence of an old spanish bit in one of the more recent burials. [ ] spinden, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . _diseases._ out of about seventeen complete skeletons and six skulls secured in this region by our party those of two children ( - , - ) and two adults, one of which was apparently a female ( - ), exhibited anchylosis of some of the vertebrae. the left ankle bones of the other skeleton ( - ) showed anchylosis with the tibia and one of the ribs was abnormal. the skeleton of a young child ( - ) with persistent frontal suture, an example of retarded development was also found.[ ] [ ] cf. wounds, p. . conclusion. the connection, nay partial identity, of this culture with that of the thompson river region in the southern interior of british columbia is supported by considerable evidence. small heaps of fresh-water clam shells are found in both regions. the preponderance of chipped points over those ground out of stone, bone and antler; the presence of digging stick handles; pestles with flaring bodies and no striking heads, others with tops in the form of animal heads; celts; the sites of cache pits, of circular summer lodges marked by rings of stones; and of semi-subterranean houses with stones on the encircling ridge; pairs of arrow-shaft smoothers, and bone tubes, were all found to be common to both regions. the simple pipe bowl found here, although with one exception not found among archaeological objects in the thompson area is commonly used by the present indians there. tubular pipes, modern copper tubes or beads, incised designs consisting of a circle with a dot in it and engraved dentalium shells, each of a particular kind, besides pictographs in red, rock-slide sepulchres, modern graves walled up with parts of canoes, the marking of recent graves with sticks, and the custom of burying artifacts with the dead were also found to be common to both areas. perforated slate tablets of gorget-form are unknown in both regions. circles of stones which mark places where cremated human remains were found in this region sometimes indicate graves in the thompson river region. frazer[ ] mentions meeting yakima indians in the lillooet valley which shows that they travelled even beyond the thompson river country and readily accounts for the dissemination of cultural elements. [ ] fraser, p. . on the other hand, many differences in culture are observable. thus objects made of nephrite and mica which occur, the former being common in the thompson river valley, were not found in the yakima area. quarries and terraced rock-slides such as were seen here are not known to us in the thompson river region. the bone of the whale occasionally found in the thompson river country is lacking in yakima collections. that glassy basalt was not the chief material for chipped implements, as it was in the thompson river region, is probably due to the scarcity of this material and its use is perhaps as rare in the yakima valley as on the coast. chipped implements were made of a greater variety of stone than in the interior of british columbia, and a greater proportion were of the more beautifully colored materials. no harpoon points made of a unio (?) shell, such as the object found in the thompson river region or other objects made of such a shell, were seen. notched sinkers and large grooved sinkers were more commonly found than in the thompson valley, while sap scrapers which were common there, were not found in the yakima district. a great number of pestles made from short cylindrical pebbles, forming a type rather rare in the thompson river region; many long pestles, of which only four or five have been found in interior british columbia; and one with a zigzag design not represented among the finds from that region, were found in the yakima area. saucer-shaped depressions marking summer lodge sites were not noted by the writer. clubs made of stone were more numerous and all are of a different type. clubs or other objects made of the bone of the whale or drilled pendants either circular or elongated were not found. petroglyphs, pictographs in white, and representations of feather headdresses were not found among the archaeological objects in the thompson region. graves in knolls, some with a cyst made of thin slabs of stones constitute another distinct trait of the yakima area. there is relatively less evidence of contact with the prehistoric people of puget sound and the pacific coast of washington, and of southern british columbia. several kinds of sea shells, including dentalium, haliotis and pectunculus, which must have come from the coast, were found in the yakima valley. small points chipped from beautiful material found in this region were occasionally seen on the coast, more particularly south of puget sound. glassy basalt was used here perhaps about as much as on the coast. net sinkers are also about as common here as on the coast from gray's harbor southward. the pestles found in the vicinity of vancouver island are similar to some of the short pestles found in the yakima region. short tubular pipes are found on the coast in the vicinity of the saanich peninsula and the lower frazer. the pipe previously described as clearly representative of the art of the northwest coast must have been brought from there or made by a coast artist, not by one merely familiar with the art of the coast. a portion of the material indicative of coast culture that was found in the yakima valley may have come up the cowlitz and down the toppenish river. the similarities mentioned are, however, outweighed by marked differences. large shell heaps--the chief feature of coastal archaeology--have not been found in the yakima area, while quarries are unknown to us on the coast. objects made of nephrite and whale's bone are lacking in the yakima valley. a very great number of points rubbed out of slate and bone are found on the coast, but none rubbed out of slate and only a few rubbed out of bone have been found on yakima sites. net sinkers are much more common than on the coast, where they are plentiful only from gray's harbor southward and in the lower columbia valley. long pestles with the tops carved to represent animal heads are distinctive of the yakima area, while cylindrical pebbles used as pestles but slightly changed from the natural form, which are quite common in the yakima valley, are rarely found in the coast country. one style of club made of stone commonly found in this vicinity has not been seen anywhere on the coast, although some clubs made of stone are like specimens from that region. perforated slate tablets like coastal gorgets are unknown to us from the yakima area. cairns common on the coast are not found in the yakima country, while the reverse holds true of rock-slide burials. graves in knolls are unknown on the pacific, and artifacts are often found in the yakima graves but they seldom, if ever, occur with ancient burials on the coast. much of the material from the yakima region resembles that which i have seen from the general area including the columbia valley between umatilla and the dalles, and possibly extending further down the valley. there seems to be a greater similarity of the art products of the yakima to those of the thompson river region than to those of the columbia valley below the mouth of the snake, so far as we understand the latter region at this time, and this according to lewis[ ] is certainly not contrary to the belief in an earlier occupancy of this region by the salish. the culture here resembles that of the nez perce region to the east in that a considerable variety of material was used for chipped implements.[ ] [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] spinden, p. . inter-tribal trade may have been a factor in the production of some observed similarities. it was seen that pipes of three types, one of which is found as far east as the dakota, another as far north as the thompson river country, and a third as far west as the queen charlotte islands are all found in this region. it is clear that the ancient people from the yakima region had extensive communications not only with the region southward as far as the dalles, but also northward, as far as the more distant thompson river tribes. if the products of the sea found in this region came up the columbia, as may be inferred from lewis,[ ] it is a good illustration of how trade as a rule, follows the line of least physical resistance; although the migrations of the tribes do not always follow such lines because the lines of trade as a rule are thickly populated by people who resist the migration of their neighbors. lewis[ ] states that from the coast inward there was only one trade route of importance in the washington-oregon-idaho region and this led up the columbia river to the dalles where was found the greatest trade center in the whole region and whither the tribes were wont to come from the north and south as well as from the east.[ ] klamath,[ ] cayuse, nez perce, walla walla and other sahaptin and probably salish tribes were all in the habit of going there to traffic. he also states that further east, the sahaptin in their turn, traded with the shoshone from whom they obtained buffalo robes and meat. the center for this trade at least in later times was the grande ronde in eastern oregon;[ ] but this later center probably came into being after the advent of the horse. the okanogan are known to have crossed the mountains to puget sound to trade wild hemp for sea shells especially dentalia as well as for other small objects.[ ] the yakima also in later times crossed the mountains and traded with puget sound tribes according to gibbs,[ ] but if this trade were carried on in earlier times its effect in the yakima valley seems to have been slight as indicated by the few dentalium shells, the shell pendants shown in figs. - and the pipe of coast art, shown in fig. . it is possible that this trade with the coast became customary only after the horse was introduced. there was a considerable amount of trade between the yakima and the thompson river and other tribes of british columbia which was carried on chiefly through the okanogan.[ ] lewis[ ] states that the walla walla who lived to the south of the yakima at least in later times visited as far north as the thompson river region, and that certain sahaptin tribes seem to have moved northward and westward and forced back the salish tribes which at the time of lewis and clark's visit were on the north bank of the columbia and on its tributaries.[ ] these tribes were particularly the klickitat and the yakima, an assumption which lewis states is supported by the definite assertions of the natives themselves. a number of old men positively assured dr. suckley that they had pushed their way into the country formerly occupied by the salish.[ ] the klickitat, although living in a well wooded region on the southern slopes of mt. adams and mt. st. helens are thought to have been driven by the cayuse from their earlier home which was further east and south. later, they went further west into the cowlitz valley.[ ] this may account for the circular pit surrounded by an embankment which i saw near rochester in thurston county and interpreted as the remains of a semi-subterranean winter house site. lewis also states that the yakima probably lived on the columbia near the mouth of the river which now bears their name, and are in fact so located by cox who places them on the north and east side of the columbia. the pressure of neighboring tribes caused by the coming of the white race no doubt facilitated the adoption of new cultural details. [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] lewis and clark, iv, p. ; ross, (b), p. . [ ] gatschet, p. . [ ] wilkes, iv, p. . [ ] ross, (a), p. ; (b), i, p. . [ ] gibbs, (a), p. . [ ] cf. teit, (a), p. . [ ] lewis, pp. - . [ ] lewis and clark, vi, pp. and ; mooney, pp. - . [ ] gibbs, (b), p. . [ ] swan, p. . as late as , the palus, a tribe living further east on the paloose river regarded themselves as a portion of the yakima and the head chief of the yakima as their chief.[ ] the general similarity of the walla walla language to that of the klickitat and yakima rather than to that of the nez perce is mentioned by lewis. [ ] stevens, xii, p. , pacific r. r. rept., pt. i. cultural elements, especially those associated with the horse and with the new mode of life which it made possible, probably came from the region to the southeast, and show a great similarity to the plains type of culture. how much the plains culture had influenced the plateau type before the introduction of the horse, is a question.[ ] on the columbia river, near the mouth of the yakima, were numerous indians who were visited by clark in , but he says that while he saw a few horses, the indians appeared to make but little use of them. if these were the yakima indians there must have been quite a change in their manner of living in the next few years.[ ] this agrees very well with the time of the introduction of the horse among the lower thompson indians towards the close of the eighteenth century, according to teit.[ ] all this would tend to show that the horse, while common in the yakima country, about that time, had not yet affected the earlier customs of the natives. [ ] lewis, p. . [ ] lewis, p. ; ross, (b), i, p. . [ ] teit, (a), p. . the early culture throughout the great area of which this is a part, according to lewis, was of a very simple and undeveloped character, which probably accounts for the rapidity with which eastern types were assimilated when once introduced.[ ] [ ] lewis, p. . summing up: the prehistoric culture of the yakima area resembled that of its recent inhabitants, as it will be remembered was the case in the thompson river region, the lower fraser valley and the puget sound country including the coast from comox on vancouver island to olympia. as a typical plateau culture, being affiliated with the neighboring cultures to the north, east and south, it presented a sharp contrast to both the present and past cultures of the coast to the west. compared with other branches of the plateau culture area it must be considered inferior in complexity to its northern neighbor of the southern interior of british columbia and also to the adjacent branch near the dalles to the south. while each of these divisions has been influenced by the others more especially in the past, differentiations due to environment or specific historical conditions lead to local variations without obscuring an essential unity of cultural traits. bibliography. bancroft, h. h. the native races of the pacific states of north america. volumes. - . catlin, george. o-kee-pa. a religious ceremony and other customs of the mandans. philadelphia, . cox, ross. adventures on the columbia river, etc. new york, . de smet, father. life, letters and travels of father pierre-jean de smet, s.j., - . edited by chittenden and richardson. volumes. new york, . douglas. d. sketch of a journey to the northwestern part of the continent of north america during the years - . (oregon historical society quarterly, - , - .) eells, myron. the stone age in oregon. (smithsonian report, for , washington, , pp. - .) fraser, simon. journal of a voyage from the rocky mountains to the pacific coast in . gatschet, albert s. the klamath indians of southwestern oregon. (contributions to north american ethnology, ii, parts i-ii, washington, .) gibbs, george. (a) report on the indian tribes of the territory of washington. (pacific railroad report, , pp. - , washington, .) (b) tribes of western washington and northwestern oregon. (contributions to north american ethnology, i, pp. - , washington, .) hale, horatio. united states exploring expedition during the years - . under the command of charles wilkes. vol. vi. ethnology and philology. philadelphia, . jochelson, waldemar. material culture and social organization of the koryak. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. x, part , pp. - .) kane, paul. wanderings of an artist among the indians of north america. london, . lewis, albert buell. tribes of the columbia valley and the coast of washington and oregon. (memoirs of the american anthropological association, vol. , part , .) lewis and clark. original journals of the lewis and clark expedition. (thwaites edition.) new york, . lord, john keast. the naturalist in vancouver's island and british columbia. vols. london, . mallery, garrick. pictographs of the north american indians. (fourth annual report, bureau of american ethnology, washington, , pp. - .) mooney, james. the ghost-dance religion and the sioux outbreak of . (fourteenth annual report, bureau of american ethnology, pt. , washington, .) moorehead, warren k. prehistoric implements. a description of the ornaments, utensils and implements of pre-columbian man in america. new york. . ross, alexander. (a) adventures of the first settlers on the oregon or columbia river. london, . (b) the fur hunters of the far west. vols. london, . schoolcraft, henry r. historical and statistical information respecting the history, condition and prospects of the indian tribes of the united states. philadelphia, - . smith, harlan i. and fowke, gerard. cairns of british columbia and washington. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) smith, harlan i. (a) shell-heaps of the lower fraser river, british columbia. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) (b) archaeology of the gulf of georgia and puget sound. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) (c) archaeology of the thompson river region. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) (d) the archaeology of lytton, british columbia. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) (e) archaeological investigations on the north pacific coast in . (american anthropologist, n. s., vol. , no. , july-september, .) (f) new evidence of the distribution of chipped artifacts and interior culture in british columbia. (american anthropologist, n. s., vol. , no. , july-september, ). (g) a costumed human figure from tampico, washington. (bulletin, american museum of natural history, , vol. , article , pp. - .) (h) a remarkable pipe from northwestern america. (american anthropologist, n. s., vol. , no. , january-march, , pp. - .) spinden, herbert joseph. the nez perce indians. (memoirs of the american anthropological association, vol. , part , , pp. - .) stevens, isaac i. report of the commissioner of indian affairs for , pp. - . swan, james g. the northwest coast; or three years' residence in washington territory, new york, . teit, james. (a) the thompson indians of british columbia. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) (b) the lillooet indians. (memoir, american museum of natural history, , vol. , part , pp. - .) whitman. mrs. marcus. letters written by mrs. whitman from oregon to her relations in new york. (transactions of the oregon pioneer association for , pp. - , and , pp. - .) wilkes, c. narrative of the united states exploring expedition during the years - . vols. philadelphia, . yarrow, h. c. a further contribution to the study of the mortuary customs of the north american indians. (first annual report, bureau of american ethnology, washington, , pp. - .) appendix. the following appendix contains a detailed account of graves with catalogue numbers of their contents and other finds, upon which the preceding descriptions are based. kennewick. - . flint chip from the surface. no chips of this quality were found in the thompson river region. - . chipped point made of buff jasper from the surface (plate ii, fig. ). - . large grooved pebble from the beach of the columbia river. - . chipped pebble from the surface. - . broken pestle from the surface. - . chipped and battered hammerstone from the surface. (fig. ). - . one half of a sculptured tubular steatite pipe, purchased from mr. w. f. sonderman who dug it up while building a flume near kennewick (fig. ). north yakima. - . sculptured handle of a digging stick made of the horn of a rocky mountain sheep purchased of mr. w. z. york, at old yakima, who bought it from an indian woman living near union gap below old yakima. she, however, may have brought it from some other locality. (fig. ). - . tubular steatite pipe (fig. ). - . pestle made of stone. presented by mr. w. m. gray of north yakima. found where the moxie ditch enters the flume, about miles northeast of the mouth of the naches river and southeast of the yakima river. - . fragment of rock painted red. part of a pictograph showing a human figure with feather headdress (plate xiv, fig. ), taken from the basaltic cliffs southeast of the naches river above the mouth of cowiche creek, about four miles northwest of north yakima. several other pictographs were photographed here from the north: plate xv, fig. ( , - ), white human heads with feather headdresses and white and red double star figure; plate xiv, fig. ( , - ), white human heads with feather headdresses, also ( , - ), plate xv, fig. ( , - ); plate xvi, fig. ( , - ), and plate xvi, fig. ( , - ), white and red human heads with feather headdresses. - . six parts of pebbles, from the surface of the flat on the east side of the yakima river at "the upper gap" near the northern end of north yakima, as samples of what could have been used as material for arrow points. [illustration: miss ruth b. howe delin. fig. . sketch map of the yakima valley. ] numbers - to - are from the quarry shown in plate iii, fig. ( , - from the south, , - , and , - ). this quarry is on the ridge top north of the naches river, about two miles above its mouth (p. ). - . stone, possibly a hammer. - . two river pebbles used as stone hammers. - . hammerstone (fig. ). - . pebble used as a hammer. - . fragment of a hammerstone, edge smooth. - . two fragments of hammerstones. - . four pieces of raw material for chipped implements. - . seven pieces of raw material for chipped implements possibly waste from pieces blocked out to be transported or possibly too small or of too poor a quality to be transported. - . two pieces of raw material, perhaps chipped. - . two pieces of raw material, perhaps too poor to be transported. - . thirty pieces of raw material, some very good, some very poor, all apparently waste of pieces blocked out to be transported. no finished or broken implements were found here. * * * * * grave no. . plate vi, fig. ( ) from north of west of the grave before it was disturbed (p. ). this grave was about feet up the gully from no. , and was excavated by us may . it was marked by a stick which was very dry but not yet fully decayed. it was located in the rock-slide on the east slope of the gully, a steep ravine going down from the south to a little flat southeast of the yakima river. this ravine is on the north side of the hill on the east of the yakima river at the mouth of the naches river. the grave was about a mile northeast of the mouth of the naches river, and about feet above the yakima. from the spot one can see out over the valley of the yakima. the grave was on a slight, bench, terrace, or place that could be so interpreted. there were large pits and terraces in the slide above this grave, like those shown in plate vii. indications of very old charred cedar strips were found across the grave. charcoal was found among the rocks, and the grave was bounded by a sort of circular balcony of rocks of the rock-slide and had a slight flat or depression in the center. on top, the stones were large, averaging the size of a man's head, some pounds, some pounds, some the size of a man's fist. below, covering the body, the rocks were small and many were fine, being chipped small from the same rock by fire. all except this burned rock were the common irregular angular rock-slide material. in the bottom of the grave were found adult human bones, partly charred black, the parts not so charred were yellow. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . left half of a charred human jaw, parts are ivory black and parts yellowish gray. - . part of a human vertebra. - . some charred and calcined bones of a dog with the joint end of the tibia showing the articulation pulled off as in youth. ashes and black fine masses resembling pulverized charcoal were found in the bottom of the grave. the human bones found with these were probably of two skeletons, but all were much broken and charred. some yellow brown mass, composed of rootlets, maggot sacks, etc., was found at the sides of the grave. - . at the east side of the grave, a large piece of partly charred cedar about inches wide by inches thick was found. - . chipped point of obsidian with base broken off, showing that at least some of the contents of the grave were of prehistoric culture. - . finely chipped point made of brown chert found in fire refuse of this grave (plate ii, fig. ). - . scorched point made of bone (fig. ). - . part of a point similar to - and found with it. - . part of a point similar to - and found with it. - . part of a point similar to - and found with it. - . tube of rolled brass having the diameter of a lead pencil. proving this grave to have been made since the prehistoric people were able to reach the whites in trade. - . tube similar to - (fig. ). - . charred tube made of bone about - / inches long. - . tube similar to - (fig. ). - . scorched tube made of bone and ornamented by incisions running from one end to the other in a spiral course. the tube is charred and about - / inches long (fig. ). - . slate disk perforated in the center and at each side. the object is about inch in diameter and / inch thick (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave, about feet down the ravine from grave no. and about feet above the flume. it had grass growing in the center. the grave seemed caved in and as if thoroughly walled like a well. it contained nothing, apparently having been rifled. before excavation this seemed to be more like a grave than no. . (see photograph taken from the southwest.) * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave. - . bleached skull and jaw of an adult purchased of a boy who said it was from a rock-slide grave on the north side of the yakima ridge lying east of the yakima river above the upper gap. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave about feet southeast of grave no. at selah canon. as this grave had been opened and the skeleton had been disturbed, no accurate description as to its position can be given. some of the rock-slide material was quite large, weighing from to lbs; depth, feet; diameter, feet. decayed wood was found in the grave and long poles on the side of the grave. the grave was probably not very old. - . part of skull and skeleton of a youth which was partly bleached. found in grave no. . * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave in selah canon and about feet northwest of grave no. . apparently this grave had been rifled. the adult skull lay to the west and was broken. the skeleton was flexed, the feet were toward the east and the knees south of the vertebrae, that is, the skeleton was on the right side. the grave which was about feet up the hillside, and - / miles east of the yakima river on the south side of selah canon, was about - / feet deep by - / feet in diameter. long poles lay on the side of the grave while decayed wood, leather thongs and dried flesh yet adhering to some of the bones, in this kind of a grave even in such a dry region as this, especially the last two, suggest the grave to be recent. - . jaw and skeleton of an adult. found in grave no. . * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave about feet up the hillside at the top of a rock-slide on a point south of the yakima river about miles northeast and above the mouth of the naches river. the bones were found in excavating an adjacent barren grave, feet to the northeast and had probably been thrown out of this one on top of it. pieces of cedar were scattered around the grave, which had been rifled. its depth was feet, diameter feet. - . skull and one hip bone of an adult. probably from grave no. . * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave situated northeast of north yakima and about half a mile northeast of grave no. . there is a road near the edge of the grave. the grave had been rifled and pieces of wood were found lying near it; the bones were scattered around and broken. none of them were in anatomical order. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . one brass bell. - . three glass beads. - . two shell beads. - . three dentalium shells. * * * * * grave no. . rifled rock-slide grave. the skeleton which had been wrapped in cedar bark had been taken away. nothing besides the cedar bark was found. the grave was found near no. and about a half mile northeast of no. . wood was lying near by. there was a road near the edge of the grave which had been rifled. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave found near no. which was situated about half a mile northeast of no. . the grave contained nothing but charcoal. there was wood lying near by. there was a road near the edge of the grave which had been rifled. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave excavated june , . this grave was feet up the hill from the naches river, half a mile above its mouth and on the north side. it was feet long by feet wide and feet deep and had been disturbed and many of the bones thrown out. dry poles and cedar boards lay around the top. numbers - , - to - were found in this grave. - . an adult skull and skeleton with abnormality on right malor and with one rib expanded, part of a young adult skeleton and part of a child's skeleton were found. some of the bones were bleached. the adult and the child were on the bottom. these two bodies had been wrapped in bark and placed in a hole one foot deep in the ground below the slide. the adult's head was to the west southwest. on top and to the east northeast was the young adult. human hair was also found in grave no. . - . four parts of the hearth of a fire drill, similar to that used in the thompson river region. see teit, (a) p. , for descriptions of fire drills (see also fig. .) - . wolf or dog bones, some of them bleached. - . part of a decorated wooden bow (fig. ). - a, b. two pieces of a basket. doubtless of a finer stitch than those from the thompson river indians. see teit, (a), fig. a and figs. to . - . piece of coarse coil basket with splint foundation and bifurcated stitch (fig. ). - . piece of a stitched rush mat (p. ). the bill of a saw-bill duck was found but not preserved. - . copper tubes with six beads, short sections of dentalium shells, which were found from the top to the bottom of the grave. these beads were strung. - . four bone tubes found near the bottom and mostly to the east northeast of the grave. - . point made of bone found to the west northwest in grave (fig. ). - . a perforated cylinder made of steatite found at about the center of the grave (fig. ). - . fishbone. - . three pieces of yellow jasper (raw material). - a, b, c. three small arrow points, one found on center, one in east northeast part and one in south of grave. _a_ is of brownish fissile jasper (plate ii. fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located on the north side of the naches river, a little over half a mile above its mouth. the place is about feet west southwest of grave no. and feet above the river. it was feet by feet in diameter and feet deep. apparently it had been rifled as nothing was found in it except a skull and a few bones. - . skull, a lower jaw, and a few broken bones which were scattered among the rocks. the skull was found in the west southwest part of the grave with the face down. the lower jaw was found in the southern part of the grave about foot higher up in the rocks. * * * * * grave no. . bluff pebble grave. we examined a ring of river boulders on the twenty-acre farm of mr. james mcwhirter, a boy about fifteen years old, twelve miles up the naches river on the crest of the foothill terrace north of the road, and overlooking the bottom along the north side of the naches river. this grave was about feet high above the river by about half a mile from it. at first it looked like a little underground house site or a shallow cache pit. (museum negative, no. , - for general locality.) james, who called our attention to the pile of boulders, said that some one threw off part in an abandoned attempt to dig the grave. we thought the grave practically undisturbed and it proved to have been the least disturbed of any we had found up to this point. the outside of the ring was feet east and west by feet north and south. the inside of the ring or the space surrounded was feet east and west by feet north and south. probably this grave was a boulder heap, the aspect of a ring being given by the removal of the stones, i.e., this central space may be where stones were thrown off. river boulders were found from top to bottom. the boulders varied in weight from about to pounds. most of them were disk-shaped but some were oval. numbers - and - , were found in this grave. - . an adult skeleton was found feet deep with the head towards the west, resting on its occiput. the skull which was broken, faced south by east, with the mouth open. the knees were north; the body was on its left side and flexed. over the north side of the knees was an elliptically-shaped piece of cedar burned on the upper side. it was about feet wide by feet long. a few fragments of the skeleton of a child were found in the grave. all the bones in the grave were very soft and as the ends were broken off we discarded all but the skull and a few of the bones of the child. two shell disks ( - , ) were found about inches apart near the neck, one at the south shoulder, and one at the south side of the skull of the adult. - . pendant of disk shape made of oyster shell with one perforation near the edge (fig. ). - pendant of disk shape made of shell with two perforations near one edge (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . cremation circle, similar to several of the others on the terrace northwest of the mouth of the naches river. this consisted of a ring of angular rocks among which were no river pebbles, resembling a small underground house site, feet in diameter outside, feet in diameter at the top of the rocks, - / feet in diameter inside, both east-west and north-south. it is widest and built of largest stones on the side towards the lower part of the terrace, suggesting that the ring had slid down but the nearly level terrace would argue against this idea. this grave was like a rock-slide grave, filled with soil, but on a gently sloping terrace instead of a steep slide. photograph no. , - , from the south shows a telegraph pole to left and a flume across the yakima river to the right. see also graves no. and . child bones, found two feet deep in volcanic ash, were decayed and discarded. the tibiae were about - / inches long. * * * * * grave no. . this cremation circle was situated on the terrace about feet above the naches river and about yards north of the two bridges near its mouth. plate ix, fig. (photograph no. , - ) shows this from the east with telegraph poles beyond. the stone circle measured feet north and south inside ( outside) by feet east and west inside ( outside). our excavation here was by by feet deep. fragments of charred human bones, and some that seemed not to be charred, of six or seven individuals were found from about foot deep down to feet deep. most of these were pieces of skulls, but pieces of many other bones were found. the bones which were most burned, were those found nearest the surface. much charcoal was seen. a layer of ashes about inches in thickness was found in the center. in the northwest part of the hole a skeleton was found lying on the left side flexed, the face east, and the head north. this may have been buried after the others. the bones were very much decomposed and the skull was broken into small pieces. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . a shell ornament found on the east side of the skull. - . two dentalium shells found on the west side of the skull. dentalium shells were found in all parts of the excavation but were most numerous in the northeastern parts. - . a shell ornament. * * * * * grave no. . cremation circle excavated on june , and . shown from the east in photograph no. , - . it is feet west of grave no. and further up the terrace. the outside circle of stones measured feet north and south by feet east and west. the next circle of stones measured feet north and south by feet east and west. the space inside the stone circle measured feet north and south by feet east and west. the depth varied from feet inches in the east and south parts to feet in the north and west parts below all of which was a pitching layer of basaltic rocks. the three rings of stones surrounded a hollow. the inner row was about inches lower than the outer ring. several boulders were found in the grave. ashes and lava composed the grave soil. the whole cremation circle seemed to have been the burned remains of a communal or family depository for the dead, probably a hut like an underground winter house walled around the edge of the roof with stones. two skeletons were found on the bottom, apparently not burned, but much decayed. they were discarded. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . charcoal was abundant but most of it was found about inches deep. - . broken and charred human bones of about twelve individuals were found throughout the grave in a space about by feet beginning at the east inner ring of stones and extending beyond the second circle on the west. they were found from inches deep to parts of the bottom. - . dentalium shells were very abundant. - . engraved dentalium shells (fig. ). - . several kinds of shell ornaments were found in the northern and northwestern parts of the grave. - . several burned pieces of shell. - . one piece of metal, probably copper. - . several pieces of shell of different kinds. * * * * * grave no. . shallow cremation circle, feet north and south by east and west (outside); feet north and south by feet east and west (inside). charred human bones of a child about years old were found. * * * * * grave no. . cremation circle situated feet west from grave no. and feet west from grave no. . its diameter was feet east and west by feet north and south outside of all stones. the diameter was feet east and west by feet north and south inside. at the middle of the stone ring the diameter was feet. the middle of the excavation was feet deep in volcanic ash. no evidence of burning was found among the bones except the presence of charcoal at a depth of four feet. parts of at least four skeletons, one adult, and children were found, all much broken and separated. the bones were mostly in the southwestern end of the excavation. no skull bones were found except a lower jaw, while in grave no. most of the pieces found were of skulls. numbers - to - were found here. - . three shell ornaments found in the northeastern part of the grave. - . two dentalium shells found in the western part of the excavation. these were the only two found in the whole grave. - . piece of copper found in the northwestern part of the grave. * * * * * grave no. . cremation circle situated feet south of grave no. . this grave had possibly been rifled. the stone circle was feet in diameter outside and feet in diameter inside. the excavation was feet, inches to feet inches deep. excavation feet by feet. some fragments of human bones were found on the surface. there were more stones mixed in the earth than in the graves previously excavated here; viz: nos. to . ashes were abundant especially at the bottom. many pieces of much broken human bones were found but not as many as were seen in grave no. and they were less burned than in that grave. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . two engraved dentalium shells. - . two dentalium shells of which one was crushed and discarded. a broken flat shell ornament which we also discarded, was found here. * * * * * graves nos. - . these cremation circles were of the usual construction, showed nothing new and contained no specimens. * * * * * grave no. . cremation rectangle last explored on the terrace near the mouth of the naches river and situated feet northwest from the two bridges. the rectangular enclosure was bounded by a single row of stones, but on the south several rows were placed outside to conform with the slope of the hill covering a semi-circular area, while on the west was a second row of marking stones. it was feet long north and south by feet wide east and west and feet, inches deep. part of a child's skull, two scapulae, two tibiae, and a piece of a femur of another child; bones of a young adult; a small piece of skull and part of a femur of an adult were found. all the bones were in a poor state of preservation. numbers - to - were found in this grave. - . dentalium shells. - . a shell ornament was found in this excavation. a piece of beaver tooth and several pieces of decayed cedar were also found and discarded. * * * * * - . see grave no. . * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located near the top of the slide and above the flume on the southern side of the yakima ridge on the northern side of the yakima river about a mile eastward from the mouth of the naches river. traces of wrappings of stitched rush matting were seen in the grave. - . adult skeleton, partly bleached, flexed on back, head north as shown in situ after removing covering rocks in photograph (no. , - from the south by west), plate viii, fig. (pp. and ). * * * * * grave no. . a grave feet up on the plateau south of oak spring canon, in a dome-shaped mound of volcanic ash left by the wind. it was not like a rock-slide grave. somewhat angular stones unlike rock-slide material among which were no pebbles, formed a rectangular pile, feet long by feet wide. the grave contained many stones, several modern beads, evidently part of a rosary, two dentalium shells and a human lower jaw, but all were discarded. * * * * * grave no. . this grave was located in a dome of volcanic ash on the hill or plateau north of the ahtanum river and northwest of mr. a. d. eglin's house near tampico. it was marked by a rectangular group of rough and wind smoothed rocks (not rock-slide or river pebble) which extended down as in the crude cairns, feet northeast and southwest by feet wide northwest and southeast, the vault being feet by feet. numbers - and - were found in this grave. - . a skeleton of a child found in a very much decomposed condition. some of the bones showed anchylosis. the skull was found in the southwest of the grave with part of the pelvis, two humerii and a scapula. the rest of the skeleton was scattered, the lower jaw being in the northwest corner of the grave with the femora, tibiae and fibulae. the skull faced northeast and rested on the occiput. - . bone point found at the side of the skull. * * * * * - . see grave no. . * * * * * grave no. . eglin stone grave located in a volcanic ash knoll left behind by wind and surrounded by 'scab land' on the bottom land about miles up and west of north yakima or nearly to tampico, yakima county, and on the north side of the river road, but east of the north and south branch road which is east of mr. sherman eglin's place; about feet north of the north branch of the ahtanum river and about feet above the water level. over the grave was a stone heap of angular basalt about feet in diameter. at a depth of feet, after finding stones all the way down, was a cyst (negative, nos. , - and , - , reproduced in plate x, from the same station looking east), made up of slabs averaging inches in maximum thickness with thin sharp edges about feet by inches and smaller. there were two such cover stones, some at the sides and ends. sometimes two or three such slabs were found parallel or overlapping. there were no slabs or floor below the skeleton. this grave resembled very much the stone graves of ohio and kentucky except that the slabs were not of limestone and there was a pile of rocks over the stone cyst. numbers - , and - to - were found in this grave. - . in the cyst about on a level with the lower edges of the enclosing slabs was the skeleton of a child about six years old with head west, face north, and the knees flexed on the left side. the skull was slightly deformed by occipital pressure (plate x). - . horizontally under the vertebrae was found an engraved slab of antler in the form of a costumed human figure with the engraved surface up (fig. ). - . dentalium shells were found under the body, from the neck to the pelvis. - . ten engraved dentalium shells (fig. ). - . a bit of bone. - . charcoal found in this grave. the grave (no. ) and its contents seem to antedate the advent of the white race in this region or at least show no european influence. * * * * * - to - . see graves nos. to . * * * * * grave no. . rock-marked grave in a dome left by the wind near the pasture gate on mr. a. d. eglin's place and about half a mile north of his house near tampico. a heap of somewhat angular wind abraded rock some being smooth, (none being river pebbles or rock-slide material) marked the grave and extended below the surface about two feet. then about foot of earth intervened between them and thin rocks found around the bones of a very young child. the skull was in the northwest end of the grave and was disarticulated. the depth was feet, the length of the excavation feet, and the width feet. the skeleton was found with the head northwest and the pelvis southeast. a grave with outward appearance resembling this except that it had river pebbles among the stones of the pile is shown in fig. , plate ix, (negative no. , - taken from the north of east). * * * * * grave no. . rock-marked grave in a dome of volcanic ash left by the wind located about half a mile north of mr. a. d. eglin's house near tampico. this grave was like a rude cairn being rudely walled and found filled with earth and stones as well as covered by rocks of which eight or nine weighing about or pounds, showed above the surface of the ground. its depth was feet, length feet, and its width, feet inches, extending west southwest and east northeast. a little charcoal was found in this grave also. - . adult skeleton found flexed on left side, facing northeast. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located in a small irregular rock-slide on the north side of cowiche creek about miles west of its mouth and about feet above the road. the rocks were piled up in a crescent-shaped ridge on the lower side of the grave. four sticks about four feet long were found planted upright among the stones. the grave extended east and west. parts of a human skeleton were found. it was in a flexed position, head west, skull and the bones of the upper part of the body broken and decomposed. the bones of the lower part of the body were well preserved. the skeleton had been wrapped in matting or bark, several pieces of matting being found in the grave as well as parts of a basket. numbers - a and - b were found in this grave. - a. chipped point of mottled quartz found near the skull (plate ii, fig. ). - b. chipped point of white quartz found near the skull (plate ii, fig. ). - . pestle or roller made of stone from the surface about a mile east of fort simcoe. this is of cylindrical shape tapering to both ends but to one more than to the other. both ends are fractured (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . rock-marked grave located on a plateau above wenas creek near its mouth and about seven miles north of north yakima. the rocks marking the grave covered a space feet by feet and extended down to the skeleton which was very much broken but not decomposed. no objects other than some charcoal were found in this grave. all the other graves in the vicinity of the mouth of wenas creek seem to have been rifled. - . broken ulna of a deer found at the mouth of wenas creek about miles north of north yakima. numbers - to - were found on the surface at the mouth of wenas creek. - . small chipped point made of red jasper. - a-c. three chipped points made of white chert. - . broken and burned chipped point made of white chert. - . broken triangular chipped point made of white chert. - . chipped point made of reddish white chert (plate ii. fig. ). - a, b. two chipped pieces of white chalcedony. numbers - a-e to - f were found in the valley of wenas creek, on the surface near where the trail from north yakima to ellensburg crosses the creek, about miles north of north yakima. - a-e. five pieces of agate of reddish or amber color. - f. agate of whitish color - a. a chip of stone. - b-e. four pieces of stone. - f. chip of stone. numbers - to - were found on the surface at the mouth of wenas creek. - . pestle made of stone. - . pestle made of stone. - . broken pebble, battered on the side. - . fragment of a pestle made of stone of nearly square cross section. found on the surface three miles north of clemen's ranch, on wenas creek where the trail from north yakima to ellensburg crosses. - . pestle found about miles north of north yakima, on the trail to ellensburg. it was in a dry creek in "kittitass" canon. this canon is probably the manastash not the "kittitass," as we were told. ellensburg. - . base of a triangular chipped point made of jasper found on the surface near the town reservoir on the ridge east of ellensburg. numbers - to - were found on the surface of the bottom land west of cherry creek, near ellensburg. the place was a village site and is on the farm of mr. bull near where an east and west road crosses the creek, and opposite where the creek touches on the east, the west base of the upland. at this point the creek comes up to the upland from the lowland to the north (p. ). - . chipped boulder. - . notched boulder, or net sinker. - . battered pebble. - . four burned stones. - . gritstone, probably a whetstone. - . pebble. - . unio shells. - . six chips. - . scraper chipped from chalcedony (fig. ). - . chipped point of heart shape made of clove brown jasper. (plate ii, fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . stone circle located on the crest of a western extension of the saddle mountains on mr. bull's farm, east of cherry creek and about seven miles south of ellensburg. the place is east of the village site above-mentioned which is on the bottom land along the west side of the creek at this point. a circular ring of stones, feet in diameter marked the grave. smaller stones and earth in the middle extended feet inches down to the skeleton. no objects were found except a plentiful supply of charcoal. - . the bones of an adult human skeleton which appeared as if it had been flexed were found very much out of anatomical order. it lay northeast and southwest in the southeast part of the grave. there was a large hole in the right frontal of the skull which lay facing the northwest. the lower jaw was found on top of the skull with its angle east. fragments of the tibiae were blackened by fire. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located in the rock-slide on the west side of the bluff, a western extension of the saddle mountains, east of cherry creek and about half a mile southwest of mr. bull's house. one small piece of decayed wood was found projecting above the rock-slide, and it was the only indication of the grave, there being no cavity over it. among the rocks, four more posts were found, one at each corner of the grave. these had evidently rotted off even with the surface, having formerly, no doubt, extended above it. the depth of the grave was from to feet, according to the slope of the hill. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . skeleton of a child with anchylosed neck vertebrae. some of the bones were bleached. the bones were very much displaced, the skull being found in the middle of the grave and some of the vertebrae being found near the surface, but most of the bones were around the skull. the body dressed and wrapped in matting had been placed between four large boulders. - . fragments of leather or skin clothing. - . dentalium shells. - . glass beads. - . three bracelets made of iron (fig. ). - . a bone disk with central perforation (fig. ). - . a bit of a fresh water shell. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located about feet south southwest of grave no. and in the same rock-slide. it had the same characteristics but had evidently been disturbed, the skull being missing. no artifacts were found in the grave. - . adult skeleton without skull and some bones of a little child. the bones of an adult were found in a heap except the vertebrae which lay extended full length; cervical vertebrae to the north. the bones of one ankle, a tibia, and fibula were diseased. the cervical vertebrae are anchylosed; and one of the ribs is abnormal. the bones of the knees are partly bleached. the bones of the child being found between the ribs and the pelvis suggest that it was foetal. * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located feet south southwest from grave no. in the same rock-slide with it. there was nothing on the surface to indicate this grave, but below the surface of the slide on the upper side of the grave, were three rows of sticks, about feet long, standing vertically and close to each other. these seemed to be so placed that they would prevent the slide from further movement towards the grave. the grave cavity was feet south southeast by feet east northeast and feet deep on one side, feet on the other, or averaging about - / feet deep, and extending into the soil below the slide. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . in the bottom of the grave the skeleton of a youth was found. it was in good condition, lying on its back, facing west, but having rolled westward. the legs were flexed so that the femora lay at right angles or to the southeast of the pelvis, and the tibiae and fibulae lay parallel to them. the arms lay extended at the sides of the body with the hands on the pelvis. three of the arm bones and one pelvis bone are stained by copper. the tibia of a child was found with these. - . mat of twined rushes found under the pelvis. the rushes were stitched together in pairs with cord and each pair was twisted once between each stitch (fig. ). - . open twine matting of rushes held together with cords woven around them, skin with hair on it, and in this were copper beads strung with beads made of dentalium shells on a leather thong (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave found feet south southwest of grave no. . there were no surface indications of the grave. posts of decayed wood were found extending from the surface down to about inches from the bottom. the tops appeared to have been cut off and probably never extended above the surface. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . the skeleton of a young child with a persistent frontal suture was found at a depth of from to feet with the head east, trunk on back, femora at right angles to tibiae, and fibulae parallel to them, flexed to left or south. - . skin with the hair on found on body. - . matting. - . several rows of beads, some of copper, others of glass and still others of sections of dentalium shells were found at the neck, arms and legs. these are strung on pieces of thong, some of which are wound at the ends. some of them are on coarse twisted, and others on fine twisted plant fibre (fig. ). - a, b. two pendants made of haliotis shell were found, one near the head and one at the pelvis (fig. ). - a, b. two copper pendants were found at the legs, _b_ has a thong in the perforation. - a-d. four bracelets made of copper found on the arms (fig. ). - . teeth of a rodent found in the grave. - . a square pendant made of copper with a thong and bead made of copper (fig. ). - . a pendant made of copper (fig. ). - . a bit of wood bounding a knot hole. - . two dentalium shells. - . a piece of iron. - . woodpecker feathers, some bound at the tips with fabric, one with feather, and fur or moss. - . a copper ornament found among the rocks over this grave about foot deep. - . a pendant made of brass with thong and bead made of copper found among the rocks over this grave about foot deep (fig. ). - . a pendant made of copper with thong found about foot deep among the rocks over this grave (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . rock-slide grave located in the same slide with nos. , , and , feet to the south southwest of no. . the grave was feet in diameter by feet deep. four posts of poplar were found at the corners of this grave but these did not show above the surface being decayed down to within or inches of the ground under the rock-slide. sticks had also been used to mark this grave on the surface. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . the skeleton of a youth was found resting on its back with the head to the east, arms at the sides, legs flexed at right angles, i.e., to the north. two buttons, one of bone and one of pearl, or shell, and a bridle bit were found in the grave, but were discarded. - . a bit of shell. - . thirteen cones made of iron (fig. ). - . two pendants made of iron (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . a rock-enclosure burial located on the hill south of mr. bull's house near the gap south of ellensburg and about feet north of grave no. . this burial was the southwestern of a group of eight, all very close together and of which the southern circular enclosure of five had been rifled although the three oblong enclosures were intact. there were traces of human bones in all of the eight enclosures. the enclosure to the north contained a skeleton that had been burned. no. differed from no. in that the stones did not extend below the surface. - . at a depth of feet, in the grave pit feet by feet was the skeleton of an adult lying with the head north, face east, on the left side, arms extended to pelvis, legs flexed to left, i.e., to east. no specimens were found in this enclosure. * * * * * grave no. . a rock-slide grave was located about feet west of grave no. and was similar to it in general character. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . the very much decomposed skeleton of a child was found here. the broken skull was preserved. - a, b. two fragments of antler, perhaps part of an implement found about inch above the pelvis. - . a triangular copper object with two perforations found inside the skull. - . a pendant or nose ornament made of haliotis shell and stained pink in places found on the lower jaw (fig. ). - . dentalium shells. - . a long shell pendant with two perforations. - . a pendant made of haliotis shell bearing a pink stain with a perforation and part of a second perforation (fig. ). - . a long shell pendant with one perforation. - a, b. two triangular objects made of shell. - . pieces of shell found near the lower jaw. priest rapids. - . one pebble showing use at the end as a pestle. found on the surface of the divide miles east of ellensburg, and about miles west of mr. craig's house near the head of priest rapids. - a, b. pieces of a pestle made of part of a column of basalt, with the corners rounded by pecking. found on the surface at the head of priest rapids on the west side of the river. - . a pestle made by rounding the edges of a piece of a basaltic column. found on the surface of the west bank of the columbia river miles above mr. craig's house, which is at the head of priest rapids. * * * * * numbers - to - were found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. - . a pestle or part of a pestle. - . a river pebble partly pecked into the form of a pestle (fig. ). - . the end of a pestle having a large striking head. - . part of a stone pestle. - . pestle formed by rounding the corners of a small basaltic column. - . to - . numbers - to - are pestles made of stone found on the surface near the head of priest rapids (fig. , - ). numbers - to - were found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. - . part of a pestle made of stone. - a. a pebble battered on each end (fig. ). - b. pebble, one side of which has been used as a mortar. - . part of a mortar made of stone. - . part of a mortar. - . disk-shaped boulder, one side of which is notched opposite a natural notch. possibly this has been a net sinker similar to the following. * * * * * numbers - to - were found on the surface of the bank of the columbia river near the head of priest rapids. - . river pebble. such pebbles were made into sinkers for fish nets. see - and adjacent catalogue numbers (fig. a). - . scraper or knife made of a river pebble one side of which is chipped (fig. ). - . river pebble of disk shape, partly chipped. - . river pebble of disk shape, partly chipped on two edges. - . river pebble of disk shape, partly chipped on one edge. - . river pebble of disk shape, partly chipped on two edges. - . river pebble of disk shape, partly chipped on four edges (fig. ). - . river pebble, partly chipped. - . river pebble of disk shape, chipped around the edge from one side only. - . disk-shaped river pebble, chipped around the edge from both sides. - . disk-shaped river pebble, chipped in two places, opposite each other from both sides, and at a place equi-distant from these two from only one side. - . scraper or knife chipped from a pebble (fig. ). - . chipped pebble. * * * * * - to - . numbers - to - are oblong flat river pebbles with a notch chipped in the edge at each end from both sides. they are probably sinkers for fish nets. ( - , see fig. _c_; - , see fig. _b_). - to - . numbers - to - are oval flat river pebbles with pieces chipped from the edges in several places. - . flat oval river pebble with pieces chipped from both sides of the edge at five places, probably a sinker for a fish net. - . flat disk-shaped pebble with four notches about equi-distant around the edge, and chipped from each side, probably a sinker for a fish net. - . oval river pebble with four notches chipped in the edge nearly equi-distant from each other, probably a sinker for a fish net. - . oval flat river pebble with four notches chipped in the edge from both sides, and about equi-distant from each other, probably a sinker for a fish net. - . oval flat river pebble with four notches chipped in the edge from both sides, and about equi-distant from each other, probably a sinker for a fish net (fig. _d_). - . half of a stone ring, probably a sinker for a fish net. - . boulder in which groove is partly pecked, probably a net sinker or anchor. - . large chipped implement made of basalt (plate i, fig. ). - . large chipped form made of white chert (plate i, fig. ). * * * * * numbers - to - were found on the surface near the head of priest rapids. - . chipped form. - . chipped form of white chalcedony (fig. ). - . chipped form. - . chipped form made of red jasper (plate _i_, fig. ). - to - . numbers - to - are chipped forms. - . basal half of a chipped point. - . half of a chipped form. - . point of a chipped form. - . part of a chipped form. - to - . numbers - to - are points of chipped forms. - . triangular chipped point. - . triangular chipped point. - . chipped form. - . chipped point. - . chipped point made of brown horn stone (plate ii, fig. ). - . triangular chipped point made of pale yellow chalcedony. the chalcedony is flint-like in texture (plate ii, fig. ). - . chipped point made of yellow agate (plate ii, fig. ). - . chipped point. - . chipped point made of pale fulvous chalcedony (plate ii, fig. ). - . chipped arrow, knife or spear point made of chalcedony (fig. ). - . chipped arrow, spear or knife point. - . chipped arrow point made of pale fulvous chalcedony (plate ii, fig. ). - . chipped arrow point. - . chipped arrow point made of opaline whitish chalcedony (plate ii, fig. ). - . chipped arrow point made of chalcedony (fig. ). - . point for a drill chipped from chert (fig. ). - . scraper chipped from petrified wood (fig. ). - . scraper chipped from agate (fig. ). - . scraper chipped from chalcedony (fig. ). - . chipped piece of chalcedony. - . chipped piece of petrified wood. - . flake of stone. - . flake of stone. - a. piece of antler showing knife marks. - b. part of a wedge made of antler. - . a piece of antler that has been whittled. - a, b, c. three pieces of antler. - . bleached barb for a fish spear made of bone (fig. ). - . six clam shells from the columbia river. - . seventeen clam shells from the old shell bed shown in plate v, fig. . - . four shell disks found among the refuse of a rock-slide grave near the head of priest rapids (fig. ). - . one dentalium shell found among the refuse of a rock-slide grave near the head of priest rapids. - . pendant made of haliotis shell, triangular in form, perforated at the most acute corner. this shell came from the pacific coast. found in the grave of a child in a rock-slide near the head of priest rapids west of the columbia river near the home of mr. craig (fig. ). numbers - to - were also found here. - a, b, c, d. vertebrae of a fish. - . pendant made of a shell probably a young _pectunculus gigantea_. the hinge side has been smoothed off (fig. ). - . three dentalium shells. - . twenty-eight shell disks or beads. * * * * * grave no. . a rock-slide grave located on the east side of the escarpment that runs south to the columbia river about two miles southwest of mr. craig's house near the head of priest rapids. stones were heaped up over this grave and sticks about feet long were standing up and extended from the earth above the skeleton to feet above the surface. numbers - and - to - were found in the grave. - . an adult skeleton was found at a depth of feet from the top of the rock heap. the head was east. the skeleton was flexed and it was lying on the left side. - . stitched rush matting, probably recent, found in contact with the skin on this skeleton (fig. ). part was of the stitch shown in fig. . - . a roll of birch bark. * * * * * grave no. . grave of a child near grave no. . this child's grave was of the same kind as grave no. . - . pendant or bead made of sea shell (fig. ). * * * * * grave no. . a rock-slide grave found miles above mr. craig's house in a small slide at the foot of the bluff. upright cedar slabs about feet long were found along about feet of the lower part of the grave. the skeleton of an adult lay flexed along the slabs with the head to the north. - . the skull. several similar graves, most of which have been rifled, were seen at this place. * * * * * grave no. . grave found about miles south of mr. craig's house on the western bank of the columbia. it was in the sand, covered with flat river boulders. no artifacts were found in the grave. - . adult skeleton, bleached. much of the skeleton was found exposed and parts were missing. the head was north. * * * * * grave no. . boulder-covered grave in sand was located at the edge of the river miles up the columbia from mr. craig's house. numbers - and - to - were found in this grave. - . an adult skeleton was found in this grave with the head north, face down, and flexed. - . fragment of a large mortar made of stone (fig. ). - a, b, c. three pestles found among the covering boulders of this grave. * * * * * numbers - to - were presented by mrs. j. b. davidson of ellensburg. the specimens were collected at the head of priest rapids. - . pipe made of limestone decorated with the circle and dot design similar to that used in the thompson river region (fig. also negative , - ). - . double notched point chipped from black glassy basalt or trap (plate ii, fig. ). - . point for a drill or perforator chipped from chalcedony (fig. ). - . river pebble partly pecked into the form of a pestle. found on the surface miles above the head of priest rapids (fig. ). various localities. numbers . - to . - were collected and presented by mr. d. w. owen of kennewick. . - . bone object broken and partly missing from blalock island fifteen miles below umatilla in the columbia river. . - . wedge made of antler from the surface near the columbia river near the mouth of the snake river (fig. ). . - . bleached awl made of bone from an island in the columbia river, forty miles above the mouth of the snake river (fig. ). . - . bleached awl made of bone from the surface of an island in the columbia river near the mouth of the snake river (fig. ). . - . awl made of brownish bone nearly circular in section with five incised lines on two sides, four on one, and none on the other which is plain because worn smooth probably by age or use. from a grave on blalock island, a long island in the columbia river fifteen miles below umatilla. . - . awl made of brownish bone. the shaft has nearly parallel sides and rounded corners but the base is nearly circular in section. striations such as are made by a gritstone show on the surface. found with another in a grave on an island in the snake river five miles above its mouth (fig. ). . - . sculptured arm with hand made of black slate having four nearly parallel sides and rounded corners. from umatilla, oregon. . - . pipe made of sandstone bearing design. from the snake river indians (figs. and ). . - . sculptured handle broken from a club made of serpentine. the broken surface is smooth. there are notches / inch long on the edge. from blalock island opposite umatilla in the columbia valley (fig. h, smith, (b).). . - . fluted stone, possibly an unfinished pestle. from near lewiston, idaho. presented by mr. henry fair, spokane, idaho. * * * * * numbers . - to . - are from an old village site near fort simcoe. collected by dr. h. j. spinden. . - . mortar. . - . pestle. . - . pestle. t- (h- ). fragment of a leaf-shaped point made of chert. from wallula near the columbia river, oregon. collected by judge james kennedy in (fig. ). t- (h- ). fragments of a figure made of antler. from umatilla, oregon. collected by mrs. james terry (fig. ). [illustration: chipped points. (page ) plate i.] [illustration: chipped points. (page ) plate ii.] [illustration: quarry near naches river. (page ) house site near naches river. (page ) plate iii.] [illustration: house sites near naches river. (page ) plate iv.] [illustration: camp sites near sentinal bluffs. (page ) plate v.] [illustration: fort near rock creek. rock-slide grave on yakima ridge. (page ) plate vi.] [illustration: terraced rock-slide on yakima ridge. (page ) plate vii.] [illustration: rock-slide graves on yakima ridge. (page ) plate viii.] [illustration: cremation circle near mouth of naches river. (page ) grave in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. (page ) plate ix.] [illustration: opened grave in dome of volcanic ash near tampico. (page ) plate x.] [illustration: petroglyphs near sentinal bluffs.( page ) plate xi.] [illustration: petroglyphs in selah canon. (page ) plate xii.] [illustration: petroglyph in selah canon. (page ) petroglyph near wallula junction. (page ) plate xiii.] [illustration: pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. (page ) plate xiv.] [illustration: pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. (page ) plate xv.] [illustration: pictographs at mouth of cowiche creek. (page ) plate xvi.] * * * * * transcriber notes: archaic, alternate and misspellings of words have been retained to match the original work with the exception of those listed below missing punctuation has been added and obvious punctuation errors have been corrected. page : "gulley" changed to "gully" (on either side by a gully). page : footnote , added "p." ( spinden, p, .) page : "anterio" changed to "anterior" (leaving a large anterior lateral projection). page : "assymetrical" changed to "asymmetrical" ( a slightly asymmetrical disk) page : illustration caption: "n" changed to "in" ( in the collection of) page : "he" changed to "be" ( contents will be found) page : "begining" changed to "beginning" (first beginning at the east). page : "untill" changed to "until" (held the pipe until i took). page : "simitransparent" changed to "semi-transparent" (where the semi-transparent green steatite). page : "p. " changed to "p. " (under the section of art on p. .) page : "fo" changed to "of" (and the method of indicating) page : "familar" changed to "familiar" (not be one merely familiar with) page : "bibiography" changed to "bibliography" page : "tibiæ" changed to "tibiae" and "fibulæ" changed to "fibulae" for consistency. the elementary forms of the religious life emile durkheim _the elementary forms of the religious life_ translated from the french by joseph ward swain m.a. _london_ george allen & unwin ltd ruskin house museum street first published in second impression third impression fourth impression fifth impression _this book is copyright under the berne convention. apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the copyright act, , no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. enquiry should be made to the publisher._ _© george allen & unwin ltd. _ printed in great britain by hollen street press ltd london w. contents introduction subject of our study: religious sociology and the theory of knowledge page i.--principal subject of the book: analysis of the simplest religion known to determine the elementary forms of the religious life--why they are more easily found and explained in the primitive religions ii.--secondary subject of research: the genesis of the fundamental notions of thought or the categories--reasons for believing that their origin is religious and consequently social--how a way of restating the theory of knowledge is thus seen book i preliminary questions chapter i definition of religious phenomena and of religion usefulness of a preliminary definition of religion; method to be followed in seeking this definition--why the usual definitions should be examined first i.--religion defined by the supernatural and mysterious-- criticism: the notion of mystery is not primitive ii.--religion defined in connection with the idea of god or a spiritual being.--religions without gods--rites in deistic religions which imply no idea of divinity iii.--search for a positive definition--distinction between beliefs and rites--definition of beliefs--first characteristic: division of things between sacred and profane--distinctive characteristics of this definition--definition of rites in relation to beliefs--definition of religion iv.--necessity of another characteristic to distinguish magic from religion--the idea of the church--do individualistic religions exclude the idea of a church? chapter ii leading conceptions of the elementary religion i.--_animism_ distinction of animism and naturism i.--the three theses of animism: genesis of the idea of the soul; formation of the idea of spirits; transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature ii.--criticism of the first thesis--distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double--dreams do not account for the idea of the soul iii.--criticism of the second thesis--death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit--the cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive iv.--criticism of the third thesis--the anthropomorphic instinct--spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point--examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved--difference between a soul and the spirits of nature--religious anthropomorphism is not primitive v.--conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations chapter iii leading conceptions of the elementary religion--(_continued_) ii.--_naturism_ history of the theory i.--exposition of max müller's naturism ii.--if the object of religion is to express natural forces, it is hard to see how it has maintained itself, for it expresses them in an erroneous manner--pretended distinction between religion and mythology iii.--naturism does not explain the division of things into sacred and profane chapter iv totemism as an elementary religion i.--brief history of the question of totemism ii.--reasons of method for which our study will be given specially to the totemism of australia--the place which will be given to facts from america book ii the elementary beliefs chapter i totemic beliefs _the totem as name and as emblem_ i.--definition of the clan--the totem as name of the clan--nature of the things which serve as totems--ways in which the totem is acquired--the totems of phratries; of matrimonial classes ii.--the totem as emblem--totemic designs engraved or carved upon objects; tatooings or designs upon the body iii.--sacred character of the totemic emblem--the churinga--the nurtunja--the waninga--conventional character of totemic emblems chapter ii totemic beliefs--(_continued_) _the totemic animal and man_ i.--sacred character of the totemic animals--prohibition to eat them, kill them or pick the totemic plants--different moderations given these prohibitions--prohibition of contact--the sacred character of the animal is less marked than that of the emblem ii.--the man--his relationship with the totemic animal or plant--different myths explaining this relationship--the sacred character of the man is more apparent in certain parts of the organism: the blood, hair, etc.--how this character varies with sex and age--totemism is not plant or animal worship chapter iii totemic beliefs--(_continued_) _the cosmological system of totemism and the idea of class_ i.--the classification of things into clans, phratries and classes ii.--genesis of the notion of class: the first classifications of things take their forms from society--differences between the sentiment of the differences of things and the idea of class-- why this is of social origin iii.--religious significance of these classifications: all of the things classified into a clan partake of the nature of the totem and its sacred character--the cosmological system of totemism--totemism as the tribal religion chapter iv totemic beliefs--(_end_) _the individual totem and the sexual totem_ i.--individual totem as a forename; its sacred character-- individual totem as personal emblem--bonds between the man and his individual totem--relations with the collective totem ii.--the totems of sexual groups--resemblances and differences with the collective and individual totems--their tribal nature chapter v origins of these beliefs _critical examination of preceding theories_ i.--theories which derive totemism from a previous religion: from the ancestor cult (wilken and tylor); from the nature cult (jevons)--criticism of these theories ii.--theories which derive collective totemism from individual totemism--origins attributed by these theories to the individual totem (frazer, boas, hill tout)--improbability of these hypotheses--reasons showing the priority of the collective totem iii.--recent theory of frazer: _conceptional_ and local totemism--the begging of the question upon which it rests--the religious character of the totem is denied--local totemism is not primitive iv.--theory of lang: that the totem is only a name--difficulties in explaining the religious character of totemic practices from this point of view v.--all these theories explain totemism only by postulating other religious notions anterior to it chapter vi origins of these beliefs--(_continued_) _the notion of the totemic principle, or mana, and the idea of force_ i.--the notion of the totemic force or principle--its ubiquity-- its character at once physical and moral ii.--analogous conceptions in other inferior societies--the gods in samoa, the wakan of the sioux, the orenda of the iroquois, the mana of melanesia--connection of these notions with totemism--the arunkulta of the arunta iii.--logical priority of impersonal force over the different mythical personalities--recent theories which tend to admit this priority iv.--the notion of religious force is the prototype of that of force in general chapter vii origins of these beliefs--(_end_) _origin of the idea of the totemic principle or mana_ i.--the totemic principle is the clan, but thought of under a more empirical form ii.--general reasons for which society is apt to awaken the sensation of the sacred and the divine--society as an imperative moral force; the notion of moral authority--society as a force which raises the individual outside of himself-- facts which prove that society creates the sacred iii.--reasons peculiar to australian societies--the two phases through which the life of these societies alternatively passes: dispersion, concentration--great collective effervescence during the periods of concentration--examples--how the religious idea is born out of this effervescence why collective force has been thought of under totemic forms: it is the totem that is the emblem of the clan--explanation of the principal totemic beliefs iv.--religion is not the product of fear--it expresses something real--its essential idealism--this idealism is a general characteristic of collective mentality--explanation of the external character of religious forces in relation to their subjects--the principle that _the part is equal to the whole_ v.--origin of the notion of emblem: emblems a necessary condition of collective representations--why the clan has taken its emblems from the animal and vegetable kingdoms vi.--the proneness of the primitive to confound the kingdoms and classes which we distinguish--origins of these confusions--how they have blazed the way for scientific explanations--they do not exclude the tendency towards distinction and opposition chapter viii the idea of the soul i.--analysis of the idea of the soul in the australian societies ii.--genesis of this idea--the doctrine of reincarnation according to spencer and gillen: it implies that the soul is a part of the totemic principle--examination of the facts collected by strehlow; they confirm the totemic nature of the soul iii.--generality of the doctrine of reincarnation--diverse facts in support of the proposed genesis iv.--antithesis of the soul and the body: what there is objective in this--relations of the individual soul with the collective soul--the idea of the soul is not chronologically after that of mana v.--hypothesis to explain the belief in its survival vi.--the idea of a soul and the idea of a person; impersonal elements in the personality chapter ix the idea of spirits and gods i.--difference between a soul and a spirit--the souls of the mythical ancestors are spirits, having determined functions-- relations between the ancestral spirit, the individual soul and the individual totem--explanation of this latter--its sociological significance ii.--spirits and magic iii.--the civilizing heroes iv.--the great gods--their origin--their relations with the totemic system--their tribal and international character v.--unity of the totemic system book iii the principal ritual attitudes chapter i the negative cult and its functions the ascetic rites i.--the system of interdictions--magic and religious interdictions--interdictions between sacred things of different sorts--interdictions between sacred and profane--these latter are the basis of the negative cult--leading types of these interdictions; their reduction to two essential types ii.--the observance of interdictions modifies the religious state of individuals--cases where this efficacy is especially apparent: ascetic practices--the religious efficacy of sorrow-- social function of asceticism iii.--explanation of the system of interdictions: antagonism of the sacred and the profane, contagiousness of the sacred iv.--causes of this contagiousness--it cannot be explained by the laws of the association of ideas--it is because religious forces are outside of their subjects--logical interest in this property of religious forces chapter ii the positive cult i.--_the elements of sacrifice_ the intichiuma ceremony in the tribes of central australia-- different forms which it presents i.--the arunta form--the two phases--analysis of the first: visit to sacred places, scattering of sacred dust, shedding of blood, etc., to assure the reproduction of the totemic species ii.--second phase: ritual consumption of the totemic plant or animal iii.--interpretation of the complete ceremony--the second rite consists in a communion meal--reason for this communion iv.--the rites of the first phase consists in oblations--analogies with sacrificial oblations--the intichiuma thus contains the two elements of sacrifice--interest of these facts for the theory of sacrifice v.--on the pretended absurdity of sacrificial oblations--how they are explained: dependence of sacred beings upon their worshippers--explanation of the circle in which sacrifice seems to move--origin of the periodicity of positive rites chapter iii the positive cult--(_continued_) ii.--_imitative rites and the principle of causality_ i.--nature of the imitative rites--examples of ceremonies where they are employed to assure the fertility of the species ii.--they rest upon the principle: _like produces like_-- examination of the explanation of this given by the anthropological school--reasons why they imitate the animal or plant--reasons for attributing a physical efficacy to these gestures--faith--in what sense it is founded upon experience-- the principles of magic are born in religion iii.--the preceding principle considered as one of the first statements of the principle of causality--social conditions upon which this latter depends--the idea of impersonal force or power is of social origin--the necessity for the conception of causality explained by the authority inherent in social imperatives chapter iv the positive cult--(_continued_) iii.--_representative or commemorative rites_ i.--representative rites with physical efficacy--their relations with the ceremonies already described--their action is wholly moral ii.--representative rites without physical efficacy--they confirm the preceding results--the element of recreation in religion: its importance; its reason for existence--the idea of a feast iii.--ambiguity of function in the various ceremonies studied; they substitute themselves for each other--how this ambiguity confirms the theory proposed chapter v piacular rites and the ambiguity of the notion of sacredness definition of the piacular rite i.--positive rites of mourning--description of these rites ii.--how they are explained--they are not a manifestation of private sentiments--the malice attributed to the souls of the dead cannot account for them either--they correspond to the state of mind in which the group happens to be--analysis of this state--how it ends by mourning--corresponding changes in the way in which the souls of the dead are conceived iii.--other piacular rites; after a public mourning, a poor harvest, a drought, the southern lights--rarity of these rites in australia--how they are explained iv.--the two forms of the sacred: the pure and the impure--their antagonism--their relationship--ambiguity of the idea of the sacred--all rites present the same character conclusion to what extent the results obtained may be generalized i.--religion rests upon an experience that is well founded but not privileged--necessity of a science to reach the reality at the bottom of this experience--what is this reality?--the human groups--human meaning of religion--concerning the objection which opposes the ideal society to the real society how religious individualism and cosmopolitanism are explained in this theory ii.--the eternal element in religion--concerning the conflict between science and religion; it has to do solely with the speculative side of religion--what this side seems destined to become iii.--how has society been able to be the source of logical, that is to say conceptual, thought? definition of the concept: not to be confounded with the general idea; characterized by its impersonality and communicability--it has a collective origin--the analysis of its contents bears witness in the same sense collective representations as types of ideas which individuals accept--in regard to the objection that they are impersonal only on condition of being true--conceptual thought is coeval with humanity iv.--how the categories express social things--the chief category is the concept of totality which could be suggested only by society--why the relations expressed by the categories could become conscious only in society--society is not an a-logical being--how the categories tend to detach themselves from geographically determined groups the unity of science on the one hand, and of morals and religion on the other--how the society accounts for this unity-- explanation of the rôle attributed to society: its creative power--reactions of sociology upon the science of man the elementary forms of the religious life introduction subject of our study: religious sociology and the theory of knowledge in this book we propose to study the most primitive and simple religion which is actually known, to make an analysis of it, and to attempt an explanation of it. a religious system may be said to be the most primitive which we can observe when it fulfils the two following conditions: in the first place, when it is found in a society whose organization is surpassed by no others in simplicity;[ ] and secondly, when it is possible to explain it without making use of any element borrowed from a previous religion. we shall set ourselves to describe the organization of this system with all the exactness and fidelity that an ethnographer or an historian could give it. but our task will not be limited to that: sociology raises other problems than history or ethnography. it does not seek to know the passed forms of civilization with the sole end of knowing them and reconstructing them. but rather, like every positive science, it has as its object the explanation of some actual reality which is near to us, and which consequently is capable of affecting our ideas and our acts: this reality is man, and more precisely, the man of to-day, for there is nothing which we are more interested in knowing. then we are not going to study a very archaic religion simply for the pleasure of telling its peculiarities and its singularities. if we have taken it as the subject of our research, it is because it has seemed to us better adapted than any other to lead to an understanding of the religious nature of man, that is to say, to show us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity. but this proposition is not accepted before the raising of strong objections. it seems very strange that one must turn back, and be transported to the very beginnings of history, in order to arrive at an understanding of humanity as it is at present. this manner of procedure seems particularly paradoxical in the question which concerns us. in fact, the various religions generally pass as being quite unequal in value and dignity; it is said that they do not all contain the same quota of truth. then it seems as though one could not compare the highest forms of religious thought with the lowest, without reducing the first to the level of the second. if we admit that the crude cults of the australian tribes can help us to understand christianity, for example, is that not supposing that this latter religion proceeds from the same mentality as the former, that it is made up of the same superstitions and rests upon the same errors? this is how the theoretical importance which has sometimes been attributed to primitive religions has come to pass as a sign of a systematic hostility to all religion, which, by prejudging the results of the study, vitiates them in advance. there is no occasion for asking here whether or not there are scholars who have merited this reproach, and who have made religious history and ethnology a weapon against religion. in any case, a sociologist cannot hold such a point of view. in fact, it is an essential postulate of sociology that a human institution cannot rest upon an error and a lie, without which it could not exist. if it were not founded in the nature of things, it would have encountered in the facts a resistance over which it could never have triumphed. so when we commence the study of primitive religions, it is with the assurance that they hold to reality and express it; this principle will be seen to re-enter again and again in the course of the analyses and discussions which follow, and the reproach which we make against the schools from which we have separated ourselves is that they have ignored it. when only the letter of the formulæ is considered, these religious beliefs and practices undoubtedly seem disconcerting at times, and one is tempted to attribute them to some sort of a deep-rooted error. but one must know how to go underneath the symbol to the reality which it represents and which gives it its meaning. the most barbarous and the most fantastic rites and the strangest myths translate some human need, some aspect of life, either individual or social. the reasons with which the faithful justify them may be, and generally are, erroneous; but the true reasons do not cease to exist, and it is the duty of science to discover them. in reality, then, there are no religions which are false. all are true in their own fashion; all answer, though in different ways, to the given conditions of human existence. it is undeniably possible to arrange them in a hierarchy. some can be called superior to others, in the sense that they call into play higher mental functions, that they are richer in ideas and sentiments, that they contain more concepts with fewer sensations and images, and that their arrangement is wiser. but howsoever real this greater complexity and this higher ideality may be, they are not sufficient to place the corresponding religions in different classes. all are religions equally, just as all living beings are equally alive, from the most humble plastids up to man. so when we turn to primitive religions it is not with the idea of depreciating religion in general, for these religions are no less respectable than the others. they respond to the same needs, they play the same rôle, they depend upon the same causes; they can also well serve to show the nature of the religious life, and consequently to resolve the problem which we wish to study. but why give them a sort of prerogative? why choose them in preference to all others as the subject of our study?--it is merely for reasons of method. in the first place, we cannot arrive at an understanding of the most recent religions except by following the manner in which they have been progressively composed in history. in fact, historical analysis is the only means of explanation which it is possible to apply to them. it alone enables us to resolve an institution into its constituent elements, for it shows them to us as they are born in time, one after another. on the other hand, by placing every one of them in the condition where it was born, it puts into our hands the only means we have of determining the causes which gave rise to it. every time that we undertake to explain something human, taken at a given moment in history--be it a religious belief, a moral precept, a legal principle, an æsthetic style or an economic system--it is necessary to commence by going back to its most primitive and simple form, to try to account for the characteristics by which it was marked at that time, and then to show how it developed and became complicated little by little, and how it became that which it is at the moment in question. one readily understands the importance which the determination of the point of departure has for this series of progressive explanations, for all the others are attached to it. it was one of descartes's principles that the first ring has a predominating place in the chain of scientific truths. but there is no question of placing at the foundation of the science of religions an idea elaborated after the cartesian manner, that is to say, a logical concept, a pure possibility, constructed simply by force of thought. what we must find is a concrete reality, and historical and ethnological observation alone can reveal that to us. but even if this cardinal conception is obtained by a different process than that of descartes, it remains true that it is destined to have a considerable influence on the whole series of propositions which the science establishes. biological evolution has been conceived quite differently ever since it has been known that monocellular beings do exist. in the same way, the arrangement of religious facts is explained quite differently, according as we put naturism, animism or some other religious form at the beginning of the evolution. even the most specialized scholars, if they are unwilling to confine themselves to a task of pure erudition, and if they desire to interpret the facts which they analyse, are obliged to choose one of these hypotheses, and make it their starting-point. whether they desire it or not, the questions which they raise necessarily take the following form: how has naturism or animism been led to take this particular form, here or there, or to enrich itself or impoverish itself in such and such a fashion? since it is impossible to avoid taking sides on this initial problem, and since the solution given is destined to affect the whole science, it must be attacked at the outset: that is what we propose to do. besides this, outside of these indirect reactions, the study of primitive religions has of itself an immediate interest which is of primary importance. if it is useful to know what a certain particular religion consists in, it is still more important to know what religion in general is. this is the problem which has aroused the interest of philosophers in all times; and not without reason, for it is of interest to all humanity. unfortunately, the method which they generally employ is purely dialectic: they confine themselves to analysing the idea which they make for themselves of religion, except as they illustrate the results of this mental analysis by examples borrowed from the religions which best realize their ideal. but even if this method ought to be abandoned, the problem remains intact, and the great service of philosophy is to have prevented its being suppressed by the disdain of scholars. now it is possible to attack it in a different way. since all religions can be compared to each other, and since all are species of the same class, there are necessarily many elements which are common to all. we do not mean to speak simply of the outward and visible characteristics which they all have equally, and which make it possible to give them a provisional definition from the very outset of our researches; the discovery of these apparent signs is relatively easy, for the observation which it demands does not go beneath the surface of things. but these external resemblances suppose others which are profound. at the foundation of all systems of beliefs and of all cults there ought necessarily to be a certain number of fundamental representations or conceptions and of ritual attitudes which, in spite of the diversity of forms which they have taken, have the same objective significance and fulfil the same functions everywhere. these are the permanent elements which constitute that which is permanent and human in religion; they form all the objective contents of the idea which is expressed when one speaks of _religion_ in general. how is it possible to pick them out? surely it is not by observing the complex religions which appear in the course of history. every one of these is made up of such a variety of elements that it is very difficult to distinguish what is secondary from what is principal, the essential from the accessory. suppose that the religion considered is like that of egypt, india or the classical antiquity. it is a confused mass of many cults, varying according to the locality, the temples, the generations, the dynasties, the invasions, etc. popular superstitions are there confused with the purest dogmas. neither the thought nor the activity of the religion is evenly distributed among the believers; according to the men, the environment and the circumstances, the beliefs as well as the rites are thought of in different ways. here they are priests, there they are monks, elsewhere they are laymen; there are mystics and rationalists, theologians and prophets, etc. in these conditions it is difficult to see what is common to all. in one or another of these systems it is quite possible to find the means of making a profitable study of some particular fact which is specially developed there, such as sacrifice or prophecy, monasticism or the mysteries; but how is it possible to find the common foundation of the religious life underneath the luxuriant vegetation which covers it? how is it possible to find, underneath the disputes of theology, the variations of ritual, the multiplicity of groups and the diversity of individuals, the fundamental states characteristic of religious mentality in general? things are quite different in the lower societies. the slighter development of individuality, the small extension of the group, the homogeneity of external circumstances, all contribute to reducing the differences and variations to a minimum. the group has an intellectual and moral conformity of which we find but rare examples in the more advanced societies. everything is common to all. movements are stereotyped; everybody performs the same ones in the same circumstances, and this conformity of conduct only translates the conformity of thought. every mind being drawn into the same eddy, the individual type nearly confounds itself with that of the race. and while all is uniform, all is simple as well. nothing is deformed like these myths, all composed of one and the same theme which is endlessly repeated, or like these rites made up of a small number of gestures repeated again and again. neither the popular imagination nor that of the priests has had either the time or the means of refining and transforming the original substance of the religious ideas and practices; these are shown in all their nudity, and offer themselves to an examination, it requiring only the slightest effort to lay them open. that which is accessory or secondary, the development of luxury, has not yet come to hide the principal elements.[ ] all is reduced to that which is indispensable, to that without which there could be no religion. but that which is indispensable is also that which is essential, that is to say, that which we must know before all else. primitive civilizations offer privileged cases, then, because they are simple cases. that is why, in all fields of human activity, the observations of ethnologists have frequently been veritable revelations, which have renewed the study of human institutions. for example, before the middle of the nineteenth century, everybody was convinced that the father was the essential element of the family; no one had dreamed that there could be a family organization of which the paternal authority was not the keystone. but the discovery of bachofen came and upset this old conception. up to very recent times it was regarded as evident that the moral and legal relations of kindred were only another aspect of the psychological relations which result from a common descent; bachofen and his successors, maclennan, morgan and many others still laboured under this misunderstanding. but since we have become acquainted with the nature of the primitive clan, we know that, on the contrary, relationships cannot be explained by consanguinity. to return to religions, the study of only the most familiar ones had led men to believe for a long time that the idea of god was characteristic of everything that is religious. now the religion which we are going to study presently is, in a large part, foreign to all idea of divinity; the forces to which the rites are there addressed are very different from those which occupy the leading place in our modern religions, yet they aid us in understanding these latter forces. so nothing is more unjust than the disdain with which too many historians still regard the work of ethnographers. indeed, it is certain that ethnology has frequently brought about the most fruitful revolutions in the different branches of sociology. it is for this same reason that the discovery of unicellular beings, of which we just spoke, has transformed the current idea of life. since in these very simple beings, life is reduced to its essential traits, these are less easily misunderstood. but primitive religions do not merely aid us in disengaging the constituent elements of religion; they also have the great advantage that they facilitate the explanation of it. since the facts there are simpler, the relations between them are more apparent. the reasons with which men account for their acts have not yet been elaborated and denatured by studied reflection; they are nearer and more closely related to the motives which have really determined these acts. in order to understand an hallucination perfectly, and give it its most appropriate treatment, a physician must know its original point of departure. now this event is proportionately easier to find if he can observe it near its beginnings. the longer the disease is allowed to develop, the more it evades observation; that is because all sorts of interpretations have intervened as it advanced, which tend to force the original state into the background, and across which it is frequently difficult to find the initial one. between a systematized hallucination and the first impressions which gave it birth, the distance is often considerable. it is the same thing with religious thought. in proportion as it progresses in history, the causes which called it into existence, though remaining active, are no longer perceived, except across a vast scheme of interpretations which quite transform them. popular mythologies and subtile theologies have done their work: they have superimposed upon the primitive sentiments others which are quite different, and which, though holding to the first, of which they are an elaborated form, only allow their true nature to appear very imperfectly. the psychological gap between the cause and the effect, between the apparent cause and the effective cause, has become more considerable and more difficult for the mind to leap. the remainder of this book will be an illustration and a verification of this remark on method. it will be seen how, in the primitive religions, the religious fact still visibly carries the mark of its origins: it would have been well-nigh impossible to infer them merely from the study of the more developed religions. the study which we are undertaking is therefore a way of taking up again, _but under new conditions_, the old problem of the origin of religion. to be sure, if by origin we are to understand the very first beginning, the question has nothing scientific about it, and should be resolutely discarded. there was no given moment when religion began to exist, and there is consequently no need of finding a means of transporting ourselves thither in thought. like every human institution, religion did not commence anywhere. therefore, all speculations of this sort are justly discredited; they can only consist in subjective and arbitrary constructions which are subject to no sort of control. but the problem which we raise is quite another one. what we want to do is to find a means of discerning the ever-present causes upon which the most essential forms of religious thought and practice depend. now for the reasons which were just set forth, these causes are proportionately more easily observable as the societies where they are observed are less complicated. that is why we try to get as near as possible to the origins.[ ] it is not that we ascribe particular virtues to the lower religions. on the contrary, they are rudimentary and gross; we cannot make of them a sort of model which later religions only have to reproduce. but even their grossness makes them instructive, for they thus become convenient for experiments, as in them, the facts and their relations are easily seen. in order to discover the laws of the phenomena which he studies, the physicist tries to simplify these latter and rid them of their secondary characteristics. for that which concerns institutions, nature spontaneously makes the same sort of simplifications at the beginning of history. we merely wish to put these to profit. undoubtedly we can only touch very elementary facts by this method. when we shall have accounted for them as far as possible, the novelties of every sort which have been produced in the course of evolution will not yet be explained. but while we do not dream of denying the importance of the problems thus raised, we think that they will profit by being treated in their turn, and that it is important to take them up only after those of which we are going to undertake the study at present. ii but our study is not of interest merely for the science of religion. in fact, every religion has one side by which it overlaps the circle of properly religious ideas, and there, the study of religious phenomena gives a means of renewing the problems which, up to the present, have only been discussed among philosophers. for a long time it has been known that the first systems of representations with which men have pictured to themselves the world and themselves were of religious origin. there is no religion that is not a cosmology at the same time that it is a speculation upon divine things. if philosophy and the sciences were born of religion, it is because religion began by taking the place of the sciences and philosophy. but it has been less frequently noticed that religion has not confined itself to enriching the human intellect, formed beforehand, with a certain number of ideas; it has contributed to forming the intellect itself. men owe to it not only a good part of the substance of their knowledge, but also the form in which this knowledge has been elaborated. at the roots of all our judgments there are a certain number of essential ideas which dominate all our intellectual life; they are what philosophers since aristotle have called the categories of the understanding: ideas of time, space,[ ] class, number, cause, substance, personality, etc. they correspond to the most universal properties of things. they are like the solid frame which encloses all thought; this does not seem to be able to liberate itself from them without destroying itself, for it seems that we cannot think of objects that are not in time and space, which have no number, etc. other ideas are contingent and unsteady; we can conceive of their being unknown to a man, a society or an epoch; but these others appear to be nearly inseparable from the normal working of the intellect. they are like the framework of the intelligence. now when primitive religious beliefs are systematically analysed, the principal categories are naturally found. they are born in religion and of religion; they are a product of religious thought. this is a statement that we are going to have occasion to make many times in the course of this work. this remark has some interest of itself already; but here is what gives it its real importance. the general conclusion of the book which the reader has before him is that religion is something eminently social. religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the midst of the assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states in these groups. so if the categories are of religious origin, they ought to participate in this nature common to all religious facts; they too should be social affairs and the product of collective thought. at least--for in the actual condition of our knowledge of these matters, one should be careful to avoid all radical and exclusive statements--it is allowable to suppose that they are rich in social elements. even at present, these can be imperfectly seen in some of them. for example, try to represent what the notion of time would be without the processes by which we divide it, measure it or express it with objective signs, a time which is not a succession of years, months, weeks, days and hours! this is something nearly unthinkable. we cannot conceive of time, except on condition of distinguishing its different moments. now what is the origin of this differentiation? undoubtedly, the states of consciousness which we have already experienced can be reproduced in us in the same order in which they passed in the first place; thus portions of our past become present again, though being clearly distinguished from the present. but howsoever important this distinction may be for our private experience, it is far from being enough to constitute the notion or category of time. this does not consist merely in a commemoration, either partial or integral, of our past life. it is an abstract and impersonal frame which surrounds, not only our individual existence, but that of all humanity. it is like an endless chart, where all duration is spread out before the mind, and upon which all possible events can be located in relation to fixed and determined guide lines. it is not _my time_ that is thus arranged; it is time in general, such as it is objectively thought of by everybody in a single civilization. that alone is enough to give us a hint that such an arrangement ought to be collective. and in reality, observation proves that these indispensable guide lines, in relation to which all things are temporally located, are taken from social life. the divisions into days, weeks, months, years, etc., correspond to the periodical recurrence of rites, feasts, and public ceremonies.[ ] a calendar expresses the rhythm of the collective activities, while at the same time its function is to assure their regularity.[ ] it is the same thing with space. as hamelin has shown,[ ] space is not the vague and indetermined medium which kant imagined; if purely and absolutely homogeneous, it would be of no use, and could not be grasped by the mind. spatial representation consists essentially in a primary co-ordination of the data of sensuous experience. but this co-ordination would be impossible if the parts of space were qualitatively equivalent and if they were really interchangeable. to dispose things spatially there must be a possibility of placing them differently, of putting some at the right, others at the left, these above, those below, at the north of or at the south of, east or west of, etc., etc., just as to dispose states of consciousness temporally there must be a possibility of localizing them at determined dates. that is to say that space could not be what it is if it were not, like time, divided and differentiated. but whence come these divisions which are so essential? by themselves, there are neither right nor left, up nor down, north nor south, etc. all these distinctions evidently come from the fact that different sympathetic values have been attributed to various regions. since all the men of a single civilization represent space in the same way, it is clearly necessary that these sympathetic values, and the distinctions which depend upon them, should be equally universal, and that almost necessarily implies that they be of social origin.[ ] besides that, there are cases where this social character is made manifest. there are societies in australia and north america where space is conceived in the form of an immense circle, because the camp has a circular form;[ ] and this spatial circle is divided up exactly like the tribal circle, and is in its image. there are as many regions distinguished as there are clans in the tribe, and it is the place occupied by the clans inside the encampment which has determined the orientation of these regions. each region is defined by the totem of the clan to which it is assigned. among the zuñi, for example, the pueblo contains seven quarters; each of these is a group of clans which has had a unity: in all probability it was originally a single clan which was later subdivided. now their space also contains seven quarters, and each of these seven quarters of the world is in intimate connection with a quarter of the pueblo, that is to say with a group of clans.[ ] "thus," says cushing, "one division is thought to be in relation with the north, another represents the west, another the south," etc.[ ] each quarter of the pueblo has its characteristic colour, which symbolizes it; each region has its colour, which is exactly the same as that of the corresponding quarter. in the course of history the number of fundamental clans has varied; the number of the fundamental regions of space has varied with them. thus the social organization has been the model for the spatial organization and a reproduction of it. it is thus even up to the distinction between right and left which, far from being inherent in the nature of man in general, is very probably the product of representations which are religious and therefore collective.[ ] analogous proofs will be found presently in regard to the ideas of class, force, personality and efficacy. it is even possible to ask if the idea of contradiction does not also depend upon social conditions. what makes one tend to believe this is that the empire which the idea has exercised over human thought has varied with times and societies. to-day the principle of identity dominates scientific thought; but there are vast systems of representations which have played a considerable rôle in the history of ideas where it has frequently been set aside: these are the mythologies, from the grossest up to the most reasonable.[ ] there, we are continually coming upon beings which have the most contradictory attributes simultaneously, who are at the same time one and many, material and spiritual, who can divide themselves up indefinitely without losing anything of their constitution; in mythology it is an axiom that the part is worth the whole. these variations through which the rules which seem to govern our present logic have passed prove that, far from being engraven through all eternity upon the mental constitution of men, they depend, at least in part, upon factors that are historical and consequently social. we do not know exactly what they are, but we may presume that they exist.[ ] this hypothesis once admitted, the problem of knowledge is posed in new terms. up to the present there have been only two doctrines in the field. for some, the categories cannot be derived from experience: they are logically prior to it and condition it. they are represented as so many simple and irreducible data, imminent in the human mind by virtue of its inborn constitution. for this reason they are said to be _a priori_. others, however, hold that they are constructed and made up of pieces and bits, and that the individual is the artisan of this construction.[ ] but each solution raises grave difficulties. is the empirical thesis the one adopted? then it is necessary to deprive the categories of all their characteristic properties. as a matter of fact they are distinguished from all other knowledge by their universality and necessity. they are the most general concepts which exist, because they are applicable to all that is real, and since they are not attached to any particular object they are independent of every particular subject; they constitute the common field where all minds meet. further, they must meet there, for reason, which is nothing more than all the fundamental categories taken together, is invested with an authority which we could not set aside if we would. when we attempt to revolt against it, and to free ourselves from some of these essential ideas, we meet with great resistances. they do not merely depend upon us, but they impose themselves upon us. now empirical data present characteristics which are diametrically opposed to these. a sensation or an image always relies upon a determined object, or upon a collection of objects of the same sort, and expresses the momentary condition of a particular consciousness; it is essentially individual and subjective. we therefore have considerable liberty in dealing with the representations of such an origin. it is true that when our sensations are actual, they impose themselves upon us _in fact_. but _by right_ we are free to conceive them otherwise than they really are, or to represent them to ourselves as occurring in a different order from that where they are really produced. in regard to them nothing is forced upon us except as considerations of another sort intervene. thus we find that we have here two sorts of knowledge, which are like the two opposite poles of the intelligence. under these conditions forcing reason back upon experience causes it to disappear, for it is equivalent to reducing the universality and necessity which characterize it to pure appearance, to an illusion which may be useful practically, but which corresponds to nothing in reality; consequently it is denying all objective reality to the logical life, whose regulation and organization is the function of the categories. classical empiricism results in irrationalism; perhaps it would even be fitting to designate it by this latter name. in spite of the sense ordinarily attached to the name, the apriorists have more respect for the facts. since they do not admit it as a truth established by evidence that the categories are made up of the same elements as our sensual representations, they are not obliged to impoverish them systematically, to draw from them all their real content, and to reduce them to nothing more than verbal artifices. on the contrary, they leave them all their specific characteristics. the apriorists are the rationalists; they believe that the world has a logical aspect which the reason expresses excellently. but for all that, it is necessary for them to give the mind a certain power of transcending experience and of adding to that which is given to it directly; and of this singular power they give neither explanation nor justification. for it is no explanation to say that it is inherent in the nature of the human intellect. it is necessary to show whence we hold this surprising prerogative and how it comes that we can see certain relations in things which the examination of these things cannot reveal to us. saying that only on this condition is experience itself possible changes the problem perhaps, but does not answer it. for the real question is to know how it comes that experience is not sufficient unto itself, but presupposes certain conditions which are exterior and prior to it, and how it happens that these conditions are realized at the moment and in the manner that is desirable. to answer these questions it has sometimes been assumed that above the reason of individuals there is a superior and perfect reason from which the others emanate and from which they get this marvellous power of theirs, by a sort of mystic participation: this is the divine reason. but this hypothesis has at least the one grave disadvantage of being deprived of all experimental control; thus it does not satisfy the conditions demanded of a scientific hypothesis. more than that, the categories of human thought are never fixed in any one definite form; they are made, unmade and remade incessantly; they change with places and times. on the other hand, the divine reason is immutable. how can this immutability give rise to this incessant variability? such are the two conceptions that have been pitted against each other for centuries; and if this debate seems to be eternal, it is because the arguments given are really about equivalent. if reason is only a form of individual experience, it no longer exists. on the other hand, if the powers which it has are recognized but not accounted for, it seems to be set outside the confines of nature and science. in the face of these two opposed objections the mind remains uncertain. but if the social origin of the categories is admitted, a new attitude becomes possible, which we believe will enable us to escape both of the opposed difficulties. the fundamental proposition of the apriorist theory is that knowledge is made up of two sorts of elements, which cannot be reduced into one another, and which are like two distinct layers superimposed one upon the other.[ ] our hypothesis keeps this principle intact. in fact, that knowledge which is called empirical, the only knowledge of which the theorists of empiricism have made use in constructing the reason, is that which is brought into our minds by the direct action of objects. it is composed of individual states which are completely explained[ ] by the psychical nature of the individual. if, on the other hand, the categories are, as we believe they are, essentially collective representations, before all else, they should show the mental states of the group; they should depend upon the way in which this is founded and organized, upon its morphology, upon its religious, moral and economic institutions, etc. so between these two sorts of representations there is all the difference which exists between the individual and the social, and one can no more derive the second from the first than he can deduce society from the individual, the whole from the part, the complex from the simple.[ ] society is a reality _sui generis_; it has its own peculiar characteristics, which are not found elsewhere and which are not met with again in the same form in all the rest of the universe. the representations which express it have a wholly different contents from purely individual ones and we may rest assured in advance that the first add something to the second. even the manner in which the two are formed results in differentiating them. collective representations are the result of an immense co-operation, which stretches out not only into space but into time as well; to make them, a multitude of minds have associated, united and combined their ideas and sentiments; for them, long generations have accumulated their experience and their knowledge. a special intellectual activity is therefore concentrated in them which is infinitely richer and complexer than that of the individual. from that one can understand how the reason has been able to go beyond the limits of empirical knowledge. it does not owe this to any vague mysterious virtue but simply to the fact that according to the well-known formula, man is double. there are two beings in him: an individual being which has its foundation in the organism and the circle of whose activities is therefore strictly limited, and a social being which represents the highest reality in the intellectual and moral order that we can know by observation--i mean society. this duality of our nature has as its consequence in the practical order, the irreducibility of a moral ideal to a utilitarian motive, and in the order of thought, the irreducibility of reason to individual experience. in so far as he belongs to society, the individual transcends himself, both when he thinks and when he acts. this same social character leads to an understanding of the origin of the necessity of the categories. it is said that an idea is necessary when it imposes itself upon the mind by some sort of virtue of its own, without being accompanied by any proof. it contains within it something which constrains the intelligence and which leads to its acceptance without preliminary examination. the apriorist postulates this singular quality, but does not account for it; for saying that the categories are necessary because they are indispensable to the functioning of the intellect is simply repeating that they are necessary. but if they really have the origin which we attribute to them, their ascendancy no longer has anything surprising in it. they represent the most general relations which exist between things; surpassing all our other ideas in extension, they dominate all the details of our intellectual life. if men did not agree upon these essential ideas at every moment, if they did not have the same conception of time, space, cause, number, etc., all contact between their minds would be impossible, and with that, all life together. thus society could not abandon the categories to the free choice of the individual without abandoning itself. if it is to live there is not merely need of a satisfactory moral conformity, but also there is a minimum of logical conformity beyond which it cannot safely go. for this reason it uses all its authority upon its members to forestall such dissidences. does a mind ostensibly free itself from these forms of thought? it is no longer considered a human mind in the full sense of the word, and is treated accordingly. that is why we feel that we are no longer completely free and that something resists, both within and outside ourselves, when we attempt to rid ourselves of these fundamental notions, even in our own conscience. outside of us there is public opinion which judges us; but more than that, since society is also represented inside of us, it sets itself against these revolutionary fancies, even inside of ourselves; we have the feeling that we cannot abandon them if our whole thought is not to cease being really human. this seems to be the origin of the exceptional authority which is inherent in the reason and which makes us accept its suggestions with confidence. it is the very authority of society,[ ] transferring itself to a certain manner of thought which is the indispensable condition of all common action. the necessity with which the categories are imposed upon us is not the effect of simple habits whose yoke we could easily throw off with a little effort; nor is it a physical or metaphysical necessity, since the categories change in different places and times; it is a special sort of moral necessity which is to the intellectual life what moral obligation is to the will.[ ] but if the categories originally only translate social states, does it not follow that they can be applied to the rest of nature only as metaphors? if they were made merely to express social conditions, it seems as though they could not be extended to other realms except in this sense. thus in so far as they aid us in thinking of the physical or biological world, they have only the value of artificial symbols, useful practically perhaps, but having no connection with reality. thus we come back, by a different road, to nominalism and empiricism. but when we interpret a sociological theory of knowledge in this way, we forget that even if society is a specific reality it is not an empire within an empire; it is a part of nature, and indeed its highest representation. the social realm is a natural realm which differs from the others only by a greater complexity. now it is impossible that nature should differ radically from itself in the one case and the other in regard to that which is most essential. the fundamental relations that exist between things--just that which it is the function of the categories to express--cannot be essentially dissimilar in the different realms. if, for reasons which we shall discuss later,[ ] they are more clearly disengaged in the social world, it is nevertheless impossible that they should not be found elsewhere, though in less pronounced forms. society makes them more manifest but it does not have a monopoly upon them. that is why ideas which have been elaborated on the model of social things can aid us in thinking of another department of nature. it is at least true that if these ideas play the rôle of symbols when they are thus turned aside from their original signification, they are well-founded symbols. if a sort of artificiality enters into them from the mere fact that they are constructed concepts, it is an artificiality which follows nature very closely and which is constantly approaching it still more closely.[ ] from the fact that the ideas of time, space, class, cause or personality are constructed out of social elements, it is not necessary to conclude that they are devoid of all objective value. on the contrary, their social origin rather leads to the belief that they are not without foundation in the nature of things.[ ] thus renovated, the theory of knowledge seems destined to unite the opposing advantages of the two rival theories, without incurring their inconveniences. it keeps all the essential principles of the apriorists; but at the same time it is inspired by that positive spirit which the empiricists have striven to satisfy. it leaves the reason its specific power, but it accounts for it and does so without leaving the world of observable phenomena. it affirms the duality of our intellectual life, but it explains it, and with natural causes. the categories are no longer considered as primary and unanalysable facts, yet they keep a complexity which falsifies any analysis as ready as that with which the empiricists content themselves. they no longer appear as very simple notions which the first comer can very easily arrange from his own personal observations and which the popular imagination has unluckily complicated, but rather they appear as priceless instruments of thought which the human groups have laboriously forged through the centuries and where they have accumulated the best of their intellectual capital.[ ] a complete section of the history of humanity is resumed therein. this is equivalent to saying that to succeed in understanding them and judging them, it is necessary to resort to other means than those which have been in use up to the present. to know what these conceptions which we have not made ourselves are really made of, it does not suffice to interrogate our own consciousnesses; we must look outside of ourselves, it is history that we must observe, there is a whole science which must be formed, a complex science which can advance but slowly and by collective labour, and to which the present work brings some fragmentary contributions in the nature of an attempt. without making these questions the direct object of our study, we shall profit by all the occasions which present themselves to us of catching at their very birth some at least of these ideas which, while being of religious origin, still remain at the foundation of the human intelligence. book i preliminary questions chapter i definition of religious phenomena and of religion[ ] if we are going to look for the most primitive and simple religion which we can observe, it is necessary to begin by defining what is meant by a religion; for without this, we would run the risk of giving the name to a system of ideas and practices which has nothing at all religious about it, or else of leaving to one side many religious facts, without perceiving their true nature. that this is not an imaginary danger, and that nothing is thus sacrificed to a vain formalism of method, is well shown by the fact that owing to his not having taken this precaution, a certain scholar to whom the science of comparative religions owes a great deal, professor frazer, has not been able to recognize the profoundly religious character of the beliefs and rites which will be studied below, where, according to our view, the initial germ of the religious life of humanity is to be found. so this is a prejudicial question, which must be treated before all others. it is not that we dream of arriving at once at the profound characteristics which really explain religion: these can be determined only at the end of our study. but that which is necessary and possible, is to indicate a certain number of external and easily recognizable signs, which will enable us to recognize religious phenomena wherever they are met with, and which will deter us from confounding them with others. we shall proceed to this preliminary operation at once. but to attain the desired results, it is necessary to begin by freeing the mind of every preconceived idea. men have been obliged to make for themselves a notion of what religion is, long before the science of religions started its methodical comparisons. the necessities of existence force all of us, believers and non-believers, to represent in some way these things in the midst of which we live, upon which we must pass judgment constantly, and which we must take into account in all our conduct. however, since these preconceived ideas are formed without any method, according to the circumstances and chances of life, they have no right to any credit whatsoever, and must be rigorously set aside in the examination which is to follow. it is not from our prejudices, passions or habits that we should demand the elements of the definition which we must have; it is from the reality itself which we are going to define. let us set ourselves before this reality. leaving aside all conceptions of religion in general, let us consider the various religions in their concrete reality, and attempt to disengage that which they have in common; for religion cannot be defined except by the characteristics which are found wherever religion itself is found. in this comparison, then, we shall make use of all the religious systems which we can know, those of the present and those of the past, the most primitive and simple as well as the most recent and refined; for we have neither the right nor the logical means of excluding some and retaining others. for those who regard religion as only a natural manifestation of human activity, all religions, without any exception whatsoever, are instructive; for all, after their manner, express man, and thus can aid us in better understanding this aspect of our nature. also, we have seen how far it is from being the best way of studying religion to consider by preference the forms which it presents among the most civilized peoples.[ ] but to aid the mind in freeing itself from these usual conceptions which, owing to their prestige, might prevent it from seeing things as they really are, it is fitting to examine some of the most current of the definitions in which these prejudices are commonly expressed, before taking up the question on our own account. i one idea which generally passes as characteristic of all that is religious, is that of the supernatural. by this is understood all sorts of things which surpass the limits of our knowledge; the supernatural is the world of the mysterious, of the unknowable, of the un-understandable. thus religion would be a sort of speculation upon all that which evades science or distinct thought in general. "religions diametrically opposed in their overt dogmas," said spencer, "are perfectly at one in the tacit conviction that the existence of the world, with all it contains and all which surrounds it, is a mystery calling for an explanation"; he thus makes them consist essentially in "the belief in the omnipresence of something which is inscrutable."[ ] in the same manner, max müller sees in religion "a struggle to conceive the inconceivable, to utter the unutterable, a longing after the infinite."[ ] it is certain that the sentiment of mystery has not been without a considerable importance in certain religions, notably in christianity. it must also be said that the importance of this sentiment has varied remarkably at different moments in the history of christianity. there are periods when this notion passes to an inferior place, and is even effaced. for example, for the christians of the seventeenth century, dogma had nothing disturbing for the reason; faith reconciled itself easily with science and philosophy, and the thinkers, such as pascal, who really felt that there is something profoundly obscure in things, were so little in harmony with their age that they remained misunderstood by their contemporaries.[ ] it would appear somewhat hasty, therefore, to make an idea subject to parallel eclipses, the essential element of even the christian religion. in all events, it is certain that this idea does not appear until late in the history of religions; it is completely foreign, not only to those peoples who are called primitive, but also to all others who have not attained a considerable degree of intellectual culture. when we see them attribute extraordinary virtues to insignificant objects, and people the universe with singular principles, made up of the most diverse elements and endowed with a sort of ubiquity which is hardly representable, we are undoubtedly prone to find an air of mystery in these conceptions. it seems to us that these men would have been willing to resign themselves to these ideas, so disturbing for our modern reason, only because of their inability to find others which were more rational. but, as a matter of fact, these explanations which surprise us so much, appear to the primitive man as the simplest in the world. he does not regard them as a sort of _ultima ratio_ to which the intellect resigns itself only in despair of others, but rather as the most obvious manner of representing and understanding what he sees about him. for him there is nothing strange in the fact that by a mere word or gesture one is able to command the elements, retard or precipitate the motion of the stars, bring rain or cause it to cease, etc. the rites which he employs to assure the fertility of the soil or the fecundity of the animal species on which he is nourished do not appear more irrational to his eyes than the technical processes of which our agriculturists make use, for the same object, do to ours. the powers which he puts into play by these diverse means do not seem to him to have anything especially mysterious about them. undoubtedly these forces are different from those which the modern scientist thinks of, and whose use he teaches us; they have a different way of acting, and do not allow themselves to be directed in the same manner; but for those who believe in them, they are no more unintelligible than are gravitation and electricity for the physicist of to-day. moreover, we shall see, in the course of this work, that the idea of physical forces is very probably derived from that of religious forces; then there cannot exist between the two the abyss which separates the rational from the irrational. even the fact that religious forces are frequently conceived under the form of spiritual beings or conscious wills, is no proof of their irrationality. the reason has no repugnance _a priori_ to admitting that the so-called inanimate bodies should be directed by intelligences, just as the human body is, though contemporary science accommodates itself with difficulty to this hypothesis. when leibniz proposed to conceive the external world as an immense society of minds, between which there were, and could be, only spiritual relations, he thought he was working as a rationalist, and saw nothing in this universal animism which could be offensive to the intellect. moreover, the idea of the supernatural, as we understand it, dates only from to-day; in fact, it presupposes the contrary idea, of which it is the negation; but this idea is not at all primitive. in order to say that certain things are supernatural, it is necessary to have the sentiment that a _natural order of things_ exists, that is to say, that the phenomena of the universe are bound together by necessary relations, called laws. when this principle has once been admitted, all that is contrary to these laws must necessarily appear to be outside of nature, and consequently, of reason; for what is natural in this sense of the word, is also rational, these necessary relations only expressing the manner in which things are logically related. but this idea of universal determinism is of recent origin; even the greatest thinkers of classical antiquity never succeeded in becoming fully conscious of it. it is a conquest of the positive sciences; it is the postulate upon which they repose and which they have proved by their progress. now as long as this was lacking or insufficiently established, the most marvellous events contained nothing which did not appear perfectly conceivable. so long as men did not know the immutability and the inflexibility of the order of things, and so long as they saw there the work of contingent wills, they found it natural that either these wills or others could modify them arbitrarily. that is why the miraculous interventions which the ancients attributed to their gods were not to their eyes miracles in the modern acceptation of the term. for them, they were beautiful, rare or terrible spectacles, or causes of surprise and marvel ([greek: thaúmata], _mirabilia_, _miracula_); but they never saw in them glimpses of a mysterious world into which the reason cannot penetrate. we can understand this mentality the better since it has not yet completely disappeared from our midst. if the principle of determinism is solidly established to-day in the physical and natural sciences, it is only a century ago that it was first introduced into the social sciences, and its authority there is still contested. there are only a small number of minds which are strongly penetrated with this idea that societies are subject to natural laws and form a kingdom of nature. it follows that veritable miracles are believed to be possible there. it is admitted, for example, that a legislator can create an institution out of nothing by a mere injunction of its will, or transform one social system into another, just as the believers in so many religions have held that the divine will created the world out of nothing, or can arbitrarily transmute one thing into another. as far as social facts are concerned, we still have the mentality of primitives. however, if so many of our contemporaries still retain this antiquated conception for sociological affairs, it is not because the life of societies appears obscure and mysterious to them; on the contrary, if they are so easily contented with these explanations, and if they are so obstinate in their illusions which experience constantly belies, it is because social events seem to them the clearest thing in the world; it is because they have not yet realized their real obscurity; it is because they have not yet recognized the necessity of resorting to the laborious methods of the natural sciences to gradually scatter the darkness. the same state of mind is found at the root of many religious beliefs which surprise us by their pseudo-simplicity. it is science and not religion which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand. but the human mind, says jevons,[ ] has no need of a properly scientific culture to notice that determined sequences, or a constant order of succession, exist between facts, or to observe, on the other hand, that this order is frequently upset. it sometimes happens that the sun is suddenly eclipsed, that rain fails at the time when it is expected, that the moon is slow to reappear after its periodical disappearance, etc. since these events are outside the ordinary course of affairs, they are attributed to extraordinary exceptional causes, that is to say, in fine, to extra-natural causes. it is under this form that the idea of the supernatural is born at the very outset of history, and from this moment, according to this author, religious thought finds itself provided with its proper subject. but in the first place, the supernatural cannot be reduced to the unforeseen. the new is a part of nature just as well as its contrary. if we state that in general, phenomena succeed one another in a determined order, we observe equally well that this order is only approximative, that it is not always precisely the same, and that it has all kinds of exceptions. if we have ever so little experience, we are accustomed to seeing our expectations fail, and these deceptions return too often to appear extraordinary to us. a certain contingency is taught by experience just as well as a certain uniformity; then we have no reason for assigning the one to causes and forces entirely different from those upon which the other depends. in order to arrive at the idea of the supernatural, it is not enough, therefore, to be witnesses to unexpected events; it is also necessary that these be conceived as impossible, that is to say, irreconcilable with an order which, rightly or wrongly, appears to us to be implied in the nature of things. now this idea of a necessary order has been constructed little by little by the positive sciences, and consequently the contrary notion could not have existed before them. also, in whatever manner men have represented the novelties and contingencies revealed by experience, there is nothing in these representations which could serve to characterize religion. for religious conceptions have as their object, before everything else, to express and explain, not that which is exceptional and abnormal in things, but, on the contrary, that which is constant and regular. very frequently, the gods serve less to account for the monstrosities, fantasies and anomalies than for the regular march of the universe, for the movement of the stars, the rhythm of the seasons, the annual growth of vegetation, the perpetuation of species, etc. it is far from being true, then, that the notion of the religions coincides with that of the extraordinary or the unforeseen. jevons replies that this conception of religious forces is not primitive. men commenced by imagining them to account for disorders and accidents, and it was only afterwards that they began to utilize them in explaining the uniformities of nature.[ ] but it is not clear what could have led men to attribute such manifestly contradictory functions to them. more than that, the hypothesis according to which sacred beings were at first restricted to the negative function of disturbers is quite arbitrary. in fact, we shall see that, even with the most simple religions we know, their essential task is to maintain, in a positive manner, the normal course of life.[ ] so the idea of mystery is not of primitive origin. it was not given to man; it is man who has forged it, with his own hands, along with the contrary idea. this is why it has a place only in a very small number of advanced religions. it is impossible to make it the characteristic mark of religious phenomena without excluding from the definition the majority of the facts to be defined. ii another idea by which the attempt to define religion is often made, is that of divinity. "religion," says m. réville,[ ] "is the determination of human life by the sentiment of a bond uniting the human mind to that mysterious mind whose domination of the world and itself it recognizes, and to whom it delights in feeling itself united." it is certain that if the word divinity is taken in a precise and narrow sense, this definition leaves aside a multitude of obviously religious facts. the souls of the dead and the spirits of all ranks and classes with which the religious imagination of so many different peoples has populated nature, are always the object of rites and sometimes even of a regular cult; yet they are not gods in the proper sense of the term. but in order that the definition may embrace them, it is enough to substitute for the term "gods" the more comprehensive one of "spiritual beings." this is what tylor does. "the first requisite in a systematic study of the religions of the lower races," he says, "is to lay down a rudimentary definition of religion. by requiring in this definition the belief in a supreme deity ..., no doubt many tribes may be excluded from the category of religious. but such narrow definition has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments.... it seems best ... simply to claim as a minimum definition of religion, the belief in spiritual beings."[ ] by spiritual beings must be understood conscious subjects gifted with powers superior to those possessed by common men; this qualification is found in the souls of the dead, geniuses or demons as well as in divinities properly so-called. it is important, therefore, to give our attention at once to the particular conception of religion which is implied in this definition. the relations which we can have with beings of this sort are determined by the nature attributed to them. they are conscious beings; then we can act upon them only in the same way that we act upon consciousnesses in general, that is to say, by psychological processes, attempting to convince them or move them, either with the aid of words (invocations, prayers), or by offerings and sacrifices. and since the object of religion is to regulate our relations with these special beings, there can be no religion except where there are prayers, sacrifices, propitiatory rites, etc. thus we have a very simple criterium which permits us to distinguish that which is religious from that which is not. it is to this criterium that frazer,[ ] and with him numerous ethnographers,[ ] systematically makes reference. but howsoever evident this definition may appear, thanks to the mental habits which we owe to our religious education, there are many facts to which it is not applicable, but which appertain to the field of religion nevertheless. in the first place, there are great religions from which the idea of gods and spirits is absent, or at least, where it plays only a secondary and minor rôle. this is the case with buddhism. buddhism, says burnouf, "sets itself in opposition to brahmanism as a moral system without god and an atheism without nature."[ ] "as it recognizes not a god upon whom man depends," says barth, "its doctrine is absolutely atheistic,"[ ] while oldenberg, in his turn, calls it "a faith without a god."[ ] in fact, all that is essential to buddhism is found in the four propositions which the faithful call the four noble truths.[ ] the first states the existence of suffering as the accompaniment to the perpetual change of things; the second shows desire to be the cause of suffering; the third makes the suppression of desire the only means of suppressing sorrow; the fourth enumerates the three stages through which one must pass to attain this suppression: they are uprightness, meditation, and finally wisdom, the full possession of the doctrine. these three stages once traversed, one arrives at the end of the road, at the deliverance, at salvation by the nirvâna. now in none of these principles is there question of a divinity. the buddhist is not interested in knowing whence came the world in which he lives and suffers; he takes it as a given fact,[ ] and his whole concern is to escape it. on the other hand, in this work of salvation, he can count only upon himself; "he has no god to thank, as he had previously no god to invoke during his struggle."[ ] instead of praying, in the ordinary sense of the term, instead of turning towards a superior being and imploring his assistance, he relies upon himself and meditates. this is not saying "that he absolutely denies the existence of the beings called indra, agni and varuna;[ ] but he believes that he owes them nothing and that he has nothing to do with them," for their power can only extend over the goods of this world, which are without value for him. then he is an atheist, in the sense that he does not concern himself with the question whether gods exist or not. besides, even if they should exist, and with whatever powers they might be armed, the saint or the emancipated man regards himself superior to them; for that which causes the dignity of beings is not the extent of the action they exercise over things, but merely the degree of their advancement upon the road of salvation.[ ] it is true that buddha, at least in some divisions of the buddhist church, has sometimes been considered as a sort of god. he has his temples; he is the object of a cult, which, by the way, is a very simple one, for it is reduced essentially to the offering of flowers and the adoration of consecrated relics or images. it is scarcely more than a commemorative cult. but more than that, this divinization of buddha, granting that the term is exact, is peculiar to the form known as northern buddhism. "the buddhist of the south," says kern, "and the less advanced of the northern buddhists can be said, according to data known to-day, to speak of their founder as if he were a man."[ ] of course, they attribute extraordinary powers to buddha, which are superior to those possessed by ordinary mortals; but it was a very ancient belief in india, and one that is also very general in a host of different religions, that a great saint is endowed with exceptional virtues;[ ] yet a saint is not a god, any more than a priest or magician is, in spite of the superhuman faculties frequently attributed to them. on the other hand, according to the most authorized scholars, all this theism and the complicated mythology which generally accompanies it, are only derived and deviated forms of buddhism. at first, buddha was only regarded as "the wisest of men."[ ] burnouf says "the conception of a buddha who is something more than a man arrived at the highest stage of holiness, is outside the circle of ideas which form the foundation of the simple sûtras";[ ] and the same author adds elsewhere that "his humanity is a fact so incontestably recognized by all that the myth-makers, to whom miracles cost so little, have never even had the idea of making a god out of him since his death."[ ] so we may well ask if he has ever really divested himself completely of all human character, and if we have a right to make him into a god completely;[ ] in any case, it would have to be a god of a very particular character and one whose rôle in no way resembles that of other divine personalities. for a god is before all else a living being, with whom man should reckon, and upon whom he may count; but buddha is dead, he has entered into the nirvâna, and he can no longer influence the march of human events.[ ] finally, whatever one may think of the divinity of buddha, it remains a fact that this is a conception wholly outside the essential part of buddhism. buddhism consists primarily in the idea of salvation, and salvation supposes only that one know the good doctrine and practise it. to be sure, this could never have been known if buddha had not come to reveal it; but when this revelation had once been made, the work of buddha was accomplished. from that moment he ceased to be a factor necessary to the religious life. the practice of the four holy truths would be possible, even if the memory of him who revealed them were completely obliterated.[ ] it is quite another matter with christianity, which is inconceivable without the ever-present idea of christ and his ever-practised cult; for it is by the ever-living christ, sacrificed each day, that the community of believers continues to communicate with the supreme source of the spiritual life.[ ] all that precedes can be applied equally well to another great religion of india, jaïnism. the two doctrines have nearly the same conception of the world and of life. "like the buddhists," says barth, "the jaïnas are atheists. they admit of no creator; the world is eternal; they explicitly deny the possibility of a perfect being from the beginning. the jina became perfect; he was not always so." just as the buddhists in the north, the jaïnists, or at least certain of them, have come back to a sort of deism; in the inscriptions of dekhan there is mention of a _jinapati_, a sort of supreme jina, who is called the primary creator; but such language, says the same author, is "in contradiction to the most explicit declarations extracted from their most authorized writings."[ ] moreover, if this indifference for the divine is developed to such a point in buddhism and jaïnism, it is because its germ existed already in the brahmanism from which the two were derived. in certain of its forms at least, brahmic speculation ended in "a frankly materialistic and atheistic interpretation of the universe."[ ] in time, the numerous divinities which the people of india had originally learned to adore, came to merge themselves into a sort of principal deity, impersonal and abstract, the essence of all that exists. this supreme reality, which no longer has anything of a divine personality about it, is contained within man himself, or rather, man is but one with it, for nothing exists apart from it. to find it, and unite himself to it, one does not have to search some external support outside himself; it is enough to concentrate upon himself and meditate. "if in buddhism," says oldenberg, "the proud attempt be made to conceive a deliverance in which man himself delivers himself, to create a faith without a god, it is brahmanical speculation which has prepared the way for this thought. it thrusts back the idea of a god step by step; the forms of the old gods have faded away, and besides the brahma, which is enthroned in its everlasting quietude, highly exalted above the destinies of the human world, there is left remaining, as the sole really active person in the great work of deliverance, man himself."[ ] here, then, we find a considerable portion of religious evolution which has consisted in the progressive recoil of the idea of a spiritual being from that of a deity. here are great religions where invocations, propitiations, sacrifices and prayers properly so-called are far from holding a preponderating place, and which consequently do not present that distinctive sign by which some claim to recognize those manifestations which are properly called religious. but even within deistic religions there are many rites which are completely independent of all idea of gods or spiritual beings. in the first place, there are a multitude of interdictions. for example, the bible orders that a woman live isolated during a determined period each month;[ ] a similar isolation is obligatory during the lying-in at child-birth;[ ] it is forbidden to hitch an ass and a horse together, or to wear a garment in which the hemp is mixed with flax;[ ] but it is impossible to see the part which belief in jahveh can have played in these interdictions, for he is wholly absent from all the relations thus forbidden, and could not be interested in them. as much can be said for the majority of the dietetic regulations. these prohibitions are not peculiar to the hebrews, but they are found under diverse forms, but with substantially the same character, in innumerable religions. it is true that these rites are purely negative, but they do not cease being religious for that. also there are others which demand active and positive services of the faithful, but which are nevertheless of the same nature. they work by themselves, and their efficacy depends upon no divine power; they mechanically produce the effects which are the reason for their existence. they do not consist either in prayers or offerings addressed to a being upon whose goodwill the expected result depends; this result is obtained by the automatic operation of the ritual. such is notably the case with the sacrifice of the vedic religion. "the sacrifice exercises a direct influence upon the celestial phenomena," says bergaigne;[ ] it is all-powerful of itself, and without any divine influence. it is this, for example, which broke open the doors of the cavern where the dawn was imprisoned and which made the light of day burst forth.[ ] in the same way there are special hymns which, by their direct action, made the waters of heaven fall upon the earth, and _even in spite of the gods_.[ ] the practice of certain austerities has the same power. more than that, "the sacrifice is so fully the origin of things _par excellence_, that they have attributed to it not only the origin of man, but even that of the gods.... such a conception may well appear strange. it is explained, however, as being one of the ultimate consequences of the idea of the omnipotence of sacrifice."[ ] thus, in the entire first part of his work, m. bergaigne speaks only of sacrifices, where divinities play no rôle whatsoever. nor is this fact peculiar to the vedic religion, but is, on the contrary, quite general. in every cult there are practices which act by themselves, by a virtue which is their own, without the intervention of any god between the individual who practises the rite and the end sought after. when, in the so-called feast of the tabernacles, the jew set the air in motion by shaking willow branches in a certain rhythm, it was to cause the wind to rise and the rain to fall; and it was believed that the desired phenomenon would result automatically from the rite, provided it were correctly performed.[ ] this is the explanation of the fundamental importance laid by nearly all cults upon the material portion of the ceremonies. this religious formalism--very probably the first form of legal formalism--comes from the fact that since the formula to be pronounced and the movements to be made contain within themselves the source of their efficacy, they would lose it if they did not conform absolutely to the type consecrated by success. thus there are rites without gods, and even rites from which gods are derived. all religious powers do not emanate from divine personalities, and there are relations of cult which have other objects than uniting man to a deity. religion is more than the idea of gods or spirits, and consequently cannot be defined exclusively in relation to these latter. iii these definitions set aside, let us set ourselves before the problem. first of all, let us remark that in all these formulæ it is the nature of religion as a whole that they seek to express. they proceed as if it were a sort of indivisible entity, while, as a matter of fact, it is made up of parts; it is a more or less complex system of myths, dogmas, rites and ceremonies. now a whole cannot be defined except in relation to its parts. it will be more methodical, then, to try to characterize the various elementary phenomena of which all religions are made up, before we attack the system produced by their union. this method is imposed still more forcibly by the fact that there are religious phenomena which belong to no determined religion. such are those phenomena which constitute the matter of folk-lore. in general, they are the debris of passed religions, inorganized survivals; but there are some which have been formed spontaneously under the influence of local causes. in our european countries christianity has forced itself to absorb and assimilate them; it has given them a christian colouring. nevertheless, there are many which have persisted up until a recent date, or which still exist with a relative autonomy: celebrations of may day, the summer solstice or the carnival, beliefs relative to genii, local demons, etc., are cases in point. if the religious character of these facts is now diminishing, their religious importance is nevertheless so great that they have enabled mannhardt and his school to revive the science of religions. a definition which did not take account of them would not cover all that is religious. religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. the first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action. between these two classes of facts there is all the difference which separates thought from action. the rites can be defined and distinguished from other human practices, moral practices, for example, only by the special nature of their object. a moral rule prescribes certain manners of acting to us, just as a rite does, but which are addressed to a different class of objects. so it is the object of the rite which must be characterized, if we are to characterize the rite itself. now it is in the beliefs that the special nature of this object is expressed. it is possible to define the rite only after we have defined the belief. all known religious beliefs, whether simple or complex, present one common characteristic: they presuppose a classification of all the things, real and ideal, of which men think, into two classes or opposed groups, generally designated by two distinct terms which are translated well enough by the words _profane_ and _sacred_ (_profane_, _sacré_). this division of the world into two domains, the one containing all that is sacred, the other all that is profane, is the distinctive trait of religious thought; the beliefs, myths, dogmas and legends are either representations or systems of representations which express the nature of sacred things, the virtues and powers which are attributed to them, or their relations with each other and with profane things. but by sacred things one must not understand simply those personal beings which are called gods or spirits; a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred. a rite can have this character; in fact, the rite does not exist which does not have it to a certain degree. there are words, expressions and formulæ which can be pronounced only by the mouths of consecrated persons; there are gestures and movements which everybody cannot perform. if the vedic sacrifice has had such an efficacy that, according to mythology, it was the creator of the gods, and not merely a means of winning their favour, it is because it possessed a virtue comparable to that of the most sacred beings. the circle of sacred objects cannot be determined, then, once for all. its extent varies infinitely, according to the different religions. that is how buddhism is a religion: in default of gods, it admits the existence of sacred things, namely, the four noble truths and the practices derived from them.[ ] up to the present we have confined ourselves to enumerating a certain number of sacred things as examples: we must now show by what general characteristics they are to be distinguished from profane things. one might be tempted, first of all, to define them by the place they are generally assigned in the hierarchy of things. they are naturally considered superior in dignity and power to profane things, and particularly to man, when he is only a man and has nothing sacred about him. one thinks of himself as occupying an inferior and dependent position in relation to them; and surely this conception is not without some truth. only there is nothing in it which is really characteristic of the sacred. it is not enough that one thing be subordinated to another for the second to be sacred in regard to the first. slaves are inferior to their masters, subjects to their king, soldiers to their leaders, the miser to his gold, the man ambitious for power to the hands which keep it from him; but if it is sometimes said of a man that he makes a religion of those beings or things whose eminent value and superiority to himself he thus recognizes, it is clear that in any case the word is taken in a metaphorical sense, and that there is nothing in these relations which is really religious.[ ] on the other hand, it must not be lost to view that there are sacred things of every degree, and that there are some in relation to which a man feels himself relatively at his ease. an amulet has a sacred character, yet the respect which it inspires is nothing exceptional. even before his gods, a man is not always in such a marked state of inferiority; for it very frequently happens that he exercises a veritable physical constraint upon them to obtain what he desires. he beats the fetich with which he is not contented, but only to reconcile himself with it again, if in the end it shows itself more docile to the wishes of its adorer.[ ] to have rain, he throws stones into the spring or sacred lake where the god of rain is thought to reside; he believes that by this means he forces him to come out and show himself.[ ] moreover, if it is true that man depends upon his gods, this dependence is reciprocal. the gods also have need of man; without offerings and sacrifices they would die. we shall even have occasion to show that this dependence of the gods upon their worshippers is maintained even in the most idealistic religions. but if a purely hierarchic distinction is a criterium at once too general and too imprecise, there is nothing left with which to characterize the sacred in its relation to the profane except their heterogeneity. however, this heterogeneity is sufficient to characterize this classification of things and to distinguish it from all others, because it is very particular: _it is absolute_. in all the history of human thought there exists no other example of two categories of things so profoundly differentiated or so radically opposed to one another. the traditional opposition of good and bad is nothing beside this; for the good and the bad are only two opposed species of the same class, namely morals, just as sickness and health are two different aspects of the same order of facts, life, while the sacred and the profane have always and everywhere been conceived by the human mind as two distinct classes, as two worlds between which there is nothing in common. the forces which play in one are not simply those which are met with in the other, but a little stronger; they are of a different sort. in different religions, this opposition has been conceived in different ways. here, to separate these two sorts of things, it has seemed sufficient to localize them in different parts of the physical universe; there, the first have been put into an ideal and transcendental world, while the material world is left in full possession of the others. but howsoever much the forms of the contrast may vary,[ ] the fact of the contrast is universal. this is not equivalent to saying that a being can never pass from one of these worlds into the other: but the manner in which this passage is effected, when it does take place, puts into relief the essential duality of the two kingdoms. in fact, it implies a veritable metamorphosis. this is notably demonstrated by the initiation rites, such as they are practised by a multitude of peoples. this initiation is a long series of ceremonies with the object of introducing the young man into the religious life: for the first time, he leaves the purely profane world where he passed his first infancy, and enters into the world of sacred things. now this change of state is thought of, not as a simple and regular development of pre-existent germs, but as a transformation _totius substantiae_--of the whole being. it is said that at this moment the young man dies, that the person that he was ceases to exist, and that another is instantly substituted for it. he is re-born under a new form. appropriate ceremonies are felt to bring about this death and re-birth, which are not understood in a merely symbolic sense, but are taken literally.[ ] does this not prove that between the profane being which he was and the religious being which he becomes, there is a break of continuity? this heterogeneity is even so complete that it frequently degenerates into a veritable antagonism. the two worlds are not only conceived of as separate, but as even hostile and jealous rivals of each other. since men cannot fully belong to one except on condition of leaving the other completely, they are exhorted to withdraw themselves completely from the profane world, in order to lead an exclusively religious life. hence comes the monasticism which is artificially organized outside of and apart from the natural environment in which the ordinary man leads the life of this world, in a different one, closed to the first, and nearly its contrary. hence comes the mystic asceticism whose object is to root out from man all the attachment for the profane world that remains in him. from that come all the forms of religious suicide, the logical working-out of this asceticism; for the only manner of fully escaping the profane life is, after all, to forsake all life. the opposition of these two classes manifests itself outwardly with a visible sign by which we can easily recognize this very special classification, wherever it exists. since the idea of the sacred is always and everywhere separated from the idea of the profane in the thought of men, and since we picture a sort of logical chasm between the two, the mind irresistibly refuses to allow the two corresponding things to be confounded, or even to be merely put in contact with each other; for such a promiscuity, or even too direct a contiguity, would contradict too violently the dissociation of these ideas in the mind. the sacred thing is _par excellence_ that which the profane should not touch, and cannot touch with impunity. to be sure, this interdiction cannot go so far as to make all communication between the two worlds impossible; for if the profane could in no way enter into relations with the sacred, this latter could be good for nothing. but, in addition to the fact that this establishment of relations is always a delicate operation in itself, demanding great precautions and a more or less complicated initiation,[ ] it is quite impossible, unless the profane is to lose its specific characteristics and become sacred after a fashion and to a certain degree itself. the two classes cannot even approach each other and keep their own nature at the same time. thus we arrive at the first criterium of religious beliefs. undoubtedly there are secondary species within these two fundamental classes which, in their turn, are more or less incompatible with each other.[ ] but the real characteristic of religious phenomena is that they always suppose a bipartite division of the whole universe, known and knowable, into two classes which embrace all that exists, but which radically exclude each other. sacred things are those which the interdictions protect and isolate; profane things, those to which these interdictions are applied and which must remain at a distance from the first. religious beliefs are the representations which express the nature of sacred things and the relations which they sustain, either with each other or with profane things. finally, rites are the rules of conduct which prescribe how a man should comport himself in the presence of these sacred objects. when a certain number of sacred things sustain relations of co-ordination or subordination with each other in such a way as to form a system having a certain unity, but which is not comprised within any other system of the same sort, the totality of these beliefs and their corresponding rites constitutes a religion. from this definition it is seen that a religion is not necessarily contained within one sole and single idea, and does not proceed from one unique principle which, though varying according to the circumstances under which it is applied, is nevertheless at bottom always the same: it is rather a whole made up of distinct and relatively individualized parts. each homogeneous group of sacred things, or even each sacred thing of some importance, constitutes a centre of organization about which gravitate a group of beliefs and rites, or a particular cult; there is no religion, howsoever unified it may be, which does not recognize a plurality of sacred things. even christianity, at least in its catholic form, admits, in addition to the divine personality which, incidentally, is triple as well as one, the virgin, angels, saints, souls of the dead, etc. thus a religion cannot be reduced to one single cult generally, but father consists in a system of cults, each endowed with a certain autonomy. also, this autonomy is variable. sometimes they are arranged in a hierarchy, and subordinated to some predominating cult, into which they are finally absorbed; but sometimes, also, they are merely rearranged and united. the religion which we are going to study will furnish us with an example of just this latter sort of organization. at the same time we find the explanation of how there can be groups of religious phenomena which do not belong to any special religion; it is because they have not been, or are no longer, a part of any religious system. if, for some special reason, one of the cults of which we just spoke happens to be maintained while the group of which it was a part disappears, it survives only in a disintegrated condition. that is what has happened to many agrarian cults which have survived themselves as folk-lore. in certain cases, it is not even a cult, but a simple ceremony or particular rite which persists in this way.[ ] although this definition is only preliminary, it permits us to see in what terms the problem which necessarily dominates the science of religions should be stated. when we believed that sacred beings could be distinguished from others merely by the greater intensity of the powers attributed to them, the question of how men came to imagine them was sufficiently simple: it was enough to demand which forces had, because of their exceptional energy, been able to strike the human imagination forcefully enough to inspire religious sentiments. but if, as we have sought to establish, sacred things differ in nature from profane things, if they have a wholly different essence, then the problem is more complex. for we must first of all ask what has been able to lead men to see in the world two heterogeneous and incompatible worlds, though nothing sensible experience seems able to suggest the idea of so radical a duality to them. iv however, this definition is not yet complete, for it is equally applicable to two sorts of facts which, while being related to each other, must be distinguished nevertheless: these are magic and religion. magic, too, is made up of beliefs and rites. like religion, it has its myths and its dogmas; only they are more elementary, undoubtedly because, seeking technical and utilitarian ends, it does not waste its time in pure speculation. it has its ceremonies, sacrifices, lustrations, prayers, chants and dances as well. the beings which the magician invokes and the forces which he throws in play are not merely of the same nature as the forces and beings to which religion addresses itself; very frequently, they are identically the same. thus, even with the most inferior societies, the souls of the dead are essentially sacred things, and the object of religious rites. but at the same time, they play a considerable rôle in magic. in australia[ ] as well as in melanesia,[ ] in greece as well as among the christian peoples,[ ] the souls of the dead, their bones and their hair, are among the intermediaries used the most frequently by the magician. demons are also a common instrument for magic action. now these demons are also beings surrounded with interdictions; they too are separated and live in a world apart, so that it is frequently difficult to distinguish them from the gods properly so-called.[ ] moreover, in christianity itself, is not the devil a fallen god, or even leaving aside all question of his origin, does he not have a religious character from the mere fact that the hell of which he has charge is something indispensable to the christian religion? there are even some regular and official deities who are invoked by the magician. sometimes these are the gods of a foreign people; for example, greek magicians called upon egyptian, assyrian or jewish gods. sometimes, they are even national gods: hecate and diana were the object of a magic cult; the virgin, christ and the saints have been utilized in the same way by christian magicians.[ ] then will it be necessary to say that magic is hardly distinguishable from religion; that magic is full of religion just as religion is full of magic, and consequently that it is impossible to separate them and to define the one without the other? it is difficult to sustain this thesis, because of the marked repugnance of religion for magic, and in return, the hostility of the second towards the first. magic takes a sort of professional pleasure in profaning holy things;[ ] in its rites, it performs the contrary of the religious ceremony.[ ] on its side, religion, when it has not condemned and prohibited magic rites, has always looked upon them with disfavour. as hubert and mauss have remarked, there is something thoroughly anti-religious in the doings of the magician.[ ] whatever relations there may be between these two sorts of institutions, it is difficult to imagine their not being opposed somewhere; and it is still more necessary for us to find where they are differentiated, as we plan to limit our researches to religion, and to stop at the point where magic commences. here is how a line of demarcation can be traced between these two domains. the really religious beliefs are always common to a determined group, which makes profession of adhering to them and of practising the rites connected with them. they are not merely received individually by all the members of this group; they are something belonging to the group, and they make its unity. the individuals which compose it feel themselves united to each other by the simple fact that they have a common faith. a society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a church. in all history, we do not find a single religion without a church. sometimes the church is strictly national, sometimes it passes the frontiers; sometimes it embraces an entire people (rome, athens, the hebrews), sometimes it embraces only a part of them (the christian societies since the advent of protestantism); sometimes it is directed by a corps of priests, sometimes it is almost completely devoid of any official directing body.[ ] but wherever we observe the religious life, we find that it has a definite group as its foundation. even the so-called private cults, such as the domestic cult or the cult of a corporation, satisfy this condition; for they are always celebrated by a group, the family or the corporation. moreover, even these particular religions are ordinarily only special forms of a more general religion which embraces all;[ ] these restricted churches are in reality only chapels of a vaster church which, by reason of this very extent, merits this name still more.[ ] it is quite another matter with magic. to be sure, the belief in magic is always more or less general; it is very frequently diffused in large masses of the population, and there are even peoples where it has as many adherents as the real religion. but it does not result in binding together those who adhere to it, nor in uniting them into a group leading a common life. _there is no church of magic._ between the magician and the individuals who consult him, as between these individuals themselves, there are no lasting bonds which make them members of the same moral community, comparable to that formed by the believers in the same god or the observers of the same cult. the magician has a clientele and not a church, and it is very possible that his clients have no other relations between each other, or even do not know each other; even the relations which they have with him are generally accidental and transient; they are just like those of a sick man with his physician. the official and public character with which he is sometimes invested changes nothing in this situation; the fact that he works openly does not unite him more regularly or more durably to those who have recourse to his services. it is true that in certain cases, magicians form societies among themselves: it happens that they assemble more or less periodically to celebrate certain rites in common; it is well known what a place these assemblies of witches hold in european folk-lore. but it is to be remarked that these associations are in no way indispensable to the working of the magic; they are even rare and rather exceptional. the magician has no need of uniting himself to his fellows to practise his art. more frequently, he is a recluse; in general, far from seeking society, he flees it. "even in regard to his colleagues, he always keeps his personal independence."[ ] religion, on the other hand, is inseparable from the idea of a church. from this point of view, there is an essential difference between magic and religion. but what is especially important is that when these societies of magic are formed, they do not include all the adherents to magic, but only the magicians; the laymen, if they may be so called, that is to say, those for whose profit the rites are celebrated, in fine, those who represent the worshippers in the regular cults, are excluded. now the magician is for magic what the priest is for religion, but a college of priests is not a church, any more than a religious congregation which should devote itself to some particular saint in the shadow of a cloister, would be a particular cult. a church is not a fraternity of priests; it is a moral community formed by all the believers in a single faith, laymen as well as priests. but magic lacks any such community.[ ] but if the idea of a church is made to enter into the definition of religion, does that not exclude the private religions which the individual establishes for himself and celebrates by himself? there is scarcely a society where these are not found. every ojibway, as we shall see below, has his own personal _manitou_, which he chooses himself and to which he renders special religious services; the melanesian of the banks islands has his _tamaniu_;[ ] the roman, his _genius_;[ ] the christian, his patron saint and guardian angel, etc. by definition all these cults seem to be independent of all idea of the group. not only are these individual religions very frequent in history, but nowadays many are asking if they are not destined to be the pre-eminent form of the religious life, and if the day will not come when there will be no other cult than that which each man will freely perform within himself.[ ] but if we leave these speculations in regard to the future aside for the moment, and confine ourselves to religions such as they are at present or have been in the past, it becomes clearly evident that these individual cults are not distinct and autonomous religious systems, but merely aspects of the common religion of the whole church, of which the individuals are members. the patron saint of the christian is chosen from the official list of saints recognized by the catholic church; there are even canonical rules prescribing how each catholic should perform this private cult. in the same way, the idea that each man necessarily has a protecting genius is found, under different forms, at the basis of a great number of american religions, as well as of the roman religion (to cite only these two examples); for, as will be seen later, it is very closely connected with the idea of the soul, and this idea of the soul is not one of those which can be left entirely to individual choice. in a word, it is the church of which he is a member which teaches the individual what these personal gods are, what their function is, how he should enter into relations with them and how he should honour them. when a methodical analysis is made of the doctrines of any church whatsoever, sooner or later we come upon those concerning private cults. so these are not two religions of different types, and turned in opposite directions; both are made up of the same ideas and the same principles, here applied to circumstances which are of interest to the group as a whole, there to the life of the individual. this solidarity is even so close that among certain peoples,[ ] the ceremonies by which the faithful first enter into communication with their protecting geniuses are mixed with rites whose public character is incontestable, namely the rites of initiation.[ ] there still remain those contemporary aspirations towards a religion which would consist entirely in internal and subjective states, and which would be constructed freely by each of us. but howsoever real these aspirations may be, they cannot affect our definition, for this is to be applied only to facts already realized, and not to uncertain possibilities. one can define religions such as they are, or such as they have been, but not such as they more or less vaguely tend to become. it is possible that this religious individualism is destined to be realized in facts; but before we can say just how far this may be the case, we must first know what religion is, of what elements it is made up, from what causes it results, and what function it fulfils--all questions whose solution cannot be foreseen before the threshold of our study has been passed. it is only at the close of this study that we can attempt to anticipate the future. thus we arrive at the following definition: _a religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them._ the second element which thus finds a place in our definition is no less essential than the first; for by showing that the idea of religion is inseparable from that of the church, it makes it clear that religion should be an eminently collective thing.[ ] chapter ii leading conceptions of the elementary religion i.--_animism_ armed with this definition, we are now able to set out in search of this elementary religion which we propose to study. even the crudest religions with which history and ethnology make us acquainted are already of a complexity which corresponds badly with the idea sometimes held of primitive mentality. one finds there not only a confused system of beliefs and rites, but also such a plurality of different principles, and such a richness of essential notions, that it seems impossible to see in them anything but the late product of a rather long evolution. hence it has been concluded that to discover the truly original form of the religious life, it is necessary to descend by analysis beyond these observable religions, to resolve them into their common and fundamental elements, and then to seek among these latter some one from which the others were derived. to the problem thus stated, two contrary solutions have been given. there is no religious system, ancient or recent, where one does not meet, under different forms, two religions, as it were, side by side, which, though being united closely and mutually penetrating each other, do not cease, nevertheless, to be distinct. the one addresses itself to the phenomena of nature, either the great cosmic forces, such as winds, rivers, stars or the sky, etc., or else the objects of various sorts which cover the surface of the earth, such as plants, animals, rocks, etc.; for this reason it has been given the name of _naturism_. the other has spiritual beings as its object, spirits, souls, geniuses, demons, divinities properly so-called, animated and conscious agents like man, but distinguished from him, nevertheless, by the nature of their powers and especially by the peculiar characteristic that they do not affect the senses in the same way: ordinarily they are not visible to human eyes. this religion of spirits is called _animism_. now, to explain the universal co-existence of these two sorts of cults, two contradictory theories have been proposed. for some, animism is the primitive religion, of which naturism is only a secondary and derived form. for the others, on the contrary, it is the nature cult which was the point of departure for religious evolution; the cult of spirits is only a peculiar case of that. these two theories are, up to the present, the only ones by which the attempt has been made to explain rationally[ ] the origins of religious thought. thus the capital problem raised by the history of religions is generally reduced to asking which of these two solutions should be chosen, or whether it is not better to combine them, and in that case, what place must be given to each of the two elements.[ ] even those scholars who do not admit either of these hypotheses in their systematic form, do not refuse to retain certain propositions upon which they rest.[ ] thus we have a certain number of theories already made, which must be submitted to criticism before we take up the study of the facts for ourselves. it will be better understood how indispensable it is to attempt a new one, when we have seen the insufficiency of these traditional conceptions. i it is tylor who formed the animist theory in its essential outlines.[ ] spencer, who took it up after him, did not reproduce it without introducing certain modifications.[ ] but in general the questions are posed by each in the same terms, and the solutions accepted are, with a single exception, identically the same. therefore we can unite these two doctrines in the exposition which follows, if we mark, at the proper moment, the place where the two diverge from one another. in order to find the elementary form of the religious life in these animistic beliefs and practices, three _desiderata_ must be satisfied: first, since according to this hypothesis, the idea of the soul is the cardinal idea of religion, it must be shown how this is formed without taking any of its elements from an anterior religion; secondly, it must be made clear how souls become the object of a cult and are transformed into spirits; and thirdly and finally, since the cult of these spirits is not all of any religion, it remains to be explained how the cult of nature is derived from it. according to this theory, the idea of the soul was first suggested to men by the badly understood spectacle of the double life they ordinarily lead, on the one hand, when awake, on the other, when asleep. in fact, for the savage,[ ] the mental representations which he has while awake and those of his dreams are said to be of the same value: he objectifies the second like the first, that is to say, that he sees in them the images of external objects whose appearance they more or less accurately reproduce. so when he dreams that he has visited a distant country, he believes that he really was there. but he could not have gone there, unless two beings exist within him: the one, his body, which has remained lying on the ground and which he finds in the same position on awakening; the other, during this time, has travelled through space. similarly, if he seems to talk with one of his companions who he knows was really at a distance, he concludes that the other also is composed of two beings: one which sleeps at a distance, and another which has come to manifest himself by means of the dream. from these repeated experiences, he little by little arrives at the idea that each of us has a double, another self, which in determined conditions has the power of leaving the organism where it resides and of going roaming at a distance. of course, this double reproduces all the essential traits of the perceptible being which serves it as external covering; but at the same time it is distinguished from this by many characteristics. it is more active, since it can cover vast distances in an instant. it is more malleable and plastic; for, to leave the body, it must pass out by its apertures, especially the mouth and nose. it is represented as made of matter, undoubtedly, but of a matter much more subtile and etherial than any which we know empirically. this double is the soul. in fact, it cannot be doubted that in numerous societies the soul has been conceived in the image of the body; it is believed that it reproduces even the accidental deformities such as those resulting from wounds or mutilations. certain australians, after having killed their enemy, cut off his right thumb, so that his soul, deprived of its thumb also, cannot throw a javelin and revenge itself. but while it resembles the body, it has, at the same time, something half spiritual about it. they say that "it is the finer or more aeriform part of the body," that "it has no flesh nor bone nor sinew"; that when one wishes to take hold of it, he feels nothing; that it is "like a purified body."[ ] also, other facts of experience which affect the mind in the same way naturally group themselves around this fundamental fact taught by the dream: fainting, apoplexy, catalepsy, ecstasy, in a word, all cases of temporary insensibility. in fact, they all are explained very well by the hypothesis that the principle of life and feeling is able to leave the body momentarily. also, it is natural that this principle should be confounded with the double, since the absence of the double during sleep daily has the effect of suspending thought and life. thus diverse observations seem to agree mutually and to confirm the idea of the constitutional duality of man.[ ] but the soul is not a spirit. it is attached to a body which it can leave only by exception; in so far as it is nothing more than that, it is not the object of any cult. the spirit, on the other hand, though generally having some special thing as its residence, can go away at will, and a man can enter into relations with it only by observing ritual precautions. the soul can become a spirit, then, only by transforming itself: the simple application of these preceding ideas to the fact of death produced this metamorphosis quite naturally. for a rudimentary intelligence, in fact, death is not distinguished from a long fainting swoon or a prolonged sleep; it has all their aspects. thus it seems that it too consists in a separation of the soul and the body, analogous to that produced every night; but as in such cases, the body is not reanimated, the idea is formed of a separation without an assignable limit of time. when the body is once destroyed--and funeral rites have the object of hastening this destruction--the separation is taken as final. hence come spirits detached from any organism and left free in space. as their number augments with time, a population of souls forms around the living population. these souls of men have the needs and passions of men; they seek to concern themselves with the life of their companions of yesterday, either to aid them or to injure them, according to the sentiments which they have kept towards them. according to the circumstances, their nature makes them either very precious auxiliaries or very redoubtable adversaries. owing to their extreme fluidity, they can even enter into the body, and cause all sorts of disorders there, or else increase its vitality. thus comes the habit of attributing to them all those events of life which vary slightly from the ordinary: there are very few of these for which they cannot account. thus they constitute a sort of ever-ready supply of causes which never leaves one at a loss when in search of explanations. does a man appear inspired, does he speak with energy, is it as though he were lifted outside himself and above the ordinary level of men? it is because a good spirit is in him and animates him. is he overtaken by an attack or seized by madness? it is because an evil spirit has entered into him and brought him all this trouble. there are no maladies which cannot be assigned to some influence of this sort. thus the power of souls is increased by all that men attribute to them, and in the end men find themselves the prisoners of this imaginary world of which they are, however, the authors and the models. they fall into dependence upon these spiritual forces which they have created with their own hands and in their own image. for if souls are the givers of health and sickness, of goods and evils to this extent, it is wise to conciliate their favour or appease them when they are irritated; hence come the offerings, prayers, sacrifices, in a word, all the apparatus of religious observances.[ ] here is the soul transformed. from a simple vital principle animating the body of a man, it has become a spirit, a good or evil genius, or even a deity, according to the importance of the effects with which it is charged. but since it is death which brought about this apotheosis, it is to the dead, to the souls of ancestors, that the first cult known to humanity was addressed. thus the first rites were funeral rites; the first sacrifices were food offerings destined to satisfy the needs of the departed; the first altars were tombs.[ ] but since these spirits were of human origin, they interested themselves only in the life of men and were thought to act only upon human events. it is still to be explained how other spirits were imagined to account for the other phenomena of the universe and how the cult of nature was subsequently formed beside that of the ancestors. for tylor, this extension of animism was due to the particular mentality of the primitive who, like an infant, cannot distinguish the animate and the inanimate. since the first beings of which the child commences to have an idea are men, that is, himself and those around him, it is upon this model of human nature that he tends to think of everything. the toys with which he plays, or the objects of every sort which affect his senses, he regards as living beings like himself. now the primitive thinks like a child. consequently, he also is inclined to endow all things, even inanimate ones, with a nature analogous to his own. then if, for the reasons exposed above, he once arrives at the idea that man is a body animated by a spirit, he must necessarily attribute a duality of this sort and souls like his own even to inert bodies themselves. yet the sphere of action of the two could not be the same. the souls of men have a direct influence only upon the world of men: they have a marked preference for the human organism, even when death has given them their liberty. on the other hand, the souls of things reside especially in these things, and are regarded as the productive causes of all that passes there. the first account for health and sickness, skilfulness or unskilfulness, etc.; by the second are explained especially the phenomena of the physical world, the movement of water-courses or the stars, the germination of plants, the reproduction of animals, etc. thus the first philosophy of man, which is at the basis of the ancestor-cult, is completed by a philosophy of the world. in regard to these cosmic spirits, man finds himself in a state of dependence still more evident than that in regard to the wandering doubles of his ancestors. for he could have only ideal and imaginary relations with the latter, but he depends upon things in reality; to live, he has need of their concurrence; he then believes that he has an equal need of the spirits which appear to animate these things and to determine their diverse manifestations. he implores their assistance, he solicits them with offerings and prayers, and the religion of man is thus completed in a religion of nature. herbert spencer objects against this explanation that the hypothesis upon which it rests is contradicted by the facts. it is held, he says, that there is a time when men do not realize the differences which separate the animate from the inanimate. now, as one advances in the animal scale, he sees the ability to make this distinction develop. the superior animals do not confound an object which moves of itself and whose movements are adapted to certain ends, with those which are mechanically moved from without. "amusing herself with a mouse she has caught, the cat, if it remains long stationary, touches it with her paw to make it run. obviously the thought is that a living thing disturbed will try to escape."[ ] even the primitive men could not have an intelligence inferior to that of the animals which preceded them in evolution; then it cannot be for lack of discernment that they passed from the cult of ancestors to the cult of things. according to spencer, who upon this point, but upon this point only, differs from tylor, this passage was certainly due to a confusion, but to one of a different sort. it was, in a large part at least, the result of numerous errors due to language. in many inferior societies it is a very common custom to give to each individual, either at his birth or later, the name of some animal, plant, star or natural object. but as a consequence of the extreme imprecision of his language, it is very difficult for a primitive to distinguish a metaphor from the reality. he soon lost sight of the fact that these names were only figures, and taking them literally, he ended by believing that an ancestor named "tiger" or "lion" was really a tiger or a lion. then the cult of which the ancestor was the object up to that time, was changed over to the animal with which he was thereafter confounded; and as the same substitution went on for the plants, the stars and all the natural phenomena, the religion of nature took the place of the old religion of the dead. besides this fundamental confusion, spencer signalizes others which aided the action of the first from time to time. for example, the animals which frequent the surroundings of the tombs or houses of men have been taken for their reincarnated souls, and adored under this title;[ ] or again, the mountain which tradition made the cradle of the race was finally taken for the ancestor of the race; it was thought that men were descended from it because their ancestors appeared coming from it, and it was consequently treated as an ancestor itself.[ ] but according to the statement of spencer, these accessory causes had only a secondary influence; that which principally determined the institution of naturism was "the literal interpretation of metaphorical names."[ ] we had to mention this theory to have our exposition of animism complete; but it is too inadequate for the facts, and too universally abandoned to-day to demand that we stop any longer for it. in order to explain a fact as general as the religion of nature by an illusion, it would be necessary that the illusion invoked should have causes of an equal generality. now even if misunderstandings, such as those of which spencer gives some rare illustrations, could explain the transformation of the cult of ancestors into that of nature, it is not clear why this should be produced with a sort of universality. no psychical mechanism necessitated it. it is true that because of its ambiguity, the word might lead to an equivocation; but on the other hand, all the personal souvenirs left by the ancestor in the memories of men should oppose this confusion. why should the tradition which represented the ancestor such as he really was, that is to say, as a man who led the life of a man, everywhere give way before the prestige of a word? likewise, one should have a little difficulty in admitting that men were born of a mountain or a star, of an animal or a plant; the idea of a similar exception to the ordinary conceptions of generation could not fail to raise active resistance. thus, it is far from true that the error found a road all prepared before it, but rather, all sorts of reasons should have kept it from being accepted. it is difficult to understand how, in spite of all these obstacles, it could have triumphed so generally. ii the theory of tylor, whose authority is always great, still remains. his hypotheses on the dream and the origin of the ideas of the soul and of spirits are still classic; it is necessary, therefore, to test their value. first of all, it should be recognized that the theorists of animism have rendered an important service to the science of religions, and even to the general history of ideas, by submitting the idea of the soul to historical analysis. instead of following so many philosophers and making it a simple and immediate object of consciousness, they have much more correctly viewed it as a complex whole, a product of history and mythology. it cannot be doubted that it is something essentially religious in its nature, origin and functions. it is from religion that the philosophers received it; it is impossible to understand the form in which it is represented by the thinkers of antiquity, if one does not take into account the mythical elements which served in its formation. but if tylor has had the merit of raising this problem, the solution he gives raises grave difficulties. first of all, there are reservations to be made in regard to the very principle which is at the basis of this theory. it is taken for granted that the soul is entirely distinct from the body, that it is its double, and that within it or outside of it, it normally lives its own autonomous life. now we shall see[ ] that this conception is not that of the primitive, or at least, that it only expresses one aspect of his idea of the soul. for him, the soul, though being under certain conditions independent of the organism which it animates, confounds itself with this latter to such an extent that it cannot be radically separated from it: there are organs which are not only its appointed seat, but also its outward form and material manifestation. the notion is therefore more complex than the doctrine supposes, and it is doubtful consequently whether the experiences mentioned are sufficient to account for it; for even if they did enable us to understand how men have come to believe themselves double, they cannot explain how this duality does not exclude, but rather, implies a deeper unity and an intimate interpenetration of the two beings thus differentiated. but let us admit that the idea of the soul can be reduced to the idea of a double, and then see how this latter came to be formed. it could not have been suggested to men except by the experience of dreams. that they might understand how they could see places more or less distant during sleep, while their bodies remained lying on the ground, it would seem that they were led to conceive of themselves as two beings: on the one hand, the body, and on the other, a second self, able to leave the organism in which it lives and to roam about in space. but if this hypothesis of a double is to be able to impose itself upon men with a sort of necessity, it should be the only one possible, or at least, the most economical one. now as a matter of fact, there are more simple ones which, it would seem, might have occurred to the mind just as naturally. for example, why should the sleeper not imagine that while asleep he is able to see things at a distance? to imagine such a power would demand less expense to the imagination than the construction of this complex notion of a double, made of some etherial, semi-invisible substance, and of which direct experience offers no example. but even supposing that certain dreams rather naturally suggest the animistic explanation, there are certainly many others which are absolutely incompatible with it. often our dreams are concerned with passed events; we see again the things which we saw or did yesterday or the day before or even during our youth, etc.; dreams of this sort are frequent and hold a rather considerable place in our nocturnal life. but the idea of a double cannot account for them. even if the double can go from one point to another in space, it is not clear how it could possibly go back and forth in time. howsoever rudimentary his intelligence may be, how could a man on awakening believe that he had really been assisting at or taking part in events which he knows passed long before? how could he imagine that during his sleep he lived a life which he knows has long since gone by? it would be much more natural that he should regard these renewed images as merely what they really are, that is, as souvenirs like those which he has during the day, but ones of a special intensity. moreover, in the scenes of which we are the actors and witnesses while we sleep, it constantly happens that one of our contemporaries has a rôle as well as ourselves: we think we see and hear him in the same place where we see ourselves. according to the animists, the primitive would explain this by imagining that his double was visited by or met with those of certain of his companions. but it would be enough that on awakening he question them, to find that their experiences do not coincide with his. during this same time, they too have had dreams, but wholly different ones. they have not seen themselves participating in the same scene; they believe that they have visited wholly different places. since such contradictions should be the rule in these cases, why should they not lead men to believe that there had probably been an error, that they had merely imagined it, that they had been duped by illusions? this blind credulity which is attributed to the primitive is really too simple. it is not true that he must objectify all his sensations. he cannot live long without perceiving that even when awake his senses sometimes deceive him. then why should he believe them more infallible at night than during the day? thus we find that there are many reasons opposing the theory that he takes his dreams for the reality and interprets them by means of a double of himself. but more than that, even if every dream were well explained by the hypothesis of a double, and could not be explained otherwise, it would remain a question why men have attempted to explain them. dreams undoubtedly constitute the matter of a possible problem. but we pass by problems every day which we do not raise, and of which we have no suspicion until some circumstance makes us feel the necessity of raising them. even when the taste for pure speculation is aroused, reflection is far from raising all the problems to which it could eventually apply itself; only those attract it which present a particular interest. especially, when it is a question of facts which always take place in the same manner, habit easily numbs curiosity, and we do not even dream of questioning them. to shake off this torpor, it is necessary that practical exigencies, or at least a very pressing theoretical interest, stimulate our attention and turn it in this direction. that is why, at every moment of history, there have been so many things that we have not tried to understand, without even being conscious of our renunciation. up until very recent times, it was believed that the sun was only a few feet in diameter. there is something incomprehensible in the statement that a luminous disc of such slight dimensions could illuminate the world: yet for centuries men never thought of resolving this contradiction. the fact of heredity has been known for a long time, but it is very recently that the attempt has been made to formulate its theory. certain beliefs were even admitted which rendered it wholly unintelligible: thus in many australian societies of which we shall have occasion to speak, the child is not physiologically the offspring of its parents.[ ] this intellectual laziness is necessarily at its maximum among the primitive peoples. these weak beings, who have so much trouble in maintaining life against all the forces which assail it, have no means for supporting any luxury in the way of speculation. they do not reflect except when they are driven to it. now it is difficult to see what could have led them to make dreams the theme of their meditations. what does the dream amount to in our lives? how little is the place it holds, especially because of the very vague impressions it leaves in the memory, and of the rapidity with which it is effaced from remembrance, and consequently, how surprising it is that a man of so rudimentary an intelligence should have expended such efforts to find its explanation! of the two existences which he successively leads, that of the day and that of the night, it is the first which should interest him the most. is it not strange that the second should have so captivated his attention that he made it the basis of a whole system of complicated ideas destined to have so profound an influence upon his thought and conduct? thus all tends to show that, in spite of the credit it still enjoys, the animistic theory of the soul must be revised. it is true that to-day the primitive attributes his dreams, or at least certain of them, to displacements of his double. but that does not say that the dream actually furnished the materials out of which the idea of the double or the soul was first constructed; it might have been applied afterwards to the phenomena of dreams, ecstasy and possession, without having been derived from them. it is very frequent that, after it has been formed, an idea is employed to co-ordinate or illuminate--with a light frequently more apparent than real--certain facts with which it had no relation at first, and which would never have suggested it themselves. god and the immortality of the soul are frequently proven to-day by showing that these beliefs are implied in the fundamental principles of morality; as a matter of fact, they have quite another origin. the history of religious thought could furnish numerous examples of these retrospective justifications, which can teach us nothing of the way in which the ideas were formed, nor of the elements out of which they are composed. it is also probable that the primitive distinguishes between his dreams, and does not interpret them all in the same way. in our european societies the still numerous persons for whom sleep is a sort of magico-religious state in which the mind, being partially relieved of the body, has a sharpness of vision which it does not enjoy during waking moments, do not go to the point of considering all their dreams as so many mystic intuitions: on the contrary, along with everybody else, they see in the majority of their dreams only profane conditions, vain plays of images, or simple hallucinations. it might be supposed that the primitive should make analogous distinctions. codrington says distinctly that the melanesians do not attribute all their dreams indiscriminately to the wanderings of their souls, but merely those which strike their imagination forcibly:[ ] undoubtedly by that should be understood those in which the sleeper imagines himself in relations with religious beings, good or evil geniuses, souls of the dead, etc. similarly, the dieri in australia sharply distinguish ordinary dreams from those nocturnal visions in which some deceased friend or relative shows himself to them. in the first, they see a simple fantasy of their imagination; they attribute the second to the action of an evil spirit.[ ] all the facts which howitt mentions as examples to show how the australian attributes to the soul the power of leaving the body, have an equally mystic character. the sleeper believes himself transported into the land of the dead or else he converses with a dead companion.[ ] these dreams are frequent among the primitives.[ ] it is probably upon these facts that the theory is based. to account for them, it is admitted that the souls of the dead come back to the living during their sleep. this theory was the more readily accepted because no fact of experience could invalidate it. but these dreams were possible only where the ideas of spirits, souls and a land of the dead were already existent, that is to say, where religious evolution was relatively advanced. thus, far from having been able to furnish to religion the fundamental notion upon which it rests, they suppose a previous religious system, upon which they depended.[ ] iii we now arrive at that which constitutes the very heart of the doctrine. wherever this idea of a double may come from, it is not sufficient, according to the avowal of the animists themselves, to explain the formation of the cult of the ancestors which they would make the initial type of all religions. if this double is to become the object of a cult, it must cease to be a simple reproduction of the individual, and must acquire the characteristics necessary to put it in the rank of sacred beings. it is death, they say, which performs this transformation. but whence comes the virtue which they attribute to this? even were the analogy of sleep and death sufficient to make one believe that the soul survives the body (and there are reservations to be made on this point), why does this soul, by the mere fact that it is now detached from the organism, so completely change its nature? if it was only a profane thing, a wandering vital principle, during life, how does it become a sacred thing all at once, and the object of religious sentiments? death adds nothing essential to it, except a greater liberty of movement. being no longer attached to a special residence, from now on, it can do at any time what it formerly did only by night; but the action of which it is capable is always of the same sort. then why have the living considered this uprooted and vagabond double of their former companion as anything more than an equal? it was a fellow-creature, whose approach might be inconvenient; it was not a divinity.[ ] it seems as though death ought to have the effect of weakening vital energies, instead of strengthening them. it is, in fact, a very common belief in the inferior societies that the soul participates actively in the life of the body. if the body is wounded, it is wounded itself and in a corresponding place. then it should grow old along with the body. in fact, there are peoples who do not render funeral honours to men arrived at senility; they are treated as if their souls also had become senile.[ ] it even happens that they regularly put to death, before they arrive at old age, certain privileged persons, such as kings or priests, who are supposed to be the possessors of powerful spirits whose protection the community wishes to keep. they thus seek to keep the spirit from being affected by the physical decadence of its momentary keepers; with this end in view, they take it from the organism where it resides before age can have weakened it, and they transport it, while it has as yet lost nothing of its vigour, into a younger body where it will be able to keep its vitality intact.[ ] so when death results from sickness or old age, it seems as though the soul could retain only a diminished power; and if it is only its double, it is difficult to see how it could survive at all, after the body is once definitely dissolved. from this point of view, the idea of survival is intelligible only with great difficulty. there is a logical and psychological gap between the idea of a double at liberty and that of a spirit to which a cult is addressed. this interval appears still more considerable when we realize what an abyss separates the sacred world from the profane; it becomes evident that a simple change of degree could not be enough to make something pass from one category into the other. sacred beings are not distinguished from profane ones merely by the strange or disconcerting forms which they take or by the greater powers which they enjoy; between the two there is no common measure. now there is nothing in the notion of a double which could account for so radical a heterogeneity. it is said that when once freed from the body, the spirit can work all sorts of good or evil for the living, according to the way in which it regards them. but it is not enough that a being should disturb his neighbourhood to seem to be of a wholly different nature from those whose tranquillity it menaces. to be sure, in the sentiment which the believer feels for the things he adores, there always enters in some element of reserve and fear; but this is a fear _sui generis_, derived from respect more than from fright, and where the dominating emotion is that which _la majesté_ inspires in men. the idea of majesty is essentially religious. then we have explained nothing of religion until we have found whence this idea comes, to what it corresponds and what can have aroused it in the mind. simple souls of men cannot become invested with this character by the simple fact of being no longer incarnate. this is clearly shown by an example from melanesia. the melanesians believe that men have souls which leave the body at death; it then changes its name and becomes what they call a _tindalo_, a _natmat_, etc. also, they have a cult of the souls of the dead: they pray to them, invoke them and make offerings and sacrifices to them. but every _tindalo_ is not the object of these ritual practices; only those have this honour which come from men to whom public opinion attributed, during life, the very special virtue which the melanesians call the _mana_. later on, we shall have occasion to fix precisely the meaning which this word expresses; for the time being, it will suffice to say that it is the distinctive character of every sacred being. as codrington says, "it is what works to effect anything which is beyond the ordinary power of men, outside the common processes of nature."[ ] a priest, a sorcerer or a ritual formula have mana as well as a sacred stone or spirit. thus the only tindalo to which religious services are rendered are those which were already sacred of themselves, when their proprietor was still alive. in regard to the other souls, which come from ordinary men, from the crowd of the profane, the same author says that they are "nobodies alike before and after death."[ ] by itself, death has no deifying virtue. since it brings about in a more or less complete and final fashion the separation of the soul from profane things, it can well reinforce the sacred character of the soul, if this already exists, but it cannot create it. moreover, if, as the hypothesis of the animists supposes, the first sacred beings were really the souls of the dead and the first cult that of the ancestors, it should be found that the lower the societies examined are, the more the place given to this cult in the religious life. but it is rather the contrary which is true. the ancestral cult is not greatly developed, or even presented under a characteristic form, except in advanced societies like those of china, egypt or the greek and latin cities; on the other hand, it is completely lacking in the australian societies which, as we shall see, represent the lowest and simplest form of social organization which we know. it is true that funeral rites and rites of mourning are found there; but these practices do not constitute a cult, though this name has sometimes wrongfully been given them. in reality, a cult is not a simple group of ritual precautions which a man is held to take in certain circumstances; it is a system of diverse rites, festivals and ceremonies which _all have this characteristic, that they reappear periodically_. they fulfil the need which the believer feels of strengthening and reaffirming, at regular intervals of time, the bond which unites him to the sacred beings upon which he depends. that is why one speaks of marriage rites but not of a marriage cult, of rites of birth but not of a cult of the new-born child; it is because the events on the occasion of which these rites take place imply no periodicity. in the same way, there is no cult of the ancestors except when sacrifices are made on the tombs from time to time, when libations are poured there on certain more or less specific dates, or when festivals are regularly celebrated in honour of the dead. but the australian has no relations of this sort with his dead. it is true that he must bury their remains according to a ritual, mourn for them during a prescribed length of time and in a prescribed manner, and revenge them if there is occasion to.[ ] but when he has once accomplished these pious tasks, when the bones are once dry and the period of mourning is once accomplished, then all is said and done, and the survivors have no more duties towards their relatives who exist no longer. it is true that there is a way in which the dead continue to hold a place in the lives of their kindred, even after the mourning is finished. it is sometimes the case that their hair or certain of their bones are kept, because of special virtues which are attached to them.[ ] but by that time they have ceased to exist as persons, and have fallen to the rank of anonymous and impersonal charms. in this condition they are the object of no cult; they serve only for magical purposes. however, there are certain australian tribes which periodically celebrate rites in honour of fabulous ancestors whom tradition places at the beginning of time. these ceremonies generally consist in a sort of dramatic representation in which are rehearsed the deeds which the myths ascribe to these legendary heroes.[ ] but the personages thus represented are not men who, after living the life of men, have been transformed into a sort of god by the fact of their death. they are considered to have exercised superhuman powers while alive. to them is attributed all that is grand in the history of the tribe, or even of the whole world. it is they who in a large measure made the earth such as it is, and men such as they are. the haloes with which they are still decorated do not come to them merely from the fact that they are ancestors, that is to say, in fine, that they are dead, but rather from the fact that a divine character is and always has been attributed to them; to use the melanesian expression, it is because they are constitutionally endowed with mana. consequently, there is nothing in these rites which shows that death has the slightest power of deification. it cannot even be correctly said of certain rites that they form an ancestor-cult, since they are not addressed to ancestors as such. in order to have a real cult of the dead, it is necessary that after death real ancestors, the relations whom men really lose every day, become the object of the cult; let us repeat it once more, there are no traces of any such cult in australia. thus the cult which, according to this hypothesis, ought to be the predominating one in inferior societies, is really nonexistent there. in reality, the australian is not concerned with his dead, except at the moment of their decease and during the time which immediately follows. yet these same peoples, as we shall see, have a very complex cult for sacred beings of a wholly different nature, which is made up of numerous ceremonies and frequently occupying weeks or even entire months. it cannot be admitted that the few rites which the australian performs when he happens to lose one of his relatives were the origin of these permanent cults which return regularly every year and which take up a considerable part of his existence. the contrast between the two is so great that we may even ask whether the first were not rather derived from the second, and if the souls of men, far from having been the model upon which the gods were originally imagined, have not rather been conceived from the very first as emanations from the divinity. iv from the moment that the cult of the dead is shown not to be primitive, animism lacks a basis. it would then seem useless to discuss the third thesis of the system, which concerns the transformation of the cult of the dead into the cult of nature. but since the postulate upon which it rests is also found in certain historians of religion who do not admit the animism properly so-called, such as brinton,[ ] lang,[ ] réville,[ ] and even robertson smith himself,[ ] it is necessary to make an examination of it. this extension of the cult of the dead to all nature is said to come from the fact that we instinctively tend to represent all things in our own image, that is to say, as living and thinking beings. we have seen that spencer has already contested the reality of this so-called instinct. since animals clearly distinguish living bodies from dead ones, it seemed to him impossible that man, the heir of the animals, should not have had this same faculty of discernment from the very first. but howsoever certain the facts cited by spencer may be, they have not the demonstrative value which he attributes to them. his reasoning supposes that all the faculties, instincts and aptitudes of the animal have passed integrally into man; now many errors have their origin in this principle which is wrongfully taken as a proven truth. for example, since sexual jealousy is generally very strong among the higher animals, it has been concluded that it ought to be found among men with the same intensity from the very beginnings of history.[ ] but it is well known to-day that men can practise a sexual communism which would be impossible if this jealousy were not capable of attenuating itself and even of disappearing when necessary.[ ] the fact is that man is not merely an animal with certain additional qualities: he is something else. human nature is the result of a sort of recasting of the animal nature, and in the course of the various complex operations which have brought about this recasting, there have been losses as well as gains. how many instincts have we not lost? the reason for this is that men are not only in relations with the physical environment, but also with a social environment infinitely more extended, more stable and more active than the one whose influence animals undergo. to live, they must adapt themselves to this. now in order to maintain itself, society frequently finds it necessary that we should see things from a certain angle and feel them in a certain way; consequently it modifies the ideas which we would ordinarily make of them for ourselves and the sentiments to which we would be inclined if we listened only to our animal nature; it alters them, even going so far as to put the contrary sentiments in their place. does it not even go so far as to make us regard our own individual lives as something of little value, while for the animal this is the greatest of things?[ ] then it is a vain enterprise to seek to infer the mental constitution of the primitive man from that of the higher animals. but if the objection of spencer does not have the decisive value which its author gives it, it is equally true that the animist theory can draw no authority from the confusions which children seem to make. when we hear a child angrily apostrophize an object which he has hit against, we conclude that he thinks of it as a conscious being like himself; but that is interpreting his words and acts very badly. in reality, he is quite a stranger to the very complicated reasoning attributed to him. if he lays the blame on the table which has hurt him, it is not because he supposes it animated and intelligent, but because it has hurt him. his anger, once aroused by the pain, must overflow; so it looks for something upon which to discharge itself, and naturally turns toward the thing which has provoked it, even though this has no effect. the action of an adult in similar circumstances is often as slightly reasonable. when we are violently irritated, we feel the need of inveighing, of destroying, though we attribute no conscious ill-will to the objects upon which we vent our anger. there is even so little confusion that when the emotion of a child is calmed, he can very well distinguish a chair from a person: he does not act in at all the same way towards the two. it is a similar reason which explains his tendency to treat his playthings as if they were living beings. it is his extremely intense need of playing which thus finds a means of expressing itself, just as in the other case the violent sentiments caused by pain created an object out of nothing. in order that he may consciously play with his jumping-jack, he imagines it a living person. this illusion is the easier for him because imagination is his sovereign mistress; he thinks almost entirely with images, and we know how pliant images are, bending themselves with docility before every exigency of the will. but he is so little deceived by his own fiction that he would be the first to be surprised if it suddenly became a reality, and his toy bit him![ ] let us therefore leave these doubtful analogies to one side. to find out if men were primitively inclined to the confusions imputed to them, we should not study animals or children of to-day, but the primitive beliefs themselves. if the spirits and gods of nature were really formed in the image of the human soul, they should bear traces of their origin and bring to mind the essential traits of their model. the most important characteristic of the soul is that it is conceived as the internal principle which animates the organism: it is that which moves it and makes it live, to such an extent that when it withdraws itself, life ceases or is suspended. it has its natural residence in the body, at least while this exists. but it is not thus with the spirits assigned to the different things in nature. the god of the sun is not necessarily in the sun, nor is the spirit of a certain rock in the rock which is its principal place of habitation. a spirit undoubtedly has close relations with the body to which it is attached, but one employs a very inexact expression when he says that it is its soul. as codrington says,[ ] "there does not appear to be anywhere in melanesia a belief in a spirit which animates any natural object, a tree, waterfall, storm or rock, so as to be to it what the soul is believed to be to the body of man. europeans, it is true, speak of the spirits of the sea or of the storm or of the forest; but the native idea which they represent is that ghosts haunt the sea and the forest, having power to raise storms and strike a traveller with disease." while the soul is essentially within the body, the spirit passes the major portion of its time outside the object which serves as its base. this is one difference which does not seem to show that the second idea was derived from the first. from another point of view, it must be added that if men were really forced to project their own image into things, then the first sacred beings ought to have been conceived in their likeness. now anthropomorphism, far from being primitive, is rather the mark of a relatively advanced civilization. in the beginning, sacred beings are conceived in the form of an animal or vegetable, from which the human form is only slowly disengaged. it will be seen below that in australia, it is animals and plants which are the first sacred beings. even among the indians of north america, the great cosmic divinities, which commence to be the object of a cult there, are very frequently represented in animal forms.[ ] "the difference between the animal, man and the divine being," says réville, not without surprise, "is not felt in this state of mind, and generally it might be said that _it is the animal form which is the fundamental one_."[ ] to find a god made up entirely of human elements, it is necessary to advance nearly to christianity. here, god is a man, not only in the physical aspect in which he is temporarily made manifest, but also in the ideas and sentiments which he expresses. but even in greece and rome, though the gods were generally represented with human traits, many mythical personages still had traces of an animal origin: thus there is dionysus, who is often met with in the form of a bull, or at least with the horns of a bull; there is demeter, who is often represented with a horse's mane, there are pan and silenus, there are the fauns, etc.[ ] it is not at all true that man has had such an inclination to impose his own form upon things. more than that, he even commenced by conceiving of himself as participating closely in the animal nature. in fact, it is a belief almost universal in australia, and very widespread among the indians of north america, that the ancestors of men were beasts or plants, or at least that the first men had, either in whole or in part, the distinctive characters of certain animal or vegetable species. thus, far from seeing beings like themselves everywhere, men commenced by believing themselves to be in the image of some beings from which they differed radically. v finally, the animistic theory implies a consequence which is perhaps its best refutation. if it were true, it would be necessary to admit that religious beliefs are so many hallucinatory representations, without any objective foundation whatsoever. it is supposed that they are all derived from the idea of the soul because one sees only a magnified soul in the spirits and gods. but according to tylor and his disciples, the idea of the soul is itself constructed entirely out of the vague and inconsistent images which occupy our attention during sleep: for the soul is the double, and the double is merely a man as he appears to himself while he sleeps. from this point of view, then, sacred beings are only the imaginary conceptions which men have produced during a sort of delirium which regularly overtakes them every day, though it is quite impossible to see to what useful ends these conceptions serve, nor what they answer to in reality. if a man prays, if he makes sacrifices and offerings, if he submits to the multiple privations which the ritual prescribes, it is because a sort of constitutional eccentricity has made him take his dreams for perceptions, death for a prolonged sleep, and dead bodies for living and thinking beings. thus not only is it true, as many have held, that the forms under which religious powers have been represented to the mind do not express them exactly, and that the symbols with the aid of which they have been thought of partially hide their real nature, but more than that, behind these images and figures there exists nothing but the nightmares of primitive minds. in fine, religion is nothing but a dream, systematized and lived, but without any foundation in reality.[ ] thence it comes about that the theorists of animism, when looking for the origins of religious thought, content themselves with a small outlay of energy. when they think that they have explained how men have been induced to imagine beings of a strange, vaporous form, such as those they see in their dreams, they think the problem is resolved. in reality, it is not even approached. it is inadmissible that systems of ideas like religions, which have held so considerable a place in history, and to which, in all times, men have come to receive the energy which they must have to live, should be made up of a tissue of illusions. to-day we are beginning to realize that law, morals and even scientific thought itself were born of religion, were for a long time confounded with it, and have remained penetrated with its spirit. how could a vain fantasy have been able to fashion the human consciousness so strongly and so durably? surely it ought to be a principle of the science of religions that religion expresses nothing which does not exist in nature; for there are sciences only of natural phenomena. the only question is to learn from what part of nature these realities come and what has been able to make men represent them under this singular form which is peculiar to religious thought. but if this question is to be raised, it is necessary to commence by admitting that they are real things which are thus represented. when the philosophers of the eighteenth century made religion a vast error imagined by the priests, they could at least explain its persistence by the interest which the sacerdotal class had in deceiving the people. but if the people themselves have been the artisans of these systems of erroneous ideas at the same time that they were its dupes, how has this extraordinary dupery been able to perpetuate itself all through the course of history? one might even demand if under these conditions the words of science of religions can be employed without impropriety. a science is a discipline which, in whatever manner it is conceived, is always applied to some real data. physics and chemistry are sciences because physico-chemical phenomena are real, and of a reality which does not depend upon the truths which these sciences show. there is a psychological science because there are really consciousnesses which do not hold their right of existence from the psychologist. but on the contrary, religion could not survive the animistic theory and the day when its truth was recognized by men, for they could not fail to renounce the errors whose nature and origin would thus be revealed to them. what sort of a science is it whose principal discovery is that the subject of which it treats does not exist? chapter iii leading conceptions of the elementary religion--_continued_ ii.--_naturism_ the spirit of the naturistic school is quite different. in the first place, it is recruited in a different environment. the animists are, for the most part, ethnologists or anthropologists. the religions which they have studied are the crudest which humanity has ever known. hence comes the extraordinary importance which they attribute to the souls of the dead, to spirits and to demons, and, in fact, to all spiritual beings of the second order: it is because these religions know hardly any of a higher order.[ ] on the contrary, the theories which we are now going to describe are the work of scholars who have concerned themselves especially with the great civilizations of europe and asia. ever since the work of the grimm brothers, who pointed out the interest that there is in comparing the different mythologies of the indo-european peoples, scholars have been struck by the remarkable similarities which these present. mythical personages were identified who, though having different names, symbolized the same ideas and fulfilled the same functions; even the names were frequently related, and it has been thought possible to establish the fact that they are not unconnected with one another. such resemblances seemed to be explicable only by a common origin. thus they were led to suppose that these conceptions, so varied in appearance, really came from one common source, of which they were only diversified forms, and which it was not impossible to discover. by the comparative method, they believed one should be able to go back, beyond these great religions, to a much more ancient system of ideas, and to the really primitive religion, from which the others were derived. the discovery of the vedas aided greatly in stimulating these ambitions. in the vedas, scholars had a written text, whose antiquity was undoubtedly exaggerated at the moment of its discovery, but which is surely one of the most ancient which we have at our disposition in an indo-european language. here they were enabled to study, by the ordinary methods of philology, a literature as old as or older than homer, and a religion which was believed more primitive than that of the ancient germans. a document of such value was evidently destined to throw a new light upon the religious beginnings of humanity, and the science of religions could not fail to be revolutionized by it. the conception which was thus born was so fully demanded by the state of the science and by the general march of ideas, that it appeared almost simultaneously in two different lands. in , max müller exposed its principles in his _oxford essays_.[ ] three years later appeared the work of adalbert kuhn on _the origin of fire and the drink of the gods_,[ ] which was clearly inspired by the same spirit. when once set forth, the idea spread very rapidly in scientific circles. to the name of kuhn is closely associated that of his brother-in-law schwartz, whose work on _the origin of mythology_,[ ] followed closely upon the preceding one. steinthal and the whole german school of _völkerpsychologie_ attached themselves to the same movement. the theory was introduced into france in by m. michel bréal.[ ] it met so little resistance that, according to an expression of gruppe,[ ] "a time came when, aside from certain classical philologists, to whom vedic studies were unknown, all the mythologists had adopted the principles of max müller or kuhn as their point of departure."[ ] it is therefore important to see what they really are, and what they are worth. since no one has presented them in a more systematic form than max müller, it is upon his work that we shall base the description which follows.[ ] i we have seen that the postulate at the basis of animism is that religion, at least in its origin, expresses no physical reality. but max müller commences with the contrary principle. for him, it is an axiom that religion reposes upon an experience, from which it draws all its authority. "religion," he says, "if it is to hold its place as a legitimate element of our consciousness, must, like all other knowledge, begin with sensuous experience."[ ] taking up the old empirical adage, "_nihil est in intellectu quod non ante fuerit in sensu_," he applies it to religion and declares that there can be nothing in beliefs which was not first perceived. so here is a doctrine which seems to escape the grave objection which we raised against animism. from this point of view, it seems that religion ought to appear, not as a sort of vague and confused dreaming, but as a system of ideas and practices well founded in reality. but which are these sensations which give birth to religious thought? that is the question which the study of the vedas is supposed to aid in resolving. the names of the gods are generally either common words, still employed, or else words formerly common, whose original sense it is possible to discover. now both designate the principal phenomena of nature. thus _agni_, the name of one of the principal divinities of india, originally signified only the material fact of fire, such as it is ordinarily perceived by the senses and without any mythological addition. even in the vedas, it is still employed with this meaning; in any case, it is well shown that this signification was primitive by the fact that it is conserved in other indo-european languages: the latin _ignis_, the lithuanian _ugnis_, the old slav _ogny_ are evidently closely related to agni. similarly, the relationship of the sanskrit _dyaus_, the greek _zeus_, the latin _jovis_ and the _zio_ of high german is to-day uncontested. this proves that these different words designate one single and the same divinity, whom the different indo-european peoples recognized as such before their separation. now dyaus signifies the bright sky. these and other similar facts tend to show that among these peoples the forms and forces of nature were the first objects to which the religious sentiment attached itself: they were the first things to be deified. going one step farther in his generalization, max müller thought that he was prepared to conclude that the religious evolution of humanity in general had the same point of departure. it is almost entirely by considerations of a psychological sort that he justifies these inferences. the varied spectacles which nature offers man seemed to him to fulfil all the conditions necessary for arousing religious ideas in the mind directly. in fact, he says, "at first sight, nothing seemed less natural than nature. nature was the greatest surprise, a terror, a marvel, a standing miracle, and it was only on account of their permanence, constancy, and regular recurrence that certain features of that standing miracle were called natural, in the sense of foreseen, common, intelligible.... it was that vast domain of surprise, of terror, of marvel, of miracle, the unknown, as distinguished from the known, or, as i like to express it, the infinite, as distinct from the finite, which supplied from the earliest times the impulse to religious thought and language."[ ] in order to illustrate his idea, he applies it to a natural force which holds a rather large place in the vedic religion, fire. he says, "if you can for a moment transfer yourselves to that early stage of life to which we must refer not only the origin, but likewise the early phases of physical religion, you can easily understand what an impression the first appearance of fire must have made on the human mind. fire was not given as something permanent or eternal, like the sky, or the earth, or the water. in whatever way it first appeared, whether through lightning or through the friction of the branches of trees, or through the sparks of flints, it came and went, it had to be guarded, it brought destruction, but at the same time, it made life possible in winter, it served as a protection during the night, it became a weapon of defence and offence, and last, not least, it changed man from a devourer of raw flesh into an eater of cooked meat. at a later time it became the means of working metal, of making tools and weapons, it became an indispensable factor in all mechanical and artistic progress, and has remained so ever since. what should we be without fire even now?"[ ] the same author says in another work that a man could not enter into relations with nature without taking account of its immensity, of its infiniteness. it surpasses him in every way. beyond the distances which he perceives, there are others which extend without limits; each moment of time is preceded and followed by a time to which no limit can be assigned; the flowing river manifests an infinite force, since nothing can exhaust it.[ ] there is no aspect of nature which is not fitted to awaken within us this overwhelming sensation of an infinity which surrounds us and dominates us.[ ] it is from this sensation that religions are derived.[ ] however, they are there only in germ.[ ] religion really commences only at the moment when these natural forces are no longer represented in the mind in an abstract form. they must be transformed into personal agents, living and thinking beings, spiritual powers or gods; for it is to beings of this sort that the cult is generally addressed. we have seen that animism itself has been obliged to raise this question, and also how it has answered it: man seems to have a sort of native incapacity for distinguishing the animate from the inanimate and an irresistible tendency to conceive the second under the form of the first. max müller rejects any such solution.[ ] according to him it is language which has brought about this metamorphosis, by the action which it exercises upon thought. it is easily explained how men, being perplexed by the marvellous forces upon which they feel that they depend, have been led to reflect upon them, and how they have asked themselves what these forces are and have made an effort to substitute for the obscure sensation which they primitively had of them, a clearer idea and a better defined concept. but as our author very justly says,[ ] this idea and concept are impossible without the word. language is not merely the external covering of a thought; it also is its internal framework. it does not confine itself to expressing this thought after it has once been formed; it also aids in making it. however, its nature is of a different sort, so its laws are not those of thought. then since it contributes to the elaboration of this latter, it cannot fail to do it violence to some extent, and to deform it. it is a deformation of this sort which is said to have created the special characteristic of religious thought. thinking consists in arranging our ideas, and consequently in classifying them. to think of fire, for example, is to put it into a certain category of things, in such a way as to be able to say that it is this or that, or this and not that. but classifying is also naming, for a general idea has no existence and reality except in and by the word which expresses it and which alone makes its individuality. thus the language of a people always has an influence upon the manner in which new things, recently learned, are classified in the mind and are subsequently thought of; these new things are thus forced to adapt themselves to pre-existing forms. for this reason, the language which men spoke when they undertook to construct an elaborated representation of the universe marked the system of ideas which was then born with an indelible trace. nor are we without some knowledge of this language, at least in so far as the indo-european peoples are concerned. howsoever distant it may be from us, souvenirs of it remain in our actual languages which permit us to imagine what it was: these are the roots. these stems, from which are derived all the words which we employ and which are found at the basis of all the indo-european languages, are regarded by max müller as so many echoes of the language which the corresponding peoples spoke before their separation, that is to say, at the very moment when this religion of nature, which is to be explained, was being formed. now these roots present two remarkable characteristics, which, it is true, have as yet been observed only in this particular group of languages, but which our author believes to be present equally in the other linguistic families.[ ] in the first place, the roots are general; that is to say that they do not express particular things and individuals, but types, and even types of an extreme generality. they represent the most general themes of thought; one finds there, as though fixed and crystallized, those fundamental categories of the intellect which at every moment in history dominate the entire mental life, the arrangement of which philosophers have many times attempted to reconstruct.[ ] secondly, the types to which they correspond are types of action, and not of objects. they translate the most general manners of acting which are to be observed among living beings and especially among men; they are such actions as striking, pushing, rubbing, lying down, getting up, pressing, mounting, descending, walking, etc. in other words, men generalized and named their principal ways of acting before generalizing and naming the phenomena of nature.[ ] owing to their extreme generality, these words could easily be extended to all sorts of objects which they did not originally include; it is even this extreme suppleness which has permitted them to give birth to the numerous words which are derived from them. then when men, turning towards things, undertook to name them, that they might be able to think about them, they applied these words to them, though they were in no way designed for them. but, owing to their origin, these were able to designate the forces of nature only by means of their manifestations which seemed the nearest to human actions: a thunderbolt was called _something_ that tears up the soil or that spreads fire; the wind, _something_ that sighs or whistles; the sun, _something_ that throws golden arrows across space; a river, _something_ that flows, etc. but since natural phenomena were thus compared to human acts, this _something_ to which they were attached was necessarily conceived under the form of personal agents, more or less like men. it was only a metaphor, but it was taken literally; the error was inevitable, for science, which alone could dispel the illusion, did not yet exist. in a word, since language was made of human elements, translating human states, it could not be applied to nature without transforming it.[ ] even to-day, remarks m. bréal, it forces us in a certain measure to represent things from this angle. "we do not express an idea, even one designating a simple quality, without giving it a gender, that is to say, a sex; we cannot speak of an object, even though it be considered in a most general fashion, without determining it by an article; every subject of a sentence is presented as an active being, every idea as an action, and every action, be it transitory or permanent, is limited in its duration by the tense in which we put the verb."[ ] our scientific training enables us to rectify the errors which language might thus suggest to us; but the influence of the word ought to be all-powerful when it has no check. language thus superimposes upon the material world, such as it is revealed to our senses, a new world, composed wholly of spiritual beings which it has created out of nothing and which have been considered as the causes determining physical phenomena ever since. but its action does not stop there. when words were once forged to represent these personalities which the popular imagination had placed behind things, a reaction affected these words themselves: they raised all sorts of questions, and it was to resolve these problems that myths were invented. it happened that one object received a plurality of names, corresponding to the plurality of aspects under which it was presented in experience; thus there are more than twenty words in the vedas for the sky. since these words were different, it was believed that they corresponded to so many distinct personalities. but at the same time, it was strongly felt that these same personalities had an air of relationship. to account for that, it was imagined that they formed a single family; genealogies, a civil condition and a history were invented for them. in other cases, different things were designated by the same term: to explain these homonyms, it was believed that the corresponding things were transformations of each other, and new fictions were invented to make these metamorphoses intelligible. or again, a word which had ceased to be understood, was the origin of fables designed to give it a meaning. the creative work of language continued then, making constructions ever more and more complex, and then mythology came to endow each god with a biography, ever more and more extended and complete, the result of all of which was that the divine personalities, at first confounded with things, finally distinguished and determined themselves. this is how the notion of the divine is said to have been constructed. as for the religion of ancestors, it was only a reflection of this other.[ ] the idea of the soul is said to have been first formed for reasons somewhat analogous to those given by tylor, except that according to max müller, they were designed to account for death, rather than for dreams.[ ] then, under the influence of diverse, partially accidental, circumstances,[ ] the souls of men, being once disengaged from the body, were drawn little by little within the circle of divine beings, and were thus finally deified themselves. but this new cult was the product of only a secondary formation. this is proven by the fact that deified men have generally been imperfect gods or demi-gods, whom the people have always been able to distinguish from the genuine deities.[ ] ii this doctrine rests, in part, upon a certain number of linguistic postulates which have been and still are very much questioned. some have contested the reality of many of the similarities which max müller claimed to have found between the names of the gods in the various european languages. the interpretation which he gave them has been especially doubted: it has been asked if these names, far from being the mark of a very primitive religion, are not the slow product, either of direct borrowings or of natural intercourse with others.[ ] also, it is no longer admitted that the roots once existed in an isolated state as autonomous realities, nor that they allow us to reconstruct, even hypothetically, the original language of the indo-europeans.[ ] finally, recent researches would tend to show that the vedic divinities did not all have the exclusively naturistic character attributed to them by max müller and his school.[ ] but we shall leave aside those questions, the discussion of which requires a special competence as a philologist, and address ourselves directly to the general principles of the system. it will be important here not to confound the naturistic theory with these controverted postulates; for this is held by numbers of scholars who do not make language play the predominating rôle attributed to it by max müller. that men have an interest in knowing the world which surrounds them, and consequently that their reflection should have been applied to it at an early date, is something that everyone will readily admit. co-operation with the things with which they were in immediate connection was so necessary for them that they could not fail to seek a knowledge of their nature. but if, as naturism pretends, it is of these reflections that religious thought was born, it is impossible to explain how it was able to survive the first attempts made, and the persistence with which it has maintained itself becomes unintelligible. if we have need of knowing the nature of things, it is in order to act upon them in an appropriate manner. but the conception of the universe given us by religion, especially in its early forms, is too greatly mutilated to lead to temporarily useful practices. things become nothing less than living and thinking beings, minds or personalities like those which the religious imagination has made into the agents of cosmic phenomena. it is not by conceiving of them under this form or by treating them according to this conception that men could make them work for their ends. it is not by addressing prayers to them, by celebrating them in feasts and sacrifices, or by imposing upon themselves fasts and privations, that men can deter them from working harm or oblige them to serve their own designs. such processes could succeed only very exceptionally and, so to speak, miraculously. if, then, religion's reason for existence was to give us a conception of the world which would guide us in our relations with it, it was in no condition to fulfil its function, and people would not have been slow to perceive it: failures, being infinitely more frequent than successes, would have quickly shown them that they were following a false route, and religion, shaken at each instant by these repeated contradictions, would not have been able to survive. it is undeniably true that errors have been able to perpetuate themselves in history; but, except under a union of very exceptional circumstances, they can never perpetuate themselves thus unless they were _true practically_, that is to say, unless, without giving us a theoretically exact idea of the things with which they deal, they express well enough the manner in which they affect us, either for good or for bad. under these circumstances, the actions which they determine have every chance of being, at least in a general way, the very ones which are proper, so it is easily explained how they have been able to survive the proofs of experience.[ ] but an error and especially a system of errors which leads to, and can lead to nothing but mistaken and useless practices, has no chance of living. now what is there in common between the rites with which the believer tries to act upon nature and the processes by which science has taught us to make use of it, and which we now know are the only efficacious ones? if that is what men demanded of religion, it is impossible to see how it could have maintained itself, unless clever tricks had prevented their seeing that it did not give them what they expected from it. it would be necessary to return again to the over simple explanations of the eighteenth century.[ ] thus it is only in appearance that naturism escapes the objection which we recently raised against animism. it also makes religion a system of hallucinations, since it reduces it to an immense metaphor with no objective value. it is true that it gives religion a point of departure in reality, to wit, in the sensations which the phenomena of nature provoke in us; but by the bewitching action of language, this sensation is soon transformed into extravagant conceptions. religious thought does not come in contact with reality, except to cover it at once with a thick veil which conceals its real forms: this veil is the tissue of fabulous beliefs which mythology brought forth. thus the believer, like the delirious man, lives in a world peopled with beings and things which have only a verbal existence. max müller himself recognized this, for he regarded myths as the product of a disease of the intellect. at first, he attributed them to a disease of language, but since language and the intellect are inseparable for him, what is true of the one is true of the other. "when trying to explain the inmost nature of mythology," he says, "i called it a disease of language rather than of thought.... after i had fully explained in my _science of thought_ that language and thought are inseparable, and that a disease of language is therefore the same thing as a disease of thought, no doubt ought to have remained as to what i meant. to represent the supreme god as committing every kind of crime, as being deceived by men, as being angry with his wife and violent with his children, is surely a proof of a disease, of an unusual condition of thought, or, to speak more clearly, of real madness."[ ] and this argument is not valid merely against max müller and his theory, but against the very principle of naturism, in whatever way it may be applied. whatever we may do, if religion has as its principal object the expression of the forces of nature, it is impossible to see in it anything more than a system of lying fictions, whose survival is incomprehensible. max müller thought he escaped this objection, whose gravity he felt, by distinguishing radically between mythology and religion, and by putting the first outside the second. he claims the right of reserving the name of religion for only those beliefs which conform to the prescriptions of a sane moral system and a rational theology. the myths were parasitic growths which, under the influence of language, attached themselves upon these fundamental conceptions, and denatured them. thus the belief in zeus was religious in so far as the greeks considered him the supreme god, father of humanity, protector of laws, avenger of crimes, etc.; but all that which concerned the biography of zeus, his marriages and his adventures, was only mythology.[ ] but this distinction is arbitrary. it is true that mythology has an æsthetic interest as well as one for the history of religions; but it is one of the essential elements of the religious life, nevertheless. if the myth were withdrawn from religion, it would be necessary to withdraw the rite also; for the rites are generally addressed to definite personalities who have a name, a character, determined attributes and a history, and they vary according to the manner in which these personalities are conceived. the cult rendered to a divinity depends upon the character attributed to him; and it is the myth which determines this character. very frequently, the rite is nothing more than the myth put in action; the christian communion is inseparable from the myth of the last supper, from which it derives all its meaning. then if all mythology is the result of a sort of verbal delirium, the question which we raised remains intact: the existence, and especially the persistence of the cult become inexplicable. it is hard to understand how men have continued to do certain things for centuries without any object. moreover, it is not merely the peculiar traits of the divine personalities which are determined by mythology; the very idea that there are gods or spiritual beings set above the various departments of nature, in no matter what manner they may be represented, is essentially mythical.[ ] now if all that which appertains to the notion of gods conceived as cosmic agents is blotted out of the religions of the past, what remains? the idea of a divinity in itself, of a transcendental power upon which man depends and upon which he supports himself? but that is only an abstract and philosophic conception which has been fully realized in no historical religion; it is without interest for the science of religions.[ ] we must therefore avoid distinguishing between religious beliefs, keeping some because they seem to us to be true and sane and rejecting others because they shock and disconcert us. all myths, even those which we find the most unreasonable, have been believed.[ ] men have believed in them no less firmly than in their own sensations; they have based their conduct upon them. in spite of appearances, it is therefore impossible that they should be without objective foundation. however, it will be said that in whatever manner religions may be explained, it is certain that they are mistaken in regard to the real nature of things: science has proved it. the modes of action which they counsel or prescribe to men can therefore rarely have useful effects: it is not by lustrations that the sick are cured nor by sacrifices and chants that the crops are made to grow. thus the objection which we have made to naturism would seem to be applicable to all possible systems of explanation. nevertheless, there is one which escapes it. let us suppose that religion responds to quite another need than that of adapting ourselves to sensible objects: then it will not risk being weakened by the fact that it does not satisfy, or only badly satisfies, this need. if religious faith was not born to put man in harmony with the material world, the injuries which it has been able to do him in his struggle with the world do not touch it at its source, because it is fed from another. if it is not for these reasons that a man comes to believe, he should continue to believe even when these reasons are contradicted by the facts. it is even conceivable that faith should be strong enough, not only to support these contradictions, but also even to deny them and to keep the believer from seeing their importance; this is what succeeds in rendering them inoffensive for religion. when the religious sentiment is active, it will not admit that religion can be in the wrong, and it readily suggests explanations which make it appear innocent; if the rite does not produce the desired results, this failure is imputed either to some fault of execution, or to the intervention of another, contrary deity. but for that, it is necessary that these religious ideas have their source in another sentiment than that betrayed by these deceptions of experience, or else whence could come their force of resistance? iii but more than that, even if men had really had reasons for remaining obstinate, in spite of all their mistakes, in expressing cosmic phenomena in religious terms, it is also necessary that these be of a nature to suggest such an interpretation. now when could they have gotten such a property? here again we find ourselves in the presence of one of those postulates which pass as evident only because they have not been criticized. it is stated as an axiom that in the natural play of physical forces there is all that is needed to arouse within us the idea of the sacred; but when we closely examine the proofs of this proposition, which, by the way, are sufficiently brief, we find that they reduce to a prejudice. they talk about the marvel which men should feel as they discover the world. but really, that which characterizes the life of nature is a regularity which approaches monotony. every morning the sun mounts in the horizon, every evening it sets; every month the moon goes through the same cycle; the river flows in an uninterrupted manner in its bed; the same seasons periodically bring back the same sensations. to be sure, here and there an unexpected event sometimes happens: the sun is eclipsed, the moon is hidden behind clouds, the river overflows. but these momentary variations could only give birth to equally momentary impressions, the remembrance of which is gone after a little while; they could not serve as a basis for these stable and permanent systems of ideas and practices which constitute religions. normally, the course of nature is uniform, and uniformity could never produce strong emotions. representing the savage as filled with admiration before these marvels transports much more recent sentiments to the beginnings of history. he is much too accustomed to it to be greatly surprised by it. it requires culture and reflection to shake off this yoke of habit and to discover how marvellous this regularity itself is. besides, as we have already remarked,[ ] admiring an object is not enough to make it appear sacred to us, that is to say, to mark it with those characteristics which make all direct contact with it appear a sacrilege and a profanation. we misunderstand what the religious sentiment really is, if we confound it with every impression of admiration and surprise. but, they say, even if it is not admiration, there is a certain impression which men cannot help feeling in the presence of nature. he cannot come in contact with it, without realizing that it is greater than he. it overwhelms him by its immensity. this sensation of an infinite space which surrounds him, of an infinite time which has preceded and will follow the present moment, and of forces infinitely superior to those of which he is master, cannot fail, as it seems, to awaken within him the idea that outside of him there exists an infinite power upon which he depends. and this idea enters as an essential element into our conception of the divine. but let us bear in mind what the question is. we are trying to find out how men came to think that there are in reality two categories of things, radically heterogeneous and incomparable to each other. now how could the spectacle of nature give rise to the idea of this duality? nature is always and everywhere of the same sort. it matters little that it extends to infinity: beyond the extreme limit to which my eyes can reach, it is not different from what it is here. the space which i imagine beyond the horizon is still space, identical with that which i see. the time which flows without end is made up of moments identical with those which i have passed through. extension, like duration, repeats itself indefinitely; if the portions which i touch have of themselves no sacred character, where did the others get theirs? the fact that i do not see them directly, is not enough to transform them.[ ] a world of profane things may well be unlimited; but it remains a profane world. do they say that the physical forces with which we come in contact exceed our own? sacred forces are not to be distinguished from profane ones simply by their greater intensity, they are different; they have special qualities which the others do not have. quite on the contrary, all the forces manifested in the universe are of the same nature, those that are within us just as those that are outside of us. and especially, there is no reason which could have allowed giving a sort of pre-eminent dignity to some in relation to others. then if religion really was born because of the need of assigning causes to physical phenomena, the forces thus imagined would have been no more sacred than those conceived by the scientist to-day to account for the same facts.[ ] this is as much as to say that there would have been no sacred beings and therefore no religion. but even supposing that this sensation of being "overwhelmed" were really able to suggest religious ideas, it could not have produced this effect upon the primitive, for he does not have it. he is in no way conscious that cosmic forces are so superior to his own. since science has not yet taught him modesty, he attributes to himself an empire over things which he really does not have, but the illusion of which is enough to prevent his feeling dominated by them. as we have already pointed out, he thinks that he can command the elements, release the winds, compel the rain to fall, or stop the sun, by a gesture, etc.[ ] religion itself contributes to giving him this security, for he believes that it arms him with extended powers over nature. his rites are, in part, means destined to aid him in imposing his will upon the world. thus, far from being due to the sentiment which men should have of their littleness before the universe, religions are rather inspired by the contrary sentiment. even the most elevated and idealistic have the effect of reassuring men in their struggle with things: they teach that faith is, of itself, able "to move mountains," that is to say, to dominate the forces of nature. how could they give rise to this confidence if they had had their origin in a sensation of feebleness and impotency? finally, if the objects of nature really became sacred because of their imposing forms or the forces which they manifest, then the sun, the moon, the sky, the mountains, the sea, the winds, in a word, the great cosmic powers, should have been the first to be raised to this dignity; for there are no others more fitted to appeal to the senses and the imagination. but as a matter of fact, they were divinized but slowly. the first beings to which the cult is addressed--the proof will be found in the chapters which follow--are humble vegetables and animals, in relation to which men could at least claim an equality: they are ducks, rabbits, kangaroos, lizards, worms, frogs, etc. their objective qualities surely were not the origin of the religious sentiments which they inspired. chapter iv totemism as an elementary religion _history of the question.--method of treating it_ howsoever opposed their conclusions may seem to be, the two systems which we have just studied agree upon one essential point: they state the problem in identical terms. both undertake to construct the idea of the divine out of the sensations aroused in us by certain natural phenomena, either physical or biological. for the animists it is dreams, for the naturists, certain cosmic phenomena, which served as the point of departure for religious evolution. but for both, it is in the nature, either of man or of the universe, that we must look for the germ of the grand opposition which separates the profane from the sacred. but such an enterprise is impossible: it supposes a veritable creation _ex nihilo_. a fact of common experience cannot give us the idea of something whose characteristic is to be outside the world of common experience. a man, as he appears to himself in his dreams, is only a man. natural forces, as our senses perceive them, are only natural forces, howsoever great their intensity may be. hence comes the common criticism which we address to both doctrines. in order to explain how these pretended data of religious thought have been able to take a sacred character which has no objective foundation, it would be necessary to admit that a whole world of delusive representations has superimposed itself upon the other, denatured it to the point of making it unrecognizable, and substituted a pure hallucination for reality. here, it is the illusions of the dream which brought about this transfiguration; there, it is the brilliant and vain company of images evoked by the word. but in one case as in the other, it is necessary to regard religion as the product of a delirious imagination. thus one positive conclusion is arrived at as the result of this critical examination. since neither man nor nature have of themselves a sacred character, they must get it from another source. aside from the human individual and the physical world, there should be some other reality, in relation to which this variety of delirium which all religion is in a sense, has a significance and an objective value. in other words, beyond those which we have called animistic and naturistic, there should be another sort of cult, more fundamental and more primitive, of which the first are only derived forms or particular aspects. in fact, this cult does exist: it is the one to which ethnologists have given the name of totemism. i it was only at the end of the eighteenth century that the word totem appeared in ethnographical literature. it is found for the first time in the book of an indian interpreter, j. long, which was published in london in .[ ] for nearly a half a century, totemism was known only as something exclusively american.[ ] it was only in that grey, in a passage which has remained celebrated,[ ] pointed out the existence of wholly similar practices in australia. from that time on, scholars began to realize that they were in the presence of a system of a certain generality. but they saw there only an essentially archaic institution, an ethnographical curiosity, having no great interest for the historian. maclennan was the first who undertook to attach totemism to the general history of humanity. in a series of articles in the _fortnightly review_,[ ] he set himself to show that totemism was not only a religion, but one from which were derived a multitude of beliefs and practices which are found in much more advanced religious systems. he even went so far as to make it the source of all the animal-worshipping and plant-worshipping cults which are found among ancient peoples. certainly this extension of totemism was abusive. the cults of animals and plants depend upon numerous causes which cannot be reduced to one, without the error of too great simplicity. but this error, by its very exaggerations, had at least the advantage, that it put into evidence the historical importance of totemism. students of american totemism had already known for a long time that this form of religion was most intimately united to a determined social organization, that its basis is the division of the social group into clans.[ ] in , in his _ancient society_,[ ] lewis h. morgan undertook to make a study of it, to determine its distinctive characteristics, and at the same time to point out its generality among the indian tribes of north and central america. at nearly the same moment, and even following the direct suggestion of morgan, fison and howitt[ ] established the existence of the same social system in australia, as well as its relations with totemism. under the influence of these directing ideas, observations could be made with better method. the researches which the american bureau of ethnology undertook, played an important part in the advance of these studies.[ ] by , the documents were sufficiently numerous and significant to make frazer consider it time to unite them and present them to us in a systematic form. such is the object of his little book _totemism_,[ ] where the system is studied both as a religion and as a legal institution. but this study was purely descriptive; no effort was made to explain totemism[ ] or to understand its fundamental notions. robertson smith is the first who undertook this work of elaboration. he realized more clearly than any of his predecessors how rich this crude and confused religion is in germs for the future. it is true that maclennan had already connected it with the great religions of antiquity; but that was merely because he thought he had found here and there the cult of animals or plants. now if we reduce totemism to a sort of animal or plant worship, we have seen only its most superficial aspect: we have even misunderstood its real nature. going beyond the mere letter of the totemic beliefs, smith set himself to find the fundamental principles upon which they depend. in his book upon _kinship and marriage in early arabia_,[ ] he had already pointed out that totemism supposes a likeness in nature, either natural or acquired, of men and animals (or plants). in his _the religion of the semites_,[ ] he makes this same idea the first origin of the entire sacrificial system: it is to totemism that humanity owes the principle of the communion meal. it is true that the theory of smith can now be shown one-sided; it is no longer adequate for the facts actually known; but for all that, it contains an ingenious theory and has exercised a most fertile influence upon the science of religions. the _golden bough_[ ] of frazer is inspired by these same ideas, for totemism, which maclennan had attached to the religions of classical antiquity, and smith to the religions of the semitic peoples, is here connected to the european folk-lore. the schools of maclennan and morgan are thus united to that of mannhardt.[ ] during this time, the american tradition continued to develop with an independence which it has kept up until very recent times. three groups of societies were the special object of the researches which were concerned with totemism. these are, first, certain tribes of the north-west, the tlinkit, the haida, the kwakiutl, the salish and the tsimshian; then, the great nation of the sioux; and finally, the pueblo indians in the south-western part of the united states. the first were studied principally by dall, krause, boas, swanton, hill tout; the second by dorsey; the last by mindeleff, mrs. stevenson and cushing.[ ] but however rich the harvest of facts thus gathered in all parts of the country may have been, the documents at our disposal were still fragmentary. though the american religions contain numerous traces of totemism, they have passed the stage of real totemism. on the other hand, observations in australia had brought little more than scattered beliefs and isolated rites, initiation rituals and interdictions relative to totemism. it was with facts taken from all these sources that frazer attempted to draw a picture of totemism in its entirety. whatever may be the incontestable merit of the reconstruction undertaken in such circumstances, it could not help being incomplete and hypothetical. a totemic religion in complete action had not yet been observed. it is only in very recent years that this serious deficiency has been repaired. two observers of remarkable ability, baldwin spencer and f. j. gillen, discovered[ ] in the interior of the australian continent a considerable number of tribes whose basis and unity was founded in totemic beliefs. the results of their observations have been published in two works, which have given a new life to the study of totemism. the first of these, _the native tribes of central australia_,[ ] deals with the more central of these tribes, the arunta, the luritcha, and a little farther to the south, on the shores of lake eyre, the urabunna. the second, which is entitled _the northern tribes of central australia_,[ ] deals with the societies north of the urabunna, occupying the territory between macdonnell's range and carpenter gulf. among the principal of these we may mention the unmatjera, the kaitish, the warramunga, the worgaia, the tjingilli, the binbinga, the walpari, the gnanji and finally, on the very shores of the gulf, the mara and the anula.[ ] more recently, a german missionary, carl strehlow, who has also passed long years in these same central australian societies,[ ] has commenced to publish his own observations on two of these tribes, the aranda and the loritja (the arunta and luritcha of spencer and gillen).[ ] having well mastered the language spoken by these peoples,[ ] strehlow has been able to bring us a large number of totemic myths and religious songs, which are given us, for the most part, in the original text. in spite of some differences of detail which are easily explained and whose importance has been greatly exaggerated,[ ] we shall see that the observations of strehlow, though completing, making more precise and sometimes even rectifying those of spencer and gillen, confirm them in all that is essential. these discoveries have given rise to an abundant literature to which we shall have occasion to return. the works of spencer and gillen especially have exercised a considerable influence, not only because they were the oldest, but also because the facts were there presented in a systematic form, which was of a nature to give a direction to later studies,[ ] and to stimulate speculation. their results were commented upon, discussed and interpreted in all possible manners. at this same time, howitt, whose fragmentary studies were scattered in a number of different publications,[ ] undertook to do for the southern tribes what spencer and gillen had done for those of the centre. in his _native tribes of south-east australia_,[ ] he gives us a view of the social organization of the peoples who occupy southern australia, new south wales, and a good part of queensland. the progress thus realized suggested to frazer the idea of completing his totemism by a sort of compendium[ ] where would be brought together all the important documents which are concerned either with the totemic religion or the family and matrimonial organization which, rightly or wrongly, is believed to be connected with this religion. the purpose of this book is not to give us a general and systematic view of totemism, but rather to put the materials necessary for a construction of this sort at the disposition of scholars.[ ] the facts are here arranged in a strictly ethnographical and geographical order: each continent, and within the continent, each tribe or ethnic group is studied separately. though so extended a study, where so many diverse peoples are successively passed in review, could hardly be equally thorough in all its parts, still it is a useful hand-book to consult, and one which can aid greatly in facilitating researches. ii from this historical résumé it is clear that australia is the most favourable field for the study of totemism, and therefore we shall make it the principal area of our observations. in his _totemism_, frazer sought especially to collect all the traces of totemism which could be found in history or ethnography. he was thus led to include in his study societies the nature and degree of whose culture differs most widely: ancient egypt,[ ] arabia and greece,[ ] and the southern slavs[ ] are found there, side by side with the tribes of australia and america. this manner of procedure is not at all surprising for a disciple of the anthropological school. for this school does not seek to locate religions in the social environments of which they are a part,[ ] and to differentiate them according to the different environments to which they are thus connected. but rather, as is indicated by the name which it has taken to itself, its purpose is to go beyond the national and historical differences to the universal and really human bases of the religious life. it is supposed that man has a religious nature of himself, in virtue of his own constitution, and independently of all social conditions, and they propose to study this.[ ] for researches of this sort, all peoples can be called upon equally well. it is true that they prefer the more primitive peoples, because this fundamental nature is more apt to be unaltered here; but since it is found equally well among the most civilized peoples, it is but natural that they too should be called as witnesses. consequently, all those who pass as being not too far removed from the origins, and who are confusedly lumped together under the rather imprecise rubric of _savages_, are put on the same plane and consulted indifferently. since from this point of view, facts have an interest only in proportion to their generality, they consider themselves obliged to collect as large a number as possible of them; the circle of comparisons could not become too large. our method will not be such a one, for several reasons. in the first place, for the sociologist as for the historian, social facts vary with the social system of which they form a part; they cannot be understood when detached from it. this is why two facts which come from two different societies cannot be profitably compared merely because they seem to resemble each other; it is necessary that these societies themselves resemble each other, that is to say, that they be only varieties of the same species. the comparative method would be impossible, if social types did not exist, and it cannot be usefully applied except within a single type. what errors have not been committed for having neglected this precept! it is thus that facts have been unduly connected with each other which, in spite of exterior resemblances, really have neither the same sense nor the same importance: the primitive democracy and that of to-day, the collectivism of inferior societies and actual socialistic tendencies, the monogamy which is frequent in australian tribes and that sanctioned by our laws, etc. even in the work of frazer such confusions are found. it frequently happens that he assimilates simple rites of wild-animal-worship to practices that are really totemic, though the distance, sometimes very great, which separates the two social systems would exclude all idea of assimilation. then if we do not wish to fall into these same errors, instead of scattering our researches over all the societies possible, we must concentrate them upon one clearly determined type. it is even necessary that this concentration be as close as possible. one cannot usefully compare facts with which he is not perfectly well acquainted. but when he undertakes to include all sorts of societies and civilizations, one cannot know any of them with the necessary thoroughness; when he assembles facts from every country in order to compare them, he is obliged to take them hastily, without having either the means or the time to carefully criticize them. tumultuous and summary comparisons result, which discredit the comparative method with many intelligent persons. it can give serious results only when it is applied to so limited a number of societies that each of them can be studied with sufficient precision. the essential thing is to choose those where investigations have the greatest chance to be fruitful. also, the value of the facts is much more important than their number. in our eyes, the question whether totemism has been more or less universal or not, is quite secondary.[ ] if it interests us, it does so before all because in studying it we hope to discover relations of a nature to make us understand better what religion is. now to establish these relations it is neither necessary nor always useful to heap up numerous experiences upon each other; it is much more important to have a few that are well studied and really significant. one single fact may make a law appear, where a multitude of imprecise and vague observations would only produce confusion. in every science, the scholar would be overwhelmed by the facts which present themselves to him, if he did not make a choice among them. it is necessary that he distinguish those which promise to be the most instructive, that he concentrate his attention upon these, and that he temporarily leave the others to one side. that is why, with one reservation which will be indicated below, we propose to limit our research to australian societies. they fulfil all the conditions which were just enumerated. they are perfectly homogeneous, for though it is possible to distinguish varieties among them, they all belong to one common type. this homogeneity is even so great that the forms of social organization are not only the same, but that they are even designated by identical or equivalent names in a multitude of tribes, sometimes very distant from each other.[ ] also, australian totemism is the variety for which our documents are the most complete. finally, that which we propose to study in this work is the most primitive and simple religion which it is possible to find. it is therefore natural that to discover it, we address ourselves to societies as slightly evolved as possible, for it is evidently there that we have the greatest chance of finding it and studying it well. now there are no societies which present this characteristic to a higher degree than the australian ones. not only is their civilization most rudimentary--the house and even the hut are still unknown--but also their organization is the most primitive and simple which is actually known; it is that which we have elsewhere called _organization on a basis of clans_.[ ] in the next chapter, we shall have occasion to restate its essential traits. however, though making australia the principal field of our research, we think it best not to leave completely aside the societies where totemism was first discovered, that is to say, the indian tribes of north america. this extension of the field of comparison has nothing about it which is not legitimate. undoubtedly these people are more advanced than those of australia. their civilization has become much more advanced: men there live in houses or under tents, and there are even fortified villages. the size of the society is much greater, and centralization, which is completely lacking in australia, is beginning to appear there; we find vast confederations, such as that of the iroquois, under one central authority. sometimes a complicated system of differentiated classes arranged in a hierarchy is found. however, the essential lines of the social structure remain the same as those in australia; it is always the organization on a basis of clans. thus we are not in the presence of two different types, but of two varieties of a single type, which are still very close to each other. they represent two successive moments of a single evolution, so their homogeneousness is still great enough to permit comparisons. also, these comparisons may have their utility. just because their civilization is more advanced than that of the australians, certain phases of the social organization which is common to both can be studied more easily among the first than among the second. as long as men are still making their first steps in the art of expressing their thought, it is not easy for the observer to perceive that which moves them; for there is nothing to translate clearly that which passes in these obscure minds which have only a confused and ephemeral knowledge of themselves. for example, religious symbols then consist only in formless combinations of lines and colours, whose sense it is not easy to divine, as we shall see. there are many gestures and movements by which interior states express themselves; but being essentially ephemeral, they readily elude observation. that is why totemism was discovered earlier in america than in australia; it was much more visible there, though it held relatively less place in the totality of the religious life. also, wherever beliefs and institutions do not take a somewhat definite material form, they are more liable to change under the influence of the slightest circumstances, or to become wholly effaced from the memory. thus the australian clans frequently have something floating and protean about them, while the corresponding organization in america has a greater stability and more clearly defined contours. thus, though american totemism is further removed from its origins than that of australia, still there are important characteristics of which it has better kept the memory. in the second place, in order to understand an institution, it is frequently well to follow it into the advanced stages of its evolution;[ ] for sometimes it is only when it is fully developed that its real signification appears with the greatest clearness. in this way also, american totemism, since it has a long history behind it, could serve to clarify certain aspects of australian totemism.[ ] at the same time, it will put us in a better condition to see how totemism is bound up with the forms which follow, and to mark its place in the general historical development of religion. so in the discussions which follow, we shall not forbid ourselves the use of certain facts borrowed from the indian societies of north america. but we are not going to study american totemism here;[ ] such a study must be made directly and by itself, and cannot be mixed with the one which we are undertaking; it raises other problems and implies a wholly different set of special investigations. we shall have recourse to american facts merely in a supplementary way, and only when they seem to be able to make us understand australian facts to advantage. it is these latter which constitute the real and immediate object of our researches.[ ] book ii the elementary beliefs chapter i totemic beliefs _the totem as name and as emblem_ owing to its nature, our study will include two parts. since every religion is made up of intellectual conceptions and ritual practices, we must deal successively with the beliefs and rites which compose the totemic religion. these two elements of the religious life are too closely connected with each other to allow of any radical separation. in principle, the cult is derived from the beliefs, yet it reacts upon them; the myth is frequently modelled after the rite in order to account for it, especially when its sense is no longer apparent. on the other hand, there are beliefs which are clearly manifested only through the rites which express them. so these two parts of our analysis cannot fail to overlap. however, these two orders of facts are so different that it is indispensable to study them separately. and since it is impossible to understand anything about a religion while unacquainted with the ideas upon which it rests, we must seek to become acquainted with these latter first of all. but it is not our intention to retrace all the speculations into which the religious thought, even of the australians alone, has run. the things we wish to reach are the elementary notions at the basis of the religion, but there is no need of following them through all the development, sometimes very confused, which the mythological imagination of these peoples has given them. we shall make use of myths when they enable us to understand these fundamental ideas better, but we shall not make mythology itself the subject of our studies. in so far as this is a work of art, it does not fall within the jurisdiction of the simple science of religions. also, the intellectual evolution from which it results is of too great a complexity to be studied indirectly and from a foreign point of view. it constitutes a very difficult problem which must be treated by itself, for itself and with a method peculiar to itself. among the beliefs upon which totemism rests, the most important are naturally those concerning the totem; it is with these that we must begin. i at the basis of nearly all the australian tribes we find a group which holds a preponderating place in the collective life: this is the clan. two essential traits characterize it. in the first place, the individuals who compose it consider themselves united by a bond of kinship, but one which is of a very special nature. this relationship does not come from the fact that they have definite blood connections with one another; they are relatives from the mere fact that they have the same name. they are not fathers and mothers, sons or daughters, uncles or nephews of one another in the sense which we now give these words; yet they think of themselves as forming a single family, which is large or small according to the dimensions of the clan, merely because they are collectively designated by the same word. when we say that they regard themselves as a single family, we do so because they recognize duties towards each other which are identical with those which have always been incumbent upon kindred: such duties as aid, vengeance, mourning, the obligation not to marry among themselves, etc. by this first characteristic, the clan does not differ from the roman _gens_ or the greek [greek: genos]; for this relationship also came merely from the fact that all the members of the _gens_ had the same name,[ ] the _nomen gentilicium_. and in one sense, the _gens_ is a clan; but it is a variety which should not be confounded with the australian clan.[ ] this latter is distinguished by the fact that its name is also the name of a determined species of material things with which it believes that it has very particular relations, the nature of which we shall presently describe; they are especially relations of kinship. the species of things which serves to designate the clan collectively is called its _totem_. the totem of the clan is also that of each of its members. each clan has its totem, which belongs to it alone; two different clans of the same tribe cannot have the same. in fact, one is a member of a clan merely because he has a certain name. all who bear this name are members of it for that very reason; in whatever manner they may be spread over the tribal territory, they all have the same relations of kinship with one another.[ ] consequently, two groups having the same totem can only be two sections of the same clan. undoubtedly, it frequently happens that all of a clan does not reside in the same locality, but has representatives in several different places. however, this lack of a geographical basis does not cause its unity to be the less keenly felt. in regard to the word totem, we may say that it is the one employed by the ojibway, an algonquin tribe, to designate the sort of thing whose name the clan bears.[ ] although this expression is not at all australian,[ ] and is found only in one single society in america, ethnographers have definitely adopted it, and use it to denote, in a general way, the system which we are describing. schoolcraft was the first to extend the meaning of the word thus and to speak of a "totemic system."[ ] this extension, of which there are examples enough in ethnography, is not without inconveniences. it is not normal for an institution of this importance to bear a chance name, taken from a strictly local dialect, and bringing to mind none of the distinctive characteristics of the thing it designates. but to-day this way of employing the word is so universally accepted that it would be an excess of purism to rise against this usage.[ ] in a very large proportion of the cases, the objects which serve as totems belong either to the animal or the vegetable kingdom, but especially to the former. inanimate things are much more rarely employed. out of more than totemic names collected by howitt among the tribes of south-eastern australia, there are scarcely forty which are not the names of plants or animals; these are the clouds, rain, hail, frost, the moon, the sun, the wind, the autumn, the summer, the winter, certain stars, thunder, fire, smoke, water or the sea. it is noticeable how small a place is given to celestial bodies and, more generally, to the great cosmic phenomena, which were destined to so great a fortune in later religious development. among all the clans of which howitt speaks, there were only two which had the moon as totem,[ ] two the sun,[ ] three a star,[ ] three the thunder,[ ] two the lightning.[ ] the rain is a single exception; it, on the contrary, is very frequent.[ ] these are the totems which can be spoken of as normal. but totemism has its abnormalities as well. it sometimes happens that the totem is not a whole object, but the part of an object. this fact appears rather rarely in australia;[ ] howitt cites only one example.[ ] however, it may well be that this is found with a certain frequency in the tribes where the totemic groups are excessively subdivided; it might be said that the totems had to break themselves up in order to be able to furnish names to these numerous divisions. this is what seems to have taken place among the arunta and the loritja. strehlow has collected totems in these two societies, of which many are not an animal species, but some particular organ of the animal of the species, such as the tail or stomach of an opossum, the fat of the kangaroo, etc.[ ] we have seen that normally the totem is not an individual, but a species or a variety: it is not such and such a kangaroo or crow, but the kangaroo or crow in general. sometimes, however, it is a particular object. first of all, this is necessarily the case when the thing serving as totem is unique in its class, as the sun, the moon, such or such a constellation, etc. it also happens that clans take their names from certain geographical irregularities or depressions of the land, from a certain ant-hill, etc. it is true that we have only a small number of examples of this in australia; but strehlow does mention some.[ ] but the very causes which have given rise to these abnormal totems show that they are of a relatively recent origin. in fact, what has made certain geographical features of the land become totems is that a mythical ancestor is supposed to have stopped there or to have performed some act of his legendary life there.[ ] but at the same time, these ancestors are represented in the myths as themselves belonging to clans which had perfectly regular totems, that is to say, ones taken from the animal or vegetable kingdoms. therefore, the totemic names thus commemorating the acts and performances of these heroes cannot be primitive; they belong to a form of totemism that is already derived and deviated. it is even permissible to ask if the meteorological totems have not a similar origin; for the sun, the moon and the stars are frequently identified with the ancestors of the mythological epoch.[ ] sometimes, but no less exceptionally, it is an ancestor or a group of ancestors which serves as totem directly. in this case, the clan takes its name, not from a thing or a species of real things, but from a purely mythical being. spencer and gillen had already mentioned two or three totems of this sort. among the warramunga and among the tjingilli there are clans which bear the name of an ancestor named thaballa who seems to be gaiety incarnate.[ ] another warramunga clan bears the name of a huge fabulous serpent named wollunqua, from which the clan considers itself descended.[ ] we owe other similar facts to strehlow.[ ] in any case, it is easy enough to see what probably took place. under the influence of diverse causes and by the very development of mythological thought, the collective and impersonal totem became effaced before certain mythical personages who advanced to the first rank and became totems themselves. howsoever interesting these different irregularities may be, they contain nothing which forces us to modify our definition of a totem. they are not, as has sometimes been believed,[ ] different varieties of totems which are more or less irreducible into each other or into the normal totem, such as we have defined it. they are merely secondary and sometimes even aberrant forms of a single notion which is much more general, and there is every ground for believing it the more primitive. the manner in which the name is acquired is more important for the organization and recruiting of the clan than for religion; it belongs to the sociology of the family rather than to religious sociology.[ ] so we shall confine ourselves to indicating summarily the most essential principles which regulate the matter. in the different tribes, three different systems are in use. in a great number, or it might even be said, in the greater number of the societies, the child takes the totem of its mother, by right of birth: this is what happens among the dieri and the urabunna of the centre of southern australia; the wotjobaluk and the gournditch-mara of victoria; the kamilaroi, the wiradjuri, the wonghibon and the euahlayi of new south wales; and the wakelbura, the pitta-pitta and the kurnandaburi of queensland, to mention only the most important names. in this case, owing to a law of exogamy, the mother is necessarily of a different totem from her husband, and on the other hand, as she lives in his community, the members of a single totem are necessarily dispersed in different localities according to the chances of their marriages. as a result, the totemic group lacks a territorial base. elsewhere the totem is transmitted in the paternal line. in this case, if the child remains with his father, the local group is largely made up of people belonging to a single totem; only the married women there represent foreign totems. in other words, each locality has its particular totem. up until recent times, this scheme of organization was found in australia only among the tribes where totemism was in decadence, such as the narrinyeri, where the totem has almost no religious character at all any more.[ ] it was therefore possible to believe that there was a close connection between the totemic system and descent in the uterine line. but spencer and gillen have observed, in the northern part of central australia, a whole group of tribes where the totemic religion is still practised but where the transmission of the totem is in the paternal line: these are the warramunga, the quanji, the umbia, the binbinga, the mara and the anula.[ ] finally, a third combination is the one observed among the arunta and loritja. here the totem of the child is not necessarily either that of the mother or that of the father; it is that of a mythical ancestor who came, by processes which the observers recount in different ways,[ ] and mysteriously fecundated the mother at the moment of conception. a special process makes it possible to learn which ancestor it was and to which totemic group he belonged.[ ] but since it was only chance which determined that this ancestor happened to be near the mother, rather than another, the totem of the child is thus found to depend finally upon fortuitous circumstances.[ ] outside of and above the totems of clans there are totems of phratries which, though not differing from the former in nature, must none the less be distinguished from them. a phratry is a group of clans which are united to each other by particular bonds of fraternity. ordinarily the australian tribe is divided into two phratries between which the different clans are distributed. of course there are some tribes where this organization has disappeared, but everything leads us to believe that it was once general. in any case, there are no tribes in australia where the number of phratries is greater than two. now in nearly all the cases where the phratries have a name whose meaning has been established, this name is that of an animal; it would therefore seem that it is a totem. this has been well demonstrated in a recent work by a. lang.[ ] thus, among the gournditch (victoria), the phratries are called krokitch and kaputch; the former of the words designates the white cockatoo and the latter the black cockatoo.[ ] the same expressions are found again among the buandik and the wotjobaluk.[ ] among the wurunjerri, the names employed are bunjil and waang, which designate the eagle-hawk and the crow.[ ] the words mukwara and kilpara are used for the same purpose in a large number of tribes of new south wales;[ ] they designate the same birds.[ ] it is also the eagle-hawk and the crow which have given their names to the two phratries of the ngarigo and the wolgal.[ ] among the kuinmurbura, it is the white cockatoo and the crow.[ ] many other examples might be cited. thus we are led to regard the phratry as an ancient clan which has been dismembered; the actual clans are the product of this dismemberment, and the solidarity which unites them is a souvenir of their primitive unity.[ ] it is true that in certain tribes, the phratries no longer have special names, as it seems; in others where these names exist, their meaning is no longer known, even to the members. but there is nothing surprising in this. the phratries are certainly a primitive institution, for they are everywhere in a state of regression; their descendants the clans have passed to the first rank. so it is but natural that the names which they bore should have been effaced from memory little by little, when they were no longer understood; for they must belong to a very archaic language no longer in use. this is proved by the fact that in many cases where we know the animal whose name the phratry bears, the word designating this animal in the current language is very different from the one employed here.[ ] between the totem of the phratry and the totems of the clans there exists a sort of relation of subordination. in fact, in principle each clan belongs to one and only one phratry; it is very exceptional that it has representatives in the other phratry. this is not met with at all except among certain central tribes, notably the arunta;[ ] also even where, owing to disturbing influences, overlappings of this sort have taken place, the great part of the clan is included entirely within one or the other of the two groups of the tribe; only a small minority is to be found in the other one.[ ] as a rule then, the two phratries do not overlap each other; consequently, the list of totems which an individual may have is predetermined by the phratry to which he belongs. in other words, the phratry is like a species of which the clans are varieties. we shall presently see that this comparison is not purely metaphorical. in addition to the phratries and clans, another secondary group is frequently met with in australian societies, which is not without a certain individuality: these are the matrimonial classes. by this name they designate certain subdivisions of the phratry, whose number varies with the tribe: there are sometimes two and sometimes four per phratry.[ ] their recruiting and operation are regulated by the two following principles. in the first place, each generation in a phratry belongs to different clans from the immediately preceding one. thus, when there are only two classes per phratry, they necessarily alternate with each other every generation. the children make up the class of which their parents are not members; but grandchildren are of the same class as their grandparents. thus, among the kamilaroi, the kupathin phratry has two classes, ippai and kumbo; the dilby phratry, two others which are called murri and kubbi. as descent is in the uterine line, the child is in the phratry of its mother; if she is a kupathin, the child will be one also. but if she is of the ippai class, he will be a kumbo; if the child is a girl, her children will again be in the ippai class. likewise, the children of the women of the murri class will be in the kubbi class, and the children of the kubbi women will be murri again. when there are four classes per phratry, instead of two, the system is naturally more complex, but the principle is the same. the four classes form two couples of two classes each, and these two classes alternate with each other every generation in the manner just indicated. secondly, the members of one class can in principle[ ] marry into only one of the classes of the other phratry. the ippai must marry into the kubbi class and the murri into the kumbo class. it is because this organization profoundly affects matrimonial relations that we give the group the name of matrimonial class. now it may be asked whether these classes do not sometimes have totems like the phratries and clans. this question is raised by the fact that in certain tribes of queensland, each matrimonial class has dietetic restrictions that are peculiar to it. the individuals who compose it must abstain from eating the flesh of certain animals which the others may consume freely.[ ] are these animals not totems? but dietetic restrictions are not the characteristic marks of totemism. the totem is a name first of all, and then, as we shall see, an emblem. now in the societies of which we just spoke, there are no matrimonial classes which bear the name of an animal or plant, or which have an emblem.[ ] of course it is possible that these restrictions are indirectly derived from totemism. it might be supposed that the animals which these interdictions protect were once the totems of clans which have since disappeared, while the matrimonial classes remained. it is certain that they have a force of endurance which the clans do not have. then these interdictions, deprived of their original field, may have spread themselves out over the entire class, since there were no other groups to which they could be attached. but it is clear that if this regulation was born of totemism, it represents only an enfeebled and denatured form of it.[ ] all that has been said of the totem in australian societies is equally applicable to the indian tribes of north america. the only difference is that among these latter, the totemic organization has a strictness of outline and a stability which are not found in australia. the australian clans are not only very numerous, but in a single tribe their number is almost unlimited. observers cite some of them as examples, but without ever succeeding in giving us a complete list. this is because the list is never definitely terminated. the same process of dismemberment which broke up the original phratries and give birth to clans properly so-called still continues within these latter; as a result of this progressive crumbling, a clan frequently has only a very small effective force.[ ] in america, on the contrary, the totemic system has better defined forms. although the tribes there are considerably larger on the average, the clans are less numerous. a single tribe rarely has more than a dozen of them,[ ] and frequently less; each of them is therefore a much more important group. but above all, their number is fixed; they know their exact number, and they it tell to us.[ ] this difference is due to the superiority of their social economy. from the moment when these tribes were observed for the first time, the social groups were strongly attached to the soil, and consequently better able to resist the decentralizing forces which assailed them. at the same time, the society had too keen a sentiment of its unity to remain unconscious of itself and of the parts out of which it was composed. the example of america thus enables us to explain even better the organization at the base of the clans. we would take a mistaken view, if we judged this only on the present conditions in australia. in fact, it is in a state of change and dissolution there, which is not at all normal; it is much rather the product of a degeneration which we see, due both to the natural decay of time and the disorganizing effect of the whites. to be sure, it is hardly probable that the australian clans ever had the dimensions and solid structure of the american ones. but there must have been a time when the distance between them was less considerable than it is to-day, for the american societies would never have succeeded in making so solid a structure if the clans had always been of so fluid and inconsistent a nature. this greater stability has even enabled the archaic system of phratries to maintain itself in america with a clearness and a relief no longer to be found in australia. we have just seen that in the latter continent the phratry is everywhere in a state of decadence; very frequently it is nothing more than an anonymous group; when it has a name, this is either no longer understood, or in any case, it cannot mean a great deal to the native, since it is borrowed from a foreign language, or from one no longer spoken. thus we have been able to infer the existence of totems for phratries only from a few survivals, which, for the most part, are so slightly marked that they have escaped the attention of many observers. in certain parts of america, on the contrary, this institution has retained its primitive importance. the tribes of the north-west coast, the tlinkit and the haida especially, have now attained a relatively advanced civilization; yet they are divided into two phratries which are subdivided into a certain number of clans: the phratries of the crow and the wolf among the tlinkit,[ ] of the eagle and the crow among the haida.[ ] and this division is not merely nominal; it corresponds to an ever-existing state of tribal customs and is deeply marked with the tribal life. the moral distance separating the clans is very slight in comparison with that separating the phratries.[ ] the name of each is not a word whose sense is forgotten or only vaguely known; it is a totem in the full sense of the term; they have all its essential attributes, such as will be described below.[ ] consequently, upon this point also, american tribes must not be neglected, for we can study the totems of phratries directly there, while australia offers only obscure vestiges of them. ii but the totem is not merely a name; it is an emblem, a veritable coat-of-arms whose analogies with the arms of heraldry have often been remarked. in speaking of the australians, grey says, "each family adopt an animal or vegetable as their crest and sign,"[ ] and what grey calls a family is incontestably a clan. also fison and howitt say, "the australian divisions show that the totem is, in the first place, the badge of a group."[ ] schoolcraft says the same thing about the totems of the indians of north america. "the totem is in fact a design which corresponds to the heraldic emblems of civilized nations, and each person is authorized to bear it as a proof of the identity of the family to which it belongs. this is proved by the real etymology of the word, which is derived from _dodaim_, which means village or the residence of a family group."[ ] thus when the indians entered into relations with the europeans and contracts were formed between them, it was with its totem that each clan sealed the treaties thus concluded.[ ] the nobles of the feudal period carved, engraved and designed in every way their coats-of-arms upon the walls of their castles, their arms, and every sort of object that belonged to them; the blacks of australia and the indians of north america do the same thing with their totems. the indians who accompanied samuel hearne painted their totems on their shields before going into battle.[ ] according to charlevoix, in time of war, certain tribes of indians had veritable ensigns, made of bits of bark fastened to the end of a pole, upon which the totems were represented.[ ] among the tlinkit, when a conflict breaks out between two clans, the champions of the two hostile groups wear helmets over their heads, upon which are painted their respective totems.[ ] among the iroquois, they put the skin of the animal which serves as totem upon each wigwam, as a mark of the clan.[ ] according to another observer, the animal was stuffed and set up before the door.[ ] among the wyandot, each clan has its own ornaments and its distinctive paintings.[ ] among the omaha, and among the sioux generally, the totem is painted on the tent.[ ] wherever the society has become sedentary, where the tent is replaced by the house, and where the plastic arts are more fully developed, the totem is engraved upon the woodwork and upon the walls. this is what happens, for example, among the haida, the tsimshian, the salish and the tlinkit. "a very particular ornament of the house, among the tlinkit," says krause, "is the totemic coat-of-arms." animal forms, sometimes combined with human forms, are engraved upon the posts at the sides of the door of entry, which are as high as yards; they are generally painted with very bright colours.[ ] however, these totemic decorations are not very numerous in the tlinkit village; they are found almost solely before the houses of the chiefs and rich men. they are much more frequent in the neighbouring tribe of the haida; here there are always several for each house.[ ] with its many sculptured posts arising on every hand, sometimes to a great height, a haida village gives the impression of a sacred city, all bristling with belfries or little minarets.[ ] among the salish, the totem is frequently represented upon the interior walls of the house.[ ] elsewhere, it is found upon the canoes, the utensils of every sort and the funeral piles.[ ] the preceding examples are taken exclusively from the indians of north america. this is because sculpture, engravings and permanent figurations are not possible except where the technique of the plastic arts has reached a degree of perfection to which the australian tribes have not yet attained. consequently the totemic representations of the sort which we just mentioned are rarer and less apparent in australia than in america. however, cases of them are cited. among the warramunga, at the end of the burial ceremonies, the bones of the dead man are interred, after they have been dried and reduced to powder; beside the place where they are deposited, a figure representing the totem is traced upon the ground.[ ] among the mara and the anula, the body is placed in a piece of hollow wood decorated with designs characteristic of the totem.[ ] in new south wales, oxley found engravings upon the trees near the tomb where a native was buried[ ] to which brough smyth attributes a totemic character. the natives of the upper darling carve totemic images upon their shields.[ ] according to collins, nearly all the utensils are covered with ornaments which probably have the same significance; figures of the same sort are found upon the rocks.[ ] these totemic designs may even be more frequent than it seems, for, owing to reasons which will be discussed below, it is not always easy to see what their real meaning is. these different facts give us an idea of the considerable place held by the totem in the social life of the primitives. however, up to the present, it has appeared to us as something relatively outside of the man, for it is only upon external things that we have seen it represented. but totemic images are not placed only upon the walls of their houses, the sides of their canoes, their arms, their utensils and their tombs; they are also found on the bodies of the men. they do not put their coat-of-arms merely upon the things which they possess, but they put it upon their persons; they imprint it upon their flesh, it becomes a part of them, and this world of representations is even by far the more important one. in fact, it is a very general rule that the members of each clan seek to give themselves the external aspect of their totem. at certain religious festivals among the tlinkit, the person who is to direct the ceremonies wears a garment which represents, either wholly or in part, the body of the animal whose name he bears.[ ] these same usages are also found in all the north-west of america.[ ] they are found again among the minnitaree, when they go into combat,[ ] and among the indians of the pueblos.[ ] elsewhere, when the totem is a bird, men wear the feathers of this bird on their heads.[ ] among the iowa, each clan has a special fashion of cutting the hair. in the eagle clan, two large tufts are arranged on the front of the head, while there is another one behind; in the buffalo clan, they are arranged in the form of horns.[ ] among the omaha, analogous arrangements are found: each clan has its own head-dress. in the turtle clan, for example, the hair is all shaved off, except six bunches, two on each side of the head, one in front, and one behind, in such a way as to imitate the legs, the head and the tail of the animal.[ ] but it is more frequently upon the body itself that the totemic mark is stamped: for this is a way of representation within the capacity of even the least advanced societies. it has sometimes been asked whether the common rite of knocking out a young man's two upper teeth at the age of puberty does not have the object of reproducing the form of the totem. the fact is not established, but it is worth mentioning that the natives themselves sometimes explain the custom thus. for example, among the arunta, the extraction of teeth is practised only in the clans of the rain and of water; now according to tradition, the object of this operation is to make their faces look like certain black clouds with light borders which are believed to announce the speedy arrival of rain, and which are therefore considered things of the same family.[ ] this is a proof that the native himself is conscious that the object of these deformations is to give him, at least conventionally, the aspect of his totem. among these same arunta, in the course of the rites of sub-incision, certain gashes are cut upon the sisters and the future wife of the novice; scars result from these, whose form is also represented upon a certain sacred object of which we shall speak presently and which is called the _churinga_; as we shall see, the lines thus drawn upon the _churinga_ are emblematic of the totem.[ ] among the kaitish, the euro is believed to be closely connected with the rain;[ ] the men of the rain clan wear little ear-rings made of euro teeth.[ ] among the yerkla, during the initiation the young man is given a certain number of slashes which leave scars; the number and form of these varies with the totems.[ ] an informer of fison mentions the same fact in the tribes observed by him.[ ] according to howitt, a relationship of the same sort exists among the dieri between certain arrangements of scars and the water totem.[ ] among the indians of the north-west, it is a very general custom for them to tattoo themselves with the totem.[ ] but even if the tattooings which are made by mutilations or scars do not always have a totemic significance,[ ] it is different with simple designs drawn upon the body: they are generally representations of the totem. it is true that the native does not carry them every day. when he is occupied with purely economic occupations, or when the small family groups scatter to hunt or fish, he does not bother with all this paraphernalia, which is quite complicated. but when the clans unite to live a common life and to assist at the religious ceremonies together, then he must adorn himself. as we shall see, each of the ceremonies concerns a particular totem, and in theory the rites which are connected with a totem can be performed only by the men of that totem. now those who perform,[ ] who take the part of officiants, and sometimes even those who assist as spectators, always have designs representing the totem on their bodies.[ ] one of the principal rites of initiation, by which a young man enters into the religious life of the tribe, consists in painting the totemic symbol on his body.[ ] it is true that among the arunta the design thus traced does not always and necessarily represent the totem of the initiated;[ ] but these are exceptions, due, undoubtedly, to the disturbed state of the totemic organization of this tribe.[ ] also, even among the arunta, at the most solemn moment of the initiation, which is its crown and consecration, when the neophyte is allowed to enter the sanctuary where all the sacred objects belonging to the clan are preserved, an emblematic painting is placed upon him; this time, it is the totem of the young man which is thus represented.[ ] the bonds which unite the individual to his totem are even so strong that in the tribes on the north-west coast of north america, the emblem of the clan is painted not only upon the living but also upon the dead: before a corpse is interred, they put the totemic mark upon it.[ ] iii these totemic decorations enable us to see that the totem is not merely a name and an emblem. it is in the course of the religious ceremonies that they are employed; they are a part of the liturgy; so while the totem is a collective label, it also has a religious character. in fact, it is in connection with it, that things are classified as sacred or profane. it is the very type of sacred thing. the tribes of central australia, especially the arunta, the loritja, the kaitish, the unmatjera, and the ilpirra,[ ] make constant use of certain instruments in their rites which are called the _churinga_ by the arunta, according to spencer and gillen, or the _tjurunga_, according to strehlow.[ ] they are pieces of wood or bits of polished stone, of a great variety of forms, but generally oval or oblong.[ ] each totemic group has a more or less important collection of these. _upon each of these is engraved a design representing the totem of this same group._[ ] a certain number of the churinga have a hole at one end, through which goes a thread made of human hair or that of an opossum. those which are made of wood and are pierced in this way serve for exactly the same purposes as those instruments of the cult to which english ethnographers have given the name of "bull-roarers." by means of the thread by which they are suspended, they are whirled rapidly in the air in such a way as to produce a sort of humming identical with that made by the toys of this name still used by our children; this deafening noise has a ritual significance and accompanies all ceremonies of any importance. these sorts of churinga are real bull-roarers. but there are others which are not made of wood and are not pierced; consequently they cannot be employed in this way. nevertheless, they inspire the same religious sentiments. in fact, every churinga, for whatever purpose it may be employed, is counted among the eminently sacred things; there are none which surpass it in religious dignity. this is indicated even by the word which is used to designate them. it is not only a substantive but also an adjective meaning sacred. also, among the several names which each arunta has, there is one so sacred that it must not be revealed to a stranger; it is pronounced but rarely, and then in a low voice and a sort of mysterious murmur. now this name is called the _aritna churinga_ (aritna means name).[ ] in general, the word churinga is used to designate all ritual acts; for example, _ilia churinga_ signifies the cult of the emu.[ ] churinga, when used substantively, therefore designates the thing whose essential characteristic is sacredness. profane persons, that is to say, women and young men not yet initiated into the religious life, may not touch or even see the churinga; they are only allowed to look at it from a distance, and even this is only on rare occasions.[ ] the churinga are piously kept in a special place, which the arunta call the _ertnatulunga_.[ ] this is a cave or a sort of cavern hidden in a deserted place. the entrance is carefully closed by means of stones so cleverly placed that a stranger going past it could not suspect that the religious treasury of the clan was so near to him. the sacred character of the churinga is so great that it communicates itself to the locality where they are stored: the women and the uninitiated cannot approach it. it is only after their initiation is completely finished that the young men have access to it: there are some who are not esteemed worthy of this favour except after years of trial.[ ] the religious nature radiates to a distance and communicates itself to all the surroundings: everything near by participates in this same nature and is therefore withdrawn from profane touch. is one man pursued by another? if he succeeds in reaching the ertnatulunga, he is saved; he cannot be seized there.[ ] even a wounded animal which takes refuge there must be respected.[ ] quarrels are forbidden there. it is a place of peace, as is said in the germanic societies; it is a sanctuary of the totemic group, it is a veritable place of asylum. but the virtues of the churinga are not manifested merely by the way in which it keeps the profane at a distance. if it is thus isolated, it is because it is something of a high religious value whose loss would injure the group and the individuals severely. it has all sorts of marvellous properties: by contact it heals wounds, especially those resulting from circumcision;[ ] it has the same power over sickness;[ ] it is useful for making the beard grow;[ ] it confers important powers over the totemic species, whose normal reproduction it ensures;[ ] it gives men force, courage and perseverance, while, on the other hand, it depresses and weakens their enemies. this latter belief is so firmly rooted that when two combatants stand pitted against one another, if one sees that the other has brought churinga against him, he loses confidence and his defeat is certain.[ ] thus there is no ritual instrument which has a more important place in the religious ceremonies.[ ] by means of various sorts of anointings, their powers are communicated either to the officiants or to the assistants; to bring this about, they are rubbed over the members and stomach of the faithful after being covered with grease;[ ] or sometimes they are covered with a down which flies away and scatters itself in every direction when they are whirled; this a way of disseminating the virtues which are in them.[ ] but they are not useful merely to individuals; the fate of the clan as a whole is bound up with theirs. their loss is a disaster; it is the greatest misfortune which can happen to the group.[ ] sometimes they leave the ertnatulunga, for example when they are loaned to other groups.[ ] then follows a veritable public mourning. for two weeks, the people of the totem weep and lament, covering their bodies with white clay just as they do when they have lost a relative.[ ] and the churinga are not left at the free disposition of everybody; the ertnatulunga where they are kept is placed under the control of the chief of the group. it is true that each individual has special rights to some of them;[ ] yet, though he is their proprietor in a sense, he cannot make use of them except with the consent and under the direction of the chief. it is a collective treasury; it is the sacred ark of the clan.[ ] the devotion of which they are the object shows the high price that is attached to them. the respect with which they are handled is shown by the solemnity of the movements.[ ] they are taken care of, they are greased, rubbed, polished, and when they are moved from one locality to another, it is in the midst of ceremonies which bear witness to the fact that this displacement is regarded as an act of the highest importance.[ ] now in themselves, the churinga are objects of wood and stone like all others; they are distinguished from profane things of the same sort by only one particularity: this is that the totemic mark is drawn or engraved upon them. so it is this mark and this alone which gives them their sacred character. it is true that according to spencer and gillen, the churinga serve as the residence of an ancestor's soul and that it is the presence of this soul which confers these properties.[ ] while declaring this interpretation inexact, strehlow, in his turn, proposes another which does not differ materially from the other: he claims that the churinga are considered the image of the ancestor's body, or the body itself.[ ] so, in any case, it would be sentiments inspired by the ancestor which fix themselves upon the material object, and convert it into a sort of fetish. but in the first place, both conceptions,--which, by the way, scarcely differ except in the letter of the myth,--have obviously been made up afterwards, to account for the sacred character of the churinga. in the constitution of these pieces of wood and bits of stone, and in their external appearance, there is nothing which predestines them to be considered the seat of an ancestral soul, or the image of his body. so if men have imagined this myth, it was in order to explain the religious respect which these things inspired in them, and the respect was not determined by the myth. this explanation, like so many mythological explanations, resolves the question only by repeating it in slightly different terms; for saying that the churinga is sacred and saying that it has such and such a relation with a sacred being, is merely to proclaim the same fact in two different ways; it is not accounting for them. moreover, according to the avowal of spencer and gillen, there are some churinga among the arunta which are made by the old men of the group, to the knowledge of and before the eyes of all;[ ] these obviously do not come from the great ancestors. however, except for certain differences of degree, they have the same power as the others and are preserved in the same manner. finally, there are whole tribes where the churinga is never associated with a spirit.[ ] its religious nature comes to it, then, from some other source, and whence could it come, if not from the totemic stamp which it bears? it is to this image, therefore, that the demonstrations of the rite are really addressed; it is this which sanctifies the object upon which it is carved. among the arunta and the neighbouring tribes, there are two other liturgical instruments closely connected with the totem and the churinga itself, which ordinarily enters into their composition: they are the _nurtunja_ and the _waninga_. the nurtunja,[ ] which is found among the northern arunta and their immediate neighbours,[ ] is made up principally of a vertical support which is either a single lance, or several lances united into a bundle, or of a simple pole.[ ] bunches of grass are fastened all around it by means of belts or little cords made of hair. above this, down is placed, arranged either in circles or in parallel lines which run from the top to the bottom of the support. the top is decorated with the plumes of an eagle-hawk. this is only the most general and typical form; in particular cases, it has all sorts of variations.[ ] the waninga, which is found only among the southern arunta, the urabunna and the loritja, has no one unique model either. reduced to its most essential elements, it too consists in a vertical support, formed by a long stick or by a lance several yards high, with sometimes one and sometimes two cross-pieces.[ ] in the former case, it has the appearance of a cross. cords made either of human hair or opossum or bandicoot fur diagonally cross the space included between the arms of the cross and the extremities of the central axis; as they are quite close to each other, they form a network in the form of a lozenge. when there are two cross-bars, these cords go from one to the other and from these to the top and bottom of the support. they are sometimes covered with a layer of down, thick enough to conceal the foundation. thus the waninga has the appearance of a veritable flag.[ ] now the nurtunja and the waninga, which figure in a multitude of important rites, are the object of a religious respect quite like that inspired by the churinga. the process of their manufacture and erection is conducted with the greatest solemnity. fixed in the earth, or carried by an officiant, they mark the central point of the ceremony: it is about them that the dances take place and the rites are performed. in the course of the initiation, the novice is led to the foot of a nurtunja erected for the occasion. someone says to him, "there is the nurtunja of your father; many young men have already been made by it." after that, the initiate must kiss the nurtunja.[ ] by this kiss, he enters into relations with the religious principle which resides there; it is a veritable communion which should give the young man the force required to support the terrible operation of sub-incision.[ ] the nurtunja also plays a considerable rôle in the mythology of these societies. the myths relate that in the fabulous times of the great ancestors, the territory of the tribe was overrun in every direction by companies composed exclusively of individuals of the same totem.[ ] each of these troops had a nurtunja with it. when it stopped to camp, before scattering to hunt, the members fixed their nurtunja in the ground, from the top of which their churinga was suspended.[ ] that is equivalent to saying that they confided the most precious things they had to it. it was at the same time a sort of standard which served as a rallying-centre for the group. one cannot fail to be struck by the analogies between the nurtunja and the sacred post of the omaha.[ ] now its sacred character can come from only one cause: that is that it represents the totem materially. the vertical lines or rings of down which cover it, and even the cords of different colours which fasten the arms of the waninga to the central axis, are not arranged arbitrarily, according to the taste of the makers; they must conform to a type strictly determined by tradition which, in the minds of the natives, represents the totem.[ ] here we cannot ask, as we did in the case of the churinga, whether the veneration accorded to this instrument of the cult is not merely the reflex of that inspired by the ancestors; for it is a rule that each nurtunja and each waninga last only during the ceremony where they are used. they are made all over again every time that it is necessary, and when the rite is once accomplished, they are stripped of their ornaments and the elements out of which they are made are scattered.[ ] they are nothing more than images--and temporary images at that--of the totem, and consequently it is on this ground, and on this ground alone, that they play a religious rôle. so the churinga, the nurtunja and the waninga owe their religious nature solely to the fact that they bear the totemic emblem. it is the emblem that is sacred. it keeps this character, no matter where it may be represented. sometimes it is painted upon rocks; these paintings are called _churinga ilkinia_, sacred drawings.[ ] the decorations with which the officiants and assistants at the religious ceremonies adorn themselves have the same name: women and children may not see them.[ ] in the course of certain rites, the totem is drawn upon the ground. the way in which this is done bears witness to the sentiments inspired by this design, and the high value attributed to it; it is traced upon a place that has been previously sprinkled, and saturated with human blood,[ ] and we shall presently see that the blood is in itself a sacred liquid, serving for pious uses only. when the design has been made, the faithful remain seated on the ground before it, in an attitude of the purest devotion.[ ] if we give the word a sense corresponding to the mentality of the primitive, we may say that they adore it. this enables us to understand how the totemic blazon has remained something very precious for the indians of north america: it is always surrounded with a sort of religious halo. but if we are seeking to understand how it comes that these totemic representations are so sacred, it is not without interest to see what they consist in. among the indians of north america, they are painted, engraved or carved images which attempt to reproduce as faithfully as possible the external aspect of the totemic animal. the means employed are those which we use to-day in similar circumstances, except that they are generally cruder. but it is not the same in australia, and it is in the australian societies that we must seek the origin of these representations. although the australian may show himself sufficiently capable of imitating the forms of things in a rudimentary way,[ ] sacred representations generally seem to show no ambitions in this line: they consist essentially in geometrical designs drawn upon the churinga, the nurtunga, rocks, the ground, or the human body. they are either straight or curved lines, painted in different ways,[ ] and the whole having only a conventional meaning. the connection between the figure and the thing represented is so remote and indirect that it cannot be seen, except when it is pointed out. only the members of the clan can say what meaning is attached to such and such combinations of lines.[ ] men and women are generally represented by semicircles, and animals by whole circles or spirals,[ ] the tracks of men or animals by lines of points, etc. the meaning of the figures thus obtained is so arbitrary that a single design may have two different meanings for the men of two different totems, representing one animal here, and another animal or plant there. this is perhaps still more apparent with the nurtunja and waninga. each of them represents a different totem. but the few and simple elements which enter into their composition do not allow a great variety of combinations. the result is that two nurtunja may have exactly the same appearance, and yet express two things as different as a gum tree and an emu.[ ] when a nurtunja is made, it is given a meaning which it keeps during the whole ceremony, but which, in the last resort, is fixed by convention. these facts prove that if the australian is so strongly inclined to represent his totem, it is in order not to have a portrait of it before his eyes which would constantly renew the sensation of it; it is merely because he feels the need of representing the idea which he forms of it by means of material and external signs, no matter what these signs may be. we are not yet ready to attempt to understand what has thus caused the primitive to write his idea of his totem upon his person and upon different objects, but it is important to state at once the nature of the need which has given rise to these numerous representations.[ ] chapter ii totemic beliefs--_continued_ _the totemic animal and man_ but totemic images are not the only sacred things. there are real things which are also the object of rites, because of the relations which they have with the totem: before all others, are the beings of the totemic species and the members of the clan. i first of all, since the designs which represent the totem arouse religious sentiments, it is natural that the things whose aspect these designs reproduce should have this same property, at least to a certain degree. for the most part, these are animals or plants. the profane function of vegetables and even of animals is ordinarily to serve as food; then the sacred character of the totemic animal or plant is shown by the fact that it is forbidden to eat them. it is true that since they are sacred things, they can enter into the composition of certain mystical repasts, and we shall see, in fact, that they sometimes serve as veritable sacraments; yet normally they cannot be used for everyday consumption. whoever oversteps this rule, exposes himself to grave dangers. it is not that the group always intervenes to punish this infraction artificially; it is believed that the sacrilege produces death automatically. a redoubtable principle is held to reside in the totemic plant or animal, which cannot enter into the profane organism without disorganizing it or destroying it.[ ] in certain tribes at least, only the old men are free from this prohibition;[ ] we shall see the reason for this later. however, if this prohibition is formal in a large number of tribes[ ]--with certain exceptions which will be mentioned later--it is incontestable that it tends to weaken as the old totemic organization is disturbed. but the restrictions which remain even then prove that these attenuations are not admitted without difficulty. for example, when it is permitted to eat the plant or animal that serves as totem, it is not possible to do so freely; only a little bit may be taken at a time. to go beyond this amount is a ritual fault that has grave consequences.[ ] elsewhere, the prohibition remains intact for the parts that are regarded as the most precious, that is to say, as the most sacred; for example, the eggs or the fat.[ ] in still other parts, consumption is not allowed except when the animal in question has not yet reached full maturity.[ ] in this case, they undoubtedly think that its sacred character is not yet complete. so the barrier which isolates and protects the totemic being yields but slowly and with active resistance, which bears witness to what it must have been at first. it is true that according to spencer and gillen these restrictions are not the remnants of what was once a rigorous prohibition now losing hold, but the beginnings of an interdiction which is only commencing to establish itself. these writers hold[ ] that at first there was a complete liberty of consumption and that the limitations which were presently brought are relatively recent. they think they find the proof of their theory in the two following facts. in the first place, as we just said, there are solemn occasions when the members of the clan or their chief not only may, but must eat the totemic animal or plant. moreover, the myths relate that the great ancestors, the founders of the clans, ate their totems regularly: now, it is said, these stories cannot be understood except as an echo of a time when the present prohibitions did not exist. but the fact that in the course of certain solemn ceremonies a consumption of the totem, and a moderate one at that, is ritually required in no way implies that it was once an ordinary article of food. quite on the contrary, the food that one eats at a mystical repast is essentially sacred, and consequently forbidden to the profane. as for the myths, a somewhat summary critical method is employed, if they are so readily given the value of historical documents. in general, their object is to interpret existing rites rather than to commemorate past events; they are an explanation of the present much more than a history. in this case, the traditions according to which the ancestors of the fabulous epoch ate their totem are in perfect accord with the beliefs and rites which are always in force. the old men and those who have attained a high religious dignity are freed from the restrictions under which ordinary men are placed:[ ] they can eat the sacred thing because they are sacred themselves; this rule is in no way peculiar to totemism, but it is found in all the most diverse religions. now the ancestral heroes were nearly gods. it is therefore still more natural that they should eat the sacred food;[ ] but that is no reason why the same privilege should be awarded to the simple profane.[ ] however, it is neither certain nor even probable that the prohibition was ever absolute. it seems to have always been suspended in case of necessity, as, for example, when a man is famished and has nothing else with which to nourish himself.[ ] a stronger reason for this is found when the totem is a form of nourishment which a man cannot do without. thus there are a great many tribes where water is a totem; a strict prohibition is manifestly impossible in this case. however, even here, the privilege granted is submitted to certain restrictions which greatly limit its use and which show clearly that it goes against a recognized principle. among the kaitish and the warramunga, a man of this totem is not allowed to drink water freely; he may not take it up himself; he may receive it only from the hands of a third party who must belong to the phratry of which he is not a member.[ ] the complexity of this procedure and the embarrassment which results from it are still another proof that access to the sacred thing is not free. this same rule is applied in certain central tribes every time that the totem is eaten, whether from necessity or any other cause. it should also be added that when this formality is not possible, that is, when a man is alone or with members of his own phratry only, he may, on necessity, do without an intermediary. it is clear that the prohibition is susceptible of various moderations. nevertheless, it rests upon ideas so strongly ingrained in the mind that it frequently survives its original cause for being. we have seen that in all probability, the different clans of a phratry are only subdivisions of one original clan which has been dismembered. so there was a time when all the clans, being welded together, had the same totem; consequently, wherever the souvenir of this common origin is not completely effaced, each clan continues to feel itself united to the others and to consider that their totems are not completely foreign to it. for this reason an individual may not eat freely of the totems held by the different clans of the phratry of which he is a member; he may touch them only if the forbidden plant or animal is given him by a member of the other phratry.[ ] another survival of the same sort is the one concerning the maternal totem. there are strong reasons for believing that at first, the totem was transmitted in the uterine line. therefore, wherever descent in the paternal line has been introduced, this probably took place only after a long period, during which the opposite principle was applied and the child had the totem of his mother along with all the restrictions attached to it. now in certain tribes where the child inherits the paternal totem to-day, some of the interdictions which originally protected the totem of his mother still survive: he cannot eat it freely.[ ] in the present state of affairs, however, there is no longer anything corresponding to this prohibition. to this prohibition of eating is frequently added that of killing the totem, or picking it, when it is a plant.[ ] however, here also there are exceptions and tolerations. these are especially in the case of necessity, when the totem is a dangerous animal,[ ] for example, or when the man has nothing to eat. there are even tribes where men are forbidden to hunt the animals whose names they bear, on their own accounts, but where they may kill them for others.[ ] but the way in which this act is generally accomplished clearly indicates that it is something illicit. one excuses himself as though for a fault, and bears witness to the chagrin which he suffers and the repugnance which he feels,[ ] while precautions are taken that the animal may suffer as little as possible.[ ] in addition to these fundamental interdictions, certain cases of a prohibition of contact between a man and his totem are cited. thus among the omaha, in the clan of the elk, no one may touch any part of the body of a male elk; in the sub-clan of the buffalo, no one is allowed to touch the head of this animal.[ ] among the bechuana, no man dares to clothe himself in the skin of his totem.[ ] but these cases are rare; and it is natural that they should be exceptional, for normally a man must wear the image of his totem or something which brings it to mind. the tattooings and the totemic costumes would not be possible if all contact were forbidden. it has also been remarked that this prohibition has not been found in australia, but only in those societies where totemism has advanced far from its original form; it is therefore probably of late origin and due perhaps to the influence of ideas that are really not totemic at all.[ ] if we now compare these various interdictions with those whose object is the totemic emblem, contrarily to all that could be foreseen, it appears that these latter are more numerous, stricter, and more severely enforced than the former. the figures of all sorts which represent the totem are surrounded with a respect sensibly superior to that inspired by the very being whose form these figures reproduce. the churinga, the nurtunja and the waninga can never be handled by the women or the uninitiated, who are even allowed to catch glimpses of it only very exceptionally, and from a respectful distance. on the other hand, the plant or animal whose name the clan bears may be seen and touched by everybody. the churinga are preserved in a sort of temple, upon whose threshold all noises from the profane life must cease; it is the domain of sacred things. on the contrary, the totemic animals and plants live in the profane world and are mixed up with the common everyday life. since the number and importance of the interdictions which isolate a sacred thing, and keep it apart, correspond to the degree of sacredness with which it is invested, we arrive at the remarkable conclusion that _the images of totemic beings are more sacred than the beings themselves_. also, in the ceremonies of the cult, it is the churinga and the nurtunja which have the most important place; the animal appears there only very exceptionally. in a certain rite, of which we shall have occasion to speak,[ ] it serves as the substance for a religious repast, but it plays no active rôle. the arunta dance around the nurtunja, and assemble before the image of their totem to adore it, but a similar demonstration is never made before the totemic being itself. if this latter were the primarily sacred object, it would be with it, the sacred animal or plant, that the young initiate would communicate when he is introduced into the religious life; but we have seen that on the contrary, the most solemn moment of the initiation is the one when the novice enters into the sanctuary of the churinga. it is with them and the nurtunja that he communicates. the representations of the totem are therefore more actively powerful than the totem itself. ii we must now determine the place of man in the scheme of religious things. by the force of a whole group of acquired habits and of language itself, we are inclined to consider the common man, the simple believer, as an essentially profane being. it may well happen that this conception is not literally true for any religion;[ ] in any case, it is not applicable to totemism. every member of the clan is invested with a sacred character which is not materially inferior to that which we just observed in the animal. this personal sacredness is due to the fact that the man believes that while he is a man in the usual sense of the word, he is also an animal or plant of the totemic species. in fact, he bears its name; this identity of name is therefore supposed to imply an identity of nature. the first is not merely considered as an outward sign of the second; it supposes it logically. this is because the name, for a primitive, is not merely a word or a combination of sounds; it is a part of the being, and even something essential to it. a member of the kangaroo clan calls himself a kangaroo; he is therefore, in one sense, an animal of this species. "the totem of any man," say spencer and gillen, "is regarded as the same thing as himself; a native once said to us when we were discussing the matter with him, 'that one,' pointing to his photograph which we had taken, 'is the same thing as me: so is a kangaroo' (his totem)."[ ] so each individual has a double nature: two beings coexist within him, a man and an animal. in order to give a semblance of intelligibility to this duality, so strange for us, the primitive has invented myths which, it is true, explain nothing and only shift the difficulty, but which, by shifting it, seem at least to lessen the logical scandal. with slight variations of detail, all are constructed on the same plan: their object is to establish genealogical connections between the man and the totemic animal, making the one a relative of the other. by this common origin, which, by the way, is represented in various manners, they believe that they account for their common nature. the narrinyeri, for example, have imagined that certain of the first men had the power of transforming themselves into beasts.[ ] other australian societies place at the beginning of humanity either strange animals from which the men were descended in some unknown way,[ ] or mixed beings, half-way between the two kingdoms,[ ] or else unformed creatures, hardly representable, deprived of all determined organs, and even of all definite members, and the different parts of whose bodies were hardly outlined.[ ] mythical powers, sometimes conceived under the form of animals, then intervened and made men out of these ambiguous and innumerable beings which spencer and gillen say represent "stages in the transformation of animals and plants into human beings."[ ] these transformations are represented to us under the form of violent and, as it were, surgical operations. it is under the blows of an axe or, if the operator is a bird, blows of the beak, that the human individual was carved out of this shapeless mass, his members separated from each other, his mouth opened and his nostrils pierced.[ ] analogous legends are found in america, except that owing to the more highly developed mentality of these peoples, the representations which they employ do not contain confusions so troublesome for the mind. sometimes it is a legendary personage who, by an act of his power, metamorphosed the animal who gives its name to the clan into a man.[ ] sometimes the myth attempts to explain how, by a series of nearly natural events and a sort of spontaneous evolution, the animal transformed himself little by little, and finally took a human form.[ ] it is true that there are societies (the haida, tlinkit, tsimshian) where it is no longer admitted that man was born of an animal or plant; but the idea of an affinity between the animals of the totemic species and the members of the clan has survived there nevertheless, and expresses itself in myths which, though differing from the preceding, still retain all that is essential in them. here is one of the fundamental themes. the ancestor who gives his name to the clan is here represented as a human being, but who, in the course of various wanderings, has been led to live for a while among the fabulous animals of the very species which gave the clan its name. as the result of this intimate and prolonged connection, he became so like his new companions that when he returned to men, they no longer recognized him. he was therefore given the name of the animal which he resembled. it is from his stay in this mythical land that he brought back the totemic emblem, together with the powers and virtues believed to be attached to it.[ ] thus in this case, as in the others, men are believed to participate in the nature of the animal, though this participation may be conceived in slightly different forms.[ ] so man also has something sacred about him. though diffused into the whole organism, this characteristic is especially apparent in certain privileged places. there are organs and tissues that are specially marked out: these are particularly the blood and the hair. in the first place, human blood is so holy a thing that in the tribes of central australia, it frequently serves to consecrate the most respected instruments of the cult. for example, in certain cases, the nurtunja is regularly anointed from top to bottom with the blood of a man.[ ] it is upon ground all saturated with blood that the men of the emu, among the arunta, trace their sacred images.[ ] we shall presently see that streams of blood are poured upon the rocks which represent the totemic animals and plants.[ ] there is no religious ceremony where blood does not have some part to play.[ ] during the initiation, the adults open their veins and sprinkle the novice with their blood; and this blood is so sacred a thing that women may not be present while it is flowing; the sight of it is forbidden them, just as the sight of a churinga is.[ ] the blood lost by a young initiate during the very violent operations he must undergo has very particular virtues: it is used in various ceremonies.[ ] that which flows during the sub-incision is piously kept by the arunta and buried in a place upon which they put a piece of wood warning passers-by of the sacredness of the spot; no woman should approach it.[ ] the religious nature of blood also explains the equal importance, religiously, of the red ochre, which is very frequently employed in ceremonies; they rub the churinga with it and use it in ritual decorations.[ ] this is due to the fact that because of its colour, it is regarded as something kindred to blood. many deposits of red ochre which are found in the arunta territory are even supposed to be the coagulated blood which certain heroines of the mythical period shed on to the soil.[ ] hair has similar properties. the natives of the centre wear belts made of human hair, whose religious functions we have already pointed out: they are also used to wrap up certain instruments of the cult.[ ] does one man loan another one of his churinga? as a sign of acknowledgment, the second makes a present of hair to the first; these two sorts of things are therefore thought to be of the same order and of equivalent value.[ ] so the operation of cutting the hair is a ritual act, accompanied by definite ceremonies: the individual operated upon must squat on the ground, with his face turned in the direction of the place where the fabulous ancestors from which the clan of his mother is believed to be descended, are thought to have camped.[ ] for the same reason, as soon as a man is dead, they cut his hair off and put it away in some distant place, for neither women nor the non-initiated have the right of seeing it: it is here, far from profane eyes, that the belts are made.[ ] other organic tissues might be mentioned which have similar properties, in varying degrees: such are the whiskers, the foreskin, the fat of the liver, etc.[ ] but it is useless to multiply examples. those already given are enough to prove that there is something in man which holds profane things at a distance and which possesses a religious power; in other words, the human organism conceals within its depths a sacred principle, which visibly comes to the surface in certain determined cases. this principle does not differ materially from that which causes the religious character of the totem. in fact, we have just seen that the different substances in which it incarnates itself especially enter into the ritual composition of the objects of the cult (nurtunja, totemic designs), or else are used in the anointings whose object is to renew the virtues either of the churinga or of the sacred rocks; they are things of the same species. sometimes the religious dignity which is inherent in each member of the clan on this account is not equal for all. men possess it to a higher degree than women; in relation to them, women are like profane beings.[ ] thus, every time that there is an assembly, either of the totemic group or of the tribe, the men have a separate camp, distinct from that of the women, and into which these latter may not enter: they are separated off.[ ] but there are also differences in the way in which men are marked with a religious character. the young men not yet initiated are wholly deprived of it, since they are not admitted to the ceremonies. it is among the old men that it reaches its greatest intensity. they are so very sacred that certain things forbidden to ordinary people are permissible for them: they may eat the totemic animal more freely and, as we have seen, there are even some tribes where they are freed from all dietetic restrictions. so we must be careful not to consider totemism a sort of animal worship. the attitude of a man towards the animals or plants whose name he bears is not at all that of a believer towards his god, for he belongs to the sacred world himself. their relations are rather those of two beings who are on the same level and of equal value. the most that can be said is that in certain cases, at least, the animal seems to occupy a slightly more elevated place in the hierarchy of sacred things. it is because of this that it is sometimes called the father or the grandfather of the men of the clan, which seems to show that they feel themselves in a state of moral dependence in regard to it.[ ] but in other, and perhaps even more frequent cases, it happens that the expressions used denote rather a sentiment of equality. the totemic animal is called the friend or the elder brother of its human fellows.[ ] finally, the bonds which exist between them and it are much more like those which unite the members of a single family; the animals and the men are made of the same flesh, as the buandik say.[ ] on account of this kinship, men regard the animals of the totemic species as kindly associates upon whose aid they think they can rely. they call them to their aid[ ] and they come, to direct their blows in the hunt and to give warning of whatever dangers there may be.[ ] in return for this, men treat them with regard and are never cruel to them;[ ] but these attentions in no way resemble a cult. men sometimes even appear to have a mysterious sort of property-right over their totems. the prohibition against killing and eating them is applied only to members of the clan, of course; it could not be extended to other persons without making life practically impossible. if, in a tribe like the arunta, where there is such a host of different totems, it were forbidden to eat, not only the animal or plant whose name one bears, but also all the animals and all the plants which serve as totems to other clans, the sources of food would be reduced to nothing. yet there are tribes where the consumption of the totemic plant or animal is not allowed without restrictions, even to foreigners. among the wakelbura, it must not take place in the presence of men of this totem.[ ] in other places, their permission must be given. for example, among the kaitish and the unmatjera, whenever a man of the emu totem happens to be in a place occupied by a grass-seed clan, and gathers some of these seed, before eating them he must go to the chief and say to him, "i have gathered these seeds in your country." to this the chief replies, "all right; you may eat them." but if the emu man ate them before demanding permission, it is believed that he would fall sick and run the risk of dying.[ ] there are even cases where the chief of the group must take a little of the food and eat it himself: it is a sort of payment which must be made.[ ] for the same reason, the churinga gives the hunter a certain power over the corresponding animal: by rubbing his body with a euro churinga, for example, a man acquires a greater chance of catching euros.[ ] this is the proof that the fact of participating in the nature of a totemic being confers a sort of eminent right over this latter. finally, there is one tribe in northern queensland, the karingbool, where the men of the totem are the only ones who have a right to kill the animal or, if the totem is a tree, to peel off its bark. their aid is indispensable to all others who want to use the flesh of this animal or the wood of this tree for their own personal ends.[ ] so they appear as proprietors, though it is quite evidently over a special sort of property, of which we find it hard to form an idea. chapter iii totemic beliefs--_continued_ _the cosmological system of totemism and the idea of class_ we are beginning to see that totemism is a much more complex religion than it first appeared to be. we have already distinguished three classes of things which it recognizes as sacred, in varying degrees: the totemic emblem, the animal or plant whose appearance this emblem reproduces, and the members of the clan. however, this list is not yet complete. in fact, a religion is not merely a collection of fragmentary beliefs in regard to special objects like those we have just been discussing. to a greater or less extent, all known religions have been systems of ideas which tend to embrace the universality of things, and to give us a complete representation of the world. if totemism is to be considered as a religion comparable to the others, it too should offer us a conception of the universe. as a matter of fact, it does satisfy this condition. i the fact that this aspect of totemism has generally been neglected is due to the too narrow notion of the clan which has been prevalent. ordinarily it is regarded as a mere group of human beings. being a simple subdivision of the tribe, it seems that like this, it is made up of nothing but men. but in reasoning thus, we substitute our european ideas for those which the primitive has of man and of society. for the australian, things themselves, everything which is in the universe, are a part of the tribe; they are constituent elements of it and, so to speak, regular members of it; just like men, they have a determined place in the general scheme of organization of the society. "the south australian savage," says fison, "looks upon the universe as the great tribe, to one of whose divisions he himself belongs; and all things, animate and inanimate, which belong to his class are parts of the body corporate whereof he himself is a part."[ ] as a consequence of this principle, whenever the tribe is divided into two phratries, all known things are distributed between them. "all nature," says palmer, in speaking of the bellinger river tribe, "is also divided into class [phratry] names.... the sun and moon and stars are said ... to belong to classes [phratries] just as the blacks themselves."[ ] the port mackay tribe in queensland has two phratries with the names yungaroo and wootaroo, as do the neighbouring tribes. now as bridgmann says, "all things, animate and inanimate, are divided by these tribes into two classes, named yungaroo and wootaroo."[ ] nor does the classification stop here. the men of each phratry are distributed among a certain number of clans; likewise, the things attributed to each phratry are in their turn distributed among the clans of which the phratry is composed. a certain tree, for example, will be assigned to the kangaroo clan, and to it alone; then, just like the human members of the clan, it will have the kangaroo as totem; another will belong to the snake clan; clouds will be placed under one totem, the sun under another, etc. all known things will thus be arranged in a sort of tableau or systematic classification embracing the whole of nature. we have given a certain number of these classifications elsewhere;[ ] at present we shall confine ourselves to repeating a few of these as examples. one of the best known of these is the one found in the mount gambier tribe. this tribe includes two phratries, named respectively the kumite and the kroki; each of these, in its turn, is subdivided into five clans. now "everything in nature belongs to one or another of these ten clans";[ ] fison and howitt say that they are all "included" within it. in fact, they are classified under these ten totems just like species in their respective classes. this is well shown by the following table based on information gathered by curr and by fison and howitt.[ ] phratries. clans. things classed in each clan. { fish-hawk { smoke, honeysuckle, certain { { trees, etc. { pelican { blackwood-trees, dogs, fire, { { frost, etc. kumite { crow { rain, thunder, lightning, { { clouds, hail, winter, etc. { black cockatoo { the stars, the moon, etc. { a non-poisonous snake { fish, seal, eel, the { stringybark-tree, etc. { tea-tree { duck, crayfish, owls, etc. { an edible root { bustard, quail, a small kroki { { kangaroo, etc. { a white crestless cockatoo { kangaroo, the summer, the { { sun, wind, the autumn, etc. { details are lacking for the fourth and fifth kroki clans. the list of things attached to each clan is quite incomplete; curr himself warns us that he has limited himself to enumerating some of them. but through the work of mathews and of howitt[ ] we have more extended information to-day on the classification adopted by the wotjobaluk tribe, which enables us to understand better how a system of this kind is able to include the whole universe, as known to the natives. the wotjobaluk also are divided into two phratries called gurogity and gumaty (krokitch and gamutch according to howitt[ ]); not to prolong this enumeration, we shall content ourselves with indicating, after mathews, the things classed in some of the clans of the gurogity phratry. in the clan of the yam are classified the plain-turkey, the native cat, the _mopoke_, the _dyim-dyim_ owl, the _mallee_ hen, the rosella parrot, the peewee. in the mussel[ ] clan are the grey emu, the porcupine, the curlew, the white cockatoo, the wood-duck, the _mallee_ lizard, the stinking turtle, the flying squirrel, the ring-tail opossum, the bronze-wing pigeon, the _wijuggla_. in the sun clan are the bandicoot, the moon, the kangaroo-rat, the black and white magpies, the opossum, the _ng[)u]rt_ hawk, the gum-tree grub, the wattle-tree grub, the planet venus. in the clan of the warm wind[ ] are the grey-headed eagle-hawk, the carpet snake, the smoker parrot, the shell parrot, the _murrakan_ hawk, the _dikkomur_ snake, the ring-neck parrot, the _mirudai_ snake, the shingle-back lizard. if we remember that there are many other clans (howitt names twelve and mathews fourteen and adds that his list is incomplete[ ]), we will understand how all the things in which the native takes an interest find a natural place in these classifications. similar arrangements have been observed in the most diverse parts of the australian continent; in south australia, in victoria, and in new south wales (among the euahlayi[ ]); very clear traces of it are found in the central tribes.[ ] in queensland, where the clans seem to have disappeared and where the matrimonial classes are the only subdivisions of the phratry, things are divided up among these classes. thus, the wakelbura are divided into two phratries, mallera and wutaru; the classes of the first are called kurgilla and banbe, those of the second, wungo and obu. now to the banbe belong the opossum, the kangaroo, the dog, honey of little bees, etc.; to the wungo are attributed the emu, the bandicoot, the black duck, the black snake, the brown snake; to the obu, the carpet snake, the honey of stinging bees, etc.; to the kurgilla, the porcupine, the turkey of the plains, water, rain, fire, thunder, etc.[ ] this same organization is found among the indians of north america. the zuñi have a system of classification which, in its essential lines, is in all points comparable to the one we have just described. that of the omaha rests on the same principles as that of the wotjobaluk.[ ] an echo of these same ideas survives even into the more advanced societies. among the haida, all the gods and mythical beings who are placed in charge of the different phenomena of nature are classified in one or the other of the two phratries which make up the tribe just like men; some are eagles, the others, crows.[ ] now the gods of things are only another aspect of the things which they govern.[ ] this mythological classification is therefore merely another form of the preceding one. so we may rest assured that this way of conceiving the world is independent of all ethnic or geographic particularities; and at the same time it is clearly seen to be closely united to the whole system of totemic beliefs. ii in the paper to which we have already made allusion several times, we have shown what light these facts throw upon the way in which the idea of kind or class was formed in humanity. in fact, these systematic classifications are the first we meet with in history, and we have just seen that they are modelled upon the social organization, or rather that they have taken the forms of society as their framework. it is the phratries which have served as classes, and the clans as species. it is because men were organized that they have been able to organize things, for in classifying these latter, they limited themselves to giving them places in the groups they formed themselves. and if these different classes of things are not merely put next to each other, but are arranged according to a unified plan, it is because the social groups with which they commingle themselves are unified and, through their union, form an organic whole, the tribe. the unity of these first logical systems merely reproduces the unity of the society. thus we have an occasion for verifying the proposition which we laid down at the commencement of this work, and for assuring ourselves that the fundamental notions of the intellect, the essential categories of thought, may be the product of social factors. the above-mentioned facts show clearly that this is the case with the very notion of category itself. however, it is not our intention to deny that the individual intellect has of itself the power of perceiving resemblances between the different objects of which it is conscious. quite on the contrary, it is clear that even the most primitive and simple classifications presuppose this faculty. the australian does not place things in the same clan or in different clans at random. for him as for us, similar images attract one another, while opposed ones repel one another, and it is on the basis of these feelings of affinity or of repulsion that he classifies the corresponding things in one place or another. there are also cases where we are able to perceive the reasons which inspired this. the two phratries were very probably the original and fundamental bases for these classifications, which were consequently bifurcate at first. now, when a classification is reduced to two classes, these are almost necessarily conceived as antitheses; they are used primarily as a means of clearly separating things between which there is a very marked contrast. some are set at the right, the others at the left. as a matter of fact this is the character of the australian classifications. if the white cockatoo is in one phratry, the black one is in the other; if the sun is on one side, the moon and the stars of night are on the opposite side.[ ] very frequently the beings which serve as the totems of the two phratries have contrary colours.[ ] these oppositions are even met with outside of australia. where one of the phratries is disposed to peace, the other is disposed to war;[ ] if one has water as its totem, the other has earth.[ ] this is undoubtedly the explanation of why the two phratries have frequently been thought of as naturally antagonistic to one another. they say that there is a sort of rivalry or even a constitutional hostility between them.[ ] this opposition of things has extended itself to persons; the logical contrast has begotten a sort of social conflict.[ ] it is also to be observed that within each phratry, those things have been placed in a single clan which seem to have the greatest affinity with that serving as totem. for example, the moon has been placed with the black cockatoo, but the sun, together with the atmosphere and the wind, with the white cockatoo. or again, to a totemic animal has been united all that serves him as food,[ ] as well as the animals with which he has the closest connection.[ ] of course, we cannot always understand the obscure psychology which has caused many of these connections and distinctions, but the preceding examples are enough to show that a certain intuition of the resemblances and differences presented by things has played an important part in the genesis of these classifications. but the feeling of resemblances is one thing and the idea of class is another. the class is the external framework of which objects perceived to be similar form, in part, the contents. now the contents cannot furnish the frame into which they fit. they are made up of _vague and fluctuating_ images, due to the super-imposition and partial fusion of a _determined number of individual images_, which are found to have common elements; the framework, on the contrary, is a _definite form_, with fixed outlines, but which may be applied to an _undetermined number of things_, perceived or not, actual or possible. in fact, every class has possibilities of extension which go far beyond the circle of objects which we know, either from direct experience or from resemblance. this is why every school of thinkers has refused, and not with good reason, to identify the idea of class with that of a generic image. the generic image is only the indistinctly-bounded residual representation left in us by similar representations, when they are present in consciousness simultaneously; the class is a logical symbol by means of which we think distinctly of these similarities and of other analogous ones. moreover, the best proof of the distance separating these two notions is that an animal is able to form generic images though ignorant of the art of thinking in classes and species. the idea of class is an instrument of thought which has obviously been constructed by men. but in constructing it, we have at least had need of a model; for how could this idea ever have been born, if there had been nothing either in us or around us which was capable of suggesting it to us? to reply that it was given to us _a priori_ is not to reply at all; this lazy man's solution is, as has been said, the death of analysis. but it is hard to see where we could have found this indispensable model except in the spectacle of the collective life. in fact, a class is not an ideal, but a clearly defined group of things between which internal relationships exist, similar to those of kindred. now the only groups of this sort known from experience are those formed by men in associating themselves. material things may be able to form collections of units, or heaps, or mechanical assemblages with no internal unity, but not groups in the sense we have given the word. a heap of sand or a pile of rock is in no way comparable to that variety of definite and organized society which forms a class. in all probability, we would never have thought of uniting the beings of the universe into homogeneous groups, called classes, if we had not had the example of human societies before our eyes, if we had not even commenced by making things themselves members of men's society, and also if human groups and logical groups had not been confused at first.[ ] it is also to be borne in mind that a classification is a system whose parts are arranged according to a hierarchy. there are dominating members and others which are subordinate to the first; species and their distinctive properties depend upon classes and the attributes which characterize them; again, the different species of a single class are conceived as all placed on the same level in regard to each other. does someone prefer to regard them from the point of view of the understanding? then he represents things to himself in an inverse order: he puts at the top the species that are the most particularized and the richest in reality, while the types that are most general and the poorest in qualities are at the bottom. nevertheless, all are represented in a hierarchic form. and we must be careful not to believe that the expression has only a metaphorical sense here: there are really relations of subordination and co-ordination, the establishment of which is the object of all classification, and men would never have thought of arranging their knowledge in this way if they had not known beforehand what a hierarchy was. but neither the spectacle of physical nature nor the mechanism of mental associations could furnish them with this knowledge. the hierarchy is exclusively a social affair. it is only in society that there are superiors, inferiors and equals. consequently, even if the facts were not enough to prove it, the mere analysis of these ideas would reveal their origin. we have taken them from society, and projected them into our conceptions of the world. it is society that has furnished the outlines which logical thought has filled in. iii but these primitive classifications have a no less direct interest for the origins of religious thought. they imply that all the things thus classed in a single clan or a single phratry are closely related both to each other and to the thing serving as the totem of this clan or phratry. when an australian of the port mackay tribe says that the sun, snakes, etc., are of the yungaroo phratry, he does not mean merely to apply a common, but none the less a purely conventional, nomenclature to these different things; the word has an objective signification for him. he believes that "alligators really _are_ yungaroo and that kangaroos are wootaroo. the sun _is_ yungaroo, the moon wootaroo, and so on for the constellations, trees, plants, etc."[ ] an internal bond attaches them to the group in which they are placed; they are regular members of it. it is said that they belong to the group,[ ] just exactly as the individual men make a part of it; consequently, the same sort of a relation unites them to these latter. men regard the things in their clan as their relatives or associates; they call them their friends and think that they are made out of the same flesh as themselves.[ ] therefore, between the two there are elective affinities and quite special relations of agreement. things and people have a common name, and in a certain way they naturally understand each other and harmonize with one another. for example, when a wakelbura of the mallera phratry is buried, the scaffold upon which the body is exposed "must be made of the wood of some tree belonging to the mallera phratry."[ ] the same is true for the branches that cover the corpse. if the deceased is of the banbe class, a banbe tree must be used. in this same tribe, a magician can use in his art only those things which belong to his own phratry;[ ] since the others are strangers to him, he does not know how to make them obey him. thus a bond of mystic sympathy unites each individual to those beings, whether living or not, which are associated with him; the result of this is a belief in the possibility of deducing what he will do or what he has done from what they are doing. among these same wakelbura, when a man dreams that he has killed an animal belonging to a certain social division, he expects to meet a man of this same division the next day.[ ] inversely, the things attributed to a clan or phratry cannot be used against the members of this clan or phratry. among the wotjobaluk, each phratry has its own special trees. now in hunting an animal of the gurogity phratry, only arms whose wood is taken from trees of the other phratry may be used, and _vice versa_; otherwise the hunter is sure to miss his aim.[ ] the native is convinced that the arrow would turn of itself and refuse, so to speak, to hit a kindred and friendly animal. thus the men of the clan and the things which are classified in it form by their union a solid system, all of whose parts are united and vibrate sympathetically. this organization, which at first may have appeared to us as purely logical, is at the same time moral. a single principle animates it and makes its unity: this is the totem. just as a man who belongs to the crow clan has within him something of this animal, so the rain, since it is of the same clan and belongs to the same totem, is also necessarily considered as being "the same thing as a crow"; for the same reason, the moon is a black cockatoo, the sun a white cockatoo, every black-nut tree a pelican, etc. all the beings arranged in a single clan, whether men, animals, plants or inanimate objects, are merely forms of the totemic being. this is the meaning of the formula which we have just cited and this is what makes the two really of the same species: all are really of the same flesh in the sense that all partake of the nature of the totemic animal. also, the qualifiers given them are those given to the totem.[ ] the wotjobaluk give the name _mir_ both to the totem and to the things classed with it.[ ] it is true that among the arunta, where visible traces of classification still exist, as we shall see, different words designate the totem and the other beings placed with it; however, the name given to these latter bears witness to the close relations which unite them to the totemic animal. it is said that they are its _intimates_, its _associates_, its _friends_; it is believed that they are inseparable from it.[ ] so there is a feeling that these are very closely related things. but we also know that the totemic animal is a sacred being. all the things that are classified in the clan of which it is the emblem have this same character, because in one sense, they are animals of the same species, just as the man is. they, too, are sacred, and the classifications which locate them in relation to the other things of the universe, by that very act give them a place in the religious world. for this reason, the animals or plants among these may not be eaten freely by the human members of the clan. thus in the mount gambier tribe, the men whose totem is a certain non-poisonous snake must not merely refrain from eating the flesh of this snake; that of seals, eels, etc., is also forbidden to them.[ ] if, driven by necessity, they do eat some of it, they must at least attenuate the sacrilege by expiatory rites, just as if they had eaten the totem itself.[ ] among the euahlayi, where it is permitted to use the totem, but not to abuse it, the same rule is applied to the other members of the clan.[ ] among the arunta, the interdictions protecting the totemic animal extend over the associated animals;[ ] and in any case, particular attention must be given to these latter.[ ] the sentiments inspired by the two are identical.[ ] but the fact that the things thus attached to the totem are not of a different nature from it, and consequently have a religious character, is best proved by the fact that on certain occasions they fulfil the same functions. they are accessory or secondary totems, or, according to an expression now consecrated by usage, they are sub-totems.[ ] it is constantly happening in the clans that under the influence of various sympathies, particular affinities are forming, smaller groups and more limited associations arise, which tend to lead a relatively autonomous life and to form a new subdivision like a sub-clan within the larger one. in order to distinguish and individualize itself, this sub-clan needs a special totem or, consequently, a sub-totem.[ ] now the totems of these secondary groups are chosen from among the things classified under the principal totem. so they are always almost totems and the slightest circumstance is enough to make them actually so. there is a latent totemic nature in them, which shows itself as soon as conditions permit it or demand it. it thus happens that a single individual has two totems, a principal totem common to the whole clan and a sub-totem which is special to the sub-clan of which he is a member. this is something analogous to the _nomen_ and _cognomen_ of the romans.[ ] sometimes we see a sub-clan emancipate itself completely and become an autonomous group and an independent clan; then, the sub-totem, on its side, becomes a regular totem. one tribe where this process of segmentation has been pushed to the limit, so to speak, is the arunta. the information contained in the first book of spencer and gillen showed that there were some sixty totems among the arunta;[ ] but the recent researches of strehlow have shown the number to be much larger. he counted no less than .[ ] spencer and gillen did not exaggerate at all when they said, "in fact, there is scarcely an object, animate or inanimate, to be found in the country occupied by the natives which does not give its name to some totemic group."[ ] now this multitude of totems, whose number is prodigious when compared to the population, is due to the fact that under special circumstances, the original clans have divided and sub-divided infinitely; consequently nearly all the sub-totems have passed to the stage of totems. this has been definitely proved by the observations of strehlow. spencer and gillen cited only certain isolated cases of associated totems.[ ] strehlow has shown that this is in reality an absolutely general organization. he has been able to draw up a table where nearly all the totems of the arunta are classified according to this principle: all are attached, either as associates or as auxiliaries, to some sixty principal totems.[ ] the first are believed to be in the service of the second.[ ] this state of dependence is very probably the echo of a time when the "allies" of to-day were only sub-totems, and consequently when the tribe contained only a small number of clans subdivided into sub-clans. numerous survivals confirm this hypothesis. it frequently happens that two groups thus associated have the same totemic emblem: now this unity of emblem is explicable only if the two groups were at first only one.[ ] the relation of the two clans is also shown by the part and the interest that each one takes in the rites of the other. the two cults are still only imperfectly separated; this is very probably because they were at first completely intermingled.[ ] tradition explains the bonds which unite them by imagining that formerly the two clans occupied neighbouring places.[ ] in other cases, the myth says expressly that one of them was derived from the other. it is related that at first the associated animal belonged to the species still serving as principal totem; it differentiated itself at a later period. thus the chantunga birds, which are associated with the witchetly grub to-day, were witchetly grubs in fabulous times, who later transformed themselves into birds. two species which are now attached to the honey-ant were formerly honey-ants, etc.[ ] this transformation of a sub-totem into a totem goes on by imperceptible degrees, so that in certain cases the situation is undecided, and it is hard to say whether one is dealing with a principal totem or a secondary one.[ ] as howitt says in regard to the wotjobaluk, there are sub-totems which are totems in formation.[ ] thus the different things classified in a clan constitute, as it were, so many nuclei around which new totemic cults are able to form. this is the best proof of the religious sentiments which they inspire. if they did not have a sacred character, they could not be promoted so easily to the same dignity as the things which are sacred before all others, the regular totems. so the field of religious things extends well beyond the limits within which it seemed to be confined at first. it embraces not only the totemic animals and the human members of the clan; but since no known thing exists that is not classified in a clan and under a totem, there is likewise nothing which does not receive to some degree something of a religious character. when, in the religions which later come into being, the gods properly so-called appear, each of them will be set over a special category of natural phenomena, this one over the sea, that one over the air, another over the harvest or over fruits, etc., and each of these provinces of nature will be believed to draw what life there is in it from the god upon whom it depends. this division of nature among the different divinities constitutes the conception which these religions give us of the universe. now so long as humanity has not passed the phase of totemism, the different totems of the tribe fulfil exactly the same functions that will later fall upon the divine personalities. in the mount gambier tribe, which we have taken as our principal example, there are ten clans; consequently the entire world is divided into ten classes, or rather into ten families, each of which has a special totem as its basis. it is from this basis that the things classed in the clan get all their reality, for they are thought of as variant forms of the totemic being; to return to our example, the rain, thunder, lightning, clouds, hail and winter are regarded as different sorts of crows. when brought together, these ten families of things make up a complete and systematic representation of the world; and this representation is religious, for religious notions furnish its basis. far from being limited to one or two categories of beings, the domain of totemic religion extends to the final limits of the known universe. just like the greek religion, it puts the divine everywhere; the celebrated formula [greek: panta plêrê theôn] (everything is full of the gods), might equally well serve it as motto. however, if totemism is to be represented thus, the notion of it which has long been held must be modified on one essential point. until the discoveries of recent years, it was made to consist entirely in the cult of one particular totem, and it was defined as the religion of the clan. from this point of view, each tribe seemed to have as many totemic religions, each independent of the others, as it had different clans. this conception was also in harmony with the idea currently held of the clan; in fact, this was regarded as an autonomous society,[ ] more or less closed to other similar societies, or having only external and superficial relations with these latter. but the reality is more complex. undoubtedly, the cult of each totem has its home in the corresponding clan; it is there, and only there, that it is celebrated; it is members of the clan who have charge of it; it is through them that it is transmitted from one generation to another, along with the beliefs which are its basis. but it is also true that the different totemic cults thus practised within a single tribe do not have a parallel development, though remaining ignorant of each other, as if each of them constituted a complete and self-sufficing religion. on the contrary, they mutually imply each other; they are only the parts of a single whole, the elements of a single religion. the men of one clan never regard the beliefs of neighbouring clans with that indifference, scepticism or hostility which one religion ordinarily inspires for another which is foreign to it; they partake of these beliefs themselves. the crow people are also convinced that the snake people have a mythical serpent as ancestor, and that they owe special virtues and marvellous powers to this origin. and have we not seen that at least in certain conditions, a man may eat a totem that is not his own only after he has observed certain ritual formalities? especially, he must demand the permission of the men of this totem, if any are present. so for him also, this food is not entirely profane; he also admits that there are intimate affinities between the members of a clan of which he is not a member and the animal whose name they bear. also, this community of belief is sometimes shown in the cult. if in theory the rites concerning a totem can be performed only by the men of this totem, nevertheless representatives of different clans frequently assist at them. it sometimes happens that their part is not simply that of spectators; it is true that they do not officiate, but they decorate the officiants and prepare the service. they themselves have an interest in its being celebrated; therefore, in certain tribes, it is they who invite the qualified clan to proceed with the ceremonies.[ ] there is even a whole cycle of rites which must take place in the presence of the assembled tribe: these are the totemic ceremonies of initiation.[ ] finally, the totemic organization, such as we have just described it, must obviously be the result of some sort of an indistinct understanding between all the members of the tribe. it is impossible that each clan should have made its beliefs in an absolutely independent manner; it is absolutely necessary that the cults of the different totems should be in some way adjusted to each other, since they complete one another exactly. in fact, we have seen that normally a single totem is not repeated twice in the same tribe, and that the whole universe is divided up among the totems thus constituted in such a way that the same object is not found in two different clans. so methodical a division could never have been made without an agreement, tacit or planned, in which the whole tribe participated. so the group of beliefs which thus arise are partially (but only partially) a tribal affair.[ ] to sum up, then, in order to form an adequate idea of totemism, we must not confine ourselves within the limits of the clan, but must consider the tribe as a whole. it is true that the particular cult of each clan enjoys a very great autonomy; we can now see that it is within the clan that the active ferment of the religious life takes place. but it is also true that these cults fit into each other and the totemic religion is a complex system formed by their union, just as greek polytheism was made by the union of all the particular cults addressed to the different divinities. we have just shown that, thus understood, totemism also has it cosmology. chapter iv totemic beliefs--_end_ _the individual totem and the sexual totem_ up to the present, we have studied totemism only as a public institution: the only totems of which we have spoken are common to a clan, a phratry or, in a sense, to a tribe;[ ] an individual has a part in them only as a member of a group. but we know that there is no religion which does not have an individual aspect. this general observation is applicable to totemism. in addition to the impersonal and collective totems which hold the first place, there are others which are peculiar to each individual, which express his personality, and whose cult he celebrates in private. i in certain australian tribes, and in the majority of the indian tribes of north america,[ ] each individual personally sustains relations with some determined object, which are comparable to those which each clan sustains with its totem. this is sometimes an inanimate being or an artificial object; but it is generally an animal. in certain cases, a special part of the organism, such as the head, the feet or the liver, fulfils this office.[ ] the name of the thing also serves as the name of the individual. it is his personal name, his forename, which is added to that of the collective totem, as the _praenomen_ of the romans was to the _nomen gentilicium_. it is true that this fact is not reported except in a certain number of societies,[ ] but it is probably general. in fact, we shall presently show that there is an identity of nature between the individual and the thing; now an identity of nature implies one of name. being given in the course of especially important religious ceremonies, this forename has a sacred character. it is not pronounced in the ordinary circumstances of profane life. it even happens that the word designating this object in the ordinary language must be modified to a greater or less extent if it is to serve in this particular case.[ ] this is because the terms of the usual language are excluded from the religious life. in certain american tribes, at least, this name is reinforced by an emblem belonging to each individual and representing, under various forms, the thing designated by the name. for example, each mandan wears the skin of the animal of which he is the namesake.[ ] if it is a bird, he decorates himself with its feathers.[ ] the hurons and algonquins tattoo their bodies with its image.[ ] it is represented on their arms.[ ] among the north-western tribes, the individual emblem, just like the collective emblem of the clan, is carved or engraved on the utensils, houses,[ ] etc.; it serves as a mark of ownership.[ ] frequently the two coats-of-arms are combined together, which partially explains the great diversity of aspects presented by the totemic escutcheons among these peoples.[ ] between the individual and his animal namesake there exist the very closest bonds. the man participates in the nature of the animal; he has its good qualities as well as its faults. for example, a man having the eagle as his coat-of-arms is believed to possess the gift of seeing into the future; if he is named after a bear, they say that he is apt to be wounded in combat, for the bear is heavy and slow and easily caught;[ ] if the animal is despised, the man is the object of the same sentiment.[ ] the relationship of the two is even so close that it is believed that in certain circumstances, especially in case of danger, the man can take the form of the animal.[ ] inversely, the animal is regarded as a double of the man, as his _alter ego_.[ ] the association of the two is so close that their destinies are frequently thought to be bound up together: nothing can happen to one without the other's feeling a reaction.[ ] if the animal dies, the life of the man is menaced. thus it comes to be a very general rule that one should not kill the animal, nor eat its flesh. this interdiction, which, when concerning the totem of the clan, allows of all sorts of attenuations and modifications, is now much more formal and absolute.[ ] on its side, the animal protects the man and serves him as a sort of patron. it informs him of possible dangers and of the way of escaping them;[ ] they say that it is his friend.[ ] since it frequently happens to possess marvellous powers, it communicates them to its human associate, who believes in them, even under the proof of bullets, arrows, and blows of every sort.[ ] this confidence of an individual in the efficacy of his protector is so great that he braves the greatest dangers and accomplishes the most disconcerting feats with an intrepid serenity: faith gives him the necessary courage and strength.[ ] however, the relations of a man with his patron are not purely and simply those of dependence. he, on his side, is able to act upon the animal. he gives it orders; he has influence over it. a kurnai having the shark as ally and friend believes that he can disperse the sharks who menace a boat, by means of a charm.[ ] in other cases, the relations thus contracted are believed to confer upon the man a special aptitude for hunting the animal with success.[ ] the very nature of these relations seems clearly to imply that the being to which each individual is thus associated is only an individual itself, and not a species. a man does not have a species as his _alter ego_. in fact, there are cases where it is certainly a certain determined tree, rock or stone that fulfils this function.[ ] it must be thus every time that it is an animal, and that the existences of the animal and the man are believed to be connected. a man could not be united so closely to a whole species, for there is not a day nor, so to speak, an instant when the species does not lose some one of its members. yet the primitive has a certain incapacity for thinking of the individual apart from the species; the bonds uniting him to the one readily extend to the other; he confounds the two in the same sentiment. thus the entire species becomes sacred for him.[ ] this protector is naturally given different names in different societies: _nagual_ among the indians of mexico,[ ] _manitou_ among the algonquins and _okki_ among the hurons,[ ] _snam_ among certain salish,[ ] _sulia_ among others,[ ] _budjan_ among the yuin,[ ] _yunbeai_ among the euahlayi,[ ] etc. owing to the importance of these beliefs and practices among the indians of north america, some have proposed creating a word _nagualism_ or _manitouism_ to designate them.[ ] but in giving them a special and distinctive name, we run the risk of misunderstanding their relations with the rest of totemism. in fact, the same principle is applied in the one case to the clan and in the other to the individual. in both cases we find the same belief that there are vital connections between the things and the men, and that the former are endowed with special powers, of which their human allies may also enjoy the advantage. we also find the same custom of giving the man the name of the thing with which he is associated and of adding an emblem to this name. the totem is the patron of the clan, just as the patron of the individual is his personal totem. so it is important that our terminology should make the relationship of the two systems apparent; that is why we, with frazer, shall give the name _individual totemism_ to the cult rendered by each individual to his patron. a further justification of this expression is found in the fact that in certain cases the primitive himself uses the same word to designate the totem of the clan and the animal protector of the individual.[ ] if tylor and powell have rejected this term and demanded different ones for these two sorts of religious institutions, it is because the collective totem is, in their opinion, only a name or label, having no religious character.[ ] but we, on the contrary, know that it is a sacred thing, and even more so than the protecting animal. moreover, the continuation of our study will show how these two varieties of totemism are inseparable from each other.[ ] yet, howsoever close the kinship between these two institutions may be, there are important differences between them. while the clan believes that it is the offspring of the animal or plant serving it as totem, the individual does not believe that he has any relationship of descent with his personal totem. it is a friend, an associate, a protector; but it is not a relative. he takes advantage of the virtues it is believed to possess; but he is not of the same blood. in the second place, the members of a clan allow neighbouring clans to eat of the animal whose name they bear collectively, under the simple condition that the necessary formalities shall be observed. but, on the contrary, the individual respects the species to which his personal totem belongs and also protects it against strangers, at least in those parts where the destiny of the man is held to be bound up with that of the animal. but the chief difference between these two sorts of totems is in the manner in which they are acquired. the collective totem is a part of the civil status of each individual: it is generally hereditary; in any case, it is birth which designates it, and the wish of men counts for nothing. sometimes the child has the totem of his mother (kamilaroi, dieri, urabunna, etc.); sometimes that of his father (narrinyeri, warramunga, etc.); sometimes the one predominating in the locality where his mother conceived (arunta, loritja). but, on the contrary, the individual totem is acquired by a deliberate act:[ ] a whole series of ritual operations are necessary to determine it. the method generally employed by the indians of north america is as follows. about the time of puberty, as the time for initiation approaches, the young man withdraws into a distant place, for example, into a forest. there, during a period varying from a few days to several years, he submits himself to all sorts of exhausting and unnatural exercises. he fasts, mortifies himself and inflicts various mutilations upon himself. now he wanders about, uttering violent cries and veritable howls; now he lies extended, motionless and lamenting, upon the ground. sometimes he dances, prays and invokes his ordinary divinities. at last, he thus gets himself into an extreme state of super-excitation, verging on delirium. when he has reached this paroxysm, his representations readily take on the character of hallucinations. "when," says heckewelder, "a boy is on the eve of being initiated, he is submitted to an alternating régime of fasts and medical treatment; he abstains from all food and takes the most powerful and repugnant drugs: at times, he drinks intoxicating concoctions until his mind really wanders. then he has, or thinks he has, visions and extraordinary dreams to which he was of course predisposed by all this training. he imagines himself flying through the air, advancing under the ground, jumping from one mountain-top to another across the valleys, and fighting and conquering giants and monsters."[ ] if in these circumstances he sees, or, as amounts to the same thing, he thinks he sees, while dreaming or while awake, an animal appearing to him in an attitude seeming to show friendly intentions, then he imagines that he has discovered the patron he awaited.[ ] yet this procedure is rarely employed in australia.[ ] on this continent, the personal totem seems to be imposed by a third party, either at birth[ ] or at the moment of initiation.[ ] generally it is a relative who takes this part, or else a personage invested with special powers, such as an old man or a magician. sometimes divination is used for this purpose. for example, on charlotte bay, cape bedford or the proserpine river, the grandmother or some other old woman takes a little piece of umbilical cord to which the placenta is still attached and whirls it about quite violently. meanwhile the other old women propose different names. that one is adopted which happens to be pronounced just at the moment when the cord breaks.[ ] among the yarrai-kanna of cape york, after a tooth has been knocked out of the young initiate, they give him a little water to rinse his mouth and ask him to spit in a bucket full of water. the old men carefully examine the clot formed by the blood and saliva thus spit out, and the natural object whose shape it resembles becomes the personal totem of the young man.[ ] in other cases, the totem is transmitted from one individual to another, for example from father to son, or uncle to nephew.[ ] this method is also used in america. in a case reported by hill tout, the operator was a shaman,[ ] who wished to transmit his totem to his nephew. "the uncle took the symbol of his _snam_ (his personal totem), which in this case was a dried bird's skin, and bade his nephew breathe upon it. he then blew upon it also himself, uttered some mystic words and the dried skin seemed to paul (the nephew) to become a living bird, which flew about them a moment or two and then finally disappeared. paul was then instructed by his uncle to procure that day a bird's skin of the same kind as his uncle's and wear it on his person. this he did, and that night he had a dream, in which the _snam_ appeared to him in the shape of a human being, disclosed to him its mystic name by which it might be summoned, and promised him protection."[ ] not only is the individual totem acquired and not given, but ordinarily the acquisition of one is not obligatory. in the first place, there are a multitude of tribes in australia where the custom seems to be absolutely unknown.[ ] also, even where it does exist, it is frequently optional. thus among the euahlayi, while all the magicians have individual totems from which they get their powers, there are a great number of laymen who have none at all. it is a favour given by the magician, but which he reserves for his friends, his favourites and those who aspire to becoming his colleagues.[ ] likewise, among certain salish, persons desiring to excel especially either in fighting or in hunting, or aspirants to the position of shaman, are the only ones who provide themselves with protectors of this sort.[ ] so among certain peoples, at least, the individual totem seems to be considered an advantage and convenient thing rather than a necessity. it is a good thing to have, but a man can do without one. inversely, a man need not limit himself to a single totem; if he wishes to be more fully protected, nothing hinders his seeking and acquiring several,[ ] and if the one he has fulfils its part badly, he can change it.[ ] but while it is more optional and free, individual totemism contains within it a force of resistance never attained by the totemism of the clan. one of the chief informers of hill tout was a baptized salish; however, though he had sincerely abandoned the faith of his fathers, and though he had become a model catechist, still his faith in the efficacy of the personal totems remained unshaken.[ ] similarly, though no visible traces of collective totemism remain in civilized countries, the idea that there is a connection between each individual and some animal, plant or other object, is at the bottom of many customs still observable in many european countries.[ ] ii between collective totemism and individual totemism there is an intermediate form partaking of the characteristics of each: this is sexual totemism. it is found only in australia and in a small number of tribes. it is mentioned especially in victoria and new south wales.[ ] mathews, it is true, claims to have observed it in all the parts of australia that he has visited, but he gives no precise facts to support this affirmation.[ ] among these different peoples, all the men of the tribe on the one hand, and all the women on the other, to whatever special clan they may belong, form, as it were, two distinct and even antagonistic societies. now each of these two sexual corporations believes that it is united by mystical bonds to a determined animal. among the kurnai, all the men think they are brothers, as it were, of the emu-wren (yeer[)u]ng), all the women, that they are as sisters of the linnet (djeetg[)u]n); all the men are yeer[)u]ng and all the women are djeetg[)u]n. among the wotjobaluk and the wurunjerri, it is the bat and the _nightjar_ (a species of screech-owl) respectively who take this rôle. in other tribes, the woodpecker is substituted for the _nightjar_. each sex regards the animal to which it is thus related as a sort of protector which must be treated with the greatest regard; it is also forbidden to kill and eat it.[ ] thus this protecting animal plays the same part in relation to the sexual society that the totem of the clan plays to this latter group. so the expression sexual totemism, which we borrow from frazer,[ ] is justified. this new sort of totem resembles that of the clan particularly in that it, too, is collective; it belongs to all the people of one sex indiscriminately. it also resembles this form in that it implies a relationship of descent and consanguinity between the animal patron and the corresponding sex: among the kurnai, all the men are believed to be descended from yeer[)u]ng and all the women from djeetg[)u]n.[ ] the first observer to point out this curious institution described it, in , in the following terms: "tilmun, a little bird the size of a thrush (it is a sort of woodpecker), is supposed by the women to be the first maker of women. these birds are held in veneration by the women only."[ ] so it was a great ancestor. but in other ways, this same totem resembles the individual totem. in fact, it is believed that each member of a sexual group is personally united to a determined individual of the corresponding animal species. the two lives are so closely associated that the death of the animal brings about that of the man. "the life of a bat," say the wotjobaluk, "is the life of a man."[ ] that is why each sex not only respects its own totem, but forces the members of the other to do so as well. every violation of this interdiction gives rise to actual bloody battles between the men and the women.[ ] finally, the really original feature of these totems is that they are, in a sense, a sort of tribal totems. in fact, they result from men's representing the tribe as descended as a whole from one couple of mythical beings. such a belief seems to demonstrate clearly that the tribal sentiment has acquired sufficient force to resist, at least to a considerable extent, the particularism of the clans. in regard to the distinct origins assigned to men and to women, it must be said that its cause is to be sought in the separate conditions in which the men and the women live.[ ] it would be interesting to know how the sexual totems are related to the totems of the clans, according to the theory of the australians, what relations there were between the two ancestors thus placed at the commencement of the tribe, and from which one each special clan is believed to be descended. but the ethnographical data at our present disposal do not allow us to resolve these questions. moreover, however natural and even necessary it may appear to us, it is very possible that the natives never raised it. they do not feel the need of co-ordinating and systematizing their beliefs as strongly as we do.[ ] chapter v origins of these beliefs _critical examination of preceding theories_ the beliefs which we have just summarized are manifestly of a religious nature, since they imply a division of things into sacred and profane. it is certain that there is no thought of spiritual beings, and in the course of our exposition we have not even had occasion to pronounce the words, spirits, genii or divine personalities. but if certain writers, of whom we shall have something more to say presently, have, for this reason, refused to regard totemism as a religion, it is because they have an inexact notion of what religious phenomena are. on the other hand, we are assured that this religion is the most primitive one that is now observable and even, in all probability, that has ever existed. in fact, it is inseparable from a social organization on a clan basis. not only is it impossible, as we have already pointed out, to define it except in connection with the clan, but it even seems as though the clan could not exist, in the form it has taken in a great number of australian societies, without the totem. for the members of a single clan are not united to each other either by a common habitat or by common blood, as they are not necessarily consanguineous and are frequently scattered over different parts of the tribal territory. their unity comes solely from their having the same name and the same emblem, their believing that they have the same relations with the same categories of things, their practising the same rites, or, in a word, from their participating in the same totemic cult. thus totemism and the clan mutually imply each other, in so far, at least, as the latter is not confounded with the local group. now the social organization on a clan basis is the simplest which we know. in fact, it exists in all its essential elements from the moment when the society includes two primary clans; consequently, we may say that there are none more rudimentary, as long as societies reduced to a single clan have not been discovered, and we believe that up to the present no traces of such have been found. a religion so closely connected to a social system surpassing all others in simplicity may well be regarded as the most elementary religion we can possibly know. if we succeed in discovering the origins of the beliefs which we have just analysed, we shall very probably discover at the same time the causes leading to the rise of the religious sentiment in humanity. but before treating this question for ourselves, we must examine the most authorized solutions of it which have already been proposed. i in the first place, we find a group of scholars who believe that they can account for totemism by deriving it from some previous religion. for tylor[ ] and wilken,[ ] totemism is a special form of the cult of the ancestors; it was the widespread doctrine of the transmigration of souls that served as a bridge between these two religious systems. a large number of peoples believe that after death, the soul does not remain disincarnate for ever, but presently animates another living body; on the other hand, "the lower psychology, drawing no definite line of demarcation between the souls of men and of beasts, can at least admit without difficulty the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of the lower animals."[ ] tylor cites a certain number of cases.[ ] under these circumstances, the religious respect inspired by the ancestor is quite naturally attached to the animal or plant with which he is presently confounded. the animal thus serving as a receptacle for a venerated being becomes a holy thing, the object of a cult, that is, a totem, for all the descendants of the ancestor, who form the clan descended from him. facts pointed out by wilken among the societies of the malay archipelago would tend to prove that it really was in this manner that the totemic beliefs originated. in java and sumatra, crocodiles are especially honoured; they are regarded as benevolent protectors who must not be killed; offerings are made to them. now the cult thus rendered to them is due to their being supposed to incarnate the souls of ancestors. the malays of the philippines consider the crocodile their grandfather; the tiger is treated in the same way for the same reasons. similar beliefs have been observed among the bantous.[ ] in melanesia it sometimes happens that an influential man, at the moment of death, announces his desire to reincarnate himself in a certain animal or plant; it is easily understood how the object thus chosen as his posthumous residence becomes sacred for his whole family.[ ] so, far from being a primitive fact, totemism would seem to be the product of a more complex religion which preceded it.[ ] but the societies from which these facts were taken had already arrived at a rather advanced stage of culture; in any case, they had passed the stage of pure totemism. they have families and not totemic clans.[ ] even the majority of the animals to which religious honours are thus rendered are venerated, not by special groups of families, but by the tribes as a whole. so if these beliefs and practices do have some connection with ancient totemic cults, they now represent only altered forms of them[ ] and are consequently not very well fitted for showing us their origins. it is not by studying an institution at the moment when it is in full decadence that we can learn how it was formed. if we want to know how totemism originated, it is neither in java nor sumatra nor melanesia that we must study it, but in australia. here we find neither a cult of the dead[ ] nor the doctrine of transmigration. of course they believe that the mythical heroes, the founders of the clan, reincarnate themselves periodically; _but this is in human bodies only_; each birth, as we shall see, is the product of one of these reincarnations. so if the animals of the totemic species are the object of rites, it is not because the ancestral souls are believed to reside in them. it is true that the first ancestors are frequently represented under the form of an animal, and this very common representation is an important fact for which we must account; but it was not the belief in metempsychosis which gave it birth, for this belief is unknown among australian societies. moreover, far from being able to explain totemism, this belief takes for granted one of the fundamental principles upon which this rests; that is to say, it begs the question to be explained. it, just as much as totemism, implies that man is considered a close relative of the animal; for if these two kingdoms were clearly distinguished in the mind, men would never believe that a human soul could pass so easily from one into the other. it is even necessary that the body of the animal be considered its true home, for it is believed to go there as soon as it regains its liberty. now while the doctrine of transmigration postulates this singular affinity, it offers no explanation of it. the only explanation offered by tylor is that men sometimes resemble in certain traits the anatomy and physiology of the animal. "the half-human features and actions and characters of animals are watched with wondering sympathy by the savage, as by the child. the beast is the very incarnation of familiar qualities of man: and such names as lion, bear, fox, owl, parrot, viper, worm, when we apply them as epithets to men, condense into a word some leading features of a human life."[ ] but even if these resemblances are met with, they are uncertain and exceptional; before all else, men resemble their relatives and companions, and not plants and animals. such rare and questionable analogies could not overcome such unanimous proofs, nor could they lead a man to think of himself and his forefathers in forms contradicted by daily experience. so this question remains untouched, and as long as it is not answered, we cannot say that totemism is explained.[ ] finally, this whole theory rests upon a fundamental misunderstanding. for tylor as for wundt, totemism is only a particular case of the cult of animals.[ ] but we, on the contrary, know that it is something very different from a sort of animal-worship.[ ] the animal is never adored; the man is nearly its equal and sometimes even treats it as his possession, so far is he from being subordinate to it like a believer before his god. if the animals of the totemic species are really believed to incarnate the ancestors, the members of foreign clans would not be allowed to eat their flesh freely. in reality, it is not to the animal as such that the cult is addressed, but to the emblem and the image of the totem. now between this religion of the emblem and the ancestor-cult, there is no connection whatsoever. while tylor derives totemism from the ancestor-cult, jevons derives it from the nature-cult,[ ] and here is how he does so. when, under the impulse of the surprise occasioned by the irregularities observed in the course of phenomena, men had once peopled the world with supernatural beings,[ ] they felt the need of making agreements with these redoubtable forces with which they had surrounded themselves. they understood that the best way to escape being overwhelmed by them was to ally themselves to some of them, and thus make sure of their aid. but at this period of history men knew no other form of alliance and association than the one resulting from kinship. all the members of a single clan aid each other mutually because they are kindred or, as amounts to the same thing, because they think they are; on the other hand, different clans treat each other as enemies because they are of different blood. so the only way of assuring themselves of the support of these supernatural beings was to adopt them as kindred and to be adopted by them in the same quality: the well-known processes of the blood-covenant permitted them to attain this result quite easily. but since at this period, the individual did not yet have a real personality, and was regarded only as a part of his group, or clan, it was the clan as a whole, and not the individual, which collectively contracted this relationship. for the same reason, it was contracted, not with a particular object, but with the natural group or species of which this object was a part; for men think of the world as they think of themselves, and just as they could not conceive themselves apart from their clans, so they were unable to conceive of anything else as distinct from the species to which it belonged. now a species of things united to a clan by a bond of kinship is, says jevons, a totem. in fact, it is certain that totemism implies the close association of a clan to a determined category of objects. but that this association was contracted with a deliberate design and in the full consciousness of an end sought after, as jevons would have us believe, is a statement having but little harmony with what history teaches. religions are too complex, and answer to needs that are too many and too obscure, to have their origin in a premeditated act of the will. and while it sins through over-simplicity, this hypothesis is also highly improbable. it says that men sought to assure themselves of the aid of the supernatural beings upon which things depend. then they should preferably have addressed themselves to the most powerful of these, and to those whose protection promised to be the most beneficial.[ ] but quite on the contrary, the beings with whom they have formed this mystic kinship are often among the most humble which exist. also, if it were only a question of making allies and defenders, they would have tried to make as many as possible; for one cannot be defended too well. yet as a matter of fact, each clan systematically contents itself with a single totem, that is to say, with one single protector, leaving the other clans to enjoy their own in perfect liberty. each group confines itself within its own religious domain, never seeking to trespass upon that of its neighbours. this reserve and moderation are inexplicable according to the hypothesis under consideration. ii moreover, all these theories are wrong in omitting one question which dominates the whole subject. we have seen that there are two sorts of totemism: that of the individual and that of the clan. there is too evident a kinship between the two for them not to have some connection with each other. so we may well ask if one is not derived from the other, and, in the case of an affirmative answer, which is the more primitive; according to the solution accepted, the problem of the origins of totemism will be posed in different terms. this question becomes all the more necessary because of its general interest. individual totemism is an individual aspect of the totemic cult. then if it was the primitive fact, we must say that religion is born in the consciousness of the individual, that before all else, it answers to individual aspirations, and that its collective form is merely secondary. the desire for an undue simplicity, with which ethnologists and sociologists are too frequently inspired, has naturally led many scholars to explain, here as elsewhere, the complex by the simple, the totem of the group by that of the individual. such, in fact, is the theory sustained by frazer in his _golden bough_,[ ] by hill tout,[ ] by miss fletcher,[ ] by boas[ ] and by swanton.[ ] it has the additional advantage of being in harmony with the conception of religion which is currently held; this is quite generally regarded as something intimate and personal. from this point of view, the totem of the clan can only be an individual totem which has become generalized. some eminent man, having found from experience the value of a totem he chose for himself by his own free will, transmitted it to his descendants; these latter, multiplying as time went on, finally formed the extended family known as a clan, and thus the totem became collective. hill tout believes that he has found a proof supporting this theory in the way totemism has spread among certain societies of north-western america, especially among the salish and certain indians on the thompson river. individual totemism and the clan totemism are both found among these peoples; but they either do not co-exist in the same tribe, or else, when they do co-exist, they are not equally developed. they vary in an inverse proportion to each other; where the clan totem tends to become the general rule, the individual totem tends to disappear, and _vice versa_. is that not as much as to say that the first is a more recent form of the second, which excludes it by replacing it?[ ] mythology seems to confirm this interpretation. in these same societies, in fact, the ancestor of the clan is not a totemic animal; the founder of the group is generally represented in the form of a human being who, at a certain time, had entered into familiar relations with a fabulous animal from whom he received his totemic emblem. this emblem, together with the special powers which are attached to it, was then passed on to the descendants of this mythical hero by right of heritage. so these people themselves seem to consider the collective totem as an individual one, perpetuated in the same family.[ ] moreover, it still happens to-day that a father transmits his own totem to his children. so if we imagine that the collective totem had, in a general way, this same origin, we are assuming that the same thing took place in the past which is still observable to-day.[ ] it is still to be explained whence the individual totem comes. the reply given to this question varies with different authors. hill tout considers it a particular case of fetishism. feeling himself surrounded on all sides by dreaded spirits, the individual experienced that sentiment which we have just seen jevons attribute to the clan: in order that he might continue to exist, he sought some powerful protector in this mysterious world. thus the use of a personal totem became established.[ ] for frazer, this same institution was rather a subterfuge or trick of war, invented by men that they might escape from certain dangers. it is known that according to a belief which is very widespread in a large number of inferior societies, the human soul is able, without great inconvenience, to quit the body it inhabits for a while; howsoever far away it may be, it continues to animate this body by a sort of detached control. then, in certain critical moments, when life is supposed to be particularly menaced, it may be desirable to withdraw the soul from the body and lead it to some place or into some object where it will be in greater security. in fact, there are a certain number of practices whose object is to withdraw the soul in order to protect it from some danger, either real or imaginary. for example, at the moment when men are going to enter a newly-built house, a magician removes their souls and puts them in a sack, to be saved and returned to their proprietors after the door-sill has been crossed. this is because the moment when one enters a new house is exceptionally critical; one may have disturbed, and consequently offended, the spirits who reside in the ground and especially under the sill, and if precautions are not taken, these could make a man pay dearly for his audacity. but when this danger is once passed, and one has been able to anticipate their anger and even to make sure of their favour through the accomplishment of certain rites, the souls may safely retake their accustomed place.[ ] it is this same belief which gave birth to the personal totem. to protect themselves from sorcery, men thought it wise to hide their souls in the anonymous crowd of some species of animal or vegetable. but after these relations had once been established, each individual found himself closely united to the animal or plant where his own vital principle was believed to reside. two beings so closely united were finally thought to be practically indistinguishable: men believed that each participated in the nature of the other. when this belief had once been accepted, it facilitated and hastened the transformation of the personal totem into an hereditary, and consequently a collective, totem; for it seemed quite evident that this kinship of nature should be transmitted hereditarily from father to child. we shall not stop to discuss these two explanations of the individual totem at length: they are ingenious fabrications of the mind, but they completely lack all positive proof. if we are going to reduce totemism to fetishism, we must first establish that the latter is prior to the former; now, not merely is no fact brought forward to support this hypothesis, but it is even contradicted by everything that we know. the ill-determined group of rites going under the name of fetishism seem to appear only among peoples who have already attained to a certain degree of civilization; but it is a species of cult unknown in australia. it is true that some have described the churinga as a fetish;[ ] but even supposing that this qualification were justified, it would not prove the priority which is postulated. quite on the contrary, the churinga presupposes totemism, since it is essentially an instrument of the totemic cult and owes the virtues attributed to it to totemic beliefs alone. as for the theory of frazer, it presupposes a thoroughgoing idiocy on the part of the primitive which known facts do not allow us to attribute to him. he does have a logic, however strange this may at times appear; now unless he were completely deprived of it, he could never be guilty of the reasoning imputed to him. nothing could be more natural than that he should believe it possible to assure the survival of his soul by hiding it in a secret and inaccessible place, as so many heroes of myths and legends are said to have done. but why should he think it safer in the body of an animal than in his own? of course, if it were thus lost in space, it might have a chance to escape the spells of a magician more readily, but at the same time it would be prepared for the blows of hunters. it is a strange way of sheltering it to place it in a material form exposing it to risks at every instant.[ ] but above all, it is inconceivable that a whole people should allow themselves to be carried into such an aberration.[ ] finally, in a very large number of cases, the function of the individual totem is very different from that assigned it by frazer; before all else, it is a means of conferring extraordinary powers upon magicians, hunters or warriors.[ ] as to the kinship of the man and the thing, with all the inconveniences it implies, it is accepted as a consequence of the rite; but it is not desired in its and for itself. there is still less occasion for delaying over this controversy since it concerns no real problem. what we must know before everything else is whether or not the individual totem is really a primitive fact, from which the collective totem was derived; for, according to the reply given to this question, we must seek the home of the religious life in one or the other of two opposite directions. against the hypothesis of hill tout, miss fletcher, boas and frazer there is such an array of decisive facts that one is surprised that it has been so readily and so generally accepted. in the first place, we know that a man frequently has the greatest interest not only in respecting, but also in making his companions respect the species serving him as personal totem; his own life is connected with it. then if collective totemism were only a generalized form of individual totemism, it too should repose upon this same principle. not only should the men of a clan abstain from killing and eating their totem-animal themselves, but they should also do all in their power to force this same abstention upon others. but as a matter of fact, far from imposing such a renunciation upon the whole tribe, each clan, by rites which we shall describe below, takes care that the plant or animal whose name it bears shall increase and prosper, so as to assure an abundant supply of food for the other clans. so we must at least admit that in becoming collective, individual totemism was transformed profoundly, and we must therefore account for this transformation. in the second place, how is it possible to explain, from this point of view, the fact that except where totemism is in full decay, two clans of a single tribe always have different totems? it seems that nothing prevents two or several members of a single tribe, even when there is no kinship between them, from choosing their personal totem in the same animal species and passing it on to their descendants. does it not happen to-day that two distinct families have the same name? the carefully regulated way in which the totems and sub-totems are divided up, first between the two phratries and then among the various clans of the phratry, obviously presupposes a social agreement and a collective organization. this is as much as to say that totemism is something more than an individual practice spontaneously generalized. moreover, collective totemism cannot be deduced from individual totemism except by a misunderstanding of the differences separating the two. the one is acquired by the child at birth; it is a part of his civil status. the other is acquired during the course of his life; it presupposes the accomplishment of a determined rite and a change of condition. some seek to diminish this distance by inserting between the two, as a sort of middle term, the right of each possessor of a totem to transmit it to whomsoever he pleases. but wherever these transfers do take place, they are rare and relatively exceptional acts; they cannot be performed except by magicians or other personages invested with special powers;[ ] in any case, they are possible only through ritual ceremonies which bring about the change. so it is necessary to explain how this prerogative of a few became the right of all; how that which at first implied a profound change in the religious and moral constitution of the individual, was able to become an element of this constitution; and finally, how a transmission which at first was the consequence of a rite was later believed to operate automatically from the nature of things and without the intervention of any human will. in support of his interpretation, hill tout claims that certain myths give the totem of the clan an individual origin: they tell how the totemic emblem was acquired by some special individual, who then transmitted it to his descendants. but in the first place, it is to be remarked that these myths are all taken from the indian tribes of north america, which are societies arrived at a rather high degree of culture. how could a mythology so far removed from the origins of things aid in reconstituting the primitive form of an institution with any degree of certainty? there are many chances for intermediate causes to have gravely disfigured the recollection which these people have been able to retain. moreover, it is very easy to answer these myths with others, which seem much more primitive and whose signification is quite different. the totem is there represented as the very being from whom the clan is descended. so it must be that it constitutes the substance of the clan; men have it within them from their birth; it is a part of their very flesh and blood, so far are they from having received it from without.[ ] more than that, the very myths upon which hill tout relies contain an echo of this ancient conception. the founder who gave his name to the clan certainly had a human form; but he was a man who, after living among animals of a certain species, finally came to resemble them. this is undoubtedly because a time came when the mind was too cultivated to admit any longer, as it had formerly done, that men might have been born of animals; so the animal ancestor, now become inconceivable, is replaced by a human being; but the idea persists that this man had acquired certain characteristics of the animal either by imitation or by some other process. thus even this late mythology bears the mark of a more remote epoch when the totem of the clan was never regarded as a sort of individual creation. but this hypothesis does not merely raise grave logical difficulties; it is contradicted directly by the following facts. if individual totemism were the initial fact, it should be more developed and apparent, the more primitive the societies are, and inversely, it should lose ground and disappear before the other among the more advanced peoples. now it is the contrary which is true. the australian tribes are far behind those of north america; yet australia is the classic land of collective totemism. _in the great majority of the tribes, it alone is found, while we do not know a single one where individual totemism alone is practised._[ ] this latter is found in a characteristic form only in an infinitesimal number of tribes.[ ] even where it is met with it is generally in a rudimentary form. it is made up of individual and optional practices having no generality. only magicians are acquainted with the art of creating mysterious relationships with species of animals to which they are not related by nature. ordinary people do not enjoy this privilege.[ ] in america, on the contrary, the collective totem is in full decadence; in the societies of the north-west especially, its religious character is almost gone. inversely, the individual totem plays a considerable rôle among these same peoples. a very great efficacy is attributed to it; it has become a real public institution. this is because it is the sign of a higher civilization. this is undoubtedly the explanation of the inversion of these two forms of totemism, which hill tout believes he has observed among the salish. if in those parts where collective totemism is the most fully developed the other form is almost lacking, it is not because the second has disappeared before the first, but rather, because the conditions necessary for its existence have not yet been fully realized. but a fact which is still more conclusive is that individual totemism, far from having given birth to the totemism of the clan, presupposes this latter. it is within the frame of collective totemism that it is born and lives: it is an integral part of it. in fact, in those very societies where it is preponderating, the novices do not have the right of taking any animal as their individual totem; to each clan a certain definite number of species are assigned, outside of which it may not choose. in return, those belonging to it thus are its exclusive property; members of other clans may not usurp them.[ ] they are thought to have relations of close dependence upon the one serving as totem to the clan as a whole. there are even cases where it is quite possible to observe these relations: the individual aspect represents a part or a particular aspect of the collective totem.[ ] among the wotjobaluk, each member of the clan considers the personal totems of his companions as being his own after a fashion;[ ] so they are probably sub-totems. now the sub-totem supposes the totem, as the species supposes the class. thus the first form of individual religion met with in history appears, not as the active principle of all public religion, but, on the contrary, as a simple aspect of this latter. the cult which the individual organizes for himself in his own inner conscience, far from being the germ of the collective cult, is only this latter adapted to the personal needs of the individual. iii in a more recent study,[ ] which the works of spencer and gillen suggested to him, frazer has attempted to substitute a new explanation of totemism for the one he first proposed, and which we have just been discussing. it rests on the postulate that the totemism of the arunta is the most primitive which we know; frazer even goes so far as to say that it scarcely differs from the really and absolutely original type.[ ] the singular thing about it is that the totems are attached neither to persons nor to determined groups of persons, but to localities. in fact, each totem has its centre at some definite spot. it is there that the souls of the first ancestors, who founded the totemic group at the beginning of time, are believed to have their preferred residence. it is there that the sanctuary is located where the churinga are kept; there the cult is celebrated. it is also this geographical distribution of totems which determines the manner in which the clans are recruited. the child has neither the totem of his father nor that of his mother, but the one whose centre is at the spot where the mother believes that she felt the first symptoms of approaching maternity. for it is said that the arunta is ignorant of the exact relation existing between generation and the sexual act;[ ] he thinks that every conception is due to a sort of mystic fecundation. according to him, it is due to the entrance of the soul of an ancestor into the body of a woman and its becoming the principle of a new life there. so at the moment when a woman feels the first tremblings of the child, she imagines that one of the souls whose principal residence is at the place where she happens to be, has just entered into her. as the child who is presently born is merely the reincarnation of this ancestor, he necessarily has the same totem; thus his totem is determined by the locality where he is believed to have been mysteriously conceived. now, it is this local totemism which represents the original form of totemism; at most, it is separated from this by a very short step. this is how frazer explains its genesis. at the exact moment when the woman realizes that she is pregnant, she must think that the spirit by which she feels herself possessed has come to her from the objects about her, and especially from one of those which attract her attention at the moment. so if she is engaged in plucking a plant, or watching an animal, she believes that the soul of this plant or animal has passed into her. among the things to which she will be particularly inclined to attribute her condition are, in the first place, the things she has just eaten. if she has recently eaten emu or yam, she will not doubt that an emu or yam has been born in her and is developing. under these conditions, it is evident how the child, in his turn, will be considered a sort of yam or emu, how he regards himself as a relative of the plant or animal of the same species, how he has sympathy and regard for them, how he refuses to eat them, etc.[ ] from this moment, totemism exists in its essential traits: it is the native's theory of conception that gave rise to it, so frazer calls this primitive totemism _conceptional_. it is from this original type that all the other forms of totemism are derived. "when several women had, one after the other, felt the first premonitions of maternity at the same spot and under the same circumstances, the place would come to be regarded as haunted by spirits of a peculiar sort; and so the whole country might in time be dotted over with totem centres and distributed into totem districts."[ ] this is how the local totemism of the arunta originated. in order that the totems may subsequently be detached from their territorial base, it is sufficient to think that the ancestral souls, instead of remaining immutably fixed to a determined spot, are able to move freely over the surface of the territory and that in their voyages they follow the men and women of the same totem as themselves. in this way, a woman may be impregnated by her own totem or that of her husband, though residing in a different totemic district. according to whether it is believed that it is the ancestor of the husband or of the wife who thus follow the family about, seeking occasions to reincarnate themselves, the totem of the child will be that of his father or mother. in fact, it is in just this way that the guanji and umbaia on the one hand, and the urabunna on the other, explain their systems of filiation. but this theory, like that of tylor, rests upon a begging of the question. if he is to imagine that human souls are the souls of animals or plants, one must believe beforehand that men take either from the animal or vegetable world whatever is most essential in them. now this belief is one of those at the foundation of totemism. to state it as something evident is therefore to take for granted that which is to be explained. moreover, from this point of view, the religious character of the totem is entirely inexplicable, for the vague belief in an obscure kinship between the man and the animal is not enough to found a cult. this confusion of distinct kingdoms could never result in dividing the world into sacred and profane. it is true that, being consistent with himself, frazer refuses to admit that totemism is a religion, under the pretext that he finds in it neither spiritual beings, nor prayers, nor invocations, nor offerings, etc. according to him, it is only a system of magic, by which he means a sort of crude and erroneous science, a first effort to discover the laws of things.[ ] but we know how inexact this conception, both of magic and of religion, is. we have a religion as soon as the sacred is distinguished from the profane, and we have seen that totemism is a vast system of sacred things. if we are to explain it, we must therefore show how it happened that these things were stamped with this character.[ ] but he does not even raise this problem. but this system is completely overthrown by the fact that the postulate upon which it rests can no longer be sustained. the whole argument of frazer supposes that the local totemism of the arunta is the most primitive we know, and especially that it is clearly prior to hereditary totemism, either in the paternal or the maternal line. now as soon as the facts contained in the first volume of spencer and gillen were at our disposal, we were able to conjecture that there had been a time in the history of the arunta people when the totems, instead of being attached to localities, were transmitted hereditarily from mother to child.[ ] this conjecture is definitely proved by the new facts discovered by strehlow,[ ] which only confirm the previous observations of schulze.[ ] in fact, both of these authors tell us that even now, in addition to his local totem, each arunta has another which is completely independent of all geographical conditions, and which belongs to him as a birthright: it is his mother's. this second totem, just like the first, is considered a powerful friend and protector by the natives, which looks after their food, warns them of possible dangers, etc. they have the right of taking part in its cult. when they are buried, the corpse is laid so that the face is turned towards the region of the maternal totemic centre. so after a fashion this centre is also that of the deceased. in fact it is given the name _tmara altjira_, which is translated: camp of the totem which is associated with me. so it is certain that among the arunta, hereditary totemism in the uterine line is not later than local totemism, but, on the contrary, must have preceded it. for to-day, the maternal totem has only an accessory and supplementary rôle; it is a second totem, which explains how it was able to escape observation as attentive and careful as that of spencer and gillen. but in order that it should be able to retain this secondary place, being employed along with the local totem, there must have been a time when it held the primary place in the religious life. it is, in part, a fallen totem, but one recalling an epoch when the totemic organization of the arunta was very different from what it is to-day. so the whole superstructure of frazer's system is undermined at its foundation.[ ] iv although andrew lang has actively contested this theory of frazer's, the one he proposes himself in his later works,[ ] resembles it on more than one point. like frazer, he makes totemism consist in the belief in a sort of consubstantiality of the man and the animal. but he explains it differently. he derives it entirely from the fact that the totem is a name. as soon as human groups were founded,[ ] each one felt the need of distinguishing between the neighbouring groups with which it came into contact and, with this end in view, it gave them different names. the names were preferably chosen from the surrounding flora and fauna because animals and plants can easily be designated by movements or represented by drawings.[ ] the more or less precise resemblances which men may have with such and such objects determined the way in which these collective denominations were distributed among the groups.[ ] now, it is a well-known fact that "to the early mind names, and the things known by names, are in a mystic and transcendental connection of _rapport_."[ ] for example, the name of an individual is not considered as a simple word or conventional sign, but as an essential part of the individual himself. so if it were the name of an animal, the man would have to believe that he himself had the most characteristic attributes of this same animal. this theory would become better and better accredited as the historic origins of these denominations became more remote and were effaced from the memory. myths arose to make this strange ambiguity of human nature more easily representable in the mind. to explain this, they imagined that the animal was the ancestor of the men, or else that the two were descended from a common ancestor. thus came the conception of bonds of kinship uniting each clan to the animal species whose name it bore. with the origins of this fabulous kinship once explained, it seems to our author that totemism no longer contains a mystery. but whence comes the religious character of the totemic beliefs and practices? for the fact that a man considers himself an animal of a certain species does not explain why he attributes marvellous powers to this species, and especially why he renders a cult to the images symbolizing it.--to this question lang gives the same response as frazer: he denies that totemism is a religion. "i find in australia," he says, "no example of religious practices such as praying to, nourishing or burying the totem."[ ] it was only at a later epoch, when it was already established, that totemism was drawn into and surrounded by a system of conceptions properly called religious. according to a remark of howitt,[ ] when the natives undertake the explanation of the totemic institutions, they do not attribute them to the totems themselves nor to a man, but to some supernatural being such as bunjil or baiame. "accepting this evidence," says lang, "one source of the 'religious' character of totemism is at once revealed. the totemist obeys the decree of bunjil, or baiame, as the cretans obeyed the divine decrees given by zeus to minos." now according to lang the idea of these great divinities arose outside of the totemic system; so this is not a religion in itself; it has merely been given a religious colouring by contact with a genuine religion. but these very myths contradict lang's conception of totemism. if the australians had regarded totemism as something human and profane, it would never have occurred to them to make a divine institution out of it. if, on the other hand, they have felt the need of connecting it with a divinity, it is because they have seen a sacred character in it. so these mythological interpretations prove the religious nature of totemism, but do not explain it. moreover, lang himself recognizes that this solution is not sufficient. he realizes that totemic things are treated with a religious respect;[ ] that especially the blood of an animal, as well as that of a man, is the object of numerous interdictions, or, as he says, taboos which this comparatively late mythology cannot explain.[ ] then where do they come from? here are the words with which lang answers this question: "as soon as the animal-named groups evolved the universally diffused beliefs about the _wakan_ or _mana_, or mystically sacred quality of the blood as the life, they would also develop the various taboos."[ ] the words _wakan_ and _mana_, as we shall see in the following chapter, involve the very idea of _sacredness_ itself; the one is taken from the language of the sioux, the other from that of the melanesian peoples. to explain the sacred character of totemic things by postulating this characteristic, is to answer the question by the question. what we must find out is whence this idea of _wakan_ comes and how it comes to be applied to the totem and all that is derived from it. as long as these two questions remain unanswered, nothing is explained. v we have now passed in review all the principal explanations which have been given for totemic beliefs,[ ] leaving to each of them its own individuality. but now that this examination is finished, we may state one criticism which addresses itself to all these systems alike. if we stick to the letter of the formulæ, it seems that these may be arranged in two groups. some (frazer, lang) deny the religious character of totemism; in reality, that amounts to denying the facts. others recognize this, but think that they can explain it by deriving it from an anterior religion out of which totemism developed. but as a matter of fact, this distinction is only apparent: the first group is contained within the second. neither frazer nor lang have been able to maintain their principle systematically and explain totemism as if it were not a religion. by the very force of facts, they have been compelled to slip ideas of a religious nature into their explanations. we have just seen how lang calls in the idea of sacredness, which is the cardinal idea of all religion. frazer, on his side, in each of the theories which he has successively proposed, appeals openly to the idea of souls or spirits; for according to him, totemism came from the fact that men thought they could deposit their souls in safety in some external object, or else that they attributed conception to a sort of spiritual fecundation of which a spirit was the agent. now a soul, and still more, a spirit, are sacred things and the object of rites; so the ideas expressing them are essentially religious and it is therefore in vain that frazer makes totemism a mere system of magic, for he succeeds in explaining it only in the terms of another religion. we have already pointed out the insufficiencies of animism and naturism; so one may not have recourse to them, as tylor and jevons do, without exposing himself to these same objections. yet neither frazer nor lang seems to dream of the possibility of another hypothesis.[ ] on the other hand, we know that totemism is tightly bound up with the most primitive social system which we know, and in all probability, of which we can conceive. to suppose that it has developed out of another religion, differing from it only in degree, is to leave the data of observation and enter into the domain of arbitrary and unverifiable conjectures. if we wish to remain in harmony with the results we have already obtained, it is necessary that while affirming the religious nature of totemism, we abstain from deriving it from another different religion. there can be no hope of assigning it non-religious ideas as its cause. but among the representations entering into the conditions from which it results, there may be some which directly suggest a religious nature of themselves. these are the ones we must look for. chapter vi origins of these beliefs--_continued_ _the notion of the totemic principle, or mana, and the idea of force_ since individual totemism is later than the totemism of the clan, and even seems to be derived from it, it is to this latter form that we must turn first of all. but as the analysis which we have just made of it has resolved it into a multiplicity of beliefs which may appear quite heterogeneous, before going farther, we must seek to learn what makes its unity. i we have seen that totemism places the figured representations of the totem in the first rank of the things it considers sacred; next come the animals or vegetables whose name the clan bears, and finally the members of the clan. since all these things are sacred in the same way, though to different degrees, their religious character can be due to none of the special attributes distinguishing them from each other. if a certain species of animal or vegetable is the object of a reverential fear, this is not because of its special properties, for the human members of the clan enjoy this same privilege, though to a slightly inferior degree, while the mere image of this same plant or animal inspires an even more pronounced respect. the similar sentiments inspired by these different sorts of things in the mind of the believer, which give them their sacred character, can evidently come only from some common principle partaken of alike by the totemic emblems, the men of the clan and the individuals of the species serving as totem. in reality, it is to this common principle that the cult is addressed. in other words totemism is the religion, not of such and such animals or men or images, but of an anonymous and impersonal force, found in each of these beings but not to be confounded with any of them. no one possesses it entirely and all participate in it. it is so completely independent of the particular subjects in whom it incarnates itself, that it precedes them and survives them. individuals die, generations pass and are replaced by others; but this force always remains actual, living and the same. it animates the generations of to-day as it animated those of yesterday and as it will animate those of to-morrow. taking the words in a large sense, we may say that it is the god adored by each totemic cult. yet it is an impersonal god, without name or history, immanent in the world and diffused in an innumerable multitude of things. but even now we have only an imperfect idea of the real ubiquity of this quasi-divine entity. it is not merely found in the whole totemic species, the whole clan and all the objects symbolizing the totem: the circle of its action extends beyond that. in fact, we have seen that in addition to the eminently holy things, all those attributed to the clan as dependencies of the principal totem have this same character to a certain degree. they also have something religious about them, for some are protected by interdictions, while others have determined functions in the ceremonies of the cult. their religiousness does not differ in kind from that of the totem under which they are classified; it must therefore be derived from the same source. so it is because the totemic god--to use again the metaphorical expression which we have just employed--is in them, just as it is in the species serving as totem and in the men of the clan. we may see how much it differs from the beings in which it resides from the fact that it is the soul of so many different beings. but the australian does not represent this impersonal force in an abstract form. under the influence of causes which we must seek, he has been led to conceive it under the form of an animal or vegetable species, or, in a word, of a visible object this is what the totem really consists in: it is only the material form under which the imagination represents this immaterial substance, this energy diffused through all sorts of heterogeneous things, which alone is the real object of the cult. we are now in a better condition for understanding what the native means when he says that the men of the crow phratry, for example, are crows. he does not exactly mean to say that they are crows in the vulgar and empiric sense of the term, but that the same principle is found in all of them, which is their most essential characteristic, which they have in common with the animals of the same name and which is thought of under the external form of a crow. thus the universe, as totemism conceives it, is filled and animated by a certain number of forces which the imagination represents in forms taken, with only a few exceptions, from the animal or vegetable kingdoms: there are as many of them as there are clans in the tribe, and each of them is also found in certain categories of things, of which it is the essence and vital principle. when we say that these principles are forces, we do not take the word in a metaphorical sense; they act just like veritable forces. in one sense, they are even material forces which mechanically engender physical effects. does an individual come in contact with them without having taken proper precautions? he receives a shock which might be compared to the effect of an electric discharge. sometimes they seem to conceive of these as a sort of fluid escaping by points.[ ] if they are introduced into an organism not made to receive them, they produce sickness and death by a wholly automatic action.[ ] outside of men, they play the rôle of vital principle; it is by acting on them, we shall see,[ ] that the reproduction of the species is assured. it is upon them that the universal life reposes. but in addition to this physical aspect, they also have a moral character. when someone asks a native why he observes his rites, he replies that his ancestors always have observed them, and he ought to follow their example.[ ] so if he acts in a certain way towards the totemic beings, it is not only because the forces resident in them are physically redoubtable, but because he feels himself morally obliged to act thus; he has the feeling that he is obeying an imperative, that he is fulfilling a duty. for these sacred beings, he has not merely fear, but also respect. moreover, the totem is the source of the moral life of the clan. all the beings partaking of the same totemic principle consider that owing to this very fact, they are morally bound to one another; they have definite duties of assistance, vendetta, etc., towards each other; and it is these duties which constitute kinship. so while the totemic principle is a totemic force, it is also a moral power; so we shall see how it easily transforms itself into a divinity properly so-called. moreover, there is nothing here which is special to totemism. even in the most advanced religions, there is scarcely a god who has not kept something of this ambiguity and whose functions are not at once cosmic and moral. at the same time that it is a spiritual discipline, every religion is also a means enabling men to face the world with greater confidence. even for the christian, is not god the father the guardian of the physical order as well as the legislator and the judge of human conduct? ii perhaps someone will ask whether, in interpreting totemism thus, we do not endow the native with ideas surpassing the limits of his intellect. of course we are not prepared to affirm that he represents these forces with the relative clarity which we have been able to give to them in our analysis. we are able to show quite clearly that this notion is implied by the whole system of beliefs which it dominates; but we are unable to say how far it is conscious and how far, on the contrary, it is only implicit and confusedly felt. there is no way of determining just what degree of clarity an idea like this may have in obscure minds. but it is well shown, in any case, that this in no way surpasses the capacities of the primitive mind, and on the contrary, the results at which we have just arrived are confirmed by the fact that either in the societies closely related to these australian tribes, or even in these tribes themselves, we find, in an explicit form, conceptions which differ from the preceding only by shades and degrees. the native religions of samoa have certainly passed the totemic phase. real gods are found there, who have their own names, and, to a certain degree, their own personal physiognomy. yet the traces of totemism are hardly contestable. in fact, each god is attached to a group, either local or domestic, just as the totem is to its clan.[ ] then, each of these gods is thought of as immanent in a special species of animal. but this does not mean that he resides in one subject in particular: he is immanent in all at once; he is diffused in the species as a whole. when an animal dies, the men of the group who venerate it weep for it and render pious duties to it, because a god inhabits it; but the god is not dead. he is eternal, like the species. he is not even confused with the present generation; he has already been the soul of the preceding one, as he will be the soul of the one which is to follow.[ ] so he has all the characteristics of the totemic principle. he is the totemic principle, re-clothed in a slightly personal form by the imagination. but still, we must not exaggerate a personality which is hardly reconcilable with this diffusion and ubiquity. if its contours were clearly defined, it could never spread out thus and enter into such a multitude of things. however, it is incontestable that in this case the idea of an impersonal religious force is beginning to change; but there are other cases where it is affirmed in all its abstract purity and even reaches a higher degree of generality than in australia. if the different totemic principles to which the various clans of a single tribe address themselves are distinct from each other, they are, none the less, comparable to each other at bottom; for all play the same rôle in their respective spheres. there are societies which have had the feeling of this unity with nature and have consequently advanced to the idea of a unique religious force of which all other sacred principles are only expressions and which makes the unity of the universe. as these societies are still thoroughly impregnated with totemism, and as they remain entangled in a social organization identical with that of the australians, we may say that totemism contained this idea in potentiality. this can be observed in a large number of american tribes, especially those belonging to the great sioux family: the omaha, ponka, kansas, osage, assiniboin, dakota, iowa, winnebago, mandan, hidatsa, etc. many of these are still organized in clans, as the omaha[ ] and the iowa;[ ] others were so not long since, and, says dorsey, it is still possible to find among them "all the foundations of the totemic system, just as in the other societies of the sioux."[ ] now among these peoples, above all the particular deities to whom men render a cult, there is a pre-eminent power to which all the others have the relation of derived forms, and which is called _wakan_.[ ] owing to the preponderating place thus assigned to this principle in the siouan pantheon, it is sometimes regarded as a sort of sovereign god, or a jupiter or jahveh, and travellers have frequently translated wakan by "great spirit." this is misrepresenting its real nature gravely. the wakan is in no way a personal being; the natives do not represent it in a determined form. according to an observer cited by dorsey, "they say that they have never seen the wakanda, so they cannot pretend to personify it."[ ] it is not even possible to define it by determined attributes and characteristics. "no word," says riggs, "can explain the meaning of this term among the dakota. it embraces all mystery, all secret power, all divinity."[ ] all the beings which the dakota reveres, "the earth, the four winds, the sun, the moon and the stars, are manifestations of this mysterious life and power" which enters into all. sometimes it is represented in the form of a wind, as a breath having its seat in the four cardinal points and moving everything:[ ] sometimes it is a voice heard in the crashing of the thunder;[ ] the sun, moon and stars are wakan.[ ] but no enumeration could exhaust this infinitely complex idea. it is not a definite and definable power, the power of doing this or that; it is power in an absolute sense, with no epithet or determination of any sort. the various divine powers are only particular manifestations and personifications of it; each of them is this power seen under one of its numerous aspects.[ ] it is this which made one observer say, "he is a protean god; he is supposed to appear to different persons in different forms."[ ] nor are the gods the only beings animated by it: it is the principle of all that lives or acts or moves. "all life is wakan. so also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds, or in passive endurance, as the boulder by the wayside."[ ] among the iroquois, whose social organization has an even more pronouncedly totemic character, this, same idea is found again; the word _orenda_ which expresses it is the exact equivalent of the wakan of the sioux. "the savage man," says hewitt, "conceived the diverse bodies collectively constituting his environment to possess inherently mystic potence ... (whether they be) the rocks, the waters, the tides, the plants and the trees, the animals and man, the wind and the storms, the clouds and the thunders and the lightnings,"[ ] etc. "this potence is held to be the property of all things ... and by the inchoate mentation of man is regarded as the efficient cause of all phenomena, all the activities of his environment."[ ] a sorcerer or shaman has orenda, but as much would be said of a man succeeding in his enterprises. at bottom, there is nothing in the world which does not have its quota of orenda; but the quantities vary. there are some beings, either men or things, which are favoured; there are others which are relatively disinherited, and the universal life consists in the struggles of these orenda of unequal intensity. the more intense conquer the weaker. is one man more successful than his companions in the hunt or at war? it is because he has more orenda. if an animal escapes from a hunter who is pursuing it, it is because the orenda of the former was the more powerful. this same idea is found among the shoshone under the name of _pokunt_, among the algonquin under the name of _manitou_,[ ] of _nauala_ among the kwakiutl,[ ] of _yek_ among the tlinkit[ ] and of _sgâna_ among the haida.[ ] but it is not peculiar to the indians of north america; it is in melanesia that it was studied for the first time. it is true that in certain of the islands of melanesia, social organization is no longer on a totemic basis; but in all, totemism is still visible,[ ] in spite of what codrington has said about it. now among these peoples, we find, under the name of _mana_, an idea which is the exact equivalent of the wakan of the sioux and the orenda of the iroquois. the definition given by codrington is as follows: "there is a belief in a force altogether distinct from physical power, which acts in all ways for good and evil; and which it is of the greatest advantage to possess or control. this is mana. i think i know what our people mean by it. ... it is a power or influence, not physical and in a way supernatural; but it shows itself in physical force, or in any kind of power or excellence which a man possesses. this mana is not fixed in anything, and can be conveyed in almost anything. ... all melanesian religion consists, in fact, in getting this mana for one's self, or getting it used for one's benefit."[ ] is this not the same notion of an anonymous and diffused force, the germs of which we recently found in the totemism of australia? here is the same impersonality; for, as codrington says, we must be careful not to regard it as a sort of supreme being; any such idea is "absolutely foreign" to melanesian thought. here is the same ubiquity; the mana is located nowhere definitely and it is everywhere. all forms of life and all the effects of the action, either of men or of living beings or of simple minerals, are attributed to its influence.[ ] therefore there is no undue temerity in attributing to the australians an idea such as the one we have discovered in our analysis of totemic beliefs, for we find it again, but abstracted and generalized to a higher degree, at the basis of other religions whose roots go back into a system like the australian one and which visibly bear the mark of this. the two conceptions are obviously related; they differ only in degree, while the mana is diffused into the whole universe, what we call the god or, to speak more precisely, the totemic principle, is localized in the more limited circle of the beings and things of certain species. it is mana, but a little more specialized; yet as a matter of fact, this specialization is quite relative. moreover, there is one case where this connection is made especially apparent. among the omaha, there are totems of all sorts, both individual and collective;[ ] but both are only particular forms of wakan. "the foundation of the indian's faith in the efficacy of the totem," says miss fletcher, "rested upon his belief concerning nature and life. this conception was complex and involved two prominent ideas: first, that all things, animate and inanimate, were permeated by a common life; and second, that this life could not be broken, but was continuous."[ ] now this common principle of life is the wakan. the totem is the means by which an individual is put into relations with this source of energy; if the totem has any powers, it is because it incarnates the wakan. if a man who has violated the interdictions protecting his totem is struck by sickness or death, it is because this mysterious force against which he has thus set himself, that is, the wakan, reacts against him with a force proportionate to the shock received.[ ] also, just as the totem is wakan, so the wakan, in its turn, sometimes shows its totemic origin by the way in which it is conceived. in fact, say says that among the dakota the "wahconda" is manifested sometimes in the form of a grey bear, sometimes of a bison, a beaver or some other animal.[ ] undoubtedly, this formula cannot be accepted without reserve. the wakan repels all personification and consequently it is hardly probable that it has ever been thought of in its abstract generality with the aid of such definite symbols. but say's remark is probably applicable to the particular forms which it takes in specializing itself in the concrete reality of life. now if there is a possibility that there was a time when these specializations of the wakan bore witness to such an affinity for an animal form, that would be one more proof of the close bonds uniting this conception to the totemic beliefs.[ ] it is possible to explain why this idea has been unable to reach the same degree of abstraction in australia as in the more advanced societies. this is not merely due to the insufficient aptitude of the australian for abstracting and generalizing: before all, it is the nature of the social environment which has imposed this particularism. in fact, as long as totemism remains at the basis of the cultural organization, the clan keeps an autonomy in the religious society which, though not absolute, is always very marked. of course we can say that in one sense each totemic group is only a chapel of the tribal church; but it is a chapel enjoying a large independence. the cult celebrated there, though not a self-sufficing whole, has only external relations with the others; they interchange without intermingling; the totem of the clan is fully sacred only for this clan. consequently the groups of things attributed to each clan, which are a part of it in the same way the men are, have the same individuality and autonomy. each of them is represented as irreducible into similar groups, as separated from them by a break of continuity, and as constituting a distinct realm. under these circumstances, it would occur to no one that these heterogeneous worlds were different manifestations of one and the same fundamental force; on the contrary, one might suppose that each of them corresponded to an organically different mana whose action could not extend beyond the clan and the circle of things attributed to it. the idea of a single and universal mana could be born only at the moment when the tribal religion developed above that of the clans and absorbed them more or less completely. it is along with the feeling of the tribal unity that the feeling of the substantial unity of the world awakens. as we shall presently show,[ ] it is true that the australian societies are already acquainted with a cult that is common to the tribe as a whole. but if this cult represents the highest form of the australian religions, it has not succeeded in touching and modifying the principles upon which they repose: totemism is essentially a federative religion which cannot go beyond a certain degree of centralization without ceasing to be itself. one characteristic fact clearly shows the fundamental reason which has kept the idea of the mana so specialized in australia. the real religious forces, those thought of in the form of totems, are not the only ones with which the australian feels himself obliged to reckon. there are also some over which magicians have particular control. while the former are theoretically considered healthful and beneficent, the second have it as their especial function to cause sickness and death. and at the same time that they differ so greatly in the nature of their effects, they are contrasted also by the relations which they sustain with the social organization. a totem is always a matter of the clan; but on the contrary, magic is a tribal and even an intertribal institution. magic forces do not belong to any special portion of the tribe in particular. all that is needed to make use of them is the possession of efficient recipes. likewise, everybody is liable to feel their effects and consequently should try to protect himself against them. these are vague forces, specially attached to no determined social division, and even able to spread their action beyond the tribe. now it is a remarkable fact that among the arunta and loritja, they are conceived as simple aspects and particular forms of a unique force, called in arunta _arungquiltha_ or _arúnkulta_.[ ] "this is a term," say spencer and gillen, "of somewhat vague import, but always associated at bottom with the possession of _supernatural evil power_.... the name is applied indiscriminately to the evil influence or to the object in which it is, for the time being, or permanently, resident."[ ] "by arúnkulta," says strehlow, "the native signifies a force which suddenly stops life and brings death to all who come in contact with it."[ ] this name is given to the bones and pieces of wood from which evil-working charms are derived, and also to poisonous animals and vegetables. so it may accurately be called a harmful mana. grey mentions an absolutely identical notion among the tribes he observed.[ ] thus among these different peoples, while the properly religious forces do not succeed in avoiding a certain heterogeneity, magic forces are thought of as being all of the same nature; the mind represents them in their generic unity. this is because they rise above the social organization and its divisions and subdivisions, and move in a homogeneous and continuous space where they meet with nothing to differentiate them. the others, on the contrary, being localized in definite and distinct social forms, are diversified and particularized in the image of the environment in which they are situated. from this we can see how thoroughly the idea of an impersonal religious force enters into the meaning and spirit of australian totemism, for it disengages itself with clarity as soon as no contrary cause opposes it. it is true that the arungquiltha is purely a magic force. but between religious forces and magic forces there is no difference of kind:[ ] sometimes they are even designated by the same name: in melanesia, the magicians and charms have mana just like the agents and rites of the regular cult;[ ] the word oranda is employed in the same way by the iroquois.[ ] so we can legitimately infer the nature of the one from that of the other.[ ] iii the results to which the above analysis has led us do not concern the history of totemism only, but also the genesis of religious thought in general. under the pretext that in early times men were dominated by their senses and the representations of their senses, it has frequently been held that they commenced by representing the divine in the concrete form of definite and personal beings. the facts do not confirm this presumption. we have just described a systematically united scheme of religious beliefs which we have good reason to regard as very primitive, yet we have met with no personalities of this sort. the real totemic cult is addressed neither to certain determined animals nor to certain vegetables nor even to an animal or vegetable species, but to a vague power spread through these things.[ ] even in the most advanced religions which have developed out of totemism, such as those which we find among the north american indians, this idea, instead of being effaced, becomes more conscious of itself; it is declared with a clarity it did not have before, while at the same time, it attains a higher generality. it is this which dominates the entire religious system. this is the original matter out of which have been constructed those beings of every sort which the religions of all times have consecrated and adored. the spirits, demons, genii and gods of every sort are only the concrete forms taken by this energy, or "potentiality," as hewitt calls it,[ ] in individualizing itself, in fixing itself upon a certain determined object or point in space, or in centring around an ideal and legendary being, though one conceived as real by the popular imagination. a dakota questioned by miss fletcher expressed this essential consubstantiability of all sacred things in language that is full of relief. "every thing as it moves, now and then, here and there, makes stops. the bird as it flies stops in one place to make its nest, and in another to rest in its flight. a man when he goes forth stops when he wills. so the god has stopped. the sun, which is so bright and beautiful, is one place where he has stopped. the trees, the animals, are where he has stopped, and the indian thinks of these places and sends his prayers to reach the place where the god has stopped and to win help and a blessing."[ ] in other words, the wakan (for this is what he was talking about) comes and goes through the world, and sacred things are the points upon which it alights. here we are, for once, just as far from naturism as from animism. if the sun, the moon and the stars have been adored, they have not owed this honour to their intrinsic nature or their distinctive properties, but to the fact that they are thought to participate in this force which alone is able to give things a sacred character, and which is also found in a multitude of other beings, even the smallest. if the souls of the dead have been the object of rites, it is not because they are believed to be made out of some fluid and impalpable substance, nor is it because they resemble the shadow cast by a body or its reflection on a surface of water. lightness and fluidity are not enough to confer sanctity; they have been invested with this dignity only in so far as they contained within them something of this same force, the source of all religiosity. we are now in a better condition to understand why it has been impossible to define religion by the idea of mythical personalities, gods or spirits; it is because this way of representing religious things is in no way inherent in their nature. what we find at the origin and basis of religious thought are not determined and distinct objects and beings possessing a sacred character of themselves; they are indefinite powers, anonymous forces, more or less numerous in different societies, and sometimes even reduced to a unity, and whose impersonality is strictly comparable to that of the physical forces whose manifestations the sciences of nature study. as for particular sacred things, they are only individualized forms of this essential principle. so it is not surprising that even in the religions where there are avowed divinities, there are rites having an efficient virtue in themselves, independently of all divine intervention. it is because this force may be attached to words that are pronounced or movements that are made just as well as to corporal substances; the voice or the movements may serve as its vehicle, and it may produce its effects through their intermediacy, without the aid of any god or spirit. even should it happen to concentrate itself especially in a rite, this will become a creator of divinities from that very fact.[ ] this is why there is scarcely a divine personality who does not retain some impersonality. those who represent it most clearly in a concrete and visible form, think of it, at the same time, as an abstract power which cannot be defined except by its own efficacy, or as a force spread out in space and which is contained, at least in part, in each of its effects. it is the power of producing rain or wind, crops or the light of day; zeus is in each of the raindrops which falls, just as ceres is in each of the sheaves of the harvest.[ ] as a general rule, in fact, this efficacy is so imperfectly determined that the believer is able to form only a very vague notion of it. moreover, it is this indecision which has made possible these syncretisms and duplications in the course of which gods are broken up, dismembered and confused in every way. perhaps there is not a single religion in which the original mana, whether unique or multiform, has been resolved entirely into a clearly defined number of beings who are distinct and separate from each other; each of them always retains a touch of impersonality, as it were, which enables it to enter into new combinations, not as the result of a simple survival but because it is the nature of religious forces to be unable to individualize themselves completely. this conception, to which we have been led by the study of totemism alone, has the additional recommendation that many scholars have recently adopted it quite independently of one another, as a conclusion from very different sorts of studies. there is a tendency towards a spontaneous agreement on this point which should be remarked, for it is a presumption of objectivity. as early as , we pointed out the impossibility of making the idea of a mythical personality enter into the definition of religious phenomena.[ ] in , marrett showed the existence of a religious phase which he called _preanimistic_, in which the rites are addressed to impersonal forces like the melanesian mana and the wakan of the omaha and dakota.[ ] however, marrett did not go so far as to maintain that always and in every case the idea of a spirit is logically and chronologically posterior to that of mana and is derived from it; he even seemed disposed to admit that it has sometimes appeared independently and consequently, that religious thought flows from a double source.[ ] on the other hand, he conceived the mana as an inherent property of things, as an element of their appearance; for, according to him, this is simply the character which we attribute to everything out of the ordinary, and which inspires a sentiment of fear or admiration.[ ] this practically amounts to a return to the naturist theory.[ ] a little later, mm. hubert and mauss, while attempting to formulate a general theory of magic, established the fact that magic as a whole reposes on the notion of mana.[ ] the close kinship of the magic rite and the religious rite being known, it was even possible to foresee that the same theory should be applied to religion. this was sustained by preuss in a series of articles in the _globus_[ ] that same year. relying chiefly upon facts taken from american civilizations, preuss set out to prove that the ideas of the soul and spirit were not developed until after those of power and impersonal force, that the former are only a transformation of the latter, and that up to a relatively late date they retain the marks of their original impersonality. in fact, he shows that even in the advanced religions, they are represented in the form of vague emanations disengaging themselves automatically from the things in which they reside, and even tending to escape by all the ways that are open to them: the mouth, the nose and all the other openings of the body, the breath, the look, the word, etc. at the same time, preuss pointed out their protean forms and their extreme plasticity which permits them to give themselves successively and almost concurrently to the most varied uses.[ ] it is true that if we stick to the letter of the terminology employed by this author, we may believe that for him the forces have a magic, not a religious nature: he calls them charms (_zauber, zauberkräfte_). but it is evident that in expressing himself thus, he does not intend to put them outside of religion; for it is in the essentially religious rites that he shows their action, for example, in the great mexican ceremonies.[ ] if he uses these expressions, it is undoubtedly because he knows no others which mark better the impersonality of these forces and the sort of mechanism with which they operate. thus this same idea tends to come to light on every side.[ ] the impression becomes more and more prevalent that even the most elementary mythological constructions are secondary products[ ] which cover over a system of beliefs, at once simpler and more obscure, vaguer and more essential, which form the solid foundations upon which the religious systems are built. it is this primitive foundation which our analysis of totemism has enabled us to reach. the various writers whose studies we have just mentioned arrived at this conclusion only through facts taken from very diverse religions, some of which even correspond to a civilization that is already far advanced: such is the case, for example, with the mexican religions, of which preuss makes great use. so it might be asked if this theory is equally applicable to the most simple religions. but since it is impossible to go lower than totemism, we are not exposed to this risk of error, and at the same time, we have an opportunity of finding the initial notion from which the ideas of wakan and mana are derived: this is the notion of the totemic principle.[ ] iv but this notion is not only of primary importance because of the rôle it has played in the development of religious ideas; it also has a lay aspect in which it is of interest for the history of scientific thought. it is the first form of the idea of force. in fact, the wakan plays the same rôle in the world, as the sioux conceives it, as the one played by the forces with which science explains the diverse phenomena of nature. this, however, does not mean that it is thought of as an exclusively physical energy; on the contrary, in the next chapter we shall see that the elements going to make up this idea are taken from the most diverse realms. but this very compositeness of its nature enables it to be utilized as a universal principle of explanation. it is from it that all life comes;[ ] "all life is wakan"; and by this word life, we must understand everything that acts and reacts, that moves and is moved, in both the mineral and biological kingdoms. the wakan is the cause of all the movements which take place in the universe. we have even seen that the orenda of the iroquois is "the efficient cause of all the phenomena and all the activities which are manifested around men." it is a power "inherent in all bodies and all things."[ ] it is the orenda which makes the wind blow, the sun lighten and heat the earth, or animals reproduce and which makes men strong, clever and intelligent. when the iroquois says that the life of all nature is the product of the conflicts aroused between the unequally intense orenda of the different beings, he only expresses, in his own language, this modern idea that the world is a system of forces limiting and containing each other and making an equilibrium. the melanesian attributes this same general efficacy to his mana. it is owing to his mana that a man succeeds in hunting or fighting, that gardens give a good return or that flocks prosper. if an arrow strikes its mark, it is because it is charged with mana; it is the same cause which makes a net catch fish well, or a canoe ride well on the sea,[ ] etc. it is true that if certain phrases of codrington are taken literally, mana should be the cause to which is attributed "everything which is beyond the ordinary power of men, outside the common processes of nature."[ ] but from the very examples which he cites, it is quite evident that the sphere of the mana is really much more extended. in reality, it serves to explain usual and everyday phenomena; there is nothing superhuman or supernatural in the fact that a ship sails or a hunter catches game, etc. however, among these events of daily life, there are some so insignificant and familiar that they pass unperceived: they are not noticed and consequently no need is felt of explaining them. the concept of mana is applied only to those that are important enough to cause reflection, and to awaken a minimum of interest and curiosity; but they are not marvellous for all that. and what is true of the mana as well as the orenda and wakan, may be said equally well of the totemic principle. it is through this that the life of the men of the clan and the animals or plants of the totemic species, as well as all the things which are classified under the totem and partake of its nature, is manifested. so the idea of force is of religious origin. it is from religion that it has been borrowed, first by philosophy, then by the sciences. this has already been foreseen by comte and this is why he made metaphysics the heir of "theology." but he concluded from this that the idea of force is destined to disappear from science; for, owing to its mystic origins, he refused it all objective value. but we are going to show that, on the contrary, religious forces are real, howsoever imperfect the symbols may be, by the aid of which they are thought of. from this it will follow that the same is true of the concept of force in general. chapter vii origins of these beliefs--_end_ _origin of the idea of the totemic principle or mana_ the proposition established in the preceding chapter determines the terms in which the problem of the origins of totemism should be posed. since totemism is everywhere dominated by the idea of a quasi-divine principle, imminent in certain categories of men and things and thought of under the form of an animal or vegetable, the explanation of this religion is essentially the explanation of this belief; to arrive at this, we must seek to learn how men have been led to construct this idea and out of what materials they have constructed it. i it is obviously not out of the sensations which the things serving as totems are able to arouse in the mind; we have shown that these things are frequently insignificant. the lizard, the caterpillar, the rat, the ant, the frog, the turkey, the bream-fish, the plum-tree, the cockatoo, etc., to cite only those names which appear frequently in the lists of australian totems, are not of a nature to produce upon men these great and strong impressions which in a way resemble religious emotions and which impress a sacred character upon the objects they create. it is true that this is not the case with the stars and the great atmospheric phenomena, which have, on the contrary, all that is necessary to strike the imagination forcibly; but as a matter of fact, these serve only very exceptionally as totems. it is even probable that they were very slow in taking this office.[ ] so it is not the intrinsic nature of the thing whose name the clan bears that marked it out to become the object of a cult. also, if the sentiments which it inspired were really the determining cause of the totemic rites and beliefs, it would be the pre-eminently sacred thing; the animals or plants employed as totems would play an eminent part in the religious life. but we know that the centre of the cult is actually elsewhere. it is the figurative representations of this plant or animal and the totemic emblems and symbols of every sort, which have the greatest sanctity; so it is in them that is found the source of that religious nature, of which the real objects represented by these emblems receive only a reflection. thus the totem is before all a symbol, a material expression of something else.[ ] but of what? from the analysis to which we have been giving our attention, it is evident that it expresses and symbolizes two different sorts of things. in the first place, it is the outward and visible form of what we have called the totemic principle or god. but it is also the symbol of the determined society called the clan. it is its flag; it is the sign by which each clan distinguishes itself from the others, the visible mark of its personality, a mark borne by everything which is a part of the clan under any title whatsoever, men, beasts or things. so if it is at once the symbol of the god and of the society, is that not because the god and the society are only one? how could the emblem of the group have been able to become the figure of this quasi-divinity, if the group and the divinity were two distinct realities? the god of the clan, the totemic principle, can therefore be nothing else than the clan itself, personified and represented to the imagination under the visible form of the animal or vegetable which serves as totem. but how has this apotheosis been possible, and how did it happen to take place in this fashion? ii in a general way, it is unquestionable that a society has all that is necessary to arouse the sensation of the divine in minds, merely by the power that it has over them; for to its members it is what a god is to his worshippers. in fact, a god is, first of all, a being whom men think of as superior to themselves, and upon whom they feel that they depend. whether it be a conscious personality, such as zeus or jahveh, or merely abstract forces such as those in play in totemism, the worshipper, in the one case as in the other, believes himself held to certain manners of acting which are imposed upon him by the nature of the sacred principle with which he feels that he is in communion. now society also gives us the sensation of a perpetual dependence. since it has a nature which is peculiar to itself and different from our individual nature, it pursues ends which are likewise special to it; but, as it cannot attain them except through our intermediacy, it imperiously demands our aid. it requires that, forgetful of our own interests, we make ourselves its servitors, and it submits us to every sort of inconvenience, privation and sacrifice, without which social life would be impossible. it is because of this that at every instant we are obliged to submit ourselves to rules of conduct and of thought which we have neither made nor desired, and which are sometimes even contrary to our most fundamental inclinations and instincts. even if society were unable to obtain these concessions and sacrifices from us except by a material constraint, it might awaken in us only the idea of a physical force to which we must give way of necessity, instead of that of a moral power such as religions adore. but as a matter of fact, the empire which it holds over consciences is due much less to the physical supremacy of which it has the privilege than to the moral authority with which it is invested. if we yield to its orders, it is not merely because it is strong enough to triumph over our resistance; it is primarily because it is the object of a venerable respect. we say that an object, whether individual or collective, inspires respect when the representation expressing it in the mind is gifted with such a force that it automatically causes or inhibits actions, _without regard for any consideration relative to their useful or injurious effects_. when we obey somebody because of the moral authority which we recognize in him, we follow out his opinions, not because they seem wise, but because a certain sort of physical energy is imminent in the idea that we form of this person, which conquers our will and inclines it in the indicated direction. respect is the emotion which we experience when we feel this interior and wholly spiritual pressure operating upon us. then we are not determined by the advantages or inconveniences of the attitude which is prescribed or recommended to us; it is by the way in which we represent to ourselves the person recommending or prescribing it. this is why commands generally take a short, peremptory form leaving no place for hesitation; it is because, in so far as it is a command and goes by its own force, it excludes all idea of deliberation or calculation; it gets its efficacy from the intensity of the mental state in which it is placed. it is this intensity which creates what is called a moral ascendancy. now the ways of action to which society is strongly enough attached to impose them upon its members, are, by that very fact, marked with a distinctive sign provocative of respect. since they are elaborated in common, the vigour with which they have been thought of by each particular mind is retained in all the other minds, and reciprocally. the representations which express them within each of us have an intensity which no purely private states of consciousness could ever attain; for they have the strength of the innumerable individual representations which have served to form each of them. it is society who speaks through the mouths of those who affirm them in our presence; it is society whom we hear in hearing them; and the voice of all has an accent which that of one alone could never have.[ ] the very violence with which society reacts, by way of blame or material suppression, against every attempted dissidence, contributes to strengthening its empire by manifesting the common conviction through this burst of ardour.[ ] in a word, when something is the object of such a state of opinion, the representation which each individual has of it gains a power of action from its origins and the conditions in which it was born, which even those feel who do not submit themselves to it. it tends to repel the representations which contradict it, and it keeps them at a distance; on the other hand, it commands those acts which will realize it, and it does so, not by a material coercion or by the perspective of something of this sort, but by the simple radiation of the mental energy which it contains. it has an efficacy coming solely from its psychical properties, and it is by just this sign that moral authority is recognized. so opinion, primarily a social thing, is a source of authority, and it might even be asked whether all authority is not the daughter of opinion.[ ] it may be objected that science is often the antagonist of opinion, whose errors it combats and rectifies. but it cannot succeed in this task if it does not have sufficient authority, and it can obtain this authority only from opinion itself. if a people did not have faith in science, all the scientific demonstrations in the world would be without any influence whatsoever over their minds. even to-day, if science happened to resist a very strong current of public opinion, it would risk losing its credit there.[ ] since it is in spiritual ways that social pressure exercises itself, it could not fail to give men the idea that outside themselves there exist one or several powers, both moral and, at the same time, efficacious, upon which they depend. they must think of these powers, at least in part, as outside themselves, for these address them in a tone of command and sometimes even order them to do violence to their most natural inclinations. it is undoubtedly true that if they were able to see that these influences which they feel emanate from society, then the mythological system of interpretations would never be born. but social action follows ways that are too circuitous and obscure, and employs psychical mechanisms that are too complex to allow the ordinary observer to see whence it comes. as long as scientific analysis does not come to teach it to them, men know well that they are acted upon, but they do not know by whom. so they must invent by themselves the idea of these powers with which they feel themselves in connection, and from that, we are able to catch a glimpse of the way by which they were led to represent them under forms that are really foreign to their nature and to transfigure them by thought. but a god is not merely an authority upon whom we depend; it is a force upon which our strength relies. the man who has obeyed his god and who, for this reason, believes the god is with him, approaches the world with confidence and with the feeling of an increased energy. likewise, social action does not confine itself to demanding sacrifices, privations and efforts from us. for the collective force is not entirely outside of us; it does not act upon us wholly from without; but rather, since society cannot exist except in and through individual consciousnesses,[ ] this force must also penetrate us and organize itself within us; it thus becomes an integral part of our being and by that very fact this is elevated and magnified. there are occasions when this strengthening and vivifying action of society is especially apparent. in the midst of an assembly animated by a common passion, we become susceptible of acts and sentiments of which we are incapable when reduced to our own forces; and when the assembly is dissolved and when, finding ourselves alone again, we fall back to our ordinary level, we are then able to measure the height to which we have been raised above ourselves. history abounds in examples of this sort. it is enough to think of the night of the fourth of august, , when an assembly was suddenly led to an act of sacrifice and abnegation which each of its members had refused the day before, and at which they were all surprised the day after.[ ] this is why all parties, political, economic or confessional, are careful to have periodical reunions where their members may revivify their common faith by manifesting it in common. to strengthen those sentiments which, if left to themselves, would soon weaken, it is sufficient to bring those who hold them together and to put them into closer and more active relations with one another. this is the explanation of the particular attitude of a man speaking to a crowd, at least if he has succeeded in entering into communion with it. his language has a grandiloquence that would be ridiculous in ordinary circumstances; his gestures show a certain domination; his very thought is impatient of all rules, and easily falls into all sorts of excesses. it is because he feels within him an abnormal over-supply of force which overflows and tries to burst out from him; sometimes he even has the feeling that he is dominated by a moral force which is greater than he and of which he is only the interpreter. it is by this trait that we are able to recognize what has often been called the demon of oratorical inspiration. now this exceptional increase of force is something very real; it comes to him from the very group which he addresses. the sentiments provoked by his words come back to him, but enlarged and amplified, and to this degree they strengthen his own sentiment. the passionate energies he arouses re-echo within him and quicken his vital tone. it is no longer a simple individual who speaks; it is a group incarnate and personified. beside these passing and intermittent states, there are other more durable ones, where this strengthening influence of society makes itself felt with greater consequences and frequently even with greater brilliancy. there are periods in history when, under the influence of some great collective shock, social interactions have become much more frequent and active. men look for each other and assemble together more than ever. that general effervescence results which is characteristic of revolutionary or creative epochs. now this greater activity results in a general stimulation of individual forces. men see more and differently now than in normal times. changes are not merely of shades and degrees; men become different. the passions moving them are of such an intensity that they cannot be satisfied except by violent and unrestrained actions, actions of superhuman heroism or of bloody barbarism. this is what explains the crusades,[ ] for example, or many of the scenes, either sublime or savage, of the french revolution.[ ] under the influence of the general exaltation, we see the most mediocre and inoffensive bourgeois become either a hero or a butcher.[ ] and so clearly are all these mental processes the ones that are also at the root of religion that the individuals themselves have often pictured the pressure before which they thus gave way in a distinctly religious form. the crusaders believed that they felt god present in the midst of them, enjoining them to go to the conquest of the holy land; joan of arc believed that she obeyed celestial voices.[ ] but it is not only in exceptional circumstances that this stimulating action of society makes itself felt; there is not, so to speak, a moment in our lives when some current of energy does not come to us from without. the man who has done his duty finds, in the manifestations of every sort expressing the sympathy, esteem or affection which his fellows have for him, a feeling of comfort, of which he does not ordinarily take account, but which sustains him, none the less. the sentiments which society has for him raise the sentiments which he has for himself. because he is in moral harmony with his comrades, he has more confidence, courage and boldness in action, just like the believer who thinks that he feels the regard of his god turned graciously towards him. it thus produces, as it were, a perpetual sustenance for our moral nature. since this varies with a multitude of external circumstances, as our relations with the groups about us are more or less active and as these groups themselves vary, we cannot fail to feel that this moral support depends upon an external cause; but we do not perceive where this cause is nor what it is. so we ordinarily think of it under the form of a moral power which, though immanent in us, represents within us something not ourselves: this is the moral conscience, of which, by the way, men have never made even a slightly distinct representation except by the aid of religious symbols. in addition to these free forces which are constantly coming to renew our own, there are others which are fixed in the methods and traditions which we employ. we speak a language that we did not make; we use instruments that we did not invent; we invoke rights that we did not found; a treasury of knowledge is transmitted to each generation that it did not gather itself, etc. it is to society that we owe these varied benefits of civilization, and if we do not ordinarily see the source from which we get them, we at least know that they are not our own work. now it is these things that give man his own place among things; a man is a man only because he is civilized. so he could not escape the feeling that outside of him there are active causes from which he gets the characteristic attributes of his nature and which, as benevolent powers, assist him, protect him and assure him of a privileged fate. and of course he must attribute to these powers a dignity corresponding to the great value of the good things he attributes to them.[ ] thus the environment in which we live seems to us to be peopled with forces that are at once imperious and helpful, august and gracious, and with which we have relations. since they exercise over us a pressure of which we are conscious, we are forced to localize them outside ourselves, just as we do for the objective causes of our sensations. but the sentiments which they inspire in us differ in nature from those which we have for simple visible objects. as long as these latter are reduced to their empirical characteristics as shown in ordinary experience, and as long as the religious imagination has not metamorphosed them, we entertain for them no feeling which resembles respect, and they contain within them nothing that is able to raise us outside ourselves. therefore, the representations which express them appear to us to be very different from those aroused in us by collective influences. the two form two distinct and separate mental states in our consciousness, just as do the two forms of life to which they correspond. consequently, we get the impression that we are in relations with two distinct sorts of reality and that a sharply drawn line of demarcation separates them from each other: on the one hand is the world of profane things, on the other, that of sacred things. also, in the present day just as much as in the past, we see society constantly creating sacred things out of ordinary ones. if it happens to fall in love with a man and if it thinks it has found in him the principal aspirations that move it, as well as the means of satisfying them, this man will be raised above the others and, as it were, deified. opinion will invest him with a majesty exactly analogous to that protecting the gods. this is what has happened to so many sovereigns in whom their age had faith: if they were not made gods, they were at least regarded as direct representatives of the deity. and the fact that it is society alone which is the author of these varieties of apotheosis, is evident since it frequently chances to consecrate men thus who have no right to it from their own merit. the simple deference inspired by men invested with high social functions is not different in nature from religious respect. it is expressed by the same movements: a man keeps at a distance from a high personage; he approaches him only with precautions; in conversing with him, he uses other gestures and language than those used with ordinary mortals. the sentiment felt on these occasions is so closely related to the religious sentiment that many peoples have confounded the two. in order to explain the consideration accorded to princes, nobles and political chiefs, a sacred character has been attributed to them. in melanesia and polynesia, for example, it is said that an influential man has _mana_, and that his influence is due to this _mana_.[ ] however, it is evident that his situation is due solely to the importance attributed to him by public opinion. thus the moral power conferred by opinion and that with which sacred beings are invested are at bottom of a single origin and made up of the same elements. that is why a single word is able to designate the two. in addition to men, society also consecrates things, especially ideas. if a belief is unanimously shared by a people, then, for the reason which we pointed out above, it is forbidden to touch it, that is to say, to deny it or to contest it. now the prohibition of criticism is an interdiction like the others and proves the presence of something sacred. even to-day, howsoever great may be the liberty which we accord to others, a man who should totally deny progress or ridicule the human ideal to which modern societies are attached, would produce the effect of a sacrilege. there is at least one principle which those the most devoted to the free examination of everything tend to place above discussion and to regard as untouchable, that is to say, as sacred: this is the very principle of free examination. this aptitude of society for setting itself up as a god or for creating gods was never more apparent than during the first years of the french revolution. at this time, in fact, under the influence of the general enthusiasm, things purely laïcal by nature were transformed by public opinion into sacred things: these were the fatherland, liberty, reason.[ ] a religion tended to become established which had its dogmas,[ ] symbols,[ ] altars[ ] and feasts.[ ] it was to these spontaneous aspirations that the cult of reason and the supreme being attempted to give a sort of official satisfaction. it is true that this religious renovation had only an ephemeral duration. but that was because the patriotic enthusiasm which at first transported the masses soon relaxed.[ ] the cause being gone, the effect could not remain. but this experiment, though short-lived, keeps all its sociological interest. it remains true that in one determined case we have seen society and its essential ideas become, directly and with no transfiguration of any sort, the object of a veritable cult. all these facts allow us to catch glimpses of how the clan was able to awaken within its members the idea that outside of them there exist forces which dominate them and at the same time sustain them, that is to say in fine, religious forces: it is because there is no society with which the primitive is more directly and closely connected. the bonds uniting him to the tribe are much more lax and more feebly felt. although this is not at all strange or foreign to him, it is with the people of his own clan that he has the greatest number of things in common; it is the action of this group that he feels the most directly; so it is this also which, in preference to all others, should express itself in religious symbols. but this first explanation has been too general, for it is applicable to every sort of society indifferently, and consequently to every sort of religion. let us attempt to determine exactly what form this collective action takes in the clan and how it arouses the sensation of sacredness there. for there is no place where it is more easily observable or more apparent in its results. iii the life of the australian societies passes alternately through two distinct phases.[ ] sometimes the population is broken up into little groups who wander about independently of one another, in their various occupations; each family lives by itself, hunting and fishing, and in a word, trying to procure its indispensable food by all the means in its power. sometimes, on the contrary, the population concentrates and gathers at determined points for a length of time varying from several days to several months. this concentration takes place when a clan or a part of the tribe[ ] is summoned to the gathering, and on this occasion they celebrate a religious ceremony, or else hold what is called a corrobbori[ ] in the usual ethnological language. these two phases are contrasted with each other in the sharpest way. in the first, economic activity is the preponderating one, and it is generally of a very mediocre intensity. gathering the grains or herbs that are necessary for food, or hunting and fishing are not occupations to awaken very lively passions.[ ] the dispersed condition in which the society finds itself results in making its life uniform, languishing and dull.[ ] but when a corrobbori takes place, everything changes. since the emotional and passional faculties of the primitive are only imperfectly placed under the control of his reason and will, he easily loses control of himself. any event of some importance puts him quite outside himself. does he receive good news? there are at once transports of enthusiasm. in the contrary conditions, he is to be seen running here and there like a madman, giving himself up to all sorts of immoderate movements, crying, shrieking, rolling in the dust, throwing it in every direction, biting himself, brandishing his arms in a furious manner, etc.[ ] the very fact of the concentration acts as an exceptionally powerful stimulant. when they are once come together, a sort of electricity is formed by their collecting which quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation. every sentiment expressed finds a place without resistance in all the minds, which are very open to outside impressions; each re-echoes the others, and is re-echoed by the others. the initial impulse thus proceeds, growing as it goes, as an avalanche grows in its advance. and as such active passions so free from all control could not fail to burst out, on every side one sees nothing but violent gestures, cries, veritable howls, and deafening noises of every sort, which aid in intensifying still more the state of mind which they manifest. and since a collective sentiment cannot express itself collectively except on the condition of observing a certain order permitting co-operation and movements in unison, these gestures and cries naturally tend to become rhythmic and regular; hence come songs and dances. but in taking a more regular form, they lose nothing of their natural violence; a regulated tumult remains tumult. the human voice is not sufficient for the task; it is reinforced by means of artificial processes: boomerangs are beaten against each other; bull-roarers are whirled. it is probable that these instruments, the use of which is so general in the australian religious ceremonies, are used primarily to express in a more adequate fashion the agitation felt. but while they express it, they also strengthen it. this effervescence often reaches such a point that it causes unheard-of actions. the passions released are of such an impetuosity that they can be restrained by nothing. they are so far removed from their ordinary conditions of life, and they are so thoroughly conscious of it, that they feel that they must set themselves outside of and above their ordinary morals. the sexes unite contrarily to the rules governing sexual relations. men exchange wives with each other. sometimes even incestuous unions, which in normal times are thought abominable and are severely punished, are now contracted openly and with impunity.[ ] if we add to all this that the ceremonies generally take place at night in a darkness pierced here and there by the light of fires, we can easily imagine what effect such scenes ought to produce on the minds of those who participate. they produce such a violent super-excitation of the whole physical and mental life that it cannot be supported very long: the actor taking the principal part finally falls exhausted on the ground.[ ] to illustrate and make specific this necessarily schematic picture, let us describe certain scenes taken from spencer and gillen. one of the most important religious ceremonies among the warramunga is the one concerning the snake wollunqua. it consists in a series of ceremonies lasting through several days. on the fourth day comes the following scene. according to the ceremonial used among the warramunga, representatives of the two phratries take part, one as officiants, the other as preparers and assistants. only the members of the uluuru phratry are qualified to celebrate the rite, but the members of the kingilli phratry must decorate the actors, make ready the place and the instruments, and play the part of an audience. in this capacity, they were charged with making a sort of mound in advance out of wet sand, upon which a design is marked with red down which represents the snake wollunqua. the real ceremony only commenced after nightfall. towards ten or eleven o'clock, the uluuru and kingilli men arrived on the ground, sat down on the mound and commenced to sing. everyone was evidently very excited. a little later in the evening, the uluuru brought up their wives and gave them over to the kingilli,[ ] who had intercourse with them. then the recently initiated young men were brought in and the whole ceremony was explained to them in detail, and until three o'clock in the morning singing went on without a pause. then followed a scene of the wildest excitement. while fires were lighted on all sides, making the whiteness of the gum-trees stand out sharply against the surrounding darkness, the uluuru knelt down one behind another beside the mound, then rising from the ground they went around it, with a movement in unison, their two hands resting upon their thighs, then a little farther on they knelt down again, and so on. at the same time they swayed their bodies, now to the right and now to the left, while uttering at each movement a piercing cry, a veritable yell, "_yrrsh! yrrsh! yrrsh!_" in the meantime the kingilli, in a state of great excitement, clanged their boomerangs and their chief was even more agitated than his companions. when the procession of the uluuru had twice gone around the mound, quitting the kneeling position, they sat down and commenced to sing again; at moments the singing died away, then suddenly took up again. when day commenced to dawn, all leaped to their feet; the fires that had gone out were relighted and the uluuru, urged on by the kingilli, attacked the mound furiously with boomerangs, lances and clubs; in a few minutes it was torn to pieces. the fires died away and profound silence reigned again.[ ] a still more violent scene at which these same observers assisted was in connection with the fire ceremonies among the warramunga. commencing at nightfall, all sorts of processions, dances and songs had taken place by torchlight; the general effervescence was constantly increasing. at a given moment, twelve assistants each took a great lighted torch in their hands, and one of them holding his like a bayonet, charged into a group of natives. blows were warded off with clubs and spears. a general mêlée followed. the men leaped and pranced about, uttering savage yells all the time; the burning torches continually came crashing down on the heads and bodies of the men, scattering lighted sparks in every direction. "the smoke, the blazing torches, the showers of sparks falling in all directions and the masses of dancing, yelling men," say spencer and gillen, "formed altogether a genuinely wild and savage scene of which it is impossible to convey any adequate idea in words."[ ] one can readily conceive how, when arrived at this state of exaltation, a man does not recognize himself any longer. feeling himself dominated and carried away by some sort of an external power which makes him think and act differently than in normal times, he naturally has the impression of being himself no longer. it seems to him that he has become a new being: the decorations he puts on and the masks that cover his face figure materially in this interior transformation, and to a still greater extent, they aid in determining its nature. and as at the same time all his companions feel themselves transformed in the same way and express this sentiment by their cries, their gestures and their general attitude, everything is just as though he really were transported into a special world, entirely different from the one where he ordinarily lives, and into an environment filled with exceptionally intense forces that take hold of him and metamorphose him. how could such experiences as these, especially when they are repeated every day. for weeks, fail to leave in him the conviction that there really exist two heterogeneous and mutually incomparable worlds? one is that where his daily life drags wearily along; but he cannot penetrate into the other without at once entering into relations with extraordinary powers that excite him to the point of frenzy. the first is the profane world, the second, that of sacred things. so it is in the midst of these effervescent social environments and out of this effervescence itself that the religious idea seems to be born. the theory that this is really its origin is confirmed by the fact that in australia the really religious activity is almost entirely confined to the moments when these assemblies are held. to be sure, there is no people among whom the great solemnities of the cult are not more or less periodic; but in the more advanced societies, there is not, so to speak, a day when some prayer or offering is not addressed to the gods and some ritual act is not performed. but in australia, on the contrary, apart from the celebrations of the clan and tribe, the time is nearly all filled with lay and profane occupations. of course there are prohibitions that should be and are preserved even during these periods of temporal activity; it is never permissible to kill or eat freely of the totemic animal, at least in those parts where the interdiction has retained its original vigour; but almost no positive rites are then celebrated, and there are no ceremonies of any importance. these take place only in the midst of assembled groups. the religious life of the australian passes through successive phases of complete lull and of super-excitation, and social life oscillates in the same rhythm. this puts clearly into evidence the bond uniting them to one another, but among the peoples called civilized, the relative continuity of the two blurs their relations. it might even be asked whether the violence of this contrast was not necessary to disengage the feeling of sacredness in its first form. by concentrating itself almost entirely in certain determined moments, the collective life has been able to attain its greatest intensity and efficacy, and consequently to give men a more active sentiment of the double existence they lead and of the double nature in which they participate. but this explanation is still incomplete. we have shown how the clan, by the manner in which it acts upon its members, awakens within them the idea of external forces which dominate them and exalt them; but we must still demand how it happens that these forces are thought of under the form of totems, that is to say, in the shape of an animal or plant. it is because this animal or plant has given its name to the clan and serves it as emblem. in fact, it is a well-known law that the sentiments aroused in us by something spontaneously attach themselves to the symbol which represents them. for us, black is a sign of mourning; it also suggests sad impressions and ideas. this transference of sentiments comes simply from the fact that the idea of a thing and the idea of its symbol are closely united in our minds; the result is that the emotions provoked by the one extend contagiously to the other. but this contagion, which takes place in every case to a certain degree, is much more complete and more marked when the symbol is something simple, definite and easily representable, while the thing itself, owing to its dimensions, the number of its parts and the complexity of their arrangement, is difficult to hold in the mind. for we are unable to consider an abstract entity, which we can represent only laboriously and confusedly, the source of the strong sentiments which we feel. we cannot explain them to ourselves except by connecting them to some concrete object of whose reality we are vividly aware. then if the thing itself does not fulfil this condition, it cannot serve as the accepted basis of the sentiments felt, even though it may be what really aroused them. then some sign takes its place; it is to this that we connect the emotions it excites. it is this which is loved, feared, respected; it is to this that we are grateful; it is for this that we sacrifice ourselves. the soldier who dies for his flag, dies for his country; but as a matter of fact, in his own consciousness, it is the flag that has the first place. it sometimes happens that this even directly determines action. whether one isolated standard remains in the hands of the enemy or not does not determine the fate of the country, yet the soldier allows himself to be killed to regain it. he loses sight of the fact that the flag is only a sign, and that it has no value in itself, but only brings to mind the reality that it represents; it is treated as if it were this reality itself. now the totem is the flag of the clan. it is therefore natural that the impressions aroused by the clan in individual minds--impressions of dependence and of increased vitality--should fix themselves to the idea of the totem rather than that of the clan: for the clan is too complex a reality to be represented clearly in all its complex unity by such rudimentary intelligences. more than that, the primitive does not even see that these impressions come to him from the group. he does not know that the coming together of a number of men associated in the same life results in disengaging new energies, which transform each of them. all that he knows is that he is raised above himself and that he sees a different life from the one he ordinarily leads. however, he must connect these sensations to some external object as their cause. now what does he see about him? on every side those things which appeal to his senses and strike his imagination are the numerous images of the totem. they are the waninga and the nurtunja, which are symbols of the sacred being. they are churinga and bull-roarers, upon which are generally carved combinations of lines having the same significance. they are the decorations covering the different parts of his body, which are totemic marks. how could this image, repeated everywhere and in all sorts of forms, fail to stand out with exceptional relief in his mind? placed thus in the centre of the scene, it becomes representative. the sentiments experienced fix themselves upon it, for it is the only concrete object upon which they can fix themselves. it continues to bring them to mind and to evoke them even after the assembly has dissolved, for it survives the assembly, being carved upon the instruments of the cult, upon the sides of rocks, upon bucklers, etc. by it, the emotions experienced are perpetually sustained and revived. everything happens just as if they inspired them directly. it is still more natural to attribute them to it for, since they are common to the group, they can be associated only with something that is equally common to all. now the totemic emblem is the only thing satisfying this condition. by definition, it is common to all. during the ceremony, it is the centre of all regards. while generations change, it remains the same; it is the permanent element of the social life. so it is from it that those mysterious forces seem to emanate with which men feel that they are related, and thus they have been led to represent these forces under the form of the animate or inanimate being whose name the clan bears. when this point is once established, we are in a position to understand all that is essential in the totemic beliefs. since religious force is nothing other than the collective and anonymous force of the clan, and since this can be represented in the mind only in the form of the totem, the totemic emblem is like the visible body of the god. therefore, it is from it that those kindly or dreadful actions seem to emanate, which the cult seeks to provoke or prevent; consequently, it is to it that the cult is addressed. this is the explanation of why it holds the first place in the series of sacred things. but the clan, like every other sort of society, can live only in and through the individual consciousnesses that compose it. so if religious force, in so far as it is conceived as incorporated in the totemic emblem, appears to be outside of the individuals and to be endowed with a sort of transcendence over them, it, like the clan of which it is the symbol, can be realized only in and through them; in this sense, it is imminent in them and they necessarily represent it as such. they feel it present and active within them, for, it is this which raises them to a superior life. this is why men have believed that they contain within them a principle comparable to the one residing in the totem, and consequently, why they have attributed a sacred character to themselves, but one less marked than that of the emblem. it is because the emblem is the pre-eminent source of the religious life; the man participates in it only indirectly, as he is well aware; he takes into account the fact that the force that transports him into the world of sacred things is not inherent in him, but comes to him from the outside. but for still another reason, the animals or vegetables of the totemic species should have the same character, and even to a higher degree. if the totemic principle is nothing else than the clan, it is the clan thought of under the material form of the totemic emblem; now this form is also that of the concrete beings whose name the clan bears. owing to this resemblance, they could not fail to evoke sentiments analogous to those aroused by the emblem itself. since the latter is the object of a religious respect, they too should inspire respect of the same sort and appear to be sacred. having external forms so nearly identical, it would be impossible for the native not to attribute to them forces of the same nature. it is therefore forbidden to kill or eat the totemic animal, since its flesh is believed to have the positive virtues resulting from the rites; it is because it resembles the emblem of the clan, that is to say, it is in its own image. and since the animal naturally resembles the emblem more than the man does, it is placed on a superior rank in the hierarchy of sacred things. between these two beings there is undoubtedly a close relationship, for they both partake of the same essence: both incarnate something of the totemic principle. however, since the principle itself is conceived under an animal form, the animal seems to incarnate it more fully than the man. therefore, if men consider it and treat it as a brother, it is at least as an elder brother.[ ] but even if the totemic principle has its preferred seat in a determined species of animal or vegetable, it cannot remain localized there. a sacred character is to a high degree contagious;[ ] it therefore spreads out from the totemic being to everything that is closely or remotely connected with it. the religious sentiments inspired by the animal are communicated to the substances upon which it is nourished and which serve to make or remake its flesh and blood, to the things that resemble it, and to the different beings with which it has constant relations. thus, little by little, sub-totems are attached to the totems and from the cosmological systems expressed by the primitive classifications. at last, the whole world is divided up among the totemic principles of each tribe. we are now able to explain the origin of the ambiguity of religious forces as they appear in history, and how they are physical as well as human, moral as well as material. they are moral powers because they are made up entirely of the impressions this moral being, the group, arouses in those other moral beings, its individual members; they do not translate the manner in which physical things affect our senses, but the way in which the collective consciousness acts upon individual consciousnesses. their authority is only one form of the moral ascendancy of society over its members. but, on the other hand, since they are conceived of under material forms, they could not fail to be regarded as closely related to material things.[ ] therefore they dominate the two worlds. their residence is in men, but at the same time they are the vital principles of things. they animate minds and discipline them, but it is also they who make plants grow and animals reproduce. it is this double nature which has enabled religion to be like the womb from which come all the leading germs of human civilization. since it has been made to embrace all of reality, the physical world as well as the moral one, the forces that move bodies as well as those that move minds have been conceived in a religious form. that is how the most diverse methods and practices, both those that make possible the continuation of the moral life (law, morals, beaux-arts) and those serving the material life (the natural, technical and practical sciences), are either directly or indirectly derived from religion.[ ] iv the first religious conceptions have often been attributed to feelings of weakness and dependence, of fear and anguish which seized men when they came into contact with the world. being the victims of nightmares of which they were themselves the creators, they believed themselves surrounded by hostile and redoubtable powers which their rites sought to appease. we have now shown that the first religions were of a wholly different origin. the famous formula _primus in orbe deos fecit timor_ is in no way justified by the facts. the primitive does not regard his gods as foreigners, enemies or thoroughly and necessarily malevolent beings whose favours he must acquire at any price; quite on the contrary, they are rather friends, kindred or natural protectors for him. are these not the names he gives to the beings of the totemic species? the power to which the cult is addressed is not represented as soaring high above him and overwhelming him by its superiority; on the contrary, it is very near to him and confers upon him very useful powers which he could never acquire by himself. perhaps the deity has never been nearer to men than at this period of history, when it is present in the things filling their immediate environment and is, in part, imminent in himself. in fine, the sentiments at the root of totemism are those of happy confidence rather than of terror and compression. if we set aside the funeral rites--the sober side of every religion--we find the totemic cult celebrated in the midst of songs, dances and dramatic representations. as we shall see, cruel expiations are relatively rare; even the painful and obligatory mutilations of the initiations are not of this character. the terrible and jealous gods appear but slowly in the religious evolution. this is because primitive societies are not those huge leviathans which overwhelm a man by the enormity of their power and place him under a severe discipline;[ ] he gives himself up to them spontaneously and without resistance. as the social soul is then made up of only a small number of ideas and sentiments, it easily becomes wholly incarnate in each individual consciousness. the individual carries it all inside of him; it is a part of him and consequently, when he gives himself up to the impulses inspired by it, he does not feel that he is giving way before compulsion, but that he is going where his nature calls him.[ ] this way of understanding the origins of religious thought escapes the objections raised against the most accredited classical theories. we have seen how the naturists and animists pretend to construct the idea of sacred beings out of the sensations evoked in us by different phenomena of the physical or biological order, and we have shown how this enterprise is impossible and even self-contradictory. nothing is worth nothing. the impressions produced in us by the physical world can, by definition, contain nothing that surpasses this world. out of the visible, only the visible can be made; out of that which is heard, we cannot make something not heard. then to explain how the idea of sacredness has been able to take form under these conditions, the majority of the theorists have been obliged to admit that men have superimposed upon reality, such as it is given by observation, an unreal world, constructed entirely out of the fantastic images which agitate his mind during a dream, or else out of the frequently monstrous aberrations produced by the mythological imagination under the bewitching but deceiving influence of language. but it remained incomprehensible that humanity should have remained obstinate in these errors through the ages, for experience should have very quickly proven them false. but from our point of view, these difficulties disappear. religion ceases to be an inexplicable hallucination and takes a foothold in reality. in fact, we can say that the believer is not deceived when he believes in the existence of a moral power upon which he depends and from which he receives all that is best in himself: this power exists, it is society. when the australian is carried outside himself and feels a new life flowing within him whose intensity surprises him, he is not the dupe of an illusion; this exaltation is real and is really the effect of forces outside of and superior to the individual. it is true that he is wrong in thinking that this increase of vitality is the work of a power in the form of some animal or plant. but this error is merely in regard to the letter of the symbol by which this being is represented to the mind and the external appearance which the imagination has given it, and not in regard to the fact of its existence. behind these figures and metaphors, be they gross or refined, there is a concrete and living reality. thus religion acquires a meaning and a reasonableness that the most intransigent rationalist cannot misunderstand. its primary object is not to give men a representation of the physical world; for if that were its essential task, we could not understand how it has been able to survive, for, on this side, it is scarcely more than a fabric of errors. before all, it is a system of ideas with which the individuals represent to themselves the society of which they are members, and the obscure but intimate relations which they have with it. this is its primary function; and though metaphorical and symbolic, this representation is not unfaithful. quite on the contrary, it translates everything essential in the relations which are to be explained: for it is an eternal truth that outside of us there exists something greater than us, with which we enter into communion. that is why we can rest assured in advance that the practices of the cult, whatever they may be, are something more than movements without importance and gestures without efficacy. by the mere fact that their apparent function is to strengthen the bonds attaching the believer to his god, they at the same time really strengthen the bonds attaching the individual to the society of which he is a member, since the god is only a figurative expression of the society. we are even able to understand how the fundamental truth thus contained in religion has been able to compensate for the secondary errors which it almost necessarily implies, and how believers have consequently been restrained from tearing themselves off from it, in spite of the misunderstandings which must result from these errors. it is undeniably true that the recipes which it recommends that men use to act upon things are generally found to be ineffective. but these checks can have no profound influence, for they do not touch religion in its fundamentals.[ ] however, it may be objected that even according to this hypothesis, religion remains the object of a certain delirium. what other name can we give to that state when, after a collective effervescence, men believe themselves transported into an entirely different world from the one they have before their eyes? it is certainly true that religious life cannot attain a certain degree of intensity without implying a psychical exaltation not far removed from delirium. that is why the prophets, the founders of religions, the great saints, in a word, the men whose religious consciousness is exceptionally sensitive, very frequently give signs of an excessive nervousness that is even pathological: these physiological defects predestined them to great religious rôles. the ritual use of intoxicating liquors is to be explained in the same way.[ ] of course this does not mean that an ardent religious faith is necessarily the fruit of the drunkenness and mental derangement which accompany it; but as experience soon informed people of the similarities between the mentality of a delirious person and that of a seer, they sought to open a way to the second by artificially exciting the first. but if, for this reason, it may be said that religion is not without a certain delirium, it must be added that this delirium, if it has the causes which we have attributed to it, _is well-founded_. the images out of which it is made are not pure illusions like those the naturists and animists put at the basis of religion; they correspond to something in reality. of course it is only natural that the moral forces they express should be unable to affect the human mind powerfully without pulling it outside itself and without plunging it into a state that may be called _ecstatic_, provided that the word be taken in its etymological sense ([greek: ekstasis]); but it does not follow that they are imaginary. quite on the contrary, the mental agitation they cause bears witness to their reality. it is merely one more proof that a very intense social life always does a sort of violence to the organism, as well as to the individual consciousness, which interferes with its normal functioning. therefore it can last only a limited length of time.[ ] moreover, if we give the name delirious to every state in which the mind adds to the immediate data given by the senses and projects its own sentiments and feelings into things, then nearly every collective representation is in a sense delirious; religious beliefs are only one particular case of a very general law. our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds. we know what the flag is for the soldier; in itself, it is only a piece of cloth. human blood is only an organic liquid, but even to-day we cannot see it flowing without feeling a violent emotion which its physico-chemical properties cannot explain. from the physical point of view, a man is nothing more than a system of cells, or from the mental point of view, than a system of representations; in either case, he differs only in degree from animals. yet society conceives him, and obliges us to conceive him, as invested with a character _sui generis_ that isolates him, holds at a distance all rash encroachments and, in a word, imposes respect. this dignity which puts him into a class by himself appears to us as one of his distinctive attributes, although we can find nothing in the empirical nature of man which justifies it. a cancelled postage stamp may be worth a fortune; but surely this value is in no way implied in its natural properties. in a sense, our representation of the external world is undoubtedly a mere fabric of hallucinations, for the odours, tastes and colours that we put into bodies are not really there, or at least, they are not such as we perceive them. however, our olfactory, gustatory and visual sensations continue to correspond to certain objective states of the things represented; they express in their way the properties, either of material particles or of ether waves, which certainly have their origin in the bodies which we perceive as fragrant, sapid or coloured. but collective representations very frequently attribute to the things to which they are attached qualities which do not exist under any form or to any degree. out of the commonest object, they can make a most powerful sacred being. yet the powers which are thus conferred, though purely ideal, act as though they were real; they determine the conduct of men with the same degree of necessity as physical forces. the arunta who has been rubbed with his churinga feels himself stronger; he is stronger. if he has eaten the flesh of an animal which, though perfectly healthy, is forbidden to him, he will feel himself sick, and may die of it. surely the soldier who falls while defending his flag does not believe that he sacrifices himself for a bit of cloth. this is all because social thought, owing to the imperative authority that is in it, has an efficacy that individual thought could never have; by the power which it has over our minds, it can make us see things in whatever light it pleases; it adds to reality or deducts from it according to the circumstances. thus there is one division of nature where the formula of idealism is applicable almost to the letter: this is the social kingdom. here more than anywhere else, the idea is the reality. even in this case, of course, idealism is not true without modification. we can never escape the duality of our nature and free ourselves completely from physical necessities: in order to express our own ideas to ourselves, it is necessary, as has been shown above, that we fix them upon material things which symbolize them. but here the part of matter is reduced to a minimum. the object serving as support for the idea is not much in comparison with the ideal superstructure, beneath which it disappears, and also, it counts for nothing in the superstructure. this is what that pseudo-delirium consists in, which we find at the bottom of so many collective representations: it is only a form of this essential idealism.[ ] so it is not properly called a delirium, for the ideas thus objectified are well founded, not in the nature of the material things upon which they settle themselves, but in the nature of society. we are now able to understand how the totemic principle, and in general, every religious force, comes to be outside of the object in which it resides.[ ] it is because the idea of it is in no way made up of the impressions directly produced by this thing upon our senses or minds. religious force is only the sentiment inspired by the group in its members, but projected outside of the consciousnesses that experience them, and objectified. to be objectified, they are fixed upon some object which thus becomes sacred; but any object might fulfil this function. in principle, there are none whose nature predestines them to it to the exclusion of all others; but also there are none that are necessarily impossible.[ ] everything depends upon the circumstances which lead the sentiment creating religious ideas to establish itself here or there, upon this point or upon that one. therefore, the sacred character assumed by an object is not implied in the intrinsic properties of this latter: _it is added to them_. the world of religious things is not one particular aspect of empirical nature; _it is superimposed upon it_. this conception of the religious, finally, allows us to explain an important principle found at the bottom of a multitude of myths and rites, and which may be stated thus: when a sacred thing is subdivided, each of its parts remains equal to the thing itself. in other words, as far as religious thought is concerned, the part is equal to the whole; it has the same powers, the same efficacy. the debris of a relic has the same virtue as a relic in good condition. the smallest drop of blood contains the same active principle as the whole thing. the soul, as we shall see, may be broken up into nearly as many pieces as there are organs or tissues in the organism; each of these partial souls is worth a whole soul. this conception would be inexplicable if the sacredness of something were due to the constituent properties of the thing itself; for in that case, it should vary with this thing, increasing and decreasing with it. but if the virtues it is believed to possess are not intrinsic in it, and if they come from certain sentiments which it brings to mind and symbolizes, though these originate outside of it, then, since it has no need of determined dimensions to play this rôle of reminder, it will have the same value whether it is entire or not. since the part makes us think of the whole, it evokes the same sentiments as the whole. a mere fragment of the flag represents the fatherland just as well as the flag itself: so it is sacred in the same way and to the same degree.[ ] v but if this theory of totemism has enabled us to explain the most characteristic beliefs of this religion, it rests upon a fact not yet explained. when the idea of the totem, the emblem of the clan, is given, all the rest follows; but we must still investigate how this idea has been formed. this is a double question and may be subdivided as follows: what has led the clan to choose an emblem? and why have these emblems been borrowed from the animal and vegetable worlds, and particularly from the former? that an emblem is useful as a rallying-centre for any sort of a group it is superfluous to point out. by expressing the social unity in a material form, it makes this more obvious to all, and for that very reason the use of emblematic symbols must have spread quickly when once thought of. but more than that, this idea should spontaneously arise out of the conditions of common life; for the emblem is not merely a convenient process for clarifying the sentiment society has of itself: it also serves to create this sentiment; it is one of its constituent elements. in fact, if left to themselves, individual consciousnesses are closed to each other; they can communicate only by means of signs which express their internal states. if the communication established between them is to become a real communion, that is to say, a fusion of all particular sentiments into one common sentiment, the signs expressing them must themselves be fused into one single and unique resultant. it is the appearance of this that informs individuals that they are in harmony and makes them conscious of their moral unity. it is by uttering the same cry, pronouncing the same word, or performing the same gesture in regard to some object that they become and feel themselves to be in unison. it is true that individual representations also cause reactions in the organism that are not without importance; however, they can be thought of apart from these physical reactions which accompany them or follow them, but which do not constitute them. but it is quite another matter with collective representations. they presuppose that minds act and react upon one another; they are the product of these actions and reactions which are themselves possible only through material intermediaries. these latter do not confine themselves to revealing the mental state with which they are associated; they aid in creating it. individual minds cannot come in contact and communicate with each other except by coming out of themselves; but they cannot do this except by movements. so it is the homogeneity of these movements that gives the group consciousness of itself and consequently makes it exist. when this homogeneity is once established and these movements have once taken a stereotyped form, they serve to symbolize the corresponding representations. but they symbolize them only because they have aided in forming them. moreover, without symbols, social sentiments could have only a precarious existence. though very strong as long as men are together and influence each other reciprocally, they exist only in the form of recollections after the assembly has ended, and when left to themselves, these become feebler and feebler; for since the group is now no longer present and active, individual temperaments easily regain the upper hand. the violent passions which may have been released in the heart of a crowd fall away and are extinguished when this is dissolved, and men ask themselves with astonishment how they could ever have been so carried away from their normal character. but if the movements by which these sentiments are expressed are connected with something that endures, the sentiments themselves become more durable. these other things are constantly bringing them to mind and arousing them; it is as though the cause which excited them in the first place continued to act. thus these systems of emblems, which are necessary if society is to become conscious of itself, are no less indispensable for assuring the continuation of this consciousness. so we must refrain from regarding these symbols as simple artifices, as sorts of labels attached to representations already made, in order to make them more manageable: they are an integral part of them. even the fact that collective sentiments are thus attached to things completely foreign to them is not purely conventional: it illustrates under a conventional form a real characteristic of social facts, that is, their transcendence over individual minds. in fact, it is known that social phenomena are born, not in individuals, but in the group. whatever part we may take in their origin, each of us receives them from without.[ ] so when we represent them to ourselves as emanating from a material object, we do not completely misunderstand their nature. of course they do not come from the specific thing to which we connect them, but nevertheless, it is true that their origin is outside of us. if the moral force sustaining the believer does not come from the idol he adores or the emblem he venerates, still it is from outside of him, as he is well aware. the objectivity of its symbol only translates its externalness. thus social life, in all its aspects and in every period of its history, is made possible only by a vast symbolism. the material emblems and figurative representations with which we are more especially concerned in our present study, are one form of this; but there are many others. collective sentiments can just as well become incarnate in persons or formulæ: some formulæ are flags, while there are persons, either real or mythical, who are symbols. but there is one sort of emblem which should make an early appearance without reflection or calculation: this is tattooing. indeed, well-known facts demonstrate that it is produced almost automatically in certain conditions. when men of an inferior culture are associated in a common life, they are frequently led, by an instinctive tendency, as it were, to paint or cut upon the body, images that bear witness to their common existence. according to a text of procopius, the early christians printed on their skin the name of christ or the sign of the cross;[ ] for a long time, the groups of pilgrims going to palestine were also tattooed on the arm or wrist with designs representing the cross or the monogram of christ.[ ] this same usage is also reported among the pilgrims going to certain holy places in italy.[ ] a curious case of spontaneous tattooing is given by lombroso: twenty young men in an italian college, when on the point of separating, decorated themselves with tattoos recording, in various ways, the years they had spent together.[ ] the same fact has frequently been observed among the soldiers in the same barracks, the sailors in the same boat, or the prisoners in the same jail.[ ] it will be understood that especially where methods are still rudimentary, tattooing should be the most direct and expressive means by which the communion of minds can be affirmed. the best way of proving to one's self and to others that one is a member of a certain group is to place a distinctive mark on the body. the proof that this is the reason for the existence of the totemic image is the fact, which we have already mentioned, that it does not seek to reproduce the aspect of the thing it is supposed to represent. it is made up of lines and points to which a wholly conventional significance is attributed.[ ] its object is not to represent or bring to mind a determined object, but to bear witness to the fact that a certain number of individuals participate in the same moral life. moreover, the clan is a society which is less able than any other to do without an emblem or symbol, for there is almost no other so lacking in consistency. the clan cannot be defined by its chief, for if central authority is not lacking, it is at least uncertain and unstable.[ ] nor can it be defined by the territory it occupies, for the population, being nomad,[ ] is not closely attached to any special locality. also, owing to the exogamic law, husband and wife must be of different totems; so wherever the totem is transmitted in the maternal line--and this system of filiation is still the most general one[ ]--the children are of a different clan from their father, though living near to him. therefore we find representatives of a number of different clans in each family, and still more in each locality. the unity of the group is visible, therefore, only in the collective name borne by all the members, and in the equally collective emblem reproducing the object designated by this name. a clan is essentially a reunion of individuals who bear the same name and rally around the same sign. take away the name and the sign which materializes it, and the clan is no longer representable. since the group is possible only on this condition, both the institution of the emblem and the part it takes in the life of the group are thus explained. it remains to ask why these names and emblems were taken almost exclusively from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, but especially from the former. it seems probable to us that the emblem has played a more important part than the name. in any case, the written sign still holds a more central place in the life of the clan to-day than does the spoken sign. now the basis of an emblematic image can be found only in something susceptible of being represented by a design. on the other hand, these things had to be those with which the men of the clan were the most immediately and habitually coming in contact. animals fulfilled this condition to a pre-eminent degree. for these nations of hunters and fishers, the animal constituted an essential element of the economic environment. in this connection plants had only a secondary place for they can hold only a secondary place as food as long as they are not cultivated. moreover, the animal is more closely associated with the life of men than the plant is, if only because of the natural kinship uniting these two to each other. on the other hand, the sun, moon and stars are too far away, they give the effect of belonging to another world.[ ] also, as long as the constellations were not distinguished and classified, the starry vault did not offer a sufficient diversity of clearly differentiated things to be able to mark all the clans and sub-clans of a tribe; but, on the contrary, the variety of the flora, and especially of the fauna, was almost inexhaustible. therefore celestial bodies, in spite of their brilliancy and the sharp impression they make upon the senses, were unfitted for the rôle of totems, while animals and plants seemed predestined to it. ah observation of strehlow even allows us to state precisely the way in which these emblems were probably chosen. he says that he has noticed that the totemic centres are generally situated near a mountain, spring or gorge where the animals serving as totems to the group gather in abundance, and he cites a certain number of examples of this fact.[ ] now these totemic centres are surely the consecrated places where the meetings of the clan are held. so it seems as though each group had taken as its insignia the animal or plant that was the commonest in the vicinity of the place where it had the habit of meeting.[ ] vi this conception of totemism will give us the explanation of a very curious trait of human mentality which, even though more marked formerly than to-day, has not yet disappeared and which, in any case, has been of considerable importance in the history of human thought. it will furnish still another occasion for showing how logical evolution is closely connected with religious evolution and how it, like this latter, depends upon social conditions.[ ] if there is one truth which appears to be absolutely certain to-day, it is that beings differing not only in their outward appearance but also in their most essential properties, such as minerals, plants, animals and men, cannot be considered equivalent and interchangeable. long usage, which scientific culture has still more firmly embedded in our minds, has taught us to establish barriers between the kingdoms, whose existence transformism itself does not deny; for though this admits that life may have arisen from non-living matter and men from animals, still, it does not fail to recognize the fact that living beings, once formed, are different from minerals, and men different from animals. within each kingdom the same barriers separate the different classes: we cannot conceive of one mineral having the same distinctive characteristics as another, or of one animal species having those of another species. but these distinctions, which seem so natural to us, are in no way primitive. in the beginning, all the kingdoms are confounded with each other. rocks have a sex; they have the power of begetting; the sun, moon and stars are men or women who feel and express human sentiments, while men, on the contrary, are thought of as animals or plants. this state of confusion is found at the basis of all mythologies. hence comes the ambiguous character of the beings portrayed in the mythologies; they can be classified in no definite group, for they participate at the same time in the most opposed groups. it is also readily admitted that they can go from one into another; and for a long time men believed that they were able to explain the origin of things by these transmutations. that the anthropomorphic instinct, with which the animists have endowed primitive men, cannot explain their mental condition is shown by the nature of the confusions of which they are guilty. in fact, these do not come from the fact that men have immoderately extended the human kingdom to the point of making all the others enter into it, but from the fact that they confound the most disparate kingdoms. they have not conceived the world in their own image any more than they have conceived themselves in the world's image: they have done both at the same time. into the idea they have formed of things, they have undoubtedly made human elements enter; but into the idea they have formed of themselves, they have made enter elements coming from things. yet there is nothing in experience which could suggest these connections and confusions. as far as the observation of the senses is able to go, everything is different and disconnected. nowhere do we really see beings mixing their natures and metamorphosing themselves into each other. it is therefore necessary that some exceptionally powerful cause should have intervened to transfigure reality in such a way as to make it appear under an aspect that is not really its own. it is religion that was the agent of this transfiguration; it is religious beliefs that have substituted for the world, as it is perceived by the senses, another different one. this is well shown by the case of totemism. the fundamental thing in this religion is that the men of the clan and the different beings whose form the totemic emblems reproduce pass as being made of the same essence. now when this belief was once admitted, the bridge between the different kingdoms was already built. the man was represented as a sort of animal or plant; the plants and animals were thought of as the relatives of men, or rather, all these beings, so different for the senses, were thought of as participating in a single nature. so this remarkable aptitude for confusing things that seem to be obviously distinct comes from the fact that the first forces with which the human intellect has peopled the world were elaborated by religion. since these were made up of elements taken from the different kingdoms, men conceived a principle common to the most heterogeneous things, which thus became endowed with a sole and single essence. but we also know that these religious conceptions are the result of determined social causes. since the clan cannot exist without a name and an emblem, and since this emblem is always before the eyes of men, it is upon this, and the objects whose image it is, that the sentiments which society arouses in its members are fixed. men were thus compelled to represent the collective force, whose action they felt, in the form of the thing serving as flag to the group. therefore, in the idea of this force were mixed up the most different kingdoms; in one sense, it was essentially human, since it was made up of human ideas and sentiments; but at the same time, it could not fail to appear as closely related to the animate or inanimate beings who gave it its outward form. moreover, the cause whose action we observe here is not peculiar to totemism; there is no society where it is not active. in a general way, a collective sentiment can become conscious of itself only by being fixed upon some material object;[ ] but by this very fact, it participates in the nature of this object, and reciprocally, the object participates in its nature. so it was social necessity which brought about the fusion of notions appearing distinct at first, and social life has facilitated this fusion by the great mental effervescences it determines.[ ] this is one more proof that logical understanding is a function of society, for it takes the forms and attitudes that this latter presses upon it. it is true that this logic is disconcerting for us. yet we must be careful not to depreciate it: howsoever crude it may appear to us, it has been an aid of the greatest importance in the intellectual evolution of humanity. in fact, it is through it that the first explanation of the world has been made possible. of course the mental habits it implies prevented men from seeing reality as their senses show it to them; but as they show it, it has the grave inconvenience of allowing of no explanation. for to explain is to attach things to each other and to establish relations between them which make them appear to us as functions of each other and as vibrating sympathetically according to an internal law founded in their nature. but sensations, which see nothing except from the outside, could never make them disclose these relations and internal bonds; the intellect alone can create the notion of them. when i learn that a regularly precedes b, my knowledge is increased by a new fact; but my intelligence is not at all satisfied with a statement which does not show its reason. i commence to _understand_ only if it is possible for me to conceive b in a way that makes it appear to me as something that is not foreign to a, and as united to a by some relation of kinship. the great service that religions have rendered to thought is that they have constructed a first representation of what these relations of kinship between things may be. in the circumstances under which it was attempted, the enterprise could obviously attain only precarious results. but then, does it ever attain any that are definite, and is it not always necessary to reconsider them? and also, it is less important to succeed than to try. the essential thing was not to leave the mind enslaved to visible appearances, but to teach it to dominate them and to connect what the senses separated; for from the moment when men have an idea that there are internal connections between things, science and philosophy become possible. religion opened up the way for them. but if it has been able to play this part, it is only because it is a social affair. in order to make a law for the impressions of the senses and to substitute a new way of representing reality for them, thought of a new sort had to be founded: this is collective thought. if this alone has had this efficacy, it is because of the fact that to create a world of ideals through which the world of experienced realities would appear transfigured, a super-excitation of the intellectual forces was necessary, which is possible only in and through society. so it is far from true that this mentality has no connection with ours. our logic was born of this logic. the explanations of contemporary science are surer of being objective because they are more methodical and because they rest on more carefully controlled observations, but they do not differ in nature from those which satisfy primitive thought. to-day, as formerly, to explain is to show how one thing participates in one or several others. it has been said that the participations of this sort implied by the mythologies violate the principle of contradiction and that they are by that opposed to those implied by scientific explanations.[ ] is not the statement that a man is a kangaroo or the sun a bird, equal to identifying the two with each other? but our manner of thought is not different when we say of heat that it is a movement, or of light that it is a vibration of the ether, etc. every time that we unite heterogeneous terms by an internal bond, we forcibly identify contraries. of course the terms we unite are not those which the australian brings together; we choose them according to different criteria and for different reasons; but the processes by which the mind puts them in connection do not differ essentially. it is true that if primitive thought had that sort of general and systematic indifference to contradictions which has been attributed to it,[ ] it would be in open contradiction on this point with modern thought, which is always careful to remain consistent with itself. but we do not believe that it is possible to characterize the mentality of inferior societies by a single and exclusive inclination for indistinction. if the primitive confounds things which we distinguish, he also distinguishes things which we connect together, and he even conceives these distinctions in the form of sharp and clear-cut oppositions. between two things which are classified in two different phratries, there is not only separation, but even antagonism.[ ] for this reason, the same australian who confounds the sun and the white cockatoo, opposes this latter to the black cockatoo as to its contrary. the two seem to him to belong to two separate classes between which there is nothing in common. a still more marked opposition is that existing between sacred things and profane things. they repel and contradict each other with so much force that the mind refuses to think of them at the same time. they mutually expel each other from the consciousness. thus between the logic of religious thought and that of scientific thought there is no abyss. the two are made up of the same elements, though inequally and differently developed. the special characteristic of the former seems to be its natural taste for immoderate confusions as well as sharp contrasts. it is voluntarily excessive in each direction. when it connects, it confounds; when it distinguishes, it opposes. it knows no shades and measures, it seeks extremes; it consequently employs logical mechanisms with a certain awkwardness, but it ignores none of them. chapter viii the idea of the soul in the preceding chapters we have been studying the fundamental principles of the totemic religion. we have seen that no idea of soul or spirit or mythical personality is to be found among these. yet, even if the idea of spiritual beings is not at the foundation of totemism or, consequently, of religious thought in general, still, there is no religion where this notion is not met with. so it is important to see how it is formed. to make sure that it is the product of a secondary formation, we must discover the way in which it is derived from the more essential conceptions which we have just described and explained. among the various spiritual beings, there is one which should receive our attention first of all because it is the prototype after which the others have been constructed: this is the soul. i just as there is no known society without a religion, so there exist none, howsoever crudely organized they may be, where we do not find a whole system of collective representations concerning the soul, its origin and its destiny. so far as we are able to judge from the data of ethnology, the idea of the soul seems to have been contemporaneous with humanity itself, and it seems to have had all of its essential characteristics so well formulated at the very outset that the work of the more advanced religions and philosophy has been practically confined to refining it, while adding nothing that is really fundamental. in fact, all the australian societies admit that every human body shelters an interior being, the principle of the life which animates it: this is the soul. it sometimes happens, it is true, that women form an exception to this general rule: there are tribes where they are believed to have no souls.[ ] if dawson is to be believed, it is the same with young children in the tribes that he has observed.[ ] but these are exceptional and probably late cases;[ ] the last one even seems to be suspect and may well be due to an erroneous interpretation of the facts.[ ] it is not easy to determine the idea which the australian makes of the soul, because it is so obscure and floating; but we should not be surprised at this. if someone asked our own contemporaries, or even those of them who believe most firmly in the existence of the soul, how they represented it, the replies that he would receive would not have much more coherence and precision. this is because we are dealing with a very complex notion, into which a multitude of badly analysed impressions enter, whose elaboration has been carried on for centuries, though men have had no clear consciousness of it. yet from this come the most essential, though frequently contradictory, characteristics by which it is defined. in some cases they tell us that it has the external appearance of the body.[ ] but sometimes it is also represented as having the size of a grain of sand; its dimensions are so reduced that it can pass through the smallest crevices or the finest tissues.[ ] we shall also see that it is represented in the appearance of animals. this shows that its form is essentially inconsistent and undetermined;[ ] it varies from one moment to another with the demands of circumstances or according to the exigencies of the myth and the rite. the substance out of which it is made is no less indefinable. it is not without matter, for it has a form, howsoever vague this may be. and in fact, even during this life, it has physical needs: it eats, and inversely, it may be eaten. sometimes it leaves the body, and in the course of its travels it occasionally nourishes itself on foreign souls.[ ] after it has once been completely freed from the organism, it is thought to lead a life absolutely analogous to the one it led in this world; it eats, drinks, hunts, etc.[ ] when it flutters among the branches of trees, it causes rustlings and crackings which even profane ears hear.[ ] but at the same time, it is believed to be invisible to the vulgar.[ ] it is true that magicians or old men have the faculty of seeing souls; but it is in virtue of special powers which they owe either to age or to a special training that they perceive things which escape our senses. according to dawson, ordinary individuals enjoy the same privilege at only one moment of their existence: when they are on the eve of a premature death. therefore this quasi-miraculous vision is considered a sinister omen. now, invisibility is generally considered one of the signs of spirituality. so the soul is conceived as being immaterial to a certain degree, for it does not affect the senses in the way bodies do: it has no bones, as the tribes of the tully river say.[ ] in order to conciliate all these opposed characteristics, they represent it as made of some infinitely rare and subtle matter, like something ethereal,[ ] and comparable to a shadow or breath.[ ] it is distinct and independent of the body, for during this life it can leave it at any moment. it does leave it during sleep, fainting spells, etc.[ ] it may even remain absent for some time without entailing death; however, during these absences life is weakened and even stops if the soul does not return home.[ ] but it is especially at death that this distinction and independence manifest themselves with the greatest clarity. while the body no longer exists and no visible traces of it remain, the soul continues to live: it leads an autonomous existence in another world. but howsoever real this duality may be, it is in no way absolute. it would show a grave misunderstanding to represent the body as a sort of habitat in which the soul resides, but with which it has only external relations. quite on the contrary, it is united to it by the closest bonds; it is separable from it only imperfectly and with difficulty. we have already seen that it has, or at least is able to have, its external aspect. consequently, everything that hurts the one hurts the other; every wound of the body spreads to the soul.[ ] it is so intimately associated with the life of the organism that it grows with it and decays with it. this is why a man who has attained a certain age enjoys privileges refused to young men; it is because the religious principle within him has acquired greater force and efficacy as he has advanced in life. but when senility sets in, and the old man is no longer able to take a useful part in the great religious ceremonies in which the vital interests of the tribe are concerned, this respect is no longer accorded to him. it is thought that weakness of the body is communicated to the soul. having the same powers no longer, he no longer has a right to the same prestige.[ ] there is not only a close union of soul and body, but there is also a partial confusion of the two. just as there is something of the body in the soul, since it sometimes reproduces its form, so there is something of the soul in the body. certain regions and certain products of the organism are believed to have a special affinity with it: such is the case with the heart, the breath, the placenta,[ ] the blood,[ ] the shadow,[ ] the liver, the fat of the liver, the kidneys,[ ] etc. these various material substrata are not mere habitations of the soul; they are the soul itself seen from without. when blood flows, the soul escapes with it. the soul is not in the breath; it is the breath. it and the part of the body where it resides are only one. hence comes the conception according to which a man has a number of souls. being dispersed in various parts of the organism, the soul is differentiated and broken up into fragments. each organ has individualized, as it were, the portion of the soul which it contains, and which has thus become a distinct entity. the soul of the heart could not be that of the breath or the shadow or the placenta. while they are all related, still they are to be distinguished, and even have different names.[ ] moreover, even if the soul is localized especially in certain parts of the organism, it is not absent from the others. in varying degrees, it is diffused through the whole body, as is well shown by the funeral rites. after the last breath has been expired and the soul is believed to be gone, it seems as though it should profit by the liberty thus regained, to move about at will and to return as quickly as possible to its real home, which is elsewhere. nevertheless, it remains near to the corpse; the bond uniting them has been loosened, but not broken. a whole series of special rites are necessary to induce it to depart definitely. it is invited to go by gestures and significant movements.[ ] the way is laid open for it, and outlets are arranged so that it can go more easily.[ ] this is because it has not left the body entirely; it was too closely united to it to break away all at once. hence comes the very frequent rite of funeral anthropophagy; the flesh of the dead is eaten because it is thought to contain a sacred principle, which is really nothing more than the soul.[ ] in order to drive it out definitely, the flesh is melted, either by submitting it to the heat of the sun,[ ] or to that of an artificial fire.[ ] the soul departs with the liquids which result. but even the dry bones still retain some part of it. therefore they can be used as sacred objects or instruments of magic;[ ] or if someone wishes to give complete liberty to the principle which they contain, he breaks these.[ ] but a moment does arrive when the final separation is accomplished; the liberated soul takes flight. but by nature it is so intimately associated with the body that this removal cannot take place without a profound change in its condition. so it takes a new name also.[ ] although keeping all the distinctive traits of the individual whom it animated, his humours and his good and bad qualities,[ ] still it has become a new being. from that moment a new existence commences for it. it goes to the land of souls. this land is conceived differently by different tribes; sometimes different conceptions are found existing side by side in the same society. for some, it is situated under the earth, where each totemic group has its part. this is at the spot where the first ancestors, the founders of the clan, entered the ground at a certain time, and where they live since their death. in the subterranean world there is a geographical disposition of the dead corresponding to that of the living. there, the sun always shines and rivers flow which never run dry. such is the conception which spencer and gillen attribute to the central tribes, arunta,[ ] warramunga,[ ] etc. it is found again among the wotjobaluk.[ ] in other places, all the dead, no matter what their totems may have been, are believed to live together in the same place, which is more or less vaguely localized as beyond the sea, in an island,[ ] or on the shores of a lake.[ ] sometimes, finally, it is into the sky, beyond the clouds, that the souls are thought to go. "there," says dawson, "there is a delectable land, abounding in kangaroos and game of every sort, where men lead a happy life. souls meet again there and recognize one another."[ ] it is probable that certain of the features of this picture have been taken from the paradise of the christian missionaries;[ ] but the idea that souls, or at least some souls, enter the skies after death appears to be quite indigenous; for it is found again in other parts of the continent.[ ] in general, all the souls meet the same fate and lead the same life. however, a different treatment is sometimes accorded them based on the way they have conducted themselves upon earth, and we can see the first outlines of these two distinct and even opposed compartments into which the world to come will later be divided. the souls of those who have excelled, during life, as hunters, warriors, dancers, etc., are not confounded with the common horde of the others; a special place is granted to them.[ ] sometimes, this is the sky.[ ] strehlow even says that according to one myth, the souls of the wicked are devoured by dreadful spirits, and destroyed.[ ] nevertheless, these conceptions always remain very vague in australia;[ ] they begin to have a clarity and determination only in the more advanced societies, such as those of america.[ ] ii such are the beliefs relative to the soul and its destiny, in their most primitive form, and reduced to their most essential traits. we must now attempt to explain them. what is it that has been able to lead men into thinking that there are two beings in them, one of which possesses these very special characteristics which we have just enumerated? to find the reply to this question, let us begin by seeking the origin attributed to this spiritual principle by the primitive himself: if it is well analysed, his own conception will put us on the way towards the solution. following out the method which we have set before ourselves, we shall study these ideas in a determined group of societies where they have been observed with an especial precision; these are the tribes of central australia. though not narrow, the area of our observations will be limited. but there is good reason for believing that these same ideas are quite generally held, in various forms, even outside of australia. it is also to be noted that the idea of the soul, as it is found among these central tribes, does not differ specifically from the one found in other tribes; it has the same essential characteristics everywhere. as one effect always has the same cause, we may well think that this idea, which is everywhere the same, does not result from one cause here and another there. so the origin which we shall be led to attribute to it as a result of our study of these particular tribes with which we are going to deal, ought to be equally true for the others. these tribes will give us a chance to make an experiment, as it were, whose results, like those of every well-made experiment, are susceptible of generalization. the homogeneity of the australian civilization would of itself be enough to justify this generalization; but we shall be careful to verify it afterwards with facts taken from other peoples, both in australia and america. as the conceptions which are going to furnish us with the basis of our demonstration have been reported in different terms by spencer and gillen on the one hand and strehlow on the other, we must give these two versions one after the other. we shall see that when they are well understood, they differ in form more than in matter, and that they both have the same sociological significance. according to spencer and gillen, the souls which, in each generation, come to animate the bodies of newly-born children, are not special and original creations; all these tribes hold that there is a definite stock of souls, whose number cannot be augmented at all,[ ] and which reincarnate themselves periodically. when an individual dies, his soul quits the body in which it dwelt, and after the mourning is accomplished, it goes to the land of the souls; but after a certain length of time, it returns to incarnate itself again, and these reincarnations are the cause of conception and birth. at the beginning of things, it was these fundamental souls which animated the first ancestors, the founders of the clan. at an epoch, beyond which the imagination does not go and which is considered the very beginning of time, there were certain beings who were not derived from any others. for this reason, the arunta call them the _altjirangamitjina_,[ ] the uncreated ones, those who exist from all eternity, and, according to spencer and gillen, they give the name _alcheringa_[ ] to the period when these fabulous beings are thought to have lived. being organized in totemic clans just as the men of to-day are, they passed their time in travels, in the course of which they accomplished all sorts of prodigious actions, the memory of which is preserved in the myths. but a moment arrived when this terrestrial life came to a close; singly or in groups, they entered into the earth. but their souls live for ever; they are immortal. they even continue to frequent the places where the existence of their former hosts came to an end. moreover, owing to the memories attached to them, these places have a sacred character; it is here that the oknanikilla are located, the sorts of sanctuaries where the churinga of the clan is kept, and the centres of the different totemic cults. when one of the souls which wander about these sanctuaries enters into the body of a woman, the result is a conception and later a birth.[ ] so each individual is considered as a new appearance of a determined ancestor: it is this ancestor himself, come back in a new body and with new features. now, what were these ancestors? in the first place, they were endowed with powers infinitely superior to those possessed by men to-day, even the most respected old men and the most celebrated magicians. they are attributed virtues which we may speak of as miraculous: "they could travel on, or above, or beneath the ground; by opening a vein in the arm, each of them could flood whole tracts of country or cause level plains to arise; in rocky ranges they could make pools of water spring into existence, or could make deep gorges and gaps through which to traverse the ranges, and where they planted their sacred poles (nurtunja), there rocks or trees arose to mark the spot."[ ] it is they who gave the earth the form it has at present. they created all sorts of beings, both men and animals. they are nearly gods. so their souls also have a divine character. and since the souls of men are these ancestral souls reincarnated in the human body, these are sacred beings too. in the second place, these ancestors were not men in the proper sense of the word, but animals or vegetables, or perhaps mixed beings in which the animal or vegetable element predominated: "in the alcheringa," say spencer and gillen, "lived ancestors who, in the native mind, are so intimately associated with the animals or plants the name of which they bear that an alcheringa man of, say, the kangaroo totem may sometimes be spoken of either as a man-kangaroo or a kangaroo-man. the identity of the human individual is often sunk in that of the animal or plant from which he is supposed to have originated."[ ] their immortal souls necessarily have the same nature; in them, also, the human element is wedded to the animal element, with a certain tendency for the latter to predominate over the former. so they are made of the same substance as the totemic principle, for we know that the special characteristic of this is to present this double nature, and to synthesize and confound the two realms in itself. since no other souls than these exist, we reach the conclusion that, in a general way, the soul is nothing other than the totemic principle incarnate in each individual. and there is nothing to surprise us in this derivation. we already know that this principle is immanent in each of the members of the clan. but in penetrating into these individuals, it must inevitably individualize itself. because the consciousnesses, of which it becomes thus an integral part, differ from each other, it differentiates itself according to their image; since each has its own physiognomy, it takes a distinct physiognomy in each. of course it remains something outside of and foreign to the man, but the portion of it which each is believed to possess cannot fail to contract close affinities with the particular subject in which it resides; it becomes his to a certain extent. thus it has two contradictory characteristics, but whose coexistence is one of the distinctive features of the notion of the soul. to-day, as formerly, the soul is what is best and most profound in ourselves, and the pre-eminent part of our being; yet it is also a passing guest which comes from the outside, which leads in us an existence distinct from that of the body, and which should one day regain its entire independence. in a word, just as society exists only in and through individuals, the totemic principle exists only in and through the individual consciousnesses whose association forms the clan. if they did not feel it in them it would not exist; it is they who put it into things. so it must of necessity be divided and distributed among them. each of these fragments is a soul. a myth which is found in a rather large number of the societies of the centre, and which, moreover, is only a particular form of the preceding ones, shows even better that this is really the matter out of which the idea of the soul is made. in these tribes, tradition puts the origin of each clan, not in a number of ancestors, but in only two,[ ] or even in one.[ ] this unique being, as long as he remained single, contained the totemic principle within him integrally, for at this moment there was nothing to which this principle could be communicated. now, according to this same tradition, all the human souls which exist, both those which now animate the bodies of men and those which are at present unemployed, being held in reserve for the future, have issued from this unique personage; they are made of his substance. while travelling over the surface of the ground, or moving about, or shaking himself, he made them leave his body and planted them in the various places he is believed to have passed over. is this not merely a symbolic way of saying that they are parts of the totemic divinity? but this conclusion presupposes that the tribes of which we have just been speaking admit the doctrine of reincarnation. now according to strehlow, this doctrine is unknown to the arunta, the society which spencer and gillen have studied the longest and the best. if, in this particular case, these two observers have misunderstood things to such an extent, their whole testimony would become suspect. so it is important to determine the actual extent of this divergence. according to strehlow, after the soul has once been definitely freed from the body by the rites of mourning, it never reincarnates itself again. it goes off to the isles of the dead, where it passes its days in sleeping and its nights in dancing, until it returns again to earth. then it comes back into the midst of the living and plays the rôle of protecting genius to the young sons, or if such are lacking, to the grandsons whom the dead man left behind him; it enters their body and aids their growth. it remains thus in the midst of its former family for a year or two, after which it goes back to the land of the souls. but after a certain length of time it goes away once more to make another sojourn upon earth, which is to be the last. a time will come when it must take up again, and with no hope of return this time, the route to the isles of the dead; then, after various incidents, the details of which it is useless to relate, a storm will overtake it, in the course of which it will be struck by a flash of lightning. thus its career is definitely terminated.[ ] so it cannot reincarnate itself; nor can conceptions and births be due to the reincarnation of souls which periodically commence new existences in new bodies. it is true that strehlow, as spencer and gillen, declares that for the arunta commerce of the sexes is in no way the determining condition of generation,[ ] which is considered the result of mystic operations, but different from the ones which the other observers told us about. it takes place in one or the other of the two following ways: wherever an ancestor of the alcheringa[ ] times is believed to have entered into the ground, there is either a stone or a tree representing his body. the tree or rock which has this mystic relation with the departed hero is called _nanja_ according to spencer and gillen,[ ] or _ngarra_ according to strehlow.[ ] sometimes it is a water-hole which is believed to have been formed in this way. now, on each of these trees or rocks and in each of these water-holes, there live embryo children, called _ratapa_,[ ] which belong to exactly the same totem as the corresponding ancestor. for example, on a gum-tree representing an ancestor of the kangaroo totem there are ratapa, all of which have the kangaroo as their totem. if a woman happens to pass it, and she is of the matrimonial class to which the mothers of these ratapa should belong,[ ] one of them may enter her through the hip. the woman learns of this act by the characteristic pains which are the first symptoms of pregnancy. the child thus conceived will of course belong to the same totem as the ancestor upon whose mystical body he resided before becoming incarnate.[ ] in other cases, the process employed is slightly different: the ancestor himself acts in person. at a given moment he leaves his subterranean retreat and throws on to the passing woman a little churinga of a special form, called _namatuna_.[ ] the churinga enters the body of the woman and takes a human form there, while the ancestor disappears again into the earth.[ ] these two ways of conception are believed to be equally frequent. the features of the child will reveal the manner in which he was conceived; according to whether his face is broad or long, they say that he is the incarnation of a ratapa or a namatuna. beside these two means of fecundation, strehlow places a third, which, however, is much more rare. after his namatuna has penetrated into the body of the woman, the ancestor himself enters her and voluntarily submits to a new birth. so in this case, the conception is due to a real reincarnation of the ancestor. but this is very exceptional, and when a man who has been conceived thus dies, the ancestral soul which animated him goes away, just like ordinary souls, to the isles of the dead where, after the usual delays, it is definitely annihilated. so it cannot undergo any further reincarnations.[ ] such is the version of strehlow.[ ] in the opinion of this author it is radically opposed to that of spencer and gillen. but in reality it differs only in the letter of the formulæ and symbols, while in both cases we find the same mythical theme in slightly different forms. in the first place, all the observers agree that every conception is the result of an incarnation. only according to strehlow, that which is incarnated is not a soul but a ratapa or a namatuna. but what is a ratapa? strehlow says that it is a complete embryo, made up of a soul and a body. but the soul is always represented in material forms; it sleeps, dances, hunts, eats, etc. so it, too, has a corporal element. inversely, the ratapa is invisible to ordinary men; no one sees it as it enters the body of the woman;[ ] this is equivalent to saying that it is made of a matter quite similar to that of the soul. so it hardly seems possible to differentiate the two clearly in this regard. in reality, these are mythical beings which are obviously conceived after the same model. schulze calls them the souls of children.[ ] moreover, the ratapa, just like the soul, sustains the closest relations with the ancestor of which the sacred tree or rock is the materialized form. it is of the same totem as this ancestor, of the same phratry and of the same matrimonial class.[ ] its place in the social organization of the tribe is the very one that its ancestor is believed to have held before it. it bears the same name,[ ] which is a proof that these two personalities are at least very closely related to one another. but there is more than this; this relationship even goes as far as a complete identification. in fact, it is on the mystic body of the ancestor that the ratapa is formed; it comes from this; it is like a detached portion of it. so it really is a part of the ancestor which penetrates into the womb of the mother and which becomes the child. thus we get back to the conception of spencer and gillen: birth is due to the reincarnation of an ancestral personage. of course it is not the entire person that is reincarnated, it is only an emanation from him. but this difference has only a secondary interest, for when a sacred being divides and duplicates itself, all of its essential characteristics are to be found again in each of the fragments into which it is broken up. so really the alcheringa ancestor is entire in each part of himself which becomes a ratapa.[ ] the second mode of conception distinguished by strehlow has the same significance. in fact, the churinga, and more especially the particular churinga that is called the namatuna, is considered a transformation of the ancestor; according to strehlow,[ ] it is his body, just as the nanja tree is. in other words, the personality of the ancestor, his churinga and his nanja tree, are sacred things, inspiring the same sentiments and to which the same religious value is attributed. so they transmute themselves into one another: in the spot where an ancestor lost his churinga, a sacred tree or rock has come out of the soil, just the same as in those places where he entered the ground himself.[ ] so there is a mythological equivalence of a person of the alcheringa and his churinga; consequently, when the former throws a namatuna into the body of a woman, it is as if he entered into it himself. in fact, we have seen that sometimes he does enter in person after the namatuna; according to other stories he precedes it; it might be said that he opens up the way for it.[ ] the fact that these two themes exist side by side in the same myth completes the proof that one is only a doublet of the other. moreover, in whatever way the conception may have taken place, there can be no doubt that each individual is united to some determined ancestor of the alcheringa by especially close bonds. in the first place, each man has his appointed ancestor; two persons cannot have the same one simultaneously. in other words, a being of the alcheringa never has more than one representative among the living.[ ] more than that, the one is only an aspect of the other. in fact, as we already know, the churinga left by the ancestor expresses his personality; if we adopt the interpretation of strehlow, which, perhaps, is the more satisfactory, we shall say that it is his body. but this same churinga is related in the same way to the individual who is believed to have been conceived under the influence of this ancestor, and who is the fruit of his mystic works. when the young initiate is introduced into the sanctuary of the clan, he is shown the churinga of his ancestor, and someone says to him, "you are this body; you are the same thing as this."[ ] so, in strehlow's own expression, the churinga is "the body common to the individual and his ancestor."[ ] now if they are to have the same body it is necessary that on one side at least their two personalities be confounded. strehlow recognizes this explicitly, moreover, when he says, "by the tjurunga (churinga) the individual is united to his personal ancestor."[ ] so for strehlow as well as for spencer and gillen, there is a mystic, religious principle in each new-born child, which emanates from an ancestor of the alcheringa. it is this principle which forms the essence of each individual, therefore it is his soul, or in any case the soul is made of the same matter and the same substance. now it is only upon this one fundamental fact that we have relied in determining the nature and origin of the idea of the soul. the different metaphors by means of which it may have been expressed have only a secondary interest for us.[ ] far from contradicting the data upon which our theory rests, the recent observations of strehlow bring new proofs confirming it. our reasoning consisted in inferring the totemic nature of the human soul from the totemic nature of the ancestral soul, of which the former is an emanation and a sort of replica. now, some of the new facts which we owe to strehlow show this character of both even more categorically than those we had at our disposal before do. in the first place, strehlow, like spencer and gillen, insists on "the intimate relations uniting each ancestor to an animal, to a plant, or to some other natural object." some of these altjirangamitjina (these are spencer and gillen's men of the alcheringa) "should," he says, "be manifested directly as animals; others take the animal form in a way."[ ] even now they are constantly transforming themselves into animals.[ ] in any case, whatever external aspect they may have, "the special and distinctive qualities of the animal clearly appear in each of them." for example, the ancestors of the kangaroo clan eat grass just like real kangaroos, and flee before the hunter; those of the emu clan run and feed like emus,[ ] etc. more than that, those ancestors who had a vegetable as totem become this vegetable itself on death.[ ] moreover, this close kinship of the ancestor and the totemic being is so keenly felt by the natives that it is shown even in their terminology. among the arunta, the child calls the totem of his mother, which serves him as a secondary totem,[ ] _altjira_. as filiation was at first in the uterine line, there was once a time when each individual had no other totem than that of his mother; so it is very probable that the term _altjira_ then designated the real totem. now this clearly enters into the composition of the word which means great ancestor, _altjirangamitjina_.[ ] the idea of the totem and that of the ancestor are even so closely kindred that they sometimes seem to be confounded. thus, after speaking of the totem of the mother, or _altjira_, strehlow goes on to say, "this altjira appears to the natives in dreams and gives them warnings, just as it takes information concerning them to their sleeping friends."[ ] this _altjira_, which speaks and which is attached to each individual personally, is evidently an ancestor; yet it is also an incarnation of the totem. a certain text in roth, which speaks of invocations addressed to the totem, should certainly be interpreted in this sense.[ ] so it appears that the totem is sometimes represented in the mind in the form of a group of ideal beings or mythical personages who are more or less indistinct from the ancestors. in a word, the ancestors are the fragments of the totem.[ ] but if the ancestor is so readily confused with the totemic being, the individual soul, which is so near the ancestral soul, cannot do otherwise. moreover, this is what actually results from the close union of each man with his churinga. in fact, we know that the churinga represents the personality of the individual who is believed to have been born of it;[ ] but it also expresses the totemic animal. when the civilizing hero, mangarkunjerkunja, presented each member of the kangaroo clan with his personal totem, he spoke as follows: "here is the body of a kangaroo."[ ] thus the churinga is at once the body of the ancestor, of the individual himself and of the totemic animal; so, according to a strong and very just expression of strehlow, these three beings form a "solid unity."[ ] they are almost equivalent and interchangeable terms. this is as much as to say that they are thought of as different aspects of one and the same reality, which is also defined by the distinctive attributes of the totem. their common essence is the totemic principle. the language itself expresses this identity. the word ratapa, and the _aratapi_ of the loritja language, designate the mythical embryo which is detached from the ancestor and which becomes the child; now these same words also designate the totem of this same child, such as is determined by the spot where the mother believes that she conceived.[ ] iii up to the present we have studied the doctrine of reincarnation only in the tribes of central australia; therefore the bases upon which our inference rests may be deemed too narrow. but in the first place, for the reasons which we have pointed out, the experiment holds good outside of the societies which we have observed directly. also, there are abundant facts proving that the same or analogous conceptions are found in the most diverse parts of australia or, at least, have left very evident traces there. they are found even in america. howitt mentions them among the dieri of south australia.[ ] the word _mura-mura_, which gason translates with good spirit and which he thinks expresses a belief in a god creator,[ ] is really a collective word designating the group of ancestors placed by the myth at the beginning of the tribe. they continue to exist to-day as formerly. "they are believed to live in trees, which are sacred for this reason." certain irregularities of the ground, rocks and springs are identified with these mura-mura,[ ] which consequently resemble the altjirangamitjina of the arunta in a singular way. the kurnai of gippsland, though retaining only vestiges of totemism, also believe in the existence of ancestors called _muk-kurnai_, and which they think of as beings intermediate between men and animals.[ ] among the nimbaldi, taplin has observed a theory of conception similar to that which strehlow attributes to the arunta.[ ] we find this belief in reincarnation held integrally by the wotjobaluk in victoria. "the spirits of the dead," says mathews, "assemble in the _miyur_[ ] of their respective clans; they leave these to be born again in human form when a favourable occasion presents itself."[ ] mathews even affirms that "the belief in the reincarnation or transmigration of souls is strongly enrooted in all the australian tribes."[ ] if we pass to the northern regions we find the pure doctrine of the arunta among the niol-niol in the north-west; every birth is attributed to the incarnation of a pre-existing soul, which introduces itself into the body of a woman.[ ] in northern queensland myths, differing from the preceding only in form, express exactly the same ideas. among the tribes on the pennefather river it is believed that every man has two souls: the one, called _ngai_, resides in the heart; the other, called _choi_, remains in the placenta. soon after birth the placenta is buried in a consecrated place. a particular genius, named anje-a, who has charge of the phenomena of procreation, comes to get this _choi_ and keeps it until the child, being grown up, is married. when the time comes to give him a son, anje-a takes a bit of the choi of this man, places it in the embryo he is making, and inserts it into the womb of the mother. so it is out of the soul of the father that that of the child is made. it is true that the child does not receive the paternal soul integrally at first, for the _ngai_ remains in the heart of the father as long as he lives. but when he dies the _ngai_, being liberated, also incarnates itself in the bodies of the children; if there are several children it is divided equally among them. thus there is a perfect spiritual continuity between the generations; it is the same soul which is transmitted from a father to his children and from these to their children, and this unique soul, always remaining itself in spite of its successive divisions and subdivisions, is the one which animated the first ancestor at the beginning of all things.[ ] between this theory and the one held by the central tribes there is only one difference of any importance; this is that the reincarnation is not the work of the ancestors themselves but that of a special genius who takes charge of this function professionally. but it seems probable that this genius is the product of a syncretism which has fused the numerous figures of the first ancestors into one single being. this hypothesis is at least made probable by the fact that the words anje-a and anjir are evidently very closely related; now the second designates the first man, the original ancestor from whom all men are descended.[ ] these same ideas are found again among the indian tribes of america. krauss says that among the tlinkit, the souls of the departed are believed to come back to earth and introduce themselves into the bodies of the pregnant women of their families. "so when a woman dreams, during pregnancy, of some deceased relative, she believes that the soul of this latter has penetrated into her. if the young child has some characteristic mark which the dead man had before, they believe that it is the dead man himself come back to earth, and his name is given to the child."[ ] this belief is also general among the haida. it is the shaman who reveals which relative it was who reincarnated himself in the child and what name should consequently be given to him.[ ] among the kwakiutl it is believed that the latest member of a family who died comes back to life in the person of the first child to be born in that family.[ ] it is the same with the hurons, the iroquois, the tinneh, and many other tribes of the united states.[ ] the universality of these conceptions extends, of course, to the conclusion which we have deduced from them, that is, to the explanation of the idea of the soul which we have proposed. its general acceptability is also proved by the following facts. we know[ ] that each individual contains within him something of that anonymous force which is diffused in the sacred species; he is a member of this species himself. but as an empirical and visible being, he is not, for, in spite of the symbolic designs and marks with which he decorates his body, there is nothing in him to suggest the form of an animal or plant. so it must be that there is another being in him, in whom he recognizes himself, but whom he represents in the form of an animal or vegetable species. now is it not evident that this double can only be the soul, since the soul is, of itself, already a double of the subject whom it animates? the justification of this identification is completed by the fact that the organs where the fragment of the totemic principle contained in each individual incarnates itself the most eminently are also those where the soul resides. this is the case with the blood. the blood contains something of the nature of the totem, as is proved by the part it takes in the totemic ceremonies.[ ] but at the same time, the blood is one of the seats of the soul; or rather, it is the soul itself, seen from without. when blood flows, life runs out and, in the same process, the soul escapes. so the soul is confused with the sacred principle which is imminent in the blood. regarding matters from another point of view, if our explanation is well-founded, the totemic principle, in penetrating into the individual as we suppose, should retain a certain amount of autonomy there, since it is quite distinct from the subject in whom it is incarnated. now this is just what howitt claims to have observed among the yuin: "that in this tribe the totem is thought to be in some way part of a man is clearly seen by the case of umbara, before mentioned, who told me that, many years ago, someone of the lace-lizard totem sent it while he was asleep, and that it went down his throat and almost ate his totem, which was in his breast, so that he nearly died."[ ] so it is quite true that the totem is broken up in individualizing itself and that each of the bits thus detached plays the part of a spirit or soul residing in the body.[ ] but there are other more clearly demonstrative facts. if the soul is only the totemic principle individualized, it should have, in certain cases at least, rather close relations with the animal or vegetable species whose form is reproduced by the totem. and, in fact, "the geawe-gal (a tribe of new south wales) had a superstition that everyone had within himself an affinity to the spirit of some bird, beast or reptile. not that he sprung from the creature in any way, but that the spirit which was in him was akin to that of the creature."[ ] there are even cases where the soul is believed to emanate directly from the animal or vegetable serving as totem. among the arunta, according to strehlow, when a woman has eaten a great deal of fruit, it is believed that she will give birth to a child who will have this fruit as totem. if, at the moment when she felt the first tremblings of the child, she was looking at a kangaroo, it is believed that the ratapa of the kangaroo has entered her body and fertilized her.[ ] h. basedow reported the same fact from the wogait.[ ] we know, also, that the ratapa and the soul are almost indistinguishable things. now, such an origin could never have been attributed to the soul if men did not think that it was made out of the same substances as the plants and animals of the totemic species. thus the soul is frequently represented in an animal form. it is known that in inferior societies, death is never considered a natural event, due to the action of purely physical causes; it is generally attributed to the evil workings of some sorcerer. in a large number of australian societies, in order to determine who is the responsible author of this murder, they work on the principle that the soul of the murderer must inevitably come to visit its victim. therefore, the body is placed upon a scaffolding; then, the ground under the corpse and all around it is carefully smoothed off so that the slightest mark becomes easily perceptible. they return the next day; if an animal has passed by there during the interval, its tracks are readily recognizable. their form reveals the species to which it belongs, and from that, they infer the social group of which the guilty man is a member. they say that it is a man of such a class or such a clan,[ ] according to whether the animal is the totem of this or that class or clan. so the soul is believed to have come in the form of the totemic animal. in other societies where totemism has weakened or disappeared, the soul still continues to be thought of in an animal form. the natives of cape bedford (north queensland) believe that the child, at the moment of entering the body of its mother, is a curlew if it is a girl, or a snake if it is a boy.[ ] it is only later that it takes a human form. many of the indians of north america, says the prince of wied, say that they have an animal in their bodies.[ ] the bororo of brazil represent the soul in the form of a bird, and therefore believe that they are birds of the same variety.[ ] in other places, it is thought of as a snake, a lizard, a fly, a bee, etc.[ ] but it is especially after death that this animal nature of the soul is manifested. during life, this characteristic is partially veiled, as it were, by the very form of the human body. but when death has once set it free, it becomes itself again. among the omaha, in at least two of the buffalo clans, it is believed that the souls of the dead go to rejoin the buffalo, their ancestors.[ ] the hopi are divided into a certain number of clans, whose ancestors were animals or beings with animal forms. now schoolcraft tells us that they say that at death, they take their original form again; each becomes a bear or deer, according to the clan to which he belongs.[ ] very frequently the soul is believed to reincarnate itself in the body of an animal.[ ] it is probably from this that the widely-spread doctrine of metempsychosis was derived. we have already seen how hard pressed tylor is to account for it.[ ] if the soul is an essentially human principle, what could be more curious than this marked predilection which it shows, in so large a number of societies, for the animal form? on the other hand, everything is explained if, by its very constitution, the soul is closely related to the animal, for in that case, when it returns to the animal world at the close of this life, it is only returning to its real nature. thus the generality of the belief in metempsychosis is a new proof that the constituent elements of the idea of the soul have been taken largely from the animal kingdom, as is presupposed by the theory which we have just set forth. iv thus the notion of the soul is a particular application of the beliefs relative to sacred beings. this is the explanation of the religious character which this idea has had from the moment when it first appeared in history, and which it still retains to-day. in fact, the soul has always been considered a sacred thing; on this ground, it is opposed to the body which is, in itself, profane. it is not merely distinguished from its material envelope as the inside from the outside; it is not merely represented as made out of a more subtle and fluid matter; but more than this, it inspires those sentiments which are everywhere reserved for that which is divine. if it is not made into a god, it is at least regarded as a spark of the divinity. this essential characteristic would be inexplicable if the idea of the soul were only a pre-scientific solution given to the problem of dreams; for there is nothing in the dream to awaken religious emotions, so the cause by which these are explained could not have such a character. but if the soul is a part of the divine substance, it represents something not ourselves that is within us; if it is made of the same mental matter as the sacred beings, it is natural that it should become the object of the same sentiments. and the sacred character which men thus attribute to themselves is not the product of a pure illusion either; like the notions of religious force and of divinity, the notion of the soul is not without a foundation in reality. it is perfectly true that we are made up of two distinct parts, which are opposed to one another as the sacred to the profane, and we may say that, in a certain sense, there is divinity in us. for society, this unique source of all that is sacred, does not limit itself to moving us from without and affecting us for the moment; it establishes itself within us in a durable manner. it arouses within us a whole world of ideas and sentiments which express it but which, at the same time, form an integral and permanent part of ourselves. when the australian goes away from a religious ceremony, the representations which this communal life has aroused or re-aroused within him are not obliterated in a second. the figures of the great ancestors, the heroic exploits whose memory these rites perpetuate, the great deeds of every sort in which he, too, has participated through the cult, in a word, all these numerous ideals which he has elaborated with the co-operation of his fellows, continue to live in his consciousness and, through the emotions which are attached to them and the ascendancy which they hold over his entire being, they are sharply distinguished from the vulgar impressions arising from his daily relations with external things. moral ideas have the same character. it is society which forces them upon us, and as the respect inspired by it is naturally extended to all that comes from it, its imperative rules of conduct are invested, by reason of their origin, with an authority and a dignity which is shared by none of our internal states: therefore, we assign them a place apart in our psychical life. although our moral conscience is a part of our consciousness, we do not feel ourselves on an equality with it. in this voice which makes itself heard only to give us orders and establish prohibitions, we cannot recognize our own voices; the very tone in which it speaks to us warns us that it expresses something within us that is not of ourselves. this is the objective foundation of the idea of the soul: those representations whose flow constitutes our interior life are of two different species which are irreducible one into another. some concern themselves with the external and material world; others, with an ideal world to which we attribute a moral superiority over the first. so we are really made up of two beings facing in different and almost contrary directions, one of whom exercises a real pre-eminence over the other. such is the profound meaning of the antithesis which all men have more or less clearly conceived between the body and the soul, the material and the spiritual beings who coexist within us. moralists and preachers have often maintained that no one can deny the reality of duty and its sacred character without falling into materialism. and it is true that if we have no idea of moral and religious imperatives, our psychical life will all be reduced to one level,[ ] all our states of consciousness will be on the same plane, and all feeling of duality will perish. to make this duality intelligible, it is, of course, in no way necessary to imagine a mysterious and unrepresentable substance, under the name of the soul, which is opposed to the body. but here, as in regard to the idea of sacredness, the error concerns the letter of the symbol employed, not the reality of the fact symbolized. it remains true that our nature is double; there really is a particle of divinity in us because there is within us us a particle of these great ideas which are the soul of the group. so the individual soul is only a portion of the collective soul of the group; it is the anonymous force at the basis of the cult, but incarnated in an individual whose personality it espouses; it is _mana_ individualized. perhaps dreams aided in determining certain secondary characteristics of the idea. the inconsistency and instability of the images which fill our minds during sleep, and their remarkable aptitude for transforming themselves into one another, may have furnished the model for this subtile, transparent and protean matter out of which the soul is believed to be made. also, the facts of swooning, catalepsy, etc., may have suggested the idea that the soul was mobile, and quitted the body temporarily during this life; this, in its turn, has served to explain certain dreams. but all these experiences and observations could have had only a secondary and complimentary influence, whose very existence it is difficult to establish. all that is really essential in the idea comes from elsewhere. but does not this genesis of the idea of the soul misunderstand its essential characteristic? if the soul is a particular form of the impersonal principle which is diffused in the group, the totemic species and all the things of every sort which are attached to these, at bottom it is impersonal itself. so, with differences only of degree, it should have the same properties as the force of which it is a special form, and particularly, the same diffusion, the same aptitude for spreading itself contagiously and the same ubiquity. but quite on the contrary, the soul is voluntarily represented as a concrete, definite being, wholly contained within itself and not communicable to others; it is made the basis of our personality. but this way of conceiving the soul is the product of a late and philosophic elaboration. the popular representation, as it is spontaneously formed from common experience, is very different, especially at first. for the australian, the soul is a very vague thing, undecided and wavering in form, and spread over the whole organism. though it manifests itself especially at certain points, there are probably none from which it is totally absent. so it has a diffusion, a contagiousness and an omnipresence comparable to those of the _mana_. like the mana, it is able to divide and duplicate itself infinitely, though remaining entire in each of its parts; it is from these divisions and duplications that the plurality of souls is derived. on the other hand, the doctrine of reincarnation, whose generality we have established, shows how many impersonal elements enter into the idea of the soul and how essential those are. for if the same soul is going to clothe a new personality in each generation, the individual forms in which it successively develops itself must all be equally external to it, and have nothing to do with its true nature. it is a sort of generic substance which individualizes itself only secondarily and superficially. moreover, this conception of the soul is by no means completely gone. the cult of relics shows that for a host of believers even to-day, the soul of a saint, with all its essential powers, continues to adhere to his different bones; and this implies that he is believed to be able to diffuse himself, subdivide himself and incorporate himself in all sorts of different things simultaneously. just as the characteristic attributes of the mana are found in the soul, so secondary and superficial changes are enough to enable the mana to individualize itself in the form of a soul. we pass from the first idea to the second with no break of continuity. every religious force which is attached in a special way to a determined being participates in the characteristics of this being, takes on its appearance and becomes its spiritual double. tregear, in his maori-polynesian dictionary, has thought it possible to connect the word _mana_ with another group of words, such as _manawa_, _manamana_, etc., which seem to belong to the same family, and which signify heart, life, consciousness.[ ] is this not equivalent to saying that some sort of kinship ought to exist between the corresponding ideas as well, that is to say, between the idea of impersonal force and those of internal life, mental force and, in a word, of the soul? this is why the question whether the churinga is sacred because it serves as the residence of a soul, as spencer and gillen believe, or because it has impersonal virtues, as strehlow thinks, seems to us to have little interest and to be without sociological importance. whether the efficacy of a sacred object is represented in an abstract form in the mind or is attributed to some personal agent does not really matter. the psychological roots of both beliefs are identical: an object is sacred because it inspires, in one way or another, a collective sentiment of respect which removes it from profane touches. in order to explain this sentiment, men sometimes fall back on to a vague and imprecise cause, and sometimes on to a determined spiritual being endowed with a name and a history; but these different interpretations are superadded to one fundamental phenomenon which is the same in both cases. this, moreover, is what explains the singular confusions, examples of which we have met with as we have progressed. the individual, the soul of the ancestor which he reincarnates or from which his own is an emanation, his churinga and the animals of the totemic species are, as we have said, partially equivalent and interchangeable things. this is because in certain connections, they all affect the collective consciousness in the same way. if the churinga is sacred, it is because of the collective sentiments of respect inspired by the totemic emblem carved upon its surface; now the same sentiment attaches itself to the animals or plants whose outward form is reproduced by the totem, to the soul of the individual, for it is thought of in the form of the totemic being, and finally to the ancestral soul, of which the preceding one is only a particular aspect. so all these various objects, whether real or ideal, have one common element by which they arouse a single affective state in the mind, and through this, they become confused. in so far as they are expressed by one and the same representation, they are indistinct. this is how the arunta has come to regard the churinga as the body common to the individual, the ancestor and even the totemic being. it is his way of expressing the identity of the sentiments of which these different things are the object. however, it does not follow from the fact the idea of the soul is derived from the idea of mana that the first has a relatively later origin, or that there was a period in history when men were acquainted with religious forces only in their impersonal forms. when some wish to designate by the word preanimist an historical period during which animism was completely unknown, they build up an arbitrary hypothesis;[ ] for there is no people among whom the ideas of the soul and of mana do not coexist side by side. so there is no ground for imagining that they were formed at two distinct times; everything, on the contrary, goes to show that the two are coeval. just as there is no society without individuals, so those impersonal forces which are disengaged from the group cannot establish themselves without incarnating themselves in the individual consciousnesses where they individualize themselves. in reality, we do not have two different developments, but two different aspects of one and the same development. it is true that they do not have an equal importance; one is more essential than the other. the idea of mana does not presuppose the idea of the soul; for if the mana is going to individualize itself and break itself up into the particular souls, it must first of all exist, and what it is in itself does not depend upon the forms it takes when individualized. but on the contrary, the idea of the soul cannot be understood except when taken in connection with the idea of mana. so on this ground, it is possible to say that it is the result of a secondary formation; but we are speaking of a secondary formation in the logical, not the chronological, sense of the word. v but how does it come that men have believed that the soul survives the body and is even able to do so for an indefinite length of time? from the analysis which we have made, it is evident that the belief in immortality has not been established under the influence of moral ideas. men have not imagined the prolongation of their existence beyond the tomb in order that a just retribution for moral acts may be assured in another life, if it fails in this one; for we have seen that all considerations of this sort are foreign to the primitive conception of the beyond. nor is the other hypothesis any better, according to which the other life was imagined as a means of escaping the agonizing prospect of annihilation. in the first place, it is not true that the need of personal survival was actively felt at the beginning. the primitive generally accepts the idea of death with a sort of indifference. being trained to count his own individuality for little, and being accustomed to exposing his life constantly, he gives it up easily enough.[ ] more than that, the immortality promised by the religions he practices is not personal. in a large number of cases, the soul does not continue the personality of the dead man, or does not continue it long, for, forgetful of its previous existence, it goes away, after a while, to animate another body and thus becomes the vivifying principle of a new personality. even among the most advanced peoples, it was only a pale and sad existence that shades led in sheol or erebus, and could hardly attenuate the regrets occasioned by the memories of the life lost. a more satisfactory explanation is the one attaching the conception of a posthumous life to the experiences of dreams. our dead friends and relatives reappear to us in dreams: we see them act, we hear them speak; it is natural to conclude that they continue to exist. but if these observations were able to confirm the idea after it had once been born, they hardly seem capable of creating it out of nothing. dreams in which we see departed persons living again are too rare and too short and leave only too vague recollections of themselves, to have been able to suggest so important a system of beliefs to men all by themselves. there is a remarkable lack of proportion between the effect and the cause to which it is attributed. what makes this question embarrassing is the fact that in itself, the idea of the soul does not imply that of its survival, but rather seems to exclude it. in fact, we have seen that the soul, though being distinguished from the body, is believed, nevertheless, to be closely united to it: it ages along with the body, it feels a reaction from all the maladies that fall upon the body; so it would seem natural that it should die with the body. at least, men ought to have believed that it ceased to exist from the moment when it definitely lost its original form, and when it was no longer what it had been. yet it is at just this moment that a new life opens out before it. the myths which we have already described give the only possible explanation of this belief. we have seen that the souls of new-born children are either emanations of the ancestral souls, or these souls themselves reincarnated. but in order that they may either reincarnate themselves, or periodically give off new emanations, they must have survived their first holders. so it seems as though they admitted the survival of the dead in order to explain the birth of the living. the primitive does not have the idea of an all-powerful god who creates souls out of nothing. it seems to him that souls cannot be made except out of souls. so those who are born can only be new forms of those who have been; consequently, it is necessary that these latter continue to exist in order that others may be born. in fine, the belief in the immortality of the soul is the only way in which men were able to explain a fact which could not fail to attract their attention; this fact is the perpetuity of the life of the group. individuals die, but the clan survives. so the forces which give it life must have the same perpetuity. now these forces are the souls which animate individual bodies; for it is in them and through them that the group is realized. for this reason, it is necessary that they endure. it is even necessary that in enduring, they remain always the same; for, as the clan always keeps its characteristic appearance, the spiritual substance out of which it is made must be thought of as qualitatively invariable. since it is always the same clan with the same totemic principle, it is necessary that the souls be the same, for souls are only the totemic principle broken up and particularized. thus there is something like a germinative plasm, of a mystic order, which is transmitted from generation to generation and which makes, or at least is believed to make, the spiritual unity of the clan through all time. and this belief, in spite of its symbolic character, is not without a certain objective truth. for though the group may not be immortal in the absolute sense of the word, still it is true that it endures longer than the individuals and that it is born and incarnated afresh in each new generation. a fact confirms this interpretation. we have seen that according to the testimony of strehlow, the arunta distinguish two sorts of souls: on the one hand are those of the ancestors of the alcheringa, on the other, those of the individuals who actually compose the active body of the tribe at each moment in history. the second sort only survive the body for a relatively short time; they are soon totally annihilated. only the former are immortal; as they are uncreated, so they do not perish. it is also to be noticed that they are the only ones whose immortality is necessary to explain the permanence of the group; for it is upon them, and upon them alone, that it is incumbent to assure the perpetuity of the clan, for every conception is their work. in this connection, the others have no part to play. so souls are not said to be immortal except in so far as this immortality is useful in rendering intelligible the continuity of the collective life. thus the causes leading to the first beliefs in a future life had no connections with the functions to be filled at a later period by the institutions beyond the tomb. but when that had once appeared, they were soon utilized for other purposes besides those which had been their original reasons for existence. even in the australian societies, we see them beginning to organize themselves for this other purpose. moreover, there was no need of any fundamental transformation for this. how true it is that the same social institution can successively fulfil different functions without changing its nature! vi the idea of the soul was for a long time, and still is in part, the popular form of the idea of personality.[ ] so the genesis of the former of these ideas should aid us in understanding how the second one was formed. from what has already been said, it is clear that the notion of person is the product of two sorts of factors. one of these is essentially impersonal: it is the spiritual principle serving as the soul of the group. in fact, it is this which constitutes the very substance of individual souls. now this is not the possession of any one in particular: it is a part of the collective patrimony; in it and through it, all consciousnesses communicate. but on the other hand, in order to have separate personalities, it is necessary that another factor intervene to break up and differentiate this principle: in other words, an individualizing factor is necessary. it is the body that fulfils this function. as bodies are distinct from each other, and as they occupy different points of space and time, each of them forms a special centre about which the collective representations reflect and colour themselves differently. the result is that even if all the consciousnesses in these bodies are directed towards the same world, to wit, the world of the ideas and sentiments which brings about the moral unity of the group, they do not all see it from the same angle; each one expresses it in its own fashion. of these two equally indispensable factors, the former is certainly not the less important, for this is the one which furnishes the original matter for the idea of the soul. perhaps some will be surprised to see so considerable a rôle attributed to the impersonal element in the genesis of the idea of personality. but the philosophical analysis of the idea of person, which has gone far ahead of the sociological analysis, has reached analogous results on this point. among all the philosophers, leibniz is one of those who have felt most vividly what a personality is; for before all, the nomad is a personal and autonomous being. yet, for leibniz, the contents of all the monads is identical. in fact, all are consciousnesses which express one and the same object, the world; and as the world itself is only a system of representations, each particular consciousness is really only the reflection of the universal consciousness. however, each one expresses it from its own point of view, and in its own manner. we know how this difference of perspectives comes from the fact that the monads are situated differently in relation to each other and to the whole system which they constitute. kant expresses the same sentiment, though in a different form. for him, the corner-stone of the personality is the will. now the will is the faculty of acting in conformity with reason, and the reason is that which is most impersonal within us. for reason is not my reason; it is human reason in general. it is the power which the mind has of rising above the particular, the contingent and the individual, to think in universal forms. so from this point of view, we may say that what makes a man a personality is that by which he is confounded with other men, that which makes him a man, not a certain man. the senses, the body and, in a word, all that individualizes, is, on the contrary, considered as the antagonist of the personality by kant. this is because individuation is not the essential characteristic of the personality. a person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. it is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact. it is represented as capable of moving itself, to a certain degree: this is what leibniz expressed in an exaggerated way when he said that the monad was completely closed to the outside. now our analysis permits us to see how this conception was formed and to what it corresponds. in fact, the soul, a symbolic representation of the personality, has the same characteristic. although closely bound to the body, it is believed to be profoundly distinct from it and to enjoy, in relation to it, a large degree of independence. during life, it may leave it temporarily, and it definitely withdraws at death. far from being dependent upon the body, it dominates it from the higher dignity which is in it. it may well take from the body the outward form in which it individualizes itself, but it owes nothing essential to it. nor is the autonomy which all peoples have attributed to the soul a pure illusion; we know now what its objective foundation is. it is quite true that the elements which serve to form the idea of the soul and those which enter into the representation of the body come from two different sources that are independent of one another. one sort are made up of the images and impressions coming from all parts of the organism; the others consist in the ideas and sentiments which come from and express society. so the former are not derived from the latter. there really is a part of ourselves which is not placed in immediate dependence upon the organic factor: this is all that which represents society in us. the general ideas which religion or science fix in our minds, the mental operations which these ideas suppose, the beliefs and sentiments which are at the basis of our moral life, and all these superior forms of psychical activity which society awakens in us, these do not follow in the trail of our bodily states, as our sensations and our general bodily consciousness do. as we have already shown, this is because the world of representations in which social life passes is superimposed upon its material substratum, far from arising from it; the determinism which reigns there is much more supple than the one whose roots are in the constitution of our tissues and it leaves with the actor a justified impression of the greatest liberty. the medium in which we thus move is less opaque and less resistant: we feel ourselves to be, and we are, more at our ease there. in a word, the only way we have of freeing ourselves from physical forces is to oppose them with collective forces. but whatever we receive from society, we hold in common with our companions. so it is not at all true that we are more personal as we are more individualized. the two terms are in no way synonymous: in one sense, they oppose more than they imply one another. passion individualizes, yet it also enslaves. our sensations are essentially individual; yet we are more personal the more we are freed from our senses and able to think and act with concepts. so those who insist upon all the social elements of the individual do not mean by that to deny or debase the personality. they merely refuse to confuse it with the fact of individuation.[ ] chapter ix the idea of spirits and gods when we come to the idea of the soul, we have left the circle of purely impersonal forces. but above the soul the australian religions already recognize mythical personalities of a superior order: spirits, civilizing heroes and even gods who are properly so-called. while it will be unnecessary to enter into the detail of the mythologies, we must at least seek the form in which these three categories of spiritual beings are presented in australia, and the way in which they are connected with the whole religious system. i a soul is not a spirit. in fact, it is shut up in a determined organism; though it may leave it at certain moments, it is ordinarily a prisoner there. it definitely escapes only at death, and we have already seen the difficulties under which the separation is accomplished. a spirit, on the contrary, though often tied by the closest bonds to some particular object, such as a spring, a rock, a tree, a star, etc., and though residing there by preference, may go away at will and lead an independent existence in free space. so it has a more extended circle of action. it can act upon the individuals who approach it or whom it approaches. the soul, on the contrary, has almost no influence except over the body it animates; it is very exceptional that it succeeds in influencing outside objects during the course of its terrestrial life. but if the soul does not have the distinctive characteristics of the spirit, it acquires them, at least in part, at death. in fact, when it has been disincarnated, so long as it does not descend into a body again, it has the same liberty of movement as a spirit. of course, after the rites of mourning have been accomplished, it is thought to go to the land of souls, but before this it remains about the tomb for a rather long time. also, even after it has definitely departed, it is believed to prowl about in the brush near the camp.[ ] it is generally represented as a rather beneficent being, especially for the surviving members of its family; we have seen that the soul of the father comes to aid the growth of his children or his grandchildren. but it also happens sometimes that it shows signs of a veritable cruelty; everything depends upon its humour and the manner in which it is treated by the living.[ ] so it is recommended, especially to women and children, not to venture outside of the camp during the night so as not to expose oneself to dangerous encounters.[ ] however, a ghost is not a real spirit. in the first place, it generally has only a limited power of action; also, it does not have a definite province. it is a vagabond, upon whom no determined task is incumbent, for the effect of death has been to put it outside of all regular forms; as regards the living, it is a sort of a exile. a spirit, on the other hand, always has a power of a certain sort and it is by this that it is defined; it is set over a certain order of cosmic or social phenomena; it has a more or less precise function to fulfil in the system of the universe. but there are some souls which satisfy this double condition and which are consequently spirits, in the proper sense of the word. these are the souls of the mythical personages whom popular imagination has placed at the beginning of time, the altjirangamitjina or the men of the alcheringa among the arunta; the mura-mura among the tribes of lake eyre; the muk-kurnai among the kurnai, etc. in one sense, they are still souls, for they are believed to have formerly animated bodies from which they separated themselves at a certain moment. but even when they led a terrestrial life, they already had, as we have seen, exceptional powers; they had a mana superior to that of ordinary men, and they have kept it. also, they are charged with definite functions. in the first place, whether we accept the version of spencer and gillen or that of strehlow, it is to them that the care of assuring the periodical recruiting of the clan falls. they have charge of the phenomena of conception. even when the conception has been accomplished, the task of the ancestor is not yet completed. it is his duty to guard over the new-born child. later, when the child has become a man, he accompanies him in the hunt, brings game to him, warns him by dreams of the dangers he may run, protects him against his enemies, etc. on this point, strehlow is entirely in accord with spencer and gillen.[ ] it is true that someone may ask how it is possible, according to the version of these latter, for the ancestor to fulfil this function; for, since he reincarnates himself at the moment of conception, it seems as though he should be confounded with the soul of the child and should therefore be unable to protect it from without. but the fact is that he does not reincarnate himself entirely; he merely duplicates himself. one part of him enters the body of the woman and fertilizes her; another part continues to exist outside and, under the special name of arumburinga, fulfils the office of guardian genius.[ ] thus we see how great a kinship there is between this ancestral spirit and the _genius_ of the latins or the [greek: daimôn] of the greeks.[ ] the identification of function is complete. in fact, at first the genius is the one who begets, _qui gignit_; he expresses and personifies the powers of generation.[ ] but at the same time, he is the protector and director of the particular individual to whose person he is attached.[ ] he is finally confused with the personality itself of this individual; he represents the totality of the proclivities and tendencies which characterize him and give him a distinctive appearance among other men.[ ] hence come the well-known expressions _indulgere genio_, _defraudere genium_ with the sense of _to follow one's natural temperament_. at bottom, the _genius_ is another form or double of the soul of the individual. this is proved by the partial synonomy of _genius_ and _manes_.[ ] the manes is the genius after death; but it is also all that survives of the dead man, that is to say, his soul. in the same way, the soul of the arunta and the ancestral spirit which serves as his genius are only two different aspects of one and the same being. but it is not only in relation to persons that the ancestor has a definite situation; he also has one in relation to things. though he is believed to have his real residence under the ground, they think that he is always haunting the place where his nanja-tree or rock is, or the water-hole which was spontaneously formed at the exact spot where he disappeared into the ground, having terminated his first existence. as this tree or rock is believed to represent the body of the hero, they imagine that the soul itself is constantly coming back there, and lives there more or less permanently; it is by the presence of this soul that they explain the religious respect inspired by these localities. no one can break the branch of a nanja-tree without a risk of falling sick.[ ] "formerly the act of breaking it down or injuring it was punished with death. an animal or bird taking refuge there could not be killed. even the surrounding bushes had to be respected: the grass could not be burned, the rocks also had to be treated with respect. it was forbidden to remove them or break them."[ ] as this sacred character is attributed to the ancestor, he appears as the spirit of this tree or rock, of this water-hole or spring.[ ] if the spring is thought of as having some connection with rain,[ ] he will become a spirit of rain. thus, the same souls which serve as protecting geniuses for men also fulfil cosmic functions at the same time. it is undoubtedly in this sense that we must understand the text of roth where he says that in northern queensland, the spirits of nature are the souls of the dead who have chosen to live in the forests or caves.[ ] so we have here some spiritual beings that are different from the wandering souls with no definite powers. strehlow calls them gods;[ ] but this expression is inexact, at least in the great majority of cases. if it were true, then in a society like the arunta where each one has his protecting ancestor, there would be as many or more gods than there are individuals. it would merely introduce confusion into our terminology to give the name of god to a sacred being with only one worshipper. it may be, of course, that the figure of the ancestor grows to a point where it resembles a real divinity. among the warramunga, as we have already pointed out,[ ] the clan as a whole is thought to be descended from one sole and unique ancestor. it is easily seen how this collective ancestor might, under certain circumstances, become the object of a collective devotion. to choose a notable example, this is what has happened to the snake wollunqua.[ ] this mythical beast, from whom the clan of the same name is held to be descended, continues to live, they believe, in water-holes which are therefore surrounded with a religious respect. thus it becomes the object of a cult which the clan celebrates collectively: through determined rites, they attempt to please him and to win his favours, and they address to him all sorts of prayers, etc. so we may say that he is like a god of the clan. but this is a very exceptional case, or even, according to spencer and gillen, a unique one. normally, the word "spirits" is the only one suitable for designating these ancestral personages. as to the manner in which this conception has been formed, we may say that it is evident from what has preceded. as we have already shown, the existence of individual souls, when once admitted, cannot be understood unless one imagines an original supply of fundamental souls at the origin of things, from which all the others were derived. now these architype souls had to be conceived as containing within them the source of all religious efficacy; for, since the imagination does not go beyond them, it is from them and only from them that all sacred things are believed to come, both the instruments of the cult, the members of the clan and the animals of the totemic species. they incarnate all the sacredness diffused in the whole tribe and the whole world, and so they are attributed powers noticeably superior to those enjoyed by the simple souls of men. moreover, time by itself increases and reinforces the sacred character of things. a very ancient churinga inspires much more respect than a new one, and is supposed to have more virtues.[ ] the sentiments of veneration of which it has been the object during the series of successive generations who have handled it are, as it were, accumulated in it. for the same reason, the personages who for centuries have been the subject of myths respectfully passed on from mouth to mouth, and periodically put into action by the rites, could not fail to take a very especial place in the popular imagination. but how does it happen that, instead of remaining outside of the organized society, they have become regular members of it? this is because each individual is the double of an ancestor. now when two beings are related as closely as this, they are naturally conceived as incorporated together; since they participate in the same nature, it seems as though that which affects one ought to affect the other as well. thus the group of mythical ancestors became attached to the society of the living; the same interests and the same passions were attributed to each; they were regarded as associates. however, as the former had a higher dignity than the latter, this association takes, in the public mind, the form of an agreement between superiors and inferiors, between patrons and clients, benefactors and recipients. thus comes this curious idea of a protecting genius who is attached to each individual. the question of how this ancestor came to have relations not only with men, but also with things, may appear more embarrassing; for, at the first glance, we do not see what connection there can be between a personage of this sort and a rock or tree. but a fact which we owe to strehlow furnishes us with a solution of this problem, which is at least probable. these trees and rocks are not situated at any point in the tribal territory, but, for the most part, they are grouped around the sanctuaries, called ertnatulunga by spencer and gillen and arknanaua by strehlow, where the churinga of the clan is kept.[ ] we know the respect with which these localities are enhaloed from the mere fact that the most precious instruments of the cult are there. each of these spreads sanctity all about it. it is for this reason that the neighbouring trees and rocks appear sacred, that it is forbidden to destroy or harm them, and that all violence used against them is a sacrilege. this sacred character is really due to a simple phenomenon of psychic contagiousness; but in order to explain it, the native must admit that these different objects have relations with the different beings in whom he sees the source of all religious power, that is to say, with the ancestors of the alcheringa. hence comes the system of myths of which we have spoken. they imagined that each ertnatulunga marked the spot where a group of ancestors entered into the ground. the mounds or trees which covered the ground were believed to represent their bodies. but as the soul retains, in a general way, a sort of affinity for the body in which it dwelt, they were naturally led to believe that these ancestral souls continued to frequent these places where their material envelope remained. so they were located in the rocks, the trees or the water-holes. thus each of them, though remaining attached to some determined individual, became transformed into a sort of _genius loci_ and fulfilled its functions.[ ] the conceptions thus elucidated enable us to understand a form of totemism which we have left unexplained up to the present: this is individual totemism. an individual totem is defined, in its essence, by the two following characteristics: ( ) it is a being in an animal or vegetable form whose function is to protect an individual; ( ) the fate of this individual and that of his patron are closely united: all that touches the latter is sympathetically communicated to the former. now the ancestral spirits of which we have just been speaking answer to this same definition. they also belong, at least in part, to the animal or vegetable kingdoms. they, too, are protecting geniuses. finally, a sympathetic bond unites each individual to his protecting ancestor. in fact, the nanja-tree, representing the mystical body of this ancestor, cannot be destroyed without the man's feeling himself menaced. it is true that this belief is losing its force to-day, but spencer and gillen have observed it, and in any case, they are of the opinion that formerly it was quite general.[ ] the identity of these two conceptions is found even in their details. the ancestral souls reside in trees or rocks which are considered sacred. likewise, among the euahlayi, the spirit of the animal serving as individual totem is believed to inhabit a tree or stone.[ ] this tree or stone is sacred; no one may touch it except the proprietor of the totem; when it is a stone or rock, this interdiction is still absolute.[ ] the result is that they are veritable places of refuge. finally, we have seen that the individual soul is only another aspect of the ancestral spirit, according to strehlow, this serves after a fashion, as a second self.[ ] likewise, following an expression of mrs. parker, the individual totem of the euahlayi, called yunbeai, is the _alter ego_ of the individual: "the soul of a man is in his yunbeai and the soul of his yunbeai is in him."[ ] so at bottom, it is one soul in two bodies. the kinship of these two notions is so close that they are sometimes expressed by one and the same word. this is the case in melanesia and in polynesia: _atai_ in the island mota, _tamaniu_ in the island aurora, and _talegia_ in motlaw all designate both the soul of the individual and his personal totem.[ ] it is the same with _aitu_ in samoa.[ ] this is because the individual totem is merely the outward and visible form of the ego or the personality, of which the soul is the inward and invisible form.[ ] thus the individual totem has all the essential characteristics of the protecting ancestor and fills the same rôle: this is because it has the same origin and proceeds from the same idea. each of them, in fact, consists in a duplication of the soul. the totem, as the ancestor, is the soul of the individual, but externalized and invested with powers superior to those it is believed to possess while within the organism. now this duplication is the result of a psychological necessity; for it only expresses the nature of the soul which, as we have seen, is double. in one sense, it is ours: it expresses our personality. but at the same time, it is outside of us, for it is only the reaching into us of a religious force which is outside of us. we cannot confound ourselves with it completely, for we attribute to it an excellence and a dignity by which it rises far above us and our empirical individuality. so there is a whole part of ourselves which we tend to project into the outside. this way of thinking of ourselves is so well established in our nature that we cannot escape it, even when we attempt to regard ourselves without having recourse to any religious symbols. our moral consciousness is like a nucleus about which the idea of the soul forms itself; yet when it speaks to us, it gives the effect of an outside power, superior to us, which gives us our law and judges us, but which also aids and sustains us. when we have it on our side, we feel ourselves to be stronger against the trials of life, and better assured of triumphing over them, just as the australian who, when trusting in his ancestor or his personal totem, feels himself more valiant against his enemies.[ ] so there is something objective at the basis of these conceptions, whether we have in mind the roman _genius_, the individual totem, or the alcheringa ancestor; and this is why they have survived, in various forms, up to the present day. everything goes just as if we really had two souls; one which is within us, or rather, which is us; the other which is above us, and whose function it is to control and assist the first one. frazer thought that the individual totem was an external soul; but he believed that this exteriority was the result of an artifice and a magic ruse. in reality, it is implied in the very constitution of the idea of the soul.[ ] ii the spirits of which we have just been speaking are essentially benefactors. of course they punish a man if he does not treat them in a fitting manner;[ ] but it is not their function to work evil. however, a spirit is in itself just as capable of doing evil as good. this is why we find a class of evil geniuses forming itself naturally, in opposition to these auxiliary and protecting spirits, which enables men to explain the permanent evils that they have to suffer, their nightmares[ ] and illnesses,[ ] whirlwinds and tempests,[ ] etc. of course this is not saying that all these human miseries have appeared as things too abnormal to be explained in any way except by supernatural forces; but it is saying that these forces are thought of under a religious form. as it is a religious principle which is considered the source of life, so, all the events which disturb or destroy life ought logically to be traced to a principle of the same sort. these harmful spirits seem to have been conceived on the same model as the good spirits of which we have just been speaking. they are represented in an animal form, or one that is half-animal, half-man;[ ] but men are naturally inclined to give them enormous dimensions and a repulsive aspect.[ ] like the souls of the ancestors, they are believed to inhabit trees, rocks, water-holes and subterranean caverns.[ ] taking the arunta as a particular example, spencer and gillen say expressly that these evil geniuses, known under the name of oruncha, are beings of the alcheringa.[ ] many are represented as the souls of persons who had led a terrestrial life.[ ] among the personages of the fabulous epoch, there were, in fact, many different temperaments: some had cruel and evil instincts which they retained;[ ] others were naturally of a bad constitution; they were thin and emaciated; so after they had entered into the ground, the nanja rocks to which they gave birth were considered the homes of dangerous influences.[ ] yet they are distinguished by special characteristics from their confrères, the heroes of the alcheringa. they do not reincarnate themselves; among living men, there is no one who represents them; they are without human posterity.[ ] when, judging from certain signs, they believe that a child is the result of their work, it is put to death as soon as born.[ ] also, these belong to no determined totemic group; they are outside the social organization.[ ] by all these traits, they are recognized as magic powers rather than religious ones. and in fact, it is especially with the magician that they have relations; very frequently it is from them that he gets his powers.[ ] so we have now arrived at the point where the world of religion stops and that of magic commences; and as this latter is outside the field of our research, we need not push our researches further.[ ] iii the appearance of the notion of spirits marks an important step in advance in the individualization of religious forces. however, the spiritual beings of whom we have been speaking up to the present are as yet only secondary personages. they are either evil-working geniuses who belong to magic rather than religion, or else, being attached to determined individuals or places, they cannot make their influence felt except within a circle of a very limited radius. so they can only be the objects of private and local rites. but after the idea has once been established, it naturally spreads to the higher spheres of the religious life, and thus mythical personalities of a superior order are born. though the ceremonies of the different clans differ from one another, they all belong to the same religion, none the less; also, a certain number of essential similarities exist between them. since all the clans are only parts of one and the same tribe, the unity of the tribe cannot fail to make itself felt through this diversity of particular cults. in fact, there is no totemic group that does not have churinga and bull-roarers, and these are used everywhere in the same way. the organization of the tribe into phratries, matrimonial classes and clans, and the exogamic interdictions attached to them, are veritable tribal institutions. the initiation celebrations all include certain fundamental practices, the extraction of a tooth, circumcision, subincision, etc., which do not vary with the totems within a single tribe. the uniformity on this point is the more easily established as the initiation always takes place in the presence of the tribe, or at least, before an assembly to which the different clans have been summoned. the reason for this is that the object of the initiation is to introduce the neophyte into the religious life, not merely of the clan into which he was born, but of the tribe as a whole; so it is necessary that the various aspects of the tribal religion be represented before him and take place, in a way, under his very eyes. it is on this occasion that the moral and religious unity of the tribe is affirmed the best. thus, in each society there are a certain number of rites which are distinguished from all the others by their homogeneity and their generality. so noticeably a harmony seemed to be explicable only by a unity of origin. so they imagined that each group of similar rites had been founded by one and the same ancestor, who came to reveal them to the tribe as a whole. thus, among the arunta, it was an ancestor of the wild cat clan, named putiaputia,[ ] who is thought to have taught men the way of making churinga and using it ritually; among the warramunga, it was murtu-murtu;[ ] among the urabunna, witurna;[ ] it was atnatu among the kaitish[ ] and tendun among the kurnai.[ ] likewise, the practice of circumcision is attributed by the eastern dieri and many other tribes[ ] to two special muramura, and by the arunta to a hero of the alcheringa, of the lizard totem, named mangarkunjerkunja.[ ] to this same personage are ascribed the foundation of the matrimonial institutions and the social organization they imply, the discovery of fire, the invention of the spear, the buckler, the boomerang, etc. it also happens very frequently that the inventor of the bull-roarer is also considered the founder of the rites of initiation.[ ] these special ancestors cannot be put in the same rank as the others. on the one hand, the sentiments of veneration which they inspire are not limited to one clan, but are common to the whole tribe. on the other hand, it is to them that men ascribe all that is most esteemed in the tribal civilization. for this double reason, they became the object of a special consideration. for example, they say of atnatu that he was born in heaven at an epoch even prior to the times of the alcheringa, that he made himself and that he gave himself the name he bears. the stars are his wives and daughters. beyond the heaven where he lives, there is another one with another sun. his name is sacred, and should never be pronounced before women or non-initiated persons.[ ] yet, howsoever great the prestige enjoyed by these personages may be, there was no occasion for founding special rites in their honour; for they themselves are only rites personified. they have no other reason for existence than to explain existing practices; they are only another aspect of these. the churinga and the ancestor who invented it are only one; sometimes, both have the same name.[ ] when someone makes the bull-roarer resound, they say that it is the voice of the ancestor making himself heard.[ ] but, for the very reason that each of these heroes is confounded with the cult he is believed to have founded, they believe that he is attentive to the way in which it is celebrated. he is not satisfied unless the worshippers fulfil their duties exactly; he punishes those who are negligent.[ ] so he is thought of as the guardian of the rite, as well as its founder, and for this reason, he becomes invested with a veritable moral rôle.[ ] iv however, this mythological formation is not the highest which is to be found among the australians. there are at least a certain number of tribes who have arrived at a conception of a god who, if not unique, is at least supreme, and to whom is attributed a pre-eminent position among all the other religious entities. the existence of this belief was pointed out long ago by different observers;[ ] but it is howitt who has contributed the most to establishing its relative generality. in fact, he has verified it over a very extended geographical area embracing the state of victoria and new south wales and even extending up to queensland.[ ] in all this entire region, a considerable number of tribes believe in the existence of a veritable tribal divinity, who has different names, according to the district. the ones most frequently employed are bunjil or punjil,[ ] daramulun[ ] and baiame.[ ] but we also find nuralie or nurelle,[ ] kohin[ ] and mangan-ngaua.[ ] the same conception is found again farther west, among the narrinyeri, where the great god is called nurunderi or ngurrunderi.[ ] among the dieri, it is probable that there is one of the mura-mura, or ordinary ancestors, who enjoys a sort of supremacy over the others.[ ] finally, in opposition to the affirmations of spencer and gillen, who declare that they have observed no belief in a real divinity among the arunta,[ ] strehlow assures us that this people, as well as the loritja, recognize, under the name altjira, a veritable "good god."[ ] the essential characteristics of this personage are the same everywhere. it is an immortal, and even an eternal being, for it was not derived from any other. after having lived on earth for a certain length of time, he ascended to heaven, or else was taken up there,[ ] and continues to live there, surrounded by his family, for generally he is said to have one or several wives, children and brothers,[ ] who sometimes assist him in his functions. under the pretext of a visit he is said to have made to them, he and his family are frequently identified with certain stars.[ ] moreover, they attribute to him a power over stars. it is he who regulates the journey of the sun and moon;[ ] he gives them orders.[ ] it is he who makes the lightning leap from the clouds and who throws the thunder-bolts.[ ] since he is the thunder, he is also connected with the rain:[ ] it is to him that men address themselves when there is a scarcity of water, or when too much falls.[ ] they speak of him as a sort of creator: he is called the father of men and they say that he made them. according to a legend current around melbourne, bunjil made the first man in the following manner. he made a little statue out of white clay; then, after he had danced all around it several times and had breathed into its nostrils, the statue became animated and commenced to walk about.[ ] according to another myth, he lighted the sun; thus the earth became heated and men came out of it.[ ] at the same time that he made men,[ ] this divine personage made the animals and trees;[ ] it is to him that men owe all the arts of life, arms, language and tribal rites.[ ] he is the benefactor of humanity. even yet, he plays the rôle of a sort of providence for them. it is he who supplies his worshippers with all that is necessary for their existence.[ ] he is in communication with them, either directly or through intermediaries.[ ] but being at the same time guardian of the morals of the tribe, he treats them severely when these are violated.[ ] if we are to believe certain observers, he will even fulfil the office of judge, after this life; he will separate the good from the bad, and will not reward the ones like the others.[ ] in any case, they are often represented as ruling the land of the dead,[ ] and as gathering the souls together when they arrive in the beyond.[ ] as the initiation is the principal form of the tribal cult, it is to the rites of initiation that he is attached especially; he is their centre. he is very frequently represented by an image cut on a piece of bark or soaked into the ground. they dance around it; they sing in its honour; they even address real prayers to it.[ ] they explain to the young men who the personage is whom this image represents; they tell them his secret name, which the women and the uninitiated cannot know; they relate to them his history and the part attributed to him in the life of the tribe. at other times they raise their hands towards the heaven where he is thought to dwell, or else they point their arms or the ritual instruments they have in hand in this direction;[ ] this is a way of entering into communication with him. they feel his presence everywhere. he watches over the neophyte when he has withdrawn into the forest.[ ] he is attentive to the manner in which the ceremonies are celebrated. the initiation is his cult. so he gives special attention to seeing that these are carried out exactly: if there are any faults or negligences, he punishes them in a terrible manner.[ ] moreover, the authority of each of these supreme gods is not limited to a single tribe; it is recognized equally by a number of neighbouring tribes. bunjil is adored in nearly all of victoria, baiame in a considerable portion of new south wales, etc.; this is why there are so few gods for a relatively extended geographical area. so the cults of which they are the object have an international character. it even happens sometimes that mythologies intermingle, combine and make mutual borrowings. thus the majority of the tribes who believe in baiame also admit the existence of daramulun; however, they accord him a slighter dignity. they make him a son or brother of baiame, and subordinate to this latter.[ ] thus the faith in daramulun has spread in diverse forms, into all of new south wales. so it is far from true that religious internationalism is a peculiarity of the most recent and advanced religions. from the dawn of history, religious beliefs have manifested a tendency to overflow out of one strictly limited political society; it is as though they had a natural aptitude for crossing frontiers, and for diffusing and internationalizing themselves. of course there have been peoples and times when this spontaneous aptitude has been held in check by opposed social necessities; but that does not keep it from being real and, as we see, very primitive. to tylor this conception has appeared to be a part of so elevated a theology that he refuses to see in it anything but the product of a european importation: he would have it be a more or less denatured christian idea.[ ] andrew lang, on the contrary, considers them autochthonous;[ ] but as he also admits that it is contrasted with all the other australian beliefs and rests on completely different principles, he concludes that the religions of australia are made up of two heterogeneous systems, superimposed one upon the other, and consequently derived from a double origin. on the one hand, there were ideas relative to totems and spirits, which had been suggested to men by the sight of certain natural phenomena. but at the same time, by a sort of intuition as to the nature of which he refuses to make himself clear,[ ] the human intelligence succeeded at the first onset in conceiving a unique god, creator of the world and legislator of the moral order. lang even estimates that this idea was purer of foreign elements at the beginning, and especially in australia, than in the civilizations which immediately followed. with time, it was covered over and obscured little by little by the ever-growing mass of animistic and totemic superstitions. thus it underwent a sort of progressive degeneration up to the day when, as the effect of a privileged culture, it succeeded in coming into its own and restated itself again with more force and clarity than it had in the first place.[ ] but the facts allow neither the sceptical hypothesis of tylor nor the theological interpretation of lang. in the first place, it is certain to-day that the ideas relative to the great tribal god are of indigenous origin. they were observed before the influence of the missionaries had as yet had time to make itself felt.[ ] but it does not follow that it is necessary to attribute them to a mysterious revelation. far from being derived from a different source than the regular totemic beliefs, they are, on the contrary, only the logical working-out of these beliefs and their highest form. we have already seen how the notion of mythical ancestors is implied in the very principles upon which totemism rests, for each of them is a totemic being. now, though the great gods are certainly superior to these, still, there are only differences of degree between them; we pass from the first to the second with no break of continuity. in fact, a great god is himself an ancestor of especial importance. they frequently speak to us about him as though he were a man, endowed, to be sure, with more than human powers, but one who lived a human life upon the earth.[ ] he is pictured as a great hunter,[ ] a powerful magician,[ ] or the founder of the tribe.[ ] he was the first man.[ ] one legend even represents him in the form of a worn-out old man who could hardly move about.[ ] if a supreme god named mura-mura has existed among the dieri, the very word is significant, for it serves to designate the class of the ancestors. likewise, nuralie, the name of a great god among the tribes on the murray river, is sometimes used as a collective expression which is applied to the group of mythical beings whom tradition places at the origin of things.[ ] they are personages wholly comparable to those of the alcheringa.[ ] in queensland, we have already met with a god anjea or anjir, who made men but who seems, nevertheless, to be only the first man.[ ] a fact that has aided australian thought to pass from the numerous ancestral geniuses to the idea of the tribal god is that between the two extremes a middle term has been inserted, which has served as a transition: these are the civilizing heroes. the fabulous beings whom we call by this name are really simple ancestors to whom mythology has attributed an eminent place in the history of the tribe, and whom it has, for this reason, set above the others. we have even seen that they ordinarily form a part of the totemic organization: mangarkunjerkunja belongs to the lizard totem and putiaputia to the wild cat totem. but on the other hand, the functions which they are believed to fulfil, or to have fulfilled, are closely similar to those incumbent upon a great god. he, too, is believed to have introduced the arts of civilization among men, to have been the founder of the principal social institutions and the revealer of the great religious ceremonies which still remain under his control. if he is the father of men, it is because he manufactured them rather than begat them: but mangarkunjerkunja also made them. before his time, there were no men, but only unformed masses of flesh, in which the different members and even the different individuals were not yet separated from one another. it was he who cut up this original matter and made real human beings out of it.[ ] between this mode of fabrication and the one the myth we have spoken of attributes to bunjil, there are only shades of difference. moreover, the bonds uniting these two sorts of figures to each other are well shown by the fact that a relationship of descent is sometimes established between them. among the kurnai, the hero of the bull-roarer, tundun, is the son of the great god mungan-ngaua.[ ] likewise, among the euahlayi, daramulun, the son or brother of baiame, is identical with gayandi who is the equivalent of the tundun of the kurnai.[ ] of course it is not necessary to conclude from these facts that the great god is nothing more than a civilizing hero. there are cases where these two personages are carefully differentiated. but if they are not confounded, they are at least relatives. so it sometimes happens that we find it hard to distinguish them; there are some who could be classified equally well in one category or the other. thus, we have spoken of atnatu as a civilizing hero; but he comes very near to being a great god. the notion of a supreme god even depends so closely upon the entire system of the totemic beliefs that it still bears their mark. tundun is a divine hero, as we have just seen, who is very close to the tribal divinity; now among the kurnai, the same word means totem.[ ] similarly, among the arunta, altjira is the name of a great god; it is also the name of the maternal totem.[ ] but there is more to be said than this; many great gods have an obviously totemic aspect. daramulun is an eagle-hawk;[ ] his mother, an emu.[ ] it is also under the features of an emu that baiame is represented.[ ] the altjira of the arunta has the legs of an emu.[ ] before being the name of a great god, nuralie designated, as we just saw, the ancestor-founders of the tribe; now some of these were crows, the others hawks.[ ] according to howitt,[ ] bunjil is always represented in a human form; however, the same word serves to designate the totem of a phratry, the eagle-hawk. at least one of his sons is among the totems included in the phratry to which he has given, or from which he has taken his name.[ ] his brother is pallyan, the bat; now this latter serves as sexual totem for the men in many tribes in victoria.[ ] we can even go farther and state more definitely the connection which these great gods have with the totemic system. we have just seen that bunjil is the totem of a phratry. daramulun, like bunjil, is an eagle-hawk, and we know that this bird is the totem of phratries in a large number of south-eastern tribes.[ ] we have already pointed out that nuralie seems to have originally been a collective term designating indistinctly either eagle-hawks or crows; now in the tribes where this myth has been observed, the crow is the totem of one of the two phratries, the eagle-hawk, that of the other.[ ] also, the legendary history of the great gods resembles that of the totems of the phratries very closely. the myths, and sometimes the rites, commemorate the struggles which each of these divinities fought against a carnivorous bird, over which it triumphed only with the greatest difficulty. bunjil, the first man, after making the second man, karween, entered into a conflict with him, and in the course of a sort of duel, he wounded him severely and changed him into a crow.[ ] the two species of nurtalie are represented as two hostile groups which were originally in a constant state of war.[ ] baiame, on his side, had to fight against mullian, the cannibal eagle-hawk, who, by the way, is identical with daramulun.[ ] now, as we have seen, there is also a sort of constitutional hostility between the totems of the phratries. this parallelism completes the proof that the mythology of the great gods and that of these totems are closely related. this relationship will appear still more evident if we notice that the rival of the god is regularly either a crow or an eagle-hawk, and that these are quite generally the totems of the phratries.[ ] so baiame, daramulun, nuralie and bunjil seem to be phratry-totems who have been deified; and we may imagine that this apotheosis took place as follows. it is obviously in the assemblies which take place in regard to the initiation that the conception was elaborated, for the great gods do not play a rôle of any importance except in these rites, and are strangers to the other religious ceremonies. moreover, as the initiation is the principal form of the tribal cult, it is only on this occasion that a tribal mythology could arise. we have already seen how the rituals of circumcision and subincision spontaneously tend to personify themselves under the form of civilizing heroes. however, these heroes exercised no supremacy; they were on the same footing as the other legendary benefactors of society. but wherever the tribe acquired a livelier sentiment of itself, this sentiment naturally incarnated itself in some personage, who became its symbol. in order to account for the bonds uniting them to one another, no matter what clan they belonged to, men imagined that they were all descended from the same stock and that they were all descended from a single father, to whom they owe their existence, though he owed his to no one. the god of the initiation was predestined to this rôle, for, according to an expression frequently coming to the lips of the natives, the object of the initiation is to make or manufacture men. so they attributed a creative power to this god, and for all these reasons, he found himself invested with a prestige setting him well above the other heroes of the mythology. these others became his auxiliaries, subordinate to him; they were made his sons or younger brothers, as was the case with tundun, gayandi, karween, pallyan, etc. but other sacred beings already existed, who occupied an equally eminent place in the religious system of the clan: these were the totems of the phratries. wherever these are maintained, they are believed to keep the totems of the clans dependent upon them. thus they had all that was necessary for becoming tribal divinities themselves. so it was only natural that a partial confusion should arise between these two sorts of mythical beings; it is thus that one of the two fundamental totems of the tribe gave his traits to the great god. but as it was necessary to explain why only one of them was called to this dignity and the other excluded, they supposed that this latter, in the course of a fight against his rival, was vanquished and that his exclusion was the consequence of his defeat. this theory was the more readily admitted because it was in accord with the rest of the mythology, where the totems of the phratries are generally considered enemies of one another. a myth observed by mrs. parker among the euahlayi[ ] may serve to confirm this explanation, for it merely translates it into figurative language. it is related that in this tribe, the totems were only the names given to the different parts of baiame's body at first. so the clans were, in a sense, the fragments of the divine body. now is this not just another way of saying that the great god is the synthesis of all the totems and consequently the personification of the tribal unity? but at the same time, it takes an international character. in fact, the members of the tribe to which the young initiates belong are not the only ones who assist at the ceremonies of initiation; representatives from the neighbouring tribes are specially summoned to these celebrations, which thus become sorts of international fairs, at once religious and laical.[ ] beliefs elaborated in social environments thus constituted could not remain the exclusive patrimony of any special nationality. the stranger to whom they are revealed carries them back to his own tribe when he returns home; and as, sooner or later, he is forced to invite his former hosts, there is a continual exchange of ideas from tribe to tribe. it is thus that an international mythology was established, of which the great god was quite naturally the essential element, for it had its origin in the rites of initiation which it is his function to personify. so his name passed from one language to another, along with the representations which were attached to it. the fact that the names of the phratries are generally the same in very different tribes could not fail to facilitate this diffusion. the internationalism of the totems opened the way for that of the great god. v we thus reach the highest conception to which totemism has arrived. this is the point where it touches and prepares the religions which are to follow, and aids us in understanding them. but at the same time, we are able to see that this culminating idea is united without any interruption to the crudest beliefs which we analysed to start with. in fact, the great tribal god is only an ancestral spirit who finally won a pre-eminent place. the ancestral spirits are only entities forged in the image of the individual souls whose origin they are destined to explain. the souls, in their turn, are only the form taken by the impersonal forces which we found at the basis of totemism, as they individualize themselves in the human body. the unity of the system is as great as its complexity. in this work of elaboration, the idea of the soul has undoubtedly played an important part: it is through it that the idea of personality has been introduced into the domain of religion. but it is not true that, as the theorists of animism maintain, it contains the germ of the whole religion. first of all, it presupposes the notion of _mana_ or the totemic principle of which it is only a special form. then, if the spirits and gods could not be conceived before the soul, they are, nevertheless, more than mere human souls, liberated by death; else whence would come their supernatural powers? the idea of the soul has merely served to direct the mythological imagination in a new way and to suggest to it constructions of a new sort. but the matter for these conceptions has been taken, not from the representation of the soul, but from this reservoir of the anonymous and diffused forces which constitute the original foundation of religions. the creation of mythical personalities has only been another way of thinking of these essential forces. as for the notion of the great god, it is due entirely to the sentiment whose action we have already observed in the genesis of the most specifically totemic beliefs: this is the tribal sentiment. in fact, we have seen that totemism was not the work of isolated clans, but that it was always elaborated in the body of a tribe which was to some degree conscious of its unity. it is for this reason that the different cults peculiar to each clan mutually touch and complete each other in such a way as to form a unified whole.[ ] now it is this same sentiment of a tribal unity which is expressed in the conception of a supreme god, common to the tribe as a whole. so they are quite the same causes which are active at the bottom and at the top of this religious system. however, up to the present, we have considered the religious representations as if they were self-sufficient and could be explained by themselves. but in reality, they are inseparable from the rites, not only because they manifest themselves there, but also because they, in their turn, feel the influence of these. of course the cult depends upon the beliefs, but it also reacts upon them. so in order to understand them better, it is important to understand it better. the moment has come for undertaking its study. book iii the principal ritual attitudes chapter i the negative cult and its functions the ascetic rites we do not have the intention of attempting a complete description of the primitive cult in what is to follow. being preoccupied especially with reaching that which is most elementary and most fundamental in the religious life, we shall not attempt to reconstruct in detail the frequently confused multiplicity of all the ritual forms. but out of the midst of this extreme diversity of practices we should like to touch upon the most characteristic attitudes which the primitive observes in the celebration of his cult, to classify the most general forms of his rites, and to determine their origins and significance, in order that we may control and, if there is occasion, make more definite the results to which the analysis of the beliefs has led us.[ ] every cult presents a double aspect, one negative, the other positive. in reality, of course, the two sorts of rites which we denominate thus are closely associated; we shall see that they suppose one another. but still, they are different and, if it is only to understand their connection, it is necessary to distinguish them. i by definition, sacred beings are separated beings. that which characterizes them is that there is a break of continuity between them and the profane beings. normally, the first are outside the others. a whole group of rites has the object of realizing this state of separation which is essential. since their function is to prevent undue mixings and to keep one of these two domains from encroaching upon the other, they are only able to impose abstentions or negative acts. therefore, we propose to give the name negative cult to the system formed by these special rites. they do not prescribe certain acts to the faithful, but confine themselves to forbidding certain ways of acting; so they all take the form of interdictions, or as is commonly said by ethnographers, of _taboos_. this latter word is the one used in the polynesian languages to designate the institution in virtue of which certain things are withdrawn from common use[ ]; it is also an adjective expressing the distinctive characteristic of these kinds of things. we have already had occasion to show how hard it is to translate a strictly local and dialectical expression like this into a generic term. there is no religion where there are no interdictions and where they do not play a considerable part; so it is regrettable that the consecrated terminology should seem to make so universal an institution into a peculiarity of polynesia.[ ] the expression _interdicts_ or _interdictions_ seems to us to be much more preferable. however, the word taboo, like the word totem, is so customary that it would show an excess of purism to prohibit it systematically; also, the inconveniences it may have are attenuated when its real meaning and importance have once been definitely stated. but there are interdictions of different sorts which it is important to distinguish; for we shall not have to treat all kinds of interdictions in this chapter. first of all, beside those coming from religion, there are others which are due to magic. the two have this in common, that they declare certain things incompatible, and prescribe the separation of the things whose incompatibility is thus proclaimed. but there are also very grave differences between them. in the first place, the sanctions are not the same in the two cases. of course the violation of the religious interdicts is frequently believed, as we shall presently see, to bring about material disorders mechanically, from which the guilty man will suffer, and which are regarded as a judgment on his act. but even if these really come about this spontaneous and automatic judgment is not the only one; it is always completed by another one, supposing human intervention. a real punishment is added to this, if it does not anticipate it, and this one is deliberately inflicted by men; or at least there is a blame and public reprobation. even when the sacrilege has been punished, as it were, by the sickness or natural death of its author, it is also defamed; it offends opinion, which reacts against it; it puts the man who did it in fault. on the contrary, the magic interdiction is judged only by the material consequences which the forbidden act is believed to produce, with a sort of physical necessity. in disobeying, a man runs risks similar to those to which an invalid exposes himself in not following the advice of his physician; but in this case disobedience is not a fault; it creates no indignation. there is no sin in magic. moreover, this difference in sanction is due to a profound difference in the nature of the interdictions. the religious interdiction necessarily implies the notion of sacredness; it comes from the respect inspired by the sacred object, and its purpose is to keep this respect from failing. on the other hand, the interdictions of magic suppose only a wholly lay notion of property. the things which the magician recommends to be kept separate are those which, by reason of their characteristic properties, cannot be brought together and confused without danger. even if he happens to ask his clients to keep at a distance from certain sacred things, it is not through respect for them and fear that they may be profaned, for, as we know, magic lives on profanations;[ ] it is merely for reasons of temporal utility. in a word, religious interdictions are categorical imperatives; others are useful maxims, the first form of hygienic and medical interdictions. we cannot study two orders of facts as different as these simultaneously, or even under the same name, without confusion. we are only concerned with the religious interdictions here.[ ] but a new distinction is necessary between these latter. there are religious interdictions whose object is to separate two sacred things of different species from each other. for example, it will be remembered that among the wakelbura the scaffold upon which the corpse is exposed must be made exclusively of materials belonging to the phratry of the dead man; this is as much as to say that all contact between the corpse, which is sacred, and the things of the other phratry, which are also sacred, but differently, is forbidden. elsewhere, the arms which one uses to hunt an animal with cannot be made out of a kind of wood that is classed in the same social group as the animal itself.[ ] but the most important of these interdictions are the ones which we shall study in the next chapter; they are intended to prevent all communication between the purely sacred and the impurely sacred, between the sacredly auspicious and the sacredly inauspicious. all these interdictions have one common characteristic; they come, not from the fact that some things are sacred while others are not, but from the fact that there are inequalities and incompatibilities between sacred things. so they do not touch what is essential in the idea of sacredness. the observance of these prohibitions can give place only to isolated rites which are particular and almost exceptional; but it could not make a real cult, for before all, a cult is made by regular relations between the profane and the sacred as such. but there is another system of religious interdictions which is much more extended and important; this is the one which separates, not different species of sacred things, but all that is sacred from all that is profane. so it is derived immediately from the notion of sacredness itself, and it limits itself to expressing and realizing this. thus it furnishes the material for a veritable cult, and even of a cult which is at the basis of all the others; for the attitude which it prescribes is one from which the worshipper must never depart in all his relations with the sacred. it is what we call the negative cult. we may say that its interdicts are the religious interdicts _par excellence_.[ ] it is only these that we shall discuss in the following pages. but they take multiple forms. here are the principal ones which we observe in australia. before all are the interdictions of contact; these are the original taboos, of which the others are scarcely more than particular varieties. they rest upon the principle that the profane should never touch the sacred. we have seen already that the uninitiated may not touch the churinga or the bull-roarers under any circumstances. if adults are allowed the free use of them, it is because initiation has conferred a sacred character upon them. blood, and especially that which flows during the initiation, has a religious virtue;[ ] it is under the same interdict.[ ] it is the same with the hair.[ ] a dead man is sacred because the soul which animated the body stays with the corpse; for this reason it is sometimes forbidden to carry the bones of a dead man about unless they are wrapped up in a piece of bark.[ ] even the place where the death took place should be avoided, for they believe that the soul of the dead man continues to haunt the spot. that is why they break camp and move some distance away;[ ] in certain cases they destroy it along with everything it contains,[ ] and a certain time must elapse before they can come back to the same place.[ ] thus it comes about that a dying man creates an empty space about him; they abandon him after they have installed him as comfortably as possible.[ ] an exceptionally intimate contact is the one resulting from the absorption of food. hence comes the interdiction against eating the sacred animals or vegetables, and especially those serving as totems.[ ] such an act appears so very sacrilegious that the prohibition covers even adults, or at least, the majority of them; only the old men attain a sufficient religious dignity to escape this interdict sometimes. this prohibition has sometimes been explained by the mythical kinship uniting the man to the animals whose name he bears; they are protected by the sentiment of sympathy which they inspire by their position as kin.[ ] but the fact that the consumption of the forbidden flesh is believed to cause sickness or death automatically shows that this interdiction does not have its origin in the simple revolt of the feeling of domestic relationship. forces of another sort are in action which are analogous to those in all religions and which are believed to react against sacrileges. moreover, if certain foods are forbidden to the profane because they are sacred, certain others, on the contrary, are forbidden to persons of a sacred character, because they are profane. thus it frequently happens that certain animals are specially designated as the food of women; for this reason, they believe that they partake of a feminine nature and that they are consequently profane. on the other hand, the young initiate is submitted to a series of rites of particular severity; to give him the virtues which will enable him to enter into the world of sacred things, from which he had up till then been excluded, they centre an exceptionally powerful group of religious forces upon him. thus he enters into a state of sanctity which keeps all that is profane at a distance. then he is not allowed to eat the game which is regarded as the special food of women.[ ] but contact may be established by other means than the touch. one comes into relations with a thing by merely regarding it: a look is a means of contact. this is why the sight of sacred things is forbidden to the profane in certain cases. a woman should never see the instruments of the cult; the most that is permitted her is to catch a glimpse of them from afar.[ ] it is the same with the totemic paintings executed on the bodies of the officiants in the exceptionally important ceremonies.[ ] the exceptional solemnity of the rites of initiation prevents the women in certain tribes from seeing the place where they were celebrated[ ] or even the neophyte himself.[ ] the sacred character which is imminent in the ceremony as a whole is naturally found in the persons of those who directed it or took some part in it; the result of this is that the novice may not raise his eyes to them, and this interdiction continues even after the rite is accomplished.[ ] a dead man is also removed from view sometimes: his face is covered over in such a way that it cannot be seen.[ ] the word is another way of entering into relations with persons or things. the breath expired establishes a communication; this is a part of us which spreads outwards. thus it is forbidden to the profane to address the sacred beings or simply to speak in their presence. just as the neophyte must not regard either the operators or the assistants, so it is forbidden to him to converse with them except by signs; and this interdiction keeps the place to which it has been raised, by means of a special rite.[ ] in a general way, there are, among the arunta, moments in the course of the great ceremonies when silence is obligatory.[ ] as soon as the churinga are exposed, every one keeps still, or if someone talks, he does so in a low voice or with his lips only.[ ] besides the sacred things, there are words and sounds which have the same character; they should not pass the lips of the profane or enter their ears. there are ritual songs which women must not hear under pain of death.[ ] they may hear the noise of the bull-roarers, but only from a distance. every proper name is considered an essential element of the person who bears it; being closely associated in the mind to the idea of this person, it participates in the sentiments which this latter inspires. so if the one is sacred, the other is. therefore, it may not be pronounced in the course of the profane life. among the warramunga there is one totem which is particularly venerated, this is the snake called wollunqua; its name is taboo.[ ] it is the same with baiame, daramulun and bunjil; the esoteric form of their name must not be revealed to the uninitiate.[ ] during mourning, the name of the dead man must not be mentioned, at least by his parents, except when there is an absolute necessity, and even in this case it must be whispered.[ ] this interdiction is frequently perpetual for the widow and certain relatives.[ ] among certain peoples, this even extends beyond the family; all the individuals whose name is the same as that of the dead man must change theirs temporarily.[ ] but there is more than this: the relatives and intimate friends sometimes abstain from certain words in the usual language, undoubtedly because they were employed by the dead man; these gaps are filled in by means of periphrases or words taken from some foreign dialects.[ ] in addition to their public and everyday names all men have another which is kept a secret: the women and children do not know it; it is never used in the ordinary life. this is because it has a religious character.[ ] there are even ceremonies during which it is necessary to speak a special language which must not be used for profane purposes. it is the beginning of a sacred language.[ ] not only are the sacred beings separated from the profane, but also nothing which either directly or indirectly concerns the profane life should be confused with the religious life. complete nudity is frequently demanded of the native as a prerequisite to being admitted to participation in the rites;[ ] he is required to strip himself of all his habitual ornaments, even those to which he is the most attached, and from which he separates himself the least willingly because of the protecting virtues he attributes to them.[ ] if he is obliged to decorate himself to play his part in the ritual, this decoration has to be made specially for the occasion; it is a ceremonial costume, a gala dress.[ ] as these ornaments are sacred, owing to the use made of them, he is forbidden to use them in profane affairs; when the ceremony is finished, they are buried or burnt;[ ] the men must even wash themselves in such a way as to carry away with them no trace of the decorations with which they were adorned.[ ] in general, all acts characteristic of the ordinary life are forbidden while those of the religious life are taking place. the act of eating is, of itself, profane; for it takes place every day, it satisfies essentially utilitarian and material needs and it is a part of our ordinary existence.[ ] this is why it is prohibited in religious times. when one totemic group has loaned its churinga to a foreign clan, it is an exceptionally solemn moment when they are brought back and put into the ertnatulunga; all those who take part in the ceremony must fast as long as it lasts, and it lasts a long time.[ ] the same rule is observed during the rites,[ ] of which we shall speak in the next chapter, as well as at certain moments of the initiation.[ ] for this same reason, all temporal occupations are suspended while the great religious solemnities are taking place. according to a remark of spencer and gillen,[ ] which we have already had occasion to cite, the life of the australian is divided into two very distinct parts: the one is devoted to hunting, fishing and warfare; the other is consecrated to the cult, and these two forms of activity mutually exclude and repel one another. it is on this principle that the universal institution of religious days of rest reposes. the distinctive character of the feast-days in all known religions is the cessation of work and the suspension of public and private life, in so far as it does not have a religious objective. this repose is not merely a sort of temporary relaxation which men have given themselves in order to give themselves up more freely to the sentiments of joy ordinarily awakened by the feast-days; for they are sad feasts, consecrated to mourning and repentance, and during which this cessation is no less obligatory. this is because work is an eminent form of profane activity: it has no other apparent end than to provide for the temporal necessities of life; it puts us in relations with ordinary things only. on feast days, on the contrary, the religious life attains an exceptional degree of intensity. so the contrast between the two forms of existence is especially marked at this moment; consequently, they cannot remain near to each other. a man cannot approach his god intimately while he still bears on him marks of his profane life; inversely, he cannot return to his usual occupations when a rite has just sanctified him. so the ritual day of rest is only one particular case of the general incompatibility separating the sacred from the profane; it is the result of an interdiction. it would be impossible to enumerate here all the different interdictions which have been observed, even in the australian religions alone. like the notion of sacredness upon which it rests, the system of interdicts extends into the most diverse relations; it is even used deliberately for utilitarian ends.[ ] but howsoever complex it may be, it finally rests upon two fundamental interdictions, which summarize it and dominate it. in the first place, the religious life and the profane life cannot coexist in the same place. if the former is to develop, a special spot must be placed at its disposition, from which the second is excluded. hence comes the founding of temples and sanctuaries: these are the spots awarded to sacred beings and things and serve them as residences, for they cannot establish themselves in any place except on the condition of entirely appropriating to themselves all within a certain distance. such arrangements are so indispensable to all religious life that even the most inferior religions cannot do without them. the ertnatulunga, the spot where the churinga are deposited, is a veritable sanctuary. so the uninitiated are not allowed to approach it. it is even forbidden to carry on any profane occupation whatsoever there. as we shall presently see, there are other holy places where important ceremonies are celebrated.[ ] likewise, the religious life and the profane life cannot coexist in the same unit of time. it is necessary to assign determined days or periods to the first, from which all profane occupations are excluded. thus feast days are born. there is no religion, and, consequently, no society which has not known and practised this division of time into two distinct parts, alternating with one another according to a law varying with the peoples and the civilizations; as we have already pointed out, it was probably the necessity of this alternation which led men to introduce into the continuity and homogeneity of duration, certain distinctions and differentiations which it does not naturally have.[ ] of course, it is almost impossible that the religious life should ever succeed in concentrating itself hermetically in the places and times which are thus attributed to it; it is inevitable that a little of it should filter out. there are always some sacred things outside the sanctuaries; there are some rites that can be celebrated on work-days. but these are sacred things of the second rank and rites of a lesser importance. concentration remains the dominating characteristic of this organization. generally this concentration is complete for all that concerns the public cult, which cannot be celebrated except in common. the individual, private cult is the only one which comes very near to the temporal life. thus the contrast between these two successive phases of human life attains its maximum of intensity in the inferior societies; for it is there that the individual cult is the most rudimentary.[ ] ii up to the present, the negative cult has been presented to us only as a system of abstentions. so it seems to serve only to inhibit activity, and not to stimulate it or to modify it. and yet, as an unexpected reaction to this inhibitive effect, it is found to exercise a positive action of the highest importance over the religious and moral nature of the individual. in fact, owing to the barrier which separates the sacred from the profane, a man cannot enter into intimate relations with sacred things except after ridding himself of all that is profane in him. he cannot lead a religious life of even a slight intensity unless he commences by withdrawing more or less completely from the temporal life. so the negative cult is in one sense a means in view of an end: it is a condition of access to the positive cult. it does not confine itself to protecting sacred beings from vulgar contact; it acts upon the worshipper himself and modifies his condition positively. the man who has submitted himself to its prescribed interdictions is not the same afterwards as he was before. before, he was an ordinary being who, for this reason, had to keep at a distance from the religious forces. afterwards, he is on a more equal footing with them; he has approached the sacred by the very act of leaving the profane; he has purified and sanctified himself by the very act of detaching himself from the base and trivial matters that debased his nature. so the negative rites confer efficient powers just as well as the positive ones; the first, like the second, can serve to elevate the religious tone of the individual. according to a very true remark which has been made, no one can engage in a religious ceremony of any importance without first submitting himself to a sort of preliminary initiation which introduces him progressively into the sacred world.[ ] unctions, lustrations, benedictions or any essentially positive operation may be used for this purpose; but the same result may be attained by means of fasts and vigils or retreat and silence, that is to say, by ritual abstinences, which are nothing more than certain interdictions put into practice. when there are only particular and isolated negative rites, their positive action is generally too slight to be easily perceptible. but there are circumstances when a whole system of interdictions is concentrated on one man; in these cases, their effects accumulate, and thus become more manifest. this takes place in australia at the time of the initiation. the neophyte is submitted to a great variety of negative rites. he must withdraw from the society in which his existence has been passed up till then, and from almost all human society. not only is it forbidden for him to see women and uninitiated persons,[ ] but he also goes to live in the brush, far from his fellows, under the direction of some old men who serve him as godfathers.[ ] so very true is it that the forest is considered his natural environment, that in a certain number of tribes, the word with which the initiation is designated signifies _that which is from the forest_.[ ] for this same reason, he is frequently decorated with leaves during the ceremonies at which he assists.[ ] in this way he passes long months,[ ] interspersed from time to time with rites in which he must take a part. this time is a period of all sorts of abstinences for him. a multitude of foods are forbidden him; he is allowed only that quantity of food which is absolutely indispensable for the maintenance of life;[ ] he is even sometimes bound to a rigorous fast,[ ] or must eat impure foods.[ ] when he eats, he must not touch the food with his hands; his godfathers put it into his mouth for him.[ ] in some cases, he must go to beg his food.[ ] likewise, he sleeps only as much as is indispensable.[ ] he must abstain from talking, to the extent of not uttering a word; it is by signs that he makes known his needs.[ ] he must not wash;[ ] sometimes he must not move. he remains stretched out upon the earth, immobile[ ] and without clothing of any sort.[ ] now the result of the numerous interdictions is to bring about a radical change of condition in the initiate. before the initiation, he lived with the women; he was excluded from the cult. after it, he is admitted to the society of men; he takes part in the rites, and has acquired a sacred character. the metamorphosis is so complete that it is sometimes represented as a second birth. they imagine that the profane person, who was the young man up till then, has died, that he has been killed and carried away by the god of the initiation, bunjil, baiame or daramulun, and that quite another individual has taken the place of the one that no longer is.[ ] so here we find the very heart of the positive effects of which negative rites are capable. of course we do not mean to say that these latter produced this great transformation all by themselves; but they certainly contributed to it, and largely. in the light of these facts, we are able to understand what asceticism is, what place it occupies in the religious life and whence come the virtues which have generally been attributed to it. in fact, there is no interdict, the observance of which does not have an ascetic character to a certain degree. abstaining from something which may be useful or from a form of activity which, since it is usual, should answer to some human need, is, of necessity, imposing constraints and renunciations. so in order to have real asceticism, it is sufficient for these practices to develop in such a way as to become the basis of a veritable scheme of life. normally, the negative cult serves only as an introduction and preparation for the positive cult. but it sometimes happens that it frees itself from this subordination and passes to the first place, and that the system of interdicts swells and exaggerates itself to the point of usurping the entire existence. thus a systematic asceticism is born which is consequently nothing more than a hypertrophy of the negative cult. the special virtues which it is believed to confer are only an amplified form of those conferred, to a lesser degree, by the practice of any interdiction. they have the same origin; for they both rest on the principle that a man sanctifies himself only by efforts made to separate himself from the profane. the pure ascetic is a man who raises himself above men and acquires a special sanctity by fasts and vigils, by retreat and silence, or in a word, by privations, rather than by acts of positive piety (offerings, sacrifices, prayers, etc.). history shows to what a high religious prestige one may attain by this method: the buddhist saint is essentially an ascetic, and he is equal or superior to the gods. it follows that asceticism is not a rare, exceptional and nearly abnormal fruit of the religious life, as some have supposed it to be; on the contrary, it is one of its essential elements. every religion contains it, at least in germ, for there are none in which a system of interdicts is not found. their only difference in this regard which there may be between cults is that this germ is more or less developed in different ones. it should also be added that there probably is not a single one in which this development does not take, at least temporarily, the characteristic traits of real asceticism. this is what generally takes place at certain critical periods when, for a relatively short time, it is necessary to bring about a grave change of condition in a subject. then, in order to introduce him more rapidly into the circle of sacred things with which he must be put in contact, he is separated violently from the profane world; but this does not come without many abstinences and an exceptional recrudescence of the system of interdicts. now this is just what happens in australia at the moment of initiation. in order to transform youths into men, it is necessary to make them live the life of a veritable ascetic. mrs. parker very justly calls them the monks of baiame.[ ] but abstinences and privations do not come without suffering. we hold to the profane world by all the fibres of our flesh; our senses attach us to it; our life depends upon it. it is not merely the natural theatre of our activity; it penetrates us from every side; it is a part of ourselves. so we cannot detach ourselves from it without doing violence to our nature and without painfully wounding our instincts. in other words, the negative cult cannot develop without causing suffering. pain is one of its necessary conditions. some have been led to think of it as constituting a sort of rite in itself; they have seen in it a state of grace which is to be sought and aroused, even artificially, because of the powers and privileges which it confers in the same way as these systems of interdicts, of which it is the natural accompaniment. so far as we know, preuss is the first who has realized the religious rôle[ ] which is attributed to suffering in the inferior societies. he cites the case of the arapahs who inflict veritable torments upon themselves in order to become immune from the dangers of battle; of the big belly indians who submit to actual tortures on the eve of military expeditions; of the hupa who swim in icy rivers and then remain stretched out on the bank as long as possible, in order to assure themselves of success in their enterprises; of the karaya who from time to time draw blood from their arms and legs by means of scratches made out of the teeth of fish, in order to strengthen their muscles; of the men of dallmannhafen (emperor william's land in new guinea) who combat the sterility of their women by making bloody incisions in the upper part of their thighs.[ ] but similar facts may be found without leaving australia, especially in the course of the initiation ceremonies. many of the rites practised on this occasion consist in systematically inflicting certain pains on the neophyte in order to modify his condition and to make him acquire the qualities characteristic of a man. thus, among the larakia, while the young men are in retreat in the forest, their godfathers and guardians give them violent blows at any instant, without warning and without cause.[ ] among the urabunna, at a certain time, the novice is stretched out on the ground, his face against the earth. all the men present beat him rudely; then they make four or eight gashes on his back, arranged on each side of the dorsal spine and one on the meridial line of the nape of his neck.[ ] among the arunta, the first rite of the initiation consists in tossing the subject in a blanket; the men throw him into the air and catch him when he comes down, to throw him up again.[ ] in the same tribe, at the close of this long series of ceremonies, the young man lies down on a bed of leaves under which they have placed live coals; he remains there, immobile in the midst of the heat and suffocating smoke.[ ] a similar rite is observed among the urabunna; but in addition, while the patient is in this painful situation, they beat him on the back.[ ] in a general way, all the exercises to which he is submitted have this same character to such an extent that when he is allowed to re-enter the ordinary life, he has a pitiful aspect and appears half stupefied.[ ] it is true that all these practices are frequently represented as ordeals destined to prove the value of the neophyte and to show whether he is worthy of being admitted into the religious society or not.[ ] but in reality, the probational function of the rite is only another aspect of its efficacy. for the fact that it has been undergone is proved by its producing its effect, that is to say, by its conferring the qualities which are the original reason for its existence. in other cases, these ritual cruelties are executed, not on the organism as a whole, but on a particular organ or tissue, whose vitality it is their object to stimulate. thus, among the arunta, the warramunga and many other tribes,[ ] at a certain moment in the initiation, certain persons are charged with biting the novice severely in the scalp. this operation is so painful that the patient can hardly support it without uttering cries. its object is to make the hair grow.[ ] the same treatment is applied to make the beard grow. the rite of pulling out hairs, which howitt mentions in other tribes, seems to have the same reason for existence.[ ] according to eylmann, the men and women of the arunta and the kaitish make small wounds on their arms with sticks red with fire, in order to become skilful in making fire or to acquire the strength necessary for carrying heavy loads of wood.[ ] according to this same observer, the warramunga girls amputate the second and third joints of the index finger on one hand, thinking that the finger thus becomes better fitted for finding yams.[ ] it is not impossible that the extraction of teeth was sometimes destined to produce effects of this sort. in any case, it is certain that the cruel rites of circumcision and subincision have the object of conferring particular powers on the genital organs. in fact, the young man is not allowed to marry until after he has undergone them; so he owes them special virtues. what makes this initiation _sui generis_ indispensable is that in all inferior societies, the union of the sexes is marked with a religious character. it is believed to put redoubtable forces into play which a man cannot approach without danger, until after he has acquired the necessary immunity, by ritual processes:[ ] for this, a whole series of positive and negative practices is used, of which circumcision and subincision are the forerunners. by painfully mutilating an organ, a sacred character is given to it, since by that act, it is put into shape for resisting the equally sacred forces which it could not meet otherwise. at the beginning of this work, we said that all the essential elements of religious thought and life ought to be found, at least in germ, in the most primitive religions: the preceding facts confirm this assertion. if there is any one belief which is believed to be peculiar to the most recent and idealistic religions, it is the one attributing a sanctifying power to sorrow. now this same belief is at the basis of the rites which have just been observed. of course, it is understood differently at the different moments of history when it is studied. for the christian, it acts especially upon the soul: it purges it, ennobles it, spiritualizes it. for the australian, it is the body over which it is efficient: it increases its vital energies; it makes its beard and hair grow; it toughens its members. but in both cases the principle is the same. in both it is admitted that suffering creates exceptional strength. and this belief is not without foundation. in fact, it is by the way in which he braves suffering that the greatness of a man is best manifested. he never rises above himself with more brilliancy than when he subdues his own nature to the point of making it follow a way contrary to the one it would spontaneously take. by this, he distinguishes himself from all the other creatures who follow blindly wherever pleasure calls them; by this, he makes a place apart for himself in the world. suffering is the sign that certain of the bonds attaching him to his profane environment are broken; so it testifies that he is partially freed from this environment, and, consequently, it is justly considered the instrument of deliverance. so he who is thus delivered is not the victim of a pure illusion when he believes himself invested with a sort of mastery over things: he really has raised himself above them, by the very act of renouncing them; he is stronger than nature, because he makes it subside. moreover, it is by no means true that this virtue has only an æsthetic value: the whole religious life supposes it. sacrifices and privations do not come without privations which cost the worshipper dear. even if the rites do not demand material gifts from him, they require his time and his strength. in order to serve his gods, he must forget himself; to make for them a fitting place in his own life, he must sacrifice his profane interests. the positive cult is possible only when a man is trained to renouncement, to abnegation, to detachment from self, and consequently to suffering. it is necessary that he have no dread of them: he cannot even fulfil his duties joyfully unless he loves them to some extent. but for that, it is necessary that he train himself, and it is to this that the ascetic practices tend. so the suffering which they impose is not arbitrary and sterile cruelty; it is a necessary school, where men form and temper themselves, and acquire the qualities of disinterestedness and endurance without which there would be no religion. if this result is to be obtained, it is even a good thing that the ascetic ideal be incarnated eminently in certain persons, whose speciality, so to speak, it is to represent, almost with excess, this aspect of the ritual life; for they are like so many living models, inciting to effort. such is the historic rôle of the great ascetics. when their deeds and acts are analysed in detail, one asks himself what useful end they can have. he is struck by the fact that there is something excessive in the disdain they profess for all that ordinarily impassions men. but these exaggerations are necessary to sustain among the believers a sufficient disgust for an easy life and common pleasures. it is necessary that an elite put the end too high, if the crowd is not to put it too low. it is necessary that some exaggerate, if the average is to remain at a fitting level. but asceticism does not serve religious ends only. here, as elsewhere, religious interests are only the symbolic form of social and moral interests. the ideal beings to whom the cults are addressed are not the only ones who demand of their followers a certain disdain for suffering: society itself is possible only at this price. though exalting the strength of man, it is frequently rude to individuals; it necessarily demands perpetual sacrifices from them; it is constantly doing violence to our natural appetites, just because it raises us above ourselves. if we are going to fulfil our duties towards it, then we must be prepared to do violence to our instincts sometimes and to ascend the decline of nature when it is necessary. so there is an asceticism which, being inherent in all social life, is destined to survive all the mythologies and all the dogmas; it is an integral part of all human culture. at bottom, this is the asceticism which is the reason for the existence of and the justification of that which has been taught by the religions of all times. iii having determined what the system of interdicts consists in and what its positive and negative functions are, we must now seek the causes which have given it birth. in one sense, it is logically implied in the very notion of sacredness. all that is sacred is the object of respect, and every sentiment of respect is translated, in him who feels it, by movements of inhibition. in fact, a respected being is always expressed in the consciousness by a representation which, owing to the emotion it inspires, is charged with a high mental energy; consequently, it is armed in such a way as to reject to a distance every other representation which denies it in whole or in part. now the sacred world and the profane world are antagonistic to each other. they correspond to two forms of life which mutually exclude one another, or which at least cannot be lived at the same time with the same intensity. we cannot give ourselves up entirely to the ideal beings to whom the cult is addressed and also to ourselves and our own interests at the same time; we cannot devote ourselves entirely to the group and entirely to our own egoism at once. here there are two systems of conscious states which are directed and which direct our conduct towards opposite poles. so the one having the greater power of action should tend to exclude the other from the consciousness. when we think of holy things, the idea of a profane object cannot enter the mind without encountering grave resistance; something within us opposes itself to its installation. this is because the representation of a sacred thing does not tolerate neighbours. but this psychic antagonism and this mutual exclusion of ideas should naturally result in the exclusion of the corresponding things. if the ideas are not to coexist, the things must not touch each other or have any sort of relations. this is the very principle of the interdict. moreover, the world of sacred things is, by definition, a world apart. since it is opposed to the profane world by all the characteristics we have mentioned, it must be treated in its own peculiar way: it would be a misunderstanding of its nature and a confusion of it with something that it is not, to make use of the gestures, language and attitudes which we employ in our relations with ordinary things, when we have to do with the things that compose it. we may handle the former freely; we speak freely to vulgar beings; so we do not touch the sacred beings, or we touch them only with reserve; we do not speak in their presence, or we do not speak the common language there. all that is used in our commerce with the one must be excluded from our commerce with the other. but if this explanation is not inexact, it is, nevertheless, insufficient. in fact, there are many beings which are the objects of respect without being protected by systems of rigorous interdictions such as those we have just described. of course there is a general tendency of the mind to localize different things in different places, especially when they are incompatible with each other. but the profane environment and the sacred one are not merely distinct, but they are also closed to one another; between them there is an abyss. so there ought to be some particular reason in the nature of sacred things, which causes this exceptional isolation and mutual exclusion. and, in fact, by a sort of contradiction, the sacred world is inclined, as it were, to spread itself into this same profane world which it excludes elsewhere: at the same time that it repels it, it tends to flow into it as soon as it approaches. this is why it is necessary to keep them at a distance from one another and to create a sort of vacuum between them. what makes these precautions necessary is the extraordinary contagiousness of a sacred character. far from being attached to the things which are marked with it, it is endowed with a sort of elusiveness. even the most superficial or roundabout contact is sufficient to enable it to spread from one object to another. religious forces are represented in the mind in such a way that they always seem ready to escape from the points where they reside and to enter everything passing within their range. the nanja tree where the spirit of an ancestor lives is sacred for the individual who considers himself the reincarnation of this ancestor. but every bird which alights upon this tree participates in this same nature: it is also forbidden to touch it.[ ] we have already had occasion to show how simple contact with a churinga is enough to sanctify men and things;[ ] it is also upon this principle of the contagiousness of sacredness that all the rites of consecration repose. the sanctity of the churinga is so great that its action is even felt at a distance. it will be remembered how this extends not only to the cave where they are kept, but also to the whole surrounding district, to the animals who take refuge there, whom it is forbidden to kill, and to the plants which grow there, which must not be touched.[ ] a snake totem has its centre at a place where there is a water-hole. the sacred character of the totem is communicated to this place, to the water-hole and even to the water itself, which is forbidden to all the members of the totemic group.[ ] the initiate lives in an atmosphere charged with religiousness, and it is as though he were impregnated with it himself.[ ] consequently all that he possesses and all that he touches is forbidden to the women, and withdrawn from their contact, even down to the bird he has struck with his stick, the kangaroo he has pierced with his lance or the fish which has bit on his hook.[ ] but, on the other hand, the rites to which he is submitted and the things which have a part in them have a sanctity superior to his own: this sanctity is contagiously transmitted to everything which evokes the idea of one or the other. the tooth which has been knocked out of him is considered very holy.[ ] for this reason, he may not eat animals with prominent teeth, because they make him think of his own lost tooth. the ceremonies of the kuringal terminate with a ritual washing;[ ] acquatic birds are forbidden to the neophyte because they make him think of this rite. animals that climb to the tops of trees are equally sacred for him, because they are too near to daramulun, the god of the initiation, who lives in heaven.[ ] the soul of a dead man is a sacred thing: we have already seen how this same property passes to the corpse in which the soul resided, to the spot where this is buried, to the camp in which he lived when alive, and which is either destroyed or quitted, to the name he bore, to his wife and to his relations.[ ] they, too, are invested, as it were, with a sacred character; consequently, men keep at a distance from them; they do not treat them as mere profane beings. in the societies observed by dawson, their names, like that of the dead man, cannot be pronounced during the period of mourning.[ ] certain animals which he ate may also be prohibited.[ ] this contagiousness of sacredness is too well known a phenomenon[ ] to require any proof of its existence from numerous examples; we only wish to show that it is as true in totemism as in the more advanced religions. when once established, it quickly explains the extreme rigour of the interdicts separating the sacred from the profane. since, in virtue of this extraordinary power of expansion, the slightest contact, the least proximity, either material or simply moral, suffices to draw religious forces out of their domain, and since, on the other hand, they cannot leave it without contradicting their nature, a whole system of measures is indispensable for maintaining the two worlds at a respectful distance from one another. this is why it is forbidden to the profane, not only to touch, but even to see or hear that which is sacred, and why these two sorts of life cannot be mixed in their consciousnesses. precautions are necessary to keep them apart because, though opposing one another, they tend to confuse themselves into one another. when we understand the multiplicity of these interdicts we also understand the way in which they operate and the sanctions which are attached to them. owing to the contagiousness inherent in all that is sacred, a profane being cannot violate an interdict without having the religious force, to which he has unduly approached, extend itself over him and establish its empire over him. but as there is an antagonism between them, he becomes dependent upon a hostile power, whose hostility cannot fail to manifest itself in the form of violent reactions which tend to destroy him. this is why sickness or death are considered the natural consequences of every transgression of this sort; and they are consequences which are believed to come by themselves, with a sort of physical necessity. the guilty man feels himself attacked by a force which dominates him and against which he is powerless. has he eaten the totemic animal? then he feels it penetrating him and gnawing at his vitals; he lies down on the ground and awaits death.[ ] every profanation implies a consecration, but one which is dreadful, both for the subject consecrated and for those who approach him. it is the consequences of this consecration which sanction, in part, the interdict.[ ] it should be noticed that this explanation of the interdicts does not depend upon the variable symbols by the aid of which religious forces are conceived. it matters little whether these are conceived as anonymous and impersonal energies or figured as personalities endowed with consciousness and feeling. in the former case, of course, they are believed to react against profaning transgressions in an automatic and unconscious manner, while in the latter case, they are thought to obey passionate movements determined by the offence resented. but at bottom, these two conceptions, which, moreover, have the same practical effect, only express one and the same psychic mechanism in two different languages. the basis of both is the antagonism of the sacred and the profane, combined with the remarkable aptitude of the former for spreading over to the latter; now this antagonism and this contagiousness act in the same way, whether the sacred character is attributed to blind forces or to conscious ones. thus, so far is it from being true that the real religious life commences only where there are mythical personalities, that we see that in this case the rite remains the same, whether the religious beings are personified or not. this is a statement which we shall have occasion to repeat in each of the chapters which follow. iv but if this contagiousness of sacredness helps to explain the system of interdicts, how is it to be explained itself? some have tried to explain it with the well-known laws of the association of ideas. the sentiments inspired in us by a person or a thing spread contagiously from the idea of this thing or person to the representations associated with it, and thence to the objects which these representations express. so the respect which we have for a sacred being is communicated to everything touching this being, or resembling it, or recalling it. of course a cultivated man is not deceived by these associations; he knows that these derived emotions are due to mere plays of the images and to entirely mental combinations, so he does not give way to the superstitions which these illusions tend to bring about. but they say that the primitive naïvely objectifies his impressions, without criticising them. does something inspire a reverential fear in him? he concludes that an august and redoubtable force really resides in it; so he keeps at a distance from this thing and treats it as though it were sacred, even though it has no right to this title.[ ] but whoever says this forgets that the most primitive religions are not the only ones which have attributed this power of propagation to the sacred character. even in the most recent cults, there is a group of rites which repose upon this principle. does not every consecration by means of anointing or washing consist in transferring into a profane object the sanctifying virtues of a sacred one? yet it is difficult to regard an enlightened catholic of to-day as a sort of retarded savage who continues to be deceived by his associations of ideas, while nothing in the nature of things explains or justifies these ways of thinking. moreover, it is quite arbitrarily that they attribute to the primitive this tendency to objectify blindly all his emotions. in his ordinary life, and in the details of his lay occupations, he does not impute the properties of one thing to its neighbours, or _vice versa_. if he is less careful than we are about clarity and distinction, still it is far from true that he has some vague, deplorable aptitude for jumbling and confusing everything. religious thought alone has a marked leaning towards these sorts of confusions. so it is in something special to the nature of religious things, and not in the general laws of the human intelligence, that the origin of these predispositions is to be sought. when a force or property seems to be an integral part or constituent element of the subject in which it resides, we cannot easily imagine its detaching itself and going elsewhere. a body is defined by its mass and its atomic composition; so we do not think that it could communicate any of these distinctive characteristics by means of contact. but, on the other hand, if we are dealing with a force which has penetrated the body from without, since nothing attaches it there and since it is foreign to the body, there is nothing inconceivable in its escaping again. thus the heat or electricity which a body has received from some external source may be transmitted to the surrounding medium, and the mind readily accepts the possibility of this transmission. so the extreme facility with which religious forces spread out and diffuse themselves has nothing surprising about it, if they are generally thought of as outside of the beings in which they reside. now this is just what the theory we have proposed implies. in fact, they are only collective forces hypostatized, that is to say, moral forces; they are made up of the ideas and sentiments awakened in us by the spectacle of society, and not of sensations coming from the physical world. so they are not homogeneous with the visible things among which we place them. they may well take from these things the outward and material forms in which they are represented, but they owe none of their efficacy to them. they are not united by external bonds to the different supports upon which they alight; they have no roots there; according to an expression we have already used[ ] and which serves best for characterizing them, _they are added to them_. so there are no objects which are predestined to receive them, to the exclusion of all others; even the most insignificant and vulgar may do so; accidental circumstances decide which are the chosen ones. the terms in which codrington speaks of the mana should be borne in mind: it is a force, he says, which "_is not fixed in anything and can be conveyed in almost anything_."[ ] likewise, the dakota of miss fletcher represented the wakan as a sort of surrounding force which is always coming and going through the world, alighting here and there, but definitely fixing itself nowhere.[ ] even the religious character inherent in men does not have a different character. there is certainly no other being in the world of experience which is closer to the very source of all religious life; none participates in it more directly, for it is in human consciousnesses that it is elaborated. yet we know that the religious principle animating men, to wit, the soul, is partially external. but if religious forces have a place of their own nowhere, their mobility is easily explained. since nothing attaches them to the things in which we localize them, it is natural that they should escape on the slightest contact, in spite of themselves, so to speak, and that they should spread afar. their intensity incites them to this spreading, which everything favours. this is why the soul itself, though holding to the body by very personal bonds, is constantly threatening to leave it: all the apertures and pores of the body are just so many ways by which it tends to spread and diffuse itself into the outside.[ ] but we shall account for this phenomenon which we are trying to understand, still better if, instead of considering the notion of religious forces as it is when completely formulated, we go back to the mental process from which it results. we have seen, in fact, that the sacred character of a being does not rest in any of its intrinsic attributes. it is not because the totemic animal has a certain aspect or property that it inspires religious sentiments; these result from causes wholly foreign to the nature of the object upon which they fix themselves. what constitutes them are the impressions of comfort and dependence which the action of the society provokes in the mind. of themselves, these emotions are not attached to the idea of any particular object; but as these emotions exist and are especially intense, they are also eminently contagious. so they make a stain of oil; they extend to all the other mental states which occupy the mind; they penetrate and contaminate those representations especially in which are expressed the various objects which the man had in his hands or before his eyes at the moment: the totemic designs covering his body, the bull-roarers which he was making roar, the rocks surrounding him, the ground under his feet, etc. it is thus that the objects themselves get a religious value which is really not inherent in them but is conferred from without. so the contagion is not a sort of secondary process by which sacredness is propagated, after it has once been acquired; it is the very process by which it is acquired. it is by contagion that it establishes itself: we should not be surprised, therefore, if it transmits itself contagiously. what makes its reality is a special emotion; if it attaches itself to some object, it is because this emotion has found this object in its way. so it is natural that from this one it should spread to all those which it finds in its neighbourhood, that is to say, to all those which any reason whatsoever, either material contiguity or mere similarity, has mentally connected with the first. thus, the contagiousness of sacredness finds its explanation in the theory which we have proposed of religious forces, and by this very fact, it serves to confirm our theory.[ ] and, at the same time, it aids us in understanding a trait of primitive mentality to which we have already called the attention. we have seen[ ] the facility with which the primitive confuses kingdoms and identifies the most heterogeneous things, men, animals, plants, stars, etc. now we see one of the causes which has contributed the most to facilitating these confusions. since religious forces are eminently contagious, it is constantly happening that the same principle animates very different objects equally; it passes from some into others as the result of either a simple material proximity or of even a superficial similarity. it is thus that men, animals, plants and rocks come to have the same totem: the men because they bear the name of the animal: the animals because they bring the totemic emblem to mind; the plants because they nourish these animals; the rocks because they mark the place where the ceremonies are celebrated. now religious forces are therefore considered the source of all efficacy; so beings having one single religious principle ought to pass as having the same essence, and as differing from one another only in secondary characteristics. this is why it seemed quite natural to arrange them in a single category and to regard them as mere varieties of the same class, transmutable into one another. when this relation has been established, it makes the phenomena of contagion appear under a new aspect. taken by themselves, they seem to be quite foreign to the logical life. is their effect not to mix and confuse beings, in spite of their natural differences? but we have seen that these confusions and participation have played a rôle of the highest utility in logic; they have served to bind together things which sensation leaves apart from one another. so it is far from true that contagion, the source of these connections and confusions, is marked with that fundamental irrationality that one is inclined to attribute it at first. it has opened the way for the scientific explanations of the future. chapter ii the positive cult i.--_the elements of the sacrifice_ whatever the importance of the negative cult may be, and though it may indirectly have positive effects, it does not contain its reason for existence in itself; it introduces one to the religious life, but it supposes this more than it constitutes it. if it orders the worshipper to flee from the profane world, it is to bring him nearer to the sacred world. men have never thought that their duties towards religious forces might be reduced to a simple abstinence from all commerce; they have always believed that they upheld positive and bilateral relations with them, whose regulation and organization is the function of a group of ritual practices. to this special system of rites we give the name of _positive cult_. for some time we almost completely ignored the positive cult of the totemic religion and what it consists in. we knew almost nothing more than the initiation rites, and we do not know those sufficiently well even now. but the observations of spencer and gillen, prepared for by those of schulze and confirmed by those of strehlow, on the tribes of central australia, have partially filled this gap in our information. there is one ceremony especially which these explorers have taken particular pains to describe to us and which, moreover, seems to dominate the whole totemic cult: this is the one that the arunta, according to spencer and gillen, call the _intichiuma_. it is true that strehlow contests the meaning of this word. according to him, intichiuma (or, as he writes it, _intijiuma_) means "to instruct" and designates the ceremonies performed before the young man to teach him the traditions of the tribe. the feast which we are going to describe bears, he says, the name _mbatjalkatiuma_, which means "to fecundate" or "to put into a good condition."[ ] but we shall not try to settle this question of vocabulary, which touches the real problem but slightly, as the rites in question are all celebrated in the course of the initiation. on the other hand, as the word intichiuma now belongs to the current language of ethnography, and has almost become a common noun, it seems useless to replace it with another.[ ] the date on which the intichiuma takes place depends largely upon the season. there are two sharply separated seasons in australia: one is dry and lasts for a long time; the other is rainy and is, on the contrary, very short and frequently irregular. as soon as the rains arrive, vegetation springs up from the ground as though by enchantment and animals multiply, so that the country which had recently been only a sterile desert is rapidly filled with a luxurious flora and fauna. it is just at the moment when the good season seems to be close at hand that the intichiuma is celebrated. but as the rainy season is extremely variable, the date of the ceremonies cannot be fixed once for all. it varies with the climatic circumstances, which only the chief of the totemic group, the alatunja, is qualified to judge: on a day which he considers suitable, he informs his companions that the moment has arrived.[ ] each totemic group has its own intichiuma. even if this rite is general in the societies of the centre, it is not the same everywhere; among the warramunga, it is not what it is among the arunta; it varies, not only among the tribes, but also within the tribe, among the clans. but it is obvious that the different mechanisms in use are too closely related to each other to be dissociated completely. there is no ceremony, perhaps, which is not made up of several, though these are very unequally developed: what exists only as a germ in one, occupies the most important place in another, and inversely. yet they must be carefully distinguished, for they constitute just so many different ritual types to be described and explained separately, but afterwards we must seek some common source from which they were derived. let us commence with those observed among the arunta. i the celebration includes two successive phases. the object of the rites which take place in the first is to assure the prosperity of the animal or vegetable species serving the clan as totem. the means employed for this end may be reduced to two principal types. it will be remembered that the fabulous ancestors from whom each clan is supposed to be descended, formerly lived on earth and left traces of their passage there. these traces consist especially in stones and rocks which they deposited at certain places, or which were formed at the spots where they entered into the ground. these rocks and stones are considered the bodies or parts of the bodies of the ancestors, whose memory they keep alive; they represent them. consequently, they also represent the animals and plants which served these same ancestors as totems, for an individual and his totem are only one. the same reality and the same properties are attributed to them as to the actually living plants or animals of the same species. but they have this advantage over these latter, that they are imperishable, knowing neither sickness nor death. so they are like a permanent immutable and ever-available reserve of animal and vegetable life. also, in a certain number of cases, it is this reserve that they annually draw upon to assure the reproduction of the species. here, for example, is how the witchetty grub clan, at alice springs, proceeds at its intichiuma.[ ] on the day fixed by the chief, all the members of the totemic group assemble in the principal camp. the men of the other totems retire to a distance;[ ] for among the arunta, they are not allowed to be present at the celebration of the rite, which has all the characteristics of a secret ceremony. an individual of a different totem, but of the same phratry, may be invited to be present, as a favour; but this is only as a witness. in no case can he take an active part. after the men of the totem have assembled, they leave the camp, leaving only two or three of their number behind. they advance in a profound silence, one behind another, all naked, without arms and without any of their habitual ornaments. their attitude and their pace are marked with a religious gravity: this is because the act in which they are taking part has an exceptional importance in their eyes. also, until the end of the ceremony they are required to observe a rigorous fast. the country which they traverse is all filled with souvenirs left by the glorious ancestors. thus they arrive at a spot where a huge block of quartz is found, with small round stones all around it. this block represents the witchetty grub as an adult. the alatunja strikes it with a sort of wooden tray called _apmara_,[ ] and at the same time he intones a chant, whose object is to invite the animal to lay eggs. he proceeds in the same fashion with the stones which are regarded as the eggs of the animal and with one of which he rubs the stomach of each assistant. this done, they all descend a little lower, to the foot of a cliff also celebrated in the myths of the alcheringa, at the base of which is another stone, also representing the witchetty grub. the alatunja strikes it with his apmara; the men accompanying him do so as well, with branches of a gum-tree which they have gathered on the way, all of which goes on in the midst of chants renewing the invitation previously addressed to the animal. about ten different spots are visited in turn, some of which are a mile or more from the others. at each of them there is a stone at the bottom of a cave or hole, which is believed to represent the witchetty grub in one of his aspects or at one of the phases of his existence, and upon each of these stones, the same ceremonies are repeated. the meaning of the rite is evident. when the alatunja strikes the sacred stones, it is to detach some dust. the grains of this very holy dust are regarded as so many germs of life; each of them contains a spiritual principle which will give birth to a new being, when introduced into an organism of the same species. the branches with which the assistants are provided serve to scatter this precious dust in all directions; it is scattered everywhere, to accomplish its fecundating work. by this means, they assure, in their own minds, an abundant reproduction of the animal species over which the clans guard, so to speak, and upon which it depends. the natives themselves give the rite this interpretation. thus, in the clan of the _ilpirla_ (a kind of "manna"), they proceed in the following manner. when the day of the intichiuma arrives, the group assembles near a huge rock, about fifty feet high; on top of this rock is another, very similar to the first in aspect and surrounded by other smaller ones. both represent masses of manna. the alatunja digs up the ground at the foot of this rock and uncovers a churinga which is believed to have been buried there in alcheringa times, and which is, as it were, the quintessence of the manna. then he climbs up to the summit of the higher rock and rubs it, first with the churinga and then with the smaller stones which surround it. finally, he brushes away the dust which has thus been collected on the surface of the rock, with the branches of a tree; each of the assistants does the same in his turn. now spencer and gillen say that the idea of the natives is that the dust thus scattered will "settle upon the mulga trees and so produce manna." in fact, these operations are accompanied by a hymn sung by those present, in which this idea is expressed.[ ] with variations, this same rite is found in other societies. among the urabunna, there is a rock representing an ancestor of the lizard clan; bits are detached from it which they throw in every direction, in order to secure an abundant production of lizards.[ ] in this same tribe, there is a sand-bank which mythological souvenirs closely associate with the louse totem. at the same spot are two trees, one of which is called the ordinary louse tree, the other, the crab-louse tree. they take some of this sand, rub it on these trees, throw it about on every side and become convinced that, as a result of this, lice will be born in large numbers.[ ] the mara perform the intichiuma of the bees by scattering dust detached from sacred rocks.[ ] for the kangaroo of the plains, a slightly different method is used. they take some kangaroo-dung and wrap it up in a certain herb of which the animal is very fond, and which belongs to the kangaroo totem for this reason. then they put the dung, thus enveloped, on the ground between two bunches of this herb and set the whole thing on fire. with the flame thus made, they light the branches of trees and then whirl them about in such a way that sparks fly in every direction. these sparks play the same rôle as the dust in the preceding cases.[ ] in a certain number of clans,[ ] men mix something of their own substance with that of the stone, in order to make the rite more efficacious. young men open their veins and let streams of blood flow on to the rock. this is the case, for example, in the intichiuma of the hakea flower among the arunta. the ceremony takes place in a sacred place around an equally sacred rock which, in the eyes of the natives, represents hakea flowers. after certain preliminary operations, "the old leader asks one of the young men to open a vein in his arm, which he does, and allows the blood to sprinkle freely, while the other men continue the singing. the blood flows until the stone is completely covered."[ ] the object of this practice is to revivify the virtues of the stone, after a fashion, and to reinforce its efficacy. it should not be forgotten that the men of the clan are relatives of the plant or animal whose name they bear; the same principle of life is in them, and especially in their blood. so it is only natural that one should use this blood and the mystic germs which it carries to assure the regular reproduction of the totemic species. it frequently happens among the arunta that when a man is sick or tired, one of his young companions opens his veins and sprinkles him with his blood in order to reanimate him.[ ] if blood is able to reawaken life in a man in this way, it is not surprising that it should also be able to awaken it in the animal or vegetable species with which the men of the clan are confounded. the same process is employed in the intichiuma of the undiara kangaroo among the arunta. the theatre of the ceremony is a water-hole vaulted over by a peaked rock. this rock represents an animal-kangaroo of the alcheringa which was killed and deposited there by a man-kangaroo of the same epoch; many kangaroo spirits are also believed to reside there. after a certain number of sacred stones have been rubbed against each other in the way we have described, several of the assistants climb up on the rock upon which they let their blood flow.[ ] "the purpose of the ceremony at the present day, so say the natives, is by means of pouring out the blood of kangaroo men upon the rock, to drive out in all directions the spirits of the kangaroo animals and so to increase the number of the animals."[ ] there is even one case among the arunta where the blood seems to be the active principle in the rite. in the emu group, they do not use sacred stones or anything resembling them. the alatunja and some of his assistants sprinkle the ground with their blood; on the ground thus soaked, they trace lines in various colours, representing the different parts of the body of an emu. they kneel down around this design and chant a monotonous hymn. from the fictitious emu to which this chant is addressed, and, consequently, from the blood which has served to make it, they believe that vivifying principles go forth, which animate the embryos of the new generation, and thus prevent the species from disappearing.[ ] among the wonkgongaru,[ ] there is one clan whose totem is a certain kind of fish; in the intichiuma of this totem also, it is the blood that plays the principal part. the chief of the group, after being ceremoniously painted, goes into a pool of water and sits down there. then he pierces his scrotum and the skin around his navel with small pointed bones. "the blood from the wounds goes into the water and gives rise to fish."[ ] by a wholly similar process, the dieri think that they assure the reproduction of two of their totems, the carpet snake and the woma snake (the ordinary snake). a mura-mura named minkani is thought to live under a dune. his body is represented by some fossil bones of animals or reptiles, such as the deltas of the rivers flowing into lake eyre contain, according to howitt. when the day of the ceremony arrives, the men assemble and go to the home of the minkani. there they dig until they come to a layer of damp earth which they call "the excrement of minkani." from now on, they continue to turn up the soil with great care until they uncover "the elbow of minkani." then two young men open their veins and let their blood flow on to the sacred rock. they chant the hymn of minkani while the assistants, carried away in a veritable frenzy, beat each other with their arms. the battle continues until they get back to the camp, which is about a mile away. here, the women intervene and put an end to the combat. they collect the blood which has flown from the wounds, mix it with the "excrement of minkani," and scatter the resulting mixture over the dune. when this rite has been accomplished, they are convinced that carpet snakes will be born in abundance.[ ] in certain cases, they use the very substance which they wish to produce as the vivifying principle. thus among the kaitish, in the course of a ceremony whose object is to create rain, they sprinkle water over a sacred rock which represents the mythical heroes of the water clan. it is evident that they believe that by this means they augment the productive virtues of the rock just as well as with blood, and for the same reasons.[ ] among the mara, the actor takes water from a sacred hole, puts it in his mouth and spits it out in every direction.[ ] among the worgaia, when the yams begin to sprout, the chief of the yam clan sends men of the phratry of which he is not a member himself to gather some of these plants; these bring some to him, and ask him to intervene, in order that the species may develop well. he takes one, chews it, and throws the bits in every direction.[ ] among the kaitish when, after various rites which we shall not describe, the grain of a certain grass called erlipinna has reached its full development, the chief of the totem brings a little of it to camp and grinds it between two stones; the dust thus obtained is piously gathered up, and a few grains are placed on the lips of the chief, who scatters them by blowing. this contact with the mouth of the chief, which has a very special sacramental virtue, undoubtedly has the object of stimulating the vitality of the germs which these grains contain and which, being blown to all the quarters of the horizon, go to communicate these fecundating virtues which they possess to the plants.[ ] the efficacy of these rites is never doubted by the native: he is convinced that they must produce the results he expects, with a sort of necessity. if events deceive his hopes, he merely concludes that they were counteracted by the sorcery of some hostile group. in any case, it never enters his mind that a favourable result could be obtained by any other means. if by chance the vegetation grows or the animals produce before he has performed his intichiuma, he supposes that another intichiuma has been celebrated under the ground by the ancestors and that the living reap the benefits of this subterranean ceremony.[ ] ii this is the first act of the celebration. during the period immediately following, there are no regular ceremonies. however, the religious life remains intense: this is manifested especially by an aggravation of the system of interdicts. it is as though the sacred character of the totem were reinforced: they do not even dare to touch it. in ordinary times, the arunta may eat the animal or plant which serves as totem, provided they do so with moderation, but on the morrow of the intichiuma this right is suspended; the alimentary interdiction is strict and without exceptions. they believe that any violation of this interdict would result in neutralizing the good effects of the rite and in preventing the increase of the species. it is true that the men of other totems who happen to be in the same locality are not submitted to the same prohibition. however, their liberty is less than ordinary at this time. they may not consume the totemic animal wherever they place, in the brush, for example; they must bring it to camp, and it is there only that it may be cooked.[ ] a final ceremony terminates this period of extraordinary interdictions and definitely closes this long series of rites. it varies somewhat in different clans, but the essential elements are the same everywhere. here are the two principal forms which it takes among the arunta. one of these is in connection with the witchetty grub, the other with the kangaroo. when the grubs have attained full maturity and appear in abundance, the men of the totem, as well as others, collect as many of them as possible; then they all bring those they have found back to camp and cook them until they become hard and brittle. they are then preserved in wooden vessels called _pitchi_. the harvest of grubs is possible only during a very short time, for they appear only after the rain. when they begin to be less numerous, the alatunja summons everybody to the camp; on his invitation, each one brings his supply. the others place theirs before the men of that totem. the alatunja takes one of these _pitchi_ and, with the aid of his companions, he grinds its contents between two stones; after this, he eats a little of the powder thus obtained, his assistants do the same, and what remains is given to the men of the other clans, who may now dispose of it freely. they proceed in exactly the same manner with the supply provided by the alatunja. from now on, the men and women of the totem may eat it, but only a little at a time; if they went beyond the limits allowed, they would lose the powers necessary to celebrate the intichiuma and the species would not reproduce. yet, if they did not eat any at all, and especially if the alatunja ate none in the circumstances we have just described, they would be overtaken by the same incapacity. in the totemic group of the kangaroo, which has its centre at undiara, certain characteristics of the ceremony are more clearly marked. after the rites which we have described have been accomplished on the sacred rock, the young men go and hunt the kangaroo, bringing their game back to the camp. here, the old men, with the alatunja in their midst, eat a little of the flesh of the animal, and anoint the bodies of those who took part in the intichiuma with its fat. the rest is divided up among the men assembled. next, the men of the totem decorate themselves with totemic designs and the night is passed in songs commemorating the exploits accomplished by men and animal kangaroos in the times of the alcheringa. the next day, the young men go hunting again in the forest and bring back a larger number of kangaroos than the first time, and the ceremonies of the day before recommence.[ ] with variations of detail, the same rite is found in other arunta clans,[ ] among the urabunna,[ ] the kaitish,[ ] the unmatjera,[ ] and in the encounter bay tribe.[ ] everywhere, it is made up of the same essential elements. a few specimens of the totemic animal or plant are presented to the chief of the clan, who solemnly eats them and who must eat them. if he did not fulfil this duty, he would lose the power of celebrating the intichiuma efficaciously, that is to say, so as to recreate the species annually. sometimes the ritual consumption is followed by an unction made with the fat of the animal or certain parts of the plant.[ ] this rite is generally repeated by the men of the totem, or at least by the old men, and after it has been accomplished, the exceptional interdictions are raised. in the tribes located farther north, among the warramunga and neighbouring societies,[ ] this ceremony is no longer found. however, traces are found which seem to indicate that there was a time when it was known. it is true that the chief of the clan never eats the totem ritually and obligatorily. but in certain cases, men who are not of the totem whose intichiuma has just been celebrated, must bring the animal or plant to camp and offer it to the chief, asking him if he wants to eat it. he refuses and adds, "i have made this for you; you may eat it freely."[ ] so the custom of the presentation remains and the question asked of the chief seems to date back to an epoch when the ritual consumption was practised.[ ] iii the interest of the system of rites which has just been described lies in the fact that in them we find, in the most elementary form that is actually known, all the essential principles of a great religious institution which was destined to become one of the foundation stones of the positive cult in the superior religions: this is the institution of sacrifice. we know what a revolution the work of robertson smith brought about in the traditional theory of sacrifice.[ ] before him, sacrifice was regarded as a sort of tribute or homage, either obligatory or optional, analogous to that which subjects owe to their princes. robertson smith was the first to remark that this classic explanation did not account for two essential characteristics of the rite. in the first place, it is a repast: its substance is food. secondly, it is a repast in which the worshippers who offer it take part, along with the god to whom it is offered. certain parts of the victim are reserved for the divinity; others are attributed to the sacrificers, who consume them; this is why the bible often speaks of the sacrifice as a repast in the presence of jahveh. now in a multitude of societies, meals taken in common are believed to create a bond of artificial kinship between those who assist at them: in fact, relatives are people who are naturally made of the same flesh and blood. but food is constantly remaking the substance of the organism. so a common food may produce the same effects as a common origin. according to smith, sacrificial banquets have the object of making the worshipper and his god communicate in the same flesh, in order to form a bond of kinship between them. from this point of view, sacrifice takes on a wholly new aspect. its essential element is no longer the act of renouncement which the word sacrifice ordinarily expresses; before all, it is an act of alimentary communion. of course there are some reservations to be made in the details of this way of explaining the efficacy of sacrificial banquets. this does not result exclusively from the act of eating together. a man does not sanctify himself merely by sitting down, in some way, at the same table with a god, but especially by eating food at this ritual repast which has a sacred character. it has been shown how a whole series of preliminary operations, lustrations, unctions, prayers, etc., transform the animal to be immolated into a sacred thing, whose sacredness is subsequently transferred to the worshipper who eats it.[ ] but it is true, none the less, that the alimentary communion is one of the essential elements of the sacrifice. now when we turn to the rite which terminates the ceremonies of the intichiuma, we find that it, too, consists in an act of this sort. after the totemic animal has been killed, the alatunja and the old men solemnly eat it. so they communicate with the sacred principle residing in it and they assimilate it. the only difference we find here is that the animal is naturally sacred while it ordinarily acquires this character artificially in the course of the sacrifice. moreover, the object of this communion is manifest. every member of a totemic clan contains a mystic substance within him which is the pre-eminent part of his being, for his soul is made out of it. from it come whatever powers he has and his social position, for it is this which makes him a person. so he has a vital interest in maintaining it intact and in keeping it, as far as is possible, in a state of perpetual youth. unfortunately all forces, even the most spiritual, are used up in the course of time if nothing comes to return to them the energy they lose through the normal working of things; there is a necessity of the first importance here which, as we shall see, is the real reason for the positive cult. therefore the men of a totem cannot retain their position unless they periodically revivify the totemic principle which is in them; and as they represent this principle in the form of a vegetable or animal, it is to the corresponding animal or vegetable species that they go to demand the supplementary forces needed to renew this and to rejuvenate it. a man of the kangaroo clan believes himself and feels himself a kangaroo; it is by this quality that he defines himself; it is this which marks his place in the society. in order to keep it, he takes a little of the flesh of this same animal into his own body from time to time. a small bit is enough, owing to the rule: _the part is equal to the whole_.[ ] if this operation is to produce all the desired effects, it may not take place at no matter what moment. the most opportune time is when the new generation has just reached its complete development, for this is also the moment when the forces animating the totemic species attain their maximum intensity. they have just been drawn with great difficulty from those rich reservoirs of life, the sacred trees and rocks. moreover, all sorts of means have been employed to increase their intensity still more; this is the use of the rites performed during the first part of the intichiuma. also, by their very aspect, the firstfruits of the harvest manifest the energy which they contain: here the totemic god acclaims himself in all the glory of his youth. this is why the firstfruits have always been regarded as a very sacred fruit, reserved for very holy beings. so it is natural that the australian uses it to regenerate himself spiritually. thus both the date and the circumstances of the ceremonies are explained. perhaps some will be surprised that so sacred a food may be eaten by ordinary profane persons. but in the first place, there is no positive cult which does not face this contradiction. every sacred being is removed from profane touch by this very character with which it is endowed; but, on the other hand, they would serve for nothing and have no reason whatsoever for their existence if they could not come in contact with these same worshippers who, on another ground, must remain respectfully distant from them. at bottom, there is no positive rite which does not constitute a veritable sacrilege, for a man cannot hold commerce with the sacred beings without crossing the barrier which should ordinarily keep them separate. but the important thing is that the sacrilege should be accompanied with precautions which attenuate it. among those employed, the most usual one consists in arranging the transition so as to introduce the worshipper slowly and gradually into the circle of sacred things. when it has been broken and diluted in this fashion, the sacrilege does not offend the religious conscience so violently; it is not regarded as a sacrilege and so vanishes. this is what happens in the case now before us. the effect of the whole series of rites which has preceded the moment when the totem is solemnly eaten has been to sanctify those who took an active part in them. they constitute an essentially religious period, through which no one could go without a transformation of his religious state. the fasts, the contact with sacred rocks, the churinga,[ ] the totemic decorations, etc., have gradually conferred upon him a character which he did not have before and which enables him to approach, without a shocking and dangerous profanation, this desirable and redoubtable food which is forbidden him in ordinary times.[ ] if the act by which a sacred being is first immolated and then eaten by those who adore it may be called a sacrifice, the rite of which we have just been speaking has a right to this same name. moreover, its significance is well shown by the striking analogies it presents with so many practices met with in a large number of agrarian cults. it is a very general rule that even among peoples who have attained a high degree of civilization, the firstfruits of the harvest are used in the ritual repasts, of which the pascal feast is the best known example.[ ] on the other hand, as the agrarian rites are at the very basis of the most advanced forms of the cult, we see that the intichiuma of the australian societies is closer to us than one might imagine from its apparent crudeness. by an intuition of genius, smith had an intuition of all this, though he was not acquainted with the facts. by a series of ingenious deductions--which need not be reproduced here, for their interest is now only historical[ ]--he thought that he could establish the fact that at the beginning the animal immolated in the sacrifice must have been regarded as quasi-divine and as a close relative of those who immolated it: now these characteristics are just the ones with which the totemic species is defined. smith even went so far as to suppose that totemism must have known and practised a rite wholly similar to the one we have been studying; he was even inclined to see the original source of the whole sacrificial institution in a sacrifice of this sort.[ ] sacrifice was not founded to create a bond of artificial kinship between a man and his gods, but to maintain and renew the natural kinship which primitively united them. here, as elsewhere, the artifice was born only to imitate nature. but in the book of smith this hypothesis was presented as scarcely more than a theory which the then known facts supported very imperfectly. the rare cases of totemic sacrifice which he cites in support of his theory do not have the significance he attributed to them; the animals which figure in them are not real totems.[ ] but to-day we are able to state that on at least one point the demonstration is made: in fact, we have just seen that in an important number of societies the totemic sacrifice, such as smith conceived it, is or has been practised. of course, we have no proof that this practice is necessarily inherent to totemism or that it is the germ out of which all the other types of sacrifices have developed. but if the universality of the rite is hypothetical, its existence is no longer to be contested. hereafter it is to be regarded as established that the most mystical form of the alimentary communion is found even in the most rudimentary cults known to-day. iv but on another point the new facts at our disposal invalidate the theories of smith. according to him, the communion was not only an essential element of the sacrifice, but at the beginning, at least, it was the unique element. not only is one mistaken when he reduces sacrifice to nothing more than a tribute or offering, but the very idea of an offering was originally absent from it; this intervened only at a late period and under the influence of external circumstances; so instead of being able to aid us in understanding it, it has rather masked the real nature of the ritual mechanism. in fact, smith claimed to find in the very notion of oblation an absurdity so revolting that it could never have been the fundamental reason for so great an institution. one of the most important functions incumbent upon the divinity is to assure to men that food which is necessary for life; so it seems impossible that the sacrifice, in its turn, should consist in a presentation of food to the divinity. it even seems self-contradictory that the gods should expect their food from a man, when it is from them that he gets his. why should they have need of his aid in order to deduct beforehand their just share of the things which he receives from their hands? from these considerations smith concluded that the idea of a sacrifice-offering could have been born only in the great religions, where the gods, removed from the things with which they were primitively confused, were thought of as sorts of kings and the eminent proprietors of the earth and its products. from this moment onwards, the sacrifice was associated with the tribute which subjects paid to their prince, as a price of the rights which were conceded to them. but this new interpretation was really an alteration and even a corruption of the primitive conception. for "the idea of property materializes all that it touches"; by introducing itself into the sacrifice, it denatured it and made it into a sort of bargain between the man and the divinity.[ ] but the facts which we have described overthrow this argumentation. these rites are certainly among the most primitive that have ever been observed. no determined mythical personality appears in them; there is no question of gods or spirits that are properly so called; it is only vaguely anonymous and impersonal forces which they put into action. yet the reasoning which they suppose is exactly the one that smith declared impossible because of its absurdity. let us return to the first act of the intichiuma, to the rites destined to assure the fecundity of the animal or vegetable species which serves the clan as totem. this species is the pre-eminently sacred thing; in it is incarnated that which we have been able to call, by metaphor, the totemic divinity. yet we have seen that to perpetuate itself it has need of the aid of men. it is they who dispense the life of the new generation each year; without them, it would never be born. if they stopped celebrating the intichiuma, the sacred beings would disappear from the face of the earth. so in one sense, it is from men that they get their existence; yet in another way, it is from them that men get theirs; for after they have once arrived at maturity, it is from them that men acquire the force needed to support and repair their spiritual beings. thus we are able to say that men make their gods, or, at least, make them live; but at the same time, it is from them that they live themselves. so they are regularly guilty of the circle which, according to smith, is implied in the very idea of a sacrificial tribute: they give to the sacred beings a little of what they receive from them, and they receive from them all that they give. but there is still more to be said: the oblations which he is thus forced to make every year do not differ in nature from those which are made later in the rites properly called sacrifices. if the sacrificer immolates an animal, it is in order that the living principles within it may be disengaged from the organism and go to nourish the divinity. likewise, the grains of dust which the australian detaches from the sacred rock are so many sacred principles which he scatters into space, so that they may go to animate the totemic species and assure its renewal. the gesture with which this scattering is made is also that which normally accompanies offerings. in certain cases, the resemblance between the two rites may be followed even to the details of the movements effected. we have seen that in order to have rain the kaitish pour water over the sacred stone; among certain peoples, the priest pours water over the altar, with the same end in view.[ ] the effusions of blood which are usual in a certain number of intichiuma are veritable oblations. just as the arunta or dieri sprinkle the sacred rock or the totemic design with blood, so it frequently happens that in the more advanced cults, the blood of the sacrificed victim or of the worshipper himself is spilt before or upon the altar.[ ] in these cases, it is given to the gods, of whom it is the preferred food; in australia, it is given to the sacred species. so we have no ground for saying that the idea of oblation is a late product of civilization. a document which we owe to strehlow puts this kinship of the intichiuma and the sacrifice clearly into evidence. this is a hymn which accompanies the intichiuma of the kangaroo; the ceremony is described at the same time that its expected effects are announced. a morsel of kangaroo fat has been placed by the chief upon a support made of branches. the text says that this fat makes the fat of the kangaroos increase.[ ] this time, they do not confine themselves to sprinkling sacred dust or human blood about; the animal itself is immolated, or sacrificed as one might say, placed upon a sort of altar, and offered to the species, whose life it should maintain. now we see the sense in which we may say that the intichiuma contains the germs of the sacrificial system. in the form which it takes when fully constituted, a sacrifice is composed of two essential elements: an act of communion and an act of oblation. the worshipper communes with his god by taking in a sacred food, and at the same time he makes an offering to this god. we find these two acts in the intichiuma, as we have described it. the only difference is that in the ordinary sacrifice[ ] they are made simultaneously or else follow one another immediately, while in the australian ceremony they are separated. in the former case, they are parts of one undivided rite; here, they take place at different times, and may even be separated by a rather long interval. but, at bottom, the mechanism is the same. taken as a whole, the intichiuma is a sacrifice, but one whose parts are not yet articulated and organized. the relating of these two ceremonies has the double advantage of enabling us to understand better the nature of the intichiuma and that of sacrifice. we understand the intichiuma better. in fact, the conception of frazer, which made it a simple magic operation[ ] with no religious character at all, is now seen to be unsupportable. one cannot dream of excluding from religion a rite which is the forerunner of so great a religious institution. but we also understand what the sacrifice itself is better. in the first place, the equal importance of the two elements entering into it is now established. if the australian makes offerings to his sacred beings, there is no reason for supposing that the idea of oblation was foreign to the primitive organization of the sacrificial institution and later upset its natural arrangement. the theory of smith must be revised on this point.[ ] of course the sacrifice is partially a communion; but it is also, and no less essentially, a gift and an act of renouncement. it always presupposes that the worshipper gives some of his substance or his goods to his gods. every attempt to deduce one of these elements from the other is hopeless. perhaps the oblation is even more permanent than the communion.[ ] in the second place, it ordinarily seems as though the sacrifice, and especially the sacrificial oblation, could only be addressed to personal beings. but the oblations which we have met with in australia imply no notion of this sort. in other words, the sacrifice is independent of the varying forms in which the religious forces are conceived; it is founded upon more profound reasons, which we shall seek presently. in any case, it is clear that the act of offering naturally arouses in the mind the idea of a moral subject, whom this offering is destined to please. the ritual acts which we have described become more intelligible when it is believed that they are addressed to persons. so the practices of the intichiuma, while actually putting only impersonal forces into play, prepare the way for a different conception.[ ] of course they were not sufficient to form the idea of mythical personalities by themselves, but when this idea had once been formed, the very nature of these rites made it enter into the cult; thus, taking a more direct interest in action and life, it also acquired a greater reality. so we are even able to believe that the cult favoured, in a secondary manner, no doubt, but nevertheless one which is worthy of attention, the personification of the religious forces. v but we still have to explain the contradiction in which robertson smith saw an inadmissible logical scandal. if the sacred beings always manifested their powers in a perfectly equal manner, it would appear inconceivable that men should dream of offering them services, for we cannot see what need they could have of them. but in the first place, in so far as they are confused with things, and in so far as they are regarded as principles of the cosmic life, they are themselves submitted to the rhythm of this life. now this goes in oscillations in contrary directions, which succeed one another according to a determined law. sometimes it is affirmed in all its glory; sometimes it weakens to such an extent that one may ask himself whether it is not going to fade away. vegetation dies every year; will it be reborn? animal species tend to become extinguished by the effect of natural and violent death; will they be renewed at such a time and in such a way as is proper? above all, the rain is capricious; there are long periods during which it seems to have disappeared for ever. these periodical variations of nature bear witness to the fact that at the corresponding periods, the sacred beings upon whom the plants, animals, rain, etc., depend are themselves passing through grave crises; so they, too, have their periods of giving way. but men could not regard these spectacles as indifferent spectators. if he is to live, the universal life must continue, and consequently the gods must not die. so he seeks to sustain and aid them; for this, he puts at their service whatever forces he has at his disposition, and mobilizes them for this purpose. the blood flowing in his veins has fecundating virtues; he pours it forth. from the sacred rocks possessed by his clan he takes those germs of life which lie dormant there, and scatters them into space. in a word, he makes oblations. the external and physical crises, moreover, duplicate internal and mental crises which tend toward the same result. sacred beings exist only when they are represented as such in the mind. when we cease to believe in them, it is as though they did not exist. even those which have a material form and are given by sensible experience, depend upon the thought of the worshippers who adore them; for the sacred character which makes them objects of the cult is not given by their natural constitution; it is added to them by belief. the kangaroo is only an animal like all others; yet, for the men of the kangaroo, it contains within it a principle which puts it outside the company of others, and this principle exists only in the minds of those who believe in it.[ ] if these sacred beings, when once conceived, are to have no need of men to continue, it would be necessary that the representations expressing them always remain the same. but this stability is impossible. in fact, it is in the communal life that they are formed, and this communal life is essentially intermittent. so they necessarily partake of this same intermittency. they attain their greatest intensity at the moment when the men are assembled together and are in immediate relations with one another, when they all partake of the same idea and the same sentiment. but when the assembly has broken up and each man has returned to his own peculiar life, they progressively lose their original energy. being covered over little by little by the rising flood of daily experiences, they would soon fall into the unconscious, if we did not find some means of calling them back into consciousness and revivifying them. if we think of them less forcefully, they amount to less for us and we count less upon them; they exist to a lesser degree. so here we have another point of view, from which the services of men are necessary to them. this second reason for their existence is even more important than the first, for it exists all the time. the intermittency of the physical life can affect religious beliefs only when religions are not yet detached from their cosmic basis. the intermittency of the social life, on the other hand, is inevitable; even the most idealistic religions cannot escape it. moreover, it is owing to this state of dependency upon the thought of men, in which the gods find themselves, that the former are able to believe in the efficacy of their assistance. the only way of renewing the collective representations which relate to sacred beings is to retemper them in the very source of the religious life, that is to say, in the assembled groups. now the emotions aroused by these periodical crises through which external things pass induce the men who witness them to assemble, to see what should be done about it. but by the very fact of uniting, they are mutually comforted; they find a remedy because they seek it together. the common faith becomes reanimated quite naturally in the heart of this reconstituted group; if is born again because it again finds those very conditions in which it was born in the first place. after it has been restored, it easily triumphs over all the private doubts which may have arisen in individual minds. the image of the sacred things regains power enough to resist the internal or external causes which tended to weaken it. in spite of their apparent failure, men can no longer believe that the gods will die, because they feel them living in their own hearts. the means employed to succour them, howsoever crude these may be, cannot appear vain, for everything goes on as if they were really effective. men are more confident because they feel themselves stronger; and they really are stronger, because forces which were languishing are now reawakened in the consciousness. so we must be careful not to believe, along with smith, that the cult was founded solely for the benefit of men and that the gods have nothing to do with it: they have no less need of it than their worshippers. of course men would be unable to live without gods, but, on the other hand, the gods would die if their cult were not rendered. this does not have the sole object of making profane subjects communicate with sacred beings, but it also keeps these latter alive and is perpetually remaking and regenerating them. of course it is not the material oblations which bring about this regeneration by their own virtues; it is the mental states which these actions, though vain in themselves, accompany or reawaken. the real reason for the existence of the cults, even of those which are the most materialistic in appearance, is not to be sought in the acts which they prescribe, but in the internal and moral regeneration which these acts aid in bringing about. the things which the worshipper really gives his gods are not the foods which he places upon the altars, nor the blood which he lets flow from his veins: it is his thought. nevertheless, it is true that there is an exchange of services, which are mutually demanded, between the divinity and its worshippers. the rule _do ut des_, by which the principle of sacrifice has sometimes been defined, is not a late invention of utilitarian theorists: it only expresses in an explicit way the very mechanism of the sacrificial system and, more generally, of the whole positive cult. so the circle pointed out by smith is very real; but it contains nothing humiliating for the reason. it comes from the fact that the sacred beings, though superior to men, can live only in the human consciousness. but this circle will appear still more natural to us, and we shall understand its meaning and the reason for its existence still better if, carrying our analysis still farther and substituting for the religious symbols the realities which they represent, we investigate how these behave in the rite. if, as we have attempted to establish, the sacred principle is nothing more nor less than society transfigured and personified, it should be possible to interpret the ritual in lay and social terms. and, as a matter of fact, social life, just like the ritual, moves in a circle. on the one hand, the individual gets from society the best part of himself, all that gives him a distinct character and a special place among other beings, his intellectual and moral culture. if we should withdraw from men their language, sciences, arts and moral beliefs, they would drop to the rank of animals. so the characteristic attributes of human nature come from society. but, on the other hand, society exists and lives only in and through individuals. if the idea of society were extinguished in individual minds and the beliefs, traditions and aspirations of the group were no longer felt and shared by the individuals, society would die. we can say of it what we just said of the divinity: it is real only in so far as it has a place in human consciousnesses, and this place is whatever one we may give it. we now see the real reason why the gods cannot do without their worshippers any more than these can do without their gods; it is because society, of which the gods are only a symbolic expression, cannot do without individuals any more than these can do without society. here we touch the solid rock upon which all the cults are built and which has caused their persistence ever since human societies have existed. when we see what religious rites consist of and towards what they seem to tend, we demand with astonishment how men have been able to imagine them, and especially how they can remain so faithfully attached to them. whence could the illusion have come that with a few grains of sand thrown to the wind, or a few drops of blood shed upon a rock or the stone of an altar, it is possible to maintain the life of an animal species or of a god? we have undoubtedly made a step in advance towards the solution of this problem when we have discovered, behind these outward and apparently unreasonable movements, a mental mechanism which gives them a meaning and a moral significance. but we are in no way assured that this mechanism itself does not consist in a simple play of hallucinatory images. we have pointed out the psychological process which leads the believers to imagine that the rite causes the spiritual forces of which they have need to be reborn about them; but it does not follow from the fact that this belief is psychologically explicable that it has any objective value. if we are to see in the efficacy attributed to the rites anything more than the product of a chronic delirium with which humanity has abused itself, we must show that the effect of the cult really is to recreate periodically a moral being upon which we depend as it depends upon us. now this being does exist: it is society. howsoever little importance the religious ceremonies may have, they put the group into action; the groups assemble to celebrate them. so their first effect is to bring individuals together, to multiply the relations between them and to make them more intimate with one another. by this very fact, the contents of their consciousnesses is changed. on ordinary days, it is utilitarian and individual avocations which take the greater part of the attention. every one attends to his own personal business; for most men, this primarily consists in satisfying the exigencies of material life, and the principal incentive to economic activity has always been private interest. of course social sentiments could never be totally absent. we remain in relations with others; the habits, ideas and tendencies which education has impressed upon us and which ordinarily preside over our relations with others, continue to make their action felt. but they are constantly combated and held in check by the antagonistic tendencies aroused and supported by the necessities of the daily struggle. they resist more or less successfully, according to their intrinsic energy: but this energy is not renewed. they live upon their past, and consequently they would be used up in the course of time, if nothing returned to them a little of the force that they lose through these incessant conflicts and frictions. when the australians, scattered in little groups, spend their time in hunting and fishing, they lose sight of what concerns their clan or tribe: their only thought is to catch as much game as possible. on feast days, on the contrary, these preoccupations are necessarily eclipsed; being essentially profane, they are excluded from these sacred periods. at this time, their thoughts are centred upon their common beliefs, their common traditions, the memory of their great ancestors, the collective ideal of which they are the incarnation; in a word, upon social things. even the material interests which these great religious ceremonies are designed to satisfy concern the public order and are therefore social. society as a whole is interested that the harvest be abundant, that the rain fall at the right time and not excessively, that the animals reproduce regularly. so it is society that is in the foreground of every consciousness; it dominates and directs all conduct; this is equivalent to saying that it is more living and active, and consequently more real, than in profane times. so men do not deceive themselves when they feel at this time that there is something outside of them which is born again, that there are forces which are reanimated and a life which reawakens. this renewal is in no way imaginary and the individuals themselves profit from it. for the spark of a social being which each bears within him necessarily participates in this collective renovation. the individual soul is regenerated too, by being dipped again in the source from which its life comes; consequently it feels itself stronger, more fully master of itself, less dependent upon physical necessities. we know that the positive cult naturally tends to take periodic forms; this is one of its distinctive features. of course there are rites which men celebrate occasionally, in connection with passing situations. but these episodic practices are always merely accessory, and in the religions studied in this book, they are almost exceptional. the essential constituent of the cult is the cycle of feasts which return regularly at determined epochs. we are now able to understand whence this tendency towards periodicity comes; the rhythm which the religious life follows only expresses the rhythm of the social life, and results from it. society is able to revivify the sentiment it has of itself only by assembling. but it cannot be assembled all the time. the exigencies of life do not allow it to remain in congregation indefinitely; so it scatters, to assemble anew when it again feels the need of this. it is to these necessary alternations that the regular alternations of sacred and profane times correspond. since the apparent object, at least, of the cult was at first to regularize the course of natural phenomena, the rhythm of the cosmic life has put its mark on the rhythm of the ritual life. this is why the feasts have long been associated with the seasons; we have seen this characteristic already in the intichiuma of australia. but the seasons have only furnished the outer frame-work for this organization, and not the principle upon which it rests; for even the cults which aim at exclusively spiritual ends have remained periodical. so this periodicity must be due to other causes. since the seasonal changes are critical periods for nature, they are a natural occasion for assembling, and consequently for religious ceremonies. but other events can and have successfully fulfilled this function of occasional cause. however, it must be recognized that this frame-work, though purely external, has given proof of a singular resistive force, for traces of it are found even in the religions which are the most fully detached from all physical bases. many christian celebrations are founded, with no break of continuity, on the pastoral and agrarian feasts of the ancient hebrews, although in themselves they are neither pastoral nor agrarian. moreover, this rhythm is capable of varying in different societies. where the period of dispersion is long, and the dispersion itself is extreme, the period of congregation, in its turn, is very prolonged, and produces veritable debauches of collective and religions life. feasts succeed one another for weeks or even for months, while the ritual life sometimes attains to a sort of frenzy. this is what happens among the australian tribes and many of the tribes of north-western america.[ ] elsewhere, on the contrary, these two phases of the social life succeed one another after shorter intervals, and then the contrast between them is less marked. the more societies develop, the less they seem to allow of too great intermittences. chapter iii the positive cult--_continued_ ii.--_imitative rites and the principle of causality_ but the processes which we have just been describing are not the only ones employed to assure the fecundity of the totemic species. there are others which serve for the same end, whether they accompany the preceding ones or replace them. i in the very ceremonies which we have been describing, in addition to the oblations, whether bloody or otherwise, there are other rites which are frequently celebrated, whose object is to complete the former ones and to consolidate their effects. they consist in movements and cries whose object is to imitate the different attitudes and aspects of the animal whose reproduction is desired; therefore, we shall call them _imitative_. thus the intichiuma of the witchetty grub among the arunta includes more than the rites performed upon the sacred rocks, of which we have already spoken. when these are finished, the men set out to return to camp; but when they still are about a mile away, they halt and all decorate themselves ritually; after this, the march is resumed. the decorations with which they thus adorn themselves announce that an important ceremony is going to take place. and, in fact, while the company was absent, one of the old men who had been left to guard the camp had built a shelter out of branches, called _umbana_, which represented the chrysalis out of which the insect comes. all of those who had taken part in the previous ceremonies assemble near the spot where this construction has been raised; then they advance slowly, stopping from time to time, until they reach the _umbana_, which they enter. at once all the men who do not belong to the phratry of the witchetty grub totem, and who assist at the scene, though from a distance, lie down on the ground, with their faces against the earth; they must remain in this position without moving until they are allowed to get up again. meanwhile, a chant arises from the interior of the umbana, which describes the different phases through which the animal passes in the course of its development, and the myths of which the sacred rocks are the subject. when this hymn ceases, the alatunja glides out of the _umbana_, though remaining in a squatting position, and advances slowly over the ground before him; he is followed by all his companions who reproduce gestures whose evident object is to represent the insect as it leaves the chrysalis. also, a hymn which is heard at just this moment and which is like an oral commentary on the rite, consists in a description of the movements made by the insect at this stage of its development.[ ] another intichiuma,[ ] celebrated in connection with another kind of grub, the _unchalka_[ ] grub, has this character still more clearly. the actors of this rite decorate themselves with designs representing the _unchalka_ bush upon which this grub lives at the beginning of its existence. then they cover a buckler with concentric circles of down, representing another kind of bush upon which the insect lays its eggs when it has become adult. when all these preparations are finished, they all sit down on the ground in a semicircle facing the principal officiant. he alternately bends his body double by leaning towards the ground and then rises on his knees; at the same time, he shakes his stretched-out arms, which is a way of representing the wings of the insect. from time to time, he leans over the buckler, imitating the way in which the butterfly flies over the trees where it lays its eggs. when this ceremony is finished, another commences at a different spot, to which they go in silence. this time they use two bucklers. upon one the tracks of the grub are represented by zigzag lines; upon the other, concentric circles of uneven dimensions represent the eggs of the insect and the seed of the eremophile bush, upon which it is nourished. as in the former ceremony, they all sit down in silence while the officiant acts, representing the movements of the animal when leaving its chrysalis and taking its first flight. spencer and gillen also point out certain analogous facts among the arunta, though these are of a minor importance: in the intichiuma of the emu, for example, at a certain moment the actors try to reproduce by their attitude the air and aspect of this bird;[ ] in the intichiuma of water, the men of the totem utter the characteristic cry of the plover, a cry which is naturally associated in the mind with the rainy season.[ ] but in all, the examples of imitative rites which these two explorers have noted are rather few in number. however, it is certain that their relative silence on this point is due either to their not having observed the intichiuma sufficiently or else to their having neglected this side of the ceremonies; schulze, on the other hand, has been struck by the essentially imitative nature of the arunta rites. "the sacred corrobbori," he says, "are generally ceremonies representing animals": he calls them _animal tjurunga_[ ] and his testimony is now confirmed by the documents collected by strehlow. the examples given by this latter author are so numerous that it is impossible to cite them all: there are scarcely any ceremonies in which some imitating gesture is not pointed out. according to the nature of the animals whose feast is celebrated, they jump after the manner of kangaroos, or imitate the movements they make in eating, the flight of winged ants, the characteristic noise of the bat, the cry of the wild turkey, the hissing of the snake, the croaking of the frog, etc.[ ] when the totem is a plant, they make the gesture of plucking it,[ ] or eating it,[ ] etc. among the warramunga, the intichiuma generally takes a special form, which we shall describe in the next chapter and which differs from those which we have studied up to the present. however, there is one typical case of a purely imitative intichiuma among this people; it is that of the black cockatoo. the ceremony described by spencer and gillen commenced at ten o'clock in the evening. all night long the chief of the clan imitated the cry of the bird with a disheartening monotony. he stopped only when he had come to the end of his force, and then his son replaced him; then he commenced again as soon as he felt a little refreshed. these exhausting exercises continued until morning without interruption.[ ] living beings are not the only ones which they try to imitate. in a large number of tribes, the intichiuma of rain consists essentially in imitative rites. one of the most simple of these is that celebrated among the arabunna. the chief of the clan is seated on the ground, all covered with white down and holding a lance in his hands. he shakes himself, undoubtedly in order to detach from his body the down which is fixed there and which represents clouds when scattered about in the air. thus he imitates the men-clouds of the alcheringa who, according to the legend, had the habit of ascending to heaven and forming clouds there, from which the rain then fell. in a word, the object of the whole rite is to represent the formation and ascension of clouds, the bringers of rain.[ ] the ceremony is much more complicated among the kaitish. we have already spoken of one of the means employed: the officiant pours water over the sacred stones and himself. but the action of this sort of oblation is reinforced by other rites. the rainbow is considered to have a close connection with rain: they say that it is its son and that it is always urged to appear to make the rain stop. to make the rain fall, it is therefore necessary that it should not appear; they believe that this result can be obtained in the following manner. a design representing a rainbow is made upon a buckler. they carry this buckler to camp, taking care to keep it hidden from all eyes. they are convinced that by making this image of the rainbow invisible, they keep the rainbow itself from appearing. meanwhile, the chief of the clan, having beside him a _pitchi_ full of water, throws in all directions flakes of down which represent clouds. repeated imitations of the cry of the plover complete this ceremony, which seems to have an especial gravity; for as long as it lasts, all those who participate in it, either as actors or assistants, may have no relations whatsoever with their wives; they may not even speak to them.[ ] the processes of figuration are different among the dieri. rain is not represented by water, but by blood, which the men cause to flow from their veins on to the assistants.[ ] at the same time they throw handfuls of white down about, which represent clouds. a hut has been constructed previously, in which they now place two large stones representing piles of clouds, a sign of rain. after they have been left there for a little while, they are carried a little distance away and placed as high as possible in the loftiest tree to be found; this is a way of making the clouds mount into the sky. powdered gypsum is then thrown into a water-hole, for when he sees this, the rain spirit soon makes the clouds appear. finally all the men, young and old, assemble around the hut and with heads lowered, they charge upon it; they rush violently through it, repeating the operation several times, until nothing remains of the whole construction except the supporting posts. then they fall upon these and shake and pull at them until the whole thing has tumbled down. the operation consisting in running through the hut is supposed to represent clouds bursting; the tumbling down of the construction, the fall of rain.[ ] in the north-western tribes studied by clement,[ ] which occupy the district included between the fontescue and fitzroy rivers, certain ceremonies are celebrated whose object is exactly the same as that of the intichiuma of the arunta, and which seem to be, for the most part, essentially imitative. these peoples give the name _tarlow_ to certain piles of stones which are evidently sacred, for, as we shall see, they are the object of important rites. every animal, every plant, and in fact, every totem or sub-totem,[ ] is represented by a _tarlow_ which a special clan[ ] guards. the analogy between these _tarlow_ and the sacred rocks of the arunta is easily seen. when kangaroos, for example, become rare, the chief of the clan to which the _tarlow_ of the kangaroo belongs goes to it with a certain number of companions. here various rites are performed, the chief of which consist in jumping around the _tarlow_ as kangaroos jump, in drinking as they drink and, in a word, in imitating all their most characteristic movements. the weapons used in hunting the animal have an important part in these rites. they brandish them, throw them against the stones, etc. when they are concerned for emus, they go to the _tarlow_ of the emu, and walk and run as these birds do. the skill which the natives show in these imitations is, as it appears, really remarkable. other _tarlow_ are consecrated to plants, such as the cereals. in this case, they imitate the actions of threshing and grinding the grain. since in ordinary life it is the women who are normally charged with these tasks, it is also they who perform the rite, in the midst of songs and dances. ii all these rites belong to the same type. the principle upon which they rest is one of those at the basis of what is commonly and incorrectly called sympathetic[ ] magic. these principles are ordinarily reduced to two.[ ] the first may be stated thus: _anything touching an object also touches everything which has any relation of proximity or unity whatsoever with this object_. thus, whatever affects the part also affects the whole; any action exercised over an individual is transmitted to his neighbours, relatives and all those to whom he is united in any way. all these cases are simple applications of the law of contagion, which we have already studied. a condition or a good or bad quality are communicated contagiously from one subject to another who has some connection with the former. the second principle is ordinarily summed up in the formula: _like produces like_. the representation of a being or condition produces this being or condition. this is the maxim which brings about the rites which we have just been describing, and it is in them that we can best observe its characteristics. the classical example of the magic charm, which is ordinarily given as the typical application of this same precept, is much less significant. the charm is, to a large extent, a simple phenomenon of transfer. the idea of the image is associated in the mind with that of the model; consequently the effects of an action performed upon a statue are transmitted contagiously to the person whose traits it reproduces. the function of the image is for its original what that of a part is for the whole: it is an agent of transmission. therefore men think that they can obtain the same result by burning the hair of the person whom they wish to injure: the only difference between these two sorts of operations is that in one, the communication is made through similarity, while in the other it is by means of contiguity. it is different with the rites which concern us. they suppose not only the displacement of a given condition or quality, which passes from one object into the other, but also the creation of something entirely new. the mere act of representing the animal gives birth to this animal and creates it; by imitating the sound of wind or falling water, they cause clouds to form, rain to fall, etc. of course resemblance plays an important part in each case, but not at all the same one. in a charm, it only gives a special direction to the action exercised; it directs in a certain way an action not originating in it. in the rites of which we have just been speaking, it acts by itself and is directly efficacious. so, in contradiction to the usual definitions, the real difference between the two principles of the so-called sympathetic magic and the corresponding practices is not that it is contiguity acts in one case and resemblance in the other, but that in the former there is a simple contagious communication, while there is production and creation in the latter.[ ] the explanation of imitative rites therefore implies the explanation of the second of these principles, and reciprocally. we shall not tarry long to discuss the explanation proposed by the anthropological school, and especially by tylor and frazer. just as in their attempts to account for the contagiousness of a sacred character, they invoke the association of ideas. "hom[oe]opathic magic," says frazer, who prefers this expression to imitative magic, "is founded on the association of ideas by similarity; contagious magic is founded on the association of ideas by contiguity. hom[oe]opathic magic commits the mistake of assuming that things which resemble each other are the same."[ ] but this is a misunderstanding of the special nature of the practices under discussion. on the one hand, the formula of frazer may be applied with some fitness to the case of charms;[ ] here, in fact, two distinct things are associated with each other, owing to their partial resemblance: these are the image and the model which it represents more or less systematically. but in the imitative rites, which we have just been observing, the image alone is given; as for the model, it does not exist, for the new generation of the totemic species is as yet only a hope and even an uncertain hope at that. so there could be no question of association, whether correct or not; there is a real creation, and we cannot see how the association of ideas could possibly lead to a belief in this creation. how could the mere act of representing the movements of an animal bring about the certitude that this animal will be born, and born in abundance? the general properties of human nature cannot explain such special practices. so instead of considering the principle upon which they rest in its general and abstract form, let us replace it in the environment of which it is a part and where we have been observing it, and let us connect it with the system of ideas and sentiments which the above rites put into practice, and then we shall be better able to perceive the causes from which it results. the men who assemble on the occasion of these rites believe that they are really animals or plants of the species whose name they bear. they feel within them an animal or vegetable nature, and in their eyes, this is what constitutes whatever is the most essential and the most excellent in them. so when they assemble, their first movement ought to be to show each other this quality which they attribute to themselves and by which they are defined. the totem is their rallying sign; for this reason, as we have seen, they design it upon their bodies; but it is no less natural that they should seek to resemble it in their gestures, their cries, their attitude. since they are emus or kangaroos, they comport themselves like the animals of the same name. by this means, they mutually show one another that they are all members of the same moral community and they become conscious of the kinship uniting them. the rite does not limit itself to expressing this kinship; it makes it or remakes it. for it exists only in so far as it is believed in, and the effect of all these collective demonstrations is to support the beliefs upon which they are founded. therefore, these leaps, these cries and these movements of every sort, though bizarre and grotesque in appearance, really have a profound and human meaning. the australian seeks to resemble his totem just as the faithful in more advanced religions seek to resemble their god. for the one as for the other, this is a means of communicating with the sacred being, that is to say, with the collective ideal which this latter symbolizes. this is an early form of the [greek: homoiôsis tô theô]. however, as this first reason is connected with the most specialized portions of the totemic beliefs, the principle by which like produces like should not have survived totemism, if this had been the only one in operation. now there is probably no religion in which rites derived from it are not found. so another reason must co-operate with this first one. and, in fact, the ceremonies where we have seen it applied do not merely have the very general object which we have just mentioned, howsoever essential this may be; they also aim at a more immediate and more conscious end, which is the assurance of the reproduction of the totemic species. the idea of this necessary reproduction haunts the minds of the worshippers: upon it the forces of their attention and will are concentrated. now a single preoccupation cannot possess a group of men to this point without being externalized in a material form. since all think of the animal or plant to whose destinies the clan is united, it is inevitable that this common thought should not be manifested outwardly by gestures,[ ] and those naturally designated for this office are those which represent this animal or plant in one of its most characteristic attitudes; there are no other movements so close to the idea filling every mind, for these are an immediate and almost automatic translation of it. so they make themselves imitate the animal; they cry like it, they jump like it; they reproduce the scenes in which they make daily use of the plant. all these ways of representation are just so many means of ostensibly showing the end towards which all minds are directed, of telling the thing which they wish to realize, of calling it up and of evoking it. and this need belongs to no one time, nor does it depend upon the beliefs of any special religion; it is essentially human. this is why, even in religions very far removed from those we have been studying, the worshippers, when assembled to ask their gods for some event which they ardently desire, are forced to figure it. of course, the word is also a way of expressing it; but the gesture is no less natural; it bursts out from the organism just as spontaneously; it even precedes the word, or, in any case, accompanies it. but if we can thus understand how the gestures acquired a place in the ceremony, we still must explain the efficacy attributed to them. if the australian repeats them regularly each new season, it is because he believes them essential to the success of the rite. where could he have gotten the idea that by imitating an animal, one causes it to reproduce? so manifest an error seems hardly intelligible so long as we see in the rite only the material end towards which it seems to aim. but we know that in addition to the effect which it is thought to have on the totemic species, it also exercises a profound influence over the souls of the worshippers who take part in it. they take away with them a feeling of well-being, whose causes they cannot clearly see, but which is well founded. they feel that the ceremony is good for them; and, as a matter of fact, they reforge their moral nature in it. how could this sort of well-being fail to give them a feeling that the rite has succeeded, that it has been what it set out to be, and that it has attained the ends at which it was aimed? as the only end which was consciously sought was the reproduction of the totemic species, this seems to be assured by the means employed, the efficacy of which is thus proven. thus it comes about that men attribute creative virtues to their gestures, which in themselves are vain. the moral efficacy of the rite, which is real, leads to the belief in its physical efficacy, which is imaginary; that of the whole, to the belief in that of each part by itself. the truly useful effects produced by the whole ceremony are like an experimental justification of the elementary practices out of which it is made, though in reality, all these practices are in no way indispensable to its success. a certain proof, moreover, that they do not act by themselves is that they may be replaced by others, of a very different nature, without any modification of the final result. it appears that there are intichiuma which include only oblations, with no imitative rites; others are purely imitative, and include no oblations. however, both are believed to have the same efficacy. so if a price is attached to these various man[oe]uvres, it is not because of their intrinsic value, but because they are a part of a complex rite, whose utility as a whole is realized. we are able to understand this state of mind all the easier because we can still observe it about us. especially among the most cultivated peoples and environments, we frequently meet with believers who, though having doubts as to the special efficacy attributed by dogma to each rite considered separately, still continue to participate in the cult. they are not sure that the details of the prescribed observances are rationally justifiable; but they feel that it would be impossible to free oneself of them without falling into a moral confusion before which they recoil. the very fact that in them the faith has lost its intellectual foundations throws into eminence the profound reasons upon which they rest. this is why the easy criticisms to which an unduly simple rationalism has sometimes submitted ritual prescriptions generally leave the believer indifferent: it is because the true justification of religious practices does not lie in the apparent ends which they pursue, but rather in the invisible action which they exercise over the mind and in the way in which they affect our mental status. likewise, when preachers undertake to convince, they devote much less attention to establishing directly and by methodical proofs the truth of any particular proposition or the utility of such and such an observance, than to awakening or reawakening the sentiment of the moral comfort attained by the regular celebration of the cult. thus they create a predisposition to belief, which precedes proofs, which leads the mind to overlook the insufficiency of the logical reasons, and which thus prepares it for the proposition whose acceptance is desired. this favourable prejudice, this impulse towards believing, is just what constitutes faith; and it is faith which makes the authority of the rites, according to the believer, whoever he may be, christian or australian. the only superiority of the former is that he better accounts for the psychological process from which his faith results; he knows that "it is faith that saves." it is because faith has this origin that it is, in a sense, "impermeable to experience."[ ] if the intermittent failures of the intichiuma do not shake the confidence of the australian in his rite, it is because he holds with all the strength of his soul to these practices in which he periodically recreates himself; he could not deny their principle without causing an upheaval of his own being, which resists. but howsoever great this force of resistance may be, it cannot radically distinguish religious mentality from the other forms of human mentality, even those which are the most habitually opposed to it. in this connection, that of a scholar differs from the preceding only in degree. when a scientific law has the authority of numerous and varied experiments, it is against all method to renounce it too quickly upon the discovery of a fact which seems to contradict it. it is still necessary to make sure that the fact does not allow of a single interpretation, and that it is impossible to account for it, without abandoning the proposition which it seems to invalidate. now the australian does not proceed otherwise when he attributes the failure of the intichiuma to some sorcery, or the abundance of a premature crop to a mystic intichiuma celebrated in the beyond. he has all the more reason for not doubting his rite on the belief in a contrary fact, since its value is, or seems to be, established by a larger number of harmonizing facts. in the first place, the moral efficacy of the ceremony is real and is felt directly by all who participate in it; there is a constantly renewed experience in it, whose importance no contradictory experience can diminish. also, the physical efficacy itself is not unable to find an at least apparent confirmation in the data of objective observation. as a matter of fact, the totemic species normally does reproduce regularly; so in the great majority of cases, everything happens just as if the ritual gestures really did produce the effects expected of them. failures are the exception. as the rites, and especially those which are periodical, demand nothing more of nature than that it follow its ordinary course, it is not surprising that it should generally have the air of obeying them. so if the believer shows himself indocile to certain lessons of experience, he does so because of other experiences which seem more demonstrative. the scholar does not do otherwise; only he introduces more method. so magic is not, as frazer has held,[ ] an original fact, of which religion is only a derived form. quite on the contrary, it was under the influence of religious ideas that the precepts upon which the art of the magician is based were established, and it was only through a secondary extension that they were applied to purely lay relations. since all the forces of the universe have been conceived on the model of the sacred forces, the contagiousness inherent in the second was extended to the first, and men have believed that all the properties of a body could be transmitted contagiously. likewise, when the principle according to which like produces like had been established, in order to satisfy certain religious needs, it detached itself from its ritual origins to become, through a sort of spontaneous generalization, a law of nature.[ ] but in order to understand these fundamental axioms of magic, they must be replaced in the religious atmosphere in which they arose and which alone enables us to account for them. when we regard them as the work of isolated individuals or solitary magicians, we ask how they could ever have occurred to the mind of man, for nothing in experience could either suggest or verify them; and especially we do not explain how so deceiving an art has been able to impose itself for so long a time in the confidence of men. but this problem disappears when we realize that the faith inspired by magic is only a particular case of religious faith in general, and that it is itself the product, at least indirectly, of a collective effervescence. this is as much as to say that the use of the expression sympathetic magic to designate the system of rites which we have just been speaking is not very exact. there are sympathetic rites, but they are not peculiar to magic; not only are they to be found in religion, but it was from religion that magic received them. so we only risk confusion when, by the name we give them, we have the air of making them something which is specifically magic. the results of our analysis thus attach themselves to and confirm those attained by mm. hubert and mauss when they studied magic directly.[ ] they have shown that this is nothing more nor less than crude industry based on incomplete science. behind the mechanisms, purely laical in appearance, which are used by the magician, they point out a background of religious conceptions and a whole world of forces, the idea of which has been taken by magic from religion. we are now able to understand how it comes that magic is so full of religious elements: it is because it was born of religion. iii but the principle which has just been set forth does not merely have a function in the ritual; it is of direct interest for the theory of knowledge. in fact, it is a concrete statement of the law of causality and, in all probability, one of the most primitive statements of it which has ever existed. a full conception of the causal relation is implied in the power thus attributed to the like to produce the like; and this conception dominates primitive thought, for it is the basis both of the practices of the cult and the technique of the magician. so the origins of the precept upon which the imitative rites depend are able to clarify those of the principle of causality. the genesis of one should aid us in understanding the genesis of the other. now we have shown how the former is a product of social causes: it was elaborated by groups having collective ends in view, and it translates collective sentiments. so we may assume that the same is true for the second. in fact, an analysis of the principle of causality is sufficient to assure us that the diverse elements of which it is composed really did have this origin. the first thing which is implied in the notion of the causal relation is the idea of efficacy, of productive power, of active force. by cause we ordinarily mean something capable of producing a certain change. the cause is the force before it has shown the power which is in it; the effect is this same power, only actualized. men have always thought of causality in dynamic terms. of course certain philosophers had refused all objective value to this conception; they see in it only an arbitrary construction of the imagination, which corresponds to nothing in the things themselves. but, at present, we have no need of asking whether it is founded in reality or not; it is enough for us to state that it exists and that it constitutes and always has constituted an element of ordinary mentality; and this is recognized even by those who criticize it. our immediate purpose is to seek, not what it may be worth logically, but how it is to be explained. now it depends upon social causes. our analysis of facts has already enabled us to see that the prototype of the idea of force was the mana, wakan, orenda, the totemic principle or any of the various names given to collective force objectified and projected into things.[ ] the first power which men have thought of as such seems to have been that exercised by humanity over its members. thus reason confirms the results of observation; in fact, it is even possible to show why this notion of power, efficacy or active force could not have come from any other source. in the first place, it is evident and recognized by all that it could not be furnished to us by external experience. our senses only enable us to perceive phenomena which coexist or which follow one another, but nothing perceived by them could give us the idea of this determining and compelling action which is characteristic of what we call a power or force. they can touch only realized and known conditions, each separate from the others; the internal process uniting these conditions escapes them. nothing that we learn could possibly suggest to us the idea of what an influence or efficaciousness is. it is for this very reason that the philosophers of empiricism have regarded these different conceptions as so many mythological aberrations. but even supposing that they all are hallucinations, it is still necessary to show how they originated. if external experience counts for nothing in the origin of these ideas, and it is equally inadmissible that they were given us ready-made, one might suppose that they come from internal experience. in fact, the notion of force obviously includes many spiritual elements which could only have been taken from our psychic life. some have believed that the act by which our will brings a deliberation to a close, restrains our impulses and commands our organism, might have served as the model of this construction. in willing, it is said, we perceive ourselves directly as a power in action. so when this idea had once occurred to men, it seems that they only had to extend it to things to establish the conception of force. as long as the animist theory passed as a demonstrated truth, this explanation was able to appear to be confirmed by history. if the forces with which human thought primitively populated the world really had been spirits, that is to say, personal and conscious beings more or less similar to men, it was actually possible to believe that our individual experience was enough to furnish us with the constituent elements of the notion of force. but we know that the first forces which men imagined were, on the contrary, anonymous, vague and diffused powers which resemble cosmic forces in their impersonality, and which are therefore most sharply contrasted with the eminently personal power, the human will. so it is impossible that they should have been conceived in its image. moreover, there is one essential characteristic of the impersonal forces which would be inexplicable under this hypothesis: this is their communicability. the forces of nature have always been thought of as capable of passing from one object to another, of mixing, combining and transforming themselves into one another. it is even this property which gives them their value as an explanation, for it is through this that effects can be connected with their causes without a break of continuity. now the self has just the opposite characteristic: it is incommunicable. it cannot change its material substratum or spread from one to another; it spreads out in metaphor only. so the way in which it decides and executes its decisions could never have suggested the idea of an energy which communicates itself and which can even confound itself with others and, through these combinations and mixings, give rise to new effects. therefore, the idea of force, as implied in the conception of the causal relation, must present a double character. in the first place, it can come only from our internal experience; the only forces which we can directly learn about are necessarily moral forces. but, at the same time, they must be impersonal, for the notion of an impersonal power was the first to be constituted. now the only ones which satisfy these two conditions are those coming from life together: they are collective forces. in fact, these are, on the one hand, entirely psychical; they are made up exclusively of objectified ideas and sentiments. but, on the other hand, they are impersonal by definition, for they are the product of a co-operation. being the work of all, they are not the possession of anybody in particular. they are so slightly attached to the personalities of the subjects in whom they reside that they are never fixed there. just as they enter them from without, they are also always ready to leave them. of themselves, they tend to spread further and further and to invade ever new domains: we know that there are none more contagious, and consequently more communicable. of course physical forces have the same property, but we cannot know this directly; we cannot even become acquainted with them as such, for they are outside us. when i throw myself against an obstacle, i have a sensation of hindrance and trouble; but the force causing this sensation is not in me, but in the obstacle, and is consequently outside the circle of my perception. we perceive its effects, but we cannot reach the cause itself. it is otherwise with social forces: they are a part of our internal life, as we know, more than the products of their action; we see them acting. the force isolating the sacred being and holding profane beings at a distance is not really in this being; it lives in the minds of the believers. so they perceive it at the very moment when it is acting upon their wills, to inhibit certain movements or command others. in a word, this constraining and necessitating action, which escapes us when coming from an external object, is readily perceptible here because everything is inside us. of course we do not always interpret it in an adequate manner, but at least we cannot fail to be conscious of it. moreover, the idea of force bears the mark of its origin in an apparent way. in fact, it implies the idea of power which, in its turn, does not come without those of ascendancy, mastership and domination, and their corollaries, dependence and subordination; now the relations expressed by all these ideas are eminently social. it is society which classifies beings into superiors and inferiors, into commanding masters and obeying servants; it is society which confers upon the former the singular property which makes the command efficacious and which makes _power_. so everything tends to prove that the first powers of which the human mind had any idea were those which societies have established in organizing themselves: it is in their image that the powers of the physical world have been conceived. also, men have never succeeded in imagining themselves as forces mistress over the bodies in which they reside, except by introducing concepts taken from social life. in fact, these must be distinguished from their physical doubles and must be attributed a dignity superior to that of these latter; in a word, they must think of themselves as souls. as a matter of fact, men have always given the form of souls to the forces which they believe that they are. but we know that the soul is quite another thing from a name given to the abstract faculty of moving, thinking and feeling; before all, it is a religious principle, a particular aspect of the collective force. in fine, a man feels that he has a soul, and consequently a force, because he is a social being. though an animal moves its members just as we do, and though it has the same power as we over its muscles, nothing authorizes us to suppose that it is conscious of itself as an active and efficacious cause. this is because it does not have, or, to speak more exactly, does not attribute to itself a soul. but if it does not attribute a soul to itself, it is because it does not participate in a social life comparable to that of men. among animals, there is nothing resembling a civilization.[ ] but the notion of force is not all of the principle of causality. this consists in a judgment stating that every force develops in a definite manner, and that the state in which it is at each particular moment of its existence predetermines the next state. the former is called cause, the latter, effect, and the causal judgment affirms the existence of a necessary connection between these two moments for every force. the mind posits this connection before having any proofs of it, under the empire of a sort of constraint from which it cannot free itself; it postulates it, as they say, _a priori_. empiricism has never succeeded in accounting for this apriorism and necessity. philosophers of this school have never been able to explain how an association of ideas, reinforced by habit, could produce more than an expectation or a stronger or weaker predisposition on the part of ideas to appear in a determined order. but the principle of causality has quite another character. it is not merely an imminent tendency of our thought to take certain forms; it is an external norm, superior to the flow of our representations, which it dominates and rules imperatively. it is invested with an authority which binds the mind and surpasses it, which is as much as to say that the mind is not its artisan. in this connection, it is useless to substitute hereditary habit for individual habit, for habit does not change its nature by lasting longer than one man's life; it is merely stronger. an instinct is not a rule. the rites which we have been studying allow us to catch a glimpse of another source of this authority, which, up to the present, has scarcely been suspected. let us bear in mind how the law of causality, which the imitative rites put into practice, was born. being filled with one single preoccupation, the group assembles: if the species whose name it bears does not reproduce, it is a matter of concern to the whole clan. the common sentiment thus animating all the members is outwardly expressed by certain gestures, which are always the same in the same circumstances, and after the ceremony has been performed, it happens, for the reasons set forth, that the desired result seems obtained. so an association arises between the idea of this result and that of the gestures preceding it; and this association does not vary from one subject to another; it is the same for all the participators in the rite, since it is the product of a collective experience. however, if no other factor intervened, it would produce only a collective expectation; after the imitative gestures had been accomplished, everybody would await the subsequent appearance of the desired event, with more or less confidence; an imperative rule of thought could never be established by this. but since a social interest of the greatest importance is at stake, society cannot allow things to follow their own course at the whim of circumstances; it intervenes actively in such a way as to regulate their march in conformity with its needs. so it demands that this ceremony, which it cannot do without, be repeated every time that it is necessary, and consequently, that the movements, a condition of its success, be executed regularly: it imposes them as an obligation. now they imply a certain definite state of mind which, in return, participates in this same obligatory character. to prescribe that one must imitate an animal or plant to make them reproduce, is equivalent to stating it as an axiom which is above all doubt, that like produces like. opinion cannot allow men to deny this principle in theory without also allowing them to violate it in their conduct. so society imposes it, along with the practices which are derived from it, and thus the ritual precept is doubled by a logical precept which is only the intellectual aspect of the former. the authority of each is derived from the same source: society. the respect which this inspires is communicated to the ways of thought to which it attaches a value, just as much as to ways of action. so a man cannot set aside either the ones or the others without hurling himself against public opinion. this is why the former require the adherence of the intelligence before examination, just as the latter require the submission of the will. from this example, we can show once more how the sociological theory of the idea of causality, and of the categories in general, sets aside the classical doctrines on the question, while conciliating them. together with apriorism, it maintains the prejudicial and necessary character of the causal relation; but it does not limit itself to affirming this; it accounts for it, yet without making it vanish under the pretext of explaining it, as empiricism does. on the other hand, there is no question of denying the part due to individual experience. there can be no doubt that by himself, the individual observes the regular succession of phenomena and thus acquires a certain _feeling_ of regularity. but this feeling is not the _category_ of causality. the former is individual, subjective, incommunicable; we make it ourselves, out of our own personal observations. the second is the work of the group, and is given to us ready-made. it is a frame-work in which our empirical ascertainments arrange themselves and which enables us to think of them, that is to say, to see them from a point of view which makes it possible for us to understand one another in regard to them. of course, if this frame can be applied to the contents, that shows that it is not out of relation with the matter which it contains; but it is not to be confused with this. it surpasses it and dominates it. this is because it is of a different origin. it is not a mere summary of individual experiences; before all else, it is made to fulfil the exigencies of life in common. in fine, the error of empiricism has been to regard the causal bond as merely an intellectual construction of speculative thought and the product of a more or less methodical generalization. now, by itself, pure speculation can give birth only to provisional, hypothetical and more or less plausible views, but ones which must always be regarded with suspicion, for we can never be sure that some new observation in the future will not invalidate them. an axiom which the mind accepts and must accept, without control and without reservation, could never come from this source. only the necessities of action, and especially of collective action, can and must express themselves in categorical formulæ, which are peremptory and short, and admit of no contradiction, for collective movements are possible only on condition of being in concert and, therefore, regulated and definite. they do not allow of any fumbling, the source of anarchy; by themselves, they tend towards an organization which, when once established, imposes itself upon individuals. and as action cannot go beyond intelligence, it frequently happens that the latter is drawn into the same way and accepts without discussion the theoretical postulates demanded by action. the imperatives of thought are probably only another side of the imperatives of action. it is to be borne in mind, moreover, that we have never dreamed of offering the preceding observations as a complete theory of the concept of causality. the question is too complex to be resolved thus. the principle of causality has been understood differently in different times and places; in a single society, it varies with the social environment and the kingdoms of nature to which it is applied.[ ] so it would be impossible to determine with sufficient precision the causes and conditions upon which it depends, after a consideration of only one of the forms which it has presented during the course of history. the views which we have set forth should be regarded as mere indications, which must be controlled and completed. however, as the causal law which we have been considering is certainly one of the most primitive which exists, and as it has played a considerable part in the development of human thought and industry, it is a privileged experiment, so we may presume that the remarks of which it has been the occasion may be generalized to a certain degree. chapter iv the positive cult--_continued_ iii.--_representative or commemorative rites_ the explanation which we have given of the positive rites of which we have been speaking in the two preceding chapters attributes to them a significance which is, above all, moral and social. the physical efficaciousness assigned to them by the believer is the product of an interpretation which conceals the essential reason for their existence: it is because they serve to remake individuals and groups morally that they are believed to have a power over things. but even if this hypothesis has enabled us to account for the facts, we cannot say that it has been demonstrated directly; at first view, it even seems to conciliate itself rather badly with the nature of the ritual mechanisms which we have analysed. whether they consist in oblations or imitative acts, the gestures composing them have purely material ends in view; they have, or seem to have, the sole object of making the totemic species reproduce. under these circumstances, is it not surprising that their real function should be to serve moral ends? it is true that their physical function may have been exaggerated by spencer and gillen, even in the cases where it is the most incontestable. according to these authors, each clan celebrates its intichiuma for the purpose of assuring a useful food to the other clans, and the whole cult consists in a sort of economic co-operation of the different totemic groups; each works for the others. but according to strehlow, this conception of australian totemism is wholly foreign to the native mind. "if," he says, "the members of one totemic group set themselves to multiplying the animals or plants of the consecrated species, and seem to work for their companions of other totems, we must be careful not to regard this collaboration as the fundamental principle of arunta or loritja totemism. the blacks themselves have never told me that this was the object of their ceremonies. of course, when i suggested and explained the idea to them, they understood it and acquiesced. but i should not be blamed for having some distrust of replies gained in this fashion." strehlow also remarks that this way of interpreting the rite is contradicted by the fact that the totemic animals and plants are not all edible or useful; some are good for nothing; some are even dangerous. so the ceremonies which concern them could not have any such end in view.[ ] "when some one asks the natives what the determining reason for these ceremonies is," concludes our author, "they are unanimous in replying: 'it is because our ancestors arranged things thus. this is why we do thus and not differently.'"[ ] but in saying that the rite is observed because it comes from the ancestors, it is admitted that its authority is confounded with the authority of tradition, which is a social affair of the first order. men celebrate it to remain faithful to the past, to keep for the group its normal physiognomy, and not because of the physical effects which it may produce. thus, the way in which the believers themselves explain them show the profound reasons upon which the rites proceed. but there are cases when this aspect of the ceremonies is immediately apparent. i these may be observed the best among the warramunga.[ ] among this people, each clan is thought to be descended from a single ancestor who, after having been born in some determined spot, passed his terrestrial existence in travelling over the country in every direction. it is he who, in the course of his voyages, gave to the land the form which it now has; it is he who made the mountains and plains, the water-holes and streams, etc. at the same time, he sowed upon his route living germs which were disengaged from his body and, after many successive reincarnations, became the actual members of the clan. now the ceremony of the warramunga which corresponds exactly to the intichiuma of the arunta, has the object of commemorating and representing the mythical history of this ancestor. there is no question of oblations or, except in one single case,[ ] of imitative practices. the rite consists solely in recollecting the past and, in a way, making it present by means of a veritable dramatic representation. this word is the more exact because in this ceremony, the officiant is in no way considered an incarnation of the ancestor, whom he represents; he is an actor playing a rôle. as an example, let us describe the intichiuma of the black snake, as spencer and gillen observed it.[ ] an initial ceremony does not seem to refer to the past; at least the description of it which is given us gives no authorization for interpreting it in this sense. it consists in running and leaping on the part of two officiants,[ ] who are decorated with designs representing the black snake. when they finally fall exhausted on the ground, the assistants gently pass their hands over the emblematic designs with which the backs of the two actors are covered. they say that this act pleases the black snake. it is only afterwards that the series of commemorative ceremonies commences. they put into action the mythical history of the ancestor thalaualla, from the moment he emerged from the ground up to his definite return thither. they follow him through all his voyages. the myth says that in each of the localities where he sojourned, he celebrated totemic ceremonies; they now repeat them in the same order in which they are supposed to have taken place originally. the movement which is acted the most frequently consists in twisting the entire body about rhythmically and violently; this is because the ancestor did the same thing to make the germs of life which were in him come out. the actors have their bodies covered with down, which is detached and flies away during these movements; this is a way of representing the flight of these mystic germs and their dispersion into space. it will be remembered that among the arunta, the scene of the ceremony is determined by the ritual: it is the spot where the sacred rocks, trees and water-holes are found, and the worshippers must go there to celebrate the cult. among the warramunga, on the contrary, the ceremonial ground is arbitrarily chosen according to convenience. it is a conventional scene. however, the original scene of the events whose reproduction constitutes the theme of the rite is itself represented by means of designs. sometimes these designs are made upon the very bodies of the actors. for example, a small circle coloured red, painted on the back and stomach, represents a water-hole.[ ] in other cases, the image is traced on the soil. upon a ground previously soaked and covered with red ochre, they draw curved lines, made up of a series of white points, which symbolize a stream or a mountain. this is a beginning of decoration. in addition to the properly religious ceremonies which the ancestor is believed to have celebrated long ago, they also represent simple episodes of his career, either epic or comic. thus, at a given moment, while three actors are on the scene, occupied in an important rite, another one hides behind a bunch of trees situated at some distance. a packet of down is attached about his neck which represents a _wallaby_. as soon as the principal ceremony is finished, an old man traces a line upon the ground which is directed towards the spot where the fourth actor is hidden. the others march behind him, with eyes lowered and fixed upon this line, as though following a trail. when they discover the man, they assume a stupefied air and one of them beats him with a club. this represents an incident in the life of the great black snake. one day, his son went hunting, caught a _wallaby_ and ate it without giving his father any. the latter followed his tracks, surprised him and forced him to disgorge; it is to this that the beating at the end of the representation alludes.[ ] we shall not relate here all the mythical events which are represented successively. the preceding examples are sufficient to show the character of these ceremonies: they are dramas, but of a particular variety; they act, or at least they are believed to act, upon the course of nature. when the commemoration of thalaualla is terminated, the warramunga are convinced that black snakes cannot fail to increase and multiply. so these dramas are rites, and even rites which, by the nature of their efficacy, are comparable on every point to those which constitute the intichiuma of the arunta. therefore each is able to clarify the other. it is even more legitimate to compare them than if there were no break of continuity between them. not only is the end pursued identical in each case, but the most characteristic part of the warramunga ritual is found in germ in the other. in fact, the intichiuma, as the arunta generally perform it, contains within it a sort of implicit commemoration. the places where it is celebrated are necessarily those which the ancestor made illustrious. the roads over which the worshippers pass in the course of their pious pilgrimages are those which the heroes of the alcheringa traversed; the places where they stop to proceed with the rites are those where their fathers sojourned themselves, where they vanished into the ground, etc. so everything brings their memory to the minds of the assistants. moreover, to the manual rites they frequently add hymns relating the exploits of their ancestors.[ ] if, instead of being told, these stories are acted, and if, in this new form, they develop in such a way as to become an essential part of the ceremony, then we have the ceremony of the warramunga. but even more can be said, for on one side, the arunta intichiuma is already a sort of representation. the officiant is one with the ancestor from whom he is descended and whom he reincarnates.[ ] the gestures he makes are those which this ancestor made in the same circumstances. speaking exactly, of course he does not play the part of the ancestral personage as an actor might do it; he is this personage himself. but it is true, notwithstanding, that, in one sense, it is the hero who occupies the scene. in order to accentuate the representative character of the rite, it would be sufficient for the duality of the ancestor and the officiant to become more marked; this is just what happens among the warramunga.[ ] even among the arunta, at least one intichiuma is mentioned in which certain persons are charged with representing ancestors with whom they have no relationship of mythical descent, and in which there is consequently a proper dramatic representation: this is the intichiuma of the emu.[ ] it seems that in this case, also, contrarily to the general rule among this people, the theatre of the ceremony is artificially arranged.[ ] it does not follow from the fact that, in spite of the differences separating them, these two varieties of ceremony thus have an air of kinship, as it were, that there is a definite relation of succession between them, and that one is a transformation of the other. it may very well be that the resemblances pointed out come from the fact that the two sprang from the same source, that is, from the same original ceremony, of which they are only divergent forms: we shall even see that this hypothesis is the most probable one. but even without taking sides on this question, what has already been said is enough to show that they are rites of the same nature. so we may be allowed to compare them, and to use the one to enable us to understand the other better. now the peculiar thing in the ceremonies of the warramunga of which we have been speaking, is that not a gesture is made whose object is to aid or to provoke directly the increase of the totemic species.[ ] if we analyse the movements made, as well as the words spoken, we generally find nothing which betrays any intention of this sort. everything is in representations whose only object can be to render the mythical past of the clan present to the mind. but the mythology of a group is the system of beliefs common to this group. the traditions whose memory it perpetuates express the way in which society represents man and the world; it is a moral system and a cosmology as well as a history. so the rite serves and can serve only to sustain the vitality of these beliefs, to keep them from being effaced from memory and, in sum, to revivify the most essential elements of the collective consciousness. through it, the group periodically renews the sentiment which it has of itself and of its unity; at the same time, individuals are strengthened in their social natures. the glorious souvenirs which are made to live again before their eyes, and with which they feel that they have a kinship, give them a feeling of strength and confidence: a man is surer of his faith when he sees to how distant a past it goes back and what great things it has inspired. this is the characteristic of the ceremony which makes it instructive. its tendency is to act entirely upon the mind and upon it alone. so if men believe nevertheless that it acts upon things and that it assures the prosperity of the species, this can be only as a reaction to the moral action which it exercises and which is obviously the only one which is real. thus the hypothesis which we have proposed is verified by a significant experiment, and this verification is the more convincing because, as we have shown, there is no difference in nature between the ritual system of the warramunga and that of the arunta. the one only makes more evident what we had already conjectured from the other. ii but there are ceremonies in which this representative and idealistic character is still more accentuated. in those of which we have been speaking, the dramatic representation did not exist for itself; it was only a means having a very material end in view, namely, the reproduction of the totemic species. but there are others which do not differ materially from the preceding ones, but from which, nevertheless, all preoccupations of this sort are absent. the past is here represented for the mere sake of representing it and fixing it more firmly in the mind, while no determined action over nature is expected of the rite. at least, the physical effects sometimes imputed to it are wholly secondary and have no relation with the liturgical importance attributed to it. this is the case notably with the ceremonies which the warramunga celebrate in honour of the snake wollunqua.[ ] as we have already said, the wollunqua is a totem of a very especial sort. it is not an animal or vegetable species, but a unique being: there is only one wollunqua. moreover, this being is purely mythical. the natives represent it as a colossal snake whose length is such that when it rises on its tail its head is lost in the clouds. it resides, they believe, in a water-hole called thapauerlu, which is hidden in the bottom of a solitary valley. but if it differs in certain ways from the ordinary totems, it has all their distinctive characteristics nevertheless. it serves as the collective name and emblem of a whole group of individuals who regard it as their common ancestor, while the relations which they sustain with this mythical beast are identical with those which the members of other totems believe that they sustain with the founders of their respective clans. in the alcheringa[ ] times, the wollunqua traversed the country in every direction. in the different localities where it stopped, it scattered "spirit-children," the spiritual principles which still serve as the souls of the living of to-day. the wollunqua is even considered as a sort of pre-eminent totem. the warramunga are divided into two phratries, called uluuru and kingilli. nearly all the totems of the former are snakes of different kinds. now they are all believed to be descended from the wollunqua; they say that it was their grandfather.[ ] from this, we can catch a glimpse of how the myth of the wollunqua probably arose. in order to explain the presence of so many similar totems in the same phratry, they imagined that all were derived from one and the same totem; it was necessary to give it a gigantic form so that in its very appearance it might conform to the considerable rôle assigned to it in the history of the tribe. now the wollunqua is the object of ceremonies not differing in nature from those which we have already studied: they are representations in which are portrayed the principal events of its fabulous life. they show it coming out of the ground and passing from one locality to another; they represent different episodes in its voyages, etc. spencer and gillen assisted at fifteen ceremonies of this sort which took place between the th of july and the rd of august, all being linked together in a determined order, in such a way as to form a veritable cycle.[ ] in the details of the rites constituting it, this long celebration is therefore indistinct from the ordinary intichiuma of the warramunga, as is recognized by the authors who have described it to us.[ ] but, on the other hand, it is an intichiuma which could not have the object of assuring the fecundity of an animal or vegetable species, for the wollunqua is a species all by itself and does not reproduce. it exists, and the natives do not seem to feel that it has need of a cult to preserve it in its existence. these ceremonies not only seem to lack the efficacy of the classic intichiuma, but it even seems as though they have no material efficacy of any sort. the wollunqua is not a divinity set over a special order of natural phenomena, so they expect no definite service from him in exchange for the cult. of course they say that if the ritual prescriptions are badly observed, the wollunqua becomes angry, leaves his retreat and comes to punish his worshippers for their negligence; and inversely, when everything passes regularly, they are led to believe that they will be fortunate and that some happy event will take place; but it is quite evident that these possible sanctions are an after-thought to explain the rite. after the ceremony had been established, it seemed natural that it should serve for something, and that the omission of the prescribed observances should therefore expose one to grave dangers. but it was not established to forestall these mythical dangers or to assure particular advantages. the natives, moreover, have only the very haziest ideas of them. when the whole ceremony is completed, the old men announce that if the wollunqua is pleased, he will send rain. but it is not to have rain that they go through with the celebration.[ ] they celebrate it because their ancestors did, because they are attached to it as to a highly respected tradition and because they leave it with a feeling of moral well-being. other considerations have only a complimentary part; they may serve to strengthen the worshippers in the attitude prescribed by the rite, but they are not the reason for the existence of this attitude. so we have here a whole group of ceremonies whose sole purpose is to awaken certain ideas and sentiments, to attach the present to the past or the individual to the group. not only are they unable to serve useful ends, but the worshippers themselves demand none. this is still another proof that the psychical state in which the assembled group happens to be constitutes the only solid and stable basis of what we may call the ritual mentality. the beliefs which attribute such or such a physical efficaciousness to the rites are wholly accessory and contingent, for they may be lacking without causing any alteration in the essentials of the rite. thus the ceremonies of the wollunqua show even better than the preceding ones the fundamental function of the positive cult. if we have insisted especially upon these solemnities, it is because of their exceptional importance. but there are others with exactly the same character. thus, the warramunga have a totem "of the laughing boy." spencer and gillen say that the clan bearing this name has the same organization as the other totemic groups. like them, it has its sacred places (_mungai_) where the founder-ancestor celebrated ceremonies in the fabulous times, and where he left behind him spirit-children who became the men of the clan; the rites connected with this totem are indistinguishable from those relating to the animal or vegetable totems.[ ] yet it is evident that they could not have any physical efficaciousness. they consist in a series of four ceremonies which repeat one another more or less, but which are intended only to amuse and to provoke laughter by laughter, in fine, to maintain the gaiety and good-humour which the group has as its speciality.[ ] we find more than one totem among the arunta themselves which has no other intichiuma. we have seen that among this people, the irregularities and depressions of the land, which mark the places where some ancestor sojourned, sometimes serve as totems.[ ] ceremonies are attached to these totems which are manifestly incapable of physical effects of any sort. they can consist only in representations whose object is to commemorate the past, and they can aim at no end beyond this commemoration.[ ] while they enable us to understand the nature of the cult better, these ritual representations also put into evidence an important element of religion: this is the recreative and esthetic element. we have already had occasion to show that they are closely akin to dramatic representations.[ ] this kinship appears with still greater clarity in the latter ceremonies of which we have spoken. not only do they employ the same processes as the real drama, but they also pursue an end of the same sort: being foreign to all utilitarian ends, they make men forget the real world and transport them into another where their imagination is more at ease; they distract. they sometimes even go so far as to have the outward appearance of a recreation: the assistants may be seen laughing and amusing themselves openly.[ ] representative rites and collective recreations are even so close to one another that men pass from one sort to the other without any break of continuity. the characteristic feature of the properly religious ceremonies is that they must be celebrated on a consecrated ground, from which women and non-initiated persons are excluded.[ ] but there are others in which this religious character is somewhat effaced, though it has not disappeared completely. they take place outside the ceremonial ground, which proves that they are already laicized to a certain degree; but profane persons, women and children, are not yet admitted to them. so they are on the boundary between the two domains. they generally deal with legendary personages, but ones having no regular place in the frame-work of the totemic religion. they are spirits, more generally malevolent ones, having relations with the magicians rather than the ordinary believers, and sorts of bugbears, in whom men do not believe with the same degree of seriousness and firmness of conviction as in the proper totemic beings and things.[ ] as the bonds by which the events and personages represented are attached to the history of the tribe relax, these take on a proportionately more unreal appearance, while the corresponding ceremonies change in nature. thus men enter into the domain of pure fancy, and pass from the commemorative rite to the ordinary corrobbori, a simple public merry-making, which has nothing religious about it and in which all may take part indifferently. perhaps some of these representations, whose sole object now is to distract, are ancient rites, whose character has been changed. in fact, the distinction between these two sorts of ceremonies is so variable that it is impossible to state with precision to which of the two kinds they belong.[ ] it is a well-known fact that games and the principal forms of art seem to have been born of religion and that for a long time they retained a religious character.[ ] we now see what the reasons for this are: it is because the cult, though aimed primarily at other ends, has also been a sort of recreation for men. religion has not played this rôle by hazard or owing to a happy chance, but through a necessity of its nature. though, as we have established, religious thought is something very different from a system of fictions, still the realities to which it corresponds express themselves religiously only when religion transfigures them. between society as it is objectively and the sacred things which express it symbolically, the distance is considerable. it has been necessary that the impressions really felt by men, which served as the original matter of this construction, should be interpreted, elaborated and transformed until they became unrecognizable. so the world of religious things is a partially imaginary world, though only in its outward form, and one which therefore lends itself more readily to the free creations of the mind. also, since the intellectual forces which serve to make it are intense and tumultuous, the unique task of expressing the real with the aid of appropriate symbols is not enough to occupy them. a surplus generally remains available which seeks to employ itself in supplementary and superfluous works of luxury, that is to say, in works of art. there are practices as well as beliefs of this sort. the state of effervescence in which the assembled worshippers find themselves must be translated outwardly by exuberant movements which are not easily subjected to too carefully defined ends. in part, they escape aimlessly, they spread themselves for the mere pleasure of so doing, and they take delight in all sorts of games. besides, in so far as the beings to whom the cult is addressed are imaginary, they are not able to contain and regulate this exuberance; the pressure of tangible and resisting realities is required to confine activities to exact and economical forms. therefore one exposes oneself to grave misunderstandings if, in explaining rites, he believes that each gesture has a precise object and a definite reason for its existence. there are some which serve nothing; they merely answer the need felt by worshippers for action, motion, gesticulation. they are to be seen jumping, whirling, dancing, crying and singing, though it may not always be possible to give a meaning to all this agitation. therefore religion would not be itself if it did not give some place to the free combinations of thought and activity, to play, to art, to all that recreates the spirit that has been fatigued by the too great slavishness of daily work: the very same causes which called it into existence make it a necessity. art is not merely an external ornament with which the cult has adorned itself in order to dissimulate certain of its features which may be too austere and too rude; but rather, in itself, the cult is something æsthetic. owing to the well-known connection which mythology has with poetry, some have wished to exclude the former from religion;[ ] the truth is that there is a poetry inherent in all religion. the representative rites which have just been studied make this aspect of the religious life manifest; but there are scarcely any rites which do not present it to some degree. one would certainly commit the gravest error if he saw only this one aspect of religion, or if he even exaggerated its importance. when a rite serves only to distract, it is no longer a rite. the moral forces expressed by religious symbols are real forces with which we must reckon and with which we cannot do what we will. even when the cult aims at producing no physical effects, but limits itself to acting on the mind, its action is in quite a different way from that of a pure work of art. the representations which it seeks to awaken and maintain in our minds are not vain images which correspond to nothing in reality, and which we call up aimlessly for the mere satisfaction of seeing them appear and combine before our eyes. they are as necessary for the well working of our moral life as our food is for the maintenance of our physical life, for it is through them that the group affirms and maintains itself, and we know the point to which this is indispensable for the individual. so a rite is something different from a game; it is a part of the serious life. but if its unreal and imaginary element is not essential, nevertheless it plays a part which is by no means negligible. it has its share in the feeling of comfort which the worshipper draws from the rite performed; for recreation is one of the forms of the moral remaking which is the principal object of the positive rite. after we have acquitted ourselves of our ritual duties, we enter into the profane life with increased courage and ardour, not only because we come into relations with a superior source of energy, but also because our forces have been reinvigorated by living, for a few moments, in a life that is less strained, and freer and easier. hence religion acquires a charm which is not among the slightest of its attractions. this is why the very idea of a religious ceremony of some importance awakens the idea of a feast. inversely, every feast, even when it has purely lay origins, has certain characteristics of the religious ceremony, for in every case its effect is to bring men together, to put the masses into movement and thus to excite a state of effervescence, and sometimes even of delirium, which is not without a certain kinship with the religious state. a man is carried outside himself and diverted from his ordinary occupation and preoccupations. thus the same manifestations are to be observed in each case: cries, songs, music, violent movements, dances, the search for exciteants which raise the vital level, etc. it has frequently been remarked that popular feasts lead to excesses, and cause men to lose sight of the distinction separating the licit from the illicit;[ ] there are also religious ceremonies which make it almost necessary to violate the rules which are ordinarily the most respected.[ ] of course this does not mean that there is no way to distinguish these two forms of public activity. the simple merry-making, the profane corrobbori, has no serious object, while, as a whole, a ritual ceremony always has an important end. still it is to be remembered that there is perhaps no merry-making in which the serious life does not have some echo. the difference consists rather in the unequal proportions in which the two elements are combined. iii a more general fact confirms the views which precede. in their first book, spencer and gillen presented the intichiuma as a perfectly definite ritual entity: they spoke of it as though it were an operation destined exclusively for the assurance of the reproduction of the totemic species, and it seemed as though it ought to lose all meaning, if this unique function were set aside. but in their _northern tribes of central australia_, the same authors use a different language, though perhaps without noticing it. they recognize that these same ceremonies may take place either in the regular intichiuma or in the initiation rites.[ ] so they serve equally in the making of animals or plants of the totemic species, or in conferring upon novices the qualities necessary to make them regular members of the men's society.[ ] from this point of view, the intichiuma takes on a new aspect. it is no longer a distinct ritual mechanism, resting upon principles of its own, but a particular application of more general ceremonies which may be utilized for very different ends. for this reason, in their later work, before speaking of the intichiuma and the initiation they consecrate a special chapter to the totemic ceremonies in general, making abstraction of the diverse forms which they may take, according to the ends for which they are employed.[ ] this fundamental indetermination of the totemic ceremonies was only indicated by spencer and gillen, and rather indirectly at that; but it has now been confirmed by strehlow in more explicit terms. "when they lead the young novices through the different feasts of the initiation," he says, "they perform before them a series of ceremonies which, though reproducing, even in their most characteristic details, the rites of the regular cult (viz. _the rites which spencer and gillen call the intichiuma_), do not have, nevertheless, the end of multiplying the corresponding totem and causing it to prosper."[ ] it is the same ceremony which serves in the two cases; the name alone is not the same. when its special object is the reproduction of the species, they call it _mbatjalkatiuma_ and it is only when it is a part of the process of initiation that they give it the name intichiuma.[ ] moreover, these two sorts of ceremonies are distinguished from one another among the arunta by certain secondary characteristics. though the structure of the rite is the same in both cases, still we know that the effusions of blood and, more generally, the oblations characteristic of the arunta intichiuma are not found in the initiation ceremonies. moreover, among this same people, the intichiuma takes place at a spot regularly fixed by tradition, to which men must make a pilgrimage, while the scene of the initiation ceremonies is purely conventional.[ ] but when the intichiuma consists in a simple dramatic representation, as is the case among the warramunga, the lack of distinction between the two rites is complete. in the one as in the other, they commemorate the past, they put the myth into action, they play--and one cannot play in two materially different ways. so, according to the circumstances, one and the same ceremony serves two distinct functions.[ ] it may even lend itself to other uses. we know that as blood is a sacred thing, women must not see it flow. yet it happens sometimes that a quarrel breaks out in their presence and ends in the shedding of blood. thus an infraction of the ritual is committed. among the arunta, the man whose blood flowed first must, to atone for this fault, "celebrate a ceremony connected with the totem either of his father or of his mother";[ ] this ceremony has a special name, _alua uparilima_, which means the washing away of blood. but in itself, it does not differ from those celebrated at the time of the initiation or in the intichiuma: it represents an event of ancestral history. so it may serve equally to initiate, to act upon the totemic species or to expiate a sacrilege. we shall see that a totemic ceremony may also take the place of a funeral rite.[ ] mm. hubert and mauss have already pointed out a functional ambiguity of this same sort in the case of sacrifice, and more especially, in that of hindu sacrifice.[ ] they have shown how the sacrifice of communion, that of expiation, that of a vow and that of a contract are only variations of one and the same mechanism. we now see that the fact is much more primitive, and in no way limited to the institution of sacrifice. perhaps no rite exists which does not present a similar indetermination. the mass serves for marriages as for burials; it redeems the faults of the dead and wins the favours of the deity for the living, etc. fasting is an expiation and a penance; but it is also a preparation for communion; it even confers positive virtues. this ambiguity shows that the real function of a rite does not consist in the particular and definite effects which it seems to aim at and by which it is ordinarily characterized, but rather in a general action which, though always and everywhere the same, is nevertheless capable of taking on different forms according to the circumstances. now this is just what is demanded by the theory which we have proposed. if the real function of the cult is to awaken within the worshippers a certain state of soul, composed of moral force and confidence, and if the various effects imputed to the rites are due only to a secondary and variable determination of this fundamental state, it is not surprising if a single rite, while keeping the same composition and structure, seems to produce various effects. for the mental dispositions, the excitation of which is its permanent function, remain the same in every case; they depend upon the fact that the group is assembled, and not upon the special reasons for which it is assembled. but, on the other hand, they are interpreted differently according to the circumstances to which they are applied. is it a physical result which they wish to obtain? the confidence they feel convinces them that the desired result is or will be obtained by the means employed. has some one committed a fault for which he wishes to atone? the same state of moral assurance will lead him to attribute expiatory virtues to these same ritual gestures. thus, the apparent efficacy will seem to change while the real efficacy remains invariable, and the rite will seem to fulfil various functions though in fact it has only one, which is always the same. inversely, just as a single rite may serve many ends, so many rites may produce the same effect and mutually replace one another. to assure the reproduction of the totemic species, one may have recourse equally to oblations, to imitative practices or to commemorative representations. this aptitude of rites for substituting themselves for one another proves once more both their plasticity and the extreme generality of the useful action which they exercise. the essential thing is that men are assembled, that sentiments are felt in common and expressed in common acts; but the particular nature of these sentiments and acts is something relatively secondary and contingent. to become conscious of itself, the group does not need to perform certain acts in preference to all others. the necessary thing is that it partakes of the same thought and the same action; the visible forms in which this communion takes place matter but little. of course, these external forms do not come by chance; they have their reasons; but these reasons do not touch the essential part of the cult. so everything leads us back to this same idea: before all, rites are means by which the social group reaffirms itself periodically. from this, we may be able to reconstruct hypothetically the way in which the totemic cult should have arisen originally. men who feel themselves united, partially by bonds of blood, but still more by a community of interest and tradition, assemble and become conscious of their moral unity. for the reasons which we have set forth, they are led to represent this unity in the form of a very special kind of consubstantiality: they think of themselves as all participating in the nature of some determined animal. under these circumstances, there is only one way for them to affirm their collective existence: this is to affirm that they are like the animals of this species, and to do so not only in the silence of their own thoughts, but also by material acts. these are the acts which make up the cult, and they obviously can consist only in movements by which the man imitates the animal with which he identifies himself. when understood thus, the imitative rites appear as the first form of the cult. it will be thought that this is attributing a very considerable historical importance to practices which, at first view, give the effect of childish games. but, as we have shown, these naïve and awkward gestures and these crude processes of representation translate and maintain a sentiment of pride, confidence and veneration wholly comparable to that expressed by the worshippers in the most idealistic religions when, being assembled, they proclaim themselves the children of the almighty god. for in the one case as in the other, this sentiment is made up of the same impressions of security and respect which are awakened in individual consciousnesses by this great moral force which dominates them and sustains them, and which is the collective force. the other rites which we have been studying are probably only variations of this essential rite. when the close union of the animal and men has once been admitted, men feel acutely the necessity of assuring the regular reproduction of the principal object of the cult. these imitative practices, which probably had only a moral end at first, thus became subordinated to utilitarian and material ends, and they were thought of as means of producing the desired result. but proportionately as, through the development of mythology, the ancestral hero, who was at first confused with the totemic animal, distinguished himself more and more, and became a more personal figure, the imitation of the ancestor was substituted for the imitation of the animal, or took a place beside it, and then representative ceremonies replaced or completed the imitative rites. finally, to be surer of attaining the end they sought, men felt the need of putting into action all the means at their disposal. close at hand they had reserves of living forces accumulated in the sacred rocks, so they utilized them; since the blood of the men was of the same nature as that of the animal, they used it for the same purpose and shed it. inversely, owing to this same kinship, men used the flesh of the animal to remake their own substance. hence came the rites of oblation and communion. but, at bottom, all these different practices are only variations of one and the same theme: everywhere their basis is the same state of mind, interpreted differently according to the situations, the moments of history and the dispositions of the worshippers. chapter v piacular rites and the ambiguity of the notion of sacredness howsoever much they may differ from one another in the nature of the gestures they imply, the positive rites which we have been passing under review have one common characteristic: they are all performed in a state of confidence, joy and even enthusiasm. though the expectation of a future and contingent event is not without a certain uncertainty, still it is normal that the rain fall when the season for it comes, and that the animal and vegetable species reproduce regularly. oft-repeated experiences have shown that the rites generally do produce the effects which are expected of them and which are the reason for their existence. men celebrate them with confidence, joyfully anticipating the happy event which they prepare and announce. whatever movements men perform participate in this same state of mind: of course, they are marked with the gravity which a religious solemnity always supposes, but this gravity excludes neither animation nor joy. these are all joyful feasts. but there are sad celebrations as well, whose object is either to meet a calamity, or else merely to commemorate and deplore it. these rites have a special aspect, which we are going to attempt to characterize and explain. it is the more necessary to study them by themselves since they are going to reveal a new aspect of the religious life to us. we propose to call the ceremonies of this sort piacular. the term _piaculum_ has the advantage that while it suggests the idea of expiation, it also has a much more extended signification. every misfortune, everything of evil omen, everything that inspires sentiments of sorrow or fear necessitates a _piaculum_ and is therefore called piacular.[ ] so this word seems to be very well adapted for designating the rites which are celebrated by those in a state of uneasiness or sadness. i mourning offers us a first and important example of piacular rites. however, a distinction is necessary between the different rites which go to make up mourning. some consist in mere abstentions: it is forbidden to pronounce the name of the dead,[ ] or to remain near the place where the death occurred;[ ] relatives, especially the female ones, must abstain from all communication with strangers;[ ] the ordinary occupations of life are suspended, just as in feast-time,[ ] etc. all these practices belong to the negative cult and are explained like the other rites of the same sort, so they do not concern us at present. they are due to the fact that the dead man is a sacred being. consequently, everything which is or has been connected with him is, by contagion, in a religious state excluding all contact with things from profane life. but mourning is not made up entirely of interdicts which have to be observed. positive acts are also demanded, in which the relatives are both the actors and those acted upon. very frequently these rites commence as soon as the death appears imminent. here is a scene which spencer and gillen witnessed among the warramunga. a totemic ceremony had just been celebrated and the company of actors and spectators was leaving the consecrated ground when a piercing cry suddenly came from the camp: a man was dying there. at once, the whole company commenced to run as fast as they could, while most of them commenced to howl. "between us and the camp," say these observers, "lay a deep creek, and on the bank of this, some of the men, scattered about here and there, sat down, bending their heads forwards between their knees, while they wept and moaned. crossing the creek we found that, as usual, the men's camp had been pulled to pieces. some of the women, who had come from every direction, were lying prostrate on the body, while others were standing or kneeling around, digging the sharp ends of yam-sticks into the crown of their heads, from which the blood streamed down over their faces, while all the time they kept up a loud, continuous wail. many of the men, rushing up to the spot, threw themselves upon the body, from which the women arose when the men approached, until in a few minutes we could see nothing but a struggling mass of bodies all mixed up together. to one side, three men of the thapungarti class, who still wore their ceremonial decorations, sat down wailing loudly, with their backs towards the dying man, and in a minute or two another man of the same class rushed on to the ground yelling and brandishing a stone knife. reaching the camp, he suddenly gashed both thighs deeply, cutting right across the muscles, and, unable to stand, fell down into the middle of the group, from which he was dragged out after a time by three or four female relatives, who immediately applied their mouths to the gaping wounds while he lay exhausted on the ground." the man did not actually die until late in the evening. as soon as he had given up his last breath, the same scene was re-enacted, only this time the wailing was still louder, and men and women, seized by a veritable frenzy, were rushing about cutting themselves with knives and sharp-pointed sticks, the women battering one another's heads with fighting clubs, no one attempting to ward off either cuts or blows. finally, after about an hour, a torchlight procession started off across the plain, to a tree in whose branches the body was left.[ ] howsoever great the violence of these manifestations may be, they are strictly regulated by etiquette. the individuals who make bloody incisions in themselves are designated by usage: they must have certain relations of kinship with the dead man. thus, in the case observed by spencer and gillen among the warramunga, those who slashed their thighs were the maternal grandfather of the deceased, his maternal uncle, and the maternal uncle and brother of his wife.[ ] others must cut their whiskers and hair, and then smear their scalps with pipe-clay. women have particularly severe obligations. they must cut their hair and cover the whole body with pipe-clay; in addition to this, a strict silence is imposed upon them during the whole period of mourning, which may last as long as two years. it is not rare among the warramunga that, as a result of this interdiction, all the women of a camp are condemned to the most absolute silence. this becomes so habitual to them that even after the expiration of the period of mourning, they voluntarily renounce all spoken language and prefer to communicate with gestures--in which, by the way, they acquire a remarkable ability. spencer and gillen knew one old woman who had not spoken for over twenty-four years.[ ] the ceremony which we have described opens a long series of rites which succeed one another for weeks and even for months. during the days which follow, they are renewed in various forms. groups of men and women sit on the ground, weeping and lamenting, and kissing each other at certain moments. these ritual kissings are repeated frequently during the period of mourning. it seems as though men felt a need of coming close together and communicating most closely; they are to be seen holding to each other and wound together so much as to make one single mass, from which loud groans escape.[ ] meanwhile, the women commence to lacerate their heads again, and, in order to intensify the wounds they make, they even go so far as to burn them with the points of fiery sticks.[ ] practices of this sort are general in all australia. the funeral rites, that is, the ritual cares given to the corpse, the way in which it is buried, etc., change with different tribes,[ ] and in a single tribe they vary with the age, sex and social importance of the individual.[ ] but the real ceremonies of mourning repeat the same theme everywhere; the variations are only in the details. everywhere we find this same silence interrupted by groans,[ ] the same obligation of cutting the hair and beard,[ ] or of covering one's head with pipe-clay or cinders, or perhaps even with excrements;[ ] everywhere, finally, we find this same frenzy for beating one's self, lacerating one's self and burning one's self. in central victoria, "when death visits a tribe there is great weeping and lamentation amongst the women, the elder portion of whom lacerate their temples with their nails. the parents of the deceased lacerate themselves fearfully, especially if it be an only son whose loss they deplore. the father beats and cuts his head with a tomahawk until he utters bitter groans, the mother sits by the fire and burns her breasts and abdomen with a small fire-stick. sometimes the burns thus inflicted are so severe as to cause death."[ ] according to an account of brough smyth, here is what happens in one of the southern tribes of the same state. as the body is lowered into the grave, "the widow begins her sad ceremonies. she cuts off her hair above her forehead, and becoming frantic, seizes fire-sticks, and burns her breasts, arms, legs and thighs. she seems to delight in the self-inflicted torture. it would be rash and vain to interrupt her. when exhausted, and when she can hardly walk, she yet endeavours to kick the embers of the fire, and to throw them about. sitting down, she takes the ashes into her hands, rubs them into her wounds, and then scratches her face (the only part not touched by the fire-sticks) until the blood mingles with the ashes, which partly hide her cruel wounds. in this plight, scratching her face continually, she utters howls and lamentations."[ ] the description which howitt gives of the rites of mourning among the kurnai is remarkably similar to these others. after the body has been wrapped up in opossum skins and put in a shroud of bark, a hut is built in which the relatives assemble. "there they lay lamenting their loss, saying, for instance, 'why did you leave us?' now and then their grief would be intensified by some one, for instance, the wife, uttering an ear-piercing wail, 'my spouse is dead,' or another would say, 'my child is dead.' all the others would then join in with the proper term of relationship, and they would gash themselves with sharp stones and tomahawks until their heads and bodies streamed with blood. this bitter wailing and weeping continued all night."[ ] sadness is not the only sentiment expressed during these ceremonies; a sort of anger is generally mixed with it. the relatives feel a need of avenging the death in some way or other. they are to be seen throwing themselves upon one another and trying to wound each other. sometimes the attack is real; sometimes it is only pretended.[ ] there are even cases when these peculiar combats are organized. among the kaitish, the hair of the deceased passes by right to his son-in-law. but he, in return, must go, in company with some of his relatives and friends, and provoke a quarrel with one of his tribal brothers, that is, with a man belonging to the same matrimonial class as himself and one who might therefore have married the daughter of the dead man. this provocation cannot be refused and the two combatants inflict serious wounds upon each other's shoulders and thighs. when the duel is terminated, the challenger passes on to his adversary the hair which he had temporarily inherited. this latter then provokes and fights with another of his tribal brothers, to whom the precious relic is next transmitted, but only provisionally; thus it passes from hand to hand and circulates from group to group.[ ] also, something of these same sentiments enters into that sort of rage with which each relative beats himself, burns himself or slashes himself: a sorrow which reaches such a paroxysm is not without a certain amount of anger. one cannot fail to be struck by the resemblances which these practices present to those of the vendetta. both proceed from the same principle that death demands the shedding of blood. the only difference is that in one case the victims are the relatives, while in the other they are strangers. we do not have to treat especially of the vendetta, which belongs rather to the study of juridic institutions; but it should be pointed out, nevertheless, how it is connected with the rites of mourning, whose end it announces.[ ] in certain societies, the mourning is terminated by a ceremony whose effervescence reaches or surpasses that produced by the inaugural ceremonies. among the arunta, this closing rite is called _urpmilchima_. spencer and gillen assisted at two of these rites. one was celebrated in honour of a man, the other of a woman. here is the description they give of the latter.[ ] they commence by making some ornaments of a special sort, called _chimurilia_ by the men and _aramurilia_ by the women. with a kind of resin, they fixed small animal bones, which had previously been gathered and set aside, to locks of hair furnished by the relatives of the dead woman. these are then attached to one of the head-bands which women ordinarily wear and the feathers of black cockatoos and parrots are added to it. when these preparations are completed, the women assemble in their camp. they paint their bodies different colours, according to their degree of kinship with the deceased. after being embraced by one another for some ten minutes, while uttering uninterrupted groans, they set out for the tomb. at a certain distance, they meet a brother by blood of the dead woman, who is accompanied by some of his tribal brothers. everybody sits down on the ground, and the lamentations recommence. a _pitchi_[ ] containing the chimurilia is then presented to the elder brother, who presses it against his stomach; they say that this is a way of lessening his sorrow. they take out one of the chimurilia and the dead woman's mother puts it on her head for a little while; then it is put back into the _pitchi_, which each of the other men presses against his breast, in his turn. finally, the brother puts the chimurilia on the heads of two elder sisters and they set out again for the tomb. on the way, the mother throws herself on the ground several times, and tries to slash her head with a pointed stick. every time, the other women pick her up, and seem to take care that she does not hurt herself too much. when they arrive at the tomb, she throws herself on the knoll and endeavours to destroy it with her hands, while the other women literally dance upon her. the tribal mothers and aunts (sisters of the dead woman's father) follow her example; they also throw themselves on the ground, and mutually beat and tear each other; finally their bodies are all streaming with blood. after a while, they are dragged aside. the elder sisters then make a hole in the earth of the tomb, in which they place the chimurilia, which had previously been torn to pieces. once again the tribal mothers throw themselves on the ground and slash each other's heads. at this moment, "the weeping and wailing of the women who were standing round seemed to drive them almost frenzied, and the blood, streaming down their bodies over the white pipe-clay, gave them a ghastly appearance. at last only the old mother was left crouching alone, utterly exhausted and moaning weakly on the grave."[ ] then the others raised her up and rubbed off the pipe-clay with which she was covered; this was the end of the ceremony and of the mourning.[ ] among the warramunga, the final rite presents some rather particular characteristics. there seems to be no shedding of blood here, but the collective effervescence is translated in another manner. among his people, before the body is definitely interred, it is exposed upon a platform placed in the branches of a tree; it is left there to decompose slowly, until nothing remains but the bones. then these are gathered together and, with the exception of the humerus, they are placed inside an ant-hill. the humerus is wrapped up in a bark box, which is decorated in different manners. the box is then brought to camp, amid the cries and groans of the women. during the following days, they celebrate a series of totemic rites, concerning the totem of the deceased and the mythical history of the ancestors from whom the clan is descended. when all these ceremonies have been terminated, they proceed to the closing rite. a trench one foot deep and fifteen feet long is dug in the field of the ceremony. a design representing the totem of the deceased and certain spots where the ancestor stopped is made on the ground a little distance from it. near this design, a little ditch is dug in the ground. ten decorated men then advance, one behind another, and with their hands crossed behind their heads and their legs wide apart they stand astraddle the trench. at a given signal, the women run from the camp in a profound silence; when they are near, they form in indian file, the last one holding in her hands the box containing the humerus. then, after throwing themselves on the ground, they advance on their hands and knees, and pass all along the trench, between the legs of the men. the scene shows a state of great sexual excitement. as soon as the last woman has passed, they take the box from her, and take it to the ditch, near which is an old man; he breaks the bone with a sharp blow, and hurriedly buries it in the debris. during this time, the women have remained at a distance, with their backs turned upon the scene, for they must not see it. but when they hear the blow of the axe, they flee, uttering cries and groans. the rite is accomplished; the mourning is terminated.[ ] ii these rites belong to a very different type from those which we have studied hitherto. we do not mean to say that important resemblances cannot be found between the two, which we shall have to note; but the differences are more apparent. instead of happy dances, songs and dramatic representations which distract and relax the mind, they are tears and groans and, in a word, the most varied manifestations of agonized sorrow and a sort of mutual pity, which occupy the whole scene. of course the shedding of blood also takes place in the intichiuma, but this is an oblation made with a movement of pious enthusiasm. even though the motions may be the same, the sentiments expressed are different and even opposed. likewise, the ascetic rites certainly imply privations, abstinences and mutilations, but ones which must be borne with an impassive firmness and serenity. here, on the contrary, dejection, cries and tears are the rule. the ascetic tortures himself in order to prove, in his own eyes and those of his fellows, that he is above suffering. during mourning, men injure themselves to prove that they suffer. by all these signs, the characteristic traits of the piacular rites are to be recognized. but how are they to be explained? one initial fact is constant: mourning is not the spontaneous expression of individual emotions.[ ] if the relations weep, lament, mutilate themselves, it is not because they feel themselves personally affected by the death of their kinsman. of course, it may be that in certain particular cases, the chagrin expressed is really felt.[ ] but it is more generally the case that there is no connection between the sentiments felt and the gestures made by the actors in the rite.[ ] if, at the very moment when the weepers seem the most overcome by their grief, some one speaks to them of some temporal interest, it frequently happens that they change their features and tone at once, take on a laughing air and converse in the gayest fashion imaginable.[ ] mourning is not a natural movement of private feelings wounded by a cruel loss; it is a duty imposed by the group. one weeps, not simply because he is sad, but because he is forced to weep. it is a ritual attitude which he is forced to adopt out of respect for custom, but which is, in a large measure, independent of his affective state. moreover, this obligation is sanctioned by mythical or social penalties. they believe, for example, that if a relative does not mourn as is fitting, then the soul of the departed follows upon his steps and kills him.[ ] in other cases, society does not leave it to the religious forces to punish the negligent; it intervenes itself, and reprimands the ritual faults. if a son-in-law does not render to his father-in-law the funeral attentions which are due him, and if he does not make the prescribed incisions, then his tribal fathers-in-law take his wife away from him and give him another.[ ] therefore, in order to square himself with usage, a man sometimes forces tears to flow by artificial means.[ ] whence comes this obligation? ethnographers and sociologists are generally satisfied with the reply which the natives themselves give to this question. they say that the dead wish to be lamented, that by refusing them the tribute of sorrow which is their right, men offend them, and that the only way of preventing their anger is to conform to their will.[ ] but this mythological interpretation merely modifies the terms of the problem, without resolving it; it is still necessary to explain why the dead imperatively reclaim the mourning. it may be said that it is natural for men to wish to be mourned and regretted. but in making this sentiment explain the complex system of rites which make up mourning, we attribute to the australian affective exigencies of which the civilized man himself does not always give evidence. let us admit--as is not evident _a priori_--that the idea of not being forgotten too readily is pleasing to a man who thinks of the future. it is still to be established that it has ever had enough importance in the minds of the living for one to attribute to the dead a state of mind proceeding almost entirely from this preoccupation. it seems especially improbable that such a sentiment could obsess and impassion men who are seldom accustomed to thinking beyond the present moment. so far is it from being a fact that the desire to survive in the memory of those who are still alive is to be regarded as the origin of mourning, that we may even ask ourselves whether it was not rather mourning itself which, when once established, aroused the idea of and the taste for posthumous regrets. the classic interpretation appears still more unsustainable when we know what the primitive mourning consists in. it is not made up merely of pious regrets accorded to him who no longer is, but also of severe abstinences and cruel sacrifices. the rite does not merely demand that one think of the deceased in a melancholy way, but also that he beat himself, bruise himself, lacerate himself and burn himself. we have even seen that persons in mourning sometimes torture themselves to such a degree that they do not survive their wounds. what reason has the dead man for imposing such torments upon them? such a cruelty on his part denotes something more than a desire not to be forgotten. if he is to find pleasure in seeing his own suffer, it is necessary that he hate them, that he be thirsty for their blood. this ferocity would undoubtedly appear natural to those for whom every spirit is necessarily an evil and redoubted power. but we know that there are spirits of every sort; how does it happen that the soul of the dead man is necessarily an evil spirit? as long as the man is alive, he loves his relatives and exchanges services with them. is it not strange that as soon as it is freed from his body, his soul should instantly lay aside its former sentiments and become an evil and tormenting genius? it is a general rule that the dead man retains the personality of the living, and that he has the same character, the same hates and the same affections. so this metamorphosis is not easily understandable by itself. it is true that the natives admit it implicitly when they explain the rite by the exigencies of the dead man, but the question now before us is to know whence this conception came. far from being capable of being regarded as a truism, it is as obscure as the rite itself, and consequently cannot account for it. finally, even if we had found the reasons for this surprising transformation, we would still have to explain why it is only temporary. for it does not last beyond the period of mourning; after the rites have once been accomplished, the dead man becomes what he was when alive, an affectionate and devoted relation. he puts the new powers which he receives from his new condition at the service of his friends.[ ] thenceforth, he is regarded as a good genius, always ready to aid those whom he was recently tormenting. whence come these successive transfers? if the evil sentiments attributed to the soul come solely from the fact that it is no longer in life, they should remain invariable, and if the mourning is due to this, it should be interminable. these mythical explanations express the idea which the native has of the rite, and not the rite itself. so we may set them aside and face the reality which they translate, though disfiguring it in doing so. if mourning differs from the other forms of the positive cult, there is one feature in which it resembles them: it, too, is made up out of collective ceremonies which produce a state of effervescence among those who take part in them. the sentiments aroused are different; but the arousal is the same. so it is presumable that the explanation of the joyous rites is capable of being applied to the sad rites, on condition that the terms be transposed. when some one dies, the family group to which he belongs feels itself lessened and, to react against this loss, it assembles. a common misfortune has the same effects as the approach of a happy event: collective sentiments are renewed which then lead men to seek one another and to assemble together. we have even seen this need for concentration affirm itself with a particular energy: they embrace one another, put their arms round one another, and press as close as possible to one another. but the affective state in which the group then happens to be only reflects the circumstances through which it is passing. not only do the relatives, who are effected the most directly, bring their own personal sorrow to the assembly, but the society exercises a moral pressure over its members, to put their sentiments in harmony with the situation. to allow them to remain indifferent to the blow which has fallen upon it and diminished it, would be equivalent to proclaiming that it does not hold the place in their hearts which is due it; it would be denying itself. a family which allows one of its members to die without being wept for shows by that very fact that it lacks moral unity and cohesion: it abdicates; it renounces its existence. an individual in his turn, if he is strongly attached to the society of which he is a member, feels that he is morally held to participating in its sorrows and joys; not to be interested in them would be equivalent to breaking the bonds uniting him to the group; it would be renouncing all desire for it and contradicting himself. when the christian, during the ceremonies commemorating the passion, and the jew, on the anniversary of the fall of jerusalem, fast and mortify themselves, it is not in giving way to a sadness which they feel spontaneously. under these circumstances, the internal state of the believer is out of all proportion to the severe abstinences to which they submit themselves. if he is sad, it is primarily because he consents to being sad, and he consents to it in order to affirm his faith. the attitude of the australian during mourning is to be explained in the same way. if he weeps and groans, it is not merely to express an individual chagrin; it is to fulfil a duty of which the surrounding society does not fail to remind him. we have seen elsewhere how human sentiments are intensified when affirmed collectively. sorrow, like joy, becomes exalted and amplified when leaping from mind to mind, and therefore expresses itself outwardly in the form of exuberant and violent movements. but these are no longer expressive of the joyful agitation which we observed before; they are shrieks and cries of pain. each is carried along by the others; a veritable panic of sorrow results. when pain reaches this degree of intensity, it is mixed with a sort of anger and exasperation. one feels the need of breaking something, of destroying something. he takes this out either upon himself or others. he beats himself, burns himself, wounds himself or else he falls upon others to beat, burn and wound them. thus it became the custom to give one's self up to the veritable orgies of tortures during mourning. it seems very probable that blood-revenge and head-hunting have their origin in this. if every death is attributed to some magic charm, and for this reason it is believed that the dead man ought to be avenged, it is because men must find a victim at any price, upon whom the collective pain and anger may be discharged. naturally this victim is sought outside the group; a stranger is a subject _minoris resistentiæ_; as he is not protected by the sentiments of sympathy inspired by a relative or neighbour, there is nothing in him which subdues and neutralizes the evil and destructive sentiments aroused by the death. it is undoubtedly for this same reason that women serve more frequently than men as the passive objects of the cruellest rites of mourning; since they have a smaller social value, they are more obviously designated as scapegoats. we see that this explanation of mourning completely leaves aside all ideas of souls or spirits. the only forces which are really active are of a wholly impersonal nature: they are the emotions aroused in the group by the death of one of its members. but the primitive does not know the psychical mechanism from which these practices result. so when he tries to account for them, he is obliged to forge a wholly different explanation. all he knows is that he must painfully mortify himself. as every obligation suggests the notion of a will which obliges, he looks about him to see whence this constraint which he feels may come. now, there is one moral power, of whose reality he is assured and which seems designated for this rôle: this is the soul which the death has liberated. for what could have a greater interest than it in the effects which its own death has on the living? so they imagine that if these latter inflict an unnatural treatment upon themselves, it is to conform to its exigencies. it was thus that the idea of the soul must have intervened at a later date into the mythology of mourning. but also, since it is thus endowed with inhuman exigencies, it must be supposed that in leaving the body which it animated, the soul lays aside every human sentiment. hence the metamorphosis which makes a dreaded enemy out of the relative of yesterday. this transformation is not the origin of mourning; it is rather its consequence. it translates a change which has come over the affective state of the group: men do not weep for the dead because they fear them; they fear them because they weep for them. but this change of the affective state can only be a temporary one, for while the ceremonies of mourning result from it, they also put an end to it. little by little, they neutralize the very causes which have given rise to them. the foundation of mourning is the impression of a loss which the group feels when it loses one of its members. but this very impression results in bringing individuals together, in putting them into closer relations with one another, in associating them all in the same mental state, and therefore in disengaging a sensation of comfort which compensates the original loss.--since they weep together, they hold to one another and the group is not weakened, in spite of the blow which has fallen upon it. of course they have only sad emotions in common, but communicating in sorrow is still communicating, and every communion of mind, in whatever form it may be made, raises the social vitality. the exceptional violence of the manifestations by which the common pain is necessarily and obligatorily expressed even testifies to the fact that at this moment, the society is more alive and active than ever. in fact, whenever the social sentiment is painfully wounded, it reacts with greater force than ordinarily: one never holds so closely to his family as when it has just suffered. this surplus energy effaces the more completely the effects of the interruption which was felt at first, and thus dissipates the feeling of coldness which death always brings with it. the group feels its strength gradually returning to it; it begins to hope and to live again. presently one stops mourning, and he does so owing to the mourning itself. but as the idea formed of the soul reflects the moral state of the society, this idea should change as this state changes. when one is in the period of dejection and agony, he represents the soul with the traits of an evil being, whose sole occupation is to persecute men. but when he feels himself confident and secure once more, he must admit that it has retaken its former nature and its former sentiments of tenderness and solidarity. thus we explain the very different ways in which it is conceived at different moments of its existence.[ ] not only do the rites of mourning determine certain of the secondary characteristics attributed to the soul, but perhaps they are not foreign to the idea that it survives the body. if he is to understand the practices to which he submits on the death of a parent, a man is obliged to believe that these are not an indifferent matter for the deceased. the shedding of blood which is practised so freely during mourning is a veritable sacrifice offered to the dead man.[ ] so something of the dead man must survive, and as this is not the body, which is manifestly immobile and decomposed, it can only be the soul. of course it is impossible to say with any exactness what part these considerations have had in the origin of the idea of immortality. but it is probable that here the influence of the cult is the same as it is elsewhere. rites are more easily explicable when one imagines that they are addressed to personal beings; so men have been induced to extend the influence of the mythical personalities in the religious life. in order to account for mourning, they have prolonged the existence of the soul beyond the tomb. this is one more example of the way in which rites react upon beliefs. iii but death is not the only event which may disturb a community. men have many other occasions for being sorry and lamenting, so we might foresee that even the australians would know and practise other piacular rites besides mourning. however, it is a remarkable fact that only a small number of examples are to be found in the accounts of the observers. one rite of this sort greatly resembles those which have just been studied. it will be remembered that among the arunta, each local group attributes exceptionally important virtues to its collection of churinga: this is this collective palladium, upon whose fate the fate of the community itself is believed to depend. so when enemies or white men succeed in stealing one of these religious treasures, this loss is considered a public calamity. this misfortune is the occasion of a rite having all the characteristics of mourning: men smear their bodies with white pipe-clay and remain in camp, weeping and lamenting, during a period of two weeks.[ ] this is a new proof that mourning is determined, not by the way in which the soul of the dead is conceived, but by impersonal causes, by the moral state of the group. in fact, we have here a rite which, in its structure, is indistinguishable from the real mourning, but which is, nevertheless, independent of every notion of spirits or evil-working demons.[ ] another circumstance which gives occasion for ceremonies of the same nature is the distress in which the society finds itself after an insufficient harvest. "the natives who live in the vicinity of lake eyre," says eylmann, "also seek to prevent an insufficiency of food by means of secret ceremonies. but many of the ritual practices observed in this region are to be distinguished from those which have been mentioned already: it is not by symbolic dances, by imitative movements nor dazzling decorations that they try to act upon the religious powers or the forces of nature, but by means of the suffering which individuals inflict upon themselves. in the northern territories, it is by means of tortures, such as prolonged fasts, vigils, dances persisted up to the exhaustion of the dancers, and physical pains of every sort, that they attempt to appease the powers which are ill-disposed towards men."[ ] the torments to which the natives submit themselves for this purpose sometimes leave them in such a state of exhaustion that they are unable to follow the hunt for some days to come.[ ] these practices are employed especially for fighting against drought. this is because a scarcity of water results in a general want. to remedy this evil, they have recourse to violent methods. one which is frequently used is the extraction of a tooth. among the kaitish, for example, they pull out an incisor from one man, and hang it on a tree.[ ] among the dieri, the idea of rain is closely associated with that of bloody incisions made in the skin of the chest and arms.[ ] among this same people, whenever the drought is very great, the great council assembles and summons the whole tribe. it is really a tribal event. women are sent in every direction to notify men to assemble at a given place and time. after they have assembled, they groan and cry in a piercing voice about the miserable state of the land, and they beg the _mura-mura_ (the mythical ancestors) to give them the power of making an abundant rain fall.[ ] in the cases, which, by the way, are very rare, when there has been an excessive rainfall, an analogous ceremony takes place to stop it. old men then enter into a veritable frenzy,[ ] while the cries uttered by the crowd are really painful to hear.[ ] spencer and gillen describe, under the name of intichiuma, a ceremony which may well have the same object and the same origin as the preceding ones: a physical torture is applied to make an animal species multiply. among the urabunna, there is one clan whose totem is a variety of snake called _wadnungadni_. this is how the chief of the clan proceeds, to make sure that these snakes may never be lacking. after having been decorated, he kneels down on the ground, holding his arms straight out. an assistant pinches the skin of his right arm between his fingers, and the officiant forces a pointed bone five inches long through the fold thus formed. this self-mutilation is believed to produce the desired result.[ ] an analogous rite is used among the dieri to make the wild-hens lay: the operators pierce their scrotums.[ ] in certain of the lake eyre tribes, men pierce their ears to make yams reproduce.[ ] but these partial or total famines are not the only plagues which may fall upon a tribe. other events happen more or less periodically which menace, or seem to menace, the existence of the group. this is the case, for example, with the southern lights. the kurnai believe that this is a fire lighted in the heavens by the great god mungan-ngaua; therefore, whenever they see it, they are afraid that it may spread to the earth and devour them, so a great effervescence results in the camp. they shake a withered hand, to which the kurnai attribute various virtues, and utter such cries as "send it away; do not let us be burned." at the same time, the old men order an exchange of wives, which always indicates a great excitement.[ ] the same sexual licence is mentioned among the wiimbaio whenever a plague appears imminent, and especially in times of an epidemic.[ ] under the influence of these ideas, mutilations and the shedding of blood are sometimes considered an efficient means of curing maladies. if an accident happens to a child among the dieri, his relations beat themselves on the head with clubs or boomerangs until the blood flows down over their faces. they believe that by this process, they relieve the child of the suffering.[ ] elsewhere, they imagine that they can obtain the same end by means of a supplementary totemic ceremony.[ ] we may connect with these the example already given of a ceremony celebrated specially to efface the effects of a ritual fault.[ ] of course there are neither wounds nor blows nor physical suffering of any sort in these two latter cases, yet the rite does not differ in nature from the others: the end sought is always the turning aside of an evil or the expiation of a fault by means of an extraordinary ritual prestation. outside of mourning, such are the only cases of piacular rites which we have succeeded in finding in australia. to be sure, it is probable that some have escaped us, while we may presume equally well that others have remained unperceived by the observers. but if those discovered up to the present are few in number, it is probably because they do not hold a large place in the cult. we see how far primitive religions are from being the daughters of agony and fear from the fact that the rites translating these painful emotions are relatively rare. of course this is because the australian, while leading a miserable existence as compared with other more civilized peoples, demands so little of life that he is easily contented. all that he asks is that nature follow its normal course, that the seasons succeed one another regularly, that the rain fall, at the ordinary time, in abundance and without excess. now great disturbances in the cosmic order are always exceptional; thus it is noticeable that the majority of the regular piacular rites, examples of which we have given above, have been observed in the tribes of the centre, where droughts are frequent and constitute veritable disasters. it is still surprising, it is true, that piacular rites specially destined to expiate sins, seem to be completely lacking. however, the australian, like every other man, must commit ritual faults, which he has an interest in redeeming; so we may ask if the silence of the texts on this point may not be due to insufficient observation. but howsoever few the facts which we have been able to gather may be, they are, nevertheless, instructive. when we study piacular rites in the more advanced religions, where the religious forces are individualized, they appear to be closely bound up with anthropomorphic conceptions. when the believer imposes privations upon himself and submits himself to austerities, it is in order to disarm the malevolence attributed by him to certain of the sacred beings upon whom he thinks that he is dependent. to appease their hatred or anger, he complies with their exigencies; he beats himself in order that he may not be beaten by them. so it seems as though these practices could not arise until after gods and spirits were conceived as moral persons, capable of passions analogous to those of men. for this reason, robertson smith thought it possible to assign a relatively late date to expiatory sacrifices, just as to sacrificial oblations. according to him, the shedding of blood which characterizes these rites was at first a simple process of communion: men poured forth their blood upon the altar in order to strengthen the bonds uniting them to their god. the rite acquired a piacular and penal character only when its original significance was forgotten and when the new idea which was formed of sacred beings allowed men to attribute another function to it.[ ] but as piacular rites are met with even in the australian societies, it is impossible to assign them so late an origin. moreover, all that we have observed, with one single exception,[ ] are independent of all anthropomorphic conceptions: there is no question of either spirits or gods. abstinences and effusions of blood stop famines and cure sicknesses directly and by themselves. no spiritual being introduces his action between the rite and the effect it is believed to produce. so mythical personalities intervened only at a late date. after the mechanism of the ritual had once been established, they served to make it more easily representable in the mind, but they are not conditions of its existence. it is for other reasons that it was founded; it is to another cause that it owes its efficacy. it acts through the collective forces which it puts into play. does a misfortune which menaces the group appear imminent? then the group unites, as in the case of mourning, and it is naturally an impression of uneasiness and perplexity which dominates the assembled body. now, as always, the pooling of these sentiments results in intensifying them. by affirming themselves, they exalt and impassion themselves and attain a degree of violence which is translated by the corresponding violence of the gestures which express them. just as at the death of a relative, they utter terrible cries, fly into a passion and feel that they must tear and destroy; it is to satisfy this need that they beat themselves, wound themselves, and make their blood flow. when emotions have this vivacity, they may well be painful, but they are not depressing; on the contrary, they denote a state of effervescence which implies a mobilization of all our active forces, and even a supply of external energies. it matters little that this exaltation was provoked by a sad event, for it is real, notwithstanding, and does not differ specifically from what is observed in the happy feasts. sometimes it is even made manifest by movements of the same nature: there is the same frenzy which seizes the worshippers and the same tendency towards sexual debauches, a sure sign of great nervous over-excitement. robertson smith had already noticed this curious influence of sad rites in the semitic cults: "in evil times," he says, "when men's thoughts were habitually sombre, they betook themselves to the physical excitement of religion as men now take refuge in wine.... and so in general when an act of semitic worship began with sorrow and lamentation--as in the mourning for adonis, or the great atoning ceremonies which became common in later times--a swift revulsion of feeling followed, and the gloomy part of the service was presently succeeded by a burst of hilarious revelry."[ ] in a word, even when religious ceremonies have a disquieting or saddening event as their point of departure, they retain their stimulating power over the affective state of the group and individuals. by the mere fact that they are collective, they raise the vital tone. when one feels life within him--whether it be in the form of painful irritation or happy enthusiasm--he does not believe in death; so he becomes reassured and takes courage again, and subjectively, everything goes on as if the rite had really driven off the danger which was dreaded. this is how curing or preventive virtues come to be attributed to the movements which one makes, to the cries uttered, to the blood shed and to the wounds inflicted upon one's self or others; and as these different tortures necessarily make one suffer, suffering by itself is finally regarded as a means of conjuring evil or curing sickness.[ ] later, when the majority of the religious forces had taken the form of moral personalities, the efficacy of these practices was explained by imagining that their object was to appease an evil-working or irritated god. but these conceptions only reflect the rite and the sentiments it arouses; they are an interpretation of it, not its determining cause. a negligence of the ritual acts in the same way. it, too, is a menace for the group; it touches it in its moral existence for it touches it in its beliefs. but if the anger which it causes is affirmed ostensibly and energetically, it compensates the evil which it has caused. for if it is acutely felt by all, it is because the infraction committed is an exception and the common faith remains entire. so the moral unity of the group is not endangered. now the penalty inflicted as an expiation is only a manifestation of the public anger, the material proof of its unanimity. so it really does have the healing effect attributed to it. at bottom, the sentiment which is at the root of the real expiatory rites does not differ in nature from that which we have found at the basis of the other piacular rites: it is a sort of irritated sorrow which tends to manifest itself by acts of destruction. sometimes it is assuaged to the detriment of him who feels it; sometimes it is at the expense of some foreign third party. but in either case, the psychic mechanism is essentially the same.[ ] iv one of the greatest services which robertson smith has rendered to the science of religions is to have pointed out the ambiguity of the notion of sacredness. religious forces are of two sorts. some are beneficent, guardians of the physical and moral order, dispensers of life and health and all the qualities which men esteem: this is the case with the totemic principle, spread out in the whole species, the mythical ancestor, the animal-protector, the civilizing heroes and the tutelar gods of every kind and degree. it matters little whether they are conceived as distinct personalities or as diffused energies; under either form they fulfil the same function and affect the minds of the believers in the same way: the respect which they inspire is mixed with love and gratitude. the things and the persons which are normally connected with them participate in the same sentiments and the same character: these are holy things and persons. such are the spots consecrated to the cult, the objects which serve in the regular rites, the priests, the ascetics, etc.--on the other hand, there are evil and impure powers, productive of disorders, causes of death and sickness, instigators of sacrilege. the only sentiments which men have for them are a fear into which horror generally enters. such are the forces upon which and by which the sorcerer acts, those which arise from corpses or the menstrual blood, those freed by every profanation of sacred things, etc. the spirits of the dead and malign genii of every sort are their personified forms. between these two categories of forces and beings, the contrast is as complete as possible and even goes into the most radical antagonism. the good and salutary powers repel to a distance these others which deny and contradict them. therefore the former are forbidden to the latter: any contact between them is considered the worst of profanations. this is the typical form of those interdicts between sacred things of different species, the existence of which we have already pointed out.[ ] women during menstruation, and especially at its beginning, are impure; so at this moment they are rigorously sequestered; men may have no relations with them.[ ] bull-roarers and churinga never come near a dead man.[ ] a sacrilegious person is excluded from the society of the faithful; access to the cult is forbidden him. thus the whole religious life gravitates about two contrary poles between which there is the same opposition as between the pure and the impure, the saint and the sacrilegious, the divine and the diabolic. but while these two aspects of the religious life oppose one another, there is a close kinship between them. in the first place, both have the same relation towards profane beings: these must abstain from all contact with impure things just as from the most holy things. the former are no less forbidden than the latter: they are withdrawn from circulation alike. this shows that they too are sacred. of course the sentiments inspired by the two are not identical: respect is one thing, disgust and horror another. yet, if the gestures are to be the same in both cases, the sentiments expressed must not differ in nature. and, in fact, there is a horror in religious respect, especially when it is very intense, while the fear inspired by malign powers is generally not without a certain reverential character. the shades by which these two attitudes are differentiated are even so slight sometimes that it is not always easy to say which state of mind the believers actually happen to be in. among certain semitic peoples, pork was forbidden, but it was not always known exactly whether this was because it was a pure or an impure thing[ ] and the same may be said of a very large number of alimentary interdictions. but there is more to be said; it very frequently happens that an impure thing or an evil power becomes a holy thing or a guardian power, without changing its nature, through a simple modification of external circumstances. we have seen how the soul of a dead man, which is a dreaded principle at first, is transformed into a protecting genius as soon as the mourning is finished. likewise, the corpse, which begins by inspiring terror and aversion, is later regarded as a venerated relic: funeral anthropophagy, which is frequently practised in the australian societies, is a proof of this transformation.[ ] the totemic animal is the pre-eminently sacred being; but for him who eats its flesh unduly, it is a cause of death. in a general way, the sacrilegious person is merely a profane one who has been infected with a benevolent religious force. this changes its nature in changing its habitat; it defiles rather than sanctifies.[ ] the blood issuing from the genital organs of a woman, though it is evidently as impure as that of menstruation, is frequently used as a remedy against sickness.[ ] the victim immolated in expiatory sacrifices is charged with impurities, for they have concentrated upon it the sins which were to be expiated. yet, after it has been slaughtered, its flesh and blood are employed for the most pious uses.[ ] on the contrary, though the communion is generally a religious operation whose normal function is to consecrate, it sometimes produces the effects of a sacrilege. in certain cases, the persons who have communicated are forced to flee from one another as from men infected with a plague. one would say that they have become a source of dangerous contamination for one another: the sacred bond which unites them also separates them. examples of this sort of communion are numerous in australia. one of the most typical has been observed among the narrinyeri and the neighbouring tribes. when an infant arrives in the world, its parents carefully preserve its umbilical cord, which is believed to conceal a part of its soul. two persons who exchange the cords thus preserved communicate together by the very act of this exchange, for it is as though they exchanged their souls. but, at the same time, they are forbidden to touch or speak to or even to see one another. it is just as though they were each an object of horror for the other.[ ] so the pure and the impure are not two separate classes, but two varieties of the same class, which includes all sacred things. there are two sorts of sacredness, the propitious and the unpropitious, and not only is there no break of continuity between these two opposed forms, but also one object may pass from the one to the other without changing its nature. the pure is made out of the impure, and reciprocally. it is in the possibility of these transmutations that the ambiguity of the sacred consists. but even if robertson smith did have an active sentiment of this ambiguity, he never gave it an express explanation. he confined himself to remarking that, as all religious forces are indistinctly intense and contagious, it is wise not to approach them except with respectful precautions, no matter what direction their action may be exercised in. it seemed to him that he could thus account for the air of kinship which they all present, in spite of the contrasts which oppose them otherwise. but the question was only put off; it still remains to be shown how it comes that the powers of evil have the same intensity and contagiousness as the others. in other words, how does it happen that they, too, are of a religious nature? also, the energy and force of expansion which they have in common do not enable us to understand how, in spite of the conflict which divides them, they may be transformed into one another or substituted for each other in their respective functions, and how the pure may contaminate while the impure sometimes serves to sanctify.[ ] the explanation of piacular rites which we have proposed enables us to reply to this double question. we have seen, in fact, that the evil powers are the product of these rites and symbolize them. when a society is going through circumstances which sadden, perplex or irritate it, it exercises a pressure over its members, to make them bear witness, by significant acts, to their sorrow, perplexity or anger. it imposes upon them the duty of weeping, groaning or inflicting wounds upon themselves or others, for these collective manifestations, and the moral communion which they show and strengthen, restore to the group the energy which circumstances threaten to take away from it, and thus they enable it to become settled. this is the experience which men interpret when they imagine that outside them there are evil beings whose hostility, whether constitutional or temporary, can be appeased only by human suffering. these beings are nothing other than collective states objectified; they are society itself seen under one of its aspects. but we also know that the benevolent powers are constituted in the same way; they, too, result from the collective life and express it; they, too, represent the society, but seen from a very different attitude, to wit, at the moment when it confidently affirms itself and ardently presses on towards the realization of the ends which it pursues. since these two sorts of forces have a common origin, it is not at all surprising that, though facing in opposite directions, they should have the same nature, that they are equally intense and contagious and consequently forbidden and sacred. from this we are able to understand how they change into one another. since they reflect the abjective state in which the group happens to be, it is enough that this state change for their character to change. after the mourning is over, the domestic group is re-calmed by the mourning itself; it regains confidence; the painful pressure which they felt exercised over them is relieved; they feel more at their ease. so it seems to them as though the spirit of the deceased had laid aside its hostile sentiments and become a benevolent protector. the other transmutations, examples of which we have cited, are to be explained in the same way. as we have already shown, the sanctity of a thing is due to the collective sentiment of which it is the object. if, in violation of the interdicts which isolate it, it comes in contact with a profane person, then this same sentiment will spread contagiously to this latter and imprint a special character upon him. but in spreading, it comes into a very different state from the one it was in at first. offended and irritated by the profanation implied in this abusive and unnatural extension, it becomes aggressive and inclined to destructive violences: it tends to avenge itself for the offence suffered. therefore the infected subject seems to be filled with a mighty and harmful force which menaces all that approaches him; it is as though he were marked with a stain or blemish. yet the cause of this blemish is the same psychic state which, in other circumstances, consecrates and sanctifies. but if the anger thus aroused is satisfied by an expiatory rite, it subsides, alleviated; the offended sentiment is appeased and returns to its original state. so it acts once more as it acted in the beginning; instead of contaminating, it sanctifies. as it continues to infect the object to which it is attached, this could never become profane and religiously indifferent again. but the direction of the religious force with which it seems to be filled is inverted: from being impure, it has become pure and an instrument of purification. in résumé, the two poles of the religious life correspond to the two opposed states through which all social life passes. between the propitiously sacred and the unpropitiously sacred there is the same contrast as between the states of collective well-being and ill-being. but since both are equally collective, there is, between the mythological constructions symbolizing them, an intimate kinship of nature. the sentiments held in common vary from extreme dejection to extreme joy, from painful irritation to ecstatic enthusiasm; but, in any case, there is a communion of minds and a mutual comfort resulting from this communion. the fundamental process is always the same; only circumstances colour it differently. so, at bottom, it is the unity and the diversity of social life which make the simultaneous unity and diversity of sacred beings and things. this ambiguity, moreover, is not peculiar to the idea of sacredness alone; something of this characteristic has been found in all the rites which we have been studying. of course it was essential to distinguish them; to confuse them would have been to misunderstand the multiple aspects of the religious life. but, on the other hand, howsoever different they may be, there is no break of continuity between them. quite on the contrary, they overlap one another and may even replace each other mutually. we have already shown how the rites of oblation and communion, the imitative rites and the commemorative rites frequently fulfil the same function. one might imagine that the negative cult, at least, would be more sharply separated from the positive cult; yet we have seen that the former may produce positive effects, identical with those produced by the latter. the same results are obtained by fasts, abstinences and self-mutilations as by communions, oblations and commemorations. inversely, offerings and sacrifices imply privations and renunciations of every sort. the continuity between ascetic and piacular rites is even more apparent: both are made up of sufferings, accepted or undergone, to which an analogous efficacy is attributed. thus the practices, like the beliefs, are not arranged in two separate classes. howsoever complex the outward manifestations of the religious life may be, at bottom it is one and simple. it responds everywhere to one and the same need, and is everywhere derived from one and the same mental state. in all its forms, its object is to raise man above himself and to make him lead a life superior to that which he would lead, if he followed only his own individual whims: beliefs express this life in representations; rites organize it and regulate its working. conclusion at the beginning of this work we announced that the religion whose study we were taking up contained within it the most characteristic elements of the religious life. the exactness of this proposition may now be verified. howsoever simple the system which we have studied may be, we have found within it all the great ideas and the principal ritual attitudes which are at the basis of even the most advanced religions: the division of things into sacred and profane, the notions of the soul, of spirits, of mythical personalities, and of a national and even international divinity, a negative cult with ascetic practices which are its exaggerated form, rites of oblation and communion, imitative rites, commemorative rites and expiatory rites; nothing essential is lacking. we are thus in a position to hope that the results at which we have arrived are not peculiar to totemism alone, but can aid us in an understanding of what religion in general is. it may be objected that one single religion, whatever its field of extension may be, is too narrow a base for such an induction. we have not dreamed for a moment of ignoring the fact that an extended verification may add to the authority of a theory, but it is equally true that when a law has been proven by one well-made experiment, this proof is valid universally. if in one single case a scientist succeeded in finding out the secret of the life of even the most protoplasmic creature that can be imagined, the truths thus obtained would be applicable to all living beings, even the most advanced. then if, in our studies of these very humble societies, we have really succeeded in discovering some of the elements out of which the most fundamental religious notions are made up, there is no reason for not extending the most general results of our researches to other religions. in fact, it is inconceivable that the same effect may be due now to one cause, now to another, according to the circumstances, unless the two causes are at bottom only one. a single idea cannot express one reality here and another one there, unless the duality is only apparent. if among certain peoples the ideas of sacredness, the soul and god are to be explained sociologically, it should be presumed scientifically that, in principle, the same explanation is valid for all the peoples among whom these same ideas are found with the same essential characteristics. therefore, supposing that we have not been deceived, certain at least of our conclusions can be legitimately generalized. the moment has come to disengage these. and an induction of this sort, having at its foundation a clearly defined experiment, is less adventurous than many summary generalizations which, while attempting to reach the essence of religion at once, without resting upon the careful analysis of any religion in particular, greatly risk losing themselves in space. i the theorists who have undertaken to explain religion in rational terms have generally seen in it before all else a system of ideas, corresponding to some determined object. this object has been conceived in a multitude of ways: nature, the infinite, the unknowable, the ideal, etc.; but these differences matter but little. in any case, it was the conceptions and beliefs which were considered as the essential elements of religion. as for the rites, from this point of view they appear to be only an external translation, contingent and material, of these internal states which alone pass as having any intrinsic value. this conception is so commonly held that generally the disputes of which religion is the theme turn about the question whether it can conciliate itself with science or not, that is to say, whether or not there is a place beside our scientific knowledge for another form of thought which would be specifically religious. but the believers, the men who lead the religious life and have a direct sensation of what it really is, object to this way of regarding it, saying that it does not correspond to their daily experience. in fact, they feel that the real function of religion is not to make us think, to enrich our knowledge, nor to add to the conceptions which we owe to science others of another origin and another character, but rather, it is to make us act, to aid us to live. the believer who has communicated with his god is not merely a man who sees new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant; he is a man who is _stronger_. he feels within him more force, either to endure the trials of existence, or to conquer them. it is as though he were raised above the miseries of the world, because he is raised above his condition as a mere man; he believes that he is saved from evil, under whatever form he may conceive this evil. the first article in every creed is the belief in salvation by faith. but it is hard to see how a mere idea could have this efficacy. an idea is in reality only a part of ourselves; then how could it confer upon us powers superior to those which we have of our own nature? howsoever rich it might be in affective virtues, it could add nothing to our natural vitality; for it could only release the motive powers which are within us, neither creating them nor increasing them. from the mere fact that we consider an object worthy of being loved and sought after, it does not follow that we feel ourselves stronger afterwards; it is also necessary that this object set free energies superior to these which we ordinarily have at our command and also that we have some means of making these enter into us and unite themselves to our interior lives. now for that, it is not enough that we think of them; it is also indispensable that we place ourselves within their sphere of action, and that we set ourselves where we may best feel their influence; in a word, it is necessary that we act, and that we repeat the acts thus necessary every time we feel the need of renewing their effects. from this point of view, it is readily seen how that group of regularly repeated acts which form the cult get their importance. in fact, whoever has really practised a religion knows very well that it is the cult which gives rise to these impressions of joy, of interior peace, of serenity, of enthusiasm which are, for the believer, an experimental proof of his beliefs. the cult is not simply a system of signs by which the faith is outwardly translated; it is a collection of the means by which this is created and recreated periodically. whether it consists in material acts or mental operations, it is always this which is efficacious. our entire study rests upon this postulate that the unanimous sentiment of the believers of all times cannot be purely illusory. together with a recent apologist of the faith[ ] we admit that these religious beliefs rest upon a specific experience whose demonstrative value is, in one sense, not one bit inferior to that of scientific experiments, though different from them. we, too, think that "a tree is known by its fruits,"[ ] and that fertility is the best proof of what the roots are worth. but from the fact that a "religious experience," if we choose to call it this, does exist and that it has a certain foundation--and, by the way, is there any experience which has none?--it does not follow that the reality which is its foundation conforms objectively to the idea which believers have of it. the very fact that the fashion in which it has been conceived has varied infinitely in different times is enough to prove that none of these conceptions express it adequately. if a scientist states it as an axiom that the sensations of heat and light which we feel correspond to some objective cause, he does not conclude that this is what it appears to the senses to be. likewise, even if the impressions which the faithful feel are not imaginary, still they are in no way privileged intuitions; there is no reason for believing that they inform us better upon the nature of their object than do ordinary sensations upon the nature of bodies and their properties. in order to discover what this object consists of, we must submit them to an examination and elaboration analogous to that which has substituted for the sensuous idea of the world another which is scientific and conceptual. this is precisely what we have tried to do, and we have seen that this reality, which mythologies have represented under so many different forms, but which is the universal and eternal objective cause of these sensations _sui generis_ out of which religious experience is made, is society. we have shown what moral forces it develops and how it awakens this sentiment of a refuge, of a shield and of a guardian support which attaches the believer to his cult. it is that which raises him outside himself; it is even that which made him. for that which makes a man is the totality of the intellectual property which constitutes civilization, and civilization is the work of society. thus is explained the preponderating rôle of the cult in all religions, whichever they may be. this is because society cannot make its influence felt unless it is in action, and it is not in action unless the individuals who compose it are assembled together and act in common. it is by common action that it takes consciousness of itself and realizes its position; it is before all else an active co-operation. the collective ideas and sentiments are even possible only owing to these exterior movements which symbolize them, as we have established.[ ] then it is action which dominates the religious life, because of the mere fact that it is society which is its source. in addition to all the reasons which have been given to justify this conception, a final one may be added here, which is the result of our whole work. as we have progressed, we have established the fact that the fundamental categories of thought, and consequently of science, are of religious origin. we have seen that the same is true for magic and consequently for the different processes which have issued from it. on the other hand, it has long been known that up until a relatively advanced moment of evolution, moral and legal rules have been indistinguishable from ritual prescriptions. in summing up, then, it may be said that nearly all the great social institutions have been born in religion.[ ] now in order that these principal aspects of the collective life may have commenced by being only varied aspects of the religious life, it is obviously necessary that the religious life be the eminent form and, as it were, the concentrated expression of the whole collective life. if religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion. religious forces are therefore human forces, moral forces. it is true that since collective sentiments can become conscious of themselves only by fixing themselves upon external objects, they have not been able to take form without adopting some of their characteristics from other things: they have thus acquired a sort of physical nature; in this way they have come to mix themselves with the life of the material world, and then have considered themselves capable of explaining what passes there. but when they are considered only from this point of view and in this rôle, only their most superficial aspect is seen. in reality, the essential elements of which these collective sentiments are made have been borrowed by the understanding. it ordinarily seems that they should have a human character only when they are conceived under human forms;[ ] but even the most impersonal and the most anonymous are nothing else than objectified sentiments. it is only by regarding religion from this angle that it is possible to see its real significance. if we stick closely to appearances, rites often give the effect of purely manual operations: they are anointings, washings, meals. to consecrate something, it is put in contact with a source of religious energy, just as to-day a body is put in contact with a source of heat or electricity to warm or electrize it; the two processes employed are not essentially different. thus understood, religious technique seems to be a sort of mystic mechanics. but these material man[oe]uvres are only the external envelope under which the mental operations are hidden. finally, there is no question of exercising a physical constraint upon blind and, incidentally, imaginary forces, but rather of reaching individual consciousnesses, of giving them a direction and of disciplining them. it is sometimes said that inferior religions are materialistic. such an expression is inexact. all religions, even the crudest, are in a sense spiritualistic: for the powers they put in play are before all spiritual, and also their principal object is to act upon the moral life. thus it is seen that whatever has been done in the name of religion cannot have been done in vain: for it is necessarily the society that did it, and it is humanity that has reaped the fruits. but, it is said, what society is it that has thus made the basis of religion? is it the real society, such as it is and acts before our very eyes, with the legal and moral organization which it has laboriously fashioned during the course of history? this is full of defects and imperfections. in it, evil goes beside the good, injustice often reigns supreme, and the truth is often obscured by error. how could anything so crudely organized inspire the sentiments of love, the ardent enthusiasm and the spirit of abnegation which all religions claim of their followers? these perfect beings which are gods could not have taken their traits from so mediocre, and sometimes even so base a reality. but, on the other hand, does someone think of a perfect society, where justice and truth would be sovereign, and from which evil in all its forms would be banished for ever? no one would deny that this is in close relations with the religious sentiment; for, they would say, it is towards the realization of this that all religions strive. but that society is not an empirical fact, definite and observable; it is a fancy, a dream with which men have lightened their sufferings, but in which they have never really lived. it is merely an idea which comes to express our more or less obscure aspirations towards the good, the beautiful and the ideal. now these aspirations have their roots in us; they come from the very depths of our being; then there is nothing outside of us which can account for them. moreover, they are already religious in themselves; thus it would seem that the ideal society presupposes religion, far from being able to explain it.[ ] but, in the first place, things are arbitrarily simplified when religion is seen only on its idealistic side: in its way, it is realistic. there is no physical or moral ugliness, there are no vices or evils which do not have a special divinity. there are gods of theft and trickery, of lust and war, of sickness and of death. christianity itself, howsoever high the idea which it has made of the divinity may be, has been obliged to give the spirit of evil a place in its mythology. satan is an essential piece of the christian system; even if he is an impure being, he is not a profane one. the anti-god, is a god, inferior and subordinated, it is true, but nevertheless endowed with extended powers; he is even the object of rites, at least of negative ones. thus religion, far from ignoring the real society and making abstraction of it, is in its image; it reflects all its aspects, even the most vulgar and the most repulsive. all is to be found there, and if in the majority of cases we see the good victorious over evil, life over death, the powers of light over the powers of darkness, it is because reality is not otherwise. if the relation between these two contrary forces were reversed, life would be impossible; but, as a matter of fact, it maintains itself and even tends to develop. but if, in the midst of these mythologies and theologies we see reality clearly appearing, it is none the less true that it is found there only in an enlarged, transformed and idealized form. in this respect, the most primitive religions do not differ from the most recent and the most refined. for example, we have seen how the arunta place at the beginning of time a mythical society whose organization exactly reproduces that which still exists to-day; it includes the same clans and phratries, it is under the same matrimonial rules and it practises the same rites. but the personages who compose it are ideal beings, gifted with powers and virtues to which common mortals cannot pretend. their nature is not only higher, but it is different, since it is at once animal and human. the evil powers there undergo a similar metamorphosis: evil itself is, as it were, made sublime and idealized. the question now raises itself of whence this idealization comes. some reply that men have a natural faculty for idealizing, that is to say, of substituting for the real world another different one, to which they transport themselves by thought. but that is merely changing the terms of the problem; it is not resolving it or even advancing it. this systematic idealization is an essential characteristic of religions. explaining them by an innate power of idealization is simply replacing one word by another which is the equivalent of the first; it is as if they said that men have made religions because they have a religious nature. animals know only one world, the one which they perceive by experience, internal as well as external. men alone have the faculty of conceiving the ideal, of adding something to the real. now where does this singular privilege come from? before making it an initial fact or a mysterious virtue which escapes science, we must be sure that it does not depend upon empirically determinable conditions. the explanation of religion which we have proposed has precisely this advantage, that it gives an answer to this question. for our definition of the sacred is that it is something added to and above the real: now the ideal answers to this same definition; we cannot explain one without explaining the other. in fact, we have seen that if collective life awakens religious thought on reaching a certain degree of intensity, it is because it brings about a state of effervescence which changes the conditions of psychic activity. vital energies are over-excited, passions more active, sensations stronger; there are even some which are produced only at this moment. a man does not recognize himself; he feels himself transformed and consequently he transforms the environment which surrounds him. in order to account for the very particular impressions which he receives, he attributes to the things with which he is in most direct contact properties which they have not, exceptional powers and virtues which the objects of every-day experience do not possess. in a word, above the real world where his profane life passes he has placed another which, in one sense, does not exist except in thought, but to which he attributes a higher sort of dignity than to the first. thus, from a double point of view it is an ideal world. the formation of the ideal world is therefore not an irreducible fact which escapes science; it depends upon conditions which observation can touch; it is a natural product of social life. for a society to become conscious of itself and maintain at the necessary degree of intensity the sentiments which it thus attains, it must assemble and concentrate itself. now this concentration brings about an exaltation of the mental life which takes form in a group of ideal conceptions where is portrayed the new life thus awakened; they correspond to this new set of psychical forces which is added to those which we have at our disposition for the daily tasks of existence. a society can neither create itself nor recreate itself without at the same time creating an ideal. this creation is not a sort of work of supererogation for it, by which it would complete itself, being already formed; it is the act by which it is periodically made and remade. therefore when some oppose the ideal society to the real society, like two antagonists which would lead us in opposite directions, they materialize and oppose abstractions. the ideal society is not outside of the real society; it is a part of it. far from being divided between them as between two poles which mutually repel each other, we cannot hold to one without holding to the other. for a society is not made up merely of the mass of individuals who compose it, the ground which they occupy, the things which they use and the movements which they perform, but above all is the idea which it forms of itself. it is undoubtedly true that it hesitates over the manner in which it ought to conceive itself; it feels itself drawn in divergent directions. but these conflicts which break forth are not between the ideal and reality, but between two different ideals, that of yesterday and that of to-day, that which has the authority of tradition and that which has the hope of the future. there is surely a place for investigating whence these ideals evolve; but whatever solution may be given to this problem, it still remains that all passes in the world of the ideal. thus the collective ideal which religion expresses is far from being due to a vague innate power of the individual, but it is rather at the school of collective life that the individual has learned to idealize. it is in assimilating the ideals elaborated by society that he has become capable of conceiving the ideal. it is society which, by leading him within its sphere of action, has made him acquire the need of raising himself above the world of experience and has at the same time furnished him with the means of conceiving another. for society has constructed this new world in constructing itself, since it is society which this expresses. thus both with the individual and in the group, the faculty of idealizing has nothing mysterious about it. it is not a sort of luxury which a man could get along without, but a condition of his very existence. he could not be a social being, that is to say, he could not be a man, if he had not acquired it. it is true that in incarnating themselves in individuals, collective ideals tend to individualize themselves. each understands them after his own fashion and marks them with his own stamp; he suppresses certain elements and adds others. thus the personal ideal disengages itself from the social ideal in proportion as the individual personality develops itself and becomes an autonomous source of action. but if we wish to understand this aptitude, so singular in appearance, of living outside of reality, it is enough to connect it with the social conditions upon which it depends. therefore it is necessary to avoid seeing in this theory of religion a simple restatement of historical materialism: that would be misunderstanding our thought to an extreme degree. in showing that religion is something essentially social, we do not mean to say that it confines itself to translating into another language the material forms of society and its immediate vital necessities. it is true that we take it as evident that social life depends upon its material foundation and bears its mark, just as the mental life of an individual depends upon his nervous system and in fact his whole organism. but collective consciousness is something more than a mere epiphenomenon of its morphological basis, just as individual consciousness is something more than a simple efflorescence of the nervous system. in order that the former may appear, a synthesis _sui generis_ of particular consciousnesses is required. now this synthesis has the effect of disengaging a whole world of sentiments, ideas and images which, once born, obey laws all their own. they attract each other, repel each other, unite, divide themselves, and multiply, though these combinations are not commanded and necessitated by the condition of the underlying reality. the life thus brought into being even enjoys so great an independence that it sometimes indulges in manifestations with no purpose or utility of any sort, for the mere pleasure of affirming itself. we have shown that this is often precisely the case with ritual activity and mythological thought.[ ] but if religion is the product of social causes, how can we explain the individual cult and the universalistic character of certain religions? if it is born _in foro externo_, how has it been able to pass into the inner conscience of the individual and penetrate there ever more and more profoundly? if it is the work of definite and individualized societies, how has it been able to detach itself from them, even to the point of being conceived as something common to all humanity? in the course of our studies, we have met with the germs of individual religion and of religious cosmopolitanism, and we have seen how they were formed; thus we possess the more general elements of the reply which is to be given to this double question. we have shown how the religious force which animates the clan particularizes itself, by incarnating itself in particular consciousnesses. thus secondary sacred beings are formed; each individual has his own, made in his own image, associated to his own intimate life, bound up with his own destiny; it is the soul, the individual totem, the protecting ancestor, etc. these beings are the object of rites which the individual can celebrate by himself, outside of any group; this is the first form of the individual cult. to be sure, it is only a very rudimentary cult; but since the personality of the individual is still only slightly marked, and but little value is attributed to it, the cult which expresses it could hardly be expected to be very highly developed as yet. but as individuals have differentiated themselves more and more and the value of an individual has increased, the corresponding cult has taken a relatively greater place in the totality of the religious life and at the same time it is more fully closed to outside influences. thus the existence of individual cults implies nothing which contradicts or embarrasses the sociological interpretation of religion; for the religious forces to which it addresses itself are only the individualized forms of collective forces. therefore, even when religion seems to be entirely within the individual conscience, it is still in society that it finds the living source from which it is nourished. we are now able to appreciate the value of the radical individualism which would make religion something purely individual: it misunderstands the fundamental conditions of the religious life. if up to the present it has remained in the stage of theoretical aspirations which have never been realized, it is because it is unrealizable. a philosophy may well be elaborated in the silence of the interior imagination, but not so a faith. for before all else, a faith is warmth, life, enthusiasm, the exaltation of the whole mental life, the raising of the individual above himself. now how could he add to the energies which he possesses without going outside himself? how could he surpass himself merely by his own forces? the only source of life at which we can morally reanimate ourselves is that formed by the society of our fellow beings; the only moral forces with which we can sustain and increase our own are those which we get from others. let us even admit that there really are beings more or less analogous to those which the mythologies represent. in order that they may exercise over souls the useful direction which is their reason for existence, it is necessary that men believe in them. now these beliefs are active only when they are partaken by many. a man cannot retain them any length of time by a purely personal effort; it is not thus that they are born or that they are acquired; it is even doubtful if they can be kept under these conditions. in fact, a man who has a veritable faith feels an invincible need of spreading it: therefore he leaves his isolation, approaches others and seeks to convince them, and it is the ardour of the convictions which he arouses that strengthens his own. it would quickly weaken if it remained alone. it is the same with religious universalism as with this individualism. far from being an exclusive attribute of certain very great religions, we have found it, not at the base, it is true, but at the summit of the australian system. bunjil, daramulun or baiame are not simple tribal gods; each of them is recognized by a number of different tribes. in a sense, their cult is international. this conception is therefore very near to that found in the most recent theologies. so certain writers have felt it their duty to deny its authenticity, howsoever incontestable this may be. and we have been able to show how this has been formed. neighbouring tribes of a similar civilization cannot fail to be in constant relations with each other. all sorts of circumstances give an occasion for it: besides commerce, which is still rudimentary, there are marriages; these international marriages are very common in australia. in the course of these meetings, men naturally become conscious of the moral relationship which united them. they have the same social organization, the same division into phratries, clans and matrimonial classes; they practise the same rites of initiation, or wholly similar ones. mutual loans and treaties result in reinforcing these spontaneous resemblances. the gods to which these manifestly identical institutions were attached could hardly have remained distinct in their minds. everything tended to bring them together and consequently, even supposing that each tribe elaborated the notion independently, they must necessarily have tended to confound themselves with each other. also, it is probable that it was in inter-tribal assemblies that they were first conceived. for they are chiefly the gods of initiation, and in the initiation ceremonies, the different tribes are usually represented. so if sacred beings are formed which are connected with no geographically determined society, that is not because they have an extra-social origin. it is because there are other groups above these geographically determined ones, whose contours are less clearly marked: they have no fixed frontiers, but include all sorts of more or less neighbouring and related tribes. the particular social life thus created tends to spread itself over an area with no definite limits. naturally the mythological personages who correspond to it have the same character; their sphere of influence is not limited; they go beyond the particular tribes and their territory. they are the great international gods. now there is nothing in this situation which is peculiar to australian societies. there is no people and no state which is not a part of another society, more or less unlimited, which embraces all the peoples and all the states with which the first comes in contact, either directly or indirectly; there is no national life which is not dominated by a collective life of an international nature. in proportion as we advance in history, these international groups acquire a greater importance and extent. thus we see how, in certain cases, this universalistic tendency has been able to develop itself to the point of affecting not only the higher ideas of the religious system, but even the principles upon which it rests. ii thus there is something eternal in religion which is destined to survive all the particular symbols in which religious thought has successively enveloped itself. there can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and the collective ideas which make its unity and its personality. now this moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies and meetings where the individuals, being closely united to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments; hence come ceremonies which do not differ from regular religious ceremonies, either in their object, the results which they produce, or the processes employed to attain these results. what essential difference is there between an assembly of christians celebrating the principal dates of the life of christ, or of jews remembering the exodus from egypt or the promulgation of the decalogue, and a reunion of citizens commemorating the promulgation of a new moral or legal system or some great event in the national life? if we find a little difficulty to-day in imagining what these feasts and ceremonies of the future could consist in, it is because we are going through a stage of transition and moral mediocrity. the great things of the past which filled our fathers with enthusiasm do not excite the same ardour in us, either because they have come into common usage to such an extent that we are unconscious of them, or else because they no longer answer to our actual aspirations; but as yet there is nothing to replace them. we can no longer impassionate ourselves for the principles in the name of which christianity recommended to masters that they treat their slaves humanely, and, on the other hand, the idea which it has formed of human equality and fraternity seems to us to-day to leave too large a place for unjust inequalities. its pity for the outcast seems to us too platonic; we desire another which would be more practicable; but as yet we cannot clearly see what it should be nor how it could be realized in facts. in a word, the old gods are growing old or already dead, and others are not yet born. this is what rendered vain the attempt of comte with the old historic souvenirs artificially revived; it is life itself, and not a dead past which can produce a living cult. but this state of incertitude and confused agitation cannot last for ever. a day will come when our societies will know again those hours of creative effervescence, in the course of which new ideas arise and new formulæ are found which serve for a while as a guide to humanity; and when these hours shall have been passed through once, men will spontaneously feel the need of reliving them from time to time in thought, that is to say, of keeping alive their memory by means of celebrations which regularly reproduce their fruits. we have already seen how the french revolution established a whole cycle of holidays to keep the principles with which it was inspired in a state of perpetual youth. if this institution quickly fell away, it was because the revolutionary faith lasted but a moment, and deceptions and discouragements rapidly succeeded the first moments of enthusiasm. but though the work may have miscarried, it enables us to imagine what might have happened in other conditions; and everything leads us to believe that it will be taken up again sooner or later. there are no gospels which are immortal, but neither is there any reason for believing that humanity is incapable of inventing new ones. as to the question of what symbols this new faith will express itself with, whether they will resemble those of the past or not, and whether or not they will be more adequate for the reality which they seek to translate, that is something which surpasses the human faculty of foresight and which does not appertain to the principal question. but feasts and rites, in a word, the cult, are not the whole religion. this is not merely a system of practices, but also a system of ideas whose object is to explain the world; we have seen that even the humblest have their cosmology. whatever connection there may be between these two elements of the religious life, they are still quite different. the one is turned towards action, which it demands and regulates; the other is turned towards thought, which it enriches and organizes. then they do not depend upon the same conditions, and consequently it may be asked if the second answers to necessities as universal and as permanent as the first. when specific characteristics are attributed to religious thought, and when it is believed that its function is to express, by means peculiar to itself, an aspect of reality which evades ordinary knowledge as well as science, one naturally refuses to admit that religion can ever abandon its speculative rôle. but our analysis of the facts does not seem to have shown this specific quality of religion. the religion which we have just studied is one of those whose symbols are the most disconcerting for the reason. there all appears mysterious. these beings which belong to the most heterogeneous groups at the same time, who multiply without ceasing to be one, who divide without diminishing, all seem, at first view, to belong to an entirely different world from the one where we live; some have even gone so far as to say that the mind which constructed them ignored the laws of logic completely. perhaps the contrast between reason and faith has never been more thorough. then if there has ever been a moment in history when their heterogeneousness should have stood out clearly, it is here. but contrary to all appearances, as we have pointed out, the realities to which religious speculation is then applied are the same as those which later serve as the subject of reflection for philosophers: they are nature, man, society. the mystery which appears to surround them is wholly superficial and disappears before a more painstaking observation: it is enough merely to set aside the veil with which mythological imagination has covered them for them to appear such as they really are. religion sets itself to translate these realities into an intelligible language which does not differ in nature from that employed by science; the attempt is made by both to connect things with each other, to establish internal relations between them, to classify them and to systematize them. we have even seen that the essential ideas of scientific logic are of religious origin. it is true that in order to utilize them, science gives them a new elaboration; it purges them of all accidental elements; in a general way, it brings a spirit of criticism into all its doings, which religion ignores; it surrounds itself with precautions to "escape precipitation and bias," and to hold aside the passions, prejudices and all subjective influences. but these perfectionings of method are not enough to differentiate it from religion. in this regard, both pursue the same end; scientific thought is only a more perfect form of religious thought. thus it seems natural that the second should progressively retire before the first, as this becomes better fitted to perform the task. and there is no doubt that this regression has taken place in the course of history. having left religion, science tends to substitute itself for this latter in all that which concerns the cognitive and intellectual functions. christianity has already definitely consecrated this substitution in the order of material things. seeing in matter that which is profane before all else, it readily left the knowledge of this to another discipline, _tradidit mundum hominum disputationi_, "he gave the world over to the disputes of men"; it is thus that the natural sciences have been able to establish themselves and make their authority recognized without very great difficulty. but it could not give up the world of souls so easily; for it is before all over souls that the god of the christians aspires to reign. that is why the idea of submitting the psychic life to science produced the effect of a sort of profanation for a long time; even to-day it is repugnant to many minds. however, experimental and comparative psychology is founded and to-day we must reckon with it. but the world of the religious and moral life is still forbidden. the great majority of men continue to believe that here there is an order of things which the mind cannot penetrate except by very special ways. hence comes the active resistance which is met with every time that someone tries to treat religious and moral phenomena scientifically. but in spite of these oppositions, these attempts are constantly repeated and this persistence even allows us to foresee that this final barrier will finally give way and that science will establish herself as mistress even in this reserved region. that is what the conflict between science and religion really amounts to. it is said that science denies religion in principle. but religion exists; it is a system of given facts; in a word, it is a reality. how could science deny this reality? also, in so far as religion is action, and in so far as it is a means of making men live, science could not take its place, for even if this expresses life, it does not create it; it may well seek to explain the faith, but by that very act it presupposes it. thus there is no conflict except upon one limited point. of the two functions which religion originally fulfilled, there is one, and only one, which tends to escape it more and more: that is its speculative function. that which science refuses to grant to religion is not its right to exist, but its right to dogmatize upon the nature of things and the special competence which it claims for itself for knowing man and the world. as a matter of fact, it does not know itself. it does not even know what it is made of, nor to what need it answers. it is itself a subject for science, so far is it from being able to make the law for science! and from another point of view, since there is no proper subject for religious speculation outside that reality to which scientific reflection is applied, it is evident that this former cannot play the same rôle in the future that it has played in the past. however, it seems destined to transform itself rather than to disappear. we have said that there is something eternal in religion: it is the cult and the faith. men cannot celebrate ceremonies for which they see no reason, nor can they accept a faith which they in no way understand. to spread itself or merely to maintain itself, it must be justified, that is to say, a theory must be made of it. a theory of this sort must undoubtedly be founded upon the different sciences, from the moment when these exist; first of all, upon the social sciences, for religious faith has its origin in society; then upon psychology, for society is a synthesis of human consciousnesses; and finally upon the sciences of nature, for man and society are a part of the universe and can be abstracted from it only artificially. but howsoever important these facts taken from the constituted sciences may be, they are not enough; for faith is before all else an impetus to action, while science, no matter how far it may be pushed, always remains at a distance from this. science is fragmentary and incomplete; it advances but slowly and is never finished; but life cannot wait. the theories which are destined to make men live and act are therefore obliged to pass science and complete it prematurely. they are possible only when the practical exigencies and the vital necessities which we feel without distinctly conceiving them push thought in advance, beyond that which science permits us to affirm. thus religions, even the most rational and laicized, cannot and never will be able to dispense with a particular form of speculation which, though having the same subjects as science itself, cannot be really scientific: the obscure intuitions of sensation and sentiment too often take the place of logical reasons. on one side, this speculation resembles that which we meet with in the religions of the past; but on another, it is different. while claiming and exercising the right of going beyond science, it must commence by knowing this and by inspiring itself with it. ever since the authority of science was established, it must be reckoned with; one can go farther than it under the pressure of necessity, but he must take his direction from it. he can affirm nothing that it denies, deny nothing that it affirms, and establish nothing that is not directly or indirectly founded upon principles taken from it. from now on, the faith no longer exercises the same hegemony as formerly over the system of ideas that we may continue to call religion. a rival power rises up before it which, being born of it, ever after submits it to its criticism and control. and everything makes us foresee that this control will constantly become more extended and efficient, while no limit can be assigned to its future influence. iii but if the fundamental notions of science are of a religious origin, how has religion been able to bring them forth? at first sight, one does not see what relations there can be between religion and logic. or, since the reality which religious thought expresses is society, the question can be stated in the following terms, which make the entire difficulty appear even better: what has been able to make social life so important a source for the logical life? it seems as though nothing could have predestined it to this rôle, for it certainly was not to satisfy their speculative needs that men associated themselves together. perhaps we shall be found over bold in attempting so complex a question here. to treat it as it should be treated, the sociological conditions of knowledge should be known much better than they actually are; we are only beginning to catch glimpses of some of them. however, the question is so grave, and so directly implied in all that has preceded, that we must make an effort not to leave it without an answer. perhaps it is not impossible, even at present, to state some general principles which may at least aid in the solution. logical thought is made up of concepts. seeking how society can have played a rôle in the genesis of logical thought thus reduces itself to seeking how it can have taken a part in the formation of concepts. if, as is ordinarily the case, we see in the concept only a general idea, the problem appears insoluble. by his own power, the individual can compare his conceptions and images, disengage that which they have in common, and thus, in a word, generalize. then it is hard to see why this generalization should be possible only in and through society. but, in the first place, it is inadmissible that logical thought is characterized only by the greater extension of the conceptions of which it is made up. if particular ideas have nothing logical about them, why should it be different with general ones? the general exists only in the particular; it is the particular simplified and impoverished. then the first could have no virtues or privileges which the second has not. inversely, if conceptual thought can be applied to the class, species or variety, howsoever restricted these may be, why can it not be extended to the individual, that is to say, to the limit towards which the conception tends, proportionately as its extension diminishes? as a matter of fact, there are many concepts which have only individuals as their object. in every sort of religion, gods are individualities distinct from each other; however, they are conceived, not perceived. each people represents its historic or legendary heroes in fashions which vary with the time. finally, every one of us forms an idea of the individuals with whom he comes in contact, of their character, of their appearance, their distinctive traits and their moral and physical temperaments: these notions, too, are real concepts. it is true that in general they are formed crudely enough; but even among scientific concepts, are there a great many that are perfectly adequate for their object? in this direction, there are only differences of degree between them. therefore the concept must be defined by other characteristics. it is opposed to sensual representations of every order--sensations, perceptions or images--by the following properties. sensual representations are in a perpetual flux; they come after each other like the waves of a river, and even during the time that they last, they do not remain the same thing. each of them is an integral part of the precise instant when it takes place. we are never sure of again finding a perception such as we experienced it the first time; for if the thing perceived has not changed, it is we who are no longer the same. on the contrary, the concept is, as it were, outside of time and change; it is in the depths below all this agitation; it might be said that it is in a different portion of the mind, which is serener and calmer. it does not move of itself, by an internal and spontaneous evolution, but, on the contrary, it resists change. it is a manner of thinking that, at every moment of time, is fixed and crystallized.[ ] in so far as it is what it ought to be, it is immutable. if it changes, it is not because it is its nature to do so, but because we have discovered some imperfection in it; it is because it had to be rectified. the system of concepts with which we think in everyday life is that expressed by the vocabulary of our mother tongue; for every word translates a concept. now language is something fixed; it changes but very slowly, and consequently it is the same with the conceptual system which it expresses. the scholar finds himself in the same situation in regard to the special terminology employed by the science to which he has consecrated himself, and hence in regard to the special scheme of concepts to which this terminology corresponds. it is true that he can make innovations, but these are always a sort of violence done to the established ways of thinking. and at the same time that it is relatively immutable, the concept is universal, or at least capable of becoming so. a concept is not my concept; i hold it in common with other men, or, in any case, can communicate it to them. it is impossible for me to make a sensation pass from my consciousness into that of another; it holds closely to my organism and personality and cannot be detached from them. all that i can do is to invite others to place themselves before the same object as myself and to leave themselves to its action. on the other hand, conversation and all intellectual communication between men is an exchange of concepts. the concept is an essentially impersonal representation; it is through it that human intelligences communicate.[ ] the nature of the concept, thus defined, bespeaks its origin. if it is common to all, it is the work of the community. since it bears the mark of no particular mind, it is clear that it was elaborated by a unique intelligence, where all others meet each other, and after a fashion, come to nourish themselves. if it has more stability than sensations or images, it is because the collective representations are more stable than the individual ones; for while an individual is conscious even of the slight changes which take place in his environment, only events of a greater gravity can succeed in affecting the mental status of a society. every time that we are in the presence of a _type_[ ] of thought or action which is imposed uniformly upon particular wills or intelligences, this pressure exercised over the individual betrays the intervention of the group. also, as we have already said, the concepts with which we ordinarily think are those of our vocabulary. now it is unquestionable that language, and consequently the system of concepts which it translates, is the product of a collective elaboration. what it expresses is the manner in which society as a whole represents the facts of experience. the ideas which correspond to the diverse elements of language are thus collective representations. even their contents bear witness to the same fact. in fact, there are scarcely any words among those which we usually employ whose meaning does not pass, to a greater or less extent, the limits of our personal experience. very frequently a term expresses things which we have never perceived or experiences which we have never had or of which we have never been the witnesses. even when we know some of the objects which it concerns, it is only as particular examples that they serve to illustrate the idea which they would never have been able to form by themselves. thus there is a great deal of knowledge condensed in the word which i never collected, and which is not individual; it even surpasses me to such an extent that i cannot even completely appropriate all its results. which of us knows all the words of the language he speaks and the entire signification of each? this remark enables us to determine the sense in which we mean to say that concepts are collective representations. if they belong to a whole social group, it is not because they represent the average of the corresponding individual representations; for in that case they would be poorer than the latter in intellectual content, while, as a matter of fact, they contain much that surpasses the knowledge of the average individual. they are not abstractions which have a reality only in particular consciousnesses, but they are as concrete representations as an individual could form of his own personal environment: they correspond to the way in which this very special being, society, considers the things of its own proper experience. if, as a matter of fact, the concepts are nearly always general ideas, and if they express categories and classes rather than particular objects, it is because the unique and variable characteristics of things interest society but rarely; because of its very extent, it can scarcely be affected by more than their general and permanent qualities. therefore it is to this aspect of affairs that it gives its attention: it is a part of its nature to see things in large and under the aspect which they ordinarily have. but this generality is not necessary for them, and, in any case, even when these representations have the generic character which they ordinarily have, they are the work of society and are enriched by its experience. that is what makes conceptual thought so valuable for us. if concepts were only general ideas, they would not enrich knowledge a great deal, for, as we have already pointed out, the general contains nothing more than the particular. but if before all else they are collective representations, they add to that which we can learn by our own personal experience all that wisdom and science which the group has accumulated in the course of centuries. thinking by concepts, is not merely seeing reality on its most general side, but it is projecting a light upon the sensation which illuminates it, penetrates it and transforms it. conceiving something is both learning its essential elements better and also locating it in its place; for each civilization has its organized system of concepts which characterizes it. before this scheme of ideas, the individual is in the same situation as the [greek: noûs] of plato before the world of ideas. he must assimilate them to himself, for he must have them to hold intercourse with others; but the assimilation is always imperfect. each of us sees them after his own fashion. there are some which escape us completely and remain outside of our circle of vision; there are others of which we perceive certain aspects only. there are even a great many which we pervert in holding, for as they are collective by nature, they cannot become individualized without being retouched, modified, and consequently falsified. hence comes the great trouble we have in understanding each other, and the fact that we even lie to each other without wishing to: it is because we all use the same words without giving them the same meaning. we are now able to see what the part of society in the genesis of logical thought is. this is possible only from the moment when, above the fugitive conceptions which they owe to sensuous experience, men have succeeded in conceiving a whole world of stable ideas, the common ground of all intelligences. in fact, logical thinking is always impersonal thinking, and is also thought _sub species ætrnitatis_--as though for all time. impersonality and stability are the two characteristics of truth. now logical life evidently presupposes that men know, at least confusedly, that there is such a thing as truth, distinct from sensuous appearances. but how have they been able to arrive at this conception? we generally talk as though it should have spontaneously presented itself to them from the moment they opened their eyes upon the world. however, there is nothing in immediate experience which could suggest it; everything even contradicts it. thus the child and the animal have no suspicion of it. history shows that it has taken centuries for it to disengage and establish itself. in our western world, it was with the great thinkers of greece that it first became clearly conscious of itself and of the consequences which it implies; when the discovery was made, it caused an amazement which plato has translated into magnificent language. but if it is only at this epoch that the idea is expressed in philosophic formulæ, it was necessarily pre-existent in the stage of an obscure sentiment. philosophers have sought to elucidate this sentiment, but they have not succeeded. in order that they might reflect upon it and analyse it, it was necessary that it be given them, and that they seek to know whence it came, that is to say, in what experience it was founded. this is in collective experience. it is under the form of collective thought that impersonal thought is for the first time revealed to humanity; we cannot see by what other way this revelation could have been made. from the mere fact that society exists, there is also, outside of the individual sensations and images, a whole system of representations which enjoy marvellous properties. by means of them, men understand each other and intelligences grasp each other. they have within them a sort of force or moral ascendancy, in virtue of which they impose themselves upon individual minds. hence the individual at least obscurely takes account of the fact that above his private ideas, there is a world of absolute ideas according to which he must shape his own; he catches a glimpse of a whole intellectual kingdom in which he participates, but which is greater than he. this is the first intuition of the realm of truth. from the moment when he first becomes conscious of these higher ideas, he sets himself to scrutinizing their nature; he asks whence these pre-eminent representations hold their prerogatives and, in so far as he believes that he has discovered their causes, he undertakes to put these causes into action for himself, in order that he may draw from them by his own force the effects which they produce; that is to say, he attributes to himself the right of making concepts. thus the faculty of conception has individualized itself. but to understand its origins and function, it must be attached to the social conditions upon which it depends. it may be objected that we show the concept in one of its aspects only, and that its unique rôle is not the assuring of a harmony among minds, but also, and to a greater extent, their harmony with the nature of things. it seems as though it had a reason for existence only on condition of being true, that is to say, objective, and as though its impersonality were only a consequence of its objectivity. it is in regard to things, thought of as adequately as possible, that minds ought to communicate. nor do we deny that the evolution of concepts has been partially in this direction. the concept which was first held as true because it was collective tends to be no longer collective except on condition of being held as true: we demand its credentials of it before according it our confidence. but we must not lose sight of the fact that even to-day the great majority of the concepts which we use are not methodically constituted; we get them from language, that is to say, from common experience, without submitting them to any criticism. the scientifically elaborated and criticized concepts are always in the very slight minority. also, between them and those which draw all their authority from the fact that they are collective, there are only differences of degree. a collective representation presents guarantees of objectivity by the fact that it is collective: for it is not without sufficient reason that it has been able to generalize and maintain itself with persistence. if it were out of accord with the nature of things, it would never have been able to acquire an extended and prolonged empire over intellects. at bottom, the confidence inspired by scientific concepts is due to the fact that they can be methodically controlled. but a collective representation is necessarily submitted to a control that is repeated indefinitely; the men who accept it verify it by their own experience. therefore, it could not be wholly inadequate for its subject. it is true that it may express this by means of imperfect symbols; but scientific symbols themselves are never more than approximative. it is precisely this principle which is at the basis of the method which we follow in the study of religious phenomena: we take it as an axiom that religious beliefs, howsoever strange their appearance may be at times, contain a truth which must be discovered.[ ] on the other hand, it is not at all true that concepts, even when constructed according to the rules of science, get their authority uniquely from their objective value. it is not enough that they be true to be believed. if they are not in harmony with the other beliefs and opinions, or, in a word, with the mass of the other collective representations, they will be denied; minds will be closed to them; consequently it will be as though they did not exist. to-day it is generally sufficient that they bear the stamp of science to receive a sort of privileged credit, because we have faith in science. but this faith does not differ essentially from religious faith. in the last resort, the value which we attribute to science depends upon the idea which we collectively form of its nature and rôle in life; that is as much as to say that it expresses a state of public opinion. in all social life, in fact, science rests upon opinion. it is undoubtedly true that this opinion can be taken as the object of a study and a science made of it; this is what sociology principally consists in. but the science of opinion does not make opinions; it can only observe them and make them more conscious of themselves. it is true that by this means it can lead them to change, but science continues to be dependent upon opinion at the very moment when it seems to be making its laws; for, as we have already shown, it is from opinion that it holds the force necessary to act upon opinion.[ ] saying that concepts express the manner in which society represents things is also saying that conceptual thought is coeval with humanity itself. we refuse to see in it the product of a more or less retarded culture. a man who did not think with concepts would not be a man, for he would not be a social being. if reduced to having only individual perceptions, he would be indistinguishable from the beasts. if it has been possible to sustain the contrary thesis, it is because concepts have been defined by characteristics which are not essential to them. they have been identified with general ideas[ ] and with clearly limited and circumscribed general ideas.[ ] in these conditions it has possibly seemed as though the inferior societies had no concepts properly so called; for they have only rudimentary processes of generalization and the ideas which they use are not generally very well defined. but the greater part of our concepts are equally indetermined; we force ourselves to define them only in discussions or when doing careful work. we have also seen that conceiving is not generalizing. thinking conceptually is not simply isolating and grouping together the common characteristics of a certain number of objects; it is relating the variable to the permanent, the individual to the social. and since logical thought commences with the concept, it follows that it has always existed; there is no period in history when men have lived in a chronic confusion and contradiction. to be sure, we cannot insist too much upon the different characteristics which logic presents at different periods in history; it develops like the societies themselves. but howsoever real these differences may be, they should not cause us to neglect the similarities, which are no less essential. iv we are now in a position to take up a final question which has already been raised in our introduction[ ] and which has been taken as understood in the remainder of this work. we have seen that at least some of the categories are social things. the question is where they got this character. undoubtedly it will be easily understood that since they are themselves concepts, they are the work of the group. it can even be said that there are no other concepts which present to an equal degree the signs by which a collective representation is recognized. in fact, their stability and impersonality are such that they have often passed as being absolutely universal and immutable. also, as they express the fundamental conditions for an agreement between minds, it seems evident that they have been elaborated by society. but the problem concerning them is more complex, for they are social in another sense and, as it were in the second degree. they not only come from society, but the things which they express are of a social nature. not only is it society which has founded them, but their contents are the different aspects of the social being: the category of class was at first indistinct from the concept of the human group; it is the rhythm of social life which is at the basis of the category of time; the territory occupied by the society furnished the material for the category of space; it is the collective force which was the prototype of the concept of efficient force, an essential element in the category of causality. however, the categories are not made to be applied only to the social realm; they reach out to all reality. then how is it that they have taken from society the models upon which they have been constructed? it is because they are the pre-eminent concepts, which have a preponderating part in our knowledge. in fact, the function of the categories is to dominate and envelop all the other concepts: they are permanent moulds for the mental life. now for them to embrace such an object, they must be founded upon a reality of equal amplitude. undoubtedly the relations which they express exist in an implicit way in individual consciousnesses. the individual lives in time, and, as we have said, he has a certain sense of temporal orientation. he is situated at a determined point in space, and it has even been held, and sustained with good reasons, that all sensations have something special about them.[ ] he has a feeling of resemblances; similar representations are brought together and the new representation formed by their union has a sort of generic character. we also have the sensation of a certain regularity in the order of the succession of phenomena; even an animal is not incapable of this. however, all these relations are strictly personal for the individual who recognizes them, and consequently the notion of them which he may have can in no case go beyond his own narrow horizon. the generic images which are formed in my consciousness by the fusion of similar images represent only the objects which i have perceived directly; there is nothing there which could give me the idea of a class, that is to say, of a mould including the _whole_ group of all possible objects which satisfy the same condition. also, it would be necessary to have the idea of group in the first place, and the mere observations of our interior life could never awaken that in us. but, above all, there is no individual experience, howsoever extended and prolonged it may be, which could give a suspicion of the existence of a whole class which would embrace every single being, and to which other classes are only co-ordinated or subordinated species. this idea of _all_, which is at the basis of the classifications which we have just cited, could not have come from the individual himself, who is only a part in relation to the whole and who never attains more than an infinitesimal fraction of reality. and yet there is perhaps no other category of greater importance; for as the rôle of the categories is to envelop all the other concepts, the category _par excellence_ would seem to be this very concept of _totality_. the theorists of knowledge ordinarily postulate it as if it came of itself, while it really surpasses the contents of each individual consciousness taken alone to an infinite degree. for the same reasons, the space which i know by my senses, of which i am the centre and where everything is disposed in relation to me, could not be space in general, which contains all extensions and where these are co-ordinated by personal guide-lines which are common to everybody. in the same way, the concrete duration which i feel passing within me and with me could not give me the idea of time in general: the first expresses only the rhythm of my individual life; the second should correspond to the rhythm of a life which is not that of any individual in particular, but in which all participate.[ ] in the same way, finally, the regularities which i am able to conceive in the manner in which my sensations succeed one another may well have a value for me; they explain how it comes about that when i am given the first of two phenomena whose concurrence i have observed, i tend to expect the other. but this personal state of expectation could not be confounded with the conception of a universal order of succession which imposes itself upon all minds and all events. since the world expressed by the entire system of concepts is the one that society regards, society alone can furnish the most general notions with which it should be represented. such an object can be embraced only by a subject which contains all the individual subjects within it. since the universe does not exist except in so far as it is thought of, and since it is not completely thought of except by society, it takes a place in this latter; it becomes a part of society's interior life, while this is the totality, outside of which nothing exists. the concept of totality is only the abstract form of the concept of society: it is the whole which includes all things, the supreme class which embraces all other classes. such is the final principle upon which repose all these primitive classifications where beings from every realm are placed and classified in social forms, exactly like men.[ ] but if the world is inside of society, the space which this latter occupies becomes confounded with space in general. in fact, we have seen how each thing has its assigned place in social space, and the degree to which this space in general differs from the concrete expanses which we perceive is well shown by the fact that this localization is wholly ideal and in no way resembles what it would have been if it had been dictated to us by sensuous experience alone.[ ] for the same reason, the rhythm of collective life dominates and embraces the varied rhythms of all the elementary lives from which it results; consequently the time which it expresses dominates and embraces all particular durations. it is time in general. for a long time the history of the world has been only another aspect of the history of society. the one commences with the other; the periods of the first are determined by the periods of the second. this impersonal and total duration is measured, and the guide-lines in relation to which it is divided and organized are fixed by the movements of concentration or dispersion of society; or, more generally, the periodical necessities for a collective renewal. if these critical instants are generally attached to some material phenomenon, such as the regular recurrence of such or such a star or the alternation of the seasons, it is because objective signs are necessary to make this essentially social organization intelligible to all. in the same way, finally, the causal relation, from the moment when it is collectively stated by the group, becomes independent of every individual consciousness; it rises above all particular minds and events. it is a law whose value depends upon no person. we have already shown how it is clearly thus that it seems to have originated. another reason explains why the constituent elements of the categories should have been taken from social life: it is because the relations which they express could not have been learned except in and through society. if they are in a sense immanent in the life of an individual, he has neither a reason nor the means for learning them, reflecting upon them and forming them into distinct ideas. in order to orient himself personally in space and to know at what moments he should satisfy his various organic needs, he has no need of making, once and for all, a conceptual representation of time and space. many animals are able to find the road which leads to places with which they are familiar; they come back at a proper moment without knowing any of the categories; sensations are enough to direct them automatically. they would also be enough for men, if their sensations had to satisfy only individual needs. to recognize the fact that one thing resembles another which we have already experienced, it is in no way necessary that we arrange them all in groups and species: the way in which similar images call up each other and unite is enough to give the feeling of resemblance. the impression that a certain thing has already been seen or experienced implies no classification. to recognize the things which we should seek or from which we should flee, it would not be necessary to attach the effects of the two to their causes by a logical bond, if individual conveniences were the only ones in question. purely empirical sequences and strong connections between the concrete representations would be as sure guides for the will. not only is it true that the animal has no others, but also our own personal conduct frequently supposes nothing more. the prudent man is the one who has a very clear sensation of what must be done, but which he would ordinarily be quite incapable of stating as a general law. it is a different matter with society. this is possible only when the individuals and things which compose it are divided into certain groups, that is to say, classified, and when these groups are classified in relation to each other. society supposes a self-conscious organization which is nothing other than a classification. this organization of society naturally extends itself to the place which this occupies. to avoid all collisions, it is necessary that each particular group have a determined portion of space assigned to it: in other terms, it is necessary that space in general be divided, differentiated, arranged, and that these divisions and arrangements be known to everybody. on the other hand, every summons to a celebration, a hunt or a military expedition implies fixed and established dates, and consequently that a common time is agreed upon, which everybody conceives in the same fashion. finally, the co-operation of many persons with the same end in view is possible only when they are in agreement as to the relation which exists between this end and the means of attaining it, that is to say, when the same causal relation is admitted by all the co-operators in the enterprise. it is not surprising, therefore, that social time, social space, social classes and causality should be the basis of the corresponding categories, since it is under their social forms that these different relations were first grasped with a certain clarity by the human intellect. in summing up, then, we must say that society is not at all the illogical or a-logical, incoherent and fantastic being which it has too often been considered. quite on the contrary, the collective consciousness is the highest form of the psychic life, since it is the consciousness of the consciousnesses. being placed outside of and above individual and local contingencies, it sees things only in their permanent and essential aspects, which it crystallizes into communicable ideas. at the same time that it sees from above, it sees farther; at every moment of time, it embraces all known reality; that is why it alone can furnish the mind with the moulds which are applicable to the totality of things and which make it possible to think of them. it does not create these moulds artificially; it finds them within itself; it does nothing but become conscious of them. they translate the ways of being which are found in all the stages of reality but which appear in their full clarity only at the summit, because the extreme complexity of the psychic life which passes there necessitates a greater development of consciousness. attributing social origins to logical thought is not debasing it or diminishing its value or reducing it to nothing more than a system of artificial combinations; on the contrary, it is relating it to a cause which implies it naturally. but this is not saying that the ideas elaborated in this way are at once adequate for their object. if society is something universal in relation to the individual, it is none the less an individuality itself, which has its own personal physiognomy and its idiosyncrasies; it is a particular subject and consequently particularizes whatever it thinks of. therefore collective representations also contain subjective elements, and these must be progressively rooted out, if we are to approach reality more closely. but howsoever crude these may have been at the beginning, the fact remains that with them the germ of a new mentality was given, to which the individual could never have raised himself by his own efforts: by them the way was opened to a stable, impersonal and organized thought which then had nothing to do except to develop its nature. also, the causes which have determined this development do not seem to be specifically different from those which gave it its initial impulse. if logical thought tends to rid itself more and more of the subjective and personal elements which it still retains from its origin, it is not because extra-social factors have intervened; it is much rather because a social life of a new sort is developing. it is this international life which has already resulted in universalizing religious beliefs. as it extends, the collective horizon enlarges; the society ceases to appear as the only whole, to become a part of a much vaster one, with indetermined frontiers, which is susceptible of advancing indefinitely. consequently things can no longer be contained in the social moulds according to which they were primitively classified; they must be organized according to principles which are their own, so logical organization differentiates itself from the social organization and becomes autonomous. really and truly human thought is not a primitive fact; it is the product of history; it is the ideal limit towards which we are constantly approaching, but which in all probability we shall never succeed in reaching. thus it is not at all true that between science on the one hand, and morals and religion on the other, there exists that sort of antinomy which has so frequently been admitted, for the two forms of human activity really come from one and the same source. kant understood this very well, and therefore he made the speculative reason and the practical reason two different aspects of the same faculty. according to him, what makes their unity is the fact that the two are directed towards the universal. rational thinking is thinking according to the laws which are imposed upon all reasonable beings; acting morally is conducting one's self according to those maxims which can be extended without contradiction to all wills. in other words, science and morals imply that the individual is capable of raising himself above his own peculiar point of view and of living an impersonal life. in fact, it cannot be doubted that this is a trait common to all the higher forms of thought and action. what kant's system does not explain, however, is the origin of this sort of contradiction which is realized in man. why is he forced to do violence to himself by leaving his individuality, and, inversely, why is the impersonal law obliged to be dissipated by incarnating itself in individuals? is it answered that there are two antagonistic worlds in which we participate equally, the world of matter and sense on the one hand, and the world of pure and impersonal reason on the other? that is merely repeating the question in slightly different terms, for what we are trying to find out is why we must lead these two existences at the same time. why do these two worlds, which seem to contradict each other, not remain outside of each other, and why must they mutually penetrate one another in spite of their antagonism? the only explanation which has ever been given of this singular necessity is the hypothesis of the fall, with all the difficulties which it implies, and which need not be repeated here. on the other hand, all mystery disappears the moment that it is recognized that impersonal reason is only another name given to collective thought. for this is possible only through a group of individuals; it supposes them, and in their turn, they suppose it, for they can continue to exist only by grouping themselves together. the kingdom of ends and impersonal truths can realize itself only by the co-operation of particular wills, and the reasons for which these participate in it are the same as those for which they co-operate. in a word, there is something impersonal in us because there is something social in all of us, and since social life embraces at once both representations and practices, this impersonality naturally extends to ideas as well as to acts. perhaps some will be surprised to see us connect the most elevated forms of thought with society: the cause appears quite humble, in consideration of the value which we attribute to the effect. between the world of the senses and appetites on the one hand, and that of reason and morals on the other, the distance is so considerable that the second would seem to have been able to add itself to the first only by a creative act. but attributing to society this preponderating rôle in the genesis of our nature is not denying this creation; for society has a creative power which no other observable being can equal. in fact, all creation, if not a mystical operation which escapes science and knowledge, is the product of a synthesis. now if the synthesis of particular conceptions which take place in each individual consciousness are already and of themselves productive of novelties, how much more efficacious these vast syntheses of complete consciousnesses which make society must be! a society is the most powerful combination of physical and moral forces of which nature offers us an example. nowhere else is an equal richness of different materials, carried to such a degree of concentration, to be found. then it is not surprising that a higher life disengages itself which, by reacting upon the elements of which it is the product, raises them to a higher plane of existence and transforms them. thus sociology appears destined to open a new way to the science of man. up to the present, thinkers were placed before this double alternative: either explain the superior and specific faculties of men by connecting them to the inferior forms of his being, the reason to the senses, or the mind to matter, which is equivalent to denying their uniqueness; or else attach them to some super-experimental reality which was postulated, but whose existence could be established by no observation. what put them in this difficulty was the fact that the individual passed as being the _finis naturæ_--the ultimate creation of nature; it seemed that there was nothing beyond him, or at least nothing that science could touch. but from the moment when it is recognized that above the individual there is society, and that this is not a nominal being created by reason, but a system of active forces, a new manner of explaining men becomes possible. to conserve his distinctive traits it is no longer necessary to put them outside experience. at least, before going to this last extremity, it would be well to see if that which surpasses the individual, though it is within him, does not come from this super-individual reality which we experience in society. to be sure, it cannot be said at present to what point these explanations may be able to reach, and whether or not they are of a nature to resolve all the problems. but it is equally impossible to mark in advance a limit beyond which they cannot go. what must be done is to try the hypothesis and submit it as methodically as possible to the control of facts. this is what we have tried to do. index _alatunja_, . _alcheringa_, or mythical period, . ambiguity of sacredness, ff.; explanation of, ff. animal-worship, totemism not, , , f. animism, as expounded by tylor and spencer, ff.; how it explains the origin of the idea of the soul, f.; of spirits, f.; their cult, ; and the nature-cult, f.; criticism of these theories, ff.; implies that religions are systems of hallucinations, ; which is its best refutation, . anthropomorphism, not found among primitives, f.; denied by spencer, ff., ; cannot explain totemic view of world, , or primitive rites, f. apriorism, philosophical, f., . art, why principal forms of, have been born in religion, ; dramatic, in totemic ceremonies, , ; totemic emblems first form of, and n. . _arungquiltha_, or magic force, in australia, f.; how it enables us to understand totemic principle, . asceticism, nature of, , ; based on negative rites, ; essential element of religious life, f.; religious function of, ff.; sociological import of, ; implied in the notion of sacredness, , its antagonism to the profane, f., , and its contagiousness, ; not dependent upon idea of divine personalities, ; positive effects of, ff., . atonement for faults by rites, , , . authority, moral, of society, f., n. ; based on social opinion, , . beliefs, how related to rites, , ; translate social facts, , what they seem destined to become, ff.; all contain an element of truth, . blood, human, sacredness of, , , f. body, essentially profane, ; explanation of this, . bull-roarers, definition of, . categories of the understanding, religious origin of, ff.; social origin of, ff., ; necessity of, explained, ff.; real function of, ; only social necessity for, ; modelled on social forms, ff., ff., . causality, law of, ff.; first stated in imitative rites, ; social origin, , f., ; imposed by society, ; sociological theory of, and classical theories, f., ; varying statements of, and n. . charms, magic, explanation of, . church, essential to religion, ff. _churinga_, definition of, ; eminently sacred character of, ; due to totemic mark, f.; as religious force, and n. . civilizing heroes, ff.; common to whole tribe, ; tribal rites personified, ; moral rôle of, ; connecting link between spirits and gods, f. clan, characteristics of, ; basis of simplest social system known, , ; how recruited, f.; totem as name of, f.; symbolized by totem, ; implied by totemism, ; basis for classification of natural things, ff. classes, logical, religious origin of, ff.; in higher religions, ; based on social classifications, ff.; collective life basis of, ff., . communion, alimentary, essential to sacrifice, ; found in australia, f., , ; positive effects of, f. concept, society's rôle in the genesis of, ff.; not equivalent to general idea, ; distinguished from sensations, ; immutability of, ; universality of, ; essentially social nature of, ; coeval with humanity, ; objective truth of, ff. contagiousness of sacredness, ; at basis of ascetic rites, ff.; not due to associations of ideas, , but to the externality of religious forces, f.; at basis of logical classifications, f. contradiction, idea of, religious nature of, f.; social nature of, f.; based on social life, ; origin of, ff. contraries, logical, nature of primitive, , f. _corrobbori_, n. , . cosmology of totemism, ff.; in all religions, , ff. cult, needed by gods, ff.; moral reasons for, , , f.; social interpretation of, ff.; real function of, ; periodical nature of, ; imitative rites first form of, ; æsthetic nature of, . death, insufficiency of, to make a soul into a spirit, f., , or give sacredness, . deity. see _gods_, _spiritual beings_. dreams, as origin of idea of double or soul, f., f., ; inadequacy of this theory, f.; as suggesting posthumous life, . ecstasy, in religion, explained, f. efficacy, idea of, social origin of, f. emblem, totem as, of clan, , ff.; psychological need for, , ; creates unity of group, ; and maintains it, ; incarnates collective sentiments, ; why primitives chose theirs in animal or vegetable worlds, f. empiricism, philosophical, f., . _ertnatulunga_, , . eschatology, australian, , . evil spirits, ff., . expiatory rites, ff. faith, religious, nature of, f., f. family group, based on totemism, n. . fear, religion not based on, ff., . fetishism, . folk-lore, how related to religion, , n. ; related to totemism, . force, religious, ambiguity of, ; why outside object in which it resides, ; as collective force, , ; takes form from society, ; represents how collective consciousness acts on individuals, ; idea of, precedes that of scientific force, f., ; collective force as prototype of physical force, . see _sacred_, _totemic principle_. formalism, religious, explanation of, ; first form of legal, f. free-will, doctrine of, how explained, f. games, born in religion, and n. . gods, religions without, ff.; in australia, ff.; immortal, ; creators, ; benefactors, ; connected with initiation rites, ; international character of, , f., ff.; of indigenous origin, f.; developed form of civilizing heroes, f., ; closely connected with totemic system, , f.; first conceived in tribal assemblies, ; expressions of tribal unity, , . hair, human, sacredness of, , f. hazing, sociological import of, n. . ideal, the, in religion, ff.; formation of, a natural and necessary product of collective life, . idealism, essential, of social and religious worlds, , , . imitative rites, ff.; in australia, ff.; based on so-called sympathetic magic, ff.; distinguished from charms, ; reasons for, ff.; material efficacy attributed to, ; explained by moral efficacy of, f.; first expression of law of causality, ; original form of cult, . immortality of soul, idea of, not established for moral purposes, ; nor to escape annihilation, ; influence of dreams, ; but this not enough to account for doctrine, ; doctrine of, invented to explain origin of souls, f., and expresses the immortality of society, f.; moral value of, an after-thought, ; doctrine of future judgment in australia, , ; influence of mourning upon, f. individual totem, ff.; relations of, to individual, f.; his _alter ego_, ; individual, not a species, ; how related to collective totem, ; how acquired, ff.; how related to _genius_, ; origin of, f., n. . see _totemism, individual_. individualism, religious, ff., ff., f.; importance attributed to, by some, ff., ; how explained, f. infinite, conception of, in religion, ; not equivalent to sacred, ; the, not characteristic of religion, . initiation into tribe by religious ceremonies, , ; no special rites for, n. . interdictions, or taboos, various sorts of, ff.; forms of, in australia, ff.; of touch, ; of eating, ; of seeing, ; of speech, ; sexual, and n. ; of all temporal activity on certain days, f., ; ideas at the basis of, ; positive effects of, ff.; implied in notion of sacredness, . _intichiuma_, ff.; description of among the australians, - ; as elementary form of sacrifice, ; material efficacy expected of, , ; alimentary communion in, f., ; imitative elements in, ; commemorative nature of, f.; used for initiating young men into tribe, and n. . knowledge, theory of. see _apriorism_, _empiricism_, _sociological_. language, importance of, for logical thought, ff., ; social character of, . logic, related to religion and society, , ff.; basis for, furnished by society, ff., , ff. magic, based on religious ideas, ff., f., n. ; distinguished from religion, ff.; hostility of, towards religion, ; sympathetic, ff. majesty, essentially religious nature of idea of, , cf. . man, sacred character of, , explained, f.; partakes of nature of totemic animal, ff.; sacred to varying degrees, ff.; double nature of, f., ff. mana, of the melanesians, f. see _totemic principle_. matrimonial classes, definition of, . metempsychosis, not found in australia, , cf. f. mourning, ff.; nature of, determined by etiquette, ; especially severe for women, ff., ff.; anger as well as sorrow expressed in, ; how related to vendetta, ; not the expression of individual emotions, , but a duty imposed by group, ; classic interpretation of, unsustainable, f.; not connected with ideas of souls or spirits, , ; social interpretation of, ff. mystery in religion, ; idea of, not primitive, ; absent from many religions, . myths, essential element of religious life, ; distinguished from fables, n. ; as work of art, , ; interpret rites, , ; as a society's representation of man and the world, . _nanji_, rock or tree, f. naturism, as expounded by max müller, ff.; seeks to establish religion in reality, ; teaches that gods are personifications of natural phenomena, ; distinguishes between religion and mythology, ; but makes religion a fabric of errors, ff.; cannot account for origin of sacredness, ff. negative rites, nature of, in australia, ff.; see also _interdictions_; positive effects of, ff.; as preparation for positive rites, f.; basis of asceticism, ; in mourning, . _nurtunja_, ; as rallying-centre for group, . oblations, essential to sacrifice, ; this denied by smith, f.; found in australia, f.; vicious circle implied in, f., explained, ff.; profound reasons for, f. _orenda_, of the iroquois, f., . see _totemic principle_. origins, definition of, n. . pantheism, totemic, f. part equal to whole, religious principle that, explained, ; in magic, n. ; in sacrificial communions, . personality, idea of, double origin of, ; impersonal elements in, ; its alleged autonomy explained, ; importance of social elements in, ; represented by individual totem, . phratry, definition of, ff.; predecessor of clan, and n. , , ; as basis for classifications of natural things, ff., . piacular rites, definition of, ; distinguished from ascetic rites, ; based on same needs as positive rites, - ; material benefits expected of, f.; as expiation for ritual faults, f.; social function of, f. _pitchi_, . primitives, definition of, n. ; best studied in australia, ; why especially important for us, ff. profane, absolute distinction of, from sacred, f. ratapa, or soul-germs, , . recreative elements of religion, ff., f. reincarnation of souls, doctrine of, in australia, , , f., , . religion, must have a foundation in reality, , , ; none are false, , , ; real purpose of, ; eternal elements of, ff.; as source of all civilization, , , , f., n. ; source of science and philosophy, , , , , ff.; so-called conflict of, with science, ff.; speculative functions of, ; recreative and æsthetic elements of, ff.; as pre-eminent expression of social life, ff.; said to be characterized by supernatural, ff., or by idea of spiritual beings, ff.; not based on fear, ff., but happy confidence, ; characterized by that which is sacred, ; distinguished from magic, ff.; none proceeds on any unique principle, ; importance of primitive, ff.; totemism most elementary form of, f.; definition of, . representative rites, ff.; value of, for showing real reasons for cult, , f.; as dramatic representations, , ff., ; moral purpose of, evident, ; expect no material benefits, ff. respect, inspired by society, f. rites, how related to beliefs, ; totemic principle attached to, ; social function of, ; material efficacy attributed to, due to moral efficacy of, , f.; moral and social significance of, ff.; reasons for, as given by australians, ; as form of dramatic art, , ; æsthetic nature of, ; interchangeability of, ff. sacred, the, characteristic of all that is religious, ; not characterized by its exalted position, , but by its distinction from the profane, ; superimposed upon its basis, ; created by society, ff. see _totemic principle_; double nature of, , , ff. sacrifice, forms of, in australia, ff., ; see _intichiuma_; theory of robertson smith of, ff., ; alimentary communion essential part of, ; how this strengthens one's religious nature, f.; sacrilege inherent in, explained, f.; oblations essential to, ; why gods have need of, , ; social function of, ff. science, so-called conflict of, with religion, ff., , ; religious origin of, , , , , ff.; supplants religious speculation, ff.; but cannot do so completely, ; authority of, , . sexual totems, f. social life, basis for religious representations, , , ; rhythm of, and religion, , ; model for philosophical representations, , n. , ff. society, how forms of, determine character of religion, , f., ; characterized by institutions, n. ; ideal nature of, , , ff., f.; not an illogical or a-logical being, ; how it recasts animal nature into human nature, ; how it arouses sensations of divine, ff., of dependence, f., of respect, , of moral authority, f., of an external moral force, , of kindly external forces, , of the sacred, ff., ; stimulating and sustaining action of, ff.; how it gives men their most characteristic attributes, ; how it exists only through its individual members, , ; how this gives men their sacred character, f.; foundation of religious experience, . sociological theory of knowledge, , ff., ff., ff., f., ff., ff., ff., ff., ff., ff. soul, idea of, found in all religions, ; various representations of, ff.; relation of, to body, ff.; after death, ff.; origin of, according to the arunta, ff.; reincarnation of, , ff., ; as totemic principle incarnate in the individual, ff., ff., ff.; or parts of totemic divinity, , ; close relations of, with totemic animal, f; sacred character of, ; notion of, founded in reality, f.; represents the social part of our nature, f.; reality of our double nature, f., ff.; coeval with notion of mana, f.; how a secondary formation, ; idea of immortality of, explained, ff., see _immortality_; how related to idea of personality, ff., see _personality_; distinguished from spirit, ; form in which human force is represented, ; social elements of, ; how employed to explain mourning, ; origin of idea of, according to animism, f. space, category of, religious and social origin of, f., and n. . spirits, distinguished from souls, ; from ghosts, ; related to roman _genius_, ; relations of, to things, f.; how derived from idea of soul, f.; objective basis of idea of, f.; spirits of evil, f., ; animistic theory of origin of, f. spiritual beings, as characteristic of religion, ; absent from many religions, , , or strictly religious rites, ; not sufficient to explain religion, . see _soul_, _spirits_. spiritualism, lang's theory of, as origin of idea of soul, n. . suffering, religious rôle of, in inferior societies, ff.; believed to give extra strength, ; how this idea is well founded, . supernatural, the, as characteristic of religion, ff.; conception of, quite modern, ; not the essential element of religion, . sympathetic magic, so-called, at basis of imitative rites, ff.; fundamental principles of, ; why this term is inexact, f. taboo, derivation of word, . see _interdictions_. tattooings, totemic, , . time, category of, religious and social origin of, f., f., n. . totality, concept of, could never be suggested by individual experience, ; related to concepts of society and divinity, n. . totem, derivation of word, ; as name of clan, f.; nature of things serving as, ff.; species, not individuals, f.; how inherited, ff.; of phratries, ff., ; of matrimonial classes, ff.; as emblem or coat-of-arms of group, ; religious nature of, ; relations of, with men and things, ; sub-totems, ; individual totems, ff.; symbol of totemic principle of clan, ; clan inseparable from, . totemic animals, interdiction against eating by men of that clan, ff.; or by those of other clans of the same phratry, and n. ; and against killing, ; less sacred and powerful than totemic emblems, ; related to men, , , ff.; sacredness of, due to resemblance to emblem, . totemic emblem, as collective emblem, ; sacred character of, , ; conventional nature of, f.; more sacred and powerful than totemic animal, ; as first form of art, n. . totemic principle, or mana, cause of the sacredness of things, ff., , f.; totem material representation of, , ; as a force, ; as source of moral life of clan, ; compared to totemic god, ; personified in gods of higher religions, , , f.; as wakan, f.; as orenda, f.; as mana, f.; ubiquity of, , , ; multiformity of, ; used in magic, , f.; attached to rites, words, etc., ; as representation of clan, , ff.; first conceived in the midst of great social effervescence, f.; how it comes to be symbolized by totem, ff. totemic system, unity of, f.; work of whole tribe, f., , . totemism, early theoricians of, ff.; australia as classic land of, f.; importance of american, f.; as most elementary religion, , ; former universality of, unimportant, ; religious nature of, unquestionable, ; not animal-worship, , f., nor nature-cult, f.; contains all the elements of the religious life, ; conceptional totemism, inadequacies of, ff. tribe, totemic system work of whole, f., , ; unity of, expressed by great gods, f. universalism, religious, f.; how explained, ff. vendetta, how related to rites of mourning, . _wakan_, or "great spirit" of sioux, f., f., . see _totemic principle_. _waninga_, . footnotes: [ ] in the same way, we shall say of these societies that they are primitive, and we shall call the men of these societies primitives. undoubtedly the expression lacks precision, but that is hardly evitable, and besides, when we have taken pains to fix the meaning, it is not inconvenient. [ ] but that is not equivalent to saying that all luxury is lacking to the primitive cults. on the contrary, we shall see that in every religion there are beliefs and practices which do not aim at strictly utilitarian ends (bk. iii, ch. iv, § ). this luxury is indispensable to the religious life; it is at its very heart. but it is much more rudimentary in the inferior religions than in the others, so we are better able to determine its reason for existence here. [ ] it is seen that we give a wholly relative sense to this word "origins," just as to the word "primitive." by it we do not mean an absolute beginning, but the most simple social condition that is actually known or that beyond which we cannot go at present. when we speak of the origins or of the commencement of religious history or thought, it is in this sense that our statements should be understood. [ ] we say that time and space are categories because there is no difference between the rôle played by these ideas in the intellectual life and that which falls to the ideas of class or cause (on this point see, hamelin, _essai sur les éléments principaux de la représentation_, pp. , ). [ ] see the support given this assertion in hubert and mauss, _mélanges d'histoire des religions_ (_travaux de l'année sociologique_), chapter on _la représentation du temps dans la religion_. [ ] thus we see all the difference which exists between the group of sensations and images which serve to locate us in time, and the category of time. the first are the summary of individual experiences, which are of value only for the person who experienced them. but what the category of time expresses is a time common to the group, a social time, so to speak. in itself it is a veritable social institution. also, it is peculiar to man; animals have no representations of this sort. this distinction between the category of time and the corresponding sensations could be made equally well in regard to space or cause. perhaps this would aid in clearing up certain confusions which are maintained by the controversies of which these questions are the subject. we shall return to this point in the conclusion of the present work (§ ). [ ] _op. cit._, pp. ff. [ ] or else it would be necessary to admit that all individuals, in virtue of their organo-physical constitution, are spontaneously affected in the same manner by the different parts of space: which is more improbable, especially as in themselves the different regions are sympathetically indifferent. also, the divisions of space vary with different societies, which is a proof that they are not founded exclusively upon the congenital nature of man. [ ] see durkheim and mauss, _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, in _année sociologique_, vi, pp. ff. [ ] see durkheim and mauss, _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, in _année sociologique_, vi, p. . [ ] _zuñi creation myths_, in _ th rep. of the bureau of amer. ethnol._, pp. ff. [ ] see hertz, _la prééminence de la main droite_. _etude de polarité religieuse_, in the _revue philosophique_, dec., . on this same question of the relations between the representation of space and the form of the group, see the chapter in ratzel, _politische geographie_, entitled _der raum in geist der völker_. [ ] we do not mean to say that mythological thought ignores it, but that it contradicts it more frequently and openly than scientific thought does. inversely, we shall show that science cannot escape violating it, though it holds to it far more scrupulously than religion does. on this subject, as on many others, there are only differences of degree between science and religion; but if these differences should not be exaggerated, they must be noted, for they are significant. [ ] this hypothesis has already been set forth by the founders of the _völkerpsychologie_. it is especially remarked in a short article by windelbrand entitled _die erkenntnisslehre unter dem völkerpsychologischen gesichtspunke_, in the _zeitsch. f. völkerpsychologie_, viii, pp. ff. cf. a note of steinthal on the same subject, _ibid._, pp. ff. [ ] even in the theory of spencer, it is by individual experience that the categories are made. the only difference which there is in this regard between ordinary empiricism and evolutionary empiricism is that according to this latter, the results of individual experience are accumulated by heredity. but this accumulation adds nothing essential to them; no element enters into their composition which does not have its origin in the experience of the individual. according to this theory, also, the necessity with which the categories actually impose themselves upon us is the product of an illusion and a superstitious prejudice, strongly rooted in the organism, to be sure, but without foundation in the nature of things. [ ] perhaps some will be surprised that we do not define the apriorist theory by the hypothesis of innateness. but this conception really plays a secondary part in the doctrine. it is a simple way of stating the impossibility of reducing rational knowledge to empirical data. saying that the former is innate is only a positive way of saying that it is not the product of experience, such as it is ordinarily conceived. [ ] at least, in so far as there are any representations which are individual and hence wholly empirical. but there are in fact probably none where the two elements are not found closely united. [ ] this irreducibility must not be taken in any absolute sense. we do not wish to say that there is nothing in the empirical representations which shows rational ones, nor that there is nothing in the individual which could be taken as a sign of social life. if experience were completely separated from all that is rational, reason could not operate upon it; in the same way, if the psychic nature of the individual were absolutely opposed to the social life, society would be impossible. a complete analysis of the categories should seek these germs of rationality even in the individual consciousness. we shall have occasion to come back to this point in our conclusion. all that we wish to establish here is that between these indistinct germs of reason and the reason properly so called, there is a difference comparable to that which separates the properties of the mineral elements out of which a living being is composed from the characteristic attributes of life after this has once been constituted. [ ] it has frequently been remarked that social disturbances result in multiplying mental disturbances. this is one more proof that logical discipline is a special aspect of social discipline. the first gives way as the second is weakened. [ ] there is an analogy between this logical necessity and moral obligation but there is not an actual identity. to-day society treats criminals in a different fashion than subjects whose intelligence only is abnormal; that is a proof that the authority attached to logical rules and that inherent in moral rules are not of the same nature, in spite of certain similarities. they are two species of the same class. it would be interesting to make a study on the nature and origin of this difference, which is probably not primitive, for during a long time, the public conscience has poorly distinguished between the deranged and the delinquent. we confine ourselves to signalizing this question. by this example, one may see the number of problems which are raised by the analysis of these notions which generally pass as being elementary and simple, but which are really of an extreme complexity. [ ] this question will be treated again in the conclusion of this work. [ ] the rationalism which is imminent in the sociological theory of knowledge is thus midway between the classical empiricism and apriorism. for the first, the categories are purely artificial constructions; for the second, on the contrary, they are given by nature; for us, they are in a sense a work of art, but of an art which imitates nature with a perfection capable of increasing unlimitedly. [ ] for example, that which is at the foundation of the category of time is the rhythm of social life; but if there is a rhythm in collective life, one may rest assured that there is another in the life of the individual, and more generally, in that of the universe. the first is merely more marked and apparent than the others. in the same way, we shall see that the notion of class is founded on that of the human group. but if men form natural groups, it can be assumed that among things there exists groups which are at once analogous and different. classes and species are natural groups of things. if it seems to many minds that a social origin cannot be attributed to the categories without depriving them of all speculative value, it is because society is still too frequently regarded as something that is not natural; hence it is concluded that the representations which express it express nothing in nature. but the conclusion is not worth more than the premise. [ ] this is how it is legitimate to compare the categories to tools; for on its side, a tool is material accumulated capital. there is a close relationship between the three ideas of tool, category and institution. [ ] we have already attempted to define religious phenomena in a paper which was published in the _année sociologique_ (vol. ii, pp. ff.). the definition then given differs, as will be seen, from the one we give to-day. at the end of this chapter (p. , n. ), we shall explain the reasons which have led us to these modifications, but which imply no essential change in the conception of the facts. [ ] see above, p. . we shall say nothing more upon the necessity of these preliminary definitions nor upon the method to be followed to attain them. that is exposed in our _règles de la méthode sociologique_, pp. ff. cf. _le suicide_, pp. ff. (paris, f. alcan). [ ] _first principles_, p. . [ ] _introduction to the science of religions_, p. . cf. _origin and development of religion_, p. . [ ] this same frame of mind is also found in the scholastic period, as is witnessed by the formula with which philosophy was defined at this time: _fides quærens intellectum_. [ ] _introduction to the history of religions_, pp. ff. [ ] _introduction to the history of religions_, p. . [ ] see below, bk. iii, ch. ii. [ ] _prolegomena to the history of religions_, p. (tr. by squire). [ ] _primitive culture_, i, p. . (fourth edition, .) [ ] beginning with the first edition of the _golden bough_, i, pp. - . [ ] notably spencer and gillen and even preuss, who gives the name magic to all non-individualized religious forces. [ ] burnouf, _introduction à l'histoire du bouddhisme indien_, sec. edit., p. . the last word of the text shows that buddhism does not even admit the existence of an eternal nature. [ ] barth, _the religions of india_, p. (tr. by wood). [ ] oldenberg, _buddha_, p. (tr. by hoey). [ ] oldenberg, _ibid._, pp. ff. cf. kern, _histoire du bouddhisme dans l'inde_, i, pp. ff. [ ] oldenberg, p. ; barth, p. . [ ] oldenberg, p. . [ ] barth, p. . in the same way, burnouf says, "i have the profound conviction that if Çâkya had not found about him a pantheon already peopled with the gods just named, he would have felt no need of inventing them" (_introd. à l'hist. du bouddhisme indien_, p. ). [ ] burnouf, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] kern, _op. cit._, i, p. . [ ] "the belief, universally admitted in india, that great holiness is necessarily accompanied by supernatural faculties, is the only support which he (Çâkya) should find in spirits" (burnouf, p. ). [ ] burnouf, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] this is what kern expresses in the following terms: "in certain regards, he is a man; in certain others, he is not a man; in others, he is neither the one nor the other" (_op. cit._, i, p. ). [ ] "the conception" "was foreign to buddhism" "that the divine head of the community is not absent from his people, but that he dwells powerfully in their midst as their lord and king, so that all cultus is nothing else but the expression of this continuing living fellowship. buddha has entered into nirvâna; if his believers desired to invoke him, he could not hear them" (oldenberg, p. ). [ ] "buddhist doctrine might be in all its essentials what it actually is, even if the idea of buddha remained completely foreign to it" (oldenberg, p. ).--and whatever is said of the historic buddha can be applied equally well to the mythological buddhas. [ ] for the same idea, see max müller, _natural religion_, pp. ff. and . [ ] _op. cit._, p. . [ ] barth, in _encyclopédie des sciences religieuses_, vi, p. . [ ] oldenberg, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] sam. xxi., . [ ] levit. xii. [ ] deut. xxii., and . [ ] _la religion védique_, i, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] "no text," says bergaigne, "bears better witness to the consciousness of a magic action by man upon the waters of heaven than verse x, , , where this belief is expressed in general terms, applicable to an actual man, as well as to his real or mythological ancestors: 'the ignorant man has questioned the wise; instructed by the wise, he acts, and here is the profit of his instruction: he obtains the flowing of streams'" (p. ). [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] examples will also be found in hubert, art. _magia_ in the _dictionnaire des antiquités_, vi, p. . [ ] not to mention the sage and the saint who practise these truths and who for that reason are sacred. [ ] this is not saying that these relations cannot take a religious character. but they do not do so necessarily. [ ] schultze, _fetichismus_, p. . [ ] examples of these usages will be found in frazer, _golden bough_, edit., i, pp. ff. [ ] the conception according to which the profane is opposed to the sacred, just as the irrational is to the rational, or the intelligible is to the mysterious, is only one of the forms under which this opposition is expressed. science being once constituted, it has taken a profane character, especially in the eyes of the christian religions; from that it appears as though it could not be applied to sacred things. [ ] see frazer, _on some ceremonies of the central australian tribes in australian association for the advancement of science_, , pp. ff. this conception is also of an extreme generality. in india, the simple participation in the sacrificial act has the same effects; the sacrificer, by the mere act of entering within the circle of sacred things, changes his personality. (see, hubert and mauss, _essai sur le sacrifice in the année sociologique_, ii, p. .) [ ] see what was said of the initiation above, p. . [ ] we shall point out below how, for example, certain species of sacred things exist, between which there is an incompatibility as all-exclusive as that between the sacred and the profane (bk. iii, ch. v, § ). [ ] this is the case with certain marriage and funeral rites, for example. [ ] see spencer and gillen, _native tribes of central australia_, pp. ff.; _northern tribes of central australia_, p. ; howitt, _native tribes of s.e. australia_, pp. - . [ ] see codrington, _the melanesians_, ch. xii. [ ] see hubert, art. _magia_ in _dictionnaire des antiquités_. [ ] for example, in melanesia, the _tindalo_ is a spirit, now religious, now magic (codrington, pp. ff., ff.). [ ] see hubert and mauss, _théorie générale de la magie_, in _année sociologique_, vol. vii, pp. - . [ ] for example, the host is profaned in the black mass. [ ] one turns his back to the altar, or goes around the altar commencing by the left instead of by the right. [ ] _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] undoubtedly it is rare that a ceremony does not have some director at the moment when it is celebrated; even in the most crudely organized societies, there are generally certain men whom the importance of their social position points out to exercise a directing influence over the religious life (for example, the chiefs of the local groups of certain australian societies). but this attribution of functions is still very uncertain. [ ] at athens, the gods to whom the domestic cult was addressed were only specialized forms of the gods of the city ([greek: zeus ktêsios, zeus herkeios]). in the same way, in the middle ages, the patrons of the guilds were saints of the calendar. [ ] for the name church is ordinarily applied only to a group whose common beliefs refer to a circle of more special affairs. [ ] hubert and mauss, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] robertson smith has already pointed out that magic is opposed to religion, as the individual to the social (_the religion of the semites_, edit., pp. - ). also, in thus distinguishing magic from religion, we do not mean to establish a break of continuity between them. the frontiers between the two domains are frequently uncertain. [ ] codrington, _trans. and proc. roy. soc. of victoria_, xvi, p. . [ ] negrioli, _dei genii presso i romani_. [ ] this is the conclusion reached by spencer in his _ecclesiastical institutions_ (ch. xvi), and by sabatier in his _outlines of a philosophy of religion, based on psychology and history_ (tr. by seed), and by all the school to which he belongs. [ ] notably among numerous indian tribes of north america. [ ] this statement of fact does not touch the question whether exterior and public religion is not merely the development of an interior and personal religion which was the primitive fact, or whether, on the contrary, the second is not the projection of the first into individual consciences. the problem will be directly attacked below (bk. ii, ch. v, § , cf. the same book, ch. vi and vii, § ). for the moment, we confine ourselves to remarking that the individual cult is presented to the observer as an element of, and something dependent upon, the collective cult. [ ] it is by this that our present definition is connected to the one we have already proposed in the _année sociologique_. in this other work, we defined religious beliefs exclusively by their obligatory character; but, as we shall show, this obligation evidently comes from the fact that these beliefs are the possession of a group which imposes them upon its members. the two definitions are thus in a large part the same. if we have thought it best to propose a new one, it is because the first was too formal, and neglected the contents of the religious representations too much. it will be seen, in the discussions which follow, how important it is to put this characteristic into evidence at once. moreover, if their imperative character is really a distinctive trait of religious beliefs, it allows of an infinite number of degrees; consequently there are even cases where it is not easily perceptible. hence come difficulties and embarrassments which are avoided by substituting for this criterium the one we now employ. [ ] we thus leave aside here those theories which, in whole or in part, make use of super-experimental data. this is the case with the theory which andrew lang exposed in his book, _the making of religion_, and which father schmidt has taken up again, with variations of detail, in a series of articles on _the origin of the idea of god_ (_anthropos_, , ). lang does not set animism definitely aside, but in the last analysis, he admits a sense or intuition of the divine directly. also, if we do not consider it necessary to expose and discuss this conception in the present chapter, we do not intend to pass it over in silence; we shall come to it again below, when we shall ourselves explain the facts upon which it is founded (bk. ii, ch. ix, § ). [ ] this is the case, for example, of fustel de coulanges who accepts the two conceptions together (_the ancient city_, bk. i and bk. iii, ch. ii). [ ] this is the case with jevons, who criticizes the animism taught by tylor, but accepts his theories on the origin of the idea of the soul and the anthropomorphic instinct of man. inversely, usener, in his _götternamen_, rejects certain hypotheses of max müller which will be described below, but admits the principal postulates of naturism. [ ] _primitive culture_, chs. xi-xviii. [ ] _principles of sociology_, parts i and vi. [ ] this is the word used by tylor. it has the inconvenience of seeming to imply that men, in the proper sense of the term, existed before there was a civilization. however, there is no proper term for expressing the idea; that of primitive, which we prefer to use, lacking a better, is, as we have said, far from satisfactory. [ ] tylor, _op. cit._, i, pp. f. [ ] see spencer, _principles of sociology_, i, pp. ff., and tylor, _op. cit._, i, pp. ff., ff. [ ] tylor, ii, pp. ff. [ ] tylor, i, pp. ff. [ ] _principles of sociology_, i, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. ff. [ ] _ibid._, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. . cf. p. . [ ] see below, bk. ii, ch. viii. [ ] see spencer and gillen, _the native tribes of central australia_, pp. - ; strehlow, _die aranda- und loritja-stämme in zentral australien_, ii, pp. ff. [ ] _the melanesians_, pp. - . [ ] howitt, _the native tribes of south-eastern australia_, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. - . [ ] of the negroes of southern guinea, tylor says that "their sleeping hours are characterized by almost as much intercourse with the dead as their waking are with the living" (_primitive culture_, i, p. ). in regard to these peoples, the same author cites this remark of an observer: "_all their dreams_ are construed into visits from the spirits of their deceased friends" (_ibid._, p. ). this statement is certainly exaggerated; but it is one more proof of the frequency of mystic dreams among the primitives. the etymology which strehlow proposes for the arunta word _altjirerama_, which means "to dream," also tends to confirm this theory. this word is composed of _altjira_, which strehlow translates by "god" and _rama_, which means "see." thus a dream would be the moment when a man is in relations with sacred beings (_die aranda- und loritja-stämme_, i, p. ). [ ] andrew lang, who also refuses to admit that the idea of the soul was suggested to men by their dream experiences, believes that he can derive it from other empirical data: these are the data of spiritualism (telepathy, distance-seeing, etc.). we do not consider it necessary to discuss the theory such as it has been exposed in his book _the making of religion_. it reposes upon the hypothesis that spiritualism is a fact of constant observation, and that distance-seeing is a real faculty of men, or at least of certain men, but it is well known how much this theory is scientifically contested. what is still more contestable is that the facts of spiritualism are apparent enough and of a sufficient frequency to have been able to serve as the basis for all the religious beliefs and practices which are connected with souls and spirits. the examination of these questions would carry us too far from what is the object of our study. it is still less necessary to engage ourselves in this examination, since the theory of lang remains open to many of the objections which we shall address to that of tylor in the paragraphs which follow. [ ] jevons has made a similar remark. with tylor, he admits that the idea of the soul comes from dreams, and that after it was created, men projected it into things. but, he adds, the fact that nature has been conceived as animated like men does not explain how it became the object of a cult. "the man who believes the bowing tree or the leaping flame to be a living thing like himself, does not therefore believe it to be a supernatural being--rather, so far as it is like himself, it, like himself, is not supernatural" (_introduction to the history of religions_, p. ). [ ] see spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. , and _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] this is the ritual and mythical theme which frazer studies in his _golden bough_. [ ] _the melanesians_, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] there are sometimes, as it seems, even funeral offerings. (see roth, _superstition, magic and medicine_, in _north queensland ethnog._, bulletin no. , § c., and _burial customs_, in _ibid._, no. , in _records of the australian museum_, vol. vi, no. , p. ). but these offerings are not periodical. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , , and _nor. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] see especially, spencer and gillen, _northern tribes_, ch. vi, vii, ix. [ ] _the religions of primitive peoples_, pp. ff. [ ] _myth, ritual and religions_, p. . [ ] _les religions des peuples non civilisés_, ii, _conclusion_. [ ] _the religion of the semites_, ed., pp. , . [ ] this is the reasoning of westermarck (_origins of human marriage_, p. ). [ ] by sexual communism we do not mean a state of promiscuity where man knows no matrimonial rules: we believe that such a state has never existed. but it has frequently happened that groups of men have been regularly united to one or several women. [ ] see our _suicide_, pp. ff. [ ] spencer, _principles of sociology_, i, pp. f. [ ] _the melanesians_, p. . [ ] dorsey, _a study of siouan cults_, in _xith annual report of the bureau of amer. ethnology_, pp. ff., and _passim_. [ ] _la religion des peuples non civilisés_, i, p. . [ ] v. w. de visser, _de graecorum diis non referentibus speciem humanam_. cf. p. perdrizet, _bulletin de correspondance hellénique_, , p. . [ ] however, according to spencer, there is a germ of truth in the belief in spirits: this is the idea that "the power which manifests itself inside the consciousness is a different form of power from that manifested outside the consciousness" (_ecclesiastical institutions_, § ). spencer understands by this that the notion of force in general is the sentiment of the force which we have extended to the entire universe; this is what animism admits implicitly when it peoples nature with spirits analogous to our own. but even if this hypothesis in regard to the way in which the idea of force is formed were true--and it requires important reservations which we shall make (bk. iii, ch. iii, § )--it has nothing religious about it; it belongs to no cult. it thus remains that the system of religious symbols and rites, the classification of things into sacred and profane, all that which is really religious in religion, corresponds to nothing in reality. also, this germ of truth, of which he speaks, is still more a germ of error, for if it be true that the forces of nature and those of the mind are related, they are profoundly distinct, and one exposes himself to grave misconceptions in identifying them. [ ] this is undoubtedly what explains the sympathy which folk-lorists like mannhardt have felt for animistic ideas. in popular religions as in inferior religions, these spiritual beings of a second order hold the first place. [ ] in the essay entitled _comparative mythology_ (pp. ff). [ ] _herabkunft des feuers und g[=o]ttertranks_, berlin, (a new edition was given by ernst kuhn in ). cf. _der schuss des wilden jägers auf den sonnen-hirsch_, zeitschrift f. d. phil., i, , pp. - . _entwickelungsstufen des mythus_, abhandl. d. berl. akad., . [ ] _der ursprung der mythologie_, berlin, . [ ] in his book _hercule et cacus_. _Étude de mythologie comparée._ max müller's _comparative mythology_ is there signalized as a work "which marks a new epoch in the history of mythology" (p. ). [ ] _die griechischen kulte und mythen_, i, p. . [ ] among others who have adopted this conception may be cited renan. see his _nouvelles études d'histoire religieuse_, , p. . [ ] aside from the _comparative mythology_, the works where max müller has exposed his general theories on religion are: _hibbert lectures_ ( ) under the title _the origin and development of religion; natural religion_ ( ); _physical religion_ ( ); _anthropological religion_ ( ); _theosophy, or psychological religion_ ( ); _contributions to the science of mythology_ ( ). since his mythological theories are closely related to his philosophy of language, these works should be consulted in connection with the ones consecrated to language or logic, especially _lectures on the science of language_, and _the science of thought_. [ ] _natural religion_, p. . [ ] _physical religion_, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. ; cf. p. . [ ] _natural religion_, pp. ff., and - . [ ] "the overwhelming pressure of the infinite" (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] _ibid._, pp. - . [ ] max müller even goes so far as to say that until thought has passed this first stage, it has very few of the characteristics which we now attribute to religion (_physic. rel._, p. ). [ ] _physic. rel._, p. . [ ] _the science of thought_, p. . [ ] _natural religion_, pp. ff. [ ] _physic. rel._, p. ; _the science of thought_, p. ; _lectures on the science of language_, ii, pp. ff. [ ] _the science of thought_, p. . [ ] _the science of thought_, i, p. ; _physic. rel_., pp. ff. [ ] _mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique_, p. . [ ] _anthropological religion_, pp. - . [ ] this explanation is not as good as that of tylor. according to max müller, men could not admit that life stopped with death; therefore they concluded that there were two beings within them, one of which survived the body. but it is hard to see what made them think that life continued after the body was decomposed. [ ] for the details, see _anthrop. rel._, pp. ff. [ ] _anthrop. rel._, p. .--this is what keeps max müller from considering christianity the climax of all this development. the religion of ancestors, he says, supposes that there is something divine in man. now is that idea not the one at the basis of the teaching of christ? (_ibid._, pp. ff.). it is useless to insist upon the strangeness of the conception which makes christianity the latest of the cults of the dead. [ ] see the discussion of the hypothesis in gruppe, _griechishen kulte und mythen_, pp. - . [ ] see meillet, _introduction à l'étude comparative des langues indo-européennes_, p. . [ ] oldenberg, _die religion des vedas_, pp. ff.; meillet, _le dieu iranien mythra_, in _journal asiatique_, x, no. , july-august, , pp. ff. [ ] in this category are a large number of the maxims of popular wisdom. [ ] it is true that this argument does not touch those who see in religion a code (especially of hygiene) whose provisions, though placed under the sanction of imaginary beings, are nevertheless well founded. but we shall not delay to discuss a conception so insupportable, and which has, in fact, never been sustained in a systematic manner by persons somewhat informed upon the history of religions. it is difficult to see what good the terrible practices of the initiation bring to the health which they threaten; what good the dietetic restrictions, which generally deal with perfectly clean animals, have hygienically; how sacrifices, which take place far from a house, make it more solid, etc. undoubtedly there are religious precepts which at the same time have a practical utility; but they are lost in the mass of others, and even the services which they render are frequently not without some drawbacks. if there is a religiously enforced cleanliness, there is also a religious filthiness which is derived from these same principles. the rule which orders a corpse to be carried away from the camp because it is the seat of a dreaded spirit is undoubtedly useful. but the same belief requires the relatives to anoint themselves with the liquids which issue from a corpse in putrefaction, because they are supposed to have exceptional virtues.--from this point of view, magic has served a great deal more than religion. [ ] _contributions to the science of mythology_, i, pp. f. [ ] _lectures on the science of language_, ii, p. ff.; _physic. rel._, pp. ff.--also bréal, _mélanges_, p. , "to bring the necessary clarity into this question of the origin of mythology, it is necessary to distinguish carefully the _gods_, which are the immediate product of the human intelligence, from the _fables_, which are its indirect and involuntary product." [ ] max müller recognized this. see _physic. rel._, p. , and _comparative mythology_, p. . "the gods are _nomina_ and not _numina_, names without being and not beings without name." [ ] it is true that max müller held that for the greeks, "zeus was, and remained, in spite of all mythological obscurations, the name of the supreme deity" (_science of language_, ii, p. ). we shall not dispute this assertion, though it is historically contestable; but in any case, this conception of zeus could never have been more than a glimmer in the midst of all the other religious beliefs of the greeks. besides this, in a later work, max müller went so far as to make even the notion of god in general the product of a wholly verbal process and thus of a mythological elaboration (_physic. rel._, p. ). [ ] undoubtedly outside the real myths there were always fables which were not believed, or at least were not believed in the same way and to the same degree, and hence had no religious character. the line of demarcation between fables and myths is certainly floating and hard to determine. but this is no reason for making all myths stories, any more than we should dream of making all stories myths. there is at least one characteristic which in a number of cases suffices to differentiate the religious myth: that is its relation to the cult. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] more than that, in the language of max müller, there is a veritable abuse of words. sensuous experience, he says, implies, at least in certain cases, "beyond the known, _something unknown, something which i claim the liberty to call infinite_" (_natural rel._, p. ; cf. p. ). the unknown is not necessarily the infinite, any more than the infinite is necessarily the unknown if it is in all points the same, and consequently like the part which we know. it would be necessary to prove that the part of it which we perceive differs in nature from that which we do not perceive. [ ] max müller involuntarily recognizes this in certain passages. he confesses that he sees little difference between agni, the god of fire, and the notion of ether, by which the modern physicist explains light and heat (_phys. rel._, pp. f.). also, he connects the notion of divinity to that of agency (p. ) or of a causality which is not natural and profane. the fact that religion represents the causes thus imagined, under the form of personal agents, is not enough to explain how they got a sacred character. a personal agent can be profane, and also, many religious forces are essentially impersonal. [ ] we shall see below, in speaking of the efficacy of rites and faith, how these illusions are to be explained (bk. iii, ch. ii). [ ] _voyages and travels of an indian interpreter._ [ ] this idea was so common that even m. réville continued to make america the classic land of totemism (_religions des peuples non civilisés_, i, p. ). [ ] _journals of two expeditions in north-west and western australia_, ii, p. . [ ] _the worship of animals and plants._ _totems and totemism_ ( , ). [ ] this idea is found already very clearly expressed in a study by gallatin entitled _synopsis of the indian tribes_ (_archæologia americana_, ii, pp. ff.), and in a notice by morgan in the _cambrian journal_, , p. . [ ] this work had been prepared for and preceded by two others by the same author: _the league of the iroquois_ ( ), and _systems of consanguinity_ and _affinity of the human family_ ( ). [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, . [ ] in the very first volumes of the _annual report of the bureau of american ethnology_ are found the study of powell, _wyandot government_ (i, p. ), that of cushing, _zuñi fetiches_ (ii, p. ), smith, _myths of the iroquois_ (_ibid._, p. ), and the important work of dorsey, _omaha sociology_ (iii, p. ), which are also contributions to the study of totemism. [ ] this first appeared, in an abridged form, in the _encyclopædia britannica_ ( th ed.). [ ] in his _primitive culture_, tylor had already attempted an explanation of totemism, to which we shall return presently, but which we shall not give here; for by making totemism only a particular case of the ancestor-cult, he completely misunderstood its importance. in this chapter we mention only those theories which have contributed to the progress of the study of totemism. [ ] published at cambridge, . [ ] first edition, . this is the arrangement of a course given at the university of aberdeen in . cf. the article _sacrifice_ in the _encyclopædia britannica_ ( th edition). [ ] london, . a second edition in three volumes has since appeared ( ) and a third in five volumes is already in course of publication. [ ] in this connection must be mentioned the interesting work of sidney hartland, _the legend of perseus_, vols., - . [ ] we here confine ourselves to giving the names of the authors; their works will be indicated below, when we make use of them. [ ] if spencer and gillen have been the first to study these tribes in a scientific and thorough manner, they were not the first to talk about them. howitt had already described the social organization of the wuaramongo (warramunga of spencer and gillen) in in his _further notes on the australian classes_ in _the journal of the anthropological institute_ (hereafter, _j.a.i._), pp. f. the arunta had already been briefly studied by schulze (_the aborigines of the upper and middle finke river_, in _transactions of the royal society of south australia_, vol. xiv, fasc. ): the organization of the chingalee (the tjingilli of spencer and gillen), the wombya, etc., by mathews (_wombya organization of the australian aborigines_, in _american anthropologist_, new series, vol. ii, p. ; _divisions of some west australian tribes_, _ibid._, p. ; _proceedings amer. philos. soc._, xxxvii, pp. - , and _journal roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxii, p. and xxxiii, p. ). the first results of the study made of the arunta had also been published already in the _report on the work of the horn scientific expedition to central australia_, pt. iv ( ). the first part of this _report_ is by stirling, the second by gillen; the entire publication was placed under the direction of baldwin spencer. [ ] london, . hereafter, _native tribes_ or _nat. tr._ [ ] london, . hereafter, _northern tribes_ or _nor. tr._ [ ] we write the arunta, the anula, the tjingilli, etc., without adding the characteristic _s_ of the plural. it does not seem very logical to add to these words, which are not european, a grammatical sign which would have no meaning except in our languages. exceptions to this rule will be made when the name of the tribe has obviously been europeanized (the hurons for example). [ ] strehlow has been in australia since ; at first he lived among the dieri, and from them he went to the arunta. [ ] _die aranda- und loritja-stämme in zentral australien._ four fascicules have been published up to the present. the last appeared at the moment when the present book was finished, so it could not be used. the two first have to do with the myths and legends, and the third with the cult. it is only just to add to the name of strehlow that of von leonhardi, who has had a great deal to do with this publication. not only has he charged himself with editing the manuscripts of strehlow, but by his judicious questions he has led the latter to be more precise on more than one point. it would be useful also to consult an article which von leonhardi gave the _globus_, where numerous extracts from his correspondence with strehlow will be found (_ueber einige religiöse und totemistische vorstellungen der aranda und loritja in zentral australien_, in _globus_, xci, p. ). cf. an article on the same subject by n. w. thomas in folk-lore, xvi, pp. ff. [ ] spencer and gillen are not ignorant of it, but they are far from possessing it as thoroughly as strehlow. [ ] notably by klaatsch, _schlussbericht über meine reise nach australien_, in _zeitschrift f. ethnologie_, , pp. ff. [ ] the book of k. langloh parker, _the euahlayi tribe_, that of eylmann, _die eingeborenen der kolonie südaustralien_; that of john mathews, _two representative tribes of queensland_, and certain recent articles of mathews all show the influence of spencer and gillen. [ ] a list of these publications will be found in the preface to his _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] london, . hereafter we shall cite this work by the abbreviation _nat. tr._, but always mentioning the name of howitt, to distinguish it from the first work of spencer and gillen, which we abbreviate in the same manner. [ ] _totemism and exogamy_, vols., london, . the work begins with a re-edition of _totemism_, reproduced without any essential changes. [ ] it is true that at the end and at the beginning there are some general theories on totemism, which will be described and discussed below. but these theories are relatively independent of the collection of facts which accompanies them, for they had already been published in different articles in reviews, long before this work appeared. these articles are reproduced in the first volume (pp. - ). [ ] _totemism_, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] it should be noted that in this connection, the more recent work, _totemism and exogamy_, shows an important progress in the thought as well as the method of frazer. every time that he describes the religious or domestic institutions of a tribe, he sets himself to determine the geographic and social conditions in which this tribe is placed. howsoever summary these analyses may be, they bear witness nevertheless to a rupture with the old methods of the anthropological school. [ ] undoubtedly we also consider that the principal object of the science of religions is to find out what the religious nature of man really consists in. however, as we do not regard it as a part of his constitutional make-up, but rather as the product of social causes, we consider it impossible to find it, if we leave aside his social environment. [ ] we cannot repeat too frequently that the importance which we attach to totemism is absolutely independent of whether it was ever universal or not. [ ] this is the case with the phratries and matrimonial classes; on this point, see spencer and gillen, _northern tribes_, ch. iii; howitt, _native tribes_, pp. and - ; thomas, _kinship and marriage in australia_, ch. vi and vii. [ ] _division du travail social_, rd ed., p. . [ ] it is to be understood that this is not always the case. it frequently happens, as we have already said, that the simpler forms aid to a better understanding of the more complex. on this point, there is no rule of method which is applicable to every possible case. [ ] thus the individual totemism of america will aid us in understanding the function and importance of that in australia. as the latter is very rudimentary, it would probably have passed unobserved. [ ] besides, there is not one unique type of totemism in america, but several different species which must be distinguished. [ ] we shall leave this field only very exceptionally, and when a particularly instructive comparison seems to us to impose itself. [ ] this is the definition given by cicero: _gentiles sunt qui inter se eodem nomine sunt_ (_top._ ). (those are of the same gens who have the same name among themselves.) [ ] it may be said in a general way that the clan is a family group, where kinship results solely from a common name; it is in this sense that the _gens_ is a clan. but the totemic clan is a particular sort of the class thus constituted. [ ] in a certain sense, these bonds of solidarity extend even beyond the frontiers of the tribe. when individuals of different tribes have the same totem, they have peculiar duties towards each other. this fact is expressly stated for certain tribes of north america (see frazer, _totemism and exogamy_, iii, pp. , , , - ). the texts relative to australia are less explicit. however, it is probable that the prohibition of marriage between members of a single totem is international. [ ] morgan, _ancient society_, p. . [ ] in australia the words employed differ with the tribes. in the regions observed by grey, they said _kobong_; the dieri say _murdu_ (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ); the narrinyeri, _ngaitye_ (talpin, _in_ curr, ii, p. ); the warramunga, _mungái_ or _mungáii_ (_nor. tr._, p. ), etc. [ ] _indian tribes of the united states_, iv, p. . [ ] this fortune of the word is the more regrettable since we do not even know exactly how it is written. some write _totam_, others _toodaim_, or _dodaim_, or _ododam_ (see frazer, _totemism_, p. ). nor is the meaning of the word determined exactly. according to the report of the first observer of the ojibway, j. long, the word _totam_ designated the protecting genius, the individual totem, of which we shall speak below (bk. ii, ch. iv) and not the totem of the clan. but the accounts of other explorers say exactly the contrary (on this point, see frazer, _totemism and exogamy_, iii, pp. - ). [ ] the _wotjobaluk_ (p. ) and the _buandik_ (p. ). [ ] the same. [ ] the _wolgal_ (p. ), the _wotjobaluk_ and the _buandik_. [ ] the _muruburra_ (p. ), the _wotjobaluk_ and the _buandik_. [ ] the _buandik_ and the _kaiabara_ (p. ). it is to be remarked that all the examples come from only five tribes. [ ] thus, out of kinds of totems, collected by spencer and gillen out of a large number of tribes, are animals or plants. the inanimate objects are the boomerang, cold weather, darkness, fire, lightning, the moon, red ochre, resin, salt water, the evening star, a stone, the sun, water, the whirlwind, the wind and hail-stones (nor. tr., p. . cf. frazer, _totemism and exogamy_, i, pp. - ). [ ] frazer (_totemism_, pp. and ) cites a rather large number of cases and puts them in a special group which he calls _split-totems_, but these are taken from tribes where totemism is greatly altered, such as in samoa or the tribes of bengal. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] see the tables collected by strehlow, _op. cit._, ii, pp. - (cf. iii, pp. xiii-xvii). it is remarkable that these fragmentary totems are taken exclusively from animal totems. [ ] strehlow, ii, pp. and . [ ] for example, one of these totems is a cave where an ancestor of the wild cat totem rested; another is a subterranean gallery which an ancestor of the mouse clan dug, etc. (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. ff. strehlow, ii, p. , note . howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; _on australian medicine men_, _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ; _further notes on the australian class systems_, _j.a.i._, xviii, pp. ff. [ ] thaballa means "laughing boy," according to the translation of spencer and gillen. the members of the clan which bear this name think they hear him laughing in the rocks which are his residence (_nor. tr._, pp. , , note). according to a myth given on p. , there was an initial group of mythical thaballa (cf. p. ). the clan of the kati, "full-grown men," as spencer and gillen say, seems to be of the same sort (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] strehlow, ii, pp. f. he mentions a totem of the loritja and arunta which is very close to the serpent wollunqua: it is the totem of a mythical water-snake. [ ] this is the case with klaatsch, in the article already cited (see above, p. , n. ). [ ] as we indicated in the preceding chapter, totemism is at the same time of interest for the question of religion and that of the family, for the clan is a family. in the lower societies, these two problems are very closely connected. but both are so complex that it is indispensable to treat them separately. also, the primitive family organization cannot be understood before the primitive religious beliefs are known; for the latter serve as the basis of the former. this is why it is necessary to study totemism as a religion before studying the totemic clan as a family group. [ ] see taplin, _the narrinyeri tribe_, in curr, ii, pp. f.; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , , , . it is to be noted that in all these tribes, except the mara and the anula, the transmission of the totem in the paternal line is only a general rule, which has exceptions. [ ] according to spencer and gillen (nat. tr., pp. ff.), the soul of the ancestor becomes reincarnate in the body of the mother and becomes the soul of the child; according to strehlow (ii, pp. ff.), the conception, though being the work of the ancestor, does not imply any reincarnation; but in neither interpretation does the totem of the child necessarily depend upon that of the parents. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] it is in large part the locality where the mother believes that she conceived which determines the totem of the child. each totem, as we shall see, has its centre and the ancestors preferably frequent the places serving as centres for their respective totems. the totem of the child is therefore that which belongs to the place where the mother believes that she conceived. as this should generally be in the vicinity of the place which serves as totemic centre for her husband, the child should generally follow the totem of his father. it is undoubtedly this which explains why the greater part of the inhabitants of a given locality belong to the same totem (_nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] _the secret of the totem_, pp. ff. cf. fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, pp. f.; john mathews, _eaglehawk and crow_; thomas, _kinship and marriage in australia_, pp. ff. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, pp. , , ; curr, iii, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] howitt, pp. ff. [ ] curr, ii, p. ; brough smyth, i, p. ; howitt, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] howitt, pp. , . [ ] j. mathews, _two representative tribes of queensland_, p. . [ ] still other reasons could be given in support of this hypothesis, but it would be necessary to bring in considerations relative to the organization of the family, and we wish to keep these two studies separate. also this question is only of secondary interest to our subject. [ ] for example, mukwara, which is the name of a phratry among the barkinji, the paruinji and the milpulko, designates the eagle-hawk, according to brough smyth; now one of the clans of this phratry has the eagle-hawk as totem. but here the animal is designated by the word bilyara. many cases of the same thing are cited by lang, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . according to howitt (_op. cit._, pp. and ), among the wotjobaluk, the clan of the pelican is found in the two phratries equally. this fact seems doubtful to us. it is very possible that the two clans may have two varieties of pelicans as totems. information given by mathews on the same tribe seems to point to this (_aboriginal tribes of n.s. wales and victoria_, in _journal and proceedings of the royal society of n.s. wales_, , pp. f.). [ ] in connection with this question, see our memoir on _le totémisme_, in the _année sociologique_, vol. v, pp. ff. [ ] on the question of australian matrimonial classes in general, see our memoir on _la prohibition de l'inceste_, in the _année soc._, i, pp. ff., and especially for the tribes with eight classes, _l'organisation matrimoniale des societés australiennes_, in _année soc._, viii, pp. - . [ ] this principle is not maintained everywhere with an equal strictness. in the central tribes of eight classes notably, beside the class with which marriage is regularly permitted, there is another with which a sort of secondary concubinage is allowed (spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. ). it is the same with certain tribes of four classes. each class has a choice between the two classes of the other phratry. this is the case with the kabi (see mathews, _in_ curr, iii, ). [ ] see roth, _ethnological studies among the north-west-central queensland aborigines_, pp. ff.; palmer, _notes on some australian tribes_, _j.a.i._, xiii ( ), pp. ff. [ ] nevertheless, some tribes are cited where the matrimonial classes bear the names of animals or plants: this is the case with the kabi (mathew, _two representative tribes_, p. ), the tribes observed by mrs. bates (_the marriage laws and customs of the west australian aborigines_, in _victorian geographical journal_, xxiii-xxiv, p. ), and perhaps in two tribes observed by palmer. but these facts are very rare and their significance badly established. also, it is not surprising that the classes, as well as the sexual groups, should sometimes adopt the names of animals. this exceptional extension of the totemic denominations in no way modifies our conception of totemism. [ ] perhaps the same explanation is applicable to certain other tribes of the south-east and the east where, if we are to believe the informers of howitt, totems specially attached to each matrimonial class are to be found. this is the case among the wiradjuri, the wakelbura and the bunta-murra on the bulloo river (howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , ). however, the evidence collected is suspect, according to his own admission. in fact, it appears from the lists which he has drawn up, that many totems are found equally in the two classes of the same phratry. the explanation which we propose, after frazer (_totemism and exogamy_, pp. ff.), raises one difficulty. in principle, each clan and consequently each totem, is represented equally in the two classes of a single phratry, since one of the classes is that of the children and the other that of the parents from whom the former get their totems. so when the clans disappeared, the totemic interdictions which survived should have remained in both matrimonial classes, while in the actual cases cited, each class has its own. whence comes this differentiation? the example of the kaiabara (a tribe of southern queensland) allows us to see how it may have come about. in this tribe, the children have the totem of their mother, but it is particularized by some distinctive mark. if the mother has the black eagle-hawk as totem, the child has the white eagle-hawk (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). this appears to be the beginning of a tendency for the totems to differentiate themselves according to the matrimonial classes. [ ] a tribe of only a few hundred members frequently has fifty or sixty clans, or even many more. on this point, see durkheim and mauss, _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, in the _année sociologique_, vol. vi, p. , n. . [ ] except among the pueblo indians of the south-west, where they are more numerous. see hodge, _pueblo indian clans_, in _american anthropologist_, st series, vol. ix, pp. ff. it may always be asked whether the groups which have these totems are clans or sub-clans. [ ] see the tables arranged by morgan, _ancient society_, pp. - . [ ] krause, _die tlinkit-indianer_, p. ; swanton, _social condition, beliefs and linguistic relationship of the tlingit indians_, in _xxvith rep._, p. . [ ] swanton, _contributions to the ethnology of the haida_, p. . [ ] "the distinction between the two clans is absolute in every respect," says swanton, p. ; he gives the name clan to what we call phratries. the two phratries, he says elsewhere, are like two foreign nations in their relations to each other. [ ] among the haida at least, the totem of the real clans is altered more than that of the phratries. in fact, usage permits a clan to sell or give away the right of bearing its totem, as a result of which each clan has a number of totems, some of which it has in common with other clans (see swanton, pp. and ). since swanton calls the phratries clans, he is obliged to give the name of _family_ to the real clans, and of _household_ to the regular families. but the real sense of his terminology is not to be doubted. [ ] _journals of two expeditions in n.w. and w. australia_, ii, p. . [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. . [ ] _indian tribes_, i, p. ; cf. i, p. . this etymology is very doubtful. cf. _handbook of american indians north of mexico_ (_smithsonian inst. bur. of ethnol._, pt. ii, _s.v._, totem, p. ). [ ] schoolcraft, _indian tribes_, iii, ; garrick mallery, _picture writing of the american indians_, in _tenth report_, , p. . [ ] hearne, _journey to the northern ocean_, p. (quoted from frazer, _totemism_, p. ). [ ] charlevoix, _histoire et description de la nouvelle france_, v, p. . [ ] krause, _tlinkit-indianer_, p. . [ ] erminnie a. smith, _myths of the iroquois_, in _sec. rep. of the bur. of ethnol._, p. . [ ] dodge, _our wild indians_, p. . [ ] powell, _wyandot government_, in _first rep. of the bur. of ethnol._, , p. . [ ] dorsey, _omaha sociology_, in _third rep._, pp. , , . [ ] krause, _op. cit._, pp. f. [ ] krause, p. . [ ] see a photograph of a haida village in swanton, _op. cit._, pl. ix. cf. tylor, _totem post of the haida village of masset_, _j.a.i._, new series i, p. . [ ] hill tout, _report on the ethnology of the statlumh of british columbia_, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] krause, _op. cit._, p. ; swanton, _haida_, pp. , ff.; schoolcraft, _op. cit._, i, pp. - , , . in the latter case the totem is represented upside down, in sign of mourning. similar usages are found among the creek (c. swan, _in_ schoolcraft, v, p. ) and the delaware (heckewelder, _an account of the history, manners and customs of the indian nations who once inhabited pennsylvania_, pp. - ). [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] brough smyth, _the aborigines of victoria_, i, p. n. [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . strehlow cites a fact of the same sort among the arunta (iii, p. ). [ ] _an account of the english colony in n.s. wales_, ii, p. . [ ] krause, p. . [ ] swanton, _social condition, beliefs and linguistic relationship of the tlingit indians, in xxvith rep._, pp. ff.; boas, _the social organization and secret societies of the kwakiutl indians_, p. . [ ] frazer, _totemism_, p. . [ ] bourke, _the snake dance of the moquis of arizona_, p. ; j. w. fewkes, _the group of tusayan ceremonials called katcinas_, in _xvth rep._, , pp. - . [ ] müller, _geschichte der amerikanischen urreligionen_, p. . [ ] schoolcraft, _op. cit._, iii, p. . [ ] dorsey, _omaha sociol._, _third rep._, pp. , , , . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] the meaning of these relations will be seen below (bk. ii, ch. iv). [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. - ; cf. p. . [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. n. it is true that other informers contest this fact. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] swanton, _contributions to the ethnology of the haida_, pp. ff., pl. xx and xxi; boas, _the social organization of the kwakiutl_, p. ; swanton, _tlingit_, pl. xvi ff.--in one place, outside the two ethnographic regions which we are specially studying, these tattooings are put on the animals which belong to the clan. the bechuana of south africa are divided into a certain number of clans; there are the people of the crocodile, the buffalo, the monkey, etc. now the crocodile people, for example, make an incision in the ears of their cattle whose form is like the jaws of this animal (casalis, _les basoutos_, p. ). according to robertson smith, the same custom existed among the ancient arabs (_kinship and marriage in early arabia_, pp. - ). [ ] however, according to spencer and gillen, there are some which have no religious sense (see _nat. tr._, pp. f.; _nor. tr._, pp. , - ). [ ] among the arunta, this rule has exceptions which will be explained below. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. , , , f.; schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . the thing thus represented is not always the totem itself, but one of those things which, being associated to this totem, are regarded as being in the same family of things. [ ] this is the case, for example, among the warramunga, the walpari, the wulmala, the tjingilli, the umbaia and the unmatjera (_nor. tr._, , ). among the warramunga, at the moment when the design is executed, the performers address the initiated with the following words: "that mark belongs to your place; do not look out along another place." "this means," say spencer and gillen, "that the young man must not interfere with ceremonies belonging to other totems than his own: it also indicates the very close association which is supposed to exist between a man and his totem and any spot especially connected with the totem" (_nor. tr._, p. and n.). among the warramunga, the totem is transmitted from father to child, so each locality has its own. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] it will be remembered (see above, p. ) that in this tribe, the child may have a different totem than his father, his mother, or his relatives in general. now the relatives on both sides are the performers designated for the ceremonies of initiation. consequently, since in principle a man can have the quality of performer or officiant only for the ceremonies of his own totem, it follows that in certain cases the rites by which the young man is initiated must be in connection with a totem that is not his own. that is why the paintings made on the body of the novice do not necessarily represent his own totem: cases of this sort will be found in spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . that there is an anomaly here is well shown by the fact that the circumcision falls to the totem which predominates in the local group of the initiate, that is to say, to the one which would be the totem of the initiate himself, if the totemic organization were not disturbed, if among the arunta it were what it is among the warramunga (see spencer and gillen, _ibid._, p. ). the same disturbance has had another consequence. in a general way, its effect is to extend a little the bonds attaching each totem to a special group, since each totem may have members in all the local groups possible, and even in the two phratries. the idea that these ceremonies of a totem might be celebrated by an individual of another totem--an idea which is contrary to the very principles of totemism, as we shall see better after a while--has thus been accepted without too much resistance. it has been admitted that a man to whom a spirit revealed the formula for a ceremony had the right of presiding over it, even when he was not of the totem in question himself (_nat. tr._, p. ). but that this is an exception to the rule and the product of a sort of toleration is proved by the fact that the beneficiary of the formula does not have the free disposition of it; if he transmits it--and these transmissions are frequent--it can be only to a member of the totem which the rite concerns (_nat. tr._, _ibid._). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . in this case, the novice keeps the decoration with which he has thus been adorned until it disappears of itself by the effect of time. [ ] boas, _general report on the indians of british columbia in british association for the advancement of science, fifth rep. of the committee on the n.w. tribes of the dominion of canada_, p. . [ ] there are also some among the warramunga, but in smaller numbers than among the arunta; they do not figure in the totemic ceremonies, though they do have a place in the myths (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] other names are used by other tribes. we give a generic sense to the arunta term because it is in this tribe that the churinga have the most important place and have been studied the best. [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] there are a few which have no apparent design (see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. and ; strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] strehlow, who writes _tjurunga_, gives a slightly different translation to the word. "this word," he says, "means that which is secret and personal _(der eigene geheime_). _tju_ is an old word which means hidden or secret, and _runga_ means that which is my own." but kempe, who has more authority than strehlow in this matter, translates _tju_ by great, powerful, sacred (_kempe, vocabulary of the tribes inhabiting macdonell ranges_, s.v. _tju_, in _transactions of the r. society of victoria_, vol. xiii). at bottom, the translation of strehlow is not so different from the other as might appear at first glance, for what is secret is hidden from the knowledge of the profane, that is, it is sacred. as for the meaning given to _runga_, it appears to us very doubtful. the ceremonies of the emu belong to all the members of that clan; all may participate in them; therefore they are not personal to any one of them. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - ; strehlow, ii, p. . a woman who has seen a churinga or a man who has shown one to her are both put to death. [ ] strehlow calls this place, defined in exactly the same terms as by spencer and gillen, _arknanaua_ instead of _ertnatulunga_ (strehlow, ii, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . however, strehlow says that if a murderer takes refuge near an ertnatulunga, he is unpityingly pursued there and put to death. we find some difficulty in conciliating this fact with the privilege enjoyed by animals, and ask ourselves if the rigour with which a criminal is treated is not something recent and should not be attributed to a weakening of the taboo which originally protected the ertnatulunga. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. f. strehlow, ii, p. . for example, the dust detached by rubbing a churinga with a stone, when dissolved in water, forms a potion which restores health to sick persons. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. f. strehlow (ii, p. ) contests this fact. [ ] for example, the churinga of the yam totem, if placed in the soil, make the yams grow (_nor. tr.,_ p. ). it has the same power over animals (strehlow, ii, pp. , ; iii, pp. , ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] one group borrows the churinga of another with the idea that these latter will communicate some of the virtues which are in them and that their presence will quicken the vitality of the individuals and of the group (_nat. tr._, pp. ff.). [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] each individual is united by a particular bond to a special churinga which assures him his life, and also to those which he has received as a heritage from his parents. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . the churinga are so thoroughly collective that they take the place of the "message-sticks" with which the messengers of other tribes are provided, when they are sent to summon foreign groups to a ceremony (_nat. tr._, pp. f.). [ ] _ibid._, p. . it should be remarked that the bull-roarers are used in the same way (mathews, _aboriginal tribes of n.s. wales and victoria_, in _jour. of roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, pp. f.). [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. , ff. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, _vorwort. in fine_; ii, pp. , and . for the arunta, it is the body of the ancestor itself; for the loritja, it is only an image. [ ] when a child has just been born, the mother shows the father the spot where she believes that the soul of the ancestor entered her. the father, accompanied by a few relatives, goes to this spot and looks for the churinga which the ancestor is believed to have left at the moment that he reincarnated himself. if it is found there, some old man of the group undoubtedly put it there (this is the hypothesis of spencer and gillen). if they do not find it, a new churinga is made in a determined manner (_nat. tr._, p. . cf. strehlow, ii, p. ). [ ] this is the case among the warramunga, the urabunna, the worgaia, the umbaia, the tjingilli and the guangi (_nor. tr._, pp. , f.). then, say spencer and gillen, "_they were regarded as of especial value because of their association with a totem_" (_ibid._, p. ). there are examples of the same fact among the arunta (_nat. tr._, ). [ ] strehlow writes _tnatanja_ (i, pp. - ). [ ] the kaitish, the ilpirra, the unmatjera; but it is rare among the latter. [ ] the pole is sometimes replaced by very long churinga, placed end to end. [ ] sometimes another smaller one is hung from the top of the nurtunja. in other cases, the nurtunja is in the form of a cross or a t. more rarely, the central support is lacking (_nat. tr._, pp. - , - , ). [ ] sometimes there are even three of these cross-bars. [ ] _nat. tr,_, pp. - , - , . in addition to the nurtunja and the waninga, spencer and gillen distinguish a third sort of sacred post or flag, called the kanana (_nat. tr._, pp. , , ), whose functions they admit they have been unable to determine. they merely note that it "is regarded as something common to the members of all the totems." according to strehlow (ii, p. , n. ) the kanana of which spencer and gillen speak, is merely the nurtunja of the wild cat totem. as this animal is the object of a tribal cult, the veneration of which it is the object might easily be common to all the clans. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, ch. x and xi. [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] see dorsey, _siouan cults, xith rep._, p. ; _omaha sociology, third rep._, p. . it is true that there is only one sacred post for the tribe, while there is a nurtunja for each clan. but the principle is the same. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. , , , , etc.; _nor. tr._, , , etc. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . it is true that some say that the nurtunja represents the lance of the ancestor who was at the head of each clan in alcheringa times. but it is only a symbolic representation of it; it is not a sort of relic, like the churinga, which is believed to come from the ancestor himself. here the secondary character of the explanation is very noticeable. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. ff., esp. p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see the examples given in spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, fig. . here are designs, many of which evidently have the object of representing animals, plants, the heads of men, etc., though of course all are very conventional. [ ] _nat. tr.,_ p. ; _nor. tr.,_ p. ff. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] it cannot be doubted that these designs and paintings also have an æsthetic character; here is the first form of art. since they are also, and even above all, a written language, it follows that the origins of design and those of writing are one. it even becomes clear that men commenced designing, not so much to fix upon wood or stone beautiful forms which charm the senses, as to translate his thought into matter (_cf._ schoolcraft, _indian tribes_, i, p. ; dorsey, _siouan cults_, pp. ff.). [ ] see the cases in taplin, _the narrinyeri_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. ; roth, _superstition, magic and medicine_, § ; wyatt, _adelaide and encounter bay tribe_, in woods, p. ; meyer, _ibid._, p. . [ ] this is the case with the warramunga (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] for example, among the warramunga, the urabunna, the wonghibon, the yuin, the wotjobaluk, the buandik, ngeumba, etc. [ ] among the kaitish, if a man of the clan eats too much of his totem, the members of the other phratry have recourse to a magic operation which is expected to kill him (_nor. tr._, p. ; cf. _nat. tr._, p. ; langloh parker, _the euahlavi tribe_, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. , n.; strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] it should also be borne in mind that in these myths the ancestors are never represented as nourishing themselves _regularly_ with their totem. consumption of this sort is, on the contrary, the exception. their ordinary food, according to strehlow, was the same as that of the corresponding animal (see strehlow, i, p. ). [ ] also, this whole theory rests upon an entirely arbitrary hypothesis: spencer and gillen, as well as frazer, admit that the tribes of central australia, and especially the arunta, represent the most archaic and consequently the purest form of totemism. we shall presently say why this conjecture seems to us to be contrary to all probability. it is even probable that these authors would not have accepted their thesis so readily if they had not refused to regard totemism as a religion and if they had not consequently misunderstood the sacred character of the totem. [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. and ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; grey, _loc. cit._; curr, iii, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , . it is not enough that the intermediary be of another totem: as we shall see, every totem of a phratry is forbidden in a certain measure for the members of the phratry who are of a different totem. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . we can now explain more easily how it happens that when an interdiction is not observed, it is the other phratry which revenges this sacrilege (see above, p. , n. ). it is because it has an interest in seeing that the rule is observed. in fact, they believe that when the rule is broken, the totemic species may not reproduce abundantly. now the members of the other phratry consume it regularly: therefore it is they who are affected. that is why they revenge themselves. [ ] this is the case among the loritja (strehlow, ii, pp. , ), the worgaia, the warramunga, the walpari, the mara, the anula and the binbinga (_nor. tr._, pp. , , , ). it may be eaten by a warramunga or a walpari, but only when offered by a member of the other phratry. spencer and gillen remark (p. , n.), that in this regard the paternal and the maternal totems appear to be under different rules. it is true that in both cases the offer must come from the other phratry. but when it is a question of the paternal totem, or the totem properly so-called, this phratry is the one to which the totem does not belong; for the maternal totem, the contrary is the case. probably the principle was first established for the former, then mechanically extended to the other, though the situation was different. when the rule had once become established that the prohibition protecting the totem could be neglected only on the invitation of the other phratry, it was applied also to the maternal totem. [ ] for example, among the warramunga (_nor. tr._, p. ), the wotjobaluk, the buandik, the kurnai (howitt, pp. f.) and the narrinyeri (taplin, _the narrinyeri_, p. ). [ ] even this is not always the case. an arunta of the mosquito totem must not kill this insect, even when it bothers him: he must confine himself to driving it away (strehlow, ii, p. ; cf. taplin, p. ). [ ] among the kaitish and the unmatjera (_nor. tr._, p. ). it even happens that in certain cases an old man gives a young one of a different totem one of his churinga, so that he may kill the donor's totem more easily (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; grey, _op. cit._, ii, p. ; casalis, _basoutos_, p. . among these latter, "one must be purified after committing such a sacrilege." [ ] strehlow, ii, pp. , , . [ ] dorsey, _omaha sociology, iiird rep._, pp. , . [ ] casalis, _ibid._ [ ] even among the omaha, it is not certain that the interdictions of contact, certain examples of which we have just cited, are really of a totemic nature, for many of them have no direct connection with the animal that serves as totem of the clan. thus in the sub-clan of the eagle, the characteristic interdiction is against touching the head of a buffalo (dorsey, _op. cit._, p. ); in another sub-clan with the same totem, they must not touch verdigris, charcoal, etc. (_ibid._, p. ). we do not mention other interdictions mentioned by frazer, such as those of naming or looking at the animal or plant, for it is still less certain that they are of totemic origin, except perhaps for certain facts observed among the bechuana (_totemism_, pp. - ). frazer admits too readily--and in this regard, he has imitators--that the prohibitions against eating or touching an animal depend upon totemic beliefs. however, there is one case in australia, where the sight of the animal seems to be forbidden. according to strehlow (ii, p. ), among the arunta and the loritja, a man who has the moon as totem must not look at it very long, or he would be likely to die at the hand of an enemy. but we believe that this is a unique case. we must not forget, also, that astronomical totems were probably not primitive in australia, so this prohibition may be the product of a complex elaboration. this hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that among the euahlayi, looking at the moon is forbidden to all mothers and children, no matter what their totems may be (l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ). [ ] see bk. iii, ch. ii, § . [ ] perhaps there is no religion which makes man an exclusively profane being. for the christian, the soul which each of us has within him and which constitutes the very essence of our being, has something sacred about it. we shall see that this conception of the soul is as old as religious thought itself. the place of man in the hierarchy of sacred things is more or less elevated. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. - . [ ] among certain clans of the warramunga, for example (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] among the urabunna (_nor. tr._, p. ). even when they tell us that the first beings were men, these are really only semi-human, and have an animal nature at the same time. this is the case with certain unmatjera (_ibid._, pp. - ). here we find ways of thought whose confusion disconcerts us, but which must be accepted as they are. we would denature them if we tried to introduce a clarity that is foreign to them (cf. _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] among the arunta (_nat. tr._, pp. ff.); and among certain unmatjera (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . cf. strehlow, i, pp. - . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, i, pp. ff. undoubtedly there is an echo of the initiation rites in this mythical theme. the initiation also has the object of making the young man into a complete man, and on the other hand, it also implies actual surgical operations (circumcision, sub-incision, the extraction of teeth, etc.). the processes which served to form the first men would naturally be conceived on the same model. [ ] this the case with the nine clans of the moqui (schoolcraft, _indian tribes_, iv, p. ), the crain clan among the ojibway (morgan, _ancient society_, p. ), and the nootka clans (boas, _vith rep. on the n.w. tribes of canada_, p. ), etc. [ ] it is thus that the turtle clan of the iroquois took form. a group of turtles had been forced to leave the lake where they dwelt and seek another home. one of them, which was larger than the others, stood this exercise very badly owing to the heat. it made such violent efforts that it got out of its shell. the process of transformation, being once commenced, went on by itself and the turtle finally became a man who was the ancestor of the clan (erminnie a. smith, _the myths of the iroquois, iind report_, p. ). the crab clan of the choctaw was formed in a similar manner. some men surprised a certain number of crabs that lived in the neighbourhood, took them home with them, taught them to talk and to walk, and finally adopted them into their society (catlin, _north american indians_, ii, p. ). [ ] for example, here is a legend of the tsimshian. in the course of a hunt, an indian met a black bear which took him to its home, and taught him to catch salmon and build canoes. the man stayed with the bear for two years, and then returned to his native village. but the people were afraid of him, because he was just like a bear. he could not talk or eat anything except raw food. then he was rubbed with magic herbs and gradually regained his original form. after that, whenever he was in trouble, he called upon his bear friends, who came to aid him. he built a house and painted a bear on the foundation. his sister made a blanket for the dance, upon which a bear was designed. that is why the descendants of this sister had the bear as their emblem (boas, _kwakiutl_, p. . cf. _vth rep. on the n.w. tribes of canada_, pp. , ff.; hill tout, _report on the ethnology of the statlumh of british columbia_, in _j.a.i._, , xxxv, p. ). thus we see the inconveniences in making this mystical relationship between the man and the animal the distinctive characteristic of totemism, as m. van gennep proposes (_totémisme et méthode comparative_, in _revue de l'histoire des religions_, vol. lviii, july, , p. ). this relationship is a mythical representation of otherwise profound facts; but it may be omitted without causing the disappearance of the essential traits of totemism. undoubtedly there are always close bonds between the people of the clan and the totemic animal, but these are not necessarily bonds of blood-relationship, though they are frequently conceived in this form. [ ] there are also some tlinkit myths in which the relationship of descent between the man and the animal is still more carefully stated. it is said that the clan is descended from a mixed union, if we may so speak, that is to say, one where either the husband or the wife was an animal of the species whose name the clan bears (see swanton, _social condition, beliefs, etc., of the tlinkit indians_, _xxvith rep._, pp. - ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see bk. iii, ch. ii. cf. _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , , . [ ] among the dieri and the parnkalla. see howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , - . [ ] among the warramunga, the blood from the circumcision is drunk by the mother (_nor. tr._, p. ). among the binbinga, the blood on the knife which was used in the sub-incision must be licked off by the initiate (_ibid._, p. ). in general, the blood coming from the genital organs is regarded as especially sacred (_nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . this myth is quite common in australia. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._ it is believed that if all these formalities are not rigorously observed, grave calamities will fall upon the individual. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] after the foreskin has been detached by circumcision, it is sometimes hidden, just like the blood; it has special virtues; for example, it assures the fecundity of certain animal and vegetable species (_nor. tr._, pp. f.). the whiskers are mixed with the hair, and treated as such (_ibid._, pp. , ). they also play a part in the myths (_ibid._, p. ). as for the fat, its sacred character is shown by the use made of it in certain funeral rites. [ ] this is not saying that the woman is absolutely profane. in the myths, at least among the arunta, she plays a religious rôle much more important than she does in reality (_nat. tr._, pp. f.). even now she takes part in certain initiation rites. finally, her blood has religious virtues (see _nat. tr._, p. ; cf. _la prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines_, _année sociol._, i, pp. ff.). it is upon this complex situation of the woman that the exogamic restrictions depend. we do not speak of them here because they concern the problem of domestic and matrimonial organization more directly than the present one. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] among the wakelbura, according to howitt, p. ; among the bechuana, according to casalis, _basoutos_, p. . [ ] among the buandik and kurnai (howitt, _ibid._); among the arunta (strehlow, ii, p. ). [ ] howitt, _ibid._ [ ] in the tully river district, says roth (_superstition, magic and medicine_, in _north queensland ethnography_, no. , § ), as an individual goes to sleep or gets up in the morning, he pronounces in a rather low voice the name of the animal after which he is named himself. the purpose of this practice is to make the man clever or lucky in the hunt, or be forewarned of the dangers to which he may be exposed from this animal. for example, a man who has a species of serpent as his totem is protected from bites if this invocation has been made regularly. [ ] taplin, _narrinyeri_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; roth, _loc. cit._ [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] _ibid._, p. ; _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] a. l. p. cameron, _on two queensland tribes_, in _science of man, australasian anthropological journal_, , vii, , col. i. [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. . [ ] _notes on some australian tribes_, _j.a.i._, xiii, p. . [ ] in curr, _australian race_, iii, p. ; brough smyth, _the aborigines of victoria_, i, p. ; fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. . [ ] durkheim and mauss, _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, in _année sociol._, vi, pp. ff. [ ] curr, iii, p. . [ ] curr and fison were both informed by the same person, d. s. stewart. [ ] mathews, _aboriginal tribes of n.s. wales and victoria_, in _journal and proceedings of the royal society of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, pp. f.; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] the feminine form of the names given by mathews is gurogigurk and gamatykurk. these are the forms which howitt reproduces, with a slightly different orthography. the names are also equivalent to those used by the mount gambier tribe (kumite and kroki). [ ] the native name of this clan is dyàlup, which mathews does not translate. this word appears to be identical with jallup, by which howitt designates a sub-clan of the same tribe, and which he translates "mussel." that is why we think we can hazard this translation. [ ] this is the translation of howitt; mathews renders the word wartwurt, "heat of the midday sun." [ ] the tables of mathews and howitt disagree on many important points. it even seems that clans attributed by howitt to the kroki phratry are given to the gamutch phratry by mathews, and inversely. this proves the great difficulties that these observations present. but these differences are without interest for our present question. [ ] mrs. langloh parker, _the euahlayi tribe_, pp. ff. [ ] the facts will be found below. [ ] carr, iii, p. . cf. howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . we are merely mentioning the most characteristic facts. for details, one may refer to the memoir already mentioned on _les classifications primitives_. [ ] _ibid._, pp. ff. [ ] swanton, _the haida_, pp. - , , . [ ] this is especially clear among the haida. swanton says that with them every animal has two aspects. first, it is an ordinary animal to be hunted and eaten; but it is also a supernatural being in the animal's form, upon which men depend. the mythical beings corresponding to cosmic phenomena have the same ambiguity (swanton, _ibid._, , , ). [ ] see above, p. . this is the case among the gournditch-mara (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ), in the tribes studied by cameron near the dead lake, and among the wotjobaluk (_ibid._, pp. , ). [ ] j. mathews, _two representative tribes_, p. ; thomas, _kinship and marriage_, pp. f. [ ] among the osage, for example (see dorsey, _siouan sociology_, in _xvth rep._, pp. ff.). [ ] at mabuiag, an island in torrès' strait (haddon, _head hunters_, p. ), the same opposition is found between the two phratries of the arunta: one includes the men of a water totem, the other those of earth (strehlow, i, p. ). [ ] among the iroquois there is a sort of tournament between the two phratries (morgan, _ancient society_, p. ). among the haida, says swanton, the members of the two phratries of the eagle and the crow "are frequently considered as avowed enemies. husband and wife (who must be of different phratries) do not hesitate to betray each other" (_the haida_, p. ). in australia this hostility is carried into the myths. the two animals serving the phratries as totems are frequently represented as in a perpetual war against each other (see j. mathews, _eaglehawk and crow, a study of australian aborigines_, pp. ff.). in games, each phratry is the natural rival of the other (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] so thomas has wrongly urged against our theory of the origin of the phratries its inability to explain their opposition (_kinship and marriage_, p. ). we do not believe that it is necessary to connect this opposition to that of the profane and the sacred (see hertz, _la prééminence de la main droite_, in the _revue philosophique_, dec., , p. ). the things of one phratry are not profane for the other; both are a part of the same religious system (see below, p. ). [ ] for example, the clan of the tea-tree includes the grasses, and consequently herbivorous animals (see _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. ). this is undoubtedly the explanation of a particularity of the totemic emblems of north america pointed out by boas. "among the tlinkit," he says, "and all the other tribes of the coast, the emblem of a group includes the animals serving as food to the one whose name the group bears" (_fifth rep. of the committee, etc., british association for the advancement of science_, p. ). [ ] thus, among the arunta, frogs are connected with the totem of the gum-tree, because they are frequently found in the cavities of this tree; water is related to the water-hen; with the kangaroo is associated a sort of parrot frequently seen flying about this animal (spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. - , ). [ ] one of the signs of this primitive lack of distinction is that territorial bases are sometimes assigned to the classes just as to the social divisions with which they were at first confounded. thus, among the wotjobaluk in australia and the zuñi in america, things are ideally distributed among the different regions of space, just as the clans are. now this regional distribution of things and that of the clans coincide (see _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, pp. ff.). classifications keep something of this special character even among relatively advanced peoples, as for example, in china (_ibid._, pp. ff.). [ ] bridgmann, _in_ brough smyth, _the aborigines of victoria_, i, p. . [ ] fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. ; howitt, _further notes on the australian class systems, j.a.i._, xviii, p. . [ ] curr, iii, p. . this is about the mount gambier tribe. [ ] howitt, _on some australian beliefs, j.a.i._, xiii, p. , n. . [ ] howitt, _notes on australian message sticks, j.a.i._, xviii, p. ; _further notes, j.a.i._, xviii, p. , n. . [ ] curr, iii, p. . [ ] mathews, _ethnological notes on the aboriginal tribes of n.s. wales and victoria_, in _journ. and proceed. of the royal soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . [ ] cf. curr, iii, p. ; and howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . the expressions _tooman_ and _wingo_ are applied to the one and the other. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; cf. strehlow, iii, pp. xii ff. [ ] fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. . [ ] curr, iii, p. . [ ] mrs. parker, _the euahlayi tribe_, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, iii, p. xii. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] however, there are certain tribes in queensland where the things thus attributed to a social group are not forbidden for the members of the group: this is notably the case with the wakelbura. it is to be remembered that in this society, it is the matrimonial classes that serve as the framework of the classification (see above, p. ). not only are the men of one class allowed to eat the animals attributed to this class, but _they may eat no others_. all other food is forbidden them (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; curr, iii, p. ). but we must not conclude from this that these animals are considered profane. in fact, it should be noticed that the individual not only has the privilege of eating them, but that he is compelled to do so, for he cannot nourish himself otherwise. now the imperative nature of this rule is a sure sign that we are in the presence of things having a religious nature, only this has given rise to a positive obligation rather than the negative one known as an interdiction. perhaps it is not quite impossible to see how this deviation came about. we have seen above (p. ) that every individual is thought to have a sort of property-right over his totem and consequently over the things dependent upon it. perhaps, under the influence of special circumstances, this aspect of the totemic relation was developed, and they naturally came to believe that only the members of the clan had the right of disposing of their totem and all that is connected with it, and that others, on the contrary, did not have the right of touching it. under these circumstances, a tribe could nourish itself only on the food attributed to it. [ ] mrs. parker uses the expression "multiplex totems." [ ] as examples, see the euahlayi tribe in mrs. parker's book (pp. ff.) and the wotjobaluk (howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; cf. the above-mentioned article of mathews). [ ] see the examples in howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] see our _de quelques formes primitives de classification_, p. , n. . [ ] strehlow, ii, pp. - . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] see especially _nat. tr._, p. , and _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] strehlow, iii, pp. xiii-xviii. it sometimes happens that the same secondary totems are attached to two or three principal totems at the same time. this is undoubtedly because strehlow has not been able to establish with certainty which is the principal totem. two interesting facts which appear from this table confirm certain propositions which we had already formulated. first, the principal totems are nearly all animals, with but rare exceptions. also, stars are always only secondary or associated totems. this is another proof that these latter were only slowly advanced to the rank of totems and that at first the principal totems were preferably chosen from the animal kingdom. [ ] according to the myth, the associate totems served as food to the men of the principal totem in the fabulous times, or, when these are trees, they gave their shade (strehlow, iii, p. xii; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ). the fact that the associate totems are believed to have been eaten does not imply that they are considered profane; for in the mythical period, the principal totem itself was consumed by the ancestors, the founders of the clan, according to the belief. [ ] thus in the wild cat clan, the designs carved on the churinga represent the hakea tree, which is a distinct totem to-day (spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. f.). strehlow (iii, p. xii, n. ) says that this is frequent. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, pp. and . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. and . [ ] _ibid._, pp. and . [ ] thus spencer and gillen speak of a pigeon called inturrita, sometimes as a principal totem (_nat. tr._, p. ), sometimes as an associate totem (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] howitt, _further notes_, pp. - . [ ] thus it comes about that the clan has frequently been confounded with the tribe. this confusion, which frequently introduces trouble into the writings of ethnologists, has been made especially by curr (i, pp. ff.). [ ] this is the case especially among the warramunga (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] see, for example, spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. and _passim_. [ ] one might even ask if tribal totems do not exist sometimes. thus, among the arunta, there is an animal, the wild cat, which serves as totem to a particular clan, but which is forbidden for the whole tribe; even the people of other clans can eat it only very moderately (_nat. tr._, p. ). but we believe that it would be an abuse to speak of a tribal totem in this case, for it does not follow from the fact that the free consumption of an animal is forbidden that this is a totem. other causes can also give rise to an interdiction. the religious unity of the tribe is undoubtedly real, but this is affirmed with the aid of other symbols. we shall show what these are below (bk. ii, ch. ix). [ ] the totems belong to the tribe in the sense that this is interested as a body in the cult which each clan owes to its totem. [ ] frazer has made a very complete collection of the texts relative to individual totemism in north america (_totemism and exogamy_, iii, pp. - ). [ ] for example, among the hurons, the iroquois, the algonquins (charlevoix, _histoire de la nouvelle france_, vi, pp. - ; sagard, _le grand voyage au pays des hurons_, p. ), or among the thompson indians (teit, _the thompson indians of british columbia_, p. ). [ ] this is the case of the yuin (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ), the kurnai (_ibid._, p. ), several tribes of queensland (roth, _superstition, magic and medicine, north queensland ethnography_, bulletin no. , p. ; haddon, _head-hunters_, p. ); among the delaware (heckewelder, _an account of the history ... of the indian nations_, p. ), among the thompson indians (teit, _op. cit._, p. ), and among the salish statlumh (hill tout, _rep. of the ethnol. of the statlumh_, _j.a.i._, xxxv. pp. ff.). [ ] hill tout, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] catlin, _manners and customs_, etc., london, , i, p. . [ ] _lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, new edition, vi, pp. ff. [ ] charlevoix, _op. cit._, vi, p. . [ ] dorsey, _siouan cults, xith rep._, p. . [ ] boas, _kwakiutl_, p. . [ ] hill tout, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] boas, _kwakiutl_, p. . [ ] miss fletcher, _the import of the totem, a study from the omaha tribe_ (_smithsonian rep. for _, p. ).--similar facts will be found in teit, _op. cit._, pp. , ; peter jones, _history of the ojibway indians_, p. . [ ] this is the case, for example, with the dog among the salish statlumh, owing to the condition of servitude in which it lives (hill tout, _loc. cit._, p. ). [ ] langloh parker, _euahlayi_, p. . [ ] "the spirit of a man," says mrs. parker (_ibid._), "is in his yuanbeai (his individual totem), and his yuanbeai is in him." [ ] langloh parker, _euahlayi_, p. . it is the same among certain salish (hill tout, _ethn. rep. on the stseelis and skaulits tribes_, _j.a.i._, xxxiv, p. ). the fact is quite general among the indians of central america (brinton, _nagualism, a study in native american folklore and history_, in _proceed. of the am. philos. soc._, xxxiii, p. ). [ ] parker, _ibid._; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; dorsey, _siouan cults, xith rep._, p. . frazer has made a collection of the american cases and established the generality of the interdiction (_totemism and exogamy_, iii, p. ). it is true that in america, as we have seen, the individual must kill the animal whose skin serves to make what ethnologists call his medicine-sack. but this usage has been observed in five tribes only; it is probably a late and altered form of the institution. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , ; _australian medicine men_, _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ; teit, _the shuswap_, p. . [ ] meyer, _manners and customs of the aborigines of the encounter bay tribe_, in woods, p. . [ ] boas, _vith rep. on the north-west tribes of canada_, p. ; teit, _the thompson indians_, p. ; boas, _kwakiutl_, p. . [ ] facts will be found in hill tout, _rep. of the ethnol. of the statlumh_, _j.a.i._, xxxv, pp. , . cf. langloh parker, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] according to information given by howitt in a personal letter to frazer (_totemism and exogamy_, i, p. , and n. ). [ ] hill tout, _ethnol. rep. on the stseelis and skaulits tribes_, _j.a.i._, xxxiv, p. . [ ] howitt, _australian medicine men_, _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ; lafitau, _m[oe]urs des sauvages amériquains_, i, p. ; charlevoix, _histoire de la nouvelle france_, vi, p. . it is the same with the _atai_ and _tamaniu_ in mota (codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. f.). [ ] thus the line of demarcation between the animal protectors and fetishes, which frazer has attempted to establish, does not exist. according to him, fetishism commences when the protector is an individual object and not a class (_totemism_, p. ); but it frequently happens in australia that a determined animal takes this part (see howitt, _australian medicine men_, _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ). the truth is that the ideas of fetish and fetishism do not correspond to any definite thing. [ ] brinton, _nagualism_, in _proceed. amer. philos. soc._, xxxiii, p. . [ ] charlevoix, vi, p. . [ ] hill tout, _rep. on the ethnol. of the statlumh of british columbia_, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] hill tout, _ethnol. rep. on the stseelis and skaulits tribes_, _j.a.i._, xxxiv, pp. ff. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] langloh parker, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] j. w. powell, _an american view of totemism_, in _man_, , no. ; tylor, _ibid._, no. ; andrew lang has expressed analogous ideas in _social origins_, pp. - . also frazer himself, turning from his former opinion, now thinks that until we are better acquainted with the relations existing between collective totems and "guardian spirits," it would be better to designate them by different names (_totemism and exogamy_, iii, p. ). [ ] this is the case in australia among the yuin (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ), and the narrinyeri (meyer, _manners and customs of the aborigines of the encounter bay tribe_, in woods, pp. ff.). [ ] "the totem resembles the patron of the individual no more than an escutcheon resembles the image of a saint," says tylor (_op. cit._, p. ). likewise, if frazer has taken up the theory of tylor, it is because he refuses all religious character to the totem of the clan (_totemism and exogamy_, iii, p. ). [ ] see below, chapter ix of this book. [ ] yet according to one passage in mathews, the individual totem is hereditary among the wotjobaluk. "each individual," he says, "claims some animal, plant or inanimate object as his special and personal totem, which he inherits from his mother" (_journ. and proc. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. ). but it is evident that if all the children in the same family had the personal totem of their mother, neither they nor she would really have personal totems at all. mathews probably means to say that each individual chooses his individual totem from the list of things attributed to the clan of his mother. in fact, we shall see that each clan has its individual totems which are its exclusive property; the members of the other clans cannot make use of them. in this sense, birth determines the personal totem to a certain extent, but to a certain extent only. [ ] heckewelder, _an account of the history, manners and customs of the indian nations who once inhabited pennsylvania, in transactions of the historical and literary committee of the american philosophical society_, i, p. . [ ] see dorsey, _siouan cults, xith rep._, p. ; catlin, _op. cit._, i, p. ; miss fletcher, _the import of the totem, in smithsonian rep._ for , p. ; teit, _the thompson indians_, pp. - ; hill tout, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] but some examples are found. the kurnai magicians see their personal totems revealed to them in dreams (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; _on australian medicine men_, in _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ). the men of cape bedford believe that when an old man dreams of something during the night, this thing is the personal totem of the first person he meets the next day (w. e. roth, _superstition, magic and medicine_, p. ). but it is probable that only supplementary and accessory totems are acquired in this way; for in this same tribe another process is used at the moment of initiation, as we said in the text. [ ] in certain tribes of which roth speaks (_ibid._); also in certain tribes near to maryborough (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] among the wiradjuri (howitt, nat. tr., p. ; _on australian medicine men_, in _j.a.i._, xvi, p. ). [ ] roth, _loc. cit._ [ ] haddon, _head hunters_, pp. ff. [ ] among the wiradjuri (same references as above, n. ). [ ] in general, it seems as though these transmissions from father to son never take place except when the father is a shaman or a magician. this is also the case among the thompson indians (teit, _the thompson indians_, p. ) and the wiradjuri, of whom we just spoke. [ ] hill tout (_j.a.i._, xxxv, pp. f.). the essential rite is the blowing upon the skin: if this were not done correctly, the transmission would not take place. as we shall presently see, the breath is the soul. when both breathe upon the skin of the animal, the magician and the recipient each exhale a part of their souls, which are thus fused, while partaking at the same time of the nature of the animal, who also takes part in the ceremony in the form of its symbol. [ ] n. w. thomas, _further remarks on mr. hill tout's views on totemism_, in _man_, , p. . [ ] langloh parker, _op. cit._, pp. , . [ ] hill tout, in _j.a.i._, xxxv, pp. and ; _ibid._, xxxiv, p. . [ ] parker, _op. cit._, p. ; teit, _the thompson indians_, p. ; hill tout, in _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] charlevoix, vi, p. . [ ] hill tout, _ibid._, p. . [ ] thus at the birth of a child, a tree is planted which is cared for piously; for it is believed that its fate and the child's are united. frazer, in his _golden bough_, gives a number of customs and beliefs translating this same idea in different ways. (cf. hartland, _legend of perseus_, ii, pp. - .) [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, pp. , ff.; dawson, _australian aborigines_, p. . petrie also mentions it in queensland (_tom petrie's reminiscences of early queensland_, pp. and ). [ ] _journ. and proc. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . must we see a trace of sexual totemism in the following custom of the warramunga? when a dead person is buried, a bone of the arm is kept. if it is a woman, the feathers of an emu are added to the bark in which it is wrapped up; if it is a man, the feathers of an owl (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] some cases are cited where each sexual group has two sexual totems; thus the wurunjerri unite the sexual totems of the kurnai (the emu-wren and the linnet) to those of the wotjobaluk (the bat and the _nightjar_ owl). see howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _totemism_, p. . [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. . [ ] threlkeld, quoted by mathews, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] _kamilaroi and kurnai_, pp. - ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; petrie, _op. cit._, p. . among the kurnai, these bloody battles frequently terminate in marriages of which they are, as it were, a sort of ritual precursor. sometimes they are merely plays (petrie, _loc. cit._). [ ] on this point, see our study on _la prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines_, in the _année sociologique_, i, pp. ff. [ ] however, as we shall presently see (ch. ix), there is a connection between the sexual totems and the great gods. [ ] _primitive culture_, i, p. ; ii, p. ; _remarks on totemism, with especial reference to some modern theories concerning it_, in _j.a.i._, xxviii, and i, new series, p. . [ ] _het animisme bij den volken van den indischen archipel_, pp. - . [ ] tylor, _primitive culture_, ii, p. . [ ] tylor, _ibid._, ii, pp. - . [ ] g. mccall theal, _records of south-eastern africa_, vii. we are acquainted with this work only through an article by frazer, _south african totemism_, published in _man_, , no. iii. [ ] codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. f., and a personal letter by the same author cited by tylor in _j.a.i._, xxviii, p. . [ ] this is practically the solution adopted by wundt (_mythus und religion_, ii, p. ). [ ] it is true that according to tylor's theory, a clan is only an enlarged family; therefore whatever may be said of one of these groups is, in his theory, applicable to the other (_j.a.i._, xxviii, p. ). but this conception is exceedingly contestable; only the clan presupposes a totem, which has its whole meaning only in and through the clan. [ ] for this same conception, see a. lang, _social origins_, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] _primitive culture_, ii, p. . [ ] wundt, who has revived the theory of tylor in its essential lines, has tried to explain this mysterious relationship of the man and the animal in a different way: it was the sight of the corpse in decomposition which suggested the idea. when they saw worms coming out of the body, they thought that the soul was incarnate in them and escaped with them. worms, and by extension, reptiles (snakes, lizards, etc.), were therefore the first animals to serve as receptacles for the souls of the dead, and consequently they were also the first to be venerated and to play the rôle of totems. it was only subsequently that other animals and plants and even inanimate objects were elevated to the same dignity. but this hypothesis does not have even the shadow of a proof. wundt affirms (_mythus und religion_, ii, p. ) that reptiles are much more common totems than other animals; from this, he concludes that they are the most primitive. but we cannot see what justifies this assertion, in the support of which the author cites no facts. the lists of totems gathered either in australia or in america do not show that any special species of animal has played a preponderating rôle. totems vary from one region to another with the flora and fauna. moreover, if the circle of possible totems was so closely limited at first, we cannot see how totemism was able to satisfy the fundamental principle which says that the two clans or sub-clans of a tribe must have two different totems. [ ] "sometimes men adore certain animals," says tylor, "because they regard them as the reincarnation of the divine souls of the ancestors; this belief is a sort of bridge between the cult rendered to shades and that rendered to animals" (_primitive culture_, ii, p. , cf. , _in fine_). likewise, wundt presents totemism as a section of animalism (ii, p. ). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] _introduction to the history of religions_, pp. ff. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] jevons recognizes this himself, saying, "it is to be presumed that in the choice of an ally he would prefer ... the kind or species which possessed the greatest power" (p. ). [ ] nd edition, iii, pp. ff.; see especially p. , n. . in more recent articles, to be analysed below, frazer exposes a different theory, but one which does not, in his opinion, completely exclude the one in the _golden bough_. [ ] _the origin of the totemism of the aborigines of british columbia_, in _proc. and transact. of the roy. soc. of canada_, nd series, vii, § , pp. ff. also, _report on the ethnology of the statlumh_, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . hill tout has replies to various objections made to his theory in vol. ix of the _transact. of the roy. soc. of canada_, pp. - . [ ] alice c. fletcher, _the import of the totem_, in _smithsonian report for _, pp. - . [ ] _the kwakiutl indians_, pp. ff., - , . [ ] _the development of the clan system_, in _amer. anthrop._, n.s. vi, , pp. - . [ ] _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . cf. _vth rep. on the ... n.w. tribes of canada_, _b.a.a.s._, p. . a myth of this sort has been quoted above. [ ] _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] _proc. and transact., etc._, vii, § , p. . [ ] see _the golden bough_,[ ] iii, pp. ff. wilken had already pointed out similar facts in _de simsonsage_, in _de gids_, ; _de betrekking tusschen menschen-dieren en plantenleven_, in _indische gids_, , ; _ueber das haaropfer_, in _revue coloniale internationale_, - . [ ] for example, eylmann in _die eingeborenen der kolonie südaustralien_, p. . [ ] mrs. parker says in connection with the euahlayi, that if the yunbeai does "confer exceptional force, it also exposes one to exceptional dangers, for all that hurts the animal wounds the man" (_euahlayi_, p. ). [ ] in a later work (_the origin of totemism_, in _the fortnightly review_, may, , pp. - ), frazer raises this objection himself. "if," he says, "i deposit my soul in a hare, and my brother john (a member of another clan) shoots that hare, roasts and swallows it, what becomes of my soul? to meet this obvious danger it is necessary that john should know the state of my soul, and that, knowing it, he should, whenever he shoots a hare, take steps to extract and restore to me my soul before he cooks and dines upon the animal." now frazer believes that he has found this practice in use in central australia. every year, in the course of a ceremony which we shall describe presently, when the animals of the new generation arrive at maturity, the first game to be killed is presented to men of that totem, who eat a little of it; and it is only after this that the men of the other clans may eat it freely. this, says frazer, is a way of returning to the former the souls they may have confided to these animals. but, aside from the fact that this interpretation of the fact is wholly arbitrary, it is hard not to find this way of escaping the danger rather peculiar. this ceremony is annual; long days may have elapsed since the animal was killed. during all this time, what has become of the soul which it sheltered and the individual whose life depended on this soul? but it is superfluous to insist upon all the inconceivable things in this explanation. [ ] parker, _op. cit._, p. ; howitt, _australian medicine men_, in _j.a.i._, xvi, pp. , f.; hill tout, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] according to hill tout himself, "the gift or transmission (of a personal totem) can only be made or effected by certain persons, such as shamans, or those who possess great mystery power" (_j.a.i._, p. ). cf. langloh parker, _op. cit._, pp. - . [ ] cf. hartland, _totemism and some recent discoveries_, in _folk-lore_, xi, pp. ff. [ ] except perhaps the kurnai; but even in this tribe, there are sexual totems in addition to the personal ones. [ ] among the wotjobaluk, the buandik, the wiradjuri, the yuin and the tribes around maryborough (queensland). see howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. - ; mathews, _j. of the r. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . cf. thomas, _further notes on mr. hill tout's views on totemism_, in _man_, , p. . [ ] this is the case with the euahlayi and the facts of personal totemism cited by howitt, _australian medicine men_, in _j.a.i._, xvi, pp. , , - . [ ] miss fletcher, _a study of the omaha tribe_, in _smithsonian report for _, p. ; boas, _the kwakiutl_, p. . likewise, _vth rep. of the committee ... of the n.w. tribes of the dominion of canada, b.a.a.s._, p. ; hill tout, _j.a.i._, xxxv, p. . [ ] the proper names of the _gentes_, says boas in regard to the tlinkit, are derived from their respective totems, each gens having its special names. the connection between the name and the (collective) totem is not very apparent sometimes, but it always exists (_vth rep. of the committee, etc._, p. ). the fact that individual forenames are the property of the clan, and characterize it as surely as the totem, is also found among the iroquois (morgan, _ancient society_, p. ), the wyandot (powell, _wyandot government_, in _ist rep._, p. ), the shawnee, sauk and fox (morgan, _ancient society_, pp. , - ) and the omaha (dorsey, _omaha sociology_, in _iiird rep._, pp. ff.). now the relation between forenames and personal totems is already known (see above, p. ). [ ] "for example," says mathews, "if you ask a wartwurt man what totem he is, he will first tell his personal totem, and will probably then enumerate those of his clan" (_jour. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. ). [ ] _the beginnings of religion and totemism among the australian aborigines_, in _fortnightly review_, july, , pp. ff., and sept., p. . cf. the same author, _the origin of totemism_, _ibid._, april, , p. , and may, p. . these latter articles, being slightly older, differ from the former on one point, but the foundation of the theory is not essentially different. both are reproduced in _totemism and exogamy_, i, pp. - . in the same sense, see spencer and gillen, _some remarks on totemism as applied to australian tribes_, in _j.a.i._, , pp. - , and the remarks of frazer on the same subject, _ibid._, pp. - . [ ] "perhaps we may ... say that it is but one remove from the original pattern, the absolutely original form of totemism" (_fortnightly review_, sept., . p. ). [ ] on this point, the testimony of strehlow (ii, p. ) confirms that of spencer and gillen. for a contrary opinion, see a. lang, _the secret of the totem_, p. . [ ] a very similar idea had already been expressed by haddon in his _address to the anthropological section_ (_b.a.a.s._, , pp. ff.). he supposes that at first, each local group had some food which was especially its own. the plant or animal thus serving as the principal item of food became the totem of the group. all these explanations naturally imply that the prohibitions against eating the totemic animal were not primitive, but were even preceded by a contrary prescription. [ ] _fortnightly review_, sept., , p. . [ ] _fortn. rev._, may, , p. , and july, , pp. ff. [ ] though considering totemism only a system of magic, frazer recognizes that the first germs of a real religion are sometimes found in it (_fortn. rev._, july, , p. ). on the way in which he thinks religion developed out of magic, see _the golden bough_,^ i, pp. - . [ ] _sur le totemisme_, in _année soc._, v, pp. - . cf., on this same question, hartland, _presidential address_, in _folk-lore_, xi, p. ; a. lang, _a theory of arunta totemism_, in _man_, , no. ; _conceptional totemism and exogamy_, _ibid._, , no. ; _the secret of the totem_, ch. iv; n. w. thomas, _arunta totemism_, in _man_, , no. ; p. w. schmidt, _die stellung der aranda unter der australischen stämmen_, in _zeitschrift für ethnologie_, , pp. ff. [ ] _die aranda_, ii, pp. - . [ ] schulze, _loc cit._, pp. - . [ ] in the conclusion of _totemism and exogamy_ (iv, pp. - ), frazer says, it must be admitted, that there is a totemism still more ancient than that of the arunta: it is the one observed by rivers in the banks islands (_totemism in polynesia and melanesia_, in _j.a.i._, xxxix, p. ). among the arunta it is the spirit of an ancestor who is believed to impregnate the mother; in the banks islands, it is the spirit of an animal or vegetable, as the theory supposes. but as the ancestral spirits of the arunta have an animal or vegetable form, the difference is slight. therefore we have not mentioned it in our exposition. [ ] _social origins_, london, , especially ch. viii, entitled _the origin of totem names and beliefs_, and _the secret of the totem_, london, . [ ] in his _social origins_ especially, lang attempts to reconstitute by means of conjecture the form which these primitive groups should have; but it seems superfluous to reproduce these hypotheses, which do not affect his theory of totemism. [ ] on this point, lang approaches the theory of julius pickler (see pickler and szomolo, _der ursprung des totemismus. ein beitrag zur materialistirchen geschichtstheorie_, berlin, pp. in vo). the difference between the two hypotheses is that pickler attributes a higher importance to the pictorial representation of the name than to the name itself. [ ] _social origins_, p. . [ ] _the secret of the totem_, p. ; cf. pp. , . [ ] _the secret of the totem_, p. . [ ] _j.a.i._, aug., , pp. - ; cf. _nat. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] "with reverence," as lang says (_the secret of the totem_, p. ). [ ] lang adds that these taboos are the basis of exogamic practices. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] however, we have not spoken of the theory of spencer. but this is because it is only a part of his general theory of the transformation of the ancestor-cult into the nature-cult. as we have described that already, it is not necessary to repeat it. [ ] except that lang ascribes another source to the idea of the great gods: as we have already said, he believes that this is due to a sort of primitive revelation. but lang does not make use of this idea in his explanation of totemism. [ ] for example, in a kwakiutl myth, an ancestral hero pierces the head of an enemy by pointing a finger at him (boas, _vth rep. on the north. tribes of canada_, _b.a.a.s._, , p. ). [ ] references supporting this assertion will be found on p. , n. , and p. , n. . [ ] see bk. iii, ch. ii. [ ] see, for example, howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; schürmann, _the aboriginal tribes of port lincoln_, in woods, _nat. tr. of s. australia_, p. . [ ] frazer has even taken many facts from samoa which he presents as really totemic (see _totemism_, pp. , - , , etc.). it is true that we have charged frazer with not being critical enough in the choice of his examples, but so many examples would obviously have been impossible if there had not really been important survivals of totemism in samoa. [ ] see turner, _samoa_, p. and ch. iv and v. [ ] alice fletcher, _a study of the omaha tribe_, in _smithsonian rep._ for , pp. f. [ ] dorsey, _siouan sociology_, in _xvth rep._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] riggs and dorsey, _dakota-english dictionary_, in _contrib. n. amer. ethnol._, vii, p. . many observers cited by dorsey identify the word wakan with the words wakanda and wakanta, which are derived from it, but which really have a more precise signification. [ ] _xith rep._, p. , § . miss fletcher, while recognizing no less clearly the impersonal character of the wakanda, adds nevertheless that a certain anthropomorphism has attached to this conception. but this anthropomorphism concerns the various manifestations of the wakanda. men address the trees or rocks where they think they perceive the wakanda, as if they were personal beings. but the wakanda itself is not personified (_smithsonian rep. for _, p. ). [ ] riggs, _tah-koo wah-kon_, pp. - , quoted from dorsey, _xith rep._, p. , § . [ ] _xith rep._, p. , § . [ ] _ibid._, p. , § . [ ] _ibid._, p. , § ; p. , § ; cf. p. , § . [ ] _ibid._, p. , § . [ ] _ibid._, p. , § . [ ] _ibid._, p. , § . [ ] _orenda and a definition of religion_, in _american anthropologist_, , p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] tesa, _studi del thavenet_, p. . [ ] boas, _kwakiutl_, p. . [ ] swanton, _social condition, etc, of the tlinkit indians_, _xxvith rep._, , p. , n. . [ ] swanton, _contributions to the ethnology of the haida_, p. ; cf. _social condition, etc._, p. . [ ] in certain melanesian societies (banks islands, north new hebrides) the two exogamic phratries are found which characterize the australian organization (codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. ff.). in florida, there are regular totems, called _butos_ (_ibid._, p. ). an interesting discussion of this point will be found in lang, _social origins_, pp. ff. on the same subject, and in the same sense, see w. h. r. rivers, _totemism in polynesia and melanesia_, in _j.a.i._, xxxix, pp. ff. [ ] _the melanesians_, p. , n. . cf. parkinson, _dreissig jahre in der südsee_, pp. , , , etc. [ ] an analysis of this idea will be found in hubert and mauss, _théorie générale de la magie_, in _année sociol._, vii, p. . [ ] there are not only totems of clans but also of guilds (a. fletcher, _smithsonian rep. for _, pp. ff.). [ ] fletcher, _op. cit._, pp. f. [ ] _ibid._, p. . among the dakota, the totem is called wakan. see riggs and dorsey, _dakota grammar, texts and ethnol._, in _contributions n. amer. ethn._, , p. . [ ] _james's account of long's expedition in the rocky mountains_, i, p. . (quoted by dorsey, _xith rep._, p. , § .) [ ] we do not mean to say that in principle every representation of religious forces in an animal form is an index of former totemism. but when we are dealing with societies where totemism is still apparent, as is the case with the dakota, it is quite natural to think that these conceptions are not foreign to it. [ ] see below, same book, ch. ix, § , pp. ff. [ ] the first spelling is that of spencer and gillen; the second, that of strehlow. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. , n. . it is true that spencer and gillen add: "the idea can be best expressed by saying that an arungquiltha object is possessed of an evil spirit." but this free translation of spencer and gillen is their own unjustified interpretation. the idea of the arungquiltha in no way implies the existence of spiritual beings, as is shown by the context and strehlow's definition. [ ] _die aranda_, ii, p. , n. [ ] under the name boyl-ya (see grey, _journal of two expeditions_, ii, pp. - ). [ ] see above, p. . spencer and gillen recognize this implicitly when they say that the arungquiltha is a "supernatural force." cf. hubert and mauss, _théorie générale de la magie_, in _année sociol._, vii, p. . [ ] codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. ff. [ ] hewitt, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] there is even ground for asking whether an analogous notion is completely lacking in australia. the word churinga, or tjurunga as strehlow writes, has a very great similarity, with the arunta. spencer and gillen say that it designates "all that is secret or sacred. it is applied both to the object and to the quality it possesses" (_nat. tr._, p. , s.v. churinga). this is almost a definition of mana. sometimes spencer and gillen even use this word to designate religious power or force in a general way. while describing a ceremony among the kaitish, they say that the officiant is "_full of churinga_," that is to say, they continue, of the "magic power emanating from the objects called churinga." yet it does not seem that the notion of churinga has the same clarity and precision as that of the mana in melanesia or of the wakan among the sioux. [ ] yet we shall see below (this book, ch. viii and ix) that totemism is not foreign to all ideas of a mythical personality. but we shall show that these conceptions are the product of secondary formations: far from being the basis of the beliefs we have just analysed, they are derived from them. [ ] _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] _rep. peabody museum_, iii, p. , n. (quoted by dorsey, _xith rep._, p. ). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] in the expressions such as [greek: zeus yei] or _ceres succiditur_, it is shown that this conception survived in greece as well as in rome. in his _götternamen_, usener has clearly shown that the primitive gods of greece and rome were impersonal forces thought of only in terms of their attributes. [ ] _définition du phénomène religieux_, in _année sociol._, ii, pp. - . [ ] _preanimistic religion_, in _folk-lore_, , pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. . in a more recent work, _the conception of mana_ (in _transactions of the third international congress for the history of religions_, ii, pp. ff.), marrett tends to subordinate still further the animistic conception of mana, but his thought on this point remains hesitating and very reserved. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] this return of preanimism to naturism is still more marked in clodd, _preanimistic stages of religion_ (_trans. third inter. congress for the h. of rel._, i, p. ). [ ] _théorie générale de la magie_, in _année sociol._, vii, pp. ff. [ ] _der ursprung der religion und kunst_, in _globus_, , vol. lxxxvi, pp. , , , ; , vol. lxxxvii, pp. , , , , . [ ] _globus_, lxxxvii, p. . [ ] he clearly opposes them to all influences of a profane nature (_globus_, lxxxvi, p. a). [ ] it is found even in the recent theories of frazer. for if this scholar denies to totemism all religious character, in order to make it a sort of magic, it is just because the forces which the totemic cult puts into play are impersonal like those employed by the magician. so frazer recognizes the fundamental fact which we have just established. but he draws different conclusions because he recognizes religion only where there are mythical personalities. [ ] however, we do not take this word in the same sense as preuss and marrett. according to them, there was a time in religious evolution when men knew neither souls nor spirits: a _preanimistic_ phase. but this hypothesis is very questionable: we shall discuss this point below (bk. ii, ch. viii and ix). [ ] on this same question, see an article of alessandro bruno, _sui fenomeni magico-religiosi della communità primitive_, in _rivista italiana di sociologia_, xii year, fasc. iv-v, pp. ff., and an unpublished communication made by w. bogoras to the xiv congress of the americanists, held at stuttgart in . this communication is analysed by preuss in the _globus_, lxxxvi, p. . [ ] "all things," says miss fletcher, "are filled with a common principle of life," _smiths. rep. for _, p. . [ ] hewitt, in _american anthropologist_, , p. . [ ] _the melanesians_, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] pickler, in the little work above mentioned, had already expressed, in a slightly dialectical manner, the sentiment that this is what the totem essentially is. [ ] see our _division du travail social_, rd ed., pp. ff. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] this is the case at least with all moral authority recognized as such by the group as a whole. [ ] we hope that this analysis and those which follow will put an end to an inexact interpretation of our thought, from which more than one misunderstanding has resulted. since we have made constraint the _outward sign_ by which social facts can be the most easily recognized and distinguished from the facts of individual psychology, it has been assumed that according to our opinion, physical constraint is the essential thing for social life. as a matter of fact, we have never considered it more than the material and apparent expression of an interior and profound fact which is wholly ideal: this is _moral authority_. the problem of sociology--if we can speak of _a_ sociological problem--consists in seeking, among the different forms of external constraint, the different sorts of moral authority corresponding to them and in discovering the causes which have determined these latter. the particular question which we are treating in this present work has as its principal object, the discovery of the form under which that particular variety of moral authority which is inherent in all that is religious has been born, and out of what elements it is made. it will be seen presently that even if we do make social pressure one of the distinctive characteristics of sociological phenomena, we do not mean to say that it is the only one. we shall show another aspect of the collective life, nearly opposite to the preceding one, but none the less real (see p. ). [ ] of course this does not mean to say that the collective consciousness does not have distinctive characteristics of its own (on this point, see _représentations individuelles et représentations collectives_, in _revue de métaphysique et de morale_, , pp. ff.). [ ] this is proved by the length and passionate character of the debates where a legal form was given to the resolutions made in a moment of collective enthusiasm. in the clergy as in the nobility, more than one person called this celebrated night the dupe's night, or, with rivarol, the st. bartholomew of the estates (see stoll, _suggestion und hypnotismus in der völkerpsychologie_, nd ed., p. , n. ). [ ] see stoll, _op. cit._, pp. ff. [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, pp. ff. [ ] the emotions of fear and sorrow are able to develop similarly and to become intensified under these same conditions. as we shall see, they correspond to quite another aspect of the religious life (bk. iii, ch. v). [ ] this is the other aspect of society which, while being imperative, appears at the same time to be good and gracious. it dominates us and assists us. if we have defined the social fact by the first of these characteristics rather than the second, it is because it is more readily observable, for it is translated into outward and visible signs; but we have never thought of denying the second (see our _règles de la méthode sociologique_, preface to the second edition, p. xx, n. ). [ ] codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. , , . it is also generally thought that in the polynesian languages, the word _mana_ primitively had the sense of authority (see tregear, _maori comparative dictionary_, s.v.). [ ] see albert mathiez, _les origines des cultes révolutionnaires_ ( - ). [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see mathiez, _la théophilanthropie et la culte décadaire_, p. . [ ] see spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] there are even ceremonies, for example, those which take place in connection with the initiation, to which members of foreign tribes are invited. a whole system of messages and messengers is organized for these convocations, without which the great solemnities could not take place (see howitt, _notes on australian message-sticks and messengers_, in _j.a.i._, ; _nat. tr._, pp. , - ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] the corrobbori is distinguished from the real religious ceremonies by the fact that it is open to women and uninitiated persons. but if these two sorts of collective manifestations are to be distinguished, they are, none the less, closely related. we shall have occasion elsewhere to come back to this relationship and to explain it. [ ] except, of course, in the case of the great bush-beating hunts. [ ] "the peaceful monotony of this part of his life," say spencer and gillen (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . he is speaking of the demonstrations which take place when an ambassador sent to a group of foreigners returns to camp with news of a favourable result. cf. brough smyth, i, p. ; schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. f.; _nor. tr._, p. ; brough smyth, ii, p. .--this ritual promiscuity is found especially in the initiation ceremonies (spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ), and in the totemic ceremonies (_nor. tr._, pp. , , ). in these latter, the ordinary exogamic rules are violated. sometimes among the arunta, unions between father and daughter, mother and son, and brothers and sisters (that is in every case, relationship by blood) remain forbidden (_nat. tr._, pp. f.). [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . this is extremely common. [ ] these women were kingilli themselves, so these unions violated the exogamic rules. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . other examples of this collective effervescence during the religious ceremonies will be found in _nat. tr._, pp. - , - , , - (this latter in connection with a funeral rite). cf. _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] thus we see that this fraternity is the logical consequence of totemism, rather than its basis. men have not imagined their duties towards the animals of the totemic species because they regarded them as kindred, but have imagined the kinship to explain the nature of the beliefs and rites of which they were the object. the animal was considered a relative of the man because it was a sacred being like the man, but it was not treated as a sacred being because it was regarded as a relative. [ ] see below, bk. iii, ch i, § . [ ] at the bottom of this conception there is a well-founded and persistent sentiment. modern science also tends more and more to admit that the duality of man and nature does not exclude their unity, and that physical and moral forces, though distinct, are closely related. we undoubtedly have a different conception of this unity and relationship than the primitive, but beneath these different symbols, the truth affirmed by the two is the same. [ ] we say that this derivation is sometimes indirect on account of the industrial methods which, in a large number of cases, seem to be derived from religion through the intermediacy of magic (see hubert and mauss, _théorie générale de la magie_, _année sociol._, vii, pp. ff.); for, as we believe, magic forces are only a special form of religious forces. we shall have occasion to return to this point several times. [ ] at least after he is once adult and fully initiated, for the initiation rites, introducing the young man to the social life, are a severe discipline in themselves. [ ] upon this particular aspect of primitive societies, see our _division du travail social_, rd ed., pp. , , ff. [ ] we provisionally limit ourselves to this general indication: we shall return to this idea and give more explicit proof, when we speak of the rites (bk. iii). [ ] on this point, see achelis, _die ekstase_, berlin, , especially ch. i. [ ] cf. mauss, _essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés eskimos_, in _année sociol._, ix, p. . [ ] thus we see how erroneous those theories are which, like the geographical materialism of ratzel (see especially his _politische geographie_), seek to derive all social life from its material foundation (either economic or territorial). they commit an error precisely similar to the one committed by maudsley in individual psychology. just as this latter reduced all the psychical life of the individual to a mere epiphenomenon of his physiological basis, they seek to reduce the whole psychical life of the group to its physical basis. but they forget that ideas are realities and forces, and that collective representations are forces even more powerful and active than individual representations. on this point, see our _représentations individuelles et représentations collectives_, in the _revue de métaphysique et de morale_, may, . [ ] see above, pp. and . [ ] even the _excreta_ have a religious character. see preuss, _der ursprung der religion und kunst_, especially ch. ii, entitled _der zauber der defäkation_ (_globus_, lxxxvi, pp. ff.). [ ] this principle has passed from religion into magic: it is the _totem ex parte_ of the alchemists. [ ] on this point see _règles de la méthode sociologique_, pp. ff. [ ] procopius of gaza, _commentarii in isaiam_, . [ ] see thévenot, _voyage au levant_, paris, , p. . the fact was still round in . [ ] lacassagne, _les tatouages_, p. . [ ] lombroso, _l'homme criminel_, i, p. . [ ] lombroso, _ibid._, i, pp. , , f.; lacassagne, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] for the authority of the chiefs, see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] at least in australia. in america, the population is more generally sedentary; but the american clan represents a relatively advanced form of organization. [ ] to make sure of this, it is sufficient to look at the chart arranged by thomas, _kinship and marriage in australia_, p. . to appreciate this chart properly, it should be remembered that the author has extended, for a reason unknown to us, the system of totemic filiation in the paternal line clear to the western coast of australia, though we have almost no information about the tribes of this region, which is, moreover, largely a desert. [ ] the stars are often regarded, even by the australians, as the land of souls and mythical personages, as will be established in the next chapter: that means that they pass as being a very different world from that of the living. [ ] _op. cit._, i, p. . cf. schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] of course it is to be understood that, as we have already pointed out (see above, p. ), this choice was not made without a more or less formal agreement between the groups that each should take a different emblem from its neighbours. [ ] the mental state studied in this paragraph is identical to the one called by lévy-bruhl the law of participation (_les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures_, pp. ff.). the following pages were written when this work appeared and we publish them without change; we confine ourselves to adding certain explanations showing in what we differ from m. lévy-bruhl in our understanding of the facts. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] another cause has contributed much to this fusion; this is the extreme contagiousness of religious forces. they seize upon every object within their reach, whatever it may be. thus a single religious force may animate the most diverse things which, by that very fact, become closely connected and classified within a single group. we shall return again to this contagiousness, when we shall show that it comes from the social origins of the idea of sacredness (bk. iii, ch. i, _in fine_). [ ] lévy-bruhl, _op. cit._, pp. ff. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] this is the case with the gnanji; see _nor. tr._, pp. , ; cf. a similar case in brough smyth, ii, p. . [ ] _australian aborigines_, p. . [ ] there certainly was a time when the gnanji women had souls, for a large number of women's souls still exist to-day. however, they never reincarnate themselves; since in this tribe the soul animating a new-born child is an old reincarnated soul, it follows from the fact that women's souls do not reincarnate themselves, that women cannot have a soul. moreover, it is possible to explain whence this absence of reincarnation comes. filiation among the gnanji, after having been uterine, is now in the paternal line: a mother no longer transmits her totem to her child. so the woman no longer has any descendants to perpetuate her; she is the _finis familiæ suæ_. to explain this situation, there are only two possible hypotheses; either women have no souls, or else they are destroyed after death. the gnanji have adopted the former of these two explanations; certain peoples of queensland have preferred the latter (see roth, _superstition, magic and medicine_, in _n. queensland ethnog._, no. , § ). [ ] "the children below four or five years of age have neither soul nor future life," says dawson. but the fact he thus relates is merely the absence of funeral rites for young children. we shall see the real meaning of this below. [ ] dawson, p. ; parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; schürmann, _the aboriginal tribes of port lincoln_, in woods, p. . [ ] this is the expression used by dawson, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. , n. ; schulze, _loc. cit._, p. ; this is the theme of the myth of the vampire. [ ] strehlow, i, p. ; schulze, p. ; dawson, p. . it is true that it is sometimes said that souls have nothing corporeal; according to certain testimony collected by eylmann (p. ), they are _ohne fleisch und blut_. but these radical negations leave us sceptical. the fact that offerings are not made to the souls of the dead in no way implies, as roth thinks (_superstition, magic_, etc., § ), that they do not eat. [ ] roth, _ibid._, § ; _nor. tr._, p. . it sometimes happens that the soul emits odours (roth, _ibid._, § ). [ ] roth, _ibid._, § ; dawson, p. . [ ] roth, _ibid._, § . [ ] schürmann, _aborig. tr. of port lincoln_, in woods, p. . [ ] parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. , ; roth, _ibid._, §§ , , . [ ] roth, _ibid._, § ; strehlow, i, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. , n. . [ ] frazer, _on certain burial customs, as illustrative of the primitive theory of the soul_, in _j.a.i._, xv, p. . [ ] this is the case with the kaitish and the unmatjera; see _nor. tr._, p. ; and _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] roth, _ibid._, §§ , , , . [ ] roth, _ibid._, § ; this says that when someone faints after a loss of blood, it is because the soul is gone. cf. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. . [ ] parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. , ; roth, _ibid._, § . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. , . in these passages he speaks of evil spirits which kill little children and eat their souls, livers and fat, or else their souls, livers and kidneys. the fact that the soul is thus put on the same plane as the different viscera and tissues and is made a food like them shows the close connection it has with them. cf. schulze, p. . [ ] for example, among the peoples on the pennefather river (roth, _ibid._, § ), there is a name for the soul residing in the heart (_ngai_), another for the one in the placenta (_cho-i_), and a third for the one which is confounded with the breath (_wanji_). among the euahlayi, there are three or even four souls (parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ). [ ] see the description of the _urpmilchima_ rite among the arunta (_nat. tr._, pp. ff.). [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. and . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , ff. [ ] meyer, _the encounter bay tribe_, in woods, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , ; _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] among the arunta and loritja, for example (strehlow, i, p. , n. ; ii, p. ). during life, the soul is called _gumna_, and _ltana_ after death. the _ltana_ of strehlow is identical with the _ulthana_ of spencer and gillen (_nat. tr._, pp. ff.). the same is true of the tribes on the bloomfield river (roth, _superstition_, etc., § ). [ ] eylmann, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] mathews, _ethnol. notes on the aboriginal tribes of n.s. wales and victoria_, in _journal and proc. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. ff. thus, according to strehlow, the dead live in an island in the arunta theory, but according to spencer and gillen, in a subterranean place. it is probable that the two myths coexist and are not the only ones. we shall see that even a third has been found. on this conception of an island of the dead, see howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; schürmann, _aborig. tr. of port lincoln_, in woods, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] schulze, p. . [ ] dawson, p. . [ ] in these same tribes evident traces of a more ancient myth will be found, according to which the dead live in a subterranean place (dawson, _ibid._). [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. f.; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, i, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. ; eylmann, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] these are the spirits of the ancestors of a special clan, the clan of a certain poisonous gland (_giftdrüsenmänner_). [ ] sometimes the work of the missionaries is evident. dawson speaks of a real hell opposed to paradise; but he too tends to regard this as a european importation. [ ] dorsey, _xith rep._, pp. - , , . cf. marillier, _la survivance de l'âme et l'idée de justice chez les peuples non-civilisés_, _rapport de l'ecole des hautes Études_, . [ ] they may be doubled temporarily, as we shall see in the next chapter: but these duplications add nothing to the number of the souls capable of reincarnation. [ ] strehlow, i, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. , n. [ ] on this set of conceptions, see _nat. tr._, pp. , - , ff.; _nor. tr._, pp. - . among the gnanji, it is not necessarily near the oknanikilla that the conception takes place. but they believe that each couple is accompanied in its wanderings over the continent by a swarm of souls of the husband's totem. when the time comes, one of these souls enters the body of the wife and fertilizes it, wherever she may be (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. f.; cf. ch. x and xi. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] among the kaitish (_nor. tr._, p. ) and the urabunna (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] this is the case among the warramunga and the related tribes, the walpari, wulmala, worgaia, tjingilli (_nor. tr._, p. ), and also the umbaia and the gnanji (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] strehlow, i, pp. - . for the loritja, see strehlow, p. . [ ] strehlow even goes so far as to say that sexual relations are not even thought to be a necessary condition or sort of preparation for conception (ii, p. , n. ). it is true that he adds a few lines below that the old men know perfectly well the connection which unites sexual intercourse and generation, and that as far as animals are concerned, the children themselves know it. this lessens the value of his first assertion a little. [ ] in general, we employ the terminology of spencer and gillen rather than that of strehlow because it is now consecrated by long usage. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] i, p. . _ngarra_ means eternal, according to strehlow. among the loritja, only rocks fulfil this function. [ ] strehlow translates it by _kinderkeime_ (children-germs). it is not true that spencer and gillen have ignored the myth of the _ratapa_ and the customs connected with it. they explicitly mention it in _nat. tr._, pp. ff. and . they noticed, at different points of the arunta territory, the existence of rocks called _erathipa_ from which the _spirit children_, or the children's souls, disengage themselves, to enter the bodies of women and fertilize them. according to spencer and gillen, _erathipa_ means child, though, as they add, it is rarely used in this sense in ordinary conversation (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] the arunta are divided into four or eight matrimonial classes. the class of a child is determined by that of his father; inversely, that of the latter may be deduced from the former (see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; strehlow, i, pp. ff.). it remains to be seen how the ratapa has a matrimonial class; we shall return to this point again. [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . it happens sometimes, though rarely, that disputes arise over the nature of the child's totem. strehlow cites such a case (ii, p. ). [ ] this is the same word as the _namatwinna_ found in spencer and gillen (_nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] mathews attributes a similar theory of conception to the tjingilli (_alias_ chingalee) (_proc. roy. geogr. trans. and soc. queensland_, xxii ( ), pp. - ). [ ] it sometimes happens that the ancestor who is believed to have thrown the namatuna shows himself to the woman in the form of an animal or a man; this is one more proof of the affinity of the ancestral soul for a material form. [ ] schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] this results from the fact that the ratapa can incarnate itself only in the body of a woman belonging to the same matrimonial class as the mother of the mythical ancestor. so we cannot understand how strehlow could say (i, p. , _anmerkung_) that, except in one case, the myths do not attribute determined matrimonial classes to the alcheringa ancestors. his own theory of conception proves the contrary (cf. ii, pp. ff.). [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] the difference between the two versions becomes still smaller and is reduced to almost nothing, if we observe that, when spencer and gillen tell us that the ancestral soul is incarnated in the woman, the expressions they use are not to be taken literally. it is not the whole soul which comes to fertilize the mother, but only an emanation from this soul. in fact, according to their own statement, a soul equal or even superior in power to the one that is incarnated continues to live in the nanja tree or rock (see _nat. tr._, p. ); we shall have occasion to come back to this point again (cf. below, p. ). [ ] ii, pp. , . according to spencer and gillen, the churinga is not the soul of the ancestor, but the object in which his soul resides. at bottom, these two mythological interpretations are identical, and it is easy to see how one has been able to pass into the other: the body is the place where the soul resides. [ ] strehlow, i, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. f. in these stories, the ancestor begins by introducing himself into the body of the woman and causing there the troubles characteristic of pregnancy. then he goes out, and only then does he leave his namatuna. [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . this is the word for word translation of the terms employed, as strehlow gives them: _dies du körper bist; dies du der nämliche._ in the myth, a civilizing hero, mangarkunjerkunja, says as he presents to each man the churinga of his ancestor: "you are born of this churinga" (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] strehlow, _ibid._ [ ] at bottom, the only real difference between strehlow and spencer and gillen is the following one. for these latter, the soul of the individual, after death, returns to the nanja tree, where it is again confounded with the ancestor's soul (_nat. tr._, p. ); for strehlow, it goes to the isle of the dead, where it is finally annihilated. in neither myth does it survive individually. we are not going to seek the cause of this divergence. it is possible that there has been an error of observation on the part of spencer and gillen, who do not speak of the isle of the dead. it is also possible that the myth is not the same among the eastern arunta, whom spencer and gillen observed particularly, as in the other parts of the tribe. [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] _ibid._, ii, p. . [ ] _ibid._, i, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, ii, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. ; i, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] roth, _superstition, magic_, etc., § . [ ] in other words, the totemic species is made up of the group of ancestors and the mythological species much more than of the regular animal or vegetable species. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] strehlow, _ibid._ [ ] strehlow, ii, pp. , , . strehlow calls the list of totems the list of ratapa. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] _the manners and customs of the dieyerie tribe of australian aborigines_, in curr, ii, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] taplin, _folk-lore, customs, manners, etc., of the south australian aborig._, p. . [ ] the clan of each ancestor has its special camp underground; this camp is the miyur. [ ] mathews, in _jour. of roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . he points out the same belief among other tribes of victoria (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] mathews, _ibid._, p. . [ ] j. bishop, _die niol-niol_, in _anthropos_, iii, p. . [ ] roth, _superstition_, etc., § ; cf. § a, gives a similar case from among the natives on the proserpine river. to simplify the description, we have left aside the complications due to differences of sex. the souls of daughters are made out of the choi of their mother, though these share with their brothers the ngai of their father. this peculiarity, coming perhaps from two systems of filiation which have been in use successively, has nothing to do with the principle of the perpetuity of the soul. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _die tlinkit-indianer_, p. . [ ] swanton, _contributions to the ethnology of the haida_, pp. ff. [ ] boas, _sixth rep. of the comm. on the n.w. tribes of canada_, p. . [ ] lafitau, _m[oe]urs des sauvages amériquains_, ii, p. ; petitot, _monographie des dénè-dindjié_, p. . [ ] see above, pp. ff. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; cf. _ibid._, p. . [ ] strehlow (i, p. , n. ) and schulze (_loc. cit._, p. ) speak of the soul, as howitt here speaks of the totem, as leaving the body to go to eat another soul. likewise, as we have seen above, the altjira or maternal totem shows itself in dreams, just as a soul or spirit does. [ ] fison and howitt, _kurnai and kamilaroi_, p. . [ ] _globus_, vol. cxi, p. . in spite of the objections of leonhardi, strehlow maintains his affirmations on this point (see strehlow, iii, p. xi). leonhardi finds a contradiction between this assertion and the theory according to which the ratapa emanate from trees, rocks or churinga. but the totemic animal incarnates the totem just as much as the nanja-tree or rock does, so they may fulfil the same function. the two things are mythological equivalents. [ ] _notes on the west coastal tribes of the northern territory of s. australia_, in _trans. of the roy. soc. of s. aust._, xxxi ( ), p. . cf. _man_, , no. . [ ] among the wakelbura, where, according to curr and howitt, each matrimonial class has its own totems, the animal shows the class (see curr, iii, p. ); among the buandik, it reveals the clan (mrs. james s. smith, _the buandik tribes of s. australian aborigines_, p, ). cf. howitt, _on some australian beliefs_, in _j.a.i._, xiii, p. ; xiv, p. ; thomas, _an american view of totemism_, in _man_, , no. ; mathews, _journ. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, pp. - ; brough smyth, i, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] roth, _superstition_, etc., § . this is probably a form of sexual totemism. [ ] prinz zu wied, _reise in das innere nord-amerika_, ii, p. . [ ] k. von den steinen, _unter den naturvölkern zentral-bräsiliens_, , pp. , . [ ] see frazer, _golden bough_^ , i, pp. , , , , . [ ] _third rep._, pp. , . [ ] _indian tribes_, iv, p. . [ ] for example, among the batta of sumatra (see _golden bough_^ , iii, p. ), in melanesia (codrington, _the melanesians_, p. ), in the malay archipelago (tylor, _remarks on totemism_, in _j.a.i._, new series, i, p. ). it is to be remarked that the cases where the soul clearly presents itself after death in an animal form all come from the societies where totemism is more or less perverted. this is because the idea of the soul is necessarily ambiguous wherever the totemic beliefs are relatively pure, for totemism implies that it participate in the two kingdoms at the same time. so it cannot become either one or the other exclusively, but takes one aspect or the other, according to the circumstances. as totemism develops, this ambiguity becomes less necessary, while at the same time, spirits more actively demand attention. then the marked affinities of the soul for the animal kingdom are manifested, especially after it is freed from the human body. [ ] see above, p. . on the generality of the doctrine of metempsychosis, see tylor, ii, pp. ff. [ ] even if we believe that religious and moral representations constitute the essential elements of the idea of the soul, still we do not mean to say that they are the only ones. around this central nucleus are grouped other states of consciousness having this same character, though to a slighter degree. this is the case with all the superior forms of the intellectual life, owing to the special price and dignity attributed to them by society. when we devote our lives to science or art, we feel that we are moving in a circle of things that are above bodily sensations, as we shall have occasion to show more precisely in our conclusion. this is why the highest functions of the intelligence have always been considered specific manifestations of the soul. but they would probably not have been enough to establish the idea of it. [ ] f. tregear, _the maori-polynesian comparative dictionary_, pp. - . [ ] this is the thesis of preuss in his articles in the _globus_ which we have cited several times. it seems that m. lévy-bruhl also tends towards this conception (see his _fonctions mentales_, etc., pp. - ). [ ] on this point, see our _suicide_, pp. ff. [ ] it may be objected perhaps that unity is the characteristic of the personality, while the soul has always been conceived as multiple, and as capable of dividing and subdividing itself almost to infinity. but we know to-day that the unity of the person is also made up of parts and that it, too, is capable of dividing and decomposing. yet the notion of personality does not vanish because of the fact that we no longer think of it as a metaphysical and indivisible atom. it is the same with the popular conceptions of personality which find their expression in the idea of the soul. these show that men have always felt that the human personality does not have that absolute unity attributed to it by certain metaphysicians. [ ] for all this, we do not deny the importance of the individual factor: this is explained from our point of view just as easily as its contrary. if the essential element of the personality is the social part of us, on the other hand there can be no social life unless distinct individuals are associated, and this is richer the more numerous and different from each other they are. so the individual factor is a condition of the impersonal factor. and the contrary is no less true, for society itself is an important source of individual differences (see our _division du travail social_, rd. ed., pp. ff.). [ ] roth, _superstition, magic_, etc., §§ , ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; dawson, _austral. aborig._, p. ; roth, _op. cit._, § . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. and n. ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] on this question, see negrioli, _dei genii presso i romani_; the articles _daimon_ and _genius_ in the _dict. of antiq._; preller, _romische mythologie_, ii, pp. ff. [ ] negrioli, _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . cf. samter, _der ursprung der larencultus_, in _archiv f. religions-wissenschaft_, , pp. - . [ ] schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. . cf. spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; gason, in curr, ii, p. . [ ] see the case of a mura-mura who is considered the spirit of certain hot springs, in howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f.; mathews, _journ. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . among the dieri there is also a mura-mura whose function is to produce rain (howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. f.). [ ] roth. _superstition_, etc., § . cf. dawson, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. ff. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, ch. vii. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. . [ ] it is true that some nanja-trees and rocks are not situated around the ertnatulunga; they are scattered over different parts of the tribal territory. it is said that these are places where an isolated ancestor disappeared into the ground, lost a member, let some blood flow, or lost a churinga which was transformed into a tree or rock. but these totemic sites have only a secondary importance; strehlow calls them _kleinere totemplätze_ (i, pp. - ). so it may be that they have taken this character only by analogy with the principal totemic centres. the trees and rocks which, for some reason or other, remind one of those found in the neighbourhood of an ertnatulunga, inspire analogous sentiments, so the myth which was formed in regard to the latter was extended to the former. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] parker, _the euahlayi_, p. . the tree serving for this use is generally one of those figuring among the sub-totems of the individual. as a reason for this choice, they say that as it is of the same family as the individual, it should be better disposed to giving him aid (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] parker, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] codrington, _the melanesians_, pp. - . [ ] turner, _samoa_, p. . [ ] these are the very words used by codrington (p. ). [ ] this close connection between the soul, the guardian genius and the moral conscience of the individual is especially apparent among certain peoples of indonesia. "one of the seven souls of the tobabatak is buried with the placenta; though preferring to live in this place, it may leave it to warn the individual or to manifest its approbation when he does well. so in one sense, it plays the rôle of a moral conscience. however, its communications are not confined to the domain of moral facts. it is called the younger brother of the soul, as the placenta is called the younger brother of the child.... in war, it inspires the man with courage to march against the enemy" (warneck, _der bataksche ahnen und geistercult_, in _allg. missionszeitschrift_, berlin, . p. . cf. kruijt, _het animisme in den indischen archipel_, p. ). [ ] it still remains to be investigated how it comes that after a certain moment in evolution, this duplication of the soul was made in the form of an individual totem rather than of a protecting ancestor. perhaps this question has an ethnological rather than a sociological interest. however, the manner in which this substitution was probably effected may be represented as follows. the individual totem commenced by playing a merely complimentary rôle. those individuals who wished to acquire powers superior to those possessed by everybody, did not and could not content themselves with the mere protection of the ancestor; so they began to look for another assistant of the same sort. thus it comes about that among the euahlayi, the magicians are the only ones who have or who can procure individual totems. as each one has a collective totem in addition, he finds himself having many souls. but there is nothing surprising in this plurality of souls: it is the condition of a superior power. but when collective totemism once begins to lose ground, and when the conception of the protecting ancestor consequently begins to grow dim in the mind, another method must be found for representing the double nature of the soul, which is still felt. the resulting idea was that, outside of the individual soul, there was another, charged with watching over the first one. since this protecting power was no longer demonstrated by the very fact of birth, men found it natural to employ, for its discovery, means analogous to those used by magicians to enter into communion with the forces of whose aid they thus assured themselves. [ ] for example, see strehlow, ii, p. . [ ] wyatt, _adelaide and encounter bay tribes_, in woods, p. . [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. f.; roth, _superstition_, etc., § ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; strehlow, pp. - . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. - ; dawson, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, pp. - ; eylmann, pp. , ; spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. ; schürmann, _the aborig. tr. of port lincoln_, in woods, p. . [ ] eylmann, p. . [ ] mathews, _journ. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. ; fison and howitt, _kamilaroi and kurnai_, p. ; strehlow, i, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . strehlow calls these evil spirits _erintja_; but this word is evidently equivalent to oruncha. yet there is a difference in the ways the two are presented to us. according to spencer and gillen, the oruncha are malicious rather than evil; they even say (p. ) that the arunta know no necessarily evil spirits. on the contrary, the regular business of strehlow's erintja is to do evil. judging from certain myths given by spencer and gillen (_nat. tr._, p. ), they seem to have touched up the figures of the oruncha a little: these were originally ogres (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] roth, _superstition_, etc., § ; eylmann, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. f. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. f. [ ] strehlow, i, p. . when there are twins, the first one is believed to have been conceived in this manner. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] as the magician can either cause or cure sickness, we sometimes find, besides these magical spirits whose function is to do evil, others who forestall or neutralize the evil influence of the former. cases of this sort will be found in _nor. tr._, pp. - . the fact that the latter are magic just as much as the former is well shown by the fact that the two have the same name, among the arunta. so they are different aspects of a single magic power. [ ] strehlow, i, p. . putiaputia is not the only personage of this sort of whom the arunta myths speak: certain portions of the tribe give a different name to the hero to whom the same invention is ascribed. we must not forget that the extent of the territory occupied by the arunta prevents their mythology from being completely homogeneous. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. f. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. ff. [ ] strehlow, i, pp. - . the work of mangarkunjerkunja must be taken up again later among other heroes; for, according to a belief that is not confined to the arunta, a time came when men forgot the teaching of their first initiators and became corrupt. [ ] this is the case, for example, of atnatu (spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. ) and the witurna (_nor. tr._, p. ), if tendun did not establish these rites, it is he who is charged with the direction of their celebration (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; _kamilaroi and kurnai_, pp. and ; spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] for example, see _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , , . [ ] it is true that spencer and gillen maintain that these mythical beings play no moral rôle (_nor. tr._, p. ); but this is because they give too narrow a meaning to the word. religious duties are duties: so the fact of looking after the manner in which these are observed concerns morals, especially because all morals have a religious character at this period. [ ] the fact was observed as early as by eyre, _journals_, etc., ii, p. , and, before eyre, by henderson, _observations on the colonies of n.s. wales and van diemen's land_, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] among the kulin, wotjobaluk and woëworung (victoria). [ ] among the yuin, ngarrigo and wolgal (new south wales). [ ] among the kamilaroi and euahlayi (northern part of new south wales); and more to the centre, in the same province, among the wonghibon and the wiradjuri. [ ] among the wiimbaio and the tribes on the lower murray (ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. ; brough smyth, i, pp. , n., ). [ ] among the tribes on the herbert river (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] among the kurnai. [ ] taplin, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] it is undoubtedly to this supreme mura-mura that gason makes allusion in the passage already cited (curr, ii, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] between baiame, bunjil and daramulun on the one hand, and altjira on the other, there is the difference that the latter is completely foreign to all that concerns humanity; he did not make man and does not concern himself with what they do. the arunta have neither love nor fear for him. but when this conception is carefully observed and analysed, it is hard to admit that it is primitive; for if the altjira plays no rôle, explains nothing, serves for nothing, what made the arunta imagine him? perhaps it is necessary to consider him as a sort of baiame who has lost his former prestige, as an ancient god whose memory is fading away. perhaps, also, strehlow has badly interpreted the testimony he has gathered. according to eylmann, who, it is to be admitted, is neither a very competent nor a very sure observer, altjira made men (_op. cit._, p. ). moreover, among the loritja, the corresponding personage, tukura, is believed to celebrate the initiation ceremonies himself. [ ] for bunjil, see brough smyth, i, p. ; for baiame, see ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. ; for daramulun, see howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] on the composition of bunjil's family, for example, see howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , ; brough smyth, i, pp. , ; for baiame's, see l. parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. , , ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , ; for nurunderi's, taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. f. of course, there are all sorts of variations in the ways in which the families of these great gods are conceived. the personage who is a brother here, is a son there. the number and names of the wives vary with the locality. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. , . [ ] _ibid._, i, p. , n. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; mathews, _jour. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. ; ridley, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. - . [ ] l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] according to certain myths, he made men but not women; this is related of bunjil. but then, the origin of women is attributed to his son-brother, pallyan (brough smyth, i, pp. and ). [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ; mathews, _journ. of the roy. soc. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . [ ] l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. ; l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. . [ ] l. parker, _more austr. leg. tales_, pp. - , - . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , , ; brough smyth, i, p. ; l. parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. . [ ] ridley, p. . [ ] l. parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. - . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; taplin, _the narrinyeri_, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , , ; mathews, _loc. cit._, p. ; l. parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. , , . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] howitt, _ibid._, p. ; l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. . [ ] l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. ; l. parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; mathews, _loc. cit._, p. . in opposition to baiame, daramulun is sometimes presented as a necessarily evil spirit (l. parker, _loc. cit._; ridley, in brough smyth, ii, p. ). [ ] _j.a.i._, xxi, pp. ff. [ ] _the making of religion_, pp. - . [ ] lang, _ibid._, p. . the author confines himself to stating that the hypothesis of st. paul does not appear to him "the most unsatisfactory." [ ] the thesis of lang has been taken up again by father schmidt in the _anthropos_ ( - ). replying to sydney hartland, who had criticized lang's theory in an article entitled _the "high gods" of australia_, in _folk-lore_ (vol. ix, pp. ff.), father schmidt undertook to show that baiame, bunjil, etc., are eternal gods, creators, omnipotent, omniscient and guardians of the moral order. we are not going to enter into this discussion, which seems to have neither interest nor importance. if these different adjectives are given a relative sense, in harmony with the australian mind, we are quite ready to accept them, and have even used them ourselves. from this point of view, omnipotent means having more power than the other sacred beings; omniscient, seeing things that escape the vulgar and even the greatest magicians; guardian of the moral order, one causing the rules of australian morality to be respected, howsoever much these may differ from our own. but if they want to give these words meanings which only a spiritualistic christian could attach to them, it seems useless to discuss an opinion so contrary to the principles of the historical method. [ ] on this question, see n. w. thomas, _baiame and bell-bird--a note on australian religion_, in _man_, , no. . cf. lang, _magic and religion_, p. . waitz had already upheld the original character of this conception in his _anthropologie d. naturvölker_, pp. - . [ ] dawson, p. ; meyer, _encounter bay tribe_, in woods, pp. , ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , ; ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. . [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. - . [ ] l. parker, _more austr. leg. tales_, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. - . [ ] taplin, _ibid._, p. . [ ] taplin, _ibid._, p. . [ ] "the world was created by beings called nuralie; these beings, who had already long existed, had the forms of crows or of eagle-hawks" (brough smyth, i, pp. - ). [ ] "bayamee," says mrs. parker, "is for the euahlayi what the alcheringa is for the arunta" (_the euahlayi_, p. ). [ ] see above, pp. f. [ ] in another myth, reported by spencer and gillen, a wholly analogous rôle is filled by two personages living in heaven, named ungambikula (_nat. tr._, pp. ff.). [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] parker, _the euahlayi_, pp. - , . this is because the great god is connected with the bull-roarer, which is identified with the thunder; for the roaring of this ritual instrument is connected with the rolling of thunder. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . the word meaning totem is written _thundung_ by howitt. [ ] strehlow, i, pp. - and ii, p. . it will be remembered that, among the arunta, the maternal totem was quite probably the real totem at first. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] ridley, _kamilaroi_, pp. , . he is represented in this form during the initiation rites of the kamilaroi. according to another legend, he is a black swan (l. parker, _more aust. leg. tales_, p. ). [ ] strehlow, i, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. - . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. - . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] there are phratries bearing the names kilpara (crow) and mukwara. this is the explanation of the myth itself, which is reported by brough smyth (i, pp. - ). [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. - . cf. howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . in this case, karween is identified with the blue heron. [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; mathews, _j. of r. s. of n.s. wales_, xxviii ( ), p. . [ ] see above, p. . cf. father schmidt, _the origin of the idea of god_, in _anthropos_, . [ ] _op. cit._, p. . among these same people, the principal wife of baiame is also represented as the mother of all the totems, without belonging to any totem herself (_ibid._, pp. , ). [ ] see howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. f., , ff.; mathews, _j. of r.s. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. . they invite to these feasts not only the tribes with whom a regular _connubium_ is established, but also those with whom there are quarrels to be arranged; the vendetta, half-ceremonial and half-serious, take place on these occasions. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] there is one form of ritual especially which we leave completely aside; this is the oral ritual which must be studied in a special volume of the _collection de l'année sociologique_. [ ] see the article _taboo_ in the _encyclopædia britannica_, written by frazer. [ ] facts prove the reality of this inconvenience. there is no lack of writers who, putting their trust in the word, have believed that the institution thus designated was peculiar to primitive peoples in general, or even to the polynesians (see réville, _religion des peuples primitifs_, ii, p. ; richard, _la femme dans l'histoire_, p. ). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] this is not saying that there is a radical break of continuity between the religious and the magic interdictions: on the contrary, it is one whose true nature is not decided. there are interdicts of folk-lore of which it is hard to say whether they are religious or magic. but their distinction is necessary, for we believe that the magic interdicts cannot be understood except as a function of the religious ones. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] many of the interdictions between sacred things can be traced back, we think, to those between the sacred and the profane. this is the case with the interdicts of age or rank. for example, in australia, there are sacred foods which are reserved for the initiated. but these foods are not all sacred to the same degree; there is a hierarchy among them. nor are the initiated all equal. they do not enjoy all their religious rights from the first, but only enter step by step into the domain of religious things. they must pass through a whole series of ranks which are conferred upon them one after another, after special trials and ceremonies; it requires months and sometimes even years to reach the highest rank. now special foods are assigned to each of these ranks; the men of the lower ranks may not touch the foods which rightfully belong to the men of the superior ones (see mathews, _ethnol. notes_, etc., _loc. cit._ pp. ff.; parker, _the euahlayi_, p. ; spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, pp. ff.; _nat. tr._, pp. ff.). so the more sacred repels the less sacred; but this is because the second is profane in relation to the first. in fine, all the interdictions arrange themselves in two classes: the interdictions between the sacred and the profane and the purely sacred and the impurely sacred. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f.; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; schulze, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] if the alimentary interdictions which concern the totemic plant or vegetable are the most important, they are far from being the only ones. we have seen that there are foods which are forbidden to the non-initiated because they are sacred; now very different causes may confer this character. for example, as we shall presently see, the birds which are seen on the tops of trees are reputed to be sacred, because they are neighbours to the great god who lives in heaven. thus, it is possible that for different reasons the flesh of certain animals has been specially reserved for the old men and that consequently it has seemed to partake of the sacred character recognized in these latter. [ ] see frazer, _totemism_, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. .--there is one interdiction of contact of which we say nothing because it is very hard to determine its exact nature: this is sexual contact. there are religious periods when a man cannot have commerce with a woman (_nor. tr._, pp. , ; _nat. tr._, p. ). is this because the woman is profane or because the sexual act is dreaded? this question cannot be decided in passing. we set it aside along with all that concerns conjugal and sexual rites. it is too closely connected with the problems of marriage and the family to be separated from them. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] among the wiimbaio (howitt, _ibid._, p. ). [ ] howitt, _ibid._, pp. , , , ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , ff.; _nor. tr._, pp. , , , . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , , , . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. ; taplin, _narrinyeri_, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ff. [ ] wyatt, _adelaide and encounter bay tribes_, in woods, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , . [ ] for example, the hair belt which he ordinarily wears (spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ). [ ] _ibid._, p. ff. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] this act takes on a sacred character, it is true, when the elements eaten are sacred. but in itself, the act is so very profane that eating a sacred food always constitutes a profanation. the profanation may be permitted or even ordered, but, as we shall see below, only on condition that rites attenuating or expiating it precede or accompany it. the existence of these rites shows that, by itself, the sacred thing should not be eaten. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . perhaps the rule against talking during the great religious solemnities is due to the same cause. men speak, and especially in a high voice, during ordinary life; then, in the religious life they ought to keep still or talk in a low voice. this same consideration is not foreign to the alimentary interdictions (see above, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] since there is a sacred principle, the soul, within each man, from the very first, the individual is surrounded by interdicts, the original form of the moral interdicts which isolate and protect the human person to-day. thus the corpse of his victim is considered dangerous for a murderer (spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ), and is taboo for him. now the interdicts having this origin are frequently used by individuals as a means of withdrawing certain things from common use and thus establishing a property right over them. "when a man goes away from the camp, leaving his arms and food there," says roth, speaking of the tribes on the palmer river (north queensland), "if he urinates near the objects he leaves, they become _tami_ (equivalent to taboo) and he may be sure of finding them intact on his return" (_north queensland ethnography_, in _records of the australian museum_, vol. vii, no. , p. ). this is because the urine, like the blood, is believed to contain some of the sacred force which is personal to the individual. so it keeps strangers at a distance. for the same reasons, the spoken word may also serve as a vehicle for these same influences; that is how it becomes possible to prevent access to an object by a mere verbal declaration. this power of making interdicts varies with different individuals; it is greater as their character is more sacred. men have this privilege almost to the exclusion of women (roth cites one single case of a taboo imposed by women); it is at its maximum with the chiefs and old men, who use it to monopolize whatever things they find it convenient to (roth, _ibid._, p. ). thus the religious interdict becomes a right of property and an administrative rule. [ ] see below, this book, ch. ii. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] see hubert and mauss, _essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice_, in _mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. ff. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , . even the shadow of a woman must not fall upon him (_ibid._, p. ). whatever he has touched must not be touched by a woman (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] _ibid._, pp. , , f.; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] the word jeraeil, for example, among the kurnai, or kuringal among the yuin and wolgal (howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , ). [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] howitt, pp. , , . [ ] _ibid._, p. ; parker, _euahlayi_, p. . [ ] ridley, _kamilaroi_, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , , , , ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] _ibid_., p. ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] howitt, p. . [ ] one may compare these ascetic practices with those used at the initiation of a magician. just like the young neophyte, the apprentice magician is submitted to a multitude of interdictions, the observation of which contributes to his acquisition of his specific powers (see _l'origine des pouvoirs magiques_, in hubert and mauss, _mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. , , ). the same is true for the husband and wife on the day before and the day after the wedding (taboos of the betrothed and newly married); this is because marriage also implies a grave change of condition. we limit ourselves to mentioning these facts summarily, without stopping over them; for the first concern magic, which is not our subject, and the second have to do with that system of juridico-religious rules which relates to the commerce of the sexes, the study of which will be possible only in conjunction with the other precepts of primitive conjugal morality. [ ] it is true that preuss interprets these facts by saying that suffering is a way of increasing a man's magic force (_die menschliche zauberkraft_); from this expression, one might believe that suffering is a magic rite, not a religious one. but as we have already pointed out, preuss gives the name magic, without great precision, to all anonymous and impersonal forces, whether they belong to magic or religion. of course, there are tortures which are used to make magicians; but many of those which we have described are a part of the real religious ceremonies, and, consequently, it is the religious state of the individuals which they modify. [ ] preuss, _der ursprung der religion und kunst_, in _globus_, lxxxviii, pp. - . under this same rubric preuss classes a great number of incongruous rites, for example, effusions of blood which act in virtue of the positive qualities attributed to blood and not because of the suffering which they imply. we retain only those in which suffering is an essential element of the rite and the cause of its efficacy. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f. [ ] _ibid._, p. . a similar practice will be found among the dieri (howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.). [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. ff.--from this example we see that the rites of initiation sometimes have all the characteristics of hazing. in fact, hazing is a real social institution which arises spontaneously every time that two groups, inequal in their moral and social situation, come into intimate contact. in this case, the one considering itself superior to the other resists the intrusion of the new-comers; it reacts against them is such a way as to make them aware of the superiority it feels. this reaction, which is produced automatically and which takes the form of more or less grave cruelties quite naturally, is also destined to shape the individuals for their new existence and assimilate them into their new environment. so it is a sort of initiation. thus it is explained how the initiation, on its side, takes the form of hazing. it is because the group of old men is superior in religious and moral dignity to that of the young men, and yet the first must assimilate the second. so all the conditions for hazing are given. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. , . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, , . [ ] among the warramunga, the operation must be made by persons favoured with beautiful hair. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; this concerns the tribes on the lower darling. [ ] eylmann, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] references on this question will be found in our memoir on _la prohibition de l'incest et ses origines_ (_année sociol._, i, pp. ff.), and crawley, _the mystic rose_, pp. ff. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. f.; strehlow, i, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] in addition to the ascetic rites of which we have spoken, there are some positive ones whose object is to charge, or, as howitt says, to saturate the initiate with religiousness (howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ). it is true that instead of religiousness, howitt speaks of magic powers, but as we know, for the majority of the ethnologists, this word merely signifies religious virtues of an impersonal nature. [ ] howitt, _ibid._, pp. f. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . cf. howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see above, pp. , . cf. spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. , , f., ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. , , ; mathews, in _j. of r.s. of n.s. wales_, xxxviii, p. ; schulze, _loc. cit._, p. ; wyatt, _adelaide and encounter bay tribes_, in woods, pp. , . [ ] _australian aborigines_, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] on this question, see robertson smith, _religion of the semites_, pp. ff., , ; frazer, art. _taboo_ in _encyc. brit._, jevons, _introduction to the history of religions_, pp. f.; crawley, _mystic rose_, ch. ii-ix; van gennep, _tabou et totemisme à madagascar_, ch. iii. [ ] see references above, p. , n. . cf. _nor. tr._, pp. , ; _nat. tr._, p. ; taplin, _the narrinyeri_, p. ; roth, _north queensland ethnography_. bull. , _records of austral. museum_, vii, p. . [ ] it is to be remembered that when it is a religious interdict that has been violated, these sanctions are not the only ones; there is also a real punishment or a stigma of opinion. [ ] see jevons, _introduction to the history of religions_, pp. - . we say nothing of the recent, and slightly explicit, theory of crawley (_mystic rose_, ch. iv-vii), according to which the contagiousness of taboos is due to a false interpretation of the phenomena of contagion. it is arbitrary. as jevons very truly says in the passage to which we refer, the contagious character of sacredness is affirmed _a priori_, and not on a faith in badly interpreted experiences. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] this has been well demonstrated by preuss in his articles in the _globus_. [ ] it is true that this contagiousness is not peculiar to religious forces; those belonging to magic have the same property; yet it is evident that they do not correspond to objectified social sentiments. it is because magic forces have been conceived on the model of religious forces. we shall come back to this point again (see p. ). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] strehlow, i, p. . [ ] of course the word designating these celebrations changes with the tribes. the urabunna call them _pitjinta_ (_nor. tr._, p. ); the warramunga _thalaminta_ (_ibid._, p. ), etc. [ ] schulze, _loc. cit._, p. ; spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. f. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] of course the women are under the same obligation. [ ] the apmara is the only thing which he brought from the camp. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._ [ ] we shall see below that these clans are much more numerous than spencer and gillen say. [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. , , ; _nor. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . we use the words of spencer and gillen, and with them, we say that "spirits or spirit parts of kangaroo" are disengaged from the rocks. strehlow (iii, p. ) contests the exactness of this expression. according to him, the rite makes real kangaroos, with living bodies, appear. but this dispute is without interest, just as the one about the notion of the _ratapa_ was (see above, p. ). the kangaroo germs thus escaping from the rock are not visible, so they are not made out of the same substance as the kangaroos which we see. this is all that spencer and gillen mean to say. it is quite certain, moreover, that they are not pure spirits such as a christian might conceive. like human souls, they have a material form. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] a tribe on the east of lake eyre. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . cf. howitt, _legends of the dieri and kindred tribes of central australia_, in _j.a.i._, xxiv, pp. ff. howitt believes that the ceremony is performed by the men of the totem, but is not prepared to say so definitely. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. f. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. .--the analysis of the rites which have just been studied is based solely on the observations of spencer and gillen. since this chapter was written, strehlow has published the third fascicule of his work, which deals with the positive cult and especially the intichiuma, or, as he says, the rites of the _mbatjalkatiuma_. but we have found nothing in this publication which obliges us to modify the preceding description or even to complete it with important additions. the most interesting thing taught by strehlow on this subject is that the effusions and oblations of blood are much more frequent than one would suspect from the account of spencer and gillen (see strehlow, iii, pp. , , , , , , , , , , ). moreover, the information given by strehlow in regard to the cult must be taken carefully, for he was not a witness of the rites he describes; he confined himself to collecting oral testimony, which is generally rather summary (see fasc. iii, preface of leonhardi, p. v). it may even be asked if he has not confused the totemic ceremonies of initiation with those which he calls _mbatjalkatiuma_, to an excessive degree. of course, he has made a praiseworthy attempt to distinguish them and has made two of their distinctive characteristics very evident. in the first place, the intichiuma always takes place at a sacred spot to which the souvenir of some ancestor is attached, while the initiation ceremonies may be celebrated anywhere. secondly, the oblations of blood are special to the intichiuma, which proves that they are close to the heart of the ritual (iii, p. ). but in the description which he gives us of the rites, we find facts belonging indifferently to each species of ceremony. in fact, in what he describes under the name mbatjalkatiuma, the young men generally take an important part (for example, see pp. , , etc.), which is characteristic of the initiation. also, it seems as though the place of the rite is arbitrary, for the actors construct their scene artificially. they dig a hole into which they go; he seldom makes any allusion to sacred trees or rocks and their ritual rôle. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . cf. meyer, _the encounter bay tribe_, in woods, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f. [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] meyer, _in_ woods, p. . [ ] we have already cited one case; others will be found in spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] the walpari, wulmala, tjingilli, umbaia. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] for the second part of the ceremony as for the first, we have followed spencer and gillen. on this subject, the recent fascicule of strehlow only confirms the observations of his predecessors, at least on all essential points. he recognizes that after the first ceremony (two months afterwards, he says, p. ), the chief of the clan eats the totemic animal or plant ritually and that after this he raises the interdicts; he calls this operation _die freigabe des totems zum allgemeinen gebrauch_ (iii, p. ). he even tells us that this operation is important enough to have a special word for it in the arunta language. he adds, it is true, that this ritual consummation is not the only one, but that the chiefs and old men sometimes eat the sacred plant or animal before the first ceremony and that the performer of the rite does so after the celebration. the fact is not improbable; these consummations are means employed by the officiants or assistants to acquire virtues which they acquire; it is not surprising if they are numerous. it does not invalidate the account of spencer and gillen at all, for the rite upon which they insist, and not without reason, is the _freigabe des totems_. on only two points does strehlow contest the allegations of spencer and gillen. in the first place, he declares that the ritual consumption does not take place in every case. this cannot be doubted, for there are some animals and plants which are not edible. but still, the rite is very frequent; strehlow himself cites numerous examples (pp. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ). secondly, we have seen that according to spencer and gillen, if the chief does not eat the totemic animal or plant, he will lose his powers. strehlow assures us that the testimony of natives does not confirm this assertion. but this question seems to us to be quite secondary. the assured fact is that the ritual consumption is required, so it must be thought useful or necessary. now, like every communion, it can only serve to confer needed virtues upon the person communicating. it does not follow from the fact that the natives, or some of them, have forgotten this function of the rite, that it is not real. is it necessary to repeat that worshippers are generally ignorant of the real reasons for their practices? [ ] see _the religion of the semites_, lectures vi-xi, and the article _sacrifice_ in the _encyclopædia britannica_ (ninth edition). [ ] see hubert and mauss, _essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice_, in _mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. ff. [ ] see the explanation of this rule, above, p. . [ ] see strehlow, iii, p. . [ ] we must not forget that among the arunta it is not completely forbidden to eat the totemic animal. [ ] see other facts in frazer, _golden bough_, pp. ff. [ ] _the religion of the semites_, pp. ff. [ ] _the religion of the semites_, pp. - . [ ] on this point, see hubert and mauss, _mélanges d'histoire des religions_, preface, p. v ff. [ ] _the religion of the semites_, pp. ff. [ ] smith cites some cases himself in _the rel. of the semites_, p. . [ ] for example, see exodus xxix. - ; leviticus ix. - ; it is their own blood which the priests of baal pour over the altar ( kings xviii. ). [ ] strehlow, iii, p. , verse . [ ] at least when it is complete: in certain cases, it may be reduced to one of its elements. [ ] strehlow says that the natives "regard these ceremonies as a sort of divine service, just as a christian regards the exercises of his religion" (iii, p. ). [ ] it should be asked, for example, whether the effusions of blood and the offerings of hair which smith regards as acts of communion are not real oblations (see smith,_ op_. _cit._, pp. ff.). [ ] the expiatory rites, of which we shall speak more fully in the fifth chapter of this same book, are almost exclusively oblations. they are communions only secondarily. [ ] this is why we frequently speak of the ceremonies as if they were addressed to living personalities (see, for example, texts by krichauff and kemp, in eylmann, p. ). [ ] in a philosophical sense, the same is true of everything, for nothing exists except in representation. but as we have shown (p. ), this proposition is doubly true for religious forces, for there is nothing in the constitution of things which corresponds to sacredness. [ ] see mauss, _essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés eskimos_, in _année sociol._, ix, pp. ff. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . it is true that spencer and gillen do not say expressly that this is an intichiuma. but the context allow of no doubt on this point. [ ] in the index of totem names, spencer and gillen write _untjalka_ (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] schulze, _loc. cit._, p. ; cf. p. . [ ] strehlow, iii, pp. , , , , , , . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, pp. , , , . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . perhaps the object of these movements of the lance is to pierce the clouds. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . it is curious that, on the contrary, the anula regard the rainbow as productive of rain (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] the same process is employed among the arunta (strehlow, iii, p. ). of course we may ask if this effusion of blood is not an oblation designed to win the powers which produce rain. however, gason says distinctly that this is a way of imitating the water which falls. [ ] gason, _the dieri tribe_, in curr, ii, pp. - . howitt (_nat. tr._, pp. - ) mentions other rites of the dieri for obtaining rain. [ ] _ethnological notes on the western australian aborigines_, in _internationales archiv. f. ethnographie_, xvi, pp. - . cf. withnal, _marriage rites and relationship_ in _man_, , p. . [ ] we presume that sub-totems may have _tarlow_, for, according to clement, certain clans have several totems. [ ] clement says a tribal family. [ ] we shall explain below (p. ) why this is incorrect. [ ] on this classification, see frazer, _lectures on the early history of kingship_, pp. ff.; hubert and mauss, _théorie générale de la magie_, pp. ff. [ ] we say nothing of what has been called the law of opposition, for, as mm. hubert and mauss have shown, a contrary produces its opposite only through the intermediacy of a similar (_théorie générale de la magie_, p. ). [ ] _lectures on the history of kingship_, p. . [ ] it is applicable in the sense that there is really an association of the statue and the person encharmed. but it is true that this association is the simple product of an association of ideas by similarity. the true determining cause of the phenomenon is the contagiousness peculiar to religious forces, as we have shown. [ ] for the causes determining this outward manifestation, see above, pp. ff. [ ] m. lévy-bruhl, _les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures_, pp. - . [ ] _golden bough_^ , i, pp. - . [ ] we do not wish to say that there was ever a time when religion existed without magic. probably as religion took form, certain of its principles were extended to non-religious relations, and it was thus supplemented by a more or less developed magic. but if these two systems of ideas and practices do not correspond to distinct historical phases, they have a relation of definite derivation between them. this is all we have sought to establish. [ ] _loc. cit._, pp. ff. [ ] see above, pp. f. [ ] of course animal societies do exist. however, the word does not have exactly the same sense when applied to men and to animals. the institution is a characteristic fact of human societies; but animals have no institutions. [ ] the conception of cause is not the same for a scholar and for a man with no scientific culture. also, many of our contemporaries understand the principle of causality differently, as they apply it to social facts and to physico-chemical facts. in the social order, men frequently exhibit a conception of causality singularly like that which was at the basis of magic for a long time. one might even ask if a physicist and a biologist represent the causal relation in the same fashion. [ ] of course these ceremonies are not followed by an alimentary communion. according to strehlow, they have another name, at least when they concern non-edible plants: they are called, not mbatjalkatiuma, but _knujilelama_ (strehlow, iii, p. ). [ ] strehlow, iii, p. . [ ] the warramunga are not the only ones among whom the intichiuma takes the form of a dramatic representation. it is also found among the tjingilli, the umbaia, the wulmala, the walpari and even the kaitish, though in certain of its features the ritual of these latter resembles that of the arunta (_nor. tr._, p. , , , ). if we take the warramunga as a type, it is because they have been studied the best by spencer and gillen. [ ] this is the case with the intichiuma of the black cockatoo (see above, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] one of these two actors does not belong to the black snake clan, but to that of the crow. this is because the crow is supposed to be an "associate" of the black snake: in other words, it is a sub-totem. [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; strehlow, iii, p. . [ ] strehlow himself recognizes this: "the totemic ancestor and his descendant, who represents him (_der darsteller_) are presented as one in these sacred hymns." (iii, p. ). as this incontestable fact contradicts the theory according to which ancestral souls do not reincarnate themselves, strehlow adds, it is true, in a note, that "in the course of the ceremony there is no real incarnation of the ancestor in the person who represents him." if strehlow wishes to say that the incarnation does not take place on the occasion of the ceremony, then nothing is more certain. but if he means that there is no incarnation at all, we do not understand how the officiant and the ancestor can be confounded. [ ] perhaps this difference is partially due to the fact that among the warramunga each clan is thought to be descended from one single ancestor about whom the legendary history of the clan centres. this is the ancestor whom the rite commemorates; now the officiant need not be descended from him. one might even ask if these mythical chiefs, who are sorts of demigods, are submitted to reincarnation. [ ] in this intichiuma, three assistants represent ancestors "of a considerable antiquity"; they play a real part (_nat. tr._, pp. - ). it is true that spencer and gillen add that these are ancestors posterior to the alcheringa. nevertheless, mythical personages are represented in the course of the rite. [ ] sacred rocks and water-holes are not mentioned. the centre of the ceremony is the image of an emu drawn on the ground, which can be made anywhere. [ ] we do not mean to say that all the ceremonies of the warramunga are of this type. the example of the white cockatoo, of which we spoke above, proves that there are exceptions. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. ff. on this same subject, cf. certain passages of eylmann which evidently refer to the same mythical being (_die eingeborenen_, etc., p. ). strehlow also mentions a mythical snake among the arunta (_kulaia_, water-snake) which may not differ greatly from the wollunqua (strehlow, i, p. ; cf. ii, p. , where the kulaia is found in a list of totems). [ ] we use the arunta words, in order not to complicate our terminology; the warramunga call this mythical period wingara. [ ] "it is not easy to express in words what is in reality rather a vague feeling amongst the natives, but after carefully watching the different series of ceremonies, we were impressed with the feeling that the wollunqua represented to the native mind the idea of a dominant totem" (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] one of the most solemn of these ceremonies is the one which we have had occasion to describe above (p. ), in the course of which an image of the wollunqua is designed on a sort of hillock which is then torn to pieces in the midst of a general effervescence. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. , . [ ] here are the terms of spencer and gillen in the only passage in which they speak of a possible connection between the wollunqua and rain. a few days after the rite about the hillock, "the old men say that they have heard wollunqua speak, that he was satisfied with what had passed and that he was going to send rain. the reason for this prophecy was that they, as well as ourselves, had heard thunder rolling at a distance." to such a slight extent is the production of rain the immediate object of the ceremony that they did not attribute it to wollunqua until several days later, and then after accidental circumstances. another fact shows how vague the ideas of the natives are on this point. a few lines below, thunder is spoken of as a sign, not of the wollunqua's satisfaction, but of its discontent. in spite of these prognostics, continue our authors, "the rain did not fall. but some days later, they heard the thunder rolling in the distance again. the old men said that the wollunqua was grumbling because he was not contented" with the way in which the rite had been celebrated. thus a single phenomenon, the noise of thunder, is sometimes interpreted as a sign of a favouring disposition, and sometimes as a mark of evil intentions. however, there is one detail of the ritual which, if we accept the explanation of it proposed by spencer and gillen, is directly efficient. according to them, the destruction of the hillock was intended to frighten the wollunqua and to prevent it, by magic constraint, from leaving its retreat. but this interpretation seems very doubtful to us. in fact, in the very case of which we were speaking, where it was announced that the wollunqua was dissatisfied, this dissatisfaction was attributed to the fact that they had neglected to take away the debris of the hillock. so this removal is demanded by the wollunqua itself, and in no way intended to intimidate it and exercise a coercive influence over it. this is probably merely one case of a more general rule which is in force among the warramunga: the instruments of the cult must be destroyed after each ceremony. thus the ritual ornamentations with which the officiants are decorated are violently torn off from them when the rite is terminated (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see, in the list of totems drawn up by strehlow, nos. - (ii, p. ). [ ] see strehlow, iii, p, . among the arunta there is also a totem _worra_ which greatly resembles the "laughing boy" totem of warramunga (_ibid._, and iii, p. ). _worra_ means young men. the object of the ceremony is to make the young men take more pleasure in the game _labara_ (for this game, see strehlow, i, p. , n. ). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] a case of this sort will be found in _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. and n. , pp. ff.; _nor. tr._, pp. ff. there are some sacred ceremonies from which women are not wholly excluded (see, for example, _nor. tr._, pp. ff.); but this is exceptional. [ ] see _nat. tr._, pp. ff.; _nor. tr._, pp. ff. [ ] this is the case, for example, with the corrobbori of the molonga among the pitta-pitta of queensland and the neighbouring tribes (see roth, _ethnog. studies among the n.w. central queensland aborigines_, pp. ff.).--references for the ordinary corrobbori will be found in stirling, _rep. of the horn expedition to central australia_, part iv, p. , and in roth, _op. cit._, pp. ff. [ ] on this question see the excellent work of culin, _games of the north american indians (xxivth rep. of the bureau of am. ethnol._). [ ] see above, p. . [ ] especially in sexual matters. in the ordinary corrobbori, sexual licence is frequent (see spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, pp. - , and _nor. tr._, pp. - ). on sexual licence in popular feasts in general, see hagelstrange, _süddeutsches bauernleben im mittelalter_, pp. ff. [ ] thus the exogamic rules must be violated in the course of certain religious ceremonies (see above, p. , n. ). a precise ritual meaning probably could not be found for these excesses. it is merely a mechanical consequence of the state of super-excitation provoked by the ceremony. it is an example of rites having no definite object themselves, but which are mere discharges of energy (see above, p. ). the native does not assign them a definite end either; he merely says that if these licences are not committed, the rite will not produce its effects; the ceremony will fail. [ ] here are the very words used by spencer and gillen: "they (the ceremonies connected with the totems) are often, though by no means always, associated with the performance of the ceremonies attendant upon initiation of young men, or are connected with the intichiuma" (_nor. tr._, p. ). [ ] we leave aside the question of what this character consists in. it is a problem which would lead us into a very long and technical development and which must therefore be treated by itself. moreover, it does not concern the propositions established in this present work. [ ] this is chapter vi, entitled _ceremonies connected with the totems_. [ ] strehlow, iii, pp. - . [ ] this explains the error of which strehlow accuses spencer and gillen: that they applied to one form of the ceremony the term which is more appropriate for the other. but in these conditions, the error hardly seems to have the gravity attributed to it by strehlow. [ ] it cannot be otherwise. in fact, as the initiation is a tribal feast, novices of different totems are initiated at the same time. so the ceremonies which thus succeed one another in the same place have to do with several totems, and, therefore, they must take place away from the places with which they are connected by the myth. [ ] it will now be understood why we have never studied the initiation rites by themselves: it is because they are not a ritual entity, but are formed by the conglomeration of rites of different sorts. there are interdictions, ascetic rites and representative ceremonies which cannot be distinguished from those celebrated at the time of the intichiuma. so we had to dismember this composite system and treat each of the different rites composing it separately, classifying them with the similar rites to which they are to be related. we have also seen (pp. ff.) that the initiation has served as the point of departure for a new religion which tends to surpass totemism. but it has been sufficient for us to show that totemism contained the germs of this religion; we have had no need of following out its development. the object of this book is to study the elementary beliefs and practices; so we must stop at the moment when they give birth to more complex forms. [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . if the individual may choose between the ceremonies of his paternal and maternal totems, it is because, owing to reasons which we have set forth above (p. ), he participates in both. [ ] see below, ch. v, p. . [ ] see _essai sur le sacrifice_, in _mélanges d'histoire des religions_, p. . [ ] _piacularia auspicia appellabant quæ sacrificantibus tristia portendebant_ (paul ex fest., p. , ed. müller). the word piaculum is even used as a synonym of misfortune. "_vetonica herba_," says pliny, "_tantum gloriæ habet ut domus in qua sita sit tuta existimetur a piaculis omnibus_" (xxv, , ). [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; eylmann, p. . cf. above, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, p. ; dawson, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] dawson, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; dawson, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, pp. - . the authors do not say whether these were tribal or blood relatives. the former hypothesis is the more probable one. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. f. this interdiction against speaking, which is peculiar to women, though it consists in a simple abstention, has all the appearance of a piacular rite: it is a way of incommoding one's self. therefore we mention it here. also, fasting may be a piacular rite or an ascetic one, according to the circumstances. everything depends upon the conditions in which it takes place and the end pursued (for the difference between these two sorts of rites, see below, p. ). [ ] a very expressive illustration showing this rite will be found in _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] for the principal forms of funeral rites, see howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. - , for the tribes of the south-east; spencer and gillen, _nor. tr._, p. , and _nat. tr._, pp. ff., for those of the centre; roth, _nor. queensland ethnog._, bull. , in _records of the australian museum_, vi, no. , pp. ff. (_burial customs and disposal of the dead_). [ ] see, for example, roth, _loc. cit._, p. ; eyre, _journals of exped. into central aust._, ii, pp. f. [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, pp. , ; eylmann, p. ; parker, _euahlayi_, pp. ff.; brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] dawson, p. ; howitt, _nat. tr._, p. ; eylmann, pp. - . [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] w. e. stanbridge, _trans. ethnological society of london_, n.s., vol. i, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . similar scenes will be found in eyre, _op. cit._, ii, p. , n., and p. ; roth, _loc. cit._, pp. , , for example; grey, ii, pp. ff. [ ] brough smyth, i, pp. , ; roth, _loc. cit._, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . [ ] dawson, p. ; roth, _loc. cit._, pp. - . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] a little wooden vessel, of which we spoke above, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . the other final rite at which spencer and gillen assisted is described on pp. - of the same work. it does not differ essentially from the one we have analysed. [ ] _nor. tr._, pp. - . [ ] contrarily to what jevons says, _introduction to the history of religion_, pp. ff. [ ] this makes dawson say that the mourning is sincere (p. ). but eylmann assures us that he never knew a single case where there was a wound from sorrow really felt (_op. cit._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] eylmann, pp. - . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. ; eylmann, p. . [ ] brough smyth, i, p. . [ ] _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] several examples of this belief are to be found in howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . cf. strehlow, i, - ; ii, p. . [ ] it may be asked why repeated ceremonies are necessary to produce the relief which follows upon mourning. the funeral ceremonies are frequently very long; they include many operations which take place at intervals during many months. thus they prolong and support the moral disturbance brought about by the death (cf. hertz, _la representation collective de la mort_, in _année sociol._, x, pp. ff.). in a general way, a death marks a grave change of condition which has extended and enduring effects upon the group. it takes a long time to neutralize these effects. [ ] in a case reported by grey from the observations of bussel, the rite has all the aspects of a sacrifice: the blood is sprinkled over the body itself (grey, ii, p. ). in other cases, there is something like an offering of the beard: men in mourning cut off a part of their beards, which they throw on to the corpse (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] _nat. tr._, pp. - . [ ] of course each churinga is believed to be connected with an ancestor. but it is not to appease the spirits of the ancestors that they mourn for the lost churinga. we have shown elsewhere (p. ) that the idea of the ancestor only entered into the conception of the churinga secondarily and late. [ ] _op. cit._, p. ; cf. p. . [ ] eylmann, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] howitt, _the dieri_, in _j.a.i._, xx ( ), p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] howitt, _ibid._, p. . [ ] communication of gason in _j.a.i._, xxiv ( ), p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. . [ ] gason, _the dieri tribe_, in curr, ii, p. . [ ] gason, _the dieri tribe_: eylmann, p. . [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. and . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] gason, _the dieri tribe_, in curr, ii, p. . the same process is used to expiate a ridiculous act. whenever anybody, by his awkwardness or otherwise, has caused the laughter of others, he asks one of them to beat him on the head until blood flows. then things are all right again, and the one who was laughed at joins in the general gaiety (_ibid._, p. ). [ ] eylmann, pp. and . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] _the religion of the semites_, lect. xi. [ ] this is the case in which the dieri, according to jason, invoke the mura-mura of water during a drought. [ ] _op. cit._, p. . [ ] it is also possible that the belief in the morally tempering virtues of suffering (see above, p. ) has added something here. since sorrow sanctifies and raises the religious level of the worshipper, it may also raise him up again when he falls lower than usual. [ ] cf. what we have said of expiation in our _division du travail social_^ , pp. ff. [ ] see above, p. . [ ] spencer and gillen, _nat. tr._, p. ; _nor. tr._, p. ; roth, _north queensland ethnography_, bulletin no. , p. . it is useless to multiply references for so well-known a fact. [ ] however, spencer and gillen cite one case where churinga are placed on the head of the dead man (_nat. tr._, p. ). but they admit that the fact is unique and abnormal (_ibid._, p. ), while strehlow energetically denies it (ii, p. ). [ ] smith, _rel. of semites_, p. ; cf. p. , the additional note, _holiness, uncleanness and taboo_. [ ] howitt, _nat. tr._, pp. - ; brough smyth, i, pp. , ; dawson, p. ; eyre, ii, p. ; roth, _north queensland ethn._, bull. mo. , in _rec. of the austral. museum_, vi, no. , p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] _nor. tr._, p. ; _nat. tr._, p. . [ ] among the hebrews, for example, they sprinkled the altar with the blood of the expiatory victim (lev. iv, ff.); they burned the flesh and used products of this combustion to make water of purification (numb. xix). [ ] taplin, _the narrinyeri_, pp. - . when two persons who have thus exchanged their umbilical cords belong to different tribes, they are used as inter-tribal messengers. in this case, the exchange of cords took place shortly after birth, through the intermediary of their respective parents. [ ] it is true that smith did not admit the reality of these substitutions and transformations. according to him, if the expiatory victim served to purify, it was because it had nothing impure in itself. at first, it was a holy thing; it was destined to re-establish, by means of a communion, the bonds of kinship uniting the worshipper to his god, when a ritual fault had strained or broken them. an exceptionally holy animal was chosen for this operation in order that the communion might be as efficacious as possible, and efface the effects of the fault as completely as possible. it was only when they no longer understood the meaning of the rite that the sacrosanct animal was considered impure (_op. cit._, pp. ff.). but it is inadmissible that beliefs and practices as universal as these, which we find at the foundation of the expiatory sacrifice, should be the product of a mere error of interpretation. in fact, we cannot doubt that the expiatory victim was charged with the impurity of the sin. we have shown, moreover, that these transformations of the pure into the impure, or the contrary, are to be found in the most inferior societies which we know. [ ] william james, _the varieties of religious experience_. [ ] quoted by james, _op. cit._, p. . [ ] see above, pp. ff. [ ] only one form of social activity has not yet been expressly attached to religion: that is economic activity. sometimes processes that are derived from magic have, by that fact alone, an origin that is indirectly religious. also, economic value is a sort of power or efficacy, and we know the religious origins of the idea of power. also, richness can confer _mana_; therefore it has it. hence it is seen that the ideas of economic value and of religious value are not without connection. but the question of the nature of these connections has not yet been studied. [ ] it is for this reason that frazer and even preuss set impersonal religious forces outside of, or at least on the threshold of religion, to attach them to magic. [ ] boutroux, _science et religion_, pp. - . [ ] see above, pp. ff. on this same question, see also our article, "représentations individuelles et représentations collectives," in the _revue de métaphysique_, may, . [ ] william james, _principles of psychology_, i, p. . [ ] this universality of the concept should not be confused with its generality: they are very different things. what we mean by universality is the property which the concept has of being communicable to a number of minds, and in principle, to all minds; but this communicability is wholly independent of the degree of its extension. a concept which is applied to only one object, and whose extension is consequently at the minimum, can be the same for everybody: such is the case with the concept of a deity. [ ] it may be objected that frequently, as the mere effect of repetition, ways of thinking and acting become fixed and crystallized in the individual, in the form of habits which resist change. but a habit is only a tendency to repeat an act or idea automatically every time that the same circumstances appear; it does not at all imply that the idea or act is in the form of an exemplary type, proposed to or imposed upon the mind or will. it is only when a type of this sort is set up, that is to say, when a rule or standard is established, that social action can and should be presumed. [ ] thus we see how far it is from being true that a conception lacks objective value merely because it has a social origin. [ ] see also above, p. . [ ] lévy-bruhl, _les fonctions mentales dans les sociétés inférieures_, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] see above, p. . [ ] william james, _principles of psychology_, i, p. . [ ] men frequently speak of space and time as if they were only concrete extent and duration, such as the individual consciousness can feel, but enfeebled by abstraction. in reality, they are representations of a wholly different sort, made out of other elements, according to a different plan, and with equally different ends in view. [ ] at bottom, the concept of totality, that of society and that of divinity are very probably only different aspects of the same notion. [ ] see our _classifications primitives_, _loc. cit._, pp. ff. transcriber notes: words or letters contained within underscores, i.e. _everyman's library_, are words which were in italics in the original. letters or numbers preceded by a carat symbol, ^, indicate letters or numbers which were in superscript in the original. letters with a macron are indicated in the following manner: [=a]. additional transcriber notes can be found at the end of this project. everyman's library edited by ernest rhys science huxley's essays with an introduction by sir oliver lodge the publishers of _everyman's library_ will be pleased to send freely to all applicants a list of the published and projected volumes to be comprised under the following twelve headings: travel science fiction theology & philosophy history classical children's books essays oratory poetry & drama biography romance [illustration] in two styles of binding, cloth, flat back, coloured top, and leather, round corners, gilt top. london: j. m. dent & co. [illustration: hoc solum scio quod nihil scio] man's place in nature and other essays by thomas henry huxley [illustration] london: published by j. m. dent. & co. and in new york by e. p. dutton & co. _first edition, february _ _reprinted july _ contents page i. on the natural history of the man-like apes ii. on the relations of man to the lower animals iii. on some fossil remains of man iv. the present condition of organic nature v. the past condition of organic nature vi. the method by which the causes of the present and past conditions of organic nature are to be discovered.--the origination of living beings vii. the perpetuation of living beings, hereditary transmission and variation viii. the conditions of existence as affecting the perpetuation of living beings ix. a critical examination of the position of mr. darwin's work, "on the origin of species," in relation to the complete theory of the causes of the phenomena of organic nature x. on the educational value of the natural history sciences (lecture delivered at st. martin's hall, july , ). xi. on the persistent types of animal life (lecture delivered at the royal institution, june , .) xii. time and life (_macmillan's magazine_, december .) xiii. darwin on the origin of species (_westminster review_, april .) xiv. the darwinian hypothesis (_times_, december , .) xv. a lobster; or, the study of zoology (lecture delivered at south kensington museum, may , ). introduction forty years ago the position of scientific studies was not so firmly established as it is to-day, and a conflict was necessary to secure their general recognition. the forces of obscurantism and of free and easy dogmatism were arrayed against them; and, just as in former centuries astronomy, and in more recent times geology, so in our own lifetime biology, has had to offer a harsh and fighting front, lest its progress be impeded by the hostility born of preconceived opinions, and by the bigotry of self-appointed guardians of conservative views. the man who probably did as much as any to fight the battle of science in the nineteenth century, and secure the victory for free enquiry and progressive knowledge, is thomas henry huxley; and it is an interesting fact that already the lapse of time is making it possible to bring his writings in cheap form to the notice of a multitude of interested readers. the pugnacious attitude, however, which, forty years ago, was appropriate, has become a little antique now; the conflict is not indeed over, but it has either totally shifted its ground, or is continued on the old battlefield chiefly by survivors, and by a few of a younger generation who have been brought up in the old spirit. the truths of materialism now run but little risk of being denied or ignored, they run perhaps some danger of being exaggerated. brilliantly true and successful in their own territory, they are occasionally pushed by enthusiastic disciples over the frontier line into regions where they can do nothing but break down. as if enthusiastic worshippers of motor-cars, proud of their performance on the good roads of france, should take them over into the sahara or essay them on a polar expedition. that represents the mistake which, in modern times, by careless thinkers, is being made. they tend to press the materialistic statements and scientific doctrines of a great man like huxley, as if they were co-extensive with all existence. this is not really a widening of the materialistic aspect of things, it is a cramping of everything else; it is an attempt to limit the universe to one of its aspects. but the mistake is not made solely, nor even chiefly, by those eager disciples who are pursuing the delusive gleam of a materialistic philosophy--for these there is hope,--to attempt is a healthy exercise, and they will find out their mistake in time; but the mistake is also made by those who are specially impressed with the spiritual side of things, who so delight to see guidance and management everywhere, that they wish to blind their eyes to the very mechanism whereby it is accomplished. they think that those who point out and earnestly study the mechanism are undermining the foundations of faith. nothing of the kind. a traveller in the deck-cabin of an atlantic liner may prefer to ignore the engines and the firemen, and all the machinery and toil which is urging him luxuriously forward over the waves in the sunshine; he may try to imagine that he is on a sailing vessel propelled by the free air of heaven alone; but there is just as much utilization of natural forces to a desired end in one case of navigation as in the other, and every detail of the steamship, down to the last drop of sweat from a fireman's grimy body, is an undeniable reality. there are people who still resent the conclusions of biology as to man's place in nature, and try to counteract them; but, as the late professor ritchie said ("philosophical studies," page )-- "it is a mistake, which has constantly been made in the past by those who are anxious for the spiritual interests of man, to interfere with the changes which are going on in scientific conceptions. such interference has always ended in the defeat of the supporters of the quasi-scientific doctrines which the growing science of the time has discarded. theology interfered with galileo, and gained nothing in the end by its interference. astronomy, geology, biology, anthropology, historical criticism, have at different periods raised alarm in the minds of those who dread a materialistic view of man's nature; and with the very best intentions they have tried to fight the supposed enemy on his own ground, eagerly welcoming, for instance, every sign of disagreement between darwinians and lamarckians, or every dispute between different schools of historical critics, as if the spiritual well-being of mankind were bound up with the scientific beliefs of the seventeenth, or even earlier, century, as if _e.g._ it made all the difference in man's spiritual nature whether he was made directly out of inorganic dust or slowly ascended from lower organic forms. these are questions that must be settled by specialists. on the other hand, philosophic criticism is in place when the scientific specialist begins to dogmatize about the universe as a whole, when he speaks for example as if an accurate narrative of the various steps by which the lower forms of life have passed into the higher was a sufficient explanation to us of the mystery of existence." let it be understood, therefore, that science is one thing, and philosophy another: that science most properly concerns itself with matter and motion, and reduces phenomena, as far as it can, to mechanism. the more successfully it does that, the more it fulfils its end and aim; but when, on the strength of that achievement, it seeks to blossom into a philosophy, when it endeavours to conclude that its scope is complete and all-inclusive, that nothing exists in the universe but mechanism, and that the aspect of things from a scientific point of view is their only aspect,--then it is becoming narrow and bigoted and deserving of rebuke. such rebuke it received from huxley, such rebuke it will always receive from scientific men who realize properly the magnitude of existence and the vast potentialities of the universe. our opportunities of exploration are good as far as they go, but they are not extensive; we live as it were in the mortar of one of the stones of st. paul's cathedral; and yet so assiduously have we cultivated our faculties that we can trace something of the outline of the whole design and have begun to realize the plan of the building--a surprising feat for insects of limited faculty. and--continuing the parable--two schools of thought have arisen: one saying that it was conceived in the mind of an architect and designed and built wholly by him, the other saying that it was put together stone by stone in accordance with the laws of mechanics and physics. both statements are true, and those that emphasize the latter are not thereby denying the existence of christopher wren, though to the unwise enthusiasts on the side of design they may appear to be doing so. each side is stating a truth, and neither side is stating the whole truth. nor should we find it easy with all our efforts to state the whole truth exhaustively, even about such a thing as that. those who deny any side of truth are to that extent unbelievers, and huxley was righteously indignant with those shortsighted bigots who blasphemed against that aspect of divine truth which had been specially revealed to him. this is what he lived to preach, and to this he was faithful to the uttermost. let him be thought of as a devotee of truth, and a student of the more materialistic side of things, but never let him be thought of as a philosophical materialist or as one who abounded in cheap negations. the objection which it is necessary to express concerning materialism as a complete system is based not on its assertions but on its negations. in so far as it makes positive assertions, embodying the result of scientific discovery and even of scientific speculation based thereupon, there is no fault to find with it; but when, on the strength of that, it sets up to be a philosophy of the universe--all inclusive, therefore, and shutting out a number of truths otherwise perceived, or which appeal to other faculties, or which are equally true and are not really contradictory of legitimately materialistic statements--then it is that its insufficiency and narrowness have to be displayed. as professor ritchie said:--"the 'legitimate materialism of the sciences' simply means temporary and convenient abstraction from the cognitive conditions under which there are 'facts' or 'objects' for us at all; it is 'dogmatic materialism' which is metaphysics of the bad sort." it will be probably instructive, and it may be sufficient, if i show that two great leaders in scientific thought (one the greatest of all men of science who have yet lived), though well aware of much that could be said positively on the materialistic side, and very willing to admit or even to extend the province of science or exact knowledge to the uttermost, yet were very far from being philosophic materialists or from imagining that other modes of regarding the universe were thereby excluded. great leaders of thought, in fact, are not accustomed to take a narrow view of existence, or to suppose that one mode of regarding it, or one set of formulæ expressing it, can possibly be sufficient and complete. even a sheet of paper has two sides: a terrestrial globe presents different aspects from different points of view; a crystal has a variety of facets; and the totality of existence is not likely to be more simple than any of these--is not likely to be readily expressible in any form of words, or to be thoroughly conceivable by any human mind. it may be well to remember that sir isaac newton was a theist of the most pronounced and thorough conviction, although he had a great deal to do with the reduction of the major cosmos to mechanics, _i.e._, with its explanation by the elaborated machinery of simple forces; and he conceived it possible that, in the progress of science, this process of reduction to mechanics would continue till it embraced nearly all the phenomena of nature. (see extract below.) that, indeed, has been the effort of science ever since, and therein lies the legitimate basis for materialistic statements, though not for a materialistic philosophy. the following sound remarks concerning newton are taken from huxley's "hume," p. :-- "newton demonstrated all the host of heaven to be but the elements of a vast mechanism, regulated by the same laws as those which express the falling of a stone to the ground. there is a passage in the preface to the first edition of the 'principia' which shows that newton was penetrated, as completely as descartes, with the belief that all the phenomena of nature are expressible in terms of matter and motion:-- "'would that the rest of the phenomena of nature could be deduced by a like kind of reasoning from mechanical principles. for many circumstances lead me to suspect that all these phenomena may depend upon certain forces, in virtue of which the particles of bodies, by causes not yet known, are either mutually impelled against one another, and cohere into regular figures, or repel and recede from one another; which forces being unknown, philosophers have as yet explored nature in vain. but i hope that, either by this method of philosophizing, or by some other and better, the principles here laid down may throw some light upon the matter.'" here is a full-blown anticipation of an intelligible exposition of the universe in terms of matter and force--the substantial basis of what smaller men call materialism and develop into what they consider to be a materialistic philosophy. but there is no necessity for any such scheme; and professor huxley himself, who is commonly spoken of by half-informed people as if he were a philosophic materialist, was really nothing of the kind; for although, like newton, fully imbued with the mechanical doctrine, and of course far better informed concerning the biological departments of nature, and the discoveries which have in the last century been made,--and though he rightly regarded it as his mission to make the scientific point of view clear to his benighted contemporaries, and was full of enthusiasm for the facts on which materialists take their stand,--he saw clearly that these alone were insufficient for a philosophy. the following extracts from the hume volume will show that he entirely repudiated materialism as a satisfactory or complete philosophical system, and that he was especially severe on gratuitous denials applied to provinces beyond our scope:-- "while it is the summit of human wisdom to learn the limit of our faculties, it may be wise to recollect that we have no more right to make denials, than to put forth affirmatives, about what lies beyond that limit. whether either mind or matter has a 'substance' or not, is a problem which we are incompetent to discuss: and it is just as likely that the common notions upon the subject should be correct as any others.... 'the same principles which, at first view, lead to scepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense'" (p. ). "moreover, the ultimate forms of existence which we distinguish in our little speck of the universe are, possibly, only two out of infinite varieties of existence, not only analogous to matter and analogous to mind, but of kinds which we are not competent so much as to conceive,--in the midst of which, indeed, we might be set down, with no more notion of what was about us, than the worm in a flower-pot, on a london balcony, has of the life of the great city" (p. ). and again on pp. and :-- "it is worth any amount of trouble to ... know by one's own knowledge the great truth ... that the honest and rigorous following up of the argument which leads us to 'materialism' inevitably carries us beyond it." "to sum up. if the materialist affirms that the universe and all its phenomena are resolvable into matter and motion, berkeley replies, true; but what you call matter and motion are known to us only as forms of consciousness; their being is to be conceived or known; and the existence of a state of consciousness apart from a thinking mind is a contradiction in terms. "i conceive that this reasoning is irrefragable. and, therefore, if i were obliged to choose between absolute materialism and absolute idealism, i should feel compelled to accept the latter alternative." let the jubilant but uninstructed and comparatively ignorant amateur materialist therefore beware, and bethink himself twice or even thrice before he conceives that he understands the universe and is competent to pour scorn upon the intuitions and perceptions of great men in what may be to him alien regions of thought and experience. let him explain, if he can, what he means by his own identity, or the identity of any thinking or living being, which at different times consists of a totally different set of material particles. something there clearly is which confers personal identity and constitutes an individual: it is a property characteristic of every form of life, even the humblest; but it is not yet explained or understood, and it is no answer to assert gratuitously that there is some fundamental substance or material basis on which that identity depends, any more than it is an explanation to say that it depends upon a soul. these are all forms of words. as hume says, quoted by huxley with approval, in the work already cited, p. :-- "it is impossible to attach any definite meaning to the word 'substance,' when employed for the hypothetical substratum of soul and matter.... if it be said that our personal identity requires the assumption of a substance which remains the same while the accidents of perception shift and change, the question arises what is meant by personal identity?... a plant or an animal, in the course of its existence, from the condition of an egg or seed to the end of life, remains the same neither in form, nor in structure, nor in the matter of which it is composed: every attribute it possesses is constantly changing, and yet we say that it is always one and the same individual" (p. ). and in his own preface to the hume volume huxley expresses himself forcibly thus--equally antagonistic as was his wont to both ostensible friend and ostensible foe, as soon as they got off what he considered the straight path:-- "that which it may be well for us not to forget is, that the first-recorded judicial murder of a scientific thinker [socrates] was compassed and effected, not by a despot, nor by priests, but was brought about by eloquent demagogues.... clear knowledge of what one does not know is just as important as knowing what one does know.... "the development of exact natural knowledge in all its vast range, from physics to history and criticism, is the consequence of the working out, in this province, of the resolution to 'take nothing for truth without clear knowledge that it is such'; to consider all beliefs open to criticism; to regard the value of authority as neither greater nor less, than as much as it can prove itself to be worth. the modern spirit is not the spirit 'which always denies,' delighting only in destruction; still less is it that which builds castles in the air rather than not construct; it is that spirit which works and will work 'without haste and without rest,' gathering harvest after harvest of truth into its barns, and devouring error with unquenchable fire" (p. viii). the harvesting of truth is a fairly safe operation, for if some falsehood be inadvertently harvested along with the grain we may hope that, having a less robust and hardy nature, it will before long be detected by its decaying odour; but the rooting up and devouring of error with unquenchable fire is a more dangerous enterprise, inasmuch as flames are apt to spread beyond our control; and the lack of infallibility in the selection of error may to future generations become painfully apparent. the phrase represents a good healthy energetic mood however, and in a world liable to become overgrown with weeds and choked with refuse, the cleansing work of a firebrand may from time to time be a necessity, in order that the free wind of heaven and the sunlight may once more reach the fertile soil. but it is unfair to think of huxley even when young as a firebrand, though it is true that he was to some extent a man of war, and though the fierce and consuming mood is rather more prominent in his early writings than in his later work. a fighting attitude was inevitable forty years ago, because then the truths of biology were being received with hostility, and the free science and philosophy of a later time seemed likely to have a poor chance of life. but the world has changed or is changing now, the wholesome influences of fire have done their work, and it would be a rather barbarous anachronism to apply the same agency among the young green shoots of healthy learning which are springing up in the cleared ground. oliver lodge. . * * * * * among the earlier published works of t. h. huxley ( - ), and of the essays contained in this volume: "the darwinian hypothesis" first appeared in the _times_, dec. , ; "on the educational value of the natural history sciences" (address given at st. martin's hall), was published in ; "time and life" (_macmillan's magazine_), dec. ; "the origin of species" (_westminster review_), april ; "a lobster: or, the study of zoology," . "geological contemporaneity and persistent types of life" (address to geological society), , was re-published in "lay sermons," vol. viii.; "six lectures to working men on the phenomena of organic nature," , in "collected essays," vol. vii. "evidence as to man's place in nature," . of his other works, the translation by huxley and busk of "kölliker's manual of human histology," appeared in . "lectures on the elements of comparative anatomy," "elementary atlas of comparative osteology"; two science lectures, "the circulation of the blood" and "corals and coral reefs," and "lessons in elementary physiology," in . "introduction to the classification of animals," . "lay sermons, essays, and reviews," . "critiques and addresses," . "on yeast: a lecture," . "a manual of the anatomy of vertebrated animals," . "manual of the anatomy of invertebrated animals," . "american addresses," . "physiography," . "hume" in "english men of letters," . "the crayfish: an introduction to the study of zoology," . "science and culture, and other essays," . "essays upon some controverted questions," . "evolution and ethics" (the romanes lecture), . huxley also assisted in editing the series of science primers published by messrs. macmillan, and contributed the introductory volume himself. the "collected essays," in nine vols., containing all that he cared to preserve, . "the scientific memoirs of t. h. huxley," edited by professor michael foster and professor e. ray lankester, in five vols., - . his "life and letters," edited by his son, leonard huxley, was published in . [illustration: _skeletons of the_ gibbon. orang. chimpanzee. gorilla. man. _photographically reduced from diagrams of the natural size_ (_except that of the gibbon, which was twice as large as nature_), _drawn by mr. waterhouse hawkins from specimens in the museum of the royal college of surgeons_.] huxley's essays i on the natural history of the man-like apes. ancient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern investigation, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is singular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one, presaging a reality. ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the geologist: the atlantis was an imagination, but columbus found a western world: and though the quaint forms of centaurs and satyrs have an existence only in the realms of art, creatures approaching man more nearly than they in essential structure, and yet as thoroughly brutal as the goat's or horse's half of the mythical compound, are now not only known, but notorious. i have not met with any notice of one of these man-like apes of earlier date than that contained in pigafetta's "description of the kingdom of congo,"[ ] drawn up from the notes of a portuguese sailor, eduardo lopez, and published in . the tenth chapter of this work is entitled "de animalibus quæ in hac provincia reperiuntur," and contains a brief passage to the effect that "in the songan country, on the banks of the zaire, there are multitudes of apes, which afford great delight to the nobles by imitating human gestures." as this might apply to almost any kind of apes, i should have thought little of it, had not the brothers de bry, whose engravings illustrate the work, thought fit, in their eleventh "argumentum," to figure two of these "simiæ magnatum deliciæ." so much of the plate as contains these apes is faithfully copied in the woodcut (fig. ), and it will be observed that they are tail-less, long-armed, and large-eared; and about the size of chimpanzees. it may be that these apes are as much figments of the imagination of the ingenious brothers as the winged, two-legged, crocodile-headed dragon which adorns the same plate; or, on the other hand, it may be that the artists have constructed their drawings from some essentially faithful description of a gorilla or a chimpanzee. and, in either case, though these figures are worth a passing notice, the oldest trustworthy and definite accounts of any animal of this kind date from the th century, and are due to an englishman. [illustration: fig. .--simiæ magnatum deliciæ.--de bry, .] the first edition of that most amusing old book, "purchas his pilgrimage," was published in , and therein are to be found many references to the statements of one whom purchas terms "andrew battell (my neere neighbour, dwelling at leigh in essex) who served under manuel silvera perera, governor under the king of spaine, at his city of saint paul, and with him went farre into the countrey of angola"; and again, "my friend, andrew battle, who lived in the kingdom of congo many yeares," and who, "upon some quarell betwixt the portugals (among whom he was a sergeant of a band) and him, lived eight or nine moneths in the woodes." from this weather-beaten old soldier, purchas was amazed to hear "of a kinde of great apes, if they might so bee termed, of the height of a man, but twice as bigge in feature of their limmes, with strength proportionable, hairie all over, otherwise altogether like men and women in their whole bodily shape.[ ] they lived on such wilde fruits as the trees and woods yielded, and in the night time lodged on the trees." this extract is, however, less detailed and clear in its statements than a passage in the third chapter of the second part of another work--"purchas his pilgrimes," published in , by the same author--which has been often, though hardly ever quite rightly, cited. the chapter is entitled, "the strange adventures of andrew battell, of leigh in essex, sent by the portugals prisoner to angola, who lived there and in the adjioining regions neere eighteene yeeres." and the sixth section of this chapter is headed--"of the provinces of bongo, calongo, mayombe, manikesocke, motimbas: of the ape monster pongo, their hunting: idolatries; and divers other observations." "this province (calongo) toward the east bordereth upon bongo, and toward the north upon mayombe, which is nineteen leagues from longo along the coast. "this province of mayombe is all woods and groves, so overgrowne that a man may travaile twentie days in the shadow without any sunne or heat. here is no kind of corne nor graine, so that the people liveth onely upon plantanes and roots of sundrie sorts, very good; and nuts; nor any kinde of tame cattell, nor hens. "but they have great store of elephant's flesh, which they greatly esteeme, and many kinds of wild beasts; and great store of fish. here is a great sandy bay, two leagues to the northward of cape negro,[ ] which is the port of mayombe. sometimes the portugals lade log-wood in this bay. here is a great river, called banna: in the winter it hath no barre, because the generall winds cause a great sea. but when the sunne hath his south declination, then a boat may goe in; for then it is smooth because of the raine. this river is very great, and hath many ilands and people dwelling in them. the woods are so covered with baboones, monkies, apes and parrots, that it will feare any man to travaile in them alone. here are also two kinds of monsters, which are common in these woods, and very dangerous. "the greatest of these two monsters is called pongo in their language, and the lesser is called engeco. this pongo is in all proportion like a man; but that he is more like a giant in stature than a man; for he is very tall, and hath a man's face, hollow-eyed, with long haire upon his browes. his face and eares are without haire, and his hands also. his bodie is full of haire, but not very thicke; and it is of a dunnish colour. "he differeth not from a man but in his legs; for they have no calfe. hee goeth alwaies upon his legs, and carrieth his hands clasped in the nape of his necke when he goeth upon the ground. they sleepe in the trees, and build shelters for the raine. they feed upon fruit that they find in the woods, and upon nuts, for they eate no kind of flesh. they cannot speake, and have no understanding more than a beast. the people of the countrie, when they travaile in the woods make fires where they sleepe in the night; and in the morning when they are gone, the pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it goeth out; for they have no understanding to lay the wood together. they goe many together and kill many negroes that travaile in the woods. many times they fall upon the elephants which come to feed where they be, and so beate them with their clubbed fists, and pieces of wood, that they will runne roaring away from them. those pongoes are never taken alive because they are so strong, that ten men cannot hold one of them; but yet they take many of their young ones with poisoned arrowes. "the young pongo hangeth on his mother's belly with his hands fast clasped about her, so that when the countrie people kill any of the females they take the young one, which hangeth fast upon his mother. "when they die among themselves, they cover the dead with great heaps of boughs and wood, which is commonly found in the forest."[ ] it does not appear difficult to identify the exact region of which battell speaks. longo is doubtless the name of the place usually spelled loango on our maps. mayombe still lies some nineteen leagues northward from loango, along the coast; and cilongo or kilonga, manikesocke, and motimbas are yet registered by geographers. the cape negro of battell, however, cannot be the modern cape negro in ° s., since loango itself is in ° s. latitude. on the other hand, the "great river called banna" corresponds very well with the "camma" and "fernand vas," of modern geographers, which form a great delta on this part of the african coast. now this "camma" country is situated about a degree and a-half south of the equator, while a few miles to the north of the line lies the gaboon, and a degree or so north of that, the money river--both well known to modern naturalists as localities where the largest of man-like apes has been obtained. moreover, at the present day, the word engeco, or n'schego, is applied by the natives of these regions to the smaller of the two great apes which inhabit them; so that there can be no rational doubt that andrew battell spoke of that which he knew of his own knowledge, or, at any rate, by immediate report from the natives of western africa. the "engeco," however, is that "other monster" whose nature battell "forgot to relate," while the name "pongo"--applied to the animal whose characters and habits are so fully and carefully described--seems to have died out, at least in its primitive form and signification. indeed, there is evidence that not only in battell's time, but up to a very recent date, it was used in a totally different sense from that in which he employs it. for example, the second chapter of purchas' work, which i have just quoted, contains "a description and historicall declaration of the golden kingdom of guinea, &c. &c. translated from the dutch, and compared also with the latin," wherein it is stated (p. ) that-- "the river gaboon lyeth about fifteen miles northward from rio de angra, and eight miles northward from cape de lope gonsalvez (cape lopez), and is right under the equinoctial line, about fifteene miles from st. thomas, and is a great land, well and easily to be knowne. at the mouth of the river there lieth a sand, three or foure fathoms deepe, whereon it beateth mightily with the streame which runneth out of the river into the sea. this river, in the mouth thereof, is at least four miles broad; but when you are about the iland called _pongo_, it is not above two miles broad.... on both sides the river there standeth many trees.... the iland called _pongo_, which hath a monstrous high hill." the french naval officers, whose letters are appended to the late m. isidore geoff. saint hilaire's excellent essay on the gorilla,[ ] note in similar terms the width of the gaboon, the trees that line its banks down to the water's edge, and the strong current that sets out of it. they describe two islands in its estuary;--one low, called perroquet; the other high, presenting three conical hills, called coniquet; and one of them, m. franquet, expressly states that, formerly, the chief of coniquet was called _meni-pongo_, meaning thereby lord of _pongo_; and that the _n'pongues_ (as, in agreement with dr. savage, he affirms the natives call themselves) term the estuary of the gaboon itself _n'pongo_. it is so easy, in dealing with savages, to misunderstand their applications of words to things, that one is at first inclined to suspect battell of having confounded the name of this region, where his "greater monster" still abounds, with the name of the animal itself. but he is so right about other matters (including the name of the "lesser monster") that one is loth to suspect the old traveller of error; and, on the other hand, we shall find that a voyager of a hundred years' later date speaks of the name "boggoe," as applied to a great ape, by the inhabitants of quite another part of africa--sierra leone. [illustration: _homo sylvestris. orang outang._ fig. .--the orang of tulpius, .] but i must leave this question to be settled by philologers and travellers; and i should hardly have dwelt so long upon it except for the curious part played by this word "_pongo_" in the later history of the man-like apes. the generation which succeeded battell saw the first of the man-like apes which was ever brought to europe, or, at any rate, whose visit found a historian. in the third book of tulpius' "observationes medicæ," published in , the th chapter or section is devoted to what he calls _satyrus indicus_, "called by the indians orang-autang, or man-of-the-woods, and by the africans quoias morrou." he gives a very good figure, evidently from the life, of the specimen of this animal, "nostra memoria ex angolâ delatum," presented to frederick henry prince of orange. tulpius says it was as big as a child of three years old, and as stout as one of six years: and that its back was covered with black hair. it is plainly a young chimpanzee. in the meanwhile, the existence of other, asiatic, man-like apes became known, but at first in a very mythical fashion. thus bontius ( ) gives an altogether fabulous and ridiculous account and figure of an animal which he calls "orang-outang"; and though he says, "vidi ego cujus effigiem hic exhibeo," the said effigies (see fig. for hoppius' copy of it) is nothing but a very hairy woman of rather comely aspect, and with proportions and feet wholly human. the judicious english anatomist, tyson, was justified in saying of this description by bontius, "i confess i do mistrust the whole representation." it is to the last mentioned writer, and his coadjutor cowper, that we owe the first account of a man-like ape which has any pretensions to scientific accuracy and completeness. the treatise entitled, "_orang-outang, sive homo sylvestris_; or the anatomy of a pygmie compared with that of a _monkey_, an _ape_, and a _man_," published by the royal society in , is, indeed, a work of remarkable merit, and has, in some respects, served as a model to subsequent inquirers. this "pygmie," tyson tells us, "was brought from angola, in africa; but was first taken a great deal higher up the country"; its hair "was of a coal-black colour, and strait," and "when it went as a quadruped on all four, 'twas awkwardly; not placing the palm of the hand flat to the ground, but it walk'd upon its knuckles, as i observed it to do when weak and had not strength enough to support its body."--"from the top of the head to the heel of the foot, in a strait line, it measured twenty-six inches." [illustration: figs. and .--the "pygmie" reduced from tyson's figures and , .] these characters, even without tyson's good figures (figs. and ), would have been sufficient to prove his "pygmie" to be a young chimpanzee. but the opportunity of examining the skeleton of the very animal tyson anatomised having most unexpectedly presented itself to me, i am able to bear independent testimony to its being a veritable _troglodytes niger_,[ ] though still very young. although fully appreciating the resemblances between his pygmie and man, tyson by no means overlooked the differences between the two, and he concludes his memoir by summing up first, the points in which "the ourang-outang or pygmie more resembled a man than apes and monkeys do," under forty-seven distinct heads; and then giving, in thirty-four similar brief paragraphs, the respects in which "the ourang-outang or pygmie differ'd from a man and resembled more the ape and monkey kind." after a careful survey of the literature of the subject extant in his time, our author arrives at the conclusion that his "pygmie" is identical neither with the orangs of tulpius and bontius, nor with the quoias morrou of dapper (or rather of tulpius), the barris of d'arcos, nor with the pongo of battell; but that it is a species of ape probably identical with the pygmies of the ancients, and, says tyson, though it "does so much resemble _a man_ in many of its parts, more than any of the ape kind, or any other animal in the world, that i know of: yet by no means do i look upon it as the product of a _mixt_ generation--'tis a _brute-animal sui generis_, and a particular _species of ape_." the name of "chimpanzee," by which one of the african apes is now so well known, appears to have come into use in the first half of the eighteenth century, but the only important addition made, in that period, to our acquaintance with the man-like apes of africa is contained in "a new voyage to guinea," by william smith, which bears the date . in describing the animals of sierra leone, p. , this writer says:-- "i shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called by the white men in this country mandrill,[ ] but why it is so called i know not, nor did i ever hear the name before, neither can those who call them so tell, except it be for their near resemblance of a human creature, though nothing at all like an ape. their bodies, when full grown, are as big in circumference as a middle-sized man's--their legs much shorter, and their feet larger; their arms and hands in proportion. the head is monstrously big, and the face broad and flat, without any other hair but the eyebrows; the nose very small, the mouth wide, and the lips thin. the face, which is covered by a white skin, is monstrously ugly, being all over wrinkled as with old age; the teeth broad and yellow; the hands have no more hair than the face, but the same white skin, though all the rest of the body is covered with long black hair, like a bear. they never go upon all fours, like apes; but cry, when vexed or teased, just like children.... [illustration: fig. .--facsimile of william smith's figure of the "mandrill," .] "when i was at sherbro, one mr. cummerbus, whom i shall have occasion hereafter to mention, made me a present of one of these strange animals, which are called by the natives boggoe: it was a she-cub, of six months' age, but even then larger than a baboon. i gave it in charge to one of the slaves, who knew how to feed and nurse it, being a very tender sort of animal; but whenever i went off the deck the sailors began to teaze it--some loved to see its tears and hear it cry; others hated its snotty-nose; one who hurt it, being checked by the negro that took care of it, told the slave he was very fond of his country-woman, and asked him if he should not like her for a wife? to which the slave very readily replied, 'no, this no my wife; this a white woman--this fit wife for you.' this unlucky wit of the negro's, i fancy, hastened its death, for next morning it was found dead under the windlass." william smith's "mandrill," or "boggoe," as his description and figure testify, was, without doubt, a chimpanzee. [illustration: fig. .--the anthropomorpha of linnæus.] linnæus knew nothing, of his own observation, of the man-like apes of either africa or asia, but a dissertation by his pupil hoppius in the "amoenitates academicæ" (vi. "anthropomorpha") may be regarded as embodying his views respecting these animals. the dissertation is illustrated by a plate, of which the accompanying woodcut, fig. , is a reduced copy. the figures are entitled (from left to right) . _troglodyta bontii_; . _lucifer aldrovandi_; . _satyrus tulpii_; . _pygmæus edwardi_. the first is a bad copy of bontius' fictitious "ourang-outang," in whose existence, however, linnæus appears to have fully believed; for in the standard edition of the "systema naturæ," it is enumerated as a second species of homo; "h. nocturnus." _lucifer aldrovandi_ is a copy of a figure in aldrovandus, "de quadrupedibus digitatis viviparis," lib. , p. ( ), entitled "cercopithecus formæ raræ _barbilius_ vocatus et originem a china ducebat." hoppius is of opinion that this may be one of that cat-tailed people, of whom nicolaus köping affirms that they eat a boat's crew, "gubernator navis" and all! in the "systema naturæ" linnæus calls it in a note, _homo caudatus_, and seems inclined to regard it as a third species of man. according to temminck, _satyrus tulpii_ is a copy of the figure of a chimpanzee published by scotin in , which i have not seen. it is the _satyrus indicus_ of the "systema naturæ," and is regarded by linnæus as possibly a distinct species from _satyrus sylvestris_. the last, named _pygmæus edwardi_, is copied from the figure of a young "man of the woods," or true orang-utan, given in edwards "gleanings of natural history" ( ). buffon was more fortunate than his great rival. not only had he the rare opportunity of examining a young chimpanzee in the living state, but he became possessed of an adult asiatic man-like ape--the first and the last adult specimen of any of these animals brought to europe for many years. with the valuable assistance of daubenton, buffon gave an excellent description of this creature, which, from its singular proportions, he termed the long-armed ape, or gibbon. it is the modern _hylobates lar_. thus when, in , buffon wrote the fourteenth volume of his great work, he was personally familiar with the young of one kind of african man-like ape, and with the adult of an asiatic species--while the orang-utan and the mandrill of smith were known to him by report. furthermore, the abbé prevost had translated a good deal of purchas' pilgrims into french, in his "histoire générale des voyages" ( ), and there buffon found a version of andrew battell's account of the pongo and the engeco. all these data buffon attempts to weld together into harmony in his chapter entitled "les orang-outangs ou le pongo et le jocko." to this title the following note is appended:-- "orang-outang nom de cet animal aux indes orientales: pongo nom de cet animal à lowando province de congo. "jocko, enjocko, nom de cet animal à congo que nous avons adopté. _en_ est l'article que nous avons retranché." thus it was that andrew battell's "engeco" became metamorphosed into "jocko," and, in the latter shape, was spread all over the world, in consequence of the extensive popularity of buffon's works. the abbé prevost and buffon between them, however, did a good deal more disfigurement to battell's sober account than "cutting off an article." thus battell's statement that the pongos "cannot speake, and have no understanding more than a beast," is rendered by buffon "qu'il ne peut parler _quoiqu'il ait plus d'entendement que les autres animaux_"; and again, purchas' affirmation, "he told me in conference with him, that one of these pongos tooke a negro boy of his which lived a moneth with them," stands in the french version, "un pongo lui enleva un petit negre qui passa un _an_ entier dans la societé de ces animaux." after quoting the account of the great pongo, buffon justly remarks, that all the "jockos" and "orangs" hitherto brought to europe were young; and he suggests that, in their adult condition, they might be as big as the pongo or "great orang"; so that, provisionally, he regarded the jockos, orangs, and pongos as all of one species. and perhaps this was as much as the state of knowledge at the time warranted. but how it came about that buffon failed to perceive the similarity of smith's "mandrill" to his own "jocko," and confounded the former with so totally different a creature as the blue-faced baboon, is not so easily intelligible. twenty years later buffon changed his opinion,[ ] and expressed his belief that the orangs constituted a genus with two species,--a large one, the pongo of battell, and a small one, the jocko: that the small one (jocko) is the east indian orang; and that the young animals from africa, observed by himself and tulpius, are simply young pongos. in the meanwhile, the dutch naturalist, vosmaer, gave, in , a very good account and figure of a young orang, brought alive to holland, and his countryman, the famous anatomist, peter camper, published ( ) an essay on the orang-utan of similar value to that of tyson on the chimpanzee. he dissected several females and a male, all of which, from the state of their skeleton and their dentition, he justly supposes to have been young. however, judging by the analogy of man, he concludes that they could not have exceeded four feet in height in the adult condition. furthermore, he is very clear as to the specific distinctness of the true east indian orang. "the orang," says he, "differs not only from the pigmy of tyson and from the orang of tulpius by its peculiar colour and its long toes, but also by its whole external form. its arms, its hands, and its feet are longer, while the thumbs, on the contrary, are much shorter, and the great toes much smaller in proportion."[ ] and again, "the true orang, that is to say, that of asia, that of borneo, is consequently not the pithecus, or tail-less ape, which the greeks, and especially galen, have described. it is neither the pongo nor the jocko, nor the orang of tulpius, nor the pigmy of tyson,--_it is an animal of a peculiar species_, as i shall prove in the clearest manner by the organs of voice and the skeleton in the following chapters" (l. c. p. ). a few years later, m. radermacher, who held a high office in the government of the dutch dominions in india, and was an active member of the batavian society of arts and sciences, published, in the second part of the transactions of that society,[ ] a description of the island of borneo, which was written between the years and , and, among much other interesting matter, contains some notes upon the orang. the small sort of orang-utan, viz. that of vosmaer and of edwards, he says, is found only in borneo, and chiefly about banjermassing, mampauwa, and landak. of these he had seen some fifty during his residence in the indies; but none exceeded - / feet in length. the larger sort, often regarded as chimæra, continues radermacher, would, perhaps long have remained so, had it not been for the exertions of the resident at rembang, m. palm, who, on returning from landak towards pontiana, shot one, and forwarded it to batavia in spirit, for transmission to europe. palm's letter describing the capture runs thus:--"herewith i send your excellency, contrary to all expectation (since long ago i offered more than a hundred ducats to the natives for an orang-utan of four or five feet high) an orang which i heard of this morning about eight o'clock. for a long time we did our best to take the frightful beast alive in the dense forest about half way to landak. we forgot even to eat, so anxious were we not to let him escape; but it was necessary to take care he did not revenge himself, as he kept continually breaking off heavy pieces of wood and green branches, and dashing them at us. this game lasted till four o'clock in the afternoon, when we determined to shoot him; in which i succeeded very well, and indeed better than i ever shot from a boat before; for the bullet went just into the side of his chest, so that he was not much damaged. we got him into the prow still living, and bound him fast, and next morning he died of his wounds. all pontiana came on board to see him when we arrived." palm gives his height from the head to the heel as inches. a very intelligent german officer, baron von wurmb, who at this time held a post in the dutch east india service, and was secretary of the batavian society, studied this animal, and his careful description of it, entitled "beschrijving van der groote borneosche orang-outang of de oost-indische pongo," is contained in the same volume of the batavian society's transactions. after von wurmb had drawn up his description he states, in a letter dated batavia, feb. , ,[ ] that the specimen was sent to europe in brandy to be placed in the collection of the prince of orange; "unfortunately," he continues, "we hear that the ship has been wrecked." von wurmb died in the course of the year , the letter in which this passage occurs being the last he wrote; but in his posthumous papers, published in the fourth part of the transactions of the batavian society, there is a brief description, with measurements, of a female pongo four feet high. [illustration: fig. .--the pongo skull, sent by radermacher to camper, after camper's original sketches, as reproduced by lucæ.] did either of these original specimens, on which von wurmb's descriptions are based, ever reach europe? it is commonly supposed that they did; but i doubt the fact. for, appended to the memoir "de l'ourang-outang," in the collected edition of camper's works, tome i., pp. - , is a note by camper himself, referring to von wurmb's papers, and continuing thus:--"heretofore, this kind of ape had never been known in europe. radermacher has had the kindness to send me the skull of one of these animals, which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five inches, in height. i have sent some sketches of it to m. soemmering at mayence, which are better calculated, however, to give an idea of the form than of the real size of the parts." these sketches have been reproduced by fischer and by lucæ, and bear date , soemmering having received them in . had either of von wurmb's specimens reached holland, they would hardly have been unknown at this time to camper, who, however, goes on to say:--"it appears that since this, some more of these monsters have been captured, for an entire skeleton, very badly set up, which had been sent to the museum of the prince of orange, and which i saw only on the th of june, , was more than four feet high. i examined this skeleton again on the th december, , after it had been excellently put to rights by the ingenious onymus." it appears evident, then, that this skeleton, which is doubtless that which has always gone by the name of wurmb's pongo, is not that of the animal described by him, though unquestionably similar in all essential points. camper proceeds to note some of the most important features of this skeleton; promises to describe it in detail by-and-bye; and is evidently in doubt as to the relation of this great "pongo" to his "petit orang." the promised further investigations were never carried out; and so it happened that the pongo of von wurmb took its place by the side of the chimpanzee, gibbon, and orang as a fourth and colossal species of man-like ape. and indeed nothing could look much less like the chimpanzees or the orangs, then known, than the pongo; for all the specimens of chimpanzee and orang which had been observed were small of stature, singularly human in aspect, gentle and docile; while wurmb's pongo was a monster almost twice their size, of vast strength and fierceness, and very brutal in expression; its great projecting muzzle, armed with strong teeth, being further disfigured by the outgrowth of the cheeks into fleshy lobes. eventually, in accordance with the usual marauding habits of the revolutionary armies, the "pongo" skeleton was carried away from holland into france, and notices of it, expressly intended to demonstrate its entire distinctness from the orang and its affinity with the baboons, were given, in , by geoffroy st. hilaire and cuvier. even in cuvier's "tableau elementaire," and in the first edition of his great work, the "regne animal," the "pongo" is classed as a species of baboon. however, so early as , it appears that cuvier saw reason to alter this opinion, and to adopt the view suggested several years before by blumenbach,[ ] and after him by tilesius, that the bornean pongo is simply an adult orang. in , rudolphi demonstrated, by the condition of the dentition, more fully and completely than had been done by his predecessors, that the orangs described up to that time were all young animals, and that the skull and teeth of the adult would probably be such as those seen in the pongo of wurmb. in the second edition of the "regne animal" ( ), cuvier infers, from the "proportions of all the parts" and "the arrangements of the foramina and sutures of the head," that the pongo is the adult of the orang-utan, "at least of a very closely allied species," and this conclusion was eventually placed beyond all doubt by professor owen's memoir published in the "zoological transactions" for , and by temminck in his "monographies de mammalogie." temminck's memoir is remarkable for the completeness of the evidence which it affords as to the modification which the form of the orang undergoes according to age and sex. tiedemann first published an account of the brain of the young orang, while sandifort, müller and schlegel, described the muscles and the viscera of the adult, and gave the earliest detailed and trustworthy history of the habits of the great indian ape in a state of nature; and as important additions have been made by later observers, we are at this moment better acquainted with the adult of the orang-utan, than with that of any of the other greater man-like apes. it is certainly the pongo of wurmb;[ ] and it is as certainly not the pongo of battell, seeing that the orang-utan is entirely confined to the great asiatic islands of borneo and sumatra. and while the progress of discovery thus cleared up the history of the orang, it also became established that the only other man-like apes in the eastern world were the various species of gibbon--apes of smaller stature, and therefore attracting less attention than the orangs, though they are spread over a much wider range of country, and are hence more accessible to observation. * * * * * although the geographical area inhabited by the "pongo" and "engeco" of battell is so much nearer to europe than that in which the orang and gibbon are found, our acquaintance with the african apes has been of slower growth; indeed, it is only within the last few years that the truthful story of the old english adventurer has been rendered fully intelligible. it was not until that the skeleton of the adult chimpanzee became known, by the publication of professor owen's above-mentioned very excellent memoir "on the osteology of the chimpanzee and orang," in the zoological transactions--a memoir which, by the accuracy of its descriptions, the carefulness of its comparisons, and the excellence of its figures, made an epoch in the history of our knowledge of the bony framework, not only of the chimpanzee, but of all the anthropoid apes. by the investigations herein detailed, it became evident that the old chimpanzee acquired a size and aspect as different from those of the young known to tyson, to buffon, and to traill, as those of the old orang from the young orang; and the subsequent very important researches of messrs. savage and wyman, the american missionary and anatomist, have not only confirmed this conclusion, but have added many new details.[ ] one of the most interesting among the many valuable discoveries made by dr. thomas savage is the fact, that the natives in the gaboon country at the present day, apply to the chimpanzee a name--"enché-eko"--which is obviously identical with the "engeko" of battell; a discovery which has been confirmed by all later inquirers. battell's "lesser monster," being thus proved to be a veritable existence, of course a strong presumption arose that his "greater monster," the "pongo," would sooner or later be discovered. and, indeed, a modern traveller, bowdich, had, in , found strong evidence, among the natives, of the existence of a second great ape, called the "ingena," "five feet high, and four across the shoulders," the builder of a rude house, on the outside of which it slept. in , dr. savage had the good fortune to make another and most important addition to our knowledge of the man-like apes; for, being unexpectedly detained at the gaboon river, he saw in the house of the rev. mr. wilson, a missionary resident there, "a skull represented by the natives to be a monkey-like animal, remarkable for its size, ferocity, and habits." from the contour of the skull, and the information derived from several intelligent natives, "i was induced," says dr. savage (using the term orang in its old general sense), "to believe that it belonged to a new species of orang. i expressed this opinion to mr. wilson, with a desire for further investigation; and, if possible, to decide the point by the inspection of a specimen alive or dead." the result of the combined exertions of messrs. savage and wilson was not only the obtaining of a very full account of the habits of this new creature, but a still more important service to science, the enabling the excellent american anatomist already mentioned, professor wyman, to describe, from ample materials, the distinctive osteological characters of the new form. this animal was called by the natives of the gaboon "engé-ena," a name obviously identical with the "ingena" of bowdich; and dr. savage arrived at the conviction that this last discovered of all the great apes was the long-sought "pongo" of battell. the justice of this conclusion, indeed, is beyond doubt--for not only does the "engé-ena" agree with battell's "greater monster" in its hollow eyes, its great stature and its dun or iron-grey colour, but the only other man-like ape which inhabits these latitudes--the chimpanzee--is at once identified, by its smaller size, as the "lesser monster," and is excluded from any possibility of being the "pongo," by the fact that it is black and not dun, to say nothing of the important circumstance already mentioned that it still retains the name of "engeko," or "enché-eko," by which battell knew it. in seeking for a specific name for the "engé-ena," however, dr. savage wisely avoided the much misused "pongo"; but finding in the ancient periplus of hanno the word "gorilla" applied to certain hairy savage people, discovered by the carthaginian voyager in an island on the african coast, he attached the specific name "_gorilla_" to his new ape, whence arises its present well-known appellation. but dr. savage, more cautious than some of his successors, by no means identifies his ape with hanno's "wild men." he merely says that the latter were "probably one of the species of the orang;" and i quite agree with m. brullé that there is no ground for identifying the modern "gorilla" with that of the carthaginian admiral. since the memoir of savage and wyman was published, the skeleton of the gorilla has been investigated by professor owen and by the late professor duvernoy, of the jardin des plantes, the latter having further supplied a valuable account of the muscular system and of many of the other soft parts; while african missionaries and travellers have confirmed and expanded the account originally given of the habits of this great man-like ape, which has had the singular fortune of being the first to be made known to the general world and the last to be scientifically investigated. two centuries and a half have passed away since battell told his stories about the "greater" and the "lesser monsters" to purchas, and it has taken nearly that time to arrive at the clear result that there are four distinct kinds of anthropoids--in eastern asia, the gibbons and the orangs; in western africa, the chimpanzees and the gorilla. * * * * * the man-like apes, the history of whose discovery has just been detailed, have certain characters of structure and of distribution in common. thus they all have the same number of teeth as man--possessing four incisors, two canines, four false molars, and six true molars in each jaw, or teeth in all, in the adult condition; while the milk dentition consists of teeth--or four incisors, two canines, and four molars in each jaw. they are what are called catarrhine apes--that is, their nostrils have a narrow partition and look downwards; and, furthermore, their arms are always longer than their legs, the difference being sometimes greater and sometimes less; so that if the four were arranged in the order of the length of their arms in proportion to that of their legs, we should have this series--orang ( - / -- ), gibbon ( - / -- ), gorilla ( - / -- ), chimpanzee ( - / -- ). in all, the fore-limbs are terminated by hands, provided with longer or shorter thumbs; while the great toe of the foot, always smaller than in man, is far more moveable than in him and can be opposed, like a thumb, to the rest of the foot. none of these apes have tails, and none of them possess the cheek-pouches common among monkeys. finally, they are all inhabitants of the old world. the gibbons are the smallest, slenderest, and longest-limbed of the man-like apes: their arms are longer in proportion to their bodies than those of any of the other man-like apes, so that they can touch the ground when erect; their hands are longer than their feet, and they are the only anthropoids which possess callosities like the lower monkeys. they are variously coloured. the orangs have arms which reach to the ankles in the erect position of the animal; their thumbs and great toes are very short, and their feet are longer than their hands. they are covered with reddish-brown hair, and the sides of the face, in adult males, are commonly produced into two crescentic, flexible excrescences, like fatty tumours. the chimpanzees have arms which reach below the knees; they have large thumbs and great toes, their hands are longer than their feet, and their hair is black, while the skin of the face is pale. the gorilla, lastly, has arms which reach to the middle of the leg, large thumbs and great toes, feet longer than the hands, a black face, and dark-grey or dun hair. for the purpose which i have at present in view, it is unnecessary that i should enter into any further minutiæ respecting the distinctive characters of the genera and species into which these man-like apes are divided by naturalists. suffice it to say, that the orangs and the gibbons constitute the distinct genera, _simia_ and _hylobates_; while the chimpanzees and gorillas are by some regarded simply as distinct species of one genus, _troglodytes_; by others as distinct genera--_troglodytes_ being reserved for the chimpanzees, and _gorilla_ for the engé-ena or pongo. * * * * * sound knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like apes has been even more difficult of attainment than correct information regarding their structure. once in a generation, a wallace may be found physically, mentally, and morally qualified to wander unscathed through the tropical wilds of america and of asia; to form magnificent collections as he wanders; and withal to think out sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his collections: but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the dense forests of equatorial asia and africa, which constitute the favourite habitation of the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla, present difficulties of no ordinary magnitude: and the man who risks his life by even a short visit to the malarious shores of those regions may well be excused if he shrinks from facing the dangers of the interior; if he contents himself with stimulating the industry of the better seasoned natives, and collecting and collating the more or less mythical reports and traditions with which they are too ready to supply him. in such a manner most of the earlier accounts of the habits of the man-like apes originated; and even now a good deal of what passes current must be admitted to have no very safe foundation. the best information we possess is that, based almost wholly on direct european testimony, respecting the gibbons; the next best evidence relates to the orangs; while our knowledge of the habits of the chimpanzee and the gorilla stands much in need of support and enlargement by additional testimony from instructed european eye-witnesses. it will therefore be convenient in endeavouring to form a notion of what we are justified in believing about these animals, to commence with the best known man-like apes, the gibbons and orangs; and to make use of the perfectly reliable information respecting them as a sort of criterion of the probable truth or falsehood of assertions respecting the others. of the gibbons, half a dozen species are found scattered over the asiatic islands, java, sumatra, borneo, and through malacca, siam, arracan, and an uncertain extent of hindostan, on the main land of asia. the largest attain a few inches above three feet in height, from the crown to the heel, so that they are shorter than the other man-like apes; while the slenderness of their bodies renders their mass far smaller in proportion even to this diminished height. dr. salomon müller, an accomplished dutch naturalist, who lived for many years in the eastern archipelago, and to the results of whose personal experience i shall frequently have occasion to refer, states that the gibbons are true mountaineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills, though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the fig-trees. all day long they haunt the tops of the tall trees; and though, towards evening, they descend in small troops to the open ground, no sooner do they spy a man than they dart up the hill-sides, and disappear in the darker valleys. all observers testify to the prodigious volume of voice possessed by these animals. according to the writer whom i have just cited, in one of them, the siamang, "the voice is grave and penetrating, resembling the sounds g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, g[=o]ek, goek ha ha ha ha haa[=a][=a][=a], and may easily be heard at a distance of half a league." while the cry is being uttered, the great membranous bag under the throat which communicates with the organ of voice, the so-called "laryngeal sac," becomes greatly distended, diminishing again when the creature relapses into silence. m. duvaucel, likewise, affirms that the cry of the siamang may be heard for miles--making the woods ring again. so mr. martin[ ] describes the cry of the agile gibbon as "overpowering and deafening" in a room, and "from its strength, well calculated for resounding through the vast forests." mr. waterhouse, an accomplished musician as well as zoologist, says, "the gibbon's voice is certainly much more powerful than that of any singer i ever heard." and yet it is to be recollected that this animal is not half the height of, and far less bulky in proportion than, a man. there is good testimony that various species of gibbon readily take to the erect posture. mr. george bennett,[ ] a very excellent observer, in describing the habits of a male _hylobates syndactylus_ which remained for some time in his possession, says: "he invariably walks in the erect posture when on a level surface; and then the arms either hang down, enabling him to assist himself with his knuckles; or what is more usual, he keeps his arms uplifted in nearly an erect position, with the hands pendent ready to seize a rope, and climb up on the approach of danger or on the obtrusion of strangers. he walks rather quick in the erect posture, but with a waddling gait, and is soon run down if, whilst pursued, he has no opportunity of escaping by climbing.... when he walks in the erect posture he turns the leg and foot outwards, which occasions him to have a waddling gait and to seem bow-legged." dr. burrough states of another gibbon, the horlack or hooluk: "they walk erect; and when placed on the floor, or in an open field, balance themselves very prettily, by raising their hands over their head and slightly bending the arm at the wrist and elbow, and then run tolerably fast, rocking from side to side; and, if urged to greater speed, they let fall their hands to the ground, and assist themselves forward, rather jumping than running, still keeping the body, however, nearly erect." somewhat different evidence, however, is given by dr. winslow lewis:[ ] "their only manner of walking was on their posterior or inferior extremities, the others being raised upwards to preserve their equilibrium, as rope-dancers are assisted by long poles at fairs. their progression was not by placing one foot before the other, but by simultaneously using both, as in jumping." dr. salomon müller also states that the gibbons progress upon the ground by a short series of tottering jumps, effected only by the hind limbs, the body being held altogether upright. [illustration: fig. .--a gibbon (_h. pileatus_), after wolf.] but mr. martin (l. c. p. ), who also speaks from direct observation, says of the gibbons generally: "pre-eminently qualified for arboreal habits, and displaying among the branches amazing activity, the gibbons are not so awkward or embarrassed on a level surface as might be imagined. they walk erect, with a waddling or unsteady gait, but at a quick pace; the equilibrium of the body requiring to be kept up, either by touching the ground with the knuckles, first on one side then on the other, or by uplifting the arms so as to poise it. as with the chimpanzee, the whole of the narrow, long sole of the foot is placed upon the ground at once and raised at once, without any elasticity of step." after this mass of concurrent and independent testimony, it cannot reasonably be doubted that the gibbons commonly and habitually assume the erect attitude. but level ground is not the place where these animals can display their very remarkable and peculiar locomotive powers, and that prodigious activity which almost tempts one to rank them among flying rather than among ordinary climbing mammals. mr. martin (l. c. p. ) has given so excellent and graphic an account of the movements of a _hylobates agilis_, living in the zoological gardens, in , that i will quote it in full: "it is almost impossible to convey in words an idea of the quickness and graceful address of her movements: they may indeed be termed aerial, as she seems merely to touch in her progress the branches among which she exhibits her evolutions. in these feats her hands and arms are the sole organs of locomotion; her body hanging as if suspended by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right, for example), she launches herself, by an energetic movement, to a distant branch, which she catches with the left hand; but her hold is less than momentary: the impulse for the next launch is acquired: the branch then aimed at is attained by the right hand again, and quitted instantaneously, and so on, in alternate succession. in this manner spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are cleared, with the greatest ease and uninterruptedly, for hours together, without the slightest appearance of fatigue being manifested; and it is evident that, if more space could be allowed, distances very greatly exceeding eighteen feet would be as easily cleared; so that duvaucel's assertion that he has seen these animals launch themselves from one branch to another, forty feet asunder, startling as it is, may be well credited. sometimes, on seizing a branch in her progress, she will throw herself, by the power of one arm only, completely round it, making a revolution with such rapidity as almost to deceive the eye, and continue her progress with undiminished velocity. it is singular to observe how suddenly this gibbon can stop, when the impetus given by the rapidity and distance of her swinging leaps would seem to require a gradual abatement of her movements. in the very midst of her flight a branch is seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if by magic, quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. as suddenly she again throws herself into action. "the following facts will convey some notion of her dexterity and quickness. a live bird was let loose in her apartment; she marked its flight, made a long swing to a distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in her passage, and attained the branch with her other hand; her aim, both at the bird and at the branch, being as successful as if one object only had engaged her attention. it may be added that she instantly bit off the head of the bird, picked its feathers, and then threw it down without attempting to eat it. "on another occasion this animal swung herself from a perch, across a passage at least twelve feet wide, against a window which it was thought would be immediately broken: but not so; to the surprise of all, she caught the narrow framework between the panes with her hand, in an instant attained the proper impetus, and sprang back again to the cage she had left--a feat requiring not only great strength, but the nicest precision." the gibbons appear to be naturally very gentle, but there is very good evidence that they will bite severely when irritated--a female _hylobates agilis_ having so severely lacerated one man with her long canines, that he died; while she had injured others so much that, by way of precaution, these formidable teeth had been filed down; but, if threatened, she would still turn on her keeper. the gibbons eat insects, but appear generally to avoid animal food. a siamang, however, was seen by mr. bennett to seize and devour greedily a live lizard. they commonly drink by dipping their fingers in the liquid and then licking them. it is asserted that they sleep in a sitting posture. duvaucel affirms that he has seen the females carry their young to the waterside and there wash their faces, in spite of resistance and cries. they are gentle and affectionate in captivity--full of tricks and pettishness, like spoiled children, and yet not devoid of a certain conscience, as an anecdote, told by mr. bennett (l. c. p. ), will show. it would appear that his gibbon had a peculiar inclination for disarranging things in the cabin. among these articles, a piece of soap would especially attract his notice, and for the removal of this he had been once or twice scolded. "one morning," says mr. bennett, "i was writing, the ape being present in the cabin, when casting my eyes towards him, i saw the little fellow taking the soap. i watched him without his perceiving that i did so: and he occasionally would cast a furtive glance towards the place where i sat. i pretended to write; he, seeing me busily occupied, took the soap, and moved away with it in his paw. when he had walked half the length of the cabin, i spoke quietly, without frightening him. the instant he found i saw him, he walked back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the same place from whence he had taken it. there was certainly something more than instinct in that action: he evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong both by his first and last actions--and what is reason if that is not an exercise of it?" * * * * * the most elaborate account of the natural history of the orang-utan extant, is that given in the "verhandelingen over de natuurlijke geschiedenis der nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen ( - )," by dr. salomon müller and dr. schlegel, and i shall base what i have to say upon this subject almost entirely on their statements, adding, here and there, particulars of interest from the writings of brooke, wallace, and others. [illustration: fig. .--an adult male orang-utan, after müller and schlegel.] the orang-utan would rarely seem to exceed four feet in height, but the body is very bulky, measuring two-thirds of the height in circumference.[ ] the orang-utan is found only in sumatra and borneo, and is common in neither of these islands--in both of which it occurs always in low, flat plains, never in the mountains. it loves the densest and most sombre of the forests, which extend from the sea-shore inland, and thus is found only in the eastern half of sumatra, where alone such forests occur, though, occasionally, it strays over to the western side. on the other hand, it is generally distributed through borneo, except in the mountains, or where the population is dense. in favourable places, the hunter may, by good fortune, see three or four in a day. except in the pairing time, the old males usually live by themselves. the old females, and the immature males, on the other hand, are often met with in twos and threes; and the former occasionally have young with them, though the pregnant females usually separate themselves, and sometimes remain apart after they have given birth to their offspring. the young orangs seem to remain unusually long under their mother's protection, probably in consequence of their slow growth. while climbing, the mother always carries her young against her bosom, the young holding on by his mother's hair.[ ] at what time of life the orang-utan becomes capable of propagation, and how long the females go with young, is unknown, but it is probable that they are not adult until they arrive at ten or fifteen years of age. a female which lived for five years at batavia, had not attained one-third the height of the wild females. it is probable that, after reaching adult years, they go on growing, though slowly, and that they live to forty or fifty years. the dyaks tell of old orangs, which have not only lost all their teeth, but which find it so troublesome to climb, that they maintain themselves on windfalls and juicy herbage. the orang is sluggish, exhibiting none of that marvellous activity characteristic of the gibbons. hunger alone seems to stir him to exertion, and when it is stilled he relapses into repose. when the animal sits, it curves its back and bows its head, so as to look straight down on the ground; sometimes it holds on with its hands by a higher branch, sometimes lets them hang phlegmatically down by its side--and in these positions the orang will remain, for hours together, in the same spot, almost without stirring, and only now and then giving utterance to its deep, growling voice. by day, he usually climbs from one tree-top to another, and only at night descends to the ground, and if then threatened with danger, he seeks refuge among the underwood. when not hunted, he remains a long time in the same locality, and sometimes stops for many days on the same tree--a firm place among its branches serving him for a bed. it is rare for the orang to pass the night in the summit of a large tree, probably because it is too windy and cold there for him; but, as soon as night draws on, he descends from the height and seeks out a fit bed in the lower and darker part, or in the leafy top of a small tree, among which he prefers nibong palms, pandani, or one of those parasitic orchids which give the primæval forests of borneo so characteristic and striking an appearance. but wherever he determines to sleep, there he prepares himself a sort of nest: little boughs and leaves are drawn together round the selected spot, and bent crosswise over one another; while to make the bed soft, great leaves of ferns, of orchids, of _pandanus fascicularis_, _nipa fruticans_, &c., are laid over them. those which müller saw, many of them being very fresh, were situated at a height of ten to twenty-five feet above the ground, and had a circumference, on the average, of two or three feet. some were packed many inches thick with _pandanus_ leaves; others were remarkable only for the cracked twigs, which, united in a common centre, formed a regular platform. "the rude _hut_," says sir james brooke, "which they are stated to build in the trees, would be more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. the facility with which they form this nest is curious, and i had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together and seat herself, within a minute." according to the dyaks, the orang rarely leaves his bed before the sun is well above the horizon and has dissipated the mists. he gets up about nine, and goes to bed again about five; but sometimes not till late in the twilight. he lies sometimes on his back; or, by way of change, turns on one side or the other, drawing his limbs up to his body, and resting his head on his hand. when the night is cold, windy, or rainy, he usually covers his body with a heap of _pandanus_, _nipa_, or fern leaves, like those of which his bed is made, and he is especially careful to wrap up his head in them. it is this habit of covering himself up which has probably led to the fable that the orang builds huts in the trees. although the orang resides mostly amid the boughs of great trees, during the daytime, he is very rarely seen squatting on a thick branch, as other apes, and particularly the gibbons, do. the orang, on the contrary, confines himself to the slender leafy branches, so that he is seen right at the top of the trees, a mode of life which is closely related to the constitution of his hinder limbs, and especially to that of his seat. for this is provided with no callosities, such as are possessed by many of the lower apes, and even by the gibbons; and those bones of the pelvis, which are termed the ischia, and which form the solid framework of the surface on which the body rests in the sitting posture, are not expanded like those of the apes which possess callosities, but are more like those of man. an orang climbs so slowly and cautiously,[ ] as, in this act, to resemble a man more than an ape, taking great care of his feet, so that injury of them seems to affect him far more than it does other apes. unlike the gibbons, whose forearms do the greater part of the work, as they swing from branch to branch, the orang never makes even the smallest jump. in climbing, he moves alternately one hand and one foot, or, after having laid fast hold with the hands, he draws up both feet together. in passing from one tree to another, he always seeks out a place where the twigs of both come close together, or interlace. even when closely pursued, his circumspection is amazing: he shakes the branches to see if they will bear him, and then bending an overhanging bough down by throwing his weight gradually along it, he makes a bridge from the tree he wishes to quit to the next.[ ] on the ground the orang always goes laboriously and shakily, on all fours. at starting he will run faster than a man, though he may soon be overtaken. the very long arms which, when he runs, are but little bent, raise the body of the orang remarkably, so that he assumes much the posture of a very old man bent down by age, and making his way along by the help of a stick. in walking, the body is usually directed straight forward, unlike the other apes, which run more or less obliquely; except the gibbons, who in these, as in so many other respects, depart remarkably from their fellows. the orang cannot put its feet flat on the ground, but is supported upon their outer edges, the heel resting more on the ground, while the curved toes partly rest upon the ground by the upper side of their first joint, the two outermost toes of each foot completely resting on this surface. the hands are held in the opposite manner, their inner edges serving as the chief support. the fingers are then bent out in such a manner that their foremost joints, especially those of the two innermost fingers, rest upon the ground by their upper sides, while the point of the free and straight thumb serves as an additional fulcrum. the orang never stands on its hind legs, and all the pictures, representing it as so doing, are as false as the assertion that it defends itself with sticks, and the like. the long arms are of especial use, not only in climbing, but in the gathering of food from boughs to which the animal could not trust his weight. figs, blossoms, and young leaves of various kinds, constitute the chief nutriment of the orang; but strips of bamboo two or three feet long were found in the stomach of a male. they are not known to eat living animals. although, when taken young, the orang-utan soon becomes domesticated, and indeed seems to court human society, it is naturally a very wild and shy animal, though apparently sluggish and melancholy. the dyaks affirm, that when the old males are wounded with arrows only, they will occasionally leave the trees and rush raging upon their enemies, whose sole safety lies in instant flight, as they are sure to be killed if caught.[ ] but, though possessed of immense strength, it is rare for the orang to attempt to defend itself, especially when attacked with fire-arms. on such occasions he endeavours to hide himself, or to escape along the topmost branches of the trees, breaking off and throwing down the boughs as he goes. when wounded he betakes himself to the highest attainable point of the tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike that of a panther. while giving out the high notes the orang thrusts out his lips into a funnel shape; but in uttering the low notes he holds his mouth wide open, and at the same time the great throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended. according to the dyaks, the only animal the orang measures his strength with is the crocodile, who occasionally seizes him on his visits to the water side. but they say that the orang is more than a match for his enemy, and beats him to death, or rips up his throat by pulling the jaws asunder! much of what has been here stated was probably derived by dr. müller from the reports of his dyak hunters; but a large male, four feet high, lived in captivity, under his observation, for a month, and receives a very bad character. "he was a very wild beast," says müller, "of prodigious strength, and false and wicked to the last degree. if any one approached he rose up slowly with a low growl, fixed his eyes in the direction in which he meant to make his attack, slowly passed his hand between the bars of his cage, and then extending his long arm, gave a sudden grip--usually at the face." he never tried to bite (though orangs will bite one another), his great weapons of offence and defence being his hands. his intelligence was very great; and müller remarks, that though the faculties of the orang have been estimated too highly, yet cuvier, had he seen this specimen, would not have considered its intelligence to be only a little higher than that of the dog. his hearing was very acute, but the sense of vision seemed to be less perfect. the under lip was the great organ of touch, and played a very important part in drinking, being thrust out like a trough, so as either to catch the falling rain, or to receive the contents of the half cocoa-nut shell full of water with which the orang was supplied, and which, in drinking, he poured into the trough thus formed. in borneo the orang-utan of the malays goes by the name of "_mias_" among the dyaks, who distinguish several kinds as _mias pappan_, or _zimo_, _mias kassu_, and _mias rambi_. whether these are distinct species, however, or whether they are mere races, and how far any of them are identical with the sumatran orang, as mr. wallace thinks the mias pappan to be, are problems which are at present undecided; and the variability of these great apes is so extensive, that the settlement of the question is a matter of great difficulty. of the form called "mias pappan," mr. wallace[ ] observes, "it is known by its large size, and by the lateral expansion of the face into fatty protuberances, or ridges, over the temporal muscles, which have been mis-termed _callosities_, as they are perfectly soft, smooth, and flexible. five of this form, measured by me, varied only from feet inch to feet inches in height, from the heel to the crown of the head, the girth of the body from feet to feet - / inches, and the extent of the outstretched arms from feet inches to feet inches; the width of the face from to - / inches. the colour and length of the hair varied in different individuals, and in different parts of the same individual; some possessed a rudimentary nail on the great toe, others none at all; but they otherwise present no external differences on which to establish even varieties of a species. "yet, when we examine the crania of these individuals, we find remarkable differences of form, proportion, and dimension, no two being exactly alike. the slope of the profile, and the projection of the muzzle, together with the size of the cranium, offer differences as decided as those existing between the most strongly marked forms of the caucasian and african crania in the human species. the orbits vary in width and height, the cranial ridge is either single or double, either much or little developed, and the zygomatic aperture varies considerably in size. this variation in the proportions of the crania enables us satisfactorily to explain the marked difference presented by the single-crested and double-crested skulls, which have been thought to prove the existence of two large species of orang. the external surface of the skull varies considerably in size, as do also the zygomatic aperture and the temporal muscle; but they bear no necessary relation to each other, a small muscle often existing with a large cranial surface, and _vice versâ_. now, those skulls which have the largest and strongest jaws and the widest zygomatic aperture, have the muscles so large that they meet on the crown of the skull, and deposit the bony ridge which separates them, and which is the highest in that which has the smallest cranial surface. in those which combine a large surface with comparatively weak jaws, and small zygomatic aperture, the muscles, on each side, do not extend to the crown, a space of from to inches remaining between them, and along their margins small ridges are formed. intermediate forms are found, in which the ridges meet only in the hinder part of the skull. the form and size of the ridges are therefore independent of age, being sometimes more strongly developed in the less aged animal. professor temminck states that the series of skulls in the leyden museum shows the same result." mr. wallace observed two male adult orangs (mias kassu of the dyaks), however, so very different from any of these that he concludes them to be specifically distinct; they were respectively feet - / inches and feet - / inches high, and possessed no sign of the cheek excrescences, but otherwise resembled the larger kinds. the skull has no crest, but two bony ridges, - / inches to inches apart, as in the _simia morio_ of professor owen. the teeth, however, are immense, equalling or surpassing those of the other species. the females of both these kinds, according to mr. wallace, are devoid of excrescences, and resemble the smaller males, but are shorter by - / to inches, and their canine teeth are comparatively small, subtruncated and dilated at the base, as in the so-called _simia morio_, which is, in all probability, the skull of a female of the same species as the smaller males. both males and females of this smaller species are distinguishable, according to mr. wallace, by the comparatively large size of the middle incisors of the upper jaw. * * * * * so far as i am aware, no one has attempted to dispute the accuracy of the statements which i have just quoted regarding the habits of the two asiatic man-like apes; and if true, they must be admitted as evidence, that such an ape-- stly, may readily move along the ground in the erect, or semi-erect, position, and without direct support from its arms. ndly, that it may possess an extremely loud voice, so loud as to be readily heard one or two miles. rdly, that it may be capable of great viciousness and violence when irritated: and this is especially true of adult males. thly, that it may build a nest to sleep in. such being well-established facts respecting the asiatic anthropoids, analogy alone might justify us in expecting the african species to offer similar peculiarities, separately or combined; or, at any rate, would destroy the force of any attempted _à priori_ argument against such direct testimony as might be adduced in favour of their existence. and, if the organization of any of the african apes could be demonstrated to fit it better than either of its asiatic allies for the erect position and for efficient attack, there would be still less reason for doubting its occasional adoption of the upright attitude or of aggressive proceedings. from the time of tyson and tulpius downwards, the habits of the young chimpanzee in a state of captivity have been abundantly reported and commented upon. but trustworthy evidence as to the manners and customs of adult anthropoids of this species, in their native woods, was almost wanting up to the time of the publication of the paper by dr. savage, to which i have already referred; containing notes of the observations which he made, and of the information which he collected from sources which he considered trustworthy, while resident at cape palmas, at the north-western limit of the bight of benin. the adult chimpanzees, measured by dr. savage, never exceeded, though the males may almost attain, five feet in height. "when at rest, the sitting posture is that generally assumed. they are sometimes seen standing and walking, but when thus detected, they immediately take to all fours, and flee from the presence of the observer. such is their organization that they cannot stand erect, but lean forward. hence they are seen, when standing, with the hands clasped over the occiput, or the lumbar region, which would seem necessary to balance or ease of posture. "the toes of the adult are strongly flexed and turned inwards, and cannot be perfectly straightened. in the attempt the skin gathers into thick folds on the back, shewing that the full expansion of the foot, as is necessary in walking, is unnatural. the natural position is on all fours, the body anteriorly resting upon the knuckles. these are greatly enlarged, with the skin protuberant and thickened like the sole of the foot. "they are expert climbers, as one would suppose from their organization. in their gambols they swing from limb to limb to a great distance, and leap with astonishing agility. it is not unusual to see the 'old folks' (in the language of an observer) sitting under a tree regaling themselves with fruit and friendly chat, while their 'children' are leaping around them, and swinging from tree to tree with boisterous merriment. "as seen here, they cannot be called _gregarious_, seldom more than five, or ten at most, being found together. it has been said, on good authority, that they occasionally assemble in large numbers, in gambols. my informant asserts that he saw once not less than fifty so engaged; hooting, screaming, and drumming with sticks upon old logs, which is done in the latter case with equal facility by the four extremities. they do not appear ever to act on the offensive, and seldom, if ever really, on the defensive. when about to be captured, they resist by throwing their arms about their opponent, and attempting to draw him into contact with their teeth." (savage, l. c. p. .) with respect to this last point dr. savage is very explicit in another place: "_biting_ is their principal art of defence. i have seen one man who had been thus severely wounded in the feet. "the strong development of the canine teeth in the adult would seem to indicate a carnivorous propensity; but in no state save that of domestication do they manifest it. at first they reject flesh, but easily acquire a fondness for it. the canines are early developed, and evidently designed to act the important part of weapons of defence. when in contact with man almost the first effort of the animal is--_to bite_. "they avoid the abodes of men, and build their habitations in trees. their construction is more that of _nests_ than _hut_, as they have been erroneously termed by some naturalists. they generally build not far above the ground. branches or twigs are bent, or partly broken, and crossed, and the whole supported by the body of a limb or a crotch. sometimes a nest will be found near the _end_ of a _strong leafy branch_ twenty or thirty feet from the ground. one i have lately seen that could not be less than forty feet, and more probably it was fifty. but this is an unusual height. "their dwelling-place is not permanent, but changed in pursuit of food and solitude, according to the force of circumstances. we more often see them in elevated places; but this arises from the fact that the low grounds, being more favourable for the natives' rice-farms, are the oftener cleared, and hence are almost always wanting in suitable trees for their nests.... it is seldom that more than one or two nests are seen upon the same tree, or in the same neighbourhood: five have been found, but it was an unusual circumstance.... "they are very filthy in their habits.... it is a tradition with the natives generally here, that they were once members of their own tribe: that for their depraved habits they were expelled from all human society, and, that through an obstinate indulgence of their vile propensities, they have degenerated into their present state and organization. they are, however, eaten by them, and when cooked with the oil and pulp of the palm-nut considered a highly palatable morsel. "they exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence in their habits, and, on the part of the mother, much affection for their young. the second female described was upon a tree when first discovered, with her mate and two young ones (a male and a female). her first impulse was to descend with great rapidity, and make off into the thicket, with her mate and female offspring. the young male remaining behind, she soon returned to the rescue. she ascended and took him in her arms, at which moment she was shot, the ball passing through the forearm of the young one, on its way to the heart of the mother.... "in a recent case, the mother, when discovered, remained upon the tree with her offspring, watching intently the movements of the hunter. as he took aim, she motioned with her hand, precisely in the manner of a human being, to have him desist and go away. when the wound has not proved instantly fatal, they have been known to stop the flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the part, and when this did not succeed, to apply leaves and grass.... when shot, they give a sudden screech, not unlike that of a human being in sudden and acute distress." the ordinary voice of the chimpanzee, however, is affirmed to be hoarse, guttural, and not very loud, somewhat like "whoo-whoo" (l. c. p. ). the analogy of the chimpanzee to the orang, in its nest-building habit and in the mode of forming its nest, is exceedingly interesting; while, on the other hand, the activity of this ape, and its tendency to bite, are particulars in which it rather resembles the gibbons. in extent of geographical range, again, the chimpanzees--which are found from sierra leone to congo--remind one of the gibbons, rather than of either of the other man-like apes; and it seems not unlikely that, as is the case with the gibbons, there may be several species spread over the geographical area of the genus. the same excellent observer, from whom i have borrowed the preceding account of the habits of the adult chimpanzee, published, fifteen years ago,[ ] an account of the gorilla, which has, in its most essential points, been confirmed by subsequent observers, and to which so very little has really been added, that in justice to dr. savage i give it almost in full. "it should be borne in mind that my account is based upon the statements of the aborigines of that region (the gaboon). in this connection, it may also be proper for me to remark, that having been a missionary resident for several years, studying, from habitual intercourse, the african mind and character, i felt myself prepared to discriminate and decide upon the probability of their statements. besides, being familiar with the history and habits of its interesting congener (_trog. niger_, geoff.), i was able to separate their accounts of the two animals, which, having the same locality and a similarity of habit, are confounded in the minds of the mass, especially as but few--such as traders to the interior and huntsmen--have ever seen the animal in question. "the tribe from which our knowledge of the animal is derived, and whose territory forms its habitat, is the _mpongwe_, occupying both banks of the river gaboon, from its mouth to some fifty or sixty miles upward.... "if the word 'pongo' be of african origin, it is probably a corruption of the word _mpongwe_, the name of the tribe on the banks of the gaboon, and hence applied to the region they inhabit. their local name for the chimpanzee is _enché-eko_, as near as it can be anglicized, from which the common term 'jocko' probably comes. the mpongwe appellation for its new congener is _engé-ena_, prolonging the sound of the first vowel, and slightly sounding the second. [illustration: fig. .--the gorilla (after wolff).] "the habitat of the _engé-ena_ is the interior of lower guinea, whilst that of the _enché-eko_ is nearer the sea-board. "its height is about five feet; it is disproportionately broad across the shoulders, thickly covered with coarse black hair, which is said to be similar in its arrangement to that of the _enché-eko_; with age it becomes grey, which fact has given rise to the report that both animals are seen of different colours. "_head._--the prominent features of the head are, the great width and elongation of the face, the depth of the molar region, the branches of the lower jaw being very deep and extending far backward, and the comparative smallness of the cranial portion; the eyes are very large, and said to be like those of the enché-eko, a bright hazel; nose broad and flat, slightly elevated towards the root; the muzzle broad, and prominent lips and chin, with scattered grey hairs; the under lip highly mobile, and capable of great elongation when the animal is enraged, then hanging over the chin; skin of the face and ears naked, and of a dark brown, approaching to black. "the most remarkable feature of the head is a high ridge, or crest of hair, in the course of the sagittal suture, which meets posteriorly with a transverse ridge of the same, but less prominent, running round from the back of one ear to the other. the animal has the power of moving the scalp freely forward and back, and when enraged is said to contract it strongly over the brow, thus bringing down the hairy ridge and pointing the hair forward, so as to present an indescribably ferocious aspect. "neck short, thick, and hairy; chest and shoulders very broad, said to be fully double the size of the enché-ekos; arms very long, reaching some way below the knee--the forearm much the shortest; hands very large, the thumbs much larger than the fingers.... "the gait is shuffling; the motion of the body, which is never upright as in man, but bent forward, is somewhat rolling, or from side to side. the arms being longer than the chimpanzee, it does not stoop as much in walking; like that animal, it makes progression by thrusting its arms forward, resting the hands on the ground, and then giving the body a half jumping half swinging motion between them. in this act it is said not to flex the fingers, as does the chimpanzee, resting on its knuckles, but to extend them, making a fulcrum of the hand. when it assumes the walking posture, to which it is said to be much inclined, it balances its huge body by flexing its arms upward. "they live in bands, but are not so numerous as the chimpanzees: the females generally exceed the other sex in number. my informants all agree in the assertion that but one adult male is seen in a band; that when the young males grow up, a contest takes place for mastery, and the strongest, by killing and driving out the others, establishes himself as the head of the community." dr. savage repudiates the stories about the gorillas carrying off women and vanquishing elephants, and then adds: "their dwellings, if they may be so called, are similar to those of the chimpanzee, consisting simply of a few sticks and leafy branches, supported by the crotches and limbs of trees: they afford no shelter, and are occupied only at night. [illustration: fig. .--gorilla walking (after wolff).] "they are exceedingly ferocious, and always offensive in their habits, never running from man, as does the chimpanzee. they are objects of terror to the natives, and are never encountered by them except on the defensive. the few that have been captured were killed by elephant-hunters and native traders, as they came suddenly upon them while passing through the forests. "it is said that when the male is first seen he gives a terrific yell, that resounds far and wide through the forest, something like kh--ah! kh--ah! prolonged and shrill. his enormous jaws are widely opened at each expiration, his under lip hangs over the chin, and the hairy ridge and scalp are contracted upon the brow, presenting an aspect of indescribable ferocity. "the females and young, at the first cry, quickly disappear. he then approaches the enemy in great fury, pouring out his horrid cries in quick succession. the hunter awaits his approach with his gun extended: if his aim is not sure, he permits the animal to grasp the barrel, and as he carries it to his mouth (which is his habit) he fires. should the gun fail to go off, the barrel (that of the ordinary musket, which is thin) is crushed between his teeth, and the encounter soon proves fatal to the hunter. "in the wild state, their habits are in general like those of the _troglodytes niger_, building their nests loosely in trees, living on similar fruits, and changing their place of resort from force of circumstances." dr. savage's observations were confirmed and supplemented by those of mr. ford, who communicated an interesting paper on the gorilla to the philadelphian academy of sciences, in . with respect to the geographical distribution of this greatest of all the man-like apes, mr. ford remarks: "this animal inhabits the range of mountains that traverse the interior of guinea, from the cameroon in the north, to angola in the south, and about miles inland, and called by the geographers crystal mountains. the limit to which this animal extends, either north or south, i am unable to define. but that limit is doubtless some distance north of this river [gaboon]. i was able to certify myself of this fact in a late excursion to the head-waters of the mooney (danger) river, which comes into the sea some sixty miles from this place. i was informed (credibly, i think) that they were numerous among the mountains in which that river rises, and far north of that. "in the south, this species extends to the congo river, as i am told by native traders who have visited the coast between the gaboon and that river. beyond that, i am not informed. this animal is only found at a distance from the coast in most cases, and, according to my best information, approaches it nowhere so nearly as on the south side of this river, where they have been found within ten miles of the sea. this, however, is only of late occurrence. i am informed by some of the oldest mpongwe men that formerly he was only found on the sources of the river, but that at present he may be found within half-a-day's walk of its mouth. formerly he inhabited the mountainous ridge where bushmen alone inhabited, but now he boldly approaches the mpongwe plantations. this is doubtless the reason of the scarcity of information in years past, as the opportunities for receiving a knowledge of the animal have not been wanting; traders having for one hundred years frequented this river, and specimens, such as have been brought here within a year, could not have been exhibited without having attracted the attention of the most stupid." one specimen mr. ford examined weighed lbs., without the thoracic, or pelvic, viscera, and measured four feet four inches round the chest. this writer describes so minutely and graphically the onslaught of the gorilla--though he does not for a moment pretend to have witnessed the scene--that i am tempted to give this part of his paper in full, for comparison with other narratives: "he always rises to his feet when making an attack, though he approaches his antagonist in a stooping posture. "though he never lies in wait, yet, when he hears, sees, or scents a man, he immediately utters his characteristic cry, prepares for an attack, and always acts on the offensive. the cry he utters resembles a grunt more than a growl, and is similar to the cry of the chimpanzee, when irritated, but vastly louder. it is said to be audible at a great distance. his preparation consists in attending the females and young ones, by whom he is usually accompanied, to a little distance. he, however, soon returns, with his crest erect and projecting forward, his nostrils dilated, and his under-lip thrown down; at the same time uttering his characteristic yell, designed, it would seem, to terrify his antagonist. instantly, unless he is disabled by a well-directed shot, he makes an onset, and, striking his antagonist with the palm of his hands, or seizing him with a grasp from which there is no escape, he dashes him upon the ground, and lacerates him with his tusks. "he is said to seize a musket, and instantly crush the barrel between his teeth.... this animal's savage nature is very well shewn by the implacable desperation of a young one that was brought here. it was taken very young, and kept four months, and many means were used to tame it; but it was incorrigible, so that it bit me an hour before it died." mr. ford discredits the house-building and elephant-driving stories, and says that no well-informed natives believe them. they are tales told to children. i might quote other testimony to a similar effect, but, as it appears to me, less carefully weighed and sifted, from the letters of mm. franquet and gautier laboullay, appended to the memoir of m. i. g. st. hilaire, which i have already cited. bearing in mind what is known regarding the orang and the gibbon, the statements of dr. savage and mr. ford do not appear to me to be justly open to criticism on _à priori_ grounds. the gibbons, as we have seen, readily assume the erect posture, but the gorilla is far better fitted by its organization for that attitude than are the gibbons: if the laryngeal pouches of the gibbons, as is very likely, are important in giving volume to a voice which can be heard for half a league, the gorilla, which has similar sacs, more largely developed, and whose bulk is fivefold that of a gibbon, may well be audible for twice that distance. if the orang fights with its hands, the gibbons and chimpanzees with their teeth, the gorilla may, probably enough, do either or both; nor is there anything to be said against either chimpanzee or gorilla building a nest, when it is proved that the orang-utan habitually performs that feat. with all this evidence, now ten to fifteen years old, before the world, it is not a little surprising that the assertions of a recent traveller, who, so far as the gorilla is concerned, really does very little more than repeat, on his own authority, the statements of savage and of ford, should have met with so much and such bitter opposition. if subtraction be made of what was known before, the sum and substance of what m. du chaillu has affirmed as a matter of his own observation respecting the gorilla, is, that, in advancing to the attack, the great brute beats his chest with his fists. i confess i see nothing very improbable, or very much worth disputing about, in this statement. with respect to the other man-like apes of africa, m. du chaillu tells us absolutely nothing, of his own knowledge, regarding the common chimpanzee; but he informs us of a bald-headed species or variety, the _nschiego mbouve_, which builds itself a shelter, and of another rare kind with a comparatively small face, large facial angle, and peculiar note, resembling "kooloo." as the orang shelters itself with a rough coverlet of leaves, and the common chimpanzee, according to that eminently trustworthy observer dr. savage, makes a sound like "whoo-whoo,"--the grounds of the summary repudiation with which m. du chaillu's statements on these matters have been met is not obvious. if i have abstained from quoting m. du chaillu's work, then, it is not because i discern any inherent improbability in his assertions respecting the man-like apes; nor from any wish to throw suspicion on his veracity; but because, in my opinion, so long as his narrative remains in its present state of unexplained and apparently inexplicable confusion, it has no claim to original authority respecting any subject whatsoever. it may be truth, but it is not evidence. footnotes: [ ] regnum congo: hoc est vera descriptio regni africani quod tam ab incolis quam lusitanis congus appellatur, per philippum pigafettam, olim ex edoardo lopez acroamatis lingua italica excerpta, num latio sermone donata ab august. cassiod. reinio. iconibus et imaginibus rerum memorabilium quasi vivis, opera et industria joan. theodori et joan. israelis de bry, fratrum exornata. francofurti, mdxcviii. [ ] "except this that their legges had no calves."--[ed. .] and in a marginal note, "these great apes are called pongo's." [ ] _purchas' note._--cape negro is in degrees south of the line. [ ] purchas' marginal note, p. :--"the pongo a giant ape. he told me in conference with him, that one of these pongoes tooke a negro boy of his which lived a moneth with them. for they hurt not those which they surprise at unawares, except they look on them; which he avoyded. he said their highth was like a man's, but their bignesse twice as great. i saw the negro boy. what the other monster should be he hath forgotten to relate; and these papers came to my hand since his death, which, otherwise, in my often conferences, i might have learned. perhaps he meaneth the pigmy pongo killers mentioned." [ ] archives du museum, tome x. [ ] i am indebted to dr. wright, of cheltenham, whose paleontological labours are so well known, for bringing this interesting relic to my knowledge. tyson's granddaughter, it appears, married dr. allardyce, a physician of repute in cheltenham, and brought, as part of her dowry, the skeleton of the "pygmie." dr. allardyce presented it to the cheltenham museum, and, through the good offices of my friend dr. wright, the authorities of the museum have permitted me to borrow, what is, perhaps, its most remarkable ornament. [ ] "mandrill" seems to signify a "man-like ape," the word "drill" or "dril" having been anciently employed in england to denote an ape or baboon. thus in the fifth edition of blount's "glossographia, or a dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language now used in our refined english tongue ... very useful for all such as desire to understand what they read," published in , i find, "dril--a stone-cutter's tool wherewith he bores little holes in marble, &c. also a large overgrown ape and baboon, so called." "drill" is used in the same sense in charleton's "onomasticon zoicon," . the singular etymology of the word given by buffon seems hardly a probable one. [ ] histoire naturelle, suppl. tome ème, . [ ] camper, oeuvres, i. p. . [ ] verhandelingen van het bataviaasch genootschap. tweede deel. derde druk. . [ ] "briefe des herrn v. wurmb und des h. baron von wollzogen. gotha, ." [ ] see blumenbach, "abbildungen naturhistorichen gegenstände," no. , ; and tilesius, "naturhistoriche früchte der ersten kaiserlich-russischen erdumsegelung," p. , . [ ] speaking broadly and without prejudice to the question, whether there be more than one species of orang. [ ] see "observations on the external characters and habits of the troglodytes niger, by thomas n. savage, m.d., and on its organization, by jeffries wyman, m.d.," boston journal of natural history, vol. iv., - ; and "external characters, habits, and osteology of troglodytes gorilla," by the same authors, ibid., vol. v., . [ ] "man and monkies," p. . [ ] "wanderings in new south wales," vol. ii. chap. viii., . [ ] boston journal of natural history, vol. i., . [ ] the largest orang-utan, cited by temminck, measured, when standing upright, ft.; but he mentions having just received news of the capture of an orang ft. in. high. schlegel and müller say that their largest old male measured, upright, . netherlands "el"; and from the crown to the end of the toes, . el; the circumference of the body being about el. the largest old female was . el high, when standing. the adult skeleton in the college of surgeons' museum, if set upright, would stand ft. - in. from crown to sole. dr. humphry gives ft. in. as the mean height of two orangs. of seventeen orangs examined by mr. wallace, the largest was ft. in. high, from the heel to the crown of the head. mr. spencer st. john, however, in his "life in the forests of the far east," tells us of an orang of " ft. in., measuring fairly from the head to the heel," in. across the face, and in. round the wrist. it does not appear, however, that mr. st. john measured this orang himself. [ ] see mr. wallace's account of an infant "orang-utan," in the "annals of natural history" for . mr. wallace provided his interesting charge with an artificial mother of buffalo-skin, but the cheat was too successful. the infant's entire experience led it to associate teats with hair, and feeling the latter, it spent its existence in vain endeavours to discover the former. [ ] "they are the slowest and least active of all the monkey tribe, and their motions are surprisingly awkward and uncouth."--sir james brooke, in the "proceedings of the zoological society," . [ ] mr. wallace's account of the progression of the orang almost exactly corresponds with this. [ ] sir james brooke, in a letter to mr. waterhouse, published in the proceedings of the zoological society for , says:--"on the habits of the orangs, as far as i have been able to observe them, i may remark that they are as dull and slothful as can well be conceived, and on no occasion, when pursuing them, did they move so fast as to preclude my keeping pace with them easily through a moderately clear forest; and even when obstructions below (such as wading up to the neck) allowed them to get away some distance, they were sure to stop and allow me to come up. i never observed the slightest attempt at defence, and the wood which sometimes rattled about our ears was broken by their weight, and not thrown, as some persons represent. if pushed to extremity, however, the _pappan_ could not be otherwise than formidable, and one unfortunate man, who, with a party, was trying to catch a large one alive, lost two of his fingers, besides being severely bitten on the face, whilst the animal finally beat off his pursuers and escaped." mr. wallace, on the other hand, affirms that he has several times observed them throwing down branches when pursued. "it is true he does not throw them at a person, but casts them down vertically; for it is evident that a bough cannot be thrown to any distance from the top of a lofty tree. in one case a female mias, on a durian tree, kept up for at least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy, spined fruits, as large as -pounders, which most effectually kept us clear of the tree she was on. she could be seen breaking them off and throwing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief."--"on the habits of the orang-utan," annals of nat. history, . this statement, it will be observed, is quite in accordance with that contained in the letter of the resident palm quoted above (p. ). [ ] on the orang-utan, or mias of borneo, annals of natural history, . [ ] notice of the external characters and habits of troglodytes gorilla. boston journal of natural history, . ii on the relations of man to the lower animals. multis videri poterit, majorem esse differentiam simiæ et hominis, quam diei et noctis; verum tamen hi, comparatione instituta inter summos europæ heroës et hottentottos ad caput bonæ spei degentes, difficillime sibi persuadebunt, has eosdem habere natales; vel si virginem nobilem aulicam, maxime comtam et humanissimam, conferre vellent cum homine sylvestri et sibi relicto, vix augurari possent, hunc et illam ejusdem esse speciei.--_linnæi amoenitates acad. "anthropomorpha."_ the question of questions for mankind--the problem which underlies all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other--is the ascertainment of the place which man occupies in nature and of his relations to the universe of things. whence our race has come; what are the limits of our power over nature, and of nature's power over us; to what goal we are tending; are the problems which present themselves anew and with undiminished interest to every man born into the world. most of us, shrinking from the difficulties and dangers which beset the seeker after original answers to these riddles, are contented to ignore them altogether, or to smother the investigating spirit under the featherbed of respected and respectable tradition. but, in every age, one or two restless spirits, blessed with that constructive genius, which can only build on a secure foundation, or cursed with the mere spirit of scepticism, are unable to follow in the well-worn and comfortable track of their forefathers and contemporaries, and unmindful of thorns and stumbling-blocks, strike out into paths of their own. the sceptics end in the infidelity which asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the atheism which denies the existence of any orderly progress and governance of things: the men of genius propound solutions which grow into systems of theology or of philosophy, or veiled in musical language which suggests more than it asserts, take the shape of the poetry of an epoch. each such answer to the great question, invariably asserted by the followers of its propounder, if not by himself, to be complete and final, remains in high authority and esteem, it may be for one century, or it may be for twenty: but, as invariably, time proves each reply to have been a mere approximation to the truth--tolerable chiefly on account of the ignorance of those by whom it was accepted, and wholly intolerable when tested by the larger knowledge of their successors. in a well-worn metaphor, a parallel is drawn between the life of man and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly; but the comparison may be more just as well as more novel, if for its former term we take the mental progress of the race. history shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another, itself but temporary. truly the imago state of man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult is a step gained, and of such there have been many. since the revival of learning, whereby the western races of europe were enabled to enter upon that progress towards true knowledge, which was commenced by the philosophers of greece, but was almost arrested in subsequent long ages of intellectual stagnation, or, at most, gyration, the human larva has been feeding vigorously, and moulting in proportion. a skin of some dimension was cast in the th century, and another towards the end of the th, while, within the last fifty years, the extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a new ecdysis seems imminent. but this is a process not unusually accompanied by many throes and some sickness and debility, or, it may be, by graver disturbances; so that every good citizen must feel bound to facilitate the process, and even if he have nothing but a scalpel to work withal, to ease the cracking integument to the best of his ability. in this duty lies my excuse for the publication of these essays. for it will be admitted that some knowledge of man's position in the animate world is an indispensable preliminary to the proper understanding of his relations to the universe--and this again resolves itself, in the long run, into an inquiry into the nature and the closeness of the ties which connect him with those singular creatures whose history[ ] has been sketched in the preceding pages. the importance of such an inquiry is indeed intuitively manifest. brought face to face with these blurred copies of himself, the least thoughtful of men is conscious of a certain shock, due perhaps, not so much to disgust at the aspect of what looks like an insulting caricature, as to the awakening of a sudden and profound mistrust of time-honoured theories and strongly-rooted prejudices regarding his own position in nature, and his relations to the under-world of life; while that which remains a dim suspicion for the unthinking, becomes a vast argument, fraught with the deepest consequences, for all who are acquainted with the recent progress of the anatomical and physiological sciences. i now propose briefly to unfold that argument, and to set forth, in a form intelligible to those who possess no special acquaintance with anatomical science, the chief facts upon which all conclusions respecting the nature and the extent of the bonds which connect man with the brute world must be based: i shall then indicate the one immediate conclusion which, in my judgment, is justified by those facts, and i shall finally discuss the bearing of that conclusion upon the hypotheses which have been entertained respecting the origin of man. the facts to which i would first direct the reader's attention, though ignored by many of the professed instructors of the public mind, are easy of demonstration and are universally agreed to by men of science; while their significance is so great, that whoso has duly pondered over them will, i think, find little to startle him in the other revelations of biology. i refer to those facts which have been made known by the study of development. it is a truth of very wide, if not of universal, application, that every living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and simpler than, that which it eventually attains. the oak is a more complex thing than the little rudimentary plant contained in the acorn; the caterpillar is more complex than the egg; the butterfly than the caterpillar; and each of these beings, in passing from its rudimentary to its perfect condition, runs through a series of changes, the sum of which is called its development. in the higher animals these changes are extremely complicated; but, within the last half-century, the labours of such men as von baer, rathke, reichert, bischof, and remak have almost completely unravelled them, so that the successive stages of development which are exhibited by a dog, for example, are now as well known to the embryologist as are the steps of the metamorphosis of the silkworm moth to the school-boy. it will be useful to consider with attention the nature and the order of the stages of canine development, as an example of the process in the higher animals generally. the dog, like all animals, save the very lowest (and further inquiries may not improbably remove the apparent exception), commences its existence as an egg: as a body which is, in every sense, as much an egg as that of a hen, but is devoid of that accumulation of nutritive matter which confers upon the bird's egg its exceptional size and domestic utility; and wants the shell, which would not only be useless to an animal incubated within the body of its parent, but would cut it off from access to the source of that nutriment which the young creature requires, but which the minute egg of the mammal does not contain within itself. the dog's egg is, in fact, a little spheroidal bag (fig. ), formed of a delicate transparent membrane called the _vitelline membrane_, and about / to / th an inch in diameter. it contains a mass of viscid nutritive matter--the "_yelk_"--within which is inclosed a second much more delicate spheroidal bag, called the "_germinal vesicle_" (_a_). in this, lastly, lies a more solid rounded body, termed the "_germinal spot_" (_b_). [illustration: fig. .--a. egg of the dog, with the vitelline membrane burst, so as to give exit to the yelk, the germinal vesicle (_a_), and its included spot (_b_). b. c. d. e. f. successive changes of the yelk indicated in the text. after bischoff.] the egg, or "ovum," is originally formed within a gland, from which, in due season, it becomes detached, and passes into the living chamber fitted for its protection and maintenance during the protracted process of gestation. here, when subjected to the required conditions, this minute and apparently insignificant particle of living matter becomes animated by a new and mysterious activity. the germinal vesicle and spot cease to be discernible (their precise fate being one of the yet unsolved problems of embryology), but the yelk becomes circumferentially indented, as if an invisible knife had been drawn round it, and thus appears divided into two hemispheres (fig. , c). by the repetition of this process in various planes, these hemispheres become subdivided, so that four segments are produced (d); and these, in like manner, divide and subdivide again, until the whole yelk is converted into a mass of granules, each of which consists of a minute spheroid of yelk-substance, inclosing a central particle, the so-called "_nucleus_" (f). nature, by this process, has attained much the same result as that at which a human artificer arrives by his operations in a brickfield. she takes the rough plastic material of the yelk and breaks it up into well-shaped, tolerably even-sized masses, handy for building up into any part of the living edifice. next, the mass of organic bricks, or "_cells_" as they are technically called, thus formed, acquires an orderly arrangement, becoming converted into a hollow spheroid with double walls. then, upon one side of this spheroid, appears a thickening, and, by and bye, in the centre of the area of thickening, a straight shallow groove (fig. , a) marks the central line of the edifice which is to be raised, or, in other words, indicates the position of the middle line of the body of the future dog. the substance bounding the groove on each side next rises up into a fold, the rudiment of the side wall of that long cavity, which will eventually lodge the spinal marrow and the brain; and in the floor of this chamber appears a solid cellular cord, the so-called "_notochord_." one end of the inclosed cavity dilates to form the head (fig. , b), the other remains narrow, and eventually becomes the tail; the side walls of the body are fashioned out of the downward continuation of the walls of the groove; and from them, by and bye, grow out little buds which, by degrees, assume the shape of limbs. watching the fashioning process stage by stage, one is forcibly reminded of the modeller in clay. every part, every organ, is at first, as it were, pinched up rudely, and sketched out in the rough; then shaped more accurately; and only, at last, receives the touches which stamp its final character. thus, at length, the young puppy assumes such a form as is shown in fig. , c. in this condition it has a disproportionately large head, as dissimilar to that of a dog as the bud-like limbs are unlike his legs. the remains of the yelk, which have not yet been applied to the nutrition and growth of the young animal, are contained in a sac attached to the rudimentary intestine, and termed the yelk-sac, or "_umbilical vesicle_." two membranous bags, intended to subserve respectively the protection and nutrition of the young creature, have been developed from the skin and from the under and hinder surface of the body; the former, the so-called "_amnion_," is a sac filled with fluid, which invests the whole body of the embryo, and plays the part of a sort of water-bed for it; the other, termed the "_allantois_," grows out, loaded with blood-vessels, from the ventral region, and eventually applying itself to the walls of the cavity, in which the developing organism is contained, enables these vessels to become the channel by which the stream of nutriment, required to supply the wants of the offspring, is furnished to it by the parent. [illustration: fig. .--a. earliest rudiment of the dog. b. rudiment further advanced, showing the foundations of the head, tail, and vertebral column. c. the very young puppy, with attached ends of the yelk-sac and allantois, and invested in the amnion.] the structure which is developed by the interlacement of the vessels of the offspring with those of the parent, and by means of which the former is enabled to receive nourishment and to get rid of effete matters, is termed the "_placenta_." it would be tedious, and it is unnecessary for my present purpose, to trace the process of development further; suffice it to say, that, by a long and gradual series of changes, the rudiment here depicted and described becomes a puppy, is born, and then, by still slower and less perceptible steps, passes into the adult dog. there is not much apparent resemblance between a barndoor fowl and the dog who protects the farm-yard. nevertheless the student of development finds, not only that the chick commences its existence as an egg, primarily identical, in all essential respects, with that of the dog, but that the yelk of this egg undergoes division--that the primitive groove arises, and that the contiguous parts of the germ are fashioned, by precisely similar methods, into a young chick, which, at one stage of its existence, is so like the nascent dog, that ordinary inspection would hardly distinguish the two. * * * * * the history of the development of any other vertebrate animal, lizard, snake, frog, or fish, tells the same story. there is always, to begin with, an egg having the same essential structure as that of the dog:--the yelk of that egg always undergoes division, or "_segmentation_" as it is often called: the ultimate products of that segmentation constitute the building materials for the body of the young animal; and this is built up round a primitive groove, in the floor of which a notochord is developed. furthermore, there is a period in which the young of all these animals resemble one another, not merely in outward form, but in all essentials of structure, so closely, that the differences between them are inconsiderable, while, in their subsequent course, they diverge more and more widely from one another. and it is a general law, that, the more closely any animals resemble one another in adult structure, the longer and the more intimately do their embryos resemble one another: so that, for example, the embryos of a snake and of a lizard remain like one another longer than do those of a snake and of a bird; and the embryo of a dog and of a cat remain like one another for a far longer period than do those of a dog and a bird; or of a dog and an opossum; or even than those of a dog and a monkey. thus the study of development affords a clear test of closeness of structural affinity, and one turns with impatience to inquire what results are yielded by the study of the development of man. is he something apart? does he originate in a totally different way from dog, bird, frog, and fish, thus justifying those who assert him to have no place in nature and no real affinity with the lower world of animal life? or does he originate in a similar germ, pass through the same slow and gradually progressive modifications,--depend on the same contrivances for protection and nutrition, and finally enter the world by the help of the same mechanism? the reply is not doubtful for a moment, and has not been doubtful any time these thirty years. without question, the mode of origin and the early stages of the development of man are identical with those of the animals immediately below him in the scale:--without a doubt, in these respects, he is far nearer the apes, than the apes are to the dog. the human ovum is about / of an inch in diameter, and might be described in the same terms as that of the dog, so that i need only refer to the figure illustrative ( a.) of its structure. it leaves the organ in which it is formed in a similar fashion and enters the organic chamber prepared for its reception in the same way, the conditions of its development being in all respects the same. it has not yet been possible (and only by some rare chance can it ever be possible) to study the human ovum in so early a developmental stage as that of yelk division, but there is every reason to conclude that the changes it undergoes are identical with those exhibited by the ova of other vertebrated animals; for the formative materials of which the rudimentary human body is composed, in the earliest conditions in which it has been observed, are the same as those of other animals. some of these earliest stages are figured below and, as will be seen, they are strictly comparable to the very early states of the dog; the marvellous correspondence between the two which is kept up, even for some time, as development advances, becoming apparent by the simple comparison of the figures with those on page . indeed, it is very long before the body of the young human being can be readily discriminated from that of the young puppy; but, at a tolerably early period, the two become distinguishable by the different form of their adjuncts, the yelk-sac and the allantois. the former, in the dog, becomes long and spindle-shaped, while in man it remains spherical; the latter, in the dog, attains an extremely large size, and the vascular processes which are developed from it and eventually give rise to the formation of the placenta (taking root, as it were, in the parental organism, so as to draw nourishment therefrom, as the root of a tree extracts it from the soil) are arranged in an encircling zone, while in man, the allantois remains comparatively small, and its vascular rootlets are eventually restricted to one disk-like spot. hence, while the placenta of the dog is like a girdle, that of man has the cake-like form, indicated by the name of the organ. [illustration: fig. .--a. human ovum (after kölliker). a. germinal vesicle. b. germinal spot. b. a very early condition of man, with yelk-sac, allantois, and amnion (original). c. a more advanced stage (after kölliker), compare fig. , c.] but, exactly in those respects in which the developing man differs from the dog, he resembles the ape, which, like man, has a spheroidal yelk-sac and a discoidal--sometimes partially lobed--placenta. so that it is only quite in the later stages of development that the young human being presents marked differences from the young ape, while the latter departs as much from the dog in its development, as the man does. startling as the last assertion may appear to be, it is demonstrably true, and it alone appears to me sufficient to place beyond all doubt the structural unity of man with the rest of the animal world, and more particularly and closely with the apes. * * * * * thus, identical in the physical processes by which he originates--identical in the early stages of his formation--identical in the mode of his nutrition before and after birth, with the animals which lie immediately below him in the scale--man, if his adult and perfect structure be compared with theirs, exhibits, as might be expected, a marvellous likeness of organization. he resembles them as they resemble one another--he differs from them as they differ from one another.--and, though these differences and resemblances cannot be weighed and measured, their value may be readily estimated; the scale or standard of judgment, touching that value, being afforded and expressed by the system of classification of animals now current among zoologists. a careful study of the resemblances and differences presented by animals has, in fact, led naturalists to arrange them into groups, or assemblages, all the members of each group presenting a certain amount of definable resemblance, and the number of points of similarity being smaller as the group is larger and _vice versâ_. thus, all creatures which agree only in presenting the few distinctive marks of animality form the "kingdom" animalia. the numerous animals which agree only in possessing the special characters of vertebrates form one "sub-kingdom" of this kingdom. then the sub-kingdom vertebrata is subdivided into the five "classes," fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and these into smaller groups called "orders"; these into "families" and "genera"; while the last are finally broken up into the smallest assemblages, which are distinguished by the possession of constant, not-sexual, characters. these ultimate groups are species. every year tends to bring about a greater uniformity of opinion throughout the zoological world as to the limits and characters of these groups, great and small. at present, for example, no one has the least doubt regarding the characters of the classes mammalia, aves, or reptilia; nor does the question arise whether any thoroughly well-known animal should be placed in one class or the other. again, there is a very general agreement respecting the characters and limits of the orders of mammals, and as to the animals which are structurally necessitated to take a place in one or another order. no one doubts, for example, that the sloth and the ant-eater, the kangaroo and the opossum, the tiger and the badger, the tapir and the rhinoceros, are respectively members of the same orders. these successive pairs of animals may, and some do, differ from one another immensely, in such matters as the proportions and structure of their limbs; the number of their dorsal and lumbar vertebræ; the adaptation of their frames to climbing, leaping, or running; the number and form of their teeth; and the characters of their skulls and of the contained brain. but, with all these differences, they are so closely connected in all the more important and fundamental characters of their organization, and so distinctly separated by these same characters from other animals, that zoologists find it necessary to group them together as members of one order. and if any new animal were discovered, and were found to present no greater difference from the kangaroo and the opossum, for example, than these animals do from one another, the zoologist would not only be logically compelled to rank it in the same order with these, but he would not think of doing otherwise. bearing this obvious course of zoological reasoning in mind, let us endeavour for a moment to disconnect our thinking selves from the mask of humanity; let us imagine ourselves scientific saturnians, if you will, fairly acquainted with such animals as now inhabit the earth, and employed in discussing the relations they bear to a new and singular "erect and featherless biped," which some enterprising traveller, overcoming the difficulties of space and gravitation, has brought from that distant planet for our inspection, well preserved, may be, in a cask of rum. we should all, at once, agree upon placing him among the mammalian vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his molars, and his brain, would leave no room for doubting the systematic position of the new genus among those mammals, whose young are nourished during gestation by means of a placenta, or what are called the "placental mammals." further, the most superficial study would at once convince us that, among the orders of placental mammals, neither the whales nor the hoofed creatures, nor the sloths and ant-eaters, nor the carnivorous cats, dogs, and bears, still less the rodent rats and rabbits, or the insectivorous moles and hedgehogs, or the bats, could claim our "_homo_" as one of themselves. there would remain then, but one order for comparison, that of the apes (using that word in its broadest sense), and the question for discussion would narrow itself to this--is man so different from any of these apes that he must form an order by himself? or does he differ less from them than they differ from one another, and hence must take his place in the same order with them? being happily free from all real, or imaginary, personal interest in the results of the inquiry thus set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the arguments on one side and on the other, with as much judicial calmness as if the question related to a new opossum. we should endeavour to ascertain, without seeking either to magnify or diminish them, all the characters by which our new mammal differed from the apes; and if we found that these were of less structural value, than those which distinguish certain members of the ape order from others universally admitted to be of the same order, we should undoubtedly place the newly discovered tellurian genus with them. i now proceed to detail the facts which seem to me to leave us no choice but to adopt the last mentioned course. * * * * * it is quite certain that the ape which most nearly approaches man, in the totality of its organization, is either the chimpanzee or the gorilla; and as it makes no practical difference, for the purposes of my present argument, which is selected for comparison, on the one hand, with man, and on the other hand, with the rest of the primates,[ ] i shall select the latter (so far as its organization is known)--as a brute now so celebrated in prose and verse, that all must have heard of him, and have formed some conception of his appearance. i shall take up as many of the most important points of difference between man and this remarkable creature, as the space at my disposal will allow me to discuss, and the necessities of the argument demand; and i shall inquire into the value and magnitude of these differences, when placed side by side with those which separate the gorilla from other animals of the same order. in the general proportions of the body and limbs there is a remarkable difference between the gorilla and man, which at once strikes the eye. the gorilla's brain-case is smaller, its trunk larger, its lower limbs shorter, its upper limbs longer in proportion than those of man. i find that the vertebral column of a full-grown gorilla, in the museum of the royal college of surgeons, measures inches along its anterior curvature, from the upper edge of the atlas, or first vertebra of the neck, to the lower extremity of the sacrum; that the arm, without the hand, is - / inches long; that the leg, without the foot, is - / inches long; that the hand is - / inches long; the foot - / inches long. in other words, taking the length of the spinal column as , the arm equals , the leg , the hand , and the foot . in the skeleton of a male bosjesman, in the same collection, the proportions, by the same measurement, to the spinal column, taken as , are--the arm , the leg , the hand , and the foot . in a woman of the same race the arm is , and the leg , the hand and foot remaining the same. in a european skeleton i find the arm to be , the leg , the hand , the foot . thus the leg is not so different as it looks at first sight, in its proportions to the spine in the gorilla and in the man--being very slightly shorter than the spine in the former, and between / and / longer than the spine in the latter. the foot is longer and the hand much longer in the gorilla; but the great difference is caused by the arms, which are very much longer than the spine in the gorilla, very much shorter than the spine in the man. the question now arises how are the other apes related to the gorilla in these respects--taking the length of the spine, measured in the same way, at . in an adult chimpanzee, the arm is only , the leg , the hand , the foot --so that the hand and the leg depart more from the human proportion and the arm less, while the foot is about the same as in the gorilla. in the orang, the arms are very much longer than in the gorilla ( ), while the legs are shorter ( ); the foot is longer than the hand ( and ), and both are much longer in proportion to the spine. in the other man-like apes again, the gibbons, these proportions are still further altered; the length of the arms being to that of the spinal column as to ; while the legs are also a third longer than the spinal column, so as to be longer than in man, instead of shorter. the hand is half as long as the spinal column, and the foot, shorter than the hand, is about / ths of the length of the spinal column. thus _hylobates_ is as much longer in the arms than the gorilla, as the gorilla is longer in the arms than man; while, on the other hand, it is as much longer in the legs than the man, as the man is longer in the legs than the gorilla, so that it contains within itself the extremest deviations from the average length of both pairs of limbs (see the frontispiece). the mandrill presents a middle condition, the arms and legs being nearly equal in length, and both being shorter than the spinal column; while hand and foot have nearly the same proportions to one another and to the spine, as in man. in the spider monkey (_ateles_) the leg is longer than the spine, and the arm than the leg; and, finally, in that remarkable lemurine form, the indri (_lichanotus_), the leg is about as long as the spinal column, while the arm is not more than / ths of its length; the hand having rather less and the foot rather more, than one-third the length of the spinal column. these examples might be greatly multiplied, but they suffice to show that, in whatever proportion of its limbs the gorilla differs from man, the other apes depart still more widely from the gorilla, and that, consequently, such differences of proportion can have no ordinal value. * * * * * we may next consider the differences presented by the trunk, consisting of the vertebral column, or backbone, and the ribs and pelvis, or bony hip-basin, which are connected with it, in man and in the gorilla respectively. in man, in consequence partly of the disposition of the articular surfaces of the vertebræ, and largely of the elastic tension of some of the fibrous bands, or ligaments, which connect these vertebræ together, the spinal column, as a whole, has an elegant s-like curvature, being convex forwards in the neck, concave in the back, convex in the loins, or lumbar region, and concave again in the sacral region; an arrangement which gives much elasticity to the whole backbone, and diminishes the jar communicated to the spine, and through it to the head, by locomotion in the erect position. furthermore, under ordinary circumstances, man has seven vertebræ in his neck, which are called _cervical_; twelve succeed these, bearing ribs and forming the upper part of the back, whence they are termed _dorsal_; five lie in the loins, bearing no distinct, or free, ribs, and are called _lumbar_; five, united together into a great bone, excavated in front, solidly wedged in between the hip bones, to form the back of the pelvis, and known by the name of the _sacrum_, succeed these; and finally, three or four little more or less moveable bones, so small as to be insignificant, constitute the _coccyx_ or rudimentary tail. in the gorilla, the vertebral column is similarly divided into cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal vertebræ, and the total number of cervical and dorsal vertebræ, taken together, is the same as in man; but the development of a pair of ribs to the first lumbar vertebra, which is an exceptional occurrence in man, is the rule in the gorilla; and hence, as lumbar are distinguished from dorsal vertebræ only by the presence or absence of free ribs, the seventeen "dorso-lumbar" vertebræ of the gorilla are divided into thirteen dorsal and four lumbar, while in man they are twelve dorsal and five lumbar. not only, however, does man occasionally possess thirteen pair of ribs,[ ] but the gorilla sometimes has fourteen pairs, while an orang-utan skeleton in the museum of the royal college of surgeons has twelve dorsal and five lumbar vertebræ, as in man. cuvier notes the same number in a _hylobates_. on the other hand, among the lower apes, many possess twelve dorsal and six or seven lumbar vertebræ; the douroucouli has fourteen dorsal and eight lumbar, and a lemur (_stenops tardigradus_) has fifteen dorsal and nine lumbar vertebræ. the vertebral column of the gorilla, as a whole, differs from that of man in the less marked character of its curves, especially in the slighter convexity of the lumbar region. nevertheless, the curves are present, and are quite obvious in young skeletons of the gorilla and chimpanzee which have been prepared without removal of the ligaments. in young orangs similarly preserved, on the other hand, the spinal column is either straight, or even concave forwards, throughout the lumbar region. whether we take these characters then, or such minor ones as those which are derivable from the proportional length of the spines of the cervical vertebræ, and the like, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the marked difference between man and the gorilla; but there is as little, that equally marked differences, of the very same order, obtain between the gorilla and the lower apes. [illustration: fig. .--front and side views of the bony pelvis of man, the gorilla and gibbon: reduced from drawings made from nature, of the same absolute length, by mr. waterhouse hawkins.] the pelvis, or bony girdle of the hips, of man is a strikingly human part of his organization; the expanded haunch bones affording support for his viscera during his habitually erect posture, and giving space for the attachment of the great muscles which enable him to assume and to preserve that attitude. in these respects the pelvis of the gorilla differs very considerably from his (fig. ). but go no lower than the gibbon, and see how vastly more he differs from the gorilla than the latter does from man, even in this structure. look at the flat, narrow haunch bones--the long and narrow passage--the coarse, outwardly curved, ischiatic prominences on which the gibbon habitually rests, and which are coated by the so-called "callosities," dense patches of skin, wholly absent in the gorilla, in the chimpanzee, and in the orang, as in man! in the lower monkeys and in the lemurs the difference becomes more striking still, the pelvis acquiring an altogether quadrupedal character. but now let us turn to a nobler and more characteristic organ--that by which the human frame seems to be, and indeed is, so strongly distinguished from all others,--i mean the skull. the differences between a gorilla's skull and a man's are truly immense (fig. ). in the former, the face, formed largely by the massive jaw-bones, predominates over the brain case, or cranium proper: in the latter, the proportions of the two are reversed. in the man, the occipital foramen, through which passes the great nervous cord connecting the brain with the nerves of the body, is placed just behind the centre of the base of the skull, which thus becomes evenly balanced in the erect posture; in the gorilla, it lies in the posterior third of that base. in the man, the surface of the skull is comparatively smooth, and the supraciliary ridges or brow prominences usually project but little--while, in the gorilla, vast crests are developed upon the skull, and the brow ridges overhang the cavernous orbits, like great penthouses. sections of the skulls, however, show that some of the apparent defects of the gorilla's cranium arise, in fact, not so much from deficiency of brain case as from excessive development of the parts of the face. the cranial cavity is not ill-shaped, and the forehead is not truly flattened or very retreating, its really well-formed curve being simply disguised by the mass of bone which is built up against it (fig. ). but the roofs of the orbits rise more obliquely into the cranial cavity, thus diminishing the space for the lower part of the anterior lobes of the brain, and the absolute capacity of the cranium is far less than that of man. so far as i am aware, no human cranium belonging to an adult man has yet been observed with a less cubical capacity than cubic inches, the smallest cranium observed in any race of men by morton, measuring cubic inches; while, on the other hand, the most capacious gorilla skull yet measured has a content of not more than - / cubic inches. let us assume, for simplicity's sake, that the lowest man's skull has twice the capacity of that of the highest gorilla.[ ] no doubt, this is a very striking difference, but it loses much of its apparent systematic value, when viewed by the light of certain other equally indubitable facts respecting cranial capacities. the first of these is, that the difference in the volume of the cranial cavity of different races of mankind is far greater, absolutely, than that between the lowest man and the highest ape, while, relatively, it is about the same. for the largest human skull measured by morton contained cubic inches, that is to say, had very nearly double the capacity of the smallest; while its absolute preponderance, of cubic inches--is far greater than that by which the lowest adult male human cranium surpasses the largest of the gorillas ( - - / = - / ). secondly, the adult crania of gorillas which have as yet been measured differ among themselves by nearly one-third, the maximum capacity being . cubic inches, the minimum cubic inches; and, thirdly, after making all due allowance for difference of size, the cranial capacities of some of the lower apes fall nearly as much, relatively, below those of the higher apes as the latter fall below man. thus, even in the important matter of cranial capacity, men differ more widely from one another than they do from the apes; while the lowest apes differ as much, in proportion, from the highest, as the latter does from man. the last proposition is still better illustrated by the study of the modifications which other parts of the cranium undergo in the simian series. it is the large proportional size of the facial bones and the great projection of the jaws which confers upon the gorilla's skull its small facial angle and brutal character. but if we consider the proportional size of the facial bones to the skull proper only, the little _chrysothrix_ (fig. ) differs very widely from the gorilla, and in the same way as man does; while the baboons (_cynocephalus_, fig. ) exaggerate the gross proportions of the muzzle of the great anthropoid, so that its visage looks mild and human by comparison with theirs. the difference between the gorilla and the baboon is even greater than it appears at first sight; for the great facial mass of the former is largely due to a downward development of the jaws; an essentially human character, superadded upon that almost purely forward, essentially brutal, development of the same parts which characterizes the baboon, and yet more remarkably distinguishes the lemur. [illustration: fig. .--sections of the skulls of man and various apes, drawn so as to give the cerebral cavity the same length in each case, thereby displaying the varying proportions of the facial bones. the line _b_ indicates the plane of the tentorium, which separates the cerebrum from the cerebellum; _d_, the axis of the occipital outlet of the skull. the extent of cerebral cavity behind _c_, which is a perpendicular erected on _b_ at the point where the tentorium is attached posteriorly, indicates the degree to which the cerebrum overlaps the cerebellum--the space occupied by which is roughly indicated by the dark shading. in comparing these diagrams, it must be recollected, that figures on so small a scale as these simply exemplify the statements in the text, the proof of which is to be found in the objects themselves.] similarly, the occipital foramen of _mycetes_ (fig. ), and still more of the lemurs, is situated completely in the posterior face of the skull, or as much further back than that of the gorilla, as that of the gorilla is further back than that of man; while, as if to render patent the futility of the attempt to base any broad classificatory distinction on such a character, the same group of platyrhine, or american monkeys, to which the _mycetes_ belongs, contains the _chrysothrix_, whose occipital foramen is situated far more forward than in any other ape, and nearly approaches the position it holds in man. again, the orang's skull is as devoid of excessively developed supraciliary prominences as a man's, though some varieties exhibit great crests elsewhere (see p. ); and in some of the cebine apes and in the _chrysothrix_, the cranium is as smooth and rounded as that of man himself. what is true of these leading characteristics of the skull, holds good, as may be imagined, of all minor features; so that for every constant difference between the gorilla's skull and the man's, a similar constant difference of the same order (that is to say, consisting in excess or defect of the same quality) may be found between the gorilla's skull and that of some other ape. so that, for the skull, no less than for the skeleton in general, the proposition holds good, that the differences between man and the gorilla are of smaller value than those between the gorilla and some other apes. in connection with the skull, i may speak of the teeth--organs which have a peculiar classificatory value, and whose resemblances and differences of number, form, and succession, taken as a whole, are usually regarded as more trustworthy indicators of affinity than any others. man is provided with two sets of teeth--milk teeth and permanent teeth. the former consist of four incisors, or cutting teeth; two canines, or eye-teeth; and four molars, or grinders, in each jaw--making twenty in all. the latter (fig. ) comprise four incisors, two canines, four small grinders, called premolars or false molars, and six large grinders, or true molars, in each jaw--making thirty-two in all. the internal incisors are larger than the external pair, in the upper jaw, smaller than the external pair, in the lower jaw. the crowns of the upper molars exhibit four cusps, or blunt-pointed elevations, and a ridge crosses the crown obliquely, from the inner, anterior, cusp to the outer, posterior cusp (fig. _m^ _). the anterior lower molars have five cusps, three external and two internal. the premolars have two cusps, one internal and one external, of which the outer is the higher. in all these respects the dentition of the gorilla may be described in the same terms as that of man; but in other matters it exhibits many and important differences (fig. ). thus the teeth of man constitute a regular and even series--without any break and without any marked projection of one tooth above the level of the rest; a peculiarity which, as cuvier long ago showed, is shared by no other mammal save one--as different a creature from man as can well be imagined--namely, the long extinct _anoplotherium_. the teeth of the gorilla, on the contrary, exhibit a break, or interval, termed the _diastema_, in both jaws: in front of the eye-tooth, or between it and the outer incisor, in the upper jaw; behind the eye-tooth, or between it and the front false molar, in the lower jaw. into this break in the series, in each jaw, fits the canine of the opposite jaw; the size of the eye-tooth in the gorilla being so great that it projects, like a tusk, far beyond the general level of the other teeth. the roots of the false molar teeth of the gorilla, again, are more complex than in man, and the proportional size of the molars is different. the gorilla has the crown of the hindmost grinder of the lower jaw more complex, and the order of eruption of the permanent teeth is different; the permanent canines making their appearance before the second and third molars in man, and after them in the gorilla. thus, while the teeth of the gorilla closely resemble those of man in number, kind, and in the general pattern of their crowns, they exhibit marked differences from those of man in secondary respects, such as relative size, number of fangs, and order of appearance. but, if the teeth of the gorilla be compared with those of an ape, no further removed from it than a _cynocephalus_, or baboon, it will be found that differences and resemblances of the same order are easily observable; but that many of the points in which the gorilla resembles man are those in which it differs from the baboon; while various respects in which it differs from man are exaggerated in the _cynocephalus_. the number and the nature of the teeth remain the same in the baboon as in the gorilla and in man. but the pattern of the baboon's upper molars is quite different from that described above (fig. ), the canines are proportionally longer and more knife-like; the anterior premolar in the lower jaw is specially modified; the posterior molar of the lower jaw is still larger and more complex than in the gorilla. passing from the old-world apes to those of the new world, we meet with a change of much greater importance than any of these. in such a genus as _cebus_, for example (fig. ), it will be found that while in some secondary points, such as the projection of the canines and the diastema, the resemblance to the great ape is preserved; in other and most important respects, the dentition is extremely different. instead of teeth in the milk set, there are : instead of teeth in the permanent set, there are , the false molars being increased from eight to twelve. and in form, the crowns of the molars are very unlike those of the gorilla, and differ far more widely from the human pattern. [illustration: fig. .--lateral views, of the same length, of the upper jaws of various primates. _i_, incisors; _c_, canines; _pm_, premolars; _m_, molars. a line is drawn through the first molar of man, gorilla, _cynocephalus_, and _cebus_, and the grinding surface of the second molar is shown in each, its anterior and internal angle being just above the _m_ of _m^ _.] the marmosets, on the other hand, exhibit the same number of teeth as man and the gorilla; but, notwithstanding this, their dentition is very different, for they have four more false molars, like the other american monkeys--but as they have four fewer true molars, the total remains the same. and passing from the american apes to the lemurs, the dentition becomes still more completely and essentially different from that of the gorilla. the incisors begin to vary both in number and in form. the molars acquire, more and more, a many-pointed, insectivorous character, and in one genus, the aye-aye (_cheiromys_), the canines disappear, and the teeth completely simulate those of a rodent (fig. ). hence it is obvious that, greatly as the dentition of the highest ape differs from that of man, it differs far more widely from that of the lower and lowest apes. * * * * * whatever part of the animal fabric--whatever series of muscles, whatever viscera might be selected for comparison--the result would be the same--the lower apes and the gorilla would differ more than the gorilla and the man. i cannot attempt in this place to follow out all these comparisons in detail, and indeed it is unnecessary i should do so. but certain real, or supposed, structural distinctions between man and the apes remain, upon which so much stress has been laid, that they require careful consideration, in order that the true value may be assigned to those which are real, and the emptiness of those which are fictitious may be exposed. i refer to the characters of the hand, the foot, and the brain. man has been defined as the only animal possessed of two hands terminating his fore-limbs, and of two feet ending his hind limbs, while it has been said that all the apes possess four hands; and he has been affirmed to differ fundamentally from all the apes in the characters of his brain, which alone, it has been strangely asserted and re-asserted, exhibits the structures known to anatomists as the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor. that the former proposition should have gained general acceptance is not surprising--indeed, at first sight, appearances are much in its favour: but, as for the second, one can only admire the surpassing courage of its enunciator, seeing that it is an innovation which is not only opposed to generally and justly accepted doctrines, but which is directly negatived by the testimony of all original inquirers, who have specially investigated the matter: and that it neither has been, nor can be, supported by a single anatomical preparation. it would, in fact, be unworthy of serious refutation, except for the general and natural belief that deliberate and reiterated assertions must have some foundation. * * * * * before we can discuss the first point with advantage we must consider with some attention, and compare together, the structure of the human hand and that of the human foot, so that we may have distinct and clear ideas of what constitutes a hand and what a foot. the external form of the human hand is familiar enough to every one. it consists of a stout wrist followed by a broad palm, formed of flesh, and tendons, and skin, binding together four bones, and dividing into four long and flexible digits, or fingers, each of which bears on the back of its last joint a broad and flattened nail. the longest cleft between any two digits is rather less than half as long as the hand. from the outer side of the base of the palm a stout digit goes off, having only two joints instead of three; so short, that it only reaches to a little beyond the middle of the first joint of the finger next it; and further remarkable by its great mobility, in consequence of which it can be directed outwards, almost at a right angle to the rest. this digit is called the "_pollex_," or thumb; and, like the others, it bears a flat nail upon the back of its terminal joint. in consequence of the proportions and mobility of the thumb, it is what is termed "opposable"; in other words, its extremity can, with the greatest ease, be brought into contact with the extremities of any of the fingers; a property upon which the possibility of our carrying into effect the conceptions of the mind so largely depends. the external form of the foot differs widely from that of the hand; and yet, when closely compared, the two present some singular resemblances. thus the ankle corresponds in a manner with the wrist; the sole with the palm; the toes with the fingers; the great toe with the thumb. but the toes, or digits of the foot, are far shorter in proportion than the digits of the hand, and are less moveable, the want of mobility being most striking in the great toe--which, again, is very much larger in proportion to the other toes than the thumb to the fingers. in considering this point, however, it must not be forgotten that the civilized great toe, confined and cramped from childhood upwards, is seen to a great disadvantage, and that in uncivilized and barefooted people it retains a great amount of mobility, and even some sort of opposability. the chinese boatmen are said to be able to pull an oar, the artisans of bengal to weave, and the carajas to steal fishhooks, by its help; though, after all, it must be recollected that the structure of its joints and the arrangement of its bones, necessarily render its prehensile action far less perfect than that of the thumb. but to gain a precise conception of the resemblances and differences of the hand and foot, and of the distinctive characters of each, we must look below the skin, and compare the bony framework and its motor apparatus in each (fig. ). the skeleton of the hand exhibits, in the region which we term the wrist, and which is technically called the _carpus_--two rows of closely fitted polygonal bones, four in each row, which are tolerably equal in size. the bones of the first row with the bones of the forearm form the wrist joint, and are arranged side by side, no one greatly exceeding or over-lapping the rest. the four bones of the second row of the carpus bear the four long bones which support the palm of the hand. the fifth bone of the same character is articulated in a much more free and moveable manner than the others, with its carpal bone, and forms the base of the thumb. these are called _metacarpal_ bones, and they carry the _phalanges_, or bones of the digits, of which there are two in the thumb, and three in each of the fingers. [illustration: fig. .--the skeleton of the hand and foot of man reduced from dr. carter's drawings in gray's "anatomy." the hand is drawn to a larger scale than the foot. the line _a a_ in the hand indicates the boundary between the carpus and the metacarpus; _b b_ that between the latter and the proximal phalanges; _c c_ marks the ends of the distal phalanges. the line _a´ a´_ in the foot indicates the boundary between the tarsus and metatarsus; _b´ b´_ marks that between the metatarsus and the proximal phalanges; and _c´ c´_ bounds the ends of the distal phalanges; _ca_, the calcaneum; _as_, the astragalus; _sc_, the scaphoid bone in the tarsus.] the skeleton of the foot is very like that of the hand in some respects. thus there are three phalanges in each of the lesser toes, and only two in the great toe, which answers to the thumb. there is a long bone, termed _metatarsal_, answering to the metacarpal, for each digit; and the _tarsus_, which corresponds with the carpus, presents four short polygonal bones in a row, which correspond very closely with the four carpal bones of the second row of the hand. in other respects the foot differs very widely from the hand. thus the great toe is the longest digit but one; and its metatarsal is far less moveably articulated with the tarsus, than the metacarpal of the thumb with the carpus. but a far more important distinction lies in the fact that, instead of four more tarsal bones there are only three; and that these three are not arranged side by side, or in one row. one of them, the _os calcis_ or heel bone (_ca_), lies externally, and sends back the large projecting heel; another, the _astragalus_ (_as_), rests on this by one face, and by another, forms, with the bones of the leg, the ankle joint; while a third face, directed forwards, is separated from the three inner tarsal bones of the row next the metatarsus by a bone called the _scaphoid_ (_sc_). thus there is a fundamental difference in the structure of the foot and the hand, observable when the carpus and the tarsus are contrasted; and there are differences of degree noticeable when the proportions and the mobility of the metacarpals and metatarsals, with their respective digits, are compared together. the same two classes of differences become obvious when the muscles of the hand are compared with those of the foot. three principal sets of muscles, called "flexors," bend the fingers and thumb, as in clenching the fist, and three sets--the extensors--extend them, as in straightening the fingers. these muscles are all "long muscles"; that is to say, the fleshy part of each, lying in and being fixed to the bones of the arm, is, at the other end, continued into tendons, or rounded cords, which pass into the hand, and are ultimately fixed to the bones which are to be moved. thus, when the fingers are bent, the fleshy parts of the flexors of the fingers, placed in the arm, contract, in virtue of their peculiar endowment as muscles; and pulling the tendinous cords, connected with their ends, cause them to pull down the bones of the fingers towards the palm. not only are the principal flexors of the fingers and of the thumb long muscles, but they remain quite distinct from one another throughout their whole length. in the foot, there are also three principal flexor muscles of the digits or toes, and three principal extensors; but one extensor and one flexor are short muscles; that is to say, their fleshy parts are not situated in the leg (which corresponds with the arm), but in the back and in the sole of the foot--regions which correspond with the back and the palm of the hand. again, the tendons of the long flexor of the toes, and of the long flexor of the great toe, when they reach the sole of the foot, do not remain distinct from one another, as the flexors in the palm of the hand do, but they become united and commingled in a very curious manner--while their united tendons receive an accessory muscle connected with the heel-bone. but perhaps the most absolutely distinctive character about the muscles of the foot is the existence of what is termed the _peronæus longus_, a long muscle fixed to the outer bone of the leg, and sending its tendon to the outer ankle, behind and below which it passes, and then crosses the foot obliquely to be attached to the base of the great toe. no muscle in the hand exactly corresponds with this, which is eminently a foot muscle. to resume--the foot of man is distinguished from his hand by the following absolute anatomical differences:-- . by the arrangement of the tarsal bones. . by having a short flexor and a short extensor muscle of the digits. . by possessing the muscle termed _peronæus longus_. and if we desire to ascertain whether the terminal division of a limb, in other primates, is to be called a foot or a hand, it is by the presence or absence of these characters that we must be guided, and not by the mere proportions and greater or lesser mobility of the great toe, which may vary indefinitely without any fundamental alteration in the structure of the foot. * * * * * keeping these considerations in mind, let us now turn to the limbs of the gorilla. the terminal division of the fore-limb presents no difficulty--bone for bone and muscle for muscle, are found to be arranged essentially as in man, or with such minor differences as are found as varieties in man. the gorilla's hand is clumsier, heavier, and has a thumb somewhat shorter in proportion than that of man; but no one has ever doubted its being a true hand. at first sight, the termination of the hind limb of the gorilla looks very hand-like, and as it is still more so in many of the lower apes, it is not wonderful that the appellation "quadrumana," or four-handed creatures, adopted from the older anatomists[ ] by blumenbach, and unfortunately rendered current by cuvier, should have gained such wide acceptance as a name for the simian group. but the most cursory anatomical investigation at once proves that the resemblance of the so-called "hind hand" to a true hand, is only skin deep, and that, in all essential respects, the hind limb of the gorilla is as truly terminated by a foot as that of man. the tarsal bones, in all important circumstances of number, disposition, and form, resemble those of man (fig. ). the metatarsals and digits, on the other hand, are proportionally longer and more slender, while the great toe is not only proportionally shorter and weaker, but its metatarsal bone is united by a more moveable joint with the tarsus. at the same time, the foot is set more obliquely upon the leg than in man. as to the muscles, there is a short flexor, a short extensor, and a _peronæus longus_, while the tendons of the long flexors of the great toe and of the other toes are united together and with an accessory fleshy bundle. the hind limb of the gorilla, therefore, ends in a true foot, with a very moveable great toe. it is a prehensile foot, indeed, but is in no sense a hand: it is a foot which differs from that of man not in any fundamental character, but in mere proportions, in the degree of mobility, and in the secondary arrangement of its parts. it must not be supposed, however, because i speak of these differences as not fundamental, that i wish to underrate their value. they are important enough in their way, the structure of the foot being in strict correlation with that of the rest of the organism in each case. nor can it be doubted that the greater division of physiological labour in man, so that the function of support is thrown wholly on the leg and foot, is an advance in organization of very great moment to him; but, after all, regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the foot of man and the foot of the gorilla are far more striking and important than the differences. [illustration: fig. .--foot of man, gorilla, and orang-utan of the same absolute length, to show the differences in proportion of each. letters as in fig. . reduced from original drawings by mr. waterhouse hawkins.] i have dwelt upon this point at length, because it is one regarding which much delusion prevails; but i might have passed it over without detriment to my argument, which only requires me to show that, be the differences between the hand and foot of man and those of the gorilla what they may--the differences between those of the gorilla and those of the lower apes are much greater. it is not necessary to descend lower in the scale than the orang for conclusive evidence on this head. the thumb of the orang differs more from that of the gorilla than the thumb of the gorilla differs from that of man, not only by its shortness, but by the absence of any special long flexor muscle. the carpus of the orang, like that of most lower apes, contains nine bones, while in the gorilla, as in man and the chimpanzee, there are only eight. the orang's foot (fig. ) is still more aberrant; its very long toes and short tarsus, short great toe, short and raised heel, great obliquity of articulation in the leg, and absence of a long flexor tendon to the great toe, separating it far more widely from the foot of the gorilla than the latter is separated from that of man. but, in some of the lower apes, the hand and foot diverge still more from those of the gorilla, than they do in the orang. the thumb ceases to be opposable in the american monkeys; is reduced to a mere rudiment covered by the skin in the spider monkey; and is directed forwards and armed with a curved claw like the other digits, in the marmosets--so that, in all these cases, there can be no doubt but that the hand is more different from that of the gorilla than the gorilla's hand is from man's. and as to the foot, the great toe of the marmoset is still more insignificant in proportion than that of the orang--while in the lemurs it is very large, and as completely thumb-like and opposable as in the gorilla--but in these animals the second toe is often irregularly modified, and in some species the two principal bones of the tarsus, the _astragalus_ and the _os calcis_, are so immensely elongated as to render the foot, so far, totally unlike that of any other mammal. so with regard to the muscles. the short flexor of the toes of the gorilla differs from that of man by the circumstance that one slip of the muscle is attached, not to the heel bone, but to the tendons of the long flexors. the lower apes depart from the gorilla by an exaggeration of the same character, two, three, or more, slips becoming fixed to the long flexor tendons--or by a multiplication of the slips.--again, the gorilla differs slightly from man in the mode of interlacing of the long flexor tendons: and the lower apes differ from the gorilla in exhibiting yet other, sometimes very complex, arrangements of the same parts, and occasionally in the absence of the accessory fleshy bundle. throughout all these modifications it must be recollected that the foot loses no one of its essential characters. every monkey and lemur exhibits the characteristic arrangement of tarsal bones, possesses a short flexor and short extensor muscle, and a _peronæus longus_. varied as the proportions and appearance of the organ may be, the terminal division of the hind limb remains, in plan and principle of construction, a foot, and never, in those respects, can be confounded with a hand. hardly any part of the bodily frame, then, could be found better calculated to illustrate the truth that the structural differences between man and the highest ape are of less value than those between the highest and the lower apes, than the hand or the foot, and yet, perhaps, there is one organ the study of which enforces the same conclusion in a still more striking manner--and that is the brain. but before entering upon the precise question of the amount of difference between the ape's brain and that of man, it is necessary that we should clearly understand what constitutes a great, and what a small difference in cerebral structure; and we shall be best enabled to do this by a brief study of the chief modifications which the brain exhibits in the series of vertebrate animals. the brain of a fish is very small, compared with the spinal cord into which it is continued, and with the nerves which come off from it: of the segments of which it is composed--the olfactory lobes, the cerebral hemisphere, and the succeeding divisions--no one predominates so much over the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-called optic lobes are, frequently, the largest masses of all. in reptiles, the mass of the brain, relatively to the spinal cord, increases and the cerebral hemispheres begin to predominate over the other parts; while in birds this predominance is still more marked. the brain of the lowest mammals, such as the duck-billed platypus and the opossums and kangaroos, exhibits a still more definite advance in the same direction. the cerebral hemispheres have now so much increased in size as, more or less, to hide the representatives of the optic lobes, which remain comparatively small, so that the brain of a marsupial is extremely different from that of a bird, reptile, or fish. a step higher in the scale, among the placental mammals, the structure of the brain acquires a vast modification--not that it appears much altered externally, in a rat or in a rabbit, from what it is in a marsupial--nor that the proportions of its parts are much changed, but an apparently new structure is found between the cerebral hemispheres, connecting them together, as what is called the "great commissure" or "corpus callosum." the subject requires careful re-investigation, but if the currently received statements are correct, the appearance of the "corpus callosum" in the placental mammals is the greatest and most sudden modification exhibited by the brain in the whole series of vertebrated animals--it is the greatest leap anywhere made by nature in her brain work. for the two halves of the brain being once thus knit together, the progress of cerebral complexity is traceable through a complete series of steps from the lowest rodent, or insectivore, to man; and that complexity consists, chiefly, in the disproportionate development of the cerebral hemispheres and of the cerebellum, but especially of the former, in respect to the other parts of the brain. in the lower placental mammals, the cerebral hemispheres leave the proper upper and posterior face of the cerebellum completely visible, when the brain is viewed from above, but, in the higher forms, the hinder part of each hemisphere, separated only by the tentorium (p. ) from the anterior face of the cerebellum, inclines backwards and downwards, and grows out, as the so-called "posterior lobe," so as at length to overlap and hide the cerebellum. in all mammals, each cerebral hemisphere contains a cavity which is termed the "ventricle," and as this ventricle is prolonged, on the one hand, forwards, and on the other downwards, into the substance of the hemisphere, it is said to have two horns or "cornua," an "anterior cornu," and a "descending cornu." when the posterior lobe is well developed, a third prolongation of the ventricular cavity extends into it, and is called the "posterior cornu." in the lower and smaller forms of placental mammals the surface of the cerebral hemispheres is either smooth or evenly rounded, or exhibits a very few grooves, which are technically termed "sulci," separating ridges or "convolutions" of the substance of the brain; and the smaller species of all orders tend to a similar smoothness of brain. but, in the higher orders, and especially the larger members of these orders, the grooves, or sulci, become extremely numerous, and the intermediate convolutions proportionately more complicated in their meanderings, until, in the elephant, the porpoise, the higher apes, and man, the cerebral surface appears a perfect labyrinth of tortuous foldings. where a posterior lobe exists and presents its customary cavity--the posterior cornu--it commonly happens that a particular sulcus appears upon the inner and under surface of the lobe, parallel with and beneath the floor of the cornu--which is, as it were, arched over the roof of the sulcus. it is as if the groove had been formed by indenting the floor of the posterior horn from without with a blunt instrument, so that the floor should rise as a convex eminence. now this eminence is what has been termed the "hippocampus minor"; the "hippocampus major" being a larger eminence in the floor of the descending cornu. what may be the functional importance of either of these structures we know not. * * * * * as if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the impossibility of erecting any cerebral barrier between man and the apes, nature has provided us, in the latter animals, with an almost complete series of gradations from brains little higher than that of a rodent, to brains little lower than that of man. and it is a remarkable circumstance that though, so far as our present knowledge extends, there _is_ one true structural break in the series of forms of simian brains, this hiatus does not lie between man and the man-like apes, but between the lower and the lowest simians; or, in other words, between the old and new world apes and monkeys, and the lemurs. every lemur which has yet been examined, in fact, has its cerebellum partially visible from above, and its posterior lobe, with the contained posterior cornu and hippocampus minor, more or less rudimentary. every marmoset, american monkey, old world monkey, baboon, or man-like ape, on the contrary, has its cerebellum entirely hidden, posteriorly, by the cerebral lobes, and possesses a large posterior cornu, with a well-developed hippocampus minor. * * * * * in many of these creatures, such as the saimiri (_chrysothrix_), the cerebral lobes overlap and extend much further behind the cerebellum, in proportion, than they do in man (fig. )--and it is quite certain that, in all, the cerebellum is completely covered behind, by well-developed posterior lobes. the fact can be verified by every one who possesses the skull of any old or new world monkey. for, inasmuch as the brain in all mammals completely fills the cranial cavity, it is obvious that a cast of the interior of the skull will reproduce the general form of the brain, at any rate with such minute and, for the present purpose, utterly unimportant differences as may result from the absence of the enveloping membranes of the brain in the dry skull. but if such a cast be made in plaster, and compared with a similar cast of the interior of a human skull, it will be obvious that the cast of the cerebral chamber, representing the cerebrum of the ape, as completely covers over and overlaps the cast of the cerebellar chamber, representing the cerebellum, as it does in the man (fig. ). a careless observer, forgetting that a soft structure like the brain loses its proper shape the moment it is taken out of the skull, may indeed mistake the uncovered condition of the cerebellum of an extracted and distorted brain for the natural relations of the parts; but his error must become patent even to himself if he try to replace the brain within the cranial chamber. to suppose that the cerebellum of an ape is naturally uncovered behind is a miscomprehension comparable only to that of one who should imagine that a man's lungs always occupy but a small portion of the thoracic cavity--because they do so when the chest is opened, and their elasticity is no longer neutralized by the pressure of the air. [illustration: fig. .--drawings of the internal casts of a man's and of a chimpanzee's skull, of the same absolute length, and placed in corresponding positions, _a._ cerebrum; _b._ cerebellum. the former drawing is taken from a cast in the museum of the royal college of surgeons, the latter from the photograph of the cast of a chimpanzee's skull, which illustrates the paper by mr. marshall "on the brain of the chimpanzee" in the natural history review for july, . the sharper definition of the lower edge of the cast of the cerebral chamber in the chimpanzee arises from the circumstance that the tentorium remained in that skull and not in the man's. the cast more accurately represents the brain in chimpanzee than in the man; and the great backward projection of the posterior lobes of the cerebrum of the former, beyond the cerebellum, is conspicuous.] and the error is the less excusable, as it must become apparent to every one who examines a section of the skull of any ape above a lemur, without taking the trouble to make a cast of it. for there is a very marked groove in every such skull, as in the human skull--which indicates the line of attachment of what is termed the _tentorium_--a sort of parchment-like shelf, or partition, which, in the recent state, is interposed between the cerebrum and cerebellum, and prevents the former from pressing upon the latter (see fig. ). this groove, therefore, indicates the line of separation between that part of the cranial cavity which contains the cerebrum, and that which contains the cerebellum; and as the brain exactly fills the cavity of the skull, it is obvious that the relations of these two parts of the cranial cavity at once informs us of the relations of their contents. now in man, in all the old world, and in all the new world simiæ, with one exception, when the face is directed forwards, this line of attachment of the tentorium, or impression for the lateral sinus, as it is technically called, is nearly horizontal, and the cerebral chamber invariably overlaps or projects behind the cerebellar chamber. in the howler monkey or _mycetes_ (see fig. ), the line passes obliquely upwards and backwards, and the cerebral overlap is almost nil; while in the lemurs, as in the lower mammals, the line is much more inclined in the same direction, and the cerebellar chamber projects considerably beyond the cerebral. when the gravest errors respecting points so easily settled as this question respecting the posterior lobes can be authoritatively propounded, it is no wonder that matters of observation, of no very complex character, but still requiring a certain amount of care, should have fared worse. any one who cannot see the posterior lobe in an ape's brain is not likely to give a very valuable opinion respecting the posterior cornu or the hippocampus minor. if a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window--so that i do not feel bound to enter upon any discussion of these points, but content myself with assuring the reader that the posterior cornu and the hippocampus minor, have now been seen--usually, at least as well developed as in man, and often better--not only in the chimpanzee, the orang, and the gibbon, but in all the genera of the old world baboons and monkeys, and in most of the new world forms, including the marmosets.[ ] in fact, all the abundant and trustworthy evidence (consisting of the results of careful investigations directed to the determination of these very questions, by skilled anatomists) which we now possess, leads to the conviction that, so far from the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor, being structures peculiar to and characteristic of man, as they have been over and over again asserted to be, even after the publication of the clearest demonstration of the reverse, it is precisely these structures which are the most marked cerebral characters common to man with the apes. they are among the most distinctly simian peculiarities which the human organism exhibits. as to the convolutions, the brains of the apes exhibit every stage of progress, from the almost smooth brain of the marmoset, to the orang and the chimpanzee, which fall but little below man. and it is most remarkable that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern according to which they are arranged is identical with that of the corresponding sulci of man. the surface of the brain of a monkey exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in minor characters, such as the greater excavation of the anterior lobes, the constant presence of fissures usually absent in man, and the different disposition and proportions of some convolutions, that the chimpanzee's or the orang's brain can be structurally distinguished from man's. [illustration: fig. .--drawings of the cerebral hemispheres of a man and of a chimpanzee of the same length, in order to show the relative proportions of the parts: the former taken from a specimen, which mr. flower, conservator of the museum of the royal college of surgeons, was good enough to dissect for me; the latter, from the photograph of a similarly dissected chimpanzee's brain, given in mr. marshall's paper above referred to. _a_, posterior lobe; _b_, lateral ventricle; _c_, posterior cornu; _x_, the hippocampus minor.] so far as cerebral structure goes, therefore, it is clear that man differs less from the chimpanzee or the orang, than these do even from the monkeys, and that the difference between the brains of the chimpanzee and of man is almost insignificant, when compared with that between the chimpanzee brain and that of a lemur. it must not be overlooked, however, that there is a very striking difference in the absolute mass and weight between the lowest human brain and that of the highest ape--a difference which is all the more remarkable when we recollect that a full grown gorilla is probably pretty nearly twice as heavy as a bosjes man, or as many an european woman. it may be doubted whether a healthy human adult brain ever weighed less than thirty-one or two ounces, or that the heaviest gorilla brain has exceeded twenty ounces. this is a very noteworthy circumstance, and doubtless will one day help to furnish an explanation of the great gulf which intervenes between the lowest man and the highest ape in intellectual power;[ ] but it has little systematic value, for the simple reason that, as may be concluded from what has been already said respecting cranial capacity, the difference in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the lowest man and the highest ape. the latter, as has been seen, is represented by, say twelve, ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by : relatively; but as the largest recorded human brain weighed between and ounces, the former difference is represented by more than ounces absolutely, or by : relatively. regarded systematically the cerebral differences, of man and apes, are not of more than generic value--his family distinction resting chiefly on his dentition, his pelvis, and his lower limbs. * * * * * thus, whatever system of organs be studied, the comparison of their modifications in the ape series leads to one and the same result--that the structural differences which separate man from the gorilla and the chimpanzee are not so great as those which separate the gorilla from the lower apes. but in enunciating this important truth i must guard myself against a form of misunderstanding, which is very prevalent. i find, in fact, that those who endeavour to teach what nature so clearly shows us in this matter, are liable to have their opinions misrepresented and their phraseology garbled, until they seem to say that the structural differences between man and even the highest apes are small and insignificant. let me take this opportunity then of distinctly asserting, on the contrary, that they are great and significant; that every bone of a gorilla bears marks by which it might be distinguished from the corresponding bone of a man; and that, in the present creation, at any rate, no intermediate link bridges over the gap between _homo_ and _troglodytes_. it would be no less wrong than absurd to deny the existence of this chasm; but it is at least equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its magnitude, and, resting on the admitted fact of its existence, to refuse to inquire whether it is wide or narrow. remember, if you will, that there is no existing link between man and the gorilla, but do not forget that there is a no less sharp line of demarcation, a no less complete absence of any transitional form, between the gorilla and the orang, or the orang and the gibbon. i say, not less sharp, though it is somewhat narrower. the structural differences between man and the man-like apes certainly justify our regarding him as constituting a family apart from them; though, inasmuch as he differs less from them than they do from other families of the same order, there can be no justification for placing him in a distinct order. and thus the sagacious foresight of the great lawgiver of systematic zoology, linnæus, becomes justified, and a century of anatomical research brings us back to his conclusion, that man is a member of the same order (for which the linnæan term primates ought to be retained) as the apes and lemurs. this order is now divisible into seven families, of about equal systematic value: the first, the anthropini, contains man alone; the second, the catarhini, embraces the old world apes; the third, the platyrhini, all new world apes, except the marmosets; the fourth, the arctopithecini, contains the marmosets; the fifth, the lemurini, the lemurs--from which _cheiromys_ should probably be excluded to form a sixth distinct family, the cheiromyini; while the seventh, the galeopithecini, contains only the flying lemur _galeopithecus_,--a strange form which almost touches on the bats, as the _cheiromys_ puts on a rodent clothing, and the lemurs simulate insectivora. perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this--leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent of the placental mammalia. it is as if nature herself had foreseen the arrogance of man, and with roman severity had provided that his intellect, by its very triumphs, should call into prominence the slaves, admonishing the conqueror that he is but dust. * * * * * these are the chief facts, this the immediate conclusion from them to which i adverted in the commencement of this essay. the facts, i believe, cannot be disputed; and if so, the conclusion appears to me to be inevitable. but if man be separated by no greater structural barrier from the brutes than they are from one another--then it seems to follow that if any process of physical causation can be discovered by which the genera and families of ordinary animals have been produced, that process of causation is amply sufficient to account for the origin of man. in other words, if it could be shown that the marmosets, for example, have arisen by gradual modification of the ordinary platyrhini, or that both marmosets and platyrhini are modified ramifications of a primitive stock--then, there would be no rational ground for doubting that man might have originated, in the one case, by the gradual modification of a man-like ape; or, in the othercase, as a ramification of the same primitive stock as those apes. at the present moment, but one such process of physical causation has any evidence in its favour; or, in other words, there is but one hypothesis regarding the origin of species of animals in general which has any scientific existence--that propounded by mr. darwin. for lamarck, sagacious as many of his views were, mingled them with so much that was crude and even absurd, as to neutralize the benefit which his originality might have effected, had he been a more sober and cautious thinker; and though i have heard of the announcement of a formula touching "the ordained continuous becoming of organic forms," it is obvious that it is the first duty of a hypothesis to be intelligible, and that a qua-quâ-versal proposition of this kind, which may be read backwards, or forwards, or sideways, with exactly the same amount of signification, does not really exist, though it may seem to do so. at the present moment, therefore, the question of the relation of man to the lower animals resolves itself, in the end, into the larger question of the tenability or untenability of mr. darwin's views. but here we enter upon difficult ground, and it behoves us to define our exact position with the greatest care. it cannot be doubted, i think, that mr. darwin has satisfactorily proved that what he terms selection, or selective modification, must occur, and does occur, in nature; and he has also proved to superfluity that such selection is competent to produce forms as distinct, structurally, as some genera even are. if the animated world presented us with none but structural differences, i should have no hesitation in saying that mr. darwin had demonstrated the existence of a true physical cause, amply competent to account for the origin of living species, and of man among the rest. but, in addition to their structural distinctions, the species of animals and plants, or at least a great number of them, exhibit physiological characters--what are known as distinct species, structurally, being for the most part either altogether incompetent to breed one with another; or if they breed, the resulting mule, or hybrid, is unable to perpetuate its race with another hybrid of the same kind. a true physical cause is, however, admitted to be such only on one condition--that it shall account for all the phenomena which come within the range of its operation. if it is inconsistent with any one phenomenon, it must be rejected; if it fails to explain any one phenomenon, it is so far weak, so far to be suspected; though it may have a perfect right to claim provisional acceptance. now, mr. darwin's hypothesis is not, so far as i am aware, inconsistent with any known biological fact; on the contrary, if admitted, the facts of development, of comparative anatomy, of geographical distribution, and of palæontology, become connected together, and exhibit a meaning such as they never possessed before; and i, for one, am fully convinced, that if not precisely true, that hypothesis is as near an approximation to the truth as, for example, the copernican hypothesis was to the true theory of the planetary motions. but, for all this, our acceptance of the darwinian hypothesis must be provisional so long as one link in the chain of evidence is wanting; and so long as all the animals and plants certainly produced by selective breeding from a common stock are fertile, and their progeny are fertile with one another, that link will be wanting. for, so long, selective breeding will not be proved to be competent to do all that is required of it to produce natural species. i have put this conclusion as strongly as possible before the reader, because the last position in which i wish to find myself is that of an advocate for mr. darwin's, or any other views--if by an advocate is meant one whose business it is to smooth over real difficulties, and to persuade where he cannot convince. in justice to mr. darwin, however, it must be admitted that the conditions of fertility and sterility are very ill understood, and that every day's advance in knowledge leads us to regard the hiatus in his evidence as of less and less importance, when set against the multitude of facts which harmonize with, or receive an explanation from, his doctrines. i adopt mr. darwin's hypothesis, therefore, subject to the production of proof that physiological species may be produced by selective breeding; just as a physical philosopher may accept the undulatory theory of light, subject to the proof of the existence of the hypothetical ether; or as the chemist adopts the atomic theory, subject to the proof of the existence of atoms; and for exactly the same reasons, namely, that it has an immense amount of primâ facie probability; that it is the only means at present within reach of reducing the chaos of observed facts to order; and lastly, that it is the most powerful instrument of investigation which has been presented to naturalists since the invention of the natural system of classification, and the commencement of the systematic study of embryology. but even leaving mr. darwin's views aside, the whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the intimate relations between man and the rest of the living world; and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, i can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed--from the inorganic to the organic--from blind force to conscious intellect and will. * * * * * science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enunciated truth; and were these pages addressed to men of science only, i should now close this essay, knowing that my colleagues have learned to respect nothing but evidence, and to believe that their highest duty lies in submitting to it, however it may jar against their inclinations. but desiring, as i do, to reach the wider circle of the intelligent public, it would be unworthy cowardice were i to ignore the repugnance with which the majority of my readers are likely to meet the conclusions to which the most careful and conscientious study i have been able to give to this matter, has led me. on all sides i shall hear the cry--"we are men and women, not a mere better sort of apes, a little longer in the leg, more compact in the foot, and bigger in brain than your brutal chimpanzees and gorillas. the power of knowledge--the conscience of good and evil--the pitiful tenderness of human affections, raise us out of all real fellowship with the brutes, however closely they may seem to approximate us." to this i can only reply that the exclamation would be most just and would have my own entire sympathy, if it were only relevant. but, it is not i who seek to base man's dignity upon his great toe, or insinuate that we are lost if an ape has a hippocampus minor. on the contrary, i have done my best to sweep away this vanity. i have endeavoured to show that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves; and i may add the expression of my belief that the attempt to draw a psychical distinction is equally futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life.[ ] at the same time, no one is more strongly convinced than i am of the vastness of the gulf between civilized man and the brutes; or is more certain that whether _from_ them or not, he is assuredly not _of_ them. no one is less disposed to think lightly of the present dignity, or despairingly of the future hopes, of the only consciously intelligent denizen of this world. we are indeed told by those who assume authority in these matters, that the two sets of opinions are incompatible, and that the belief in the unity of origin of man and brutes involves the brutalization and degradation of the former. but is this really so? could not a sensible child confute, by obvious arguments, the shallow rhetoricians who would force this conclusion upon us? is it, indeed, true, that the poet, or the philosopher, or the artist whose genius is the glory of his age, is degraded from his high estate by the undoubted historical probability, not to say certainty, that he is the direct descendant of some naked and bestial savage, whose intelligence was just sufficient to make him a little more cunning than the fox, and by so much more dangerous than the tiger? or is he bound to howl and grovel on all fours because of the wholly unquestionable fact, that he was once an egg, which no ordinary power of discrimination could distinguish from that of a dog? or is the philanthropist or the saint to give up his endeavours to lead a noble life, because the simplest study of man's nature reveals, at its foundations, all the selfish passions and fierce appetites of the merest quadruped? is mother-love vile because a hen shows it, or fidelity base because dogs possess it? the common sense of the mass of mankind will answer these questions without a moment's hesitation. healthy humanity, finding itself hard pressed to escape from real sin and degradation, will leave the brooding over speculative pollution to the cynics and the "righteous overmuch" who, disagreeing in everything else, unite in blind insensibility to the nobleness of the visible world, and in inability to appreciate the grandeur of the place man occupies therein. nay more, thoughtful men, once escaped from the blinding influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock whence man has sprung, the best evidence of the splendour of his capacities; and will discern in his long progress through the past, a reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future. they will remember that in comparing civilized man with the animal world, one is as the alpine traveller, who sees the mountains soaring into the sky and can hardly discern where the deep shadowed crags and roseate peaks end, and where the clouds of heaven begin. surely the awe-struck voyager may be excused if, at first, he refuses to believe the geologist, who tells him that these glorious masses are, after all, the hardened mud of primeval seas, or the cooled slag of subterranean furnaces--of one substance with the dullest clay, but raised by inward forces to that place of proud and seemingly inaccessible glory. but the geologist is right; and due reflection on his teachings, instead of diminishing our reverence and our wonder, adds all the force of intellectual sublimity to the mere æsthetic intuition of the uninstructed beholder. and after passion and prejudice have died away, the same result will attend the teachings of the naturalist respecting that great alps and andes of the living world--man. our reverence for the nobility of manhood will not be lessened by the knowledge, that man is, in substance and in structure, one with the brutes; for, he alone possesses the marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby, in the secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and organized the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation of every individual life in other animals; so that now he stands raised upon it as on a mountain top, far above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here and there, a ray from the infinite source of truth. _a succinct history of the controversy respecting the cerebral structure of man and the apes_ up to the year all anatomists of authority, who had occupied themselves with the cerebral structure of the apes--cuvier, tiedemann, sandifort, vrolik, isidore g. st. hilaire, schroeder van der kolk, gratiolet--were agreed that the brain of the apes possesses a posterior lobe. tiedemann, in , figured and acknowledged in the text of his "icones," the existence of the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle in the apes, not only under the title of "scrobiculus parvus loco cornu posterioris"--a fact which has been paraded--but as "cornu posterius" (icones, p. ), a circumstance which has been, as sedulously, kept in the back ground. cuvier (lecons, t. iii. p. ) says, "the anterior or lateral ventricles possess a digital cavity [posterior cornu] only in man and the apes.... its presence depends on that of the posterior lobes." schroeder van der kolk and vrolik, and gratiolet, had also figured and described the posterior cornu in various apes. as to the hippocampus minor tiedemann had erroneously asserted its absence in the apes; but schroeder van der kolk and vrolik had pointed out the existence of what they considered a rudimentary one in the chimpanzee, and gratiolet had expressly affirmed its existence in these animals. such was the state of our information on these subjects in the year . in the year , however, professor owen, either in ignorance of these well-known facts or else unjustifiably suppressing them, submitted to the linnæan society a paper "on the characters, principles of division, and primary groups of the class mammalia," which was printed in the society's journal, and contains the following passage:--"in man, the brain presents an ascensive step in development, higher and more strongly marked than that by which the preceding subclass was distinguished from the one below it. not only do the cerebral hemispheres overlap the olfactory lobes and cerebellum, but they extend in advance of the one and further back than the other. the posterior development is so marked, that anatomists have assigned to that part the character of a third lobe; _it is peculiar to the genus homo, and equally peculiar is the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle and the 'hippocampus minor,' which characterise the hind lobe of each hemisphere_."--_journal of the proceedings of the linnæan society_, vol. ii. p. . as the essay in which this passage stands had no less ambitious an aim than the remodelling of the classification of the mammalia, its author might be supposed to have written under a sense of peculiar responsibility, and to have tested, with especial care, the statements he ventured to promulgate. and even if this be expecting too much, hastiness, or want of opportunity for due deliberation, cannot now be pleaded in extenuation of any shortcomings; for the propositions cited were repeated two years afterwards in the reade lecture, delivered before so grave a body as the university of cambridge, in . when the assertions, which i have italicised in the above extract, first came under my notice, i was not a little astonished at so flat a contradiction of the doctrines current among well-informed anatomists; but, not unnaturally imagining that the deliberate statements of a responsible person must have some foundation in fact, i deemed it my duty to investigate the subject anew before the time at which it would be my business to lecture thereupon came round. the result of my inquiries was to prove that mr. owen's three assertions, that "the third lobe, the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor," are "peculiar to the genus _homo_," are contrary to the plainest facts. i communicated this conclusion to the students of my class; and then, having no desire to embark in a controversy which could not redound to the honour of british science, whatever its issue, i turned to more congenial occupations. the time speedily arrived, however, when a persistence in this reticence would have involved me in an unworthy paltering with truth. at the meeting of the british association at oxford, in , professor owen repeated these assertions in my presence, and, of course, i immediately gave them a direct and unqualified contradiction, pledging myself to justify that unusual procedure elsewhere. i redeemed that pledge by publishing, in the january number of the _natural history review_ for , an article wherein the truth of the three following propositions was fully demonstrated (l. c. p. ):-- " . that the third lobe is neither peculiar to, nor characteristic of, man seeing that it exists in all the higher quadrumana." " . that the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle is neither peculiar to, nor characteristic of, man, inasmuch as it also exists in the higher quadrumana." " . that the _hippocampus minor_ is neither peculiar to, nor characteristic of, man, as it is found in certain of the higher quadrumana." furthermore, this paper contains the following paragraph (p. ): "and lastly, schroeder van der kolk and vrolik (op. cit. p. ), though they particularly note that 'the lateral ventricle is distinguished from that of man by the very defective proportions of the posterior cornu, wherein only a stripe is visible as an indication of the hippocampus minor;' yet the figure , in their second plate, shows that this posterior cornu is a perfectly distinct and unmistakeable structure, quite as large as it often is in man. it is the more remarkable that professor owen should have overlooked the explicit statement and figure of these authors, as it is quite obvious, on comparison of the figures, that his woodcut of the brain of a chimpanzee (l. c. p. ) is a reduced copy of the second figure of messrs. schroeder van der kolk and vrolik's first plate. "as m. gratiolet (l. c. p. ), however, is careful to remark, 'unfortunately the brain which they have taken as a model was greatly altered (profondément affaissé), whence the general form of the brain is given in these plates in a manner which is altogether incorrect.' indeed, it is perfectly obvious, from a comparison of a section of the skull of the chimpanzee with these figures, that such is the case; and it is greatly to be regretted that so inadequate a figure should have been taken as a typical representation of the chimpanzee's brain." from this time forth, the untenability of his position might have been as apparent to professor owen as it was to every one else; but, so far from retracting the grave errors into which he had fallen, professor owen has persisted in and reiterated them; first, in a lecture delivered before the royal institution on the th of march, , which is admitted to have been accurately reproduced in the "athenæum" for the rd of the same month, in a letter addressed by professor owen to that journal on the th of march. the "athenæum" report was accompanied by a diagram purporting to represent a gorilla's brain, but in reality so extraordinary a misrepresentation, that professor owen substantially, though not explicitly, withdraws it in the letter in question. in amending this error, however, professor owen fell into another of much graver import, as his communication concludes with the following paragraph: "for the true proportion in which the cerebrum covers the cerebellum in the highest apes, reference should be made to the figure of the undissected brain of the chimpanzee in my 'reade's lecture on the classification, &c. of the mammalia,' p. , fig. , vo. ." it would not be credible, if it were not unfortunately true, that this figure, to which the trusting public is referred, without a word of qualification, "for the true proportion in which the cerebrum covers the cerebellum in the highest apes," is exactly that unacknowledged copy of schroeder van der kolk and vrolik's figure whose utter inaccuracy had been pointed out years before by gratiolet, and had been brought to professor owen's knowledge by myself in the passage of my article in the "natural history review" above quoted. i drew public attention to this circumstance again in my reply to professor owen, published in the "athenæum" for april th, ; but the exploded figure was reproduced once more by professor owen, without the slightest allusion to its inaccuracy, in the "annals of natural history" for june ! this proved too much for the patience of the original authors of the figure, messrs. schroeder van der kolk and vrolik, who, in a note addressed to the academy of amsterdam, of which they were members, declared themselves to be, though decided opponents of all forms of the doctrine of progressive development, above all things, lovers of truth: and that, therefore, at whatever risk of seeming to lend support to views which they disliked, they felt it their duty to take the first opportunity of publicly repudiating professor owen's misuse of their authority. in this note they frankly admitted the justice of the criticisms of m. gratiolet, quoted above, and they illustrated, by new and careful figures, the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor of the orang. furthermore, having demonstrated the parts, at one of the sittings of the academy, they add, "la présence des parties contestées y a été universellement reconnue par les anatomistes présents à la séance. le seul doute qui soit resté se rapporte au pes hippocampi minor.... a l'état frais l'indice du petit pied d'hippocampe était plus prononcé que maintenant." professor owen repeated his erroneous assertions at the meeting of the british association in , and again, without any obvious necessity, and without adducing a single new fact or new argument, or being able in any way to meet the crushing evidence from original dissections of numerous apes' brains, which had in the meanwhile been brought forward by prof. rolleston,[ ] f.r.s., mr. marshall,[ ] f.r.s., mr. flower,[ ] mr. turner,[ ] and myself,[ ] revived the subject at the cambridge meeting of the same body in . not content with the tolerably vigorous repudiation which these unprecedented proceedings met with in section d, professor owen sanctioned the publication of a version of his own statements, accompanied by a strange misrepresentation of mine (as may be seen by comparison of the "times" report of the discussion), in the "medical times" for october th, . i subjoin the conclusion of my reply in the same journal for october th. "if this were a question of opinion, or a question of interpretation of parts or of terms,--were it even a question of observation in which the testimony of my own senses alone was pitted against that of another person, i should adopt a very different tone in discussing this matter. i should, in all humility, admit the likelihood of having myself erred in judgment, failed in knowledge, or been blinded by prejudice. "but no one pretends now, that the controversy is one of terms or of opinions. novel and devoid of authority as some of professor owen's proposed definitions may have been, they might be accepted without changing the great features of the case. hence, though special investigations into these matters have been undertaken during the last two years by dr. allen thomson, by dr. rolleston, by mr. marshall, and by mr. flower, all, as you are aware, anatomists of repute in this country, and by professors schroeder van der kolk, and vrolik (whom professor owen incautiously tried to press into his own service) on the continent, all these able and conscientious observers have with one accord testified to the accuracy of my statements, and to the utter baselessness of the assertions of professor owen. even the venerable rudolph wagner, whom no man will accuse of progressionist proclivities, has raised his voice on the same side; while not a single anatomist, great or small, has supported professor owen. "now, i do not mean to suggest that scientific differences should be settled by universal suffrage, but i do conceive that solid proofs must be met by something more than empty and unsupported assertions. yet during the two years through which this preposterous controversy has dragged its weary length, professor owen has not ventured to bring forward a single preparation in support of his often-repeated assertions. "the case stands thus, therefore:--not only are the statements made by me in consonance with the doctrines of the best older authorities, and with those of all recent investigators, but i am quite ready to demonstrate them on the first monkey that comes to hand; while professor owen's assertions are not only in diametrical opposition to both old and new authorities, but he has not produced, and, i will add, cannot produce, a single preparation which justifies them." i now leave this subject, for the present.--for the credit of my calling i should be glad to be, hereafter, for ever silent upon it. but, unfortunately, this is a matter upon which, after all that has occurred, no mistake or confusion of terms is possible--and in affirming that the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor exist in certain apes, i am stating either that which is true, or that which i must know to be false. the question has thus become one of personal veracity. for myself, i will accept no other issue than this, grave as it is, to the present controversy. footnotes: [ ] it will be understood that, in the preceding essay, i have selected for notice from the vast mass of papers which have been written upon the man-like apes, only those which seem to me to be of special moment. [ ] we are not at present thoroughly acquainted with the brain of the gorilla, and therefore, in discussing cerebral characters, i shall take that of the chimpanzee as my highest term among the apes. [ ] "more than once," says peter camper, "have i met with more than six lumbar vertebræ in man.... once i found thirteen ribs and four lumbar vertebræ." fallopius noted thirteen pair of ribs and only four lumbar vertebræ; and eustachius once found eleven dorsal vertebræ and six lumbar vertebræ.--"oeuvres de pierre camper," t. , p. . as tyson states, his "pygmie" had thirteen pair of ribs and five lumbar vertebræ. the question of the curves of the spinal column in the apes requires further investigation. [ ] it has been affirmed that hindoo crania sometimes contain as little as ounces of water, which would give a capacity of about cubic inches. the minimum capacity which i have assumed above, however, is based upon the valuable tables published by professor r. wagner in his "vorstudien zu einer wissenschaftlichen morphologie und physiologie des menschlichen gehirns." as the result of the careful weighing of more than human brains, professor wagner states that one-half weighed between and grammes, and that about two-ninths, consisting for the most part of male brains, exceed grammes. the lightest brain of an adult male, with sound mental faculties, recorded by wagner, weighed grammes. as a gramme equals . grains, and a cubic inch of water contains . grains, this is equivalent to cubic inches of water; so that as brain is heavier than water, we are perfectly safe against erring on the side of diminution in taking this as the smallest capacity of any adult male human brain. the only adult male brain, weighing as little as grammes, is that of an idiot; but the brain of an adult woman, against the soundness of whose faculties nothing appears, weighed as little as grammes ( . cubic inches of water); and reid gives an adult female brain of still smaller capacity. the heaviest brain ( grammes, or about cubic inches) was, however, that of a woman; next to it comes the brain of cuvier ( grammes), then byron ( grammes), and then an insane person ( grammes). the lightest adult brain recorded ( grammes) was that of an idiotic female. the brains of five children, four years old, weighed between and grammes. so that it may be safely said, that an average european child of four years old has a brain twice as large as that of an adult gorilla. [ ] in speaking of the foot of his "pygmie," tyson remarks, p. :--"but this part in the formation and in its function too, being liker a hand than a foot: for the distinguishing this sort of animals from others, i have thought whether it might not be reckoned and called rather quadrumanus than quadrupes, _i.e._ a four-handed rather than a four-footed animal." as this passage was published in , m. i. g. st. hilaire is clearly in error in ascribing the invention of the term "quadrumanous" to buffon, though "bimanous" may belong to him. tyson uses "quadrumanus" in several places, as at p. .... "our _pygmie_ is no man, nor yet the _common ape_, but a sort of _animal_ between both; and though a _biped_, yet of the _quadrumanus_-kind: though some _men_ too have been observed to use their _feet_ like _hands_, as i have seen several." [ ] see the note at the end of this essay for a succinct history of the controversy to which allusion is here made. [ ] i say _help_ to furnish: for i by no means believe that it was any original difference of cerebral quality, or quantity, which caused that divergence between the human and the pithecoid stirpes, which has ended in the present enormous gulf between them. it is no doubt perfectly true, in a certain sense, that all difference of function is a result of difference of structure; or, in other words, of difference in the combination of the primary molecular forces of living substance; and, starting from this undeniable axiom, objectors occasionally, and with much seeming plausibility, argue that the vast intellectual chasm between the ape and man implies a corresponding structural chasm in the organs of the intellectual functions; so that, it is said, the non-discovery of such vast differences proves, not that they are absent, but that science is incompetent to detect them. a very little consideration, however, will, i think, show the fallacy of this reasoning. its validity hangs upon the assumption, that intellectual power depends altogether on the brain--whereas the brain is only one condition out of many on which intellectual manifestations depend; the others being, chiefly, the organs of the senses and the motor apparatuses, especially those which are concerned in prehension and in the production of articulate speech. a man born dumb, notwithstanding his great cerebral mass and his inheritance of strong intellectual instincts, would be capable of few higher intellectual manifestations than an orang or a chimpanzee, if he were confined to the society of dumb associates. and yet there might not be the slightest discernible difference between his brain and that of a highly intelligent and cultivated person. the dumbness might be the result of a defective structure of the mouth, or of the tongue, or a mere defective innervation of these parts; or it might result from congenital deafness, caused by some minute defect of the internal ear, which only a careful anatomist could discover. the argument, that because there is an immense difference between a man's intelligence and an ape's, therefore, there must be an equally immense difference between their brains, appears to me to be about as well based as the reasoning by which one should endeavour to prove that, because there is a "great gulf" between a watch that keeps accurate time and another that will not go at all, there is therefore a great structural hiatus between the two watches. a hair in the balance-wheel, a little rust on a pinion, a bend in a tooth of the escapement, a something so slight that only the practised eye of the watchmaker can discover it, may be the source of all the difference. and believing, as i do, with cuvier, that the possession of articulate speech is the grand distinctive character of man (whether it be absolutely peculiar to him or not), i find it very easy to comprehend, that some equally inconspicuous structural difference may have been the primary cause of the immeasurable and practically infinite divergence of the human from the simian stirps. [ ] it is so rare a pleasure for me to find professor owen's opinions in entire accordance with my own, that i cannot forbear from quoting a paragraph which appeared in his essay "on the characters, &c., of the class mammalia," in the "journal of the proceedings of the linnean society of london" for , but is unaccountably omitted in the "reade lecture" delivered before the university of cambridge two years later, which is otherwise nearly a reprint of the paper in question. prof. owen writes: "not being able to appreciate or conceive of the distinction between the psychical phenomena of a chimpanzee and of a boschisman or of an aztec, with arrested brain growth, as being of a nature so essential as to preclude a comparison between them, or as being other than a difference of degree, i cannot shut my eyes to the significance of that all-pervading similitude of structure--every tooth, every bone, strictly homologous--which makes the determination of the difference between _homo_ and _pithecus_ the anatomist's difficulty." surely it is a little singular that the "anatomist," who finds it "difficult" to "determine the difference" between _homo_ and _pithecus_, should yet range them on anatomical grounds, in distinct sub-classes! [ ] on the affinities of the brain of the orang. nat. hist. review, april, . [ ] on the brain of a young chimpanzee. ibid., july, . [ ] on the posterior lobes of the cerebrum of the quadrumana. philosophical transactions, . [ ] on the anatomical relations of the surfaces of the tentorium to the cerebrum and cerebellum in man and the lower mammals. proceedings of the royal society of edinburgh, march, . [ ] on the brain of ateles. proceedings of zoological society, . iii on some fossil remains of man. i have endeavoured to show, in the preceding essay, that the anthropini, or man family, form a very well defined group of the primates, between which and the immediately following family, the catarhini, there is, in the existing world, the same entire absence of any transitional form or connecting link, as between the catarhini and platyrhini. it is a commonly received doctrine, however, that the structural intervals between the various existing modifications of organic beings may be diminished, or even obliterated, if we take into account the long and varied succession of animals and plants which have preceded these now living and which are known to us only by their fossilized remains. how far this doctrine is well based, how far, on the other hand, as our knowledge at present stands, it is an overstatement of the real facts of the case, and an exaggeration of the conclusions fairly deducible from them, are points of grave importance, but into the discussion of which i do not, at present, propose to enter. it is enough that such a view of the relations of extinct to living beings has been propounded, to lead us to inquire, with anxiety, how far the recent discoveries of human remains in a fossil state bear out, or oppose, that view. i shall confine myself, in discussing this question, to those fragmentary human skulls from the caves of engis in the valley of the meuse, in belgium, and of the neanderthal near düsseldorf, the geological relations of which have been examined with so much care by sir charles lyell; upon whose high authority i shall take it for granted, that the engis skull belonged to a contemporary of the mammoth (_elephas primigenius_) and of the woolly rhinoceros (_rhinocerus tichorhinus_), with the bones of which it was found associated; and that the neanderthal skull is of great, though uncertain, antiquity. whatever be the geological age of the latter skull, i conceive it is quite safe (on the ordinary principles of paleontological reasoning) to assume that the former takes us to, at least, the further side of the vague biological limit, which separates the present geological epoch from that which immediately preceded it. and there can be no doubt that the physical geography of europe has changed wonderfully, since the bones of men and mammoths, hyænas and rhinoceroses were washed pell-mell into the cave of engis. the skull from the cave of engis was originally discovered by professor schmerling, and was described by him, together with other human remains disinterred at the same time, in his valuable work, "recherches sur les ossemens fossiles découverts dans les cavernes de la province de liège," published in (p. , _et seq._), from which the following paragraphs are extracted, the precise expressions of the author being, as far as possible, preserved. "in the first place, i must remark that these human remains, which are in my possession, are characterized, like the thousands of bones which i have lately been disinterring, by the extent of the decomposition which they have undergone, which is precisely the same as that of the extinct species: all, with a few exceptions, are broken; some few are rounded, as is frequently found to be the case in fossil remains of other species. the fractures are vertical or oblique; none of them are eroded; their colour does not differ from that of other fossil bones, and varies from whitish yellow to blackish. all are lighter than recent bones, with the exception of those which have a calcareous incrustation, and the cavities of which are filled with such matter. "the cranium which i have caused to be figured, plate i., figs. , , is that of an old person. the sutures are beginning to be effaced: all the facial bones are wanting, and of the temporal bones only a fragment of that of the right side is preserved. [illustration: fig. .--the skull from the cave of engis--viewed from the right side. _a_, glabella, _b_, occipital protuberance, (_a_ to _b_ glabello-occipital line), _c_, auditory foramen.] "the face and the base of the cranium had been detached before the skull was deposited in the cave, for we were unable to find those parts, though the whole cavern was regularly searched. the cranium was met with at a depth of a metre and a half [five feet nearly] hidden under an osseous breccia, composed of the remains of small animals, and containing one rhinoceros tusk, with several teeth of horses and of ruminants. this breccia, which has been spoken of above (p. ), was a metre [ - / feet about] wide, and rose to the height of a metre and a half above the floor of the cavern, to the walls of which it adhered strongly. "the earth which contained this human skull exhibited no trace of disturbance: teeth of rhinoceros, horse, hyæna, and bear, surrounded it on all sides. "the famous blumenbach[ ] has directed attention to the differences presented by the form and the dimensions of human crania of different races. this important work would have assisted us greatly, if the face, a part essential for the determination of race, with more or less accuracy, had not been wanting in our fossil cranium. "we are convinced that even if the skull had been complete, it would not have been possible to pronounce, with certainty, upon a single specimen; for individual variations are so numerous in the crania of one and the same race, that one cannot, without laying oneself open to large chances of error, draw any inference from a single fragment of a cranium to the general form of the head to which it belonged. "nevertheless, in order to neglect no point respecting the form of this fossil skull, we may observe that, from the first, the elongated and narrow form of the forehead attracted our attention. "in fact, the slight elevation of the frontal, its narrowness, and the form of the orbit, approximate it more nearly to the cranium of an ethiopian than to that of an european: the elongated form and the produced occiput are also characters which we believe to be observable in our fossil cranium; but to remove all doubt upon that subject i have caused the contours of the cranium of an european and of an ethiopian to be drawn and the foreheads represented. plate ii., figs. and , and, in the same plate, figs. and , will render the differences easily distinguishable; and a single glance at the figures, will be more instructive than a long and wearisome description. "at whatever conclusion we may arrive as to the origin of the man from whence this fossil skull proceeded, we may express an opinion without exposing ourselves to a fruitless controversy. each may adopt the hypothesis which seems to him most probable: for my own part, i hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a person of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization: a deduction which is borne out by contrasting the capacity of the frontal with that of the occipital region. "another cranium of a young individual was discovered in the floor of the cavern beside the tooth of an elephant; the skull was entire when found, but the moment it was lifted it fell into pieces, which i have not, as yet, been able to put together again. but i have represented the bones of the upper jaw, plate i., fig. . the state of the alveoli and the teeth, shows that the molars had not yet pierced the gum. detached milk molars and some fragments of a human skull, proceed from this same place. the figure , represents a human superior incisor tooth, the size of which is truly remarkable.[ ] "figure is a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, the molar teeth of which are worn down to the roots. "i possess two vertebræ, a first and last dorsal. "a clavicle of the left side (see plate iii., fig. ); although it belonged to a young individual, this bone shows that he must have been of great stature.[ ] "two fragments of the radius, badly preserved, do not indicate that the height of the man, to whom they belonged, exceeded five feet and a half. "as to the remains of the upper extremities, those which are in my possession, consist merely of a fragment of an ulna and of a radius (plate iii., fig. and ). "figure , plate iv., represents a metacarpal bone, contained in the breccia, of which we have spoken; it was found in the lower part above the cranium: add to this some metacarpal bones, found at very different distances, half-a-dozen metatarsals, three phalanges of the hand, and one of the foot. "this is a brief enumeration of the remains of human bones collected in the cavern of engis, which has preserved for us the remains of three individuals, surrounded by those of the elephant, of the rhinoceros, and of carnivora of species unknown in the present creation." * * * * * from the cave of engihoul, opposite that of engis, on the right bank of the meuse, schmerling obtained the remains of three other individuals of man, among which were only two fragments of parietal bones, but many bones of the extremities. in one case, a broken fragment of an ulna was soldered to a like fragment of a radius by stalagmite, a condition frequently observed among the bones of the cave bear (_ursus spelæus_), found in the belgian caverns. it was in the cavern of engis that professor schmerling found, incrusted with stalagmite and joined to a stone, the pointed bone implement, which he has figured in fig. of his plate xxxvi., and worked flints were found by him in all those belgian caves, which contained an abundance of fossil bones. a short letter from m. geoffroy st. hilaire, published in the comptes rendus of the academy of sciences of paris, for july nd, , speaks of a visit (and apparently a very hasty one) paid to the collection of professor "schermidt" (which is presumably a misprint for schmerling) at liège. the writer briefly criticises the drawings which illustrate schmerling's work, and affirms that the "human cranium is a little longer than it is represented" in schmerling's figure. the only other remark worth quoting is this:--"the aspect of the human bones differs little from that of the cave bones, with which we are familiar, and of which there is a considerable collection in the same place. with respect to their special forms, compared with those of the varieties of recent human crania, few _certain_ conclusions can be put forward; for much greater differences exist between the different specimens of well-characterized varieties, than between the fossil cranium of liège and that of one of those varieties selected as a term of comparison." geoffroy st. hilaire's remarks are, it will be observed, little but an echo of the philosophic doubts of the describer and discoverer of the remains. as to the critique upon schmerling's figures, i find that the side view given by the latter is really about / ths of an inch shorter than the original, and that the front view is diminished to about the same extent. otherwise the representation is not, in any way, inaccurate, but corresponds very well with the cast which is in my possession. a piece of the occipital bone, which schmerling seems to have missed, has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by an accomplished anatomist, dr. spring of liège, under whose direction an excellent plaster cast was made for sir charles lyell. it is upon and from a duplicate of that cast that my own observations and the accompanying figures, the outlines of which are copied from very accurate camera lucida drawings, by my friend mr. busk, reduced to one-half of the natural size, are made. as professor schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed, and the facial bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consisting of the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital bones, as far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire or nearly so. the left temporal bone is wanting. of the right temporal, the parts in the immediate neighbourhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and a considerable portion of the squamous element of the temporal are well preserved (fig. ). the lines of fracture which remain between the coadjusted pieces of the skull, and are faithfully displayed in schmerling's figure, are readily traceable in the cast. the sutures are also discernible, but the complex disposition of their serrations, shown in the figure, is not obvious in the cast. though the ridges which give attachment to muscles are not excessively prominent, they are well marked, and taken together with the apparently well developed frontal sinuses, and the condition of the sutures, leave no doubt on my mind that the skull is that of an adult, if not middle-aged man. the extreme length of the skull is . inches. its extreme breadth, which corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal protuberances, is not more than . inches. the proportion of the length to the breadth is therefore very nearly as to . if a line be drawn from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose, and which is called the "glabella" (_a_), (fig. ), to the occipital protuberance (_b_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be found to be . inches. viewed from above, fig. , a, the forehead presents an evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and back of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve. the front view (fig. , b) shows that the roof of the skull was very regularly and elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the transverse diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances, than above them. the forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest of the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the contrary, the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that the distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the occipital protuberance, measures about . inches. the transverse arc of the skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across the middle of the sagittal suture, is about inches. the sagittal suture itself is . inches long. the supraciliary prominences or brow-ridges (on each side of _a_, fig. ) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a median depression. their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely that i judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses. if a line joining the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _b_, fig. ) be made horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more than / th an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and the upper edge of the auditory foramen (_c_) is almost in contact with a line drawn parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull. a transverse line drawn from one auditory foramen to the other traverses, as usual, the forepart of the occipital foramen. the capacity of the interior of this fragmentary skull has not been ascertained. [illustration: fig. .--the engis skull viewed from above (_a_) and in front (_b_).] * * * * * the history of the human remains from the cavern in the neanderthal may best be given in the words of their original describer, dr. schaaffhausen,[ ] as translated by mr. busk. "in the early part of the year , a human skeleton was discovered in a limestone cave in the neanderthal, near hochdal, between düsseldorf and elberfeld. of this, however, i was unable to procure more than a plaster cast of the cranium, taken at elberfeld, from which i drew up an account of its remarkable conformation, which was, in the first instance, read on the th of february, , at the meeting of the lower rhine medical and natural history society, at bonn.[ ] subsequently dr. fuhlrott, to whom science is indebted for the preservation of these bones, which were not at first regarded as human, and into whose possession they afterwards came, brought the cranium from elberfeld to bonn, and entrusted it to me for more accurate anatomical examination. at the general meeting of the natural history society of prussian rhineland and westphalia, at bonn, on the nd of june, ,[ ] dr. fuhlrott himself gave a full account of the locality, and of the circumstances under which the discovery was made. he was of opinion that the bones might be regarded as fossil; and in coming to this conclusion, he laid especial stress upon the existence of dendritic deposits, with which their surface was covered, and which were first noticed upon them by professor mayer. to this communication i appended a brief report on the results of my anatomical examination of the bones. the conclusions at which i arrived were:-- st. that the extraordinary form of the skull was due to a natural conformation hitherto not known to exist, even in the most barbarous races. nd. that these remarkable human remains belonged to a period antecedent to the time of the celts and germans, and were in all probability derived from one of the wild races of northwestern europe, spoken of by latin writers; and which were encountered as autochthones by the german immigrants. and rdly. that it was beyond doubt that these human relics were traceable to a period at which the latest animals of the diluvium still existed; but that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently of their so-termed _fossil_ condition, was afforded by the circumstances under which the bones were discovered." as dr. fuhlrott has not yet published his description of these circumstances, i borrow the following account of them from one of his letters. "a small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man, and about feet deep from the entrance, which is or feet wide, exists in the southern wall of the gorge of the neanderthal, as it is termed, at a distance of about feet from the düssel, and about feet above the bottom of the valley. in its earlier and uninjured condition, this cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of it, and from which the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into the river. it could be reached, though with difficulty, from above. the uneven floor was covered to a thickness of or feet with a deposit of mud, sparingly intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. in the removing of this deposit, the bones were discovered. the skull was first noticed, placed nearest to the entrance of the cavern; and further in, the other bones, lying in the same horizontal plane. of this i was assured, in the most positive terms, by two labourers who were employed to clear out the grotto, and who were questioned by me on the spot. at first no idea was entertained of the bones being human; and it was not till several weeks after their discovery that they were recognised as such by me, and placed in security. but, as the importance of the discovery was not at the time perceived, the labourers were very careless in the collecting, and secured chiefly only the larger bones; and to this circumstance it may be attributed that fragments merely of the probably perfect skeleton came into my possession." my anatomical examination of these bones afforded the following results:-- the cranium is of unusual size, and of a long elliptical form. a most remarkable peculiarity is at once obvious in the extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses, owing to which the superciliary ridges, which coalesce completely in the middle, are rendered so prominent, that the frontal bone exhibits a considerable hollow or depression above, or rather behind them, whilst a deep depression is also formed in the situation of the root of the nose. the forehead is narrow and low, though the middle and hinder portions of the cranial arch are well developed. unfortunately, the fragment of the skull that has been preserved consists only of the portion situated above the roof of the orbits and the superior occipital ridges, which are greatly developed, and almost conjoined so as to form a horizontal eminence. it includes almost the whole of the frontal bone, both parietals, a small part of the squamous and the upper-third of the occipital. the recently fractured surfaces show that the skull was broken at the time of its disinterment. the cavity holds , grains of water, whence its cubical contents may be estimated at . inches, or . cubic centimetres. in making this estimation, the water is supposed to stand on a level with the orbital plate of the frontal, with the deepest notch in the squamous margin of the parietal, and with the superior semicircular ridges of the occipital. estimated in dried millet-seed, the contents equalled ounces, prussian apothecaries' weight. the semicircular line indicating the upper boundary of the attachment of the temporal muscle, though not very strongly marked, ascends nevertheless to more than half the height of the parietal bone. on the right superciliary ridge is observable an oblique furrow or depression, indicative of an injury received during life.[ ] the coronal and sagittal sutures are on the exterior nearly closed, and on the inside so completely ossified as to have left no traces whatever, whilst the lambdoidal remains quite open. the depressions for the pacchionian glands are deep and numerous; and there is an unusually deep vascular groove immediately behind the coronal suture, which, as it terminates in a foramen, no doubt transmitted a _vena emissaria_. the course of the frontal suture is indicated externally by a slight ridge; and where it joins the coronal, this ridge rises into a small protuberance. the course of the sagittal suture is grooved, and above the angle of the occipital bone the parietals are depressed. mm.[ ] the length of the skull from the nasal process of the frontal over the vertex to the superior semicircular lines of the occipital measures ( )= . ". circumference over the orbital ridges and the superior semicircular lines of the occipital ( )= . " or ". width of the frontal from the middle of the temporal line on one side to the same point on the opposite ( )= . "- . ". length of the frontal from the nasal process to the coronal suture ( )= . "- ". extreme width of the frontal sinuses ( )= . "- . ". vertical height above a line joining the deepest notches in the squamous border of the parietals = . ". width of hinder part of skull from one parietal protuberance to the other ( )= . "- . ". distance from the upper angle of the occipital to the superior semicircular lines ( )= . "- . ". thickness of the bone at the parietal protuberance . ---- at the angle of the occipital . ---- at the superior semicircular line of the occipital = . ". besides the cranium, the following bones have been secured:-- . both thigh-bones, perfect. these, like the skull, and all the other bones, are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great development of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of muscles. in the anatomical museum at bonn, under the designation of "giant's-bones," are some recent thigh-bones, with which in thickness the foregoing pretty nearly correspond, although they are shorter. giant's bones. fossil bones. mm. mm. length = . " = . " diameter of head of femur = . " = . " " of lower articular end, from one condyle to the other = . " = . " diameter of femur in the middle = . " = . " . a perfect right humerus, whose size shows that it belongs to the thigh-bones. mm. length = . " thickness in the middle = . " diameter of head = . " also a perfect right radius of corresponding dimensions, and the upper-third of a right ulna corresponding to the humerus and radius. . a left humerus, of which the upper-third is wanting, and which is so much slenderer than the right as apparently to belong to a distinct individual; a left _ulna_, which, though complete, is pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much enlarged by bony growth, that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle must have been impossible; the anterior fossa of the humerus for the reception of the coronoid process being also filled up with a similar bony growth. at the same time, the olecranon is curved strongly downwards. as the bone presents no sign of rachitic degeneration, it may be supposed that an injury sustained during life was the cause of the anchylosis. when the left ulna is compared with the right radius, it might at first sight be concluded that the bones respectively belonged to different individuals, the ulna being more than half an inch too short for articulation with a corresponding radius. but it is clear that this shortening, as well as the attenuation of the left humerus, are both consequent upon the pathological condition above described. . a left _ilium_, almost perfect, and belonging to the femur; a fragment of the right _scapula_; the anterior extremity of a rib of the right side; and the same part of a rib of the left side; the hinder part of a rib of the right side; and, lastly, two hinder portions and one middle portion of ribs, which, from their unusually rounded shape, and abrupt curvature, more resemble the ribs of a carnivorous animal than those of a man. dr. h. v. meyer, however, to whose judgment i defer, will not venture to declare them to be ribs of any animal; and it only remains to suppose that this abnormal condition has arisen from an unusually powerful development of the thoracic muscles. the bones adhere strongly to the tongue, although, as proved by the use of hydrochloric acid, the greater part of the cartilage is still retained in them, which appears, however, to have undergone that transformation into gelatine which has been observed by v. bibra in fossil bones. the surface of all the bones is in many spots covered with minute black specks, which, more especially under a lens, are seen to be formed of very delicate _dendrites_. these deposits, which were first observed on the bones by dr. meyer, are most distinct on the inner surface of the cranial bones. they consist of a ferruginous compound, and, from their black colour, may be supposed to contain manganese. similar dendritic formations also occur, not unfrequently, on laminated rocks, and are usually found in minute fissures and cracks. at the meeting of the lower rhine society at bonn, on the st april, , prof. meyer stated that he had noticed in the museum of poppelsdorf similar dendritic crystallizations on several fossil bones of animals, and particularly on those of _ursus spelæus_, but still more abundantly and beautifully displayed on the fossil bones and teeth of _equus adamiticus_, _elephas primigenius_, &c., from the caves of bolve and sundwig. faint indications of similar _dendrites_ were visible in a roman skull from siegburg; whilst other ancient skulls, which had lain for centuries in the earth, presented no trace of them.[ ] i am indebted to h. v. meyer for the following remarks on this subject:-- "the incipient formation of dendritic deposits, which were formerly regarded as a sign of a truly fossil condition, is interesting. it has even been supposed that in diluvial deposits the presence of _dendrites_ might be regarded as affording a certain mark of distinction between bones mixed with the diluvium at a somewhat later period and the true diluvial relics, to which alone it was supposed that these deposits were confined. but i have long been convinced that neither can the absence of _dendrites_ be regarded as indicative of recent age, nor their presence as sufficient to establish the great antiquity of the objects upon which they occur. i have myself noticed upon paper, which could scarcely be more than a year old, dendritic deposits, which could not be distinguished from those on fossil bones. thus i possess a dog's skull from the roman colony of the neighbouring heddersheim, _castrum hadrianum_, which is in no way distinguishable from the fossil bones from the frankish caves; it presents the same colour, and adheres to the tongue just as they do; so that this character also, which, at a former meeting of german naturalists at bonn, gave rise to amusing scenes between buckland and schmerling, is no longer of any value. in disputed cases, therefore, the condition of the bone can scarcely afford the means for determining with certainty whether it be fossil, that is to say, whether it belong to geological antiquity or to the historical period." as we cannot now look upon the primitive world as representing a wholly different condition of things, from which no transition exists to the organic life of the present time, the designation of _fossil_, as applied to _a bone_, has no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of cuvier. sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted with the animals found in the _diluvium_; and many a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the animals of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is improved have continued the genus. the bones which form the subject of this paper present characters which, although not decisive as regards a geological epoch, are, nevertheless, such as indicate a very high antiquity. it may also be remarked that, common as is the occurrence of diluvial animal bones in the muddy deposits of caverns, such remains have not hitherto been met with in the caves of the neanderthal; and that the bones, which were covered by a deposit of mud not more than four or five feet thick, and without any protective covering of stalagmite, have retained the greatest part of their organic substance. these circumstances might be adduced against the probability of a geological antiquity. nor should we be justified in regarding the cranial conformation as perhaps representing the most savage primitive type of the human race, since crania exist among living savages, which, though not exhibiting such a remarkable conformation of the forehead, which gives the skull somewhat the aspect of that of the large apes, still in other respects, as for instance in the greater depth of the temporal fossæ, the crest-like, prominent temporal ridges, and a generally less capacious cranial cavity, exhibit an equally low stage of development. there is no reason for supposing that the deep frontal hollow is due to any artificial flattening, such as is practised in various modes by barbarous nations in the old and new world. the skull is quite symmetrical, and shows no indication of counter-pressure at the occiput, whilst, according to morton, in the flat-heads of the columbia, the frontal and parietal bones are always unsymmetrical. its conformation exhibits the sparing development of the anterior part of the head which has been so often observed in very ancient crania, and affords one of the most striking proofs of the influence of culture and civilization on the form of the human skull. in a subsequent passage, dr. schaaffhausen remarks: "there is no reason whatever for regarding the unusual development of the frontal sinuses in the remarkable skull from the neanderthal as an individual or pathological deformity; it is unquestionably a typical race-character, and is physiologically connected with the uncommon thickness of the other bones of the skeleton, which exceeds by about one-half the usual proportions. this expansion of the frontal sinuses, which are appendages of the air-passages, also indicates an unusual force and power of endurance in the movements of the body, as may be concluded from the size of all the ridges and processes for the attachment of the muscles or bones. that this conclusion may be drawn from the existence of large frontal sinuses, and a prominence of the lower frontal region, is confirmed in many ways by other observations. by the same characters, according to pallas, the wild horse is distinguished from the domesticated, and, according to cuvier, the fossil cave-bear from every recent species of bear, whilst, according to roulin, the pig, which has become wild in america, and regained a resemblance to the wild boar, is thus distinguished from the same animal in the domesticated state, as is the chamois from the goat; and, lastly, the bull-dog, which is characterised by its large bones and strongly-developed muscles from every other kind of dog. the estimation of the facial angle, the determination of which, according to professor owen, is also difficult in the great apes, owing to the very prominent supra-orbital ridges, in the present case is rendered still more difficult from the absence both of the auditory opening and of the nasal spine. but if the proper horizontal position of the skull be taken from the remaining portions of the orbital plates, and the ascending line made to touch the surface of the frontal bone behind the prominent supra-orbital ridges, the facial angle is not found to exceed °.[ ] unfortunately, no portions of the facial bones, whose conformation is so decisive as regards the form and expression of the head, have been preserved. the cranial capacity, compared with the uncommon strength of the corporeal frame, would seem to indicate a small cerebral development. the skull, as it is, holds about ounces of millet-seed; and as, from the proportionate size of the wanting bones, the whole cranial cavity should have about ounces more added, the contents, were it perfect, may be taken at ounces. tiedemann assigns, as the cranial contents in the negro, , , and ounces. the cranium holds rather more than ounces of water, which corresponds to a capacity of . cubic centimetres. huschke estimates the cranial contents of a negress at cubic centimetres; of an old negro at cubic centimetres. the capacity of the malay skulls, estimated by water, equalled , ounces, whilst in the diminutive hindoos it falls to as little as ounces." after comparing the neanderthal cranium with many others, ancient and modern, professor schaaffhausen concludes thus:-- "but the human bones and cranium from the neanderthal exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of conformation which lead to the conclusion of their belonging to a barbarous and savage race. whether the cavern in which they were found, unaccompanied with any trace of human art, were the place of their interment, or whether, like the bones of extinct animals elsewhere, they had been washed into it, they may still be regarded as the most ancient memorial of the early inhabitants of europe." mr. busk, the translator of dr. schaaffhausen's paper, has enabled us to form a very vivid conception of the degraded character of the neanderthal skull, by placing side by side with its outline, that of the skull of a chimpanzee, drawn to the same absolute size. * * * * * some time after the publication of the translation of professor schaaffhausen's memoir, i was led to study the cast of the neanderthal cranium with more attention than i had previously bestowed upon it, in consequence of wishing to supply sir charles lyell with a diagram, exhibiting the special peculiarities of this skull, as compared with other human skulls. in order to do this it was necessary to identify, with precision, those points in the skulls compared which corresponded anatomically. of these points, the glabella was obvious enough; but when i had distinguished another, defined by the occipital protuberance and superior semicircular line, and had placed the outline of the neanderthal skull against that of the engis skull, in such a position that the glabella and occipital protuberance of both were intersected by the same straight line, the difference was so vast and the flattening of the neanderthal skull so prodigious (compare figs. and , a), that i at first imagined i must have fallen into some error. and i was the more inclined to suspect this, as, in ordinary human skulls, the occipital protuberance and superior semicircular curved line on the exterior of the occiput correspond pretty closely with the "lateral sinuses" and the line of attachment of the tentorium internally. but on the tentorium rests, as i have said in the preceding essay, the posterior lobe of the brain; and hence, the occipital protuberance, and the curved line in question, indicate, approximately, the lower limits of that lobe. was it possible for a human being to have the brain thus flattened and depressed; or, on the other hand, had the muscular ridges shifted their position? in order to solve these doubts, and to decide the question whether the great supraciliary projections did, or did not, arise from the development of the frontal sinuses, i requested sir charles lyell to be so good as to obtain for me from dr. fuhlrott, the possessor of the skull, answers to certain queries, and if possible a cast, or at any rate drawings, or photographs, of the interior of the skull. [illustration: fig. .--the skull from the neanderthal cavern. a. side, b. front, and c. top view. one-third the natural size. the outlines from camera lucida drawings, one-half the natural size, by mr. busk: the details from the cast and from dr. fuhlrott's photographs. _a_, glabella; _b_, occipital protuberance; _d_, lambdoidal suture.] dr. fuhlrott replied, with a courtesy and readiness for which i am infinitely indebted to him, to my inquiries, and furthermore sent three excellent photographs. one of these gives a side view of the skull, and from it fig. , a. has been shaded. the second (fig. , a.) exhibits the wide openings of the frontal sinuses upon the inferior surface of the frontal part of the skull, into which, dr. fuhlrott writes, "a probe may be introduced to the depth of an inch," and demonstrates the great extension of the thickened supraciliary ridges beyond the cerebral cavity. the third, lastly (fig. , b.), exhibits the edge and the interior of the posterior, or occipital, part of the skull, and shows very clearly the two depressions for the lateral sinuses, sweeping inwards towards the middle line of the roof of the skull, to form the longitudinal sinus. it was clear, therefore, that i had not erred in my interpretation, and that the posterior lobe of the brain of the neanderthal man must have been as much flattened as i suspected it to be. [illustration: fig. .--drawings from dr. fuhlrott's photographs of parts of the interior of the neanderthal cranium. a. view of the under and inner surface of the frontal region, showing the inferior apertures of the frontal sinuses (_a_). b. corresponding view of the occipital region of the skull, showing the impressions of the lateral sinuses (_a_ _a_).] in truth, the neanderthal cranium has most extraordinary characters. it has an extreme length of inches, while its breadth is only . inches, or, in other words, its length is to its breadth as : . it is exceedingly depressed, measuring only about . inches from the glabello-occipital line to the vertex. the longitudinal arc, measured in the same way as in the engis skull, is inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the temporal bones, but was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded - / inches. the horizontal circumference is inches. but this great circumference arises largely from the vast development of the supraciliary ridges, though the perimeter of the brain case itself is not small. the large supraciliary ridges give the forehead a far more retreating appearance than its internal contour would bear out. to an anatomical eye the posterior part of the skull is even more striking than the anterior. the occipital protuberance occupies the extreme posterior end of the skull, when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, and so far from any part of the occipital region extending beyond it, this region of the skull slopes obliquely upward and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture is situated well upon the upper surface of the cranium. at the same time, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, the sagittal suture is remarkably short ( - / inches), and the squamosal suture is very straight. in reply to my questions dr. fuhlrott writes that the occipital bone "is in a state of perfect preservation as far as the upper semicircular line, which is a very strong ridge, linear at its extremities, but enlarging towards the middle, where it forms two ridges (bourrelets), united by a linear continuation, which is slightly depressed in the middle." "below the left ridge the bone exhibits an obliquely inclined surface, six lines (french) long, and twelve lines wide." this last must be the surface, the contour of which is shown in fig. , a, below _b_. it is particularly interesting, as it suggests that, notwithstanding the flattened condition of the occiput, the posterior cerebral lobes must have projected considerably beyond the cerebellum, and as it constitutes one among several points of similarity between the neanderthal cranium and certain australian skulls. * * * * * such are the two best known forms of human cranium, which have been found in what may be fairly termed a fossil state. can either be shown to fill up or diminish, to any appreciable extent, the structural interval which exists between man and the man-like apes? or, on the other hand, does neither depart more widely from the average structure of the human cranium, than normally formed skulls of men are known to do at the present day? it is impossible to form any opinion on these questions, without some preliminary acquaintance with the range of variation exhibited by human structure in general--a subject which has been but imperfectly studied, while even of what is known, my limits will necessarily allow me to give only a very imperfect sketch. the student of anatomy is perfectly well aware that there is not a single organ of the human body the structure of which does not vary, to a greater or less extent, in different individuals. the skeleton varies in the proportions, and even to a certain extent in the connexions, of its constituent bones. the muscles which move the bones vary largely in their attachments. the varieties in the mode of distribution of the arteries are carefully classified, on account of the practical importance of a knowledge of their shiftings to the surgeon. the characters of the brain vary immensely, nothing being less constant than the form and size of the cerebral hemispheres, and the richness of the convolutions upon their surface, while the most changeable structures of all in the human brain, are exactly those on which the unwise attempt has been made to base the distinctive characters of humanity, viz. the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle, the hippocampus minor, and the degree of projection of the posterior lobe beyond the cerebellum. finally, as all the world knows, the hair and skin of human beings may present the most extraordinary diversities in colour and in texture. so far as our present knowledge goes, the majority of the structural varieties to which allusion is here made, are individual. the ape-like arrangement of certain muscles which is occasionally met with[ ] in the white races of mankind, is not known to be more common among negroes or australians: nor because the brain of the hottentot venus was found to be smoother, to have its convolutions more symmetrically disposed, and to be, so far, more ape-like than that of ordinary europeans, are we justified in concluding a like condition of the brain to prevail universally among the lower races of mankind, however probable that conclusion may be. we are, in fact, sadly wanting in information respecting the disposition of the soft and destructible organs of every race of mankind but our own; and even of the skeleton, our museums are lamentably deficient in every part but the cranium. skulls enough there are, and since the time when blumenbach and camper first called attention to the marked and singular differences which they exhibit, skull collecting and skull measuring has been a zealously pursued branch of natural history, and the results obtained have been arranged and classified by various writers, among whom the late active and able retzius must always be the first named. human skulls have been found to differ from one another, not merely in their absolute size and in the absolute capacity of the brain case, but in the proportions which the diameters of the latter bear to one another; in the relative size of the bones of the face (and more particularly of the jaws and teeth) as compared with those of the skull; in the degree to which the upper jaw (which is of course followed by the lower) is thrown backwards and downwards under the forepart of the brain case, or forwards and upwards in front of and beyond it. they differ further in the relations of the transverse diameter of the face, taken through the cheek bones, to the transverse diameter of the skull; in the more rounded or more gable-like form of the roof of the skull, and in the degree to which the hinder part of the skull is flattened or projects beyond the ridge, into and below which, the muscles of the neck are inserted. in some skulls the brain case may be said to be "_round_," the extreme length not exceeding the extreme breadth by a greater proportion than to , while the difference may be much less.[ ] men possessing such skulls were termed by retzius "_brachycephalic_," and the skull of a calmuck, of which a front and side view (reduced outline copies of which are given in figure ) are depicted by von baer in his excellent "crania selecta," affords a very admirable example of that kind of skull. other skulls, such as that of a negro copied in fig. from mr. busk's "crania typica," have a very different, greatly elongated form, and may be termed "_oblong_." in this skull the extreme length is to the extreme breadth as to not more than , and the transverse diameter of the human skull may fall below even this proportion. people having such skulls were called by retzius "_dolichocephalic_." the most cursory glance at the side views of these two skulls will suffice to prove that they differ, in another respect, to a very striking extent. the profile of the face of the calmuck is almost vertical, the facial bones being thrown downwards and under the fore part of the skull. the profile of the face of the negro, on the other hand, is singularly inclined, the front part of the jaws projecting far forward beyond the level of the fore part of the skull. in the former case the skull is said to be "_orthognathous_" or straight-jawed; in the latter, it is called "_prognathous_," a term which has been rendered, with more force than elegance, by the saxon equivalent,--"snouty." various methods have been devised in order to express with some accuracy the degree of prognathism or orthognathism of any given skull; most of these methods being essentially modifications of that devised by peter camper, in order to attain what he called the "facial angle." [illustration: fig. .--side and front views of the round and orthognathous skull of a calmuck after von baer. one-third the natural size.] but a little consideration will show that any "facial angle" that has been devised, can be competent to express the structural modifications involved in prognathism and orthognathism, only in a rough and general sort of way. for the lines, the intersection of which forms the facial angle, are drawn through points of the skull, the position of each of which is modified by a number of circumstances, so that the angle obtained is a complex resultant of all these circumstances, and is not the expression of any one definite organic relation of the parts of the skull. i have arrived at the conviction that no comparison of crania is worth very much, that is not founded upon the establishment of a relatively fixed base line, to which the measurements, in all cases, must be referred. nor do i think it is a very difficult matter to decide what that base line should be. the parts of the skull, like those of the rest of the animal framework, are developed in succession: the base of the skull is formed before its sides and roof; it is converted into cartilage earlier and more completely than the sides and roof: and the cartilaginous base ossifies, and becomes soldered into one piece long before the roof. i conceive then that the base of the skull may be demonstrated developmentally to be its relatively fixed part, the roof and sides being relatively moveable. the same truth is exemplified by the study of the modifications which the skull undergoes in ascending from the lower animals up to man. in such a mammal as a beaver (fig. ), a line (_a_. _b_.) drawn through the bones, termed basioccipital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid, is very long in proportion to the extreme length of the cavity which contains the cerebral hemispheres (_g_. _h_.). the plane of the occipital foramen (_b_. _c_.) forms a slightly acute angle with this "basicranial axis," while the plane of the tentorium (_i_. _t_.) is inclined at rather more than ° to the "basicranial axis"; and so is the plane of the perforated plate (_a_. _d_.) by which the filaments of the olfactory nerve leave the skull. again, a line drawn through the axis of the face, between the bones called ethmoid and vomer--the "basifacial axis" (_f_. _e_.) forms an exceedingly obtuse angle, where, when produced, it cuts the "basicranial axis." [illustration: fig. .--oblong and prognathous skull of a negro; side and front views. one-third of the natural size.] if the angle made by the line _b_. _c_. with _a_. _b_., be called the "occipital angle," and the angle made by the line _a_. _d_. with _a_. _b_. be termed the "olfactory angle," and that made by _i_. _t_. with _a_. _b_. the "tentorial angle," then all these, in the mammal in question, are nearly right angles, varying between ° and °. the angle _e_. _f_. _b_., or that made by the cranial with the facial axis, and which may be termed the "cranio-facial angle," is extremely obtuse, amounting, in the case of the beaver, to at least °. but if a series of sections of mammalian skulls, intermediate between a rodent and a man (fig. ), be examined, it will be found that in the higher crania the basicranial axis becomes shorter relatively to the cerebral length; that the "olfactory angle" and "occipital angle" become more obtuse; and that the "cranio-facial angle" becomes more acute by the bending down, as it were, of the facial axis upon the cranial axis. at the same time, the roof of the cranium becomes more and more arched, to allow of the increasing height of the cerebral hemispheres, which is eminently characteristic of man, as well as of that backward extension, beyond the cerebellum, which reaches its maximum in the south american monkeys. so that, at last, in the human skull (fig. ), the cerebral length is between twice and thrice as great as the length of the basicranial axis; the olfactory plane is ° or ° on the _under_ side of that axis; the occipital angle, instead of being less than °, is as much as ° or °; the cranio-facial angle may be ° or less, and the vertical height of the skull may have a large proportion to its length. it will be obvious, from an inspection of the diagrams, that the basicranial axis is, in the ascending series of mammalia, a relatively fixed line, on which the bones of the sides and roof of the cranial cavity, and of the face, may be said to revolve downwards and forwards or backwards, according to their position. the arc described by any one bone or plane, however, is not by any means always in proportion to the arc described by another. now comes the important question, can we discern, between the lowest and the highest forms of the human cranium anything answering, in however slight a degree, to this revolution of the side and roof bones of the skull upon the basicranial axis observed upon so great a scale in the mammalian series? numerous observations lead me to believe that we must answer this question in the affirmative. [illustration: fig. .--longitudinal and vertical sections of the skulls of a beaver (_castor canadensis_), a lemur (_l. catta_), and a baboon (_cynocephalus papio_), _a b_, the basicranial axis; _b c_, the occipital plane; _i t_, the tentorial plane; _a d_, the olfactory plane; _f e_, the basifacial axis; _c b a_, occipital angle; _t i a_, tentorial angle; _d a b_, olfactory angle; _e f b_, cranio-facial angle; _g h_, extreme length of the cavity which lodges the cerebral hemispheres or "cerebral length." the length of the basicranial axis as to this length, or, in other words, the proportional length of the line _g h_ to that of _a b_ taken as , in the three skulls, is as follows:--beaver to ; lemur to ; baboon to . in an adult male gorilla the cerebral length is as to the basicranial axis taken as , in the negro (fig. ) as to . in the constantinople skull (fig. ) as to . the cranial difference between the highest ape's skull and the lowest man's is therefore very strikingly brought out by these measurements. in the diagram of the baboon's skull the dotted lines _d^ d^ _, &c., give the angles of the lemur's and beaver's skull, as laid down upon the basicranial axis of the baboon. the line _a b_ has the same length in each diagram.] the diagrams in figure are reduced from very carefully made diagrams of sections of four skulls, two round and orthognathous, two long and prognathous, taken longitudinally and vertically, through the middle. the sectional diagrams have then been superimposed, in such a manner, that the basal axes of the skulls coincide by their anterior ends, and in their direction. the deviations of the rest of the contours (which represent the interior of the skulls only) show the differences of the skulls from one another, when these axes are regarded as relatively fixed lines. the dark contours are those of an australian and of a negro skull: the light contours are those of a tartar skull, in the museum of the royal college of surgeons; and of a well developed round skull from a cemetery in constantinople, of uncertain race, in my own possession. it appears, at once, from these views, that the prognathous skulls, so far as their jaws are concerned, do really differ from the orthognathous in much the same way as, though to a far less degree than, the skulls of the lower mammals differ from those of man. furthermore, the plane of the occipital foramen (_b c_) forms a somewhat smaller angle with the axis in these particular prognathous skulls than in the orthognathous; and the like may be slightly true of the perforated plate of the ethmoid--though this point is not so clear. but it is singular to remark that, in another respect, the prognathous skulls are less ape-like than the orthognathous, the cerebral cavity projecting decidedly more beyond the anterior end of the axis in the prognathous, than in the orthognathous, skulls. it will be observed that these diagrams reveal an immense range of variation in the capacity and relative proportion to the cranial axis, of the different regions of the cavity which contains the brain, in the different skulls. nor is the difference in the extent to which the cerebral overlaps the cerebellar cavity less singular. a round skull (fig. , _const._) may have a greater posterior cerebral projection than a long one (fig. , _negro_). [illustration: fig. .--sections of orthognathous (light contour) and prognathous (dark contour) skulls, one-third of the natural size. _a b_, basicranial axis; _b c_, _b´ c´_, plane of the occipital foramen; _d d´_, hinder end of the palatine bone; _e e´_, front end of the upper jaw; _tt_´, insertion of the tentorium.] until human crania have been largely worked out in a manner similar to that here suggested--until it shall be an opprobrium to an ethnological collection to possess a single skull which is not bisected longitudinally--until the angles and measurements here mentioned, together with a number of others of which i cannot speak in this place, are determined, and tabulated with reference to the basicranial axis as unity, for large numbers of skulls of the different races of mankind, i do not think we shall have any very safe basis for that ethnological craniology which aspires to give the anatomical characters of the crania of the different races of mankind. at present, i believe that the general outlines of what may be safely said upon that subject may be summed up in a very few words. draw a line on a globe from the gold coast in western africa to the steppes of tartary. at the southern and western end of that line there live the most dolichocephalic, prognathous, curly-haired, dark-skinned of men--the true negroes. at the northern and eastern end of the same line there live the most brachycephalic, orthognathous, straight-haired, yellow-skinned of men--the tartars and calmucks. the two ends of this imaginary line are indeed, so to speak, ethnological antipodes. a line drawn at right angles, or nearly so, to this polar line through europe and southern asia to hindostan, would give us a sort of equator, around which round-headed, oval-headed, and oblong-headed, prognathous and orthognathous, fair and dark races--but none possessing the excessively marked characters of calmuck or negro--group themselves. it is worthy of notice that the regions of the antipodal races are antipodal in climate, the greatest contrast the world affords, perhaps, being that between the damp, hot, steaming, alluvial coast plains of the west coast of africa and the arid, elevated steppes and plateaux of central asia, bitterly cold in winter, and as far from the sea as any part of the world can be. from central asia eastward to the pacific islands and subcontinents on the one hand, and to america on the other, brachycephaly and orthognathism gradually diminish, and are replaced by dolichocephaly and prognathism, less, however, on the american continent (throughout the whole length of which a rounded type of skull prevails largely, but not exclusively)[ ] than in the pacific region, where, at length, on the australian continent and in the adjacent islands, the oblong skull, the projecting jaws, and the dark skin reappear; with so much departure, in other respects, from the negro type, that ethnologists assign to these people the special title of "negritoes." the australian skull is remarkable for its narrowness and for the thickness of its walls, especially in the region of the supraciliary ridge, which is frequently, though not by any means invariably, solid throughout, the frontal sinuses remaining undeveloped. the nasal depression, again, is extremely sudden, so that the brows overhang and give the countenance a particularly lowering, threatening expression. the occipital region of the skull, also, not unfrequently becomes less prominent; so that it not only fails to project beyond a line drawn perpendicular to the hinder extremity of the glabello-occipital line, but even, in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, forwards, almost immediately. in consequence of this circumstance, the parts of the occipital bone which lie above and below the tuberosity make a much more acute angle with one another than is usual, whereby the hinder part of the base of the skull appears obliquely truncated. many australian skulls have a considerable height, quite equal to that of the average of any other race, but there are others in which the cranial roof becomes remarkably depressed, the skull, at the same time, elongating so much that, probably, its capacity is not diminished. the majority of skulls possessing these characters, which i have seen, are from the neighbourhood of port adelaide in south australia, and have been used by the natives as water vessels; to which end the face has been knocked away, and a string passed through the vacuity and the occipital foramen, so that the skull was suspended by the greater part of its basis. figure represents the contour of a skull of this kind from western port, with the jaw attached, and of the neanderthal skull, both reduced to one-third of the size of nature. a small additional amount of flattening and lengthening, with a corresponding increase of the supraciliary ridge, would convert the australian brain case into a form identical with that of the aberrant fossil. * * * * * [illustration: fig. .--an australian skull from western port, in the museum of the royal college of surgeons, with the contour of the neanderthal skull. both reduced to one-third the natural size.] and now, to return to the fossil skulls, and to the rank which they occupy among, or beyond, these existing varieties of cranial conformation. in the first place, i must remark, that, as professor schmerling well observed (_supra_, p. ) in commenting upon the engis skull, the formation of a safe judgment upon the question is greatly hindered by the absence of the jaws from both the crania, so that there is no means of deciding, with certainty, whether they were more or less prognathous than the lower existing races of mankind. and yet, as we have seen, it is more in this respect than any other, that human skulls vary, towards and from, the brutal type--the brain case of an average dolichocephalic european differing far less from that of a negro, for example, than his jaws do. in the absence of the jaws, then, any judgment on the relations of the fossil skulls to recent races must be accepted with a certain reservation. but taking the evidence as it stands, and turning first to the engis skull, i confess i can find no character in the remains of that cranium which, if it were a recent skull, would give any trustworthy clue as to the race to which it might appertain. its contours and measurements agree very well with those of some australian skulls which i have examined--and especially has it a tendency towards that occipital flattening, to the great extent of which, in some australian skulls, i have alluded. but all australian skulls do not present this flattening, and the supraciliary ridge of the engis skull is quite unlike that of the typical australians. on the other hand, its measurements agree equally well with those of some european skulls. and assuredly, there is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. it is, in fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage. the case of the neanderthal skull is very different. under whatever aspect we view this cranium, whether we regard its vertical depression, the enormous thickness of its supraciliary ridges, its sloping occiput, or its long and straight squamosal suture, we meet with ape-like characters, stamping it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet discovered. but professor schaaffhausen states (_supra_, p. ), that the cranium, in its present condition, holds . cubic centimetres of water, or about cubic inches, and as the entire skull could hardly have held less than an additional cubic inches, its capacity may be estimated at about cubic inches, which is the average capacity given by morton for polynesian and hottentot skulls. [illustration: fig. .--ancient danish skull from a tumulus at borreby; one-third of the natural size. from a camera lucida drawing by mr. busk.] so large a mass of brain as this, would alone suggest that the pithecoid tendencies, indicated by this skull, did not extend deep into the organization; and this conclusion is borne out by the dimensions of the other bones of the skeleton given by professor schaaffhausen, which show that the absolute height and relative proportions of the limbs, were quite those of an european of middle stature. the bones are indeed stouter, but this and the great development of the muscular ridges noted by dr. schaaffhausen, are characters to be expected in savages. the patagonians, exposed without shelter or protection to a climate possibly not very dissimilar from that of europe at the time during which the neanderthal man lived, are remarkable for the stoutness of their limb bones. in no sense, then, can the neanderthal bones be regarded as the remains of a human being intermediate between men and apes. at most, they demonstrate the existence of a man whose skull may be said to revert somewhat towards the pithecoid type--just as a carrier, or a pouter, or a tumbler, may sometimes put on the plumage of its primitive stock, the _columba livia_. and indeed, though truly the most pithecoid of known human skulls, the neanderthal cranium is by no means so isolated as it appears to be at first, but forms, in reality, the extreme term of a series leading gradually from it to the highest and best developed of human crania. on the one hand, it is closely approached by the flattened australian skulls, of which i have spoken, from which other australian forms lead us gradually up to skulls having very much the type of the engis cranium. and, on the other hand, it is even more closely affined to the skulls of certain ancient people who inhabited denmark during the "stone period," and were probably either contemporaneous with, or later than, the makers of the "refuse heaps," or "kjokkenmöddings" of that country. the correspondence between the longitudinal contour of the neanderthal skull and that of some of those skulls from the tumuli at borreby, very accurate drawings of which have been made by mr. busk, is very close. the occiput is quite as retreating, the supraciliary ridges are nearly as prominent, and the skull is as low. furthermore, the borreby skull resembles the neanderthal form more closely than any of the australian skulls do, by the much more rapid retrocession of the forehead. on the other hand, the borreby skulls are all somewhat broader, in proportion to their length, than the neanderthal skull, while some attain that proportion of breadth to length ( : ) which constitutes brachycephaly. * * * * * in conclusion, i may say, that the fossil remains of man hitherto discovered do not seem to me to take us appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid form, by the modification of which he has, probably, become what he is. and considering what is now known of the most ancient races of men; seeing that they fashioned flint axes and flint knives and bone-skewers, of much the same pattern as those fabricated by the lowest savages at the present day, and that we have every reason to believe the habits and modes of living of such people to have remained the same from the time of the mammoth and the tichorhine rhinoceros till now, i do not know that this result is other than might be expected. where, then, must we look for primæval man? was the oldest _homo sapiens_ pliocene or miocene, or yet more ancient? in still older strata do the fossilized bones of an ape more anthropoid, or a man more pithecoid, than any yet known await the researches of some unborn paleontologist? time will show. but, in the meanwhile, if any form of the doctrine of progressive development is correct, we must extend by long epochs the most liberal estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of man. footnotes: [ ] decas collectionis suæ craniorum diversarum gentium illustrata. gottingæ, - . [ ] in a subsequent passage, schmerling remarks upon the occurrence of an incisor tooth "of enormous size" from the caverns of engihoul. the tooth figured is somewhat long, but its dimensions do not appear to me to be otherwise remarkable. [ ] the figure of this clavicle measures inches from end to end in a straight line--so that the bone is rather a small than a large one. [ ] on the crania of the most ancient races of man. by professor d. schaaffhausen, of bonn. (from müller's archiv., , p. .) with remarks, and original figures, taken from a cast of the neanderthal cranium. by george busk, f.r.s., &c. natural history review, april, . [ ] verhandl. d. naturhist. vereins der preuss. rheinlande und westphalens., xiv. bonn, . [ ] ib. correspondenzblatt. no. . [ ] this, mr. busk has pointed out, is probably the notch for the frontal nerve. [ ] the numbers in brackets are those which i should assign to the different measures, as taken from the plaster cast.--g. b. [ ] verh. des naturhist. vereins in bonn, xiv. . [ ] estimating the facial angle in the way suggested, on the cast i should place it at ° to °.--g. b. [ ] see an excellent essay by mr. church on the myology of the orang, in the natural history review, for . [ ] in no normal human skull does the breadth of the brain-case exceed its length. [ ] see dr. d. wilson's valuable paper "on the supposed prevalence of one cranial type throughout the american aborigines."--canadian journal, vol. ii., . iv the present condition of organic nature. when it was my duty to consider what subject i would select for the six lectures which i shall now have the pleasure of delivering to you, it occurred to me that i could not do better than endeavour to put before you in a true light, or in what i might perhaps with more modesty call, that which i conceive myself to be the true light, the position of a book which has been more praised and more abused, perhaps, than any book which has appeared for some years;--i mean mr. darwin's work on the "origin of species." that work, i doubt not, many of you have read; for i know the inquiring spirit which is rife among you. at any rate, all of you will have heard of it,--some by one kind of report and some by another kind of report; the attention of all and the curiosity of all have been probably more or less excited on the subject of that work. all i can do, and all i shall attempt to do, is to put before you that kind of judgment which has been formed by a man, who, of course, is liable to judge erroneously; but at any rate, of one whose business and profession it is to form judgments upon questions of this nature. and here, as it will always happen when dealing with an extensive subject, the greater part of my course--if, indeed, so small a number of lectures can be properly called a course--must be devoted to preliminary matters, or rather to a statement of those facts and of those principles which the work itself dwells upon, and brings more or less directly before us. i have no right to suppose that all or any of you are naturalists; and even if you were, the misconceptions and misunderstandings prevalent even among naturalists on these matters would make it desirable that i should take the course i now propose to take,--that i should start from the beginning,--that i should endeavour to point out what is the existing state of the organic world--that i should point out its past condition,--that i should state what is the precise nature of the undertaking which mr. darwin has taken in hand; that i should endeavour to show you what are the only methods by which that undertaking can be brought to an issue, and to point out to you how far the author of the work in question has satisfied those conditions, how far he has not satisfied them, how far they are satisfiable by man, and how far they are not satisfiable by man. to-night, in taking up the first part of the question, i shall endeavour to put before you a sort of broad notion of our knowledge of the condition of the living world. there are many ways of doing this. i might deal with it pictorially and graphically. following the example of humboldt in his "aspects of nature," i might endeavour to point out the infinite variety of organic life in every mode of its existence, with reference to the variations of climate and the like; and such an attempt would be fraught with interest to us all; but considering the subject before us, such a course would not be that best calculated to assist us. in an argument of this kind we must go further and dig deeper into the matter; we must endeavour to look into the foundations of living nature, if i may so say, and discover the principles involved in some of her most secret operations. i propose, therefore, in the first place, to take some ordinary animal with which you are all familiar, and, by easily comprehensible and obvious examples drawn from it, to show what are the kind of problems which living beings in general lay before us; and i shall then show you that the same problems are laid open to us by all kinds of living beings. but, first, let me say in what sense i have used the words "organic nature." in speaking of the causes which lead to our present knowledge of organic nature, i have used it almost as an equivalent of the word "living," and for this reason,--that in almost all living beings you can distinguish several distinct portions set apart to do particular things and work in a particular way. these are termed "organs," and the whole together is called "organic." and as it is universally characteristic of them, the term "organic" has been very conveniently employed to denote the whole of living nature,--the whole of the plant world, and the whole of the animal world. few animals can be more familiar to you than that whose skeleton is shown on our diagram. you need not bother yourselves with this "_equus caballus_" written under it; that is only the latin name of it, and does not make it any better. it simply means the common horse. suppose we wish to understand all about the horse. our first object must be to study the structure of the animal. the whole of his body is inclosed within a hide, a skin covered with hair; and if that hide or skin be taken off, we find a great mass of flesh, or what is technically called muscle, being the substance which by its power of contraction enables the animal to move. these muscles move the hard parts one upon the other, and so give that strength and power of motion which renders the horse so useful to us in the performance of those services in which we employ him. and then, on separating and removing the whole of this skin and flesh, you have a great series of bones, hard structures, bound together with ligaments, and forming the skeleton which is represented here. [illustration: fig. .] in that skeleton there are a number of parts to be recognized. the long series of bones, beginning from the skull and ending in the tail, is called the spine, and those in front are the ribs; and then there are two pairs of limbs, one before and one behind; and there are what we all know as the fore-legs and the hind-legs. if we pursue our researches into the interior of this animal, we find within the framework of the skeleton a great cavity, or rather, i should say, two great cavities,--one cavity beginning in the skull and running through the neck-bones, along the spine, and ending in the tail, containing the brain and the spinal marrow, which are extremely important organs. the second great cavity, commencing with the mouth, contains the gullet, the stomach, the long intestine, and all the rest of those internal apparatus which are essential for digestion; and then in the same great cavity, there are lodged the heart and all the great vessels going from it; and, besides that, the organs of respiration--the lungs; and then the kidneys, and the organs of reproduction, and so on. let us now endeavour to reduce this notion of a horse that we now have, to some such kind of simple expression as can be at once, and without difficulty, retained in the mind, apart from all minor details. if i make a transverse section, that is, if i were to saw a dead horse across, i should find that, if i left out the details, and supposing i took my section through the anterior region, and through the fore-limbs, i should have here this kind of section of the body (fig. ). here would be the upper part of the animal--that great mass of bones that we spoke of as the spine (_a_, fig. ). here i should have the alimentary canal (_b_, fig. ). here i should have the heart (_c_, fig. ); and then you see, there would be a kind of double tube, the whole being inclosed within the hide; the spinal marrow would be placed in the upper tube (_a_, fig. ), and in the lower tube (_d d_, fig. ), there would be the alimentary canal (_b_), and the heart (_c_); and here i shall have the legs proceeding from each side. for simplicity's sake, i represent them merely as stumps (_e e_, fig. ). now that is a horse--as mathematicians would say--reduced to its most simple expression. carry that in your minds, if you please, as a simplified idea of the structure of the horse. the considerations which i have now put before you belong to what we technically call the "anatomy" of the horse. now, suppose we go to work upon these several parts,--flesh and hair, and skin and bone, and lay open these various organs with our scalpels, and examine them by means of our magnifying-glasses, and see what we can make of them. we shall find that the flesh is made up of bundles of strong fibres. the brain and nerves, too, we shall find, are made up of fibres, and these queer-looking things that are called ganglionic corpuscles. if we take a slice of the bone and examine it, we shall find that it is very like this diagram of a section of the bone of an ostrich, though differing, of course, in some details; and if we take any part whatsoever of the tissue, and examine it, we shall find it all has a minute structure, visible only under the microscope. all these parts constitute microscopic anatomy or "histology." these parts are constantly being changed; every part is constantly growing, decaying, and being replaced during the life of the animal. the tissue is constantly replaced by new material; and if you go back to the young state of the tissue in the case of muscle, or in the case of skin, or any of the organs i have mentioned, you will find that they all come under the same condition. every one of these microscopic filaments and fibres (i now speak merely of the general character of the whole process)--every one of these parts--could be traced down to some modification of a tissue which can be readily divided into little particles of fleshy matter, of that substance which is composed of the chemical elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, having such a shape as this (fig. ). these particles, into which all primitive tissues break up, are called cells. if i were to make a section of a piece of the skin of my hand, i should find that it was made up of these cells. if i examine the fibres which form the various organs of all living animals, i should find that all of them, at one time or other, had been formed out of a substance consisting of similar elements; so that you see, just as we reduced the whole body in the gross to that sort of simple expression given in fig. , so we may reduce the whole of the microscopic structural elements to a form of even greater simplicity; just as the plan of the whole body may be so represented in a sense (fig. ), so the primary structure of every tissue may be represented by a mass of cells (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .] having thus, in this sort of general way, sketched to you what i may call, perhaps, the architecture of the body of the horse, (what we term technically its morphology,) i must now turn to another aspect. a horse is not a mere dead structure: it is an active, living, working machine. hitherto we have, as it were, been looking at a steam-engine with the fires out, and nothing in the boiler; but the body of the living animal is a beautifully-formed active machine, and every part has its different work to do in the working of that machine, which is what we call its life. the horse, if you see him after his day's work is done, is cropping the grass in the fields, as it may be, or munching the oats in his stable. what is he doing? his jaws are working as a mill--and a very complex mill too--grinding the corn, or crushing the grass to a pulp. as soon as that operation has taken place, the food is passed down to the stomach, and there it is mixed with the chemical fluid called the gastric juice, a substance which has the peculiar property of making soluble and dissolving out the nutritious matter in the grass, and leaving behind those parts which are not nutritious; so that you have, first, the mill, then a sort of chemical digester; and then the food, thus partially dissolved, is carried back by the muscular contractions of the intestines into the hinder parts of the body, while the soluble portions are taken up into the blood. the blood is contained in a vast system of pipes, spreading through the whole body, connected with a force-pump,--the heart,--which, by its position and by the contractions of its valves, keeps the blood constantly circulating in one direction, never allowing it to rest; and then, by means of this circulation of the blood, laden as it is with the products of digestion, the skin, the flesh, the hair, and every other part of the body, draws from it that which it wants, and every one of these organs derives those materials which are necessary to enable it to do its work. the action of each of these organs, the performance of each of these various duties, involve in their operation a continual absorption of the matters necessary for their support, from the blood, and a constant formation of waste products, which are returned to the blood, and conveyed by it to the lungs and the kidneys, which are organs that have allotted to them the office of extracting, separating, and getting rid of these waste products; and thus the general nourishment, labour, and repair of the whole machine is kept up with order and regularity. but not only is it a machine which feeds and appropriates to its own support the nourishment necessary to its existence--it is an engine for locomotive purposes. the horse desires to go from one place to another; and to enable it to do this, it has those strong contractile bundles of muscles attached to the bones of its limbs, which are put in motion by means of a sort of telegraphic apparatus formed by the brain and the great spinal cord running through the spine or backbone; and to this spinal cord are attached a number of fibres termed nerves, which proceed to all parts of the structure. by means of these the eyes, nose, tongue, and skin--all the organs of perception--transmit impressions or sensations to the brain, which acts as a sort of great central telegraph-office, receiving impressions and sending messages to all parts of the body, and putting in motion the muscles necessary to accomplish any movement that may be desired. so that you have here an extremely complex and beautifully-proportioned machine, with all its parts working harmoniously together towards one common object--the preservation of the life of the animal. now, note this: the horse makes up its waste by feeding, and its food is grass or oats, or perhaps other vegetable products; therefore, in the long run, the source of all this complex machinery lies in the vegetable kingdom. but where does the grass, or the oat, or any other plant, obtain this nourishing food-producing material? at first it is a little seed, which soon begins to draw into itself from the earth and the surrounding air matters which in themselves contain no vital properties whatever; it absorbs into its own substance water, an inorganic body; it draws into its substance carbonic acid, an inorganic matter; and ammonia, another inorganic matter, found in the air; and then, by some wonderful chemical process, the details of which chemists do not yet understand, though they are near foreshadowing them, it combines them into one substance, which is known to us as "protein," a complex compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which alone possesses the property of manifesting vitality and of permanently supporting animal life. so that, you see, the waste products of the animal economy, the effete materials which are continually being thrown off by all living beings, in the form of organic matters, are constantly replaced by supplies of the necessary repairing and rebuilding materials drawn from the plants, which in their turn manufacture them, so to speak, by a mysterious combination of those same inorganic materials. let us trace out the history of the horse in another direction. after a certain time, as the result of sickness or disease, the effect of accident, or the consequence of old age, sooner or later, the animal dies. the multitudinous operations of this beautiful mechanism flag in their performance, the horse loses its vigour, and after passing through the curious series of changes comprised in its formation and preservation, it finally decays, and ends its life by going back into that inorganic world from which all but an inappreciable fraction of its substance was derived. its bones become mere carbonate and phosphate of lime; the matter of its flesh, and of its other parts, becomes, in the long run, converted into carbonic acid, into water, and into ammonia. you will now, perhaps, understand the curious relation of the animal with the plant, of the organic with the inorganic world, which is shown in this diagram. the plant gathers these inorganic materials together and makes them up into its own substance. the animal eats the plant and appropriates the nutritious portions to its own sustenance, rejects and gets rid of the useless matters; and, finally, the animal itself dies, and its whole body is decomposed and returned into the inorganic world. there is thus a constant circulation from one to the other, a continual formation of organic life from inorganic matters, and as constant a return of the matter of living bodies to the inorganic world; so that the materials of which our bodies are composed are largely, in all probability, the substances which constituted the matter of long extinct creations, but which have in the interval constituted a part of the inorganic world. [illustration: inorganic world. vegetable world. animal world. fig. .] thus we come to the conclusion, strange at first sight, that the matter constituting the living world is identical with that which forms the inorganic world. and not less true is it that, remarkable as are the powers or, in other words, as are the forces which are exerted by living beings, yet all these forces are either identical with those which exist in the inorganic world, or they are convertible into them; i mean in just the same sense as the researches of physical philosophers have shown that heat is convertible into electricity, that electricity is convertible into magnetism, magnetism into mechanical force or chemical force, and any one of them with the other, each being measurable in terms of the other,--even so, i say, that great law is applicable to the living world. consider why is the skeleton of this horse capable of supporting the masses of flesh and the various organs forming the living body, unless it is because of the action of the same forces of cohesion which combines together the particles of matter composing this piece of chalk? what is there in the muscular contractile power of the animal but the force which is expressible, and which is in a certain sense convertible, into the force of gravity which it overcomes? or, if you go to more hidden processes, in what does the process of digestion differ from those processes which are carried on in the laboratory of the chemist? even if we take the most recondite and most complex operations of animal life--those of the nervous system, these of late years have been shown to be--i do not say identical in any sense with the electrical processes--but this has been shown, that they are in some way or other associated with them; that is to say, that every amount of nervous action is accompanied by a certain amount of electrical disturbance in the particles of the nerves in which that nervous action is carried on. in this way the nervous action is related to electricity in the same way that heat is related to electricity; and the same sort of argument which demonstrates the two latter to be related to one another shows that the nervous forces are correlated to electricity; for the experiments of m. dubois reymond and others have shown that whenever a nerve is in a state of excitement, sending a message to the muscles or conveying an impression to the brain, there is a disturbance of the electrical condition of that nerve which does not exist at other times; and there are a number of other facts and phenomena of that sort; so that we come to the broad conclusion that not only as to living matter itself, but as to the forces that matter exerts, there is a close relationship between the organic and the inorganic world--the difference between them arising from the diverse combination and disposition of identical forces, and not from any primary diversity, so far as we can see. i said just now that the horse eventually died and became converted into the same inorganic substances from whence all but an inappreciable fraction of its substance demonstrably originated, so that the actual wanderings of matter are as remarkable as the transmigrations of the soul fabled by indian tradition. but before death has occurred, in the one sex or the other, and in fact in both, certain products or parts of the organism have been set free, certain parts of the organisms of the two sexes have come into contact with one another, and from that conjunction, from that union which then takes place, there results the formation of a new being. at stated times the mare, from a particular part of the interior of her body, called the ovary, gets rid of a minute particle of matter comparable in all essential respects with that which we called a cell a little while since, which cell contains a kind of nucleus in its centre, surrounded by a clear space and by a viscid mass of protein substance (fig. ); and though it is different in appearance from the eggs which we are mostly acquainted with, it is really an egg. after a time this minute particle of matter, which may only be a small fraction of a grain in weight, undergoes a series of changes,--wonderful, complex changes. finally, upon its surface there is fashioned a little elevation, which afterwards becomes divided and marked by a groove. the lateral boundaries of the groove extend upwards and downwards, and at length give rise to a double tube. in the upper and smaller tube the spinal marrow and brain are fashioned; in the lower, the alimentary canal and heart; and at length two pairs of buds shoot out at the sides of the body, and they are the rudiments of the limbs. in fact a true drawing of a section of the embryo in this state would in all essential respects resemble that diagram of a horse reduced to its simplest expression, which i first placed before you (fig. ). slowly and gradually these changes take place. the whole of the body, at first, can be broken up into "cells," which become in one place metamorphosed into muscle,--in another place into gristle and bone,--in another place into fibrous tissue,--and in another into hair; every part becoming gradually and slowly fashioned, as if there were an artificer at work in each of these complex structures that i have mentioned. this embryo, as it is called, then passes into other conditions. i should tell you that there is a time when the embryos of neither dog, nor horse, nor porpoise, nor monkey, nor man, can be distinguished by any essential feature one from the other; there is a time when they each and all of them resemble this one of the dog. but as development advances, all the parts acquire their speciality, till at length you have the embryo converted into the form of the parent from which it started. so that, you see, this living animal, this horse, begins its existence as a minute particle of nitrogenous matter, which, being supplied with nutriment (derived, as i have shown, from the inorganic world), grows up according to the special type and construction of its parents, works and undergoes a constant waste, and that waste is made good by nutriment derived from the inorganic world; the waste given off in this way being directly added to the inorganic world. eventually the animal itself dies, and, by the process of decomposition, its whole body is returned to those conditions of inorganic matter in which its substance originated. this, then, is that which is true of every living form, from the lowest plant to the highest animal--to man himself. you might define the life of every one in exactly the same terms as those which i have now used; the difference between the highest and the lowest being simply in the complexity of the developmental changes, the variety of the structural forms, and the diversity of the physiological functions which are exerted by each. if i were to take an oak tree, as a specimen of the plant world, i should find that it originated in an acorn, which, too, commenced in a cell; the acorn is placed in the ground, and it very speedily begins to absorb the inorganic matters i have named, adds enormously to its bulk, and we can see it, year after year, extending itself upward and downward, attracting and appropriating to itself inorganic materials, which it vivifies, and eventually, as it ripens, gives off its own proper acorns, which again run the same course. but i need not multiply examples,--from the highest to the lowest the essential features of life are the same, as i have described in each of these cases. so much, then, for these particular features of the organic world, which you can understand and comprehend, so long as you confine yourself to one sort of living being, and study that only. but, as you know, horses are not the only living creatures in the world; and again, horses, like all other animals, have certain limits--are confined to a certain area on the surface of the earth on which we live,--and, as that is the simpler matter, i may take that first. in its wild state, and before the discovery of america, when the natural state of things was interfered with by the spaniards, the horse was only to be found in parts of the earth which are known to geographers as the old world; that is to say, you might meet with horses in europe, asia, or africa; but there were none in australia, and there were none whatsoever in the whole continent of america, from labrador down to cape horn. this is an empirical fact, and it is what is called, stated in the way i have given it you, the "geographical distribution" of the horse. why horses should be found in europe, asia, and africa, and not in america, is not obvious; the explanation that the conditions of life in america are unfavourable to their existence, and that, therefore, they had not been created there, evidently does not apply; for when the invading spaniards, or our own yeomen farmers, conveyed horses to these countries for their own use, they were found to thrive well and multiply very rapidly; and many are even now running wild in those countries, and in a perfectly natural condition. now, suppose we were to do for every animal what we have here done for the horse,--that is, to mark off and distinguish the particular district or region to which each belonged; and supposing we tabulated all these results, that would be called the geographical distribution of animals, while a corresponding study of plants would yield as a result the geographical distribution of plants. i pass on from that now, as i merely wished to explain to you what i meant by the use of the term "geographical distribution." as i said, there is another aspect, and a much more important one, and that is, the relations of the various animals to one another. the horse is a very well-defined matter-of-fact sort of animal, and we are all pretty familiar with its structure. i dare say it may have struck you, that it resembles very much no other member of the animal kingdom, except perhaps the zebra or the ass. but let me ask you to look along these diagrams. here is the skeleton of the horse, and here the skeleton of the dog. you will notice that we have in the horse a skull, a backbone and ribs, shoulder-blades and haunch-bones. in the fore-limb, one upper arm-bone, two fore arm-bones, wrist-bones (wrongly called knee), and middle hand-bones, ending in the three bones of a finger, the last of which is sheathed in the horny hoof of the fore-foot: in the hind-limb, one thigh-bone, two leg-bones, ankle-bones, and middle foot-bones, ending in the three bones of a toe, the last of which is encased in the hoof of the hind-foot. now turn to the dog's skeleton. we find identically the same bones, but more of them, there being more toes in each foot, and hence more toe-bones. well, that is a very curious thing! the fact is that the dog and the horse--when one gets a look at them without the outward impediments of the skin--are found to be made in very much the same sort of fashion. and if i were to make a transverse section of the dog, i should find the same organs that i have already shown you as forming parts of the horse. well, here is another skeleton--that of a kind of lemur--you see he has just the same bones; and if i were to make a transverse section of it, it would be just the same again. in your mind's eye turn him round, so as to put his backbone in a position inclined obliquely upwards and forwards, just as in the next three diagrams, which represent the skeletons of an orang, a chimpanzee, and a gorilla, and you find you have no trouble in identifying the bones throughout; and lastly turn to the end of the series, the diagram representing a man's skeleton, and still you find no great structural feature essentially altered. there are the same bones in the same relations. from the horse we pass on and on, with gradual steps, until we arrive at last at the highest known forms. on the other hand, take the other line of diagrams, and pass from the horse downwards in the scale to this fish; and still, though the modifications are vastly greater, the essential framework of the organization remains unchanged. here, for instance, is a porpoise; here is its strong backbone, with the cavity running through it, which contains the spinal cord; here are the ribs, here the shoulder-blade; here is the little short upper-arm bone, here are the two forearm bones, the wrist-bone, and the finger-bones. strange, is it not, that the porpoise should have in this queer-looking affair--its flapper (as it is called), the same fundamental elements as the fore-leg of the horse or the dog, or the ape or man; and here you will notice a very curious thing,--the hinder limbs are absent. now, let us make another jump. let us go to the codfish: here you see is the forearm, in this large pectoral fin--carrying your mind's eye onward from the flapper of the porpoise. and here you have the hinder limbs restored in the shape of these ventral fins. if i were to make a transverse section of this, i should find just the same organs that we have before noticed. so that, you see, there comes out this strange conclusion as the result of our investigations, that the horse, when examined and compared with other animals, is found by no means to stand alone in nature; but that there are an enormous number of other creatures which have backbones, ribs, and legs, and other parts arranged in the same general manner, and in all their formation exhibiting the same broad peculiarities. i am sure that you cannot have followed me even in this extremely elementary exposition of the structural relations of animals, without seeing what i have been driving at all through, which is, to show you that, step by step, naturalists have come to the idea of a unity of plan, or conformity of construction, among animals which appeared at first sight to be extremely dissimilar. and here you have evidence of such a unity of plan among all the animals which have backbones, and which we technically call _vertebrata_. but there are multitudes of other animals, such as crabs, lobsters, spiders, and so on, which we term _annulosa_. in these i could not point out to you the parts that correspond with those of the horse,--the backbone, for instance,--as they are constructed upon a very different principle, which is also common to all of them; that is to say, the lobster, the spider, and the centipede, have a common plan running through their whole arrangement, in just the same way that the horse, the dog, and the porpoise assimilate to each other. yet other creatures--whelks, cuttlefishes, oysters, snails, and all their tribe (_mollusca_)--resemble one another in the same way, but differ from both _vertebrata_ and _annulosa_; and the like is true of the animals called _coelenterata_ (polypes) and _protozoa_ (animalcules and sponges). now, by pursuing this sort of comparison, naturalists have arrived at the conviction that there are,--some think five, and some seven,--but certainly not more than the latter number--and perhaps it is simpler to assume five--distinct plans or constructions in the whole of the animal world; and that the hundreds of thousands of species of creatures on the surface of the earth, are all reducible to those five, or, at most, seven, plans of organization. but can we go no further than that? when one has got so far, one is tempted to go on a step and inquire whether we cannot go back yet further and bring down the whole to modifications of one primordial unit. the anatomist cannot do this; but if he call to his aid the study of development, he can do it. for we shall find that, distinct as those plans are, whether it be a porpoise or man, or lobster, or any of those other kinds i have mentioned, every one begins its existence with one and the same primitive form,--that of the egg, consisting, as we have seen, of a nitrogenous substance, having a small particle or nucleus in the centre of it. furthermore, the earlier changes of each are substantially the same. and it is in this that lies that true "unity of organization" of the animal kingdom which has been guessed at and fancied for many years; but which it has been left to the present time to be demonstrated by the careful study of development. but is it possible to go another step further still, and to show that in the same way the whole of the organic world is reducible to one primitive condition of form? is there among the plants the same primitive form of organization, and is that identical with that of the animal kingdom? the reply to that question, too, is not uncertain or doubtful. it is now proved that every plant begins its existence under the same form; that is to say, in that of a cell--a particle of nitrogenous matter having substantially the same conditions. so that if you trace back the oak to its first germ, or a man, or a horse, or lobster, or oyster, or any other animal you choose to name, you shall find each and all of these commencing their existence in forms essentially similar to each other: and, furthermore, that the first processes of growth, and many of the subsequent modifications, are essentially the same in principle in almost all. in conclusion, let me, in a few words, recapitulate the positions which i have laid down. and you must understand that i have not been talking mere theory; i have been speaking of matters which are as plainly demonstrable as the commonest propositions of euclid--of facts that must form the basis of all speculations and beliefs in biological science. we have gradually traced down all organic forms, or, in other words, we have analyzed the present condition of animated nature, until we found that each species took its origin in a form similar to that under which all the others commenced their existence. we have found the whole of the vast array of living forms with which we are surrounded, constantly growing, increasing, decaying, and disappearing; the animal constantly attracting, modifying, and applying to its sustenance the matter of the vegetable kingdom, which derived its support from the absorption and conversion of inorganic matter. and so constant and universal is this absorption, waste, and reproduction, that it may be said with perfect certainty that there is left in no one of our bodies at the present moment a millionth part of the matter of which they were originally formed! we have seen, again, that not only is the living matter derived from the inorganic world, but that the forces of that matter are all of them correlative with and convertible into those of inorganic nature. this, for our present purposes, is the best view of the present condition of organic nature which i can lay before you: it gives you the great outlines of a vast picture, which you must fill up by your own study. in the next lecture i shall endeavour in the same way to go back into the past, and to sketch in the same broad manner the history of life in epochs preceding our own. v the past condition of organic nature. in the lecture which i delivered last monday evening, i endeavoured to sketch in a very brief manner, but as well as the time at my disposal would permit, the present condition of organic nature, meaning by that large title simply an indication of the great, broad, and general principles which are to be discovered by those who look attentively at the phenomena of organic nature as at present displayed. the general result of our investigations might be summed up thus: we found that the multiplicity of the forms of animal life, great as that may be, may be reduced to a comparatively few primitive plans or types of construction; that a further study of the development of those different forms revealed to us that they were again reducible, until we at last brought the infinite diversity of animal, and even vegetable life, down to the primordial form of a single cell. we found that our analysis of the organic world, whether animals or plants, showed, in the long run, that they might both be reduced into, and were, in fact, composed of the same constituents. and we saw that the plant obtained the materials constituting its substance by a peculiar combination of matters belonging entirely to the inorganic world; that, then, the animal was constantly appropriating the nitrogenous matters of the plant to its own nourishment, and returning them back to the inorganic world, in what we spoke of as its waste; and that, finally, when the animal ceased to exist, the constituents of its body were dissolved and transmitted to that inorganic world whence they had been at first abstracted. thus we saw in both the blade of grass and the horse but the same elements differently combined and arranged. we discovered a continual circulation going on,--the plant drawing in the elements of inorganic nature and combining them into food for the animal creation; the animal borrowing from the plant the matter for its own support, giving off during its life products which returned immediately to the inorganic world; and that, eventually, the constituent materials of the whole structure of both animals and plants were thus returned to their original source: there was a constant passage from one state of existence to another, and a returning back again. lastly, when we endeavoured to form some notion of the nature of the forces exercised by living beings, we discovered that they--if not capable of being subjected to the same minute analysis as the constituents of those beings themselves--that they were correlative with--that they were the equivalents of the forces of inorganic nature--that they were, in the sense in which the term is now used, convertible with them. that was our general result. and now, leaving the present, i must endeavour in the same manner to put before you the facts that are to be discovered in the past history of the living world, in the past conditions of organic nature. we have, to-night, to deal with the facts of that history--a history involving periods of time before which our mere human records sink into utter insignificance--a history the variety and physical magnitude of whose events cannot even be foreshadowed by the history of human life and human phenomena--a history of the most varied and complex character. we must deal with the history, then, in the first place, as we should deal with all other histories. the historical student knows that his first business should be to inquire into the validity of his evidence, and the nature of the record in which the evidence is contained, that he may be able to form a proper estimate of the correctness of the conclusions which have been drawn from that evidence. so, here, we must pass, in the first place, to the consideration of a matter which may seem foreign to the question under discussion. we must dwell upon the nature of the records, and the credibility of the evidence they contain; we must look to the completeness or incompleteness of those records themselves, before we turn to that which they contain and reveal. the question of the credibility of the history, happily for us, will not require much consideration, for, in this history, unlike those of human origin, there can be no cavilling, no differences as to the reality and truth of the facts of which it is made up; the facts state themselves, and are laid out clearly before us. but, although one of the greatest difficulties of the historical student is cleared out of our path, there are other difficulties--difficulties in rightly interpreting the facts as they are presented to us--which may be compared with the greatest difficulties of any other kinds of historical study. what is this record of the past history of the globe, and what are the questions which are involved in an inquiry into its completeness or incompleteness? that record is composed of mud; and the question which we have to investigate this evening resolves itself into a question of the formation of mud. you may think, perhaps, that this is a vast step--of almost from the sublime to the ridiculous--from the contemplation of the history of the past ages of the world's existence to the consideration of the history of the formation of mud! but, in nature, there is nothing mean and unworthy of attention; there is nothing ridiculous or contemptible in any of her works; and this inquiry, you will soon see, i hope, takes us to the very root and foundations of our subject. how, then, is mud formed? always, with some trifling exception, which i need not consider now--always, as the result of the action of water, wearing down and disintegrating the surface of the earth and rocks with which it comes in contact--pounding and grinding it down, and carrying the particles away to places where they cease to be disturbed by this mechanical action, and where they can subside and rest. for the ocean, urged by winds, washes, as we know, a long extent of coast, and every wave, loaded as it is with particles of sand and gravel as it breaks upon the shore, does something towards the disintegrating process. and thus, slowly but surely, the hardest rocks are gradually ground down to a powdery substance; and the mud thus formed, coarser or finer, as the case may be, is carried by the rush of the tides, or currents, till it reaches the comparatively deeper parts of the ocean, in which it can sink to the bottom, that is, to parts where there is a depth of about fourteen or fifteen fathoms, a depth at which the water is, usually, nearly motionless, and in which, of course, the finer particles of this detritus, or mud as we call it, sinks to the bottom. or, again, if you take a river, rushing down from its mountain sources, brawling over the stones and rocks that intersect its path, loosening, removing, and carrying with it in its downward course the pebbles and lighter matters from its banks, it crushes and pounds down the rocks and earths in precisely the same way as the wearing action of the sea waves. the matters forming the deposit are torn from the mountain-side and whirled impetuously into the valley, more slowly over the plain, thence into the estuary, and from the estuary they are swept into the sea. the coarser and heavier fragments are obviously deposited first, that is, as soon as the current begins to lose its force by becoming amalgamated with the stiller depths of the ocean, but the finer and lighter particles are carried further on, and eventually deposited in a deeper and stiller portion of the ocean. it clearly follows from this that mud gives us a chronology; for it is evident that supposing this, which i now sketch, to be the sea bottom, and supposing this to be a coast-line; from the washing action of the sea upon the rock, wearing and grinding it down into a sediment of mud, the mud will be carried down and, at length, deposited in the deeper parts of this sea-bottom, where it will form a layer; and then, while that first layer is hardening, other mud which is coming from the same source will, of course, be carried to the same place; and, as it is quite impossible for it to get beneath the layer already there, it deposits itself above it, and forms another layer, and in that way you gradually have layers of mud constantly forming and hardening one above the other, and conveying a record of time. it is a necessary result of the operation of the law of gravitation that the uppermost layer shall be the youngest and the lowest the oldest, and that the different beds shall be older at any particular point or spot in exactly the ratio of their depth from the surface. so that if they were upheaved afterwards, and you had a series of these different layers of mud, converted into sandstone, or limestone, as the case might be, you might be sure that the bottom layer was deposited first, and that the upper layers were formed afterwards. here, you see, is the first step in the history--these layers of mud give us an idea of time. the whole surface of the earth,--i speak broadly, and leave out minor qualifications,--is made up of such layers of mud, so hard, the majority of them, that we call them rock, whether limestone or sandstone, or other varieties of rock. and, seeing that every part of the crust of the earth is made up in this way, you might think that the determination of the chronology, the fixing of the time which it has taken to form this crust is a comparatively simple matter. take a broad average, ascertain how fast the mud is deposited upon the bottom of the sea, or in the estuary of rivers; take it to be an inch, or two, or three inches a year, or whatever you may roughly estimate it at; then take the total thickness of the whole series of stratified rocks, which geologists estimate at twelve or thirteen miles, or about seventy thousand feet, make a sum in short division, divide the total thickness by that of the quantity deposited in one year, and the result will, of course, give you the number of years which the crust has taken to form. truly, that looks a very simple process! it would be so except for certain difficulties, the very first of which is that of finding how rapidly sediments are deposited; but the main difficulty--a difficulty which renders any certain calculations of such a matter out of the question--is this, the sea-bottom on which the deposit takes place is continually shifting. instead of the surface of the earth being that stable, fixed thing that it is popularly believed to be, being, in common parlance, the very emblem of fixity itself, it is incessantly moving, and is, in fact, as unstable as the surface of the sea, except that its undulations are infinitely slower and enormously higher and deeper. now, what is the effect of this oscillation? take the case to which i have previously referred. the finer or coarser sediments that are carried down by the current of the river will only be carried out a certain distance, and eventually, as we have already seen, on reaching the stiller part of the ocean, will be deposited at the bottom. let c _y_ (fig. ) be the sea-bottom, _y_ d the shore, _x y_ the sea-level, then the coarser deposit will subside over the region b, the finer over a, while beyond a there will be no deposit at all; and, consequently, no record will be kept, simply because no deposit is going on. now, suppose that the whole land, c, d, which we have regarded as stationary, goes down, as it does so, both a and b go further out from the shore, which will be at _y_^ , _x_^ _y_^ , being the new sea-level. the consequence will be that the layer of mud (a), being now, for the most part, further than the force of the current is strong enough to convey even the finest _débris_, will, of course, receive no more deposits, and having attained a certain thickness, will now grow no thicker. [illustration: fig. .] we should be misled in taking the thickness of that layer, whenever it may be exposed to our view, as a record of time in the manner in which we are now regarding this subject, as it would give us only an imperfect and partial record: it would seem to represent too short a period of time. suppose, on the other hand, that the land (c d) had gone on rising slowly and gradually--say an inch or two inches in the course of a century,--what would be the practical effect of that movement? why, that the sediment a and b which has been already deposited, would eventually be brought nearer to the shore-level, and again subjected to the wear and tear of the sea; and directly the sea begins to act upon it, it would of course soon cut up and carry it away, to a greater or less extent, to be re-deposited further out. well, as there is, in all probability, not one single spot on the whole surface of the earth, which has not been up and down in this way a great many times, it follows that the thickness of the deposits formed at any particular spot cannot be taken (even supposing we had at first obtained correct data as to the rate at which they took place) as affording reliable information as to the period of time occupied in its deposit. so that you see it is absolutely necessary from these facts, seeing that our record entirely consists of accumulations of mud, superimposed one on the other; seeing in the next place that any particular spots on which accumulations have occurred, have been constantly moving up and down, and sometimes out of the reach of a deposit, and at other times its own deposit broken up and carried away, it follows that our record must be in the highest degree imperfect, and we have hardly a trace left of thick deposits, or any definite knowledge of the area that they occupied in a great many cases. and mark this! that supposing even that the whole surface of the earth had been accessible to the geologist,--that man had had access to every part of the earth, and had made sections of the whole, and put them all together,--even then his record must of necessity be imperfect. but to how much has man really access? if you will look at this map you will see that it represents the proportion of the sea to the earth: this coloured part indicates all the dry land, and this other portion is the water. you will notice at once that the water covers three-fifths of the whole surface of the globe, and has covered it in the same manner ever since man has kept any record of his own observations, to say nothing of the minute period during which he has cultivated geological inquiry. so that three-fifths of the surface of the earth is shut out from us because it is under the sea. let us look at the other two-fifths, and see what are the countries in which anything that may be termed searching geological inquiry has been carried out: a good deal of france, germany, and great britain and ireland, bits of spain, of italy, and of russia, have been examined, but of the whole great mass of africa, except parts of the southern extremity, we know next to nothing; little bits of india, but of the greater part of the asiatic continent nothing; bits of the northern american states and of canada, but of the greater part of the continent of north america, and in still larger proportion, of south america, nothing! under these circumstances, it follows that even with reference to that kind of imperfect information which we can possess, it is only of about the ten-thousandth part of the accessible parts of the earth that has been examined properly. therefore, it is with justice that the most thoughtful of those who are concerned in these inquiries insist continually upon the imperfection of the geological record; for, i repeat, it is absolutely necessary, from the nature of things, that that record should be of the most fragmentary and imperfect character. unfortunately this circumstance has been constantly forgotten. men of science, like young colts in a fresh pasture, are apt to be exhilarated on being turned into a new field of inquiry, to go off at a hand-gallop, in total disregard of hedges and ditches, to lose sight of the real limitation of their inquiries, and to forget the extreme imperfection of what is really known. geologists have imagined that they could tell us what was going on at all parts of the earth's surface during a given epoch; they have talked of this deposit being contemporaneous with that deposit, until, from our little local histories of the changes at limited spots of the earth's surface, they have constructed a universal history of the globe as full of wonders and portents as any other story of antiquity. but what does this attempt to construct a universal history of the globe imply? it implies that we shall not only have a precise knowledge of the events which have occurred at any particular point, but that we shall be able to say what events, at any one spot, took place at the same time with those at other spots. let us see how far that is in the nature of things practicable. suppose that here i make a section of the lake of killarney, and here the section of another lake--that of loch lomond in scotland for instance. the rivers that flow into them are constantly carrying down deposits of mud, and beds, or strata, are being as constantly formed, one above the other, at the bottom of those lakes. now, there is not a shadow of doubt that in these two lakes the lower beds are all older than the upper--there is no doubt about that; but what does _this_ tell us about the age of any given bed in loch lomond, as compared with that of any given bed in the lake of killarney? it is, indeed, obvious that if any two sets of deposits are separated and discontinuous, there is absolutely no means whatever given you by the nature of the deposit of saying whether one is much younger or older than the other; but you may say, as many have said and think, that the case is very much altered if the beds which we are comparing are continuous. suppose two beds of mud hardened into rock,--a and b are seen in section (fig. .) [illustration: fig. .] well, you say, it is admitted that the lowermost bed is always the older. very well; b, therefore, is older than a. no doubt, _as a whole_, it is so; or if any parts of the two beds which are in the same vertical line are compared, it is so. but suppose you take what seems a very natural step further, and say that the part _a_ of the bed a is younger than the part _b_ of the bed b. is this sound reasoning? if you find any record of changes taking place at _b_, did they occur before any events which took place while _a_ was being deposited? it looks all very plain sailing, indeed, to say that they did; and yet there is no proof of anything of the kind. as the former director of this institution, sir h. de la beche, long ago showed, this reasoning may involve an entire fallacy. it is extremely possible that _a_ may have been deposited ages before _b_. it is very easy to understand how that can be. to return to fig. ; when a and b were deposited, they were _substantially_ contemporaneous; a being simply the finer deposit, and b the coarser of the same detritus or waste of land. now suppose that that sea-bottom goes down (as shown in fig. ), so that the first deposit is carried no farther than _a_, forming the bed a^ , and the coarse no farther than _b_, forming the bed b^ , the result will be the formation of two continuous beds, one of fine sediment (a a^ ) over-lapping another of coarse sediment (b b^ ). now suppose the whole sea-bottom is raised up, and a section exposed about the point a^ ; no doubt, _at this spot_, the upper bed is younger than the lower. but we should obviously greatly err if we concluded that the mass of the upper bed at a was younger than the lower bed at b; for we have just seen that they are contemporaneous deposits. still more should we be in error if we supposed the upper bed at a to be younger than the continuation of the lower bed at b^ ; for a was deposited long before b^ . in fine, if, instead of comparing immediately adjacent parts of two beds, one of which lies upon another, we compare distant parts, it is quite possible that the upper may be any number of years older than the under, and the under any number of years younger than the upper. now you must not suppose that i put this before you for the purpose of raising a paradoxical difficulty; the fact is, that the great mass of deposits have taken place in sea-bottoms which are gradually sinking, and have been formed under the very conditions i am here supposing. do not run away with the notion that this subverts the principle i laid down at first. the error lies in extending a principle which is perfectly applicable to deposits in the same vertical line to deposits which are not in that relation to one another. it is in consequence of circumstances of this kind, and of others that i might mention to you, that our conclusions on and interpretations of the record are really and strictly only valid so long as we confine ourselves to one vertical section. i do not mean to tell you that there are no qualifying circumstances, so that, even in very considerable areas, we may safely speak of conformably superimposed beds being older or younger than others at many different points. but we can never be quite sure in coming to that conclusion, and especially we cannot be sure if there is any break in their continuity, or any very great distance between the points to be compared. well now, so much for the record itself,--so much for its imperfections,--so much for the conditions to be observed in interpreting it, and its chronological indications, the moment we pass beyond the limits of a vertical linear section. now let us pass from the record to that which it contains,--from the book itself to the writing and the figures on its pages. this writing and these figures consist of remains of animals and plants which, in the great majority of cases, have lived and died in the very spot in which we now find them, or at least in the immediate vicinity. you must all of you be aware--and i referred to the fact in my last lecture--that there are vast numbers of creatures living at the bottom of the sea. these creatures, like all others, sooner or later die, and their shells and hard parts lie at the bottom; and then the fine mud which is being constantly brought down by rivers and the action of the wear and tear of the sea, covers them over and protects them from any further change or alteration; and, of course, as in process of time the mud becomes hardened and solidified, the shells of these animals are preserved and firmly embedded in the limestone or sandstone which is being thus formed. you may see in the galleries of the museum upstairs specimens of limestones in which such fossil remains of existing animals are embedded. there are some specimens in which turtles' eggs have been embedded in calcareous sand, and before the sun had hatched the young turtles, they became covered over with calcareous mud, and thus have been preserved and fossilized. not only does this process of embedding and fossilization occur with marine and other aquatic animals and plants, but it affects those land animals and plants which are drifted away to sea, or become buried in bogs or morasses; and the animals which have been trodden down by their fellows and crushed in the mud at the river's bank, as the herd have come to drink. in any of these cases, the organisms may be crushed or be mutilated, before or after putrefaction, in such a manner that perhaps only a part will be left in the form in which it reaches us. it is, indeed, a most remarkable fact, that it is quite an exceptional case to find a skeleton of any one of all the thousands of wild land animals that we know are constantly being killed, or dying in the course of nature: they are preyed on and devoured by other animals, or die in places where their bodies are not afterwards protected by mud. there are other animals existing in the sea, the shells of which form exceedingly large deposits. you are probably aware that before the attempt was made to lay the atlantic telegraphic cable, the government employed vessels in making a series of very careful observations and soundings of the bottom of the atlantic; and although, as we must all regret, that up to the present time that project has not succeeded, we have the satisfaction of knowing that it yielded some most remarkable results to science. the atlantic ocean had to be sounded right across, to depths of several miles in some places, and the nature of its bottom was carefully ascertained. well, now, a space of about miles wide from east to west, and i do not exactly know how many from north to south, but at any rate or miles, was carefully examined, and it was found that over the whole of that immense area an excessively fine chalky mud is being deposited; and this deposit is entirely made up of animals whose hard parts are deposited in this part of the ocean, and are doubtless gradually acquiring solidity and becoming metamorphosed into a chalky limestone. thus, you see, it is quite possible in this way to preserve unmistakable records of animal and vegetable life. whenever the sea-bottom, by some of those undulations of the earth's crust that i have referred to, becomes upheaved, and sections or borings are made, or pits are dug, then we become able to examine the contents and constituents of these ancient sea-bottoms, and find out what manner of animals lived at that period. now it is a very important consideration in its bearing on the completeness of the record, to inquire how far the remains contained in these fossiliferous limestones are able to convey anything like an accurate or complete account of the animals which were in existence at the time of its formation. upon that point we can form a very clear judgment, and one in which there is no possible room for any mistake. there are of course a great number of animals--such as jelly-fishes, and other animals--without any hard parts, of which we cannot reasonably expect to find any traces whatever: there is nothing of them to preserve. within a very short time, you will have noticed, after they are removed from the water, they dry up to a mere nothing; certainly they are not of a nature to leave any very visible traces of their existence on such bodies as chalk or mud. then again, look at land animals; it is, as i have said, a very uncommon thing to find a land animal entire after death. insects and other carnivorous animals very speedily pull them to pieces, putrefaction takes place, and so, out of the hundreds of thousands that are known to die every year, it is the rarest thing in the world to see one embedded in such a way that its remains would be preserved for a lengthened period. not only is this the case, but even when animal remains have been safely embedded, certain natural agents may wholly destroy and remove them. almost all the hard parts of animals--the bones and so on--are composed chiefly of phosphate of lime and carbonate of lime. some years ago, i had to make an inquiry into the nature of some very curious fossils sent to me from the north of scotland. fossils are usually hard bony structures that have become embedded in the way i have described, and have gradually acquired the nature and solidity of the body with which they are associated; but in this case i had a series of _holes_ in some pieces of rock, and nothing else. those holes, however, had a certain definite shape about them, and when i got a skilful workman to make castings of the interior of these holes, i found that they were the impressions of the joints of a backbone and of the armour of a great reptile, twelve or more feet long. this great beast had died and got buried in the sand, the sand had gradually hardened over the bones, but remained porous. water had trickled through it, and that water being probably charged with a superfluity of carbonic acid, had dissolved all the phosphate and carbonate of lime, and the bones themselves had thus decayed and entirely disappeared; but as the sandstone happened to have consolidated by that time, the precise shape of the bones was retained. if that sandstone had remained soft a little longer, we should have known nothing whatsoever of the existence of the reptile whose bones it had encased. how certain it is that a vast number of animals which have existed at one period on this earth have entirely perished, and left no trace whatever of their forms, may be proved to you by other considerations. there are large tracts of sandstone in various parts of the world, in which nobody has yet found anything but footsteps. not a bone of any description, but an enormous number of traces of footsteps. there is no question about them. there is a whole valley in connecticut covered with these footsteps, and not a single fragment of the animals which made them have yet been found. let me mention another case while upon that matter, which is even more surprising than those to which i have yet referred. there is a limestone formation near oxford, at a place called stonesfield, which has yielded the remains of certain very interesting mammalian animals, and up to this time, if i recollect rightly, there have been found seven specimens of its lower jaws, and not a bit of anything else, neither limb-bones nor skull, or any part whatever; not a fragment of the whole system! of course, it would be preposterous to imagine that the beasts had nothing else but a lower jaw! the probability is, as dr. buckland showed, as the result of his observations on dead dogs in the river thames, that the lower jaw, not being secured by very firm ligaments to the bones of the head, and being a weighty affair, would easily be knocked off, or might drop away from the body as it floated in water in a state of decomposition. the jaw would thus be deposited immediately, while the rest of the body would float and drift away altogether, ultimately reaching the sea, and perhaps becoming destroyed. the jaw becomes covered up and preserved in the river silt, and thus it comes that we have such a curious circumstance as that of the lower jaws in the stonesfield slates. so that, you see, faulty as these layers of stone in the earth's crust are, defective as they necessarily are as a record, the account of contemporaneous vital phenomena presented by them is, by the necessity of the case, infinitely more defective and fragmentary. it was necessary that i should put all this very strongly before you, because, otherwise, you might have been led to think differently of the completeness of our knowledge by the next facts i shall state to you. the researches of the last three-quarters of a century have, in truth, revealed a wonderful richness of organic life in those rocks. certainly not fewer than thirty or forty thousand different species of fossils have been discovered. you have no more ground for doubting that these creatures really lived and died at or near the places in which we find them than you have for like scepticism about a shell on the sea-shore. the evidence is as good in the one case as in the other. our next business is to look at the general character of these fossil remains, and it is a subject which will be requisite to consider carefully; and the first point for us is to examine how much the extinct _flora_ and _fauna_ as a _whole_--disregarding altogether the _succession_ of their constituents, of which i shall speak afterwards--differ from the _flora_ and _fauna_ of the present day;--how far they differ in what we _do_ know about them, leaving altogether out of consideration speculations based on what we _do not_ know. i strongly imagine that if it were not for the peculiar appearance that fossilized animals have, that any of you might readily walk through a museum which contains fossil remains mixed up with those of the present forms of life, and i doubt very much whether your uninstructed eyes would lead you to see any vast or wonderful difference between the two. if you looked closely, you would notice, in the first place, a great many things very like animals with which you are acquainted now: you would see differences of shape and proportion, but on the whole a close similarity. i explained what i meant by orders the other day, when i described the animal kingdom as being divided into sub-kingdoms, classes, and orders. if you divide the animal kingdom into orders, you will find that there are above one hundred and twenty. the number may vary on one side or the other, but this is a fair estimate. that is the sum total of the orders of all the animals which we know now, and which have been known in past times, and left remains behind. now, how many of those are absolutely extinct? that is to say, how many of these orders of animals have lived at a former period of the world's history, but have at present no representatives? that is the sense in which i meant to use the word "extinct." i mean that those animals did live on this earth at one time, but have left no one of their kind with us at the present moment. so that estimating the number of extinct animals is a sort of way of comparing the past creation as a whole with the present as a whole. among the mammalia and birds there are none extinct; but when we come to the reptiles there is a most wonderful thing: out of the eight orders, or thereabouts, which you can make among reptiles, one-half are extinct. these diagrams of the plesiosaurus, the ichthyosaurus, the pterodactyle, give you a notion of some of these extinct reptiles. and here is a cast of the pterodactyle and bones of the ichthyosaurus and the plesiosaurus, just as fresh as if it had been recently dug up in a churchyard. thus, in the reptile class, there are no less than half of the orders which are absolutely extinct. if we turn to the _amphibia_, there was one extinct order, the labyrinthodonts, typified by the large salamander-like beast shown in this diagram. no order of fishes is known to be extinct. every fish that we find in the strata--to which i have been referring--can be identified and placed in one of the orders which exist at the present day. there is not known to be a single ordinal form of insect extinct. there are only two orders extinct among the _crustacea_. there is not known to be an extinct order of these creatures, the parasitic and other worms; but there are two, not to say three, absolutely extinct orders of this class, the _echinodermata_; out of all the orders of the _coelenterata_ and _protozoa_ only one, the rugose corals. so that, you see, out of somewhere about orders of animals, taking them altogether, you will not, at the outside estimate, find above ten or a dozen extinct. summing up all the orders of animals which have left remains behind them, you will not find above ten or a dozen which cannot be arranged with those of the present day; that is to say, that the difference does not amount to much more than ten per cent.: and the proportion of extinct orders of plants is still smaller. i think that that is a very astounding, a most astonishing fact: seeing the enormous epochs of time which have elapsed during the constitution of the surface of the earth as it at present exists; it is, indeed, a most astounding thing that the proportion of extinct ordinal types should be so exceedingly small. but now, there is another point of view in which we must look at this past creation. suppose that we were to sink a vertical pit through the floor beneath us, and that i could succeed in making a section right through in the direction of new zealand, i should find in each of the different beds through which i passed the remains of animals which i should find in that stratum and not in the others. first, i should come upon beds of gravel or drift containing the bones of large animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, and cave tiger. rather curious things to fall across in piccadilly! if i should dig lower still, i should come upon a bed of what we call the london clay, and in this, as you will see in our galleries upstairs, are found remains of strange cattle, remains of turtles, palms, and large tropical fruits; with shell-fish such as you see the like of now only in tropical regions. if i went below that, i should come upon the chalk, and there i should find something altogether different, the remains of ichthyosauri and pterodactyles, and ammonites, and so forth. i do not know what mr. godwin austin would say comes next, but probably rocks containing more ammonites, and more ichthyosauri and plesiosauri, with a vast number of other things; and under that i should meet with yet older rocks, containing numbers of strange shells and fishes; and in thus passing from the surface to the lowest depths of the earth's crust, the forms of animal life and vegetable life which i should meet with in the successive beds would, looking at them broadly, be the more different the further that i went down. or, in other words, inasmuch as we started with the clear principle, that in a series of naturally-disposed mud beds the lowest are the oldest, we should come to this result, that the farther we go back in time the more difference exists between the animal and vegetable life of an epoch and that which now exists. that was the conclusion to which i wished to bring you at the end of this lecture. vi the method by which the causes of the present and past conditions of organic nature are to be discovered.--the origination of living beings. in the two preceding lectures i have endeavoured to indicate to you the extent of the subject-matter of the inquiry upon which we are engaged; and having thus acquired some conception of the past and present phenomena of organic nature, i must now turn to that which constitutes the great problem which we have set before ourselves;--i mean, the question of what knowledge we have of the causes of these phenomena of organic nature, and how such knowledge is obtainable. here, on the threshold of the inquiry, an objection meets us. there are in the world a number of extremely worthy, well-meaning persons, whose judgments and opinions are entitled to the utmost respect on account of their sincerity, who are of opinion that vital phenomena, and especially all questions relating to the origin of vital phenomena, are questions quite apart from the ordinary run of inquiry, and are, by their very nature, placed out of our reach. they say that all these phenomena originated miraculously, or in some way totally different from the ordinary course of nature, and that therefore they conceive it to be futile, not to say presumptuous, to attempt to inquire into them. to such sincere and earnest persons, i would only say, that a question of this kind is not to be shelved upon theoretical or speculative grounds. you may remember the story of the sophist who demonstrated to diogenes in the most complete and satisfactory manner that he could not walk; that, in fact, all motion was an impossibility; and that diogenes refuted him by simply getting up and walking round his tub. so, in the same way, the man of science replies to objections of this kind, by simply getting up and walking onward, and showing what science has done and is doing,--by pointing to that immense mass of facts which have been ascertained and systematized under the forms of the great doctrines of morphology, of development, of distribution, and the like. he sees an enormous mass of facts and laws relating to organic beings, which stand on the same good sound foundation as every other natural law. with this mass of facts and laws before us, therefore, seeing that, as far as organic matters have hitherto been accessible and studied, they have shown themselves capable of yielding to scientific investigation, we may accept this as proof that order and law reign there as well as in the rest of nature. the man of science says nothing to objectors of this sort, but supposes that we can and shall walk to a knowledge of the origin of organic nature, in the same way that we have walked to a knowledge of the laws and principles of the inorganic world. but there are objectors who say the same from ignorance and ill-will. to such i would reply that the objection comes ill from them, and that the real presumption, i may almost say the real blasphemy, in this matter, is in the attempt to limit that inquiry into the causes of phenomena, which is the source of all human blessings, and from which has sprung all human prosperity and progress; for, after all, we can accomplish comparatively little; the limited range of our own faculties bounds us on every side,--the field of our powers of observation is small enough, and he who endeavours to narrow the sphere of our inquiries is only pursuing a course that is likely to produce the greatest harm to his fellow-men. but now, assuming, as we all do, i hope, that these phenomena are properly accessible to inquiry, and setting out upon our search into the causes of the phenomena of organic nature, or, at any rate, setting out to discover how much we at present know upon these abstruse matters, the question arises as to what is to be our course of proceeding, and what method we must lay down for our guidance. i reply to that question, that our method must be exactly the same as that which is pursued in any other scientific inquiry, the method of scientific investigation being the same for all orders of facts and phenomena whatsoever. i must dwell a little on this point, for i wish you to leave this room with a very clear conviction that scientific investigation is not, as many people seem to suppose, some kind of modern black art. i say that you might easily gather this impression from the manner in which many persons speak of scientific inquiry, or talk about, inductive and deductive philosophy, or the principles of the "baconian philosophy." i do protest that, of the vast number of cants in this world, there are none, to my mind, so contemptible as the pseudo-scientific cant which is talked about the "baconian philosophy." to hear people talk about the great chancellor,--and a very great man he certainly was,--you would think that it was he who had invented science, and that there was no such thing as sound reasoning before the time of queen elizabeth! of course you say, that cannot possibly be true; you perceive, on a moment's reflection, that such an idea is absurdly wrong; and yet, so firmly rooted is this sort of impression,--i cannot call it an idea, or conception,--the thing is too absurd to be entertained,--but so completely does it exist at the bottom of most men's minds, that this has been a matter of observation with me for many years past. there are many men who, though knowing absolutely nothing of the subject with which they may be dealing, wish, nevertheless, to damage the author of some view with which they think fit to disagree. what they do, then, is not to go and learn something about the subject, which one would naturally think the best way of fairly dealing with it; but they abuse the originator of the view they question, in a general manner, and wind up by saying that, "after all, you know, the principles and method of this author are totally opposed to the canons of the baconian philosophy." then everybody applauds, as a matter of course, and agrees that it must be so. but if you were to stop them all in the middle of their applause, you would probably find that neither the speaker nor his applauders could tell you how or in what way it was so; neither the one nor the other having the slightest idea of what they mean when they speak of the "baconian philosophy." you will understand, i hope, that i have not the slightest desire to join in the outcry against either the morals, the intellect, or the great genius of lord chancellor bacon. he was undoubtedly a very great man, let people say what they will of him; but notwithstanding all that he did for philosophy, it would be entirely wrong to suppose that the methods of modern scientific inquiry originated with him, or with his age; they originated with the first man, whoever he was; and indeed existed long before him, for many of the essential processes of reasoning are exerted by the higher order of brutes as completely and effectively as by ourselves. we see in many of the brute creation the exercise of one, at least, of the same powers of reasoning as that which we ourselves employ. the method of scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind. it is simply the mode at which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact. there is no more difference, but there is just the same kind of difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary person, as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the operations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of his balance and finely-graduated weights. it is not that the action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but the beam of one is set on an infinitely finer axis than the other, and of course turns by the addition of a much smaller weight. you will understand this better, perhaps, if i give you some familiar example. you have all heard it repeated, i dare say, that men of science work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from nature certain other things, which are called natural laws, and causes, and that out of these, by some cunning skill of their own, they build up hypotheses and theories. and it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they have to be acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. to hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow-men; but if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus are being used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. there is a well-known incident in one of molière's plays, where the author makes the hero express unbounded delight on being told that he had been talking prose during the whole of his life. in the same way, i trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with yourselves, on the discovery that you have been acting on the principles of inductive and deductive philosophy during the same period. probably there is not one here who has not in the course of the day had occasion to set in motion a complex train of reasoning, of the very same kind, though differing of course in degree, as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. a very trivial circumstance will serve to exemplify this. suppose you go into a fruiterer's shop, wanting an apple,--you take up one, and, on biting it, you find it is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard and green. you take up another one, and that too is hard, green, and sour. the shopman offers you a third; but, before biting it, you examine it, and find that it is hard and green, and you immediately say that you will not have it, as it must be sour, like those that you have already tried. nothing can be more simple than that, you think; but if you will take the trouble to analyze and trace out into its logical elements what has been done by the mind, you will be greatly surprised. in the first place, you have performed the operation of induction. you found that, in two experiences, hardness and greenness in apples went together with sourness. it was so in the first case, and it was confirmed by the second. true, it is a very small basis, but still it is enough to make an induction from; you generalize the facts, and you expect to find sourness in apples where you get hardness and greenness. you found upon that a general law, that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect induction. well, having got your natural law in this way, when you are offered another apple which you find is hard and green, you say, "all hard and green apples are sour; this apple is hard and green, therefore this apple is sour." that train of reasoning is what logicians call a syllogism, and has all its various parts and terms,--its major premiss, its minor premiss, and its conclusion. and, by the help of further reasoning, which, if drawn out, would have to be exhibited in two or three other syllogisms, you arrive at your final determination, "i will not have that apple." so that, you see, you have, in the first place, established a law by induction, and upon that you have founded a deduction, and reasoned out the special conclusion of the particular case. well now, suppose, having got your law, that at some time afterwards, you are discussing the qualities of apples with a friend: you will say to him, "it is a very curious thing,--but i find that all hard and green apples are sour!" your friend says to you, "but how do you know that?" you at once reply, "oh, because i have tried them over and over again, and have always found them to be so." well, if we were talking science instead of common sense, we should call that an experimental verification. and, if still opposed, you go further, and say, "i have heard from the people in somersetshire and devonshire, where a large number of apples are grown, that they have observed the same thing. it is also found to be the case in normandy, and in north america. in short, i find it to be the universal experience of mankind wherever attention has been directed to the subject." whereupon, your friend, unless he is a very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is convinced that you are quite right in the conclusion you have drawn. he believes, although perhaps he does not know he believes it, that the more extensive verifications are,--that the more frequently experiments have been made, and results of the same kind arrived at,--that the more varied the conditions under which the same results are attained, the more certain is the ultimate conclusion, and he disputes the question no further. he sees that the experiment has been tried under all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people, with the same result; and he says with you, therefore, that the law you have laid down must be a good one, and he must believe it. in science we do the same thing;--the philosopher exercises precisely the same faculties, though in a much more delicate manner. in scientific inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to expose a supposed law to every possible kind of verification, and to take care, moreover, that this is done intentionally, and not left to a mere accident, as in the case of the apples. and in science, as in common life, our confidence in a law is in exact proportion to the absence of variation in the result of our experimental verifications. for instance, if you let go your grasp of an article you may have in your hand, it will immediately fall to the ground. that is a very common verification of one of the best established laws of nature--that of gravitation. the method by which men of science establish the existence of that law is exactly the same as that by which we have established the trivial proposition about the sourness of hard and green apples. but we believe it in such an extensive, thorough, and unhesitating manner because the universal experience of mankind verifies it, and we can verify it ourselves at any time; and that is the strongest possible foundation on which any natural law can rest. so much, then, by way of proof that the method of establishing laws in science is exactly the same as that pursued in common life. let us now turn to another matter, (though really it is but another phase of the same question,) and that is, the method by which, from the relations of certain phenomena, we prove that some stand in the position of causes towards the others. i want to put the case clearly before you, and i will therefore show you what i mean by another familiar example. i will suppose that one of you, on coming down in the morning to the parlour of your house, finds that a tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the previous evening are gone,--the window is open, and you observe the mark of a dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. all these phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds have passed you say, "oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered the room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!" that speech is out of your mouth in a moment. and you will probably add, "i know there has; i am quite sure of it!" you mean to say exactly what you know; but in reality you are giving expression to what is, in all essential particulars, an hypothesis. you do not _know_ it at all; it is nothing but an hypothesis rapidly framed in your own mind! and, it is an hypothesis founded on a long train of inductions and deductions. what are those inductions and deductions, and how have you got at this hypothesis? you have observed, in the first place, that the window is open; but by a train of reasoning involving many inductions and deductions, you have probably arrived long before at the general law--and a very good one it is--that windows do not open of themselves; and you therefore conclude that something has opened the window. a second general law that you have arrived at in the same way is, that tea-pots and spoons do not go out of a window spontaneously, and you are satisfied that, as they are not now where you left them, they have been removed. in the third place, you look at the marks on the window-sill, and the shoe-marks outside, and you say that in all previous experience the former kind of mark has never been produced by anything else but the hand of a human being; and the same experience shows that no other animal but man at present wears shoes with hob-nails in them such as would produce the marks in the gravel. i do not know, even if we could discover any of those "missing links" that are talked about, that they would help us to any other conclusion! at any rate the law which states our present experience is strong enough for my present purpose. you next reach the conclusion, that as these kinds of marks have not been left by any other animals than men, or are liable to be formed in any other way than by a man's hand and shoe, the marks in question have been formed by a man in that way. you have, further, a general law, founded on observation and experience, and that, too, is, i am sorry to say, a very universal and unimpeachable one,--that some men are thieves; and you assume at once from all these premisses--and that is what constitutes your hypothesis--that the man who made the marks outside and on the window-sill, opened the window, got into the room, and stole your tea-pot and spoons. you have now arrived at a _vera causa_;--you have assumed a cause which it is plain is competent to produce all the phenomena you have observed. you can explain all these phenomena only by the hypothesis of a thief. but that is a hypothetical conclusion, of the justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it is only rendered highly probable by a series of inductive and deductive reasonings. i suppose your first action, assuming that you are a man of ordinary common sense, and that you have established this hypothesis to your own satisfaction, will very likely be to go off for the police, and set them on the track of the burglar, with the view to the recovery of your property. but just as you are starting with this object, some person comes in, and on learning what you are about, says, "my good friend, you are going on a great deal too fast. how do you know that the man who really made the marks took the spoons? it might have been a monkey that took them, and the man may have merely looked in afterwards." you would probably reply, "well, that is all very well, but you see it is contrary to all experience of the way tea-pots and spoons are abstracted; so that, at any rate, your hypothesis is less probable than mine." while you are talking the thing over in this way, another friend arrives, one of that good kind of people that i was talking of a little while ago. and he might say, "oh, my dear sir, you are certainly going on a great deal too fast. you are most presumptuous. you admit that all these occurrences took place when you were fast asleep, at a time when you could not possibly have known anything about what was taking place. how do you know that the laws of nature are not suspended during the night? it may be that there has been some kind of supernatural interference in this case." in point of fact, he declares that your hypothesis is one of which you cannot at all demonstrate the truth, and that you are by no means sure that the laws of nature are the same when you are asleep as when you are awake. well, now, you cannot at the moment answer that kind of reasoning. you feel that your worthy friend has you somewhat at a disadvantage. you will feel perfectly convinced in your own mind, however, that you are quite right, and you say to him, "my good friend, i can only be guided by the natural probabilities of the case, and if you will be kind enough to stand aside and permit me to pass, i will go and fetch the police." well, we will suppose that your journey is successful, and that by good luck you meet with a policeman; that eventually the burglar is found with your property on his person, and the marks correspond to his hand and to his boots. probably any jury would consider those facts a very good experimental verification of your hypothesis, touching the cause of the abnormal phenomena observed in your parlour, and would act accordingly. now, in this supposititious case, i have taken phenomena of a very common kind, in order that you might see what are the different steps in an ordinary process of reasoning, if you will only take the trouble to analyze it carefully. all the operations i have described, you will see, are involved in the mind of any man of sense in leading him to a conclusion as to the course he should take in order to make good a robbery and punish the offender. i say that you are led, in that case, to your conclusion by exactly the same train of reasoning as that which a man of science pursues when he is endeavouring to discover the origin and laws of the most occult phenomena. the process is, and always must be, the same; and precisely the same mode of reasoning was employed by newton and laplace in their endeavours to discover and define the causes of the movements of the heavenly bodies, as you, with your own common sense, would employ to detect a burglar. the only difference is, that the nature of the inquiry being more abstruse, every step has to be most carefully watched, so that there may not be a single crack or flaw in your hypothesis. a flaw or crack in many of the hypotheses of daily life may be of little or no moment as affecting the general correctness of the conclusions at which we may arrive; but in a scientific inquiry a fallacy, great or small, is always of importance, and is sure to be in the long run constantly productive of mischievous, if not fatal results. do not allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion that an hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. it is often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after all, it is only an hypothesis. but what more have we to guide us in nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses, and often very ill-based ones? so that in science, where the evidence of an hypothesis is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may rightly pursue the same course. you may have hypotheses and hypotheses. a man may say, if he likes, that the moon is made of green cheese: that is an hypothesis. but another man, who has devoted a great deal of time and attention to the subject, and availed himself of the most powerful telescopes and the results of the observations of others, declares that in his opinion it is probably composed of materials very similar to those of which our own earth is made up: and that is also only an hypothesis. but i need not tell you that there is an enormous difference in the value of the two hypotheses. that one which is based on sound scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding value; and that which is a mere hasty random guess is likely to have but little value. every great step in our progress in discovering causes has been made in exactly the same way as that which i have detailed to you. a person observing the occurrence of certain facts and phenomena asks, naturally enough, what process, what kind of operation known to occur in nature applied to the particular case, will unravel and explain the mystery? hence you have the scientific hypothesis; and its value will be proportionate to the care and completeness with which its basis had been tested and verified. it is in these matters as in the commonest affairs of practical life: the guess of the fool will be folly, while the guess of the wise man will contain wisdom. in all cases, you see that the value of the result depends on the patience and faithfulness with which the investigator applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of verification. i dare say i may have to return to this point by-and-by; but having dealt thus far with our logical methods, i must now turn to something which, perhaps, you may consider more interesting, or, at any rate, more tangible. but in reality there are but few things that can be more important for you to understand than the mental processes and the means by which we obtain scientific conclusions and theories.[ ] having granted that the inquiry is a proper one, and having determined on the nature of the methods we are to pursue and which only can lead to success, i must now turn to the consideration of our knowledge of the nature of the processes which have resulted in the present condition of organic nature. here, let me say at once, lest some of you misunderstand me, that i have extremely little to report. the question of how the present condition of organic nature came about, resolves itself into two questions. the first is: how has organic or living matter commenced its existence? and the second is: how has it been perpetuated? on the second question i shall have more to say hereafter. but on the first one, what i now have to say will be for the most part of a negative character. if you consider what kind of evidence we can have upon this matter, it will resolve itself into two kinds. we may have historical evidence and we may have experimental evidence. it is, for example, conceivable, that inasmuch as the hardened mud which forms a considerable portion of the thickness of the earth's crust contains faithful records of the past forms of life, and inasmuch as these differ more and more as we go further down,--it is possible and conceivable that we might come to some particular bed or stratum which should contain the remains of those creatures with which organic life began upon the earth. and if we did so, and if such forms of organic life were preservable, we should have what i would call historical evidence of the mode in which organic life began upon this planet. many persons will tell you, and indeed you will find it stated in many works on geology, that this has been done, and that we really possess such a record; there are some who imagine that the earliest forms of life of which we have as yet discovered any record, are in truth the forms in which animal life began upon the globe. the grounds on which they base that supposition are these:--that if you go through the enormous thickness of the earth's crust and get down to the older rocks, the higher vertebrate animals--the quadrupeds, birds, and fishes--cease to be found; beneath them you find only the invertebrate animals; and in the deepest and lowest rocks those remains become scantier and scantier, not in any very gradual progression, however, until, at length, in what are supposed to be the oldest rocks, the animal remains which are found are almost always confined to four forms,--_oldhamia_, whose precise nature is not known, whether plant or animal; _lingula_, a kind of mollusc; _trilobites_, a crustacean animal, having the same essential plan of construction, though differing in many details from a lobster or crab; and _hymenocaris_, which is also a crustacean. so that you have all the _fauna_ reduced, at this period, to four forms: one a kind of animal or plant that we know nothing about, and three undoubted animals--two crustaceans and one mollusc. i think, considering the organization of these mollusca and crustacea, and looking at their very complex nature, that it does indeed require a very strong imagination to conceive that these were the first created of all living things. and you must take into consideration the fact that we have not the slightest proof that these which we call the oldest beds are really so: i repeat, we have not the slightest proof of it. when you find in some places that in an enormous thickness of rocks there are but very scanty traces of life, or absolutely none at all; and that in other parts of the world rocks of the very same formation are crowded with the records of living forms, i think it is impossible to place any reliance on the supposition, or to feel oneself justified in supposing that these are the forms in which life first commenced. i have not time here to enter upon the technical grounds upon which i am led to this conclusion,--that could hardly be done properly in half a dozen lectures on that part alone;--i must content myself with saying that i do not at all believe that these are the oldest forms of life. i turn to the experimental side to see what evidence we have there. to enable us to say that we know anything about the experimental origination of organization and life, the investigator ought to be able to take inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and salines, in any sort of inorganic combination, and be able to build them up into protein matter, and then that protein matter ought to begin to live in an organic form. that, nobody has done as yet, and i suspect it will be a long while before anybody does do it. but the thing is by no means so impossible as it looks; for the researches of modern chemistry have shown us--i won't say the road towards it, but, if i may so say, they have shown the finger-post pointing to the road that may lead to it. it is not many years ago--and you must recollect that organic chemistry is a young science, not above a couple of generations old, you must not expect too much of it,--it is not many years ago since it was said to be perfectly impossible to fabricate any organic compound; that is to say, any non-mineral compound which is to be found in an organized being. it remained so for a very long period; but it is now a considerable number of years since a distinguished foreign chemist contrived to fabricate urea, a substance of a very complex character, which forms one of the waste products of animal structures. and of late years a number of other compounds, such as butyric acid, and others, have been added to the list. i need not tell you that chemistry is an enormous distance from the goal i indicate; all i wish to point out to you is, that it is by no means safe to say that that goal may not be reached one day. it may be that it is impossible for us to produce the conditions requisite to the origination of life; but we must speak modestly about the matter, and recollect that science has put her foot upon the bottom round of the ladder. truly he would be a bold man who would venture to predict where she will be fifty years hence. there is another inquiry which bears indirectly upon this question, and upon which i must say a few words. you are all of you aware of the phenomena of what is called spontaneous generation. our forefathers, down to the seventeenth century, or thereabouts, all imagined, in perfectly good faith, that certain vegetable and animal forms gave birth, in the process of their decomposition, to insect life. thus, if you put a piece of meat in the sun, and allowed it to putrefy, they conceived that the grubs which soon began to appear were the result of the action of a power of spontaneous generation which the meat contained. and they could give you receipts for making various animal and vegetable preparations which would produce particular kinds of animals. a very distinguished italian naturalist, named redi, took up the question, at a time when everybody believed in it; among others our own great harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. you will constantly find his name quoted, however, as an opponent of the doctrine of spontaneous generation; but the fact is, and you will see it if you take the trouble to look into his works, harvey believed it as profoundly as any man of his time; but he happened to enunciate a very curious proposition--that every living thing came from an _egg_; he did not mean to use the word in the sense in which we now employ it, he only meant to say that every living thing originated in a little rounded particle of organized substance; and it is from this circumstance, probably, that the notion of harvey having opposed the doctrine originated. then came redi, and he proceeded to upset the doctrine in a very simple manner. he merely covered the piece of meat with some very fine gauze, and then he exposed it to the same conditions. the result of this was that no grubs or insects were produced; he proved that the grubs originated from the insects who came and deposited their eggs in the meat, and that they were hatched by the heat of the sun. by this kind of inquiry he thoroughly upset the doctrine of spontaneous generation, for his time at least. then came the discovery and application of the microscope to scientific inquiries, which showed to naturalists that besides the organisms which they already knew as living beings and plants, there were an immense number of minute things which could be obtained apparently almost at will from decaying vegetable and animal forms. thus, if you took some ordinary black pepper or some hay, and steeped it in water, you would find in the course of a few days that the water had become impregnated with an immense number of animalcules swimming about in all directions. from facts of this kind naturalists were led to revive the theory of spontaneous generation. they were headed here by an english naturalist,--needham,--and afterwards in france by the learned buffon. they said that these things were absolutely begotten in the water of the decaying substances out of which the infusion was made. it did not matter whether you took animal or vegetable matter, you had only to steep it in water and expose it, and you would soon have plenty of animalcules. they made an hypothesis about this which was a very fair one. they said, this matter of the animal world, or of the higher plants, appears to be dead, but in reality it has a sort of dim life about it, which, if it is placed under fair conditions, will cause it to break up into the forms of these little animalcules, and they will go through their lives in the same way as the animal or plant of which they once formed a part. the question now became very hotly debated. spallanzani, an italian naturalist, took up opposite views to those of needham and buffon, and by means of certain experiments he showed that it was quite possible to stop the process by boiling the water, and closing the vessel in which it was contained. "oh!" said his opponents, "but what do you know you may be doing when you heat the air over the water in this way? you may be destroying some property of the air requisite for the spontaneous generation of the animalcules." however, spallanzani's views were supposed to be upon the right side, and those of the others fell into discredit; although the fact was that spallanzani had not made good his views. well, then, the subject continued to be revived from time to time, and experiments were made by several persons; but these experiments were not altogether satisfactory. it was found that if you put an infusion in which animalcules would appear if it were exposed to the air into a vessel and boiled it, and then sealed up the mouth of the vessel, so that no air, save such as had been heated to °, could reach its contents, that then no animalcules would be found; but if you took the same vessel and exposed the infusion to the air, then you would get animalcules. furthermore, it was found that if you connected the mouth of the vessel with a red-hot tube in such a way that the air would have to pass through the tube before reaching the infusion, that then you would get no animalcules. yet another thing was noticed: if you took two flasks containing the same kind of infusion, and left one entirely exposed to the air, and in the mouth of the other placed a ball of cotton wool, so that the air would have to filter itself through it before reaching the infusion, that then, although you might have plenty of animalcules in the first flask, you would certainly obtain none from the second. these experiments, you see, all tended towards one conclusion--that the infusoria were developed from little minute spores or eggs which were constantly floating in the atmosphere, and which lose their power of germination if subjected to heat. but one observer now made another experiment, which seemed to go entirely the other way, and puzzled him altogether. he took some of this boiled infusion that i have been speaking of, and by the use of a mercurial bath--a kind of trough used in laboratories--he deftly inverted a vessel containing the infusion into the mercury, so that the latter reached a little beyond the level of the mouth of the _inverted_ vessel. you see that he thus had a quantity of the infusion shut off from any possible communication with the outer air by being inverted upon a bed of mercury. he then prepared some pure oxygen and nitrogen gases, and passed them by means of a tube going from the outside of the vessel, up through the mercury into the infusion; so that he thus had it exposed to a perfectly pure atmosphere of the same constituents as the external air. of course, he expected he would get no infusorial animalcules at all in that infusion; but, to his great dismay and discomfiture, he found he almost always did get them. furthermore, it has been found that experiments made in the manner described above answer well with most infusions; but that if you fill the vessel with boiled milk, and then stop the neck with cotton-wool, you _will_ have infusoria. so that you see there were two experiments that brought you to one kind of conclusion, and three to another; which was a most unsatisfactory state of things to arrive at in a scientific inquiry. some few years after this, the question began to be very hotly discussed in france. there was m. pouchet, a professor at rouen, a very learned man, but certainly not a very rigid experimentalist. he published a number of experiments of his own, some of which were very ingenious, to show that if you went to work in a proper way, there was a truth in the doctrine of spontaneous generation. well, it was one of the most fortunate things in the world that m. pouchet took up this question, because it induced a distinguished french chemist, m. pasteur, to take up the question on the other side; and he has certainly worked it out in the most perfect manner. i am glad to say, too, that he has published his researches in time to enable me to give you an account of them. he verified all the experiments which i have just mentioned to you--and then finding those extraordinary anomalies, as in the case of the mercury bath and the milk, he set himself to work to discover their nature. in the case of milk he found it to be a question of temperature. milk in a fresh state is slightly alkaline; and it is a very curious circumstance, but this very slight degree of alkalinity seems to have the effect of preserving the organisms which fall into it from the air from being destroyed at a temperature of °, which is the boiling point. but if you raise the temperature ° when you boil it, the milk behaves like everything else; and if the air with which it comes in contact, after being boiled at this temperature, is passed through a red-hot tube, you will not get a trace of organisms. he then turned his attention to the mercury bath, and found on examination that the surface of the mercury was almost always covered with a very fine dust. he found that even the mercury itself was positively full of organic matters; that from being constantly exposed to the air, it had collected an immense number of these infusorial organisms from the air. well, under these circumstances he felt that the case was quite clear, and that the mercury was not what it had appeared to m. schwann to be,--a bar to the admission of these organisms; but that, in reality, it acted as a reservoir from which the infusion was immediately supplied with the large quantity that had so puzzled him. but not content with explaining the experiments of others, m. pasteur went to work to satisfy himself completely. he said to himself: "if my view is right, and if, in point of fact, all these appearances of spontaneous generation are altogether due to the falling of minute germs suspended in the atmosphere,--why, i ought not only to be able to show the germs, but i ought to be able to catch and sow them, and produce the resulting organisms." he, accordingly, constructed a very ingenious apparatus to enable him to accomplish the trapping of the "_germ dust_" in the air. he fixed in the window of his room a glass tube, in the centre of which he had placed a ball of gun-cotton, which, as you all know, is ordinary cotton-wool, which, from having been steeped in strong acid, is converted into a substance of great explosive power. it is also soluble in alcohol and ether. one end of the glass tube was, of course, open to the external air; and at the other end of it he placed an aspirator, a contrivance for causing a current of the external air to pass through the tube. he kept this apparatus going for four-and-twenty hours, and then removed the _dusted_ gun-cotton, and dissolved it in alcohol and ether. he then allowed this to stand for a few hours, and the result was, that a very fine dust was gradually deposited at the bottom of it. that dust, on being transferred to the stage of a microscope, was found to contain an enormous number of starch grains. you know that the materials of our food and the greater portion of plants are composed of starch, and we are constantly making use of it in a variety of ways, so that there is always a quantity of it suspended in the air. it is these starch grains which form many of those bright specks that we see dancing in a ray of light sometimes. but besides these, m. pasteur found also an immense number of other organic substances such as spores of fungi, which had been floating about in the air and had got caged in this way. he went farther, and said to himself, "if these really are the things that give rise to the appearance of spontaneous generation, i ought to be able to take a ball of this _dusted_ gun-cotton and put it into one of my vessels, containing that boiled infusion which has been kept away from the air, and in which no infusoria are at present developed, and then, if i am right, the introduction of this gun-cotton will give rise to organisms." accordingly, he took one of these vessels of infusion, which had been kept eighteen months, without the least appearance of life in it, and by a most ingenious contrivance, he managed to break it open and introduce such a ball of gun-cotton, without allowing the infusion or the cotton ball to come into contact with any air but that which had been subjected to a red heat, and in twenty-four hours he had the satisfaction of finding all the indications of what had been hitherto called spontaneous generation. he had succeeded in catching the germs and developing organisms in the way he had anticipated. it now struck him that the truth of his conclusions might be demonstrated without all the apparatus he had employed. to do this, he took some decaying animal or vegetable substance, such as urine, which is an extremely decomposable substance, or the juice of yeast, or perhaps some other artificial preparation, and filled a vessel having a long tubular neck, with it. he then boiled the liquid and bent that long neck into an s shape or zig-zag, leaving it open at the end. the infusion then gave no trace of any appearance of spontaneous generation, however long it might be left, as all the germs in the air were deposited in the beginning of the bent neck. he then cut the tube close to the vessel, and allowed the ordinary air to have free and direct access; and the result of that was the appearance of organisms in it, as soon as the infusion had been allowed to stand long enough to allow of the growth of those it received from the air, which was about forty-eight hours. the result of m. pasteur's experiments proved, therefore, in the most conclusive manner, that all the appearances of spontaneous generation arose from nothing more than the deposition of the germs of organisms which were constantly floating in the air. to this conclusion, however, the objection was made, that if that were the cause, then the air would contain such an enormous number of these germs, that it would be a continual fog. but m. pasteur replied that they are not there in anything like the number we might suppose, and that an exaggerated view has been held on that subject; he showed that the chances of animal or vegetable life appearing in infusions, depend entirely on the conditions under which they are exposed. if they are exposed to the ordinary atmosphere around us, why, of course, you may have organisms appearing early. but, on the other hand, if they are exposed to air at a great height, or in some very quiet cellar, you will often not find a single trace of life. so that m. pasteur arrived at last at the clear and definite result, that all these appearances are like the case of the worms in the piece of meat, which was refuted by redi, simply germs carried by the air and deposited in the liquids in which they afterwards appear. for my own part, i conceive that, with the particulars of m. pasteur's experiments before us, we cannot fail to arrive at his conclusions; and that the doctrine of spontaneous generation has received a final _coup de grâce_. you, of course, understand that all this in no way interferes with the _possibility_ of the fabrication of organic matters by the direct method to which i have referred, remote as that possibility may be. footnotes: [ ] those who wish to study fully the doctrines of which i have endeavoured to give some rough and ready illustrations, must read mr. john stuart mill's "system of logic." vii the perpetuation of living beings, hereditary transmission and variation. the inquiry which we undertook, at our last meeting, into the state of our knowledge of the causes of the phenomena of organic nature,--of the past and of the present,--resolved itself into two subsidiary inquiries: the first was, whether we know anything, either historically or experimentally, of the mode of origin of living beings; the second subsidiary inquiry was, whether, granting the origin, we know anything about the perpetuation and modifications of the forms of organic beings. the reply which i had to give to the first question was altogether negative, and the chief result of my last lecture was, that, neither historically nor experimentally, do we at present know anything whatsoever about the origin of living forms. we saw that, historically, we are not likely to know anything about it, although we may perhaps learn something experimentally; but that at present we are an enormous distance from the goal i indicated. i now, then, take up the next question, what do we know of the reproduction, the perpetuation, and the modifications of the forms of living beings, supposing that we have put the question as to their origination on one side, and have assumed that at present the causes of their origination are beyond us, and that we know nothing about them? upon this question the state of our knowledge is extremely different; it is exceedingly large: and, if not complete, our experience is certainly most extensive. it would be impossible to lay it all before you, and the most i can do, or need do to-night, is to take up the principal points and put them before you with such prominence as may subserve the purposes of our present argument. the method of the perpetuation of organic beings is of two kinds,--the asexual and the sexual. in the first the perpetuation takes place from and by a particular act of an individual organism, which sometimes may not be classed as belonging to any sex at all. in the second case, it is in consequence of the mutual action and inter-action of certain portions of the organisms of usually two distinct individuals--the male and the female. the cases of asexual perpetuation are by no means so common as the cases of sexual perpetuation; and they are by no means so common in the animal as in the vegetable world. you are all probably familiar with the fact, as a matter of experience, that you can propagate plants by means of what are called "cuttings"; for example, that by taking a cutting from a geranium plant, and rearing it properly, by supplying it with light and warmth and nourishment from the earth, it grows up and takes the form of its parent, having all the properties and peculiarities of the original plant. sometimes this process, which the gardener performs artificially, takes place naturally; that is to say, a little bulb, or portion of the plant, detaches itself, drops off, and becomes capable of growing as a separate thing. that is the case with many bulbous plants, which throw off in this way secondary bulbs, which are lodged in the ground and become developed into plants. this is an asexual process, and from it results the repetition or reproduction of the form of the original being from which the bulb proceeds. among animals the same thing takes place. among the lower forms of animal life, the infusorial animalculæ we have already spoken of throw off certain portions, or break themselves up in various directions, sometimes transversely or sometimes longitudinally; or they may give off buds, which detach themselves and develop into their proper forms. there is the common fresh-water polype, for instance, which multiplies itself in this way. just in the same way as the gardener is able to multiply and reproduce the peculiarities and characters of particular plants by means of cuttings, so can the physiological experimentalist,--as was shown by the abbé trembley many years ago,--so can he do the same thing with many of the lower forms of animal life. m. de trembley showed that you could take a polype and cut it into two, or four, or many pieces, mutilating it in all directions, and the pieces would still grow up and reproduce completely the original form of the animal. these are all cases of asexual multiplication, and there are other instances, and still more extraordinary ones, in which this process takes place naturally, in a more hidden, a more recondite kind of way. you are all of you familiar with that little green insect, the _aphis_ or blight, as it is called. these little animals, during a very considerable part of their existence, multiply themselves by means of a kind of internal budding, the buds being developed into essentially asexual animals, which are neither male nor female; they become converted into young _aphides_, which repeat the process, and their offspring after them, and so on again; you may go on for nine or ten, or even twenty or more successions; and there is no very good reason to say how soon it might terminate, or how long it might not go on if the proper conditions of warmth and nourishment were kept up. sexual reproduction is quite a distinct matter. here, in all these cases, what is required is the detachment of two portions of the parental organisms, which portions we know as the egg or the spermatozoon. in plants it is the ovule and the pollen-grain, as in the flowering plants, or the ovule and the antherozooid, as in the flowerless. among all forms of animal life, the spermatozoa proceed from the male sex, and the egg is the product of the female. now, what is remarkable about this mode of reproduction is this, that the egg by itself, or the spermatozoa by themselves, are unable to assume the parental form; but if they be brought into contact with one another, the effect of the mixture of organic substances proceeding from two sources appears to confer an altogether new vigour to the mixed product. this process is brought about, as we all know, by the sexual intercourse of the two sexes, and is called the act of impregnation. the result of this act on the part of the male and female is, that the formation of a new being is set up in the ovule or egg; this ovule or egg soon begins to be divided and subdivided, and to be fashioned into various complex organisms, and eventually to develop into the form of one of its parents, as i explained in the first lecture. these are the processes by which the perpetuation of organic beings is secured. why there should be the two modes--why this reinvigoration should be required on the part of the female element we do not know; but it is most assuredly the fact, and it is presumable, that, however long the process of asexual multiplication could be continued,--i say there is good reason to believe that it would come to an end if a new commencement were not obtained by a conjunction of the two sexual elements. that character which is common to these two distinct processes is this, that, whether we consider the reproduction, or perpetuation, or modification of organic beings as they take place asexually, or as they may take place sexually,--in either case, i say, the offspring has a constant tendency to assume, speaking generally, the character of the parent. as i said just now, if you take a slip of a plant, and tend it with care, it will eventually grow up and develop into a plant like that from which it had sprung; and this tendency is so strong that, as gardeners know, this mode of multiplying by means of cuttings is the only secure mode of propagating very many varieties of plants; the peculiarity of the primitive stock seems to be better preserved if you propagate it by means of a slip than if you resort to the sexual mode. again, in experiments upon the lower animals, such as the polype, to which i have referred, it is most extraordinary that, although cut up into various pieces, each particular piece will grow up into the form of the primitive stock; the head, if separated, will reproduce the body and the tail; and if you cut off the tail, you will find that that will reproduce the body and all the rest of the members, without in any way deviating from the plan of the organism from which these portions have been detached. and so far does this go, that some experimentalists have carefully examined the lower orders of animals,--among them the abbé spallanzani, who made a number of experiments upon snails and salamanders,--and have found that they might mutilate them to an incredible extent; that you might cut off the jaw or the greater part of the head, or the leg or the tail, and repeat the experiment several times, perhaps, cutting off the same member again and again; and yet each of those types would be reproduced according to the primitive type: nature making no mistake, never putting on a fresh kind of leg, or head, or tail, but always tending to repeat and to return to the primitive type. it is the same in sexual reproduction: it is a matter of perfectly common experience, that the tendency on the part of the offspring always is, speaking broadly, to reproduce the form of the parents. the proverb has it that the thistle does not bring forth grapes; so, among ourselves, there is always a likeness, more or less marked and distinct, between children and their parents. that is a matter of familiar and ordinary observation. we notice the same thing occurring in the cases of the domestic animals--dogs, for instance, and their offspring. in all these cases of propagation and perpetuation, there seems to be a tendency in the offspring to take the characters of the parental organisms. to that tendency a special name is given--and as i may very often use it, i will write it up here on this blackboard that you may remember it--it is called _atavism_; it expresses this tendency to revert to the ancestral type, and comes from the latin word _atavus_, ancestor. well, this _atavism_which i shall speak of, is, as i said before, one of the most marked and striking tendencies of organic beings; but, side by side with this hereditary tendency there is an equally distinct and remarkable tendency to variation. the tendency to reproduce the original stock has, as it were, its limits, and side by side with it there is a tendency to vary in certain directions, as if there were two opposing powers working upon the organic being, one tending to take it in a straight line, and the other tending to make it diverge from that straight line, first to one side and then to the other. so that you see these two tendencies need not precisely contradict one another, as the ultimate result may not always be very remote from what would have been the case if the line had been quite straight. this tendency to variation is less marked in that mode of propagation which takes place asexually; it is in that mode that the minor characters of animal and vegetable structures are most completely preserved. still, it will happen sometimes, that the gardener, when he has planted a cutting of some favourite plant, will find, contrary to his expectation, that the slip grows up a little different from the primitive stock--that it produces flowers of a different colour or make, or some deviation in one way or another. this is what is called the "sporting" of plants. in animals the phenomena of asexual propagation are so obscure, that at present we cannot be said to know much about them; but if we turn to that mode of perpetuation which results from the sexual process, then we find variation a perfectly constant occurrence, to a certain extent; and, indeed, i think that a certain amount of variation from the primitive stock is the necessary result of the method of sexual propagation itself; for, inasmuch as the thing propagated proceeds from two organisms of different sexes and different makes and temperaments, and as the offspring is to be either of one sex or the other, it is quite clear that it cannot be an exact diagonal of the two, or it would be of no sex at all; it cannot be an exact intermediate form between that of each of its parents--it must deviate to one side or the other. you do not find that the male follows the precise type of the male parent, nor does the female always inherit the precise characteristics of the mother,--there is always a proportion of the female character in the male offspring, and of the male character in the female offspring. that must be quite plain to all of you who have looked at all attentively on your own children or those of your neighbours; you will have noticed how very often it may happen that the son shall exhibit the maternal type of character, or the daughter possess the characteristics of the father's family. there are all sorts of intermixtures and intermediate conditions between the two, where complexion, or beauty, or fifty other different peculiarities belonging to either side of the house, are reproduced in other members of the same family. indeed, it is sometimes to be remarked in this kind of variation, that the variety belongs, strictly speaking, to neither of the immediate parents; you will see a child in a family who is not like either its father or its mother; but some old person who knew its grandfather or grandmother, or, it may be, an uncle, or, perhaps, even a more distant relative, will see a great similarity between the child and one of these. in this way it constantly happens that the characteristic of some previous member of the family comes out and is reproduced and recognized in the most unexpected manner. but apart from that matter of general experience, there are some cases which put that curious mixture in a very clear light. you are aware that the offspring of the ass and the horse, or rather of the he-ass and the mare, is what is called a mule; and, on the other hand, the offspring of the stallion and the she-ass is what is called a _hinny_. it is a very rare thing in this country to see a hinny. i never saw one myself; but they have been very carefully studied. now, the curious thing is this, that although you have the same elements in the experiment in each case, the offspring is entirely different in character, according as the male influence comes from the ass or the horse. where the ass is the male, as in the case of the mule, you find that the head is like that of the ass, that the ears are long, the tail is tufted at the end, the feet are small, and the voice is an unmistakable bray; these are all points of similarity to the ass; but, on the other hand, the barrel of the body and the cut of the neck are much more like those of the mare. then, if you look at the hinny,--the result of the union of the stallion and the she-ass, then you find it is the horse that has the predominance; that the head is more like that of the horse, the ears are shorter, the legs coarser, and the type is altogether altered; while the voice, instead of being a bray, is the ordinary neigh of the horse. here, you see, is a most curious thing: you take exactly the same elements, ass and horse, but you combine the sexes in a different manner, and the result is modified accordingly. you have in this case, however, a result which is not general and universal--there is usually an important preponderance, but not always on the same side. here, then, is one intelligible, and, perhaps, necessary cause of variation: the fact, that there are two sexes sharing in the production of the offspring, and that the share taken by each is different and variable, not only for each combination, but also for different members of the same family. secondly, there is a variation, to a certain extent,--though in all probability the influence of this cause has been very much exaggerated--but there is no doubt that variation is produced, to a certain extent, by what are commonly known as external conditions,--such as temperature, food, warmth, and moisture. in the long run, every variation depends, in some sense, upon external conditions, seeing that everything has a cause of its own. i use the term "external conditions" now in the sense in which it is ordinarily employed: certain it is, that external conditions have a definite effect. you may take a plant which has single flowers, and by dealing with the soil, and nourishment, and so on, you may by-and-by convert single flowers into double flowers, and make thorns shoot out into branches. you may thicken or make various modifications in the shape of the fruit. in animals, too, you may produce analogous changes in this way, as in the case of that deep bronze colour which persons rarely lose after having passed any length of time in tropical countries. you may also alter the development of the muscles very much, by dint of training; all the world knows that exercise has a great effect in this way; we always expect to find the arm of a blacksmith hard and wiry, and possessing a large development of the brachial muscles. no doubt, training, which is one of the forms of external conditions, converts what are originally only instructions, teachings, into habits, or, in other words, into organizations, to a great extent; but this second cause of variation cannot be considered to be by any means a large one. the third cause that i have to mention, however, is a very extensive one. it is one that, for want of a better name, has been called "spontaneous variation"; which means that when we do not know anything about the cause of phenomena, we call it spontaneous. in the orderly chain of causes and effects in this world, there are very few things of which it can be said with truth that they are spontaneous. certainly not in these physical matters,--in these there is nothing of the kind,--everything depends on previous conditions. but when we cannot trace the cause of phenomena, we call them spontaneous. of these variations, multitudinous as they are, but little is known with perfect accuracy, i will mention to you some two or three cases, because they are very remarkable in themselves, and also because i shall want to use them afterwards. réaumur, a famous french naturalist, a great many years ago, in an essay which he wrote upon the art of hatching chickens,--which was indeed a very curious essay,--had occasion to speak of variations and monstrosities. one very remarkable case had come under his notice of a variation in the form of a human member, in the person of a maltese, of the name of gratio kelleia, who was born with six fingers upon each hand, and the like number of toes to each of his feet. that was a case of spontaneous variation. nobody knows why he was born with that number of fingers and toes, and as we don't know, we call it a case of "spontaneous" variation. there is another remarkable case also. i select these, because they happen to have been observed and noted very carefully at the time. it frequently happens that a variation occurs, but the persons who notice it do not take any care in noting down the particulars, until at length, when inquiries come to be made, the exact circumstances are forgotten; and hence, multitudinous as may be such "spontaneous" variations, it is exceedingly difficult to get at the origin of them. the second case is one of which you may find the whole details in the "philosophical transactions" for the year , in a paper communicated by colonel humphreys to the president of the royal society,--"on a new variety in the breed of sheep," giving an account of a very remarkable breed of sheep, which at one time was well known in the northern states of america, and which went by the name of the ancon or the otter breed of sheep. in the year , there was a farmer of the name of seth wright in massachusetts, who had a flock of sheep, consisting of a ram and, i think, of some twelve or thirteen ewes. of this flock of ewes, one at the breeding-time bore a lamb which was very singularly formed; it had a very long body, very short legs, and those legs were bowed! i will tell you by-and-by how this singular variation in the breed of sheep came to be noted, and to have the prominence that it now has. for the present, i mention only these two cases; but the extent of variation in the breed of animals is perfectly obvious to any one who has studied natural history with ordinary attention, or to any person who compares animals with others of the same kind. it is strictly true that there are never any two specimens which are exactly alike; however similar, they will always differ in some certain particular. now let us go back to atavism,--to the hereditary tendency i spoke of. what will come of a variation when you breed from it, when atavism comes, if i may say so, to intersect variation? the two cases of which i have mentioned the history, give a most excellent illustration of what occurs. gratio kelleia, the maltese, married when he was twenty-two years of age, and, as i suppose there were no six-fingered ladies in malta, he married an ordinary five-fingered person. the result of that marriage was four children; the first, who was christened salvator, had six fingers and six toes, like his father; the second was george, who had five fingers and toes, but one of them was deformed, showing a tendency to variation; the third was andrè; he had five fingers and five toes, quite perfect; the fourth was a girl, marie; she had five fingers and five toes, but her thumbs were deformed, showing a tendency toward the sixth. these children grew up, and when they came to adult years, they all married, and of course it happened that they all married five-fingered and five-toed persons. now let us see what were the results. salvator had four children; they were two boys, a girl, and another boy: the first two boys and the girl were six-fingered and six-toed like their grandfather; the fourth boy had only five fingers and five toes. george had only four children: there were two girls with six fingers and six toes; there was one girl with six fingers and five toes on the right side, and five fingers and five toes on the left side, so that she was half and half. the last, a boy, had five fingers and five toes. the third, andrè, you will recollect, was perfectly well-formed, and he had many children whose hands and feet were all regularly developed. marie, the last, who, of course, married a man who had only five fingers, had four children: the first, a boy, was born with six toes, but the other three were normal. now observe what very extraordinary phenomena are presented here. you have an accidental variation arising from what you may call a monstrosity; you have that monstrosity tendency or variation diluted in the first instance by an admixture with a female of normal construction, and you would naturally expect that, in the results of such an union, the monstrosity, if repeated, would be in equal proportion with the normal type; that is to say, that the children would be half and half, some taking the peculiarity of the father, and the others being of the purely normal type of the mother; but you see we have a great preponderance of the abnormal type. well, this comes to be mixed once more with the pure, the normal type, and the abnormal is again produced in large proportion, notwithstanding the second dilution. now what would have happened if these abnormal types had intermarried with each other; that is to say, suppose the two boys of salvator had taken it into their heads to marry their first cousins, the two first girls of george, their uncle? you will remember that these are all of the abnormal type of their grandfather. the result would probably have been, that their offspring would have been in every case a further development of that abnormal type. you see it is only in the fourth, in the person of marie, that the tendency, when it appears but slightly in the second generation, is washed out in the third, while the progeny of andrè, who escaped in the first instance, escape altogether. we have in this case a good example of nature's tendency to the perpetuation of a variation. here it is certainly a variation which carried with it no use or benefit; and yet you see the tendency to perpetuation may be so strong, that, notwithstanding a great admixture of pure blood, the variety continues itself up to the third generation, which is largely marked with it. in this case, as i have said, there was no means of the second generation intermarrying with any but five-fingered persons, and the question naturally suggests itself, what would have been the result of such marriage? réaumur narrates this case only as far as the third generation. certainly it would have been an exceedingly curious thing if we could have traced this matter any further; had the cousins intermarried, a six-fingered variety of the human race might have been set up. to show you that this supposition is by no means an unreasonable one, let me now point out what took place in the case of seth wright's sheep, where it happened to be a matter of moment to him to obtain a breed or raise a flock of sheep like that accidental variety that i have described--and i will tell you why. in that part of massachusetts where seth wright was living, the fields were separated by fences, and the sheep, which were very active and robust, would roam abroad, and without much difficulty jump over these fences into other people's farms. as a matter of course, this exuberant activity on the part of the sheep constantly gave rise to all sorts of quarrels, bickerings, and contentions among the farmers of the neighbourhood; so it occurred to seth wright, who was, like his successors, more or less 'cute, that if he could get a stock of sheep like those with the bandy legs, they would not be able to jump over the fences so readily; and he acted upon that idea. he killed his old ram, and as soon as the young one arrived at maturity, he bred altogether from it. the result was even more striking than in the human experiment which i mentioned just now. colonel humphreys testifies that it always happened that the offspring were either pure ancons or pure ordinary sheep; that in no case was there any mixing of the ancons with the others. in consequence of this, in the course of a very few years, the farmer was able to get a very considerable flock of this variety, and a large number of them were spread throughout massachusetts. most unfortunately, however--i suppose it was because they were so common--nobody took enough notice of them to preserve their skeletons; and although colonel humphreys states that he sent a skeleton to the president of the royal society at the same time that he forwarded his paper, i am afraid that the variety has entirely disappeared; for a short time after these sheep had become prevalent in that district, the merino sheep were introduced; and as their wool was much more valuable, and as they were a quiet race of sheep, and showed no tendency to trespass or jump over fences, the otter breed of sheep, the wool of which was inferior to that of the merino, was gradually allowed to die out. you see that these facts illustrate perfectly well what may be done if you take care to breed from stocks that are similar to each other. after having got a variation, if, by crossing a variation with the original stock, you multiply that variation, and then take care to keep that variation distinct from the original stock, and make them breed together,--then you may almost certainly produce a race whose tendency to continue the variation is exceedingly strong. this is what is called "selection"; and it is by exactly the same process as that by which seth wright bred his ancon sheep, that our breeds of cattle, dogs, and fowls, are obtained. there are some possibilities of exception, but still, speaking broadly, i may say that this is the way in which all our varied races of domestic animals have arisen; and you must understand that it is not one peculiarity or one characteristic alone in which animals may vary. there is not a single peculiarity or characteristic of any kind, bodily or mental, in which offspring may not vary to a certain extent from the parent and other animals. among ourselves this is well known. the simplest physical peculiarity is mostly reproduced. i know a case of a woman who has the lobe of one of her ears a little flattened. an ordinary observer might scarcely notice it, and yet every one of her children has an approximation to the same peculiarity to some extent. if you look at the other extreme, too, the gravest diseases, such as gout, scrofula, and consumption, may be handed down with just the same certainty and persistence as we noticed in the perpetuation of the bandy legs of the ancon sheep. however, these facts are best illustrated in animals, and the extent of the variation, as is well known, is very remarkable in dogs. for example, there are some dogs very much smaller than others; indeed, the variation is so enormous that probably the smallest dog would be about the size of the head of the largest; there are very great variations in the structural forms not only of the skeleton but also in the shape of the skull, and in the proportions of the face and the disposition of the teeth. the pointer, the retriever, bulldog, and the terrier, differ very greatly, and yet there is every reason to believe that every one of these races has arisen from the same source,--that all the most important races have arisen by this selective breeding from accidental variation. a still more striking case of what may be done by selective breeding, and it is a better case, because there is no chance of that partial infusion of error to which i alluded, has been studied very carefully by mr. darwin,--the case of the domestic pigeons. i dare say there may be some among you who may be pigeon _fanciers_, and i wish you to understand that in approaching the subject, i would speak with all humility and hesitation, as i regret to say that i am not a pigeon fancier. i know it is a great art and mystery, and a thing upon which a man must not speak lightly; but i shall endeavour, as far as my understanding goes, to give you a summary of the published and unpublished information which i have gained from mr. darwin. among the enormous variety,--i believe there are somewhere about a hundred and fifty kinds of pigeons,--there are four kinds which may be selected as representing the extremest divergences of one kind from another. their names are the carrier, the pouter, the fantail, and the tumbler. in these large diagrams that i have here they are each represented in their relative sizes to each other. this first one is the carrier; you will notice this large excrescence on its beak; it has a comparatively small head; there is a bare space round the eyes; it has a long neck, a very long beak, very strong legs, large feet, long wings, and so on. the second one is the pouter, a very large bird, with very long legs and beak. it is called the pouter because it is in the habit of causing its gullet to swell up by inflating it with air. i should tell you that all pigeons have a tendency to do this at times, but in the pouter it is carried to an enormous extent. the birds appear to be quite proud of their power of swelling and puffing themselves out in this way; and i think it is about as droll a sight as you can well see to look at a cage full of these pigeons puffing and blowing themselves out in this ridiculous manner. this diagram is a representation of the third kind i mentioned--the fantail. it is, you see, a small bird, with exceedingly small legs and a very small beak. it is most curiously distinguished by the size and extent of its tail, which, instead of containing twelve feathers, may have many more,--say thirty, or even more--i believe there are some with as many as forty-two. this bird has a curious habit of spreading out the feathers of its tail in such a way that they reach forward, and touch its head; and if this can be accomplished, i believe it is looked upon as a point of great beauty. but here is the last great variety,--the tumbler; and of that great variety, one of the principal kinds, and one most prized, is the specimen represented here--the short-faced tumbler. its beak, you see, is reduced to a mere nothing. just compare the beak of this one and that of the first one, the carrier--i believe the orthodox comparison of the head and beak of a thoroughly well-bred tumbler is to stick an oat into a cherry, and that will give you the proper relative proportions of the beak and head. the feet and legs are exceedingly small, and the bird appears to be quite a dwarf when placed side by side with this great carrier. these are differences enough in regard to their external appearance; but these differences are by no means the whole or even the most important of the differences which obtain between these birds. there is hardly a single point of their structure which has not become more or less altered; and to give you an idea of how extensive these alterations are, i have here some very good skeletons, for which i am indebted to my friend mr. tegetmeier, a great authority in these matters; by means of which, if you examine them by-and-by, you will be able to see the enormous difference in their bony structures. i had the privilege, some time ago, of access to some important mss. of mr. darwin, who, i may tell you, has taken very great pains and spent much valuable time and attention on the investigation of these variations, and getting together all the facts that bear upon them. i obtained from these mss. the following summary of the differences between the domestic breeds of pigeons; that is to say, a notification of the various points in which their organization differs. in the first place, the back of the skull may differ a good deal, and the development of the bones of the face may vary a great deal; the back varies a good deal; the shape of the lower jaw varies; the tongue varies very greatly, not only in correlation to the length and size of the beak, but it seems also to have a kind of independent variation of its own. then the amount of naked skin round the eyes, and at the base of the beak, may vary enormously; so may the length of the eyelids, the shape of the nostrils, and the length of the neck. i have already noticed the habit of blowing out the gullet, so remarkable in the pouter, and comparatively so in the others. there are great differences, too, in the size of the female and the male, the shape of the body, the number and width of the processes of the ribs, the development of the ribs, and the size, shape, and development of the breastbone. we may notice, too,--and i mention the fact because it has been disputed by what is assumed to be high authority,--the variation in the number of the sacral vertebræ. the number of these varies from eleven to fourteen, and that without any diminution in the number of the vertebræ of the back or of the tail. then the number and position of the tail-feathers may vary enormously, and so may the number of the primary and secondary feathers of the wings. again, the length of the feet and of the beak,--although they have no relation to each other, yet appear to go together,--that is, you have a long beak wherever you have long feet. there are differences also in the periods of the acquirement of the perfect plumage,--the size and shape of the eggs,--the nature of flight, and the powers of flight,--so-called "_homing_" birds having enormous flying powers;[ ] while, on the other hand, the little tumbler is so called because of its extraordinary faculty of turning head over heels in the air, instead of pursuing a distinct course. and, lastly, the dispositions and voices of the birds may vary. thus the case of the pigeons shows you that there is hardly a single particular,--whether of instinct, or habit, or bony structure, or of plumage,--of either the internal economy or the external shape, in which some variation or change may not take place, which, by selective breeding, may become perpetuated, and form the foundation of, and give rise to, a new race. if you carry in your mind's eye these four varieties of pigeons, you will bear with you as good a notion as you can have, perhaps, of the enormous extent to which a deviation from a primitive type may be carried by means of this process of selective breeding. footnotes: [ ] the "_carrier_," i learn from mr. tegetmeier, does not _carry_; a high-bred bird of this breed being but a poor flier. the birds which fly long distances, and come home,--"homing" birds,--and are consequently used as carriers, are not "carriers" in the fancy sense. viii the conditions of existence as affecting the perpetuation of living beings. in the last lecture i endeavoured to prove to you that, while, as a general rule, organic beings tend to reproduce their kind, there is in them, also, a constantly recurring tendency to vary--to vary to a greater or to a less extent. such a variety, i pointed out to you, might arise from causes which we do not understand; we therefore called it spontaneous; and it might come into existence as a definite and marked thing, without any gradations between itself and the form which preceded it. i further pointed out, that such a variety having once arisen, might be perpetuated to some extent, and indeed to a very marked extent, without any direct interference, or without any exercise of that process which we called selection. and then i stated further, that by such selection, when exercised artificially--if you took care to breed only from those forms which presented the same peculiarities of any variety which had arisen in this manner--the variation might be perpetuated, as far as we can see, indefinitely. the next question, and it is an important one for us, is this: is there any limit to the amount of variation from the primitive stock which can be produced by this process of selective breeding? in considering this question, it will be useful to class the characteristics, in respect of which organic beings vary, under two heads: we may consider structural characteristics, and we may consider physiological characteristics. in the first place, as regards structural characteristics, i endeavoured to show you, by the skeletons which i had upon the table, and by reference to a great many well-ascertained facts, that the different breeds of pigeons, the carriers, pouters, and tumblers, might vary in any of their internal and important structural characters to a very great degree; not only might there be changes in the proportions of the skull, and the characters of the feet and beaks, and so on; but that there might be an absolute difference in the number of the vertebræ of the back, as in the sacral vertebræ of the pouter; and so great is the extent of the variation in these and similar characters that i pointed out to you, by reference to the skeletons and the diagrams, that these extreme varieties may absolutely differ more from one another in their structural characters than do what naturalists call distinct species of pigeons; that is to say, that they differ so much in structure that there is a greater difference between the pouter and the tumbler than there is between such wild and distinct forms as the rock pigeon or the ring pigeon, or the ring pigeon and the stock dove; and indeed the differences are of greater value than this, for the structural differences between these domesticated pigeons are such as would be admitted by a naturalist, supposing he knew nothing at all about their origin, to entitle them to constitute even distinct genera. as i have used this term species, and shall probably use it a good deal, i had better perhaps devote a word or two to explaining what i mean by it. animals and plants are divided into groups, which become gradually smaller, beginning with a kingdom, which is divided into sub-kingdoms; then come the smaller divisions called provinces; and so on from a province to a class, from a class to an order, from _orders_ to _families_, and from these to genera, until we come at length to the smallest groups of animals which can be defined one from the other by constant characters, which are not sexual; and these are what naturalists call species in practice, whatever they may do in theory. if in a state of nature you find any two groups of living beings, which are separated one from the other by some constantly-recurring characteristic, i don't care how slight and trivial, so long as it is defined and constant, and does not depend on sexual peculiarities, then all naturalists agree in calling them two species; that is what is meant by the use of the word species--that is to say, it is, for the practical naturalist, a mere question of structural differences.[ ] we have seen now--to repeat this point once more, and it is very essential that we should rightly understand it--we have seen that breeds, known to have been derived from a common stock by selection, may be as different in their structure from the original stock as species may be distinct from each other. but is the like true of the physiological characteristics of animals? do the physiological differences of varieties amount in degree to those observed between forms which naturalists call distinct species? this is a most important point for us to consider. as regards the great majority of physiological characteristics, there is no doubt that they are capable of being developed, increased, and modified by selection. there is no doubt that breeds may be made as different as species in many physiological characters. i have already pointed out to you very briefly the different habits of the breeds of pigeons, all of which depend upon their physiological peculiarities,--as the peculiar habit of tumbling, in the tumbler,--the peculiarities of flight, in the "homing" birds,--the strange habit of spreading out the tail, and walking in a peculiar fashion, in the fantail,--and, lastly, the habit of blowing out the gullet, so characteristic of the pouter. these are all due to physiological modifications, and in all these respects these birds differ as much from each other as any two ordinary species do. so with dogs in their habits and instincts. it is a physiological peculiarity which leads the greyhound to chase its prey by sight,--that enables the beagle to track it by the scent,--that impels the terrier to its rat-hunting propensity,--and that leads the retriever to its habits of retrieving. these habits and instincts are all the results of physiological differences and peculiarities, which have been developed from a common stock, at least there is every reason to believe so. but it is a most singular circumstance, that while you may run through almost the whole series of physiological processes, without finding a check to your argument, you come at last to a point where you do find a check, and that is in the reproductive processes. for there is a most singular circumstance in respect to natural species--at least about some of them--and it would be sufficient for the purposes of this argument, if it were true of only one of them, but there is, in fact, a great number of such cases--and that is, that similar as they may appear to be to mere races or breeds, they present a marked peculiarity in the reproductive process. if you breed from the male and female of the same race, you of course have offspring of the like kind, and if you make the offspring breed together, you obtain the same result, and if you breed from these again, you will still have the same kind of offspring; there is no check. but if you take members of two distinct species, however similar they may be to each other, and make them breed together, you will find a check, with some modifications and exceptions, however, which i shall speak of presently. if you cross two such species with each other, then,--although you may get offspring in the case of the first cross, yet, if you attempt to breed from the products of that crossing, which are what are called hybrids--that is, if you couple a male and a female hybrid--then the result is that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred you will get no offspring at all: there will be no result whatsoever. the reason of this is quite obvious in some cases; the male hybrids, although possessing all the external appearances and characteristics of perfect animals, are physiologically imperfect and deficient in the structural parts of the reproductive elements necessary to generation. it is said to be invariably the case with the male mule, the cross between the ass and the mare; and hence it is, that, although crossing the horse with the ass is easy enough, and is constantly done, as far as i am aware, if you take two mules, a male and a female, and endeavour to breed from them, you get no offspring whatever; no generation will take place. this is what is called the sterility of the hybrids between two distinct species. you see that this is a very extraordinary circumstance; one does not see why it should be. the common teleological explanation is, that it is to prevent the impurity of the blood resulting from the crossing of one species with another, but you see it does not in reality do anything of the kind. there is nothing in this fact that hybrids cannot breed with each other, to establish such a theory; there is nothing to prevent the horse breeding with the ass, or the ass with the horse. so that this explanation breaks down, as a great many explanations of this kind do, that are only founded on mere assumptions. thus you see that there is a great difference between "mongrels," which are crosses between distinct races, and "hybrids," which are crosses between distinct species. the mongrels are, so far as we know, fertile with one another. but between species, in many cases, you cannot succeed in obtaining even the first cross: at any rate it is quite certain that the hybrids are often absolutely infertile one with another. here is a feature, then, great or small as it may be, which distinguishes natural species of animals. can we find any approximation to this in the different races known to be produced by selective breeding from a common stock? up to the present time the answer to that question is absolutely a negative one. as far as we know at present, there is nothing approximating to this check. in crossing the breeds between the fantail and the pouter, the carrier and the tumbler, or any other variety or race you may name--so far as we know at present--there is no difficulty in breeding together the mongrels. take the carrier and the fantail, for instance, and let them represent the horse and the ass in the case of distinct species; then you have, as the result of their breeding, the carrier-fantail mongrel,--we will say the male and female mongrel,--and, as far as we know, these two when crossed would not be less fertile than the original cross, or than carrier with carrier. here, you see, is a physiological contrast between the races produced by selective modification and natural species. i shall inquire into the value of this fact, and of some modifying circumstances by and by; for the present i merely put it broadly before you. but while considering this question of the limitations of species, a word must be said about what is called recurrence--the tendency of races which have been developed by selective breeding from varieties to return to their primitive type. this is supposed by many to put an absolute limit to the extent of selective and all other variations. people say, "it is all very well to talk about producing these different races, but you know very well that if you turned all these birds wild, these pouters, and carriers, and so on, they would all return to their primitive stock." this is very commonly assumed to be a fact, and it is an argument that is commonly brought forward as conclusive; but if you will take the trouble to inquire into it rather closely, i think you will find that it is not worth very much. the first question of course is, do they thus return to the primitive stock? and commonly as the thing is assumed and accepted, it is extremely difficult to get anything like good evidence of it. it is constantly said, for example, that if domesticated horses are turned wild, as they have been in some parts of asia minor and south america, that they return at once to the primitive stock from which they were bred. but the first answer that you make to this assumption is, to ask who knows what the primitive stock was; and the second answer is, that in that case the wild horses of asia minor ought to be exactly like the wild horses of south america. if they are both like the same thing, they ought manifestly to be like each other! the best authorities, however, tell you that it is quite different. the wild horse of asia is said to be of a dun colour, with a largish head, and a great many other peculiarities; while the best authorities on the wild horses of south america tell you that there is no similarity between their wild horses and those of asia minor; the cut of their heads is very different, and they are commonly chestnut or bay-coloured. it is quite clear, therefore, that as by these facts there ought to have been two primitive stocks, they go for nothing in support of the assumption that races recur to one primitive stock, and so far as this evidence is concerned, it falls to the ground. suppose for a moment that it were so, and that domesticated races, when turned wild, did return to some common condition, i cannot see that this would prove much more than that similar conditions are likely to produce similar results; and that when you take back domesticated animals into what we call natural conditions, you do exactly the same thing as if you carefully undid all the work you had gone through, for the purpose of bringing the animal from its wild to its domesticated state. i do not see anything very wonderful in the fact, if it took all that trouble to get it from a wild state, that it should go back into its original state as soon as you removed the conditions which produced the variation to the domesticated form. there is an important fact, however, forcibly brought forward by mr. darwin, which has been noticed in connection with the breeding of domesticated pigeons; and it is, that however different these breeds of pigeons may be from each other, and we have already noticed the great differences in these breeds, that if, among any of those variations, you chance to have a blue pigeon turn up, it will be sure to have the black bars across the wings, which are characteristic of the original wild stock, the rock pigeon. now, this is certainly a very remarkable circumstance; but i do not see myself how it tells very strongly either one way or the other. i think, in fact, that this argument in favour of recurrence to the primitive type might prove a great deal too much for those who so constantly bring it forward. for example, mr. darwin has very forcibly urged, that nothing is commoner than if you examine a dun horse--and i had an opportunity of verifying this illustration lately, while in the islands of the west highlands, where there are a great many dun horses--to find that horse exhibit a long black stripe down his back, very often stripes on his shoulder, and very often stripes on his legs. i, myself, saw a pony of this description a short time ago, in a baker's cart, near rothesay, in bute: it had the long stripe down the back, and stripes on the shoulders and legs, just like those of the ass, the quagga, and the zebra. now, if we interpret the theory of recurrence as applied to this case, might it not be said that here was a case of a variation exhibiting the characters and conditions of an animal occupying something like an intermediate position between the horse, the ass, the quagga, and the zebra, and from which these had been developed? in the same way with regard even to man. every anatomist will tell you that there is nothing commoner, in dissecting the human body, than to meet with what are called muscular variations--that is, if you dissect two bodies very carefully, you will probably find that the modes of attachment and insertion of the muscles are not exactly the same in both, there being great peculiarities in the mode in which the muscles are arranged; and it is very singular, that in some dissections of the human body you will come upon arrangements of the muscles very similar indeed to the same parts in the apes. is the conclusion in that case to be, that this is like the black bars in the case of the pigeon, and that it indicates a recurrence to the primitive type from which the animals have been probably developed? truly, i think that the opponents of modification and variation had better leave the argument of recurrence alone, or it may prove altogether too strong for them. to sum up,--the evidence as far as we have gone is against the argument as to any limit to divergences, so far as structure is concerned; and in favour of a physiological limitation. by selective breeding we can produce structural divergences as great as those of species, but we cannot produce equal physiological divergences. for the present i leave the question there. now, the next problem that lies before us--and it is an extremely important one--is this: does this selective breeding occur in nature? because, if there is no proof of it, all that i have been telling you goes for nothing in accounting for the origin of species. are natural causes competent to play the part of selection in perpetuating varieties? here we labour under very great difficulties. in the last lecture i had occasion to point out to you the extreme difficulty of obtaining evidence even of the first origin of those varieties which we know to have occurred in domesticated animals. i told you, that almost always the origin of these varieties is overlooked, so that i could only produce two or three cases, as that of gratio kelleia and of the ancon sheep. people forget, or do not take notice of them until they come to have a prominence; and if that is true of artificial cases, under our own eyes, and in animals in our own care, how much more difficult it must be to have at first hand good evidence of the origin of varieties in nature! indeed, i do not know that it is possible by direct evidence to prove the origin of a variety in nature, or to prove selective breeding; but i will tell you what we can prove--and this comes to the same thing--that varieties exist in nature within the limits of species, and, what is more, that when a variety has come into existence in nature, there are natural causes and conditions, which are amply competent to play the part of a selective breeder; and although that is not quite the evidence that one would like to have--though it is not direct testimony--yet it is exceeding good and exceedingly powerful evidence in its way. as to the first point, of varieties existing among natural species, i might appeal to the universal experience of every naturalist, and of any person who has ever turned any attention at all to the characteristics of plants and animals in a state of nature; but i may as well take a few definite cases, and i will begin with man himself. i am one of those who believe that, at present, there is no evidence whatever for saying, that mankind sprang originally from any more than a single pair; i must say, that i cannot see any good ground whatever, or even any tenable sort of evidence, for believing that there is more than one species of man. nevertheless, as you know, just as there are numbers of varieties in animals, so there are remarkable varieties of men. i speak not merely of those broad and distinct variations which you see at a glance. everybody, of course, knows the difference between a negro and a white man, and can tell a chinaman from an englishman. they each have peculiar characteristics of colour and physiognomy; but you must recollect that the characters of these races go very far deeper--they extend to the bony structure, and to the characters of that most important of all organs to us--the brain; so that, among men belonging to different races, or even within the same race, one man shall have a brain a third, or half, or even seventy per cent bigger than another; and if you take the whole range of human brains, you will find a variation in some cases of a hundred per cent. apart from these variations in the size of the brain, the characters of the skull vary. thus if i draw the figures of a mongul and of a negro head on the blackboard, in the case of the last the breadth would be about seven-tenths, and in the other it would be nine-tenths of the total length. so that you see there is abundant evidence of variation among men in their natural condition. and if you turn to other animals there is just the same thing. the fox, for example, which has a very large geographical distribution all over europe, and parts of asia, and on the american continent, varies greatly. there are mostly large foxes in the north, and smaller ones in the south. in germany alone, the foresters reckon some eight different sorts. of the tiger, no one supposes that there is more than one species; they extend from the hottest parts of bengal, into the dry, cold, bitter steppes of siberia, into a latitude of °,--so that they may even prey upon the reindeer. these tigers have exceedingly different characteristics, but still they all keep their general features, so that there is no doubt as to their being tigers. the siberian tiger has a thick fur, a small mane, and a longitudinal stripe down the back, while the tigers of java and sumatra differ in many important respects from the tigers of northern asia. so lions vary; so birds vary; and so, if you go further back and lower down in creation, you find that fishes vary. in different streams, in the same country even, you will find the trout to be quite different to each other and easily recognizable by those who fish in the particular streams. there is the same differences in leeches; leech collectors can easily point out to you the differences and the peculiarities which you yourself would probably pass by; so with fresh-water mussels; so, in fact, with every animal you can mention. in plants there is the same kind of variation. take such a case even as the common bramble. the botanists are all at war about it; some of them wanting to make out that there are many species of it, and others maintaining that they are but many varieties of one species; and they cannot settle to this day which is a species and which is a variety! so that there can be no doubt whatsoever that any plant and any animal may vary in nature; that varieties may arise in the way i have described,--as spontaneous varieties,--and that those varieties may be perpetuated in the same way that i have shown you spontaneous varieties are perpetuated; i say, therefore, that there can be no doubt as to the origin and perpetuation of varieties in nature. but the question now is:--does selection take place in nature? is there anything like the operation of man in exercising selective breeding, taking place in nature? you will observe that, at present, i say nothing about species; i wish to confine myself to the consideration of the production of those natural races which everybody admits to exist. the question is, whether in nature there are causes competent to produce races, just in the same way as man is able to produce, by selection, such races of animals as we have already noticed. when a variety has arisen, the conditions of existence are such as to exercise an influence which is exactly comparable to that of artificial selection. by conditions of existence i mean two things,--there are conditions which are furnished by the physical, the inorganic world, and there are conditions of existence which are furnished by the organic world. there is, in the first place, climate; under that head i include only temperature and the varied amount of moisture of particular places. in the next place there is what is technically called station, which means--given the climate, the particular kind of place in which an animal or a plant lives or grows; for example, the station of a fish is in the water, of a fresh-water fish in fresh water; the station of a marine fish is in the sea, and a marine animal may have a station higher or deeper. so again with land animals: the differences in their stations are those of different soils and neighbourhoods; some being best adapted to a calcareous, and others to an arenaceous soil. the third condition of existence is food, by which i mean food in the broadest sense, the supply of the materials necessary to the existence of an organic being; in the case of a plant the inorganic matters, such as carbonic acid, water, ammonia, and the earthy salts or salines; in the case of the animal the inorganic and organic matters, which we have seen they require; then these are all, at least the two first, what we may call the inorganic or physical conditions of existence. food takes a mid-place, and then come the organic conditions; by which i mean the conditions which depend upon the state of the rest of the organic creation, upon the number and kind of living beings, with which an animal is surrounded. you may class these under two heads: there are organic beings, which operate as _opponents_, and there are organic beings which operate as _helpers_ to any given organic creature. the opponents may be of two kinds: there are the _indirect opponents_, which are what we may call _rivals_; and there are the _direct opponents_, those which strive to destroy the creature; and these we call _enemies_. by rivals i mean, of course, in the case of plants, those which require for their support the same kind of soil and station, and, among animals, those which require the same kind of station, or food, or climate; those are the indirect opponents; the direct opponents are, of course, those which prey upon an animal or vegetable. the _helpers_ may also be regarded as direct and indirect: in the case of a carnivorous animal, for example, a particular herbaceous plant may in multiplying be an indirect helper, by enabling the herbivora on which the carnivore preys to get more food, and thus to nourish the carnivore more abundantly; the direct helper may be best illustrated by reference to some parasitic creature, such as the tape-worm. the tape-worm exists in the human intestines, so that the fewer there are of men the fewer there will be of tape-worms, other things being alike. it is a humiliating reflection, perhaps, that we may be classed as direct helpers to the tape-worm, but the fact is so: we can all see that if there were no men there would be no tape-worms. it is extremely difficult to estimate, in a proper way, the importance and the working of the conditions of existence. i do not think there were any of us who had the remotest notion of properly estimating them until the publication of mr. darwin's work, which has placed them before us with remarkable clearness; and i must endeavour, as far as i can in my own fashion, to give you some notion of how they work. we shall find it easiest to take a simple case, and one as free as possible from every kind of complication. i will suppose, therefore, that all the habitable part of this globe--the dry land, amounting to about , , square miles,--i will suppose that the whole of that dry land has the same climate, and that it is composed of the same kind of rock or soil, so that there will be the same station everywhere; we thus get rid of the peculiar influence of different climates and stations. i will then imagine that there shall be but one organic being in the world, and that shall be a plant. in this we start fair. its food is to be carbonic acid, water and ammonia, and the saline matters in the soil, which are, by the supposition, everywhere alike. we take one single plant, with no opponents, no helpers, and no rivals; it is to be a "fair field, and no favour." now, i will ask you to imagine further that it shall be a plant which shall produce every year fifty seeds, which is a very moderate number for a plant to produce; and that, by the action of the winds and currents, these seeds shall be equally and gradually distributed over the whole surface of the land. i want you now to trace out what will occur, and you will observe that i am not talking fallaciously any more than a mathematician does when he expounds his problem. if you show that the conditions of your problem are such as may actually occur in nature and do not transgress any of the known laws of nature in working out your proposition, then you are as safe in the conclusion you arrive at as is the mathematician in arriving at the solution of his problem. in science, the only way of getting rid of the complications with which a subject of this kind is environed, is to work in this deductive method. what will be the result, then? i will suppose that every plant requires one square foot of ground to live upon; and the result will be that, in the course of nine years, the plant will have occupied every single available spot in the whole globe! i have chalked upon the blackboard the figures by which i arrive at the result:-- plants. plants. × in st year = × " nd " = , , × " rd " = , , × " th " = , , , , × " th " = , , , , × " th " = , , , , , , × " th " = , , , , , , × " th " = , , , , , , , , × " th " = , , , , , , , sq. miles--the dry surface} of the earth × , , --the } = sq. ft. , , , , , number of sq. ft. in sq. mile } --------------------- being , , , , square feet less than would be required at the end of the ninth year. you will see from this that, at the end of the first year the single plant will have produced fifty more of its kind; by the end of the second year these will have increased to ; and so on, in succeeding years, you get beyond even trillions; and i am not at all sure that i could tell you what the proper arithmetical denomination of the total number really is; but, at any rate, you will understand the meaning of all those noughts. then you see that, at the bottom, i have taken the , , of square miles, constituting the surface of the dry land; and as the number of square feet are placed under and subtracted from the number of seeds that would be produced in the ninth year, you can see at once that there would be an immense number more of plants than there would be square feet of ground for their accommodation. this is certainly quite enough to prove my point; that between the eighth and ninth year after being planted the single plant would have stocked the whole available surface of the earth. this is a thing which is hardly conceivable--it seems hardly imaginable--yet it is so. it is indeed simply the law of malthus exemplified. mr. malthus was a clergy-man, who worked out this subject most minutely and truthfully some years ago; he showed quite clearly,--and although he was much abused for his conclusions at the time, they have never yet been disproved and never will be--he showed that in consequence of the increase in the number of organic beings in a geometrical ratio, while the means of existence cannot be made to increase in the same ratio, that there must come a time when the number of organic beings will be in excess of the power of production of nutriment, and that thus some check must arise to the further increase of those organic beings. at the end of the ninth year we have seen that each plant would not be able to get its full square foot of ground, and at the end of another year it would have to share that space with fifty others the produce of the seeds which it would give off. what, then, takes place? every plant grows up, flourishes, occupies its square foot of ground, and gives off its fifty seeds; but notice this, that out of this number only one can come to anything; there is thus, as it were, forty-nine chances to one against its growing up; it depends upon the most fortuitous circumstances whether any one of these fifty seeds shall grow up and flourish, or whether it shall die and perish. this is what mr. darwin has drawn attention to, and called the "struggle for existence"; and i have taken this simple case of a plant because some people imagine that the phrase seems to imply a sort of fight. i have taken this plant and shown you that this is the result of the ratio of the increase, the necessary result of the arrival of a time coming for every species when exactly as many members must be destroyed as are born; that is the inevitable ultimate result of the rate of production. now, what is the result of all this? i have said that there are forty-nine struggling against every one; and it amounts to this, that the smallest possible start given to any one seed may give it an advantage which will enable it to get ahead of all the others; anything that will enable any one of these seeds to germinate six hours before any of the others will, other things being alike, enable it to choke them out altogether. i have shown you that there is no particular in which plants will not vary from each other; it is quite possible that one of our imaginary plants may vary in such a character as the thickness of the integument of its seeds; it might happen that one of the plants might produce seeds having a thinner integument, and that would enable the seeds of that plant to germinate a little quicker than those of any of the others, and those seeds would most inevitably extinguish the forty-nine times as many that were struggling with them. i have put it in this way, but you see the practical result of the process is the same as if some person had nurtured the one and destroyed the other seeds. it does not matter how the variation is produced, so long as it is once allowed to occur. the variation in the plant once fairly started tends to become hereditary and reproduce itself; the seeds would spread themselves in the same way and take part in the struggle with the forty-nine hundred, or forty-nine thousand, with which they might be exposed. thus, by degrees, this variety with some slight organic change or modification, must spread itself over the whole surface of the habitable globe, and extirpate or replace the other kinds. that is what is meant by natural selection; that is the kind of argument by which it is perfectly demonstrable that the conditions of existence may play exactly the same part for natural varieties as man does for domesticated varieties. no one doubts at all that particular circumstances may be more favourable for one plant and less so for another, and the moment you admit that, you admit the selective power of nature. now, although i have been putting a hypothetical case, you must not suppose that i have been reasoning hypothetically. there are plenty of direct experiments which bear out what we may call the theory of natural selection; there is extremely good authority for the statement that if you take the seed of mixed varieties of wheat and sow it, collecting the seed next year and sowing it again, at length you will find that out of all your varieties only two or three have lived, or perhaps even only one. there were one or two varieties which were best fitted to get on, and they have killed out the other kinds in just the same way and with just the same certainty as if you had taken the trouble to remove them. as i have already said, the operation of nature is exactly the same as the artificial operation of man. but if this be true of that simple case, which i put before you, where there is nothing but the rivalry of one member of a species with others, what must be the operation of selective conditions, when you recollect as a matter of fact, that for every species of animal or plant there are fifty or a hundred species which might all, more or less, be comprehended in the same climate, food, and station;--that every plant has multitudinous animals which prey upon it, and which are its direct opponents; and that these have other animals preying upon them,--that every plant has its indirect helpers in the birds that scatter abroad its seed, and the animals that manure it with their dung;--i say, when these things are considered, it seems impossible that any variation which may arise in a species in nature should not tend in some way or other either to be a little better or worse than the previous stock; if it is a little better it will have an advantage over and tend to extirpate the latter in this crush and struggle; and if it is a little worse it will itself be extirpated. i know nothing that more appropriately expresses this, than the phrase, "the struggle for existence"; because it brings before your minds, in a vivid sort of way, some of the simplest possible circumstances connected with it. when a struggle is intense there must be some who are sure to be trodden down, crushed, and overpowered by others; and there will be some who just manage to get through only by the help of the slightest accident. i recollect reading an account of the famous retreat of the french troops, under napoleon, from moscow. worn out, tired, and dejected, they at length came to a great river over which there was but one bridge for the passage of the vast army. disorganized and demoralized as that army was, the struggle must certainly have been a terrible one--every one heeding only himself, and crushing through the ranks and treading down his fellows. the writer of the narrative, who was himself one of those who were fortunate enough to succeed in getting over, and not among the thousands who were left behind or forced into the river, ascribed his escape to the fact that he saw striding onward through the mass a great strong fellow,--one of the french cuirassiers, who had on a large blue cloak--and he had enough presence of mind to catch and retain a hold of this strong man's cloak. he says, "i caught hold of his cloak, and although he swore at me and cut at and struck me by turns, and at last, when he found he could not shake me off, fell to entreating me to leave go or i should prevent him from escaping, besides not assisting myself, i still kept tight hold of him, and would not quit my grasp until he had at last dragged me through." here you see was a case of selective saving--if we may so term it--depending for its success on the strength of the cloth of the cuirassier's cloak. it is the same in nature; every species has its bridge of beresina; it has to fight its way through and struggle with other species; and when well nigh overpowered, it may be that the smallest chance, something in its colour, perhaps--the minutest circumstance--will turn the scale one way or the other. suppose that by a variation of the black race it had produced the white man at any time--you know that the negroes are said to believe this to have been the case, and to imagine that cain was the first white man, and that we are his descendants--suppose that this had ever happened, and that the first residence of this human being was on the west coast of africa. there is no great structural difference between the white man and the negro, and yet there is something so singularly different in the constitution of the two, that the malarias of that country, which do not hurt the black at all, cut off and destroy the white. then you see there would have been a selective operation performed; if the white man had risen in that way, he would have been selected out and removed by means of the malaria. now there really is a very curious case of selection of this sort among pigs, and it is a case of selection of colour, too. in the woods of florida there are a great many pigs, and it is a very curious thing that they are all black, every one of them. professor wyman was there some years ago, and on noticing no pigs but these black ones, he asked some of the people how it was that they had no white pigs, and the reply was that in the woods of florida there was a root which they called the paint root, and that if the white pigs were to eat any of it, it had the effect of making their hoofs crack, and they died, but if the black pigs ate any of it, it did not hurt them at all. here was a very simple case of natural selection. a skilful breeder could not more carefully develop the black breed of pigs, and weed out all the white pigs, than the paint root does. to show you how remarkably indirect may be such natural selective agencies as i have referred to, i will conclude by noticing a case mentioned by mr. darwin, and which is certainly one of the most curious of its kind. it is that of the humble bee. it has been noticed that there are a great many more humble bees in the neighbourhood of towns, than out in the open country; and the explanation of the matter is this: the humble bees build nests, in which they store their honey and deposit the larvæ and eggs. the field mice are amazingly fond of the honey and larvæ; therefore, wherever there are plenty of field mice, as in the country, the humble bees are kept down; but in the neighbourhood of towns, the number of cats which prowl about the fields eat up the field mice, and of course the more mice they eat up the less there are to prey upon the larvæ of the bees--the cats are therefore the indirect helpers of the bees.[ ] coming back a step farther we may say that the old maids are also indirect friends of the humble bees, and indirect enemies of the field mice, as they keep the cats which eat up the latter! this is an illustration somewhat beneath the dignity of the subject, perhaps, but it occurs to me in passing, and with it i will conclude this lecture. footnotes: [ ] i lay stress here on the _practical_ signification of "species." whether a physiological test between species exist or not, it is hardly ever applicable by the practical naturalist. [ ] the humble bees, on the other hand, are direct helpers of some plants, such as the heartsease and red clover, which are fertilized by the visits of the bees; and they are indirect helpers of the numerous insects which are more or less completely supported by the heartsease and red clover. ix a critical examination of the position of mr. darwin's work, "on the origin of species," in relation to the complete theory of the causes of the phenomena of organic nature. in the preceding lectures i have endeavoured to give you an account of those facts, and of those reasonings from facts, which form the data upon which all theories regarding the causes of the phenomena of organic nature must be based. and, although i have had frequent occasion to quote mr. darwin--as all persons hereafter, in speaking upon these subjects, will have occasion to quote his famous book on the "origin of species,"--you must yet remember that, wherever i have quoted him, it has not been upon theoretical points, or for statements in any way connected with his particular speculations, but on matters of fact, brought forward by himself, or collected by himself, and which appear incidentally in his book. if a man _will_ make a book, professing to discuss a single question, an encyclopædia, i cannot help it. now, having had an opportunity of considering in this sort of way the different statements bearing upon all theories whatsoever, i have to lay before you, as fairly as i can, what is mr. darwin's view of the matter and what position his theories hold, when judged by the principles which i have previously laid down, as deciding our judgments upon all theories and hypotheses. i have already stated to you that the inquiry respecting the causes of the phenomena of organic nature resolves itself into two problems--the first being the question of the origination of living or organic beings; and the second being the totally distinct problem of the modification and perpetuation of organic beings when they have already come into existence. the first question mr. darwin does not touch; he does not deal with it at all; but he says:--"given the origin of organic matter--supposing its creation to have already taken place, my object is to show in consequence of what laws and what demonstrable properties of organic matter, and of its environments, such states of organic nature as those with which we are acquainted must have come about." this, you will observe, is a perfectly legitimate proposition; every person has a right to define the limits of the inquiry which he sets before himself; and yet it is a most singular thing that in all the multifarious, and, not unfrequently, ignorant attacks which have been made upon the "origin of species," there is nothing which has been more speciously criticised than this particular limitation. if people have nothing else to urge against the book, they say--"well, after all, you see mr. darwin's explanation of the 'origin of species' is not good for much, because, in the long run, he admits that he does not know how organic matter began to exist. but if you admit any special creation for the first particle of organic matter you may just as well admit it for all the rest; five hundred or five thousand distinct creations are just as intelligible, and just as little difficult to understand, as one." the answer to these cavils is two-fold. in the first place, all human inquiry must stop somewhere; all our knowledge and all our investigation cannot take us beyond the limits set by the finite and restricted character of our faculties, or destroy the endless unknown, which accompanies, like its shadow, the endless procession of phenomena. so far as i can venture to offer an opinion on such a matter, the purpose of our being in existence, the highest object that human beings can set before themselves, is not the pursuit of any such chimera as the annihilation of the unknown; but it is simply the unwearied endeavour to remove its boundaries a little further from our little sphere of action. i wonder if any historian would for a moment admit the objection, that it is preposterous to trouble ourselves about the history of the roman empire, because we do not know anything positive about the origin and first building of the city of rome! would it be a fair objection to urge, respecting the sublime discoveries of a newton, or a kepler, those great philosophers, whose discoveries have been of the profoundest benefit and service to all men,--to say to them--"after all that you have told us as to how the planets revolve, and how they are maintained in their orbits, you cannot tell us what is the cause of the origin of the sun, moon, and stars. so what is the use of what you have done?" yet these objections would not be one whit more preposterous than the objections which have been made to the "origin of species." mr. darwin, then, had a perfect right to limit his inquiry as he pleased, and the only question for us--the inquiry being so limited--is to ascertain whether the method of his inquiry is sound or unsound; whether he has obeyed the canons which must guide and govern all investigation, or whether he has broken them; and it was because our inquiry this evening is essentially limited to that question, that i spent a good deal of time in a former lecture (which, perhaps some of you thought might have been better employed) in endeavouring to illustrate the method and nature of scientific inquiry in general. we shall now have to put in practice the principles that i then laid down. i stated to you in substance, if not in words, that wherever there are complex masses of phenomena to be inquired into, whether they be phenomena of the affairs of daily life, or whether they belong to the more abstruse and difficult problems laid before the philosopher, our course of proceeding in unravelling that complex chain of phenomena with a view to get at its cause, is always the same; in all cases we must invent an hypothesis; we must place before ourselves some more or less likely supposition respecting that cause; and then, having assumed an hypothesis, having supposed a cause for the phenomena in question, we must endeavour, on the one hand, to demonstrate our hypothesis, or, on the other, to upset and reject it altogether, by testing it in three ways. we must, in the first place, be prepared to prove that the supposed causes of the phenomena exist in nature; that they are what the logicians call _vera causæ_--true causes;--in the next place, we should be prepared to show that the assumed causes of the phenomena are competent to produce such phenomena as those which we wish to explain by them; and in the last place, we ought to be able to show that no other known causes are competent to produce these phenomena. if we can succeed in satisfying these three conditions we shall have demonstrated our hypothesis; or rather i ought to say, we shall have proved it as far as certainty is possible for us; for, after all, there is no one of our surest convictions which may not be upset, or at any rate modified by a further accession of knowledge. it was because it satisfied these conditions that we accepted the hypothesis as to the disappearance of the tea-pot and spoons in the case i supposed in a previous lecture; we found that our hypothesis on that subject was tenable and valid, because the supposed cause existed in nature, because it was competent to account for the phenomena, and because no other known cause was competent to account for them; and it is upon similar grounds that any hypothesis you choose to name is accepted in science as tenable and valid. what is mr. darwin's hypothesis? as i apprehend it--for i have put it into a shape more convenient for common purposes than i could find _verbatim_ in his book--as i apprehend it, i say, it is, that all the phenomena of organic nature, past and present, result from, or are caused by, the inter-action of those properties of organic matter, which we have called atavism and variability, with the conditions of existence; or, in other words,--given the existence of organic matter, its tendency to transmit its properties, and its tendency occasionally to vary; and, lastly, given the conditions of existence by which organic matter is surrounded--that these put together are the causes of the present and of the past conditions of organic nature. such is the hypothesis as i understand it. now let us see how it will stand the various tests which i laid down just now. in the first place, do these supposed causes of the phenomena exist in nature? is it the fact that in nature these properties of organic matter--atavism and variability--and those phenomena which we have called the conditions of existence,--is it true that they exist? well, of course, if they do not exist, all that i have told you in the last three or four lectures must be incorrect, because i have been attempting to prove that they do exist, and i take it that there is abundant evidence that they do exist; so far, therefore, the hypothesis does not break down. but in the next place comes a much more difficult inquiry:--are the causes indicated competent to give rise to the phenomena of organic nature? i suspect that this is indubitable to a certain extent. it is demonstrable, i think, as i have endeavoured to show you, that they are perfectly competent to give rise to all the phenomena which are exhibited by races in nature. furthermore, i believe that they are quite competent to account for all that we may call purely structural phenomena which are exhibited by species in nature. on that point also i have already enlarged somewhat. again, i think that the causes assumed are competent to account for most of the physiological characteristics of species, and i not only think that they are competent to account for them, but i think that they account for many things which otherwise remain wholly unaccountable and inexplicable, and i may say incomprehensible. for a full exposition of the grounds on which this conviction is based, i must refer you to mr. darwin's work; all that i can do now is to illustrate what i have said by two or three cases taken almost at random. i drew your attention, on a previous evening, to the facts which are embodied in our systems of classification, which are the results of the examination and comparison of the different members of the animal kingdom one with another. i mentioned that the whole of the animal kingdom is divisible into five sub-kingdoms; that each of these sub-kingdoms is again divisible into provinces; that each province may be divided into classes, and the classes into the successively smaller groups, orders, families, genera, and species. now, in each of these groups, the resemblance in structure among the members of the group is closer in proportion as the group is smaller. thus, a man and a worm are members of the animal kingdom in virtue of certain apparently slight though really fundamental resemblances which they present. but a man and a fish are members of the same sub-kingdom _vertebrata_, because they are much more like one another than either of them is to a worm, or a snail, or any member of the other sub-kingdoms. for similar reasons men and horses are arranged as members of the same class, _mammalia_; men and apes as members of the same order, _primates_; and if there were any animals more like men than they were like any of the apes, and yet different from men in important and constant particulars of their organization, we should rank them as members of the same family, or of the same genus, but as of distinct species. that it is possible to arrange all the varied forms of animals into groups, having this sort of singular subordination one to the other, is a very remarkable circumstance; but, as mr. darwin remarks, this is a result which is quite to be expected, if the principles which he lays down be correct. take the case of the races which are known to be produced by the operation of atavism and variability, and the conditions of existence which check and modify these tendencies. take the case of the pigeons that i brought before you: there it was shown that they might be all classed as belonging to some one of five principal divisions, and that within these divisions other subordinate groups might be formed. the members of these groups are related to one another in just the same way as the genera of a family, and the groups themselves as the families of an order, or the orders of a class; while all have the same sort of structural relations with the wild rock-pigeon, as the members of any great natural group have with a real or imaginary typical form. now, we know that all varieties of pigeons of every kind have arisen by a process of selective breeding from a common stock, the rock-pigeon; hence, you see, that if all species of animals have proceeded from some common stock, the general character of their structural relations, and of our systems of classification, which express those relations, would be just what we find them to be. in other words, the hypothetical cause is, so far, competent to produce effects similar to those of the real cause. take, again, another set of very remarkable facts,--the existence of what are called rudimentary organs, organs for which we can find no obvious use, in the particular animal economy in which they are found, and yet which are there. such are the splint-like bones in the leg of the horse, which i here show you, and which correspond with bones which belong to certain toes and fingers in the human hand and foot. in the horse you see they are quite rudimentary, and bear neither toes nor fingers; so that the horse has only one "finger" in his fore-foot and one "toe" in his hind-foot. but it is a very curious thing that the animals closely allied to the horse show more toes than he; as the rhinoceros, for instance: he has these extra toes well formed, and anatomical facts show very clearly that he is very closely related to the horse indeed. so we may say that animals, in an anatomical sense nearly related to the horse, have those parts which are rudimentary in him, fully developed. again, the sheep and the cow have no cutting-teeth, but only a hard pad in the upper jaw. that is the common characteristic of ruminants in general. but the calf has in its upper jaw some rudiments of teeth which never are developed, and never play the part of teeth at all. well, if you go back in time, you find some of the older, now extinct, allies of the ruminants have well-developed teeth in their upper jaws; and at the present day the pig (which is in structure closely connected with ruminants) has well-developed teeth in its upper jaw; so that here is another instance of organs well developed and very useful, in one animal, represented by rudimentary organs, for which we can discover no purpose whatsoever, in another closely allied animal. the whalebone whale, again, has horny "whalebone" plates in its mouth, and no teeth; but the young foetal whale, before it is born, has teeth in its jaws; they, however, are never used, and they never come to anything. but other members of the group to which the whale belongs have well-developed teeth in both jaws. upon any hypothesis of special creation, facts of this kind appear to me to be entirely unaccountable and inexplicable, but they cease to be so if you accept mr. darwin's hypothesis, and see reason for believing that the whalebone whale and the whale with teeth in its mouth both sprang from a whale that had teeth, and that the teeth of the foetal whale are merely remnants--recollections, if we may so say--of the extinct whale. so in the case of the horse and the rhinoceros: suppose that both have descended by modification from some earlier form which had the normal number of toes, and the persistence of the rudimentary bones which no longer support toes in the horse becomes comprehensible. in the language that we speak in england, and in the language of the greeks, there are identical verbal roots, or elements entering into the composition of words. that fact remains unintelligible so long as we suppose english and greek to be independently created tongues; but when it is shown that both languages are descended from one original, the sanscrit, we give an explanation of that resemblance. in the same way the existence of identical structural roots, if i may so term them, entering into the composition of widely different animals, is striking evidence in favour of the descent of those animals from a common original. to turn to another kind of illustration:--if you regard the whole series of stratified rocks--that enormous thickness of sixty or seventy thousand feet that i have mentioned before, constituting the only record we have of a most prodigious lapse of time, that time being, in all probability, but a fraction of that of which we have no record;--if you observe in these successive strata of rocks successive groups of animals arising and dying out, a constant succession, giving you the same kind of impression, as you travel from one group of strata to another, as you would have in travelling from one country to another;--when you find this constant succession of forms, their traces obliterated except to the man of science,--when you look at this wonderful history, and ask what it means, it is only a paltering with words if you are offered the reply,--"they were so created." but if, on the other hand, you look on all forms of organized beings as the results of the gradual modification of a primitive type, the facts receive a meaning, and you see that these older conditions are the necessary predecessors of the present. viewed in this light the facts of palæontology receive a meaning--upon any other hypothesis, i am unable to see, in the slightest degree, what knowledge or signification we are to draw out of them. again, note as bearing upon the same point, the singular likeness which obtains between the successive faunæ and floræ, whose remains are preserved on the rocks: you never find any great and enormous difference between the immediately successive faunæ and floræ, unless you have reason to believe there has also been a great lapse of time or a great change of conditions. the animals, for instance, of the newest tertiary rocks, in any part of the world, are always, and without exception, found to be closely allied with those which now live in that part of the world. for example, in europe, asia, and africa, the large mammals are at present rhinoceri, hippopotami, elephants, lions, tigers, oxen, horses, &c.; and if you examine the newest tertiary deposits, which contain the animals and plants which immediately preceded those which now exist in the same country, you do not find gigantic specimens of ant-eaters and kangaroos, but you find rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, tigers, &c.,--of different species to those now living,--but still their close allies. if you turn to south america, where, at the present day, we have great sloths and armadilloes and creatures of that kind, what do you find in the newest tertiaries? you find the great sloth-like creature, the _megatherium_, and the great armadillo, the _glyptodon_, and so on. and if you go to australia you find the same law holds good, namely, that that condition of organic nature which has preceded the one which now exists, presents differences perhaps of species, and of genera, but that the great types of organic structure are the same as those which now flourish. what meaning has this fact upon any other hypothesis or supposition than one of successive modification? but if the population of the world, in any age, is the result of the gradual modification of the forms which peopled it in the preceding age,--if that has been the case, it is intelligible enough; because we may expect that the creature that results from the modification of an elephantine mammal shall be something like an elephant, and the creature which is produced by the modification of an armadillo-like mammal shall be like an armadillo. upon that supposition, i say, the facts are intelligible; upon any other, that i am aware of, they are not. so far, the facts of palæontology are consistent with almost any form of the doctrine of progressive modification; they would not be absolutely inconsistent with the wild speculations of de maillet, or with the less objectionable hypothesis of lamarck. but mr. darwin's views have one peculiar merit; and that is, that they are perfectly consistent with an array of facts which are utterly inconsistent with and fatal to, any other hypothesis of progressive modification which has yet been advanced. it is one remarkable peculiarity of mr. darwin's hypothesis that it involves no necessary progression or incessant modification, and that it is perfectly consistent with the persistence for any length of time of a given primitive stock, contemporaneously with its modifications. to return to the case of the domestic breeds of pigeons, for example; you have the dove-cot pigeon, which closely resembles the rock-pigeon, from which they all started, existing at the same time with the others. and if species are developed in the same way in nature, a primitive stock and its modifications may, occasionally, all find the conditions fitted for their existence; and though they come into competition, to a certain extent, with one another, the derivative species may not necessarily extirpate the primitive one, or _vice versâ_. now palæontology shows us many facts which are perfectly harmonious with these observed effects of the process by which mr. darwin supposes species to have originated, but which appear to me to be totally inconsistent with any other hypothesis which has been proposed. there are some groups of animals and plants, in the fossil world, which have been said to belong to "persistent types," because they have persisted, with very little change indeed, through a very great range of time, while everything about them has changed largely. there are families of fishes whose type of construction has persisted all the way from the carboniferous rock right up to the cretaceous; and others which have lasted through almost the whole range of the secondary rocks, and from the lias to the older tertiaries. it is something stupendous this--to consider a genus lasting without essential modifications through all this enormous lapse of time while almost everything else was changed and modified. thus i have no doubt that mr. darwin's hypothesis will be found competent to explain the majority of the phenomena exhibited by species in nature; but in an earlier lecture i spoke cautiously with respect to its power of explaining all the physiological peculiarities of species. there is, in fact, one set of these peculiarities which the theory of selective modification, as it stands at present, is not wholly competent to explain, and that is the group of phenomena which i mentioned to you under the name of hybridism, and which i explained to consist in the sterility of the offspring of certain species when crossed one with another. it matters not one whit whether this sterility is universal, or whether it exists only in a single case. every hypothesis is bound to explain, or, at any rate, not be inconsistent with, the whole of the facts which it professes to account for; and if there is a single one of these facts which can be shown to be inconsistent with (i do not merely mean inexplicable by, but contrary to,) the hypothesis, the hypothesis falls to the ground,--it is worth nothing. one fact with which it is positively inconsistent is worth as much, and as powerful in negativing the hypothesis, as five hundred. if i am right in thus defining the obligations of an hypothesis, mr. darwin, in order to place his views beyond the reach of all possible assault, ought to be able to demonstrate the possibility of developing from a particular stock by selective breeding, two forms, which should either be unable to cross one with another, or whose cross-bred offspring should be infertile with one another. for, you see, if you have not done that you have not strictly fulfilled all the conditions of the problem; you have not shown that you can produce, by the cause assumed, all the phenomena which you have in nature. here are the phenomena of hybridism staring you in the face, and you cannot say, "i can, by selective modification, produce these same results." now, it is admitted on all hands that, at present, so far as experiments have gone, it has not been found possible to produce this complete physiological divergence by selective breeding. i stated this very clearly before, and i now refer to the point, because, if it could be proved, not only that this _has_ not been done, but that it _cannot_ be done; if it could be demonstrated that it is impossible to breed selectively, from any stock, a form which shall not breed with another, produced from the same stock; and if we were shown that this must be the necessary and inevitable result of all experiments, i hold that mr. darwin's hypothesis would be utterly shattered. but has this been done? or what is really the state of the case? it is simply that, so far as we have gone yet with our breeding, we have not produced from a common stock two breeds which are not more or less fertile with one another. i do not know that there is a single fact which would justify any one in saying that any degree of sterility has been observed between breeds absolutely known to have been produced by selective breeding from a common stock. on the other hand, i do not know that there is a single fact which can justify any one in asserting that such sterility cannot be produced by proper experimentation. for my own part, i see every reason to believe that it may, and will be so produced. for, as mr. darwin has very properly urged, when we consider the phenomena of sterility, we find they are most capricious; we do not know what it is that the sterility depends on. there are some animals which will not breed in captivity; whether it arises from the simple fact of their being shut up and deprived of their liberty, or not, we do not know, but they certainly will not breed. what an astounding thing this is, to find one of the most important of all functions annihilated by mere imprisonment! so, again, there are cases known of animals which have been thought by naturalists to be undoubted species, which have yielded perfectly fertile hybrids; while there are other species which present what everybody believes to be varieties[ ] which are more or less infertile with one another. there are other cases which are truly extraordinary; there is one, for example, which has been carefully examined,--of two kinds of sea-weed, of which the male element of the one, which we may call a, fertilizes the female element of the other, b; while the male element of b will not fertilize the female element of a; so that, while the former experiment seems to show us that they are _varieties_, the latter leads to the conviction that they are _species_. when we see how capricious and uncertain this sterility is, how unknown the conditions on which it depends, i say that we have no right to affirm that those conditions will not be better understood by and by, and we have no ground for supposing that we may not be able to experiment so as to obtain that crucial result which i mentioned just now. so that though mr. darwin's hypothesis does not completely extricate us from this difficulty at present, we have not the least right to say it will not do so. there is a wide gulf between the thing you cannot explain and the thing that upsets you altogether. there is hardly any hypothesis in this world which has not some fact in connection with it which has not been explained, but that is a very different affair to a fact that entirely opposes your hypothesis; in this case all you can say is, that your hypothesis is in the same position as a good many others. now, as to the third test, that there are no other causes competent to explain the phenomena, i explained to you that one should be able to say of an hypothesis, that no other known causes than those supposed by it are competent to give rise to the phenomena. here, i think, mr. darwin's view is pretty strong. i really believe that the alternative is either darwinism or nothing, for i do not know of any rational conception or theory of the organic universe which has any scientific position at all beside mr. darwin's. i do not know of any proposition that has been put before us with the intention of explaining the phenomena of organic nature, which has in its favour a thousandth part of the evidence which may be adduced in favour of mr. darwin's views. whatever may be the objections to his views, certainly all other theories are absolutely out of court. take the lamarckian hypothesis, for example. lamarck was a great naturalist, and to a certain extent went the right way to work; he argued from what was undoubtedly a true cause of some of the phenomena of organic nature. he said it is a matter of experience that an animal may be modified more or less in consequence of its desires and consequent actions. thus, if a man exercise himself as a blacksmith, his arms will become strong and muscular; such organic modification is a result of this particular action and exercise. lamarck thought that by a very simple supposition based on this truth he could explain the origin of the various animal species: he said, for example, that the short-legged birds which live on fish, had been converted into the long-legged waders by desiring to get the fish without wetting their feathers, and so stretching their legs more and more through successive generations. if lamarck could have shown experimentally, that even races of animals could be produced in this way, there might have been some ground for his speculations. but he could show nothing of the kind, and his hypothesis has pretty well dropped into oblivion, as it deserved to do. i said in an earlier lecture that there are hypotheses and hypotheses, and when people tell you that mr. darwin's strongly-based hypothesis is nothing but a mere modification of lamarck's, you will know what to think of their capacity for forming a judgment on this subject. but you must recollect that when i say i think it is either mr. darwin's hypothesis or nothing; that either we must take his view, or look upon the whole of organic nature as an enigma, the meaning of which is wholly hidden from us; you must understand that i mean that i accept it provisionally, in exactly the same way as i accept any other hypothesis. men of science do not pledge themselves to creeds; they are bound by articles of no sort; there is not a single belief that it is not a bounden duty with them to hold with a light hand and to part with it, cheerfully, the moment it is really proved to be contrary to any fact, great or small. and if in course of time i see good reasons for such a proceeding, i shall have no hesitation in coming before you, and pointing out any change in my opinion without finding the slightest occasion to blush for so doing. so i say that we accept this view as we accept any other, so long as it will help us, and we feel bound to retain it only so long as it will serve our great purpose--the improvement of man's estate and the widening of his knowledge. the moment this, or any other conception, ceases to be useful for these purposes, away with it to the four winds; we care not what becomes of it! but to say truth, although it has been my business to attend closely to the controversies roused by the publication of mr. darwin's book, i think that not one of the enormous mass of objections and obstacles which have been raised is of any very great value, except that sterility case which i brought before you just now. all the rest are misunderstandings of some sort, arising either from prejudice, or want of knowledge, or still more from want of patience and care in reading the work. for you must recollect that it is not a book to be read, with as much ease, as its pleasant style may lead you to imagine. you spin through it as if it were a novel the first time you read it, and think you know all about it; the second time you read it you think you know rather less about it; and the third time, you are amazed to find how little you have really apprehended its vast scope and objects. i can positively say that i never take it up without finding in it some new view, or light, or suggestion that i have not noticed before. that is the best characteristic of a thorough and profound book; and i believe this feature of the "origin of species" explains why so many persons have ventured to pass judgment and criticisms upon it which are by no means worth the paper they are written on. before concluding these lectures there is one point to which i must advert,--though, as mr. darwin has said nothing about man in his book, it concerns myself rather than him;--for i have strongly maintained on sundry occasions that if mr. darwin's views are sound, they apply as much to man as to the lower mammals, seeing that it is perfectly demonstrable that the structural differences which separate man from the apes are not greater than those which separate some apes from others. there cannot be the slightest doubt in the world that the argument which applies to the improvement of the horse from an earlier stock, or of ape from ape, applies to the improvement of man from some simpler and lower stock than man. there is not a single faculty--functional or structural, moral, intellectual, or instinctive,--there is no faculty whatever that is not capable of improvement; there is no faculty whatsoever which does not depend upon structure, and as structure tends to vary, it is capable of being improved. well, i have taken a good deal of pains at various times to prove this, and i have endeavoured to meet the objections of those who maintain, that the structural differences between man and the lower animals are of so vast a character and enormous extent, that even if mr. darwin's views are correct, you cannot imagine this particular modification to take place. it is, in fact, easy matter to prove that, so far as structure is concerned, man differs to no greater extent from the animals which are immediately below him than these do from other members of the same order. upon the other hand, there is no one who estimates more highly than i do the dignity of human nature, and the width of the gulf in intellectual and moral matters, which lies between man and the whole of the lower creation. but i find this very argument brought forward vehemently by some. "you say that man has proceeded from a modification of some lower animal, and you take pains to prove that the structural differences which are said to exist in his brain do not exist at all, and you teach that all functions, intellectual, moral, and others, are the expression or the result, in the long run, of structures, and of the molecular forces which they exert." it is quite true that i do so. "well, but," i am told at once, somewhat triumphantly, "you say in the same breath that there is a great moral and intellectual chasm between man and the lower animals. how is this possible when you declare that moral and intellectual characteristics depend on structure, and yet tell us that there is no such gulf between the structure of man and that of the lower animals?" i think that objection is based upon a misconception of the real relations which exist between structure and function, between mechanism and work. function is the expression of molecular forces and arrangements no doubt; but, does it follow from this, that variation in function so depends upon variation in structure that the former is always exactly proportioned to the latter? if there is no such relation, if the variation in function which follows on a variation in structure, may be enormously greater than the variation of the structure, then, you see, the objection falls to the ground. take a couple of watches--made by the same maker, and as completely alike as possible; set them upon the table, and the function of each--which is its rate of going--will be performed in the same manner, and you shall be able to distinguish no difference between them; but let me take a pair of pincers, and if my hand is steady enough to do it, let me just lightly crush together the bearings of the balance-wheel, or force to a slightly different angle the teeth of the escapement of one of them, and of course you know the immediate result will be that the watch, so treated, from that moment will cease to go. but what proportion is there between the structural alteration and the functional result? is it not perfectly obvious that the alteration is of the minutest kind, yet that slight as it is, it has produced an infinite difference in the performance of the functions of these two instruments? well, now, apply that to the present question. what is it that constitutes and makes man what he is? what is it but his power of language--that language giving him the means of recording his experience--making every generation somewhat wiser than its predecessor,--more in accordance with the established order of the universe? what is it but this power of speech, of recording experience, which enables men to be men--looking before and after and, in some dim sense, understanding the working of this wondrous universe--and which distinguishes man from the whole of the brute world? i say that this functional difference is vast, unfathomable, and truly infinite in its consequences; and i say at the same time, that it may depend upon structural differences which shall be absolutely inappreciable to us with our present means of investigation. what is this very speech that we are talking about? i am speaking to you at this moment, but if you were to alter, in the minutest degree, the proportion of the nervous forces now active in the two nerves which supply the muscles of my glottis, i should become suddenly dumb. the voice is produced only so long as the vocal chords are parallel; and these are parallel only so long as certain muscles contract with exact equality; and that again depends on the equality of action of those two nerves i spoke of. so that a change of the minutest kind in the structure of one of these nerves, or in the structure of the part in which it originates, or of the supply of blood to that part, or of one of the muscles to which it is distributed, might render all of us dumb. but a race of dumb men, deprived of all communication with those who could speak, would be little indeed removed from the brutes. and the moral and intellectual difference between them and ourselves would be practically infinite, though the naturalist should not be able to find a single shadow of even specific structural difference. but let me dismiss this question now, and, in conclusion, let me say that you may go away with it as my mature conviction, that mr. darwin's work is the greatest contribution which has been made to biological science since the publication of the "règne animal" of cuvier, and since that of the "history of development," of von baer. i believe that if you strip it of its theoretical part it still remains one of the greatest encyclopædias of biological doctrine that any one man ever brought forth; and i believe that, if you take it as the embodiment of an hypothesis, it is destined to be the guide of biological and psychological speculation for the next three or four generations. footnotes: [ ] and as i conceive with very good reason; but if any objector urges that we cannot prove that they have been produced by artificial or natural selection, the objection must be admitted--ultra-sceptical as it is. but in science, scepticism is a duty. x on the educational value of the natural history sciences. the subject to which i have to beg your attention during the ensuing hour is "the relation of physiological science to other branches of knowledge." had circumstances permitted of the delivery, in their strict logical order, of that series of discourses of which the present lecture is a member, i should have preceded my friend and colleague mr. henfrey, who addressed you on monday last; but while, for the sake of that order, i must beg you to suppose that this discussion of the educational bearings of biology in general _does_ precede that of special zoology and botany, i am rejoiced to be able to take advantage of the light thus already thrown upon the tendency and methods of physiological science. regarding physiological science then, in its widest sense--as the equivalent of _biology_--the science of individual life--we have to consider in succession: . its position and scope as a branch of knowledge. . its value as a means of mental discipline. . its worth as practical information. and lastly, . at what period it may best be made a branch of education. our conclusions on the first of these heads must depend, of course, upon the nature of the subject-matter of biology; and i think a few preliminary considerations will place before you in a clear light the vast difference which exists between the living bodies with which physiological science is concerned, and the remainder of the universe;--between the phænomena of number and space, of physical and of chemical force, on the one hand, and those of life on the other. the mathematician, the physicist, and the chemist contemplate things in a condition of rest; they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to which all bodies normally tend. the mathematician does not suppose that a quantity will alter, or that a given point in space will change its direction with regard to another point, spontaneously. and it is the same with the physicist. when newton saw the apple fall, he concluded at once that the act of falling was not the result of any power inherent in the apple, but that it was the result of the action of something else on the apple. in a similar manner, all physical force is regarded as the disturbance of an equilibrium to which things tended before its exertion,--to which they will tend again after its cessation. the chemist equally regards chemical change in a body, as the effect of the action of something external to the body changed. a chemical compound once formed would persist for ever, if no alteration took place in surrounding conditions. but to the student of life the aspect of nature is reversed. here, incessant, and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, rest the exception--the anomaly to be accounted for. living things have no inertia and tend to no equilibrium. permit me, however, to give more force and clearness to these somewhat abstract considerations, by an illustration or two. imagine a vessel full of water, at the ordinary temperature, in an atmosphere saturated with vapour. the _quantity_ and the _figure_ of that water will not change, so far as we know, for ever. suppose a lump of gold be thrown into the vessel--motion and disturbance of figure exactly proportional to the momentum of the gold will take place. but after a time the effects of this disturbance will subside--equilibrium will be restored, and the water will return to its passive state. expose the water to cold--it will solidify--and in so doing its particles will arrange themselves in definite crystalline shapes. but once formed, these crystals change no further. again, substitute for the lump of gold some substance capable of entering into chemical relations with the water:--say, a mass of that substance which is called "protein"--the substance of flesh:--a very considerable disturbance of equilibrium will take place--all sorts of chemical compositions and decompositions will occur; but in the end, as before, the result will be the resumption of a condition of rest. instead of such a mass of _dead_ protein, however, take a particle of _living_ protein--one of those minute microscopic living things which throng our pools, and are known as infusoria--such a creature, for instance, as an euglena, and place it in our vessel of water. it is a round mass provided with a long filament, and except in this peculiarity of shape, presents no appreciable physical or chemical difference whereby it might be distinguished from the particle of dead protein. but the difference in the phænomena to which it will give rise is immense: in the first place it will develope a vast quantity of physical force--cleaving the water in all directions, with considerable rapidity, by means of the vibrations of the long filament or cilium. nor is the amount of chemical energy which the little creature possesses less striking. it is a perfect laboratory in itself, and it will act and react upon the water and the matters contained therein; converting them into new compounds resembling its own substance and, at the same time, giving up portions of its own substance which have become effete. furthermore, the euglena will increase in size; but this increase is by no means unlimited, as the increase of a crystal might be. after it has grown to a certain extent it divides, and each portion assumes the form of the original and proceeds to repeat the process of growth and division. nor is this all. for after a series of such divisions and subdivisions, these minute points assume a totally new form, lose their long tails--round themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, in which they remain shut up for a time, eventually to resume, directly or indirectly, their primitive mode of existence. now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit to the existence of the euglena, or of any other living germ. a living species once launched into existence tends to live for ever. consider how widely different this living particle is from the dead atoms with which the physicist and chemist have to do! the particle of gold falls to the bottom and rests--the particle of dead protein decomposes and disappears--it also rests: but the _living_ protein mass neither tends to exhaustion of its forces nor to any permanency of form, but is essentially distinguished as a disturber of equilibrium so far as force is concerned,--as undergoing continual metamorphosis and change, in point of form. tendency to equilibrium of force, and to permanency of form then, are the characters of that portion of the universe which does not live--the domain of the chemist and physicist. tendency to disturb existing equilibrium,--to take on forms which succeed one another in definite cycles, is the character of the living world. what is the cause of this wonderful difference between the dead particle and the living particle of matter appearing in other respects identical? that difference to which we give the name of life? i, for one, cannot tell you. it may be that, by and bye, philosophers will discover some higher laws of which the facts of life are particular cases--very possibly they will find out some bond between physico-chemical phænomena on the one hand, and vital phænomena on the other. at present, however, we assuredly know of none; and i think we shall exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, this successive assumption of different states--(external conditions remaining the same)--this _spontaneity of action_--if i may use a term which implies more than i would be answerable for--which constitutes so vast and plain a practical distinction between living bodies and those which do not live, is an ultimate fact; indicating as such, the existence of a broad line of demarcation between the subject-matter of biological and that of all other sciences. for i would have it understood that this simple euglena is the type of _all_ living things, so far as the distinction between these and inert matter is concerned. that cycle of changes, which is constituted by perhaps not more than two or three steps in the euglena, is as clearly manifested in the multitudinous stages through which the germ of an oak or of a man passes. whatever forms the living being may take on, whether simple or complex,--_production_, _growth_, _reproduction_,--are the phænomena which distinguish it from that which does not live. if this be true, it is clear that the student, in passing from the physico-chemical to the physiological sciences, enters upon a totally new order of facts; and it will next be for us to consider how far these new facts involve _new_ methods, or require a modification of those with which he is already acquainted. now a great deal is said about the peculiarity of the scientific method in general, and of the different methods which are pursued in the different sciences. the mathematics are said to have one special method; physics another, biology a third, and so forth. for my own part, i must confess that i do not understand this phraseology. so far as i can arrive at any clear comprehension of the matter, science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modification of the black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth century, and flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of the inquisition. science is, i believe, nothing but _trained and organized common sense_, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club. the primary power is the same in each case, and perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of the two. the _real_ advantage lies in the point and polish of the swordsman's weapon; in the trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of the adversary; in the ready hand prompt to follow it on the instant. but after all, the sword exercise is only the hewing and poking of the clubman developed and perfected. so, the vast results obtained by science are won by no mystical faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. a detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which cuvier restored the extinct animals of montmartre from fragments of their bones. nor does that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a stain of a peculiar kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has upset the inkstand thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by which adams and leverrier discovered a new planet. the man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness, the methods which we all, habitually and at every moment, use carelessly; and the man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific method--must be as truly a man of science--as the veriest book-worm of us all; though i have no doubt that the man of business will find himself out to be a philosopher with as much surprise as m. jourdain exhibited when he discovered that he had been all his life talking prose. if, however, there be no real difference between the methods of science and those of common life, it would seem on the face of the matter highly improbable that there should be any difference between the methods of the different sciences; nevertheless, it is constantly taken for granted, that there is a very wide difference between the physiological and other sciences in point of method. in the first place it is said--and i take this point first, because the imputation is too frequently admitted by physiologists themselves--that biology differs from the physico-chemical and mathematical sciences, in being "inexact." now, this phrase "inexact" must refer either to the _methods_ or to the _results_ of physiological science. it cannot be correct to apply it to the methods; for, as i hope to show you by and bye, these are identical in all sciences, and whatever is true of physiological method is true of physical and mathematical method. is it then the _results_ of biological science which are "inexact"? i think not. if i say that respiration is performed by the lungs; that digestion is effected in the stomach; that the eye is the organ of sight; that the jaws of a vertebrated animal never open sideways, but always up and down; while those of an annulose animal always open sideways, and never up and down--i am enumerating propositions which are as exact as anything in euclid. how then has this notion of the inexactness of biological science come about? i believe from two causes: first, because, in consequence of the great complexity of the science and the multitude of interfering conditions, we are very often only enabled to predict approximately what will occur under given circumstances; and secondly, because, on account of the comparative youth of the physiological sciences, a great many of their laws are still imperfectly worked out. but in an educational point of view, it is most important to distinguish between the essence of a science and the accidents which surround it; and essentially, the methods and results of physiology are as exact as those of physics or mathematics. it is said that the physiological method is especially _comparative_[ ]; and this dictum also finds favour in the eyes of many. i should be sorry to suggest that the speculators on scientific classification have been misled by the accident of the name of one leading branch of biology--_comparative anatomy_; but i would ask whether _comparison_, and that classification which is the result of comparison, are not the essence of every science whatsoever? how is it possible to discover a relation of cause and effect of _any_ kind without comparing a series of cases together in which the supposed cause and effect occur singly, or combined? so far from comparison being in any way peculiar to biological science, it is, i think, the essence of every science. a speculative philosopher again tells us that the biological sciences are distinguished by being sciences of observation and not of experiment![ ] of all the strange assertions into which speculation without practical acquaintance with a subject may lead even an able man, i think this is the very strangest. physiology not an experimental science! why, there is not a function of a single organ in the body which has not been determined wholly and solely by experiment? how did harvey determine the nature of the circulation, except by experiment? how did sir charles bell determine the functions of the roots of the spinal nerves, save by experiment? how do we know the use of a nerve at all, except by experiment? nay, how do you know even that your eye is your seeing apparatus, unless you make the experiment of shutting it; or that your ear is your hearing apparatus, unless you close it up and thereby discover that you become deaf? it would really be much more true to say that physiology is _the_ experimental science _par excellence_ of all sciences; that in which there is least to be learnt by mere observation, and that which affords the greatest field for the exercise of those faculties which characterize the experimental philosopher. i confess, if any one were to ask me for a model application of the logic of experiment, i should know no better work to put into his hands than bernard's late researches on the functions of the liver.[ ] not to give this lecture a too controversial tone however, i must only advert to one more doctrine, held by a thinker of our own age and country, whose opinions are worthy of all respect. it is, that the biological sciences differ from all others, inasmuch as in _them_, classification takes place by type and not by definition.[ ] it is said, in short, that a natural-history class is not capable of being defined--that the class rosaceæ, for instance, or the class of fishes, is not accurately and absolutely definable, inasmuch as its members will present exceptions to every possible definition; and that the members of the class are united together only by the circumstance that they are all more like some imaginary average rose or average fish, than they resemble anything else. but here, as before, i think the distinction has arisen entirely from confusing a transitory imperfection with an essential character. so long as our information concerning them is imperfect, we class all objects together according to resemblances which we _feel_, but cannot _define_: we group them round _types_, in short. thus, if you ask an ordinary person what kinds of animals there are, he will probably say, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. ask him to define a beast from a reptile, and he cannot do it; but he says, things like a cow or a horse are beasts, and things like a frog or a lizard are reptiles. you see _he does_ class by type, and not by definition. but how does this classification differ from that of the scientific zoologist? how does the meaning of the scientific class-name of "mammalia" differ from the unscientific of "beasts"? why, exactly because the former depends on a definition, the latter on a type. the class mammalia is scientifically defined as "all animals which have a vertebrated skeleton and suckle their young." here is no reference to type, but a definition rigorous enough for a geometrician. and such is the character which every scientific naturalist recognizes as that to which his classes must aspire--knowing, as he does, that classification by type is simply an acknowledgment of ignorance and a temporary device. so much in the way of negative argument as against the reputed differences between biological and other methods. no such differences, i believe, really exist. the subject-matter of biological science is different from that of other sciences, but the methods of all are identical; and these methods are-- . _observation_ of facts--including under this head that _artificial observation_ which is called _experiment_. . that process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and ready for use, which is called _comparison_ and _classification_,--the results of the process, the ticketed bundles, being named _general propositions_. . _deduction_, which takes us from the general proposition to facts again--teaches us, if i may so say, to anticipate from the ticket what is inside the bundle. and finally-- . _verification_, which is the process of ascertaining whether, in point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one. such are the methods of all science whatsoever; but perhaps you will permit me to give you an illustration of their employment in the science of life; and i will take as a special case, the establishment of the doctrine of the _circulation of the blood_. in this case, _simple observation_ yields us a knowledge of the existence of the blood from some accidental hæmorrhage, we will say: we may even grant that it informs us of the localisation of this blood in particular vessels, the heart, &c., from some accidental cut or the like. it teaches also the existence of a pulse in various parts of the body, and acquaints us with the structure of the heart and vessels. here, however, _simple observation_ stops, and we must have recourse to _experiment_. you tie a vein, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side of the ligature opposite the heart. you tie an artery, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side near the heart. open the chest, and you see the heart contracting with great force. make openings into its principal cavities, and you will find that all the blood flows out, and no more pressure is exerted on either side of the arterial or venous ligature. now all these facts, taken together, constitute the evidence that the blood is propelled by the heart through the arteries, and returns by the veins--that, in short, the blood circulates. suppose our experiments and observations have been made on horses, then we group and ticket them into a general proposition, thus:--_all horses have a circulation of their blood_. henceforward a horse is a sort of indication or label, telling us where we shall find a peculiar series of phænomena called the circulation of the blood. here is our _general proposition_ then. how and when are we justified in making our next step--a _deduction_ from it? suppose our physiologist, whose experience is limited to horses, meets with a zebra for the first time,--will he suppose that his generalization holds good for zebras also? that depends very much on his turn of mind. but we will suppose him to be a bold man. he will say, "the zebra is certainly not a horse, but it is very like one,--so like, that it must be the 'ticket' or mark of a blood-circulation also; and, i conclude that the zebra has a circulation." that is a deduction, a very fair deduction, but by no means to be considered scientifically secure. this last quality in fact can only be given by _verification_--that is, by making a zebra the subject of all the experiments performed on the horse. of course in the present case the _deduction_ would be _confirmed_ by this process of verification, and the result would be, not merely a positive widening of knowledge, but a fair increase of confidence in the truth of one's generalizations in other cases. thus, having settled the point in the zebra and horse, our philosopher would have great confidence in the existence of a circulation in the ass. nay, i fancy most persons would excuse him, if in this case he did not take the trouble to go through the process of verification at all; and it would not be without a parallel in the history of the human mind, if our imaginary physiologist now maintained that he was acquainted with asinine circulation _à priori_. however, if i might impress any caution upon your minds, it is, the utterly conditional nature of all our knowledge,--the danger of neglecting the process of verification under any circumstances; and the film upon which we rest, the moment our deductions carry us beyond the reach of this great process of verification. there is no better instance of this than is afforded by the history of our knowledge of the circulation of the blood in the animal kingdom until the year . in every animal possessing a circulation at all, which had been observed up to that time, the current of the blood was known to take one definite and invariable direction. now, there is a class of animals called _ascidians_, which possess a heart and a circulation, and up to the period of which i speak, no one would have dreamt of questioning the propriety of the deduction, that these creatures have a circulation in one direction; nor would any one have thought it worth while to verify the point. but, in that year, m. von hasselt happening to examine a transparent animal of this class, found to his infinite surprise, that after the heart had beat a certain number of times, it stopped, and then began beating the opposite way--so as to reverse the course of the current, which returned by and bye to its original direction. i have myself timed the heart of these little animals. i found it as regular as possible in its periods of reversal: and i know no spectacle in the animal kingdom more wonderful than that which it presents--all the more wonderful that to this day it remains an unique fact, peculiar to this class among the whole animated world. at the same time i know of no more striking case of the necessity of the _verification_ of even those deductions which seem founded on the widest and safest inductions. such are the methods of biology--methods which are obviously identical with those of all other sciences, and therefore wholly incompetent to form the ground of any distinction between it and them.[ ] but i shall be asked at once, do you mean to say that there is no difference between the habit of mind of a mathematician and that of a naturalist? do you imagine that laplace might have been put into the jardin des plantes, and cuvier into the observatory, with equal advantage to the progress of the sciences they professed? to which i would reply, that nothing could be further from my thoughts. but different habits and various special tendencies of two sciences do not imply different methods. the mountaineer and the man of the plains have very different habits of progression, and each would be at a loss in the other's place; but the method of progression, by putting one leg before the other, is the same in each case. every step of each is a combination of a lift and a push; but the mountaineer lifts more and the lowlander pushes more. and i think the case of two sciences resembles this. i do not question for a moment, that while the mathematician is busy with deductions _from_ general propositions, the biologist is more especially occupied with observation, comparison, and those processes which lead _to_ general propositions. all i wish to insist upon is, that this difference depends not on any fundamental distinction in the sciences themselves, but on the accidents of their subject-matter, of their relative complexity, and consequent relative perfection. the mathematician deals with two properties of objects only, number and extension, and all the inductions he wants have been formed and finished ages ago. he is occupied now with nothing but deduction and verification. the biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and his inductions will not be completed, i fear, for ages to come; but when they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the mathematics themselves. such is the relation of biology to those sciences which deal with objects having fewer properties than itself. but as the student in reaching biology looks back upon sciences of a less complex and therefore more perfect nature, so on the other hand does he look forward to other more complex and less perfect branches of knowledge. biology deals only with living beings as isolated things--treats only of the life of the individual: but there is a higher division of science still, which considers living beings as aggregates--which deals with the relation of living beings one to another--the science which _observes_ men--whose _experiments_ are made by nations one upon another, in battle-fields--whose _general propositions_ are embodied in history, morality, and religion--whose _deductions_ lead to our happiness or our misery,--and whose _verifications_ so often come too late, and serve only "to point a moral or adorn a tale"-- i mean the science of society or _sociology_. i think it is one of the grandest features of biology, that it occupies this central position in human knowledge. there is no side of the human mind which physiological study leaves uncultivated. connected by innumerable ties with abstract science, physiology is yet in the most intimate relation with humanity; and by teaching us that law and order, and a definite scheme of development, regulate even the strangest and wildest manifestations of individual life, she prepares the student to look for a goal even amidst the erratic wanderings of mankind, and to believe that history offers something more than an entertaining chaos--a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march nowhither. the preceding considerations have, i hope, served to indicate the replies which befit the two first of the questions which i set before you at starting, viz. what is the range and position of physiological science as a branch of knowledge, and what is its value as a means of mental discipline? its _subject-matter_ is a large moiety of the universe--its _position_ is midway between the physico-chemical and the social sciences. its _value_ as a branch of discipline is partly that which it has in common with all sciences--the training and strengthening of common sense; partly that which is more peculiar to itself--the great exercise which it affords to the faculties of observation and comparison; and i may add, the _exactness_ of knowledge which it requires on the part of those among its votaries who desire to extend its boundaries. if what has been said as to the position and scope of biology be correct, our third question--what is the practical value of physiological instruction?--might, one would think, be left to answer itself. on other grounds even, were mankind deserving of the title "rational," which they arrogate to themselves, there can be no question that they would consider as the most necessary of all branches of instruction for themselves and for their children--that which professes to acquaint them with the conditions of the existence they prize so highly--which teaches them how to avoid disease and to cherish health, in themselves and those who are dear to them. i am addressing, i imagine, an audience of educated persons; and yet i dare venture to assert, that with the exception of those of my hearers who may chance to have received a medical education, there is not one who could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he performs a score of times every minute, and whose suspension would involve his immediate death;--i mean the act of breathing--or who could state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is injurious to health. the _practical value_ of physiological knowledge! why is it that educated men can be found to maintain that a slaughter-house in the midst of a great city is rather a good thing than otherwise?--that mothers persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface of their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress they adopt, and then marvel at the peculiar dispensation of providence, which removes their infants by bronchitis and gastric fever? why is it that quackery rides rampant over the land; and that not long ago, one of the largest public rooms in this great city could be filled by an audience gravely listening to the reverend expositor of the doctrine--that the simple physiological phenomena known as spirit-rapping, table-turning, phreno-magnetism, and by i know not what other absurd and inappropriate names, are due to the direct and personal agency of satan? why is all this, except from the utter ignorance as to the simplest laws of their own animal life, which prevails among even the most highly educated persons in this country? but there are other branches of biological science, besides physiology proper, whose practical influence, though less obvious, is not, as i believe, less certain. i have heard educated men speak with an ill-disguised contempt of the studies of the naturalist, and ask, not without a shrug, "what is the use of knowing all about these miserable animals--what bearing has it on human life?" i will endeavour to answer that question. i take it that all will admit there is definite government of this universe--that its pleasures and pains are not scattered at random, but are distributed in accordance with orderly and fixed laws, and that it is only in accordance with all we know of the rest of the world, that there should be an agreement between one portion of the sensitive creation and another in these matters. surely then it interests us to know the lot of other animal creatures--however far below us, they are still the sole created things which share with us the capability of pleasure and the susceptibility to pain. i cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his own share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the divine government, which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to be corrected by and bye. on the other hand, the predominance of happiness among living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the lowest, are equally striking refutations of that modern manichean doctrine, which exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many tears, for mere utilitarian ends. there is yet another way in which natural history may, i am convinced, take a profound hold upon practical life,--and that is, by its influence over our finer feelings, as the greatest of all sources of that pleasure which is derivable from beauty. i do not pretend that natural-history knowledge, as such, can increase our sense of the beautiful in natural objects. i do not suppose that the dead soul of peter bell, of whom the great poet of nature says,-- "a primrose by the river's brim, a yellow primrose was to him,-- and it was nothing more,"-- would have been a whit roused from its apathy, by the information that the primrose is a dicotyledonous exogen, with a monopetalous corolla and central placentation. but i advocate natural-history knowledge from this point of view, because it would lead us to _seek_ the beauties of natural objects, instead of trusting to chance to force them on our attention. to a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning round. surely our innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford to despise this or any other source of them. we should fear being banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the great florentine tells us are those who during this life "wept when they might be joyful." but i shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if i do not proceed at once to my last point--the time at which physiological science should first form a part of the curriculum of education. the distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science as instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, has already been placed before you in a previous lecture: and it appears to me, that, as with other sciences, the _common facts_ of biology--the uses of parts of the body--the names and habits of the living creatures which surround us--may be taught with advantage to the youngest child. indeed, the avidity of children for this kind of knowledge, and the comparative ease with which they retain it, is something quite marvellous. i doubt whether any toy would be so acceptable to young children as a vivarium, of the same kind as, but of course on a smaller scale than, those admirable devices in the zoological gardens. on the other hand, systematic teaching in biology cannot be attempted with success until the student has attained to a certain knowledge of physics and chemistry: for though the phænomena of life are dependent neither on physical nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they result in all sorts of physical and chemical changes, which can only be judged by their own laws. and now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which i hope you see reason to follow me. biology needs no apologist when she demands a place--and a prominent place--in any scheme of education worthy of the name. leave out the physiological sciences from your curriculum, and you launch the student into the world, undisciplined in that science whose subject-matter would best develope his powers of observation; ignorant of facts of the deepest importance for his own and others' welfare; blind to the richest sources of beauty in god's creation; and unprovided with that belief in a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through endless change and variety, which might serve to check and moderate that phase of despair through which, if he take an earnest interest in social problems, he will assuredly sooner or later pass. finally, one word for myself. i have not hesitated to speak strongly where i have felt strongly; and i am but too conscious that the indicative and imperative moods have too often taken the place of the more becoming subjunctive and conditional. i feel, therefore, how necessary it is to beg you to forget the personality of him who has thus ventured to address you, and to consider only the truth or error in what has been said. footnotes: [ ] "in the third place, we have to review the method of comparison, which is so specially adapted to the study of living bodies, and by which, above all others, that study must be advanced. in astronomy, this method is necessarily inapplicable; and it is not till we arrive at chemistry that this third means of investigation can be used, and then only in subordination to the two others. it is in the study, both statical and dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its full development; and its use elsewhere can be only through its application here."--_comte's positive philosophy_, translated by miss martineau. vol. i. p. . by what method does m. comte suppose that the equality or inequality of forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of forms--points of some slight importance not only in astronomy and physics, but even in mathematics,--are ascertained, if not by comparison? [ ] "proceeding to the second class of means,--experiment cannot but be less and less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the phænomena to be explored; and therefore we saw this resource to be less effectual in chemistry than in physics: and we now find that it is eminently useful in chemistry in comparison with physiology. _in fact, the nature of the phænomena seems to offer almost insurmountable impediments to any extensive and prolific application of such a procedure in biology._"--comte, vol. i. p. . m. comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on, but that will hardly relieve him from the responsibility of such a paragraph as the above. [ ] nouvelle fonction du foie considéré comme organe producteur de matière sucrée chez l'homme et les animaux, par m. claude bernard. [ ] "_natural groups given by type, not by definition...._ the class is steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, though not circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line without, but by a central point within; not by what it strictly excludes, but what it eminently includes; by an example, not by a precept; in short, instead of definition we have a _type_ for our director. a type is an example of any class, for instance, a species of a genus, which is considered as eminently possessing the characters of the class. all the species which have a greater affinity with this type-species than with any others, form the genus, and are ranged about it, deviating from it in various directions and different degrees."--_whewell, the philosophy of the inductive sciences_, vol. i. pp. - . [ ] save for the pleasure of doing so, i need hardly point out my obligations to mr. j. s. mill's "system of logic," in this view of scientific method. xi on the persistent types of animal life. the successive modifications which the views of physical geologists have undergone since the infancy of their science, with regard to the amount and the nature of the changes which the crust of the globe has suffered, have all tended in one direction, viz. towards the establishment of the belief, that throughout that vast series of ages which was occupied by the deposition of the stratified rocks, and which may be called "geological time," (to distinguish it from the "historical time" which followed, and the "pre-geological time," which preceded it) the intensity and the character of the physical forces which have been in operation, have varied within but narrow limits; so that, even in silurian or cambrian times, the aspect of physical nature must have been much what it is now. this uniformitarian view of telluric conditions, so far as geological time is concerned, is, however, perfectly consistent with the notion of a totally different state of things in antecedent epochs, and the strongest advocate of such "physical uniformity" during the time of which we have a record might, with perfect consistency, hold the so-called "nebular hypothesis," or any other view involving the conception of a long series of states very different from that which we now know, and whose succession occupied pre-geological time. the doctrine of physical uniformity and that of physical progression are therefore perfectly consistent, if we regard geological time as having the same relation to pre-geological time as historical time has to it. the accepted doctrines of palæontology are by no means in harmony with these tendencies of physical geology. it is generally believed that there is a vast contrast between the ancient and the modern organic worlds--it is incessantly assumed that we are acquainted with the beginning of life, and with the primal manifestation of each of its typical forms: nor does the fact that the discoveries of every year oblige the holders of these views to change their ground, appear sensibly to affect the tenacity of their adhesion. without at all denying the considerable positive differences which really exist between the ancient and the modern forms of life, and leaving the negative ones to be met by the other lines of argument, an impartial examination of the facts revealed by palæontology seems to show that these differences and contrasts have been greatly exaggerated. thus, of some two hundred known orders of plants, not one is exclusively fossil. among animals, there is not a single totally extinct class; and of the orders, at the outside not more than seven per cent. are unrepresented in the existing creation. again, certain well marked forms of living beings have existed through enormous epochs, surviving not only the changes of physical conditions, but persisting comparatively unaltered, while other forms of life have appeared and disappeared. some forms may be termed "persistent types" of life; and examples of them are abundant enough in both the animal and the vegetable worlds. among plants, for instance, ferns, club mosses, and _coniferæ_, some of them apparently generically identical with those now living, are met with as far back as the carboniferous epoch; the cone of the oolitic _araucaria_ is hardly distinguishable from that of existing species; a species of _pinus_ has been discovered in the purbecks, and a walnut (_juglans_) in the cretaceous rocks.[ ] all these are types of vegetable structure, abounding at the present day; and surely it is a most remarkable fact to find them persisting with so little change through such vast epochs. every sub-kingdom of animals yields instances of the same kind. the _globigerina_ of the atlantic soundings is identical with the cretaceous species of the same genus; and the casts of lower silurian _foraminifera_, recently described by ehrenberg, assure us of the very close resemblance between the oldest and the newest forms of many of the _protozoa_. among the _coelenterata_, the tabulate corals of the silurian epoch are wonderfully like the millepores of our own seas, as every one may convince himself who compares _heliolites_ with _heliopora_. turning to the _mollusca_, the genera _crania_, _discina_, _lingula_, have persisted from the silurian epoch to the present day, with so little change, that very competent malacologists are sometimes puzzled to distinguish the ancient from the modern species. _nautili_ have a like range, and the shell of the liassic _loligo_ is similar to that of the "squid" of our own seas. among the _annulosa_, the carboniferous insects are in several cases referable to existing genera, as are the _arachnida_, the highest group of which, the scorpions, is represented in the coal by a genus differing from its living congeners only in the disposition of its eyes. the vertebrate sub-kingdom furnishes many examples of the same kind. the _ganoidei_ and _elasmobranchii_ are known to have persisted from at least the middle of the palæozoic epoch to our own times, without exhibiting a greater amount of deviation from the typical characters of these orders, than may be found within their limits at the present day. among the _reptilia_, the highest group, that of the _crocodilia_, was represented at the beginning of the mesozoic epoch, if not earlier, by species identical in the essential character of their organization with those now living, and presenting differences only in such points as the form of the articular faces of their vertebræ, in the extent to which the nasal passages are separated from the mouth by bone, and in the proportions of the limbs. even such imperfect knowledge as we possess of the ancient mammalian fauna leads to the belief that certain of its types, such as that of the _marsupialia_, have persisted with no greater change through as vast a lapse of time. it is difficult to comprehend the meaning of such facts as these, if we suppose that each species of animal and plant, or each great type of organization, was formed and placed upon the surface of the globe at long intervals by a distinct act of creative power; and it is well to recollect that such an assumption is as unsupported by tradition or revelation as it is opposed to the general analogy of nature. if, on the other hand, we view "persistent types," in relation to that hypothesis which supposes the species of living beings living at any time to be the result of the gradual modification of pre-existing species--a hypothesis which though unproven, and sadly damaged by some of its supporters, is yet the only one to which physiology lends any countenance--their existence would seem to show, that the amount of modification which living beings have undergone during geological time is but very small in relation to the whole series of changes which they have suffered. in fact, palæontology and physical geology are in perfect harmony, and coincide in indicating that all we know of the conditions in our world during geological time, is but the last term of a vast and, so far as our present knowledge reaches, unrecorded progression. footnotes: [ ] i state these facts on the authority of my friend dr. hooker.--t. h. h. xii time and life. mr. darwin's "origin of species" everyone knows that that superficial film of the earth's substance, hardly ten miles thick, which is accessible to human investigation, is composed for the most part of beds or strata of stone, the consolidated muds and sands of former seas and lakes, which have been deposited one upon the other, and hence are the older the deeper they lie. these multitudinous strata present such resemblances and differences among themselves that they are capable of classification into groups or formations, and these formations again are brigaded together into still larger assemblages, called by the older geologists, primary, secondary, and tertiary; by the moderns, palæozoic, mesozoic, and cainozoic: the basis of the former nomenclature being the relative age of the groups of strata; that of the latter, the kinds of living forms contained in them. though but a film if compared with the total diameter of our planet, the total series of formations is vast indeed when measured by any human standard, and, as all action implies time, so are we compelled to regard these mineral masses as a measure of the time which has elapsed during their accumulation. the amount of the time which they represent is, of course, in the inverse proportion of the intensity of the forces which have been in operation. if, in the ancient world, mud and sand accumulated on sea-bottoms at tenfold their present rate, it is clear that a bed of mud or sand ten feet thick would have been formed then in the same time as a stratum of similar materials one foot thick would be formed now, and _vice versâ_. at the outset of his studies, therefore, the physical geologist had to choose between two hypotheses; either, throughout the ages which are represented by the accumulated strata, and which we may call _geologic time_, the forces of nature have operated with much the same average intensity as at present, and hence the lapse of time which they represent must be something prodigious and inconceivable, or, in the primeval epochs, the natural powers were infinitely more intense than now, and hence the time through which they acted to produce the effects we see was comparatively short. the earlier geologists adopted the latter view almost with one consent. for they had little knowledge of the present workings of nature, and they read the records of geologic time as a child reads the history of rome or greece, and fancies that antiquity was grand, heroic, and unlike the present because it is unlike his little experience of the present. even so the earlier observers were moved with wonder at the seeming contrast between the ancient and the present order of nature. the elemental forces seemed to have been grander and more energetic in primeval times. upheaved and contorted, rifted and fissured, pierced by dykes of molten matter or worn away over vast areas by aqueous action, the older rocks appeared to bear witness to a state of things far different from that exhibited by the peaceful epoch on which the lot of man has fallen. but by degrees thoughtful students of geology have been led to perceive that the earliest efforts of nature have been by no means the grandest. alps and andes are children of yesterday when compared with snowdon and the cumberland hills; and the so-called glacial epoch--that in which perhaps the most extensive physical changes of which any record remains occurred--is the last and the newest of the revolutions of the globe. and in proportion as physical geography--which is the geology of our own epoch--has grown into a science, and the present order of nature has been ransacked to find what, _hibernicè_, we may call precedents for the phenomena of the past, so the apparent necessity of supposing the past to be widely different from the present has diminished. the transporting power of the greatest deluge which can be imagined sinks into insignificance beside that of the slowly floating, slowly melting iceberg, or the glacier creeping along at its snail's pace of a yard a day. the study of the deltas of the nile, the ganges, and the mississippi has taught us how slow is the wearing action of water, how vast its effects when time is allowed for its operation. the reefs of the pacific, the deep-sea soundings of the atlantic, show that it is to the slow-growing coral and to the imperceptible animalcule, which lives its brief space and then adds its tiny shell to the muddy cairn left by its brethren and ancestors, that we must look as the agents in the formation of limestone and chalk, and not to hypothetical oceans saturated with calcareous salts and suddenly depositing them. and while the inquirer has thus learnt that existing forces--_give them time_--are competent to produce all the physical phenomena we meet with in the rocks, so, on the other side, the study of the marks left in the ancient strata by past physical actions shows that these were similar to those which now obtain. ancient beaches are met with whose pebbles are like those found on modern shores; the hardened sea-sands of the oldest epochs show ripple-marks, such as may now be found on every sandy coast; nay, more, the pits left by ancient rain-drops prove that even in the very earliest ages, the "bow in the clouds" must have adorned the palæozoic firmament. so that if we could reverse the legend of the seven sleepers,--if we could sleep back through the past, and awake a million ages before our own epoch, in the midst of the earliest geologic times,--there is no reason to believe that sea, or sky, or the aspect of the land would warn us of the marvellous retrospection. such are the beliefs which modern physical geologists hold, or, at any rate, tend towards holding. but, in so doing, it is obvious that they by no means prejudge the question, as to what the physical condition of the globe may have been before our chapters of its history begin, in what may be called (with that licence which is implied in the often-used term "prehistoric epoch") "pregeologic time." the views indicated, in fact, are not only quite consistent with the hypothesis, that, in the still earlier period referred to, the condition of our world was very different; but they may be held by some to necessitate that hypothesis. the physical philosopher who is accurately acquainted with the velocity of a cannon-ball, and the precise character of the line which it traverses for a yard of its course, is necessitated by what he knows of the laws of nature to conclude that it came from a certain spot, whence it was impelled by a certain force, and that it has followed a certain trajectory. in like manner, the student of physical geology, who fully believes in the uniformity of the general condition of the earth through geologic time, may feel compelled by what he knows of causation, and by the general analogy of nature, to suppose that our solar system was once a nebulous mass, that it gradually condensed, that it broke up into that wonderful group of harmoniously rolling balls we call planets and satellites, and that then each of these underwent its appointed metamorphosis, until at last our own share of the cosmic vapour passed into that condition in which we first meet with definite records of its state, and in which it has since, with comparatively little change, remained. the doctrine of uniformity and the doctrine of progression are, therefore, perfectly consistent; perhaps, indeed, they might be shown to be necessarily connected with one another. if, however, the condition of the world, which has obtained throughout geologic time, is but the sequel to a vast series of changes which took place in pregeologic time, then it seems not unlikely that the duration of this latter is to that of the former as the vast extent of geologic time is to the length of the brief epoch we call the historical period; and that even the oldest rocks are records of an epoch almost infinitely remote from that which could have witnessed the first shaping of our globe. it is probable that no modern geologist would hesitate to admit the general validity of these reasonings when applied to the physics of his subject, whence it is the more remarkable that the moment the question changes from one of physics and chemistry to one of natural history, scientific opinions and the popular prejudices, which reflect them in a distorted form, undergo a sudden metamorphosis. geologists and palæontologists write about the "beginning of life" and the "first-created forms of living beings," as if they were the most familiar things in the world; and even cautious writers seem to be on quite friendly terms with the "archetype" whereby the creator was guided "amidst the crash of falling worlds." just as it used to be imagined that the ancient universe was physically opposed to the present, so it is still widely assumed that the living population of our globe, whether animal or vegetable, in the older epochs, exhibited forms so strikingly contrasted with those which we see around us, that there is hardly anything in common between the two. it is constantly tacitly assumed that we have before us all the forms of life which have ever existed; and though the progress of knowledge, yearly and almost monthly, drives the defenders of that position from their ground, they entrench themselves in the new line of defences as if nothing had happened, and proclaim that the _new_ beginning is the _real_ beginning. * * * * * without for an instant denying or endeavouring to soften down the considerable positive differences (the negative ones are met by another line of argument) which undoubtedly obtain between the ancient and the modern worlds of life, we believe they have been vastly overstated and exaggerated, and this belief is based upon certain facts whose value does not seem to have been fully appreciated, though they have long been more or less completely known. the multitudinous kinds of animals and plants, both recent and fossil, are, as is well known, arranged by zoologists and botanists, in accordance with their natural relations, into groups which receive the names of sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, genera and species. now it is a most remarkable circumstance that, viewed on the great scale, living beings have differed so little throughout all geologic time that there is no sub-kingdom and no class wholly extinct or without living representatives. if we descend to the smaller groups, we find that the number of orders of plants is about two hundred; and i have it on the best authority that not one of these is exclusively fossil; so that there is absolutely not a single extinct ordinal type of vegetable life; and it is not until we descend to the next group, or the families, that we find types which are wholly extinct. the number of orders of animals, on the other hand, may be reckoned at a hundred and twenty, or thereabouts, and of these, eight or nine have no living representatives. the proportion of extinct ordinal types of animals to the existing types, therefore, does not exceed seven per cent.--a marvellously small proportion when we consider the vastness of geologic time. another class of considerations--of a different kind, it is true, but tending in the same direction--seems to have been overlooked. not only is it true that the general plan of construction of animals and plants has been the same in all recorded time as at present, but there are particular kinds of animals and plants which have existed throughout vast epochs, sometimes through the whole range of recorded time, with very little change. by reason of this persistency, the typical form of such a kind might be called a "persistent type," in contradistinction to those types which have appeared for but a short time in the course of the world's history. examples of these persistent types are abundant enough in both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. the oldest group of plants with which we are well acquainted is that of whose remains coal is constituted; and, so far as they can be identified, the carboniferous plants are ferns, or club-mosses, or coniferæ, in many cases generically identical with those now living! among animals, instances of the same kind may be found in every sub-kingdom. the _globigerina_ of the atlantic soundings is identical with that which occurs in the chalk; and the casts of lower silurian _foraminifera_, which ehrenberg has recently described, seem to indicate the existence at that remote period of forms singularly like those which now exist. among the corals, the palæozoic _tabulata_ are constructed on precisely the same type as the modern millepores; and if we turn to molluscs, the most competent malacologists fail to discover any generic distinction between the _craniæ_, _lingulæ_, and _discinæ_ of the silurian rocks and those which now live. our existing _nautilus_ has its representative species in every great formation, from the oldest to the newest; and _loligo_, the squid of modern seas, appears in the lias, or at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a form, at most, specifically different from its living congeners. in the great assemblage of annulose animals, the two highest classes, the insects and spider tribe, exhibit a wonderful persistency of type. the cockroaches of the carboniferous epoch are exceedingly similar to those which now run about our coal-cellars; and its locusts, termites, and dragon-flies are closely allied to the members of the same groups which now chirrup about our fields, undermine our houses, or sail with swift grace about the banks of our sedgy pools. and, in like manner, the palæozoic scorpions can only be distinguished by the eye of a naturalist from the modern ones. finally, with respect to the _vertebrata_, the same law holds good: certain types, such as those of the ganoid and placoid fishes, having persisted from the palæozoic epoch to the present time without a greater amount of deviation from the normal standard than that which is seen within the limits of the group as it now exists. even among the _reptilia_--the class which exhibits the largest proportion of entirely extinct forms of any--one type, that of the _crocodilia_, has persisted from at least the commencement of the mesozoic epoch up to the present time with so much constancy, that the amount of change which it exhibits may fairly, in relation to the time which has elapsed, be called insignificant. and the imperfect knowledge we have of the ancient mammalian population of our earth leads to the belief that certain of its types, such as that of the _marsupialia_, have persisted with correspondingly little change through a similar range of time. thus it would appear to be demonstrable, that, notwithstanding the great change which is exhibited by the animal population of the world as a whole, certain types have persisted comparatively without alteration, and the question arises, what bearing have such facts as these on our notions of the history of life through geological time? the answer to this question would seem to depend on the view we take respecting the origin of species in general. if we assume that every species of animal and of plant was formed by a distinct act of creative power, and if the species which have incessantly succeeded one another were placed upon the globe by these separate acts, then the existence of persistent types is simply an unintelligible irregularity. such assumption, however, is as unsupported by tradition or by revelation as it is opposed by the analogy of the rest of the operations of nature; and those who imagine that, by adopting any such hypothesis, they are strengthening the hands of the advocates of the letter of the mosaic account, are simply mistaken. if, on the other hand, we adopt that hypothesis to which alone the study of physiology lends any support--that hypothesis which, having struggled beyond the reach of those fatal supporters, the telliameds and vestigiarians, who so nearly caused its suffocation by wind in early infancy, is now winning at least the provisional assent of all the best thinkers of the day--the hypothesis that the forms or species of living beings, as we know them, have been produced by the gradual modification of pre-existing species--then the existence of persistent types seems to teach us much. just as a small portion of a great curve appears straight, the apparent absence of change in direction of the line being the exponent of the vast extent of the whole, in proportion to the part we see; so, if it be true that all living species are the result of the modification of other and simpler forms, the existence of these little altered persistent types, ranging through all geological time, must indicate that they are but the final terms of an enormous series of modifications, which had their being in the great lapse of pregeologic time, and are now perhaps for ever lost. in other words, when rightly studied, the teachings of palæontology are at one with those of physical geology. our farthest explorations carry us back but a little way above the mouth of the great river of life: where it arose, and by what channels the noble tide has reached the point when it first breaks upon our view, is hidden from us. the foregoing pages contain the substance of a lecture delivered before the royal institution of great britain many months ago, and of course long before the appearance of the remarkable work on the "origin of species," just published by mr. darwin, who arrives at very similar conclusions. although, in one sense, i might fairly say that my own views have been arrived at independently, i do not know that i can claim any equitable right to property in them; for it has long been my privilege to enjoy mr. darwin's friendship, and to profit by corresponding with him, and by, to some extent, becoming acquainted with the workings of his singularly original and well-stored mind. it was in consequence of my knowledge of the general tenor of the researches in which mr. darwin had been so long engaged; because i had the most complete confidence in his perseverance, his knowledge, and, above all things, his high-minded love of truth; and, moreover, because i found that the better i became acquainted with the opinions of the best naturalists regarding the vexed question of species, the less fixed they seemed to be, and the more inclined they were to the hypothesis of gradual modification, that i ventured to speak as strongly as i have done in the final paragraphs of my discourse. thus, my daw having so many borrowed plumes, i see no impropriety in making a tail to this brief paper by taking another handful of feathers from mr. darwin; endeavouring to point out in a few words, in fact, what, as i gather from the perusal of his book, his doctrines really are, and on what sort of basis they rest. and i do this the more willingly, as i observe that already the hastier sort of critics have begun, not to review my friend's book, but to howl over it in a manner which must tend greatly to distract the public mind. no one will be better satisfied than i to see mr. darwin's book refuted, if any person be competent to perform that feat; but i would suggest that refutation is retarded, not aided, by mere sarcastic misrepresentation. every one who has studied cattle-breeding, or turned pigeon-fancier, or "pomologist," must have been struck by the extreme modifiability or plasticity of those kinds of animals and plants which have been subjected to such artificial conditions as are imposed by domestication. breeds of dogs are more different from one another than are the dog and the wolf; and the purely artificial races of pigeons, if their origin were unknown, would most assuredly be reckoned by naturalists as distinct species and even genera. these breeds are always produced in the same way. the breeder selects a pair, one or other, or both, of which present an indication of the peculiarity he wishes to perpetuate, and then selects from the offspring of them those which are most characteristic, rejecting the others. from the selected offspring he breeds again, and, taking the same precautions as before, repeats the process until he has obtained the precise degree of divergence from the primitive type at which he aimed. if he now breeds from the variety thus established for some generations, taking care always to keep the stock pure, the tendency to produce this particular variety becomes more and more strongly hereditary; and it does not appear that there is any limit to the persistency of the race thus developed. men like lamarck, apprehending these facts, and knowing that varieties comparable to those produced by the breeder are abundantly found in nature, and finding it impossible to discriminate in some cases between varieties and true species, could hardly fail to divine the possibility that species even the most distinct were, after all, only exceedingly persistent varieties, and that they had arisen by the modification of some common stock, just as it is with good reason believed that turnspits and greyhounds, carrier and tumbler pigeons, have arisen. but there was a link wanting to complete the parallel. where in nature was the analogue of the breeder to be found? how could that operation of selection, which is his essential function, be carried out by mere natural agencies? lamarck did not value this problem; neither did he admit his impotence to solve it; but he guessed a solution. now, guessing in science is a very hazardous proceeding, and lamarck's reputation has suffered woefully for the absurdities into which his baseless suppositions led him. lamarck's conjectures, equipped with a new hat and stick, as sir walter scott was wont to say of an old story renovated, formed the foundation of the biological speculations of the "vestiges," a work which has done more harm to the progress of sound thought on these matters than any that could be named; and, indeed, i mention it here simply for the purpose of denying that it has anything in common with what essentially characterises mr. darwin's work. the peculiar feature of the latter is, in fact, that it professes to tell us what in nature takes the place of the breeder; what it is that favours the development of one variety into which a species may run, and checks that of another; and, finally, shows how this natural selection, as it is termed, may be the physical cause of the production of species by modification. that which takes the place of the breeder and selector in nature is death. in a most remarkable chapter, "on the struggle for existence," mr. darwin draws attention to the marvellous destruction of life which is constantly going on in nature. for every species of living thing, as for man, "_eine bresche ist ein jeder tag_."--every species has its enemies; every species has to compete with others for the necessaries of existence; the weakest goes to the wall, and death is the penalty inflicted on all laggards and stragglers. every variety to which a species may give rise is either worse or better adapted to surrounding circumstances than its parent. if worse, it cannot maintain itself against death, and speedily vanishes again. but if better adapted, it must, sooner or later, "improve" its progenitor from the face of the earth, and take its place. if circumstances change, the victor will be similarly supplanted by its own progeny; and thus, by the operation of natural causes, unlimited modification may in the lapse of long ages occur. for an explanation of what i have here called vaguely "surrounding circumstances," and of why they continually change--for ample proof that the "struggle for existence" is a very great reality, and assuredly _tends_ to exert the influence ascribed to it--i must refer to mr. darwin's book. i believe i have stated fairly the position upon which his whole theory must stand or fall; and it is not my purpose to anticipate a full review of his work. if it can be proved that the process of natural selection, operating upon any species, can give rise to varieties of species so different from one another that none of our tests will distinguish them from true species, mr. darwin's hypothesis of the origin of species will take its place among the established theories of science, be its consequences whatever they may. if, on the other hand, mr. darwin has erred, either in fact or in reasoning, his fellow-workers will soon find out the weak points in his doctrines, and their extinction by some nearer approximation to the truth will exemplify his own principle of natural selection. in either case the question is one to be settled only by the painstaking, truth-loving investigation of skilled naturalists. it is the duty of the general public to await the result in patience; and, above all things, to discourage, as they would any other crimes, the attempt to enlist the prejudices of the ignorant, or the uncharitableness of the bigoted, on either side of the controversy. xiii darwin on the origin of species. mr. darwin's long-standing and well-earned scientific eminence probably renders him indifferent to that social notoriety which passes by the name of success; but if the calm spirit of the philosopher have not yet wholly superseded the ambition and the vanity of the carnal man within him, he must be well satisfied with the results of his venture in publishing the "origin of species." overflowing the narrow bounds of purely scientific circles, the "species question" divides with italy and the volunteers the attention of general society. everybody has read mr. darwin's book, or, at least, has given an opinion upon its merits or demerits; pietists, whether lay or ecclesiastic, decry it with the mild railing which sounds so charitable; bigots denounce it with ignorant invective; old ladies, of both sexes, consider it a decidedly dangerous book, and even savans, who have no better mud to throw, quote antiquated writers to show that its author is no better than an ape himself; while every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism, and all competent naturalists and physiologists, whatever their opinions as to the ultimate fate of the doctrines put forth, acknowledge that the work in which they are embodied is a solid contribution to knowledge and inaugurates a new epoch in natural history. nor has the discussion of the subject been restrained within the limits of conversation. when the public is eager and interested, reviewers must minister to its wants, and the genuine _littérateur_ is too much in the habit of acquiring his knowledge from the book he judges--as the abyssinian is said to provide himself with steaks from the ox which carries him--to be withheld from criticism of a profound scientific work by the mere want of the requisite preliminary scientific acquirement; while, on the other hand, the men of science who wish well to the new views, no less than those who dispute their validity, have naturally sought opportunities of expressing their opinions. hence it is not surprising that almost all the critical journals have noticed mr. darwin's work at greater or less length, and so many disquisitions, of every degree of excellence, from the poor product of ignorance, too often stimulated by prejudice, to the fair and thoughtful essay of the candid student of nature, have appeared, that it seems an almost hopeless task to attempt to say anything new upon the question. but it may be doubted if the knowledge and acumen of prejudged scientific opponents, or the subtlety of orthodox special pleaders, have yet exerted their full force in mystifying the real issues of the great controversy which has been set afoot, and whose end is hardly likely to be seen by this generation; so that at this eleventh hour, and even failing anything new, it may be useful to state afresh that which is true, and to put the fundamental positions advocated by mr. darwin in such a form that they may be grasped by those whose special studies lie in other directions; and the adoption of this course may be the more advisable, because notwithstanding its great deserts, and indeed partly on account of them, the "origin of species" is by no means an easy book to read--if by reading is implied the full comprehension of an author's meaning. we do not speak jestingly in saying that it is mr. darwin's misfortune to know more about the question he has taken up than any man living. personally and practically exercised in zoology, in minute anatomy, in geology; a student of geographical distribution, not on maps and in museums only, but by long voyages and laborious collection; having largely advanced each of these branches of science, and having spent many years in gathering and sifting materials for his present work, the store of accurately registered facts upon which the author of the "origin of species" is able to draw at will is prodigious. but this very superabundance of matter must have been embarrassing to a writer who, for the present, can only put forward an abstract of his views, and thence it arises, perhaps, that notwithstanding the clearness of the style, those who attempt fairly to digest the book find much of it a sort of intellectual pemmican--a mass of facts crushed and pounded into shape, rather than held together by the ordinary medium of an obvious logical bond: due attention will, without doubt, discover this bond, but it is often hard to find. again, from sheer want of room, much has to be taken for granted which might readily enough be proved, and hence, while the adept, who can supply the missing links in the evidence from his own knowledge, discovers fresh proof of the singular thoroughness with which all difficulties have been considered and all unjustifiable supposition avoided, at every reperusal of mr. darwin's pregnant paragraphs, the novice in biology is apt to complain of the frequency of what he fancies is gratuitous assumption. thus while it may be doubted if, for some years, any one is likely to be competent to pronounce judgment on all the issues raised by mr. darwin, there is assuredly abundant room for him, who, assuming the humbler, though perhaps as useful, office of an interpreter between the "origin of species" and the public, contents himself with endeavouring to point out the nature of the problems which it discusses; to distinguish between the ascertained facts and the theoretical views which it contains; and finally, to show the extent to which the explanation it offers satisfies the requirements of scientific logic. at any rate, it is this office which we purpose to undertake in the following pages. it may be safely assumed that our readers have a general conception of the nature of the objects to which the word "species" is applied; but it has, perhaps, occurred to few, even of those who are naturalists _ex professo_, to reflect, that, as commonly employed, the term has a double sense and denotes two very different orders of relations. when we call a group of animals, or of plants, a species, we may imply thereby either, that all these animals or plants have some common peculiarity of form or structure; or, we may mean that they possess some common functional character. that part of biological science which deals with form and structure is called morphology--that which concerns itself with function, physiology--so that we may conveniently speak of these two senses or aspects of "species"--the one as morphological, the other as physiological. regarded from the former point of view, a species is nothing more than a kind of animal or plant, which is distinctly definable from all others, by certain constant and not merely sexual, morphological peculiarities. thus horses form a species, because the group of animals to which that name is applied is distinguished from all others in the world by the following constantly associated characters. they have . a vertebral column; . mammæ; . a placental embryo; . four legs; . a single well-developed toe in each foot provided with a hoof; . a bushy tail; and . callosities on the inner sides of both the fore and the hind legs. the asses again, form a distinct species, because, with the same characters, as far as the fifth in the above list, all asses have tufted tails, and have callosities only on the inner side of the fore-legs. if animals were discovered having the general characters of the horse, but sometimes with callosities only on the fore legs, and more or less tufted tails; or animals having the general characters of the ass, but with more or less bushy tails, and sometimes with callosities on both pairs of legs, besides being intermediate in other respects--the two species would have to be merged into one. they could no longer be regarded as morphologically distinct species, for they would not be distinctly definable one from the other. however bare and simple this definition of species may appear to be, we confidently appeal to all practical naturalists, whether zoologists, botanists, or palæontologists, to say if, in the vast majority of cases, they know, or mean to affirm, anything more of the group of animals or plants they so denominate than what has just been stated. even the most decided advocates of the received doctrines respecting species admit this. "i apprehend," says professor owen,[ ] "that few naturalists now-a-days, in describing and proposing a name for what they call 'a new _species_,' use that term to signify what was meant by it twenty or thirty years ago, that is, an originally distinct creation, maintaining its primitive distinction by obstructive generative peculiarities. the proposer of the new species now intends to state no more than he actually knows; as for example, that the differences in which he founds the specific character are constant in individuals of both sexes, so far as observation has reached; and that they are not due to domestication or to artificially superinduced external circumstances, or to any outward influence within his cognizance; that the species is wild, or is such as it appears by nature." if we consider, in fact, that by far the largest proportion of recorded existing species are known only by the study of their skins, or bones, or other lifeless exuvia; that we are acquainted with none, or next to none, of their physiological peculiarities, beyond those which can be deduced from their structure, or are open to cursory observation; and that we cannot hope to learn more of any of those extinct forms of life which now constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the known flora and fauna of the world; it is obvious that the definitions of these species can be only of a purely structural or morphological character. it is probable that naturalists would have avoided much confusion of ideas if they had more frequently borne these necessary limitations of our knowledge in mind. but while it may safely be admitted that we are acquainted with only the morphological characters of the vast majority of species--the functional or physiological peculiarities of a few have been carefully investigated, and the result of that study forms a large and most interesting portion of the physiology of reproduction. the student of nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo. examine the recently laid egg of some common animal, such as a salamander or a newt. it is a minute spheroid in which the best microscope will reveal nothing but a structureless sac, enclosing a glairy fluid, holding granules in suspension. but strange possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. let a moderate supply of warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so rapid and yet so steady and purpose-like in their succession, that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeller upon a formless lump of clay. as with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided and subdivided into smaller and smaller portions, until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. and, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded the contour of the body; pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into due salamandrine proportions, in so artistic a way, that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion, that some more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic would show the hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his work. as life advances, and the young amphibian ranges the waters, the terror of his insect contemporaries, not only are the nutritious particles supplied by its prey, by the addition of which to its frame growth takes place, laid down, each in its proper spot, and in such due proportion to the rest, as to reproduce the form, the colour and the size, characteristic of the parental stock; but even the wonderful powers of reproducing lost parts possessed by these animals are controlled by the same governing tendency. cut off the legs, the tail, the jaws, separately or all together, and, as spallanzani showed long ago, these parts not only grow again, but the redintegrated limb is formed on the same type as those which were lost. the new jaw or leg is a newt's, and never by any accident more like that of a frog. what is true of the newt is true of every animal and of every plant; the acorn tends to build itself up again into a woodland giant such as that from whose twig it fell; the spore of the humblest lichen reproduces the green or brown incrustation which gave it birth; and at the other end of the scale of life, the child that resembled neither the paternal nor the maternal side of the house would be regarded as a kind of monster. so that the one end to which in all living beings the formative impulse is tending--the one scheme which the archæus of the old speculators strives to carry out, seems to be to mould the offspring into the likeness of the parent. it is the first great law of reproduction, that the offspring tends to resemble its parent or parents, more closely than anything else. science will some day show us how this law is a necessary consequence of the more general laws which govern matter; but for the present, more can hardly be said than that it appears to be in harmony with them. we know that the phenomena of vitality are not something apart from other physical phenomena, but one with them; and matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless. hence living bodies should obey the same great laws as other matter--nor, throughout nature, is there a law of wider application than this, that a body impelled by two forces takes the direction of their resultant. but living bodies may be regarded as nothing but extremely complex bundles of forces held in a mass of matter, as the complex forces of a magnet are held in the steel by its coercive force; and since the differences of sex are comparatively slight, or, in other words, the sum of the forces in each has a very similar tendency, their resultant, the offspring, may reasonably be expected to deviate but little from a course parallel to either, or to both. represent the reason of the law to ourselves by what physical metaphor or analogy we will, however, the great matter is to apprehend its existence and the importance of the consequences deducible from it. for things which are like to the same are like to one another, and if, in a great series of generations, every offspring is like its parent, it follows that all the offspring and all the parents must be like one another; and that, given an original parental stock with the opportunity of undisturbed multiplication, the law in question necessitates the production, in course of time, of an indefinitely large group, the whole of whose members are at once very similar and are blood relations, having descended from the same parent, or pair of parents. the proof that all the members of any given group of animals, or plants, had thus descended, would be ordinarily considered sufficient to entitle them to the rank of physiological species, for most physiologists consider species to be definable as "the offspring of a single primitive stock." but though it is quite true that all those groups we call species _may_, according to the known laws of reproduction, have descended from a single stock, and though it is very likely they really have done so, yet this conclusion rests on deduction and can hardly hope to establish itself upon a basis of observation. and the primitiveness of the supposed single stock, which, after all, is the essential part of the matter, is not only a hypothesis, but one which has not a shadow of foundation, if by "primitive" be meant "independent of any other living being." a scientific definition, of which an unwarrantable hypothesis forms an essential part, carries its condemnation within itself; but even supposing such a definition were, in form, tenable, the physiologist who should attempt to apply it in nature would soon find himself involved in great, if not inextricable difficulties. as we have said, it is indubitable that offspring _tend_ to resemble the parental organism, but it is equally true that the similarity attained never amounts to identity, either in form or in structure. there is always a certain amount of deviation, not only from the precise characters of a single parent, but when, as in most animals and many plants, the sexes are lodged in distinct individuals, from an exact mean between the two parents. and, indeed, on general principles, this slight deviation seems as intelligible as the general similarity, if we reflect how complex the co-operating "bundles of forces" are, and how improbable it is that, in any case, their true resultant shall coincide with any mean between the more obvious characters of the two parents. whatever be its cause, however, the co-existence of this tendency to minor variation with the tendency to general similarity, is of vast importance in its bearing on the question of the origin of species. as a general rule, the extent to which an offspring differs from its parent is slight enough; but, occasionally, the amount of difference is much more strongly marked, and then the divergent offspring receives the name of a variety. multitudes, of what there is every reason to believe are such varieties, are known, but the origin of very few has been accurately recorded, and of these we will select two as more especially illustrative of the main features of variation. the first of them is that of the "ancon," or "otter" sheep, of which a careful account is given by colonel david humphreys, f.r.s., in a letter to sir joseph banks, published in the philosophical transactions for . it appears that one seth wright, the proprietor of a farm on the banks of the charles river, in massachusetts, possessed a flock of fifteen ewes and a ram of the ordinary kind. in the year , one of the ewes presented her owner with a male lamb, differing, for no assignable reason, from its parents by a proportionally long body and short bandy legs, whence it was unable to emulate its relatives in those sportive leaps over the neighbours' fences, in which they were in the habit of indulging, much to the good farmer's vexation. the second case is that detailed by a no less unexceptionable authority than réaumur, in his "art de faire éclorre les poulets." a maltese couple, named kelleia, whose hands and feet were constructed upon the ordinary human model, had born to them a son, gratio, who possessed six perfectly moveable fingers on each hand and six toes, not quite so well formed, on each foot. no cause could be assigned for the appearance of this unusual variety of the human species. two circumstances are well worthy of remark in both these cases. in each, the variety appears to have arisen in full force, and, as it were, _per saltum_; a wide and definite difference appearing, at once, between the ancon ram and the ordinary sheep; between the six-fingered and six-toed gratio kelleia and ordinary men. in neither case is it possible to point out any obvious reason for the appearance of the variety. doubtless there were determining causes for these as for all other phenomena; but they do not appear, and we can be tolerably certain that what are ordinarily understood as changes in physical conditions, as in climate, in food, or the like, did not take place and had nothing to do with the matter. it was no case of what is commonly called adaptation to circumstances; but, to use a conveniently erroneous phrase, the variations arose spontaneously. the fruitless search after final causes leads their pursuers a long way; but even those hardy teleologists, who are ready to break through all the laws of physics in chase of their favourite will-o'-the-wisp, may be puzzled to discover what purpose could be attained by the stunted legs of seth wright's ram or the hexadactyle members of gratio kelleia. varieties then arise we know not why; and it is more than probable that the majority of varieties have arisen in the spontaneous manner, though we are, of course, far from denying that they may be traced, in some cases, to distinct external influences, which are assuredly competent to alter the character of the tegumentary covering, to change colour, to increase or diminish the size of muscles, to modify constitution, and, among plants, to give rise to the metamorphosis of stamens into petals, and so forth. but however they may have arisen, what especially interests us at present is, to remark that, once in existence, varieties obey the fundamental law of reproduction that like tends to produce like, and their offspring exemplify it by tending to exhibit the same deviation from the parental stock as themselves. indeed, there seems to be, in many instances, a pre-potent influence about a newly-arisen variety which gives it what one may call an unfair advantage over the normal descendants from the same stock. this is strikingly exemplified by the case of gratio kelleia, who married a woman with the ordinary pentadactyle extremities, and had by her four children, salvator, george, andré, and marie. of these children salvator, the eldest boy, had six fingers and six toes, like his father; the second and third, also boys, had five fingers and toes, like their mother, though the hands and feet of george were slightly deformed; the last, a girl, had five fingers and toes, but the thumbs were slightly deformed. the variety thus reproduced itself purely in the eldest, while the normal type reproduced itself purely in the third, and almost purely in the second and last: so that it would seem, at first, as if the normal type were more powerful than the variety. but all these children grew up and intermarried with normal wives and husbands, and then, note what took place: salvator had four children, three of whom exhibited the hexadactyle members of their grandfather and father, while the youngest had the pentadactyle limbs of the mother and grandmother; so that here, notwithstanding a double pentadactyle dilution of the blood, the hexadactyle variety had the best of it. the same pre-potency of the variety was still more markedly exemplified in the progeny of two of the other children, marie and george. marie (whose thumbs only were deformed) gave birth to a boy with six toes, and three other normally formed children; but george, who was not quite so pure a pentadactyle, begot, first, two girls, each of whom had six fingers and toes; then a girl with six fingers on each hand and six toes on the right foot, but only five toes on the left; and lastly, a boy with only five fingers and toes. in these instances, therefore, the variety, as it were, leaped over one generation to reproduce itself in full force in the next. finally, the purely pentadactyle andré was the father of many children, not one of whom departed from the normal parental type. if a variation which approaches the nature of a monstrosity can strive thus forcibly to reproduce itself, it is not wonderful that less aberrant modifications should tend to be preserved even more strongly; and the history of the ancon sheep is, in this respect, particularly instructive. with the "'cuteness" characteristic of their nation, the neighbours of the massachusetts farmer imagined it would be an excellent thing if all his sheep were imbued with the stay-at-home tendencies enforced by nature upon the newly-arrived ram; and they advised wright to kill the old patriarch of his fold, and instal the ancon ram in his place. the result justified their sagacious anticipations, and coincided very nearly with what occurred to the progeny of gratio kelleia. the young lambs were almost always either pure ancons, or pure ordinary sheep.[ ] but when sufficient ancon sheep were obtained to interbreed with one another, it was found that the offspring was always pure ancon. colonel humphreys, in fact, states that he was acquainted with only "one questionable case of a contrary nature." here, then, is a remarkable and well-established instance, not only of a very distinct race being established _per saltum_, but of that race breeding "true" at once, and showing no mixed forms, even when crossed with another breed. by taking care to select ancons of both sexes, for breeding from, it thus became easy to establish an extremely well-marked race, so peculiar that even when herded with other sheep, it was noted that the ancons kept together, and there is every reason to believe that the existence of this breed might have been indefinitely protracted; but the introduction of the merino sheep, which were not only very superior to the ancons in wool and meat, but quite as quiet and orderly, led to the complete neglect of the new breed, so that, in , colonel humphreys found it difficult to obtain the specimen whose skeleton was presented to sir joseph banks. we believe that, for many years, no remnant of it has existed in the united states. gratio kelleia was not the progenitor of a race of six-fingered men, as seth wright's ram became a nation of ancon sheep, though the tendency of the variety to perpetuate itself appears to have been fully as strong in the one case as in the other. and the reason of the difference is not far to seek. seth wright took care not to weaken the ancon blood by matching his ancon ewes with any but males of the same variety, while gratio kelleia's sons were too far removed from the patriarchal times to intermarry with their sisters; and his grandchildren seem not to have been attracted by their six-fingered cousins. in other words, in the one example a race was produced, because, for several generations, care was taken to _select_ both parents of the breeding stock, from animals exhibiting a tendency to vary in the same direction, while in the other no race was evolved, because no such selection was exercised. a race is a propagated variety, and as, by the laws of reproduction, offspring tend to assume the parental form, they will be more likely to propagate a variation exhibited by both parents than that possessed by only one. there is no organ of the body of an animal which may not, and does not, occasionally, vary more or less from the normal type; and there is no variation which may not be transmitted, and which, if selectively transmitted, may not become the foundation of a race. this great truth, sometimes forgotten by philosophers, has long been familiar to practical agriculturists and breeders: and upon it rest all the methods of improving the breeds of domestic animals, which for the last century have been followed with so much success in england. colour, form, size, texture of hair or wool, proportions of various parts, strength or weakness of constitution, tendency to fatten or to remain lean, to give much or little milk, speed, strength, temper, intelligence, special instincts; there is not one of these characters whose transmission is not an every-day occurrence within the experience of cattle-breeders, stock-farmers, horse-dealers, and dog and poultry fanciers. nay, it is only the other day that an eminent physiologist, dr. brown sequard, communicated to the royal society his discovery that epilepsy, artificially produced in guinea-pigs, by a means which he has discovered, is transmitted to their offspring. but a race, once produced, is no more a fixed and immutable entity than the stock whence it sprang; variations arise among its members, and as these variations are transmitted like any others, new races may be developed out of the pre-existing ones _ad infinitum_, or, at least, within any limit at present determined. given sufficient time and sufficiently careful selection, and the multitude of races which may arise from a common stock is as astonishing as are the extreme structural differences which they may present. a remarkable example of this is to be found in the rock-pigeon, which mr. darwin has, in our opinion, satisfactorily demonstrated to be the progenitor of all our domestic pigeons, of which there are certainly more than a hundred well-marked races. the most noteworthy of these races are, the four great stocks known to the "fancy" as tumblers, pouters, carriers, and fantails; birds which not only differ most singularly in size, colour, and habits, but in the form of the beak and of the skull; in the proportions of the beak to the skull; in the number of tail-feathers; in the absolute and relative size of the feet; in the presence or absence of the uropygial gland; in the number of vertebræ in the back; in short, in precisely those characters in which the genera and species of birds differ from one another. and it is most remarkable and instructive to observe, that none of these races can be shown to have been originated by the action of changes in what are commonly called external circumstances, upon the wild rock-pigeon. on the contrary, from time immemorial, pigeon fanciers have had essentially similar methods of treating their pets, which have been housed, fed, protected and cared for in much the same way in all pigeonries. in fact, there is no case better adapted than that of the pigeons, to refute the doctrine which one sees put forth on high authority, that "no other characters than those founded on the development of bone for the attachment of muscles" are capable of variation. in precise contradiction of this hasty assertion, mr. darwin's researches prove that the skeleton of the wings in domestic pigeons has hardly varied at all from that of the wild type; while, on the other hand, it is in exactly those respects, such as the relative length of the beak and skull, the number of the vertebræ, and the number of the tail-feathers, in which muscular exertion can have no important influence, that the utmost amount of variation has taken place. * * * * * we have said that the following out of the properties exhibited by physiological species would lead us into difficulties, and at this point they begin to be obvious; for, if, as a result of spontaneous variation and of selective breeding, the progeny of a common stock may become separated into groups distinguished from one another by constant, not sexual, morphological characters, it is clear that the physiological definition of species is likely to clash with the morphological definition. no one would hesitate to describe the pouter and the tumbler as distinct species, if they were found fossil, or if their skins and skeletons were imported, as those of exotic wild birds commonly are--and, without doubt, if considered alone, they are good and distinct morphological species. on the other hand, they are not physiological species, for they are descended from a common stock, the rock-pigeon. under these circumstances, as it is admitted on all sides that races occur in nature, how are we to know whether any apparently distinct animals are really of different physiological species, or not, seeing that the amount of morphological difference is no safe guide? is there any test of a physiological species? the usual answer of physiologists is in the affirmative. it is said that such a test is to be found in the phenomena of hybridization--in the results of crossing races as compared with the results of crossing species. so far as the evidence goes at present, individuals, of what are certainly known to be mere races produced by selection, however distinct they may appear to be, not only breed freely together, but the offspring of such crossed races are also perfectly fertile with one another. thus, the spaniel and the greyhound, the dray-horse and the arab, the pouter and the tumbler, breed together with perfect freedom, and their mongrels, if matched with other mongrels of the same kind, are equally fertile. on the other hand, there can be no doubt that the individuals of many natural species are either absolutely infertile, if crossed with individuals of other species, or, if they give rise to hybrid offspring, the hybrids so produced are infertile when paired together. the horse and the ass, for instance, if so crossed, give rise to the mule, and there is no certain evidence of offspring ever having been produced by a male and female mule. the unions of the rock-pigeon and the ring-pigeon appear to be equally barren of result. here, then, says the physiologist, we have a means of distinguishing any two true species from any two varieties. if a male and a female, selected from each group, produce offspring, and that offspring is fertile with others produced in the same way, the groups are races and not species. if, on the other hand, no result ensues, or if the offspring are infertile with others produced in the same way, they are true physiological species. the test would be an admirable one, if, in the first place, it were always practicable to apply it, and if, in the second, it always yielded results susceptible of a definite interpretation. unfortunately, in the great majority of cases, this touchstone for species is wholly inapplicable. the constitution of many wild animals is so altered by confinement that they will not even breed with their own females, so that the negative results obtained from crosses are of no value, and the antipathy of wild animals of different species for one another, or even of wild and tame members of the same species, is ordinarily so great, that it is hopeless to look for such unions in nature. the hermaphrodism of most plants, the difficulty in the way of ensuring the absence of their own, or the proper working of other pollen, are obstacles of no less magnitude in applying the test to them. and in both animals and plants is superadded the further difficulty, that experiments must be continued over a long time for the purpose of ascertaining the fertility of the mongrel or hybrid progeny, as well as of the first crosses from which they spring. not only do these great practical difficulties lie in the way of applying the hybridization test, but even when this oracle can be questioned, its replies are sometimes as doubtful as those of delphi. for example, cases are cited by mr. darwin, of plants which are more fertile with the pollen of another species than with their own; and there are others, such as certain _fuci_, whose male element will fertilize the ovule of a plant of distinct species, while the males of the latter species are ineffective with the females of the first. so that, in the last-named instance, a physiologist, who should cross the two species in one way, would decide that they were true species; while another, who should cross them in the reverse way, would, with equal justice, according to the rule, pronounce them to be mere races. several plants, which there is great reason to believe are mere varieties, are almost sterile when crossed; while both animals and plants, which have always been regarded by naturalists as of distinct species, turn out, when the test is applied, to be perfectly fertile. again, the sterility or fertility of crosses seems to bear no relation to the structural resemblances or differences of the members of any two groups. mr. darwin has discussed this question with singular ability and circumspection, and his conclusions are summed up as follows at page of his work:-- "first crosses between forms sufficiently distinct to be ranked as species, and their hybrids, are very generally, but not universally, sterile. the sterility is of all degrees, and is often so slight that the two most careful experimentalists who have ever lived have come to diametrically opposite conclusions in ranking forms by this test. the sterility is innately variable in individuals of the same species, and is eminently susceptible of favourable and unfavourable conditions. the degree of sterility does not strictly follow systematic affinity, but is governed by several curious and complex laws. it is generally different, and sometimes widely different, in reciprocal crosses between the same two species. it is not always equal in degree in a first cross, and in the hybrid produced from this cross. "in the same manner as in grafting trees, the capacity of one species or variety to take on another is incidental on generally unknown differences in their vegetative systems, so in crossing, the greater or less facility of one species to unite with another is incidental on unknown differences in their reproductive systems. there is no more reason to think that species have been specially endowed with various degrees of sterility to prevent them crossing and breeding in nature, than to think that trees have been specially endowed with various and somewhat analogous degrees of difficulty in being grafted together, in order to prevent them becoming inarched in our forests. "the sterility of first crosses between pure species, which have their reproductive systems perfect, seems to depend on several circumstances; in some cases largely on the early death of the embryo. the sterility of hybrids which have their reproductive systems imperfect, and which have had this system and their whole organization disturbed by being compounded of two distinct species, seems closely allied to that sterility which so frequently affects pure species when their natural conditions of life have been disturbed. this view is supported by a parallelism of another kind; namely, that the crossing of forms only slightly different is favourable to the vigour and fertility of the offspring; and that slight changes in the conditions of life are apparently favourable to the vigour and fertility of all organic beings. it is not surprising that the degree of difficulty in uniting two species, and the degree of sterility of their hybrid offspring should generally correspond, though due to distinct causes; for both depend on the amount of difference of some kind between the species which are crossed. nor is it surprising that the facility of effecting a first cross, the fertility of hybrids produced from it, and the capacity of being grafted together--though this latter capacity evidently depends on widely different circumstances--should all run to a certain extent parallel with the systematic affinity of the forms which are subjected to experiment; for systematic affinity attempts to express all kinds of resemblance between all species. "first crosses between forms known to be varieties, or sufficiently alike to be considered as varieties, and their mongrel offspring, are very generally, but not quite universally, fertile. nor is this nearly general and perfect fertility surprising, when we remember how liable we are to argue in a circle with respect to varieties in a state of nature; and when we remember that the greater number of varieties have been produced under domestication by the selection of mere external differences, and not of differences in the reproductive system. in all other respects, excluding fertility, there is a close general resemblance between hybrids and mongrels" (pp. - ). we fully agree with the general tenor of this weighty passage, but forcible as are these arguments, and little as the value of fertility or infertility as a test of species may be, it must not be forgotten that the really important fact, so far as the inquiry into the origin of species goes, is, that there are such things in nature as groups of animals and of plants, whose members are incapable of fertile union with those of other groups; and that there are such things as hybrids, which are absolutely sterile when crossed with other hybrids. for if such phenomena as these were exhibited by only two of those assemblages of living objects, to which the name of species (whether it be used in its physiological or in its morphological sense) is given, it would have to be accounted for by any theory of the origin of species, and every theory which could not account for it would be, so far, imperfect. up to this point we have been dealing with matters of fact, and the statements which we have laid before the reader would, to the best of our knowledge, be admitted to contain a fair exposition of what is at present known respecting the essential properties of species, by all who have studied the question. and whatever may be his theoretical views, no naturalist will probably be disposed to demur to the following summary of that exposition:-- living beings, whether animals or plants, are divisible into multitudes of distinctly definable kinds, which are morphological species. they are also divisible into groups of individuals, which breed freely together, tending to reproduce their like, and are physiological species. normally, resembling their parents, the offspring of members of these species are still liable to vary, and the variation may be perpetuated by selection, as a race, which race, in many cases, presents all the characteristics of a morphological species. but it is not as yet proved that a race ever exhibits, when crossed with another race of the same species, those phenomena of hybridization which are exhibited by many species when crossed with other species. on the other hand, not only is it not proved that all species give rise to hybrids infertile _inter se_, but there is much reason to believe that, in crossing, species exhibit every gradation from perfect sterility to perfect fertility. such are the most essential characteristics of species. even were man not one of them--a member of the same system and subject to the same laws--the question of their origin, their causal connexion, that is, with the other phenomena of the universe, must have attracted his attention, as soon as his intelligence had raised itself above the level of his daily wants. indeed history relates that such was the case, and has embalmed for us the speculations upon the origin of living beings, which were among the earliest products of the dawning intellectual activity of man. in those early days positive knowledge was not to be had, but the craving after it needed, at all hazards, to be satisfied, and according to the country, or the turn of thought of the speculator, the suggestion that all living things arose from the mud of the nile, from a primeval egg, or from some more anthropomorphic agency, afforded a sufficient resting-place for his curiosity. the myths of paganism are as dead as osiris or zeus, and the man who should revive them, in opposition to the knowledge of our time, would be justly laughed to scorn; but the coeval imaginations current among the rude inhabitants of palestine, recorded by writers whose very name and age are admitted by every scholar to be unknown, have unfortunately not yet shared their fate, but, even at this day, are regarded by nine-tenths of the civilized world as the authoritative standard of fact and the criterion of the justice of scientific conclusions, in all that relates to the origin of things, and, among them, of species. in this nineteenth century, as at the dawn of modern physical science, the cosmogony of the semi-barbarous hebrew is the incubus of the philosopher and the opprobrium of the orthodox. who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth from the days of galileo until now, whose lives have been embittered and their good name blasted by the mistaken zeal of bibliolaters? who shall count the host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the effort to harmonize impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the attempt to force the generous new wine of science into the old bottles of judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party? it is true that if philosophers have suffered, their cause has been amply avenged. extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of hercules, and history records that whenever science and dogmatism have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed, if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain. but orthodoxy is the bourbon of the world of thought. it learns not, neither can it forget; and though at present bewildered and afraid to move, it is as willing as ever to insist that the first chapter of genesis contains the beginning and the end of sound science, and to visit with such petty thunderbolts as its half-paralysed hands can hurl, those who refuse to degrade nature to the level of primitive judaism. philosophers, on the other hand, have no such aggressive tendencies. with eyes fixed on the noble goal to which "per aspera et ardua" they tend, they may, now and then, be stirred to momentary wrath by the unnecessary obstacles with which the ignorant, or the malicious, encumber, if they cannot bar, the difficult path; but why should their souls be deeply vexed? the majesty of fact is on their side, and the elemental forms of matter are working for them. not a star comes to the meridian at its calculated time but testifies to the justice of their methods--their beliefs are "one with the falling rain and with the growing corn." by doubt they are established, and open inquiry is their bosom friend. such men have no fear of traditions however venerable, and no respect for them when they become mischievous and obstructive; but they have better than mere antiquarian business in hand, and if dogmas, which ought to be fossil but are not, are not forced upon their notice, they are too happy to treat them as non-existent. * * * * * the hypotheses respecting the origin of species, which profess to stand upon a scientific basis, and, as such, alone demand serious attention, are of two kinds. the one, the "special creation" hypothesis, presumes every species to have originated from one or more stocks, these not being the result of the modification of any other form of living matter--or arising by natural agencies--but being produced, as such, by a supernatural creative act. the other, the so-called "transmutation" hypothesis, considers that all existing species are the result of the modification of pre-existing species and those of their predecessors, by agencies similar to those which at the present day produce varieties and races, and therefore in an altogether natural way; and it is a probable, though not a necessary consequence of this hypothesis, that all living beings have arisen from a single stock. with respect to the origin of this primitive stock or stocks, the doctrine of the origin of species is obviously not necessarily concerned. the transmutation hypothesis, for example, is perfectly consistent either with the conception of a special creation of the primitive germ, or with the supposition of its having arisen, as a modification of inorganic matter, by natural causes. the doctrine of special creation owes its existence very largely to the supposed necessity of making science accord with the hebrew cosmogony; but it is curious to observe that, as the doctrine is at present maintained by men of science, it is as hopelessly inconsistent with the hebrew view as any other hypothesis. if there be any result which has come more clearly out of geological investigation than another, it is, that the vast series of extinct animals and plants is not divisible, as it was once supposed to be, into distinct groups, separated by sharply marked boundaries. there are no great gulfs between epochs and formations--no successive periods marked by the appearance of plants, of water animals, and of land animals, _en masse_. every year adds to the list of links between what the older geologists supposed to be widely separated epochs; witness the crags linking the drift with the older tertiaries; the maestricht beds linking the tertiaries with the chalk; the st. cassian beds exhibiting an abundant fauna of mixed mesozoic and paleozoic types, in rocks of an epoch once supposed to be eminently poor in life; witness, lastly, the incessant disputes as to whether a given stratum shall be reckoned devonian or carboniferous, silurian or devonian, cambrian or silurian. this truth is further illustrated in a most interesting manner by the impartial and highly competent testimony of m. pictet, from whose calculations of what percentage of the genera of animals existing in any formation lived during the preceding formation, it results that in no case is the proportion less than _one-third_, or per cent. it is the triassic formation, or the commencement of the mesozoic epoch, which has received this smallest inheritance from preceding ages. the other formations not uncommonly exhibit , , or even per cent. of genera in common with those whose remains are imbedded in their predecessor. not only is this true, but the subdivisions of each formation exhibit new species characteristic of, and found only in, them, and in many cases, as in the lias for example, the separate beds of these subdivisions are distinguished by well marked and peculiar forms of life. a section, a hundred feet thick, will exhibit at different heights a dozen species of ammonite, none of which passes beyond its particular zone of limestone or clay into the zone below it or into that above it; so that those who adopt the doctrine of special creation must be prepared to admit, that at intervals of time, corresponding with the thickness of these beds, the creator thought fit to interfere with the natural course of events for the purpose of making a new ammonite. it is not easy to transplant oneself into the frame of mind of those who can accept such a conclusion as this, on any evidence, short of absolute demonstration; and it is difficult to see what is to be gained by so doing, since, as we have said, it is obvious that such a view of the origin of living beings is utterly opposed to the hebrew cosmogony. deserving no aid from the powerful arm of bibliolatry, then, does the received form of the hypothesis of special creation derive any support from science or sound logic? assuredly not much. the arguments brought forward in its favour all take one form: if species were not supernaturally created, we cannot understand the facts _x_, or _y_, or _z_; we cannot understand the structure of animals or plants, unless we suppose they were contrived for special ends; we cannot understand the structure of the eye, except by supposing it to have been made to see with; we cannot understand instincts, unless we suppose animals to have been miraculously endowed with them. as a question of dialectics, it must be admitted that this sort of reasoning is not very formidable to those who are not to be frightened by consequences. it is an argumentum ad ignorantiam--take this explanation or be ignorant. but suppose we prefer to admit our ignorance rather than adopt a hypothesis at variance with all the teachings of nature? or suppose for a moment we admit the explanation, and then seriously ask ourselves how much the wiser are we? what does the explanation explain? is it any more than a grandiloquent way of announcing the fact, that we really know nothing about the matter? a phenomenon is explained, when it is shown to be a case of some general law of nature; but the supernatural interposition of the creator can by the nature of the case exemplify no law, and if species have really arisen in this way, it is absurd to attempt to discuss their origin. or, lastly, let us ask ourselves whether any amount of evidence which the nature of our faculties permits us to attain, can justify us in asserting that any phenomenon is out of the reach of natural causation. to this end it is obviously necessary that we should know all the consequences to which all possible combinations, continued through unlimited time, can give rise. if we knew these, and found none competent to originate species, we should have good ground for denying their origin by natural causation. till we know them, any hypothesis is better than one which involves us in such miserable presumption. but the hypothesis of special creation is not only a mere specious mask for our ignorance; its existence in biology marks the youth and imperfection of the science. for what is the history of every science but the history of the elimination of the notion of creative, or other interferences, with the natural order of the phenomena which are the subject-matter of that science? when astronomy was young "the morning stars sang together for joy," and the planets were guided in their courses by celestial hands. now, the harmony of the stars has resolved itself into gravitation according to the inverse squares of the distances, and the orbits of the planets are deducible from the laws of the forces which allow a schoolboy's stone to break a window. the lightning was the angel of the lord; but it has pleased providence, in these modern times, that science should make it the humble messenger of man, and we know that every flash that skimmers about the horizon on a summer's evening is determined by ascertainable conditions, and that its direction and brightness might, if our knowledge of these were great enough, have been calculated. the solvency of great mercantile companies rests on the validity of the laws, which have been ascertained to govern the seeming irregularity of that human life which the moralist bewails as the most uncertain of things; plague, pestilence, and famine are admitted, by all but fools, to be the natural result of causes for the most part fully within human control, and not the unavoidable tortures inflicted by wrathful omnipotence upon his helpless handiwork. harmonious order governing eternally continuous progress--the web and woof of matter and force interweaving by slow degrees, without a broken thread, that veil which lies between us and the infinite--that universe which alone we know, or can know;--such is the picture which science draws of the world, and in proportion as any part of that picture is in unison with the rest, so may we feel sure that it is rightly painted. shall biology alone remain out of harmony with her sister sciences? such arguments against the hypothesis of the direct creation of species as these are plainly enough deducible from general considerations, but there are, in addition, phenomena exhibited by species themselves, and yet not so much a part of their very essence as to have required earlier mention, which are in the highest degree perplexing, if we adopt the popularly accepted hypothesis. such are the facts of distribution in space and in time; the singular phenomena brought to light by the study of development; the structural relations of species upon which our systems of classification are founded; the great doctrines of philosophical anatomy, such as that of homology, or of the community of structural plan exhibited by large groups of species differing very widely in their habits and functions. the species of animals which inhabit the sea on opposite sides of the isthmus of panama are wholly distinct; the animals and plants which inhabit islands are commonly distinct from those of the neighbouring mainlands, and yet have a similarity of aspect. the mammals of the latest tertiary epoch in the old and new worlds belong to the same genera, or family groups, as those which now inhabit the same great geographical area. the crocodilian reptiles which existed in the earliest secondary epoch were similar in general structure to those now living, but exhibit slight differences in their vertebræ, nasal passages, and one or two other points. the guinea-pig has teeth which are shed before it is born, and hence can never subserve the masticatory purpose for which they seem contrived, and, in like manner, the female dugong has tusks which never cut the gum. all the members of the same great group run through similar conditions in their development, and all their parts, in the adult state, are arranged according to the same plan. man is more like a gorilla than a gorilla is like a lemur. such are a few, taken at random, among the multitudes of similar facts which modern research has established; but when the student seeks for an explanation of them from the supporters of the received hypothesis of the origin of species, the reply he receives is, in substance, of oriental simplicity and brevity--"mashallah! it so pleases god!" there are different species on opposite sides of the isthmus of panama, because they were created different on the two sides. the pliocene mammals are like the existing ones, because such was the plan of creation; and we find rudimental organs and similarity of plan, because it has pleased the creator to set before himself a "divine exemplar or archetype," and to copy it in his works; and somewhat ill, those who hold this view imply, in some of them. that such verbal hocus-pocus should be received as science will one day be regarded as evidence of the low state of intelligence in the nineteenth century, just as we amuse ourselves with the phraseology about nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, wherewith torricelli's compatriots were satisfied to explain the rise of water in a pump. and be it recollected that this sort of satisfaction works not only negative but positive ill, by discouraging inquiry, and so depriving man of the usufruct of one of the most fertile fields of his great patrimony, nature. the objections to the doctrine of origin of species by special creation which have been detailed, must have occurred with more or less force to the mind of every one who has seriously and independently considered the subject. it is therefore no wonder that, from time to time, this hypothesis should have been met by counter hypotheses, all as well, and some better, founded than itself; and it is curious to remark that the inventors of the opposing views seem to have been led into them as much by their knowledge of geology as by their acquaintance with biology. in fact, when the mind has once admitted the conception of the gradual production of the present physical state of our globe, by natural causes operating through long ages of time, it will be little disposed to allow that living beings have made their appearance in another way, and the speculations of de maillet and his successors are the natural complement of scilla's demonstration of the true nature of fossils. a contemporary of newton and of leibnitz, sharing therefore in the intellectual activity of the remarkable age which witnessed the birth of modern physical science, benoît de maillet spent a long life as a consular agent of the french government in various mediterranean ports. for sixteen years, in fact, he held the office of consul-general in egypt, and the wonderful phenomena offered by the valley of the nile appear to have strongly impressed his mind, to have directed his attention to all facts of a similar order which came within his observation, and to have led him to speculate on the origin of the present condition of our globe and of its inhabitants. but, with all his ardour for science, de maillet seems to have hesitated to publish views which, notwithstanding the ingenious attempts to reconcile them with the hebrew hypothesis contained in the preface to "telliamed" (and which we recommend for mr. maccausland's perusal), were hardly likely to be received with favour by his contemporaries. but a short time had elapsed since more than one of the great anatomists and physicists of the italian school had paid dearly for their endeavours to dissipate some of the prevalent errors; and their illustrious pupil, harvey, the founder of modern physiology, had not fared so well, in a country less oppressed by the benumbing influences of theology, as to tempt any man to follow his example. probably not uninfluenced by these considerations, his catholic majesty's consul-general for egypt kept his theories to himself throughout a long life, for "telliamed," the only scientific work which is known to have proceeded from his pen, was not printed till , when its author had reached the ripe age of seventy-nine; and though de maillet lived three years longer, his book was not given to the world before . even then it was anonymous to those who were not in the secret of the anagrammatic character of its title, and the preface and dedication are so worded as, in case of necessity, to give the printer a fair chance of falling back on the excuse that the work was intended for a mere jeu d'esprit. the speculations of the supposititious indian sage, though quite as sound as those of many a "mosaic geology" which sells exceedingly well, have no great value if we consider them by the light of modern science. the waters are supposed to have originally covered up the whole globe; to have deposited the rocky masses which compose its mountains by processes comparable to those which are now forming mud, sand, and shingle; and then to have gradually lowered their level, leaving the spoils of the animal and vegetable inhabitants embedded in the strata. as the dry land appeared, certain of the aquatic animals are supposed to have taken to it, and to have become gradually adapted to terrestrial and aerial modes of existence. but if we regard the general tenor and style of the reasoning in relation to the state of knowledge of the day, two circumstances appear very well worthy of remark. the first, that de maillet had a notion of the modifiability of living forms (though without any precise information on the subject), and how such modifiability might account for the origin of species; the second, that he very clearly apprehended the great modern geological doctrine, so strongly insisted upon by hutton, and so ably and comprehensively expounded by lyell, that we must look to existing causes for the explanation of past geological events. the following passage of the preface indeed, in which de maillet is supposed to speak of the indian philosopher telliamed, his _alter ego_, might have been written by the most philosophical uniformitarian of the present day. "ce qu'il y a d'étonnant, est que pour arriver à ces connoissances il semble avoir perverti l'ordre naturel, puisqu'au lieu de s'attacher d'abord à rechercher l'origine de notre globe il a commencé par travailler à s'instruire de la nature. mais à l'entendre, ce renversement de l'ordre a été pour lui l'effet d'un génie favorable qui l'a conduit pas à pas et comme par la main aux découvertes les plus sublimes. c'est en décomposant la substance de ce globe par une anatomie exacte de toutes ses parties qu'il a premièrement appris de quelles matières il était composé et quels arrangemens ces mêmes matières observaient entre elles. ces lumières jointes à l'esprit de comparaison toujours nécessaire à quiconque entreprend de percer les voiles dont la nature aime à se cacher, ont servi de guide à notre philosophe pour parvenir à des connoissances plus intéressantes. par la matière et l'arrangement de ces compositions il prétend avoir reconnu quelle est la véritable origine de ce globe que nous habitons, comment et par qui il a été formé."--(pp. xix. xx.) but de maillet was before his age, and as could hardly fail to happen to one who speculated on a zoological and botanical question before linnæus, and on a physiological problem before haller, he fell into great errors here and there; and hence, perhaps, the general neglect of his work. robinet's speculations are rather behind than in advance of those of de maillet, and though linnæus may have played with the hypothesis of transmutation, it obtained no serious support until lamarck adopted it, and advocated it with great ability in his "philosophie zoologique." impelled towards the hypothesis of the transmutation of species, partly by his general cosmological and geological views; partly by the conception of a graduated, though irregularly branching scale of being, which had arisen out of his profound study of plants and of the lower forms of animal life, lamarck, whose general line of thought often closely resembles that of de maillet, made a great advance upon the crude and merely speculative manner in which that writer deals with the question of the origin of living beings, by endeavouring to find physical causes competent to effect that change of one species into another which de maillet had only supposed to occur. and lamarck conceived that he had found in nature such causes, amply sufficient for the purpose in view. it is a physiological fact, he says, that organs are increased in size by action, atrophied by inaction; it is another physiological fact that modifications produced are transmissible to offspring. change the actions of an animal, therefore, and you will change its structure, by increasing the development of the parts newly brought into use and by the diminution of those less used; but by altering the circumstances which surround it you will alter its actions, and hence, in the long run, change of circumstance must produce change of organization. all the species of animals, therefore, are in lamarck's view the result of the indirect action of changes of circumstance upon those primitive germs which he considered to have originally arisen, by spontaneous generation, within the waters of the globe. it is curious, however, that lamarck should insist so strongly[ ] as he has done, that circumstances never in any degree directly modify the form or the organization of animals, but only operate by changing their wants, and consequently their actions; for he thereby brings upon himself the obvious question, how, then, do plants, which cannot be said to have wants or actions, become modified? to this he replies, that they are modified by the changes in their nutritive processes, which are effected by changing circumstances; and it does not seem to have occurred to him that such changes might be as well supposed to take place among animals. when we have said that lamarck felt that mere speculation was not the way to arrive at the origin of species, but that it was necessary in order to the establishment of any sound theory on the subject, to discover by observation or otherwise, some _vera causa_, competent to give rise to them; that he affirmed the true order of classification to coincide with the order of their development one from another; that he insisted on the necessity of allowing sufficient time, very strongly; and that all the varieties of instinct and reason were traced back by him to the same cause as that which has given rise to species, we have enumerated his chief contributions to the advance of the question. on the other hand, from his ignorance of any power in nature competent to modify the structure of animals, except the development of parts, or atrophy of them, in consequence of a change of needs, lamarck was led to attach infinitely greater weight than it deserves to this agency, and the absurdities into which he was led have met with deserved condemnation. of the struggle for existence, on which as we shall see mr. darwin lays such great stress, he had no conception; indeed, he doubts whether there really are such things as extinct species, unless they be such large animals as may have met their death at the hands of man; and so little does he dream of there being any other destructive causes at work, that, in discussing the possible existence of fossil shells, he asks, "pourquoi d'ailleurs seroient-ils perdues dès que l'homme n'a pu opérer leur destruction?" ("phil. zool.," vol. i. p. ). of the influence of selection lamarck has as little notion, and he makes no use of the wonderful phenomena which are exhibited by domesticated animals, and illustrate its powers. the vast influence of cuvier was employed against the lamarckian views, and as the untenability of some of his conclusions was easily shown, his doctrines sank under the opprobrium of scientific as well as of theological heterodoxy. nor have the efforts made of late years to revive them, tended to re-establish their credit in the minds of sound thinkers acquainted with the facts of the case; indeed it may be doubted whether lamarck has not suffered more from his friends than from his foes. two years ago, in fact, though we venture to question if even the strongest supporters of the special creation hypothesis had not, now and then, an uneasy consciousness that all was not right, their position seemed more impregnable than ever, if not by its own inherent strength, at any rate by the obvious failure of all the attempts which had been made to carry it. on the other hand, however much the few, who thought deeply on the question of species, might be repelled by the generally received dogmas, they saw no way of escaping from them, save by the adoption of suppositions, so little justified by experiment or by observation, as to be at least equally distasteful; the choice lay between two absurdities and a middle condition of uneasy scepticism; which last, however unpleasant and unsatisfactory, was obviously the only justifiable state of mind under the circumstances. such being the general ferment in the minds of naturalists, it is no wonder that they mustered strong in the rooms of the linnæan society, on the first of july of the year , to hear two papers by authors living on opposite sides of the globe, working out their results independently, and yet professing to have discovered one and the same solution of all the problems connected with species. the one of these authors was an able naturalist, mr. wallace, who had been employed for some years in studying the productions of the islands of the indian archipelago, and who had forwarded a memoir embodying his views to mr. darwin for communication to the linnæan society. on perusing the essay mr. darwin was not a little surprised to find that it embodied some of the leading ideas of a great work which he had been preparing for twenty years, and parts of which, containing a development of the very same views, had been perused by his private friends fifteen or sixteen years before. perplexed in what manner to do full justice both to his friend and to himself, mr. darwin placed the matter in the hands of dr. hooker and sir charles lyell, by whose advice he communicated a brief abstract of his own views to the linnæan society, at the same time that mr. wallace's paper was read. of that abstract, the work on the "origin of species" is an enlargement, but a complete statement of mr. darwin's doctrine is looked for in the large and well-illustrated work which he is said to be preparing for publication.[ ] * * * * * the darwinian hypothesis has the merit of being eminently simple and comprehensible in principle, and its essential positions may be stated in a very few words: all species have been produced by the development of varieties from common stocks, by the conversion of these, first into permanent races and then into new species, by the process of _natural selection_, which process is essentially identical with that artificial selection by which man has originated the races of domestic animals--the _struggle for existence_ taking the place of man, and exerting, in the case of natural selection, that selective action which he performs in artificial selection. the evidence brought forward by mr. darwin in support of his hypothesis is of three kinds. first, he endeavours to prove that species may be originated by selection; secondly, he attempts to show that natural causes are competent to exert selection; and thirdly, he tries to prove that the most remarkable and apparently anomalous phenomena exhibited by the distribution, development, and mutual relations of species, can be shown to be deducible from the general doctrine of their origin, which he propounds, combined with the known facts of geological change; and that, even if not all these phenomena are at present explicable by it, none are necessarily inconsistent with it. there cannot be a doubt that the method of inquiry which mr. darwin has adopted is not only rigorously in accordance with the canons of scientific logic, but that it is the only adequate method. critics exclusively trained in classics or in mathematics, who have never determined a scientific fact in their lives by induction from experiment or observation, prate learnedly about mr. darwin's method, which is not inductive enough, not baconian enough, forsooth, for them. but even if practical acquaintance with the process of scientific investigation is denied them, they may learn, by the perusal of mr. mill's admirable chapter "on the deductive method," that there are multitudes of scientific inquiries, in which the method of pure induction helps the investigator but a very little way. "the mode of investigation" (says mr. mill) "which from the proved inapplicability of direct methods of observation and experiment remains to us as the main source of the knowledge we possess, or can acquire, respecting the conditions and laws of recurrence of the more complex phenomena, is called, in its most general expression, the deductive method, and consists of three operations: the first, one of direct induction; the second, of ratiocination; and the third, of verification." now, the conditions which have determined the existence of species are not only exceedingly complex, but, so far as the great majority of them are concerned, are necessarily beyond our cognisance. but what mr. darwin has attempted to do is in exact accordance with the rule laid down by mr. mill; he has endeavoured to determine certain great facts inductively, by observation and experiment; he has then reasoned from the data thus furnished; and lastly, he has tested the validity of his ratiocination by comparing his deductions with the observed facts of nature. inductively, mr. darwin endeavours to prove that species arise in a given way. deductively, he desires to show that, if they arise in that way, the facts of distribution, development, classification, &c., may be accounted for, _i.e._ may be deduced from their mode of origin, combined with admitted changes in physical geography and climate, during an indefinite period. and this explanation, or coincidence of observed with deduced facts, is, so far as it extends, a verification of the darwinian view. there is no fault to be found with mr. darwin's method, then; but it is another question whether he has fulfilled all the conditions imposed by that method. is it satisfactorily proved, in fact, that species may be originated by selection? that there is such a thing as natural selection? that none of the phenomena exhibited by species are inconsistent with the origin of species in this way? if these questions can be answered in the affirmative, mr. darwin's view steps out of the ranks of hypotheses into those of proved theories; but so long as the evidence at present adduced falls short of enforcing that affirmation, so long, to our minds, must the new doctrine be content to remain among the former--an extremely valuable, and in the highest degree probable, doctrine, indeed the only extant hypothesis which is worth anything in a scientific point of view; but still a hypothesis, and not yet the theory of species. after much consideration, and with assuredly no bias against mr. darwin's views, it is our clear conviction that, as the evidence stands, it is not absolutely proven that a group of animals, having all the characters exhibited by species in nature, has ever been originated by selection, whether artificial or natural. groups having the morphological character of species, distinct and permanent races in fact, have been so produced over and over again; but there is no positive evidence at present that any group of animals has, by variation and selective breeding, given rise to another group which was even in the least degree infertile with the first. mr. darwin is perfectly aware of this weak point, and brings forward a multitude of ingenious and important arguments to diminish the force of the objection. we admit the value of these arguments to their fullest extent; nay, we will go so far as to express our belief that experiments, conducted by a skilful physiologist, would very probably obtain the desired production of mutually more or less infertile breeds from a common stock, in a comparatively few years; but still, as the case stands at present, this "little rift within the lute" is not to be disguised nor overlooked. in the remainder of mr. darwin's argument our own private ingenuity has not hitherto enabled us to pick holes of any great importance; and judging by what we hear and read, other adventurers in the same field do not seem to have been much more fortunate. it has been urged, for instance, that in his chapters on the struggle for existence and on natural selection, mr. darwin does not so much prove that natural selection does occur, as that it must occur; but, in fact, no other sort of demonstration is attainable. a race does not attract our attention in nature until it has, in all probability, existed for a considerable time, and then it is too late to inquire into the conditions of its origin. again, it is said that there is no real analogy between the selection which takes place under domestication, by human influence, and any operation which can be effected by nature, for man interferes intelligently. reduced to its elements, this argument implies that an effect produced with trouble by an intelligent agent must, _à fortiori_ be more troublesome, if not impossible, to an unintelligent agent. even putting aside the question whether nature, acting as she does according to definite and invariable laws, can be rightly called an unintelligent agent, such a position as this is wholly untenable. mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men with his mere natural appliances to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt; but a shower of rain will effect the same object in ten minutes. and so while man may find it tax all his intelligence to separate any variety which arises, and to breed selectively from it, the destructive agencies incessantly at work in nature, if they find one variety to be more soluble in circumstances than the other, will inevitably in the long run eliminate it. a frequent and a just objection to the lamarckian hypothesis of the transmutation of species is based upon the absence of transitional forms between many species. but against the darwinian hypothesis this argument has no force. indeed, one of the most valuable and suggestive parts of mr. darwin's work is that in which he proves, that the frequent absence of transitions is a necessary consequence of his doctrine, and that the stock whence two or more species have sprung, need in no respect be intermediate between these species. if any two species have arisen from a common stock in the same way as the carrier and the pouter, say, have arisen from the rock-pigeon, then the common stock of these two species need be no more intermediate between the two than the rock-pigeon is between the carrier and pouter. clearly appreciate the force of this analogy, and all the arguments against the origin of species by selection, based on the absence of transitional forms, fall to the ground. and mr. darwin's position might, we think, have been even stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed himself with the aphorism, "_natura non facit saltum_," which turns up so often in his pages. we believe, as we have said above, that nature does make jumps now and then, and a recognition of the fact is of no small importance in disposing of many minor objections to the doctrine of transmutation. but we must pause. the discussion of mr. darwin's arguments in detail would lead us far beyond the limits within which we proposed, at starting, to confine this article. our object has been attained if we have given an intelligible, however brief, account of the established facts connected with species, and of the relation of the explanation of those facts offered by mr. darwin to the theoretical views held by his predecessors and his contemporaries, and, above all, to the requirements of scientific logic. we have ventured to point out that it does not, as yet, satisfy all those requirements; but we do not hesitate to assert that it is as superior to any preceding or contemporary hypothesis, in the extent of observational and experimental basis on which it rests, in its rigorously scientific method, and in its power of explaining biological phenomena, as was the hypothesis of copernicus to the speculations of ptolemy. but the planetary orbits turned out to be not quite circular after all, and grand as was the service copernicus rendered to science, kepler and newton had to come after him. what if the orbit of darwinism should be a little too circular? what if species should offer residual phenomena here and there, not explicable by natural selection? twenty years hence naturalists may be in a position to say whether this is, or is not, the case; but in either event they will owe the author of "the origin of species" an immense debt of gratitude. we should leave a very wrong impression on the reader's mind if we permitted him to suppose that the value of that work depends wholly on the ultimate justification of the theoretical views which it contains. on the contrary, if they were disproved to-morrow, the book would still be the best of its kind--the most compendious statement of well-sifted facts bearing on the doctrine of species that has ever appeared. the chapters on variation, on the struggle for existence, on instinct, on hybridism, on the imperfection of the geological record, on geographical distribution, have not only no equals, but, so far as our knowledge goes, no competitors, within the range of biological literature. and viewed as a whole, we do not believe that, since the publication of von baer's researches on development, thirty years ago, any work has appeared calculated to exert so large an influence, not only on the future of biology, but in extending the domination of science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated. footnotes: [ ] "on the osteology of the chimpanzees and orangs." transactions of the zoological society, . [ ] colonel humphreys' statements are exceedingly explicit on this point:--"when an ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram the increase resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. the increase of the common ewe impregnated by an ancon ram follows entirely the one or the other, without blending any of the distinguishing and essential peculiarities of both. frequent instances have happened where common ewes have had twins by ancon rams, when one exhibited the complete marks and features of the ewe, the other of the ram. the contrast has been rendered singularly striking, when one short-legged and one long-legged lamb, produced at a birth, have been seen sucking the dam at the same time."--philosophical transactions, , pt. i. pp. , . [ ] see phil. zoologique, vol. i. p. , _et seq._ [ ] the reader will remember that huxley was writing in . xiv the darwinian hypothesis. darwin on the origin of species there is a growing immensity in the speculations of science to which no human thing or thought at this day is comparable. apart from the results which science brings us home and securely harvests, there is an expansive force and latitude in its tentative efforts, which lifts us out of ourselves and transfigures our mortality. we may have a preference for moral themes, like the homeric sage, who had seen and known much:-- "cities of men and manners, climates, councils, governments;" yet we must end by confessing that "the windy ways of men are but dust which rises up and is lightly laid again," in comparison with the work of nature, to which science testifies, but which has no boundaries in time or space to which science can approximate. there is something altogether out of the reach of science, and yet the compass of science is practically illimitable. hence it is that from time to time we are startled and perplexed by theories which have no parallel in the contracted moral world; for the generalizations of science sweep on in ever-widening circles, and more aspiring flights, though a limitless creation. while astronomy, with its telescope, ranges beyond the known stars, and physiology, with its microscope, is subdividing infinite minutiæ, we may expect that our historic centuries may be treated as inadequate counters in the history of the planet on which we are placed. we must expect new conceptions of the nature and relations of its denizens, as science acquires the materials for fresh generalizations; nor have we occasion for alarms if a highly advanced knowledge, like that of the eminent naturalist before us, confronts us with an hypothesis as vast as it is novel. this hypothesis may or may not be sustainable hereafter; it may give way to something else, and higher science may reverse what science has here built up with so much skill and patience, but its sufficiency must be tried by the tests of science _alone_, if we are to maintain our position as the heirs of bacon and the acquitters of galileo. we must weigh this hypothesis strictly in the controversy which is coming, by the only tests which are appropriate, and by no others whatsoever. the hypothesis to which we point, and of which the present work of mr. darwin is but the preliminary outline, may be stated in his own language as follows:--"_species originated by means of natural selection, or through the preservation of the favoured races in the struggle for life_." to render this thesis intelligible, it is necessary to interpret its terms. in the first place, what is a species? the question is a simple one, but the right answer to it is hard to find, even if we appeal to those who should know most about it. it is all those animals or plants which have descended from a single pair of parents; it is the smallest distinctly definable group of living organisms; it is an eternal and immutable entity; it is a mere abstraction of the human intellect having no existence in nature. such are a few of the significations attached to this simple word which may be culled from authoritative sources; and if, leaving terms and theoretical subtleties aside, we turn to facts and endeavour to gather a meaning for ourselves, by studying the things to which, in practice, the name of species is applied, it profits us little. for practice varies as much as theory. let the botanist or the zoologist examine and describe the productions of a country, and one will pretty certainly disagree with the other as to the number, limits, and definitions of the species into which he groups the very same things. in these islands we are in the habit of regarding mankind as of one species, but a fortnight's steam will land us in a country where divines and savans, for once in agreement, vie with one another in loudness of assertion, if not in cogency of proof, that men are of different species; and, more particularly, that the species negro is so distinct from our own that the ten commandments have actually no reference to him. even in the calm region of entomology, where, if anywhere in this sinful world, passion and prejudice should fail to stir the mind, one learned coleopterist will fill ten attractive volumes with descriptions of species of beetles, nine-tenths of which are immediately declared by his brother beetle-mongers to be no species at all. the truth is that the number of distinguishable living creatures almost surpasses imagination. at least a hundred thousand such kinds of insects alone have been described and may be identified in collections, and the number of separable kinds of living things is under estimated at half a million. seeing that most of these obvious kinds have their accidental varieties, and that they often shade into others by imperceptible degrees, it may well be imagined that the task of distinguishing between what is permanent and what fleeting, what is a species and what a mere variety, is sufficiently formidable. but is it not possible to apply a test whereby a true species may be known from a mere variety? is there no criterion of species? great authorities affirm that there is--that the unions of members of the same species are always fertile, while those of distinct species are either sterile, or their offspring, called hybrids, are so. it is affirmed not only that this is an experimental fact, but that it is a provision for the preservation of the purity of species. such a criterion as this would be invaluable; but, unfortunately, not only is it not obvious how to apply it in the great majority of cases in which its aid is needed, but its general validity is stoutly denied. the hon. and rev. mr. herbert, a most trustworthy authority, not only asserts as the result of his own observations and experiments that many hybrids are quite as fertile as the parent species, but he goes so far as to assert that the particular plant _crinum capense_ is much more fertile when crossed by a distinct species than when fertilised by its proper pollen! on the other hand the famous gaertner, though he took the greatest pains to cross the primrose and cowslip, succeeded only once or twice in several years; and yet it is a well-established fact that the primrose and the cowslip are only varieties of the same kind of plant. again, such cases as the following are well established. the female of species a if crossed with the male of species b is fertile, but if the female of b is crossed with the male of a, she remains barren. facts of this kind destroy the value of the supposed criterion. if, weary of the endless difficulties involved in the determination of species, the investigator, contenting himself with the rough practical distinction of separable kinds, endeavours to study them as they occur in nature--to ascertain their relations to the conditions which surround them, their mutual harmonies and discordances of structure, the bond of union of their parts and their past history, he finds himself, according to the received notions, in a mighty maze, and with, at most, the dimmest adumbration of a plan. if he starts with any one clear conviction, it is that every part of a living creature is cunningly adapted to some special use in its life. has not his paley told him that that seemingly useless organ, the spleen, is beautifully adjusted as so much packing between the other organs? and yet, at the outset of his studies, he finds that no adaptive reason whatsoever can be given for one-half of the peculiarities of vegetable structure; he also discovers rudimentary teeth, which are never used, in the gums of the young calf and in those of the foetal whale; insects which never bite have rudimental jaws, and others which never fly have rudimental wings; naturally blind creatures have rudimental eyes; and the halt have rudimentary limbs. so, again, no animal or plant puts on its perfect form at once, but all have to start from the same point, however various the course which each has to pursue. not only men and horses, and cats and dogs, lobsters and beetles, periwinkles and mussels, but even the very sponges and animalcules commence their existence under forms which are essentially undistinguishable; and this is true of all the infinite variety of plants. nay, more, all living beings march side by side along the high road of development, and separate the later the more like they are; like people leaving church, who all go down the aisle, but having reached the door some turn into the parsonage, others go down the village, and others part only in the next parish. a man in his development runs for a little while parallel with, though never passing through, the form of the meanest worm, then travels for a space beside the fish, then journeys along with the bird and the reptile for his fellow travellers; and only at last, after a brief companionship with the highest of the four-footed and four-handed world, rises into the dignity of pure manhood. no competent thinker of the present day dreams of explaining these indubitable facts by the notion of the existence of unknown and undiscoverable adaptations to purpose. and we would remind those who, ignorant of the facts, must be moved by authority, that no one has asserted the incompetence of the doctrine of final causes, in its application to physiology and anatomy, more strongly than our own eminent anatomist, professor owen, who, speaking of such cases, says (_on the nature of limbs_, pp. , ): "i think it will be obvious that the principle of final adaptations fails to satisfy all the conditions of the problem." but, if the doctrine of final causes will not help us to comprehend the anomalies of living structure, the principle of adaptation must surely lead us to understand why certain living beings are found in certain regions of the world and not in others. the palm, as we know, will not grow in our climate, nor the oak in greenland. the white bear cannot live where the tiger thrives, nor _vice versâ_, and the more the natural habits of animal and vegetable species are examined, the more do they seem, on the whole, limited to particular provinces. but when we look into the facts established by the study of the geographical distribution of animals and plants it seems utterly hopeless to attempt to understand the strange and apparently capricious relations which they exhibit. one would be inclined to suppose _à priori_ that every country must be naturally peopled by those animals that are fittest to live and thrive in it. and yet how, on this hypothesis, are we to account for the absence of cattle in the pampas of south america when those parts of the new world were discovered? it is not that they were unfit for cattle, for millions of cattle now run wild there; and the like holds good of australia and new zealand. it is a curious circumstance, in fact, that the animals and plants of the northern hemisphere are not only as well adapted to live in the southern hemisphere as its own autochthones, but are in many cases absolutely better adapted, and so overrun and extirpate the aborigines. clearly, therefore, the species which naturally inhabit a country are not necessarily the best adapted to its climate and other conditions. the inhabitants of islands are often distinct from any other known species of animal or plants (witness our recent examples from the work of sir emerson tennent, on ceylon), and yet they have almost always a sort of general family resemblance to the animals and plants of the nearest mainland. on the other hand, there is hardly a species of fish, shell, or crab common to the opposite sides of the narrow isthmus of panama. wherever we look, then, living nature offers us riddles of difficult solution, if we suppose that what we see is all that can be known of it. but our knowledge of life is not confined to the existing world. whatever their minor differences, geologists are agreed as to the vast thickness of the accumulated strata which compose the visible part of our earth, and the inconceivable immensity of the time of whose lapse they are the imperfect, but the only accessible witnesses. now, throughout the greater part of this long series of stratified rocks are scattered, sometimes very abundantly, multitudes of organic remains, the fossilised exuviæ of animals and plants which lived and died while the mud of which the rocks are formed was yet soft ooze, and could receive and bury them. it would be a great error to suppose that these organic remains were fragmentary relics. our museums exhibit fossil shells of immeasurable antiquity, as perfect as the day they were formed, whole skeletons without a limb disturbed--nay, the changed flesh, the developing embryos, and even the very footsteps of primæval organisms. thus the naturalist finds in the bowels of the earth species as well defined as, and in some groups of animals more numerous than, those that breathe the upper air. but, singularly enough, the majority of these entombed species are wholly distinct from those that now live. nor is this unlikeness without its rule and order. as a broad fact, the further we go back in time the less the buried species are like existing forms; and the further apart the sets of extinct creatures are the less they are like one another. in other words, there has been a regular succession of living beings, each younger set being in a very broad and general sense somewhat more like those which now live. it was once supposed that this succession had been the result of vast successive catastrophes, destructions, and re-creations _en masse_; but catastrophes are now almost eliminated from geological, or at least paleontological speculation; and it is admitted on all hands that the seeming breaks in the chain of being are not absolute, but only relative to our imperfect knowledge; that species have replaced species, not in assemblages, but one by one; and that, if it were possible to have all the phenomena of the past presented to us, the convenient epochs and formations of the geologist, though having a certain distinctness, would fade into one another with limits as undefinable as those of the distinct and yet separable colours of the solar spectrum. such is a brief summary of the main truths which have been established concerning species. are these truths ultimate and irresolvable facts, or are their complexities and perplexities the mere expressions of a higher law? a large number of persons practically assume the former position to be correct. they believe that the writer of the pentateuch was empowered and commissioned to teach us scientific as well as other truth, that the account we find there of the creation of living things is simply and literally correct, and that anything which seems to contradict it is, by the nature of the case, false. all the phenomena which have been detailed are, on this view, the immediate product of a creative fiat and consequently are out of the domain of science altogether. whether this view prove ultimately to be true or false, it is, at any rate, not at present supported by what is commonly regarded as logical proof, even if it be capable of discussion by reason; and hence we consider ourselves at liberty to pass it by, and to turn to those views which profess to rest on a scientific basis only, and therefore admit of being argued to their consequences. and we do this with the less hesitation as it so happens that those persons who are practically conversant with the facts of the case (plainly a considerable advantage) have always thought fit to range themselves under the latter category. the majority of these competent persons have up to the present time maintained two positions,--the first, that every species is, within certain defined or definable limits, fixed and incapable of modification; the second, that every species was originally produced by a distinct creative act. the second position is obviously incapable of proof or disproof, the direct operations of the creator not being subjects of science; and it must therefore be regarded as a corollary from the first, the truth or falsehood of which is a matter of evidence. most persons imagine that the arguments in favour of it are overwhelming; but to some few minds, and these, it must be confessed, intellects of no small power and grasp of knowledge, they have not brought conviction. among these minds that of the famous naturalist lamarck, who possessed a greater acquaintance with the lower forms of life than any man of his day, cuvier not excepted, and was a good botanist to boot, occupies a prominent place. two facts appear to have strongly affected the course of thought of this remarkable man--the one, that finer or stronger links of affinity connect all living beings with one another, and that thus the highest creature grades by multitudinous steps into the lowest; the other, that an organ may be developed in particular directions by exerting itself in particular ways, and that modifications once induced may be transmitted and become hereditary. putting these facts together, lamarck endeavoured to account for the first by the operation of the second. place an animal in new circumstances, says he, and its needs will be altered; the new needs will create new desires, and the attempt to gratify such desires will result in an appropriate modification of the organs exerted. make a man a blacksmith, and his brachial muscles will develope in accordance with the demands made upon them, and in like manner, says lamarck, "the efforts of some shortnecked bird to catch fish without wetting himself have, with time and perseverance, given rise to all our herons and long-necked waders." the lamarckian hypothesis has long since been justly condemned, and it is the established practice for every tyro to raise his heel against the carcass of the dead lion. but it is rarely either wise or instructive to treat even the errors of a really great man with mere ridicule, and in the present case the logical form of the doctrine stands on a very different footing from its substance. if species have really arisen by the operation of natural conditions, we ought to be able to find those conditions now at work; we ought to be able to discover in nature some power adequate to modify any given kind of animal or plant in such a manner as to give rise to another kind, which would be admitted by naturalists as a distinct species. lamarck imagined that he had discovered this _vera causa_ in the admitted facts that some organs may be modified by exercise; and that modifications, once produced, are capable of hereditary transmission. it does not seem to have occurred to him to inquire whether there is any reason to believe that there are any limits to the amount of modification producible, or to ask how long an animal is likely to endeavour to gratify an impossible desire. the bird, in our example, would surely have renounced fish dinners long before it had produced the least effect on leg or neck. since lamarck's time almost all competent naturalists have left speculations on the origin of species to such dreamers as the author of the _vestiges_, by whose well-intentioned efforts the lamarckian theory received its final condemnation in the minds of all sound thinkers. notwithstanding this silence, however, the transmutation theory, as it has been called, has been a "skeleton in the closet" to many an honest zoologist and botanist who had a soul above the mere naming of dried plants and skins. surely, has such an one thought, nature is a mighty and consistent whole, and the providential order established in the world of life must, if we could only see it rightly, be consistent with that dominant over the multiform shapes of brute matter. but what is the history of astronomy, of all the branches of physics, of chemistry, of medicine, but a narration of the steps by which the human mind has been compelled, often sorely against its will, to recognize the operation of secondary causes in events where ignorance beheld an immediate intervention of a higher power? and when we know that living things are formed of the same elements as the inorganic world, that they act and react upon it, bound by a thousand ties of natural piety, is it probable, nay is it possible, that they, and they alone, should have no order in their seeming disorder, no unity in their seeming multiplicity, should suffer no explanation by the discovery of some central and sublime law of mutual connexion? questions of this kind have assuredly often arisen, but it might have been long before they received such expression as would have commanded the respect and attention of the scientific world, had it not been for the publication of the work which prompted this article. its author, mr. darwin, inheritor of a once celebrated name, won his spurs in science when most of those now distinguished were young men, and has for the last years held a place in the front ranks of british philosophers. after a circumnavigatory voyage, undertaken solely for the love of his science, mr. darwin published a series of researches which at once arrested the attention of naturalists and geologists; his generalizations have since received ample confirmation, and now command universal assent, nor is it questionable that they have had the most important influence on the progress of science. more recently mr. darwin, with a versatility which is among the rarest of gifts, turned his attention to a most difficult question of zoology and minute anatomy; and no living naturalist and anatomist has published a better monograph than that which resulted from his labours. such a man, at all events, has not entered the sanctuary with unwashed hands, and when he lays before us the results of years' investigation and reflection we must listen even though we be disposed to strike. but, in reading his work it must be confessed that the attention which might at first be dutifully, soon becomes willingly, given, so clear is the author's thought, so outspoken his conviction, so honest and fair the candid expression of his doubts. those who would judge the book must read it; we shall endeavour only to make its line of argument and its philosophical position intelligible to the general reader in our own way. the baker-street bazaar has just been exhibiting its familiar annual spectacle. straight-backed, small-headed, big-barrelled oxen, as dissimilar from any wild species as can well be imagined, contended for attention and praise with sheep of half-a-dozen different breeds and styes of bloated preposterous pigs, no more like a wild boar or sow than a city alderman is like an ourang-outang. the cattle show has been, and perhaps may again be, succeeded by a poultry show, of whose crowing and clucking prodigies it can only be certainly predicated that they will be very unlike the aboriginal _phasianus gallus_. if the seeker after animal anomalies is not satisfied, a turn or two in seven dials will convince him that the breeds of pigeons are quite as extraordinary and unlike one another and their parent stock, while the horticultural society will provide him with any number of corresponding vegetable aberrations from nature's types. he will learn with no little surprise, too, in the course of his travels, that the proprietors and producers of these animal and vegetable anomalies regard them as distinct species, with a firm belief, the strength of which is exactly proportioned to their ignorance of scientific biology, and which is the more remarkable as they are all proud of their skill in _originating_ such "species." on careful inquiry it is found that all these, and the many other artificial breeds or races of animals and plants, have been produced by one method. the breeder--and a skilful one must be a person of much sagacity and natural or acquired perceptive faculty--notes some slight difference, arising he knows not how, in some individuals of his stock. if he wish to perpetuate the difference, to form a breed with the peculiarity in question strongly marked, he selects such male and female individuals as exhibit the desired character, and breeds from them. their offspring are then carefully examined, and those which exhibit the peculiarity the most distinctly are selected for breeding, and this operation is repeated until the desired amount of divergence from the primitive stock is reached. it is then found that by continuing the process of selection--always breeding, that is, from well-marked forms, and allowing no impure crosses to interfere,--a race may be formed, the tendency of which to reproduce itself is exceedingly strong; nor is the limit to the amount of divergence which may be thus produced known, but one thing is certain, that, if certain breeds of dogs, or of pigeons, or of horses, were known only in a fossil state, no naturalist would hesitate in regarding them as distinct species. but, in all these cases we have _human interference_. without the breeder there would be no selection, and without the selection no race. before admitting the possibility of natural species having originated in any similar way, it must be proved that there is in nature some power which takes the place of man, and performs a selection _suâ sponte_. it is the claim of mr. darwin that he professes to have discovered the existence and the _modus operandi_ of this natural selection, as he terms it; and, if he be right, the process is perfectly simple and comprehensible, and irresistibly deducible from very familiar but well nigh forgotten facts. who, for instance, has duly reflected upon all the consequences of the marvellous struggle for existence which is daily and hourly going on among living beings? not only does every animal live at the expense of some other animal or plant, but the very plants are at war. the ground is full of seeds that cannot rise into seedlings; the seedlings rob one another of air and light and water, the strongest robber winning the day, and extinguishing his competitors. year after year, the wild animals with which man never interferes are, on the average, neither more nor less numerous than they were; and yet we know that the annual produce of every pair is from one to perhaps a million young,--so that it is mathematically certain that, on the average, as many are killed by natural causes as are born every year, and those only escape which happen to be a little better fitted to resist destruction than those which die. the individuals of a species are like the crew of a foundered ship, and none but good swimmers have a chance of reaching the land. such being unquestionably the necessary conditions under which living creatures exist, mr. darwin discovers in them the instrument of natural selection. suppose that in the midst of this incessant competition some individuals of a species (a) present accidental variations which happen to fit them a little better than their fellows for the struggle in which they are engaged, then the chances are in favour, not only of these individuals being better nourished than the others, but of their predominating over their fellows in other ways, and of having a better chance of leaving offspring, which will of course tend to reproduce the peculiarities of their parents. their offspring will, by a parity of reasoning, tend to predominate over their contemporaries, and there being (suppose) no room for more than one species such as a, the weaker variety will eventually be destroyed by the new destructive influence which is thrown into the scale, and the stronger will take its place. surrounding conditions remaining unchanged, the new variety (which we may call b)--supposed, for argument's sake, to be the best adapted for these conditions which can be got out of the original stock--will remain unchanged, all accidental deviations from the type becoming at once extinguished, as less fit for their post than b itself. the tendency of b to persist will grow with its persistence through successive generations, and it will acquire all the characters of a new species. but, on the other hand, if the conditions of life change in any degree, however slight, b may no longer be that form which is best adapted to withstand their destructive, and profit by their sustaining, influence; in which case if it should give rise to a more competent variety (c), this will take its place and become a new species; and thus, by _natural selection_, the species b and c will be successively derived from a. that this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a reason for many apparent anomalies in the distribution of living beings in time and space, and that it is not contradicted by the main phenomena of life and organization appear to us to be unquestionable, and so far it must be admitted to have an immense advantage over any of its predecessors. but it is quite another matter to affirm absolutely either the truth or falsehood of mr. darwin's views at the present stage of the inquiry. goethe has an excellent aphorism defining that state of mind which he calls _thätige skepsis_--active doubt. it is doubt which so loves truth that it neither dares rest in doubting, nor extinguish itself by unjustified belief; and we commend this state of mind to students of species, with respect to mr. darwin's or any other hypothesis, as to their origin. the combined investigations of another years may, perhaps, enable naturalists to say whether the modifying causes and the selective power, which mr. darwin has satisfactorily shown to exist in nature, are competent to produce all the effects he ascribes to them, or whether, on the other hand, he has been led to over-estimate the value of his principle of natural selection, as greatly as lamarck over-estimated his _vera causa_ of modification by exercise. but there is, at all events, one advantage possessed by the more recent writer over his predecessor. mr. darwin abhors mere speculation as nature abhors a vacuum. he is as greedy of cases and precedents as any constitutional lawyer, and all the principles he lays down are capable of being brought to the test of observation and experiment. the path he bids us follow professes to be not a mere airy track, fabricated of ideal cobwebs, but a solid and broad bridge of facts. if it be so, it will carry us safely over many a chasm in our knowledge, and lead us to a region free from the snares of those fascinating but barren virgins, the final causes, against whom a high authority has so justly warned us. "my sons, dig in the vineyard," were the last words of the old man in the fable; and, though the sons found no treasure, they made their fortunes by the grapes. xv a lobster; or, the study of zoology natural history is the name familiarly applied to the study of the properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects are commonly termed natural sciences, in contradistinction to other, so-called "physical," sciences; and those who devote themselves especially to the pursuit of such sciences have been, and are, commonly termed "naturalists." linnæus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his "systema naturæ" was a work upon natural history in the broadest acceptation of the term; in it, that great methodizing spirit embodied all that was known in his time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, and plants. but the enormous stimulus which linnæus gave to the investigation of nature soon rendered it impossible that any one man should write another "systema naturæ," and extremely difficult for any one to become a naturalist such as linnæus was. great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of science, of old included under the title of natural history, there can be no doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater ratio than mineralogy, and hence, as i suppose, the name of "natural history" has gradually become more and more definitely attached to these prominent divisions of the subject, and by "naturalist" people have meant more and more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and functions of living beings. however this may be, it is certain that the advance of knowledge has gradually widened the distance between mineralogy and its old associates, while it has drawn zoology and botany closer together; so that of late years it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary) to associate the sciences which deal with vitality and all its phenomena under the common head of "biology"; and the biologists have come to repudiate any blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, the mineralogists. certain broad laws have a general application throughout both the animal and the vegetable worlds, but the ground common to these kingdoms of nature is not of very wide extent, and the multiplicity of details is so great, that the student of living beings finds himself obliged to devote his attention exclusively either to the one or the other. if he elects to study plants, under any aspect, we know at once what to call him; he is a botanist and his science is botany. but if the investigation of animal life be his choice, the name generally applied to him will vary, according to the kind of animals he studies, or the particular phenomena of animal life to which he confines his attention. if the study of man is his object, he is called an anatomist, or a physiologist, or an ethnologist; but if he dissects animals, or examines into the mode in which their functions are performed, he is a comparative anatomist or comparative physiologist. if he turns his attention to fossil animals he is a palæontologist. if his mind is more particularly directed to the description, specific discrimination, classification, and distribution of animals he is termed a zoologist. for the purposes of the present discourse, however, i shall recognise none of these titles save the last, which i shall employ as the equivalent of botanist, and i shall use the term zoology as denoting the whole doctrine of animal life, in contradistinction from botany, which signifies the whole doctrine of vegetable life. employed in this sense, zoology, like botany, is divisible into three great but subordinate sciences, morphology, physiology, and distribution, each of which may, to a very great extent, be studied independently of the other. zoological morphology is the doctrine of animal form or structure. anatomy is one of its branches, development is another; while classification is the expression of the relations which different animals bear to one another, in respect of their anatomy and their development. zoological distribution is the study of animals in relation to the terrestrial conditions which obtain now, or have obtained at any previous epoch of the earth's history. zoological physiology, lastly, is the doctrine of the functions or actions of animals. it regards animal bodies as machines impelled by certain forces, and performing an amount of work, which can be expressed in terms of the ordinary forces of nature. the final object of physiology is to deduce the facts of morphology on the one hand, and those of distribution on the other, from the laws of the molecular forces of matter. such is the scope of zoology. but if i were to content myself with the enunciation of these dry definitions, i should ill exemplify that method of teaching this branch of physical science, which it is my chief business to-night to recommend. let us turn away then from abstract definitions. let us take some concrete living thing, some animal, the commoner the better, and let us see how the application of common sense and common logic to the obvious facts it presents, inevitably leads us into all these branches of zoological science. i have before me a lobster. when i examine it, what appears to be the most striking character it presents? why, i observe that this part which we call the tail of the lobster, is made up of six distinct hard rings and a seventh terminal piece. if i separate one of the middle rings, say the third, i find it carries upon its under surface a pair of limbs or appendages, each of which consists of a stalk and two terminal pieces. so that i can represent a transverse section of the ring and its appendages upon the diagram board in this way. if i now take the fourth ring, i find it has the same structure, and so have the fifth and the second; so that in each of these divisions of the tail i find parts which correspond with one another, a ring and two appendages; and in each appendage a stalk and two end pieces. these corresponding parts are called in the technical language of anatomy "homologous parts." the ring of the third division is the "homologue" of the ring of the fifth, the appendage of the former is the homologue of the appendage of the latter. and as each division exhibits corresponding parts in corresponding places, we say that all the divisions are constructed upon the same plan. but now let us consider the sixth division. it is similar to, and yet different from, the others. the ring is essentially the same as in the other divisions; but the appendages look at first as if they were very different; and yet when we regard them closely, what do we find? a stalk and two terminal divisions exactly as in the others, but the stalk is very short and very thick, the terminal divisions are very broad and flat, and one of them is divided into two pieces. i may say, therefore, that the sixth segment is like the others in plan, but that it is modified in its details. the first segment is like the others, so far as its ring is concerned, and though its appendages differ from any of those yet examined in the simplicity of their structure, parts corresponding with the stem and one of the divisions of the appendages of the other segments can be readily discerned in them. thus it appears that the lobster's tail is composed of a series of segments which are fundamentally similar, though each presents peculiar modifications of the plan common to all. but when i turn to the forepart of the body i see, at first, nothing but a great shield-like shell, called technically the "carapace," ending in front in a sharp spine, on either side of which are the curious compound eyes, set upon the ends of stout moveable stalks. behind these, on the under side of the body, are two pairs of long feelers or antennæ, followed by six pairs of jaws, folded against one another over the mouth, and five pairs of legs, the foremost of these being the great pinchers, or claws, of the lobster. it looks, at first, a little hopeless to attempt to find in this complex mass a series of rings, each with its pair of appendages, such as i have shown you in the abdomen, and yet it is not difficult to demonstrate their existence. strip off the legs, and you will find that each pair is attached to a very definite segment of the under wall of the body; but these segments, instead of being the lower parts of free rings, as in the tail, are such parts of rings which are all solidly united and bound together; and the like is true of the jaws, the feelers, and the eye-stalks, every pair of which is borne upon its own special segment. thus the conclusion is gradually forced upon us that the body of the lobster is composed of as many rings as there are pairs of appendages, namely, twenty in all, but that the six hindmost rings remain free and moveable, while the fourteen front rings become firmly soldered together, their backs forming one continuous shield--the carapace. unity of plan, diversity in execution, is the lesson taught by the study of the rings of the body, and the same instruction is given still more emphatically by the appendages. if i examine the outermost jaw i find it consists of three distinct portions, an inner, a middle, and an outer, mounted upon a common stem; and if i compare this jaw with the legs behind it, or the jaws in front of it, i find it quite easy to see, that, in the legs, it is the part of the appendage which corresponds with the inner division, which becomes modified into what we know familiarly as the "leg," while the middle division disappears, and the outer division is hidden under the carapace. nor is it more difficult to discern that, in the appendages of the tail, the middle division appears again and the outer vanishes; while on the other hand, in the foremost jaw, the so-called mandible, the inner division only is left; and, in the same way, the parts of the feelers and of the eye-stalks, can be identified with those of the legs and jaws. but whither does all this tend? to the very remarkable conclusion that a unity of plan, of the same kind as that discoverable in the tail or abdomen of the lobster, pervades the whole organization of its skeleton, so that i can return to the diagram representing any one of the rings of the tail, which i drew upon the board, and by adding a third division to each appendage, i can use it as a sort of scheme or plan of any ring of the body. i can give names to all the parts of that figure, and then if i take any segment of the body of the lobster, i can point out to you exactly, what modification the general plan has undergone in that particular segment; what part has remained moveable, and what has become fixed to another; what has been excessively developed and metamorphosed, and what has been suppressed. but i imagine i hear the question, how is all this to be tested? no doubt it is a pretty and ingenious way of looking at the structure of any animal, but is it anything more? does nature acknowledge in any deeper way this unity of plan we seem to trace? the objection suggested by these questions is a very valid and important one, and morphology was in an unsound state, so long as it rested upon the mere perception of the analogies which obtain between fully formed parts. the unchecked ingenuity of speculative anatomists proved itself fully competent to spin any number of contradictory hypotheses out of the same facts, and endless morphological dreams threatened to supplant scientific theory. happily, however, there is a criterion of morphological truth, and a sure test of all homologies. our lobster has not always been what we see it; it was once an egg, a semi-fluid mass of yolk, not so big as a pin's head, contained in a transparent membrane, and exhibiting not the least trace of any one of those organs, whose multiplicity and complexity, in the adult, are so surprising. after a time a delicate patch of cellular membrane appeared upon one face of this yolk, and that patch was the foundation of the whole creature, the clay out of which it would be moulded. gradually investing the yolk, it became subdivided by transverse constrictions into segments, the forerunners of the rings of the body. upon the ventral surface of each of the rings thus sketched out, a pair of bud-like prominences made their appearance--the rudiments of the appendages of the ring. at first, all the appendages were alike, but, as they grew, most of them became distinguished with a stem and two terminal divisions, to which in the middle part of the body was added a third outer division; and it was only at a later period, that by the modification, or abortion, of certain of these primitive constituents, the limbs acquired their perfect form. thus the study of development proves that the doctrine of unity of plan is not merely a fancy, that it is not merely one way of looking at the matter, but that it is the expression of deep-seated natural facts. the legs and jaws of the lobster may not merely be regarded as modifications of a common type,--in fact and in nature they are so,--the leg and the jaw of the young animal being, at first, indistinguishable. these are wonderful truths, the more so because the zoologist finds them to be of universal application. the investigation of a polype, of a snail, of a fish, of a horse, or of a man would have led us, though by a less easy path, perhaps, to exactly the same point. unity of plan everywhere lies hidden under the mask of diversity of structure--the complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple. every animal has at first the form of an egg, and every animal and every organic part, in reaching its adult state, passes through conditions common to other animals and other adult parts; and this leads me to another point. i have hitherto spoken as if the lobster were alone in the world, but, as i need hardly remind you, there are myriads of other animal organisms. of these some, such as men, horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs, oysters, corals, and sponges, are not in the least like the lobster. but other animals, though they may differ a good deal from the lobster, are yet either very like it, or are like something that is like it. the cray fish, the rock lobster, and the prawn, and the shrimp, for example, however different, are yet so like lobsters, that a child would group them as of the lobster kind, in contradistinction to snails and slugs; and these last again would form a kind by themselves, in contradistinction to cows, horses, and sheep, the cattle kind. but this spontaneous grouping into "kinds" is the first essay of the human mind at classification, or the calling by a common name of those things that are alike, and the arranging them in such a manner as best to suggest the sum of their likenesses and unlikenesses to other things. those kinds which include no other subdivisions than the sexes, or various breeds, are called, in technical language, species. the english lobster is a species, our cray fish is another, our prawn is another. in other countries, however, there are lobsters, cray fish, and prawns, very like ours, and yet presenting sufficient differences to deserve distinction. naturalists, therefore, express this resemblance and this diversity by grouping them as distinct species of the same "genus." but the lobster and the cray fish, though belonging to distinct genera, have many features in common, and hence are grouped together in an assemblage which is called a family. more distant resemblances connect the lobster with the prawn and the crab, which are expressed by putting all these into the same order. again, more remote, but still very definite, resemblances unite the lobster with the woodlouse, the king crab, the water flea, and the barnacle, and separate them from all other animals; whence they collectively constitute the larger group, or class, _crustacea_. but the _crustacea_ exhibit many peculiar features in common with insects, spiders, and centipedes, so that these are grouped into the still larger assemblage or "province" _articulata_, and, finally, the relations which these have to worms and other lower animals, are expressed by combining the whole vast aggregate into the sub-kingdom _annulosa_. if i had worked my way from a sponge instead of a lobster, i should have found it associated, by like ties, with a great number of other animals into the sub-kingdom _protozoa_; if i had selected a fresh-water polype or a coral, the members of what naturalists term the sub-kingdom _coelenterata_, would have grouped themselves around my type; had a snail been chosen, the inhabitants of all univalve and bivalve, land and water shells, the lamp shells, the squids, and the sea-mat would have gradually linked themselves on to it as members of the same sub-kingdom of _mollusca_; and finally starting from man, i should have been compelled to admit first, the ape, the rat, the horse, the dog, into the same class, and then the bird, the crocodile, the turtle, the frog, and the fish, into the same sub-kingdom of _vertebrata_. and if i had followed out all these various lines of classification fully, i should discover in the end that there was no animal, either recent or fossil, which did not at once fall into one or other of these sub-kingdoms. in other words, every animal is organised upon one or other of the five, or more, plans, whose existence renders our classification possible. and so definitely and precisely marked is the structure of each animal that, in the present state of our knowledge, there is not the least evidence to prove that a form, in the slightest degree transitional between any two of the groups _vertebrata_, _annulosa_, _mollusca_, and _coelenterata_, either exists, or has existed, during that period of the earth's history which is recorded by the geologist. nevertheless, you must not for a moment suppose, because no such transitional forms are known, that the members of the sub-kingdoms are disconnected from, or independent of, one another. on the contrary, in their earliest condition they are all alike, and the primordial germs of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, a snail, and a polype are in no essential structural respects, distinguishable. in this broad sense, it may with truth be said, that all living animals, and all those dead creations which geology reveals, are bound together by an all-pervading unity of organisation, of the same character, though not equal in degree, to that which enables us to discern one and the same plan amidst the twenty different segments of a lobster's body. truly it has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen. turning from these purely morphological considerations, let us now examine into the manner in which the attentive study of the lobster impels us into other lines of research. lobsters are found in all the european seas; but on the opposite shores of the atlantic and in the seas of the southern hemisphere they do not exist. they are, however, represented in these regions by very closely allied, but distinct forms--the _homarus americanus_ and the _homarus capensis_, so that we may say that the european has one species of _homarus_; the american, another; the african, another; and thus the remarkable facts of geographical distribution begin to dawn upon us. again, if we examine the contents of the earth's crust, we shall find in the later of those deposits, which have served as the great burying grounds of past ages, numberless lobster-like animals, but none so similar to our living lobster as to make zoologists sure that they belonged even to the same genus. if we go still further back in time, we discover in the oldest rocks of all, the remains of animals, constructed on the same general plan as the lobster, and belonging to the same great group of _crustacea_; but for the most part totally different from the lobster, and indeed from any other living form of crustacean; and thus we gain a notion of that successive change of the animal population of the globe, in past ages, which is the most striking fact revealed by geology. consider, now, where our inquiries have led us. we studied our type morphologically, when we determined its anatomy and its development, and when comparing it, in these respects, with other animals, we made out its place in a system of classification. if we were to examine every animal in a similar manner we should establish a complete body of zoological morphology. again, we investigated the distribution of our type in space and in time, and, if the like had been done with every animal, the sciences of geographical and geological distribution would have attained their limit. but you will observe one remarkable circumstance, that, up to this point, the question of the life of these organisms has not come under consideration. morphology and distribution might be studied almost as well, if animals and plants were a peculiar kind of crystals and possessed none of those functions which distinguish living beings so remarkably. but the facts of morphology and distribution have to be accounted for, and the science, whose aim it is to account for them, is physiology. let us return to our lobster once more. if we watched the creature in its native element, we should see it climbing actively the submerged rocks, among which it delights to live, by means of its strong legs; or swimming by powerful strokes of its great tail, the appendages of whose sixth joint are spread out into a broad fan-like propeller; seize it and it will show you that its great claws are no mean weapons of offence; suspend a piece of carrion among its haunts, and it will greedily devour it, tearing and crushing the flesh by means of its multitudinous jaws. suppose that we had known nothing of the lobster but as an inert mass, an organic crystal, if i may use the phrase, and that we could suddenly see it exerting all these powers, what wonderful new ideas and new questions would arise in our minds! the great new question would be "how does all this take place?" the chief new idea would be the idea of adaptation to purpose,--the notion that the constituents of animal bodies are not mere unconnected parts, but organs working together to an end. let us consider the tail of the lobster again from this point of view. morphology has taught us that it is a series of segments composed of homologous parts, which undergo various modifications--beneath and through which a common plan of formation is discernible. but if i look at the same part physiologically, i see that it is a most beautifully constructed organ of locomotion, by means of which the animal can swiftly propel itself either backwards or forwards. but how is this remarkable propulsive machine made to perform its functions? if i were suddenly to kill one of these animals and to take out all the soft parts, i should find the shell to be perfectly inert, to have no more power of moving itself than is possessed by the machinery of a mill, when disconnected from its steam-engine or water-wheel. but if i were to open it, and take out the viscera only, leaving the white flesh, i should perceive that the lobster could bend and extend its tail as well as before. if i were to cut off the tail i should cease to find any spontaneous motion in it--but on pinching any portion of the flesh, i should observe that it underwent a very curious change--each fibre becoming shorter and thicker. by this act of contraction, as it is termed, the parts to which the ends of the fibre are attached are, of course, approximated--and according to the relations of their points of attachment to the centres of motions of the different rings, the bending or the extension of the tail results. close observation of the newly-opened lobster would soon show that all its movements are due to the same cause--the shortening and thickening of these fleshy fibres, which are technically called muscles. here, then, is a capital fact. the movements of the lobster are due to muscular contractility. but why does a muscle contract at one time and not at another? why does one whole group of muscles contract when the lobster wishes to extend his tail, and another group, when he desires to bend it? what is it originates, directs and controls, the motive power? experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in physical science, answers this question for us. in the head of the lobster there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known as nervous substance. cords of similar matter connect this brain of the lobster, directly or indirectly, with the muscles. now, if these communicating cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of exerting what we call voluntary motion in the parts below the section is destroyed, and on the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the brain mass be destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost. whence the inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these motions resides in the brain, and is propagated along the nervous cords. in the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides in the nerves, has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the electrical state of their molecules. if we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; if we could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by determining the quantity of electricity or of heat of which it is the equivalent; if we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other condition of the molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous and muscular energies depends, (and doubtless science will some day or other ascertain these points,) physiologists would have attained their ultimate goal in this direction; they would have determined the relation of the motive force of animals to the other forms of force found in nature; and if the same process had been successfully performed for all the operations which are carried on, in and by, the animal frame, physiology would be perfect, and the facts of morphology and distribution would be deducible from the laws which physiologists had established, combined with those determining the condition of the surrounding universe. there is not a fragment of the organism of this humble animal, whose study would not lead us into regions of thought as large as those which i have briefly opened up to you; but what i have been saying, i trust, has not only enabled you to form a conception of the scope and purport of zoology, but has given you an imperfect example of the manner in which, in my opinion, that science, or indeed any physical science, may be best taught. the great matter is to make teaching real and practical, by fixing the attention of the student on particular facts, but at the same time it should be rendered broad and comprehensive by constant reference to the generalizations of which all particular facts are illustrations. the lobster has served as a type of the whole animal kingdom, and its anatomy and physiology have illustrated for us some of the greatest truths of biology. the student who has once seen for himself the facts which i have described, has had their relations explained to him, and has clearly comprehended them, has so far a knowledge of zoology, which is real and genuine, however limited it may be, and which is worth more than all the mere reading knowledge of the science he could ever acquire. his zoological information is, so far, knowledge and not mere hearsay. and if it were my business to fit you for the certificate in zoological science granted by this department, i should pursue a course precisely similar in principle to that which i have taken to-night. i should select a fresh-water sponge, a fresh-water polype or a _cyanæa_, a fresh-water mussel, a lobster, a fowl, as types of the five primary divisions of the animal kingdom. i should explain their structure very fully, and show how each illustrated the great principles of zoology. having gone very carefully and fully over this ground, i should feel that you had a safe foundation, and i should then take you in the same way, but less minutely, over similarly selected illustrative types of the classes; and then i should direct your attention to the special forms enumerated under the head of types, in this syllabus, and to the other facts there mentioned. that would, speaking generally, be my plan. but i have undertaken to explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge of zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and precise account of the manner in which i should propose to furnish you with the information i refer to. my own impression is that the best model for all kinds of training in physical science is that afforded by the method of teaching anatomy, in use in the medical schools. this method consists of three elements--lectures, demonstrations, and examinations. the object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention and excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, i am sure, may be effected to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by the personal influence of a respected teacher, than in any other way. secondly, lectures have the double use of guiding the student to the salient points of a subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend to the whole of it, and not merely to that part which takes his fancy. and lastly, lectures afford the student the opportunity of seeking explanations of those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, arise in the course of his studies. but for a student to derive the utmost possible value from lectures, several precautions are needful. i have a strong impression that the better the discourse is, as an oration, the worse it is as a lecture. the flow of the discourse carries you on without proper attention to its sense; you drop a word or a phrase, you lose the exact meaning for a moment, and while you strive to recover yourself, the speaker had passed on to something else. the practice i have adopted in late years in lecturing to students, is to condense the substance of the hour's discourse into a few dry propositions, which are read slowly and taken down from dictation; the reading of each being followed by a free commentary, expanding and illustrating the proposition, explaining terms, and removing any difficulties that may be attackable in that way, by diagrams made roughly, and seen to grow under the lecturer's hand. in this manner you, at any rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain extent. he cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking of notes is enforced, and a student must be preternaturally dull and mechanical if he can take notes and hear them properly explained, and yet learn nothing. what books shall i read? is a question constantly put by the student to the teacher. my reply usually is, "none; write your notes out carefully and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the explanation of anything you cannot understand, and i would rather you did not distract your mind by reading." a properly composed course of lectures ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can assimilate in the time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should always recollect that his business is to feed, and not to cram, the intellect. indeed, i believe that a student who gains from a course of lectures the simple habit of concentrating his attention upon a definitely limited series of facts, until they are thoroughly mastered, has made a step of immeasurable importance. but however good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of reading by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the great instrument of scientific teaching--demonstration. if i insist unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science, if properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other means of education. i have the greatest respect and love for literature; nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than a very prominent branch of education; indeed, i wish that real literary discipline were far more attended to than it is; but i cannot shut my eyes to the fact that there is a vast difference between men who have had a purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific, training. seeking for the cause of this difference, i imagine i can find it in the fact, that, in the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the source of the latter. all that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but i do not exaggerate when i say, that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by these means. on the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific education bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent upon the extent to which the mind of the student is brought into immediate contact with facts--upon the degree to which he learns the habit of appealing directly to nature, and of acquiring through his senses concrete images of those properties of things, which are and always will be, but approximately expressed in human language. our way of looking at nature, and of speaking about her, varies from year to year; but a fact once seen, a relation of cause and effect, once demonstratively apprehended, are possessions which neither change nor pass away, but, on the contrary, form fixed centres, about which other truths aggregate by natural affinity. therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint the fundamental, irrefragable, facts of his science, not only by words upon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye and ear and touch, of the student, in so complete a manner that every term used, or law enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular structural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the law, or the illustration of the term. now this important operation can only be achieved by constant demonstration, which may take place to a certain imperfect extent during a lecture, but which ought also to be carried on independently, and which should be addressed to each individual student, the teacher endeavouring, not so much to show a thing to the learner, as to make him see it for himself. i am well aware that there are great practical difficulties in the way of effectual zoological demonstrations. the dissection of animals is not altogether pleasant, and requires much time; nor is it easy to secure an adequate supply of the needful specimens. the botanist has here a great advantage; his specimens are easily obtained, are clean and wholesome, and can be dissected in a private house as well as anywhere else; and hence, i believe, the fact, that botany is so much more readily and better taught than its sister science. but, be it difficult or be it easy, if zoological science is to be properly studied, demonstration, and, consequently, dissection, must be had. without it, no man can have a really sound knowledge of animal organization. a good deal may be done, however, without actual dissection on the student's part, by demonstrating upon specimens and preparations, and in all probability it would not be very difficult, were the demand sufficient, to organise collections of such objects, sufficient for all the purposes of elementary teaching, at a comparatively cheap rate. even without these, much might be effected, if the zoological collections, which are open to the public, were arranged according to what has been termed the "typical principle"; that is to say, if the specimens exposed to public view were so selected, that the public could learn something from them, instead of being, as at present, merely confused by their multiplicity. for example, the grand ornithological gallery at the british museum contains between two and three thousand species of birds, and sometimes five or six specimens of a species. they are very pretty to look at and some of the cases are, indeed, splendid; but i will undertake to say, that no man but a professed ornithologist has ever gathered much information from the collection. certainly, no one of the tens of thousands of the general public who have walked through that gallery ever knew more about the essential peculiarities of birds when he left the gallery, than when he entered it. but if, somewhere in that vast hall, there were a few preparations, exemplifying the leading structural peculiarities and the mode of development of a common fowl; if the types of the genera, the leading modifications in the skeleton, in the plumage at various ages, in the mode of nidification, and the like, among birds, were displayed; and if the other specimens were put away in a place where the men of science, to whom they are alone useful, could have free access to them, i can conceive that this collection might become a great instrument of scientific education.[ ] the last implement of the teacher to which i have adverted is examination--a means of education now so thoroughly understood that i need hardly enlarge upon it. i hold that both written and oral examinations are indispensable, and, by requiring the description of specimens, they may be made to supplement demonstration. * * * * * such is the fullest reply the time at my disposal will allow me to give to the question--how may a knowledge of zoology be best acquired and communicated? but there is a previous question which may be moved, and which, in fact, i know many are inclined to move. it is the question why should training masters be encouraged to acquire a knowledge of this, or any other branch, of physical science? what is the use, it is said, of attempting to make physical science a branch of primary education? is it not probable that teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led astray from the acquirement of more important but less attractive knowledge? and, even if they can learn something of science without prejudice to their usefulness, what is the good of their attempting to instil that knowledge into boys whose real business is the acquisition of reading, writing, and arithmetic? these questions are, and will be, very commonly asked, for they arise from that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical science, which infests the minds of the most highly educated and intelligent classes of the community. but if i did not feel well assured that they are capable of being easily and satisfactorily answered; that they have been answered over and over again; and that the time will come when men of liberal education will blush to raise such questions,--i should be ashamed of my position here to-night. without doubt, it is your great and very important function to carry out elementary education; without question, anything that should interfere with the faithful fulfilment of that duty on your part would be a great evil; and if i thought that your acquirement of the elements of physical science and your communication of those elements to your pupils, involved, any sort of interference with your proper duties, i should be the first person to protest against your being encouraged to do anything of the kind. but is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of science as is proposed, and the communication of that knowledge, are calculated to weaken your usefulness? or may i not rather ask is it possible for you to discharge your functions properly, without these aids? what is the purpose of primary intellectual education? i apprehend that its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools wherewith men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of phenomena which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to inform them of the fundamental laws which have been found by experience to govern the course of things, so that they may not be turned out into the world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events they might control. a boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he may have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever be opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to write, that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge he acquires. he is taught elementary mathematics that he may understand all those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of men, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may have some practice in deductive reasoning. all these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, are intellectual tools whose use should, before all things, be learned, and learned thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life that which it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in wisdom. but, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a certain equipment of positive knowledge. he is taught the great laws of morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as will tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they are, and how they have become what they are. without doubt all these are most fitting and excellent things to teach a boy; i should be very sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of primary intellectual education. the system is excellent so far as it goes. but if i regard it closely a curious reflection arises. i suppose that fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do roman citizen was taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own and, perhaps, the greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and the religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time. furthermore, i do not think i err in affirming, that, if such a christian roman boy, who had finished his education, could be transplanted into one of our public schools, and pass through its course of instruction, he would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of thought; amidst all the new facts he would have to learn, not one would suggest a different mode of regarding the universe from that current in his own time. and yet surely there is some great difference between the civilization of the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between the intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and of this? and what has made this difference? i answer fearlessly: the prodigious development of physical science within the last two centuries. modern civilisation rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the world is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only, that makes intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force. the whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with her spirit and indebted for his best products to her methods. i believe that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now slowly taking place by her agency. she is teaching the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being. but of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note. physical science, its methods, its problems and its difficulties will meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a manner that he shall enter the world, as ignorant of the existence of the methods and facts of science, as the day he was born. the modern world is full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in it, equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state of things. nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will cry shame on us. it is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is to make the elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. i have endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of science which it is my business to pursue; and i can but add, that i should look upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land was a centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as an epoch in the history of the country. but let me entreat you to remember my last words. mere book learning in physical science, is a sham and a delusion--what you teach, unless you wish to be impostors, that you must first know; and real knowledge in science, means personal acquaintance with the facts, be they few or many. footnotes: [ ] since these remarks were made the natural history collection of the british museum has been removed to south kensington, and huxley himself wrote later on: "the visitor to the natural history museum in need go no further than the great hall to see the realisation of my hopes by the present director." printed by ballantyne, hanson & co. edinburgh & london * * * * * transcriber notes: punctuation has been normalized without note. inconsistent and archaic spelling in the original document have been preserved. obvious typographical errors have been corrected. page : "adioning" changed to "adjoining" (and in the adjoining regions). page , footnote : "dergees" changed to "degrees" (cape negro is in degrees). page : " / " changed to " / ths" (not more than / ths of its length). page , footnote : "pp." changed to "p." (from müller's archiv., , p. .) page : "kindgom" changed to "kingdom" (of the animal kingdom which has been guessed at) and (with that of the animal kingdom). page : "order" changed to "orders" (summing up all the orders of animals). file was produced from images generously made available by the kentuckiana digital library) [illustration: thomas e. pickett, m. d., ll. d. member of the filson club] filson club publication no. the quest for a lost race presenting the theory of paul b. du chaillu an eminent ethnologist and explorer, that the english-speaking people of to-day are descended from the scandinavians rather than the teutons--from the normans rather than the germans by thomas e. pickett, m.d., ll.d. member of the filson club read before the club october , illustrated [illustration: acorn] louisville, kentucky john p. morton & company printers to the filson club copyright, by the filson club all rights reserved filson club publications number twenty-two the quest for a lost race [illustration: tree branch] _alphabetical series of norse, norman, and anglo-norman, or non-saxon, surnames_ by thomas e. pickett, m. d., ll. d. member of the filson club preface the native kentuckian has a deep and abiding affection for the "old commonwealth" which gave him birth. it is as passionate a sentiment, too--and some might add, as irrational--as the love of a frenchman for his native france. but it is an innocent idolatry in both, and both are entitled to the indulgent consideration of alien critics whose racial instincts are less susceptible and whose emotional nature is under better control. here and there, a captious martinet who has been wrestling, mayhap, with a refractory recruit from kentucky, will tell you that the average kentuckian is scarcely more "educable" than his own horse; that he is stubborn, irascible, and balky; far from "bridle-wise," and visibly impatient under disciplinary restraint. in their best military form kentuckians have been said to lack "conduct" and "steadiness"--even the men that touched shoulders in the charge at king's mountain and those, too, that broke the solid saxon line at the battle of the thames. whether this be true or not--in whole or in part--we do not now stop to enquire. suffice it to say that the kentuckian has been a participant in many wars, and has given a good account of himself in all. in ordinary circumstances, too, he is invincibly loyal to his native state; and when it happened that, in the spring of , there came to kentuckians in exile, an order or command from the hospitable governor of kentucky to return at once to the state, they responded with the alacrity of distant retainers to a signal from the hereditary chieftain of the clan. "now," said they, "the lid will be put on and the latch-string left out." when the reflux current set in it was simply prodigious--quite as formidable to the unaccustomed eye as the fieldward rushing of a host; and it was in the immediate presence of that portentous ethnic phenomenon that the paper upon the "lost race" was first published;--appearing in a local journal of ability and repute, and serving in some measure as a contribution to the entertainment of the guests that were now crowding every avenue of approach. it is not strange that the generous kentuckians, then only upon hospitable thoughts intent, should imagine for one happy _quart d'heure_ that the "lost race" of the morning paper was already knocking at their doors. but they little imagined--these good kentuckians--that their hospitable suspicion had really a basis of historic truth. the handsome book now launched from the louisville press is merely that ephemeral contribution to a morning paper,[ ] presented in a revised and expanded form, with such illustrations as could come only from the liberal disposition and cultivated taste of colonel r. t. durrett, the president of the filson club. the title which the writer has given the book is recommended, in part, by the example of a great writer of romance, who held that the _name_ of the book should give no indication of the _nature of the tale_. if the indulgent reader should be unconvinced by the "argument" that is implied in almost every paragraph, it is hoped that he will at least derive some entertainment from the copious flow of reminiscential and discursive talk. the book is addressed chiefly to those persons who may have the patience to read it and the intelligence to perceive that nothing it contains is written with a too serious intent. [ ] the _morning ledger_ (maysville, kentucky), june , . the writer makes grateful acknowledgments to the many friends who have encouraged him with approval and advice in the preparation of the work. for the correction of his errors and the continuance of his labors he looks with confident expectation to the scholars of the state. introduction while the home-coming kentuckians were enjoying their meeting, in louisville, in the month of june, , doctor thomas e. pickett published a newspaper article which he had written for the home-coming week, the object of which was to present the theory of paul b. du chaillu as to the descent of the english-speaking people from the scandinavians instead of the teutons; and to show that the descendants of these scandinavians were still existing in different countries, and especially in kentucky. the author sent me a copy of his article, and after reading it i deemed it an ethnological paper worthy of a more certain and enduring preservation than a daily newspaper could promise, and concluded that it would be suitable for one of the publications of the filson club. i wrote to the author about it, and suggested that if he could enlarge it enough to make one of the annual publications of the club, of the usual number of pages, and have it ready in time, it might be issued for the club publication of . the author did as i suggested, and the book to which this is intended as an introduction is number twentytwo of the filson club publications, entitled "the quest for a lost race," by thomas e. pickett, m. d., ll. d., member of the filson club. many persons of the english-speaking race of to-day believe that the english originated in england. the race doubtless was formed there, but it came of different peoples, principally foreign, who only consolidated upon english soil. half a dozen or more alien races combined with one native to make the english as we now know them, and many years of contention and change were required to weld the discordant elements into a homogeneous whole. the original inhabitants of england, found there by julius cæsar fifty-five years before the christian era and then first made known to history, were celts, who were a part of the great aryan branch of the caucasian race. their numbers have been estimated at , , and they were divided into thirty-eight different tribes with a chief or sovereign for each tribe. they were neither barbarians nor savages in the strict sense of these terms. they were civilized enough to make clothes of the skins of the wild animals they killed for food; to work in metals, to make money of copper and weapons of iron, to have a form of government, to build cabins in which to live, to cultivate the soil for food, and to construct war chariots with long scythes at the sides to mow down the enemy as trained horses whirled the chariots through their ranks. they had military organizations, with large armies commanded by such generals as cassivelaunus, cunobelin, galgacus, vortigern, and caractacus, and once one of their queens named boadicea led , soldiers against the romans. the bravery with which caractacus commanded his troops, and the eloquence with which he defended himself and his country before the emperor claudius when taken before him in irons to grace a roman triumph, compelled that prejudiced sovereign to order the prisoner's chains thrown off and him and his family to be set at liberty. there were enough brave men and true like caractacus among these celts, whose country was being invaded and desolated, to have secured to the race a better fate than befell them. after being slaughtered and driven into exile into brittany and the mountains of wales by roman, saxon, and dane for eight hundred years, the few of them that were left alive were not well enough remembered even to have their name attached to their own country. the celt was entirely ignored and a name combined of those of two of the conquerors given to their country. who will now say that anglo-saxon is a more appropriate name for historic england than the original albion, or britannia, or norman-french, or celt? anglo-saxon, compounded of anglen and saxon, the names of two tribes of low dutch teutons, can but suggest the piracy, the robbery, the murder and the treachery with which these tribes dealt with the celts; while norman-french reminds us of the courage, the endurance, and the refinement which were infused into the english by the norman conquest. celt is a name which ought to have been respected for its antiquity of many centuries since it left its ancient bactria and found its way to england without a known stain upon its national escutcheon. these celts were once a mighty people occupying france, spain, and other countries besides england, but their descendants are now scattered among other nations, without a country or a name of their own. there may be doubts whether the angles, the jutes, the saxons, and the danes--all of whom shared in partial conquests of england and in the establishment of the english race--were scandinavians or teutons, normans or germans. they all belonged to the great aryan branch of the caucasian race, and whatever differences or similarities originally existed between them must have changed in the thousands of years since they emigrated from their first home. there can be no doubt, however, about the nationality of william the conqueror. he was scandinavian by descent from a long line of noble scandinavian ancestors. the home of his ancestors was in norway, far to the north of the home of the teutons in germany. in this bleak land of arctic cold and sterility, on the western coast of norway, where innumerable islands form a kind of sea-wall along the shore, his ancestor, rognvald, who was a great earl holding close relations with king harold of norway, had his home and his landlocked harbor, in which ships were built for the vikings who sailed from that port to the shores of all countries which they could conquer or plunder. here, his son gongu hrolf, better known as rollo or rolf, was born and received his training as a viking. on his return from one of his viking raids to the east he committed some depredations at home, for which king harold banished him. he then fitted out a ship and manned it with a crew of his own choice and sailed for the british channel islands. when he reached the river seine he went up it as far as paris, and, according to the fashion of the times, laid waste the country as he went. king charles of france offered to buy him off by conveying to him the country since known as normandy and giving him his daughter in marriage, on condition that he would become a christian and commit no more depredations in the king's domain. rollo accepted the king's offer and at once ceased to be a viking, and began to build up, enlarge and strengthen the domain which had been given him with the title of duke. in the course of time his dukedom of normandy, with the start rollo had given it and its continuance under his successors, became one of the most powerful and enlightened countries of the period. at the death of rollo his dukedom was inherited by his son, william, and after passing through four generations of his descendants who were dukes of normandy it descended to a second william, known as the conqueror. duke william, therefore, could trace his scandinavian descent through his paternal ancestors back to rognvald, the great earl of norway, and even further back through the earls eystein glumra, ivar uppland, and possibly other noblemen of hard names to write or pronounce or remember. it is possible that some of his ancestors were with lief the scandinavian when he made his discovery of america, nearly five hundred years before the discovery of columbus. in , duke william took advantage of a promise, solemnized by an oath, which harold had made before he was king of england, to assist him to the throne of england, but which he had not kept. hence william invaded england with a great army, and at the battle of hastings slew king harold and gained a complete victory over his forces. duke william was soon after crowned king of england, and at once began that wise policy which in a few years enabled him to lay firmly the foundation of the great english nation. his conquest, though not complete at first, was more so than had been that of the romans, or the angles and jutes, or the saxons or the danes. at the time of the conquest of william there were hostile celts, romans, angles, jutes, and danes in every part of his kingdom. it was not his policy to destroy any more of them than he deemed necessary, but to make as many of them citizens loyal to him as possible; hence his numerous army and the still more numerous hosts that were constantly coming from normandy to england in time became reconciled to the people and the people to them, until all were consolidated into one homogeneous nation. english history may be said to have begun with the conquest of william, for all previous history in the island was but little more than the record of kings and nobles and pretenders contending against kings, nobles, and pretenders, and sections and factions and individuals seeking their own aggrandizement. the conquest of william began with the idea of all england under one sovereign, and he and his successors clung to this view until it was accomplished. england never went backward from william's conquest as it did from others, but kept right on in the course of empire until it became one of the greatest countries in the world, and this conquest was made by scandinavians, who, if they did not make scandinavians of the conquered, so scandinavianized them that it would be difficult to distinguish them from scandinavians. the evolution of the english race from so many discordant national elements reminds one of the act of the witches of macbeth, casting into the boiling cauldron so many strange things to draw from the dark future a fact so important as the fate of a king. who would have thought that from the mingling of the celts and the romans and the angles and the jutes and the saxons and the danes and the normans and the french in the great national cauldron that such a race as the english would be evolved? but it is not certain that such a race would have been produced if william the scandinavian and his french had been left out. he came at a time when a revolution was needed in manners and language as well as in politics, and imparted that refinement which the french had gotten from the romans and other nations. the french language so imparted soon began to infuse its softening influence into the jargon of the conglomeration of tongues in vogue, and the french manners to refine the clownish habits which had come down from original celt, saxon, and dane. the saxons and danes had inhabited england for the four hundred years which followed the same period occupied by the romans, without materially changing the manners or the language of the english, but it was not as long as either of these periods after the conquest before the englishman acted and spoke like a gentleman and belonged to a country which commanded the respect as well as fear of all other nations. the scandinavian's fondness for war soon infused itself into the english and made them invincible upon both land and sea, and now with a land which so envelopes the earth that they boast the sun always shines on some part of it, they may look back some hundreds of years to the origin of their greatness and find no one thing which contributed more to the glory of england than the norman-french conquest. but the reader had better learn the views of paul b. du chaillu, an accomplished ethnologist and explorer, about the descent of the english from the scandinavians instead of the teutons as set forth in doctor pickett's book than from me in an introduction to it. doctor pickett explains the du chaillu theory, and gives examples of similar tastes and habits between english and scandinavians which are striking. he also gives a long list of names borne by scandinavians in england and normandy eight hundred years ago which are the same as names borne by kentuckians to-day. in this introduction, i have rather confined myself to such historic matters as are involved, without alluding to the ethnological facts so well presented in the text by the author. the work is beautifully and copiously illustrated with halftone likenesses of the author and du chaillu and by a number of distinguished kentuckians of scandinavian descent. there was both good taste and skill in placing among the illustrations the likenesses of theodore o'hara, john t. pickett, thomas t. hawkins, and william l. crittenden, who joined the filibustering expeditions of lopez to cuba. these distinguished citizens, like the scandinavian vikings whom they imitated, lost nothing of their character by raiding upon a neighbor's lands, and are among the best examples of the theory of the descent of the english-speaking people from scandinavians rather than teutons. to be an admirer of this work it is not necessary to be a believer in the theory of du chaillu, that the english are descended from scandinavians instead of teutons. the truth is, all the northern nations connected with england were kinsmen descended from the same stock--celts, romans, angles, jutes, saxons, and danes all being of the aryan branch of the great caucasian race. they are so much alike in some particulars that fixed opinions about differences or likenesses between them are more or less untenable. there is one thing, however, in the book about which there can be no two opinions, and that is the value and importance of the list of names copied from records eight hundred years old, in england and normandy. as many of them are the same as names now borne by living families in kentucky, they can hardly fail to be of help to those in search of family genealogy. doctor pickett has presented in this work the theory of du chaillu in charming words and with excellent taste, as the theory of du chaillu and not as his own, and such has been my effort with regard to myself in this introduction. it is simply the resumption of a "quest." r. t. durrett, _president of the filson club_. illustrations opposite page thomas e. pickett, m. d., ll. d. _frontispiece_ paul b. du chaillu king william the conqueror "the map that tells the story" george rogers clark daniel boone isaac shelby joseph hamilton daveiss henry clay joseph desha abraham lincoln (bas relief) "our beautiful scandinavian" jefferson davis john c. breckinridge william preston basil w. duke the marshall home at "buck pond" richard m. johnson j. stoddard johnston northumbria theodore o'hara john t. pickett thomas t. hawkins william l. crittenden william nelson humphrey marshall john j. crittenden henry watterson bennett h. young reuben t. durrett contents i page the "scandinavian explorer," du chaillu, visits kentucky--a cordial reception ii british association meeting at newcastle, --a sensational paper--industrial activity of modern northumbria--a notable group of savants iii revelations of ancient records bearing upon the origin of the english race iv characteristic traits of the early normans--transmission of racial qualities--mid-century kentuckians v doctor craik's views--english more scandinavian than german--george p. marsh--editorial comment on the "sensational paper" vi scandinavians and kentuckians--characteristic traits in common--their passion for the "horse"--doncaster races--"cabullus" in normandy--crusading "cavaliers"--the "man-on-horseback"--his "effigies" on english seals--the production of cavaliers--the grasses vii a french savant on english types--weismann's "theory"--"snorro sturleson" quoted by lord lytton--the "homicidal humor" not invented by kentuckians, but possibly inherited--andrew d. white quoted viii john fiske--ethnic differentiation--the hindoo and the kentuckian--aryan brothers--a broad historic "highway" from the baltic sea to the bluegrass--streams of scandinavian migration--"the virginian states"--anglo-norman "lawlessness"--degenerate castes or breeds--"political assassination" as practiced by norman and saxon--"the homicidal humor not an invention of kentucky" (shaler); not invented, but derived--andrew d. white on the american murder record ix peculiar norman traits--craft--profanity--a "swearing" race--historic oaths--kentuckians full of strange oaths x william, the norman; napoleon, the corsican; great administrators--the conditions of english civilization--american statesmen xi early virginian history--researches of doctor alexander brown--kentucky a direct product of elizabethan civilization--the "vikings of the west"--professor barrett wendell's views xii the norman as a colonizer--as a devastator--revival of northumbria by modern industrialism--the power of scandinavian energy in pushing the victories of peace--english unity established on salisbury plain--the scandinavian in literature--shakespeare and his historical plays--psychological contrasts of modern scandinavian races--shakespeare's favorite author--evolution of the "melancholy dane"--advice from a thoughtful frenchman: "let us not disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors" xiii a body of anglo-norman names in kentucky--concurrent testimony of many coinciding facts--the race "lost," but not the names--ethnical transmutations--the normans everywhere at home--disraeli on descent--his theory of transmuted traits--hÆckel--the jungle of bohun--berwick and gaston phoebus--"isaac le bon"--bismarck--napoleon--mid-century "claims of race"--kentucky a sovereign commonwealth--shelby and perry xiv the gothic migration--scandinavian pirates--their foot-prints on english soil--normans hotly received by their kindred, the danes--old gothic wars--"the yenghees and the dixees"--westward march of the teuton and the goth--genesis of the scandinavian--cradle of the race--rolf ganger a potential force--reconstruction of the modern world--william of normandy xv stragglers in the gothic migration--jutes, angles, saxons--the two great races; teutons and scandinavians--"mixed races" planted on the southern shores of the north sea xvi authentic lists of old norman names--descendants of illustrious families--the norman capacity for leadership not "lost"--alphabetical series of names (from "the norman people"); english names originally norman--familiar as household words in kentucky--a legal maxim--elements of the english race--preponderance of scandinavian blood--stevenson and disraeli--lord lytton--maltebrun--scandinavian characteristics--physique--social traits--passion for "strong liquor"--hospitality xvii captain shaler quoted--measurements of american soldiers by the mathematician gould--superior physical vigor of the "rebel exiles"--general humphrey marshall--his aide captain guerrant--general william nelson--"the orphan brigade"--hereditary surnames as memorials of race--every step of norman migration noted by the historic eye--montalembert--"monks of the west"--the rude saxon transfigured by the eloquence of the gifted writer--a field for the philologist xviii the alphabetical series of names--anglo-norman surnames--names of obvious scandinavian derivation--the original discussion of the general question--an excerpt from sir walter scott--the "elizabethan" a product of a balanced race--the march of the goth resumed--the virginian hunter--the yankee skipper--a man of oak and bronze xix norman craft--mr. freeman quoted--popular attribution of the quality--its value in mediÆval days--its prevalence to-day xx names and notes--kentuckian and norman--characteristics in common--norman traits and saxon names--estimate of the kentuckian from an english source xxi shadows in "arcady"--brief preface to the alphabetical list appendix alphabetical series of norse, norman, and anglo-norman, or non-saxon, surnames the quest for a lost race by thomas e. pickett, m. d. i upon the northern border of mr. james lane allen's "arcady" there rises with picturesque distinctness against a range of green hills the pleasant old kentucky town of maysville, which, unlike the typical town of the south, is neither "sleepy" nor "quaint," but in a notable degree animated, bustling, ambitious, advancing, and up-to-date. it must be confessed, however, that here and there, in certain secluded localities, it is architecturally antique. constructed almost wholly of brick, and planted solidly upon the lower slopes of the wooded hills, the site is indescribably charming, and, looked at from a distant elevation in front or from the elevated plateau of the environing hills, presents a pleasing completeness and finish in the _coup d'oeil_. at one glance the eye takes in the compact little city, set gem-like in the crescentic sweep of the river that flows placidly past the willow-fringed shore and the walled and graded front. the scene is likewise suggestive, since it marks the northern limit of the "phosphatic limestone" formation which assures the permanent productiveness of the overlying soil--a natural fertilizer which by gradual disintegration perpetually renews the soil exhausted by prolonged or injudicious cultivation. the town is of virginian origin. at one time, indeed, it was a virginian town. the rich country to the south of it was peopled chiefly by tobacco planters from "piedmont" virginia, slaveholding virginians of a superior class. in the infancy of this early virginian settlement it was vigilantly guarded by the famous occidental hunters, kenton and boone; the former a commissioner of roads for the primitive virginian county, then ill-cultivated and forest clad: the latter, a leading "trustee" of the embryonic eighteenth century town. as we pass through the streets near the center of the place to-day we note the handsome proportions of a public edifice which has come down to us from the early mid-century days--an imposing "colonial" structure with a lofty, well-proportioned cupola and a nobly columned front. it is that significant symbol of southern civilization--the courthouse. to the artistic and antiquarian eye the building is the glory of the old "virginian" town, since it appeals at once to civic pride and superior critical taste. it was here--in the capacious auditorium of the courthouse, and in the closing quarter of the last century--that a large and enthusiastic gathering of really typical kentuckians, familiar from childhood with tales of wild adventure, greeted with rapturous applause the renowned hunter and explorer, paul du chaillu, a native of paris, france. a common taste for woodcraft had brought the alien elements in touch. the frenchman was a swell hunter of big game, and had come hither to repeat his graphic recital of experiences in the equatorial haunts of that formidable anthropoid--the gorilla. du chaillu's discovery of the gorilla and the obonga dwarfs was so astounding to modern civilization that strenuous efforts were made to discredit it, notably by gray and barth. but later explorations amply vindicated the frenchman's claims. he had a like experience later. the adventurous explorer had come to kentucky in prompt response to an invitation from a local club, a social and literary organization which owed its popularity and success chiefly to the circumstance that the genial members, though sometimes intemperately "social," were never obtrusively "literary." the social feature was particularly pleasing to the accomplished frenchman, who was a man of the world in every sense, and who dropped easily into congenial relations with gentlemen who had an hereditary and highly cultivated taste for _le sport_ in all its phases. take them when or where you might, the spirit of _camaraderie_ was in them strong. they told a good story in racy english and with excellent taste. they had studied with discrimination the composition of a bourbon "cocktail." they had a distinctly connoisseurish appreciation of the flavor, fragrance, and tints of an havana cigar. they had a traditional preference for bourbon in their domestic and social drinking, but they always kept ample supplies of imported wines for their guests. the genial frenchman was very indulgent to the generous tipple of his hosts. he drank their bourbon without apparent distaste; he praised their imported mumm and clicquot. he did better still; he drank the imported champagne with appreciation--a high compliment from such a source. [illustration: paul b. duchaillu.] clearly enough the harmony between the guest and his environment was complete. these courteous and loquacious kentuckians were not only brilliant and audacious _raconteurs_, but with their varied experiences as sportsmen had a variety of marvelous stories to tell. when their stock of pioneer exploits fell short, they would listen with polite interest to their guest's weird stories of the african jungle, and cleverly cap them with reminiscences of a miraculous outing on reelfoot lake or kinniconick. they were themselves experts with the rifle and the long bow, and were loaded to the muzzle with authentic traditions of the rod and gun. the jungle stories were all right, but the african hunter was never allowed to forget that he was in the land of the hunter boone. the very ground upon which they commemoratively wassailed had been consecrated by the footsteps of the great explorer of the west. the beastly "anthropoids" that confronted _him_ were armed with tomahawks and guns. a salient point of difference indeed. the clever and daring frenchman listened with smiling interest to their characteristic spurts of "brag," and was silently remarking, no doubt, its curious affinity to the gasconade of france. he seemed to feel perfectly at home. and who of us that were present can ever forget the impression of that dark, resolute face, the illumining smile, the gleaming teeth, and the kindly, humorous glance of the piercing eye? his experiences at the clubroom only partially prepared him for the peculiar impressiveness of the audience that greeted him at the stately old courthouse. there were the same men, to be sure, handsome, graceful, courteous, smiling, and soft of speech; but the women!--with their lovely faces, their handsome dresses, their enchanting manners, their distinction, ease and charm! the frenchman was never more of a philosopher than when he gazed upon this scene. he told his tale of the jungle simply, but with a vividness that was realistic and startling to a degree. the fascination of the audience was complete. he not only described that strange encounter in the african forest, but he re-enacted the part, a representation which gave a curiously thrilling quality to the tale not appreciable when told in print, admirably as it is told in the author's famous book. when the voice of the speaker ceased, as it did all too soon, the silent, fascinated audience, aroused from its strange african dream, broke into round after round of hearty, appreciative applause. for several moments the lecturer stood in a grave, thoughtful attitude, gazing intently upon the moving throng, not as though idly observing the dispersion of a village gathering, but as some philosophic tourist from another sphere, studying the aspect, the attitude, characteristic manner and physiognomical traits of an alien race. he asked but one question. turning eagerly to the gentleman who accompanied him, he inquired with an expression of intense interest, as his glance fell upon a graceful kentuckienne near the center of the throng--a lovely blonde with exquisite complexion, hair and eyes--"who is our beautiful scandinavian?"[ ] the answer seemed to please him, and he walked thoughtfully toward the door, an object of respectful attention from the slow-moving throng, lingering as if it longed to stay. though of small stature, he would have attracted attention anywhere. his figure was compact, lithe, elastic, and perfectly erect, his cranial outline (typically french) denoted intellectual strength and physical vigor, his facial contour was bold, regular, and pleasing--a singularly virile countenance softened and dignified by the discipline of thought. the crowd of which he is now the central figure is composed largely of men wholly different from du chaillu in air, stature, carriage, countenance, complexion, and racial type. yet nature seldom evolves from any source a solider bit of man than this gallant frenchman from the heart of france. [ ] our beautiful scandinavian.--it may interest the general public to know that "the beautiful scandinavian" of the french traveler was mrs. elizabeth wall, wife of that popular gentleman, judge garrett s. wall. her maiden name was buckner--elizabeth buckner--a native of kentucky and daughter of a famous southern house. that she was a very beautiful woman, her portrait (taken years after marriage) amply attests; and until her ill-health came, her beauty retained, in almost ideal perfection, its characteristic grace and charm. the beautiful scandinavian, from whose portrait in oil a halftone likeness is presented in this book, now takes her place in history and moves down its interminable lines with an escort that recalls the "bands of gallant gentlemen" attendant upon fair inez when she "went into the west." the distinguished guest took his departure on the following day, not with a cold adieu, but with an airy _au revoir_--as of one who, charmed with his welcome, was meditating an early return. but was he pleased? apparently he _was_, and if not, he had the frenchman's happy art of _seeming to be_. if here simply for observation, he certainly found no degeneracy, but rather, we should say, certain pleasing lines of variation in the occidental evolution of the race. it seems impossible that he should not have had a pleasant impression of his hosts--these genial sons of "arcady," forever piping their minty elixirs with oaten straws, whose drinks even when "straightest" were not stronger than their steady heads--so hospitable to strangers, so chivalrous to women, so courteous to men, so gracious in manner, so happy in speech, so loyal to kin, so proud of their commonwealth, their ancestral traditions, and their indomitable race. they drank naught from the skulls of their enemies, but they were adepts in filling their own. their potations were pottle deep, and the intervals between were not needlessly prolonged. and yet they rose refreshed from their heady cups, ordered their stud a drench, and sighed for work. [illustration: king william the conqueror.] the adventurous frenchman was no glutton in debauch, but in a modest symposium could always hold his own, and doubtless imagined in this festal reunion of bourbon and champagne that he had re-discovered the _nouvelle france_ of the royal days when louis le grand was king.[ ] [ ] m. paul du chaillu's visit to maysville (which is here described) took place in february, . his arrival was handsomely noticed in the local papers--in the _eagle_, edited by mr. thomas marshall green, the author of "the spanish conspiracy"; the _ledger_, edited by mr. thomas a. davis, who still presides over its columns with all the old-time ability; and the _bulletin_, edited by mr. clarence l. stanton, a son of judge r. h. stanton, and a gallant officer in the confederate navy during the civil war. all these gentlemen were present at the lecture, and the distinguished traveler was introduced to the audience by colonel thomas m. green. the lecture was followed by an entertainment at the limestone club, which was pleasantly noticed by captain stanton in his paper of the following day. the committee of reception and entertainment was composed of major thomas h. mannen, judge garrett s. wall, colonel francis p. owens, and doctor thomas e. pickett (the president of the club). ii in the early autumn of , the writer of this paper had the good fortune to be present at the newcastle meeting of the british association. newcastle-upon-tyne, standing at the very gateway of scotland and looking out from the tyne upon the great north sea, is a famous old city in english history, that lay directly in the path of conquest and migration and was literally cradled in war, alternately rocked by scandinavian or dane, saxon or norman, englishman or scot. to-day it is big, prosperous, and progressive; even in the midst of peace perpetually sounding the note of preparation for war. true to its oldest and best traditions it is staunchly loyal to the crown, proudly proclaiming its fealty on every coast, from the mouths of mighty guns cast in its own cyclopean shops. from the days of the scandinavian sea-rover through centuries of ruthless conflict she has stood out stoutly against the enemies of england, just as to-day her long sea-front of solid wall resists the encroachments of the northern sea. here the shipbuilder is ceaselessly busy, constructing in his immense yards the great modern ship with its heart of fire and frame of steel. in any large yards the whole scheme of construction in all its branches may be seen at a glance, from the laying of the keel to the launching of the ship. the best work in modern engineering can be seen on the tyne; and this is not surprising when we remember that upon the banks of this river the locomotive was born, giving to this aggressive contemporary people a command of the earth as complete as their immemorial mastery of the sea. so enormous is the demand for fuel in the shipyards of the north-east coast that it will take but a few centuries of work in these busy shops to exhaust the supply. the old proverb has lost its point. the most careless or unobservant tourist may see the steam-drawn trains "carrying their coals" to newcastle, _now_, at all hours. nor does the northern farmer sit with idle hands. all industries rest upon him. the farms are small, but the joint product is large. thousands of farm laborers in northumberland have each their "three acres and a cow." the northern cattle-market in newcastle would have filled the highland caterans with delight. the weekly supply of cattle exceeds two thousand; the number of sheep is not less than twenty thousand. this was nearly twenty years ago. what must it be now? but even thus, how it speaks for the varied gifts and exhaustless vigor and vitality of this old northumbrian race! their rage for "river improvement" carries a lesson for men of their blood elsewhere. between and the material dredged from the bed of the river tyne amounted to more than _eighty millions_ of tons. "now,"--it was said at the newcastle meeting--"there are more vessels entering and leaving this port _than any other in the world_." among the outgoing vessels at that time was a gallant norwegian barque which bore the name of "longfellow." a few years before--a score, perhaps--the writer had seen upon a famous track in kentucky a racer of great note who bore the same illustrious name--almost a contemporaneous compliment from widely separate branches of the same race. but what more enduring than the singer's own verse?-- "once as i told in glee tales of the stormy sea." a fit place of meeting--this old gateway of the north--for a select body of england's brilliant, busy, clear-headed and practical savants, and especially for that marvelously fruitful mid-century "section" which here first received supreme scientific recognition, having been organized at the newcastle meeting by the british association in . [illustration: "the map that tells the story."] though the youngest of the sections, its proceedings are singularly fascinating and the attendance always large. the meeting was held in the reading-room of the free library. upon a long, low platform to the left of the entrance there sat facing the audience, a group, not of "scientists," but of really scientific men, their names as familiar to the english reading world as household words. the central figure of the group, sir william turner of edinburgh, was the chairman of the section--a man of striking personality, who read a paper on weismann and his theories which was listened to with closest attention, the novelty of the doctrines eliciting many expressions of doubt or dissent, though presented by the author of the paper with singular lucidity, fairness, and force. sir william graced his position well, not merely by reason of intellectual gifts, but by virtue of a personal dignity which admirably comported with his commanding presence. he was a large, handsome man, with a robust frame, an erect carriage, and a notably aggressive air. seated near him, and firmly supporting his somewhat heavy presence, were a number of men with world-renowned names--francis galton, famous for his studies in heredity and the publication of an epochal work; sir henry acland, a learned anthropologist and medical scholar--a thinker of deep and varied scientific resource; boyd dawkins, the pioneer "cave hunter" and writer upon prehistoric archæology; john evans, an able, learned, and industrious writer upon archæological themes; doctor bruce, the eminent historian of the roman wall; general pitt rivers, equally famous as soldier and savant, a quiet, dark-faced gentleman of easy, pleasant manners, dressed in the plainest fashion and judiciously expending an income of £ , a year. his large benefactions for scientific purposes made him truly a prince of science, gracious, munificent, and wise. the most striking and conspicuous figure in this solid english line was george romanes, then in his prime and in apparently perfect health, tall, erect, dark-haired, with pale, handsome features and scholarly, high-bred air--a most impressive personification of intellectual pride and strength. as he sat in the midst of that animated group, cold, proud, silent but keenly observant, he vividly recalled the figure of the famous kentuckian who once presided over the united states senate, calmly noting the portents of impending war. in both, one easily discerned the same high qualities of intellect, resolution, and reserved force. by the side of the stately romanes there sat the learned and vivacious canon isaac taylor, slender, gray-haired, keen-eyed, alert, humorous, and full of tact--one of those clerical scholars and gentlemen who have done so much for english literature and have been a characteristic charm of english social life--men most admirably depicted by the novelist bulwer in his better moods. canon taylor was the most animated figure in this noble english group. near him sat two foreigners, each in curiously striking contrast with the other; one of these, a tall, ruddy, broad-shouldered blonde, with a strong, lithe, well-knit frame, an eager, alert expression, and a somewhat restless air, was the celebrated scandinavian explorer fridjof nansen, then just twenty-six years of age, but already made world-famous by his recent explorations in the polar seas. at the left of the young scandinavian, and presenting a remarkable contrast to that impressive figure, there sat a somewhat older man of small stature, of compact, vigorous frame, of clear, dark complexion, keen, clear, thoughtful eyes, and features typically french. the reader recognizes the description at once. it is our old friend, du chaillu, who has come to the northern coast of england, and standing in the very pathway of old scandinavian invasions and confronting some of england's best thinkers upon their own ground, has calmly looked out upon the "grim--troubled" sea of england's saxon king and boldly proclaimed his theory of the direct scandinavian origin of the english race. it was the sensational paper of the day, and even the most phlegmatic english scholar was stirred by this defiant bugle-blast from a philosophic french explorer who was not only disturbing the settled convictions of english thinkers, but still worse was running counter to cherished prejudices of the english race. that historic hyphenation of racial appellatives--"anglo-saxon"--was a sacred immemorial conjunction of names representing a fusion of racial elements not to be shaken asunder by a blast upon the ram's horn of a wandering gaul. the assault was not altogether "pickwickian"; but the frenchman was a stout antagonist, and found an incidental confirmation of his theory in the occasional flash of berserker rage which followed his masterly game of parry and thrust. nor was he ill-equipped for his controversial work. from certain antiquities which he had found during his recent explorations in the north he inferred the existence of commercial relations between the northmen of that period and the peoples of the mediterranean sea, rome and greece being at that time in direct communication with these seafaring peoples of the north. the tribes of germania, on the contrary, were "a shipless people," and according to the roman writers were still in an uncivilized state. he said there were settlements in britain by the northmen during the roman occupation; that england was always called by the northmen one of their northern lands; that the language of the north and of england were similar in the early times; that the early northern kings claimed part of england as their own; that the northmen were bold and enterprising navigators, pushing their explorations wherever a ship could survive the perils of the sea. on the contrary, neither the saxons nor the franks were a seafaring people, either at the time of charlemagne or at any earlier period. [illustration: general george rogers clark.] it was this scandinavian element which had infused a spirit of enterprise into the _english race that they had never lost_, and which had made it in all its branches, wherever they had sailed their fleets or pushed their invading columns, the invincible masters of earth and sea. its resistless movement across the american continent, he declared, was the most dramatic spectacle in history. this, in brief, was the frenchman's startling theory; first broached in england on the borders of that rude north sea which the vikings had swept in early days, and upon the banks of the peaceful tyne, where many a scandinavian rover had moored his little barque. the discussion of m. du chaillu's paper took a wide range, all the distinguished ethnologists present--dawkins, taylor, turner, evans, galton, and others--participating in this rattling ethnological debate. du chaillu, who had very much the attitude of a french _suspect_ in a german camp, maintained throughout his gallic _aplomb_, listening with admirable composure and with apparent interest, though his dark skin visibly reddened at times under the critical lash, however courteously applied. canon taylor, who evidently was in full sympathy with du chaillu's startling views, gave a happy turn to the little imbroglio by a cleverly parodied quotation from tennyson's welcome to the sea-king's daughter from over the sea-- "for saxon or dane or norman, teuton or celt--or whatever we-- saxon or norse--it is nothing to me, we are all of us _one in our welcome of thee_," the closing line being given with a politely sympathetic inclination of the head toward the gentleman from france, and with a gracious smile more expressive than his words--the smile interpreting to his hearers the startling disclaimer: "it is nothing to me." the clever ecclesiast read a very learned paper at the same meeting on a similar theme, and the two gentlemen who sat near him, du chaillu and nansen, were ideal representatives of two of his four ethnological types, the auvergnat type of central france and the long-headed scandinavian of the north. indeed, as a matter for courteous rational discussion the question of "saxon or norse" had the profoundest interest for the amiable savant, who seemed to possess in perfection that fine philosophical quality of intellect which the french have happily termed _justesse d'esprit_--a quality of mind in which even the ablest disputant may sometimes be deficient. but, nothing disconcerted by criticism or compliment, m. du chaillu remarked, with cold dignity, as he rose in final response: "opinions, gentlemen, may differ in england from opinions in france, but the truth on both sides of the channel is the same"--a sentiment to which all present responded with that fine sympathy and with that perfect courtesy "wherein--to derogate from none--the true heroic english gentleman hath no peer." iii "every schoolboy" (to quote macaulay) is familiar with the salient facts in the history of the normans; their origin in scandinavia; the seizure of a fertile province in france (wrung from a _fainéant_ heir of charlemagne); their extraordinary evolution as the great ethnic force of the period; their absolute mastery of sea and land on every shore, from the atlantic ocean to the red sea, and notably their conquest of england, their perfect fusion with the conquered peoples, and the resulting evolution of the english race. all this is commonplace to every historical reader. but recent investigators, going deeper, have inquired if the laws, institutions, language, and material constructions which mark the pathway of norman conquest are simply the memorials of an extinct race? is the norman still living, still powerful, progressive, and prolific? or is it an exhausted racial force, pithless, impotent, and effete, with no recognizable evidence of its ancient prepotency in racial struggles for existence in the conflicts of the past? or, in a word, is it, as mr. freeman affirms, a lost race? the answer to these questions depends largely upon the answer to other queries, to wit: was the conquest and sequential settlement of england merely a military invasion? or was it a vast popular migration such as america has witnessed in later times? or was it not in point of fact both--an invasion and a migration, the one following the other? england was not conquered in a day. the battle of hastings was decisive, but not conclusive. there was a long and bloody struggle before the invading force. nearly _four_ years (the duration of our "civil war") of close, desperate fighting must be encountered before the work of subjugation could be declared complete. every gap in the ranks of the invader must be filled by the importation of forces from abroad. there was a perpetual draft upon the continental populations, and a ceaseless "rushing of troops to the front," precisely as in the protracted "war between the states." all europe had become the recruiting ground of the conqueror. he was peopling england even in the midst of war; and when the period of "reconstruction" came the stream of migration continued to flow. england was the bourn from which no _immigrant_ returned; and under the military or reconstructive methods of the conqueror, every _invader_ was permanently planted upon the soil. apparently, these considerations furnish a conclusive answer to certain critical objections which shall be cited as we proceed. the facts upon which our conclusions rest are found, chiefly, in the official records of england and in the authentic annals of the anglo-norman races. here, then, we must infer the existence of an immense multitude of norman immigrants mingling and eventually fusing with the subjugated race. what has been the result of this intimate commingling of ethnic elements upon english soil? is it possible that so daring and successful a gamester as the norman was lost in the shuffle when an auspicious destiny was directing the game? the writer of this paper thinks that he found in the great library of the british museum evidence that the norman people are still a power upon this planet; to be as carefully counted with in the struggles of the future as in the conflicts of the past. recent investigation has disclosed the fact that contemporary records in england and normandy--records of two different countries of seven hundred years' standing, relating to different branches of the same race--are so minutely detailed as to enable the philosophic enquirer "to trace the identity of families and even individuals, in two countries." and this has been done by placing the great rolls of the norman exchequer in juxtaposition with similar english records of the twelfth century. this comparative juxtaposition of contemporary official records of kindred races geographically separate has been made the basis of an alphabetical series of english or anglo-norman surnames, which is remarkably full, though necessarily incomplete since the compiler, a very able english scholar, was not in position to enumerate all the families then extant; but it contains five times as many names as the famous battle abbey roll, and conclusively shows that the ancestry of the intellectual aristocracy of england was norman. the anglo-saxon and the dane were shown to be in a hopeless minority. the enquiry which resulted in the compilation of the alphabetical list was restricted entirely to surnames of a purely norman origin still existing in england. a third or more of this english population is norman, directly descended from the norman migration that preceded, accompanied, or followed the conquest. can evidence be more conclusive that the norman was neither extinguished nor absorbed by the sluggish saxon who accepted his yoke? mr. thomas hardy, in his powerful fiction, "tess," plainly accepts the conclusiveness of these views. his heroine, though of humble origin, clearly owed her involuntary seductiveness and fatal charm to the transmitted potency of her norman blood, and it is said that in certain secluded parts of england may be found to-day rural or village populations of the same class gathered about some old norman castle, donjon, or keep; their norman descent distinctly visible in their inherited personal traits; a certain characteristic combination of intellect, courage, beauty, and social charm distinguishing them at a glance from the dull, heavy, long-bodied, short-legged, unshapely saxon of a neighboring town or shire. the same restless blood or the same spirit of adventure which brought the scandinavian to normandy and the norman to english soil, in time drove him to the great settlements beyond the atlantic sea--settlements known by the english of to-day as "the states." their brethren in ireland followed in great numbers at a later day, and, wherever in recent wars the american flag has been unfurled, "the fighting race" has stood beneath its folds--always in force and always at the front, each with the line of battle beneath his feet and the fire of battle in his eye. "we fight wheriver a gintleman should," says murphy, and kelly, and shea; "we fight wheriver the fighting is good; and here's to the good, straight fighting blood!" says murphy, and kelly, and shea. [illustration: daniel boone.] thither, too, came the indomitable scot, precisely as he came in the colonial and revolutionary days. "the lowland race," says mackintosh, "briton and norman and saxon and dane, gave the world a new man--the sea rover, the border soldier, the pioneer.... the folk speech, from northumberland to the clyde and the forth, is northern english or lowland scotch; and the future man of bannockburn and king's mountain is beginning to appear. he is the man with the blood of the sea rover mixed with the blood of the borderer, and the soldier, the scholar and thinker, the statesman and lawyer, the trader and farmer." he is the man that crossed the blue ridge mountains as a pioneer. he is the man that sat in the conventions that organized the state, and stood in an unbroken line in all the pioneer battles of his race. the earliest migration of the anglo-norman folk was to the colony of virginia, as many of the old virginian surnames, bacon, baskerville, boys (bois), cabell, clay, etc., clearly attest; and the state of kentucky deriving a large population of english descent from virginia, we should naturally find a strong infusion of anglo-norman blood in the people of this state--an inference fully sustained by the transcript of anglo-norman surnames which the writer made from the list that he found in the great library in london. the late professor shaler is frequently quoted to the effect that ethnological research discloses the existence in kentucky of the largest body of nearly pure english folk to be found on the face of the globe--that has been separated for two hundred years from the parent english stock. but the facts do not warrant the assumption that the kentuckian is of purely "anglo-saxon" derivation. in _him_, at least, the blood of the norman is not wholly lost. he _is_, however, as professor shaler says, an "elizabethan" englishman. we print elsewhere a list of names familiar to kentuckians, which clearly points to the same general conclusion. with more leisure and space this list might be greatly extended. iv but what are the characteristic traits of the norman as we find him in his early habitat in france? we are told by a contemporary observer--geoffrey malaterra--that the typical or "composite" norman of his day was prodigiously astute, a passionate lover of litigation, an eloquent speaker, skilled in diplomacy, sagacious in council, convincing in debate; a son of the church, but not too deferential to prelates nor too precise in the observance of ecclesiastical forms; a bold and tireless litigant, but not over-scrupulous in his methods of procedure and not always strictly judicial in his construction of the law. "if he was born a soldier," said edward freeman, "he was also a born lawyer." in spite of this pronounced legal _penchant_ he was swift (if not restrained) to disregard and override the law; in the phrase of the old chronicler, the _gens_ was _effrenatissima_--recklessly wild, unbridled and dangerous, _nisi jugo justitiæ prematur_; daring, resolute, destructive in mutiny or revolt; seditious, piratical or even revolutionary, unless the reins of government were in strong and competent hands. we had a notable mid-century exemplification of this "unbridled" quality of temper in the introductory _razzia_ of lopez at cardenas. when the kentuckians, whose unerring rifles had crumpled up the spanish cavalry and successfully covered the slow retreat of lopez to the sea, were followed by the pursuing warship _pizarro_ into the harbor of key west, nothing daunted they coolly seized the united states fort, took possession of its batteries, and deliberately trained its guns upon the spanish man-of-war. _gens effrenatissima_, indeed. the fighting habits of the liberators were notoriously loose (especially under tropical suns); but what is to be particularly noted in this instance is, that the reins of power in our highly civilized government were unpardonably lax. it is possible, however, that the reckless and "unbridled" conduct of the kentuckians was due, in part, to the circumstance that the chaplain of the expedition had been killed. the subsequent official investigation showed to the entire satisfaction of our anglo-norman lawyers that practically everything had been done under "the forms of law." the word _effrenatus_ was almost overworked by cicero. it perfectly described the catilines of old rome and the banded ruffians that wrought their will. but in his very lawlessness the norman of malaterra never forgot the _law_. he scrupulously observed its "forms." even the conquest of england was "justified" by a pronunciamento of legal assumptions subtly and elaborately drawn. the norman was a shrewd and successful trafficker, and this tradition of commercial skill and thrift is current in normandy to-day. when he settled on english soil or sailed in english ships he did not lose his inherited commercial instincts. he made england the trading nation that she is. an eminent kentuckian, who bore the distinctive marks of norman blood, once said to a group of keenly attentive listeners, "the meanest of all aristocracies is a commercial aristocracy." a like disparaging conception of a powerful adversary was implied in the remark attributed to napoleon, that "the english were a nation of shop-keepers"--_un peuple marchand_. it was this same race of innocuous anglo-norman traffickers that crushed napoleon's iron columns at waterloo, and forever closed his conquering career. but the norman, who was a soldier, a lawyer, a diplomatist, orator, hunter, horseman and trader, was also a successful cultivator of the soil, and the norman agriculturist of to-day who reminds the tourist in his physical traits, hair, eyes, and complexion, and even in the intonations of his voice, of an english farmer of the anglo-norman type, bears a more striking resemblance to his english kinsman indeed than to his dark-visaged compatriot, the _vigneron_ of southern france. we must add, to complete the portraiture left us by malaterra, that the norman was a passionate lover of horses, of the breed immortalized by the genius of bonheur; a bold equestrian, skilled in the use of arms; at home upon the sea, and literally reared in the lap of war. and he was also a brilliant orator, passionately fond of eloquent speech. from his early boyhood, says the chronicler, he assiduously cultivated his natural aptitude for that persuasive art, that power of ready and effective utterance which, though often profane, made him dominant in the councils of war and of peace; in the cabinets of diplomacy, and even in the chamber of the king. _gens astutissima_ beyond all doubt. to return to our beginning--what think you was in the mind of paul du chaillu as he stood that memorable evening before an audience of mid-century kentuckians?--this philosophic thinker who had been for years a critical observer of "the most dramatic spectacle in history"--the sweeping, ceaseless, transcontinental march of the anglo-norman race--what did he think of the environing conditions as he stood in that old courthouse which had resounded with the eloquence of anglo-norman orators; which had echoed and re-echoed generation after generation to the "oyez!" "oyez!" of anglo-norman sheriffs? and which was still standing, an impressive memorial of days when the ground upon which it was built was the camping-ground of the dominant figure in this westward march--the anglo-norman leader boone or "bohun"--a name which in its very sound or utterance (_mugitus boum_) was in "dark and bloody" times a challenge to mortal combat--a deep bellowing defiance of "battle to the death"? what were his thoughts as he looked with wondering eyes upon that charming southern matron with her fair, delicate features and high-bred air? was the vision a vivid reminder of blue-eyed "scandinavian" maidens with faces as white as their native snows and locks with the softened shimmer of the midnight sun? one must acknowledge that the very exquisiteness of form and tint made this a rare type, even in kentucky, but there were many interesting variations of it to be seen at our great mid-century "fairs"--from the rich "auburn" of marie stuart to the "carroty" tresses of the virgin queen--framing lovely faces and crowning tall, willowy figures of queenly mold. but probably the prevailing tint of hair was that ascribed by the wizard romancer to the lady rowena--with her dash of scandinavian blood--something between flaxen and brown; all in clear and brilliant contrast with a type that glowed with the superb brunette finish of southern and central france. had du chaillu been with us in earlier days we could have shown him likewise figures of a striking masculine type--tall, soldierly figures that might have graced the "viking age"--men who, after the fashion of early norman days, would have been equally at home in camp or court. one of these gallant gentlemen, whom many of us remember, was in some respects a striking counterpart of a scandinavian sailor that figures in a late romance, "wolf larsen"; like him even in the soubriquet prefixed to his scandinavian name; of gigantic stature and strength; big-brained, passionate, strong-willed, energetic, proud, combative and sagacious, with a deep instinctive love of the sea. but his chronic irascibility of temper, often manifest on trifling provocation in unbridled bursts of berserker rage, sadly marred the brilliancy of his military career, and engendered deep and implacable enmities which brought his career as a soldier to a speedy and tragical close. [illustration: governor isaac shelby.] in other respects he radically differed from norsemen of the wolf larsen type. in his relations with his family and friends he was delicate, generous, and kind; the tenderest of sons, the kindest brother, the most devoted and loyal of friends: a lover of literature, music, and the finer pleasures of social life. strangest of all, he was reverent and devout. he respected the forms of the church, and every night, even in the rude environment of the camp, he knelt beside his soldier's couch and repeated the lord's prayer. but the soubriquet fastened upon him both by resentful enemies and admiring friends recalls his fictitious counterpart--wolf larsen. whenever the name of the federal commander came up for discussion during our great civil war--whether in confederate camp or by kentucky firesides, or by the campfires of his own loyal division--he was invariably known, by reason of his huge figure, his big bovine head, his flaming black eyes, his fierce, tumultuous energies, his headlong courage and gigantic strength, by the soubriquet "bull"--bull nelson--a sea-trained soldier with a bellowing soubriquet prefixed to an honored racial name--a mid-century kentuckian, who in mediæval battle might have swung the battle-axe of front-de-boeuf. there were many others--kentuckians of an ideal anglo-norman type--who would have brought to m. du chaillu the strongest confirmation of his philosophic views had he visited us during the cyclonic "sixties," or in that halcyon interlude "before the war." v returning now to the discussion of the masterly paper read by m. du chaillu at the british association,[ ] we may consider certain aspects of the question more in detail; conceding at the same time full credit to the ability of the disputants who dissented from the views expressed by the foreign savant. m. du chaillu was peculiarly fortunate in his critics. if his theory should survive the searching and trenchant criticisms of such men, his scholarship would command respect even if they should decline to accept his conclusions in full. [ ] british association for the advancement of science, newcastle meeting, . a loyal briton does not lightly abandon what he conceives to be established or traditional views. this trait does not imply defect of philosophic insight or want of wide research. it denotes simply the influence of prepossession, opinionated habit, and conscious power. nor is this influence unusual. scholars differ even as "doctors" disagree. dr. george craik, whose name is familiar to every scholar of the english race, was liberal enough to concede, a quarter of a century before the advent of du chaillu as a scandinavian protagonist, that the english language might have more of a scandinavian than of a purely germanic character; or, in other words, "more nearly resembled the danish or swedish than the modern german." the invading bands, he adds, by whom the dialect was originally brought over into britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, were in all probability drawn in great part from the scandinavian countries. at a still later date, too, this english population was directly and largely recruited from denmark and the regions around the baltic. eastern and northern england, from the middle of the ninth century, "was as much danish as english." in the eleventh century the sovereign was a dane. m. du chaillu's theory rests upon other and perhaps stronger grounds, but these concessions from a thoughtful scholar at least will carry weight. the continuous existence of scandinavian influence in england is suggestive of the circumstance that the danish conquest of england preceded the norman conquest by "exactly half a century." an englishman (odericus vitalis), writing almost contemporaneously with the norman conquest, describes his countrymen as having been found by the normans "a rustic and almost illiterate people" (_agrestes et pene illiteratos_). and yet, says dr. craik, the dawn of the revival of letters in england may properly be dated from a point about fifty years antecedent to the norman conquest. to what, then, must be ascribed this scholastic renascence? very clearly to the intimate relations established between england and normandy by edward the confessor. but there is no trace of the new literature (that of the arabic school which was prevalent in europe) having found its way to england "before the norman conquest swept into the benighted old kingdom, carrying the torch of learning in its train." the name of lanfranc alone gives splendor to that civilization which his genius created for the english race. he not only lighted the torch of learning, but he strengthened the reins of power. he restrained the lawless impetuosity of william the conqueror; he imposed iron conditions upon the accession of william rufus; he checked the atrocities, and finally broke the power, of odo of bayeux. his work was well done, and its effects are visible to this day. he was the real power behind the throne. it is not easy, says an eminent english writer, to trace through the length of centuries "the measureless and invisible benefits which the life of one scholar bequeaths to the world." but such was the life, the work, the bequest of this norman scholar, who died honored and beloved even by the rude, sullen, and implacable race which had been subjugated by the norman kings. but dr. craik, with all his liberality and learning, is not disposed to accept the theory of a great migration or settlement preceding, or accompanying or following, the norman conquest in the eleventh century. to be sure, this theory was not elaborately or effectively presented until of late years; but dr. craik, writing as far back as the opening of our "war between the states," seems to contradict this theory by anticipation--"in point of fact, the normans never transferred themselves in a body, or generally, to england. it was never thus taken possession of by the normans. it was never colonized by these foreigners, or occupied by them in any other than a military sense. it received a foreign government, but not at all a new population." yet even dr. craik seems to appreciate the lesson of "names." he thinks it remarkable, for instance, that though we find a good many names of natives of gaul in connection with the last age of roman literature, scarcely a british name has been preserved. even in juvenal's days the pleaders of britain were trained by the eloquent scholars of gaul. the significance of a name in determining family origin is a common assumption of our familiar speech. "that is a _virginian_ name," we say; and if we find many virginian names in a given locality we naturally infer that the town, or the county, or the locality, large or small, was originally settled by virginians. in one of our old bluegrass counties two of these settlements were made in pioneer times, about two miles apart. one is known as "jersey ridge," the other as "tuckahoe." if in both localities we find an english stock with anglo-norman names we should naturally assume a common derivation from the anglo-norman branch of the great british race. [illustration: joseph hamilton daveiss.] but that accomplished philologist, dr. craik, seems to be quite in sympathy with the views of du chaillu touching the ancestral relations of the scandinavian to the english race; and dr. craik's eminent american compeer, mr. george p. marsh, is not hopelessly wedded to fixed conclusions, and has by no means overlooked the obvious scandinavian affinities of the english tongue. "almost every sound," says the latter, "which is characteristic of english orthoëpy, is met with in one or other of the scandinavian languages, and almost all their peculiarities, except those of intonation, _are found in english_; while between our articulation and that of the german dialects the most nearly related to the _anglo-saxon_ there are many irreconcilable discrepancies." if to determine the relative proportions of linguistic and ethnic elements in dialect and race were "a hopeless and unprofitable task," this would seem to invalidate all general conclusions in the matter. a few days after the very lively discussion of m. du chaillu's epochal paper in the free library of newcastle, there appeared in a great newspaper a contemporary estimate of his views, which was received by its multitudinous constituency with profound interest and respect. it was the rolling voice of "the thunderer"--the famous london _times_. in all crises in the national life, the influence of this journal is felt. it is not a mere priestly oracle, silent except at times, but a divinity that never ceases to speak; clothed with strangely beneficent powers, and in the exercise of legitimate influence as resistless as the fabled might of the scandinavian thor. it _forms_ opinion;--it _fixes_ opinion;--it _reflects_ opinion;--it gives effect to the popular will. it has been felicitously characterized as the "vast shadow of the public mind." on the st of september, , the _times_, after a full report of the ethnological discussion in section h, had this to say by way of editorial comment: "perhaps the great sensation of the section was m. du chaillu's paper, intended to prove that we are _all scandinavians_.... this paper, combined with that of canon taylor, and the discussion that followed both, seemed to show that the time is ripe for a perfectly new investigation of the whole question of the origin and migration of the races which inhabit europe and asia; and, that, on lines in which language will play only a subordinate part." thus much for the startling theory discussed by the anthropological section at newcastle. in a subsequent correspondence, which appeared in the london _times_, m. du chaillu challenged archæologists to point out remains in any other part of europe so like those of the early anglo-saxons in england as the relics he figures from scandinavia in england. it is not always easy to indicate with precision the cradle of an ancient race; and even if such remains were found on the coasts of holland and north germany, the discovery would not seriously affect the conclusions that seem to have been reached as to ancestral relations of the scandinavian and the norman to the english race in england and the united states. one might abandon altogether the main line of m. du chaillu's argument, ( ) his careful analysis of the sagas and other ancient documents and ( ) his comparison of the antiquities upon which the challenge rests, and yet there would remain something more than a strong presumption that the animating principle of the english race, in its leading branches, is the scandinavian blood. it would seem to be quite in conformity with the law of nature that the daring, crafty, and indomitable race which still shapes the political destinies of men, which is historically traceable in its schemes of conquest and subjugation for a thousand years, and which is precisely traceable upon geographical lines in its movements of colonization or war, should have derived its enterprising characteristics from the only race which has demonstrably transmitted its conquering and colonizing traits within historic times: to wit, the scandinavian pirates that were conceived upon stormy waters, spawned upon an icy coast, and swept, apparently in a career of predestined conquest, from the waters of the baltic to the ends of the earth. the nations shrank from the rover in fear. the frenchman, at least, learned to dread his power, and the saxon submitted with sullen acquiescence to his rule. he sowed the seed of conquest with his blood, and upon whatever shore he drove his keel he planted himself fiercely upon the soil to stay. is it to be supposed for an instant that this puissant racial force was dissipated and lost? not so. the light, the fire, the sweep, the coruscating energies, the resistless currents, the driving forces are still there. the power is not "off"! [illustration: honorable henry clay.] nevertheless, it may be--to use the phrase of the london _times_--that "the time for a new investigation of the whole question is now ripe." vi those were stirring days in the old northumbrian city by the sea. and to the utmost border of that ancient kingdom the busy populations were alive with expectation and hope. little cared they for the sea rover now. he no longer enjoyed, as once, the freedom of the city and the sea. they were really as indifferent to the vexed question as the philosophic canon taylor humorously affected to be. the loquacious savants might settle matters to suit themselves; but there was another question, probably of equal importance, for popular consideration; and a question of far greater moment too, to a man with blood in his veins; a question which touched at once the pocket and the heart; to wit, the last of the classic races at doncaster, the st. leger and the great yorkshire stakes. will the duke of portland's "donovan"--a southern horse of great beauty, speed, and "luck"--win in the coming contest with "chitabob," the pride and hope of the north? there was anxiety in every face. the touts had come from their work at doncaster, and chitabob was reported to be lame; his old enemy (rheumatism) had seized his foreleg; he was not equal to a canter: could do only three hours' walk in the paddock near the ring. in spite of the conditions and the resulting consternation of chitabob's friends, his nervy young owner insists that "matters are not so bad as they seem, and the _horse will run_." meantime, the betting is against him--two to one on donovan; in rapid sequence six--seven--ten against chitabob. the situation was highly sensational; the state of excitement in doncaster was intense; even chitabob's friend, "guyon" (a noted sportsman), had surrendered hope. the owner, young mr. perkins, was alone undismayed; and the men of the stalls were as game as the horse. "he can win on three legs," they declared. "i do not think so," said guyon, "and though common sense prompts me to go for donovan, i am full of hope and sympathy for chitabob. the splendid fellow has always carried my money, and i will back him to-day. he is too grand a horse to let him run loose, but it is very clear to my mind that donovan will win." the loyal sportsman proved to be an infallible prophet--_chitabob lost_. as one looks intently upon such a scene as this, doncaster disappears and kentucky rises on the eye. the story of chitabob recalls the traditions of grey eagle, that superb and exquisite idol of the mid-century kentuckian's heart; his brilliant and exciting contest with wagner; his gallant start, his matchless stride, the vast crowd, the wild applause;--"the strained tendon," the slackened speed, the failing strength--the lost race. but the defeated racer was always (like clay or breckinridge) the idol of the state;--_the champion of kentucky_--as chitabob was the champion of the north. imported "yorkshire" was, likewise, a famous horse in the history of the southern turf, and his blood still mingles with that of our finest strains. we note in kentucky a noble reproduction of the old lines, both in man and horse; it was entirely fit that such a virginian as commodore morgan should bestow such a gift as "yorkshire" upon such a kentuckian as henry clay. it was a gift for a king, and there were marks of royal lineage in both man and horse; lines that were souvenirs of a royal race. traditions tell us, and the casual traveler notes abundant proof of the fact, that the "typical kentuckian" is indebted for many of his traits to the old northumbrian blood. even the familiar speech of the yorkshireman recalls much that is characteristic in the dialect of kentucky; as "mad," for angry or vexed; "thick," for friendly or intimate; "thumping," for big; "rattling good," for very good; "plump," for quite or entirely, as "shot plump through"; "whole lot," for a large number; "what's up?" for what's the matter? etc. were not these words and phrases conveyed by racial migration from the north of england to virginia and from virginia to kentucky in days lang syne? have you never heard among the old horsemen of the bluegrass the odd expression, "the colt will be two years old next 'grass'"? "it is curious," says mr. marsh, "that the same expression is used in _scandinavia_." in denmark and sweden, he adds, as well as in england, the gentlemen of the chase and turf reckon the age of their animals by "springs"--the season of verdure being the ordinary "birth season" of the horse; and a colt, therefore, is said to be so many years old next "grass." the same writer informs us that the names of the two brothers, hengist and horsa--both names of the genus _horse_--are words in one or another form common to all the scandinavian dialects. a danish colonel told mr. marsh that in a company in his regiment there were two privates bearing these names, who were as inseparable in their association as the hengist and horsa of old. an ardent theorist, like a jealous lover, may find confirmation strong in trifles light as air. it is a far cry from old scandinavia to old kentucky, but what brain is broad enough, what spirit is subtle enough, to comprehend the variety and infinitude of delicate, airy, intangible influences by which the busy hands of destiny have brought them together? not the least of these agencies were affinities, customs, explorations, battles, contests, migrations, and the "wingy mysteries" of kindred names or words. edward lee childe, in his admirable life of his kinsman, general robert lee (paris, france, ), says that in we find a lionel lee at the head of a company of gentlemen accompanying richard of the lion-heart in his third crusade. in the original the word here translated "gentlemen" is _gentilshommes_. a word of somewhat different connotation from its english equivalent, but sufficiently alike in meaning to justify the assumption that england is indebted to normandy for the word, and, essentially, for what the word connotes or implies--_the chief or leader of a family or gens_. the followers of lionel lee were, therefore, a military élite. the original conception of the word still lingers among the anglo-norman races. that the word in its later english form has taken on a finer sense is illustrated by the famous speech of the great nicholas to sir hamilton seymour. the diplomacy of the czar neither asked nor conceded conventional guarantees. "before all things," he said, "i am an english gentleman" (_un gentilhomme anglais_). the word "cavalierism," used by m. taine, reminds us that england, long before the conquest, was indebted to normandy for the "cavalier"; that the "man-on-horseback" was the cavalier; that the cavalier and gentilhomme were conspicuous in the ranks of the conqueror, and, not to be too precise, may be said to have come down the centuries together. in a certain conventional sense it is proper, no doubt, to say that the cavalier in england was a gentleman; and, always, in normandy _un gentilhomme_. but it was only in later days, as in the splendid epoch of the stuarts, that the qualities of the gentleman, fusing with the character of the cavalier, gave a peculiar dignity, elevation, and distinction to the natural and recognized leaders of the english race. but the bonniest cavalier, undisciplined by social culture, had precisely those defects of his qualities which the term "cavalierism" was invented by sir walter scott to express. the qualities depicted in esmond by thackeray were not conspicuous in scott's portraiture of "claverhouse" or "montrose." gentilhomme, cavalier, and gentleman were descriptive terms evolved under similar historic conditions, and derived from the same linguistic source. an anglo-norman kentuckian who figured conspicuously in the late war between the states humorously adjusted all differences as to the proper designation in that day, by addressing his friends in familiar conversation as "gentle-homines," a felicitous appellative not only for kentuckians, but for friendly indians as well. the _effigies_ of the "man-on-horseback" (a familiar phrase in english ears) was officially introduced to the english public by an english king, who in everything save birth and blood was typically norman himself. it is indelibly stamped upon the great seal of england, and not upon one seal alone. the most casual inspection of the famous guildhall collection will show, stamped upon seal after seal through a long succession of anglo-norman kings, the same equestrian figure which, obviously of norman origin, had appeared in england before the conquest; and which centuries later was designed by an anglo-norman engraver upon the great seal of the american confederate states. the artist was wyon (engraver to the queen), and the original of the symbolic figure was that immortal cavalier, george washington--a man of anglo-norman blood. it may be said that kentucky offered physical conditions that were exceptional, for the production of "cavaliers." [illustration: governor joseph desha.] a scientific explorer found upon the icy coast of the straits of magellan a growth of english grass--fresh, green, flourishing, and as full of fight for existence as the stock or race from which it took its name. it was like the grass described in the hudibrastic skit of the bluegrass colonel: "where bluegrass grew the winter through-- and where it blooms in summer, too." it was a species of _poa_, closely akin in its characteristics to _poa pratensis_, the famous bluegrass of kentucky--a cosmopolitan grass; at home everywhere, but always seeking congenial skies; rooting itself firmly and clinging tenaciously; standing in with the rich soils and the strong races; unseating old sod; standing off all casual intruders; driving out all competing grasses; casting its own lines in pleasant places; dividing honors with _zea mays_, the stateliest of all grasses, and yielding to no competition save here and there to the cryptic, mossy growth that at last covers with oblivion the homes and the tombs of men. even the grasping, aggressive _poa_ yields to the power of _moss_; and mossback monstrosities may be found even among the vigorous offshoots of the anglo-norman race. yet, was it not an extraordinary incident of the evolution of our western world that in the genesis of the commonwealth of kentucky two such factors or agencies as the _race_ and the _grass_--inseparably linked--should be predestined each to a special function in the common work? "either," said a sagacious observer from new england, "no other land ever lent itself so easily to civilization as the bluegrass region, or it was _exceptionally fortunate in its inhabitants_." the alternative suggests that if this miracle of evolution be attributable to _either_ of the causes named--_civilizableness of the land or adaptableness of race_--then there can be but one conclusion should the result be ascribed to the operation of _both_. this speculative suggestion as to the genetic or determining element in the evolution of the bluegrass state came from the pen of that gifted and genial writer, charles dudley warner, many years ago. he was then visiting kentucky, and reporting in a series of papers his observations, as a visitor, for an influential publication in the east. please note this unconscious implication as to _grass_ and _race_ from a philosophic tourist of the olden times. "grass" or "race"--but what race? vii the continuous application of three acute and powerful minds along the same line of thought, in the first half of the last century--an unconscious or undesigned collaboration (so to speak) of lamarck, st. beuve, and hippolyte taine--evolved a marvelous instrument of critical and philosophic research; furnishing for every capable thinker a method adapted to the investigation of all subjects, great and small; neglecting no phase, shrinking from no interpretation, rejecting no authentic fact, and having in perfection the magical quality of adjustment to conditions described in the arabian tale. in his english notes, for example, m. taine, if too frank, is singularly felicitous and discriminative in his physical descriptions of certain anglican types of race--presenting, first, the beastly, repulsive traits of the _male_; the lowering, dog-like physiognomy, the huge jowl; the dull red eyes; the gluttonous chops; the swinish snout, the congested facial tissues; the gross, unwieldy figure, the bloated features and the protuberant accumulations of abdominal fat--thus graphically depicting, by way of philosophical illustration, an anthropoid incarnation of animal appetite. the picture is not flattering, but it certainly embodies some familiar traits, of which it is entirely pardonable to make a philosophic use. next he introduces the boadicean or brobdingnagian _female_--"broad, stiff, and destitute of ideas"--with heavy features, lifeless, fishy eyes, coarse, congested complexion, a clumsy figure, large feet, unshapely hands, and an utter lack of style and taste--notably in the bizarre combinations of color in her dress. moreover, he says, two out of every three have their feet shod with stout masculine boots, and as to their long, projecting teeth--huge white teeth--it is impossible to train oneself to endure them. "is this," he inquires philosophically, "a cause or an effect of the carnivorous regime?" plainly enough the cause--the remote cause at least--the determining cause, is what is designated by m. taine elsewhere as "the hereditary conformation of race." these fat, huge, fierce, vicious, dull, ill-shaped creatures are distinctly of a saxon strain. in cedric's day they were the gurths who herded the swine, and the "gigantic jades" who in the very teeth of mother church persisted in a merciless disciplinary "flogging of their slaves." suggestions of racial derivation are seldom questioned in ordinary life. every english thinker recognizes the fact. the biographer of an eminent english lawyer says that he combined, in the most pleasing fashion, fineness of physical texture with courage, high character, and the perfection of personal charm. the same writer thinks it necessary to explain that on the maternal side the gifted lawyer "came of gentle blood." apart from personal characteristics, the very name of the maternal _gens_ bore witness to her norman descent--a name that has been familiar in kentucky from the foundation of the state. according to the same biographer the conditions on the paternal side were quite different. an uncle, of the ruder strain, declared, in view of prospective revolutionary tribunals, that _his_ veins were "uncontaminated with one drop of gentility." he stood among the intellectual aristocracy of england just the same. but, if the philosophic taine is severe in his characterization of the "carnivorous types" of the english race, he makes ample amends in his descriptions of others. not every englishman is like the landlord in barnaby rudge--"half ox, half bull." "on the contrary," says this admirable frenchman, "when the person is a cultured and intelligent gentleman, the phlegmatic temperament imparts to the english personality a perfectly noble air. i have several of them in my memory, with pale complexion, clear blue eyes, regular features, constituting one of the finest types of the human species. there is no excess of cavalierism, of glittering gallantry after the style of the french gentleman; one is conscious of a mind wholly self-contained, a brain which can not lose its balance. they elevate this quality of their temperament into a virtue; according to them the chief merit of a man is always to have a clear and cool head. they are right; nothing is more desirable in misfortune and in danger. this is one of their national traits." taine's historic ideal of this type is william pitt. the awkwardness and erubescent bashfulness, so often observed in english social life, "is wholly physical," says m. taine, "and a peculiarity of _teutonic_ nations." it is certainly not the fine repose that is supposed to mark the caste of never care. _another_ type admired by this clever frenchman is thus described: "the blond maiden with downcast eyes, purer than one of raffaelle's madonnas, a sort of eve, incapable of falling, whose voice is music, adorable in candour, gentleness, and goodness, and before whom one is tempted to lower the eyes out of respect. since virginia, imogen, and the other women of shakespeare or his great contemporaries--from these to esther and to the agnes of dickens--english literature has placed them in the foreground; they are the perfect flower of the land." the section of the association at newcastle which listened to the paper of m. du chaillu with an air of courteous self-restraint, listened also, and apparently in a like mood, to sir william turner in the reading of his very able paper on the pathological aspect of the doctrine of "heredity," as recently expounded in the revolutionary hypothesis of professor weismann, a famous german pundit in pathology. it was the first appearance of the so-called weismann "theory" before the scientific public of england. professor weismann rejects the view that the characteristics acquired by parents through their own experiences or environment can be transmitted to their offspring. it is only those characteristics that have pre-existed in the germ of reproduction: that is, the congenital peculiarities alone; those which distinguish the race and breed that can be transmitted, according to the teachings of professor weismann. a german philosopher, for example, may transmit a superfluous toe or a prognathic jaw, but not his portentously developed brain. sir william turner did not accept in full the german's "theory." under the exclusive operation of a law which transmits only from congenital variations, how is it conceivable that the development of species can be brought about? on the other hand, does not the law of the survival of the fittest operate to correct the tendency to transmit defects of structure and organization? thus, affirmed our sturdy anglo-saxon savant, the hereditary tendency, properly understood, is in perfect harmony with the theory of natural selection. it is needless to say that the section and the speaker were quite at one upon these perplexing points. the conclusions of darwin upon "descent" were as little open to assault as their own conviction as to the origin of the anglo-saxon race. at all events, an englishman's established opinions would not tumble at the first blast of a ram's horn from germany or france. [illustration: abraham lincoln. (bas relief by a french artist.)] the discussion of the physical peculiarities of our ancestors never loses its interest among the thinkers of the various branches of the english race. how trippingly upon the tongue of the anglo-saxon child come the familiar lines of the english poet, a bard of the georgian period: "deep-blooming, strong, and yellow-haired, the blue-eyed saxon came." a pleasing description of peculiarities which holds good of the northern races to this day. but by a process of ethnic differentiation the separate or divergent races, with changed _milieu_ and lapse of time, took on some structural change; the scandinavian, for example (and possibly the kentuckian), coming to the front with cranial dimensions exceptionally large and mental capacities to correspond. laing's curious note to snorro sturleson (quoted by lytton) says that in the antiquarian museum of copenhagen the handles of almost all the swords of the early ages, in these collections, "indicate a size of hand very much smaller than the hands of modern people of any class or race." the norman is said to have retained this peculiarity of physical structure longer than the scandinavian from whom he sprang. it was probably the result of social conditions which soon ceased to exist. "here and there," says an eminent english writer, "amongst plain countryfolk settled from time immemorial in the counties peopled with the anglo-dane (scandinavian), may be found the 'scythian hand and foot,' the high features, and the reddish auburn hair." "but amongst the far more mixed breed," he adds, "of the larger landed proprietors (comprehended in the peerage), the saxon attributes of race are strikingly conspicuous, and amongst them the large hand and foot common to all of the germanic tribes." (lord lytton.) virginia and the virginian states were peopled chiefly from the former class. if any inquirer wishes to prosecute this inquiry under favorable conditions, he may find a contemporary transmission of racial peculiarities in the vast scandinavian population in our northern belt or tier of states--men of the old blood, in a broad, congenial field, with boundless energy and big brains. viii one of the most interesting results of a very prolonged process of ethnic differentiation is mentioned by john fiske, in comparing two remote branches of the so-called "aryan" race--the short, fat, pursy hindoo, and the wiry, long-limbed kentuckian. it is not incredible that these were simply original marks of race--"scythian," in the one instance; scandinavian in the other. it is a far cry, too, from old benares to the bluegrass; but it is possible that if missionaries from kentucky could remain in hindustan long enough there might be a gradual reversion of the occidental variety to the ancient or original type. if mr. fiske's deductions be correct, as possibly they are, the aryan brothers have wandered far apart, and perhaps it is hardly safe, in studying the genetic conditions of development in the bluegrass, to stray beyond the broad, well-traveled highway that reaches from the baltic sea through normandy and the british isles to the shores of the old dominion, to the blue ridge mountains, the "hills of breathitt," and the bluegrass lowlands of kentucky. the streams of population from the scandinavian seas are still flowing, and in all likelihood the scandinavians of the virginian states (the old settled populations of the states of the south and west) will ultimately fuse with the scandinavian populations of the north and establish in the heart of the continent the empire of the world. the great scandinavian settlements of the northwest are now almost equal in numbers to the anglo-norman populations that from the days of the virgin queen have been gathering and growing in old virginia and in the virginian sisterhood of states. coleridge once said that england's insular position had made her a mother of nations. it would seem that like conditions--an environing wilderness and an estranging sea--have helped to make virginia a "mother of states." the lawless elements that poured into kentucky were not segregated by social or other necessities, and, cast out by time or poverty, permanently isolated in one rude locality. this was at one time a popular theory among the savants. but there was always a tendency to _lawlessness_ wherever the anglo-norman went. if any "convict" blood muddied the turbulent, brawling stream of migration, it was not from the _race_, but from the chance intermingling of a degenerate _caste_ or _breed_, and whether you find that degenerate admixture in the rugged highlands or in the lovely champaign country at their feet, the convict blood is still there. in the highlands or the lowlands, in the mountains or the bluegrass, generation after generation is weighted with the curse. the family, the clan, the community never loses the criminal taint. but the great, strong, daring, gifted _race_ sweeps on untouched by the vile marks of degeneracy that would put a proud, ambitious caste to shame. the trade of political assassination was plied with great activity in the good old norman times, but apparently there was nothing that was beastly, or basely criminal, in the work; on the contrary, it seems to have been palliated almost invariably by the conditions of a traditional feud, and, where sentiment or authority was very exacting, the offense was sometimes justified under "the forms of law." this was not murder in any ordinary or vulgar sense. it was merely an indispensable _modus vivendi_ in times that imperiled men's bodies as well as tried their souls; one of those protective devices conceived by the savagery of mediæval statecraft in a transition period of christian civilization. even at this day it is difficult for a competent and experienced anglo-norman jury to detect decisive evidence of crime when looking through the subtile meshes of a technical defense. william himself had a strong disinclination to take life under the forms of law; and, possibly, had his loyal guardians yielded to a like weakness in the early days of his succession, the solid fabric of english or anglo-norman civilization would now be as unsubstantial as a castle in spain. but they did not share the weakness of their ward, and promptly settled the right of succession by assassinating all troublesome pretenders to the throne. the only sin of blood upon william's soul--"the blackest act of his life"--was the execution of a judicial sentence against waltheof upon the hill of st. giles. the only inexplicable crime of waltheof's life was his murder of the brothers carl, staunch comrades who had stood by his side at york. the judicial murder was wrought by the orders of a _norman king_. it was apparently premeditated, and done with the utmost deliberation and under established forms of law. the carl brothers were the victims of an ancient feud. their grandsire had slain the father of waltheof, and the grandsons of the murderer were slain to avenge this ancient deed of blood. they were the victims of a transmitted _hate_: of a vindictive passion that had lost its heat. but the murderer perished at last, under the forms of law which he had denied to the innocent victims of a feud. he could slay with impunity on his own account, but he was not allowed to conspire even in thought against the king. he, too, suffered the penalty long years after the offense. waltheof was the last of the _saxon earls_. not long ago that eminent publicist, mr. andrew d. white, delivered an address on the subject of "high crime in the united states." the following excerpt will be read with interest: "simply as a matter of fact the united states is, among all civilized nations of the world, the country in which the crime of murder is most frequently committed and least frequently punished. deaths by violence are increasing rapidly. our record is now larger than that of any other country in the world. the number of homicides that are punished by lynching exceeds the number punished by due process of law. "there is too much overwrought sentimentality in favor of the criminal. the young ward toughs look up with admiration to local politicians who have spent a part of their lives in state prison. germs of maudlin sentimentality are widespread. on every hand we hear slimy, mushy-gushy expressions of sympathy; the criminal called 'plucky,' 'nervy,' 'fighting against fearful odds for his life.' "it may be said that society must fall back on the law of self-preservation. it should cut through and make war, in my opinion, for its life. life imprisonment is not possible, because there is no life imprisonment. "_in the next year nine thousand people will be murdered._ as i stand here to-day, i tell you that nine thousand are doomed to death with all the cruelty of the criminal heart, and with no regard for home and families, and two thirds will be due to the maudlin sentiment sometimes called mercy. i have no sympathy for the criminal. my sympathy is for those who will be murdered, for their families, and for their children." ix the normans were a brilliant and enterprising race; but what before all things (says freeman) "distinguished them from other nations, was their _craft_." this was manifest in everything, at all times, and everywhere--in statesmanship, in war, in traffic, and in the trivial interactions of social and domestic life. craft was no more characteristic of a norman king in the past than of a norman trader in modern times. it is as distinctly racial as the commercial "cuteness" or cleverness universally attributed to the american people of to-day. lord wolseley may have noted this trait when he said of our people, "they are a race of english-speaking frenchmen." he may have observed, too, even during the war between the states, that americans were at times exceedingly _profane in their speech_, just as in the olden time it was said that the normans were "peculiarly fond of oaths." camden tells us that when carolus stultus made over normandy to rollo, the rude ingrate refused to kiss the king's foot. when urged to do so he viciously exclaimed, "_ne se, by god!_" "whence"--adds the chronicler--"the normans were familiarly known as _bigodi_ or _bigods_." at every other word, he says, they swore by god. for a like reason, at a later day, the english were known throughout europe as the english "goddams." all of us know how terribly the army swore in flanders. the profane tendencies of the race seemed to have been stimulated by war. "then, the soldier," says shakespeare, "full of strange oaths." was it not one of our innocent bluegrass girls who declared that up to the close of her "teens" she believed the familiar phrase "damned yankee" to be a _single_ word? but it was the conqueror of england and the founder of the anglo-norman race that swore the greatest oath of all. when the merry burghers of alençon were hurling insults from their walls upon the burly son of arletta and upon her sire--the tanner of falaise--the infuriated norman swore an oath which lights up the page of history like the flare of a conflagration--"by the splendor of god!" he exclaimed as he swept to his wild revenge. the profanest kentuckian in his palmiest days never rose in his profanity to such a plane as this. he preferred the direct and trenchant speech of that virgin queen who helped to shape the destiny of our common race. "do as i say," she said to a recalcitrant prelate, "or by god i will _unfrock_ you!" even her stately ministers were not safe from the fire of her anglo-norman wrath. in the royal council-chamber she sometimes fell to cursing like a very drab. in certain virginian circles profane swearing seemed to have been proscribed except in a softened or attenuated form, such as "jeems' river," as an ejaculatory substitute for a very blasphemous phrase. thomas jefferson did not regard profane "expletives" as a very rational or philosophic mode of speech; but george washington, though puritanically truthful, would sometimes infuse into an imprecation the spirit and effectiveness of a prayer. we have all heard of stonewall jackson's "teamster" and the moving quality of his profane speech; but jubal early never allowed the words to be taken out of his mouth in this way. he did his own swearing, and, presumably, did it well. swearing or fighting by proxy was not his forte. judged by military results, jackson's was probably the better method. as a tactical incentive upon the firing line nothing could be more effective than one of early's oaths; but for general strategic purposes, nothing could surpass the effectiveness of the deadly imprecations that lurked in stonewall jackson's prayer. this was a cromwellian modification of the anglo-norman oath. in the good old commonwealth of kentucky there seems to have been a relapse into the simpler forms of profanity--anglo-norman and early english. the historian collins tells us that one of the pioneer governors having refused to notice the "challenge" of a truculent upstart, the fellow threatened to "post him a coward." "post and be damned," said the old soldier, "you will only post yourself a damned liar!" the retort was profane, but it was in punctilious accord with the spirit and habits of the time. better still, it was more effective than a "gut-shot" at short range. as a rule, the kentuckian had an instinctive aversion for puritanic oaths. that consecrated phrase, "jeems' river," had a brief career in this state. the last person to use it, probably, was an elderly, smooth, genial, charming gentleman at the bar who was for many years the judge of a local court in the good old county of fleming. he was in many respects a marked exception to the common rule.[ ] it might have been different had he left the old dominion at an earlier date. what brandy is for heroes, strong oaths were for the pioneer. not mere dicer's oaths; nor the mauldin imprecations of a sot, nor the rounding touches of a raconteur; but good, honest, english oaths, such an oath as that which settled the insistent corporal trim--the generous and daring oath that our uncle toby swore when the young lieutenant lay sick of a fever. "'he shall not die, by god,' cried my uncle toby." and the accusing spirit that "flew to heaven's chancery with the oath" had the grace to blush when he gave it in. god bless our uncle toby; he was the uncle toby of us all, and is as fresh in our remembrance as the good old uncles who told his story and praised his virtues and swore his oaths by the family fireside in the auld lang syne. tradition throws a strong light on one of these old kentuckians who denounced with suggestive picturesqueness of phrase a ruthless master who had sold and separated a family of hereditary slaves:--"he is the damnedest scoundrel between hell and guinea!" the old gentleman exclaimed, giving in effect a touch of lurid or local color to his imprecatory speech. but when one of his own negroes--a broken, helpless creature--was accused of marketing for his own benefit the products of the farm, he gently answered, "ah, well, i am not sure that, after all, the old slave is not _taking his own_!" as one recalls that kindly speech, with its reminiscent touch of uncle toby, he recalls, likewise, the sentiment of a famous line from a foreign source tenderly adapted to a modern taste-- "_mais où sont les nègres d'antan?_" where are those dusky bondsmen of the past? they mingle their dust with the dust of them they served: and resting in old country graveyards, in the peace of immemorial graves, they await the morning light and the master's call. [ ] in an admirable letter written in pioneer times to bolling stith, in kentucky, by his virginian mother, she says: "i hear you have become a notorious rattle and never open your mouth without an oath." to correct this vicious tendency she recommends the example of the "great and good general washington." excellent advice. the general's oaths were not so frequent as bolling's. they were louder, deeper, "heartier." the english traveler, fordham, says that the virginians of that day were "addicted to oaths." [illustration: "our beautiful scandinavian."] among the most popular of the well-trained african servitors of the mid-century days in the bluegrass was our versatile drudge, ben briler, one of the most active and useful functionaries of that old-time tavern life. "ben briler swept the poker-room-- and gathered up the 'chips'; was 'mixer,' bootblack, cook, and groom, and salted down the 'tips.'" evil days came to ben's master, and ben was sold--becoming the joint chattel of the young swells of the poker-room. but the joint chattel proved to be too versatile for his vocation, and one of the stockholders denounced him as "a damned kinky-headed _corporation_," _and kicked him downstairs_. as governor desha, in a recent message to the legislature, had effectively arraigned those "dangerous corporations which embodied the interests of powerful men," the prompt action of the stockholder at the old tavern brought great relief to the public mind. it showed that corporations could be _reached_--that, contrary to the general impression, they had "bodies that could be kicked and souls that could be damned." the advent of the abolition "emissary," the emancipated negro, and the "burnt cork" minstrel was practically contemporaneous in kentucky. in the gentle mid-century days a company of strolling minstrels had announced an entertainment at the old county seat of mason--the town where mrs. harriet beecher stowe (a frequent guest of mrs. marshall key) first witnessed a "sale" of negro slaves. on the evening announced for the entertainment, the courthouse was packed from floor to dome. among the conspicuous figures toward the front was colonel robert b., a fine old kentuckian of antique norman type--tall, ruddy, high-featured, light haired; hearty, convivial, and profane--a boon companion and _bon vivant_. he sat expectantly but at ease, a bandaged arm resting upon the seat in front. he was cordially greeted by kinsmen and friends in every part of the house. the curtain rose and the minstrels filed upon the stage, looking for all the world like a lot of "free nigger" swells. their very appearance was an offense, and provoked at once a collision with the young mohawks of the town. the violoncello was shivered into splinters, and the flutes, fiddles, and castanets went singing through the air. no trace of harmony was left. there was a universal dash for windows and doors; none stood upon the order of his going. all went at once--all except "colonel bob," who sat unmoved, fixed to his seat as if fascinated by the moving scene in front. the spectators were amazed. "hell's fire, bob!" exclaimed an anxious friend, "don't you know there is a _fight_ going on down there?" the colonel looked incredulous. "i wish i may be damned," he said, "if i didn't think it was _part of the play_!" there was universal condemnation of these minstrel folk by persons who did not see the show; but the colonel, who was a "stayer," insisted that "the niggers made a good fight." unquestionably there is a certain lack of modernity, or at least of civilized amenity, in such a manifestation as this: but there was a spontaneous and elemental vivacity in their unpremeditated assault upon the counterfeit african bucks which betrayed the rude fantastic humor of their norman blood, and imparted a pleasant tang to the crude flavor of early plantation life. mr. barrett wendell finds in the still earlier life of the west conditions described as existing in the times of the plantagenet kings; and mr. owen wister seems inclined to adopt his startling views. apparently, then, we must count with inherited conditions and characteristics even in the politics of the times. the modern world is probably not ideally moral, but it is sensitively fastidious and scrupulously observant of "good form." it would wreck a railway, perhaps, or deplete a bloated insurance exchequer, but it would not launch an ungentlemanly imprecation or utter a trivial or unproductive oath. it even discountenances the _oath in court_-- a solemn asseveration or attestation before a judge. it utterly discredits--socially and otherwise--the blas-_phe_-mous ejaculation or the vulgar "cuss-word," or the light conversational "swear" familiar in the dialect of the "back shop," the groggery, and the street. the variety of oath known as a "swear," considered psychologically, is not a very serious offense. in a philosophical aspect, indeed, it is in some sense a temperamental necessity, dependent on physiological conditions, and is essentially the result of a defensive or protective instinct. where not merely idle, wanton, and unmeaning, it is a psychological _regulator nervorum_. it is the unpremeditated product of a prompt cerebral reaction. it gives the centers of speech a chance to rally when thrown into disorder by a sudden attack. there is no time for the picking and arranging of words, and, except in persons of lymphatic temperament, no capacity for the leisurely elaborations of speech. one is confronted, not with a problem, or theory or condition, but with an _emergency_ that must be decisively met. silence perhaps is golden, but there is a certain steel-like quality in trenchant speech. profane, "rapid-fire" ejaculation is not only a deeply implanted instinct, but by frequent indulgence becomes an invincible habit--a habit so odious and offensive as to make even a chesterfield swear. as a racial instinct it survives transplantation to any clime, and religious training of every sort. even the disciplinary methods of calvinism fail to eradicate it. but an "inherited drill" may at times soften, or modify, or mask the _mode_ of _manifestation_, as is cleverly illustrated in the familiar lines-- "the blue light elder knows 'em well-- says he--'there's banks, we'll give him--well! that's stonewall jackson's way.'" a kentuckian casually encountering a distinguished new englander at the buffet of an exclusive eastern club, exclaimed: "does a _puritan_ drink?" "i would not give a damn," was the decisive answer, "for a puritan that could not drink, pray, and fight." it is probably no secret that in our amphibious scandinavian, general william nelson, the swearing instinct was abnormally developed. he did not swear "like a sailor," to be sure; nor "like a trooper" of the olden time; since neither soldier nor sailor of the ordinary type was ever gifted with his extraordinary abundance and facility of profane expression. it is but just to say, however, that at times he struggled manfully against the habitual inclination. "christ give me patience!" he cried when his favorite aide, colonel samuel owens (a joker of the norman type), inadvertently "sat down" upon his military hat. the utterance was a sincere and reverent appeal for divine help. he instinctively shrank from the coming torrent of profane ejaculation, and with a prayerful effort was bracing himself against the flood. [illustration: president jefferson davis] "there is some soul of goodness in things evil"; but in this instance one does not lessen the force of the evil by modifying or "softening" the form of the oath. the essence remains unchanged. when pecksniff slams the door in a rage, he simply "swears" what hood describes as a "wooden damn." the devout moslem will not tread upon a scrap of paper in his path, "lest," he says, "the name of god be written upon it"; but the impetuous anglo-norman recklessly flings the name of god into the contaminated environment of his daily life. and he has done so, history attests, since the day he sprang full-armed upon the planetary sphere--the most portentous apparition of mediæval days. "long ago," says canon bardsley, "under the offensive title of _jean gotdam_, we [the english] had become known as a people given to strange and unpleasant oaths." the very name--_jean gotdam_--vouches for its antiquity, as well as for the fearless sincerity of him who swore. there came into one of our bluegrass communities just after the war a clever confederate adventurer, who speedily established very pleasant social relations by exploiting his military record. a venerable kentuckian, who had come through the war with his confederate principles and virginian prejudices intact, was asked by a friend how he liked their virginian visitor--the ci-devant "aide to general lee." "i don't _like_ him, sir," he said with vicious emphasis, "he is not what he professes to be; i never in my life heard a virginian gentleman say 'god _dern_!' he either swore or he _didn't_ swear." he had no indulgence for a marked card nor for an emasculated oath. he would not substitute a sickly, modernized variant for a venerated traditional form. by "gad" or by "gosh" or by "gobbs" was good enough for a reforming purist; for himself he preferred to say, with the irascible robert of normandy, "ne se, by god!" it is not the form, after all, but the sentiment or suggestion, that lies behind the "swear." it is discouraging to the spirit of philosophic optimism to note the slinking figure of the iconoclast now running amuck in every field. the instinct and habit of reverence is almost gone, and the solidest traditional reputations are no longer safe. we no longer say with wallenstein-- "there is a consecrating power in time, and what is gray with years to man is godlike." even the fine historic character of washington is "at a discount" in the modern world--partly on account of his alleged indulgence in profane speech, but chiefly because of his recognized incapacity to tell a lie. he had not only lost (we are told by one biographer) the useful--the indispensable--instinct of "prevarication," but (as we are told by another) "when deeply angered, he would _swear a hearty english oath_." one may survive in the darwinian struggle without the capacity to _swear_, but scarcely without the capacity to deceive. there seems to be no salvation in this life except for the successful liar; but for the man of many oaths there appears to be no salvation either in this life or the next. happily, the material prosperity of virginia was but little affected by the ethics of the washingtonian code. her commercial instincts had been powerfully quickened in her early years by an admonitory imprecation from a royal, or official, source. when the commissioners of virginia were pleading the interests of "learning and religion" before the attorney-general of charles ii (an anglo-norman lawyer, no doubt), he promptly responded with a hearty english oath--"damn your souls! _grow tobacco!_" there is no need for such an adjuration to the planters of the fine old anglo-norman commonwealth of kentucky. the tobacco will be planted, whatever may become of their souls. x an english scholar of sound judgment and exceptionally sound views has recently said that the emperor napoleon was the greatest administrator of all time. his greatest work, perhaps, is the system of administrative centralization which, through a century of the severest tests that political madness could apply, has maintained the conditions of social order even in the midst of war and under every form of organized misrule, and secured almost unparalleled prosperity for the municipalities and provinces of france. but it must not be forgotten that william the norman solved a like problem with apparently even greater success, and under antagonizing conditions which only a statesman of original genius could successfully confront. not for one century, only, of marvelous effectiveness in civic administration, but for eight hundred years of advancing and expanding _civilization_, the conceptions evolved by the norman's brain have been doing their beneficent work; and great as was the genius of the corsican adventurer, it is not incredible that even he, the master of europe, did not disdain the lesson which had been taught the nations by that magnificent son of france. the corsican was a close student of military history, and secretly meditated a descent upon modern england in imitation of the earlier conqueror's work. it is not likely that he would overlook the methods of reorganization that followed the war, with its machinery of sheriffs, judges, justiciaries, etc.--executive officers directly responsible to the king--bringing the throne in direct touch with the people, and drawing every subject, at least in every central shire, in direct personal allegiance to the throne. the _marquessess_, or wardens of the marches, were able and ambitious warriors whose sole concern was with dangers from _without_. but even napoleon could not foresee, in this guarded initiatory recognition of the landowner, the ultimate evolution of a territorial democracy that was to affect the political and social destinies of the english race. monarchs of a later date--henry the eighth and his masterful daughter elizabeth--saw in the people the sole source of _power_; and the loyal englishman even of this generation will proudly tell you that in his country the sole fountain of _honor_ is the _king_. there were at least two american statesmen who were illustrious disciples of the norman's political school. they were men of norman blood, who wrought in american statecraft with the norman's constructive brain--and there was still another of the same imperial strain who, with a philosophic conception of all that was of value in the principles of anglo-norman administration and a just appreciation by actual experience of government as a practical art, never failed throughout a long, brilliant, and successful career to teach the doctrine that the _people themselves_ were the sole fountain of honor and the exclusive source of power--a principle in the philosophy of government and in political administration equally patent to william the conqueror, when he anxiously sought a declaration of "personal" allegiance _from the subjects_ in that great gathering of potential "sovereigns" upon salisbury plain. in the long succession of administrators that followed the norman king, there was none that seems to have grasped so completely and applied so skillfully his principles and methods of political administration as a daughter of the tudor race. she may not have loved the people in any modern sense; but she knew their power, she recognized their rights; she studied their interests, and her jeweled finger was always upon their pulse. the best of all treatment, she thought, was to anticipate with soothing remedies the rude distempers of the times. she considered rather the constitution of the subject than the constitution of the state; since, collectively, one embraced the other. mr. barrett wendell, in his admirable work, "a literary history of america," discourses with great brilliancy and charm upon the elizabethan influences that governed in a large measure the development of the puritan and the virginian race. the reader of the present paper will note with curious interest the bearing of the following quotations from this work upon the theories which the present writer has discussed. "broadly speaking," he says, "all our northern colonies were developed from those planted in massachusetts; and all our southern from that planted in virginia." the statement is "socially" true, he says, to an extraordinary degree. the elizabethan type of character "displayed a marked power of _assimilating_ whatever came within its influence." this trait, akin to that which centuries before had made the conquered english slowly but surely _assimilate their norman conquerors_, the yankees of our own day have not quite lost. our native type still "absorbs" the foreign. the children of immigrants insensibly become native. the irresistible power of a _common language_ and of the _common ideals_ which underlie it still dominates. this tendency, he adds, declared itself from the earliest settlements of jamestown and plymouth. "north and south alike may be regarded as regions finally settled by elizabethan englishmen." the dominant traits of the english race of that time were "spontaneity, enthusiasm, and versatility." but the elizabethan english of _virginia_, he says, were notably different in this: they were men of a less "austere" type of character than their compatriots of the north; of more adventurous "instincts," and were "men of action" as the new englanders were "men of god." the peculiar power of assimilation and the "pristine alertness of mind" were the same in both. the economic superiority of the north was manifest; the political ability of the south seemed generally superior. pleasantly putting aside the traditional claims of exclusive "cavalier" descent, mr. wendell says: "at least up to the civil war the personal temper of the better classes in the south remained more like that of the better classes in seventeenth century england than anything else in the modern world." he frankly concedes that the most eminent statesmen of colonial and revolutionary days were virginians. recalling what has been said in regard to the constitutional sluggishness of the anglo-saxon, his mental inertness, his settled or stereotyped habits of thought, and his absolute lack of racial initiative _until the norman came_, we read the following passage from mr. wendell with curious interest: "such literature as the english world has left us bespeaks a public whose spontaneous alertness of mind, whose instant perception of every subtle variety of phrase and allusion, was more akin to that of our _contemporary french_ than to anything which we are now accustomed to consider native to insular england." this transformation mr. wendell attributes to "the spontaneous, enthusiastic versatility of the english temperament," in the spacious elizabethan days. what has produced or determined this extraordinary differentiation of race? what are the original, genetic factors behind this varied manifestation of power in that old, elizabethan stock? with the advent of the seventeenth century; with the turbulence, and trouble, and austerity of cromwellian days; with migrations following cromwellian war; with the evolution of a transatlantic type of the english race, there came an end to those spacious and splendid days--to the creative, prolific epoch of the virgin queen. [illustration: honorable john c. breckinridge.] the most trivial fact that connects the name of shakespeare with virginia is of interest to the virginian and his multitudinous clans. captain newport, vice-admiral of virginia, commanded the ship _sea adventure_, which was wrecked on the devil's islands. sir george somers, sitting on the poop and misled by a flaming apparition on the masts, unconsciously guided the vessel in a fatal course. william strachey, "secretary in virginia," wrote the account of the "tempest" published in purchas. thus was the "king's ship" boarded and burned by the spirit ariel at the command of his master prospero, and wrecked on those "bermoothes" which are "still vext" by that rude, tempestuous sea. it is of interest, too, to note that the special supervisors and directors of this elizabethan colony were william shakespeare's friends--the earl of southampton; the earl of pembroke; the earl of montgomery; viscount lisle (brother of sir philip sidney); lord howard of walden; lord sheffield; and lord carew of clopton, who sold shakespeare, in , the house in which he lived till --all of them elizabethan cavaliers derived from anglo-norman stock. there is another elizabethan name of still greater interest to all people of the anglo-virginian race--sir edwin sandys, the author of the political charters upon which the free institutions of virginia rest; and not only virginia, but the united states. educated at geneva and the son of an english archbishop, he was thoroughly seasoned with the doctrines of the genevan school; and aimed not only to found the american republic on genevan lines by the creation of a "free state" on the atlantic coast, but to make ample provision _in the charter itself_ for the ultimate "expansion" of the young republic toward the pacific ocean. this statement may not, even yet, be universally accepted; but it is incontestably true. xi in the spring of , a pamphlet was published by a citizen of kentucky directing attention to the effect of certain racial influences in molding the institutions of this state. it was entitled "the genesis of a pioneer commonwealth." the suggestions offered by the writer as to the sources of our organic life were subsequently illustrated and confirmed by an eminent virginian scholar, dr. alexander brown, in his "genesis of the united states," published in --a marvel of masterly investigation; a work which throws a flood of light upon the broad expanse of early american history, and is especially remarkable for the critical elaboration, lucidity, and acuteness with which the author has arranged the results of his extensive scheme of historic research. in this work he has noted and traced, from english records contemporary with the first settlement of virginia, the beginnings of that great duel between conflicting civilizations which closed with the destruction of spain's naval power at manila and santiago. and every scholar who seeks a precise comprehension of the _origines_ of the late war should closely follow the course of investigation pursued by dr. brown. every accessible detail of the desperate and protracted anglo-spanish conflict--including the exploits of elizabeth's captains and the destruction of the great armada--come out under this historic searchlight as distinctly and vividly as material objects under the light of day. to citizens of kentucky who have a critical and philosophic interest in the historic evolution of the commonwealth, it will be peculiarly attractive in the circumstance that it connects, and in a special sense includes, the genesis of kentucky with that of the united states. he suggests in a most interesting way that this commonwealth is not only a lineal product of the elizabethan civilization which he has sought to trace, but that--cartographically at least--_it formed an integral part of the first republic established in the new world_. in an explanatory communication addressed some years ago to the present writer, dr. brown says: "the bounds of the charters which contained the _popular charter rights_ which were the germ of this republic extended between thirty-four degrees ( °) and forty degrees ( °) north latitude, and from ocean to ocean. kentucky, therefore, was embraced within the first republic in america." the sagacious statesmen of spain were not slow to detect the menacing significance of this virginian settlement, small as it was; and the conflict then initiated did not cease until the navies of spain went down under the guns of dewey and schley. the persistent machinations of spanish _intrigants_ to obtain control of kentucky in the closing years of the eighteenth century were part of the same prolonged contest for supremacy upon american soil. every resource of diplomacy, intrigue, and corruption--or, in modern phrase, of _craft_ and _graft_--was exhausted by spain to wrest the germinant commonwealth from the parent stem. on the other hand, no scheme was more popular with the bold and enterprising kentuckians--the vikings of the west--than to wrest the control of the mississippi river from the desperate grasp of spain. even the splendid and seducing allurement of a spanish alliance was powerless against the transmitted instincts of a scandinavian or anglo-norman stock. but the racial inclination for territorial expansion kentucky never lost. there was a later manifestation of this spirit or instinct in the annexation of california; an appropriation by force, to be sure, but under recognized "legal forms"; and, still later, it was manifested in disastrous expeditions to the cuban coast, in which the reckless survivors barely escaped, like the man of uz, with the skin of their teeth--thanks to a swift steamship and to an indulgent interpretation of the violated law. in the near future, perhaps, we shall have an annexation of the island under forms which will fully justify the act; annexation on the old lines. as far as race could make them so, the daring adventurers who poured to foreign war from the vast network of streams and streamlets that flowed seaward from the mountains and lowlands of kentucky were _vikings_, with all the fighting characteristics of that ancient breed.[ ] not _vi_-kings, nor "kings" of any sort, but simply the vik-ings or "creek-men" who followed their expatriated jarls wherever a dragon-prow would float; to the land of the saxon under his greatest king; to the heart of ireland, where the natives were already "absorbing" the alien norse; to the ancient kingdom of gaul; to scotland and to the islands of the atlantic ridge; and above all to iceland, the land of mist and snow and fire; to the incomparable mistress of the northern seas. through the beautiful mediterranean, too, they sailed; and gathering to the support of the decadent despotisms of the east, became famous in history and romance as the _varangian_ guard which held at bay the saracen and the hun. they were "rebels" when they fled from the consolidating despotism of harold fairhair. they have been rulers or rebels ever since. [ ] that acute and philosophic observer, goldwin smith, says in his description of the "night-hawk" kentuckians ( ): "in all his proceedings he showed a _lawless vigor_ which might prove the wild stock of civilized virtue." _gens effrenatissima!_ but the story of their greatest exploits you read in the histories of the english race. we have analyzed the claims which mr. barrett wendell has made for the elizabethan settler upon the atlantic coast; and it is instructive to note that another gifted son of new england, mr. john fiske, has reached conclusions which he at least would acknowledge give confirmation to the present views, as strong as proof of holy writ. "the descendants of these northmen," he says, "formed a very large proportion of the population of the east anglian counties, and consequently of the men who founded new england. the east anglian counties have been conspicuous for resistance to tyranny and for freedom of thought." by parity of reasoning, we may easily prove that the kindred norman was the founder of civilization in england, and, in direct sequence and by filiation of race, of civilization in the colony of virginia; and, by a gradual evolution, in the states of the south and west. * * * * * far back in the history of our race there stands, luminous and large, in his _milieu_ of mediæval mist, a mounted conqueror with sword and torch--the immediate offspring of scandinavian jarls--the remote progenitor of the virginian "cavalier." it is the founder of that anglo-norman civilization of which we form a part, and which, in many ways, still responds to the impulse of that imperial brain. william the norman presented in vivid epitome the characteristic traits of his race, with other traits or variations of these traits that made him almost an abnormal figure even in the history of those times. he has been commonly depicted as physically a giant among his fellows; but lord lytton (a good authority) discredits these legends of gigantic stature; it is seldom we find, he declares, the association of great size and commanding intellect in great men; it is really a violation of the natural law, though possibly the great norman may have been, like abraham lincoln, an exception to the general rule. his physical forces were certainly subjected to severe tests. his personal leadership in the wintry marches through the north of england were, practically, paralleled in later days by the wintry marches of our scandinavian general, george rogers clark, in the vast territories of the north and west. the prodigious fortitude and endurance manifested in these campaigns proved beyond all question the staying capacity of the scandinavian blood. the royal norman had all the tastes of a forest-born man; not a mere taste for the sports of the field as known to the english gentlemen of a later period, but a wild, almost demoniac passion for the atrocities of the chase as practised by the early norman kings. a love of royal sport does not discredit a modern ruler of men; but scarcely such sport as this. the "wild king," says an old english chronicler, "loves wild beasts as if he were a wild beast himself and the father of wild beasts." churches and manors were swept away to create forests and dens and retreats for the creatures he loved to slay. he ruled, conquered, hunted, ravaged, "harried," and subjugated from brittany to scotland; and yet, says the same old chronicler in his "flowers of history," "he was such a lover of peace that a girl laden with gold might traverse the whole of england without harm." [illustration: honorable william preston.] this may or may not be a "flower of history"; but if true, it is a startling historic fact. xii as the conqueror stood among the sovereigns of that day, so stood the normans among the contemporary races. they were of peculiar type, these men--both sovereign and subject--and were cast in a like mold. they had body, sap, color, concentrated vigor, and inbred thracian fire. they had a sort of racial distinction which in its merely personal aspects was never lost. mingling with all races, they yet stood in a sense separate and apart from all. they were as the _haut brion_ among the wines of the bordelais. but, unlike their native vine, they bore transplantation to any land, and drew perpetual vigor from every soil. strange as it may seem, there is a confessed incapacity for colonization in the frenchman of to-day, and stranger still is the remedy for this defect which some of their leading thinkers have proposed, to wit, that the frenchman should transmogrify himself _into an anglo-saxon_. certainly a grotesque transformation, if effected in the manner proposed by those pessimistic prophets demolins and lemaître. france (they say) must have colonial expansion! the anglo-saxon is the only successful expansionist; we must _anglo-saxonize_ france! they forget that the anglo-saxon himself is indebted for his success as a colonist and trader to the scandinavian frenchmen who colonized england under william the conqueror, and that it was not until the norman's demoniac spirit of "enterprise" took possession of the anglo-saxon thegns and ceorls that they even felt the impulse to "go down to the sea in ships." later, too, they should remember, there was an _industrial_ colonization of england by the frenchmen who were relentlessly expatriated in the days of the dragonades. what france then lost has never been fully regained. when she lost the norman element in its early scandinavian form, her capacity for colonial expansion was seriously impaired. when she colonized england by an indiscriminate exclusion of the huguenots from her own soil, her capacity for normal evolution was lost. the recanting or subjugated element that remained is probably represented by the prescriptive "free-thinking" anti-clerical element of to-day. the profane spirit of the english "bigod" had been imported into the religion of france, and "bigotry" may discredit the claims of the noblest faith. the extreme reactionary result in this instance is an intolerant _unbelief_, passing at times into a ferocious contempt for country, constitutions, and creeds. the storms of norman conquest seemed scarce to touch the depths of anglo-saxon life. no marked change in the methods of local administration accompanied the change of kings. the rude strength of the old manorial system was proof against radical change. far less complex than the centralized administration of modern france, it was even better calculated to accommodate itself to the changes wrought by the hand of war. built low and strong, it stood four-square to every shock and blast. it was only the high towers that toppled in the sweep of the storm. when it passed, the village-group, the manorial life, and the rude strong sons of the soil were still there. andrews, an authority upon early anglo-saxon life, gives us a picture of the "yeoman" which leaves much to be desired in the way of picturesqueness and charm. upon the testimony of priests and leeches he is depicted as a swinish, servile sort of creature--gross, stupid, sensual, superstitious, cruel, and even "beastly"; with no conception whatever of "freedom," and only the most bestial conceptions of life. the routine of husbandry after the conquest knew no change. a norman baron unseats the saxon thegn, but the villein and ceorl take up the labors of the old manorial life; the new lord receives the customary dues, and protection against lawlessness is extended to bond and free. this servile saxon class were the descendants of a soldier race which many years before the advent of the conquering norman had rudely dispossessed the ancient inhabitants of the soil, and were themselves first to "harry," no doubt (for _harry_ is an old saxon word imported from the north), the _whole_ of that turbulent realm which william harried only in part. but the norman harried well. it may be said that northumbria never rallied from the devastation until the magical agencies of modern industrialism came to repair the ravage that he had wrought. but elsewhere the "conquest" worked no such change. the norman simply gave completeness, variety, elevation, splendor, and finish to the saxon's rude but solid work. the transformation wrought through the genius of the soldier-statesman was not the plodding reconstruction of a shattered kingdom upon ancient lines, but the orderly evolution of a new and splendid civilization within conditions "visualized" by the conqueror's creative brain. the primordial and paramount condition of this work was the permanent establishment of english _unity_ at the gathering of the people upon salisbury plain. when the people rallied in loyal allegiance to the throne, the old conceptions of "feudalism" ceased to exist--vanishing centuries before cervantes smiled spain's "chivalry" away. in our own websterian phrase, england was henceforth "one and indivisible." the fusion of warring elements was now as complete as if welded together by the hammer of thor. the consequences of that initial step are told in the history of the english race--consequences which this imperial statesman alone had the genius to forecast. to no mere man does the line of the nineteenth century poet so well apply-- "he dipt into the future far as human eye could see." this norman adventurer who had now practically established all his pretensions--legitimate and illegitimate--was destined to establish, also, a line of anglo-norman princes who showed in varied ways that transmitted blood would tell. shakespeare, in his splendid series of historical plays, has painted in vivid colors and fine dramatic sequence the manifestation of this anglo-norman influence through a succession of closely connected reigns--weaving into brilliant and picturesque history the fireside traditions which fascinated his youthful mind. the story that he tells is unique, not only in the literature of the race, but in the literature of man. "the only history that i know," said an english statesman discussing the annals of his race, "is the history that shakespeare wrote." no formal historic writer has presented so faithfully or effectively the characteristic traits and temper of that time. it is a philosophic study, resting chiefly upon a traditional basis, and cast in a powerful dramatic form. and who so fit as shakespeare to depict the features of a royal race? this strong portrayal of their salient or their subtler qualities, in statecraft or in war, is something quite beyond the reach of a mere historian's art. through all this dramatic movement we note the wild tricks of an hereditary blood; the troublous or turbulent play of passions flowing from an alien source. it is in this record alone we find that magical touch, that moving speech, that strange, pathetic eloquence which flows from royal lips inspired to utterance by the sorrows of an anglo-norman brain. doubtless it is shakespeare's noblest work. it is certainly a product of the same imperial spirit that breathes in the aspirations, the utterances, and the acts of the "melancholy dane." recent researches among the scandinavian population of the northern states seem to show marked psychological distinctions in the several branches of the scandinavian stock, denoting original differences in the mental make-up and manifestations of the norwegian, the swede, and the dane; brainy races all, but the psychological manifestations of their daily life differing in each. the swede and his norwegian brother have a strong, instinctive inclination for the ruder activities of their social environment--building, boating, agriculture, railway construction, commercial operations, etc.; the dane, on the contrary, manifesting an equally marked predilection for life in its contemplative or æsthetic aspects--for philosophy, the _belleslettres_, the fine arts, and the higher lines of scholastic research. his physiognomy is differentiated, so to speak, by "the pale cast of thought." is it not possible that this deep intra-racial distinction was recognized by the creator of the "melancholy dane"? but "hamlet" was not altogether a product of shakesperean imagination. the original lines of the character seem to have been found in the personality of a contemporary thinker, himself, like hamlet, an obstinate questioner of invisible things. in those eager elizabethan times when drake and raleigh were "discovering" other worlds and shakespeare imagining new, there lived near the ancient city of bordeaux a modest country gentleman--a grand seigneur of peculiar distinction--who on his father's side was of direct english descent. he bore a patrician title; he was lord of a rich domain, and enjoyed social and civic distinctions of the highest sort. his scholarship was ample and unique; his social pretensions were not in excess of his rank; and he bore his weight of learning "lightly like a flower." rank, riches, scholarship, distinction--all these he had, and _more_; he had the prodigious gift of _common sense_, with a sort of cynical humor flashing through an habitual mood of philosophic thought that gave to his writing--and notably to his book of observations and reflections--a peculiar archaic charm. one could not pay a higher tribute to his literary power than to add, that his writings had a powerful fascination for shakespeare himself. these philosophic essays supplied the great dramatist with many subtle and striking thoughts, and the very personality of the modest country gentleman made a profound impression upon shakespeare's mind; so marked an impression indeed that according to the affirmation or suggestion of an ingenious modern scholar, the great english writer--himself of anglo-norman blood--found in this anglo-french philosopher the original of that incomparable dramatic figure--the "melancholy dane." if this theory be correct, it simply adds to the evidence of a certain bizarre weirdness in the working of that old scandinavian blood. be this as it may, if the mind of shakespeare could be touched and inspired by the philosophic reflexions of a provincial thinker in france (a frenchman with a strong suspicion of anglo-norman blood), there are doubtless others (some with the same ethnic affinities) that may profitably be reached in the same way; and lest the anglo-normans of our bluegrass "arcady" should take themselves too seriously, as even the wisest may do, in the momentous matter of "family," "rank," "blood," and "race," it would be well at parting to introduce for their consideration the antiquated opinions of the same ingenious frenchman, who, wise as he was, did not always perhaps take matters _seriously enough_. in this instance no doubt his views will carry weight. [illustration: general basil w. duke.] thus much by way of preface and apology (if there be need of either) in closing an excursive dissertation upon the ethnological theories of monsieur paul du chaillu, accompanied with some interesting reflections from the pen of another frenchman who, though not "modern" in the same sense, seems to have been in some of his conceptions quite judicious and even elevated in his views. this quaint, genial, and sagacious philosopher--the author of a famous book of "essays"--was the seigneur de la montaigne, count of perigord and sometime mayor of bordeaux, whose greatest title to fame is this--that he was the favorite author of william shakespeare, the foremost writer of all time. possibly montaigne by contribution of thought was an unconscious collaborator in the construction of "hamlet, the prince of denmark," a drama which illustrates in brilliant, powerful, and fantastic fashion the varied intellectual and emotive capacities of the scandinavian blood. in that royal anglo-norman, "prince hal" of england, the english dramatist depicts the _man of action_; in hamlet, the brooding prince of denmark, he presents the _man of thought_. they were the favorite children of shakespeare's prolific brain. "'tis a scurvy custom and of very ill-consequence," says the ingenious chevalier montaigne, "that we have in our kingdom of france to call every one by the name of his manor or seigneury, and the thing in the world that does the most prejudice and confounds families and descents.... we need look no further for example than our own royal family, where every partage creates a new sir-name, whilst in the meantime the original of the family is totally lost. there is so great liberty taken in these mutations that i have not in my time seen any one advanced by fortune to any extraordinary condition who has not presently had genealogical titles added to him new and unknown to his father. "how many gentlemen have we in france who by their own talk are of royal extraction? more i think than who will confess they are not. "was it not a pleasant passage of a friend of mine? there were a great many gentlemen assembled together; about the dispute of one lord of the manor with another, which other had in truth some pretty eminence of titles and alliances, above the ordinary scheme of gentry. upon the debate of this priority of place, every one standing up for himself, to make himself equal to him; one, one extraction, another another; one the near resemblance of name; another of arms; another an old worm-eaten patent, and the least of them great-grandchild to some foreign king. when they came to sit down to dinner, my friend, instead of taking his place amongst them, retiring with most profound congees, entreated the company to excuse him for having lived with them hitherto at the saucy rate of a companion; but being now better informed of their quality, he would begin to pay them the respect due to their birth and grandeur; and that it would ill become him to sit down among so many princes; and ended the farce with a thousand reproaches. "_let us in god's name_," continues the illustrious writer, "_satisfy ourselves with what our fathers were contented and with what we are; we are great enough if we understand rightly how to maintain it; let us not disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors, and lay aside those ridiculous pretences that can never be wanting to any one that has the impudence to alledge them_." xiii the alphabetical series of norman or anglo-norman names here given was selected by an english scholar from an english official directory and published, anonymously, in the latter half of the last century, to illustrate a theory of the genesis of the english race. the present selection represents only in part the series or lists originally published, embracing several thousand names. to this selection the writer has added norman or scandinavian names from other sources, together with "notes" that serve to confirm in detail the general theory of inherited racial traits. the list which he first published has been greatly enlarged and many additions made from the original english series.[ ] [ ] the norman people. mr. freeman says that the normans "lost themselves" among the people whom they conquered. very clearly, however, the "names" were not lost. the original norman may be said to have had, in a high degree, that _personnalité absorbante_ which, according to littré, is characteristic of every great man. it is not remarkable, therefore, that after every norman invasion the resulting ethnical transmutation was complete. the new element became at once the vitalizing power of the "absorptive" or subjugated race. this gift of racial transformation was so great that the scandinavians, seizing a gallic province, became french or norman; subjugating england, they became english; overflowing ireland, they fused at once with the native race; actually becoming "_irisher_ than the irish" themselves--_hibernis ipsis hiberniores_. the duke of argyle once said in the english house of lords that three of the irish leaders of that day (one of them john redmond, the present irish king) were genealogically superior men--men of illustrious descent--leaders of royal or noble norman blood; confirming the declaration made by the author of the "peerage" that it is not lands but ancestors that make a nobility. the career of the norman as a conquering or migratory race has been a perpetual masquerade; in england taking the form of an irishman and controlling the parliament; in the same guise leading the armies of england and france; in america, demoniacally possessed, becoming the personal director of a lynching, the boss of a strike, or the leader of a lawless expeditionary force. but everywhere he _leads_! the name of the race disappears, but the original, indestructible, irresistible, invisible and protean force is still _there_. if we reject the existence and operation of this subtle and pervasive influence in the ancestral strains of kentucky, the evolution of the typical kentuckian can not easily be explained. the race is "lost," not because the visiting norman is absorbed by his host, but because the visitor appropriates all that his host may have, even his personality and all that it implies. the englishman, or the irishman, or the scotchman, disappear, and a transmogrified norman takes his place. it is not english, nor irish, nor french absorptiveness, but norman appropriativeness, that has done the work. precisely thus, to compare great things with small: the english whigs once went in swimming, and the norman tories "stole their clothes." but the norman's act of appropriation usually goes deeper than the skin. he is not content with a petty theft of "clothes." with an almost satanic subtlety and finesse he appropriates the very soul. it becomes, indeed, his very own. that incomparable illusionist, benjamin disraeli, was a past-master in these norman arts, and in perfect sympathy with those anglo-norman tories who followed his fortunes in victory or defeat. but norman or saxon were equally indifferent to him. it was glory enough for semitic ambition to build success upon the needs of both; and yet, in doing it, this man of alien blood and ancient race repeated the miracle of lanfranc--the scholar and statesman who, in the old norman days, had not only cooled the hot blood of the normanized scandinavian and conciliated the respect of the proud, implacable saxon, but, linking their interests in inseparable association, had brightened with a prospect of imperial splendor the destinies of the common race. so, too, the semitic statesman charmed the rudest elements with his orphean song. his brilliant successor, salisbury, added to parts and learning the technical information of a savant. disraeli had something better. he had that deep, philosophic insight which seems to be bred into the elect of an ancient stock. it is a mystical gift. "he saw things, now, as though they _were_, and things _to be_ in things that are." this (if we may believe haeckel) was the "inspiration" of the jewish law-giver. [illustration: the marshall home at "buck pond." (near versailles, kentucky.) built in by colonel thomas marshall, father of chief justice marshall.] how little escaped the thoughtful eyes of our semitic statesman, as he surveyed from his coign of vantage the shifting currents of our modern world! in depicting monsignore berwick, a descendant of an old scottish family that for generations had mingled italian blood with its own, the writer looks quite beyond the native environment, and sees only the old northern blood in the _flaxen hair_ and _light blue eyes_ of the young italian priest. describing a nineteenth century function at the beautiful english home of hugo bohun, he sees at once in mr. gaston phoebus--the most gifted and attractive of the swells whom fashion has herded in this social jungle of bohun--not a modern englishman, but a _gascon noble of the sixteenth century_, clothed with all the attractions of a contemporary courtier of france--the france of louis le grand. in "gaston phoebus"--says the philosophic statesman--"nature, as is sometimes her wont, had chosen to reproduce exactly the original type." when the subtle semitic thinker introduced an american "colonel" at the swell function of hugo bohun, why should he take him from the _south_, and give him a _norman_ name? had nature reproduced in colonel campian the antique norman type? it is a notorious fact, says herbert spencer, that the celtic type disappears altogether in the united states. doubtless some vague conception of a potential undercurrent of ancestral blood must have been passing through the mind of that fine old gentleman, mr. isaac shelby of fayette, when dispensing his stores of bachelor wisdom to his young friends just "after the war." he would say, "depend on it, young gentlemen, there is no cross like a _virginian_ cross." the differentiating quality was there. it was observed, but not accurately depicted perhaps, by disraeli, by barrett wendell, and by _isaac le bon_. what was it? if a racial quality, what _race_? two of these acute observers were of scandinavian stock. the other did not need to say, even to the proudest statesman at potsdam or st. james, "_your_ race is of but yesterday compared with my own." one of disraeli's favorite themes was race. indeed, a statesman could not be ignorant of the subject in his day. the claims of race were sweeping over diplomatic arrangements and dynastic rights. bismarck was unifying the german people by removing ancient landmarks, by "appropriating" autonomous territories, and by appropriating or absorbing a large population of the scandinavian race; and the third (and last) napoleon undertook to unify the latin races by placing an austrian prince upon the mexican throne. but the napoleonic prince pushed his reconstructive theories of race to a destructive conclusion when, in freeing italy, he furnished a formidable partner to the triple alliance, that ultimately destroyed france. the sentiment of race, properly directed, has its uses. but the director must not be a despot or a despot's agent. the feeling must be popular in origin and expression--voluntary, spontaneous, normal, autonomous. there was never a better illustration of its power than in the prolonged struggle of kentucky for existence as an american state. there was never a better illustration of popular capacity in statecraft and of enterprise in war than in the early years of the last century ( - ). they--the people--discharged the functions of an independent state. kentucky was in fact a little _nation_. raising and equipping armies, receiving diplomatic emissaries or agents, defending her frontiers, guarding the atlantic border, protecting the territories of the northwest, and in conjunction with the "sea-power" of commodore perry actually conducting war upon foreign soil. the very guns on perry's ships were "sighted" by riflemen from kentucky; and when the day came to try conclusions with the bold englishman on his own soil, one of the most efficient aides upon shelby's staff was perry himself. is there nothing in this record to appeal to a sentiment of national pride in the kentuckian's heart? and does it not inspire a disposition to revive and invigorate those pristine instincts of our common race? probably the recent manifestation of "home-coming" sentiment was denotive of some such stirring of racial impulse and emotion long dormant in the soul. xiv when following the long dim path of gothic migration we found but little that seemed to be in vivid relation with the ethnology of our own race; and it was not until we were afloat upon the scandinavian seas, with rolf ganger looking out upon the kingdoms of the earth, that we began to feel ourselves (to speak in paradox) firmly planted upon historic ground. here the conditions of the old parable are reversed. the genius of civilization is offering the kingdoms of the earth to the devil himself. with the old pirate of the norwegian coast begins the great movement that frees, elevates, and modernizes man.[ ] henceforth all is plain sailing for the historical inquirer. the reader may take down his map and trace the foot-prints of the norse freebooters wherever they dropped a scandinavian name upon our ancestral soil. these ancient "place names" are found everywhere north of the avon, and may easily be traced along the eastern coast of england, from the tyne to the thames; or, proceeding westward and northward, far beyond the line of the cheviot hills;--far beyond the waters of the tweed. the scandinavian has resolved to stay wherever he has been planted by the fortunes of war. when his norman kinsman seized the counties of southern england, the practical result of the invasion was to _reinforce_ the anglo-saxon whom he came to rob. the norman invader was warmly received by those english normans--the danes--in his "wintry marches" to the north. from the dragon teeth thus sown sprang the kentuckian of to-day, two thirds "dragon" and one third "bull." the "half horse, half alligator" was an anglo-norman assimilation of a later date. [ ] when otto, the _saxon_, a remote kinsman of our race, became a roman emperor, he became the conservator of rome and all her works. when william the norman became king of england and the leader of gothic races, it was his chosen mission to undo, in part, the work which rome had done. as a soldier and statesman, the norman leader had been trained in the "school" of the saxon king. read mr. freeman's "western europe in the eighth century." it is an impressive introduction to that "realm of shadows" which forms the background of the norman conquest. it was the genetic period of modern civilization. the geographic outlines of great modern states were just beginning to appear. it is conceivable that by reason of exhausted material resources--coal, iron, etc.--our present splendid civilization, in the course of a few thousand years, will disappear; leaving here and there, perhaps, in some happy isle of the pacific seas, a prosperous and cultivated population descended from some surviving element of the present american stock. peering painfully through the mists of tradition, they have vague glimpses of ancestral races fighting for supremacy in a vast continental war--the yenghees in the north and the dixees in the south--remote ancestral races in internecine conflict. it was thus with the teutonic and scandinavian races of to-day. in far-off central asia, beyond the caspian sea and beyond the definite historic boundaries of the past, they see great races in perpetual movement of migration or war; multitudinous peoples; two distinct groups or divisions; but all of one race. as they emerge into the twilight of history--into the savage gloaming betwixt the dog and the wolf--the observer recognizes two races, the teutones and the gothones, or goths. the vast migratory columns of the former take possession of central europe. the other column,--the kindred gothones or goths,--making its exit from central asia, sweeps along the valley of the vistula, follows the southern shores of the baltic sea, and moving to the mouths of the elbe and the rhine directs its columns of colonization into denmark and the danish islands, and to the vast scandinavian peninsula of the north. as the northern column loitered along the shores of the baltic they gathered great quantities of amber from the sea, which with early instincts of commercial thrift they sold to the teutones on the south, by whom, with early mechanic aptitude, it was wrought into many exquisite and profitable shapes for the markets of the world. "made in germany" is an antique trademark in the history of men, and there is a pleasant, if trivial, significance in the circumstance that the first historic article of traffic between these primitive races--the founders of modern civilization--was the substance which first manifested the property of "electricity" to the eyes of man. but in pursuing this inquiry we are less concerned in ascertaining the exact relations of the ancestral kinsmen than in studying the ethnic material (in this instance the scandinavian) which was molded or modified by the geographical _milieu_. what was the moral geography of the race? why should the norseman differ from his kindred teuton in the south? there may have been original differences in the psychology of race which made one, for example, an explorer and trader, and the other an unrivaled artisan and exploiter. but there is something to be considered in the plastic influence of the physical and social conditions. it is no melodramatic assumption, for example, to declare that no slave could live in the free air of scandinavia. not because the air is "free," but because the soil is thin. the slave could not subsist himself, much less pay tribute to a lord. if slavery or serfage was impossible, a nobility was equally so. where subsistence was scant, accumulation was at least slow. wealth could not exist as a basis of privilege, and class legislation upon primogeniture gave support to this natural law. the "five" and "fifty" acre holdings could not be consolidated into big estates. the rocky ridges, the high levels, the nipping airs, the thin, worn soil, the short seasons, and the fleeting harvests were conditions fatal to the growth of feudalism. retainers were superfluous where slaves could not make their keep. fish from the sea, a little pasturage in the glens--that was all. no smiling abundant harvests; no patient laborious thralls, no baronial _bas_ or boss; none of those iron teutonic laws that not only shaped the conditions of society but wrought changes in the very soul of man. the scandinavians were not germans or saxons or angles or celts. this rocky scandinavian peninsula was cradling the masters of the world. they were literally driven by their wild, arid nurse to follow the furrows of the sea and recast the corrupted civilizations of the earth. between the sheltering group of islands that fringe the western front of norway and curtain the main shore, there is a broad passage of the sea where a navy of dragon-prows might float secure from observation or attack. near the center of this insular barrier, rolf ganger--the greatest force of that hyperborean world--had constructed a system of dry-docks, from which, in the idle hours of summer and autumn, he launched those portentous fleets of dragons and serpents that sailed upon every sea and ravaged the most distant shores. from one point of view, it was a nest of scandinavian free-booters; from another, it was the naval station of a great sea-faring race--a race that, having failed as traders in amber and timber and fish, were now about to try their luck in ravage and loot upon the gravelly loams of the cheviot hills and deep in the sunny heart of france. [illustration: colonel richard m. johnson.] william the conqueror was fifth in descent from this great captain of the northern seas--the potential reconstructor of the modern world. xv when the great gothic column of migration, sweeping past the caspian and crossing the asian frontier, followed the river valleys and the shores of the baltic sea, making a reconnoissance in force that reached as far as the waters of the northern sea, it pushed its exploring columns through every part of scandinavia, peopling every shore it passed, and leaving every promontory and peninsula in every nook and hook and cranny and on every continental headland, every island inlet, and in every peaceful arm of the danish seas strewn with the wrecks of the migrant column, battered by the hardships of a long, unbroken march. only the strong survived. the weak and unenterprising, as the head of the resistless column bent toward the northern sea, shrank from the toils and terrors of a march in a northern clime. upon these geographical points of "refuge" the racial weaklings had been gathering for years. nothing stayed the mighty goth. the norman could turn the sharpest corners in the danish world. once planted in the footsteps of a pioneer, even a phlegmatic teuton might pursue his way. but the exhausted weakling dropped in his tracks, and crawled to the shelter of some inviting _angulus_ or nook. here they were--the drift in the eddy of an archipelagic sea. jutes from jutland (in denmark); _saxons_ from the shores to the south; angles, from the anglen in sleswick--in all a seething colluvian of ethnic stragglers swarming for an ultimate raid upon british soil. the great teutonic nation was seemingly planted on the best lands of _central europe_; the great scandinavian people lay far to the north; the jutes, the angles, the saxons, the frisians, _lay between_;--the angli, who gave their name to england, lying at the point (_angulus_) where the coast of the baltic first bends sharply toward the north. are these the peoples that gave substance and strength and splendor to the english race? the men who fall out in a forced march (said a great virginian captain) are not the men to stand up in a long fight. toward the close of the eighth century the scandinavians of the north began their work of devastation upon english soil. for at least three centuries the anglo-saxons held the rover's name in dread. contemporary english abounds with scandinavian words and forms; numerous traces of scandinavian occupancy are found on english soil to-day. the men of the heptarchy were in the main bred upon english soil. at least they were not a broken race of stragglers when they came. they were a vigorous, fighting breed. but if bismarck were looking for "mixed races" in his carefully calculated career of annexation (no "dreaming" here), he certainly found what he sought at the point where the column of goths that had marched from central asia, turning its head to the german ocean, took courage from the bracing prospect and--gathering their veterans into one compact, invulnerable mass--debouched boldly toward the vast, inhospitable regions of the north. the angles and saxons were cradled among the mixed or mongrel peoples that had been dropped by the great migrant races in the southeastern corner of the northern sea--a population, says marsh, of "very mixed and diversified blood." these furnished the original "comelings" upon british soil, but it is scarcely credible that the outcome of this mongrel stock was the _anglo-saxon race_,--which in the great triple alliance of norman and saxon and dane has for centuries maintained an unbroken front and kept the world in awe. xvi the learned author of "british family names," speaking of certain lists of ancient norman names alleged to be authentic, says: "of this great array of time-honored names, few are now borne by direct representatives. they exist among the old gentry rather than in the peerage. in the majority of cases, the later descendants of illustrious families have sunk into poverty and obscurity, unconscious of their origin." they have not "vanished from the world" (as mr. freeman says), but are daily coming to the front in circumstances requiring capacity for leadership in affairs. "even now," says the observant author of an anonymous treatise,[ ] "agricultural laborers and coal miners can not combine for objects which demand the exercise of practical ability without finding themselves led by those who, though in humble stations, bear names of undoubted norman origin," citing, by way of example, joseph arch (_de arques_, normandy). these quotations will fitly introduce to the reader the long and suggestive alphabetical series of norman names which the compiler has made the basis of extended critical remark. [ ] the norman people. in examining this series, one naturally inquires: how do we know that the thousands of names, taken from an old english directory, are norman? simply by the circumstance that the same names occur in the records of normandy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries--the references in most cases being to the great rolls of the exchequer, - . comparative reference to the english records at an early date--eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries--raises a strong presumption that names appearing on the norman rolls _before the conquest_, and on english records _after the conquest_, were derived from normandy, and that names now accounted _english_ were originally _norman_ names. a similar correspondence between the names in the records of a virginian court house and those of official records in kentucky, to the mind of a contemporary genealogist, would carry decisive weight. it is the weight of concurrent testimony of high character from authentic sources. _identitas colligitur ex multitudine signorum._ even one surname in like circumstances is a significant record of individual descent. what shall be said of thousands historically traced--the continuous record of a single race? thirty years ago it was estimated by an english scholar that the english race proper comprised thirty millions of people--a great composite nation; the saxon, dane, and norman--a trinity of races all derived from the same ancient stock (the gothic) and each forming about one third of a homogeneous race. the saxon came immediately from the southeastern shores and islands of the north sea, and is of gothic descent; the dane from denmark or the danish isles, and is of pure scandinavian stock; the norman from normandy, remotely gothic, is of direct descent from the scandinavian race. if this statement be correct the conclusion seems to be inevitable, _not_ that "we are scandinavians"--as the london _times_ says--but that we are all deeply _scandinavianized_ and that there is a preponderance of scandinavian blood in the english race. if there has been a thorough intermixture of the three racial elements during the past eight hundred years, we may assume that every kentuckian of anglo-virginian stock represents a practically definite ethnical product: saxon, one third; scandinavian, two thirds--for all controversial purposes a sufficiently conclusive result. the long-commingled blood of this composite race is, in effect, an adamantine cement, and the racial plexus, fusion, or combination is one and inseparable in every sense. if it were possible to _remove_ either of these constituent elements--the _scandinavian_ or saxon--the kentuckian in his present admirable form would disappear and nothing but a restoration of the racial balance by a reconstitution of the original parts would restore him to the position of primacy assigned him by mr. bart kennedy in his recent contribution to the london _mail_. how true, then, in a deep ethnological sense, the familiar legend of our commonwealth--"united we stand, divided we fall." be this as it may, it is desirable to have it understood that so long as the saxon holds his _own_ (and no more) in the constitution of our common race, there can arise no possible "unpleasantness" between the parts of which it is composed. in that duplex anthropoidal abnormity to which its creator has given a significant binominal appellation--_jekyll_ and _hyde_--some _regulative_ element seems to be lacking. is it an element of race? the author does not say as much in express terms, but apparently he suggests it in his selection of names. have we not a _norman_ in mr. jekyll? and a _saxon_ in mr. hyde? that we have not a normal englishman is quite clear. is the dominant scandinavian element _short_? or has some demoniac "berserker" blood slipped into the cross? subtle and descriminative writers (such as stevenson and disraeli) do not express themselves after a careless fashion, as a rule. they mean something, even in the selection of a name. [illustration: colonel j. stoddard johnston.] there is something, too, no doubt, that appeals to the popular imagination merely in a _norman_ name, and lord lytton has cleverly exploited this predilection in many fascinating volumes of historical romance; tales of love and chivalry that in our soft mid-century days had rivaled, and for a time eclipsed, the magical creations of scott. the later school of scandinavian writers has not won the kentuckian from his early love of english and scottish romance. his conception of the actual scandinavian--the scandinavian in the flesh--the scandinavian of to-day, is still undefined and vague. until du chaillu came he had given the matter but little thought. and, yet, fifty years before--in the busy, brooding twenties--another frenchman, wandering among the scandinavians of gothia, describes their predominant characteristics thus: "fair hair, blue eyes, a middle stature, light and slim; a physiognomy indicating frankness, gentleness, and a certain sentimental elevation of mind, especially among the fair sex. the people in the other provinces partake of these different physical and moral qualities." how completely this description by a frenchman in scandinavia verifies the casual observation of another frenchman in kentucky! their hospitality, m. du chaillu informed us in his charming lecture, was almost without bounds, and at times to a kentuckian would have been embarrassing in the extreme, as when those snowy-handed hostesses bathed the traveler's feet and tucked him away in bed. but monsieur seems to have suffered no embarrassment on this account. among the population of the northern provinces of scandinavia there are men of almost gigantic stature, with dark hair, deep-set eyes, a look somewhat fierce, but full of expression and vivacity. their muscles are large, firm, and distinct, the bones prominent, the features regular and clear cut. a cheerful temper and "an enterprising disposition" are qualities common to the whole population. a stranger is welcome in all circles. even in the polar circles the hospitality loses none of its warmth. probably it is in dispensing their hospitality that their passion for "strong liquor" is most marked. this liquor they drink out of horns; and that is why, said du chaillu, convincingly, that we say in kentucky, "will you take a horn?" but the kentuckian seems to derive this peculiarity from every side. "fill the largest horns," said the saxon, cedric, when his slaves were arranging the banquet for his norman guests. xvii the impression we derive from the foregoing description of the scandinavian physique among the more northern tribes recalls professor shaler's conclusions from a careful study of the measurement of fifty thousand troops from kentucky, made by the astronomer gould (a distinguished mathematician), who after the war took service in the argentine republic. "the results," he says, "are surprising. their average height was nearly an inch greater than that of the new england troops; they exceed them equally in girth of chest, and the circumference of head is also very much larger. in size they come up to the level of the _picked regiments of the northern armies_ of europe."[ ] yet these results were obtained from what was a levy _en masse_. it did not include "the rebel exiles" who were the "first running from the press," or, as is often said, "the flower of the state," and being in the main of a more exuberant habit of body would doubtless have given still better results. it is questionable if all scandinavia could furnish two such _heads_ as william nelson's and humphrey marshall's. _ceteris paribus_, said leidy, "size is a measure of power"--referring to _size of head_. when general marshall was warned that his great size would attract the attention of _sharpshooters_, he answered, "i have provided for that. i have a _fat staff_. there be _six_ richmonds in the field!" his aide and secretary was a norman of wholly different type; of a slight figure, but of an activity, courage, vivacity, and endurance wholly unsurpassed. captain shaler (himself a capable soldier, with a strong dash of new england blood) singles out for special commendation the soldiers and officers of morgan's command. he especially notes their high social quality, their physical vigor and activity, their endurance under severe tests, and their peculiar aptitude and penchant for the business of war. he waxes vigorously poetic in describing the martial qualities of the "orphan brigade." [ ] kentucky. by n. s. shaler (harvard college), . * * * * * hereditary surnames are said to be memorials of race that can never be obliterated. if thousands of men, swept along in some great historic migratory movement which is followed and described by critical observers through country after country, through century after century, never "breaking ranks" except to plant and build, leaving the same names upon the official records of every dukedom, or kingdom, or commonwealth through which they pass; when their names, their features, their instincts, their mental habits, their daily speech, their terms of law, the language and routine of their courts, are impressed with the same ethnic stamp; when the same mental, physical, and moral characteristics are manifest generation after generation; when myriads of minute resemblances confirm the conclusions of the larger view, why lose one's self in the haunting mystery of apparent discrepancies in detail? let us give full credit to each member of the triune ethnical trust--which is charged with all the responsibilities of this magnificent modern world. if you wish to know how much can be said to thrill with delight that old saxon element of your blood, read what the count de montalembert (another frenchman) has said in his "monks of the west." the enormous difficulties encountered by the church in that old chaotic day approximately measure the shortcomings of the race. that the crude, repulsive saxon should have been fashioned into the noble figure which montalembert describes, speaks well for the essential worth of the _saxon_; but what a tribute to the miraculous power of the _monk_! in the original prolusion and in the present preface the writer has simply tried to prepare the way for investigators of greater gifts. here the philologist is in his proper field. in pursuing this work, he becomes the genealogist of a race. names of localities, names of men, are subject--like all other words--to every variety of phonetic change, and, it may be said, are in a perpetual state of flux. but there is a soul that survives all changes. it is for the scholar to catch it on the wing and fix a fleeting syllable for all time. xviii the student who is interested in this subject may find some help in the following series of names (to which frequent reference has been made), compiled by an anonymous english scholar whose learning and ability have been recognized in the critical reviews. it was to one of these reviews that the present writer was indebted for suggestions that at once quickened his interest in m. du chaillu and his researches, and induced him in the republication of the english writer's list (taken from a london directory) to add to the selections a few names of obvious scandinavian derivation--danish, swedish, and old norse. any fixed rule of selection, in a discussion like this, it is difficult to apply. readers who comprehend how easily errors creep into an ordinary record of "family" pedigrees will make due allowance for errors that may be found in this modestly illustrative anglo-norman list, in which there is but little attempt to trace lineal family descent. with a body of names so pregnant with significance as this, the credentials of any branch of the anglo-norman race in any part of the earth will be recognized as good. the difficulties of the problem are apparent to all. its interest and importance it is impossible to exaggerate or deny. if more simply stated, probably it were more easily understood, but, failing in simplicity of statement, very frequent _repetitions_ may be excused. the origin of the general discussion ought to encourage every scholar. according to the pleasing conception of the great scottish romancer, the originator of this controversy was a saxon slave who understood the art of deducing philosophic conclusions from unconsidered trifles. while herding his master's swine in the west riding of yorkshire, he spoke to a fellow thrall who stalked about in the full enjoyment of saxon freedom with a brazen collar about his neck: "and _swine_ is good english," said the jester. "but how call you the sow when she is flayed, drawn and quartered, and hung up by the heels like a traitor?" "pork," said gurth. "and _pork_, i think, is good norman french. when alive and in charge of a saxon slave, she goes by a _saxon_ name. she is a _norman_ when dressed for the table in the castle hall. what dost thou think of _that_, friend gurth?" "it is but too true doctrine, friend wamba, _however it got into thy fool's pate_." this is elementary, but it was an inspiration to one of the greatest writers of france. the nimble wits of the scottish wizard are not at the service of all the wambas of the saxon race. * * * * * "the norman has vanished from the world," says mr. freeman, "but he has indeed left a name behind him"; and not only the "name," but wherever found he still exhibits "the indomitable vigor of the scandinavian with the buoyant vivacity of the gaul." it must be remembered, in discussing so large and complicated a subject as this, that philosophic scholarship is seldom narrow, absolute, final, or exclusive in its views. it would be folly to affirm, says the anonymous english writer who anticipated in certain aspects the theories of du chaillu, that the possession of norman and danish blood "always implies energy and intellect; and saxon descent, the reverse." we have too much evidence to the contrary. it is not individual instances that are now under consideration; it is the comparative qualities of _race_. we can only safely affirm, in a rational and considerate discussion of the question, that our people are not saxons nor scandinavians, nor normans, but broadly speaking, are a great branch of the english race which happily mingles the highest qualities of the three; the stolid conservatism of the first, the daring enterprise of the second, the "buoyant vivacity," the "spontaneity, enthusiasm, and versatility" of the third. when these racial elements were fairly balanced, as in the time of elizabeth, the evolution of the englishman was complete. it was then that, surcharged with complex currents of racial vitality, the adventurous "elizabethan" sought our shore. the virginian hunter followed or formed a trail in every wilderness, and the yankee skipper trafficked on every coast. the march begun in central asia was resumed upon the american continent, and "the most dramatic spectacle in history" was gradually unfolded before the eyes of men. [illustration: northumbria.] we should find many anglo-norman or scandinavian names upon the company rolls of that vast host. many of these names we have already heard, and, beside the bold norman, others walk unseen--men of blended races cast in the same heroic mold. it is the mark of a "true kentuckian" that, like the amiable and sagacious isaac le bon, he appreciates a good "cross," and to the end of time he will carry the cross which was originally stamped upon his english ancestor in the ancient nursery of the race. he has no quarrel, therefore, with his anglo-saxon blood. "nature," as mr. disraeli says: "natural selection," as others say, seems to delight in working with a purpose and upon a plan; and, when impelled to frame a creature that could do the work which apparently the anglo-norman was called to do, she seems to have found her model in the man of ancient rome: she made him _strong_--a man of oak and bronze. _illi tobur et æs_ triplex. some of the elements may be crude, but _all_ must be strong. a roman trireme might safely carry a vergilian body and an horatian soul; but only a vessel framed with the toughest constituents at nature's command could carry for century after century, in every land, upon every sea, in the "teeth of clenched antagonisms," and upon fixed predestinated lines, the fortunes of the english or "anglo-norman" race. in point of fact, destiny itself seems to have directed the process of evolution when the germ-plasm of those picked races--the norman, the saxon, and the dane--was united to create the english or anglo-norman race, the norman element by virtue of peculiar traits being dominant in the "cross." the kentuckian is no degenerate product of this magnificent ancestral "blend," and one of the objects of the "names" and the accompanying "notes" is to show that in every characteristic respect he has bred true to the ancient blood. if the storm of norman conquest scarcely touched the solid elements of that old manorial life, so the continuous intermingling, through many centuries, of the blood of three remotely kindred races has served to fix and transmit the characteristic traits which are stamped upon the kentuckian of to-day. xix perhaps no critic has thrown more light upon mediæval history than mr. freeman, who in his discriminating analysis of the norman character declares the supreme, the directive, the dominant quality to be _craft_: a special power of intellect which seems to have been created or evolved by the necessities of those times--intellect fused with instinct and directed by a conscienceless common sense. mr. freeman detected its manifestations in all the norman's great affairs. in legal proceedings, in court intrigues, in ecclesiastical relations; in diplomatic affairs, in local or in provincial administration, and, most notable of all, in the _conduct of war_. it was in _war-craft_ that the saxon fell short. if success in battle had come with a sturdy frame, a stout heart, and a short sword, the saxon would seldom have failed in war. but he was not strong (mr. freeman says) in "the wiles of war." from the very outset the scandinavian has won battles by sheer weight of brain, and nature certainly "turned loose a thinker" when she projected a scandinavian freebooter upon the soil of france. this attribution of craft, and all that it implies, to the norman, does not rest solely upon the deductions of a studious historian. the conception did not originate in the closet of a scholar; it seems to have come first from the "great common people"; from the field, from the market, the fireside, and the street. it is proverbial in the speech of france. "c'est un normand, c'est un fin normand, c'est un normand, adroit. "réponse normande, réponse ambiguë. que cela peut être vrai est peut être faux; la réponse est un peu normande." these popular conceptions of the norman character did not necessarily imply disparagement or reprobation. on the contrary, in that wild mediæval struggle for existence, astuteness and duplicity were the winning cards. in the councils of the forest the popular favorite, renard, was at the front. even the imperious isangrim was handicapped by lack of wit: a deprivation not unlike that of the clawless cat in hades. this sinister and sagacious quality of the norman intellect seems to have had full play through all the varied experiences of the race; but its most enduring effects were visible in the great triune nationality evolved upon english soil. it quickened the sluggish wits of the saxon; it tempered the rudeness and ferocity of the dane, and became a shaping factor in the civilization of the world. xx the "names" which follow, and the occasional "notes" that accompany them, are intended to illustrate the theory of descent which has been advocated in this discussion. to find a large body of people in kentucky derived from english sources and bearing norman surnames is in itself a circumstance of peculiar interest and of almost conclusive weight. but to find noted in connection with an hereditary surname certain characteristics that are common to two races and apparently derived along certain historic lines from the same ethnical source, materially strengthens the argument in favor of the assumed origin of the later or remoter race; and if, therefore, we conclude that the people of the commonwealth of kentucky are derived from that old norman strain, we ought to be able to indicate without difficulty characteristic and conspicuous points of resemblance between the original and the derivative stock. taking in hand the exact and vivid characterization of the old norman by the contemporary chronicler, malaterra, we ask ourselves, "are the kentuckians also marked by the characteristics here described?" are they persuasive orators, able lawyers, brilliant fighters, ready and practical thinkers; astute and successful negotiators? have they scholarly tastes? social gifts and accomplishments? a passion for travel, exploration, adventure, field sports, and fine horses? "i like him very much," said the english swell st. aldegonde, speaking of colonel campian, the southern colonel. "he knows all about horses and tobacco."[ ] [ ] don't forget to rest your horses. the observant traveler in norway notes at the foot of every steep hill a sign-post with the inscription--"don't forget to rest your horses." possibly this scandinavian consideration for the horse runs with the blood. the kentuckian, however, has learned to "rest his horses" before he has learned to read. a little information of this kind ought to be found in our "notes" by way of giving confirmation to the inference suggested by the "names." there is something in the name, but not everything. we have a notable--a brilliant--example in the current history of a kentuckian who is a norman in almost everything except the name, and he belongs to a family that is characteristically norman in many respects; and yet it has borne with great distinction for generations a fine old saxon name. not a few of our leading families are in the same category. the impartial agencies of evolution have given them their due proportion of norman or scandinavian blood, the name being a secondary consideration with the evolutionary fates. for saxon or norman, or--"whatever we"-- celtæ, saxones, or norseman or gaul, there's no better stuff for a family tree, wherever the seed of the races may fall. note the broad and generous philosophy in these lines; and, some might add, the imaginative touch which almost gives the quatrain a poetic value. the kentuckian, at least, has but little reason to criticise the stuff of which he is made, particularly since he stands easily _first among the modern races of men_. this is an estimate from an impartial source--a writer for the english press.[ ] is it not a fit conclusion to our ethnological tale? [ ] mr. bart kennedy, london _mail_. xxi there came at last a shadow over our memory of the bright arcadian days. "the beautiful scandinavian" was fatally stricken in her prime by an insidious malady which gradually sapped her strength but scarcely touched the saint-like beauty which was the glory and charm of her youth. the great traveler, who construed at a glance the ethnical significance of those embodied charms, has long ago passed to his eternal rest. in her children she seems to live again. her sons--handsome young scandinavians of the higher type--are winning success and distinction in the great industrial movements of the times; and her beautiful daughter, vividly reproducing the attractions of the mother, is a passionate lover of travel, and but recently has demonstrated the scandinavian quality of her blood in the midst of a terrific nine days' storm that swept the seas near the coast of japan. [illustration: colonel theodore o'hara.] with this parting glance at the impressive figures which appeared in the early pages of this paper, the "explanatory preface" comes to a close; and the reader--the patient reader--is at last introduced to a rare lexicon of names--names which carry on their light wings the histories of states and men. here the humblest scholar may read without effort, in almost continuous narrative, the marvelous story of three kindred stocks transmuted by the fires of internecine conflict into one invincible race, which after centuries of almost unbroken struggle in peace and in war may almost be said to have made the earth its own. what part it has played in the genesis of our own commonwealth, each student of this "lexicon" must judge for himself, remembering that the decision of this question must rest upon a clear judicial faculty at last. many "names" might be added, but here mere numbers do not count. "to the quick eye of genius"--says max müller--"one case is like a thousand"; and it may be that the scholarly enquirer will find in the brilliant du chaillu an illustration of this maxim of the great german scholar. appendix alphabetical series of norse, norman, and anglo-norman, or non-saxon, surnames. derived from english official records and from other authentic sources. [the learned canon of carlisle assures us that not only has normandy supplied us with many of our family names, but it enjoys the distinction of having been the first to establish an hereditary surname. few stop to consider that a surname thus conceived is not merely an heraldic vanity or device to give social dignity and distinction to those who bear it, but is in reality a scientific advance in the working nomenclature of a race. if to "name" is but to classify, the addition or introduction of the surname simply adds completeness and precision to the racial classification. here, then, we have in the following list a large body of surnames coming almost directly from the land in which surnames are said to have originated. if a name, therefore, be merely that by which a thing is known, it would seem that a people who have borne these names continuously (as is historically attested) for _eight hundred years_ have in all likelihood inherited the characteristic traits, as well as the distinctive surnames, of the antique norman race. in kentucky, the original tone and vigor of the norman people are unimpaired. changes there have been; changes there will be; but, whatever changes may occur, there remains this one unalterable characteristic of the norman race, that "the more you change it, the more it is the same."] _abbett_, a form of abbott. _abbey_, for l'abbe. _abbott_, or abbot, abbas ( , normandy), abbot, abbet, thirteenth century. _abel_, aubeale, normandy, twelfth century; sir john abel of kent, . _aberdeen_, aberdern, abadam, from abadon. normandy, . _achard_, , berks. _ackin_, from dakin. _acland_, or de vantort, from vantort in mayenne; the baronets acland. _acton_, or barnell. from this family, lord acton. _adderley_, from adderley salop. _addington_, de abernon, normandy, ; one branch in somerset. _adrian_, hadrin (normandy), adrien (england). _agate_, a form of haggett or hacket. _agne_, battle abbey roll. _agnew_, or aigneaux, near bayeux, england, twelfth century; scotland, baronets agnew. _ains_, from aignes, near angoulême. _airey_, castle of airey, normandy; airy--celebrated astronomer. _albert_, walter and peter albert (normandy, ). _albin_, or albon, st. auben (robson). _alden_, normandy, . _aldworth_, or de la mare. _aleman_ (allman). _alfee_, for alis or ellis. _alison_, barnard de alençon (sir archibald alison). _allan_, for alan. _allanson_, alison. _allebone._ _alley_, from ailly, near falaise, a form of hallett or allet. _alleyne._ _allison._ _allman._ _alpe_, for heppe or helps. _alpey_, averay. _alvers_, or alves. _amand._ _amber_, from ambrières. _ambler_, from ampliers, or aumliers, near arras. england; virginia. _amblie_, hamley. _ambrose._ _amery_, from hamars, near caen. _ames_, from hiesmes, normandy. _amherst_, or henhurst. _amias_, ames. _ammon_, amond, amand. _amory_, darmer. _amos_, ames. _amphlett._ _amy._ _ancell._ "ansel," a famous colored "trainer" in kentucky. _anders_, from andres, near boulogne. _andersen_ or anderson (scand.) _anderson-pelham_, or de lisle from the castle of lisle (normandy). sire edmund anderson, chief justice, temp. elizabeth. _andersons_ of kentucky, a distinguished family. connected by blood with george rogers clark. major robert anderson, of "sumter" fame, was of this family. _andrew_, from st. andre, evreux. _andrews._ geoffrey andreas, (normandy). landaff w. andrews, a bold, able, and popular whig leader (ky.), conspicuous in congress ( ), and characterized by john quincy adams, who admired his courage and ability, as "a nimrod wildfire from kentucky." (vide diary.) when he objected to one of adams' resolutions (in which he was sustained by the speaker) he looked, says adams, "as savage as a famished wolf"; as circuit judge in kentucky, during the civil war, he rendered certain decisions that were distasteful to the federal authorities. "that brother of yours," said general palmer to mrs. thomas steele, of louisville, "is a bold judge." _angell_, from de l'angle, from les angles, near evreux. _anger_, from angers, anjou; also angier. _angle_, angell. _angwin_, for angevin. _ankers_, for anceres, vide dancer. _anley_, or andley, near rouen. _annable_, or annabell, from anneboutt (cotentin). _anne_, or anns, from l'agne, near argenton (normandy). _annesley._ _ansell._ _anstruther_, or malberbe. _anthony_, st. antoine, near bolbec. _anvers_, or danvers. _anvill_, or hanwell, from andeville, near valognes. _arch_, or de arques, from the castle of arques, near dieppe. joseph arch, a famous english "labor leader." _archdeacon_, archidiaconus, normandy, ; england, . _archer_, arcuarius (general of bowmen), sagittarius (normandy), . _archer_, or de bois, armorially identified with de bosco; boys. _arden_, or ardern; a norman family; came to england in . _argles_, hargle (hargis), normandy, . _aris_, a form of heriz or harris. _arle_, or airel. _arliss._ _armes._ _armit._ _arnald_, arnold. _arnes._ _arnold_, ernaldus or ernaut, normandy, ; in england, . _arrah_, arrow. _arundel_, hirendale, normandy, . _ascouga_, askew. _ashburnham_, or de criol. _ashley_, de esseleia, normandy, . _ashley_, cooper, or de columbers, from colombières, near bayeux. _askew_, for ascuo. _aspray_, from esperraye, normandy. _astor_, willielmus titz--estus or estor, normandy, , ; england, . _aubrey_, the norman origin of this name established. _aure_, with an aspirate. (hoare.) johne de aur was summoned in to march against the welsh. _auriol_, l'oriel. _austin_, william argustinus, normandy, twelfth century. _aveling_, aveline, evelyn. _avens_, from avernes, normandy, . _averance_, from avranches, normandy, . _averell_, avril, normandy, . _avery_, every. _avery._ traced to aubrey, a norman form of albericus. _awdry_, from audrien, or aldry, near caen. _ayers_, ayres, ayre. _aylard_, allard. _ayre_, eyre. _ayrton._ [illustration: colonel john t. pickett.] _babington_, normandy, ; england, thirteenth century. bernard de babington. little babington, northumberland. _babot_, babo, normandy, . _bachelor_, normandy, . _back_, sir george back, arctic explorer. vide beck. _bacon._ (roger and francis bacon members of this family.) bacen or bacco, eleventh century in maine, northman family. _bagehot_, for bagot. _bagot._ a baronial family (normandy); came to england at the conquest. henry bagod, ancestor of house of stafford. _bailey_, baillie, from the norman office of le bailli. the baillies of scotland a branch of de quincys. _baine_, bayne. _baird._ ralph baiart in normandy before the conquest. godfrey baiard in held a barony in northumberland. from this line descended george washington, the great american general. _baker_, normandy, ; england, . _baldwin_, normandy, william baldwinus, ; robert, ; england, . _ballance_, for valence, normandy, . _bally_, for baly. _bamfyld_, from baionville, near caen, . in thirteenth century held lands of the honour of wallingford. _banard_, for bainard, banyard. _bancroft_, from boncraft, near warrington, cheshire. see butler. _band_, from calvus or le band, england, . _bangs_, for banks. _banks_, from banc, near honfleur; england, . the eminent savant, sir joseph banks, a descendant. _banner_, , normandy, le baneor. _bannester_, from banastre, now beneter, near estampes. _banyard._ vide beaumont. _barbot_, normandy, . _barbour_, from st. barbe sur gaillon, normandy, where was situated the celebrated abbey st. barbara. (vide british family surnames (barber) london.) barbour, a hamlet in dumbartonshire. st. barbe is on the roll of battle abbey. william de st. barbara, bishop of durham, a. d. le barbier, court of husting, london, . john barbour, a churchman and archdeacon of aberdeen ( ): traveled in france (temp. edward iii): employed in a high capacity in civil affairs: historian, poet, and auditor of the exchequer. james barbour, born in orange county, virginia, u. s. senator ( - ): secretary of war: minister to the court of st. james. philip pendleton barbour, brother of james barbour, associate justice of the united states supreme court. john s. barbour (virginia), member of congress ( - ). james barbour (kentucky), assistant state auditor (under helm): president lexington and danville r. r.: cashier branch bank of kentucky. doctor lewis green barbour of louisville, late of central university, is a finished scholar. _bardo_, for bardolph. _bardolph_, england, . held lands in normandy (honour of montfort). _barefoot_, barfot, normandy, ; england soon after. _barker._ bercarius, normandy, . le bercher (england). _barker._ norman french la bercher. english surnames barcarius and le barkere. william le barcur. _barnes_, a form of berners from bernieres, near falaise; england, . _barnett._ barnet (barney), bernai, normandy. _barnewall_, from the norman family de barneval, england, (domesday). _barney_, armorially identified with berney. _barold_, vide barrell. _baron_, from baron, near caen, england, . _barough_, armorially identified with barrow. _barr_, from la barre in the cotentin. tiger de barra (normandy, ). _barr._ la barr, normandy; norman-french, de la barre. _barrable_, for barbal, normandy, . _barre_, armorially identified with barry. _barrell_, richard barel, normandy, . see battle abbey roll. _barrett._ (domesday) baret. _barrett._ john buret, . walter de la burette, devon, . _barrington_, or de barenton, from barenton, near candebec, normandy. _barrow_, barou was near falaise, normandy. england, barene, . _barry_, armorially identified with barr. _bartellot_ (or bertelot), normandy, ; england, . _bartleet_, a form of bartelot. _bartrum_, armorially identified with bartram. _barwell_, from berville, near pont andemar, ; england, . _baskerville_, from bacquerville, near rouen. in robert de baskerville, on his return from palestine, granted lands to gloucester abbey. the baskervilles were early seated in virginia. _baskett._ walter pesket, normandy, . _bass._ richard le bas, . john basse, england, . _bassett_, from bathet or baset. duke of the normans of the loire, . from this stock are descended the doyleys (d'ouilly), lisores, and downnays. osmond basset accompanied the conqueror, . there were bassets in devon, essex, and wales. _bassit_, from biszeilles, near lithe. _bastable._ wastable, normandy, . barnstaple (lower). _bastard._ robert bastard, a baron in devon, , son of william the conqueror. also baistard, bestard. _baswell_, for boswell. _batcheller._ vide bachelor. _bateley_, from batilly, near alençon, normandy. _batell_, armorially identified with battayle. _bateman_, from baudemont in the norman vexin. roger de battemound, northumberland, thirteenth century. _bath._ ramier, afterwards de bada. _bathurst._ bateste, bathurts. thirteenth century, cranbrook, kent. _batten._ batin (flemish?), , england. _battle._ batell. _batty_, from la bathie, maine, ralph baty, thirteenth century, devon. _baugh_, or de baa, from bahais, near contances. _bavin_, or bavant, from bavant, near caen. _bax_, or backs. _bayes_, for boyes. _bayley._ vide baillie. _bayne._ _baynes_, from baynes, near bayeux. _bazin_, normandy, ; england, fourteenth century. _beach_, armorially identified with beche or de la beche. from bac in normandy, frequently written bech and beche in england. _beacham_, for beauchamp. _beadel._ normandy, . bucks, england, . bishop. _beadle_, for beaddell. _beadon_, from bidon in burgundy. held a fee from the honour of wallingford. _beale_, or le bele, a form of bell. _beamand._ _beamis_, formerly beaumis, beaumeys, or beaumetz, from beaumetz, near abbeville. dujardin beaumetz was a famous medical savant of paris, france, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. _beamish_, for beamis. _beamont_, armorially identified with beaumont of yorkshire. _beamand_, the same. _bean_, for bene. _beard_, armorially identified with bard, a form of baird. _beards_, for beard. _bearfield_, for de berville, from berville, near caen. william de bareville, normandy, ; robert de b., england, . _bease_, for bisse. _beaten_, for beaton. _beaton_, or bethune. from the carlovingian counts of artois. the duke of sully (sully's "memoirs") was of this family. _beauchamp_, from beauchamp in the cotentin. the same race as the meurdracs, the montagues and the grenvilles. a familiar old-time name in kentucky that has always appealed to lovers and writers of romance--notably to charles fenno hoffman and william gilmore simms. "this illustrious name," says lower, "is found in many countries of europe; in scotland, as campbell; in england, as fairfield; in germany, as schönau; and in italy as campobello." it was introduced into england at the norman conquest by hugh de belchamp, or beauchamp, or de bello campo. beauchamp is pronounced _beecham_ in england. _beaufoy_, from beaufay, near alençon, normandy, . john de beaufoy, england, . _beaumont_, or bayard. two lines in england. one of the beaumonts held the castle of st. luzanne for two years against william the conqueror. _beaver_, for bever. _beavill_, or beville, from beaville, near caen, england, (domesday). _beavis_, armorially identified with beaufiz, england, . _becket_, or beckett. in , malger bechet, rouen, john and william beket or bekeit, . _ibid._ thomas beket's father was of caen. ralph de beket, england, ; hence thomas, the famous archbishop of canterbury. _becks_, for beck. vide beach. _beckwith_, adopted in lieu of the original norman name of malbisse (lower). _bedding_, or bedin. normandy, ; england, . _bedell_, from the suffolk gens (thirteenth century). _beech_, a form of beach. _beecham_, a form of beauchamp. _beecher_, armorially identified with beach, of which it is a corruption. _beeden._ vide beadon. _beek_, armorially identified with beck or bec. _beeman_, for beaman. _beeman_, for beaumont (lower). _beerill_, for barrell. _beeson_, for beisin, normandy. _beeton_, for beaton. _beever_, for beevor. _beevor._ berenger de belver, or bevor. _belcher._ vide belshes, england, . _bell_, from le bel, a common surname in normandy. _bellaers_, for beller, from bellieres, near alençon. normandy, . ralph beler, . _bellairs._ vide bellaers. _bellamy_, or bellameys, from belmeys or beaumitz. vide beamiss. _bellany_, from bellannay, normandy. _bellard._ beald heard (strong). an ancient baptismal name, balard (the hundred rolls). _bellas_, a form of bellowes. _bellchamber_, for bellencombre castle, near dieppe. england, . _bellet._ belet, surname in normandy, ; england, . the bellets were hereditary butlers to the king. _bellew_, from belleau or bella aqua, normandy, . the lords bellew of ireland are of this family. _belling._ a northern clan, noble and ancient. _bellis_, armorially identified with bellew of cheshire. _bellowes_, armorially identified with bellew. _bellville_, belleville, or bellavilla, near dieppe, normandy. _belshes_, a corruption of bellassidge. _belward_, a form of belwar, belver, or belvoir. see beevor. _bemes_, for beamis. _bence._ robert and william bence, normandy, ; england, . _bene._ hubert de bene, normandy, ; england, . _benivell_, for beneville, from beneville, near havre, normandy, ; william de bendeville, england, twelfth century. _benn_, for bene. _bennet_, or beneyt, normandy, . _bennett._ beneyt, or benedictus, a norman family. bennets, earls of arlington and tankerville. _berey_, for barrey or barry. _beringer_, normandy, . _berks_, for perks or parks. _bernard._ common name in normandy, ; england, . _bernes_, from bernes, near beauvais, ; england, . _berney_, from berney, norfolk; bernai, near lisieux. _bernwell_, or barnwall, (domesday). _berrell_, for barrell. _berrett_, for barrett. _berry_, armorially identified with barry. _bertie_, a form of bertin which occurs in battle abbey roll, normandy, ; , william bertyn, one of the kentish gentry. _bertin._ vide bertie. _bertram._ an illustrious norman name. vide milford. _berwell._ vide barwell. _best._ an abbreviation of bessett. _bever_, or beever, armorially identified with belvoir or bovor of leicestershire. _beverel._ richard de beverel, normandy, . _bevington._ vide bovington. _beville._ vide beavill. _bevir_, for bever. _bevis_, beavis. _bevis_, armorially identified with beaufais, or beauvais. beauvays, yorkshire, . _bew_, for bews. _bewett_, armorially identified with bluett, also blewitt. _bewley_, for beaulieu. _bews_, for bayeux, bayouse, beyouse, bews. _bewsay_, for bussey, or de busci. _bewshea_, for bewsay. _bick_, a form of bec. _biddle_, for bidell. vide beadle. _bidon_, for bidun. vide beadon. _biggers._ durand le bigre, normandy, . ranulph de bigarz, . _bigot._ richard le bigot, normandy, ; vide wiggett. _biles_, a form of byles. _bill_, a form of boyle, armorially identified with byle or byles. _billes._ vide bill. _billett._ bellet. _bing._ byng, binge. _bingham_, or de buisle, from builly, near neuchatel (often supposed to be of saxon origin). john de bingham, named from his "lordship," bingham, in bucks. one of the family named the heiress of turberville. _birbeck_, from brabant. henry de birbecka, . _birmingham_, or paynel. vide paynel. _biron._ vide byron. _birt._ vide burt. _bishop._ radulphus episcopus, normandy, ; sir john bischopp, england, . _bisse_, armorially identified with bissett. _bissell_, armorially identified with bissett. ralph and henry biset, normandy, . sir john byset, england, . _black._ odo and robert niger occur in normandy, . robertus niger held lands in kent, (domesday). _blackett._ an abbreviation of blanchett. _blackstone_, or le breton. blackstone, devon, was held by alured le breton. in thirteenth century william blackstone held lands at stones of the honour of wallingford. _blagrave_, or le breton. alicia de blackgrave, thirteenth century. the name le breton indicates a breton origin. _blake._ admiral robert, the great naval commander of cromwell, was of somerset, in which county walter blache occurs, . _blakey._ the french pronunciation of blaket. vide bleckett. _blanch._ william blanc and robert and john blanche occur in normandy, . henry blanche, oxford, . _blanchard._ ralph and william blanchart were of normandy, . gilbert and william blanchard had estates in lincoln. this fine old norman family is readily traceable from normandy to england, and from england to america. colonel robert blanchard, with his tall, handsome figure and jocund face, would have thrown no discredit on his racial descent in any country, community, or social circle. his son, william lytle blanchard, an accomplished gentleman, was an officer in the confederate service. before the opening of the civil war he had been an associate of halliday (and other anglo-normans) in the establishment of the great overland route. william lytle blanchard was a first cousin of general william haynes lytle, of cincinnati. the blanchards are connected with the rowans, bollings, lytles, fosters, stoths, and other distinguished families. _blancherville_, from the forest of b., normandy. the family had branches in ireland. _blanchet._ robert and ralph blanchet. _blanquet_, or blanket, normandy, . in england blanchet or blaket. _blashfield._ anglicised form of blancheville. _blaxton_, for blackstone. _blay_, for bleay. _bleakey_, for blakey. _bleay._ de ble, normandy, . de blee, stafford, . _blennerhasset_, or de tillial, from tilliol, near rouen. richard de tilliol, lord of blennerhasset, cumberland, temp. henry i. the younger branches bore the name of blennerhasset. a name to which the "burr expedition" gave a peculiar interest in kentucky. _blessett_, for blissett. _blews_, a form of blew or blue. etard de blew occurs in kent, , and robert de bloi in essex. the name is a form of bloi, bloin, or blohin of bretagne, often written blue. vide bligh and blue. _bley_, for bleay. _bligh_, for de bloin, from bretagne. vide darnley. _blindell_, for blundell. _blizard_, blizart. perhaps from blesum, blois, meaning a native of blois. the name is evidently foreign. blizzard, blizard, blezard, blizart, blissett. even the best authorities have differed as to the origin of this name. one english writer says: "perhaps it is from blesum, blois, meaning a native of blois" (blizzard, which is norman, is an analogous form). another and later english authority says: "blizard, blezard, from the danish blichert, a strong sword player." a correspondent of the new york tribune, july , , says: "the old english word blizzard, which describes so picturesquely the english snow-blast, is spoken of as an 'americanism.' even such philologists and lexicographers as murray treat the word as a recent 'americanism.' so far from its being american in origin, it was not till within the last thirty years (according to bartlett and other american philologists) that the word was ever heard in the eastern states, and in the western a 'blizzard' meant a knock-down blow--not from a snow-blast, but in an argument." [illustration: colonel thomas t. hawkins.] in reality, blizzard is an old english surname, and is doubtless of norman origin. in april, , the writer of this note conversed with a federal soldier, whose full name was stephen decatur blizzard. he was of anglo-virginian stock; he was a soldier in the civil war, and his name may still be found on the national pension rolls of that date. his postal address in was "quincy, lewis county, kentucky." possibly the "snow-blast" took its name from some windy anglo-norman disputant, who wielded the sword of the spirit and dealt in apostolic blows and knocks. the word "blizzard" does not appear in worcester's dictionary, edition . it is evidently of scandinavian origin (danish or norman). _blockey._ the french pronunciation of bloquet or ploquet. vide denman. _blomefield._ vide bloomfield. blomfield, bishop of london. _bloomfield_, armorially identified with blomville from the lordship so named near caen and toques. thomas de blumville had custody of the estates of earl bigod in suffolk. _blossett._ the blossetts of normandy were barons of beneval and vidames. _blount._ le blund, or blundus, normandy, . frequent notices of the name, twelfth century, in essex. _blovice_, for blois, or blesum, france. thomas blois, living at norton, suffolk, , was ancestor of the baronets blois. _blow_, for blue or bloy. vide bligh. _blue_, blew or blews. etard de bleu occurs in kent, . the name was a form of bloi (france). the original norman form was le bleu. during the civil war there came before one of our kentucky courts a case in which there was a very interesting introduction of names that have been long traditionally associated--black and blue; the former the name of a great criminal lawyer (jeremiah s. black), and the latter the name of his client, blew or blue, the perpetrator of an atrocious crime. the case showed that the criminal was sadly "off" on color. he had killed an entire family of blacks; but was finally acquitted by the ingenuity and perseverance of his great "scandinavian" lawyer. _black_, blake, bleek, bleikr (norse). admiral blake was warden of the cinque ports, . victor blue, an officer in the american service, won great distinction during the spanish-american war. _bluett._ in , bluet, normandy; buqueville le blouette, the family seat. bluet, long a name of eminence in the west of england. _blundafield_, for blindville. vide blomfield. _blundell._ vide blunden. _blunt._ le blount, normandy, . hence baronets blunt. _bly_, for bloi. vide bligh. _boag_, for bogne. _boase_, for bowes. (vide lower.) _boat_, from buat. the castle of buat, near falaise. sexus de bue, surry, . vide bowett. _boax_, for boase. _bobart_, n. popart, normandy, . _bockerfield_, from bocherville or bucheville, normandy. _bockett._ originally bouquet, normandy, . _bodel_, for budell. _bodelly_, for botelly, or batelly. vide battey. _bodger._ boschier, normandy, . le boghier, england, . _body._ norse. diminutive of bodvarr (wary in battle). bodi, bodin, bot. french bodé, norman-french bot. ( .) _boffay_, from beaufay, near alençon, normandy. boffei, normandy, . sometimes bophay. _boggis._ william de bogis, , normandy. _boggs._ vide boggis. _bogne_, for boges or boggis. _bois_, from normandy, several families, viz.: ( ) de bois armand, hereditary servants of the counts of breteuil, sires of poilly. flourished in leicester. ( ) de bois-guillauman, of the bailifry of caux, seated in essex, . ( ) debois. herbert, baron of halberton, devon; hugo de bosco, , england. ( ) de bois. robert or roard, bucks, . ( ) de bois. barony brecknock, , named after him trebois. _bole_, or boels. _boles_, a form of boels. vide boyle. _boleyn._ queen anna boleyn was great-granddaughter of sir geoffrey boleyn, lord mayor of london, temp. henry vi. the family had formerly been of great consequence. there were two branches of it in england. william de bolein held one fee in york and one in lincoln. in the preceding generation easton and simon de bologne, brothers of pharamus de b., are mentioned in a charter of the latter. the familiar pronunciation is "bullen." _bolland._ richard de la boillante, normandy, . _bollen_, armorially identified with boleyn. _bolleng_, for boulogne, or boleyne. _bollowe_, for bellewe or bellew. _bolster_, for bolster or balistar. vide alabaster or arbalister (norman), a general of crossbowmen. _bolt_, from bolt, or bout, near bayeux. tascelinus de boalt, normandy, . reginald and richard bolt, oxford, . "ben bolt" at all times and everywhere. composed by an american; cosmopolitanized by an englishman. an "anglo-norman" song. _bolten-nelson._ from the boltons of suffolk descend the earls nelson, who obtained their title as the nearest heirs in blood of the renowned nelson. _bompas_, from bonpas near perpignan; a visigoth family. _bonamy._ radulphus de bono-amico, burgundy, . robert and william bon ami, . _bone_, armorially identified with bohun of midhurst, or de falgeres. vide foulger. _bonell_, or bunel, lords of tissey, near caen (des bois). _boner._ bartholomew bonaire. _bonest_, from banaste, or banastre. vide bannister. _boney_, for bonney. _bonfield_, for bonville, from the castle of bouneville, bondeville, normandy. _bonham._ humphrey and william bonhomme, cambridge, . _bonhote_, or bounot, a form of bonnett, with which it is armorially identified. _bonner._ norman-french. bounaire (courteous). _bonnett._ roger bonitus, sussex, . family seat near alençon. the name occurs in battle abbey roll. _bonney._ nicholas and richard bonie occur in normandy, . agnes and alicia bonye, oxfordshire, . _bonnivelle_, for bonville. vide bonfield. _bonom_, for bonham. _bonus_, armorially identified with bonest. _boodle_, for budell. not familiar as a "surname" in kentucky. _boog_, for bogue. _booker._ walter bochier, normandy, . the name in england is armorially identified with borcher. in kentucky, the bookers are an old and prominent family. a mayor of louisville was (maternally) of the booker blood. _boole_, or boyle. buelles or buels occurs in normandy, . _boolen_, for bullen, or boleyn. _bools._ vide boule. _boon_, or boone, armorially identified with bohun. the norman family of that name descended from humphrey de bohun, who accompanied the conqueror and was ancestor of the bohuns, earls of hereford, constables of england. _booser_, for bowser. _boosey._ alexander de la buzeia, normandy, . ralph buse, england, . "boozy" in kentucky. _boot._ the fief of hugo boot is mentioned in normandy. "perhaps a trader's name"--says lower. _boothby._ a younger branch of the barons de tateshall, (domesday). _borne._ walter le borne, normandy, . _borough_, or de burgh, otherwise tusard, which is the original norman name. _borrell_, armorially identified with burrell. _borrow_, armorially identified with borough and burgh. _bose_, for boss. _boshell_, for bushell. _bosher_, a form of bourchier (lower). _bosquet._ vide bockett. _boss._ bos or bose occurs in normandy, ; in bucks, . the original "boss," in the modern sense (overseer, manager), was doubtless a burly, bull-necked norman. it is noteworthy that "boodle" is from the same source. _bossey._ vide boosey. _bossey._ bussey. _bostel_, for postel. ralph postel, normandy, . _bostfield_, for bosville. _bosville._ bosville, near candebec, normandy. _boswell_, armorially identified with bosville. probably in england from the time of the conquest. the family emigrated from england to scotland in the reign of david i. the change from "ville" to "well" as a termination is also seen in the alteration of rooseville to roswell, laville to larwill, etc. _boterill._ geoffry boterel occurs in a beaton charter, . _botevyle_, from bouteville, near carenton, normandy. the name occurs in battle abbey roll. butterfield probably a form of this old surname. _bott._ william bott occurs in normandy, . walter bott in oxfordshire, . the writer has seen the names william and elizabeth bott in old warwickshire records, and in an old prayer-book, temp. george iii (virginian families); the name may, also, be seen to-day (botts, not bott) upon tombs in old graveyards in eastern kentucky. the literal suffix "s" to such names as bott, hay, etc., is said to be an americanism. _bottin._ william bottin, normandy, . thomas buting or boting. _botting_, for bottin. _bottle._ roger botel, normandy, . _bottrell_, or botterel, or de botereaux, from bottereaux, near evreux. england, twelfth century. _bouche_, from buces, now bucels, near caen. de bueis, normandy, . de buche, surrey, . roger buche, norfolk. _bouchett_, a form of bockett. _bouffler_, from bouflers, near abbeville. james beaufleur (or beauflour), collector port of india, . _boughey_, armorially identified with bowett. the baronets boughey are maternally descended from fletcher. _boughton_, or boveton, for boventon. vide boynton. baronets de boveton were of county warwick, fourteenth century. _boulder_, from baudre, near st. lo in the cotentin. walter bulder, york, . _boully._ vide bulley. _boult_, armorially identified with bolt. _boun_ (or "boum"), armorially identified with bohun of midhurst. vide boone. _bound._ the same as bowne (lower). _boundy_, from bondy, near st. denis, isle of france. _bour_, armorially identified with boun or bohun. vide boone. _bourchier_, a form of bousser, or boursieres, burgundy. john de busser was a justice in essex and hertford, . _bourdon._ geoffrey bordon and others in normandy . reginald and roger bordon in gloucester, . _bourke_, for burke or burgh. the earls of mayo are of this name. _bourlet_, or borlet. vide barlett. _bourner_ or barner, a form of berner or berners. _bousfield_, from bousville or bouville, near ravilly, normandy. walter andrew, serlo de buesvilla, or buevilla, normandy, . in william de boevill did homage for his lands in the bailifry of newcastle-under-lyme. _bousher_, armorially identified with bourchier. _boutcher_, for boucher. _boutell._ vide bulteel and bottle. _boutroy._ john and roger boteri, normandy, . william buteri, or butery in england. _bouts._ vide boot. _bouvier._ hugo bovier and john bovier of normandy, - . vide bowyer. _bovay_, for beauvais. _boville._ a baronial family from booville or bueville, normandy, suffolk, (domesday). the family was widely spread through england; chief-justice boville came of this stock. _bovington_, or boventon. vide boynton. _bowack_, or boag. _bowcher_, for bourchier. _bowden_, from bodin (lower). petrus bodin, normandy, eleventh century. _bowdler_ (from hope bowdler and other places, salop). a form of de bollers, or bodlers, of flanders. vide buller. _bowen._ bouvignes (bely). _bowes_, from boves, normandy. john de bowes or boves, normandy, . hugh de boves commanded in poitou for king john (roger of wendover, ). _bowett._ alexander bonet occurs in normandy, . bowet, england, . _bowker._ vide booker. the names are armorially related. _bowles_, or buelles. vide boyle. hence, w. lisle bowles, the poet. _bowley_, for beaulieu (lower). simon de bello loco, normandy, . alexander de bello loco, bedfordshire, . _bown_, armorially identified with bohun of midhurst. vide boon. _bowne._ vide bown. _bowran_, or bowering, for beaurain, near cambrai, flanders. wybert de beaurain, normandy, . "hence, the able writer, sir john bowring." _bowry._ vide bury. _bowser_, armorially identified with bourchier. _bowtell_, for boutel. u. s., boutelle. _bowton_, for boughton. _bowyer._ norman-french, bouvier. this name, as appears by the arms, was originally bouvier (robson). hugo bouvier, normandy, . le boyer, kent, . _bowyn_, armorially identified with bohun. vide boon. _boyall_, a form of boyle (lower). _boyce_, a form of bois. _boyd._ a branch of the beeton family of dinant. vide stuart. descent from a brother of walter, the first high steward of scotland. _boydell._ helto fitzhugh, grandson of osborne fitz-tezzo, baron of dodelston, had issue hugh boydell, ancestor of this family. _boyes_, for bois. _boyle_, from boile, otherwise boelles, or builles, now la buille, near rouen. william de boel, or boêles, and gilbert occur in normandy, . william de buels was descended from helias de buel, temp. john. his son william settled in hertford; hence ludoric buel boyle, ancestor of the earls of cork, orrery, shannon and other great houses. one of the most notable members of the boyle family (u. s. a.) was chief-justice john boyle, of kentucky; a very able, eminent, and fearless judge. _boyle_, of scotland, from boyville, of normandy, otherwise boeville (vide bousfield). common name in normandy, twelfth century. william de boeville (bocville), suffolk, . _boyles_, for boyle or buelleis. _boynell_, armorially identified with boyville. _boynton_, or de brus, abbreviated from boventon. vide bruce. robert fitz-norman bruis or bruce of boventon, york, . a leading family (de boventon or boynton) in twelfth and thirteenth centuries. _boys_, or boyse, for bois (french). a huguenot bois in holland would become holtz; in america, wood. (vide bois.) _boyson._ william buisson of normandy, ; roger buzun, norfolk, . _bozzard_, or bussard, bascart, or buschart, normandy, . boscard, . _brabant_, from the netherlands. arnold braban (brabant), of hamford, occurs . _brabazon_, from brabant. thomas brabençon, normandy, . john brabazon, oxfordshire, . _brace_, from bracey. _bracebridge_, or de ardern. the family of arden or ardern was norman and went to england in . ralph, son of william de ardern, was lord of bracebridge, lincoln, thirteenth century. the bracebridge family bears the arms of arden. john bracebrigge was living . washington irving has made "bracebridge hall" famous wherever english is read. the name at least will survive. it was the peculiar distinction of the blood of arden that it flowed in the veins of shakespeare. his mother was an arden, and his magical "forest of arden" immortalizes the name. _bracey_, from brécy, near caen. henry de brécy occurs in normandy, - . robert de brécy, cheshire. from a branch of this cheshire family descend the present brasseys, among whom the most distinguished was the eminent engineer, an honored servant of england during the victorian reign. _bracher._ allen bracheor, normandy, . vide brasier. _brack_, for brac. vide brake. _bragge_, for brac. vide brake. evain de brac, normandy, . richard de la brache, england, . bragg entered kentucky in . _brain_, from brain, anjou; yorkshire, . _bran_, for brand. _branch_, from st. denis de branche, normandy; suffolk, . _brand._ walter brandus, caen, . william brant, norfolk, . simon brand, hertfordshire, . the brands of lexington, kentucky, a well-known family. _brandram._ william brandram, normandy, . _branis_, for brain. _brant._ vide brand. _brasier._ william braisier paid a fine, normandy, . soon after "william de neelfa was a fugitive for slaying him." the name occurs also as bracheor, and broshear. _brasil_, from bresles, near beavois. _brass_, for brace. brass is one of dickens' names. _brassey._ vide bracy. _bratt_, armorially identified with brett. _braund._ brand. _brawn_, for braund. _bray_, from bray near evreux, normandy. william de bray occurs - . a branch of the family was seated in devon in the thirteenth century. sir reginald bray, the eminent architect, temp. henry vii. _brayne._ vide brain. _brazier._ vide brasier. _brazill_, for brasill. _breache._ vide brache. _breckinridge._ vide cabell. _breckinridge_ is from bracken-rigg, a loc n. cumb. robt. j. breckinridge, john c. breckinridge, and w. c. p. breckinridge were descended on the maternal side from the cabells--a famous norman family. vide cabell. the breckinridge family is directly of scottish origin. the foregoing derivation rests upon the authority of the english genealogist, doctor henry barber. but no american family has ever given more varied and striking illustrations of the power of inherited norman blood. scarcely a characteristic trait is lacking. [illustration: colonel william l. crittenden.] _brecks_, for brake. _brees._ vide breese. _breese_, a form of brice, being the norman-french pronunciation. _breeze._ vide breese. _bren_, armorially identified with brend. _brennard_, for burnard. _brery_, or de brereto, breuery, near vesoul, france. _breton_, from bretagne. baronial families in england (devon, bucks, lincoln, etc.). _bretell._ normandy, . _brett_, from brette in maine, or, possibly, short for breton. geoffry le bret was one of the barons of ireland. _brettell_, lords of gremonville, normandy (des bois). bretel, kent, . bretel is near alençon. _brettle_, for bretel. _breun_, or brewn, for brun. vide brown. _brew_, one of the forms of breux, brews, or braiose. _brewer_, ( ) from brovers, or brueria, now breviare, near caen. seated in devon at the conquest. ( ) from the english translation of braceator, or braceor. vide brazier, bracher. _brewhouse_, for brewis, or de braiose, a baronial family, from braiose, near argenton, normandy. branches in ireland, wales, suffold, sussex, norfolk, hants "and elsewhere." the name is frequently written breose, brewes, and is totally different from that of bruce or brus, with which it has often been confounded. _brewn._ vide breun. _brian_, armorially identified with bryan. _briant_, for breaunt, breant, or breante, near havre. fulco de breante, or de beent, england, temp. henry viii. (roger wendover.) _brice_, from st. brice, near avranches, normandy. robert de st. brice, normandy, . _brickdale_, from briquedale, normandy. the derivation of the name from "brickdele, lancashire," is doubted, on the apparently sufficient ground that there is no such place. _bride_, or st. bride, or st. bridget. vide bridgett. _bridge_, or de ponte, normandy, ; england about the same time. bridges, , middlesex. _bridgett_, for brichet. vide briett. _brient_, for brent or briant. _brier._ vide bryer. _briett._ occurs in normandy, . ralph de brecet, england, . _briley_, from broilly, near valognes, normandy. william de broleio, - . broily, bedford, . bruilli, lindores, scotland, . _brind_, armorially identified with brend. _brine_, for broyne, brun, browne. _brinson_, or de briançon, middlesex, . giles de brianzon, . _britain_, for breton. (lower.) _brittain_, for britain. _brittan_, for britain. _britten_, for britain. _brixey_, from brèze, anjou; de brexes, lancashire, . _brize_, for brice. _broach_, for brock. _brock_, from broc, anjou; robert de broc, england, ; also nigel and ranulph de broc. _brocke_, for brock or broc. (lower.) _bronaker_, from broncort, near langres, france. roger bruncort, normandy, . probably same as bruencort and brucort. ( - , normandy.) _brond_, for brand. _brontofl_, from bernetot, near yvetol. john de bernetot held lands in normandy, temp. philip augustus. the name of bernetôt in normandy at length changed to bernadotte--the name of one of napoleon's marshals. hence, the royal family of sweden. carew isaac taylor remarked at newcastle in that the royal families of europe were of scandinavian origin. but for the norman derivation of the bernadottes, here explained, the royal family of sweden might have appeared to be an exception. _brook_, for broke. (lower.) brooks, for brock; brookes, for broke. (lower.) _brosee._ brúsi, brozi (old norse). brosee, now pronounced brozee. william brosee, the progenitor of the family in kentucky, was a soldier in the russian campaign under napoleon. among the interesting "documentary" proofs of this service (now in possession of the family) is a portrait of the old campaigner in his french uniform. _broughton_, a branch of vernon; "broeton," stafford, thirteenth century. the arms concur with the descent from vernon. _brown._ vide browne. _brown._ gilbert le brun, normandy, . the name brunus or le brun frequently occurs in normandy, - . many normans were brun, or browne; but, in england, all brownes were not norman. the line of hanno le brun, cheshire, temp. henry ii, is armorially connected with an irish line. william brone witnessed the charter of dunbrody, ; nigel le brun had a writ of military summons, , and fremond bruyn was one of the barons of ireland, - . richard de la ferte accompanied robert of normandy to palestine in . he had eight sons, the youngest of whom, surnamed le brun, settled in cumberland, where he had baronial grants, temp. henry i. the family of de la ferte, also called le brun, long flourished in cumberland. the name le brun gradually changed to broyne, brown, and browne. robert le browne, m. p. for cumberland, - , was grandfather of robert, from whom descended the viscounts montague, the marquises of sligo, and the barons kilmaine. _brownett._ robert brunet, normandy, . _brownlow._ the brownlows, lords lurgan, bear the arms of the de tankervilles, chamberlains of normandy. vide chamberlain. _bruce_, from the castle of brus, or bruis, now brix, near cherbourg, where are the ruins of an extensive fortress built by adam de brus in the eleventh century. hence the kings of scotland, the earls of elgin, the baronets bruce. _brudenell_, or de bretignolles, from bretignolles near alençon, normandy. william de bretignolles, in , had a writ of summons to attend with his military array at oxford. from this family descended sire robert brudenell, chief justice of the common pleas, . the orthographic modifications of this norman patronymic (from bretignolles to bredenell, to bredenhill, and brudenel) are clearly traceable upon the records. _bruen_, armorially identified with bruin, with brun, le brun, or browne, of cheshire. _brunes_, for brun, now brown. _brunker_, armorially identified with brounker. _brus._ vide bruce. _brush._ richard broche, normandy, . _brushett._ chapon broste, normandy, . william bruast, england, . _bryan_, or briowne, from brionne, normandy. a branch of the counts of brionne and the earls of clare and hertford, descended from gilbert, count of brionne, son of richard i of normandy. wido brionne of the welsh line had a military court of summons, . about this time the name was changed to bryan, and the barons of bryan inherited it. william jennings bryan seems to have been, prenatally, a kentuckian. _bryant_, for briant. _bryson._ vide brison. _buckle_, or buckell. identified by the arms (a chevron) with bushnell. hence the able writer buckle. _budgell_, for bushell. _budgett_, for buckett. _buggins._ bogin, normandy, . bogun, derby, . _buist._ roger baiste, or buiste, normandy, . _buley_, or bewley, from beaulieu. _bullard._ a form of pullard or pollard. _bullett._ beringer bulete, normandy, . iorceline bolet, . normandy. in kentucky, the bullitts justify their norman descent. they have achieved distinction in many lines. _bullivant_, or bonenfant. normandy, temp. henry v; cambridge, . bonenfant. _bullon_, or bullen. a form of boleyn. there is bullen (or boleyn) blood in kentucky. _bully_, for builly. vide bingham. _bulwer._ vide wiggett. _bumpus_, from boneboz, normandy. _bunce_, for bence. _bunker_, for boncoeur. (lower.) _bunn_, from le bon. (lower.) _burchell._ _burd_, for burt. _burden_, a familiar name. _burden._ vide burdon. "burdens' grant" (virginia). _burdett._ french bourdet. vide battle abbey roll. _burdett._ from the bordets, lords of cuilly, normandy. seated in england at the conquest. baronets burdett-coutts. _burdon._ bordon , normandy. robert bordon, yorkshire, . _burfield._ de bereville, de bareville, england, . sometimes berewell. _burges_, burgess. simon de borgeis, normandy, . ralph burgensis, . _burgess_ is an old way of spelling burges. _burgoyne_, burgon, burgin. de bourgoyne, probably gothic, from burgundy. in walter burgundiensis, or borgoin, held lands in devon. _burke._ vide burgh. _burley._ roger de burlie, normandy, . "white burley," kentucky. _burnett._ the scottish form of burnard. from roger de burnard. the name became burnet in . bishop burnet of salisbury, celebrated writer, is of this gens. _burney_, a form of berney. vide berney. the name of a well-known family in kentucky. james g. birney was the first free-soil candidate for the presidency. _burr._ robert, roger, and peter burre occur in normandy, . gilbert le bor, england, . aaron burr was a conspicuous and dramatic figure in the early history of kentucky. professor shaler, the eminent harvard professor, writing of aaron burr's expeditionary project, says that the kentuckians "had inherited the spirit of the elizabethan english"; and that the mass of the kentucky people were always "filibusterish." there is not a decade in their history--he adds--that we do not find some evidence of this motive, to wit, "a natural hunger for adventure." _burrell_, or borel. normandy, . burrells, burrill. _burrough._ ( ) for burgh; ( ) for burys, burroughs, burrowes. _burroughs._ vide burrough or burgh. _burt._ william berte, mortanie, normandy, . john berte, england, . _burton_, or de richmond. one of the family bore the feudal dignity of constable of richmond. the founder was viscount of nantes, bretagne. the baronets burton. _bury_, from bourry, near gisors, normandy. armorially identified with the family of bury, earls of charleville. _busain_, from buisson, in the cotentin. _bushe._ hugh de bucis, normandy, . _bushwell_, for boswell. _busse._ armorially identified with bushe. _butcher_, for bourchier. _butler_, or de glanville. this family derives its name from theobold walter, the first butler of ireland, to whom that dignity and vast estates were granted by henry ii. the butlers bore the arms of de glanville, a family of glanville, near caen. _butler._ a name of peculiar distinction in the heraldic genealogies. the butler or de glanville family derives its name from theobald balton, temp. henry ii. the name has lost none of its distinction in the new world. the butlers of kentucky are thoroughly anglo-norman in their fighting instincts. all the male members ( ) of this branch were officers in the revolution; all their sons but one were in the war of ; nine butlers of this branch were in the war with mexico; and in the civil war every male descendant of captain pierce butler (of kentucky) was in the confederate army (vide historic families). _butt_, for bott. a name made conspicuous in recent times by sir isaac butt. vide butts, boot. _butter._ earls of larnsborough, descended from hugo pincerna, who, in , was a baron in bedford. hereditary butlers of the earls of leicester and mellent. several other families of distinction bore the name butler: ( ) the butlers of cornwall and kent; ( ) the butlers of essex; ( ) the butlers, barons of warrington, feudal butlers of chester; ( ) the butlers of bramfield, and others. _butterfield_, for botevyle. _buzar_, for buzzard. _buzzard._ hugo and william buscart, normandy, . henry boscard, salop, . _byars_, byers, de biars. (lower.) in kentucky, a familiar name. the byars family of mason was connected with the famous johnston family. _byles._ armorially identified with boyle. a distinguished judge bore the name. _byng_, from binge, gerault, normandy. reginald binge was one of the gentry of essex, . no one is likely to forget the byng, who was shot _pour encourager les autres_. _byron_, or de beuron, near nantes, normandy. sir richard byron married, temp. henry iv, the daughter and heiress of colwick of notts; and from him descended lord byron, the poet. _cabban_, or cadban, from cabanne or chabannes in perigord. bartholomew caban of berkes, living . _cabbell._ walter cabel is on record as having witnessed a charter in wiltshire, in the eleventh century. this walter cabel came over with the conqueror. the normans used the word _caballus_, instead of _equus_, for horse. it was so used in domesday book, and it seems certain, says doctor brown, that the family derived its surname from that word. hence, also, _caballero_. doctor brown gives at least forty-six different ways of spelling the name. geoffrey cabell owned land in caux, normandy, in . the cabells of virginia are descended from the cabells of france, in somersetshire. in we find doctor william cabell in st. james parish, henrico, then deputy sheriff to captain john redford, high sheriff of henrico (shire-reeve), officially the first man in the county. in june, , "polly" cabel was married to john breckinridge. the records show that mary h. cabell and john breckinridge had issue: ( ) letitia preston. ( ) joseph cabell. ( ) mary h. (died in infancy). ( ) robert h. ( ) mary ann. ( ) john. ( ) robert jefferson. ( ) william lewis. the political and social history of these families and their annexions are quite familiar to the people of kentucky and the south. _cadd_, or cade. arnulf cades, normandy, . eustace cade, lincolnshire, . _caffin._ a form of caufyn, or calvin. cavin, or calvin, occurs in normandy, . _cain_, from cahaignes, normandy. _cain._ sometimes of hiberno-celtic origin; generally, however, of caen, or de cadomo, devonshire, . _caines_, from the lordship of cahaignes. _caldecote._ a norman family bearing an english surname. _cale._ a form of kael. a breton name. vide call. _calf._ an english form of the norman name calxus, or le chauve. william calf, ireland, . _call_, or de kael, from bretagne or poiton. walter cael, envoy to england, thirteenth century. _callis._ callass, cales, the usual forms of calais in sixteenth century. _calver._ an abbreviation of calvert. _calvert_, from calbert, or cauburt, near abbeville. the "b" being changed into "v," as usual, . henry calverd was member of parliament for york. the calverts of maryland (lords baltimore). a familiar name in kentucky. formerly (in mid-century days and earlier) pronounced colbert; now, we only hear calvert. _cambray_, from the lordship of chambrai, normandy. sire de cambrai was at the battle of hastings, de chambrai, leicestershire, . corrupted to chambreys, or chambreis. _camel_, from campelles, or campell, in normandy. geoffry campelles, normandy, twelfth century. _cameron._ scoto-celtic. but there is one english family of the name derived from champroud, near coutances. ausger de cambrun, essex, . robert cambron and john de cambron, scotland, and . cambronne, of the guard, of fragrant memory. _camfield_, or camfyled, a corruption of camville, from camville, near coutances. _camidge._ _camp_, from campe, or campes, normandy. john de campes, england, . _campbell._ vide beauchamp. norman-french, de camville (de campo-bello), vide british surnames, barber (london, ). as early as , doctor john poage campbell, of kentucky, in a series of "letters to a gentleman at the bar" (colonel joseph hamilton daveiss), gave a striking illustration of the high quality of his scholarship in his anticipation of sir benjamin brodie and professor tyndall of our day in the detection of the germinal ideas from which the darwinian theory of evolution is derived (vide green's historic families). an interesting illustration of the intellectual life of the pioneer period in kentucky. _campion._ william campion, normandy, . geoffry campion, england, . "campian," american colonel (lothair). _campton._ _candy_, from cande, near blois. nicholas candy, normandy, . _cane_, for caen. (vide cain.) cany. richard cane, normandy . walter cane, england, . _canfell_, for camville. [illustration: general william nelson.] _cann_, from cane, normandy. geoffry de can, normandy, . richard de canne, england, . (cone, from _bosne_: loc n. france.) in kentucky, _conn_. _cannel_, from chanel, now chenean, near lille. _cannon._ radulfus canonicus, or le chanoin, of normandy. robert canonicus, england, . _cant._ _cant_, for gant. _cantis_, for candish, or cavendish. a norman baronial family. _cantor_ (translated singer). gauridus cantor, normandy, . christian le chaunter, england, . _cantrell._ william and roger cantarel of normandy, . alberid chanterhill, england, . richard chaunterel, . kentucky, u. s. a., cantrill, . judge cantrill, court of appeals, kentucky. _cantwell._ cantelo. chanteloup. _cape_, or capes, from cappes. vide cope. _capel._ a breton family from la chapelle, nantes. rainald de capella, essex, . (domesday.) william de c., suffolk, from whom the lords capel, earls of essex. capel, from la chapelle, near alençon. seated in the west of england. capell, for capel. monsignore capel figures vividly in lothair, _capern_, for capron. richard cepron, normandy, . robert capron, england, . mrs. laura lee capron, of baltimore, md., was a daughter of richard henry lee, of kentucky. _caplin_, capelen, or chaplain. william capellanus, normandy, . richard c., england, . john chaplyn, lincoln, . _capun._ vide capern. _carabine_, for corbin. robert corbin, normandy, . geoffry corbin, england, . walter corbin, england, . _carbonell_, normandy, . carbonel, hereford, . the family long flourished in hereford, bucks, and oxford. _carden._ an english local name. also a form of cordon, cordun: normandy, ; essex, . _cardwell_, for cardeville, or cardunville, from cardunville, near caen. _cares_, from chars, normandy. _carew._ a branch of fitzgerald. cary, carey. _carle_, for carel, or carrell. _carles._ vide carless, or charles, from st. karles de percy, in the cotentin. charles family, in thirteenth century, seated in many parts of england. carlish, for carless. _carne._ geoffry le caron, normandy, . wischard de charun, england, . _carnell_, from carnelles, near evreux. geoffry de carneilles, normandy, . armorially identified with charnell. in england, usually styled charnel or charnels. carneal, a distinguished name in kentucky; thomas d. carneal, one of the founders of covington, in that state. _carpenter._ bernard carpentarius, normandy, . william carpentarius, father of henry biset, baron, temp. henry ii. _carr_, or kerr, q. v. _carrell_, or caril, from caril, near ligieux. james ii, after the loss of his throne, created a baron caryl. _carrey_, for carey. _carrington_, for carenton; from carenton, in the cotentin. robert de carenton granted the mill of stratton, wilts, to farley abbey, . _carritt_, or caret, for garet. _carrol._ in england, a form of carrell. in ireland it is celtic. _carson._ probably from corson, normandy. carcun, thirteenth century, suffolk. _carter._ william cartier of normandy, ; , william of warwick. thirteenth century ralph c. worcester. colonel carter, of cartersville, va. _carterfield_, or quaterville, normandy, . _cartwright._ armorially identified with cateryke, or catherick. a branch was seated in notts; another in cambridge, and the name there changed from cateryke to cartwright. of the former branch was the celebrated reformer, and of the latter, thomas cartwright, the great puritan leader, under elizabeth. peter cartwright, an able revivalist, was equally famous in the states of the southwest. _carvell._ ranulph de carville, ; robert carvel, , normandy. england, . richard de carville. the english derivation of this patronymic has given a name to a popular american novel. _cary_, or pipart. waldin pipart held kari, . (domesday.) william pipart held kari, whence the name of de kari, or cary. hence, the earls of monmouth and viscounts falkland. _case_, for chace. armorially related to chancy, or canci. vide chace. _casey_, or cassy. when english, it is a branch of canci, with which it bears armorial relations. robert de canecio, , normandy; geoffry de chancy, england, . chace, chase, or chousey, armorially identified to casey. in various forms appears in all parts of england; also, hiberno-celtic. _cash_, for cass. _cass._ a form of case, or chace. _cassell_, from cassel, flanders. hugo de cassel, london and middlesex, . vide cecil. _casson_, for gasson. _castang_, for casteyn. _castell._ william castel, normandy, . alexander de castro, castel, england, . _castleman._ the castellan of a castle. ancient name; distinguished in kentucky. _castro_, for castell. casto? _cate_, or catt. william catus, normandy, . rudulphus cattus, . alexander le kat, england, . _catherick._ vide cartwright. _catlin_, catline, castelline, from castellan, bearing three castles (armorial). de casleltan, normandy, . sire reginald de casleltan, england, . an eminent chief justice of england bore the name of cattine. catling, for catlin; also, catlyn, catlin, a famous american painter--an illustrator of our aboriginal life. _cato_, from catot, or escatol, in normandy. hugh de escatol, salop, . _caton._ katune, normandy, . england, de catton. _cattel_, or chatel. foreign origin--du chastel, or de castello. _cattermole_, from quatremealles or de quatuor molis (locality not ascertained); also, cattermoul, cattermull. _cattle_, for cattel. _cattlin_, for catlin. _catton._ vide caton. _caudel_, for caudle. roger caldel, or caudel, normandy, . anistina and william caudel (mr. and mrs. caudle?), cambridgeshire, . _caulcott._ vide calcott. _caulfield_, calvil, calfhill, or caville. vide cavell. seated in normandy, . in england, gilbert de calvel, northumberland, and richard, of kent, . sir toby caulfield, a renowned commander in ireland, descended from bishop of worcester, temp. elizabeth. hence, collaterally, earls of charlemont. _cave._ john cave, adelina de cava, normandy, . sire alexander de cave, commissioner of array and justiciary. name of norman origin. from cave, in yorkshire. _cavendish._ the gernons were a branch of the barons of montfichet (or montfiquet, or montfiket), in normandy; so named after their scandinavian ancestor. the montfichets were hereditary standard-bearers, or military chiefs of london. the younger branches retained the name of gernon. alured gernon, brother of william de montfichet, had estates in essex and middlesex, . geoffry gernon, of this line, was surnamed de cavendish, from his residence at cavendish, suffolk, . he was grandfather of sir john cavendish, chief justice to richard ii. cavendish and gernon bear indiscriminately the same arms. the dukes of newcastle, devonshire and other great families bearing the name of cavendish (pronounced candish), descended from the gernons and montfichet. the genealogists differ on these points, but the old heralds seem to agree. _caville_, or cavill, identified by its arms (a calf) with calvel, or cauvel. robert cauvel, normandy, . william cavell of oxfordshire, . _cawdery_, or coudray, cawdray. a branch of the beaumonts, viscounts of maine. (vide beaumont.) _cawley_, for colley. _cawse_, calz, or caux, from caux, near abbeville. hence the english surname, cox or coxe. _cayley_, from cailly, near rouen. _cecil_, cicelle, or seyssel, from kessel, or cassel, east of bruges, flanders. its arms (escutcheon charged with the lion rampant of flanders) are still borne in flanders by a family of the same name. walter de alterens, descended from robert fitz-hamon, living , is derived the noble house of cecil. the great english statesman, lord burleigh (william cecil) was of this family. _ceeley_, or seily, from silly, normandy. _chabot_, or cabot. robert kabot, . roger cabot, of england, . _chace_, chase, or chausey. armorially identified, also, with chancy or de canci. the name appears in all parts of england as chancey, chancy, etc. _chad_, for cadd. _chaff_, from chause. vide cafe. _chaffer_, chaffen, from chevricres, normandy, . _chaffey_, or chaffy, a form of chafe, or chaff. _chaffin_, for caffin. (lower.) _chalie_, for cayley. _challands_, for chalas. vide challen. _challen._ a branch of the counts of chalons. _challenger_, or challenge, from chalenge, normandy. _challoner._ probably from chalons. _chamberlain_, robert, herbert, william henry camerarius, or le chamberlain, normandy, - . england, - . henry, hugh, ralph, robert, thomas, walter, richard turbert camerarius. the principal family of these was descended from the barons of tancarville, chamberlains of normandy; also, chamberlaine, chamberlin, chamberlayne. _chambers_, or de camera. william de camera, england, , oxford, essex, sussex. the family appear early in york, wilts and norfolk. chambre, or camera, was in brabant, the family seeming to have come thence at the conquest. governor john chambers, of kentucky, was one of the aides of general harrison at the battle of the thames;--was appointed territorial governor of iowa by president harrison. _champ._ vide camp. _champin_, for campion, or campian. _champney_, from de champigne, normandy. _chancellor_, canceller, chanslor. chancillor, a norman name. ranulph cancellarius. _chaney_, for cheyney. _channell._ armorially identified with charnell. an eminent judge bore this name. _channon._ vide cannon. _chant._ _chantry_, from chaintre, near macon. _chappel._ vide capel. _chappius._ calvus, normandy, . england, cabous, . _charge_, from gaurges, in the cotentin. _charles._ vide carless. _charnell_, for carnell. _charniter._ _charter_, for chartres. _charteris._ the scottish form of chartres. _chartres._ ralph carnotensis (de chartres) held estates in leicester, . Ébrard de carnot, , winchester. _chase._ vide chace. _chattell._ vide cattell. _chatwin_, for chetwynd. _chaucer._ geoffrey chaucer, the poet, married a daughter of sir paine roet, sister of john of gaunt's wife, and was valectus, or esquire, to edward iii. the family of chaucer, chaucier, chaucers, or chaseor, had been seated in the eastern counties, and some members were in trade in london. the name, le chaucier (calcearius) may have arisen from some sergeantry connected with the tenure of land. probably a branch of the family of malesoures. _cheek._ william cecus occurs in normandy, ; and in gloucester, . walter chike of england, . _cheiley_, or ceiley, a form of cilly. vide ceely. _cheney._ vide cheyney. _chenoweth._ the history of this name is of peculiar interest. john trevelesick, according to an old london record, married elizabeth terrel. their son, john, received from his father a tract of land upon which he built a house, and called the place "chenoweth," doubtless from an oak grove or woods upon the land. the initial syllable of the name is not uncommon in the genealogical nomenclature of normandy; and cornwall is notably a land of norman castles and druidical groves of oak. the trevelesick family, as was a custom of the period, took the name of the _place_, and was henceforth known as "chenoweth." this change may have been partly induced by the circumstances that there was a law which required the people to take names that were "easy" to the english. there seems to have been an early etymological connection between the familiar virginian names "chenoweth" and "chinn." vide chinn, cheyne, chêne, chenoie, and the scandinavian suffix _with_. in a list of names from domesday book we note the following: cheneuvard, chenuard, cheuvin, chenut. the chenoweths of kentucky are from berkeley county, virginia, the progenitor of the family being a "fighting pioneer." _cherey._ ( ) de ceresio. the early form, cerisy. ( ) also from cheeri, william cheeri of normandy, . _chesney_, from quesnay, near coutances; de chesnete in england. _chevalier_ (_i. e._ miles), normandy, . reginald miles, england, . _chew._ william de cayu, normandy, . walter c. kew, england. _cheyne._ cheyney, chinn, from quesnay, near coutances. robert de chesneto, bishop of lincoln, . the lords cheyny were of this stock. chinn is an old family name in kentucky, and seems to be genealogically connected with the chenoweth gens. (vide chenoweth.) the progenitor of the chinn family in england and america was one thomas de cheyne, of norman-french descent. rawleigh chinn, gent., married esther ball, a connection of the washington family, and came to america about and settled in lancaster county, virginia. (see the "register" for , page .) _chick_, or chike, a form of cheak (robson). a prominent kentucky family (boyle). _child_, the english form of enfant. william and roger le enfant, normandy, . william and john child, england, . _childers._ a corruption of challen or challers. vide smithson. _chinn._ vide cheyney, cheyne. _chitty._ in was cette. roger cette, norfolk. _chivers_, or cheevers, from la chievre, or capra, normandy. _choicy_, a form of chausy. _chollett._ collett. _cholmelsey_, or cholmondely. william de belwar, or belvar, or belvoir, married mabilia, a daughter of robert fitzhugh. from this william de belwar descended the house of cholmondely. _christian._ thomas and william christianus, normandy, . walter christianus, england, . crestien, cristian, crestin, england, . _christmas._ a translation of the norman-french noël. _chucks_, a form of chokes, or chioches, from choquet, flanders. _church._ vide search. _churchill_, or de courcelle. the churchills of dorset, ancestors of the great duke of marlborough, are traceable by the ordinary heralds' pedigrees to the reign of henry vii. the family of wallace (walensis) was a branch of the corcelles. from this family came the great duke. one of the later dukes of marlborough published a charming account of his visit to kentucky, just after the war. he was entertained at "ashland" by major henry c. mcdowell. _clare._ two families. ( ) de clare of browne. ( ) the norman house of de clere. _claret._ walter clarté, normandy, . john clarrot, england, . _clark._ george rogers clark. _clay_, from claye, near méaux. the name is borne by the baronets clay. the clays of bourbon and the clays of fayette, says general cassius m. clay, are descended from the same remote ancestor. _cliff_, or clift, clive. _cochrane_, cochran. the family were resident in county renfrew (says lower) for many centuries. vide peerage, earl of dundonal. renfrew has strong associations with john knox, and according to doctor macintosh, the vigorous race he represented had a strong infusion of norman or scandinavian blood. a recent legal decision connects the name of cochrane with one of the most important cases ever brought before a kentucky judge. _cockerell._ _collins._ _collins._ william de colince or colimes held lands at chadlington near oxford. coulimes was near alençon. hugh de coulimes, , held a barony of four fees. ( ) the collins family or families of kentucky have been notably distinguished. general richard h. collins was a lawyer of great ability. his sons, also lawyers, were brilliant and cultivated men. john a. collins was a member of the cincinnati bar, and a partner of senator pugh. charles and william were writers of ability and distinction. richard was a gallant confederate soldier and the artillerist of shelby's command. their father welcomed john quincy adams to kentucky when he made his famous speech in vindication of mr. clay. ( ) judge lewis collins was a native of kentucky and derived from pure virginian stock. he was a man of the highest character. his history of kentucky, a valuable work, was officially recognized by the legislature of the state. his son, doctor richard h. collins, a man of marked and varied ability, continued his father's historic labors; revised the volume first published, added another volume, and increased the quantity of matter fourfold. no one has bestowed higher commendation upon this work than professor shaler, himself an historian of the state. _combs._ _cooke._ _corbett._ _corbin._ _corker._ de corcres, normandy, - . [illustration: honorable humphrey marshall.] _costello_, from mac ostello, descendants of hostilio de angelo, settled in ireland, temp. henry. in this instance the new settler took the prefix _mac_, not an uncommon occurrence in those days. the native "macs" and "o's" of ireland were never at peace, and the galwagians repudiated both. when the normans came they gave the celts "_fitz_," and characteristically enough the celts, who were dissatisfied with "o" and "mac," have been having "fitz" ever since. lower says that english settlers sometimes assume the prefix "mac," apparently from a desire of assimilation to the celtic race. in ireland "o" was held in higher esteem than "mac" in scotland, it was just the reverse. _courtenay._ _cowan._ _cox_, or coxe; cocks, le coq; coke; cocus; also, de caux. _creasy._ _cripps._ armorially identified with crisp. _crittenden._ a fine old name from kent. the crittendens of kentucky have nobly illustrated the name. the founder of the family, john crittenden, was an officer in the revolutionary war. he came to kentucky at the close of that struggle, and settled in woodford, the heart of this state. his sons, john, thomas, and robert, were eminent at the bar, and henry, who devoted his life to agriculture, was equally conspicuous for talent. john j. crittenden received his elementary education at the local schools; afterwards attended washington academy (now washington-lee university), and completed his studies at william and mary. the effect of his classical training is shown in the clearness, finish, and felicity of his published speeches; his peculiar power in forensic oratory must always be a matter of tradition. the name "crittenden" is imperishably associated with that of kentucky. it is peculiarly a family of soldiers, lawyers, and political leaders. one soldier of the name was immortalized by his tragic fate--william crittenden, the proto-martyr of _cuba libre_. the history of the family is the history of the state. _crockett._ _crook_, or crooke. _crozier._ _cummings_, or cumming. _cunditt._ _currier._ richard coriarius, normandy, , from angerville, in the cotentin. _curtis._ _cuss._ a form of cust. one may be a "cuss" in kentucky; but quite as often he is "cust." _dade._ _dailey._ _dangerfield_, or d'angerville. _daniel._ _d'arcy._ _darrell._ _davie._ _davies._ _davis._ mr. burton n. harrison, in his graphic "century" narrative of the capture of jefferson davis, records the last "war" speech of the southern president. it was addressed to a column of cavalry, under the command of general duke, at charlotte, n. c., the soldiers waving their flags and hurrahing for "jefferson davis." the speech was brief. he thanked them for their cordial greeting; complimented the gallantry and efficiency of the kentucky cavalrymen; and expressed his determination not to despair of the confederacy, but to remain with the last organized band, "upholding the flag." this was all. he said later to his faithful secretary, "i can not feel like a beaten man." in a private letter written by secretary harrison to his mother about this time (unpublished), he says: "thaddeus stevens recently sent us an offer to become one of mr. davis' counsel if it were agreeable to us to have him serve." mr. harrison's letters to his family are admirably written and full of interest. it was the trained sagacity of an english statesman which in the midst of universal doubt and misconception enabled him to comprehend at a glance the difficulties encountered by jefferson davis in bringing order out of the wild chaos of secession in the southern states. "he has created a nation"--said mr. gladstone. doubtless, posterity, in full possession of the facts, will be disposed to let the judgment stand. these facts have never been more ably and accurately stated than in the eulogy by colonel william c. p. breckinridge upon that able and daring pilot in this great extremity of the south. the eulogist was competent to speak; he was early in the field; he was close to the inner councils of the war; he saw and shared the struggle in every phase; and at the close, he calmly accepted the results. his clear and rapid summary will carry historic weight: "when the world once understands how it was possible for the government, inaugurated at montgomery, without a battalion of soldiers, or a ship of war, without arms or munitions of war, without provisions and military stores; a government not possessing within its borders a single factory at which a single weapon of war, or a single part of a weapon of war, could be manufactured, without credit or funds; a nation with her ports soon blockaded so as to be deprived of access to the markets of the world; a republic composed nominally of thirteen separate states, of which kentucky, tennessee and missouri were practically under the control of its enemy--how such a nation could maintain such a war for a period of four years against the united states of america, and bring into the field an army more numerous than its entire adult white population, feed it, clothe it, transport it, arm it, take care of it and keep it in such condition that it won unprecedented victories, has been an unsolved mystery. when it is added that during those years personal freedom was maintained, order preserved, courts kept open and no rights usurped, thinkers will conclude that he who was the head and life, the spirit and chief must have been a very great man." the london _times_, in its obituary notice, said: "as he was the first to perceive the true nature of the struggle, so was he the last to admit that the battle was lost. he fought a losing battle with unquestionable ability and unflinching courage. his achievements will secure him an honorable place in his country's history." in the last public address of jefferson davis, delivered in the capitol of mississippi to the legislature in joint convention, he said: "the people of the confederate states did more in proportion to their numbers and men than was ever achieved by any people in the world's history. fate decreed that they should be unsuccessful in the effort to maintain their claim to resume the grants to the federal government. our people have accepted the decree; it, therefore, behooves them, as they may, to promote the general welfare of the union; to show to the world that hereafter, as heretofore, the patriotism of our people is not measured by the lines of latitude and longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain. let them leave to their children and children's children the grand example of never swerving from the path of duty, and preferring to return good for evil rather than to cherish the unmanly feeling of revenge." _davison._ _davy_, or davey. _dawe._ _dawkins_, or dakin. _dawson._ _day._ _deacon._ _dean._ _dearing_, or deering. _delacy_, or lacy. _delmar_. an abbreviation of de la mare. _denis_, or dennis. _denney_, or denny. _denton._ _derry_, for d'arry or d'airy. _desha._ (fr. deshayes.) a grandson of governor desha of kentucky, visiting many years ago the valley of wyoming, the ancestral home-place of the desha family, found a venerable scion of the pioneer stock, who invariably spelt his name deshay. fields, woods, hedges, etc., give surnames to families. in the following line from an old french writer we find two family names, or at least words familiarly used as such:--_on lui dressoit des sentiers au travers des hayes de leurs bois_. the name desha is accented on the second syllable, in kentucky, this doubtless being the original pronunciation as implied by the ancestral orthography--"deshay." beyond the seine in old paris; beyond the latin quarter and the faubourg st. germain, near the fortifications, there stands--or did stand in the closing quarter of the last century--a block of antique villas. one of these was known as the _villa deshayes_. captain deshayes, of the french man-of-war _le grand joseph_, made a gallant fight against two british frigates during the colonial wars. general joseph desha, after a brilliant military and political career, became governor of kentucky in . his administration (says collins, the old whig historian) was strong and efficient. the message of governor desha of kentucky, november , , says professor w. g. sumner of yale, "deserves attentive reading from any one who seeks to trace the movement of decisive forces in american political history." judge bledsoe (the father-in-law of governor desha) is reported to have said that "desha commenced his career with as sound a set of politics as any man in kentucky, but it was his misfortune never to change them." even desha's enemies concede that he made a brilliant and impressive appearance upon the hustings. his handsome person and carriage contributed much to this effect. he is described in that hudibrastic skit, "the stumpiad" ( ): "with chapeau-bras and good broad sword, and fine as any english lord." (vide sketch and portrait of desha in no. of the publications of the filson club: battle of the thames.) _devereux._ _devine._ william le devin, normandy, - . _dewey._ _dickens_, or digons. digin or diquon, an early "nurse-name" of richard. digg, diggery, dickman, digman, digins, diggins, "dickens"--name of the novelist. also, dickson, dickenson. "dickins," used as a nickname of satan, is a contraction of the diminutive _devilkins_. _dietrich._ (scan.) didrik. didrich, diderk, diderisk. (from a list of frisian personal and family names--barber.) _dimmett_, for diment. _dimmitt._ _dixie._ armorially identified with dicey. from diss, norfolk, which belonged to richard de lucy, governor of falaise. the confederate war-song, therefore, bears a norman name. _dodson._ the son of dode, alwinus dodesone, occurs in domesday as a tenant-in-chief. it is an open question whether it is scandinavian or anglo-saxon. even lower is doubtful. there is a large connection of this name in maryland and kentucky. one branch is connected with the botelers of virginia. a good english stock. _doggett._ _doniphan._ probably an early form of donovan. by old writers (says lower) the name is written dondubhan ("the brown-haired chief")--changed to doniphan by the familiar substitution of p for b. the doniphans of kentucky were a strong race--lawyers, soldiers, physicians, etc. general william nelson's mother was a doniphan. joseph doniphan came to the fort at boonesborough in . he is said to have been the first school-teacher in kentucky. at the battle of bracito, the mexican leader of a large force called upon colonel doniphan (a kentuckian) to surrender, with the alternative "no quarter." "surrender, or i will charge your lines!" the answer came at once--"_charge and be damned_!" there was no surrender. the mexicans lost. colonel alexander doniphan was a close maternal kinsman of general william nelson, of kentucky, and like him in many respects. _dougles_, or dougless. _dover_, from douvres or dovers, normandy. a baronet family which derived its name from a scandinavian dover at the conquest of normandy, . dover, kentucky, is doubtless in the same line of descent. _dowell_, for doel or dol. rivallon, seneschal of dol, ancestor of the counts of dol; connections of the du guesclins (of france) and stuarts (of scotland). passing into a celtic environment, a norman dol or dowell would naturally assume the celtic prefix, "mac," as in like circumstances english settlers have done. in lord stair's list of _macs_, he gives _dowale_, _douall_, _dowell_. mcdowell is the form the name assumes in virginia and kentucky, one branch of the family (mcdowells) being known as the _mcdoles_, a traditional pronunciation of the name. the progenitor of the family, colonel samuel m. dowell, was a colonial leader in virginia, and conspicuous and influential as a pioneer in kentucky. he was president of the convention that organized the state. the common derivation of "dowell" is from _dougall_, and was intended in the highlands to apply exclusively to the _lowlander_; though quite as applicable to the "man from below." (vide lower: _dhu_, black; _gall_, a stranger.) _downing._ old english name familiar in kentucky. a loc. n. worc. (eng.) _drake._ there is no reason to doubt that the drakes of devon were all originally of the same race. they bore a dragon (draco), showing that their name had been draco. the father of daniel drake came to kentucky in the closing years of the eighteenth century, settling in the rich bluegrass county of mason. along with a rifle and an axe, he brought five books to the wilds of kentucky, to wit, a bible, a hymn book, an arithmetic, a spelling book, and the "famous history of montellion, a romance of the ages of chivalry." "the letters of lord chesterfield,"--borrowed by the father of daniel from a friend in the neighboring virginian colony--"fell in mighty close"--says the son--"with the tastes of the whole family." chesterfield and montellion:--ideal educators even in this "school of the woods," as it was happily termed by its most distinguished graduate, doctor daniel drake. daniel drake was not only a skillful physician and accomplished scholar, but he was the founder of a famous medical school, and an author whose productions, in the estimation of competent critics, have given him and his country a splendid and enduring renown. his elaborate and systematic treatise upon the diseases of the valley of the mississippi is a work which lays broad the foundations of medico-geographical research in the western hemisphere, and foreshadows in masterly fashion the rigorous methods of physical science that are now universally in vogue. the author was an explorer by right of birth. he was a true son of his pioneer father, and a typical scion of an adventurous race. the daring navigator, sir francis drake, the son of a devonshire yeoman, was a true kinsman in spirit, and probably in blood. the same passion for exploration which drove the one to circle the universal seas in an english keel inspired the other to toil through the vast spaces of a continental wilderness and explore the haunts of pestilence upon the shores of the mexican gulf. it is doubtless as the author of that unique work--"the diseases of the great interior valley"--that daniel drake will chiefly be remembered, and certainly no one could desire a better title to remembrance. the motto of his famous "journal," e sylvis nuncius, is a succinct and happy characterization of the man. he was indeed an ambassador from nature, and his credentials have passed unchallenged to this day. _drewry._ _duckworth._ _dudley._ _duer._ _duncan_, or dunkin. _duke._ le duc, normandy, - . radulphus dux (or duke), of bucks, england, . the name keeps its old distinction in kentucky. it will long survive in social tradition and always hold a high place in the history of the state. an anglo-norman family. _dr. basil duke_, born in calvert county, maryland, ; died in washington, ky., ; married, , charlotte marshall, born, , in fauquier county, virginia; died in washington, kentucky, april , . she was a sister of chief-justice marshall. . thomas marshall duke, born , died about ; married: . bettie taylor. . nancy ashby. . ---- mccormick. . mary wilson duke, born february , ; married, may , , dr. john f. henry; died september, . . james keith duke, born, washington, ky., ; died august , ; married, february , , mary buford. . nathaniel wilson duke, born ; died at paris, ky., july, ; married, october , , mary currie. parents of general basil duke. . john marshall duke, born, washington, ky., october , , died in maysville, ky., ; married hannah morton. . lucy ann duke born washington, ky., january , ; died rock island, ill.; married, january , , charles buford. . charlotte jane duke, born washington, ky., january , ; died february, ; married, january , , harrison taylor, "war" speaker of the house of representatives. (kentucky.) the dukes of south mason are descended from alexander duke of maryland, a tall, vigorous specimen of the anglo-norman breed who lived to be nearly one hundred years of age. his son, dr. basil duke, was a brigade surgeon in the confederate service. [illustration: honorable john j. crittenden.] _durrell_, from durell. armorially identified with darrell, durrant, durran, durrock, and possibly durrett. (vide durrett.) note how slight a change converts the norman name clarte into claret. so, druett into durrett. _durrett._ a surname traceable beyond the conquest, and having all the marks of a norman surname. if not of literal record in our various lists, it is evidence of defect in the list itself. it is a familiar tradition in colonel paul durrett's family that the original form of the surname was _duret_, and that the family was of french extraction. widely separated branches of the same stock have the same tradition. every village in normandy--says camden--has "surnamed" a family in england. it is easy to perceive, therefore, that the number of surnames thus derived, added to the number derived from other sources, would oblige the compilers of genealogical dictionaries from sheer exhaustion to _omit_ many names. there is a simple process of linguistic mutation which explains the genesis of many words. it is known as _transposition_. it may be a transposition of _letters_, as in the simple name _crisp_, transpose the terminal letters and we have the familiar name _crips_; or it may be a transposition of _syllables_, of which we have a famous example in _al-macks_, _decelticized_ for anglican uses by a simple transposition of the syllables in the celtic surname--_mack-all_. so, durand, durant (vide battle abbey roll and d. b.), deruelle, durelle, druell, durell, durel, durell (huguenot, london, ), durrell; so, too, drouet (nor. fr.), druet, druett, durrett. _duré_ is a french surname easily normanized by the addition of the diminutive suffix _et_ or _ett_, giving us duré, duret, or durett; and when consonantally _braced_ (more anglico) by doubling the "r," we have _durrett_--a familiar surname in kentucky. _dur_, the adjective, means _hard, durable, enduring_; the noun _dur_ is _door_; _ett_ is a norman suffix; giving the ancient surname _durrett_ a characteristic norman stamp, structure, and _cachet_. _dye_, for deye. _dyer._ _eames._ ames. _edmonds_, or edmunds. _egerton._ _eckert._ _eliot._ _ellis_, or alis, from alis near pont de l'arche. the sensational duel between major thomas marshall and captain charles mitchell was fought upon the place of mr. washington ellis, near maysville, ky. it has been well described by dr. anderson nelson ellis, his son, an accomplished writer and physician. _ellison._ _emet_, or emmett, from amiot, normandy. _english_, or inglis; families of this name are all norman. england is another form of anglicus. _eve_, or ives. _everett_, from evreux. (normandy.) _fail_, for faiel, fales. william faiel, normandy, . reginald fale, england, . _faint_ for fant. _falconer_, or falkner. _farish_, or fariss or ferris. _farley_, or varley. _farrer_, armorially identified with ferrers of bere. ferrers, farrow, the same. a large family, well and widely connected in virginia and kentucky. archdeacon farrer is of the same gens. the name is variously spelled farrer, farrow, farra, farrers. _faulconer_, for falconer; also faulkner. _fell_, _fayle_, or fail, fales. _fickling._ _field._ richard de la felda is mentioned in normandy, temp. john (mem. soc. ant. norm. v. ). burke (landed gentry) states under the head de la field that this family was originally seated in alsace near the vosges mountains. the author of "the norman people" says the name embraces both english and norman families. pierce's great two-volume "genealogy" (profusely illustrated) exhibits the prodigious growth in america, including such names as cyrus field, justice field, marshall field, and judge curtis field. the kentucky fields were connected by marriage with the clays of bourbon. pierce's genealogy gives very pleasing views of "auvergne," the home of the field-clays. this estate was inherited by hon. cassius m. clay, jr., of bourbon. henry field (eng. ) came to virginia in . lieutenant henry field, culpeper county, virginia, married ann lightfoot, may, . his will made november , . his daughter, judith field, married francis taylor, of maryland, in louisville, ky., february , . francis taylor studied law with judge sebastian in louisville. lucretia, a daughter of francis and judith taylor, married captain james b. robinson. the fields family of tennessee (afterward of kentucky) are now in the north, the brothers james and henry being conspicuous in the management of important steel and iron trusts. their sister, mrs. charles d. lanier, is a resident of new york city. her husband (a son of the famous southern poet) is now at the head of "the review of reviews." _fillpot_ or philpot, from philipot, diminutive of philip. _finch._ _finney._ _fisher._ _fisk_, or fyska. _fitch_, or fitz. _fitzgerald._ _flanders_, or flamders. common in england after the conquest. _fleet._ _fleming._ the flemings of fleming are derived from the flemings of virginia. _fleming._ the flemings of "wigton" came from flanders in the train of william the conqueror. sir thomas fleming came to virginia in . colonel john fleming (another wigtonshire fleming) came from virginia to kentucky in . his grandson, john donaldson fleming, was also a pioneer and served with marked efficiency as united states district attorney for colorado. _fletcher._ _flowers._ _foakes_, or fowkes. _foley._ _folk._ governor of missouri. a political leader of distinction. _follett._ _force_, de forz. _foreman_, or forman for fairman. the forman family of kentucky (local pronunciation _fur_-man) forms one of the largest and most influential connections in the state. they are scandinavians of a high type. _forrest._ _forrester._ _forster_, or foster. james lane allen was a foster in the maternal line. _fountain_, de fonte. _fowke_, gerard, a kentuckian, directed the later horsford excavations at cambridge. he is a descendant of the "elizabethan" fowke, a virginian pioneer. his latest paper described his explorations of the lower amur valley. it was a cold trail, but the story is one of singular interest. _fowkes_, or fowke. see foakes. _fowler._ _fox_, or reinard. the norman name was translated in england after the conquest, being previously rainer, renard, etc. the celebrated fox family of england was derived from le fox, normandy. renard de douvres is familiarly known in kentucky as "fox of dover." the fox family of dover are descendants of a wealthy virginian, arthur fox, distinguished among the pioneer citizens of the state. judge fountain fox of boyle and the southern novelist, john fox, were doubtless derived from the same anglo-norman stock. _francis_, governor of missouri; organizer of the world's fair in commemoration of the louisiana purchase. _frazee_, fraser, frazier, fraize, a loc. n. in france. fr. fraiseur. from _fraiser_, to fortify with stakes. samuel frazee, a revolutionary soldier, came to madison county, ky., in . progenitor of a large and prominent family in the state. doctor lewis j. frazee, of louisville, was author of "a medical student, europe," a mid-century publication. _freyer_, or frier. (old norse.) armorially identified in normandy with frere. ansgot frater, of normandy, . in england, . _gaines._ _gairdner_, or gardner (c. jardinier). _gambier._ _gamble._ _garland._ _garrard_, for gerard; ralph and william gerard, normandy, - . twenty-six of the name in england, . _garratt._ roger and william garrett, of normandy, . _garrett._ _gaskin._ _gaskins._ _gates._ _gault._ _gay._ ralph gai, normandy, . robert de gay, a benefactor to osney, oxford. _geary_, or gery, normandy, . william de gueri. of this name are the baronets geary. _gentry_, chantry. from chaintre, near macon. _gibbon_, or gibbons. _gibbs._ _gibson._ _gilbert._ _gill_, gille or giles. _gillman._ _gilpin_, galopin. _glen_, or glenn. _goble_, for gobel. _goddard._ _godfrey._ _goggin_, or gogin, normandy, ; england, . william l. goggin was a mid-century governor of virginia. lucien b. goggin, his brother, was a prominent citizen of kentucky. this ancient surname is distinctly traceable by record from normandy to england; from england to virginia; from virginia to kentucky. and this is but one out of _many names_, officially recorded in normandy, that reappear, hundreds of years afterward, in kentucky. _goode._ _gooding._ _goodman._ _gordon_, or berwick (anglo-norman, also a celtic clan name). _goring._ _gosling._ _gossett._ _gowan._ _graham_, in all the early records of england, means grantham in lincoln. william de graham, who settled in scotland, came from grantham. ralph, hereditary chamberlain of normandy, had two grandsons--( ) rabel, ancestor of the chamberlains of normandy. ( ) william de graham, ancestor of montrose and dundee. _grand_, le grant, grand; scottish grants are celtic. _graves._ _gray_, greey or grey. from gray, normandy, near caen. _grenfell._ recalling the name of the gallant englishman that rode with morgan. _gresham._ _gunn._ william de gons, normandy, . william gun, england, . dennis gunn, kentucky, . _gurney_, from de gournay. _gurdon_, from gourdon, near calais. _hailie_, for hailly or d'aily. _haines._ from haisne, near arras. _haley_, for hailey. _haley_, for hailey. percy haley is notably anglo-norman. _hall._ _halliday_, or holliday. recalls the famous overland route. _halliday_, from halyday, normandy. a name historically associated in america with the great overland route, as is also blanchard (q.v.). benjamin holliday, william blanchard, and judge thomas a. marshall (president of the central pacific) were kentuckians born within a few miles of each other, near the northern border of the state. all pioneers of scandinavian blood. _halsey._ _ham._ from the castle of ham, normandy. william _du_ ham, normandy, . william _de_ ham, england, . _hamer._ heirmir, the name of a jarl. it was that stout fighter, general hamer, who sent ulysses grant to west point. _hamilton._ a well-known family in kentucky. _hamilton._ gilbert de hamelden had estates in surrey, holding his lands from the honour of huntingdon, and, therefore, from the kings of scotland ( ). his elder son, walter, was one of the barons of scotland, and held the barony of hamilton. the family dates from normandy, . the most illustrious descendant of this noble scottish family was an american--alexander hamilton--who, according to that very eminent authority, prince talleyrand, "was the greatest man of his epoch," an epoch illustrated by such names as napoleon and washington--his greatness consisting peculiarly in this, that he was not only variously gifted--soldier, scholar, orator, administrator, political philosopher and financier, but, like william of normandy, he was a creative or constructive statesman, and his mother, like the maiden of falaise, was a daughter of france. in a brilliant and powerful work descriptive of his life, he is fitly styled the "conqueror," and an american senator, writing upon the same lines, adopts practically the same views. the discussion in both instances is conducted with perfect frankness and in perfect taste. in a speech at the recent home-coming in louisville, an eloquent kentuckian made felicitous reference to a similar instance in which (it was alleged) destiny (or subterranean tradition) had assigned to a daughter of the people the same illustrious rôle. whatever the facts, there is a philosophy that rises above conventions; precisely as if it should say--"in the higher planes of life, the conceptions of social evolution are sometimes predestinated and immaculate." who knows? thus much at least may be conceded to the maiden of the wilderness, to the daughter of the tropics, and to the maiden of falaise, that no three women who have figured in profane history as the mothers of great men have more profoundly affected the destinies of the english or anglo-norman race. _hampden._ _hampton._ norman-french. de hantona. _hancock._ hancoc or hencot--these names were gradually changed to hancock. _hanks._ according to lower, an old cheshire "nick"-name of randolph. the name randolph has given rise to many "diminutives," as rankin, randolph, randy, ranson, hankin, hankey, hanks, resembling in this respect the prolific "peter" (q.v.). in the struggle for existence the monosyllabic "hanks" has survived to share the distinction of the original surname. to have been borne by the mother of lincoln is quite enough to render it illustrious for all time. a contemporary said of her that "she was a woman of superior natural endowments of mind and of great amiability and kindness of heart. she was always gentle, always kind, but far more energetic than her husband. she was quick-witted, with a great relish for the humorous and a keen appreciation of fun." her husband generously described her occasional "complaints" as "chirping"--a gracious felicity of speech. whatever the wit and charm of the woman, there was certainly humor, with tenderness and imagination, in the man. abraham lincoln was born in hardin county, ky., in february, , three and a half years after the marriage of his father and mother. she died in october, . she was buried near the present site of lincoln city, and lay for many years in an unmarked grave. a "sculptured monument" now marks the spot. it is a beautiful shaft of white marble and bears the impressive legend: "beneath this shaft lies in peace all that is mortal of nancy lincoln, mother of abraham lincoln, the sixteenth president of the united states." _hanson_, hausen (scand). _harben_ (norman) or harbin, de harpin: harbinson. _harcourt._ the earls of harcourt were descended from bernard, "the dane," who was chief counselor and second in command to rollo or rolf in his invasion of neustria, , and received for his services a chateau ("harcourt") near brionne in france. robert de harcourt attended william the conqueror to the conquest of england. "harcourt" is notably a name of "high life." _harden_, or hardin. walter hardin, a true norman name. _hardin._ ben hardin, the great kentucky lawyer, on one occasion when traveling the circuit breakfasted with his kinsman, major barbour, a prominent citizen of a pious community. mrs. barbour, who had little taste for the profane writers, but read her bible daily, was truly a mother in israel; and was as hospitable to sinners as to saints. the problem before the venerable hostess was to make the conversation interesting to the great lawyer. roosevelt and the kaiser were not at the front in those days, and the conversation naturally flagged; but the old lady soon found a satisfactory substitute for the great modern rulers, and turned suddenly upon her imposing kinsman with the query, "benjamin, what do you think of solomon?" ben had evidently studied the subject, for he answered instantly, "solomon, madam, was a magnificent damned scoundrel." _hardin_, hardinge, d. b. harding, hardingus, hardine. in old norse, haddingjar. harden for ardern or hardern. ralph de ardern was lord of bracebridge. the family of arden or ardern (with aspirate, harden) was norman and went to england in . bernard "the dane" was regent of normandy, . _harden_, for hardern or ardern; or _arden_ with aspirate. _hardy._ _harris_, for heris, normandy. harsee, normandy, . _harris_, for heriz. ralph heriz, normandy, -' . ivo de heriz, england, . _harrison._ philip and gilbert heriçon, normandy, . henry harsent, england, . in virginia, a great name. [illustration: honorable henry watterson.] ( ) the famous french economist, michel chevalier, traveled in the united states in . he says in one of his _lettres_ that he remarked at the table of the hotel a man of about years of age who had the lively air and alert carriage of a youth. he was impressed by the amenity of his manners and by a certain air of command which peered even through his "linsey" habit. this, he learned, was the distinguished american general, harrison, victor in the battle of the thames, one of the two very celebrated battles of the war, the other being the battle of tippecanoe. if a "norman" battle was ever fought upon this continent, it was the battle of the thames. it might have recalled to the conqueror his own baptism of fire. on the eve of battle the american commander changed his plans. having learned that colonel james johnson's cavalry had been drilled to _charge in the woods_, he ordered a charge to be made by the mounted kentuckians upon the british line, which was drawn up in a wooded strip of ground between the river and the swamp. their artillery was planted in the wagon road which bisected the center of the british line. the column of kentuckians flanking the artillery was launched upon the right of the saxon line with irresistible force. reserving their fire and reversing the movement, they charged the broken and disordered line from the rear, pouring upon it a destructive fire. the victory was complete. colonel r. m. johnson charged the indians in their covert on the left; and it was here, in a close hand-to-hand struggle, that tecumseh fell, bequeathing a lifelong controversy to his foes. it was ultimately settled, however, in the popular mind by the traditional couplet-- "humpsy, dumpsy, humpsy, dumpsy, colonel johnson killed tecumseh." _harrison._ heriçon, normandy, . _harrop._ la herupe. _harrow._ _hart._ _hart._ lecerf, ralph cerfus, normandy, - . in england translated into herte, also harte. _harvey_, harvie, hervey, herveus, , normandy. sire hervey is mentioned in piers plowman. the early pronunciation of hervey was _harvey_. now, generally pronounced as spelled. _hatcher._ _haughton._ _hawes._ richard hawes, confederate governor of kentucky. _hawkins._ from the manor of hawkings, kent, held by walter hawkins, . colonel tom hawkins of kentucky, who fought with lopez in cuba, was a typical anglo-norman. _hawley._ _hay_, or de la haye. _hay_, or de la hey, hay. armorially identified with hayes, from hayes, near blois. vide desha or deshayes. _hayles._ _hayley._ _hayne_, or haynes. _hearn_, from heron, near rouen. _hedge._ _helm._ andrew de helm, england, . (normandy, .) _herd_, for hert, hart. _hert._ _hewett_, or hewitt. from huest or huet, near evreux. also, hewettson. _hibberd._ _hickey_, hequet, normandy. _hicks._ _higgin_, hequet, normandy. higginson. _hill._ the english form of de morete. for helle or de heille, near beaurais. the family was spread throughout kent and surrey. _himes._ _hitt._ _hoare._ aure from auray, in bretagne. _aure_, with aspirate, becomes _hoare_. _hogg_, or de hoge. from la hogue in the contentin. _hoghton_, hocton. _hoide._ _hoile_, or hoyle. norman hoel, a familiar name in kentucky. _holburd_, halbert, alberd, albert. _holiday_, or holliday. ben holliday, forerunner of the stanfords and huntingtons. _holland_, de hoilant, normandy, . _holles_, for hollis. robert de holis, normandy, . _holmes_ (william der holme). _holmes._ from norse holmer (an islet in a lake). d. b. de holme, a tenant in chief. william du holme, - . _hood._ norse udi. danish hude. the popular hero, robin, seems to have been of scandinavian descent. john hood, of kentucky, was pre-eminently a "fighting general." jesse james was the robin hood of our day. _hooker._ _hooper._ _hord._ a swedish name, borne by a general of charles xii. _howel._ _hudson._ hudson of maysville, an intimate friend of general grant. _hughes._ _hulbard._ for hubert. _humfrey._ _humphry._ _humphrey._ notably a norman name. as theologians, lawyers, scholars, the humphreys of kentucky have sustained the ancient distinction of the name. _hunt_, le huant, normandy, . _hunter_ (venator or le veneur). _hunter._ english form of le veneur. _huntley._ _hurt._ _hutchings_, or hutchins, houchin. _hyatt_ (haytt). _ingall._ for angall. _ingle._ for angle. _inglis_, or anglicus. _ingram._ _innes_ (the baronets innes). _ireland_ (dehibernis, normandy, ). _jack._ for jacques; william jack, england, . _jackson._ a name of the family lascelles. _james._ st. james, normandy. _janvier._ (january.) at least three branches in this country from a common ancestor in france. the name is sometimes anglicized--notably in missouri and kentucky. _jarvis_ (gervasius, normandy, ). _jeffreys_ (with various forms), geoffrey, geoffrey's son, jefferson. in the home-coming reception mason and jefferson hold the extremes of the receiving line. _jennings_, from genn or canon, chanum, chanon, chanoun, jenun, jenning or jennings, william jennings bryan. vide bryan. _jewell_, from juel or judæ de mayenne. _jewett_, or guet, normandy, . _johnson._ the johnsons of ayscough-fee, county lincoln, claim from the house of fitzjohn of normandy (guillim's display of heraldry). a distinguished name in maryland, virginia, and kentucky. _johnston_ is scandinavian. probably the most conspicuous and influential scandinavian in the united states at this time bears that name. he is a native of scandinavia. the most notable american of that race and name was the confederate general albert sidney johnston. there are two pictures of him that will live in the popular mind: ( ) as he stood, silent and absorbed, beside his camp fire on the night before shiloh; ( ) as he led that dashing and successful charge on the following day. a soldier worthy of his race. _julian._ from st. julian, normandy. _karr._ _kays._ _kerr._ appears to be a branch of the norman house of espec. the name is variously given as kerr, karr, carr, cairo, carum. lucien carr was author of a history of missouri. _keats_, for keate. keats the poet had a brother who lived in louisville, ky. _keats_, keat, keyt, kate. in collins' history, page , vol. , the reader notes the following reference to this name--"the most celebrated female school in the west at the time was in washington, - ; that of mrs. louisa caroline warburton fitzherbert keats, sister of sir george fitzherbert, of st. james square, and wife of reverend mr. keats, a relation of the celebrated poet."--the keats family of louisville (closely related to the poet) was conspicuous in the early history of that city. they were connections of the famous speed family of kentucky. _kehoe._ (french) cahot; cahut; cayeux, p. n. _kenney_ (de kani, , normandy). _kentain_, for kintan or quentin. simon kenton was always known among the plain people as kinton, though, in early kentucky statutes, the name is spelled _canton_, no doubt as then pronounced, even by "scollards." kenton, a "place" name near the northeast coast of england. much of our old kentucky stock is northumbrian. _keith._ _key._ _keyes._ _kimball_, for kemble. _king_ (rex de leroy, normandy, ). _kinsey_, for kensey. _kirk_, or quirk, de querçu. _kissill._ for cecil, which is also sometimes sissell, knight (miles or knight, normandy). _knott_, for canot or canute. _knott_ (danish), knouth. norse knöttr (a ball or knob, as a knot on oak). _kydd_, or kidd. _kyle_, or keyle. _lacy_, or lacey. a baronial name from lasey, between vire and aulnay. walter de lacy was in the battle of hastings, and captain walter lacy of kentucky was a soldier in the mexican war. _lamb_ (robert, agnus, and ralph, normandy, ). _lambton._ a durham family from the barons of tarp and normandy. _landor_, or lander. from landers, burgundy. from this family walter landor, the poet. _larken_, larkin, largan, largant, larcamp, larkins, normandy, . _laurence_, lorenz, normandy, ; also lawrence. _lawson_, from loison, normandy, . _lee_, leigh, de la mare. stephen lee, the progenitor of the kentucky lees, was born in prince william county, virginia, and died in mason county, kentucky. his first wife--the widow magruder--was the mother of priscilla lee, who married william botts of virginia. his second wife died without issue. his third wife was mrs. ann dunn. her son, henry, who rose to distinction in the history of kentucky, was born april , . he married mary young. the question is sometimes asked, "how were the descendants of stephen lee related to the lees of the northern neck?" many years ago the writer of this note saw in a collection of old papers made by that able and conscientious antiquary, william d. hixson,[ ] a letter from general henry lee of virginia ("light-horse harry") to general henry lee of kentucky, in which the latter was addressed as "dear cousin." the letter was in relation to certain lands in mason county then owned by a daughter, priscilla lee; and was of peculiar interest as confirming the familiar tradition of a connection by blood between the two families of lee. the name "lee" is traced by english genealogists to scandinavia. (vide sketch of the lee family in the "register," by lucy coleman lee.) [ ] w. d. hixson, the "old mortality" of mason, is now a resident of mt. sterling, kentucky. _lemon_, lemmus, normandy, . _lenard_, or leonard. for leonard from st. leonard near fecamp, normandy. _lenney_, or linney, from launer, normandy. _lewis_, delues or luiz, normandy, . _liddell._ from lydale, on scottish border; seat of a norman. _lile_, for lisle. _lincoln._ alured de lincoln came from normandy with the conqueror; held a great barony in lincoln and bedford. from a collateral branch, it is said--and the branches were numerous--descended the greatest of the "rulers of men," abraham lincoln. _lincoln._ the following appreciation of the character of abraham lincoln is from paul bourget's outre-mer. the judgment of posterity is probably anticipated in this discriminating characterization by an able foreign writer: "that heroic struggle has left more noble vestiges than the shameful abuse of electoral pensions: the recollection in the first place of a common bravery, the proof that american industrialism has not in the least diminished the energies of the race; again, the legend of lincoln, of one of those men who by their example alone model after their mind the conscience of an entire country. that personage, so american by the composite character of his individuality, humorous and pathetic at the same time; that politician experienced in all trickeries and nevertheless so capable of idealism and mysticism; that half-educated man who had at times magnificent simplicities of eloquence; that old wood-cutter, his face bitter with disgust, yet luminous with hope, worn out with trials and still so strong; that statesman so close to the people and nevertheless with so broad a vision, remains the most modern of heroes, one whom the united states can boldly place in opposition to a napoleon, a cavour, a bismarck. the south to-day recognizes his greatness as well as the north. he had the luck to be exactly the workman that was needed for the task which he undertook, and to die as soon as that task was achieved. such circumstances continued form great destinies." "abraham lincoln" (says one of his admiring compatriots) "was an incomparable leader of men. while mcclellan and grant could conduct more or less successfully the operations of a hundred thousand men in the field, it was abraham lincoln alone that could keep in hand the vast and turbulent electorate of eighteen northern states. it was lincoln's consummate generalship, happily for the south, that held these radical and aggressive elements in check: '_unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem._'" _lindsay_, or de lines. branch of a baronial norman house; one of the sovereign families that ruled in norway till dispossessed by harold harfager. the name "lindsay" is from the norman seigneury limesay. there are various branches with armorial identifications pointing to a common origin. chief justice lindsay, of kentucky, stands in the front rank of anglo-norman lawyers. _lisle._ _littell_, or little. parvus or le petit, normandy, . _littleton_, or lytleton. _lockett_, for lockhart. _long._ petrus de longa, normandy. _lovell._ louvel, normandy, . _lucas._ from de lukes or luches. _luckett_, for lockett. _luke._ from st. luc, near evreux, normandy. _luttrell_, ralph and robert lotrel, normandy, . _lyle_, for lisle. _lyon._ from lions, normandy. _lyttleton._ from vantort, maine. lord chief justice lytleton was of this house. _machin._ from lemachun or lemeschun. _mainwaring._ mesnil, larin, a well-known norman family. _major._ normandy, . _maltby._ (scandinavian.) _malby._ for malbiæ, normandy, . _man_, or mann. _manning._ from maignon, normandy, . _march._ from marchie, normandy. _markland._ an old scandinavian name. it was given by eric in his voyage of exploration (year ) to the "wooded" coast of cape breton, or nova scotia. _marsh._ demarisco, normandy, . _marshall._ there are coats of arms of this name, generally normans, the principal of these being the earls of pembroke. colonel thomas marshall of virginia, the father of the great chief justice, lived near washington, mason county, ky. he died in . his grave in the family burying-ground near the old home ("the hill") has attracted many visitors of late years, and the family homestead near washington was once visited by the chief justice himself. john marshall was probably the greatest american lawyer of anglo-norman descent; and certainly, as mr. barrett wendell says, "the most eminent chief justice of the supreme court of the united states." judge thomas a. marshall, who recently passed away at salt lake city, a grandson of old colonel thomas marshall, was also a "pioneer." he became the greatest mining lawyer in the west, and president of the central pacific railroad. lytleton, coke, chitty, denman, and other great english lawyers were derived from that same learned, astute, and litigious norman race. _martin._ ralph, john, william, normandy, ; william martin, england, . _mason._ william le mazon, normandy, ; hugh le maun, england, . mason county, named after the famous virginian, george mason, by the legislature of virginia in , and not (as recently proclaimed) after a governor of michigan, who in all likelihood was not born when the county was named. _massey._ _massie._ _massy._ a well-known norman family, macy, whence the name is derived, was seated near coutances and avranches, normandy. _may._ from de mai, normandy, ; de may, england, . maysville, ky., named after john may. [illustration: colonel bennett h. young.] _mayhew_, for mayo. _mead_, or meade. the english form of de prato, normandy, . _menzies_, or de maners, or later in scotland, manners. _mercer_, mercier; normandy. _merrill._ _miall_, miel, mihell, mighell (the last a mediæval form of michael). lower also derives mitchell from michael through the french form michel. _miles._ _mill._ _miller_, or milner, in normandy molendinarius. _mills_, from miles. _milton_, or middleton. armorially identified with the norman family de camville, in the cotentin. the poet milton was of this stock. _minors_, or minor. a distinguished family long settled in virginia. de mineriis, normandy, ; in england also, . _mitchell_, for michel. _mitchell._ rudulphus michael, normandy, -' . william de st. michael, england, . michael, michel, michell. _montagu._ from montaigu or montacute, normandy. _montgomery_, demonte. gourmeril, normandy, many branches. _moodie._ _moody._ _moore_ (de more). _morey._ english pronunciation of moret. _morton_, for moreton. _morton._ ralph de morteine. _mountjoy._ pagonus de montegaii, normandy, ; the family was seated in notts and derby. early settlers in virginia and kentucky. _mowbray._ baronial family, castle of molbrai. _mullins_, for molines. _mundey_, for munday. _murrell_, for morrall. _nelson_, nilson. of norman descent, who settled in norfolk, was the direct ancestor of admiral lord nelson. original form neilson or neilsen. _neville_, de nova villa, normandy, . the families of neville, beaugenay, and baskeville are descended from a common ancestor. the nevilles are most numerous in lincoln. _newton._ the most famous of this large family, sir isaac newton, was of norman descent. _nicholas._ richard nicholas, normandy, ; nicholas, nicolaus, england, . a distinguished name in kentucky. _norman._ ralph normannus, normandy, ; henry norman, england, . this name has a social and official conspicuity in the state of kentucky; and in whatever position found it shows the characteristic marks of the old blood. _norris_, william norensis, normandy, ; thomas norensis, england, . _northcott_, or northcote. _norton_, or conyers. elder branch of the family of conyers, or cognieres, normandy; named from the barony of norton, york, the chief english seat of the family. _nye_, for noye. _o'hara_, hare, o'hare, o'hara (fleet-footed). scions of the house of hare-court, or harcourt, counts of normandy. theodore o'hara was a kentuckian by birth and training. he was a gallant soldier in the mexican war; second officer in the first lopez expedition; a colonel in the confederate service. he is best known by those fine elegiac lines which seem to be following the military cemeteries of the english-speaking race: "on fame's eternal camping-ground their silent tents are spread." [see ranck's biography of o'hara, and "lopez's expeditions," published by the filson club, no. , this series.] _ormsby._ _orr_ (danish). a parish in kirk and brightshire. _orr._ norse, orri (heathcock tetras tetrix). _orth._ _osborne._ _owen_, from st. owen, near caen. _palmer._ _patterson_, the son of patricius (vide lower). _paul._ _payne._ _paynter_ (de peyntre). thos. h. paynter, united states senator from kentucky. _pearce._ _peed._ _peel_, pele, norman, . peels of yorkshire and lancashire, ancestors of sir robert peel. _peers._ _pelham._ _percy._ _perry_, or perrie. _peters_ and _peter_ (pierre). doctor thomas lounsbury, who combines erudition most agreeably with common sense, says in a recent paper that at particular periods there is manifested a feeling of "hostility" to certain words. we have an illustration of this in the history of the proper name _peter_, which, as one of the philologists tells us, "at one time was odious to english ears." for example, we find in the statistical nomenclature of wiltshire only sixteen peters to ninety-two johns, and the ratio elsewhere in other shires or districts is about the same. yet we find many traces of peter or pierre (the original french form) in other names, as pears, peers, pars, etc. peter has been a prolific propagator of patronymics in spite of its temporary eclipse; peterson, pearson, peterman, pierson, etc. it does not seem to have recovered its early popularity, or to be able to stand alone; but with desinences attached it takes and retains its old position, as in perkins, peterkin, perrins, perrutts, etc. it is a buoyant, resilient norman vocable with the characteristic norman facility of assimilation. this one surname covers many others. _pettit._ _peyton._ _philpot._ _picard_, pykart, pecor, pecar. _pickett._ (picot.) _pinckard._ _pirtle._ norman french. a diminutive of "pert"; is common in the arrondissement of bayeux. _pitt._ taine's ideal type of an englishman was william pitt, who is thus described by that admirable observer: "sometimes," in his rounds of observation, he "detects the physiognomy of pitt; the slight face, impressive and imperious; the pale and ardent eyes; the look which shines like the gleam of a sword. the man is of a finer mould, but his will is only the more incisive and firmer; it is iron transformed into steel." contrast this portraiture of pitt with his pictures of the taurine type of englishman. that munificent english savant, general pitt-rivers, is of the same norman stock. he was a gallant soldier in the crimean war. _plunkett._ _poague._ _pollitt._ _porter._ _potter._ _potts._ _poyntz_, or ponz, a branch of fitz-poyntz, ponz, tenant d. b. nicholas printz held land in gloucestershire, temp. k. john. under _poyntz_, lower says, walter julius ponz, a tenant in chief at the time of the norman survey, was son of walter ponz, a noble norman. the surname poyntz may be traced from normandy through england and virginia to kentucky. many years before the establishment in kentucky of a club or society with a roving commission for historic research, there dwelt in the northern highlands of the bluegrass region a sagacious and successful cattle-breeder, who was a practical student of pedigrees and had put the knowledge thus acquired to a profitable use. _all_ of his theories would not have been accepted by weismann; nor, on the other hand, would all of weismann's theories been accepted by _him_. the conclusions which lay nearest his special vocation had been carefully "applied" after his own fashion, and he was satisfied with the results. francis galton, himself, had no better grounds for belief in the laws of heredity. he was a kentuckian of the early type--not unlike the kentuckians and virginians that the english traveler, mr. pym fordham, describes in a series of letters from the south and west. his mental gifts and pleasing manners, to say nothing of his commanding stature, not only made him conspicuous, but wherever he went assured him welcome and the right of way. there was a look of quiet resourcefulness in the man. his facial contour was striking. the features, seen in profile, were large, strong, and regular, and their impressiveness was notably enhanced by a broad, flowing beard with the same reddish tinge that brightened his locks of long brown hair. his eye was steady, soft, and penetrating--noting everything, overlooking nothing. his complexion was peculiar--not "ruddy" or glowing from daily exposure, at all seasons, in the open air, but of an almost bloodless hue; as colorless, at least, and as clear as if untouched by sun, or wind, or rain, in his active routine of life upon a bluegrass ranch. it was the life of a man whose time was largely given to observation and thought; and as one might suppose, he had an ample field for the indulgence of his studious tastes. his special line of work was the propagation of "high-grade" cattle by crossing our native stock with fine imported strains. in our pastoral mid-century days the casual traveler passing along a mountain road in the red river region of eastern kentucky could not have failed to observe, in the great forests that cast their dense shadows as far as the headwaters of buckhorn, large herds of native cattle that browsed and "drowsed" in the shade of those deep druidic woods. if the traveler were a man of the english race, and as well informed and observant as a traveler should be, he would say at once, "these cattle are in no degree akin to the english blood-stock which i have seen in the bluegrass lowlands of the state. they are wholly unlike; their 'lines' are wholly different,--size, shape, coloring, deer-like delicacy of structure and peculiar curve of horn; nothing in their construction is heavy or cumbrous except the deep, rich golden udders of the kine. they remind one of no familiar english stock. they are not durhams nor herefords, nor devons. are they not _alderneys_?" at all events, this was the native stock from which our practical bluegrass theorist obtained his "high-grade" cattle, by crossing it judiciously with fine imported strains from the channel isles. the results were all that could be desired. the half-grade cattle were scarcely distinguishable from the imported stock, and if the milk was not so "rich," the quantity was much larger. the same was true of the _uncrossed_ mountain stock which was brought to kentucky by the "comelings" of the eighteenth century, and was never a "degenerate" stock in any practical sense. the "deer-like" structure of the mountain cow came partly from environment and partly from race. it was one of the rough-hewn maxims of mountain husbandry--"the best milker is a cow with a little foot,"--a foot that can thread the brushiest "cove" or climb the airiest height to crop the nutrient herbage that makes the nutritious milk. the succulent "pea-vine" made the milk; the tissue-forming "mast" or acorn made the meat. the little-footed heifer had the freedom of the range; and, by some subtle morphologic law, the locomotive organ that was small, firm, and well-shaped seemed to imply or determine the full symmetric development of _thorax_ and _brain_ and an easy, unobstructed operation of the functions associated with both. the loyal mountaineer of the old stamp was chauvinistic to the core. though fifty years have passed, he still grows eloquent when he recalls the "fighting bulls" and the flowing pails of his boyhood days. a handsome, vivacious highlander of this class--a gentleman of marked gallic aspect and scion of an early pioneer stock--recently boasted to the writer, and almost in the language of the vergilian swain (_bis venit ud mulctram_), that old "white-face" came regularly to the pail twice a day--yielding six gallons in two milkings. these mountain kine were not large; but they were gentle, spirited, clean-limbed, fine-haired, and carried in their generous udders an abundance of wholesome milk. they bore indelible marks of race. had they been larger, they might have remained to this day an untraveled stock. their size favored easy transportation, and the canny emigrant made note of the fact. as a consequence of this demand from emigrants, no doubt, great numbers of cattle were shipped from the channel islands to england in the early decades of the nineteenth century--a circumstance which completely answers the assumption that our mountain cattle were derived originally from an english stock. for many years the name "alderney" was applied without discrimination to all cattle imported from the _anglo-norman islands_ of the english channel--islands which england has held with an iron grip since the conqueror brought them under english rule. the thrifty islanders--descendants of the old norman stock and for years clinging tenaciously to the old norman dialect--are now true anglo-normans, making daily proclamation of their loyalty to the english crown, and, until a very recent period, always in anglo-norman french. only this then remains to be said. a thoughtful bluegrass cattle-breeder, bearing a distinctively anglo-norman name that had come down from normandy--through england and virginia to kentucky[ ]--and bearing in his own person characteristics and distinctive marks of his anglo-norman descent--utterly indifferent to "ethnological" theories and absolutely unconscious of his own descent from the anglo-norman race, is convinced--not by "herd-books" or historic pedigrees--but simply and solely by the evidence of his own eyes, that a certain native stock of cattle in the mountains of kentucky were merely an _earlier importation than his own_ from the anglo-norman islands of the english channel. he had the courage to put his theory to the touch of practical experimentation, and the astonished "experts" at the great cattle-fairs of the country bore generous testimony to the quality of his work. [ ] john baldwin poyntz. norman name _poyntz_ in alphabetical list. if such conclusions are fairly deducible from an imperfect or incomplete study of a race of cattle in the mountain region of kentucky, why should a logical mind discredit like conclusions resting upon testimony that is singularly cumulative and convergent in regard to a contemporaneous race of men that is historically traceable from normandy--through england and virginia--to the same or a similar physical environment in that same state of kentucky? could there be a better example of cumulative verification? _preston._ general william preston, "the last of the cavaliers." _pyle._ _quantrell_, or quantrall. _quarrier._ _quay_, or kay. _quincey._ _raines._ _rankin._ _ransome._ _raynes_, or rains. _reine._ _respess_, respis, res-bisse, respeig, respisch. one of the seconds of casto in the famous metcalfe-casto duel was colonel thomas a. respess, of mason, a member of the kentucky bar, and associated for many years with the distinguished jurist and author judge richard h. stanton (stanton and respess). colonel respess is an able and scholarly man, and retains, at a very advanced age, the conversational brilliancy of his prime. _reynolds._ _riaud_ (pronounced ree-o). an old virginian name, of french derivation. in norman records the name is _riau_, not _riaud_, the terminal "d" in the latter form representing the "territorial" particle in the original name; thus _riau_ de alençon; _riau_ d'alençon; _riaud_. by syllabic transposition (as mackall, almack) riaud is now orear--a well-known kentucky name. _rich._ riche was near nancy, in lorraine. john de riches, thirteenth century. riche, riches; richeson. _riddell._ _roff._ _roper._ _ross._ _roswell._ _rowan._ john rowan, a jurist and scholar; lived at "federal hill,"--_the old kentucky home_. _rucker._ _ruddell._ _russell._ _ryder._ hreidarr (norse). _ryder._ there was a ryder in mason county, who never _rode_, but was a great walker. _sandford._ scandinavian, sandefiorde. _sargeant._ normandy, ; england, . _savage._ _scott_, governor of kentucky. _schofield._ _scudder._ lower's orthography is "skudder." on the very face it is scandinavian, from the danish _skyde_, implying swiftness of motion. scudder is a name that may with equal propriety be applied to a scandinavian rover scudding over a sea of ice, or a calvinistical divine scudding over a sea of thought. in either case he is a scudder. _search_ (for church). thomas de cherches, normandy, . _searles._ _sears._ _shannon._ _shreeve._ _sidwell._ _simms._ _sinton_, santon, normandy, . [illustration: colonel reuben t. durrett, ll. d. president of the filson club.] _smith_, originally faber. a worker in iron and a maker of arms-- the leading industry of that day. the name smith is a translation of faber, and first appeared in the thirteenth century. _somers._ _somerville._ _speed._ ivo de spade, normandy, . john and roger sped, england, . attorney-general speed; captain thomas speed, soldier and writer; representing a kentucky family of distinction and ability. _spurr._ _stanhope._ _stanley._ _starling._ _steele._ _stewart._ _stokes._ _stout._ _strange._ _stuart._ _taber._ _talbot_, or talebote and taulbee, and tallboy, are supposed to have the same derivation. from talebois, or taillebois, a name which goes back to the forests of normandy, taillis and bois, apparently an equivalent for the english _underwood_, from _taillebois_, a cutter of taillis (underbrush). william preston taulbee is a typically norman name. major william taulbee was a soldier in the mexican war and in the war between the states. nine of his descendants are now in the military service of the united states, two of them graduates of west point. _tanner._ hugo de tanur, normandy, . _taylor._ hugo taillor, normandy . a distinguished name in kentucky. soldiers, lawyers, physicians and bankers represent the various families of the state. general zachary taylor was a successful soldier who became president of the united states; he was a wealthy planter. _telford._ _temple._ _terrell._ _terry._ _thorne._ _tibbetts._ _todd._ a distinguished name in kentucky--mrs. abraham lincoln was of this stock. colonel charles todd was minister to russia. a gallant soldier in " ." _tracy._ _treble._ _trepel._ _tudor._ the welsh form of theodore--the "people's" warrior--a name which does not seem to have lost its original significance. tudor is an old name in kentucky. _turner._ _turney._ _tyler._ _valingford_ (norman french). the conqueror passed through the town of wallingford "in his winter march to the north." in its english form, an old name in virginia and kentucky and connected with the ashbys, mooreheads, andersons, and cabells. _valler_, or waller. from valeres, normandy. de valier, valers, waler, walur, waller. sir william waler, the parliamentary general, was of this family. henry le wallere is found in the old records. henry waller, of mason, was a lawyer of ability and distinction. _vick_, from the fief of vic, normandy. _waddel._ _wadsworth._ records show that the name was spelled wordisworth, wardysworth, and wadysworth; wadsworth being the original form. hugh de wadsworth, abbot of roche, , had a brother henry. the family of de wadsworth bore the arms of de tilly, a family that was norman and baronial. _walker._ norse, valka (a foreigner). _wall_ (de valle). a prominent family in kentucky. judge g. s. wall, of mason, was one of the state commissioners to the world's fair (st. louis). _wallan._ _walton._ from near evreux, normandy. _warin_, or waring. "waring's run," in mason county, was named after thomas waring. _waring_, or warin. thomas waring, a pioneer of virginia, was the founder of "waring's station." his grandson, edward waring, was the "honor" man of his class at centre college in . one of his classmates (another young norman) bore the same name in french--guerrant. the traditional pronunciation of waring is _war_-ing. _warren._ _warrick._ _ward._ from gar or garde, near corbell, isle of france; john de warde, norfolk, . john ward, kirby beadou, fourteenth century. captain james ward, a con temporary of boone, was high sheriff of mason county for thirty years, and was practically "warden" of the marches from bracken to the virginian line. he was a man of high character and of unquestioned courage and capacity. his granddaughter, mrs. mary ward holton, is now a resident of indianapolis. the late judge quincy ward, of harrison, and quincy ward, the famous sculptor, were scions of the same distinguished stock. _washington._ the president of the last constitutional convention in kentucky was george washington (a native of the state), who was connected by blood with george washington of mt. vernon, general of the continental armies, president of the united states, and sole proprietor of the famous mt. vernon mills, which produced a brand of flour known as far south as the west indies, and popular wherever known. the proprietor had an anglo-norman eye for trade, and nothing, it is said, interested him more than "the prices of flour and the operations of his mill." he naturally became the leader of a "commercial aristocracy" in virginia. miss mary johnson, in her charming description of early colonial life in the old dominion, notes the same commercial predilections in the elizabethan pioneers. they were merchants as well as planters. _watterson._ (norman.) walter, walters, waterson, henry watterson, a journalist distinguished for norman cleverness, buoyancy, spontaneity, enthusiasm, versatility, and absorptiveness. _welles._ _willett._ _willis_, from wellis, a fief in normandy. _willis._ _willock_ (walloche). _wingfield_ (norman). _winn._ _winsor._ _winter_, for vinter. _wise_ and wiseman (normandy). _withers_, normandy, . _wolf._ _woodward_, woodard. oudard, oudart (french). _worrell._ william werel, normandy, . h. werle, english, . _wyatt._ there are kentucky families connected with the wyatts of virginia. _wycliffe._ seated at wycliffe, yorkshire, soon after the conquest. the kentucky wickliffes are of this race. "cripps" is a well known norman name, and beckham is a scandinavian name, as burnham, dalham, gresham, etc. _wyon._ ralph wyon, normandy, , also wyand. _wray_, for ray. _wroe_, for roe--a kentucky name. _youett_, for jewitt. _young_, william juven or juvenis, jouvin, . _zealey_, for sealey. _zissell_, for sissel. see cecil. some virginia names spelled one way and called another a very able and scholarly virginian, mr. b. b. green, of warwick, virginia, has compiled a list from which we make the following selections: armistead um´sted. baird beard. berkely barkly. blount blunt. boswell bos´ell. burwell bur´rel. carter cear´ter. chamberlaine chamberlin. chisman cheese´man. deneufville donevel. didwiddie dinwooddy drewry druit. enroughty darby! fauquier faw´keer. { fountain. fontaine { fontin. garvin goin. gibson gipson. gilliam gillum. gloucester glaw´ster. gower gore. haaughton } hawthorne } hor´ton. hobson hop´son. james jeames. jenkins jin´kins. jordan jur´dn. kean kane. ker, kerr, carr keaar. kirby kearby. langhorne langon. lawrence lar´ance. maury mur´ry. michaux mish´er. montford, munford mumford. morton mo´ton. napier napper. perrott parrot. piggot (from picot) picket. randolph randal. roper rooper. sandys sands. sayer saw´yer. { slaughter. sclater { slater. semple sarm´ple. sewell, seawell sow´el. sinclair sinkler. sweeny swin´ny. taliaferro toliver. timberlake timberley. warwick warrick. woodward wood´ard. woolfolk wool´fork. wyatt wait. "in living form,"--says mr. green, "are now to be heard in the southwest, words and pronunciations which have remained unaltered at least since the time of simon de montfort." "the virginian"--says the same writer--"has a good opinion of himself; is calm, well-balanced; is self-reliant, and has the english quality of not being afraid to take responsibility." in other words, his blood is scandinavian or norman, cooled by the icy currents of wessex. a correspondent of the _spectator_ (london) writes: "it is often asked what has become of old english families. i have just gathered white water-lilies from the fields of 'de vere,' now known as _diver_; one of my neighbors is 'bohun' abbreviated into _bone_; 'roy,' a grand sample of the english laborer, was recently carried into the old church-yard; for many years i employed the tall and stately 'plantagenet,' known on my labor books as _plant_; a shop in the neighboring town is kept by 'thurcytel,' the modern spelling being _thirkettle_; 'godwin,' the last of his race, died at a grand old age a year ago; 'mortimer' buys my barley; and around me we have such names as balding, harrold, rolf, hacon, and mallett." index page acland, sir henry, physician, alfred, king. "the grim-troubled" sea, allen, james lane. "summer in arcady," anglo-norman orators and sheriffs, leader, boone or bohun, migration to virginia, anglo-saxon. system of political administration not complex, but solid and enduring.--"yeoman" as depicted by andrews.--no conception of freedom in the modern sense.--his decadence.--his progenitors a soldier race.--incapacity for progress until the norman came, their ancestors "harried" the race they dispossessed.--"harry" an old saxon word.--william learned the word and all that it implied.--he harried with unsparing ferocity, not the saxon, but his own kindred, the northumbrian danes.--the devastation was never repaired until an industrial civilization revived and regulated the ancient energies of the race.--elsewhere in england the norman built at once upon the saxon's rude but solid work, apparatus criticus. evolution of, by three franch brains, lamarck, sainte-beuve, taine, "arcady," sons of. impression upon their guest, du chaillu, their social traits and habits, argyle, the duke of, on genealogical origin of prominent irish leaders, "assimilative" power of elizabethan englishmen (barrett wendell), battle abbey roll, bismarck. unifying the german people by "absorbing" a scandinavian population, blood of norman in obscure english families, in ireland, in kentucky, in scotland, in "the states," in virginia (earliest migration), "blue grass"; or a poa found at the straits of magellan, "a cosmopolitan grass" with peculiar affinity for the soil of kentucky.--the "grass" and the "race."--opinion expressed by a new england tourist, boone, the explorer.--early "trustee" of maysville, name derived from bohun, "bourbon." famous kentucky distillate, breckinridge, john c. vice-president united states, british association, .--newcastle-upon-tyne, discusses paper on scandinavian origin of english race, british savants stiff in opinion, bruce, doctor. historian of roman wall, buckner, a southern family (foot-note), elizabeth, maiden name of the beautiful scandinavian, cardenas, battle of, , kentuckians cover retreat to the sea.--chaplain of expedition killed.--liberators seize united states fort, carlisle, canon of, quoted.--english surnames are largely exotic. normandy, he says, was the source of supply.--what was the effect of the "conquest"?--anglo-saxon "grammar" survived, but the stately old _nomenclature of the race_ was hopelessly smashed.--if comparative grammar can deduce the history of the anglo-saxon tongue from the habitual speech of an english plough-boy, what historic significance is to be attached to the flood of norman surnames that were "absorbed" by the saxon race?--the native speech survived because the dialects which fed it were still living and intact, cavalier. an original product of normandy.--"the man on horseback," guild-hall collection of seals.--equestrian figure, "cavalierism." origin of the word, , celt, normanized, or scandinavian celt.--"the fighting race," childe, edward lee. "life of robert e. lee" (paris, france, ), clark, george rogers, a scandinavian general.--his "wintry marches" in the northwest, coleridge on england's insular position.--its effect, "commercial aristocracy," comparison of the two races, norman and saxon.--origin of the discussion, courthouse (maysville, kentucky).--description of.--du chaillu received at, craft (says mr. freeman) is the dominant quality of the norman character, popular recognition of the fact.--the winning cards, craik, doctor george, an eminent british scholar, eastern and northern england from middle of the ninth century as much danish as english, says english "more scandinavian (danish or swedish) than the modern german," scandinavian dialect imported by invading bands in fifth and sixth centuries, views on a norman migration, danes (who were english normans) fiercely opposed their kinsman, the norman invader, every step obstinately contested in northumbria, northumbria the birth-place of the puritan and the virginian (vide wendell and fiske), the dane's (or english norman's) passionate love of freedom, davis, thomas a., dawkins, boyd. "cave hunter," a warm debate (newcastle), desha, governor. reference to corporations, disraeli repeats the miracle of lanfranc, gaston phoebus as a gascon noble, his philosophic insight, monsignore berwick and his inherited traits, nature's reproduction of type, , temp. louis le grand, the southern "colonel" with a norman name, doncaster races: chitabob and donovan--north against south.--deep popular interest.--wagner and grey eagle in kentucky.--extremes touch, , du chaillu, paul. explorer's visit to maysville, kentucky, committee of reception (foot-note), date of visit to kentucky ( ), description of hosts, encounter with gorilla, entertained by limestone club, his re-discovery of la nouvelle france, interest in "the beautiful scandinavian," lecture at courthouse, personal description of, - "take a horn"--du chaillu, verifies the observations of maltebrun, vivid description of, edward the confessor established intimate relations between england and normandy, effrenatissima. _effrenatus_ use by cicero, elizabeth tudor and henry the eighth, - her recognition of the people, "elizabethan" englishmen, the kentuckians are (professor shaler), english farmer of anglo-norman type.--resemblance to norman farmer of present day, english folk. professor shaler quoted, "largest body of nearly pure english" found in kentucky, englishman, the elizabethan. when the elements balanced, his evolution was complete, evans, sir john. writer on archæology, examples of atavism or reversion. the scottish blood (which was the "dominant" in the berwick cross) by a gradual process of selection from continuous or intermittent variations comes at last to the front; first manifested, no doubt, in the invigoration of the moral quality, and finally in a physical "mutation"--a return to the original or characteristic color of eyes and hair in the paternal gens. the theory of transmission or inheritance of moral and physical traits in gaston phoebus from the gascon noble is not materially different.--the problem of "three" bodies (really two) in the genesis of the _englishman_, though apparently more complex, is essentially the same, the "dominant" factor in the process being _norman_ or _norse_.--whether the explanation be convincing or not, beyond all question it shows that the darwinian "scientist" lacks the simplicity of the disraelitish seer, facile princeps--an english estimate generally accepted in kentucky, family names, british. families bearing norman names unconscious of their origin, names now accounted _english_ were originally _norman_.--the proof of this exists in two countries (england and normandy) in practically contemporary records, one norman name upon an english record after the conquest might be _suggestive_; five thousand names would be almost conclusive.--a legal maxim quoted, this basis of record proof for purposes of comparison unique, fiske, john. on "ethnic differentiation."--the aryan brothers far apart, new england founded by east anglian or scandinavian englishmen, the east anglian's hatred of tyranny and passion for freedom of thought, freeman, edward a., says norman a "born soldier" and "a born lawyer," galton, sir francis. writer on heredity, gens effrenatissima (malaterra), gentilhomme, translated "gentleman."--england indebted to normandy for the word, gothic races. first seen in an historic twilight, a great racial march or movement across europe in parallel columns, a scandinavian naval station, with dry docks, "a wild and arid nurse," description of the peninsular (scandinavia) _milieu_, difficulty of following the gothic trail in their early asian home.--modern illustrations of this asian mystery.--warring nations of the same race.--teuton and goths.--yenghees in the north, dixees in the south.--divided and belligerent, but racially the same, drift in the eddies of an archipelagic sea.--what became of it? ethnic differentiation.--why should the _norseman_ differ from the kindred _teuton_ in the south? from the caspian sea to the mouths of the elbe and rhine, he ravages the shores of northumbria and the rivers of france, loitering along the shores of the baltic.--peopling denmark, the danish islands, and the scandinavian peninsula, their asian migrations veiled by the mists of time, who were the original "comelings" on english soil? william the conqueror--fifth in descent from rolf ganger, the freebooting admiral of the northern seas, green, colonel thomas m., author of "the spanish conspiracy," green, thomas marshall, an accomplished speaker, introduces m. du chaillu to the audience, hamilton--jefferson--lincoln, hamlet. a psychological epitome of his race (danish).--the historic or legendary basis of the character.--the "original" of the character in its intellectual aspects was afamous french scholar and essayist.--his character and tastes.--his literary work.--the favorite writer of shakespeare, advice to kentuckians who take themselves "too seriously" from a philosophic observer who sometimes, it is thought, did not take things _seriously enough_.--essentially a modern thinker, , hardy, thomas, the novelist, his views in "tess," a powerful work of fiction, hengist and horsa, inez. an allusion to hood's poem, "o saw ye not fair inez?" (foot-note), isaac le bon and a virginian "cross."--the differentiating quality, , kenton, pioneer.--commissioner of roads for mason county, a famous hunter.--name in state enactments spelled _canton_, no doubt as then pronounced, kentuckian, the. loves a "good cross," kentuckians and normans; points of resemblance between the derivative and the original stocks, not a weak vessel, transmission of characteristic traits, kentucky. lawless elements.--origin and distribution, anglo-norman juries.--a technical defense, political assassination.--murder as an administrative art, statecraft; enterprise in war.--"a little nation," "king's mountain," the man of, lamarck, the famous french savant; referred to in conjunction with taine and sainte-beuve, _naturaliste des esprits_.--"i began my intellectual life," says sainte-beuve, "with lamarck and the physiologists," lanfranc, the scholar, effects of his work still visible, restrains william rufus and odo of bayeux, law. the norman of malaterra and "the forms of law," lee, lionel, accompanies richard of the lion-heart in third crusade, at the head of a company of _gentilhommes_, lexicon of names. a marvelous number and variety of facts. what theory best explains these facts in their relations? a clear judicial faculty required to recognize the force of the cumulative verification, library, free, newcastle, a group of savants, anthropological section meets at, personal description of, limestone club, entertainment by, limestone, phosphatic; basis of bluegrass region, london times. a contemporary estimate of du chaillu's views. an organ that forms, reflects, and fixes opinion.--question of the origin and migration of races.--"time ripe for a new investigation," letter from du chaillu to times containing challenge to skeptical archæologists, , longfellow, the poet, kentucky racer, norwegian barque named, lopez at cardenas, , louis napoleon. places an austrian prince on the mexican throne to unify the latin race.--its effect, mackintosh, doctor john. "the man of king's mountain," malaterra, geoffrey. describes the norman in his original habitat, mannen, major thomas h., marshall, general humphrey. notably large head, his aide and secretary captain guerrant, marsh, george p., quoted.--peculiarities of scandinavian tongues observed in english.--"irreconcilable discrepancies," mid-century figures, a masculine type, montaigne, the french essayist.--a quaint story with a cogent moral, - montalembert. his "monks of the west."--estimate of the saxon, morgan, general john. his command remarkable for military qualities.--the opinion of captain shaler, commodore morgan presents "yorkshire" to henry clay, names, the lesson of, additions to list, notes, virginian names. alphabetical series of, nansen, fridjof. arctic explorer, napoleon. the english _un peuple marchand_, as an administrator, nelson, general william. description of, large head, newcastle-upon-tyne, anthropological "section" organized at ( ), british association meets at, "carrying coals" to, description of, industrial progress, northern cattle market, northumbrian vitality and vigor, newport, captain of _sea adventure_.--vice-admiral of virginia, norman exchequer, great rolls of, juxtaposition of with english records, normanized kentuckian who has "assimilated" everything norman but the _name_, normans distinguished from all other nations by their _craft_ (e. a. freeman), , leaders in england, france, america, the norman in his ethnical transformation act, this norman _craft_ akin in many respects to the "cuteness" and cleverness attributed to the american people, , norman surnames, alphabetical series of. ("the norman people"), norman race, conquest of england by, desperate and prolonged struggle, flow of migration _post bellum_, , great historic march of the norman people, is it a "lost" race?, memorials of, the continental recruiting ground, north and south. traits in common, northmen in communication with peoples of the mediterranean, england one of their northern lands, language of, similar to english of early times, their settlements in britain during roman occupation, they were bold and enterprising navigators at a time when neither the saxons nor franks were "sea-faring" people, northumbrian industries, odericus vitalis (an english writer) on the illiteracy of his countrymen at the time of the conquest, orphan brigade. captain shaler's estimate of, otto the saxon and william the norman.--conflicting missions, the shadowy background of the norman conquest.--formative period of western europe (foot-note), owens, colonel francis p., "oyez!" of anglo-norman sheriffs, perry, commodore. furnishes "sea power" in .--aide to governor shelby.--perry's sea-guns sighted by riflemen from kentucky, philologist, the. his proper field, pioneer commonwealth, "genesis of a", pirates, scandinavian. transmission of traits to english within historic times, pitt rivers, general, soldier, and savant, profanity. the normans "fond of oaths."--rollo and carolus stultus, a regulator of the nerves, ben briler damned.--desha on corporations, colonel robert blanchard and the "burnt cork" minstrels. description of the entertainment.--"hell's fire, bob."--conditions of life in the early west recalling the times of the plantagenet kings (barrett wendell), , "damned yankee"--the two words fused by the fires of war, early kentuckians (like shakespeare's soldier) "full of strange oaths," fireside swearing in the auld lang syne, general william nelson.--his strong swearing instincts, "god dern" not a virginian oath, imprecation upon a seller of inherited slaves.--parody on famous line from villon.--the dusky bondsmen of the past, king william's oath at alençon--profanity of the virgin queen.--"a very drab."--"the virginians addicted to oaths" (fordham).--attenuated oaths, pecksniff's "wooden damn," stonewall jackson.--jubal early.--governor scott, of kentucky.--uncle toby's oath.--bolling stith.--george washington (foot-note), "the blue light elder."--"does a puritan swear?" the devout moslem.--jean gotdam (bardsley), the master's call, the modern passion for "good form," the oath in court.--the vulgar "cuss-word."--the conversational "swear," the slinking figure of the iconoclast, washington, when deeply angered, _swore_.--the attorney-general of charles ii "damns the souls" of the virginian commissioners to stimulate their commercial instincts, quatrain. (a tennysonian parody), , race between wagner and grey eagle, racial transformation. in england; ireland; france; the united states, retrospect, a brief, rolf ganger, the scandinavian rover.--the world before him where to choose.--scandinavian place-names, romanes, george. interpreter of darwin, description of appearance, rome, the man of ancient, rowena, lady, sainte-beuve, the french critic. reference to, salisbury plain.--political birth of the english people, researches among scandinavians of northern states.--psychological distinctions, sandys, sir edwin. author of the earliest political charters, saxon, the. came directly from the southeastern shores and islands of the north sea, and is remotely of gothic descent: the _dane_ from denmark and the danish islands, and is directly of scandinavian descent; the norman, remotely gothic, is immediately scandinavian.--the conclusion inevitable, not that we are _scandinavians_, but that we are deeply _scandinavianized_, and that there is a _preponderance_ of _scandinavian_ blood in the english race, a regulative element lacking in stevenson's duplex monstrosity, _jekyll_ and _hyde_.--norman and saxon, mr. bart kennedy in london _mail_: racially, the kentuckian _facile princeps_, stevenson and disraeli as writers, the kentuckian of virginian descent a practically definite ethnical product, scandinavia and kentucky. relations between the two, cranial measurements of scandinavians, scandinavian origin of english people, animated debate in anthropological section, description of scene, outline of theory, scandinavians infused a spirit of enterprise into the english people they have never lost, "scot, the indomitable."--the lowland race, sensational paper on (british association), scandinavian population of the northern states.--their energy and brains, possible fusion of with scandinavians of the virginian states to form a continental empire.--description of scandinavians by maltebrun, scholarship, philosophic, seldom narrow and never offensive, scott, sir walter. his romances popular in kentucky, "scythian hand and foot." a scandinavian peculiarity transmitted to the norman and the anglo-dane, "sea adventure" wrecked on devil's island.--captain newport, seventeenth century. "cromwellian days," shakespeare and virginia, shakespeare's english friends, shakespeare's portrayal of the anglo-norman kings, , shaler, professor (harvard). conclusions drawn from gould's measurements, on "english folk" in kentucky, snorro sturleson, laing's note to; quoted by lytton, spectacle. the most dramatic in history (du chaillu), spencer, herbert. disappearance of celtic type in the united states, st. aldegonde, the english "swell," stanton, captain clarence l., taine, hippolyte. description of english types--"male" and "female."--"carnivorous regime" or "conformation of race"?--mentions more attractive types.--the women described by shakespeare and dickens, and the noble historic type represented by william pitt, - "erubescent bashfulness" a racial peculiarity, taylor, isaac canon, description of, impromptu parody by, turner, sir william. reads paper at british association (newcastle, ' ) on the weismann theory.--first public appearance of the theory in english scientific circles, , sir william did not accept the theory in full.--the hereditary tendency in harmony with the theory of natural selection, types of beauty in kentucky, united states, genesis of. beginnings of a great conflict, anglo-spanish conflict closed by dewey and schley, first republic in new world (dr. alexander brown), vikings of the west. control of the mississippi, california appropriated by force "under legal forms," cuba. disastrous attempts at annexation. prospective annexation on the old lines, passion for territorial expansion, vikings: who were they?, virginia. mason county settled by planters from, "piedmont" virginia, virginia and the virginian states, virginia peopled by english countryfolk (anglo-danes), wall, mrs. elizabeth wall (portrait), judge garrett s. wall, warren, charles dudley. visit to kentucky, washington, george, of anglo-norman blood. effigies of cavalier on great seal of confederate states, jared sparks derives the _family_ of washington from william de hertburn, who came into possession of "wessington" (washington), county durham, prior to . the _family_ soon after assumed the _name_ of washington. the de hertburns, who took the name of the place in durham, were a norman family. a teutonic clan (says freeman) gave the name _wascingas_ to a village in the north of england. from this name of a mark, or village, came the name of a _family_--washington; ferguson deriving the name of washington from _wass_ (an anglo-saxon), a derivation which lower (one of the best authorities) says is clearly untenable. ferguson derives the name gustavus vasa (a swede) from _huass_, keen, bold (old norse). not an unworthy etymon (he says) for _two_ great names--gustavus vasa and washington. the first _de washington_ (says the judicious lower) was much more likely _a norman_ who came in with the conquest, and took the name which came with the estate. wendell, professor barrett (harvard), on early life in the west, dominant traits of the elizabethan englishman--puritan and virginian, , his "literary history of america," white, andrew d. excerpt from address on "high crime in the united states," william the conqueror. administrative methods and machinery, "a lover of peace"; roger of wendover quoted, descendant of scandinavian jarls, effect upon france, embodied the characteristic traits of his race, _english unity_ permanently established upon salisbury plain. the foundations of feudalism destroyed.--england made "one and indivisible," physical characteristics.--vigor and endurance tested in wintry campaigns, progenitor of virginian "cavalier," sovereign and subject cast in same mould.--the norman a race separate and apart, yet mingling with all.--capacity for colonization.--their sovereign the most successful colonizer in french history.--a lost art in france.--how to repair the loss, the norman's conquest of england transferred the capacity for colonization to the english race, the norman's system of administration rested upon a saxon basis, the wild king's passion for war and the chase, william's gift of political "visualization," he established a principle (_unity_); he "created a nation"; he founded a line of anglo-norman princes.--shakespeare's dramatic characterization of the _anglo-norman kings_.--the significance of his work, , william the conqueror and waltheof.--a judicial murder by a norman king.--a secret assassination by a saxon earl, "wolf larsen." character depicted by jack london, a physical counterpart in "bull" nelson, wolseley, lord. "the americans a race of english-speaking frenchmen," wyon. anglo-norman englishman of norman origin.--engraver to the queen.--engraved seal of the confederacy, "yorkshire" blood in kentucky. transmitted traits, george p. marsh quoted, peculiarities of dialect, "yorkshire," imported. gift from commodore morgan to henry clay, _zen mays_ and _poa pratensis_, * * * * * transcriber's notes obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. variations in spelling, hyphenation and accents are as in the original. page . "_mais où sont les nègres a'antan?_" changed to d'antan. page . "_baldwin_, normandy, william baldwinus, ; robert, ; england, ." changed to . page . "_boles_, a form of boles." the nd boles changed to boels. italics are represented thus, _italic_. longhead: _the story of the first fire_ l. c. page & company beacon street, boston, mass. [illustration: "they caught sight of the light made by the fire." (_see page ._)] longhead: the story of the first fire by c. h. robinson author of "hawk: the young osage," etc. illustrated by charles livingston bull boston l. c. page & company mdccccxiii _copyright, _, by l. c. page & company (incorporated) _all rights reserved_ first impression, july, the colonial press c. h. simonds & co., boston, u. s. a. contents chapter page i. introduction of fire ii. weapons--cooked food--companionship iii. germs of social organization iv. co-operation v. dawn of invention, art, marriage, religion and government list of illustrations page "they caught sight of the light made by the fire" (_see page _) _frontispiece_ "a huge tiger which was slowly creeping up behind him" "after some vigorous blowing, produced flame" "soon they had a tolerably firm path from the solid ground to a place near the great beast" longhead: the story of the first fire chapter i introduction of fire "a fire-mist and a planet, a crystal and a cell, a jelly-fish and a saurian, and a cave where the cave-men dwell; then a sense of law and beauty and a face turned from the clod,-- some call it evolution, and others call it god." a strange-looking animal was running across the open glade toward the forest. it looked something like a human being, but was entirely naked. its body, except on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, was covered with reddish-brown hair, but on the head it was nearly black and long and matted; while on the rest of the body it was short and curled--nearly fur, in fact. its arms were long, reaching below the knees, and the great toes, as it ran, stood nearly at right angles to the others. the animal carried no weapon of any kind, if we except a club or staff broken from a dry branch, which it seemed to use in maintaining an upright position as it hurried toward a large tree with pendent branches which stood at the edge of the forest. just as the creature reached the outer branches, which extended nearly to the ground, a storm, which had been rapidly approaching, burst with great violence. there was a loud clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning tore the tree to splinters, and the animal fell to the ground, stunned by the shock. it lay unconscious for some time, and the thunder shower had passed, leaving the sun shining brightly, when it raised its head and sat up. at first it slowly rubbed its body and head, and then, reaching full consciousness, its attention was attracted by a roaring and crackling sound a short distance away. the lightning had prostrated the tree and had set fire to a mass of brush and logs lying at its roots. the beast sprang to its feet in astonishment and alarm. the animal was one of our primitive ancestors, and he now saw fire for the first time. as his body, chilled by the recent rain, began to feel the warmth, he first drew near, but as the heat increased, he was compelled to withdraw to a greater distance. he gazed as if fascinated, however, at the curious sight for a long time. when it began to grow dark, he was surprised to see that the forest for some distance around, remained nearly as light as day. [illustration: "a huge tiger which was slowly creeping up behind him."] his feeble intellect, however, soon wearied of the new sensation, and he withdrew to an overhanging rock near-by. he knew of a small cave at its base with a narrow entrance, and of this he at once took possession, rolling against the opening some masses of stone lying near and piling in others after he had entered, until he had secured the opening against any dangerous animal. he gave little further thought to the phenomena of the fire, for man had not yet reached a development in intellect which permitted a consecutive train of thought for any considerable length of time. he slept soundly, but when he crawled from his refuge in the morning, the smoke still rising from the pile of logs and brush attracted his attention and recalled to his mind what had occurred the evening before. he approached the fire, which had nearly consumed its supply of fuel, but was smouldering still in a large decayed log and the ends of several poles which lay partly in a bed of glowing coals. so much was the man now interested in this new phenomenon that he forgot for a moment his usual caution when in the forest, and failed to observe a huge tiger which was slowly creeping up behind him, and, but for the sharp sound of a dry stick breaking under the animal's weight, this story would have ended then and there. the man had just drawn from the fire a burning pole and was examining with much curiosity its glowing end, when the sound caused him to turn, only to meet the tiger, which had made its leap. the man bounded to one side, and at the same time, more by accident than design, he thrust the burning stick against the animal's breast. the fierce beast came against it with such impact that it penetrated through the skin and into the flesh. with a scream of terror and pain and many snarls and spits, the tiger began biting the injured spot and then turned and fled into the forest. our man, who had given himself up for lost, stared in bewilderment at the retreating animal and then at the pole which had saved his life. he thought longer and more deeply than he had ever done before, as he stood beside the smouldering embers. without any particular reason for his action, he gathered up some of the unconsumed ends of the branches, cast them into the coals, and was much amused to see them ignited and the flame renewed. it was a new plaything, and for a long time he continued to pile sticks upon the coals and to delight in the bright flame, the ascending smoke and the crackling sparks; but that he could make any practical use of his new discovery had not yet been suggested to his feeble intellect. tiring at length of the sport, he realized that he was hungry, and, turning into the forest, he sought for food. for some hours he roamed the hills and valleys, striking down with his stick a small animal which he devoured raw; finding a few grubs under fallen logs which he turned over; and he found also a few berries, prematurely ripened, and finally satisfied his ravenous appetite by filling his stomach with buds of shrubs and some succulent roots, which experience had taught him were not injurious and were at least satisfying. by this time he had reached a part of the forest in which he had been making his home for a few weeks and, seeking out a tree, in which he had constructed a sort of nest with interlaced sticks and leaves, he lay down for a nap. he wakened late in the afternoon, climbed to the ground and started on an aimless walk through the forest, carrying his stick, but no other weapon, for other weapons than stones for throwing and sticks for striking were then unknown. most of the people in the group to which he belonged had short round heads, such as scientists call brachiocephalic, but this man was dolichocephalous, or longheaded, and this peculiarity had given him the name of longhead among this group at the few gatherings of these people, which happened occasionally, more by accident than design, for they had no social organization whatever. they had no laws; no leaders; no permanent habitations and wore no clothing. they slept in nests built in the branches of trees at night, or sought shelter in any chance caves of the region through which they roved. this had no defined boundaries and they remained in the locality only because they found food fairly plentiful. as yet, there was not even family organization, for it was many ages after this time before it dawned upon man anywhere that the male animal played any part in the propagation of species. to the ordinary and usual phenomena of nature our primitive forefathers never gave a thought or question, but accepted them without speculation as to their cause or fear as to their continuance, so long as regularity obtained. the rising and setting of the sun were to him perfectly natural events of daily occurrence from his childhood, and had so continued during the recollection of the oldest members of the group, and it was only when eclipses occurred, breaking this orderly continuity, that he felt at all alarmed. it was natural for the moon to shed her soft light when not obscured by clouds, and even its waxing and waning occasioned no alarm, for this, likewise, had continued "since the fathers fell asleep." there was nothing strange about the gentle dew descending by night or rain falling from the clouds; these he had observed from his earliest youth; but when the loud thunders reverberated through the hills, and the forked lightnings flashed athwart the sky, frequently rending the giant trees of the forest or bringing sudden death to a comrade, this mysterious and dangerous display of an unknown power, was, to him, alarming, and he early attributed these and all other infrequent or unaccountable phenomena to supernatural beings with whom his fancy peopled the hills and forests, the rivers and the sky. it was entirely natural to primitive man that in the spring the trees and plants should bud and send forth leaves and blossoms, to be followed later by fruit, "each after its kind." this, also, had always occurred from his earliest recollection and that of his elders, and it occasioned no thought upon his part. it was only when floods, drouths and other calamities interfered with this orderly sequence of events that any mystery was presented or any thought required. it is clear that among these common and natural occurrences, which were simply accepted without question because they had always happened, must be classed the bringing forth of young by all mammals. man had always observed that the females of all the animals about him brought forth young, "each after its kind." this was to be expected and gave him no surprise, nor, in the then condition of his intellect, did it give rise to a thought as to its cause. likewise, his own womankind gave birth to young, from time to time, just as did the other animals, and there was no cause for speculation or thought in regard to this; the occurrence was too common to be a mystery. there being then no knowledge of fatherhood, there were no fathers, and for many generations no relatives were known except in the female line. consequently, there was no family hearthstone; no paternal love; no marriage. the relations of the sexes was purely physical and were generally indiscriminate, as opportunity might afford; but doubtless, with some, this companionship was continued for a longer or shorter period, as circumstances or congeniality might induce. in these ages, and they were long ones among some peoples, it is obvious that there could have been no such emotion as paternal love, for no man even suspected that he was a father. no man experienced the exquisite pleasure of hearing the first cry of his first-born child; no man heard "dada," from infant lips. no man assisted in the support of his children or took part in their care, except unconsciously as he aided in the maintenance of the children of the group or tribe; no man cared more for the mother of his children than he did for any other woman who might attract his fancy or passion. above all, the men and women of that long epoch were strangers to the sacred companionship, the life-long attachment and communion of souls with mutual interests which attach to the true marriage of to-day. the children were the common care of the group or tribe; the boys that they might grow up to be hunters and warriors, and the girls that they might contribute to the sensual enjoyment of the men, or, if it pleased the spirits, or stars, or some other supernatural agency, might become mothers for the perpetuation of the tribe. in times of extreme danger, famine or privation, or when too feeble to follow the migrations of the group, the babies, especially the female ones, were ruthlessly abandoned to wild beasts or slaughtered outright. there existed, doubtless, the mother instinct which prompts females, even among the lower animals, to care for and defend their offspring, but it certainly fell far short of the mother love among civilized peoples. after wandering aimlessly a number of miles, longhead encountered a female of his own species who was not altogether unknown to him. they had met occasionally at the infrequent gatherings of the people who inhabited that part of the forest, and on one or two occasions had remained together for a few days in that anomalous companionship which took the place of marriage in those far-off days. there was no kiss, caress or other sign of affection or pleasure; the pair merely gave each other a friendly grin and grunted in a satisfactory tone. words were scarce in the vocabulary of the people of that epoch, and they communicated with each other largely by means of signs, gesticulation and pantomime. the woman could not have been called handsome, according to our ideas of beauty. she, too, was naked and hairy, but the hair on her head was longer and less matted than on that of the man, and was held back from her face by being drawn behind the ears with a strip of bark twisted about her head to keep it somewhat in that condition. her body was smaller than that of longhead; but her limbs were slender and ungainly and her stomach also protruded, in consequence of the quantities of coarse vegetable food required to sustain life. by an accident in childhood, she had lost one of her front teeth, and on this account, she was known as broken tooth. the woman soon gave longhead to understand that she was hungry. the protective, or probably, the sexual instinct, prompted him to act as a provider, and he offered to assist her in a search for food. together they roamed, finding here a few grubs and there a juicy root, and finally the man killed a small animal with his club, which they shared, longhead tearing it in pieces with his hands and teeth and throwing small pieces to broken tooth, which he admiringly watched her devour. her appetite finally satisfied, she lay back in the sunshine against the roots of a tree, closed her eyes in great contentment, and began a conversation with her companion in the few words then constituting the human vocabulary. she recalled their last meeting and asked why she had not seen him at any of the gatherings of the group since. he told her that in consequence of the jealousy of one of the giants of the group to which they both belonged, who had resented his attentions to one of the females of his harem, he had become involved in a fight with the giant in which he had been beaten nearly to death, and that, fearing to remain with his fellows, as well as on account of his serious injuries, he had retired to a distant part of the forest where he had found sufficient food and had recovered his strength. he told her that he had rather enjoyed his isolation and, had present company been with him in his forced retirement, he would have been entirely content. at this statement, the woman merely gave an incredulous sniff. the man then related numerous encounters with wild animals, in which, of course, he had come off successfully--and just here he recollected his strange experience with the fire and his encounter with the tiger. with great truthfulness, and as much detail as his vocabulary permitted, he told her what had occurred to him the evening before and that very morning. how, seeking for refuge from a storm, he had been suddenly stricken unconscious, by what means he did not know; and the strange sight he had witnessed on recovery. he told her, also, of his adventure with the tiger that morning and its discomfiture. broken tooth laughed long and loudly at this and was wholly incredulous. such a thing had never happened before, and consequently could not have happened now. she asked him what kind of a weed he had been eating, and said she was not born yesterday to believe such nonsense. this led to quite a discussion, the man insisting upon the reality of his experiences and the woman ridiculing the whole narrative as impossible. the colloquy finally ended by her asking him to conduct her to the place where he claimed such wonderful things had happened, that she might see if anything remained there to confirm his absurd story. longhead assented and, as it was not far distant, they arrived at the locality a little before dark. the fire still smouldered in the decayed log and numerous sticks still smoked at their ends. mindful of his morning's amusement, longhead gathered a number of the burning poles, placed their glowing ends together and threw on them some dry leaves and twigs. in a moment a column of smoke began to ascend, followed soon by a tongue of bright flame and many rising and glowing sparks. one of these broken tooth caught in her hand, but dropped it with an exclamation of pain. "if a small one hurts so much, i don't wonder your tiger fled when you thrust a large one against his breast," she said. long they played with the fire, throwing upon it sticks and dry branches, and the woman clapped her hands and screamed with delight at each succeeding shower of sparks. when at length night came on and the darkness made the firelight more brilliant, the man piled a large number of sticks on the fire to show how the forest was lighted up; but finally both became weary of the sport, and then he told her of the cave near-by--just large enough for two--and invited her to share it with him for the night. she consented, and as they were about to start, the man, without any thought of the effect, gathered up four or five of the sticks with live coals at the end and placed them together. these he waved in the air to amuse the woman with the flying sparks, as they passed along, she still screaming at each successive sparkle, until suddenly a bright flame shot up and, by accident, like many other valuable discoveries, a torch was invented. by its light they easily made their way to the rocky platform in front of the cave sheltered by the overhanging rock, and when longhead cast down the torch broken tooth placed the ends of the burning sticks together as she had seen him do, and again the flame shot up. the new experience was too delightful to be given up, and, at the woman's suggestion, they gathered large armfuls of dry branches and some heavy logs which lay scattered about near the platform, which they piled up and from time to time added to the fire. the night was cool, but as they sat back against the wall of rock under the sloping cliff to watch the blaze and flying sparks, a pleasant warmth, new to their experience, pervaded their bodies, and they gave themselves up to the luxury of the sensation. the fire roared and blazed merrily, broken tooth shouted in glee, and longhead began to think, in a slow ponderous way, that this new agent in his life might do much for his comfort if it could be perpetuated, but his mental power was too limited to suggest any method for this. their shouts and laughter had attracted the attention of the wild animals, and all at once broken tooth saw two glowing eyes and the crouching form of a great tiger almost at the edge of the platform. longhead caught sight of it at the same moment, and with a yell of fear each scrambled for the narrow entrance of the cave. broken tooth, lighter of form and quicker of movement, reached it a moment the soonest, but no promptings of sex, gallantry or politeness prevented longhead from throwing her roughly to one side while he attained the coveted shelter. once within, he began to fill the entrance with stones, leaving his companion to the fate which he supposed had already befallen her, when, greatly to his surprise, she tumbled in unhurt. filling the entrance so that it would not admit the body of the tiger, they peered together through the openings and saw the disappointed animal pacing back and forth just at the edge of the semi-circle of brilliant light made by the fire. long they watched the baffled beast, and at first they were unable to understand why the animal did not approach the entrance and attempt to remove the stones and secure his prey. at length broken tooth said: "i believe he is afraid of the fire." she did not, of course, use the word "fire;" she probably said "brightness," or some equivalent word, if they had one. longhead agreed that this might be the case, and together they watched the animal with great interest. finally longhead, emboldened by the tiger's hesitation, removed one of the stones, and, protruding his head, shouted in derision at his ancient enemy. the animal, whose rage or hunger made him momentarily forget his fear, made a dash toward the cave, but, when he came within the bright light and felt the heat of the fire, he retreated precipitately. longhead finally crawled outside and broken tooth soon followed him. they taunted the great cat with the vilest words they knew; threw stones at it, and simply revelled in their new sensation of safety. here was old saber-tooth, the one animal of all others whose vicinage carried terror wherever he went, at bay at last. for a while the animal would make dashes toward them, when broken tooth would tumble into the cave and longhead draw near the entrance, ready for instant retreat to safety; but each time the fear of the fire sent the tiger back beyond the charmed circle of its light, where it gave vent to its disappointment in savage growls and spittings. at length, wearied by the unprofitable labor, and awed by the strange light and heat, the beast disappeared; its snarls and growls grew fainter in the distance and ceased to be heard. saber-tooth had at last found something he feared, and man a protector. delighted with this new feeling of security from danger in the night, the man and woman sat long before the cheerful blaze and enjoyed its grateful warmth. they agreed that wild animals were afraid of this new agent, and if they could always have its protection they would have nothing to fear from them; but to their weak intellects no thought of an attempt to perpetuate the fire was suggested. when their fuel was exhausted and nothing but a bed of glowing coals remained, they retired to the cave, carefully closing the entrance against the possible return of the tiger or the attack of some other animal, for they realized that the fire, being now nearly out, they could no longer depend upon it for protection. late in the morning longhead and broken tooth emerged from the cave. the fire was out and the ashes cold. when they thought of the pleasurable warmth it had produced and the protection it had afforded they indulged in some expressions of regret that it was gone, and then thought no more about it. they soon made their way to the place of the smouldering log, but it was now nearly consumed. directly the woman noticed two or three tiny threads of smoke, and on investigation they found that some dry excrescences, which we call "punk," had fallen away from the burning log and that on one side of each was a small spark. broken tooth took up one of these and, noting the white ash so like the down on certain plants which she had often blown away in sport, she blew upon it as she held it in her hand, and was delighted to see the spark spread and glow afresh. longhead, too, picked up a piece of the lighted punk and, after blowing upon it for a few minutes, dropped it carelessly at his feet, where it fell upon some dry rotten wood and leaves. without noticing this, he watched the amusement of his companion as she made the sparks fly from the piece she held, and then, suddenly, with a yell of pain, he jumped aside and hopped about on one foot, holding the other in his hand. the rotten wood and leaves upon which he had dropped the punk had ignited and the fire had reached his foot. he now understood the defeat of the tiger the morning before, and had ocular and painful demonstration of the fact that punk will retain fire, at least for a few hours. [illustration: "after some vigorous blowing, produced flame."] longhead now seemed to wake up; at last he had an idea, and he talked it over with the woman as they slowly returned to the cave platform, each carrying a piece of the lighted punk. once there, the man sought for dry, rotten wood and small twigs, which they piled upon the punk and, after some vigorous blowing, produced flame. an idea was born; a discovery was made; the greatest in all time. broken tooth remained to maintain the fire by putting on fresh fuel, while longhead carried armfuls of sticks and logs from the forest, together with pieces of punk for future use. the punk he piled at the cave entrance to keep it dry, and man was now master of fire, the most beneficent of nature's gifts. thenceforth it only remained that a plentiful supply of dry fuel and punk should be maintained at the cave, and their comfort and safety were assured. their delight at their mutual discovery--for longhead insisted that if broken tooth had not blown upon the punk for amusement, he would not have discovered a method for the preservation of the fire--drew the two closer together as having a great secret in common. the necessity that the fire be supplied with fuel that it might be kept alive, and that fresh fire might occasionally be applied to the pieces of punk, suggested that one should remain for that purpose; and when longhead proposed that the two should remain permanently together, the woman to keep the fire alive while the man sought for food for both, broken tooth agreed at once; and thus came about the first union resembling marriage in which the man became the provider and the woman the home-keeper. chapter ii weapons--cooked food--companionship for some months the man and woman maintained their residence in the cave, uninterrupted by any visits from other human inhabitants of the forest. daily longhead went forth in search of food, which he brought to the cave and they shared it together. sometimes there was plenty, but often their meals were scanty, as the only weapons then known were stones and clubs. broken tooth aided to some extent, by searching a piece of low moist ground not far from the cave for such roots and tubers as were palatable, and altogether, they managed to sustain life as well as before their union, but the woman never ventured far from the platform for fear that by some accident their precious fire should go out. every night the fire blazed merrily upon the platform, fed with dry branches and large sticks, which it was the task of the woman to procure during the day. frequently they saw wild animals in the forest at night or heard their growls as they prowled in the surrounding thickets, but never after their experience with the tiger the first night of their fire, did one venture within the charmed circle of the light made by the flames. sometimes when it rained or the weather was cold, and sufficient food remained over from the night before, longhead lingered about the cave and platform all day, enjoying the warmth and comfort of the fire, and on these occasions the couple talked much of the benefits of their new acquisition. one day broken tooth said: "what shall we say if some of the people wander this way and find us? what shall we tell them about how we came in possession of this new comfort?" then they talked about this long and earnestly. they had no desire to benefit their fellows by sharing with them their accidental discovery, for man was yet a purely selfish animal, and there was no organized society of any kind; but they both recognized the fact that when others became acquainted with its benefits, they would soon acquire the fire, by force if necessary, and that their own lives would stand for nothing, should they resist. they felt sure that the matter could not long be concealed from other members of their group, for the first hunter who should wander to that part of the forest would smell the smoke and would investigate. it was finally concluded that, as they did not themselves know how the fire had originated in the heap of logs and brush, they would say longhead himself had produced it in a mysterious manner, which they dare not reveal for fear it might be taken from them. that they might not be observed in the mornings kindling the fire with punk and tinder, and their secret be thus exposed, it was agreed that all the punk should be kept in the cave, the fires lighted there, and only brought out on the platform after the sticks were ablaze. every night two pieces of punk were ignited and laid carefully up on a small natural projecting shelf in the cave. they used two pieces, fearing that by some accident one might become extinguished. the fact is, this very thing did happen once. the lighted punk had been laid back against the rear wall of the platform when they went to bed, but a violent storm had come on in the night and the rain had been driven in so that the punk was wet and the spark gone in the morning. their precious fire was only saved by broken tooth finding a tiny spark on the under side of a log which the water had not happened to reach. they had been greatly alarmed, and so two pieces had been thereafter lighted and both taken into the cave to avoid such another mishap. this peaceful enjoyment of their new-found happiness and companionship had continued for some months, when one evening a small animal which they were about to tear to pieces for their evening meal, fell into a large bed of burning coals on the platform. longhead was about to recover it when broken tooth, whose sense of smell may have been more acute, said: "wait a minute; what is that delicious smell?" up to this time they had still continued to eat their food raw, and there had been nothing to suggest to the mind of either that it would be better if exposed to heat. now they continued for some minutes to inhale the new and agreeable odor, but it had the effect to make longhead ravenously hungry, and he soon drew the animal from the coals with a long stick. when he began to tear it the hot carcass burned his fingers, which alarmed him at first, but the demands of his appetite must be satisfied, and, tearing it in pieces, he divided with the woman. at first they both tasted gingerly and were a little afraid of the unaccustomed heat, but before either had finished the first morsel their pleasure was evident. they devoured the whole of the animal, and declared it the finest eating they had ever experienced. two or three other small animals lay beside the fire and they decided to repeat the course. both had observed that the portions of the first animal which had been most exposed to the heat had been made tender and more appetizing, and, on the suggestion of broken tooth, a long slender stick was thrust through an animal, which was by this means held over the hottest part of the bed of coals by longhead, who turned it from time to time, that all parts might be thoroughly cooked. this was so much better than the first that their appetites returned with renewed vigor, and when the second animal had been eaten, they again repeated the courses until all the food on hand had been devoured. they both declared that roasted meat was far superior to raw, and agreed that this should be the method of preparing meat for the future. one day when broken tooth returned from the swamp with some wild carrots and other roots, she thrust one into a pile of hot ashes and burning coals, merely as an experiment. she left it there while she collected some fuel and replenished the fire, and when she drew it out and tasted it she was pleased to find that roots also were much improved by cooking. when longhead returned in the evening he was treated to a surprise--supper of two courses, broiled wood-rat and roasted carrot. everything to be used for food was thereafter submitted to the cooking test, and, whenever broiling or roasting in the ashes seemed to improve the taste of any article of food, this was adopted. longhead and broken tooth now found themselves really caring for each other and each sought to do things to please the other. as far as they were concerned, the old selfishness was now gone. their close companionship around the fire alone during the evenings; its cheerful light and gay sparkle, its warmth and comfort tended to promote conversation and they found themselves talking more than they had ever before in their lives. they even coined a few words to express their new experiences and feelings. longhead would relate in detail the hunting adventures of the day and broken tooth would recount her own experiences in search of roots and eggs. both thoroughly enjoyed their new life at the fire-cave; indeed, it seemed to them they had never really lived before. nearly every day longhead would go into the forest in search of small animals for food. in his absence broken tooth first collected sufficient fuel to keep the fire alive for another twenty-four hours, then she would visit the low ground for roots and tubers, eggs and nuts, for since they had been experimenting with roasting, they had discovered that a number of roots which had been rejected as bitter and unpalatable, when raw, were much improved by roasting, and these had been added to the bill of fare. broken tooth had found nesting places of the waterfowl which frequented the swamp. her first experiment in roasting eggs had been a partial failure. she placed a couple of eggs in the hot ashes, noticing at the time that the shell of one was cracked; soon there was an explosion and the egg with the sound shell was destroyed. thereafter she made a small hole in each for the escape of the steam and all went well. her worst trouble with eggs was the want of a receptacle for transporting them to the fire-cave, for she wore not even an apron. when evening began to draw near, broken tooth found herself looking often into the forest and wishing for longhead's return. she sometimes feared a savage beast might have killed him. this was a new feeling for her. in the former life she had never cared for any one or cared particularly to see others. one evening when the man finally appeared, she ran into the forest to meet him and put her arms around his neck. longhead looked at her in some surprise and then returned the caress, and they walked arm in arm to the platform. that evening they both talked a great deal, and finally broken tooth said: "i wonder what has come over both of us. even when together for a short time in the old days, we spoke but seldom. i wonder if it is the fire." it was indeed the fire, with its warmth and cheer, so different from the old days when each had shivered in the fork of a tree or had spent the night in a dark and noisome cavern. neither understood the nature of the change which was being wrought in them, but if it was not yet real marriage, it was at least the germ which in the long succeeding ages has developed into real marriage. one morning a cold rain was falling and longhead sat long before the blazing fire, loth to leave the comfort he found there for the chilly and dripping forest. he drew a long slender stick from the fire and began to observe its glowing end. as the ashes accumulated and hid the red coal, he blew them away. after a few minutes, the fire on the stick went out and the man, picking up a piece of stone, began idly and without purpose to scrape away the black or charred portion of the end. when he reached the unburned wood, he found it very hard and as he continued to scrape, he finally brought the stick to a very sharp point. he felt this and thought it might be very good for killing small animals, so when he finally started out for his day's search for food, he took it with him. it was fortunate he did so, for late in the afternoon as he was turning toward home, after an unsuccessful hunt, a pack of wild dogs attacked him. so close were they upon him before he was aware, that the leader sprang at him to pull him down just before he reached a tree in which he was about to take refuge. in defense, he thrust the sharpened stick at the beast with all his might. it passed clear through the body of the dog, which fell dead and was quickly devoured by its fellows, while the man scrambled to safety. when longhead climbed down, after the dogs had dispersed, he secured the sharpened stick, and it was with a new feeling of safety he moved through the forest, spear in hand; for a spear had been invented. a few days later he even ventured to attack a wild dog he found separated from the pack; a thing he never would have done when armed with only a club or stone. he killed the animal and carried it in triumph to the fire-cave, for it was the first time, to his knowledge, a man, ever, single-handed, had killed so large an animal of a ferocious kind. its roasted flesh supplied the man and woman food for several days. one day, when kindling a fire on the platform, the woman was too indolent to remove some small boulders from the spot where she desired to make the fire, so she piled the fuel over them and was surprised to find that the fire kindled more readily and burned better on account of the fuel being raised from the ground, and thereafter, three or four stones were used to support the sticks. one morning, after the fire had burned for some time and the stones were red hot, a smart shower came up. the fire was too far under the slope of the shelving rock to be directly affected, but as it continued to rain for some time, a small pool accumulated on top of the rock, which finally worked its way through the bed of leaves that had dammed its progress and, all at once, it poured over the face of the rock in a small column and fell directly upon one of the red-hot stones in the fire-place. the stone was a large nodule of flint; there was an immediate explosion, a dense cloud of steam and ashes arose, and the alarmed owners of the cave rushed for safety to its depths. when all was quiet they emerged to find that one of the stones which supported the sticks had disappeared. instead of the stone, however, there were numerous sharp flakes of flint scattered about, which longhead first discovered when he cut his foot by stepping on one. with much curiosity, the man examined the flake which had injured him, then picking up the carcass of a small animal lying near, he found that he could cut it with the flake. he now carefully gathered up all the flakes he could find and carried them into the cave. when he returned from his day's hunt in the evening, he brought with him a long, slender, dry stick which he rubbed and polished with a flake until perfectly smooth; then, with some fibrous roots, he bound the longest and sharpest of his flakes at the end of the pole, and the next day carried this with him to the forest instead of the fire-hardened wooden spear. later, he discovered that narrow strips of rawhide were better than roots for tying on a flake, and, after many years of progress, the long tendons of large animals were substituted as still better for the purpose. longhead and his new deadly weapon had numerous encounters with small animals, in each of which he found his new spear superior to anything he had yet tried, and this gave him still greater confidence in himself. he no longer sneaked through the forest half bent to the ground and fearing nearly every animal he might meet, but went with head erect and a more fearless step. a few days later, while pursuing some half-grown wild pigs, and when they were about to plunge into a den in the rocks, he threw his spear at the last one, in disappointment. to his surprise, it passed clear through the animal, killing it at once. he carried the pig to the cave and that night sat long before the fire in deep thought. finally, he selected a long and thin fragment of flint, rather broader than those he had used for the spear, wrapped some small roots about it at one end to protect his hand, and he had a knife--the first one in the world. the next morning he tied a strip of bark around his waist to support the knife, and when he returned in the evening he brought with him several dry and slender sticks shorter than his spear and proceeded to bind a sharp splinter of flint to each. thereafter, he always carried one of these short ones in addition to his long spear, and thus a javelin was invented. he practiced throwing this at every animal he saw, and, indeed, at other objects, and soon became quite expert in its use. he found, too, that it was now much easier to keep the larder well supplied. in his wanderings, longhead one day approached quite near the locality in which he had formerly resided with the group, and where he had received the terrible beating which had made him an exile. he gnashed his teeth when he thought of the man who had vented his jealous rage upon him and was wondering in his mind how he could obtain revenge. at that instant he turned around a point of rocks and found himself face to face with the giant himself. the fellow was all of a head taller and at least fifty pounds heavier than longhead; his strength was immense and his temper ferocious. by reason of his size and fierce temper, as well as the surly grunts he generally used instead of words, he was known among the people of the group as the bear. he was a veritable tyrant and most of the others were practically his slaves. when bear saw a man or woman with food he wanted, he reached for it with a roar, and it was at once given up or its owner was beaten nearly to death. he had a large number of the women so terrified that they did not dare to associate with the other men; these he kept near himself and compelled them to supply him with food. longhead had once persuaded one of these women to accompany him on a trip in search of food. they were absent several days, and on his return, bear had given him the beating. bear knew him at once, and with a howl of rage and uplifted club, rushed upon him. longhead was terribly frightened, and for a moment forgot all about his spear, but in a second he recalled the fate of the pig and other animals and, with all his strength, he threw his javelin at the hairy breast of the advancing enemy, now but a pace or two distant. it went nearly through his body and, with a yell of pain, the giant threw up his hands and fell to the ground. he tried to pull the weapon from his body, and failing in this, writhed in agony for a few moments and then lay perfectly still. he was dead, and longhead looked with wonder and awe at his victim. fighting was not uncommon among the men of that period, but being without dangerous weapons, the fights had generally resulted in one or both the combatants being more or less seriously but not dangerously injured, and this was the first time longhead had ever seen one human being killed by another. deaths he had, of course, known, but they had been from disease, accident or wild animals. he now heard some of the people approaching, and drawing his javelin from the corpse, he concealed himself near-by to observe the effect when they should discover the body. there were three of the party, and at first they thought bear asleep and shouted to arouse him, but when they discovered the blood and the hole in his breast, they perceived that he was dead. longhead in hiding heard no expressions of sorrow or regret, for, to tell the truth, bear was no favorite with the group. his immense size and irascible disposition had made him a bully, and there were few who had not been beaten by him at some time; therefore, the remarks overheard by the man in hiding were rather to the effect that the finders were well enough pleased, but they expressed great wonder at the wound and could not conceive what animal had caused it, especially as there were no marks of teeth or claws or any other wounds on the body. they picked up the corpse, however, and started with it toward the late habitation of the giant. longhead left his retreat and proceeded thoughtfully toward the fire-cave. his revenge was gratified and he felt happy on that account, but the wonderful character of his weapon was beginning to dawn upon his dull intelligence, and he no longer feared man or beast. he dimly recognized that with such a weapon a small man was the equal of a giant. chapter iii germs of social organization after several months' residence at the fire-cave, during which none of their former neighbors had appeared in the vicinity, longhead and broken tooth were seated at their fire one evening enjoying a hearty meal of cooked flesh and roasted tubers and eggs. the man had, thanks to his javelin, brought home all the meat he could carry, the fire blazed merrily and they were enjoying themselves to the utmost when they were greeted by human voices from some trees near the cave. it appeared that a couple of their old neighbors had been hunting in that part of the forest and, night coming on, they had sought safety from dangerous animals by climbing a tree. this happened to be so near the cave that they caught sight of the light made by the fire, and the strange sight excited their curiosity. at first, they were greatly alarmed, never having seen fire before, but curiosity soon overcame fear, and, passing from tree to tree, they cautiously approached the platform. when quite near they recognized longhead and broken tooth as old acquaintances and called out to them. they were at once invited to come down, but declined at first, being afraid of the strange light, but, being assured by the man and woman that there was no danger, they soon descended, and very gingerly and with many pauses, after much encouragement, approached the platform. the genial warmth of the fire pleased them greatly and they asked longhead what it was and where it came from. he made vague and mysterious answers and gave them little satisfaction. he told them, however, that the savage animals were afraid of the light and would not come near it, relating their adventure with saber-tooth their first night at the cave, and he assured them that if the fire was kept alive by a supply of fuel, one could sleep in the open forest at night without danger, and showed them the effect of putting on fresh fuel. he invited them to remain upon the platform for the night, informing them that but one must sleep at a time, the other remaining awake to supply the fire with wood, of which he showed them the pile and instructed them to put but little on at a time, that it might not be exhausted before daylight. there was a goodly supply of meat at the cave, for the man had been successful in the day's hunt, and he and broken tooth now proceeded to cook some of it over the coals. when it was well done, they offered some to their guests. at first they were afraid of it and declined to taste until their hosts had eaten some, but, after the first taste they devoured it ravenously and expressed great surprise and satisfaction at the improvement over raw meat. at a late hour longhead and broken tooth retired to their cave, leaving their guests seated at the fire. they both remained awake all night, replenishing the fire from time to time, as they had been instructed. they thoroughly enjoyed the new sensation of light and warmth as compared with the dark and chilly refuge of a tree-top, and they talked much of this new element and its mysterious character. when longhead and broken tooth emerged from the cave in the morning, their visitors were gone, and so was the last scrap of meat, for their guests had enjoyed the unusual hospitality to the fullest extent, by spending the night in roasting and eating until gorged, and had taken their departure as soon as it was fully daylight. it chanced that they returned to their group of people on the day of a general gathering, and over and over again they told the marvels they had witnessed the night before. most of their auditors set them down as first-class liars, and not a few told them plainly what they thought of the story. on the second day, however, three of the group agreed to accompany them to the fire-man's cave and verify the matter. the five arrived near the platform about dusk, and brought with them several small animals they had killed on the way. as dark was coming on, the fire burned brightly on the rocky bench in front of the cave. the two who had been visitors before advanced boldly, but when they neared the light, the others promptly climbed trees to view the strange sight from a position of safety. they saw longhead and broken tooth seated by the fire, and, when their companions reached the platform, they saw them welcomed and seated. these called to them to come on as there was nothing to fear, and finally, they climbed down and cautiously approached. their surprise was great and their satisfaction unbounded when they felt the warmth; and now the first comers suggested a trial of the new method of preparing food. here a new surprise awaited them, for longhead and broken tooth each produced a flint knife and proceeded to cut the animals in small pieces instead of tearing them,--a proceeding which the new-comers watched with great interest, for they had never before seen a knife. longhead gave each a piece and showed how to hold it over the hottest part of the burning coals, and to turn it that all parts might be cooked and not scorched. they took the delight of children in a new game, and besides, they were hungry from their long tramp, and the feast lasted until all the meat and roasted roots had been disposed of, many questions being asked, however, during the progress of the meal about the origin of the fire. these the man and woman answered mysteriously, and finally retired to the cave, leaving their guests more mystified than ever. the visitors remained awake most of the night, one or two sleeping while the others kept the fire supplied with fuel. it happened, also, that a couple of tigers approached the light near enough to be seen by them, but sneaked off, afraid of the strange sight. this time they all remained until the man and woman arose in the morning, and then insisted that longhead should tell them where the fire came from and how they could procure it for the benefit of the group. he answered as mysteriously as before, and pointed to the sky as the place from whence it came; but he gave them to understand that he controlled the mysterious agent; that there were plenty of caves in the ravine near-by, and if the group would take these for their habitations, he would not object to supplying them with the fire; and he showed them how it might be conveyed to a considerable distance by means of torches. he was careful, however, not to say anything about its preservation by means of the punk, and he declined to give any explanation in regard to the flint knives with which the meat had been cut. since he had become acquainted with the use of fire, longhead's intellect had expanded rapidly, and he now began to have a vague idea that he could make use of these secrets to his own personal advantage. on their return to the group, the party reported that all the first two had said about the fire was true and the half had not been told. they enlarged upon the appetizing method of preparing food by roasting, and the warmth and comfort of the heat, to say nothing of the terror in which the fire was held by the ferocious animals. they told of the caves in the vicinity of the fire-man's habitation and his offer to supply them all with fire, and proposed an immigration to the locality, that all might enjoy this new agent for man's comfort. most of the group agreed to the proposition, and the next day removed with their few belongings and located themselves in the caves of the ravine; but a few conservative old fellows said they would have nothing to do with such unnatural and mysterious business; and as to roasting meat, it was surely intended that it should be eaten raw, else why were they furnished with hands to tear and teeth to chew, and besides, had not their fathers always eaten their meat raw? for their part, they would remain at the old locality and follow the old and tried methods, at least, until they should see if any harm befell the immigrants on account of the innovation. by the time the procession of emigrants had arrived at the fire-cave, longhead and broken tooth had determined upon their own course of action, and when the new-comers had selected their respective caves and came to be instructed in the use of fire, longhead told each that as this mysterious agent was his property and he alone could produce or destroy it, he would require of each that he should bring an armful of fuel or a present of food when he came for fire; and further, that if the fire on any hearth should go out, it should not be rekindled with that of a neighbor, but by a torch lighted at his own central fire; and he threatened that if these rules should be violated, he would at once extinguish all the fires and retire to a distant part of the forest, leaving them in their former condition. so beneficial did the people by this time believe the fire to be, that they all readily agreed to his terms, and scattered through the forest to secure armfuls of fuel with which to purchase the blessing, except a few who happened to have food to exchange. as each threw down his contribution he received a lighted torch and was given instruction how to kindle his fire, and, by the time it became dark, the whole ravine was brilliantly illuminated and merry with the shouts of old and young as they gathered for the first time around hearthstones and enjoyed light and heat. those who had visited the fire-cave before the immigration, proceeded at once to roast their meat and tubers, and the others imitated them, though a few concluded to eat theirs raw until they might see if the new method was injurious to those who tried it. the first touch of the hot meat with lips or fingers brought exclamations of surprise or fear from some, but, on the whole, cooking was voted a success and was thereafter universally practiced. chapter iv co-operation a few days after the arrival of the colony of settlers at the fire-cave, the conservatives of the group who had remained at the old home could no longer control their curiosity, and so, one afternoon they approached the vicinity of the new settlement, after cautiously reconnoitering from the tree-tops. when discovered, they were cordially invited to approach, for the old selfishness and exclusiveness seemed to melt away under the influence of fire and the companionship it inculcated, and they were soon enjoying for the first time roasted carrots and broiled meat. they soon lost their shyness and fear under the new conditions, and remained permanent denizens of the settlement. the men of the group soon observed the flint knives and spear-heads used by longhead; they at once appreciated their superior effectiveness as weapons, and importuned him to supply them with similar ones, or teach them how to make them for themselves. he was now too shrewd, however, to risk the loss of any of his prestige by revealing the secret of their manufacture, but agreed to make them similar weapons for a consideration, payment of which should be made in the shape of food and fuel, the only commodities at that time of any value. each man now brought him suitable sticks for javelins and spears, and for each he made a long spear, two javelins and a knife. when the first supply of flakes was exhausted, longhead heated another nodule of flint and poured water on it from a piece of bark, but he was careful to do this when none of the others were about; and thus maintained both secrecy and a supply of materials. the control of fire and the manufacture of these valuable and mysterious weapons, gave longhead a standing in the group which none had ever before attained. human society had not yet been organized in any form; there were no laws, no rules and no chiefs. each did exactly as he pleased, and if there was any restraint at all upon a man's actions, it came not from a sense of justice, morals or ethics, but simply the fear of a beating by the injured party, if any of his supposed rights were infringed upon. soon, however, individuals began to consult longhead in regard to ordinary affairs. one would ask him if there would be rain during the day; another, the direction he should take for a prosperous hunt, and, as he was always careful to make replies which were somewhat vague and mysterious, except where he had certain knowledge, he soon acquired a reputation for superior wisdom. longhead, now relieved, to some extent, from the daily exertion necessary to procure food for himself and broken tooth, by the contributions of many who, through indolence or ignorance, permitted their fires to become extinguished, had much time for thought, and, as he sat making weapons, the manufacture of which brought him additional supplies, it one day occurred to him that if a number of the men armed with the new weapons could be employed at the same time against larger animals theretofore always avoided, the people might combat with them successfully and thus the food supply might be largely increased. this was the first suggestion of coöperation, and the idea but slowly took form in his mind, though it recurred to him almost daily. up to this time each man had hunted alone, and if two or more happened to be in company, it was by the merest accident; but, as longhead worked out the problem, he concluded that if a number could be directed by an intelligent leader, their efforts might be successful, and he determined to make the experiment at the earliest opportunity. about this time a hunter returned one afternoon in great excitement, and reported that a large rhinoceros had partly mired in a swamp near the settlement. he said the huge animal was able to make but little progress and might be approached quite near without grave danger. this was longhead's opportunity to try his experiment of coöperation. fortunately, there were quite a number of the men about that day, and he at once called them together, told them to bring their weapons and accompany him to the swamp. he assumed the leadership of the party, and when they approached the swamp, each was directed to gather a bundle of dry grass, reeds and brush. these he had thrown down as they progressed, to give them footing in the soft ooze, and soon they had a tolerably firm path from the solid ground to a place near the great beast. on their approach the rhinoceros made no further attempt at progress, but he turned his head with its long sharp horn toward his foes and, with loud snorts of rage, seemed to dare them to come nearer. their ancient fear of this formidable animal made the men hesitate, but under the peremptory orders of longhead, they ventured forward and threw their javelins into the body of the huge animal. it must be confessed that for some time the attack seemed only to increase his rage, he made vigorous efforts to reach his tormentors and snorted loudly. but while, for the most part, the javelins did not penetrate beyond the thick layer of fat which surrounded the animal's body, a few had reached some of the larger blood-vessels, and when these were broken off or torn out in the desperate struggles of the beast, the blood poured forth in torrents and he soon began to weaken; his snorting was no longer so loud and he would lie down occasionally as if to rest, closing his eyes and breathing loudly but with evident difficulty. during one of these resting spells, longhead came close to him and thrust his long spear with all his might into the animal's body just back of his shoulder. when it was withdrawn, the blood spouted from the wound and also from the mouth of the beast, and soon its eyes grew dim, its struggles grew less frequent and violent, and finally ceased entirely, for the great rhinoceros was dead. [illustration: "soon they had a tolerably firm path from the solid ground to a place near the great beast."] longhead now, for a while, lost control of the situation. the men went simply wild. their shouts filled the air, and to these were joined the shrill cries of the women and children who had approached the swamp and had been interested witnesses of the battle and its result. the great animal--an abundance of food for several days--was theirs. they had occasionally before this happened upon the body of one of these animals, killed in one of the fights which frequently occurred between the males of the species, but, without knives, they had been unable to tear the thick hide, and even when it had been torn by wolves or bears, the meat was so tough they were able to obtain but a few small pieces. their present hilarity might certainly be excused. soon longhead began issuing orders and enforcing them by punches with the blunt end of his spear or sound blows with the pole, and some semblance of order was obtained. by his direction, men, women and children joined in bringing more brush and grass. this was piled close to the carcass and the men with their flint knives proceeded to cut up the huge body. the women and children carried loads of meat to the settlement, and soon most of the flesh was removed. the head was dragged by the men to longhead's cave and set upon a stick on the platform as his trophy, while all stood around and roused the echoes of the ravine with their yells and acclamations,--the first time a public acknowledgement was ever given a leader. such feasting the group had never known. at each fire, large pieces of rhinoceros steak were roasted on coals or sticks, and for several days, every man, woman and child was literally too full for utterance. after this experience, longhead, as the organizer and leader of the coöperative attack on the rhinoceros and the final slayer of the animal, was, by common consent, regarded as the head of the group; his advice was sought on all occasions, and his word was law. he gradually assumed the direction of everything that was done. having demonstrated the strength of coöperative hunting, he organized easily a squad of the bravest and most active of the men as special hunters of large game. each was armed with a long spear, two javelins and a knife, and he required them to practice javelin throwing until each became expert. on a hunt these men always kept within hearing or sight of each other, and they soon originated a code of rude signals by which the whole party might be informed of the appearance of any large animal. this band of hunters, on their first expedition, led by longhead in person, encountered a drove of wild hogs. when each man had hunted alone with stones and clubs as his only weapons, these savage creatures were almost as much dreaded as the cave lion or the saber-tooth tiger, and now when they appeared, nearly every hunter, mindful of his old fear, scrambled into a tree; but at longhead's command they descended, and he organized them into a compact body, back to back. when the hogs charged in their usual manner, the slaughter wrought by the spears and javelins was so great that not an animal escaped, for, in accordance with their habit, the hogs knew nothing of retreat, and the last survivor charged as bravely as if at the head of the herd. again coöperation had triumphed, and the settlement feasted for many days. the genius for leadership shown by longhead, together with the superiority of the weapons he had invented, and, above all, his mysterious control of the fire, had now firmly established him as leader or chief, and none thought of questioning his authority in anything. there had been no election to the office, nor, indeed, any consultation on the subject; he simply assumed the leadership and the group acquiesced by compliance with his commands. this first social organization for coöperation in hunting--the germ from which all governments and laws have grown--was not the only one resulting from the use of fire. the manifest blessings or comforts due to its use, and the mysterious manner of its production in the fire-cave hidden from the sight of all, began to give rise to the idea that longhead and broken tooth must be in communication with some superior being. it cannot be said that man at that time had any religion, any conception of a god, or indeed, any definite idea of supernatural beings, but there were many mysteries of nature which he could in no wise comprehend. incapable of speculative thought, or, indeed, of much continuous thought of any kind, he was unable to distinguish clearly between the animate and inanimate; he attributed active life to all surrounding objects and believed even the trees and plants to put on foliage, blossom and produce fruit because they desired to do so. when a rock, loosened by the action of frost and storm, became detached from a cliff and rolled into the valley below, it did so of its own accord and was regarded with fear. a man would make a wide circuit to avoid it in passing and none would voluntarily approach it. they lived in a region of cliffs and mountains and when one gave a shout, under proper conditions, his words were repeated, sometimes more than once; and none could find the mysterious beings who did the mocking; indeed, after vain searches, they became convinced that the tantalizing mockings came from beings invisible to man, consequently his superiors and, therefore, dangerous. they began to avoid the glens and valleys wherein echoes abounded, or, if compelled to pass through them, did so in silence that their dangerous neighbors might not be provoked to do them an injury. the curling mist rolling silently down the mountain side, was to them another mysterious being of whom they stood in awe, and thunder, lightning and storm each became to them personified and living supernatural beings who terrified them. they had yet no belief that man had a soul or spirit which existed after his death. this thought was to come ages thereafter. it was not long until it was suggested that longhead must have subjected to his control one or more powerful but invisible beings whom he kept shut up in his cave under the guardianship of the woman, and who, at his command, produced the fire and wonderful weapons. that broken tooth was the guardian of these beings, made mystery attach to her as well, and they began to look upon her with fear and reverence also. the man and woman encouraged this by becoming more mysterious than ever. when further questioned in regard to the fire, they boldly asserted that the whispered stories were true; that their control of fire and the ability on the part of the man to make superior weapons was due to supernatural beings who frequented the cave and were subject to them. they asserted that these beings were so powerful they could strike them all with instant death, and would have done so but for the intercession of the fire-man and the woman to whose control they were subject; but the people were assured that so long as longhead and broken tooth should be treated with proper respect, their wants satisfied and their commands obeyed, they would not permit these malevolent beings to molest any of the group, and the fire should not be taken away. soon the people of the group at the fire-cave were informed that the fire-spirits desired the man to remain most of the time at or near the cave that they might converse with him at all times and instruct him in additional methods for promoting the happiness and welfare of the people, and it would, therefore, be impossible for him to take part in the daily hunt for game, though he would still lead them in important expeditions. on this account he directed that each member of the group should daily bring to the fire-cave contributions of food, sufficient not only for the wants of the man, but of the woman and spirits also. the people readily believed this, for they were incapable of conceiving that such beings as spirits had not need of material food, and, consequently, each brought his or her offering daily, either of food or fuel. if by reason of failure in the chase, an unfortunate hunter had no offering to bring, he was required to come to the cave and, through the medium of longhead, ask pardon of the spirits, and bring a double portion the next time. to all this the people of the group readily submitted; longhead and broken tooth lived in comfort, if not in luxury, without any effort upon their part; the people were educated to ask the forgiveness of superior and supernatural beings whose existence was shrouded in mystery, through the medium of a priest whose natural wants they were required to supply; and thus a religious worship with a dedicated and supported priesthood, if not a religion itself, was established among men. chapter v dawn of invention, art, marriage, religion and government affairs at the settlement near the fire-cave now moved along smoothly. their new weapons enabled the hunters to secure abundance of food in a country teeming with animal life, now that they dared attack the larger animals. cooking made both the flesh and vegetables more nourishing as well as more appetizing, and soon the enormous stomachs, no longer continually distended with raw and indigestible food, became reduced in size and their bodies less unwieldy. made confident by the use of fire and superior weapons, the men now walked fully erect and wandered through the forest with little fear. as their supply of nourishing food increased, more children were born than before, and the mortality among infants was greatly reduced. all this tended toward a rapid increase of population in the settlement. this increase in the population necessitated more habitations, and this, at the time meant more caves, for this was the epoch of cave-men. after all the available caves in the ravine and vicinity had been appropriated, an enterprising young man of the group who, by reason of mutual attachment and because of the example, perhaps, of longhead and broken tooth, had induced a young woman to establish similar relations with him, being unable to find an unoccupied cave, concluded to establish housekeeping upon a horizontal ledge overhung by a projecting rocky cliff. this location, protected only in the rear, soon proved to be too exposed for comfort, and the couple concluded to improve it. they took several good sized sticks of different lengths which had been burned off by the fires and after leaning them up against the sloping rock, piled on brush and grass. this was much better than the open front, but a coal from their fire having blown into the grass after it had dried, caused a conflagration which reduced them to their former condition. the man proved to be quite intelligent, and he began to select logs of the same length, burning them off at the proper place when necessary; and these they sloped up side by side at the front as before, but, mindful of the fire, they filled the interstices with sticks, stones and moss, finally plastering the whole front, except for a small opening for entrance, with mud. this was a great improvement over all former conditions; the rain and wind were excluded, to a considerable extent; indeed, it was preferable to a cave. it was lighter and better ventilated, and, when they had learned to construct movable frames which could be securely fastened in the doorways, to prevent incursions by wild animals, these lean-tos or rock-shelters, the remains of which have been found in many parts of europe, became the favorite habitations of the people of the group. the inhabitants of the caves and rock-shelters did not clean house every spring and fall, or, indeed, at any other time; the refuse and debris of the household were allowed to accumulate upon the floors of the caves and rock-shelters, and to this we owe nearly all the knowledge possessed by civilized man of the domestic arts, weapons, food, etc., and the general conditions under which the cave-men lived, as well as of the animals which were their contemporaries. the floors of these ancient dwellings, when excavated by scientists, show several feet of debris or accumulations, which are called "brecchia," being a conglomeration of dirt, bones of animals, bones of human beings, weapons, implements and other artifacts, which are frequently cemented with limestone formations caused by the drippings of the rocks and caves, in the nature of stalactites and stalagmites. not only have we learned from this "brecchia" what progress the cave-men had made in domestic art, but our knowledge of the animals which lived in the locality and were their contemporaries is almost wholly derived from rude pictures made by these cave people, who seem to have suddenly developed an artistic sense and made such pictures by etching or scratching them with sharp flints upon pieces of bone, ivory and slate. these drawings are by no means so crude and wanting in artistic skill as we would be inclined to expect. the animals depicted are readily recognizable; such drawings show groups of reindeer, now found only in the arctic regions; the wild horse; the single horned rhinoceros; the giant elk; and on a smooth piece of his own tusk, we see the curved-tusked, hairy elephant of gigantic size--the mammoth, or _elephas primigenius_, whose bones have been found in many parts of europe and asia, and of which at least one specimen was found whole with the flesh intact, in the frozen tundra of siberia. but for these drawings--the natural history of his time--left by cave-men, we would not know that immense animals, now long extinct in europe, had contested with men of the cave period, the ownership of the forests, swamps, plains and mountains. in the "brecchia" of these caves, are often found long bones of animals which have been split longitudinally to obtain the marrow, which was regarded as a great delicacy by primitive man; and as some long bones of the human body have been found split in the same manner, some scientists have concluded that cave men were cannibals, or at least occasionally made a feast upon the bodies of prisoners captured in war, or upon such sacrifices when offered to the gods. at the time when rock-shelters became favorite habitations of the people at the fire-cave, marriage relations were still loose, and any idea of male parentage was yet to come, but in a few generations, instead of accepting the birth of children without thought, it was generally believed that the supernatural beings with whom their imaginations peopled the hills, valleys, groves and ravines, were responsible for their advent. however, the more frequent and intimate association of the sexes around the fires and in preparing food by roasting, had a great effect, and it was noticeable that men and women began to pair off in the caves and rock-shelters; that such cohabitation continued for longer periods of time, and there were a number who appeared to have formed permanent unions. there was something about the fire--the social hearthstone--which tended to prolong such associations. the cheerful light of the fires; the measure of comfort they furnished, and the talkativeness promoted by companionship as the hunters related around the evening fires the adventures and experiences of that and former days, all combined to make man more of a social being, and the same influences promoted more permanency of union between couples who found themselves at all congenial. perhaps the example of longhead and broken tooth, who had remained true to each other, had something to do with this gradual change in the relations of the sexes, but it was not until many generations after when the fact of male parentage became known to mankind, that anything at all like marriage was known or any man regarded any child or children as his own. there being no settled custom in this matter, many couples continued to unite and separate as they might feel inclined. the most that can be said is, that the use of fire in some manner appeared to promote a longer union than was common before its discovery, and that, in the progress of ages, fire seems to have been one of the agencies which greatly assisted in bringing about the present sacredness of home and marriage. the hunters of the group still continued their coöperative search for food, and the fact that it was often impossible to determine who had killed a particular animal, while it was frequently certain that the weapons and efforts of several had a part in it, brought about a system for making an equitable distribution of all the animals taken in each expedition. first the share required by longhead and broken tooth would be set apart, then the remainder was apportioned to each member of the group or to each habitation in proportion to the number of persons to be supported. the women, too, whose task it was to find the roots and vegetables, eggs, berries and nuts which entered into their diet, began to imitate the actions of the men in this respect. they soon arranged to leave the older and more feeble women at the settlement to maintain the fires and look after the younger children, and to these was allotted a share of the food secured by the others. these customs were established gradually and without definite enactments, or even agreements, but by common consent; they were, however, greatly promoted by longhead, who seemed to make coöperation a sort of a hobby. they seemed to have just happened, but they were, in fact, the natural outgrowth of fire and the changed conditions due to its influence. in the course of years these customs crystallized into a communal organization in which all things, except perhaps, the weapons of a hunter and a very few personal belongings upon which the owner had expended thought and labor, were regarded as the property of the group or tribe. this communal organization of society continued for thousands of years and its vestiges still exist amid the highest enlightenment, as the foundation for business corporations, partnerships, and, indeed, all commercial and other coöperation,--communism--the greatest good to the greatest number, being the basis of all civilized laws. while the hunters of the settlement at the fire-cave scoured the forest for animal food, and the women sought vegetables, nuts, berries and eggs, longhead was by no means idle. true, he was, by the contributions exacted from the group, relieved from the necessity of daily effort to secure sustenance for himself, broken tooth and a bright-eyed little cave-boy who had been sent to the woman by the spirits, and he seldom joined in a hunting excursion; but, weapons were often broken or lost, and, as he still retained the secret of their manufacture, he was kept tolerably busy in replacing them. continual experience in this work gave him greater skill and a truer eye for symmetry of form coupled with effectiveness for use, and he also learned to distinguish the best materials of the vicinage. he invented no new weapons, for the bow and arrow and even the stone axe, were to be the products of a much later epoch; but he discovered that a javelin could be thrown with much greater accuracy if the two sides of the flint point were exactly alike and evenly balanced. experience had also demonstrated to him that the weapon had greater penetrative force if the flake for the flint head was thin and the edges and point very sharp. he became more careful, therefore, in the selection of his flakes, and when he found one suitable for his use, except one side was larger than the other or the edges too thick, he found that he could batter off small pieces with light blows of a pebble, or flake them by pressure with a bone, and thus bring it into shape. he discovered also that when the base of a flake had some notches near it, the fastenings remained more firm and the point was less likely to become detached from the shaft. he therefore began, by pecking and flaking, to form such notches where he did not find them to suit him, and soon his spear and javelin heads assumed a conventional form. there was a slow but continuous improvement in the weapons of the period, but eventually these spear and knive heads became much like those still found upon the village sites of primitive man all over the world. the worst trouble longhead had to overcome in the manufacture of weapons was the method of fastening the points to the shafts or handles. the small fibrous roots he used at first would fray and break when they became dry, and the points would be lost or fail the hunter at a critical moment. the stringy bark he cut from trees with his knife was little better, but, one day when cutting up a large animal for cooking, he found its hide so tough he could hardly penetrate it with the knife, an idea occurred to him, and he cut off a long narrow strip of the skin for an experiment. this he hung up until he should have time to make the test he had in mind, and when he came to try it he found that he could not break it even by exerting all his strength. from the skin of the next animal that came into his larder, he secured a number of long strips, and, having dried these, he wet them to make them more pliable, and used some of them in lashing a point to a javelin. this weapon he tested by frequent use, and was pleased to note that the new lashing did not fray or break when it became dry, nor did it loosen, but, on the contrary, the strings of rawhide shrank when drying and held the point the tighter. thereafter the tough hides were removed, dried and prepared for strings for this and other purposes, and it was not long until he accidentally discovered that wet wood ashes placed on a skin for a few hours would loosen the hair and permit its removal, leaving the skin improved for making strings. about this time broken tooth made a discovery and, like the others, it was also accidental. in her cooking operations, pieces of food were continually falling upon the ground or being laid upon it in course of preparation, and they became more or less covered with sand or fine particles of grit, which did not taste good, and, besides, they hurt her teeth. she had no idea of their uncleanliness; it was simply a matter of discomfort. one day she observed a long strip of bark hanging to a tree which had recently blown over, and the idea occurred to her that if she had some pieces of this bright, clean bark on which to place the food, the disagreeable sand might be avoided. she tried to break the bark, but it was too tough and stringy, so she went to the cave and returned with a flake of flint. it happened to have a sharp but very ragged edge, and she found that by drawing the edge back and forth across the grain of the bark and at the same time putting on some pressure, she could cut it rapidly. that evening she surprised longhead by presenting his supper on a set of clean bark dishes. the man examined them curiously and asked how she had cut them. she produced the flint and demonstrated on one of the plates how it would cut. she had invented, or at least, she had made the first application of the saw. the man examined the flake thoughtfully, and, picking up a piece of stick, tried it on that. he soon sawed it off, and was greatly pleased. to get the staves of his spears and handles of javelins the right length, he had been burning them off in the fire, but now he would use a saw. he soon found that the more numerous and regular the notches the faster the implement would cut, and, as few, if any, of the flakes came off the nodules in this condition, he applied pecking and pressure, and soon had a saw with small and regular serrations or teeth, and found it very useful. up to this time, all his knives had been made of long flakes with a wrapping of roots at one end to protect the hand, but he had found it difficult to secure many flakes long enough for both blade and handle. one day he had the misfortune to break the shaft of his favorite spear. it had a thin blade which was very long and sharp, and the rawhide strings held it firmly. he attempted to untie the lashings, that he might use the blade for another shaft, but they had become so hard and dry that he could not succeed in untying them. he picked up his saw to cut them, but first began idly to draw it across the shaft. at once he noticed that if cut off at the point where he was sawing, the spear would become a knife with a wooden handle. the operation was quickly completed, and he found the new style of knife much superior to the old. flakes of this size were much more frequently produced in breaking a nodule with fire and water, and all his knives were thereafter furnished with wooden handles. the saw thus became one of the most useful of his few tools. thus the flint saw, discovered by accident by a primitive woman, was the germ from which has been elaborated, with little change except for material, one of the most useful tools known to civilized man. when the little cave-boy of their family was something over a year old, a small girl was brought by the spirits, and as the children grew and thrived, broken tooth began to suggest that their present home was becoming crowded. the cave was indeed a small one for two, three made it uncomfortable, and now four was certainly a crowd. longhead first proposed searching for a cave of larger proportions, but to this broken tooth raised several objections. all the larger caves in the vicinity were already occupied, and, while they might no doubt use the authority of the spirits to compel the present occupants to vacate a cave for their use, this course was sure to create ill feeling which, sooner or later, might work to their disadvantage; and, besides, where could they find one with so large a platform in front and so well protected by overhanging rock. could not some plan be devised to enlarge this one? and she called longhead's attention to the fact that the rock inside was soft and friable, and that small pieces were continually falling down, which she carried out and threw over the edges of the platform. the man undertook to make the cavity larger by pulling down and removing all the loose pieces, but, when this was done, little increase in the size of their home was apparent. on one side the man noticed that the rock was full of small cracks and seams, but these were so tightly fitted and irregular that he could remove but few of the stones with his hands. one piece that was quite loose he tried for a long time to pull out, but it pinched too tightly at one corner. in a rage, he picked up a large, sharp cornered piece of flint with both hands and struck it with all his might into the crack which held the tightest. the piece that bound it was broken and the stone fell out, followed by a number of others. another discovery of the value of flint pieces had been made--a pick had been found, and daily both longhead and broken tooth spent some hours digging at the loosened rocks until, in the course of time, they had a cave sufficiently large for their needs, and in succeeding years this was extended, as the growth of the family and their ideas of comfort demanded. by the same means longhead removed the irregularities of the floor and side walls, and finally he somewhat enlarged the doorway, gave it a more regular shape, and substituted strong wooden bars, held in place by notches cut in the stone, for the large stones they had formerly rolled into the opening at night to prevent the entrance of dangerous animals. the curious inhabitants of the settlement watched these operations, and it was not long until many other caves were thus enlarged and more comfort secured. during the remainder of longhead's life, little further progress was made in the manufacture of weapons and implements, other domestic arts or the conditions of the group; but the flint saw became a common implement and was applied to various uses; many of the families used bark dishes, and a sort of rude basket had been evolved from naturally curled cylinders of bark into which a bottom of bark or interlacing of rawhide strings had been inserted. these were used to transport nuts, berries, wild fruit, eggs, etc., to the caves and as receptacles in which to retain the same afterwards. no basketry or other weaving process had been thought of, nor had there been any attempt made to manufacture or use any kind of clothing, the skins of animals being used only for strings, or occasionally to carry food products. social conditions also remained practically the same, but food was more easily procured in consequence of slowly extending coöperation, and the method of its preparation by cooking made it more nourishing, consequently more of the children grew to manhood and womanhood, and the average of life was longer. the possession of effective weapons continued to render men less fearful, they became more and more erect and grew to a taller stature. the inventions and improvement in conditions already described were the necessary and almost immediate results of the control and use of fire, and when this point was reached, further progress for many generations can scarcely have been considerable. primitive man was not fertile in original ideas, nor inventive, except from accident aided by necessity, and the use of the bow and arrow, stone axe, baskets, weaving and pottery were to come many generations after the death of longhead, broken tooth and their fellows of the fire-cave settlement. a method for producing fire by friction of wood upon wood, after the method of the fire-drill, which has been common to nearly all primitive peoples who have come under the observation of civilized men, probably came with the other later discoveries, but it was doubtless still longer before any clothing was used, and then, at first, it was most likely more for ornament than for comfort or any feeling of modesty. however, the succeeding generations of the group described never lost the inventions of longhead, and in after ages, when the idea of a supreme being or beings had been elaborated as a religion, he was deified and worshipped as a god and the founder of the tribe or people. the descendants of broken tooth--for descent for many ages was still reckoned only in the female line--continued to be the weapon-makers and rulers of the tribe, and from them were the fire-priests always selected, when the worship of fire, with a consecrated priesthood and a more or less elaborate ritual, had been developed. many ages were to pass with a slow but continued upward progress before this group of fire-people entered even the lowest stages of barbarism, but certainly the discovery of the use and control of fire had much to do with the early progress of the rude people described, and whose individuals, we have assumed for the purposes of the story, were our own far away ancestors. the end works of c. h. robinson longhead: the story of the first fire net $ . hawk: the young osage $ . pollyanna _by eleanor h. porter_ author of "miss billy," "miss billy's decision," etc. _ mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ "enter pollyanna! she is the daintiest, dearest, most irresistible maid you have met in all your journeyings through bookland. and you forget she is a story girl, for pollyanna is so real that after your first introduction you will feel the inner circle of your friends has admitted a new member. a brave, winsome, modern american girl, pollyanna walks into print to take her place in the hearts of all members of the family." _of "miss billy" the critics have written as follows_: "to say of any story that it makes the reader's heart feel warm and happy is to pay it praise of sorts, undoubtedly. well, that's the very praise one gives 'miss billy.'"--_edwin l. shuman in the chicago record-herald._ "the story is delightful and as for billy herself--she's _all right_!" --_philadelphia press._ "there is a fine humor in the book, some good revelation of character and plenty of romance of the most unusual order."--_the philadelphia inquirer._ "there is something altogether fascinating about 'miss billy,' some inexplicable feminine characteristic that seems to demand the individual attention of the reader from the moment we open the book until we reluctantly turn the last page."--_boston transcript._ "the book is a wholesome story, as fresh in tone as it is graceful in expression, and one may predict for it a wide audience."--_philadelphia public ledger._ "miss billy is so carefree, so original and charming, that she lives in the reader's memory long after the book has been laid aside."--_boston globe._ "you cannot help but love dear 'billy;' she is winsome and attractive and you will be only too glad to introduce her to your friends." --_brooklyn eagle._ the career of dr. weaver _by mrs. henry w. backus_ _ mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ a big and purposeful story interwoven about the responsibilities and problems in the medical profession of the present day. dr. weaver, a noted specialist, and head of a private hospital, had allowed himself to drift away from the standards of his youth in his desire for wealth and social and scientific prestige. when an exposé of the methods employed by him in furthering his schemes for the glorifying of the name of "weaver" in the medical world is threatened, it is frustrated through the efforts of the famous doctor's younger brother, dr. jim. the story is powerful and compelling, even if it uncovers the problems and temptations of a physician's career. perhaps the most important character, not even excepting dr. weaver and dr. jim, is "the girl," who plays such an important part in the lives of both men. "the story becomes one of those absorbing tales of to-day which the reader literally devours in an evening, unwilling to leave the book until the last page is reached, and constantly alert, through the skill of the author, in following the characters through the twisted ways of their career."--_boston journal._ "the story is well-written, unique, quite out of the usual order, and is most captivating."--_christian intelligencer._ the hill of venus _by nathan gallizier_ author of "castel del monte," "the sorceress of rome," "the court of lucifer," etc. _ mo, cloth decorative, with four illustrations in color, net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ this is a vivid and powerful romance of the thirteenth century in the times of the great ghibelline wars, and deals with the fortunes of francesco villani, a monk, who has been coerced by his dying father to bind himself to the church through a mistaken sense of duty, but who loves ilaria, one of the famous beauties of the court at avellino. the excitement, splendor and stir of those days of activity in rome are told with a vividness and daring, which give a singular fascination to the story. _the press has commented as follows on the author's previous books_: "the author displays many of the talents that made scott famous."--_the index._ "the book is breathless reading, as much for the adventures, the pageants, the midnight excursions of the minor characters, as for the love story of the prince and donna lucrezia."--_boston transcript._ "mr. gallizier daringly and vividly paints in glowing word and phrases, in sparkling dialogue and colorful narrative, the splendor, glamor and stir in those days of excitement, intrigue, tragedy, suspicion and intellectual activity in rome."--_philadelphia press._ "a splendid bit of old roman mosaic, or a gorgeous piece of tapestry. otto is a striking and pathetic figure. description of the city, the gorgeous ceremonials of the court and the revels are a series of wonderful pictures."--_cincinnati enquirer._ "the martial spirit of these stirring times, weird beliefs in magic and religion are most admirably presented by the author, who knows his subject thoroughly. it belongs to the class of bulwer-lytton's romances; carefully studied, well wrought, and full of exciting incident."--_cleveland enquirer._ "romance at its best."--_boston herald._ the what-shall-i-do girl or, the career of joy kent _by isabel woodman waitt_ _ mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by jessie gillespie. net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ when joy kent finds herself alone in the world, thrown on her own resources, after the death of her father, she looks about her, as do so many young girls, fresh from the public schools, wondering how she can support herself and earn a place in the great business world about her. still wondering, she sends a letter to a number of girls she had known in school days, asking that each one tell her just how she had equipped herself for a salary-earning career, and once equipped, how she had found it possible to start on that career. in reply come letters from the milliner, the stenographer, the librarian, the salesgirl, the newspaper woman, the teacher, the nurse, and from girls who had adopted all sorts of vocations as a means of livelihood. real friendly girl letters they are, too, not of the type that preach, but of the kind which give sound and helpful advice in a bright and interesting manner. of course there is a splendid young man who also gives advice. any "what-shall-i-do" young girl can read of the careers suggested for joy kent with profit and pleasure, and, perhaps, with surprise! the harbor master _by theodore goodridge roberts_ author of "comrades of the trails," "rayton: a backwoods mystery," etc. _ mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color by john goss. net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ the scene of the story is newfoundland. the story deals with the love of black dennis nolan, a young giant and self-appointed skipper of the little fishing hamlet of chance along, for flora lockhart, a beautiful professional singer, who is rescued by dennis from a wreck on the treacherous coast of newfoundland, when on her way from england to the united states. the story is a strong one all through, with a mystery that grips, plenty of excitement and action, and the author presents life in the open in all its strength and vigor. mr. roberts is one of the younger writers whom the critics have been watching with interest. in "the harbor master" he has surely arrived. _of mr. roberts' previous books the critics have written as follows_: "the action is always swift and romantic and the love is of the kind that thrills the reader. the characters are admirably drawn and the reader follows with deep interest the adventures of the two young people."--_baltimore sun._ "mr. roberts' pen has lost none of its cunning, while his style is easier and breezier than ever."--_buffalo express._ "it is a romance of clean, warm-hearted devotion to friends and duty. the characters are admirable each in his own or her own way, and the author has made each fit the case in excellent fashion."--_salt lake city tribune._ "in this book mr. roberts has well maintained his reputation for the vivid coloring of his descriptive pictures, which are full of stirring action, and in which love and fighting hold chief place."--_boston times._ "its ease of style, its rapidity, its interest from page to page, are admirable; and it shows that inimitable power--the story-teller's gift of verisimilitude. its sureness and clearness are excellent, and its portraiture clear and pleasing."--_the reader._ the blossom shop a story of the south _by isla may mullins_ _cloth decorative, illustrated by john goss. net $ . ; postpaid $ . _ one of those exquisitely simple and appealing stories of mother love and sacrifice for a little blind daughter, written in a delightful vein, combining humor and pathos. the reader will love little blind eugene (the child had received the name of her dead father) and will rejoice with the brave young mother, the heroine of the story, when the child's sight is restored. there is a time for rejoicing, too, when a lost will is found, bringing wealth and release from all worries, and the young mother is free to accept the love and protection that in her sorrow she denied herself. southern types are amusingly contrasted with those of the north; and the simple language and fine sentiment of the story will charm readers of all ages. john o' partletts' _by jean edgerton_ _ mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, net $ . ; postpaid, $ . _ the reading public is no longer content with the old hackneyed love story, the impossible mystery story or the superficial tale of adventure. it is necessary that a novel to be successful shall appeal to the best in us--shall grip our hearts and fill our thoughts. few first books by a new writer can supply such an exacting demand, but "john o' partletts'" is among these few. its simple, straightforward plot; its able and convincing portrayal of character--real character; the author's mastery of her art--these are the elements which make the book worthy of wide appreciation. no one character dominates the story, neither "witch" beevish, the eccentric old woman at war with the village, nor jim, the little orphan, nor henry carruthers, the minister, nor even kitty merryweather, the shrewd-tongued gossip. but if there is a hero it is john o' partletts', "witch" beevish's great dog, the friend and protector of little jim. this is a story to compare with "rab and his friends" and with "a dog of flanders"--a story that is bound to make its way. transcriber's note: italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. p : "drouth" is an old variant spelling of "drought" retained non-standard hyphenation for several words, as in original text p : "cooperation" changed to "coöperation", the spelling used consistently everywhere else in the book p : "knive" spelling as in original in the ad for what-shall-i-do girl: corrrected printer error, "friendly" for "riendly" moved ad for other books by same author to end of book, prior to ads for other authors. transcriber's note: italic text has been marked with _underscores_. please see the end of this book for further notes. human origins _human origins._ published july , copies. reprinted august , copies. reprinted september , copies. human origins by s. laing author of "problems of the future," "modern science and modern thought," "a modern zoroastrian," etc. with illustrations _fifth thousand_ london: chapman and hall, ld. [_all rights reserved_] richard clay & sons, limited, london & bungay. contents. page introduction part i.--evidence from history. chapter i. egypt. historical standard of time--short date inconsistent with evolution--laws of historical evidence--history begins with authentic records--records of egypt oldest--manetho's lists--confirmed by hieroglyphics--origin of writing--the alphabet--phonetic writing--clue to hieroglyphics--the rosetta stone--champollion--principles of hieroglyphic writing--language coptic--can be read with certainty--confirmed by monuments--manetho's date for menes b.c.--old, middle, and new empires--old empire, menes, to end of sixth dynasty--break between old and middle empires--works of twelfth dynasty--fayoum--thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties--hyksos conquests--duration of hyksos rule--their expulsion and foundation of new empire--conquests in asia of seventeenth and eighteenth dynasties--wars with hittites and assyrians--persian and greek dynasties--summary of evidence for date of menes--period prior to menes--horsheshu--sphynx--stone age--neolithic and palæolithic remains--horner, haynes, and pitt-rivers chapter ii. chaldÆa. chronology--berosus--his dates mythical--dates in genesis--synchronisms with egypt and assyria--monuments--cuneiform inscriptions--how deciphered--behistan inscription--grotefend and rawlinson--layard--library of koyunjik--how preserved--accadian translations and grammars--historical dates--elamite conquest--commencement of modern history--ur-ea and dungi--nabonidus--sargon i., b.c.--ur of the chaldees--sharrukin's cylinder--his library--his son naram-sin--semites and accadians--accadians and chinese--period before sargon i.--patesi--de sarzec's find at sirgalla--gud-ea, to b.c.--advance of delta--astronomical records--chaldæa and egypt give similar results---historic period or years--and no trace of a beginning chapter iii. other historical records. _china_--oldest existing civilization--but records much later than those of egypt and chaldæa--language and traditions accadian--communication how effected. _elam_--very early civilization--susa, an old city in first chaldæan records--conquered chaldæa in b.c.--conquered by assyrians b.c.--statue of nana--cyrus an elamite king--his cylinder--teaches untrustworthiness of legendary history. _phoenicia_--great influence on western civilization--but date comparatively late--traditions of origin--first distinct mention in egyptian monuments b.c.--great movements of maritime nations--invasions of egypt by sea and land, under menepthah, b.c., and ramses iii., b.c.--lists of nations--show advanced civilization and intercourse--but nothing beyond or b.c. _hittites_--great empire in asia minor and syria--turanian race--origin cappadocia--great wars with egypt--battle of kadesh--treaty with ramses ii.--power rapidly declined--but only finally destroyed b.c. by sargon ii.--capital carchemish--great commercial emporium--hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions and monuments--only recently and partially deciphered--results. _arabia_--recent discoveries--inscriptions--sabæa--minæans--thirty-two kings known--ancient commerce and trade-routes--incense and spices--literature--old traditions--oannes--punt--seat of semites--arabian alphabet--older than phoenician--bearing on old testament histories. _troy and mycenæ_--dr. schliemann's excavations--hissarlik--buried fortifications, palaces, and treasures of ancient troy--mycenæ and tiryns--proof of civilization and commerce--tombs--absence of inscriptions and religious symbols--date of mycenæan civilization--school of art--pictures on vases--type of race chapter iv. ancient religions. egypt--book of the dead--its morality--metaphysical character--origins of religions--ghosts--animism--astronomy and astrology--morality--pantheism and polytheism--egyptian ideas of future life and judgment--egyptian genesis--divine emanations--plurality of gods and animal worship--sun worship and solar myths--knowledge of astronomy--orientation of pyramids--theory of future life--the ka--the soul--confession of faith before osiris. chaldæan religion--oldest form accadian--shamanism--growth of philosophical religion--astronomy and astrology--accadian trinities--anu, mull-il, ea--twelve great gods--bel-ishtar--merodach--assur--pantheism--wordsworth--magic and omens--penitential psalms--conclusions from chapter v. ancient science and art. evidence of antiquity--pyramids and temples--arithmetic--decimal and duodecimal scales--astronomy--geometry reached in egypt at earliest dates--great pyramid--piazzi smyth and pyramid-religion--pyramids formerly royal tombs, but built on scientific plans--exact orientation on meridian--centre in ° n. latitude--tunnel points to pole--possible use as an observatory--procter--probably astrological--planetary influences--signs of the zodiac--mathematical coincidences of great pyramid--chaldæan astronomy--ziggurats--tower of babel--different orientation from egyptian pyramids--astronomical treatise from library of sargon i., b.c.--eclipses and phases of venus--measures of time from old chaldæan--moon and sun--found among so many distant races--implies commerce and intercourse--art and industry--embankment of menes--sphynx--industrial arts--fine arts--sculpture and painting--the oldest art the best--chaldæan art--de sarzec's find at sirgalla--statues and works of art--imply long use of bronze--whence came the copper and tin--phoenician and etruscan commerce--bronze known years earlier--same alloy everywhere--possible sources of supply--age of copper--names of copper and tin--domestic animals--horse--ox and ass--agriculture--all proves extreme antiquity chapter vi. prehistoric traditions. short duration of tradition--no recollection of stone age--celts taken for thunderbolts--stone age in egypt--palæolithic implements--earliest egyptian traditions--extinct animals forgotten--their bones attributed to giants--chinese and american traditions--traditions of origin of man--philosophical myths--cruder myths from stones, trees, and animals--totems--recent events soon forgotten--autochthonous nations--wide diffusion of prehistoric myths--the deluge--importance of, as test of inspiration--more definite than legend of creation--what the account of the deluge in genesis really says--date--extent--duration--all life destroyed except pairs preserved in the ark--such a deluge impossible--contradicted by physical science--by geology--by zoology--by ethnology--by history--how deluge myths arise--local floods--sea shells on mountains--solar myths--deluge of hasisadra--noah's deluge copied from it--revised in a monotheistic sense at a comparatively late period--conclusion--rational view of inspiration chapter vii. the historical element in the old testament. moral and religious distinct from historical inspiration--myth and allegory--the higher criticism--all ancient history unconfirmed by monuments untrustworthy--cyrus--old testament and monuments--jerusalem--tablet of tell-el-amarna--flinders petrie's exploration of pre-hebrew cities--ramses and pi-thom--first certain synchronism rehoboam--composite structure of old testament--elohist and jehovist--priests' code--canon driver--results--book of chronicles--methods of jewish historians--post-exilic references--tradition of esdras--nehemiah and ezra--foundation of modern judaism--different from pre-exilic--discovery of book of the law under josiah--deuteronomy--earliest sacred writings--conclusions--aristocratic and prophetic schools--triumph of pietism with exile--both compiled partly from old materials--crudeness and barbarism of parts--pre-abrahamic period clearly mythical--derived from chaldæa--abraham--unhistoric character--his age--lot's wife--his double adventure with sarah--abraham to moses--sojourn in egypt--discordant chronology--josephus' quotation from manetho--small traces of egyptian influence--future life--legend of joseph--moses--osarsiph--life of moses full of fabulous legends--his birth--plagues of egypt--the exodus--colenso--contradictions and impossibilities--immoralities--massacres--joshua and the judges--barbarisms and absurdities--only safe conclusion no history before the monarchy--david and solomon--comparatively modern date part ii.--evidence from science. chapter viii. geology and palÆontology. proved by contemporary monuments--as in history--summary of historical evidence--geological evidence of human periods--neolithic period--palæolithic or quaternary--tertiary--secondary and older periods--the recent or post-glacial period--lake-villages--bronze age--kitchen-middens--scandinavian peat-mosses--neolithic remains comparatively modern--definition of post-glacial period--its duration--mellard read's estimate--submerged forests--changes in physical geography--huxley--objections from america--niagara--quaternary period--immense antiquity--presence of man throughout--first glacial period--scandinavian and laurentian ice-caps--immense extent--mass of _débris_--elevation and depression--in britain--inter-glacial and second glacial periods--antiquity measured by changes of land--lyell's estimate--glacial _débris_ and loess--recent erosion--bournemouth--evans--prestwich--wealden ridge and southern drift--contain human implements--evidence from new world--california chapter ix. the glacial period and croll's theory. causes of glacial periods--actual conditions of existing glacial regions--high land in high latitudes--cold alone insufficient--large evaporation required--formation of glaciers--they flow like rivers--icebergs--greenland and antarctic circle--geographical and cosmic causes--cooling of earth and sun, cold spaces in space, and change in earth's axis, reviewed and rejected--precession alone insufficient--unless with high eccentricity--geographical causes, elevation of land--aërial and oceanic currents--gulf stream and trade winds--evidence for greater elevation of land in america, europe, and asia--depression--warmer tertiary climates--alps and himalayas--wallace's _island life_--lyell--croll's theory--sir r. ball--former glacial periods--correspondence with croll's theory--length of the different phases--summary--croll's theory a secondary cause--conclusions as to man's antiquity chapter x. quaternary man. no longer doubted--men not only existed, but in numbers and widely spread--palæolithic implements of similar type found everywhere--progress shown--tests of antiquity--position of strata--fauna--oldest types--mixed northern and southern species--reindeer period--correspondence of human remains with these three periods--advance of civilization--clothing and barbed arrows--drawing and sculpture--passage into neolithic and recent periods--corresponding progress of physical man--distinct races--how tested--tests applied to historical, neolithic, and palæolithic man--long heads and broad heads--aryan controversy--primitive european types--canon taylor--huxley--preservation of human remains depends mainly on burials--about forty skulls and skeletons known from quaternary times--summary of results--quatrefages and hamy--races of canstadt--cro-magnon--furfooz--truchere--skeletons of neanderthal and spy--canstadt type oldest--cro-magnon type next--skeleton of cro-magnon--broad-headed and short race resembling lapps--american type--no evidence from asia, africa, india, polynesia, and australia--negroes, negrillos, and negritos--summary of results chapter xi. tertiary man. definition of periods--passage from pliocene to quaternary--scarcity of human remains in tertiary--denudation--evidence from caves wanting--tertiary man a necessary inference from widespread existence of quaternary man--both equally inconsistent with genesis--was the first great glaciation pliocene or quaternary?--section of perrier--confirms croll's theory--elephas meridionalis--mammoth--st. prest--cut bones--instances of tertiary man--halitherium--balæonotus--puy-courny--thenay--evidence for--proofs of human agency--latest conclusions--gaudry's theory--dryopithecus--type of tertiary man--skeleton of castelnedolo--shows no approach to the missing link--contrary to theory of evolution--must be sought in the eocene--evidence from the new world--glacial period in america--palæolithic implements--quaternary man--similar to europe--california--conditions different--auriferous gravels--volcanic eruptions--enormous denudation--great antiquity--flora and fauna--point to tertiary age--discovery of human remains--table mountain--latest finds--calaveras skull--summary of evidence--other evidence--tuolumne--brazil--buenos ayres--nampa images--take us farther from first origins and the missing link--if darwin's theory applies to man, must go back to the eocene chapter xii. races of mankind. monogeny or polygeny--darwin--existing races--colour--hair--skulls and brains--dolichocephali and brachycephali--jaws and teeth--stature--other tests--isaac taylor--prehistoric types in europe--huxley's classification--language no test of race--egyptian monuments--human and animal races unchanged for years--neolithic races--palæolithic--different races of man as far back as we can trace--types of canstadt, cro-magnon, and furfooz--oldest races dolichocephalic--skulls of neanderthal and spy--simian characters--objections--evidence confined to europe--american man--calaveras skull--tertiary man--skull of castelnedolo--leaves monogeny or polygeny an open question--arguments on each side--old arguments from the bible and philology exploded--what darwinian theory requires--animal types traced up to the eocene--secondary origins--dog and horse--fertility of races--question of hybridity--application to man--difference of constitutions--negro and white--bearing on question of migration--apes and monkeys--question of original locality of man--asiatic theory--eur-african--american--arctic--none based on sufficient evidence--mere speculations--conclusion--summary of evidence as to human origins illustrations tablet of snefura at wady magerah specimen of hieroglyphic alphabet pyramids of gizeh and sphynx fellah woman and head of second hyksos statue hyksos sphynx statue of prince rahotep's wife khufu-ankh and his servants--early egyptians cuneiform symbols cylinder seal of sargon i head of ancient chaldÆan statue of gud-ea, with inscription sea-fight in the time of ramses iii king of the hittites chief of punt and two men queen sending warrior to battle adam, eve, and the serpent judgment of the soul by osiris pyramid ziggurat restored the village sheik palÆolithic celt palÆolithic celt in argillite palÆolithic flint celt palÆolithic celt of quartzite from natal portrait of mammoth earliest portrait of a man with serpents and horses' heads reindeer feeding arrow-heads cuts with flint knife on rib of balÆonotus--pliocene cut magnified by microscope flint scraper from high level drift, kent upper miocene implements. puy courny copare quaternary implements section at thenay middle miocene implements middle miocene implements compare quaternary implements section of great californian lava stream, cut through by rivers section across table mountain, tuolumne county, california the nampa image l'homme avant l'histoire human origins. introduction. the reception which has been given to my former works leads me to believe that they have had a certain educational value for those who, without being specialists, wish to keep themselves abreast of the culture of the day, and to understand the leading results and pending problems of modern science. of these results the most interesting are those which bear upon the origin and evolution of the human race. in my former works i have treated of these mainly from the point of view of geology and palæontology, and have hardly touched on the province which lies nearest to us, that of history and of prehistoric traditions. in this province, however, a revolution has been effected by the discoveries of the present century, which is no less important than that made by geological research and by the doctrine of evolution. down to the middle of the nineteenth century, and to a considerable extent down to the present day, the hebrew bible was held to be the sole and sufficient authority as to the early history of the human race. it was believed, with a certainty which made doubt impious, that the first man adam was created in or about the year b.c., or not quite years ago; and that all human and other life was destroyed by a universal deluge, years later, with the exception of noah and his wife, their sons and their wives, and pairs of all living creatures, by whom the earth was repeopled from the mountain-peak of ararat as a centre. the latest conclusions of modern science show that uninterrupted historical records, confirmed by contemporary monuments, carry history back at least years before the supposed creation of man, and years before the date of the deluge, and show then no trace of a commencement; but populous cities, celebrated temples, great engineering works, and a high state of the arts and of civilization, already existing. this is of the highest interest, both as bearing on the dogma of the divine inspiration of the historical and scientific, as distinguished from the moral and religious, portions of the bible, and on the still more important question of the true theory of man's origin and relations to the universe. the so-called conflict between religion and science is at bottom one between two conflicting theories of the universe--the first that it is the creation of a personal god who constantly interferes by miracles to correct his original work; the second, that whether the first cause be a personal god or something inscrutable to human faculties, the work was originally so perfect that the whole succession of subsequent events has followed by evolution acting by invariable laws. the former is the theory of orthodox believers, the latter that of men of science, and of liberal theologians who, like bishop temple, find that the theory of "original impress" is more in accordance with the idea of an omnipotent and omniscient creator, to whom "a thousand years are as a day," than the traditional theory of a creator constantly interfering to supplement and amend his original creation by supernatural interferences. it is evidently important for all who desire to arrive at truth, and to keep abreast of the culture of the day, to have some clear conception of what historical and geological records really teach, and what sort of a standard or measuring-rod they supply in attempting to carry back our researches into the depths of prehistoric and of geological time. i have therefore in this work begun with the historic period, as giving us a solid foundation and standard of time, by which to gauge the vastly longer periods which lie behind, and ascended from this by successive steps through the neolithic and palæolithic ages, and the quaternary and tertiary periods, so far as the most recent discoveries throw any light on the mysterious question of "human origins." if i have succeeded in stimulating some minds, especially those of my younger readers, and of the working-classes who are striving after culture, to feel an interest in these subjects, and to pursue them further, my object will have been attained. they have been to me the solace of a long life, the delight of many quiet days, and the soother of many troubled ones, and i should be glad to think that i had been the means, however humble, of introducing to others what i have found such a source of enjoyment, and enlisting, if it were only a few, in the service of that "divine philosophy," in which i have ever found, as wordsworth did in nature, "the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being." part i.--history. chapter i. egypt. historical standard of time--short date inconsistent with evolution--laws of historical evidence--history begins with authentic records--records of egypt oldest--manetho's lists--confirmed by hieroglyphics--origin of writing--the alphabet--phonetic writing--clue to hieroglyphics--the rosetta stone--champollion--principles of hieroglyphic writing--language coptic--can be read with certainty--confirmed by monuments--manetho's date for menes b.c.--old, middle, and new empires--old empire, menes, to end of sixth dynasty--break between old and middle empires--works of twelfth dynasty--fayoum--thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties--hyksos conquests--duration of hyksos rule--their expulsion and foundation of new empire--conquests in asia of seventeenth and eighteenth dynasties--wars with hittites and assyrians--persian and greek dynasties--summary of evidence for date of menes--period prior to menes--horsheshu--sphynx--stone age--neolithic and palæolithic remains--horner, haynes, and pitt-rivers. in measuring the dimensions of space we have to start from some fixed standard, such as the foot or yard, taken originally from the experience of our ordinary senses and capable of accurate verification. from this we arrive by successive inductions at the size of the earth, the distance of the sun, moon, and planets, and finally at the parallax of the fixed stars. so in speculations as to the origin and evolution of the human race, history affords the standard from which we start, through the successive stages of prehistoric, neolithic, and palæolithic man, until we pass into the wider ranges of geological time. any error in the original standard becomes magnified indefinitely, whether in space or time, as we extend our researches backwards into remoter regions. thus whether the authentic records of history extend only for some years backwards from the present time to the scriptural date of noah's flood, as was universally assumed to be the case until quite recently; or whether egyptian and chaldæan records carry us back for years, and show us then a dense population, powerful empires, large cities, and generally a highly advanced civilization already existing, makes a wonderful difference in the standpoint from which we view the course of human evolution. to begin with, a short date necessitates supernatural interferences. it is quite impossible that if man and all animal life were created only about years b.c., and were then all destroyed save the few pairs saved in noah's ark, and made a fresh start from a single centre some years later, there can be any truth in darwin's theory of evolution. we know for a certainty from the concurrent testimony of all history, and from egyptian monuments, that the different races of men and animals were in existence years ago as they are at the present day; and that no fresh creations or marked changes of type have taken place during that period. if then all these types, and all the different races and nations of men, sprung up in the interval of less than years, which is the longest that can by any possibility be allowed between the biblical date of the deluge and the clash of the mighty monarchies of assyria and egypt in palestine, the date of which is proved both by the bible and by profane historians, it is obviously impossible that such a state of things could have been brought about by natural causes. but if authentic historical records carry us back not for or , but for or years, and then show no trace of a beginning, the case is altered, and we may assume an almost unlimited duration of time, through historical, prehistoric, neolithic, and palæolithic ages, during which evolution may have operated. it is of the first importance therefore to inquire what these records really teach in the light of modern research, and what is the evidence for the longer dates which are now generally accepted. furnished with such a measuring-rod it becomes easier to attempt to bring into some sort of co-ordination the vast mass of facts which have been accumulated in recent years as to prehistoric, neolithic, and palæolithic man; and the glimpses of light respecting the origin, antiquity, and early history of the human race, which have come in from other sciences such as astronomy, geology, zoology, and philology. to do this exhaustively would be an encyclopædic task which i do not pretend to accomplish, but i am not without hope that the following chapters, connected as they are by the one leading idea of tracing human origins backward to their source, may assist inquiry, and create an interest in this most interesting of all questions, especially among the young who are striving after knowledge, and the millions who, not having the time and opportunity for reading technical works, feel a desire to keep themselves abreast of modern thought and of the advanced culture of the close of the nineteenth century. before examining these records in detail it is well to begin with the general laws upon which historical evidence is based. history begins with writings. all experience shows that what may be transmitted by memory and word of mouth, consists mainly of hymns and portions of ritual, such as the vedas of the hindoos; and to a certain extent of heroic poems and ballads in which the historical element is so overlaid by mythology and poetry, that it is impossible to discriminate between fact and fancy. thus the legend of hercules is evidently in the main a solar myth, and his twelve labours are related to the signs of the zodiac, but it is possible that there may have been a real hercules, the actual or eponymic ancestor of the tribe of heraclides. so, at a later period, the descent of the romans from the pious Æneas, and of the britons from another trojan hero brute, are obviously fabulous; and at a still more recent date, our own arthurian legends are evidently a mediæval romance, though it is possible that there may have been a chief of that name of the christianized romano-britons, who opposed a gallant resistance to the flood of saxon invasion. but to make real history we require something very different; concurrent and uninterrupted testimony of known historians; absence of impossible and obviously fabulous dates and events; and, above all, contemporary records, written or engraved on tombs, temples, and monuments, or preserved in papyri or clay cylinders. another remark is, that these authentic records of early history only begin to appear when civilization is so far advanced as to have established powerful dynasties and priestly organizations. the history of a nation is at first the history of its kings, and its records are enumerations of their genealogies, successive reigns, foundation or repair of temples, great industrial works, and warlike exploits. these are made and preserved by special castes of priestly colleges and learned scribes, and they are to a great extent precise in date and accurate in fact. before the establishment of such historical dynasties we have nothing but legends and traditions, which are vague and mythical, the mythological element rapidly predominating as we go backwards in time, until we soon arrive at reigns of gods, and lives of thousands of years. but as we approach the period of historical dynasties the mythological element diminishes, and we pass from gods reigning , years, and patriarchs living to , to later patriarchs living or years, and finally to mortal men, living, and kings reigning, to natural ages. in fact, with the first appearance of authentic records the supernatural disappears, and the average duration of lives, reigns, and dynasties, and the general course of events, are much the same as at present, and fully confirm, the statement of the egyptian priests to herodotus, that during the long succession of ages of the high priests of heliopolis, whose statues they showed him in the great temple of the sun, there had been no change in the length of human life or in the course of nature, and each one of the had been a _piromis_, or mortal man, the son of a _piromis_. the first question is how far back these authentic historical records can be traced, and egypt affords the first answer. the first step in the inquiry as to egyptian antiquity is afforded by the history of manetho. ptolemy philadelphus, whose reign began b.c., was an enlightened king. he founded the great alexandrian library, and was specially curious in collecting everything which bore on the early history of his own and other countries. with this view he had the greek translation, known as the septuagint, made of the sacred books of the hebrews, and he commissioned manetho to compile a history of egypt from the earliest times, from the most authentic temple records and other sources of information. manetho was eminently qualified for such a task, being a learned and judicious man, and a priest of sebennytus, one of the oldest and most famous temples. the history of manetho is unfortunately lost, being probably the greatest loss the world has sustained by the burning of the alexandrian library, but fragments of it have been preserved in the works of josephus, eusebius, julius africanus and syncellus, of whom eusebius and africanus profess to give manetho's lists and dates of dynasties and kings from the first king menes down to the conquest of alexander the great in b.c. with the curious want of critical faculty of almost all the christian fathers, these extracts, though professing to be quotations from the same book, contain many inconsistencies, and in several instances they have obviously been tampered with, especially by eusebius, in order to bring their chronology more in accordance with that of the old testament. but enough remains to show that manetho's lists comprised thirty-one dynasties, and about kings, whose successive reigns extended over a period of about years, from the accession of menes to the conquest of egypt by alexander the great in b.c., making the date of the first historical king who united upper and lower egypt, about b.c. there may be some doubt as to the precise dates, for the lists, of manetho have obviously been tampered with to some extent by the christian fathers who quoted them, but there can be no doubt that his original work assigned an antiquity to menes of over b.c. the only other historical information as to the history of ancient egypt was gleaned from references to it in the extant works of josephus and of greek authors, especially homer, herodotus, and diodorus siculus. josephus, in his _antiquity of the jews_, quotes passages from manetho, but they only extend to the period of the hyksos invasion, the captivity of the jews, and the exodus, which are all comparatively recent events in manetho's annals. homer's account of hundred-gated thebes does not carry us back beyond the echo which had reached ionian greece of the splendours of the nineteenth dynasty. herodotus visited egypt about b.c., and wrote a description of it from what he saw and heard on the spot. it contains a good deal of valuable information, for he was a shrewd observer. but he was credulous, and not very critical in distinguishing between fact and fable, and it is evident that his sources of information were often not much better than vague popular traditions, or the tales told by guides, and even the more authentic information is so disconnected and mixed with fable, that it can hardly be accepted as material for history. as far as it goes, however, it tends to confirm manetho, as, for instance, in giving the names correctly of the kings who built the three great pyramids, and in saying that he saw the statues of successive high priests of the great temple of heliopolis, which correspond very well with manetho's lists of kings. diodorus gives us very much the same narratives as those of herodotus; and, on the whole, we had to fall back on manetho as the only authority for anything like precise dates and connected history. manetho's dates, however, were so inconsistent with preconceived ideas based on the chronology of the bible, that they were universally thought to be fabulous. they were believed either to represent the exaggerations of egyptian priests desirous of magnifying the antiquity of their country, or, if historical, to give in succession the names of a number of kings and dynasties who had really reigned simultaneously in different provinces. so stood the question until the discovery of reading hieroglyphics enabled us to test the accuracy of manetho's lists by the light of contemporary monuments and manuscripts. this discovery is of such supreme importance that it may be well to begin at the beginning, and lay a solid foundation by showing how it was made, and the demonstration on which it rests. reading presupposes writing, as writing presupposes speech. ideas are conveyed from one mind to another in speech through the ear, in writing through the eye. the origin of the latter method is doubtless to be found in picture-writing. the palæolithic savage who drew a mammoth with the point of a flint on a piece of ivory, was attempting to write, in his rude way, a record of some memorable chase. and the accounts of the old empires of mexico and peru at the time of the spanish conquest, show that a considerable amount of civilization can be attained and information conveyed by this primitive method. but for the purpose of historical record more is required. it is essential to have a system of signs and symbols which shall be generally understood, and by which knowledge shall be handed down unchanged to successive generations. all experience shows that before knowledge is thus fixed and recorded, anything that may be transmitted by memory and word of mouth, fades off almost immediately into myth, and leaves no certain record of time, place, and circumstance. a few religious hymns and prayers like those of the vedas, a few heroic ballads like those of homer, a few genealogies like those of agamemnon or abraham, may be thus preserved, but nothing definite or accurate in the way of fact and date. history, therefore, begins with writing, and writing begins with the invention of fixed signs to represent words. a system of writing is possible, like the chinese, in which each separate word has its own separate sign, but this is extremely cumbrous, and quite unintelligible to those who have not got a living key to explain the meaning of each symbol. it is calculated that an educated chinese has to learn by heart the meaning of some , separate signs before he can read and write correctly. we have a trace of this ideographic system in our own language, as where arbitrary signs such as , , , represent not the sounds of one, two, and three, but the ideas conveyed by them. but for all practical purposes, intelligible writing has to be phonetic, that is, representing spoken words, not by the ideas they convey, but by the sounds of which they are composed. in other words there must be an alphabet. the alphabet is the first lesson of childhood, and it seems such a simple thing that we are apt to forget that it is one of the most important and original inventions of the human intellect. some prehistoric genius, musing on the meaning of spoken words, has seen that they might all be analyzed into a few simple sounds. to make this more easily intelligible, i will suppose the illustrations to be taken from our own language. "dog" and "dig" express very different ideas; but a little reflection will show that the primary sounds made by the tongue, teeth, and palate, viz. 'd' and 'g,' are the same in each, and that they differ only by a slight variation in the soft breathing or vowel, which connects them and renders them vocal. the next step would be to see that such words as "good" or "god," consisted of the same root-sounds, only transposed and connected with a slight vowel difference. pursuing the analysis, it would finally be discovered that the many thousand words of spoken language could all be resolved into a very small number of radical sounds, each of which might be represented and suggested to the mind through the eye instead of the ear by some conventional sign or symbol. here is the alphabet, and here the art of writing. this great achievement of the human intellect appears to have been made in prehistoric times; and where not obviously imported from a foreign source, as in the phoenician alphabet from the egyptian and the greek from the phoenician, it is attributed to some god, that is, to an unknown antiquity. thus in egypt, thoth the second, known to the greeks as hermes trismegistus, a fabulous demi-god of the period succeeding the reign of the great gods, is said to have invented the alphabet and the art of writing. the analysis of primary sounds varies a little in different times and countries in order to suit peculiarities in the pronunciation of different races and convenience in writing; but about sixteen primitive sounds, which is the number of the letters of the first alphabet brought by cadmus to greece, are always its basis. in our own alphabet it is easy to see that it is not formed on strictly scientific principles, some of the letters being redundant. thus the soft sound of 'c' is expressed by 's,' and the hard sound by 'k'; and 'x' is an abbreviation of three other letters, 'eks.' some letters also express sounds which run so closely into one another that in some alphabets they are not distinguished, as 'f' and 'v,' 'd' and 't', 'l' and 'r'; while some races have guttural and other sounds, such as 'kh' and 'sj,' which occur so frequently as to require separate signs, while they baffle the vocal organs of other races, and in some cases syllables which frequently occur, instead of being spelt out alphabetically, are represented by single signs. but these are mere details, the question substantially is this--if a collection of unknown signs is phonetic, and we can get any clue to its alphabet, it can be read; if not it must remain a sealed book. to apply this to hieroglyphics; it had been long known that the monuments of ancient egypt were carved with mysterious figures, representing commonly birds, animals, and other natural objects, but all clue to their meaning had been lost. it seemed more natural to suppose that they were ideographic; that a lion for instance represented a real lion, or some quality associated with him, such as fierceness, valour, and kingly aspect, rather than that his picture stood simply for our letter 'l.' the long-desired clue was afforded by the famous rosetta stone. this is a mutilated block of black basalt, which was discovered in by an engineer officer of the french expedition, in digging the foundations of a fort near rosetta. it was captured, with other trophies, by the british army, when the french were driven out of egypt, and is now lodged at the british museum. it bears on it three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphics, the second in the demotic egyptian character employed for popular use, and the third in greek. the greek can of course be read, and it is an inscription commemorating the coronation of ptolemy epiphanes and his queen arsinoe, in the year b.c. it was an obvious conjecture that the two egyptian inscriptions were to the same effect, and that the greek was a literal translation of this. to turn this conjecture, however, into a demonstration, a great deal of ingenuity and patient research were required. the principle upon which all interpretation of unknown signs rests may be most easily understood by taking an illustration from our own language. the first step in the problem is to know whether these unknown signs are ideographic or phonetic. thus if we have two groups of signs, one of which we have reason to know stands for "ptolemy" and the other for "cleopatra," if they are phonetic, the first sign in ptolemy will correspond with the fifth in cleopatra; the second with the seventh, the third with the fourth, the fourth with the second, and the fifth with the third; and we shall have established five letters of the unknown alphabet, 'p, t, o, l,' and 'e.' other names will give other letters, as if we know "arsinoe," its comparison with "cleopatra" will give 'a' and 'r,' and confirm the former induction as to 'o' and 'e.' and it will be extremely probable that the two last signs in ptolemy represent 'm' and 'y'; the first in cleopatra 'c'; and the third, fourth, and fifth in arsinoe, 's, i,' and 'n.' suppose now that we find in an inscription on an ancient temple at thebes, a name which begins with our known sign for 'r,' followed by our known 'a,' then by our conjectural 'm,' then by the sign which we find third in arsinoe, or 's,' then by our known 'e,' and ending with a repetition of 's,' we have no difficulty in reading "ramses," and identifying it with one of the kings of that name mentioned by manetho as reigning at thebes. the identification of letters was facilitated by the custom of inclosing the names of kings in what is called a cartouche or oval. [illustration: tablet of snefura at wady magerah. (the oldest inscription in the world, probably years old. the king conquering an arabian or asiatic enemy.)] this name reads "snefura," which is the name of the king of the third dynasty who reigned about b.c., or before the building of the great pyramids, which inscription is the earliest contemporary one of an egyptian king as yet discovered. it was found at the copper mines of wady magerah, in the peninsula of sinai, and represents the victory of the king over an arabian or asiatic enemy. the first step towards the decipherment of the hieroglyphics on the rosetta stone was made in by dr. young, who was one of the most ingenious and original thinkers of the nineteenth century, and is also famous as the first discoverer of the undulatory theory of light. but in both cases he merely indicated the right path and laid down the correct principles. the development of his theories was reserved for two frenchmen; fresnel in the case of light, and champollion in that of hieroglyphics. the task was one which required immense patience and ingenuity, for the hieroglyphic alphabet turned out to be one of great complexity. not only were many of the signs not phonetic, but ideographic or determinative; and some of them standing for syllables and not letters; but the letters themselves were not represented, as in modern languages, each by a single sign or at most by two signs, as a and a, but by several different signs. the egyptian alphabet was in fact constructed very much as young children often learn theirs, by-- a was an apple-pie, b bit it, c cut it; with this difference, that several objects, whose names begin with a and other letters, might be used to represent them. thus some of the hieroglyphic letters had as many as twenty-five different signs or homophones. it is as if we could write for 'a,' the picture either of an apple, or of an ass, archer, arrow, anchor, or any word beginning with 'a.' however, champollion with infinite difficulty, and aided by the constant discovery of fresh inscriptions, solved the problem, and succeeded in producing a complete alphabet of hieroglyphics comprising all the various signs, thus enabling us to translate every hieroglyphic sign into its corresponding sound or spoken word. the next question was, what did these words mean, and could they be recognized in any known language? the answer to this was easy; the egyptians spoke egyptic, or as it is abbreviated coptic, a modern form of which is almost a living language, and is preserved in translations of the bible still in use and studied by the aid of coptic dictionaries and grammars. this enabled champollion to construct a hieroglyphic dictionary and grammar, which have been so completed by the labours of subsequent egyptologists, that it is not too much to say that any inscription or manuscript in hieroglyphics can be read with nearly as much certainty as if it had been written in greek or in hebrew. [illustration: specimen of hieroglyphic alphabet. (from champollion's _egypt_.)] the above illustrations from english characters are only given as the simplest way of conveying to the minds of those who have had no previous acquaintance with the subject, an idea of the nature of the process and force of the evidence, upon which the decipherment of hieroglyphic inscriptions is based. in reality the process was far from being so simple. though many of the hieroglyphics are phonetics, like our letters of the alphabet, they are not all so, and many of them are purely ideographic, as when we write , , , for one, two, and three. all writing has begun with picture-writing, and each character was originally a likeness of the object which it was wished to represent. the next stage was to use the character not only for the material object, but as a symbol for some abstract idea associated with it. thus the picture of a lion might stand either for an actual lion, or for fierceness, courage, majesty, or other attribute of the king of animals. in this way it became possible to convey meanings to the mind through the eye, but it involved both an enormous number of characters, and the use of homophones, _i.e._ of single characters standing for a number of separate ideas. to obviate this, what are called "determinatives" were invented, _i.e._ special signs affixed to characters or groups of characters to determine the sense in which they were to be taken. for instance, the picture of a star (*) affixed to a group of hieroglyphics may be used to denote that they represent the name of a god, or some divine or heavenly attribute; and the picture of rippling water ~~~~~~~~ to show that the group means something connected with water, as a sea or river. beyond this the chinese have hardly gone, and it is reckoned that it requires some separate characters, or conventionalized pictures, taken in distinct groups, to be able to read and write correctly the , words in the chinese language. even for the ordinary purposes of life a chinaman instead of committing to memory twenty-six letters of the alphabet, like an english child, has to learn by heart some or groups of characters often distinguished only by slight dots and dashes. such a system is cumbrous in the extreme, and involves spending many of the best years of life in acquiring the first rudiments of knowledge. indeed it is only possible when not only writing but speech has been arrested at the first stage of its development, and a nation speaks a language of monosyllables. in the case of egypt and other ancient nations the standpoint of writing went further, and the symbolic pictures came to represent phonograms, _i.e._ sounds or spoken words instead of ideas or objects; and these again were further analyzed into syllabaries, or the component articulate sounds which make up words; and these finally into their ultimate elements of a few simple sounds, or letters of an alphabet, the various combinations of which will express all the complex sounds or words of a spoken language. now in the hieroglyphic writing of ancient egypt, along with those pure phonetics or letters of an alphabet, are found numerous survivals of the older systems from which they sprung, and champollion, who first attempted the task of forming a hieroglyphic dictionary and grammar, had to contend with all the difficulties of ideograms, polyphones, determinatives, and other obstacles. those who wish to pursue this interesting subject further will do well to read dr. isaac taylor's book on the alphabet, and sayce on the science of writing; but for my present purpose it is sufficient to establish the scientific certainty of the process by which hieroglyphic texts are read. with this key a vast mass of constantly accumulating evidence has been brought to light, illustrating not only the chronology and history of ancient egypt, but also its social and political condition, its literature and religion, science and art. the first question naturally was how far the monuments confirmed or disproved the lists of manetho. manetho was a learned priest of a celebrated temple, who must have had access to all the temple and royal records and other literature of egypt, and who must have been also conversant with foreign literature, to have been selected as the best man to write a complete history of his native country for the royal library in greek. manetho's lists of the reigns of dynasties and kings when summed up show a date of b.c. for the foundation of the united egyptian empire by menes, a date which is of course absolutely inconsistent with those given by genesis, not only for the deluge, but for the original creation. it is evident that the monuments alone could confirm or contradict these lists, and give a solid basis for egyptian chronology and history. this has now been done to such an extent that it may fairly be said that manetho has been confirmed, and it is fully established, as a fact acquired by science, that nearly all his kings and dynasties are proved by monuments to have existed, and that successively and not simultaneously, so that the margin of uncertainty as to the date of menes is reduced to one of a few hundred years on one side or other of b.c. mariette, who is the best and latest authority, and who has done so much to discover monuments of the earlier dynasties, concludes, as the result of a careful revision of manetho's lists, and of the authentic records from temples, tombs, and papyri, that b.c. is the most probable date for the accession of menes, and this date is generally adopted by modern egyptologists. some make it rather longer, as boeck b.c., and unger b.c.; while others make it a little shorter, as maspero b.c., and brugsch[ ] ; but it is to be observed that the date has always lengthened with the progress of discovery. thus the earlier egyptologists such as wilkinson, birch, and poole assigned a date not exceeding b.c. for the accession of menes; twenty years later bunsen and lepsius gave respectively and b.c.; and since the latest discoveries, no competent scholar assigns a lower date than b.c., while some go up to b.c., and that most generally accepted is b.c. it is safe to conclude, therefore, that about b.c., or very nearly years before the present time, may be taken provisionally as the date of the commencement of authentic egyptian history, and that if this date be corrected by future discoveries it is more likely to be increased than diminished. [ ] brugsch, however, confines himself mainly to kings whose names are confirmed by monuments, and takes no account of the numerous names of unknown kings in royal genealogies, of which no confirmation has yet been found, so that practically his estimate is not inconsistent with that of mariette. this immensely long period of egyptian history is divided into three stages--the old, the middle, and the new empires. the old empire began with menes, and lasted without interruption for about years, under six dynasties of kings, who ruled over the whole of egypt. it was a period of peace, prosperity, and progress, during which the pyramids, the greatest of all human works, were built, literature flourished, and the industrial and fine arts attained a high degree of perfection. at the very commencement of this period we find the first king menes carrying out a great work of hydraulic engineering, by which the course of the nile was diverted, and a site obtained on its western banks for the new capital of memphis. his immediate successor is said to have written a celebrated treatise on medicine, and the extremely life-like portrait-statues and wooden statuettes, which were never equalled in any subsequent stage of egyptian art, date back to the fourth dynasty. [illustration: pyramids of gizeh and sphynx. (from champollion's _egypt_.)] it is singular that this extremely ancient period is the one of which, although the oldest, we know most, for the monuments, the papyri, and especially the tombs in the great cemeteries of sakkarah and ghizeh, give us the fullest details of the political and social life of egypt during the fourth, fifth, and sixth dynasties, with sufficient information as to the three first dynasties to check and confirm the lists of manetho. we really know the life of memphis years ago better than we do that of london under the saxon kings, or of paris under the descendants of clovis. the sixth dynasty was succeeded by a period which seems to have been one of civil war and anarchy, during which there was a complete cessation of monuments; or, if they existed, they have not yet been discovered. the probable duration of this eclipse of egyptian records is somewhat uncertain, as we cannot be sure, in the absence of monuments, that the four dynasties of short reigns assigned to the interval between the sixth and the eleventh dynasties by manetho, and the numerous names of unknown kings on the tablets, were successive sovereigns who reigned over united egypt, or local chiefs who got possession of power in different parts of the empire. all we can see is that the supremacy of memphis declined, and that its last great dynasty was replaced, either in whole or in part, by a rebellion in upper egypt which introduced two dynasties whose seat was at heracleopolis on the middle nile, in any case the duration of this period must have been very long, for the eclipse was very complete, and when we once more find ourselves in the presence of records in the eleventh dynasty, the seat of empire is established at thebes, and the state of the arts, religion, and civilization are different and much ruder than they were at the close of the great memphite empire with the sixth dynasty. mariette says, "when egypt, with the eleventh dynasty, awoke from its long sleep, the ancient traditions were forgotten. the proper names of the kings and ancient nobility, the titles of the high functionaries, the style of the hieroglyphic writing, and even the religion, all seemed new. the monuments are rude, primitive, and sometimes even barbarous, and to see them one would be inclined to think that egypt under the eleventh dynasty was beginning again the period of infancy which it had already passed through years earlier under the third." the tomb of one of these kings of the eleventh dynasty, entef i., is remarkable as showing on a funeral pillar the sportsman-king surrounded by his four favourite dogs, whose names are given, and which are of different breeds, from a large greyhound to a small turnspit. however, the chronology of this eleventh dynasty is well attested, its kings are known, and under them upper and lower egypt were once more consolidated into a single state, forming what is known as the middle empire. under the twelfth dynasty, which succeeded it, this empire bloomed rapidly into one of the greatest and most glorious periods of egyptian history. the dynasty only lasted for years, under seven kings, whose names were all either amenemes or osirtasen; but during their reigns the frontiers of egypt were extended far to the south, nubia was incorporated with the empire, and egyptian influence extended over the whole soudan, and perhaps nearly to the equator on the one hand, and over southern syria on the other. but the dynasty was still more famous for the arts of peace. one of the greatest works of hydraulic engineering which the world has seen was carried out by amenemes iii., who took advantage of a depression in the desert limestone near the basin of fayoum, to form a large artificial lake connected with the nile by canals, tunnelled through rocky ridges and provided with sluices, so as to admit the water when the river rose too high, and let it out when it fell too low, and thus regulate the inundation of a great part of middle and lower egypt, independently of the seasons. connected with this lake moeris was the famous labyrinth, which herodotus pronounced to be a greater wonder than even the great pyramid. it was a vast square building erected on a small plateau on the east side of the lake, constructed of blocks of granite which must have been brought from syene, with a façade of white limestone; and containing in the interior a vast number of small square chambers and vaults--herodotus says --each roofed with a single large slab of stone, and connected by narrow passages, so intricate that a stranger entering without a clue would be infallibly lost. the object seems to have been to provide a safe repository for statues of gods and kings and other precious objects. in the centre was a court containing twelve hypostyle chapels, six facing the south and six the north, and at the north angle of the square was a pyramid of brick faced with stone forming the tomb of amenemes iii. in addition to this colossal work, the kings of this dynasty built and restored many of the most famous temples and erected statues and obelisks, among the latter the one now standing at heliopolis. it was also an age of great literary activity, and the biographies of many of the priests, nobles, and high officers, inscribed on their tombs and recorded in papyri, give us the most minute knowledge of the history and social life of this remote period. the prosperity of egypt during the middle empire was continued under the thirteenth dynasty of sixty theban kings, to whom manetho assigns the period of years. less is known of this period than of the great twelfth dynasty which preceded it, but a sufficient number of monuments have been preserved to confirm the general accuracy of manetho's statements. a colossal statue of the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth king, sevckhotef vi., found on the island of argo near dongola, shows that the frontier fixed by the conquests of amenemes at semneh, had not only been maintained, but extended nearly fifty leagues to the south into the heart of ethiopia; and another statue found at tanis shows that the rule of this dynasty was firmly established in lower egypt. but the scarcity of the monuments, and the inferior execution of the works of art, show that this long dynasty was one of gradual decline, and the rise of the next or fourteenth dynasty at xois, transferring the seat of power from thebes to the delta, points to civil wars and revolutions. [illustration: fellah woman and head of second hyksos statue. (from photograph by naville in _harper's magazine_.)] [illustration: hyksos sphynx. (from photograph by naville in _harper's magazine_.)] manetho assigns seventy-five kings and years to the fourteenth dynasty, and it is to this period that a good deal of uncertainty attaches, for there are no monuments, and nothing to confirm manetho's lists, except a number of unknown names of kings of the dynasty enumerated among the royal ancestors in the papyrus of turin. if manetho's figures are correct, the period must have been one of anarchy and civil war, for the average duration of each reign is less than six and a half years, while that of the twelfth and other well-known historical dynasties exceeds thirty years. the same remark applies to the thirteenth dynasty, the reigns of whose sixty kings average only seven and a half years each, and it is probable that the end of this dynasty and the whole of the fourteenth was a period of anarchy, during which so-called kings rose and fell in rapid succession, as in the case of our own dynasties of lancaster and york, and the annals are so confused that the dates are unreliable. what is certain is that the great middle empire sank rapidly into a state of anarchy and impotence, which prepared the way for a great catastrophe. this catastrophe came in the form of an invasion of foreigners, who, about the year b.c., broke through the eastern frontier of the delta, and apparently without much resistance, conquered the whole of lower egypt up to memphis, and reduced the princes of the upper provinces to a state of vassalage. there is considerable doubt who these invaders were, who were known as hyksos or shepherd kings. they consisted probably, mainly of nomad tribes of canaanites, arabians, and other semitic races, but the turanian hittites seem to have been associated with them, and the leaders to have been turanian, judging from the portrait-statues of two of the later kings of the hyksos dynasty which have been recently discovered by naville at bubastis, and which are unmistakably turanian and even chinese in type. our information as to this hyksos conquest is derived mainly from fragments of manetho quoted by josephus, and from traditions repeated by herodotus, and is very vague and imperfect. but this much seems certain, that at first the hyksos acted as savage barbarians, burning cities, demolishing temples, and massacring part of the population and reducing the rest to slavery. but, as in the parallel case of the tartar conquest of china, as time went on they adopted the superior civilization of their subjects, and the later kings were transformed into genuine pharaohs, differing but little from those of the old national dynasties. this is conclusively proved by the discoveries recently made at tanis and bubastis, which have revealed important monuments of this dynasty. at tanis an avenue of sphynxes was discovered, copied evidently from those at thebes and from the great sphynx at gizeh, with lion bodies and human heads, the latter with a different head-dress from the egyptian, and a different type of feature. at bubastis two colossal statues of hyksos kings, with their heads broken off, but one of them nearly perfect, were unexpectedly discovered by naville in , and it was proved that they had stood on each side of the entrance to an addition made by those kings to the ancient and celebrated temple of the egyptian goddess bast, thus proving that the hyksos had adopted not only the civilization but also the religion of the egyptian nation. there are but few inscriptions known of the hyksos dynasty, for their cartouches have generally been effaced, and those of later kings chiselled over them; but enough remains to show that they were in the hieroglyphic character, and the names of two or three of their kings can still be deciphered, among which are two apepis, the second probably the last of the dynasty. it was probably under one of these hyksos kings that joseph came to egypt, and the tribes of israel settled on its eastern frontier. the duration of the hyksos rule is thus left in some uncertainty. manetho, if correctly quoted by josephus, says they ruled over egypt for years, though his lists only show one dynasty of years, and then the theban dynasty, who reigned over upper egypt for years contemporaneously with hyksos kings in lower egypt. we regain, however, firm historical ground with the rise of the eighteenth theban dynasty of native egyptian kings, who finally expelled the hyksos, after a long war, and founded what is known as the new empire. the date of this event is fixed by the best authorities at about b.c., and from this time downwards we have an uninterrupted succession of undoubted historical records, confirmed by contemporary monuments and by the annals of other nations, down to the christian era. the reaction which followed the expulsion of the hyksos led to campaigns in asia on a great scale, in which egypt came into collision with powerful nations, and for a long time was the dominant power in western asia, extending its conquests from the persian gulf to the black sea and mediterranean, and receiving tribute from babylon and nineveh. then followed wars, waged on more equal terms, with the hittites, who had founded a great empire in asia minor and syria; and as their power declined and that of assyria rose, with the long series of warlike assyrian monarchs, who gradually obtained the ascendency, and not only stripped egypt of its foreign conquests, but on more than one occasion invaded its territory and captured its principal cities. it is during this period that we find the first of the certain synchronisms between egyptian history and the old testament, beginning with the capture of jerusalem by shishak in the reign of rehoboam, and ending with the captivity of the jews and temporary conquest of egypt by nebuchadnezzar. then came the persian conquest by cambyses and alternate periods of national independence and of persian rule, until the conquest of alexander and the establishment of the dynasty of the ptolemies, which lasted until the reign of cleopatra, and ended finally by the annexation of egypt as a province of the roman empire. the history of this long period is extremely interesting, as showing what may be called the commencement of the modern era of great wars, and of the rise and fall of civilized empires; but for the present purpose i only refer to it as helping to establish the chronological standard which i am in search of as a measuring-rod to gauge the duration of historical time. we may sum up the conclusions derived from manetho's lists and the monuments as follows:-- manetho's lists, as they have come down to us, show a date of years b.c. for the accession of menes. of this period, we may say that we know years for the new empire and the period of the persians and the ptolemies, from contemporary monuments and records, with such certainty that any possible error cannot exceed fifty or one hundred years. the hyksos period is less certain, but there is no sufficient reason for doubting that it may have lasted for about years. manetho could have had no object in overstating the duration of the rule of hated foreigners, and a long time must have elapsed before the rude invaders could have so completely adopted the civilization of the subject race. the dates of the middle empire, to which manetho assigns years, are more uncertain, and we can only check them by monuments for the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth dynasties. the length of the fourteenth xoite dynasty seems to be exaggerated, and the later obscure theban dynasties may have been contemporary with the rule of the hyksos in lower egypt. of the years assigned to the ancient empire, the first from menes to the end of the sixth dynasty are well authenticated by monuments and inscriptions, and the for the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth are obscure, though a considerable time must have elapsed for such a complete eclipse of the monuments and arts as appears to have occurred between the nourishing period of the sixth dynasty and the revival of the middle empire under the eleventh. we may say, therefore, that we have about years of undoubted history between the accession of menes and the christian era, and more years for which we have only the authority of manetho's lists, and the names of unknown kings in genealogical records, with a few scattered monuments, and to which it is difficult to assign specific dates. this may enable us to appreciate the nature of the evidence upon which mariette and so many of the best and oldest authorities base their estimates in assigning a date of about b.c. for the accession of menes. the glimpses of light into the prehistoric stages of egyptian civilization prior to menes are few and far between. we are told that before the consolidation of the empire by menes, egypt was divided into a number of separate nomes or provinces, each gathered about its own independent city and temple, and ruled by the horsheshu or servants of horus, who were apparently the chief priests of the respective temples, combining with the character of priest that of king, or local ruler. parts of the todtenbuch or sacred book of the dead certainly date from this period, and the great temple of the sun at heliopolis had been founded, for we are told that certain prehistoric heliopolitan hymns formed the basis of the sacred books of a later age. at edfu the later temple occupies the site of a very ancient structure, traditionally said to date back to the mythic reign of the gods, and to have been built according to a plan designed by nuhotef the son of pthah. at denderah an inscription found by mariette in one of the crypts of the great temple, expressly identifies the earliest sanctuary built upon the spot with the time of the horsheshu. it reads, "there was found the great fundamental ordinance of denderah, written upon goatskin in ancient writing of the time of the horsheshu. it was found in the inside of a brick wall during the reign of king pepi" (_i.e._ pepi-merira of the sixth dynasty). the name of chufu, the king of the fourth dynasty, who built the great pyramid, was found by naville in a restoration of part of the famous temple of bubastis, and its foundation doubtless dates back to the same prehistoric period. but the most important prehistoric monuments are those connected with the great sphynx. an inscription of chufu (cheops) preserved in the museum of boulak, says that a temple adjoining the sphynx was discovered by chance in his reign, which had been buried under the sand of the desert, and forgotten for many generations. this temple was uncovered by mariette, and found to be constructed of enormous blocks of granite of syene and of alabaster, supported by square pillars, each of a single block of stone, without any mouldings or ornaments, and no trace of hieroglyphics. it is, in fact, a sort of transition from the rude dolmen to scientific architecture. but the masonry, and still more the transport of such enormous blocks from syene to the plateau of the desert at gizeh, show a great advance already attained in the resources of the country and the state of the industrial arts. the sphynx itself probably dates from the same period, for it is mentioned on the same inscription as being much older than the great pyramids, and requiring repairs in the time of chufu. it is a gigantic work consisting of a natural rock sculptured into the form of a lion's body, to which a human head has been added, built up of huge blocks of hewn stone. it is directed accurately towards the east so as to face the rising sun at the equinox, and was an image of hormachen, the sun of the lower world, which traverses the abode of the dead. in addition to the direct evidence for its prehistoric antiquity, it is certain that if such a monument had been erected by any of the historical kings, it would have been inscribed with hieroglyphics, and the fact recorded in manetho's lists and contemporary records, whereas all tradition of its origin seems to have been lost in the night of ages. although there are no monuments of the stone age in egypt like those of the swiss lake villages and danish kitchen-middens, to enable us to trace in detail the progress of arts and civilization from rude commencements through the neolithic and prehistoric ages, yet there is abundant evidence to show that the same stages had been traversed in the valley of the nile long prior to the time of menes. borings have been made on various occasions and at various localities through the alluvial deposits of the nile valley, from which fragments of pottery have been brought up from depths which show a high antiquity. horner sunk ninety-six shafts in four rows at intervals of eight miles, across the valley of the nile, at right angles to the river near memphis, and brought up pottery from various depths, which, at the known rate of deposit of the nile mud of about three inches per century, indicate an antiquity of at least , years. in another boring a copper knife was brought up from a depth of twenty-four feet, and pottery, from sixty feet below the surface. this is specially interesting, as making it probable that here, as in many other countries, an age of copper preceded that of bronze, while a depth of sixty feet at the normal rate of deposit would imply an antiquity of , years. borings, however, are not very conclusive, as it is always open to contend that they may have been made at spots where, owing to some local circumstances, the deposit was much more rapid than the average. these objections, however, cannot apply to the evidence which has been afforded by the discovery of flint implements, both of the neolithic and palæolithic type, in many localities and by various skilled observers. professor haynes found, a few miles east of cairo, not only a number of flint implements of the types usual in europe, but an actual workshop or manufactory where they had been made, showing that they had not been imported, but produced in the country in the course of its native development. he also found multitudes of worked flints of the ordinary neolithic and palæolithic types scattered on the hills near thebes. lenormant and hamy saw the same workshop and remains of the stone period, and various other finds have been reported by other observers. finally, general pitt-rivers and professor haynes found well-developed palæolithic implements of the st. acheul type, not only on the surface and in superficial deposits, but from six and a half to ten feet deep in hard stratified gravel at djebel-assas, near thebes, in a terrace on the side of one of the ravines falling from the libyan desert into the nile valley, which was certainly deposited in early quaternary ages by a torrent pouring down from a plateau where, under existing geographical and climatic conditions, rain seldom or never falls. these relics, as mr. campbell says, who was associated with general pitt-rivers in the discovery, are "beyond calculation older than the oldest egyptian temples and tombs," and they certainly go far to prove that the high civilization of egypt at the earliest dawn of history or tradition had been a plant of extremely slow growth from a state of provincial savagery. [illustration: statue of prince rahotep's wife. (refined type.) (gizeh museum.--discovered in in a tomb near meydoon.--according to the chronological table of mariette, it is years old.--from a photograph by sebah, cairo.)] it is remarkable that all the traditions of the egyptians represent them as being autochthonous. there is no legend of any immigration, no oannes who comes out of the sea and teaches the arts of civilization. on the contrary, thoth and osiris are native egyptian gods or kings, who reigned long ago in egyptian cities. there are no legends of an inferior race who were exterminated or driven up the nile; though it would seem from the portraits on early monuments that there were two types in the very early ages one coarse and approximating to the african, the other a refined and aristocratic type, more resembling that of the highest asiatic or arabian races. [illustration: khufu-ankh and his servants--early egyptians. (coarse type.)] it has been conjectured that this latter race may have come from punt, that is, from southern arabia, and the opposite african coast of soumali land, where there are races of a high, civilization at a very early period. this conjecture is based on the fact that punt is constantly referred to in the egyptian monuments as a divine or sacred land, while other surrounding nations are loaded with opprobrious epithets. also the earliest traditions refer the origin of egyptian civilization not to lower egypt, where the isthmus of suez affords a land route from asia, nor to upper egypt, as if it had descended the nile from africa, but to abydos and this in middle egypt, where the gods were feigned to have reigned, which are comparatively close to coptos, the port on the red sea by which intercourse was most easily kept up between the valley of the nile and the land of punt. this conjecture, however, is very vague, and when we come to positive facts we find that the language and system of writing, when we first meet with them, are fully formed and apparently of native growth, not derived from any semitic, aryan, or turanian speech of any historical nation. it is certainly an agglutinative language originally, but far advanced beyond the simpler forms of that mode of speech as spoken by mongolians. it shows some distant affinities with semitic, or rather with what may have been a proto-semitic, before it had been fully formed, and is perhaps nearer to what may have been the primitive language of the libyans of north africa. but there is nothing in the language from which we can infer origin, and the pictures from which hieroglyphics are derived are those of animals and objects proper to the nile valley, and not like those of the accadians and chinese, such as point to a prehistoric nomad existence on elevated plains. the only positive fact tending to confirm the existence of two races in egypt, one rude and aboriginal, the other of high type, is the difference of type shown by the early portraits and the discovery by mr. flinders petrie, in the very old cemetery of meydoon, of two distinct modes of interment, one of the ordinary mummy extended at full length, the other in a crouching attitude as is common in neolithic graves. for any further inquiries as to the origin and antiquity of egyptian civilization, we have to fall back on the state of religion, science, literature, and art, which we find prevailing in the earliest records which have come down to us, and which i will proceed to examine in subsequent chapters. but before doing so, i will endeavour to exhaust the field of positive history, and inquire how far the annals of other ancient nations contradict or confirm the date of about years b.c., which has been shown to be approximately that of the accession of menes. chapter ii. chaldÆa. chronology--berosus--his dates mythical--dates in genesis--synchronisms with egypt and assyria--monuments--cuneiform inscriptions--how deciphered--behistan inscription--grotefend and rawlinson--layard--library of koyunjik--how preserved--accadian translations and grammars--historical dates--elamite conquest--commencement of modern history--ur-ea and dungi--nabonidus--sargon i., b.c.--ur of the chaldees--sharrukin's cylinder--his library--his son naram-sin--semites and accadians--accadians and chinese--period before sargon i.--patesi--de sarzec's find at sirgalla--gud-ea, to b.c.--advance of delta--astronomical records--chaldæa and egypt give similar results--historic period or years--and no trace of a beginning. chaldæan chronology has within the last few years been brought into the domain of history, and carried back to a date almost, if not quite, as remote as that of egypt. and this has been effected by a process identical in the two cases, the decipherment of an unknown language in inscriptions on ancient monuments. until this discovery the little that was known of the early history of chaldæa was derived almost entirely from two sources: the bible, and the fragments quoted by later writers from the lost work of berosus. berosus was a learned priest of babylon, who lived about b.c., shortly after the conquest of alexander, and wrote in greek a history of the country from the most ancient times, compiled from the annals preserved in the temples, and from the oldest traditions. he began with a cosmogony, fragments of which only are preserved, from which little could be inferred, except that it bore some general resemblance to that of genesis, until the complete chaldæan cosmogony was deciphered by mr. george smith from tablets in the british museum. then followed a mythical period of the reigns of ten gods or demi-gods, reigning for , years, in the middle of which period the divine fish-man, ea-han or oannes, was said to have come up out of the persian gulf, and taught mankind letters, sciences, laws, and all the arts of civilization; , years after oannes, under xisuthros (the greek translation of hasisastra), the last of the ten kings, a deluge is said to have occurred; which is described in terms so similar to the narrative of noah's deluge in genesis, as to leave no doubt that they are different versions of the same legend. prior to the appearance of oannes, berosus relates, "that chaldæa had been colonized by a mixed multitude of men of foreign race, who lived without order like animals," thus carrying back the existence of mankind in large numbers, to some date anterior to , years before the deluge. there is also a legend resembling that of the tower of babel and the confusion of languages, recorded in another fragment of berosus. these accounts are all so obviously mythical that no historical value can be attached to them, and they have only been preserved because early christian writers saw in them some sort of distorted confirmation of the corresponding narratives in the old testament. for anything like historical dates therefore the bible remained the principal authority, until the recent discoveries made from the monuments of chaldæa and assyria. this authority does not carry us very far back. the first event which can advance any claim to be considered as historical, is that of the migration of terah from ur of the chaldees to haran, and the further migration of his son abraham from haran to palestine. this is said to have taken place in the ninth generation after noah, about years after the deluge, and it presupposes the existence of a dense population and a number of large cities both in upper and lower mesopotamia. it mentions also an event, apparently historical, as occurring in abraham's time, viz. a campaign by chedorlaomer, king of elam, with four allies, one of whom is a king of shinar, against five petty kings in southern syria. chedorlaomer has been identified from inscriptions with khuder-lagomer, one of the kings of the elamite dynasty, who conquered chaldæa about b.c., and were expelled before b.c. a long interval then occurs during which the scattered notices in the bible relate mainly to the intercourse of the hebrews with egypt, with the races of canaan, with the philistines, with the phoenicians of tyre, and with the syrians of damascus. mesopotamia first appears after the rise of the assyrian empire had united nearly the whole of western asia under the warlike kings who reigned at nineveh, and when palestine had become the battle-field between them and the declining power of egypt, which under the eighteenth and nineteenth egyptian dynasties had extended to the euphrates. the capture of jerusalem in the reign of rehoboam by shishak, the first king of the twenty-second egyptian dynasty, affords the first certain synchronism between sacred and profane history. the date may be fixed within a few years at b.c. assyria first appears on the scene two hundred years later in the reign of menahem king of israel, when pul, better known as tiglath-pileser ii., came against the land, and exacted a large ransom from menahem, whom he confirmed as a tributary vassal. from this time forward the succession of assyrian kings is recorded more or less accurately in the bible. tiglath-pileser accepted vassalage and a large tribute from ahaz to come to his assistance against rezin king of syria, and pekah king of israel, who were besieging jerusalem, and tiglath-pileser came to his aid and captured and sacked damascus. shalmaneser came up against hoshea king of judah, who submitted, but was deposed for intriguing with egypt, and shalmaneser then took samaria and carried the ten tribes of israel away into assyria, placing them in the cities of the medes. sennacherib, in the fourteenth year of hezekiah, took all the fenced cities of judah, and his general, rab-shakeh, besieged jerusalem, which was saved by the repulse of the main army under the king when marching to invade egypt. the murder of sennacherib by his two sons and the succession of esarhaddon are next mentioned. nineveh then disappears from the scene, and the great babylonian conqueror, nebuchadnezzar, puts an end to the kingdom of judæa, by taking jerusalem and carrying the people captive to babylon. this historical retrospect carries us back a very short distance, and little can be gathered in the way of accurate chronology from the few vague references prior to this date. so stood the question until the date of chaldæan history and civilization was unexpectedly carried back at least years by the discovery of its monuments. when the first assyrian sculptures were found by botta and layard not fifty years ago in the mounds of rubbish which covered the ruins of nineveh, and brought home to europe, it was seen that they were covered with inscriptions in an unknown character. it was called the cuneiform, because it was made up of combinations of a single sign, resembling a thin wedge or arrow-head. this sign was made in three fundamental ways, _i.e._ either horizontal [symbol], vertical [symbol], or angular [symbol], and all the characters were made up of combinations of these primary forms, which were obviously produced by impressing a style with a triangular head on moist clay. they resembled, in fact, very much the strokes and dashes used in spelling out the words conveyed by the electric telegraph, in which letters are formed by oscillations of the needle. [illustration} this mode of writing had apparently been developed from picture-writing, for several, of the groups of characters bore an unmistakable resemblance to natural objects. in the very oldest inscriptions which have been discovered the writing, is hardly yet cuneiform, and the primitive pictorial character of the signs is apparent. but the bulk of the cuneiform inscriptions not being pictorial, there could be little doubt that they were phonetic, or represented sounds. the question was, what sounds these characters signified, and when translated into sounds, what words and what language did the groups of signs represent? the first clue to these questions was, as in the parallel case of egypt, afforded by a trilingual inscription. the kings of the persian empire reigned over subjects of various races and languages. the three principal were the persians, an aryan race who spoke an inflectional language which has been preserved in old persian and zend; semites, who spoke aramaic, a language closely allied to hebrew; and descendants of the older accadian races, whose language was turanian, or agglutinative. it is almost the same at the present day in the same region, where edicts or inscriptions, to be readily intelligible to all classes of subjects, would require to be made in persian, arabic, and turkish. accordingly, the pompous inscriptions and royal edicts of these ancient monarchs were frequently made in the three languages, and specimens of these were brought to europe. the difficulty of deciphering them was, however, great, for the inscriptions were all written, though in different languages, in the same cuneiform characters, so that the aid afforded in the case of the rosetta stone by a greek translation of the hieroglyphic inscription was not forthcoming. the ingenuity of a german scholar, grotefend, furnished the first clue by discovering that certain groups of signs represented the names of known persian kings, and thus identifying the component signs in the persian inscription as letters of an alphabet. a few years later sir henry rawlinson copied, and succeeded in deciphering, a famous inscription engraved by the great persian monarch, darius the first, high up in the face of a precipice forming the wall of a narrow defile at behistan, and giving an historical record of the exploits of his reign. the clue thus afforded was rapidly followed up by a host of scholars, among whom the names of rawlinson, burnouf, lassen, and oppert were most conspicuous, and before long the text of inscriptions in persian and semitic could be read with great certainty. the task was one which required a vast amount of patience and ingenuity, for the cuneiform writing turned out to be one of great complexity, though phonetic in the main, the characters did not always represent the simple elements of sounds, or letters of an alphabet, but frequently syllables containing one or more consonants united by vowels, and a considerable number were ideographic or conventional representations of ideas, like our numerals , , , which have no relation to spoken sounds. thus the simple vertical wedge [symbol] represented "man," and was prefixed to proper names of kings so as to show that the signs which followed denoted the name of a man; the sign [symbol] denoted country, and so on. the difficulties were, however, surmounted, and inscriptions in the two known languages could be read with considerable certainty. [illustration] the third language, however, remained unknown until the finishing stroke to its decipherment was given by the discovery by layard under the great mound of koyunjik near mosul on the tigris, the site of the ancient nineveh, of the royal palace of asshurbanipal, or sardanapalus, the grandson of sennacherib, and one of the greatest assyrian monarchs, who lived about b.c. this palace contained a royal library like that of alexandria or the british museum, the contents of which had been carefully collected from the oldest records of previous libraries and temples, and almost miraculously preserved. the secret of the preservation of these assyrian and chaldæan remains, is that the district contains no stone, and all the great buildings were constructed mainly of sun-dried bricks, and built on mounds or platforms of the same material to raise them above the alluvial plain. these, when the cities were deserted, crumbled rapidly under the action of the air and rains, which are torrential at certain seasons, into shapeless rubbish heaps of fine dry dust and sand, under which everything of more durable material was securely buried. so rapid was the process, that when xenophon on the famous retreat of the ten thousand traversed the site of nineveh only two hundred years after its destruction, he found nothing but the ruins of a deserted city, the very name and memory of which had been lost. as regards the contents of the library the explanation of their perfect preservation is equally simple. the books were written, not on perishable paper or parchment, but on cylinders of clay. it is evident that the cuneiform characters were exceedingly well adapted for this description of writing, and probably originated from the nature of the material. a fine tenacious clay cost nothing, was readily moulded into cylinders, and when slightly moist was easily engraved by a tool or style stamping on it those wedge-like characters, so that when hardened by a slow fire the book was practically indestructible. so much so, indeed, that though the palace, including the library with its shelves and upper stories, had all fallen to the ground, and the book-cylinders lay scattered on the floor, they were mostly in a state of perfect preservation. other similar finds have been made since, notably one of another great library of the priestly college at erech, founded or enlarged as far back as b.c. by sargon ii. among the books thus preserved there are fortunately translations of old accadian works into the more modern aramaic or assyrian, either interlined or in parallel columns, and, also grammars and dictionaries of the old language to assist in its study. it appears that as far back as years b.c. this old language had already become obsolete, and was preserved as latin or vedic sanscrit are at the present day, as the venerable language for religious uses, in which the earliest sacred books, historical annals, and astrological and magical formulas had been written. with these aids this ancient accadian language can now be read with almost as much certainty as egyptian hieroglyphics, and the records written in it are accumulating rapidly with every fresh exploration. some idea of the wealth of the materials already found may be formed from the fact that the number of tablets in the different museums of europe from the nineveh library alone exceeds , . they present to us a most interesting picture of the religion, literature, laws, and social life of a period long antecedent to that commonly assigned for the destruction of the world by noah's deluge, or even to that of the creation of adam. to some of these we shall have occasion subsequently to refer, but for the present i confine myself to the immediate object in view, that of verifying the earliest historical dates. the first certain date is fixed by the annals of the assyrian king asshurbanipal, grandson of sennacherib, who conquered elam and destroyed its capital, susa, in the year b.c. the king says that he took away all the statues from the great temple of susa, and among others, one of the chaldæan goddess nana, which had been carried away from her own temple in the city of erech, by a king of elam who conquered the land of accad years before. this conquest, and the accession of an elamite dynasty which lasted for nearly years, is confirmed from a variety of other sources, and its date is thus fixed, beyond the possibility of a doubt, at _b.c._ a king of this dynasty, khudur-lagamar, synchronizes with abraham, assuming abraham and the narrative in the old testament respecting his defeat of that monarch to be historical. this elamite conquest of chaldæa is a memorable historical era, for it inaugurates the period of great wars and of the rise and fall of empires, which play such a conspicuous part in the subsequent annals of nations. elam was a small province between the kurdish mountains and the tigris, extending to the persian gulf, and its capital, susa, was an ancient and famous city; which afterwards became one of the principal seats of the persian monarchs. the elamites were originally a turanian race like the accads, and spoke a language which was a dialect of accadian, but, as in chaldæa and assyria, the kings and aristocracy appear to have been semites from an early period. it was apparently an organized and civilized state, and the conquest was not a passing irruption of barbarians, but the result of a campaign by regular troops, who founded a dynasty which lasted for more than years. it evidently disturbed the equilibrium of western asia, and led to a succession of wars. the invasion of egypt by the hyksos followed closely on it. then came the reaction which drove the elamites from chaldæa and the hyksos from egypt. then the great wars of the eighteenth egyptian dynasty, which carried the arms of ahmes and thotmes to the euphrates and black sea, and established for a time the supremacy of egypt over western asia. then the rise of the hittite empire, which extended over asia minor, and contended on equal terms with ramses ii. in syria. then the rise of the assyrian empire, which crushed the hittites and all surrounding nations, and twice conquered and overran egypt. finally, the rise of the medes, the fall of nineveh, the short supremacy of babylon, and the establishment of the great persian empire. from the persian we pass to the greek, and then to the roman empire, and find ourselves in full modern history. it may be fairly said, therefore, that modern history, with its series of great wars and revolutions, commences with this record of the elamite conquest of chaldæa in b.c. the next tolerably certain date is that of ur-ea, and his son dungi, two kings of the old accadian race, who reigned at ur over the united kingdoms of sumir and accad. they were great builders and restorers of temples, and have left numerous traces of their existence in the monuments both at ur, and at larsam, sirgalla, erech, and other ancient cities. among other relics of these kings there is in the british museum the signet-cylinder of ur-ea himself, on which is engraved the moon-god, the patron deity of ur, with the king and priests worshipping him. the date of ur-ea is ascertained as follows--nabonidus, the last king of babylon, b.c., was a great restorer of the old temples, and, as professor sayce says, "a zealous antiquarian who busied himself much with the disinterment of the memorial cylinders which their founders and restorers had buried beneath their foundations." the results of his discoveries he recorded on special cylinders for the information of posterity, which have fortunately been preserved. among others he restored the sun-temple at larsam, in which he found intact in its chamber under the corner-stone, a cylinder of king hummurabi or khammuragas, stating that the temple was commenced by ur-ea and finished by his son dungi, years before his time. hummurabi was a well-known historical king who expelled the elamites, and made babylon for the first time the capital of chaldæa, about b.c. the date of ur-ea cannot therefore be far from b.c. the same fortunate circumstance of the habit, by kings who built or restored famous temples, of laying the foundation-stone, such as our royal personages often do at the present day, and depositing under it, in a secure chamber, a cylinder recording the fact, has given us a still more ancient date, that of sharrukin or sargon i. of agade. the same nabonidus repaired the great sun-temple of sippar, and he says "that having dug deep in its foundations for the cylinders of the founder, the sun-god suffered him to behold the foundation cylinder of naram-sin, son of sharrukin or (sargon i.), which for three thousand and two hundred years none of the kings who lived before him had seen." this gives b.c. as the date of naram-sin, or, allowing for the long reign of sargon i., about b.c. as the date of that monarch. this discovery revolutionized the accepted ideas of chaldæan chronology, and carried it back at one stroke years before the date of ur-ea, making it contemporary with the fourth egyptian dynasty who built the great pyramids. the evidence is not so conclusive as in the case of egypt, where the lists of manetho give us the whole series of successive kings and dynasties, a great majority of which are confirmed by contemporary records and monuments. the date of sargon i. rests mainly on the authority of nabonidus, who lived more than years later, and may have been mistaken, but he was in the best position to consult the oldest records, and had apparently no motive to make a wilful mis-statement. moreover, other documents have been found in different places confirming the statement on the cylinder of nabonidus, and the opinion of the best and latest authorities has come round to accept the date of about b.c. as authentic. professor sayce, in his hibbert lecture in , gives a detailed account of the evidence which had overcome his original scepticism, and forced him to admit the accuracy of this very distant date. since the discovery of the cylinder of nabonidus, several tablets have been found and deciphered, containing lists of kings and dynasties of the same character as the egyptian lists of manetho. one tablet of the kings who reigned at babylon takes us back, reign by reign, to about b.c. other tablets, though incomplete, give the names of at least sixty kings which are not found in this record of the babylonian era, and who presumedly reigned during the interval of about years between khammuragas and sargon i. the names are mostly accadian, and if they did not reign during this interval they must have preceded the foundation of a semite dynasty by sargon i., and thus extend the date of chaldæan history still further back. the probability of such a remote date is enhanced by the certainty that a high civilization existed in egypt as long ago as b.c., and there is no apparent reason why it should not have existed in the valleys of the tigris and euphrates as soon as in that of the nile. boscawen, in a paper read at the victoria institute in , says that inscriptions found at larsa, a neighbouring city to ur of the chaldees, show that from as early a period as _b.c._ a semitic population existed in the latter city, speaking a language akin to hebrew, carrying on trade and commerce, and with a religion which, although not monotheist, had at the head of its pantheon a supreme god, ilu or el, from whose name that of elohim and allah has been inherited as the name of god by the hebrews and arabs. the latest discoveries all point to the earliest dates, and some authorities think that genuine traces of the earliest accadian civilization can be found as far back as b.c. there can be no doubt, moreover, that this sharrukin or sargon i. is a perfect historical personage. a statue of him has been found at agade or accad, and also his cylinder with an inscription on it giving his name and exploits. it begins, "sharrukin the mighty king am i," and goes on to say, "that he knew not his father, but his mother was a royal princess, who to conceal his birth placed him in a basket of rushes closed with bitumen, and cast him into the river, from which he was saved by akki the water-carrier, who brought him up as his own child." it is singular how the same or a very similar story is told of moses, cyrus, and other heroes of antiquity. it is probable from this that he was a military adventurer who rose to the throne; but there can be no doubt that he was a great monarch, who united the two provinces of shumir and accad, or of lower and upper mesopotamia, into one kingdom, as menes did the upper and lower egypts, and extended his rule over some of the adjoining countries. he says "that he had reigned for forty-five years, and governed the black-headed (accadian) race. in multitudes of bronze chariots i rode over rugged lands. i governed the upper countries. three times to the coast of the sea i advanced." if there is any truth in this inscription it would be very interesting as showing the existence in western asia of nations to be conquered in great campaigns, with a force of horse-chariots, at this remote period, years earlier than the campaigns of ahmes and thotmes recorded in the egyptian monuments of the eighteenth dynasty. [illustration: cylinder seal of sargon i., from agade. (hommel, "gesch. babyloniens u. assyriens.")] the reality of these campaigns is moreover confirmed by inscriptions and images of this sargon having been found in cyprus and on the opposite coast of syria, and by a babylonian cylinder of his son naram-sin, found by cesnola in the cyprian temple of kurion. in another direction he and his son carried their arms into the peninsula of sinai, attracted doubtless by the copper and turquoise mines of wady maghera, which were worked by the egyptians under the third dynasty. sargon i. is also known to have been a great patron of literature, and to have founded the library of agade, which was long one of the most famous in babylonia. a work on astronomy and astrology, in seventy-two books, which was so well known in the time of berosus as to be translated by him into greek, was also compiled for him. another king of the same name, known as sargon ii., who reigned about b.c., either founded or enlarged the library of the priestly college at erech, which was one of the oldest and most famous cities of lower chaldæa, and known as the "city of books." it was also considered to be a sacred city, and its necropolis extends over a great part of the adjoining desert, and contains innumerable tombs and graves ranging over all periods of chaldæan and assyrian history, up to an unknown antiquity. the exact historical date of sargon i. may be a little uncertain; but whatever its antiquity may be, it is evident that it is already far removed from the beginnings of chaldæan civilization. sargon ii. is perfectly historical, and his library and the state of the arts and literature in his reign prove this conclusively. he states in his tablets that kings had reigned before him, and in such a literary age he could hardly have made such a statement without some foundation. if anything like this number of kings had reigned before b.c., the date of sargon ii.'s chaldæan chronology would have to be extended to a date preceding that of egypt. moreover, sargon was a semite, who founded a powerful monarchy over a mixed population, consisting mainly of a primitive accadian race, who had already built large cities and famous temples, written sacred books, and made considerable progress in literature, science, agriculture, and industrial arts. this primitive race was neither semitic nor aryan, but turanian. they spoke an agglutinative language, and resembled the chinese very much both in physical type and in character. they were a short, thick-set people, with yellow skins, coarse black hair, and, judging from the ancient statues recently discovered, of decidedly tartar or mongolian features. they were, like the chinese, a peaceable, patient, and industrious people, addicted to agriculture, and specially skilled in irrigation. they were educated and literary, but very superstitious in regard to ghosts, omens, and evil spirits. this resemblance to the chinese has been remarkably confirmed by the discovery made within the last few years, that the accadian and chinese languages are closely allied, and that a great many words are identical. the early prehistoric and astronomical legends were almost similar, and in some instances, as in the division of the year, the names and order of the planets, and the number and duration of the fabulous reigns of gods, so identical as to leave no doubt of their having had a common origin. but as the chinese annals do not extend farther back than about b.c., the priority of invention must be assigned to the accadians. this turanian population had been long settled in mesopotamia before the accession of sargon i., and before the supremacy of the semitic races began to assert itself. though called accadian, which is said to mean "highlanders," their principal seat was in shumir or lower mesopotamia, in the alluvial delta formed in the course of ages by the euphrates, tigris, and other rivers which flow into the persian gulf; and their traditions point to their civilization having come from the shores of this gulf, and having gradually spread northwards. their most ancient cities and temples were in the lower province of shumir, and the bulk of the population continued for ages to be turanian, while in accad or upper mesopotamia, where the land rises from the alluvial plain up to the mountains of kurdistan and armenia, the semitic element preponderated from an early period, though the civilization and religion long remained those of shumir or chaldæa proper. when the semite sargon i. founded the united monarchy, the capital of which was agade in the upper province, he made no change in the established state of things, maintained the old temples, and built new ones to the same gods. before his reign we have, as in the parallel case of egypt before menes, little definite information from monuments or historical records. we only know that the country was divided into a number of small states, each grouped about a city with a temple dedicated to some god; as eridhu, the sanctuary of ea, one of the trinity of supreme gods; larsam, with its temple of the sun; ur, the city of the moon-god; sirgalla, with another famous temple. these small states were ruled by _patesi_, or priest-kings, a term corresponding to the horsheshu of egypt; and a fortunate discovery by m. de sarzec in at tell-loh, the site of the ancient sirgalla, has given us valuable information respecting its _patesi_. to the surprise of the scientific world, with whom it had been a settled belief that no statues were ever found in assyrian art, m. de sarzec discovered and brought home nine large statues of diorite, a very hard black basalt of the same material as that of the statue of chephren, the builder of the second pyramid, and in the same sitting attitude. the heads had been broken off, but one head was discovered which was of unmistakably turanian type, beardless, shaved, and with a turban for head-dress. with these statues a number of small works of art were found, representing men and animals of a highly artistic design and exquisite finish, and also several cylinders. both these and the backs of the statues are covered with cuneiform inscriptions in the old accadian characters, which furnish valuable historical information. the name of one of the _patesi_ whose statues were found was gud-ea, and his date is computed by some of the best authorities at from to b.c., probably earlier, and certainly not later than b.c. this makes the _patesi_ of sirgalla contemporary with the earliest egyptian kings, or even earlier, and it shows a state of the arts and civilization then prevailing in chaldæa very similar to those of the fourth dynasty in egypt, and in both cases as advanced as those of or years later date. [illustration: head of ancient chaldÆan. from tell-loh (sirgalla). sarzec collection. (perrot and chipiez.)] before such a temple as that of sirgalla could have been built and such statues and works of art made, there must have been older and smaller temples and ruder works, just as in egypt the brick pyramids of sakkarah and the oldest temples of heliopolis and denderah preceded the great pyramids of gizeh, the temple of pthah at memphis, and the diorite statues, wooden statuettes, and other finished works of art of the fourth dynasty. [illustration: statue of gud-ea, with inscription; from tell-loh (sirburla or sirgalla) sarzec collection. (hommel.)] it is important to remark that in those earliest monuments both the language and art are primitive accadian, with no trace of semitic influences, which must have long prevailed before sargon i. could have established a semitic dynasty over an united population of accads and semites living together on friendly terms. the normal semites must have settled gradually in chaldæa, and adopted to a great extent the higher civilization of the accadians, much as the tartars in later times did that of the chinese. it is remarkable also that this pre-semitic accadian people must have had extensive intercourse with foreign regions, for the diorite of which the statues of sirgalla are formed is exactly similar to that of the statue of the egyptian chephren, and in both cases is only found in the peninsula of sinai. in fact, an inscription on one of the statues tells us that the stone was brought from the land of magan, which was the accadian name for that peninsula. this implies a trade by sea, between eridhu, the sea-port of chaldæa in early times, and the red sea, as such blocks of diorite could hardly have been transported such a distance over such mountains and deserts by land; and this is confirmed by references in old geographical tablets to magan as the land of bronze from the copper mines of wady-maghera, and to "ships of magan" trading from eridhu. in any case, it is certain that a very long period of purely accadian civilization must have existed prior to the introduction of semitic influences, and long before the foundation of a semitic dynasty by sargon i. with these facts it will no longer seem surprising that some high authorities assign as early a date as b.c. for the dawn of chaldæan civilization, and consider that it may be quite as old or even older than that of egypt. the great antiquity assigned to these dates from books and monuments is confirmed by other deductions. the city of eridhu, which was generally considered to be the oldest in chaldæa, and was the sanctuary of the principal god, eâ, appears to have been a sea-port in those early days, situated where the euphrates flowed into the persian gulf. the ruins now stand far inland, and sayce computes that about years must have elapsed since the sea reached up to them. astronomy affords a still more definite confirmation. the earliest records and traditions show that before the commencement of any historic period the year had been divided into twelve months, the course of the sun mapped out among the stars, and a zodiac established of the twelve constellations, which has continued in use to the present day. the year began with the vernal equinox, and the first month was named after the "propitious bull," whose figure constantly appears on the monuments as opening the year. the sun, therefore, was in taurus at the vernal equinox when this calendar was formed, which could only be after long centuries of astronomical observation; but it has been in aries since about b.c., and first entered in taurus about b.c. records of eclipses were also kept in the time of sargon i., which imply a long preceding period of accurate observation; and the ziggurat, or temple observatory, built up in successive stages above the alluvial plain, which gave rise to the legend of the tower of babel, is found in connection with the earliest temples. the diorite statues also and engraved gems found at sirgalla testify to a thorough knowledge of the arts of metallurgy at this remote period, and to a commercial intercourse with foreign countries from which the copper and tin must have been derived for making bronze tools capable of cutting such hard materials. the existence of such a commercial intercourse in remote times is confirmed by the example of egypt, where bronze implements must have been in use long before the date of menes; and although copper might have been obtained from sinai or cyprus, tin or bronze must have been imported from distant foreign countries alike in egypt and in chaldæa. chaldæan chronology therefore leads to almost exactly the same results as that of egypt. in each case we have a standard or measuring-rod of authentic historical record, of certainly not less than , and more probably years from the present time; and in each case we find ourselves at this remote date, in presence, not of rude beginnings, but of a civilization already ancient and far advanced. we have populous cities, celebrated temples, an organized priesthood, an advanced state of agriculture and of the industrial and fine arts; writing and books so long known that their origin is lost in myth; religions in which advanced philosophical and moral ideas are already developed; astronomical systems which imply a long course of accurate observations. how long this prehistoric age may have lasted, and how many centuries it may have taken to develop such a civilization, from the primitive beginnings of neolithic and palæolithic origins, is a matter of conjecture. bunsen thinks it may have taken , years, but there are no dates from which we can infer the time that may be required for civilization to grow up by spontaneous evolution, among nations where it is not aided by contact with more advanced civilizations from without. all we can infer is, that it must have required an immense time, probably much longer than that embraced by the subsequent period of historical record. and we can say with certainty that during the whole of this historical period of or years there has been no change in the established order of nature. the earth has revolved round its axis and round the sun, the moon and planets have pursued their courses, the duration of human life has not varied, and there have been no destructions and renovations of life or other traces of miraculous interference. and more than this, we can affirm with absolute certainty that years have not been enough to alter in any perceptible degree the existing physical types of the different races of men and animals, or the primary linguistic types of their forms of speech. the negro, the turanian, the semite, and the aryan, all stand out as clearly distinguished in the paintings on egyptian monuments as they do at the present day; and the agglutinative languages are as distinct from the inflectional, and the semite from the aryan forms of inflections, in the old chaldæan cylinders as they are in the nineteenth century. chapter iii. other historical records. _china_--oldest existing civilization--but records much later than those of egypt and chaldæa--language and traditions accadian--communication how effected. _elam_--very early civilization--susa, an old city in first chaldæan records--conquered chaldæa in b.c.--conquered by assyrians b.c.--statue of nana--cyrus an elamite king--his cylinder--teaches untrustworthiness of legendary history. _phoenicia_--great influence on western civilization--but date comparatively late--traditions of origin--first distinct mention in egyptian monuments b.c.--great movements of maritime nations--invasions of egypt by sea and land, under menepthah, b.c., and ramses iii., b.c.--lists of nations--show advanced civilization and intercourse--but nothing beyond or b.c. _hittites_--great empire in asia minor and syria--turanian race--origin cappadocia--great wars with egypt--battle of kadesh--treaty with ramses ii.--power rapidly declined--but only finally destroyed b.c. by sargon ii.--capital carchemish--great commercial emporium--hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions and monuments--only recently and partially deciphered--results. _arabia_--recent discoveries--inscriptions--sabæa--minæans--thirty-two kings known--ancient commerce and trade-routes--incense and spices--literature--old traditions--oannes--punt--seat of semites--arabian alphabet--older than phoenician--- bearing on old testament histories. _troy and mycenæ_--dr. schliemann's excavations--hissarlik--buried fortifications, palaces, and treasures of ancient troy--mycenæ and tiryns--proof of civilization and commerce--tombs--absence of inscriptions and religious symbols--date of mycenæan civilization--school of art--pictures on vases--type of race. china. the first country to which we might naturally look for independent annals approaching in antiquity those of egypt and chaldæa is china. chinese civilization is in one respect the oldest in the world; that is, it is the one which has come down to the present day from a remote antiquity with the fewest changes. what china is to-day it was more than years ago; a populous empire with a peaceful and industrial population devoted to agriculture and skilled in the arts of irrigation; a literary people acquainted with reading and writing; orderly and obedient, organized under an emperor and official hierarchy; paying divine honours to ancestors, and a religious veneration to the moral and ceremonial precepts of sages and philosophers. addicted to childish superstitions, and yet eminently prosaic, practical, and utilitarian. unlike other nations they have no traditions attributing the origin of arts and sciences to foreign importation, as in the chaldæan legend of oannes, or, as in egypt, to native gods; that is, to development on the soil from an unknown antiquity. the chinese annals begin with human emperors, who are only divine in the sense of being wise and virtuous ancestors, and who are represented as uttering long discourses on the whole duty of man, in a high moral and philosophical tone. but these annals do not profess to go back further than to about b.c., or to a period at least and probably years later than the commencement of historical annals, confirmed by monuments in egypt and chaldæa, and any traditions prior to this period are of the vaguest and most shadowy descriptions. we only know with certainty that prior to chinese civilization there was an aboriginal, semi-savage race, the miou-tse, remnants of whom are still to be found in the mountainous western provinces; and it had been conjectured from the form of the hieroglyphics to which the chinese written characters can be traced back, that they were invented by a pastoral people who roamed with flocks and herds over the steppes of central asia. thus the sheep plays a very prominent part, the idea of "beauty" being conveyed by an ideogram meaning "a large sheep"; that of "right" or "property" by one which means "my sheep," and so on in many other instances. there is a tradition also of a clan of families who came down from the west and descended the valley of the yang-tse-kiang, expelling the aboriginal miou-tse. but for any real information as to chinese origins we are indebted to recent discoveries of accadian records. it has been proved by lacouperie, bell, and other experts in the oldest forms of the chinese and accadian languages, that they are not only closely allied, as both forming part of the ugrian or turkish branch of the turanian family, but almost identical. thus, by following the well-known philological law by which an initial 'g' is often softened in course of time into a 'y,' it was found that by writing 'g' for 'y' in many chinese words beginning with the latter letter, pure accadian words were obtained. thus "to speak" is in accadian _gu_, in the mandarin chinese _yu_, and in the old form of chinese spoken in japan _go_; night is _ye_ in chinese, _ge_ in accadian. the very close connection between accadian and chinese civilization is still more conclusively shown by the identity in many matters which could not have been invented independently. thus the prehistoric period of chaldæa before the deluge is divided, according to berosus and the tablets, into ten periods of ten kings, whose reigns lasted for sari or , years, a myth which is purely astronomical. the early chinese writers had a myth of precisely the same number of ten kings and the same period of , years for their united reigns. chinese astronomy also, said by their annals to have been invented by the emperor yao about b.c., was an almost exact counterpart of that of the earliest accadian records. they recognized the same planets, and gave them names with the same meanings; they divided the year into the chaldæan period of twelve months of thirty days each, making the new year begin, as in chaldæa, in the third month after the winter solstice; and counting the calendar for the surplus days by the same cycle of intercalary days. the oldest chinese dictionaries give names of the months, which had become obsolete, since the usage of mentioning the months by their numbers, as second, third, and fourth months, had become general, and the meaning of which had been lost. it turns out that several of these names correspond with those of the accadian calendar. such coincidences as these cannot be accidental, and it is obvious that one nation must have derived its civilization from the other, or both from a common source. there can be little doubt in this case that chaldæa taught china, for its astronomy, knowledge of the arts, and general culture are proved by its records to have existed at least , and probably years b.c., and then to be attributed to mythical gods and to a fabulous antiquity; while in china they are said to have been taught ready-made by human emperors, at a date from to years later. the inference is irresistible that somehow the elements of accadian civilization must have been imported into china from chaldæa, at what is a comparatively modern date in the history of the latter country. the only approach to a clue to this date is that the great chinese historian szema-tsien says that the first of their emperors was nai-kwangti, who built an observatory, and by the aid of astronomy "ruled the varied year." the name is singularly like that of kuder-na-hangti, who was the elamite king who conquered babylonia about b.c. it is difficult to see how such an intercourse between chaldæa and china could have been established across such an enormous intervening distance of mountains and deserts, or by such a long sea-voyage; but it is still more difficult to conceive how not only language, physical characteristics, and civilization should have been so similar, but myths and calendars should have been almost _verbatim_ the same in the two countries, unless a communication really existed between them. nor will the theory of a common origin apply, for it is impossible to suppose that any common ancestors of the chinese and accadians could have attained to such a knowledge of astronomy, and of the industrial arts and agriculture, while wandering as nomad shepherds over the steppes of central asia. we must remember also the fact that caravans actually do travel, and have travelled for time immemorial, over enormous distances, across the steppes of central and northern asia, and that within quite recent historical times, a whole nation of calmucks migrated under every conceivable difficulty from hostile tribes, pursuing armies, and the extremes of winter cold and summer heat, first from china to the volga, and then back again from the volga to china. nor must we overlook the fact that ur and eridhu were great sea-ports at a very remote period, and that the facilities for pushing their commerce far to the east were great, owing to the regular monsoons, and the configuration of the coast. we must be content, therefore, to take the facts as we find them, and admit that china gives us no aid in carrying back authentic history for anything like the time for which we have satisfactory evidence from the monuments and records of egypt and chaldæa. elam. as regards other nations of antiquity, their own historical records are either altogether wanting or comparatively recent, and our only authentic information respecting them in very early times is derived from egyptian or babylonian monuments. the most important of them is elam, which was evidently a civilized kingdom at a very remote period, contemporary probably with the earliest accadian civilization, and which continued to play a leading part in history down to the recent date of cyrus. elam was a small district between the zagros mountains and the tigris, extending to the south along the eastern shore of the persian gulf to the arabian sea. its capital was shushan or susa, an ancient and renowned city, the name of which survives in the persian province of shusistan, as that of persia proper does in the mountainous district next to the east of elam, known as farsistan. the original population was turanian, speaking an agglutinative language, akin to though not identical with accadian, and its religion and civilization were apparently the same, or closely similar. as in chaldæa and assyria, a semitic element seems to have intruded on the turanian at an early date, and to have become the ruling race, while much later the aryan persians to some extent superseded the semites. the name "elam" is said to have the same significance as "accad," both meaning "highland," and indicating that both races must have had a common origin in the mountains and steppes of central asia. the native name was anshad, and susa was "the city of anshad." elam was always considered an ancient land and susa an ancient city, by the accadians, and there is every reason to believe that elamite civilization must have been at least as old as accadian. this much is certain, that as far back as b.c., elam was a sufficiently organized and powerful state to conquer the larger and more populous country of mesopotamia, and found an elamite dynasty which lasted for nearly years, and carried on campaigns in districts as far distant as southern syria and the dead sea. the dynasty was subverted and the elamites driven back within their own frontiers, but there they retained their independence, and took a leading part in all the wars waged by chaldæa and other surrounding nations against the rising power of the warlike assyrian kings of nineveh. the statue of the goddess nana, which had been taken by the elamite conquerors from erech in b.c., remained in the temple at susa for years, until the city was at length taken by one of the latest assyrian kings, asshurbanipal, in the year b.c. we have already pointed out the great historical importance of the elamite conquest of mesopotamia in _b.c._ as inaugurating the era of great wars between civilized states, and probably giving the impulse to western asia, which hurled the hyksos on egypt, and by its reaction first brought the egyptians to nineveh, and then the assyrians to memphis. a still more important movement at the very close of what may be called ancient history, originated from elam. to the surprise of all students of history, it has been proved that the account we have received from herodotus and other greek sources, of the great cyrus, is to a great extent fabulous. a cylinder and tablet of cyrus himself were quite recently discovered by mr. rassam and brought to the british museum, in which he commemorates his conquest of babylon. he describes himself as "cyrus the great king, the king of babylon, the king of sumir and accad, the king of the four zones, the son of kambyses the great king, the king of elam; the grandson of cyrus the great king, the king of elam; the great-grandson of teispes the great king, the king of elam; of the ancient seed-royal, whose rule has been beloved by bel and nebo"; and he goes on to say how by the favour of "merodach the great lord, the god who raises the dead to life, who benefits all men in difficulty and prayer, he had conquered the men of kurdistan and all the barbarians, and also the black-headed race (the accadians), and finally entered babylon in peace and ruled there righteously, favoured by gods and men, and receiving homage and tribute from all the kings who dwelt in the high places of all regions from the upper to the lower sea, including phoenicia." and he concludes with an invocation to all the gods whom he had restored to their proper temples from which they had been taken by nabonidus, "to intercede before bel and nebo to grant me length of days; may they bless my projects with prosperity; and may they say to merodach my lord, that cyrus the king, thy worshipper, and kambyses his son deserve his favour." this is confirmed by a cylinder of a few years earlier date, of nabonidus the last king of babylon, who relates how "cyrus the king of elam, the young servant of merodach," overthrew the medes, there called "mandan" or barbarians, captured their king astyages, and carried the spoil of the royal city ecbatana to the land of elam. how many of our apparently most firmly established historical dates are annihilated by these little clay cylinders! it appears that cyrus was not a persian at all, or an adventurer who raised himself to power by a successful revolt, but the legitimate king of elam, descended from its ancient royal race through an unbroken succession of several generations. he was in fact a later and greater kudur-na-hangti, like the early conqueror of that name who founded the first elamite empire some years earlier. it may be doubtful whether he was even an aryan. at any rate this much is certain, that his religion was babylonian, and that we must dismiss all jewish myths of him as a zoroastrian monotheist, the servant of the most high god, who favoured the chosen race from sympathy with their religion. on his own showing he was as devoted a worshipper of merodach, bel, and nebo, and the whole pantheon of local gods, as nebuchadnezzar or tiglath-pileser.[ ] [ ] sayce, in his _fresh light from ancient monuments_, says, "both in his cylinder and in the annalistic tablet, cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a persian and zoroastrian monotheist, appears as an elamite and a polytheist." it is pretty certain, however, that although descended from elamite kings, these were kings of persian race, who, after the destruction of the old monarchy by asshurbanipal, had established a new dynasty at the city of anshad or susa. cyrus always traces his descent from achæmenes, the chief of the leading persian clan of pasargadæ, and he was buried there in a tomb visited by alexander. but as regards religion, it is clear that cyrus professed himself, and was taken by his contemporaries to be, a devoted servant of merodach, nebo, and the other babylonian deities, to whom he prays for protection and thanks for victories, without any mention of the zoroastrian supreme god, ahura-mazda. zoroastrian monotheism only came in with darius hystaspes, the founder of the purely persian second dynasty, after that of cyrus became extinct with his son cambyses. what a lesson does this teach us as to the untrustworthy nature of the scraps of ancient history which have come down to us from verbal traditions, and are not confirmed by contemporary monuments! herodotus wrote within a few generations of cyrus, and the relations of greece to the persian empire had been close and uninterrupted. his account of its founder cyrus is not in itself improbable, and is full of details which have every appearance of being historical. it is confirmed to a considerable extent by the old testament, and by the universal belief of early classical writers, and yet it is shown to be in essential respects legendary and fabulous, by the testimony of cyrus himself. phoenicia. phoenicia is another country which exercised a great influence on the civilization and commerce of the ancient world, though its history does not go back to the extreme antiquity of the early dynasties of egypt and of chaldæa. the phoenicians spoke a language which was almost identical with that of the hebrews and canaanites, and closely resembled that of assyria and babylonia, after the semite language had superseded that of the ancient accadians. according to their own tradition, they came from the persian gulf, and the island of tyros, now bahrein, in that gulf, is quoted as a proof that it was the original seat of the people who founded tyre. there is no certain date for the period when they migrated from the east, and settled in the narrow strip of land along the coast of the mediterranean between the mountain range of lebanon and the sea, stretching from the promontory of carmel on the south to the gulf of antioch on the north. this little strip of about miles in length, and ten to fifteen in breadth, afforded many advantages for a maritime people, owing to the number of islands close to the coast and small indented bays, which afforded excellent harbours and protection from enemies, which was further secured by the precipitous range of the lebanon sending down steep spurs into the mediterranean, and thus isolating phoenicia from the military route of the great valley of coelo-syria, between the parallel ranges of the lebanon and anti-lebanon, which was taken by armies in the wars between egypt and asia. here the phoenicians founded nine cities, of which byblos or gebal was reputed to be the most ancient, and first sidon and then tyre became the most important. they became fishermen, manufacturers of purple from the dye procured from the shell-fish on their shores, and above all mariners and merchants. before the growth of other naval powers in the mediterranean they had established factories along the coasts of asia minor, greece, and italy, and in all the islands of the egæan and the cyclades. they had founded colonies in cyprus, crete, sicily, and on the mainland of greece at boeotian thebes. they had mined extensively wherever metals were to be found, and, as herodotus states, had overturned a whole mountain at thasos by tunnelling it for gold. they had even extended their settlements into the black sea, along the northern coast of africa, and somewhat later to spain, passed the straits of gibraltar, and finally reached the british isles in pursuit of tin. there can be no question that this phoenician commerce was a principal element in introducing not only their alphabet, but many of the early arts of civilization, among the comparatively rude races of greece, italy, spain, and britain. the date however of this earliest phoenician commerce is very uncertain. all we can discern is that, after having enjoyed an undisputed supremacy, the progress of civilization among the mediterranean races enabled them to develop a maritime power of their own, superior to that of phoenicia, and to drive the phoenicians from most of their settlements on the mainland and islands, confining them to a few trading posts and factories, and directing their more important enterprises towards the western mediterranean, where they encountered less formidable rivals. but although phoenicia contributed thus largely to the civilization of the ancient world, its antiquity cannot be compared to that of egypt and chaldæa. the first reference to the country is found in the cylinder of sargon i., b.c. , who marched to the coast of the mediterranean, and crossed over to cyprus, where a cylinder of his son dungi has been found, but there is nothing to show that the district was then occupied by the phoenicians of later times. kopt, or the land of palms, of which phoenicia is the greek translation, is first mentioned in the egyptian annals of the middle empire, and during the rule of the hyksos the mouth of the nile had become so thickly populated by phoenician emigrants as to be known as kopt-ur, caphtor, or greater phoenicia. the priests of the temple of baal melcart, the patron deity of tyre, told herodotus that it had been founded years before his time, or about b.c., and old tyre which stood on the mainland was reputed to be more ancient than the city of new tyre which stood on an island. but this date is negatived by the fact that in an egyptian papyrus in which an envoy from ramses ii. or menepthah to the court of babylon about b.c. records his journey, he mentions byblos, beryta, and sidon as important cities, while tyre is only an insignificant fishing town. the first distinct mention of phoenician cities in egyptian annals is in the enumeration of towns captured by thotmes iii., b.c. , in his victorious campaigns in syria, among which are to be found the names of beyrut and acco, and two centuries later seti i., the father of ramses ii., records the capture of zor or tyre, probably the old city on the mainland. the first authentic information, however, as to the movements of the mediterranean maritime races is afforded by the egyptian annals, which describe two formidable invasions by combined land armies and fleets, which were with difficulty repulsed. the first took place in the reign of menepthah, son of the great ramses ii. of the eighteenth dynasty, about b.c.; the second under ramses iii. of the nineteenth dynasty, about b.c. the first invasion came from the west, and was headed by the king of the lybians, a white race, who have been identified with the numidians and modern kabyles, but were reinforced to a confederacy of nearly all the mediterranean races who sent auxiliary contingents both of sea and land forces. among these appear, along with dardanians, teucri and lycians of asia minor, who were already known as allies of the hittites in their wars against ramses ii., a new class of auxiliaries from greece, italy, and the islands, whose names have been identified by some egyptologists as achæans, tuscans, sicilians, and sardinians. [illustration: sea-fight in the time of ramses iii. (from temple of ammon at medinet-abou.)] the second and more formidable attack came from the east, and was made by a combined fleet and land army, the latter composed of hittites and philistines, with the same auxiliaries from asia minor, and the fleet of the same confederation of maritime states as in the first invasion, except that the achæans have disappeared as leaders of the greek powers, and their place is taken by the danaoi, confirming the greek tradition of the substitution of the dynasty of danaus for that of inachus, on the throne of argos and mycenæ. the phoenicians alone of the maritime states do not seem to have taken any part in these invasions, and, on the contrary, to have lived on terms of friendly vassalage and close commercial relations with egypt ever since the expulsion of the hyksos, and the great conquests of ahmes and thotmes iii. in syria and asia. it is probably during this period that the early commerce and navigation of jebail and sidon took such a wide extension. the details of these two great invasions, which are fully given in the egyptian monuments, together with a picture of the naval combat, in which the invading fleet was finally defeated by ramses iii., after having forced an entrance into the eastern branch of the nile, are extremely interesting. they show an advanced state of civilization already prevailing among nations whose very names were unknown or legendary. more than years before the siege of troy it appears that asia minor and the greek mainland and islands were already inhabited by nations sufficiently advanced in civilization to fit out fleets which commanded the seas, and to form political confederations, to undertake distant expeditions, and to wage war on equal terms with the predominant powers of asia and of egypt. but though ancient as regards classical history, these beginnings of greek civilization are comparatively modern, and cannot be carried back further than about b.c., while there is no evidence to carry the preceding period of phoenician supremacy and commerce in the eastern mediterranean, with the existence of the great trading cities of its earliest period, byblos and sidon, beyond , or, at the very outside, b.c. hittites. the history of another great empire has been partially brought to light, which was destroyed in b.c. by the progress of assyrian conquest, after having lasted more than years, and long exercised a predominant influence over western asia, viz. that of the hittites. the first mention of them in the old testament appears in the time of abraham, when we find them in southern syria, mixed with tribes of the canaanites and amorites, and grouped principally about hebron. they are represented as on friendly terms with abraham, selling him a piece of land for a sepulchre, and intermarrying with his family--rebecca's soul being vexed by the contumacious behaviour of her daughters-in-law, "the daughters of heth." this, however, was only an outlying branch of the nation, whose capital cities, when they appear clearly in history, were further north at kadesh on the orontes, and carchemish on the upper euphrates, commanding the fords on that river on the great commercial route between babylonia and the mediterranean. they were a turanian race, whose original seat was in cappadocia, and the high plateaux and mountainous region extending from the taurus range to the black sea. they are easily recognized on the egyptian monuments by their yellow colour, peculiar features which are of ugro-turkish type, and their dress, which is that of highlanders inhabiting a snowy district, with close-fitting tunics, mittens, and boots resembling snowshoes with turned-up toes. they have also the mongolian characters of beardless faces, and coarse black hair, which is sometimes trained into a pigtail. [illustration: king of the hittites. (from photograph by flinders petrie, from egyptian temple at luxor.)] the earliest mention of them is found in the tablets which were compiled for the library of sargon i. of accad, in which reference is made to the khatti, which probably means hittites, showing that at this remote period, about b.c., they had already moved down from their northern home into the valley of the euphrates and upper syria. their affinity with the accadians of chaldæa is clearly proved by their language, which the recent discovery of papyri at tell-el-amara, containing despatches from the tributary king of the hittites to amenophus iv., written in cuneiform characters, has proved to be almost identical with accadian. it seems probable that part of the army which fought in defence of troy may have been hittite, and there are many indications that the etruscans, who were generally believed to have come from lydia, were of the same race and spoke the same language. it is in egyptian records, however, that we meet with the first definite historical data respecting this ancient hittite empire. in these they are referred to as "kheta," and probably formed part of the great hyksos invasion; but the first certain mention of them occurs in the reign of thotmes i., about b.c., and they appear as a leading nation in the time of thotmes iii., who defeated a combined army of canaanites and hittites under the hittite king of kadesh, at megiddo, and in fourteen victorious campaigns carried the egyptian arms to the euphrates and tigris. for several subsequent reigns we find the hittites enumerated as one of the nations paying tribute to egypt, whose extensive empire then reckoned mesopotamia, assyria, phoenicia, palestine, cyprus, and the soudan among its tributary states. gradually the power of egypt declined, and in the troubled times which followed the attempt of the heretic king ku-en-aten to supersede the old religion of egypt by the worship of the solar disc, the conquered nations threw off the yoke, and the frontiers of egypt receded to the old limits. as egypt declined, the power of the hittites evidently increased, for when we next meet with them it is contending on equal terms in palestine with the revival of the military power of egypt under ramses i., the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, and his son seti i. the contest continued for more than a century with occasional treaties of peace and various vicissitudes of fortune, and at last culminated in the great battle of kadesh, commemorated by the egyptian epic poem of pentaur, and followed by the celebrated treaty of peace between ramses ii. and kheta-sira, "the great king of the hittites," the hittite text of which was engraved on a silver tablet in the characters of carchemish, and the egyptian copy of it was engraved in hieroglyphics on the walls of the temples of ramses, of which we fortunately possess the entire text. the alliance was on equal terms, defining the frontier, and providing for the mutual extradition of refugees, and it was ratified by the marriage of ramses with the daughter of the hittite king. the peace lasted for some time; but in the reign of ramses iii. of the twentieth dynasty, we find the hittites again heading the great confederacy of the nations of asia minor and of the islands of the mediterranean, who attacked egypt by sea and land. the hittites formed the greater part of the land army, which was defeated with great slaughter after an obstinate battle at pelusium, about b.c. from this time forward the power both of the hittites and of egypt seems to have steadily declined. we hear no more of them as a leading power in palestine and syria, where the kingdoms of judah, israel, and damascus superseded them, until all were swallowed up by the assyrian conquests of the warrior-kings of nineveh, and finally the hittites disappear altogether from history with the capture of their capital carchemish by sargon ii. in b.c. the wide extent, however, of the hittite empire when at its height is proved by the fact that at the battle of kadesh the hittite army was reinforced by vassals or allies from nearly the whole of western asia. the dardanians from the troad, the mysians from their cities of ilion, the colchians from the caucasus, the syrians from the orontes, and the phoenicians from arvad are enumerated as sending contingents; and in the invasion of egypt in the reign of ramses iii., the hittites headed the great confederacy of hittites, teucrians, lycians, philistines, and other asiatic nations who attacked egypt by land, in concert with the great maritime confederacy of greeks, pelasgians, tuscans, sicilians, and sardinians who attacked it by sea. the mere fact of carrying on such campaigns and forming such political alliances is sufficient to show that the hittites must have attained to an advanced state of civilization. but there is abundant proof that this was the case from other sources. they were a commercial people, and their capital, carchemish, was for many centuries the great emporium of the caravan trade between the east and west. the products of the east, probably as far as bactria and india, reached it from babylon and nineveh, and were forwarded by two great commercial routes, one to the south-west to syria and phoenicia, the other to the north-west through the pass of karakol, to sardis and the mediterranean. the commercial importance of carchemish is attested by the fact that its silver mina became the standard of value at babylon, and throughout the whole of western asia. the hittites were also great miners, working the silver mines of the taurus on an extensive scale, and having a plentiful supply of bronze and other metals, as is shown by the large number of chariots attached to their armies from the earliest times. they were also a literary people, and had invented a system of hieroglyphic writing of their own, distinct alike from that of egypt and from the cuneiform characters of the accadians. inscriptions in these peculiar characters, associated with sculptures in a style of art different from that of either egypt or chaldæa, but representing figures identical in dress and features with those of hittites in the egyptian monuments, have been found over a wide extent of asia minor, at hamath and aleppo; boghaz-keni and eyuk in cappadocia; at the pass of karakol near sardis, and at various other places. several of those attributed by the greeks to sesostris or to fabulous passages of their own mythology, have been proved to be hittite, as, for instance, the figure carved on the rocks of mount sipylos, near ephesus, and said to be that of niobe, is proved to be a sitting figure of the great goddess of carchemish. for a long time these inscriptions were an enigma to philologists, but the researches of professor sayce and other scholars have quite recently thrown much light on the subject, and enabled us partially to decipher some of them, and the recent discovery of papyri at tel-el-amara written partly in the hittite language in cuneiform characters, removes all doubt as to its nature and affinities. it may be sufficient to state the result, that the hittite language was turanian or agglutinative, closely allied, and indeed almost identical, with accadian on the one hand, and on the other so similar to the ancient lydian and etruscan, as to leave it doubtful whether these nations were themselves hittites, or only very close cousins descended from a common stock. for instance, the well-known etruscan names of tarquin and lar occur as parts of many names of hittite kings, and in the same, or a slightly modified form, in accadian, and survive to the present day in various turkic and mongolian dialects. this much appears to be clear, that this hittite empire, which vanished so completely from history more than years ago, had for nearly years previously exercised a paramount influence in western asia, and was one of the principal channels through which asiatic mythology and art reached greece in early times, and through the etruscans formed an important element in the civilization of ancient rome. it was itself probably an offshoot from the still older civilization of accadia, though after a time semitic and egyptian influences were introduced, as appears from the fact that sutek, set or seth, was the supreme god of the hittites, as is shown by the text of the treaty of peace between their great king khota-sira and ramses ii. as regards chronology, therefore, hittite history only carries us back about half-way to the earliest dates of egypt and chaldæa, and only confirm these dates incidentally, by showing that other powerful and civilized states already existed in asia at a remote period. arabia. the best chance of finding records which may vie in antiquity with those of egypt and chaldæa, has come to us quite recently from an unexpected quarter. arabia has been from time immemorial one of the least known and least accessible regions of the earth. especially of recent years moslem fanaticism has made it a closed country to christian research, and it is only quite lately that a few scientific travellers, taking their lives in their hands, have succeeded in penetrating into the interior, discovering the sites of ruined cities, and copying numerous inscriptions. dr. glaser especially has three times explored southern arabia, and brought home no less than inscriptions, many of them of the highest historical interest. by the aid of these and other inscriptions we are able to reduce to some sort of certainty the vague traditions that had come down to us of ancient nations and an advanced state of civilization and commerce, existing in arabia in very ancient times. in the words of professor sayce, "the dark past of the arabian peninsula has been suddenly lighted up, and we find that long before the days of mohammed it was a land of culture and literature, a seat of powerful kingdoms and wealthy commerce, which cannot fail to have exercised an influence upon the general history of the world."[ ] [ ] the facts of this section are taken mainly from two articles by professor sayce in the _contemporary review_, entitled "ancient arabia" and "results of oriental archæology." the visit of the queen of sheba to solomon affords one of the first glimpses into this past history. it is evident that she either was, or was supposed to be by the compiler of the book of kings not many centuries later, the queen of a well-known, civilized, and powerful country, which, from the description of her offerings, could hardly be other than arabia felix, the spice country of southern arabia, the sabæa or saba of the ancient world, though her kingdom, or commercial relations, may have extended over the opposite coast of abyssinia and somali-land, and probably far down the east coast of africa. assyrian inscriptions show that saba was a great kingdom in the eighth century b.c., when its frontiers extended so far to the north as to bring it in contact with those of the empire of nineveh under tiglath-pileser and sargon ii. it was then an ancient kingdom, and, as the inscriptions show, had long since undergone the same transformation as egypt and chaldæa, from the rule of priest-kings of independent cities into an unified empire. these priest-kings were called "makârib," or high-priests of saba, showing that the original state must have been a theocracy, and the name saba like assur that of a god. but the inscriptions reveal this unexpected fact, that old as the kingdom of saba may be, it was not the oldest in this district, but rose to power on the decay of a still older nation, whose name of ma'in has come down to us in dim traditions under the classical form of minæans. we are already acquainted with the names of thirty-two minæan kings, and as comparatively few inscriptions have as yet been discovered, many more will doubtless be found. among those known, however, are some which show that the authority of the minæan kings was not confined to their original seat in the south, but extended over all arabia and up to the frontiers of syria and of egypt. three names of these kings have been found at teima, the tema of the old testament, on the road to damascus and sinai; and a votive tablet from southern arabia is inscribed by its authors, "in gratitude to athtar (istar or astarte), for their rescue in the war between the ruler of the south and the ruler of the north, and in the conflict between madhi and egypt, and for their safe return to their own city of quarnu." the authors of this inscription describe themselves as being under the minæan king "abi-yadá yathi," and being "governors of tsar and ashur and the further bank of the river." tsar is often mentioned in the egyptian monuments as a frontier fortress on the arabian side of what is now the suez canal, while another inscription mentions gaza, and shows that the authority of the minæan rulers extended to edom, and came into close contact with palestine and the surrounding tribes. doubtless the protection of trade-routes was a main cause of this extension of fortified posts and wealthy cities, over such a wide extent of territory. from the most ancient times there has always been a stream of traffic between east and west, flowing partly by the red sea and persian gulf, and from the ends of these eastern seas to the mediterranean, and partly by caravan routes across asia. the possession of one of these routes by solomon in alliance with tyre, led to the ephemeral prosperity of the jewish kingdom at a much later period; and the wars waged between egyptians, assyrians, and hittites were doubtless influenced to a considerable extent by the desire to command these great lines of commerce. arabia stood in a position of great advantage as regards this international commerce, being a half-way house between east and west, protected from enemies by impassable deserts, and with inland and sheltered seas in every direction. its southern provinces also had the advantage of being the great, and in some cases the sole, producers of commodities of great value and in constant request. frankincense and other spices were indispensable in temples where bloody sacrifices formed part of the religion. the atmosphere of solomon's temple must have been that of a sickening slaughterhouse, and the fumes of incense could alone enable the priests and worshippers to support it. this would apply to thousands of other temples through asia, and doubtless the palaces of kings and nobles suffered from uncleanliness and insanitary arrangements, and required an antidote to evil smells to make them endurable. the consumption of incense must therefore have been immense in the ancient world, and it is not easy to see where it could have been derived from except from the regions which exhaled. "sabæan odours from the shores of araby the blest." the next interesting result, however, of these arabian discoveries is, that they disclose not only a civilized and commercial kingdom at a remote antiquity, but that they show us a literary people, who had their own alphabet and system of writing at a date comparable to that of egyptian hieroglyphics and chaldæan cuneiforms, and long prior to the oldest known inscription in phoenician characters. the first arabian inscriptions were discovered and copied by seetzen in , and were classed together as himyaritic, from himyar, the country of the classical homerites. it was soon discovered that the language was semitic, and that the alphabet resembled that of the ethiopic or gheez, and was a modification of the phoenician written vertically instead of horizontally. further discoveries and researches have led to the result, which is principally due to dr. glaser, that the so-called himyaritic inscriptions fell into two groups, one of which is distinctly older than the other, containing fuller and more primitive grammatical forms. these are minæan, while the inscriptions in the later dialect are sabæan. it is apparent, therefore, that the minæan rule and literature must have preceded those of sabæa by a time sufficiently long to have allowed for considerable changes both in words and grammar to have grown up, not by foreign conquest, but by evolution among the tribes of the same race within arabia itself. now the sabæan kingdom can be traced back with considerable certainty to the time of solomon, years b.c., and had in all probability existed many centuries before; while we have already a list of thirty-three minæan kings, which number will doubtless be enlarged by further discoveries; and the oldest inscriptions point, as in egypt, to an antecedent state of commerce and civilization. it is evident therefore that arabia must be classed with egypt and chaldæa as one of the countries which point to the existence of highly civilized communities in an extreme antiquity; and that it is by no means impossible that the records of southern arabia may ultimately be carried back as far as those of sargon i., or even of menes. this is the more probable as several ancient traditions point to southern arabia, and possibly to the adjoining coast of north-eastern africa, as the source of the earliest civilizations. thus oannes is said to have come up from the persian gulf and taught the chaldæans the first arts of civilization. the phoenicians traced their origin to the bahrein islands in the same gulf. the egyptians looked with reverence and respect to punt, which is generally believed to have meant arabia felix and somali-land; and they placed the origin of their letters and civilization, not in upper or lower, but in middle egypt, at abydos where thoth and osiris were said to have reigned, where the nile is only separated from the red sea by a narrow land pass which was long one of the principal commercial routes between arabia and egypt. the close connection between egypt and punt in early times is confirmed by the terms of respect in which punt is spoken of in egyptian inscriptions, contrasting with the epithets of "barbarian" and "vile," which are applied to other surrounding nations such as the hittites, libyans, and negroes. and the celebrated equipment of a fleet by the great queen hatasu of the nineteenth dynasty, to make a commercial voyage to punt, and its return with a rich freight, and the king and queen of the country with offerings, on a visit to the pharaoh, reminding one of the visit of the queen of sheba to solomon, shows that the two nations were on friendly terms, and that the red sea and opposite coast of africa had been navigated from a very early period. the physical type also of the chiefs of punt as depicted on the egyptian monuments is very like that of the aristocratic type of the earliest known egyptian portraits. [illustration: chief of punt and two men.] one point seems sufficiently clear; that wherever may have been the original seat of the aryans, that of the semites must be placed in arabia. everywhere else we can trace them as an immigrating or invading people, who found prior populations of different race, but in arabia they seem to have been aboriginal. thus in chaldæa and assyria, the semites are represented in the earliest history and traditions as coming from the south, partly by the persian gulf and partly across the arabian and syrian deserts, and by degrees amalgamating with and superseding the previous accadian population. in egypt the semitic element was a late importation which never permanently affected the old egyptian civilization. in syria and palestine, the phoenicians, canaanites, and hebrews were all immigrants from the persian gulf or arabian frontier, either directly or through the medium of egypt and assyria, who did not even pretend to be the earliest inhabitants, but found other races, as the amorites and hittites, in possession, whose traditions again went back to barbarous aborigines of zammumim, who seemed to them to stammer their unintelligible language. the position of semites in the moslem world in asia and africa is distinctly due to the conquests of the arab mohammed and the spread of his religion. in arabia alone we find semites and semites only, from the very beginning, and the peculiar language and character of the race must have been first developed in the growing civilization which preceded the ancient minæan empire, probably as the later stone age was passing into that of metal, and the primitive state of hunters and fishers into the higher social level of agriculturists and traders. to return from these remote speculations to a subject of more immediate interest, the discovery of these minæan inscriptions shows the existence of an alphabet older than that of the earliest known inscriptions in phoenician letters. the alphabets of greece, rome, and all modern nations are beyond all doubt derived from that of phoenicia, and it has been generally supposed that this was formed from an abridgment of the hieroglyphics or hieratics of egypt. but the minæan inscriptions raise the question whether the phoenician alphabet itself and the kindred alphabets of palestine, syria, and other countries near the arabian frontier were not derived from arabia rather than from egypt. the minæan language and letters are certainly older forms of semitic speech and writing, and it seems more likely that they should have been adopted, with dialectic variations, by other semitic races, with whom arabia had a long coterminous position and constant intercourse by caravans, than that these races should have remained totally ignorant of letters, until phoenicia borrowed them from egypt. moreover, as professor sayce shows, this theory gives a better explanation of the names of the phoenician letters, which in many cases have no resemblance to the symbols which denote them. thus the first letter aleph, "an ox," really resembles the head of that animal in the minæan inscriptions, while no likeness can be traced to any egyptian hieroglyph used for 'a.' should these speculations be confirmed, they will considerably modify our conceptions as to the early history of the old testament. it would seem that canaan, before the israelite invasion, was already a settled and civilized country, with a distinct alphabet and literature of its own, older than those of phoenicia; and it may be hoped that further researches in arabia and palestine may disclose records, buried under the ruins of ancient cities, which may vie in antiquity with those of egypt and chaldæa. but in the meantime we must be content to rely on the records and monuments of these two countries, and especially those of egypt, as giving us the longest standard of genuine historical time, extending backwards about years from the present century. troy and mycenÆ. the existence of civilization and commerce among other ancient nations which have disappeared from history, have received a remarkable confirmation from the excavations of dr. schliemann at troy and mycenæ. the site of troy has been identified with the mound of hissarlik which formed its citadel, and the accuracy of the descriptions in homer's _iliad_ has been wonderfully verified. the ruins of seven successive towns, superimposed one on the other, have been found in excavating the mass of _débris_ down to the bed rock. the lowest of these was a settlement apparently of the later neolithic or earliest bronze ages, while the next, built on the ruins of the first at a level of eleven to twenty feet above it, was a strongly fortified city, which had been destroyed by fire, and which answers almost exactly to the description of homer's troy. the citadel hill had been inclosed by massive walls, and was surmounted by a stately palace and other buildings, the foundations of which still remain. it was protected on one side by the river scamander, and on the other the city extended over the plain at the foot of the citadel, and was itself also surrounded by a strong wall, of which a small fragment remains. the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth settlements consisted of mean huts or dwelling-houses built of quarry stones and clay, and the seventh, or uppermost, was the græco-roman ilion of classical writers. the main interest therefore centres in the second city, which, from the articles found in it and the many repairs and alterations of the walls and buildings, must have been for a long time the seat of a nourishing and powerful people, enriched by commerce, and far advanced in the industrial and fine arts. notwithstanding the destruction and probable plunder of the city, the quantity of gold and silver found was very considerable, chiefly in the vaults or casemates built into the foundations of the walls, which were covered up with _débris_ when the citadel was burnt, and the roofs and upper buildings fell in. in one place alone dr. schliemann found the celebrated treasure containing sixty articles of gold and silver, which had evidently been packed together in a square wooden box, which had disappeared with the intense heat. the nature of these citadels shows a high degree not only of civilization but of wealth and luxury, as proved by the skill and taste of jeweller's work displayed in the female ornaments, which comprise three sumptuous diadems, ear-rings, hairpins, and bracelets. there are also numerous vases and cups of terra-cotta, and a few of gold and silver, and bars of silver which have every appearance of being used for money, being of the same form and weight. the fragments of ordinary pottery are innumerable, the finer and more perfect vases are often of a graceful form, and moulded into shapes of animals or human heads, and decorated with spirals, rosettes, and other ornaments of the type which is more fully illustrated as that of the pre-hellenic civilization of mycenæ. for schliemann has not only restored the historic reality of priam and the city of troy, but also that of agamemnon "king of men," and his capital of mycenæ. the result of his explorations on this site has been to show that a still larger and more wealthy city existed here for a longer period than troy, and which affected a more extensive area, for its peculiar art and civilization were widely diffused over the whole of the eastern coast of greece and the adjoining islands, and specimens of it have been found on the opposite coasts of asia minor, as we have seen at troy, and as far off as cyprus and egypt, where they were doubtless carried by commerce. the existence of an extensive commerce is proved by the profusion of gold which has been found in the vaults and tombs buried under the _débris_ of the ruined city, for gold is not a native product, but must have been obtained from abroad, as also the bronze, copper, and tin required for the manufacture of weapons. the city also evidently owed its importance to its situation on the isthmus of corinth, commanding the trade route between the gulfs of argos and of corinth, and thus connecting the eastern mediterranean and asia with the western sea and europe. the still older city of tiryns, of which mycenæ was probably an offshoot, stood nearly on the shore of the eastern gulf, while mycenæ was in the middle of the isthmus about eight miles from either gulf. tiryns was also explored by schliemann, and showed the same plans of buildings and fortifications as troy and mycenæ, and the same class of relics, only less extensive and more archaic than those of mycenæ, which was evidently the more important city during the golden period of this great mycenæan civilization. those who wish to pursue this interesting subject further will find an admirable account of it in the english translation of schliemann's works and essays, with a full description of each exploration, and numerous illustrations of the buildings and articles found. for my present object i only refer to it as an illustration of the position that egypt and chaldæa do not stand alone in presenting proofs of high antiquity, but that other nations, such as the chinese, the hittites, the minæans of southern arabia, the mycenæans, trojans, lydians, phrygians, cretans, and doubtless many others, also existed as populous, powerful, and civilized states, at a time long antecedent to the dawn of classical history. if these ancient empires and civilization became so completely forgotten, or survived only in dim traditions of myths and poetical legends, the reason seems to be that they kept no written records, or at any rate none in the form of enduring inscriptions. we know ancient egypt from its hieroglyphics, and from manetho's history; chaldæa and assyria from the cuneiform writing on clay tablets; china, up to about b.c., from its written histories; but it is singular that the other ancient civilizations have left few or no inscriptions. this is the more remarkable in the case of the mycenæan cities explored by dr. schliemann, for their date is not so very remote, their jewellery, vases, and signet-rings are profusely decorated, their dead interred in stately tombs with large quantities of gold and silver, and yet not a single instance has been found of anything resembling alphabetical or symbolical writing, or of any form of inscription. atreus, agamemnon, and a long line of kings lie in their stately tombs, with their gold masks and breastplates, and their arms and treasures about them, without a word or sign to distinguish father from son, ancestor from successor. their queens are buried in their robes of cloth of gold, their tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, rings and jewels, equally without a word to say which was clytemnestra and which electra. how different is this from the egyptian royal tombs and palaces, where pompous inscriptions record the genealogies of kings for fifty or more generations, and the first care of every pharaoh is to carve the annals of his exploits on imperishable granite! another strange peculiarity of this mycenæan civilization is the absence of religious subjects. images and pictures of their gods abound on all the monuments of egypt and chaldæa. every frieze and tablet, every seal and scarabæus, is full of representations of osiris and isis, of thoth and ammon; or in chaldæa of bel, merodach, and istar, and their other pantheon of gods, each under its own symbolical form, and innumerable little idols or figurines attested their hold on the population. but at troy, tiryns, and mycenæ there is nothing of the sort. animals and mortal men are freely depicted on the vases, and moulded as ornaments for domestic utensils, but religious subjects are so scarce that it is even doubtful whether a few scanty specimens bear this character or not. there is a pit in the central court of the palace at mycenæ which has been thought to be a sacrificial pit under an altar, but this rather because such an altar is described in homer, than for any positive evidence. there are also a very few figurines of terra-cotta, which have been thought to be idols, because they are too clumsy to be taken for representations of the human figure by such skilled artists, and because they bear some sort of resemblance to the rude phoenician idols of the goddess astarte. but, with this exception, there is nothing at troy or mycenæ to indicate a belief in the homeric or any other mythology. as a question of dates, we know that the supremacy of mycenæ and its civilization came to an end with the invasion of the dorians, which is generally placed about b.c. we know also that it must have had a long existence, but for anything approaching to a date we must refer to the few traces which connect it with egypt. a scarabæus was found at mycenæ with the name of queen ti engraved on it who lived in the thirteenth century b.c. mycenæan vases have been found of the older type with lines and spirals, in egyptian tombs of about b.c., and of the later type with animals in tombs of about b.c., and mr. flinders petrie, by whom they were discovered, says that any error in these dates cannot exceed years. mycenæan pottery has also been found at thera under volcanic ashes which geologists say were thrown up about b.c. we are pretty safe, therefore, in supposing this mycenæan civilization to have flourished between the limits of and b.c. in this case it must have been contemporary with the great events of the new empire in egypt which followed on the expulsion of the hyksos; with the victorious campaigns of ahmes and thotmes which carried the egyptian arms to the euphrates and to the black sea; with the rise of the hittite power which extended far and wide over asia minor, and contended on equal terms in syria with ramses ii.; and with the coalition of naval powers which on two occasions, in the reigns of menepthah and ramses iii., commanded the sea and invaded egypt. the mention of achæans among the allies whose fleet was defeated in the sea-fight on the pelusian mouth of the nile, depicted on the triumphal tablet of ramses iii., becomes an historical reality, and some of the hostile galleys may well have been those of a predecessor of agamemnon. it is doubtful, however, whether these mycenæans or achæans can be properly called greek. both their civilization and art are asiatic rather than hellenic; they have left no clue to their language in any writing or inscription; and the type of the race, as far as we can judge of it from paintings on the vases, was totally unlike that of classical greece. [illustration: queen sending warrior to battle. (from "warrior vase," mycenæ. schliemann.)] in one instance alone the human form is represented on the vases found at mycenæ, viz. on that known as the great "warrior vase." this is a large amphora, with a broad band of figures round it, representing on one side attacking warriors hurling spears, and on the other a queen, or female figure, sending out warriors to repel them. the vase is broken, but there are in all eight figures with their heads nearly perfect, and all of the same type, which is such an extraordinary one, that i annex a copy of the woman and one of the warriors. one asks oneself in amazement, can this swine-snouted caricature of humanity be the divine helen, whose beauty set contending nations in arms, and even as a shade made faust immortal with a kiss; and this other, agamemnon, king of men, or the god-like achilles? and yet certainly they must be faces which the dwellers in mycenæ either copied from nature, or introduced as conventional ideals. they cannot be taken as first childish attempts at drawing the human face, like those of the palæolithic savages of the grottos of the vezere, for they are the work of advanced artists who, in other cases, drew beautiful decorations and life-like animals; and in these figures the attitudes, dress, and armour show that they could draw with spirit and accuracy, and give a faithful representation of details when they chose to do so. [illustration: adam, eve, and the serpent. (from a babylonian cylinder.)] the only approach to a clue i can find for an explanation of these extraordinary mycenæan faces is afforded by the picture of adam and eve, with the serpent and tree of life, on an old babylonian cylinder in the british museum. it will be seen at once that there is a considerable resemblance between the two types of countenance, and it strikes me as possible that, as mycenæan art was so largely derived from babylonian, this may have become a conventional type for the first human ancestors, in which it was thought by the mycenæan copyists that heroes and kings ought to be represented. this, however, is a mere conjecture, and all we can infer with any certainty from troy and mycenæ is, that a considerable civilization and commerce must have prevailed in the eastern mediterranean at a date long prior to the commencement of classical history, though much later than that of the older records of egypt and chaldæa. chapter iv. ancient religions. egypt--book of the dead--its morality--metaphysical character--origins of religions--ghosts--animism--astronomy and astrology--morality--pantheism and polytheism--egyptian ideas of future life and judgment--egyptian genesis--divine emanations--plurality of gods and animal worship--sun worship and solar myths--knowledge of astronomy--orientation of pyramids--theory of future life--the ka--the soul--confession of faith before osiris. chaldæan religion--oldest form accadian--shamanism--growth of philosophical religion--astronomy and astrology--accadian trinities--anu, mull-il, ea--twelve great gods--bel-ishtar--merodach--assur--pantheism--wordsworth--magic and omens--penitential psalms--conclusions from. the religious ideas of a nation afford a pretty good test of the antiquity of its civilization. thus, if years hence all traces of england being lost except a copy of the athanasian creed, it would be a legitimate inference that the race who retained such a creed as part of their ritual, had long passed the primitive period of fetichism or animism, had schools of priests and philosophers, and that their religion had developed into a stage of subtle and profound metaphysical speculations. if this would be true in the hypothetical case of england, it is equally true in the actual case of egypt. in its sacred book, the todtenbuch, or book of the dead, which we meet with at the earliest periods of egyptian history, we find conceptions of the great first cause of the universe, which are in many respects identical with those of athanasius. in fact, with some slight alterations of expression, his creed might be a chapter of the todtenbuch, and it is clear that in his controversy with arius he got his inspiration from his native alexandria, and from the old egyptian religion stripped of its polytheistic and idolatrous elements, and adapted to the modern ideas of the neo-platonic philosophy and of christianity. the egyptian religion, as disclosed to us in the earliest records, is one which of itself proves its great antiquity. there is an extensive literature of a religious character; the book of the dead, which contains many of the principal prayers and hymns, and descriptions of the last judgment, is already a sacred book. portions of it are certainly older than the time of menes, and it had already acquired such an authority in the times of pepi, teta, and unas, of the sixth dynasty, about b.c., that the inner walls of their pyramids are covered with hieroglyphics of chapters taken from it. from this time forward, almost every tomb and mummy-case contains quotations from it, just as passages of the bible are quoted on our own gravestones. the book of isis, and hymns to various gods, are of the same nature and early date; and in addition to these, there are ethical treatises, ascribed to kings of the oldest dynasties, as well as works on medicine, geometry, mensuration, and arithmetic. education was very general, as is proved by the fact that the workmen at the mines of wady magarah could scrawl hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of their tunnels, and on their blocks of dressed stone. birch, in his _ancient history of egypt from_ _the monuments_, which i prefer to quote from as, being published by the society for promoting christian knowledge, it cannot be suspected of any bias to discredit orthodoxy, says that, "in their moral law the egyptians followed the same precepts as the decalogue (ascribed to moses years later), and enumerated treason, murder, adultery, theft, and the practice of magic as crimes of the deepest dye." the position of women is one of the surest tests of an advanced civilization; for in rude times, and among savage races, force reigns supreme, and the weaker sex is always the slave or drudge of the stronger one. it is only when intellectual and moral considerations are firmly established that the claims of women to an equality begin to be recognized. now in the earliest records of domestic and political life in egypt, we find this equality more fully recognized than it is perhaps among ourselves in the nineteenth century. quoting again from birch, "the egyptian woman appears always as the equal and companion of her father, brethren, and husband. she was never secluded in a harem, sat at meals with them, had equal rights before the law, served in the priesthood, and even mounted the throne." in fact the state of civilization in egypt years ago appears to have been higher in all essential respects than it has ever been since, or is now, in any asiatic and in many european countries. and it has every appearance of being indigenous, and having grown up on the soil. there are no traces in the oldest traditions of any foreign importation, such as we find in the early traditions of other countries. there is no fish-man who comes up out of the persian gulf and teaches the chaldæans the first elements of civilization; no cadmus who teaches the greeks their first letters; no manco-capac who lands on the shore of peru. on the contrary, all the egyptian traditions are of egyptian gods, like osiris and thoth, who reigned in the valley of the nile, and invented hieroglyphics and other arts. these are lost in a fabulous antiquity, and the only trace of a link to connect the historical egyptians with the neolithic races whose remains are found in abundance in the form of flint knives and arrows, and are brought up by borings through thick deposits of nile mud, or the still older palæolithic savages, whose rude implements were found by general pitt-rivers and other explorers in quaternary gravels near thebes of geological antiquity, is furnished by the use of a stone knife to make the first incision on the corpse in turning it into a mummy, and by the animal worship, which may have been a relic of primitive fetichism and totemism. the highly metaphysical nature of the egyptian creed is another conclusive proof of the antiquity of the religion. among existing races we find similar religions corresponding to similar stages of civilization. with the very rudest races, religion consists mainly of ghost worship and animism. herbert spencer has shown how dreams lead to the belief that man consists of two elements, a body and a spirit, or shadowy self, which wanders forth in sleep, meets with strange adventures, and returns when the body awakes. in the longer sleep of death, this shadowy self becomes a ghost which haunts its old abodes and former associates, mostly with an evil intent, and which has to be deceived or propitiated, to prevent it from doing mischief. hence the sacrifices and offerings, and the many devices for cheating the ghost by carrying the dead body by devious paths to some safe locality. hence also the superstitious dread of evil spirits, and the interment with the corpse of food and implements to induce the ghost to remain tranquilly in the grave, or to set out comfortably on its journey to another world. animism is another tap-root of savage superstition. as the child sees life in the doll, so the savage sees life in every object, animate or inanimate, which comes in contact with him, and affects his existence. animals, and even stocks and stones, are supposed to have souls, and who knows that these may not be the souls of departed ancestors, and have some mysterious power of helping or of hurting him? in any case the safer plan is to propitiate them by worship and sacrifice. from these rude beginnings we see nations as they advance in civilization rising to higher conceptions, developing their ghosts into gods, and confining their operations to the greater phenomena of nature, such as the sky, the earth, the sea, the sun, the stars, storms, seasons, thunder, and the like. and by degrees the unity of nature begins to be felt by the higher minds; priestly castes are established who have leisure for meditation; ideas are transmitted from generation to generation; and the vague and primitive nature worship passes into the phase of philosophical and scientific religion. the popular rites and superstitions linger on with the mass of the population, but an inner circle of hereditary priests refines and elevates them, and begins to ask for a solution of the great problems of the universe; what it means, and how it was created; the mystery of good and evil; man's origin, future life and destiny; and all the questions which, down to the present day, are asked though never answered by the higher minds of the higher races of civilized man. in this stage of religious development metaphysical speculations occupy a foremost place. priests of heliopolis, magi of eridhu and of ur, reasoned like christian fathers and milton's devils of "fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute," and like them "found no end, in wandering mazes lost." theories of theism and pantheism, of creations and incarnations, of trinities and atonements, of polarities between good and evil, free-will and necessity, were argued and answered, now in one direction and now in another. science contributed its share, sometimes in the form of crude cosmogonies and first attempts at ethnology, but principally through the medium of astronomy. an important function of the priests was to form a calendar, predict the seasons, and regulate the holding of religious rites at the proper times. hence the course of the heavens was carefully watched, the stars were mapped out into constellations, through which the progress of the sun and planets was recorded; and myths sprang into existence based on the sun's daily rising and setting, and its annual journey through the seasons and the signs of the zodiac. mixed up with astronomy was astrology, which, watching the sun, moon, and five planets, inferred life from motion, and recognized gods exerting a divine influence on human events. the sacred character of the priests was confirmed by the popular conviction that they were at the same time prophets and magicians, and that they alone were able to interpret the will of personified powers of nature, and influence them for good or evil. the element of morality is one of the latest to appear. it is only after a long progress in civilization that ideas of personal sin and righteousness, of an overruling justice and goodness, of future rewards and punishments, are developed from the cruder conceptions and superstitious observances of earlier times. it was a long road from the jealous and savage local god of the hebrew tribes, who smelt the sweet savour of burnt sacrifices and was pleased, and who commanded the extermination of enemies, and the slaughter of women and children, to the supreme jehovah, who loved justice and mercy better than the blood of bulls and rams. it is one great merit of the bible, intelligently read, that it records so clearly the growth and evolution of moral ideas, from a plane almost identical with that of the red indians, to the supreme height of the sermon on the mount and st. paul's definition of charity. there is one phenomenon which appears very commonly in these ancient religions, that of degeneration. after having risen to a certain height of pure and lofty conception they cease to advance, branch out into fanciful fables accompanied by cruel and immoral rites, and finally decay and perish. this is an inevitable consequence of the law of birth, growth, maturity, decay and death, which underlies all existence. "the old order changes, giving place to new." environment changes, and religions, laws, and social institutions change with it. empires rise and fall, old civilizations disappear, old creeds become incredible, and often, for a time, the course of humanity seems to be retrograde. but as the flowing tide rises, though the successive waves on the shore advance and recede, evolution, or the law of progress, in the long run prevails, and amidst the many oscillations of temporary conditions, carries the human race ever upwards towards higher things. in the case of ancient religions it is easy to see how this process of degeneration is carried out. priests who were the pioneers of progress, and leaders of advanced thought, became first conservatives, and then obscurantists. pantheistic conceptions, and personifications of divine attributes, lead to polytheism. as religions become popular, and pass from the learned few to the ignorant many, they become vulgarized, and the real meaning of myths and symbols is either lost or confined to a select inner circle. but for my present purpose, which is mainly chronological, these vicissitudes in religious beliefs are not important. if, at the earliest date to which authentic history extends, we find a national religion which has already passed from the primitive into the metaphysical stage, and which embodies abstract ideas, astronomical observations, and a high and pure code of morals, it is a legitimate inference that it is the outcome of a long antecedent era of civilization. this is eminently the case with regard to the ancient religions of egypt and chaldæa. the ancient egyptians were the most religious people ever known. their thoughts were so fixed on a future life that, as herodotus says, they looked upon their houses as mere temporary inns, and their tombs as their true permanent homes. the idea of an immediate day of judgment for each individual soul after death was so fixed in their minds that it exercised a constant practical influence on their life and conduct. piety to the gods, loyalty to the throne, obedience to superiors, justice and mercy to inferiors, and observance of all the principal moral laws, and especially that of truthfulness, were enforced by the conviction that no sooner had the breath departed from the body, and it had been deposited as a mummy, with its ka or second shadowy self, in the tomb, than the soul would have to appear before the supreme judge osiris, and the forty-two heavenly jurors, where it would have to confess the naked truth, and be tried and rewarded or punished according to its merits. it is very interesting, therefore, to learn what the religion was which had taken such a firm hold of the minds of an entire nation, and which maintained that hold for the best part of years. [illustration: judgment of the soul by osiris.--weighing good and bad deeds. (from champollion's _egypt_.)] our authority for the nature of this religion is derived mainly from the todtenbuch or book of the dead, which was the egyptian bible. this sacred book was of immense antiquity, and much of it was certainly in existence before the time of menes. we know it from the multiplied copies which were frequently deposited in tombs, and from the innumerable extracts and quotations which appear on almost every mummy-case and sarcophagus, as well as from the many manuscripts of works on religious subjects which have been preserved in papyri. the fundamental idea was that of a primitive ocean, or, if you like to call it chaos, of nebulous matter without form and void, and of a one infinite and eternal god who evolved himself and the universe from his own essence. he is called in the todtenbuch "the one only being, the sole creator, unchangeable in his infinite perfection, present in all time, past and future, everywhere and yet nowhere." but although one in essence, god is not one in person. he exists as father, but reproduces himself under another aspect as mother, and under a third as son. this trinity is three and yet one, and has all the attributes of the one--infinity, eternity, and omnipotence. thus far the athanasian creed might be a chapter of the todtenbuch, and it is very evident where the alexandrian saint got those subtle metaphysical ideas, which are so opposed to the rigid monotheistic creeds of judaism and mahometanism. but the egyptian religion was more logical, and carried these ideas much further than an original trinity. it is evident that if we admit the two fundamental ideas, st, that god is the only real existence, author of and identical with the universe; nd, that this incomprehensible essence or first cause can be made more comprehensible by personifying his various qualities and manifestations, there is no reason why we should stop at three. if we admit a trinity of father, mother, and son, why not admit a daughter and other descendants; or if you personify the power to make a universe, the knowledge how to make it, and the will to do it, as father, son, and holy ghost, why not the benevolence to do it well, the malevolence to do it badly, and a hundred other attributes which metaphysical ingenuity can devise to account for the complication of the known, and the mysteries of the unknown facts of existence? the egyptian priests accepted this view, and admitted a whole pantheon of secondary gods who were either personifications of different attributes of the supreme god, or separate portions of the one divine essence. thus ammon was god considered in his attribute of the first generative power; pthah the supreme artist who fashioned all things wisely; osiris the good and benevolent aspect of the deity; set or typhon his opposite or the author of evil, and so on. and once personified, these attributes soon came to be considered as separate beings; to have a female principle or wives added to them, and to be worshipped as the patron gods of separate temples and provinces. finally, the pantheistic idea became so prevalent, and that of separate personifications of the deity was carried so far, that portions of the divine essence were supposed to be incarnated in the sun and heavenly bodies, in the pharaoh and his family, and even in bulls, cats, and other sacred animals. in the latter case it may be a question whether we do not see a survival of the old superstitious fetiches and totems of semi-savage times, adopted by the priests into their theology, as so many pagan superstitions were by the early christian missionaries. at any rate such was the result, a mixture of the most childish and absurd forms of popular superstition, with a highly philosophical and moral creed, held by the educated classes and stamped upon the mass of the nation by the firmly established belief in a future life and day of judgment. among the more philosophical articles of this creed, astronomy assumed a prominent place from a very early date. the sun, it is true, was described in the original cosmogony as having been called into existence by the word of the supreme god, but it came to be taken as his visible representative, and finally worshipped as a god itself. its different phases were studied and received different names, as horus when on the horizon rising or setting, ra in its midday splendour, osiris during its journey in the night through the underground world of darkness. of these ra naturally had the pre-eminence; the title of pharaoh, or pi-ra, was that given to kings, who were assumed to be semi-divine beings descended from the sun. the osiris myth which was the basis of the national belief in a future life and day of judgment was clearly solar. egyptian astronomy, like that of the chaldees and all early nations, assumed that the sky was a crystal dome or firmament which separated the waters of the upper world from the earth and waters below, and corresponded with a similar nether world of darkness below the earth. the sun was born or rose into the upper world every morning, waxed in strength and glory as his bark navigated the upper waters until noon, then declined and finally sank into the nether world or died, slain by an envious typhon, but to be born again next morning after traversing the perils and encountering the demons of the realm of darkness. the same idea was repeated by the annual course of the sun through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and it translated itself as applied to man into the ideas of birth, growth, manhood, decline, and death, to be followed by a sojourn in hades, a day of judgment, and a resurrection. the egyptian religion, however, seems never to have been so largely astronomical as that of chaldæa, and to have concentrated itself mainly on the sun. the planets and signs of the zodiac did not, as with the chaldees, afford a principal element of their sacred books and mythologies. the egyptian priests had doubtless long studied astronomy; they had watched the stars, traced the annual course of the sun, divided the year into months and the circle into °, and constructed calendars for bringing the civil into correspondence with the sidereal year. they not only had intercalated the five supplemental days, bringing the duration of the year from to , but they had invented a sothic cycle for the odd quarter of a day, by which at the end of every years a year was added, and the sun brought back to rise on the first day of the first month of thoth in the same place in the heavens, determined by the heliacal risings of the brightest of the stars, sothis or sirius. but they applied this knowledge, which must have been gathered from long observations, mainly to practical purposes, such as the reform of the calendar and the orientation of the pyramids, temples, and tombs, rather than to mythology. the idea of a future life, which took such a firm hold of all classes of ancient egypt, is that to which we are indebted for the preservation of these wonderful records of the remote past. the theory was that man consisted of three parts; the body or ordinary living man; the ka or double, which was a sort of shadowy self which came out of the body and returned to it as in dreams; and the soul, a still more subtle essence, which at death went to the gods, was judged, and either rewarded for its merits by living with them in heaven, or punished for its sins by being sent to the nether world of torment. but this soul still retained such a connection with its former body as to come down from time to time to visit it; while the ka or double retained the old connection so closely as to live habitually in it, only coming out to eat, drink, and repeat the acts of its former life, but incapable of existing without a physical basis in the old body or some likeness of it. the same doctrine of the double was applied to all animated and even to inanimate objects, so that the shadowy man could come out of his mummy, live in his own shadowy house, feed on shadowy food, be surrounded by shadowy geese, oxen, and other objects of his former possessions. hence arose the extraordinary care in providing a fitting tomb and preserving the mummy, or, failing the mummy, which in course of time might decay, providing a portrait-statue or painted likeness, which might give a _point d'appui_ for the ka, and a receptacle for the occasional visits of the soul. while these were preserved, conscious personal life was continued beyond the grave, and the good man who went to heaven was immortal. but if these were destroyed and the physical basis perished, the ka and soul were left without a home, and either perished also, or were left to flit like gibbering ghosts through the world of shadows without a local habitation or a name. the origin of this theory as regards the ka is easily explained. it is, as herbert spencer has conclusively shown, a natural inference from dreams, and is found everywhere, from interments of the stone period down to the crude beliefs of existing savages. it even survives among many civilized races in the belief in ghosts, and the precautions taken to prevent the ka's of dead men from returning to haunt their former homes and annoy their posterity. the origin of the third element or soul is not so clear. it may either be a relic of the animism, which among savage races attributes life to every object in nature, or a philosophical deduction of more advanced periods, which sees an universal spirit underlying all creation, and recognizing in man a spark of this spirit which is indestructible, and either migrates into fresh forms, or into fresh spheres of celestial or infernal regions, and is finally absorbed in the great ocean from which it sprang. it is singular that we find almost the precise form of this egyptian belief among many existing savage or semi-civilized men separated by wide distances in different quarters of the world. the negroes of the gold coast believe in the same three entities, and they call the soul which exists independently of the man, before his birth and after his death, the kra, a name which is almost identical with the egyptian ka. the navajos and other tribes of red indians have precisely the same belief. it seems probable that as we find it in the earliest egyptian records, it was a development, evolved through ages of growing civilization by a succession of learned priests, from the primitive fetichism and fear of ghosts of rude ancestors; and in the animal worship and other superstitions of later times we find traces of these primitive beliefs still surviving among the mass of the population. be this as it may, this theory of a future life was firmly rooted at the dawn of egyptian history, and we are indebted to it, and to the dryness of the climate, for the marvellous preservation of records which give us such an intimate acquaintance with the history, the religion, the literature, and the details of a domestic and social life which is distant from our own by an interval of more than years. no other nation ever attained to such a vivid and practical belief in a future existence as these ancient egyptians. taking merely the material test of money, what an enormous capital must have been expended in pyramids, tombs, and mummies; what a large proportion of his income must every egyptian of the upper classes have spent in the preparations for a future life; how shadowy and dim does the idea of immortality appear in comparison among the foremost races of the present day! the elevated moral code of the todtenbuch is another proof of the great antiquity of egyptian civilization. morality is a plant of slow growth which has hardly an existence among rude and primitive tribes, and is only slowly evolved either by contact with superior races or by long ages of settled social order. how many centuries did it take before the crude and ferocious ideas of the hebrew tribes wandering in the desert or warring with the canaanites, were transformed into the lofty and humane conceptions of the later prophets, of hillel and of jesus! and yet we find all the best maxims of this later morality already existing years before the sermon on the mount, in the sacred book of ancient egypt. the prayer of the soul pleading in the day of judgment before osiris and the celestial jury, which embodies the idea of moral perfection entertained by the contemporaries of menes, contains the following articles-- "i have told no lies; committed no frauds; been good to widows; not overtasked servants; not lazy or negligent; done nothing hateful to the gods; been kind to slaves; promoted no strife; caused no one to weep; committed no murder; stolen no offerings to the dead; made no fraudulent gains; seized no lands wrongfully; not tampered with weights and measures; not taken the milk from sucklings; not molested sacred beasts or birds; not cut off or monopolized watercourses; have sown joy and not sorrow; have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothed the naked: "i am pure, i am pure." it is evident that such an ideal of life, not imported from foreign sources, but the growth of an internal civilization, must be removed by an enormous time from the cannibal feasts and human sacrifices of the first glimpses of ideas of a future life in the stone ages. it is to be observed also that the religion of ancient egypt seems to be of native growth. no trace is to be found, either in record or tradition, of any importation from a foreign source, such as may be seen in the chaldæan legend of oannes and other religions of antiquity. on the contrary, all the egyptian myths and traditions ascribe the invention of religion, arts, and literature, to thoth, osiris, horus, and other native egyptian gods. the invention of the art of writing by hieroglyphics affords strong confirmation of this view. it is evidently a development on egyptian soil, in prehistoric times, of the picture-writing of a primitive period. the symbols are taken from egypt and not from foreign objects, and are essentially different from those of the chaldæan cuneiform, which is the only other form of writing which might possibly compare in point of antiquity with the egyptian hieroglyphics and hieratic. these were certainly known prior to the time of menes, and they are the parents of the phoenician, hebrew, greek, and all more modern alphabets. in all other ancient systems of writing, such as chaldæan and chinese, we see the development from the original picture-writing into conventional signs, syllabaries, and finally into ideographs and phonetics; but in the case of egyptian, when we first get sight of it in the earliest dynasties, it is already fully formed, and undergoes no essential changes during the next years. even the hieratic, or cursive hieroglyphic for ordinary purposes, was current in the old empire, as is proved by the celebrated prisse papyrus. the chaldæan religion is not so easily described as that of egypt, for it started from a lower level, and went through more changes in the course of its evolution. in the case of egypt, the earliest records show us a highly intellectual and moral religion, with only a few traces remaining of primitive barbarism in the form of animal worship, and this religion remained substantially unchanged until the conversion of the country to christianity. the influences of semitic and other foreign conquests and intercourse left few traces, and the only serious attempt at a radical religious revolution by the heretic king who endeavoured to dethrone the old egyptian gods, and substitute a system more nearly monotheistic under the emblem of the winged solar-disc, produced no permanent effect, and disappeared in one or two generations. but in chaldæa, semitic influences prevailed from a very early period, and when we reach the historical periods of the great babylonian and assyrian empires, the kings, priests, and nobles were semite, and the accadian had become a dead language, which could only be read as we read latin or hebrew, by the aid of translations and of grammars and dictionaries. still its records remained, as the hebrew bible does to us, and the sacred books of the old religion and its fundamental ideas were only developed and not changed. in the background of this accadian religion we seem to see a much nearer approach than we do in that of egypt to the primitive superstitions peculiar to the turanian race. to this day the religion of the semi-barbarous races of that stock is essentially what is called "shamanism"; a fear of ghosts and goblins, a belief that the universe swarms with myriads of spirits, mostly evil, and that the only escape from them is by the aid of conjuror-priests, who know magical rites and formulas which can baffle their malevolent designs. these incantations, and the interpretation of omens and auguries, occupy a great part of the oldest sacred books, and more than tablets have been already recovered from the great work on astronomy and astrology, compiled from them by the priests of agade, for the royal library of sargon i. they are for the most part of the most absurd and puerile character; as, for instance, "if a sheep give birth to a lion there will be war "; "if a mare give birth to a dog there will be disaster and famine"; "if a white dog enter a temple its foundation will subsist; if a gray dog, the temple will lose its possessions," and so on. this character of magicians and soothsayers clung to the chaldæan priests even down to a later period, and under the roman empire chaldæan rites were identified with sorcery and divination. but out of this jungle of silly superstitions the elements of an enlightened and philosophical religion had evolved themselves in early accadian times, and were continually developed as semitic influences gradually fused themselves with accadian, and formed the composite races and religions which came to be known in later times as babylonian and assyrian. the fundamental principle of this religion was the same as that of egypt, and of most of the great religions of the east, viz. pantheism. the great underlying first cause, or spirit of the universe, was considered as identical with his manifestations. the subtle metaphysical conceptions which still survive in the creed of st. athanasius, were invoked to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, by emanations, incarnations, and personified attributes. these again were attached to the striking phenomena of the universe, the sun, moon, and planets, the earth and sky, the winds, rains, and thunder. and ever as more phenomena were observed more gods were invented, who were thought to be symbols, or partial personifications, of the one great spirit, and not more inconsistent with his unity than the "and yet there are not three gods, but one god" of athanasius. but the chaldæan, like the egyptian priests, did not stop at one trinity, but invented a whole hierarchy of trinities, rising one above the other to form the twelve great gods, while below them were an indefinite number of minor gods and goddesses personifying different aspects of natural phenomena, and taken for the most part from astronomical myths of the sun, moon, planets, and seasons. for the religion of the chaldees was, even more than that of the egyptians, based on astronomy and astrology, as may be seen in their national epic of izdubar, which is simply a solar myth of the passage of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac, the last chapter but one being a representation of the passage through the sign of aquarius, in the fable of a universal deluge. the first accadian triad was composed of anu, mull-il, and ea. anu, or ana, is the word for heaven, and the god is described as the "lord of the starry heavens," and "the first-born, the oldest, the father of the gods." it is the same idea in fact as that expressed by the sanscrit varuna, the greek ouranus. mull-il, the next member of this triad, is the god of the abyss and nether world, while ea is the god of the earth, seas, and rivers, "the lord of the deep," and personifies the wise and beneficent side of the divine intelligence, the maintainer of order and harmony, the friend of man. very early with the introduction of semitic influences mull-il dropped out of his place in the trinity, and was superseded by bel, who was conceived as being the son of ea, the personification of the active and combative energy which carries out the wise designs of ea by reducing the chaos to order, creating the sun and heavenly bodies, and directing them in their courses, subduing evil spirits and slaying monsters. his name simply signifies "the lord," and is applied to other inferior deities as a title of honour, as bel-marduk, the lord marduk or merodach, the patron god of babylon. in this capacity bel is clearly associated with the midday sun, as the emblem of a terrible yet beneficent power, the enemy of evil spirits and dragons of darkness. the next triad is more distinctly astronomical. it consists of uruk the moon, ud the sun, and mermer the god of the air, of rain and tempest. these are the old accadian names, but they are better known by the semitic translations of sin, shamash, and raman. the next group of gods is purely astronomical, consisting of the five planets, mars, mercury, jupiter, venus, and saturn, personified as nergal, nebo, marduk, ishtar, and nindar. the number of gods was further increased by introducing the primary polarity of sex, and assigning a wife to each male deity. thus belit, or "the lady," was the wife of bel, he representing the masculine element of nature, strength and courage; she the feminine principle of tenderness and maternity. so also nana the earth was the wife of anu, the god of the strong heavens; annunit the moon the wife of shamash the sun; and ishtar (astarte, astoreth, or aphrodite), the planet venus, the goddess of love and beauty, though a great goddess in her own right, was fabled to have had tammuz or thammuz, one of the names of the sun, as a husband, whence in later times came the myth of nature mourning for the sun-god, slain by the envious boar, winter. but of these only belit and istar were admitted into the circle of the twelve great gods, consisting of the two triads and the planets, who held the foremost place in the chaldæan and assyrian mythology. of the minor gods, meri-dug or marduk, the merodach of the bible, is the most remarkable, for he represents the idea which, some years later, became the fundamental one of the christian religion; that of a son of god, "being of one substance with the father," who acts the part of mediator and friend of man. he is the son of ea and damkina, _i.e._ of heaven and earth, and an emanation from the supreme spirit considered in its attribute of benevolence. the tablets are full of inscriptions on which he is represented as applying to his father ea for aid and advice to assist suffering humanity, most commonly by teaching the spells which will drive away the demons who are supposed to be the cause of all misfortunes and illness. it is not surprising, therefore, to find that he and istar, the lovely goddess, were the favourite deities, and occupied much the same position as jesus and the virgin mary do in the catholic religion of the present day, while the other deities were local gods attached to separate cities where their temples stood, and where they occupied a position not unlike that of the patron saints and holy relics of which almost every considerable town and cathedral boasted in mediæval christianity. thus they rose and fell in rank with the ascendancy or decline of their respective cities, just as pthah and ammon did in egypt according as the seat of empire was at memphis or thebes. in one instance only in later times, in assyria, which had become exclusively semitic, do we find the idea of one supreme god, who was national and not local, and who overshadowed all other gods, as jahve in the later days of the jewish monarchy, and in the conception of the hebrew prophets, did the gods of the surrounding nations. assur, the local god of the city of assur, the first capital of assyria, became, with the growth of the assyrian empire, the one supreme god, in whose name wars were undertaken, cities destroyed, and captives massacred or mutilated. in fact the resemblance is very close between assur and the ferocious and vindictive jahve of the israelites during the rude times of the judges. they are both jealous gods, delighting in the massacre and torture of prisoners, women and children, and enjoining the extermination of nations who insult their dignity by worshipping other gods. we almost seem to see, when we read the records of tiglath-pileser and sennacherib and the books of judges and of samuel, the origin of religious wars, and the spirit of cold-blooded cruelty inspired by a gloomy fanaticism, which is so characteristic of the semitic nature, and which in later times led to the propagation of mahometanism by the sword. with the hebrews this conception of a cruel and vindictive jahve was beaten out of them by persecutions and sufferings, and that of a one merciful god evolved from it, but assyria went through no such schooling and retained its arrogant prosperity down to the era of its disappearance from history with the fall of nineveh; but it is easy to see that the course of events might have been different, and monotheism might have been evolved from the conception of assur. these, however, are speculations relating to a much later period than the primitive religion with which we are principally concerned. it is remarkable how many of our modern religious conceptions find an almost exact counterpart in those of this immensely remote period. incarnations, emanations, atonements, personifications of divine attributes, are all there, and also the subtle metaphysical theories by which the human intellect, striving to penetrate the mysteries of the unknowable, endeavours to account for the existence of good and evil, and to reconcile multiplicity of manifestation with unity of essence. if wordsworth sings of a "sense sublime of something far more deeply interposed, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean and the living air, and the blue sky, and in the mind of man; a motion and a spirit that impels all thinking things, all objects of all thought, and rolls through all things," he conveys the fundamental idea which was at the bottom of these earliest religions, and which has been perpetuated in the east through their successors, brahmanism and buddhism--the idea of pantheism, or of an universe which is one with its first cause, and not a mechanical work called into existence from without by a personal creator. an ancient priest of egypt or chaldæa might have written these verses of the philosophic poet of the nineteenth century, only he would have written horus or bel for the "setting sun"; ea for the "round ocean"; anur for the "sky," and so on. side by side with these intellectual and philosophical conceptions of these ancient religions, we find the element of personal piety occupying a place which contrasts wonderfully with the childish and superstitious idea of evil spirits, magical spells, and omens. we read in the same collections of tablets, of mares bringing forth dogs and women lions; and psalms, which in their elevation of moral tone and intensity of personal devotion might readily be mistaken for the hebrew psalms attributed to david. there is a large collection of what are known as "the penitential psalms," in which the chaldæan penitent confesses his sins, pleads ignorance, and sues for mercy, almost in the identical words of the sweet singer of israel. in one of these, headed "the complaints of the repentant heart," we find such verses as these-- "i eat the food of wrath, and drink the waters of anguish." * * * * * "oh, my god, my transgressions are very great, very great my sins. "the lord in his wrath has overwhelmed me with confusion." * * * * * "i lie on the ground, and none reaches a hand to me. i am silent and in tears, and none takes me by the hand. i cry out, and there is none who hears me." * * * * * "my god, who knowest the unknown,[ ] be merciful to me. my goddess, who knowest the unknown, be merciful." [ ] or, as some translators read, "who knowest that i knew not," _i.e._ that i sinned in ignorance. * * * * * "god, who knowest the unknown, in the midst of the stormy waters take me by the hand; my sins are seven times seven, forgive my sins!" another hymn is remarkable for its artistic construction. it is in regular strophes, the penitent speaking in each five double lines, to which the priest adds two, supporting his prayer. the whole is in precisely the same style as the similar penitential psalms of the hebrew bible, as will appear from the following quotation of one of the strophes from the translation of zimmern. _penitent._ "i, thy servant, full of sighs call to thee. whoso is beset with sin, his ardent supplication thou acceptest. if thou lookest on a man with pity, that man liveth. ruler of all, mistress of mankind, merciful one to whom it is good to turn, who dost receive sighs." _priest._ "while his god and his goddess are wroth with him he calls on thee. thy countenance turn on him, take hold of his hand." these hymns are remarkable, both as showing that the sentiments of personal piety and contrition for sin as a thing hateful to the supreme being, might be as intense in a polytheistic as in a monotheistic religion; and as illustrating the immense interval of time which must have elapsed before such sentiments could have grown up from the rude beginnings of savage or semi-civilized superstitions. the two oldest religions of the world, those of egypt and chaldæa, tell the same story; that of the immense interval which must have elapsed prior to the historical date of b.c. when written records begin, to allow of such ideas and such a civilization having grown up from such a state of things as we find prevailing during the neolithic period, and still prevailing among the inferior races of the world, who have remained isolated and unchanged in the hunting or nomad condition. i have dwelt at some length on the ancient religions, for nothing tends more to open the mind, and break down the narrow barriers of sectarian prejudice, than to see how the ideas which we have believed to be the peculiar possession of our own religion, are in fact the inevitable products of the evolution of the human race from barbarism to civilization, and have appeared in substantially the same forms in so many ages and countries. and surely, in these days, when faith in direct inspiration has been so rudely shaken, it must be consoling to many enlightened christians to find that the fundamental articles of their creed, trinities, emanations, incarnations, atonements, a future life and day of judgment, are not the isolated conceptions of a minority of the human race in recent times, but have been held from a remote antiquity by all the nations which have taken a leading part in civilization. to all enlightened minds also, whatever may be their theological creeds, it must be a cheering reflection that the fundamental axioms of morality do not depend on the evidence that the decalogue was written on a stone by god's own finger, or that the sermon on the mount is correctly reported, but on the evolution of the natural instincts of the human mind. all advanced and civilized communities have had their decalogues and sermons on the mount, and it is impossible for any dispassionate observer to read them without feeling that in substance they are all identical, whether contained in the egyptian todtenbuch, the babylonian hymns, the zoroastrian zendavesta, the sacred books of brahmanism and buddhism, the maxims of confucius, the doctrines of plato and the stoics, or the christian bible. none are absolutely perfect and complete, and of some it may be said that they contain precepts of the highest practical importance which are either omitted or contradicted in the christian formulas. for instance, the virtue of diligence, and the injunction not to be idle, in the egyptian and zoroastrian creeds contrast favourably with the "take no thought for the morrow," and "trust to be fed like the sparrows," of the sermon on the mount. but in this, and in all these summaries of moral axioms, apparent differences arise not from fundamental oppositions, but from truth having two sides, and passing over readily into "the falsehood of extremes." even the injunction to "take no thought for the morrow," is only an extreme way of stating that the active side of human life, strenuous effort, self-denial, and foresight, must not be pushed so far as to stifle all higher aspirations. probably if the same concrete case of conduct had been submitted to an egyptian, a babylonian or zoroastrian priest, and to the late bishop of peterborough, their verdicts would not have been different. such a wide extension does the maxim take, "one touch of nature makes the world akin," when we educate ourselves up to the culture which gives some general idea of how civilized man has everywhere felt and believed since the dawn of history very much as we ourselves do at the close of the nineteenth century. chapter v. ancient science and art. evidence of antiquity--pyramids and temples--arithmetic--decimal and duodecimal scales--astronomy--geometry reached in egypt at earliest dates--great pyramid--piazzi smyth and pyramid-religion--pyramids formerly royal tombs, but built on scientific plans--exact orientation on meridian--centre in ° n. latitude--tunnel points to pole--possible use as an observatory--procter--probably astrological--planetary influences--signs of the zodiac--mathematical coincidences of great pyramid--chaldæan astronomy--ziggurats--tower of babel--different orientation from egyptian pyramids--astronomical treatise from library of sargon i., b.c.--eclipses and phases of venus--measures of time from old chaldæan--moon and sun--found among so many distant races--implies commerce and intercourse--art and industry--embankment of menes--sphynx--industrial arts--fine arts--sculpture and painting--the oldest art the best--chaldæan art--de sarzec's find at sirgalla--statues and works of art--imply long use of bronze--whence came the copper and tin--phoenician and etruscan commerce--bronze known years earlier--same alloy everywhere--possible sources of supply--age of copper--names of copper and tin--domestic animals--horse--ox and ass--agriculture--all proves extreme antiquity. the conclusion drawn from the religions of egypt and chaldæa, as to the existence of a very long period of advanced civilization prior to the historical era, is fully confirmed by the state of the arts and sciences at the commencement of the earliest records. a knowledge of astronomy implies a long series of observations and a certain amount of mathematical calculation. the construction of great works of hydraulic engineering, and of such buildings as temples and pyramids, also proves an advanced state of scientific knowledge. such a building, for instance, as the great pyramid must have required a considerable acquaintance with geometry, and with the effects of strains and pressures; and the same is true of the early temples and ziggurats, or temple observatories of chaldæa. there must have been regular schools of astronomers and architects, and books treating on scientific subjects, before such structures could have been possible. the knowledge of science possessed by a nation affords a more definite test of its antecedent civilization than its religion. it is always possible to say that advanced religious ideas may have been derived from some supernatural revelation, but in the case of the exact sciences, such as arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, this is no longer possible, and their progress can be traced step by step by the development of human reason. thus there are savage races, like the australians at the present day, who cannot count beyond "one, two, and a great number"; and some philologists tell us that traces of this state can be discovered in the origin of civilized languages, from the prevalence of dual forms which seem to have preceded those of the plural. the next stage is that of counting by the fingers, which gives rise to a natural system of decimal notation, as shown by such words as ten, which invariably means two hands; twenty, which is twice ten, and so on. many existing races, who are a little more advanced than the australians, use their fingers for counting, and can count up to five or ten, and even the chimpanzee sally could count to five. but when we come to a duodecimal system we may feel certain that a considerable advance has been made, and arithmetic has come into existence as a science; for the number has no natural basis of support like , and can only have been adopted because it was exactly divisible into whole numbers by , , , . the mere fact therefore of the existence of a duodecimal system shows that the nation which adopts it must have progressed a long way from the primitive "one, two, a great many," and acquired ideas both as to the relation of numbers, and a multitude of other things, such as the division of the circle, of days, months, and years, of weights and measures, and other matters, in which ready division into whole parts without fractions had become desirable. and at the very first in egypt, chaldæa, and among the turanian races generally, we find this duodecimal system firmly established. the circle has degrees, the year days, the day single or double hours, and so on. but from this point the journey is a long one to calculations which imply a knowledge of geometry and mathematics, and observations of celestial bodies which imply a long antecedent science of astronomy, and accurate records of the motions of the sun, moon, and planets, and of eclipses and other memorable events. the earliest records, both of egypt and chaldæa, show that such an advanced state of science had been reached at the first dawn of the historical period, and we read of works on astronomy, geometry, medicine, and other sciences, written, or compiled from older treatises, by egyptian kings of the old empire, and by sargon i. of accade from older accadian works. but the monuments prove still more conclusively that such sciences must have been long known. especially the great pyramid of cheops affords a very definite proof of the progress which must have been made in geometrical, mechanical, and astronomical science at the time of its erection. if we were to believe professor piazzi smyth, and the little knot of his followers who have founded what may be called a pyramid-religion, this remarkable structure contains a revelation in stone for future ages, of almost all the material scientific facts which have been discovered since by years of painful research by the unaided human intellect. its designers must have known and recorded, with an accuracy surpassing that of modern observation, such facts as the dimensions of the earth, the distance of the sun, the ratio of the area of a circle to its diameter, the precise determination of latitude and of a true meridian line, and the establishment of standards of measure taken, like the metre, from a definite division of the earth's circumference. it is argued that such facts as these could not have been discovered so accurately in the infancy of science, and without the aid of the telescope, and therefore that they must have been made known by revelation, and the great pyramid is looked upon therefore as a sort of bible in stone, which is, in some not very intelligible way, to be taken as a confirmation of the inspiration of the hebrew bible, and read as a sort of supplement to it. this is of course absurd. a supernatural revelation to teach a chosen people the worship of the one true god, is at any rate an intelligible proposition, but scarcely that of such a revelation to an idolatrous monarch and people, to teach details of abstruse sciences, which in point of fact were not taught, for the monument on which they were recorded was sealed up by a casing of polished stone almost directly after it was built, and its contents were only discovered by accident, long after the facts and figures which it is supposed to teach had been discovered elsewhere by human reason. the only thing approaching to a revelation of religious import which piazzi smyth professed to have discovered in the pyramid was a prediction, which is now more than ten years overdue, of the advent of the millennium in . but these extravagances have had the good effect of giving us accurate measurements of nearly all the dimensions of the great pyramid, and raising a great deal of discussion as to its aim and origin. in the first place it is quite clear that its primary object was to provide a royal tomb. a tomb of solid masonry with a base larger than lincoln's inn fields, and feet higher than st. paul's, seems very incomprehensible to modern ideas, but there can be no doubt as to the fact. when the interior is explored both of this and other pyramids, nothing is found but one or two small sepulchral chambers containing the stone coffins of a king or queen. the great pyramid is not an exceptional monument, but one of a series of some seventy pyramid-tombs of kings, beginning with earlier and continued by later dynasties of the old empire. the reason of their construction is obvious. it originates from the peculiar ideas, which have been already pointed out, of the existence of a ka or shadowy double, and a still more ethereal soul or spirit, whose immortality depended on the preservation of a material basis in the form of a mummy or likeness of the deceased person, preferably no doubt by the preservation of the mummy. this led to the enormous outlay, not by kings only, but by private persons, on costly tombs, which, as herodotus says, were considered to be their permanent habitations. with an absolute monarchy in which the divine right of kings was strained so far that the monarch was considered as an actual god, it was only natural that their tombs should far exceed those of their richest subjects, and that unusual care should be taken to prevent them from being desecrated in future ages by new and foreign dynasties. suppose a great and powerful monarch to have an unusually long and prosperous reign, it is quite conceivable that he should wish to have a tomb which should not only surpass those of his predecessors, but any probable effort of his successors, and be an unique monument defying the attacks not only of future generations, but of time itself. this seems, without doubt, to have been the primary motive of the great pyramid, and in a lesser degree of all pyramids, sepulchral mounds, and costly tombs. but the pyramids, and especially the great pyramid, are not mere piles of masonry heaped together without plan or design. on the contrary, they are all built on a settled plan, which implies an acquaintance with the sciences of geometry and astronomy, and which, in the case of the great pyramid, is carried to an extent which shows a very advanced knowledge of those sciences, and goes far to prove that it must have been used, during part of the period of its construction, as a national observatory. the full details of this plan are given by procter in his work on the great pyramid, and although the want of a more accurate knowledge of egyptology has led him into some erroneous speculations as to the age and object of this pyramid, his authority is undoubted as to the scientific facts and the astronomical and geometrical conclusions which are to be drawn from them. it appears that the first object of all pyramid builders was to secure a correct orientation; that is, that the four sides should face truly to the north, south, east, and west, or in other words that a line drawn through the centre of the base parallel to the sides should stand on a true meridian line. this would be a comparatively easy task with modern instruments, but before the invention of the telescope it must have required great nicety of observation to obtain such extremely accurate results in all the sides and successive layers of such an enormous building. there are only two ways in which it could be attempted--one by observing the shadow cast by a vertical gnomon when the sun was on the meridian, the other by keeping a standard line constantly directed to the true north pole of the heavens. in the case of the great pyramid another object seems to have been in view which required the same class of observations, viz. to place the centre of the base on the thirtieth degree of north latitude, being the latitude in which the pole of the heavens is exactly one-third of the way from the horizon to the zenith. both these objects have been attained with wonderful accuracy. the orientation of the great pyramid is correct, and the centre of its base corresponds with the thirtieth degree of north latitude within a slight error which was inevitable, if, as is probable, the egyptian astronomers were unacquainted with the effect of atmospheric refraction in raising the apparent above the true place of celestial bodies, or had formed an insufficient estimate of its amount. the centre of the base is yards south of the real thirtieth parallel of latitude, which is yards north of the position which would have been deduced from the pole-star method, and yards south of that from the shadow method, by astronomers ignorant of the effect of refraction. the shadow method could never have been so reliable as the polar method, and it is certain therefore _à priori_ that the latter must have been adopted either wholly or principally, and this conclusion is confirmed by the internal construction of the pyramid itself, which is shown by the subjoined vertical section. [illustration: pyramid] the tunnel a b c is bored for a distance of feet underground through the solid rock, and is inclined at an angle pointing directly to what was then the pole-star, alpha draconis, at its lower culmination. as there is no bright star at the true pole, its position is ascertained by taking the point half-way between the highest and lowest positions of the conspicuous star nearest to it, and which therefore revolves in the smallest circle about it. this star is not always the same on account of the precession of the equinoxes, and alpha draconis supplied the place of the present pole-star about b.c., and practically for several centuries before and after that date. now the underground tunnel is bored exactly at the angle of ° ´ to the horizon, at which alpha draconis would shine down it at its lower culmination when ° ´ from the pole; and the ascending passage and grand gallery are inclined at the same angle in an opposite direction, so that the image of the star reflected from a plane mirror or from water at b, would be seen on the southern meridian line by an observer in the grand gallery, while another very conspicuous star in the southern hemisphere, alpha centauri, would at that period shine directly down it. the passages therefore would have the double effect, st, of enabling the builders to orient the base and lower layers of the pyramid up to the king's chamber in a perfectly true north and south line; nd, of making the grand gallery the equivalent of an equatorially-mounted telescope of a modern observatory, by which the transit of heavenly bodies in a considerable section of the sky comprising the equatorial and zodiacal regions, across the meridian, and therefore at their highest elevations, could be observed by the naked eye with great accuracy. those who wish to study the evidence in detail should read procter's work on the _problems of the pyramids_, but for the present purpose it may be sufficient to sum up the conclusions of that accomplished astronomer. he says, "the sun's annual course round the celestial sphere could be determined much more exactly than by any gnomon by observations made from the great gallery. the moon's monthly path and its changes could have been dealt with in the same effective way. the geometric paths, and thence the true paths of the planets, could be determined very accurately. the place of any visible star along the zodiac could be most accurately determined." if therefore the pyramid had only been completed up to the fiftieth layer, which would leave the southern opening of the great gallery uncovered, the object might have been safely assumed to be the erection of a great national observatory. but this supposition is negatived by the fact that the grand gallery must have been shut up, and the building rendered useless for astronomical purposes in a very short time, by the completion of the pyramid, which was then covered over by a casing of polished stone, evidently with a view of concealing all traces of the passages which led to the tomb. the only possible solution seems to be that suggested by procter, that the object was astrological rather than astronomical, and that all those minute precautions were taken in order to provide not only a secure tomb but an accurate horoscope for the reigning monarch. astrology and astronomy were in fact closely identified in the ancient world, and relics of the superstition still linger in the form of zadkiel almanacs. when the sun, moon, and five planets had been identified as the celestial bodies possessing motion, and therefore, as it was inferred, life, and had been converted into gods, nothing was more natural than to suppose that they exercised an influence on human affairs, and that their configuration affected the destinies both of individuals and of nations. a superstitious people who saw auguries in the flight of birds, the movements of animals, the rustling of leaves, and in almost every natural occurrence, could not fail to be impressed by the higher influences and omens of those majestic orbs, which revolved in such mysterious courses through the stationary stars of the host of heaven. accordingly in the very earliest traditions of the accadians and egyptians we find an astrological significance attached to the first astronomical facts which were observed and recorded. the week of seven days, which was doubtless founded on the first attempts to measure time by the four phases of the lunar month, became associated with the seven planets in the remotest antiquity, and the names of their seven presiding gods, in the same order and with the same meaning, have descended unchanged to our own times, as will be shown more fully in a subsequent chapter. observations on the sun's annual course led to the fixing of it along a zodiac of twelve signs, corresponding roughly to twelve lunar months, and defined by constellations, or groups of stars, having a fanciful resemblance to animals or deified heroes. those zodiacal signs are of immense antiquity and world-wide universality. we find them in the earliest mythology of chaldæa and egypt, in the labours of hercules, in the traditions of a deluge associated with the sign of aquarius, and even, though in a somewhat altered form, in such distant countries as china and mexico. probably they originated in chaldæa, where the oldest records and universal tradition show the primitive accadians to have been astronomers, who from time immemorial had made observations on the heavenly bodies, and who remained down to the roman empire the most celebrated astrologers, though it is not quite clear whether egyptian astronomy and astrology were imported from chaldæa or invented independently at an equally remote period. even if we admit, however, procter's suggestion that the pyramids had an astrological origin in addition to their primary object as tombs, it is difficult to understand how such enormous structures could have been built. the great pyramid must have been built on a plan designed from the first, and not by any haphazard process of adding a layer each year according to the number of years the monarch happened to reign. how could he foresee the exact number of years of an unusually long life and reign, or what security could he have that, if he died early, his successor would complete his pyramid in addition to erecting one of almost equal magnitude for himself? how could three successive kings have devoted such an amount of the nation's capital and resources to the building of three such pyramids as those of cheops, chephren, and mycerinus, without provoking insurrections? herodotus has a piece of gossip, probably picked up from some ignorant guides, which represents cheops and chephren as detested tyrants, who shut up the temples of the gods, and confounds the national hatred of the shepherd kings, who conquered egypt some years later, with that of these pyramid-builders; but this is confuted by the monuments, which show them as pious builders or restorers of temples of the national gods in other localities, as for instance at bubastis, where the cartouche of chephren was lately found by m. naville on an addition to the temple of isis. all the records also of the fourth or pyramid-building dynasty, and of the two next dynasties, show it to have been a period of peace and prosperity. the pyramids therefore must still remain a subject enveloped in mystery, but enough is certain from the undoubted astronomical facts disclosed in their construction to show the advanced state of this science at this remote period. nor is this all, for the dimensions of the great pyramid, when stripped of the fanciful coincidences and mystical theories of piazzi smyth, still show enough to prove a wonderful knowledge of mathematics and geometry. the following may be taken as undoubted facts from the most accurate measurements of their dimensions. st. the triangular area of each of the four sloping sides equals the square of the vertical height. this was mentioned by herodotus, and there can be no doubt that it was a real relation intended by the builders. nd. the united length of the four sides of the square base bears to the vertical height the same proportion as that of the circumference of a circle to its radius. in other words it gives the ratio, which under the symbol [greek: pi] plays such an important part in all the higher mathematics. there are other remarkable coincidences which seem to show a still more wonderful advance in science, though they are not quite so certain, as they depend on the assumption that the builders took as their unit of measurement, a pyramid inch and sacred cubit different from those in ordinary use, the former being equal to the , , th part of the earth's diameter, and the latter containing twenty-five of those inches, or about the , , th part of that diameter. to arrive at such standards it is evident that the priestly astronomers must have measured very accurately an arc of the meridian or length of the line on the earth's surface which just raised or lowered the pole of the heavens by °; and inferred from it that the earth was a spherical body of given dimensions. those dimensions would not be quite accurate, for they must have been ignorant of the compression of the earth at its poles and protuberance at the equator, but the measurement of such an arc at or near ° of north latitude would give a close approximation to the mean value of the earth's diameter. procter thinks that from the scientific knowledge which must have been possessed by the builders of the pyramid, it is quite possible that they may have measured an arc of the meridian with considerable accuracy, and calculated from it the length of the earth's diameter, assuming it to be a perfect sphere. and if so they may have intended to make the side of the square base of the pyramid of a length which would bear in inches some relation to the length of this diameter; for it is probable that at this stage of the world's science, the mysterious or rather magical value which was attached to certain words would attach equally to the fundamental facts, figures, and important discoveries of the growing sciences. it is quite probable, therefore, that the sacred inch and cubit may have been invented, like the _metre_, from an aliquot part of the earth's supposed diameter, so as to afford an invariable standard. but there is no positive proof of this from the pyramid itself, the dimensions of which may be expressed just as well in the ordinary working cubit, and it must remain open to doubt whether the coincidences prove the pyramid inch, or the inch was invented to prove the coincidences. assuming, however, for the moment that these measures were really used, some of the coincidences are very remarkable. the length of each side of the square base is - / of these sacred cubits, or equal to the length of the year in days. the height is inches, and the sun's distance from the earth, taken at , , miles, which is very nearly correct, is just thousand millions of such inches. it has been thought, therefore, that this height was intended to symbolize the sun's distance. but independently of the fact that this distance could not have been known with any approach to accuracy before the invention of the telescope, it is forgotten that this height had been already determined by a totally unconnected consideration, viz. the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference. the coincidence, therefore, of the sun's distance must be purely accidental. a still more startling coincidence has been found in the fact that the two diagonals of the base contain , pyramid inches, or almost exactly the number of years in the precessional period. this also must be accidental, for the number of inches in the diagonals follows as a matter of course from the sides being taken at - / cubits, corresponding to the length of the year; and there can be no connection between this and the precession of the equinoxes, which, moreover, was unknown in the astronomy of the ancient world until it was discovered in the time of the ptolemies by hipparchus. but with all these doubtful coincidences, and the many others which have been discovered by devotees of the pyramid religion, quite enough remains to justify the conclusion that between and years ago there were astronomers, mathematicians, and architects in egypt, who had carried their respective sciences to a high degree of perfection corresponding to that shown by their engineers and artists. when we turn to chaldæa we find similar evidence as to the advance of science, and especially of astronomical science, in the earliest historical times. every important city had its temple, and attached to its temple its ziggurat, which was a temple-observatory. the ziggurat is in some respects the counterpart of the pyramid, being a pyramidal structure built up in successive stages or platforms superimposed on one another and narrowing as they rose, so as to leave a small platform on the top, on which was a small shrine or temple, and from which observations could be made. these ziggurats being built entirely of bricks, mostly sun-burnt, have crumbled into shapeless mounds of rubbish, but a fair idea of their size and construction may be obtained from the descriptions and pictures of them preserved in contemporary tablets and slabs, especially from those of the great ziggurat of the seven spheres or planets at borsippa, a suburb of babylon, which was rebuilt by nebuchadnezzar about b.c., on the site of a much more ancient ruined construction. this, which was the largest and most famous of the ziggurats, became identified in after times with the tower of babel and the legend of the confusion of tongues, but it was in fact an astronomical building in seven stages dedicated to the sun, moon, and five planets, taken in the order of magnitude of their respective orbits, and each distinguished by their respective colours. thus the lowest or largest platform was dedicated to saturn, and coloured black; the second to jupiter was orange; the third to mars red; the fourth to the sun golden; the fifth to venus pale yellow; the sixth to mercury an azure blue, obtained by vitrifying the facing bricks; and the seventh to the moon was probably coated with plates of silver. the height of this ziggurat was feet, and standing as it did on a level alluvial plain, it must have been a very imposing object. [illustration: ziggurat restored (perrot and chipiez), the tower of babel.] it may be affirmed of all these ziggurats that they were not tombs like the egyptian pyramids, but were erected exclusively for astronomical and astrological purposes. the number of stages had always reference to some religious or astronomical fact, as three to symbolize the great triad; five for the five planets; or seven for these and the sun and moon; the number of seven being never exceeded, and the order the same as that adopted for the days of the week, viz. according to the magnitudes of their respective orbits. they were oriented with as much care as the pyramids, which is of itself a proof that they were used as observatories, but with this difference, that their angles instead of their faces were directed towards the true north and south. to this rule there are only two exceptions, probably of late date after egyptian influences had been introduced, but the original and national ziggurats invariably observe the rule of pointing angles and not sides to the four cardinal points. this is a remarkable fact as showing that the astronomies of egypt and chaldæa were not borrowed one from the other, but evolved independently in prehistoric times. an explanation of it has been found in the fact recorded on a geographical tablet, that the accadians were accustomed to use the terms north, south, east, and west to denote, not the real cardinal points, but countries which lay to the n.w., s.e., and s.w. of them. it is inconceivable, however, that such skilful astronomers should have supposed that the north pole was in the north-west, and a more probable explanation is to be found in the meaning of the word ziggurat, which is holy mountain. it was a cardinal point in their cosmogony that the heavens formed a crystal vault, which revolved round an exceedingly high mountain as an axis, and the ziggurats were miniature representations of this sacred mountain of the gods. the early astronomers must have known that this mountain could be nowhere but in the true north, as the daily revolutions of the heavenly bodies took place round the north pole. it was natural, therefore, that they should direct the apex or angle of a model of this mountain rather than its side to the position in the true north occupied by the peak of the world's pivot. be this as it may, the fact that the ziggurats were carefully oriented, and certainly used as observatories at the earliest dates of chaldæan history, is sufficient to prove that the priestly astronomers must have already attained an advanced knowledge of science, and kept an accurate record of long-continued observations. this is fully confirmed by the astronomical and astrological treatise compiled for the royal library of sargon i., date b.c., which treats of eclipses, the phases of venus, and other matters implying a long previous series of accurate and refined astronomical observations. the most conclusive proof, however, of the antiquity of chaldæan science is afforded by the measures of time which were established prior to the commencement of history, and have come down to the present era in the days of the week and the signs of the zodiac. there can be no doubt that the first attempts to measure time beyond the single day and night, were lunar, and not solar. the phases of the moon occur at short intervals, and are more easily discerned and measured than those of the sun in its annual revolution. the beginning and end of a solar year, and the solstices and equinoxes are not marked by any decided natural phenomena, and it is only by long-continued observations of the sun's path among the fixed stars that any tolerably accurate number of days can be assigned to the duration of the year and seasons. but the recurrence of new and full moon, and more especially of the half-moons when dusk and light are divided by a straight line, must have been noted by the first shepherds who watched the sky at night, and have given rise to the idea of the month, and its first approximate division into four weeks of seven days each. accordingly we find that in all primitive languages and cosmogonies the moon takes its name from a root which signifies "the measurer," while the sun is the bright or shining one. a relic of this superior importance of the moon as the measurer of time is found in the old accadian mythology, in which the moon-god is masculine and the sun-god feminine, while with the semites and other nations of a later and more advanced civilization, the sun is the husband, and the moon his wife. for as observations multiplied and science advanced, it would be found that the lunar month of twenty-eight days was only an approximation, and that the solar year and months defined by the sun's progress through the fixed stars afforded a much more accurate chronometer. thus we find the importance of the moon and of lunar myths gradually superseded by the sun, whose daily risings and settings, death in winter and resurrection in spring, and other myths connected with its passage through the signs of the solar zodiac, assume a preponderating part in ancient religions. traces, however, of the older period of lunar science and lunar mythology still survived, especially in the week of seven days, and the mysterious importance attached to the number . this was doubtless aided by the discovery which could not fail to be made with the earliest accurate observations of the heavens, that there were seven moving bodies, the sun, moon, and five planets, which revolved in settled courses, while all the other stars remained fixed. scientific astrology, as distinguished from a mere superstitious regard of the flight of birds and other omens, had its origin in this discovery. the first philosophers who pondered on these celestial phenomena were certain to infer that motion implied life, and in the case of such brilliant and remote bodies divine life; and that as the sun and moon exerted such an obvious influence on the seasons and other human affairs, so probably did the other planets or the gods who presided over them. the names and order of the days of the week, which have remained so similar among such a number of ancient and modern nations, show how far these astrological notions must have progressed when they assumed their present form, for the order is a highly artificial one. why do we divide time into weeks of seven days, and call the days sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and saturday, and why are these names of special planets, or of the special gods associated with them, identical, and occur in the same order among so many different nations? for whether we say thor's-day or jove's-day, and call it "thursday" or "jeudi," the same god is meant, who is identified with the same planet, and so for the others. it is quite clear that the names of the seven days of the week were originally taken from the seven planets--i.e. from the seven celestial bodies which were observed by ancient astronomers to move, and, therefore, be presumably endowed with life, while the rest of the host of heaven remained stationary. these bodies are in order of apparent magnitude:-- . the sun. . the moon. . jupiter. . venus. . mars. . saturn. . mercury and this is the natural order in which we might have expected to find them appropriated to the days of the week. but, obviously, this is not the principle on which the days have been named; for, to give a single instance, the nimble mercury, the smallest of the visible planets, comes next before the majestic jupiter, the ruler of the heavens and wielder of the thunderbolt. let us try another principle, that of classifying the planets in importance, not by their size and splendour, but by the magnitude of their orbits and length of their revolutions. this will give the following order:-- . saturn. . jupiter. . mars. . the sun (_i.e._ really the earth). . venus. . mercury. . the moon. we are now on the track of the right solution, though there is still apparently hopeless discord between this order and that of the days of the week. the true solution is such an artificial one, that we should never have discovered it if it had not been disclosed to us by the clay tablets exhumed from ancient royal libraries in the temples and palaces of chaldæa. these tablets are extremely ancient, going back in many cases to the times of the old accadians who inhabited chaldæa prior to the advent of the semites. some of them, in fact, are from the royal library of sargon i., of accade, whose date is fixed by the best authorities at about b.c. these accadians were a civilized and literary people, well versed in astronomy, but extremely superstitious, and addicted beyond measure to astrology. every city had its ziggurat, or observatory-tower, attached to its temple, from which priests watched the heavens and calculated times and seasons. to some of those ancient priests it occurred that the planets must be gods watching over and influencing human events, and that, as mars was ruddy, he was probably the god of war; venus, the lovely evening star, the goddess of love; jupiter, powerful; saturn, slow and malignant; and mercury, quick and nimble. by degrees the idea expanded, and it was thought that each planet exerted its peculiar influence, not only on the days of the week, but on the hours of the day; and the planet which presided over the first hour of the day was thought to preside over the whole of that day. but the day had been already divided into twenty-four hours, because the earliest chaldæans had adopted the duodecimal scale, and counted by sixes, twelves, and sixties. now, twenty-four is not divisible by seven, and, therefore, the same planets do not recur in the same order, to preside over the same hours of successive days. if saturn ruled the first hour, he would rule the twenty-second hour; and, if we refer to the above list of the planets, ranged according to the magnitude of their orbits, we shall find that the sun would rule the first hour of the succeeding day, and then in succession the moon, mars, mercury, jupiter, and venus, round to saturn again, in the precise order of our days of the week. this order is so artificial that it cannot have been invented separately, and wherever we find it we may feel certain that it has descended from the astrological fancies of accadian priestly astronomers at least years ago. now for the sabbath. the same clay tablets, older by some years than the accepted biblical date for the creation of the world, mention both the name and the institution. the "sabbath" was the day ruled over by the gloomy and malignant saturn, the oldest of the planetary gods, as shown by his wider orbit, but dimmed with age, and morose at having been dethroned by his brilliant son, jupiter. it was unlucky in the extreme, therefore, to do any work, or begin any undertaking, on the "sabbath," or saturday. hence, long centuries before jewish pharisees or english puritans, rules of sabbatarian strictness were enforced at babylon and nineveh, which remind one of the knight who "hanged his cat on monday for killing of a mouse on sunday." the king was not allowed to ride or walk on the sabbath; and, even if taken ill, had to wait till the following day before taking medicine. this superstition as to the unluckiness of saturn's day was common to all ancient nations, including the jews; but when the idea of a local deity, one among many others, expanded, under the influence of the later prophets and the exile, unto that of one universal god, the ruler of the universe and special patron of his chosen people, the compilers of the old testament dealt with the sabbath as they did with the deluge, the creation, and other myths borrowed from the chaldæans. that is to say, they revised them in a monotheistic sense, wrote "god" for "gods," and gave them a religious, rather than an astronomical or astrological, meaning. thus the origin of the sabbath, as a day when no work was to be done, was transferred from saturn to jehovah, and the reason assigned was that "in six days the lord created the heaven and the earth, and all that therein is, and rested on the seventh day." one more step only remains to bring us to our modern sunday, and this also, like the last, is to be attributed to a religious motive. the early christian church wished to wean the masses from paganism, and very wisely, instead of attacking old-established usages in front, turned their flank by assigning them to different days. thus the day of rest was shifted from saturday to sunday, which was made the christian sabbath, and the name changed by the latin races from the day of the sun to the lord's day, "dominica dies," or "dimanche." it has remained saturday, however, with the jews, and it is quite clear that it was on a saturday, and not a sunday, that jesus walked through the fields with his disciples, plucking ears of corn, and saying, "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." it is equally clear that our modern sabbatarians are much nearer in spirit to the pharisees whom jesus rebuked, and to the old accadian astrologers, than to the founder of christianity. it is encouraging, however, to those who believe in progress, to observe how in this, as in many other cases, the course of evolution makes for good. the absurd superstitions of accadian astrologers led to the establishment of one day of rest out of every seven days--an institution which is in harmony with the requirements of human nature, and which has been attended by most beneficial results. the religious sanctions which attached themselves to this institution, first, as the hebrew sabbath, and, secondly, as transformed into the christian sunday, have been a powerful means of preserving this day of rest through so many social and political revolutions. let us, therefore, not be too hasty in condemning everything which, on the face of it, appears to be antiquated and absurd. millions will enjoy a holiday, get a breath of fresh air and glimpse of nature, or go to church or chapel cleanly and respectable in behaviour and attire, because there were accadian zadkiels years ago, who believed in the maleficent influence of the planet saturn. when we find that these highly intricate and artificial calculations of advanced astrological and astronomical lore existed at the dawn of chaldæan history, and are found in so many and such widely separated races and regions, it is impossible to avoid two conclusions. st. that an immense time must have elapsed since the rude accadian highlanders first settled in and reclaimed the alluvial valleys and marshy deltas of the tigris and euphrates. nd. that the intercourse between remote regions, whether by land or sea, and by commerce or otherwise, must have been much closer in prehistoric times than has been generally supposed. as in the days of the week, so in the festivals of the year, we trace their first origin to astronomical observations. when nations passed from the condition of savages, hunters, or nomads, into the agricultural stage, and developed dense populations, cities, temples, priests, and an organized society, we find the oldest traces of it everywhere in the science of astronomy. they watched the phases of the moon, counted the planets, followed the sun in its annual course, marking it first by seasons, and, as science advanced, by its progress through groups of fixed stars fancifully defined as constellations. everywhere the moon seems to have been taken as the first standard for measuring time beyond the primary unit of day and night. its name very generally denotes the "measurer" in primitive languages, and it appears as the male, and the sun as female, in the oldest mythologies--a distinction of sex which is still maintained in modern german. this is natural, for the monthly changes of the moon come much more frequently, and are more easily measured from day to day, than the annual courses of the sun. but, as observations accumulate and become more accurate, it is found that the sun, and not the moon, regulates the seasons, and that the year repeats on a larger scale the phenomenon presented by the day and night, of a birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death of the sun, followed by a resurrection or new birth, when the same cycle begins anew. hence the oldest civilized nations have taken from the two phenomena of the day and year the same fundamental ideas and festivals. the ideas are those of a miraculous birth, death, and resurrection, and of an upper and lower world, the one of light and life, the other of darkness and death, through which the sun-god and human souls have to pass to emerge again into life. the festivals are those of the four great divisions of the year: the winter solstice, when the aged sun sinks into the tomb and rises again with a new birth; the spring equinox, when he passes definitively out of the domain of winter into that of summer; the summer solstice, when he is in full manhood, "rejoicing like a giant to run his course," and withering up vegetation as with the hot breath of a raging lion; and, finally, the autumnal equinox, when he sinks once more into the wintry half of the year and fades daily amidst storms and deluges to the tomb from which he started. of these festivals christmas and easter have survived to the present day, and the last traces of the feast of the summer solstice are still lingering in the remote parts of scotland and ireland in the bel fires, which, when i was young, were lighted on midsummer night on the highest hills of orkney and shetland. as a boy, i have rushed, with my playmates, through the smoke of those bonfires without a suspicion that we were repeating the homage paid to baal in the valley of hinnom. when we turn from science to art and industry, the same conclusion of immense antiquity is forcibly impressed on us. in egypt the reign of menes, b.c., was signalized by a great engineering work, which would have been a considerable achievement at the present day. he built a great embankment, which still remains, by which the old course of the nile close to the libyan hills was diverted, and a site obtained for the new capital of memphis on the west side of the river, placing it between the city and any enemy from the east. at the same time this dyke assisted in regulating the flow of the inundation, and it may be compared for magnitude and utility to the modern _barrage_ attempted by linant bey and carried out by sir colin moncrieff. evidently such a work implies great engineering skill, and great resources, and it prepares us for what we have seen a few centuries later in the construction of the great pyramids. many of the most famous cities and temples also of egypt date back for their original foundation to a period prior to that of menes. there is indeed every reason to suppose that one of the most colossal and remarkable monuments, the sphynx, with the little temple of granite and alabaster between its paws, is older than the accession of menes. a tablet discovered by mariette informs us that khufu, the builder of the great pyramid, discovered this temple, which had been buried in the sand, and restored it. if a building of such simplicity and solidity of structure required repairs, it must have existed for a long time and been lost sight of. it is almost certain also that if such a colossal and celebrated monument as the sphynx had been constructed by any of the historical kings, it would have been mentioned by manetho, as for instance is that of the step-pyramid of sakkarah by the fourth king of the first dynasty, and of a temple of pthah at memphis, and a treatise on medicine, by the king who succeeded menes. the name of the sphynx also, "the great hor," points to the period of the horsheshu, or ruler priests of horus, prior to the foundation of the empire by menes, and to the time before osiris superseded horus, as the favourite personification of the solar god. be this as it may, there is abundant proof that at the dawn of egyptian history, some years ago, the arts of architecture, engineering, irrigation, and agriculture had reached a high level corresponding to that shown by the state of religion, science, and letters. a little later the paintings on the tombs of the old empire show that all the industrial arts, such as spinning, weaving, working in wood and metals, rearing cattle, and a thousand others, which are the furniture of an old civilized country, were just as well understood and practised in egypt or years ago as they are at the present day. this being the case, i must refer those who wish to pursue this branch of the subject to professed works on egyptology. for my present purpose, if the oldest records of monuments prove the existence of a long antecedent civilization, it is superfluous to trace the proofs in detail through the course of later ages. when we turn to the fine arts we find the same evidence. the difficulty is not to trace a golden age up to rude beginnings, but to explain the seeming paradox that the oldest art is the best. a visit to the museum of boulak, where mariette's collection of works of the first six dynasties is deposited, will convince any one that the statues, statuettes, wall-pictures, and other works of art of the ancient empire from memphis and its cemetery of sakkarah, are in point of conception and execution superior to those of a later period. none of the later statues equal the tour _de force_ by which the majestic portrait statue of chephren, the builder of the second great pyramid, has been chiselled out from a block of diorite, one of the hardest stones known, and hardly assailable by the best modern tools. nor has portraiture in wood or stone ever surpassed the ease, grace, and life-like expression of such statues as that known as the village sheik, from its resemblance to the functionary who filled that office years later in the village where the statue was discovered; or those of the kneeling scribes, one handing in his accounts, the other writing from dictation. and the pictures on the walls of tombs, of houses, gardens, fishing and musical parties, and animals and birds of all kinds, tame and wild, are equally remarkable for their colouring and drawing, and for the vivacity and accuracy with which attitudes and expressions are rendered. in short egypt begins where most modern countries seem to be ending, with a very perfect school of realistic art. [illustration: the village sheik, a wooden statuette. boulak museum, from gizeh.--according to the chronological table of mariette, this statue is over years old. from a photograph by brugsch bey.] for it is remarkable that this first school of art of the old empire is thoroughly naturalistic, and knows very little of the ideal or supernatural. and the tombs tell the same story. the statues and paintings represent natural objects and not theological conventions; the tombs are fac-simile representations of the house in which the deceased lived, with his mummy and those of his family, and pictures of his oxen, geese, and other belongings, but no gods, and few of those quotations from the todtenbuch which are so universal in later ages. it would seem that at this early period of egyptian history life was simple and cheerful, and both art and religion less fettered by superstitions and conventions than they were when despotism and priestcraft had been for centuries stereotyped institutions, and originality of any sort was little better than heresy. war also and warlike arms hardly appear on these earliest representations of egyptian life, and wars were probably confined to frontier skirmishes with bedouins and libyans, such as we see commemorated on the tablet of snefura at wady magerah. in chaldæa the evidence for great antiquity is derived less from architectural monuments and arts, and more from books, than in egypt, for the obvious reason that stone was wanting and clay abundant in mesopotamia. where temples and palaces were built of sun-dried bricks, they rapidly crumbled into mounds of rubbish, and nothing was preserved but the baked clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions. in like manner sculpture and wall-painting never flourished in a country devoid of stone, and the religious ideas of chaldæa never took the egyptian form of the continuance of ordinary life after death by the ka or ghost requiring a house, a mummy, and representations of belongings. the bas-relief and fringes sculptured on slabs of alabaster brought home by layard and others, belong mostly to the later period of the assyrian empire. accordingly, the oldest works of art from chaldæa consist mainly of books and documents in the form of clay cylinders, and of gems, amulets, and other small articles of precious stones or metals. but the recent discovery of de sarzec at sirgalla shows that in the very earliest period of chaldæan history the arts stood at a level which is fairly comparable to that of the old empire in egypt. he found in the ruins of the very ancient temple of the sun nine statues of patesi or priest-kings of accadian race, who had ruled there prior to the consolidation of sumir and accad into one empire by sargon i., somewhere about b.c. the remarkable thing about these statues is that they are of diorite, similar to that of the statue of chephren, which is believed to be only found in the peninsula of sinai, and is so hard that it must have taken excellent tools and great technical skill to carve it. the statues are much of the same size and in the same seated attitude as that of chephren, and have the appearance of belonging to the same epoch and school of art. this is confirmed by the discovery along with the statues of a number of statuettes and small objects of art which are also in an excellent style, very similar to that of the old egyptian dynasty, and show great proficiency both in taste and in technical execution. the discovery of these diorite statues at such a very early date both in egypt and chaldæa, raises a very interesting question as to the tools by which such an intractable material could be so finely wrought. evidently these tools must have been of the very hardest bronze, and the construction of such works as the dyke of menes and the pyramids, shows that the art of masonry must have been long known and extensively practised. but this again implies a large stock of metals and long acquaintance with them since the close of the latest stone period. perhaps there is no test which is more conclusive of the state of prehistoric civilization and commerce than that which is afforded by the general knowledge and use of metals. it is true that a knowledge of some of the metals which are found in a native state, or in easily fusible ores, may coexist with very primitive barbarism. some even of the cannibal tribes of africa are well acquainted with iron, and know how to smelt its ores and manufacture tools and weapons. gold also, which is so extensively found in the native state, could not fail to be known from the earliest times; and in certain districts pure copper presents itself as only a peculiar and malleable sort of stone. but when we come to metals which require great knowledge of mining to detect them in their ores, and to produce them in large quantities; and to alloys, which require a long practice of metallurgy to discover, and to mix in the proper proportions, the case is different, and the stone period must be already far behind. still more is this the case when tools and weapons of such artificial alloys are found in universal use in countries where nature has provided no metals, and where their presence can only be accounted for by the existence of an international commerce with distant metal-producing countries. iron was no doubt known at a very early period, but it was extremely scarce, and even as late as homer's time was so valuable that a lump of it constituted one of the principal prizes at the funeral games of patroclus. nor is there any reason to suppose that the art of making from it the best steel, which alone could have competed with bronze in cutting granite and diorite, had been discovered. it may be assumed, therefore, that bronze was the material universally used for the finer tools and weapons by the great civilized empires of egypt and chaldæa during the long interval between the neolithic stone age and the later adoption of iron. evidently then, both the egyptians and the chaldæans must have been well provided with bronze tools capable of hewing and polishing the hardest rocks. now bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. copper is a common metal, easily reduced from its ores, and not infrequently occurring in a metallic state, as in the mines of lake superior, where the north american indians hammered out blocks of it from the native metal. and we have proofs that the ancient egyptians obtained copper at a very early date from the mines of wady magerah in the peninsula of sinai, and probably also from cyprus. but where did they get their tin, without which there is no bronze? tin is a metal which is only found in a few localities, and in the form of a black oxide which requires a considerable knowledge of metallurgy to detect and to reduce. the only considerable sources of tin now known are those of cornwall, malacca, banca, and australia. of these, the last was of course unknown to the ancient world, and it is hardly probable that its supplies were obtained from such remote sources as those of the extreme east. not that it is at all impossible that it might have been brought from malacca by prehistoric sea-routes to india, and thence to egypt by the red sea and to chaldæa by the persian gulf, and this is the conjecture of one of the latest authorities in a very interesting work just published on the _dawn of ancient art_. but it seems highly improbable that, if such routes had been established, they should have been so completely abandoned as they certainly were when the supply of tin for the eastern world was brought from the west. in fact, when we get the first authoritative information as to the commerce in tin, about b.c., we find that it was supplied mainly by tyre, and came from the west beyond the straits of gibraltar; and in the greek periplus, written in the first century, it is distinctly stated that india was supplied with tin from britain by way of alexandria and the red sea, which is hardly consistent with the supposition that the tin of malacca had been long known and worked. in the celebrated th chapter of ezekiel, which describes the commerce of tyre when in the height of its glory, tin is only mentioned once as being imported along with silver, iron, and lead from tarshish, _i.e._ from the emporium of gades or cadiz, to which it had doubtless been brought from cornwall. the only other reference to tin is, that javan, tubal, and meshech, _i.e._ the ionians, and tribes of asia minor in the mountainous districts to the south of the black sea, traded with slaves and vessels of brass, and if brass meant bronze, this would imply a knowledge of tin. the only other considerable supply of tin which is certainly known came from the etruscans, who worked extensive tin mines in northern italy. but the evidence of these does not go back farther than from to b.c., and it leaves untouched the question how egypt and chaldæa had obtained large stocks of bronze, certainly long before b.c.; and how they kept up these stocks for certainly more than years before the phoenicians appeared on the scene to supply tin by maritime commerce. it is in some other direction that we must look, for it is certain that neither egypt nor chaldæa had any native sources of this metal. they must have imported, and that from a distance, either the manufactured bronze, or the tin with which to manufacture it themselves by alloying copper. the latter seems most probable, for the egyptians worked the copper mines of sinai from a very early date, and drew supplies of copper from cyprus, which could only have been made useful by alloying it with tin, while if they imported all the immense quantity of bronze which they must have used, in the manufactured state, the pure copper would have been useless to them. a remarkable fact is that the bronze found from the earliest monuments downwards, throughout most of the ancient world, including the dolmens, lake villages, and other prehistoric monuments in which metal begins to appear, is almost entirely of uniform composition, consisting of an alloy of to per cent. of tin to or per cent. of copper. that is for tools and weapons where great hardness was required, for objects of art and statuettes were often made of pure copper, or with a smaller alloy of tin, showing that the latter metal was too scarce and valuable to be wasted.[ ] evidently this alloy must have been discovered in some locality where tin and copper were both found, and trials could be made of the proportions which gave the best result, and the secret must have been communicated to other nations along with the tin which was necessary for the manufacture. where could the sources have been which supplied this tin and this knowledge how to use it, to the two great civilized nations of egypt and chaldæa, where we can say with certainty that bronze was in common use prior to b.c.? if we exclude britain and the extreme east, there are only two localities in which extensive remains of ancient workings for tin have been discovered; one in georgia on the slopes of the caucasus, and the other on the northern slope of the hindoo-kush in the neighbourhood of bamian. and the knowledge both of bronze and of other metals, such as iron and gold, seems to have been universally diffused among the turanian races who were the primitive inhabitants of northern asia. how could egypt have got its tin even from the nearest known source? consider the length of the caravan route; the number of beasts of burden required; the necessity for roads, depôts, and stations; the mountain ranges, rivers, and deserts to be traversed; such a journey is scarcely conceivable either through districts sparsely peopled and without resources, or infested by savage tribes and robbers. and yet if the tin did not come by land, it must have come for the greater part of the way by water, floating down the euphrates or tigris, and being shipped from ur or eridhu by way of the persian gulf and red sea. [ ] this normal alloy does not seem to have been in general use in egypt before the eighteenth dynasty, and the bronze of earlier periods contains less tin. but evidently a very hard alloy of copper must have been used from the earliest times, to chisel out statues of granite and diorite, and although tin was too scarce for common use, the tools for such purposes must have contained a considerable percentage of it. it is difficult to conceive that such an international commerce can have existed at such a remote period, and the difficulty is increased by the fact that in europe, where we can pretty well trace the passage from the neolithic into the bronze period, bronze does not seem to have been known until some or years later, when the phoenicians had migrated to the eastern shore of the mediterranean, and extended their commerce and navigation far and wide over its northern coasts and islands; and at a still later period, when the etruscans had established themselves in italy and exported the products of the tuscan tin mines by trade routes over the rhætian alps. it is even doubtful whether there was any knowledge of metals in europe prior to the phoenician period, as the aryan names for gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron are borrowed from foreign sources; and have no common origin in any ancestral language of the aryan races before they were differentiated into greek, latin, teutonic, celtic, and slavic. copper seems to have been the first metal known, and there are traces of a copper age prior to that of bronze in some of the older neolithic lake villages of switzerland and italy, and in very old tombs and dolmens in hungary, france, and the south-west of spain. but these copper implements are very few and far between, they are evidently modelled in the prior forms of polished stone, and must have been superseded after a very short time by the invention or importation of bronze, which, as already stated, implies a supply of tin, and a common knowledge of the art of alloying copper with it in the same uniform proportion which gives the best result. but in the historic records and remains of egypt and chaldæa, which go so much further back, bronze had evidently been long known when history commences. the accadian name for tin, _id-kasdaru_, is the oldest known, and reappears in the sanscrit _kastira_, the assyrian _kasugeteira_, and the greek _kassiteros_. the oldest known name for copper is the accadian _urud_ or _urudu_, which singularly enough is preserved in the basque _urraida_, while _as rauta_ it reappears as the name for iron in finnish, and as _ruda_ for metal generally in old slavonic. in semitic babylonian, copper is _eru_, which confirms the induction that the metal was unknown to the primitive semites, and adopted by them from the previously existing accadian civilization. we are thus driven back by every line of evidence to the conclusion that egypt and chaldæa were in the full, bronze age, and had left the stone period far behind them, long before the primitive stocks of the more modern aryan and semitic populations of europe and western asia had emerged from the neolithic stage, and for an unknown period before the definite date when their history commences, certainly not less than years ago. we are also driven to the conclusion that other nations, capable of conducting extensive mining operations, must have been in existence in the caucasus, the hindoo-kush, the altai, or other remote regions; and that routes of international commerce must have been established by which the scarce but indispensable tin could be transported from these regions to the dense and civilized communities which had grown up in the alluvial valleys and deltas of the nile and the euphrates. it is very singular, however, that if such an intercourse existed, the knowledge of other objects of what may be called the first necessity, should have been so long limited to certain areas and races. for instance, in the case of the domestic animals, the horse was unknown in egypt and arabia till after the hyksos conquest, when in a short time it became common, and these countries supplied the finest breeds and the greatest number of horses for exportation. on the other hand, the horse must have been known at a very early period in chaldæa, for the tablet of sargon i., b.c. , talks of riding in brazen chariots over rugged mountains. this makes it the more singular that the horse should have remained so long unknown in egypt and arabia, for it is such an eminently useful animal, both for peace and war, that one would think it must have been introduced almost from the very first moment when trading caravans arrived. and yet tin must have arrived from regions where in all probability the horse had been long domesticated before the time of menes. the only explanation i can see is, that the tin must have come by sea, but by what maritime route could it have come prior to the rise of phoenician commerce, which was certainly not earlier than about b.c., or some years after the date of menes? could it have come down the euphrates or tigris and been exported from the great sea-ports of eridhu or ur by way of the persian gulf and red sea? this seems the more probable, as eridhu was certainly an important maritime port at the early period of chaldæan civilization. the diorite statues found at tell-loh by m. de sarzec are stated by an inscription on them to have come from sinai, and indeed they could have come from no other locality, as this is the only known site of the peculiar greenish-black basalt or diorite of which those statues and the similar one of the egyptian chephren of the second pyramid are made. and in this case the transport of such heavy blocks for such a distance could only have been effected by sea. there are traces also of the maritime commerce of eridhu having extended as far as india. teak wood, which could only have come from the malabar coast, has been found in the ruins of ur; and "sindhu," which is indian cloth or muslin, was known from the earliest times. it seems not improbable, therefore, that eridhu and ur may have played the part which was subsequently taken by sidon and tyre, in the prehistoric stages of the civilizations both of egypt and of chaldæa, and this is confirmed by the earliest traditions of the primitive accadians, which represent these cities on the persian gulf as maritime ports, whose people were well acquainted with ships, as we see in their version of the deluge, which, instead of the hebrew ark of noah, has a well-equipped ship with sails and a pilot, in the legend of xisuthros. the instance of the horse is the more remarkable, as throughout a great part of the stone period the wild horse was the commonest of animals, and afforded the staple food of the savages whose remains are found in all parts of europe. at one station alone, at solutre in burgundy, it is computed that the remains of more than , horses are found in the vast heap of _débris_ of a village of the stone period. what became of these innumerable horses, and how is it that the existence of the animal seems to have been so long unknown to the great civilized races? it is singular that a similar problem presents itself in america, where the ancestral tree of the horse is most clearly traced through the eocene and miocene periods, and where the animal existed in vast numbers both in the northern and southern continent, under conditions eminently favourable for its existence, and yet it became so completely extinct that there was not even a tradition of it remaining at the time of the spanish conquest. on the other hand, the ass seems to have been known from the earliest times, both to the egyptians and the semites of arabia and syria, and unknown to the aryans, whose names for it are all borrowed from the semitic. large herds of asses are enumerated among the possessions of great egyptian landowners as far back as the fifth and sixth dynasties, and no doubt it had been the beast of burden in egypt for time immemorial. it is in this respect only, viz. the introduction of the horse, that we can discern any foreign importation calculated to materially affect the native civilization of egypt, during the immensely long period of its existence. it had no doubt a great deal to do with launching egypt on a career of foreign wars and conquests under the eighteenth dynasty, and so bringing it into closer contact with other nations, and subjecting it to the vicissitudes of alternate triumphs and disasters, now carrying the egyptian arms to the euphrates and tigris, and now bringing assyrian and persian conquerors to thebes and memphis. but in the older ages of the first and middle empire, the ox, the ass, the sheep, ducks and geese, and the dog, seem to have been the principal domestic animals. gazelles also were tamed and fed in herds during the old empire, and the cat was domesticated from an african species during the middle empire. agriculture was conducted both in egypt and chaldæa much as it is in china at the present day, by a very perfect system of irrigation depending on embankments and canals, and by a sort of garden cultivation enabling a large population to live in a limited area. the people also, both in egypt and chaldæa, seem to have been singularly like the modern chinese, patient industrious, submissive to authority, unwarlike, practical, and prosaic. everything, therefore, conspires to prove that an enormous time must have elapsed before the dawn of history years ago, to convert the aborigines who left their rude stone implements in the sands and gravels of these localities, into the civilized and populous communities which we find existing there long before the reigns of menes and of sargon. chapter vi. prehistoric traditions. short duration of tradition--no recollection of stone age--celts taken for thunderbolts--stone age in egypt--palæolithic implements--earliest egyptian traditions--extinct animals forgotten--their bones attributed to giants--chinese and american traditions--traditions of origin of man--philosophical myths--cruder myths from stones, trees, and animals--totems--recent events soon forgotten--autochthonous nations--wide diffusion of prehistoric myths--the deluge--importance of, as test of inspiration--more definite than legend of creation--what the account of the deluge in genesis really says--date--extent--duration--all life destroyed except pairs preserved in the ark--such a deluge impossible--contradicted by physical science--by geology--by zoology--by ethnology--by history--how deluge myths arise--local floods--sea shells on mountains--solar myths--deluge of hasisadra--noah's deluge copied from it--revised in a monotheistic sense at a comparatively late period--conclusion--national view of inspiration. in passing from the historical period, in which we can appeal to written records and monuments, into that of palæontology and geology, where we have to rely on scientific facts and reasons, we have to traverse an intermediate stage in which legends and traditions still cast a dim and glimmering twilight. the first point to notice is that this, like the twilight of tropical evenings, is extremely brief, and fades almost at once into the darkness of night. it is singular in how short a time all memory is lost of events which are not recorded in some form of writing or inscription, and depend solely on oral tradition. thus it may be safely affirmed that no nation which has passed into the metal age retains any distinct recollection of that of polished stone, and _à fortiori_ none of the palæolithic period, or of the origins of their own race or of mankind. the proof of this is found in the fact that the stone axes and arrow-heads which are found so abundantly in many countries are everywhere taken for thunderbolts or fairy arrows shot down from the skies. this belief was well-nigh universal throughout the world; we find it in all the classical nations, in modern europe, in china, japan, and india. its antiquity is attested by the fact that neolithic arrow-heads have been found attached as amulets in necklaces from egyptian and etruscan tombs, and palæolithic celts in the foundations of chaldæan temples. in india many of the best specimens of palæolithic implements were obtained from the gardens of ryots, where they had been placed on posts, and offerings of ghee duly made to them. like so many old superstitions, this still lingers in popular belief, and the common name for the finely-chipped arrow-heads which are so plentifully scattered over the soil from scotland to japan, is that of elf-bolts, supposed to have been shot down from the skies by fairies or spirits. until the discoveries of boucher-de-perthes were confirmed only half a century ago, this belief was not only that of simple peasants, but of the learned men of all countries, and the volumes are innumerable that have been written to explain how the "cerauni," or stone-celts, taken to be thunderbolts, were formed in the air during storms. they are already described by pliny, and a chinese encyclopædia says that "some of these lightning stones have the shape of a hatchet, others of a knife, some are made like mallets. they are metals, stones, and pebbles, which the fire of the thunder has metamorphosed by splitting them suddenly and uniting inseparably different substances. on some of them a kind of vitrification is distinctly to be observed." the chinese philosopher was evidently acquainted with real meteorites and with the stone implements which were mistaken for them, and his account is comparatively sober and rational. but the explanations of the christian fathers and mediæval philosophers, and even of scientific writers down to a very recent period, are vastly more mystical. a single specimen may suffice which is quoted by tylor in his _early history of mankind_. tollius in figures some ordinary palæolithic stone axes and hammers, and tells us that "the naturalists say they are generated in the sky by a fulgurous exhalation conglobed in a cloud by the circumfused humour, and are as it were baked hard by intense heat, and the weapon becomes pointed by the damp mixed with it flying from the dry part, and leaving the other end denser, but the exhalations press it so hard that it breaks out through the cloud and makes thunder and lightning." but these attempts at scientific explanations were looked upon with disfavour by theologians, the orthodox belief being that the "cerauni" were the bolts by which satan and his angels had been driven from heaven into the fiery abyss. these speculations, however, of later ages are of less importance for our present purpose than the fact that in no single instance can anything like a real historical tradition be found connecting the stone age with that of metals, and giving a true account of even the latest forms of neolithic implements. this is the more remarkable in the case of egypt, where historical records go back so very far, for here, as we have seen in a previous chapter, the relics of a stone age exist in considerable numbers. there is every probability, therefore, that egyptian civilization had been developed, mainly on the spot, from the rude beginnings of a palæolithic age, through the incipient civilization of the neolithic, into the age of metals, and the advanced civilization which preceded the consolidation of the empire under menes and the commencement of history.[ ] and yet no tradition, with a pretence to be historical, goes back farther than with a very dim and nickering light for a few centuries before menes, when the horsheshu, or priests of horus, ruled independent cities, and small districts attached to the temples. there are accounts of some passages of the todtenbuch being taken from old hymns written on goatskin in the time of these horsheshu, and of historical temples built on plans taken from older temples and attributed to thoth; and it seems probable also that the sphynx and its temple may date from the same period. but beyond these few and vague instances, there is nothing to confirm the statement attributed to manetho, that, prior to menes, historical kings had reigned in thebes for years, in memphis for years, and in this for years; before whom came heroes and kings for years, heroes for years, and gods for , years. [ ] stone implements were used for common purposes, especially for sickles to cut heads of corn, down to a comparatively late period, but as spurrell observes in petrie's, _illahun kahun and gurob_, "these implements do not represent work of the stone age properly considered." they are not so much survivals of neolithic forms, as imitations, in the cheaper material of flint, of metallic forms for rough work and common use. the use of a flint knife for making the first incision on the corpse in preparing it for a mummy, is the only fact which looks like a survival from neolithic into historical times. the disappearance of all historical recollections of a stone age is paralleled by the oblivion of the origin of the remains of the great extinct quaternary animals which were contemporary with man. everywhere we find the fossil bones of the elephant and rhinoceros attributed to monsters and giants, both in the ancient and modern worlds. st. augustine denounces infidels who do not believe that "men's bodies were formerly much greater than now," and quotes, in proof of the assertion, that he had seen himself "so huge a molar tooth of a man, that it would cut up into a hundred teeth of ordinary men,"--doubtless the molar of a fossil elephant. marcus scaurus brought to rome from joppa the bones of the monster who was to have devoured andromeda. the chinese encyclopædia, already referred to, describes the "fon-shu, an animal which dwells in the extreme cold on the coast of the northern sea, which resembles a rat in shape, but is as big as an elephant, and lives in dark caverns, ever shunning the light. there is got from it an ivory as white as that of an elephant;" evidently referring to the frozen mammoths found in siberia. similar circumstances gave rise to the same myth in south america, and the natives told darwin that the skeletons of the mastodon on the banks of the parana were those of a huge burrowing animal, like the bizchaca or prairie-rat. numerous similar instances are given by tyler in his _early history of mankind_, and among the whole multitude of this class of myths, there is only one which has the least semblance of being derived from actual tradition, viz. the bas-relief of the sacrifice of a human victim by a mexican priest, who wears a mask of an animal with a trunk resembling an elephant or mastodon; and certain vague traditions among some of the red indian tribes speak of an animal with an arm protruding from its shoulder. it is more probable, however, that these may have been derived from traditions brought over from asia like the mexican calendar, or be creations of the fancy, like dragons and griffins, inspired by some idea of an exaggerated tapir, than that, in this solitary instance, a mexican priest should have been actually a contemporary of the mammoth or mastodon. if fossil animals have thus given rise everywhere to legends of giants, fossil shells have played the same part as regards legends of a deluge. these are in many cases so abundant at high levels that they could not fail to be observed, and, if observed, to be attributed to the sea having once covered these levels, and inundated all the earth except the highest peaks. the tradition of an universal deluge is however so important that i reserve it for separate consideration at the end of the present chapter. if then all memory of a period so comparatively recent as that of the neolithic stone age and of the latest extinct animals was completely lost when the first dawn of history commences, it follows as a matter of course that nothing like an historical tradition survives anywhere of the immensely longer palæolithic period and of the origin of man. man in all ages has asked himself how he came here, and has indulged in speculations as to his origin. these speculations have taken a form corresponding very much to the stage of culture and civilization to which he had attained. they are of almost infinite variety, but may be classed generally under three heads. those nations which had attained a sufficient degree of culture to personify first causes and the phenomena of nature as gods, attribute the creation of the world and of man to some one or more of these gods; and as they advance further in philosophical reasonings, embellish the myth with allegories embodying the problems of human existence. thus if bel makes man out of clay, and moulds him with his own blood; or jehovah fashions him from dust, and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life; in each case it is an obvious allegory to explain the fact that man has a dual nature, animal and spiritual. so the myth of the garden of eden, the temptation by the serpent, the trees of knowledge and of life, and the fall of adam, which we see represented on a babylonian cylinder as well as in the second chapter of genesis, is obviously an allegorical attempt to explain what remains to this day the perplexing problem of the origin of evil. these philosophical myths are, however, very various among different nations. thus the orthodox belief of , , of hindoos is that mankind were created in castes, the brahmins by an emanation from brahma's head, the warriors from his chest, the traders and artisans from his legs, and the sudras or lowest caste from his feet; obviously an _ex post facto_ myth to account for the institution of castes, and to stamp it with divine authority. but before reflection had risen to this level, and among the savage and semi-barbarous people of the present day, we find much more crude speculations, which, in the main, correspond with the kindred creeds of animism and totemism. when life and magical powers were attributed to inanimate objects, nothing was more natural than to suppose that stones and trees might be converted into men and women, and conversely men and women into trees and stones. thus we find the stone theory very widely diffused. even with a people so far advanced as the early greeks, it meets us in the celebrated fable of deucalion and pyrrha peopling the earth by throwing stones behind them, which turned into men and women; and the same myth, of stones turning into the first men, meets us at the present day in almost every reliable myth of creation, brought home by missionaries and anthropologists from africa, america, and polynesia. in some cases trees take the place of stones, and transformations of men into both are among the commonest occurrences. from daphne into a laurel, and lot's wife into a pillar of salt, down to the cornish maidens transformed into a circle of stones for dancing on sunday, we find everywhere that wherever natural objects present any resemblance to the human figure, such myths sprung up spontaneously in all ages and countries. another great school of creation-myths originates in the widespread institution of the totem. it is a step in advance of the pure fetich-worship of stocks and stones, to conceive of animals as having thought and language, and being in fact men under a different form. from this it is a short step to endowing them with magical attributes and supernatural powers, adopting them as patrons of tribes and families, and finally considering them as ancestors. myths of this kind are common among the lower races, especially in america, where many of the tribes considered themselves as descendants of some great bear or elk, or of some extremely wise fox or beaver, and held this belief so firmly, that intermarriage among members of the same totem was considered to be incestuous. the same system prevails among most races at an equally low or lower stage of civilization, as in australia; and there are traces of its having existed among old civilized nations at remote periods. thus the animal-worship of egypt was probably a survival of the old faith in totems, differing among different clans, which was so firmly rooted in the popular traditions, that the priests had to accommodate their religious conceptions to it, as the christian fathers did with so many pagan superstitions. the division of the twelve tribes of israel seems also to have been originally totemic, judging from the old saga in which jacob gives them his blessing, identifying judah with a lion, dan with an adder, and so on. and even at the present day, the crest of the duke of sutherland carries us back to the time when the wild-cat was the badge, and very probably some great and fierce wild-cat the ancestor, in popular belief, of the fighting clan chattan. but in all these various and discordant myths of the creation of man, it is evident there is nothing which comes within a hundred miles of being a possible historical reminiscence of anything that actually occurred; and they must be relegated to the same place as the corresponding myths of the creation of the animal world and of the universe. they are neither more or less credible than the theories that the earth is a great tortoise floating on the water, or the sky a crystal dome with windows in it to let down the rain, and stars hung from it like lamps to illuminate a tea-garden. even when we come to comparatively recent periods, and have to deal with traditions, not of how races originated, but how they came into the abodes where we find them, it is astonishing how little we can depend on anything prior to written records. most ancient nations fancied themselves autochthonous, and took a pride in believing that they sprang from the soil on which they lived. and this is also the case with ruder races, unless where the migrations and conquests recorded are of very recent date. thus ancient egypt believed itself to be autochthonous, and traced the origin of arts and sciences to native gods. chaldæa, according to berosus, was inhabited from time immemorial by a mixed multitude, and though oannes brought letters and arts from the shores of the persian gulf, he taught them to a previously existing population. this is the more remarkable as the name of accad and the form of the oldest accadian hieroglyphics make it almost certain that they had migrated into mesopotamia from the highlands of kurdistan or of central asia. the athenians also and other greek tribes all claimed to be autochthonous, and their legends of men springing from the stones of deucalion, and from the dragon's teeth of cadmus, all point in the same direction. the great aryan races also have no trustworthy traditions of any ancient migrations from asia into europe, or _vice versâ_, and their languages seem to denote a common residence during the formation of the different dialects in those regions of northern europe and southern russia in which we find them living when we first catch sight of them. the only exception to this is in the record in the zendavesta of successive migrations from the pamer or altai, down the oxus and jaxartes into bactria, and from thence into persia. but this is not found in the original portion of the zendavesta, and only in later commentaries on it, and is very probably a legend introduced to exemplify the constant warfare between ormuzd and ahriman. the hindoo vedas contain no history, and the inference that the aryans lived in the punjaub when the rig-veda was composed, and conquered hindostan later, is derived from the references contained in the oldest hymns which point to that conclusion, rather than from any definite historical record. rome again had no tradition of umbrian pile-dwellers descending from neolithic switzerland, expelling iberians, and being themselves expelled by etruscans. it is singular, considering the almost total absence of genuine historical traditions, how certain myths and usages have been universally diffused, and come down to the present day from a very remote antiquity. the identity of the days of the week, based on a highly artificial and complicated calculation of chaldæan astrology, has been already referred to as a striking instance of the wide diffusion of astronomical myths in very early times. many of the most popular nursery tales also, such as jack the giant-killer, jack and the beanstalk, and cinderella, are found almost in the same form in the most remote regions and among the most various races, both civilized and uncivilized, and many of them are obviously derived from the oldest and simplest forms of solar myths. i come now to the tradition of a deluge, which is most important both on account of its prevalence among a number of different races and nations, often remote from one another, and because it affords the most immediate and crucial test of the claim of the bible to be taken as a literally true and inspired account, not only of matters of moral and religious import, but of all the historical and scientific facts recorded in its pages. the confession of faith of an able and excellent man, the late mr. spurgeon, and adopted by fifteen or twenty other nonconformist ministers, says-- "we avow our firmest belief in the verbal inspiration of all holy scripture as originally given. to us the bible does not merely _contain_ the word of god, but _is_ the word of god." following this example, thirty-eight clergymen of the church of england have put forward a similar declaration. they say-- "we solemnly profess and declare our unfeigned belief in all the canonical scriptures of the old and new testaments, as handed down to us by the undivided church in the original languages. we believe that they are inspired by the holy ghost; that they are what they profess to be; that they mean what they say; and that they declare incontrovertibly the actual historical truth in all records, both of past events, and of the delivery of predictions to be thereafter fulfilled." it is perfectly obvious that for those who accept these confessions of faith, not only the so-called "higher biblical criticism," but all the discoveries of modern science, from galileo and newton down to lyall and darwin, are simple delusions. there can be no question that if the words of the old testament are "literally inspired," and "mean what they say," they oppose an inflexible _non possumus_ to all the most certain discoveries of astronomy, geology, zoology, biology, egyptology, assyriology, and other modern sciences. now the account of the deluge in genesis affords the readiest means of bringing this theory to the test, and proving or disproving it, by the process which euclid calls the _reductio ad absurdum_. not that other narratives, such as those of the creation in genesis, do not contain as startling contradictions, if we keep in mind the assertion of the orthodox thirty-eight, that the inspired words of the old testament "mean what they say," _i.e._ that they mean what they were necessarily taken to mean by contemporaries and long subsequent generations; for instance, that if the inspired writer says days defined by a morning and an evening, he means natural days, and not indefinitely long periods. but this is just what the defenders of orthodoxy always ignore, and all the attempts at reconciling the accounts of creation in genesis with the conclusions of science turn on the assumption that the inspired writers do _not_ "mean what they say," but something entirely different. if they say "days," they mean geological periods of which no reader had the remotest conception until the present century. if they say that light was made before the sun, and the earth before the sun, moon, and stars, they really mean, in some unexplained way, to indicate newton's law of gravity, laplace's nebular theory, and the discoveries of the spectroscope. by using words therefore in a non-natural sense, and surrounding them with a halo of mystical and misty eloquence, they evade bringing the pleadings to a distinct and definite issue such as the popular mind can at once understand. but in the case of the deluge no such evasion is possible. the narrative is a specific statement of facts alleged to have occurred at a comparatively recent date, not nearly so remote as the historical records of egypt and chaldæa, and which beyond all question must be either true or false. but if false, there is an end of any attempt to consider the whole scientific and historical portions of the bible as written by divine inspiration; for the narrative is not one of trivial importance, but of what is really a second creation of all life, including man, from a single or very few pairs miraculously preserved and radiating from a single centre.[ ] [ ] the following arguments so closely resemble those of professor huxley in a recent article in the _nineteenth century_, that it may be well to state that they were written before i had seen that article. i insert them not as attempting to vie with the greatest living master of english prose, but as showing that the same conclusions inevitably force themselves on all who understand the first rudiments of modern science. consider then what the narrative of the deluge really tells us. first, as to date. the hebrew bible, from which our own is translated, gives the names of the ten generations from noah to abraham, with the precise dates of each birth and death, making the total number of years from the flood to abraham. for abraham, assuming him to be historical, we have a synchronism which fixes the date within narrow limits. he was a contemporary of chedorlaomer, or khuder-lagomar, known to us from chaldæan inscriptions as one of the last of the elamite dynasty, who subverted the old dynasty in the year b.c., and who reigned for years. abraham's date is, therefore, approximately about b.c., and that of the deluge about b.c. the septuagint version assigns years more than that of the hebrew bible for the interval between abraham and noah; but this is only done by increasing the already fabulous age of the patriarchs. accepting, however, this septuagint version, though it has been constantly repudiated by the jews themselves, and by nearly all christian authorities from st. jerome down to archbishop usher, the date of the deluge cannot be carried further back than to about b.c., a date at least , and more probably , years later than that shown by the records and monuments of egypt and chaldæa, when great empires, populous cities, and a high degree of civilization already existed in those countries. the statement of the bible, therefore, is that, at a date not earlier than b.c., or at the very earliest b.c., a deluge occurred which "covered all the high hills that were under the whole heaven," and prevailed upon the earth for days before it began to subside; that seven months and sixteen days elapsed before the tops of the mountains were first seen; and that only after twelve months and ten days from the commencement of the flood was the earth sufficiently dried to allow noah and the inmates of the ark to leave it. naturally all life was destroyed, with the exception of noah and those who were with him in the ark, consisting of his wife, his three sons and their wives, and pairs, male and female, of all beasts, fowls, and creeping things; or, as another account has it, seven pairs of clean beasts and of birds, and single pairs of unclean beasts and creeping things. the statement is absolutely specific: "all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon earth, and every man." and again: "every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both men and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth; and noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." and finally, when the ark was opened, "god spake unto noah and said, go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons and sons' wives with thee. bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." it is evident that such a narrative cannot be tortured into any reminiscence of a partial and local inundation. it might possibly be taken for a poetical exaggeration of some vague myth or tradition of a local flood, if it were found in the legends of some early races, or semi-civilized tribes. but such an interpretation is impossible when the narrative is taken, as orthodox believers take it, as a divinely-inspired and literally true account contained in one of the most important chapters in the history of the relations of man to god. in this view it is a still more signal instance than the fall of adam, of god's displeasure with sin and its disastrous consequences, of his justice and mercy in sparing the innocent and rewarding righteousness; it establishes a new departure for the human race, a new distinction between the chosen people of israel and the accursed canaanites, based not on cain's murder of abel, but on ham's irreverence towards his father; and it introduces a covenant between god and noah, which continued through abraham and david, and became the basis of jewish nationality and of the christian dispensation. if in such a narrative there are manifest errors, the theory of divine inspiration obviously breaks down, and the book which contains it must be amenable to the ordinary rules of historical criticism. now, that no such deluge as that described in genesis ever took place is as certain as that the earth moves about the sun. physical science tells us that it never _could_ have occurred; geology, zoology, ethnology, and history all tell us alike that it never _did_ occur. physical science tells us two things about water: that it cannot be made out of nothing, and that it always finds its level. in order to cover the highest mountains on the earth and remain stationary at that level for months, we must suppose an uniform shell of water of six miles in depth to be added to the existing water of the earth. even if we take ararat as the highest mountain covered, the shell must have been three miles in thickness over the whole globe. where did this water come from, and where did it go to? rain is simply water raised from the seas by evaporation, and is returned to them by rivers. it does not add a single drop of water to that already existing on the earth and in its atmosphere. the heaviest rains do nothing but swell rivers and inundate the adjacent flat lands to a depth of a few feet, which rapidly subsides. the only escape from this law of nature is to suppose some sudden convulsion, such as a change in the position of the earth's axis of rotation, by which the existing waters of the earth were drained in some latitudes and heaped up in others. but any such local accumulation of water implies a sudden and violent rush to heap it up in forty days, and an equally violent rush to run it down to its old level when the disturbing cause ceased, as it must have done in days. such a disturbance in recent times is not only inconsistent with all known facts, but with the positive statement of the narrative that the whole earth was covered, and that the ark floated quietly on the waters, drifting slowly northwards, until it grounded on ararat. the only other alternative is to suppose a subsidence of the land below the level of the sea. but a subsidence which carried a whole continent , , or even feet down, followed by an elevation which brought it back to the old level, both accomplished within the space of twelve months, is even more impossible than a cataclysmal deluge of water. such movements are now, and have been throughout all the geological periods, excessively slow, and certainly not exceeding, at the very outside, a few feet in a century. and, if physical science shows that no such deluge as that described in genesis could have occurred, geology is equally positive that it never did occur. the drift and boulders which cover a great part of europe and north america are beyond all doubt glacial, and not diluvial. they are strictly limited by the extension of glaciers and ice-sheets, and of the streams flowing from them. the high-level gravels in which human remains are found in conjunction with those of extinct animals, are the result of the erosion of valleys by rivers. they are not marine, they are interstratified with beds of sand and silt, containing often delicate fluviatile shells, which were deposited when the stream ran tranquilly, as the coarser gravels were when it ran with a stronger torrent. and the gravels of adjacent valleys, even when separated by a low water-shed, are not intermixed, but each composed of the _débris_ of its own system of drainage, by which small rivers like the somme and the avon have, in the course of ages, scooped out their present valleys to an extent of more than feet in depth and two miles in width. masses of loose sand, volcanic ashes, and other incoherent materials of tertiary formation remain on the surface, which must have been swept away by anything resembling a diluvial wave. and, above all, egypt and other flat countries adjoining the sea, such as the deltas of the euphrates, the ganges, and the mississippi, which must have been submerged by a slight elevation of the sea or subsidence of the land, show by borings, carried in some cases to the depth of feet and upwards, nothing but an accumulation of such tranquil deposits as are now going on, continued for hundreds of centuries, and uninterrupted by anything like a marine or diluvial deposit. zoology is even more emphatic than geology in showing the impossibility of accepting the narrative of the deluge as a true representation of actual events. whoever wrote it must have had ideas of science as infantile as those of the children who are amused by a toy ark in the nursery. his range of vision could hardly have extended beyond the confines of his own country. and, if a _reductio ad absurdum_ were needed of the fallacies to which reconcilers are driven, it would be afforded by sir j. dawson's comparison of the ark to an american cattle-steamer. recollect that the date assigned to the deluge affords no time for the development of new species and races, since every "living substance was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground," except the pairs preserved in the ark. it is a question, therefore, not of one pair of bears, but of many--polar, grizzly, brown, and all the varieties, down to the pigmy bear of sumatra. so of cattle: there must have been not only pairs of the wild and domestic species of europe, but of the gaur of india, the brahmin bull, the yak, the musk-ox, and of all the many species of buffaloes and bisons. if we take the larger animals only, there must have been several pairs of elephants, rhinoceroses, camels, horses, oxen, buffaloes, elk, deer and antelopes, apes, zebras, and innumerable others of the herbivora, to say nothing of lions, tigers, and other carnivora. let any one calculate the cubic space which such a collection would require for a year's voyage under hatches, and he will see at once the absurdity of supposing that they could have been stowed away in the ark. and this is only the beginning of the difficulty, for all the smaller animals, all birds, and all creeping things have also to be accommodated, and to live together for a year under conditions of temperature and otherwise which, if suited for some, must inevitably have been fatal for others. how did polar bears, lemmings, and snowy owls live in a temperature suited for monkeys and humming-birds? then there is the crowning difficulty of the food. go to the zoological gardens, and inquire as to the quantity and bulk of a year's rations for elephants, giraffes, and lions, or multiply by the daily allowance of hay and oats for horses, and of grass of green food for bullocks, and he will soon find that the bulk required for food is far greater than that of the animals. and what did the birds and creeping things feed upon? were there rats and mice for the owls, gnats for the swallows, worms and butterflies for the thrushes, and generally a supply of insects for the lizards, toads, and other insectivora, whether birds, reptiles, or mammals? and of the humbler forms which live on microscopic animals and on each other, were they also included in the destruction of "every living substance," and was the earth repeopled with them from the single centre of ararat? here also zoology has a decisive word to say. the earth could not have been repeopled, within any recent geological time, from any single centre, for in point of fact it is divided into distinct zoological provinces. the fauna of australia, for instance, is totally different from that of europe, asia, and america. how did the kangaroo get there, if he is descended from a pair preserved in the ark? did he perchance jump at one bound from ararat to the antipodes? ethnology again takes up a limited branch of the same subject, but one which is more immediately interesting to us--that of the variety of human races. the narrative of genesis states positively that "every man in whose nostrils was the breath of life" was destroyed by the flood, except those who were saved in the ark, and that "the whole earth was overspread" of the three sons of noah--shem, ham, and japheth. that is, it asserts distinctly that all the varieties of the human race have descended from one common ancestor, noah, who lived not more than years ago. consider the vast variety and diversity of human races existing now, and in some of the most typical instances shown by egyptian and chaldæan monuments to have existed before noah was born--the black and woolly-haired negroes, the yellow mongolians, the australians, the negritos, the hottentots, the pygmies of stanley's african forest, the esquimaux, the american red indians, and an immense number of others, differing fundamentally from one another in colour, stature, language, and almost every trait, physical and moral. to suppose these to have all descended from a single pair, noah and his wife, and to have "spread over the whole earth" from ararat, since years b.c., is simply absurd. no man of good faith can honestly say that he believes it to be true; and, if not true, what becomes of inspiration? if anything were wanting to complete the demonstration, it would be furnished by history. we have perfectly authentic historical records, confirmed by monuments, extending in egypt to a date certainly years older than that assigned for noah's deluge; and similar records in chaldæa probably going back as far. in none of these is there any mention of an universal deluge as an historical event actually occurring within the period of time embraced by those records. the only reference to such a deluge is contained in one chapter of a chaldæan epic poem based on a solar myth, and placed in an immense and fabulous antiquity. in egypt the case is, if possible, even stronger, for here the configuration of the nile valley is such that anything approaching an universal deluge must have destroyed all traces of civilization, and buried the country thousands of feet under a deep ocean. even a very great local inundation must have spread devastation far and wide and been a memorable event in all subsequent annals. when remarkable natural events, such as earthquakes, did occur, they are mentioned in the annals of the reigning king, but no mention is made of any deluge. on the contrary, all the records and monuments confirm the statement made by the priests of heliopolis to herodotus when they showed him the statues of the successive high priests who had all been "mortal men, sons of mortal men," that during this long period there had been no change in the average duration of human life, and no departure from the ordinary course of nature. when this historical evidence is added to that of geology, which shows that nothing resembling a deluge could have occurred in the valleys of the nile or euphrates without leaving unmistakable traces of its passage which are totally absent, the demonstration seems as conclusive as that of any of the propositions of euclid. it remains to consider how so many traditions of a deluge should be found among so many different races often so widely separated. there are three ways in which deluge-myths must have been inevitably originated. . from tradition of destructive local floods. . from the presence of marine shells on what is now dry land. . from the diffusion of solar myths like that of izdubar. there can be no doubt that destructive local floods must have frequently occurred in ancient and prehistoric times as they do at the present day. such an inundation as that of the yang-tse-kiang, which only the other year was said to have destroyed half a million of people, or the hurricane wave which swept over the sunderbunds, must have left an impression which, among isolated and illiterate people, might readily take the form of an universal deluge. and such catastrophes must have been specially frequent in the early post-glacial period, when the ice-dams, which converted many valleys into lakes, were melting. but i am inclined to doubt whether the tradition of such local floods was ever preserved long enough to account for deluge-myths. all experience shows that the memory of historical events fades away with surprising rapidity when it is not preserved by written records. if, as xenophon records, all memory of the great city of nineveh had disappeared in years after its destruction, how can it be expected that oral tradition shall preserve a recollection of prehistoric local floods magnified into universal deluges? and when the deluge-myths of different nations are examined closely, it generally appears that they have had an origin rather in solar myths or cosmogonical speculations, than in actual facts. for instance, the tradition of a deluge in mexico has often been referred to as a confirmation of the noachian flood. but when looked into, it appears that this mexican deluge was only a part of their mythical cosmogony which told of four successive destructions and renovations of the world by the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. the first period being closed by earthquakes, the second by hurricanes, the third by volcanoes, it did not require any local tradition to ensure the fourth being closed by a flood. again, deluge-myths must have inevitably arisen from the presence of marine shells, fossil and recent, in many localities where they were too numerous to escape notice. if palæolithic stone implements and bones of fossil elephants gave rise to myths of thunderbolts and giants, sea-shells on mountain-tops must have given rise to speculations as to deluges. at the very beginning of history, egyptian and chaldæan astronomers were sufficiently advanced in science to wish to account for such phenomena, and to argue that where sea-shells were found the sea must once have been. many of the deluge-myths of antiquity, such as that of deucalion and pyrrha, look very much as if this had been their origin. they are too different from the chaldæan and biblical deluge, as for instance in repeopling the world by stones, to have been copied from the same original, and they fit in with the very general belief of ancient nations that they were autochthonous. in a majority of cases, however, i believe it will be found that deluge-myths have originated from some transmission, more or less distorted, of the very ancient chaldæan astronomical myths of the passage of the sun through the signs of the zodiac. this is clearly the case in the hindoo mythology, where the fish-god ea-han, or oannes, is introduced as a divine fish who swims up to the ark and guides it to a place of refuge. the legend in genesis is much closer to the original myth, and in fact almost identical with that of the deluge of hasisadra in the chaldæan epic, discovered by mr. george smith among the clay tablets in the british museum. this poem was obviously based on an astronomical myth. it was in twelve chapters, dedicated to the sun's passage through the twelve signs of the zodiac. the adventures of izdubar, like those of heracles, have obvious reference to these signs, and to the sun's birth, growth, summer splendour, decline to the tomb when smitten with the sickness of approaching winter by the incensed nature-goddess, and final new birth and resurrection from the nether world. the deluge is introduced as an episode told to izdubar during his descent to the lower regions by his ancestor hasisadra, one of the god-kings, who are said to have reigned for periods of tens of thousands of years in a fabulous antiquity. it has every appearance of being a myth to commemorate the sun's passage through the rainy sign of aquarius, just as the contests of izdubar and heracles with leo, taurus, draco, sagittarius, etc., symbolize his passage through other zodiacal constellations. it forms the eleventh chapter of the epic of izdubar, corresponding to the eleventh month of the chaldæan year, which was the time of heavy rains and floods. now, this deluge of hasisadra, as related by berosus, and still more distinctly by smith's izdubar tablets, corresponds so closely with that of noah that no doubt can remain that one is taken from the other. all the principal incidents and the order of events are the same, and even particular expressions, such as the dove finding no rest for the sole of her foot, are so identical as to show that they must have been taken from the same written record. even the name noah is that of nouah, the semitic translation of the accadian god who presided over the realm of water, and navigated the bark or ark of the sun across it, when returning from its setting in the west to its rising in the east. the chief difference is the same as in the chaldæan and biblical cosmogonies of the creation of the universe--viz. that the former is polytheistic, and the latter monotheistic. where the former talks of bel, ea, and istar, the latter attributes everything to jehovah or elohim. thus the warning to hasisadra is given in a dream sent by ea, who is a sort of chaldæan prometheus, or kindly god, who wishes to save mankind from the total destruction contemplated by the wrathful superior god, bel; while in genesis it is "elohim said unto noah." in genesis the altar is built to the lord, who smells the sweet savour of the sacrifice, while in the chaldæan legend the altar is built to the seven gods, who "smelt the sweet savour of sacrifice, and swarmed like bees about it." the chaldæan narrative is more prolix, more realistic, and, on the whole, more scientific. that is, it mitigates some of the more obvious impossibilities of the noachian narrative. instead of an ark, there is a ship with a steersman, which was certainly more likely to survive the perils of a long voyage on the stormy waters of an universal ocean. the duration of the deluge and of the voyage is shortened from a year to a little more than a month; more human beings are saved, as hasisadra takes on board not his own family only, but several of his friends and relations; and the difficulty of repeopling the earth from a single centre is diminished by throwing the date of the deluge back to an immense and mythical antiquity. on the other hand, the moral and religious significance of the legend is accentuated in the hebrew narrative. it is no longer the capricious anger of an offended bel which decrees the destruction of mankind, but the righteous indignation of the one supreme god against sin, tempered by justice and mercy towards the upright man who was "perfect in his generations." if we had to decide on internal evidence only, there could be little doubt that the hebrew narrative is of much later date than the chaldæan. it is, in fact, very much what might be expected from a revised edition of it, made at the date which is assigned by all competent critics for the first collection of the legends and traditions of the hebrew people into a sacred book--viz. at or about the date when the first mention is made of such a book as being discovered in the temple in the reign of josiah. kuenen, wellhausen, and other leading authorities place the date of the elohistic and jehovistic narratives, which include the creation and deluge, even later; and, if not compiled during or after the babylonian captivity, they were certainly revised, and have come down to us in their present form after that event. even the most orthodox critics, such as dillman and canon driver, admit that they were written in the golden age of hebrew literature, and in the spirit of the later prophets, such as isaiah and jeremiah, and do not think it possible to assign to them an earlier date than or b.c., while many parts may be much later. but the question is not one of internal evidence only, but of the positive fact that, even if these chapters of genesis were written by moses, or about b.c., and even accepting the septuagint addition of years to the already mythical duration of the lives of the patriarchs, the date of the biblical deluge cannot be carried back beyond or b.c., while a practically identical account of the same event is given, as a legendary episode of fabulous antiquity, in an epic poem, based on a solar myth, which was certainly reduced to writing many centuries before the earliest possible date of the scriptural deluge. it is absolutely certain also that the egyptian records and traditions, which extend in an uninterrupted succession of dynasties and kings for at least years before this alleged universal deluge, know nothing whatever of such an event; and, on the contrary, assume an unvarying continuance of the ordinary laws of nature. i have dwelt at such length on the deluge because it affords a crucial test of the dogma of divine inspiration for the whole of the bible. the account of the creation may be obscured by forced interpretations and misty eloquence; but there can be no mistake as to the specific and precise statements respecting the second creation of man and of animal life. either they are true or untrue; and the issue is one upon which any unprejudiced mind of ordinary intelligence and information can arrive at a conclusive verdict. if there never was an universal deluge within historical times; if the highest mountains were never covered; if all life was never destroyed, except the contents of the ark; if the whole animal creation, including beasts, birds, and creeping things, never lived together for twelve months cooped up in it; and if the earth was not repeopled with all the varieties of the human race, and all the orders, genera, and species of animal life, from a single centre at ararat, then the bible is not inspired as regards its scientific and historical statements. this, however, in no way affects the question of the inspiration of the religious and moral portions of the bible. i have sometimes thought how, if i were an advocate stating the case for the inspiration of the bible, i should be inclined to put it. i should start with bishop temple's definition of the first cause, a personal god, with faculties like ours, but so transcendentally greater that he had no occasion to be perpetually patching and mending his work, but did everything by an original impress, which included all subsequent evolution, as the nucleolus in the primitive ovum includes the whole evolution and subsequent life of the chicken, mammal, or man. i should go on to say that the bible has clearly been an important factor in this evolution of the human race; that it consists of two portions--one of moral and religious import, the other of scientific statements and theories, relating to such matters of purely human reason as astronomy, geology, literary criticism, and ancient history; and that these two parts are essentially different. it is quite conceivable that, on the hypothesis of a divine creator, one step in the majestic evolution from the original impress should have been that men of genius and devout nature should write books containing juster notions of man's relations to his maker than prevailed in the polytheisms of early civilizations, and thus gradually educating a peculiar people who accepted these writings as sacred, and preparing the ground for a still higher and purer religion. but it is not conceivable that this, which may be called inspiration, of the religious and moral teaching, should have been extended to closing the record of all human discovery and progress, by teaching, as it were by rote, all that subsequent generations have, after long and painful effort, found out for themselves. in point of fact, the bible does not teach such truths, for in the domain of science it is full of the most obvious errors, and teaches nothing but what were the primitive myths, legends, and traditions of the early races. it is to be observed also that, on the theory of "original impress," those errors are just as much a part of the evolution of the divine idea as the moral and religious truths. those who insist that all of the bible must be inspired or none, remind me of the king who said that, if god had only consulted him in his scheme of creation, he could have saved him from a good many mistakes. it is not difficult to understand how, even if we assume the theory of inspiration, or of original impress, for the religious portion of the bible, the other or scientific portion should have been purposely left open to all the errors and contradictions of the human intellect in its early strivings to arrive at some sort of conception of the origin of things, and of the laws of the universe. and also that a collection of narratives of different dates and doubtful authorship should bear on the face of them evidence of the writers sharing in the errors and prejudices, and generally adopting points of view of successive generations of contemporaries. assuming this theory, i can only say for myself that the removal of the wet blanket of literal inspiration makes me turn to the bible with increased interest. it is a most valuable record of the ways of thinking, and of the early conceptions of religion and science in the ancient world, and a most instructive chapter in the history of the evolution of the human mind from lower to higher things. above all, it is a record of the preparation of the soil, in a peculiar race, for christianity, which has been and is such an important factor in the history of the foremost races and highest civilizations. with all the errors and absurdities, all the crimes and cruelties which have attached themselves to it, but which in the light of science and free thought are rapidly being sloughed off, it cannot be denied that the european, and especially our english-speaking races, stand on a higher platform than if gibbon's suggestion had been realized, the arabs had been victorious at tours, and moslem ulemas had been expounding the koran at the university of oxford. chapter vii. the historical element in the old testament. moral and religious distinct from historical inspiration--myth and allegory--the higher criticism--all ancient history unconfirmed by monuments untrustworthy--cyrus--old testament and monuments--jerusalem--tablet of tell-el-amarna--flinders petrie's exploration of pre-hebrew cities--ramses and pi-thom--first certain synchronism rehoboam--composite structure of old testament--elohist and jehovist--priests' code--canon driver--results--book of chronicles--methods of jewish historians--post-exilic references--tradition of esdras--nehemiah and ezra--foundation of modern judaism--different from pre-exilic--discovery of book of the law under josiah--deuteronomy--earliest sacred writings--conclusions--aristocratic and prophetic schools--triumph of pietism with exile--both compiled partly from old materials--crudeness and barbarism of parts--pre-abrahamic period clearly mythical--derived from chaldæa--abraham--unhistoric character--his age--lot's wife--his double adventure with sarah--abraham to moses--sojourn in egypt--discordant chronology--josephus' quotation from manetho--small traces of egyptian influence--future life--legend of joseph--moses--osarsiph--life of moses full of fabulous legends--his birth--plagues of egypt--the exodus--colenso--contradictions and impossibilities--immoralities--massacres--joshua and the judges--barbarisms and absurdities--only safe conclusion no history before the monarchy--david and solomon--comparatively modern date. in dealing with the historical portion of the old testament, it is important to keep clearly in view the distinction between the historical and the religious and moral elements which are contained in the collection of works comprised in it. it is quite open to any one to hold that a certain moral and religious idea runs through the whole of these writings, which is gradually developed from rude beginnings into pure and lofty views of an almighty god who created all things, and who loves justice and mercy better than the blood of bulls and rams. it is open to him to call this inspiration, and to see it also in the series of influences and events by which the jews were moulded into a peculiar people, through whose instrumentality the three great monotheistic religions of the world, judaism, christianity, and mahometanism, superseded the older forms of polytheism. with inspiration in this sense i have no quarrel, any more than i have with bishop temple's definition of "original impress," though possibly i might think "evolution" a more modest term to apply, with our limited faculties and knowledge, to that "unceasing purpose" which the poet tells us "through the ages runs, and the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns." but admitting this, i do not see how any candid man, who is at all acquainted with the results of modern science and of historical criticism, can doubt that the materials with which this edifice was gradually built up, consist, to a great extent, of myths, legends, and traditions of rude and unscientific ages which have no pretension to be true statements, or real history. after all this is only applying to the old, the same principles of interpretation as are applied to the new testament. if the theory of literal inspiration requires us to accept the manifest impossibilities of noah's deluge, why does it not equally compel us to believe that there really was a certain rich man who fared sumptuously every day, a beggar named lazarus, and definite localities of a heaven and hell within speaking distance of one another, though separated by an impassable gulf. the assertion is made positively and without any reservation. there _was_ a rich man; lazarus _died, and was carried to abraham's bosom_; and dives _cried_ to abraham, who _answered him in a detailed colloquy_. but common sense steps in and says, all this never actually occurred, but was invented to illustrate by a parable the moral truth that it is wrong for the selfish rich to neglect the suffering poor. why should not common sense equally step in, and say of the narrative of the garden of eden with its trees of knowledge and of life, that here is an obvious allegory, stating the problem which has perplexed so many generations of men, of the origin of evil, man's dual nature, and how to reconcile the _fact_ of the existence of sin and suffering with the _theory_ of a benevolent and omnipotent creator? or again, why hesitate to admit that the story of the deluge is not literal history, but a version of a chapter of an old chaldæan solar epic, revised in a monotheistic sense, and used for the purpose of impressing the lesson that the ways of sin are ways of destruction, and that righteousness is the true path of safety? this is in effect what continental critics have long recognized, and what the most liberal and learned anglican divines of the present day are beginning to recognize; and we find men like canon driver, professor of hebrew at oxford, and canon cheyne, insisting on "the fundamental importance of disengaging the religious from the critical and historical problems of the old testament." we hear a great deal about the "higher criticism," and those who dislike its conclusions try to represent it as something very obscure and unintelligible, spun from the inner consciousness of german pedants. but really there is nothing obscure about it. it is simply the criticism of common sense applied from a higher point of view, which embraces, not the immediate subject only, but all branches of human knowledge which are related to it. this new criticism bears the same relation to the old, as mommsen's _history of rome_ does to the school-boy manuals which used to assume romulus and remus, numa and tarquin, as real men who lived and reigned just as certainly as julius cæsar and augustus, and who found nothing to stagger them in livy's speaking oxen. this criticism has now been carried so far by the labours of a number of earnest and learned men in all the principal countries of europe for the last century, that it has become to a great extent one of the modern sciences, and although there are still differences as to details, the leading outlines are no more in dispute than those of geology or biology. the conclusions of enlightened english divines like canons driver and cheyne are practically very nearly the same as those of foreign professors, like kuenen, welhausen, dillman, and renan, and any one who wishes to have any intelligent understanding of the hebrew bible must take them into consideration. although the old testament does not carry history back nearly as far as the records of egypt and chaldæa, still, when freed from the incubus of literal inspiration, it affords a very interesting picture of the ways of thinking of ancient races, of their manners and customs, their first attempts to solve problems of science and philosophy, and of their popular legends and traditions. it is with these historical results only that i propose to deal, and this not in the way of minute criticism, but of the broad, common-sense aspects of the question, and in view of the salient facts which rise up like guiding pillars in the vast mass of literature on the subject, of which it may be said, in the words of st. john's gospel, that if all that has been written were collected, "i suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books." i may begin by referring to the extreme uncertainty that attaches to all ancient history unless it is confirmed by monuments, or by comparison with annals of other nations which have been so confirmed. the instance of cyrus is a most instructive one. here is one of the greatest conquerors the world has seen, and the founder of a mighty empire; who flourished at a comparatively recent period, and whose life and exploits are related by well-known historians, such as herodotus, who wrote within a few generations after his death; confirmed also to a great extent by almost contemporary records of hebrew writers who were in close relations with him. the picture given of him is that of the son of a median princess by an obscure persian; in common with so many of the gods and heroes of antiquity, he is said to have been exposed in infancy and saved miraculously or marvellously; he incites the poor and hardy people of persia to revolt; defeats the medes, consolidates media and persia, conquers lydia and all asia minor; and finally, as the "servant of the most high god," and instrument of his vengeance on babylon, takes and destroys the cruel city of nebuchadnezzar, and allows the jews to return from exile out of sympathy with their religion. unexpectedly a tablet of cyrus himself turns up, and plays havoc alike with prophets and historians instead of being the son of an obscure persian father, he proves to be the legitimate descendant of a long line of elamite kings; instead of being a servant of the most high god, or even a zoroastrian, he appears as a devoted worshipper of the chaldæan gods, assur, merodach, and nebo; so far from being an instrument of divine vengeance for the destruction of babylon, he enters it without a battle, and is welcomed by its priests and people as an orthodox deliverer from the heretical tendencies of the last native king nabonidus. it is apparent from this and other records, that darius and not cyrus was the real founder of the persian empire. cyrus indeed founded a great empire, but it fell to pieces after the death of his son cambyses and the usurpation of the magi, and it was darius who, after years of hard fighting, suppressed revolts, really besieged and took babylon, and reconstituted the empire, which now for the first time became persian and zoroastrian. such an example teaches us to regard with considerable doubt all history prior to the fifth or sixth century b.c. which is not confirmed by contemporary monuments. of such nations, egypt and chaldæa (including in the latter term assyria) alone give us a series of annals, proved by monuments confirming native historians, which extend for some years back, from the commencement of what may be called the modern and scientific history of the greek period. the historical portion of the old testament is singularly deficient in this essential point of confirmation by monumental evidence. of hebrew inscriptions there are none except that of the time of hezekiah in the tunnel which brought water from the pool of siloam into the city; and the moabite stone, which confirms the narrative in kings of the siege of rabbah by jehoshaphat and jehoram, and their repulse after the sacrifice of his eldest son in sight of the armies by the king of moab. both of these inscriptions are of comparatively modern date, and close to or within the period when contact with the assyrian empire removes all uncertainty as to the history of judæa and israel under their later kings. the capture of jerusalem by david and the building of the temple there by solomon are doubtless historical facts, but they cannot be said to receive any additional confirmation from monuments. there have been so many destructions and rebuildings of temples on this site, that it is difficult to say to what era the lower strata belong. it is apparent, moreover, from the egyptian tablets of tel-el-amarna, the city founded by the heretic king, amenophis iv., about b.c., that jerusalem was a well-known city and sacred shrine prior to the hebrew conquest, and even to the date of the exodus. professor sayce tells us that on one of these tablets is written, "the city of the mountain of jerusalem (or urasalim), the city of the temple of the god uras, whose name there is marra, the city of the king, which adjoins the locality of the men of keilah." uras was a babylonian deity, and marra is probably the aramaic mare, "lord," from which it may be conjectured that mount moriah received its name from the temple of uras which stood there. some of the other tablets show that in the century before the exodus, jerusalem was occupied by a semi-independent king, who claimed to have derived his authority from "the oracle of the mighty king," which is explained to mean a deity, though he acknowledged the superiority of egypt, which still retained the conquests of the eighteenth dynasty in palestine. this, however, relates not to the hebrews, but to the state of things prior to their invasion, when palestine was occupied by comparatively civilized races of amorites and canaanites, and studded with numerous fenced cities. a glimpse at the later state of things, when those earlier nations and cities were overwhelmed by an invasion of a rude nomad race, as described in the books of joshua and judges, has been afforded quite recently by the exploration by mr. flinders petrie of a mound on the plain of southern judæa, which he is disposed to identify with the ancient lachish. a section of this mound has been exposed by the action of a brook, and it shows, as in dr. schliemann's excavations on the supposed site of troy at hissarlik, several successive occupations. the lowest and earliest city was fortified by a wall of sun-burnt bricks, feet inches thick, and which still stands to a height of feet. it shows signs of great antiquity, having been twice repaired, and a large accumulation of broken pottery was found both outside and within it. this city, which petrie identifies with one of those amorite cities which were "walled up to heaven," had been taken and destroyed, and the wall had fallen into ruins. then, to use professor sayce's words, "came a period when the site was occupied by rude herdsmen, unskilled in the arts either of making bricks or of fortifying towns. their huts were built of mud and rolled stones from the wady below, and resembled the wretched shanties of the half-savage bedouins, which we may still see on the outskirts of the holy land. they must have been inhabited by the invading israelitish tribes, who had overthrown the civilization which had long existed in the cities of canaan, and were still in a state of nomadic barbarism." above this come newer walls, which had been built and repaired three or four times over by the jewish kings, one of the later rebuildings being a massive brick wall feet thick, with a glacis of large blocks of polished stone traced to a height of feet, which petrie refers to the reign of manasseh. then comes a destruction, probably by the assyrians under sennacherib, and then other buildings of minor importance, the latest being those of a colony of greeks, who were swept away before the age of alexander the great. this discovery is of first-rate importance as regards the early history of the hebrews, and especially as to their relations with egypt, their sojourn there, and the exodus. if abraham really came from ur of chaldæa, the seat of a very old civilization; and if his descendants really lived for years or longer in egypt, mixed up a good deal with the native population, and for a great part of the time treated with favour, and occupying, if the legend of joseph be true, the highest posts in the land; and if they really left egypt, as described in the exodus, laden with the spoils of the egyptians, and led by moses, a priest of heliopolis skilled in all the lore of that ancient temple, it is inconceivable that in a single generation they should have sunk to such a level as that of the half-savage bedouins, as indicated by petrie's researches. and yet who else could have been the barbarians whose inroad destroyed the walled city of the amorites; and how well does this condition of rude savagery correspond with the bloodthirsty massacres, and the crude superstitions, which meet us at every turn in the traditions of the period between the departure from egypt and the establishment of a monarchy, which have been used by the compilers of the books of exodus, joshua, and judges? if we are ever to know anything beyond legend and conjecture as to this obscure period, it is to the pick and the spade that we must look for certain information, and the exploration of mounds of ruined cities must either confirm or modify petrie's inference as to the extreme rudeness of the nomad tribes who broke in upon the civilized inhabitants of older races. another exploration by mr. flinders petrie, that of the ruins of pi-thom and ramses, gives a certain amount of monumental confirmation to the statement in exodus i. , that during the captivity of the israelites in egypt they were employed as slaves by ramses ii. in building two treasure cities, ramses and pi-thom. some wall-paintings show slaves or forced labourers, of a jewish cast of countenance, working at the brick walls under the sticks of taskmasters. the first certain synchronism, however, between the egyptian monuments and jewish history is afforded by the capture of jerusalem by shishak in the reign of rehoboam in the year b.c. among the wall-paintings in the temple at thebes commemorating the triumphs of this campaign of shishak, is a portrait of a captive with jewish features, inscribed yuten-malek. this has been read "king of the jews," and taken to be a portrait of rehoboam, but it is more probable that it means "kingdom of the jews," and that the portrait is one representative of the country conquered. in any case this gives us the first absolutely certain date in old testament history. from this time downwards there is no reason to doubt that annals substantially correct, of successive kings of judah and israel, were kept, and after the reign of ahaz, when the great assyrian empire appeared on the scene, we have a full confirmation, from the assyrian monuments, of the principal events recorded in the book of kings. in fact, we may say that from the foundation of the jewish monarchy by saul and david, we are fairly in the stream of history, but that for everything prior to about b.c. we have to grope our way almost entirely by the light of the internal evidence afforded by the old testament itself. the first point evidently is to have some clear idea of what this old testament really consists of. until the recent era of scientific criticism, it was assumed to constitute, in effect, one volume, the earlier chapters of which were written by moses, and the later ones by a continuance of the same divine inspiration, which made the bible from genesis to chronicles one consistent and infallible whole, in which it was impossible that there should be any error or contradiction. such a theory could not stand a moment's investigation in the free light of reason. it is only necessary to read the two first chapters of genesis to see that the book is of a composite structure, made up of different and inconsistent elements. we have only to include in the first chapter the two first verses printed in the second chapter, and to write the original hebrew word "elohim" for "god," and "yahve" or jehovah for "lord god," to see this at a glance. the two accounts of the creation of the heaven and earth, of animal and vegetable life, and of man, are quite different. in the first man is created last, male and female, in the image of god, with dominion over all the previous forms of matter and of life, which have been created for his benefit. in the second man is formed from the dust of the earth immediately after the creation of the heavens and earth and of the vegetable world, and subsequently all the beasts of the field and fowls of the air are formed out of the ground, and brought to adam to name, while, last of all, woman is made from a rib taken from adam to be an helpmeet for him. the two narratives, elohistic and jehovistic, distinguished both by the different names of god, and by a number of other peculiarities, run almost side by side through a great part of the earlier portion of the old testament, presenting often flagrant contradictions. thus lamech, the father of noah, is represented in one as a descendant of cain, in the other of seth. canaan is in one the grandson of adam, in the other the grandson of noah. the elohist says that noah took two of each sort of living things, a male and a female, into the ark; the jehovist that he took seven pairs of clean, and single pairs of unclean animals. the difference between these narratives, the elohistic and jehovistic, is, however, only the first and most obvious instance of the composite character of the pentateuch. these narratives are distinguished from one another by a number of minute peculiarities of language and expressions, and they are both embedded in a much larger mass of matter which relates mainly to the sacrificial and ceremonial system of the israelites, and to the position, privileges, and functions of the priests and priestly caste of levites. this is commonly known as the "priests' code," and a great deal of it is obviously of late date, having relation to practices and ceremonies which had gradually grown up after the foundation of the temple at jerusalem. a vast amount of erudition has been expended in the minute analysis of these different documents by learned scholars who have devoted their lives to the subject. i shall not attempt to enter upon it, but content myself with taking the main results from canon driver, both because he is thoroughly competent from his knowledge of the latest foreign criticism and from his position as professor of hebrew, and because he cannot be suspected of any adverse leaning to the old orthodox views. in fact he is a strenuous advocate of the inspiration of the bible, taken in the larger sense of a religious and moral purpose underlying the often mistaken and conflicting statements of fallible writers. the conclusions at which he arrives, in common with a great majority of competent critics in all countries, are-- . that the old orthodox belief that the pentateuch is one work written by moses is quite untenable. . that the pentateuch and book of joshua have been formed by the combination of different _layers_ of narrative, each marked by characteristic features of its own. . that the elohistic and jehovistic narratives, which are the oldest portion of the collection, have nothing archaic in their style, but belong to the golden period of hebrew literature, the date assigned to them by most critics being not earlier than the eighth or ninth century b.c., though of course they may be founded partly on older legends and traditions; and, on the other hand, they contain many passages which could only have been introduced by some post-exilic editor. . that deuteronomy, which is placed almost unanimously by critics in the reign of either josiah or manasseh, is absolutely inconsistent in many respects with the priests' code, and apparently of earlier date, before the priestly system had crystallized into such a definite code of minute regulations, as we find it in the later days of jewish history after the exile. . there is a difference of opinion, however, in respect to the date of the priests' code, kuenen, wellhausen, and graf holding it to be post-deuteronomic, and probably committed to writing during the period from the beginning of the exile to the time of nehemiah, while dillman assigns the main body to about b.c., though admitting that additions may have been made as late as the time of ezra. being concerned mainly with the historical question, i shall not attempt to pursue this higher criticism further, but content myself with referring to the principal points which, judged by the broad conclusions of common-sense, stand out as guiding pillars in the mass of details. taking these in ascending order of time, they seem to me to be-- . the book of chronicles. . the foundation of modern judaism as described in the books of ezra and nehemiah. . the discovery of the book of the law or deuteronomy in the reign of josiah. the book of chronicles is important because we know its date, viz. about b.c., and to a great extent the materials from which it was compiled, viz. the books of samuel and kings. we have thus an object-lesson as to the way in which a hebrew writer, as late as b.c., or nearly years after the exile, composed history and treated the earlier records. it is totally different from the method of a classical or modern historian, and may be aptly described as a "scissors and paste" method. that is to say, he makes excerpts from the sources at his disposal; sometimes inserts them consecutively and without alteration; at other times makes additions and changes of his own; and, in canon driver's words, "does not scruple to omit what is not required for his purpose, and in fact treats his authorities with considerable freedom." he also does not scruple to put in the mouth of david and other historical characters of the olden time, speeches which, from their spirit, grammar, and vocabulary, are evidently of his own age and composition. if this was the method of a writer as late as b.c., whose work was afterwards received as canonical, two things are evident. first, that the canon of the earlier books of the old testament could not have been then fixed and invested with the same sacred authority as we find to be the case two or three centuries later, when the thora, or book of moses and the prophets, was regarded very much as the moslems regard the koran, as an inspired volume which it was impious to alter by a single jot or tittle. this late date for fixing the canon of the books of the old testament is confirmed by canon cheyne's learned and exhaustive work on the psalter, in which he shows that a great majority of the psalms, attributed to david, were written in the time of the maccabees, and that there are only one or two doubtful cases in which it can be plausibly contended that any of the psalms are pre-exilic. secondly, that if a writer, as late as b.c., could employ this method, and get his work accepted as a part of the sacred canon, a writer who lived earlier, say any time between the chronicler and the foundation of the jewish monarchy, might probably adopt the same methods. if the chronicler put a speech of his own composition into the mouth of david, the deuteronomist might well do so in the case of moses. according to the ideas of the age and country, this would not be considered to be what we moderns would call literary forgery, but rather a legitimate and praiseworthy means of giving authority to good precepts and sentiments. a perfect illustration of this which i have called the "scissors and paste" method, is afforded by the first two chapters of genesis, and the way in which the elohistic and jehovistic narratives are so strangely interblended throughout the pentateuch. no attempt is made to blend the two narratives into one harmonious and consistent whole, but excerpts, sometimes from one and sometimes from the other, are placed together without any attempt to explain away the evident contradictions. clearly the same hand could not have written both narratives, and the compilation must have been made by some subsequent editor, or editors, for there is conclusive proof that the final edition, as it has come down to us, could not have been made until after the exile. thus in leviticus xxvi. we find, "i will scatter you among the heathen, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste," and "they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' land." and in deuteronomy xxix., "and the lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is to this day." even in genesis, which professes to be the earliest book, we find (xii. ), "and the canaanite was then in the land." this could not have been written until the memory of the canaanite had become a tradition of a remote past, and this could not have been until after the return of the jews from the babylonian captivity, for we find from the books of ezra and nehemiah that the canaanites were then still in the land, and the jewish leaders, and even priests and levites, were intermarrying freely with canaanite wives. the apocryphal book of esdras contains a legend that the sacred books of the law having been lost or destroyed when jerusalem was taken by nebuchadnezzar, they were re-written miraculously by ezra dictating to five ready writers at once in a wonderfully short time. this is a counterpart of the legend of the septuagint being a translation of the hebrew text into greek, made by seventy different translators, whose separate versions agreed down to the minutest particular. this legend, in the case of the septuagint, is based on an historical fact that there really was a greek translation of the hebrew sacred books made by order of ptolemy _philadelphus_; and it may well be that the legend of esdras contains some reminiscence of an actual fact, that a new and complete edition of the old writings was made and stamped with a sacred character among the other reforms introduced by ezra. these reforms, and the condition of the jewish people after the return from the captivity, as disclosed by the books of nehemiah and ezra, afford what i call the second guiding pillar, in our attempt to trace backwards the course of jewish history. these books were indeed not written in their present form until a later period, and, as most critics think, by the same hand as chronicles; but there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the historical facts recorded, which relate, not to a remote antiquity, but to a comparatively recent period after the use of writing had become general. they constitute in fact the dividing line between ancient and modern judaism, and show us the origin of the latter. modern judaism, that is, the religious and social life of the jewish people, since they fairly entered into the current of modern history, has been marked by many strong and characteristic peculiarities. they have been zealously and almost fanatically attached to the idea of one supreme god, jehovah, with whom they had a special covenant inherited from abraham, and whose will, in regard to all religious rites and ceremonies and social usages, was conveyed to them in a sacred book containing the inspired writings of moses and the prophets. this led them to consider themselves a peculiar people, and to regard all other nations with aversion, as being idolaters and unclean, feelings which were returned by the rest of the world, so that they stood alone, hating and being hated. no force or persuasion were required in order to prevent them from lapsing into idolatry or intermarrying with heathen women. on the contrary, they were inspired to the most heroic efforts, and ready to endure the severest sufferings and martyrdom for the pure faith. the belief in the sacred character of their ancient writings gradually crystallized into a faith as absolute as that of the moslems in the koran; a canon was formed, and although, as we have seen in the case of the chronicles and psalms, some time must have elapsed before this sacred character was fully recognized, it ended in a theory of the literal inspiration of every word of the old testament down even to the commas and vowel points, and the establishment of learned schools of scribes and pharisees, whose literary labours were concentrated on expounding the text in synagogues, and writing volumes of talmudic commentaries. now during the period preceding the exile all this was very different. so far from being zealous for one supreme god, jehovah was long recognized only as a tribal or national god, one among the many gods of surrounding nations. when the idea of a supreme deity, who loved justice and mercy better than the blood of bullocks and rams, was at length elaborated by the later prophets, it received but scant acceptance. the great majority of the kings and people, both of judah and israel, were always ready to lapse into idolatry, worship strange gods, golden calves, and brazen serpents, and flock to the alluring rites of baal and astarte, in groves and high places. they were also always ready to intermarry freely with heathen wives, and to form political alliances with heathen nations. there is no trace of the religious and social repulsion towards other races which forms such a marked trait in modern judaism. nor, as we shall see presently, is there any evidence, prior to the reign of josiah, of anything like a sacred book or code of divine laws, universally known and accepted. the books of nehemiah and ezra afford invaluable evidence of the time and manner in which this modern judaism was stamped upon the character of the people after the return from exile. we are told that when ezra came to jerusalem from babylon, armed with a decree of artaxerxes, he was scandalized at finding that nearly all the jews, including the principal nobles and many priests and levites, had intermarried with the daughters of the people of the land, "of the canaanites, hittites, perizzites, jebusites, ammonites, moabites, egyptians, and amorites." backed by nehemiah, the cup-bearer and favourite of artaxerxes, who had been appointed governor of jerusalem, he persuaded or compelled the jews to put away these wives and their children, and to separate themselves as a peculiar and exclusive people from other nations. it was a cruel act, characteristic of the fanatical spirit of priestly domination, which never hesitates to trample on the natural affections and the laws of charity and mercy, but it was the means of crystallizing the jewish race into a mould so rigid, that it defied wars, persecutions, and all dissolving influences, and preserved the idea of monotheism to grow up into the world-wide religions of christianity and mahometanism, so true is it that evolution works out its results by unexpected means often opposed to what seem like the best instincts of human nature. what is important, however, for the present object is, to observe that clearly at this date the population of the holy land must have consisted mainly of the descendants of the old races, who had been conquered but not exterminated by the israelites. such a sentence as, "for the canaanites were then in the land," could not have been written till long after the time when the jews were intermarrying freely with canaanite wives. nor does it seem possible that codes, such as those of leviticus, numbers, and the priests' code, could have been generally known and accepted as sacred books written by moses under divine inspiration, when the rulers, nobles, and even priests and levites acted in such apparent ignorance of them. in fact we are told in nehemiah that ezra read and explained the book of the law, whatever that may have included, to the people, who apparently had no previous knowledge of it. by far the most important landmark, however, in the history of the old testament, is afforded by the account in kings xxii. and xxiii. of the discovery of the book of the law in the temple in the eighteenth year of the reign of josiah. it says that shaphan the scribe, having been sent by the king to hilkiah the high priest, to obtain an account of the silver collected from the people for the repairs of the temple, hilkiah told him that he had "found the book of the law in the house of the lord." shaphan brought it to the king and read it to him; whereupon josiah, in great consternation at finding that so many of its injunctions had been violated, and that such dreadful penalties were threatened, rent his clothes, and being confirmed in his fears by huldah the prophetess, proceeded to take stringent measures to stamp out idolatry, which, from the account given in kings xxiii., seems to have been almost universal. we read of vessels consecrated to baal and to the host of heaven in the temple itself, and of horses and chariots of the sun at its entrance; of idolatrous priests who had been ordained by the kings of judah to burn incense "unto baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven"; and of high places close to jerusalem, with groves, images, and altars, which had been built by solomon to ashtaroth, the goddess of the sidonians, chemosh the god of the moabites, and milcom the god of the ammonites, and had apparently remained undisturbed and places of popular worship ever since the time of solomon. on any ordinary principles of criticism it is impossible to doubt that, if this narrative is correct, there could have been no previous book of the law in existence, and generally recognized as a sacred volume written by divine inspiration. when even such a great and wise king as solomon could establish such a system of idolatry, and pious kings like hezekiah, and josiah during the first eighteen years of his reign, could allow it to continue, there could have been no knowledge that it was in direct contravention of the most essential precepts of a sacred law dictated by jehovah to moses. it is generally admitted by critics that the book of the law discovered by hilkiah was deuteronomy, or rather perhaps an earlier or shorter original of the deuteronomy which has come down to us, and which had already been re-edited with additions after the exile. the title "deuteronomy," which might seem to imply that it was a supplement to an earlier law, is taken, like the other headings of the books of the old testament in our bible, from the septuagint version, and in the original hebrew the heading is "the book of the law." the internal evidence points also to deuteronomy, as placing the threats of punishment and promises of reward mainly on moral grounds, and in the spirit of the later prophets, such as isaiah, who lived shortly before the discovery of the book by hilkiah. and it is apparent that when deuteronomy was written, the priests' code, which forms such an important part of the other books of the pentateuch, could not have been known, as so many of the ceremonial rites and usages are clearly inconsistent with it. it is not to be inferred that there were no writings in existence before the reign of josiah. doubtless annals had been kept of the principal events of each reign from the foundation of the monarchy, and many of the old legends and traditions of the race had been collected and reduced to writing during the period from solomon to the later kings. the priests' code also, though of later date in its complete form, was doubtless not an invention of any single priest, but a compilation of usages, some of which had long existed, while others had grown up in connection with the second temple after the return from exile. so also the civil and social legislation was not a code promulgated, like the code napoleon, by any one monarch or high priest, but a compilation from usages and precedents which had come to be received as having an established authority. but what is plainly inconsistent with the account of the discovery of the book of the law in the reign of josiah, is the supposition that there had been, in long previous existence, a collection of sacred books, recognized as a bible or work of divine inspiration, as the old testament came to be among the jews of the first or second century b.c. it is to be observed that among early nations, such historical annals and legislative enactments never form the first stratum of a sacred literature, which consists invariably of hymns, prayers, ceremonial rites, and astronomical or astrological myths. thus the rig veda of the hindoos, the early portions of the vendedad of the iranians, the book of the dead of the egyptians, and the penitential psalms and invocations of the chaldæans formed the oldest sacred books, about which codes and commentaries, and in some cases historical allusions and biographies, gradually accumulated, though never attaining to quite an equal authority. there is abundant internal evidence in the books of the old testament which profess to be older than the reign of josiah, to show that they are in great part, at any rate, of later compilation, and could not have been recognized as the sacred thora or bible of the nation. to take a single instance, that of solomon. is it conceivable that this greatest and wisest of kings, who had held personal commune with jehovah, and who knew everything down to the hyssop on the wall, could have been ignorant of such a sacred book if it had been in existence? and if he had known it, or even the decalogue, is it conceivable that he should have totally ignored its first and fundamental precepts, "thou shalt have no other gods but me," and "thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image"? could uxoriousness, divided among wives, have turned the heart of such a monarch so completely as to make him worship ashtaroth and milcom, and build high places for chemosh and moloch? and could he have done this without the opposition, and apparently with the approval, of the priests and the people? and again, could these high places and altars and vessels dedicated to baal and the host of heaven have been allowed to remain in the temple, down to the eighteenth year of josiah, under a succession of kings several of whom were reputed to be pious servants of jehovah? and the idolatrous tendencies of the ten tribes of israel, who formed the majority of the hebrew race, and had a common history and traditions, are even more apparent. in the speeches put into the mouth of solomon in kings, in which reference is made to "statutes and commandments spoken by jehovah by the hand of moses," there is abundant evidence that their composition must be assigned to a much later date. they are full of references to the captivity in a foreign land and return from exile ( kings viii. -- , and ix. -- ). similar references to the exile are found throughout the book of kings, and even in books of the pentateuch which profess to be written by moses. if such a code of sacred writings had been in existence in the time of josiah, instead of rending his clothes in dismay when shaphan brought him the book of the law found by hilkiah, he would have said, "why this is only a different version of what we know already." on the whole the evidence points to this conclusion. the idea of a one supreme god who was a spirit, while all other gods were mere idols made by men's hands; who created and ruled all things in heaven and earth; and who loved justice and mercy rather than the blood of rams and bullocks, was slowly evolved from the crude conceptions of a jealous, vindictive, and cruel anthropomorphic local god, by the prophets and best minds of israel after it had settled down under the monarchy into a civilized and cultured state. it appears for the first time distinctly in isaiah and amos, and was never popular with the majority of the kings and upper classes, or with the mass of the nation until the exile, but it gradually gained ground during the calamities of the later days, when assyrian armies were threatening destruction. a strong opposition arose in the later reigns between the aristocracy, who looked on the situation from a political point of view and trusted to armies and alliances, and what may be called the pietist or evangelical party of the prophets, who took a purely religious view of matters, and considered the misfortunes of the country as a consequence of its sins, to be averted only by repentance and divine interposition. it was a natural, and under the circumstances of the age and country quite a justifiable proceeding on the part of the prophetic school to endeavour to stamp their views with divine authority, and recommend them for acceptance as coming from moses, the traditional deliverer of israel from egypt. for this purpose no doubt numerous materials existed in the form of legends, traditions, customs, and old records, and very probably some of those had been collected and reduced to writing, like the sagas of the old norsemen, though without any idea of collecting them into a sacred volume. the first attempt in this direction was made in the reign of josiah, and it had only a partial success, as we find the nation "doing evil in the sight of the lord," that is, relapsing into the old idolatrous practices, in the reigns of his three next successors, jehoiachin, jehoiachim, and zedechiah. but the crowning calamity of the capture of jerusalem by nebuchadnezzar, and the seventy years' exile, seems to have crushed out the old aristocratic and national party, and converted all the leading minds among the jews of the captivity, including the priests, to the prophetical view that the essence of the question was the religious one, and that the only hope for the future lay in repentance for sins and drawing closer to the worship of jehovah and the covenant between him and his chosen people. prophets disappear from this period because priests, scribes, and rulers had adopted their views, and there was no longer room for itinerant and unofficial missionaries. under such circumstances the religion, after the return from the exile, crystallized rapidly into definite forms. creeds, rituals, and sacred books were multiplied down to the third century b.c. or later, when the canon was closed with the books of chronicles and daniel and the later psalms, and the era began of commentaries on the text of a koran or bible, every word of which was held to be infallibly inspired. the different crystals in solution have now united into one large crystal of fixed form, and henceforward we are in the full age of talmudism and pharisaism. it is not to be supposed, however, that the books which thus came to be considered sacred were the inventions of priests and scribes of this later age. doubtless they were based to a great extent on old traditions, legends, and written annals and records, compiled perhaps in the reigns of solomon and his successors, but based themselves on still older materials. the very crudeness of many of the representations, and the barbarism of manners, point to an early origin. it is impossible to conceive any contemporary of isaiah, or of the cultured court of solomon, describing the almighty ruler of the universe as showing his hinder part to moses, or sewing skins to clothe adam and eve; and the conception of a jealous and vindictive jehovah who commanded the indiscriminate massacre of prisoners of war, women and children, must be far removed from that of a god who loved justice and mercy. these crude, impossible, and immoral representations must have existed in the form of sagas during the early and semi-barbarous stage of the people of israel, and become so rooted in the popular mind that they could not be neglected when authors of later ages came to fix the old traditions in writing, and religious reformers to use them in endeavouring to enforce higher views and a purer morality. it is from this jungle of old legends and traditions, written and re-written, edited and re-edited, many times over, to suit the ideas of various stages of advancing civilization, that we have to pick out as we best can what is really historical, prior to the foundation of the monarchy, from which time downwards we doubtless have more or less authentic annals, and meet with confirmations from egyptian and assyrian history. the first figure which arrests our attention in the old testament as possibly historical, is that of abraham. prior to him everything is plainly myth and legend. we have two accounts of the creation of the universe and of man in genesis, contradictory with one another, and each hopelessly inconsistent with the best established conclusions of astronomy, geology, ethnology, and other sciences. then follow ten antediluvian patriarchs, who live on the average years each, and correspond manifestly with the ten reigns of gods or demi-gods in the chaldæan mythology; while side by side with this genealogy is a fragment of one which is entirely different, mentioning seven only of the ten patriarchs, and tracing the descent of enoch and noah from adam through cain instead of through seth. then comes the deluge with all the flagrant impossibilities which have been pointed out in a preceding chapter; the building of the tower of babel, with the dispersion of mankind and confusion of languages, equally opposed to the most certain conclusions of history, ethnology, and philology. the descent from noah to abraham is then traced through ten other patriarchs, whose ages average years each, and similar genealogies are given for the descendants of the other two sons of noah, ham and japheth. it is evident that these genealogies are not history but ethnology, and that of a very rude and primitive description, by a writer with imperfect knowledge and a limited range of vision. a great majority of the primitive races of the world, such as the negroes and the mongolians, are omitted altogether, and semitic canaan is coupled with turanian hittite as a descendant not of shem but of ham. it is unnecessary to go into details, for when we find such an instance as that canaan begat sidon his first-born, it is evident that this does not mean that two such men really lived, but is an oriental way of stating that the phoenicians were of the same race as the canaanites, and that sidon was their earliest sea-port on the shore of the mediterranean. the whole of this biblical literature prior to abraham is clearly myth and legend, and not history; and whoever will compare it dispassionately with the much older chaldæan myths and legends known to us from berosus and the tablets, can hardly doubt that it is taken mainly from this source, revised at a later date, in a monotheistic sense. whole passages are simply altered by writing "god" for "gods," and pruning off or toning down grotesque and revolting incidents. to give a single instance, where the chaldæan solar epic of izdubar, in the chapter on the passage of the sun through the rainy sign of aquarius, which describes the deluge, says that "the gods smelt the sweet savour of the sacrifice offered by hasisadra on emerging from the ark, and flocked like flies about the altar," genesis says simply that "the lord smelled a sweet savour"; and where the mixture of a divine and animal nature in man is symbolized in the chaldæan legend by bel cutting off his own head and kneading the clay with the blood into the first man, the jehovist narrative in genesis ii. says, that "the lord god formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." but when we arrive at abraham we feel as if we might be treading on really historical ground. there is the universal tradition of the hebrew race that he was their ancestor, and his figure is very like what in the unchanging east may be met with to the present day. we seem to see the dignified sheik sitting at the door of his tent dispensing hospitality, raiding with his retainers on the rear of a retreating army and capturing booty, and much exercised by domestic difficulties between the women of his household. surely this is an historical figure. but when we look closer, doubts and difficulties appear. in the first place the name "abram" suggests that of an eponymous ancestor, like shem for the semites, or canaan for the canaanites. abram, sayce tells us, is the babylonian abu-ramer or "exalted father," a name much more likely to be given to a mythical ancestor than to an actual man. this is rendered more probable by the fact that, as we have already seen, the genealogy of abraham traced upwards consists mainly of eponyms: while those which radiate from him downwards are of the same character. thus two of his sons by keturah are jokshan and midian; and sheba, dedan, and assurim are among his descendants. again, abraham is said to have lived for years, and to have had a son by sarah when she was ninety-nine and he one hundred; and a large family by keturah, whom he married after sarah's death. figures such as these are a sure test that legend has taken the place of authentic history. another circumstance which tells strongly against the historical character of abraham is his connection with lot, and the legend of lot's wife. the history of this legend is a curious one. for many centuries, in fact down to quite modern times, the volcanic phenomena of the dead sea were appealed to as convincing confirmations of the account in genesis of the destruction of sodom and gomorrha, and hundreds of pious pilgrims saw, touched, and tasted the identical pillar of salt into which lot's wife was changed. it is now certain that the volcanic eruptions were of an earlier geological age, and that the story of lot's wife is owing to the disintegration of a stratum of salt marl, which weathers away under the action of wind and rain into columnar masses, like those described by lyell in a similar formation in catalonia. innumerable travellers and pilgrims from early christian times down to the seventeenth century returned from palestine testifying that they had seen lot's wife, and this was appealed to by theologians as a convincing proof of the truth of the scripture narrative. some saw her big, some little, some upright, and some prostrate, according to the state of disintegration of the pillars pointed out by the guides, which change their form rapidly under the influence of the weather, but no doubt was entertained as to the attestation of the miracle. it turns out, however, to be one of those geological myths of precisely the same nature as that which attributed the devil's dyke near brighton to an arrested attempt of the evil one to cut a trench through the south downs, so as to let in the sea and drown the weald. the episode of lot and his daughters is also clearly a myth to account for the aversion of the hebrews to races so closely akin to them as the moabites and ammonites, and it could hardly have originated until after the date of the book of ruth, which shows no trace of such a racial aversion. many of the events recorded of abraham's life, though not so wildly extravagant as those attributed to noah, are still clearly unhistorical. that a woman getting on towards one hundred years old should be so beautiful that her husband passes her off for his sister, fearing that, if known to be his wife, the king would kill him in order to take her into his harem, does not seem to be very probable. but when precisely the same thing is said to have occurred twice over to the same man, once at the court of pharaoh and again at that of abimelech; and a third time to his son isaac, at the same place, gerar, and to the same king abimelech, the improbability becomes impossibility, and the legend is obviously mythical. nor is it very consistent with the character of the pious patriarch, the father of the chosen people, to have told such lies, and apparently connived at his wife's prostitution, so that he could save his own skin, and grow rich on the "sheep and oxen, asses, manservants, maidservants, and camels" given him by the king on the supposition that he was sarah's brother. nor can we take as authentic history, abraham talking with the lord, and holding a sort of dutch auction with him, in which he beats down from fifty to ten the number of righteous men who, if found in sodom, are to save it from destruction. on the whole, i do not see that there is anything in the account of abraham and his times which we can safely assume to be historical, except the general fact that the hebrews were descended from a semitic family or clan, who migrated from the district of ur in lower chaldæa probably about the time, and possibly in consequence, of the elamite conquest, about b.c., which set in motion so many wars, revolutions, and migrations in western asia. the chronology from abraham to moses is hopelessly confused. if abraham is really an historical character, his synchronism with chedorlaomer or kudur-lagomer, the elamite king of chaldæa, must be admitted, which fixes his date at about b.c. again, if the narrative of the exodus is historical, it is generally agreed that it took place in the reign of menepthah, or about b.c. the interval between abraham and moses therefore must have been about years. but if we take the genealogies as authentic history, jacob, in whose time the hebrews went into egypt, was abraham's grandson, and moses, under whom they left it, was the son of jochebed, who was the granddaughter of levi, the son of jacob, who was a man advanced in life when he came to egypt. the genealogies therefore do not allow of more than five generations, or, at a high average for each, about years for this interval between abraham and moses. the tradition respecting this seems to have been already very confused when genesis was compiled, for we find in chap. xv. vers. , , the lord saying to abraham, that his descendants shall come back to palestine and possess the whole country from the river of egypt to the river euphrates, "in the fourth generation" after abraham had "gone to his fathers in peace, and been buried in a good old age"; while only one verse before it is said, "thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them for four hundred years." even if years were allowed for the sojourn of the hebrews in egypt, it would not extend the interval between moses and abraham to more than years, or years less than is required by the synchronism with chedorlaomer. it is needless to say that neither in the fourth or in any other generation did the descendants of abraham "possess the whole country from the river of egypt to the river euphrates." there is no period of jewish history so obscure as that of the sojourn in egypt. the long date is based entirely on the distinct statement in genesis xii., that the sojourning of the children of israel was years, and other statements that it was years, both of which are hopelessly inconsistent with the genealogies. genealogies are perhaps more likely to be preserved accurately by oral tradition than dates and figures, which oriental races generally deal with in a very arbitrary way. but there are serious difficulties in the way of accepting either date as historical. there is no mention of any specific event during the sojourn of the israelites in egypt between their advent in the time of joseph and the exodus, except their oppression by a new king who knew not joseph, and the building of the treasure cities, pi-thom and ramses, by their forced labour. the latter fact may be taken as probably true from the monuments discovered by mr. flinders petrie; and if so, it occurred in the reign of ramses ii. but there is no other confirmation, from egyptian records or monuments, of any of the events related in the pentateuch, until we come to the passage quoted from manetho by josephus, which describes how the unclean people and lepers were oppressed; how they revolted under the leadership of a priest of hieropolis, who changed his name from osarphis to moyses; how they fortified avaris and called in help from the expelled hyksos settled at jerusalem; how the egyptian king and his army retreated before them into ethiopia without striking a blow; and the revolters ruled egypt for thirteen years, killing the sacred animals and desecrating the temples; and how, at the end of this period, the king and his son returned with a great army, defeated the rebels and shepherds with great slaughter, and pursued them to the bounds of syria. this account is evidently very different from that of exodus, and does not itself read very like real history, nor is there anything in the egyptian monuments to confirm it, but rather the reverse. menepthah certainly reigned many years after he was said to have been drowned in the red sea, and his power and that of his immediate successors, though greatly diminished, still extended with a sort of suzerainty over palestine and southern syria. it is said that the egyptians purposely omitted all mention of disasters and defeats, but this is distinctly untrue, for manetho records events such as the conquest of egypt by the hyksos without a battle, and the retreat of menepthah into ethiopia for thirteen years before the impure rebels, which were much more disgraceful than would have been the destruction of a pursuing force of chariots by the returning tide of the red sea. the question therefore of the sojourn of the israelites in egypt and the exodus has to be considered solely by the light of the internal evidence afforded by the books of the old testament. the long period of years is open to grave objections. it is inconceivable that a people who had lived for four centuries in an old and highly-civilized empire, for part of the time at any rate on equal or superior terms under the king who "knew joseph"; and who appear to have been so much intermixed with the native egyptians as to have been borrowing from them as neighbours before their flight, should have carried away with them so little of egyptian manners and relics. beyond a few rites and ceremonies, and a certain tendency to revert to the animal worship of the golden calf, there is nothing to show that the hebrews had ever been in contact with egyptian civilization. this is most remarkable in the absence of all belief in a resurrection of the body, future life, and day of judgment, which were the cardinal axioms of the practical daily life of the egyptian people. temporal rewards and punishments to the individual and his posterity in the present life, are the sole inducements held out to practise virtue and abstain from vice, from the decalogue down to the comparatively late period of ecclesiastes, where solomon the wise king is represented as saying, "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest." even down to the christian era the sadducees, who were the conservative aristocracy who stood on the old ways and on the law of moses, and from whose ranks most of the high priests were taken, were opposed to the newfangled pharisaic doctrine of a resurrection. how completely foreign the idea was to the jewish mind is apparent from the writings of the prophets and the book of job, where the obvious solution of the problem why goodness was not always rewarded and wickedness punished, afforded by the theory of a judgment after death and future life, was never even hinted at by job or his friends, however hardly they might be pressed in argument. if the sojourn in egypt really lasted for years, it must have embraced many of the greatest events in egyptian history. the descendants of jacob must have witnessed a long period of the rule of the hyksos, and lived through the desolating thirty years' war by which these foreign conquerors were gradually driven back by the native armies of upper egypt. they must have been close to the scene of the final campaigns, the siege of avaris, and the expulsion of the hyksos. they must have been subjects of ahmes, thotmes, and the conquering kings of the eighteenth dynasty, who followed up the fugitive hyksos, and carried the conquering arms of egypt not only over palestine and syria, but up to the euphrates and tigris, and over nearly the whole of western asia. they must have witnessed the decline of this empire, the growth of the hittites, and the half-century of wars waged between them and the egyptians in palestine and syria. the victory of ramses ii. at kadesh and the epic poem of pentaur must have been known to the generation before the exodus as signal events. and if there is any truth in the account quoted by josephus, they must have been aware that they did not fly from egypt as a body of fugitive slaves, but as retreating warriors who for thirteen years had held egypt up to ethiopia in subjection. and yet of all these memorable events there is not the slightest trace in the hebrew annals which have come down to us. an even greater difficulty is to understand how, if the children of israel had lived for anything like years in such a civilized empire as egypt, they could have emerged from it in such a plane of low civilization, or rather of ferocious savagery and crude superstitions as are shown by the books of the old testament, where they burst like a host of red indians on the settlements and cities of the amorites, and other more advanced nations of palestine. the discoveries at lachish already referred to show that their civilization could not have exceeded that of the rudest bedouins, and their myths and legends are so similar to those of the north american indians as to show that they must have originated in a very similar stage of mental development. if we adopt the short date of the genealogies we are equally confronted by difficulties. if the exodus occurred in the reign of menepthah, years back from that date would take us, not to the hyksos dynasty where alone it would have been possible for joseph to be a vizier, and for a semitic tribe of shepherds to be welcomed in egypt, but into the midst of the great and glorious eighteenth dynasty who had expelled the hyksos, and carried the dominion of egypt to the euphrates. nor would there have been time for the seventy souls, who we are told were all of the family of jacob who migrated into egypt, to have increased in three generations into a nation numerous enough to alarm the egyptians, and conquer the canaanites. the legend of joseph is very touching and beautiful, but it may just as well be a novel as history, and this suspicion is strengthened by the fact that the episode of potiphar's wife is almost verbatim the same as one of the chapters of the egyptian novel of the _two brothers_. nor does it seem likely that such a seven years' famine and such a momentous change as the conversion of all the land of egypt from freehold into a tenure held from the king subject to payment of a rent of one-fifth of the gross produce, should have left no trace in the records. again, the age of years assigned to joseph, and to his father, are a sufficient proof that we are not upon strictly historical ground; and on the whole this narrative does not go far, in the absence of any confirmation from monuments, to assist us in fixing dates, or enabling us to form any consistent idea of the real conditions of the sojourn of the people of israel in egypt. it places them on far too high a level of civilization at first, to have fallen to such a low one as we find depicted in the books of exodus, joshua, and judges. further excavations in the mounds of ruined cities in judæa and palestine, like those of schliemann on the sites of troy and mycenæ, can alone give us anything like certain facts as to the real condition of the hebrew tribes who destroyed the older walled cities of the comparatively civilized amorites and canaanites. if the conclusion of mr. flinders petrie from the section of the mound of lachish, as to the extremely rude condition of the tribes who built the second town of mud-huts on the ruins of the amorite city, should be confirmed, it would go far to negative the idea that the accounts of their having been trained in an advanced code of mosaic legislation, can have any historical foundation. we come next to moses. it is difficult to refuse an historical character to a personage who has been accepted by uniform tradition as the chief who led the israelites out of egypt, and as the great legislator who laid the foundations of the religious and civil institutions of the peculiar people. and if the passage from manetho is correctly quoted by josephus, and was really taken from contemporary egyptian annals, and is not a later version of the account in the pentateuch modified to suit egyptian prejudices, moses is clearly identified with osarsiph the priest of hieropolis, who abandoned the worship of the old gods, and headed the revolt of the unclean people, which probably meant the heretics. it may be conjectured that this may have had some connection with the great religious revolution of the heretic king of tel-el-amarna, which for a time displaced the national gods, worshipped in the form of sacred animals and symbolic statues, by an approach to monotheism under the image of the winged solar disc. such a reform must have had many adherents to have survived as the state religion for two or three reigns, and must have left a large number of so-called heretics when the nation returned to its ancient faith; and it is quite intelligible that some of the more enlightened priests should have assimilated to it the doctrine of one supreme god, which was always at the bottom of the religious metaphysics of the earliest ages in egypt, and was probably preserved as an esoteric doctrine in the priestly colleges. this, however, must remain purely a conjecture, and we must look for anything specific in regard to moses exclusively to the old testament. and here we are at once assailed by formidable difficulties. as long as we confine ourselves to general views it may be accepted as historical that the israelites really came out of egypt under a great leader and legislator; but when we come to details, and to the events connected with moses, and to a great extent supposed to have been written by him or taken from his journals, they are for the most part more wildly and hopelessly impossible than anything related of the earlier patriarchs, abraham and joseph. the story of his preservation in infancy is a variation of the myth common to so many nations, of an infant hero or god, whose life is sought by a wicked king, and who is miraculously saved. we find it in the myths of khrishna, buddha, cyrus, romulus, and others, and in the inscription by sargon i. of accade on his own tablet; he states himself to have been saved in an ark floated on the river euphrates, just as moses was on the nile. when grown up he is represented first as the adopted son of pharaoh's daughter, and then as a shepherd in the wilderness of midian talking with the lord in a fiery bush, who for the first time communicates his real name of jehovah, which he says was not known to abraham, isaac, or jacob, although constantly used by them, and although men began to call him by that name in the time of enos, adam's grandson. at jehovah's command moses throws his rod on the ground, when it becomes a serpent from which he flies, and when he takes it up by the tail it becomes a rod again; and as a farther sign his hand is changed from sound to leprous as white as snow, and back again to sound, in a minute or two of time. on returning to egypt moses is represented as going ten times into the presence of pharaoh demanding of him to let the hebrews depart, and inflicting on egypt a succession of plagues, each one more than sufficient to have convinced the king of the futility of opposing such supernatural powers, and to have made him only too anxious to get rid of the hebrews from the land at any price. what could have been the condition of egypt, if for seven days "the streams, the rivers, the ponds and pools, and even the water in the vessels of wood and of stone, through all the land of egypt," had been really turned into blood? and what sort of magicians must they have been who could do the same with their enchantments? the whole account of these plagues has distinctly the air of being an historical romance rather than real history. those repeated interviews accompanied by taunts and reproaches of moses, the representative of an oppressed race of slaves, in the august presence of a pharaoh who, like the inca of peru or the mikado of japan, was half monarch and half deity, are totally inconsistent with all we know of egyptian usage. the son and successor of the splendid ramses ii., who has been called the louis xiv. of egyptian history, would certainly, after the first interview and miracle, either have recognized the supernatural power which it was useless to resist, or ordered moses to instant execution. it is remarkable also how the series of plagues reproduce the natural features of the egyptian seasons. recent travellers tell us how at the end of the dry season when the nile is at its lowest, and the adjacent plains are arid and lifeless, suddenly one morning at sunrise they see the river apparently turned into blood. it is the phenomenon of the red nile, which is caused by the first flush of the abyssinian flood, coming from banks of red marl. after a few days the real rise commences, the nile resumes its usual colour, percolates through its banks, fills the tanks and ponds, and finally overflows and saturates the dusty plains. the first signal of the renewal of life is the croaking of innumerable frogs, and soon the plains are alive with flies, gnats, and all manner of creeping and hopping insects, as if the dust had been turned into lice. then after the inundation subsides come the other plagues which in the summer and autumn seasons frequently afflict the young crops and the inhabitants--local hail-storms, locusts, murrain among the cattle, boils and other sicknesses while the stagnant waters are drying up. it reads like what some rider haggard of the court of solomon might have written in working up the tales of travellers and old popular traditions into an historical romance of the deliverance of israel from egypt. when we come to the exodus the impossibilities of the narrative are even more obvious. the robust common-sense of bishop colenso, sharpened by a mathematical education, has reduced many of these to the convincing test of arithmetic. the host of israelites who left egypt is said to have comprised , fighting men above the age of twenty; exclusive of the levites and of a mixed multitude who followed. this implies a total population of at least , , , who are said to have wandered about for forty years in the desert of sinai, one of the most arid wildernesses in the world, destitute alike of water, arable soil, and pasture, and where a bedouin tribe of even souls would find it difficult to exist. they are said to have been miraculously fed during these forty years on manna, a sweetish, gummy exudation from the scanty foliage of certain prickly desert plants, which is described as being "as small as the hoar frost," and as being so imbued with sabbatarian principles, as to keep fresh only for the day it is gathered during the week, but for two days if gathered on a friday, so as to prevent the necessity of doing any work on the sabbath. bishop colenso points out with irresistible force the obvious impossibilities in regard to food, water, fuel, sanitation, transport, and other matters, which was involved in the supposition that a population, half as large as that of london, wandered about under tents from camp to camp for forty years in a desert. no attempt has ever been made to refute him, except by vague suppositions that the deserts of sinai and arabia may then have been in a very different condition, and capable of supporting a large population. but this is impossible in the present geological age and under existing geographical conditions. these deserts form part of the great rainless zone of the earth between the north tropical and south temperate zones, where cultivation is only possible when the means of irrigation are afforded by lakes, rivers, or melting snow. but there are none of these in the deserts of sinai and northern arabia, and therefore no water and no vegetation sufficient to support any population. no army has ever invaded egypt from asia, or asia from egypt, except by the short route adjoining the mediterranean between pelusium and jaffa, and with the command of the sea and assistance of trains to carry supplies and water. and the account in exodus itself confirms this, for both food and water are stated to have been supplied miraculously, and there is no mention made of anything but the present arid and uninhabited desert in the various encampments and marches. in fact, the bible constantly dwells on the inhospitable character of the "howling wilderness," where there was neither grass nor water. accordingly reconcilers have been reduced to the supposition that ciphers may have been added by copyists, and that the real number may have been , or even, as some writers think, . but this is inconsistent with the detailed numeration by twelve separate tribes, which works out to the same figure of , fighting men for the total number. nor is it consistent with the undoubted fact that the hebrews did evacuate egypt in sufficient numbers and sufficiently armed to burst through the frontiers, and capture the walled cities of considerable nations like the amorites and canaanites, who had been long settled in the country. the narrative of manetho, quoted by josephus, seems much more like real history; that the hebrews formed part of an army, which, after having held lower egypt for thirteen years, was finally defeated, and retreated by the usual military route across the short part of the desert from pelusium to palestine, the hebrews, for some reason, branching off, and taking to a bedouin life on the outskirts of the desert and cultivated land, just as many bedouin tribes live a semi-nomad life in the same regions at the present day. apart from statistics, however, the books of the pentateuch ascribed to moses are full of the most flagrant contradictions and absurdities. it is evident that, instead of being the production of some one contemporary writer, they have been compiled and edited, probably many times over, by what i have called the "scissors and paste method," of clipping out extracts from old documents and traditions, and piecing them together in juxtaposition or succession, without regard to their being contradictory or repetitions. thus in exodus xxxiii. , god says to moses: "thou canst not see my face and live; for there shall no man see me and live"; and accordingly he shows moses only his "back parts"; while in ver. in the very same chapter we read, "and the lord spoke unto moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto a friend." again in exodus xxiv. the lord says to moses, "that he alone shall come near the lord" (ver. ), while in vers. -- of the same chapter, we are told that "moses, aaron, nadab, and abihu, and seventy of the elders of israel went up; and they saw the god of israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone," and although they saw god, were none the worse for it, but survived and "did eat and drink." is it possible to believe that these excessively crude representations of the deity, and these flagrant inconsistencies, were all written at the same time, by the same hand, and that the hand of a man who, if not a holy inspired prophet, was at any rate an educated and learned ex-priest of hieropolis, skilled in all the knowledge of the egyptians? the contradictions in the ideas and precepts of morality and religion are even more startling. these oscillate between the two extremes of the conception of the later prophets of a one supreme god, who loves justice and mercy better than sacrifice, and that of a ferocious and vindictive tribal god, whose appetite for human blood is as insatiable as that of the war-god of the mexicans. thus we have, on the one hand, the commandment, "thou shalt do no murder," and on the other, the injunction to commit indiscriminate massacres. a single instance may suffice. the "book of the law of moses" is quoted in kings xiv. as saying, "the fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin." in numbers xxxi., moses, the "meekest of mankind," is represented as extremely wroth with the captains who, having warred against midian at the lord's command, had only slaughtered the males, and taken the women of midian and their little ones captives; and he commands them to "kill every male among the little ones, and every woman that hath known man by lying with him; but all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." these midianites, be it remembered, being the people whose high priest jethro had hospitably received moses when he fled for his life from egypt, and gave him his daughter as a wife, by whom he had children who were half midianites, so that if the zealous phinehas was right in slaying the hebrew who had married a midianite woman, moses himself deserved the same fate. the same injunction of indiscriminate massacre in order to escape the jealous wrath of an offended jehovah is repeated, over and over again, in joshua and judges, and even as late as after the foundation of the monarchy, we find samuel telling saul in the name of the lord of hosts, to "go and smite amalek, and utterly destroy them, slaying both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass," and denouncing saul, and hewing agag in pieces before the lord, because this savage injunction had not been literally obeyed. even under david, the man after the lord's own heart, we find him torturing to death the prisoners taken at the fall of rabbah, and giving up seven of the sons of saul to the gibeonites to be sacrificed before the lord as human victims. it is one of the strangest contradictions of human nature that such atrocious violations of the moral sense should have been received for so many centuries as a divine revelation, rather than as instances of what may be more appropriately called "devil worship." nor is it a less singular proof of the power of cherished prepossessions that such a medley of the sublime religious ideas and lofty poetry of the prophetic ages, with such a mass of puerile and absurd legends, such obvious contradictions, and such a number of passages obviously dating from a later period, should be received by many men of intelligence, even to the present day, as the work of a single contemporary writer, the inspired prophet moses. when we pass from the pentateuch to the succeeding books of joshua and of judges the same remarks apply. the falling of the walls of jericho at the sound of the trumpet, and the defeat of an army of , men of midian and amalek with a slaughter of , , by men under gideon, armed with pitchers and trumpets, are on a par with the wandering of , , israelites in the desert for forty years, fed with manna of the size of hoar-frost. the moral atmosphere also continues to be that of red indians down to the time of david, for we read of nothing but murders and massacres, sometimes of other races, sometimes of one tribe by another; while the actions selected for special commendation are like those of jael, who drove a nail into the head of the sleeping fugitive whom she had invited into her tent; or of jephthah, who sacrificed his daughter as an offering to the lord in obedience to a vow. this barbarous state of manners is confirmed by flinders petrie's discoveries at the supposed site of lachish, which show the ruins of a walled city of the amorites, built upon by the mud hovels of a race as rude as the rudest bedouins who now wander on the edge of the arabian desert. the only safe conclusion seems to be that authentic annals of jewish history only begin with the monarchy, and that everything prior to david and solomon, or possibly saul and samuel, consists of myth, legend, and oral tradition, so inextricably blended, and so mixed up with successive later additions, as to give no certain information as to events or dates. all that it is safe to assume is, that in a general way the hebrews were originally a semitic tribe who migrated from chaldæa into palestine and thence into egypt, where they remained for an uncertain time and were oppressed by the national dynasty which expelled the hyksos; that they left egypt probably in the reign of menepthah, and as a consequence of the rebellion recorded by manetho; that they then lived for an unknown time as wandering bedouins on the frontier of palestine in a state of very rude barbarism; and finally burst in like a horde of aztecs on the older and more civilized toltecs of mexico. for a long period after this, perhaps for or years, they lived in a state of chronic warfare with one another, and with their neighbours, massacring and being massacred with the alternate vicissitudes of war, but with the same rudeness and ferocity of superstitions and manners. gradually, however, they advanced in civilization, and something of a national feeling arose, which led to a partial consolidation under priests, and a more complete one under kings. the first king, saul, was opposed by priestly influence and defeated and slain in battle, but a captain of condottieri, david, arose, a man of great energy and military genius, who gradually formed a standing army and conquered province after province, until at his death he left to his successor, solomon, an empire extending from the frontier of egypt to damascus, and from the red sea almost to the mediterranean. this kingdom commanded two of the great commercial routes between the east and west, the caravan route between tyre and babylon, _viâ_ damascus and tadmor, and the route from tyre to the terminus at ezion-gebir, of the sea-routes to arabia, africa, and india. solomon entered into close commercial relations with tyre, and during his long and splendid reign, jerusalem blossomed rapidly into a wealthy and a cultured city, and the surrounding cities and districts shared in the general prosperity. the greatness of the kingdom did not last long, for the revolt of the ten tribes and the growth of other powers soon reduced judæa and samaria to political insignificance; but jerusalem, down to the time of its final destruction by nebuchadnezzar, _i.e._ for a period of some years after solomon, never seems to have lost its character of a considerable and civilized city. it is evident from the later prophets that it was the seat of a good deal of wealth and luxury, for their invectives are, to a great extent, what we should call at the present day, socialist denunciations of the oppression of the poor by the rich, land-grabbing by the powerful, and extravagance of dress by the ladies of fashion. there were hereditary nobles, organized colleges of priests and scribes, and no doubt there was a certain amount of intellectual life and literary activity. but of a sacred book there is no trace until the discovery of one in the temple in the reign of josiah; and the peculiar tenets of modern judaism had no real hold on the mass of the people until after the return from exile and the reforms of ezra and nehemiah. the history, therefore, contained in the old testament is comparatively modern. there is nothing which can be relied on as authentic in regard to events and dates prior to the establishment of the monarchy, and even the wildest myths and the most impossible legends do not carry us back within years of the time when we have genuine historical annals attested by monuments both in egypt and chaldæa. part ii. evidence from science. chapter viii. geology and palÆontology. proved by contemporary monuments--as in history--summary of historical evidence--geological evidence of human periods--neolithic period--palæolithic or quaternary--tertiary--secondary and older periods--the recent or post-glacial period--lake-villages--bronze age--kitchen-middens--scandinavian peat-mosses--neolithic remains comparatively modern--definition of post-glacial period--its duration--mellard read's estimate--submerged forests--changes in physical geography--huxley--objections from america--niagara--quaternary period--immense antiquity--presence of man throughout--first glacial period--scandinavian and laurentian ice-caps--immense extent--mass of _débris_--elevation and depression--in britain--inter-glacial and second glacial periods--antiquity measured by changes of land--lyell's estimate--glacial _débris_ and loess--recent erosion--bournemouth--evans--prestwich--wealden ridge and southern drift--contain human implements--evidence from new world--california. we have now to take leave of historical records and fall back on the exact sciences for further traces of human origins. our guides are still contemporary records, but these are no longer stately tombs and temples, massive pyramids and written inscriptions. instead of these we have flint implements, incised bones, and a few rare specimens of human skulls and skeletons, the meaning of which has to be deciphered by skilled experts in their respective departments of science. still these records tell their tale as conclusively as any hieroglyphic or cuneiform writings in egyptian manuscripts or on babylonian cylinders. the celt, the knife, the lance and arrow-heads, and other weapons and implements, can be traced in an uninterrupted progressive series from the oldest and rudest palæolithic specimens, up to the highly-finished ones of polished stone, and through these into the age of metals, and into historic times and the actual implements of existing savage races. it is impossible to doubt that one of the palæolithic celts from st. acheul or st. prest is as truly a work of the human hand, guided by human intelligence, as a modern axe; and that an arrow-head from moustier or kent's cavern is no more an elf-bolt, or a _lusus naturæ_, than is a winchester rifle. before entering on this new line of investigation, it may be well to sum up briefly the evidence as to the starting-point from history and tradition. the commencement of the strictly historical period takes us back certainly for and in all probability for years in egypt, and certainly for and probably for or years in chaldæa. in each case we find populous cities, important temples and public works, writing and other advanced arts and industries, and all the signs of an old civilization already existing. other nations also evidently then existed with whom these ancient empires had relations of war and of commerce, though the annals of even the oldest of them, such as china, do not carry us back further than from to years. traditions do not add much to our information from monuments, and fade rapidly away into myths and legends. the oldest and most authentic, those of egypt, simply confirm the inference of great antiquity for its civilization prior to menes, but give no clue as to its origin. they neither trace it up to the stone age, which we know existed in the valley of the nile, nor refer it to any foreign source. the egyptian people thought themselves autochthonous, and attributed their arts, industries, and sciences to the inventions of native gods, or demi-gods, who reigned like mortal kings, in a remote and fabulous antiquity. we can gather nothing therefore from tradition that would enable us to add even years with certainty to the date of menes; while from the high state of civilization which had been evolved prior to his accession, from the primitive conditions of the stone period whose remains are found at cairo and thebes, we might fairly add , or , years to his date of years _b.c._, as a matter of probable conjecture for the first dawn of historical civilization. in any case we shall be well within the mark if we take , years as our first unit, or standard of chronological measurement, with which to start in our further researches, as we do with terrestrial standards in gauging the distances of suns and stars. it may be well also to supplement this statement of the historical standard by a brief review of the previous geological periods through which evidences of man's existence can be traced. immediately behind the historic age lies the recent period during which the existing fauna and flora, climate and configuration of seas and lands, have undergone no material change. it is characterized generally as the neolithic period, in which we find polished stone superseding the older and ruder forms of chipped stone, and passing itself into the copper, bronze, and iron ages of early history. it may also be called the recent or post-glacial period, for it coincides with the final disappearance of the last great glaciation, and the establishment of conditions of climate resembling those of the present day. behind this again comes the quaternary or pleistocene period, so called from its fauna, which, although containing extinct species, shows along with them many existing forms, some of which have migrated and some remain. this also may be called the glacial period, for although the commencement, termination, and different phases of the two great glaciations and intermediate inter-glacial periods cannot be exactly defined, and hard-and-fast lines drawn between the later pliocene at one end and the post-glacial at the other, there is no doubt that in a general way the quaternary and glacial periods coincide, and that the changes of climate were to a considerable extent the cause of the changes of flora and fauna. behind the quaternary comes in the tertiary, with its three great divisions of pliocene, miocene, and eocene, each containing numerous subdivisions, and all showing a progressive advance in forms of life, from older and more generalized types towards newer and more specialized ones, and a constant approach towards genera and species now existing. behind the tertiary comes the secondary period, into which it is unnecessary to enter for the present purpose, for all is different, and even mammalian life is only known to be present in a few forms of small and feeble marsupials. nor is it necessary to enter on any detailed consideration of the eocene or earlier tertiary, for the types of mammalian life are so different from those of later periods, that it cannot be supposed that any animal so highly organized as man had then come into existence. the utmost we can suppose is that, as in the case of the horse, some ancestral form from which the quadrumana and man may possibly have been developed may be found. but up to the present time nothing has been found in the eocene more nearly approaching such a missing link than an ancient form of lemur; and it is not until we get into the miocene that any evidence presents itself that man, or some near ancestor of man, may possibly have existed.[ ] [ ] since this was written the scientific world has been startled by the discovery announced by professor ameghino in the lower tertiary, supposed to be eocene, of patagonia, of numerous small monkeys of the american type of cebidæ, affording evidence of the existence of anthropoid primates at this extremely early date.--lydekker in _natural science_ for april . he adds, "perhaps still more noteworthy are the signs of affinity exhibited by these early primates to the extinct south american protopytheridæ. the latter are clearly related to the aberrant ungulate typotherium of the south american tertiaries, which appears to be allied on the one hand to the extinct toxodon, and on the other to the rodents. if substantiated, such an unexpected relationship as that of the american primates to the toxodonts will materially modify some of our present views as to the mutual relationships of mammals." and i may add, throw a flood of light on the question of the "missing link," and the development of man and the quadrumana from a common ancestral type. my present object being not to write a book on geology, but on human origins, i shall not attempt to trace back the geological evidence beyond the miocene, or to enter on any details of the later periods, except so far as they bear on what may be called geological chronology, _i.e._ on the probable dates which may be assigned to the first appearance and subsequent evolution of the human race going back from historical times. beginning with the recent or post-glacial period, the swiss and italian lake-villages supply clear evidence of the progress of man in western europe through the neolithic into the historical period. they afford us an unbroken series of substantially the same state of society, existing down to the time of the romans, for a great many centuries back of communities living in lake-villages built upon piles, like the villages in thrace described by herodotus, or those of the present day in new guinea. some of these have been occupied continuously, so that the _débris_ of different ages are stored in consecutive order like geological strata, and afford an unerring test of their relative antiquity. it is clear that many of those lake-villages were founded in the age of stone, and passed through that of bronze into the age of iron. the oldest settlements belong to the neolithic age, and contain polished stone implements and pottery, but they show a state of civilization not yet very far advanced. the inhabitants were only just emerging from the hunting into the pastoral stage. they lived principally on the produce of the chase, the bones of the stag and wild boar being very plentiful, while those of ox and sheep are rare. agriculture and the cereals seem to have been unknown, though stores of acorns and hazel nuts were found which had been roasted for food. by degrees the bones of wild animals become scarce, and those of ox and sheep common, showing that the pastoral stage had been reached; and the goat, pig, and horse were added to the list of domestic animals--the dog being included from the first, and the horse only at a later period. agriculture follows next in order, and considerable proficiency was attained, barley and wheat being staple articles of food, and apples, pears, and other fruit being stored for winter consumption. flax also was grown, and the arts of spinning and weaving were introduced, so that clothing, instead of being confined to skins, was made of coarse linen and woollen stuffs. the most important advance, however, in the arts of civilization is afforded by the introduction of metals. these begin to appear about the middle of the neolithic period, at first very sparingly, and in a few districts such as spain, upper italy, and hungary, where native copper was found and was hammered into shapes modelled on the old stone implements; but as a general rule, and in all the later settlements, bronze, in new and improved shapes, supersedes stone and copper. for the most part these bronze implements seem to have been obtained by foreign commerce from the phoenicians, etruscans, and other nations bordering on the mediterranean, though in some cases they were cast on the spot from native or imported ores. the existence of bronze, however, must go back to a far greater antiquity than the time when the neolithic people of europe obtained their first supplies from phoenician traders. bronze, as we have seen in a former chapter, is an alloy of two metals, copper and tin, and the hardest and most serviceable alloy is only to be obtained by mixing the two in a certain definite proportion. now it is to be noted, that nearly all the prehistoric bronze found in europe is an alloy in this definite proportion. clearly all this bronze, or the art of making it, must have originated from some common centre. all this, however, is very conjectural, and all that can be concluded from it is, that any indications as to the antiquity of man derived from the bronze age as known to us in europe, hardly carry us back to dates as remote as those furnished by the monuments of egypt and chaldæa. indeed, there are no facts certainly known to us from remains of the bronze age in europe that imply a greater antiquity than or possibly years b.c., a date at which bronze had undoubtedly been already known in egypt and the east for many centuries. the neolithic period which preceded that of metals is of longer duration, but still comparatively recent. attempts have been made to measure it by a sort of natural chronometer in the case of the lake-villages, by comparing the amount of silting up since the villages were built with the known rate of silting up since roman times. the calculations vary very much, and can only be taken as approximative; but the oldest dates assigned do not exceed b.c., and most of them are not more than or b.c. it must be remembered however that the foundation of a lake-village on piles implies a long antecedent neolithic period, to have arrived at a stage of civilization which made the construction of such villages possible. this civilization coincides wonderfully with that of the primitive aryans as shown by linguistic palæontology. the discussion as to the origin of the aryans has thrown a great deal of light on this question, and has gone far to dispel the old notion that they radiated from some centre in asia, and overran europe in successive waves. on the contrary, all the evidence and all the best authorities point to their having occupied, when we first get traces of them, pretty much the same districts of the great plain of northern europe and southern russia as we now find them in, and developed there their distinct dialects and nationalities; while the words common to all or nearly all the aryan families point to their having been pastoral nomads, in a state of civilization very like that of the earlier lake-villagers, before this separation took place. the scandinavian kitchen-middens, or shell-mounds, carry us further back into this early neolithic period. the shell-mounds which are found in great numbers along the baltic shore of denmark are often of great size. they are formed of an accumulation of shells of oysters, mussels, and other shell-fish, bones of wild animals, birds, and fish, all of existing species, with numerous implements of flint or bone, and occasional fragments of coarse pottery. they are decidedly more archaic than the lake-dwellings, showing a much ruder civilization of savages living like the fuegians of the present day, in scanty tribes on the sea-shore, supported mainly by shell-fish, supplemented by the chase of wild animals. the dog was their only domestic animal, and their only arts the fabrication of rude pottery and implements of stone and bone, unless it can be inferred from the occasional presence of bones of cod and other deep-sea fish, that they possessed some form of boat or canoe, and had hooks and lines or nets. these mounds must have taken an enormous time to accumulate, for they are very numerous, and often of great bulk, some of them being feet long, feet wide, and ten feet thick. how long such masses must have taken to accumulate must be apparent when we consider that the state of civilization implies a very scanty population. it has been calculated that if the neolithic population of denmark required as many square miles for its support as the similar existing populations of greenland and patagonia, their total number could not have exceeded , and each mound must have been the accumulation of perhaps two or three families. ancient, however, as these mounds must be, they are clearly neolithic. they are sharply distinguished from the far older remains of the palæolithic period by the knowledge, however rude, of pottery and polished stone, and still more by the fauna, which is entirely recent, and from which the extinct animals of the quaternary period have disappeared; while the position of the mounds shows that only slight geological changes, such as are now going on, have occurred since they were accumulated. similar mounds, on even a larger scale, occur on the sea-coasts of various districts in europe and america, but they afford no indication of their date beyond that of great antiquity. the peat-mosses of denmark have been appealed to as affording something like a conjectural date for the early neolithic period in that country. these are formed in hollows of the glacial drift, which have been small lakes or ponds in the midst of forests, into which trees have fallen, and which have become gradually converted into peat by the growth of marsh plants. it is clearly established that there have been three successive ages of forest growth, the upper one of beech, below it one of oak, and lowest of all one of fir. the implements and relics found in the beech stratum are all modern, those in the oak stratum are of the later neolithic and bronze ages, and those in the lowest, or fir-horizon, are earlier and ruder neolithic, resembling those found in the older lake-villages and shell-mounds. now beech has been the characteristic forest tree of denmark certainly since the roman period, or for years, and no one can say for how much longer. if the speculations as to the origin of the aryan race in northern europe are correct, it must have been for very much longer, as the word for beech is common to so many of the dialects into which the primitive aryan language became divided. the stages of oaks and firs must equally have been of long duration, and the different stages could only have been brought about by slow secular variations of climate during the post-glacial period. still this affords no reliable information as to specific dates, and we can only take steenstrup's calculation of from to , years for the formation of some of these peat-bogs as a very vague estimate, and this only carries us back to a time when egypt and chaldæa must have been already densely peopled, and far advanced in civilization. on the whole, it seems that the neolithic arrow-heads found in egypt, and the fragments of pottery brought up by borings through the deposits of the nile, are the oldest certain human relics of the neolithic age which have yet been discovered, and these do not carry us back further than a possible date of , or , years b.c. nor is there any certainty that any of the neolithic remains found in the newer deposits of rivers and the upper strata of caves go further, or even so far back as these relics of an egyptian stone period. all that the evidence really shows is, that while the neolithic period must have lasted for a long time as compared with historical standards, its duration is almost infinitesimally small as compared with that of the preceding palæolithic period. thus in kent's cavern neolithic remains are only found in a small surface layer of black earth from three to twelve inches thick; while below this, palæolithic implements and a quaternary fauna occur in an upper stalagmite one to three feet thick, below it in red cave earth five to six feet thick; then in a lower stalagmite in places ten or twelve feet thick, and below it again in a breccia three or four feet thick. this is confirmed by the evidence of all the caves explored in all parts of the world, which uniformly show any neolithic remains confined to a superficial layer of a few inches with many feet of palæolithic strata below them. and river-drifts in the same manner show neolithic remains confined to the alluvia and peat-beds of existing streams, while palæolithic remains occur during the whole series of deposits while these rivers were excavating their present valleys. if we say feet for inches, or twelve for one, we shall be well within the mark in estimating the comparative duration of the palæolithic and neolithic periods, as measured by the thickness of their deposits in caves and river-drifts; and as we shall see hereafter, other geological evidence from elevations and depressions, denudations and depositions, point to even a higher figure. in going back from the neolithic into the palæolithic period, we are confronted by the difficulty to which i have already referred, of there being no hard-and-fast lines by which geological eras are clearly separated from one another. zoologically there seems to be a very decided break between the recent and the quaternary. the instances are rare and doubtful in which we can see any trace of the remains of palæolithic man, and of the fauna of extinct animals, passing gradually into those of neolithic and recent times. but geologically there is no such abrupt break. we cannot draw a line at the culmination of the last great glaciation and say, here the glacial period ends and the post-glacial begins. nor can we say of any definite period or horizon, this is glacial and this recent. a great number of palæolithic remains and of quaternary fossils are undoubtedly post-glacial in the sense of being found in deposits which have accumulated since the last great glaciers and ice-caps began to retreat. existing valleys have been excavated to a great extent since the present rivers, swollen by the melting snows and torrential rains of this period of the latest glacial retreat, superseded old lines of drainage, and began to wear down the surface of the earth into its present aspect. this phase is more properly included in the term glacial, for both the coming on and the disappearance of the periods of intense cold are as much part of the phenomenon as their _maximum_ culmination, and very probably occupied much longer intervals of time. in like manner, we cannot positively say when this post-glacial period ended and the recent began. not, i should say, until the exceptional effects of the last great glacial period had finally disappeared, and the climate, geographical conditions, and fauna had assumed nearly or entirely the modern conditions in which we find them at the commencement of history. and this may have been different in different countries, for local conditions might make the glacial period commence sooner and continue later in some districts than in others. thus in north america, where the glaciation was more intense, and the ice-cap extended some ten degrees further south than in europe, it might well be that it was later in retreating and disappearing. the elevation of the laurentian highlands into the region of perpetual snow was evidently one main factor of the american ice-cap, just as that of scandinavia was of that of europe, and it by no means follows that their depression was simultaneous. it would be unwise, for instance, to take the time occupied in cutting back the niagara gorge by a river which only began to run at some stage of the post-glacial period, as an absolute test of the duration of that period all over the world. indeed, the glacial period cannot be said to have ended and the post-glacial begun at the present day in greenland, if the disappearance of the ice-cap over very extensive regions is to be taken as the test. any approximation to the duration of the post-glacial period in any given locality can only be obtained by defining its commencement with the first deposits which lie above the latest glacial drift, and measuring the amount of work done since. this has been done very carefully by the officers of the geological survey and other eminent authorities in england and scotland, and the result clearly shows that since the last glaciation left the country buried in a thick mantle of boulder-clay and drift, such an amount of denudation, and such movements of elevation and depression have taken place, as must have required a great lapse of time. the most complete attempt at an estimate of this time is that made by mr. mellard read of the geological survey, from the changes proved to have occurred in the mersey valley. in this case it is shown that the valley, almost in its present dimensions, must have been first carved out of an uniform plain of glacial drift and upper boulder-clay by sub-aërial denudation; then that a depression let the sea into the valley and accumulated a series of estuarine clays and silts; then an elevation raised the whole into a plain on which grew an extensive forest of oak rooted in the clays; this again must have subsided and let in the sea for a second time, which must have remained long enough to leave a large estuarine deposit, and finally the whole must have been raised to the present level before historical times. the phenomenon of the submerged forest is a very general one, being traced along almost all the sea-coasts of western europe, where shelving shores and sheltered bays favour the preservation of patches of this primæval forest. it testifies to a considerable amount of elevation and subsequent depression, for its remains can be traced below low-water mark, and are occasionally dredged up far out to sea, and stately oaks could not have flourished unless more or less continental conditions had prevailed. it is evident that in this age of forests the german ocean must have been dry land, and the continent of europe must have extended beyond the orkneys and hebrides, probably to the hundred fathom line. such movements of elevation and depression, so far as we know anything of them, are extremely slow. there has been no change in the fords of rivers in britain since roman times, and the spit connecting st. michael's mount with cornwall was dry at ebb and covered at flood as at the present day, when the british carted their tin across it to trade with the phoenicians years ago. mr. read goes into elaborate calculations based on the time required for these geological changes, and arrives at the conclusion that they point to a date of not less than , or , years ago for the commencement of the post-glacial period. these calculations are disputed, but it seems certain that several multiples of the historical standard of say , years, must be required to measure the period since the glacial age finally disappeared, and the earth, with its existing fauna, climate, and geographical conditions, came fairly into view. this is confirmed by the great changes which have taken place in the distribution of land and water since the quaternary period. huxley, in an article on the aryan question, points out that in recent times four great separate bodies of water--the black sea, the caspian, the sea of aral, and lake balkash--occupied the southern end of the vast plains which extend from the arctic sea to the highlands of the balkan peninsula, of asia minor, of persia and afghanistan, and of the high plateaux of central asia, as far as the altai. but he says, "this state of things is comparatively modern. at no very distant period the land of asia minor was continuous with that of europe, across the present site of the bosphorus, forming a barrier several hundred feet high, which dammed up the waters of the black sea. a vast extent of eastern europe and of west-central asia thus became one vast ponto-aralian mediterranean, into which the largest rivers of europe and asia, the danube, volga, oxus, and jaxartes, discharged their waters, and which sent its overflow northwards through the present basin of the obi." the time necessary for such changes goes far to confirm mellard read's estimate for the long duration of the recent or post-glacial period. in fact, all the evidence from the old world goes to confirm the long duration of the post-glacial period, and the immensely greater antiquity of the glacial period taken as a whole. it is only from the new world that any serious arguments are forthcoming to abridge those periods, or rather the post-glacial period, for that alone is affected by the facts adduced. it is said that recent measurements of the recession of the falls of niagara show, that instead of requiring , years, as estimated by lyell, to cut back the gorge of seven miles from kingston to the falls, , years at the outside would have been amply sufficient; and that this is confirmed by the gorges of other rivers, such as that of the mississippi at st. paul's. the evidence is not conclusive, for it depends on the rate of erosion going on for the last twenty or thirty years, which may obviously give a different result from the true average, and in fact older estimates, based on longer periods, gave the rate adopted by lyell. but if we admit the accuracy of the modern estimates, it does not affect the total duration of the glacial period, but simply that of a late phase of the post-glacial, when the ice-cap which covered north america to a depth often of or feet, had melted away and shrunk back miles from its original southern boundary, so as to admit of the waters of the great lakes finding an outlet to the north-east instead of by the old drainage to the south. nothing is more likely than that, as the great laurentian ice-cap of america was deeper and extended further than the scandinavian ice-cap of europe, it may have taken longer to melt the larger accumulation of ice, and thus postponed the establishment of post-glacial conditions and river-drainage to a later period than in the warmer and more insular climate of europe. it is a matter of everyday observation, that the larger a snowball is the longer it takes to melt, and that when the mass is large it requires a long time to make it disappear even after mild weather has set in. the only other argument for a short glacial period is drawn from the rate of advance of the glaciers in greenland, which is shown to be much more rapid than that of the glaciers of switzerland, from which former calculations had been made. but obviously the rate at which the fronts of glaciers advance when forced by a mass of continental ice down fiords on a steep descending gradient, into a deep sea, where the front is floated off in icebergs, affords no clue as to that of an ice-cap spread, with a front of miles, over half a continent, retarded by friction, and surmounting mountain chains feet high. nor does the rate of advance afford the slightest clue to the time during which the ice-cap may have remained stationary, alternately advanced and retreated, and finally disappeared.[ ] [ ] the following is the latest pronouncement on the subject from a well-known american geologist:-- "students of the ice age will read with interest a paper by mr. n. s. shaler on the antiquity of the last glacial period, submitted to the boston society of natural history, and printed in the latest instalment of the society's proceedings. mr. shaler differs decidedly from those geologists who suppose that the end of the glacial period is probably not very remote from our own day. one of the strongest of his arguments is derived from the distribution of the vegetation, which in america has regained possession, by migration, of the glaciated district. we must conceive, he points out, that as the ice retreated and gradually disappeared from the surface, a considerable time elapsed before existing forests attained their organization. he assumes as certain that the black walnut and the pignut hickory, between western minnesota and the atlantic coast, have advanced, on the average, a distance of miles north of the ancient ice front to which their ancestors were driven by the presence of the glacial sheet. for several reasons he believes that the northward progress of these forms must have been due mainly, not to the action of streams or tornadoes, but to the natural spread of the seed from the extremities of boughs, and to the carriage of the seed by rodents. but allowing for every conceivable method of transportation, he argues that a period of ten or even twenty thousand years is wholly inadequate to account for the present distribution of these large-seeded trees. if they occurred only sporadically in the northernmost part of the field they occupy, their implantation might be regarded as due to chance action. the fact, however, that they extend from the atlantic to minnesota indicates that the advance was accomplished by causes of a general and continuous nature." we have now to adjust our time-telescope to a wider range, and see what the quaternary or glacial period teaches us as to the antiquity of man. the first remark is, that if the post-glacial period is much longer than that for which we have historical records, the glacial exceeds the post-glacial in a far higher proportion. the second, that throughout the whole of this glacial period, from its commencement to its close, we have conclusive evidence of the existence of man, and that not only in a few limited localities, but widely spread over nearly all the habitable regions of the earth. the first point has been so conclusively established by all geologists of all countries, from the time of lyell down to the present day, that it is unnecessary to enter on any detailed arguments, and the leading facts may be taken as established. it may be sufficient, therefore, if i give a short summary of those facts, and quote a few of the instances which show the enormous lapse of time which must have elapsed between the close of the tertiary and the commencement of the modern epoch. the glacial period was not one and simple, but comprised several phases. during the pliocene the climate was gradually becoming colder, and either towards its close or at the commencement of the quaternary, this culminated in a first and most intense glaciation. ice-caps radiating from scandinavia crept outwards, filling up the north sea, crossing valleys and mountains, and covering with their boulders and moraines a wide circle, embracing britain down to the thames valley, germany to the hartz mountains, and russia almost as far east as the urals. in north america a still more massive ice-cap overflowed mountain ranges feet high, and covered the whole eastern half of the continent with an unbroken mantle of ice as far south as new york and washington. at the same time every great mountain chain and high plateau sent out enormous glaciers, which, in the case of the alps, filled up the valley of the rhone and the lake of geneva, buried the whole of the lower country of switzerland under feet of ice, and left the boulders of its terminal moraine, carried from the mont blanc range, at that height on the opposite range of the jura. nor is this a solitary instance. we find everywhere traces of enormous glaciers in the pyrenees and carpathians, the atlas and lebanon, the taurus and caucasus, the highlands of scotland, ireland, and wales; in the rocky mountains and sierra nevada; the andes and cordilleras of south america; in south africa and in new zealand. these may not have all been simultaneous, but they certainly all belong to the same period of the great glaciation, and show that it must have been affected by some general cause, and not been entirely due to mere local accidents. how this first great glacial period came on, or how long it lasted, we do not know, unless croll's astronomical theory, which will be considered later, affords a clue. but we know generally that it must have lasted for an immense time from the amount of work done and the changes which took place. the ice, which covered so great a portion of the northern hemisphere, was not a polar ice-cap, but spread outwards in all directions from great masses of elevated land, as is proved conclusively from the direction of the striæ which were engraved by it on the subjacent rocks. this land must have been more elevated than at present, so as to rise, like greenland, far into the region of perpetual snow, where all rain falls and accumulates in the solid form; and also to supply the enormous mass of _débris_ which the ice-caps and glaciers left behind them. it is not too much to say that a million of square miles in europe, and more in north america, were covered by the _débris_ of rocks ground down by these glaciers, and often to great depths. most of the _débris_ of the first glaciation have been removed by denudation, or ploughed out by the second great advance of the ice, leaving only the larger and harder boulders to testify to their extent; but enough remains to show that the first series of boulder-clays and drifts must have been on a scale larger than those of the second and subsequent glaciations, which now form the superficial stratum of so much of the earth's surface, and often attain a depth of several hundred feet. wright, in his _ice age in north america_, estimates that "not less than , , square miles of territory in north america is still covered with an average depth of fifty feet of glacial _débris_." however, this first period of elevation and of intense glaciation passed away, and was succeeded by one of depression and of milder climate. whether or no the depression was due, as some think, to the weight of the enormous mass of ice weighing down the yielding crust of the earth, and whether or no the milder climate was partly occasioned by this depression letting in the sea, the fact is certain that the two coincided, and were general and not merely local phenomena. marine shells at the top of what are now high hills, and which during the preceding glaciation were probably higher, attest the fact that a large amount of land must have sunk below the sea towards the close of this first glacial period. it is equally clear that a long inter-glacial period ensued, during which many changes took place in the geographical conditions and in the fauna and flora, requiring a very long time. thus britain, which had been reduced to an arctic archipelago, in which only a few of the highest mountain peaks emerged as frozen islands, became united to the continent, and the abode of a fauna consisting in great part of african animals. at one time boreal shells were deposited, at the bottom of an arctic ocean, on what is now the top of moel-tryfen in wales, a hill feet above the present sea-level; while at another the hippopotamus found its way, in some great river flowing from the south, as far north as yorkshire, and the remains of african animals such as the hyena accumulated in our caves. in southern france we had at one time a vegetation of the arctic willow and reindeer moss, at another that of the fig-tree and canary-laurel. when we consider that little if any change has occurred either in geographical conditions or in fauna or flora, within the historical period of some , years, it is difficult to assign the time which would be sufficient to bring about such changes by any known natural causes. and yet it comprises only a portion of the glacial period, for after this inter-glacial period had lasted for an indefinite time the climate again became cold, and culminated in a second glaciation, which, if not equal to the first, was still of extreme severity, and brought back ice-caps and glaciers almost to their former limits, passing away slowly and with several vicissitudes and alternate retreats and advances. it is not always easy to determine the position of each individual phase of the two glacial and the inter-glacial periods, for they must often be intermixed, and the results of the last glaciation and of subsequent denudation have to a great extent obscured those of the earlier periods. but taking a general view of the glacial period as a whole, there are a few leading facts which testify conclusively to its immense antiquity. first, there is the amount of elevation and depression. we have seen that marine arctic shells have been found on the top of moel-tryfen, feet above the present sea-level. nor is this an isolated instance, for marine drifts apparently of the same character have been traced on the mountains of scotland, wales, and ireland to a height of between and feet. in norway, also, old sea beaches are found up to a height of feet. nor are these great movements confined to the old world or to limited localities. according to professor le conte, at the last meeting of the geological congress at washington, a great continental movement, commencing in the later tertiary and terminating in the beginning of the quaternary, caused changes of level amounting to or feet on both sides of the continent of north america. now elevation and depression of large masses of land are, as far as we know anything certain about them, very slow processes, especially in countries unaffected by recent volcanic action, which is the case with nearly all the regions in north america and europe which were covered by the great ice-sheets. there has been little or no perceptible change anywhere since the commencement of history, and the only accurate measurements of changes now going on are those made in sweden, where it appears that in some cases elevation, and in others depression, is taking place at the rate of about two and a half feet in a century. in volcanic regions earthquakes have occasionally caused movements of greater amount in limited areas, but there is no trace of anything of the sort in these movements of the glacial period which have apparently gone on by slight secular changes in the earth's crust as they are now doing in scandinavia. but in this case a depression of feet, followed by an elevation of equal amount, at lyell's rate of two and a half feet per century, would require , years, without allowing for any pauses during the process. and this only embraces part of the whole glacial period, for the depression did not begin until after the climax of the first great glaciation, when the land probably stood higher than at present. of course the actual movements may have been more rapid, but unless we resort to the exploded theories of cataclysms and catastrophes, the time for such movements must have been very great. an equally conclusive proof of the immense antiquity of the glacial period is afforded by the formation known as the loess, which fills up so many of the valley systems of europe, asia, and america to great depths, and spreads over the adjacent table-lands. it is a tranquil land deposit of fine glacial mud, from sheets of water which inundated the country when great rivers from glaciated districts ran at higher levels, and began to excavate their present valleys. lyell estimates the thickness of this deposit in the rhine valley at feet, and it is found at much higher levels on upland plains. now this loess is not a marine or lacustrine deposit, as is proved by the shells it contains, which are all of land species; nor is it a deposit of running water, for there are no sands or gravels, but distinctly such a deposit from tranquil sheets of muddy water as is now accumulated in egypt by the inundations of the nile. when the rhine brought down such volumes of muddy water from the glaciers of the alps as to overflow the upland plains, it must have flowed at a level many hundred feet higher than its present valley, which must have been since scooped out by sub-aërial denudation. the rate of deposition of the nile mud is about three inches per century, and there seems no reason why that of the fine glacial mud should have been more rapid, charged as the nile is every year with mud from the torrential rains of the abyssinian highlands. at this rate it would have required , years to accumulate the feet of loess of the rhine valley. here again the rate may have been faster, but it is sufficient to show that an immense time must have elapsed, and the loess is a distinctly glacial deposit, containing palæolithic human remains and a pleistocene fauna, and embracing only a portion of the quaternary period. nor is it an isolated phenomenon confined to europe, but is found over the whole world wherever rivers have flowed from regions which were formerly buried under ice and snow. it is found in great force in the valleys of the yang-tse-kang and the mississippi, and sir charles lyell, referring to the fossil human bone found in it at natchez, says--"my reluctance in to regard the fossil human bone as of post-pliocene date arose, in part, from the reflection that the ancient loess of natchez is anterior in time to the whole modern delta of the mississippi. the table-land was, i believe, once a part of the original alluvial plain or delta of the great river before it was upraised. it has now risen more than feet above its pristine level. after the upheaval, or during it, the mississippi cut through the whole fluviatile formation, of which its bluffs are now formed, just as the rhine has in many parts of its valley excavated a passage through its ancient loess. if i was right in calculating that the present delta of the mississippi has acquired, as a minimum of time, more than , years for its growth, it would follow, if the claims of the natchez man to have coexisted with the mastodon are admitted, that north america was peopled more than a thousand centuries ago by the human race. but, even were that true, we could not presume, reasoning from ascertained geological data, the natchez bone was anterior in date to the antique flint _haches_ of st. acheul." human remains have since been found in the united states, both in the loess and in drifts, which are presumably older; but even if this were doubtful, the evidence would remain the same for the immense time required for such a deposit, and there is abundant proof in europe, that human implements, and even skulls and skeletons, have been found at considerable depths in the loess, along with remains of the mammoth and other extinct animals. it must be remembered also, that the loess is only one part of the work due to glacial erosion. it is, in fact, only the deposit of the fine mud ground from the rocks by glaciers, and carried down further by rivers issuing from them than the coarser _débris_, which, as we have seen, cover , , square miles to an average depth of fifty feet in north america alone. the volumes, therefore, of the loess and of the _débris_ correspond, and tell the same story of enormous erosion requiring immense periods of time. even in comparatively recent times striking proofs of immense antiquity are afforded by the amounts of denudation and erosion which have taken place since the ice disappeared and the lands and seas assumed substantially their present contours and levels. i will give one instance which, although comparatively modern, will come home readily to most british readers. dr. evans in his _ancient stone implements_, referring to those found at bournemouth feet above the present sea-level in the gravels of the old solent river, which then ran at that height, says-- "who, standing on the edge of the lofty cliff at bournemouth, and gazing over the wide expanse of waters between the present shore and a line connecting the needles on the one hand and the ballard-down foreland on the other, can fully comprehend how immensely remote was the epoch when what is now that vast bay was high and dry land, and a long range of chalk downs, feet above the sea, bounded the horizon on the south? and yet this must have been the sight that met the eyes of those primæval men who frequented that ancient river, which buried their handiworks in gravels that now cap the cliffs, and of the course of which so strange but indubitable a memorial subsists, in what has now become the solent sea." and the same may be said of the still wider strait which separates england from france. no geologist could look either at the needles and ballard foreland, or at shakespeare's cliff and cape grisnez, without a conviction that the chalk ridge was once continuous, and has been worn away, inch by inch, by the very same process as is now going on. nor can the action of ice or river floods be evoked to accelerate the process, for evidently it has throughout been a case of marine erosion. the only question is whether this dates back even into the later phases of the glacial period, for the opposite cliffs show no sign of having been either depressed beneath the sea or elevated above it, but rather appear to have stood at their present level since the erosion began. in any case it can only have occupied a comparatively short and recent phase of the glacial period, for there is abundant evidence that the british islands have been connected with the continent in comparatively recent times. great, however, as is the antiquity shown by these comparatively modern instances, they sink into insignificance compared with that shown by a recent discovery, which i quote the more readily because it rests on the high authority of professor prestwich, who has been foremost among modern geologists in reducing the time required for the glacial period and for the existence of man. this is afforded by the upland gravels in kent and surrey, which are scattered over wide areas of the chalk downs and green-sand, at elevations far above existing valleys and watersheds, and which could only have been deposited before the present rivers began to run, and when the configuration of the country was altogether different. quite recently mr. harrison, a shopkeeper at ightham in kent, who is an ardent field-geologist, discovered palæolithic implements, in considerable numbers and in various localities, up to an elevation of feet above the sea level, in these gravels of the great southern drift. these discoveries, which have since been repeated by other observers, led professor prestwich to institute an exhaustive inquiry as to these upland drifts; and the startling conclusion he arrives at is, that the oldest of them, or great southern drift, in which the implements are found, could only have come from a mountain range to feet high, which formerly ran from east to west in the line of the anticlinal axis which runs down the centre of the present weald of kent, between the north and south chalk-downs, and which has been since worn down to the present low forest-ridge by sub-aërial denudation. the reasoning by which this inference is supported seems irresistible. the drift could not have been deposited by the present rivers or with the present configuration of the country, for it is found at levels or feet higher than the highest watersheds between the existing valleys. it consists not only of chalk flints, but to a great extent of cherts and sandstones, such as are found at present in the forest-ridge of the wealden and nowhere else. it must have been brought by water, for the gravels are to a considerable extent rounded and water-worn. this water must have run down-hill and with considerable velocity during floods, from the size of the rolled stones, and it must have come from the south, because the cherts and grits are only found there, and because the levels at which the gravels are found rise in that direction. by following these levels as far as the present surface extends, which is to the southern edge of the green-sand, it is easy to plot out what must have been the continuation of this rising gradient to the south, and what the elevation of the southern range in which these northward-flowing streams took their origin. prestwich has gone into the question in full detail, and his conclusion is, that the height of this wealden ridge must have been at least feet, or in other words, that about feet must have disappeared by denudation. this is the more conclusive as prestwich is the highest authority, and he approached the subject with a bias for shortening rather than lengthening the periods commonly assigned for the glacial epoch and the antiquity of man. the present average rate of denudation of continents has been approximately measured by calculating the amount of solid matter brought down by rivers. it varies a good deal according to the nature of the area drained, but the average is about one foot in years. at this rate the time required for the removal of feet of the wealden ridge would be no less than , , years; but of course this would be no fair test, as denudation would be vastly more rapid than the present average rate, on hilly ranges and under glacial conditions of climate. it is enough to say that the time required must have been extremely great, and quite ample to fit in with the most extended time required by croll's theory of the varying eccentricity of the earth's orbit. it is to be noted also, that prestwich pronounces part of this high level or southern drift to be older than the westleton pebble drift which forms part of the upper pliocene series in suffolk and norfolk, and which the professor has traced over many of our southern counties. if this conclusion is correct, it solves the problem of tertiary man by showing numerous palæolithic implements in a stage older than an undoubted pliocene bed. the implements found in these high-level southern drifts are all of a very rude type, and the discovery is confirmed by similar implements having been found at corresponding elevations on the chalk downs of hertfordshire and on the south downs.[ ] [ ] in a recent paper read to the anthropological society by professor prestwich, in feb. , he confirms the above statement, and says that specimens have now been found at heights of from to feet, and extending over an area of twenty miles in length; while similar implements have been found on the south downs near eastbourne feet above the sea level; and at heights of and feet on the hills near dunstable. he says, "looking at the very distinctive features of those plateau implements, such as their rudeness of make, choice of material, depth of wear and staining, peculiarity of form--taken in conjunction with the extreme rarity of valley forms--they constitute characters so essentially different from those of the latter implements, that by these characters alone they might be attributed to a more primitive race of men; and as this view accords with the geological evidence, which shows that the drift-beds on the chalk plateau with implements are older than the valley drifts, i do not see how we are to avoid the conclusion, that not only was the plateau race not contemporary with the valley men, but also that the former belonged to a period considerably anterior to the latter--either an early glacial or a pre-glacial period." i will mention only one other instance, which shows that the new world confirms the conclusion as to the antiquity of the quaternary age. the auriferous gravels of california consist of an enormous mass of _débris_ washed down by pre-glacial or early glacial rivers from the western slopes of the great coast range. during their deposition they became interstratified with lavas and tuffs from eruptions of volcanoes long since extinct, and finally covered by an immense flow of basalts, which formed a gently inclined plane from the sierra nevada to the pacific. this plane was attacked by the denudations of the existing river-courses, and cut down into a series of flat-topped hills, divided by steep cañons and by the valleys of the present great rivers. in one case, that of the colombia river, this denudation has been carried down to a depth of over feet, and the river flows between precipitous cliffs of this height. the present gold-mining is carried on mainly by shafts and tunnels driven through superficial gravels and sheets of basalts and tuffs, to the gravels of the pre-glacial rivers, which are brought down in great masses by hydraulic jets. in a great number of these cases stone implements of undoubted human origin have been found at great depths under several successive sheets of basalts, tuffs, and gravels. mr. skertchly, an eminent english geologist, who recently visited the district, says of these gravels, "whatever may be their absolute age from a geological standpoint, their immense antiquity historically is beyond question. the present great river system of the sacramento, joaquin, and other rivers has been established; cañons feet deep have been carried through lava, gravels, and into the bed rock; and the gravels, once the bed of large rivers, now cap hills feet high. there is ample ground for the belief that these gravels are of pliocene age, but the presence of objects of human formation invests them with a higher interest to the anthropologist than even to the geologist." i will return to this subject more fully in a later chapter, when dealing with the question of the human remains found in these californian gravels. those who wish to pursue the subject further will find abundant evidence in the works of lyell, geikie, evans, boyd dawkins, and other modern geologists, and a popular summary of it in my _modern science and modern thought_. it is sufficient for my present purpose to have shown that even taking the quaternary period alone, geology shows that there is an abundant balance in the bank of time to meet any demands that may be made upon it by any of the kindred sciences. but it is to those we must look for any chance of even an approximate measurement in years or centuries, for geology and palæontology only show immense periods, but give no certain information as to definite durations. the clue, if any, must be sought in croll's astronomical theory of the glacial period, which i now proceed to consider. chapter ix. the glacial period and croll's theory. causes of glacial periods--actual conditions of existing glacial regions--high land in high latitudes--cold alone insufficient--large evaporation required--formation of glaciers--they flow like rivers--icebergs--greenland and antarctic circle--geographical and cosmic causes--cooling of earth and sun, cold spaces in space, and change in earth's axis, reviewed and rejected--precession alone insufficient--unless with high eccentricity--geographical causes, elevation of land--aerial and oceanic currents--gulf stream and trade winds--evidence for greater elevation of land in america, europe, and asia--depression--warmer tertiary climates--alps and himalayas--wallace's _island life_--lyell--croll's theory--sir r. ball--former glacial periods--correspondence with croll's theory--length of the different phases--summary--croll's theory a secondary cause--conclusions as to man's antiquity. i turn from the effects to the causes of that great glacial period which has been described in the last chapter. this line of investigation is peculiarly interesting in the search after human origins, for it affords the only chance of reducing the vague periods of immense duration shown by geology, to something like a definite chronology of years and centuries. if astronomical causes, the dates of which admit of mathematical calculation, can be shown to have been, if not the sole or principal, yet one of the causes which must have influenced the phenomena of the glacial epoch, we may assume these dates for the occurrence of the human remains which accompany these phenomena. otherwise we must fall back on immense antiquity, which may mean anything from , or , , to , or , , years, since the first authentic evidence for palæolithic man. the first step towards an investigation of the cause of glacial periods, is to consider what are the conditions of the actual ones which are now prevailing. we have one such period in greenland, another in the antarctic region, a third in high mountain chains like those of alaska, and of the swiss and new zealand alps. in all these cases we find certain common conditions. high land in high latitudes, rising in great masses above the snow-line or temperature which condenses water in the solid form; and winds which are charged with great quantities of watery vapour raised by evaporation, to be so condensed. cold alone is insufficient to produce glaciers and ice-caps, as may be seen by the example of the coldest regions in the world, siberia and the tundras of northern asia and of north america, where the earth is permanently frozen to a depth of many feet; but there are no glaciers, the reason obviously is, that there is no sufficient supply of moist air from warm oceans to furnish more snow in winter than is melted in summer. heat is in a certain sense as necessary as cold to account for glacial periods, for snow and ice can no more than other things be made out of nothing, and every snowflake implies an equal amount of aqueous vapour raised somewhere else by evaporation. but if an abundant supply of liquid or gaseous water is combined with cold sufficient to condense it into the solid form, it becomes fixed, and if the summer heat is insufficient to melt the excess of snow, it necessarily accumulates. the growth of glaciers, follows as an inevitable consequence. the snow is converted into ice by pressure and by alternate freezing and melting, and this grows year by year, until an equilibrium is established by the ice pushing down glaciers into lower levels, where the melting is more rapid, or into the sea, where the front is floated off in icebergs, and drifts into lower latitudes. the process is the same as that by which the rainfall on high levels is drained off by rivers into the sea, so that an equilibrium is established between waste and supply. and it is to be remarked that the glacier, though composed of solid ice, behaves exactly like a river, or rather like a river of some viscous fluid like pitch or treacle. its size depends on the magnitude of the reservoir or area drained by it; it conforms to the configuration of the valley by which it descends and the obstacles which it encounters; it flows rapidly, and with a broken current, through narrow gorges and down steep inclines; slowly and tranquilly over wide and level areas; its velocity is greatest at the surface and in the middle where friction is least, slowest at the bottom and sides where it is greatest. in short a glacier is simply a solid and slowly-flowing river, discharging an excess of solid ice to the lower level from which it came, just as a liquid river does with the rainfall of warmer regions. the cause of this tendency of solid and brittle ice to flow like a viscous fluid is not quite understood, though recent researches, especially those of tyndall, have thrown a good deal of light upon it; but all glacialists are agreed on the _fact_ that it does so, and we can argue from it with great confidence as to the conditions under which glaciation has acted in the past and is now acting. thus even if namsen had never crossed greenland, or ross had never discovered mounts erebus and terror, we might have inferred with certainty the existence of enormous ice-caps, implying continental masses of elevated land, in both the arctic and antarctic circles, from the number and size of the icebergs floated off into the northern atlantic and southern pacific oceans. icebergs are frequently met with in the latter down to ° south latitude, or even lower, of a mile in length and feet high above the sea; and in some instances icebergs three miles long and feet high have been recorded. as upwards of eight feet of ice must be under water for every foot that floats above it, some of these icebergs must be considerably over a mile in thickness, which implies that there must be land ice towards the south pole so thick that it is, in places, over feet in thickness at its outer margin. it has been estimated from the great size and abundance of these icebergs, that in the interior of the great antarctic continent the ice may be twenty miles or more thick, and in greenland the great interior ice-cap rises in a dome to at least or , feet above the sea-level, a great part of which is solid ice, while during the great glacial period it was certainly very much thicker. as a first step therefore towards a solution of the problem of the glacial period we may start with the axiom that it requires abundant evaporation, combined with a temperature low enough to precipitate an excess of that evaporation in the solid form. this does not necessarily imply any great and permanent refrigeration of the whole earth, for although this would give the cold it would not give the evaporation, and would tend rather to extend the conditions of siberia than those of greenland. longer and colder winters with shorter and hotter summers would seem more adapted to the growth of glaciers. but for a more exact investigation our next step must be to inquire what are the causes which may have produced these postulates of a glacial period, lower temperature with larger evaporation. they may be classed under two heads. st. geographical causes, arising from latitude, aërial and oceanic currents, and a different distribution of sea and land. nd. cosmic causes, such as variations of solar and terrestrial heat, passage through colder regions of space, the position of the poles, precession, and the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. all these have had supporters in their time, but the result of the latest science has been to leave only two seriously in the field--lyell's theory of a different distribution and elevation of sea and land, carrying with it changes in aërial and oceanic currents; and croll's theory of the effects of precession combined with high eccentricity of the earth's orbit. thus, of the geographical causes, latitude is no doubt an important factor in determining temperature, but it cannot of itself be the cause of the glacial periods, for it has remained unchanged through all the vicissitudes of heat and cold in geological times. the latitude of greenland and spitzbergen is presumably the same now as it was in the miocene period, when they were the seat of a luxuriant temperate vegetation; and at the present day we have only to follow the isothermal lines to see to what a great extent climate in the same latitudes is modified by other influences, such as the gulf stream. of cosmic causes, the progressive cooling of the earth naturally presents itself, at the first blush, as sufficient to account for the glacial period. but although this has doubtless been an all-important factor in pregeological times, in fashioning our planet from glowing vapour into a habitable earth, it is no longer operative as an immediate cause of vicissitudes of temperature. it is enough to say that if it were, the cooling ought to be progressive, and having once got into a glacial period we never ought to have got out of it. but we clearly have recovered from the paroxysms of cold, both of the first and second great glaciations of the recent period; and according to most geologists, from the immensely earlier ones of the permian and carboniferous, and perhaps of the cambrian ages. as far as it acts at all on surface temperature, the secular cooling of the earth only acts indirectly by causing elevations and depressions of the outer crust, and crumpling it into wrinkles, which originate mountain chains, as the nucleus contracts, and thus affecting geographical conditions. the same objection applies with equal force to the theory that the glacial period was caused by the sun giving out less heat owing to its cooling by radiation. here also it is obvious that if a glacial period were once established from such a cause it ought never to recover, but progress from bad to worse. we ought also, in this case, to have had a uniform progressive refrigeration from the beginning of geological time down to the present day, which has certainly not been the case. on the contrary, geologists are generally agreed that there are unmistakable traces of at least two glacial periods in the carboniferous and permian ages, and the earliest eocene was certainly cooler than its later stages, as shown by their flora. the conjecture that the sun is a variable star is also negatived by the consideration that in this case there ought to have been periodical variations in the earth's temperature, and hot and cold climates recurring at regular intervals throughout geological time, which has certainly not been the case. again, the passage of the solar system through cold regions of space has been suggested, but it is a mere conjecture, unsupported by a particle of evidence, and opposed to all we know of the laws of heat, and of the constitution of the universe. it is hard to conceive how hot regions can exist surrounded by cold ones, or _vice versâ_, without walls of a non-conducting medium to separate them, or that the faint heat from the fixed stars can ever have perceptibly affected the temperature of space. and such a theory, if it were possible, would fail to account for the frequent vicissitudes of hot and cold at short intervals within the glacial period, and for the great differences of temperature prevailing in the same latitudes. an alteration in the position, of the poles has also been suggested, but this also is clearly inadmissible. there is no evidence that the present position has ever materially varied, and there is no known law that could cause such a variation. on the contrary, all the elaborate mathematical calculations by which the motions of the sun, moon, and planets are deduced from newton's law of gravity, tend to negative such a supposition. and what is perhaps even more convincing to a nonmathematical mind, the position of the poles implies the position of the equator, and cannot change without a corresponding change in the earth's shape. now the earth is not a sphere, but an oblate spheroid, of almost the exact shape which a fluid mass would take revolving about the present axis. the centrifugal force arising from the greater velocity of rotation in going from the poles to the equator would pile up a protuberant belt where the velocity was greatest, and in point of fact the earth's equatorial diameter is longer than the polar diameter by about twenty-eight miles. any displacement therefore of the poles, which carried them away from their present position, must displace the present equator to a corresponding extent. this mass of twenty-eight miles in thickness of earth and ocean must be thrown out of the old position, and driven to establish a new equilibrium in a position many degrees north or south of it in order to affect climates materially, submerging all existing lands, and leaving, until removed by denudation, miles upon miles of solid earth in unsymmetrical belts, like the moraines of retreating glaciers, as the equator shifted into new positions. and all this must have occurred, not once, but twice at least, and that with many minor vicissitudes, within the narrow limit of the quaternary period. it is unnecessary to say that nothing of the sort could by any possibility have occurred. some evidence has recently been adduced that some very slight changes in latitude are going on at the observatories of dorpat and greenwich, but if confirmed these can only be of very minute amount, arising from slight changes in the position of the earth's centre of gravity owing to partial elevations and depressions, and could never have been sufficient to account for great variations of climate.[ ] [ ] the latest researches seem to show that these slight variations in latitude do not exceed " or ", and are periodical, with a period of no longer than to days. neither could the precession of the equinoxes have been of itself a principal cause, for here also the limit of time negatives the supposition. this precessional circle carries the perihelion and aphelion, and with it the seasons, completely round, and brings them back to the old position, in about , years, and therefore if glacial periods were occasioned by them, there ought to be alternations from _maximum_ of cold to _maximum_ of warmth in each hemisphere every , years. but this has certainly not been the case even in recent times, and still less if we go back to the quaternary, tertiary, and earlier geological periods. in fact it is only when combined with periods of high eccentricity of the earth's orbit, according to croll's theory, that precession can pretend to have any claim to be an important factor in the production of glacial periods. and even then the question is not of its being the sole or principal cause, but only whether it has had such a perceptible auxiliary effect on other more powerful causes, as may enable us to use it as a chronometer in assigning approximate dates for some of the more important phenomena of the long and varied period between the close of the tertiary and the establishment of the recent period. as man certainly existed throughout the whole of this period, the possibility of finding such a chronometer becomes intensely interesting, and i proceed to discuss the latest state of scientific opinion respecting it. but as croll's theory if a real is clearly only an auxiliary cause, i will, in the first instance, point out what are the certain and admitted causes which account for variations of temperature irrespective of latitude. they may be summed up, in lyell's words, as different combinations of sea and land, for on these depend the secondary conditions which affect temperature. thus elevation of land is as certain a cause of cold as high latitude, and even kilimanjaro, under the equator, retains patches of unmelted snow throughout the year. it is estimated that a rise of feet in height is about equivalent to a fall of ° f. in mean annual temperature, and that the line of perpetual snow is, on the average, a little higher than the line where this mean annual temperature is at ° f., or freezing-point. if there is any mass of land so high as to be below this temperature, snow accumulates and forms glaciers, which descend some feet below the snow-line before the excess of ice pushing down is melted off by the summer heat unless it has been previously floated off in icebergs at a higher level. now the mean temperature of the north of scotland at sea-level is about ° f., so that an elevation of or , feet would bring a great part of it well above the snow-line, and vast glaciers would inevitably accumulate, which would push down through the principal valleys almost to the sea-level; a state of things which actually exists in new zealand, where glaciers from the southern alps at about this elevation descend, in some instances to within feet of the sea-level, in the latitude of devonshire. but a still more important factor of temperature is found in aërial and oceanic currents, which again, to a great extent, are a product of the configuration of sea and land. the most familiar instance is that of the gulf stream, which raises the temperature of western europe some °, and in norway as much as ° f., above that due to latitude, and which prevails on the other side of the atlantic. the northern extremity of the british islands in shetland is on the same parallel of latitude as the southern extremity of greenland, cape farewell. one is buried under perpetual ice, in the other there is so little frost in winter that skating is an unknown art. what is the reason of this? we must go to the tropics to find it. a vast mass of vapour is raised by the sun's heat from the oceans near the equator, which being lighter rises and overflows, the trade winds rushing in from the north to supply its place, and being deflected to the west by the earth's rotation. this prevalence of easterly surface winds sweeps the waters of the atlantic to the west, where they are intercepted by south america, turned northwards into the gulf of mexico, where they circle round under a tropical sun and become greatly heated, and finally run out through the straits of florida with a rapid current, and spread a surface return current eastwards over the northern atlantic. the shores of north-west europe are thus in the position of a house warmed by hot-water pipes, while their neighbours over the way in north-eastern america have no such apparatus. this oceanic circuit of warm water has a counterpart in the aërial circuit of heated air. the vapour which rose in the tropics overflows, and as it cools and gets beyond the region of the trade winds, descends mainly over the northern atlantic, carrying with it its greater velocity of rotation, and so causing westerly winds, which reach our shores after blowing over a wide expanse of ocean heated by the gulf stream, thus bringing us warmth and wet, while the corresponding counter-currents which blow over continental europe and asia from the north-east bring cold and drought. the extreme effects of this may be seen by comparing the black sea at odessa, where ice often stops navigation, with the north sea at the lafoden islands, where the cod-fishing is carried on in open boats in the middle of winter. we in england are in the happy position where on the whole the mild and genial west winds prevail, though not exclusively, so as to give us the drenching rains of western ireland and scotland, or to prevent spells of a continental climate which give us bracing frosts in winter, and alternations of cold and heat in summer. if we turn from these temperate regions to those in which exactly opposite conditions prevail, we find them still in the icy chains of a glacial period. greenland, for instance, which is a typical case, shows us what happens when a continental mass of land stands at a high elevation in high latitudes with no gulf stream, but instead of it cold currents from a polar ocean, and seas around it frozen or covered with icebergs for nine months out of the year. we have a dome of solid ice piled up to the height of feet or upwards, and sending millions upon millions of tons of glaciers down to the sea to be floated off as icebergs. the only trace we can see here of the old great glacial period is that these conditions were formerly more intense. thus the glaciation of some of the mountain sides and islands off the coast of greenland seem to show that the ice formerly stood or feet higher than at present, a result which would be attained if the whole continental mass, which is now slowly subsiding, had then been elevated to that extent. the southern hemisphere affords a still more striking example of this on a larger scale, for we have there, in all probability, higher land in higher latitudes, surrounded by frozen seas, and washed by cold currents. i pass from this however, as beyond these general facts the special conditions of the antarctic circle are not known to us like those of greenland. from the above facts we are very safe in drawing the conclusion that during the great quaternary glacial period the conditions which now cause glaciation must have existed in an aggravated degree, and those which now give us temperate climates in regions once glaciated must have disappeared or been reversed. on the other hand, the warm climates which prevailed during the tertiary and other geological epochs, and permitted a temperate flora to flourish as far north as grinnell land and spitzbergen, could only have occurred under conditions exactly the reverse of those which produced the cold. if high land in high latitudes is the principal cause of the present glaciation of greenland, still higher land must have been so in causing the still greater glaciation of the former period. scandinavia, laurentia, the british islands, the alps, apennines, rocky mountains, sierra nevada, and all great mountain ranges in the northern hemisphere must have stood at greater elevations. there must have been such an accumulation of ice and snow as to chill the air, cause fogs, and prevent the summer heat of the sun from melting off the water which fell in the solid form during winter; and on the other hand, there must have been hot summers and great expanses of ocean to the south to supply the abundant evaporation which became condensed by contact with the chilly mountains and uplands of the north. one supposition is that the isthmus of panama was then submerged, so that the gulf stream ran into the pacific. but this wants geological confirmation, as the isthmus shows no sign of such recent marine formations as must have been deposited if it had been submerged to a sufficient depth to let the gulf stream escape, and the extension of the ice-cap in north america to much lower latitudes than in europe, points rather to the conclusion that the gulf stream must have run very much in its present course. the only geological evidence bearing on this question is the recent discovery of deep oceanic deposits such as the globigerena ooze, above tertiary deposits in barbadoes and jamaica, leading to the inference that the whole west indian area was a deep sea in comparatively modern times. this no doubt might affect both the temperature and the velocity of the gulf stream to a considerable extent. but the geological evidence is much more conclusive for the greater elevation of the land during the periods of greater glaciation as well as for its depression during the inter-glacial period. american geologists estimate that a large part of eastern canada with adjacent regions must have been at least , and may have been as much as feet above its present level during the first great glaciation; while the champlain marine beds show that it was some hundreds of feet below the present, sea-level during part of the inter-glacial period. scandinavia stood at least feet higher than at present during the climax of the glacial period as proved by the depths of the fiords, and afterwards or lower as proved by the raised beaches. in great britain and ireland we have conclusive evidence both of higher elevation, and of depression of at least feet, and probably more than feet below the present sea-level, as proved by the marine shells on the top of moel-tryfen. but these elevations and depressions are small in amount compared with the mountain building which is known to have occurred in asia in comparatively recent geological times. here the himalayas, stretching for miles from east to west, and rising to heights of from , to , feet above the sea, have been formed in great part during this period. within the same period the great table-lands of thibet and central asia have been uplifted, and the asian mediterranean sea, of which the black sea, the caspian, the salt deserts and lake balkash are the remnants, has been converted into dry land. movements of this magnitude, of which there are many other examples, may well account for great changes in isothermal lines and climates. the complete removal of the conditions which produced the glacial period might go far to account for the preceding tertiary period. we have only to suppose a different configuration of sea and land; nothing but low lands and islands in high latitudes; free access for warm oceanic currents like the gulf stream into the limited area of the polar basin; no great continents or lofty mountain ranges to drain the return trade winds of their moisture; in short, all the conditions of a mild and moist insular climate, as opposed to those of a continental one, to understand how forests of temperate trees might flourish as far north as greenland and spitzbergen. and the geological evidence which, as we have seen, shows that great elevation of land in the northern hemisphere did in fact inaugurate the glacial period, favours the conclusion that the reverse conditions actually prevailed during the tertiary and preceding epochs. the presence of the nummulitic and other marine eocene and miocene formations over such extensive areas, and at such great elevations, is a conclusive proof that a great part of our existing continents were then at the bottom of deep oceans. the alps were certainly , feet lower than their present level, and the himalayas more so; and when this was the case a great part of europe and asia must have been sea, in which only a few of the highest peaks and elevated plateaux stood up as islands. the pacific and indian oceans as well as the atlantic might then have poured their gulf streams into the polar basin, and prevalent southerly and westerly winds, blowing over wide expanses of water, have deposited their vapour in genial showers instead of in solid snow. the effect of such geographical conditions in producing both heat and cold is admirably worked out by wallace in his _island life_, and few who read it can doubt that lyell was right in saying that they have been the principal causes of the vicissitudes of climate. and here i may say a word to express my admiration of the innate sagacity with which lyell, many years ago, and with comparatively few facts to work upon, sketched out the leading lines of geology, which have been confirmed by subsequent research. details may have been corrected or added, but his main theories have stood the fullest test of the survival of the fittest. his law of the uniformity of natural causes, continued for long intervals of time, holds the field unchallenged. these causes may have operated a little more quickly or slowly in former ages than at present, but they have been of the same order. the waste of continents, instead, of averaging one foot in years, may have averaged ten or twenty feet during certain periods, and certain portions of the earth's crust may have been elevated or depressed at a quicker rate than is now going on in scandinavia; but no one any longer believes in paroxysms throwing up mountain chains or sinking continents below the ocean at a single blow. in like manner later geologists have corrected details in the distribution of land and sea suggested by lyell to account for the glacial period, but his main law has only received confirmation--viz. that this distribution, and especially high land in high latitudes, has been the principal cause of such periods. at the same time there is a pretty general consensus of the best and latest geologists, that, as lyell himself suggested, elevation and depression and other geographical changes, though the principal, are not the sole causes of the glacial period. the main argument is, that the phases of this period, though not exactly simultaneous over the whole world, are too nearly so to be due to mere local movements, and require the intervention of some general cosmic cause. we have already seen that of such causes there is none which appears feasible except croll's theory of the effects of precession combined with high eccentricity. let us consider what this theory really asserts. if the earth were a perfect sphere, its orbit round the sun a perfect circle, and the equator coincided with the ecliptic, there would be no seasons. the four quarters of the year would each receive the same quantity of solar heat and light, and the days and nights would be always equal. but the inclination of the equator to the ecliptic, that is, of the earth's plane of daily rotation to that of its annual revolution, necessitates seasons. each pole must be alternately turned to and away from the sun every year. each hemisphere, therefore, must have alternately its spring, summer, autumn, and winter. but if the earth's orbit were exactly circular, these seasons would be of equal duration, and the distance from the sun no greater in one than in another. but the earth's orbit is not circular, but elliptic, and the eccentricity, or deviation of the oval from the circular form, varies considerably over very long periods, though always coming back to the amount from which it started. these variations are due to perturbations from the other bodies of the solar system acting according to the law of newton's gravitation, and therefore calculable. again, the earth is not a perfect sphere, but a spheroid, and there is a factor called precession, due to the attraction on the protuberant mass at and towards the equator. the effect of this is, that instead of the earth's axis pointing uniformly towards the same celestial pole, it describes a small circle round it. this circle is completed in about , years, so that if the earth is nearest to the sun when the north pole is turned away from it, and it is winter in the northern hemisphere, as is now the case, in , years the conditions will be reversed, and the southern hemisphere will be in perihelion, or nearest the sun, when its pole points away from it. and as the perihelion portion of the earth's orbit is, owing to its eccentricity, shorter and more quickly traversed than the aphelion portion, this means practically that winters will be shorter than summers in the hemisphere which precession favours, and longer in that to which it is adverse. as precession now favours the northern hemisphere, which is warmer than the southern in corresponding latitudes, it might be thought at first sight that this was the cause of the glacial period. but it is evident that this is not the case, for the precessional revolutions come round far too rapidly, and it is impossible to suppose that there have been glacial and genial periods alternating every , years, with all the inevitable changes of seas and lands, and of fauna and flora, accompanying each alternation throughout the whole of geological time. in fact, it is abundantly evident, on historical evidence alone, that there has been no approach to any such changes during the last , years, which carries us back to a period when our northern summers were short and our winters long. but croll's theory brings in the secular variation of the eccentricity, and contends that although precession may have little or no effect while the earth's orbit is nearly circular, as it is now, it must have a considerable effect when the orbit flattens out, so that the distances from the sun and the durations of summer and winter become exaggerated. croll calculated the periods when such _maxima_ and _minima_ of eccentricity occurred for several revolutions back from the formula of the great astronomer leverrier, and found that going back for the last , years there had been two _maxima_ of high eccentricity, one , years, and the other, and more intense, , years ago, with corresponding _minima_ of low eccentricity between, which corresponded remarkably well with the refrigeration commencing in the pliocene, culminating towards its close or in the early quaternary, subsiding into a long inter-glacial period, rising again in the later quaternary to a second glacial _maximum_ a little less intense than the first, and finally gradually subsiding into the low eccentricity and temperate climates of more recent times; especially as the geological evidence shows many minor oscillations of heat and cold and advances and retreats of glaciers during each phase of these periods, such as must have occurred from the shorter recurrent effects of precession according to croll's theory. croll's calculations show that, at the period of _maximum_ eccentricity , years ago, the earth would have been in mid-winter , , miles further from the sun than it is now, and the winter half of the year nearly twenty-eight days longer than the summer half, instead of being six days shorter as at present. it appears, moreover, from a volume just published, _on the astronomical causes of an ice age_, by sir r. ball, one of the highest authorities on mathematics and astronomy, that croll had understated his case. ball says that "croll, misled by a statement of herschell's, had assumed the number of units of heat received from the sun, in a hemisphere of the earth, as equal in summer and winter. but in reality, of such units, are received in summer and only in winter. as the maximum of eccentricity which is possible would produce an inequality between summer and winter of days, they had the following possible conditions in a hemisphere--summer days and winter days, or summer days and winter days. in each case it must be borne in mind that heat units arrived in summer and in winter. if the summer were a long one and the winter short, then the allotment of heat between the two seasons would be fairly adjusted. the units were distributed over days and the units over days, and a general inter-glacial state was the result on the hemisphere. if, however, a torrent of heat represented by units was poured in during a brief summer of days, whilst, the balance of units is made to stretch itself over days, a brief, intensely hot summer would be followed by a very long and cold winter, and as this condition lasted for many centuries, it seemed sufficient to produce a glacial epoch." it would be going, too far, however, to assume that these conditions necessarily produced glacial periods whenever they occurred, and ball himself points out that even on astronomical grounds, several conditions must concur before high eccentricity alone would affect climate. but even with this reservation the same objection applies to assigning, this as the sole or principal cause of ice ages, as to precession alone, viz. that periods of high eccentricity occur too frequently to allow us to suppose that every such period in the past has had its corresponding glacial period. there was a _maximum_ phase of eccentricity , years ago, even higher than that of , years, and there must have been at least two or three such _maxima_ within each of the twenty-eight geological ages. but there are only two or three traces of glacial periods in past epochs on which geologists can rely with confidence, as proving extensive ice-action--one in the permian, the other in the carboniferous age. there are a few other instances which look like glacial action, as the conglomerate of the superga at turin, the flysch of switzerland, the great conglomerate at the base of the devonian; and professor geikie thinks that the oldest cambrian rocks in the west highlands have been rounded and smoothed by ice before the silurian strata were deposited on them. but even if these were authenticated and proved to be due to general and not merely local causes, they would not supply anything like the number of glacial periods required by croll's theory. croll attempts to meet this by the extensive denudation which has repeatedly carried away such large portions of land surface; but this scarcely explains the absence of the boulders of hard rocks, which accompany every moraine and iceberg; and still less the continuance of the same fauna and flora throughout whole geological periods with little or no change. we have no such abrupt changes as during the last glacial period, when at one time the canary laurel flourished in central france, while at another the reindeer moss and arctic willow extended to the pyrenees, both occurring within what may be called a short time, geologically speaking. on the contrary, there seems to have been no material changes in the flora throughout very long geological periods such as that of the coal measures. the only real answer to this objection is that the question is, not whether croll's theory is the sole or even the principal cause of glacial periods, or able to influence them materially if the geographical conditions favour genial climates; but whether it has not a co-operating effect, when these conditions are such as to produce glaciation. it seems difficult to suppose that such contrasts of conditions as are pointed out by sir r. ball can have had no perceptible effect on climates; or that such close coincidences as are shown between the astronomical theory and geological facts, during the last glacial period, can be due to mere accident. geology shows six phases of this period:--( ) a refrigeration coming on in the pliocene; ( ) its culmination in a first and most intense _maximum_; ( ) a gradual return to a milder inter-glacial period; ( ) a second refrigeration; ( ) its culmination in a second _maximum_; ( ) a second return to genial conditions, such as still prevail. croll's theory shows six astronomical phases, corresponding to these six geological phases. geology shows that each of its six phases involves several minor alternations of hot and cold; croll shows that this must have been the case owing to the effects of the shorter cycles of precession, occurring during the long cycles of variations in eccentricity. geology tells us that cold alone would not account for a glacial period; we must have heat to supply the evaporation which is condensed by the cold; croll shows that with high eccentricity cold and long winters must have been accompanied by short and hot summers. and sir r. ball's recent calculations show that the argument is really very much stronger than croll puts it. the duration of each of the phases of croll's theory corresponds also, on the whole, remarkably well with that required for each phase of the geological record. they would average about , years each for croll's phases, and a less time can hardly be allowed for the immense amount of geological work in the way of denudation and deposition, elevation and depression, and changes of fauna and flora which have occurred since the commencement of the great refrigeration in the late pliocene. in fact the only reasonable doubt seems to be whether croll's times are sufficient, and whether, as lyell was inclined to think, the first and greatest glaciation must not be carried back to the extreme period of high eccentricity which occurred about , years ago. unless we are prepared to ignore all these considerations and deny that croll's theory, as amended by sir r. ball, has had any appreciable effect on the conditions of the glacial period, it follows with mathematical certainty, that this period, taking it from the commencement of the great refrigeration in the pliocene to its final disappearance in the recent, must have lasted for about , years. and as man clearly existed in the pre-glacial period, and was already widely spread and in considerable numbers in the early glacial, , years may be taken as an approximation to the _minimum_ duration of the existence of the human race on the earth. to this must be added an indefinitely long period beyond, unless we are prepared to disprove the apparently excessively strong evidence for its existence in the pliocene and even in the miocene periods; evidence which has been rapidly accumulating of late years; and to which, as far as i know, there has been no serious and unbiassed attempt at scientific refutation; and to which confirmation is given by the undoubted fact that the dryopithecus, the hylobates, and other quadrumana, closely resembling man in physical structure, already existed in the miocene, and, if professor ameghino's discoveries referred to at p. are confirmed, in the vastly more remote period of the early eocene. chapter x. quaternary man. no longer doubted--men not only existed, but in numbers and widely spread--palæolithic implements of similar type found everywhere--progress shown--tests of antiquity--position of strata--fauna--oldest types--mixed northern and southern species--reindeer period--correspondence of human remains with these three periods--advance of civilization--clothing and barbed arrows--drawing and sculpture--passage into neolithic and recent periods--corresponding progress of physical man--distinct races--how tested--tests applied to historical, neolithic, and palæolithic man--long heads and broad heads--aryan controversy--primitive european types--canon taylor--huxley--preservation of human remains depends mainly on burials--about forty skulls and skeletons known from quaternary times--summary of results--quatrefages and hamy--races of canstadt--cro-magnon--furfooz--truchere--skeletons of neanderthal and spy--canstadt type oldest--cro-magnon type next--skeleton of cro-magnon--broad-headed and short race resembling lapps--american type--no evidence from asia, africa, india, polynesia, and australia--negroes, negrillos, and negritos--summary of results. the time is past when it is necessary to go into any lengthened argument to prove that man has existed throughout the quaternary period. less than half a century has elapsed since the confirmation of boucher-de-perthes' discovery of palæolithic implements in the old gravels of the somme, and yet the proofs have multiplied to such an extent that they are now reckoned, not by scores or hundreds, but by tens of thousands. they have been found not in one locality or in one formation only, but in all the deposits of the quaternary age, from the earliest to the latest, and in association with all the phases of the quaternary period, from the extinct mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and cave-bear, to the reindeer, horse, ox, and other existing animals. no geologist or palæontologist, who approaches the subject with anything like competent knowledge, and without theological or other prepossessions, doubts that man is as much a characteristic member of the quaternary fauna as any of these extinct or existing animals, and that reasonable doubt only begins when we pass from the quaternary into the tertiary ages. i will content myself, therefore, instead of going over old ground and proving facts which are no longer disputed, with showing what bearing they have on the question of human origins. [illustration: palÆolithic celt (type of st. acheul). from quaternary deposits of the nerbudda, india.] [illustration: palÆolithic celt in argillite. from the delaware, united states (abbott).] the first remarkable fact to note is, that at this remote period man not only existed, but existed in considerable numbers, and already widely spread over nearly the whole surface of the habitable earth. implements and weapons of the palæolithic type, such as celts or hatchets, lance and arrow-heads, knives, borers and scrapers of flint, or if that be wanting of some hard stone of the district, fashioned entirely by chipping without any grinding or polishing, have been found in the sands and gravels of most of the rivers of southern england, france, belgium and germany, of the tagus and manzanares in spain, and the tiber in italy. still more numerously also in the caves and glacial drifts of these and other european countries. nor are they confined to europe. stone implements of the same type have been found in algeria, morocco, and egypt, and in natal and south africa. also in greece, syria, palestine, hindostan, and as far east as china and japan, while in the new world they have been found in maryland, ohio, california, and other states in north america, and in brazil, and the argentine pampas in the south. and this has been the result of the explorations of little more than thirty years, prior to which the coexistence of man with the extinct animals was almost universally denied; and of explorations which except in a few european countries have been very partial. [illustration: palÆolithic flint celt (type of st. acheul). from algeria (lubbock).] [illustration: palÆolithic celt of quartzite from natal, south africa. (_quatrefages._)] in fact the area over which these evidences of man's existence have been found may be best defined by the negative, where they have not been found, as there is every probability that it will eventually be proved that, with a few exceptions, wherever man could have existed during the quaternary period, there he did exist. the northern portions of europe which were buried under ice-caps are the only countries where considerable search has failed to discover palæolithic implements, while nearly all asia, africa, and america, and vast extents of desert and forests remain unexplored. the next point to observe is, that throughout the whole of the quaternary period there has been a constant progression of human intelligence upwards. any theory of human origins which says that man has fallen and not risen is demonstrably false. how do we know this? the time scale of the quaternary as of other geological periods is determined partly by the superposition of strata, and partly by the changes of fauna. in the case of existing rivers which have excavated their present valleys in the course of ages, it is evident that the highest deposits are the oldest. if the somme, seine, or thames left remains of their terraces and patches of their silts and gravels at heights feet or more above their present level, it is because they began to run at these higher levels, and gradually worked their way downwards, leaving traces of their floods ever lower and lower. in the case of deposits in caves or in still water, or where glacial moraines and _débris_ are superimposed on one another, the case is reversed, and the lowest are the oldest and the highest the most recent. in like manner if the fauna has changed, the remains found in the highest deposits of rivers and lowest, of caves will be the oldest, and will become more modern as we descend in the one case or ascend in the others. this is practically confirmed by the coincidence of innumerable observations. the oldest quaternary fauna is characterized by a preponderance of three species, the mammoth (elephas primigenius), the woolly rhinoceros (rhinoceros tichorinus), and the cave-bear (ursus spelæus). there are a few survivals from the pliocene, as the gigantic elephant (elephas antiquus) and a few anticipations of later phases, as the reindeer, horse, and ox, but the three mentioned are, with palæolithic man, the most characteristic. then comes a long period when a strange mixture of northern and southern forms occurs. side by side with the remains of arctic animals such as the mammoth, the glutton, the musk ox, and the lemming, are found those of african species adapted only for a warm climate, the lion, panther, hyena, and above all the hippopotamus, not distinguishable from the existing species, which could certainly not have lived in rivers that were frozen in winter. the intermixture is most difficult to account for. no doubt africa and europe were then united, and the theory of migration is invoked. the arctic animals may, it is said, have moved south in winter and the african animals north in summer, and this was doubtless the case to some extent. but there are some facts which militate against this theory; for instance, the hyena caves, which seem to show a continuous occupation by the same african species for long periods. nor is it easy to conceive how the hippopotamus could have travelled every summer from africa to yorkshire, and retreated every autumn with the approach of frost. such instances point rather to long inter-glacial periods with vicissitudes of climate, enabling now a northern, and now a southern fauna to inhabit permanently the same region. be this as it may, the fact is certain that this strange intermixture of northern and southern species is found in almost all the european deposits of the quaternary age, until towards its close with the coming on of the second great glacial period, when the southern forms disappear, and the reindeer, with an arctic or boreal flora and fauna, become preponderant, and extend themselves over southern france and germany up to the alps and pyrenees. the quaternary period is therefore roughly divided by geologists into three stages: st, that of the mammoth and cave-bear, there being some difference of opinion as to which came first, though probably they were simultaneous; nd, the middle stage of the mixed fauna; rd, the latest stage, that of the reindeer. now to these stages there is an exact correspondence in the character of the human implements found in them. in the earliest, those of the oldest deposits and of the oldest animals, we find the rudest implements. they consist almost exclusively of native stones, chipped roughly into a few primitive shapes: celts, which are merely lumps of flint or other hard stone with a little chipping to supplement natural fractures in bringing them to a point or edge, while the butt-end is left rough to be grasped by the hand; scrapers with a little chipping to an edge on one side; very rude arrow-heads without the vestige of a barb or socket; and flakes struck off at a blow, which may have served for knives. as we ascend to later deposits we find these primitive types constantly improving. the celts are chipped all over and the butt-ends adapted for haftings, so also are the other implements and weapons, and the arrow-heads by degrees acquire barbs. but the great advance occurs with the use of bone, which seems to have been as important a civilizing agent for palæolithic as metals were for neolithic man. this again seems to have been due to the increasing preponderance of the reindeer, whose horns afforded an abundant and easily manipulated material for working into the desired forms by flint knives. at any rate the fact is, that as we trace palæolithic man upwards into the later half of the quaternary period when the reindeer became abundant, we find a notable advance of civilization. needles appear, showing that skins of animals were stitched together with sinews to provide clothing. barbed arrows and harpoons show that the arts of war and of the chase had made a great advance on the primitive unhafted celt. and finally we arrive at a time when certain tribes showed not only an advance in the industrial arts, but a really marvellous proficiency in the arts of sculpture and drawing. in the later reindeer period, when herds of that animal and of the wild horse and ox roamed over the plains of southern france and germany, and when the mammoth and cave-bear, though not extinct, were becoming scarce, tribes of palæolithic savages who lived in the caves and rock shelters of the valleys of southern france and germany, and of switzerland and belgium, drew pictures of their chases and of the animals with which they were surrounded, with the point of a flint on pieces of bone or of schist. they also carved bones into images of these animals, to adorn the handles of their weapons or as idols or amulets. both drawings and sculptures are in many cases admirably executed, so as to leave no doubt of the animal intended, especially in the case of the wild animals, for the rare portraits of the human figure are very inferior. most of them represent the reindeer in various attitudes, but the mammoth, the cave-bear, the wild horse, the bos primigenius, and others, are also represented with wonderful fidelity. with the close of the reindeer age we pass into the recent period and from palæolithic to neolithic man. physically there is no very decided break, and we cannot draw a hard-and-fast line where one ends and the other begins. all we can say is, that there is general evidence of constantly decreasing cold during the whole post-glacial period, from the climax of the second great glaciation until modern conditions of climate are fairly established, and the existing fauna has completely superseded that of the quaternary, the older characteristic forms of which having either become extinct or migrated. how does this affect the most characteristic of all quaternary forms, that of man? can we trace an uninterrupted succession from the earliest quaternary to the latest modern times, or is there a break between the quaternary and recent periods which with our present knowledge cannot be bridged over? and did the division of mankind into distinct and widely different races, which is such a prominent feature at the present day and ever since the commencement of history, exist in the case of the palæolithic man, whose remains are so widespread? these are questions which can only be answered by the evidence of actual remains of the human body. implements and weapons may have altered gradually with the lapse of ages, and new forms may have been introduced by commerce and conquest, without any fundamental change in the race using them. still less can language be appealed to as a test of race, for experience shows how easily the language of a superior race may be imposed on populations with which it has no affinity in blood. to establish distinction of races we consult the anthropologist rather than the geologist or philologist. [illustration: portrait of mammoth. drawn with a flint on a piece of mammoth's ivory; from cave of la madeleine, dordogne, france.] [illustration: earliest portrait of a man with serpents and horses' heads. from grotto of les eyzies. reindeer period.] [illustration: reindeer feeding. from grotto of thayngen, near schaffhausen, switzerland.] on what are the distinctions of the human race founded? mainly on colour, stature, hair, and on the anatomical character of skulls and skeletons. these are wonderfully persistent, and have been so since historical times, intermediate characters only appearing where there has been intercrossing between different races. but the primitive types have continued unchanged, and no one has ever seen a white race of negroes, or a black one of europeans. and this has certainly been the case during the historical period, or for at least years, for the paintings on old egyptian tombs show us the types of the negro, the libyan, the syrian, and the copt as distinct as at the present day, and the negroes especially, with their black colour, long heads, projecting muzzles, and woolly hair growing in separate tufts, might pass for typical photographs of the african negro of the nineteenth century. of these indications of race we cannot hope to meet with any of the former class in quaternary gravel or caves. we have to trust to the anatomical character to be drawn from skulls and skeletons, of which it may be inferred, as a matter of course, that they will be few and scanty, and will become constantly fewer and more imperfect as we ascend the stream of time to earlier periods. it must be remembered also that even these scanty specimens of early man are confined almost entirely to one comparatively small portion of the earth, that of europe, and that we have hardly a single palæolithic skull or skeleton of the black, the yellow, the olive, the copper-coloured, or other typical race into which the population of the earth is actually divided. we are confined therefore to europe for anything like positive evidence of these anatomical characters of prehistoric and primæval man, and can only draw inferences from implements as to those of other portions of the earth and other races. fortunately these racial characters are very persistent, especially those of the skull and stature, and they exist in ample abundance throughout the historic, prehistoric, and neolithic ages, to enable us to draw very certain conclusions. thus at present, and as far as we can see back with certainty, the races which have inhabited europe may be classified under the heads, tall and short, long-headed and broad-headed, and those of intermediate types, which latter may be dismissed for the present, though constituting a majority of most modern countries, as they are almost certainly not primitive, but the result of intercrossing. colour, complexion, and hair are also very persistent, though, as we have pointed out, we have no certain evidence by which to test them beyond the historical period. but the form of skulls, jaws, teeth, and other parts of the skeleton remain wonderfully constant in races where there has been little or no intermixture. the first great division is in the form of the skull. comparing the extreme breadth of the skull with its extreme length from front to back, if the breadth does not exceed three-fourths or per cent. of the length, the skull is said to be dolicocephalic or long-headed; if it equals or exceeds per cent. it is called brachycephalic, _i.e._ short or broad-headed. intermediate indices between and per cent. are called sub-dolicocephalic, or sub-brachycephalic, according as they approach one or the other of these extremes, but these are of less importance, as they probably are the result of intercrossing. the prognathism also of the jaws, the form of the eye-orbits and nasal bones, the superciliary ridges, the proportion of the frontal to the posterior regions of the skull, the stature and proportions of the limbs, are also both characteristic and persistent features, and correspond generally with the type of the skull. the controversy as to the origin of the aryans has led to a great deal of argument as to these ethnological traits in prehistoric and neolithic times, and the interesting volume of canon taylor's on the _origin of the aryans_, and professor huxley's article on the same subject in the _nineteenth century_ for november , give a summary of the latest researches on the subject. we shall have to refer to these more fully in discussing the question as to the place or places of human origins; but for the present it is sufficient to state the general result at which the latest science has arrived. the theory of a common asiatic centre from which all the races of mankind have migrated is given up as unsupported by the slightest vestige of evidence. when we first know anything of the aryan and other european races, we find them occupying substantially very much the same regions as at present. there are four distinct european types, two tall and two short, two long-headed and two broad-headed. of these two were fair, and two dark, and one, apparently the oldest in western europe and in the mediterranean region, and probably represented by the iberians, and now by the spanish basques, was short, dark, and long-headed; a second short, dark, and broad-headed, who are probably represented by the ancient ligurians, and survive now in the auvergnats and savoyards; a third, tall, fair, and long-headed, whose original seats were in the regions of the baltic and north sea, and who were always an energetic and conquering race; and the fourth, like the third, tall and fair, but with broad heads, and possibly not a primitive race, but the result of some very ancient intermixture of the third or northern type with some of the broad-headed races. now as far back as frequent human remains enable us to form some satisfactory conclusion, that is up to the early neolithic period, we find similar race-types already existing, and to a considerable extent in the same localities. in modern and historical times we find, according to canon taylor, "all the anthropological tests agreeing in exhibiting two extreme types--the african, with long heads, long eye-orbits, and flat hair; and the mongolian, with round heads, round orbits, and round hair. the european type is intermediate--the head, orbits, and sections of hair are oval. in the east of europe we find an approximation to the asiatic type; in the south of europe to the african." more specifically, we find in europe the four races mentioned above of tall and short long-heads, and tall and short broad-heads. the question is, how far back can any of these races be identified? the preservation of human remains depends mainly on the practice of burying the dead. until the corpse is placed in a tomb protected by a stone coffin or dolmen, or in a grave dug in a cave, or otherwise sheltered from rains, floods, and wild beasts, the chances of its preservation are few and far between. now it is not until the neolithic period that the custom of burying the dead became general, and even then it was not universal, and in many nations even in historical times corpses were burnt, not buried. it was connected doubtless with ideas of a future existence, which either required troublesome ghosts to be put securely out of the way, or to retain a shadowy existence by some mysterious connection with the body which had once served them for a habitation. such ideas, however, only come with some advance of civilization, and it is questionable whether in palæolithic times the human animal had any more notion of preserving the body after death than the other animals by which he was surrounded. this neolithic habit moreover of burying, though it preserves many relics of its own time, increases the difficulty when we come to deal with those of an earlier age. a great many caves which had been inhabited by palæolithic man were selected as fitting spots for the graves of their neolithic successors, and thus the remains of the two periods became intermixed. it is never safe to rely on the antiquity of skulls and skeletons found in association with palæolithic implements and extinct animals, unless the exploration has been made with the greatest care by some well-known scientific observer, or the circumstances of the case are such as to preclude the possibility of later interments. thus in the famous cavern of aurignac there is no doubt that it had been long a palæolithic station, and that many of the human remains date back to this period; but whether the fourteen skeletons which were found in it, and lost owing to the pietistic zeal of the mayor who directed their burial, were really palæolithic, is a disputed point, or rather the better opinion is that they were part of a secondary neolithic interment. but to return to undoubted neolithic skulls, we have very clear evidence that the four distinct european races already existed. thus in britain we have two distinct forms of barrows or burial tombs, one long, the other round, and it has become proverbial that long skulls go with long barrows, and round skulls with round barrows. the long barrows are the oldest, and belong entirely to the stone age, no trace of metal, according to canon greenwell, having ever been found in them. the skulls and skeletons are those of a long-headed, short, and feeble race, who may be identified with the iberians; while the round barrows contain bronze and finally iron, and the people buried in them were the tall, fair, round-headed gauls or celts of early history, or intermediate types between these and the older race. later came in the tall, fair, and long-headed anglo-saxon and scandinavian races, so that we have three out of the four european types clearly defined in the british islands and traceable in their descendants of the present day. but when we attempt to go beyond the iberians of the neolithic age in britain, we are completely at fault. we have abundant remains of palæolithic implements, but scarcely a single undoubted specimen of a palæolithic skeleton, and it is impossible to say whether the men who feasted on the mammoth and rhinoceros in kent's cavern, or who left their rude implements in the high-level gravel of the chalk downs, were tall or short, long-headed or round-headed. on the contrary, there seems a great hiatus between the neolithic and the palæolithic periods, and, as geikie has shown, this appears to be the case not in england only but in a great part of europe. it would almost seem as if the old era had disappeared with the last glacial period, and a completely new one had been introduced. but although the skulls and bones of palæolithic races are wanting in britain and scarce everywhere, enough of them have been found in other european countries to enable anthropologists not merely to say that different races already existed at this immensely remote period, but to classify them by their types, and see how far these correspond with those of later times. this has been done especially in france and belgium, where the discoveries of palæolithic skeletons and skulls have been far more frequent than elsewhere. debierre in his _l'homme avant l'histoire_, published in the _bibliothèque scientifique_ of , enumerates upwards of forty instances of such undoubted quaternary human remains, of which at least twenty consisted of entire skulls, and others of jaws and other important bones connected with racial type. the best and latest conclusions of modern anthropology from these remains will be found in this work of debierre's, and in hamy's _palæontologie humaine_, quatrefages' _races humaines_, and topinard's _anthropologie_, and it will be sufficient to give a short summary of the results. the history of quaternary fossil man is divided, in the _crania ethnica_ of quatrefages and hamy, into four races: st, the canstadt race; nd, the cro-magnon race; rd, the races of grenelle and furfooz; th, the race of truchere. the canstadt race, so called from the first skull of this type, which was discovered in the loess of the valley of the rhone near wurtemburg, though it is better known from the celebrated neanderthal skull, which gave rise to so much discussion, and was pronounced by some that of an idiot, by others the most pithecoid specimen of a human skull yet known, in fact almost the long-sought-for missing link. a still later discovery, however, has set at rest all doubt as to the reality of this neanderthal type, and of its being the oldest quaternary human type known in western europe. in the year two belgian savants, messrs. fraissent and lohest, one an anatomist, the other a geologist, discovered in a cave at spy near namur two skeletons with the skulls complete, which presented the neanderthal type in an exaggerated form. they were found under circumstances which leave no doubt as to their belonging to the earliest quaternary deposit, being at the bottom of the cave, in the lowest of three distinct strata, the two uppermost of which were full of the usual palæolithic implements of stone and bone, while the few found in the lowest stratum with the skeletons were of the rudest description. huxley pronounces the evidence such as will bear the severest criticism, and he sums up the anatomical characters of the skeletons in the following terms-- "they were short of stature, but powerfully built, with strong, curiously curved thigh-bones, the lower ends of which are so fashioned that they must have walked with a bend at the knees. their long depressed skulls had very strong brow-ridges, their lower jaws, of brutal depth and solidity, sloped away from the teeth downwards and backwards, in consequence of the absence of that especially characteristic feature of the higher type of man, the chin prominence." m. fraissent says, "we consider ourselves in a position to say that, having regard merely to the anatomical structure of the man of spy, he possessed a greater number of pithecoid characters than any other race of mankind." and again he says-- "the distance which separates the man of spy from the modern anthropoid ape is undoubtedly enormous; but we must be permitted to point out that if the man of the quaternary age is the stock whence existing races have sprung, he has travelled a very great way. from the data now obtained, it is permissible to believe that we shall be able to pursue the ancestral type of man and the anthropoid apes still further, perhaps as far as the eocene and even beyond." this canstadt or neanderthal type was widely diffused early in the quaternary period, having been found in a skull from the breccia of gibraltar, in skulls from italy, spain, austria, sweden, and in france, belgium, and western germany; in fact almost everywhere where skulls and skeletons have been found in the oldest deposits of caves and river-beds, notably in the alluvia of the seine valley near paris, where three distinct superimposed strata are found, each with different human types, that of canstadt being the oldest. wherever explorations have been carefully made it seems to be certain that the oldest race of all in europe was dolicocephalic, and probable that it was of the canstadt type, the skulls of which are all low and long, the length being attained by a great development of the posterior part of the head, which compensates for a deficient forehead. this type is also interesting because, although the oldest, it shows occasional signs of survival through the later palæolithic and neolithic ages down to recent times. the skulls of st. manserg, a mediæval bishop of toul, and of lykke, a scientific dane of the last century, closely resemble the neanderthal skull in type, and can scarcely be accounted for except as instances of that atavism, or reversion to old ancestral forms, which occasionally crops up both in the human and in animal species. it is thought by many that these earliest palæolithic men may be the ancestors of the tall, fair, long-headed race of northern europe; and professor virchow states that in the frisian islands off the north german coast, where the original teutonic type has been least affected by intermixture, the frisian skull unmistakably approaches the neanderthal and spy type. but if this be so, the type must have persisted for an immense time, for, as huxley observes, "the difference is abysmal between these rude and brutal savages, and the comely, fair, tall, and long-headed races of historical times and of civilized nations." at the present day the closest resemblance to the neanderthal type is afforded by the skulls of certain tribes of native australians. next in antiquity to the canstadt type, though still in the early age when the mammoth and cave-bear were abundant, and the implements and weapons still very rude, a totally different type appears, that of cro-magnon. the name is taken from the skeleton of an old man, which was found entire in the rock shelter of cro-magnon in the valley of the vezere, near the station of moustier, which gave the type of some of the oldest and rudest stone implements of the age of the mammoth. the skeleton was found in the inner extremity of the shelter, buried under a mass of _débris_ and fallen blocks of limestone, and associated with bones of the mammoth and implements of the moustier type, so that there can be no doubt, of its extreme antiquity. the skull, like that of the canstadt type, is dolichocephalic, but in all other respects totally different. the brow-ridges and generally bestial characters have disappeared; the brain is of fair or even large capacity; the stature tall; the forehead fairly high and well-rounded; the face large; the nose straight, the jaws prognathous, and the chin prominent. this type is found in a number of localities, especially in the south-west of france, belgium, and italy, and it continued through the quaternary into the neolithic period, being found in the caves of the reindeer age, and in the dolmens. it is thought by some ethnologists to present analogies to the berber type of north africa, and to that of the extinct guanches of the canary islands. coexistent with or a little later than this type is one of a totally different character both from it and from that of canstadt, viz. that of a brachycephalic race of very short stature, closely resembling the modern lapps. this has been subdivided into the several races of furfooz, grenelle, and truchere, according to the degree of brachycephaly and other features; but practically we may look on these as the results of local variations or intercrossings, and consider all the short, brachycephalic races as forming a third type sharply opposed to those of canstadt and cro-magnon. we have thus distinct evidence that the quaternary fauna in europe comprised at least three distinct races of palæolithic men, and there is a good deal of evidence for the existence of a fourth distinct race in america with features differing from any of the european races, and resembling those of the native american men in recent times. but this affords absolutely no clue as to the existence of other palæolithic types in asia, africa, india, australia, and other countries, forming quite three-fourths of the inhabited world, in which totally different races now exist and have existed since the commencement of history, who cannot possibly have been derived from any of the european types within the lapse of time comprised within the quaternary period. the negro race is the most striking instance of this, for it differs essentially from any other in many particulars, which are all in the direction of an approximation towards the pithecoid type. the size of the brain is less, and a larger proportion of it is in the hinder half; the muzzle much more projecting, and the nose flatter; the fore-arm longer; and various other anatomical peculiarities all point in the same direction, though the type remains perfectly human in the main features. it diverges, however, from the known types of quaternary man in europe and from the american type, as completely as it does from those of modern man, and it is impossible to suppose that it can be derived from them, or they from it, in the way of direct descent. if there is any truth in evolution, the negro type must be one of the oldest, as nearest to the animal ancestor, and this ancestor must be placed very far back beyond the quaternary period, to allow sufficient time for the development of such entirely different and improved races. this will be the more evident if we consider the case of the pygmy negritos and negrillos, who are spread over a wide tropical belt of half the circumference of the earth, from new guinea to western africa. they seem originally to have occupied a large part of this belt, and to have been driven into dense forests, high mountains, and isolated islands, by taller and stronger races, such as the true negro, the melanesian, and the malay, and probably represent therefore a more primitive race. but they had already existed long enough to develop various sub-types among themselves, for although always approaching more to the negro type than any other, the asiatic negrito and the african negrillo and bushman differ in the length of skull, colour, hair, prognathism, and other particulars. but they all agree in the one respect which makes it impossible to associate them with any known quaternary type, either as ancestors or descendants, viz. that of dwarfish stature. as a rule the bushmen and negritos do not average above four feet six inches, and the females three inches less; while in some cases they are as low as four feet--_i.e._ they are quite a foot shorter than the average of the higher races, and nearly a foot and a half below that of the quaternary cro-magnon and mentone skeletons, and of the modern swedes and scotchmen. and they are small and slightly built in proportion, and by no means deformed specimens of humanity. professor flower suggests that they may be "the primitive type from which the african negroes on the one hand, and the melanesians on the other have sprung." in any case they must certainly have existed as a distinct type in the quaternary period, and probably much earlier. it is remarkable also that the very oldest human implements known get continually smaller as they get older, until those of the miocene, from thenay and puy courny, are almost too small for the hands even of stanley's pygmies. if mere guesses were worth anything, it would be rather a plausible one that the original adam and eve were something between a monkey and an andaman islander. in concluding this summary of the evidence as to quaternary man, i must remark on the analogy which it presents to that of the historical period dealt with in the earlier chapters. in each case we have distinct evidence carrying us a long way back; in that of the historical period for years; in that of the quaternary for a vastly longer time, which, if the effects of high eccentricity, postulated by croll's theory, had any influence on the two last glacial periods, cannot be less than , years, an estimate which is confirmed by the amount of geological work and changes of flora and fauna which have taken place. in each case also the positive evidence takes us back to a state of things which gives the most incontrovertible proof of long previous existence; in the historical case the evidence of a dense population and high civilization already long prevailing when written records began; in the case of palæolithic man, that of his existence in the same state of rude civilization in the most remote regions, and over the greater part of the habitable earth, his almost uniform progression upwards from a lower to a higher civilization, and his existing at the beginning of the quaternary period already differentiated into races as remote from one another as the typical races of the present day. these facts of themselves afford an irresistible presumption that the origin of the human race must be sought much further back, and it remains to consider what positive evidence has been adduced in support of this presumption. chapter xi. tertiary man. definition of periods--passage from pliocene to quaternary--scarcity of human remains in tertiary--denudation--evidence from caves wanting--tertiary man a necessary inference from widespread existence of quaternary man--both equally inconsistent with genesis--was the first great glaciation pliocene or quaternary?--section of perrier--confirms croll's theory--elephas meridionalis--mammoth--st. prest--cut bones--instances of tertiary man--halitherium--balæonotus--puy courny--thenay--evidence for--proofs of human agency--latest conclusions--gaudry's theory--dryopithecus--type of tertiary man--skeleton of castelnedolo--- shows no approach to the missing link--contrary to theory of evolution--- must be sought in the eocene--evidence from the new world--glacial period in america--palæolithic implements--quaternary man--similar to europe--california--conditions different--auriferous gravels--- volcanic eruptions--enormous denudation--great antiquity--flora and fauna--point to tertiary age--discovery of human remains--table mountain--latest finds--calaveras skull--summary of evidence--other evidence--tuolumne--brazil--buenos ayres--nampa images--take us farther from first origins and the missing link--if darwin's theory applies to man, must go back to the eocene. the first difficulty which meets us in this question is that of distinguishing clearly between the different geological periods. no hard-and-fast line separates the quaternary from the pliocene, the pliocene from the miocene, or the miocene from the eocene. they pass from one into the other by insensible gradations, and the names given to them merely imply that such considerable changes have taken place in the fauna as to enable us to distinguish one period from another. and even this only applies when we take the periods as a whole, and see what have been the predominant types, for single types often survive through successive periods. the course of evolution seems to be that types and species, like individuals, have their periods of birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death. thus fish of the ganoid type appear sparingly in the silurian, culminate in the devonian, and gradually die out in the later formations. so also saurian reptiles appear in the carboniferous, culminate in the lias, and die out with the secondary, or so nearly so that the crocodilia are their sole remaining representatives. and this applies when we attempt to take our first step backwards in tracing the origin of man, and follow him from the quaternary into the pliocene. when did the pliocene end and the quaternary begin? within which of the two did the first great glacial period fall? does pre-glacial mean pliocene, or is it included in the quaternary? and to which do the oldest human remains belong, such as the skeletons of spy? the difficulty of answering these questions is increased because, as we go back in time, the human remains which guide us in the quaternary age necessarily become scarcer. mankind must have been fewer in number, and their relics to a great extent removed by denudation. thus the evidence from caves, which affords by far the most information as to quaternary man, entirely fails us as to the pliocene and earlier periods. this may be readily accounted for when we consider the great amount of the earth's surface which has been removed by denudation. in fact we have seen that nearly feet of a mountain range must have disappeared from denudation in the weald of kent, since the streams from it rolled down the gravels with human implements, scattered over the north downs as described by professor prestwich. what chance would tertiary caves have of surviving such an extensive denudation? moreover, if any of the present caves existed before the glacial period, their original contents must have been swept out, perhaps more than once, before they became filled by the present deposits. there is evidence in many caves that this was the case, from small patches of the older deposit being found adhering to the roof, as at brixham and maccaguone in sicily, in which latter case flakes of chipped stone and pieces of carbon were found by dr. falconer in these patches of a hard breccia. there is another consideration also which must have greatly diminished the chance of finding human remains in tertiary deposits. why did men take to living in dark and damp caves? presumably for protection against cold. but in the miocene and the greater part of the pliocene there was no great cold. the climate, as shown by the vegetation, was mild, equable, and ranged from semi-tropical to south-temperate, and the earth was to a certain extent covered by forests sustaining many fruit-bearing trees. under such conditions men would have every inducement to live in the open air, and in or near forests where they could obtain food and shelter, rather than in caves. and a few scattered savages, thus living, would leave exceedingly few traces of their existence. if the pygmy races of central africa, or of the andaman islands, became extinct, the chances would be exceedingly small of a future geologist finding any of their stone implements, which alone would have a chance of surviving, dropped under secular accumulations of vegetable mould in a wide forest. it is the more important therefore where instances of human remains in tertiary strata, supported by strong _primâ facie_ evidence, and vouched for by competent authorities, do actually occur, to examine them dispassionately, and not, as a good many of our english geologists are disposed to do, dismiss them with a sort of scientific _non possumus_, like that which was so long opposed to the existence of quaternary man, and the discoveries of boucher-de-perthes. it is perfectly evident from the admitted existence of man throughout the quaternary period, already spread over a great part of the earth's surface, and divided into distinct types, that if there is any truth in evolution, mankind must have had a long previous existence. the only other possible alternative would be the special miraculous creations of men of several different types, and in many different centres, at the particular period of time when the tertiary was replaced by the quaternary. in other words that, while all the rest of the animal creation have come into existence by evolution from ancestral types, man alone, and that not merely as regards his spiritual qualities, but physical man, with every bone and muscle having its counterpart in the other quadrumana, was an exception to this universal law, and sprang into existence spontaneously or by repeated acts of supernatural interference. as long as the account of the creation in genesis was held to be a divinely-inspired narrative, and no facts contradicting it had been discovered, it is conceivable that such a theory might be held, but to admit evolution for quaternary, and refuse to admit it for tertiary man, is an extreme instance of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel," for a duration of even , or , years is just as inconsistent with genesis as one of , or half a million. in attacking the question of tertiary man, the first point is to aim at some clear conception of where the pliocene ends and the quaternary begins. these are after all but terms applied to gradual changes through long intervals of time; still they require some definition, or otherwise we should be beating the air, and ticketing in some museums as tertiary the identical specimens which in others were labelled as quaternary. this turns very much on whether the first great glaciation was pliocene or quaternary, and must be decided partly by the order of superposition and partly by the fauna. if we can find a section where a thick morainic deposit is interposed between two stratified deposits, a lower one characterized by the usual fauna of the older pliocene, and an upper one by that of the newer pliocene, it is evident that the glacier or ice-cap which left this moraine must have existed in pliocene times. we know that the climate became colder in the pliocene, and rapidly colder towards its close, and that in the cliffs of cromer, the forest bed with a temperate climate had given place to arctic willows and mosses, before the first and lowest boulder-clay had brought blocks of scandinavian granite to england. we should be prepared, therefore, for evidence that this first period of greatest cold had occurred within the limits of the pliocene period. such evidence is afforded by the valleys which radiate from the great central boss of france in the auvergne. the hill of perrier had long been known as a rich site of the fossil remains of the extinct pliocene fauna, and its section has been carefully studied by some of the best french geologists, whose results are summed up as follows by hamy in his _palæontologie humaine_-- "the bed-rock is primitive protogine, which is covered by nearly horizontal lacustrine miocene, itself covered by some metres of fluviatile gravels. above comes a bed of fine sand, a mètre thick, which contains numerous specimens of the well-known mammalian fauna of the lower pliocene, characterized by two mastodons (_m. armenicus_ and _m. borsoni_). then comes a mass of conglomerates mètres thick, consisting of pebbles and boulders cemented by yellowish mud; and above this a distinct layer of upper pliocene characterized by the _elephas meridionalis_. "the boulders, some of which are of great size, are all angular, never rounded or stratified, often scratched, and mostly consisting of trachyte, which must have been transported twenty-five kilomètres from the puy de dôme. in short, the conglomerate is absolutely indistinguishable from any other glacial moraine, whether of the quaternary period or of the present day. it is divided into three sections by two layers of rolled pebbles and sands, which could only have been caused by running water, so that the glacier must have advanced and retreated three times, leaving each time a moraine fifty mètres thick, and the whole of this must have occurred before the deposit of the upper pliocene stratum with its _elephas meridionalis_ and other pliocene mammals." the importance of this will presently be seen, for the _elephas meridionalis_ is one of the extinct animals which is most directly connected with the proofs of man's existence before the quaternary period. it is also important as confirming the immense time which must have elapsed between the date of the first and second _maxima_ of glacial cold, and thus adding probability to the calculations derived from croll's periods of maximum and minimum eccentricity. the three advances and retreats of the great perrier glacier also fit in extremely well with the calculated effects of precession during high eccentricity, as about three of such periods must have occurred in the period of the coming on, culminating, and receding of each phase of maximum eccentricity. this evidence from perrier does not stand alone, for in the neighbouring valleys, and in many other localities, isolated boulders of foreign rocks which could only have been transported by ice, are found at heights considerably above those of the more recent moraines and boulders which had been supposed to mark the limit of the greatest glaciation. thus on the slopes of the jura and the vosges, boulders of alpine rocks, much worn by age, and whose accompanying drifts and moraines have disappeared by denudation, are found at heights or mètres above the more obvious moraines and boulders, which themselves rise to a height of nearly feet, and must have been the front of glaciers from the alps which buried the plain of switzerland under that thickness of solid ice. the only possible alternative to this evidence from perrier would be to throw back the duration of the quaternary and limit that of the pliocene enormously, by supposing that all the deposits above the great glacial conglomerate or old moraine, are inter-glacial and not tertiary. this is, as has been pointed out, very much a question of words, for the phenomena and the time required to account for them remain the same by whatever name we elect to call them. but it still has its importance, for it involves the fundamental principle of geology, that of classifying eras and formations by their fauna. if the _elephas meridionalis_ is a pliocene and not a quaternary species, we must admit, with the great majority of continental geologists, that the first and greatest glaciation fell within the pliocene period. if, on the other hand, this elephant is, like the mammoth, part of the quaternary fauna, we may believe, as many english geologists do, that the first glacial period coincided with and probably occasioned the change from pliocene to quaternary, and that everything above the oldest boulder-clays and moraines is not tertiary but inter-glacial. as bones of the _elephas meridionalis_ have been frequently found in connection with human implements, and with cuts on them which could only have been made by flint knives ground by the human hand, it will be seen at once what an interest attaches to this apparently dry geological question, of the age of the great southern elephant. the transition from the mastodon into the elephant took place in the old world (for in america the succession is different) in the pliocene period. in the older pliocene we have nothing but mastodons, in the newer nothing but elephants, and the transition from the older to the newer type is distinctly traced by intermediate forms in the fossil fauna of the sewalek hills. the _elephas meridionalis_ is the oldest known form of true elephant, and it is characteristic of all the different formations of the upper pliocene, while it is nowhere found in cave or river deposits which belong unmistakably to the quaternary. it was a gigantic animal, fully four feet higher than the tallest existing elephant, and bulky in proportion. it had a near relation in the _elephas antiquus_, which was of equal size, and different from it mainly in a more specialized structure of the molar teeth, and the remains of this elephant have been found in the lower strata of some of the oldest bone-caves and river-silts, as to which it is difficult to say whether they are older or younger than the first glacial period. the remains of a pygmy elephant, no bigger than an ass, have also been found in the upper pliocene, at malta and sicily, and those of the existing african elephant in sicily and spain. it would seem, therefore, that the upper pliocene was the golden age of the elephants where they were most widely diffused, and comprised most species and most varieties, both in the direction of gigantic and of diminutive size. but in passing from the pliocene into the quaternary period, they all, or almost all, disappeared, and were superseded by the _elephas primigenius_, or mammoth, which had put in a first appearance in the latest pliocene, and became the principal representative of the genus _elephas_ in europe and northern asia down to comparatively recent times. this succession is confirmed by that of the rhinoceros, of which several species were contemporary with the _elephas meridionalis_, while the _rhinoceros tichorinus_, or woolly rhinoceros, who is the inseparable companion of the mammoth, appeared and disappeared with him. in these matters, those who are not themselves specialists must rely on authority, and when we find lyell, geikie, and prestwich coinciding with all modern french, german, italian, and belgian geologists, in considering _elephas meridionalis_ as one of the characteristic upper pliocene fauna, we can have no hesitation in adopting their conclusion. in this case the section of st. prest, near chartres, affords a first absolutely secure foothold in tracing our way backwards towards human origins beyond the quaternary. the sands and gravels of a river which ran on the bed rock without any underlying glacial _débris_ are here exposed. it had no relation to the existing river eure, the bed of which it crosses at an angle, and it must have run before that river had begun to excavate its valley, and when the drainage of the country was quite different. the sands contain an extraordinary number of bones of the _elephas meridionalis_, associated with old species of rhinoceros, and other pliocene species. lyell, who visited the spot, had no hesitation in calling it a pliocene river. in fact it never would have been disputed if the question of man's antiquity had not been involved in it, for in these sands and gravels have been found numerous specimens of cut bones of the _elephas meridionalis_, together with the flint knives which made the cuts, and other stone implements, rude but still unmistakably of the usual palæolithic type. the subjoined plate will enable the reader to compare the arrow-head, which is the commonest type found at st. prest, with a comparatively recent arrow-head from the yorkshire wolds, and see how impossible it is to concede human agency to the post-glacial and deny it to the pliocene specimen. [illustration: pliocene. arrow-head--st. prest. (hamy, _palæontologie humaine_.) post-glacial. arrow-head--yorkshire wolds. (evans, _stone implements_.)] in this and other instances, cut bones afford one of the most certain tests of the presence of man. the bones tell their own tale, and their geological age can be certainly identified. sharp cuts could only be made on them while the bones were fresh, and the state of fossilization, and presence of dendrites or minute crystals alike on the side of the cuts and on the bone, negative any idea of forgery. the cuts can be compared with those on thousands of undoubted human cuts on bones from the reindeer and other later periods, and with cuts now made with old flint knives on fresh bones. all these tests have been applied by some of the best anthropologists of the day, who have made a special study of the subject, and who have shown their caution and good faith by rejecting numerous specimens which did not fully meet the most rigorous requirements, with the result that in several cases there could be no reasonable doubt that the cuts were really made by human implements guided by human hands. the only possible alternative suggested is, that they might have been made by gnawing animals or fishes. but as quatrefages observes, even an ordinary carpenter would have no difficulty in distinguishing between a clean cut made by a sharp knife, and a groove cut by repeated strokes of a narrow chisel; and how much more would it be impossible for a professor trained to scientific investigation, and armed with a microscope, to mistake a groove gnawed out by a shark or rodent for a cut made by a flint knife. no one who will refer to quatrefages' _hommes fossilés_, and look at the figures of cut bones given there from actual photographs, can feel any doubt that the cuts there delineated were made by flint knives held by the human hand. in addition to this instance of st. prest, quatrefages in his _histoire des races humaines_, published in , and containing the latest summary of the evidence generally accepted by french geologists as to tertiary man, says that, omitting doubtful cases, the presence of man has been signalized in deposits undoubtedly tertiary in five different localities, viz. in france by the abbé bourgeois, in the lower miocene of thenay near pontlevoy (loir-et-cher); by m. rames at puy courny near aurillac (cantal), in the upper miocene; in italy by m. capellini in the pliocene of monte aperto near sienna, and by m. ragazzoni in the lower pliocene of castelnedolo near brescia; in portugal by m. ribiero at otta, in the valley of the tagus, in the upper miocene. [illustration: cuts with flint knife on rib of balÆonotus--pliocene. from monte aperto, italy. (quatrefages, _histoire des races humaines_.)] [illustration: cut magnified by microscope.] to these may be added the cut bones of halitherium, a miocene species, from pouancé (maine et loire), by m. delaunay; and those on the tibia of a rhinoceros etruscus, and other fossil bones from the upper pliocene of the val d'arno. in addition to these are the numerous remains, certainly human and presumably tertiary, from north and south america, which will be referred to later, and a considerable number of cases where there is a good deal of _primâ facie_ evidence for tertiary human remains, but where doubts remain and their authenticity is still denied by competent authorities. among these ought to be placed the instance from portugal, for although a large celt very like those of the oldest palæolithic type was undoubtedly found in strata which had always been considered as miocene, the congress of palæontologists who assembled at lisbon were divided in opinion as to the conclusiveness of the evidence. but there remain six cases in the old world, ranging from st. prest in the upper pliocene to thenay in the lower miocene, in which the preponderance of evidence and authority in support of tertiary man seems so decisive, that nothing but a preconceived bias against the antiquity of the human race can refuse to accept it. i have already discussed this evidence so fully in a former work (_problems of the future_, ch. v. on tertiary man) that i do not propose to go over the ground again, but merely to refer briefly to some of the more important points which come out in the above six instances. in three of them, those of the halitherium of pouancé, the balæonotus of monte aperto, and the rhinoceros of the val d'arno, the evidence depends entirely on cut bones, and in the case of st. prest on that of cut bones of _elephas meridionalis_ combined with palæolithic implements. the evidence from cut bones is for the reasons already stated very conclusive, and when a jury of four or five of the leading authorities, such as quatrefages, hamy, mortillet, and delaunay, who have devoted themselves to this branch of inquiry, and have shown their great care and conscientiousness by rejecting numbers of cases which did not satisfy the most rigid tests, arrive unanimously at the conclusion that many of the cuts on the bones of tertiary animals are unmistakably of human origin, there seems no room left for any reasonable scepticism. i cannot doubt therefore that we have positive evidence to confirm the existence of man, at any rate from the pliocene period, through the long series of ages intervening between it and the quaternary. but the discovery of flint implements at puy courny in the upper miocene, and at thenay in the lower miocene, carry us back a long step further, and involves such important issues as to the origin of the human race, that it may be well to recapitulate the evidence upon which those discoveries rest. the first question is as to the geological age of the deposits in which these chipped implements have been found. in the case of puy courny this is beyond dispute. in the central region of the auvergne there have been two series of volcanic eruptions, the latest towards the close of the pliocene or commencement of the quaternary period, and an older one, which, from its position and fossils, is clearly of the upper miocene. the gravels in which the chipped flints were discovered by m. rames, a very competent geologist, were interstratified with tuffs and lavas of these older volcanoes, and no doubt as to their geological age was raised by the congress of french archæologists to whom they were submitted. the whole question turns therefore on the sufficiency of the proofs of human origin, as to which the same congress expressed themselves as fully satisfied. [illustration: flint scraper from high level drift, kent. (prestwich.)] the specimens consist of several well-known palæolithic types, celts, scrapers, arrow-heads and flakes, only ruder and smaller than those of later periods. they were found at three different localities in the same stratum of gravel, and comply with all the tests by which the genuineness of quaternary implements is ascertained, such as bulbs of percussion, conchoidal fractures, and above all, intentional chipping in a determinate direction. it is evident that a series of small parallel chips or trimmings, confined often to one side only of the flint, and which have the effect of bringing it into a shape which is known from quaternary and recent implements to be adapted for human use, imply intelligent design, and could not have been produced by the casual collisions of pebbles rolled down by an impetuous torrent. thus the annexed plate of an implement from the high level drift on the north downs, shown by professor prestwich to the anthropological society, is rude enough, but no one has ever expressed the least doubt of its human origin. the chipped flints from puy courny also afford another very conclusive proof of intelligent design. the gravelly deposit in which they are found contains five different varieties of flints, and of these all that look like human implements are confined to one particular variety, which from its nature is peculiarly adapted for human use. as quatrefages says, no torrents or other natural causes could have exercised such a discrimination, which could only have been made by an intelligent being, selecting the stones best adapted for his tools and weapons. [illustration: upper miocene implements. puy courny. scraper, or lance-head. puy courny. upper miocene (rames). (quatrefages, _races humaines_, p. .) scraper. puy courny. upper miocene (rames) (quatrefages, _races humaines_, p. .)] the general reader must be content to rely to a great extent on the verdict of _experts_, and in this instance of puy courny need not perhaps go further than the conclusion of the french congress of archæologists, who pronounced in favour both of their miocene and human origin. it may be well, however, to annex a plate showing in two instances how closely the specimens from puy courny resemble those of later periods, of the human origin of which no doubt has ever been entertained. it is certainly carrying scientific scepticism to an unreasonable pitch to doubt that whatever cause fashioned the two lower figures, the same cause must equally have fashioned the upper ones; and if that cause be human intelligence in the quaternary period it must have been human or human-like intelligence in the upper miocene. [illustration: copare quaternary implements. wokey hole--glacial. (evans, _stone implements_, p .) plateau drift. north downs, kent (prestwich).] the evidence for the still older implements of thenay is of the same nature as that for those of puy courny. first as regards the geological horizon. subjoined is the section at thenay as made by m. bourgeois, verified by mm. vibraye, delaunay, schmidt, belgrand, and others, from personal inspection, and given by m. hamy in his _palæontologie humaine_. it would seem that there could be little doubt as to the geological position of the strata from which the alleged chipped flints come. the faluns are a well-known marine deposit of a shallow sea spread over a great part of central and southern france, and identified, beyond a doubt, as upper miocene by its shells. the orleans sands are another miocene deposit perfectly characterized by its mammalian fauna, in which the _mastodon angustidens_ first appears, with other peculiar species. the calcaire de beauce is a solid freshwater limestone formed in the great lake which in the miocene age occupied the plain of the beauce and extended into touraine. it forms a clear horizon or dividing line between the upper miocene, characterized by the mastodon, and the lower miocene, of which the acrotherium, a four-toed and hornless rhinoceros, is the most characteristic fossil. [illustration: section at thenay.] the supposed chipped flints are said to appear sparingly in the upper deposits, disappear in the calcaire de beauce, and reappear, at first sparingly and then plentifully, in the lacustrian marls below the limestone. they are by far the most numerous in a thin layer of greenish-yellow clay, no. of section, below which they rapidly disappear. there can be no question therefore that if the flints really came from the alleged deposits, and really show the work of human hands, the savages by whom they were chipped must have lived on the shores or sand-banks of this miocene lake. as regards the geological question, it is right to observe that professor prestwich, who visited the section a good many years ago in company with the abbé bourgeois, and who is one of the highest authorities on this class of questions, remained unconvinced that the flints shown him really came from the alleged strata below the calcaire de beauce, and thought that the specimens which appeared to show human manufacture might have come from the surface, and become intermixed with the natural flints of the lower strata. the geological horizon, however, seems to have been generally accepted by french and continental geologists, especially by the latest authorities, and the doubts which have been expressed have turned mainly on the proof of human design shown by the implements. this is a question which must be decided by the authority of experts, for it requires special experience to be able to distinguish between accidental fractures and human design, in implements of the extremely rude type of the earlier formations. the test is mainly afforded by the nature of the chipping. if it consists of a number of small chips, all in the same direction, with the result of bringing one face or side into a definite form, adapted for some special use, the inference is strong that the chips were the work of design. the general form might be the result of accident, but fractures from frost or collisions simulating chipping could hardly be all in the same direction, and confined to one part of the stone. the inference is strengthened if the specimen shows bulbs of percussion, where the blows had been struck to fashion the implement, and if the microscope discloses parallel striæ and other signs of use on the chipped edge, such as would be made by scraping bones or skins, while nothing of the sort is seen on the other natural edges, though they may be sharper. but above all, the surest test is afforded by a comparison with other implements of later dates, or even of existing savages, which are beyond all doubts products of human manufacture. tried by these tests, the evidence stands as follows-- when specimens of the flints from thenay were first submitted to the anthropological congress at brussels, in , their human origin was admitted by mm. worsae, de vibraye, de mortillet, and schmidt, and rejected by mm. nilson, hebert, and others, while m. quatrefages reserved his opinion, thinking a strong case made out, but not being entirely satisfied. m. bourgeois himself was partly responsible for these doubts, for, like boucher-de-perthes, he had injured his case by overstating it, and including a number of small flints, which might have been, and probably were, merely natural specimens. but the whole collection having been transferred to the archæological museum at st. germain, its director, m. mortillet, selected those which appeared most demonstrative of human origin, and placed them in a glass case, side by side with similar types of undoubted quaternary implements. this removed a great many doubts, and later discoveries of still better specimens of the type of scrapers have, in the words of quatrefages, "dispelled his last doubts," while not a single instance has occurred of any convert in the opposite direction, or of any opponent who has adduced facts contradicting the conclusions of quatrefages, mortillet, and hamy, after an equally careful and minute investigation. [illustration: middle miocene implements. scraper from thenay. (hamy, _palæontologie humaine_, p. .) scraper, or borer. thenay. (showing bulb of percussion. quatrefages, _races humaines_, p. .)] in order to assist the reader in forming an opinion as to the claim of these flints from thenay, to show clear traces of human design, i subjoin some illustrations of photographs in which they are compared with specimens of later date, which are undoubtedly and by universal consent works of human hands, guided by human intelligence. these figures seem to leave no reasonable doubt that some at least of the flints from thenay show unmistakable signs of human handiwork, and i only hesitate to accept them as conclusive proofs of the existence of man in the middle miocene, because such an authority as prestwich retains doubts of their having come from the geological horizon accepted by the most eminent modern french geologists. [illustration: middle miocene implements. borer, or awl. thenay. miocene. (congrès préhistorique, bruxelles, .) knife, or scraper. thenay. (gaudry. quatrefages, p. .)] the evidence of the authenticity of these implements from thenay is, moreover, greatly strengthened by the discovery of other miocene implements at puy courny, which have not been seriously impugned, and by the essay of professor prestwich, confirming the discovery of numerous flint implements in the upper level gravels of the north downs, which could only have been deposited by streams flowing from a mountain ridge along the anticlinal of the weald, of which feet must have disappeared by sub-aërial denudation since these rivers flowed northwards from its flanks. how far back such a denudation may carry us is a matter of speculation. certainly, as prestwich admits, into the pre-glacial or very early glacial ages, and possibly into the tertiaries, but at any rate for a time which, by whatever name we call it, must be enormous according to any standard of centuries or millenniums. and what is specially interesting in these extremely ancient implements is that, in prestwich's words, "these plateau implements exhibit distinct characters and types such as would denote them to be the work of a more primitive and ruder race than those fabricated by palæolithic men of the valley drift times." [illustration: compare quaternary implements. scraper. yorkshire wold. (evans, _stone implements_.) quaternary. mammoth period. river drift, mesvin. belgium. (congrès préhistorique, bruxelles, .) quaternary. chaleux, belgium. reindeer period. (congrès préhistorique, bruxelles, .)] in fact we have only to look at the figures which accompany prestwich's essay,[ ] to see that their types resemble those of puy courny and thenay, rather than those of st. acheul and moustier. [ ] _journal of anthropological institute_, feb. , p. . the following remarks of the professor would apply almost as well to the miocene implements as to those of the plateau-- "unlike the valley implements, the plateau implements are, as a rule, made of the _fragments_ of natural drift flints, that are found scattered over the surface of the ground, or picked up in gravel-beds and merely roughly trimmed. sometimes the work is so slight as to be scarcely apparent; at others, it is sufficient to show a distinct design and object. it indicates the very infancy of the art, and probably the earliest efforts of man to fabricate his tools and weapons from other substances than wood or bone. that there was an object and design is manifest from the fact that they admit of being grouped according to certain patterns. these are very simple, but they answered to the wants of a primitive people. "with few exceptions, the implements are small, from to inches in length, and mostly such as could have been used in the hand, and in the hand only. there is, with the exceptions before named, an almost entire absence of the large massive spear-head forms of the valley drifts, and a large preponderance of forms adapted for chipping, hammering, and scraping. with these are some implements that could not have been used in the hand, but they are few and rude. the difference between the plateau and the valley implements is as great or greater than between the latter and the neolithic implements. though the work on the plateau implements is often so slight as scarcely to be recognizable, even modern savage work, such as exhibited for example by the stone implements of the australian natives, show, when divested of their mounting, an amount of work no greater or more distinct, than do these early palæolithic specimens. "some persons may be disposed to look upon the slight and rude work which these flints have received as the result only of the abrasion and knocking about caused by collision during the transport of the drift. this belief prevailed for a time even in the case of the comparatively well-fashioned valley implements. a little practice, and comparison with natural drift flints, will show the difference, notwithstanding the, at first, unpromising appearance of these early specimens of man's handicraft. it is as such, and from their being the earliest such work with which we are acquainted, that they are of so great interest, for they give us some slight insight into the occupation and surroundings of the race by whom they were used. a main object their owners would seem to have had in view, was the trimming of flints to supply them with implements adapted to the breaking of bones for the sake of the marrow, scraping skins, and round bodies such as bones or sticks, for use as simple tools or poles. from the scarcity of the large massive implements of the pointed and adze type, so common in the valley drifts, it would seem as though offensive and defensive weapons of this class had not been so much needed, whether from the rarity of the large mammalia, so common later on in the low-level valley drifts, or from the habits and character of those early people." the positive evidence is therefore extremely strong that men existed in the tertiaries, and if we add to it the irresistible inference that he must have done so to develop so many different races, and leave his rude implements in so many and such remote regions as we found early in the quaternary, i do not see how it is possible to avoid accepting it as an established fact. but in using the term tertiary man, i do not venture to define the exact meaning of "man," or the precise stage in his evolution which had been attained at this enormously remote period. m. gaudry, an excellent authority, while admitting that the flints from thenay showed evidence of intentional chipping, thought that they might have been the work of the dryopithecus, a fossil ape, supposed to be nearer man than any existing anthropoid, whose remains had been found at sausan in the middle miocene. but the dryopithecus has been deposed from his pride of place by the subsequent discovery of a more perfect jaw, and he is now considered, though undoubtedly an anthropoid ape, to be of a lower type than the chimpanzee or gorilla.[ ] the strongest argument however for the essentially human character of the artificers of the flints of thenay and puy courny is that their type continues, with no change except that of slight successive improvements, through the pliocene, quaternary, and even down to the present day. the scraper of the esquimaux and the andaman islanders is but an enlarged and improved edition of the miocene scraper, and in the latter case the stones seem to have been split by the same agency, viz. that of fire. the early knowledge of fire is also confirmed by the discovery, reported by m. bourgeois in the orleans sand at thenay, with bones of mastodon and dinotherium, of a stony fragment mixed with carbon, in a sort of hardened paste, which, as we can hardly suppose pottery to have been known, must be the remnant of a hearth on which there had been a fire. [ ] having applied to professor flower, as the highest authority, to inform me of the actual position of the evidence as to the dryopithecus, he was good enough to reply to me as follows-- "dryopithecus (middle miocene of france) is an undoubted anthropoid, allied to gorilla and chimpanzee, but the recent discovery of a more complete jaw than that first found shows that it is rather a lower form than the two just mentioned, instead of higher as once thought. see gaudry, mem. soc. geol. france--_palæontologie_, . "the animal called _pliopithecus_, from the same formation, is now generally considered to be not distinguishable from the genus hylobates (gibbon). "so there is no doubt about the existence of anthropoid apes in the miocene of europe, but not of a higher type than the present african or asiatic species. yours truly, "w. flower." there must always, however, remain a doubt as to the nature of this ancestral tertiary man, until actual skulls and skeletons have been found, under circumstances which preclude doubt, and in sufficient numbers to enable anthropologists to speak with the same confidence as to types and races, as they can of his quaternary successors. this again is difficult from the rarity of such remains, and from the fact that after burial of the dead was introduced, graves must often have been dug down from the surface into older strata, with which in course of time their contents become intermixed. no case, therefore, can be safely admitted where the find was not made by well-known scientific authorities, under circumstances which preclude the possibility of subsequent interment, and vouch for the geological age of the undisturbed deposit. this test disposes of all the alleged discoveries of human remains in the tertiaries of the old world, except one, and although it is quite possible that some may be genuine among those rejected, it is safer not to rely on them. there is one, however, which is supported by extremely strong evidence, and the discussion of which i have reserved for the last, as if accepted it throws a new and unexpected light on the evolution of the human race. the following is the account of it, taken from quatrefages' _races humaines_-- "the bones of four individuals, a woman and two children, were found at castelnedolo, near brescia, in a bed identified by its fossils as lower pliocene. the excavations were made with the utmost care, in undisturbed strata, by m. ragazzoni, a well-known scientific man, assisted by m. germani, and the results confirmed by m. sergi, a well-known geologist, after a minute personal investigation. the deposit was removed in successive horizontal layers, and not the least trace was found of the beds having been mixed or disturbed. the human bones presented the same fossilized appearance as those of the extinct animals in the same deposit. the female skeleton was almost entire, and the fragments of the skull were sufficiently perfect to admit of their being pieced together so as to show almost its entire form." the first conjecture naturally was that it must have been a case of subsequent interment, a conjecture which was strengthened by the fact of the female skeleton being so entire; but this is negatived by the undisturbed nature of the beds, and by the fact that the other bones were found scattered at considerable distances throughout the stratum. m. quatrefages sums up the evidence by saying, "that there exists no serious reason for doubting the discovery, and that if made in a quaternary deposit, no one would have thought of contesting its accuracy. nothing can be opposed to it but theoretical _à priori_ objections similar to those which so long repelled the existence of quaternary man." but if we accept this discovery, it leads to the remarkable conclusion that tertiary man not only existed, but has undergone little change in the thousands of centuries which have since elapsed. the skull is of fair capacity, very much like what might be expected from a female of the canstadt type, and less rude and ape-like than the skulls of spy and neanderthal, or those of modern bushmen and australians. and the other bones of the skeleton show no marked peculiarities. this makes it difficult to accept the discovery unreservedly, notwithstanding the great weight of positive evidence in its favour. the great objection to tertiary man has been, that as all other species had changed, and many had become extinct two or three times over since the miocene, it was unlikely that an animal so highly specialized as man should alone have had a continuous existence. and this argument of course becomes stronger the more it can be shown that the oldest skeletons differed little if it at all from man of the quaternary and recent ages. moreover, the earlier specimens of quaternary man which are so numerous and authentic, show, if not anything that can be fairly called the "missing link," still a decided tendency, as they get older, towards the type of the rudest existing races, which again show a distinct though distant approximation towards the type of the higher apes. the oldest quaternary skulls are dolichocephalic, very thick with enormous frontal sinuses; low and receding foreheads; flattened vertices; prognathous jaws, and slight and receding' chins. the average cranial capacity is about cubic centimètres, or fully one-fourth less than that of modern european man, and of this smaller brain a larger proportion is in the posterior region. the other peculiarities of the skeletons all tend in the same direction, and, as we have seen in huxley's description of the men of spy, sometimes go a long way in the pithecoid direction, even to the extent of not being able to straighten the knee in walking. it would, therefore, be contrary to all our ideas of evolution to find that some , or , , or more probably , or , years prior to these men of spy and neanderthal, the human race had existed in higher physical perfection nearer to the existing type of modern man. quatrefages meets this by saying that tertiary men with a larger brain, and therefore more intelligence than the other tertiary mammals, might have survived, where these succumbed to changes and became extinct. this is doubtless true to some extent, but it hardly seems sufficient to account for the presence of a higher and more recent type, like that of castelnedolo in the lower pliocene, that is a whole geological period earlier than that of the lower quaternary. it is more to the purpose to say with gaudry that the changes on which the distinction of species are founded are often so slight that they might just as well be attributed to variations of races; and to appeal to instances like that of the hylobates of the miocene, one of the nearest congeners of man, in which no genuine difference can be detected from the hylobates or gibbon of the present day; and if the discovery referred to at p. , of anthropoid primates in the eocene of patagonia, should be confirmed, it would greatly strengthen the argument for the persistence of the order to which man belongs through several geological periods. in any case we require more than the evidence of this one discovery before we can assume the type of tertiary man as a proved fact with the same confidence as we can the existence of something like man in those remote ages, from the repeated evidence of chipped stones and cut bones, showing unmistakable signs of being the work of human intelligence. and in the meantime, the only safe conclusion seems to be that it is very probable that we may have to go back to the eocene to find the "missing link," or the ancestral animal which may have been the common progenitor of man and of the other quadrumana. i turn now to the evidence from the new world. i have kept this distinct, for there is no such proof of synchronism between the later geological phases of this and of the old world as would warrant us in assuming that what is true in one is necessarily true in the other. thus in europe the presence of the mastodon is a conclusive proof that the formation in which its remains are found is upper miocene or pliocene, and it has completely disappeared before the glacial period and the quaternary era. but in north america it has survived both these periods, and it is even a question whether it is not found in recent peat-mosses with arrow-heads of the historical indians. the glacial period also, which in the old world affords such a clear demarcation between tertiary and recent ages, and such manifest proofs of two great glaciations with a long inter-glacial period, presents different conditions in america, where the ice-caps radiated from different centres, and extended further south and over wider areas. there is no proof whether the great cold set in sooner or later, and whether the elevations and depressions of land synchronized with those of europe. the evidence for a long inter-glacial period is by no means so clear, and the best american geologists differ respecting it. and above all, the glacial period seems to have lasted longer, and the time required for post-glacial or recent denudation, and erosion of river-gorges, to be less than is required to account for post-glacial phenomena on this side of the atlantic. the evidence, therefore, from the new world, though conclusive as to the existence of man from an immense antiquity, can hardly be accepted as equally so in an attempt to prove that antiquity to be tertiary in the sense of identifying it with specific european formations. with this reservation i proceed to give a short account of this evidence as bearing on the question of the oldest proofs of man's existence. the first step or proof of the presence of man in the quaternary deposits which correspond with the oldest river-drifts of europe, has only been made quite recently. mr. abbott was the first to discover such implements of the usual palæolithic type in quaternary gravels of the river delaware, near trenton in new jersey, and since then they have been frequently found, as described by dr. wright in his recently-published _ice age in america_, in ohio, illinois, and other states, in the old gravels of rivers which carried the drainage of the great lake district to the hudson and the mississippi, before the present line of drainage was established by the falls of niagara and the st. lawrence. so far the evidence merely confirms that drawn from similar finds in the old world of the existence of man in the early glacial or quaternary times, already widely diffused, and everywhere in a similar condition of primitive savagery, and chipping his rude stone implements into the same forms. but if we cross the rocky mountains into california, we find evidence which apparently carries us further back and raises new questions. the whole region west of the rocky mountains is comparatively recent. the coast range which now fronts the pacific is composed entirely of marine tertiary strata, and when they were deposited, the waves of the pacific beat against the flanks of the sierra nevada. at length the coast range was upheaved and a wide valley left between it and the sierra of over miles in length, and with an average breadth of seventy-five miles. the sierra itself is old land, the lower hills consisting of triassic slates and the higher ranges of granite, and it has never been under water since the secondary age though doubtless it stood much higher before it was so greatly denuded. all along its western flank and far down into the great valley is an enormous bed of auriferous gravel, doubtless derived from the waste of the rocks of the sierra during an immense time by old rivers now buried under their own deposits. while these deposits were going on a great outburst of volcanoes occurred on the western slope of the sierra, and successive sheets of tuffs, ashes, and lavas are interstratified with the gravels, while finally an immense flow of basalt covered up everything. the country then presented the appearance of a great plain, sloping gradually downwards from the sierra according to the flow of the basalt and lavas. this plain was in its turn attacked by denudation and worn down by the existing main rivers into valleys and gorges, and by their tributary streams into a series of flat-topped hills, capped by basalt and divided from one another by deep and narrow cañons. the immense time required for this latest erosion may be inferred when it is stated that where the columbia river cuts through the axis of the cascade mountains, the precipitous rocks on either side, to a height of from to feet, consist of this late tertiary or post-tertiary basalt, and that the deschutes river has been cut into the great basaltic plain for miles to a depth of from to feet, without reaching the bottom of the lava. the american and yuba valleys have been lowered from to feet, and the gorge of the stanislas river has cut through one of these basalt-covered hills to the depth of feet. [illustration: section of great californian lava stream, cut through by rivers. _a_, _a_, basalt; _b_, _b_, volcanic ashes; _c_, _c_, tertiary; _d_, _d_, cretaceous rocks; _r_, _r_, direction of the old river-bed; _r´_, _r´_, sections of the present river-beds. (le conte, from whitney.)] the enormous gorge of the colorado has cut its cañons for hundreds of miles from to feet deep through all the orders of sedimentary rocks from the tertiaries down, and from to feet into the primordial granite below, thus draining the great lakes which in tertiary times occupied a vast space in the interior of america which is now an arid desert. evidently the gravels which lie below the basalt, and interstratified with the tuffs and lavas, or below them, and which belong to an older and still more extensive denudation, must be of immense antiquity, an antiquity which remains the same whether we call it quaternary or tertiary. it is in these gravels that gold is found, and in the search for it great masses have been removed in which numerous stone implements have been found. the great antiquity of those gravels and volcanic tuffs is further confirmed by the changes in the flora and fauna which are proved to have occurred. the animal remains found beneath the basaltic cap are very numerous, and all of extinct species. they belong to the genera rhinoceros, elatherium, felis, canis, bos, tapirus, hipparion, elephas (primigenius), mastodon, and auchenia, and form an assemblage entirely distinct from any now living in any part of north america. some of the genera survived into the quaternary age as in europe, but many, both of the genera and species, are among those most characteristic of the pliocene period. the flora also, which is well preserved in the white clays formed from the volcanic ash, comprises forty-nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs, all distinct from those now living, without a single trace of the pines, firs, and other conifera which are now the prevalent trees throughout california. tried by any test, therefore, of fauna, flora, and of immensely long deposit before the present drainage and configuration of the country had begun to be established, professor whitney's contention that the auriferous gravels are of tertiary origin seems to be fully established. it can only be met by obliterating all definite distinction between the quaternary and the pliocene, and adding to the former all the time subtracted from the latter. and even if we apply this to the physical changes, it would upset all our standards of geological formations characterized by fossils, to suppose that a fauna comprising the elatherium, hipparion, and auchenia could be properly transferred to the quaternary. in fact no one would have thought of doing so if human implements and remains had not been found in them. the discovery of such implements was first reported in , and since then a large number have been found, but their authenticity has been hotly contested. the most common were stone mortars very like those of the indians of the present day, only ruder, and it was objected, first, that they were ground and not chipped, and therefore belonged to the neolithic age; secondly, that they might have slipped down from the surface or been taken down by miners. the difficulty in meeting these objections was that the implements had been found not by scientific men _in situ_, but by ignorant miners, who were too keen in the pursuit of gold to notice the particulars of the find, and only knew that they had picked them out in sorting loads of the gravels, and generally thrown them aside. this, however, had occurred in such a number of instances, over such wide areas, and with such a total absence of any motive on the part of the miners to misrepresent or commit a fraud, that the cumulative evidence became almost irresistible; and we cannot sum it up better than in the words of the latest and best authority, professor wright, in an article in the _century_ of april , which is the more important because only two years previously, in his _ice age in north america_, he had still expressed himself as retaining doubts. he says, "but so many of such discoveries have been reported as to make it altogether improbable that the miners were in every case mistaken; and we must conclude that rude stone implements do actually occur in connection with the bones of various extinct animals in the undisturbed strata of the gold-bearing gravel." fortunately the most important human remains have been found in what may be considered as a test case, where it was physically impossible that they could have been introduced by accident, and where the evidence of a common workman as to the locality of the find is as good as that of a professed geologist. during the deposition of the auriferous gravel on the western flanks of the sierra there were great outbursts of volcanoes near the summits of that range. towards their close a vast stream of lava flowed down the shallow valley of the ancient stanislas river, filling up its channel for forty miles or more, and covering its extensive gravel deposits. the modern stanislas river has cut across its former bed, and now flows in a gorge from to feet deeper than the old valley which was filled up by the lava stream, the surface of which appears as a long flat-topped ridge, known as table mountain. in many places the sides of the valley which originally directed the course of the lava have been worn away, so that the walls on either side present a perpendicular face one hundred feet or more in height. the gravel of the ancient stanislas river being very auriferous, great efforts have been made to reach the portion of it which lies under table mountain. large sums have been spent in sinking shafts from the top through the lava cap, and tunnelling into it from the sides. great masses of gravel have been thus quarried and removed, and a considerable amount of gold obtained, though in most cases not enough to meet the expenses, and the workings have been mostly discontinued. [illustration: section across table mountain, tuolumne county, california. _b_, lava; _g_, gravel; _s_, slate; _r_, old river-bed; _r´_, present river-bed. (le conte.)] it is evident that objects brought from a great depth below this lava cap must have remained there undisturbed since they were deposited along with the gravels, and that the evidence of the simplest miner, who says he brought them with a truck-load of dirt from the bottoms of shafts, or ends of tunnels pierced for hundreds of feet through the solid lava, is, if he speaks the truth, as good as if a scientist had found them _in situ_. and this evidence, together with that of mining inspectors and respectable residents who took an interest in scientific subjects, has been forthcoming in such a large number of instances as to preclude any supposition of mistake or fraud. three of the latest of these discoveries were reported at the meeting of the geological society of america on the th december, , and they seem to be supported by very first-class evidence.[ ] mr. becker, one of the staff of the united states geological survey, to whom has been, committed the responsible work of reporting upon the gold-bearing gravels of california, exhibited to the society a stone mortar, and some arrow or spear-heads, with the sworn statement from mr. neale, a well-known mining superintendent, that he took them with his own hands from undisturbed gravel in a mine of which he had charge under the lava of table mountain. [ ] professor wright in _century_, april . a second object exhibited was a pestle found by mr. king, who was at one time general director of the united states geological survey, and is an expert whose judgment on such matters should be final, and who had no doubt that the gravel in which he found the object must have lain in place ever since the lava came down and covered it. the third object was a mortar taken from the old gravel at the end of a tunnel driven diagonally feet from the western edge of the basalt cliff, and feet or more below the surface of the flat top of table mountain, as supported by evidence entirely satisfactory to professor wright, who had just visited the locality and cross-examined the principal witnesses. this may prepare us to consider the case of the celebrated calaveras skull as by no means an isolated or exceptional one, but antecedently probable from the number of human implements found in the same gravels, under the same beds of basalt and lava, at table mountain and numerous other places. professor wright in the article already referred to, which is the latest on the subject, and made after his visit to california in , which he says enabled him to add some important evidence, sums up the facts as follows-- "in february , mr. mattenson, a blacksmith living near table mountain, in the county calaveras, employed his spare earnings in driving a tunnel under the portion of the sierra lava flow known as bald hill. at a depth of feet below the surface, of which feet consisted of solid lava, and the last fifty of interstratified beds of lava, gravel, and volcanic tuffs, he came upon petrified wood, and an object which he at first took for the root of a tree, thickly encased in cemented gravel. but seeing what he took for one of the roots was a lower jaw, he took the mass to the surface, and gave it to mr. scribner, the agent of an express company, and still living in the neighbourhood, and highly respected. mr. scribner, on perceiving what it was, sent it to dr. jones, a medical gentleman of the highest reputation, now living at san francisco, who gave it to professor whitney, who visited the spot, and after a careful inquiry was fully satisfied with the evidence. soon afterwards professor whitney took the skull home with him to cambridge, where, in conjunction with dr. wynam, he subjected it to a very careful investigation to see if the relic itself confirmed the story told by the discoverer, and this it did to such a degree that, to use professor wright's words, the circumstantial evidence alone places its genuineness beyond all reasonable question." this is not a solitary instance, for the professor reports as the result of his personal inquiries only a year ago in the district, that "the evidence that human implements and fragments of the human skeleton have been found in the stratum of gravel underneath the lava of table mountain seems to be abundantly sufficient;" among others a fragment of a skull which came up with a bucketful of dirt from feet below the surface of table mountain at tuolumne. dr. wallace, in an article on the "antiquity of man in north america," in the _nineteenth century_ of november , thus enumerates some of the principal instances-- "in tuolumne county from to stone mortars and platters were found in the auriferous gravel along with bones and teeth of mastodon feet below the surface, and a stone muller was obtained in a tunnel driven under table mountain. in a stone mortar was found at a depth of feet in gravel under clay and 'cement,' as the hard clay with vegetable remains (the old volcanic ash) is called by the miners. in calaveras county from to many mortars and other stone implements were found in the gravels under lava beds, and in other auriferous gravels and clays at a depth of feet. in amador county stone mortars have been found in similar gravel at a depth of feet. in placer county stone platters and dishes have been found in auriferous gravels from to feet below the surface. in nevada county stone mortars and ground discs have been found from to feet deep in the gravel. in butte county similar mortars and pestles have been found in the lower gravel beneath lava beds and auriferous gravel; and many other similar finds have been recorded.... "even these californian remains do not exhaust the proofs of man's great antiquity in america, since we have the record of another discovery which indicates that he may, possibly, have existed at an even more remote epoch. mr. e. l. berthoud has described the finding of stone implements of a rude type in the tertiary gravels of the crow creek, colorado. some shells were obtained from the same gravels, which were determined by mr. t. a. conrad to be species which are 'certainly not older than older pliocene, or possibly miocene.'" i do not dwell on the discoveries which have been made of human implements and skeletons in the cases of minas geraes in brazil, and in the drift or loess of the pampas of buenos ayres, for although associated with extinct animals usually considered as pliocene, there is a difference of opinion among competent geologists, whether the deposits are really tertiary or only early quaternary. there is, however, one discovery, made since the date of these above recorded, of human work below the great basalt cap of north-western america, brought up from a great depth of underlying gravels and sands of a silted-up lake, formerly forming part of the course of the snake river at nampa in idaho, which is as startling in its way as that of the calaveras skull. the following account of it is given on the authority of professor wright, who, having visited the locality in the summer of , states that he found "abundant confirmatory evidence"-- the nampa image was brought up in boring an artesian well, at nampa in ada county, idaho, through a lava-cap feet thick, and below it about feet of the quicksands and clays of a silted-up lake, formed in a basin of the snake river, which joins the columbia river, and flows into the pacific, forming part, therefore, of the same geographical and drainage system as the californian gravels. at this depth the borers came down to a stratum of coarse sand, mixed with clay balls at the top, and resting at the bottom on an ancient vegetable soil, and the image came up from the lower part of this coarse sand. the borer, or liner of the well, was a six-inch iron tube, and the drill was only used in piercing the lava, while the sands below it were all extracted by a sand pump. mr. king, a respectable citizen of nampa, who was boring the well, states that he had been for several days closely watching the progress of the well and passing through his hands the contents of the sand pump as they were brought up, so that he had hold of the image before he suspected what it was. mr. cumming, superintendent of that portion of the union pacific railway, a highly-trained graduate of harvard college, was on the ground next day and saw the image, and heard mr. king's account of the discovery, and mr. adams, the president of the railway, happening to pass that way about a month later, he brought it to the notice of some of the foremost geologists in the united states. the image was sent to boston by mr. king, who gave every information, and it was found to be modelled from stiff clay, like that of the clay balls found in the sand, slightly if at all touched by fire, and incrusted like those balls with grains of oxide of iron, which professor putnam considers to be a conclusive proof of its great antiquity. mr. emmons, of the state geological society, gives it as his opinion that the strata in which this image is said to have been found, is older by far than any others in which human remains have been discovered, unless it be those under table mountain, in california, from which came the celebrated calaveras skull. so much for the authenticity of the discovery, which seems unassailable, but now comes the remarkable feature of it, which to a great extent revolutionizes our conception of this early palæolithic age. the image, or rather statuette, which is scarcely an inch and a half long, is by no means a rude object, but on the contrary more artistic, and a better representation of the human form, than the little idols of many comparatively modern and civilized people, such as the phoenicians. it is in fact very like the little statuettes so abundantly found in the neighbourhood of the old temple-pyramids of mexico, which are generally believed to be not much older than the date of the spanish conquest. [illustration: front view. back view. the nampa image--actual size. (drawn from the object by j. d. woodward.)] in the face of this mass of evidence, from both the old and new worlds, it seems more like obstinate incredulity than scientific caution to deny the existence of tertiary man. indeed the objections put forward by those who still cling to the notion that any proofs of greater antiquity of man take them further back from the orthodox standpoint of genesis, are sufficient of themselves to show the straits to which they are driven to explain the facts. a conspiracy has been imagined of many hundreds of ignorant miners, living hundreds of miles apart, to hoax scientists, or make a trade of forging implements, which is about as probable as the theory that the palæolithic remains of the old world were all forged by the devil, and buried in quaternary strata in order to discredit the mosaic account of creation. it is enough to say that the great majority of the implements had been thrown away as rubbish, and that not a single instance has ever been adduced in which money was asked or offered for any of them. another equally wild theory is that gold-mining tunnels had been driven by some race of prehistoric indians through hundreds of feet of solid basalt and quicksands, who left their implements in them; and this on the face of the fact that no such tunnels or evidences of ancient mining have ever been found in california, and that gold was unknown there until its recent discovery. in accepting, however, the evidence for tertiary man, we must accept with it conclusions which are much opposed to preconceived opinions. in the two best authenticated instances in which human skulls have been found in presumably tertiary strata, those of castelnedolo and calaveras, it is distinctly stated that they present no unusual appearance, and do not go nearly as far in a brutal or pithecoid direction as the quaternary skulls of neanderthal and spy, or as those of many existing savage races. the nampa image also appears to show the existence of considerable artistic skill at a period which, if not tertiary, must be of immense antiquity. how can this be reconciled with the theory of evolution and the descent of man from some animal ancestor common to him and the other quadrumana? up to a certain point, viz. the earliest quaternary period, the evidence of progression seems fairly satisfactory. if we take the general average of this class of skulls as compared with modern skulls, we find them of smaller brain-capacity, thicker and flatter, with prominent frontal sinuses, receding foreheads, projecting muzzles, and weaker chins. the brain is decidedly smaller, the average being cubic centimètres as compared with in australians and bushmen, and in well-developed europeans; and of this smaller capacity a larger proportion is contained in the posterior part.[ ] other parts of the skeleton will tell the same story, and in many of the earliest and most extreme instances, as those of neanderthal and spy, a very decided step is made in the direction of the "missing link." [ ] quatrefages and hamy, _crania ethnica_. but if we accept the only two specimens known of the type of tertiary man, the skulls of castelnedolo and calaveras, which are supported by such extremely strong evidence, it would seem that as we recede in time, instead of getting nearer to the "missing link," we get further from it. this, and this alone, throws doubt on evidence which would otherwise seem to be irresistible, and without a greater number of well-authenticated confirmations we must be content to hold our judgment to a certain extent in suspense. this, however, it must be remarked, extends only to the type of man as shown by these two skulls, and does not at all affect the fact that man, of some type or other, did exist in the pliocene and miocene periods, which is established beyond reasonable doubt by the numerous instances in which chipped implements and cut bones have been found by experienced observers, and pronounced genuine by the highest authorities. all we can say with any certainty is, that if the darwinian theory of evolution applies to man, as it does to all other animals, and specially to man's closest kindred, the other quadrumana, the common ancestor must be sought very much further back, in the eocene, which inaugurated the reign of placental mammalia, and in which the primitive types of so many of the later mammals have been found. nor will this appear incredible when we consider that man's cousins, the apes and monkeys, first appear in the miocene, or even earlier in the eocene, and become plentiful in the later pliocene, and that even anthropoid apes, and one of them, the hylobates, scarcely if at all distinguishable from the gibbon of the present day, have been found at sansan and other miocene deposits in the south of france, at oeningen in switzerland, and pikermi in greece; while if professor ameghino's discoveries are to be credited, anthropoids already existed in the eocene, and their development may be traced from the oldest eocene forms. chapter xii. races of mankind. monogeny or polygeny--darwin--existing races--colour--hair--skulls and brains--dolichocephali and brachycephali--jaws and teeth--stature--other tests--isaac taylor--prehistoric types in europe--huxley's classification--language no test of race--egyptian monuments--- human and animal races unchanged for years--neolithic races--palæolithic--different races of man as far back as we can trace--types of canstadt, cro-magnon, and furfooz--oldest races dolichocephalic--skulls of neanderthal and spy--simian characters--objections--evidence confined to europe--american man--calaveras skull--tertiary man--skull of castelnedolo--leaves monogeny or polygeny an open question--arguments on each side--old arguments from the bible and philology exploded--what darwinian theory requires--animal types traced up to the eocene--secondary origins--dog and horse--fertility of races--question of hybridity--application to man--difference of constitutions--negro and white--bearing on question of migration--apes and monkeys--question of original locality of man--asiatic theory--eur-african--american--arctic--none based on sufficient evidence--- mere speculations--conclusion--summary of evidence as to human origins. the immense antiquity of man upon earth having been established, other questions of great interest present themselves as to the origin of the race. these questions, however, no longer depend on positive facts of observation, like the discovery of palæolithic remains in definite geological deposits, but on inference and conjecture from these and other observed facts, most of which are of comparatively recent date and hardly extend beyond the historical period. thus if we start with the existing state of things, we find a great variety of human races actually prevailing, located in different parts of the world, and of fundamental types so dissimilar as to constitute what in animal zoology would often be called separate species,[ ] and yet fertile among themselves, and so similar in many physical and mental characters as to infer an origin from common ancestors. and we can infer from history that this was so to a great extent years ago, and that the length of time has been insufficient to produce any marked changes, either in physical or linguistic types of the different fundamental races. [ ] topinard, one of the latest and best authorities, says in his book on anthropology: "we have seen the marked difference between woolly and straight hair, between the prognathous and the orthognathous, the jet black of the yoloff and the pale complexion of the scandinavian, between the ultra-dolichocephalic esquimaux or new caledonian, and the ultra-brachycephalic mongolian. but the line of separation between the european and the bosjesman, as regards these two characters, is, in a morphological point of view, still wider, as much so as between each of the anthropoid apes, or between the dog and the wolf, the goat and the sheep." was this always so, and what inference can be drawn as to the much-disputed question between monogeny and polygeny, that is, between the theory of descent from a single pair in a single locality, and that of descent from several pairs, developed in different localities by parallel, but not strictly identical, lines of evolution? this is a question which cannot be decided off-hand by _à priori_ considerations. no doubt darwinism points to the evolution of all life from primitive forms, and ultimately, perhaps, from the single simplest form of life in the cell or protoplasm. but this does not necessarily imply that the more highly specialized, and what may be called the secondary forms of life, have all originated from single secondary centres, at one time and in one locality. on the contrary, we have the authority of darwin himself for saying that this is not a necessary consequence of his theory. in a letter to bentham he says--"i dispute whether a new race or species is necessarily or even generally descended from a single or pair of parents. the whole body of individuals, i believe, became altered together--like our race-horses, and like all domestic breeds which are changed through unconscious selection by man." the problem is, therefore, an open one, and can only be solved (or rather attacked, for in the present state of our knowledge a complete solution is probably impossible) by a careful induction from ascertained facts, ascending step by step from the present to the past, from the known to the unknown. the first step is to have a clear idea of what actually exists at the present moment. there are an almost endless number of minor varieties of the human race, but none of them of sufficient importance to imply diversity of origin, with the exception of four, or at the most five or six fundamental types, which stand so widely apart that it is difficult to imagine that they are all descended from a common pair of ancestors. these are the white, yellow, and black races of the old world, the copper-coloured of america, and perhaps the olive-coloured of malaysia and polynesia, and the pygmy races of africa and eastern asia. the difficulty of supposing these races to have all sprung from a single pair will at once be apparent if we personify this pair under the name of adam for the first man and eve for the first woman, and ask ourselves the question, what do we suppose to have been their colour? but colour alone, though the most obvious, is by no means the sole criterion of difference of race. the evidence is cumulative, and other equally marked and persistent characters, both of physical structure and of physiological and mental peculiarities, stand out as distinctly as differences of colour in the great typical races. for instance, the hair is a very persistent index of race. when the section of it is circular, the hair is straight and lank; when flattened, woolly; and when oval, curly or wavy. now these characters are so persistent that many of the best anthropologists have taken hair as the surest test of race. everywhere the lank and straight hair and circular section go with the yellow and copper-coloured races; the woolly hair and flat section with the black; and the wavy hair and oval section with the white races. the solid framework of the skeleton also affords very distinctive types of race, especially where it is looked at in a general way as applicable to great masses of pure races, and not to individuals of mixed race, like most europeans. the skull is most important, for it affords the measure of the size and shape of the brain, which is the highest organ, and that on which the differentiation of man from the lower animals mainly depends. the size of the brain alone does not always afford a conclusive proof of mental superiority, for it varies with sex, height, and other individual characters, and often seems to depend more on quality than on quantity. still, if we take general averages, we find that superior and civilized races have larger brains than inferior and savage ones. thus the average brain of the european is about cubic centimètres, while that of the australian and bushman does not exceed . the shape as well as the size of the skull affords another test of race which is often appealed to. the main distinction taken is between dolichocephalic and brachycephalic, or long and broad skulls. here also we must look at general averages rather than at individuals, for there is often considerable variation within the same race, especially among the mesocephalic, or medium between the two extremes, which is generally the prevalent form where there has been much intermixture of races. but if we take widely different types there can be no doubt that the long or broad skull is a characteristic and persistent feature. the formation of the jaws and teeth affords another important test. some races are what is called prognathous, that is, the jaws project, and the teeth are set in sockets sloping outwards, so that the lower part of the face approximates to the form of a muzzle; others are orthognathous, or have the jaws and teeth vertical. and the form of the chin seems to be wonderfully correlated with the general character and energy of the race. it is hard to say why, but as a matter of fact a weak chin generally denotes a weak, and a strong chin a strong, race or individual. thus the chimpanzee and other apes have no chin, the negro and lower races generally have chins weak and receding. the races who, like the iberians, have been conquered or driven from plains to mountains, have had poor chins; while their successive conquerors, of aryan race,--celts, romans, teutons, and scandinavians,--might almost be classified by the prominence and solidity of this feature of the face. stature is another very persistent feature. the pygmy races of equatorial africa described by stanley have remained the same since the early records of egypt, while the pure aryan races of the north temperate zone, gauls, germans, and scandinavians, have from the first dawn of history amazed the shorter races of the south by their tall stature, huge limbs, blue eyes, and yellow hair. here and there isolated tall races may be found where the race has become thoroughly acclimatized to a suitable environment, as among some negro tribes, and the araucanian indians of patagonia; but as a rule the inferior races are short, the bulk of the civilized races of the world of intermediate stature, and the great conquering races of the north temperate zone decidedly tall. other tests are afforded by the shape of the eye-orbits and nasal bones, and other characters, all of which agree, in the words of isaac taylor in his _origin of the aryans_, in "exhibiting two extreme types--the african with long heads, long orbits, and flat hair; and the mongolian with round heads, round orbits, and round hair. the european type is intermediate, the head, the orbit, and the hair being oval. in the east of europe we find an approximation to the asiatic type; in the south of europe to the african." taking these prominent anthropological characters as tests, we find four distinct types among the earliest inhabitants of europe, which can be traced back from historic to neolithic times. they consist of two long-headed and two short-headed races, and in each case one is tall and the other short. the dolichocephalic are recognized everywhere throughout western europe and on the mediterranean basin, including north africa, as the oldest race, and they are thought still to survive in the original type in some of the people of wales and ireland and the spanish basques; while they doubtless form a large portion, intermixed with other races, of the blood of the existing populations of great britain and ireland, of western and southern france, of spain, portugal, sicily, sardinia, north africa, and other mediterranean districts. this is known as the iberian race, and it can be traced clearly beyond history and the knowledge of metals, into the neolithic stone age, and may possibly be descended from some of the vastly older palæolithic types such as that of cro-magnon. the type is everywhere a feeble one, of short stature, dolichocephalic skull, narrow oval face, orthognathic teeth, weak chin, and swarthy complexion. we have only to compare a skull of this type with one of ruder and stronger races, to understand how the latter must have survived as conquerors in the struggle for existence in the early ages of the world, before gunpowder and military discipline had placed civilization in a better position to contend with brute force and energy. huxley sums up the latest evidence as to the distinctive types of these historic and prehistoric races of europe as follows-- . blond long-heads of tall stature who appear with least admixture in scandinavia, north germany, and parts of the british islands. . brunette broad-heads of short stature in central france, the central european highlands, and piedmont. these are identified with the ligurian race, and their most typical modern representatives are the auvergnats and savoyards. . mongoloid brunette broad-heads of short stature in arctic and eastern europe, and central asia, represented by the lapps and other tribes of northern russia, passing into the mongols and chinese of eastern asia. . brunette long-heads of short stature--the iberian race. huxley adds, "the inhabitants of the regions which lie between these five present the intermediate gradations which might be expected to result from their intermixture. the evidence at present extant is consistent with the supposition that the blond long-heads, the brunette broad-heads, and the brunette long-heads--_i.e._ the scandinavian, ligurian, and iberian races--have existed in europe very nearly in their present localities throughout historic times and very far back into prehistoric times. there is no proof of any migration of asiatics into europe west of the basin of the dnieper down to the time of attila. on the contrary, the first great movements of the european population of which there is any conclusive evidence are that series of gaulish invasions of the east and south, which ultimately extended from north italy to galatia in asia minor." i may add, that in more recent times many of the principal movements have been from west to east, viz. of germans absorbing slavs, and slavs absorbing or expelling fins and tartars. the next question is, how far can we trace back the existence of the present widely different fundamental types of mankind by the light of ascertained and certain facts? the most important of these facts is, that egyptian monuments enable us to say, that the existing diversities of the typical races of mankind are not of recent origin, but have existed unchanged from the first dawn of history, say years ago. the egyptians themselves have come down from the old empire, through all the vicissitudes of conquests, mixtures of races, changes of religion and language, so little altered that the fellah of to-day is often the image of the egyptians who built the pyramids. the wooden statue of an officer of chephren who died some years ago, was such a striking portrait of the village magistrate of to-day, that the arab workmen christened it the "sheik-el-beled." and these old egyptians knew from the earliest times three at least of the fundamental types of mankind: the nahsu, or negroes to the south, who are represented on the monuments so faithfully that they might be taken as typical pictures of the modern negro; the lebu to the west, a fair-skinned and blue-eyed white race, whose descendants remain to this day as kabyles and berbers, in the same localities of north africa; and to the east various tribes of arabs, syrians, and other asiatics, who are always painted of a yellowish-brown colour, and whose features may often be traced in their modern descendants. the same may be said of the wild and domestic animals of the various countries, which are the same now, unless where subsequently imported, as when they were first known to the ancient egyptians. we start, therefore, with this undoubted fact, that a period of or years has been insufficient to make any perceptible change in the types of pure races, whether of the animal or of human species. and doubtless this period might be greatly extended if we had historical records of the growth of egyptian civilization in the times prior to menes, for in the earliest records we find accounts of wars both with the nahsu and the lebu, implying large populations of those races already existing both to the south and west of the valley of the nile. these positive dates carry us back so far that it is of little use to investigate minutely the differences of races shown by the remains of the neolithic period. they were very marked and numerous, but we have no evidence to show that they were different from those of more recent times, or that their date can be certainly said to be much older than the oldest egyptian records. all we can infer with certainty is, that whether the neolithic period be of longer or shorter duration, no changes have taken place in the animal fauna contemporary with man which cannot be traced to human agency or other known causes. no new species have appeared, or old ones disappeared, in the course of natural evolution, as was the case during the quaternary and preceding geological periods. the neolithic is, however, a mere drop in the ocean of time compared with the earlier periods in which the existence of palæolithic man can be traced by his remains; and as far back as we can go we find ourselves confronted by the same fact of a diversity of races. as we have seen in the chapter on quaternary man, europe, where alone skulls and skeletons of the palæolithic age have been discovered, affords at least three very distinct types--that of canstadt, of cro-magnon, and of furfooz. the canstadt type, which includes the men of neanderthal and spy, and which was widely diffused, having been found, as far south as gibraltar, is apparently the oldest, and certainly the rudest and most savage, being characterized by enormous brow-ridges, a low and receding forehead, projecting muzzle, and thick bones with powerful muscular attachments. it is very dolichocephalic, but the length is due mainly to the projection of the posterior part of the brain, the total size of which is below the average. the cro-magnon type, which is also very old, being contemporary with the cave-bear and mammoth, is the very opposite of that of canstadt in many respects. the superciliary ridges are scarcely marked, the forehead is elevated, the contour of the skull good, and the volume of the brain equal or superior to that of many modern civilized races. the stature was tall, the nose straight or projecting, and the chin prominent. the only resemblance to the canstadt type is, that they are both dolichocephalic chiefly on the posterior region, and both prognathous; but the differences are so many and profound that no anthropologist would say that one of these races could have been derived directly from the other. still less could he say that the small round-headed race of furfooz could have been a direct descendant of either of the two former. it is found in close vicinity with them over an extensive area, but generally in caves and deposits which, from their geological situation and associated fauna, point to a later origin. in fact, if we go by european evidence alone, we may consider it proved that the oldest known races were dolichocephalic, that the brachycephalic races came later, and that as long ago as in neolithic times, considerable intercrossing had taken place, which has gone on ever since, producing the great variety of intermediate types which now prevail over a great part of europe. this inference of the priority of the canstadt type is strengthened by its undoubted approximation to that of the most savage existing races and of the anthropoid apes. if we take the skulls and skeletons of neanderthal and spy, and compare them with those of modern civilized man, we find that while they are still perfectly human, they make a notable approximation towards a savage and simian type in all the peculiarities which have been described by anthropologists as tests. the most important of all, that of the capacity and form of the brain, is best illustrated by the subjoined diagram of the skulls of the european, the neanderthal, and the chimpanzee placed in superposition. [illustration: l'homme avant l'histoire. (from debierre.)] it will be seen at a glance that the neanderthal skull, especially in the frontal part, which is the chief seat of intelligence, is nearer to the chimpanzee than to modern man. and all the other characters correspond to this inferiority of brain. the enormous superciliary ridges; the greater length of the fore-arm; the prognathous jaws, larger canine teeth, and smaller chin; the thicker bones and stronger muscular attachments; the rounder ribs; the flatter tibia, and many other characters described by palæontologists, all point in the same direction, and take us some considerable way towards the missing link which is to connect the human race with animal ancestors. still there are other considerations which must make us pause before asserting too positively that in following quaternary man up to the canstadt type, we are on the track of original man, and can say with confidence that by following it up still further we shall arrive at the earlier form from which man was differentiated. in the first place, europe is the only part of the world where this canstadt type has hitherto been found. we have abundant evidence from palæolithic stone implements that man existed pretty well over the whole earth in early quaternary times, but have hitherto no evidence from human remains outside of europe from which we can draw any inference as to the type of man by whom these implements were made. it is clear that in europe the oldest races were dolichocephalic, but we have no certainty that this was the case in asia, in so many parts of which round-headed races exclusively prevail, and have done so from the earliest times. again, we have no evidence as to the origin of another of the most strongly marked types, that of the negro, or of the negrito, negrillo, bushmen, australian, or other existing races who approach most nearly to the simian type. the only evidence we have of the type of races who were certainly early quaternary, and may very possibly go back to an older geological age than that of the men of neanderthal and spy, comes from the new world, from california, brazil, and buenos ayres, and points to a type not so savage and simian as that of canstadt, but rather to that which characterizes all the different varieties of american man, though here also we find evidence of distinct dolichocephalic and brachycephalic races from the very earliest times. another difficulty in the way of considering the canstadt type as a real advance towards primitive man and the missing link, arises from the totally different and very superior type of cro-magnon being found so near it in time, as proved by the existence in both of the cave-bear, mammoth, and other extinct animals. we can hardly suppose the cro-magnon type to have sprung by slow evolution in the ordinary way of direct succession, from such a very different type as that of canstadt during such a short interval of time as a small portion of one geological period. again, it is very perplexing to find that the only tertiary skulls and skeletons for which we possess really strong evidence, those of castelnedolo, instead of showing, as might be expected, a still more rude and simian aspect than that of canstadt, show us the canstadt type indeed, but in a milder and more human form. all that can be said with certainty is, that as far as authentic evidence carries us back, the ancestral animal, or missing link, has not been discovered, but that man already existed from an enormous antiquity, extending certainly through the quaternary into the pliocene, and probably into the miocene period, and that at the earliest date at which his remains have been found the race was already divided, as at present, into several sharply distinguished types. this leaves the question of man's ultimate origin completely open to speculation, and enables both monogenists and polygenists to contend for their respective views with plausible arguments, and without fear of being refuted by facts. polygeny, or plural origins, would at first sight seem to be the most plausible theory to account for the great diversities of human races actually existing, and which can be shown to have existed from such an immense antiquity. and this seems to have been the first guess of primitive nations, for most of them considered themselves as autochthonous, sprung from the soil, or created by their own native gods. but by degrees this theory gave place to that of monogeny, which has been for a long while almost universally accepted by the civilized world. the cause of this among christians, jews, and mahometans has been the acceptance of the narratives in genesis, first of adam and secondly of noah, as literally true accounts of events which actually occurred. this is an argument which has completely broken down, and no competent and dispassionate thinker any longer accepts the hebrew scriptures as a literal and conclusive authority, on facts of history and science which lie within the domain of human reason. the question, therefore, became once more an open one, but as the old orthodox argument for monogeny faded into oblivion, a new and more powerful one was furnished by the doctrine of evolution as expounded by darwin. the same argument applies to man as to the rest of the animal world, that if separate species imply separate creations, these supernatural creations must be multiplied to such an extent as to make them altogether incredible; as for instance separate creations for the land shells alone of one of the group of madeira islands; while on the other hand genera grade off into species, species into races, and races into varieties, by such insensible degrees, as to establish an irresistible inference that they have all been developed by evolution from common ancestors. no one, i suppose, seriously doubts that this is in the main the true theory of life, though there may still be some uncertainty as to the causes and mode of operation, and of the different steps and stages of this evolution. monogeny therefore in this general sense of evolution from some primitive mammalian type, may be accepted as the present conclusion of science for man as it has come to be for the horse, dog, and so many other animals which are his constant companions. their evolution can in many cases be traced up, through successive steps, to some more simple and generalized type in the eocene; and it may be permitted to believe that if the whole geological record could be traced as far back as that of the horse, in the case of man and the other quadrumana, their pedigree would be as clearly made out. this, however, does not conclude the question, for it is quite permissible to contend that in the case of man, as in that of the horse, though the primary ancestral type in the eocene may be one, the secondary types from which existing races are more immediately derived may be more than one, and may have been evolved in different localities. thus in the case of the dog, it is almost certain that some of the existing races have been derived from wolves, and others from jackals and foxes; but this is quite consistent with the belief that all the canine genus have been evolved from the marsupial carnivora of the eocene, through the arctocyon, who was a generalized type, half dog and half bear. in fact, we have the authority of darwin himself, as quoted in the beginning of this chapter, for saying that this would be quite consistent with his view of the origin of species. now the controversy between monogenists and polygenists has turned mainly on these comparatively recent developments of secondary types. it has been fought to a great extent before the immense antiquity of the human race had been established, and it had become almost certain that its original starting-point must be sought at least as far back as in the eocene period. the main argument for monogeny has been that the different races of mankind are fertile among themselves. this is doubtless true to a great extent, and shows that these races have not diverged very far from their ancestral type. but the researches of darwin and his successors have thrown a good deal of new light on the question of hybridity. species can no longer be looked upon as separated from one another and from races by hard-and-fast lines, on one side of which is absolute sterility and on the other absolute fertility; but rather as blending into one another by insensible gradations from free intercrossing to sterility, according as the differences from the original type became more pronounced and more fixed by heredity. to revert to the case of dogs, we find free interbreeding between races descended from different secondary ancestors, such as wolves, jackals, and foxes, though freer, i believe, and more permanent as the races are closer; but as the specific differences become more marked, the fertility does not abruptly cease, but rapidly diminishes. thus buffon's experiment shows that a hybrid cross between the dog and the wolf may be produced and perpetuated for at least three generations, and the leporine cross between the hare and rabbit is almost an established race. on the other hand, we see in the mule the last expiring trace of fertility in a cross between species which have diverged so far in different directions as the horse and the ass. the human race repeats this lesson of the animal world, and shows a graduated scale of fertility and permanence in crosses, between different types according as they are closely or distantly related. thus if we take the two extremes, the blond white of north temperate europe and the negro of equatorial africa, the disposition to union is almost replaced by repugnance which is only overcome under special circumstances, such as slavery, and an absence of women of their own race; while the offspring, the mulatto, is everywhere a feeble folk, with deficient vitality, diminished fertility, and prone to die out, or revert to one or other of the original types. but where the types are not so extremely divergent the fertility of the cross increases, as between the brunet white of southern europe and the arab or moor with the negro, and of the european with the native indian of america. perhaps the strongest argument for polgyeny is that derived from the different constitutions of different races as regards susceptibility to climatic and other influences. at present, and as far back as history or tradition enables us to trace, mankind has, as in the case of other animals, been very much restricted to definite geological provinces. thus in the extreme case of the fair white and the negro, the former cannot live and propagate its type south of the parallel of °, or the latter north of it. this argument was no doubt pushed too far by agassiz, who supposed the whole world to be divided into a number of limited districts, in each of which a separate creation both of men, animals, and plants had taken place suited to the environment. this is clearly inconsistent with facts, but there is still some force in it when stripped of exaggeration, and confined to the three or four leading types which are markedly different. especially it bears on the argument, on which monogenists mainly rely, of the peopling of the earth by migration from one common centre. no doubt migration has played a very great part in the diffusion of all animal and vegetable species, and their zoological provinces are determined very much by the existence of insurmountable barriers in early geological times. no doubt also man is better organized for migration than most other terrestrial animals, and history and tradition show that in comparatively recent times he has reached the remotest islands of the pacific by perfectly natural means. but this does not meet the difficulty of accounting, if we place the origin of man from a single pair anywhere in the northern hemisphere, for his presence in palæolithic times in south africa and south america. how did he get across the equatorial zone, in which only a tropical fauna, including the tropical negro, can now live and flourish? or _vice versâ_, if the original adam and eve were black, and the garden of eden situated in the tropics, how did their descendants migrate northwards, and live on the skirts of the ice-caps of the glacial period? or how did the yellow race, so tolerant of heat and cold, and of insanitary conditions, and so different in physical and moral characters from either the whites or the blacks, either originate from them, or give rise to them? the nearest congeners of man, the quadrumana, monkeys and apes, are all catarrhine in the old world, and all platyrhine in america. why, if all are descended from the same pair of ancestors, and have spread from the same spot by migration? we can only reconcile the fact that it is so with the facts of evolution, by throwing the common starting-point or points of the lines of development much further back into the eocene, or even further; and if this be true for monkeys, why not for man? one point seems quite clear, that monogeny is only possible by extending the date of human origins far back into the tertiaries. on any short-dated theories of man's appearance upon earth--as for instance that of prestwich, that palæolithic man probably only existed for some , or , years before the neolithic period--some theory like that of agassiz, of separate creations in separate zoological provinces, follows inevitably. if the immense time from the miocene to the recent period has been insufficient to differentiate the hylobates and dryopithecus very materially from the existing anthropoid apes, a period such as , or , years would have gone a very little way in deriving the negro from the white, or the white from the negro. to deny the extension of human origins into the tertiaries is practically to deny darwin's theory of evolution altogether, or to contend that man is an exception to the laws by which the rest of the animal creation have come into existence in the course of evolution. the question of the locality in which the human species first originated depends also very materially on the date assigned for human origins. the various speculations which have been hazarded on this subject are almost all based on the supposition that this origin took place in comparatively recent times when geographical and other causes were not materially different from those of the present day. it was for ages the accepted belief that all mankind were descended primarily from a single pair of ancestors, who were miraculously created in mesopotamia, and secondarily from three pairs who were miraculously preserved in the ark in armenia. this of course never had any other foundation than the belief in the inspired authority of the bible, and when it came to be established that this, as regards its scientific and prehistoric speculations, was irreconcilable with the most certain facts of science, the orthodox account of the creation fell with it. the theory of asiatic origin was, however, taken up on other grounds, and still lingers in some quarters, mainly among philologists, who, headed by max müller, thought they had discovered in sanscrit and zend the nearest approach to a common aryan language. tracing backwards the lines of migration of these people, the sanscrit-speaking hindoos and the zend-speaking iranians, they found them intersecting somewhere about the upper oxus, and jumped at the conclusion that the great elevated plateau of pamir, the "roof of the world," had been the birthplace of man, as it was of so many of the great rivers which flowed from it to the north, south, east, and west. this theory, however, has pretty well broken down, since it has been shown that other branches of the aryan languages, specially the lithuanian, contain more archaic elements than either sanscrit or zend; that language is often no conclusive test of race; that aryan migrations have quite as often or oftener been from west to east than from east to west; and that all history, prehistoric traditions, and linguistic palæontology point to the principal aryan races having been located in northern and central europe and in central and southern russia very much as we find them at the present day. the question of the locality of human origins is now being debated on very different grounds, and although it is not denied that max müller's "somewhere in asia" may turn out to be a correct guess, it is denied that there is at present a particle of evidence to support it. for really the whole question is very much one of guesswork. the immense antiquity which on the lowest possible estimate can be assigned for the proved existence of man, carries us back to a period when geological, geographical, and climatic conditions were so entirely different, that all inferences from those of the present period are useless. for instance, certainly half the himalayas, and probably the whole, were under the sea; the pamir and central asia, instead of being the roof of the world, may have been fathoms deep under a great ocean; greenland and spitzbergen were types of the north temperate climate best suited for the highest races of man. in like manner language ceases to be an available factor in any attempt to trace human origins to their source. it is doubtless true that at the present day different fundamental types of language distinguish the different typical races of the human family. thus the monosyllabic type, consisting of roots only without grammar, characterizes the chinese and its allied races of the extreme east of asia; the agglutinative, in which different shades of meaning were attached to roots, by definite particles glued on to them as it were by prefixes or suffixes, is the type adopted by most of the oldest and most numerous races of mankind in the old world as their means of conveying ideas by sound; while in the new world the common type of an immense variety of languages is polysynthetic, or an attempt to splutter out as it were a whole sentence in a single immensely long word made up of fragments of separate roots and particles, a type which in the old world is confined to the euskarian of the spanish basque. and at the head of all as refined instruments for the conveyance of thought, the two inflectional languages, the aryan and semitic, by which, though in each case by a totally different system, roots acquire their different shades of meaning by particles, no longer mechanically glued on to them, but melted down as it were with the roots, and incorporated into new words according to definite grammatical rules. but this carries us back a very little way. judging by philology alone, the chinese, whose annals go back only to about b.c., would be an older race than the egyptians or accadians, whose languages can be traced at least years further back. and if we go back into prehistoric and geological times we are absolutely ignorant whether the neolithic and palæolithic races spoke these languages, or indeed spoke at all. some palæontologists have fancied that there was evidence for some of the older palæolithic races being speechless, and christened them "homo alalus," but this is based on the solitary fact that a single human jaw, that of naulette, is wanting in the genial tubercle, absent also in anthropoid apes, to which one of the muscles of the tongue is attached. but apart from this being a single instance, some of the best anatomists deny that this genial tubercle is really essential to speech, which the latest physiological researches show to be dependent on the development of a small tract in the third frontal convolution of the right side of the brain, any injury to which causes aphasia, or loss of the power of speech, though its physical organs of the larynx remain unimpaired. it is probable, however, that from the very first man had a certain faculty, like other animals, of expressing meaning by sounds and gestures, and the researches of romanes, and quite recently those of professor garner on the language of monkeys and apes, make this almost certain. but at what particular moment in the course of the evolution of man this faculty ripened into what may be properly called language is a matter of the purest conjecture. it may have been in the tertiary, the quaternary, or not until the recent period. all we can say is, that when we first catch sight of languages, they are already developed into the present distinct types, arguing, as in the case of physical types, either for distinct miraculous creations, or for such an immensely remote ancestry as to give time for the fixation of separate secondary types before the formation of language. thus, if we confine ourselves to the most perfect and advanced, and apparently therefore most modern form of language of the foremost races of the world, the inflectional, we find two types, the semitic and aryan, constructed on such totally different principles that it is impossible for one to be derived from the other, or both to be descended from a common parent. the semitic device of expressing shades of meaning by internal flexion, that is, by ringing the changes of vowels between three consonants, making every word triliteral, is fundamentally different from the aryan device for attaining the same object by fusing roots and added particles into one new word in which equal value is attached to vowels and consonants. we can partly see how the latter may have been developed from the agglutinative, but not how the stiff and cramped semitic can have been derived either from that or from the far more perfect and flexible type of the aryan languages. it has far more the appearance of being an artificial invention implying a considerable advance of intellectual attainment, and therefore of comparatively recent date. in any case we may safely accept the conclusion that there is nothing in language which assists us in tracing back human origins into geological times, or indeed much further than the commencement of history. we are reduced, therefore, to geological evidence, and this gives us nothing better than mere probabilities, or rather guesses, as to the original centre or centres of human existence upon the earth. the inference most generally drawn is in favour of the locality where the earliest traces of human remains have been found, and where the existence of the nearest allied species, the apes and monkeys, can be carried back furthest. this locality is undoubtedly eur-africa, that is the continent which existed when europe and africa were united by one or more land connections. and in this locality the preference must be assigned to western europe and to africa north of the atlas; in fact to the portion of this ancient continent facing the atlantic, and western mediterranean, then an inland sea. thus far central and south-western france, spain, portugal, italy, and algeria have afforded the oldest unequivocal proofs of the existence of man, and of the coexistence of anthropoid apes. accordingly darwin inclined to the view that north africa was probably the scene of man's first appearance, and the latest authority on the subject, brinton, in his _races and peoples_, gives at length reasons for assigning this to somewhere in eur-africa. but it must be remembered that this inference rests entirely on the fact that the district in question has been more or less explored, while the rest of the earth can hardly be said to have been explored at all, for anything prior to those quaternary paleolithic implements which prove the existence of man already spread over nearly the whole of the habitable globe. nor would the origin of the white race in eur-africa, even if it were established, help us to account for the existence of the negro race on the other side of the atlas and the sahara, or of the yellow race in eastern asia, or of the american race. indeed america may fairly compete with eur-africa for the honour of being the original seat of the human race, for the geological conditions and the animal fauna of the auriferous gravels of california point to the calaveras skull and other numerous human remains and implements found in them being of tertiary age, and quite possibly as old or even older than anything which has been found in europe.[ ] the wide diffusion of the same peculiar racial type over the whole continent of america down to cape horn, and its capability of existing under such different conditions of climate and environment, also point to its being an extremely ancient and primitive race, and the generic distinction between the apes and monkeys of the old and new worlds is a remarkable circumstance which is not accounted for by any monogenist theory of the origin of the order of quadrumana. [ ] if ameghino's discoveries of an anthropoid type in the lower eocene of patagonia should be confirmed, it would incline the balance of evidence in favour of south america, or rather of the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere, as the most probable scene of the evolution of the quadrumana, including the human variety, from ancestral forms allied to the marsupials of the secondary period. it is to be observed also, that although all american races have a certain peculiar type in common, still there are differences which show that secondary types must have existed from a very early period, intercrossing between which must have given rise to numerous varieties. thus, according to morton, dolichocephaly was most prevalent among the tribes who inhabited the eastern side of the continent facing the atlantic both in north and south america, while brachycephaly prevailed on the western, side facing the pacific. great differences of colour and stature are also found often among contiguous tribes, and irrespective of latitude. on the whole, however, the american type approximates in many important particulars, such as colour, hair, and anatomical structure, more nearly to the yellow races of eastern asia than to any other, though it is a fairly open question which of the two may have been the earliest to appear in the immensely remote ages of the tertiary period. another theory is that man probably originated in some continent of the arctic circle, where, as we know from fossil remains of the miocene and eocene periods, greenland and spitzbergen enjoyed a mild climate and forest vegetation, admirably adapted for the evolution of a temperate mammalian fauna, including the human species. this is a very plausible theory, but at present it is a mere theory, like that of a lost atlantis, or submerged continents in the pacific or indian oceans. the only thing approaching to evidence to support it is, as far as i am aware, that sir joseph hooker and other eminent botanists think that the diffusion of the forest trees and other flora of america can be traced along lines radiating from the extreme north, along the mountain chains and elevated plateaux which form the backbone of the continent from alaska to tierra del fuego. there seems a probability also that the evolution of the human race, which turns mainly on the development of the erect stature, which is the basis of the larger brain and other anatomical differences between man and the other quadrumana, must have taken place not in tropical regions of dense forests, where climbing would have had a decided advantage over walking in the struggle for life, but rather in some region of wide plains and open forests, where it would be an advantage to see enemies or prey at a distance, or over tall grass or ferns. it must be admitted, however, that in our present state of knowledge all these theories of the place, time, and manner of human origins are speculations rather than science. we have proof positive that man was already spread over most parts of the world in the quaternary period, and the irresistible inference that he must have existed long before, is confirmed by conclusive evidence as to the finding of his remains and implements in the earliest quaternary and latest pliocene periods, and very strong evidence for carrying them back into the miocene. anthropoid apes, which are so similar to man in physical structure, and in their ways are as highly specialized from any more general and primitive ancestral form as man himself, undoubtedly did exist in the miocene period, and have come down to us with comparatively little change. it puzzles the best anatomists to find any clear distinction between the present hylobates and the hylobates of the middle miocene, while that between the white man and the negro is clear and unmistakable. why then should "homo" not have existed as soon as "hylobates," and why should any prepossession in favour of man's recent creation, based mainly on exploded beliefs in the scientific value of the myths and guesses of the earliest civilized nations of asia, stand in the way of accepting the enormous and rapidly increasing accumulation of evidence, tracing back the evolution of the mammal man to the same course of development as other mammals? as regards the course of this evolution, all we know with any certainty is, that as far as we can trace it back, the human species was already differentiated into distinct races, and that in all probability the present fundamental types were already formed. when and where the primitive stock or stocks may have originated, and the secondary ancestral races may have branched off from it, is at present unknown. all we can say is, that the more we examine the evidence, the more it points to extreme antiquity even for these secondary stocks, and makes it probable that we must go, as in the case of the horse and other existing mammals, at least as far back as into the eocene to look for the primitive generalized type or types from which these secondary lines of quadrumanous and human evolution have taken their origin. as regards the secondary types themselves, there is no certainty as to the place or time of their origin, but the balance of evidence points rather in favour of polygeny, that is, of their having followed slightly different lines of evolution from the common starting-point, under different circumstances of environment and in different localities; so that when man, as we know him, first appeared, he was already differentiated into races distinct though not very far apart. in conclusion, i may remark that these hotly-contested questions as to monogeny or polygeny, and as to the place of man's first appearance on earth, lose most of their importance when it is realized that human origins must be pushed back at least as far as the miocene, and probably into the eocene period. as long as it was held that no traces of man's existence could be found, as cuvier held, until the recent period; or even as some english geologists still contend, until the post-glacial, or at any rate the glacial or quaternary periods, it was evident that the facts could only be explained by the theory of a series of supernatural interferences. agassiz's theory, or some modification of it, must be adopted, of numerous special creations of life at special centres, as of the esquimaux and polar bear in arctic regions, the negro and gorilla in the tropics, and so forth. this theory has been completely given up as regards animals, in favour of the darwinian theory of evolution by natural causes, and no one now believes in a multiplicity of miracles to account for the existence of animal species. is man alone an exception to this universal law, or is he like the rest of creation, a product of what darwinians call "evolution," and enlightened theologians "the original impress"? the existing species of anthropoid apes, the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla, do not differ more widely from one another than do many of the extreme types of the human species. in colour, hair, volume of brain, form of skull, stature, and a hundred other peculiarities, the negro and the european stand further apart than those anthropoids do from one another, and no naturalist from mars or saturn, investigating the human family for the first time, and free from prepossession, would hesitate to class the white, black, yellow, red, and perhaps five or six other varieties, as different species. in the case of these anthropoid apes no one supposes that they were miraculously created in recent times. on the contrary, we find their type already fully developed in the miocene, and we infer, that like the horse, camel, and so many other existing mammals, their origin may be traced step by step backwards to some lower and generalized type in the eocene. who can doubt that physical man, an animal constructed almost exactly on the same anatomical ground-plan as the anthropoids, came into existence by a similar process? the only answer would be, if it could be proved, that his existence on earth had been so short as to make it impossible that so many and so great specific variations as now exist, and some of which have been proved to have existed early in the quaternary period, could have been developed by natural means and by the slow processes of evolution. but this is just where the evidence fails, and is breaking down more and more every year and with every fresh discovery. recent man has given place to quaternary man; post-glacial to inter-glacial and pre-glacial; and now the evidence for the existence of man or of some ancestral form of man, in the tertiary period, has accumulated to such an extent that there are few competent anthropologists who any longer deny it. but with this extension of time the existence of man, instead of being an anomaly and a discord, falls in with the sublime harmony of the universe, of which it is the dominant note. the end. _richard clay & sons, limited, london & bungay._ transcriber's note: the spelling of words in languages other than english, have been left as they appear in the book. minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been harmonized. obvious typos have been corrected. an "illustration" section has been added as an aid to the reader. primitive man. [illustration: a family of the stone age (frontispiece).] primitive man. by louis figuier. revised translation. illustrated with thirty scenes of primitive life, and two hundred and thirty-three figures of objects belonging to pre-historic ages. "arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuerunt. et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami. et flamma atque ignes, postquam sunt cognita primum. posterius ferri vis est ærisque reperta; et prior æris erat quam ferri cognitus usus." _lucretius, de rerum natura, lib. v., v. - ._ london: chapman and hall, , piccadilly. . preface to the english edition. [illustration] the editor of the english translation of 'l'homme primitif,' has not deemed it necessary to reproduce the original preface, in which m. figuier states his purpose in offering a new work on pre-historic archæology to the french public, already acquainted in translation with the works on the subject by sir charles lyell and sir john lubbock. now that the book has taken its position in france, it is only needful to point out its claims to the attention of english readers. the important art of placing scientific knowledge, and especially new discoveries and topics of present controversy, within easy reach of educated readers not versed in their strictly technical details, is one which has for years been carried to remarkable perfection in france, in no small measure through the labours and example of m. figuier himself. the present volume, one of his series, takes up the subject of pre-historic man, beginning with the remotely ancient stages of human life belonging to the drift-beds, bone-caves, and shell-heaps, passing on through the higher levels of the stone age, through the succeeding bronze age, and into those lower ranges of the iron age in which civilisation, raised to a comparatively high development, passes from the hands of the antiquary into those of the historian. the author's object has been to give within the limits of a volume, and dispensing with the fatiguing enumeration of details required in special memoirs, an outline sufficient to afford a reasonable working acquaintance with the facts and arguments of the science to such as cannot pursue it further, and to serve as a starting-ground for those who will follow it up in the more minute researches of nilsson, keller, lartet, christy, lubbock, mortillet, desor, troyon, gastaldi, and others. the value of the work to english archæologists, however, is not merely that of a clear popular manual; pre-historic archæology, worked as it has been in several countries, takes in each its proper local colour, and brings forward its proper local evidence. it is true that much of its material is used as common property by scientific men at large. but, for instance, where an english writer in describing the ancient cave-men would dwell especially on the relics from the caves of devon and somerset as worked by falconer and pengelly, a french writer would take his data more amply from the explorations of caves of the south of france by de vibraye, garrigou, and filhol--where the english teacher would select his specimens from the christy or the blackmore museum, the french teacher would have recourse to the musée de saint-germain. thus far, the english student has in figuier's 'primitive man' not a work simply incorporated from familiar materials, but to a great extent bringing forward evidence not readily accessible, or quite new to him. some corrections and alterations have been made in the english edition. the illustrations are those of the original work; the facsimiles of pre-historic objects have been in great part drawn expressly for it, and contribute to its strictly scientific value; the page illustrations representing scenes of primitive life, which are by another hand, may seem somewhat fanciful, yet, setting aside the raffaelesque idealism of their style, it will be found on examination that they are in the main justified by that soundest evidence, the actual discovery of the objects of which they represent the use. the solid distinctness of this evidence from actual relics of pre-historic life is one of the reasons which have contributed to the extraordinary interest which pre-historic archæology has excited in an age averse to vague speculation, but singularly appreciative of arguments conducted by strict reasoning on facts. the study of this modern science has supplied a fundamental element to the general theory of civilisation, while, as has been the case with geology, its bearing on various points of theological criticism has at once conduced to its active investigation, and drawn to it the most eager popular attention. thus, in bringing forward a new work on 'primitive man,' there is happily no need of insisting on the importance of its subject-matter, or of attempting to force unappreciated knowledge on an unwilling public. it is only necessary to attest its filling an open place in the literature of pre-historic archæology. e. b. t. contents. page introduction the stone age. i. the epoch of extinct species of animals; or, of the great bear and mammoth. chapter i. the earliest men--the type of man in the epoch of animals of extinct species--origin of man--refutation of the theory which derives the human species from the ape chapter ii. man in the condition of savage life during the quaternary epoch--the glacial period, and its ravages on the primitive inhabitants of the globe--man in conflict with the animals of the quaternary epoch--the discovery of fire--the weapons of primitive man--varieties of flint hatchets--manufacture of the earliest pottery--ornamental objects at the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth chapter iii. the man of the great bear and mammoth epoch lived in caverns-- bone caverns in the quaternary rock during the great bear and mammoth epoch--mode of formation of these caverns--their division into several classes--implements of flint, bone, and reindeer-horn, found in these caverns--the burial place at aurignac--its probable age--customs which it reveals--funeral banquets during the great bear and mammoth epoch chapter iv. other caves of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth--type of the human race during the epochs of the great bear and the reindeer--the skulls from the caves of engis and neanderthal ii. epoch of the reindeer; or, of migrated animals. chapter i. mankind during the epoch of the reindeer--their manners and customs--food--garments--weapons, utensils, and implements-- pottery--ornaments--primitive arts--the principal caverns-- type of the human race during the epoch of the reindeer iii. the polished-stone epoch; or, the epoch of tamed animals. chapter i. the european deluge--the dwelling-place of man during the polished-stone epoch--the caves and rock-shelters still used as dwelling-places--principal caves belonging to the polished-stone epoch which have been explored up to the present time--the food of man during this period chapter ii. the _kjoekken-moeddings_ or "_kitchen-middens_" of denmark--mode of life of the men living in denmark during the polished-stone epoch--the domestication of the dog--the art of fishing during the polished-stone epoch--fishing nets--weapons and instruments of war--type of the human race; the borreby skull chapter iii. tombs and mode of interment during the polished-stone epoch-- _tumuli_ and other sepulchral monuments formerly called _celtic_--labours of mm. alexander bertrand and bonstetten-- funeral customs the age of metals. i. the bronze epoch. chapter i. the discovery of metals--various reasons suggested for explaining the origin of bronze in the west--the invention of bronze--a foundry during the bronze epoch--permanent and itinerant foundries existing during the bronze epoch--did the knowledge of metals take its rise in europe owing to the progress of civilisation, or was it a foreign importation? chapter ii. the sources of information at our disposal for reconstructing the history of the bronze epoch--the lacustrine settlements of switzerland--enumeration and classification of them--their mode of construction--workmanship and position of the piles--shape and size of the huts--population--instruments of stone, bone, and stag's horn--pottery--clothing--food--_fauna_--domestic animals chapter iii. lacustrine habitations of upper italy, bavaria, carinthia and carniola, pomerania, france, and england--the _crannoges_ of ireland chapter iv. palustrine habitations or marsh-villages--surveys made by mm. strobel and pigorini of the _terramares_ of tuscany--the _terramares_ of brazil chapter v. weapons, instruments, and utensils contained in the various lacustrine settlements in europe, enabling us to become acquainted with the manners and customs of man during the bronze epoch chapter vi. industrial skill and agriculture during the bronze epoch--the invention of glass--invention of weaving chapter vii. the art of war during the bronze epoch--swords, spears and daggers--the bronze epoch in scandinavia, in the british isles, france, switzerland and italy--did the man of the bronze epoch entertain any religious or superstitious belief? chapter viii. mode of interment and burial-places of the bronze epoch-- characteristics of the human race during the same period ii. the iron epoch. chapter i. essential characteristics of the iron epoch--preparation of iron in pre-historic times--discovery of silver and lead--earthenware made on the potter's wheel--invention of coined money chapter ii. weapons--tools, instruments, utensils, and pottery--the tombs of hallstadt and the plateau of la somma--the lake-settlements of switzerland--human sacrifices--type of man during the iron epoch--commencement of the historic era primitive man in america conclusion list of plates. fig. page a family of the stone age (frontispiece). . human jaw-bone found at moulin-quignon, near abbeville, in . skull of a man belonging to the stone age (the _borreby skull_) . skull of the gorilla . skull of the orang-outang _ib._ . skull of the cynocephalus ape . skull of the _macacus_ baboon _ib._ . the production of fire (whole page engraving). . _dendrites_ or crystallisations found on the surface of wrought flints . section of a gravel quarry at saint-acheul, which contained the wrought flints found by boucher de perthes . hatchet of the _almond-shaped_ type from the valley of the somme . flint hatchet from saint-acheul of the so-called _almond-shaped_ type . wrought flint (_moustier_ type) _ib._ . flint scraper . flint knife, found at menchecourt, near abbeville _ib._ . flint core or nucleus . man in the great bear and mammoth epoch (whole page engraving). . the first potter (whole page engraving). . fossil shells used as ornaments, and found in the gravel at amiens . theoretical section of a vein of clay in the carboniferous limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of valleys by diluvial waters . theoretical section of the same vein of clay converted into a cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of valleys by diluvial waters . the cave of galeinreuth, in bavaria . section of the sepulchral cave at aurignac . flint knife, found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac . implement made of reindeer's or stag's horn, found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac _ib._ . series of perforated discs of the _cardium_ shell, found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac . fragment of the lower jaw of a cave-bear found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac _ib._ . upper molar of a bison found in the ashes of the fire-hearth of the sepulchral cave at aurignac . arrow-head made of reindeer's horn, found in the sepulchral cave of aurignac . bodkin made of roebuck's horn, found in the sepulchral cave of aurignac _ib._ . truncated blade in reindeer's horn bearing two series of transversal lines and notches, probably used for numeration . funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch (whole page engraving). . carved and perforated canine tooth of a young cave-bear . head of a cave-bear found in the cave of aurignac . head of the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_, found in the cave of aurignac _ib._ . head of a great stag (_megaceros hibernicus_), found in the cave of aurignac . sketch of the great bear on a stone, found in the cave of massat . portion of the skull of an individual belonging to the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, found in the cave of engis . portion of the so-called neanderthal skull _ib._ . man of the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . rock-shelter at bruniquel, a supposed habitation of man during the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . a feast during the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . flint bodkin or stiletto for sewing reindeer skins, found in the cave of les eyzies (périgord) . bone needle for sewing _ib._ . the canine tooth of a wolf, bored so as to be used as an ornament . ornament made of the bony part of a horse's ear _ib._ . spear-head, found in the cave of laugerie-basse (périgord) . worked flint from périgord (knife) . worked flint from périgord (hatchet) _ib._ . chipped flint from périgord (knife) . chipped flint from périgord (scraper) _ib._ . small flint saw, found in the rock-shelter at bruniquel . the chase during the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . barbed arrow of reindeer horn . arrow of reindeer horn with double barbs _ib._ . animal bone, pierced by an arrow of reindeer horn . tool made of reindeer horn, found in the cave of laugerie-basse (stiletto?) _ib._ . tool made of reindeer horn, found in the cave of laugerie-basse (needle?) _ib._ . spoon of reindeer horn . knuckle-bone of a reindeer's foot, bored with a hole and used as a whistle . staff of authority, in reindeer's horn, found in the cave of périgord _ib._ . another staff of authority in reindeer's horn _ib._ . a geode, used as a cooking vessel(?), found in the cave of la madelaine (périgord) . earthen vase, found in the cave of furfooz (belgium) . sketch of a mammoth graven on a slab of ivory . hilt of a dagger carved in the shape of a reindeer . representation of a stag drawn on a stag's horn . representation of some large herbivorous animal on a fragment of reindeer's horn _ib._ . arts of drawing and sculpture during the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . representation of an animal sketched on a fragment of reindeer's horn . fragment of a slab of schist bearing the representation of some animal, and found in the cave of les eyzies _ib._ . a kind of harpoon of reindeer's horn carved in the shape of an animal's head . staff of authority, on which are graven representations of a man, two horses, and a fish . skull, found at furfooz by m. Édouard dupont . skull of an old man, found in a _rock-shelter_ at bruniquel . a funeral ceremony during the reindeer epoch (whole page engraving). . man of the polished-stone epoch (whole page engraving). . bone skewers used as fish-hooks . fishing-net with wide meshes . stone weight used for sinking the fishing-nets _ib._ . fishing during the polished-stone epoch (whole page engraving). . flint knife from one of the danish beds . nucleus off which knives are flaked _ib._ . flint hatchet from one of the danish beds _ib._ . flint scraper from one of the danish beds _ib._ . refuse from the manufacture of wrought flints . weight to sink fishing-nets _ib._ . danish axe of the polished-stone epoch . double-edged axe _ib._ . danish axe-hammer drilled for handle . ditto _ib._ . spear-head from denmark . ditto _ib._ . toothed spear-head of flint . flint poniard from denmark _ib._ . type of the danish arrow-head _ib._ . another type of arrow-head _ib._ . arrow-head . arrow-head from denmark _ib._ . flint chisel from denmark _ib._ . small stone saw from the danish deposits . another stone saw from denmark _ib._ . bone harpoon of the stone age, from denmark _ib._ . bone comb from denmark . necklace and various ornaments of amber _ib._ . nucleus in the museum of saint-germain, from the workshop of grand-pressigny . polisher from grand-pressigny, both faces being shown . the earliest manufacture and polishing of flints (whole page engraving). . polisher found by m. leguay . spear-head from spiennes . polished jade hatchet in the museum of saint-germain . polished flint hatchet with a sheath of stag's horn fitted for a handle . flint hatchet fitted into a stag's-horn sheath having an oak handle, from boucher de perthes' illustration . hatchet handle made of oak . stag's-horn sheath open at each end, so as to receive two hatchets _ib._ . polished flint hatchet, from belgium, fitted into a stag's-horn sheath _ib._ . gardening tool made of stag's horn (after boucher de perthes) . ditto _ib._ . ditto . flint tool in a bone handle . flint tool with bone handle _ib._ . ornamented bone handle _ib._ . necklace made of boars' tusks longitudinally divided . flint knife from the peat bogs near antwerp . primitive corn-mill . the art of bread making in the stone age (whole page engraving). . the earliest navigators (whole page engraving). . the earliest regular conflicts between men of the stone age; or, the entrenched camp of furfooz (whole page engraving). . flint arrow-head from civita-nova (italy) . the borreby skull . danish _dolmen_ . _dolmen_ at assies (department of lot) _ib._ . _dolmen_ at connéré (marne) . vertical section of the _dolmen_ of lockmariaker, in brittany. in the museum of saint-germain _ib._ . _tumulus-dolmen_ at gavr'inis (morbihan) . a portion of the _dolmen_ of gavr'inis _ib._ . general form of a covered passage-tomb . passage-tomb at bagneux, near saumur _ib._ . passage-tomb at plauharmel (morbihan) . passage-tomb, the so-called _table de césar_, at lockmariaker (morbihan) _ib._ . a danish _tumulus_ or chambered sepulchre . usual shape of a _menhir_ . the rows of _menhirs_ at carnac _ib._ . _dolmen_ with a circuit of stones (_cromlech_), in the province of constantine . group of danish _cromlechs_ _ib._ . position of skeletons in a swedish tomb of the stone age . a _tumulus_ of the polished stone epoch (whole page engraving). . a founder's workshop during the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . section of the _ténevière_ of hauterive . a swiss lake village of the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . vertical section of a _crannoge_ in the ardakillin lake . vertical section of the _marniera_ of castione . floor of the _marniera_ of castione . plan of the piles and cross-beams in the _marniera_ of castione _ib._ . the chase during the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . stone hatchet from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . stone chisel with stag's-horn handle, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . flint hammer fitted with a stag's-horn handle . stone hatchet with double handle of wood and stag's horn _ib._ , . serpentine hatchet-hammers from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . another hatchet-hammer from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . flint saw fitted into a piece of stag's horn . flint spear-head from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland _ib._ . various shapes of flint arrow-heads from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland _ib._ . arrow-head of bone fixed on the shaft by means of bitumen . stone arrow-head fixed on the shaft by means of bitumen _ib._ . arrow-head fixed on the shaft by a ligature of string _ib._ . bone bodkin, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . ditto _ib._ . carpenter's chisel, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . bone needle _ib._ . pick-axe of stag's horn . harpoon made of stag's horn, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . ditto _ib._ . vessel made of stag's horn _ib._ . bronze winged hatchet, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . winged hatchet (front and side view), from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . socketed hatchet, from the lacustrine habitations _ib._ . knife hatchet (front and side view) from the lacustrine habitations _ib._ . carpenter's chisel, in bronze . hexagonal hammer _ib._ . knife with a tang to fit into a handle, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland _ib._ . socketed knife, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . bronze sickle, found by m. desor at chevroux _ib._ . bronze fish-hook, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . double fish-hook, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland _ib._ . hair-pin, found by m. desor in one of the swiss lakes . ditto _ib._ . hair-pin with cylindrical head _ib._ . hair-pin with curled head _ib._ . bronze bracelet, found in one of the swiss lakes . another bronze bracelet . bronze ring _ib._ . bronze pendant, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . another bronze pendant, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . bronze ring, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland _ib._ . another ornamental ring _ib._ . earthenware vessel with conical bottom, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland . earthen vessel placed on its support _ib._ . fragment of an earthen vessel with a handle . vessel of baked clay, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . ditto _ib._ . cloth of the bronze age, found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . the first weaver (whole page engraving). . spindle-whorls, made of baked clay, found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . principal designs for the ornamentation of pottery during the bronze epoch . the cultivation of gardens during the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . a feast during the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . bronze sword in the museum of neuchâtel . bronze dagger, found in one of the swiss lakes _ib._ . bronze spear-head, found in one of the swiss lakes . bronze arrow-head, found in a lacustrine settlement of switzerland _ib._ . scandinavian sword . hilt of a scandinavian sword _ib._ . mode of fixing the handle to a scandinavian hatchet _ib._ . another mode of fixing the handle to a scandinavian hatchet _ib._ . danish bronze knife of the bronze epoch . ditto _ib._ . blade of a danish razor of the bronze epoch . woollen cloak of the bronze epoch, found in , in a tomb in denmark . woollen shawl, found in the same tomb _ib._ . woollen shirt, taken from the same tomb . first woollen cap, found in the same tomb _ib._ . second woollen cap, found in the same tomb _ib._ . bronze comb, found in the same tomb _ib._ . warriors during the bronze epoch (whole page engraving). . bronze hatchet mould, found in ireland . stone crescent, found in one of the swiss lakes . skull found at meilen, front view . skull found at meilen, profile view _ib._ . primitive furnace for smelting iron (whole page engraving). . bronze coin, from the lake of neuchâtel . sword, from the tombs of hallstadt (with a bronze hilt and iron blade) . ditto _ib._ . dagger, from the tombs of hallstadt (bronze handle and iron blade) . ditto _ib._ . funeral ceremonies during the iron epoch (whole page engraving). . a skeleton, portions of which have been burnt, from the tombs of hallstadt . a necklace with pendants, from the tombs of hallstadt . bracelet, from the tombs of hallstadt . ditto _ib._ . bronze vase, from the tombs of hallstadt _ib._ . bronze vase, from the tombs of hallstadt . warriors of the iron epoch (whole page engraving). , . fore-arm encircled with bracelets, found in the tombs of belleville (savoy) . iron sword, found in one of the swiss lakes . sword with damascened blade, found in one of the swiss lakes _ib._ . sheath of a sword, found in one of the swiss lakes . lance-head, found in one of the swiss lakes . head of a javelin, found in the lacustrine settlement of la tène (neuchâtel) . the chase during the iron epoch (whole page engraving). . square-socketed iron hatchet, found in one of the lakes of switzerland . sickle _ib._ . scythe, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland . iron point of boat-hook, used by the swiss boatmen during the iron epoch _ib._ . horse's bit, found in the lake of neuchâtel _ib._ . _fibula_, or iron brooch, found in the lake of neuchâtel . iron buckle for a sword-belt, found in the lake of neuchâtel . iron pincers, found in the lake of neuchâtel _ib._ . iron spring-scissors, found in the lake of neuchâtel _ib._ . razor . agriculture during the iron epoch (whole page engraving). primitive man. introduction. forty years have scarcely elapsed since scientific men first began to attribute to the human race an antiquity more remote than that which is assigned to them by history and tradition. down to a comparatively recent time, the appearance of primitive man was not dated back beyond a period of to years. this historical chronology was a little unsettled by the researches made among various eastern nations--the chinese, the egyptians, and the indians. the _savants_ who studied these ancient systems of civilisation found themselves unable to limit them to the years of the standard chronology, and extended back for some thousands of years the antiquity of the eastern races. this idea, however, never made its way beyond the narrow circle of oriental scholars, and did nothing towards any alteration in the general opinion, which allowed only years since the creation of the human species. this opinion was confirmed, and, to some extent, rendered sacred by an erroneous interpretation of holy writ. it was thought that the old testament stated that man was created years ago. now, the fact is, nothing of the kind can be found in the book of genesis. it is only the commentators and the compilers of chronological systems who have put forward this date as that of the first appearance of the human race. m. Édouard lartet, who was called, in , to the chair of palæontology in the museum of natural history of paris, reminds us, in the following passage taken from one of his elegant dissertations, that it is the chronologists alone who have propounded this idea, and that they have, in this respect, very wrongly interpreted the statements of the bible: "in _genesis_," says m. lartet, "no date can be found which sets a limit to the time at which primitive mankind may have made its first appearance. chronologists, however, for fifteen centuries have been endeavouring to make biblical facts fall in with the preconcerted arrangements of their systems. thus, we find that more than opinions have been brought forward as to the date of the creation alone, and that, between the varying extremes, there is a difference of years--a difference which only applies to the period between the commencement of the world and the birth of jesus christ. this disagreement turns chiefly on those portions of the interval which are in closest proximity to the creation. "from the moment when it becomes a recognised fact that the origin of mankind is a question independent of all subordination to dogma, this question will assume its proper position as a scientific thesis, and will be accessible to any kind of discussion, and capable, in every point of view, of receiving the solution which best harmonises with the known facts and experimental demonstrations."[ ] thus, we must not assume that the authority of holy writ is in any way questioned by those labours which aim at seeking the real epoch of man's first appearance on the earth. in corroboration of m. lartet's statement, we must call to mind that the catholic church, which has raised to the rank of dogma so many unimportant facts, has never desired to treat in this way the idea that man was created only years ago. there is, therefore, no need for surprise when we learn that certain members of the catholic clergy have devoted themselves with energy to the study of pre-historic man. mgr. meignan, bishop of châlons-sur-marne, is one of the best-informed men in france as respects this new science; he cultivates it with the utmost zeal, and his personal researches have added much to the sum of our knowledge of this question. under the title of 'le monde et l'homme primitif selon la bible,'[ ] the learned bishop of châlons-sur-marne published, in , a voluminous work, in which, taking up the subjects discussed by marcel de serres in his "cosmogonie de moïse, comparée aux faits géologiques,"[ ] and enlarging upon the facts which science has recently acquired as to the subject of primitive man, he seeks to establish the coincidence of all these data with the records of revelation. m. l'abbé lambert has recently published a work on 'l'homme primitif et la bible,'[ ] in which he proves that the discoveries of modern science concerning the antiquity of man are in no way opposed to the records of revelation in the book of moses. lastly, it is a member of the clerical body, m. l'abbé bourgeois, who, more a royalist than the king--that is, more advanced in his views than most contemporary geologists--is in favour of tracing back to the tertiary epoch the earliest date of the existence of man. we shall have to impugn this somewhat exaggerated opinion, which, indeed, we only quote here for the sake of proving that the theological scruples which so long arrested the progress of inquiry with regard to primitive man, have now disappeared, in consequence of the perfect independence of this question in relation to catholic dogma being evidently shown. thanks to the mutual support which has been afforded by the three sister-sciences--geology, palæontology, and archæology,--thanks to the happy combinations which these sciences have presented to the efforts of men animated with an ardent zeal for the investigation of the truth;--and thanks, lastly, to the unbounded interest which attaches to this subject, the result has been that the limits which had been so long attributed to the existence of the human species have been extraordinarily extended, and the date of the first appearance of man has been carried back to the night of the darkest ages. the mind, it may well be said, recoils dismayed when it undertakes the computation of the thousands of years which have elapsed since the creation of man. but, it will naturally be asked, on what grounds do you base this assertion? what evidence do you bring forward, and what are the elements of your proof? in the following paragraphs we give some of the principal means of examination and study which have directed the efforts of _savants_ in this class of investigation, and have enabled them to create a science of the antiquity of the human species. if man existed at any very remote epoch, he must have left traces of his presence in the spots which he inhabited and on the soil which he trod under his feet. however savage his state may be assumed to have been, primitive man must have possessed some implements of fishing and hunting--some weapons wherewith to strike down any prey which was stronger or more agile than himself. all human beings have been in possession of some scrap of clothing; and they have had at their command certain implements more or less rough in their character, be they only a shell in which to draw water or a tool for cleaving wood and constructing some place of shelter, a knife to cut their food, and a lump of stone to break the bones of the animals which served for their nutriment. never has man existed who was not in possession of some kind of defensive weapon. these implements and these weapons have been patiently sought for, and they have also been found. they have been found in certain strata of the earth, the age of which is known by geologists; some of these strata precede and others are subsequent to the cataclysm of the european deluge of the quaternary epoch. the fact has thus been proved that a race of men lived upon the earth at the epoch settled by the geological age of these strata--that is, during the quaternary epoch. when this class of evidence of man's presence--that is, the vestiges of his primitive industry--fails us, a state of things, however, which comparatively seldom occurs, his existence is sometimes revealed by the presence of human bones buried in the earth and preserved through long ages by means of the deposits of calcareous salts which have petrified or rather _fossilised_ them. sometimes, in fact, the remains of human bones have been found in quaternary rocks, which are, consequently, considerably anterior to those of the present geological epoch. this means of proof is, however, more difficult to bring forward than the preceding class of evidence; because human bones are very liable to decay when they are buried at shallow depths, and require for any length of preservation a concurrence of circumstances which is but rarely met with; because also the tribes of primitive man often burnt their dead bodies; and, lastly, because the human race then formed but a very scanty population. another excellent proof, which demonstrates the existence of man at a geological epoch anterior to the present era, is to be deduced from the intermixture of human bones with those of antediluvian animals. it is evident that if we meet with the bones of the mammoth, the cave-bear, the cave-tiger, &c.,--animals which lived only in the quaternary epoch and are now extinct--in conjunction with the bones of man or the relics of his industry, such as weapons, implements, utensils, &c., we can assert with some degree of certainty that our species was contemporaneous with the above-named animals. now this intermixture has often been met with under the ground in caves, or deeply buried in the earth. these form the various kinds of proof which have been made use of to establish the fact of man's presence upon the earth during the quaternary epoch. we will now give a brief recital of the principal investigations which have contributed to the knowledge on which is based the newly-formed science which treats of the practical starting-point of mankind. palæontology, as a science, does not count more than half a century of existence. we scarcely seem, indeed, to have raised more than one corner of the veil which covers the relics of an extinct world; as yet, for instance, we know absolutely nothing of all that sleeps buried in the depths of the earth lying under the basin of the sea. it need not, therefore, afford any great ground for surprise that so long a time elapsed before human bones or the vestiges of the primitive industry of man were discovered in the quaternary rocks. this negative result, however, always constituted the chief objection against the very early origin of our species. the errors and deceptions which were at first encountered tended perhaps to cool down the zeal of the earlier naturalists, and thus retarded the solution of the problem. it is a well-known story about the fossil salamander of the oeningen quarries, which, on the testimony of scheuchzer, was styled in , the "human witness of the deluge" (_homo diluvii testis_). in , peter camper recognised the fact that this pretended _pre-adamite_ was nothing but a reptile; this discomfiture, which was a source of amusement to the whole of scientific europe, was a real injury to the cause of antediluvian man. by the sovereign ascendancy of ridicule, his existence was henceforth relegated to the domain of fable. the first step in advance was, however, taken in . some human bones, mingled with remains of the great bear and other species then unknown, were discovered by j. f. esper, in the celebrated cavern of gailenreuth, in bavaria. even before this date, in the early part of the eighteenth century, kemp, an englishman, had found in london, by the side of elephants' teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been subsequently found in great numbers in various parts of the world. this hatchet was roughly sketched, and the design published in . the original still exists in the collection at the british museum. in , john frere, an english archæologist, discovered at hoxne, in suffolk, under strata of quaternary rocks, some flint weapons, intermingled with bones of animals belonging to extinct species. esper concluded that these weapons and the men who made them were anterior to the formation of the beds in which they were found. according to m. lartet, the honour of having been the first to proclaim the high antiquity of the human species must be attributed to aimé boué, a french geologist residing in germany. in , he found in the quaternary loam (loess) of the valley of the rhine some human bones which he presented to cuvier and brongniart as those of men who lived in the quaternary epoch. in , dr. buckland, the english geologist, published his 'reliquiæ diluvianæ,' a work which was principally devoted to a description of the kirkdale cave, in which the author combined all the facts then known which tended in favour of the co-existence of man and the antediluvian animals. cuvier, too, was not so indisposed as he is generally said to have been, to admit the existence of man in the quaternary epoch. in his work on 'ossements fossiles,' and his 'discours sur les révolutions du globe,' the immortal naturalist discusses the pros and cons with regard to this question, and, notwithstanding the insufficiency of the data which were then forthcoming, he felt warranted in saying:-- "i am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all before the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth.... he might have inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these terrible events, he repeopled the world; perhaps, also, the spots where he abode were swallowed up, and his bones lie buried under the beds of the present seas." the confident appeals which have been made to cuvier's authority against the high antiquity of man are, therefore, not justified by the facts. a second and more decisive step in advance was taken by the discovery of shaped flints and other implements belonging to primitive man, existing in diluvial beds. in , m. tournal, of narbonne, a french archæologist and geologist, published an account of the discoveries which he had made in a cave in the department of aude, in which he found bones of the bison and reindeer fashioned by the hand of man, accompanied by the remains of edible shell-fish, which must have been brought there by men who had made their residence in this cave. three years afterwards, m. de christol, of montpellier, subsequently professor in the university of science of grenoble, found human bones intimately mixed up with remains of the great bear, hyæna, rhinoceros, &c., in the caverns of pondres and souvignargues (hérault). in the last of these caverns fragments of pottery formed a part of the relics. all these striking facts were put together and discussed by marcel de serres, professor in the university of science at montpellier, in his 'essai sur les cavernes.' the two bone-caverns of engis and enghihoul (belgium) have furnished proofs of the same kind. in , schmerling, a learned belgian geologist, discovered in these caverns two human skulls, mixed with the teeth of the rhinoceros, elephant, bear, hyæna, &c. the human bones were rubbed and worn away like those of the animals. the bones of the latter presented, besides, traces of human workmanship. lastly, as if no evidence should be wanting, flints chipped to form knives and arrow-heads were found in the same spot. in connection with his laborious investigations, schmerling published a work which is now much esteemed, and proves that the belgian geologist well merited the title of being the founder of the science of the antiquity of man. in this work schmerling describes and represents a vast quantity of objects which had been discovered in the caverns of belgium, and introduced to notice the human skull which has since become so famous under the name of the _engis skull_. but at that time scientific men of all countries were opposed to this class of ideas, and thus the discoveries of the belgian geologist attracted no more attention than those of his french brethren who had brought forward facts of a similar nature. in , m. joly, at that time professor at the lyceum of montpellier--where i (the author) attended on his course of natural history--now professor in the faculty of sciences at toulouse, found in the cave of nabrigas (lozère) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an arrow had left its evident traces. close by was a fragment of pottery bearing the imprints of the fingers of the man who moulded it. we may well be surprised that, in the face of all these previous discoveries, boucher de perthes, the ardent apostle in proclaiming the high antiquity of our species, should have met with so much opposition and incredulity; or that he should have had to strive against so much indifference, when, beginning with the year , he began to maintain this idea in a series of communications addressed to the société d'emulation of abbeville. the horizontal strata of the quarternary beds, known under the name of _diluvial_, form banks of different shades and material, which place before our eyes in indelible characters the ancient history of our globe. the organic remains which are found in them are those of beings who were witnesses to the diluvial cataclysm, and perhaps preceded it by many ages. "therefore," says the prophet of abbeville, "it is in these ruins of the old world, and in the deposits which have become his sole archives, that we must seek out the traditions of primitive man; and in default of coins and inscriptions we must rely on the rough stones which, in all their imperfection, prove the existence of man no less surely than all the glory of a louvre." strong in this conviction, m. boucher de perthes devoted himself ardently to the search in the diluvial beds, either for the bony relics of man, or, at all events, for the material indications of his primitive industry. in the year he had the honour of submitting to the société d'emulation, at abbeville, his first specimens of the antediluvian hatchet. in the course of the year , boucher de perthes took these hatchets to paris and showed them to several members of the institute. mm. alexandre brongniart, flourens, elie de beaumont, cordier, and jomard, gave at first some encouragement to researches which promised to be so fruitful in results; but this favourable feeling was not destined to last long. these rough specimens of wrought flint, in which boucher de perthes already recognised a kind of hatchet, presented very indistinct traces of chipping, and the angles were blunted; their flattened shape, too, differed from that of the polished hatchets, the only kind that were then known. it was certainly necessary to see with the eyes of faith in order to discern the traces of man's work. "i," says the abbeville archæologist, "had these 'eyes of faith,' but no one shared them with me." he then made up his mind to seek for help in his labour, and trained workmen to dig in the diluvial beds. before long he was able to collect, in the quarternary beds at abbeville, twenty specimens of flint evidently wrought by the hand of man. in , the geological society of london received a communication from mr. godwin austen, who had found in kent's hole various wrought objects, accompanied by animal remains, which must have remained there since the deluge. in , appeared lund's observations on the caverns of brazil. lund explored as many as caves. in one of them, situated not far from the lake of semidouro, he found the bones of no less than thirty individuals of the human species, showing a similar state of decomposition to that of the bones of animals which were along with them. among these animals were an ape, various carnivora, rodents, pachyderms, sloths, &c. from these facts, lund inferred that man must have been contemporaneous with the megatherium, the mylodon, &c., animals which characterised the quarternary epoch. nevertheless, m. desnoyers, librarian of the museum of natural history at paris, in a very learned article on 'grottos and caverns,' published in in the 'dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle,' still energetically expressed himself in opposition to the hypothesis of the high antiquity of man. but the discoveries continued to go on; and, at the present time, m. desnoyers himself figures among the partisans of the antediluvian man. he has even gone beyond their opinions, as he forms one among those who would carry back to the tertiary epoch the earliest date of the appearance of our species. in , m'enery found in kent's hole, a cavern in england, under a layer of stalagmite, the remains of men and antediluvian animals mingled together. the year was also marked by the appearance of the first volume of the 'antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes,' by boucher de perthes; this contained about plates of the objects which had been discovered in the excavations which the author had caused to be made since the year . the strata at abbeville, where boucher de perthes carried out his researches, belong to the quaternary epoch. dr. rigollot, who had been for ten years one of the most decided opponents of the opinions of boucher de perthes, actually himself discovered in some wrought flints in the quaternary deposits at saint acheul, near amiens, and it was not long before he took his stand under the banner of the abbeville archæologist. the _fauna_ of the amiens deposits is similar to that of the abbeville beds. the lower deposits of gravel, in which the wrought flints are met with, have been formed by fresh water, and have not undergone either alteration or disturbance. the flints wrought by the hand of man which have been found in them, have in all probability lain there since the epoch of the formation of these deposits--an epoch a little later than the diluvial period. the number of wrought flints which have been taken out of the abbeville beds is really immense. at menchecourt, in twenty years, about well-characterised hatchets have been collected; at saint gilles twenty very rough, and as many well-made ones; at moulin-quignon to well-formed hatchets. similar relics of primitive industry have been found also in other localities. in , m. noulet discovered some in the infernat valley (haute-garonne); in , the english geologists, messrs. prestwich, falconer, pengelly, &c., also found some in the lower strata of the baumann cavern in the hartz. to the english geologists whose names we have just mentioned must be attributed the merit of having been the first to bring before the scientific world the due value of the labours of boucher de perthes, who had as yet been unsuccessful in obtaining any acceptation of his ideas in france. dr. falconer, vice-president of the geological society in london, visited the department of the somme, in order to study the beds and the objects found in them. after him, messrs. prestwich and evans came three times to abbeville in the year . they all brought back to england a full conviction of the antiquity and intact state of the beds explored, and also of the existence of man before the deluge of the quaternary epoch. in another journey, made in company with messrs. flower, mylne, and godwin austen, messrs. prestwich, falconer, and evans were present at the digging out of human bones and flint hatchets from the quarries of st. acheul. lastly, sir c. lyell visited the spot, and the english geologist, who, up to that time, had opposed the idea of the existence of antediluvian man, was able to say, _veni, vidi, victus fui!_ at the meeting of the british association, at aberdeen, september the th, , sir c. lyell declared himself to be in favour of the existence of quaternary man; and this declaration, made by the president of the geological society of london, added considerable weight to the new ideas. m. hébert, professor of geology at the sorbonne, next took his stand under the same banner. m. albert gaudry, another french geologist, made a statement to the academy of sciences, that he, too, had found flint hatchets, together with the teeth of horses and fossil oxen, in the beds of the parisian _diluvium_. during the same year, m. gosse, the younger, explored the sand-pits of grenelle and the avenue of la mothe-piquet in paris, and obtained from them various flint implements, mingled with the bones of the mammoth, fossil ox, &c. facts of a similar character were established at précy-sur-oise, and in the diluvial deposits at givry. the marquis de vibraye, also, found in the cave of arcy, various human bones, especially a piece of a jaw-bone, mixed with the bones of animals of extinct species. in , m. a. fontan found in the cave of massat (department of ariége), not only utensils testifying to the former presence of man, but also human teeth mixed up with the remains of the great bear (_ursus spelæus_), the fossil hyæna (_hyæna spelæa_), and the cave-lion (_felis spelæa_). in , m. a. milne edwards found in the cave of lourdes (tarn), certain relics of human industry by the side of the bones of fossil animals. the valleys of the oise and the seine have also added their contingent to the supply of antediluvian remains. in the sand-pits in the environs of paris, at grenelle, levallois-perret, and neuilly, several naturalists, including mm. gosse, martin, and reboux, found numerous flint implements, associated, in certain cases, with the bones of the elephant and hippopotamus. in the valley of the oise, at précy, near creil, mm. peigné delacour and robert likewise collected a few hatchets. lastly, a considerable number of french departments, especially those of the north and centre, have been successfully explored. we may mention the departments of pas-de-calais, aisne, loire-et-cher, indre-et-loire, vienne, allier, yonne, saône-et-loire, hérault, tarn-et-garonne, &c. in england, too, discoveries were made of an equally valuable character. the movement which was commenced in france by boucher de perthes, spread in england with remarkable rapidity. in many directions excavations were made which produced excellent results. in the gravel beds which lie near bedford, mr. wyatt met with flints resembling the principal types of those of amiens and abbeville; they were found in company with the remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ox, horse, and deer. similar discoveries were made in suffolk, kent, hertfordshire, hampshire, wiltshire, &c. some time after his return from abbeville, mr. evans, going round the museum of the society of antiquaries in london, found in their rooms some specimens exactly similar to those in the collection of boucher de perthes. on making inquiries as to their origin, he found that they had been obtained from the gravel at hoxne by mr. frere, who had collected them there, together with the bones of extinct animals, all of which he had presented to the museum, after having given a description of them in the 'archæologia' of , with this remark: ... "fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals.... the situation in which these weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period indeed, even beyond that of the present world." thus, even at the commencement of the present century, they were in possession, in england, of proofs of the co-existence of man with the great extinct pachyderms; but, owing to neglect of the subject, scarcely any attention had been paid to them. we now come to the most remarkable and most characteristic discoveries of this class which have ever been made. we allude to the explorations made by m. Édouard lartet, during the year , in the curious pre-historic human burial-place at aurignac (haute-garonne). going down the hill on the road leading from aurignac, after proceeding about a mile, we come to the point where, on the other side of the dale, the ridge of the hill called _fajoles_ rises, not more than feet above a rivulet. we then may notice, on the northern slope of this eminence, an escarpment of the rock, by the side of which there is a kind of niche about six feet deep, the arched opening of it facing towards the north-west. this little cave is situated forty-two feet above the rivulet. below, the calcareous soil slopes down towards the stream. the discovery of this hollow, which is now cleared out, was made entirely by chance. it was hidden by a mass of _débris_ of rock and vegetable-earth which had crumbled down; it had, in fact, only been known as a rabbits' hole. in , an excavating labourer, named bonnemaison, took it into his head one day to thrust his arm into this hole, and out of it he drew forth a large bone. being rather curious to search into the mystery, he made an excavation in the slope below the hole, and, after some hours' labour, came upon a slab of sandstone which closed up an arched opening. behind the slab of stone, he discovered a hollow in which a quantity of human bones were stored up. it was not long before the news of this discovery was spread far and wide. crowds of curious visitors flocked to the spot, and many endeavoured to explain the origin of these human remains, the immense antiquity of which was attested by their excessive fragility. the old inhabitants of the locality took it into their heads to recall to recollection a band of coiners and robbers who, half a century before, had infested the country. this decidedly popular inquest and decision was judged perfectly satisfactory, and everyone agreed in declaring that the cavern which had just been brought to light was nothing but the retreat of these malefactors, who concealed all the traces of their crimes by hiding the bodies of their victims in this cave, which was known to these criminals only. doctor amiel, mayor of aurignac, caused all these bones to be collected together, and they were buried in the parish cemetery. nevertheless, before the re-inhumation was proceeded with, he recorded the fact that the skeletons were those of seventeen individuals of both sexes. in addition to these skeletons, there were also found in the cave a number of little discs, or flat rings, formed of the shell of a species of cockle (_cardium_). flat rings altogether similar to these are not at all unfrequent in the necklaces and other ornanments of assyrian antiquity found in nineveh. eighteen years after this event, that is in , m. Édouard lartet paid a visit to aurignac. all the details of the above-named discovery were related to him. after the long interval which had elapsed, no one, not even the grave-digger himself, could recollect the precise spot where these human remains had been buried in the village cemetery. these precious relics were therefore lost to science. m. lartet resolved, however, to set on foot some excavations in the cave from which they had been taken, and he soon found himself in possession of unhoped-for treasures. the floor of the cavern itself had remained intact, and was covered with a layer of "made ground" mixed with fragments of stone. outside this same cave m. lartet discovered a bed of ashes and charcoal, which, however, did not extend to the interior. this bed was covered with "made ground" of an ossiferous and vegetable character. inside the cave, the ground contained bones of the bear, the fox, the reindeer, the bison, the horse, &c., all intermingled with numerous relics of human industry, such as implements made of stag or reindeer's-horn, carefully pointed at one end and bevelled off at the other--a pierced handle of reindeer's-horn--flint knives and weapons of different kinds; lastly, a canine-tooth of a bear, roughly carved in the shape of a bird's head and pierced with a hole, &c. the excavations, having been carried to a lower level, brought to light the remains of the bear, the wild-cat, the cave-hyæna, the wolf, the mammoth, the horse, the stag, the reindeer, the ox, the rhinoceros, &c., &c. it was, in fact, a complete noah's ark. these bones were all broken lengthwise, and some of them were carbonised. _striæ_ and notches were found on them, which could only have been made by cutting instruments. m. lartet, after long and patient investigations, came to the conclusion that the cave of aurignac was a human burial-place, contemporary with the mammoth, the _rhinocerus tichorhinus_, and other great mammals of the quarternary epoch. the mode in which the long bones were broken shows that they had been cracked with a view of extracting the marrow; and the notches on them prove that the flesh had been cut off them with sharp instruments. the ashes point to the existence of a fire, in which some of these bones had been burnt. men must have resorted to this cavern in order to fulfil certain funereal rites. the weapons and animals' bones must have been deposited there in virtue of some funereal dedication, of which numerous instances are found in druidical or celtic monuments and in gallic tombs. such are the valuable discoveries, and such the new facts which were the result of the investigations made by m. Édouard lartet in the cave of aurignac. in point of fact, they left no doubt whatever as to the co-existence of man with the great antediluvian animals. in , doctor felix garrigou, of tarrascon, a distinguished geologist, published the results of the researches which he, in conjunction with mm. rames and filhol, had made in the caverns of ariége. these explorers found the lower jaw-bones of the great bear, which, with their sharp and projecting canine-tooth, had been employed by man as an offensive weapon, almost in the same way as samson used the jaw-bone of an ass in fighting with the philistines. "it was principally," says m. garrigou, "in the caves of lombrives, lherm, bouicheta, and maz-d'azil that we found the jaw-bones of the great bear and the cave-lion, which were acknowledged to have been wrought by the hand of man, not only by us, but also by the numerous french and english _savants_ who examined them and asked for some of them to place in their collections. the number of these jaw-bones now reaches to more than a hundred. furnished, as they are, with an immense canine-tooth, and carved so as to give greater facility for grasping them, they must have formed, when in a fresh state, formidable weapons in the hands of primitive man.... "these animals belong to species which are now extinct, and if their bones while still in a fresh state (since they were gnawed by hyænas) were used as weapons, man must have been contemporary with them." in the cave of bruniquel (tarn-et-garonne), which was visited in by mm. garrigou and filhol, and other _savants_, there were found, under a very hard osseous _breccia_, an ancient fire-hearth with ashes and charcoal, the broken and calcined bones of ruminants of various extinct species, flint flakes used as knives, facetted nuclei, and both triangular and quadrangular arrow-heads of great distinctness, utensils in stags' horn and bone--in short, everything which could prove the former presence of primitive man. about three-quarters of a mile below the cave there was subsequently found, at a depth of about twenty feet, an osseous _breccia_ similar to the first, and likewise containing broken bones and a series of ancient fire-hearths filled with ashes and objects of antediluvian industry. bones, teeth, and flints were to be collected in bushels. at the commencement of , m. garrigou presented to the geological society of france the objects which had been found in the caves of lherm and bouicheta, and the abbé bourgeois published some remarks on the wrought flints from the _diluvium_ of pont-levoy. this, therefore, was the position of the question in respect to fossil man, when in , the scientific world were made acquainted with the fact of the discovery of a human jaw-bone in the diluvial beds of moulin-quignon, near abbeville. we will relate the circumstances attending this memorable discovery. on the rd of march, , an excavator who was working in the sand-quarries at moulin-quignon brought to boucher de perthes at abbeville, a flint hatchet and a small fragment of bone which he had just picked up. having cleaned off the earthy coat which covered it, boucher de perthes recognised this bone to be a human molar. he immediately visited the spot, and assured himself that the locality where these objects had been found was an argilo-ferruginous vein, impregnated with some colouring matter which appeared to contain organic remains. this layer formed a portion of a _virgin_ bed, as it is called by geologists, that is, without any infiltration or secondary introduction. on the th of march another excavator brought to boucher de perthes a second human tooth, remarking at the same time, "that something resembling a bone was just then to be seen in the sand." boucher de perthes immediately repaired to the spot, and in the presence of mm. dimpré the elder and younger, and several members of the abbeville _société d'emulation_, he personally extracted from the soil the half of a human lower jaw-bone, covered with an earthy crust. a few inches from this, a flint hatchet was discovered, covered with the same black patina as the jaw-bone. the level where it was found was about fifteen feet below the surface of the ground. after this event was duly announced, a considerable number of geologists flocked to abbeville, about the middle of the month of april. the abbé bourgeois, mm. brady-buteux, carpenter, falconer, &c., came one after the other, to verify the locality from which the human jaw-bone had been extracted. all were fully convinced of the intact state of the bed and the high antiquity of the bone which had been found. boucher de perthes also discovered in the same bed of gravel two mammoth's teeth, and a certain number of wrought hatchets. finally, he found among the bones which had been taken from the menchecourt quarries in the early part of april, a fragment of another jaw-bone and six separate teeth, which were recognised by dr. falconer to be also human. the jaw-bone found at moulin-quignon is very well preserved. it is rather small in size, and appears to have belonged to an aged individual of small stature. it does not possess that ferocious aspect which is noticed in the jaw-bones of certain of the existing human races. the obliquity of the molar-tooth may be explained by supposing some accident, for the molar which stood next had fallen out during the lifetime of the individual, leaving a gap which favoured the obliquity of the tooth which remained in the jaw. this peculiarity is found also in several of the human heads in the collection of the museum of natural history in paris. [illustration: fig. .--human jaw-bone found at moulin-quignon, near abbeville, in .] the jaw-bone of the man of moulin-quignon, which is represented here (fig. ) in its natural size, and drawn from the object itself, which is preserved in the anthropological gallery of the museum of natural history of paris, does not show any decided points of difference when compared with those of individuals of existing races. the same conclusion was arrived at as the result of the comparative examination which was made of the jaw-bones found by mm. lartet and de vibraye in the caves of aurignac and arcy; the latter remains were studied by m. quatrefages in conjunction with pruner-bey, formerly physician to the viceroy of egypt, and one of the most distinguished french anthropologists. on the th of april, , m. de quatrefages announced to the institute the discovery which had been made by boucher de perthes, and he presented to the above-named learned body the interesting object itself, which had been sent from abbeville. when the news of this discovery arrived in england it produced no slight sensation. some of the english _savants_ who had more specially devoted their attention to the study of this question, such as messrs. christy, falconer, carpenter, and busk, went over to france, and in conjunction with boucher de perthes and several members of the académie des sciences of paris, examined the exact locality in which the hatchets and the human jaw-bone had been found; they unanimously agreed in recognising the correctness of the conclusions arrived at by the indefatigable geologist of abbeville.[ ] this discovery of the hatchets and the human jaw-bone in the quaternary beds of moulin-quignon completed the demonstration of an idea already supported by an important mass of evidence. setting aside its own special value, this discovery, added to so many others, could not fail to carry conviction into most minds. from this time forth the doctrine of the high antiquity of the human race became an acknowledged idea in the scientific world. before closing our historical sketch, we shall have to ask, what was the precise geological epoch to which we shall have to carry back the date of man's first appearance on this our earth. the beds which are anterior to the present period, the series of which forms the solid crust of our globe, have been divided, as is well known, into five groups, corresponding to the same number of periods of the physical development of the earth. these are in their order of age: the _primitive rocks_, the _transition rocks_, the _secondary rocks_, the _tertiary_ and _quaternary rocks_. each of these epochs must have embraced an immense lapse of time, since it has radically exhausted the generation both of animals and plants which was peculiar to it. some idea may be formed of the extreme slowness with which organic creatures modify their character, when we take into consideration that our contemporary _fauna_, that is to say, the collection of animals of every country which belong to the geological period in which we exist, has undergone little, if any, alteration during the thousands of years that it has been in being. is it possible for us to date the appearance of the human race in those prodigiously-remote epochs which correspond with the primitive, the transition, or the secondary rocks? evidently no! is it possible, indeed, to fix this date in the epoch of the tertiary rocks? some geologists have fancied that they could find traces of the presence of man in these tertiary rocks (the miocene and pliocene). but this is an opinion in which we, at least, cannot make up our minds to agree. in , m. desnoyers found in the upper strata of the tertiary beds (pliocene) at saint-prest, in the department of eure, certain bones belonging to various extinct animal species; among others those of an elephant (_elephas meridionalis_), an animal which did not form a part of the quaternary _fauna_. on most of these bones he ascertained the existence of cuts, or notches, which, in his opinion, must have been produced by flint implements. these indications, according to m. desnoyers, are signs of the existence of man in the tertiary epoch. this opinion, however, sir charles lyell hesitates to accept. moreover, we could hardly depend upon an accident so insignificant as that of a few cuts or notches made upon a bone, in order to establish a fact so important as that of the high antiquity of man. we must also state that it is a matter of question whether the beds which contained these notched bones really belong to the tertiary group. the beds which correspond to the quaternary epoch are, therefore, those in which we find unexceptionable evidence of the existence of man. consequently, in the quaternary epoch which preceded the existing geological period, we must place the date of the first appearance of mankind upon the earth. if the purpose is entertained of discussing, with any degree of certainty, the history of the earliest days of the human race--a subject which as yet is a difficult one--it is requisite that the long interval should be divided into a certain number of periods. the science of primitive man is one so recently entered upon, that those authors who have written upon the point can hardly be said to have properly discussed and agreed upon a rational scheme of classification. we shall, in this work, adopt the classification proposed by m. Édouard lartet, which, too, has been adopted in that portion of the museum of saint-germain which is devoted to pre-historic antiquities. following this course, we shall divide the history of primitive mankind into two great periods: st. the stone age; nd. the metal age. these two principal periods must also be subdivided in the following mode. the "stone age" will embrace three epochs: st. the epoch of extinct animals (or of the great cave-bear and the mammoth). nd. the epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch). rd. the epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished-stone epoch). the "metal age" may also be divided into two periods: st. the bronze epoch; nd. the iron epoch. the following synoptical table will perhaps bring more clearly before the eyes of our readers this mode of classification, which has, at least, the merit of enabling us to make a clear and simple statement of the very incongruous facts which make up the history of primitive man: { st. epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear { and mammoth). the stone age. { nd. epoch of migrated existing animals (or the { reindeer epoch). { rd. epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the { polished-stone epoch). the metal age. { st. the bronze epoch. { nd. the iron epoch. footnotes: [ ] 'nouvelles recherches sur la coexistence de l'homme et des grands mammifères fossiles réputés charactéristiques de la dernière période géologique,' by Éd. lartet, 'annales des sciences naturelles,' th ser. vol. xv. p. . [ ] vol. vo., paris, ; v. palme. [ ] vols. mo., rd edit., paris, ; lagny frères. [ ] pamphlet, vo., paris, ; savy. [ ] it should rather have been said, that the ultimate and well-considered judgment of the english geologists was against the authenticity of the moulin-quignon jaw.--see dr. falconer's 'palæontological memoirs,' vol. ii. p. ; and sir c. lyell's 'antiquity of man,' rd ed. p. . (note to eng. trans.) the stone age. i. the epoch of extinct species of animals; or, of the great bear and mammoth. chapter i. the earliest men--the type of man in the epoch of animals of extinct species--origin of man--refutation of the theory which derives the human species from the ape. man must have lived during the time in which the last representatives of the ancient animal creation--the mammoth, the great bear, the cave-hyæna, the _rhinoceros tichorinus_, &c.--were still in existence. it is this earliest period of man's history which we are now about to enter upon. we have no knowledge of a precise nature with regard to man at the period of his first appearance on the globe. how did he appear upon the earth, and in what spot can we mark out the earliest traces of him? did he first come into being in that part of the world which we now call europe, or is it the fact that he made his way to this quarter of our hemisphere, having first seen the light on the great plateaux of central asia? this latter opinion is the one generally accepted. in the work which will follow the present volume we shall see, when speaking of the various races of man, that the majority of naturalists admit nowadays one common centre of creation for all mankind. man, no doubt, first came into being on the great plateaux of central asia, and thence was distributed over all the various habitable portions of our globe. the action of climate and the influences of the locality which he inhabited have, therefore, determined the formation of the different races--white, black, yellow, and red--which now exist with all their infinite subdivisions. but there is another question which arises, to which it is necessary to give an immediate answer, for it has been and is incessantly agitated with a degree of vehemence which may be explained by the nature of the discussion being of so profoundly personal a character as regards all of us: was man created by god complete in all parts, and is the human type independent of the type of the animals which existed before him? or, on the contrary, are we compelled to admit that man, by insensible transformations, and gradual improvements and developments, is derived from some other animal species, and particularly that of the ape? this latter opinion was maintained at the commencement of the present century by the french naturalist, de lamarck, who laid down his views very plainly in his work entitled 'philosophie zoologique.' the same theory has again been taken up in our own time, and has been developed, with no small supply of facts on which it might appear to be based, by a number of scientific men, among whom we may mention professor carl vogt in switzerland, and professor huxley in england. we strongly repudiate any doctrine of this kind. in endeavouring to establish the fact that man is nothing more than a developed and improved ape, an orang-outang or a gorilla, somewhat elevated in dignity, the arguments are confined to an appeal to anatomical considerations. the skull of the ape is compared with that of primitive man, and certain characteristics of analogy, more or less real, being found to exist between the two bony cases, the conclusion has been arrived at that there has been a gradual blending between the type of the ape and that of man. we may observe, in the first place, that these analogies have been very much exaggerated, and that they fail to stand their ground in the face of a thorough examination of the facts. only look at the skulls which have been found in the tombs belonging to the stone age, the so-called _borreby skull_ for instance--examine the human jaw-bone from moulin-quignon, the meilen skull, &c., and you will be surprised to see that they differ very little in appearance from the skulls of existing man. one would really imagine, from what is said by the partisans of lamarck's theory, that primitive man possessed the projecting jaw of the ape, or at least that of the negro. we are astonished, therefore, when we ascertain that, on the contrary, the skull of the man of the stone age is almost entirely similar in appearance to those of the existing caucasian species. special study is, indeed, required in order to distinguish one from the other. if we place side by side the skull of a man belonging to the stone age, and the skulls of the principal apes of large size, these dissimilarities cannot fail to be obvious. no other elements of comparison, beyond merely looking at them, seem to be requisite to enable us to refute the doctrine of this debased origin of mankind. the figure annexed represents the skull of a man belonging to the stone age, found in denmark; to this skull, which is known by the name of the borreby skull, we shall have to allude again in the course of the present work; fig. represents the skull of a gorilla; fig. that of an orang-outang; fig. that of the _cynocephalus_ ape; fig. that of the _macacus_. place the representation of the skull found in denmark in juxtaposition with these ill-favoured animal masks, and then let the reader draw his own inference, without pre-occupying his mind with the allegations of certain anatomists imbued with contrary ideas. [illustration: fig. .--skull of a man belonging to the stone age (the _borreby skull_).] [illustration: fig. .--skull of the gorilla.] [illustration: fig. .--skull of the orang-outang.] [illustration: fig. .--skull of the cynocephalus ape.] [illustration: fig. .--skull of the _macacus_ baboon.] finding themselves beaten as regards the skulls, the advocates of transmutation next appeal to the bones. with this aim, they exhibit to us certain similarities of arrangement existing between the skeleton of the ape and that of primitive man. such, for instance, is the longitudinal ridge which exists on the thigh-bone, which is as prominent in primitive man as in the ape. such, also, is the fibula, which is very stout in primitive man, just as in the ape, but is rather slender in the man of the present period. when we are fully aware how the form of the skeleton is modified by the kind of life which is led, in men just as in animals, we cannot be astonished at finding that certain organs assume a much higher development in those individuals who put them to frequent and violent use, than in others who leave these same organs in a state of comparative repose. if it be a fact that the man of the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth had a more robust leg, and a more largely developed thigh-bone than most of the races of existing man, the reason simply is, that his savage life, which was spent in the midst of the wild beasts of the forest, compelled him to make violent exertions, which increased the size of these portions of his body. thus it is found that great walkers have a bulky calf, and persons leading a sedentary life have slender legs. these variations in the structure of the skeleton are owing, therefore, to nothing but a difference in the mode of life. why is it, however, that the skeleton is the only point taken into consideration when analogies are sought for between man and any species of animal? if equal investigation were given to other organs, we should arrive at a conclusion which would prove how unreasonable comparisons of this kind are. in fact, if man possesses the osseous structure of the ape, he has also the anatomical structure of many other animals, as far as regards several organs. are not the viscera of the digestive system the same, and are they not organised on the same plan in man as in the carnivorous animals? as the result of this, would you say that man is derived from the tiger, that he is nothing but an improved and developed lion, a cat transmuted into a man? we may, however, just as plausibly draw this inference, unless we content ourselves with devoting our attention to the skeleton alone, which seems, indeed, to be the only part of the individual in which we are to interest ourselves, for what reason we know not. but, in point of fact, this kind of anatomy is pitiable. is there nothing in man but bones? do the skeleton and the viscera make up the entire sum of the human being? what will you say, then, ye blind rhetoricians, about the faculty of intelligence as manifested in the gift of speech? intelligence and speech, these are really the attributes which constitute man; these are the qualities which make him the most complete being in creation, and the most privileged of god's creatures. show me an ape who can speak, and then i will agree with you in recognising it as a fact that man is nothing but an improved ape! show me an ape who can make flint hatchets and arrow-heads, who can light a fire and cook his food, who, in short, can act like an intelligent creature--then, and then only, i am ready to confess that i am nothing more than an orang-outang revised and corrected. it is not, however, our desire to speak of a question which has been the subject of so much controversy as that of the anatomical resemblance between the ape and the man without thoroughly entering into it; we have, indeed, no wish to shun the discussion of the point. on the present occasion, we shall appeal to the opinion of a _savant_ perfectly qualified in such matters; we allude to m. de quatrefages, professor of anthropology in the museum of natural history at paris. m. de quatrefages, in his work entitled 'rapport sur le progrès de l'anthropologie,' published in , has entered rather fully into the question whether man is descended from the ape or not. he has summed up the contents of a multitude of contemporary works on this subject, and has laid down his opinion--the perfect impossibility, in an anatomical point of view, of this strange and repugnant genealogy. the following extract from his work will be sufficient to make our readers acquainted with the ideas of the learned professor of anthropology with regard to the question which we are now considering: "man and apes in general," says m. de quatrefages, "present a most striking contrast--a contrast on which vicq-d'azyr, lawrence, and m. serres have dwelt in detail for some considerable time past. the former is a _walking animal_, who walks upon his hind legs; all apes are _climbing animals_. the whole of the locomotive system in the two groups bears the stamp of these two very different intentions; the two types, in fact, are perfectly distinct. "the very remarkable works of duvernoy on the 'gorilla,' and of mm. gratiolet and alix on the 'chimpanzee,' have fully confirmed this result as regards the anthropomorphous apes--a result very important, from whatever point of view it is looked at, but of still greater value to any one who wishes to apply _logically_ darwin's idea. these recent investigations prove, in fact, that the ape type, however highly it may be developed, loses nothing of its fundamental character, and remains always perfectly distinct from the type of man; the latter, therefore, cannot have taken its rise from the former. "darwin's doctrine, when rationally adapted to the fact of the appearance of man, would lead us to the following results: "we are acquainted with a large number of terms in the simian series. we see it branching out into secondary series all leading up to anthropomorphous apes, which are not members of one and the same family, but corresponding superior _terms_ of three distinct families (gratiolet). in spite of the secondary modifications involved by the developments of the same natural qualities, the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee remain none the less fundamentally mere _apes_ and _climbers_ (duvernoy, gratiolet, and alix). man, consequently, in whom everything shows that he is a _walker_, cannot belong to any one of these series; he can only be the higher term of a distinct series, the other representatives of which have disappeared, or, up to the present time, have evaded our search. man and the anthropomorphous apes are the final terms of two series, which commence to diverge at the very latest as soon as the lowest of the apes appear upon the earth. "this is really the way in which a true disciple of darwin must reason, even if he solely took into account the _external morphological characteristics_ and the _anatomical characteristics_ which are the expression of the former in the adult animal. "will it be said that when the degree of organisation manifested in the anthropomorphous apes had been once arrived at, the organism underwent a new impulse and became adapted for walking? this would be, in fact, adding a fresh hypothesis, and its promoters would not be in a position to appeal to the organised gradation presented by the quadrumanous order as a whole on which stress is laid as leading to the conclusion against which i am contending: they would be completely outside _darwin's theory_, on which these opinions claim to be based. "without going beyond these purely morphological considerations, we may place, side by side, for the sake of comparison, as was done by m. pruner-bey, the most striking general characteristics in man and in the anthropomorphous apes. as the result, we ascertain this general fact--that there exists 'an _inverse order_ of the final term of development in the sensitive and vegetative apparatus, in the systems of locomotion and reproduction' (pruner-bey). "in addition to this, this _inverse order_ is equally exhibited in the series of phenomena of individual development. "m. pruner-bey has shown that this is the case with a portion of the permanent teeth. m. welker, in his curious studies of the sphenoïdal angle of virchow, arrived at a similar result. he demonstrated that the modifications of the base of the skull, that is, of a portion of the skeleton which stands in the most intimate relation to the brain, take place inversely in the man and ape. this angle diminishes from his birth in man, but, on the contrary, in the ape it becomes more and more obtuse, so as sometimes to become entirely extinct. "but there is also another fact which is of a still more important character: it is that this inverse course of development has been ascertained to exist even in the brain itself. this fact, which was pointed out by gratiolet, and dwelt upon by him on various occasions, has never been contested either at the _société d'anthropologie_ or elsewhere, and possesses an importance and significance which may be readily comprehended. "in man and the anthropomorphous ape, _when in an adult state_, there exists in the mode of arrangement of the cerebral folds a certain similarity on which much stress has been laid; but this resemblance has been, to some extent, a source of error, for the result is attained by an _inverse course of action_. in the ape, the temporo-sphenoïdal convolutions, which form the middle lobe, make their appearance, and are completed, before the anterior convolutions which form the frontal lobe. in man, on the contrary, the frontal convolutions are the first to appear, and those of the middle lobe are subsequently developed. "it is evident that when two organised beings follow an inverse course in their growth, the more highly developed of the two cannot have descended from the other by means of evolution. "embryology next adds its evidence to that of anatomy and morphology, to show how much in error they are who have fancied that darwin's ideas would afford them the means of maintaining the simial origin of man. "in the face of all these facts, it may be easily understood that anthropologists, however little in harmony they may sometimes be on other points, are agreed on this, and have equally been led to the conclusion that there is nothing that permits us to look at the brain of the ape as the brain of man smitten with an arrest of development, or, on the other hand, the brain of man as a development of that of the ape (gratiolet); that the study of animal organism in general, and that of the extremities in particular, reveals, in addition to a general plan, certain differences in shape and arrangement which specify two altogether special and distinct adaptations, and are incompatible with the idea of any filiation (gratiolet and alix); that in their course of improvement and development, apes do not tend to become allied to man, and conversely the human type, when in a course of degradation, does not tend to become allied to the ape (bert); finally, that no possible point of transition can exist between man and the ape, unless under the condition of inverting the laws of development (pruner-bey), &c. "what, we may ask, is brought forward by the partisans of the simial origin of man in opposition to these general facts, which here i must confine myself to merely pointing out, and to the multitude of details of which these are only the abstract? "i have done my best to seek out the proofs alleged, but i everywhere meet with nothing but the same kind of argument--exaggerations of morphological similarities which no one denies; inferences drawn from a few exceptional facts which are then generalised upon, or from a few coincidences in which the relations of cause and effect are a matter of supposition; lastly, an appeal to _possibilities_ from which conclusions of a more or less affirmative character are drawn. "we will quote a few instances of this mode of reasoning. " st. the bony portion of the hand of man and of that of certain anthropomorphous apes present marked similarities. would it not therefore have been possible for an almost imperceptible modification to have ultimately led to identity? "mm. gratiolet and alix reply to this in the negative; for the muscular system of the thumb establishes a profound difference, and testifies to an _adaptation_ to very different uses. " nd. it is only in man and the anthropomorphous apes that the articulation of the shoulder is so arranged as to allow of rotatory movements. have we not here an unmistakable resemblance? "the above-named anatomists again reply in the negative; for even if we only take the bones into account, we at once see that the movements could not be the same; but when we come to the muscular system, we find decisive differences again testifying to certain special _adaptations_. "these rejoinders are correct, for when _locomotion_ is the matter in question, it is evident that due consideration must be paid to the muscles, which are the active agents in that function at least as much as the bones, which only serve as points of attachment and are only passive. " rd. in some of the races of man, the arch of the skull, instead of presenting a uniform curve in the transverse direction, bends a little towards the top of the two sides, and rises towards the median line (new caledonians, australians, &c.). it is asked if this is not a preliminary step towards the bony crests which rise in this region in some of the anthropomorphous apes? "again we reply in the negative; for, in the latter, the bony crests arise from the walls of the skull, and do not form any part of the arch. " th. is it not very remarkable that we find the orang to be brachycephalous, just like the malay, whose country it inhabits, and that the gorilla and chimpanzee are dolichocephalous like the negro? is not this fact a reason for our regarding the former animal as the ancestor of the malays, and the latter of the african nations? "even if the facts brought forward were correct, the inference which is drawn from them would be far from satisfactory. but the coincidence which is appealed to does not exist. in point of fact, the orang, which is essentially a native of borneo, lives among the dyaks and not among the malays; now the dyaks are rather dolichocephalous than brachycephalous. with respect to gorillas being dolichocephalous, they cannot at least be so generally; as out of _three_ female specimens of this ape which were examined, two were brachycephalous (pruner-bey). " th. the brains of microcephalous individuals present a mixture of human and simial characteristics, and point to some intermediate conformation, which was normal at some anterior epoch, but at the present time is only realised by an arrest of development and a fact of atavism. "gratiolet's investigations of the brain of the ape, normal man and small-brained individuals, have shown that the similarities pointed out are purely fallacious. people have thought that they could detect them, simply because they have not examined closely enough. in the last named, the human brain is simplified; but this causes no alteration in the _initial plan_, and this plan is not that which is ascertained to exist in the ape. thus gratiolet has expressed an opinion which no one has attempted to controvert: 'the human brain differs the more from that of the ape the less the former is developed, and an arrest of development could only exaggerate this natural difference.... the brains of microcephalous individuals, although often less voluminous and less convoluted than those of the anthropomorphous apes, do not on this account become like the latter.... the idiot, however low he may be reduced, is not a beast; he is nothing but a deteriorated man.' "the laws of the development of the brain in the two types, laws which i mentioned before, explain and justify this language; and the laws of which it is the summary are a formal refutation of the comparison which some have attempted to make between the _contracted human brain_, and the _animal brain, however developed_. " th. the excavations which have been made in intact ancient beds have brought to light skulls of ancient races of man, and these skulls present characteristics which approximate them to the skull of the ape. does not this pithecoïd stamp, which is very striking on the neanderthal skull in particular, argue a transition from one type to another, and consequently _filiation_? "this argument is perhaps the only one which has been brought forward with any degree of precision, and it is often recurred to. is it, on this account, more demonstrative? let the reader judge for himself. "we may, in the first place, remark that sir c. lyell does not venture to pronounce affirmatively as to the high antiquity of the human remains discovered by dr. fuhlrott, and that he looked upon them, at the most, as contemporary with the engis skull, in which the caucasian type of head was reproduced. "let us, however, admit that the neanderthal skull belongs to the remote antiquity to which it has been assigned; what, then, is in reality the significance of this skull? is it actually a link between the head of the man and that of the ape? and does it not find some analogy in comparatively modern races? "many writings have been published on these questions, and, as it appears to me, some light has gradually been thrown upon the subject. there is no doubt that this skull is really remarkable for the enormous size of its superciliary ridges, the length and narrowness of the bony case, the slight elevation of the top of the skull. but these features are found to be much less exceptional than was at first supposed, in default of any means of instituting a just comparison; very far, indeed, from justifying the approximation which some have endeavoured to make, this skull is, in all its characteristics, essentially human. mr. busk, in england, has pointed out the great affinity which is established, by the prominence of the superciliary ridges and the depression of the upper region, between certain danish skulls from borreby and the neanderthal skull. dr. barnard davis has described the still greater similarities existing between this very _fossil_ and a skull in his collection. gratiolet forwarded to the museum the skull of an idiot of the present time, which was almost identical with it in everything, although in slighter proportions, &c. "the following appears to me to be decisive: "in spite of its curious characteristics, the neanderthal skull none the less belonged to an individual, who, to judge by other bones which have been found, diverged but little from the average type of the present germanic races, and by no means approximated to that of the ape. "is it probable, proceeding even on the class of ideas which i am opposing, that in a being in a state of transition between man and the anthropomorphous apes, the body would have become entirely human in its character, whilst the head presented its simial peculiarities? if a fact like this is admitted, does it not render the hypothesis absolutely worthless? "notwithstanding all the discussion to which these curious remains have given rise, it appears to me impossible to look upon them in any other light than as the remains of an individuality, exceptional, no doubt, but clearly belonging to the human species, and, in addition to this, to the celtic race, one of the branches of our aryan stock. m. pruner-bey appears to me to have placed this fact beyond all question by the whole mass of investigations which he has published on this subject. the most convincing proofs are based on the very great similarity which may be noticed in a celtic skull taken from a tumulus in poitou to the skull which has become so well known and, indeed, so celebrated owing to the writings of doctor schaaffhausen. this similarity is not merely external. an internal cast taken from one skull fits perfectly into the interior of the other. it was, therefore, the _brains_ and not merely the _skulls_ which bore a resemblance to one another. the proof appears to me to be complete, and, with the learned author of this work, i feel no hesitation in concluding that the neanderthal skull is one of celtic origin. "after all, neither experience nor observation have as yet furnished us with the slightest data with regard to man at his earliest origin. science, therefore, which pretends to solidity of character, must put this problem on one side till fresh information is obtained. we really approach nearer to the truth when we confess our ignorance than when we attempt to disguise it either to ourselves or others. "with regard to the simial origin of man, it is nothing but pure hypothesis, or rather nothing but a mere _jeu d'esprit_ which everything proves utterly baseless, and in favour of which no solid fact has as yet been appealed to." in dealing with this question in a more general point of view, we must add that the most enlightened science declares to us in unmistakable accents, that species is immutable, and that no animal species can be derived from another; they may change, but all bear witness to an independent creation. this truth, which has been developed at length by m. de quatrefages in his numerous works, is a definitive and scientific judgment which must decide this question as far as regards any unprejudiced minds. chapter ii. man in the condition of savage life during the quaternary epoch--the glacial period, and its ravages on the primitive inhabitants of the globe--man in conflict with the animals of the quaternary epoch--the discovery of fire--the weapons of primitive man--varieties of flint-hatchets--manufacture of the earliest pottery--ornamental objects at the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. after this dissertation, which was necessary to confute the theory which gives such a degrading explanation of our origin, we must contemplate man at the period when he was first placed upon the earth, weak and helpless, in the midst of the inclement and wild nature which surrounded him. however much our pride may suffer by the idea, we must confess that, at the earliest period of his existence, man could have been but little distinguished from the brute. care for his natural wants must have absorbed his whole being; all his efforts must have tended to one sole aim--that of insuring his daily subsistence. at first, his only food must have been fruits and roots; for he had not as yet invented any weapon wherewith to destroy wild animals. if he succeeded in killing any creatures of small size he devoured them in a raw state, and made a covering of their skins to shelter himself against the inclemency of the weather. his pillow was a stone, his roof was the shadow of a wide-spreading tree, or some dark cavern which also served as a refuge against wild beasts. for how many ages did this miserable state last? no one can tell. man is an improvable being, and indefinite progress is the law of his existence. improvement is his supreme attribute; and this it is which gives him the pre-eminence over all the creatures which surround him. but how wavering must have been his first steps in advance, and how many efforts must have been given to the earliest creation of his mind and to the first work of his hands--doubtless some shapeless attempt in which we nowadays, perhaps, should have some difficulty in recognising the work of any intelligent being! towards the commencement of the quaternary epoch, a great natural phenomenon took place in europe. under the influence of numerous and varied causes, which up to the present time have not been fully recognised, a great portion of europe became covered with ice, on the one hand, making its way from the poles down to the most southern latitudes, and, on the other, descending into the plains from the summits of the highest mountain chains. ice and ice-fields assumed a most considerable extension. as all the lower parts of the continent were covered by the sea, there were only a few plateaux which could afford a refuge to man and animals flying from this deadly cold. such was the _glacial period_, which produced the annihilation of so many generations of animals, and must have equally affected man himself, so ill-defended against this universal and sudden winter. man, however, was enabled to resist the attacks of revolted nature. without doubt, in this unhappy period, he must have made but little progress, even if his intellectual development were not completely stopped. at all events, the human species did not perish. the glacial period came to an end, the ice-fields shrank back to their original limits, and nature reassumed its primitive aspect. when the ice had gradually retired into the more northern latitudes, and had become confined to the higher summits, a new generation of animals--another _fauna_, as naturalists call it--made its appearance on the globe. this group of animals, which had newly come into being, differed much from those that had disappeared in the glacial cataclysm. let us cast an inquiring glance on these strange and now extinct creatures. first we have the mammoth (_elephas primigenius_), or the woolly-haired and maned elephant, carcases of which were found, entire and in good preservation, in the ice on the coasts of siberia. next comes the rhinoceros with a complete nasal septum (_rhinoceros tichorhinus_), likewise clad in a warm and soft fur, the nose of which is surmounted with a remarkable pair of horns. then follow several species of the hippopotamus, which come as far north as the rivers of england and russia; a bear of great size inhabiting caverns (_ursus spelæus_), and presenting a projecting forehead and a large-sized skull; the cave lion or tiger (_felis spelæa_), which much surpassed in strength the same animals of the existing species; various kinds of hyænas (_hyæna spelæa_), much stronger than those of our epoch; the bison or aurochs (_biso europæus_), which still exists in poland; the great ox, the urus of the ancients (_bos primigenius_); the gigantic irish elk (_megaceros hibernicus_), the horns of which attained to surprising dimensions. other animals made their appearance at the same epoch, but they are too numerous to mention; among them were some of the rodent family. almost all these species are now extinct, but man certainly existed in the midst of them. the mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros, stag, and hippopotamus were then in the habit of roaming over europe in immense herds, just as some of these animals still do in the interior of africa. these animals must have had their favourite haunts--spots where they assembled together in thousands; or else it would be difficult to account for the countless numbers of bones which are found accumulated at the same spot. before these formidable bands, man could dream of nothing but flight. it was only with some isolated animal that he could dare to engage in a more or less unequal conflict. farther on in our work, we shall see how he began to fabricate some rough weapons, with a view of attacking his mighty enemies. the first important step which man made in the path of progress was the acquisition of fire. in all probability, man came to the knowledge of it by accident, either by meeting with some substance which had been set on fire by lightning or volcanic heat, or by the friction of pieces of wood setting a light to some very inflammable matter. [illustration: fig. .--the production of fire.] in order to obtain fire, man of the quaternary epoch may have employed the same means as those made use of by the american aborigines, at the time when christopher columbus first fell in with them on the shores of the new world--means which savage nations existing at the present day still put in practice. he rubbed two pieces of dry wood one against the other, or turned round and round with great rapidity a stick sharpened to a point, having placed the end of it in a hole made in the trunk of a very dry tree (fig. ). as among the savages of the present day we find certain elementary mechanisms adapted to facilitate the production of fire, it is not impossible that these same means were practised at an early period of the human race. it would take a considerable time to set light to two pieces of dry wood by merely rubbing them against one another; but if a bow be made use of, that is, the chord of an arc fixed firmly on a handle, so as to give a rapid revolution to a cylindrical rod of wood ending in a point which entered into a small hole made in a board, the board may be set on fire in a few minutes. such a mode of obtaining fire may have been made use of by the men who lived in the same epoch with the mammoth and other animals, the species of which are now extinct. the first rudiments of combustion having been obtained, so as to serve, during the daytime, for the purposes of warmth and cooking food, and during the night, for giving light, how was the fire to be kept up? wood from the trees that grew in the district, or from those which were cast up by the currents of the rivers or sea; inflammable mineral oils; resin obtained from coniferous trees; the fat and grease of wild animals; oil extracted from the great cetaceans;--all these substances must have assisted in maintaining combustion, for the purposes both of warmth and light. the only fuel which the esquimaux of the present day have either to warm their huts or light them during the long nights of their gloomy climate, is the oil of the whale and seal, which, burnt in a lamp with a short wick, serves both to cook their food and also to warm and illumine their huts. even, nowadays, in the black forest (duchy of baden), instead of candles, long splinters of very dry beech are sometimes made use of, which are fixed in a horizontal position at one end and lighted at the other. this forms an economical lamp, which is really not to be despised. we have also heard of the very original method which is resorted to by the inhabitants of the faroe isles in the northern seas of europe, in order to warm and light up their huts. this method consists in taking advantage of the fat and greasy condition of the young stormy petrel (mother carey's chicken), so as to convert its body into a regular lamp. all that is necessary is to draw a wick through its body, projecting at the beak, which when lighted causes this really animal candle to throw out an excellent light until the last greasy morsel of the bird is consumed. this bird is also used by the natives of the isles as a natural fuel to keep up their fires and cook other birds. whatever may have been the means which were made use of by primitive man in order to procure fire, either the simple friction of two pieces of wood one against the other, continued for a long time, the _bow_, or merely a stick turning round rapidly by the action of the hand, without any kind of mechanism--it is certain that the acquisition of fire must be classed amongst the most beautiful and valuable discoveries which mankind has made. fire must have put an end to the weariness of the long nights. in the presence of fire, the darkness of the holes and caverns in which man made his first retreat, must have vanished away. with the aid of fire, the most rigorous climates became habitable, and the damp which impregnated the body of man or his rough garments, made of the skin of the bear or some long-haired ruminant, could be evaporated. with fire near them, the danger arising from ferocious beasts must have much diminished; for a general instinct leads wild animals to dread the light and the heat of a fire. buried, as they were, in the midst of forests infested with wild beasts, primitive men might, by means of a fire kept alight during the night, sleep in peace without being disturbed by the attacks of the huge wild beasts which prowled about all round them. fire, too, gave the first starting-point to man's industry. it afforded means to the earliest inhabitants of the earth for felling trees, for procuring charcoal, for hardening wood for the manufacture of their rudimentary implements, and for baking their primitive pottery. thus, as soon as man had at his disposal the means for producing artificial heat, his position began to improve, and the kindly flame of the hearth became the first centre round which the family circle was constituted. ere long man felt the need of strengthening his natural powers against the attacks of wild beasts. at the same time he desired to be able to make his prey some of the more peaceable animals, such as the stag, the smaller kinds of ruminants, and the horse. then it was that he began to manufacture weapons. he had remarked, spread about the surface of the ground, certain flints, with sharp corners and cutting edges. these he gathered up, and by the means of other stones of a rather tougher nature, he broke off from them pieces, which he fashioned roughly in the shape of a hatchet or hammer. he fixed these splinters into split sticks, by way of a handle, and firmly bound them in their places with the tendons of an animal or the strong stalks of some dried plant. with this weapon, he could, if he pleased, strike his prey at a distance. when man had invented the bow and chipped out flint arrow-heads, he was enabled to arrest the progress of the swiftest animal in the midst of his flight. since the time when the investigations with regard to primitive man have been set on foot in all countries, and have been energetically prosecuted, enormous quantities have been found of these chipped flints, arrow-heads, and various stone implements, which archæologists designate by the common denomination of _hatchets_, in default of being able, in some cases, to distinguish the special use for which they had been employed. before going any further, it will be necessary to enter into some details with regard to these flint implements--objects which are altogether characteristic of the earliest ages of civilisation. for a long time past chipped stones of a somewhat similar character have been met with here and there in several countries, sometimes on the surface of, and sometimes buried deeply in, the ground; but no one understood what their significance was. if the common people ever distinguished them from ordinary stones, they attached to them some superstitious belief. sometimes they called them "thunder-stones," because they attributed to them the power of preserving from lightning those who were in possession of them. it was not until the middle of the present century that naturalists and archæologists began to comprehend the full advantage which might be derived from the examination of these chipped stones, in reconstructing the lineaments of the earliest of the human race and in penetrating, up to a certain point, into their manners, customs, and industry. these stone-hatchets and arrow-heads are, therefore, very plentiful in the present day in collections of antiquities and cabinets of natural history. most of these objects which are found in europe are made of flint, and this circumstance may be easily explained. flint must have been preferred as a material, on account both of its hardness and its mode of cleavage, which may be so readily adapted to the will of the workman. one hard blow, skilfully applied, is sufficient to break off, by the mere shock, a sharp-edged flake of a blade-like shape. these sharp-edged blades of silex might serve as knives. certainly they would not last long in use, for they are very easily notched; but primitive men must have been singularly skilful in making them. although the shapes of these stone implements are very varied, they may all be classed under a certain number of prevailing types; and these types are to be found in very different countries. the flint hatchets are at first very simple although irregular in their shape; but they gradually manifest a much larger amount of talent exhibited in their manufacture, and a better judgment is shown in adapting them to the special uses for which they were intended. the progress of the human intellect is written in ineffaceable characters on these tablets of stone, which, defended as they were, by a thick layer of earth, bid defiance to the injuries of time. let us not despise these first and feeble efforts of our primitive forefathers, for they mark the date of the starting-point of manufactures and the arts. if the men of the stone age had not persevered in their efforts, we, their descendants, should never have possessed either our palaces or our masterpieces of painting and sculpture. as boucher de perthes says, "the first man who struck one pebble against another to make some requisite alteration in its form, gave the first blow of the chisel which has resulted in producing the minerva and all the sculpture of the parthenon." archæologists who have devoted their energies to investigating the earliest monuments of human industry, have found it necessary to be on their guard against certain errors, or rather wilful deceptions, which might readily pervert their judgment and deprive their discoveries of all character of authenticity. there is, in fact, a certain class of persons engaged in a deceptive manufacture who have taken a delight in misleading archæologists by fabricating apocryphal flint and stone implements, in which they drive a rather lucrative trade. they assert, without the least scruple, the high antiquity of their productions, which they sell either to inexperienced amateurs, who are pleased to put them in their collections duly labelled and ticketed, or--which is a more serious matter--to workmen who are engaged in making excavations in fossiliferous beds. these workmen hide the fictitious specimens in the soil they are digging, using every requisite precaution so as to have the opportunity of subsequently extracting them and fingering a reward for them from some too trusting naturalist. these imitations are, moreover, so cleverly made, that it sometimes requires well-practised eyes to recognise them; but they may be recognised with some degree of facility by the following characteristics:-- [illustration: fig. .--_dendrites_ or crystallisations found on the surface of wrought flints.] the ancient flints present a glassy surface which singularly contrasts with the dull appearance of the fresh cleavages. they are also for the most part covered with a whitish coating or _patina_, which is nothing but a thin layer of carbonate of lime darkened in colour by the action of time. lastly, many of these flints are ornamented with branching crystallisations, called _dendrites_, which form on their surface very delicate designs of a dark brown; these are owing to the combined action of the oxides of iron and manganese (fig. ). we must add that these flint implements often assume the colour of the soil in which they have been buried for so many centuries; and as mr. prestwich, a learned english geologist, well remarks, this agreement in colour indicates that they have remained a very considerable time in the stratum which contains them. among the stone implements of primitive ages, some are found in a state of perfect preservation, which clearly bears witness to their almost unused state; others, on the contrary, are worn, rounded, and blunted, sometimes because they have done good service in bygone days, and sometimes because they have been many times rolled over and rubbed by diluvial waters, the action of which has produced this result. some, too, are met with which are broken, and nothing of them remains but mere vestiges. in a general way, they are completely covered with a very thick coating which it is necessary to break off before they can be laid open to view. they are especially found under the soil in grottos and caves, on which we shall remark further in some detail, and they are almost always mixed up with the bones of extinct mammalian species. certain districts which are entirely devoid of caves contain, however, considerable deposits of these stone implements. we may mention in this category the alluvial quarternary beds of the valley of the somme, known under the name of drift beds, which were worked by boucher de perthes with an equal amount of perseverance and success. [illustration: fig. .--section of a gravel quarry at saint-acheul, which contained the wrought flints found by boucher de perthes.] this alluvium was composed of a gravelly deposit, which geologists refer to the great inundations which, during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, gave to europe, by hollowing out its valleys, its present vertical outline. the excavations in the sand and gravel near amiens and abbeville, which were directed with so much intelligence by boucher de perthes, have been the means of exhuming thousands of worked flints, affording unquestionable testimony of the existence of man during the quaternary epoch. all these worked flints may be classed under some of the principal types, from which their intended use may be approximately conjectured. one of the types which is most extensively distributed, especially in the drift beds of the valley of the somme, where scarcely any other kind is found, is the _almond-shaped_ type (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--hatchet of the _almond-shaped_ type, from the valley of the somme.] the instruments of this kind are hatchets of an oval shape, more or less elongated, generally flattened on both sides, but sometimes only on one, carefully chipped all over their surface so as to present a cutting edge. the workmen of the somme give them the graphic name of _cats' tongues_. they vary much in size, but are generally about six inches long by three wide, although some are met with which are much larger. the pre-historic gallery in the universal exposition of , contained one found at saint-acheul, and exhibited by m. robert, which measured eleven inches in length by five in width. this remarkable specimen is represented in fig. . [illustration: fig. .--flint hatchet from saint-acheul of the so-called _almond-shaped type_.] another very characteristic form is that which is called the _moustier type_ (fig. ), because they have been found in abundance in the beds in the locality of moustier, which forms a portion of the department of dordogne. this name is applied to the pointed flints which are only wrought on one side, the other face being completely plain. [illustration: fig. .--wrought flint (_moustier type_).] to the same deposit also belongs the flint _scraper_, the sharp edge of which forms the arc of a circle, the opposite side being of some considerable thickness so as to afford a grasp to the hand of the operator. [illustration: fig. .--flint scraper.] some of these instruments (fig. ) are finely toothed all along their sharp edge; they were evidently used for the same purposes as our saws. [illustration: fig. .--flint knife, found at menchecourt, near abbeville.] the third type (fig. ) is that of _knives_. they are thin and narrow tongue-shaped flakes, cleft off from the lump of flint at one blow. when one of the ends is chipped to a point, these knives become scratchers. sometimes these flints are found to be wrought so as to do service as augers. the question is often asked, how these primitive men were able to manufacture their weapons, implements, and utensils, on uniform models, without the help of metallic hammers. this idea has, indeed, been brought forward as an argument against those who contend for the existence of quaternary man. mr. evans, an english geologist, replied most successfully to this objection by a very simple experiment. he took a pebble and fixed it in a wooden handle; having thus manufactured a stone hammer, he made use of it to chip a flint little by little, until he had succeeded in producing an oval hatchet similar to the ancient one which he had before him. the flint-workers who, up to the middle of the present century, prepared gun-flints for the army, were in the habit of splitting the stone into splinters. but they made use of steel hammers to cleave the flint, whilst primitive man had nothing better at his disposal than another and rather harder stone. primitive man must have gone to work in somewhat the following way: they first selected flints, which they brought to the shape of those cores or _nuclei_ which are found in many places in company with finished implements; then, by means of another and harder stone of elongated shape, they cleft flakes off the flint. these flakes were used for making knives, scratchers, spear or arrow-heads, hatchets, tomahawks, scrapers, &c. some amount of skill must have been required to obtain the particular shape that was required; but constant practice in this work exclusively must have rendered this task comparatively easy. [illustration: fig. .--flint core or nucleus.] how, in the next place, were these clipped flints fitted with handles, so as to make hatchets, poniards and knives? some of them were fixed at right angles between the two split ends of a stick: this kind of weapon must have somewhat resembled our present hatchets. others, of an oval shape and circular edge, might have been fastened transversely into a handle, so as to imitate a carpenter's adze. in case of need, merely a forked branch or a piece of split wood might serve as sheath or handle to the flint blade. flints might also have been fixed as double-edged blades by means of holes cut in pieces of wood, to which a handle was afterwards added. these flint flakes might, lastly, be fitted into a handle at one end. the wide-backed knives, which were only sharp on one side, afforded a grasp for the hand without further trouble, and might dispense with a handle. the small flints might also be darted as projectiles by the help of a branch of a tree forming a kind of spring, such as we may see used as a toy by children. the mere description of these stone hatchets, fitted on to pieces of wood, recall to our mind the natural weapons used by some of the american savages, and the tribes which still exist in a state of freedom in the isles of oceania. we allude to the tomahawk, a name which we so often meet with in the accounts of voyages round the world. among those savage nations who have not as yet bent their necks beneath the yoke of civilisation, we might expect to find--and, in fact, we do find--the weapons and utensils which were peculiar to man in primitive ages. a knowledge of the manners and customs of the present australian aborigines has much conduced to the success of the endeavours to reconstruct a similar system of manners and customs in respect to man of the quaternary age. it was with the weapons and implements that we have just described that man, at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, was able to repulse the attacks of the ferocious animals which prowled round his retreat and often assailed him (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--man in the great bear and mammoth epoch.] but the whole life of primitive man was not summed up in defending himself against ferocious beasts, and in attacking them in the chase. beyond the needs which were imposed upon him by conflict and hunting, he felt, besides, the constant necessity of quenching his thirst. water is a thing in constant use by man, whether he be civilised or savage. the fluid nature of water renders it difficult to convey it except by enclosing it in bladders, leathern bottles, hollowed-out stumps of trees, plaited bowls, &c. receptacles of this kind were certain ultimately to become dirty and unfit for the preservation of water; added to this they could not endure the action of fire. it was certainly possible to hollow out stone, so as to serve as a receptacle for water; but any kind of stone which was soft enough to be scooped out, and would retain its tenacity after this operation, is very rarely met with. shells, too, might be used to hold a liquid; but then shells are not to be found in every place. it was, therefore, necessary to resolve the problem--how far it might be possible to make vessels which would be strong, capable of holding water, and able to stand the heat of the fire without breaking or warping. what was required was, in fact, the manufacture of pottery. the potter's art may, perhaps, be traced back to the most remote epochs of man. we have already seen, in the introduction to this work, that, in , m. joly found in the cave of nabrigas (lozère), a skull of the great bear pierced with a stone arrow-head, and that by the side of this skull were also discovered fragments of pottery, on which might still be seen the imprint of the fingers which moulded it. thus, the potter's art may have already been exercised in the earliest period which we can assign to the development of mankind. other causes also might lead us to believe that man, at a very early period of his existence, succeeded in the manufacture of rough pottery. the clay which is used in making all kinds of pottery, from the very lowest kitchen utensil up to the most precious specimens of porcelain, may be said to exist almost everywhere. by softening it and kneading it with water, it may be moulded into vessels of all shapes. by mere exposure to the heat of the sun, these vessels will assume a certain amount of cohesion; for, as tradition tells us, the towers and palaces of ancient nineveh were built entirely with bricks which had been baked in the sun. yet the idea of hardening any clayey paste by means of the action of fire is so very simple, that we are not of opinion that pottery which had merely been baked in the sun was ever made use of to any great extent, even among primitive man. mere chance, or the most casual observation, might have taught our earliest forefathers that a morsel of clay placed near a fire-hearth became hardened and altogether impenetrable to water, that is, that it formed a perfect specimen of pottery. yet the art, though ancient, has not been universally found among mankind. ere long, experience must have taught men certain improvements in the manufacture of pottery. sand was added to the clay, so as to render it less subject to "flying" on its first meeting the heat of the fire; next, dried straw was mixed with the clay in order to give it more coherence. in this way those rough vessels were produced, which were, of course, moulded with the hand, and still bear the imprints of the workman's fingers. they were only half-baked, on account of the slight intensity of heat in the furnace which they were then obliged to make use of, which was nothing more than a wood fire, burning in the open air, on a stone hearth. from these data we give a representation (fig. ) of the _workshop of the earliest potter_. [illustration: fig. .--the first potter.] in the gravel pits in the neighbourhood of amiens we meet with small globular bodies with a hole through the middle, which are, indeed, nothing but fossil shells found in the white chalk (fig. ). it is probable that these stony beads were used to adorn the men contemporary with the diluvial period. the natural holes which existed in them enabled them to be threaded as bracelets or necklaces. this, at least, was the opinion of dr. rigollot; and it was founded on the fact that he had often found small heaps of these delicate little balls collected together in the same spot, as if an inundation had drifted them into the bed of the river without breaking the bond which held them together. [illustration: fig. .--fossil shells used as ornaments, and found in the gravel at amiens.] the necklaces, which men and women had already begun to wear during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, were the first outbreak of the sentiment of adornment, a feeling so natural to the human species. the way in which these necklaces were put together is, however, exactly similar to that which we meet with during the present day among savage tribes--a thread on which a few shells were strung, which was passed round the neck. it has been supposed, from another series of wrought flints, found at saint-acheul by boucher de perthes, that the men of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth may have executed certain rough sketches of art-workmanship, representing either figures or symbols. boucher de perthes has, in fact, found flints which he considered to show representations, with varying degrees of resemblance, of the human head, in profile, three-quarter view, and full face; also of animals, such as the rhinoceros and the mammoth. there are many other flints, evidently wrought by the hand of man, which were found by boucher de perthes in the same quaternary deposits; but it would be a difficult matter to decide their intention or significance. some, perhaps, were religious symbols, emblems of authority, &c. the features which enable us to recognise the work of man in these works of antediluvian art, are the symmetry of shape and the repetition of successive strokes by which the projecting portions are removed, the cutting edges sharpened, or the holes bored out. the natural colour of all the wrought flints we have just been considering, which bring under our notice the weapons and utensils of man in the earliest epoch of his existence, is a grey which assumes every tint, from the brightest to the darkest; but, generally speaking, they are stained and coloured according to the nature of the soil from which they are dug out. argillaceous soils colour them white; ochreous gravels give them a yellowish brown hue. some are white on one side and brown on the other, probably from having lain between two different beds. this _patina_ (to use the established term) is the proof of their long-continued repose in the beds, and is, so to speak, the stamp of their antiquity. chapter iii. the man of the great bear and mammoth epoch lived in caverns--bone caverns in the quaternary rock during the great bear and mammoth epoch--mode of formation of these caverns--their division into several classes--implements of flint, bone, and reindeer-horn found in these caverns--the burial-place at aurignac--its probable age--customs which it reveals--funeral banquets during the great bear and mammoth epoch. having given a description of the weapons and working implements of the men belonging to the great bear and mammoth epoch, we must now proceed to speak of the habitations. caverns hollowed out in the depth of the rocks formed the first dwellings of man. we must, therefore, devote some degree of attention to the simple and wild retreats of our forefathers. as the objects which have been found in these caverns are both numerous and varied in their character, they not only throw a vivid light on the manners and customs of primitive man, but also decisively prove the fact of his being contemporary with mammals of species now extinct, such as the mammoth, the great bear, and the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_. but before proceeding any further, it is necessary to inquire in what way these caverns could have been formed, in which we find accumulated so many relics of the existence of primitive man. m. desnoyers, librarian of the museum of natural history at paris, is of opinion that these caverns are crevices of the same class as metalliferous _lodes_, only instead of containing metallic ores they must have been originally filled by the deposits of certain thermal springs. [illustration: fig. .--theoretical section of a vein of clay in the carboniferous limestone, _before_ the hollowing out of valleys by diluvial waters.] fig. represents, according to m. desnoyers' treatise on _caverns_, one of these primordial veins in the carboniferous limestone. at the time of the diluvial inundation, these veins were opened by the impetuous action of the water. when thus cleared out and brought to the light of day, they assumed the aspect of caves, as represented in fig. . [illustration: fig. .--theoretical section of the same vein of clay converted into a cavern, _after_ the hollowing out of valleys by diluvial waters.] the european diluvial inundation was, as we know, posterior to the glacial epoch. it is also likely that caverns were sometimes produced by the falling in of portions of some of the interior strata, or that they were formerly the natural and subterranean channels of certain watercourses; many instances of this kind being now known in different countries. we must also add that it is not probable that all caverns originated in the same way; but that one or other of the several causes just enumerated must have contributed to their formation. under the general denomination of _caverns_, all kinds of subterranean cavities are comprehended; but it will be as well to introduce several distinctions in this respect. there are, in the first place, simple clefts or crevices, which are only narrow pits deviating but slightly from the vertical. next we have grottos (or _baumes_ as they are called in the south of france), which generally have a widely opening inlet, and are but of small extent. lastly, we must draw a distinction between these and the real bone caverns, which consist of a series of chambers, separated by extremely narrow passages, and are often of very considerable dimensions. some of these caverns occupy an extent of several leagues underground, with variations of level which render their exploration very difficult. they are generally very inaccessible, and it is almost always necessary to ply the pick-axe in order to clear a way from one chamber to another. in most of these grottos and caverns the ground and sides are covered with calcareous deposits, known by the name of _stalactite_ and _stalagmite_, which sometimes meet one another, forming columns and pillars which confer on some of these subterranean halls an elegance replete with a kind of mysterious charm. these deposits are caused by the infiltrated water charged with carbonate of lime, which, oozing drop by drop through the interstices of the rock, slowly discharge the carbonic acid which held the carbonate of lime in solution, and the salts gradually precipitating form the crystalline or amorphous deposits which constitute these natural columns. the calcareous deposits which spread over the ground of the caverns are called _stalagmite_, and the name of _stalactite_ is given to those which hang down from the roof, forming pendants, natural decorations, and ornaments as of alabaster or marble, producing sometimes the most magnificent effects. under the stalagmite the largest number of animal bones have been found. this crust, which has been to them a preservatory grave, is so thick and hard that a pick-axe is required in order to break it. thanks to the protecting cover, the bones have been sheltered from all the various causes of decomposition and destruction. the limestone formed a kind of cement which, uniting clay, mud, sand, flints, bones of men and animals, weapons and utensils into a compact mass, has preserved them for the study and consideration of scientific men in our own days. the soil called _bone-earth_ is, in fact, found under the crystalline bed which covers the ground of the caverns. fig. , which represents a section of the cave of galeinreuth, in bavaria, will enable us clearly to understand the position occupied by the bones in most of these caverns. [illustration: fig. .--the cave of galeinreuth, in bavaria.] bone-earth consists of a reddish or yellowish clay, often mixed with pebbles, which seem to have come from some distant beds, for they cannot be attributed to the adjacent rocks. this stratum varies considerably in depth; in some spots it is very thin, in others it rises almost to the top of the cavern, to a height of forty or fifty feet. but in this case it is, in reality, composed of several strata belonging to different ages, and explorers ought to note with much attention the exact depth of any of the organic remains found in their mass. there are, however, in several bone-caverns certain peculiarities which demand a special explanation. caves often contain large heaps of bones, situated at heights which it would have been absolutely inaccessible to the animals which lived in these places. how, then, was it possible that these bones could have found their way to such an elevated position? it is also a very strange fact, that no cavern has ever produced an entire skeleton or even a whole limb of the skeleton of a man, and scarcely of any animal whatever. the bones, in fact, not only lie in confusion and utter disorder, but, up to the present time, it has been impossible to find all the bones which in times past formed an individual. it must, therefore, be admitted, that the accumulation of bones and human remains in most of the caves are owing to other causes than the residence of man and wild animals in these dark retreats. it is supposed, therefore, that the bones in question were deposited in these hollows by the rushing in of the currents of diluvial water, which had drifted them along in their course. a fact which renders this hypothesis likely is that drift-pebbles are constantly found in close proximity to these bones. now these pebbles come from localities at considerable distances from the cavern; often, indeed, terrestrial and fluviatile shells accompany these bones. it may sometimes be remarked that the femurs and tibias of large mammals have their points rubbed off, and the smallest bones are reduced to rounded fragments. these are all evident indications that these bones had been carried along by rapid currents of water, which swept away everything in their course; or, in other words, by the current of the waters of the deluge which signalised the quaternary epoch. during this period of the existence of primitive man, all these caverns were not applied to the same purpose. some were the dens of wild beasts, others formed the habitations of man, and others again were used as burial-places. there is no difficulty in the idea that dens of wild beasts might very readily be occupied by man, after he had killed or driven out the fierce inhabitants; no discovery, however, has as yet confirmed this supposition. it can hardly be doubted that primitive man seldom dared to take up his abode in dens which had been, for some time, the refuge of any of the formidable carnivora; if he did, it was only after having assured himself that these retreats had been altogether abandoned by their terrible inhabitants. we shall now proceed to consider these three classes of caverns. caves which, during the quaternary epoch, have served as dens for wild animals, are very numerous. experienced _savants_ are enabled to recognise them by various indications. the bones they contain are never fractured; but it may be seen that they have been gnawed by carnivorous animals, as they still bear the marks of their teeth. into these retreats the cave-lion (_felis spelæa_) and the hyæna (_hyæna spelæa_) were accustomed to drag their prey, in order there to tear it to pieces and devour it, or divide it into portions for their young ones. in fact, in these caverns, excrements of the hyæna mixed with small and undigested bones are often found. the cave bear retired into the same retreats, but he probably only came there to pass the period of his hibernal sleep. lastly, the same dens no doubt offered a refuge to sick or dying animals, who resorted thither in order to expire in peace. we have a proof of this in the traces of wounds and caries on some of the bones of animals found by schmerling in the caverns of the meuse; also in the skull of a hyæna, the median ridge of which had been bitten and appeared to be half healed. those caverns which formed a shelter for primitive man are, like the preceding ones, to be recognised by a mere inspection of the bones contained in them. the long bones of the ox, horse, stag, rhinoceros, and other quadrupeds which formed the food of man during the quaternary epoch, are always split; and they are all broken in the same way, that is, lengthwise. the only cause for their having been split in this manner must have been the desire of extracting the marrow for the purpose of eating. such a mode of breaking them would never have been practised by any animal. this apparently trivial circumstance is, however, of the highest importance. in fact, it leads to the following conclusion: "that man, having eaten large mammals of species now extinct, must have been contemporary with these species." we shall now proceed to examine the caverns which were used as burial-places for man. to m. Édouard lartet, the celebrated palæontologist, the honour must be ascribed of having been the first to collect any important data bearing on the fact that caverns were used for burial-places by the primitive man of the great bear and mammoth epoch. we have thus been led to discover the traces of a funeral custom belonging to the man of these remote ages; we allude to the _funeral banquet_. the source of this information was the discovery of a pre-historic burial-place at aurignac (haute-garonne), of which we have given an account in the introduction to this work, which, however, we must again here refer to. near the town of aurignac rises the hill of fajoles, which the inhabitants of the country, in their _patois_, call "_mountagno de las hajoles_" (beech-tree mountain), a circumstance showing that it was formerly covered with beech-trees. as we have already stated, in the introduction to this work, it was on one of the slopes of this hill that, in the year , an excavator, named bonnemaison, discovered a great slab of limestone placed in a vertical position and closing up an arched opening. in the cave closed up by this slab the excavator discovered the remains of seventeen human skeletons! we have already told how these skeletons were removed to the village cemetery, and thus, unfortunately, for ever lost to the researches of science. eighteen years after, in , m. lartet, having heard of the event, repaired to the spot, accompanied by bonnemaison; he quite understood how it had happened that, during a long course of centuries, the cave had escaped the notice of the inhabitants of the country. the entrance to it was concealed by masses of earth which, having been brought down from the top of the hill by the action of the water, had accumulated in front of the entrance, hiding a flat terrace, on which many vestiges of pre-historic times were found. as no disturbance of the ground had taken place in this spot subsequent to the date of the burial, this _talus_ had been sufficient to protect the traces of the men who were contemporary with the mammoth, and to shield their relics from all exterior injury. [illustration: fig. .--section of the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] fig. , taken from m. lartet's article, represents a vertical section of the sepulchral cave at aurignac. after a rapid inspection of the cave and its surroundings, m. lartet resolved to make complete and methodical excavations, aided by intelligent workmen labouring under his superintendence; the following are the results he obtained. a bed of "made ground" two feet thick covered the ground of the cave. in this were found some human remains which had escaped the first investigations; also bones of mammals in good preservation, and exhibiting no fractures or teeth-marks, wrought flints, mostly of the _knife_ type (fig. ), and carved reindeer horns, among which there was an instrument carefully tapered off and rounded, but deprived of its point (fig. ), the other end being bevelled off, probably to receive a handle. [illustration: fig. .--flint knife found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] [illustration: fig. .--implement made of reindeer's or stag's horn, found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] we must here add, that at the time of his discovery bonnemaison collected, from the midst of the bones, eighteen small discs which were pierced in the centre, and doubtless intended to be strung together in a necklace or bracelet. these discs, which were formed of a white compact substance were recognised as sea-shells of a _cardium_ species. [illustration: fig. .--series of perforated discs of the _cardium_ shell found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] the cavern of aurignac was a burial-place of the quaternary epoch, for m. lartet found in it a quantity of the bones of the cave-bear, the bison, the reindeer, the horse, &c. in fig. , we give a representation of a fragment of the lower jaw of a great bear as an example of the state of the bones found in this cavern. [illustration: fig. .--fragment of the lower jaw of a cave-bear, found in the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] the perfect state of preservation of these bones shows that they were neither broken to furnish food for man nor torn by carnivorous animals, particularly by hyænas, as is seen in a great many caverns. we must therefore conclude from this peculiarity, that the stone which closed the entrance to the cave was moved away for every interment and carefully put back into its place immediately afterwards. in order to explain the presence of so many foreign objects by the side of the human skeletons--such as animals' bones--implements of flint and reindeers' horn--necklaces or bracelets--we must admit as probable that a funeral custom existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth epoch, which has been preserved in subsequent ages. they used to place in the tomb, close to the body, the weapons, hunting trophies, and ornaments of all sorts, belonging to the defunct. this custom still exists among many tribes in a more or less savage state. in front of the cave, there was, as we have already said, a kind of flat spot which had afterwards become covered with earth which had fallen down from the top of the hill. when the earth which covered this flat spot was cleared away, they met with another deposit containing bones. this deposit was situated on a prolongation of the ground on which the skeletons were placed in the interior of the cavern. under this deposit, was a bed of ashes and charcoal, to inches thick. this was, therefore, the site of an ancient fire-hearth. in other words, in front of the sepulchral cave there was a kind of terrace upon which, after the interment of the body in the cavern, a feast called the _funeral banquet_ was held. [illustration: fig. .--upper molar of a bison, found in the ashes of the fire-hearth of the sepulchral cave at aurignac.] in this bed, situated in front of the cavern an immense number of the most interesting relics were discovered--a large number of the teeth and broken bones of herbivorous animals (fig. ); a hundred flint knives; two chipped flints, which archæologists believe to be sling projectiles; a rounded pebble with a depression in the middle, which, according to mr. steinhauer, keeper of the ethnographical museum at copenhagen, was used to flake off flint-knives; lastly, a large quantity of implements made of reindeers' horn, which exhibit the most varied shapes. we may mention, for instance, the arrow-heads fashioned very simply, without wings or barbs (fig. ); some of these heads appear to have been subjected to the action of fire, as if they had been left in the body of the animal during the process of cooking; a bodkin made of roebuck's horn (fig. ) very carefully pointed, and in such a good state of preservation that it might still be used, says m. lartet, to perforate the skins of animals before sewing them; and this must, in fact, have been its use; a second instrument, similar to the preceding, but less finely pointed, which m. lartet is inclined to consider as an instrument for tatooing; some thin blades of various sizes, which, according to steinhauer, much resemble the reindeer-horn polishers still used by the laplanders to flatten down the seams of their coarse skin-garments; another blade, accidentally broken at both ends, one of the sides of which is perfectly polished and shows two series of transversal lines at equal distances apart; the lateral edges of this blade are marked with deeper notches at almost regular intervals (fig. ). m. lartet considers that these lines and notches are signs of numeration, and mr. steinhauer has propounded the idea that they are hunting-marks. both hypotheses are possible, and the more so as they do not contradict each other. [illustration: fig. .--arrow-head made of reindeer's horn, found in the sepulchral cave of aurignac.] [illustration: fig. .--bodkin made of roebuck's horn, found in the sepulchral cave of aurignac]. [illustration: fig. .--truncated blade in reindeer's horn, bearing two series of transversal lines and notches, probably used for numeration.] among the bones, some were partly carbonised, others, only scorched, but the greater number had not been subjected at all to the action of fire. all the bones having medullary hollows, and commonly called marrow-bones, were broken lengthwise, a certain indication that this operation had been effected to extract the marrow, and that these bones had been used at a feast carried on according to the manners and customs of that epoch, when the marrow out of animal bones was regarded as the most delicious viand--many men of our own days being also of this opinion. a certain number of these bones exhibited shallow cuts, showing that a sharp instrument had been used to detach the flesh from them. nearly all those which had not been subjected to the action of fire bore the mark of the teeth of some carnivorous animal. this animal, doubtless, came to gnaw them after man had taken his departure from the spot. this carnivorous animal could have been none other than the hyæna, as is shown by the excrements left in the place. the ossiferous mound situated immediately above the fire-hearth contained, like the subjacent ashes, a large number of the bones of certain herbivorous animals. the discovery of the fire-hearth situated in front of the cave of aurignac, and the various remains which were found intermingled underneath it, enable us to form some idea of the way in which funeral ceremonies took place among the men of the great bear epoch. the parents and friends of the defunct accompanied him to his last resting-place; after which, they assembled together to partake of a feast in front of the tomb soon to be closed on his remains. then everyone took his departure, leaving the scene of their banquet free to the hyænas, which came to devour the remains of the meal. this custom of funeral-feasts is, doubtless, very natural, as it has been handed down to our days; though it now chiefly exists among the poorer classes. in accordance with the preceding data we here represent (fig. ) a _funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch_. [illustration: fig. .--funeral feast during the great bear and mammoth epoch.] on a flat space situated in front of the cave destined to receive the body of the defunct, some men covered merely with bears' skins with the hair on them are seated round a fire, taking their part in the funeral-feast. the flesh of the great bear and mammoth forms the _menu_ of these primitive love-feasts. in the distance may be seen the colossal form of the mammoth, which forms the chief dish of the banquet. the manner of eating is that which distinguishes the men of that epoch; they suck the marrow from the long bones which have previously been split lengthwise, and eat the flesh of the animals cooked on the hearth. the dead body is left at the entrance of the cavern; the primitive grave-stone will soon close on it for ever. the relics found in the interior of the sepulchral cave of aurignac have led to a very remarkable inference, which shows how interesting and fertile are the studies which have been made by naturalists on the subject of the antiquity of man. the weapons, the trophies, the ornaments, and the joints of meat, placed by the side of the defunct--does not all this seem to establish the fact that a belief in a future life existed at an extraordinarily remote epoch? what could have been the use of these provisions for travelling, and these instruments of war, if the man who had disappeared from this world was not to live again in another? the great and supreme truth--that the whole being of man does not die with his material body is, therefore, innate in the human heart; since it is met with in the most remote ages, and even existed in the mental consciousness of the man of the stone age. an instinct of art also appears to have manifested itself in the human race at this extremely ancient date. thus, one of the articles picked up in the sepulchral cave of aurignac consisted of a canine tooth of a young cave-bear, perforated so as to allow of its being suspended in some way or other. now this tooth is so carved that no one can help recognising in it a rough outline of some animal shape, the precise nature of which is difficult to determine, although it may, perhaps, be the head of a bird. it was, doubtless, an amulet or jewel belonging to one of the men interred in the cave, and was buried with him because he probably attached a great value to it. this object, therefore, shows us that some instincts of art existed in the men who hunted the great bear and mammoth. [illustration: fig. .--carved and perforated canine tooth of a young cave-bear.] we shall close this account of the valuable discoveries which were made in the sepulchral cave of aurignac, by giving a list of the species of mammals the bones of which were found either in the interior or at the exterior of this cavern. the first six species are extinct; the others are still living:-- the great cave-bear (_ursus spelæus_); the mammoth (_elephas primigenius_); the rhinoceros (_rhinoceros tichorhinus_); the great cave-lion (_felis spelæa_); the cave-hyæna (_hyæna spelæa_); the gigantic stag (_megaceros hibernicus_); the bison, the reindeer, the stag, the horse, the ass, the roe, the wild boar, the fox, the wolf, the wild-cat, the badger, and the polecat. we think it as well to place before the eyes of our readers the exact forms of the heads of the three great fossil animals found in the cave of aurignac, which geologically characterise the great bear and mammoth epoch, and evidently prove that man was contemporary with these extinct species. figs. , , and represent the heads of the cave-bear, the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_, and the _megaceros_ or gigantic stag; they are taken from the casts which adorn the great hall of the archæological and pre-historic museum at saint-germain, and are among the most curious ornaments of this remarkable museum. [illustration: fig. .--head of a cave-bear found in the cave of aurignac.] [illustration: fig. .--head of the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_ found in the cave of aurignac.] [illustration: fig. .--head of a great stag (_megaceros hibernicus_) found in the cave of aurignac.] of all these species, the fox has left behind him the largest number of remains. this carnivorous animal was represented by about eighteen to twenty individual specimens. neither the mammoth, great cave-lion, nor wild boar appear to have been conveyed into the cave in an entire state; for two or three molar or incisive teeth are the only remains of their carcases which have been found. but still it is a certain fact that the men who fed on the _rhinoceros tichorinus_ buried their dead in this cavern. in fact, m. lartet asserts that the bones of the rhinoceros had been split by man in order to extract the marrow. they had also been gnawed by hyænas, which would not have been the case if these bones had not been thrown away, and left on the ground in a fresh state. the burial-place of aurignac dates back to the earliest antiquity, that is to say, it was anterior to the european diluvial period. thus, according to m. lartet, the great cave-bear was the first of the extinct species to disappear; then the mammoth and _rhinoceros tichorhinus_ were lost sight of; still later, the reindeer first, and then the bison, migrated to the northern and eastern regions of europe. now, the _diluvium_, that is to say, the beds formed by drifted pebbles and originating in the great derangement caused by the inundation of the quaternary epoch, does not contain any traces of the bones of the cave-bear. it, therefore, belongs to an epoch of the stone age more recent than the cave of aurignac.[ ] all this goes to prove that this sepulchral cave, which has furnished the science of the antiquity of man with so much valuable information, belonged to the great bear and mammoth epoch, which preceded the diluvial cataclysm. footnote: [ ] 'nouvelles recherches sur la coexistence de l'homme et des grands mammifères fossiles.' ('annales de sciences naturelles, zoologie,' vol. xv.) chapter iv. other caves of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth--type of the human race during the epochs of the great bear and the reindeer--the skulls from the caves of engis and neanderthal. with regard to the bone-caves, which have furnished us with such valuable information as to the men who lived in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, we have laid down a necessary distinction, dividing them into caves which served as dens for wild beasts, those which have afforded a refuge for man, and those which were used as his burial-places. in order to complete this subject and set forth the whole of the discoveries which have been made by science on this interesting point, we will say a few words as to the principal bone-caves belonging to the same epoch which have been studied in france, england and belgium. we will, in the first place, call attention to the fact that these caverns, taken together, embrace a very long period of time, perhaps an enormous number of centuries, and that hence a considerable difference must result in the nature of the remains of human industry which they contain. some certainly manifest a perceptible superiority over others in an industrial point of view; but the reason is that they belong to a period somewhat nearer our own, although still forming a part of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. we shall divide the caves in france into three groups--those of the east, those of the west and centre, and those of the south. in the first group, we shall mention the _trou de la fontaine_ and the _cave of sainte-reine_, both situated in the environs of toul (meurthe). these two caves have furnished bones of bears, hyænas, and the rhinoceros, along with the products of human industry. that of sainte-reine has been explored by m. guérin, and especially by m. husson, who has searched it with much care. the second group includes the grottos _des fées_, of vergisson, vallières, and la chaise. the grotte des fées, at arcy (yonne), has been searched and described by m. de vibraye, who ascertained the existence of two distinct beds, the upper one belonging to the reindeer epoch, the lower one to the great bear epoch. these two beds were divided from each other by matter which had formed a part of the roof of the cave, and had fallen down on the earlier deposit. in the more ancient bed of the two, m. de vibraye collected fractured bones of the bear and cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_, all intermingled with flints wrought by the hand of man, amongst which were chips of hyaline quartz (rock-crystal.) his fellow-labourer, m. franchet, extracted from it a human _atlas_ (the upper part of the vertebral column). the cave of vergisson (saône-et-loire), explored by m. de ferry, furnished the same kind of bones as the preceding cave, and also bones of the bison, the reindeer, the horse, the wolf, and the fox, all intermixed with wrought flints and fragments of rough pottery. the presence of this pottery indicated that the cave of vergisson belonged to the latter period of the great bear epoch. the cave of vallières (loir-et-cher), was worked, first by m. de vibraye, and subsequently by the abbé bourgeois. there was nothing particular to be remarked. the cave of la chaise, near vouthon (charente), explored by mm. bourgeois and delaunay, furnished bones of the cave-bear, the rhinoceros, and the reindeer, flint blades and scrapers, a bodkin and a kind of hook made of bone, an arrow-head in the shape of a willow-leaf likewise of bone, a bone perforated so as to hang on a string, and, what is more remarkable, two long rods of reindeer's horn, tapering at one end and bevelled off at the other, on which figures of animals were graven. these relics betray an artistic feeling of a decided character as existing in the men, the traces of whom are found in this cave. among the caves in the south of france, we must specify those of périgord, those of bas-languedoc, and of the district of foix (department of ariége). the caves of périgord have all been explored by mm. lartet and christy, who have also given learned descriptions of them. we will mention the caves of the _gorge d'enfer_ and _moustier_, in the valley of the vézère, and that of _pey de l'azé_, all three situate in the department of dordogne (arrondissement of sarlat). the two caves of the _gorge d'enfer_ were, unfortunately, cleared out in , in order to utilise the deposits of saltpetre which they contained in the manufacture of gunpowder. they have, however, furnished flints chipped into the shapes of scrapers, daggers, &c., a small pebble of white quartz, hollowed out on one side, which had probably been used as a mortar, and instruments of bone or reindeer's horn, three of which showed numerous notches. bones of the great bear clearly indicated the age of these settlements. the cave of moustier, situated about feet above the vézère, is celebrated for the great number and characteristic shapes of its stone implements, which we have before spoken of. hatchets of the almond-shaped type, like those of the _diluvium_ of abbeville and saint-acheul, were very plentiful. bi-convex spear-heads were also found, of very careful workmanship, and instruments which might be held in the hand, some of them of considerable dimensions; but no pieces of bone or of reindeer's horn were discovered which had been adapted to any purpose whatever. the bones were those of the great bear and cave-hyæna, accompanied by separate _laminæ_ of molars of the mammoth, the use of which it is impossible to explain. similar fragments were met with in some of the other périgord settlements, and m. lartet also found some at aurignac. next to the cave of pey de l'azé, on which we shall not dwell, come the caverns of bas-languedoc, which we shall only enumerate. they consist of the caves of pondres and souvignargues (hérault), which were studied in by m. de christol, who recognised, from the data he derived from them, the co-existence of man and the great extinct mammals; also those of pontil and la roque, the first explored by m. paul gervais, the second by m. boutin. we shall now consider the caves of the department of ariége, some of which furnish objects of very considerable interest. they consist of the caves of _massat_, _lherm_, and _bouicheta_. two caves, very remarkable on account of their extent, have been explored by m. fontan; they are situate in the valley of massat, which contains others of less importance. one is placed at the foot of a limestone mountain, about feet above the bottom of the valley; the opening of the other is much higher up; only the latter belongs to the great bear epoch. from the results of his explorations, m. fontan is of opinion that the ground in them has been greatly altered by some violent inundation which has intermingled the remains of various geological epochs. this _savant_ found in the cave of massat the bones of the bear, the hyæna and the great cave-lion, the fox, the badger, the wild boar, the roe, &c., two human teeth, and a bone arrow-head. two beds of ashes and charcoal were also remarked at different depths. in the upper cave of massat was found the curious stone on which is designed with tolerable correctness a sketch of the great cave-bear (fig. ). this singular record marks out for us the earliest trace of the art of design, which we shall find developing itself in a more decisive way during the pre-historic period which follows the one we are now considering. [illustration: fig. .--sketch of the great bear on a stone found in the cave of massat.] the caves of lherm and bouicheta were inspected by mm. garrigou and filhol, who found in them bones of most of the great mammals belonging to extinct species, and particularly those of the great bear, many of which are broken, and still show the marks of the instruments which were used for cutting the flesh off them. some have been gnawed by hyænas, as proved by the deep grooves with which they are marked. lower jaw-bones of the great bear, and of the great cave-lion, have been found fashioned, according to a uniform plan, in the shape of hoes. mm. garrigou and filhol were of opinion that these jaw-bones, when thus modified, might have been used as offensive weapons. the cave of lherm contained also human bones; namely, three teeth, a fragment of a _scapula_, a broken _ulna_ and _radius_, and the last joint of the great toe; all these remains presented exactly the same appearance and condition as those of the _ursus spelæus_, and must, therefore, have belonged to the same epoch. we have stated that numerous caves have been explored in england, belgium, and several other countries. we shall not undertake to give with regard to each details which would only be a reproduction of those which precede. we therefore confine ourselves to mentioning the most celebrated of the caverns belonging to the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. in england we have the kent's hole and brixham caverns, near torquay in devonshire, the latter of which is many hundred yards in extent; the caves of the gower peninsula, in glamorganshire (south wales), which have been carefully studied within the last few years by messrs. falconer and wood; in these were found flint instruments along with bones of the _elephas antiquus_ and the _rhinoceros hemitæchus_, species which were still more ancient than the mammoth and the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_; those of kirkdale, in yorkshire, explored by dr. buckland, the geologist; those near wells in somersetshire, wokey hole, minchin hole, &c. we must mention, in the north of italy, the caves of chiampo and laglio, on the edge of the lake of como, in which, just as at vergisson, fragments of rough pottery have been discovered, indicating some degree of progress in the manufacture; also the caves in the neighbourhood of palermo, and especially those of san ciro and macagnone. in the last-mentioned cave, in the midst of an osseous _breccia_ which rose to the roof, dr. falconer collected flint instruments, splinters of bone, pieces of baked clay and wood charcoal mixed up with large land-shells (_helix vermiculata_), in a perfect state of preservation, horses' teeth, and the excrements of the hyæna, all cemented together in a deposit of carbonate of lime. in a lower bed were found the bones of various species of the hippopotamus, the _elephas antiquus_, and other great mammals. lastly, spain, algeria, egypt, and syria also present to our notice caves belonging to the stone age. in the new world various bone-caverns have been explored. we must especially mention brazil, in which country lund searched no less than eight hundred caves of different epochs, exhuming in them a great number of unknown animal species. in one of these caves, situated near the lake of sumidouro, lund found some human bones which had formed a part of thirty individuals of different ages, and were "in a similar state of decomposition, and in similar circumstances to the bones of various extinct species of animals." thus far we have designedly omitted to mention the belgian caves. they have, in fact, furnished us with such remarkable relics of former ages that, in dealing with them, we could not confine ourselves to a mere notice. the caves in the neighbourhood of liége, which were explored in by schmerling, deserve to be described in some detail. schmerling examined more than forty caves in the valley of the meuse and its tributaries. the access to some of these caves was so difficult that in order to reach them it was necessary for the explorer to let himself down by a cord, and then to crawl flat on his face through narrow galleries, so as to make his way into the great chambers; there he was obliged to remain for hours, and sometimes whole days, standing up to his knees in mud, with water dripping from the walls upon his head, while overlooking the workmen breaking up with their pick-axes the layer of stalagmite, so as to bring to light the bone earth--the records on which are inscribed the palpable evidences of the high antiquity of man. schmerling was compelled to accomplish a perilous expedition of this kind in his visit to the cave of engis, which has become celebrated by the two human skulls found there by him. nearly all the caves in the province of liége contain scattered bones of the great bear, the cave-hyæna, the mammoth, and the rhinoceros, intermixed with those of species which are still living, such as the wolf, the wild boar, the roe, the beaver, the porcupine, &c. several of them contained human bones, likewise much scattered and rubbed; they were found in all positions, and at every elevation, sometimes above and sometimes below the above-mentioned animal remains; from this it may be concluded that these caves had been filled with running water, which drifted in all kinds of _débris_. none of them, however, contained any gnawed bones, or the fossil excrement of any animal species, which puts an end to the hypothesis that these caves had been used as dens by wild beasts. here and there bones were found belonging to the same skeleton, which were in perfect preservation, and lying in their natural juxtaposition; they were probably drifted into the cave by gently flowing water, while still covered with their flesh, and no movement of the ground had since separated them. but no complete skeleton has as yet been discovered, even among the smaller species of mammiferous animals, the disjunction of which is generally less complete. in almost all the caves schmerling met with flint implements chipped into the form of hatchets and knives, and he calls attention to the fact "that none of them could have been introduced into the caves at a posterior epoch, as they were found in the same position as the animal remains which accompanied them." in the cave of clokier, about two and a half miles from liége, he picked up a polished bone in the shape of a needle, having an eye pierced at the base; in the cave of engis he likewise found a carved bone, and also some worked flints. we here close our enumeration of the various sources of the archæological records which have served to reconstruct the history of primitive man during that period of the stone age which we have designated under the name of the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. before concluding our remarks as to this period, there is one question which we must enter upon, although there is a great deficiency in any positive records by which it might be solved. what was the organic type of man during this epoch? could we, for instance, determine what amount of intellect man possessed in this earliest and ancient date of his history? the answer to this question--although a very uncertain answer--has been supposed to have been found in the caves of engis and engihoul, of which we have just spoken as having been explored by schmerling with such valuable results. the cave of engis contained the remains of three human beings, among which were two skulls, one that of a youth, the other that of an adult. the latter only was preserved, the former having fallen into dust while it was being extracted from the ground. two small fragments of a human skull were likewise found at engihoul; also a great many of the bones of the hands and feet of three individuals. the engis skull has been a subject of protracted argument to the palæontologists and anatomists of the present day. floods of ink have been spilt upon the question; discussions without end have taken place with respect to this piece of bone, in order to fix accurately the amount of intellect possessed by the inhabitants of belgium during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. up to a certain point the development of the brain may, in fact, be ascertained from the shape of the cranial envelope, and it is well known that a remarkable similarity exists between the cerebral capacity and the intellectual development of all mammiferous animals. but in a question of this kind we must carefully avoid a quicksand on which anthropologists too often make shipwreck; this danger consists in basing a theory on a too limited number of elements, and of generalising conclusions which are perhaps drawn from one special case. because we find a portion of a skull--not even a whole skull--belonging to a human being contemporary with the great bear, we assume that we can determine the amount of intellect possessed by man during this epoch. but what proof have we that this skull is not that of an idiot, or, on the contrary, the skull of an individual possessing a superior degree of intelligence? what deduction can be logically drawn from the examination of one single skull? none whatever! "_testis unus testis nullus_;" and what is said by jurisprudence, which is nothing but good sense in legal matters--science, which is nothing but good sense in learned questions, ought likewise to repeat. if we found ten or twelve skulls, each presenting the same characteristics, we should be justified in thinking that we had before our eyes the human type corresponding to the epoch we are considering; but, we again ask, what arguments could be based on a few fragments of one single skull? these reservations having been laid down, let us see what some of our great anatomical reasoners have thought about the engis skull. the representation which we here give (fig. ) of the engis skull was taken from the cast in the museum of saint-germain, and we may perceive from it that the skull is not complete; the entire base of the skull is wanting, and all the bones of the face have disappeared. consequently it is impossible either to measure the facial angle or to take account of the development of the lower jaw. [illustration: fig. .--portion of a skull of an individual belonging to the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, found in the cave of engis.] we shall not, therefore, surprise any of our readers when we state that the opinions on this subject differ in the most extraordinary degree. in the eyes of professor huxley, the english anatomist, this skull offers no indication of degradation; it presents "a good average," and it might just as well be the head of a philosopher as the head of an uncivilised savage. to others--for instance, to carl vogt--it indicates an altogether rudimentary degree of intellect. thus hippocrates-huxley says _yes_, galen-vogt says _no_, and celsus-lyell says neither _yes_ nor _no_. this causes us but little surprise, but it induces us not to waste more time in discussing a question altogether in the dark, that is, upon altogether incomplete data. [illustration: fig. .--portion of the so-called neanderthal skull.] we will now turn our attention to another skull, equally celebrated, which was found in by dr. fuhlrott, near dusseldorf, in a deep ravine known by the name of neanderthal. this skull (fig. ) was discovered in the midst of a small cave under a layer of mud about feet in thickness. the entire skeleton was doubtless buried on the same spot, but the workmen engaged in clearing out the cave must have inadvertently scattered a great portion of the bones, for the largest only could be collected. it is well to call attention to the fact that no animal remains were found near these bones; there is, therefore, no certain proof that the latter can be assigned to the epoch of the great bear: they might, in fact, be either more recent or more modern. most geologists are, however, of opinion that they ought to be referred to the above-named early date. the neanderthal skull, of which we possess even a smaller portion than of the preceding, differs from the engis skull. it is characterised by an extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses; that is, by an enormous projection of the superciliary ridges, behind which the frontal bone presents a considerable depression. the cranium is very thick, and of an elongated elliptical shape; the forehead is narrow and low. these remarks were made by professor schaaffhausen, who also established the fact of the identity in length of the femur, the humerus, the radius, and the ulna, with the same bones of a modern european of equal size. but the prussian _savant_ was surprised at the really remarkable thickness of these bones, and also at the large development of the projections and depressions which served for the insertion of the muscles. fig. represents this skull, which is drawn from the cast in the museum of st. germain. professor schaaffhausen's opinion with regard to this skull is, that it manifests a degree of intelligence more limited than that of the races of negroes who are least favoured by nature, in other words, it approaches the nature of the beast more nearly than any other known human skull. but, on the other hand, mr. busk and dr. barnard davis look upon this skull as very closely allied to the present race of men; and professor gratiolet produced before the anthropological society of paris an idiot's head of the present day, which showed all the osteological characteristics peculiar to the neanderthal skull. lastly, an anthropologist of great authority, dr. pruner-bey, has brought forward all requisite evidence to prove that the neanderthal skull is identical, in all its parts, with the cranium of the celt. we see, therefore, that the opinion propounded by dr. schaaffhausen at the commencement of his studies was not able to stand its ground before the opposition resulting from subsequent labours on the point; and that this head of a man belonging to the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, which he regarded as manifesting the most limited amount of intelligence, differed in no way from the heads belonging to celts of historic times, whose moral qualities and manly courage make frenchmen proud to call themselves their descendants. we need scarcely add that the examination of this latter skull, which dated back to the first origin of mankind, is sufficient to set at naught all that has been written as to the pretended analogy of structure existing between primitive man and the ape, and to wipe out for ever from scientific phraseology the improper and unhappy term _fossil man_, which has not only been the cause of so many lamentable misunderstandings, but has also too long arrested the formation and the progress of the science of the first starting-point of man. other remains of human skulls, appearing to date back to a very ancient epoch, have been found in various countries, since the discovery of those above-named. we will mention, a jaw-bone found by m. Édouard dupont in the cave of naulette, near dinant, in belgium--a frontal and parietal bone, extracted from the _lehm_ in the valley of the rhine, at eggisheim near colmar, by dr. faudel--a skull found by professor bocchi, of florence, in the olmo pass, near arezzo--lastly, the celebrated jaw-bone from moulin-quignon, near abbeville, found in by boucher de perthes, in the _diluvium_, of which bone we have given an illustration in the introduction to this volume. it is acknowledged by all anthropologists that this portion of the skull of the man of moulin-quignon bears a perfect resemblance to that of a man of small size of the present age. from the small number of skulls which we possess, it is impossible for us to estimate what was the precise degree of intelligence to be ascribed to man at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. no one, assuredly, will be surprised at the fact, that the human skull in these prodigiously remote ages did not present any external signs of great intellectual development. the nature of man is eminently improvable; it is, therefore, easily to be understood, that in the earliest ages of his appearance on the earth his intelligence should have been of a limited character. time and progress were destined both to improve and extend it; the flame of the first-lighted torch was to be expanded with the lapse of centuries! ii. epoch of the reindeer, or of migrated animals. chapter i. mankind during the epoch of the reindeer--their manners and customs--food--garments--weapons, utensils, and implements-- pottery--ornaments--primitive arts--the principal caverns-- type of the human race during the epoch of the reindeer. we have now arrived at that subdivision of the stone age which we designate by the name of the _reindeer epoch_, or the _epoch of migrated animals_. many ages have elapsed since the commencement of the quaternary geological epoch. the mighty animals which characterised the commencement of this period have disappeared, or are on the point of becoming extinct. the great bear (_ursus spelæus_) and the cave-hyæna (_hyæna spelæa_) will soon cease to tread the soil of our earth. it will not be long before the final term will be completed of the existence of the cave-lion (_felis spelæa_), the mammoth, and the _rhinoceros tichorhinus_. created beings diminish in size as they improve in type. to make up for these losses, numerous herds of reindeer now inhabit the forests of western europe. in that part of the continent which was one day to be called france, these animals make their way as far as the pyrenees. the horse (_equus caballus_), in no way different from the present species, is the companion of the above-named valuable ruminant; also the bison (_biso europæus_), the urus (_bos primigenius_), the musk-ox (_ovibos moschatus_), the elk, the deer, the chamois, the ibex, and various species of rodents, amongst others, the beaver, the hamster-rat, the lemming, the spermophilus, &c. after the intense cold of the glacial period the temperature has become sensibly milder, but it is still much lower than at the present day in the same countries; as the reindeer, an animal belonging to a hyperborean climate, can both enjoy life and multiply in the comparatively southern part of europe. the general composition of the _fauna_ which we have just described is a striking proof of the rigorous cold which still characterised the climate of central europe. animals which then inhabited those countries are now only met with in the high northern latitudes of the old and new worlds, in close proximity to the ice and snow, or on the lofty summits of great mountain-chains. to localities of this kind have now retired the reindeer, the musk-ox, the elk, the chamois, the wild-goat, the hamster-rat, the lemming and the spermophilus. the beaver, too, is at the present day confined almost entirely to canada. mr. christy, an english naturalist, has remarked with much acuteness that the accumulations of bones and other organic remains in caves actually imply the existence of a rigorous climate. under the influence of even a merely moderate temperature, these accumulations of bones and animal remains would, in fact, have given forth putrid exhalations which would have prevented any human being from living in close contiguity to these infectious heaps. the esquimaux of the present day live, in this respect, very much like the people of primitive ages, that is, close by the side of the most fetid _débris_; but, except in the cold regions of the north, they would be quite unable to do this. [illustration: fig. .--man of the reindeer epoch.] what progress was made by the man of the reindeer epoch (fig. ) beyond that attained by his ancestors? this is the question we are about to consider. but we must confine the sphere of our study to the only two countries in which a sufficient number of investigations have been made in respect to the epoch of the reindeer. we allude to that part of europe which nowadays forms france and belgium. during the reindeer epoch, man wrought the flint to better effect than in the preceding period. he also manufactured somewhat remarkable implements in bone, ivory, and reindeers' horn. in the preceding period, human bones were found in caves, mixed up indiscriminately with those of animals; in the epoch we are now considering, this promiscuous intermingling is no longer met with. we shall first pass in review man as existing in this epoch, in respect to his habitation and food. we shall then proceed to speak of the productions of his industry, and also of the earliest essays of his artistic genius. lastly, we shall briefly consider his physical organisation. with respect to his habitation, man, during the reindeer epoch, still took up his abode in caves. according to their depth and the light penetrating them, he either occupied the whole extent of them or established himself in the outlet only. about the centre of the cavern some slabs of stone, selected from the hardest rocks, such as sandstone or slate, were bedded down in the ground, and formed the hearth for cooking his food. during the long nights of winter the whole family must have assembled round this hearth. sometimes, in order the better to defend himself against the various surprises to which he was exposed, the man of the reindeer epoch selected a cavern with a very narrow inlet which could only be entered by climbing. a cave formed naturally in the deepest clefts and hollows of some rock constituted, in every climate, the earliest habitation of man. in cold climates it was necessary for him to find some retreat in which to pass the night, and in warmer latitudes he had to ward off the heat of the day. but these natural dwellings could only be met with in districts where rocks existed which offered facilities for cover in the way of clefts and holes. when man took up his abode in a level country, he was compelled to construct for himself some place of shelter. by collecting together stones, brought from various directions, he then managed to build an artificial cavern. choosing a spot where some natural projection overhung the ground, he enlarged, as far as he was able, this natural roof, and, bringing art to the assistance of nature, he ultimately found himself in possession of a convenient retreat. we must not omit to add that the spot in which he established his dwelling was always in the vicinity of some running stream. in this way, therefore, the inhabitants of the plains formed their habitations during the epoch which we are considering. we have, also, certain proofs that primitive tribes, during this period, did not take up their abode in natural caverns exclusively, but that they were able to make for themselves more convenient sheltering-places under the cover of some great overhanging rock. in various regions of france, especially in périgord, numerous ancient open-air human settlements have been discovered. they must have been mere sheds or places of shelter, leaning against the base of some high cliff, and protected against the inclemency of the weather by projections of the rock which, more or less, hung over them, forming a kind of roof. the name of _rock-shelters_ has been given to these dwellings of primitive man. these wild retreats are generally met with in the lower part of some valley in close proximity to a running stream. they, like the caverns, contain very rich deposits of the bones of mammals, birds and fishes, and also specimens of hatchets and utensils made of flint, bone, and horn. traces of hearths are also discovered. one of the most remarkable of these natural shelters belonging to the reindeer epoch has been discovered at bruniquel, in the department of tarn-et-garonne, not far from montauban. [illustration: fig. .--rock-shelter at bruniquel, a supposed habitation of man during the reindeer epoch.] on the left bank of the river aveyron, under the overhanging shelter of one of the highest rocks of bruniquel and in close proximity to a _château_, the picturesque ruins of which still stand on the brow of the cliff above, there was discovered, in , a fire-hearth of the pre-historic period; this hearth and its surroundings have afforded us the most complete idea of one of the rock-shelters of man during the reindeer epoch. this rock, known by the name of montastruc, is about feet high, and it overhangs the ground below for an extent of to feet. it covers an area of square yards. in this spot, m. v. brun, the director of the museum of natural history at montauban, found a host of objects of various descriptions, the study of which has furnished many useful ideas for the history of this epoch of primitive humanity. by taking advantage of the photographic views of the pre-historic settlement of bruniquel, which m. v. brun has been kind enough to forward to us, we have been enabled to compose the sketch which is presented in fig. of a rock-shelter, or an open-air settlement of man in the reindeer epoch. men during the reindeer epoch did not possess any notion of agriculture. they had not as yet subdued and domesticated any animal so as to profit by its strength, or to ensure by its means a constant supply of food. they were, therefore, like their forefathers, essentially hunters; and pursued wild animals, killing them with their spears or arrows. the reindeer was the animal which they chiefly attacked. this mammal, which then existed all over europe, in the centre as well as in the south (although it has now retired or migrated into the regions of the extreme north), was for the man of this period all that it nowadays is to the laplander--the most precious gift of nature. they fed upon its flesh and made their garments of its skin, utilising its tendons as thread in the preparation of their dress; its bones and its antlers they converted into all kinds of weapons and implements. reindeer's horn was the earliest raw material in the manufactures of these remote ages, and to the man of this epoch was all that iron is to us. the horse, the ox, the urus, the elk, the ibex, and the chamois, all formed a considerable part of the food of men during this epoch. they were in the habit of breaking the long bones and the skulls of the recently-killed animals, in order to extract the marrow and the brain, which they ate all steaming with the natural animal heat, as is done in the present day by certain tribes in the arctic regions. the meat of this animal was cooked on their rough hearths; for they did not eat it raw as some naturalists have asserted. the animal bones which have been found, intermingled with human remains, in the caverns of this epoch bear evident traces of the action of fire. to this animal prey they occasionally added certain birds, such as the great heath-cock, willow-grouse, owl, &c. when this kind of game fell short, they fell back upon the rat. round the hearthstone, in the cave of chaleux, m. dupont found more than twenty pounds weight of the bones of water-rats, half roasted. fish is an article of food which has always been much sought after by man. by mere inference we might, therefore, readily imagine that man during the reindeer epoch fed on fish as well as the flesh of animals, even if the fact were not attested by positive evidence. this evidence is afforded by the remains of fish-bones which are met with in the caves of this epoch, intermingled with the bones of mammals, and also by sketches representing parts of fishes, which are found roughly traced on a great number of fragments of bone and horn implements. the art of fishing, therefore, must certainly have been in existence during the reindeer epoch. we cannot assert that it was practised during that of the great bear and the mammoth; but, as regards the period we are now considering, no doubt can be entertained on the point. in an article on the 'origine de la navigation et de la pêche,' m. g. de mortillet expresses himself as follows: "the epoch of the reindeer presents to our notice several specimens of fishing-tackle. the most simple is a little splinter of bone, generally about one to two inches long, straight, slender, and pointed at both ends. this is the primitive and elementary fish-hook. this small fragment of bone or reindeer horn was fastened by the middle and covered with a bait; when swallowed by a fish, or even by an aquatic bird, it became fixed in the interior of the body by one of the pointed ends, and the voracious creature found itself caught by the cord attached to the primitive hook. at the museum of saint-germain, there are several of these hooks which came from the rich deposits of bruniquel, near montauban (tarn-et-garonne). "hooks belonging to the reindeer epoch have also been found in the caves and retreats of dordogne, so well explored by mm. lartet and christy. along with those of the simple form which we have just described, others were met with of a much more perfect shape. these are likewise small fragments of bone or reindeer's horn, with deep and wide notches on one side, forming a more or less developed series of projecting and sharp teeth, or barbs. two of them are depicted in plate b, vi. of the 'reliquiæ aquitanicæ.' m. lartet is in possession of several of them; but the most remarkable specimen forms a part of the beautiful collection of m. peccadeau de l'isle, of paris."[ ] there are strong reasons for believing that man during this epoch did not confine himself to a diet of an exclusively carnivorous character, for vegetable food is in perfect harmony with the organisation of our species. by means of wild fruits, acorns, and chestnuts, he must have introduced some little variety into his ordinary system of sustenance. from the data which we have been considering, we furnish, in fig. , a representation of _a feast during the reindeer epoch_. men are engaged in cleaving the head of a urus, in order to extract and devour the smoking brains. others, sitting round the fire in which the flesh of the same animal is being cooked, are sucking out the marrow from the long bones of the reindeer, which they have broken by blows with a hatchet. [illustration: fig. .--a feast during the reindeer epoch.] it becomes a very interesting question to know whether the men of these remote periods practised cannibalism or not. on this point we have as yet no certain information. we will, however, state some facts which seem to make in favour of this idea. human skulls have been found in scotland mixed up promiscuously with sculptured flints, remains of pottery, and children's bones; on the latter, professor owen thinks that he can recognise the trace of human teeth. at solutré, in mâconnais, m. de ferry has discovered human finger-joints among the remains of cooking of the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, and of that of the reindeer. the appearance of certain bones from the caves of ariége, dug up by mm. garrigou and filhol, has led both these _savants_ to the opinion "that pre-historic man may have been anthropophagous." the same conclusion would be arrived at from the explorations which have been undertaken in the grottos and caves of northern italy by m. costa de beauregard. this latter _savant_ found in the caves the small shin-bone of a child which had been carefully emptied and cleansed, leading to the idea that the marrow had been eaten. at a point near finale, on the road from genoa to nice, in a vast cave which was for a long period employed as a habitation for our race, m. issel discovered some human bones which had evidently been calcined. their whitish colour, their lightness, and their friability left no room for doubt on the point. added to this, the incrustations on their surface still contained small fragments of carbon. moreover, many of the bones showed notches which could not have been made without the help of some sharp instrument. it is, therefore, probable that men in the stone age practised anthropophagy; we have, really, no cause to be surprised at this; since, in our own days, various savage tribes are addicted to cannibalism, under a considerable diversity of circumstances. not the least trace has been discovered of animals' bones being gnawed by dogs in any of the human settlements during the reindeer epoch. man, therefore, had not as yet reduced the dog to a state of domesticity. how did primitive man dress himself during this epoch? he must have made garments out of the skins of the quadrupeds which he killed in hunting, and especially of the reindeer's hide. there can be no doubt on this point. a large number of reindeers' antlers found in périgord have at their base certain cuts which evidently could only have been produced in flaying the animal. it is no less certainly proved that these men knew how to prepare animals' skins by clearing them of their hair, and that they were no longer compelled, like their ancestors, to cover themselves with rough bear-skins still covered with their fur. to what purpose could they have applied the flint scrapers which are met with everywhere in such abundance, except for scraping the hair off the skins of wild beasts? having thus taken off the hair, they rendered them supple by rubbing them in with brains and the marrow extracted from the long bones of the reindeer. then they cut them out into some very simple patterns, which are, of course, absolutely unknown to us; and, finally, they joined together the different pieces by rough sewing. the fact that man at this epoch knew how to sew together reindeer skins so as to convert them into garments, is proved by the discovery of numerous specimens of instruments which must have been used for this work; these are--and this is most remarkable--exactly the same as those employed nowadays by the laplanders, for the same purpose. they consist of bodkins or stilettoes made of flint and bone (fig. ), by means of which the holes were pierced in the skin; also very carefully fashioned needles, mostly of bone or horn (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--flint bodkin or stiletto for sewing reindeer skins, found in the cave of les eyzies (périgord).] [illustration: fig. .--bone needle for sewing.] the inspection of certain reindeer bones has likewise enabled us to recognise the fact that the men of this age used for thread the sinewy fibres of this animal. on these bones transverse cuts may be noticed, just in those very spots where the section of the tendon must have taken place. no metal was as yet known; consequently, man continued to make use of stone instruments, both for the implements of labour, and also for offensive and defensive weapons. the hatchet was but little employed as a weapon of war, and the flint-knife was the arm most extensively used. we must add to this, another potent although natural weapon; this was the lower jaw-bone of the great bear, still retaining its sharp and pointed canine tooth. the elongated and solid bone furnished the handle, and the sharp tooth the formidable point; and with this instrument man could in the chase attack and pierce any animal with which he entered into a hand-to-hand conflict. it may be noticed that this weapon is placed in the hand of the man in fig. , which represents him during the reindeer epoch. it must certainly be the case that the human race possesses to a very high degree the taste for personal ornament, since objects used for adornment are found in the most remote ages of mankind and in every country. there can be no doubt that the men and women who lived in the reindeer epoch sacrificed to the graces. in the midst of their precarious mode of life, the idea entered into their minds of manufacturing necklaces, bracelets, and pendants, either with shells which they bored through the middle so as to be able to string them as beads, or with the teeth of various animals which they pierced with holes with the same intention, as represented in fig. . [illustration: fig. .--the canine tooth of a wolf, bored so as to be used as an ornament.] the horny portion of the ear of the horse or ox (fig. ), was likewise used for the same purpose, that is, as an object of adornment. [illustration: fig. .--ornament made of the bony part of a horse's ear.] it becomes a question whether man at this epoch had any belief in a future life, and practised anything which bore a resemblance to religious worship. the existence, round the fire-hearths of the burial-caverns in belgium, of large fossil elephant (mammoth's) bones--a fact which has been pointed out by m. Édouard dupont--gives us some reason for answering this question in the affirmative. according to m. morlot, the practice of placing bones round caverns still survives, as a religious idea, among the indians. we may, therefore, appeal to this discovery as a hint in favour of the existence of some religious feeling among the men who lived during the reindeer epoch. in the tombs of this epoch are found the weapons and knives which men carried during their lifetime, and sometimes even a supply of the flesh of animals used for food. this custom of placing near the body of the dead provisions for the journey to be taken _post mortem_ is, as remarked in reference to the preceding period, the proof of a belief in another life. certain religious, or rather superstitious, ideas may have been attached to some glittering stones and bright fragments of ore which have been picked up in several settlements of these primitive tribes. m. de vibraye found at bourdeilles (charente), two nodules of hydrated oxide of iron mixed with _débris_ of all kinds; and at the settlement of laugerie-basse (dordogne), in the middle of the hearth, a small mass of copper covered with a layer of green carbonate. in other spots there have been met with pieces of jet, violet fluor, &c., pierced through the middle, doubtless to enable them to be suspended to the neck and ears. the greater part of these objects may possibly be looked upon as amulets, that is, symbols of some religious beliefs entertained by man during the reindeer epoch. the social instinct of man, the feeling which compels him to form an alliance with his fellow-man, had already manifested itself at this early period. communication was established between localities at some considerable distance from one another. thus it was that the inhabitants of the banks of the lesse in belgium travelled as far as that part of france which is now called champagne, in order to seek the flints which they could not find in their own districts, although they were indispensable to them in order to manufacture their weapons and implements. they likewise brought back fossil shells, of which they made fantastical necklaces. this distant intercourse cannot be called in question, for certain evidences of it can be adduced. m. Édouard dupont found in the cave of chaleux, near dinant (belgium), fifty-four of these shells, which are not found naturally anywhere else than in champagne. here, therefore, we have the rudiments of commerce, that is, of the importation and exchange of commodities which form its earliest manifestations in all nations of the world. again, it may be stated that there existed at this epoch real manufactories of weapons and utensils, the productions of which were distributed around the neighbouring country according to the particular requirements of each family. the cave of chaleux, which was mentioned above, seems to have been one of these places of manufacture; for from the th to the th of may, during twenty-two days only, there were collected at this spot nearly , flints chipped into hatchets, daggers, knives, scrapers, scratchers, &c. workshops of this kind were established in the settlements of laugerie-basse and laugerie-haute in périgord. the first was to all appearance a special manufactory for spear-heads, some specimens of which have been found by mm. lartet and christy of an extremely remarkable nature; exact representations of them are delineated in fig. . in the second were fabricated weapons and implements of reindeers' horn, if we may judge by the large quantity of remains of the antlers of those animals, which were met with by these _savants_, almost all of which bear the marks of sawing. [illustration: fig. .--spear-head found in the cave of laugerie-basse (périgord).] it is not, however, probable that the objects thus manufactured were exported to any great distance, as was subsequently the case, that is, in the polished stone epoch. how would it be possible to cross great rivers, and to pass through wide tracts overgrown with thick forests, in order to convey far and wide these industrial products; at a time, too, when no means of communication existed between one country and another? but it is none the less curious to be able to verify the existence of a rudimentary commerce exercised at so remote an epoch. the weapons, utensils and implements which were used by man during the reindeer epoch testify to a decided progress having been made beyond those of the preceding period. the implements are made of flint, bone, or horn; but the latter kind are much the most numerous, chiefly in the primitive settlements in the centre and south of france. those of périgord are especially remarkable for the abundance of instruments made of reindeers' bones. the great diversity of type in the wrought flints furnishes a very evident proof of the long duration of the historical epoch we are considering. in the series of these instruments we can trace all the phases of improvement in workmanship, beginning with the rough shape of the hatchets found in the _diluvium_ at abbeville, and culminating in those elegant spear-heads which are but little inferior to any production of later times. we here give representations (fig. , , , ), of the most curious specimens of the stone and flint weapons of the reindeer epoch. knives and other small instruments, such as scrapers, piercers, borers, &c., form the great majority; hatchets are comparatively rare. instruments are also met with which might be used for a double purpose, for instance, borers and also piercers. there are also round stones which must have been used as hammers; it may, at least, be noticed that they have received repeated blows. [illustration: fig. .--worked flint from périgord (knife).] [illustration: fig. .--worked flint from périgord (hatchet).] [illustration: fig. .--chipped flint from périgord (knife).] [illustration: fig. .--chipped flint from périgord (scraper).] sir j. lubbock is of opinion that some of these stones were employed in heating water, after they had been made red-hot in the fire. according to the above-named author, this plan of procuring hot water is still adopted among certain savage tribes who are still ignorant of the art of pottery, and possess nothing but wooden vessels, which cannot be placed over a fire.[ ] we must also mention the polishers formed of sandstone or some other material with a rough surface. they could only be used for polishing bone and horn, as the reindeer epoch does not admit of instruments of polished stone. there have also been collected here and there pebbles of granite or quartzite hollowed out at the centre, and more or less perfectly rounded on the edges. it has been conjectured that these were mortars, although their small dimensions scarcely countenance this hypothesis. neither is it probable that they were used for pounding seed, as fancied by m. de vibraye. nor does the idea which has been entertained of their being used for producing fire seem to have any sufficient ground. among the most interesting specimens in the vast collection of flints belonging to the reindeer epoch which have been found in the countries of france and belgium, we must mention the delicate and very finely-toothed double-edged saws. the one we here represent (fig. ) is in the archæological museum of saint-germain. it does not measure more than three-quarters of an inch in length, and about one-tenth of an inch in width. it was found by m. v. brun in one of the _rock-shelters_ at bruniquel. [illustration: fig. .--small flint saw, found in the rock-shelter at bruniquel.] saws of this kind were, no doubt, employed for fashioning the antlers of the reindeer, and other ruminants that shed their horns. the antler was cut into on each side, and the fracture was finished by hand. the objects of bone and reindeer-horn found in the caves of périgord show a still greater variety, and a no less remarkable skilfulness in workmanship. we may mention, for instance, the arrow and javelin-heads. some are slender and tapering off at both ends; in others, the base terminates in a single or double bevel. among the latter, the greater part seem made to fix in a cleft stick; some are ornamented with lines and hatching over their surface. others have notches in them, somewhat similar to an attempt at barbing. [illustration: fig. .--the chase during the reindeer epoch.] we now come to the barbed dart-heads, designated by the name of _harpoons_. they taper-off considerably towards the top, and are characterised by very decided barbs, shaped like hooks, and distributed sometimes on one side only, and sometimes on both (figs. , ). in the latter case the barbs are arranged in pairs, and are provided with a small furrow or middle groove, which, according to some naturalists, was intended to hold some subtle poison. like the present race of indians of the american forests, primitive man may possibly have poisoned his arrows; and the longitudinal groove, which is noticed in so many reindeer arrow-heads, may have served to contain the poison. [illustration: fig. .--barbed arrow of reindeer horn.] [illustration: fig. --arrow of reindeer horn with double barbs.] we must not, however, fail to state that this opinion has been abandoned since it has been ascertained that the north american indians used in former times to hunt the bison with wooden arrows furnished with grooves or channels of a similar character. these channels are said to have been intended to give a freer vent to the flow of the animal's blood, which was thus, so to speak, sucked out of the wound. this may, therefore, have been the intention of the grooves which are noticed on the dart-heads of the reindeer epoch, and the idea of their having been poisoned must be dismissed. these barbed darts or harpoons are still used by the esquimaux of the present day, in pursuing the seal. such arrows, like those of the primitive hordes of the reindeer epoch which are represented above (figs. , ), are sharply pointed and provided with barbs; they are fastened to a string and shot from a bow. the esquimaux sometimes attach an inflated bladder to the extremity of the arrow, so that the hunter may be apprized whether he has hit his mark, or in order to show in what direction he should aim again. we give here (fig. ) a drawing of a fragment of bone found in the cave of les eyzies (périgord); a portion of one of these harpoons remains fixed in the bone. [illustration: fig. .--animal bone, pierced by an arrow of reindeer horn.] we must assign to the class of implements the bone bodkins or stilettoes of different sizes, either with or without a handle (figs. , ), and also a numerous series of needles found in the caves of périgord, some of which are very slender and elegant, and made of bone, horn, and even ivory. in some of the human settlements of the reindeer epoch, bones have been found, from which long splinters had been detached, fitted for the fabrication of needles. the delicate points of flint have also been found which were used to bore the eyes of the needles, and, lastly, the lumps of sandstone on which the latter were polished. [illustration: fig. .--tool made of reindeer horn, found in the cave of laugerie-basse (stiletto?).] [illustration: fig. .--tool made of reindeer horn, found in the cave of laugerie-basse (needle?).] we must, likewise, point out the _smoothers_, intended to flatten down the seams in the skins used for garments. one of the most important instruments of this epoch is a perfect drill with a sharpened point and cutting edge. with this flint point rapidly twirled round, holes could be bored in any kind of material--bone, teeth, horn, or shells. this stone drill worked as well as our tool made of steel, according to the statement of certain naturalists who have tried the effect of them. the primitive human settlement at laugerie-basse has furnished several specimens of an instrument, the exact use of which has not been ascertained. they are rods, tapering off at one end, and hollowed out at the other in the shape of a spoon. m. Édouard lartet has propounded the opinion that they were used by the tribes of this epoch as spoons, in order to extract the marrow from the long bones of the animals which were used for their food. m. lartet would not, however, venture to assert this, and adds: "it is, perhaps, probable that our primitive forefathers would not have taken so much trouble." be this as it may, one of these instruments is very remarkable for the lines and ornaments in relief with which it is decorated, testifying to the existence in the workman of some feeling of symmetry (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--spoon of reindeer horn.] in various caves--at les eyzies, laugerie-basse, and chaffant, _commune_ of savigné (vienne)--whistles of a peculiar kind have been found (fig. ). they are made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer or some other ruminant of the stag genus. a hole has been bored in the base of the bone, a little in front of the metatarsal joint. if one blows into this hole, placing the lower lip in the hollow answering to the above-named joint, a shrill sound is produced, similar to that made by blowing into a piped key. we ourselves have had the pleasure of verifying the fact, at the museum of saint-germain, that these primitive whistles act very well. [illustration: fig. .--knuckle-bone of a reindeer's foot, bored with a hole and used as a whistle.] the settlements at périgord have also furnished a certain number of staves made of reindeer horn (figs. , ), the proper functions of which no one has succeeded in properly explaining. they are invariably bored with one or more holes at the base, and are covered with designs to which we shall hereafter refer. m. lartet has thought that they were perhaps symbols or staves of authority. [illustration: fig. .--staff of authority in reindeer's horn, found in the cave of périgord.] [illustration: fig. .--another staff of authority in reindeer's horn.] this explanation appears the correct one when we consider the care with which these bâtons were fashioned. if the hypothesis of their being symbols of authority be adopted, the varying number of the holes would not be without intention; it might point to some kind of hierarchy, the highest grade of which corresponded to the bâton with the most holes. thus, in the chinese empire, the degree of a mandarin's authority is estimated by the number of buttons on his silk cap. and just as in the mussulman hierarchy there were pachas of from one to three tails, so it may be fancied that among primitive man of the reindeer epoch there were chiefs of from one to three holes! we have already stated that in the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth the art of manufacturing a rough description of pottery was, perhaps, known in europe. the men of the reindeer epoch made, however, but little progress in this respect. nevertheless, if certain relics really belong to this period, they may have known how to make rough vessels, formed of clay, mixed with sand, and hardened by the action of fire. this primitive art was, as yet, anything but generally adopted: for we very rarely find _débris_ of pottery in close contiguity with other remains of the reindeer epoch. the archæological museum of saint germain is in possession of a hollow vessel, a natural geode, very large and very thick (fig. ). it was found in the cave of la madelaine (department of dordogne); on one side it has evidently been subjected to the action of fire, and may therefore be presumed to have been used as a large vessel for culinary purposes. [illustration: fig. .--a geode, used as a cooking vessel (?), found in the cave of la madelaine (périgord).] in a cave at furfooz, near dinant in belgium, to which we shall subsequently refer, m. Édouard dupont found, intermingled with human bones, an urn, or specimen of rough pottery, which is perhaps one of the most ancient monuments of the ceramic art as practised by our primitive ancestors. this urn (fig. ) was partly broken; by the care of m. hauzeur it has been put together again, as we represent it from the work of m. le hon.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--earthen vase found in the cave of furfooz (belgium).] it is in the reindeer epoch that we find the earliest traces of any artistic feeling manifested in man. it is a circumstance well worthy of remark, that this feeling appears to have been the peculiar attribute of the tribes which inhabited the south-west of the present france; the departments of dordogne, vienne, charente, tarn-et-garonne, and ariége, are, in fact, the only localities where designs and carvings representing organised beings have been discovered. the departments in the east have not furnished anything of a similar character, any more than belgium, which has been so thoroughly explored by m. Édouard dupont, or wurtemburg, where m. fraas has lately described various settlements of this primitive epoch. it is not sufficient to allege, in order to explain this singular circumstance, that the caves in the south of france belong to a later period of the reindeer epoch, and that the others go back to the earliest commencement of the same age. apart from the fact that this assertion is in no way proved, a complete and ready answer is involved in the well verified circumstance, that even in later ages--in the polished stone, and even in the bronze epoch--no representation of an animal or plant is found to have been executed in these localities. no specimen of the kind has, in fact, been found in the _kitchen-middens_ of denmark, or in the lacustrine settlements of the stone age, or even of the bronze age. it must, then, be admitted that the tribes which were scattered over those portions of the european continent which now correspond to the south-west of france, possessed a special talent in the art of design. there is, moreover, nothing unreasonable in such a supposition. an artistic feeling is not always the offspring of civilisation, it is rather a gift of nature. it may manifest its existence in the most barbarous ages, and may make its influence more deeply felt in nations which are behindhand in respect to general progress than in others which are much further advanced in civilisation. there can be no doubt that the rudiments of engraving and sculpture of which we are about to take a view, testify to faculties of an essentially artistic character. shapes are so well imitated, movements are so thoroughly caught, as it were, in the sudden fact of action, that it is almost always possible to recognise the object which the ancient workman desired to represent, although he had at his disposal nothing but the rudest instruments for executing his work. a splinter of flint was his sole graving-tool, a piece of reindeer horn, or a flake of slate or ivory, was the only plate on which primitive man could stamp his reproductions of animated nature. perhaps they drew on stone or horn with lumps of red-chalk or ochre, for both these substances have been found in the caves of primitive man. perhaps, too, as is the case with modern savages, the ochre and red-chalk were used besides for painting or tatooing his body. when the design was thus executed on stone or horn, it was afterwards engraved with the point of some flint instrument. those persons who have attentively examined the interesting gallery of the _histoire du travail_ in the international exposition of , must have remarked a magnificent collection of these artistic productions of primeval ages. there were no less than fifty-one specimens, which were exhibited by several collectors, and were for the most part extremely curious. in his interesting work, 'promenades préhistoriques à l'exposition universelle,' m. gabriel de mortillet has carefully described these objects. in endeavouring to obtain some knowledge of them, we shall take as our guide the learned curator of the archæological museum of saint-germain. we have, in the first place, various representations of the mammoth, which was still in existence at the commencement of the reindeer epoch. the first (fig. ) is an outline sketch, drawn on a slab of ivory, from the cave of la madelaine. when mm. lartet and christy found it, it was broken into five pieces, which they managed to put together very accurately. the small eye and the curved tusks of the animal may be perfectly distinguished, as well as its huge trunk, and even its abundant mane, the latter proving that it is really the mammoth--that is the fossil--and not the present species of elephant. [illustration: fig. .--sketch of a mammoth, graven on a slab of ivory.] the second figure is an entire mammoth, graven on a fragment of reindeer horn, from the rock-shelters of bruniquel, and belongs to m. peccadeau de l'isle. this figure forms the hilt of a poniard, the blade of which springs from the front part of the animal. it may be recognised to be the mammoth by its trunk, its wide flat feet, and especially by its erect tail, ending in a bunch of hair. in point of fact, the present species of elephant never sets up the tail, and has no bunch of hair at the end of it. a third object brought from the pre-historic station of laugerie-basse (m. de vibraye's collection) is the lower end of a staff of authority carved in the form of a mammoth's head. the prominent forehead, and the body of the animal stretching along the base of the staff, may both be very distinctly seen. on another fragment of a staff of authority, found at bruniquel by m. v. brun, the cave-lion (_felis spelæa_) is carved with great clearness. the head, in particular, is perfectly represented. representations of reindeer, either carved or scratched on stone or horn, are very common; we mention the following:-- in the first place the hilt of a dagger in reindeer's horn (fig. ) of the same type as that shaped in the form of a mammoth. this specimen is remarkable, because the artist has most skilfully adapted the shape of the animal to the purpose for which the instrument was intended. the hilt represents a reindeer, which is carved out as if lying in a very peculiar position; the hind legs are stretched along the blade, and the front legs are doubled back under the belly, so as not to hurt the hand of anyone holding the dagger; lastly, the head is thrown back, the muzzle turned upwards, and the horns flattened down so as not to interfere with the grasp. [illustration: fig. .--hilt of a dagger, carved in the shape of a reindeer.] this is, at all events, nothing but a rough sketch. the same remark, however, does not apply to two ivory daggers found at bruniquel by m. peccadeau de l'isle. these objects are very artistically executed, and are the most finished specimens that have been found up to the present time. both of them represent a reindeer with the head thrown back as in the preceding plate; but whilst in one dagger the blade springs from the hinder part of the body, in the same way as in the rough-hewn horn, in the other it proceeds from the front of the body, between the head and the forelegs. the hind legs are stretched out and meet again at the feet, thus forming a hole between them, which was probably used as a ring on which to suspend the dagger. we must not omit to mention a slab of slate, on which is drawn in outline a reindeer fight. it was found at laugerie-basse by m. de vibraye. the artist has endeavoured to portray one of those furious contests in which the male reindeer engages during the rutting season, in order to obtain possession of the females; he has executed his design in a spirited manner, marked by a certain _naïveté_. there are a good many other fragments on which reindeer are either drawn or carved; we shall not dwell upon them, but add a few remarks as to several specimens on which are representations of the stag, the horse, the bison, the ibex, &c. a representation of a stag (fig. ) is drawn on a fragment of stag's horn found in the cave of la madelaine by mm. lartet and christy. the shape of the antlers, which are very different to those of the reindeer, leave no doubt as to the identity of the animal. [illustration: fig. .--representation of a stag, drawn on a stag's horn.] the ox and the bison are represented in various fashions. we will mention here a carved head which was found in the cave of laugerie-basse by m. de vibraye. it forms the base of a staff of authority. [illustration: fig. .--representation of some large herbivorous animal on a fragment of reindeer's horn.] we must, doubtless, class under the same category a fragment of reindeer's horn, found at laugerie-basse, on which the hind-quarters of some large herbivorous animal are sketched out with a bold and practised touch (fig. ). various indications have led m. lartet to think that the artist has not endeavoured to represent a horse, as was at first imagined, but a bison of rather a slender shape. unfortunately the fragment is broken at the exact spot where the bushy mane should begin, which characterises the species of the bison sub-genus. [illustration: fig. .--arts of drawing and sculpture during the reindeer epoch.] in the same locality another fragment of reindeer's horn was found, on which some horned animal is depicted (fig. ), which appears to be an ibex, if we may judge by the lines under the chin which seem to indicate a beard. [illustration: fig. .--representation of an animal, sketched on a fragment of reindeer's horn.] in the cave of les eyzies, in the department of dordogne, mm. lartet and christy came upon two slabs of quartziferous schist, on both of which are scratched animal forms which are deficient in any special characteristics. in one (fig. ), some have fancied they could recognise the elk; but, as the front part only of the other has been preserved, it is almost impossible to determine what mammiferous animal it is intended to represent. an indistinct trace of horns seems to indicate a herbivorous animal. [illustration: fig. .--fragment of a slab of schist, bearing the representation of some animal, and found in the cave of les eyzies.] on each side of a staff of authority made of reindeer's horn, found by mm. lartet and christy in the cave of the madelaine, may be noticed three horses in demi-relief, which are very easily recognisable. on a carved bone, found at bruniquel by m. de lastic, the head of a reindeer and that of a horse are drawn in outline side by side; the characteristics of both animals are well maintained. lastly, we may name a round shaft formed of reindeer's horn (fig. ), found at laugerie-basse by mm. lartet and christy, on which is carved an animal's head, with ears of a considerable length laid back upon the head. it is not easy to determine for what purpose this shaft was intended; one end being pointed and provided with a lateral hook. it was perhaps used as a harpoon. [illustration: fig. .--a kind of harpoon of reindeer's horn, carved in the shape of an animal's head.] representations of birds are more uncommon than those of mammals. there are, on the other hand, a good many rough delineations of fish, principally on the so-called wands of authority, on which numbers may often be noticed following one another in a series. we have one delineation of a fish, skilfully drawn on a fragment of the lower jaw-bone of a reindeer, which was found at laugerie-basse. also in the cave of la vache (ariége), m. garrigou found a fragment of bone, on which there is a clever design of a fish. very few representations of reptiles have come to light, and those found are in general badly executed. we must, however, make an exception in favour of the figure of a tadpole, scratched out on an arrow-head, found in the cave of the madelaine. designs representing flowers are very rare; in the _galerie du travail_, at the exposition, only three specimens are exhibited; they came from la madelaine and laugerie-basse, and were all three graven on spear-heads. but did the men of the reindeer epoch make no attempts to portray their own personal appearance? have not the excavations dug in the settlements of primitive man, found in périgord, ever brought to light any imitation of the human form? nothing could exceed the interest of such a discovery. research has not been entirely fruitless in this respect, and it is hoped that the first attempt in the art of statuary of this primitive people may yet be discovered. in the cave of laugerie-basse, m. de vibraye found a little ivory statuette, which he takes to be a kind of idol of an indecent character. the head and legs, as well as the arms, are broken off. another human figure (fig. ), which, like the preceding one, is long and lean, is graven on a staff of authority, a fragment of which was found in the cave of la madelaine by mm. lartet and christy. the man is represented standing between two horses' heads, and by the side of a long serpent or fish, having the appearance of an eel. on the reverse side of the same bâton, which is not given in the figure, the heads of two bisons are represented. [illustration: fig. .--staff of authority, on which are graven representations of a man, two horses, and a fish.] on a fragment of a spear-head, found in the same settlement of laugerie-basse, there is a series of human hands, provided with four fingers only, represented in demi-relief. m. lartet has called attention to the fact, that certain savage tribes still depict the hand without noticing the thumb. in fig. , which represents man during the reindeer epoch, such as we must suppose him to have been from the sum total of our present stock of information on the point, we see a man clothed in garments sewn with a needle, carrying as his chief weapon the jaw-bone of a bear armed with its sharp fang, and also provided with his flint hatchet or knife. close to him a woman is seated, arrayed in all the personal ornaments which are known to have been peculiar to this epoch. the question now arises, what were the characteristics of man during the reindeer epoch, with regard to his physical organisation? we know a little of some of the broader features of his physiognomy from studying the objects found in the belgian bone-caves, of which we have spoken in the introduction to this work. these caves were explored by m. Édouard dupont, assisted by m. van beneden, a belgian palæontologist and anatomist. the excavations in question were ordered by king leopold's government, which supplied the funds necessary for extending them as far as possible. the three caves, all situated in the valley of the lesse, are the _trou des nutons_, the _trou du frontal_, at furfooz, near dinant, and the _caverne de chaleux_, in the neighbourhood of the town from which its name is derived. the _trou des nutons_ and the _trou du frontal_ have been completely thrown into confusion by a violent inroad of water; for the _débris_ that they contained were intermingled in an almost incredible confusion with a quantity of earthy matter and calcareous rocks, which had been drifted in by the inundation. in the _trou des nutons_, which is situated about feet above the level of the lesse, m. van beneden recognised a great many bones of the reindeer, the urus, and many other species which are not yet extinct. these bones were indiscriminately mixed up with bones and horns of the reindeer carved into different shapes, knuckle-bones of the goat polished on both sides, a whistle made from the tibia of a goat, from which sounds could still be produced, fragments of very coarse pottery, some remains of fire-hearths, &c. the _trou du frontal_ was thus named by m. Édouard dupont, from the fact of a human frontal-bone having been found there on the day that the excavations commenced. this was not the only discovery of the kind that was to be made. ere long they fell in with a great quantity of human bones, intermixed with a considerable number of the bones of reindeer and other animals, as well as implements of all kinds. m. van beneden ascertained that the bones must have belonged to thirteen persons of various ages; some of them are the bones of infants scarcely a year old. among them were found two perfect skulls which are in good preservation; these remains are also very valuable, because they afford data from which deductions may be drawn as to the cranial conformation of the primitive inhabitants of the banks of the lesse. m. Édouard dupont is of opinion that this cave was used as a burial-place. it is, in fact, very probable that such was the purpose for which it was intended; for a large flag-stone was found in it, which was probably used to close up the mouth of the cave, and to shield the dead bodies from profanation. if this be the case, the animal bones which were scattered around are the remains of the funeral banquets which it was the custom to provide during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. it is interesting to establish the existence of such a similarity between the customs of men who were separated by vast tracts of land and an interval of many thousands of years. immediately above the _trou du frontal_ there is a cave called _trou rosette_, in which the bones of three persons of various ages were found intermingled with the bones of reindeer and beavers; fragments of a blackish kind of pottery were also found there, which were hollowed out in rough grooves by way of ornamentation, and merely hardened in the fire. m. dupont is of opinion that the three men whose remains were discovered were crushed to death by masses of rock at the time of the great inundation, traces of which may still be seen in the valley of the lesse. by the falling in of its roof, which buried under a mass of rubbish all the objects which were contained in it at the time of the catastrophe and thus kept them in their places, the cave of chaleux escaped the complete disturbance with which the above-mentioned caverns were visited. the bones of mammals, of birds, and of fish were found there; also some carved bones and horns of the reindeer, some fossil shells, which, as we have before observed, came from champagne, and were used as ornaments; lastly, and chiefly, wrought flints numbering at least , . in the hearth, which was placed in the middle of the cave, a stone was discovered with certain signs on it, which, up to the present time, have remained unexplained. m. dupont, as we have previously stated, collected in the immediate vicinity about twenty-two pounds' weight of the bones of the water-rat either scorched or roasted; this proves that when a more noble and substantial food failed them, the primitive inhabitants of this country were able to content themselves with these small and unsavoury rodents. the two skulls which were found at furfooz have been carefully examined by mm. van beneden and pruner-bey, who are both great authorities on the subject of anthropology. these skulls present considerable discrepancies, but pruner-bey is of opinion that they are heads of a male and female of the same race. in order to justify his hypothesis the learned anthropologist says, that there is often more difference between the skulls of the two sexes of the same race, than between the skulls of the same sex belonging to two distinct races. [illustration: fig. .--skull found at furfooz, by m. Édouard dupont.] one of these skulls is distinguished by a projecting jaw; the other, which is represented in fig. , has jaws even with the facial outline. the prominent jaw of the first, which is the indication of a degraded race (like that of the negro), does not prevent its having a higher forehead and a more capacious cranium than the other skull. we find here an actual intermingling of the characteristics which belong to the inferior races with those peculiar to the caucasian race, which is considered to be the most exalted type of the human species. according to pruner-bey, the belgian people during the reindeer epoch were a race of small stature but very sturdy; the face was lozenge-shaped, and the whole skull had the appearance of a pyramid. this race of a turanian or mongolian origin was the same as the ligurian or iberian race, which still exists in the north of italy (gulf of genoa), and in the pyrenees (basque districts). these conclusions must be accepted with the highest degree of caution, for they do not agree with the opinions of all anthropologists. m. broca is of opinion that the basques have sprung from a north african race, which spread over europe at a time when an isthmus existed where the straits of gibraltar are now situated. this idea is only reasonable; for certain facts prove that europe and africa were formerly connected by a neck of land; this was afterwards submerged, at the spot where the straits of gibraltar now exist, bringing about the disjunction of europe and africa. it will be sufficient proof, if we point to the analogy subsisting between the _fauna_ of the two countries, which is established by the existence of a number of wild monkeys which, even in the present day, inhabit this arid rock, and are also to be met with on the opposite african shore. [illustration: fig. .--skull of an old man, found in a _rock-shelter_ at bruniquel.] in the interesting excavations which were made in the _rock-shelters_ at bruniquel, m. v. brun found a quantity of human bones, and particularly two skulls--one that of an old man, the other that of an adult. we here (fig. ) give a representation of the old man's skull taken from a photograph which m. v. brun has been kind enough to send us. if we measure the facial angle of this skull, we shall find that it does not differ from the skulls of the men who at the present time inhabit the same climates. from this fact, it may be gathered how mistaken the idea may be which looks upon primitive man, or the man of the stone epoch as a being essentially different from the men of the present day. the phrase _fossil man_, we must again repeat, should be expunged from the vocabulary of science; we should thus harmonise better with established facts, and should also do away with a misunderstanding which is highly detrimental to the investigations into the origin of man. in concluding this account of the manners and customs of man during the reindeer epoch, we must say a few words as to the funeral rites of this time, or rather, the mode of burial peculiar to this period of primitive man's history. those who lived in caves buried their dead in caves. it is, also, a fact to be remarked, that man often uses the same type for both his burial-places and dwelling-places. the burial-places of the tartars of kasan, says m. nilsson, are exact likenesses, on a small scale, of their dwelling-places, and like them, are constructed of beams placed close to one another. a circassian burial-place is perfectly similar to a circassian dwelling. the tombs of the karaite jews, in the valley of jehoshaphat, resemble their houses and places of worship, and the neo-grecian tombs, in the crimea, are likewise imitations of their churches.[ ] we shall not, therefore, be surprised to learn that man during the reindeer epoch buried his dead in caves, just in the same way as was done by his ancestors during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, that is to say, the dead were interred in the same kind of caves as those which were then generally used as places of abode. fig. represents a funeral ceremonial during the reindeer epoch. [illustration: fig. .--a funeral ceremony during the reindeer epoch.] the corpse is borne on a litter of boughs, a practice which is still in use among some modern savages. men provided with torches, that is branches of resinous trees, preceded the funeral procession, in order to light the interior of the cavern. the cave is open, ready to receive the corpse, and it will be closed again after it is deposited there. the weapons, ornaments, and utensils which he had prized during his lifetime, are brought in to be laid by the side of the dead. we will sum up the principal facts which we have laid before our readers in this account of the condition of mankind during the reindeer epoch, by quoting an eloquent passage from a report addressed by m. Édouard dupont to the belgian minister of the interior, on the excavations carried on by this eminent belgian geologist in the caves in the neighbourhood of furfooz. "the data obtained from the fossils of chaleux, together with those which have been met with in the caves of furfooz, present us," says m. dupont, "with a striking picture of the primitive ages of mankind in belgium. "these ancient tribes and all their customs, after having been buried in oblivion for thousands and thousands of years, are again vividly brought before our eyes; and, like the wondrous bird, which, in its ashes, found a new source of life, antiquity lives again in the relics of its former existence. "we may almost fancy that we can see them in their dark and subterranean retreats, crouching round their hearths, and skilfully and patiently chipping out their flint instruments and shaping their reindeer-horn tools, in the midst of all the pestilential emanations arising from the various animal remains which their carelessness has allowed to remain in their dwellings. skins of wild beasts are stripped of their hair, and, by the aid of flint needles, are converted into garments. in our mind's eye, we may see them engaged in the chase, and hunting wild animals--their only weapons being darts and spears, the fatal points of which are formed of nothing but a splinter of flint. "again, we are present at their feasts, in which, during the period when their hunting has been fortunate, a horse, a bear, or a reindeer becomes the more noble substitute for the tainted flesh of the rat, their sole resource in the time of famine. "now, we see them trafficking with the tribes inhabiting the region now called france, and procuring the jet and fossil shells with which they love to adorn themselves, and the flint which is to them so precious a material. on one side they are picking up the fluor spar, the colour of which is pleasing to their eyes; on the other, they are digging out the great slabs of sandstone which are to be placed as hearthstones round their fire. "but, alas! inauspicious days arrive, and certainly misfortune does not seem to spare them. a falling in of the roof of their cave drives them out of their chief dwelling-place. the objects of their worship, their weapons, and their utensils--all are buried there, and they are forced to fly and take up their abode in another spot. "the ravages of death break in upon them; how great are the cares which are now lavished upon those whom they have lost! they bear the corpse into its cavernous sepulchre; some weapons, an amulet, and perhaps an urn, form the whole of the funeral furniture. a slab of stone prevents the inroad of wild beasts. then begins the funeral banquet, celebrated close by the abode of the dead; a fire is lighted, great animals are cut up, and portions of their smoking flesh are distributed to each. how strange the ceremonies that must then have taken place! ceremonies like those told us of the savages of the indian and african solitudes. imagination may easily depict the songs, the dances and the invocations, but science is powerless to call them into life. "the sepulchre is often reopened; little children and adults came in turn to take their places in the gloomy cave. thirteen times the same ceremonial occurs, and thirteen times the slab is moved to admit the corpses. "but the end of this primitive age is at last come. torrents of water break in upon the country. its inhabitants, driven from their abodes, in vain take refuge on the lofty mountain summits. death at last overtakes them, and a dark cavern is the tomb of the wretched beings, who, at furfooz, were witnesses of this immense catastrophe. "nothing is respected by the terrible element. the sepulchre, the object of such care on the part of the artless tribe, is burst open before the torrent, and the bones of the dead bodies, disjointed by the water, are dispersed into the midst of the crumbling earth and stones. their former habitation alone is exempt from this common destruction, for it has been protected by a previous catastrophe--the sinking in of its roof on to the ground of the cave." having now given a sketch of the chief features presented by man and his surroundings during the reindeer epoch; having described the most important objects of his skill, and dwelt upon the products of his artistic faculties; it now remains for us to complete, in a scientific point of view, the study of this question, by notifying the sources from which we have been able to gather our data, and to bring home to our minds these interesting ideas. under this head, we may state that almost all the information which has been obtained has been derived from caves; and it will, therefore, be best to make a few brief remarks on the caverns which have been the scene of these various discoveries. honour to whom honour is due. in mentioning these localities, we must place in the first class the settlements of périgord, which have contributed to so great an extent towards the knowledge which we possess of primitive man. the four principal ones are, the cave of les eyzies and the rock-shelters or caverns of la madelaine, laugerie-haute, and laugerie-basse. all of them have been explored by mm. lartet and christy, who, after having directed the excavations with the greatest ability, have set forth the results of their researches in a manner no less remarkable.[ ] the settlement of laugerie-basse has also been explored by m. de vibraye, who collected there some very interesting specimens. we have no intention of reverting to what we have before stated when describing the objects found in these various localities. we will content ourselves with mentioning the lumbar vertebral bone of a reindeer found in the cave of eyzies, of which we have given a representation in fig. ; it was pierced through by an arrow-head, which may still be seen fixed in it. if any doubts could still exist of the co-existence, in france, of man and the reindeer, this object should suffice to put an end to them for ever. we will mention, as next in importance, the cave and rock-shelters at bruniquel (tarn-et-garonne). they have been carefully examined by a great many explorers, among whom we must specify m. garrigou, m. de lastic (the proprietor of the cavern), m. v. brun, the learned director of the museum of natural history at montauban, and m. peccadeau de l'isle. it is to be regretted that m. de lastic sold about fifteen hundred specimens of every description of the relics which had been found on his property, to professor owen, for the british museum. in this large quantity of relics, there were, of course, specimens which will never be met with elsewhere; which, therefore, it would have been better in every respect to have retained in france. the cave of bruniquel has also furnished us with human bones, amongst which are two almost perfect skulls, one of which we have previously represented; also two half jaw-bones which resemble those found at moulin-quignon. m. v. brun has given, in his interesting work, a representation of these human remains.[ ] we will now mention the _cave of bize_ near narbonne (aude); the _cave of la vache_ in the valley of tarascon (ariége), in which m. garrigou collected an immense quantity of bones, on one of which some peculiar characters are graven, constituting, perhaps, a first attempt in the art of writing; the _cavern of massat_ in the same department, which has been described by m. fontan, and is thought by m. lartet to have been a summer dwelling-place, the occupiers of which lived on raw flesh and snails, for no traces of a hearth are to be seen, although it must have been used for a considerable time as a shelter by primitive man; the _cave of lourdes_, near tarbes (hautes-pyrénées), in which m. milne-edwards met with a fragment of a human skull, belonging to an adult individual; the _cave of espalungue_, also called the _grotto of izeste_ (basses-pyrénées), where mm. garrigou and martin found a human bone, the fifth left metatarsal; the _cave of savigné_ (vienne), situated on the banks of the charente, and discovered by m. joly-leterme, an architect of saumur, who there found a fragment of a stag's bone, on which the bodies of two animals are graven with hatchings to indicate shadows; the _grottos of la balme and bethenas_, in dauphiné, explored by m. chantre; lastly, the settlement of solutré, in the neighbourhood of mâcon, from which mm. ferry and arcelin have exhumed two human skulls, together with some very fine flint instruments of the laugerie-haute type. these settlements do not all belong to the same epoch, although most of them correspond to the long period known as the reindeer epoch. it is not always possible to determine their comparative chronology. from the state of their _débris_ it can, however, be ascertained, that the caves of lourdes and espalungue date back to the most ancient period of the reindeer epoch; whilst the settlements of périgord, of tarn-et-garonne, and of mâconnais are of a later date. the cave of massat seems as if it ought to be dated at the beginning of the wrought stone epoch, for no bones have been found there, either of the reindeer or the horse; the remains of the bison are the sole representatives of the extinct animal species. in concluding this list of the french bone-caves which have served to throw a light upon the peculiar features of man's existence during the reindeer epoch, we must not omit to mention the belgian caves, which have been so zealously explored by m. Édouard dupont. from the preceding pages, we may perceive how especially important the latter have been in the elucidation of the characteristics of man's physical organisation during this epoch. france and belgium are not the only countries which have furnished monuments relating to man's history during the reindeer epoch. we must not omit to mention that settlements of this epoch have been discovered both in germany and also in switzerland. in a great quantity of bones and broken instruments were found at the bottom of an ancient glacier-moraine in the neighbourhood of rabensburg, not far from the lake of constance. the bones of the reindeer formed about ninety-eight hundredths of these remains. the other _débris_ were the bones of the horse, the wolf, the brown bear, the white fox, the glutton and the ox. in , on a mountain near geneva, a cave was discovered about feet deep and feet wide, which contained, under a layer of carbonate of lime, a great quantity of flints and bones. the bones of the reindeer formed the great majority of them, for eighteen skeletons of this animal were found. the residue of the remains were composed of four horses, six ibex, intermingled with the bones of the marmot, the chamois, and the hazel-hen; in short, the bones of the whole animal population which, at the present time, has abandoned the valleys of switzerland, and is now only to be met with on the high mountains of the alps. footnotes: [ ] 'origine de la navigation et de la pêche.' paris, , p. . [ ] 'pre-historic times,' d ed. p. . [ ] 'l'homme fossile.' brussels, (page ). [ ] 'the primitive inhabitants of scandinavia,' by sven nilsson, p. . london, . [ ] 'reliquiæ aquitanicæ,' by Éd. lartet and h. christy. london, , &c. [ ] 'notice sur les fouilles paléontologiques de l'age de la pierre exécutées à bruniquel et saint-antonin,' by v. brun. montauban, . iii. the polished-stone epoch; or, the epoch of tamed animals. chapter i. the european deluge--the dwelling-place of man during the polished-stone epoch--the caves and rock-shelters still used as dwelling-places--principal caves belonging to the polished-stone epoch which have been explored up to the present time--the food of man during this period. aided by records drawn from the bowels of the earth, we have now traversed the series of antediluvian ages since the era when man first made his appearance on the earth, and have been enabled, though but very imperfectly, to reconstruct the history of our primitive forefathers. we will now leave this epoch, through the dark night of which science seeks almost in vain to penetrate, and turn our attention to a period the traces of which are more numerous and more easily grasped by our intelligence--a period, therefore, which we are able to characterise with a much greater degree of precision. a great catastrophe, the tradition of which is preserved in the memory of all nations, marked in europe the end of the quaternary epoch. it is not easy to assign the exact causes for this great event in the earth's history; but whatever may be the explanation given, it is certain that a cataclysm, caused by the violent flowing of rushing water, took place during the quaternary geological epoch; for the traces of it are everywhere visible. these traces consist of a reddish clayey deposit, mixed with sand and pebbles. this deposit is called in some countries _red diluvium_, and in others _grey diluvium_. in the valley of the rhone and the rhine it is covered with a layer of loamy deposit, which is known to geologists by the name of _loess_ or _lehm_, and as to the origin of which they are not all agreed. sir charles lyell is of opinion that this mud was produced by the crushing of the rocks by early alpine glaciers, and that it was afterwards carried down by the streams of water which descended from these mountains. this mud covers a great portion of belgium, where it is from to feet in thickness, and supplies with material a large number of brickfields. this deposit, that is the _diluvial beds_, constitutes nearly the most recent of all those which form the earth's crust; in many european countries, it is, in fact the ground trodden under the feet of the present population. the inundation to which the _diluvium_ is referred closes the series of the quaternary ages. after this era, the present geological period commences, which is characterised by the almost entire permanency of the vertical outline of the earth, and by the formation of peat-bogs. the earliest documents afforded us by history are very far from going back to the starting-point of this period. the history of the ages which we call historical is very far from having attained to the beginning of the present geological epoch. in order to continue our account of the progressive development of primitive man, we must now turn our attention to the _polished-stone epoch_, or the _epoch of tamed animals_, which precedes the metal age. as the facts which we shall have to review are very numerous, we will, in the first place, consider this epoch as it affects those parts of our continent which form the present france and belgium; next, with reference to denmark and switzerland, in which countries we shall have to point out certain manners and customs of man of an altogether special character. we shall consider in turn:-- st. the habitation of man during the polished-stone epoch. nd. his system of food. rd. his arts and manufactures. th. the weapons manufactured by him, and their use in war. th. his attainments in agriculture, fishing, and navigation. th. his funeral ceremonies. th. lastly, the characteristics of mankind during this epoch. _habitation._--in that part of the european continent which now forms the country called france, man, during that period we designate under the name of the polished-stone epoch, continued for a considerable time to inhabit rock-shelters and caves which afforded him the best retreat from the attacks of wild beasts. this fact has been specially proved to have been the case in the extreme south of the above-mentioned country. among the investigations which have contributed towards its verification, we must give particular notice to those made by mm. garrigou and filhol in the caves of the pyrenees (ariége). these two _savants_ have also explored the caves of pradières, bedeilhac, labart, niaux, ussat, and fontanel.[ ] in one of these caves, which we have already mentioned in the preceding chapter, but to which we must again call attention--for they belong both to the polished stone, and also to the reindeer epoch--mm. garrigou and filhol found the bones of a huge ox, the urus or _bos primigenius_, a smaller kind of ox, the stag, the sheep, the goat, the antelope, the chamois, the wild boar, the wolf, the dog, the fox, the badger, the hare, and possibly those of the horse. neither the bones of the reindeer nor the bison are included in this list of names; on account of the mildness of the climate, these two species had already migrated towards the north and east in search of a colder atmosphere. the remains of hearths, bones split lengthwise, and broken skulls, indicate that the inhabitants of these caves lived on much the same food as their ancestors. it is probable that they also ate raw snails, for a large quantity of their shells were found in this cave, and also in the cavern of massat,[ ] the presence of which can only be accounted for in this way. these remains were found intermingled with piercers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads, all made of bone; also hatchets, knives, and scratchers, made of flint, and also of various other substances, which were more plentiful than flint in that country, such as siliceous schist, quartzite, leptinite and serpentine stones. these instruments were carefully wrought, and a few had been polished at one end on a slab of flag-stone. in the cave of lourdes (hautes-pyrénées), which has been explored by m. alphonse milne-edwards, two layers were observed; one belonging to the reindeer epoch, and the other to the polished-stone epoch.[ ] the cave of pontil (hérault), which has been carefully examined by professor gervais,[ ] has furnished remains of every epoch including the bronze age; we must, however, except the reindeer epoch, which is not represented in this cave. lastly, we will mention the cave of saint-jean-d'alcas (aveyron), which has been explored, at different times, by m. cazalis de fondouce. this is a sepulchral cave, like that of aurignac. when it was first explored, about twenty years ago, five human skulls, in good preservation, were found in it--a discovery, the importance of which was then unheeded, and the skulls were, in consequence, totally lost to science. flint, jade, and serpentine instruments, carved bones, remains of rough pottery, stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, which had formed necklaces and bracelets, were intermingled with human bones. at saint-jean-d'alcas, m. cazalis de fondouce did not meet with any remains of funeral banquets such as were found at aurignac and furfooz; he only noticed two large flag-stones lying across one another at the mouth of the cave, so as to make the inlet considerably narrower. this cave, according to a recent publication of m. cazalis, must be referred to a more recent epoch than was at first supposed, for some fragments of metallic substances were found in it. it must, therefore, have belonged to a late period of the polished-stone epoch.[ ] _man's system of feeding during the polished-stone epoch._--in order to obtain full information on the subject of man's food in the north and centre of europe during the polished-stone epoch, we must appeal to the interesting researches of which denmark has been the scene during the last few years; but these researches, on account of their importance, require a detailed account. [illustration: fig. .--man of the polished-stone epoch.] footnotes: [ ] 'l'homme fossile des cavernes de lombrive et de lherm.' toulouse, . illustrated. 'l'age de pierre dans les vallées de tarascon' (ariége). tarascon, . [ ] 'sur deux cavernes découvertes dans la montagne de kaer à massat' (ariége). quoted by lyell, appendix to 'the antiquity of man,' p. . [ ] 'de l'existence de l'homme pendant la période quaternaire dans la grotte de lourdes' (hautes-pyrénées). ('annales des sciences naturelles,' th series, vol. xvii.) [ ] 'mémoires de l'académie de montpellier' ('section des sciences'), , vol. iii, p. . [ ] 'sur une caverne de l'age de la pierre, située près de saint-jean-d'alcas' (aveyron), . 'derniers temps de l'age de la pierre polie dans l'aveyron', montpellier, . illustrated. chapter ii. the _kjoekken-moeddings_ or "kitchen-middens" of denmark--mode of life of the men living in denmark during the polished-stone epoch--the domestication of the dog--the art of fishing during the polished-stone epoch--fishing-nets--weapons and instruments of war--type of the human race; the borreby skull. although classed in the lowest rank on account of the small extent of its territory and the number of its inhabitants, the danish nation is, nevertheless, one of the most important in europe, in virtue of the eminence to which it has attained in science and arts. this valiant, although numerically speaking, inconsiderable people, can boast of a great number of distinguished men who are an honour to science. the unwearied researches of their archæologists and antiquarians have ransacked the dust of bygone ages, in order to call into new life the features of a vanished world. their labours, guided by the observations of naturalists, have brought out into the clear light of day some of the earliest stages in man's existence and progress. there is no part of the world more adapted than denmark to this kind of investigation. antiquities may be met with at every step; the real point in question is to know how to examine them properly, so as to obtain from them important revelations concerning the manners, customs, and manufactures of the pre-historic inhabitants. the museum of copenhagen, which contains antiquities from various scandinavian states, is, in this respect, without a rival in the world. among the objects arranged in this well-stocked museum a great many specimens may be observed which have come from the so-called _kitchen-middens_. in the first place, what are these _kjoekken-moeddings_, or kitchen-middens, with their uncouth scandinavian name? immense accumulations of shells have been observed on different points of the danish coast, chiefly in the north, where the sea enters those narrow deep creeks, known by the name of _fiords_. these deposits are not generally raised more than about feet above the level of the sea; but in some steep places their altitude is greater. they are about to feet in thickness, and from to feet in width; their length is sometimes as much as feet, with a width of from to feet. on some of the more level shores they form perfect hills, on which, as at havelse, windmills are sometimes built. what do we meet with in these heaps? an immense quantity of sea-shells, especially those of the oyster, broken bones of mammiferous animals, remains of birds and fish; and, lastly, some roughly-wrought flints. the first idea formed with regard to these kitchen-middens was that they were nothing but banks of fossil shells, beds which had formerly been submerged, and subsequently brought to light by an upheaval of the earth caused by some volcanic cause. but m. steenstrup, a danish _savant_, opposed this opinion, basing his contradiction on the fact that these shells belong to four different species which are never found together, and consequently they must have been brought together by man. m. steenstrup also called attention to the fact that almost all these shells must have belonged to full-grown animals, and that there were hardly any young ones to be found amongst them. a peculiarity of this kind is an evident indication of the exercise of some rational purpose, in fact, of an act of the human will. when all the _débris_ and relics which we have enumerated were discovered in these kitchen-middens, when the remains of hearths--small spots which still retained traces of fire--were found in them, the origin of these heaps were readily conjectured. tribes once existed there who subsisted on the products of fishing and hunting, and threw out round their cabins the remains of their meals, consisting especially of the _débris_ of shell-fish. these remains gradually accumulated, and constituted the considerable heaps which we are discussing; hence the name of _kjoekken-moedding_, composed of two words--_kjoekken_, kitchen; and _moedding_, heap of refuse. these "kitchen-middens," as they are called, are, therefore, the refuse from the meals of the primitive population of denmark. if we consider the heaps of oyster-shells and other _débris_ which accumulate in the neighbourhood of eating-houses in certain districts, we may readily understand, comparing great things with small, how these danish kitchen-middens were produced. i myself well recollect having noticed in the environs of montpellier small hillocks of a similar character, formed by the accumulation of oyster-shells, mussels, and clams. when the conviction was once arrived at that these kitchen-middens were the refuse of the meals of the primitive inhabitants, the careful excavation of all these heaps scattered along the danish coast became an extremely interesting operation. it might be justly expected that some data would be collected as to the customs and manufactures of the ancient dwellers in these countries. a commission was, in consequence, appointed by the danish government to examine these deposits, and to publish the results of its labours. this commission was composed of three _savants_, each of whom were eminent in their respective line--steenstrup, the naturalist, forchhammer, a geologist, and the archæologist, worsaae--and performed its task with as much talent as zeal. the observations which were made are recorded in three reports presented to the academy of sciences at copenhagen. from these documents are borrowed most of the details which follow. before proceeding to acquaint our readers with the facts brought to light by the danish commission, it will be well to remark that denmark does not stand alone in possessing these kitchen-middens. they have been discovered in england--in cornwall and devonshire--in scotland, and even in france, near hyères (bouches-du-rhône).[ ] mm. sauvage and hamy have pointed out to m. de mortillet the existence of deposits of this kind in the pas-de-calais. they may be noticed, say these naturalists, at la salle (commune of outreau) at certain parts of the coast of portel, and especially a very large heap at cronquelets (commune of etaples.) they chiefly consist of the _cardium edule_, which appear to abound in the kitchen-middens of the pas-de-calais. messrs. evans, prestwich, and lubbock observed one of these deposits at saint-valery, near the mouth of the somme. added to this, they have been described by various travellers as existing in different parts of the world. dampier studied them in australia, and darwin in tierra del fuego, where deposits of the same character are now in the course of formation. m. pereira da costa found one on the coast of portugal; sir c. lyell has testified to the existence of others on the coasts of massachusetts and georgia, in the united states; m. strobel, on the coasts of brazil. but those in denmark are the only deposits of this kind which have been the subject of investigations of a deliberate and serious character. almost all these kitchen-middens are found on the coast, along the _fiords_, where the action of the waves is not much felt. some have, however, been found several miles inland; but this must be owing to the fact that the sea once occupied these localities, from which it has subsequently retired. they are not to be met with on some of the danish coasts, as those of the western side; this, on the one hand, may be caused by their having been washed away by the sea, which has there encroached on the land, or, on the other hand, by the fact that the western coast was much less sheltered than the other parts of the danish peninsula. they are not unfrequently to be found in the adjacent islands. these kitchen-middens form, in a general way, undulating mounds, which sink in a gentle incline from the centre to the circumference. the spot where they are thickest indicates the site of the habitations of man. sometimes, we may notice one principal hillock, surrounded by smaller mounds; or else, in the middle of the heaps, there is a spot which must have been the site of the encampment. these refuse deposits are almost entirely made up of shells of various kinds of molluscs; the principal species are the oyster, the cockle, the mussel, and the periwinkle. others, such as whelks, _helices_ (edible snails), _nassa_, and _trigonella_, are also found; but they are comparatively few in number. fishes' bones are discovered in great abundance in the kitchen-middens. they belong to the cod, herring, dab, and eel. from this we may infer that the primitive inhabitants of denmark were not afraid of venturing out to brave the waves of the sea in their frail skiffs; for the herring and the cod cannot, in fact, be caught except at some little distance from the shore. mammalian bones are also plentifully distributed in the danish kitchen-middens. those most commonly met with are the remains of the stag, the roe, and the boar, which, according to m. steenstrup's statement, make up ninety-seven hundredths of the whole mass. others are the relics of the urus, the wolf, the dog, the fox, the wild-cat, the lynx, the marten, the otter, the porpoise, the seal, the water-rat, the beaver and the hedgehog. the bison, the reindeer, the elk, the horse, and the domestic ox have not left behind them any trace which will permit us to assume that they existed in denmark at the period when these deposits were formed. amongst other animals, we have mentioned the dog. by various indications, we are led to the belief that this intelligent creature had been at this time reduced to a state of domesticity. it has been remarked that a large number of the bones dispersed in these kitchen-middens are incomplete; exactly the same parts are almost always missing, and certain bones are entirely wanting. m. steenstrup is of opinion that these deficiencies may be owing to the agency of dogs, which have made it their business to ransack the heaps of bones and other matters which were thrown aside by their masters. this hypothesis was confirmed, in his idea, when he became convinced, by experience, that the bones which were deficient in these deposits were precisely those which dogs are in the habit of devouring, and that the remaining portions of those which were found were not likely to have been subject to their attacks on account of their hardness and the small quantity of assimilable matter which was on or in them. although primitive man may have elevated the dog to the dignity of being his companion and friend, he was, nevertheless, sometimes in the habit of eating him. no doubt he did not fall back upon this last resort except in cases when all other means of subsistence failed him. bones of the dog, broken by the hand of man, and still bearing the marks of having been cut with a knife, are amongst the remains found, and place the fact beyond any question. we find, besides, the same taste existing here which we have seen manifested in other ages and different countries. all the long bones have been split in order to extract their marrow--the dainty so highly appreciated by man during the epochs of the reindeer and the mammoth. some remains of birds have been found in the kitchen-middens; but most of the species are aquatic--a fact which may be readily explained by the seaboard position of the men who formed these deposits. as the result of this review of the various substances which were made use of for food by the men of the polished-stone epoch, we may infer that they were both hunters and fishermen. animals of rapid pace were hunted down by means of the dart or arrow, and any more formidable prey was struck down at close quarters by some sharp stone weapon. fishing was practised, as at the present day, by means of the line and net. we have already seen that men, during the reindeer epoch, probably used hooks fastened at the end of lines. these hooks, as we have before remarked, were made with splinters of bone or reindeer horn. during the polished-stone epoch this fishing instrument was much improved, and they now possessed the real hook with a recurvate and pointed end. this kind of hook was found by dr. uhlmann in one of the most ancient lacustrine stations of switzerland. but a curved hook was both difficult to make and also not very durable; instead of it was used another and more simple sort--the straight skewer fixed to serve as a hook. this is a simple fragment of bone, about an inch long, very slender and pointed at the two ends (fig. ). sometimes it is a little flattened in the middle, or bored with a hole, into which the line was fastened. [illustration: fig. .--bone skewers used as fish-hooks.] this little splinter of bone, when hidden by the bait and fastened to a line, was swallowed by the fish and could not be disgorged, one of the pointed ends being certain to bury itself in the entrails of the creature. some of our readers will perhaps be surprised to learn that men of the polished-stone epoch were in the habit of fishing with nets; but it is a fact that cannot be called into question, for the very conclusive reason, that the remains of these nets have been found. how could it possibly come to pass that fishing-nets of the polished-stone epoch should have been preserved to so late a period as our times? this is exactly the question we are about to answer. on the lakes of switzerland and of other countries, there used to exist certain habitations of man. these are the so-called _lacustrine dwellings_ which we shall have hereafter to consider in some considerable detail, when we come to the bronze age. the men who lived on these lakes were necessarily fishers; and some traces of their fishing-nets have been discovered by a circumstance which chemistry finds no difficulty in explaining. some of these lake-dwellings were destroyed by fire; as, for instance, the lacustrine settlements of robenhausen and wangen in switzerland. the outsides of these cabins, which were almost entirely constructed of wood, burnt, of course, very readily; but the objects inside, chiefly consisting of nets--the sole wealth of these tribes--could not burn freely for want of oxygen, but were only charred with the heat. they became covered with a slight coating of some empyreumatic or tarry matter--an excellent medium for insuring the preservation of any organic substance. these nets having been scorched by the fire, fell into the water with the _débris_ of the hut, and, in consequence of their precipitate fall, never having come in actual contact with the flame, have been preserved almost intact at the bottom of the lakes. when, after a long lapse of centuries, they have been again recovered, these _débris_ have been the means of affording information as to the manufacture both of the fishing-nets, and also as to the basket-work, vegetable provisions, &c., of these remote ages. in one of dr. keller's papers on these _lacustrine dwellings_, of which we shall have more to say further on, we find a description and delineation of certain fishing-nets which were recovered from the lake of robenhausen. in the museum of saint-germain we inspected with curiosity several specimens of these very nets, and we here give a representation of one of them. there were nets with wide meshes like that shown in fig. , and also some more closely netted. the mesh is a square one, and appears to have been made on a frame by knotting the string at each point of intersection. all these nets are made of flax, for hemp had not yet been cultivated. [illustration: fig. .--fishing-net with wide meshes.] these nets were held suspended in the water by means of floats, made, not of cork, but of the thick bark of the pine-tree, and were held down to the bottom of the water by stone weights. we give a representation here (fig. ), of one of these stone weights taken from a specimen exhibited in the museum of saint-germain. [illustration: fig. .--stone weight used for sinking the fishing-nets.] these stone weights, large quantities of which are to be seen in museums, and especially in that of saint-germain, are, in almost every case, nothing but pebbles bored through the centre. sometimes, however, they were round pieces of soft stone, having a hole made in the middle. through this hole the cord was passed and fastened by a knot on the other side. by means of the floats and weights the nets were made to assume any position in the water which was wished. the large size of the meshes in the nets belonging to the polished-stone epoch proves, that in the lakes and rivers of this period the fish that were used for food were of considerable dimensions. added to this, however, the monstrous hooks belonging to this epoch which have been found in the seine tend to corroborate this hypothesis. thus, then, the art of fishing had arrived in the polished-stone epoch to a very advanced stage of improvement. in plate we give a representation of fishing as carried on during the polished-stone epoch. [illustration: fig. .--fishing during the polished-stone epoch.] returning to the subject of the ancient danes, we must add, that these men, who lived on the sea-coasts, clad themselves in skins of beasts, rendered supple by the fat of the seal and marrow extracted from the bones of some of the large mammals. for dwelling-places they used tents likewise made of skins prepared in the same way. _arts and manufactures._--what degree of skill in this respect was attained by the men who lived during the polished-stone epoch? to give an answer to this question, we must again ransack those same kitchen-middens which have been the means of furnishing us with such accurate information as to the system of food of the man of that period. we shall also have to turn our attention to the remains found in the principal caves of this epoch. an examination of the instruments found in the kitchen-middens shows us that the flints are in general of a very imperfect type, with the exception, however, of the long splinters or knives, the workmanship of which indicates a considerable amount of skill. fig. represents a flint knife from one of the danish deposits, delineated in the museum of saint-germain; and fig. a _nucleus_, that is, a piece of flint from which splinters have been taken off, which were intended to be used as knives. [illustration: fig. .--flint knife, from one of the danish beds.] [illustration: fig. .--nucleus off which knives are flaked.] we also give a representation of a hatchet (fig. ) and a scraper (fig. ), which came from the same source. [illustration: fig. .--flint hatchet, from one of the danish beds.] [illustration: fig. .--flint scraper, from one of the danish beds.] besides these instruments, bodkins, spear-heads, and stones for slings have also been found in the kitchen-middens, without taking into account a quantity of fragments of flint which do not appear to have been wrought with any special purpose in view, and were probably nothing but rough attempts, or the mere refuse of the manufacture. [illustration: fig. .--refuse from the manufacture of wrought flints.] in the same deposits there are also found a good many pebbles, which, according to the general opinion, must have been used as weights to sink the fishing-nets to the bottom of the water. some are hollowed out with a groove all round them, like that depicted in fig. , which is designed from a specimen in the museum of saint-germain. others have a hole bored through the middle. this groove or hole was, doubtless, intended to hold the cord which fastened the stone weight to the net. [illustration: fig. .--weight to sink fishing-nets.] _weapons and tools._--we shall now pass on to the weapons and tools which were in use among the people in the north of europe during the period we are considering. during the latter period of the polished-stone epoch working in stone attained to a really surprising degree of perfection among the people of the north. it is, in fact, difficult to understand how, without making use of any metallic tools, men could possibly impart to flint, when fashioned into weapons and implements of all kinds, those regular and elegant shapes which the numerous excavations that have been set on foot are constantly bringing to light. the danish flint may, it is true, be wrought with great facility; but nevertheless, an extraordinary amount of skill would be none the less necessary in order to produce that rectitude of outline and richness of contour which are presented by the danish specimens of this epoch--specimens which will not be surpassed even in the bronze age. the hatchets found in the north of europe, belonging to the polished-stone epoch, differ very considerably from the hatchets of france and belgium. the latter are rounded and bulging at the edges; but the hatchets made use of by the people of the north (fig. ) were flatter and cut squarely at the edge. they were nearly in the shape of a rectangle or elongated trapezium, with the four angles cut off. their dimensions are sometimes considerable; some have been found which measured nearly inches in length. [illustration: fig. .--danish axe of the polished-stone epoch.] independently of this type, which is the most plentiful, the northern tribes used also to manufacture the drilled hatchet, which is combined in various ways with the hammer. in these instruments, the best workmanship and the most pleasing shapes are to be noticed. the figs. , and , designed in the museum of saint-germain, from authentic specimens sent by the museum of copenhagen, represent double-edged axes and axe-hammers. they are all pierced with a round hole in which the handle was fixed. the cutting edge describes an arc of a circle, and the other end is wrought into sharp angular edges. [illustration: fig. .--double-edged axe] [illustration: fig. .--danish axe-hammer, drilled for handle.] [illustration: fig. .--danish axe-hammer, drilled for handle.] these hatchets are distinguished from those of the reindeer epoch by a characteristic which enables us to refer them without hesitation to their real date, even in cases in which they have not yet been subject to the operation of polishing. the hatchets of the reindeer epoch have their cutting edge at the narrowest end, whilst those of the polished-stone epoch are sharp at their widest end. this observation does not apply specially to the danish hatchets; it refers equally to those of other european countries. the spear-heads are masterpieces of good taste, patience, and skill. there are two sorts of them. the most beautiful (figs. , ) assume the shape of a laurel-leaf; they are quite flat, and chipped all over with an infinite amount of art. their length is as much as inches. others are shorter and thicker in shape, and terminate at the base in an almost cylindrical handle. sometimes they are toothed at the edge (fig. ). these spear-heads were evidently fixed at the end of a staff, like the halberds of the middle ages and the modern lance. [illustration: fig. .--spear-head from denmark.] [illustration: fig. .--spear-head from denmark.] the poniards (fig. ) are no less admirable in their workmanship than the spear-heads, from which they do not perceptibly differ, except in having a handle, which is flat, wide, solid, and made a little thicker at the end. this handle is always more or less ornamented, and is sometimes covered with delicate carving. to chip a flint in this way must have required a skilful and well-practised hand. [illustration: fig. .--toothed spear-head of flint.] [illustration: fig. .--flint poniard, from denmark.] after these somewhat extraordinary instruments, we must mention the arrow-heads, the shapes of which are rather varied in their character. the arrow-heads most frequently found are formed in the shape of a triangular prism, terminating at the lower end in a stem intended to be inserted into a stick (fig. ); others are deeply indented at the base and quite flat. many are finely serrated on the edges, and occasionally even on the inside edge of the indentation. figs. , , , and represent the various types of danish arrow-heads, all of which are in the museum of saint-germain, and from which these designs were made. [illustration: fig. .--type of the danish arrow-head.] [illustration: fig. .--another type of arrow-head.] [illustration: fig. .--arrow-head.] [illustration: fig. .--arrow-head from denmark.] the chisels and gouges equally merit a special mention. the chisel (fig. ) is a kind of quadrangular prism, chipped in a bevel down to the base. [illustration: fig. .--flint chisel from denmark.] the gouges are hollowed out on one of their faces, so as to act as the tool the name of which has been applied to them. we next come to some curious instruments, of which we have given designs taken from the specimens in the museum of saint-germain; the purpose they were applied to is still problematical. they are small flakes, or blades, in the shape of a crescent (figs. , ). the inner edge, which was either straight or concave, is usually serrated like a saw; the convex side must have been fixed into a handle; for the traces of the handle may still be detected upon many of them. these instruments were probably made use of as scrapers in the preparation of skins for garments; perhaps, also, they were used as knives or as saws. [illustration: fig. .--small stone saw from the danish deposits.] [illustration: fig. .--another stone saw from denmark.] we must now turn our attention to instruments made of bone or stag's horn. they are much less numerous than those of stone, and have nothing about them of a very remarkable character. the only implement that is worthy of notice is the harpoon (fig. ). it is a carved bone, and furnished with teeth all along one side, the other edge being completely smooth. the harpoon of the reindeer epoch was decidedly superior to it. [illustration: fig. .--bone harpoon of the stone age from denmark.] on account of its singularity, we must not omit to mention an object made of bone, composed of a wide flat plate, from which spring seven or eight teeth of considerable length, and placed very close together; there is a kind of handle, much narrower, and terminating in a knob, like the top of a walking-stick. this is probably one of the first combs which ever unravelled the thickly-grown heads of hair of primitive man. [illustration: fig. .--bone comb from denmark.] it is a well-known fact that amber is very plentiful on the coasts of the baltic. even in the stone age, it was already much appreciated by the northern tribes, who used to make necklaces of it, either by merely perforating the rough morsels of amber and stringing them in a row, or by cutting them into spherical or elliptical beads, as is the case nowadays. fig. represents a necklace and also various other ornaments made of yellow amber, which have been drawn from specimens in the museum of saint-germain. [illustration: fig. .--necklace and various ornaments of amber.] although these northern tribes of the polished-stone epoch were such skilful workmen in flint, they were, nevertheless, but poor hands at pottery. the _débris_ of vessels collected from the danish _kitchen-middens_, and also from the peat-bogs and tombs, are in every way rough, and testify to a very imperfect knowledge of the art of moulding clay. they may be said to mark the first efforts of a manufacturing art which is just springing into existence, which is seeking for the right path, although not, as yet, able to find it. the art of pottery (if certain relics be relied on) was more advanced at a more ancient period, that is, during the reindeer epoch. we have already stated that during the reindeer epoch there existed certain manufactories of weapons and tools, the productions of which were distributed all round the adjacent districts, although over a somewhat restricted circle. in the epoch at which we have now arrived, certain _workshops_--for really this is the proper name to give them--acquired a remarkable importance, and their relations became of a much more extensive character. in several of the belgian caves, flints have been found which must have come from the celebrated workshop of grand-pressigny, situated in that part of the present france which forms the department of indre-et-loire, and, from their very peculiar character, are easily recognisable. commerce and manufacture had then emerged from their merely rudimentary state, and were entering into a period of activity implying a certain amount of civilisation. the great principle of division of labour had already been put into practice, for there were special workshops both for the shaping and polishing of flints. the most important of all the workshops which have been noticed in france is, unquestionably, that of grand-pressigny, which we have already mentioned. it was discovered by dr. léveillé, the medical man of the place; but, to tell the truth, it is not so much in itself a centre of manufacture as a series of workshops distributed in the whole neighbourhood round pressigny. at the time of this discovery, that is in , flints were found in thousands imbedded in the vegetable mould on the surface of the soil, over a superficies of to acres. the abbé chevalier, giving an account of this curious discovery to the _académie des sciences_ at paris, wrote: "it is impossible to walk a single step without treading on some of these objects." the workshops of grand-pressigny furnish us with a considerable variety of instruments. we find hatchets in all stages of manufacture, from the roughest attempt up to a perfectly polished weapon. we find, also, long flakes or flint-knives cleft off with a single blow with astonishing skill. all these objects, even the most beautiful among them, are nevertheless defective in some respect or other; hence it may be concluded that they were the refuse thrown aside in the process of manufacture. in this way may be explained the accumulation of so many of these objects in the same spot. there were likewise narrow and elongated points forming a kind of piercer, perfectly wrought; also scrapers, and saws of a particular type which seem to have been made in a special workshop. they are short and wide, and have at each end a medial slot intended to receive a handle. [illustration: fig. .--nucleus in the museum of saint-germain, from the workshop of grand-pressigny.] but the objects which are the most numerous of all, and those which obviate any doubt that pressigny was once an important centre of the manufacture of flint, are the _nuclei_ (fig. ), or the remnants of the lump of flint, from which the large blades known under the name of knives were cleft off. some of these lumps which we have seen in the museum of st. germain were as much as and inches in length; but the greater part did not exceed inches. the labourers of touraine, who often turn up these flints with their plough-shares, call them _pounds of butter_, looking at the similarity of shape. at the present day these _nuclei_ are plentiful in all the collections of natural history and geology. a strange objection has been raised against the antiquity of the hatchets, knives, and weapons found at pressigny. m. eugène robert has asserted that these flints were nothing else but the refuse of the siliceous masses which, at the end of the last century and especially at the beginning of the present, were used in the manufacture of gun-flints! the abbé bourgeois, m. penguilly l'haridon, and mr. john evans did not find much difficulty in proving the slight foundation there was for this criticism. in the department of loire-et-cher, in which the gun-flint manufacture still exists, the residue from the process bears no resemblance whatever to the _nuclei_ of pressigny; the fragments are much less in bulk, and do not present the same constantly-occurring and regular shapes. added to this, they are never chipped at the edges, like a great number of the flakes coming from the workshops of touraine. but another and altogether peremptory argument is that the flints of pressigny-le-grand are unfitted, on account of the texture, for the manufacture of gun-flints. moreover, the records of the artillery depôt, as remarked by m. penguilly l'haridon, librarian of the artillery museum, do not make mention of the locality of pressigny having ever been worked for this purpose. lastly, the oldest inhabitants of the commune have testified that they never either saw or heard of any body of workmen coming into the district to work flints. m. eugène robert's hypothesis, which mm. decaisne and elie de beaumont thought right to patronise, is, therefore, as much opposed to facts as to probability. very few polished flints are found in the workshops of pressigny-le-grand; it is, therefore, imagined that their existence commenced before the polished-stone epoch. according to this idea, the _nuclei_ would belong to a transitional epoch between the period of chipped stone, properly so called, and that of polished stone. the first was just coming to an end, but the second had not actually commenced. in other words, most of the pressigny flints have the typical shapes and style of cutting peculiar to the polished-stone age, but the polishing is wanting. this operation was not practised in the workshops of pressigny until some considerable period after they were founded, and were already in full operation. in the neighbourhood of this locality a number of polishers have been found of a very remarkable character. they are large blocks of sandstone (fig. ), furrowed all over, or only on a portion of their surface, with grooves of various depths, in which objects might be polished by an energetic friction. [illustration: fig. .--polisher from grand-pressigny, both faces being shown.] some polishers of the same kind, which have been found in various departments, are rather different from the one we have just named. thus, one specimen which was found by m. leguay in the environs of paris, in the burial-places of varenne-saint-hilaire, of which we give a representation further on, is provided not only with grooves but also hollows of a basin-like shape, and of some little depth. the polishing of the flints was carried into effect by rubbing them against the bottom of these hollows, which were moistened by water, and no doubt contained siliceous dust of a harder nature than the stone which had to be polished. we must here pause for a moment to remark that all these operations which were carried out by our ancestors in fashioning the flint could not fail to have presented certain difficulties, and must have required a remarkable development of intelligence and skill. working flints into shape, which appears at first sight a very simple matter, is, however, a rather complicated operation, on account of the properties of this mineral substance and the beds in which it lies. in its natural state the flint presents itself in the shape of nearly round lumps, which are brittle, but nevertheless very hard, and which, like glass, can be split in any direction by a blow, so as to furnish scales with sharp edges. in consequence of this circumstance, all that would be requisite in order to produce sharp objects is to cleave off flakes in the shape of a knife or poniard, by striking a flint, held in the left hand, with another and harder flint or hammer. instead of holding in the left hand the flint which was to be wrought, it might also be placed on a rest and, being held fast with the left hand, suitable blows might be applied to the stone. we must not, however, omit to mention, that to enable the flint to be cut up into sharp splinters and to be broken in any desired direction, it is necessary for it to have been very recently extracted from the bosom of the earth; it must possess the humidity which is peculiar to it, with which it is impregnated when in its natural bed. if pieces of flint are exposed to the open air they cannot afterwards be readily broken with any degree of regularity; they then afford nothing but shapeless and irregular chips, of an entirely different character from that which would be required in fashioning them. this moisture was well known to the workmen who used to manufacture the gun-flints, and was called the _quarry damp_. the necessity that the flint should be wrought when newly extracted from the earth, and that the stones should only be dug just in proportion as they were wanted, brought about as a proximate result the creation and working of mines and quarries, which are thus almost as ancient as humanity itself. being unable to make use of flints which had been dried in the air, and consequently rendered unfit for being wrought, the workmen were compelled to make excavations, and to construct galleries, either covered or exposed to the open air, to employ wooden battening, shores, supports; in short, to put in use the whole plant which is required for working a stone-quarry. as, in order not to endanger the lives of the labourers, it was found necessary to prevent any downfalls, they were induced to follow out a certain methodical system in their excavations, by giving a sufficient thickness to the roofs of the galleries, by sinking shafts, by building breast-walls, and by adopting the best plan for getting out the useless _detritus_. when, as was often the case, water came in so as to hinder the miners, it was necessary to get rid of it in order that the workmen should not be drowned. it was also sometimes requisite that the galleries and the whole system of underground ways should be supplied with air. thus their labour in fashioning the flint must have led our ancestors to create the art of working quarries and mines. it has been made a subject of inquiry, how the tribes of the stone age could produce, without the aid of any iron tool, the holes which are found in the flints; and how they could perforate these same flints so as to be able to fit in handles for the hatchets, poniards, and knives; in fact, lapidaries of the present day cannot bore through gun-flints without making use of diamond dust. we are of opinion that the _bow_, which was employed by primitive man in producing fire by rubbing wood against wood, was also resorted to in the workshops for manufacturing stone implements and weapons for giving a rapid revolving motion to a flint drill which was sufficient to perforate the stone. certain experiments which have been made in our own day with very sharp arrow-heads which belonged to primitive man have proved that it is thus very possible to pierce fresh flints, if the action of the drill is assisted by the addition of some very hard dust which is capable of increasing the bite of the instrument. this dust or powder, consisting of corundum or zircon, might have been found without any great difficulty by the men of the stone age. these substances are, in fact, to be met with on the banks of rivers, their presence being betrayed by the golden spangles which glitter in the sand. thus the flint-drill, assisted by one of these powders, was quite adequate for perforating siliceous stones. when it is brought to our knowledge that the workmen of the black forest thus bore into bohemian granite in less than a minute, we shall not feel inclined to call this explanation in question.[ ] fig. attempts to give a representation of the workshop at pressigny for shaping and polishing flints--in other words, a manufacturing workshop of the polished-stone epoch. [illustration: fig. .--the earliest manufacture and polishing of flints.] in this sketch we have depicted the polisher found by m. leguay, of which we give a representation in fig. . in this picture it was indispensable for us to show the operation of polishing, for the latter is a characteristic of the epoch of mankind which we are now describing, that is, the polished-stone period. it must, in fact, be remarked that during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth, and the reindeer epoch, stone instruments were not polished, they were purely and simply flakes or fragments of stone. during the epoch at which we have now arrived, a great improvement took place in this kind of work, and stone instruments were polished. it is therefore essential to call attention to the latter operation. [illustration: fig. .--polisher found by m. leguay.] we think we ought to quote here the brief account m. leguay has given of the polisher represented in our figure. in his 'note sur une pierre à polir les silex trouvée en septembre, , à la varenne-saint-hilaire (seine),' m. leguay thus writes:-- "amongst the many monuments of the stone age which i have collected at varenne-saint-hilaire, on the site of the ancient settlement which once existed there, there is one which has always struck me, not only by its good state of preservation, but also by the revelations which it affords us as to one of the principal manufactures of these tribes--the fabrication of flint weapons and utensils. "this object is a stone for polishing and fashioning the finest kind of hatchets. i discovered it in september, , at a spot called _la pierre au prêtre_, along with several other monuments of primitive art which i intend before long to make public. this stone is a rough sandstone of cubical shape, showing no trace whatever of having been hewn. it is inches in its greatest thickness, and measures inches long by wide, and, just as in many boulders, one of its faces is well adapted to the use for which it was employed. "this is the face which was used for many long years for rubbing and polishing the weapons made in the place, the remains of which are still found in small quantities in the neighbourhood, and abound in the burial-places, where they have been deposited as votive offerings. "almost the whole of its surface is occupied. in the centre is a basin presenting an oval surface inches the long way, and inches the narrow way. the stone, which has been considerably worn away in consequence of long use, has been rubbed off to a central depth of about inch; this portion must have been used for rubbing the larger objects after they had been roughly shaped by chipping. the length of the basin allowed a motion of considerable length to be given to the stone which was being worked, at the same time giving facilities to the workman for the exercise of all his strength. added to this, this cavity enabled the almond-like shape to be given to the objects--a form which they nearly all present. "either in front or to the right, according to the position in which the observer stands, and almost touching the edge of this basin, there is a hole deeply hollowed in the stone, being inches long; it extends along almost the whole length of the sandstone, with the maximum breadth of about inch, and presents the shape of a very elongated spindle hollowed out to a depth of something less than half an inch in the centre, which tapers off to nothing at the two ends. "the wear of the stone and the shape of this groove point out its intention. it must have been used to reduce the edges or the sides of the hatchet, which after the chipping and flat polishing were left either too thick or too sharp for a handle to be easily fitted to them. added to this, it smoothed down the roughnesses caused by chipping, which it replaced by a round form of no great thickness, which was again and again rubbed flatly on the stone to give it a square and sharp-edged level. this last operation took place in a basin, and it gave to the hatchet a curve in a lengthwise direction which is by no means ungraceful. "the thinning off of the edges of the groove was not an immaterial matter. it not only assisted in forming the above-named curve, but also prevented the cutting edge being distorted, and avoided the need of subsequent repolishing, which spoiled the object by rubbing it away too much. "it must not be for a moment imagined that the edge of the hatchet was made in this groove. examination proves the contrary, and that it was done flatwise while polishing the rest of the object; and if sometimes its thickness did not allow this, it was preliminarily done, and then finished in the general polishing. "but although this basin, and its accompanying groove, on account of their dimensions, acted very well for polishing the large hatchets, the case was different with the smaller ones. this is the reason why two other smaller basins, and also a small groove, were made on the flat part of the stone by the side of the others. "these two basins were placed at two corners of the face of the stone, but still parallel to the larger basin and also to the larger groove, so as to be convenient for the requirements of the workman engaged in polishing without compelling him to shift his position; one is inches, and the other inches in length, with a mean breadth of about - / inches. they are both in the shape of a rather narrow almond, and end almost in a point, which seems to show that they also were used in polishing somewhat narrow objects--perhaps to set right the edges of hatchets, in which the rubbing in the larger basin had produced cavities prejudicial to the perfection of the faces. "the small groove, placed very near the larger one, is inches long. it is the same shape as the other, but is not so deep, and scarcely half an inch wide. "not far from the end of this latter groove, at the point where it approaches the larger one, there are traces of a groove scarcely commenced. "lastly, the flat portions of the stone which are not occupied by the basins and grooves, were sometimes used for touching up the polish, or even for smoothing various objects. "thus, as we see, this polishing-stone, which is one of the most complete in existence, has on it three basins of different sizes, two well-defined grooves, and one only just sketched out. it would serve for finishing off all the instruments that could be required; but, nevertheless, two other sandstones of moderate size were found near it; one round, and the other of a spindle-like shape; these, which were worn and rubbed all over their surfaces, must also have been used in polishing objects. "finding these stones was, however, a thing of frequent occurrence in several spots of this locality, where i often met with them; they were of all sizes and all shapes, and perfectly adapted for polishing small flints, needles, and the cutting edges of knives, deposited with them in the sepulchres. "this polishing-stone, which is thickly covered with _dendrites_ or incrustations, must have been in use at the time it was abandoned. i found it about feet below the surface of the soil, in which it was turned upside down; that is, the basin lay next the earth. the few monuments that were with it--one among which i looked upon as an idol roughly carved in a block of sandstone--were all likewise turned upside down. there had been sepulchres in the neighbourhood, but they had been violated; and the displaced stones, as well as the bones themselves, only served to point out the presence of the former burial-place." the polishing of stone instruments was effected by rubbing the object operated upon in a cavity hollowed out in the centre of the polisher, in which cavity a little water was poured, mixed with zircon or corundum powder, or, perhaps, merely with oxide of iron, which is used by jewellers in carrying out the same operation. it is really surprising to learn what an enormous quantity of flints could be prepared by a single workman, provided with the proper utensils. for information on this point, it is requisite to know what could be done by our former flint-workers in the departments of indre and loire-et-cher, who are, in fact, the descendants of the workmen of the stone age. dolomieu, a french naturalist, desired at the beginning of the century to acquaint himself with the quantity which these workmen could produce, and at the same time to thoroughly understand the process which they employed in manufacturing gun-flints. by visiting the workshops of the flint-workers, m. dolomieu ascertained that the first shape which the workmen gave to the flint was that of a many-sided prism. in the next place, five or six blows with the hammer, which were applied in a minute, were sufficient to cleave off from the mass certain fragments as exact in shape, with faces as smooth, outlines as straight, and angles as sharp, as if the stone had been wrought by a lapidary's wheel--an operation which, in the latter case, would have required an hour's handiwork. all that was requisite, says dolomieu, is that the stones should be fresh, and devoid of flaws or heterogeneous matter. when operating upon a good kind of flint, freshly extracted from the ground, a workman could prepare proper flakes of flint in a day, turning out gun-flints, so that in three days he would perfectly finish ready for sale. in , the russian army was furnished with gun-flints from poland. the manufactory was established at kisniew. at this period, according to dolomieu, , of these gun-flints were made in two months. besides those at grand-pressigny, some other pre-historic workshops have been pointed out in france. we may mention those of charente, discovered by m. de rochebrune; also those of poitou, and lastly, the field of diorières, at chauvigny (loire-et-cher), which appears to have been a special workshop for polishing flint instruments. there is, in fact, not far from chauvigny, in the same department, a rock on which twenty-five furrows, similar to those in the polishing-stones, are still visible; on which account the inhabitants of the district have given it the name of the "scored rock." it is probable that this rock was used for polishing the instruments which were sculptured at diorières. the same kind of open-air workshops for the working of flints have also been discovered in belgium. the environs of mons are specially remarkable in this respect. at spiennes, particularly, there can be no doubt that an important manufactory of wrought flints existed during the polished-stone epoch. a considerable number of hatchets and other implements have been found there; all of them being either unfinished, defective, or scarcely commenced. we here give a representation (fig. ) of a spear-head which came from this settlement. [illustration: fig. .--spear-head from spiennes.] sometimes these workshops were established in caverns, and not in the open air. we are told this by m. j. fournet, a naturalist of lyons, in his work entitled, 'influence du mineur sur la civilisation.' "for a very long time past," says m. fournet, "the caves of mentone had been known to the inhabitants of the district, on account of the accumulation of _débris_ contained in them, a boxful of which were sent to paris, before , by the prince of monaco; the contents of it, however, were never subjected to any proper explanation. since this date, m. grand, of lyons, to whom i am indebted for a collection of specimens from these caves, carefully made several excavations, by which he was enabled to ascertain that the most remarkable objects are only to be met with at a certain depth in the clayey deposit with which the soil of these caves is covered. all the instruments are rough and rudimentary in their character, and must, consequently, be assigned to the first commencement of the art. nevertheless, among the flints some agates were found, which, in my opinion, certainly came from the neighbourhood of frejus; and with them also some pieces of hyaline quartz in the shape of prisms terminated by their two ordinary pyramids. we have a right to suppose that these crystals, which resembled the _meylan diamonds_ found near grenoble, did not come there by chance, and that their sharp points, when fixed in a handle and acting as drills, were used for boring holes in stone." flint was not, however, the only substance used during this epoch in the manufacture of stone-hatchets, instruments and tools. in the caves of france, belgium and denmark a considerable number of hatchets have been found, made of gneiss, diorite, ophite, fibrolite, jade, and various other very hard mineral substances, which were well adapted to the purpose required and the use to which they were put. among the most remarkable we may mention several jade hatchets which were found in the department of gers, and ornamented with small hooks on each side of the edge. one of these beautiful jade hatchets (fig. ), the delineation of which is taken from the specimen in the museum of saint-germain, was found in the department of seine-et-oise; it has a sculptured ridge in the middle of each face. [illustration: fig. .--polished jade hatchet in the museum of saint-germain.] but neither flint, gneiss, nor diorite exist in every country. for these stones some less hard substance was then substituted. in switzerland the instruments and tools were generally made of pebbles which had been drifted down by the streams. they were fashioned by breaking them with other stones, by rubbing them on sandstone, or by sawing them with toothed blades of flint according to their cohesive nature. in some localities also objects of large size were made of serpentine, basalts, lavas, jades, and other rocks chosen on account of their extreme cohesiveness. manual skill had, however, attained such a pitch of perfection among the workmen of this period, in consequence of their being habituated to one exclusive kind of labour, that the nature of the stone became a matter of indifference to them. the hammer, with the proper use of which our workmen are almost unacquainted, was a marvellous instrument in the hands of our ancestors; with it they executed prodigies of workmanship, which seem as if they ought to have been reserved for the file and grindstone of the lapidary of the present day. we shall not, perhaps, surprise our readers if we add that as certain volcanic lavas, especially obsidian, fracture with the same regularity and the same facility as the flint, obsidian was employed by the natives of america as a material for making sharp instruments. the ancient quarries whence the indians procured this rock for the manufacture of instruments and tools, were situate at the _cerro de navajas_--that is, the _mountain of knives_--in mexico. m. h. de saussure, the descendant of the great geologist, was fortunate enough to meet with, at this spot, pieces of mineral which had merely been begun upon, and allowed a series of double-edged blades to be subsequently cut off them; these were always to be obtained by a simple blow skilfully applied. according to m. h. de saussure, the first fashioning of these implements was confined to producing a large six-sided prism, the vertical corners of which were regularly and successively hewn off, until the piece left, or _nucleus_, became too small for the operation to be further continued. hernandez, the spanish historian, states that he has seen blades an hour manufactured in this way. added to this, the ancient aborigines of peru, and the guanches of teneriffe, likewise carved out of obsidian both darts and poniards. and, lastly, we must not omit to mention that m. place, one of the explorers of nineveh, found on the site of this ancient city, knives of obsidian, supposed to be used for the purpose of circumcision. having considered the flint instruments peculiar to the polished-stone epoch, we must now turn our attention to those made of stag's horn. the valley of the somme, which has furnished such convincing proof of the co-existence of man with the great mammals of extinct species, is a no less precious repository for instruments of stag's horn belonging to the polished-stone epoch. the vast peat-bogs of this region are the localities where these relics have been chiefly found. boucher de perthes collected a considerable number of them in the neighbourhood of abbeville. these peat-bogs are, as is well known, former marshes which have been gradually filled up by the growth of peat-moss (sphagnum), which, mixed with fallen leaves, wood, &c., and being slowly rotted by the surrounding water, became converted after a certain time into that kind of combustible matter which is called peat. the bogs in the valley of the somme in some places attain to the depth of feet. in the lower beds of this peat are found the weapons, the tools, and the ornaments of the polished-stone epoch. among these ancient relics we must mention one very interesting class; it is that formed by the association of two distinct component parts, such as stone and stag's horn, or stone and bone. the hatchets of this type are particularly remarkable; they consist of a piece of polished flint half buried in a kind of sheath of stag's horn, either polished or rough as the case may be (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--polished flint hatchet, with a sheath of stag's horn fitted for a handle.] the middle of this sheath is generally perforated with a round or oval hole intended to receive a handle of oak, birch, or some other kind of wood adapted for such a use. fig. , taken from the illustration in boucher de perthes' work ('antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes'), represents this hatchet fitted into a handle made of oak. [illustration: fig. .--flint hatchet fitted into a stag's-horn sheath, having an oak handle, from boucher de perthes' illustration.] it is difficult to understand how it was that a hatchet of this kind did not fall out of its sheath in consequence of any moderately violent blow; for it seems as if there was nothing to hold it in its place. this observation especially applies to hatchets, the whole length of which--even the portion covered by the sheath--was polished; for the latter would certainly slide out of their casing with ease. the fact is, that complete specimens are seldom found, and, generally speaking, the flints are separated from their sheaths. with regard to the handles, the nature of the material they were made from was unfavourable to their preservation through a long course of centuries; it is, therefore, only exceptionally that we meet with them, and even then they are always defaced. fig. is given by boucher de perthes, in his 'antiquités celtiques,' as the representation of an oaken handle found by him. a number of these sheaths have been found, which were provided at the end opposite to the stone hatchet with strong and pointed teeth. these are boar's tusks, firmly buried in the stag's horn. these instruments therefore fulfilled a double purpose; they cut or crushed with one end and pierced with the other. sheaths are also found which are not only provided with the boar's tusks, but are hollowed out at each end so as to hold two flint hatchets at once. this is represented in fig. from one of boucher de perthes' illustrations. [illustration: fig. .--hatchet-handle made of oak.] [illustration: fig. .--stag's-horn sheath, open at each end so as to receive two hatchets.] the hatchet fitted into a sheath of stag's horn which we here delineate (fig. ), was picked up in the environs of aerschot, and is an object well worthy of note; it is now in the museum of antiquities at brussels. its workmanship is perfect, and superior to that of similar instruments found in the peat-bogs of the valley of the somme. [illustration: fig. .--polished flint hatchet from belgium, fitted into a stag's-horn sheath.] stag's horn was often used alone as a material for the manufacture of tools which were not intended to endure any very hard work; among these were instruments of husbandry and gardening. we here give representations (figs. , , ) from boucher de perthes' illustrations, of certain implements made of stag's horn which appear to have had this purpose in view. it is remarked that they are not all perforated for holding a handle; in some cases, a portion of the stag's antler formed the handle. [illustration: fig. .--gardening tool made of stag's horn (after boucher de perthes).] [illustration: fig. .--gardening tool made of stag's horn (after boucher de perthes).] [illustration: fig. .--gardening tool made of stag's horn (after boucher de perthes).] in the course of his explorations in the peat-bogs of abbeville, m. boucher de perthes found numerous flakes of flint of irregular shapes, the use of which he was unable to explain. but there have also been discovered in the same deposits some long bones belonging to mammals--tibia, femur, radius, ulna--all cut in a uniform way, either in the middle or at the ends; he was led to imagine that these bones might have been the handles intended to hold the flints. in order to assure himself that this idea was well founded, he took one of the bones and a stone which came out of the peat, and, having put them together, he found he had made a kind of chisel, well-adapted for cutting, scooping-out, scratching and polishing horn or wood. he tried this experiment again several times, and always with full success. if the stone did not fit firmly into the bone, one or two wooden wedges were sufficient to steady it. after this, boucher de perthes entertained no doubt whatever that these bones had been formerly employed as handles for flint implements. the same handle would serve for several stones, owing to the ease with which the artisan could take one flint out and replace it with another, by the aid of nothing but these wooden wedges. this is the reason why, in the peat-bogs, flints of this sort are always much more plentiful than the bone handles. we must also state that it seems as if they took little or no trouble in repairing the flints when they were blunted, knowing how easy it would be to replace them. they were thrown away, without further care; hence their profusion. these handles are made of extremely hard bone, from which we may conclude that they were applied to operations requiring solid tools. most of them held the flint at one end only; but some were open at both ends, and would serve as handles for two tools at once. figs. and represent some of these flint tools in bone handles--the plates are taken from those in boucher de perthes' work. [illustration: fig. .--flint tool in a bone handle.] [illustration: fig. .--flint tool with bone handle.] generally speaking, these handles gave but little trouble to those who made them. they were content with merely breaking the bone across, without even smoothing down the fracture, and then enlarging the medullary hollow which naturally existed; next they roughly squared or rounded the end which was intended to be grasped by the hand. in fig. , we delineate one of these bone handles which is much more carefully fashioned; it has been cut off smooth at the open end, and the opposite extremity has been rounded off into a knob, which is ornamented with a design. [illustration: fig. .--ornamented bone handle.] during the polished-stone epoch, as during that which preceded it, the teeth of certain mammals were used in the way of ornament. but they were not content, as heretofore, with merely perforating them with holes and hanging them in a string round their necks; they were now wrought with considerable care. the teeth of the wild boar were those chiefly selected for this purpose. they were split lengthwise, so as to render them only half their original thickness, and were then polished and perforated with holes in order to string them. in the peat-mosses of the valley of the somme a number of boars' tusks have been found thus fashioned. the most curious discovery of this kind which has been made, was that of the object of which we give a sketch in fig. . it was found in , near pecquigny (somme), and is composed of nineteen boars' tusks split into two halves, as we before mentioned, perfectly polished, and perforated at each end with a round hole. through these holes was passed a string of some tendinous substance, the remains of which were, it is stated, actually to be seen at the time of the discovery. a necklace of this kind must have been of considerable value, as it would have necessitated a large amount of very tedious and delicate work. [illustration: fig. .--necklace made of boars' tusks, longitudinally divided.] in the peat-bogs near brussels polished flints have likewise been found, associated with animal bones, and two specimens of the human _humerus_, belonging to two individuals. the peat-bogs of antwerp, in which were found a human frontal bone, characterised by its great thickness, and its small surface, have also furnished fine specimens of flint knives (fig. ), which are in no way inferior to the best of those discovered at grand-pressigny. [illustration: fig. .--flint knife, from the peat-bogs near antwerp.] on none of the instruments of bone or horn, of which we have been speaking, are to be found the designs which we have described as being the work of man during the reindeer epoch. the artistic instinct seems to have entirely vanished. perhaps the diluvial catastrophe, which destroyed so many victims, had, as one of its results, the effect of effacing the feeling of art, by forcing men to concentrate their ideas on one sole point--the care of providing for their subsistence and defence. a quantity of remains, gathered here and there, bear witness to the fact that in the polished-stone epoch the use of pottery was pretty widely spread. most of the specimens are, as we have said, nothing but attempts of a very rough character, but still they testify to a certain amount of progress. the ornamentation is more delicate and more complicated. we notice the appearance of open-work handles, and projections perforated for the purpose of suspension. in short, there is a perceptible, though but preliminary step made towards the real creations of art. in the caves of ariége, mm. garrigou and filhol found some remains of ancient pottery of clay provided with handles, although of a shape altogether primitive. among the fragments of pottery found by these _savants_, there was one which measured inches in height, and must have formed a portion of a vase inches high. this vessel, which was necessarily very heavy, had been hung to cords; this was proved by finding on another portion of the same specimen three holes which had been perforated in it. _agriculture._--we have certain evidence that man, during the polished-stone epoch, was acquainted with husbandry, or, in other words, that he cultivated cereals. mm. garrigou and filhol found in the caves of ariége more than twenty mill-stones, which could only have been used in grinding corn. these stones are from to inches in diameter. the tribes, therefore, which, during the polished-stone epoch, inhabited the district now called ariége, were acquainted with the cultivation of corn. in , dr. foulon-menard published an article intended to describe a stone found at penchasteau, near nantes, in a tomb belonging to the stone age.[ ] this stone is inches wide, and hollowed out on its upper face. it was evidently used for crushing grain with the help of a stone roller, or merely a round pebble, which was rolled up and down in the cavity. the meal obtained by this pressure and friction made its way down the slope in the hollowing out of the stone, and was caught in a piece of matting, or something of the kind. to enable our readers to understand the fact that an excavation made in a circular stone formed the earliest corn-mill in these primitive ages, we may mention that, even in our own time, this is the mode of procedure practised among certain savage tribes in order to crush various seeds and corn. [illustration: fig. .--primitive corn-mill.] in the 'voyage du mississippi à l'océan,' by m. molhausen, we read:-- "the principal food of the indians consisted of roasted cakes of maize and wheat, the grains of which had been pulverised _between two stones_."[ ] in livingstone's expedition to the zambesi (central africa), it is stated that "the corn-mills of the mangajas, makalolos, landines and other tribes are composed of a block of granite or syenite, sometimes even of mica-schist, to inches square by or inches thick, and a piece of quartz, or some other rock of equal hardness about the size of a half-brick; one of the sides of this substitute for a millstone is convex, so as to fit into a hollow of a trough-like shape made in the large block, which remains motionless. when the woman wants to grind any corn, she kneels down, and, taking in both hands the convex stone, she rubs it up and down in the hollow of the lower stone with a motion similar to that of a baker pressing down his dough and rolling it in front of him. whilst rubbing it to and fro, the housewife leans all her weight on the smaller stone, and every now and then places a little more corn in the trough. the latter is made sloping, so that the meal as soon as it is made falls down into a cloth fixed to catch it." [illustration: fig. .--the art of bread-making in the stone age.] such, therefore, was the earliest corn-mill. we shall soon see it reappear in another form; two mill-stones placed one over the other, one being set in motion above the other by means of a wooden handle. this is the corn-mill of the bronze epoch. this type maintained its place down to historic times, as it constituted the earliest kind of mill employed by the roman agriculturist. in order to represent the existence of agriculture during the polished-stone epoch, we have annexed a delineation of a woman grinding corn into meal in the primitive mill (fig. ). in the same figure may be noticed the way of preparing the meal coming from the mill for making a rough kind of cake. the children are heating in the fire some flat circular stones. when these stones are sufficiently heated, they rapidly withdraw them from the fire, using for the purpose two damp sticks; they then place on the stones a little of the meal mixed with water. the heat of the stones sufficed to bake the meal and form a sort of cake or biscuit. we may here state, in order to show that we are not dealing with a mere hypothesis, that it is just in this way that, in the poor districts of tuscany, the _polenta_ is prepared even in the present day. the dough made of chestnut-meal, moistened with water, is cooked between flat stones that are placed one over the other in small piles as portrayed in the annexed plate. in the background of the same sketch we see animals, reduced to the state of domestic cattle, being driven towards the group at work. by this particular feature we have wished to point out that the polished-stone epoch was also that of the domestication of animals, and that even at this early period the sheep, the dog and the horse had been tamed by man, and served him either as auxiliaries or companions. the traces of agriculture which we have remarked on as existing in the caves of ariége, are also found in other parts of france. round the hearths in the department of puy-de-dôme, m. pommerol discovered carbonised wheat intermingled with pottery and flint instruments. the men of the period we are now considering no longer devoted themselves exclusively to the pursuits of hunting and fishing. they now began to exercise the noble profession of agriculture, which was destined to be subsequently the chief source of national wealth. _navigation._--the first origin of the art of navigation must be ascribed to the polished-stone epoch. with regard to this subject, let us pay attention to what is said on the point by m. g. de mortillet, curator at the archæological and pre-historic museum of saint-germain--one of the best-informed men we have in all questions relating to the antiquity of man. in m. de mortillet's opinion, navigation, both marine and inland, was in actual existence during the polished-stone epoch. [illustration: fig. .--the earliest navigators.] the earliest boats that were made by man consisted simply of great trunks of trees, shaped on the outside, and hollowed out in the interior. they were not provided with any rests or rowlocks for the oars or paddles, which were wielded by both hands. in hollowing out the tree they used both their stone implements and also the action of fire. in the earliest boats, the trunk of the tree, cut through at the two ends as well as their imperfect tools allowed, preserved its original outward form. the boat, in fact, was nothing but the trunk of a tree first burnt out and then chipped on the inside by some cutting instrument, that is, by the stone-hatchet. some improvement subsequently took place in making them. the outside of the tree was also chipped, and its two ends, instead of being cut straight through, were made to terminate in a point. in order to give it more stability in the water and to prevent it from capsizing, it was dressed equally all over, and the bottom of the canoe was scooped out. cross-stays were left in the interior to give the boat more solidity, and perhaps, also, to serve as a support to the back, or, more probably, to the feet of the rowers, who sat in the bottom of the canoe. sails must soon have been added to these means of nautical progression. but it would be a difficult matter to fix any precise date for this important discovery, which was the point of transition between elementary and primitive navigation, and more important voyages. this progress could not have been made without the help of metals. in an article entitled 'origine de la navigation et de la pêche,' m. de mortillet passes in review all the discoveries, which have been made in different countries, of the earliest boats belonging to pre-historic man. after stating that the museum of copenhagen contains drawings of three ancient canoes, he goes on to say:-- "the first canoe is the half-trunk of a tree inches wide, cut straight at the two ends, about feet in length, and hollowed out in a trough-like shape. this canoe much resembles that of switzerland. "the second was about feet in length, one end terminating in a point, the other more rounded. it was formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out into two compartments, a kind of cross-stay or seat being left at a point about one-third of the length from the widest end. "the third canoe, no. , likewise made of the trunk of a tree, was much longer, having a length of at least feet, and was terminated by a point at both ends. at the sharpest end, the hollow is finished off squarely, and there is also a small triangular seat at the extremity. two cross-stays were left in the interior. "these three canoes are classed in the bronze series; a note of interrogation or doubt is, however, affixed to the two latter. "ireland, like scandinavia, has a history which does not go back very far into the remote past; like scandinavia, too, ireland has been one of the first to collect with care not only the monuments, but even the slightest relics of remote antiquity and of pre-historic times. the royal irish academy has collected at dublin a magnificent museum, and the praiseworthy idea has also been put in practice of publishing a catalogue illustrated with plates. "in these collections there are three ancient canoes. the first is about feet long, inches wide, and inches deep, and is hollowed out of the trunk of an oak, which must have been at least - / feet in diameter. this boat, which came from the bogs of cahore on the coast of wexford, is roughly squared underneath. one of the ends is rounded and is slightly raised; the other is cut across at right angles, and closed with a piece let in and fitted into grooves which were caulked with bark. in the interior there are three cross-stays cut out of the solid oak. "the interior, at the time the canoe was discovered, contained a wooden vessel, intended to bale out the boat, and two rollers, probably meant to assist in conveying it down to the sea. "the second is a canoe made of one piece of oak, rather more than feet long, about inches wide, and inches deep. it terminates in a point at both ends, and contains three cross-stays cut out of the solid wood, and a small terminal triangular seat. "the third, likewise made of one piece, is rather more than feet long and about inches wide. on each side the wood is cut out so as to receive a seat. this boat appears less ancient than the others, although these may not have belonged to any very remote antiquity. in fact, ware states that in his time there were still to be seen on some of the irish rivers canoes hollowed out of a single trunk of oak. "it is also well known that the lacustrine habitations constructed on the artificial islands called _crannoges_, existed to a late period in ireland. all the boats found round these island-dwellings are canoes made all in one piece and hollowed out of the trunks of large trees. "the trough-shaped canoe, consisting merely of the trunk of a tree cut straight through at the two ends, and in no way squared on the outside, also exists in ireland. a very singular variety has been found in the county of monaghan;[ ] at the two ends are two projections or handles, which were probably used for carrying the boat from one place to another, or to draw it up upon the beach after a voyage. "according to mr. john buchanan, quoted by sir c. lyell,[ ] at least seventeen canoes have been found in the low ground along the margin of the clyde at glasgow. mr. buchanan examined several of them before they were dug out. five of them were found buried in the silt under the streets of glasgow. one canoe was discovered in a vertical position, with the prow upwards, as if it had foundered in a tempest; it contained no small quantity of sea-shells. twelve other canoes were found about yards from the river, at the average depth of about feet below the surface of the ground, or about feet below high-water mark. a few only of them were found at a depth of no more than or feet, and consequently more than feet above the present level of the sea. one was stuck into the sand at an angle of °; another had been turned over and lay keel upwards; the others were in a horizontal position, as if they had sunk in still water. "almost every one of these ancient boats had been formed of a single trunk of oak, and hollowed out with some blunt instrument, probably stone hatchets, assisted also by the action of fire. a few of them presented clean-made cuts, evidently produced by a metallic tool. two of them were constructed of planks. the most elaborate of the number bore the traces of square metal nails, which, however, had entirely disappeared. in one canoe was found a diorite hatchet, and at the bottom of another, a cork bung, which certainly implies relations with southern france, spain, or italy. "the swiss lakes, with their lacustrine habitations, have furnished numerous specimens of canoes. dr. keller, in his fifth report on lake-dwellings (plate x. fig. ), represents a canoe from robenhausen; it is the half trunk of a tree feet long and inches wide, hollowed out to a depth of from to inches only. taking the centre as the widest part, this trunk has been chipped off so as to taper towards the two points which are rounded. it is, however, very probable that the whole of this work was executed with stone implements; for the primitive settlement of robenhausen, situated in a peat-bog near the small lake pfæffikon in the canton of zurich, although very rich in many kinds of objects, has not, up to the present time, furnished us with any metal instruments. "in his first report (plate iv. fig. ), dr. keller had given the sketch of another canoe which came from the lake of bienne. like the first, mentioned by m. worsaae, it is the half of the trunk of a tree cut almost straight through, its two ends hollowed out inside in the shape of a trough, the exterior being left entirely unwrought. "professor desor mentions several canoes found in the lake of bienne. one of them, near the island saint-pierre, was still full of stones. according to m. desor the builders of the lacustrine habitations during the polished-stone epoch, in order to consolidate the piles which were intended to support their dwellings, were accustomed to bank them up with stones which they fetched in boats from the shore; the bottom of the lake being completely devoid of them. the canoe found at the isle of saint-pierre had therefore sunk to the bottom with its cargo, and thus may be dated back to the polished-stone epoch. m. troyon[ ] gives some still more circumstantial details as to this canoe. it is partly buried in the mud at the northern angle of the isle, and is made of a single piece of the trunk of an oak of large dimensions; it is not much less than feet long with a breadth of from - / feet to feet. "m. desor, in his _palafittes_, informs us that the museum of neuchâtel has lately been enriched by the addition of a canoe which was discovered in the lake; unfortunately, it was dreadfully warped in drying. "also m. troyon, in his 'habitations lacustres,' speaks of several canoes at estavayer and morges. "estavayer is situated on the lake of neuchâtel. there are two settlements near it, one of the stone age, and one of the bronze age. one canoe is still lying at the bottom of the lake, near these settlements. another was brought out of the water by the fishermen some years ago; it was about feet in length, and feet in width. the end which had been preserved was cut to a point and slightly turned upwards. "morges is on the lake of geneva, in the canton of vaud. m. forel discovered there two interesting settlements of the bronze age. two canoes were found. according to m. troyon, one of them which had been carried up on to the bank was not long before it was destroyed. it was formed of the trunk of an oak, hollowed out like a basin. the other still lay near some piles in to feet of water. one portion of it is buried in the sand, the other part, which is not covered, measures about feet in length by feet in width. it terminates in a point and has been cut out so as to provide a kind of seat, taken out of the thickness of the wood at the end, just as in the third canoe represented in the catalogue of the copenhagen museum. "in france, too, several canoes have been found which date back to pre-historic times. "on the th of january, , the labourers who were working at the fortifications which the engineers were making at abbeville found a canoe in the place called saint-jean-des-prés, on the left bank of the canal; it was discovered in the peat, feet below the road and about yards from the railway station. it was made out of a single stick of oak and was about feet in length; its ends were square and cut in a slope, so that its upper surface was feet longer than its bottom, which was flattened off to a width of about inches. the greatest width of its upper surface, the widest part being placed at about one-third of its length, measured nearly feet; from this point the canoe contracted in width, and was not more than inches in width at the furthest end. now, as no tree exists which diminishes to this extent in diameter on so short a length, we must conclude that the trunk which formed the canoe must have been shaped outside. "two projections about inches in thickness, placed - / feet from the narrowest end, and forming one piece with the sides and the bottom, which in this part are very thick, left between them an empty space which was probably intended to fit against the two sides of a piece of wood cut square at the bottom and meant to serve as a mast. the deepest internal hollow had not more than inches in rise, and the side, which at the upper part was not more than an inch in thickness, followed the natural curve of the trunk, and united with the much thicker portion at the bottom. this canoe, although it was completely uncovered and still remained in a very good state of preservation, has not been got out from the place in which it lay. "in , another canoe was discovered at estreboeuf, feet long, about inches wide, and inches deep. the bottom was flat, the sides cut vertically both within and without, which gave it nearly the shape of a squared trough. in its widest part it bore some signs of having carried a mast. it was conveyed to the museum at abbeville and became completely rotten; nothing now is left but shapeless remains. "the abbé cochet relates that between and , during the excavation of the basin of _la barre_, at havre, at feet in depth, a canoe was discovered, more than feet in length, and hollowed out of one trunk of a tree. the two ends were pointed and solid, and the interior was strengthened with curved stays formed out of the solid wood. this canoe was found to be made of elm and was hollowed out to a depth of nearly feet. it was in so good a state of preservation that it bore being carried to a spot behind the engineer's house on the south jetty; but when it was deposited there, it gradually wasted away by the successive action of the rain and sun. "the same archæologist also mentions another canoe, with a keel of from to feet long, which was discovered in the year , at montéviliers, in the filled-up ditches known under the name of la bergue. "the archæological museum of dijon also contains a canoe found in the gravel in the bed of the loue, on the boundaries of the department of jura, between dôle and salins. it is made of a single colossal trunk of oak, shaped, in m. baudot's opinion, by means of fire. its present length is feet, and its width, feet inches; but it has become much less in the process of drying. some iron braces which were fixed to keep the wood in position plainly showed that the width had diminished at least inches. in the interior, the traces of two seats or supports, which had been left in the solid wood in order to give strength to the canoe, might be very distinctly seen. the first was about a yard from one end, the other - / feet from the other. both extremities terminate in a point, one end being much sharper and longer than the other. "at the museum of lyons there is a canoe which was found in the gravel of the rhone, near the bridge of cordon, in the department of ain. it is feet in length, and hollowed out of a single trunk of oak tapering off at the two ends. the middle of it is squared, and the interior is strengthened by two braces left in the solid wood. "lastly, we must mention the canoe that was dug out of the bed of the seine in paris, and presented by m. forgeais to the emperor. it is now in the museum of saint-germain. it was made of a single trunk of oak and had been skilfully wrought on the outside, terminating in a point at both ends. this canoe was bedded in the mud and gravel at the extremity of the _cité_, on the notre-dame side. close by a worked flint was met with, and various bronze weapons; among others, a helmet and several swords were also found. in the beds of rivers objects belonging to different epochs readily get mixed up. this flint appears to have accidentally come thither; the bronze arms, on the contrary, seem to mark the date of the canoe."[ ] we have previously spoken of the _primitive workshop of human industry_, of which, indeed, we gave a design. in contrast to this peaceful picture, we may also give a representation of the evidences which have been preserved even to our own days of the earliest means of attack and defence constituting regular war among nations. war and battles must have doubtless taken their rise almost simultaneously with the origin of humanity itself. the hatred and rivalry which first sprung up between individuals and families--hatred and rivalry which must have existed from all time--gradually extended to tribes, and then to whole nations, and were outwardly expressed in armed invasions, pillage and slaughter. these acts of violence were, in very early days, reduced to a system in the art of war--that terrible expedient from which even modern nations have not been able to escape. in order to find the still existing evidence of the wars which took place among men in the stone age, we must repair to that portion of europe which is now called belgium. yes, even in the stone age, at a date far beyond all written record, the people of this district already were in the habit of making war, either among themselves or against other tribes invading them from other lands. this fact is proved by the fortified enclosures, or _entrenched camps_, which have been discovered by mm. hannour and himelette. these camps are those of furfooz, pont-de-bonn, simon, jemelle, hastedon, and poilvache. all these different camps possess certain characteristics in common. they are generally established on points overhanging valleys, on a mass of rock forming a kind of headland, which is united to the rest of the country by a narrow neck of land. a wide ditch was dug across this narrow tongue of land, and the whole camp was surrounded by a thick wall of stones, simply piled one upon another, without either mortar or cement. at the camp of hastedon, near namur, this wall, which was still in a good state of preservation at the time it was described, measured feet in width, and about the same in height. when an attack was made, the defenders, assembled within the enclosure, rained down on their assailants stones torn away from their wall, which thus became at the same time both a defensive and offensive work (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--the earliest regular conflicts between men of the stone age; or, the entrenched camp of furfooz.] these entrenched positions were so well chosen that most of them continued to be occupied during the age which followed. we may mention, as an instance, the camp of poilvache. after having been a roman citadel it was converted in the middle ages into a strongly fortified castle, which was not destroyed until the fifteenth century. the camps of hastedon and furfooz were likewise utilised by the romans. over the whole inclosure of these ancient camps worked flints and remains of pottery have been found--objects which are sufficient to testify to the former presence of primitive man. the enormous ramparts of these camps also tend to show that pre-historic man must have existed in comparatively numerous associations at the various spots where these works are found. if we were to enter into a detailed study of the vestiges of the polished-stone epoch existing in the other countries of europe, we should be led into a repetition of much that we have already stated with regard to the districts now forming france and belgium. over a great portion of europe we should find the same mode of life, the same manners and customs, and the same degree of nascent civilisation. from the scope, therefore, of our present work, we shall not make it our task to take each country into special consideration. we will content ourselves with stating that the caves of old castille in spain, which were explored by m. ed. lartet, have furnished various relics of the reindeer and polished-stone epochs. also in the provinces of seville and badajos, polished hatchets have been found, made for the most part of dioritic rocks. numerous vestiges of the same epoch have, too, been discovered in various provinces of italy. we give in fig. the sketch of a very remarkable arrow-head found in the province of civita-nova (the former kingdom of naples). it is provided with a short stem with lateral grooves, so as to facilitate the point being fitted into a wooden shaft. [illustration: fig. .--flint arrow-head, from civita-nova (italy).] elba, too, was surveyed by m. raffaello foresi, who found in this mediterranean isle a large quantity of arrows, knives, saws, scrapers, &c., formed of flint, jasper, obsidian, and even rock crystal. there were also found in the isle of elba workshops for shaping flints. great britain, wurtemburg, hungary, poland, and russia all furnish us with specimens of polished stone instruments; but, for the reason which we stated above, it would be superfluous to dwell upon them. we shall now pass on to an examination of the type of the human race which existed among the northern nations of europe during the polished-stone age. there is a cavern of ariége which belongs to the polished-stone epoch, and has been explored by mm. garrigou and filhol--this is the cavern of _lombrive_, or _des echelles_; the latter name being given it because it is divided into two portions placed at such very different levels that the help of five long ladders is required in order to pass from one to the other. this cave has become interesting from the fact that it has furnished a large quantity of human bones, belonging to individuals of both sexes and every age; also two entire skulls, which m. garrigou has presented to the anthropological society of paris. these two skulls, which appear to have belonged, one to a child of eight to ten years of age, the other to a female, present a somewhat peculiar shape. the forehead, which is high in the centre, is low at the sides; and the orbits of the eyes and also the hollows of the cheeks are deep. we shall not enter into the diverse and contrary hypotheses which have been advanced by mm. vogt, broca, pruner-bey, garrigou and filhol, in order to connect the skulls found in the cave of ariége with the present races of the human species. this ethnological question is very far from having been decided in any uniform way; and so it will always be, as long as scientific men are compelled to base their opinions on a limited number of skulls, which are, moreover, always incomplete; each _savant_ being free to interpret their features according to his own system. neither in the danish kitchen-middens nor in the lower beds of the peat-bogs have any human bones been discovered; but the tombs in denmark belonging to the polished-stone epoch have furnished a few human skulls which, up to a certain point, enable us to estimate the intellectual condition and affinities of the race of men who lived in these climates. we may particularly mention the skull found in the _tumulus_ at borreby in denmark, which has been studied with extreme care by mr. busk. this skull (fig. ) presents a somewhat remarkable similarity to that of neanderthal, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter. the superciliary ridges are very prominent, the forehead is retiring, the occiput is short and sloped forward. it might, therefore, find its origin among the races of which the skulls of neanderthal and borreby are the representatives and the relics, and the latter might well be the descendants of the former. [illustration: fig. .--the borreby skull.] anthropologists have had much discussion about the question, to what particular human race of the present time may the skulls found in the _tumulus_ at borreby be considered to be allied? but all these discussions are deficient in those elements on which any serious and definite argument might be founded. it would, therefore, be going beyond our purpose should we reproduce them here. if, in the sketch of the borreby skull, we place, before the eyes of our readers the type of the human cranium which existed during the period of the stone age, our only object is to prove that the primitive northerner resembles the present race of man, both in the beauty and in the regularity of the shape of his skull; also, in order once more to recall to mind how false and trivial must the judgment be of those short-sighted _savants_ who would establish a genealogical filiation between man and the ape. as we stated in the introduction to this volume, a mere glance cast upon this skull is sufficient to bring to naught all that has been written and propounded touching the organic consanguinity which is asserted to exist between man and the ape, to say nothing of the objects produced by primitive man--objects which, in this work, we are studying in all necessary detail. an examination of the labours of primitive man is the best means of proving--every other consideration being set aside--that a great abyss exists between him and the animal; this is the best argument against our pretended _simial_ origin, as it is called by those who seek to veil their absurd ideas under grand scientific phrases. footnotes: [ ] 'note sur un amas de. coquilles mélées à des silex taillés, signalé sur les côtes de provence,' by m. a. gory ('revue archéologique'). quoted in the 'matériaux de l'histoire positive de l'homme,' by m. de mortillet, vol. i. p. . [ ] see j. evans, 'on the manufacture of stone implements in pre-historic times,' in trans. of the international congress of pre-historic archæology (norwich, ), p. ; and c. rau, 'drilling in stone without metal,' in report of smithsonian institution, . [ ] 'les moulins primitifs,' nantes, . extract from the 'bulletin de la société archéologique de nantes.' [ ] 'tour du monde,' p. , . [ ] shirley's 'account of the territory of farney.' [ ] j. buchanan, 'british association reports,' ; p. . sir c. lyell, 'antiquity of man,' p. . [ ] 'habitations lacustres des temps anciens et modernes,' pp. , , . [ ] 'origine de la navigation et de la pêche,' pp. - . paris, . chapter iii. tombs and mode of interment during the polished-stone epoch-- _tumuli_ and other sepulchral monuments formerly called _celtic_--labours of mm. alexandre bertrand and bonstetten-- funeral customs. having in our previous chapters described and delineated both the weapons and instruments produced by the rudimentary manufacturing skill of man during the polished-stone epoch; having also introduced to notice the types of the human race during this period; we now have to speak of their tombs, their mode of interment, and all the facts connected with their funeral customs. a fortunate and rather strange circumstance has both facilitated and given a degree of certainty to the information and ideas we are about to lay before our readers. the tombs of the men of the polished-stone epoch--their funeral monuments--have been thoroughly studied, described, and ransacked by archæologists and antiquarians, who for many years past have made them the subject of a multitude of publications and learned dissertations. in fact, these tombs are nothing but the _dolmens_, or the so-called _celtic_ and _druidical_ monuments; but they by no means belong, as has always been thought, to any historical period, that is, to the times of the celts, for they go back to a much more remote antiquity--the pre-historic period of the polished-stone age. this explanatory _datum_ having been taken into account, we shall now study the _dolmens_ and other so-called _megalithic_ monuments--the grand relics of an epoch buried in the night of time; those colossal enigmas which impose upon our reason and excite to the very highest pitch the curiosity of men of science. _dolmens_ are monuments composed of a great block or slab of rock, more or less flat in their shape according to the country in which they are situate, placed horizontally on a certain number of stones which are reared up perpendicularly to serve as its supports. [illustration: fig. .--danish _dolmen_.] this kind of sepulchral chamber was usually covered by earth, which formed a hillock over it. but in the course of time this earth often disappeared, leaving nothing but the naked stones of the sepulchral monument. [illustration: fig. .--_dolmen_ at assier.] these are the bare stones which have been taken for _stone altars_, being referred to the religious worship of the gauls. the supposed druidical altars are, in fact, nothing but ruined _dolmens_. the purpose, therefore, for which they were elevated was not, as has always been stated, to serve as the scene of the sacrifices of a cruel religion; for, at the present day, it is completely proved that the _dolmens_ were the tombs of a pre-historic epoch. these tombs were intended to receive several dead bodies. the corpses were placed in the chamber which was formed by the upper slab and the supports. some of these chambers had two stages or stories, and then furnished a larger number of sepulchres. figs. and represent different _dolmens_ which still exist in france. [illustration: fig. .--_dolmen_ at connéré (marne).] [illustration: fig. .--vertical section of the _dolmen_ of locmariaker, in brittany. in the museum of saint-germain.] some _dolmens_ are completely open to view, like that represented in fig. , nothing impeding a perfect sight of them; others, on the contrary, are covered with a hillock of earth, the dimensions of which vary according to the size of the monument itself. this latter kind of _dolmen_ more specially assumes the nature of a _tumulus_; a designation which conveys the idea of some mound raised above the tomb. figs. and represent the _tumulus-dolmen_ existing at gavr'inis (oak island), in brittany, or, more exactly, in the department of morbihan. it is the diminished sketch of an enormous model exhibited in the museum of saint-germain. this model in relief has a portion cut off it which, by means of a cord and pulley, can be elevated or lowered at will, thus affording a view of the interior of the _dolmen_. it is composed of a single chamber, leading to which there is a long passage. [illustration: fig. .--_tumulus-dolmen_ at gavr'inis (morbihan).] [illustration: fig. .--a portion of the _dolmen_ of gavr'inis.] were all these _dolmens_ originally covered by earth? this is a question which still remains unsolved. m. alexandre bertrand, director of the archæological museum of saint-germain, to whom we owe some very remarkable works on the primitive monuments of ancient gaul, decides it in the affirmative; whilst m. de bonstetten, a swiss archæologist of great merit, is of the contrary opinion. the matter, however, is of no very great importance in itself. it is, at all events, an unquestionable fact that certain _dolmens_ which are now uncovered were once buried; for they are noticed to stand in the centre of slightly raised mounds in which the supports are deeply buried. as we before stated, the action of time has destroyed the covering which the pre-historic peoples placed over their sepulchres in order to defend them from the injuries of time and the profanation of man. thus, all that we now see is the bare stones of the sepulchral chambers--for so long a time supposed to be altars, and ascribed to the religious worship of the gauls. [illustration: fig. .--general form of a covered passage-tomb.] in considering, therefore, the _dolmens_ of brittany, which have been so many times described by antiquarians and made to figure among the number of our historical monuments, we must renounce the idea of looking upon them as symbols of the religion of our ancestors. they can now only be regarded as sepulchral chambers. [illustration: fig. .--passage-tomb at bagneux, near saumur.] _dolmens_ are very numerous in france; much more numerous, indeed, than is generally thought. it used to be the common idea that they existed only in brittany, and those curious in such matters wondered at the supposed druidical altars which were so plentifully distributed in this ancient province of france. but brittany is far from possessing the exclusive privilege of these megalithic constructions. they are found in fifty-eight of the french departments, belonging, for the most part, to the regions of the south and south-west. the department of finisterre contains of them; lot, ; morbihan, ; ardèche, ; aveyron, ; dordogne, ; &c.[ ] [illustration: fig. .--passage-tomb at plouharnel (morbihan).] the authors who have written on the question we are now considering, especially sir j. lubbock in his work on 'pre-historic times,' and nilsson, the swedish archæologist, have given a much too complicated aspect to their descriptions of the tombs of pre-historic ages, owing to their having multiplied the distinctions in this kind of monument. we should only perplex our readers by following these authors into all their divisions. we must, however, give some few details about them. [illustration: fig. .--passage-tomb; the so-called _table de césar_, at locmariaker (morbihan).] sir j. lubbock gives the name of _passage grave_, to that which the northern archæologists call _ganggraben_ (tomb with passages); of these we have given four representations (figs. , , , ), all selected from specimens in france. this name is applied to a passage leading to a more spacious chamber, round which the bodies are ranged. the gallery, formed of enormous slabs of stone placed in succession one after the other, almost always points towards the same point of the compass; in the scandinavian states, it generally has its opening facing the south or east, never the north. the same author gives the name of _chambered tumuli_ (fig. ) to tombs which are composed either of a single chamber or of a collection of large chambers, the roofs and walls of which are constructed with stones of immense size, which are again covered up by considerable masses of earth. this kind of tomb is found most frequently in the countries of the north. fig. represents, according to sir j. lubbock's work, a danish _chambered tumulus_. [illustration: fig. .--a danish _tumulus_, or chambered sepulchre.] before bringing to a close this description of megalithic monuments, we must say a few words as to _menhirs_ and _cromlechs_. _menhirs_ (fig. ) are enormous blocks of rough stone which were set up in the ground in the vicinity of tombs. they were set up either separately, as represented in fig. , or in rows, that is, in a circle or in an avenue. [illustration: fig. .--usual shape of a _menhir_.] there is in brittany an extremely curious array of stones of this kind; this is the range of _menhirs_ of carnac (fig. ). the stones are here distributed in eleven parallel lines, over a distance of yards, and, running along the sea-shore of brittany, present a very strange appearance. [illustration: fig. .--the rows of _menhirs_ at carnac.] when _menhirs_ are arranged in circles, either single or several together, they are called _cromlechs_. they are vast circuits of stones, generally arranged round a _dolmen_. the respect which was considered due to the dead appears to have converted these enclosures into places of pilgrimage, where, on certain days, public assemblies were held. these enclosures are sometimes circular, as in england, sometimes rectangular, as in germany, and embrace one or more ranks. [illustration: fig. .--_dolmen_ with a circuit of stones (_cromlech_), in the province of constantine.] fig. represents a _dolmen_ with a circuit of stones, that is, a _cromlech_, which has been discovered in the province of constantine; in fig. we have a group of danish _cromlechs_. [illustration: fig. .--group of danish _cromlechs_.] among all these various monuments the "passage-tombs" and the _tumuli_ are the only ones which will come within the scope of this work; for these only have furnished us with any relics of pre-historic times, and have given us any information with respect to the peoples who occupied a great part of europe at a date far anterior to any traditionary record. these stone monuments, as we have already stated, are neither celtic nor druidical. the celts--a nation which occupied a portion of gaul at a period long before the christian era--were altogether innocent of any megalithic construction. they found these monuments already in existence at the time of their immigration, and, doubtless, looked upon them with as much astonishment as is shown by observers of the present day. whenever there appeared any advantage in utilising them, the celts did not fail to avail themselves of them. the priests of this ancient people, the druids, who plucked from off the oak the sacred mistletoe, performed their religious ceremonies in the depths of some obscure forest. now, no _dolmen_ was ever built in the midst of a forest; all the stone monuments which now exist stand in comparatively unwooded parts of the country. we must, therefore, renounce the ancient and poetical idea which recognised in these _dolmens_ the sacrificial altars of the religion of our ancestors. some _tumuli_ attain proportions which are really colossal. among these is silbury hill, the largest in great britain, which is nearly feet high. the enormous amount of labour which would be involved in constructions of this kind has led to the idea that they were not raised except in honour of chiefs and other great personages. on consulting those records of history which extend back to the most remote antiquity, we arrive at the fact that the custom of raising colossal tombs to the illustrious dead was one that was much in vogue in the ancient eastern world. traces of these monuments are found among the hebrews, the assyrians, the greeks, the egyptians, &c. thus semiramis, queen of nineveh, raised a mound over the tomb of ninus, her husband. stones were likewise piled up over the remains of laïus, father of oedipus. in the 'iliad,' homer speaks of the mounds that were raised to the memory of hector and patroclus. that dedicated to patroclus--the pious work of achilles--was more than feet in diameter. homer speaks of the _tumuli_ existing in greece, which, even in his time, were considered very ancient, and calls them the tombs of the heroes. a _tumulus_ was raised by alexander the great over the ashes of his friend hephæstio, and so great were the dimensions of this monument that it is said to have cost talents, that is about £ , of our money. in roman history, too, we find instances of the same kind. lastly, the pyramids of egypt, those costly and colossal funeral monuments, are the still visible representations of the highest expression of posthumous homage which was rendered by the generations of antiquity to their most illustrious and mighty men. this, however, could not have been in every case the prevailing idea in the men of the stone age, in causing the construction of these _tumuli_. the large number of bodies which have been found in some of these monuments completely does away with the notion that they were raised in honour of a single personage, or even of a single family. they were often sepulchres or burial-places common to the use of all. among this class we must rank the _tumuli_ of axevalla and of luttra, situated not far from one another in sweden. the first, which was opened in , contained twenty tombs of an almost cubical form, each containing a skeleton in a crouching or contracted attitude. when the second was opened, the explorers found themselves in the presence of hundreds of skeletons placed in four rows one upon another, all in a contracted position like those at axevalla; along with these human remains various relics of the stone age were also discovered. [illustration: fig. .--position of skeletons in a swedish tomb of the stone age.] fig. represents the position in which the skeletons were found. m. nilsson has propounded the opinion that the "passage-graves" are nothing but former habitations, which had been converted into tombs after the death of those who had previously occupied them. when the master of the house had breathed his last--especially in the case of some illustrious individual--his surviving friends used to place near him various articles of food to provide for his long journey; and also his weapons and other objects which were most precious to him when in life; then the dwelling was closed up, and was only reopened for the purpose of bearing in the remains of his spouse and of his children. sir j. lubbock shares in this opinion, and brings forward facts in its favour. he recites the accounts of various travellers, according to which, the winter-dwellings of certain people in the extreme north bear a very marked resemblance to the "passage-tombs" of the stone age. of this kind are the habitations of the siberians and the esquimaux, which are composed of an oval or circular chamber placed a little under the surface of the ground, and completely covered with earth. sir j. lubbock thinks, therefore, that in many cases habitations of this kind may have been taken for _tumuli_--a mistake, he adds, all the more likely to be made because some of these mounds, although containing ashes, remains of pottery, and various implements, have not furnished any relics of human bones. in his work on the 'sépultures de l'age de la pierre chez les parisii,' m. leguay, a learned architect and member of the archælogical society, has called attention to the fact that the construction of these _dolmens_ betrays, as existing in the men of this epoch, a somewhat advanced degree of knowledge of the elements of architecture:-- "the interment of the dead," says m. leguay, "took place, during the polished-stone epoch, in vaults, or a kind of tomb constructed on the spot, of stones of various thicknesses, generally flat in shape, and not elevated to any very great height, being laid without any kind of cement or mortar. these vaults, which were at first undivided, were subsequently separated into compartments by stones of a similar character, in which compartments bodies were placed in various positions. they were covered with earth or with flat stones, and sometimes we meet with a circular eminence raised over them, formed of a considerable heap of stones which had been subsequently brought thither; this fact was verified by m. brouillet in at the _tombelle de brioux_ (vienne). "this kind of interment bears evidence of some real progress. polished flint instruments are met with intermingled with worked stones which have been brought from a distance. pottery of a very significant character approaches that of the epoch at which ornamentation commenced; and the _tombelle de brioux_ has furnished two vessels with projecting and perforated handles formed in the clay itself. i met with specimens similar to these both in shape and workmanship in the cremation-tombs at villeneuve-saint-georges, which, as i have previously stated, appeared to me to be later in date than the simple interment situated below them. "the first element in the art of construction, that is, stability, is manifested in these latter monuments. they do not come up to the fine _dolmens_, or to the monuments which followed them, but the principle on which stones should be laid together is already arrived at. the slab forming the covering is the first attempt at the lintel, the primitive base of architectural science. by insensible degrees the dimensions of the monument increased, the nature of the materials were modified, and, from the small elementary monument to the grand sepulchral _dolmen_, but one step remained to be made--a giant step, certainly, but not beyond the reach of human intelligence. "this step, however, was not accomplished suddenly and without transitional stages. we find a proof of this in the beautiful ossuary discovered in , at chamant near senlis (oise), on the property of the comte de lavaulx. this monument does not yet come up to the most beautiful of the class; but it possesses all the inspirations which suggested the form of its successors, of which, indeed, it is the type. "almost flat slabs of stone, of a greater height than those forming the vaults, and of rather considerable dimensions, are placed on edge so as to form a square chamber. a partition, formed of stones of a similar character, leaving a space or passage between them, separates the chamber into two unequal portions. some arrangement of this kind has been observed in most of the finest _dolmens_; it is found at a spot not far from chamant, in a covered way known under the name of the _pierres turquoises_, in the forest of carnelle, near beaumont-sur-oise (seine-et-oise). "at chamant, however, the chamber was not more than to feet in height under the roof, which was formed of large flat stones, and was large enough to allow of a considerable number of bodies to be deposited within it, either in a recumbent or contracted position. near them there were placed delicately-wrought flints, and also some fine-polished hatchets, one of which was of serpentine; another of large dimensions, sculptured after the fashion of the diluvial hatchets, appeared to me to have been prepared for polishing. "the researches which have been made have brought to light but slight traces of pottery, and the small fragments that i have examined do not point out any very remote age for this monument. nevertheless, the investigation of this sepulchre, in which i was guided by a somewhat different idea from that of merely studying the monument itself, was not carried out with the exact care that would be necessary for collecting all the indications which it might have furnished. "between the sepulchre of chamant and the finest _dolmens_, the distinction is nothing more than a question of dimensions rather than any chronological point. the latter are formed of colossal stones, and when one examines them and seeks to realise the process which must have been employed for raising them, the mind is utterly perplexed, and the imagination finds a difficulty in conceiving how it was possible to move these immense masses, and, especially, to place them in the positions they now occupy; for at the present day, in order to arrive at similar results, it would be necessary to employ all the means which science has at command."[ ] the megalithic constructions do not all date back to the same epoch. some were raised during the stone age, others during the bronze age. there is nothing in their mode of architecture which will enable us to recognise their degree of antiquity; but the relics which they contain afford us complete information in this respect. thus, in france, according to m. alexandre bertrand, the _dolmens_ and the _tumuli-dolmens_ contain, in a general way, nothing but stone and bone articles; those of bronze and gold are very rare, and iron is never met with. in the _true tumuli_, on the contrary, bronze objects predominate, and iron is very abundant; this is an evident proof that these monuments are of less ancient origin than the _dolmens_. in the same way we ascertain that the danish _dolmens_ and the great sepulchral chambers of scandinavia, all belong to the polished-stone epoch. when, therefore, we class the _dolmens_ in this last-named epoch of man's history, we are deciding in full harmony with the great body of _data_ which bear upon the point. in order to fix the period with still greater accuracy, we might add that the _dolmens_ belong to the latter portion of the polished-stone epoch and the commencement of the bronze age. but, as we before said, we do not attach any importance to these distinctions, which would only uselessly embarrass the mind of the reader. an examination of the danish _dolmens_ has led the author of the 'catalogue of pre-historic objects sent by denmark to the universal exposition of ,' to sum up in the following words the details concerning these sepulchral monuments:-- "as regards the danish _dolmens_, the number of skeletons contained in them varies much; in the largest, there are as many as twenty, and in the smallest there are not more than five or six; sometimes they are placed in stages one above the other. "the bones are never found in natural order; the head lies close to the knees, and no limb is in its natural place. it follows from this, that in the course of interment the body was contracted into a crouching position. "the bottom of the sepulchral chamber of a _dolmen_ is generally covered with a layer of flints which have been subjected to fire; this is the floor on which the body was deposited; it was then covered with a thin coating of earth, and the tomb was closed. yet, as we have just observed, it was but very rarely that _dolmens_ contained only one skeleton. they must, therefore, have been opened afresh in order to deposit other bodies. it must have been on these occasions, in order to contend with the miasma of putrefaction, that they lighted the fires, of which numerous and evident traces are seen inside the _dolmens_. this course of action continued, as it appears, until the time when the _dolmen_ was entirely filled up: but even then, the tomb does not, in every case, seem to have been abandoned. sometimes the most ancient skeletons have been displaced to make room for fresh bodies. this had taken place in a _dolmen_ near copenhagen, which was opened and searched in the presence of the late king frederick vii. "a _dolmen_ situated near the village of hammer, opened a few years ago by m. boye, presented some very curious peculiarities. in addition to flint instruments, human bones were discovered, which had also been subjected to the action of fire. we are, therefore, led to suppose, that a funeral banquet had taken place in the vicinity of the tomb, and that some joints of human flesh had formed an addition to the roasted stag. this is, however, the only discovery of the kind which has been made up to the present time, and we should by no means be justified in drawing the inference that the inhabitants of denmark at this epoch were addicted to cannibalism. "the dead bodies were deposited along with their weapons and implements, and also with certain vessels which must have contained the food which perhaps some religious usage induced them to leave close to the body. for a long time it was supposed that it was the custom to place these weapons by the side of _men_ only. but in a _dolmen_ at gieruen, a hatchet was found near a skeleton which was evidently that of a woman. "we now give the inventory of a 'find' made in a danish _dolmen_, that of hielm, in the isle of moen, which was opened in . the sepulchral chamber was - / feet in length, - / feet in width, and - / feet in height. "in it were discovered twenty-two spear-heads, the largest of which was inches in length, and the smallest - / inches; more than forty flint flakes or knives from to inches in length; three flat hatchets, and one rather thicker; three carpenter's chisels, the longest of which measured inches; a finely-made hammer inches long; three flint nuclei exactly similar to those found in the kitchen-middens; and lastly, in addition to all these flint articles, some amber beads and forty earthen vessels moulded by the hand."[ ] what were the funeral customs in use among men during the polished-stone epoch? and what were the ceremonies which took place at that period when they buried their dead? these are questions which it will not be difficult to answer after a due investigation of the _dolmens_ and _tumuli_. in a great number of _tumuli_, animal bones have been found either broken or notched by sharp instruments. this is an indication that the funeral rites were accompanied by feasts just as in the preceding epochs. the body which was about to be enclosed in the _tumulus_ was borne upon boughs of trees, as is the case among some savage tribes of the present day. the men and women attending wore their best attire; necklaces of amber and shells adorned their necks. men carrying torches walked in front of the procession, in order to guide the bearers into the dark recesses of the sepulchral chambers. from these data fig. has been designed, which gives a representation of _a funeral ceremony during the polished-stone epoch_. [illustration: fig. .--a _tumulus_ of the polished-stone epoch.] if we may judge by the calcined human bones which are rather frequently met with in tombs, there is reason to believe that sometimes victims were sacrificed over the body of the defunct, perhaps slaves, perhaps even his widow--the custom of sacrificing the widow still being in practice in certain parts of india. sir j. lubbock is, besides, of opinion that when a woman died in giving birth to a child, or even whilst she was still suckling it, the child was interred alive with her. this hypothesis appears a natural one, when we take into account the great number of cases in which the skeletons of a woman and child have been found together. m. leguay in his 'mémoire sur les sépultures des parisii,' which we quoted above, expresses the opinion that after each interment, in addition to the funeral banquet, a fire was lighted on the mound above the _tumulus_, and that each attendant threw certain precious objects into the flames. the objects which were most precious during the polished-stone epoch were flints wrought into hatchets, poniards, or knives. "on to this burning hearth," says m. leguay, "as numerous instances prove, those who were present were in the habit of casting stones, or more generally wrought flints, utensils and instruments, all made either of some kind of stone or of bone; also fragments of pottery, and, doubtless, other objects which the fire has destroyed. "there are many of these objects which have not suffered any injury from the fire; some of the flints, indeed, seem so freshly cut and are so little altered by the lapse of time, that it might be readily imagined that they had been but recently wrought; these were not placed in the sepulchre, but are met with intermingled with the earth which covers or surrounds the hearth, and appear in many cases to have been cast in after the extinction of the fire as the earth was being filled in. "sometimes, indeed, when the archæologist devotes especial care to his digging, he comes across a kind of layer of wrought flints which are, in fact, to be looked upon as refuse rather than wrought articles. their position appears to indicate the surface of the soil during that epoch, a surface which has been covered up by the successive deposits of subsequent ages; and although some of these flakes may have been due to some of the objects which had been placed in the sepulchre having been chipped on the spot, there are many others which have not originated in this way, and have come from objects which have been deposited in other places. "all these stones, which are common to three kinds of burial-places, have fulfilled, in my opinion, a votive function; that is to say, that they represent, as regards this epoch, the wreaths and coronals of _immortelles_, or the other objects which we in the present day place upon the tombs of our relations or friends; thus following out a custom the origin of which is lost in the night of time. "and let not the reader treat with ridicule these ideas, which i hold to be not far from the truth. men, as individuals, may pass away, and generations may disappear; but they always hand down to their progeny and those that succeed them the customs of their epoch; which customs will undergo little or no change until the causes which have produced them also disappear. thus it is with all that concerns the ceremonies observed in bearing man to his last resting-place--a duty which can never change, and always brings with it its train of sorrow and regret. nowadays, a small sum of money is sufficient to give outward expression to our grief; but at these remote epochs each individual fashioned his own offering, chipped his own flint, and bore it himself to the grave of his friend. "this idea will explain the diversity of shape in the flints placed round and in the sepulchres, and especially the uncouthness of many of the articles which, although all manufactured of the same material, betray a style of workmanship exercised by numerous hands more or less practised in the work. "it may, however, be readily conceived that during an epoch when stones were the chief material for all useful implements, every wrought flint represented a certain value. to deprive themselves of these objects of value in order to offer them to the manes of the dead was considered a laudable action, just as was the case subsequently as regards still more precious objects; and this custom, which was observed during many long ages, although sometimes and perhaps often practised with the declining energy inherent in every religious custom, was the origin of a practice adopted by many of the nations of antiquity, that, namely, of casting a stone upon the tomb of the dead. thus were formed those sepulchral heaps of stones called _gal-gals_, some of which still exist. "it is, without doubt, to this votive idea that we must attribute the fact that so many beautiful objects which ornament our museums have been found deposited in these sepulchres; but we must remark that the large and roughly-hewn hatchets, and also the knives of the second epoch, are replaced, in the third epoch, by polished hatchets often even fitted with handles, and also by knives of much larger size and finer workmanship. "as an additional corroboration of my ideas, i will mention a curious fact which i ascertained to exist in two sepulchres of this kind which i searched; the significance of this fact can only be explained by a hypothesis which any one may readily develop. "each of them contained one long polished hatchet, broken in two in the middle; the other portion of which was not found in the sepulchre. "one is now in the museum at cluny, where i deposited it; the other is still in my own possession. it is beyond all dispute that they were thus broken at the time of the interment. "numerous hatchets broken in a similar way have been found by m. a. forgeais in the bed of the seine at paris, and also in various other spots; all of them were broken in the middle, and i have always been of opinion that they proceeded from sepulchres of a like kind, which, having been placed on the edge of the river, had been washed away by the flow of water which during long ages had eaten away the banks." at a subsequent period, that is, during the bronze epoch, dead bodies were often, as we shall see, reduced to ashes either wholly or in part, and the ashes were enclosed in urns. footnotes: [ ] alexandre bertrand's 'les monuments primitifs de la gaule.' [ ] 'des sépultures à l'age de la pierre,' pp. , . . [ ] 'le danemark à l'exposition universelle de .' paris. . the age of metals. i. the bronze epoch. chapter i. the discovery of metals--various reasons suggested for explaining the origin of bronze in the west--the invention of bronze--a foundry during the bronze epoch--permanent and itinerant foundries existing during the bronze epoch--did the knowledge of metals take its rise in europe owing to the progress of civilisation, or was it a foreign importation? the acquisition and employment of metals is one of the greatest facts in our social history. thenard, the chemist, has asserted that we may judge of the state of civilisation of any nation by the degree of perfection at which it has arrived in the workmanship of iron. looking at the matter in a more general point of view, we may safely say that if man had never become acquainted with metals he would have remained for ever in his originally savage state. there can be no doubt that the free use of, or privation from, metals is a question of life and death for any nation. when we take into account the important part that is played by metals in all modern communities, we cannot fail to be convinced that, without metals civilisation would have been impossible. that astonishing scientific and industrial movement which this nineteenth century presents to us in its most remarkable form--the material comfort which existing generations are enjoying--all our mechanical appliances, manufactures of such diverse kinds, books and arts--not one of all these benefits for man, in the absence of metals, could ever have come into existence. without the help of metal, man would have been condemned to live in great discomfort; but, aided by this irresistible lever, his powers have been increased a hundredfold, and man's empire has been gradually extended over the whole of nature. in all probability, gold, among all the metals, is the first with which man became acquainted. gold, in a metallic state, is drifted down by the waters of many a river, and its glittering brightness would naturally point it out to primitive peoples. savages are like children; they love everything that shines brightly. gold, therefore, must, in very early days, have found its way into the possession of the primitive inhabitants of our globe. gold is still often met with in the ural mountains; and thence, perhaps, it originally spread all over the north of europe. the streams and the rivers of some of the central countries of europe, such as switzerland, france, and germany, might also have furnished a small quantity. after gold, copper must have been the next metal which attracted the attention of men; in the first place, because this metal is sometimes found in a native state, and also because cupriferous ores, and especially copper pyrites, are very widely distributed. nevertheless, the extraction of copper from the ores is an operation of such a delicate character, that it must have been beyond the reach of the metallurgic appliances at the disposal of men during the early pre-historic period. the knowledge of tin also dates back to a very high antiquity. still, although men might become acquainted with tin ores, a long interval must have elapsed before they could have succeeded in extracting the pure metal. silver did not become known to men until a much later date; for this metal is very seldom met with in the _tumuli_ of the bronze epoch. the fact is, that silver is seldom found in a pure state, and scarcely ever except in combination with lead ores; lead, however, was not known until after iron. bronze, as every one knows, is an alloy of copper and tin (nine parts of copper and one of tin). now it is precisely this alloy, namely bronze, which was the first metallic substance used in europe; indeed the sole substance used, to the exclusion of copper. we have, therefore, to explain the somewhat singular circumstance that an alloy and not a pure metal was the metallic substance that was earliest used in europe; and we must also inquire how it was that bronze could have been composed by the nations which succeeded those of the polished-stone epoch. at first sight, it might appear strange that an alloy like bronze should have been the first metallic substance used by man, thus setting aside iron, deposits of which are very plentiful in europe. but it is to be remarked, in the first place, that iron ores do not attract the attention so much as those of tin and copper. added to this, the extraction of iron from its ores is one of the most difficult operations of the kind. when dealing with ferruginous ores, the first operation produces nothing more than rough cast iron--a very impure substance, which is so short and brittle that it possesses scarcely any metallic qualities, and differs but little from stone as regards any use it could be applied to. it requires re-heating and hammering to bring it into the condition of malleable iron. on the other hand, by simply smelting together copper and tin ores and adding a little charcoal, bronze might be at once produced, without any necessity for previously extracting and obtaining pure copper and tin in a separate state. this will explain how it came to pass that the earliest metal-workers produced bronze at one operation, without even being acquainted with the separate metals which enter into its composition. we are left entirely to hypothesis in endeavouring to realise to ourselves how men were led to mix together copper and tin ores, and thus to produce bronze--a hard, durable and fusible alloy, and consequently well adapted, without much trouble, for the fabrication, by melting in moulds, of hatchets, poniards, and swords, as well as agricultural and mechanical instruments. bronze was endowed with all the most admirable qualities for aiding the nascent industrial skill of mankind. it is more fusible than copper and is also harder than this metal; indeed, in the latter respect, it may compete with iron. it is a curious fact that bronze has the peculiarity of hardening when cooled gradually. if it is made red-hot in the fire and is then suddenly cooled by plunging it into water, the metal becomes more ductile and may be easily hammered; but it regains its original hardness if it is again heated red-hot and then allowed to cool slowly. this, as we see, is just the contrary to the properties of steel. by taking advantage of this quality of bronze they were enabled to hammer it, and, after the necessary work with the hammer was finished, they could, by means of gradual cooling, restore the metal to its original hardness. at the present day, cymbals and tom-toms are made exactly in this way. all these considerations will perhaps sufficiently explain to the reader why the use of bronze preceded that of iron among all the european and asiatic peoples. on this quasi-absence of manufactured copper in the pre-historic monuments of europe, certain archæologists have relied when propounding the opinion that bronze was brought into europe by a people coming from the east, a more advanced and civilised people, who had already passed through their _copper age_, that is, had known and made use of pure copper. this people, it is said, violently invaded europe, and in almost every district took the place of the primitive population; so that, in every country, bronze suddenly succeeded stone for the manufacture of instruments, weapons and implements. by the side of these _savants_, who represent to some extent, in ethnological questions, the partisans of the great geological cataclysms or revolutions of the globe, there are others who would refer the appearance of bronze in europe to a great extension of commercial relations. they utterly reject the idea of any conquest, of any great invasion having brought with it a complete change in manners, customs, and processes of industrial skill. in their opinion, it was commerce which first brought bronze from the east and introduced it to the men of the west. this is the view of sir cornewall lewis, the archæologist and statesman, and also of prof. nilsson, who attributes to the phoenicians the importation of bronze into europe. without attaining any great result, nilsson has taken much trouble in supporting this idea by acceptable proofs. we are called upon to agree with the danish archæologist in admitting that the phoenicians, that is, the inhabitants of tyre and sidon went _with their ships_ to procure tin from great britain, in order to make an alloy with it in their own country, which alloy they subsequently imported into europe. this is nothing but historic fancy. to this romance of archæology we shall oppose the simple explanation which chemistry suggests to us. our belief is that the bronze was fabricated on the spot by the very people who made use of it. all that was requisite in order to obtain bronze, was to mix and smelt together the ores of oxidised copper or copper pyrites, and tin ore, adding a small quantity of charcoal. now, copper ore abounds in europe; that of tin is certainly rare; and it is this rarity of tin ore which is appealed to in support of the conjecture against which we are contending. but, although tin ores are nowadays rare in europe, except in england and saxony, they are, nevertheless, to be met with in the centre and south of the continent; and, doubtless, in the early ages of mankind the quantities were quite sufficient to supply the slender requirements of the dawning efforts of industrial skill. we may, perhaps, be permitted to allege that the cause of the supplies of tin ores being so poor in the centre and south of europe, may be the fact that they were exhausted by the workings of our ancestors. thus, at least, many of the deposits of copper, silver, and lead, have been exhausted by the romans, and we now find nothing more than the mere remains of mines which were once very productive. we may easily see that, in order to account for the presence of bronze in europe during the primitive epochs of mankind, it was not necessary to build up such a framework of hypothesis as prof. nilsson has so elaborately raised. to sum up the whole matter, we may say that the use of bronze preceded that of iron in the primitive industry of europe and asia; and that the people of our hemisphere were acquainted with bronze before they came to the knowledge of pure copper and tin; this is all that we can safely assert on the point. it might of course have been the case that copper and tin were first used alone, and that the idea was subsequently entertained of combining the two metals so as to improve both. but the facts evidently show that, so far as regards europe, things did not take place in this way, and that bronze was employed in the works of primitive industry before copper and tin were known as existing in a separate state.[ ] we must, however, state that in the new world the matter was different. the indians of north america, long before they knew anything about bronze, were in the habit of hammering the copper which was procured from the mines of lake superior, and of making of it weapons, ornaments and implements. after considering these general and theoretical points, we shall now pass on to the history of the employment of bronze among men of pre-historic ages, and shall endeavour to give some description of their works for the manufacture of metals. facts handed down by tradition evidently show that, among the peoples both of europe and asia, the use of bronze preceded that of iron. homer tells us that the soldiers of the greek and trojan armies were provided with iron weapons, yet he reserves for the heroes weapons made of bronze. it seems that bronze being the most ancient, was therefore looked upon as the more noble metal; hence, its use is reserved for chiefs or great warriors. among all nations, that which is the most ancient is ever the most honourable and the most sacred. thus, to mention one instance only, the jews of our own times still perform the ceremony of circumcision with a knife made of stone. in this case, the stone-knife is an object consecrated by religion, because the antiquity of this instrument is actually lost in the night of time. bronze (or brass) is often mentioned in the book of genesis. tubal-cain, the first metal-worker of the scriptures, who forged iron for all kinds of purposes, also wrought in bronze (or brass). this alloy was devoted to the production of objects of ornament. we read in the first book of kings (vii. , ), "and king solomon sent and fetched hiram out of tyre. he was a widow's son of the tribe of naphtali, and his father was a man of tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in _brass_." the word _brass_ must be here understood as being synonymous with bronze, and certainly the hebrew term had this signification. as a specially remarkable object of bronze work, we may mention the "sea of brass" of the hebrews, which contained measures of water. herodotus[ ] speaks of another colossal basin made of bronze, which was sixty times the size of that which pausanias, son of cleobrontos, presented to the temple of jupiter orios, a temple which had been built near the euxine, on the borders of scythia. its capacity was six hundred _amphoræ_, and it was six "fingers" in thickness. the greeks used to employ these enormous basins in their religious ceremonies. in sweden and norway, large receptacles of a similar kind were in primitive ages employed in sacrificial ceremonies; they used to receive the blood which flowed from the slaughtered animals. in order to produce objects of this magnitude it was of course necessary to have at disposal large foundries of bronze. these foundries, which existed during historic periods, were preceded by others of less importance used during the pre-historic epochs which we are considering, that is, during the bronze epoch. vestiges of these ancient foundries have been discovered in switzerland, at devaine, near thonon, and at walflinger, near wintherthur; especially also at echallens, where objects have been found which evidently originated from the working of some pre-historic foundry. at morges, in switzerland, a stone mould has been discovered, intended for casting hatchets. by running bronze into this ancient mould, a hatchet has been made exactly similar to some of those in our collections. the casting was also effected in moulds of sand, which is the more usual and more easy plan. from these _data_, it is possible to imagine what sort of place a foundry must have been during the bronze epoch. in the production of bronze, they used to mix oxydated tin ore, in the proportions which experience had taught them, with oxydated copper ore or copper pyrites; to this mixture was added a small quantity of charcoal. the whole was placed in an earthen vessel in the midst of a burning furnace. the two oxides were reduced to a metallic state by means of the charcoal; the copper and tin being set free, blended and formed bronze. when the alloy was obtained, all that was necessary was to dip it out and pour it into sand or stone moulds which had been previously arranged for the purpose. the art of casting in bronze must have played a very essential part among primitive peoples. there was no instrument that they used which could not be made by casting it in bronze. the sword-blades were thus made; and, in order to harden the edge of the weapon, it was first heated and then cooled suddenly, being afterwards hammered with a stone hammer. in fig. , we represent the workshop of a caster in bronze during the epoch we are considering. the alloy, having been previously mixed, has been smelted in a furnace, and a workman is pouring it into a sand-mould. another man is examining a sword-blade which has just been cast. [illustration: fig. .--a founder's workshop during the bronze epoch.] bronze being precious, it is probable that in these ancient communities bronze weapons and implements were reserved for rich and powerful personages, and that stone weapons remained the attribute of the common people. the use of bronze could only become general after the lapse of time. the high value of bronze would lead to its being economised as much as possible. the pre-historic museum at copenhagen contains unquestionable proofs of this scarcity of the metal, and the means which were used for obviating it. among the bronze hatchets in the museum of copenhagen, there are some which could only have served as ornaments, for they contained a nucleus of clay, and the metal of which they were composed was not thicker than a sheet of paper. we must also add that worn-out instruments of bronze and utensils which were out of use were carefully preserved in order to be re-cast; the same material re-appearing in various forms and shapes. we have just given a representation of the _workshop of a founder of bronze_; but we must also state that in addition to these fixed establishments there must have existed, at the epoch of which we are speaking, certain itinerant founders who travelled about, carrying all their necessary utensils on their backs, and offered their services wherever they were required. every one is acquainted with the travelling-tinkers who, at the present day, make their way down from the mountains of auvergne, the black forest, the alps, or the cévennes, and are called _péirerous_ and _estama-brazaïres_ in the south of france, and _épingliers_ in other districts. these men are in the habit of working at separate jobs in the villages and even in the public places of the towns. of course they travel with no more of the utensils of their craft than strict necessity requires; but, nevertheless, what they carry is sufficient for every purpose. a hollow made in the ground is the furnace in which they place the nozzle of their portable bellows, and they hammer the iron on a small anvil fixed in the earth. aided by these merely rudimentary means they execute pieces of metal-work, the dimensions of which are really surprising. they make nails and tacks, and even worm screws, repair locks, clean clocks, make knives, mend skimmers, and restore umbrella-frames. they make bronze rings out of republican _décimes_, and sell these popular trinkets to the village beauties. incomparable in their line of business, these men are unequalled in patching or re-tinning vessels made of tin and wrought or sheet-iron. the mending of crockeryware also forms one of their numerous vocations; and the repairing of a broken plate by means of an iron rivet is mere play-work for their dexterous fingers. but melting down and re-casting--these are the real triumphs of their art. the village housewife brings to them her worn-out pewter vessel, and soon sees it reappear as a new, brilliant, and polished utensil. lamps, cans, covers, and tin-plates and dishes are thus made to reappear in all their primitive brightness. the fusion and casting of bronze does not perplex them any more than working in tin. they are in the habit of casting various utensils in brass or bronze, such as candlesticks, bells, brackets, &c. the crucible which they use in melting brass is nothing but a hole dug in the earth and filled up with burning charcoal, the fire being kept up with the help of their bellows, the nozzle of which is lengthened so as to open into the middle of the charcoal. on this furnace they place their portable crucible, which is a kind of earthen ladle provided with a handle. their system of casting is simple in the extreme. the pressed sand, which serves them for a mould, is procured from the ditch at the side of the road. into this mould they pour the alloy out of the very crucible in which it has been melted. these itinerant metallurgists, these _estama-brazaïres_, who may be noticed working in the villages of lower languedoc, whose ways we have just depicted (not without some degree of pleasant reminiscence), are nothing but the descendants of the travelling metal-workers of the pre-historic bronze epoch. in addition to the permanent establishment of this kind--the foundries, the remains of which have been found in switzerland, the french jura, germany and denmark, there certainly existed at that time certain workmen who travelled about singly, from place to place, exercising their trade. their stock of tools, like the objects which they had to make or repair, was of a very simple character; the sand from the wayside formed their moulds, and their fuel was the dry wood of the forest. the existence, at this remote epoch in the history of mankind, of the itinerant workers in metal is proved by the fact, that practitioners of this kind were known in the earliest _historic_ periods who had already to some extent become proficients in the art. moses, the hebrew lawgiver, was able in the wilderness to make a brazen serpent, the sight of which healed the israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes; and, during the retirement of the prophet to mount sinai, aaron seemed to find no difficulty in casting the golden calf, which was required of him by the murmurs of the people. itinerant founders must therefore have accompanied the jewish army. we have been compelled to dwell to some extent on the general considerations which bear upon the introduction of bronze among the ancient inhabitants of europe who succeeded the men of the stone age. in the chapters which follow we intend as far as possible to trace out the picture of that period of man's history, which is called _the bronze epoch_, and constitutes the first division of _the age of metals_. footnotes: [ ] it must, however, be observed that the author's theory does not agree with the opinion of metallurgists, who do not consider the reduction of mixed copper and tin ore a practically effective process, and would favour the more usual view that the metals were smelted separately, and afterwards fused together to form bronze.--(_note to eng. trans._) [ ] book iv. p. . chapter ii. the sources of information at our disposal for reconstructing the history of the bronze epoch--the lacustrine settlements of switzerland--enumeration and classification of them--their mode of construction--workmanship and position of the piles--shape and size of the huts--population--instruments of stone, bone, and stag's horn--pottery--clothing--food--_fauna_--domestic animals. in endeavouring to trace out the early history of the human race we naturally turn our attention to all the means of investigation which either study or chance have placed at our disposal. grottos and caves, the rock-shelters, the ancient camps, the centres of flint-working, the scandinavian kitchen-middens, the _dolmens_, and the _tumuli_--all have lent their aid in affording those elements for the representation of the earliest epoch of the history of primitive man which we have already considered. the data which we shall resort to for delineating the bronze epoch will be of a different kind. among all the sources of authentic information as to the manners and customs of man in his earliest existence, none, certainly, are more curious than those ancient remains which have lately been brought to light and explored, and have received the name of _lacustrine dwellings_. the question may be asked, what are these _lacustrine dwellings_, and in what way do they serve to elucidate the history of the bronze epoch? these are just the points which we are about to explain. the most important discoveries have often depended on very slight causes. this assertion, although it has been made common by frequent repetition, is none the less perfectly correct. to what do we owe the knowledge of a multitude of curious details as to pre-historic peoples? to an accidental and unusual depression of the temperature in switzerland. but we will explain. the winter of - was, in switzerland, so dry and cold that the waters of the lakes fell far below their ordinary level. the inhabitants of meilen, a place situated on the banks of the lake of zurich, took advantage of this circumstance, and gained from the lake a tract of ground, which they set to work to raise and surround with banks. in carrying out these works they found in the mud at the bottom of the lake a number of piles, some thrown down and others still upright, fragments of rough pottery, bone and stone instruments, and various other relics similar to those found in the danish peat-bogs. this extraordinary accumulation of objects of all kinds on the dried bed of the lake appeared altogether inexplicable, and every one was at fault in their remarks; but dr. keller of zurich, having examined the objects, at once came to a right understanding as to their signification. it was evident to him that they belonged to pre-historic times. by an association of ideas which no one had previously dreamt of, he perceived that a relation existed between the piles and the other relics discovered in the vicinity, and saw clearly that both dated back to the same epoch. he thus came to the conclusion, that the ancient inhabitants of the lake of zurich were in the habit of constructing dwellings over the water, and that the same custom must have existed as regards the other swiss lakes. this idea was developed by dr. keller in five very remarkable memoirs, which were published in german.[ ] this discovery was the spark which lighted up a torch destined to dissipate the darkness which hung over a long-protracted and little-known period of man's history. previous to the discovery made on the dried-up bed of the lake of zurich, various instruments and singular utensils had been obtained from the mud of some of the lakes of switzerland, and piles had often been noticed standing up in the depth of the water; but no one had been able to investigate these vestiges of another age, or had had any idea of ascribing to them anything like the remote antiquity which has since been recognised as belonging to them. to dr. keller the honour is due of having interpreted these facts in their real bearing, at a time when every one else looked upon them as nothing but objects of curiosity. it is, therefore, only just to pronounce the physician of zurich to have been the first originator of pre-historic archæological science in switzerland. in , after the publication of dr. keller's first article, the swiss lakes were explored with much energy, and it was not long before numerous traces of human settlements were discovered. at the present day more than are known, and every year fresh ones are being found.[ ] thanks to the activity which has been shown by a great number of observers, magnificent collections have been formed of these archæological treasures. the fishermen of the lakes have been acquainted, for many years back, with the sites of some of these settlements, in consequence of having, on many occasions, torn their nets on the piles sticking up in the mud. numerous questions were asked them, and they were taken as guides to the different spots, and ere long a whole system of civilisation, heretofore unknown, emerged from the beds of the swiss lakes. among the lakes which have furnished the largest quantity of relics of pre-historic ages, we may mention that of neuchâtel, in which, in , no less than forty-six settlements were counted; in lake constance (thirty-two settlements); in the lake of geneva (twenty-four settlements); in the lake of bienne, canton of berne (twenty settlements); in the lake of morat, canton of fribourg (eight settlements). next come several other lakes of less importance. the lake of zurich (three settlements); the lake of pfæffikon, canton of zurich (four settlements); the lake of sempach, canton of lucerne (four settlements); the lake of moosseedorf, canton of berne (two settlements); the lake of inkwyl, near soleure (one settlement); the lake of nussbaumen, canton of thurgau (one settlement); the lake of zug, &c. pile-work has also been discovered in former lakes now transformed into peat-bogs. we must place in this class the peat-bog of wauwyl, canton of lucerne (five settlements). we will mention, in the last place, the settlement at the bridge of thièle, on the water-course which unites the lakes of bienne and neuchâtel. this settlement must once have formed a portion of the lake of bienne, at the time when the latter extended as far as the bridge of thièle. the lacustrine villages of switzerland do not all belong to the same period. the nature of the remains that they contain indubitably prove that some are far more ancient than others. the vestiges have been discovered of three successive epochs--the polished-stone epoch and the epochs of bronze and of iron. the lacustrine settlements of switzerland, when considered under the heads of the various pre-historical epochs to which they belong, may be divided in the following way:-- _the stone age_:--the lake of constance (about thirty settlements); the lake of neuchâtel (twelve settlements); the lake of geneva (two settlements); the lake of morat (one settlement); the lakes of bienne, zurich, pfæffikon, inkwyl, moosseedorf, nussbaumen, wanger, &c.; the settlements of saint-aubin and concise, the peat-bog of wauwyl, and the settlement at the bridge of thièle. _the bronze epoch_:--the lake of geneva (twenty settlements); the lake of neuchâtel (twenty-five settlements); the lake of bienne (ten settlements); also the lakes of morat and sempach. _the iron epoch_:--the lakes of neuchâtel and bienne. it may appear strange that the primitive inhabitants of switzerland should have preferred aquatic dwellings to habitations built on _terra firma_, which could certainly have been constructed much more easily. further on in our work we shall have something to say as to the advantages which men might derive from such a peculiar arrangement of their dwellings; but we may now remark that this custom was somewhat prevalent among the earliest inhabitants of europe. ancient history furnishes us with several instances of it. herodotus, speaking of the pæonians, of the lake prasias, in thrace, says:-- "their habitations are built in the following way. on long piles, sunk into the bottom of the lake, planks are placed, forming a floor; a narrow bridge is the means of access to them. these piles used to be fixed by the inhabitants at their joint expense; but afterwards it was settled that each man should bring three from mount orbelus for every woman whom he married. plurality of wives, be it observed, was permitted in this country. on these planks each has his hut with a trap-door down into the lake; and lest any of their children should fall through this opening they took care to attach a cord to their feet. they used to feed their horses and beasts of burden on fish. in this lake fish was so abundant that if a basket was let down through the trap-door it might be drawn up a short time afterwards filled with fish." sir j. lubbock, repeating the statement of one of his friends who resides at salonica, asserts that the fishermen of the lake prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water, as in the time of herodotus. there is nothing improbable in this, since the town of tcherkask in russia is constructed in a similar way over the river don, and venice itself is nothing but a lacustrine city built during historic times over a lagune of the adriatic sea. we may add that even in modern times this custom of building villages on piles still exists in some parts of the world. according to the evidence of dampier and dumont d'urville, habitations built on piles are to be met with in new guinea, celebes, ceram, mindanao, the caroline islands, &c. the city of borneo is, indeed, entirely built on this plan. in some of the isles of the pacific ocean there are several tribes of savages who likewise make their dwellings over water. the indians of venezuela have adopted this custom with the sole intention of sheltering themselves from the mosquitoes. it is quite permissible to suppose that the need for security was the motive which induced the ancient inhabitants of switzerland, and other countries, thus to make settlements and live upon the lakes. surrounded as they were by vast marshes and impenetrable forests, they lived in dread of the attacks of numerous wild beasts. they therefore taxed their ingenuity to insure their safety as far as they possibly could, and no means appeared more efficacious than that of surrounding themselves with water. at a subsequent period, when men commenced to make war against one another, these aquatic habitations became still more valuable. they then constituted something in the nature of camps or fortification in which, being well-protected from all danger of sudden surprise, the people of the country could defy the efforts of their enemies. we must, however, add, that in more recent times these buildings on piles were--according to m. desor--used only as storehouses for utensils and provisions; the actual dwellings for men being built on _terra firma_. these lacustrine dwellings are designated under various names by different authors. dr. keller, who was the first to describe them, gave them in german the name of _pfahlbauten_ (buildings on piles) which the italians have translated by the word _palafitta_. this latter appellation, when gallicized by m. desor, becomes _palafitte_. lastly, the name _ténevières_ or _steinbergs_ (mountains of stone) is given to constructions of a peculiar character in which the piles are kept up by masses of stone which have been brought to the spot. by dr. keller, this latter kind are called _packwerkbauten_. when we examine as a whole the character of the lacustrine settlements which have hitherto been discovered, it may, in fact, be perceived that those who built them proceeded on two different systems of construction; either, they buried the piles very deeply in the bed of the lake, and on these piles placed the platform which was to support their huts; or, they artificially raised the bed of the lake by means of heaps of stones, fixing in these heaps somewhat large stakes, not so much for the purpose of supporting the habitations themselves as with a view of making the heaps of stones a firm and compact body. [illustration: fig. .--section of the _ténevière_ of hauterive.] this latter mode of construction is represented in fig. , taken from a design given by m. desor in his remarkable work 'les palafittes.'[ ] one or the other of these modes of construction was employed according to the nature of the bed of the lake. in lakes with a muddy bottom, the first plan could be easily employed; but when the bed was rocky, it was necessary to have recourse to the second. this is the reason why on the northern shore of the lake of neuchâtel, where the banks of limestone come very close to the surface, a comparatively large number of _ténevières_ may be observed. these are the facts as generally noticed, especially in wide and deep lakes; the edifice, however, was not always constructed in this mode. in marshes and small lakes, which have now become peat-bogs, another system was frequently applied, a remarkable instance of which is furnished by the peat-moss at wauwyl. in this locality were found several quadrangular spaces very distinctly enclosed by piles, between which were raised as many as five platforms one above the other. these piles are naturally very long, and some are buried as much as seven feet in the solid ground--an operation which must have required an enormous amount of labour. the intervals between the platforms are filled up with boughs of trees and clay, and the floors themselves are made in nearly the same way as those we have before mentioned. the lowest rested directly on the bed of the lake, and on the upper one the huts were placed. it is sometimes the case that these heaps of stones rise above the water; they then form perfect artificial islands, and the habitations which covered them are no longer, properly speaking, dwellings on piles. of this kind is the station on the lake of inkwyl in switzerland; of this kind, also, are the _crannoges_ of ireland, of which we shall subsequently make special mention. some of these artificial islands have braved the destructive action of ages, and are still inhabited at the present time. m. desor mentions the isle of roses in the lake of starnberg (bavaria) which has never been known to have been unfrequented by man; it now contains a royal residence. let us revert to the mode of construction of the aquatic dwellings of switzerland. in all probability the stones used were conveyed to the required spot by means of canoes made of hollowed-out trunks of trees. several of these canoes may still be seen at the bottom of lake bienne, and one, indeed, is still laden with pebbles, which leads us to think that it must have foundered with its cargo. but it is very difficult to raise these canoes from the bottom, and it is, besides, probable that when exposed to the open air they would fall to dust. nevertheless, one of them is exhibited in the museum at neuchâtel. in the museum at saint-germain there is a canoe very similar to that of neuchâtel. it is made out of the trunk of a hollow tree. a second canoe, very like the first, but with the bark still on it, and in a bad state of preservation, lies in the entry of the same museum of saint-germain. it was taken out of the seine, as we stated when speaking in a previous chapter of the first discovery of the art of navigation during the stone age. it may very easily be explained how the constructors went to work in felling the trees and converting them into piles. m. desor has remarked that the pieces of wood composing the piles are cut cleanly through round their circumference only; the central part shows inequalities just like those which are noticed when a stick is broken in two by the hand after having been cut into all round the outside. the builders of the lacustrine villages, therefore, when they wanted to fell a tree must have acted much as follows: having cut all round it to a depth of or inches, they fixed a cord to the top, and broke the tree down by forcibly pulling at the upper part. they then cut it through in the same way with stone or bronze hatchets, giving it the requisite length, hewing it into a point at one end so that it should more easily penetrate the mud. sometimes a fire applied to the base of the tree prepared for, and facilitated, the effect of the sharp instruments used. a great number of the piles that have been found still bear the marks of the fire and the cuts made by stone hatchets. in constructing the _ténevières_, the labour of pointing the piles was needless, as the latter were thoroughly wedged in by the accumulation of stones of which we gave a representation in fig. . when the piles were prepared, they had to be floated to the spot fixed upon for the village, and to be fixed in the bed of the lake. if we consider that, in many cases, the length of these piles reached to as much as or feet, some idea may be formed of the difficulty of an undertaking of this kind. in the construction of the _ténevières_ much thicker piles were used, and the labour was much less difficult. for instance, in the more ancient _ténevières_ of the lake of neuchâtel piles are found made of whole trunks of trees which measure to inches in diameter. the mind is almost confused when it endeavours to sum up the amount of energy and strong will which the primitive population of switzerland must have bestowed on constructing, unaided as they were by metal implements, the earliest lacustrine settlements, some of which are of very considerable extent. the settlement of morges, one of the largest in the lake of geneva, is not less than , square yards in area. that of chabrey, in the lake of neuchâtel, measures about , square yards; another, in the same lake, , yards; and, lastly, a third, that of la tène, , yards. there are many others which are smaller, although of respectable dimensions. the number of piles which must have been used in some of these constructions is really surprising. m. löhle has calculated that in the single lacustrine village of wangen, in the lake of constance, at least , piles have been fixed, and that several generations must have been necessary to terminate the work. the more reasonable interpretation to give to a fact of this kind is that wangen, which was very thinly populated at first, increased in size gradually as the numbers of inhabitants augmented. the same remark may be doubtless applied to all the important stations. this was the plan employed in building a single habitation. when a whole village had to be built in the open water, a methodical course of action was adopted. they began by placing a certain number of piles parallel to the shore, and these they at once threw across the bridge which was intended to connect the village with the land, thus rendering the carriage of the materials much less difficult. when the bridge was finished, and before fixing all the piles, the platform was commenced immediately; this constituted a base of operations, by the help of which the pile work could more easily be finished. this platform was raised or feet above the surface of the water, so as to obviate any danger arising from the waves during a tempest. it was generally composed of branches and trunks of trees not squared, and bound horizontally to each other, the whole cemented together with clay; sometimes, also, they used thick rough slabs, which were obtained by splitting trunks of trees with wedges. the platform was fixed firmly on the pile-work, and in some cases wooden pegs were used to fasten together the largest pieces of timber, so that the cohesion and incorporation of the floor were rendered more complete. as soon as the esplanade was finished, they then proceeded to the construction of the huts. the huts must have opened on to the platform by doors. did they possess windows? nothing is known as to this point. but in all probability there was an opening at the top of the roof, through which the smoke of the fire made its way. to avoid any fear of conflagration, a stone fire-place was placed in the middle of each dwelling. the daylight must have come in through the hole in the roof in a quantity almost sufficient to cause the absence of windows to be not much felt. in each habitation, there was, no doubt, a trap-door in direct communication with the lake, such as those which existed in the dwellings of the pæonians described by herodotus. under this trap-door there was a reservoir made of osiers, intended for the preservation of fish. as the inhabitants of the lacustrine villages only lived upon the water with a view of increasing their security, it would be absurd to suppose that they would construct a large number of bridges between their aquatic settlement and the banks of the lake. there must have been, in general, but one bridge for each of these lake villages. how were the huts constructed, and what were their shape and dimensions? these questions certainly seem difficult to answer, for, as may be well imagined, no specimen of these ancient dwellings has been preserved to our days. nevertheless, a few relics, insignificant in appearance, enable us to reply to these inquiries in a way more or less satisfactory. everything seems to indicate that the huts were formed of trunks of trees placed upright, one by the side of the other, and bound together horizontally by interwoven branches. a coating of earth covered this wattling. it has been fancied, from the imprint left by some of the branches which were used in building these huts, that it might be inferred that they were circular, like those which historians attribute to the ancient gauls. this was troyon's opinion, and at first dr. keller's also. this author has even sketched a circular hut in a plate representing a restored lacustrine habitation, which accompanies one of his memoirs. sir c. lyell, also, has reproduced this same plate in the frontispiece of his work on the 'antiquity of man.' but dr. keller has subsequently abandoned this idea, and in another of his memoirs he has supplied a fresh design showing nothing but huts with flat or sloping roofs. from this latter plate, taken from dr. keller's work, we here give a representation of a swiss lacustrine village (fig. ). [illustration: fig. --a swiss lake village of the bronze epoch.] the suggestions for this reconstructive sketch were furnished to dr. keller not only by various scientific indications, but also and especially by a drawing made by dumont d'urville among the papuans of new guinea. according to dr. keller, during the last century there still existed on the river limmat, near zurich, some fishermen's huts built in a similar way to those of the lacustrine villages. what might have been the population of one of these settlements? this estimate m. troyon endeavoured to make--an undertaking of a very interesting nature. he adopted as the base of his calculations the lacustrine village of morges (lake of geneva), which, as we have already stated, had an area of , square yards. allowing that only one-half of this area was occupied by huts, the other half being reserved for gangways between the dwellings, and assuming an average diameter of feet for each hut, m. troyon reckoned the number of dwellings in the pre-historic village of morges at . next, supposing that four individuals lived in each hut, the total amount of population he arrived at was inhabitants. we might very justly be surprised if men of the bronze epoch, who were provided with metallic weapons, and were consequently in a much better position for resisting any violent attack, had continued to dwell exclusively in the midst of the water, and should not, to some extent, have dispersed over _terra firma_, which is man's natural standing-ground. it was, therefore, nothing more than might have been expected, when the discovery was made of the relics of dwellings upon land, containing remains of the bronze epoch. this discovery, in fact, took place, and those investigating the subject came to the conclusion that the valleys of switzerland, as well as the lakes, were occupied during this period by an industrious and agricultural people. at ebersberg, canton of zurich, there was discovered--which is a very curious fact--the remains of an ancient settlement situated on _terra firma_, and containing utensils similar to those found in the lacustrine settlements. in , dr. clement searched several mounds composed of pebbles bearing the traces of fire; these mounds were situated in the neighbourhood of gorgier (canton of neuchâtel). one of these mounds has furnished various objects of bronze intermingled with fragments of charcoal, especially a bracelet and some sickles characterised by a projection or set-off at the spring of the blade. on the plateau of granges (canton of soleure), dr. schild studied a certain spot which he considers to be the site of an ancient bronze foundry; for, besides finding there pebbles and calcined earth, he also discovered a number of reaping-hooks made with a shoulder, and also a fragment of a sword and four finely-made knives. a hatchet-knife was likewise found in the gorge of the seyon, near neuchâtel; and a bracelet in the vicinity of morges (canton of geneva). some other bracelets, accompanied by calcined human bones, were discovered near sion, in the valais. lastly, m. thioly obtained from a cave of mont salève, near geneva, numerous fragments of pottery of the bronze epoch; and in a grotto on the banks of the reuse, in the canton of neuchâtel, m. otz found relics of pottery of very fine clay, along with a quantity of bones. thus the people of this epoch did not dwell exclusively in settlements made over the water. they also were in the habit of building habitations on _terra firma_, and of furnishing them with everything which was necessary for existence. all the facts which have been observed in switzerland may, doubtless, be applied generally; and it may be said that during the bronze epoch the nature of man's habitation became decidedly fixed. the caves of the great bear and mammoth period, and the rock-shelters of the reindeer and polished-stone periods were now succeeded by dwelling-places which differ but little from those of the more civilised peoples who commence the era of historic times. footnotes: [ ] 'pfahlbauten,' zurich, - . [ ] various distinguished _savants_ have taken upon themselves the task of making known to the public the results of these unceasing investigations, and of bringing before the eyes of the present generation the ancient civilisation of the swiss valleys. among the works which have best attained this end, we must mention troyon's 'habitations lacustres des temps anciens et modernes,' morlot's 'etudes géologico-archéologiques en danemark et en suisse,' and m. desor's 'palafittes, ou constructions lacustres du lac de neuchâtel.' these works, which have been translated into various languages, contain a statement of all the archæological discoveries which have been made in switzerland. [ ] 'les palafittes, ou constructions lacustres du lac de neuchâtel.' paris, . chapter iii. lacustrine habitations of upper italy, bavaria, carinthia and carniola, pomerania, france, and england--the _crannoges_ of ireland. it was difficult to believe that switzerland alone possessed the monopoly of these pile-work-constructions. it was certainly to be supposed that the southern slopes of the alps, which were all dotted over with large and beautiful lakes, must likewise contain constructions of a similar character; this, at least, was m. desor's opinion. after the numerous pre-historic discoveries which had been made in switzerland, the zurich professor proceeded in to explore the lakes of lombardy, being well convinced that there too he should find remains of lacustrine habitations. the hopes he had formed were not deceived. ere long, in fact, m. desor obtained from the peat-bogs round lake maggiore piles and other objects similar to those found in the swiss lakes. these researches were continued by mm. gastaldi and moro, who discovered in the peat-bogs round this lake several ancient villages built upon piles. in the lake of varese, also in lombardy, which was examined in by mm. desor, g. de mortillet, and the abbé stoppani, were discovered five settlements, some of which were of the stone age. subsequently, the abbé ranchet pointed out four others, which raise to the number of nine the pile works found in this lake. in order to render due honour to mm. keller and desor, who have contributed so much to the investigation and popularity of lacustrine antiquities, the abbé stoppani gave the name of these _savants_ to two of the settlements. one of these isles is very curious, as it is inhabited up to the present day. it is called _isoletta_ ("small island"), and the litta family possess a _château_ upon it. in the peat-mosses of brianza, a portion of lombardy situated to the north of milan, the remains of lacustrine constructions have been discovered, together with bones, fragments of pottery, pieces of charcoal, and carbonised stone; also weapons, both of bronze and flint. the lake of garda has been searched over by various explorers, who have discovered in it the sites of several lacustrine habitations. the authors of these discoveries are dr. alberti, of verona, and mm. kosterlitz and silber, two austrian officers, who presented all the objects which they collected to the antiquarian museums of vienna and zurich. the traces of pile-works were first perceived when the works were in progress which were excavated by the austrians in round the fortress of peschiera; which proves, at least, that fortresses may occasionally serve some useful purpose. a settlement of the stone age, which was examined by m. paolo lioy, is situated in a small lake in venetia, the length of which does not exceed half a mile, and the depth feet; we allude to the lake of fimon, near vicenza. m. lioy discovered oaken piles partially charred, which proves that the village had at one time been burnt down; also slabs of timber roughly squared, a canoe hollowed out of a trunk of oak, cakes of clay which had come from the sides of huts, and still bore the imprint of the reed-stalks, and no doubt formed a kind of coating inside the huts; various instruments made of bone, flint, sandstone, granite, and stag's horn; rings or spindle-weights made of burnt earth, numerous fragments of rough pottery, merely dried in the sun, and, among all these remains, a dozen entire vessels. there were also found stores of acorns, nuts, and water-chestnuts, the fruit of the sorb-tree, some sloe-stones, &c. a large quantity of animal bones certified to the existence of the bison, the stag, the wild boar, the fox, and several other doubtful species. all the long bones were broken, as is usually the case, for the extraction of the marrow, but not with the ordinary regularity; they had merely been cracked by blows with stones. the investigation of lacustrine antiquities which had been inaugurated in switzerland could hardly stop short in its path of progress. attempts were made to discover _palafittes_ in other countries, and these attempts met with success. thanks to the initiative action taken by m. desor, and the liberality of the bavarian government, pile-works of ancient date have been discovered in six of the bavarian lakes. most of them go back to the stone age, but some belong to the bronze epoch. among the latter we may mention the _isle of roses_, in the lake of starnberg, which is, in fact, an artificial island, like the isoletta in the lake of varese. we have previously stated that this island has never ceased to be inhabited, and that a _château_ now exists on it. the movement spread from one place to another. austria made it a point of honour not to remain in the rear of bavaria, and professor hochstetter was commissioned by the academy of sciences at vienna to undertake a search for _palafittes_ in the lakes of carinthia and carniola. these explorations were not without result. in four lakes of carinthia, dr. hochstetter discovered piles, remains of pottery, bones, nuts, &c. in the lake of reutschach, which was the most closely investigated, he discovered shallows formed by stones, similar to the _steinbergs_ of switzerland. the marshes of laybach have also furnished instruments of stag's horn, a perforated stone, and a canoe. next to austria, prussia took the matter up. specimens of pile-work were discovered in several provinces of this kingdom; among these were brandenburg and pomerania, a district rich in marshes. in the environs of lubtow the lacustrine constructions have the same characteristics as those of robenhausen, on the lake of pfæffikon (switzerland). two distinct archæological strata may be distinguished; in the lower are found, all mingled together, bronze and stone instruments, fragments of pottery, wheat, barley, and charred peas; the upper stratum belongs to the iron age. we have not as yet said anything about france; lacustrine dwellings have, however, been discovered in some of the departments which border on switzerland. the lakes of bourget and annecy, in savoy, contain several of them. the former of these lakes was thoroughly explored by m. laurent rabut, author of an article on the 'habitations lacustres de la savoie,' which obtained a silver medal at the competition of the learned societies in . in the lake of bourget, m. rabut ascertained the existence of five or six settlements of the bronze epoch, three of which, those of tresserve, grésine and châtillon, have been distinguished as furnishing numerous ancient relics. the lake of paladru (isère) which has been searched by m. gustave vallier, has afforded similar results. pile-works are thought to exist in some other small lakes in the same district--those of sainte-hélène, on the left bank of the isère, saint-martin-de-belville, and saint-marcel, near moutiers. pile-works have also been discovered on the site of an ancient lake on the banks of the saône; and in a totally different district, at the foot of the pyrenees, as many as five have been pointed out. everything therefore leads us to believe that if we searched with care the peat-mosses and pools which are very common in a good many of the french departments, we should discover the vestiges of various pre-historic epochs. in order to complete the enumeration of the lacustrine constructions of europe, we may state that they have been found in denmark in the lake of maribo, and in england in the county of norfolk. with these constructions we must also connect the _crannoges_ or artificial islands of ireland, the first of which was discovered in by sir w. r. wilde, a member of the royal academy of dublin. since this date various investigations have been made of these objects, and, at the present time, no less than fifty _crannoges_ have been discovered, distributed among the various counties of ireland. [illustration: fig. .--vertical section of a _crannoge_ in the ardakillin lake.] most of these islets were composed of heaps of stones held together by piles, nearly in the same way as in the _ténevières_ in switzerland; but the _crannoges_ differ from the latter in being raised above the water. some of them, however, are formed by a collection of vertical piles and horizontal joists, constituting an external inclosure, and even internal compartments, inside which all kinds of remains were collected. this kind are called _stockaded_ islands. they are generally of an oval or circular shape, and their dimensions are always kept within rather narrow limits. in his work on 'pre-historic times,' sir john lubbock gives the above sketch of a _crannoge_ in the ardakillin lake. captain mudge, of the royal british navy, has described a hut which he found at a depth of feet, in the drumkellin marsh. its area was about feet square, and its height feet; it included two stories, each about - / feet high. the roof was flat, and the hut was surrounded by a fence of piles, doubtless intended to separate it from other adjacent huts, the remains of which are still to be perceived. the whole construction had been executed by means of stone instruments, a fact that was proved by the nature of the cuts that were still visible on some of the pieces of wood. added to this, a hatchet, a chisel, and an arrow-head, all made of flint, were found on the floor of the cabin, and left no doubt whatever on this point. this, therefore, was in fact a habitation belonging to the stone age. some nuts and a large quantity of broken shells were scattered over the ground. a large flat stone, perforated with a little hole in the middle, was found on the spot; it was probably used to break the nuts by means of round pebbles picked up outside. from some of these settlements considerable masses of bones have been obtained, which have, alas, been utilised as manure. sir john lubbock tells us that the _crannoge_ of dunshauglin alone has furnished more than cartloads of bones. these bones belong to the following species:--the ox, the pig, the goat, the sheep, the horse, the ass, the dog, the fox, the roe, the fallow-deer, and the great irish stag, now extinct. if all other proof were wanting, the presence of the remains of this latter animal would be sufficient to indicate that certain _crannoges_ date back to the stone age; but as in this case we evidently have to do with the polished-stone epoch, it is also proved that the gigantic antlered stag existed in ireland at a much later date than on the continent. various historical records testify to the fact, that the _crannoges_ were inhabited up to the end of the sixteenth century. they then constituted a kind of fortress, in which petty chiefs braved for a long time the royal power. after the definitive pacification of the country they were completely abandoned. chapter iv. palustrine habitations or marsh-villages--surveys made by mm. strobel and pigorini of the _terramares_ of tuscany--the _terramares_ of brazil. having described the _lacustrine_ habitations which have been discovered in various parts of europe, we must now mention the so-called _palustrine_ habitations, as peculiar to the bronze epoch. this name has been given to that kind of village, the remains of which have been discovered round marshes and pools. upper italy is the locality in which these settlements have been pointed out. the name of _palustrine settlements_, or _marnieras_, has been given to the sites of ancient villages established by means of piles on marshes or pools of no great size, which in the course of time have been filled up by mould of a peaty character, containing a quantity of organic and other _detritus_. the discovery of those _palustrine settlements_ is due to mm. strobel and pigorini, who have designated them by the name of _terramares_. this term is applied by these _savants_ to the accumulation of ashes, charcoal, animal bones, and remains of all kinds which have been thrown away by man all round his dwellings, and have accumulated there during the lapse of centuries. the name which has been given them was derived from the fact that they furnish a kind of earthy ammoniacal manure, known in the district by the name of _terra mare_. these accumulations are the representatives of the danish kitchen-middens; but with this difference, that instead of dating back to the stone age, the former belong to the bronze epoch. _terramares_ are numerous in the districts of parma and modena; they are, however, almost entirely confined to the plain which extends between the po, the apennines, the adda, and the reno, forming an area of about miles long, and miles wide. in a general way, they form small mounds which rise from to feet above the level of the plain; as they go down some depth in the ground, their total thickness is in some places as much as feet. very few are seen having an area exceeding acres. excavations which have been made in several spots enable a tolerably exact account to be given of the mode of construction adopted in these palustrine settlements. the _marniera_ of castione, in particular, has furnished us with valuable information on this point; and we shall describe this settlement as a type of the rest. piles from to feet in length, and to inches in diameter (fig. ), formed of trunks of trees, either whole or split, and pointed at the ends by some rough tool, were sunk to the depth of some inches in the bed of the hollow. some of them still show on their tops the marks of the blows that they received when they were driven in. they were placed at intervals of from inches to feet; and connecting-beams from to feet in length, placed horizontally, and crossing one another, bound the piles together, and insured the solidity of the whole construction. on these cross-beams rested a floor (fig. ) formed of joists to inches thick, to inches wide, and to feet long. [illustration: fig. .--vertical section of the _marniera_ of castione.] [illustration: fig. .--floor of the _marniera_ of castione.] fig. gives the plan of the tie-beams and piles of the _marniera_ of castione, taken from the author's work.[ ] these slabs or joists were not fixed in any way; at least, no trace now exists of any fastening. they seemed to have been provided by splitting trunks of trees by means of wooden wedges, a number of these wedges having been found in the peaty earth. neither the saw nor the gimlet appear to have been employed; but the square holes have been cut out by means of the chisel. the timber that was used was principally ash and oak. [illustration: fig. .--plan of the piles and cross-beams in the _marniera_ of castione.] the floor was covered with beaten earth to a thickness of to inches. fragments of this kind of paving were found scattered about in two sandy heaps, almost entirely devoid of other _débris_, whilst the adjacent earth, of a blackish colour, contained a large quantity of relics of all kinds. it is probable that the huts of the inhabitants of the _marniera_ were situated upon these sandy heaps, and that the dark-coloured earth is the final result of the accumulation of refuse and various kinds of _detritus_ on the same spot. it is not known whether the layer of beaten earth extended over the whole surface of the floor, or was confined to the interior of the habitations. in the former case, it is probable that it was rammed down with less care on the outside than on the inside of the huts, as is shown by the discovery of a storehouse for corn, the floor of which is formed by nothing but a layer of sandy earth placed upon the planks. this storehouse, which, from the use to which it was put, could not have been used as a dwelling by any one, measured feet in length, and feet in width. it contained carbonised beans and wheat, spread in a layer of about inches thick. mm. strobel and pigorini found no remains of huts in the _marniera_ of castione: probably because, having been built entirely of wood, they were completely destroyed by fire, numerous traces of which may still be detected. in addition to the carbonised corn and fruit already mentioned, many other objects bearing the evident marks of fire were, in fact, collected at castione. the floor-slabs, the tie-beams, and the tops of the piles were often found to be half consumed. but although at castione there is no evidence forthcoming in respect to huts, information which bears upon this point has been obtained at other spots. mm. strobel and pigorini have ascertained that the palustrine dwellings bore a great similarity to those on the swiss lakes. the sides were lined with boughs, and the interior was daubed with clay. in italy, just as in switzerland, certain fragments of the clayey coating which have been hardened and preserved by fire have enabled us to draw these inferences. at castione several beds of ashes and charcoal containing remains of meals, pointed out the sites of the domestic hearths, round which they, doubtless, assembled to eat their food. another bed of charcoal, mixed with straw, wheat, and pieces of burnt pottery, was found in a peculiar situation--it was embedded in a bank of calcareous pebbles vitrified on the surface; this bank was about feet wide, and about inches in thickness. the explorers thought that it was, perhaps, a place which had been devoted to the fusion of metals. on the edge of the basin of the marsh, a kind of rampart or defensive work was discovered, composed of slabs as much as feet in length, laid horizontally one over the other. these slabs were tied down by stakes driven in obliquely, and likewise placed one above the other, their ends being inserted between the slabs. this last discovery, added to other indications, led mm. strobel and pigorini to the supposition that the pile-work of castione, and doubtless also those in all the _marnieras_, were in the first place constructed as places of defence, and were subsequently converted into fixed and permanent residences. the basin of the marsh having been gradually filled up by the accumulations of _débris_ resulting from the presence of man, the habitations were built on a solid foundation, and a great portion of the former floor was done away with, which would account for so little of it now remaining. the objects discovered in the _terramares_ and _marnieras_ do not essentially differ from those found in the pile-works of switzerland. they are almost all worn or broken, just as might be expected from finding them in rubbish heaps. there are a great quantity of fragments of pottery of a greyish or dark-coloured clay mixed with grains of quartz, imperfectly baked, and made without the aid of a potter's wheel. the ornamentation is, in general, of a very simple character, but the shapes of the ears, or handles, are very varied. some of the vessels are furnished with a spout or holes for the liquid to flow out. the _terramares_ also contain supports for vessels with round or pointed bottoms. in the _marniera_ of san ambrogio a slab of pottery was found, elliptical in shape, and about half an inch in thickness, concave on one side and convex on the other, and pierced with seventeen circular holes about a quarter of an inch in diameter. the idea was entertained that this object was used as a kind of fire-grating, for it bore traces of the long-continued action of fire. the other objects most commonly found were weights made of baked earth, and perhaps used for the weaving-loom, much worn in the place where the cord passed through on which they were hung; _fusaiolas_, or spindle-whorls, very varied both in shape and size, likewise made of baked earth; large mill-stones with a polished surface. next, we have poniards or spear-heads, hatchets, and hair-pins, all made of bronze. the _marniera_ of san ambrogio has furnished a mould indicating that bronze was melted and cast in this district. an attentive study of the bones of animals contained in the _terramares_ has led to the following information being obtained as to the _fauna_ of upper italy during the bronze epoch. with respect to the mammals which lived in a wild state, the existence has been ascertained of a species of stag of much greater size than the present variety, and about equal to that of the lacustrine settlements of switzerland (fig. ); also of a wild-boar, much more powerful than that of sardinia or even of algeria, the roe, the bear, the rat, and the porcupine. in different spots have been found stags' horns and bones, and also sloe-stones which have retained the impression of the teeth of some small rodent. the bear, the wild-boar, the stag and the roe, have, at the present day, disappeared from the country. the porcupine, too, has migrated into regions further south, which leads to the supposition that the temperature of the provinces of parma and modena is a little lowered since the date of the bronze epoch. [illustration: fig. .--the chase during the bronze epoch.] it is to be remarked that in these settlements, contrary to what has been noticed in switzerland, in the lacustrine habitations belonging to the stone age, the remains of wild animals are met with much more rarely than those of domestic animals; this must be consequent on a superior and more advanced stage of civilisation having existed in italy. among the domestic species found we may mention the dog, two breeds of which, of different sizes, must have existed; the pig of the peat-bogs, the same variety as that of which the bones were discovered in switzerland; the horse, the remains of which, although rare, testify to the existence of two breeds, one large and bulky, the other of slighter and more elegant proportions; the ass, of which there are but few bones, could not, therefore, have been very common; the ox, the remains of which are on the contrary very abundant, like the dog and the horse, is represented by two distinct breeds, the more powerful of which appears to have descended from the _bos primigenius_ or _urus_; lastly, the sheep and the goat, the remains of which can scarcely be clearly distinguished on account of their great anatomical resemblance. when we compare the present _fauna_ with that of which we have just given the details, we may perceive several important modifications. thus the pig of the peat-bogs, one breed of oxen, and a breed of sheep (the smallest) have become entirely extinct; and the common sheep, the goat, the horse, and the ass have assumed much more important dimensions. with regard to the wild species of mammals, we have already said that some have become less in size, and others have disappeared. hence results one proof of a fact which is beyond dispute, although often called in question, namely, that the intelligent action of man working by means of domestication on wild natures, will ultimately succeed in ameliorating, reclaiming, and perfecting them. the skulls and the long bones found in the _terramares_ are almost always broken for the purpose of extracting the brain and the marrow, a very ancient usage which had endured to this comparatively late epoch. but instead of being split longitudinally, as was the case in preceding epochs, they are generally broken across at one end. the _terramares_ and the _kitchen-middens_ have this peculiarity in common--that all the dogs' skulls found in them have been intentionally broken; a fact which proves that in italy, as in denmark, this faithful guest or servant of man was occasionally, in default of some better food, and doubtless with much regret, used as an article of subsistence. no remains of fish have been found in these _marnieras_; from this, mm. strobel and pigorini have justly concluded that the inhabitants of these pile-works were not fishermen, and that, at all events, the water which surrounded them was shallow and of limited extent. the species of birds, molluscs and insects, the remains of which have been found in the _terramares_, are likewise determined. the existence of the domestic fowl and the duck, no doubt living in complete liberty, has been duly recognised; but it is thought that the appearance of these species must not be dated further back than the _end_ of the bronze epoch, and perhaps even the beginning of that of iron. the examination of the insect remains has enabled us to ascertain that the refuse food and rubbish must have lain for some little time in front of the doors of the habitations before it was pushed into the water; for in it, flies, and other insects of the kind, found time to be born, to mature, and to undergo their whole series of metamorphoses; a fact which is proved by the perforated and empty envelopes of their chrysalides. we mention this last fact as one of the most curious instances of the results which science and inference may, in combination, arrive at when devoted to the novel and interesting study of some of the earlier stages in man's existence. but, on the other hand, it gives us but a poor idea of the cleanliness of the italian race during the bronze epoch. it would seem to us that a feeling of the dignity inherent in the body of man, and the cares that it so imperiously claims, would have been now more strongly developed than at a period when men dwelt confined in caves. this, however, is not the case. but have we, in the present day, any right to be astonished when we see, even now, the prevalence, in some of the great cities of america, of certain practices so disgusting in character and so opposed to the public health? osculati, an italian traveller, relates that at all the street corners in the city of guayaquil, in the republic of ecuador, heaps of filth are to be seen which exhale an insupportable odour. similar heaps exist at the very gates of mexico, where, at the present time, they form small hills. these facts ought to render us indulgent towards the neglect of cleanliness by our ancestors during the bronze epoch. such were the animal remains collected in the _terramares_. the vegetable remains consisted of grains of carbonised corn, broken nuts, acorns, halves of burnt apples, stones of the dog-berry, plums and grapes. in concluding our consideration of the palustrine settlements, we may add, that some have recently been discovered in moravia and mecklenburg. at olmutz, a city of moravia, m. jeitteler, a learned viennese, has found piles sunk into the peat, along with various bronze and stone objects, ornamented pottery, charcoal, charred wheat, numerous animal bones, and a human skeleton of a brachycephalous race. all the facts lead to the belief that this will not be the last discovery of the kind. we must also state that the _terramares_, or deposits of the remains of habitations on the edge of marshes, are not peculiar to europe exclusively. on the coast of africa (at san vicente) m. strobel found remains of an exactly similar nature; and dr. henrique naegeli, a distinguished naturalist of rio janeiro, has testified to the existence on the coast of brazil of like deposits, which he proposes to subject to a thorough examination.[ ] footnotes: [ ] 'les terramares et les pilotages du parmesan;' milan, . (extract from the 'atti della società italiana di scienze naturali.') [ ] 'matériaux pour l'histoire positive et philosophique de l'homme,' by g. de mortillet. paris, : vol. i. p. . chapter v. weapons, instruments, and utensils contained in the various lacustrine settlements in europe, enabling us to become acquainted with the manners and customs of man during the bronze epoch. we have just spoken of the discovery and investigation of the _lacustrine habitations_ found in various parts of europe, and also of the _palustrine villages_ of northern italy. these rich deposits have thrown a considerable light on the primitive history of the human race. with the elements that have been thus placed at our disposal, it will be possible to reconstruct the domestic life of the tribes of the bronze epoch, that is, to describe the weapons, instruments, and utensils which were proper to the every-day proceedings of this period. in order to give perspicuity to our representation or account, we have classed the lacustrine habitations under the head of the _bronze _epoch. but we must by no means forget that these lacustrine villages contained other objects besides those belonging to the bronze epoch; there were also found in them a number of articles which must be referred to the preceding period, that is, the polished-stone epoch. it is a question indifferent to our purpose, whether the lacustrine villages were constructed during the stone age, as inferred from the presence in some settlements of stone objects only, or whether the habitations were built during the bronze epoch, some of the articles made of stone and dating back to the preceding period being still preserved in use. for it is certain that the larger number of lacustrine settlements do not go back beyond the bronze epoch. but as certain objects made of stone form a portion of the implements found in these ancient habitations, we must commence by describing these relics of the stone age; although we shall considerably abridge this description, so as to avoid repeating those details which we have already given in the preceding chapters. the stone weapons and instruments are found to consist, in switzerland as elsewhere, of hatchets, spear-heads and arrow-heads, hammers, saws, knives and chisels. the hatchets and hammers are made of various materials, as flint, quartzite, diorite, nephrite, jade, serpentine, &c. but the other weapons and implements are, nearly all of them, of flint. the hatchet was in continual use, not merely as a weapon but as a tool; thus, very numerous specimens of it are found in the swiss lakes. the hatchets, however, are generally speaking, small in size. their length varies from to inches, and their width, at the cutting edge, from - / to inches. fig. represents one of the flint hatchets. they are the same shape as the danish hatchets during the polished-stone epoch. [illustration: fig. .--stone hatchet from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] the most simple plan of fixing a handle to the small-sized hatchets, which were in fact chisels, consisted in inserting them into a piece of stag's horn, hollowed out for this purpose at one end. in this way they obtained a kind of chisel which was very ready of use. fig. represents this kind of handle. [illustration: fig. .--stone chisel with stag's-horn handle from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] there was also another mode of fixing handles to these instruments. the shaped flint was previously fixed in a holder of stag's horn. this holder was itself perforated through the middle with a round hole, in order to receive a wooden handle. it then became a complete hatchet. fig. represents one of these hatchets fitted with a handle, in a way similar to many of the specimens in the museum of saint-germain. [illustration: fig. .--flint hammer, fitted with a stag's-horn handle.] this mode of insertion into a handle is frequently met with during the polished-stone epoch, as we have already stated upon the authority of boucher de perthes (see fig. ). there was also another way of adapting for use the stone chisels and hammers. the following is the mode employed. the flint was inserted into a short holder of stag's horn, hollowed out at one end for this purpose, the other end of the piece of horn being cut square. this squared end, which was thinner than the rest of the holder, was fitted into a wooden handle, which had been perforated with a hole of the same shape and size. m. desor, in his 'mémoire sur les palafittes,' supplies the following sketch (fig. ), as representing these double-handled hatchets. [illustration: fig. .--stone hatchet, with double handle of wood and stag's horn.] it is very seldom that hatchets of this type are met with in a complete state in the lacustrine habitations of switzerland; the handles have generally disappeared. in other localities, where the hatchets are very plentiful, very few holders are found. is it not the case that in these spots the stone was the special object of work and not the handles? there were, in fact, in switzerland, as in france and belgium, workshops devoted to the manufacture of these articles. the large number of hatchets, either just commenced or defective in workmanship, which have been found in some of the principal lacustrine settlements leave no doubt on this point. the finest and most carefully-wrought instruments are the hammers and double, or hatchet-hammers. most of them are made of serpentine. one of the ends is generally rounded or flattened, whilst the other tapers off either into a point or a cutting edge, as represented in figs. and , taken from m. desor's work. they are perforated with a round hole intended to receive a handle of wood. this hole is so sharply and regularly cut out, that it is difficult to believe it could have been made with nothing better than a flint tool. metal alone would appear to be capable of effecting such finished work. this is one of the facts which tend to the idea that the lacustrine settlements, which have been ascribed to the stone age, belong rather to the bronze epoch. [illustration: fig. - .--serpentine hatchet-hammers, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] fig. represents another hatchet-hammer obtained from the swiss lakes. [illustration: fig. .--another hatchet-hammer, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] the knives and saws have nothing remarkable about them. they are mere flakes of flint, long and narrow in shape, the cutting edge or teeth being on the widest side. there are some which are fitted into handles of stag's horn, as represented in fig. , taken from m. desor's work. [illustration: fig. .--flint saw fitted into a piece of stag's horn.] they must have been fastened into the handles by means of bitumen, for traces of this substance have been found on some of the handles. the same plan was adopted in order to fix the hatchets in their holders. the spear-heads (fig. ) are very skilfully fashioned; their shape is regular, and the chiselling very perfect, although inferior to that observed in denmark. they are made level on one side, and with a longitudinal middle ridge on the other. [illustration: fig. .--flint spear-head from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] the arrow-heads are very varied in shape (fig. ). in delicacy of workmanship they are in no way inferior to the spear or javelin-heads. [illustration: fig. .--various shapes of flint arrow-heads, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] the cutting of these small objects must have required much labour and skill. some are toothed on the edges, which must have rendered the wounds inflicted by them much more dangerous. the greater part of these arrow-heads are made of flint, but some have been found the material of which is bone, and even stag's horn. the arrow-heads were fixed into the shafts by means of bitumen. this plan is represented in figs. and , which are given by m. mortillet in his 'promenades préhistoriques à l'exposition universelle.' [illustration: fig. .--arrow-head of bone fixed on the shaft by means of bitumen.] [illustration: fig. .--stone arrow-head fixed on the shaft by means of bitumen.] sometimes they were merely attached to the shaft by a ligature of string (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--arrow-head fixed on the shaft by a ligature of string.] a few relics have been discovered of the bows which were used to impel these arrows. they were made of yew, and roughly cut. tools and instruments of bone seem, like those made of flint, to have been much in use. in addition to the arrow-heads which we have just mentioned, there have also been found piercers, or bodkins of various shapes (figs. and ), chisels for working in wood (fig. ), pins with lenticular heads (fig. ), needles perforated sometimes with one eye and sometimes with two, and occasionally hollowed out round the top in a circular groove, so as to attach the thread. figs. , , and are given by m. desor in his 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' [illustration: fig. .--bone bodkin, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--bone bodkin, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--carpenter's chisel, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--bone needle.] it is probable that, as during the reindeer epoch, garments were sewn by means of the needle and the bodkin, the latter piercing the holes through which the needle passed the thread. that kind of needle which has a hole in the middle and is pointed at the two ends, which is found in large numbers in the lacustrine settlements, must doubtless have been used as a hook for fishing. when the fish had swallowed the bait, the two points stuck into the flesh, and it was then easy to pull out the captive. some of these fish-hooks are carved out of boars' tusks. stag's horn was likewise employed for several other purposes. a kind of pick-axe was sometimes made of it (fig. ); also harpoons (fig. ), harpoons with a double row of barbs (fig. ), and small cups of conical shape (fig. ), perforated with a hole in the upper part so that they could be suspended if required. [illustration: fig. .--pick-axe of stag's horn.] [illustration: fig. .--harpoon made of stag's horn, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--harpoon made of stag's horn, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--vessel made of stag's horn.] the taste for personal adornment was not foreign to the nature of the primitive people of switzerland. canine teeth and incisors of various animals, rings and beads made of bone or stag's horn, all united in a necklace, formed one of their most usual adornments. they also made use of hair-pins and bone combs. these pins were finished off with a knob, and combined elegance and simplicity in their shape; they would, indeed, be no disfigurement to the _coiffure_ of the women of modern times. such were the instruments, utensils and tools, used for the purpose of domestic life, which have been found in the lacustrine habitations of switzerland belonging to the stone age. we will now pass on to the objects of the same character, peculiar to the bronze epoch. the quantity of bronze objects which, up to the present time, have been collected from the swiss lakes is very considerable. the finest collection in the country, that of colonel schwab, contained in , according to a catalogue drawn up by dr. keller, no less than specimens. most of these objects have been cast in moulds, as is evident from the seams, the traces of which may be observed on several of the specimens. among the most remarkable of the relics of the bronze epoch which have been recovered from the swiss lakes, the hatchets or celts are well deserving of mention. they are from to inches in length, and weigh from to pounds. their shapes are varied; but all possess the distinctive characteristic of being adapted to fit longitudinally on their handles, and not transversely, as in the stone age. it is but seldom that they are not furnished with a hole or ear, so as to furnish an additional means of attachment. we have in the first place the hatchet with wings bent round on each side of the blade, so as to constitute a kind of double socket, intended to receive a handle divided in the middle and bent into an elbow. this is the most prevalent type. sometimes, as may be noticed in fig. , the upper end is pierced with an eye, doubtless intended to hold a band for fixing firmly the curved handle. this arrangement is peculiar to the hatchets of large size, that is, to those which had the most strain put upon them. another type which is very rare in switzerland--only one specimen of it existing in the museum of neuchâtel--is that (fig. ) in which the wings, instead of bending back upon the blade perpendicularly to the plane of the cutting edge, turn back in the same plane with it, or in the thickness of the blade. [illustration: fig. .--bronze winged hatchet, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--winged hatchet (front and side view), from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] there is also the hatchet with the ordinary socket, either cylindrical (fig. ) or angular. this shape is very common in france, where they are known by the name of _celts_. [illustration: fig. .--socketed hatchet from the lacustrine habitations.] [illustration: fig. .--knife hatchet (front and side view), from the lacustrine habitations.] m. morlot has given the name of _knife-hatchets_ (fig. ), to those instruments, the perforated ears of which are scarcely, if at all developed, and could by no means serve to give firmness to a handle. it is probable that these instruments were grasped directly by the hand; and that the mere rudiments of wings which may be noticed, were merely intended to substitute a rounded surface for a sharp ridge. figures , , and , are taken from m. desor's 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' next to the hatchets we must mention the chisels for wood-work (fig. ), which are cut out to a great nicety, and in no way differ from our present chisels, except in the mode of fitting to the handle, which is done by means of a socket. [illustration: fig. .--carpenter's chisel, in bronze.] [illustration: fig. .--hexagonal hammer.] [illustration: fig. .--knife with a tang to fit into a handle, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] there has also been discovered a kind of prismatically shaped hexagonal hammer (fig. ), likewise provided with a socket, the length of which is about inches. this hammer forms a portion of the collection of colonel schwab. the knives are the most numerous of all the sharp instruments. the workmanship of them is, in general, very skilfully executed, and their shape is very elegant. some of them have a metallic handle; but the greater part terminate in a kind of tang intended to fit into a handle of wood or stag's horn, as represented in fig. , taken from m. desor's 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' we also find knives furnished with a socket (fig. ). the blade measures from to inches in length, and is often adorned with tracings; in some instances the back of the blade is very much thickened. [illustration: fig. .--socketed knife, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] together with the knives we must also class the sickles or reaping hooks. these implements have been collected in somewhat large quantities in the settlements of auvernier and cortaillod (lake of neuchâtel). they are of good workmanship, and frequently provided with ridges or ribs in the metal of the blade. fig. , given by m. desor in his work, represents a sickle of this kind which was found by the author at chevroux. [illustration: fig. .--bronze sickle, found by m. desor at chevroux.] the largest of these sickles does not exceed inches in length. they were fitted into a wooden handle. we cannot of course describe all the bronze objects which have been recovered from the swiss lakes. after having mentioned the preceding, we shall content ourselves with naming certain saws of various shapes--razors, actual razors, indicating no small care given to personal appearance--bodkins, or piercers--needles, with eyes either at the end or some distance from the end, articles of fishing tackle, such as single and double fishing-hooks (figs. and ), with a plain or barbed point--harpoons, various small vessels, &c. [illustration: fig. .--bronze fish-hook, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--double fish-hook, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] we shall dwell, although briefly, on the various objects of personal ornament which have been found in the swiss lacustrine settlements of the bronze epoch. we will mention, in the first place, the hair-pins, &c. which have been recovered from the various lakes. the most curious fact about them is, that no one has ever found two exactly alike both in shape and dimensions. we borrow from m. desor's work the four following figures representing various shapes of pins. some have a round head (fig. ), and others a flat (fig. ), or cylindrical head (fig. ); others, again, are finished off with a twisted end to which is attached a movable end (fig. ). [illustration: fig. .--hair-pin, found by m. desor in one of the swiss lakes.] [illustration: fig. .--hair-pin, found by m. desor in one of the swiss lakes.] [illustration: fig. .--hair-pin with cylindrical head.] [illustration: fig. .--hair-pin with curled head.] the round-headed pins are sometimes massive in shape and unornamented, that is, exactly similar to the bone pins of the stone age; sometimes, and even more frequently, they are perforated with one or more round holes and adorned with a few chasings. the flat-headed pins differ very much in the diameter of the button at the end, which is sometimes of considerable size. there are some, the head of which is nothing more than a small enlargement of the pin, and others, in which there are two or three of these enlargements, placed a little way apart and separated by a twist. their sizes are very various, and in some cases are so exaggerated, that it is quite evident that the objects cannot have been used as hair-pins. in colonel schwab's collection, there is one inches long, and m. troyon has mentioned some and inches long. at the _exposition universelle_ of , in the collection sent by m. desor, the visitors' admiration might have been called forth by some of the pins which had been repolished by the care of the learned swiss naturalist. they were certainly very elegant, and ladies of the present day might well have decorated themselves with these ornaments, although they dated back to an era so many thousands of years ago. among many savage tribes, the dressing of the hair, especially among the men, is carried to an excessively elaborate pitch. the head of hair of an abyssinian soldier forms a species of lofty system of curls which is meant to last a whole lifetime. he carries with him a long pin, furnished with a thick button, owing to the impossibility of reaching his skin through his _coiffure_ with the extremities of his fingers. in the same way the new zealanders wear an enormous "chignon," feet high and ornamented with ribbons. the chinese and the japanese also devote excessive attention to the dressing of their hair. it is, therefore, probable that the inhabitants of the lacustrine villages, both men and women, devoted an immense amount of care to the cultivation of their _coiffure_. in the tombs of the bronze epoch, pins have been found - / feet in length, with large knobs or buttons at the end, similar to those used by the abyssinian soldiers of our own day. the combs, which resembled those of the present new zealanders, although inches long, had only six to eight teeth, and must have been better fitted to scratch their heads than to dress their hair. bracelets, too, have been found in some considerable numbers in the swiss lakes. they are very varied in their shapes, decidedly artistic in their workmanship, and often set off with carved designs. some (fig. ) are composed of a single ring of varying width, the ends of which almost meet and terminate by a semi-circular clasp; others (fig. ), are a combination of straight or twisted wires ingeniously joined to one another. [illustration: fig. .--bronze bracelet, found in one of the swiss lakes.] [illustration: fig. .--another bronze bracelet.] we also find certain rings, cylindrical in shape, and made all in one piece (fig. ), which were probably placed round the legs. [illustration: fig. .--bronze ring.] some of these ornaments remain, even up to the present day, in a perfect state of preservation. in an urn which was recovered from the settlement of cortaillod, six specimens were discovered, the designs of which appeared quite as clearly as if they had only just been engraved. there is one point which must be remarked, because it forms an important _datum_ in respect to the size of the swiss people during the bronze epoch; this is, that most of the bracelets are so small that they could scarcely be worn nowadays. they must, therefore, have been adapted to very slender wrists--a fact which naturally leads us to believe that all the other limbs were small in proportion. this small size in the bracelets coincides with the diminutiveness of the sword-hilts which have been found in the lacustrine habitations of switzerland. earrings, also, have been found in great numbers in the swiss lakes. they are either metallic plates, or wires differently fashioned; all, however, testifying to a somewhat developed degree of taste. next after these trinkets and objects of adornment we must class certain articles of a peculiar character which must have been pendants or appendages to bracelets. all these ornaments are, in fact, perforated at the top with a circular hole, intended, no doubt, to have a thread passed through it, by which it was hung round the neck. some of them (fig. ) are small triangular plates of metal, frequently ornamented with engraved designs; others (fig. ), are in open-work, and include several branches, each terminated by a hole similar to that at the top. some, again, assume the form of a ring not completely closed up (fig. ), or rather, perhaps, of a crescent with wide and almost contiguous horns. in the same class may be placed the rings (fig. ) to which were suspended movable ornaments in the shape of a double spiral. [illustration: fig. .--bronze pendant, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--another bronze pendant, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze ring, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--another ornamental ring.] the four bronze objects, representations of which we have just given, are designed from the sketches supplied by m. desor in his 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' some few trinkets of gold have been found in the lacustrine settlements of the bronze epoch; but this sort of "find" is very rare. they are in the form of earrings, and may be seen in the collection of colonel schwab. chapter vi. industrial skill and agriculture during the bronze epoch--the invention of glass--invention of weaving. the manufacture of pottery, which appears to have remained stationary during the stone age, assumed a considerable development during the bronze epoch. the clay intended for making pottery was duly puddled, and the objects when moulded were baked in properly formed furnaces. at this date also commences the art of surfacing articles of earthenware. the specimens of pottery which have been found in the settlements of man of this period are both numerous and interesting; entire vessels have indeed been discovered. we notice indications of very marked progress beyond the objects of this kind manufactured in the preceding age. they are still fashioned by the hand and without the aid of the wheel; but the shapes are both more varied in their character and more elegant. in addition to this, although in the larger kind of vessels the clay used is still rough in its nature and full of hard lumps of quartz like the material employed in the stone age, that of the smaller vessels is much finer, and frequently covered with a black lead coating. most of these vessels are characterised by a conical base, a shape which we had before occasion to point out in the stag's-horn vessels of the stone age. if, therefore, it was requisite to place them upright, the lower ends of them had to be stuck into the earth, or to be placed in holders hollowed out to receive them. some of these supports, or holders, have been discovered. they are called _torches_, or _torchères_, by french archæologists. figs. and give a representation of a bronze vessel from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland with its support or _torchère_. [illustration: fig. .--earthenware vessel with conical bottom, from the lacustrine habitations of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--earthen vessel placed on its support.] in a general way, the vessels made with conical bases have no handles; but others, on the contrary, are provided with them (fig. ). they are nearly always ornamented with some sort of design, either mere lines parallel to the rim, triangles, chevrons, or rows of points round the handle or the neck. even the very roughest specimens are not altogether devoid of ornamentation, and a stripe may often be observed round the neck, on which the fingers of the potter have left their traces. [illustration: fig. .--fragment of an earthen vessel with a handle.] these vessels were intended to contain beverages and substances used for food. out of one of them m. desor took some apples, cherries, wild plums, and a large quantity of nuts. some of these vessels, perforated with small holes, were used in the manufacture of cheese. dishes, porringers, &c., have also been found. relics of the pottery of the stone age are very frequently recovered from the swiss lakes; but vessels in an entire state are seldom met with. it is, however, stated as a fact, that considerable accumulations of them once existed; but, unfortunately, the importance of them was not recognised until too late. an old fisherman of the lake of neuchâtel told m. desor that in his childhood he had sometimes amused himself by pushing at _these old earthen pots_ with a long pole, and that in certain parts of the lake there were _real mountains_ of them. at the present day, the "old earthen pots" are all broken, and nothing but pieces can be recovered. these relics are, however, sufficient to afford a tolerably exact idea of the way in which the primitive swiss used to fashion clay. they seem to denote large vessels either cylindrical (figs. and ) or bulbous-shaped with a flat bottom, moulded by the hand without the aid of a potter's wheel. the material of which they are composed is rough, and of a grey or black colour, and is always mingled with small grains of quartz; the baking of the clay is far from satisfactory. [illustration: fig. .--vessel of baked clay, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] [illustration: fig. .--vessel of baked clay, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] the ornamentation is altogether of an ordinary character. it generally consists of mere lines traced out in the soft clay, either by the finger, a pointed stick, or sometimes a string was used. there are neither curves nor arabesques of any kind; the lines are almost always straight. a few of the vessels are, however, decorated in a somewhat better style. some are provided with small projections perforated with holes, through which might be passed a string for the purpose of hanging them up; there are others which have a row of studs arranged all round them, just below the rim, and others, indeed, in which hollows take the place of the studs. several have been met with which are pierced with holes at different heights; it is supposed that they were used in the preparation of milk-curd, the holes being made to let out the whey. the vessels of this period are entirely devoid of handles; this ornament did not appear until the bronze age. mill-stones, or stones for crushing grain, are not unfrequently found in the swiss lakes. at some date during the period we are now discussing we must place the discovery of glass. glass beads of a blue or green colour are, in fact, found in the tombs of the bronze epoch. what was their origin? chemistry and metallurgy combine to inform us that as soon as bronze foundries existed glass must have been discovered. what, in fact, does glass consist of? a silicate with a basis of soda and potash, combined with some particles of the silicates of iron and copper, which coloured it blue and green. as the scoria from bronze foundries is partly composed of these silicates it is indubitable that a kind of glass was formed in the earliest metal-works where this alloy was made. it constituted the slag or dross of the metal works. thus, the classic tradition which attributes the invention of glass to certain phoenician merchants, who produced a mass of glass by heating on the sand the _natron_, that is _soda_, brought from egypt, ascribe too recent a date to the discovery of this substance. it should properly be carried back to the bronze epoch. the working of amber was carried out to a very great extent by these peoples. ornaments and objects of this material have been discovered in great abundance in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland. on the whole, if we compare the industrial skill of the bronze age with that of the preceding age, we shall find that the later is vastly superior to the earlier. the art of weaving seems to have been invented during the stone age. we have positive and indisputable proofs that the people who lived during this epoch were acquainted with the art of manufacturing cloth.[ ] all the objects which we have thus far considered do not, in fact, surpass those which might be expected from any intelligent savage; but the art of preparing and manufacturing textile fabrics marks out one of the earliest acquisitions of man's civilisation. in the museum of saint-germain we may both see and handle some specimens of woven cloth which were met with in some of the lacustrine settlements in switzerland, and specially at robenhausen and wangen. this cloth, which is represented in fig. , taken from a specimen in the museum of saint-germain, is formed of twists of interwoven flax; of rough workmanship, it is true, but none the less remarkable, considering the epoch in which it was manufactured. it is owing to the fact of their having been charred and buried in the peat that these remains of pre-historic fabrics have been kept in good preservation up to the present time. [illustration: fig. .--cloth of the bronze age, found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] balls of thread and twine have also been found; likewise ends of cord, and ropes made of bark, nets with large and moderately-sized meshes, which we have previously represented, and lastly some fragments of a basket of straw or osier. ribs of animals, split through and tapering off at one end, have been considered to be the teeth of the cards or combs which were used for unravelling the flax. the whole comb was formed of several of these bones joined firmly together with a band. [illustration: fig. .--the first weaver.] there were also found in the swiss lakes a large number of discs made of baked earth perforated with a hole in their centre, of which we here give a representation (fig. ), taken from one of the numerous specimens in the museum of saint-germain. these are ordinary spindle-whorls. [illustration: fig. .--spindle-whorls made of baked clay, found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] also, terra cotta weights pierced with a hole through the centre were intended to support the thread of flax in the weaving loom. the thread passed through the hole and was stopped by a knot at its extremity. we think that this interpretation of the use of these objects can hardly be called in question. we also find in the lacustrine settlements woven fabrics, threads, strings, combs used for carding the flax, and spindle-whorls; the co-existence of all these objects proves that the invention of the art of weaving may be fixed at this date. the loom of the weaver may, therefore, be traced back to the most remote ages. acting upon this idea we have given a representation of _weaving in pre-historic times_. the weaving-loom is so simple a matter that the men of the bronze age were enabled to produce it in nearly the same form as that in which it exists in the present day for the manufacture of plain kinds of cloth in various districts of the world where the art is still in a barbaric condition. the loom being upright, not horizontal as with us, the terra cotta weights just mentioned were used to keep the threads of the warp stretched. this seems to be the only difference. but, as we again repeat, the weaver's loom, on the whole, must have differed but very slightly from that of the present day. its productions bear testimony to the fact. metal weapons and implements were at first obtained by means of exchange. but very soon the art of manufacturing bronze became prevalent in switzerland, and foundries were established there. no doubt can be entertained on this point, as a mould for celts or hatchets has been found at morges and also a bar of tin at estavayer. during this epoch the shape of the pottery became more advanced in character, and ornamentation was the rule and not the exception. after the indispensable comes the superfluous. taste in ornamentation made its appearance and soon developed itself in ceramic objects of an elegant style. articles of pottery now assumed more pleasing outlines, and were ornamented with various designs. progress in artistic feeling was evidently manifested. the simplicity and monotony of ornamentation during this epoch is especially remarkable. art was then confined to the mere representation of a certain number of lines and geometrical figures. they were similar to those represented in fig. , and were applied to all kinds of objects--weapons, vases, utensils and trinkets. none of them attempt any delineation of nature; this idea does not seem to have entered into the head of man during the bronze epoch. in this respect they were inferior to their predecessors, the inhabitants of the caves of périgord, the contemporaries of the mammoth and the reindeer. [illustration: fig. .--principal designs for the ornamentation of pottery during the bronze epoch.] during the period we are now considering, commercial intercourse had assumed an activity of a totally different character from that manifested during the stone age. it became necessary to procure tin, which was indispensable for the manufacture of bronze. as no tin ore could be found in switzerland, the inhabitants, doubtless, went to saxony in order to obtain it. the traffic must have been carried out by means of barter, as is customary among all infant nations. flint, which likewise did not exist in switzerland, was necessarily procured from the surrounding countries which were more fortunate in this respect. no country was more favoured on this point than france; commerce must, therefore, have existed between the two countries. at concise, in switzerland, some pieces of white coral were found, and at meilen, on the banks of the lake of zurich, some fragments of amber; from this we may conclude that during the bronze epoch the inhabitants of switzerland traded with the inhabitants of the shores of the mediterranean and the baltic. among the other specimens of foreign productions, we must not omit to mention graphite, which was used to surface pottery, amber beads, and even a few glass trinkets suitable for female adornment. we will now pass on to the system of food adopted by man during the bronze epoch. researches made in various lacustrine settlements have furnished us with very circumstantial information upon the system of food customary among the earliest inhabitants of switzerland. from them we learn that these men did not live solely upon the products of fishing and hunting, but that they possessed certain ideas of agriculture, and also devoted themselves to the breeding of cattle. we shall enter into a few details as to this eminently interesting aspect of their history, taking as our guides professors heer and rütimeyer, the first of whom has carefully examined the vegetable remains, and the second the animal relics which have been found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland. at meilen, moosseedorf, and wangen, some charred cereals have been found, viz., barley and wheat. the latter was the most abundant, and, at wangen in particular, there were several bushels of it, either in ears or in thrashed corn collected in large heaps. these grains are almost the same shape and size as the wheat of the present time. several ears of six-rowed barley (_hordeum hexastichon_) were found, which differ from our common barley in having smaller grains arranged in six rows. de candolle is of opinion that this is the species which was cultivated by the ancient greeks, egyptians, and romans. this corn was preserved in large earthen vessels, as may be gathered from the contents of some of them, still in an entire state. what preparation did the corn undergo in order to render it fit for human food? on this subject we have tolerably exact data to go upon. the grain was bruised by hand, either between two stone discs or mill-stones, or in a mortar by means of a round pestle. in almost all of the lacustrine villages, some of these mill-stones made of granite or sandstone have been met with, a few of which are as much as feet in diameter. m. heer is of opinion that the grain was parched before being pounded, and then placed in vessels and slightly soaked. in this state it was fit for eating. at the time of the conquest of the canary islands by the spaniards, it was remarked that the natives prepared their corn in this manner; and in the present day the inhabitants of the same regions still feed on parched grain. nevertheless, the earliest inhabitants of western switzerland also made real bread, or rather wheat-cakes, for leaven was not then known. charred fragments of these loaves have been found, the grain of which is badly ground, thus affording us the opportunity of recognising the species of corn of which they are composed. these fragments are flat, and indicate that the whole cake was of a circular form. no doubt, after being bruised and wetted, the grain was made into a sort of dough, which was baked between two heated stones--a process we have previously described as having been practised in the stone age. in order to cultivate cereals, it was, of course, necessary for the ground to undergo some preliminary preparation. it was at least necessary to break it up so as to mellow it, and to make furrows in which to sow the seed. we are reduced to mere conjecture as to all the details of these operations, for no agricultural implements have been discovered in any of the settlements of man belonging to the bronze epoch. perhaps, as m. heer suggests, they made use of the stem of a tree with a projecting crooked branch, and adapted it so as to perform the functions of the plough. wild fruits and berries formed a considerable portion of the food of the earliest lacustrine peoples; and, from certain indications which have been brought to our notice, we have reason to believe that several varieties of trees were the objects of their intelligent culture; in short, that they were cultivated in orchards and gardens. the settlement of robenhausen on the lake of pfæffikon, has furnished us with the most valuable information on this point. the lacustrine villages of wangen (lake of constance), and concise (lake of neuchâtel) have also been the scenes of curious discoveries. in all of these settlements a large number of charred apples have been met with, cut in two, and sometimes four pieces, and evidently stored up for the winter. these apples are no larger than walnuts, and in many of the swiss forests a species of apple still exists which appears to be the same sort as those found in the lacustrine settlements. pears have been discovered only in the settlement of wangen; they were cut up and dried just like the apples. in the mud of the lakes, stones of the wild plum and the bird-cherry, or sainte-lucie plum, were found; also the seeds of blackberries and raspberries, the shells of beech-nuts and hazel-nuts, and several species of the water-chestnut, which is now only to be met with at two points of the swiss alps. we must also add that m. gilliéron collected in the settlement of the isle of saint-pierre, oats, peas, lentils, and acorns, the latter evidently having been intended for the food of swine. this discovery is an important one, because oats had, hitherto, never been met with anywhere. we shall complete this list of names by enumerating the other vegetables which have been ascertained to have existed in the lake settlements, the berries and seeds of some of which were used as food, &c. they are the strawberry, the beech, the yew, the dog-rose, which is found in hedges, the white and yellow water-lily, the rush, and the forest and the marsh pine. there are no traces of the vine, rye, or hemp. fig. , representing _the cultivation of gardens during the bronze epoch_, is intended to sum up and delineate materially all the ideas we have previously suggested concerning the agricultural and horticultural knowledge possessed by man during the bronze epoch. a gardener is tilling the ground with a horn pick-axe, a representation of which we have previously given. others are gathering fruit from trees which have been planted and cultivated with a view of increasing the stock of food. [illustration: fig .--the cultivation of gardens during the bronze epoch.] the sheep and oxen which may be noticed in this figure indicate the domestication of these animals and of their having been reared as tame cattle. the dog, the faithful companion of man, could scarcely have been omitted in this assemblage of the auxiliary or domestic animals of the bronze epoch. the bones which have been found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland have enabled us to reconstruct with some degree of accuracy the _fauna_ of this epoch, and to ascertain what species of animals were then in subjugation to the yoke of man. professor rütimeyer is of opinion that the whole of these bones may be referred to about seventy species of animals--ten of which are fish, three reptiles, twenty birds, and the rest mammiferous animals. the remains most commonly met with are those of the stag and the ox, the former wild, and the latter domestic. next in order comes the pig, remains of which are also very abundant; then follows the roe, the goat, and the sheep, all of which are much less common. the remains of the fox are met with almost as often as those of the latter species, and in spite of the foetid smell of this animal it certainly was used for food--a fact which is proved by its bones having been split open and notched with knives. it is, however, very probable that this kind of sustenance was turned to as a last resort only in cases when no other more suitable food could be obtained. the long bones which have been found in lakes, like those met with in caves and kitchen-middens, have been split in order to extract the marrow. just as in the kitchen-middens, the softer parts are always gnawed, which shows us that the dog had been there. the repugnance which is felt by so many nations for the flesh of the hare is a very curious fact, and shows us how difficult it is to root out certain prejudices. this repugnance may be traced back as far as pre-historic ages. neither the diluvial beds, the caves, the kitchen-middens, nor the lacustrine settlements have, in fact, furnished us with any traces of the hare. even in the present day, the laplanders and greenlanders banish this animal from their alimental list. among the hottentots the women eat it but not the men. the jews, too, look upon it as unclean, and many years have not elapsed since the bretons would hardly endure to hear it spoken of. the antipathy which is thus shown by certain modern nations to the flesh of the hare has, therefore, been handed down to them from the primitive ages of mankind. the researches of prof. rütimeyer have led to the conclusion that there existed in switzerland during the stone age six species of domestic animals--the ox, the pig, the goat, the sheep, the dog, and the horse, the latter being very rare. there were, also, three specimens of the bovine race; the two wild species of the ox genus, namely, the urus and the bison, both very anciently known, had been increased by a third, the domestic ox. the bones belonging to the stone age seem to point to the existence of a larger proportion of wild beasts than of domestic animals; and this is only what might be expected, for the art of domesticating animals was at this epoch still in its infancy, but a commencement had been made, and the practice continued to spread rapidly during the following age. in fact, agriculture and the breeding of cattle made considerable progress during the bronze epoch. there were brought into use various new breeds of cattle. the ox became a substitute for the bison; the sheep was bred as well as the goat; and all these animals were devoted to the purpose of providing food for man. [illustration: fig. .--a feast during the bronze epoch.] we may here pause for a moment and contemplate, with just pride, this marvellous resuscitation of an era long ago buried in the darkness of bygone ages. by means of the investigations of science, we know that the primitive inhabitants of switzerland dwelt in wooden villages built on lakes; that they were hunters, fishers, shepherds, and husbandmen; that they cultivated wheat, barley, and oats; that they brought into a state of servitude several species of animals, and devoted to the requirements of agriculture the sheep and the goat; that they were acquainted with the principal rudiments of the baker's art; that they stored up apples, pears, and other fruits or berries for the winter, either for their own use or that of their cattle; that they understood the art of weaving and manufacturing flaxen fabrics; that they twisted up cord and mats of bark; and, lastly, that as a material for the manufacture of their implements and weapons they availed themselves of stone, bronze, animals' bones, and stag's horn. it is equally certain that they kept up some kind of commercial intercourse with the adjacent countries; this must have been the case, if it were only for the purpose, as before mentioned, of procuring flints, which are not found in switzerland; also amber and white coral, numerous relics of which have been met with in the settlements of meilen and concise. though there may still remain many an obscure page in the history of mankind during the bronze epoch, it must, nevertheless, be confessed that, as far as switzerland is concerned, a bright light has of late years been thrown on that branch of the subject which refers to man's mode of existence in these regions during the bronze epoch. footnote: [ ] see 'the lake dwellings of switzerland,' &c. p. , by dr. f. keller. translated and edited by dr. j. e. lee. london, . chapter vii. the art of war during the bronze epoch--swords, spears, and daggers--the bronze epoch in scandinavia, in the british isles, france, switzerland, and italy--did the man of the bronze epoch entertain any religious or superstitious belief? the swiss lakes have furnished us with elements which afford us some knowledge of the state of man's industrial skill during the bronze epoch, and also enable us to form a due estimation of the manners and customs of the people of these remote ages. but if we wish to become acquainted with all the details which concern the art of war at the same date, we must direct our attention to the north of europe, that is to say, to the scandinavian peoples. nevertheless, before we touch upon the important pre-historic relics found in denmark, we must say a few words concerning the traces of the art of war which have been furnished by the investigations made in the swiss lakes. the warlike accoutrements of the bronze epoch are, like those of the stone age, composed of spear-heads and arrow-heads, poniards and, in addition, swords. swords are, however, but rarely met with in the swiss lakes. the few which have been found are straight, short, double-edged, and without hilts. in the museum of neuchâtel there is a sword (fig. ) which was discovered forty years ago at concise, at a time when no one suspected the existence of any such thing as lacustrine settlements; m. desor has supplied a sketch of it in his 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' this sword measures inches in length, and has on its surface four grooves which join together on the middle ridge of the blade. the handle, which is terminated by a double volute, is remarkably small, being only inches in length. daggers (fig. ), too, like the swords, are but rarely found in the swiss lakes. from a specimen found in the lake of bienne, we see that the blade was fixed to the handle by means of a series of rivets arranged in a single line. this dagger is, like the sword found at concise, ornamented with grooves symmetrically placed on each side of the projecting ridge which divides the blade into two equal portions. [illustration: fig. .--bronze sword, in the museum of neuchâtel.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze dagger, found in one of the swiss lakes.] in the collection of colonel schwab, there are two daggers of an extraordinary character, having hilts enriched with silver. the spear-heads (fig. ) are not inferior either to the swords or the daggers in the skill and finish of their workmanship. they are formed of a nearly oval blade, strongly consolidated in the middle by a rounded ridge, which is prolonged so as to form a socket intended to hold a thick wooden handle. the length of the daggers varies from to inches. [illustration: fig. .--bronze spear-head, found in one of the swiss lakes.] the arrow-heads (fig. ) are, except in their material, identical with those of the preceding age. they are triangular, with more or less pointed barbs, and provided with a stem, by which they were fastened to the stick. a few have, however, been found which are made with sockets. they do not exceed to inches in length. [illustration: fig. .--bronze arrow-heads, found in a lacustrine settlement of switzerland.] we shall now pass on to the consideration of the relics found in the tombs of scandinavia, great britain, ireland and france; which remains will throw some light on the subject of the weapons and warlike instruments belonging to the bronze epoch. the scandinavian states (denmark, sweden, and norway) are very rich in instruments belonging to the bronze epoch. the workmanship of the swords and other weapons of war is much more elaborate here than anywhere else, on account of the tardy introduction of metal into these countries. these weapons are nearly always adorned with somewhat complicated designs, among which curved lines and spiral scrolls are the most prevalent. the danish swords of the bronze epoch (figs. , ) are of quite a peculiar shape. the hilt is firmly fixed to the blade by means of two or more rivets. the daggers and poniards only differ from the swords in the smallness of their dimensions. [illustration: fig. .--scandinavian sword.] [illustration: fig. .--hilt of a scandinavian sword.] some of the hatchets seem to have been copied from models belonging to the stone age; these are probably the most ancient, and their ornamentation is of a very scanty character. others are winged or with sockets, and a few have been found perforated with a transverse hole, like those which have long been used by civilised nations. in this hole a wooden handle was inserted, which was fixed by means of a strap, or merely forcibly driven in. the rarely-found specimens of this kind are sharply defined in shape and splendidly ornamented. figs. and , taken from sir j. lubbock's work, represent the probable way in which handles were fitted to the various kinds of hatchets used in the north. [illustration: fig. .--mode of fixing the handle to a scandinavian hatchet.] [illustration: fig. .--another mode of fixing the handle to a scandinavian hatchet.] the blades of the bronze knives found in scandinavia are, like those of switzerland, somewhat curved in their shape, but the handles are much more richly ornamented. two of these knives have furnished us with the only examples known of any representation of living beings during the bronze epoch. we may notice that on one of these knives, which is represented in fig. , taken from sir j. lubbock's work, a swan is roughly carved at the offset of the blade. [illustration: fig. .--danish bronze knife, of the bronze epoch.] in another knife, which is represented in fig. , taken from the same work, the handle is formed by a human figure, executed with some degree of fidelity. the figure is in a standing position, and holds in front of it a nearly cylindrical-shaped vessel; the individual is represented as wearing large earrings. there is every reason to believe that this last-mentioned article belongs to the end of the bronze epoch, or else to a transitionary epoch between this and the following, for the blade is straight, like those of all the knives belonging to the iron age. [illustration: fig. .--danish bronze knife of the bronze epoch.] the same thing may, doubtless, be said of several razors (fig. ) with straight blades, which appear even overloaded with ornaments; among these embellishments is an attempt to represent a sort of vessel. [illustration: fig. .--blade of a danish razor of the bronze epoch.] these designs evidently point to some very advanced period in the bronze epoch; and perhaps these objects may belong to the commencement of the iron age. what, we may ask, was the wearing apparel of man during the period we are describing? a very important discovery, made in , in a _tumulus_ in jutland (denmark), has lately supplied us with the most accurate _data_ respecting the way in which the inhabitants of the north of europe were clothed during the bronze epoch. in this _tumulus_ mm. worsaae, and herbst found three wooden coffins, one of which was smaller than the two others, and was no doubt that of a child. one of the two larger coffins was minutely examined by these _savants_, and measured inside feet in length and inches in width. it was closed up by means of a movable lid. by an extremely rare chance the soft parts of the body had been to some extent preserved, and had become converted into a black greasy substance. the bones were decomposed, and had decayed into a kind of blue powder. the brain had preserved its normal conformation. they found it at one end of the coffin (where the head had lain); it was still covered with a woollen cap, about inches high, to which several black hairs were adhering. several woollen garments, in which the body had been buried, were also found in different parts of the coffin. we add a description of these garments. there was in the first place a coarse cloak (fig. ) which appeared shaggy in the inside, and was scalloped out round the neck. this cloak was feet inches long, and wide in proportion. next there were two shawls nearly square in shape (fig. ), ornamented with a long fringe, and measuring - / feet in length, and - / feet in width. afterwards came a shirt (fig. ), also scalloped out round the neck, and drawn in at the waist by means of a long narrow band. lastly, at the feet of the body, two pieces of woollen material were found, which were inches long, by inches wide, and bore the appearance of having been the remains of gaiters. close to the latter were also found vestiges of leather, evidently belonging to feet-coverings of some kind. [illustration: fig. .--woollen cloak of the bronze epoch, found in , in a tomb in denmark.] [illustration: fig. .--woollen shawl found in the same tomb.] [illustration: fig. .--woollen shirt, taken from the same tomb.] the whole body had been wrapped up in the skin of an ox. the coffin also contained a box, tied up with strips of osier or bark, and in this box was a smaller one, in which were found two woven woollen caps (fig. , ), a comb (fig. ), and a bronze razor. [illustration: fig. .--first woollen cap found in the same tomb.] [illustration: fig. .--second woollen cap found in the same tomb.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze comb found in the same tomb.] we must not forget to mention a bronze sword, placed on the left side of the body, in a wooden sheath; this sword measured about inches in length. there is no doubt that all these relics were those of a warrior of the bronze epoch; there is the less reason to doubt this, owing to the fact, that the objects taken from the two other coffins most certainly belonged to that period. these were a sword, a knife, a bodkin, an awl, a pair of tweezers, a double button, and a small bronze bracelet; also a double tin button, a ball of amber and a flint spear-head. [illustration: fig. .--warriors during the bronze epoch.] the shape of the swords and knives shows that this burial-place in jutland must be referred to the latter part of the bronze epoch--to a time, perhaps, when iron was first used. following out the _data_ afforded by these records, and all the discoveries which have been made in other tombs, we have given in fig. , a representation of _warriors of the bronze epoch_. the accoutrements of the horseman of pre-historic ages are composed of a bronze sword, like those found in the tombs in denmark, and a bronze hatchet and sword-belt. his horse is decked with round bronze discs, which, in after times, formed among the romans the chief ornament of this faithful and intrepid auxiliary of man in all his combats. the horseman's head is bare; for no helmet or metallic head-covering has ever, at least, to our knowledge, been discovered in the tombs of the bronze epoch. the spear and bronze hatchet are the weapons of the foot-soldiers. next to the scandinavian regions, great britain and ireland occupy an important place in the history of the civilisation of the bronze epoch. the same type of implements are found in these countries as in denmark and switzerland. hatchet-moulds (fig. ) are also found there--a circumstance which proves that the founder's art was known and practised in these countries. the dublin museum contains a beautiful collection of various objects belonging to the bronze epoch. [illustration: fig. .--bronze hatchet-mould found in ireland.] some of the departments of france have also furnished objects belonging to the same period; but there is nothing peculiar among them which deserves mention. did any kind of religious worship exist among the men of the bronze epoch? nothing would be more interesting than any discovery bearing on this point; but up to the present time no vestiges of anything in the shape of an idol have been found, nor anything whatever which authorizes us unhesitatingly to answer this question in the affirmative. the only thing which might prove the existence of any religious feeling, is the discovery, in various lacustrine settlements, of a certain number of crescent-shaped objects, most of them made of very coarse baked earth and some of stone. the dimensions of these crescents vary considerably; there are some which measure as much as inches from one point to the other. they are ornamented with perfectly primitive designs, as shown in fig. , drawn at the museum of saint-germain from one of the numerous specimens of this class of objects. [illustration: fig. .--stone crescent found in one of the swiss lakes.] several archæologists consider these crescents to have been religious emblems or talismans which were suspended either outside or inside the habitations. dr. keller is of opinion that they bear some relation to the worship of the moon--an hypothesis which is not at all an impossible one; for all nations who have not attained to a certain degree of moral and intellectual culture adore the heavenly bodies as the sources of light and heat. m. carl vogt, in considering the crescents which have been discovered in such large quantities in the lacustrine habitations, cannot admit that they indicate that any religious belief existed among these ancient nations. he attributes to these objects a very different kind of use, and, as we shall presently show, rather an odd one. in the lectures on _pre-historic man_ which were delivered by prof. carl vogt at antwerp, in , and have been reported by the belgian journals,[ ] when speaking on the subject of the crescents belonging to the bronze epoch, he expresses himself as follows:-- "my opinion is that these crescents were used as resting-places for the head during the night. among many savage tribes we find the attention paid to the dressing of the hair carried to a high pitch, especially among the men; it was not until a later period that woman also devoted her cares to the culture of her _coiffure_. now this care is, by many nations, carried out to a really curious extent. they inflict the most severe tortures on themselves in order to satisfy their vanity. everyone has seen, in the 'magasin pittoresque' and other illustrated journals, the strange head-dresses of the abyssinian soldiers. they really seem to form a kind of fleece, and it may be noticed that each soldier carries in this hairy construction a large pin. "well, all this tends to explain the use of these crescents. in abyssinia, as soon as a young girl is married it becomes her duty to devote herself to her husband's head of hair. this head of hair is made to assume a certain shape, which it has to retain during his whole lifetime. the labour which this process necessitates lasts for three years. each hair is twisted round a stem of straw, and remains so until the straw perishes. the man's head is thus covered with a whole system of spirals, the top of which is a foot from the surface of his head. during the whole remainder of his life this _coiffure_ must never be again disturbed. when asleep, the abyssinian rests the nape of his neck on a triangle which he carries about everywhere with him. he has also a long pin, as it would be impossible for him to reach the skin of his head with the end of his finger. "the same custom exists among the new zealanders, who also have an apparatus upon which they rest their necks, in order, when asleep, to save their _coiffures_. they wear an enormous chignon, two feet high and ornamented with ribbons, of which they are very proud. the only difference between this chignon and certain others which i need not mention is, that the former cannot be removed at will. this object, thus adorned, rests, during the sleep of its owner, on a sort of framework. "the chinese and japanese sleep, in the same way, on a bedstead bevelled off at the head; and in the egyptian hieroglyphical drawings we find instruments evidently meant for the same use. "it is very probable that during the bronze epoch great attention was devoted to the hair, and this is the more probable as in every tomb belonging to this period we find pins from feet to - / feet in length, furnished with large knobs, and of the same shape as the pins used by the abyssinian soldiers; and also, because during the stone age, as well as the bronze age, a kind of comb is found which is similar to that which is now used by the new zealanders to scratch, rather than to comb, their heads. the heads of the pins are often very richly ornamented; they are of the most varied shapes, and are extremely common both in the tombs and also in the lacustrine dwellings. "we have the less right to be astonished at our ancestors sleeping with their heads resting on such a machine as we have just described, knowing, as we do, that the hussars of frederick the great used to spend the whole night in arranging their _coiffures_!" thus, while dr. keller and many other archæologists ascribe the _crescents_ found in the swiss lakes to some kind of religious worship, m. vogt, whose idea is of a much more prosaic character, does not attribute them to any other worship but that of _self_ as represented by the hair! the reader can take his choice between these two explanations. we shall only remark, in corroboration of dr. keller's opinion, that certain gallic tribes used for a religious symbol this very crescent which m. vogt would make out to be a pillow--a stone pillow which, as it seems to us, must have been very hard, even for primitive man. various objects found in the dwellings of man belonging to the bronze epoch appear to have been religious symbols. such, for instance, are the designs so often met with on swords, vases, &c. these drawings never represent objects in nature; they seem rather to be cabalistic signs or talismans. most of them bear some relation to a circle; sometimes they are single circles, and sometimes combinations of circles. many authors have had the idea of attributing them to the worship of the sun. another sign was still more often used, and it was known even as early as the stone age--we speak of the cross. it is one of the most ancient symbols that ever existed. m. g. de mortillet, in a work entitled 'la croix avant le christianisme,' has endeavoured to establish the fact, that the cross has always been the symbol of a sect which contended against fetishism. this much is at least certain, that it is one of the most ancient symbolical signs; for it is found depicted on objects belonging to the stone age, and on some of the earliest relics of the bronze age. at the time of the etruscans the cross was generally prevalent as a sign. but at a later period christianity exclusively monopolized this religious symbol. a third figure is sometimes found on various objects belonging to the bronze epoch; this figure is the triangle. it is, on the whole, very probable that all these signs which are not connected with any known object, bear some relation to certain religious or superstitious ideas entertained by the men of the bronze epoch; and, as a consequence of this, that their hearts must have been inspired with some degree of religious feeling. footnote: [ ] _indépendance belge_, november and december, . chapter viii. mode of interment and burial-places of the bronze epoch-- characteristics of the human race during the same period. the question naturally arises--what was the mode of interment, and what was the nature of the burial-places employed by man during the bronze epoch? in the early part of this period the dead were still buried in those sepulchral chambers which are now called by the name of _dolmens_; nilsson and lubbock have drawn somewhat confused and arbitrary distinctions in discussing these burial-places; but it may be positively asserted that towards the conclusion of this period the practice of burning dead bodies was commenced. in a work, published in , and entitled 'le danemark à l'exposition universelle,' being a sort of catalogue of the objects which were exhibited in the galleries devoted to the _history of labour_, in the exhibition in the champ de mars, in , we find several pages which we shall quote, as they seem to recapitulate pretty clearly the ideas which are now current among scientific men concerning the burial-places and funeral customs of the bronze epoch:-- "the study which, during the last few years, has been devoted by m. worsaae to the tombs belonging to the bronze epoch, has thrown much light," says m. valdemar schmidt, "on the commencement of the bronze age in denmark. it appears that at the first beginning of the bronze epoch the dead were buried in a manner similar to that practised during the stone age, that is to say, the bodies of the defunct were deposited in sepulchral chambers made of stone, and covered by _tumuli_; the only difference is, these chambers are rather small, and generally contain but one skeleton. but to make up for this, several of these small sepulchral chambers, or rather stone coffins, are sometimes found in the same _tumulus_. "these chambers present, however, in some respects, great similarities with those of the stone age; thus, beds of flint which have been subjected to the action of fire are often found spread over the ground, and on these beds skeletons are met with which appear to have been placed in a contracted position before they were buried, exactly following the practice of the stone age. "after this class of tombs, we have another, in which the sepulchral chamber, though always made of stone, is not covered with a stone slab but with a _wooden roof_. elsewhere, skeletons have been found along with bronze weapons deposited in a sort of _wooden framework_, which has in many cases entirely perished except a few minute fragments. these cases were covered with small stones, which now seem to lie immediately upon the skeleton. "lastly, in all the danish provinces large oak coffins are found, formed of hollowed-out trunks of trees; these also contain human bodies, which seem to have been buried in woollen garments. "with regard to the funeral rites observed, these tombs do not appear to have differed much. the bodies were deposited in them with their implements, weapons, and utensils, either of bronze or stone; but, in addition, at the bottom of the tomb, animal skins, generally those of oxen, were often spread. "next, a new period succeeded, when the bodies were burned, and the remains collected together. all the ancient customs were not, however, at once given up. thus, as the dead were formerly buried in woollen garments, the _débris_ of the bones were now wrapped in pieces of cloaks made of the same material. subsequently, however, this custom also disappeared, and the ashes and remains of bones were simply collected together in urns. this custom was observed until the bronze epoch, and characterises, so to speak, its second and last period--which was, however, the longest of that age. "there were, then, in short, two distinct epochs in the bronze age; firstly, that _in which the dead were quite simply interred_, either in small sepulchral chambers or wooden coffins, and, secondly, that _in which the bodies of the dead were incinerated_. "one of the most remarkable 'finds,' as regards the first period of the bronze epoch, was made in , in the two mounds known by the names of treenhöi and kengehöi, and situated near kongeaa, in jutland. in each of these _tumuli_ two people had been buried, both having a double coffin, made of magnificent trunks of oak-trees. the skeletons had been almost entirely destroyed by the damp which, on the contrary, had preserved the garments. these individuals seem to have been dressed almost like the scotch; at least they must have worn a sort of woollen petticoat, and bands by way of trousers, very like those worn by the warriors depicted in the carlovingian miniatures, and, in addition, a cloak, a cap, and also perhaps a shawl. with these garments were found some bronze swords in wooden sheaths; also some bronze knives, a comb, some boxes, cups, small wooden coffers, a tin ball, and, lastly, in one of the coffins, a small flint arrow-head. a fragment of the cloak was to be seen in the palace of the champ de mars (no. ). "another 'find' made a few miles from this _tumulus_, at höimp, in north schleswig, has also brought to light skeletons in oak coffins together with bronze implements. "discoveries of no less interest have been made in zealand. thus, in , in a _tumulus_ at höidegaard, near copenhagen, a tomb belonging to the first period of the bronze epoch was found; it was searched in the presence of some of the principal danish archæologists. the tomb was placed at a distance of more than feet below the summit of the _tumulus_, and was built of stones; it was more than feet in length, and its width on the eastern side was about feet, and on the western side inches. the bottom was lined with a layer of small flint stones, on which was found, in the first place, a skin, doubtless that of an ox, and above it, besides a piece of tissue containing remains of human bones, a bronze sword with a wooden sheath, covered with leather, and in a perfect state of preservation; lastly, a box containing the following articles:-- st, a fragment of an amber bead; nd, a piece of reddish stone; rd, a small shell, which can be none other than the _conus mediterraneus_; it is perforated so as to be worn as a pendant for the neck; th, a fragment of a flint point, doubtless an amulet; th, the tail of a serpent (_coluber lævis_); th, a small cube of pine or fir-wood, and th, a bronze knife with a convex blade and ornamented handle. "according to the investigations of various savants, these bones belong to a man, who, to judge from the objects placed by his side in his tomb, must have been some distinguished personage, and perhaps combined the functions of a warrior and a sorcerer. the cube of pine-wood leads us to conjecture that that tree had not then completely disappeared, and from this fact we may infer that the period at which the sorcerer in question lived was very remote. it is, however, possible that this piece of pine-wood, as well as the shell, were introduced from some other country. the existence of the _conus mediterraneus_ seems to establish the fact that denmark had already formed some kind of connection with the mediterranean. "_the second period of the bronze epoch_ is characterised by the custom of the cremation of the dead, which generally took place in the following way: the body of the defunct was usually placed, together with his weapons and ornaments, on the funeral pile, which was built on the exact spot which was destined to form the centre of the _tumulus_; the fire was then lighted, and, after the body was consumed, the remains of the bones were collected together in an urn. the rubbish that resulted was left on the spot, surrounded with stones, and covered with earth till the _tumulus_ was complete. the urn which contained the ashes was then placed in another part of the _tumulus_. this course of procedure was not the only one employed; in some cases the weapons and other articles of adornment were not placed upon the funeral-pile, but were afterwards brought and placed round the urn. "the number of tombs of the bronze epoch which have been discovered in denmark is very considerable. there are thousands of _tumuli_, and many of them contain a large number of funeral urns. a great many of these _tumuli_ have been searched at various times and have produced a number of different bronze articles. the museum of copenhagen possesses no less than swords dating back to the bronze epoch."[ ] twenty years ago, however, a very curious discovery was made at lübeck (pomerania), for it exhibited, so to speak, in the same tomb, the three modes of interment belonging to the pre-historic epochs of the stone, bronze, and iron ages. at waldhausen, near lübeck, a _tumulus_ was found, which was feet inches in height. this _tumulus_ was pulled down in horizontal layers, and the following details were successively brought to light. at the top was a very ancient burial-place, evidently belonging to the iron age; for the skeleton it contained was accompanied by an object made of rusty iron and several earthenware articles. it was buried in loose earth. underneath this, and half way down the _tumulus_, there were some small enclosures composed of uncemented walls, each one containing a sepulchral urn filled with calcined bones, as well as necklaces, hair-pins, and a bronze knife. lastly, at the base of the _tumulus_, there was a tomb belonging to the stone age. it was formed of large rough blocks of stone, and contained, in addition to the bones, some coarse specimens of pottery, with flint hatchets. it is evident that the first inhabitants of the country began by building a tomb on the bare ground, according to the customs of the age, and then covered it up with earth. during the bronze epoch another burial-place was made on this foundation, and a fresh heap of earth doubled the height of the mound. lastly, during the iron age, a dead body was buried in a grave hollowed out on the top of the same mound. here, then, we have a clear delineation of the three different modes of interment belonging to the three pre-historic periods. in short, during the bronze epoch, the dead were generally buried in sepulchral chambers, and sometimes, exceptionally, they were burned. the custom of funeral feasts still remained in full force. the pious practice of placing by the side of the dead body the instruments or weapons which the individual had been fond of during his lifetime, was likewise still kept up; and it is, moreover, owing to this circumstance that archæological science is now enabled to collect numerous vestiges of the ancient customs of these remote ages. but we must call attention to the fact that, at the end of and after this epoch, the hatchets and instruments which were placed in the tombs were often of much smaller dimensions than those employed for every-day use. they were small and delicately-made hatchets, intended as _votive_ offerings. some might, perhaps, conclude from this that the heirs, animated by a feeling of economy, had contented themselves with depositing very diminutive offerings in the tombs of the dead. the human race was already becoming degenerate, since it curtailed its homage and its offerings to the dead! in order to bring to a conclusion all the details which concern the bronze epoch, the question will naturally arise, what was the human type at this epoch, and did it differ from that of the preceding age? unfortunately, the positive information which is required for the elucidation of this question is entirely wanting; this deficiency is owing to the extreme rarity of human bones, both in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland, and also in the tombs belonging to that epoch which have been searched in different european countries. the whole of the lacustrine settlements of switzerland have furnished no more than some seven skeletons, one of which was found at meilen, two at nidau, one at sutz, one in the settlement of bienne, and two at auvernier. the first, that is the skeleton found at meilen, near lake zurich, is the only one which belongs to the stone age; the six others are all of the bronze or iron ages. the skeleton found at meilen is that of a child; the skull, which is in a tolerable state of preservation, although incomplete, occupies, according to the observations of mm. his and rütimeyer, a middle place between the long and short heads. figs. and , representing this skull, are taken from m. desor's work, entitled 'mémoire sur les palafittes.' from the mere fact that it is a child's skull, it is almost impossible to make any use of it in ascertaining the characteristic features of the race to which it belongs; for these features are not sufficiently marked at such an early age. the skull is of a very elongated shape, that is to say, it belongs to the _dolichocephalous_ type. the upper part of the skull is flattened, and it has an enormous occipital development; but, on the other hand, there is scarcely any forehead. if these special features might be generally applied, they would not prove much in favour of the intellectual capacity of the helvetic nation, or of its superiority over the races of anterior ages; it represents, in fact, a very low type of conformation, which, however, harmonises perfectly with the rough manners and cruel practices of the gallic tribes. [illustration: fig. .--skull found at meilen, front view.] [illustration: fig. .--skull found at meilen, profile view.] at the time of the discovery, this skull was accompanied by various bones belonging to the body and limbs, which show by their extraordinary bulk that their owners were men of very large size. we have already remarked upon the large size of the men existing in the stone age, that is to say, at the time of the first appearance of mankind. thus, the human type had changed but little since its first appearance on the globe. the settlement of auvernier, in the lake of neuchâtel has, as we have before said, contributed two skulls. one belonged to a child about eight years of age, and the other to an adult. the child's skull differs very slightly from the one found at meilen. it is small, elongated, and has a low and narrow forehead. that of the adult presents the same characteristics, and, in addition, an extraordinary development of the occiput, a feature which is not observable in the former, probably, on account of the youth of the subject. these two skulls seem, therefore, to show that the population of the lacustrine settlements had not at all changed at the beginning of the bronze epoch. a discovery made in the neighbourhood of sion has confirmed these first ideas. at this spot, in tombs of rough stone, there were found some bodies bent into a contracted position, and accompanied by certain bronze objects. according to mm. his and carl vogt, the skulls found at sion agree tolerably well with those discovered at meilen and auvernier; and, in addition to this, the same shape is perpetuated down to our own days in german switzerland, where it strongly predominates, and constitutes what is called the helvetic type. the _data_ which have been collected up to the present time are not sufficient to enable us to make any positive assertion respecting the development of the intelligence of man during the bronze epoch. the few skulls which have been recovered are always in an incomplete state, and do not justify us in forming any exact opinion on this matter. but when we are considering the degree of intelligence possessed by our ancestors at this period of man's development, there are things which will enlighten us far better than any fragments of bones or any remains of skeletons; these are the works which have been executed by their hands. the fine arts had already begun to throw out promising germs, industrial skill had become an established fact, agriculture was in full practice, and bronze was made to adapt itself to all the caprices and all the boldest ideas of the imagination. what more can be necessary to prove that man, at this epoch, was already comparatively far advanced in intellectual culture? in concluding our account of the bronze epoch, the question naturally arises whether it is possible to form any estimate of the exact space of time embraced by this period of man's history. we shall endeavour here to give, not the solution of the problem, but merely an idea of the way in which scientific men have entered on the question. morlot, the swiss archæologist and naturalist, who has written a great deal upon the subject of the lacustrine settlements, was the first to endeavour to estimate the duration of the stone age, as well as that of the bronze epoch, and the following is the way in which he set about it. in the neighbourhood of villeneuve there is a cone or hillock formed of gravel and _alluvium_, slowly deposited there by the stream of the tinière which falls at this spot into the lake of geneva. this cone was cut in two, to lay down the railway which runs along the side of the lake. its interior structure was thus laid bare, and appeared to be perfectly regular, a proof that it had been gradually formed during a long course of ages. there were three layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the deposits of _alluvium_, each of which double layers had in its turn formed the outer surface of the cone. the first layer was found at a depth of feet inches from the top, and was to inches thick. in it were found some relics of the roman epoch. the second, situated feet inches lower, measured inches in depth, and was recognised as belonging to the bronze age; it contained a pair of bronze pincers and some fragments of unglazed earthenware. the lower bed lay at a depth of feet from the top, and varied in thickness from to inches. it contained some rough earthenware, charcoal, and animal bones, all pointing to the stone age, but to the latest times of that period. after having carefully examined these different beds and ascertained the regular structure of the cone, morlot fancied that he could calculate approximately the age of each of them. he took for his base of operations two historical dates; that of the entrance of the romans into helvetia, fifty-eight years before christ, and that of their decisive expulsion towards the end of the fifth century of the christian era. by comparing these two dates, he came to the conclusion that the roman layer was at the most eighteen and at the least thirteen centuries old. then remarking that since that epoch the cone had increased feet inches, and always going upon the hypothesis that the increase was the same as in subsequent ages, he came to the conclusion that the bed corresponding with the bronze epoch was at least and at the most years old; and that the layer belonging to the stone age, forming the entire remainder of the cone, was from to , years old. another calculation, the conclusions of which agree tolerably well with these, was made by m. gilliéron, professor at the college of neuveville. we have already said that the remains of a pile-work belonging to the stone age was discovered near the bridge of thièle, between the lakes of bienne and neuchâtel. it is evident that the valley, the narrowest part of which was occupied by the lacustrine settlement, was formerly almost entirely under water, for below this point it suddenly widens out and retains these proportions as far as the lake of bienne. the lake must, therefore, have retired slowly and regularly, as may be ascertained from an examination of the mud deposited by it. if, therefore, we know its annual coefficient of retreat, that is to say, how much it retired every year, we should be able to estimate with a sufficient degree of approximation the age of the settlement of the bridge of thièle. now there is, not far from the lake, at about feet from the present shore, an old abbey, that of saint-jean, which is known to have been built about the year . a document of that time mentions that the cloister had the right of fishing in a certain part of the lake; and there is some likelihood that it was built on the edge of the lake; a supposition which naturally presents itself to the mind. the lake, then, must have retired feet in years. this granted, m. gilliéron easily calculated the time which would be taken for a retreat of , feet, this number representing the distance from the present shore to the entrance of the defile which contains the settlement of the bridge of thièle. he found by this means that the settlement is at least years old, a figure which confirms those of morlot. the preceding calculations assign to the stone age in switzerland an antiquity of to years before the christian era, and to the bronze epoch an antiquity of years before the same era. there is still much uncertainty in the figures thus given to satisfy public curiosity; but there is at least one fact which is altogether unquestionable--that these calculations have dealt a fatal blow to recognised chronology. footnote: [ ] 'le danemark à l'exposition universelle de , by valdemar schmidt,' vol. i. pp. - . paris, . ii. the iron epoch. chapter i. essential characteristics of the iron epoch--preparation of iron in pre-historic times--discovery of silver and lead--earthenware made on the potter's wheel--invention of coined money. without metals, as we have said in one of the preceding chapters, man must have remained for ever in a state of barbarism. to this we must add, that the civilisation of man has made progress just in proportion to the degree of perfection he has arrived at in the working of the metals and alloys which he has had at his disposal. the knowledge and use of bronze communicated a strong impulse to nascent civilisation, and was the means of founding the first human communities. but bronze is far from possessing all the qualities which ought to belong to metals when applied to various industrial purposes. this alloy is neither hard nor elastic enough to make good tools; and, in addition to this, it is composed of metals which in a natural state are very scarce. man requires a metal which is cheap, hard, easy to work, and adapted to all the requirements which are exacted by industrial skill, which is so manifold in its works and wants. a metal of this sort was at length discovered, and a new era opened for the future of men. they learned how to extract from its ore iron--the true king of metals, as it may well be called--on account of its inestimable qualities. from the day when iron was first placed at man's disposal civilisation began to make its longest strides, and as the working of this metal improved, so the dominion of man--his faculties and his intellectual activity--likewise enlarged in the same proportion. it is, therefore, with good reason that the name of _iron epoch_ has been given to the latest period of the development of primitive man, and it is not surprising that the last portion of the iron epoch formed the commencement of historical times. after this period, in fact, man ceased to live in that half-savage state, the most striking features of which we have endeavoured to portray. as the use of iron essentially characterises this epoch in the history of mankind, we ought to give an account of the processes of manufacture employed by the primitive metallurgists, that is to say, we should inquire how they proceeded at this epoch to extract iron from its native ore. the art of metallurgy had made great progress during the bronze epoch. there were at that time considerable workshops for the preparation of bronze, and small foundries for melting and casting this alloy. when once formed into weapons, instruments, and tools, bronze objects were fashioned by artisans of various professions. the moulder's art had already attained to a high degree of perfection, a fact which is proved by the gigantic bronze objects which we have already mentioned, as well as the castings, so many of which have been represented in the preceding pages. the phenomenon of _tempering_ was well known, that is the principal modifications which are experienced by bronze in its cooling, whether slow or sudden. it was well known how to vary the proportions of the tin and copper so as to obtain bronze of different degrees of hardness. all the means of soldering were also familiarly known. damascening was introduced in order to diversify the appearance of wrought metallic objects. the cutting qualities of instruments were increased by forging them and consolidating them by hammering. they had even gone so far as to discover the utility of the addition of certain mineral salts in the founder's crucible in order to facilitate the fusion of the bronze. thus at the end of the bronze epoch the knowledge of metals had attained to a comparatively considerable development. hence we may conclude that the substitution of iron for bronze took place without any great difficulty. owing to the natural progress and successive improvements made in metallurgic art, the blacksmith made his appearance on the scene and took the place of the bronze-moulder. what, however, was the process which enabled our earliest metallurgists to extract iron from its native ore? native iron, that is metallic iron in a natural state, is eminently rare; except in aërolites it is scarcely ever found. according to pallas, the russian naturalist, certain siberian tribes have succeeded, with a great amount of labour, in obtaining from the aërolites which have been met with in their country small quantities of iron, which they have made into knives. the same practice existed among the laplanders. lastly, we are told by amerigo vespucci that in the fifteenth century the indians at the mouth of the la plata river were in the habit of making arrow-heads and other instruments with iron extracted from aërolites.[ ] but, as we hardly need observe, stones of this kind do not often drop down from the skies, and their employment is of too accidental a character ever to have suggested to men the right mode of the extraction of iron. it is, therefore, almost certain that the first iron used was extracted from its ore just like copper and tin, that is, by the reduction of its oxide under the influence of heat and charcoal. in opposition to this explanation, some bring forward as an objection the prodigiously high temperature which is required for the fusion of iron, or, in fact, the almost impossibility of melting iron in the primitive furnaces. but the fusion of iron was in no way necessary for the extraction of this metal; and if it had been requisite to procure liquid iron, primitive industrial skill would never have succeeded in doing it. all that was necessary was so to reduce the oxide of iron as to obtain the metal in a spongy state without any fusion. the hammering of this spongy mass when in a red-hot state soon converted it into a real bar of iron. if we cast a glance on the metallurgic industry of some of the semi-barbarous nations of ancient times, we shall find, as regards the extraction of iron, a process in use among them which will fully justify the idea we have formed of the way in which iron must have been obtained in primitive times. gmelin, the naturalist, during his travels in tartary, was a witness of the elementary process which was employed by these northern tribes in procuring iron. there, every one prepares his own iron just as every household might make its own bread. the furnace for the extraction of iron is placed in the kitchen, and is nothing but a mere cavity, inches cube, which is filled up with iron-ore; the furnace is surmounted by an earthen chimney, and there is a door in front of the furnace for introducing the ore, this door being kept closed during the smelting process. in an orifice at the side the nozzle of a pair of bellows is inserted, which are blown by one man whilst another introduces the ore and charcoal in successive layers. the furnace never holds more than - / lbs. of ore for each operation. when this quantity has been placed in the furnace, in small pieces one after the other, all that is done is keeping up the action of the bellows for some minutes. lastly, the door of the furnace is opened, and the ashes and other products of combustion having been drawn out, a small mass of spongy iron is found, which proceeds from the reduction of the oxide of iron by means of the charcoal, without the metal being in a state of fusion, properly so called. this small lump of iron was cleaned with a piece of wood, and was put on one side to be subsequently welded to others, and hammered several times when in a red-hot state; and by means of several forgings the whole mass was converted into a single bar. this same process for the extraction of iron from its natural oxide, without fusion, is practised by the negroes of fouta-djallon, in senegal. after having become acquainted with the elementary process which is practised by the semi-barbarous tribes of the present day, we shall find but little difficulty in understanding all that morlot, the swiss naturalist, has said as to the iron-furnaces of pre-historic man, and shall probably agree in his opinions on the subject. morlot, in his 'mémoires sur l'archéologie de la suisse,' has described the vestiges of the pre-historic furnaces intended for the preparation of iron, which were found by him in carinthia (austria). according to m. morlot, the plan adopted for extracting iron from its oxide in pre-historic times was as follows:--on the side of a slope exposed to the wind, a hole was hollowed out. the bottom of this hole was filled up with a heap of wood, on which was placed a layer of ore. this layer of ore was covered by a second heap of wood; then, taking advantage of a strong breeze rising, which had to perform the functions of the bellows, the lowest pile of wood was kindled at its base. the wood by its combustion was converted into charcoal, and this charcoal, under the influence of heat, soon reduced the iron oxide to a metallic state. when the combustion had come to an end, a few pieces of iron were found among the ashes. by increasing the size of the apparatus used, far more considerable results were of course obtained. in dalecarlia (sweden), m. morlot found smelting-houses, so to speak, in which the original hole, of which we have just been speaking, is surrounded with stones so as to form a sort of circular receptacle. in this rough stone crucible layers of charcoal and iron-ore were placed in succession. after having burnt for some hours, the heap was searched over and the spongy iron was found mixed with the ashes at the bottom of the furnace. the slowness of the operation and the inconsiderable metallic result induced them to increase the size of the stone receptacle. they first gave to it a depth of feet and then of feet, and, at the same time, coated the walls of it with clay. they thus had at their disposal a kind of vast circular crucible, in which they placed successive layers of iron-ore and wood or charcoal. in this altogether elementary arrangement no use was made, as it seems, of the bellows. this amounts to stating that the primitive method of smelting iron was not, as is commonly thought, an adaptation of the _catalan furnace_. this latter process, which, even in the present time, is made use of in the pyrenean smelting works, does not date back further than the times of the roman empire. it is based on the continual action of the bellows; whilst in the pre-historic furnaces this instrument, we will again repeat, was never employed. these primitive furnaces applied to the reduction of iron-ore, traces of which had been recognised by morlot, the naturalist, in austria and sweden, have lately been discovered in considerable numbers in the canton of berne by m. quiquerez, a scientific mining engineer. they consist of cylindrical excavations, of no great depth, dug out on the side of a hill and surmounted by a clay funnel of conical form. wood-charcoal was the fuel employed for charging the furnaces, for stores of this combustible are always found lying round the ancient smelting works. in an extremely curious memoir, which was published in by the jura society of emulation, under the title of 'recherches sur les anciennes forges du jura bernois,' m. quiquerez summed up the results of his protracted and minute investigations. a few extracts from this valuable work will bring to our knowledge the real construction of the furnaces used by pre-historic man; of these furnaces having been discovered by m. quiquerez in the district of the bernese jura. we will, however, previously mention that m. quiquerez had represented, or materialised, as it were, the results of his interesting labours, by constructing a model in miniature of a siderurgical establishment belonging to the earliest iron epoch. this curious specimen of workmanship showed the clay-furnace placed against the side of a hill, the heaps of charcoal, the scoriæ, the hut used as a dwelling by the workmen, the furnace-implements--in short, all the details which formed the result of the patient researches of the learned swiss engineer. m. quiquerez had prepared this interesting model of the ancient industrial pursuits of man with a view of exhibiting it in the _exposition universelle_ of , together with the very substances, productions, and implements which he had found in his explorations in the jura. but the commission appointed for selecting objects for admission refused to grant him the modest square yard of area which he required for placing his model. how ridiculous it seems! in the immense champ de mars in which so many useless and absurd objects perfectly swarmed, one square yard of space was refused for one of the most curious productions which was ever turned out by the skilful hands of any _savant_! the result of this unintelligent refusal was that m. quiquerez' model did not make its appearance in the _exposition universelle_ in the champ de mars, and that it was missing from the curious gallery of the history of labour, which called forth so much of the attention of the public. for our readers, however, it will not be altogether lost. m. quiquerez has been good enough to forward to us from bellerive, where he resides (near délémont, canton of basle, switzerland) a photograph of his curious model of a pre-historic workshop for the preparation of iron. from this photograph we have designed the annexed plate, representing a _primitive furnace for the extraction of iron_. [illustration: fig. .--primitive furnace for smelting iron.] this composition reproduces with tolerable accuracy the model in relief constructed by the author. the furnace is shown; it is nothing but a simple cavity surmounted by a conical chimney-funnel, and placed against the side of a hill. steps made of rough stone, placed on each side of the mound, enable the workmen to mount to the summit. the height of the funnel is about feet. at the side of the furnace stands the hut for the labourers, constructed of a number of round poles placed side by side; for centuries past huts of this kind have been erected in almost every country. on the right, in the foreground, we may notice a heap of charcoal intended to be placed in the furnace in order to reduce the ore; on the left, there is the store of ore called in the ironworks the _ore-pen_. the provision of iron-ore is enclosed between four wooden slabs, forming a quadrangular space. in the centre are the scoriæ which result from the operations carried on. a workman is extracting the cake of spongy iron from the ashes of the furnace; another is hammering on the anvil a piece of iron drawn from the furnace in order to forge it into a bar. round the furnace various implements are scattered about, such as the anvil, the pincers, the hammer, &c. all the instruments are designed from various specimens found by the author. after these explanations, we may now give some extracts from m. quiquerez' work, and we trust our readers will find no difficulty in comprehending the details given by the learned engineer, describing the primitive furnaces for the extraction of iron which he discovered in the bernese jura. m. quiquerez has remarked two kinds of primitive furnaces for the fabrication of iron, or, rather, two stages of improvement in their construction. the first sort, that which the author considers as dating back to the most remote antiquity, is not so numerous as the others; the second kind form the largest number of those which he has explored. "furnaces of the first kind," says m. quiquerez, "consisted of nothing but a small cylindrical excavation of no great regularity in shape, with a cup-shaped bottom, hollowed out in the side of a hill so as to give more natural height on one side; the front of the furnace was closed up by fire-proof clay, supported with stones. this cavity was plastered over with to inches of clay, generally of a whitish colour, which became red after coming in contact with the fire. these smelting-furnaces were not more than to inches in depth, as seemed to be shown by the upper edges being rounded and more or less scoriated. the front, which was always more or less broken, had an opening at its base to admit a current of air, and to allow the workmen to deal with the melted material; but this opening seems to show that the piece of metal which had been formed during the operation must have been extracted by breaking in the front. "the second kind of furnace, which is by far the most numerously found and widely distributed, is, in fact, nothing but an improvement of that which preceded it, the edges of the furnace or crucible being considerably raised in height. they vary in depth from - / to feet, with a diameter of most irregular dimensions, from inches upwards, and a thickness of inches to feet. they are likewise formed of fire-proof clay, and their average capacity is about gallons. "the constructor, having dug out in the side of the hill an opening circular, or rather semi-circular, at the base, with a diameter nearly three times as wide as the future furnace, arranged in the centre of this hole a kind of furnace-bed made of plastic clay at bottom, and covered with a layer of fire-proof clay on the top of it. the bed of the furnace, which lies on the natural and hardly levelled earth, is, generally speaking, not so thick as the side walls, which are formed of sandy or siliceous clay, always fire-proof on the inside, but sometimes of a more plastic nature on the exterior; the empty space left between the walls of the furnace and the solid ground round it was filled up with earth and other material. in front the furnace was enclosed by a rough wall, sometimes straight and sometimes curving, built, without mortar, of rough limestone, and dressed with earth to fill up the gaps. in front of the furnace an opening was made in this wall, taking its rise a few inches above the bottom of the furnace, and increasing in size in an outward direction, so as to enable the workmen to see into, and work in, the furnace. "the work thus commenced was carried up to the requisite height; and when the excavation in the side of the hill was not lofty enough, the dome of the furnace was raised by placing buttresses against the fire-clay, so as to prevent the earth falling in. when these furnaces were established on almost level ground, as is sometimes the case, they form a truncated cone, with a base varying in size according to the height of the apparatus. "the furnace was not always built upright; it often deviated from the perpendicular, leaning to one side or the other to an extent as considerable as its own diameter, but no constant rule as to this can be recognised. the internal shape was just as irregular, changing from circular to oval, without any apparent motive beyond want of care in the workman. the crucibles or furnaces are sometimes larger at the top than at the bottom, and sometimes these proportions are reversed, but always with extreme irregularity. we have noticed some which at a point or inches above the crucible were perceptibly contracted on three sides, thus representing the first rudiments of the appearance of our modern furnaces. but this, perhaps, was nothing but a caprice on the part of the builder. "the furnace thus being established, the wood was withdrawn which had formed the cone, if, indeed, any had been used, and at the hole made at the base of the crucible a clod of fire-clay some inches in height was placed, so as to form a dam, and to confine in the crucible the molten or soft metal; the scoriæ, being of a lighter nature and floating at the top, made their escape over the top of the dam. as the latter were not very liquid, their issue was promoted by means of pokers or wooden poles, perhaps damped, with which also the metal was stirred in the crucible. "in neither of these two kinds of furnaces do we find any trace of bellows, and a more or less strong draught must have been procured through the opening made for the escape of the scoriæ, according to the elevation of the dome of the furnace. the limestones which have been found in certain furnaces were probably employed with a view of increasing the draught; they doubtless belonged to the upper part of the furnace, where they had been fixed so as to add height to the orifice. this rudimentary plan must have been likewise used in the earliest crucibles. the mode of obtaining a draught which we have just pointed out is indicated most plainly by the scorification of the walls of the furnace on the side opposite to the air-passage; this side has evidently experienced a more intense heat, whilst on the other the walls are much less affected by the fire, and in some cases pieces of the mineral still remain in a pasty or semi-molten state, just as they were when the work of the furnace ceased.... "the absence of any machine in the shape of bellows in the ancient metal works of the jura appears all the more remarkable as these implements were known both to the greeks and romans; hence we may at least infer, not only that these nations did not introduce the art of iron-working into the jura, but that it must have existed at a much earlier period. it must also be remarked that the openings in the furnaces are not placed in the direction of the winds prevailing in the country--a plan which might have increased the draught--but are made quite at hazard, just as the nature of the spot rendered the construction of the furnace more easy. "... in respect to fuel it must be remarked that in all the siderurgical establishments which we have discovered, certain features indicate that wood carbonised in a stack was exclusively used as fuel. the furnaces are too small for the employment of rough wood; added to this, charcoal stores are placed near the furnaces; and charcoal burnt in a stack is constantly met with all round the sites, in the scoriæ, and all the _débris_. we must, besides, mention the discovery, at bellelay, of a charcoal store feet in diameter, situated under a compact bed of peat feet in thickness. it was established on the solid earth, anterior to the formation of the peat. now from this very peat a parcel of coins belonging to the fifteenth century was recovered, over which only feet of peat had grown in a period of years. there, too, at a depth of feet, were found the scattered bones of a horse, with the foot still shod with those undulating edged shoes with elongated and strongly punched holes, in which were fitted the ends of nails of the shape of a t, the heads of which were conical. this kind of shoe is found in the celtic settlements, the villages, habitations, and ironworks, also in the pasturages and forests of the country, but rarely in the roman camps; in the latter they are always in less number than the wider metallic shoes, which are larger, and furnished with a groove indicating the line in which the nail-holes were punched. the calculations which have been made from the discovery of the coins of the fifteenth century (a.d. ) would give an antiquity of at least twenty to twenty-four centuries to the horse-shoe we have just mentioned, for the animal must have died and been devoured on the then existing surface of the ground, and could not have been buried in the peat, as the bones, instead of lying grouped together, were dispersed in every direction. these same calculations would carry back the date of the charcoal-store to an era years ago. "owing to the imperfection of the furnaces, the quantity of charcoal used must have been quadruple the present consumption for the same results. the metal, as it was extracted from the ore, fell down into the bottom of the crucible. in proportion as the mass of metal increased, a workman, with a poker made of damp green wood, brought out the scoriæ which floated on the top, and stirred the metal so as to fine it. it is proved that these wooden pokers or poles were made use of in all the furnace-works. a quantity of morsels of scoriæ is found which, having been in a soft state when extracted, have retained the imprint of the piece of wood, the end of which was evidently charred. m. morlot, in his article on the roman ironworks at wocheim, in upper carniola, has also noticed the existence, in the scoriæ, of frequent traces of pokers, sometimes round and sometimes three-cornered in shape, but all of them must have been made of iron, whilst throughout the whole of the jura we have never recognised the traces of any but wooden implements of this kind. "owing to the imperfection of the furnaces, and especially, the deficiency in the draught caused by the want of bellows, the metal contained in the ore could be but very imperfectly extracted; the scoriæ are therefore still so very rich in iron that, about twenty years ago, the manager of the ironworks at untervelier tried to use them over again as ore. accumulations of this dross, measuring from to yards square, may be seen near certain furnaces-a fact which would infer a somewhat considerable production of iron. the examination of these scoriæ proves that iron was then made by one single operation, and not liquid pigs fit for casting, or to be converted into iron by a second series of operations. "the iron produced was introduced into commerce in large blocks, shaped like two quadrangular pyramids joined at the base, weighing from to lbs. one of these pieces was found near a furnace which had been demolished in order to establish a charcoal furnace, in the commune of untervelier, and another in one of the furnaces of boécourt. "all round the furnaces there have been found numerous remains of rough pottery; it is badly baked, and made without the help of the wheel, from clay which is mingled with grains of quartz--the pottery, in fact, which is called celtic. pieces of stag's horn have also been discovered, which must have been used for the handles of tools; also iron hatchets. one of them has a socket at the end made in a line with the length of the implement; it is an instrument belonging to the most remote period of the iron age. the others have transversal sockets like our present hatchets. one of the latter was made of steel so hard that it could not be touched with the file. with regard to coins, both gallic and roman were found, and some of the latter were of as late a date as that of the constantines. the persistence in practising the routine of all the most ancient processes may be explained by the monopoly of the iron-working trade being retained in the same families. we have the less need to be surprised at this, because we may notice that the wood-cutters and charcoal-burners of our own days, when they have to take up their abode in a locality for any length of time, and to carry on their trade there, always make certain arrangements which have doubtless been handed down from the most primitive times. in order to protect their beds from the damp, they make a kind of shelf of fir-poles which is used as a bedstead. some of them have two stories; the under-one intended for the children, and the one above for the parents. moss, ferns, and dried grass form the mattress. coverlets impossible to describe were made good use of, and some were even made of branches of fir-trees. these bedsteads take the place both of benches and chairs. a stone fire-place, roughly arranged in the centre of the hut, fills the double function of warming in winter and cooking the food all the year round. we may also add, that the fire, which is almost always kept lighted, and the ashes spread over the floor all round, preserve the hut from certain troublesome insects, which lose their lives by jumping imprudently into this unknown trap. the smoke finds no other issue but through a hole made in the roof."[ ] such is the description given by m. quiquerez of the iron furnaces of a really pre-historic character, those, namely, which are characterised by the absence of bellows. we think, however, that there must have been holes below the hearth which afforded access to currents of air, and, by being alternately open or closed, served either to increase or diminish the intensity of the draught. but bellows, properly so called, intended to promote the combustion and chemical reaction between the oxide of iron and the charcoal did not then exist. the addition of the bellows to iron-furnaces brought an essential improvement to the art of the manufacture of iron. another improvement consisted in making, at the bottom of the stone receptacle where the fuel and the ore were burnt together, a door composed of several bricks which could be readily moved. at the completion of each operation they drew out, through this door, the cake of iron, which could not be so conveniently extracted at the upper part of the furnace, on account of its height. the hammering, assisted by several heatings, finally cleared the iron, in the usual way, from all extraneous matter, consolidated it, and converted it into the state of bar-iron fit for the blacksmith's use, and for the fabrication of utensils and tools. these improved primitive furnaces are well-known to german miners under the name of _stucköfen_ ("fragment-furnaces"). they are modified in different ways in different countries; and according to the arrangement of the furnace, and especially according to the nature of the ferruginous ores, certain methods or manipulations of the iron have been introduced, which are nowadays known under the names of the swedish, german, styrian, carinthian, corsican, and catalan methods. the ancient furnaces for the extraction of iron may be combined under the name of _smelting-forges_ or _bloomeries_. the invention of siliceous fluxes as applied to the extraction of iron, and facilitating the production of a liquid scoria which could flow out in the form of a stream of fire, put the finishing stroke to the preparation of iron. the constructors next considerably increased the height of the stone crucible in which the fuel and the ore, now mingled with a siliceous flux, were placed, and the _blast furnace_, that is, the present system of the preparation of iron, soon came into existence. but, there may be reason to think, neither of these two kinds of furnaces belongs to the primitive ages of mankind which are the object of this work. in the iron epoch--that we are considering--the furnace without bellows was possibly the only one known; the iron was prepared in very small quantities at a time, and the meagre metallic cake, the result from each operation, had to be picked out from among the ashes drawn from the stone receptacle. gold, as we have already said, was known to the men of the bronze epoch. silver, on the contrary, did not come into use until the iron epoch. another characteristic of the epoch we are now studying is the appearance of pottery made on the potter's wheel, and baked in an improved kind of furnace. up to that time, pottery had been moulded by the hand, and merely burnt in the open air. in the iron epoch, the potter's wheel came into use, and articles of earthenware were manufactured on this wheel, and baked in an unexceptionable way in an oven especially constructed for the purpose. there is another fact which likewise characterises the iron epoch; this was the appearance of coined money. the earliest known coins belong to this period; they are made of bronze, and bear a figure or effigy not stamped, but obtained by melting and casting. the most ancient coins that are known are greek, and date back to the eighth century before christ. these are the coins of Ægina, athens, and cyzicum, such as were found many years ago in the duchy of posen. in the lacustrine settlement of neuchâtel, coins of a remote antiquity have also been found. we here represent in its natural size (fig. ), taken from m. desor's work, a bronze coin found in the settlement of la tène in the lake of neuchâtel. but these coins are not more ancient than the greek specimens that we have before named. they are shown to be gallic by the horned horse, which is a gallic emblem. [illustration: fig. .--bronze coin, from the lake of neuchâtel.] at tiefenau, near berne, coins have been found of a nearly similar character associated with others having on them the effigy of apollo, and bearing an imprint of _massilia_ (marseilles). as the foundation of this phocæan colony dates back to the sixth century before christ, these coins may be said to be among the most ancient which exist. glass became known, as we have before stated, in the bronze epoch. in short, the essential features which distinguish the iron epoch are, iron instruments, and implements combining with those of bronze to replace stone in all the uses for which it was anciently employed--the knowledge of silver and lead, the improvement of pottery, and the introduction of coined money. with regard to its chronological date we should adopt that of about years before the christian era, thus agreeing with the generality of authors--the date of the bronze epoch being fixed about years before christ. after these general considerations, we shall pass on to give some account of the manners and customs of man during the iron epoch, or, at least, during the earlier portion of this period, which ere long became blended with historic ages. when we have completed our study of man in the earlier period of the iron epoch, we shall have terminated the rapid sketch which we have intended to trace out of primitive man and his labours. this period commenced, as we have just stated, about years before christ, and ultimately merged into the earliest glimmer of historical records. our task now is to describe all we know about man at this date of nascent civilisation. afterwards, the earliest historians--and among them, herodotus, the father of history--are the authorities whom we must consult for an account of the actions and exploits of the human race in europe. footnotes: [ ] details as to the relation of the stone age to the bronze and iron ages may be found in 'researches into the early history of mankind,' by edward b. tylor. chap. viii., 'pre-historic times,' by sir j. lubbock, chaps. i. and ii. [ ] 'de l'age du fer, recherches sur les anciennes forges du jura bernois,' by a. quiquerez, engineer of the jura mines. porrentruy, ; pp. - , - . also, 'matériaux pour l'histoire positif de l'homme,' by g. de mortillet, vol. ii. pp. - . chapter ii. weapons--tools, instruments, utensils, and pottery--the tombs of hallstadt and the plateau of la somma--the lake-settlements of switzerland--human sacrifices--type of man during the iron epoch--commencement of the historic era. the most valuable traces of the manners and customs of man during the earlier period of the iron epoch have been furnished by the vast burial-ground discovered recently at hallstadt, near salzburg in austria. m. ramsauer, director of the salt-mines of salzburg, has explored more than tombs in this locality, and has described them in a work full of interest, a manuscript copy of which we have consulted in the archæological museum of saint-germain. as the tombs at hallstadt belong to the earlier period of the iron epoch, they represent to us the natural transition from the epoch of bronze to that of iron. in fact, in a great number of objects contained in these tombs--such as daggers, swords and various ornaments--bronze and iron are combined. one sword, for instance, is formed of a bronze hilt and an iron blade. this is represented in figures , , and , drawn from the sketches in m. ramsauer's manuscript work entitled 'les tombes de hallstadt,' in which this combination of the two metals is remarked upon; the sword-hilts being formed of one metal and the blades of another. [illustration: fig. .--sword, from the tombs of hallstadt (with a bronze hilt and iron blade).] [illustration: fig. .--sword, from the tombs of hallstadt (with a bronze hilt and iron blade).] [illustration: fig. .--dagger, from the tombs of hallstadt (bronze handle and iron blade).] [illustration: fig. .--dagger, from the tombs of hallstadt (bronze handle and iron blade).] by taking a rapid survey of the objects found in the tombs of hallstadt, we can form a somewhat accurate idea of the first outset of the iron age. the first point which strikes us in this period, is the utter change which had taken place in the interment of the dead. during the stone age, the dead were placed in small subterranean crypts, that is in _dolmens_ or _tumuli_. during the bronze age it became to a great extent customary for men to burn the dead bodies of their friends. this custom was destined to become more and more prevalent century after century, and during historic times it became universal among a great many nations. in fact, in the tombs of hallstadt, several little earthen vessels containing ashes may be seen. sometimes only part of the body was burnt, so that a portion of a skeleton was found in these tombs, and near it the ashes of the parts which the fire had consumed. the remains found in the tombs of hallstadt are almost equally divided between these two modes of inhumation. about half of the tombs contain nothing but ashes; in the other half, corpses are laid extended, according to the custom which was most prevalent in the iron age. lastly, as we have just stated, some of them contained skeletons which were partially burnt. sometimes it was the head, sometimes the whole bust, or sometimes the lower limbs which were consumed, the ashes being deposited by the side of the intact portions of the skeleton. fig. , which is designed from one of the illustrations in m. ramsauer's manuscript work 'les tombes de hallstadt,' in the museum of saint-germain, represents a skeleton, part of which (the chest) has been consumed. the ashes are contained in small earthen vessels which are seen near the corpse. [illustration: fig. .--funeral ceremonies during the iron epoch.] [illustration: fig. .--a skeleton, portions of which have been burnt, from the tombs of hallstadt.] from the _data_ which we have acquired as to this custom of burning dead bodies during the iron epoch, we have been able to represent _the funeral ceremonies of the iron epoch_ in the preceding figure. the corpse is placed on a funeral pile, and the stone door of the tumulus is raised in order to deposit in it the cinerary urn. the relations of the deceased accompany the procession clothed in their handsomest garments and adorned with the bronze and iron ornaments which were then in vogue. one of those present may be seen throwing some precious objects into the flames of the funeral pile in honour of the deceased. the tombs of hallstadt are the locality in which the largest number of objects, such as weapons, instruments and implements, have been met with, which have tended to throw a light upon the history of the transition from the bronze to the iron epoch. all these objects are either of bronze or iron; but in the weapons the latter predominates. swords, spear-heads, daggers, knives, socketed hatchets and winged hatchets form the catalogue of the sharp instruments. in the preceding pages (figs. , , and ) we have given representations of swords and daggers designed from the specimens in the museum of saint-germain. in all these weapons the handle is made of bronze and the blade of iron. warriors' sword-belts are frequently formed of plates of bronze, and are embellished with a _repoussé_ ornamentation executed by the hammer. in fig. we give a representation of a necklace with pendants which is most remarkable in its workmanship. it may be readily seen that art had now attained some degree of maturity. this necklace was a prelude to the marvellous works of art which were about to be brought to light under the skies of greece. [illustration: fig. .--a necklace with pendants, from the tombs of hallstadt.] the bracelets which have been met with by hundreds, hair pins and bronze fibulæ are all wrought with taste, and are often adorned with very elegant pendants. in figs. and we show two bracelets, the sketches for which were taken from the designs in the manuscript of the 'tombes de hallstadt.' [illustration: fig. .--bracelet, from the tombs of hallstadt.] [illustration: fig. .--bracelet, from the tombs of hallstadt.] we may add a few amber necklace-beads and some of enamel, and we have then concluded the series of personal ornaments. in the tombs of hallstadt, nearly bronze vessels have been discovered, some of which are as much as inches in height. these bronze vessels were composed of several pieces skilfully riveted but not soldered. plates and are reproduced from the same beautiful manuscript. [illustration: fig. .--bronze vase, from the tombs of hallstadt.] [illustration: fig. .--bronze vase, from the tombs of hallstadt.] in the tombs of hallstadt some small glass vessels have also been discovered. remains of pottery are very plentiful, and a decided improvement is shown in their workmanship. some gold trinkets were also met with in these tombs. the gold was, doubtless, obtained from the mines of transylvania. african ivory abounds in these graves--a fact which indicates commercial intercourse with very distant countries. this product, as well as the glass, was introduced into europe by the phoenicians. the inhabitants of central europe obtained ivory from tyre and sidon by means of barter. the ivory objects which were found at hallstadt consisted of the heads of hair-pins and the pommels of swords. there were no traces whatever of money, the use of it not being then established in that part of europe. the population which lived in the vicinity of the salzburg mines were in reality rich; for the salt-mines were a source of great wealth to them at a period when the deposits of rock-salt in poland, being still buried in the depths of the earth, were as yet unknown or inaccessible. in this way, we may account for the general opulence of these commercial nations, and for the elegance and taste displayed in the objects which have been found in the tombs of hallstadt. guided by these various remains, it is not difficult to reproduce an ideal picture of _the warriors of the iron epoch_, a representation of which we have endeavoured to give in fig. . the different pieces of the ornaments observed on the horseman, on the foot-soldier, and also on the horse, are drawn from specimens exhibited in the museum of saint-germain which were modelled at hallstadt. the helmet is in perfect preservation and resembles those which, shortly after, were worn by the gallic soldiers. the bosses, also, on the horse's harness, ere long came into use both among the gauls and also the romans. [illustration: fig. .--warriors of the iron epoch.] next to the tombs of hallstadt, we must mention the tombs discovered on the plateau of la somma, in lombardy, which have contributed a valuable addition to the history of the earliest period of the iron epoch. on this plateau there were discovered certain tombs, composed of rough stones of a rectangular form. in the interior there were some vases of a shape suited to the purpose, containing ashes. the material of which they were made was fine clay; they had been wrought by means of the potter's wheel, were ornamented with various designs, and also provided with encircling projections. on some of them, representations of animals may be seen which indicate a considerable progress in the province of art. the historic date of these urns is pointed out by _fibulæ_ (clasps for cloaks), iron rings and bracelets, sword-belts partly bronze and partly iron, and small bronze chains. the tombs of la somma belong, therefore, to a period of transition between the bronze and iron epochs. according to m. mortillet, they date back to the seventh century before christ. under the same head we will class the tombs of saint-jean de belleville, in savoy. at this spot several tombs belonging to the commencement of the iron epoch have been explored by mm. borel and costa de beauregard. the latter, in a splendid work published in savoy, has given a detailed description of these tombs.[ ] some of the skeletons are extended on their backs, others have been consumed, but only partially, like those which we have already mentioned in the tombs of hallstadt. various objects, consisting chiefly of trinkets and ornaments, have been met with in these tombs. we will mention in particular the _fibulæ_, bracelets and necklaces made of amber, enamelled glass, &c. in figs. and we give a representation of two skeleton arms, which are encircled with several bracelets just as they were found in these tombs. [illustration: figs. , .--fore-arm, encircled with bracelets, found in the tombs of belleville (savoy).] the lacustrine settlements of switzerland have contributed a valuable element towards the historic reconstruction of the iron epoch. in different parts of the lakes of bienne and neuchâtel there are pile-works which contain iron objects intermingled with the remains of preceding ages. but there is only one lacustrine settlement in switzerland which belongs exclusively to the earliest period of the iron age--that of la tène on the lake of neuchâtel. most of the objects which have been met with in this lacustrine settlement have been recovered from the mud in which they had been so remarkably preserved, being sheltered from any contact with the outer air. there are, however, many spots in which piles may be seen, where objects of this kind have not been found; but if subsequent researches are attended with any results, we shall be forced to attribute to the settlement of la tène a considerable degree of importance, for the piles there extend over an area of acres. the remains of all kinds which have been found in this settlement are evidently of gallic origin. it is an easy matter to prove this by comparing the weapons found in this settlement with those which were discovered in the trenches of alise-sainte-reine, the ancient _alesia_, where, in its last contest against cæsar, the independence of ancient gaul came to an end. m. de rougemont has called attention to the fact that these weapons correspond very exactly to the description given by diodorus siculus of the gallic weapons. switzerland thus seems to have been inhabited in the earliest iron epoch by gallic tribes, that is to say, by a different race from that which occupied it during the stone and bronze epochs; and it was this race which introduced into switzerland the use of iron. among the objects collected in the lake settlement of la tène, weapons are the most numerous; they consist of swords and the heads of spears and javelins. most of them have been kept from oxidation by the peaty mud which entirely covered them, and they are, consequently, in a state of perfect preservation. the swords are all straight, of no very great thickness, and perfectly flat. the blade is from to inches in length, and is terminated by a handle about inches long. they have neither guards nor crosspieces. several of them were still in their sheaths, from which many of them have been drawn out in a state of perfect preservation, and even tolerably sharp. fig. represents one of the iron swords from the swiss lakes, which are depicted in m. desor's memoir. [illustration: fig. .--iron sword, found in one of the swiss lakes.] on another sword, of which we also give a representation (fig. ), a sort of damascening work extends over almost the whole surface, leaving the edges alone entirely smooth. [illustration: fig. .--sword with damascened blade, found in one of the swiss lakes.] m. de reffye, the archæologist, accounts for this fact in the following way:--he is of opinion that the body of the blade is made of very hard unyielding iron, whilst the edges are made of small strips of mellower iron which have been subsequently welded and wrought by the hammer. this mode of manufacture enabled the soldier, when his sword was notched, to repair it by means of hammering. this was a most valuable resource during an epoch in which armies did not convey stores along with them, and when the soldier's baggage was reduced to very little more than he could personally carry. several of these damascened blades have been found in the trenches of alise. the sheaths, the existence of which now for the first time comes under our notice, are of great importance on account of the designs with which they are ornamented. most of these designs are engraved with a tool, others are executed in _repoussé_ work. all of them show great originality and peculiar characteristics, which prevent them from being confounded with works of roman art. one of these sheaths (fig. ), which belongs to m. desor's collection and is depicted in his memoir, represents the "horned horse," the emblem of gaul, which is sufficient proof of the gallic origin of the weapons found in the lake of la tène. below this emblem, there is a kind of granulated surface which bears some resemblance to shagreen. [illustration: fig .--sheath of a sword, found in one of the swiss lakes.] this sheath is composed of two very thin plates of wrought iron laid one upon the other, except at the base, where they are united by means of a cleverly-wrought band of iron. at its upper extremity there is a plate, on one side of which may be seen the designs which we have already described, and on the other a ring, intended to suspend the weapon to the belt. the lance-heads are very remarkable on account of their extraordinary shape and large size. they measure as much as inches long, by to inches wide, and are double-edged and twisted into very diversified shapes. some are winged, and others are irregularly indented. some have perforations in the shape of a half-moon (fig. ). the halberd of the middle ages was, very probably, nothing but an improvement on, or a deviation from, these singular blades. [illustration: fig. .--lance-head, found in one of the swiss lakes.] fragments of wooden staves have been met with which had been fitted into these spear-heads; they are slender, and shod with iron at one end. the care with which these instruments are wrought proves that they are lance-heads, and not mere darts or javelins intended to be thrown to a distance and consequently lost. they certainly would not have taken so much pains with the manufacture of a weapon which would be used only once. it is altogether a different matter with respect to the javelins, a tolerably large number of which have been found in the lacustrine settlements of la tène. they are simple socketed heads (fig. ), terminating in a laurel-leaf shape, about to inches in length. [illustration: fig. .--head of a javelin, found in the lacustrine settlement of la tène (neuchâtel).] it appears from experiments ordered by the emperor of the french, that these javelins could only have been used as missile weapons, and that they were thrown, not by the hand merely grasping the shaft (which would be impossible to do effectually on account of their light weight), but by means of a cord or thong, which was designated among the romans by the name of _amentum_. these experiments have shown that a dart which could be thrown only feet with the hand, might be cast four times that distance by the aid of the _amentum_. there probably existed among the gauls certain military corps who practised the use of the _amentum_, that is to say, the management of _thonged javelins_, and threw this javelin in the same way as other warriors threw stones by means of a sling. this conclusion, which has been drawn by m. desor, seems to us a very just one. javelins of the preceding type are very common in the trenches of alise. in this neighbourhood a large number of iron arrows have also been found which have never been met with in the lacustrine settlement of la tène. war was not the only purpose for which these javelins were used by the men of the iron epoch. hunting, too, was carried on by means of these missile weapons. the bow and the thonged javelin constituted the hunting weapons of this epoch. we have depicted this in the accompanying plate, which represents _the chase during the iron epoch_. [illustration: fig. .--the chase during the iron epoch.] next to the weapons come the implements. we will, in the first place, mention the hatchets (fig. ). they are larger, more solid, and have a wider cutting edge than those used in the bronze epoch; wings were no longer in use, only a square-shaped socket into which was fitted a wooden handle, probably made with an elbow. [illustration: fig. .--square-socketed iron hatchet, found in one of the lakes of switzerland.] the sickles (fig. ) are likewise larger and also more simple than those of the bronze epoch; there are neither designs nor ornaments of any kind on them. [illustration: fig. .--sickle.] with the pruning-bills or sickles we must class the regular scythes (fig. ) with stems for handling, two specimens of which have been discovered in the lake settlement of the tène. their length is about inches, that is, about one-third as large as the scythes used by the swiss harvest-men of the present day. one important inference is drawn from the existence of these scythes; it is, that at the commencement of the iron epoch men were in the habit of storing up a provision of hay, and must consequently have reared cattle. [illustration: fig. .--scythe, from the lacustrine settlements of switzerland.] the iron fittings at the ends of the boat-hooks used by the boatmen on the lake are frequently found at la tène; they terminate in a quadrangular pyramid or in a cone (fig. ). some still contain the end of the wooden pole, which was attached to it by means of a nail. [illustration: fig. .--iron point of boat-hook, used by the swiss boatmen during the iron epoch.] next in order to these objects, we must mention the horses' bits and shoes; the first being very simply constructed so as to last for a very long period of time. they were composed of a short piece of iron chain (fig. ), which was placed in the horse's mouth, and terminated at each end in a ring to which the reins were attached. [illustration: fig. .--horse's bit, found in the lake of neuchâtel.] the _fibulæ_ (fig. ), or clasps for cloaks, are especially calculated to attract attention in the class of ornamental objects; they are very elegant and diversified in their shapes, their dimensions varying from - / to inches. they are all formed of a pin in communication with a twisted spring bent in various ways. they are provided with a sheath to hold the end of the brooch pin, so as to avoid any danger of pricking. a large number of them are in an excellent state of preservation, and might well be used at the present day. [illustration: fig. .--_fibula_, or iron brooch, found in the lake of neuchâtel.] these brooches, which we have already called attention to when speaking of the tombs of hallstadt, were also used by the etruscans and the romans; their existence in the pre-historic tombs tends to prove that, like the above-named nations, the swiss and germans wore the toga or mantle. these _fibulæ_ have a peculiar character, and it is impossible to confuse them with the roman _fibulæ_. they are, however, similar in every way to those which have been found at alise. there have also been found in the swiss lakes, along with the _fibulæ_, a number of rings, the use of which is still problematical. some are flat and others chiselled in various ways. it is thought that some of them must have been used as buckles for soldiers' sword-belts (fig. ); but there are others which do not afford any countenance to this explanation. neither can they be looked on as bracelets; for most of them are too small for any such purpose. some show numerous cuts at regular intervals all round their circumference; this fact has given rise to the supposition that they might perhaps have served as a kind of money. [illustration: fig. .--iron buckle for a sword-belt, found in the lake of neuchâtel.] in the lake-settlement of la tène (lake of neuchâtel), iron pincers have also been found (fig. ), which were doubtless used for pulling out hair, and are of very perfect workmanship; also scissors with a spring (fig. ), the two legs being made in one piece, and some very thin blades (fig. ), which must have been razors. [illustration: fig. .--iron pincers, found in the lake of neuchâtel.] [illustration: fig. .--iron spring-scissors, found in the lake of neuchâtel.] [illustration: fig. .--razor.] the specimens of pottery belonging to this date do not testify to any real progress having been made beyond the workmanship of the bronze epoch; the clay is still badly baked, and of a darkish colour. it certainly is the case, that along with these remains a quantity of fragments of vessels have been picked up, and even entire vessels, which have been made by the help of the potter's wheel and baked in an oven, and consequently present the red colour usual in modern earthenware. but archæologists are of opinion that this class of pottery does not date back beyond the roman epoch; and this opinion would seem to be confirmed by the existence, in the midst of the piles at the settlement of la tène, of a mass of tiles, evidently of roman origin. the conclusion to be drawn from these facts is, that many of the pile-works in the swiss lakes continued to be occupied when the country was under the roman rule. one of the characteristics of the iron epoch is, as we have before stated, the appearance of coin or money. in , m. desor recovered from the lake of la tène five coins of unquestionable gallic origin. they are of bronze, and bear on one side the figure of the horned horse, and on the other a human profile. in fig. , we gave a representation of these curious specimens of coin found by m. desor in the lacustrine settlements of the lake of neuchâtel. the marks of the mould still existing on each side show that these coins were cast in a series, and that after the casting the coins were separated from one another by means of the file. coins of a similar character have been discovered, as we before observed, at tiefenau, near berne, with others bearing the effigy of diana and apollo, and the imprint of _massilia_, the latter date from the foundation of marseilles, and could not, therefore, be anterior to the sixth century before the christian era; it is probable that those discovered along with them must be referred to nearly the same epoch. such are the relics of instruments, tools, weapons, &c., made of iron and recovered from the lacustrine settlement of la tène, that is, from the lake of neuchâtel. we must add that, near berne, at a spot which is designated by the name of the "battle-field of tiefenau," because it appears to have been the theatre of a great conflict between the helvetians and the gauls, a hundred swords and spear-heads have been picked up, similar to those found at la tène; also fragments of coats of mail, rings, _fibulæ_, the tires of chariot-wheels, horses' bits, and lastly, gallic and marseillaise coins in gold, silver, and bronze. this field of battle appears, therefore, to have been contemporary with the settlement at la tène. in addition to these valuable sources of information--la tène and tiefenau--switzerland also possesses _tumuli_ and simple tombs, both constituting records useful to consult in respect to the iron epoch. but on this point, it must be remarked that it is often difficult, with any degree of security, to connect them with the two preceding sites; and that considerable reserve is recommended in attempting any kind of identification. upon the whole, the iron age, looking even only to its earliest period, is the date of the beginning of real civilisation among european nations. their industrial skill, exercised on the earliest-used materials, such as iron and textile products, furnished all that was required by the usages of life. commerce was already in a flourishing state, for it was no longer carried on by the process of barter only. money, in the shape of coin, the conventional symbol of wealth, came into use during this epoch, and must have singularly facilitated the operations of trade. agriculture, too, had advanced as much as it could at this earliest dawn of civilisation. the remains of cereals found in the lake-settlements of switzerland, added to the iron instruments intended to secure the products of the cultivation of the ground, such as the scythes and sickles which we have previously depicted (figs. and ), are sufficient to show us that agriculture constituted at that time the chief wealth of nations. the horse, the ass, the dog, the ox, and the pig, had for long time back been devoted to the service of man, either as auxiliaries in his field-labours, or as additions to his resources in the article of food. fruit-trees, too, were cultivated in great numbers. [illustration: fig. .--agriculture during the iron epoch.] as a matter of fact, we have no acquaintance with any of the iron and bronze instruments which were used by men of the iron epoch in cultivation of the ground. scythes and sickles are the only agricultural implements which have been discovered. but even these instruments, added to a quantity of remains of the bones of cattle which have been found in the lacustrine and palustrine settlements, are sufficient to prove that the art of cultivating the earth and of extracting produce from its bosom, rendered fertile by practices sanctioned by experience, existed in full vigour among the men who lived during the period immediately preceding historic times. the plate which accompanies this page is intended to represent in a material form the state of agriculture during the iron epoch. we may notice the corn-harvest being carried on by means of sickles, like those found in the lacustrine settlements of switzerland. a man is engaged in beating out, with a mere stick, the wheatsheaves in order to thrash out the grain. the grain is then ground in a circular mill, worked by a horizontal handle. this mill is composed of two stones revolving one above the other, and was the substitute for the rough primitive corn-mill; it subsequently became the mill used by the romans--the _pistrinum_--at which the slaves were condemned to work. indications of an unequivocal character have enabled us to recognise as a fact, that human sacrifices took place among the helvetians during this period. it is, however, well known, from the accounts of ancient historians, that this barbarous custom existed among the gauls and various nations in the north of europe. in a _tumulus_ situated near lausanne, which contained four cinerary urns, there were also found the skeletons of four young females. their broken bones testified but too surely to the tortures which had terminated their existence. the remains of their ornaments lay scattered about in every direction, and everything was calculated to lead to the belief that they had been crushed under the mass of stones which formed the _tumulus_--unhappy victims of a cruel superstition. not far from this spot, another _tumulus_ contained twelve skeletons lying in all kinds of unusual postures. it is but too probable that these were the remains of individuals who had all been immolated together on the altar of some supposed implacable divinity. what was the character of the type of the human race during the iron epoch? it must evidently have been that of the present era. both the skulls and the bodies of the skeletons found in the tombs of this epoch point to a race of men entirely identical with that of our own days. we shall not carry on our study of pre-historic mankind to any later date. we have now arrived at an epoch upon which sufficient light has been thrown by oral tradition combined with historical records. the task of the historian begins at the point where the naturalist's investigations come to an end. footnote: [ ] 'les sépultures de saint-jean de belleville,' with lithographed plates. primitive man in america. primitive man in america. the development of mankind has, doubtless, been of much the same character in all parts of the world, so that, in whatever quarter of the world man may come under our consideration, he must have passed through the same phases of progress ere he arrived at his present state. everywhere, man must have had his stone age, his bronze epoch, and his iron epoch, succeeding one another in the same order which we have ascertained to have existed in europe. in the sketch which we have drawn of primitive man we have devoted our attention almost entirely to europe; but the cause simply is, that this part of the world has, up to the present day, been the principal subject of special and attentive studies in this respect. asia, africa, and america can scarcely be said to have been explored in reference to the antiquity of our species; but it is probable that the facts which have been brought to light in europe, would be almost identically reproduced in other parts of the world. this is a fact which, as regards _dolmens_, has been already verified. the sepulchral monuments of the stone age, which were at first believed to be peculiar to france, and, indeed, to one province of france, namely brittany, have since been met with in almost every part of the world. not only have they been discovered all over europe, but even the coasts of africa bring to our notice numerous relics of them; also, through the whole extent of asia, and even in the interior of india, this same form of sepulchre, bearing witness to a well determined epoch in man's history, have been pointed out and described by recent travellers. thus, the information which we possess on these points as regards europe, may well be generalised and applied to the other quarters of the world--to asia, africa, america, and oceania. america, however, has been the scene of certain investigations concerning primitive man which have not been without fertile results; we shall, therefore, devote the last few pages of our work to a consideration of the pre-historic remains of america, and to giving an account of the probable conditions of man's existence there, as they have been revealed to us by these relics. the information which has been made public on these points concerns north america only. it would be useless to dwell on the stone and bone instruments of the new world; in their shape they differ but little from those of europe. they were applied to the same uses, and the only perceptible difference in them is in the substance of which they were made. we find there hatchets, knives, arrow-heads, &c., but these instruments are not so almost universally made from flint, which is to a considerable extent replaced by obsidian and other hard stones. in the history of primitive man in north america, we shall have to invent another age of a special character; this is the _age of copper_. in america, the use of copper seems to have preceded the use of bronze; native metallic copper having been largely in use among certain races. on the shores of lake superior there are some very important mines of native copper, which must have been worked by the indians at a very early date; in fact, the traces of the ancient workings have been distinctly recognised by various travellers. mr. knapp, the agent of the minnesota mining company, was the first to point out these pre-historic mines. in , his researches having led him into a cavern much frequented by porcupines, he discovered, under an accumulation of heaped-up earth, a vein of native copper, containing a great number of stone hammers. a short time afterwards, some other excavations to feet in depth, and stretching over an extent of several miles, came under his notice. the earth dug out had been thrown on each side of the excavations; and mighty forest-trees had taken root and grown there. in the trunk of a hemlock-tree growing in this "made ground," mr. knapp counted rings of growth, and this tree had probably been preceded by other forest-giants no less venerable. in the trenches themselves, which had been gradually filled up by vegetable _débris_, trees had formerly grown which, after having lived for hundreds of years, had succumbed and decayed; being then replaced by other generations of vegetation, the duration of which had been quite as long. when, therefore, we consider these workings of the native copper-mines of lake superior, we are compelled to ascribe the above-named excavations to a considerable antiquity. in many of these ancient diggings stone hammers have been found, sometimes in large quantities. one of the diggings contained some great diorite hatchets which were worked by the aid of a handle, and also large cylindrical masses of the same substance hollowed out to receive a handle. these sledges, which are too heavy to be lifted by one man alone, were doubtless used for breaking off lumps of copper, and then reducing them to fragments of a size which could easily be carried away. if we may put faith in professor mather, who explored these ancient mines, some of the rocks still bore the mark of the blow they had received from these granite rollers. the work employed in adapting the native copper was of the most simple character. the indians hammered it cold, and, taking into account its malleable character, they were enabled with tolerable facility to give it any shape that they wished. in america, just as in europe, a great number of specimens of pre-historic pottery have been collected. they are, it must be confessed, superior to most of those found in the ancient world. the material of which they were made is very fine, excepting in the case of the vessels of every-day use, in which the clay is mixed with quartz reduced to powder; the shapes of the vessels are of the purest character, and the utmost care has been devoted to the workmanship. they do not appear to have been constructed by the aid of the potter's wheel; but messrs. squier and davis, very competent american archæologists, are of opinion that the indians, in doing this kind of work, made use of a stick held in the middle. the workman turned this stick round and round inside the mass of clay, which an assistant kept on adding to all round the circumference. in regard to pottery, the most interesting specimens are the pipes, which we should, indeed, expect to meet with in the native country of the tobacco plant and the classic calumet. many of these pipes are carved in the shape of animals, which are very faithfully represented. these figures are very various in character, including quadrupeds and birds of all kinds. indeed, in the state of ohio seven pipes were found on each of which the manatee was so plainly depicted that it is impossible to mistake the sculptor's intention. this discovery is a curious one, from the fact that at the present day the manatee is not met with except in localities or leagues distant, as in florida. the pre-historic ornaments and trinkets found in north america consist of bracelets, necklaces, earrings, &c. the bracelets are copper rings bent by hammering, so that the two ends meet. the necklaces are composed of shell beads (of which considerable quantities have been collected) shells, animals' teeth, and small flakes of mica, all perforated by a hole so as to be strung on a thread. the earrings also are made of the same material. all these objects--weapons, implements, pottery, and ornaments--have been derived from certain gigantic works which exhibit some similarity, and occasionally even a striking resemblance, to the great earthwork constructions of the old world. american archæologists have arranged these works in various classes according to the probable purpose for which they were intended; we shall now dwell for a short time on these divisions. in the first place, we have the _sepulchral mounds_ or _tumuli_, the numbers of which may be reckoned by tens of thousands. they vary in height from feet to feet, and are generally of a circular form; being found either separately or in groups. most frequently only one skeleton is found in them, either reduced almost to ashes, or--which is more rare--in its ordinary condition, and in a crouching posture. by the side of the corpse are deposited trinkets, and, in a few cases, weapons. a practice the very contrary to this now obtains in america; and from this we may conclude that a profound modification of their ideas has taken place among the indians since the pre-historic epochs. it is now almost a certain fact that some of the small _tumuli_ are nothing but the remains of mud-huts, especially as they do not contain either ashes or bones. others, on the contrary, and some of the largest, contain a quantity of bones; the latter must be allied with the _ossuaries_ or bone-pits, some of which contain the remains of several thousand individuals. it would be difficult to explain the existence of accumulations of this kind if we did not know from the accounts of ancient authors that the indians were in the habit of assembling every eight or ten years in some appointed spot to inter all together in one mass the bones of their dead friends, which had been previously exhumed. this singular ceremony was called "the feast of the dead." we shall not say much here as to the _sacrificial mounds_, because no very precise agreement has yet been arrived at as to their exact signification. their chief characteristics are, that, in the first place, they are nearly always found within certain sacred enclosures of which we shall have more to say further on, and also that they cover a sort of altar placed on the surface of the ground, and made of stone or baked clay. in the opinion of certain archæologists, this supposed altar is nothing but the site of a former fire-hearth, and the mound itself a habitation converted into a tomb after the death of its proprietor. it will therefore be best to reserve our judgment as to the existence of the human sacrifices of which these places might have been the scene, until we obtain some more complete knowledge of the matter. the _temple-mounds_ are hillocks in the shape of a truncated pyramid, with paths or steps leading to the summit, and sometimes with terraces at different heights. they invariably terminate in a platform of varying extent, but sometimes reaching very considerable dimensions. that of cahokia, in illinois, is about feet in height, and at the base is feet long and feet wide. there is no doubt that these mounds were not exclusively used as temples, and, adopting as our authority several instances taken from indian history, we may be permitted to think that on this upper terrace they were in the habit of building the dwelling of their chief. the most curious of these earthworks are, beyond question, those which the american archæologists have designated by the name of _animal-mounds_. they consist of gigantic bas-reliefs formed on the surface of the ground, and representing men, mammals, birds, reptiles, and even inanimate objects, such as crosses, pipes, &c. they exist in thousands in wisconsin, being chiefly found between the mississippi and lake michigan, and along the war-path of the indians. their height is never very considerable, and it is but seldom that they reach so much as feet; but their length and breadth is sometimes enormously developed. many of these figures are copied very exactly from nature; but there are, on the other hand, some the meaning of which it is very difficult to discover, because they have been injured by the influence of atmospheric action during a long course of ages. in dale county there is an interesting group composed of a man with extended arms, six quadrupeds, a simple _tumulus_, and seven mounds without any artistic pretensions. the man measured feet long, and nearly feet from the end of one arm to the other. the quadrupeds are from to feet long. the representation of lizards and tortoises are frequently recognised in these monstrous figures. a group of mounds, situate near the village of pewaukee, included when it was discovered two lizards and seven tortoises. one of these tortoises measured feet. at waukesha there was found a monstrous "turtle" admirably executed, the tail of which stretched over an extent of feet. on a high hill near granville, in the state of ohio, a representation is sculptured of the reptile which is now known under the name of alligator. its paws are feet long, and its total length exceeds feet. in the same state there exists the figure of a vast serpent, the most remarkable work of its kind; its head occupies the summit of a hill, round which the body extends for about feet, forming graceful coils and undulations; the mouth is opened wide, as if the monster was swallowing its prey. the prey is represented by an oval-shaped mass of earth, part of which lies in the creature's jaws. this mass of earth is about feet long and feet wide, and its height is about feet. in some localities excavations are substituted for these raised figures; that is to say, that the delineations of the animals are sunk instead of being in relief-a strange variety in these strange works. the mind may readily be perplexed when endeavouring to trace out the origin and purpose of works of this kind. they do not, in a general way, contain any human remains, and consequently could not have been intended to be used as sepulchres. up to the present time, therefore, the circumstances which have accompanied the construction of these eminently remarkable pre-historic monuments are veiled in the darkest mystery. we now have to speak of those enclosures which are divided by american archæologists into the classes of _defensive_ and _sacred_. this distinction is, however, based on very uncertain data, and it is probable that a large portion of the so-called _sacred_ enclosures were in the first place constructed for a simply _defensive_ purpose. they were, in general, composed of a wall made of stones, and an internal or external ditch. they often assumed the form of a parallelogram, and even of a perfect square or circle, from which it has been inferred that the ancient indians must have possessed an unit of measurement, and some means of determining angles. these walls sometimes embraced a considerable area, and not unfrequently inside the principal enclosure there were other smaller enclosures, flanked with defensive mounds performing the service of bastions. in some cases enclosures of different shapes are grouped side by side, either joined by avenues or entirely independent of one another. the most important of these groups is that at newark, in the valley of scioto; it covers an area of square miles, and is composed of an octagon, a square, and two large circles. the external wall of one of these circles is even at the present day feet in width at the base, and feet high; there are several doorways in it, near which the height of the wall is increased about feet. inside there is a ditch feet in depth, and feet in the vicinity of the doors, its width being about feet. the whole enclosure is now covered by gigantic trees, perhaps or years old--a fact which points to a considerable antiquity for the date of its construction. when we reflect on the almost countless multitude, and the magnificent proportions of the monuments we have just described, we are compelled to recognise the fact that the american valleys must at some early date have been much more densely populated than at the time when europeans first made their way thither. these peoples must have formed considerable communities, and have attained to a somewhat high state of civilisation--at all events a state very superior to that which is at present the attribute of the indian tribes. tribes which were compelled to seek in hunting their means of every-day existence, could never have succeeded in raising constructions of this kind. they must therefore necessarily have found other resources in agricultural pursuits. this inference is moreover confirmed by facts. in several localities in the united states the ground is covered with small elevations known under the name of _indian corn-hills_; they take their rise from the fact that the maize, having been planted every year in the same spot, has ultimately, after a long course of time, formed rising grounds. the traces of ancient corn-patches have also been discovered symmetrically arranged in regular beds and parallel rows. can any date be assigned to this period of semi-civilisation which, instead of improving more and more like civilisation in europe, became suddenly eclipsed, owing to causes which are unknown to us? this question must be answered in the negative, if we are called upon to fix any settled and definite date. nevertheless, the conclusion to which american archæologists have arrived is, that the history of the new world must be divided into four definite periods. the first period includes the rise of agriculture and industrial skill; the second, the construction of mounds and inclosures; the third, the formation of the "garden beds." in the last period, the american nation again relapsed into savage life and to the free occupation of the spots which had been devoted to agriculture. in his work on 'pre-historic times' sir john lubbock, who has furnished us with most of these details, estimates that this course of events would not necessarily have required a duration of time of more than years, although he confesses that this figure might be much more considerable. but dr. douler, another _savant_, regards this subject in a very different way. near new orleans he discovered a human skeleton and the remains of a fire, to which, basing his calculations on more or less admissible _data_, he attributes an antiquity of centuries! young america would thus be very ancient indeed! by this instance we may see how much uncertainty surrounds the history of primitive man in america; and it may be readily understood why we have thought it necessary to adhere closely to scientific ideas and to limit ourselves to those facts which are peculiar to europe. to apply to the whole world the results which have been verified in europe is a much surer course of procedure than describing local and imperfectly studied phenomena, which, in their interpretation, lead to differences in the estimate of time, such as that between and , years! conclusion. before bringing our work to a close we may be permitted to retrace the path we have trod, and to embrace in one rapid glance the immense space we have traversed. we have now arrived at a point of time very far removed from that of the dweller in caves, the man who was contemporary with the great bear and the mammoth! scarcely, perhaps, have we preserved a reminiscence of those mighty quadrupeds whose broad shadows seem to flit indistinctly across the dim light of the quaternary epoch. face to face with these gigantic creatures, which have definitively disappeared from the surface of our globe, there were, as we have seen, beings of a human aspect who, dwelling in caves and hollows of the earth, clothed themselves in the skins of beasts and cleft flakes of stone in order to form their weapons and implements. we can hardly have failed to feel a certain interest in and sympathy with them, when tracing out the dim vestiges of their progress; for, in spite of their rude appearance, in spite of their coarse customs and their rough mode of life, they were our brethren, our ancestors, and the far-distant precursors of modern civilisation. we have given due commendation to their efforts and to their progress. after a protracted use of weapons and implements simply chipped out of the rough flint, we have seen them adopt weapons and instruments of polished stone, that is, objects which had undergone that material preparation which is the germ of the industrial skill of primitive nations. aided by these polished-stone instruments, added to those of bone and reindeer's or stag's horn, they did not fear to enter into a conflict--which every day became more and more successful--with all the external forces which menaced them. as we have seen, they brought under the yoke of servitude various kinds of animals; they made the dog and the horse the companion and the auxiliary of their labour. the sheep, the ox, and other ruminants were converted into domesticated cattle, capable of insuring a constant supply of food. after the lapse of ages metals made their appearance!--metals, the most precious acquisition of all, the pledge of the advent of a new era, replete with power and activity, to primitive man. instruments made of stone, bone, reindeer or stag's horn, were replaced by those composed of metal. in all the communities of man civilisation and metals seem to be constant companions. though bronze may have served for the forging of swords and spears, it also provides the material for implements of peaceful labour. owing to the efforts of continuous toil, owing also to the development of intelligence which is its natural consequence, the empire of man over the world of nature is still increasing, and man's moral improvement follows the same law of progression. but who shall enumerate the ages which have elapsed whilst these achievements have been realised? but thy task is not yet terminated! onward, and still onward, brave pioneer of progress! the path is a long one and the goal is not yet attained! once thou wert contented with bronze, now thou hast iron--iron, that terrible power, whose function is to mangle and to kill--the cause of so much blood and so many bitter tears; but also the beneficent metal which fertilises and gives life, affording nutriment to the body as well as to the mind. the romans applied the name of _ferrum_ to the blade of their swords; but in after times _ferrum_ was also the term for the peaceful ploughshare. the metal which had brought with it terror, devastation, and death, erelong introduced among nations peace, wealth and happiness. and now, o man, thy work is nearly done! the mighty conflicts against nature are consummated, and thy universal empire is for ever sure! animals are subject to thy will and even to thy fancies. at thy command, the obedient earth opens its bosom and unfolds the riches it contains. thou hast turned the course of rivers, cleared the mountain sides of the forests which covered them, and cultivated the plains and valleys; by thy culture the earth has become a verdant and fruitful garden. thou hast changed the whole aspect of the globe, and mayst well call thyself the lord of creation! doubtless the expanding circle of thy peaceful conquests will not stop here, and who can tell how far thy sway may extend? onward then! still onward! proud and unfettered in thy vigilant and active course towards new and unknown destinies! but look to it, lest thy pride lead thee to forget thy origin. however great may be thy moral grandeur, and however complete thy empire over a docile nature, confess and acknowledge every hour the almighty power of the great creator. submit thyself before thy lord and master, the god of goodness and of love, the author of thy existence, who has reserved for thee still higher destinies in another life. learn to show thyself worthy of the supreme blessing--the happy immortality which awaits thee in a world above, if thou hast merited it by a worship conceived in spirit and in truth, and by the fulfilment of thy duty both towards god and towards thy neighbour! alphabetical index to authors' names cited in this volume. alberti, arcelin, austen (godwin), baudot, bertrand, , bocchi, bonstetten, borel, boucher de perthes, , , , , , , , , , , , , boué (aimé), bourgeois (abbé), , , , , boutin, broca, , brun (v.), , , , , buckland, busk, , , camper, cazalis de fondouce, chantre, chevalier (abbé), christel (de), , christy, , , , , , , , , , clément, cochet (abbé), costa de beauregard, , cuvier, , dampier, , darwin, davis (dr. barnard), , , delaunay, desnoyers, , , desor, , _note_, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , dolomieu, , dumont d'urville, , dupont (Édouard), , , , , , , , , edwards (milne), , , esper, evans, , , , , falconer, , , faudel, ferry (de), , , filhol, , , , , flower, fontan, , , forchhammer, forel, foresi (raffaello), forgeais, , foulon-menard, fournet, fraas, franchet, frere, , fuhlrott, garrigou, , , , , , , , gastaldi and moro, gaudry (albert), gervais (paul), , gilliéron, , , gmelin, gosse, , gratiolet and alix, , , guérin, hannour and himelette, hauzeur, hébert, heer, hernandez, his, hochstetter, husson, huxley, , issel, jeitteler, joly, joly-leterme, keller, , , , , , , , kemp, knapp, kosterlitz, lambert (l'abbé), lartet, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , lawrence, leguay, , , , léveillé, lewis (cornewall), lioy (paolo), löhle, lubbock (sir john), , , , , , , , , , lund, , lyell (sir charles), , , , , marcel de serres, , martin, morlot, , _note_, , , , mortillet, de, , _note_, , , , , _note_ mudge, mylne, naegeli, nilsson, , , , , noulet, osculati, otz, owen, , peccadeau de l'isle, , , , peigné delacour, penguelly, penguilly l'haridon, pereira de costa, pigorini, , , , place, pommerol, prestwich, , , pruner-bey, , , , , , , , , quatrefages, de, , , , quiquerez, , , , rabut, rames, ramsauer, , rauchet, reboux, reffye, rigollot, , robert (eugène), , rochebrune, rougemont (de), rütimeyer, , saussure, de, sauvage and hamy, schaaffhausen, , scheuchzer, schild, schmerling, , schmidt, , _note_ schwab, , silber, squier, steenstrup, , , steinhauer, stopani (l'abbé), strobel, , , , , , thioly, tournal, troyon, , _note_, , uhlmann, vallier, van beneden, , vibraye (marquis de), , , , vicq-d'azyr, vogt, , , , , , welker, wilde (sir w. r.), wood, worsaae, , , wyatt, london: printed by william clowes and sons, stamford street and charing cross. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + | transcriber's note: | | | | * obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired. | | word combinations that appeared with and without hyphens | | were changed to the predominant hyphenated form. | | original spelling and its variations were not standardized. | | | | * corrections in the spelling of names were made when those | | could be verified. otherwise the variations were left as they | | were. | | | | * footnotes were moved to the ends of the chapters in which | | they belonged and numbered in one continuous sequence. | | the pagination in index entries which referred to these | | footnotes was not changed to match their new locations | | and is therefore incorrect. | +----------------------------------------------------------------- + transcriber's note: text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). in the text and the index of this book there are letters with diacritical marks not available in the latin- character set used for this e-book: [=a] represents an a with a macron above it, [)e] represents an e with a breve above it. [)i] represents an i with a breve above it, [)o] represents an o with a breve above it, [)u] represents an u with a breve above it. please see the end of this book for further notes. ancient man in britain [illustration: copyright, , by charles scribner's sons head of a crÔ-magnon man after the restoration modelled by j. h. mcgregor. reproduced by permission from _men of the old stone age_ by henry fairfield osborn.] ancient man in britain by donald a. mackenzie author of "egyptian myth and legend" "myths of crete and pre-hellenic europe" "colour symbolism" &c. with foreword by g. elliot smith, f.r.s. blackie and son limited old bailey, london; glasgow, bombay printed in great britain foreword in his presidential address to the royal anthropological institute this year the late dr. rivers put his finger upon the most urgent need for reform in the study of man, when he appealed for "the unity of anthropology". no true conception of the nature and the early history of the human family can be acquired by investigations, however carefully they may be done, of one class of evidence only. the physical characters of a series of skulls can give no reliable information unless their exact provenance and relative age are known. but the interpretation of the meaning of these characters cannot be made unless we know something of the movements of the people and the distinctive peculiarities of the inhabitants of the foreign lands from which they may have come. no less important than the study of their physical structure is the cultural history of peoples. the real spirit of a population is revealed by its social and industrial achievements, and by its customs and beliefs, rather than by the shape of the heads and members of its units. the revival of the belief in the widespread diffusion of culture in early times has, as one of its many important effects, directed attention to the physical peculiarities of the mixed populations of important foci of civilization throughout the world. such inquiries have not only enabled the student of human structure to detect racial affinities where he might otherwise have neglected to look for them, but on the other hand they have been able to give the investigator of cultural diffusion evidence of the most definite and irrefutable kind in corroboration of the reality of his inferences. at the present time students are just awakening to the fact that no adequate idea of the anthropology of any area can be acquired unless every kind of evidence, somatic and cultural, be taken into account, and the problems of the particular locality are integrated with those worldwide movements of men and of civilization of which the people and culture of that locality form a part. the great merit of mr. donald mackenzie's book is due in the main to the fact that he has taken this wider vision of his subject and interpreted the history of early man in britain, not simply by describing the varieties of head-form or of implements, customs and beliefs, but rather by indicating how these different categories of information can be put into their appropriate setting in the history of mankind as a whole. there is nothing of technical pedantry about mr. mackenzie's writing. he has made himself thoroughly familiar with the customs and beliefs of the whole world, as his remarkable series of books on mythology has revealed, and in the process of acquiring this mass of information he has not sacrificed his common sense and powers of judgment. he has been able to see clearly through this amazing jumble of confusing statements the way in which every phase of civilization in all parts of the world is closely correlated with the rest; and he has given luminous expression to this clear vision of the history of man and civilization as it affects britain. g. elliot smith. the university of london. preface this volume deals with the history of man in britain from the ice age till the roman period. the evidence is gleaned from the various sciences which are usually studied apart, including geology, archæology, philology, ethnology or anthropology, &c., and the writer has set himself to tell the story of ancient man in a manner which will interest a wider circle of readers than is usually reached by purely technical books. it has not been assumed that the representatives of modern man who first settled in europe were simple-minded savages. the evidence afforded by the craftsmanship, the burial customs, and the art of the crô-magnon races, those contemporaries of the reindeer and the hairy mammoth in south-western france, suggests that they had been influenced by a centre of civilization in which considerable progress had already been achieved. there is absolutely no evidence that the pioneers were lacking in intelligence or foresight. if we are to judge merely by their skeletons and the shapes and sizes of their skulls, it would appear that they were, if anything, both physically and mentally superior to the average present-day inhabitants of europe. nor were they entirely isolated from the ancient culture area by which they had been originally influenced. as is shown, the evidence afforded by an indian ocean sea-shell, found in a crô-magnon burial cavern near mentone, indicates that much has yet to be discovered regarding the activities of the early people. in writing the history of ancient man in britain, it has been found necessary to investigate the continental evidence. when our early ancestors came from somewhere, they brought something with them, including habits of life and habits of thought. the story unfolded by british finds is but a part of a larger story; and if this larger story is to be reconstructed, our investigations must extend even beyond the continent of europe. the data afforded by the "red man of paviland", who was buried with crô-magnon rites in a welsh cave, not only emphasize that continental and north african cultural influences reached britain when the ice-cap was retreating in northern europe, but that from its very beginnings the history of our civilization cannot be considered apart from that of the early civilization of the world as a whole. the writer, however, has not assumed in this connection that in all parts of the world man had of necessity to pass through the same series of evolutionary stages of progress, and that the beliefs, customs, crafts, arts, &c., of like character found in different parts of the world were everywhere of spontaneous generation. there were inventors and discoverers and explorers in ancient times as there are at present, and many new contrivances were passed on from people to people. the man who, for instance, first discovered how to "make fire" by friction of fire-sticks was undoubtedly a great scientist and a benefactor of his kind. it is shown that shipbuilding had a definite area of origin. the "red man of paviland" also reveals to us minds pre-occupied with the problems of life and death. it is evident that the corpse of the early explorer was smeared with red earth and decorated with charms for very definite reasons. that the people who thus interred their dead with ceremony were less intelligent than the ancient egyptians who adopted the custom of mummification, or the homeric heroes who practised cremation, we have no justification for assuming. at the very dawn of british history, which begins when the earliest representatives of modern man reached our native land, the influences of cultures which had origin in distant areas of human activity came drifting northward to leave an impress which does not appear to be yet wholly obliterated. we are the heirs of the ages in a profounder sense than has hitherto been supposed. considered from this point of view, the orthodox scheme of archæological ages, which is of comparatively recent origin, leaves much to be desired. if anthropological data have insisted upon one thing more than another, it is that modes of thought, which govern action, were less affected by a change of material from which artifacts (articles made by man) were manufactured than they were by religious ideas and by new means for obtaining the necessary food supply. a profounder change was effected in the habits of early man in britain by the introduction of the agricultural mode of life, and the beliefs, social customs, &c., connected with it, than could possibly have been effected by the introduction of edged implements of stone, bone, or metal. as a substitute for the archæological ages, the writer suggests in this volume a new system, based on habits of life, which may be found useful for historical purposes. in this system the terms "palæolithic", "neolithic", &c., are confined to industries. "neolithic man", "bronze age man", "iron age man", and other terms of like character may be favoured by some archæologists, but they mean little or nothing to most anatomists, who detect different racial types in a single "age". a history of ancient man cannot ignore one set of scientists to pleasure another. several chapters are devoted to the religious beliefs and customs of our ancestors, and it is shown that there is available for study in this connection a mass of evidence which the archæological agnostics are too prone to ignore. the problem of the megalithic monuments must evidently be reconsidered in the light of the fuller anthropological data now available. indeed, it would appear that a firmer basis than that afforded by "crude evolutionary ideas" must be found for british archæology as a whole. the evidence of surviving beliefs and customs, of celtic philology and literature, of early christian writings, and of recent discoveries in spain, mesopotamia, and egypt, cannot, to say the least of it, be wholly ignored. in dealing with the race problem, the writer has sifted the available data which throw light on its connection with the history of british culture, and has written as he has written in the hope that the growth of fuller knowledge on the subject will be accompanied by the growth of a deeper sympathy and a deeper sense of kinship than has hitherto prevailed in these islands of ours, which were colonized from time to time by groups of enterprising pioneers, who have left an enduring impress on the national character. the time is past for beginning a history of britain with the roman invasion, and for the too-oft-repeated assertion that before the romans reached britain our ancestors were isolated and half civilized. donald a. mackenzie. contents chap. page i. britons of the stone age ii. earliest traces of modern man iii. the age of the "red man" of wales iv. shell deities and early trade v. new races in europe vi. the faithful dog vii. ancient mariners reach britain viii. neolithic trade and industries ix. metal workers and megalithic monuments x. celts and iberians as intruders and traders xi. races of britain and ireland xii. druidism in britain and gaul xiii. the lore of charms xiv. the world of our ancestors xv. why trees and wells were worshipped xvi. ancient pagan deities xvii. historical summary index list of plates page head of a crÔ-magnon man _frontispiece_ examples of lower palÆolithic industries found in england western europe during the third inter-glacial epoch examples of palÆolithic art flint lance heads from ireland chipped and polished artifacts from southern england the ring of stennis, orkney megaliths--kit's coty house, kent; trethevy stone, cornwall enamelled bronze shield european types ruins of pictish tower at carloway, lewis a scottish "broch" (mousa, shetland isles) a sardinian nuraghe megaliths--dolmen, near birori, sardinia; tynewydd dolmen one of the great trilithons, stonehenge bronze urn and cauldron bronze bucklers or shields list of illustrations page chellean _coup de poing_ or "hand axe" upper palÆolithic implements skull of a crÔ-magnon man: front and side views outline of a mammoth necklace of sea shells geometric or "pygmy" flints a notable example of late magdalenian culture horn and bone implements sketch of a boat, and crude drawing of a similar boat map of england & wales long-head (dolichocephalic) skull broad-head (brachycephalic) skull beads from bronze age barrows weapons and religious objects cult animals and "wonder beasts" diagram of the gaelic airts seal of city of glasgow ancient man in britain chapter i britons of the stone age caricatures of early britons--enterprising pioneers--diseases and folk-cures--ancient surgical operations--expert artisans--organized communities--introduction of agriculture--houses and cooking utensils--spinning and weaving--different habits of life--the seafarers. the early britons of the stone age have suffered much at the hands of modern artists, and especially the humorous artists. they are invariably depicted as rude and irresponsible savages, with semi-negroid features, who had perforce to endure our rigorous and uncertain climate clad in loosely fitting skin garments, and to go about, even in the depth of winter, barefooted and bareheaded, their long tangled locks floating in the wind. as a rule, the artists are found to have confused ideas regarding the geological periods. some place the white savages in the age when the wonderful megalithic monuments were erected and civilization was well advanced, while others consign them to the far-distant cretaceous age in association with the monstrous reptiles that browsed on tropical vegetation, being unaware, apparently, that the reptiles in question ceased to exist before the appearance of the earliest mammals. not unfrequently the geological ages and the early stages of human culture are hopelessly mixed up, and monsters that had been extinct for several million years are shown crawling across circles that were erected by men possessed of considerable engineering skill. it is extremely doubtful if our remote ancestors of the stone age were as savage or as backward as is generally supposed. they were, to begin with, the colonists who made britain a land fit for a strenuous people to live in. we cannot deny them either courage or enterprise, nor are we justified in assuming that they were devoid of the knowledge and experience required to enable them to face the problems of existence in their new environment. they came from somewhere, and brought something with them; their modes of life did not have origin in our native land. although the early people lived an open-air life, it is doubtful if they were more physically fit than are the britons of the twentieth century. they were certainly not immune from the ravages of disease. in their graves are found skeletons of babies, youths, and maidens, as well as those of elderly men and women; some spines reveal unmistakable evidence of the effects of rheumatism, and worn-down teeth are not uncommon. it is possible that the diseases associated with marshy localities and damp and cold weather were fairly prevalent, and that there were occasional pestilences with heavy death-rates. epidemics of influenza and measles may have cleared some areas for periods of their inhabitants, the survivors taking flight, as did many britons of the fifth century of our own era, when the country was swept by what is referred to in a welsh book[ ] as "the yellow plague", because "it made yellow and bloodless all whom it attacked". at the same time recognition must be given to the fact that the early people were not wholly ignorant of medical science. there is evidence that some quite effective "folk cures" are of great antiquity--that the "medicine-men" and sorcerers of ancient britain had discovered how to treat certain diseases by prescribing decoctions in which herbs and berries utilized in modern medical science were important ingredients. more direct evidence is available regarding surgical knowledge and skill. on the continent and in england have been found skulls on which the operation known as trepanning--the removing of a circular piece of skull so as to relieve the brain from pressure or irritation--was successfully performed, as is shown by the fact that severed bones had healed during life. the accomplished primitive surgeons had used flint instruments, which were less liable than those of metal to carry infection into a wound. one cannot help expressing astonishment that such an operation should have been possible--that an ancient man who had sustained a skull injury in a battle, or by accident, should have been again restored to sanity and health. sprains and ordinary fractures were doubtless treated with like skill and success. in some of the incantations and charms collected by folk-lorists are lines which suggest that the early medicine-men were more than mere magicians. one, for instance, dealing with the treatment of a fracture, states: "he put marrow to marrow; he put pith to pith; he put bone to bone; he put membrane to membrane; he put tendon to tendon; he put blood to blood; he put tallow to tallow; he put flesh to flesh; he put fat to fat; he put skin to skin; he put hair to hair; he put warm to warm; he put cool to cool." [ ] _book of llan daf._ "this," comments a medical man, "is quite a wonderful statement of the aim of modern surgical 'co-aptation', and we can hardly believe such an exact form of words imaginable without a very clear comprehension of the natural necessity of correct and precise setting."[ ] [ ] dr. hugh cameron gillies in _home life of the highlanders_, glasgow, , pp. _et seq._ the discovery that stone age man was capable of becoming a skilled surgeon is sufficient in itself to make us revise our superficial notions regarding him. a new interest is certainly imparted to our examination of his flint instruments. apparently these served him in good stead, and it must be acknowledged that, after all, a stone tool may, for some purposes, be quite as adequate as one of metal. it certainly does not follow that the man who uses a sharper instrument than did the early briton is necessarily endowed with a sharper intellect, or that his ability as an individual artisan is greater. the stone age man displayed wonderful skill in chipping flint--a most difficult operation--and he shaped and polished stone axes with so marked a degree of mathematical precision that, when laid on one side, they can be spun round on a centre of gravity. his saws were small, but are still found to be quite serviceable for the purposes they were constructed for, such as the cutting of arrow shafts and bows, and the teeth are so minute and regular that it is necessary for us to use a magnifying glass in order to appreciate the workmanship. some flint artifacts are comparable with the products of modern opticians. the flint workers must have had wonderfully keen and accurate eyesight to have produced, for instance, little "saws" with twenty-seven teeth to the inch, found even in the north of scotland. in ancient egypt these "saws" were used as sickles. considerable groups of the stone age men of britain had achieved a remarkable degree of progress. they lived in organized communities, and had evidently codes of laws and regularized habits of life. they were not entirely dependent for their food supply on the fish they caught and the animals they slew and snared. patches of ground were tilled, and root and cereal crops cultivated with success. corn was ground in handmills;[ ] the women baked cakes of barley and wheat and rye. a rough but serviceable pottery was manufactured and used for cooking food, for storing grain, nuts, and berries, and for carrying water. houses were constructed of wattles interwoven between wooden beams and plastered over with clay, and of turf and stones; these were no doubt thatched with heather, straw, or reeds. only a small proportion of the inhabitants of ancient britain could have dwelt in caves, for the simple reason that caves were not numerous. underground dwellings, not unlike the "dug-outs" made during the recent war, were constructed as stores for food and as winter retreats. [ ] a pestle or stone was used to pound grain in hollowed slabs or rocks before the mechanical mill was invented. as flax was cultivated, there can be little doubt that comfortable under-garments were worn, if not by all, at any rate by some of the stone age people. wool was also utilized, and fragments of cloth have been found on certain prehistoric sites, as well as spindle-whorls of stone, bone, and clay, wooden spindles shaped so as to serve their purpose without the aid of whorls, bone needles, and crochet or knitting-pins. those who have assumed that the early britons were attired in skin garments alone, overlook the possibility that a people who could sew, spin, and weave, might also have been skilled in knitting, and that the jersey and jumper may have a respectable antiquity. the art of knitting is closely related to that of basket-making, and some would have it that many of the earliest potters plastered their clay inside baskets of reeds, and that the decorations of the early pots were suggested by the markings impressed by these. it is of interest to note in this connection that some roman wares were called _bascaudæ_, or "baskets", and that the welsh _basged_--_basg_, from which our word "basket" is derived, signify "network" and "plaiting". the decoration of some pots certainly suggests the imitation of wickerwork and knitting, but there are symbols also, and these had, no doubt, a religious significance. it does not follow, of course, that all the early britons of the so-called stone age were in the same stage of civilization, or that they all pursued the same modes of life. there were then, as there are now, backward as well as progressive communities and individuals, and there were likewise representatives of different races--tall and short, spare and stout, dark and fair men and women, who had migrated at different periods from different areas of origin and characterization. some peoples clung to the sea-shore, and lived mainly on deep-sea fish and shell-fish; others were forest and moorland hunters, who never ventured to sea or cultivated the soil. there is no evidence to indicate that conflicts took place between different communities. it may be that in the winter season the hunters occasionally raided the houses and barns of the agriculturists. the fact, however, that weapons were not common during the stone age cannot be overlooked in this connection. the military profession had not come into existence. certain questions, however, arise in connection with even the most backward of the stone age peoples. how did they reach britain, and what attracted them from the continent? man did not take to the sea except under dire necessity, and it is certain that large numbers could not possibly have crossed the english channel on logs of wood. the boatbuilder's craft and the science of navigation must have advanced considerably before large migrations across the sea could have taken place. when the agricultural mode of life was introduced, the early people obtained the seeds of wheat and barley, and, as these cultivated grasses do not grow wild in britain, they must have been introduced either by traders or settlers. it is quite evident that the term "stone age" is inadequate in so far as it applies to the habits of life pursued by the early inhabitants of our native land. nor is it even sufficient in dealing with artifacts, for some people made more use of horn and bone than of stone, and these were represented among the early settlers in britain. chapter ii earliest traces of modern man the culture ages--ancient races--the neanderthals--crô-magnon man--the evolution theory--palæolithic ages--the transition period--neanderthal artifacts--birth of crô-magnon art--occupations of flint-yielding stations--ravages of disease--duration of glacial and inter-glacial periods. in , sir john lubbock (afterwards lord avebury), writing in the _prehistoric times_, suggested that the stone age artifacts found in western europe should be classified into two main periods, to which he applied the terms palæolithic (old stone) and neolithic (new stone). the foundations of the classification had previously been laid by the french antiquaries m. boucher de perthes and edouard lartet. it was intended that palæolithic should refer to rough stone implements, and neolithic to those of the period when certain artifacts were polished. at the time very little was known regarding the early peoples who had pursued the flint-chipping and polishing industries, and the science of geology was in its infancy. a great controversy, which continued for many years, was being waged in scientific circles regarding the remains of a savage primitive people that had been brought to light. of these the most notable were a woman's skull found in in a quarry at gibraltar, the cannstadt skull, found in , which had long been lying in stuttgart museum undescribed and unstudied, and portions of a male skeleton taken from a limestone cave in neanderthal, near dusseldorf, in . some refused to believe that these, and other similar remains subsequently discovered, were human at all; others declared that the skulls were those of idiots or that they had been distorted by disease. professor huxley contended that evidence had been forthcoming to prove the existence in remote times of a primitive race from which modern man had evolved. it is unnecessary here to review the prolonged controversy. one of its excellent results was the stimulation of research work. a number of important finds have been made during the present century, which have thrown a flood of light on the problem. in a skeleton was discovered in a grotto near la chapelle-aux-saints in france, which definitely established the fact that during the earlier or lower period of the palæolithic age a neanderthal race existed on the continent, and, as other remains testify, in england as well. this race became extinct. some hold that there are no living descendants of neanderthal man on our globe; others contend that some peoples, or individuals, reveal neanderthaloid traits. the natives of australia display certain characteristics of the extinct species, but they are more closely related to modern man (_homo sapiens_). there were pre-neanderthal peoples, including piltdown man and heidelberg man. during the palæolithic age the ancestors of modern man appeared in western europe. these are now known as the crô-magnon races. in dealing with the palæolithic age, therefore, it has to be borne in mind that the artifacts classified by the archæologists represent the activities, not only of different races, but of representatives of different species of humanity. neanderthal man, who differed greatly from modern man, is described as follows by professor elliot smith: "his short, thick-set, and coarsely built body was carried in a half-stooping slouch upon short, powerful, and half-flexed legs of peculiarly ungraceful form. his thick neck sloped forward from the broad shoulders to support the massive flattened head, which protruded forward, so as to form an unbroken curve of neck and back, in place of the alteration of curves, which is one of the graces of the truly erect _homo sapiens_. the heavy overhanging eyebrow ridges, and retreating forehead, the great coarse face, with its large eye-sockets, broad nose, and receding chin, combined to complete the picture of unattractiveness, which it is more probable than not was still further emphasized by a shaggy covering of hair over most of the body. the arms were relatively short, and the exceptionally large hands lacked the delicacy and the nicely balanced co-operation of thumb and fingers, which is regarded as one of the most distinctive of human characteristics."[ ] [ ] _primitive man._ as professor osborn says: "the structure of the hand is a matter of the highest interest in connection with the implement-making powers of the neanderthals". he notes that in the large and robust neanderthal hand, "the joint of the metacarpal bone which supports the thumb is of peculiar form, convex, and presenting a veritable convex condyle, whereas in the existing human races the articular surface of the upper part of the thumb joint is saddle-shaped, that is concave from within backward, and convex from without inward". the neanderthal fingers were "relatively short and robust".[ ] [ ] _men of the old stone age_ ( ), pp. - . the crô-magnons present a sharp contrast to the neanderthals. in all essential features they were of modern type. they would, dressed in modern attire, pass through the streets of a modern city without particular notice being taken of them. one branch of the crô-magnons was particularly tall and handsome, with an average height for the males of feet - / inches, with chests very broad in the upper part, and remarkably long shin-bones that indicate swiftness of foot. the neanderthals had short shins and bent knees, and their gait must have been slow and awkward. the crô-magnon hand was quite like that of the most civilized men of to-day. it is of importance to bring out these facts in connection with the study of the development of early civilization in our native land, because of the prevalence of the theory that in collections of stone implements, dating from remote palæolithic times till the neolithic age, a complete and orderly series of evolutionary stages can be traced. "as like needs", says one writer in this connection, "produce like means of satisfaction, the contrivances with which men in similar stages of progress overcome natural obstacles are in all times very much the same."[ ] hugh miller, the cromarty stonemason and geologist, was one of the first to urge this view. in , he wrote in his _scenes and legends_, ( st edition, pp. , ): "man in a savage stage is the same animal everywhere, and his constructive powers, whether employed in the formation of a legendary story or of a battleaxe, seem to expatiate almost everywhere in the same rugged track of invention. for even the traditions of this first stage may be identified, like its weapons of war, all the world over."[ ] [ ] _british museum--a guide to the antiquities of the stone age_, p. ( ). [ ] miller had adopted the "stratification theory" of professor william robertson of edinburgh university, who, in his _the history of america_ ( ), wrote: "men in their savage state pass their days like the animals round them, without knowledge or veneration of any superior power". he had written in this vein after seeing the collection of stone weapons and implements in the northern institution at inverness. "the most practised eye", he commented, "can hardly distinguish between the weapons of the old scot and the new zealander." eyes have become more practised in dealing with flints since miller's time. andrew lang remembered his miller when he wrote: "now just as the flint arrowheads are scattered everywhere, in all the continents and isles--and everywhere are much alike, and bear no very definite marks of the special influence of race--so it is with the habits and legends investigated by the student of folk-lore".[ ] [ ] _custom and myth_ ( edition), p. . lang's views regarding flints are worthless. the recent discovery that the early flints found in western europe and in england were shaped by the neanderthals and the pre-neanderthals compels a revision of this complacent view of an extraordinarily difficult and complex problem. it is obvious that the needs and constructive powers of the neanderthals, whose big clumsy hands lacked "the delicate play between the thumb and fingers characteristic of modern races", could not have been the same as those of the crô-magnons, and that the finely shaped implements of the crô-magnons could not have been evolved from the rough implements of the neanderthals. the craftsmen of one race may, however, have imitated, or attempted to imitate, the technique of those of another. there was a distinct break in the continuity of culture during the palæolithic age, caused by the arrival in western europe of the ancestors of modern man. the advent of the crô-magnons in europe "represents on the cultural side", as professor elliot smith says in _primitive man_, "the most momentous event in its history". [illustration: mousterian type (from suffolk)] [illustration: acheulian type (from suffolk)] [illustration: photos. oxford university press chellean type (from the thames gravel)] [illustration: photo. mansell examples of lower palÆolithic industries found in england (british museum)] some urge that the term "palæolithic" should now be discarded altogether, but its use has become so firmly established that archæologists are loth to dispense with it. the first period of human culture has, however, had to be divided into "lower" and "upper palæolithic"--lower closing with the disappearance of the neanderthals, and upper beginning with the arrival of the crô-magnons. these periods embrace the sub-divisions detected during the latter half of last century by the french archæologists, and are now classified as follows: lower palæolithic-- . pre-chellean. . chellean (named after the town of chelles, east of paris). . acheulian (named after st. acheul in somme valley). . mousterian (named after the caves of le moustier in the valley of the river vézère). upper palæolithic-- . aurignacian (named after aurignac, haute garonne). . solutrean (named after solutré, saône-et-loire). . magdalenian (named after la madeleine in the valley of the river vézère). then follows, in france, the azilian stage (named after mas d'azil, a town at the foot of the pyrenees) which is regarded as the link between upper palæolithic and neolithic. but in western europe, including britain, there were really three distinct cultures during the so-called "transition period". these are the azilian, the tardenoisian, and the maglemosian. these cultures were associated with the movements of new peoples in europe. the pre-chellean flints (also called eoliths) were wrought by the pre-neanderthals. chellean probably represents the earliest work in europe of a pre-neanderthal type like piltdown man. the most characteristic implement of this phase is the _coup de poing_ or pear-shaped "hand axe", which was at first roughly shaped and unsymmetrical. it was greatly improved during the acheulian stage, and after being finely wrought in mousterian times, when it was not much used, was supplanted by smaller and better chipped implements. the neanderthals practised the mousterian industry. [illustration: chellean _coup de poing_ or "hand axe" right-hand view shows sinuous cutting edge.] a profound change occurred when the aurignacian stage of culture was inaugurated by the intruding crô-magnons. skilled workers chipped flint in a new way, and, like the contemporary inhabitants of north africa, shaped artifacts from bone; they also used reindeer horn, and the ivory tusks of mammoths. the birth of pictorial art took place in europe after the crô-magnons arrived. it would appear that the remnants of the neanderthals in the late mousterian stage of culture were stimulated by the arrival of the crô-magnons to imitate new flint forms and adopt the new methods of workmanship. there is no other evidence to indicate that the crô-magnons came into contact with communities of the neanderthals. in these far-off days europe was thinly peopled by hunters who dwelt in caves. the climate was cold, and the hairy mammoth and the reindeer browsed in the lowlands of france and germany. italy was linked with africa; the grass-lands of north africa stretched southward across the area now known as the sahara desert, and dense forests fringed the banks of the river nile and extended eastward to the red sea. neanderthal man had originally entered europe when the climate was much milder than it is in our own time. he crossed over from africa by the italian land-bridge, and he found african fauna, including species of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, and the hyæna, jackal, and sabre-tooth tiger in spain, france, germany. thousands of years elapsed and the summers became shorter, and the winters longer and more severe, until the northern fauna began to migrate southward, and the african fauna deserted the plains and decaying forests of europe. then followed the fourth glacial phase, and when it was passing away the neanderthals, who had long been in the mousterian phase of culture, saw bands of crô-magnons prospecting and hunting in southern europe. the new-comers had migrated from some centre of culture in north africa, and appear to have crossed over the italian land-bridge. it is unlikely that many, if any, entered europe from the east. at the time the black sea was more than twice its present size, and glaciers still blocked the passes of asia minor. a great contrast was presented by the two types of mankind. the short, powerfully built, but slouching and slow-footed neanderthals were, in a conflict, no match for the tall, active, and swift-footed crô-magnons, before whom they retreated, yielding up their flint-working stations, and their caves and grottoes. it may be, as some suggest, that fierce battles were fought, but there is no evidence of warfare; it may be that the neanderthals succumbed to imported diseases, as did so many thousands of the inhabitants of the amazon valley, when measles and other diseases were introduced by the spaniards. the fact remains that the neanderthals died out as completely as did the tasmanians before the advance of british settlers. we do not know whether or not they resisted, for a time, the intrusion of strangers on their hunting-grounds. it may be that the ravages of disease completed the tragic history of such relations as they may have had with the ancestors of modern man. at this point, before we deal with the arrival in britain of the representatives of the early races, it should be noted that differences of opinion exist among scientists regarding the geological horizons of the palæolithic culture stages. in the pleistocene age there appear to have been four great glacial epochs and two minor ones. geological opinion is, however, divided in this connection. [illustration: western europe during the third inter-glacial epoch (according to the abbé breuil the strait of gibraltar was open and the balearic group a great island.)] during the first glacial epoch the musk-ox, now found in the arctic regions, migrated as far south as sussex. the pliocene[ ] mammals were not, however, completely exterminated; many of them survived until the first interglacial epoch, which lasted for about , years--that is three times longer than the first glacial epoch. the second glacial epoch is believed to have extended over , years. it brought to the southern shores of the baltic sea the reindeer and the hairy mammoth. then came the prolonged second interglacial stage which prevailed for about , years. the climate of europe underwent a change until it grew warmer than it is at the present day, and trees, not now found farther north than the canary islands, flourished in the forests of southern france. the third glacial stage gradually came on, grew in intensity, and then declined during a period estimated at about , years. it was followed by the third interglacial epoch which may have extended over at least , years. african animals returned to europe and mingled with those that wandered from asia and the survivors in europe of the second interglacial fauna. the fourth glacial epoch, which is believed to have lasted for about , years, was very severe. all the african or asiatic mammals either migrated or became extinct with the exception of lions and hyænas, and the reindeer found the western plains of europe as congenial as it does the northern plains at the present time. [ ] the last division of the tertiary period. during the fourth post-glacial epoch there were for a period of about , years[ ] partial glaciations and milder intervals, until during the neolithic age of the archæologists the climate of europe reached the phase that at present prevails. [ ] it must be borne in mind that the lengths of these periods are subject to revision. opinion is growing that they were not nearly so long as here stated. when, then, did man first appear in europe? according to some geologists, and especially penck and james geikie, the chellean phase of culture originated in the second interglacial epoch and the mousterian endured until the third interglacial stage, when the neanderthals witnessed the arrival of the crô-magnon peoples. boule, breuil, and others, however, place the pre-chellean, chellean, acheulian, and early mousterian stages of lower (or early) palæolithic culture in the third interglacial epoch, and fix the extermination of neanderthal man, in his late mousterian culture stage, at the close of the fourth glacial epoch. this view is now being generally accepted. it finds favour with the archæologists, and seems to accord with the evidence they have accumulated. the upper palæolithic culture of crô-magnon man, according to some, began in its aurignacian phase about , years ago; others consider, however, that it began about five or six thousand years ago, and was contemporaneous with the long pre-dynastic civilization of egypt. at the time england was connected with the continent by a land-bridge, and as the climate grew milder the ancestors of modern man could walk across from france to the white cliffs of dover which were then part of a low range of mountains. as will be shown, there is evidence that the last land movement in britain did not begin until about b.c. chapter iii the age of the "red man" of wales an ancient welshman--aurignacian culture in britain--coloured bones and luck charms--the cave of aurignac--discovery at crô-magnon village--an ancient tragedy--significant burial customs--crô-magnon characters--new race types in central europe--galley hill man--the piltdown skull--ancient religious beliefs--life principle in blood--why body-painting was practised--"sleepers" in caves--red symbolism in different countries--the heart as the seat of life--the green stone talisman--"soul substance". the earliest discovery of a representative of the crô-magnons was made in , when dr. buckland explored the ancient cave-dwelling of paviland in the vicinity of rhossilly, gower peninsula, south wales. this cave, known as "goat's hole", is situated between and feet above the present sea-level, on the face of a steep sandstone cliff about feet in height; it is feet in length and feet broad, while the roof attains an altitude of over feet. when this commodious natural shelter was occupied by our remote ancestors the land was on a much lower level than it is now, and it could be easily reached from the sea-shore. professor sollas has shown that the paviland cave-dwellers were in the aurignacian stage of culture, and that they had affinities with the tall crô-magnon peoples on the continent.[ ] [ ] _journal of the royal anthropological institute_, vol. xliii, . a human skeleton of a tall man was found in the cave deposit in association with the skull and tusks of a hairy mammoth, and with implements of aurignacian type. apparently the aurignacian colonists had walked over the land-bridge connecting england with france many centuries before the land sank and the channel tides began to carve out the white cliffs of dover. in his description of the bones of the ancient caveman, who has been wrongly referred to as the "red lady of paviland", dr. buckland wrote: "they were all of them stained superficially with a dark brick-red colour, and enveloped by a coating of a kind of ruddle, composed of red micaceous oxide of iron, which stained the earth, and in some parts extended itself to the distance of about half an inch around the surface of the bones. the body must have been entirely surrounded or covered over at the time of its interment with this red substance." near the thighs were about two handfuls of small shells (_nerita litoralis_) which had evidently formed a waist girdle. over forty little rods of ivory, which may have once formed a long necklace, lay near the ribs. a few ivory rings and a tongue-shaped implement or ornament lay beside the body, as well as an instrument or charm made of the metacarpal bone of a wolf. the next great discovery of this kind was made twenty-nine years later. in a french workman was trying to catch a wild rabbit on a lower slope of the pyrenees, near the town of aurignac in haute garonne, when he made a surprising find. from the rabbit's burrow he drew out a large human bone. a slab of stone was subsequently removed, and a grotto or cave shelter revealed. in the debris were found portions of seventeen skeletons of human beings of different ages and both sexes. only two skulls were intact. [illustration: upper palæolithic implements , aurignacian (chatelperron point). , , aurignacian (keeled scrapers). , aurignacian point. , magdalenian ("parrot-beak" graving tool). , solutrean (laurel-leaf point). , , , solutrean (drill, awl, and "shouldered" point). , , , magdalenian.] this discovery created a stir in the town of aurignac, and there was much speculation regarding the tragedy that was supposed to have taken place at some distant date. a few folks were prepared to supply circumstantial details by connecting the discovery with vague local traditions. no one dreamt that the burial-place dated back a few thousand years, or, indeed, that the grotto had really been a burial-place, and the mayor of the town gave instructions that the bones should be interred in the parish cemetery. eight years elapsed before the grotto was visited by m. louis lartet, the great french archæologist. outside the stone slab he found the remains of an ancient hearth, and a stone implement which had been used for chipping flints. in the outer debris were discovered, too, the bones of animals of the chase, and about a hundred flint artifacts, including knives, projectiles, and sling-stones, besides bone arrows, tools shaped from reindeer horns, and an implement like a bodkin of roe-deer horn. it transpired that the broken bones of animals included those of the cave-lion, the cave-bear, the hyæna, the elk, the mammoth, and the woolly-haired rhinoceros--all of which had been extinct in that part of the world for thousands of years. as in the paviland cave, there were indications that the dead had been interred with ornaments or charms on their bodies. inside the grotto were found "eighteen small round and flat plates of a white shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (_cardium_) pierced through the middle, as if for being strung into a bracelet". perforated teeth of wild animals had evidently been used for a like purpose. the distinct industry revealed by the grotto finds has been named aurignacian, after aurignac. had the human bones not been removed, the scientists would have definitely ascertained what particular race of ancient men they represented. it was not until the spring of that a flood of light was thrown on the aurignacian racial problem. a gang of workmen were engaged in the construction of a railway embankment in the vicinity of the village of crô-magnon, near les eyzies, in the valley of the river vézère, when they laid bare another grotto. intimation was at once made to the authorities, and the minister of public instruction caused an investigation to be made under the direction of m. louis lartet. the remains of five human skeletons were found. at the back of the grotto was the skull of an old man--now known as "the old man of crô-magnon"--and its antiquity was at once emphasized by the fact that some parts of it were coated by stalagmite caused by a calcareous drip from the roof of rock. near "the old man" was found the skeleton of a woman. her forehead bore signs of a deep wound that had been made by a cutting instrument. as the inner edge of the bone had partly healed, it was apparent she had survived her injury for a few weeks. beside her lay the skeleton of a baby which had been prematurely born. the skeletons of two young men were found not far from those of the others. apparently a tragic happening had occurred in ancient days in the vicinity of the crô-magnon grotto. the victims had been interred with ceremony, and in accordance with the religious rites prevailing at the time. above three hundred pierced marine shells, chiefly of the periwinkle species (_littorina littorea_), which are common on the atlantic coasts, and a few shells of _purpura lapillus_ (a purple-yielding shell), _turitella communis_, &c., were discovered besides the skeletons. these, it would appear, had been strung to form necklaces and other ornamental charms. m. lartet found, too, a flat ivory pendant pierced with two holes, and was given two other pendants picked up by young people. near the skeletons were several perforated teeth, a split block of gneiss with a smooth surface, the worked antlers of a reindeer that may have been used as a pick for excavating flint, and a few chipped flints. other artifacts of aurignacian type were unearthed in the debris associated with the grotto, which appears to have been used as a dwelling-place before the interments had taken place. [illustration: skull of a crô-magnon man: front and side views from the grotte des enfants, mentone. (after verneau.)] the human remains of the crô-magnon grotto were those of a tall and handsome race of which the "red man" of paviland was a representative. other finds have shown that this race was widely distributed in europe. the stature of the men varied from feet - / inches to feet - / inches on the riviera, that of the women being slightly less. that the crô-magnons were people of high intelligence is suggested by the fact that the skulls of the men and women were large, and remarkably well developed in the frontal region. according to a prominent anatomist the crô-magnon women had bigger brains than has the average male european of to-day. all these ancient skulls are of the dolichocephalic (long-headed) type. the faces, however, were comparatively broad, and shorter than those of the modern fair north-europeans, while the cheek-bones were high--a characteristic, by the way, of so many modern scottish faces. this type of head--known as the "disharmonic", because a broad face is usually a characteristic of a broad skull, and a long face of a long skull--has been found to be fairly common among the modern inhabitants of the dordogne valley. these french descendants of the crô-magnons are, however, short and "stocky", and most of them have dark hair and eyes. crô-magnon types have likewise been identified among the berbers of north africa, and the extinct fair-haired guanches of the canary islands, in brittany, on the islands of northern holland, and in the british isles.[ ] [ ] for principal references see _the races of europe_, w. z. ripley, pp. _et seq._, and _the anthropological history of europe_, john beddoe (rhind lectures for ; revised edition, ), p. . a comparatively short race, sometimes referred to as the "combe-capelle", after the rock-shelter at combe-capelle, near montferrand, perigord, was also active during the stage of aurignacian culture. an adult skeleton found in this shelter was that of a man only feet inches in height. the skull is long and narrow, with a lofty forehead, and the chin small and well developed. it has some similarity to modern european skulls. the skeleton had been subjected for thousands of years to the dripping of water saturated with lime, and had consequently been well preserved. near the head and neck lay a large number of perforated marine shells (_littorina_ and _nassa_). a collection of finely-worked flints of early aurignacian type also lay beside the body. reference may also be made here to the finds in moravia. fragmentary skull caps from brüx and brünn are regarded as evidence of a race which differed from the tall crô-magnons, and had closer affinities with combe-capelle man. some incline to connect the brünn type with england, the link being provided by a skeleton called the "galley hill" after the place of its discovery below gravesend and near northfleet in kent. scientists regard him as a contemporary of the aurignacian flint-workers of combe-capelle and brünn. "both the brüx and brünn skulls", writes professor osborn, "are harmonic; they do not present the very broad, high cheek-bones characteristic of the crô-magnon race,[ ] the face being of a narrow modern type, but not very long. there is a possibility that the brünn race was ancestral to several later dolichocephalic groups which are found in the region of the danube and of middle and southern germany."[ ] [ ] that is, the tall representatives of the crô-magnon races. [ ] _men of the old stone age_, pp. - . the galley hill man had been buried in the gravels of the "high terrace", feet above the thames. his bones when found were much decayed and denuded, and the skull contorted. the somewhat worn "wisdom tooth" indicates that he was a "fully-grown adult, though probably not an aged individual". those who think he was not as old as the flints and the bones of extinct animals found in the gravels, regard him as a pioneer of the brünn branch of the aurignacians. the piltdown skull appears to date back to a period vastly more ancient than neanderthal times. our special interest in the story of early man in britain is with the "red man" of paviland and galley hill man, because these were representatives of the species to which we ourselves belong. the neanderthals and pre-neanderthals, who have left their eoliths and palæoliths in our gravels, vanished like the glaciers and the icebergs, and have left, as has been indicated, no descendants in our midst. our history begins with the arrival of the crô-magnon races, who were followed in time by other peoples to whom europe offered attractions during the period of the great thaw, when the ice-cap was shrinking towards the north, and the flooded rivers were forming the beds on which they now flow. we have little to learn from galley hill man. his geological horizon is uncertain, but the balance of the available evidence tends to show he was a pioneer of the medium-sized hunters who entered europe from the east, during the aurignacian stage of culture. it is otherwise with the "red man" of wales. we know definitely what particular family he belonged to; he was a representative of the tall variety of crô-magnons. we know too that those who loved him, and laid his lifeless body in the paviland cave, had introduced into europe the germs of a culture that had been radiated from some centre, probably in the ancient forest land to the east of the nile, along the north african coast at a time when it jutted far out into the mediterranean and the sahara was a grassy plain. the crô-magnons were no mere savages who lived the life of animals and concerned themselves merely with their material needs. they appear to have been a people of active, inventive, and inquiring minds, with a social organization and a body of definite beliefs, which found expression in their art and in their burial customs. the "red man" was so called by the archæologists because his bones and the earth beside them were stained, as has been noted, by "red micaceous oxide of iron". here we meet with an ancient custom of high significance. it was not the case, as some have suggested, that the skeleton was coloured after the flesh had decayed. there was no indication when the human remains were discovered that the grave had been disturbed after the corpse was laid in it. the fact that the earth as well as the bones retained the coloration affords clear proof that the corpse had been smeared over with red earth which, after the flesh had decayed, fell on the skeleton and the earth and gravel beside it. but why, it will be asked, was the corpse so treated? did the crô-magnons paint their bodies during life, as do the australians, the red indians, and others, to provide "a substitute for clothing"? that cannot be the reason. they could not have concerned themselves about a "substitute" for something they did not possess. in france, the crô-magnons have left pictorial records of their activities and interests in their caves and other shelters. bas reliefs on boulders within a shelter at laussel show that they did not wear clothing during the aurignacian epoch which continued for many long centuries. we know too that the australians and indians painted their bodies for religious and magical purposes--to protect themselves in battle or enable them to perform their mysteries--rain-getting, food-getting, and other ceremonies. the ancient egyptians painted their gods to "make them healthy". prolonged good health was immortality. the evidence afforded by the paviland and other crô-magnon burials indicates that the red colour was freshly applied before the dead was laid in the sepulchre. no doubt it was intended to serve a definite purpose, that it was an expression of a system of beliefs regarding life and the hereafter. apparently among the crô-magnons the belief was already prevalent that the "blood is the life". the loss of life appeared to them to be due to the loss of the red vitalizing fluid which flowed in the veins. strong men who received wounds in conflict with their fellows, or with wild animals, were seen to faint and die in consequence of profuse bleeding; and those who were stricken with sickness grew ashen pale because, as it seemed, the supply of blood was insufficient, a condition they may have accounted for, as did the babylonians of a later period, by conceiving that demons entered the body and devoured the flesh and blood. it is not too much to suppose that they feared death, and that like other pagan religions of antiquity theirs was deeply concerned with the problem of how to restore and prolong life. their medicine-men appear to have arrived at the conclusion that the active principle in blood was the substance that coloured it, and they identified this substance with red earth. if cheeks grew pale in sickness, the flush of health seemed to be restored by the application of a red face paint. the patient did not invariably regain strength, but when he did, the recovery was in all likelihood attributed to the influence of the blood substitute. rest and slumber were required, as experience showed, to work the cure. when death took place, it seemed to be a deeper and more prolonged slumber, and the whole body was smeared over with the vitalizing blood substitute so that, when the spell of weakness had passed away, the sleeper might awaken, and come forth again with renewed strength from the cave-house in which he had been laid. the many persistent legends about famous "sleepers" that survive till our own day appear to have originally been connected with a belief in the return of the dead, the antiquity of which we are not justified in limiting, especially when it is found that the beliefs connected with body paint and shell ornaments and amulets were introduced into europe in early post-glacial times. ancient folk heroes might be forgotten, but from age to age there arose new heroes to take their places; the habit of placing them among the sleepers remained. charlemagne, frederick of barbarossa, william tell, king arthur, the fians, and the irish brian boroimhe, are famous sleepers. french peasants long believed that the sleeping napoleon would one day return to protect their native land from invaders, and during the russo-japanese war it was whispered in russia that general skobeleff would suddenly awake and hasten to manchuria to lead their troops to victory. for many generations the scots were convinced that james iv, who fell at flodden, was a "sleeper". his place was taken in time by thomas the rhymer, who slept in a cave and occasionally awoke to visit markets so that he might purchase horses for the great war which was to redden tweed and clyde with blood. even in our own day there were those who refused to believe that general gordon, sir hector macdonald, and lord kitchener, were really dead. the haunting belief in sleeping heroes dies hard. among the famous groups of sleeping heroes are the seven sleepers of ephesus--the christians who had been condemned to death by the emperor decius and concealed themselves in a cave where they slept for three and a half centuries. an eighteenth century legend tells of seven men in roman attire, who lay in a cave in western germany. in norse mythology, the seven sons of mimer sleep in the underworld awaiting the blast of the horn, which will be blown at ragnarok when the gods and demons will wage the last battle. the sleepers of arabia once awoke to foretell the coming of mahomet, and their sleeping dog, according to moslem beliefs, is one of the ten animals that will enter paradise. a representative scottish legend regarding the sleepers is located at the cave of craigiehowe in the black isle, ross-shire, a few miles distant from the rosemarkie cave. it is told that a shepherd once entered the cave and saw the sleepers and their dog. a horn, or as some say, a whistle, hung suspended from the roof. the shepherd blew it once and the sleepers shook themselves; he blew a second time, and they opened their eyes and raised themselves on their elbows. terrified by the forbidding aspect of the mighty men, the shepherd refrained from blowing a third time, but turned and fled. as he left the cave he heard one of the heroes call after him: "alas! you have left us worse than you found us." as whistles are sometimes found in magdalenian shelters in western and central europe, it may be that these were at an early period connected with the beliefs about the calling back of the crô-magnon dead. the ancient whistles were made of hare--and reindeer-foot bone. the clay whistle dates from the introduction of the neolithic industry in hungary. the remarkable tendency on the part of mankind to cling to and perpetuate ancient beliefs and customs, and especially those connected with sickness and death, is forcibly illustrated by the custom of smearing the bodies of the living and dead with red ochre. in every part of the world red is regarded as a particularly "lucky colour", which protects houses and human beings, and imparts vitality to those who use it. the belief in the protective value of red berries is perpetuated in our own christmas customs when houses are decorated with holly, and by those dwellers in remote parts who still tie rowan berries to their cows' tails so as to prevent witches and fairies from interfering with the milk supply. egyptian women who wore a red jasper in their waist-girdles called the stone "a drop of the blood of isis (the mother goddess)". red symbolism is everywhere connected with lifeblood and the "vital spark"--the hot "blood of life". brinton[ ] has shown that in the north american languages the word for blood is derived from the word for red or the word for fire. the ancient greek custom of painting red the wooden images of gods was evidently connected with the belief that a supply of lifeblood was thus assured, and that the colour animated the deity, as homer's ghosts were animated by a blood offering when odysseus visited hades. "the anointing of idols with blood for the purpose of animating them is", says farnell, "a part of old mediterranean magic."[ ] the ancient egyptians, as has been indicated, painted their gods, some of whom wore red garments; a part of their underworld dewat was "red land", and there were "red souls" in it.[ ] in india standing stones connected with deities are either painted red or smeared with the blood of a sacrificed animal. the chinese regard red as the colour of fire and light, and in their philosophy they identify it with _yang_, the chief principle of life;[ ] it is believed "to expel pernicious influences, and thus particularly to symbolize good luck, happiness, delight, and pleasure". red coffins are favoured. the "red gate" on the south side of a cemetery "is never opened except for the passage of an emperor".[ ] the chinese put a powdered red stone called _hun-hong_ in a drink or in food to destroy an evil spirit which may have taken possession of one. red earth is eaten for a similar reason by the polynesians and others. many instances of this kind could be given to illustrate the widespread persistence of the belief in the vitalizing and protective qualities associated with red substances. in irish gaelic, professor w. j. watson tells me, "ruadh" means both "red" and "strong". [ ] _myths of the new world_, p. . [ ] _cults of the greek states_, vol. v. p. . [ ] budge, _gods of the egyptians_. vol. i, p. . [ ] de groot, _the religious system of china_, book i, pp. - . [ ] _ibid._, book i, pp. and . the crô-magnons regarded the heart as the seat of life, having apparently discovered that it controls the distribution of blood. in the cavern of pindal, in south-western france, is the outline of a hairy mammoth painted in red ochre, and the seat of life is indicated by a large red heart. the painting dates back to the early aurignacian period. in other cases, as in the drawing of a large bison in the cavern of niaux, the seat of life and the vulnerable parts are indicated by spear--or arrowheads incised on the body. the ancient egyptians identified the heart with the mind. to them the heart was the seat of intelligence and will-power as well as the seat of life. the germ of this belief can apparently be found in the pictorial art and burial customs of the aurignacian crô-magnons. [illustration: outline of a mammoth painted in red ochre in the cavern of pindal, france the seat of life is indicated by a large red heart. (after breuil.)] another interesting burial custom has been traced in the grimaldi caves. some of the skeletons were found to have small green stones between their teeth or inside their mouths.[ ] no doubt these were amulets. their colour suggests that green symbolism has not necessarily a connection with agricultural religion, as some have supposed. the crô-magnons do not appear to have paid much attention to vegetation. in ancient egypt the green stone (khepera) amulet "typified the germ of life". a text says, "a scarab of green stone ... shall be placed in the heart of a man, and it shall perform for him the 'opening of the mouth'"--that is, it will enable him to speak and eat again. the scarab is addressed in a funerary text, "my heart, my mother. my heart whereby i came into being." it is believed by budge that the egyptian custom of "burying green basalt scarabs inside or on the breasts of the dead" is as old as the first dynasty (_c._ b.c.).[ ] how much older it is one can only speculate. "the mexicans", according to brinton, "were accustomed to say that at one time all men have been stones, and that at last they would all return to stones, and acting literally on this conviction they interred with the bones of the dead a small green stone, which was called 'the principle of life'."[ ] in china the custom of placing jade tongue amulets for the purpose of preserving the dead from decay and stimulating the soul to take flight to paradise is of considerable antiquity.[ ] crystals and pebbles have been found in ancient british graves. it may well be that these pebbles were regarded as having had an intimate connection with deities, and perhaps to have been coagulated forms of what has been called "life substance". of undoubted importance and significance was the ancient custom of adorning the dead with shells. as we have seen, this was a notable feature of the paviland cave burial. the "red man" was not only smeared with red earth, but "charmed" or protected by shell amulets. in the next chapter it will be shown that this custom not only affords us a glimpse of aurignacian religious beliefs, but indicates the area from which the crô-magnons came. [ ] i am indebted to the abbé breuil for this information which he gave me during the course of a conversation. [ ] budge, _gods of the egyptians_, vol. i, p. . these scarabs have not been found in the early dynastic graves. green malachite charms, however, were used in even the pre-dynastic period. [ ] _the myths of the new world_, p. . according to bancroft the green stones were often placed in the mouths of the dead. [ ] laufer, _jade_, pp. _et seq._ (chicago, ). professor g. elliot smith was the first to emphasize the importance attached in ancient times to the beliefs associated with the divine "giver of life". chapter iv shell deities and early trade early culture and early races--did civilization originate in europe?--an important clue--trade in shells between red sea and italy--traces of early trade in central europe--religious value of personal ornaments--importance of shell lore--links between far east and europe--shell deities--a hebridean shell goddess--"milk of wisdom"--ancient goddesses as providers of food--gaelic "spirit shell" and japanese "god body"--influence of deities in jewels, &c.--a shakespearean reference--shells in crô-magnon graves--early sacrifices--hand colours in palæolithic caves--finger lore and "hand spells". when the question is asked, "whence came the crô-magnon people of the aurignacian phase of culture?" the answer usually given is, "somewhere in the east". the distribution of the aurignacian sites indicates that the new-comers entered south-western france by way of italy--that is, across the italian land-bridge from north africa. of special significance in this connection is the fact that aurignacian culture persisted for the longest period of time in italy. the tallest crô-magnons appear to have inhabited south-eastern france and the western shores of italy. "it is probable", says osborn, referring to the men six feet four and a half inches in height, "that in the genial climate of the riviera these men obtained their finest development; the country was admirably protected from the cold winds of the north, refuges were abundant, and game by no means scarce, to judge from the quantity of animal bones found in the caves. under such conditions of life the race enjoyed a fine physical development and dispersed widely."[ ] [ ] _men of the old stone age_, pp. - . it does not follow, however, that the tall people originated aurignacian culture. as has been indicated, the stumpy people represented by combe-capelle skeletons were likewise exponents of it. "it must not be assumed", as elliot smith reminds us, "that the aurignacian culture was necessarily invented by the same people who introduced it into europe, and whose remains were associated with it ... for any culture can be transmitted to an alien people, even when it has not been adopted by many branches of the race which was responsible for its invention, just as gas illumination, oil lamps, and even candles are still in current use by the people who invented the electric light, which has been widely adopted by many foreign peoples. this elementary consideration is so often ignored that it is necessary thus to emphasize it, because it is essential for any proper understanding of the history of early civilization."[ ] [ ] primitive man (_proceedings of the british academy_, vol. vii). no trace of aurignacian culture has, so far, been found outside europe. "may it not, therefore," it may be asked, "have originated in italy or france?" in absence of direct evidence, this possibility might be admitted. but an important discovery has been made at grimaldi in la grotte des enfants (the "grotto of infants"--so called because of the discovery there of the skeletons of young crô-magnon children). among the shells used as amulets by those who used the grotto as a sepulchre was one (_cassis rufa_) that had been carried either by a migrating folk, or by traders, along the north african coast and through italy from some south-western asian beach. the find has been recorded by professor marcellin boule.[ ] [ ] _les grottes de grimaldi (baousse-rousse)_, tome i, fasc. ii--_géologie et paléontologie_ (monaco, ), p. . in a footnote, g. dollfus writes: "_cassis rufa, l._, an indian ocean shell, is represented in the collection at monaco by two fragments; one was found in the lower habitation level d, the other is probably of the same origin. the presence of this shell is extraordinary, as it has no analogue in the mediterranean, neither recent nor fossil; there exists no species in the north atlantic or off senegal with which it could be confounded. the fragments have traces of the reddish colour preserved, and are not fossil; one of them presents a notch which has determined a hole that seems to have been made intentionally. the species has not yet been found in the gulf of suez nor in the raised beaches of the isthmus. m. jousseaume has found it in the gulf of tadjoura at aden, but it has not yet been encountered in the red sea nor in the raised beaches of that region. the common habitat of _cassis rufa_ is socotra, besides the seychelles, madagascar, mauritius, new caledonia, and perhaps tahiti. the fragments discovered at mentone have therefore been brought from a great distance at a very ancient epoch by prehistoric man." after the crô-magnon peoples had spread into western and central europe they imported shells from the mediterranean. at laugerie basse in the dordogne, for instance, a necklace of pierced shells from the mediterranean was found in association with a skeleton. atlantic shells could have been obtained from a nearer sea-shore. it may be that the rhone valley, which later became a well-known trade route, was utilized at an exceedingly remote period, and that cultural influences occasionally "flowed" along it. "prehistoric man" had acquired some experience as a trader even during the "hunting period", and he had formulated definite religious beliefs. it has been the habit of some archæologists to refer to shell and other necklaces, &c., as "personal ornaments". the late dr. robert munro wrote in this connection: "we have no knowledge of any phase of humanity in which the love of personal ornament does not play an important part in the life of the individual. the savage of the present day, who paints or tattoos his body, and adorns it with shells, feathers, teeth, and trinkets made of the more gaudy materials at his disposal, may be accepted as on a parallel with the neolithic people of europe.... teeth are often perforated and used as pendants, especially the canines of carnivorous animals, but such ornaments are not peculiar to neolithic times, as they were equally prevalent among the later palæolithic races of europe."[ ] [ ] _prehistoric britain_, pp. - . modern savages have very definite reasons for wearing the so-called "ornaments", and for painting and tattooing their bodies. they believe that the shells, teeth, &c., afford them protection, and bring them luck. earpiercing, distending the lobe of the ear, disfiguring the body, the pointing, blackening, or knocking out of teeth, are all practices that have a religious significance. even such a highly civilized people as the chinese perpetuate, in their funerary ceremonies, customs that can be traced back to an exceedingly remote period in the history of mankind. it is not due to "love of personal ornament" that they place cowries, jade, gold, &c., in the mouth of the dead, but because they believe that by so doing the body is protected, and given a new lease of life. the far eastern belief that an elixir of ground oyster shells will prolong life in the next world is evidently a relic of early shell lore. certain deities are associated with certain shells. some deities have, like snails, shells for "houses"; others issue at birth from shells. the goddess venus (aphrodite) springs from the froth of the sea, and is lifted up by tritons on a shell; she wears a love-girdle. hathor, the egyptian venus, had originally a love-girdle of shells. she appears to have originated as the personification of a shell, and afterwards to have personified the pearl within the shell. in early egyptian graves the shell-amulets have been found in thousands. the importance of shell lore in ancient religious systems has been emphasized by mr. j. wilfrid jackson in his _shells as evidence of the migrations of early culture_.[ ] he shows why the cowry and snail shells were worn as amulets and charms, and why men were impelled "to search for them far and wide and often at great peril". "the murmur of the shell was the voice of the god, and the trumpet made of a shell became an important instrument in initiation ceremonies and in temple worship." shells protected wearers against evil, including the evil eye. in like manner protection was afforded by the teeth and claws of carnivorous animals. in asia and africa the belief that tigers, lions, &c., will not injure those who are thus protected is still quite widespread. [ ] london, . [illustration: necklace of sea shells, from the cave of crô-magnon. (after e. lartet.)] it cannot have been merely for love of personal ornaments that the crô-magnons of southern france imported indian ocean shells, and those of central and western europe created a trade in mediterranean shells. like the ancient inhabitants of the nile valley who in remote pre-dynastic times imported shells, not only from the mediterranean but from the red sea, along a long and dangerous desert trade-route, they evidently had imparted to shells a definite religious significance. the "luck-girdle" of snail-shells worn by the "red man of paviland" has, therefore, an interesting history. when the crô-magnons reached britain they brought with them not only implements invented and developed elsewhere, but a heritage of religious beliefs connected with shell ornaments and with the red earth with which the corpse was smeared when laid in its last resting-place. the ancient religious beliefs connected with shells appear to have spread far and wide. traces of them still survive in districts far separated from one another and from the area of origin--the borderlands of asia and africa. in japanese mythology a young god, ohonamochie--a sort of male cinderella--is slain by his jealous brothers. his mother makes appeal to a sky deity who sends to her aid the two goddesses princess cockleshell and princess clam. princess cockleshell burns and grinds her shell, and with water provided by princess clam prepares an elixir called "nurse's milk" or "mother's milk". as soon as this "milk" is smeared over the young god, he is restored to life. in the hebrides it is still the custom of mothers to burn and grind the cockle-shell to prepare a lime-water for children who suffer from what in gaelic is called "wasting". in north america shells of _unio_ were placed in the graves of red indians "as food for the dead during the journey to the land of spirits". the pearls were used in india as medicines. "the burnt powder of the gems, if taken with water, cures hæmorrhages, prevents evil spirits working mischief in men's minds, cures lunacy and all mental diseases, jaundice, &c.... rubbed over the body with other medicines it cures leprosy and all skin diseases."[ ] the ancient cretans, whose culture was carried into asia and through europe by their enterprising sea-and-land traders and prospectors, attached great importance to the cockle-shell which they connected with their mother goddess, the source of all life and the giver of medicines and food. sir arthur evans found a large number of cockle-shells, some in faeince, in the shrine of the serpent goddess in the ruins of the palace of knossos. the fact that the cretans made artificial cockle-shells is of special interest, especially when we find that in egypt the earliest use to which gold was put was in the manufacture of models of snail-shells in a necklace.[ ] in different countries cowrie shells were similarly imitated in stone, ivory, and metal.[ ] [ ] _shells as evidence of the migrations of early culture_, pp. - . [ ] g. a. reisner. _early dynastic cemeteries of naga-ed-der_, vol. i, , plates and . [ ] jackson's _shells_, pp. , , , . shells were thought to impart vitality and give protection, not only to human beings, but even to the plots of the earliest florists and agriculturists. "mary, mary, quite contrairie", who in the nursery rhyme has in her garden "cockle-shells all in row", was perpetuating an ancient custom. the cockle-shell is still favoured by conservative villagers, and may be seen in their garden plots and in graveyards. shells placed at cottage doors, on window-sills, and round fire-places are supposed to bring luck and give security, like the horse-shoe on the door. the mother goddess, remembered as the fairy queen, is still connected with shells in hebridean folk-lore. a gaelic poet refers to the goddess as "the maiden queen of wisdom who dwelt in the beauteous bower of the single tree where she could see the whole world and where no fool could see her beauty". she lamented the lack of wisdom among women, and invited them to her knoll. when they were assembled there the goddess appeared, holding in her hand the _copan moire_ ("cup of mary"), as the blue-eyed limpet shell is called. the shell contained "the ais (milk) of wisdom", which she gave to all who sought it. "many", we are told, "came to the knoll too late, and there was no wisdom left for them."[ ] a gaelic poet says the "maiden queen" was attired in emerald green, silver, and mother-of-pearl. [ ] dr. alexander carmichael, _carmina gadeiica_, vol. ii, pp. _et seq._ mr. wilfrid jackson, author of _shells as evidence of the migrations of early culture_, tells me that the "blue-eyed limpet" is our common limpet--_patella vulgata_--the lepas, patelle, jambe, oeil de boue, bernicle, or flie of the french. in cornwall it is the "crogan", the "bornigan", and the "brennick". it is "flither" of the english, "flia" of the faroese, and "lapa" of the portuguese. a cornish giant was once, according to a folk-tale, set to perform the hopeless task of emptying a pool with a single limpet which had a hole in it. limpets are found in early british graves and in the "kitchen middens". they are met with in abundance in cromlechs, on the channel isles and in brittany, covering the bones and the skulls of the dead. mr. jackson thinks they were used like cowries for vitalizing and protecting the dead. here a particular shell is used by an old goddess for a specific purpose. she imparts knowledge by providing a magic drink referred to as "milk". the question arises, however, if a deity of this kind was known in early times. did the crô-magnons of the aurignacian stage of culture conceive of a god or goddess in human form who nourished her human children and instructed them as do human mothers? the figure of a woman, holding in her hand a horn which appears to have been used for drinking from, is of special interest in this connection. as will be shown, the hebridean "maiden" links with other milk-providing deities. the earliest religious writings in the world are the pyramid texts of ancient egypt which, as professor breasted so finely says, "vaguely disclose to us a vanished world of thought and speech". they abound "in allusions to lost myths, to customs and usages long since ended". withal, they reflect the physical conditions of a particular area--the nile valley, in which the sun and the river are two outstanding natural features. there was, however, a special religious reason for connecting the sun and the river. in these old pyramid texts are survivals from a period apparently as ancient as that of early aurignacian civilization in europe, and perhaps, as the clue afforded by the indian shell found in the grimaldi cave, not unconnected with it. the mother goddess, for instance, is prayed to so that she may suckle the soul of the dead pharaoh as a mother suckles her child and never wean him.[ ] milk was thus the elixir of life, and as the mother goddess of egypt is found to have been identified with the cowrie--indeed to have been the spirit or personification of the shell--the connection between shells and milk may have obtained even in aurignacian times in south-western europe. that the mother goddess of crô-magnons had a human form is suggested by the representations of mothers which have been brought to light. an aurignacian statuette of limestone found in the cave of willendorf, lower austria, has been called the "venus of willendorf". she is very corpulent--apparently because she was regarded as a giver of life. other statues of like character have been unearthed near mentone, and they have a striking resemblance to the figurines of fat women found in the pre-dynastic graves of egypt and in crete and malta. the bas-relief of the fat woman sculptured on a boulder inside the aurignacian shelter of laussel may similarly have been a goddess. in her right hand she holds a bison's horn--perhaps a drinking horn containing an elixir. traces of red colouring remain on the body. a notable fact about these mysterious female forms is that the heads are formal, the features being scarcely, if at all, indicated. [ ] breasted, _religion and thought in ancient egypt_, p. . even if no such "idols" had been found, it does not follow that the early people had no ideas about supernatural beings. there are references in gaelic to the _coich anama_ (the "spirit case", or "soul shell", or "soul husk"). in japan, which has a particularly rich and voluminous mythology, there are no idols in shinto temples. a deity is symbolized by the _shintai_ (god body), which may be a mirror, a weapon, or a round stone, a jewel or a pearl. a pearl is a _tama_; so is a precious stone, a crystal, a bit of worked jade, or a necklace of jewels, ivory, artificial beads, &c. the soul of a supernatural being is called _mi-tama--mi_ being now a honorific prefix, but originally signifying a water serpent (dragon god). the shells, of which ancient deities were personifications, may well have been to the crô-magnons pretty much what a _tama_ is to the japanese, and what magic crystals were to mediæval europeans who used them for magical purposes. it may have been believed that in the shells, green stones, and crystals remained the influence of deities as the power of beasts of prey remained in their teeth and claws. the ear-rings and other pagan ornaments which jacob buried with laban's idols under the oak at shechem were similarly supposed to be god bodies or coagulated forms of "life substance". all idols were temporary or permanent bodies of deities, and idols were not necessarily large. it would seem to be a reasonable conclusion that all the so-called ornaments found in ancient graves were supposed to have had an intimate connection with the supernatural beings who gave origin to and sustained life. these ornaments, or charms, or amulets, imparted vitality to human beings, because they were regarded as the substance of life itself. the red jasper worn in the waist girdles of the ancient egyptians was reputed, as has been stated, to be a coagulated drop of the blood of the mother goddess isis. blood was the essence of life. the red woman or goddess of the laussel shelter was probably coloured so as to emphasize her vitalizing attributes; the red colour animated the image. an interesting reference in shakespeare's _hamlet_ to ancient burial customs may here be quoted, because it throws light on the problem under discussion. when ophelia's body is carried into the graveyard[ ] one of the priests says that as "her death was doubtful" she should have been buried in "ground unsanctified"--that is, among the suicides and murderers. having taken her own life, she was unworthy of christian burial, and should be buried in accordance with pagan customs. in all our old churchyards the takers of life were interred on the north side, and apparently in shakespeare's day traditional pagan rites were observed in the burials of those regarded as pagans. the priest in _hamlet_, therefore, says of ophelia: she should in ground unsanctified have lodged till the last trumpet; _for charitable prayers, shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her_. [ ] _hamlet_, v. i. there are no shards (fragments of pottery) in the crô-magnon graves, but flints and pebbles mingle with shells, teeth, and other charms and amulets. vast numbers of perforated shells have been found in the burial caves near mentone. in one case the shells are so numerous that they seem to have formed a sort of burial mantle. "similarly," says professor osborn, describing another of these finds, "the female skeleton was enveloped in a bed of shells not perforated; the legs were extended, while the arms were stretched beside the body; there were a few pierced shells and a few bits of silex. one of the large male skeletons of the same grotto had the lower limbs extended, the upper limbs folded, and was decorated with a gorget and crown of perforated shells; the head rested on a block of red stone." in another case "heavy stones protected the body from disturbance; the head was decorated with a circle of perforated shells _coloured in red_, and implements of various types were carefully placed on the forehead and chest". the body of the combe-capelle man "was decorated with a necklace of perforated shells and surrounded with a great number of fine aurignacian flints. it appears", adds osborn, "that in all the numerous burials of these grottos of aurignacian age and industry of the crô-magnon race we have the burial standards which prevailed in western europe at this time."[ ] [ ] _men of the old stone age_, pp. - . it has been suggested by one of the british archæologists that the necklaces of perforated cowrie shells and the red pigment found among the remains of early man in britain were used by children. this theory does not accord with the evidence afforded by the grimaldi caves, in which the infant skeletons are neither coloured nor decorated. occasionally, however, the children were interred in burial mantles of small perforated shells, while female adults were sometimes placed in beds of unperforated shells. shells have been found in early british graves. these include _nerita litoralis_, and even _patella vulgata_, the common limpet. holes were rubbed in them so that they might be strung together. in a megalithic cist unearthed in phoenix park, dublin, in , two male skeletons had each beside them perforated shells (_nerita litoralis_). during the construction of the edinburgh and granton railway there was found beside a skeleton in a stone cist a quantity of cockle-shell rings. two dozen perforated oyster-shells were found in a single orkney cist. many other examples of this kind could be referred to.[ ] [ ] a red sea cowry shell (_cyproea minor_) found on the site of hurstbourne station (l. & s. w. railway, main line) in hampshire, was associated with "early iron age" artifacts. (paper read by j. r. le b. tomlin at meeting of linnæan society, june , .) in the crô-magnon caverns are imprints of human hands which had been laid on rock and then dusted round with coloured earth. in a number of cases it is shown that one or more finger joints of the left hand had been cut off. the practice of finger mutilation among bushman, australian, and red indian tribes, is associated with burial customs and the ravages of disease. a bushman woman may cut off a joint of one of her fingers when a near relative is about to die. red indians cut off finger-joints when burying their dead during a pestilence, so as "to cut off deaths"; they sacrificed a part of the body to save the whole. in australia finger mutilation is occasionally practised. highland gaelic stories tell of heroes who lie asleep to gather power which will enable them to combat with monsters or fierce enemies. heroines awake them by cutting off a finger joint, a part of the ear, or a portion of skin from the scalp.[ ] [ ] for references see my _myths of crete and pre-hellenic europe_, pp. - . the colours used in drawings of hands in palæolithic caves are black, white, red, and yellow, as the abbé breuil has noted. in spain and india, the hand prints are supposed to protect dwellings from evil influences. horse-shoes, holly with berries, various plants, shells, &c, are used for a like purpose among those who in our native land perpetuate ancient customs. the arabs have a custom of suspending figures of an open hand from the necks of their children, and the turks and moors paint hands upon their ships and houses, "as an antidote and counter charm to an evil eye; for five is with them an unlucky number; and 'five (fingers, perhaps) in your eyes' is their proverb of cursing and defiance". in portugal the hand spell is called the _figa_. southey suggests that our common phrase "a fig for him" was derived from the name of the portuguese hand amulet.[ ] [ ] notes to _thalaba_, book v, canto . "the figo for thy friendship" is an interesting reference by shakespeare.[ ] fig or figo is probably from _fico_, a snap of the fingers, which in french is _faire la figue_, and in italian _far le fiche_. finger snapping had no doubt originally a magical significance. [ ] _henry v_, v, iii, . chapter v new races in europe the solutrean industry--a racial and cultural intrusion--decline of aurignacian art--a god-cult--the solutrean thor--open-air life--magdalenian culture--decline of flint working--horn and bone weapons and implements--revival of crô-magnon art--the lamps and palettes of cave artists--the domesticated horse--eskimos in europe--magdalenian culture in england--the vanishing ice--reindeer migrate northward--new industries--tardenoisian and azilian industries--pictures and symbols of azilians--"long-heads" and "broad-heads"--maglemosian culture of fair northerners--pre-neolithic peoples in britain. in late aurignacian times the influence of a new industry was felt in western europe. it first came from the south, and reached as far north as england where it can be traced in the caverns. then, in time, it spread westward and wedge-like through central europe in full strength, with the force and thoroughness of an invasion, reaching the northern fringe of the spanish coast. this was the solutrean industry which had distinctive and independent features of its own. it was not derived from aurignacian but had developed somewhere in africa--perhaps in somaliland, whence it radiated along the libyan coast towards the west and eastward into asia. the main or "true" solutrean influence entered europe from the south-east. it did not pass into italy, which remained in the aurignacian stage until azilian times, nor did it cross the pyrenees or invade spain south of the cantabrian mountains. the earlier "influence" is referred to as "proto-solutrean". solutrean is well represented in hungary where no trace of aurignacian culture has yet been found. apparently that part of europe had offered no attractions for the crô-magnons. who the carriers of this new culture were it is as yet impossible to say with confidence. they may have been a late "wave" of the same people who had first introduced aurignacian culture into europe, and they may have been representative of a different race. some ethnologists incline to connect the solutrean culture with a new people whose presence is indicated by the skulls found at brünn and brüx in bohemia. these intruders had lower foreheads than the crô-magnons, narrower and longer faces, and low cheek-bones. it may be that they represented a variety of the mediterranean race. whoever they were, they did not make much use of ivory and bone, but they worked flint with surpassing skill and originality. their technique was quite distinct from the aurignacian. with the aid of wooden or bone tools, they finished their flint artifacts by pressure, gave them excellent edges and points, and shaped them with artistic skill. their most characteristic flints are the so-called laurel-leaf (broad) and willow-leaf (narrow) lances. these were evidently used in the chase. there is no evidence that they were used in battle. withal, their weapons had a religious significance. fourteen laurel-leaf spear-heads of solutrean type which were found together at volgu, saône-et-loire, are believed to have been a votive offering to a deity. at any rate, these were too finely worked and too fragile, like some of the peculiar shetland and swedish knives of later times, to have been used as implements. one has retained traces of red colouring. it may be that the belief enshrined in the gaelic saying, "every weapon has its demon", had already come into existence. in crete the double-axe was in minoan times a symbol of a deity;[ ] and in northern egypt and on the libyan coast the crossed arrows symbolized the goddess neith; while in various countries, and especially in india, there are ancient stories about the spirits of weapons appearing in visions and promising to aid great hunters and warriors. the custom of giving weapons personal names, which survived for long in europe, may have had origin in solutrean times. [ ] for other examples see mr. legge's article in _proceedings of the society of biblical archæology_, . p. . art languished in solutrean times. geometrical figures were incised on ivory and bone; some engraving of mammoths, reindeer, and lions have been found in moravia and france. when the human figure was depicted, the female was neglected and studies made of males. it may be that the solutreans had a god-cult as distinguished from the goddess-cult of the aurignacians, and that their "flint-god" was an early form of zeus, or of thor, whose earliest hammer was of flint. the romans revered "jupiter lapis" (silex). when the solemn oath was taken at the ceremony of treaty-making, the representative of the roman people struck a sacrificial pig with the _silex_ and said, "do thou, diespiter, strike the roman people as i strike this pig here to-day, and strike them the more, as thou art greater and stronger". mr. cyril bailey (_the religion of ancient rome_, p. ) expresses the view that "in origin the stone is itself the god". during solutrean times the climate of europe, although still cold, was drier that in aurignacian times. it may be that the intruders seized the flint quarries of the crô-magnons, and also disputed with them the possession of hunting-grounds. the cave art declined or was suspended during what may have been a military regime and perhaps, too, under the influence of a new religion and new social customs. open-air camps beside rock-shelters were greatly favoured. it may be, as has been suggested, that the solutreans were as expert as the modern eskimos in providing clothing and skin-tents. bone needles were numerous. they fed well, and horse-flesh was a specially favoured food. in their mountain retreats, the aurignacians may have concentrated more attention than they had previously done on the working of bone and horn; it may be that they were reinforced by new races from north-eastern europe, who had been developing a distinctive industry on the borders of asia. at any rate, the industry known as magdalenian became widespread when the ice-fields crept southward again, and southern and central europe became as wet and cold as in early aurignacian times. solutrean culture gradually declined and vanished and magdalenian became supreme. the magdalenian stage of culture shows affinities with aurignacian and betrays no influence of solutrean technique. the method of working flint was quite different. the magdalenians, indeed, appear to have attached little importance to flint for implements of the chase. they often chipped it badly in their own way and sometimes selected flint of poor quality, but they had beautiful "scrapers" and "gravers" of flint. it does not follow, however, that they were a people on a lower stage of culture than the solutreans. new inventions had rendered it unnecessary for them to adopt solutrean technique. most effective implements of horn and bone had come into use and, if wars were waged--there is no evidence of warfare--the magdalenians were able to give a good account of themselves with javelins and exceedingly strong spears which were given a greater range by the introduction of spear-throwers--"cases" from which spears were thrown. the food supply was increased by a new method of catching fish. barbed harpoons of reindeer-horn had been invented, and no doubt many salmon, &c., were caught at river-side stations. the crô-magnons, as has been found, were again in the ascendant, and their artistic genius was given full play as in aurignacian times, and, no doubt, as a result of the revival of religious beliefs that fostered art as a cult product. once again the painters, engravers, and sculptors adorned the caves with representations of wild animals. colours were used with increasing skill and taste. the artists had palettes on which to mix their colours, and used stone lamps, specimens of which have been found, to light up their "studios" in deep cave recesses. during this magdalenian stage of culture the art of the crô-magnons reached its highest standard of excellence, and grew so extraordinarily rich and varied that it compares well with the later religious arts of ancient egypt and babylonia. the horse appears to have been domesticated. there is at saint michel d'arudy a "celtic" horse depicted with a bridle, while at la madeleine was found a "bâton de commandement" on which a human figure, with a stave in his right hand, walks past two horses which betray no signs of alarm. our knowledge is scanty regarding the races that occupied europe during magdalenian times. in addition to the crô-magnons there were other distinctive types. one of these is represented by the chancelade skeleton found at raymonden shelter. some think it betrays eskimo affinities and represents a racial "drift" from the russian steppes. in his _ancient hunters_ professor sollas shows that there are resemblances between eskimo and magdalenian artifacts. the magdalenian culture reached england, although it never penetrated into italy, and was shut out from the greater part of spain. it has been traced as far north as derbyshire, on the north-eastern border of which the cresswell caves have yielded magdalenian relics, including flint-borers, engravers, &c., and bone implements, including a needle, an awl, chisels, an engraving of a horse on bone, &c. kent's cavern, near torquay in devonshire, has also yielded magdalenian flints and implements of bone, including pins, awls, barbed harpoons, &c. during early magdalenian times, however, our native land did not offer great attractions to continental people. the final glacial epoch may have been partial, but it was severe, and there was a decided lowering of the temperature. then came a warmer and drier spell, which was followed by the sixth partial glaciation. thereafter the "great thaw" opened up europe to the invasion of new races from asia and africa. three distinct movements of peoples in europe can be traced in post-magdalenian times, and during what has been called the "transition period", between the upper palæolithic and lower neolithic ages or stages. the ice-cap retreated finally from the mountains of scotland and sweden, and the reindeer migrated northward. magdalenian civilization was gradually broken up, and the cave art suffered sharp decline until at length it perished utterly. trees flourished in areas where formerly the reindeer scraped the snow to crop moss and lichen, and rich pastures attracted the northward migrating red deer, the roe-deer, the ibex, the wild boar, wild cattle, &c. the new industries are known as the tardenoisian, the azilian, and the maglemosian. [illustration: geometric or "pygmy" flints. (after breuil.) , from tunis and southern spain. , from portugal. , , azilian types. , , , tardenoisian types.] tardenoisian flints are exceedingly small and beautifully worked, and have geometric forms; they are known as "microliths" and "pygmy flints". they were evidently used in catching fish, some being hooks and others spear-heads; and they represent a culture that spread round the mediterranean basin: these flints are found in northern egypt, tunis, algeria, and italy; from italy they passed through europe into england and scotland. a people who decorated with scenes of daily life rock shelters and caves in spain, and hunted red deer and other animals with bows and arrows, were pressing northward across the new grass-lands towards the old magdalenian stations. men wore pants and feather head-dresses; women had short gowns, blouses, and caps, as had the late magdalenians, and both sexes wore armlets, anklets, and other ornaments of magical potency. females were nude when engaged in the chase. the goddess diana had evidently her human prototypes. there were ceremonial dances, as the rock pictures show; women lamented over graves, and affectionate couples--at least they seem to have been affectionate--walked hand in hand as they gradually migrated towards northern spain, and northern france and britain. the horse was domesticated, and is seen being led by the halter. wild animal "drives" were organized, and many victims fell to archer and spearman. arrows were feathered; bows were large and strong. symbolic signs indicate that a script similar to those of the Ægean area, the northern african coast, and pre-dynastic egypt was freely used. drawings became conventional, and ultimately animals and human beings were represented by signs. this culture lasted after the introduction of the neolithic industry in some areas, and in others after the bronze industry had been adopted by sections of the people. when the magdalenian harpoon of reindeer horn was imitated by the flat harpoon of red-deer horn, this new culture became what is known as azilian. it met and mingled with tardenoisian, which appears to have arrived later, and the combined industries are referred to as azilian-tardenoisian. while the race-drifts, represented by the carriers of the azilian and tardenoisian industries, were moving into france and britain, another invasion from the east was in progress. it is represented in the famous ofnet cave where long-heads and broad-heads were interred. the asiatic armenoids (alpine type) had begun to arrive in europe, the glaciers having vanished in asia minor. skulls of broad-heads found in the belgian cave of furfooz, in which sixteen human skeletons were unearthed in , belong to this period. the early armenoids met and mingled with representatives of the blond northern race, and were the basis of the broad-headed blonds of holland, denmark, and belgium. [illustration: examples of palÆolithic art the objects include: handles of knives and daggers carved in ivory and bone, line drawings of wild animals, faces of masked men, of animal-headed deity or masked man with arms uplifted (compare egyptian "ka" attitude of adoration), of wild horses on perforated _bâton de commandement_, of man stalking a bison, of seal, cow, reindeer, cave-bear, &c., and perforated amulets.] maglemosian culture is believed to have been introduced by the ancestors of the fair peoples of northern europe. it has been so named after the finds at maglemose in the "great moor", near mullerup, on the western coast of zeeland. a lake existed at this place at a time when the baltic was an inland water completely shut off from the north sea. in a peat bog, formerly the bed of the lake, were found a large number of flint and bone artifacts. these included tardenoisian microliths, barbed harpoons of bone, needles of bone, spears of bone, &c. bone was more freely used than horn for implements and weapons. the animals hunted included the stag, roe-deer, moose, wild ox, and wild boar. dogs were domesticated. it appears that the maglemosians were lake-dwellers. their houses, however, had not been erected on stilts, but apparently on a floating platform of logs, which was no doubt anchored or moored to the shore. there are traces of magdalenian influence in maglemosian culture. although many decorative forms on bone implements and engravings on rocks are formal and symbolic, there are some fine and realistic representations of animals worthy of the magdalenian cave artists. traces of the maglemosian racial drift have been obtained on both sides of the baltic and in the danish kitchen middens. engravings on rocks at lake onega in northern russia closely resemble typical maglemosian work. apparently the northern fair peoples entered europe from western siberia, and in time were influenced by neolithic culture. but before the europeans began to polish their stone implements and weapons, the blond hunters and fishermen settled not only in denmark and southern sweden and norway but also in britain. at the time when the baltic was an inland fresh-water lake, the southern part of the north sea was dry land, and trees grew on dogger bank, from which fishermen still occasionally lift in their trawls lumps of "moor-log" (peat) and the bones of animals, including those of the reindeer, the red deer, the horse, the wild ox, the bison, the irish elk, the bear, the wolf, the beaver, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the walrus. no doubt the maglemosians found their way over this "land-bridge", crossing the rivers in rude boats, and on foot when the rivers were frozen. evidence has been forthcoming that they also followed the present coast line towards boulogne, near which a typical maglemosian harpoon has been discovered. [illustration: a notable example of late magdalenian culture: engraving on bone of browsing reindeer. from kesserloch, switzerland. (after heim.)] traces of maglemosian influence have been found as far north as scotland on the hebridean islands of oronsay and risga. the macarthur cave at oban reveals azilian artifacts. in the victoria cave near settle in yorkshire a late magdalenian or proto-azilian harpoon made of reindeer-horn is of special interest, displaying, as it does, a close connection between late magdalenian and early azilian. barbed harpoons, found at the shelter of druimvargie, near oban, are azilian, some displaying maglemosian features. barbed harpoons of bone, and especially those with barbs on one side only, are generally maglemosian, while those of horn and double-barbed are typically azilian. [illustration: horn and bone implements harpoons: and , from macarthur cave, oban; , from laugerie basse rock-shelter, france; , from shell-heap, oronsay, hebrides; , from bed of river dee near kirkcudbright; , from palude brabbie, italy--all of azilian type. , reindeer-horn harpoon of late magdalenian, or proto-azilian, type from victoria cave, near settle, yorks. , maglemosian, or azilian-maglemosian, harpoon from rock-shelter, druimvargie, oban. , , , , , and , bone and deer-horn implements from macarthur cave, oban.] apparently the fair northerners, the carriers of maglemosian culture, and the dark iberians, the carriers of azilian culture, met and mingled in scotland and england long before the neolithic industry was introduced. there were also, it would appear, communities in britain of crô-magnons, and perhaps of other racial types that existed on the continent and in late magdalenian times. the fair peoples of england and wales, scotland and ireland are not therefore all necessarily descendants of celts, angles, saxons, and vikings. the pioneer settlers in the british isles, in all probability, included blue and grey-eyed and fair or reddish-haired peoples who in scotland may have formed the basis of the later caledonian type, compared by tacitus to the germans, but bearing an undoubted celtic racial name, the military aristocrats being celts.[ ] [ ] the abbé breuil, having examined the artifacts associated with the western scottish harpoons, inclines to refer to the culture as "azilian-tardenoisian". at the same time he considers the view that maglemosian influence was operating is worthy of consideration. he notes that traces of maglemosian culture have been reported from england. the abbé has detected magdalenian influence in artifacts from campbeltown, argyllshire (_proceedings of the society of antiquaries in scotland_, - ). chapter vi the faithful dog transition period between palæolithic and neolithic ages--theory of the neolithic edge--crô-magnon civilization was broken up by users of bow and arrow--domesticated dog of fair northerners--dogs as guides and protectors of man--the dog in early religion--dog guides of souls--the dog of hades--dogs and death--the scape-dog in scotland--souls in dog form--traces of early domesticated dogs--romans imported british dogs. the period we have now reached is regarded by some as that of transition between the palæolithic and neolithic ages, and by others as the early neolithic period. it is necessary, therefore, that we should keep in mind that these terms have been to a great extent divested of the significance originally attached to them. the transition period was a lengthy one, extending over many centuries during which great changes occurred. it was much longer than the so-called "neolithic age". new races appeared in europe and introduced new habits of life and thought, new animals appeared and animals formerly hunted by man retreated northward or became extinct; the land sank and rose; a great part of the north sea and the english channel was for a time dry land, and trees grew on the plateau now marked by the dogger bank during this "transition period", and before it had ended the strait of dover had widened and england was completely cut off from the continent. compared with these great changes the invention of the polished axe edge seems almost trivial. yet some writers have regarded this change as being all-important. "on the edge ever since its discovery", writes one of them with enthusiasm, "has depended and probably will depend to the end of time the whole artistic and artificial environment of human existence, in all its infinite varied complexity.... by this discovery was broken down a wall that for untold ages had dammed up a stagnant, unprogressive past, and through the breach were let loose all the potentialities of the future civilization of mankind. it was entirely due to the discovery of the edge that man was enabled, in the course of time, to invent the art of shipbuilding."[ ] [ ] eirikr magnusson in _notes on shipbuilding and nautical terms_, london, . this is a very sweeping claim and hardly justified by the evidence that of late years has come to light. much progress had been achieved before the easy method of polishing supplanted that of secondary working. the so-called palæolithic implements were not devoid of edges. what really happened was that flint-working was greatly simplified. the discovery was an important one, but it was not due to it alone that great changes in habits of life were introduced. long before the introduction of the neolithic industry, the earliest traces of which in western europe have been obtained at campigny near the village of blangy on the river bresle, the magdalenian civilization of the crô-magnons had been broken up by the azilian-tardenoisian intruders in central and western europe and by the maglemosians in the baltic area. the invading hordes in spain, so far as can be gathered from rock pictures, made more use of bows and arrows than of spears, and it may be that their social organization was superior to that of the magdalenians. their animal "drives" suggest as much. it may be that they were better equipped for organized warfare--if there was warfare--and for hunting by organizing drives than the taller and stronger crô-magnons. when they reached the magdalenian stations they adopted the barbed harpoon, imitating reindeer-horn forms in red-deer horn. the blond maglemosians in the baltic area introduced from asia the domesticated dog. they were thus able to obtain their food supply with greater ease than did the solutreans with their laurel-leaf lances, or the magdalenians with their spears tipped with bone or horn. when man was joined by his faithful ally he met with more success than when he pursued the chase unaided. withal, he could take greater risks when threatened by the angry bulls of a herd, and operate over more extended tracks of country with less fear of attack by beasts of prey. his dogs warned him of approaching peril and guarded his camp by night. hunters who dwelt in caves may have done so partly for protection against lions and bears and wolves that were attracted to hunters' camps by the scent of flesh and blood. no doubt barriers had to be erected to shield men, women, and children in the darkness; and it may be that there were fires and sentinels at cave entrances. the introduction of the domesticated dog may have influenced the development of religious beliefs. crô-magnon hunters appear to have performed ceremonies in the depths of caverns where they painted and carved wild animals, with purpose to obtain power over them. their masked dances, in which men and women represented wild animals, chiefly beasts of prey, may have had a similar significance. the fact that, during the transition period, a cult art passed out of existence, and the caves were no longer centres of culture and political power, may have been directly or indirectly due to the domestication of the dog and the supremacy achieved by the intruders who possessed it. there can be no doubt that the dog played its part in the development of civilization. as much is suggested by the lore attaching to this animal. it occupies a prominent place in mythology. the dog which guided and protected the hunter in his wanderings was supposed to guide his soul to the other world. he thought admitted to that equal sky, his faithful dog would bear him company. in ancient egypt the dog-headed god anubis was the guide and protector of souls. apuatua, an early form of osiris, was a dog god. yama, the hindu god of death, as dharma, god of justice, assumed his dog form to guide the panadava brothers to paradise, as is related in the sanskrit epic the _mahá-bhárata_[ ]. the god indra, the hindu jupiter, was the "big dog", and the custom still prevails among primitive indian peoples of torturing a dog by pouring hot oil into its ears so that the "big dog" may hear and send rain. in the _mahá-bhárata_ there is a story about indra appearing as a hunter followed by a pack of dogs. as the "wild huntsman" the scandinavian god odin rides through the air followed by dogs. the dog is in greek mythology the sentinel of hades; it figures in a like capacity in the hades of northern mythology. cuchullin, the gaelic hero, kills the dog of hades and takes its place until another dog is found and trained, and that is why he is called "cu" (the dog) of culann. a pool in kildonan, sutherland, which was reputed to contain a pot of gold, was supposed to be guarded by a big black dog with two heads. a similar legend attaches to hound's pool in the parish of dean combe, devonshire. in different parts of the world the dog is the creator and ancestor of the human race, the symbol of kinship, &c. the star sirius was associated with the dog. in scotland and ireland "dog stones" were venerated. a common surviving belief is that dogs howl by night when a sudden death is about to occur. this association of the dog with death is echoed by theocritus. "hark!" cries simaetha, "the dogs are barking through the town. hecate is at the crossways. haste, clash the brazen cymbals." the dog-god of scotland is remembered as _an cù sìth_ ("the supernatural dog"); it is as big as a calf, and by night passes rapidly over land and sea. a black demon-dog--the "moddey dhoo"--referred to by scott in _peveril of the peak_ was supposed to haunt peel castle in the isle of man. a former new year's day custom in perthshire was to send away from a house door a scape-dog with the words, "get away you dog! whatever death of men or loss of cattle would happen in this house till the end of the present year, may it all light on your head." a similar custom obtained among western himalayan peoples. early man appears to have regarded his faithful companion as a supernatural being. there are gaelic references to souls appearing in dog form to assist families in time of need. not only did the dog attack beasts of prey; in gaelic folk-tales it is the enemy of fairies and demons, and especially cave-haunting demons. early man's gratitude to and dependence on the dog seems to be reflected in stories of this kind. [ ] pronounced ma-haw'-baw'-rata (the two final _a_'s are short). when the baltic peoples, who are believed to be the first "wave" of blond northerners, moved westward towards denmark during the period of the "great thaw", they must have been greatly assisted by the domesticated dog, traces of which are found in maglemosian stations. bones of dogs have been found in the danish kitchen middens and in the macarthur cave at oban. it may be that the famous breed of british hunting dogs which were in roman times exported to italy were descended from those introduced by the maglemosian hunters. seven irish dogs were in the fourth century presented to symmachus, a roman consul, by his brother. "all rome", the grateful recipient wrote, "view them with wonder and thought they must have been brought hither in iron cages." great dogs were kept in ancient britain and ireland for protection against wolves as well as for hunting wild animals. the ancient irish made free use in battle of large fierce hounds. in the folk-stories of scotland dogs help human beings to attack and overcome supernatural beings. dogs were the enemies of the fairies, mermaids, &c. dog gods figure on the ancient sculptured stones of scotland. the names of the irish heroes cuchullin and con-chobar were derived from those of dog deities. "con" is the genitive of "cu" (dog). chapter vii ancient mariners reach britain reindeer in scotland--north sea and english channel land-bridges--early river rafts and river boats--breaking of land-bridges--coast erosion--tilbury man--where were first boats invented?--ancient boats in britain--"dug-out" canoes--imitations of earlier papyri and skin boats--cork plug in ancient clyde boat--early swedish boats--an african link--various types of british boats--daring ancient mariners--the veneti seafarers--attractions of early britain for colonists. the maglemosian (baltic) and azilian (iberian) peoples, who reached and settled in britain long before the introduction of the neolithic industry, appear, as has been shown, to have crossed the great land-bridge, which is now marked by the dogger bank, and the narrowed land-bridge that connected england and france. no doubt they came at first in small bands, wandering along the river banks and founding fishing communities, following the herds of red deer and wild cows that had moved northward, and seeking flints, &c. the crô-magnons, whose civilization the new intruders had broken up on the continent, were already in britain, where the reindeer lingered for many centuries after they had vanished from france. the reindeer moss still grows in the north of scotland. bones and horns of the reindeer have been found in this area in association with human remains as late as of the roman period. in the twelfth century the norsemen hunted reindeer in caithness.[ ] cæsar refers to the reindeer in the hercynian forest of germany (_gallic war_, vi, ). [ ] _the orkneyinga saga_, p. , edinburgh, , and _proceedings of the society of antiquaries of scotland_, vol. viii. the early colonists of fair northerners who introduced the maglemosian culture into britain from the baltic area could not have crossed the north sea land-bridge without the aid of rafts or boats. great broad rivers were flowing towards the north. the elbe and the weser joined one another near the island of heligoland, and received tributaries from marshy valleys until a long estuary wider than is the wash at present was formed. another long river flowed northward from the valley of the zuyder zee, the mouth of which has been traced on the north-east of the dogger bank. the rhine reached the north sea on the south-west of the dogger bank, off flamborough head; its tributaries included the meuse and the thames. the humber and the rivers flowing at present into the wash were united before entering the north sea between the mouth of the rhine and the coast of east riding. the dogger bank was then a plateau. trawlers, as has been stated, sometimes lift from its surface in their trawl nets lumps of peat, which they call "moor-log", and also the bones of wild animals, including the wild ox, the wild horse, red deer, reindeer, the elk, the bear, the wolf, the hyæna, the beaver, the walrus, the woolly rhinoceros, and the hairy mammoth. in the peat have been found the remains of the white birch, the hazel, sallow, and willow, seeds of bog-bean, fragments of fern, &c. all the plants have a northern range. in some pieces of peat have been found plants and insects that still flourish in britain.[ ] [ ] clement reid, _submerged forests_, pp. - . london, . the easiest crossing to britain was over the english channel land-bridge. it was ultimately cut through by the english channel river, so that the dark azilian-tardenoisian peoples from central and western europe and the fair maglemosians must have required and used rafts or boats before polished implements of neolithic type came into use. in time the north sea broke through the marshes of the river land to the east of the thames estuary and joined the waters of the english channel. the strait of dover was then formed. at first it may have been narrow enough for animals to swim across or, at any rate, for the rude river boats or rafts of the early colonists to be paddled over in safety between tides. gradually, however, the strait grew wider and wider; the chalk cliffs, long undermined by boring molluscs and scouring shingle, were torn down by great billows during winter storms. it may be that for a long period after the north sea and english channel were united, the dogger bank remained an island, and that there were other islands between heligoland and the english coast. pliny, who had served with the roman army in germany, writing in the first century of our era, refers to twenty-three islands between the texel and the eider in schleswig-holstein. seven of these have since vanished. the west coast of schleswig has, during the past eighteen hundred years, suffered greatly from erosion, and alluvial plains that formerly yielded rich harvests are now represented by sandbanks. the goodwin sands, which stretch for about ten miles off the kentish coast, were once part of the fertile estate of earl godwin which was destroyed and engulfed by a great storm towards the end of the eleventh century. the gulf of zuyder zee was formerly a green plain with many towns and villages. periodic inundations since the roman period have destroyed flourishing dutch farms and villages and eaten far into the land. there are records of storm-floods that drowned on one occasion , , and on another no fewer than , inhabitants.[ ] it is believed that large tracts of land, the remnants of the ancient north sea land-bridge, have been engulfed since about b.c., as a result not merely of erosion but the gradual submergence of the land. this date is suggested by mr. clement reid. [ ] the dates of the greatest disasters on record are , , and . there were also terrible inundations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in and . "the estimate", he says, "may have to be modified as we obtain better evidence; but it is as well to realize clearly that we are not dealing with a long period of great geological antiquity; we are dealing with times when the egyptian, babylonian, and minoan (cretan) civilizations flourished. northern europe was then probably barbarous, and metals had not come into use;[ ] but the amber trade of the baltic was probably in full swing. rumours of any great disaster, such as the submergence of thousands of square miles and the displacement of large populations, might spread far and wide along the trade routes." it may be that the legend of the lost atlantis was founded on reports of such a disaster, that must have occurred when areas like the dogger bank were engulfed. it may be too that the gradual wasting away of lands that have long since vanished propelled migrations of peoples towards the smiling coasts of england. according to ammianus the druids stated that some of the inhabitants of gaul were descendants of refugees from sea-invaded areas. [ ] it was not necessarily barbarous because metal weapons had not been invented. the gradual sinking of the land and the process of coast erosion has greatly altered the geography of england. the beach on which julius cæsar landed has long since vanished, the dwellings of the ancient azilian and maglemosian colonists, who reached england in post-glacial times, have been sunk below the english channel. when tilbury docks were being excavated roman remains were found embedded in clay several feet below high-water mark. below several layers of peat and mud, and immediately under a bank of sand in which were fragments of decomposed wood, was found the human skeleton known as "tilbury man". the land in this area was originally feet above its present level.[ ] but while england was sinking scotland was rising. the macarthur cave at oban, in which azilian hunters and fishermen made their home on the sea-beach, is now about feet above the old sea-level. [ ] _submerged forests_, p. . before dover strait had been widened by the gradual sinking of the land and the process of coast erosion, and before the great islands had vanished from the southern part of the north sea, the early hunters and fishermen could have experienced no great difficulty in reaching england. it is possible that the azilian, tardenoisian, and maglemosian peoples had made considerable progress in the art of navigation. traces of the tardenoisian industry have been obtained in northern egypt, along the ancient libyan coast of north africa where a great deal of land has been submerged, and especially at tunis, and in algiers, in italy, and in england and scotland, as has been noted. there were boats on the mediterranean at a very early period. the island of crete was reached long before the introduction of copper-working by seafarers who visited the island of melos, and there obtained obsidian (natural glass) from which sharp implements were fashioned. egyptian mariners, who dwelt on the delta coast, imported cedar, not only from lebanon but from morocco, as has been found from the evidence afforded by mummies packed with the sawdust of cedar from the atlas mountains.[ ] when this trade with morocco began it is impossible to say with certainty. long before b.c., however, the egyptians were building boats that were fitted with masts and sails. the ancient mariners were active as explorers and traders before implements of copper came into use. [ ] _the cairo scientific journal_, vol. iii. no. (may, ), p. . here we touch on a very interesting problem. where were boats first invented and the art of navigation developed? rafts and floats formed by tying together two trees or, as in egypt, two bundles of reeds, were in use at a very early period in various countries. in babylonia the "kufa", a great floating basket made watertight with pitch or covered with skins, was an early invention. it was used as it still is for river ferry boats. but ships were not developed from "kufas". the dug-out canoe is one of the early prototypes of the modern ocean-going vessel. it reached this country before the neolithic industry was introduced, and during that period when england was slowly sinking and scotland was gradually rising. dug-out canoes continued to come during the so-called "neolithic" stage of culture ere yet the sinking and rising of land had ceased. "that neolithic man lived in scotland during the formation of this beach (the -to -foot beach) is proved", wrote the late professor james geikie, "by the frequent occurrence in it of his relics. at perth, for example, a dug-out canoe of pine was met with towards the bottom of the carse clays; and similar finds have frequently been recorded from the contemporaneous deposits in the valleys of the forth and the clyde."[ ] [ ] _antiquity of man in europe_, p. , edinburgh, . the term "neolithic" is here rather vague. it applies to the azilians and maglemosians as well as to later peoples. how did early man come to invent the dug-out? not only did he hollow out a tree trunk by the laborious process of burning and by chipping with a flint adze, he dressed the trunk so that his boat could be balanced on the water. the early shipbuilders had to learn, and did learn, for themselves, "the values of length and beam, of draught and sweet lines, of straight keel; with high stem to breast a wave and high stern to repel a following sea". the fashioning of a sea-worthy, or even a river-worthy boat, must have been in ancient times as difficult a task as was the fashioning of the first aeroplane in our own day. many problems had to be solved, many experiments had to be made, and, no doubt, many tragedies took place before the first safe model-boat was paddled across a river. the early experimenters may have had shapes of vessels suggested to them by fish and birds, and especially by the aquatic birds that paddled past them on the river breast with dignity and ease. but is it probable that the first experiments were made with trees? did early man undertake the laborious task of hewing down tree after tree to shape new models, until in the end he found on launching the correctly shaped vessel that its balance was perfect? or was the dug-out canoe an imitation of a boat already in existence, just as a modern ship built of steel or concrete is an imitation of the earlier wooden ships? the available evidence regarding this important phase of the shipping problem tends to show that, before the dug-out was invented, boats were constructed of light material. ancient egypt was the earliest shipbuilding country in the world, and all ancient ships were modelled on those that traded on the calm waters of the nile. yet egypt is an almost treeless land. there the earliest boats--broad, light skiffs--were made by binding together long bundles of the reeds of papyrus. ropes were twisted from papyrus as well as from palm fibre.[ ] it would appear that, before dug-outs were made, the problems of boat construction were solved by those who had invented papyri skiffs and skin boats. in the case of the latter the skins were stretched round a framework, sewed together and made watertight with pitch. we still refer to the "seams" and the "skin" of a boat. [ ] breasted, _a history of egypt_, pp. - . the art of boat-building spread far and wide from the area of origin. until recently the chinese were building junks of the same type as they did four or five hundred years earlier. these junks have been compared by more than one writer to the deep-sea boats of the egyptian empire period. the papuans make "dug-outs" and carve eyes on the prows as did the ancient egyptians and as do the maltese, chinese, &c., in our own day. even when only partly hollowed, the papuan boats have perfect balance in the water as soon as they are launched.[ ] the polynesians performed religious ceremonies when cutting down trees and constructing boats.[ ] in their incantations, &c., the lore of boat-building was enshrined and handed down. the polynesian boat was dedicated to the _mo-o_ (dragon-god). we still retain a relic of an ancient religious ceremony when a bottle of wine is broken on the bows of a vessel just as it is being launched. [ ] wollaston, _pygmies and papuans (the stone age to-day in dutch new guinea)_, london, , pp. et seq. [ ] westervelt, _legends of old honolulu_, pp. _et seq._ after the egyptians were able to secure supplies of cedar wood from the atlas mountains or lebanon, by drifting rafts of lashed trees along the coast line, they made dug-out vessels of various shapes, as can be seen in the tomb pictures of the old kingdom period. these dug-outs were apparently modelled on the earlier papyri and skin boats. a ship with a square sail spread to the wind is depicted on an ancient egyptian two-handed jar in the british museum, which is of pre-dynastic age and may date to anything like or b.c. at that remote period the art of navigation was already well advanced, no doubt on account of the experience gained on the calm waters of the nile. [illustration: (_a_) sketch of a boat from victoria nyanza, after the drawing in sir henry stanley's _darkest africa_. only the handles of the oars are shown. in outline the positions of some of the oarsmen are roughly represented. (_b_) crude drawing of a similar boat carved upon the rocks in sweden during the early bronze age, after montelius. by comparison with (_a_) it will be seen that the vertical projections were probably intended to represent the oarsmen. the upturned hook-like appendage at the stern is found in ancient egyptian and mediterranean ships, but is absent in the modern african vessel shown in (_a_). these figures are taken from elliot smith's _ancient mariners_ ( ).] the existence of these boats on the nile at a time when great race migrations were in progress may well account for the early appearance of dug-outs in northern europe. one of the clyde canoes, found embedded in clyde silt twenty-five feet above the present sea-level, was found to have a plug of cork which could only have come from the area in which cork trees grow--spain, southern france, or italy.[ ] it may have been manned by the azilians of spain whose rock paintings date from the transition period. similar striking evidence of the drift of culture from the mediterranean area towards northern europe is obtained from some of the rock paintings and carvings of sweden. among the canoes depicted are some with distinct mediterranean characteristics. one at tegneby in bohuslän bears a striking resemblance to a boat seen by sir henry stanley on lake victoria nyanza. it seems undoubted that the designs are of common origin, although separated not only by centuries but by barriers of mountain, desert, and sea extending many hundreds of miles. from the maglemosian boat the viking ship was ultimately developed; the unprogressive victoria nyanza boatbuilders continued through the ages repeating the design adopted by their remote ancestors. in both vessels the keel projects forward, and the figure-head is that of a goat or ram. the northern vessel has the characteristic inward curving stern of ancient egyptian ships. as the rock on which it was carved is situated in a metal-yielding area, the probability is that this type of vessel is a relic of the visits paid by searchers for metals in ancient times, who established colonies of dark miners among the fair northerners and introduced the elements of southern culture. [ ] lyell, _antiquity of man_, p. . the ancient boats found in scotland are of a variety of types. one of those at glasgow lay, when discovered, nearly vertical, with prow uppermost as if it had foundered; it had been built "of several pieces of oak, though without ribs". another had the remains of an outrigger attached to it: beside another, which had been partly hollowed by fire, lay two planks that appear to have been wash-boards like those on a sussex dug-out. a clyde clinker-built boat, eighteen feet long, had a keel and a base of oak to which ribs had been attached. an interesting find at kinaven in aberdeenshire, several miles distant from the ythan, a famous pearling river, was a dug-out eleven feet long, and about four feet broad. it lay embedded at the head of a small ravine in five feet of peat which appears to have been the bed of an ancient lake. near it were the stumps of big oaks, apparently of the upper forestian period. among the longest of the ancient boats that have been discovered are one forty-two feet long, with an animal head on the prow, from loch arthur, near dumfries, one thirty-five long from near the river arun in sussex, one sixty-three feet long excavated near the rother in kent, one forty-eight feet six inches long, found at brigg, lincolnshire, with wooden patches where she had sprung a leak, and signs of the caulking of cracks and small holes with moss. these vessels do not all belong to the same period. the date of the brigg boat is, judging from the geological strata, between and b.c. it would appear that some of the clyde vessels found at twenty-five feet above the present sea-level are even older. beside one clyde boat was found an axe of polished green-stone similar to the axes used by polynesians and others in shaping dug-outs. this axe may, however, have been a religious object. to the low bases of some vessels were fixed ribs on which skins were stretched. these boats were eminently suitable for rough seas, being more buoyant than dug-outs. according to himilco the inhabitants of the oestrymnides, the islands "rich in tin and lead", had most sea-worthy skiffs. "these people do not make pine keels, nor", he says, "do they know how to fashion them; nor do they make fir barks, but, with wonderful skill, fashion skiffs with sewn skins. in these hide-bound vessels, they skim across the ocean." apparently they were as daring mariners as the oregon islanders of whom washington irving has written: "it is surprising to see with what fearless unconcern these savages venture in their light barks upon the roughest and most tempestuous seas. they seem to ride upon the wave like sea-fowl. should a surge throw the canoe upon its side, and endanger its over turn, those to the windward lean over the upper gunwale, thrust their paddles deep into the wave, and by this action not merely regain an equilibrium, but give their bark a vigorous impulse forward." the ancient mariners whose rude vessels have been excavated around our coasts were the forerunners of the celtic sea-traders, who, as the gaelic evidence shows, had names not only for the north sea and the english channel but also for the mediterranean sea. they cultivated what is known as the "sea sense", and developed shipbuilding and the art of navigation in accordance with local needs. when julius cæsar came into conflict with the veneti of brittany he tells that their vessels were greatly superior to those of the romans. "the bodies of the ships", he says, "were built entirely of oak, stout enough to withstand any shock or violence.... instead of cables for their anchors they used iron chains.... the encounter of our fleet with these ships was of such a nature that our fleet excelled in speed alone, and the plying of oars; for neither could our ships injure theirs with their rams, so great was their strength, nor was a weapon easily cast up to them owing to their height.... about of their ships ... sailed forth from the harbour." in this great allied fleet were vessels from our own country.[ ] [ ] cæsar's _gallic war_, book iii, c. - . it must not be imagined that the "sea sense" was cultivated because man took pleasure in risking the perils of the deep. it was stern necessity that at the beginning compelled him to venture on long voyages. after england was cut off from france the peoples who had adopted the neolithic industry must have either found it absolutely necessary to seek refuge in britain, or were attracted towards it by reports of prospectors who found it to be suitable for residence and trade. chapter viii neolithic trade and industries attractions of ancient britain--romans search for gold, silver, pearls, &c.--the lure of precious stones and metals--distribution of ancient british population--neolithic settlements in flint-yielding areas--trade in flint--settlements on lias formation--implements from basic rocks--trade in body-painting materials--search for pearls--gold in britain and ireland--agriculture--the story of barley--neolithic settlers in ireland--scottish neolithic traders--neolithic peoples not wanderers--trained neolithic craftsmen. the "drift" of peoples into britain which began in aurignacian times continued until the roman period. there were definite reasons for early intrusions as there were for the roman invasion. "britain contains to reward the conqueror", tacitus wrote,[ ] "mines of gold and silver and other metals. the sea produces pearls." according to suetonius, who at the end of the first century of our era wrote the _lives of the cæsars_, julius cæsar invaded britain with the desire to enrich himself with the pearls found on different parts of the coast. on his return to rome he presented a corselet of british pearls to the goddess venus. he was in need of money to further his political ambitions. he found what he required elsewhere, however. after the death of queen cleopatra sufficient gold and silver flowed to rome from egypt to reduce the loan rate of interest from to per cent. spain likewise contributed its share to enrich the great predatory state of rome.[ ] [ ] _agricola_, chap. xii. [ ] smith, _roman empire_. long ages before the roman period the early peoples entered britain in search of pearls, precious stones, and precious metals because these had a religious value. the celts of gaul offered great quantities of gold to their deities, depositing the precious metals in their temples and in their sacred lakes. poseidonius of apamea tells that after conquering gaul "the romans put up these sacred lakes to public sale, and many of the purchasers found quantities of solid silver in them". he also says that gold was similarly placed in these lakes.[ ] apparently the celts believed, as did the aryo-indians, that gold was "a form of the gods" and "fire, light, and immortality", and that it was a "life giver".[ ] personal ornaments continued to have a religious value until christian times. [ ] _strabo_--iv, c. - . [ ] _satapatha-brahmana_, pt. v, "sacred books of the east", xliv, pp. , , . , - . [illustration: flint lance-heads from ireland (british museum)] [illustration: photo oxford university press chipped and polished artifacts from southern england (british museum)] as we have seen when dealing with the "red man of paviland", the earliest ornaments were shells, teeth of wild animals, coloured stones, ivory, &c. shells were carried great distances. then arose the habit of producing substitutes which were regarded as of great potency as the originals. the ancient egyptians made use of gold to manufacture imitation shells, and before they worked copper they wore charms of malachite, which is an ore of copper. they probably used copper first for magical purposes just as they used gold. pearls found in shells were regarded as depositories of supernatural influence, and so were coral and amber (see chapter xiii). like the aryo-indians, the egyptians, phoenicians, greeks, and others connected precious metals, stones, pearls, &c., with their deities, and believed that these contained the influence of their deities, and were therefore "lucky". these and similar beliefs are of great antiquity in europe and asia and north africa. it would be rash to assume that they were not known to the ancient mariners who reached our shores in vessels of mediterranean type. the colonists who were attracted to britain at various periods settled in those districts most suitable for their modes of life. it was necessary that they should obtain an adequate supply of the materials from which their implements and weapons were manufactured. the distribution of the population must have been determined by the resources of the various districts. at the present day the population of britain is most dense in those areas in which coal and iron are found and where commerce is concentrated. in ancient times, before metals were used, it must have been densest in those areas where flint was found--that is, on the upper chalk formations. if worked flints are discovered in areas which do not have deposits of flint, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the flint was obtained by means of trade, just as mediterranean shells were in aurignacian and magdalenian times obtained by hunters who settled in central europe. in devon and cornwall, for instance, large numbers of flint implements have been found, yet in these counties suitable flint was exceedingly scarce in ancient times, except in east devon, where, however, the surface flint is of inferior character. in wilts and dorset, however, the finest quality of flint was found, and it was no doubt from these areas that the early settlers in cornwall and devon received their chief supplies of the raw material, if not of the manufactured articles. in england, as on the continent, the most abundant finds of the earliest flint implements have been made in those areas where the early hunters and fishermen could obtain their raw materials. river drift implements are discovered in largest numbers on the chalk formations of south-eastern england between the wash and the estuary of the thames. the neolithic peoples, who made less use of horn and bone than did the azilians and maglemosians, had many village settlements on the upper chalk in dorset and wiltshire, and especially at avebury where there were veritable flint factories, and near the famous flint mines at grimes graves in the vicinity of weeting in norfolk and at cissbury camp not far from worthing in sussex. implements were likewise made of basic rocks, including quartzite, ironstone, green-stone, hornblende schist, granite, mica-schist, &c.; while ornaments were made of jet, a hydrocarbon compound allied to cannel coal, which takes on a fine polish, kimeridge shale and ivory. withal, like the aurignacians and magdalenians, the neolithic-industry people used body paint, which was made with pigments of ochre, hæmatite, an ore of iron, and ruddle, an earthy variety of iron ore. in those districts, where the raw materials for stone implements, ornaments, and body paint were found, traces survive of the activities of the neolithic peoples. their graves of long-barrow type are found not only in the chalk areas but on the margins of the lias formations. hæmatite is found in large quantities in west cumberland and north lancashire and in south-western england, while the chief source of jet is whitby in yorkshire, where it occurs in large quantities in beds of the upper lias shale. [illustration: map of england & wales] mr. w. j. perry, of manchester university, who has devoted special attention to the study of the distribution of megalithic monuments, has been drawing attention to the interesting association of these monuments with geological formations.[ ] in the avebury district stone circles, dolmens, chambered barrows, long barrows, and neolithic settlements are numerous; another group of megalithic monuments occurs in oxford on the margin of the lias formation, and at the south-end of the great iron field extending as far as the clevelands. according to the memoir of the geological survey, there are traces of ancient surface iron-workings in the middle lias formation of oxfordshire, where red and brown hæmatite were found. mr. perry notes that there are megalithic monuments in the vicinity of all these surface workings, as at fawler, adderbury, hook norton, woodstock, steeple aston, and hanbury. apparently the neolithic peoples were attracted to the lias formatio because it contains hæmatite, ochre, shale, &c. there are significant megaliths in the whitby region where the jet is so plentiful. amber was obtained from the east coast of england and from the baltic. [ ] _proceedings of the manchester literary and philosophical society_, . the neolithic peoples appear to have searched for pearls, which are found in a number of english, welsh, scottish, and irish rivers, and in the vicinity of most, if not all, of these megaliths occur. gold was the first metal worked by man, and it appears to have attracted some of the early peoples who settled in britain. the ancient seafarers who found their way northward may have included searchers for gold and silver. the latter metal was at one time found in great abundance in spain, while gold was at one time fairly plentiful in south-western england, in north wales, in various parts of scotland and especially in lanarkshire, and in north-eastern, eastern, and western ireland. that there was a "drift" of civilized peoples into britain and ireland during the period of the neolithic industry is made evident by the fact that the agricultural mode of life was introduced. barley does not grow wild in europe. the nearest area in which it grew wild and was earliest cultivated was the delta area of egypt, the region from which the earliest vessels set out to explore the shores of the mediterranean. it may be that the barley seeds were carried to britain not by the overland routes alone to channel ports, but also by the seafarers whose boats, like the glasgow one with the cork plug, coasted round by spain and brittany, and crossed the channel to south-western england and thence went northward to scotland. as irish flints and ground axe-heads occur chiefly in ulster, it may be that the drift of early neolithic settlers into county antrim, in which gold was also found, was from south-western scotland. the neolithic settlement at whitepark bay, five miles from the giant's causeway, was embedded at a considerable depth, showing that there has been a sinking of the land in this area since the neolithic industry was introduced. neolithic remains are widely distributed over scotland, but these have not received the intensive study devoted to similar relics in england. mr. ludovic mann, the glasgow archæologist, has, however, compiled interesting data regarding one of the local industries that bring out the resource and activities of early man. on the island of arran is a workable variety of the natural volcanic glass, called pitch-stone, that of other parts of scotland and of ireland being "too much cracked into small pieces to be of use". it was used by the neolithic settlers in arran for manufacturing arrowheads, and as it was imported into bute, ayrshire, and wigtownshire, a trade in this material must have existed. "if", writes mr. mann, "the stone was not locally worked up into implements in bute, it was so manipulated on the mainland, where workshops of the neolithic period and the immediately succeeding overlap period yielded long fine flakes, testifying to greater expertness in manufacturing there than is shown by the remains in the domestic sites yet awaiting adequate exploration in arran. the explanation may be that the wigtownshire flint knappers, accustomed to handle an abundance of flint, were more proficient than in most other places, and that the pitch-stone was brought to them as experts, because the material required even more skilful handling than flint".[ ] in like manner obsidian, as has been noted, was imported into crete from the island of melos by seafarers, long before the introduction of metal working.[ ] [ ] _proceedings of the society of antiquaries of scotland_, - , pp. _et seq._ [ ] see my _myths of crete and pre-hellenic europe_ under "obsidian" in index. it will be seen that the neolithic peoples were no mere wandering hunters, as some have represented them to have been, but they had their social organization, their industries, and their system of trading by land and sea. they settled not only in those areas where they could procure a regular food supply, but those also in which they obtained the raw materials for implements, weapons, and the colouring material which they used for religious purposes. they made pottery for grave offerings and domestic use, and wooden implements regarding which, however, little is known. withal, they had their spinners and weavers. the conditions prevailing in neolithic settlements must have been similar to those of later times. there must have been systems of laws to make trade and peaceful social intercourse possible, and no doubt these had, as elsewhere, a religious basis. burial customs indicate a uniformity of beliefs over wide areas. the skill displayed in working stone was so great that it cannot now be emulated. ripple-flaking has long been a lost art. craftsmen must have undergone a prolonged period of training which was intelligently controlled under settled conditions of life. it is possible that the so-called neolithic folk were chiefly foreigners who exploited the riches of the country. the evidence in this connection will be found in the next chapter. chapter ix metal workers and megalithic monuments "broad-heads" of bronze age--the irish evidence--bronze introduced by traders--how metals were traced--a metal working tribe--damnonii in england, scotland, and ireland--miners as slaves--the lot of women workers--megalithic monuments in english metal-yielding areas--stone circles in barren localities--early colonies of easterners in spain--egyptian and babylonian relics associated with british jet and baltic amber--a new flint industry of eastern origin--british bronze identical with continental--ancient furnaces of common origin--"stones of worship" adorned with metals--the "maggot god" of stone circles--ancient egyptian beads at stonehenge--earliest authentic date in british history--the aim of conquests. it used to be thought that the introduction of metal working into britain was the result of an invasion of alien peoples, who partly exterminated and partly enslaved the long-headed neolithic inhabitants. this view was based on the evidence afforded by a new type of grave known as the "round barrow". in graves of this class have been found bronze age relics, a distinctive kind of pottery, and skulls of broad-heads. the invasion of broad-heads undoubtedly took place, and their burial customs suggest that their religious beliefs were not identical with those of the long-heads. but it remains to be proved that they were the actual introducers of the bronze industry. they do not appear to have reached ireland, where bronze relics are associated with a long-headed people of comparatively low stature. the early irish bronze forms were obviously obtained from spain, while early english bronze forms resemble those of france and italy. cutting implements were the first to be introduced. this fact does not suggest that a conquest took place. the implements may have been obtained by traders. britain apparently had in those ancient times its trading colonies, and was visited by active and enterprising seafarers. [illustration: long-head (dolichocephalic) skull] [illustration: broad-head (brachycephalic) skull both these specimens were found in "round" barrows in the east riding of yorkshire] the discovery of metals in britain and ireland was, no doubt, first made by prospectors who had obtained experience in working them elsewhere. they may have simply come to exploit the country. how these men conducted their investigations is indicated by the report found in a british museum manuscript, dating from about , in which the prospector gives his reason for believing that gold was to be found on crawford moor in lanarkshire. he tells that he saw among the rocks what scottish miners call "mothers" and english miners "leaders" or "metalline fumes". it was believed that the "fumes" arose from veins of metal and coloured the rocks as smoke passing upward through a tunnel blackens it, and leaves traces on the outside. he professed to be able to distinguish between the colours left by "fumes" of iron, lead, tin, copper, or silver. on crawford moor he found "sparr, keel, and brimstone" between rocks, and regarded this discovery as a sure indication that gold was _in situ_. the "mothers" or "leaders" were more pronounced than any he had ever seen in cornwall, somersetshire, about keswick, or "any other mineral parts wheresoever i have travelled".[ ] gold was found in this area of lanarkshire in considerable quantities, and was no doubt worked in ancient times. of special interest in this connection is the fact that it was part of the territory occupied by damnonians,[ ] who appear to have been a metal-working people. besides occupying the richest metal-yielding area in scotland, the damnonians were located in devon and cornwall, and in the east-midland and western parts of ireland, in which gold, copper, and tin-stone were found as in south-western england. the welsh _dyfneint_ (devon) is supposed by some to be connected with a form of this tribal name. another form in a yarrow inscription is dumnogeni. in ireland inber domnann is the old name of malahide bay north of dublin. domnu, the genitive of which is domnann, was the name of an ancient goddess. in the irish manuscripts these people are referred to as fir-domnann,[ ] and associated with the fir-bolg (the men with sacks). a sack-carrying people are represented in spanish rock paintings that date from the azilian till early "bronze age" times. in an irish manuscript which praises the fair and tall people, the fir-bolg and fir-domnann are included among the black-eyed and black-haired people, the descendants of slaves and churls, and "the promoters of discord among the people". [ ] r. w. cochrane patrick, _early records relating to mining in scotland_. edinburgh, , p. xxviii. [ ] the _damnonii_ or _dumnonii_. [ ] the fir-domnann were known as "the men who used to deepen the earth", or "dig pits". professor j. macneil in _labor gabula_, p. . they were thus called "diggers" like the modern australians. the name of the goddess referred to the depths (the underworld). it is probable she was the personification of the metal-yielding earth. the reference to "slaves" is of special interest because the lot of the working miners was in ancient days an extremely arduous one. in one of his collected records which describes the method "of the greatest antiquity" diodorus siculus (a.d. first century) tells how gold-miners, with lights bound on their foreheads, drove galleries into the rocks, the fragments of which were carried out by frail old men and boys. these were broken small by men in the prime of life. the pounded stone was then ground in handmills by women: three women to a mill and "to each of those who bear this lot, death is better than life". afterwards the milled quartz was spread out on an inclined table. men threw water on it, work it through their fingers, and dabbed it with sponges until the lighter matter was removed and the gold was left behind. the precious metal was placed in a clay crucible, which was kept heated for five days and five nights. it may be that the scandinavian references to the nine maidens who turn the handle of the "world mill" which grinds out metal and soil, and the celtic references to the nine maidens who are associated with the celtic cauldron, survive from beliefs that reflected the habits and methods of the ancient metal workers. it is difficult now to trace the various areas in which gold was anciently found in our islands. but this is not to be wondered at. in egypt there were once rich goldfields, especially in the eastern desert, where about square miles were so thoroughly worked in ancient times that "only the merest traces of gold remain".[ ] gold, as has been stated, was formerly found in south-western england, north wales, and, as historical records, archæological data, and place names indicate, in various parts of scotland and ireland. during the period of the "great thaw" a great deal of alluvial gold must have distributed throughout the country. silver was found in various parts. in sutherland it is mixed with gold as it is elsewhere with lead. copper was worked in a number of districts where the veins cannot in modern times be economically worked, and tin was found in ireland and scotland as well as in south-western england, where mining operations do not seem to have been begun, as principal sir john rhys has shown,[ ] until after the supplies of surface tin were exhausted. of special interest in connection with this problem is the association of megalithic monuments with ancient mine workings. an interesting fact to be borne in mind in connection with these relics of the activities and beliefs of the early peoples is that they represent a distinct culture of complex character. mr. t. eric peet[ ] shows that the megalithic buildings "occupy a very remarkable position along a vast seaboard which includes the mediterranean coast of africa and the atlantic coast of europe. in other words, they lie entirely along a natural sea route." he gives forcible reasons for arriving at the conclusion that "it is impossible to consider megalithic building as a mere phase through which many nations passed, and it must therefore have been a system originating with one race, and spreading far and wide, owing either to trade influence or migration". he adds: "great movements of races by sea were not by any means unusual in primitive days. in fact, the sea has always been less of an obstacle to early man than the land with its deserts, mountains, and unfordable rivers. there is nothing inherently impossible or even improbable in the suggestion that a great immigration brought the megalithic monuments from sweden to india or vice versa. history is full of instances of such migrations." [ ] alford, _a report on ancient and prospective gold mining in egypt_, , and _mining in egypt_ (by egyptologist). [ ] _celtic britain_, pp. _et seq._ ( th edition). [ ] _rough stone monuments_, london, , pp. - . but there must have been a definite reason for these race movements. it cannot be that in all cases they were forced merely by natural causes, such as changes of climate, invasions of the sea, and the drying up of once fertile districts, or by the propelling influences of stronger races in every country from the british isles to japan--that is, in all countries in which megalithic monuments of similar type are found. the fact that the megalithic monuments are distributed along "a vast seaboard" suggests that they were the work of people who had acquired a culture of common origin, and were attracted to different countries for the same reason. what that attraction was is indicated by studying the elements of the megalithic culture. in a lecture delivered before the british association in manchester in , mr. w. j. perry threw much light on the problem by showing that the carriers of the culture practised weaving linen, and in some cases the use of tyrian purple, pearls, precious stones, metals, and conch-shell trumpets, as well as curious beliefs and superstitions attached to the latter, while they "adopted certain definite metallurgical methods, as well as mining". mr. perry's paper was subsequently published by the manchester literary and philosophical society. it shows that in western europe the megalithic monuments are distributed in those areas in which ancient pre-roman and pre-greek mine workings and metal washings have been traced. "the same correspondence", he writes, "seems to hold in the case of england and wales. in the latter country the counties where megalithic structures abound are precisely those where mineral deposits and ancient mine-workings occur. in england the grouping in cumberland, westmorland, northumberland, durham, and derbyshire is precisely that of old mines; in cornwall the megalithic structures are mainly grouped west of falmouth, precisely in that district where mining has always been most active." pearls, amber, coral, jet, &c., were searched for as well as metals. the megalithic monuments near pearling rivers, in the vicinity of whitby, the main source of jet, and in denmark and the baltic area where amber was found were, in all likelihood, erected by people who had come under the spell of the same ancient culture. when, therefore, we come to deal with groups of monuments in areas which were unsuitable for agriculture and unable to sustain large populations, a reasonable conclusion to draw is that precious metals, precious stones, or pearls were once found near them. the pearling beds may have been destroyed or greatly reduced in value,[ ] or the metals may have been worked out, leaving but slight if any indication that they were ever _in situ_. reference has been made to the traces left by ancient miners in egypt where no gold is now found. in our own day rich gold fields in australia and north america have been exhausted. it would be unreasonable for us to suppose that the same thing did not happen in our country, even although but slight traces of the precious metal can now be obtained in areas which were thoroughly explored by ancient miners. [ ] the scottish pearling beds have suffered great injury in historic times. they are the property of the "crown", and no one takes any interest in them except the "pearl poachers". when early man reached scotland in search of suitable districts in which to settle, he was not likely to be attracted by the barren or semi-barren areas in which nature grudged soil for cultivation, where pasture lands were poor and the coasts were lashed by great billows for the greater part of the year, and the tempests of winter and spring were particularly severe. yet in such places as carloway, fronting the atlantic on the west coast of lewis, and at stennis in orkney, across the dangerous pentland firth, are found the most imposing stone circles north of stonehenge and avebury. traces of tin have been found in lewis, and orkney has yielded traces of lead, including silver-lead, copper and zinc, and has flint in glacial drift. traces of tin have likewise been found on the mainlands of ross-shire and argyllshire, in various islands of the hebrides and in stirlingshire. the great stonehenge circle is like the callernish and stennis circles situated in a semi-barren area, but it is an area where surface tin and gold were anciently obtained. one cannot help concluding that the early people, who populated the wastes of ancient britain and erected megalithic monuments, were attracted by something more tangible than the charms of solitude and wild scenery. they searched for and found the things they required. if they found gold, it must be recognized that there was a psychological motive for the search for this precious metal. they valued gold, or whatever other metal they worked in bleak and isolated places, because they had learned to value it elsewhere. who were the people that first searched for, found, and used metals in western europe? some have assumed that the natives themselves did so "as a matter of course". such a theory is, however, difficult to maintain. gold is a useless metal for all practical purposes. it is too soft for implements. besides, it cannot be found or worked except by those who have acquired a great deal of knowledge and skill. the men who first "washed" it from the soil in britain must have obtained the necessary knowledge and skill in a country where it was more plentiful and much easier to work, and where--and this point is a most important one--the magical and religious beliefs connected with gold have a very definite history. copper, tin, and silver were even more difficult to find and work in britain. the ancient people who reached britain and first worked metals or collected ores were not the people who were accustomed to use implements of bone, horn, and flint, and had been attracted to its shores merely because fish, fowl, deer, and cows, were numerous. the searchers for metals must have come from centres of eastern civilization, or from colonies of highly skilled peoples that had been established in western europe. they did not necessarily come to settle permanently in britain, but rather to exploit its natural riches. this conclusion is no mere hypothesis. siret,[ ] the belgian archæologist, has discovered in southern spain and portugal traces of numerous settlements of easterners who searched for minerals, &c., long before the introduction of bronze working in western europe. they came during the archæological "stone age"; they even introduced some of the flint implements classed as neolithic by the archæologists of a past generation. [ ] _l'anthropologie_, , contains a long account of his discoveries. these eastern colonists do not appear to have been an organized people. siret considers that they were merely groups of people from asia--probably the syrian coast--who were in contact with egypt. during the empire period of egypt, the egyptian sphere of influence extended to the borders of asia minor. at an earlier period babylonian influence permeated the syrian coast and part of asia minor. the religious beliefs of seafarers from syria were likely therefore to bear traces of the egyptian and babylonian religious systems. evidence that this was the case has been forthcoming in spain. these eastern colonists not only operated in spain and portugal, but established contact with northern europe. they exported what they had searched for and found to their eastern markets. no doubt, they employed native labour, but they do not appear to have instructed the natives how to make use of the ores they themselves valued so highly. in time they were expelled from spain and portugal by the people or mixed peoples who introduced the working of bronze and made use of bronze weapons. these bronze carriers and workers came from central europe, where colonies of peoples skilled in the arts of mining and metal working had been established. in the central european colonies Ægean and danubian influences have been detected. [illustration: valentine the ring of stennis, orkney (see page )] among the archæological finds, which prove that the easterners settled in iberia before bronze working was introduced among the natives, are idol-like objects made of hippopotamus ivory from egypt, a shell (_dentalium elephantum_) from the red sea, objects made from ostrich eggs which must have been carried to spain from africa, alabaster perfume flasks, cups of marble and alabaster of egyptian character which had been shaped with copper implements, oriental painted vases with decorations in red, black, blue, and green,[ ] mural paintings on layers of plaster, feminine statuettes in alabaster which siret considers to be of babylonian type, for they differ from Ægean and egyptian statuettes, a cult object (found in graves) resembling the egyptian _ded_ amulet, &c. the iberian burial places of these eastern colonists have arched cupolas and entrance corridors of egyptian-mycenæan character. [ ] the colours blue and green were obtained from copper. of special interest are the beautifully worked flints associated with these eastern remains in spain and portugal. siret draws attention to the fact that no trace has been found of "flint factories". this particular flint industry was an entirely new one. it was not a development of earlier flint-working in iberia. apparently the new industry, which suddenly appears in full perfection, was introduced by the eastern colonists. it afterwards spread over the whole maritime west, including scandinavia where the metal implements of more advanced countries were imitated in flint. this important fact emphasizes the need for caution in making use of such a term as "neolithic age". siret's view in this connection is that the easterners, who established trading colonies in spain and elsewhere, prevented the local use of metals which they had come to search for and export. it was part of their policy to keep the natives in ignorance of the uses to which metals could be put. evidence has been forthcoming that the operations of the eastern colonies in spain and portugal were extended towards the maritime north. associated with the oriential relics already referred to, siret has discovered amber from the baltic, jet from britain (apparently from whitby in yorkshire) and the green-stone called "callais" usually found in beds of tin. the eastern seafarers must have visited northern europe to exploit its virgin riches. a green-stone axe was found, as has been stated, near the boat with the cork plug, which lay embedded in clyde silt at glasgow. artifacts of callais have been discovered in brittany, in the south of france, in portugal, and in south-eastern spain. in the latter area, as siret has proved, the easterners worked silver-bearing lead and copper. the colonists appear to have likewise searched for and found gold. a diadem of gold was discovered in a necropolis in the south of spain, where some eminent ancient had been interred. this find is, however, an exception. precious metals do not as a rule appear in the graves of the period under consideration. as has been suggested, the easterners who exploited the wealth of ancient iberia kept the natives in ignorance. "this ignorance", siret says, "was the guarantee of the prosperity of the commerce carried on by the strangers.... the first action of the east on the west was the exploitation for its exclusive and personal profit of the virgin riches of the latter." these early westerners had no idea of the use and value of the metals lying on the surface of their native land, while the orientals valued them, were in need of them, and were anxious to obtain them. as siret puts it: "the west was a cow to be milked, a sheep to be fleeced, a field to be cultivated, a mine to be exploited." in the traditions preserved by classical writers, there are references to the skill and cunning of the phoenicians in commerce, and in the exploitation of colonies founded among the ignorant iberians. they did not inform rival traders where they found metals. "formerly", as strabo says, "the phoenicians monopolized the trade from gades (cadiz) with the islanders (of the cassiterides); and they kept the route a close secret." a vague ancient tradition is preserved by pliny, who tells that "tin was first fetched from cassiteris (the tin island) by midacritus".[ ] we owe it to the secretive phoenicians that the problem of the cassiterides still remains a difficult one to solve. [ ] _nat. hist._, vii, ( ), § . to keep the native people ignorant the easterners, siret believes, forbade the use of metals in their own colonies. a direct result of this policy was the great development which took place in the manufacture of the beautiful flint implements already referred to. these the natives imitated, never dreaming that they were imitating some forms that had been developed by a people who used copper in their own country. when, therefore, we pick up beautiful neolithic flints, we cannot be too sure that the skill displayed belongs entirely to the "stone age", or that the flints "evolved" from earlier native forms in those areas in which they are found. the easterners do not appear to have extracted the metals from their ores either in iberia or in northern europe. tin-stone and silver-bearing lead were used for ballast for their ships, and they made anchors of lead. gold washed from river beds could be easily packed in small bulk. a people who lived by hunting and fishing were not likely to be greatly interested in the laborious process of gold-washing. nor were they likely to attach to gold a magical and religious value as did the ancient egyptians and sumerians. so far as can be gathered from the iberian evidence, the period of exploitation by the colonists from the east was a somewhat prolonged one. how many centuries it covered we can only guess. it is of interest to find, in this connection, however, that something was known in mesopotamia before b.c. regarding the natural riches of western europe. tablets have recently been found on the site of asshur, the ancient capital of assyria, which was originally a sumerian settlement. these make reference to the empire of sargon of akkad (_c._ b.c.), which, according to tradition, extended from the persian gulf to the syrian coast. sargon was a great conqueror. "he poured out his glory over the world", declares a tablet found a good many years ago. it was believed, too, that sargon embarked on the mediterranean and occupied cyprus. the fresh evidence from the site of asshur is to the effect that he conquered kaptara (? crete) and "the tin land beyond the upper sea" (the mediterranean). the explanation may be that he obtained control of the markets to which the easterners carried from spain and the coasts of northern europe the ores, pearls, &c., they had searched for and found. it may be, therefore, that britain was visited by easterners even before sargon's time, and that the glasgow boat with the plug of cork was manned by dark orientals who were prospecting the scottish coast before the last land movement had ceased--that is, some time after b.c. [illustration: megaliths upper: kit's coty house, kent. lower: trethevy stone, cornwall.] when the easterners were expelled from spain by a people from central europe who used weapons of bronze, some of them appear to have found refuge in gaul. siret is of opinion that others withdrew from brittany, where subsidences were taking place along the coast, leaving their megalithic monuments below high-water mark, and even under several feet of water as at morbraz. he thinks that the settlements of easterners in brittany were invaded at one and the same time by the enemy and the ocean. other refugees from the colonies may have settled in etruria, and founded the etruscan civilization. etruscan menhirs resemble those of the south of france, while the etruscan crozier or wand, used in the art of augury, resembles the croziers of the megaliths, &c., of france, spain, and portugal. there are references in scottish gaelic stories to "magic wands" possessed by "wise women", and by the mothers of cyclopean one-eyed giants. ammianus marcellinus, quoting timagenes,[ ] attributes to the druids the statement that part of the inhabitants of gaul were indigenous, but that some had come from the farthest shores and districts across the rhine, "having been expelled from their own lands by frequent wars and the encroachments of the ocean". [ ] timagenes (_c._ - b.c.), an alexandrian historian, wrote a history of the gauls which was made use of by ammianus marcellinus (a.d. fourth century), a greek of antioch, and the author of a history of the roman emperors. the bronze-using peoples who established overland trade routes in europe, displacing in some localities the colonies of easterners and isolating others, must have instructed the natives of western europe how to mine and use metals. bronze appears to have been introduced into britain by traders. that the ancient britons did not begin quite spontaneously to work copper and tin and manufacture bronze is quite evident, because the earliest specimens of british bronze which have been found are made of ninety per cent of copper and ten per cent of tin as on the continent. "now, since a knowledge of the compound", wrote dr. robert munro, "implies a previous acquaintance with its component elements, it follows that progress in metallurgy had already reached the stage of knowing the best combination of these metals for the manufacture of cutting tools before bronze was practically known in britain."[ ] [ ] _prehistoric britain_, p. . the furnaces used were not invented in britain. professor gowland has shown that in europe and asia the system of working mines and melting metals was identical in ancient times. summarizing professor gowland's articles in _archæologia_ and the _journal of the royal anthropological institute_, mr. w. j. perry writes in this connection:[ ] "the furnaces employed were similar; the crucibles were of the same material, and generally of the same form; the process of smelting, first on the surface and then in the crucibles was found everywhere, even persisting down to present times in the absence of any fresh cultural influence. the study of the technique of mining and smelting has served to consolidate the floating mass of facts which we have accumulated, and to add support for the contention that one cultural influence is responsible for the earliest mining and smelting and washing of metals and the getting of precious stones and metals. the cause of the distribution of the megalithic culture was the search for certain forms of material wealth." [ ] _the relationship between the geographical distribution of megalithic monuments and ancient mines_, pp. _et seq._ that certain of the megalithic monuments were intimately connected with the people who attached a religious value to metals is brought out very forcibly in the references to pagan customs and beliefs in early christian gaelic literature. there are statements in the lives of st. patrick regarding a pagan god called "cenn cruach" and "crom cruach" whose stone statue was "adorned with gold and silver, and surrounded by twelve other statues with bronze ornaments". the "statue" is called "the king idol of erin", and it is stated that "the twelve idols were made of stone, but he ('crom cruach') was of gold". to this god of a stone circle were offered up "the firstlings of every issue and the chief scions of every clan". another idol was called crom dubh ("black crom"), and his name "is still connected", o'curry has written, "with the first sunday of august in munster and connaught". an ulster idol was called crom chonnaill, which was either a living animal or a tree, or was "believed to have been such", o'curry says. de jubainville translates _cenn cruach_ as "bloody head" and _crom cruach_ as "bloody curb" or "bloody crescent". o'curry, on the other hand, translates _crom cruach_ as "bloody maggot" and _crom dubh_ as "black maggot". in gaelic legends "maggots" or "worms" are referred to as forms of supernatural beings. the maggot which appeared on the flesh of a slain animal was apparently regarded as a new form assumed by the indestructible soul, just as in the egyptian story of bata the germ of life passes from his bull form in a drop of blood from which two trees spring up, and then in a chip from one of the trees from which the man is restored in his original form.[ ] a similar belief, which is widespread, is that bees have their origin as maggots placed in trees. one form of the story was taken over by the early christians, which tells that jesus was travelling with peter and paul and asked hospitality from an old woman. the woman refused it and struck paul on the head. when the wound putrified maggots were produced. jesus took the maggots from the wound and placed them in the hollow of a tree. when next they passed that way, "jesus directed paul to look in the tree hollow where, to his surprise, he found bees and honey sprung from his own head".[ ] the custom of placing crape on hives and "telling the bees" when a death takes place, which still survives in the south of england and in the north of scotland, appears to be connected with the ancient belief that the maggot, bee, and tree were connected with the sacred animal and the sacred stone in which was the spirit of a deity. sacred trees and sacred stones were intimately connected. tacitus tells us that the romans invaded mona (anglesea), they destroyed the sacred groves in which the druids and black-robed priestesses covered the altars with the blood of captives.[ ] there are a number of dolmens on this island and traces of ancient mine-workings, indicating that it had been occupied by the early seafarers who colonized britain and ireland and worked metals. a connection between the tree cult of the druids and the cult of the builders of megaliths is thus suggested by tacitus, as well as by the irish evidence regarding the ulster idol crom chonnaill, referred to above (see also chapter xii). [ ] a worm crept from the heart of a dead phoenix, and gave origin to a new phoenix.--_herodotus_, ii, . [ ] rendel harris, _the ascent of olympus_, p. . [ ] _annals of tacitus_, book xiv, chapter - . who were the people that followed the earliest easterners and visited our shores to search like them for metals and erect megalithic monuments? it is impossible to answer that question with certainty. there were after the introduction of bronze working, as has been indicated, intrusions of aliens. these included the introducers of the short-barrow method of burial and the later introducers of burial by cremation. it does not follow that all intrusions were those of conquerors. traders and artisans may have come with their families in large numbers and mingled with the earlier peoples. some intruders appear to have come by overland routes from southern and central france and from central europe and the danube valley, while others came across the sea from spain. that a regular over-seas trade-route was in existence is indicated by the references made by classical writers to the cassiterides (tin islands). strabo tells that the natives "bartered tin and hides with merchants for pottery, salt, and articles of bronze". the phoenicians, as has been noted, "monopolized the trade from gades (cadiz) with the islanders and kept the route a close secret". it was probably along this sea-route that egyptian blue beads reached britain. professor sayce has identified a number of these in devizes museum, and writes: "they are met with plentifully in the early bronze age tumuli of wiltshire in association with amber beads and barrel-shaped beads of jet or lignite. three of them come from stonehenge itself. similar beads of ivory have been found in a bronze age cist near warminster: if the material is really ivory it must have been derived from the east. the cylindrical faience beads, it may be added, have been discovered in dorsetshire as well as in wiltshire." professor sayce emphasizes that these blue beads "belong to one particular period in egyptian history, the latter part of the eighteenth dynasty and the earlier part of the nineteenth dynasty.... the period to which they belong may be dated - b.c., and as we must allow some time for their passage across the trade routes to wiltshire an approximate date for their presence in the british barrows will be b.c." [illustration: beads from bronze age barrows on salisbury plain the large central bead and the small round ones are of amber; the long plain ones are of jet; and the long segmented or notched beads are of an opaque blue substance (faience).] dr. h. r. hall, of the british museum, who discovered, at deir el-bahari in egypt, "thousands of blue glaze beads of the exact particular type of those found in britain", says that they date back till "about b.c.". he noted the resemblance before professor sayce had written. "it is gratifying", he comments, "that the professor agrees that the devizes beads are undoubtedly egyptian, as an important voice is thereby added to the consensus of opinion on the subject." similar beads have been found in the "middle bronze age in crete and in western europe". dr. hall thinks the egyptian beads may have reached britain as early as "about b.c.".[ ] we have thus provided for us an early date in british history, based on the well authenticated chronology of the empire period of ancient egypt. easterners, or traders in touch with easterners, reached our shores carrying egyptian beads shortly before or early in the fourteenth century b.c. at this time amber was being imported into the south of england from the baltic, while jet was being carried from whitby in yorkshire. [ ] the _journal of egyptian archæology_, vol. i, part i, pp. - . after the introduction of bronze working in western europe the natives began to work and use metals. these could not have been celts, for in the fourteenth century b.c. the celts had not yet reached western europe.[ ] the earliest searchers for metals who visited britain must therefore have been the congeners of those who erected the megalithic monuments in the metal-yielding areas of spain and portugal and north-western france. [ ] it may be that celtic chronology will have to be readjusted in the light of recent discoveries. it would appear that the early easterners exploited the virgin riches of western europe for a long period--perhaps for over a thousand years--and that, after their spanish colonies were broken up by a bronze-using people from central europe, the knowledge of how to work metals spread among the natives. overland trade routes were then opened up. at first these were controlled in western europe by the iberians. in time the celts swept westward and formed with the natives mixed communities of celtiberians. the easterners appear to have inaugurated a new era in western european commerce after the introduction of iron working. they had colonies in the south and west of europe and on the north african coast, and obtained supplies of metals, &c., by sea. they kept the sea-routes secret. british ores, &c., were carried to spain and carthage. after pytheas visited britain (see next chapter) the overland trade-route to marseilles was opened up. supplies of surface tin having become exhausted, tin-mines were opened in cornwall. the trade of britain then came under the control of celtiberian and celtic peoples, who had acquired their knowledge of shipbuilding and navigation from the easterners and the mixed descendants of eastern and iberian peoples. it does not follow that the early and later easterners were all of one physical type. they, no doubt, brought with them their slaves, including miners and seamen, drawn from various countries where they had been purchased or abducted. the men who controlled the ancient trade were not necessarily permanent settlers in western europe. when the carriers of bronze from central europe obtained control of the iberian colonies, many traders may have fled to other countries, but many colonists, and especially the workers, may have become the slaves of the intruders, as did the fir-bolgs of ireland who were subdued by the celts. the damnonians of britain and ireland who occupied mineral areas may have been a "wave" of early celtic or celtiberian people. ultimately the celts came, as did the later normans, and formed military aristocracies over peoples of mixed descent. the idea that each intrusion involved the extermination of earlier peoples is a theory which does not accord with the evidence of the ancient gaelic manuscripts, of classical writers, of folk tradition, and of existing race types in different areas in britain and ireland. a people who exterminated those they conquered would have robbed themselves of the chief fruits of conquest. in ancient as in later times the aim of conquest was to obtain the services of a subject people and the control of trade. chapter x celts and iberians as intruders and traders few invasions in years--broad-heads--the cremating people--a new religion--celtic people in britain--the continental celts--were celts dark or fair?--fair types in britain and ireland--celts as pork traders--the ancient tin trade--early explorers--pytheas and himilco--the cassiterides--tin mines and surface tin--cornish tin--metals in hebrides and ireland--lead in orkney--dark people in hebrides and orkney--celtic art--homeric civilization in britain and ireland--why romans were conquerors. the beginnings of the bronze and iron ages in britain are, according to the chronology favoured by archæologists, separated by about a thousand years. during this long period only two or three invasions appear to have taken place, but it is uncertain, as has been indicated, whether these came as sudden outbursts from the continent or were simply gradual and peaceful infiltrations of traders and settlers. we really know nothing about the broad-headed people who introduced the round-barrow system of burial, or of the people who cremated their dead. the latter became predominant in south-western england and part of wales. in the north of england the cremating people were less numerous. if they were conquerors they may have, as has been suggested, represented military aristocracies. it may be, however, on the other hand, that the cremation custom had in some areas more a religious than a racial significance. the beliefs associated with cremation of the dead may have spread farther than the people who introduced the new religion. it would appear that the habit of burning the dead was an expression of the beliefs that souls were transported by means of fire to the otherworld paradise. as much is indicated by greek evidence. homer's heroes burned their dead, and when the ghost of patroklos appeared to his friend achilles in a dream, he said: "thou sleepest, and hast forgotten me, o achilles. not in my life wast thou unmindful of me, but in my death. bury me with all speed, that i may pass the gates of hades. far off the spirits banish me, the phantoms of men outworn, nor suffer me to mingle with them beyond the river, but vainly i wander along the wide-gated dwelling of hades. now give me, i pray pitifully of thee, thy hand, for never more again shall i come back from hades, when ye have given me my due of fire."[ ] the arab traveller ibn haukal, who describes a tenth-century cremation ceremony at kieff, was addressed by a russ, who said: "as for you arabs you are mad, for those who are the most dear to you, and whom you honour most, you place in the ground, where they will become a prey to worms, whereas with us they are burned in an instant and go straight to paradise."[ ] [ ] _iliad_, xxiii, (lang, leaf, and myers' translation, p. ). [ ] _the mythology of the eddas_, pp. - (_transactions of the royal society of literature_, second series, vol. xii). the cremating people, who swept into greece and became the over-lords of the earlier settlers, were represented in the western movement of tribes towards gaul and britain. it is uncertain where the cremation custom had origin. apparently it entered europe from asia. the vedic aryans who invaded northern india worshipped the fire-god agni, who was believed to carry souls to paradise; they cremated their dead and combined with it the practice of _suttee_, that is, of burning the widows of the dead. in gaul, however, as we gather from julius cæsar, only those widows suspected of being concerned in the death of their husbands were burned. the norsemen, however, were acquainted with _suttee_. in one of the volsung lays brynhild rides towards the pyre on which sigurd is being burned, and casts herself into the flames. the russians strangled and burned widows when great men were cremated. the cremating people erected megalithic monuments, some of which cover their graves in britain and elsewhere. in some districts the intruders of the bronze age were the earliest settlers. the evidence of the graves in buchan, aberdeenshire, for instance, shows that the broad-heads colonized that area. it may be that, like the later norsemen, bands of people sought for new homes in countries where the struggle for existence would be less arduous than in their own, which suffered from over population, and did not land at points where resistance was offered to them. agriculturists would, no doubt, select areas suitable for their mode of life and favour river valleys, while seafarers and fishermen would cling to the coasts. the tendency of fishermen and agriculturists to live apart in separate communities has persisted till our own time. there are fishing villages along the east coast of scotland the inhabitants of which rarely intermarry with those who draw their means of sustenance from the land. during the bronze age celtic peoples were filtering into britain from gaul. they appear to have come originally from the danube area as conquerors who imposed their rule on the people they subjected. like the achæans who overran greece they seem to have originally been a vigorous pastoral people who had herds of pigs, were "horse-tamers", used chariots, and were fierce and impetuous in battle. in time they crossed the rhine and occupied gaul. they overcame the etruscans. in b.c. they sacked rome. their invasion of greece occurred in the third century, but their attempt to reach delphi was frustrated. crossing into asia minor they secured a footing in the area subsequently known as galatia, and their descendants there were addressed in an epistle by st. paul. like the achæans, the celts appear to have absorbed the culture of the Ægean area and that of the Ægean colony at hallstatt in austria. they were withal the "carriers" of the la tène iron age culture to britain and ireland. the potter's wheel was introduced by them into britain during the archæological early iron age. it is possible that the cremating people of the bronze age were a celtic people. but later "waves" of the fighting charioteers did not cremate their dead. sharp difference of opinion exists between scholars regarding the celts. some identify them with the dark-haired, broad-headed armenoids, and others with the tall and fair long-headed people of northern europe. it is possible that the celts were not a pure race, but rather a confederacy of peoples who were influenced at different periods by different cultures. that some sections were confederacies or small nations of blended people is made evident by classic references to the celtiberians, the celto-scythians, the celto-ligyes, the celto-thracians, and the celtillyrians. on reaching britain they mingled with the earlier settlers, forming military aristocracies, and dominating large areas. the fair caledonians of scotland had a celtic tribal name, and used chariots in battle like the continental celts. two caledonian personal names are known--calgacus ("swordsman") and argentocoxus ("white foot"). in ireland the predominant tribes before and during the early roman period were of similar type. queen meave of connaught was like queen boadicea[ ] of the iceni, a fair-haired woman who rode to battle in a chariot. [ ] _boudicca_ was her real name. [illustration: weapons and religious objects (british museum) bronze socketed celts, bronze dagger, sword and spear-heads from thames; two bronze boars with "sun-disc" ears, which were worn on armour; bronze "sun-disc" from ireland; "chalk drum" from grave (yorkshire), with ornamentation showing butterfly and st. andrew's cross symbols; warrior with shield, from rock carving (denmark).] the continental trade routes up the danube and rhone valleys leading towards britain were for some centuries under the control of the celts. it was no doubt to obtain a control over trade that they entered britain and ireland. on the continent they engaged in pork curing, and supplied rome and indeed the whole of italy with smoked and salted bacon. dr. sullivan tells that among the ancient irish the general name for bacon was _tini_. smoke-cured hams and flitches were called _tineiccas_, which "is almost identical in form with the gallo-roman word _taniaccae_ or _tanacae_ used by varro for hams imported from transalpine gaul into rome and other parts of italy". puddings prepared from the blood of pigs--now known as "black puddings"--were, we learn from varro, likewise exported from gaul to italy. the ancient irish were partial to "black puddings".[ ] it would appear, therefore, that the so-called dreamy celt was a greasy pork merchant. [ ] introduction to o'curry's _manners and customs of the ancient irish_, vol. i, pp. ccclxix _et seq._ according to strabo the exports from britain in the early part of the first century consisted of gold, silver, and iron, wheat, cattle, skins, slaves, and dogs; while the imports included ivory ornaments, such as bracelets, amber beads, and glass. tin was exported from cornwall to gaul, and carried overland to marseilles, but this does not appear to have been the earliest route. as has been indicated, tin appears to have been carried, before the celts obtained control of british trade, by the sea route to the carthaginian colonies in spain. the carthaginians had long kept secret the sources of their supplies of tin from the group of islands known as the cassiterides. about b.c., however, the greek merchants at marseilles fitted out an expedition which was placed in charge of pytheas, a mathematician, for the purpose of exploring the northern area. this scholar wrote an account of his voyage, but only fragments of it quoted by different ancient authors have come down to us. he appears to have coasted round spain and brittany, and to have sailed up the english channel to kent, to have reached as far north as orkney and shetland, and perhaps, as some think, iceland, to have crossed the north sea towards the mouth of the baltic, and explored a part of the coast of norway. he returned to britain, which he appears to have partly explored before crossing over to gaul. in an extract from his diary, quoted by strabo, he tells that the britons in certain districts not detailed grew corn, millet, and vegetables. such of them as had corn and honey made a beverage from these materials. they brought the corn ears into great houses (barns) and threshed them there, for on account of the rain and lack of sunshine out-door threshing floors were of little use to them. pytheas noted that in britain the days were longer and the nights brighter than in the mediterranean area. in the northern parts he visited the nights were so short that the interval between sunset and sunrise was scarcely perceptible. the farthest north headland of britain was cape orcas.[ ] six days sail north of britain lay thule, which was situated near the frozen sea. there a day lasted six months and a night for the same space of time. [ ] _orcas_ is a celtic word signifying "young boar". another extract refers to hot springs in britain, and a presiding deity identified with minerva, in whose temple "the fires never go out, yet never whiten into ashes; when the fire has got dull it turns into round lumps like stones". apparently coal was in use at a temple situated at bath. timæus, a contemporary of pytheas, quoting from the lost diary of the explorer, states that tin was found on an island called mictis, lying inwards (northward) at a distance of six days' sail from britain. the natives made voyages to and from the island in their canoes of wickerwork covered with hides. mictis could not have been cornwall or an island in the english channel. strabo states that crassus, who succeeded in reaching the cassiterides, announced that the distance to them was greater than that from the continent to britain, and he found that the tin ore lay on the surface. evidently tin was not mined on the island of mictis as it was in cornwall in later times. an earlier explorer than pytheas was himilco, the carthaginian. he reached britain about b.c. a latin metrical rendering of his lost work was made by rufus festus avienus in the fourth century of our era. reference is made to the islands called the oestrymnides that "raise their heads, lie scattered, and are rich in tin and lead". these islands were visited by himilco, and were distant "two days voyage from the sacred island (ireland) and near the broad isle of the albiones". as rufus festus avienus refers to "the hardy folk of britain", his albiones may have been the people of scotland. the name albion was originally applied to england and scotland. in the first century, however, latin writers never used "albion" except as a curiosity, and knew england as britain. according to himilco, the tartessi of spain were wont to trade with the natives of the northern tin islands. even the carthaginians "were accustomed to visit these seas". from other sources we learn that the phoenicians carried tin from the cassiterides direct to the spanish port of corbilo, the exact location of which is uncertain. [illustration: enamelled bronze shield (from the thames near battersea) (british museum)] it is of special importance to note that the tin-stone was collected on the surface of the islands before mining operations were conducted elsewhere. in all probability the laborious work of digging mines was not commenced before the available surface supplies became scanty. according to sir john rhys[ ] the districts in southern england, where surface tin was first obtained, were "chiefly dartmoor, with the country round tavistock and that around st. austell, including several valleys looking towards the southern coast of cornwall. in most of the old districts where tin existed, it is supposed to have lain too deep to have been worked in early times." when, however, poseidonius visited cornwall in the first century of our era, he found that a beginning had been made in skilful mining operations. it may be that the trade with the cassiterides was already languishing on account of changed political conditions and the shortage of supplies. [ ] _celtic britain_, p. . where then were the cassiterides? m. reinach struck at the heart of the problem when he asked, "in what western european island is tin found?" those writers who have favoured the group of islands off the north-western coast of spain are confronted by the difficulty that these have failed to yield traces of tin, while those writers who favour cornwall and the scilly islands cannot ignore the precise statements that the "tin islands" were farther distant from the continent than britain, and that in the time of pytheas tin was carried from mictis, which was six days' sail from britain. the fact that traces of tin, copper, and lead have been found in the hebrides is therefore of special interest. copper, too, has been found in shetland, and lead and zinc in orkney. withal there are gaelic place-names in which _staoin_ (tin) is referred to, in islay, jura (where there are traces of old mine-workings), in iona, and on the mainland of ross-shire. traces of tin are said to have been found in lewis where the great stone circle of callernish in a semi-barren area indicates the presence at one time in its area of a considerable population. the hebrides may well have been the oestrymnides of himilco and the cassiterides of classical writers. jura or iona may have been the mictis of pytheas. tin-stone has been found in ireland too, near dublin, in wicklow, and in killarney. the short dark people in the hebrides and orkney may well be, like the silurians of wales, the descendants of the ancient mine workers. they have been referred to by some as descendants of the crews of wrecked ships of the spanish armada, and by others as remnants of the lost ten tribes. in irish gaelic literature, however, there is evidence that the dark people were in ancient times believed to be the descendants of the fir-bolgs (men with sacks), the fir-domnann (the men who dug the ground), and the galioin (gauls). campbell in his _west highland tales_ has in a note referred to the dark hebrideans. "behind the fire", he wrote, "sat a girl with one of those strange faces which are occasionally to be seen in the western isles, a face which reminded me of the nineveh sculptures, and of faces seen in san sebastian. her hair was black as night, and her clear dark eyes glittered through the peat smoke. her complexion was dark, and her features so unlike those who sat about her that i asked if she were a native of the island (of barra), and learned that she was a highland girl." it may be that the dark eastern people were those who introduced the eastern and non-celtic, non-teutonic prejudice against pork as food into scotland. in ireland the celtic people apparently obliterated the "taboo" at an early period. it was during the archæological late bronze and early iron ages that the celtic artistic patterns reached england. these betray affinities with Ægean motifs, and they were afterwards developed in ireland and scotland. in both countries they were fused with symbols of egyptian and anatolian origin. like the celts and the pre-hellenic people of greece and crete, the britons and the irish wore breeches. the roman poet, martial,[ ] satirizes a _life_ "as loose as the old breeches of a british pauper". claudian, the poet, pictures britannia with her cheeks tattoed and wearing a sea-coloured cloak and a cap of bear-skin. the fact that the caledonians fought with scanty clothing, as did the greeks, and as did the highlanders in historic times, must not be taken as proof that they could not manufacture cloth. according to rhys, briton means a "cloth clad"[ ] person. the bronze fibulæ found at bronze age sites could not have been used to fasten heavy skins. [ ] _ep._ x, . [ ] _celtic britain_ ( th edition), p. . when the romans reached britain, the natives, like the heroes of homer, used chariots, and had weapons of bronze and iron. the archæology of the ancient irish stories is of similar character. in the bronze age the swords were pointed and apparently used chiefly for thrusting. the conquerors who introduced the unpointed iron swords were able to shatter the brittle bronze weapons. these iron swords were in turn superseded by the pointed and well-tempered swords of the romans. but it was not only their superior weapons, their discipline, and their knowledge of military strategy that brought the romans success. england was broken up into a number of petty kingdoms. "our greatest advantage", tacitus confessed, "in dealing with such powerful people is that they cannot act in concert; it is seldom that even two or three tribes will join in meeting a common danger; and so while each fights for himself they are all conquered together."[ ] [ ] tacitus, _agricola_, chap. xii. when the britons, under agricola, began to adopt roman civilization they "rose superior", tacitus says, "by the forces of their natural genius, to the attainments of the gauls". in time they adopted the roman dress,[ ] which may have been the prototype of the kilt. the roman language supplanted the celtic dialects in certain parts of england. [ ] _agricola_, chap. xxi. chapter xi races of britain and ireland colours of ancient races and mythical ages--caucasian race theory--the aryan or indo-european theory--races and languages--celts and teutons--fair and dark palæolithic peoples in modern britain--mediterranean man--the armenoid or alpine broad-heads--ancient british tribes--cruithne and picts--the picts of the "brochs" as pirates and traders--picts and fairies--scottish types--racial "pockets". the race problem has ever been one of engrossing interest to civilized peoples. in almost every old mythology we meet with theories that were formulated to account for the existence of the different races living in the world, and for the races that were supposed to have existed for a time and became extinct. an outstanding feature of each racial myth is that the people among whom it grew up are invariably represented to be the finest type of humanity. a widespread habit, and one of great antiquity, was to divide the races, as the world was divided, into four sections, and to distinguish them by their colours. the colours were those of the cardinal points and chiefly black, white, red, and yellow. the same system was adopted in dealing with extinct races. each of these were coloured according to the age in which they had existence, and the colours were connected with metals. in greece and india, for instance, the "yellow age" was a "golden age", the "white age" a "silver age", the "red age" a "bronze age", and the "black age" an "iron age". although the old theories regarding the mythical ages and mythical races have long been discarded, the habit of dividing mankind and their history into four sections, according to colours and the metals chiefly used by them, is not yet extinct. we still speak of the "black man", the "yellow man", the "red man", and the "white man". archæologists have divided what they call the "pre-history of mankind" into the two "stone ages", the "bronze age" and the "iron age". the belief that certain races have become extinct as the result of conquest by invaders is still traceable in those histories that refer, for instance, to the disappearance of "stone age man" or "bronze age man", or of the british celts, or of the picts of scotland. that some races have completely disappeared there can be no shadow of a doubt. as we have seen, neanderthal man entirely vanished from the face of the globe, and has not left a single descendant among the races of mankind. in our own day the tasmanians have become extinct. these cases, however, are exceptional. the complete extinction of a race is an unusual thing in the history of mankind. a section may vanish in one particular area and yet persist in another. as a rule, in those districts where races are supposed to have perished, it is found that they have been absorbed by intruders. in some cases the chief change has been one of racial designation and nationality. crô-magnon man, who entered europe when the neanderthals were hunting the reindeer and other animals, is still represented in our midst. dr. collignon, the french ethnologist, who has found many representatives of this type in the dordogne valley where their ancestors lived in the decorated cave-dwellings before their organization was broken up by the azilian and other intruders, shows that the intrusion of minorities of males rarely leaves a permanent change in a racial type. the alien element tends to disappear. "when", he writes, "a race is well seated in a region, fixed to the soil by agriculture, acclimatized by natural selection and sufficiently dense, it opposes, for the most precise observations confirm it, an enormous resistance to new-comers, whoever they may be." intruders of the male sex only may be bred out in time. our interest here is with the races of britain and ireland, but, as our native islands were peopled from the continent, we cannot ignore the evidence afforded by western and northern europe when dealing with our own particular phase of the racial problem. it is necessary in the first place to get rid of certain old theories that were based on imperfect knowledge or wrong foundations. one theory applies the term "caucasian man" to either a considerable section or the majority of european peoples. "the utter absurdity of the misnomer caucasian, as applied to the blue-eyed and fair-haired aryan (?) race of western europe, is revealed", says ripley,[ ] "by two indisputable facts. in the first place, this ideal blond type does not occur within many hundred miles of caucasia; and, secondly, nowhere along the great caucasian chain is there a single native tribe making use of a purely inflectional or aryan language." [ ] _races of europe_, p. . the term "aryan" is similarly a misleading one. it was invented by professor max müller and applied by him chiefly to a group of languages at a time when races were being identified by the languages they spoke. these peoples--with as different physical characteristics as have indians and norseman, or russians and spaniards, who spoke indo-european, or, as german scholars have patriotically adapted the term, indo-germanic languages--were regarded by ethnologists of the "philological school" as members of the one indo-european or aryan race or "family". language, however, is no sure indication of race. the spread of a language over wide areas may be accounted for by trade or political influence or cultural contact. in our own day the english language is spoken by "black", "yellow", and "red", as well as by "white" peoples. a safer system is to distinguish racial types by their physical peculiarities. when, however, this system is applied in europe, as elsewhere, we shall still find differences between peoples. habits of thought and habits of life exercise a stronger influence over individuals, and groups of individuals, than do, for instance, the shape of their heads, the colours of their hair, eyes, and skin, or the length and strength of their limbs. two particular individuals may be typical representatives of a distinct race and yet not only speak different languages, but have a different outlook on life, and different ideas as to what is right and what is wrong. different types of people are in different parts of the world united by their sense of nationality. they are united by language, traditions, and beliefs, and by their love of a particular locality in which they reside or in which their ancestors were wont to reside. a sense of nationality, such as unites the british empire, may extend to far-distant parts of the world. [illustration: european types i, mediterranean. ii, crô-magnon. iii, armenoid (alpine). iv, northern.] but, while conscious of the uniting sense of nationality, our people are at the same time conscious of and interested in their physical differences and the histories of different sections of our countrymen. the problem as to whether we are mainly celtic or mainly teutonic is one of perennial interest. here again, when dealing with the past, we meet with the same condition of things that prevail at the present day. both the ancient celts and the people they called teutons ("strangers") were mixed peoples with different physical peculiarities. the celts known to the greeks were a tall, fair-haired people. in western europe, as has been indicated, they mingled with the dark iberians, and a section of the mingled races was known to the romans as celtiberians. the teutons included the tall, fair, long-headed northerners, and the dark, medium-sized, broad-headed central europeans. both the fair celts and the fair teutons appear to have been sections of the northern race known to antiquaries as the "baltic people", or "maglemosians", who entered europe from siberia and "drifted" along the northern and southern shores of the baltic sea--the ancient "white sea" of the "white people" of the "white north". as we have seen, other types of humanity were "drifting" towards britain at the same time--that is, before the system of polishing stone implements and weapons inaugurated what has been called the "neolithic age". as modern-day ethnologists have found that the masses of the population in great britain and ireland are of the early types known to archæologists as palæolithic, neolithic, and bronze age men, the race history of our people may be formulated as follows: the earliest inhabitants of our islands whose physical characteristics can be traced among the living population were the crô-magnon peoples. these were followed by the fair northerners, the "carriers" of maglemosian culture, and the dark, medium-sized iberians, who were the "carriers" of azilian-tardenoisian culture. there were thus fair people in england, scotland, and ireland thousands of years before the invasions of celts, angles, saxons, jutes, norsemen, or danes. for a long period, extending over many centuries, the migration "stream" from the continent appears to have been continuously flowing. the carriers of neolithic culture were in the main iberians of mediterranean racial type--the descendants of the azilian-tardenoisian peoples who used bows and arrows, and broke up the magdalenian civilization of crô-magnon man in western and central europe. this race appears to have been characterized in north and north-east africa. "so striking", writes professor elliot smith, "is the family likeness between the early neolithic peoples of the british isles and the mediterranean and the bulk of the population, both ancient and modern, of egypt and east africa, that a description of the bones of an early briton of that remote epoch might apply in all essential details to an inhabitant of somaliland."[ ] [ ] _the ancient egyptians_, p. . this proto-egyptian (iberian) people were of medium stature, had long skulls and short narrow faces, and skeletons of slight and mild build; their complexions were as dark as those of the southern italians in our own day, and they had dark-brown or black hair with a tendency to curl; the men had scanty facial hair, except for a chin-tuft beard. these brunets introduced the agricultural mode of life, and, as they settled on the granite in south-western england, appear to have searched for gold there, and imported flint from the settlers on the upper chalk formation. in time europe was invaded from asia minor by increasing numbers of an asiatic, broad-headed, long-bearded people of similar type to those who had filtered into central europe and reached belgium and denmark before neolithic times. this type is known as the "armenoid race" (the "alpine race" of some writers). it was quite different from the long-headed and fair northern type and the short, brunet mediterranean (proto-egyptian and iberian) type. the armenoid skeletons found in the early graves indicate that the asiatics were a medium-sized, heavily-built people, capable, as the large bosses on their bones indicate, of considerable muscular development. during the archæological bronze age these armenoids reached britain in considerable numbers, and introduced the round-barrow method of burial. they do not appear, however, as has been indicated, to have settled in ireland. at a later period britain was invaded by a people who cremated their dead. as they thus destroyed the evidence that would have afforded us an indication of their racial affinities, their origin is obscure. while these overland migrations were in progress, considerable numbers of peoples appear to have reached britain and ireland by sea from northern and north-western france, portugal, and spain. they settled chiefly in the areas where metals and pearls were once found or are still found. "kitchen middens" and megalithic remains are in ireland mainly associated with pearl-yielding rivers. the fair celts and the darker celtiberians were invading and settling in britain before and after the romans first reached its southern shores. during the roman period, the ruling caste was mainly of south-european type, but the roman legions were composed of gauls, germans, and iberians, as well as italians. no permanent change took place in the ethnics of britain during the four centuries of roman occupation. the armenoid broad-heads, however, became fewer: "the disappearance", as ripley puts it, "of the round-barrow men is the last event of the prehistoric period which we are able to distinguish". the inhabitants of the british isles are, on the whole, long-headed. "highland and lowland, city or country, peasant or philosopher, all are", says ripley, "practically alike in respect to this fundamental racial characteristic." broad-headed types are, of course, to be found, but they are in the minority. [illustration: valentine ruins of pictish tower at carloway, lewis modern "black house" in the foreground.] the chief source of our knowledge regarding the early tribes or little nations of britain and ireland is the work of ptolemy, the geographer, who lived between a.d. and , from which the earliest maps were compiled in the fourth century. he shows that england, wales, scotland, and ireland were divided among a number of peoples. the dumnonii,[ ] as has been stated, were in possession of devon and cornwall, as well as of a large area in the south-western and central lowlands of scotland. near them were the durotriges, who were also in ireland. sussex was occupied by the regni and kent by the cantion. the atrebates, the belgæ, and the parisii were invaders from gaul during the century that followed cæsar's invasion. the belgæ lay across the neck of the land between the bristol channel and the isle of wight; the atrebates clung to the river thames, while the parisii, who gave their name to paris, occupied the east coast between the wash and the humber. essex was the land of the iceni or eceni, the tribe of boadicea (boudicca). near them were the catuvellauni (men who rejoiced in battle) who were probably rulers of a league, and the trinovantes, whose name is said to signify "very vigorous". the most important tribe of the north and midlands of england was the brigantes,[ ] whose sphere of influence extended to the firth of forth, where they met the votadini, who were probably kinsmen or allies. on the north-west were the setantii, who appear to have been connected with the brigantes in england and ireland. cuchullin, the hero of the red branch of ulster, was originally named setanta.[ ] in south wales the chief tribe was the silures, whose racial name is believed to cling to the scilly (silura) islands. they were evidently like the dumnonii a metal-working people. south-western wales was occupied by the demetæ (the "firm folk"). in south-western scotland, the selgovæ ("hunters") occupied galloway, their nearest neighbours being the novantæ of wigtownshire. the selgovæ may have been those peoples known later as the atecotti. from fife to southern aberdeenshire the predominant people on the east were the vernicones. in north-east aberdeenshire were the tæxali. to the west of these were the vacomagi. the caledonians occupied the central highlands from inverness southward to loch lomond. in ross-shire were the decantæ, a name resembling novantæ and setantii. the lugi and smertæ (smeared people) were farther north. the cornavii of caithness and north wales were those who occupied the "horns" or "capes". along the west of scotland were peoples called the cerones, creones, and carnonacæ, or carini, perhaps a sheep-rearing people. the epidii were an argyll tribe, whose name is connected with that of the horse--perhaps a horse-god.[ ] orkney enshrines the tribal name of the boar--perhaps that of the ancient boar-god represented on a standing stone near inverness with the sun symbol above its head. the gaelic name of the shetlanders is "cat". caithness is the county of the "cat" people, too. professor watson reminds us that the people of sutherland are still "cats" in gaelic, and that the duke of sutherland is referred to as "duke of the cats". [ ] englished "damnonians" (chapter ix). [ ] tacitus says that the brigantes were in point of numbers the most considerable folkin britain (_agricola_, chapter xvii). [ ] evidently cuchullin and other heroes of the "red branch" in ireland were descended from peoples who had migrated into ireland from britain. their warriors in the old manuscript tales receive their higher military training in alba. it is unlikely they would have been trained in a colony. [ ] ancient sacred stones with horses depicted on them survive in scotland. in harris one horse-stone remains in an old church tower. the picts are not mentioned by ptolemy. they appear to have been an agricultural and sea-faring people who (_c._ a.d. ) engaged in trade and piracy. a flood of light has been thrown on the pictish problem by professor w. j. watson, edinburgh.[ ] he shows that when agricola invaded scotland (a.d. ) the predominant people were the caledonians. early in the third century the caledonians and mæatæ--names which included all the tribes north of hadrian's wall--were so aggressive that emperor septimus severus organized a great expedition against them. he pressed northward as far as the southern shore of the moray firth, and, although he fought no battle, lost , men in skirmishes, &c. the caledonians and mæatæ rose again, and severus was preparing a second expedition when he died at york in a.d. . his son, caracalla, withdrew from scotland altogether. the emperor constantius, who died at york in a.d. , had returned from an expedition, not against the caledonians, but against the picts. the picts were beginning to become prominent. in they had again to be driven back. they had then become allies of the scots from ulster, who were mentioned in a.d. by the orator eumenius, as enemies of the britons in association with the picti. professor watson, drawing on gaelic evidence, dates the first settlement of the scots in argyll "about a.d. ". [ ] _the picts_, inverness, (lecture delivered to the gaelic society of inverness and reprinted from _the inverness courier_). in the caledonians were, like the verturiones, a division of the picts. afterwards their tribal name disappeared. that the picts and caledonians were originally separate peoples is made clear by the statement of a roman orator who said: "i do not mention the woods and marshes of the caledonians, the picts, and others". in the pecti, saxons, scots, and atecotti harassed the britons. thus by the fourth century the picts had taken the place of the caledonians as the leading tribe, or as the military aristocrats of a great part of scotland, the name of which, formerly caledonia, came to be pictland, pictavia. who then were the picts? professor watson shows that the racial name is in old norse "pettr", in old english "peohta", and in old scots "pecht"[ ] these forms suggest that the original name was "pect". ammianus refers to the "pecti". in old welsh "peith-wyr" means "pict-men" and "peith" comes from "pect". the derivation from the latin "pictus" (painted) must therefore be rejected. it should be borne in mind in this connection that the ancient britons stained their bodies with woad. the application of the term "painted" to only one section of them seems improbable. "pecti", says professor watson, "cannot be separated etymologically from pictones, the name of a gaulish tribe on the bay of biscay south of the loire, near neighbours of the veneti. their name shows the same variation between pictones and pectones. we may therefore claim pecti as a genuine celtic word. it is of the cymric or old british and gaulish type, not of the gaelic type, for gaelic has no initial p, while those others have." gildas (_c._ a.d. ), bede (_c._ a.d. ), and nennius (_c._ a.d. ) refer to the picts as a people from the north of scotland. nennius says they occupied orkney first. the legends which connect the picts with scythia and hercules were based on virgil's mention of "picti agathyrsi" and "picti geloni" (_Æneid_ iv, , _georgics_, ii, ) combined with the account by herodotus (iv, ) of the descent of gelonus and agathyrsus from hercules. of late origin therefore was the irish myth that the picts from scythia were called agathyrsi and were descended from gelon, son of hercules. [ ] the fact that in the scottish lowlands the fairies were sometimes called "pechts" has been made much of by those who contend that the prototypes of the fairies were the original inhabitants of western europe. this theory ignores the well-established custom of giving human names to supernatural beings. in scotland the hill-giants (fomorians) have been re-named after arthur (as in arthur's seat, edinburgh), patrick (inverness), wallace (eildon hills), samson (ben ledi), &c. in like manner fairies were referred to as pechts. the irish evidence is of similar character. the danann deities were consigned to fairyland. donald gorm, a west highland chief, gave his name to an irish fairy. fairyland was the old paradise. arthur, thomas the rhymer, finn-mac-coul, &c., became "fairy-men" after death. a good deal of confusion has been caused by mistranslating the scottish gaelic word _sith_ (irish _sidhe_) as "fairy". the word _sith_ (pronounced _shee_) means anything unearthly or supernatural, and the "peace" of supernatural life--of death after life, as well as the silence of the movements of supernatural beings. the cuckoo was supposed to dwell for a part of the year in the underworld, and was called _eun sith_ ("supernatural bird"). mysterious epidemics were _sith_ diseases. there were _sith_ (supernatural) dogs, cats, mice, cows, &c., as well as _sith_ men and _sith_ women. there never were picts in ireland, except as visitors. the theory about the irish picts arose by mistranslating the racial name "cruithne" as "picts". communities of cruithne were anciently settled in the four provinces of ireland, but cruithne means britons not picts. [illustration: valentine a scottish "broch" (mousa, shetland isles) compare with sardinian _nuraghe_, page .] the ancient name of great britain was albion, while ireland was in greek "ierne", and in latin "iubernia" (later "hibernia"). the racial name was applied by pliny to albion and hibernia when he referred to the island group as "britanniæ". ptolemy says that albion is "a britannic isle" and further that albion (england and scotland) was an island "belonging to the britannic isles". ireland was also a britannic isle. it is therefore quite clear that the britons were regarded as the predominant people in england, wales, scotland, and ireland, and that the verdict of history includes ireland in the british isles. the britons were p-celts, and their racial name "pretan-pritan" became in the gaelic language of the q-celts "cruithen", plural "cruithne". in latin the british isles are called after their inhabitants, the rendering being "britanni", while in greek it is "pretannoi" or "pretanoi". as professor w. j. watson and professor sir j. morris jones, two able and reliable philologists, have insisted, the greek form is the older and more correct, and the latin form is merely an adaptation of the greek form. in the early centuries of our era the term "britannus" was shortened in latin to "britto" plural "brittones". this diminutive form, which may be compared with "scotty" for scotsman, became popular. in gaelic it originated the form "breatain", representing "brittones" (britons), which was applied to the britons of strathclyde, wales, and cornwall, who retained their native speech under roman rule; in welsh, the rendering was "brython". the welsh name for scotland became "prydyn". the northern people of scotland, having come under the sway of the picts, were referred to as picts just as they became "scots" after the tribe of scots rose into prominence. in this sense the scottish cruithne were picts. but the cruithne (britons) of ireland were never referred to as picts. modern scholars who have mixed up cruithne and picts are the inventors of the term "irish picts". the picts of scotland have been traditionally associated with the round buildings known as "brochs", which are all built on the same plan. "of known brochs", says professor w. j. watson, "orkney and shetland possess , caithness has , and sutherland --a total of . on the mainland south of sutherland there are in ross, inverness-shire, in forfar, in stirling, midlothian, selkirk, and berwick-shires, in wigtownshire. in the isles there are in lewis, in harris, in skye, in raasay, and at least in the isles of argyll. the inference is that the original seat of the broch builders must have been in the far north, and that their influence proceeded southwards. the masonry and contents of the brochs prove them to be the work of a most capable people, who lived partly at least by agriculture and had a fairly high standard of civilization.... the distribution of the brochs also indicate that their occupants combined agriculture with sea-faring.... the wigtown brochs, like the west coast ones generally, are all close to the sea, and in exceedingly strong positions." these scottish brochs bear a striking resemblance to the _nuraghi_ of the island of sardinia. both the broch and the _nuraghe_ have low doorways which "would at once put an enemy at a disadvantage in attempting to enter". describing the sardinian structures, mr. t. eric peet writes:[ ] "all the _nuraghi_ stand in commanding situations overlooking large tracts of country, and the more important a position is from a strategical point of view the stronger will be the _nuraghe_ which defends it". ruins of villages surround these structures. "there cannot be the least doubt", says peet, "that in time of danger the inhabitants drove their cattle into the fortified enclosure, entered it themselves, and then closed the gates." [ ] _rough stone monuments_, pp. _et seq._ in the balearic islands are towers called _talayots_ which "resemble rather closely", in peet's opinion, the _nuraghi_ of sardinia. the architecture of the _talayots_, the _nuraghi_, and the brochs resembles that of the bee-hive tombs of mycenæ (pre-hellenic greece). there are no brochs in ireland. the "round towers" are of christian origin (between ninth and thirteenth centuries a.d.). a tomb at labbamologa, county cork, however, resembles the tombs of the balearic isles and sardinia (peet, _rough stone monuments_, pp. - ). the picts appear to have come to scotland from the country of the ancient pictones, whose name survives in poitiers (poictiers) and the province of poitou in france. these pictones were anciently rivals of the veneti, the chief sea-traders in western and northern europe during the pre-roman period. we gather from cæsar that the pictones espoused the cause of the romans when the veneti and their allies revolted. they and their near neighbours, the santoni, supplied cæsar with ships.[ ] these were apparently skiffs which were much lighter and smaller than the imposing vessels of the veneti. as the big vessels of the armada were no match for the smaller english vessels, so were the veneti ships no match for the skiffs of the pictones. [ ] _de bello gallico_, book iii, chapter ii. the picts who settled in orkney appear to have dominated the eastern and western scottish sea-routes. it is possible that they traded with scandinavia and imported baltic amber. tacitus states that the baltic people, who engaged in the amber trade, spoke a dialect similar to that of britain, worshipped the mother-goddess, and regarded the boar as the symbol of their deity.[ ] orkney, as has been noted, is derived from the old celtic word for boar. the boar-people of orkney who came under the sway of the picts may have been related to the amber traders. [ ] _manners of the germans_, chapter xlv. the boar was the son of a sow-goddess. demeter had originally a sow form. the scottish broch-people, associated in tradition with the picts, were notorious for their piratic habits. in those ancient days, however, piracy was a common occupation. the later vikings, who seized the naval base of orkney for the same reason we may conclude as did the picts, occupied the brochs. viking means "pirate", as york powell has shown. in _egil's saga_ (chapter xxxii) the hero bjorn "was sometimes in viking but sometimes on trading voyages".[ ] [ ] _scandinavian britain_ (london, ), pp. - . it may be that the term _pictus_ was confused with the racial name pecti, because the picts had adopted the sailor-like habit of tattoing their skins--a habit which probably had a religious significance. claudian, the fourth-century roman poet, refers to "the fading steel-wrought figures on the dying pict". like the sea-faring scots of northern ireland who harried the welsh coast between the second and fifth centuries of our era, the picts of scotland had skiffs (scaphæ) with sails and twenty oars a side. vessels, masts, ropes, and sails were painted a neutral tint, and the crews were attired in the same colour. thus "camouflaged", the picts and scots were able to harry the coasts of romanized britain. they appear to have turned hadrian's wall from the sea. the pictish sea-faring tribes, the keiths or cats and the mæatæ, have left their names in caithness, inchkeith, dalkeith, &c., and in the isle of may, &c.[ ] [ ] rhys, _celtic britain_ ( th ed.), pp. , . a glimpse of piratical operations in the first century before the christian era is obtained in an irish manuscript account of certain happenings in the reign of king conaire the great of ireland. so strict was this monarch's rule that several lawless and discontented persons were forced into exile. "among the most desperate of the outlaws were the monarch's own foster brothers, the four sons of dond dess, an important chieftain of leinster. these refractory youths, with a large party of followers, took to their boats and ships and scoured the coasts of britain and scotland, as well as of their own country. having met on the sea with ingcel, the son of the king of britain, who, for his misdeeds, had been likewise banished by his own father, both parties entered into a league, the first fruits of which were the plunder and devastation of a great part of the british coast." [illustration: by courtesy of the director of the british school of rome a sardinian _nuraghe_ (page ) compare with the scottish "broch", page .] they afterwards made a descent on the coast of ireland, and when king conaire returned from a visit to clare, "he found the whole country before him one sheet of fire, the plunderers having landed in his absence and carried fire and sword wherever they went".[ ] [ ] o'curry, _manners and customs of the ancient irish_, vol. iii, p. . in his description of britain, tacitus says that the inhabitants varied in their physical traits. different conclusions were drawn concerning their origin. he thought the caledonians were, because of their ruddy hair and muscular limbs, of german descent, and that the dark silures of wales were descendants of iberian colonists. he noted that the inhabitants of southern england resembled those of gaul.[ ] [ ] _agricola_, chap. xi. later writers have expressed divergent views regarding the ethnics of the british isles. one theory is that the fair teutonic peoples, who invaded britain during the post-roman period, drove the "dark celts" westward, and that that is the reason why in england and scotland the inhabitants of western areas are darker than those in the eastern. as we have seen, however, the early metal workers settled in the western areas for the reason that the minerals they sought for were located there. in south-western scotland the inhabitants are darker than those on the east, except in aberdeenshire, where there are distinctive megalithic remains and two famous pearling rivers, the ythan and ugie, as well as deposits of flint and traces of gold. the people of scotland are, on the whole, the tallest and heaviest people in europe. it has been suggested that their great average stature is due to the settlement in their country of the hardy norsemen of the viking period, but this is improbable, because the average stature of norway, sweden, and denmark is lower than that of scotland. a distinctive feature of the scottish face is the high cheek-bone. the norse cheek-bone is distinctly flatter. it may be that the tall crô-magnons, who had high cheek-bones, have contributed to scottish physical traits. that all the fair peoples of britain and ireland are, as has been indicated, not necessarily descendants of the fair celts and anglo-saxons is evident from the traces that have been found of the early settlement in these islands of the proto-scandinavians, who introduced the maglemosian culture long before the introduction of the neolithic industry. modern ethnologists lean to the view that the masses of the present-day population of europe betray palæolithic racial affinities. in no country in europe, other than our own, have there been fewer ethnic changes. as we have seen, there were only two or three intrusions from the continent between the periods when the bronze and iron industries were introduced--that is, during about a thousand years. the latter invasions were those of types already settled in britain. as in other countries, the tendency to revert to the early types represented by the masses of the people has not been absent in our native land. the intrusions of energetic minorities may have caused changes of languages and habits of life, but in time the alien element has been absorbed.[ ] withal, the influences of climate and of the diseases associated with localities have ever been at work in eliminating the physically unfit--that is, those individuals who cannot live in a climate too severe for their constitutions. in large industrial cities the short, dark types are more numerous than the tall, fair, and large-lunged types. the latter appear to be more suited for an open-air life. [ ] "the rule is", writes beddoe in this connection (_the anthropological history of europe_, p. ), "that an anthropological type is never wholly dispossessed or extirpated". "pockets" of peoples of distinctive type are to be found in different parts of the british isles. in barvas, lewis, and elsewhere in the hebrides, pockets of dark peoples of foreign appearance are reputed by theorists, as has been indicated, to be descendants of the sailors of the spanish armada. they resemble, however, the fir-bolgs of ireland and the silures of wales. hertfordshire has a dark, short people too. galloway, the country of the ancient selgovæ (hunters), is noted for its tall people. it may be that there is a crô-magnon strain in galloway, and that among the short, dark peoples are descendants of the ancient metal workers, including the easterners who settled in spain. (see chaps. ix and xii.) beddoe thinks that the phoenician type "occasionally crops up" in cornwall.[ ] [ ] _the anthropological history of europe_ (new edition, paisley, ), p. . chapter xii druidism in britain and gaul culture mixing--classical evidence regarding druids--doctrine of transmigration of souls--celtic paradises: isles of the blest, land-under-waves, fairyland, and "loveless land"--paradise as apple-land--apples, nuts, and pork of longevity--mistletoe connected with the oak, apple, and other trees--druids and oracular birds--druids as soothsayers--thomas the rhymer as "true thomas"--christ as the druid of st. columba--stones of worship--druid groves and dolmens in anglesea--early christians denounce worship of stones, trees, wells, and heavenly bodies--vows over holy objects--bull sacrifices, stone worship, &c., in highlands--"cup-marked" stones--origin of druidism--milk-goddesses and milk-yielding trees--european and oriental milk myths--tree cults and megalithic monuments. when the question is asked "what was the religion of the ancient britons?" the answer generally given is "druidism". but such a term means little more than "priestism". it would perhaps be better not to assume that the religious beliefs of our remote ancestors were either indigenous or homogeneous, or that they were ever completely systematized at any period or in any district. although certain fundamental beliefs may have been widespread, it is clear that there existed not a few local or tribal cults. "i swear by the gods of my people" one hero may declare in a story, while of another it may be told that "coll" (the hazel) or "fire" was his god. certain animals were sacred in some districts and not in others, or were sacred to some individuals only in a single tribe. in a country like britain, subjected in early times to periodic intrusions of peoples from different areas, the process of "culture mixing" must have been active and constant. imported beliefs were fused with native beliefs, or beliefs that had assumed local features, while local pantheons no doubt reflected local politics--the gods of a military aristocracy being placed over the gods of the subject people. at the same time, it does not follow that when we find a chief deity bearing a certain name in one district, and a different name in another, that the religious rites and practices differed greatly. nor does it follow that all peoples who gave recognition to a political deity performed the same ceremonies or attached the same importance to all festivals. hunters, seafarers, and agriculturists had their own peculiar rites, as surviving superstitions (the beliefs of other days) clearly indicate, while the workers in metals clung to ceremonial practices that differed from those performed by representatives of a military aristocracy served by the artisans. much has been written about the druids, but it must be confessed that our knowledge regarding them is somewhat scanty. classical writers have made contradictory statements about their beliefs and ceremonies. pliny alone tells that they showed special reverence for the mistletoe growing on the oak, and suggests that the name druid was connected with the greek word _drus_ (an oak). others tell that there were druids, seers, and bards in the celtic priesthood. in his book on divination, cicero indicates that the druids had embraced the doctrines of pythagoras, the greek philosopher, who was born about b.c., including that of the transmigration of souls.[ ] julius cæsar tells that the special province of the druids in gaulish society was religion in all its aspects; they read oracles, and instructed large numbers of the nation's youth. pomponius mela[ ] says the instruction was given in caves and in secluded groves. cæsar records that once a year the druids presided over a general assembly of the gauls at a sacred spot in the country of the carnutes, which was supposed to be the centre of gaul. it is not known whether this holy place was marked by a mound, a grove, a stone circle, or a dolmen. the archdruid was chief of the priesthood. cæsar notes that the germans had no druids and paid no attention to sacrifices. [ ] cæsar (_de bello gallico_, vi, xiv, ) says the druids believed the soul passed from one individual to another. [ ] a spaniard of the first century a.d. of special interest is the statement that the druids believed in the doctrine of transmigration of souls--that is, they believed that after death the soul passed from one individual to another, or into plants or animals before again passing into a human being at birth. according to diodorus siculus, who lived in the latter part of the first century a.d., the gauls took little account of the end of life, believing they would come to life after a certain term of years, entering other bodies. he also refers to the custom of throwing letters on the funeral pyre, so that the dead might read them.[ ] this suggests a belief in residence for a period in a hades. [ ] book v. chap. xxviii. the doctrine of transmigration of souls did not, however, prevail among all celtic peoples even in gaul. valerius maximus, writing about a.d. , says that the gauls were in the habit of lending sums of money on the promise that they would be repaid in the next world. gaelic and welsh literature contains little evidence of the doctrine of transmigration of souls. a few myths suggest that re-birth was a privilege of certain specially famous individuals. mongan, king of dalriada in ulster, and the welsh taliessin, for instance, were supposed to have lived for periods in various forms, including animal, plant, and human forms, while other heroes were incarnations of deities. the most persistent british belief, however, was that after death the soul passed to an otherworld. julius cæsar says that druidism was believed to have originated in britain.[ ] this cannot apply, however, to the belief in transmigration of souls, which was shared in common by celts, greeks, and indians. according to herodotus, "the egyptians are the first who have affirmed that the soul is immortal, and that when the body decays the soul invariably enters another body on the point of death". the story of "the two brothers" (anpu and bata) indicates that the doctrine was known in egypt. there are references in the "book of the dead" to a soul becoming a lily, a golden falcon, a ram, a crocodile, &c., but this doctrine was connected, according to egyptologists, with the belief that souls could assume different shapes in the otherworld. in india souls are supposed to pass through animal or reptile forms only. the greek doctrine, like the celtic, includes plant forms. certain african tribes believe in the transmigration of souls. [ ] pliny (book xxx) says britain seems to have taught druidism to the persians. siret's view, given in the concluding part of this chapter, that druidism was of eastern origin, is of special interest in this connection. in ancient britain and ireland the belief obtained, as in greece and elsewhere, that there was an underworld paradise and certain islands of the blest (in gaelic called "the land of youth", "the plain of bliss", &c.) the underworld was entered through caves, wells, rivers or lakes, or through the ocean cavern from which the moon arose. there are references in scottish folk-tales to "the land-under-waves", and to men and women entering the underworld through a "fairy" mound, and seeing the dead plucking fruit and reaping grain as in the paradise of the egyptian god osiris. it is evident that fairyland was originally a paradise, and the fairy queen an old mother goddess. there are references in welsh to as gloomy an underworld as the babylonian one. "in addition to _annwfn_, a term which", according to the late professor anwyl, "seems to mean the 'not-world', we have other names for the world below, such as _anghar_, 'the loveless place'; _difant_, the unrimmed place (whence the modern welsh word _difancoll_, 'lost for ever'); _affwys_, the abyss; _affan_, 'the land invisible'." in a welsh poem a bard speaks of the otherworld as "the cruel prison of earth, the abode of death, the loveless land".[ ] [ ] _celtic religion_, p. . the border ballads of scotland contain references to the fairyland paradise of the underworld, to the islands or continent of paradise, and to the dark otherworld of the grave in which the dead lie among devouring worms. in one celtic elysium, known to the welsh and irish, the dead feast on pork as do the heroes in the paradise of the scandinavian god odin. there is no trace in scotland of a belief or desire to reach a paradise in which the pig was eaten. the popularity of the apple as the fruit of longevity was, however, widespread. it is uncertain when the beliefs connected with it were introduced into england, wales, scotland, and ireland. as they were similar to those connected with the hazel-nut, the acorn, the rowan, &c., there may have simply been a change of fruit rather than a religious change, except in so far as new ceremonies may have been associated with the cultivated apple tree. a gaelic story tells of a youth who in paradise held a fragrant golden apple in his right hand. "a third part of it he would eat and still, for all he consumed, never a whit would it be diminished." as long as he ate the apple "nor age nor dimness could affect him". paradise was in welsh and gaelic called "apple land".[ ] its "tree of life" always bore ripe fruit and fresh blossoms. one of the irish st. patrick legends pictures a fair youth coming from the south[ ] clad in crimson mantle and yellow shirt, carrying a "double armful of round yellow-headed nuts and of most beautiful golden-yellow apples". there are stories, too, about the hazel with its "good fruit", and of holy fire being taken from this tree, and withal a number of hazel place-names that probably indicate where sacred hazel groves once existed. hallowe'en customs connected with apples and nuts are evidently relics of ancient religious beliefs and ceremonies. [ ] avalon, emain ablach, &c. [ ] the south was on the right and signified heaven, while the north was on the left and signified hell. the druids are reported by pliny (as has been stated) to have venerated the mistletoe, especially when it was found growing on an oak. but the popular parasitic plant is very rarely found associated with this tree. in france and england it grows chiefly on firs and pines or on apple trees, but never on the plane, beech, or birch.[ ] it is therefore doubtful if the name druid was derived from the root _dru_ which is found in the greek word _drus_ (oak). in gaelic the druids are "wise men" who read oracles, worked spells, controlled the weather, and acted as intercessors between the gods and men. like the dragon-slayers of romance, they understood "the language of birds", and especially that of the particular bird associated with the holy tree of a cult. one sacred bird was the wren. according to dr. whitley stokes the old celtic names of wren and druid were derived from the root _dreo_, which is cognate with the german word _treu_ and the english _true_. the druid was therefore, as one who understood the language of the wren, a soothsayer, a truth-sayer--a revealer of divine truth. a judgment pronounced by druid or king was supposed to be inspired by the deity. it was essentially a divine decree. the judge wore round his neck the symbol of the deity. "when what he said was true, it was roomy for his neck; when false, it was narrow." this symbol according to _cormac's glossary_ was called _sin_ (sheen). some seers derived their power to reveal the truth by tasting the blood or juice of a holy animal or reptile, or, like thomas the rhymer, by eating of an apple plucked from the tree of life in the paradise of fairyland. in an old ballad it is told that when thomas was carried off to the underworld by the fairy queen he was given an inspiring apple that made him a "truth-sayer" (a prophet). [ ] bacon wrote: "mistletoe groweth chiefly upon crab trees, apple trees, sometimes upon hazels, and rarely upon oaks; the mistletoe whereof is counted very medicinal. it is evergreen in winter and summer, and beareth a white glistening berry; and it is a plant utterly differing from the plant on which it groweth." syne they came to a garden green and she pu'd an apple frae a tree; "take this for thy wages, true thomas; it will give thee the tongue that can never lee (lie)." "true thomas" was "druid thomas". an interesting reference to druidism is found in a gaelic poem supposed to have been written by st. columba, in which the missionary says: the voices of birds i do not reverence, nor sneezing, nor any charm in this wide world. christ, the son of god, is my druid. there are gaelic stories about druids who read the omens of the air and foretell the fates of individuals at birth, fix the days on which young warriors should take arms, &c. in england, scotland, ireland, and wales not only trees and birds were reverenced, but also standing stones, which are sometimes referred to even in modern gaelic as "stones of worship". some stories tell of standing stones being transformed into human beings when struck by a magician's wand. the wand in one story is possessed by a "wise woman". other traditions relate that once a year the stones become maidens who visit a neighbouring stream and bathe in it. a version of this myth survives in oxfordshire. according to tacitus there were on the island of mona (anglesea), which was a centre of religious influence, not only druids, but "women in black attire like furies"--apparently priestesses. as has been noted, a large number of dolmens existed on mona, in which there were also "groves devoted to inhuman superstitions".[ ] [ ] _the annals of tacitus_, xiv, . the theory that mediæval witches were the priestesses of a secret cult that perpetuated pre-roman british religion is not supported by gaelic evidence. the gaelic "witches" had no meetings with the devil, and never rode on broomsticks. the gaelic name for witchcraft is derived from english and is not old. the early christian writers refer to the "worship of stones" in ireland. in the seventh century the council at rouen denounced all those who offer vows to trees, or wells, or stones, as they would at altars, or offer candles or gifts, as if any divinity resided there capable of conferring good or evil. the council at arles (a.d. ) and the council at toledo (a.d. ) dealt with similar pagan practices. that sacred stones were associated with sacred trees is indicated in a decree of an early christian council held at nantes which exhorts "bishops and their servants to dig up and remove and hide in places where they cannot be found those stones which in remote and woody places are still worshipped and where vows are still made". this worship of stones was in britain, or at any rate in part of england, connected with the worship of the heavenly bodies. a statute of the time of king canute forbids the barbarous adoration of the sun and moon, fire, fountains, stones, and all kinds of trees and wood. in the confession attributed to st. patrick, the irish are warned that all those who adore the sun shall perish eternally. _cormac's_ _glossary_ explains that _indelba_ signified _images_ and that this name was applied to the altars of certain idols. "they (the pagans) were wont to carve on them the forms of the elements they adored: for example, the figure of the sun." irish gaels swore by "the sun, moon, water, and air, day and night, sea and land". in a scottish story some warriors lift up a portion of earth and swear on it. the custom of swearing on weapons was widespread in these islands. in ancient times people swore by what was holiest to them.[ ] [ ] "every weapon has its demon" is an old gaelic saying. one of the latest references to pagan religious customs is found in the records of dingwall presbytery dating from to . in the parish of gairloch, ross-shire, bulls were sacrificed, oblations of milk were poured on the hills, wells were adored, and chapels were "circulated"--the worshippers walked round them sunwise. those who intended to set out on journeys thrust their heads into a hole in a stone.[ ] if a head entered the hole, it was believed the man would return; if it did not, his luck was doubtful. the reference to "oblations of milk" is of special interest, because milk was offered to the fairies. a milk offering was likewise poured daily into the "cup" of a stone known as clach-na-gruagach (the stone of the long-haired one). a bowl of milk was, in the highlands, placed beside a corpse, and, after burial took place, either outside the house door or at the grave. the conventionalized azilian human form is sometimes found to be depicted by small "cups" on boulders or rocks. some "cups" were formed by "knocking" with a small stone for purposes of divination. the "cradle stone" at burghead is a case in point. it is dealt with by sir arthur mitchell (_the past in the present_, pp. - ), who refers to other "cup-stones" that were regarded as being "efficacious in cases of barrenness". in some hollowed stones highland parents immersed children suspected of being changelings. [ ] according to the dingwall records knowledge of "future events in reference especialle to lyfe and death" was obtained by performing a ceremony in connection with the hollowed stone. a flood of light has been thrown on the origin of druidism by siret,[ ] the discoverer of the settlements of easterners in spain which have been dealt with in an earlier chapter. he shows that the colonists were an intensely religious people, who introduced the eastern palm-tree cult and worshipped a goddess similar to the egyptian hathor, a form of whom was nut. after they were expelled from spain by a bronze-using people, the refugees settled in gaul and italy, carrying with them the science and religious beliefs and practices associated with druidism. commercial relations were established between the etruscans, the peoples of gaul and the south of spain, and with the phoenicians of tyre and carthage during the archæological early iron age. some of the megalithic monuments of north africa were connected with this later drift. [ ] _l'anthropologie_, . tome xxx, pp. _et seq._ the goddess hathor of egypt was associated with the sycamore fig which exudes a milk-like fluid, with a sea-shell, with the sky (as nut she was depicted as a star-spangled woman), and with the primeval cow. the tree cult was introduced into rome. the legend of the foundation of that city is closely associated with the "milk"-yielding fig tree, under which the twins romulus and remus were nourished by the wolf. the fig-milk was regarded as an elixir and was given by the greeks to newly born children. siret shows that the ancient name of the tiber was rumon, which was derived from the root signifying milk. it was supposed to nourish the earth with terrestrial milk. from the same root came the name of rome. the ancient milk-providing goddess of rome was deva rumina. offerings of milk instead of wine were made to her. the starry heavens were called "juno's milk" by the romans, and "hera's milk" by the greeks, and the name "milky way" is still retained. the milk tree of the british isles is the hazel. it contains a milky fluid in the green nut, which highland children of a past generation regarded as a fluid that gave them strength. nut-milk was evidently regarded in ancient times as an elixir like fig-milk.[ ] there is a great deal of gaelic lore connected with the hazel. in keating's _history of ireland_ (vol. i, section ) appears the significant statement, "coll (the hazel) indeed was god to maccuil". "coll" is the old gaelic word for hazel; the modern word is "call". "calltuinn" (englished "calton") is a "hazel grove". there are caltons in edinburgh and glasgow and well-worn forms of the ancient name elsewhere. in the legends associated with the irish saint maedóg is one regarding a dried-up stick of hazel which "sprouted into leaf and blossom and good fruit". it is added that this hazel "endures yet (a.d. ), a fresh tree, undecayed, unwithered, nut-laden yearly".[ ] the sacred hazel was supposed to be impregnated with the substance of life. another reference is made to _coll na nothar_ ("hazel of the wounded"). hazel-nuts of longevity, as well as apples of longevity, were supposed to grow in the gaelic paradise. in a st. patrick legend a youth comes from the south ("south" is paradise and "north" is hell) carrying "a double armful of round yellow-headed nuts and of beautiful golden-yellow apples". dr. joyce states that the ancient irish "attributed certain druidical or fairy virtues to the yew, the hazel, and the quicken or rowan tree", and refers to "innumerable instances in tales, poems, and other old records, in such expressions as 'cruachan of the fair hazels', 'derry-na-nath, on which fair-nutted hazels are constantly found'.... among the blessings a good king brought on the land was plenty of hazel-nuts:--'o'berga (the chief) for whom the hazels stoop', 'each hazel is rich from the hero'." hazel-nuts were like the figs and dates of the easterners, largely used for food.[ ] [ ] "comb of the honey and milk of the nut" (in gaelic _cir na meala 'is bainne nan cnò_) was given as a tonic to weakly children, and is still remembered, the rev. kenneth macleod, colonsay, informs me. [ ] standish h. o'grady, _silva gadelica_, p. . [ ] _a smaller social history of ancient ireland_, pp. - and - . important evidence regarding the milk elixir and the associated myths and doctrines is preserved in the ancient religious literature of india and especially in the _mahá-bhárata_. the indian hathor is the cow-mother surabhi, who sprang from amrita (soma) in the mouth of the grandfather (brahma). a single jet of her milk gave origin to "milky ocean". the milk "mixing with the water" appeared as foam, and was the only nourishment of the holy men called "foam drinkers". divine milk was also obtained from "milk-yielding trees", which were the "children" of one of her daughters. these trees included nut trees. another daughter was the mother of birds of the parrot species (oracular birds). in the vedic poems _soma_, a drink prepared from a plant, is said to have been mixed with milk and honey, and mention is made of "_su-soma_" ("river of soma"). _madhu_ (mead) was a drink identified with _soma_, or milk and honey.[ ] [ ] macdonell and keith, _vedic index_, under _soma_ and _madhu_. there are rivers of mead in the celtic paradise. certain trees are in irish lore associated with rivers that were regarded as sacred. these were not necessarily milk-yielding trees. in gaul the plane tree took the place of the southern fig tree. the elm tree in ireland and scotland was similarly connected with the ancient milk cult. one of the old names for new milk, found in "cormac's glossary", is _lemlacht_, the later form of which is _leamhnacht_. from the same root (_lem_) comes _leamh_, the name of the elm. the river laune in killarney is a rendering of the gaelic name _leamhain_, which in scotland is found as leven, the river that gave its name to the area known as lennox (ancient _leamhna_). milk place-names in ireland include "new milk lake" (lough alewnaghta) in galway, "which", joyce suggests, "may have been so called from the softness of its water". a mythological origin of the name is more probable. wounds received in battle were supposed to be healed in baths of the milk of white hornless cows.[ ] in irish blood-covenant ceremonies new milk, blood, and wine were mixed and drunk by warriors.[ ] as late as the twelfth century a rich man's child was in ireland immersed immediately after birth in new milk.[ ] in rome, in the ninth century, at the easter-eve baptism the chalice was filled "not with wine but with milk and honey, that they may understand ... that they have entered already upon the promised land".[ ] [ ] joyce, _irish names of places_, vol. i, pp. - , vol. ii, pp. - and · marsh mallows (_leamh_) appear to have been included among the herbals of the milk-cult as the soma-plant was in india. [ ] _revue celtique_, vol. xiii, p. . [ ] warren, _liturgy and ritual of the celtic church_, p. . [ ] henderson's _survivals_, p. . the beliefs associated with the apple, rowan, hazel, and oak trees were essentially the same. these trees provided the fruits of longevity and knowledge, or the wine which was originally regarded as an elixir that imparted new life and inspired those who drank it to prophecy[ ]. the oak provided acorns which were eaten. although it does not bear red berries like the rowan, a variety of the oak is greatly favoured by the insect _kermes_, "which yields a scarlet dye nearly equal to cochineal, and is the 'scarlet' mentioned in scripture". this fact is of importance as the early peoples attached much value to colour and especially to red, the colour of life blood. withal, acorn-cups "are largely imported from the levant for the purposes of tanning, dyeing, and making ink".[ ] a seafaring people like the ancient britons must have tanned the skins used for boats so as to prevent them rotting on coming into contact with water. dr. joyce writes of the ancient irish in this connection, "curraghs[ ] or wicker-boats were often covered with leather. a jacket of hard, tough, tanned leather was sometimes worn in battle as a protecting corslet. bags made of leather, and often of undressed skins, were pretty generally used to hold liquids. there was a sort of leather wallet or bag called _crioll_, used like a modern travelling bag, to hold clothes and other soft articles. the art of tanning was well understood in ancient ireland. the name for a tanner was _sudaire_, which is still a living word. oak bark was employed, and in connection with this use was called _coirteach_ (latin, _cortex_)." the oak-god protected seafarers by making their vessels sea-worthy. [ ] rowan-berry wine was greatly favoured. there are gaelic references to "the wine of the apple (cider)". [ ] george nicholson, _encyclopædia of horticulture_, under "oak". [ ] curragh is connected with the latin _corium_, a hide. mistletoe berries may have been regarded as milk-berries because of their colour, and the ceremonial cutting of the mistletoe with the golden sickle may well have been a ceremony connected with the fertilization of trees practised in the east. the mistletoe was reputed to be an "all-heal", although really it is useless for medicinal purposes. that complex ideas were associated with deities imported into this country, the history of which must be sought for elsewhere, is made manifest when we find that, in the treeless outer hebrides, the goddess known as the "maiden queen" has her dwelling in a tree and provides the "milk of knowledge" from a sea-shell. she could not possibly have had independent origin in scotland. her history is rooted in ancient egypt, where hathor, the provider of the milk of knowledge and longevity, was, as has been indicated, connected with the starry sky (the milky way), a sea-shell, the milk-yielding sycamore fig, and the primeval cow. the cult animal of the goddess was in egypt the star-spangled cow; in troy it was a star-spangled sow[ ]. the cult animal of rome was the wolf which suckled romulus and remus. in crete the local zeus was suckled, according to the belief of one cult, by a horned sheep[ ], and according to another cult by a sow. there were various cult animals in ancient scotland, including the tabooed pig, the red deer milked by the fairies, the wolf, and the cat of the "cat" tribes in shetland, caithness, &c. the cow appears to have been sacred to certain peoples in ancient britain and ireland. it would appear, too, that there was a sacred dog in ireland.[ ] [ ] schliemann, _troy and its remains_, p. . [ ] _journal of hellenic studies_, vol. xxi, p. . [ ] it was because zeus had been suckled by a sow that the cretans, as athenæus records, "will not taste its flesh" (farnell, _cults of the greek states_, vol. i, p. ). in ireland the dog was taboo to cuchullin. there is a good deal of gaelic lore about the sacred cow. it is evident that among the eastern beliefs anciently imported into the british isles were some which still bear traces of the influence of cults and of culture mixing. that religious ideas of egyptian and babylonian origin were blended in this country there can be little doubt, for the gaelic-speaking peoples, who revered the hazel as the egyptians revered the sycamore, regarded the liver as the seat of life, as did the babylonians, and not the heart, as did the egyptians. in translations of ancient gaelic literature "liver" is always rendered as "vitals". [illustration: cult animals and "wonder beasts" (dragons or makaras) on scottish sculptured stones] it is of special interest to note that siret has found evidence to show that the tree cult of the easterners was connected with the early megalithic monuments. the testimony of tradition associates the stone circles, &c., with the druids. "we are now obliged", he writes[ ], "to go back to the theory of the archæologists of a hundred years ago who attributed the megalithic monuments to the druids. the instinct of our predecessors has been more penetrating than the scientific analysis which has taken its place." in gaelic, as will be shown, the words for a sacred grove and the shrine within a grove are derived from the same root _nem_. (see also chapter ix in this connection.) [ ] _l'anthropologie_ ( ), pp. _et seq._ chapter xiii the lore of charms the meaning of "luck"--symbolism of charms--colour symbolism--death as a change--food and charms for the dead--the lucky pearl--pearl goddess--moon as "pearl of heaven"--sky goddess connected with pearls, groves, and wells--night-shining jewels--pearl and coral as "life givers"--the morrigan and morgan le fay--goddess freyja and jewels--amber connected with goddess and boar--"soul substance" in amber, jet, coral, &c.--enamel as substitute for coral, &c.--precious metal and precious stones--goddess of life and law--pearl as a standard of value in gaelic trade. our ancestors were greatly concerned about their luck. they consulted oracles to discover what luck was in store for them. to them luck meant everything they most desired--good health, good fortune, an abundant food supply, and protection against drowning, wounds in battle, accidents, and so on. luck was ensured by performing ceremonies and wearing charms. some ceremonies were performed round sacred bon-fires (bone fires), when sacrifices were made, at holy wells, in groves, or in stone circles. charms included precious stones, coloured stones, pearls, and articles of silver, gold, or copper of symbolic shape, or bearing an image or inscription. mascots, "lucky pigs", &c., are relics of the ancient custom of wearing charms. the colour as well as the shape of a charm revealed its particular influence. certain colours are still regarded as being lucky or unlucky ("yellow is forsaken" some say). in ancient times colours meant much to the britons, as they did to other peoples. this fact is brought out in many tales and customs. a welsh story, for instance, which refers to the appearance of supernatural beings attired in red and blue, says, "the red on the one part signifies burning, and the blue on the other signifies coldness".[ ] [ ] lady charlotte guest, _the mabinogion_ (story of "kilwch and olwen" and note on "gwyn the son of nudd"). on their persisting belief in luck were based the religious ideas and practices of the ancient britons. their chief concern was to protect and prolong life in this world and in the next. when death came it was regarded as "a change". the individual was supposed either to fall asleep, or to be transported in the body to paradise, or to assume a new form. in scottish gaelic one can still hear the phrase _chaochail e_ ("he changed") used to signify that "he died".[ ] but after death charms were as necessary as during life. as in aurignacian times, luck-charms in the form of necklaces, armlets, &c., were placed in the graves of the dead by those who used flint, or bronze, or iron to shape implements and weapons. the dead had to receive nourishment, and clay vessels are invariably found in ancient graves, some of which contain dusty deposits. the writer has seen at fortrose a deposit in one of these grave urns, which a medical man identified as part of the skeleton of a bird. [ ] also _shiubhail e_ which signifies "he went off" (as when walking). necklaces of shells, of wild animals' teeth, and ornaments of ivory found in palæolithic graves or burial caves were connected with the belief that they contained the animating influence or "life substance" of the mother goddess. in later times the pearl found in the shell was regarded as being specially sacred. venus (aphrodite) is, in one of her phases, the personification of a pearl, and is lifted from the sea seated on a shell. as a sky deity she was connected with the planet that bears her name[ ] and also with the moon. the ancients connected the moon with the pearl. in some languages the moon is the "pearl of heaven". dante, in his _inferno_, refers to the moon as "the eternal pearl". one of the gaelic names for a pearl is _neamhnuid_. the root is _nem_ of _neamh_, and _neamh_ is "heaven", so that the pearl is "a heavenly thing" in gaelic, as in other ancient languages. it was associated not only with the sky goddess but with the sacred grove in which the goddess was worshipped. the gaulish name _nemeton_, of which the root is likewise _nem_, means "shrine in a grove". in early christian times in ireland the name was applied as _nemed_ to a chapel, and in scottish place-names[ ] it survives in the form of _neimhidh_, "church-land", the englished forms of which are _navity_, near cromarty, _navaty_ in fife, "rosneath", formerly rosneveth (the promontory of the _nemed_), "dalnavie" (dale of the _nemed_), "cnocnavie" (hillock of the _nemed_), inchnavie (island of the _nemed_), &c. the gauls had a _nemetomarus_ ("great shrine"), and when in roman times a shrine was dedicated to augustus it was called _augustonemeton_. the root _nem_ is in the latin word _nemus_ (a grove). it was apparently because the goddess of the grove was the goddess of the sky and of the pearl, and the goddess of battle as well as the goddess of love, that julius cæsar made a thanksgiving offering to venus in her temple at rome of a corslet of british pearls. [ ] when depicted with star-spangled garments she was the goddess of the starry sky ("milky way") like the egyptian hathor or nut. [ ] professor w. j. watson, _place-names of ross and cromarty_, pp. - . the irish goddess nemon was the spouse of the war god neit. a roman inscription at bath refers to the british goddess n[)e]m[)e]t[)o]na. the gauls had a goddess of similar name. in galatia, asia minor, the particular tree connected with the sky goddess was the oak, as is shown by the name of their religious centre which was _dru-nemeton_ ("oak-grove"). it will be shown in a later chapter that the sacred tree was connected with the sky and the deities of the sky, with the sacred wells and rivers, with the sacred fish, and with the fire, the sun, and lightning. here it may be noted that the sacred well is connected with the holy grove, the sky, the pearl, and the mother goddess in the irish place-name _neamhnach_ (navnagh),[ ] applied to the well from which flows the stream of the nith. the well is thus, like the pearl, "the heavenly one". the root _nem_ of _neamh_ (heaven) is found in the name of st. brendan's mother, who was called _neamhnat_ (navnat), which means "little" or "dear heavenly one". in _neamhan_ ("raven" and "crow") the bird form of the deity is enshrined. [ ] dr. joyce, _irish names of places_, vol. i, p. . [illustration: upper picture by courtesy of director, british school of rome megaliths upper: dolmen near birori, sardinia. lower: tynewydd dolmen.] owing to its connection with the moon, the pearl was supposed to shine by night. the same peculiarity was attributed to certain sacred stones, to coral, jade, &c., and to ivory. munster people perpetuate the belief that "at the bottom of the lower lake of killarney there is a diamond of priceless value, which sometimes shines so brightly that on certain nights the light bursts forth with dazzling brilliancy through the dark waters".[ ] night-shining jewels are known in scotland. one is suppose to shine on arthur's seat, edinburgh, and another on the north "souter" of the cromarty firth.[ ] another sacred stone connected with the goddess was the onyx, which in ancient gaelic is called _nem_. night-shining jewels are referred to in the myths of greece, arabia, persia, india, china, japan, &c. laufer has shown that the chinese received their lore about the night-shining diamond from "fu-lin" (the byzantine empire).[ ] [ ] _ibid._, vol. ii, p. . [ ] the two headlands, the "souters" or "sutors", are supposed to have been so called because they were sites of tanneries. [ ] _the diamond_ (chicago, ). the ancient pearl-fishers spread their pearl-lore far and wide. it is told in more than one land that pearls are formed by dew-drops from the sky. pliny says the dew-or rain-drops fall into the shells of the pearl-oyster when it gapes.[ ] in modern times the belief is that pearls are the congealed tears of the angels. in greece the pearl was called _margaritoe_, a name which survives in margaret, anciently the name of a goddess. the old persian name for pearl is _margan_, which signifies "life giver". it is possible that this is the original meaning of the name of morgan le fay (morgan the fairy), who is remembered as the sister of king arthur, and of the irish goddess morrigan, usually englished as "sea-queen" (the sea as the source of life), or "great queen". at any rate, morgan le fay and the morrigan closely resemble one another. in italian we meet with fata morgana. [ ] _natural history_, book ix. chap. liv. the old persian word for coral is likewise _margan_. coral was supposed to be a tree, and it was regarded as the sea-tree of the sea and sky goddess. amber was connected, too, with the goddess. in northern mythology, amber, pearls, precious stones, and precious metals were supposed to be congealed forms of the tears of the goddess freyja, the venus of the scandinavians. amber, like pearls, was sacred to the mother goddess because her life substance (the animating principle) was supposed to be concentrated in it. the connection between the precious or sacred amber and the goddess and her cult animal is brought out in a reference made by tacitus to the amber collectors and traders on the southern shore of the baltic. these are the Æstyans, who, according to tacitus, were costumed like the swedes, but spoke a language resembling the dialect of the britons. "they worship", the historian records, "the mother of the gods. the figure of a wild boar is the symbol of their superstition; and he who has that emblem about him thinks himself secure even in the thickest ranks of the enemy without any need of arms or any other mode of defence."[ ] the animal of the amber goddess was thus the boar, which was the sacred animal of the celtic tribe, the iceni of ancient britain, which under boadicea revolted against roman rule. the symbol of the boar (remembered as the "lucky pig") is found on ancient british armour. on the famous witham shield there are coral and enamel. three bronze boar symbols found in a field at hounslow are preserved in the british museum. in the same field was found a solar-wheel symbol. "the boar frequently occurs in british and gaulish coins of the period, and examples have been found as far off as gurina and transylvania."[ ] other sacred cult animals were connected with the goddess by those people who fished for pearls and coral or searched for sacred precious stones or precious metals. [ ] tacitus, _manners of the germans_, chap. xlv. [ ] _british museum guide to the antiquities of the early iron age_, pp. - . at the basis of the ancient religious system that connected coral, shells, and pearls with the mother goddess of the sea, wells, rivers, and lakes, was the belief that all life had its origin in water. pearls, amber, marsh plants, and animals connected with water were supposed to be closely associated with the goddess who herself had had her origin in water. tacitus tells that the baltic worshippers of the mother goddess called amber _glesse_. according to pliny[ ] it was called _glessum_ by the germans, and he tells that one of the baltic islands famous for its amber was named _glessaria_. the root is the celtic word _glas_, which originally meant "water" and especially life-giving water. boece (_cosmographie_, chapter xv) tells that in scotland the belief prevailed that amber was generated of sea-froth. it thus had its origin like aphrodite. _glas_ is now a colour term in welsh and gaelic, signifying green or grey, or even a shade of blue. it was anciently used to denote vigour, as in the term _gaidheal glas_ ("the vigorous gael" or "the ambered gael", the vigour being derived from the goddess of amber and the sea); and in the latinized form of the old british name cuneglasos, which like the irish conglas signified "vigorous hound".[ ] here the sacred hound figures in place of the sacred boar. [ ] _natural history_, book xxxviii, chapter iii. [ ] rhys rejects the view of gildas that "cuneglasos" meant "tawny butcher". from the root _glas_ comes also _glaisin_, the gaelic name for woad, the blue dyestuff with which ancient britons and gaels stained or tattooed their bodies with figures of sacred animals or symbols,[ ] apparently to secure protection as did those who had the boar symbol on their armour. for the same reason cuchullin, the irish achilles, wore pearls in his hair, and the roman emperor caligula had a pearl collar on his favourite horse. ice being a form of water is in french _glacé_, which also means "glass". when glass beads were first manufactured they were regarded, like amber, as depositories of "life substance" from the water goddess who, as sky goddess, was connected with sun and fire. her fire melted the constituents of glass into liquid form, and it hardened like jewels and amber. these beads were called "adder stones" (welsh _glain neidre_ and "druid's gem" or "glass"--in welsh _gleini na droedh_ and in gaelic _glaine nan druidhe_). [ ] herodian, lib. iii, says of the inhabitants of caledonia, "they mark their bodies with various pictures of all manner of animals". a special peculiarity about amber is that when rubbed vigorously it attracts or lifts light articles. that is why it is called in persian kahruba (_kah_, straw; _ruba_, to lift). this name appears in modern french as _carabé_ (yellow amber). in italian, spanish, and portuguese it is _carabe_. no doubt the early peoples, who gathered adriatic and baltic amber and distributed it and its lore far and wide, discovered this peculiar quality in the sacred substance. in britain, jet was used in the same way as amber for luck charms and ornaments. like amber it becomes negatively electric by friction. bede appears to have believed that jet was possessed of special virtue. "when heated", he says, "it drives away serpents."[ ] the romans regarded jet as a depository of supernatural power[ ] and used it for ornaments. until comparatively recently jet was used in scotland as a charm against witchcraft, the evil eye, &c. "a ring of hard black schistus found in a cairn in the parish of inchinan", writes a local scottish historian, "has performed, if we believe report, many astonishing cures."[ ] albertite, which, like jet and amber, attracts light articles when vigorously rubbed, was made into ornaments. it takes on a finer lustre than jet but loses it sooner. [ ] book i. chapter i. [ ] pliny, lib. xxxvi. cap. . [ ] ure's _history of rutherglen and kilbride_, p. . the fact that jet, albertite, and other black substances were supposed to be specially efficacious for protecting black horses and cattle is of peculiar interest. hathor, the cow goddess of egypt, had a black as well as a white form as goddess of the night sky and death. she was the prototype of the black aphrodite (venus). in scotland a black goddess (the _nigra dea_ in adamnan's _life of columba_) was associated with loch lochy. the use of coral as a sacred substance did not begin in britain until the knowledge of iron working was introduced. coral is not found nearer than the mediterranean. the people who first brought it to britain must have received it and the beliefs attached to it from the mediterranean area. before reaching britain they had begun to make imitation coral. the substitute was enamel, which required for its manufacture great skill and considerable knowledge, furnaces capable of generating an intense heat being necessary. it is inconceivable that so expensive a material could have been produced except for religious purposes. the warriors apparently believed that coral and its substitutes protected them as did amber and the boar symbol of the mother goddess. at first red enamel was used as a substitute for red coral, but ultimately blue, yellow, and white enamels were produced. sometimes we find, as at traprain in scotland, that silver took the place of white enamel. it is possible that blue enamel was a substitute for turquoise and lapis lazuli, the precious stones associated with the mother goddesses of hathor type, and that yellow and white enamels were substitutes for yellow and white amber. the greeks called white amber "electrum". the symbolism of gold and silver links closely with that of amber. possibly the various sacred substances and their substitutes were supposed to protect different parts of the body. as much is suggested, for instance, by the lingering belief that amber protects and strengthens the eyes. the solar cult connected the ear and the ear-ring with the sun, which was one of the "eyes" of the world-deity, the other "eye" being the moon. when human ears were pierced, the blood drops were offered to the sun-god. sailors of a past generation clung to the ancient notion that gold ear-rings exercised a beneficial influence on their eyes. not only the colours of luck objects, but their shapes were supposed to ensure luck. the swashtika symbol, the u-form, the s-form, and -form symbols, the spiral, the leaf-shaped and equal-limbed crosses, &c., were supposed to "attract" and "radiate" the influence of the deity. thus buddhists accumulate religious "merit" not only by fasting and praying, but by making collections of jewels and symbols. in britain, as in other countries, the deity was closely associated as an influence with law. a roman inscription on a slab found at carvoran refers to the mother goddess "poising life and laws in a balance". this was ceres, whose worship had been introduced during the roman period, but similar beliefs were attached to the ancient goddesses of britain. vows were taken over objects sacred to her, and sacred objects were used as mediums of exchange. in old gaelic, for instance, a jewel or pearl was called a _set_; in modern gaelic it is _sed_ (pronounced _shade_). a _set_ (pearl) was equal in value to an ounce of gold and to a cow. an ounce of gold was therefore a _set_ and a cow was a _set_, too. three _sets_ was the value of a bondmaid. the value of three sets was one _cumal_. another standard of value was a sack of corn (_miach_).[ ] [ ] joyce, _a smaller social history of ancient ireland_, p. . the value attached to gold and pearls was originally magical. jewels and precious metals were searched for for to bring wearers "luck"--that is, everything their hearts desired. the search for these promoted trade, and the _sets_ were used as a standard of value between traders. thus not only religious systems, but even the early systems of trade were closely connected with the persistent belief in luck and the deity who was the source of luck.[ ] [ ] professor w. j. watson has drawn my attention to an interesting reference to amber. in the _proceedings of the british academy_, vol. ii, p. , under "celtic inscriptions of france and italy", sir john rhys deals with vebrumaros, a man's name. the second element in this name is _m[=a]ros_ (great); the first, _uebru_, "is perhaps to be explained by reference to the welsh word _gwefr_ (amber)". rhys thought the name meant that the man was distinguished for his display of amber "in the adornment of his person". the name had probably a deeper significance. amber was closely associated with the mother goddess. one of her names may have been "uebru". she personified amber. chapter xiv the world of our ancestors "all heals"--influences of cardinal points--the four red divisions of the world--the black north, white south, purple east, and dun or pale east--good and bad words connected with south and north--north the left, south the right, east in front, and west behind--cardinal points doctrine in burial customs--stone circle burials--christian and pagan burial rites--sunwise customs--raising the devil in stone circle--coloured winds--coloured stones raise winds--the "god body" and "spirit husk"--deities and cardinal points--axis of stonehenge avenue--god and goddesses of circle--well worship--lore of druids. the ancient superstitions dealt with in the previous chapter afford us glimpses of the world in which our ancestors lived, and some idea of the incentives that caused them to undertake long and perilous journeys in search of articles of religious value. they were as greatly concerned as are their descendants about their health and their fate. everything connected with the deity, or possessing, as was believed, the influence of the deity, was valuable as a charm or as medicine. the mistletoe berry was a famous medicine because it was the fruit of a parasite supposed to contain the "life substance" of a powerful deity. it was an "all heal" or "cure all",[ ] yet it was a quack medicine and quite useless. red earth was "blood earth"; it contained the animating principle too. certain herbs were supposed to be curative. some herbs were, and in the course of time their precise qualities were identified. but many of them continued in use, although quite useless, because of the colour of their berries, the shape of their leaves, or the position in which they grew. if one red-berried plant was "lucky" or curative, all red-berried plants shared in its reputation. it was because of the lore attached to colours that dusky pearls were preferred to white pearls, just as in ceylon yellow pearls are chiefly favoured because yellow is the sacred colour of the buddhists. richard of cirencester,[ ] referring to bede, says that british pearls are "often of the best kind and of every colour: that is, red, purple, violet, green, but principally white". [ ] richard of cirencester (fourteenth century) says the mistletoe increased the number of animals, and was considered as a specific against all poisons (book i, chap. iv). [ ] book i. chap. v. in the lore of plants, in religious customs, including burial customs, and in beliefs connected with the seasons, weather, and sacred sites, there are traces of a doctrine based on the belief that good or bad influences "flowed" from the cardinal points, just as good or bad influences "flowed" from gems, metals, wood, and water. when, for instance, certain herbs were pulled from the ground, it was important that one should at the time of the operation be facing the south. a love-enticing plant had to be plucked in this way, and immediately before sunrise. there was much superstition in weather lore, as the beliefs connected with st. swithin's day indicate. certain days were lucky for removals in certain directions. saturday was the day for flitting northward, and monday for flitting southward. monday was "the key of the week". an old gaelic saying, repeated in various forms in folk stories, runs: shut the north window, and quickly close the window to the south; and shut the window facing west, evil never came from the east. south-running water was "powerful" for working protective charms; north-running water brought evil. [illustration: diagram of the gaelic airts (cardinal points) and their associated colours referred to in the text spring was connected with the east, summer with the south, autumn with the west, and winter with the north.] the idea behind these and other similar beliefs was that "the four red divisions" or the "four brown divisions" of the world were controlled by deities or groups of deities, whose influences for good or evil were continually "flowing", and especially when winds were blowing. a good deity sent a good wind, and a bad deity sent a bad wind. each wind was coloured. the north was the airt[ ] (cardinal point) of evil, misfortune, and bad luck, and was coloured black; the south was the source of good luck, good fortune, summer, and longevity, and was coloured white; the east was a specially sacred airt, and was coloured purple-red, while the west was the airt of death, and was coloured dun or pale. east and south and north and west were connected. there were various colours for the subsidiary points of the compass. [ ] this excellent gaelic word is current in scotland. burns uses it in the line, "o' a' the airts the wind can blaw". this doctrine was a very ancient one, because we find that in the gaelic language the specially good words are based on the word for the south, and the specially bad ones on the name for the north. in welsh and gaelic the north is on the left hand and the south on the right hand, the east in front, and the west behind. it is evident, therefore, that the colour scheme of the cardinal points had a connection with sun worship. a man who adored the rising sun faced the east, and had the north on his left and the south on his right. in early christian gaelic literature it is stated that on the day of judgment the goats (sinners) will be sent to the north (the left hand) and the sheep (the justified) to the south (the right hand). the same system can be traced in burial customs. many of the ancient graves lie east and west. graves that lie north and south may have been those of the members of a different religious cult, but in some cases it is found that the dead were placed in position so that they faced the east. in the most ancient graves in egypt men were laid on their right sides with their feet directed towards the "red north" and their faces towards the golden east. women were laid on the left sides facing the east. red was in ancient egypt the male colour, and white and yellow the female colours; the feet of the men were towards the red north and those of women towards the white or yellow south. all ancient british burials were not made in accordance with solar-cult customs. it can be shown, however, in some cases that, although a burial custom may appear to be either of local or of independent origin, the fundamental doctrine of which it was an expression was the same as that behind other burial customs. reference may be made, by way of illustration, to the graves at the stone circle of hakpen hill in the avebury area. in the seventeenth century a large number of skeletons were here unearthed. dr. toope of oxford, writing in , has recorded in this connection:[ ] "about yards from where the bones were found is a temple,[ ] yards diameter, with another yards; round about bones layd so close that scul (skull) toucheth scul. their feet all round turned towards the temple, one foot below the surface of the ground. at the feet of the first order lay the head of the next row, the feet always tending towards the temple." [ ] quoted by sir h. colt hoare in _ancient wiltshire_, ii. p. . [ ] stone circle. here the stone circle is apparently the symbol of the sun and the "mecca" from which the good influence or "luck" of the sun emanated and gave protection. one seems to come into touch with the influence of an organized priesthood in this stone circle burial custom. the more ancient custom of burying the dead so that the influences of the airts might be exercised upon them according to their deserts seems, however, to have been deep-rooted and persistent. in england, wales, scotland, and ireland the custom obtained until recently of reserving the north side of a churchyard for suicides and murderers; the "black north" was the proper place for such wrong-doers, who were refused christian rites of burial, and were interred according to traditional pagan customs. the east was reserved chiefly for ecclesiastics, the south for the upper classes, and the west for the poorer classes. funeral processions still enter the older churchyards from the east, and proceed in the direction of the sun towards the open graves. suicides and murderers were carried in the opposite direction ("withershins about").[ ] the custom of dealing out cards "sunwise", of stirring food "sunwise", and other customs in which turning to the right (the south) is observed, appear to be relics of the ancient belief in the influences of the airts. some fishermen still consider it unlucky to turn their boats "against the sun". it was anciently believed, as references in old ballads indicate, that a tempest-stricken vessel turned round three times against the sun before it sank. according to a belief that has survival in some parts of the north of scotland, the devil will appear in the centre of a stone circle if one walks round it three times "against the sun" at midnight. among the ancient irish warriors, professor w. j. watson tells me, it was a mark of hostile intent to drive round a fort keeping the left hand towards it. the early christian custom of circulating chapels and dwelling-houses "sunwise" was based on the pagan belief that good influences were conjured in this way. [ ] in gaelic _deis-iùil_ means a turning sunwise (by the right or south) from east to west, and _tual_, i.e. _tuath-iùil_, a turning by the north or left from east to west. _deis_ is the genitive of _deas_ (south, right hand), and _tuath_ is north or left hand. as the winds were coloured like the airts from which they blew, it was believed that they could be influenced by coloured objects. in his description of the western isles, martin, a seventeenth century writer, referring to the fladda chuan island, relates: "there is a chapel in the isle dedicated to st. columba. it has an altar in the east end and therein a blue stone of a round form on it, which is always moist. it is an ordinary custom, when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary winds, to wash the blue stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable wind.... and so great is the regard they have for this stone, that they swear decisive oaths upon it." [illustration: valentine one of the great tri-lithons, stonehenge (see page )] the moist stone had an indwelling spirit, and was therefore a holy object which made vows and agreements of binding character. in japan a stone of this kind is called _shintai_ ("god body"). the gaelic name for a god body is "_cuach anama_" ("soul shrine", or "spirit-case", or "spirit-husk"). _coich na cno_ is the shell of a nut. the chinese believe that moist and coloured stones are the "eggs" of weather-controlling dragons. the connection between blue and the mother goddess is of great antiquity. imitation cowries and other shells in blue enamelled terra-cotta have been found in egyptian graves. blue was the colour of the "luck stone" of hathor, the sky and water goddess whose symbols included the cowrie. the brigantes of ancient britain had, according to seneca, blue shields. shields were connected with the goddess of war. in gaelic, blue is the luck colour for womens' clothing.[ ] english and scottish fishermen still use blue as a mourning colour. when a death takes place, a blue line is painted round a fishing-boat. the desire for protection by invoking the blue goddess probably gave origin to this custom. [ ] the following stanza is from the "book of ballymote": mottled to simpletons; blue to women; crimson to kings of every host; green and black to noble laymen; white to clerics of proper devotion. as influences came from the coloured airts, so did the great deities and the groups of minor deities associated with them. the god lugh, for instance, always comes in the old stories from the north-east, while the goddess morrigan comes from the north-west.[ ] the fierce wind-raising scottish goddess of spring comes from the south-west. all over britain the fairies come from the west and on eddies of wind like the greek nereids. in scotland the evil-working giants come from the black north. it was believed that the dead went westward or south-westward towards paradise. the fact that the axis of stonehenge circle and avenue points to the north-east is of special interest when we find that the god lugh, a celtic apollo, came from that airt. either lugh, or a god like him, may have been invoked to come through the avenue or to send his influence through it, while the priests walked in procession round the circle sunwise. apparently the south-west part of the circle, with its great trilithons, resembling the portals of the goddess artemis, was specially consecrated to a goddess like the scottish cailleach ("old wife") who had herds of wild animals, protected deer from huntsmen, raised storms, and transformed herself into a standing stone. the gaulish goddess ro-smerta ("very smeared") is regularly associated with the god identified with mercury. the god smertullis is equated with essus (the war god) by d'arbois de jubainville. [ ] in the cuchullin saga lugh is "a lone man out of the north-eastern quarter". when the cry of another supernatural being is heard, cuchullin asks from which direction it came. he is told "from the north-west". the goddess morrigan then appeared. the differently coloured winds were divine influences and revealed their characters by their colours. it was apparently because water was impregnated with the influences of the deities that wind and water beliefs were closely associated. holy and curative wells and sacred rivers and lakes were numerous in ancient britain and ireland. offerings made at wells were offerings made to a deity. these offerings might be gold and silver, as was the case in gaul, or simply pins of copper. a good many wells are still known as "pin wells" and "penny wells". the metals and pearls and precious stones supposed to contain vital substance were offered to the deities so as to animate them. the images of gods were painted red for the same reason, or sacrifices were offered and their altars drenched with blood. in ireland children were sacrificed to a god called crom cruach and exchanged for milk and corn. as a gaelic poem records: great was the horror and the scare of him. the ancient doctrines of which faint or fragmentary traces survive in britain and ireland may have been similar to those taught by the druids in gaul. according to pomponius mela, these sages professed to know the secrets of the motions of the heavenly bodies and the will of the gods.[ ] strabo's statement that the druids believed that "human souls and the world were immortal, but that fire and water would sometime prevail" is somewhat obscure. it may be, however, that light is thrown on the underlying doctrine by the evidence given in the next chapter regarding the beliefs that fire, water, and trees were intimately connected with the chief deity. [ ] in a cuchullin saga the hero, addressing the charioteer, says: "go out, my friend, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes". the irish gaelic _grien-tairisem_ is given in an eighth-or ninth-century gloss. it means "sun-standing", and refers to the summer solstice. chapter xv why trees and wells were worshipped ancient british idols--pagan temples--animism and goddess worship--trees and wells connected with sky--life principle in water--sacred berries, nuts, and acorns--parasite as "king of trees"--fire-making beliefs--tree and thunder-god--the sacred fish--salmon as form of the dragon--the dragon jewel--celtic dragon myth--the salmon and the solar ring--polycrates story--the st. mungo legends--glasgow coat of arms--holy fire from the hazel--hunting the wren, robin, and mouse--mouse lore and mouse deity--mouse-apollo in britain--goddess bride or brigit--the brigantian chief deity--goddess of fire, healing, smith-work, and poetry--bride's bird, tree, and well--mythical serpents--soul forms--souls in reptiles, animals, and trees--were-animals--the butterfly deity--souls as butterflies--souls as bees--a hebridean sea-god. gildas, a sixth-century churchman, tells us that the idols in ancient britain "almost surpassed in number those of egypt". that he did not refer merely to standing stones, which, as we have seen, were "idols" to the gaels, is evident from his precise statements that some idols could be seen in his day "mouldering away within or without the deserted temples", and that they had "stiff and deformed features". "mouldering" suggests wood. gildas states further that besides worshipping idols the british pagans were wont to pay "divine honour" to hills and wells and rivers. reference is made in the _life of columba_ to a well which was worshipped as a god. the british temples are referred to also by pope gregory the great, who in a.d. addressed a letter to abbot mellitus, then on a mission to england, giving him instructions for the guidance of augustine of canterbury. the pope did not wish to have the heathen buildings destroyed, "for", he wrote, "if those are well constructed, it is requisite that they can be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true god.... let the idols that are in them be destroyed."[ ] [ ] bede, _historia ecclesiastica_, lib. i, cap. . the temples in question may have been those erected during the romano-british period. one which stood at canterbury was taken possession of by st. augustine after the conversion of king ethelbert, who had worshipped idols in it. the celtic peoples may, however, have had temples before the roman invasion. at any rate there were temples as well as sacred groves in gaul. poseidonius of apamea refers to a temple at toulouse which was greatly revered and richly endowed by the gifts of numerous donors. these gifts included "large quantities of gold consecrated to the gods". the druids crucified human victims who were sacrificed within their temples. diodorus siculus refers as follows to a famous temple in britain: "there is in that island a magnificent temple of apollo and a circular shrine, adorned with votive offerings and tablets with greek inscriptions suspended by travellers upon the walls. the kings of that city and rulers of the temples are the boreads who take up the government from each other according to the order of their tribes. the citizens are given up to music, harping and chaunting in honour of the sun." some writers have identified this temple with stonehenge circle. layamon informs us in his _brute_, however, that the temple of apollo was situated in london. of course there may have been several temples to this god or the british deity identified with him. it may be that the stone circles were regarded as temples. it may be, too, that temples constructed of wattles and clay were associated with the circles. in pope gregory's letter reference is made to the custom of constructing on festival days "tabernacles of branches of trees around those churches which have been changed from heathen temples", and to the pagan custom of slaying "oxen in sacrifices to demons". pytheas refers to a temple on an island opposite the mouth of the loire. this island was inhabited by women only, and once a year they unroofed and reroofed their temple. in the hebrides the annual custom of unroofing and reroofing thatched houses is not yet obsolete; it may originally have had a religious significance. gildas's reference to the worship of hills, wells, and rivers is by some writers regarded as evidence of the existence in ancient britain of the "primitive belief" in spirits. this stage of religious culture is called animism (spiritism). the discovery, however, that a goddess was worshipped in aurignacian times by the crô-magnon peoples in western europe suggests that animistic beliefs were not necessarily as ancient as has been assumed. it may be that what we know as animism was a product of a later period when there arose somewhat complex ideas about the soul or the various souls in man, and the belief became widespread that souls could not only transform themselves into animal shapes, but could enter statues and gravestones. this conception may have been confused with earlier ideas about stones, shells, &c., being impregnated with "life substance" (the animating principle) derived from the mother goddess. backward peoples, who adopted complex religious beliefs that had grown up in centres of civilization, may not always have had a complete understanding of their significance. it is difficult to believe that even savages, who adopted the boats invented in egypt from those peoples that came into touch with them, were always entirely immune to other cultural influences, and retained for thousands of years the beliefs supposed to be appropriate for those who were in the "stone age". our concern here is with the ancient britons. it is unnecessary for us to glean evidence from australia, south america, or central africa to ascertain the character of their early religious conceptions and practices. there is sufficient local evidence to show that a definite body of beliefs lay behind their worship of trees, rivers, lakes, wells, standing stones, and of the sun, moon, and stars. our ancestors do not appear to have worshipped natural objects either because they were beautiful or impressive, but chiefly because they were supposed to contain influences which affected mankind either directly or indirectly. these influences were supposed to be under divine control, and to emanate, in the first place, from one deity or another, or from groups of deities. a god or goddess was worshipped whether his or her influence was good or bad. the deity who sent disease, for instance, was believed to be the controller of disease, and to him or her offerings were made so that a plague might cease. thus in the _iliad_ offerings are made to the god mouse-apollo, who had caused an epidemic of disease. trees and wells were connected with the sky and the heavenly bodies. the deity who caused thunder and lightning had his habitation at times in the oak, the fir, the rowan, the hazel, or some other tree. he was the controller of the elements. there are references in gaelic charms to "the king of the elements". the belief in an intimate connection between a well, a tree, and the sky appears to have been a product of a quaint but not unintelligent process of reasoning.[ ] the early folk were thinkers, but their reasoning was confined within the limits of their knowledge, and biassed by preconceived ideas. to them water was the source of all life. it fell from the sky as rain, or bubbled up from the underworld to form a well from which a stream flowed. the well was the mother of the stream, and the stream was the mother of the lake. it was believed that the well-water was specially impregnated with the influences that sustained life. the tree that grew beside the well was nourished by it. if this tree was a rowan, its red berries were supposed to contain in concentrated form the animating influence of the deity; the berries cured diseases, and thus renewed youth, or protected those who used them as charms against evil influences. they were luck-berries. if the tree was a hazel, its nuts were similarly efficacious; if an oak, its acorns were regarded likewise as luck-bringers. the parasitic plant that grew on the tree was supposed to be stronger and more influential than the tree itself. this belief, which is so contrary to our way of thinking, is accounted for in an old gaelic story in which a supernatural being says: "o man that for fergus of the feasts dost kindle fire ... never burn the king of the woods. monarch of innisfail's forest the woodbine is, whom none may hold captive; no feeble sovereign's effort it is to hug all tough trees in his embrace." [ ] of course it does not follow that the reasoning originally took place in these islands. complex beliefs were imported at an early period. these were localized. the weakly parasite was thus regarded as being very powerful. that may be the reason why the mistletoe was reverenced, and why its milk-white berries were supposed to have curative and life-prolonging qualities. although the sacred parasite was not used for firewood, it served as a fire-producer. two fire-sticks, one from the soft parasite and one from the hard wood of the tree to which it clung, were rubbed together until sparks issued forth and fell on dry leaves or dry grass. the sparks were blown until a flame sprang up. at this flame of holy fire the people kindled their brands, which they carried to their houses. the house fires were extinguished once a year and relit from the sacred flames. fire was itself a deity, and the deity was "fed" with fuel. "need fires" (new fires)[ ] were kindled at festivals so that cattle and human beings might be charmed against injury. these festivals were held four times a year, and the "new-fire" custom lingers in those districts where new year's day, midsummer, may day, and hallowe'en bon-fires are still being regularly kindled. [ ] in gaelic these are called "friction fires". the fact that fire came from a tree induced the early people to believe that it was connected with lightning, and therefore with the sky god who thundered in the heavens. this god was supposed to wield a thunder-axe or thunder-hammer with which he smote the sky (believed to be solid) or the hills. with his axe or hammer he shaped the "world house". in scotland, a goddess, who is remembered as "the old wife",[ ] was supposed to wield the hammer, or to ride across the sky on a cloud and throw down "fire-balls" that set the woods in flame. here we find, probably as a result of culture mixing, a fusion of beliefs connected with the thunder god and the mother goddess. [ ] according to some, isis is a rendering of a libyan name meaning "old wife". rain fell when the sky deity sent thunder and lightning. to early man, who took fire from a tree which was nourished by a well, fire and water seemed to be intimately connected.[ ] the red berries on the sacred tree were supposed to contain fire, or the essence of fire. when he made rowan-berry wine, he regarded it as "fire water" or "the water of life". he drank it, and thus introduced into his blood fire which stimulated him. in his blood was "the vital spark". when he died the blood grew cold, because the "vital spark" had departed from it. [ ] this connection can be traced in ancient egypt. the sun and fire were connected, and the sun originally rose from the primordial waters. the sun's rays were the "tears" of ra (the sun god). herbs and trees sprang up where ra's tears fell. in the water fire lived in another form. fish were found to be phosphorescent. the fish in the pool was at any rate regarded as a form of the deity who nourished life and was the origin of life. a specially sacred fish was the salmon. it was observed that this fish had red spots, and these were accounted for by the myth that the red berries or nuts from the holy tree dropped into the well and were swallowed by the salmon. the "chief" or "king" of the salmon was called "the salmon of wisdom". if one caught the "salmon of wisdom" and, when roasting it, tasted the first portion of juice that came from its body, one obtained a special instalment of concentrated wisdom, and became a seer, or magician, or druid. the salmon was reverenced also because it was a migratory fish. its comings and goings were regular as the seasons, and seemed to be controlled by the ruler of the elements with whom it was intimately connected. one of its old gaelic names was _orc_ (pig). it was evidently connected with that animal; the sea-pig was possibly a form of the deity. the porpoise was also an _orc_.[ ] [ ] so was a whale. the latin orca is a celtic loan-word. milton uses the celtic whale-name in the line the haunt of seals, and orca, and sea-mews' clang. --_paradise lost_, book xi, line . hidden in the well lay a great monster which in gaelic and welsh stories is referred to as "the beast", "the serpent", or "the great worm". ultimately it was identified with the dragon with fiery breath. an irish story connects the salmon and dragon. it tells that a harper named cliach, who had the powers of a druid, kept playing his harp until a lake sprang up. this lake was visited by a goddess and her attendants, who had assumed the forms of beautiful birds. it was called loch bél seád ("lake of the jewel mouth") because pearls were found in it, and loch crotto cliach ("lake of cliach's harps"). another name was loch bél dragain ("dragon-mouth lake"), because ternog's nurse caught "a fiery dragon in the shape of a salmon" and she was induced to throw this salmon into the loch. the early christian addition to the legend runs: "and it is that dragon that will come in the festival of st. john, near the end of the world, in the reign of flann cinaidh. and it is of it and out of it shall grow the fiery bolt which will kill three-fourth of the people of the world."[ ] here fire is connected with the salmon. [ ] o'curry, _manuscript materials_, pp. - . the salmon which could transform itself into a great monster guarded the tree and its life-giving berries and the treasure offered to the deity of the well. apparently its own strength was supposed to be derived from or concentrated in the berries. the queen of the district obtained the supernatural power she was supposed to possess from the berries too, and stories are told of a hero who was persuaded to enter the pool and pluck the berries for the queen. he was invariably attacked by the "beast", and, after handing the berries to the queen, he fell down and died. there are several versions of this story. in one version a specially valued gold ring, a symbol of authority, is thrown into the pool and swallowed by the salmon. the hero catches and throws the salmon on to the bank. when he plucks the berries, he is attacked by the monster and kills it. having recovered the ring, he gives it to the princess, who becomes his wife. apparently she will be chosen as the next queen, because she has eaten the salmon and obtained the gold symbol. it may be that this story had its origin in the practice of offering a human sacrifice to the deity of the pool, so that the youth-renewing red berries might be obtained for the queen, the human representative of the deity. her fate was connected with the ring of gold in which, as in the berries, the influence of the deity was concentrated. polycrates of samos, a hellenic sea-king, was similarly supposed to have his "luck" connected with a beautiful seal-stone, the most precious of his jewels. on the advice of pharaoh amasis of egypt he flung it into the sea. according to herodotus, it was to avert his doom that he disposed of the ring. but he could not escape his fate. the jewel came back; it was found a few days later in the stomach of a big fish. in india, china, and japan dragons or sea monsters are supposed to have luck pearls which confer great power on those who obtain possession of them. the famous "jewel that grants all desires" and the jewels that control the ebb and flow of tides are obtained from, and are ultimately returned to, sea-monsters of the dragon order. the british and irish myths about sacred gold or jewels obtained from the dragon or one of its forms were taken over with much else by the early christian missionaries, and given a christian significance. among the legends attached to the memory of the irish saint moling is one that tells how he obtained treasure for christian purposes. his fishermen caught a salmon and found in its stomach an ingot of gold. moling divided the gold into three parts--"one third for the poor, another for the ornamenting of shrines, a third to provide for labour and work". the most complete form of the ancient myth is, however, found in the life of glasgow's patron saint, st. kentigern (st. mungo). a queen's gold ring had been thrown into the river clyde, and, as she was unable, when asked by the king, to produce it, she was condemned to death and cast into a dungeon. the queen appealed to st. kentigern, who instructed her messenger to catch a fish in the river and bring it to him. a large fish "commonly called a salmon" was caught. in its stomach was found the missing ring. the grateful queen, on her release, confessed her sins to the saint and became a christian. st. mungo's seal, now the coat of arms of glasgow, shows the salmon with a ring in its mouth, below an oak tree, in the branches of which sits, as the oracle bird, a robin red-breast. a christian bell dangles from a branch of the tree. [illustration: seal of city of glasgow, - , showing tree, bird, salmon, and bell] that the glasgow saint took the place of a druid,[ ] so that the people might say "kentigern is my druid" as st. columba said "christ is my druid", is suggested by his intimate connection, as shown in his seal, with the sacred tree of the "king of the elements", the oracular bird (the thunder bird), the salmon form of the deity, and the power-conferring ring. as the druids produced sacred fire from wood, so did st. kentigern. it is told that when a youth his rivals extinguished the sacred fire under his care. kentigern went outside the monastery and obtained "a bough of growing hazel and prayed to the 'father of lights'". then he made the sign of the cross, blessed the bough, and breathed on it. [ ] professor w. j. watson says in this connection: "the celtic clerics stepped in to the shoes of the druids. the people regarded them as superior druids." "a wonderful and remarkable thing followed. straightway fire coming forth from heaven, seizing the bough, as if the boy had exhaled flames for breath, sent forth fire, vomiting rays, and banished all the surrounding darkness.... god therefore sent forth his light, and led him and brought him into the monastery.... that hazel from which the little branch was taken received a blessing from st. kentigern, and afterwards began to grow into a wood. if from that grove of hazel, as the country folks say, even the greenest branch is taken, even at the present day, it catches fire like the driest material at the touch of fire...." a red-breast, which was kept as a pet at the monastery, was hunted by boys, who tore off its head. kentigern restored the bird to life. the robin was hunted down in some districts as was the wren in other districts. an old rhyme runs: a robin and a wren are god's cock and hen. in pagan times the oracular bird connected with the holy tree was sacrificed annually. the robin represented the god and the wren (kitty or jenny wren) the goddess in some areas. in gaelic, spanish, italian, and greek the wren is "the little king" or "the king of birds". a gaelic folk-tale tells that the wren flew highest in a competition held by the birds for the kingship, by concealing itself on an eagle's back. when the eagle reached its highest possible altitude, the wren rose above it and claimed the honour of kingship. in the isle of man the wren used to be hunted on st. stephen's day. elsewhere it was hunted on christmas eve or christmas day. the dead bird was carried on a pole at the head of a procession and buried with ceremony in a churchyard. in scotland the shrew mouse was hunted in like manner, and buried under an apple tree. a standing stone in perthshire is called in gaelic "stone of my little mouse". as there were mouse feasts in ancient scotland, it would appear that a mouse god like smintheus (mouse-apollo) was worshipped in ancient times. mouse cures were at one time prevalent. the liver of the mouse[ ] was given to children who were believed to be on the point of death. they rallied quickly after swallowing it. roasted mouse was in england and scotland a cure for whooping-cough and smallpox. the boers in south africa are perpetuating this ancient folk-cure.[ ] in gaelic folk-lore the mouse deity is remembered as _lucha sith_ ("the supernatural mouse"). [ ] in old gaelic the liver is the seat of life. [ ] mrs. e. tawse jollie, hervetia, s. melsetter, s. rhodesia, writes me under october , , in answer to my query, that the boers regard _striep muis_ (striped mice) as a cure for "weakness of the bowel" in children, &c. there still survive traces of the worship of a goddess who is remembered as bride in england and scotland, and as brigit in ireland. a good deal of the lore connected with her has been attached to the memory of st. brigit of ireland. february st (old style) was known as bride's day. her birds were the wood linnet, which in gaelic is called "bird of bride", and the oyster catcher called "page of bride", while her plant was the dandelion (_am bearnan brìde_), the "milk" of which was the salvation of the early lamb. on bride's day the serpent awoke from its winter sleep and crept from its hole. this serpent is called in gaelic "daughter of ivor", _an ribhinn_ ("the damsel"), &c. the white serpent was, like the salmon, a source of wisdom and magical power. it was evidently a form of the goddess. brigit was the goddess of the brigantes, a tribe whose territory extended from the firth of forth to the midlands of england.[ ] the brigantes took possession of a part of ireland where brigit had three forms as the goddess of healing, the goddess of smith-work, and the goddess of poetry, and therefore of metrical magical charms. some think her name signifies "fiery arrow". she was the source of fire, and was connected with different trees in different areas. the bride-wells were taken over by saint bride. [ ] in a roman representation of her at birrens, in perthshire, she is shown as a winged figure holding a spear in her right hand and a globe in her left. an altar in chester is dedicated to "de nymphæ brig". her name is enshrined in bregentz (anciently brigantium), a town in switzerland. the white serpent, referred to in the legends associated with farquhar, the physician, and michael scott, sometimes travelled very swiftly by forming itself into a ring with its tail in its mouth. this looks like the old celtic solar serpent. if the serpent were cut in two, the parts wriggled towards a stream and united as soon as they touched water. if the head were not smashed, it would become a _beithis_, the biggest and most poisonous variety of serpent.[ ] the "deathless snake" of egypt, referred to in an ancient folk-tale, was similarly able to unite its severed body. bride's serpent links with the serpent dragons of the far east, which sleep all winter and emerge in spring, when they cause thunder and send rain, spit pearls, &c. dr. alexander carmichael translates the following gaelic serpent-charm: to-day is the day of bride, the serpent shall come from his hole; i will not molest the serpent and the serpent will not molest me. [ ] the _beithis_ lay hidden in arms of the sea and came ashore to devour animals. de visser[ ] quotes the following from a chinese text referring to the dragons: if we offer a deprecatory service to them, they will leave their abodes; if we do not seek the dragons they will also not seek us. [ ] _the dragon in china and japan_ ( ). the serpent, known in scotland as _nathair challtuinn_ ("snake of the hazel grove"), had evidently a mythological significance. leviathan is represented by the gaelic _cirein cròin_ (sea-serpent), also called _mial mhòr a chuain_ ("the great beast of the sea") and _cuairtag mhòr a chuain_ ("the great whirlpool of the sea"); a sea-snake was supposed to be located in corryvreckan whirlpool. kelpies and water horses and water bulls are forms assumed by the scottish dragon. there are far eastern horse-and bull-dragons. in ancient british lore there are references to souls in serpent form. a serpent might be a "double" like the egyptian "ka". it was believed in wales that snake-souls were concealed in every farm-house. when one crept out from its hiding-place and died, the farmer or his wife died soon afterwards. lizards were supposed to be forms assumed by women after death.[ ] the otter, called in scottish gaelic _dobhar-chù_ ("water dog") and _righ nàn dobhran_ ("king of the water" or "river"), appears to have been a soul form. when one was killed a man or a woman died. the king otter was supposed to have a jewel in its head like the indian _n[=a]ga_ (serpent deity), the chinese dragon, the toad, &c. the king otter was invulnerable except on one white spot below its chin. those who wore a piece of its skin as a charm were supposed to be protected against injury in battle. evidently, therefore, the otter was originally a god like the boar, the image of which, as tacitus records, was worn for protection by the baltic amber searchers of celtic speech. the _biasd na srogaig_ ("the beast of the lowering horn") was a hebridean loch dragon with a single horn on its head; this unicorn was tall and clumsy. [ ] trevelyan. _folk-lore and folk-stories of wales_, p. . the "double" or external soul might also exist in a tree. both in england and scotland there are stories of trees withering when some one dies, or of some one dying when trees are felled. aubrey tells that when the earl of winchelsea began to cut down an oak grove near his seat at eastwell in kent, the countess died suddenly, and then his eldest son, lord maidstone, was killed at sea. allan ramsay, the scottish poet, tells that the edgewell tree near dalhousie castle was fatal to the family from which he was descended, and sir walter scott refers to it in his "journal", under the date th may, . when a branch fell from it in july, , an old forester exclaimed "the laird's deed noo!" and word was received not long afterwards of the death of the eleventh earl of dalhousie. souls of giants were supposed to be hidden in thorns, eggs, fish, swans, &c. at fasnacloich, in argyllshire, the visit of swans to a small loch is supposed to herald the death of a stewart. "external souls", or souls after death, assumed the forms of cormorants, cuckoos, cranes, eagles, gulls, herons, linnets, magpies, ravens, swans, wrens, &c., or of deer, mice, cats, dogs, &c. fairies (supernatural beings) appeared as deer or birds. among the scottish were-animals are cats, black sheep, mice, hares, gulls, crows, ravens, magpies, foxes, dogs, &c. children were sometimes transformed by magicians into white dogs, and were restored to human form by striking them with a magic wand or by supplying shirts of bog-cotton. the floating lore regarding were-animals was absorbed in witch-lore after the continental beliefs regarding witches were imported into this country. in like manner a good deal of floating lore was attached to the devil. in scotland he is supposed to appear as a goat or pig, as a gentleman with a pig's or horse's foot, or as a black or green man riding a black or green horse followed by black or green dogs. eels were "devil-fish", and were supposed to originate from the hairs of horses' manes or tails. men who ate eels became insane, and fought horses. in scotland butterflies and bees were not only soul-forms but deities, and there are traces of similar beliefs in england, wales, and ireland. scottish gaelic names of the butterfly include _dealbhan-dé_ ("image" or "form of god"), _dealbh_ signifying "image", "form", "picture", "idol", or "statue"; _dearbadan-dé_ ("manifestation of god"); _eunan-dé_ ("small bird of god"); _teine-dé_ ("fire of god"); and _dealan-dé_ ("brightness of god"). the word _dealan_ refers to ( ) lightning, ( ) the brightness of the starry sky, ( ) burning coal, ( ) the wooden bar of a door, and ( ) to a wooden peg fastening a cow-halter round the neck. the bar and peg, which gave security, were evidently connected with the deity. in addition to meaning butterfly, _dealan-dé_ ("the _dealan_ of god") refers to a burning stick which is shaken to and fro or whirled round about. when "need fires" (new fires) were lit at beltain festival ( st may)--"beltain" is supposed to mean "bright fires" or "white fires", that is, luck-bringing or sacred fires--burning brands were carried from them to houses, all domestic fires having previously been extinguished. the "new fire" brought luck, prosperity, health, increase, protection, &c. until recently highland boys who perpetuated the custom of lighting bon-fires to celebrate old celtic festivals were wont to snatch burning sticks from them and run homewards, whirling the _dealan-dé_ round about so as to keep it burning. souls took the form of a _dealan-dé_ (butterfly). lady wilde relates in _ancient legends_ (vol. i, pp. - ) the irish story of a child who saw the butterfly form of the soul--"a beautiful living creature with four snow-white wings"; it rose from the body of a man who had just died and went "fluttering round his head". the child and others watched the winged soul "until it passed from sight into the clouds". the story continues: "this was the first butterfly that was ever seen in ireland; and now all men know that the butterflies are the souls of the dead waiting for the moment when they may enter purgatory, and so pass through torture to purification and peace". in england and scotland moths were likewise souls of the dead that entered houses by night or fluttered outside windows, as if attempting to return to former haunts. the butterfly god or soul-form was known to the scandinavians. freyja, the northern goddess, appears to have had a butterfly _avatar_. at any rate, the butterfly was consecrated to her. in greece the nymph psyche, beloved by cupid, was a beautiful maiden with the wings of a butterfly; her name signifies "the soul". greek artistes frequently depicted the human soul as a butterfly, and especially the particular species called [greek: psychê] ("the soul"). on an ancient tomb in italy a butterfly is shown issuing from the open mouth of a death-mask. the serbians believed that the butterfly souls of witches arose from their mouths when they slept. they died if their butterfly souls did not return.[ ] evidence of belief in the butterfly soul has been forthcoming in burmah, where ceremonies are performed to prevent the baby's butterfly soul following that of a dead mother.[ ] the pre-columbian americans, and especially the mexicans, believed in butterfly souls and butterfly deities. in china the butterfly soul was carved in jade and associated with the plum tree;[ ] the sacred butterfly was in scotland associated apparently with the honeysuckle (_deoghalag_), a plant containing "life-substance" in the form of honey (_lus a mheahl_: "honey herb") and milk (another name of the plant being _bainne-ghamhnach_: "milk of the heifer"). as we have seen, the honeysuckle was supposed to be more powerful than the tree to which it clung; like the ivy and mistletoe, it was the plant of a powerful deity. its milk and honey names connect it with the great mother goddess who was the source of life and nourishment, and provided the milk-and-honey elixir of life. [ ] w. r. s. ralston, _songs of the russian people_, pp. _et seq._ [ ] _journal of the anthropological institute_, xxvi ( ). p. . [ ] laufer, _jade_, p. . bee-souls figure in scottish folk-stories. hugh miller relates a story of a sleeping man from whose mouth the soul issued in the form of the bee.[ ] another of like character is related by a clergyman.[ ] both are located in the north of scotland, where, as in the south of england, the custom was prevalent of "telling the bees" when a death took place, and of placing crape on hives. the bee-mandible symbol appears on scottish sculptured stones. both the bee and the butterfly were connected with the goddess artemis. milk-yielding fig trees were fertilized by bees or wasps, and the goddess, especially in her form as diana of the ephesians, was connected with the fig tree, the figs being "teats". [ ] _my schools and schoolmasters_, chapter vi. [ ] rev. w. forsyth, dornoch, in _folk-lore journal_, vi, . little is known regarding the hebridean sea-god _seonaidh_ (pronounced "shony"), who may have been a form of the sea-god known to the irish as lir and to the welsh as llyr. his name connects him with the word _seonadh_, signifying "augury", "sorcery", "druidism". according to martin, the inhabitants of lewis contributed the malt from which ale was brewed for an offering to the gods. at night a man waded into the sea up to his middle and cried out, "seonaidh! i give thee this cup of ale, hoping that thou wilt be so good as to send us plenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground during the coming year." he then poured the ale into the sea. the people afterwards gathered in the church of st. mulway, and stood still for a time before the altar on which a candle was burning. when a certain signal was given the candle was extinguished. the people then made merry in the fields, drinking ale. chapter xvi ancient pagan deities deities as birds--triads of gaelic goddesses--shape-shifting goddesses--black annis of leicestershire--the scottish black annis--black kali and black demeter--cat goddess and witches--a scottish artemis--celtic adonis myth--the cup of healing--myths of gaelic calendar--irish and scottish mythologies different--scottish pork taboo--eel tabooed in scotland but not in england--ancient english food taboos--irish danann deities--ancient deities of england and wales--the apple cult--english wassailling custom--the magic cauldron--the holy grail--cauldron a goddess symbol--pearls and cows of the cauldron--goddess--romano-british deities--grouped goddesses--the star goddess--sky and sea spirits. many of the old british and irish deities had bird forms, and might appear as doves, swallows, swans, cranes, cormorants, scald crows, ravens, &c. the cormorant, for instance, is still in some districts called the _cailleach dubh_ ("the black old wife"). some deities, like brigit and morrigan, had triple forms, and appeared as three old hags or as three beautiful girls, or assumed the forms of women known to those they visited. in the cuchullin stories the morrigan appears with a supernatural cow, the milk of which heals wounds and prolongs life. when in conflict with cuchullin, she takes alternately the forms of an eel, a grey wolf, and a white cow with red ears. on one occasion she changes from human form to that of a dark bird. an old west of england goddess was remembered until recently in leicestershire as "black annis", "black anny", or "cat anna". she frequented a cave on the dane hills,[ ] above which grew an oak tree. in the branches of the tree she concealed herself, so that she might pounce unawares on human beings. shepherds attributed to her the loss of lambs, and mothers their loss of children. the supernatural monster had one eye in her blue face, and talons instead of hands. round her waist she wore a girdle of human skins. [ ] it has been suggested that "dane" stands for "danann". a scottish deity called "yellow muilearteach" was similarly one-eyed and blue-faced, and had tusks protruding from her mouth. an apple dangled from her waist girdle. the indian goddess black kali is depicted as a ferocious being of like character, with a forehead eye, in addition to ordinary eyes, and a waist girdle of human heads. greece had its black demeter with animal-head (a horse's or pig's), and snakes in her hair. she haunted a cave in phigalia. the egyptian goddess hathor in her cat form (bast) was kindly, and in her sekhet form was a fierce slayer of mankind.[ ] [ ] a text states: "kindly is she as bast: terrible is she as sekhet." witches assume cat forms in scottish witch lore,[ ] and appear on the riggings and masts of ships doomed to destruction. there are references, too, to cat roasting, so as to compel the "big cat" to appear. the "big cat" is evidently the deity. in northern india dogs are tortured to compel the "big dog" (the god indra) to send rain. "lapus cati" (the cat stone) is referred to in early christian records. as a mouse was buried under an apple tree to make it fruitful, a cat was buried under a pear tree. [ ] the gaelic word for "witch" comes from english. gaelic "witch lore" is distinctive, having retained more ancient beliefs than those connected with the orthodox witches. the scottish "yellow muilearteach" revels in the slaughter of human beings, and folk poems, describing a battle waged against her, have been collected. in the end she is slain, and her consort comes from the sea to lament her death. a similar hag is remembered as the cailleach ("the old wife"). she had a "blue-black face" and one eye "on the flat of her forehead", and she carried a magic hammer. during the period of "the little sun" (the winter season) she held sway over the world. her blanket was washed in the whirlpool of corryvreckan, which kept boiling vigorously for several days. ben nevis was her chief dwelling-place, and in a cave in that mountain she kept as a prisoner all winter a beautiful maiden who was given the task of washing a brown fleece until it became white. when wandering among the mountains or along the sea-shore she is followed, like artemis, by herds of deer, goats, swine, &c. the venomous black boar is in some of the stories under her special protection. apparently this animal was her symbol as it was that of the baltic amber traders. the hero who hunts and slays the boar is himself killed by it, as was the syrian god adonis by the boar form of ares (mars). in gaul the boar-god moccus was identified by the romans with mars. in gaelic stories the hero who hunts and slays the boar is remembered as diarmid, the eponymous ancestor of the campbell clan. apparently the goddess was the ugly hag to whom he once gave shelter. she transformed herself into a beautiful maiden who touched his forehead and left on it a "love spot".[ ] [ ] the "fairy" queen (the queen of enchantment), who carried off thomas the rhymer, appeared as a beautiful woman, but was afterwards transformed into an ugly hag. thomas laments: how art thou faded thus in the face, that shone before as the sun so bricht (bright). when she vanished he followed her to the "land-under-waves". there he finds her as a beautiful girl who is suffering from a wasting disease. to cure her he goes on a long journey to obtain a draught of water from a healing well. this water he carries in the "cup of healing". the winter hag has a son who falls in love with the beautiful maiden of ben nevis. when he elopes with her, his mother raises storms in the early spring season to keep the couple apart and prevent the grass growing. these storms are named in the gaelic calendar as "the pecker", "the whistle", "the sweeper", "the complaint", &c. in the end her son pursues her on horseback, until she transforms herself into a moist grey stone "looking over the sea". the story tells that the son's horse leapt over arms of the sea. on loch etiveside a place-name "horseshoes" is attached to marks on a rock supposed to have been caused by his great steed. in the isle of man the place of the giant son is taken by st. patrick. he rides from ireland on horseback like the ancient sea god. he cursed a monster, which was turned into solid rock. st. patrick's steed left the marks of its hoofs on the cliffs.[ ] [ ] wm. cashen, _manx folk-lore_ (douglas, ), p. . in arthurian romance king arthur pursues morgan le fay, who likewise transforms herself into a stone. a welsh folk story tells that arthur's steed leapt across the bristol channel, and left the marks of its hoofs on a rock. it appears that morgan le fay is the same deity as the irish morrigan. both appear to link with anu, or danu, the irish mother goddess, and with black anna or annis of leicestershire. the irish danann deities wage war against the fomorians, who are referred to in one instance as the gods of the fir domnann (dumnonii), the mineral workers or "diggers" of cornwall and devon, of the south-western and central lowlands of scotland, and central and south-western ireland. in scotland the fomorians are numerous; they are hill and cave giants like the giants of cornwall. but there are no scottish dananns and no "war of the gods". the fomorians of scotland wage war against the fairies (as in wester ross) or engage in duels, throwing great boulders at one another. the intruding people who in ireland formulated the danann mythology do not appear to have reached scotland before the christian period. an outstanding difference between scottish and irish beliefs and practices is brought out by the treatment of the pig in both countries. like the continental celts, the irish celts, who formed a military aristocracy over the firbolgs, the fir domnann, and the fir gailian (gauls), kept pigs and ate pork. in scotland the pig was a demon as in ancient egypt, and pork was tabooed over wide areas. the prejudice against pork in scotland is not yet extinct. it is referred to by sir walter scott in a footnote in _the fortunes of nigel_, which states: "the scots (lowlanders), till within the last generation, disliked swine's flesh as an article of food as much as the highlanders do at present. ben jonson, in drawing james's character,[ ] says he loved no part of a swine."[ ] [ ] king james vi of scotland and i of england. [ ] ben jonson's reference is in _a masque of the metamorphosed gipsies_. dr. johnson wrote in his _a journey to the western highlands in _: "of their eels i can give no account, having never tasted them, for i believe they are not considered as wholesome food.... the vulgar inhabitants of skye, i know not whether of the other islands, have not only eels, but pork and bacon in abhorrence; and, accordingly, i never saw a hog in the hebrides, except one at dunvegan." "in the year a question was put, 'why do scotchmen hate swine's flesh?' and", says j. g. dalyell,[ ] "unsatisfactorily answered, 'they might borrow it of the jews'." as the early christians of england and ireland did not abhor pork, the prejudice could not have been of christian origin. it was based on superstition, and as the superstitions of to-day were the religious beliefs of yesterday, the prejudice appears to be a survival from pagan times. an ancient religious cult, which may have originally been small, became influential in scotland, and the taboo spread even after its original significance was forgotten. the scottish prejudice against pork existed chiefly among "the common people", as dr. johnson found when in skye. proprietors of alien origin and monks ate pork, but the old taboo persisted. pig-dealers, &c., in the highlands in the nineteenth century refused to eat pork. they exported their pigs.[ ] [ ] _the darker superstitions of scotland_ (london, ), p. , and _athenian mercury_, v, , no. , p. . [ ] the south-western scottish pork trade dates only from the latter part of the eighteenth century. there was trouble at carlisle custom house when the lowland scots began to export cured pork, because of the difference between the english and scottish salt duty. "for some time", complained a scottish writer on agriculture, in june, , "a duty of s. per hunderweight has been charged." dublin was exporting pork to london in the reign of henry viii. a small trade in pork was conducted in eastern scotland but was sporadic. traces of ancient food taboos, which were connected evidently with religious beliefs, have been obtained by archæologists in england. in some districts pork appears to have been more favoured than the beef or mutton or goat flesh preferred in other districts. evidence has been forthcoming that horse flesh was eaten in ancient england. a reference in the _life of st. columba_ to a relapsing christian returning to horse flesh suggests that it was a favoured food of a pagan cult. as the devil is called in scottish gaelic the "big black pig" and in wales is associated with the "black sow of all hallows", it may be that the welsh had once their pig taboo too. the association of the pig with hallowe'en is of special interest. in scotland the eel is still tabooed, although it is eaten freely in england. the reason may be that an ancient goddess, remembered longest in scotland, had an eel form. julius cæsar tells that the ancient britons with whom he came into contact did not regard it lawful to eat the hare, the domestic fowl, or the goose. in scotland and england the goose was, until recently, eaten only once a year at a festival. the tabooed pig was eaten once a year in egypt. it was sacrificed to osiris and the moon. an annual sacrificial pig feast may have been observed in ancient scotland. it is of special interest to find in this connection that in the _statistical account of scotland_ ( ) the writer on the parishes of sandwick and stromness, orkney, says: "every family that has a herd of swine, kills a sow on the th day of december, and thence it is called 'sow-day'." orkney retains the name of the orcs (boars), a pictish tribe. there are still people in the highlands who detest "feathered flesh" or "white flesh" (birds), and refuse to eat hare and rabbit. fish taboos have likewise persisted in the north of scotland, where mackerel, ling,[ ] and skate are disliked in some areas, while in some even the wholesome haddock is not eaten in the winter or spring, and is supposed not to be fit for food until it gets three drinks of may water--that is, after the first three may tides have ebbed and flowed. [ ] king james i of england and vi of scotland detested ling as he detested pork. the food prejudices of the common people thus influenced royalty, although earlier kings and norman nobles ate pork, eels, &c. the danann deities of ireland were the children of descendants of the goddess danu, whose name is also given as ana or anu. she was the source of abundance and the nourisher of gods and men. as "buanann" she was "nurse of heroes". as aynia, a "fairy"[ ] queen, she is still remembered in ulster, while as aine, a munster "fairy", she was formerly honoured on st. john's eve, when villagers, circulating a mound, carried straw torches which were afterwards waved over cattle and crops to give protection and increase. [ ] the gaelic word _sidh_ (irish) or _sith_ (scottish) means "supernatural" and the "peace" and "silence" of supernatural beings. "fairy", as skeat has emphasized, means "enchantment". it has taken the place of "fay", which is derived from fate. the "fay" was a supernatural being. a prominent danann god was dagda, whose name is translated as "the good god", "the good hand", by some, and as "the fire god" or "fire of god" by others. he appears to have been associated with the oak. by playing his harp, he caused the seasons to follow one another in their proper order. one of his special possessions was a cauldron called "the undry", from which an inexhaustible food supply could be obtained. he fed heavily on porridge, and was a cook (supplier of food) as well as a king. in some respects he resembles thor, and, like him, he was a giant slayer. his wife was the goddess boann, whose name clings to the river boyne, which was supposed to have had its origin from an overflowing well. above this well were nine hazel trees; the red nuts of these fell into the well to be devoured by salmon and especially by the "salmon of knowledge". here again we meet with the tree and well myth. brigit was a member of the dagda's family. another was angus, the god of love. diancecht was the danann god of healing. his grandson lugh (pronounced _loo_) has been called the "gaelic apollo". goibniu was a gaelic vulcan. neit, whose wife was nemon,[ ] was a fomorian god of battle. the sea god was manannán mac lir. he was known to the welsh as manawydan ab llyr, who was not only a sea god but "lord of headlands" and a patron of traders. llyr has come down as the legendary king lear, and his name survives in leicester, originally llyr-cestre of cær-llyr (walled city of llyr). his famous and gigantic son bran became, in the process of time, the "blessed bran" who introduced christianity into britain. [ ] from the root _nem_ in _neamh_, heaven, _nemus_, a grove, &c. another group of welsh gods, known as "the children of don", resemble somewhat the danann deities of ireland. the closest link is govannon, the smith, who appears to be identical with the irish goibniu. as irish pirates invaded and settled in wales between the second and fifth centuries of our era, it may be that the process of "culture mixing" which resulted can be traced in the mythological elements embedded in folk and manuscript stories. the welsh deities, however, were connected with certain constellations and may have been "intruders" from the continent. cassiopea's chair was llys don (the court of the goddess don). arianrod (silver circle), a goddess and wife of govannon, had for her castle the northern crown (corona borealis). she is, in arthurian romance, the sister of arthur. her brother gwydion had for his castle the "milky way", which in irish gaelic is "the chain of lugh". the irish danann god nuada has been identified with the british nudd whose children formed the group of "the children of nudd". there were three groups of welsh deities, the others being "the children of lyr" and "the children of don". professor rhys has identified nudd with lud, the god whose name survives in london (originally cær lud) and in ludgate, which may, as has been suggested, have originally been "the way of lud", leading to his holy place now occupied by st. paul's cathedral. lud had a sanctuary at lidney in gloucestershire, where he was worshipped in roman times as is indicated by inscriptions. a bronze plaque shows a youthful god, with solar rays round his head, standing in a four-horsed chariot. two winged genii and two tritons accompany him. apparently he was identified with apollo. the arthurian lot or loth was lud or ludd. his name lingers in "lothian". gwydion, the son of don, was a prominent british deity and has been compared to odin. he was the father of the god lleu, whose mother was arianrod. the rainbow was "lleu's rod-sling". dwynwen, the so-called british venus, was christianized as "the blessed dwyn" and the patron saint of the church of llanddwyn in anglesey. the magic cauldron was possessed by the welsh goddess kerridwen. [illustration: bronze urn and cauldron (_circa_ b.c.) (british museum) vessels such as these are unknown outside the british isles.] a prominent god whose worship appears to have been widespread was connected with the apple tree, which in the underworld and islands of the blest was the "tree of life". ancient beliefs and ceremonies connected with the apple cult survive in those districts in southern england where the curious custom is observed of "wassailing" the apple trees on christmas eve or twelfth night.[ ] the "wassailers" visit the tree and sing a song in which each apple is asked to bear hat-fulls, lap-fulls, sack-fulls, pocket-fulls. cider is poured about the roots of apple trees. this ceremony appears to have been originally an elaborate one. the tom-tit or some other small bird was connected with the apple tree, as was the robin or wren of other cults with the oak tree. at the wassailing ceremony a boy climbed up into a tree and impersonated the bird. it may be that in pagan times a boy was sacrificed to the god of the tree. that the bird (in some cases it was the robin red-breast) was hunted and sacrificed is indicated by old english folk-songs beginning like the following: old robin is dead and gone to his grave, hum! ha! gone to his grave; they planted an apple tree over his head, hum! ha! over his head. [ ] rendel harris, _apple cults_, and _the ascent of olympus_. in england, wales, scotland, and ireland a deity, or a group of deities in the underworld, was associated with a magic cauldron, or as it is called in gaelic a "pot of plenty". heroes or gods obtain possession of this cauldron, which provides an inexhaustible food supply and much treasure, or is used for purposes of divination. it appears to have been christianized into the "holy grail", to obtain possession of which arthurian knights set out on perilous journeys. originally the pot was a symbol of the mother goddess, who renewed youth, provided food for all, and was the source of treasure, luck, victory, and wisdom. this goddess was associated with the mother cow and the life-prolonging pearls that were searched for by early eastern prospectors. there are references to cows and pearls in welsh and gaelic poems and legends regarding the pot. an old welsh poem in the _book of taliesin_ says of the cauldron: by the breath of nine maidens it would be kindled. the head of hades' cauldron--what is it like? a rim it has, with pearls round its border: it boils not coward's food: it would not be perjured. this extract is from the poem known as "preidden annwfn" ("harryings of hades"), translated by the late professor sir john rhys. arthur and his heroes visit hades to obtain the cauldron, and reference is made to the "speckled ox". arthur, in another story, obtains the cauldron from ireland. it is full of money. the welsh god bran gives to a king of ireland a magic cauldron which restores to life those dead men who are placed in it. a gaelic narrative relates the story of cuchullin's harrying of hades, which is called "dun scaith". cuchullin's assailants issue from a pit in the centre of dun scaith in forms of serpents, toads, and sharp-beaked monsters. he wins the victory and carries away three magic cows and a cauldron that gives inexhaustible supplies of food, gold, and silver. the pot figures in various mythologies. it was a symbol of the mother goddess hathor of ancient egypt and of the mother goddess of troy, and it figures in indian religious literature. in gaelic lore the knife which cuts inexhaustible supplies of flesh from a dry bone is evidently another symbol of the deity. the talismans possessed by the dananns were the cauldron, the sword and spear of lugh, and the lia fail (or stone of destiny)[ ], which reminds one of the three japanese symbols, the solar mirror, the dragon sword, and the tama (a pearl or round stone) kept in a shinto shrine at ise. the goddess's "life substance" was likewise in fruits like the celestial apples, nuts, rowan berries, &c., of the celts, and the grapes, pomegranates, &c., of other peoples, and in herbs like the mugwort and mandrake. her animals were associated with rivers. the name of the river boyne signifies "white cow". tarf (bull) appears in several river names, as also does the goddess name deva (devona) in the devon, dee, &c. philologists have shown that ness, the inverness-shire river, is identical with nestos in thrace and neda in greece. the goddess belisama (the goddess of war) was identified with the mersey. [ ] called also _clach na cineamhuinn_ (the fatal stone). goddess groups, usually triads, were as common in gaul as they were in ancient crete. these deities were sometimes called the "mothers", as in marne, the famous french river, and in the welsh _y mamau_, one of the names of the "fairies". other names of goddess groups include proximæ (kinswoman), niskai (water spirits), and dervonnæ (oak spirits). the romans took over these and other groups of ancient deities and the beliefs about their origin in the mythical sea they were supposed to cross or rise from. gaelic references to "the coracle of the fairy woman" or "supernatural woman" are of special interest in this connection, especially when it is found that the "coracle" is a sea-shell which, by the way, figures as a canopy symbol in some of the sculptured groups of romano-british grouped goddesses who sometimes bear baskets of apples, sheafs of grain, &c. when the shell provides inexhaustible supplies of curative or knowledge-conferring milk, it links with the symbolic pot. most of the ancient deities had local names, and consequently a number of gaulish gods were identified by the romans with apollo, including borvo, whose name lingers in bourbon, grannos of aquæ granni (aix la chapelle), mogounus, whose name has been shortened to mainz, &c. the gods taranucus (thunderer), uxell[)i]mus (the highest), &c., were identified with jupiter; dunatis (fort god), albiorix (world king), caturix (battle king), belatucadros (brilliant in war), cocidius, &c., were identified with mars. the name of the god cam[)u]los clings to colchester (camulodunun). there are romano-british inscriptions that refer to the ancient gods under various celtic names. a popular deity was the god of silvanus, who conferred health and was, no doubt, identified with a tree or herb. it is uncertain at what period beliefs connected with stars were introduced into the british isles.[ ] as we have seen, the welsh deities were connected with certain star groups. "three celtic goddesses", writes anwyl, referring to gaul, "whose worship attained to highest development were damona (the goddess of cattle), sirona (the aged one or the star goddess), and ep[)o]na (the goddess of horses). these names are indo-european." an irish poem by a bard who is supposed to have lived in the ninth century refers to the christian saint ciaran of saigir as a man of stellar origin: liadaine (his mother) was asleep on her bed. when she turned her face to heaven a star fell into her mouth. thence was born the marvellous child ciaran of saigir who is proclaimed to thee. [ ] there is evidence in the gaelic manuscripts that time was measured by the apparent movements of the stars. cuchullin, while sitting at a feast, says to his charioteer: "laeg, my friend, go out, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes". in the north and north-west highlands the aurora borealis is called _na fir chlis_ ("the nimble men") and "the merry dancers". they are regarded as fairies (supernatural beings) like the sea "fairies" _na fir ghorm_ ("blue men"), who were probably sea gods. the religious beliefs of the romans were on no higher a level than those of the ancient britons and gaels. chapter xvii historical summary the evidence dealt with in the foregoing chapters throws considerable light on the history of early man in britain. we really know more about pre-roman times than about that obscure period of anglo-saxon invasion and settlement which followed on the withdrawal of the roman army of occupation, yet historians, as a rule, regard it as "pre-historic" and outside their sphere of interest. as there are no inscriptions and no documents to render articulate the archæological ages of stone and bronze, they find it impossible to draw any definite conclusions. it can be urged, however, in criticism of this attitude, that the relics of the so-called "pre-historic age" may be found to be even more reliable than some contemporary documents of the "historic" period. not a few of these are obviously biassed and prejudiced, while some are so vague and fragmentary that the conclusions drawn from them cannot be otherwise than hypothetical in character. a plainer, clearer, and more reliable story is revealed by the bones and the artifacts and the surviving relics of the intellectual life of our remote ancestors than by the writings of some early chroniclers and some early historians. it is possible, for instance, in consequence of the scanty evidence available, to hold widely diverging views regarding the anglo-saxon and celtic problems. pro-teutonic and pro-celtic protagonists involve us invariably in bitter controversy. that contemporary documentary evidence, even when somewhat voluminous, may fail to yield a clear record of facts is evident from the literature that deals, for instance, with the part played by mary queen of scots in the darnley conspiracy and in the events that led to her execution. the term "pre-historic" is one that should be discarded. it is possible, as has been shown, to write, although in outline, the history of certain ancient race movements, of the growth and decay of the civilization revealed by the cavern art of aurignacian and magdalenian times, of early trade and of early shipping. the history of art goes back for thousands of years before the classic age dawned in greece; the history of trade can be traced to that remote period when red sea shells were imported into italy by crô-magnon man; and the history of british shipping can be shown to be as old as those dug-outs that foundered in ancient scottish river beds before the last land movement had ceased. the history of man really begins when and where we find the first clear traces of his activities, and as it is possible to write not only regarding the movements of the crô-magnon races, but of their beliefs as revealed by burial customs, their use of body paint, the importance attached to shell and other talismans, and their wonderful and high attainments in the arts and crafts, the european historical period can be said to begin in the post-glacial epoch when tundra conditions prevailed in central and western europe and italy was connected with the north african coast. in the case of ancient egypt, historical data have been gleaned from archæological remains as well as from religious texts and brief records of historical events. the history of egyptian agriculture has been traced back beyond the dawn of the dynastic age and to that inarticulate period before the hieroglyphic system of writing had been invented, by the discovery in the stomachs of the bodies of proto-egyptians, naturally preserved in hot dry sands, of husks of barley and of millet native to the land of egypt.[ ] [ ] elliot smith, _the ancient egyptians_, p. . the historical data so industriously accumulated in egypt and babylonia have enabled excavators to date certain finds in crete, and to frame a chronological system for the ancient civilization of that island. other relics afford proof of cultural contact between crete and the mainland, as far westward as spain, where traces of cretan activities have been discovered. with the aid of comparative evidence, much light is thrown, too, on the history of the ancient hittites, who have left inscriptions that have not yet been deciphered. the discoveries made by siret in spain and portugal of unmistakable evidence of egyptian and babylonian cultural influence, trade, and colonization are, therefore, to be welcomed. the comparative evidence in this connection provides a more reliable basis than has hitherto been available for western european archæology. it is possible for the historian to date approximately the beginning of the export trade in jet from england--apparently from whitby in yorkshire--and of the export trade in amber from the baltic, and the opening of the sea routes between spain and northern europe. the further discovery of egyptian beads in south-western england, in association with relics of the english "bronze age", is of far-reaching importance. a "prehistoric" period surely ceases to be "prehistoric" when its relics can be dated even approximately. the english jet found in spain takes us back till about b.c., and the egyptian beads found in england till about b.c. the dating of these and other relics raises the question whether historians should accept, without qualification, or at all, the system of "ages" adopted by archæologists. terms like "palæolithic" (old stone) and "neolithic" (new stone) are, in most areas, without precise chronological significance. as applied in the historical sense, they tend to obscure the fact that the former applies to a most prolonged period during which more than one civilization arose, flourished, and decayed. in the so-called "old stone age" flint was worked with a degree of skill never surpassed in the "new stone age", as aurignacian and solutrean artifacts testify; it was also sometimes badly worked from poorly selected material, as in magdalenian times, when bone and horn were utilized to such an extent that archæologists would be justified in referring to a "bone and horn age". before the neolithic industry was introduced into western europe and the so-called "neolithic age" dawned, as it ended, at various periods in various areas, great climatic changes took place, and the distribution of sea and land changed more than once. withal, considerable race movements took place in central and western europe. in time new habits of life were introduced into our native land that influenced more profoundly the subsequent history of britain than could have been possibly accomplished by a new method of working flint. the most important cultural change was effected by the introduction of the agricultural mode of life. it is important to bear in mind in this connection that the ancient civilizations of egypt and babylonia were based on the agricultural mode of life, and that when this mode of life passed into europe a complex culture was transported with it from the area of origin. it was the early agriculturists who developed shipbuilding and the art of navigation, who first worked metals, and set a religious value on gold and silver, on pearls, and on certain precious stones, and sent out prospectors to search for precious metals and precious gems in distant lands. the importance of agriculture in the history of civilization cannot be overestimated. in so far as our native land is concerned, a new epoch was inaugurated when the first agriculturist tilled the soil, sowed imported barley seeds, using imported implements, and practising strange ceremonies at sowing, and ultimately at harvest time, that had origin in a far-distant "cradle" of civilization, and still linger in our midst as folk-lore evidence, testifies to the full. in ancient times the ceremonies were regarded as being of as much importance as the implements, and the associated myths were connected with the agriculturists' calendar, as the scottish gaelic calendar bears testimony. instead, therefore, of dividing the early history of man in britain into periods, named after the materials from which he made implements and weapons, these should be divided so as to throw light on habits of life and habits of thought. the early stages of civilization can be referred to as the "pre-agricultural", and those that follow as the "early agricultural". under "pre-agricultural" come the culture stages, or rather the industries known as ( ) aurignacian, ( ) solutrean, and ( ) magdalenian. these do not have the same chronological significance everywhere in europe, for the solutrean industry never disturbed or supplemented the aurignacian in italy or in spain south of the cantabrian mountains, nor did aurignacian penetrate into hungary, where the first stage of modern man's activities was the solutrean. the three stages, however, existed during the post-glacial period, when man hunted the reindeer and other animals favouring similar climatic conditions. the french archæologists have named this the "reindeer age". three later industries were introduced into europe during the pre-agricultural age. these are known as ( ) azilian, ( ) tardenoisian, and ( ) maglemosian. the ice-cap was retreating, the reindeer and other tundra animals moved northward, and the red deer arrived in central and western europe. we can, therefore, refer to the latter part of the pre-agricultural times as the "early red deer age". there is continental evidence to show that the neolithic industry was practised prior to the introduction of the agricultural mode of life. the "early agricultural age", therefore, cuts into the archæological "neolithic age" in france. whether or not it does so in britain is uncertain. at the dawn of the british "early agricultural age" cultural influences were beginning to "flow" from centres of ancient civilization, if not directly, at any rate indirectly. as has been indicated in the foregoing pages, the neolithic industry was practised in britain by a people who had a distinct social organization and engaged in trade. some neolithic flints were of eastern type or origin. the introduction of bronze from the continent appears to have been effected by seafaring traders, and there is no evidence that it changed the prevailing habits of thought and life. our ancestors did not change their skins and their ideas when they began to use and manufacture bronze. a section of them adopted a new industry, but before doing so they had engaged in the search for gold. this is shown by the fact that they settled on the granite in devon and cornwall, while yet they were using flints of neolithic form which had been made elsewhere. iron working was ultimately introduced. the bronze and iron "ages" of the archæologists can be included in the historian's "early agricultural age", because agriculture continued to be the most important factor in the economic life of britain. it was the basis of its civilization; it rendered possible the development of mining and of various industries, and the promotion of trade by land and sea. in time the celtic peoples--that is, peoples who spoke celtic dialects--arrived in britain. the celtic movement was in progress at b.c., and had not ended after julius cæsar invaded southern england. it was finally arrested by the roman occupation, but continued in ireland. when it really commenced is uncertain; the earliest celts may have used bronze only. the various ages, according to the system suggested, are as follows:-- . =the pre-agricultural age.= sub-divisions: (a) the _reindeer age_ with the aurignacian, solutrean, and magdalenian industries; (b) the _early red deer age_ with the azilian, tardenoisian, and maglemosian industries. . =the early agricultural age.= sub-divisions: (a) the _pre-celtic age_ with the neolithic, copper and bronze industries; (b) the _celtic age_ with the bronze, iron, and enamel industries. . =the romano-british age.= including in scotland (a) the _caledonian age_ and (b) the _early scoto-pictish age_; and in ireland the _cuchullin age_, during which bronze and iron were used. the view favoured by some historians that our ancestors were, prior to the roman invasion, mere "savages" can no longer obtain. it is clearly without justification. nor are we justified in perpetuating the equally hazardous theory that early british culture was of indigenous origin, and passed through a series of evolutionary stages in isolation until the country offered sufficient attractions to induce first the celts and afterwards the romans to conquer it. the correct and historical view appears to be that from the earliest times britain was subjected to racial and cultural "drifts" from the continent, and that the latter outnumbered the former. in the pre-agricultural age crô-magnon colonists reached england and wales while yet in the aurignacian stage of civilization. as much is indicated by the evidence of the paviland cave in south wales. at a later period, proto-solutrean influence, which had entered western europe from north africa, filtered into england, and can be traced in those caverns that have yielded evidence of occupation. the pure solutrean culture subsequently swept from eastern europe as far westward as northern spain, but britain, like southern spain and italy, remained immune to it. magdalenian culture then arose and became widespread. it had relations with the earlier aurignacian and owed nothing to solutrean. england yields undoubted traces of its influence, which operated vigorously at a time when scotland was yet largely covered with ice. certain elements in aurignacian and magdalenian cultures appear to have persisted in our midst until comparatively recent times, especially in connection with burial customs and myths regarding the "sleeping heroes" in burial caverns. the so-called "transition period" between the upper palæolithic and neolithic ages is well represented, especially in scotland, where the land rose after early man's arrival, and even after the introduction of shipping. as england was sinking when scotland was rising, english traces of the period are difficult to find. this "transition period" was of greater duration than the archæological "neolithic age". of special interest is the light thrown by relics of the "transition period" on the race problem. apparently the crô-magnons and other peoples of the magdalenian age were settled in britain when the intruders, who had broken up magdalenian civilization on the continent, began to arrive. these were ( ) the azilians of iberian (mediterranean) type; ( ) the tardenoisians, who came through italy from north africa, and were likewise, it would appear, of mediterranean racial type; and ( ) the maglemosians, who were mainly a fair, tall people of northern type. the close proximity of azilian and maglemosian stations in western scotland--at the macarthur cave (azilian) and the drumvaragie shelter (maglemosian) at oban, for instance--suggests that in the course of time racial intermixture took place. that all the fair peoples of england, scotland, and ireland are descended from celts or norwegians is a theory which has not taken into account the presence in these islands at an early period, and before the introduction of the neolithic industry, of the carriers from the baltic area of maglemosian culture. we next pass to the so-called neolithic stage of culture,[ ] and find it affords fuller and more definite evidence regarding the early history of our native land. as has been shown, there are data which indicate that there was no haphazard distribution of the population of england when the neolithic industry and the agricultural mode of life were introduced. the theory must be discarded that "neolithic man" was a wanderer, whose movements depended entirely on those of the wild animals he hunted, as well as the further theory that stone implements and weapons were not used after the introduction of metals. there were, as can be gathered from the evidence afforded by archæological remains, settled village communities, and centres of industry in the age referred to by archæologists as "neolithic". the early agricultural age had dawned. sections of the population engaged in agriculture, sections were miners and workers of flint, sections were hunters and fishermen, sections searched for gold, pigments for body paint, material for ornaments of religious value, &c., and sections engaged in trade, not only with english and scottish peoples, but with those of the continent. the english channel, and probably the north sea, were crossed by hardy mariners who engaged in trade. [ ] it must be borne in mind that among the producers and users of neolithic artifacts were the easterners who collected and exported ores. at an early period in the early agricultural age and before bronze working was introduced, england and wales, scotland and ireland, were influenced more directly than had hitherto been the case by the high civilizations of egypt and mesopotamia, and especially by their colonies in south-western europe. the recent spanish finds indicate that a great "wave" of high oriental culture was in motion in spain as far back as b.c., and perhaps at an even earlier period. included among babylonian and egyptian relics in spain are, as has been stated, jet from whitby, yorkshire, and amber from the baltic. apparently the colonists had trading relations with britain. whether the "tin land", which was occupied by a people owing allegiance to sargon of akkad, was ancient britain is quite uncertain. it was more probably some part of western europe. that western european influence was reaching britain before the last land movement had ceased is made evident by the fact that the ancient boat with a cork plug, which was found in clyde silt at glasgow, lay feet above the present sea-level. the cork plug undoubtedly came from spain or italy, and the boat is of mediterranean type.[ ] it is evident that long before the introduction of bronze working the coasts of britain were being explored by enterprizing prospectors, and that the virgin riches of our native land were being exploited. in this connection it is of importance to find that the earliest metal artifacts introduced into our native islands were brought by traders, and that those that reached england were mainly of gaulish type, while those that reached ireland were spanish. the neolithic industry does not appear to have been widespread in ireland, where copper artifacts were in use at a very early period. [ ] the boat dates the silting process rather than the silting process the boat. a large battle-axe of pure copper, described by sir david brewster in (_edinburgh philosophical journal_, vol. vi, p. ), was found at a depth of feet in ratho bog, near edinburgh. above it were feet of moss, feet of sand, and feet of hard black till-clay. "it must have been deposited along with the blue clay", wrote brewster, "prior to the formation of the superincumbent stratum of sand, and must have existed before the diluvial operations by which that stratum was formed. this opinion of its antiquity is strongly confirmed by the peculiarity of its shape, and the nature of its composition." the spanish discoveries have revived interest in this important find. as has been indicated, jet, pearls, gold, and tin appear to have been searched for and found before bronze working became a british industry. that the early prospectors had experience in locating and working metals before they reached this country there can be little doubt. there was a psychological motive for their adventurous voyages to unknown lands. the distribution of the megalithic monuments and graves indicates that metals were found and worked in south-western england, in wales, in derbyshire, and cumberland, that jet was worked at whitby, and that metals were located in ireland and scotland. gold must have been widely distributed during the period of the great thaw. it is unlikely that traces of alluvial gold, which had been located and well worked in ancient times, should remain until the present time. in scotland no traces of gold can now be found in a number of districts where, according to the records, it was worked as late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. some of the surviving scottish megalithic monuments may mark the sites of ancient goldfields that were abandoned in early times when the supplies of precious metal became exhausted. the great circles of callernish in lewis and stennis in orkney are records of activity in semi-barren areas. large communities could not have been attracted to these outlying islands to live on the produce of land or sea. traces of metals, &c., indicate that, in both areas in ancient times, the builders of megalithic monuments settled in remote areas in britain for the same reason as they settled on parts of the continent. a gold rod has been discovered in association with the "druid temple" at leys, near inverness. the inverness group of circles may well have been those of gold-seekers. in aberdeenshire a group of megalithic monuments appears to have been erected by searchers for pearls. gold was found in this county in the time of the stuart kings. the close association of megalithic monuments with ancient mine workings makes it impossible to resist the conclusion that the worship of trees and wells was closely connected with the religion of which the megalithic monuments are records. siret shows that the symbolic markings on typical stone monuments are identical with those of the tree cult. folk-lore and philological data tend to support this view. from the root _nem_ are derived the celtic names of the pearl, heaven, the grove, and the shrine within the grove (see chap. xiii). the celts appear to have embraced the druidic system of the earlier iberians in western europe, whose culture had been derived from that of the oriental colonists. the oriental mother goddess was connected with the sacred tree, with gold and gems, with pearls, with rivers, lakes, and the sea, with the sky and with the heavenly bodies, long centuries before the palm-tree cult was introduced into spain by oriental colonists. the symbolism of pearls links with that of jet, the symbolism of jet with that of baltic amber, and the symbolism of baltic amber with that of adriatic amber and of mediterranean coral. all these sacred things were supposed to contain, like jasper and turquoise in egypt, the "life substance" of the mother goddess who had her origin in water and her dwelling in a tree, and was connected with the sky and "the waters above the firmament". coral was supposed to be her sea tree, and jet, amber, silver, and gold were supposed to grow from her fertilizing tears. beliefs about "grown gold" were quite rife in mediæval britain.[ ] [ ] the ancient belief is enshrined in milton's lines referring to "ribs of gold" that "grow in hell" and are dug out of its hill (_paradise lost_, book i, lines - ). it should not surprise us, therefore, to find traces of oriental religious conceptions in ancient britain and ireland. these have apparently passed from country to country, from people to people, from language to language, and down the ages without suffering great change. even when mixed with ideas imported from other areas, they have preserved their original fundamental significance. the hebridean "maiden-queen" goddess, who dwells in a tree and provides milk from a sea-shell, has a history rooted in a distant area of origin, where the goddess who personified the life-giving shell was connected with the cow and the sky (the milky way), as was the goddess hathor, the egyptian aphrodite. the tendency to locate imported religious beliefs no doubt provides the reason why the original palm tree of the goddess was replaced in britain by the hazel, the elm, the rowan, the apple tree, the oak, &c. on the continent there were displacements of peoples after the introduction of bronze, and especially of bronze weapons. there was wealth and there was trade to attract and reward the conqueror. the eastern traders of spain were displaced. some appear to have migrated into gaul and north italy; others may have found refuge in ireland and britain. the sea-routes were not, however, closed. Ægean culture filtered into western europe from crete, and through the hallstatt culture centre from the danubian area. the culture of the tribes who spoke celtic dialects was veined with Ægean and asiatic influences. in time continental druidism imbibed ideas regarding the transmigration of souls and the custom of cremation from an area in the east which had influenced the aryan invaders of india. the origin of the celts is obscure. greek writers refer to them as a tall, fair people. they were evidently a branch of the fair northern race, but whether they came from northern europe or northern asia is uncertain. in western europe they intruded themselves as conquerors and formed military aristocracies. like other vigorous, intruding minorities elsewhere and at different periods, they were in certain localities absorbed by the conquered. in western europe they were fused with iberian communities, and confederacies of celtiberians came into existence. before the great celtic movements into western europe began--that is, before b.c.--britain was invaded by a broad-headed people, but it is uncertain whether they came as conquerors or as peaceful traders. in time these intruders were absorbed. the evidence afforded by burial customs and surviving traces of ancient religious beliefs and practices tends to show that the culture of the earlier peoples survived over large tracts of our native land. an intellectual conquest of conquerors or intruders was effected by the indigenous population which was rooted to the soil by agriculture and to centres of industry and trade by undisturbed habits of life. although the pre-celtic languages were ultimately displaced by the celtic--it is uncertain when this process was completed--the influence of ancient oriental culture remained. in scotland the pig-taboo, with its history rooted in ancient egypt, has had tardy survival until our own times. it has no connection with celtic culture, for the continental celts were a pig-rearing and pork-eating people, like the Ægæan invaders of greece. the pig-taboo is still as prevalent in northern arcadia as in the scottish highlands, where the descendants not only of the ancient iberians but of intruders from pork-loving ireland and scandinavia have acquired the ancient prejudice and are now perpetuating it. some centuries before the roman occupation, a system of gold coinage was established in england. trade with the continent appears to have greatly increased in volume and complexity. england, wales, scotland, and ireland were divided into small kingdoms. the evidence afforded by the irish gaelic manuscripts, which refer to events before and after the roman conquest of britain, shows that society was well organized and that the organization was of non-roman character. tacitus is responsible for the statement that the irish manners and customs were similar to those prevailing in britain, and he makes reference to irish sea-trade and the fact that irish sea-ports were well known to merchants. england suffered more from invasions before and after the arrival of julius cæsar than did scotland or ireland. it was consequently incapable of united action against the romans, as tacitus states clearly. the indigenous tribes refused to be allies of the intruders.[ ] [ ] _agricola_, chap. xii. in ireland, which pliny referred to as one of the british isles, the pre-celtic firbolgs were subdued by celtic invaders. the later "waves" of celts appeared to have subdued the earlier conquerors, with the result that "firbolg" ceased to have a racial significance and was applied to all subject peoples. there were in ireland, as in england, upper and lower classes, and military tribes that dominated other tribes. withal, there were confederacies, and petty kings, who owed allegiance to "high kings". the "red branch" of ulster, of which cuchullin was an outstanding representative, had their warriors trained in scotland. it may be that they were invaders who had passed through scotland into northern ireland; at any rate, it is unlikely that they would have sent their warriors to a "colony" to acquire skill in the use of weapons. there were cruithne (britons) in all the irish provinces. most irish saints were of this stock. the pre-roman britons had ships of superior quality, as is made evident by the fact that a british squadron was included in the great veneti fleet which cæsar attacked and defeated with the aid of pictones and other hereditary rivals of the veneti and their allies. in early roman times britain thus took an active part in european politics in consequence of its important commercial interests. [illustration: bronze bucklers or shields (british museum) upper: from the thames. lower: from wales.] when the romans reached scotland the caledonians, a people with a celtic tribal name, were politically predominant. like the english and irish pre-roman peoples, they used chariots and ornamented these with finely worked bronze. enamel was manufactured or imported. some of the roman stories about the savage condition of scotland may be dismissed as fictions. who can nowadays credit the statement of herodian[ ] that the warriors of scotland in roman times passed their days in the water, or dion cassius's[ ] story that they were wont to hide in mud for several days with nothing but their heads showing, and that despite their fine physique they fed chiefly on herbs, fruit, nuts, and the bark of trees, and, withal, that they had discovered a mysterious earth-nut and had only to eat a piece no larger than a bean to defy hunger and thirst. the further statement that the scottish "savages" were without state or family organization hardly accords with historical facts. even agricola had cause to feel alarm when confronted by the well-organized and well-equipped caledonian army at the battle of mons grampius, and he found it necessary to retreat afterwards, although he claimed to have won a complete victory. his retreat appears to have been as necessary as that of napoleon from moscow. the later invasion of the emperor severus was a disastrous one for him, entailing the loss of , men. [ ] _herodian_, iii, . [ ] dion cassius (_xiphilinus_) lxxvi, . a people who used chariots and horses, and artifacts displaying the artistic skill of those found in ancient britain, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization. warriors did not manufacture their own chariots, the harness of their horses, their own weapons, armour, and ornaments; these were provided for them by artisans. such things as they required and could not obtain in their own country had to be imported by traders. the artisans had to be paid in kind, if not in coin, and the traders had to give something in return for what they received. craftsmen and traders had to be protected by laws, and the laws had to be enforced. the evidence accumulated by archæologists is sufficient to prove that britain had inherited from seats of ancient civilization a high degree of culture and technical skill in metal-working, &c., many centuries before rome was built. the finest enamel work on bronze in the world was produced in england and ireland, and probably, although definite proof has not yet been forthcoming, in scotland, the enamels of which may have been imported and may not. artisans could not have manufactured enamel without furnaces capable of generating a high degree of heat. the process was a laborious and costly one. it required technical knowledge and skill on the part of the workers. red, white, yellow, and blue enamels were manufactured. even the romans were astonished at the skill displayed in enamel work by the britons. the people who produced these enamels and the local peoples who purchased them, including the caledonians, were far removed from a state of savagery. many writers, who have accepted without question the statements of certain roman writers regarding the early britons and ignored the evidence that archæological relics provide regarding the arts and crafts and social conditions of pre-roman times, have in the past written in depreciatory vein regarding the ancestors of the vast majority of the present population of these islands, who suffered so severely at the altar of roman ambition. everything roman has been glorified; roman victories over british "barbarians" have been included among the "blessings" of civilization. yet "there is", as elton says, "something at once mean and tragical about the story of the roman conquest.... on the one side stand the petty tribes, prosperous nations in minature, already enriched by commerce and rising to a homely culture; on the other the terrible romans strong in their tyranny and an avarice which could never be appeased."[ ] [ ] _origins of english history_, pp. - . it was in no altruistic spirit that the romans invaded gaul and broke up the celtic organization, or that they invaded briton and reduced a free people to a state of bondage. the life blood of young britain was drained by rome, and, for the loss sustained, roman institutions, roman villas and baths, and the latin language and literature were far from being compensations. rome was a predatory state. when its military organization collapsed, its subject states fell with it. gaul and britain had been weakened by roman rule; the ancient spirit of independence had been undermined; native initiative had been ruthlessly stamped out under a system more thorough and severe than modern prussianism. at the same time, there is, of course, much to admire in roman civilization. during the obscure post-roman period england was occupied by angles and saxons and jutes, who have been credited with the wholesale destruction of masses of the britons. the dark-haired survivors were supposed to have fled westward, leaving the fair intruders in undisputed occupation of the greater part of england. but the indigenous peoples of the english mining areas were originally a dark-haired and sallow people, and the invading celts were mainly a fair people. boadicea was fair-haired like queen maeve of ireland. the evidence collected of late years by ethnologists shows that the masses of the english population are descended from the early peoples of the pre-agricultural and early agricultural ages. the theory of the wholesale extermination by the anglo-saxons of the early britons has been founded manifestly on very scant and doubtful evidence. what the teutonic invasions accomplished in reality was the destruction not of a people but of a civilization. the native arts and crafts declined, and learning was stamped out, when the social organization of post-roman britain was shattered. on the continent a similar state of matters prevailed. roman civilization suffered decline when the roman soldier vanished. happily, the elements of "celtic" civilization had been preserved in those areas that had escaped the blight of roman ambition. the peoples of celtic speech had preserved, as ancient gaelic manuscripts testify, a love of the arts as ardent as that of rome, and a fine code of chivalry to which the romans were strangers. the introduction of christianity had advanced this ancient celtic civilization on new and higher lines. when the columban missionaries began their labours outside scotland and ireland, they carried christianity and "a new humanism" over england and the continent, "and became the teachers of whole nations, the counsellors of kings and emperors". ireland and scotland had originally received their christianity from romanized england and gaul. the celtic church developed on national lines. vernacular literature was promoted by the celtic clerics. in england, as a result of teutonic intrusions and conquests, christianity and romano-british culture had been suppressed. the anglo-saxons were pagans. in time the celtic missionaries from scotland and ireland spread christianity and christian culture throughout england. it is necessary for us to rid our minds of extreme pro-teutonic prejudices. nor is it less necessary to avoid the equally dangerous pitfall of the celtic hypothesis. christianity and the associated humanistic culture entered these islands during the roman period. in ireland and scotland the new religion was perpetuated by communities that had preserved pre-roman habits of life and thought which were not necessarily of celtic origin or embraced by a people who can be accurately referred to as the "celtic race". the celts did not exterminate the earlier settlers. probably the celts were military aristocrats over wide areas. before the fair celts had intruded themselves in britain and ireland, the seeds of pre-celtic culture, derived by trade and colonization from centres of ancient civilization through their colonies, had been sown and had borne fruit. the history of british civilization begins with neither celt nor roman, but with those early prospectors and traders who entered and settled in the british isles when mighty pharaohs were still reigning in egypt, and these and the enterprising monarchs in mesopotamia were promoting trade and extending their spheres of influence. the north syrian or anatolian carriers of eastern civilization who founded colonies in spain before b.c. were followed by cretans and phoenicians. the sea-trade promoted by these pioneers made possible the opening up of overland trade routes. it was after pytheas had (about b.c.) visited britain by coasting round spain and northern france from marseilles that the volume of british trade across france increased greatly and the sea-routes became of less importance. when carthage fell, the romans had the trade of western europe at their mercy, and their conquests of gaul and britain were undoubtedly effected for the purpose of enriching themselves at the expense of subject peoples. we owe much to roman culture, but we owe much also to the culture of the british pre-roman period. index achæans, celts and, , . acheulian culture, , . adonis, killed by boar, . Ægean culture, celts absorbed, . -- -- in central europe, . Æstyans, the, amber traders, . -- worship of mother goddess and boar god, , . africa, crô-magnon peoples entered europe from, . -- ostrich eggs, ivory, &c., from, found in spain, . -- transmigration of souls in, . age, the agricultural and pre-agricultural, . -- the early red deer, , . -- the prehistoric, . -- the historic, . -- the reindeer, . ages, archæological, new system of, . -- -- problem of scottish copper axe, . -- the mythical, colours and metals of, . see also _geological_ and _archæological ages_. agriculture, beginning of, in britain, . -- importance of introduction of, . -- history of, . -- neolithic sickles, . -- barley, wheat, and rye cultivated, . aine, the munster fairy, . airts (cardinal points), the, doctrine of, . see also _cardinal points_. akkad, sargon of, his knowledge of western europe, , . alabaster, eastern perfume flasks of, in neolithic spain, . albertite, jet and, . albiorix, the gaulish god, . all hallows, black sow of, . amber, associated with jet and egyptian blue beads in england, , (_ill._), . -- celtic and german names of, . -- as magical product of water, , . -- eyes strengthened by, . -- imported into britain at b.c., ; and in first century a.d., . -- jet and pearls and, . -- as "life substance", . -- megalithic people searched for, . -- origin of, in scottish lore, . -- persian, &c., names of, , . -- tacitus on the baltic Æstyans, . -- connection of, with boar god and mother goddess, . -- as "tears" of goddess, . -- trade in, . -- the "vigorous gael" and, . -- connection of, with woad, . -- white enamel as substitute for, . america, green stone symbolism in, . angles, . -- celts and, . anglo-saxon intruders, our scanty knowledge of, . angus, the irish god of love, . animism, not the earliest stage in religion, . annis, black (also "black anny" and "cat anna"), . -- -- irish anu (danu), and, . anthropology, stratification theory, , . anu (ana), the goddess, , . aphrodite, . -- amber and, . -- the black form of, . -- connection of, with pearl and moon, . -- julius cæsar's pearl offering to, . -- myth of origin of, . -- egyptian hathor and, . -- the scandinavian, . apollo, british temples of, . -- the gaelic, . -- the gaulish, . -- god of london, . -- mouse connection of, . -- mouse feasts, . apple, . -- connection of mouse with, . -- as fruit of longevity, . -- scottish hag-goddess and, . -- thomas the rhymer and apple of knowledge and longevity, . -- "wassailing", . apple land (avalon), the celtic paradise, . apples, life substance in, . apple tree, god of, . archæological ages, b.c., a date in british history, . -- -- "broad-heads" in britain and "long-heads" in ireland use bronze, . -- -- climate in upper palæolithic, . -- -- egyptian and babylonian relics in neolithic spain, . -- -- egyptian empire beads associated with bronze industry in south-western england, , (_ill._), . -- -- few intrusions between bronze and iron ages, . -- -- in humorous art, . -- -- "stone age" man not necessarily a savage, . archæological ages, influences of neanderthal and crô-magnon races, . -- -- irish sagas and, . -- -- bronze and iron swords, . -- -- lord avebury's system, . -- -- neolithic industry introduced by metal workers in spain, , . -- -- relations of neanderthal and crô-magnon races, , , . -- -- "transition period" longer than "neolithic age", . -- -- western european metals reached mesopotamia between b.c. and b.c., , . see also _palæolithic_ and _neolithic_. archæology, stratification theory, , . argentocoxus, the caledonian, . armenoid (alpine) races, early movements of, . armenoids in britain, . -- intrusions of, in europe, . -- partial disappearance of, from britain, . armlets, in graves, . arrow, the fiery, and goddess brigit, . arrows, azilians introduced, into europe, . -- as symbols of deity, . art, ancient man caricatured in modern, . artemis, bee and butterfly connected with, . -- myth of the scottish, , . arthur, king, celtic myth attached to, . arthur's seat, edinburgh, night-shining gem of, . -- -- giant of, , and also note . aryans, the, . astronomy in ancient britain and ireland, , and also note . -- welsh and gaelic names of constellations, . atlantis, the lost, . atrebates, the, in britain, . augustine of canterbury, pope gregory's letter, . -- -- canterbury temple occupied by, . augustonemeton (shrine of augustus), . aurignac, crô-magnon cave-tomb of, , . aurignacian, african source of culture called, , . -- custom of smearing bodies with red earth, . -- animism and goddess worship, . -- influence in britain, , . -- burial customs, . -- cave hand-prints, . -- "combe-capelle" man, . -- brüx and brünn race, . -- crô-magnons and, . -- culture of crô-magnon grotto, , . -- heart as seat of life, . -- green stone symbolism, . -- indian ocean shell at grimaldi, . -- magdalenians and, . -- the mother-goddess, , . -- egyptian milk and shells link, . -- "tama" belief, . -- origin of term, . -- pre-agricultural, . -- proto-solutrean influence on, . -- no trace of, in hungary, . aurignacian age, . aurignacian implements , (_ill._). australian natives, neanderthal man and, . avalon (apple land), the celtic paradise, . avebury, megaliths of, . -- -- burial customs, . axe, chellean , (_ill._). -- double, as "god-body", . -- glasgow and spanish green-stone axes, . -- as religious object, . axes, neolithic, distribution of population and, , . -- neolithic, mathematical skill in manufacture of, . aynia, irish fairy queen, . azilian culture, . -- -- artifacts, . -- -- english channel land-bridge crossed by carriers of, , , . azilian culture, iberian carriers of, . -- -- pre-agricultural, . -- -- rock paintings, . -- -- customs of, revealed in art, . -- -- script used, . -- -- in scotland and england, , . -- boats, . azilians in britain, , . babylonia, goddess of, in neolithic spain, . -- influence of, in asia minor and syria, . -- influence of culture of, . -- influence of, in britain, . -- knowledge of european metal-fields in, . -- religious ideas of, in britain, . baptism, milk and honey used in, . barley, cultivation of, . -- the egyptian, reaches britain, , . basket-making, relation of, to pottery and knitting, . beads, as "adder stones" and "druid's gems", . -- egyptian blue beads in england, , (_ill._), . -- egyptian, in britain, . bede, on jet symbolism, . bee, connection of, with artemis and fig tree, . -- as soul form in legends, . bees, connection of, with maggot soul form, . -- "telling the bees" custom, , . belatucadros, a gaulish mars, . belgæ, the, in britain, . belisama, goddess of mersey, . beltain festival, fires at, . berries, fire in, . -- life substance in, . -- "the luck", . -- salmon and red, . berry charms, . birds, butterfly as "bird of god", . -- celtic deities as, . birds, language of, druids and wren, . -- language of, in india, . -- language of, st. columba and, . -- oyster catcher and wood linnet as birds of goddess bride, . -- swan form of soul, . -- taboo in ancient britain, . -- taboo in highlands, . -- tom-tit, robin, wren, and apple cults, . -- wren as king of, . black annis, irish anu (danu) and, . --leicestershire hag-deity, , . black demeter, . black goddesses, greek and scottish, . black kali, indian goddess, . black pig, devil as, . black sow, devil as, . blood covenant, . boadicea, , . -- (boudicca), queen, . -- iceni tribe of, . boann, the goddess, . boar, adonis and diarmid slain by, . -- in orkney, . -- salmon and porpoise as, . boar god on british and gaulish coins, . -- -- connection of, with amber, . -- -- the gaulish, . -- -- mars as, . -- -- the inverness, , (_ill._). boats, ancient migrations by sea, . -- axe of clyde boat, . -- himilco's references to skin-boats, . -- sea-worthiness of skin-boats, . -- how sea-sense was cultivated, . -- veneti vessels, . -- azilian-tardenoisians and maglemosians required, . -- britain reached by, before last land movement ceased, . -- perth dug-out, under carse clays, . boats, forth and clyde dug-outs, . -- dug-outs not the earliest, , . -- ancient egyptian papyri and skin-boats, . -- "seams" and "skins" of, . -- egyptian models in europe and asia, . -- religious ceremonies at construction of dug-outs, . -- polynesian, dedicated to gods, . -- earliest egyptian, . -- britons and veneti, . -- celtic pirates, . -- earliest, in britain, . -- early builders of, . -- easterners exported ores by, from western europe, . -- egyptian barley carried by early seafarers to britain, . -- exports from early britain, . -- glasgow discoveries of ancient, , . -- cork plug in glasgow boat, , . -- invention of, . -- oak god and skin boats, . -- outrigger at glasgow, . -- ancient clyde clinker-built boat, . -- aberdeenshire dug-out, . -- sussex, kentish, and dumfries finds of, . -- brigg boat, . -- pictish, . -- pre-roman british, . -- similar types in africa and scandinavia , (_ill._). -- why early seafarers visited britain, , . bodies painted for religious reasons, . boers, the mouse cure of, , and also note . bone implements, . -- -- magdalenians favoured, . bonfires, at pagan festivals, . borvo, the gaulish apollo, . bows and arrows, azilians introduced, into europe, . boyne, river goddess of, . boyne, the "white cow", . bran, the god and saint, . bride, the goddess, bird of, and page of, . -- -- dandelion as milk-yielding plant of, . -- serpent of, as "daughter of ivor" and the "damsel", , . see _brigit_. -- saint, goddess bride and, . bride's day, . bride wells, . brigantes, blue shields of, . -- brigit (bride) goddess of, . -- territory occupied by, . -- in england, scotland, and ireland, , . brigit, dagda and, . -- as "fiery arrow", . -- the goddess (also bride), brigantes and, . -- three forms of, , . -- as hag or girl, . britain, stone age man in, . -- early races in, . -- date of last land movement in, . briton, "cloth clad", . britons, the, cruithne of ireland were, , . -- chief people in ancient england, ireland, and scotland, . brittany, easterners in, . bronze, celts and, . -- gaelic gods connected with, . -- knowledge of, introduced into britain by traders, . -- british, same as continental, . -- spanish easterners displaced by carriers of, . bronze age, the archæological, british "broad-heads" and irish "long-heads" as bronze users, . -- -- french forms in britain and spanish in ireland, . -- -- conquest theory, . -- -- prospectors discovered metals in britain, . -- -- how metals were located, . -- -- bronze carriers reached spain from central europe, . -- -- carriers of bronze earliest settlers in buchan, aberdeenshire, . bronze age, celtic horse-tamers as bronze carriers, . -- -- carriers expel easterners from spain, , . -- -- druidism and, . -- -- egyptian relics of, . -- -- relics of , (_ill._). bronze industry, fibulæ and clothing, . brünn and brüx races, . -- -- skull caps, , . _brut, the_, reference in, to apollo's temple, . bull, rivers and, . bulls, the sacred, (_ill._). -- sacrifice of, in ross-shire in seventeenth century, . burial customs, avebury evidence regarding, . -- -- body painting, . -- -- seven sleepers myth, . -- -- british pagan survivals, . -- -- crô-magnon aurignacian, in wales, . -- -- doctrine of cardinal points and, , . -- -- egyptian pre-dynastic customs, . -- -- food for the dead, . -- -- urns in graves, . -- -- green stones in mouths of crô-magnon dead, . -- -- egyptian and american use of green stones, , . -- -- long-barrow folk in england, . -- -- milk offerings to dead, . -- -- in neolithic britain, . -- -- palæolithic, . -- -- "round barrow" folk, . -- -- shakespeare's reference to pagan, . -- -- crô-magnon rites, . -- -- shell and other ornaments, . -- -- short-barrow and cremation intruders, . -- -- solar aspect of ancient british, . -- -- welsh ideas about destiny of soul, . -- -- why dead were cremated, , , . butterfly, connection of, with jade and soul in china, . -- connection with plum tree in china and honeysuckle in scotland, . -- as fire god in gaelic, . -- gaelic names of, . -- goddess freyja and, . -- psyche as, . -- as italian soul form, . -- serbian witches and, . -- burmese soul as, . -- mexican soul and fire god as, . byzantine empire, the, chinese lore from, . cailleach, the, , . see _artemis_. caithness, the "cat" country, . caledonians, the, . -- celtic tribal name of, . -- personal names of, . -- clothing of, . -- the picts and, . -- romans and, . -- tacitus's theory regarding, . calendar, the gaelic, . calgacus, . callernish stone circle, . calton (hazel grove), . camulos, god of colchester, . canoes. see _boats_. canterbury pagan temple, st. augustine used, . cantion, the, kent tribe, . cardinal points, doctrine of, , . -- -- south as road to heaven, , and also note . -- -- gaelic colours of, . -- -- goddesses and gods come from their own, . -- -- giants of north and fairies of west, . -- -- in modern burial customs, . -- -- "sunwise" and "withershins", , and also note . carnonacæ carini, the, . carthage, britain and, . -- british and spanish connection with, . -- megalithic monuments and, . carthage, trade of, with britain, . cassiterides, the, . -- carthagenians' trade with, . -- pytheas and, . -- crassus visits, . -- exports and imports of, . -- oestrymnides of himilco and, . -- the hebrides and, . cat, the big, . -- as goddess, . -- pear tree and, . cat-anna, leicestershire hag-goddess, . cat goddess of egypt, . cat stone, . cats, the, peoples of shetland, caithness, and sutherland as, , . -- witches as, . caturix, the gaulish god, . catuvellauni, the, in england, . cauldron. see _pot_. cauldron, the celtic, , . -- -- welsh goddess of, . -- of dagda, . -- holy grail and, . -- myth of, . celts, achæans and, . -- as carriers of la tène culture, . -- confederacies formed by, . -- as conquerors of earlier settlers in britain and ireland, . -- as military aristocrats in britain, . -- conquests of, . -- etruscans overcome by, . -- sack of rome, . -- danube valley and rhone valley trade routes controlled by, . -- as pig rearers and pork curers, , . -- destiny of soul, . see _soul_. -- displacement theory regarding, . -- earlier fair folks in britain, . -- ethnics of, . -- the fair in britain and ireland, . -- fair queens of, . -- gold and silver offered to deities by, . celts, maglemosians and, . -- origin of, obscure, . -- as fair northerners, . -- pictish problem, . see _picts_. -- as pirates, . -- references to clothing of, . -- british breeches, . -- settlement of, in asia minor, . -- tacitus on the caledonians, &c., . -- teutons and, . -- iberians and, . -- teutons did not exterminate, in england, . -- early christian influence of, . -- theory of extermination of, in britain, . -- as traders in britain, . -- and transmigration of souls, . -- tribes of, in ancient britain, . -- tribal rivalries of, in britain, . -- westward movement of, . celtic art, Ægean affinities, , . -- cauldron, , . -- gods, connection of, with metals, . cenn cruach, irish god, , . cereals, . cerones, creones, the, . chancelade man, . chariots, in pre-roman britain, . charms, hand-prints, horse-shoes, and berries as, . -- herbs and berries as, . -- lore of, _et seq._ see _shells_, _necklaces_, _pearls_. -- otter skin charm, . chellean culture, . -- -- artifacts of, , . -- _coup de poing_ , (_ill._). children sacrificed, . china, butterfly soul of, . chinese dragon, scottish bride serpent and, , . churchyards, pagan survivals, . cocidius, a gaulish mars, . cockle-shell elixir, in japan and scotland, , . -- -- in crete, . coinage, ancient british, . colour symbolism, black and white goddesses, . -- -- blue artificial shells, . -- -- blue shields of brigantes, . -- -- blue as female colour, . -- -- blue as fishermen's mourning colour, . -- -- blue stone raises wind, . -- -- body paint used by neolithic industry peoples, . -- -- celtic root _glas_ as colour term, and in amber, &c., , . -- -- coloured pearls favoured, . -- -- coloured races and coloured ages, , . -- -- coloured stones as amulets, . -- -- dragon's eggs, . -- -- enamel colours, . -- -- four colours of aurignacian hand impressions in caves, . -- -- gaelic colours of seasons, . -- -- gaelic colours of winds and of cardinal points, . -- -- green stones used by crô-magnon, ancient egyptian, and pre-columbian american peoples, , . -- -- how prospectors located metals by rock colours, . -- -- irish rank colours, , and also note . -- -- jade tongue amulets in china, . -- -- luck objects, . -- -- lucky and unlucky colours, . -- -- painted vases in neolithic spain, . -- -- painting of god, . -- -- red berries as "fire berries", . -- -- red berries, . -- -- greek gods painted red, . -- -- indian megaliths painted, . -- -- chinese evidence, . -- -- red earth devoured, . -- -- _ruadh_ (red) means "strong" in gaelic, . colour symbolism, red and blue supernaturals in wales, . -- -- red body paint in welsh aurignacian cave burial, . -- -- red earth and blood, . -- -- herbs and berries, . -- -- red jasper as blood of goddess, . -- -- red stone in aurignacian cave tomb, . -- -- shells coloured, in mentone cave, . -- -- red symbolism, . -- -- red blood and red fire, , . -- -- blood as food of the dead, . -- -- red souls in "red land", . -- -- red woman as goddess, . -- -- scarlet-yielding insect, . -- -- sex colours, . -- -- significance of wind colours, . -- -- solutrean flint-offerings coloured red, . -- -- white serpent, . -- -- why crô-magnon bodies were smeared with red earth, . -- -- woad dye, . columba, saint, christ as his druid, . "combe-capelle" man, , , . -- -- shells worn by, . con-chobar, dog god and, . copper, axe of, in scotland, . -- in britain, . -- difficult to find and work in britain, . -- easterners worked, in spain, , . -- as variety of gold, . -- offered to water deity, . coral, enamel and, . -- as "life-giver" (_margan_), . -- as "life substance", . -- megalithic people searched for, . -- symbolism of, . -- use of, in britain, , . -- enamel as substitute for, . cormorants, celtic deities as, . cornavii, the, in england and scotland, . cornwall, damnonians in, . cow, the sacred, in britain and ireland, , , , . -- connected with river boyne, . -- dam[)o]na, celtic goddess of cattle, . -- indian, and milk-yielding trees, . -- morrigan as, . -- the primeval, in egypt, . -- white, sacred in ireland, . cranes, celtic deities as, . cremation, in britain, . -- significance of, . cresswell caves, magdalenian art in, . cromarty, night-shining gem of, . crom cruach, irish god, ; children sacrificed to, . -- -- as maggot god, . crô-magnon, animism, . crô-magnon grotto, discovery of, . -- -- skeletons in, . crô-magnon races, advent of, in europe, . -- -- ancestors of "modern man", , . -- -- archæological horizon of, . -- -- aurignacian culture of the, . -- -- brüx and brünn types different from, . -- -- burial customs of, . -- -- cultural influence of, on neanderthals, . -- -- discovery of crô-magnon grotto skeletons, . -- -- first discovery of traces of, in france, . -- -- history of modern man begins with, . -- -- as immigrants from africa, . -- -- indian ocean shell at mentone, , . -- -- inventive and inquiring minds of, . -- -- magdalenian culture stage of, . -- -- domestication of horse, . -- -- modern representatives of, . crô-magnon races, mother-goddess of, . -- -- "tama" belief, . -- -- not in hungary, . -- -- "red man" of wales, . -- -- red sea shells imported by, . -- -- history of, . -- -- relations of, with neanderthal man, . -- -- in wales, . -- -- sea-shell necklace , (_ill._). -- -- trade of, in shells, . -- -- tall types, . -- -- high cheek-bones of, . -- -- tallest types in riviera, , . crô-magnon skulls , (_ill._). crô-magnons, azilian intruders and, . -- heart as seat of life, among, . -- in britain, , , . -- english channel land-bridge crossed by, . -- hand-prints and mutilation of fingers, . -- modern scots and, . -- selgovæ and, . crow, and goddess of grove and sky, . crows, celtic deities as, . cruithne, in ireland, . -- the irish, not picts, . -- the q-celtic name of britons, . cuchullin, and scotland, . -- dog god and, . -- goddess morrigan and, . -- his knowledge of astronomy, , and also note . -- pearls in hair of, . dagda, the god, . -- connection with oak and fire, . -- cauldron of, . -- thor and, . -- a giant-slayer, . damnonians. see _dumnonii_. -- an early celtic "wave", . -- fomorians as gods of, . -- settlements of, in metal-yielding areas, . damona, celtic goddess of cattle, . danann deities, . -- -- not in scotland, . -- -- talismans of, . -- -- japanese talismans, . -- -- war against fomorians, . -- -- welsh "children of don" and, . dandelion, as milk-yielding plant of goddess bride, . danes, in britain, . dante, moon called "eternal pearl" by, . danu, the goddess, . danube valley trade route, . danubian culture in central europe, . -- -- celts as carriers of, , . decantæ, the, . deer, as goddess, . demetæ, the, in wales, . demeter, the black, . demons, dogs as enemies of, . derbyshire, magdalenian art in, . deva, devona, dee, rivers, . devil as "big black pig" in scotland, . -- as black sow in wales, . -- as pig, goat, and horse, . devon, damnonians in, . -- magdalenian art in, . diamond, the night-shining, . diana of the ephesians, fig tree and, . diancecht, irish god of healing, . diarmid, gaelic adonis, . diodorus siculus, on gold mining, . -- -- reference to british temple to apollo, . disease, deity who sends also withdraws, . -- ancient man suffered from, . -- "yellow plague", . dog, the big, god indra as, . -- the sacred, , (_ill._). -- taboo to cuchullin, , and also note . see _dogs_. dogger bank, ancient plateau, . -- -- animal bones, &c., from, , . -- -- island, . dog gods, . dogs, children transformed into, . -- domesticated by maglemosians, , . -- religious beliefs regarding, . -- early man's dependence on, . -- in ancient britain and ireland, . -- in warfare, . -- exported from britain in first century a.d., . dog star, the, . dolmen, the. see _megalithic monuments_. domnu, tribal goddess of damnonians, . don, the children of, . doves, celtic deities as, . dragon, bride's scottish serpent charm and chinese charm, . -- hebridean, . -- irish, and the salmon, . -- otter and, . -- on sculptured stone, (_ill._). -- luck pearls of, . -- stones as eggs of, . dragon-mouth lake, the irish, . dragon slayers, the, druids and, . druid circle, the inverness, . druidism, . -- belief in british origin of, . -- doctrines absorbed by, . -- eastern origin of, . -- in ancient spain, . -- pliny on persian religion and, , and also note . -- oak cult, . -- tree cults and, . druids, in anglesea, . -- human sacrifices of, . -- "christ is my druid", . -- the collar of truth, . -- connection of, with megalithic monuments, , . -- and oak, . -- classical references to, . -- "druid's gem", . -- evidence of, regarding races in gaul, . -- tacitus on anglesea druids, . -- temples of, . -- "true thomas" (the rhymer) as "druid thomas", . -- sacred salmon and, . druids, salmon and dragon myth, . -- star lore of, . -- kentigern of glasgow as christian druid, . -- wren connection, . -- soothsayers, , . dug-out canoes, origin of, . see _boats_. dumnogeni, the, in yarrow inscription, . dumnonii, . see _damnonians_. -- fomorians as gods of, . -- silures and, . dunatis, gaulish mars, . durotriges, in britain and ireland, . dwyn, st., formerly a goddess, . dwynwen, british venus, . eagle, the sacred, (_ill._). -- wren and, in myth, . ear-rings, as solar symbols, . east, the, "evil never came from", . see _cardinal points_. easterners, colonies of, in spain and portugal, , , , , . -- descendants of, in britain, . -- displacement of, in spain, , . -- druidism introduced into europe by, . -- as exploiters of western europe, . -- settlements of, in france and etruria, . -- in hebrides, . -- influence of, in britain and ireland, . -- iron industry and, . -- not all of one race, . -- neolithic industry of, . -- in touch with britain at b.c., . -- in western europe, , . eel, morrigan as, . eels, as "devil fish" in scotland, . -- tabooed in scotland, . eggs, dragons', stones as, . egypt, alabaster flasks, &c., from, in neolithic spain, . -- artificial shells in, , . -- barley of, carried to europe, . -- black and white goddesses of, . -- blue beads from, in england, , (_ill._), , . -- cat goddess of, . -- culture of, transferred with barley seeds, . -- "deathless snake" of, and scottish serpent, . -- dog-headed god of, . -- earliest sailing ship in, . -- earliest use of gold in, . -- malachite charms in, . -- flint sickles of, . -- furnaces and crucibles of, in western europe, . -- hathor and aphrodite, . -- shell amulets in early graves in, . -- isis as "old wife", , and also note . -- gods in weapons, . -- gold in, , . -- gold diadem from, in spanish neolithic tomb, . -- gold models of shells in, . -- green stone symbolism, . -- hathor as milk goddess, . -- history of agriculture in, . -- ideas regarding soul in, . -- influence of, in asia minor and europe, . -- influence of, in britain, . -- invention of boats in, . -- ivory from, found in spain, · -- ka and serpent, . -- milk elixir in pyramid texts, . -- milk goddess of, in scotland, . -- mother pot of, and celtic cauldron, . -- osirian underworld paradise, . -- pork taboo in, . -- annual sacrifice of pigs in scotland and, . -- post-glacial forests of, . -- pre-dynastic burial customs, . -- sex colours in, . egypt, proto-egyptians and british iberians, . -- red jasper as "blood of isis", . -- "red souls" in "red land", . -- why gods of, were painted, . -- religious ideas of, in britain, , , , , . -- stones, pearls, metals, &c., and deities of, . -- symbols of, in celtic art, . -- transmigration of souls, . elk, on dogger bank, , . elm, . enamel, . -- british, the finest, . -- coral and, . -- as substitute for coral, . -- turquoise, lapis lazuli, white amber and, . enamels, colours of the british, . eoliths, , . epidii, the, . ep[)o]na, celtic goddess of horses, . eskimo, the chancelade skull, . -- magdalenian art of, . etruscans, . -- celts as conquerors of, . -- civilization of, origin of, . european metal-yielding areas, . evil eye, the, shells as protection against, . fairies, associated with the west, . -- dogs as enemies of, . -- on eddies of western wind, . -- greek nereids and, . -- fomorians (giants) at war with, . -- goddess as "fairy woman", . -- shell boat of, . -- irish "queens" of, . -- as milkers of deer, . -- as "the mothers" in wales, . -- picts and, , and also note . -- scottish "nimble men" and "blue men", . fairies, as supernatural beings, , and also note . fairy dogs, . fairyland, as paradise, . -- thomas the rhymer in paradise of, . fata morgana, . fauna, post-glacial, in southern and western europe, . festus avienus, . figs, hazel-nuts and, . fig milk, . -- trees, bees and wasps fertilize, . -- tree, diana of the ephesians and, . finger charms, . finger-mutilation, aurignacian custom, . -- australian, red indian, and scottish customs, . fir, the sacred, . fir-bolgs, the, . -- as miners, , and also note . -- as slaves, . -- celts as subduers of, . -- subject peoples called, . fir-domnan, , and also note . fir-domnann, . -- fomorians as gods of, . see _damnonians_ and _dumnonii_. fire, beltain need fires, . -- brigit and, . -- butterfly as god of, in gaelic, . -- god dagda and, . -- goddess and, . -- mexican god of, as butterfly, . -- pool fish and, . -- salmon and, . -- scottish goddess of, . -- in red berries, . -- in st. mungo myth, . -- from trees, . -- lightning and, . -- worshipped in ancient britain, . fire-sticks, the, . "fire water" as "water of life", . fish taboo, . flax, stone age people cultivated, . flint, as god, . flints, in aurignacian cave-tomb, . -- as offerings to deity, . flint deposits, english, . -- -- early peoples settled beside, . -- -- river-drift man in england near, . flint industry, tardenoisian microliths used by maglemosians, . -- working, ancient english flint factories, . -- -- aurignacian, , . see _palæolithic_. -- -- aurignacian, solutrean, and magdalenian implements , (_ill._). -- -- chellean _coup de poing_ , (_ill._). -- -- "combe-capelle" man's, . -- -- early english trade in worked flints, . -- -- eastern influence in neolithic industry, . -- -- egyptian origin of spanish neolithic industry, . -- -- the evolution theory, . -- -- hugh miller's and andrew lang's theories regarding, . -- -- neanderthal and pre-neanderthal, . -- -- neolithic saws or sickles, . -- -- palæolithic and neolithic, . -- -- tardenoisian microliths or "pygmy flints", , (_ill._). -- -- proto-solutrean and "true" solutrean, . flint-god, the solutrean, . -- zeus and thor as, . foam, as milk, . fomorians, duels of, in scotland, . -- as gods of dumnonii, . -- neit as war god, . -- nemon as goddess of, . -- war of, with fairies, , . fowl taboo in ancient britain, . freyja, scandinavian venus, . -- pearls, amber, &c., as tears of, . furfooz man, . gaelic calendar, . galatia, celts in, . galley hill man, . gaul, celts of, in roman army, . -- early inhabitants of, . -- refugees from sea-invaded areas in, . gaulish gods, . gems, "druid's gem", . -- night-shining, . -- as soul-bodies, . geological ages, breaking of north sea and english channel land-bridges, . -- -- confusion regarding, in modern art, . -- -- date of last land movement, . -- -- megalithic monuments submerged, . -- -- early boats and, . -- -- england in magdalenian times, . -- -- sixth glaciation and race movements, . -- -- england sinking when scotland was rising, . -- -- last land movement, , . -- -- horizon of crô-magnon races, . -- -- pleistocene fauna in europe, . -- -- archæological ages and, . -- -- post-glacial and the early archæological, , , . -- -- theories of durations of, , , . giants, associated with the north, . -- (fomorians) as gods, . -- war of, with fairies, . -- scottish, named after heroes, , and also note . _glas_, as "water", "amber", &c., , . glasgow, seal of city of, . glass, connection of, with goddess, . -- imported into britain in first century a.d., . goat, devil as, . god, in stone, . god-cult, solutreans and, . god-cult, stone as god, , . goddess, anu (danu), , . -- -- as "fairy queen" in ireland, , . -- bird forms of, . -- black annis, . -- black aphrodite, . -- black goddess of scotland, . -- the blue, . -- bride (brigit) and her serpent, . -- brigit as goddess of healing, smith-work, and poetry, . -- cat forms of, . -- connection of, with amber and swine deities, . -- connection of, with glass, . -- connection of, with grove, sky, pearl, &c., in celtic religion, - , , , . -- animals and plants of, . -- cult animals of, , , , , , . -- eel and, . -- eel, wolf, &c., forms of, . -- egyptian milk goddess, . -- indian milk goddess, . -- gaulish goddess ro-smerta, . -- influences of, . -- groups of "mothers", . -- hebridean "maiden queen", . -- honeysuckle as milk-yielding plant, . -- bee and, . -- luck and, . -- morrigan comes from north-west, . -- wind goddess from south-west, . -- scottish artemis, , . -- the mother, aurignacians favoured, . -- -- connection of, with law and trade, . -- -- crô-magnon form of, , . -- -- jasper as blood of, . -- -- her life-giving shells, . -- -- shell-milk highland myth, . -- the mother-pot, . -- rivers and, . -- oriental, in spain, . goddess, pearl, &c., offerings to, . -- precious stones of, . -- scottish hag goddess, , . -- indian kali, . -- shell and milk hebridean goddess, . gods, animal forms of, . -- danann deities, . -- deity who sends diseases withdraws them, . -- influences of, . -- gaelic references to, , . -- hazel god, , . -- gaelic fire god, . -- "king of the elements", . -- romano-gaulish, . goibniu, irish god and the welsh govannan, . gold, amber and, . -- coins of, in pre-roman britain, . -- deposits of, in britain and ireland, , , , , , , , . -- mixed with silver in sutherland, . -- earliest use of, in egypt, . -- copper used like, . -- egyptian diadem of, found in neolithic spain, . -- in england (map), . -- exported from britain in first century a.d., . -- finds of, in scotland, . -- first metal worked, . -- as a "form of the gods", . -- as "fire, light, and immortality", . -- as "life giver", . -- gaelic god and, . -- gauls offered, to water deity, · -- how miners worked, . -- "world mill" myth, . -- ingot of, from salmon, . -- luck of, . -- no trace of where worked out, . -- not valued by hunting peoples in europe, . -- offered to deities by celts, . -- psychological motive for searches for, . gold, knowledge and skill of searchers for, in britain, . -- ring in st. mungo legend, . -- rod of, at inverness stone circle, . -- in salmon myths, . -- scottish deposits of, . -- search for, in britain, , . -- shells imitated in, , . -- trade in, . -- as tree, . goodwin sands, . goose, taboo in ancient britain, . govannan. see _goibniu_. grail, the holy, . grannos, gaulish apollo, . gregory the great, letter from, to mellitus, . grimaldi, indian ocean shell in aurignacian cave at, . grove, the sacred, celtic names of, · -- -- latin "nemus", . gwydion, the god, odin and, . hades, dog and, . hallowe'en, pig associated with, . hallstatt culture, celts influenced by, . hand-prints, in aurignacian caves, · -- four colours used, . -- dwellings protected by, in india and spain, . -- arabian, turkish, &c., customs, · hare, taboo in ancient britain, harpoon, . -- victoria cave, late magdalenian or proto-azilian, . -- finds of, in england and scotland, . -- azilians imitated magdalenian reindeer horn in red deer horn, . -- magdalenians introduced, . hazel, nut of, as fruit of longevity, . -- as god, , . -- in early christian legends, . -- as milk-yielding tree, . hazel, as sacred tree, . -- nuts of, as food, . -- palm tree and, . -- the sacred, , . -- connection of, with sky, wells, &c., . -- snakes and, . -- in st. mungo (st. kentigern) myth, . -- sacred fire from, . -- groves, sacred, "caltons" were, . heart, as seat of life, . -- as seat of life to crô-magnons and ancient egyptians, . heaven as south, . hebrides, dark folks in, . -- descendants of easterners in, . -- "maiden queen" of, . -- reroofing custom in, . -- sea god of, . -- traces of metals in, . -- as the oestrymnides, . heifer, milk of, in honeysuckle, . hell, as north. see _cardinal points_. herbs, ceremonial gathering of, . -- life substance in, . -- lore of, . -- from tears of sun god, , and also note . -- silvanus, god of, . hills, gildas on worship of, , . himilco, voyage of, . homer, reference of, to cremation, . honey, in baptisms, . -- as life-substance, . -- nut milk and, , and also note . -- in "soma" and "mead", . honeysuckle, butterfly and, . -- honey and milk of, . horn implements, . -- -- magdalenians favoured, . horse, demeter and, . -- domesticated by azilians, . -- domesticated by crô-magnons, . -- eaten in scotland, . -- ep[)o]na, celtic horse goddess, . horse, the sacred, (_ill._). -- god, , and also note . horse-shoe charms, . hound's pool, . houses, neolithic, . human sacrifices, children as, . iberians, armenoids and, . -- as carriers of neolithic culture, . -- celts and, . -- silurians as, . ice, connection of, with amber, &c., . ice age. see _geological ages_. iceni, the, of essex, . -- boar god of, . idols, in ancient britain, , . -- pope gregory's reference to ancient english, . indo-european theory, . indo-germanic theory, . indra, dog and, . ireland, as a british island, . iron, exported from britain in first century, a.d., . iron age, celts in, . iron industry, easterners and, in western europe, . island of women, . isles of the blest, gaelic, . ivory, associated with bronze, jet, and egyptian beads in england, . -- in crô-magnon grotto, . -- egyptian, in neolithic spain, . -- imported into britain in first century a.d., . -- in welsh cave-tomb, . jade, butterfly soul in, . japan, the _shintai_ (god body) and gaelic "soul case", . -- talismans of, and the irish, . jasper, symbolism of, . jet, amber and, . -- british and roman beliefs regarding, . -- as article of trade at b.c., . -- associated in stonehenge area with egyptian blue beads, , (_ill._), . jet, early trade in, . -- early working of, . -- megalithic people searched for, · -- pearls and amber and, . jupiter, the gaulish, . -- lapis, . jutes, . -- celts and, . kali, the black, . kentigern, st., as druid, . -- -- in salmon and ring legend, . kent's cavern, magdalenian art in, · kerridiwen, the goddess, cauldron of, . knife of deity, . knitting, stone age people and, . -- relation to basket-making and pottery, . lake, the sacred, goddess and, . lanarkshire, damnonians in, . land-bridges, breaking of north sea and english channel bridges, . -- dogger bank, , , , . -- english channel, , . -- italian, , . land movement, the last, . language and race, , , . language of birds. see _birds_. la tène culture, celts as carriers of, to britain, . leicestershire, black annis, a hag deity of, . lewis, callernish stone circle, . lightning, butterfly form of god of, . -- as heavenly fire, . -- and trees, . lir, sea god, . see _llyr_. -- sea god, "shony" and, . liver as seat of life in gaelic, , . -- cure from mouse's, . lizard as soul-form, . lleu, the god, . llyr, sea god, . see _lir_. -- the sea god, "shony" and, . london, god's name in, . love-enticing plants, . luck, belief in, . -- berries and, . -- fire as bringer of, . -- lucky and unlucky days, . -- pearls and, , . lud, god of london, . -- form of, . lugh, celtic god, associated with north-east, . -- gaelic apollo, . lugi, the, . mæatæ, the, picts and caledonians and, . magdalenian culture, . -- -- azilian and, . -- -- eskimo art and, . -- -- in britain, . -- -- origin of, . -- -- new implements, . -- -- traces of influence of, in scotland, . -- -- victoria cave reindeer harpoon, . -- cave art revival and progress, . -- implements, (_ill._). -- pre-agricultural, . maggot god, early christian myth of, . -- -- bees and, . -- -- gaelic, . magic wands, , . -- -- etruscan, french, and scottish, . maglemosian culture, , . -- -- art and, . -- -- magdalenian influence on, . -- -- siberian origin of, . -- -- artifacts and, . -- -- in britain, . -- -- northerners as carriers of, . -- -- pre-agricultural, . maglemosians, boats of, . -- animals hunted, . -- land-bridges crossed by, . -- in france and britain, . -- in britain, . -- celts and, . -- dogger bank land-bridge crossed by, , . -- dogs domesticated by, . -- tardenoisian microliths used by, . malachite charms, . mammoth, bones of, from dogger bank, . -- evidence that heart was regarded as seat of life, , (_ill._). -- in western europe, . see _fauna_. man, the red, of wales, ornaments of, . mars, the gaulish, . -- greek and gaulish boar forms of, . marsh plants, goddess and, . mead, milk and honey in, . meave, queen, , , . mediterranean race in north africa and britain, . -- sea, divided by italian land-bridge, . megalithic culture, egyptian influence in britain, &c., . -- monuments, burial customs and, . -- -- connection of, with ancient mine workings, &c., , . -- -- connection of, with metal deposits, . -- -- connection of, with sacred groves, . -- -- cult animals on scottish, (_ill._). -- -- "cup-marked" stones, . -- -- knocking stones, . -- -- gruagach stone, . -- -- "cradle stone", . -- -- child-getting stones, . -- -- distributed along vast seaboard. . -- -- searchers for metals, gems, &c., erected, . -- -- distribution of, , (_ill._). -- -- distribution of scottish, . -- -- druids and, , . -- -- easterners and followers of, as builders of, , . -- -- egyptian empire beads and stonehenge circle, , (_ill._), . -- -- gaelic gods and, . -- -- gaelic metal symbolism and, . -- -- gaelic name of sacred shrine, . -- -- phoenicians and, . megalithic monuments, their relation to exhausted deposits of metals, . -- -- problem of lewis and orkney circles, . -- -- standing stones as maidens . -- -- tacitus on anglesea altars and druids, . -- -- stonehenge as temple, . -- -- heathen temples and, . -- -- stone circle as sun symbol, . -- -- stones submerged in brittany, . -- -- tree cult and, . -- -- worship of stones, , . -- -- connection of, with trees and wells, . mentone, aurignacian mother-goddess, . -- indian ocean shell in aurignacian cave at, . mersey, the, goddess of, . mesopotamia, influence of, in western europe, . -- knowledge of european metal fields in, . metals, eastern colonists worked, in spain, . -- egyptian furnaces and crucibles in britain, . -- megalithic monuments and deposits of, . -- searchers for, in britain, . -- searchers for; how prospectors located deposits of gold, &c., . -- traces of, in scotland, . metal symbolism, gaelic gods and metals, . see _gold_, _silver_, _copper_, and _bronze_. metal working, after introduction of bronze working, . mictis, tin from, . milk, baptisms of, . -- in the blood covenant, . -- children sacrificed for corn and milk, . -- cult animals of milk goddess, . -- dandelion as milk-yielding plant of goddess bride, . -- in elixirs, . milk, "soma" and "mead" and, . -- elm as milk tree, . -- foam as milk, . -- goddess-cow gives healing milk, . -- hebridean milk goddess, , . -- honeysuckle as milk-yielding plant, . -- indian evidence regarding "river milk" and milk-yielding trees, . -- irish milk lake, . -- healing baths of, . -- marsh mallows and, , and also note . -- mistletoe berries as milk berries, . -- oblations of, in ross-shire, . -- offerings of, to dead, . -- elixir, highland shell-goddess myth, . -- -- egyptian evidence regarding, . -- -- prepared from shells in japan and scotland, . -- goddess, hathor as, . milky way, the, , . -- -- in ancient religion, . -- -- in welsh and gaelic, . mind, heart as, . mining, egyptian methods in western europe, . mistletoe, as "all heal", , . -- milk berries, . -- trees on which it grows in britain, , and also note . modern man, . see _crô-magnon races_. mogounus, a gaulish apollo, . moon, aphrodite as goddess of, . -- dante refers to, as pearl, . -- gaels swore by, . -- as "pearl of heaven", . -- worship of, in ancient britain, . morgan le fay, arthur's pursuit of, . -- -- goddess anu and, . -- -- as "life giver", . morrigan, the (irish goddess), anu and, . morrigan, associated with north-west, . -- as the "life giver", . -- forms of, . mother goddess. see _goddess_. moths as soul forms, . mouse, buried under apple tree, . -- hunting of, in scotland, . -- mouse cures, . -- scottish supernatural, . -- apollo and, . -- -- mouse feasts, . -- cures, boers have, , and also note . -- feasts in scotland and the troad, . mousterian age, . -- -- artifacts of, . -- -- neanderthal races of, . mungo, st., as druid, , . -- -- salmon legend of, . navigation. see _boats_. neanderthal man, crô-magnon influence on, . -- -- disappearance of, , , . -- -- european climates experienced by, . -- -- relations of, with crô-magnon races, . -- -- first discovery of bones of, , . -- -- skeleton of, found, . -- -- australian natives and, . -- -- description of, , . -- -- flint working of, . -- -- mousterian artifacts of, . -- -- piltdown man and, . necklaces in crô-magnon grotto, . -- crô-magnon sea shells, (_ill._). -- egyptian blue beads in british "bronze age" necklace, , (_ill._), . -- as gods, . -- in graves, . -- shell, in welsh aurignacian cave-tomb, . -- why worn, . need fires, . -- -- butterfly and, . neit, god of battle, . _nem_, the root in _neamh_ (heaven), _neamhnuid_ (pearl), _nemeton_ (shrine in a grove), _nemed_ (chapel), _neimhidh_ (church-land), _nemus_ (a grove), _nemon_ (goddess), and _n[)e]m[)e]t[)o]na_ (goddess), , . n[)e]m[)e]t[)o]na, british goddess, . nemon, the goddess, a fomorian, . -- irish goddess, and pearl, heaven, &c., . neolithic, chronological problem, . -- egyptian diadem of gold found in spanish neolithic tomb, . -- egyptian origin of spanish neolithic industry, , . -- metal workers as flint users, . -- scottish copper axe problem, . -- why ornaments were worn, , . -- age, transition period longer than, . -- culture, iberians as carriers of, . -- industry, carriers of, attracted to britain, . -- -- distribution of population and, - . -- -- "edge" theory, . -- -- campigny find, . -- -- in ireland, . -- -- in scotland, . -- -- scottish pitch-stone artifacts, . -- -- carriers of, not wanderers, . -- -- a lost art, . nereids, the, fairies and, . ness, the river, . night-shining gems, . norsemen, . -- modern scots and, . northern fair race, . northerners, armenoids and, . novantæ, the, . nudd, the god, . nut, as "soul case", . nut-milk, . -- -- honey and, as elixir, , and also note . nuts, life substance in, . -- of longevity, . oak, . -- acorn as fruit of longevity, . -- druids and, , . -- black annis and, . -- galatian oak grove and shrine, . -- on glasgow seal, . -- god of, and seafarers, . -- god dagda and, . -- the sacred, . -- use of acorns, . -- in tanning, . -- spirits, . oaths, sacred, gaels swore by sun, moon, &c., . oban, macarthur cave, , . obsidian artifacts, . odin, the dog and, . -- pork feasts of, . -- welsh gwydion and, . oestrymnides, the, himilco's tin islands, , . onyx, same name as pearl in gaelic, . oracles, druids and, . orc (young boar), salmon as, . orcs, the picts as, . orkney, boar name of, . -- megalithic remains in, . -- "sow day" in, . ornaments, "adder stones", "druid gems", &c., . -- jet charms, . -- in crô-magnon grotto, . -- as gods or god-cases, . -- in grotto at aurignac, . -- in mentone cave-tombs, . -- religious value of, , . -- in welsh aurignacian cave-tomb, . -- why worn by early peoples, , . ostrich eggs, found in spain, . otter, skin charm of, . -- as god, . -- as soul-form, . -- the king, . -- jewel of, . palæolithic, chronological problem, . -- implements of upper palæolithic, (_ill._). palæolithic age, why ornaments were worn, , . -- -- break in culture of, . -- -- origin of term, . -- -- races of, . -- -- sub-divisions of, , . see, _chellean_, _acheulian_, _mousterian_, _aurignacian_, _solutrean_, and _magdalenian_. palm tree, british substitutes for, . -- -- cult of, in ancient spain, . paradise, as "apple land" (avalon) . -- celtic ideas regarding, . -- fairyland as, . -- pork feasts in, . -- welsh ideas regarding, . -- in border ballads, . parisii, the, in britain, . patrick, st., pagan myth attached to, . paviland cave, crô-magnon burial in welsh, . pearl, aphrodite (venus) as pearl, . -- as life substance, , . -- moon as "eternal pearl" in dante's _inferno_, . -- gaelic name of, . -- nocturnal luminosity of, . pearls, british, attracted romans, · -- and sacred grove, &c., . -- cæsar's pearl offering to venus, . -- in cuchullin's hair, . -- on roman emperor's horse, . -- dragons possess, . -- in england (map), , . -- fabulous origin of, . -- irish standard of value a _set_ (pearl), . -- luck of, . -- jet and amber and, . -- as "life substance", , . -- as _margan_ (life-giver), . -- as medicine in india, . -- searched for by megalithic people, . -- soul in, . -- as _tama_ in japan, . -- as "tears" of goddess freyja, . pearls, why offered to goddess, . -- ythan river, aberdeenshire, yields, . pear tree, cat and, . peat, from dogger bank, , . penny wells, . phoenicians, the cassiterides monopoly of, . -- eastern colonists in spain and, . -- methods of, as exploiters, . -- in iron age, . -- megalithic monuments and, . -- in modern cornwall, . pictones, the, as allies of romans, . -- scottish picts and, . picts, the, agriculturists and seafarers, . -- caledonians and, . -- allies of the scots, . -- cruithne were britons, . -- fairy theory, , and also note . -- as pechts and pecti, . -- gildas, bede, and nennius on, . -- irish myth regarding, . -- irish cruithne not picts, . -- saxon allies of, . -- roman, scottish, and welsh names of, . -- as branch of the pictones, . -- tattooing habit of, . -- vessels of, . -- tribes of, . -- as pirates, . pig, demeter and, . -- devil as, , . -- in roman religious ceremony, . -- scottish and irish treatment of, . -- taboo in scotland, . -- the sow goddess, . pigs, achæans and celts as rearers of, , . -- adonis and diarmid and, . -- celts rearers of, . -- and amber, . -- as food of the dead, . -- "lucky pigs", . -- orkney a boar name, . pigs, salmon as, . see _pork taboo_. piltdown man, . pin wells, . pirates, ancient, picts as, . -- -- gaelic reference to, . pliocene mammals, . poetry, goddess of, . polycrates of samos, luck of, in seal, . pope gregory the great, letter on pagans in england, . pork. see _pigs_ and _swine_. -- taboo in arcadia, . -- -- why cretans detested, , and also note . -- -- scottish, _et seq._, . -- -- celts ate pork, . porpoise as sea-boar, . portugal, colonists from, in britain, . -- early eastern influence in, . -- settlements of easterners in, . -- settlers from, in britain, . pot, the, shell as, . -- as symbol of mother-goddess, . -- the mother, celtic cauldron as, . "pot of plenty", celtic cauldron as, . potter's wheel, . pottery, neolithic, . -- relation to basket-making and knitting, , . priestesses, ancient british, tacitus refers to, . -- witches and, , and also note . ptolemy, evidence of, regarding british tribes, . purple-yielding shells, in crô-magnon grotto, . -- -- searched for by megalithic people, . pytheas, . -- exploration of britain by, . -- the mictis problem, . -- voyage of, . races, alien elements may vanish, . -- "caucasian man", . -- aryan theory, . races, animal names of scoto-celtic tribes, . -- azilian and tardenoisian, . -- maglemosian, . -- britain in roman period, . -- britain mainly "long-headed", . -- ptolemy's evidence regarding british tribes, . -- british extermination theory, . -- british iberians and proto-egyptians, . -- armenoid intrusions, , , . -- spanish settlers in britain, . -- bronze carriers displace eastern metal searchers in western europe, . -- bronze users as earliest settlers in aberdeenshire, . -- brünn and brüx, . -- celts and armenoids, . -- celts and northerners, , . -- celts as conquerors of early settlers in britain, . -- colours of the mythical, , · -- extermination theory, . -- celts as fair northerners, . -- "broad heads" in britain, , , , . -- celts and teutons, . -- chancelade skull and eskimos, . -- crô-magnons in wales, . -- first discovery of crô-magnons in france, . -- cuchullin and scotland, . -- britons in ireland, . -- damnonians as metal workers, . -- damnonians in england, scotland, and ireland, , . -- dark and fair peoples in england, . -- descendants of easterners in britain, . -- drifts of, into britain, . -- early settlers in britain, , . -- eastern colonists in spain, . -- easterners reached ancient britain from spain, . -- fair and dark among earliest settlers in post-glacial britain, . races, fair celts and teutons, . -- fir-bolgs in ireland, . -- furfooz type, . -- broad-headed fair types, . -- gaelic fir-domnann and firbolg, , and also note . -- gibraltar man, . -- cannstadt man, . -- neanderthal man, . see _neanderthal man_. -- great migrations by sea, . -- high and heavy scots, . -- intrusion of "round barrow", broad-headed people, , . -- "long heads" use bronze in ireland, . -- megalithic intruders, . -- mixed peoples among easterners in western europe, . -- modern crô-magnons in africa, british isles, and france, . -- "combe-capelle" man, . -- brüx and brünn skulls, . -- "galley hill" man, , . -- modern man, . -- crô-magnon, , . see _crô-magnon races_. -- piltdown man, , . -- heidelberg man, . -- phoenician type in cornwall, . -- physical characters of, . -- "pockets" in british isles, . -- post-glacial movements of, . -- pre-celtic extermination theory, . -- few intrusions in ancient britain, . -- settlements of traders and workers, . -- "short barrow" intruders, . -- cremating intruders, . -- solutrean intrusion, . -- tacitus's references to british races, . -- transition period and neolithic, . rainbow as god's rod-sling, . raven and goddess of grove and sky, . ravens, celtic deities as, . red deer on dogger bank, . "red man", the welsh, , . regni, the, sussex tribe, . reindeer on dogger bank, . -- french and german, in early, aurignacian times, . see _fauna_. -- in scotland till twelfth century, . -- in germany in roman times, . -- age, the, . rhodesia, mouse cure in, , and also note . rhone valley trade route, . rivers, goddesses and, . river-worship, , , . robin, apple cult and, . robin red-breast, on glasgow seal, . -- -- in st. mungo legend, . romans, how britain was conquered by, , . -- celtic boats superior to boats of, . -- as exploiters of conquered countries, . -- how loan-rate of interest was reduced, . -- goddess, groups of, . -- gauls in army of, . -- mean and tragical conquest of britain by, , . -- myths of, regarding savages in ancient britain, . -- references of, to picts and caledonians, . -- religious beliefs of, no higher than those of gaels, . -- tacitus on rewards of, in britain, . -- wars for trade, . rome, connection of, with milk goddess cult, , . -- sacked by celts, . ro-smerta, the gaulish goddess, . rowan, . -- berry of, as fruit of longevity, . -- the sacred, , . see _tree cults_. rye, cultivation of, . sacred stones and sacred trees, . see _megalithic monuments_ and _tree cults_. sacrifices, annual pig sacrifices, . -- oxen sacrificed to demons in england, . -- at "wassailing", , . sahara, . -- grass-lands of the, . st. swithin's day, . salmon on city of glasgow seal, . -- as form of dragon, . -- fire and, . -- gaelic names of, . -- irish saint finds gold in stomach of, . -- in st. mungo legend, . -- the ring myth, . -- the sacred "salmon of wisdom", . sargon of akkad, his knowledge of western european metal-yielding areas, _et seq._, . saxons, . -- celts and, . -- the, picts as allies of, . scape-dog, the, . scots, the, crô-magnons and, . -- picts and, . -- first settlement of, in scotland, . scott, michael, in serpent myth, . seafaring. see _boats_. sea god, the hebridean _seonaidh_ (shony), . seasons, gaelic colours of, . selgovæ, the, . -- in galloway, . serpent, bride's serpent and dragon, . -- as "daughter of ivor", the "damsel", &c., . -- dragon as, . -- goddess bride and, . -- jet drives away, . -- sacred white, . -- on sculptured stones, (_ill._). -- "snake of hazel grove", . -- sea-serpent, . -- as soul, . -- the white, in michael scott legend, . setantii, the, in england and ireland, . -- cuchullin and, . severus, disastrous invasion of scotland by, , . sheep, goddess as, . -- in scoto-celtic tribal names, . shells, as amulets, , . -- aphrodite as pearl in, . -- in british graves, . -- finds of, in ireland and scotland, . -- coloured, in aurignacian cave-tomb, . -- wearing of, not a juvenile custom, . -- combe-capelle man wore, . -- in crô-magnon grotto, . -- crô-magnon trade in, . -- japanese and scottish "shell-milk" elixirs, , . -- "cup of mary" highland myth, . -- limpet lore, , and also note . -- egyptian artificial, . -- egyptian gold models of, . -- stone, ivory, and metal models of, . -- as "life-givers", . -- "evil eye" charms, . -- crô-magnon necklace, (_ill._). -- as food for dead, . -- cretan artificial, . -- fairy woman's coracle a shell, . -- in grotto at aurignac, . -- ground shells as elixir, . -- as "houses" of gods, . -- love girdle of, . -- hebridean tree goddess and, . -- indian ocean shell in aurignacian cave, . -- as "life substance", , , . -- mantle of, in aurignacian cave-tomb, . -- milk from, , . -- "personal ornaments" theory, . -- red sea shell in hampshire, , and also note . -- red sea shell in neolithic spain, . shells, red sea shell at mentone, . -- searched for by megalithic people, _et seq._ -- in welsh cave-tomb, . ships. see _boats_. silures, the, hebrideans and, . -- tacitus on, . -- in wales and scilly islands, . silurians, as miners, . silvanus, british deity, . silver, amber and, . -- in britain, . -- difficult to find and work in britain, . -- exported from britain in first century a.d., . -- easterners worked, in spain, . -- gaelic god connected with, . -- offered to water deity by gauls, . -- offered to deities by celts, . -- lead, as ballast for boats of easterners, . sin (pronounced _sheen_), the druid's judgment collar, . skins, exported from britain in first century, a.d., . sky, connection of sacred trees and wells with, . slaves, exported from britain in first century a.d., . see _fir-bolgs_. sleepers myth, in highland story, . -- the seven, antiquity of myth of, . smertæ, the, . smertullis, the god, ro-smerta and, . smintheus apollo. see _mouse apollo_. solutrean age, . -- pre-agricultural, . -- proto-solutrean influence, . -- culture, cave art declines, . -- -- characteristic artifacts, . -- -- climate, . -- -- open-air camps, . -- -- bone needles numerous, . -- -- decline of, in europe, . -- -- earliest influence of, in europe, . solutrean culture, "true" wave of, . -- -- carriers of, . -- implements, (_ill._). soul, animal shapes of, , , . -- bee and butterfly forms of, . -- bee forms of, in folk tales, . -- beliefs regarding, sleepers myth, . -- soul-case in scotland and japan, . -- butterfly as, in greece, italy, serbia, burmah, mexico, china, scotland, ireland, &c., , . -- the "change" in gaelic, . -- nourishment of, . -- cremation customs and destiny of, . -- dead go west, . -- dog form of, . -- druids and transmigration, . -- heart and liver as seats of life, . -- maggot as, . -- egyptian bata myth, . -- moth form of, . -- serpent form of, . -- lizard and other forms of, . -- star as, . -- in stone or husk, . -- in trees, . -- in egg, fish, swans, &c., . -- in weapons, . -- welsh ideas regarding destiny of, . sow-day in orkney, . sow goddess, the, . see _pigs_. spain, british trade with, , . -- colonists from, in britain, . -- displacement of easterners in, . -- druidism in, . -- early trade of, with britain, . -- easterners in, , , , . -- easterners kept natives of, ignorant of uses of metals, . -- egyptian gold diadem in neolithic tomb, . -- egyptian origin of neolithic industry in, . -- expulsion of easterners from, . -- in pre-agricultural age, . -- settlers from, in britain, . spear of god lugh, . spinning, . spirit worship. see _animism_. standing stones. see _megalithic monuments_. star, st. ciaran's stellar origin, . -- the dog, . stars, druid lore of, . -- gaels measured time by, , and also note . -- sir[)o]na, star goddess, . -- milky way and milk goddess cult, . -- welsh and gaelic names of, . stennis, standing stones of, . stone of danann deities, . -- as god, . stonehenge, doctrine of cardinal points and, . -- and egyptian empire beads, , (_ill._), . -- temple theory, . stones, in graves, , . -- wind raised by, in hebrides, . -- as "god body", . -- as dragon's eggs, . sumeria. see _babylonia_. sun, ancient british solar symbol, . -- circulating chapels, &c., . -- ear-rings and, . -- fire and, . -- rays of, as tears, , and also note . -- gaelic worship of, . -- gaels swore by, . -- goddess and, . -- modern and ancient sunwise customs, . sun-worship in britain, king canute and, . surgery, ancient man's skill in, . -- folk-lore evidence regarding, , . surrogate of life blood, . sussex dug-out, , . swallows, celtic deities as, . swans, as souls, . -- as oracles, . -- celtic deities as, . swine. see _pork taboo_. -- celts rearers of, . -- devil and, . swine, maglemosian hunters of, . -- orkney a boar name, . -- in roman religious ceremony, . -- scottish taboo of, . sword of god lugh, . symbols, swashtika, &c., , . see _colour symbolism_. tæxali, the, . talismans, irish and japanese, . taran[)u]cus (thunderer), gaulish god, . tardenoisian, , . -- artifacts, . -- iberian carriers of, . -- pre-agricultural, . -- pygmy flints, , (_ill._). tardenoisians, the, in britain, . -- english channel land-bridge crossed by, . -- industry, traces of, in africa, asia, and europe, . -- maglemosians and, . temples, pagan, used as christian churches, . -- the gaulish, . -- apollo's temple in england, . -- stonehenge, . -- pytheas refers to, . -- reroofing custom, . ten tribes, the lost, . teutons, british celts' relations with, . -- celts and, . thomas the rhymer, "true thomas" as "druid thomas", . thor, dagda and, . tilbury man, , . tin, . -- beginning of mining in cornwall, . -- scottish and irish, , . -- in britain and ireland, . -- surface tin collected in britain, . -- english mines of, opened after surface tin was exhausted, . -- the mictis problem, . -- descendants of ancient miners in britain, . -- exported from cornwall in first century a.d., . tin, phoenicians and the cassiterides, . -- search for, in britain, . -- traces of, in scotland, . -- trade in, . -- voyage of pytheas, . -- cornish mines opened, . see _cassiterides_ and _oetrymnides_. tin land, sargon of akkad's knowledge of the western european, , . tin-stone as ballast for boats of easterners, . toad, the, jewel of, . tom-tit, apple cult of, . toothache, ancient man suffered from, . torquay, magdalenian art near, . trade, early british exports, . -- red sea shell in hampshire, , and also note . -- routes, british and irish, . -- -- british trade with spain and carthage, . -- -- danube valley and rhone valley, . -- -- early trade between spain and britain, . -- -- exports from britain in first century a.d., . -- -- when overland routes were opened, . -- -- celts and, , . -- -- phoenicians kept sea-routes secret, . -- -- voyage of pytheas, . transition period. see _azilian_, _tardenoisian_, and _maglemosian_. -- -- longer than neolithic age, . -- -- race movements in, . -- in scotland, . transmigration, druidism and, , . traprain, silver as substitute for white enamel at, . tree cults, apple of knowledge eaten by thomas the rhymer, . -- -- apple tree as "tree of life", . -- -- birds and apple trees, . -- -- artemis and the fig, . tree cults, bee and maggot soul forms in trees, . -- -- and standing stones, , . -- -- coral as sea tree, . -- -- grown gold, . -- -- and standing stones and wells, . -- -- trees and wells and heavenly bodies, . -- -- druidism and, . -- -- fig as milk-yielding tree, . -- -- gaelic and latin names of sacred groves, . -- -- galatian sacred oak, . -- -- gaulish, . -- -- elm as milk tree, . -- -- plane as milk tree, . -- -- grove goddess as raven or crow, . -- -- the hazel god, , . -- -- apple of longevity, . -- -- hebridean shell and milk goddess and, . -- -- indian milk-yielding trees, . -- -- mouse and apple tree, . -- -- mistletoe and druidism, . -- -- megalithic monuments and, . -- -- and pearls, &c., . -- -- palm tree cult in spain, . -- -- oak on glasgow seal, . -- -- sacred groves and stone shrines, . -- -- sacred rowan, . -- -- silvanus, british tree god, . -- -- souls in trees, . -- -- st. mungo takes fire from the hazel, . -- -- stone circles and, . -- -- trees of longevity and knowledge, . -- -- woodbine as "king of the woods" in gaelic, . -- -- fire-producing trees, . trepanning in ancient times, . trinovantes, the, in england, . turquoise, symbolism of, . twelfth night, . underworld, gaelic ideas regarding, . underworld, egyptian paradise of, . -- fairyland as paradise, . -- welsh ideas of, . -- "well of healing" in, . urns, burial, food and drink in, . uxellimus, gaulish god, . vacomagi, the, . veneti, the, pictones assist romans against, . -- picts and, . venus. see _aphrodite_. -- the british, . -- cæsar offered british pearls to, . -- origin of, . -- the scandinavian, . vernicones, the, in scotland, . viking ship, origin of, . votadini, in scotland, . vulcan, the celtic, , . warfare, neolithic weapons rare, . water, fire in, . -- as source of all life, . -- spirits, . "water of life", "fire water" as, , . weapons, celts swore by, . -- demons in, . -- as sacred symbols in ireland and japan, . well, "beast" (dragon) in, . wells, bride (brigit) and, . -- connection of, with trees, stones, and sky, . -- goddess and, . -- "well of healing" in underworld, . well-worship and sacred grove, heaven, &c., . well-worship, dingwall presbytery deals with, . -- gildas refers to, . -- well as a god, - . -- trees, standing stones, and, . -- winds and, . -- offerings of gold, &c., . welsh gods, . were-animals, scottish, . -- witches and, . wheat, cultivation of, . whistle, the, antiquity of, . widow-burning, . wind, fairies come on eddies of, . wind and water beliefs, . wind goddess, scottish, associated with south-west, . winds, colours of, _et seq._ -- gaelic names of, in spring, . -- hebridean wind-stone, . witches, cat forms of, . -- priestesses and, . -- were-animals and, . withershins, . woad, celtic connection of, with water, amber, &c., . wolf, goddess as, . -- goddess morrigan as, . woodbine as "king of the woods", . "world mill", the, metal workers and, . wren, apple cult of, . -- druids and, . -- hunting of, . -- the sacred, . -- as king of birds, . yellow muilearteach, the, scottish deity, , . zuyder zee, formerly a plain, . -- -- disasters of, , . printed and bound in great britain _by blackie & son, limited, glasgow_ * * * * * * transcriber's note: minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been made consistent. obvious typographical errors have been corrected. a "list of illustrations" has been added to the text for the convenience of the reader. it includes illustrations that were not included in the "list of plates." in the index the phrase (_ill._) has occasionally been moved so as consistently to come after the page to which it refers. [illustration: reconstructed lake-dwellings] the new stone age in northern europe by john m. tyler professor emeritus of biology, amherst college new york charles scribner's sons copyright, , by charles scribner's sons printed in the united states of america published march, to joseph dÉchelette patriot and archÆologist killed in battle at vingrÉ (aisne) october , preface the dawn of history came late in northern europe and the morning was stormy. we see the roman empire struggling in vain to hold back successive swarms of barbarians, pouring from a dim, misty, mysterious northland. centuries of destruction and confusion follow; then gradually states and institutions emerge, and finally our own civilization, which, though still crude and semibarbarous, has its glories as well as its obvious defects. the growth, development, and training of these remarkable destroyers and rebuilders was slowly going on through the ages of prehistoric time. most of the germs, and many of the determinants, of our modern institutions and civilization can be recognized in the habits, customs, and life of the neolithic period. hence the importance of its study to the historian and sociologist. it has left us an abundance of records, if we can decipher and interpret them. it opens with savages living on shell-heaps along the baltic. later we find the stone monuments of the dead rising in france, england, scandinavia, and parts of germany. they begin as small rude shelters and end as temples, like that at stonehenge. people were thinking and cooperating, and there must have been no mean social organization. we find agriculture highly developed in the valleys of the danube and its tributaries. we see villages erected on piles along the shores of the swiss lakes--probably a later development. we find implements, pottery, and bones of animals; charred grains of wheat and barley and loaves of bread; cloth and ornaments--almost a complete inventory of the food and furnishings of the people of this period. we should call them highly civilized, had they been able to write their own history. what was their past and whence had they come? implements and pottery tell us of exchange of patterns and ideas, or may suggest migrations of peoples, and finally map out long trade-routes. some day the study of the pottery will give us a definite chronology, but not yet. we can reconstruct, to some extent, these phases of prehistoric life. our greatest difficulties begin when we attempt to combine these separate parts in one pattern or picture, to trace their chronological succession or the extent of their overlappings and their mutual influence and relations in custom and thought. here, we admit, our knowledge is still very vague and inadequate. twenty years ago the problem seemed insoluble; perhaps it still remains so. but during that time explorations, investigations, and study have given us many most important facts and suggestions. some inferences we can accept with a fair degree of confidence, others have varying degrees of probability, sometimes we can only guess. but guesses do no harm, if acknowledged and recognized as such. i venture to hope that historian and sociologist may find valuable facts and suggestions in this book. but, while writing it, i have thought more often of the eager young student who may glance over its pages, feel the allurement of some topic and resolve to know more about it. the bibliography is prepared especially for him. it is anything but complete. the literature of the period is almost endless. i have referred to only a few of the best and most suggestive works. they will introduce him to a chain of others. if he studies their facts and arguments he will probably reject some of my opinions or theories, modify others, and form his own. if i can do any young student this service, my work will have been amply repaid. america has sent few laborers into this rich harvest field. i wish that this little book might play the part of a good host, and introduce many intelligent, thoughtful, and puzzled readers to the company and view-point of the prehistorian. in prehistory we find man entering upon course after course of hard and rigid discipline and training, usually under the spur of necessity, the best of all teachers. every course lasts through millennia. their chief end is to socialize and humanize individual men. environment, natural or artificial, is a means to this end. it compels men to struggle, each with himself; only as men improve is any marked change of conditions possible or desirable. men must "pass" in the lower course before they can be promoted to the next higher, to find here a similar field of struggle on a somewhat higher plane. human evolution, as a process of humanizing and socializing man, is and must be chiefly ethical; for ethics is nothing more nor less than the science and art of living rightly with one's neighbor. and man is incurably religious, always feeling after the power or powers in or behind nature, whose essential character she is compelling him to express, as her inadequate but only mouthpiece. he will gradually become like what he is feeling after, dimly recognizing, and rudely worshipping. these are the most important departments of the school of prehistoric man. the story told us by the evolutionist and prehistorian is full of surprises. it tells us of the failure of dominant species of animals and of promising races of men. it shows men plodding wearily through hardship and discouragement, and finding therein the road to success. the apparently dormant peoples and periods often prove in the end to have been those of most rapid advance. "the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." but it enables us to plot the line of human progress by points far enough apart to allow us to distinguish between minor and temporary oscillations and fluctuations and the law of the curve. the torch is passed from people to people and from continent to continent, but never falls or goes out. there is always a "saving remnant." we have grounds for a reasonable hope, not of a millennium, but of success in struggle. the economist, sociologist, and even the historian, are lookouts on the ship; evolution and prehistory must furnish chart and compass, and tell us our port of destination. many or most of the best thoughts in this book are borrowed. some of these borrowings are credited to their owners in the bibliography. of many others i can no longer remember the source. the recollection of successive classes of students in amherst college, with whom i have discussed these topics, will always be a source of inspiration and gratitude. i owe many valuable suggestions to my colleagues in the faculty, especially to professor f. b. loomis. to the unfailing kindness and ability of mr. and miss erb, of the library of columbia university; to professor h. f. osborn for his generous hospitality; to the staff of the boston public library; to doctor l. n. wilson, of the library of clark university; most of all, to mr. r. l. fletcher and his assistants, of the library of amherst college, my debt is greater than can be expressed in any word of thanks. contents page preface vii chapter i. the coming of man the ancestors of man. the primates and arboreal life. the descent from the trees. pithecanthropus. the original homeland. human races and earliest migrations. the arrival in europe. the great ice age. heidelberg man. neanderthal and cro-magnon races. ii. the period of transition. shell-heaps the retreat of the glaciers. danish shell-heaps. mugem. magelmose. rinnekalns. azilian-tardenoisian epoch of transition. campigny. the first immigrants. iii. land habitations neolithic cave-dwellers. pit-dwellings and huts. grosgartach. fortified villages, forest, and steppe. loess. iv. lake-dwellings platforms and houses. dog, cattle, pigs, sheep. cultivated plants. fruits, spinning and weaving-epochs. v. a glance eastward cradle of neolithic culture. babylonia. anau, susa. the beginnings of agriculture. plateaus and piedmont zones. hoe-tillage. the plough. summary. vi. megaliths dolmens. "gallery chambers." menhirs. disposal of the dead. incineration. vii. neolithic industries dress. flint and bone implements. axes. mattocks. flint mines. salt. gold. copper. trade. wares. amber. trade-routes. pottery, banded, corded and calcyciform, incrusted pottery. viii. neolithic chronology final retreat of glaciers. yoldia epoch. ancylus epoch--littorina depression. date of beginning and of end of neolithic period. forest successions. magelmose and shell-heaps. successive types of axe. charts. ix. neolithic peoples and their migrations palÆolithic races and migrations. mediterranean race. routes of migration. african, mediterranean, south russian steppe route. neolithic peoples and their distribution. nordic peoples. the danube valley. the "melting-pot" of central europe. pioneer life. x. neolithic religion paleolithic religion, the age of wonder: neolithic religion and experience. ritual. taboo and tribal responsibility. greek mysteries. the coming of the olympians, and the return of the ancient cults, sources of their vitality. cult of the goddess and mother-right. relation to agriculture. social position of women. xi. progress the mediterranean and the baltic. source of progress not in war. agriculture. home training. the neighborhood. religion. philosophy. mingling of cultures and peoples. xii. the coming of the indo-europeans aryan and european languages. original language; spread and modifications. earliest migrations. the achÆans. the age of heroes. city-states in greece. absorption of invaders. homeland. indo-european religion. persistence of neolithic survivals. folk-lore and fairy-tale. common people. legislation. the church. life currents. bibliography index illustrations reconstructed lake-dwellings _frontispiece_ facing page human figures, spain--early neolithic drawings of animals (cro-magnon) from altamira shell-heap shell-heap axe shell-heap jar weaving and plaiting from lake-dwellings "crouching burial" (hockerbestattung), adlerborg, near worms menhir, carnac, brittany dolmen, haga, island of borust alignment, carnac, brittany modern albanian peasants in neolithic garments axes from lake-dwellings showing attachment to handles boats from rock carvings in bohuslan, sweden. (early bronze age) pottery from neolithic graves pottery successive stages and forms of baltic sea forms of prehistoric axe female idols, thrace female idol, anau ancient fishermen early agriculture map migrations of peoples the new stone age in northern europe the first of the two numbers and the letter in the footnotes designate the position in the bibliography at the end of the volume of the title referred to; the second refers to the page of the book or article. the new stone age in northern europe chapter i the coming of man man has been described as a "walking museum of paleontology." he is like a mountain whose foundations were laid in a time so ancient that even the paleontologist hardly finds a record to decipher; whose strata testify to the progress of life through all the succeeding ages; whose surface, deeply ploughed by the glaciers, is clothed with grass and forest, flower and fruit, the harvest of the life of to-day. some of his organs are exceedingly old, while others are but of yesterday; yet all are highly developed in due proportion, knit and harmonized in a marvellously tough, vigorous, adaptable body, the instrument of a thinking and willing mind. most surviving animals have outlived their day of progress; they have "exhausted their lead," to borrow a miner's expression, and have settled down in equilibrium with their surroundings. but discontented man is wisely convinced that his golden age lies in the future, and that his best possessions are his hopes and dreams, his castles in spain. he is chiefly a bundle of vast possibilities, of great expectations, compared with which his achievements and realizations are scarcely larger than the central point of a circle compared with its area. physically he belongs to the great branch or phylum of vertebrate animals having a backbone--sometimes only a rod of cartilage--an internal locomotive skeleton, giving the possibility of great strength and swiftness, and of large size. large size, with its greater heat-producing mass relative to its radiating surface, implies the possibility of warm blood, or constant high temperature, resulting in greater activity of all the organs, especially of the glands and the nervous system. large size, as a rule, is accompanied by long life--giving opportunities for continuous and wide experience, and hence for intelligence. yet most vertebrates have remained cold-blooded, and only a "saving remnant" even of men is really intelligent. man belongs to the highest class of vertebrates, the mammals, which produce living young and suckle them. among the highest mammals, the primates, or apes, the length of the periods of gestation, of suckling the young, and of childhood, with its dependence upon the mother, have become so long that she absolutely requires some sort of help and protection from the male parent. from this necessity have sprung various grades and forms of what we may venture to call family life, with all its advantages. how many mammals have attained genuine family life and how many men have realized its possibilities?[ ] the upward march of our ancestors was neither easy nor rapid. they were anything but precocious. they were always ready to balk at progress, stiff-necked creatures who had to be driven and sternly held in the line of progress by stronger competitors. the ancestors of vertebrates maintained the swimming habit, which resulted in the development of the internal skeleton and finally of a backbone, not because it was easiest or most desirable, but because any who went to the rich feeding-grounds of the sea-bottom were eaten up by the mollusks and crabs. our earliest air-breathing ancestors were crowded toward, and finally to the land, and into air-breathing by the pressure of stronger marine forms like sharks, or by climatic changes.[ ] reptiles, not mammals, dominated the earth throughout the mesozoic era, and harried our ancestors into agility and wariness; at a later period the apes remained in the school of arboreal life mainly because the ground was forbidden and policed by the carnivora. they and their forebears were compelled to forego some present ease and comfort, but always kept open the door to the future. in spite of all this vigorous policing, malingerers and deserters turned aside from the upward line of march at every unguarded point or fork in the road, escaped from the struggle, and settled down in ease and stagnation or degeneration, like our very distant cousins, the monkeys and lower apes. long-continued progress is a marked exception, not the rule, in the animal world, and is maintained only by the "saving remnant." and these continue to progress mainly because nature is "always a-chivying of them and a-telling them to move on," as poor joe said of detective bucket, and her guiding wand is the spur of necessity. the primates, or apes, are, as we have seen, the highest order of the great class of mammals. most of them, like other comparatively defenseless vertebrates, are gregarious or even social.[ ] they have a feeling of kind, if not of kindness, toward one another. this sociability, together with the family as a unit of social structure, has contributed incalculably to human intellectual and moral development. man is a primate, a distant cousin of the highest apes, though no one of these represents our "furry arboreal ancestor with pointed ears." arboreal life was an excellent preparatory training toward human development. our primate ancestor was probably of fair size. in climbing he set his feet on one branch and grasped with his hands the branch above his head. foot and leg were used to support the body, hand and arm for pulling. thus the hand became a true hand and the foot a genuine foot, opening up the possibility of the erect posture on the ground and the adaptation of the hand to higher uses. meanwhile the climbing and leaping from branch to branch, the measuring with the eye of distances and strength of branches, the power of grasping the right point at the right instant, and all the complicated series of movements combined in this form of locomotion furnished a marvellous set of exercises not only for the muscles but for the higher centres in the cortex of the brain. very probably gregarious life and rude play, so common among apes, was an extension course along somewhat similar lines. our ancestors became at home in and well adapted to arboreal life, but the adaptation was never extreme. it was rather what jones[ ] has called a "successful minimal adaptation." they used arboreal life without abusing it by over-adaptation, which would have enslaved them, and made life on the ground an impossibility when the time came for their promotion to this new and more advanced stage. at the close of his arboreal life the ape had inherited or acquired the following assets: his vertebrate and mammalian structure had given him a large, vigorous, compact, athletic, adaptable body. the mammalian care of the young had insured their survival, but only at the expense of great strain and risk of the mother. something at least approaching family life was already attained. arboreal life with its gymnastic training had moulded the body, differentiated hand and foot, given the possibility of erect posture, emancipating the hand from the work of locomotion and setting it free to become a tool-fashioning and tool-using organ. the ape has keen sense-organs, an eye for distances, and other conditions; and the use of these powers has given him a brain far superior to that of any of his humbler fellows. these are full of great possibilities and opportunities, if he will only use them. but why did our ancestor descend from his place of safety in the trees and live on the ground, exposed to the attacks of fierce, swift, and well-armed enemies? very few of the primates, except the rock and cliff-inhabiting baboons, ever made this great venture. there must have been some quite compelling argument to induce him to take so great a risk. the change took place probably at some time during the latter half of the cenozoic or tertiary period, the last great division of geological time, the age of mammals.[ ] the earliest tertiary epoch, the eocene, was a time of warm and equable climate, when apes lived far north in europe, and doubtless in asia also. some of these apes were of fair or large size, showing that conditions were favorable and food abundant. the next epoch, the oligocene, was similar but somewhat cooler. the third, the miocene, was cooler still and dryer. palms now forsook northern europe, being gradually driven farther and farther south. life became more difficult, food scarcer. apes could not longer survive in northern europe, but had to seek a warmer, more favorable, environment farther south, for many of the fruit and food trees had been crowded out and famine threatened.[ ] but insects and other small and toothsome animals remained on the ground, and were abundant along the shores of rivers and lakes. there, too, were fruits and berries, roots and tubers. there the food supply was still more than sufficient. thus far we have glanced at europe only. but the same changes are taking place in asia, the cradle and home of most placental mammals, the main area of a huge zoological province of which europe was but a westward projection, and with which america had direct connection from time to time in the region of behring's straits. here, during late miocene and early pliocene times, in the latter part of the cenozoic era, a dryer and somewhat harsher climate had been accompanied by the appearance of wide plains fitted for grazing animals, as well as stretches of forest, with all varieties of landscape favoring great diversity as well as abundance of mammalian life. it was, perhaps, the golden age for most mammals, when food was plenty, climate not too severe, and every prospect pleased. this slow and gradual, but fairly steady, lowering of temperature was to culminate in the great ice age of the pleistocene epoch, so destructive to mammalian life in the northern hemisphere. a second climatic change, perhaps even more important than the lowering temperature, was the increase of aridity. even during the oligocene epoch "the flora indicates a lessening humidity and a clearer differentiation of the seasons,"[ ] the great trough of the inland sea which had stretched from the mediterranean to the indian ocean began to rise, the first uplift taking place along the pyrenees and western alps. the miocene was marked by a series of great movements. the old inland sea was displaced, subsidence gave place to uplift, and the greatest mountain system of the globe, including the alps and the himalayas, began to grow through vast repeated uplifts in the crust.[ ] the continents were elevated and widened. the forest-dwelling types became restricted and largely exterminated, and animals of the plains, in the form of horses, rhinoceroses, and the cloven-hoofed ruminants, expanded in numbers and in species. this profound faunal change implies dryer climate. there was now a lesser area of tropic seas to give moisture to the atmosphere. the mountains were now effective barriers, shutting off the moisture-bearing winds from the interior of the continents. these changes would have been noticeable in europe north of the alps, but were far more so in central asia along the northern face of the great plateau of thibet, with its eastern and western buttresses, and its towering rampart of the himalayas on the south, cutting off the warm moisture of the indian ocean. northward of this vast plateau and westward over the far less elevated iranian plateau and afghanistan, forest was fast being replaced by parklands of mingled groves and glades, or by grassy plains, or even by dry steppes. dessication, aridity of climate, was fast compelling forest and arboreal mammals to migrate or radically change their habits of life.[ ] almost all the apes found their old environment and continued their arboreal life by migrating far southward through india or into africa. but at the rear of the retreating host were forms from the cooler northern regions. they were hardy and vigorous, and probably larger than most of their fellows. possibly some of them were caught in isolated decreasing areas of forest surrounded by steppe or plain. some of them, at least, began to descend from the trees, to seek the new food supplies of riversides, glades, and thickets, and thus gradually to become accustomed to life on the ground. it was a very hazardous experiment; only the most hardy and wary and the quickest in perception, wit, and movement survived. among these were our ancestors, driven like all their forebears by the spur of necessity into a new mode of life under trying conditions. they were still only apes, with long arms and short legs, and probably scrambled mostly on all fours. they had heavy brows, retreating foreheads, projecting jaws, and a brutal physiognomy. of the mental life of the man who was to be descended from them there were few signs. they were bundles of very slight possibilities. but let us not "despise the day of small things." they were still far from the invisible line between apedom and manhood. physically they resembled man quite closely. they had hand and foot, and a fair-sized brain, though they had scarcely begun to realize the possibilities of these structures. arboreal life could teach them little more; continuance in that school would have meant a very comfortable stagnation. they were now promoted to a new school of vastly more difficult problems, greater risks and dangers, and more severe and trying discipline. they had had an excellent course of manual and sensory training; now they must continue this and add to it the use of whatever wits they had, under peril of death. nature was still compelling them to "move on." this descent to the ground probably was accomplished either in india or on the iranian plateau, or somewhat farther to the northeast, somewhere in the great horseshoe of parkland which curved around the western buttress of the great central asiatic plateau of thibet. can we locate it somewhat more definitely?[ ] at this time, during the pliocene epoch, there were being deposited in india the so-called siwalik strata--vast, ancient flood-plains, stretching for a distance of , miles along the southern foot-hills of the himalayas. they are composed of materials washed down from the mountains by a system of rivers, persisting with little change into the present. says osborn of the mammals found here: "it is altogether the grandest assemblage of mammals the world has ever seen, distributed through southern and eastern asia, and probably, if our vision could be extended, ranging westward toward persia and arabia into northern africa. it is the most truly cosmopolitan aggregation because in its upper pliocene stage it represents a congress of mammals from four great continents.... the only continents which do not contribute to this assemblage are south america and australia."[ ] the older, miocene, portions of this fauna are chiefly browsing forest forms, emphasized by the absence of both horses and hipparion, as well as of grazing types of cattle and antelopes. grazing forms, showing the decline of the forest and the spread of open parkland and grassy areas, become abundant during the pliocene epoch. "among the primates we find the orang, an ape now confined to borneo and sumatra; also the chimpanzee, another ape, now confined to africa, the siwalik species displaying a more human type of dentition than that of the existing african form." in the older, miocene, portion we find sivapithecus, an ape which pilgrim considers as more nearly resembling man than any other genus of anthropoids, while gregory speaks of it as belonging to the anthropoid line.[ ] somewhat later, in late pliocene or early pleistocene, there was living not far away, in java, a far more renowned form, _pithecanthropus erectus_, _du bois_, which seems to stand almost exactly midway between higher apes and man. the remains consisted of two molar teeth, a thigh-bone, and the top of a skull. the cranium is low, the forehead exceedingly retreating, giving but very small space for the frontal lobes of the brain. but the brain-cast, made from the cranial cavity, shows, according to du bois, that the speech area is about twice as large as in certain apes, though only one-half as large as in man. in size the brain stands somewhat above midway between the highest recent apes and the lowest existing men. the thigh-bone shows that pithecanthropus could have stood and walked erect quite comfortably. there has been and still is much difference of opinion regarding the position of this most interesting being. opinion was long divided nearly equally between those who considered it as the highest ape and others who held it to be the very lowest man. it is worthy of notice that, when pithecanthropus was alive, "java was a part of the asiatic continent; and similar herds of great mammals roamed freely over the plains from the foot-hills of the himalaya mountains to the borders of the ancient trinil river, while similar apes inhabited the forests. at the same time the orang may have entered the forests of borneo, which are at present its home."[ ] where man's distant cousins, the anthropoid apes, and his still nearer relation, pithecanthropus, were all living and some, at least, apparently progressing, could hardly have been far from his original home. but the climatic conditions of that time lead us to seek his original cradle somewhat farther northward than india, or even beluchistan, and nearer to, if not in, the great steppe zone of central asia. we lose sight of our ape-man as he is advancing toward the threshold of manhood, not far away. whether we think that pithecanthropus was approaching or had already passed it depends much upon where we draw the line between ape and man, a line largely artificial and as difficult to fix as the day and hour when the youth becomes of age, and what human characteristics we select to mark it. in his erect posture and some other physical traits he seems already to have attained manhood; mentally he was probably far inferior to even the lowest savage races of to-day. we are not sure whether he was our ancestor or merely a cousin of our ancestor, once or twice removed; we still lack foundations for any hypotheses as to exactly when, where, or how the erect ancestral ape-man emerged into real manhood. millennia passed between the days of pithecanthropus and the first human migrations, and we may imagine primitive man as having become fairly well accustomed to life on the ground, and as having mastered his first lessons in meeting its dangers and difficulties. he had probably taken possession of a much wider area than the home of the ape-man, perhaps of the whole of the parkland zone curving around the western buttresses of the plateau of thibet. from this region routes of migration radiated in all directions, all the more open because of the elevation of land which lasted through upper pliocene and early pleistocene times.[ ] sumatra and java then formed an extension of the malay peninsula, reaching more than , miles into the indian ocean; while the orang seems to have been able to reach borneo somewhat earlier. the way was equally clear westward into europe, the dardanelles being then replaced by a land bridge, while a second bridge spanned the mediterranean over sicily into italy, and a third existed at gibraltar.[ ] these routes were evidently followed by herds of great herbivora, and probably by the earliest human emigrants into europe. following keane,[ ] we shall divide mankind into four great groups or races, and then glance at their radiation from southwestern asia toward all parts of the globe. these great primitive divisions are: i. _negroids._ color yellowish brown to black, stature large or very small. hair short, black or reddish brown, frizzly, flattened-elliptical in cross-section. nose broad and flattened. cheek-bones small, somewhat retreating. examples: negritoes, negroes. ii. _mongoloids._ color yellowish. stature below average. hair coarse, lank, round in cross-section. nose very small. cheek-bones prominent. examples: malays, chinese, japanese, thibetans, siberian "hyperboreans." iii. _americans._ color reddish or coppery. stature large. hair long, lank, coarse, black, round in cross-section. nose large, bridged, or aquiline. cheek-bones moderately prominent. (probably a branch of ii.) examples: indians of north and south america. iv. _caucasians._ color pale or florid. hair long, wavy or straight, elliptical in cross-section. nose large, straight or arched. cheek-bones small, unmarked. examples: hamitic, semitic, and european peoples. we may now imagine quite primitive human beings starting from their early home and seeking their fortunes widely apart. they came under quite different climatic and other physical conditions. their environment, problems, stimuli, and opportunities were unlike. thus, having become more or less unlike in the homeland, they gradually became differentiated into the present great groups or races already mentioned. some started earlier or marched more rapidly than others. many proved unequal to the dangers and difficulties of the journey or new place of settlement, and disappeared. many stagnated or degenerated. only the comparatively successful or fortunate have survived. hence, our scheme is hardly an adequate expression of prehistoric racial groups and their characteristics, except in very general outline. we have seen that the apes, retreating before the approach of harsh and dry climatic conditions and diminished forest areas and food supply, migrated southward into india and africa. the orang settled in borneo, pithecanthropus in java, the chimpanzee and gorilla went into africa. these routes presented the fewest difficulties and demanded the least readaptation or change of habit. the climate was mild and food generally abundant and easily obtained. their environment was neither stimulating, trying, nor exacting. progress was hardly to be expected, but survival was far easier than in more northerly regions. the negritos followed almost exactly the same routes. we find them purest and perhaps least modified in the "pygmies" of the african forests; but also in the malay peninsula, the andaman islands, and the philippines. de morgan believes that he has found proofs of their presence on the iranian plateau at a comparatively late date. behind them negroid peoples poured into africa, apparently in successive waves. some of them went into the malay peninsula, probably generally submerging the negritos, and reached new guinea and australia. inhabiting a series of islands and other more or less isolated areas, mingling often with negritos, probably later also more or less with the malays, they became much modified, and their relations to the african negroes and to one another are still anything but clear. the mongoloids pushed eastward. the earliest migrations seem to be those of the malays, a great, very interesting, and little-known though much-studied group of peoples. they followed the oceanic negritos along the malay peninsula and occupied the great chains of islands stretching through the indian ocean and far into the pacific, through more than ninety degrees of longitude along the equator. but much of this spread is probably of quite recent date. the mongoloid peoples seem to have passed along the northern front of the central asiatic plateau into siberia, china, and japan, and to have sent off the great american branch. even before the mongols had started on their eastward journey the caucasians may have turned westward, following the old negroid route. there was probably also more or less of an eastern dispersal, but we cannot consider the problem of these oriental caucasic remnants and traces. the great body went westward. the hamitic peoples distributed themselves along the southern shore of the mediterranean, and many may well have occupied a large part of the sahara region, then a land of watercourses capable of supporting a large population. behind them came the semitic folk. judging from their languages the hamitic and semitic peoples seem to have been in contact over a wide area, and for a long space of time. the semites found a new and permanent home in arabia, on whose plateaus and surrounding grasslands they increased and multiplied, and sent off fresh waves of migration and conquest in all directions. we have already noticed that our classification of races is based upon a study of recent and still surviving peoples. the very earliest inhabitants of europe would find no place in it. probably they long antedated the hamites. african negroids and caucasians came from a common home, and journeyed for a time over a common road, though probably at far different times. it would be strange if the earliest inhabitants of europe showed no traces of this common home and ancestry. since the remote period which we are considering negroes and caucasians have become widely different, and their racial characters have become clear and sharp. this may not have been altogether the case with the first peoples to arrive in europe. but attempts to relate the neanderthal crania with those of modern australians or tasmanians, or any existing race, have met with no great success. in regard to these questions we are still in the dark. beside the african routes into europe, along the south shore of the mediterranean and over the sicilian and gibraltar land bridges, while they lasted, two others must be noticed. one of these extended through asia minor and across the land bridge at the dardanelles, while the second led westward along the northern border of the caspian and black seas and the caucasus mountains. the most southerly of these four routes through africa were probably the first to be travelled, the most northerly last of all. we shall have to study these routes more closely in a later chapter. it was at some time during the glacial period, the great ice age, when a vast ice-cap covered northern europe with glaciers extending far southward and advancing or retreating according to climatic conditions, that man arrived in europe. during the first glacial epoch the advance of the ice covered the most northern part of great britain and the rhine valley almost as far south as cologne; scandinavia was completely buried, like central greenland to-day, and north germany probably to the harz mountains. eastward the southern edge of the ice sheet ran nearly along the line of ° n. lat. across russia. in siberia the effects were less marked and the limits were much farther northward. between the parallel of ° and the northern edge of the alpine glaciers a zone was left ice-free, but three-fifths of germany was overwhelmed. southern england and france, not yet separated by the english channel, formed one great habitable province, and but a small part of france was glaciated. the climate was tempered by proximity to the sea.[ ] the average yearly temperature of northern europe was probably not more than °- ° cent. ( °- ° fahr.), which is colder than at present. but the formation of these enormous masses of ice demanded heavy snowfall and a moist or very damp climate. hence the edge of the great ice sheet advanced or retreated according to climatic conditions. there were four periods of advance before the final retreat of the ice, not counting minor oscillations.[ ] these are known as the gunz, mindel, riss, and wurm glacial epochs. alternating with these were the interglacial epochs of ice retreat--the gunz-mindel, mindel-riss, and riss-wurm; while the final retreat is usually termed post-glacial. during the first and second interglacial epochs the climate appears to have been warmer than at present. but at times dryness may have contributed to the retreat of the ice even more than warmth, and then the climate would have been continental, harsh, and extreme. even during epochs of glacial advance conditions in france and in the german zone must have been better than we should expect. some kind of grazing or browsing pasturage must have been rich and abundant to support large animals like the reindeer or even the woolly mammoths characteristic of the second and third glacial epochs, which furnished abundant food for prehistoric hunters. farther south the glacial epochs may well have been times of heavy rainfall, transforming the sahara desert and the dryer steppes and plateaus of asia into veritable gardens. the retreating ice left behind it a land covered with rocks, clays, gravels, and sands brought by the glaciers and their streams. here and there basins had been gouged out where lakes or ponds long remained--as in maine and minnesota to-day--to be later drained, or, if shallow, to be overgrown with sphagnum and changed into great bogs. scattered thickets of shrubs and stunted hardy trees, poplars, willows, and others occurred. in sheltered and well-drained valleys and mountainsides the trees grew larger and even forests began to appear. this tundra landscape still characterizes wide areas of northern canada and siberia.[ ] the tundra was followed by steppe conditions, where elevation of land to the north and northwest had cut off the tempering oceanic winds. the climate was harsh, dry, continental, with cold winters and hot summers. the winds carried great storms of dust and piled it up in drifts in valleys and on suitably situated mountainsides in the form of loess, so important to the future agricultural development of europe, though its most massive accumulation is seen in china, which received and held the driftings from the great elevated plains of central asia. as the climate became moister, if the temperature did not fall too low, steppe finally gave way to the meadow and forest of modern europe. tundra, steppe, and forest had each its special types of animal as well as plant life. the characteristic tundra animal is the reindeer, though musk-ox, woolly mammoth, and others were wide-spread at this time. the peculiar steppe animal is the horse. the characteristic forest and meadow animals are the deer and their allies; the wolf and bear; the wild boar and cattle seem to be at home in forest and glade and along the streams. in france, where there was far less glaciation, the succession of tundra, steppe, and forest is less apparent. here we find a mingling of varied forms which have come in from very different regions, driven from their original homes by change of climate or drawn by favorable conditions. the first unmistakable relic of man in europe is a human lower jaw found in the mauer sands near heidelberg, some seventy-nine feet below the surface of the bluff.[ ] it seems to belong to the second or mindel-riss interglacial epoch, and its age is estimated by osborn at about , years. remains characteristic of the oldest paleolithic epochs occur between thirty and forty-five feet below the surface. if we are to find an archæological name for this epoch, there seems to be no better one than eolithic, the dawn of the stone age, when european man had hardly more than begun to chip a stone implement, although we must recognize the unreadiness of many or most archæologists to find a place for such rude products.[ ] the third interglacial period (riss-wurm) and the fourth period of advance (wurm) cover what is known as lower paleolithic time, which is the earlier four-fifths or more of the old stone age or paleolithic period, extending approximately from , b. c., to , b. c. during the greater part of this period europe was occupied by the neanderthaloid people. neanderthal man had a very large head with heavy, overhanging eyebrows meeting above the nose, and a markedly retreating forehead. the face was high and the large nasal opening indicates a broad, flat nose. the lower jaw was heavy and the chin retreating. the trunk was short, thick, and robust, the shoulders broad; the limbs short and heavy, the arms and lower legs relatively short, and the hands very large. although the much-discussed piltdown skull may quite probably be regarded as belonging to the earliest part of this period, the finer form of cranium seems to testify to a higher race of better mental development than the neanderthaloids, huddling in their caves and shelters. it may easily represent a far more progressive ancestral race, of which they are somewhat degenerate descendants, though osborn dissents from this view.[ ] their remains are found in caves and rock-shelters all over europe. here we find their hearths; the bones of the animals which they had hunted for their food; their almond-shaped flint axes, "hand-stones" (_coups-de-poing_), the scrapers for dressing skins and shaving wooden tools, and a variety of other forms. here they buried their dead. during the third warm interglacial epoch they lived in the open, as at the station of chelles, which has given its name to the earliest paleolithic epoch.[ ] their origin and route of migration is quite uncertain, but it seems probable that they entered europe from the southern shore of the mediterranean. the post-glacial period is characterized by the final retreat of the ice. the change of climate was not steady but marked by a series of oscillations, repeating on a much smaller scale the glacial and interglacial epochs of the long past. the climatic change is accompanied by the appearance of tundra and steppe, followed by meadows and the forest conditions of modern times. game was abundant and general conditions severe but healthy and fairly favorable. a new race has appeared on the scene which replaced the neanderthal folk, and had practically none of their primitive or degenerate, ape-like characteristics.[ ] the cro-magnon people have excited the wonder and admiration of all anthropologists. they were of tall stature, had long legs, especially below the knee, giving swiftness in running. the forehead is broad and of good height, the features are rugged but attractive, and the brain is very large. they seem to represent a new race and new immigration, probably from asia, which spread over europe. the cro-magnon brain was anything but dull. in this remote time, more than , years ago, there sprang up an art never since surpassed in its own field except, perhaps, by that of the greeks. their bone implements are adorned with the most lifelike carvings or sculptures. on the walls of caves we find paintings as realistic and alive, and often as finely executed in detail and coloring, as the best animal painters of our day could produce. these people must have had a high and keen appreciation of the beauty of form and proportion. all this artistic movement must have had its source in new ideas and conditions, springing from a thinking as well as a feeling and observing mind. they also frequently buried their dead, decorated with strings of perforated shells, and surrounded by flints or sometimes by a layer of red earth or ore. with them were the bones of food animals and the flint weapons needed for the journey into or use in the life beyond. the life of the cro-magnon hunters on their arrival in europe was anything but unendurable, especially along the riviera. there were open-air encampments where men passed at least the summer months in tents or huts. the race seems to have culminated during the cold middle magdalenian epoch, which indicates that they were well adapted to its conditions. game was abundant and relatively easily captured. they had food and raiment, fair shelter, excellent art, alert brains, and probably a fair degree of social life. they may well have been content, courageous, and full of hope for themselves and their descendants. [illustration: human figures, spain--early neolithic] [illustration: drawings of animals (cro-magnon) from altamira] upper paleolithic time, beginning with the arrival of the cro-magnons, about , years ago, is divided into four epochs, or, better, four culture-stages: aurignacian, solutrean, magdalenian, and azilian-tardenoisian. even in late magdalenian days, after a cold and dry interval accompanied by steppe conditions and a new formation of loess, the air became moister and the temperature gradually moderated until it became much like that of to-day. tundra and steppe animals became more rare; a forest and meadow fauna took possession of europe. instead of the reindeer we find stag and roe-deer, cattle, wild boar, bears and wolves, beaver and otter. these were less easily hunted and probably less abundant than the reindeer and horse had been. as hunting became less profitable, fishing grew more attractive. the streams probably swarmed with fish, and the salmon was probably as abundant throughout northern europe as in scandinavia to-day. a change of life is suggested by the implements. the harpoons became ruder. the beautifully flaked lance-heads and the smoothed bone daggers give place to small flints, "microliths," less fitted for attacking large and dangerous animals. the country seems to have supported a smaller and decreasing population. cro-magnon man had always been a reindeer hunter, accustomed and well adapted to the life and conditions of tundra or steppe. the changes were not in his favor or to his liking. many probably left france and germany. those who remained deserted the rock-shelters and cave-mouths, where every spring the water seeping down and dripping through the roof dislodged masses of stone.[ ] the shelter was less needed. men dwelt more in the open, and fewer records of their presence were preserved. but europe was not deserted. there was no "hiatus." other peoples were coming in, perhaps better suited to the new conditions, probably mostly of asiatic origin. broad-heads, as well as new long-heads, appear, less attractive physically and mentally, but apparently of tougher fibre and greater staying power than our more striking and charming cro-magnons.[ ] a new grand mingling of peoples had already begun or was in its last stages of preparation already advancing from afar in successive waves. in italy genuine neolithic culture may already have been introduced. it steals very slowly into northern europe and overspreads it. the cro-magnon race generally migrated or died out, but left its traces in the physical characters of the people of dordogne and elsewhere. the azilian-tardenoisian epoch leads over to the neolithic, our chief object of study. its relative position in prehistoric time is shown in the following scheme: _a._ _eolithic period._ stone implements exceedingly rude, hardly recognizable as artificially chipped; otherwise like _b_. _b._ _paleolithic period._ stone implements chipped or flaked, never polished. no domesticated plants or animals. no pottery. man a collector or hunter, more rarely a fisherman. _c._ _transition period_, resembling _b_ in most respects. [_a_, _b_, and _c_ make up the old stone age, before the use of metals.] _d._ _neolithic period._ some stone implements polished. no metal except that copper is introduced toward the end of the period. agriculture with domestic plants and animals. pottery but no potter's wheel. dawn of civilization. _e._ _bronze period._ bronze implements or utensils. dawn of history. begins about b. c. in northern europe. _f._ _iron period._ iron introduced. historic times. begins about b. c. in northern europe. chapter ii the period of transition. shell-heaps during the last great advance of the ice in the earlier magdalenian epoch the scandinavian peninsula had been buried beneath a great mass of ice, and resembled the central portion of greenland to-day. a great glacier extended southward, obliterating the baltic sea and crowding into northern germany. as the glaciers withdrew, north germany became a vast tundra, across which we may imagine the reindeer and other arctic and subarctic mammals retreating northeastward before the milder forest and meadow conditions already prevailing in france and russia.[ ] the low temperature of the water of the emerging baltic is shown by the presence of an arctic bivalve, _yoldia arctica_, which has given its name to the epoch. a few scattered bone implements show the presence of reindeer hunters in germany at this time. before the close of the yoldia period germany began to pass from tundra to forest--a transformation which was also now progressing in denmark. the temperature moderated slowly. the land rose in such a way that it separated the baltic from the north sea and the arctic ocean, with which it had been connected, and made of it a great fresh-water lake. the characteristic animal of this lake was a small pond animal, _ancylus_, which has given its name to both lake and epoch. the next epoch--the litorina (or tapes) depression--was characterized by a sinking of the land in which the barrier between the baltic and the north seas gave place to a wide communication. the baltic became more salt than at present, and the oyster-banks became abundant. it was during this epoch that the shell-heaps were accumulated. the following chart gives a condensed view of the succession of events (in reverse order):[ ] +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ | western and middle | | date | | europe | northern europe | b. c. | +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ | . typical neolithic. | typical neolithic. | - | | | beech and fir forests. | | | . daun stage. | litorina epoch. | | | | oak forests. | | | | northern climatic | | | | optimum. | | | campignian | shell-heaps. | | | . gschnitz stage. | ancylus epoch. birch and | | | | pine forests. | , | | azilian-tardenoisian. | magelmose. | | | . bühl stage. | yoldia epoch. | | | | swedish-finnish moraines | , | | magdalenian (later) | tundra. dryas flora. | | +------------------------------+---------------------------+-------+ the growth and succession of the forests of denmark, accompanying changes in conditions of soil and climate, have been clearly traced by steenstrup.[ ] the scene of his investigations was a moraine country broken by low ranges of hills in the island of zealand, north of copenhagen. the hills are often strewn with erratic blocks of rock brought by glaciers, with here and there small lakes, ponds, or peat-bogs often giving place to meadow or forest. some of these depressions are filled with a poor variety of peat, dug for fuel, and the sides are often abrupt, steep, and deep. these sides furnish a calendar by showing the different layers which have been formed by successive generations of tree-growth falling into the bog. thus, in the upper layers we find remains of trees which still flourish in denmark, while the deepest strata contain the remains of reindeer. the thickness of these layers is between five and seven metres. their formation, according to steenstrup, occupied , to , years.( ) the following layers are found in these "calendars," beginning at the surface: . surface layer. remains of the beech, which furnishes the chief beauty of the forests of denmark to-day. . oak. the beginning of this layer was contemporary with the litorina depression. . scotch pine (_pinus sylvestris_). the earliest pines were dwarfed, the trunks showing as many as seventy rings to the inch. in upper strata their trunks were a metre or so in diameter. in the lillemose moor, near rudesdal, the whole eastern side, twenty metres deep, was filled with pines. while no human remains have been found in these moors, a stone axe embedded in a pine trunk, and a stone arrow-head in a bone of the _bos primigenius_ (which, like the auerhahn or pine partridge lived on the young pine shoots) have been discovered. the soil best adapted to the pine is a damp soil, poor in humus, whereas the present rich, fertile soil of denmark is best suited to the beech. this explains the fact that pine forests no longer grow there. . at the bottom, poplars and aspens. the clay underlying the pines and poplars contains leaves of arctic willows and saxifrages. through these types of strata we may trace the epochs described at the beginning of the chapter. the pine characterizes the azilian-tardenoisian-ancylus epoch; at the time of the litorina depression it was fast giving place to the oak, which remains characteristic of the neolithic and bronze periods, yielding to the beech during the iron age. but this advance must have been gradual and the boundary of advance irregular. blytt has traced a very similar succession of changes in flora and climate in southern norway, and geikie in scotland.[ ] these changes are very important in our study of the traces of man's first appearance in denmark as furnishing not only their setting but also their chronology. shell-heaps are found all over the world in favorable sheltered localities where sea food is abundant, especially near clam flats. hence they are not characteristic of any one race or time. some are very ancient, some comparatively or very modern. they merely show the remains of the camping-grounds of people in a low stage of culture. every one has its own history and its own slight or marked peculiarities. the danish shell-heaps or kitchen-middens are mounds generally about fifty metres wide and one hundred metres long, and perhaps one metre in thickness. but, as we should naturally expect, the size varies greatly according to the advantages of the situation, the number of inhabitants, and the length of time that it was inhabited. [illustration: shell-heap] [illustration: shell-heap axe] [illustration: shell-heap jar] the age of these shell-heaps is shown approximately by the presence of the auerhahn, proving the neighborhood of pine forests. the charcoal in the fireplaces came from oak wood, showing that oak forests are overspreading the country. the baltic was more salt than at present, and the shore line was depressed. these facts indicate a period of transition from the ancylus to the litorina epoch. the stone implements resemble those of western europe during the late transition epoch, and do not occur in the oldest graves. there are no domestic animals except the dog, and no cultivated plants except some wheat in the later remains. all this seems to prove that genuine neolithic culture had not yet reached the shores of the baltic. they are composed mostly of oyster shells with a mingling of those of scallops, mussels, and periwinkles. the oyster has now disappeared from large parts of the coast and in others has decreased in size. land elevation has narrowed the connection of the baltic with the north sea, and the water contains less salt. remains of cod and herring show that the fishermen who lived on or near these harbors ventured out to sea in dugouts or on rafts, and that they must have made lines for fishing in fairly deep water. remains of other fish occur. bones of birds are often very abundant, especially swamp, shore, and swimming species; wild geese and ducks, swans and gulls, the _alca impennis_ or wingless auk, now extinct. the blackcock, or "spruce (pine) partridge," was then common, but has now disappeared from denmark with the pine whose buds formed a large part of its food. bones of stag, deer, and wild boar form, according to steenstrup, per cent of all those of mammals found at havelse.[ ] bones of seal, otter, wolf, fox, bear, beaver, and wildcat also occur. there are no traces of reindeer or musk-ox. these animals had already migrated or died out. steenstrup noticed that the long bones of birds are about twenty times as numerous as others of their skeletons, and that the heads or ends of the long bones of mammals are generally missing. these were exactly the parts which are gnawed by dogs, whose remains also occur. hence he drew the inference, now universally accepted, that the dog was domesticated in denmark at this time. it was a small species, apparently akin to the jackal and of southeastern origin. no remains of other domesticated animals have been found, nor of cultivated plants, except a few casts of grains of wheat in the pottery of the upper layers of some of the heaps. daggers, awls, and needles were made of bone; also combs apparently used for stretching sinews into long threads. the flint implements are rudely chipped, never polished. we find long flakes used as knives, and numerous scrapers and borers.[ ] the axe, if we may call it so, was of peculiar form, approaching the triangular and looking as if made out of a circular disk of flint by breaking away two sides of the periphery, leaving a somewhat flaring cutting edge. the middle was thick, the edge tapered somewhat rapidly, making a rough but quite durable instrument. longer implements in the form of chisels or picks were also roughly flaked with skilfully retouched edges, often with one end narrowed or bluntly pointed. in all cases the work is very rude compared with the best specimens of paleolithic time. arrow-heads are common, usually with a broad edge instead of a point, well suited to killing birds and small mammals. the bone harpoon seems to have gone out of use. the pottery is thick, heavy, crude, with practically no ornament, except finger-prints around the upper edge. the jars are sometimes of large size; often the base is pointed instead of flat or rounded. hearths of calcined stones are abundant. sometimes these are surrounded by circular depressions in the heaps, which may mark the form and position of huts or shelters; or these may have been placed under the lee of the near-by forests. no graves or human remains of this period have been found. shell-heaps quite similar to those of denmark were discovered at mugem, in portugal, in the valley of the tagus, twenty-five to thirty metres above sea-level, and thirty to forty miles from the mouth of the river. the shells are of marine origin, and indicate a considerable elevation of land since their accumulation. the stone implements are very primitive and of azilian-tardenoisian type. large flat stones, perhaps for grinding, perhaps for dressing skins, occur. pottery occurs only in the upper layers, where the bones of mammals increase in number. there are no polished implements, no traces of domesticated animals, not even of the tame dog. graves were found here and there; and while the skulls were badly contorted, they seemed to show that the inhabitants were partly long-headed, partly broad-heads. remains, apparently of the same age, have been found in great britain. even the danish shell-heaps are not all of the same age. according to forrer, havno is ancient; ertebolle is also old, but was long inhabited, and some of its uppermost layers may be full neolithic; aalborg and others are younger. mugem strikes us as more ancient than the similar danish remains. other remains near the baltic suggest very strongly quite marked differences in age or in the culture of their inhabitants, or in both these respects. we can notice only two of these. maglemose lies on the west coast of zealand near the harbor of mullerup. here a peat-bog has encroached upon a fresh-water lake and has covered a mud bottom strewn with shells of pond-snails and mussels. pines had grown in the swamp, and their stumps still protrude into or above the moss. the implements were found a little above the old lake bottom between seventy centimetres and one metre below the surface of the peat. the remains of the settlement were distributed over an area about one hundred feet long and broad. the charred or burned wood was very largely (eighty per cent) pine, ten per cent hazel, a little elm and poplar. no oak was found here, but oak-pollen grains were found in the same level as the settlement, or slightly higher and later. flint cracked by heat and charred fragments of wood were found, but no definite hearths. bones of fresh-water fish and of swamp turtles occur. the shore could not have been very distant even if it stood considerably higher, but no bones of marine fish have been found. many birds were hunted. the mammals include boar, deer, stag, and urus. the dog is the only domesticated animal. flint chips are abundant at maglemose; long knife-flakes and axes are rare. scrapers and nuclei are numerous. the arrow-heads are long and pointed instead of broad and edged, as in the usual danish shell-heap. many of these so-called arrow-heads may have been nothing more than microliths used for a great variety of purposes. no flint implements or fragments show any trace of polishing. bone implements are numerous. we find rude harpoons of a very late magdalenian type. also, some of the bone implements are ornamented with various patterns of incised lines, and even one or two rude drawings of animals occur. the culture evidently differs quite markedly from that of the ordinary shell-heaps. it is worthy of notice that the mud of the lake bottom and the overlying peat were continuous over and around the whole area of the settlement; there is no sign of any island at this point and the settlement was some metres from the original shore of the lake. there are abundant traces of fire but no hearths. no traces of piles have been discovered. all this seems to corroborate sarauw's view that the people lived on a raft all the year round. sarauw considers the remains as of the same age as the oldest shell-heaps. but there is a wide-spread tendency to consider maglemose as considerably older, belonging probably to the close of the ancylus epoch. virchow has described a heap composed of mussel-shells on the outlet of burtnecker lake, east of riga, called rinnekalns.[ ] its most interesting feature is its pottery made of clay mixed with powdered mussel-shells, giving it a peculiar glitter. it is ornamented with lines arranged in an angular geometrical pattern encircling the vessel. similar pottery can be followed far southward into russia and westward as far as east prussia, but not farther into germany. bored teeth used for ornaments occur. bone implements are numerous, often ornamented with fine lines in zigzag or network. we find harpoons also. the flint industry was poorly and sparingly developed. graves were discovered, but their contents proved that they belonged to a much later period. the culture is peculiar, paralleled to a certain extent but not repeated in western europe. we still seem to detect the influence of a decadent, late magdalenian style of ornament. virchow considered them as very late paleolithic or very early neolithic. the shell-heaps of different regions resemble one another in general features, but differ and show their individuality in details of culture. these peculiarities may be due to difference of age or of culture or population, or to both. we must first attempt to find some place for them in the chronological succession discovered in france. they cannot be much older than the french period of transition, when scandinavia first became habitable. but good cave-series covering the transition epoch are rare, and usually very incomplete. in piette found a remarkable series in a cave or natural tunnel at mas d'azil, near toulouse.[ ] the most important strata were the following: . a dark layer evidently magdalenian. . a yellow layer deposited by river floods. . dark magdalenian layer, with reindeer harpoons, engravings, and sculptures. reindeer becoming rare; stag increasing. . barren yellow layer, like . . reddish layer (azilian). no reindeer. stag abundant. flints nearly all of magdalenian types. flattened stag-horn harpoons perforated at base. bone points and smoothers. pointed flat pebbles. bones of stag, bear, boar, wildcat, beaver. . bones of wild boar, stag, horse. flints similar to those in . beginnings of pottery and of polishing; but not of polished axes. piette's arisian. beginning of neolithic. . neolithic and bronze remains. layer evidently represents a period posterior to the magdalenian and anterior to the real neolithic. hence piette considered it as marking a distinct azilian epoch, resembling the magdalenian in most of its flint implements, in the absence of pottery and of polished axes. but the reindeer has here given place to the stag, and the harpoon has changed correspondingly and is less skilfully made. bone implements are decadent. another culture, the tardenoisian, was of exceedingly wide range. it took its name from fère-en-tardenois, department of aisne, northeast of paris, and was characterized by its very small "pygmy" flints of various, usually geometric forms.[ ] this microlithic industry was found in france, belgium, england, germany, russia, and along the southern shore of the mediterranean. the culture was well represented along rivers and inlets, and seemed to characterize a fishing rather than hunting folk. in breuil and obermaier found in the grotto of valle, in northern spain, a classic azilian deposit, forming the lower levels of a series rich in these microliths or pygmy flints. the azilian was more nearly a continuation of the magdalenian culture, while the tardenoisian, in france, seemed to be an importation from the mediterranean region. since the two were so closely related in point of time it seemed safe and wise to combine the two names and call the epoch the azilian-tardenoisian, the azilian representing the older portion. the station of campigny, on the lower seine, seems to be somewhat later than the azilian-tardenoisian.[ ] here, in a pit oval in outline, with a long diameter of . metres, evidently an ancient dwelling, there were found bits of pottery, utensils of older stone epochs, no polished implements, but the tranchet or axe and the pick (pic) characteristic of the danish shell-heaps. these campignian remains are hardly widely enough diffused or sufficiently definite to give name to a distinct epoch. they may well be nearly contemporaneous with the (older?) shell-heaps. the whole transition epoch, which we have hastily surveyed, shows us a series or mixture of disconnected cultures, yet with curious and striking interrelations. this may be partly due to the fact that the population of europe was diminished and scattered. little groups of people formed more or less isolated communities, and developed their own special peculiarities according to situation, needs, and opportunities. connecting links, or intermediate cultures, which may once have existed, have been completely lost or still remain to be discovered. the general desertion of the caves destroyed one of our best sources of continuous records. but the cause of this diversity lies deeper. new cultures and new waves of migration of peoples were pouring into europe, especially into the baltic region now left free of ice, enjoying a mild climate, and offering an abundance of food along the shores of its rivers, lakes, and seas. the tardenoisian culture had spread northward from the mediterranean. the broad-headed people of furfooz, grenelle, and ofret had apparently crossed europe from the east and had settled in a long zone extending northward and southward through belgium and france and probably southward into spain, for we remember the broad-heads found at mugem, in portugal. but their distribution was far wider than this strip of territory. new neolithic types of culture had already entered italy, perhaps as early as magdalenian times. series of waves appear to have passed into poland, russia, and siberia, and to have moved northward until they reached the coast in scandinavia and to the eastward. in all these cases we may probably imagine a gradual and perhaps slow infiltration or "seeping" in of the new population rather than an invasion in crowds or masses, such as we are likely to imagine. vast stretches of habitable land had been newly opened, and there was plenty of room for all comers. in many regions the old population may have remained comparatively undisturbed until a much later date. but even they slowly came under the influence of the new and improved technique and mode of life. all this collision of culture and conflict of peoples meant stimuli, awakening, the jogging of dull minds, a veritable spur of necessity. a new day was beginning to break. the dawn was dim and cloudy, but there was the possibility and prospect of clear shining. chapter iii land habitations our history of paleolithic times is drawn very largely from the successive strata of remains found in rock-shelters and near the mouths of caves, where the succession of epochs is clear and indubitable. we naturally look for similar reliable testimony concerning the chronological succession of neolithic utensils, pottery and other remains. here, however, we have been disappointed to a large degree. paleolithic layers were generally or frequently overlaid by beds of stalagmite or fallen rocks, which have saved them from disturbance. but the neolithic and bronze layers are superficial, usually of no great thickness; they have been less solidified and protected, and far more exposed to the disturbing work of burrowing mammals and of men digging for buried treasures. these circumstances, combined with far less continuity of occupation, have greatly diminished the chronological value of their study. neolithic cave remains occur in somewhat limited areas scattered all over europe.[ ] they have been studied in england, france, spain, austria, and germany in at least fairly large numbers. in austria the cave province extends through galicia, moravia, and bohemia. here we find primitive pottery; rude stone and numerous bone implements; domesticated cattle, goats, and pigs. game was evidently very abundant. the cave-dwellers, apparently, were pioneers in the less habitable regions, living mostly by hunting and fishing, from the increase and products of their herds, and from agriculture to a far less degree. the pottery and implements remind us somewhat of those of the earliest lake-dwellings. but we often find bits of copper and bronze, suggesting a later date or a series of inhabitants whose relics have become much mixed. it would not be at all surprising if primitive manufactures had remained here longer in use than in less isolated regions. a deposit of quite similar general character has been found at duino, near monfalcone, at the head of the gulf of trieste. a second province lies in bavaria, between bamberg and baireuth. hoernes considers its remains as also of the same age as the oldest lake-dwellings, but with peculiarities due to the different geographical conditions. the cave provinces of other countries are equally interesting. every one has its own features and problems. we would naturally expect that these cave-dwellers would represent the least progressive and prosperous members of the population of any country. in our general survey we can afford to give them only a hasty glance. we can easily understand that where chalk or other soft rock occurred artificial grottos were often excavated.[ ] remains of dwellings are common all over europe, and are likely to be uncovered wherever excavations are made in grading or for the foundations of buildings. they are of two forms: the rectangular house and the round hut. the rectangular form is the rule in the lake-dwellings, though with exceptions; on the land the reverse is true. the pit-dwelling at campigny was elliptical in form with a longest diameter of . metres. we remember that the settlement at campigny is probably little, if at all, younger than the shell-heaps. but by far the commoner form of pit-dwelling is circular, with a diameter rarely exceeding two metres. such small circular pits are exceedingly common. at the bottom we find ashes, bones of animals, implements, and fragments of clay once forming a part of the superstructure, baked hard when the hut was burned, and still having marks of the twigs and branches over which the clay had been plastered. we picture to ourselves the hut as mostly underground, with a diameter usually not exceeding one and one-half to two metres, excavated to a depth of one or two metres, the pit often surrounded by a rude wall of field stones. in the centre was the hearth. the superstructure was merely a cone composed of a framework of poles interlaced with branches and twigs plastered with clay. in the primitive hut there was no perpendicular side wall above ground, though in some the roof may have been raised somewhat on the earth thrown out from the pit. such differences of detail are of slight importance. the huts are of all ages. they were probably erected far back in paleolithic time. they seem to be figured in magdalenian cave-frescoes.[ ] even the chellean hunters could hardly have erected more primitive shelters. but equally rude huts are still inhabited in the balkan peninsula,[ ] and are described by classical writers as inhabited by the germans. says tacitus (_germania_, xlvi) of the finns of his day: "they lead a vagrant life: their food the common herbage; the skins of beasts their only clothing; and the bare earth their resting-place.... to protect their infants from the fury of wild beasts and the inclemency of the weather, they make a kind of cradle amidst the branches of trees interwoven together, and they know no other expedient. the youth of the country have the same habitation, and amidst the trees old age is rocked to rest. savage as this way of life may seem, they prefer it to the drudgery of the field, the labor of building, and the painful vicissitudes of hope and fear, which always attend the defense and the acquisition of property. secure against the passions of men, and fearing nothing from the anger of the gods, they have attained that uncommon state of felicity, in which there is no craving left to form a single wish. the rest of what i have been able to collect is too much involved in fable...." let us hope that the reports which tacitus had been able to collect concerning the dwellings, as well as the ferocity, filth, and poverty of the finns, were somewhat exaggerated. evidently conical, largely subterranean huts have been common in europe down to far later than neolithic times. the age of any pit-dwelling can be determined only by its contents. in addition to these circular pits, long or short trenches occur. forrer found at stutzheim one cellar more than ten metres long, and varying from one to three metres in width, with several lateral enlargements as pantries and storehouses.[ ] forrer considers this as the home of the chief man, the "manor-house" of the settlement. around it he found remains of huts such as we have already described. frequently space for storage as well as dwelling was gained by clustering small huts. this plan would have had the advantage of protection against loss of everything by fires, which must have been frequent. such cramped dwellings, with the garbage scattered over the bottom of the hut, or in the huts of the most highly cultured deposited in a special hole in one corner, could hardly have been attractive, clean, or sanitary. but they were cool in summer and warm in winter, and afforded protection against wind and weather. people asked and expected no more. housekeeping was simple, if not easy. but we can imagine that the return of spring, allowing them to emerge from their burrows, must have been hailed with delight. we have still much to learn concerning these neolithic dwellings. they have been discovered by chance, and usually studied only hastily and superficially. a pit discovered and examined may have been only one of a large cluster or village, of which the rest remained undiscovered. wooden houses of logs, or with a strong frame of poles seem to have existed in bronze, or even late neolithic times. sophus müller[ ] describes settlements in denmark where the abundance of ashes and utensils prove long-continued habitation, and yet no pits seem to have been found--this may be due to insufficient investigation--strongly suggesting, at least, houses entirely above ground built of perishable materials. it is very hard to believe that even a neolithic family could have lived through the winter in one, mainly subterranean, dwelling only two metres in diameter, with a fireplace in the middle. they would have been compelled to sleep sitting or standing! probably stutzheim and other similar settlements which have been discovered, represent the real general average of pit-dwellings, while besides these there were many of far superior style and comfort. the development of the greek house is still a problem, much more that of a north german dwelling. as an example of late neolithic settlement of the better or best class, we may take grosgartach, near heilbronn, in the neckar valley.[ ] here, where now are low meadows, was once a lake connected with the neckar. the neolithic village was carefully and skilfully explored by hofrath schliz, whose report is a model of careful observation and clear description. the situation was very favorable, with loess-clad hills sloping to rich meadows, and the lake furnishing fish and a line of communication. the areas occupied by the houses and stalls were clearly marked by the dark "culture-earth" contrasting sharply with the yellow loess. the principal house was rectangular. the outer wall was composed of posts with a wattling of twigs. this was plastered with clay, mixed with chaff and straw. the inner face of the wall was smoothly finished, and then "kalsomined" reddish yellow, and still further decorated with fresco in geometrical designs. the house-- . metres by . metres--was divided into two rooms. the larger part of the house was occupied by the kitchen, with its floor about one metre below the surface of the ground, and entered by an inclined plane or ramp. the other chamber, the sleeping-room, was nearly a metre above the kitchen and separated from it by a partition. benches cut out of the loess were found in both kitchen and sleeping-room. stalls for cattle and barns or granaries were also found. virchow, in his review of schliz's monograph, emphasizes the fact that apparently grosgartach was deserted by its inhabitants and fell into decay without leaving any signs of destruction by fire or violence. the villages of butmir, lengyel, jablanica, and others in southeastern europe show us a condition of advanced culture here also.[ ] déchelette, speaking of the culture of this region, notices "the striking analogies between these old walled villages of the balkans and the danube valley, and those of the Ægean villages of the troad and phrygia." primitive idols, painted pottery, frequent use of the spiral in decorative art, all these reappear here and there in the neolithic stations of southeastern europe, and in the eastern basin of the mediterranean in pre-mycenæan and mycenæan days. evidently houses, settlements, modes of life, and stages of culture differ greatly during the same epoch of the neolithic period in different parts of europe. italy was always far in advance of europe north of the alps. but even in northern europe there was great diversity. shell-heap dwellers still remained long after a much higher culture prevailed throughout most of denmark. the life and thought of the pioneer hunters of northern germany, and still more of northern russia, were very different from those of the agriculturists along the valley of the danube and in the balkan peninsula. in greece little city-states began to arise early. even in northern europe density of population and size of settlements varied greatly. one illustration of these differences can be seen in the occurrence of fortified villages and refuges.[ ] the age of these fortifications is as great a problem as that of the remains found in a pit-dwelling. the village may be, probably usually is, much older than the surrounding wall, and an earthen wall may contain neolithic or even perhaps paleolithic implements. the custom of fortifying villages evidently spread rapidly during the bronze and iron periods. sophus müller tells us that all walled settlements north of the alps are far younger than the neolithic period.[ ] this statement, often disputed or neglected, is probably an exaggeration, but may well be true of the region surrounding the baltic. the sparse and scattered hunting and pioneer population of scandinavia and germany had no need of building permanent walls around their single houses or small villages. they had very little wealth to protect. but an agricultural population inhabiting a fertile region open to attack might well surround their villages with a wall, or provide a burg, or fortified place or "refuge," whither they might drive their cattle or transport their grain. examples of this are stutzheim and urmitz, in the rhine valley, always a great thoroughfare, and in switzerland and along the maritime alps villages of this sort seem to have been fairly frequent. apparently they were still more numerous in the valley of the danube and in the balkan peninsula. it is not at all surprising to find them in thessaly, so near to the advanced civilization of greece. another class of settlements usually well protected were the workshops (ateliers) and manufacturing villages, especially those where flint was mined, or where flint implements were made in large quantities and distributed by trade over wide areas.[ ] during the neolithic period these settlements would have held much the same place and importance as our centres of coal, iron, manufacturing, and business have with us to-day. grand pressigny and camp de chassey, in france, and cissbury, in england, are single examples of a great number of such fortified mining and manufacturing villages. for a further study of these very interesting remains the reader is referred to the manuals of déchelette and hoernes. even before the close of the paleolithic period tundra and steppe were giving place to forests, which were advancing even into scandinavia. the forest looms large and terrible in the works of classical writers and german antiquarians. says tacitus: "who would leave the softer climes of asia, africa, or italy to fix his abode in germany, where nature offers nothing but scenes of ugliness, where the inclemency of the seasons never relents?... the face of the country, though in some parts varied, presents a cheerless scene, covered with the gloom of forests, or deformed with wide-extended marshes." he says that the soil produces grain and is well stocked with cattle, though of small size. but grain does not grow in primeval forests, and herds of cattle need at least open glades for pasturage. it is an extreme picture tinged by the homesickness of a citizen of sunny italy. northern europe was generally heavily forested until long after tacitus's time. the romans began in earnest the work of deforesting france, and the work was carried on all over europe in mediæval times. the neolithic immigrants probably made small clearings with the aid of fire, especially where the trees were low and not too thick, as on many light-soiled areas. they could make but little impression on the heavy forest growth, though they could limit its spread. they probably did not need to make wide clearings of dense forest. there were many open stretches of country of greater or less extent awaiting occupants and culture. this was true especially of districts occupied by the loess, whose origin from dust drifted by paleolithic wind-storms we have already noticed. geikie describes loess as typically a "fine-grained, yellowish, calcareous, sandy loam, consisting very largely of minute grains of quartz with some admixture of argillaceous and calcareous matter."[ ] it is for the most part a wind-blown deposit. it is widely developed over low-lying regions, but sweeps up to heights of to feet and more above the bottoms of the great river valleys. again, in many places we find it heaped up under the lee of hills, the exposed windward slopes of which bear no trace of it. wherever there is loess we are likely to find the remains of steppe plants and animals. the ancient steppe area which generally covers, and probably extends considerably beyond, the loess district, is the region occupied by most of the primitive settlements. even to-day it is less wooded than the rest of northern europe. such steppe regions in the north german plain are the great diluvial river terraces, especially the terraces of the saale and elbe and the eastern edge of the harz mountains; in south germany the lower alpine "vorland" from switzerland to lower austria, the uplands of suabia and franconia, the valleys of the main and neckar, and much of northern bohemia. these steppe regions of germany, northern austria, and switzerland extended southeastward in a zone following the danube, widening out in the great hungarian plain into the vast steppe region extending eastward from the black sea or pontus. from this pontic steppe a band of more or less open country extended northward along the carpathians until it almost or quite joined the open regions of the elbe and along the harz. a farther extension of this same band seems to have opened the way from the harz region through northwest germany into belgium and northern france, and very probably into brittany. we see at once the importance of these long lines of open or thinly forested country to the immigrations and settlement of neolithic peoples. periodical floods or other conditions kept open many river valleys, whose importance we shall estimate in a later chapter. all this land, except the uplands of suabia and franconia, and some similar areas, was comparatively fertile, the loess areas particularly so, and suited to a primitive agriculture. in england the valleys of the thames and other rivers were heavily wooded and not populated until much later. but the long lines of chalk-downs and oolitic uplands were far less favorable to forest growth. in norfolk and suffolk there were apparently open spaces. yorkshire and derbyshire had very similar landscapes. the forest was held back wherever the porous chalk formation made a large outcrop. in these places man could settle and find pasturage for his flocks and attempt a poor sort of agriculture, even in neolithic days. hence we find these regions dotted with neolithic settlements. the immigrants who came in during the bronze period settled in the same regions. here again clearing of the forest on any large scale was apparently not attempted until roman times, but along its boundaries, where the forest growth was not too heavy, these primitive agriculturists may well have cut off the lighter growth for fuel and buildings, and thus have gradually appreciably extended the arable area. chapter iv lake-dwellings the winter of - was exceedingly cold and dry. the surface of the swiss lakes sank lower than at any time during many preceding centuries. the lowering of the water tempted the inhabitants along the shore to erect dikes and thus fill in the newly gained flats. during this process the workmen along the edge of the retreating water came upon the tops of piles, and between those great quantities of horn and stone implements and fragments of pottery. aeppli, a teacher in obermeilen, called the attention of the antiquarian society in zurich to these discoveries. the society recognized at once their importance, and under the leadership of its president, ferdinand keller, began a series of most careful investigations which have contributed more to our knowledge of life during the neolithic period than any discoveries before or since. the number of these lake-dwellings is very large. lake neuchatel has furnished over ; lake leman (geneva) ; lake constance over ; lake zurich . the shores of the smaller lakes have also contributed their full quota.[ ] in some of the lakes where the shore was favorable, remains of a lake-dwelling have been found before almost every modern village. sometimes we find the remains of two villages, one somewhat farther out than the other. in these cases the one nearer the shore is the older, usually neolithic, while the one farther out belongs to the bronze period. these settlements are by no means limited to switzerland. they stretch in a long zone along the alps from savoy and southern germany through switzerland into austria.[ ] herodotus mentions them in the balkan peninsula. the amount of bronze seems to increase as we pass from east to west. they are found frequently in the italian lakes, mostly containing relics of the bronze age, though here the western settlements contain little or no metal. a second series has been discovered in britain and northern germany, and extending into russia. these are considerably younger. the scheme of the lake-dwelling was used in historic times in ravenna and venice. large numbers are still inhabited in the far east. a sunny, sheltered shore, protected by hills from storms and action of waves, was always an attractive site.[ ] the character of the land, if open and suitable for pasturage and cultivation, was doubtless important. much depended on the character of the bottom. where the shore shelved off gradually and was composed of marl or sand, the piles could be easily driven, and could hold their place firmly. even if the shore was somewhat too hard and the piles could be driven only a little distance, they were strengthened by piles of stones, often brought from a considerable distance. when a suitable location had been discovered and selected the trees were felled partly by the use of stone axes, and partly by fire, and one end of the log was pointed by the same means, according to avebury. their diameter was from three to nine inches, and their length from fifteen to thirty feet. during the bronze period larger trees were felled and split, and larger piles had to be used in the deeper water farther from the shore.[ ] these rudely sharpened piles were driven into the bottom by the use of heavy stone mallets. this must have involved an immense amount of hard labor, for at the settlement of wangen , piles were used, though not all probably at the same time. messikommer calculated that at robenhausen over , were used. we find sometimes a different foundation. it consists of a solid mass of mud and stones, with erect and also horizontal logs binding the whole structure firmly together. this is evidently a ruder, simpler, and perhaps more primitive, mode of building. it was less suited to an open situation, exposed to heavy waves, and seems to occur more often in smaller lakes now often filled with peat.[ ] wauwyl and nieberwyl are good illustrations of such a "_packwerkbau_." some have considered them as originally floating rafts. when the piles had been firmly driven, cross-pieces were laid over the top, and on this a "flooring" of smaller poles, or of halved logs or even split boards, whose interstices were probably filled with moss and clay, forming a solid and fairly even surface, on which the dwellings could be erected. the framework of the houses was of small piles, some of which have been found projecting considerably above the platforms.[ ] "the size of the house is further marked out by boards forced in between the piles and resting edgeways on the platform, thus forming what at the present day we should call the skirting boards (mop-boards) of the hut or rooms. the walls or sides were made of a wattle or hurdle work of small branches, woven in between the upright piles, and covered with a considerable thickness of loam or clay." this is proved by numbers of pieces of clay half-burnt, or hardened in the fire, with the impressions of the wattle-work still remaining. these singularly illustrative specimens are found in nearly every settlement which has been destroyed by fire. the houses were rectangular except in a few cases. they were apparently thatched with straw or reeds. the hearths consisted of three or four stone slabs. these houses were calculated by messikommer at robenhausen to have been about by feet, a very respectable size. one was excavated at schussenried, whose side-walls and floor were fairly well preserved. this was a rectangle about by feet ( by metres), and was divided into two chambers. the front room, - / by metres, opened by a door facing south, and with remains of a hearth in one corner. the rear room, - / by metres, was without outer door, and was apparently a bedroom.[ ] beside these houses, or forming a part of them, were stalls for the cattle, granaries, and probably workshops. (the distribution of different remains is well shown in keller's _lake dwellings_, i, p. .) the stone and bone implements, and the pottery of the lake-dwellers can be more conveniently considered in connection with those of other regions. we pass now to the remains of animals and plants found here, especially in their relations to the food supply of the people.[ ] altogether about species of animals have been discovered. of these are fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals, of which were probably domesticated. the largest of these were the great _cervus alces_ or moose--sometimes called elk--the wild cattle, and the stag (_cervus elaphus_). bones of the stag and ox are very numerous and equal those of all others together. of the horse very few remains are found until the bronze period. wild horses seem to have lived on in certain parts of europe until a late date, but apparently they had emigrated almost altogether from this region. the horse of the bronze age was domesticated. the lion had left this region, but lingered on in the balkans down to historic times. the brown bear and the wolf still roamed in the forest. in the oldest lake-dwellings the bones of wild animals make up a far larger proportion of the remains than in the latest ones. we find a somewhat small dog (_canis familiaris palustris_) closely resembling that of the danish shell-heaps. it was apparently of the jackal type, and much like the modern spitz. this would have been an excellent watch-dog to give warning of the approach of enemies. but at the close of the neolithic, with the increase of flocks of sheep, a larger dog more closely related to the wolf seems to have spread widely through the country (_canis familiaris matris optimæ juit_). this form was much like, and probably the ancestor of, our present sheep-dogs. a third form (_canis intermedius_) also occurs. the origin and relationships of the various forms of this oldest domesticated animal are still anything but clear. that they all go back to the jackal and the wolf rather than to a form like the australian dingo, still seems to be most generally accepted. (but see schenk.[ ]) man gained the dog by domesticating the jackal and different species of wolves in different parts of the world and then by crossing, or, by a more or less unconscious selection, bred different varieties, until we have at present a chaos of intermingled forms. something similar but on a smaller scale was true of the domestic cattle. one kind of domestic cattle appears fully domesticated in the oldest lake-dwellings. it is unlike any wild european form. this is the _bos brachyceros_. it was almost certainly imported. mingled with its forms we find those of the _bos primigenius_, a native of europe and north asia, but apparently not domesticated. this is the urus, which was common in europe in cæsar's day, and lasted in central europe until a. d. and still lingers in poland.[ ] this was a very large and powerful form with long spreading horns, whose domestication appears to have commenced toward the close of the neolithic period. it is not improbable that it was domesticated, or at least tamed, independently in different countries at quite different times. raising of cattle was at its height during the bronze age; afterward the results seem to decline and the cattle to degenerate. one of the vaphio vases of about b. c. represents the capture of large, long-horned cattle in a net, while the second shows similar animals tamed. apparently the smaller and lighter brachyceros was first tamed, and this success led to a series of experiments with the larger and more difficult form.[ ] if we draw a line from northwestern russia diagonally across europe southwestward to the mouth of the rhone, it will divide fairly well the distribution of the descendants of those two forms. to the eastward in russia and austria, also generally through germany, and extending also along the shores of the baltic, we find the large, heavy, usually long-horned descendants of the primigenius stock. the cattle of spain, and southward into africa, of france and england, are more of the short-horned, light-built, smaller brachyceros type. holstein and jersey are good representatives of the two types, though the holsteins are, perhaps, a somewhat marked variety. some regard the cattle of the scotch highlands as the best representatives of the _primigenius_ type, though reduced in size. this same type, on account of its size and endurance of harsh climate, has furnished the range cattle of our western plains. two fairly distinct forms of swine occur in the lake-dwellings. the first is the so-called turbary pig (_sus scrofa palustris_). this is a small form with comparatively long legs. it differs markedly from the wild boar, and was probably imported already domesticated. being more or less left to feed and shift for itself, it may well have declined in size from its primitive oriental ancestors. remains of the larger european wild boar (_sus scrofa ferus l._) also occur from the beginning as products of the hunt. but during the bronze period domesticated descendants of this variety grow numerous, and are crossed with the smaller turbary pig. "the domestic sheep," says brehm, "is a quiet, gentle, patient, simple, will-less, cowardly, wearisome animal. it has no character. it understands and learns nothing; is incapable of helping itself."[ ] it is certainly absolutely dependent upon man for guidance and protection. this lies partly in its inherited nature and original surroundings, but suggests long domestication. like the goat, it is originally a mountain form, but adapts itself readily to the dry herbage of the steppe. it is not a native of central europe but introduced. it is much rarer than the goat in the oldest lake-dwellings, but gradually becomes more abundant, especially in the bronze period. the turbary sheep (_ovis aries palustris_) is very small, with slender legs, long narrow skull, and bones somewhat like those of the goat. it was certainly not developed in switzerland, and before it arrived there it had apparently been much modified by conditions of life or by crossing. its anatomical characteristics are made up of at least three wild forms. the first of these is the goat-like maned sheep (_ovis tragelaphus_) ranging over the mountains of northern africa, extending across into abyssinia. this form seems to have been domesticated in egypt before the middle of the fourth millennium. at a much later date, in homeric times, herds of sheep of a similar form were kept in greece. it was much larger than the turbary form. the arkal (_ovis arkal_) is the steppe sheep of central and western asia. it is the ancestor of the oriental and african fat-tailed sheep. the western asiatic forms seem to have developed the fine wool at the expense of the coarse hair, like that of the goat and of many other forms. a third form is the moufflon, of the mountains around the mediterranean and of its larger islands--here probably introduced. similar forms appear in europe during the bronze period. other species are found in different parts of asia. the balance of probabilities seems to incline toward the view that the turbary sheep came into europe from western and central asia with other "turbary" forms, that it had been long domesticated, and either here or on its westward migration may have more or less crossed with the descendants of other varieties. the oldest domesticated goats seem to be descended from the bezoar goat (_capra ægagrus_), from the mountains of southwestern asia. the presence of oxen, sheep, and goats is enough to prove that the people must have practised agriculture to some extent to have kept these animals alive through the winter. that they were kept on the platform is shown by the presence of manure in the remains underneath. whether this was used for fertilizer we do not know, nor their method of cultivating the ground. no agricultural implements have come down to us. "the small-grained, six-rowed barley (_hordeum hexastichum sanctum_) and the small lake-dwelling wheat (_triticum vulgare antiquorum_) were the most ancient, most important, and most generally cultivated farinaceous seeds of our country. next to them come the beardless compact wheat (_t. vulg. compactum muticum_) and the larger six-rowed barley (_hordeum hexastichum densum_), with the two kinds of millet, the common millet (_panicum miliaceum_) and the italian millet (_setaria italica_). the egyptian wheat (_triticum turgidum l._), the two-rowed wheat (emmer, _triticum dicoccum schr._), and the one-grained wheat (_trit. monococcum_) were probably, like the two-rowed barley, only cultivated as experiments in a few places; and the spelt (_triticum spelta l._), which at present is one of the most important cereals, and the oat (_avena sativa l._) appeared later, not till the bronze age, while rye was entirely unknown among the lake-dwellings of switzerland."[ ] oats occur in the bronze period in western, middle, and northern europe, in the alpine lake-dwellings, and in the danish islands. the ancient egyptians and hebrews, indians and chinese, did not cultivate them; they were raised in asia minor and america only since historic times. we remember that wheat and barley are mentioned in the oldest records of the old testament--as in gideon's barley loaf--but rye and oats not at all. the grains seem to show a gradual improvement in productiveness from the very oldest settlements to those of the bronze period. they are found charred and perfectly preserved wherever the houses were destroyed by fire. even the ears and stalks have been saved for us in the same manner. charred loaves of bread, and cake made of poppy-seeds, were also found. "bread was made only of wheat and millet, the latter with the addition of some grains of wheat, and, for the sake of flavoring it, with linseed also. bread made of barley has not yet been found, and it is probable that barley was chiefly eaten boiled, or more probably parched or roasted."[ ] flint sickles made of a long flake set at a right angle with the wooden handle have been found in denmark, and others whose blade is formed by a row of small, sharp flints set in the edge of a wooden block occur in egypt. the hand-mills or mealing-stones are very abundant, as might be expected. the occurrence of the seeds of the cretan catchfly (_silene cretica l._) is interesting, as it is not found wild in germany or in southeastern europe, but over all the countries of the mediterranean. similarly, the corn-bluebottle (_centaura cyanus l._) is found wild in sicily. this seems to show that these plants came in with the wheat from italy. but it is still possible that both switzerland and italy received them from a source somewhat or considerably farther east or south. apples and pears, split and dried, occur abundantly. some of the apples are so large that they suggest a certain amount of care and cultivation. sour crabapples, and the stones of cherries, plums, and sloes are found accompanied by the seeds of the wild grape; of elderberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. acorns, beechnuts, and hazelnuts were stored up. besides the seeds of the poppy, already mentioned, those of caraway were used apparently to flavor the bread. altogether some plants have been discovered and determined from these localities.[ ] basket-making and the weaving of mats from bast-fibres had led up to a highly developed weaver's art. few or no remains of wool have come down to us from neolithic time, though it occurs in graves of the bronze age farther north. it would not preserve by charring, as all other lake-dwelling organic remains have been saved for us, and our failure to discover it is not surprising. we can hardly believe that these people did not use the wool of their flocks of sheep, or failed to felt the hair of their goats. but flax has been found in all stages of preparation and manufacture in great quantities. says messikommer of robenhausen: "every house had its loom." we find not only threads, cords, and ropes, twine and nets, but cloth of varying pattern and design. some pieces were so finely woven and well preserved that their discoverers could hardly believe that they were not of modern make. fringes and embroidery occur.[ ] linen alone could hardly have furnished sufficient protection against the cold and dampness of the swiss winter climate. the more primitive inhabitants had an abundance of furs. garments of sheepskin were doubtless in use. and probably wool and goat's-hair were woven or felted into outer garments. dye-stuffs of black, yellow, red, and blue coloring furnished a variety of tints and shades. very few human bones have been found among those lake-dwelling remains; and only a few burial-places, or rather tombs, in the neighboring mainland. the discussion of their mode of burial and racial characteristics may well be deferred to a later chapter. of their religious cult we know almost nothing.[ ] no idols or fetiches have been recognized. certain "crescents" of clay, supported with the horns turned upward, have been considered by some as head-rests, for which purpose they are still used by certain african tribes. others have considered them as representatives of the crescent moon; still others as conventionalized ox heads and horns. it seems highly probable that they had some religious significance, but its exact nature is still uncertain. we shall return to them later. [illustration: weaving and plaiting from lake-dwellings] a lake-dwelling of any size is inconceivable without a well-advanced social development. it could hardly be founded, builded, or maintained without close co-operation. families had to live closely crowded together, almost as in our modern cities. neighbors had learned to get on with one another and live together in peace, and to submit to a close regulation or discipline by law or custom. they seem to have been a peaceful folk and exposed to no great dangers from outside attack, at least in neolithic time. when the ice fringed the shores or covered the small lakes, they must have been easily open to attack. a few brands thrown into the thatched roof would have brought sure destruction. traces of conflagration occur, as at robenhausen, which was twice destroyed by fire.[ ] but these occurrences are rare. neolithic settlements seem to have been more frequently abandoned because of the growth of peat than by any sudden or violent destruction. conditions probably changed in this respect during the bronze period. their food was varied and more than fairly abundant. they had their domestic animals to furnish flesh, milk, probably butter and cheese. agriculture was primitive, but in some cases we find large stores, we might say granaries, of wheat; and wild fruits and vegetable foods were abundant. the forests offered game, and the lakes were well-stocked with fish. there may have been times of hardship and dearth, but famine could hardly have ravaged a people with these three sources of supply. the lake offered a thoroughfare for their canoes, and communication was easy for long distances. to cite only one illustration: flint was brought from grand pressigny, in france, and manufactured in certain swiss localities. there was much variety and division of labor between different villages. one manufactured flint very largely--so at and around moosseedorf; while robenhausen and wangen have furnished great quantities of cloth. others were rather centres for the manufacture of pottery. even in the same village one area is richer in one product, a second in another. there was much variety as well as freedom of intercommunication. the whole region lay a little back from the great danube thoroughfare, but near enough to it to retain connection with the larger world. life was not altogether monotonous. the lake-dwellings have been divided according to their age into three groups or stages, representing three epochs more or less marked.[ ] _stage i._ _archaic epoch._--axes small and made out of indigenous material. "hammer-axes" and utensils of horn and bone rude. no decorations on weapons, utensils, nor on the crude pottery. plaiting and weaving practised. population in switzerland at this time seems to have been sparse. food obtained from hunt more than from domestic animals. examples: chavannes (schafis) moosseedorf, wauwyl. people brachycephalic. _stage ii._ _middle neolithic epoch._--weapons and utensils more perfect. stone axes finely polished, often with hole for handle, sometimes very large. beside the commoner minerals five to eight per cent of implements made of nephritoids (nephrite, jadeite, and chloromelanite). these are almost absent in epochs i and iii. pottery of far better material and manufacture, with traces of ornament. remains of domestic and wild animals nearly equal. domestic animals are turbary pig, goat, sheep, turbary cattle, but _primigenius_ form present though less common. brachycephalic and dolichocephalic people nearly equal in number. examples: robenhausen and concise. _stage iii._ _copper epoch._--hammer-axes, beautifully finished. bone and horn implements. nephritoid minerals less used. pottery more artistic. cord-decoration appears. certain ornaments, weapons, and implements are made of copper. domesticated animals improve and form a larger part of the food than game. cattle especially increase in numbers, and a new race of sheep has arisen. long-heads more numerous than broad-heads. examples: roseax, at morges. locraz, ferril (vinelz).[ ] it is interesting to notice that remains of domestic cattle are abundant in all ages, that goats are more abundant than sheep in the earliest lake-dwelling, but that the sheep became equally numerous in the second epoch, while they decidedly outnumbered the goats during the bronze period. this is what we should expect from the advance of culture. says keller:[ ] "the shores of the western portion of lake constance are probably more thickly studded with settlements than those of any other swiss lake. in fact, here are found happily united all the requirements necessary for the erection of dwellings of this nature. a deposit of marl stretches along nearly the whole of its shores and of tolerable breadth. a rich tract of country between the shore and the hills which rise quietly behind; forests of pine and oak; pleasant bays with a gravelly bottom; a great abundance of fish in the lake, and a superfluity of game in the surrounding forests, were circumstances highly favorable to the colonization of these shores." could we have sat on one of these village platforms of a summer afternoon and looked out to the wheat-fields on the shore, and seen the canoes come in with fish or game, and the cattle returning from the mainland pasture; could we have watched the men fashioning implements and all manner of woodwork, and the women grinding the grain or moulding pottery, or spinning and weaving; we should have found a great deal to please and interest us. the fruits and berries, the smell of roasting fish and baking bread, of cakes well flavored with the oil from beechnut or flax, or perhaps sifted over with the seeds of poppy or caraway, would have been far from disagreeable. we should have felt that it was a goodly land, and that life was well worth living. we should not have been disturbed by shrieking steamboats, puffing and groaning locomotives, or honking automobiles, or by telegraphs or telephones, by letters which must be answered or books which must be read. there were no stocks and bonds, bills or notes, strikes or lockouts. there was no labor question; all simply had to work. no one went to school, except to nature, and there were no lectures. "the name of that chamber was peace." we ought not to forget in our comfort that everybody could not live in a lake-dwelling, that all over europe there were other settlements or dwellings, more lonely or isolated, where food was never abundant and sometimes very scarce, where labor was unremitting and the reward scanty. but even in those less civilized regions there was probably usually much rude comfort; and if there were times of scarcity and want, there were also times of feasting and abundance. all over europe there were, even in neolithic time, children, boys and girls playing around the houses; and young men and women looking out on life with the same inexperience and illusions, courage and hopes, which lure us onward to-day. chapter v a glance eastward the culture of the oldest lake-dwellings appears suddenly in europe, and its beginnings are exotic in all their essentials. the turbary cattle were quite different from the wild _primigenius_ race of the surrounding regions; and we find no remains of the intermediate forms which should occur if domestication had taken place here. the same is true of the turbary pig. wild sheep are unknown in northern europe, and the moufflon of the mediterranean islands can hardly have been the ancestor of our swiss flocks, and is very possibly descended from domesticated ancestors which reverted to wild life. something very similar may be said of our oldest cereals, wheat and barley. we must evidently turn eastward or southward to find the cradle of the whole culture. even if it came partly from italy, it could hardly have developed there. egypt may have made contributions, but mostly at a later date. we naturally turn first to asia, the great centre of mammalian evolution, probably the oldest seat of cattle-raising and agriculture, cradle of man and centre of his earliest development. the true neolithic cultures in northern europe can hardly be older than about b. c.; the lake-dwellings are probably far younger. we must first inquire into the location, age, and character of the oldest agriculture in nearer asia, where great discoveries have been made during the last twenty years. we naturally turn first to babylonia. under the temple of bel, at nippur, was an immense platform constructed of sun-dried bricks, most of them stamped with the name of sargon or of naram sin. the date of sargon seems still uncertain; many historians place it at b. c.; others, and apparently most archæologists, like obermaier, still hold to the old date, b. c.[ ] without any attempt to decide this question, we will hold in this chapter to the older date; and believers in the latter date can subtract , from our figures for earlier times, though this does not apply to pumpelly's estimates. says delitzsch[ ] of this mound: "in the deepest layers of these remains, or what amounts to the same, back many centuries beyond the fifth millennium, everywhere interesting and valuable remains of human civilization come to light, fragments of vessels of copper, bronze, and clay, a quantity of earthenware so beautifully lacquered in red and black that we might consider them of greek origin, or at least influenced by greek art, had they not been found eight metres deep under naram sin's pavement." here we find the bronze period, or possibly late copper, before b. c. a city with a high and complex culture had already arisen. no one believes that the culture could have originated in the rank, almost untamable, primitive jungle of mesopotamia. its beginnings must be sought elsewhere and earlier. but the age and character of babylonian civilization encourage one to seek further in western asia. in pumpelly[ ] made most thorough and careful investigations at anau, near askabad in turkestan, about miles east of the southeast corner of the caspian sea, and miles west of merv. the remarkable results of his work are described in two large volumes, and have not received the attention which they deserve. he excavated in two large kurgans or mounds. the north kurgan is the older and chiefly concerns us. the neolithic remains occur in thin compact strata aggregating some forty-five feet in thickness. the earliest settlement was a town covering at least five acres, possibly nearly ten. at the time of the beginning of the settlement, which pumpelly estimated as somewhat before b. c., the inhabitants lived in rectangular houses built of uniform sun-dried bricks. they were skilful potters, though unacquainted with the potter's wheel, making different grades of coarse and fine vessels. these were unglazed, but often painted with a definite series of geometrical patterns. they had the art of spinning, for whorls are found in all strata from the lowest up. they cultivated cereals, for the casts of the chaff of wheat and barley are found in the clay of the thicker pots. at first they had no domestic animals, only the bones of wild forms being found. when ten feet of culture strata had been accumulated the remains of a tame _bos namadicus_, the asiatic variety of the _bos primigenius_, or urus, occurred. that this animal had already been domesticated is inferred from the less compact microscopic structure of the bones modified by artificial conditions. at this time the change of structure, if not complete, was evident. it had been for some time under the new conditions. the turbary pig appears about b. c.,[ ] the turbary sheep about years later, but preceded by varieties of the great horned mountain sheep. the turbary cattle appear to have been a small variety of the _bos namadicus_, somewhat dwarfed by drought and hardship. the camel appears at anau somewhat after b. c., and seems to be a means of intercourse and transport far antedating the horse, in a region already showing signs of dessication. spherical mace-heads occur reminding us of those used in egypt. but no lance-head or arrow-point or other stone weapon was found in the lower levels. we do not know how they killed or captured the larger animals; they may have used the sling or bolero. in the lowest strata we find the bones of young children, but not of adults, buried in a contracted position under the floors of the dwellings. the first objects of copper and lead appear about b. c., and, open the Æneolithic period. pumpelly distinguishes a copper period, here longer and more distinctly marked than in europe. the turquoise bead found in one of the graves came, in all probability, from the iranian plateau, as did probably the copper and lead also. he has shown us that even on the steppe the cultivation of cereals precedes the domestication of sheep and cattle. the nomadic life follows instead of preceding agriculture. the pioneers in this region cultivated the zone of steppe, into which rivers poured from the mountains. when cattle and sheep and goats had multiplied, the herdsmen drove them farther and farther on the rich pasturage of the boundless steppe. thus nomads gradually appear. there are also different varieties of nomadism. nomadic tribes were far less active and dangerous neighbors even after the domestication of the camel than when, about b. c., they had domesticated the horse. the first herdsman may have differed from the latter nomad almost as much as the most pacific sheep-herder of our western plains differs from the liveliest cowboy. pumpelly's time-estimates have been criticised by doctor h. schmidt, of berlin.[ ] he makes the rate of growth far more rapid than pumpelly thought and shortens the periods. in determining length of periods he relies far more on artifacts and less on probable rate of accumulation. the criticisms seem hardly well founded. pumpelly's estimate of rate of increase was based upon a careful and broad comparison of accumulations in the deserted city, anau, in merv, and other localities. they seem conservative, but we must recognize that such estimates are always only approximate. his estimates result in a series of dates generally in close agreement with those of most students of oriental archæology. in the third culture epoch there was found "copper, with sporadic appearance of low percentage of tin." this describes well the close of the copper period or the beginning of the bronze age, the rest of which is not represented at anau, the settlement being deserted, probably because of aridity. pumpelly thinks that the last strata deposited before the desertion comes down to the bronze age, and, assuming the latest possible date for the beginning of this period, places it about b. c. this is almost surely much too late. obermaier dates the beginning of the bronze period at b. c.[ ] (if we substitute the later date, b. c., for sargon's region, the bronze period would begin about b. c., the date accepted by montelius.[ ]) pumpelly places the beginning of the copper epoch at b. c., again agreeing with montelius. his estimates seem generally somewhat too conservative, as he doubtless intended they should be; the earliest remains may be considerably older than he thought. investigations made during the last twenty years seem generally to lead us to believe that the beginnings of neolithic culture are far older in western asia than we had supposed, while in middle and northern europe they are probably somewhat younger than we had thought. in this connection we may well remember that evans found eight metres of neolithic remains under the palace at cnossus, in crete, and estimated their age at about , years. the culture at anau is very similar in all its essentials to that of the european lake-dwellers, and is much older. the same cereals and the same kinds of domesticated animals appear in both. the brick houses are better and the very fine painted pottery is new and peculiar. these and the art of spinning and the cultivation of cereals were brought hither by the first settlers; their development to this stage must have taken place elsewhere and occupied a long period of time. sheep could not have been domesticated here, for they and the goats are natives of the mountains, and could not survive wild on the steppe. neither is the pig a steppe animal, but lives naturally in forest glades and along watercourses. pumpelly has evidently discovered a very old and interesting station in the spread of this ancient culture, but not its cradle. this was apparently in some mountainous region. the nearest and most likely place to search for it is somewhere on the iranian plateau, to which the turquoise bead and the later-introduced copper and lead found at anau also point. here at susa (shushan), about one hundred miles from the apex of the persian gulf, de morgan excavated in a mound rising about thirty-four metres above the level of the plain and continuing some six metres below the surface, which has been raised that amount since the first settlement was made.[ ] the total thickness of the remains is therefore about forty metres. the lowest strata as yet have been only slightly studied. the uppermost ten to fifteen metres cover a period of about , years. if the lower strata were accumulated at the same rate, the first settlement was begun about , years ago at a conservative estimate. montelius, the best authority on european prehistoric chronology, basing his conclusions on de morgan's discoveries, places the date of the beginning of neolithic culture in this part of asia at about , b. c., or somewhat earlier.[ ] over twenty metres of these remains are purely neolithic. there was the usual abundance of flint nuclei, flakes, and utensils. there was obsidian, evidently brought from a distance--de morgan thinks from armenia, a thousand miles away. this is not impossible; we shall find that trade or barter was far more extensive at this time than has usually been supposed. here again we find abundant pottery in the lowest strata. it is of a "dark brown pattern painted on a pale ground, partly imitating basketry and textiles, partly rendering plants and animals with childish simplicity.... it resembles in a striking way a few widely scattered series which are all that have been secured hitherto from a very ill-explored area: from a neolithic site underlying the hittite castle at sakye-giezi, in north syria, from the surface of early mounds in cappadocia, and from low levels of the hittite capital, at boghaz-keui; and, more surprising still, from an important site, also neolithic, at anau, on the northern edge of the persian plateau looking over into turkestan; and at a number of points scattered over the flat lowland on the north side of the black sea, and thence into the balkan peninsula as far south as macedonia and thessaly. these resemblances are general and their value may be overestimated; there are differences in detail, but the general similarity seems to link the peoples over this wide area at the same time in one region of kindred art and culture, if not of blood."[ ] the discoveries at susa and elsewhere in this region seem to prove that compact settlements of fair size had arisen in western asia long before the founding of anau.[ ] such settlements could have been formed only by sedentary peoples practising agriculture, not by mere wandering hunters. our definite knowledge of the domestic animals of susa is very small. but, as we have just seen, the peculiar, fine, decorated pottery found in the oldest strata of susa, anau, and many other localities scattered over a wide area, is certainly a strong argument for believing that an agriculture in general very similar to that of the oldest strata at anau was wide-spread over the iranian plateau, asia minor, and elsewhere. where or when it began we do not know. we can only conjecture as to the place and mode of its beginning. it may not be out of place to mention a very general hypothesis of this sort, and this we will now attempt to frame. the bühl moraines, in lake lucerne, are estimated as having been deposited between , and , b. c., during the early magdalenian stage of post-glacial time, which would, therefore, be contemporaneous with the earliest settlement at susa.[ ] the climate of europe was then somewhat colder and much moister than at present. the ice-cap extended much farther south in middle europe than in russia or siberia. under these circumstances central asia probably enjoyed a much moister climate than at present, without extreme cold. the caspian and aral seas occupied a much larger area than at present, and were very likely connected. the tarim basin may well have been a great lake surrounded by a zone of garden instead of the sandy waste which it is to-day. conditions of increased moisture would have made the now parched regions of the iranian plateau an exceedingly rich and favored region. toward the close of the post-glacial epoch the mountains were probably well forested, but alternating dryer times would have brought open glades, with lakes interspersed. when europe changed from tundra to forest man became largely a fisherman, more or less settled at some favorable spot, and collecting his vegetable food in all directions. the same may well have been true of life at this early date in persia. the man hunted or fished, the woman and the children gathered all kinds of animals and plant food, berries and other fruits, acorns and other nuts. one of the richest sources of food must have been the roots, tubers, and other underground stems. if there were any patches of richly seeded grasses or grains on the near-by glade or hill, we may be sure that the woman did not fail to beat off the ripe seed with a stick, and carry it home with her. the primitive family was not dainty or particular in its appetite. the women were the first botanists, the first to notice the nutritive, medicinal, or poisonous qualities of plants, and the first physicians.[ ] when she turned homeward with her load of spoil, some berries, seeds, and small bulbs doubtless fell to the ground and escaped her notice. these grew and flourished in the richer soil around the hut or shelter, for all the garbage could not have accumulated in the hut. some unusually observing woman noticed this, and protected the plants, or even cultivated them a little with her digging-stick, and pulled out some of the largest smothering weeds. she began to plant a few others, and gradually started a garden. the garden is older than the farm, and hoe and digging-stick vastly older than the plough. this woman had discovered, and almost created, a new world of science and culture which was to revolutionize life. rice growing wild in large fields under suitable conditions is still gathered by all savages. this grain needed no preparation except boiling, while wheat and barley must be crushed or ground between stones, probably used at first for grinding dry nuts. peas and beans, many vetches, and other members of this family so characteristic of the dryer uplands, were gathered very early, and may have been cultivated before wheat. melons and many of the gourds always must have been eaten. we shall notice later that the zone of persia and asia minor lay on the boundary line between two great botanical provinces, a northern and a southern, and furnished a very wide range of plants for this earliest experiment station.[ ] a great variety of plants were tested sooner or later, and only a few of the very best and most capable of improvement have been retained to our day. on the steppe at a later date wheat and barley were most profitable, and most widely cultivated. but even here hoe-culture was for a long time the only mode. it still exists in africa, asia, and japan; and was the only mode of culture known in america at the time of its discovery. hoe-culture was at first, and has generally remained, woman's work; ploughing with cattle was a man's job. this had far-reaching results to which we must return in a later chapter. but we must not think that the iranian plateau, with its great zone of piedmont steppe stretching eastward and westward along its northern border across the continent of asia, was the only place where agriculture could start and reach a high degree of development in ancient times. its possibility lay in the habit of the woman of collecting the vegetable food and smaller animals, while the men hunted and fished. useful food plants furnishing large amounts of food are to be found in all continents, and differ markedly in different soils and climatic zones. hence even the beginnings of agriculture were probably not confined to any one region, but were wide-spread, manifold, and independent. the chinese migrating eastward and southeastward down the great river valleys from eastern turkestan may have carried with them the cultivation of wheat, or adopted it independently. the rice culture of china may have been borrowed from india or independently evolved. india and the malay archipelago and africa have every one its own agriculture, of whose origin and early development we know nothing. but western asia, or more precisely the iranian plateau, had another piedmont region beside the zone stretching along its northern border. this second piedmont zone of grass-land, or oasis, as breasted has pointed out, bends in the form of a horseshoe along the western slope of the iranian plateau, then northward and westward around the headwaters of the tigris and the euphrates, and southward through syria.[ ] here it dries out in the great syrian and arabian deserts. but these also, as well as the arabian plateau stretching along the red sea, may have been well watered and inhabitable in early post-glacial time. the arabian plateau and its piedmont zone in those days may well have been an independent centre of agricultural development, which gave place to the nomadism so characteristic of the semitic peoples only at a later date. of the early history of arabia we are still completely ignorant. but in the twilight of history we see those semites coming into the mesopotamian valley from the west while the sumerians entered from the east. those two streams of migration, mingling, founded the great babylonian empire, to which all oriental peoples looked up with an awe and reverence, as well as fear, which we can scarcely appreciate. evidently, and this is the fact of chief importance to us, parts of the nearer east were highly civilized before anything better than savagery had developed in northern europe. but far older than these cities of the mesopotamian river valleys is the culture of the forests, glades, lakes, and riversides of the plateaus. evidence seems steadily to accumulate that here we are to seek for the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals which were slowly to change the face of the earth and the life and character of man. hoe-tillage of the ground is evidently far older than cattle-raising or nomadic life. it had been brought to anau before b. c., and had probably already been practised at susa and elsewhere thousands of years earlier. but we cannot help asking whether other plants may not have been cultivated long before cereals. roots and tubers are much more conspicuous than the smaller grains. these underground storehouses of nutriment adapted to give the plant a quick and sure start, during a short spring period of growth and flowering, are abundant everywhere. they still form the staple crop in many parts of the world. we remember the potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, the cassava, and a host of others. in our northern regions we still cultivate beets, turnips, and carrots, though now becoming more and more food for cattle. these plants also are less closely limited to the steppes and plateaus. they occur all through the mountain or shore regions, and for this reason would have been likely to attract the attention of "collectors." primitive woman had no plough, only the digging-stick, the agricultural implement of the australians. later they learned to make a hoe, sometimes out of a tine of deer's horn, sometimes of stone or other material, something half-way between a hoe and a pick. with such an implement a fair amount of soil could be broken up and well stirred. when domestic animals were introduced into africa the plough followed only in the eastern regions; all through the rest of africa the old hoe-culture held its own. europeans introduced the plough into america. as a means of breaking up the ground the plough is infinitely superior; for tillage and cultivation the hoe is far more useful. when wheat has once been sown it cares for itself; further cultivation is unnecessary--it is the lazy man's crop. perhaps that, with a touch of the spur of necessity, persuaded the male to undertake ploughing. when the plough was invented many vegetables formerly cultivated probably became less profitable or attractive, and were given up. a revolution took place in agriculture. probably the plough was at first dragged by women. it is impossible to say just when it was invented. it was used during the bronze period, for it is represented in rock-carvings of that age. some stone ploughshares may be neolithic. studying european neolithic agriculture in the light of the methods of savage and barbarous peoples, or even of our pioneer ancestors, we imagine them living on the border of the forests which furnished food and wood for buildings and implements. the first step was to burn and clear a place where the undergrowth was not too heavy, and to break up the soil with pick or hoe. here the patch of grain was sowed. the soil fertilized by the ashes gave him a fair crop, but became exhausted after a few years of cultivation, and he was compelled to break up a new field. some investigators have thought that the lake-dwellers used the manure from their cattle on their fields, but in most parts of europe cultivation of the soil was probably crude and superficial. on the chalk downs of england, chief places of settlement by neolithic peoples in this region, we find terraces and narrow strips which may have been prepared at this time, though their age is very uncertain. they often are of a size and form not well adapted to plough-culture. they have a look of permanent occupation. these may well have been fertilized. the evidence is very uncertain. when the loess soil was of fair depth cultivation may have gone on for many years without fertilizers of any sort. the primitive plough was hardly more than a pointed stout branch or stub of a tree, whose longer fork was fastened to the yoke. it made a furrow triangular in cross-section, broad at the top and narrowing to an edge at the bottom. it did not "turn" a strip, and between two furrows a long ridge was left unbroken. even in roman times cross-ploughing was common or usual. even this rude culture needed the strength of cattle to draw the plough. the plough is associated in our minds with oxen, and the first man who made his cow, instead of his wife, draw the plough was a great benefactor. even the domestication of cattle was less easy than it seems at first sight. wild animals rarely reproduce in captivity. pumpelly thinks that the way toward the domestication of our larger cattle may have been paved by a long period of drought driving them from the steppe into the better-watered oases, and thus into association with man. but this could hardly have been true of the mountain sheep and goats, on which man may well have experimented before he attempted the more difficult task of domesticating the larger, more powerful, and less manageable _bos namadicus_. how did man hit upon the plan of castrating the bull and thus changing this intractable, ugly beast into the docile and patient ox? there seems to be a good amount of plausibility in hehn's brilliant suggestion that this may have come about in connection with some ancient systems of religious rites and beliefs.[ ] there is nothing impossible or very improbable in this view. but the very brilliancy of the conjecture and the clearness with which it is expressed, and the wealth of learning used to support it, warns us against too ready acceptance. we can only confess our complete ignorance and wait for future discoveries as patiently as we can. at present nearly all our knowledge of what was going on in this dim and remote past must be gained by a study of savages still holding the customs of the past in a somewhat or greatly modified form and spirit. certain very general inferences may be made without great danger. but to frame clear and exact conceptions of life in these remote ages from these sources would demand a union of the boldest genius with the most wary caution. all these peoples have changed greatly during past millennia both for better and worse, usually probably in the latter direction. customs have all been modified by changed conditions, surroundings, and inferences. it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish between what is really primitive and what is degenerate, perhaps of comparatively recent origin. the problem bristles with tantalizing questions, which tempt us to spin fascinating hypotheses all the more dangerous because of their attractiveness and apparent simplicity. our great need is new facts and discoveries, and a clearer knowledge and understanding of old ones. we may well connect and condense the chief results of our study in this chapter. it seems to be clear that a culture essentially similar to that of the european lake dwellers existed at anau, in the piedmont zone, a little north or northeast of the iranian plateau, with which it had trade relations. the oldest turbary forms of domesticated animals appear here at least , years before the founding of the swiss lake dwellings. they were mostly introduced from some mountain region, the nearest probable source being the iranian plateau, but their first domestication may have taken place equally well elsewhere in western or central asia, or even in arabia. susa shows similar remains extending back into a far more remote past; and the similarity or kinship of the pottery in the oldest strata at susa and anau and elsewhere leads us to believe that a culture similar in other respects also was widely distributed at this time. we can hardly doubt that agriculture was practised by the founders of all these settlements. we can only frame conjectures as to the origin of agriculture. it seems to have been introduced by the women of hunting and fishing tribes. the first agricultural implement was probably the digging-stick, which was followed by the hoe. hoe-culture is still common in asia and africa. finally, during the first part of the bronze period, or perhaps somewhat earlier, the plough drawn by cattle and guided by a man superseded the hoe as a means of breaking up the soil for the culture of grain. chapter vi megaliths megaliths, those great stone monuments of prehistoric time, have always excited the wonder and interest of all observers.[ ] under the name of dolmens or stone chambers, cromlechs or stone circles, tumuli or mounds, they form a striking contrast to the insignificant and ephemeral thatched huts of wood and clay which formed the homes of the living. these chambers, especially those of later date, are often accompanied by circles or radiating lines of rude pillars, the menhirs or standing stones. in the more fertile and densely populated regions the great blocks have been removed and used in the foundations of buildings. they must once have been far more numerous. but déchelette reports nearly , as still existing in france;[ ] england contains almost or quite as many; and they are very numerous in denmark and sweden. we will mainly follow sophus müller in his study of these monuments in denmark.[ ] the simplest, and apparently the oldest, dolmens are the small rectangular chambers consisting of four stones set up on edge with one large one forming the roof. these are usually between and feet in length, to - / feet wide, and to feet in height. one of the end stones is shorter, leaving an opening under the roof through which one may reach or even crawl into the chamber. somewhat larger chambers of the same type and having five or six wall stones are not uncommon. even these small chambers were intended for long use, and to contain more than one body; some contain the remains of a dozen. the bones lie in layers covered with flint chips, or in little heaps where they have been collected to give room for new interments. many of the smaller chambers were too short to allow the body to lie fully extended; in some it was evidently placed in a sitting posture leaning against the wall. these smaller dolmens were surrounded by a heap of earth reaching nearly to the top of the side stones, but not covering the roof, and hardly deserving to be called a tumulus. the roof was usually composed of one great stone, flat below but arching above and forming a sort of monument. in one chamber this roof-stone is eleven feet long and three feet thick. on each side of the doorway a stone is often set upright to keep back the earth of the tumulus, and a covering stone may be laid across them. here we have a form intermediate between the small dolmen without entrance-stones and the large chambers, which we shall consider later. the earthern tumulus may be round in outline or elliptical, forming the long grave--the _hunnenbett_ of popular german speech. the round tumuli rarely exceed feet in diameter. they were as a rule surrounded by a circle of upright stones, now generally removed. the long tumuli are rarely more than or feet high, and to feet wide. the length varies greatly: usually between and feet, but infrequently from to feet; one is feet long with over of the marginal stones still standing. the chambers in the round and long tumuli in denmark are very similar, but in the long tumuli there are usually two or more dolmens, often symmetrically located. in other cases it looks as if a tumulus had been lengthened to cover chambers added later. a large amount of variety in such details is not surprising. more rarely we find two or more small tumuli side by side, each with one or two chambers. that those smaller dolmens or chambers are the oldest is suggested not only by their simplicity but even more by the pottery and implements contained in them, though this is not invariably true, as the small dolmens continued in use throughout the neolithic period, in some regions far later. the gifts which they contain are usually not numerous and often very scanty. [illustration: "crouching burial" (hocker-bestattung) adlerborg, near worms] [illustration: menhir, carnac, brittany] [illustration: dolmen, haga, island of borust] the wide distribution of these simplest stone monuments is exceedingly interesting. they occur in denmark and sweden, in north germany and holland, in great britain and france, portugal and spain, in north africa, in the Ægean islands, in palestine and farther eastward, in thrace and crimea, along the eastern shore of the black sea. they are very numerous in india.[ ] throughout this wide extent they agree not only in general form and structure, but also in certain interesting details. for instance, the oriental and southern dolmens frequently have a round opening in the upper part of the slab closing the entrance, corresponding to the wide opening above the door of the scandinavian dolmens. the difference in the form of the opening may be explained by the difficulty of cutting a circular opening in the hard granite rocks of the northern area. there was a general unity of thought in essentials, especially in those oldest forms. there was much diversity in execution or expression in later structures. some of them took the form of pyramids in egypt. in mycenæ we find the "tomb of atreus," a magnificent building in the form of a beehive. the large chambers, "giant chambers" or _riesenstuben_ of northern europe, especially of france, are connected with the older small dolmens by many intermediate forms. for example, if another pair of stones is added to the sides of a fair-sized dolmen, we have a chamber six to eight feet in length. such dolmens always have a covered entrance to the doorway of at least two pairs of upright stones extending out through the tumulus. then the number of stones in the sides of the chamber is increased to seven, eight, or nine; and the entrance passage is at right angles to the main axis of the chamber, giving a rude t-shaped form to the whole structure. the number of stones in the roof of the chamber increases with its length. chambers fifteen to twenty feet long are not uncommon, a length of twenty to thirty feet is rare, a very few attain forty feet. the height was between five and seven feet. the inner surface of the great stones forming the sides of the chamber is fairly flat. it could have been no easy matter to find in any region a sufficient number of suitable great blocks of the right form. they evidently had some method of splitting large boulders. in some chambers both halves of the same block have been found. these blocks could have been split by heat or by freezing water in a groove or by wooden wedges. but we do not know the exact method. near the top the blocks often failed to meet exactly. large holes were filled with bits of wall of small stones and small chinks were stuffed with clay and moss. it is surprising to find that these smaller and larger chambers were erected without any deep foundation for the upright stones. many of them have fallen from the heaving of the frost. the monuments were generally adequately protected against this by the thick tumulus. the tumulus was enlarged proportionately and usually completely covered the chamber. its height averages ten to fifteen feet, and its diameter over ninety. the culvert-like entrance had to be lengthened accordingly. but one large chamber did not suffice for successive generations. it was often extended or additions were made so that quite complicated forms occur. in england we find frequently a row or cluster of small chambers. here the roof is sometimes made of successive layers of stone approaching as they ascended until one slab covered the "false arch." in brittany we find great diversity as well as complexity of form. in some parts of france the entrance continues the main line of the chamber instead of being at right angles to it. the french have well characterized these as "_allées couvertes_." some of these "gallery chambers" were very large and contained a large number of bodies; sometimes from to , in one case . the tumulus at mont st. michel measures by metres, and forms a veritable hill. thirty-five thousand cubic metres of stone were employed in the construction of the chamber. other chambers are from to feet in length. the celebrated chamber at bagneux, feet long, is composed of fourteen great blocks, of which three form the roof. the great tumulus at _fontenay-le-marmion_ in normandy covered eleven chambers in two parallel rows. all the material for these great structures could hardly have been found in the same vicinity. in one case it appears to have been brought from a quarry two miles away. some large stones, weighing thousands of tons, seem to have been transported many miles. some of the latest structures show a certain amount of degeneration. certain galleries were apparently roofed with timber. we find "dry" masonry, of smaller stones laid in courses but without mortar, alternating with or replacing the great blocks, especially in structures of Æneolithic or bronze age. the custom was declining and soon after this disappeared.[ ] the age of these stone monuments can generally be fairly closely determined by the contents, unless these have been removed or destroyed by treasure-hunters, as is often the case. in many cases the objects originally deposited seem to have been few and insignificant. later, secondary interments were often made in tumuli, but these usually betray their later date by their position above the original chamber or near the side of the mound. we must keep in mind that chambers in the north containing only stone implements may be often of the same age as those farther south containing copper or even bronze, for metal made its way northward only gradually. the custom of building dolmens seems to have persisted later in england than in france. the english round tumuli or barrows belong to the bronze period. it is not surprising that one country should be more conservative than another, especially if it is somewhat remote. in brittany we find the menhirs or "standing stones," unhewn pillars, regularly accompanying the dolmens. they are by far most abundant in northwestern europe, but occur elsewhere also. the largest known is the menhir of locmariaquer in morbihan, now fallen and broken. it was almost metres long, and weighed nearly , kilograms. but specimens are usually much smaller. they seem to characterize the Æneolithic epoch and the early bronze age. their meaning is often uncertain. some of them standing singly were probably erected much later, serving merely to mark boundaries. when associated with dolmens they are probably objects of a religious cult associated with the burial, rather than mere monuments to the dead. they may well be examples of the world-wide pillar-cult. they remained objects or centres of worship until late in historic time. the church had a long and hard battle with their cult. some of them appear to have been thrown down and churches to have been erected over them. on some of them christian symbols have been carved. among the people they are still held in reverence or awe. whatever may have been their origin, they must have had some religious significance or association. these pillars may be grouped in circles, cromlechs, or in long radiating rows, alignments. stone circles occur in the mediterranean region, in syria, upper egypt, and in india. but circles and alignments belong especially to brittany, great britain, and scandinavia. the most noteworthy are the three adjacent or connected at carnac, in morbihan, extending nearly , metres, and composed of nearly , menhirs. stonehenge and avebury in england are almost equally celebrated. they represent the culmination of megalithic development, but are essentially places of worship and assembly rather than of burial, though tumuli may be clustered around them like graves in a churchyard. the changes in the mode of disposal of the dead are evidently the results of changed views concerning the future life. in early paleolithic times man buried his dead with the best flint axe in his hand, with his ornaments and a supply of food, and often a quantity of shells brought from a distance and evidently objects of value. the dead man took with him his weapons and all his wealth. for the living to keep back a portion of what belonged to the departed was robbery, which might be avenged by all sorts of evils and plagues; for all this material wealth and ornament was as much needed and as useful there as here. apparently, though this is anything but certain, the dead were buried at first in europe, extended at full length, and in the caves not far from the abode of the living. soon we find them buried in a crouching position, with knees and hands brought close to the chin. sometimes we find rows of shells, which may have been attached to cords or bands used to hold the body in this forced position. this mode of burial in a contracted or crouching position (_hockerbestattung_) was usual in europe in neolithic time, but has been discovered in all continents, even in america and australia. very different explanations of this peculiar custom have been offered by different observers, _e. g._, that it saved the labor of digging a larger grave, an excellent economic argument; that the dead was laid in its mother earth in the same position which as a foetus it had maintained in the maternal body, etc., etc. but the predominant thought appears to have been that the spirit remained in, with, or near the body, and that binding the body prevented the spirit from walking and returning to see the survivors. to the same end the most valuable possessions of the dead had been buried with him. this does not necessarily argue that there was no affection of the living for the departed, or no belief in their possible helpfulness. but the community generally felt that it was a wise precaution, and generally well to be on the safe side. this belief in the possible return of the dead in their bodily form and presence is still deeply imbedded in our modern minds, ready to spring up as a conscious belief; and the departed are still rarely expected to bring good tidings or benefits. [illustration: alignment, carnac, brittany] this mode of burial continued common through upper paleolithic time; was very common, if not the rule during the neolithic period in various parts of europe. pumpelly found at anau children, and only children, buried under the floors of the houses, and notices that this custom was general throughout the life of the kurgan.[ ] he gives instances of this custom reported elsewhere. whether this custom was as wide-spread as the pottery of anau and susa seems doubtful. i can find no reports of it. but conditions at anau seem to have been unusually favorable to the preservation of these perishable remains. it is not impossible that we have here one of the ways in which the fear of the dead may have been gradually dispelled. may we not imagine that one of the first steps was the refusal of the mother to allow her dead child to be banished from the house? the evidence is too slight to allow of more than a guess. as time went on and communities became more closely united leaders must have arisen for whom the people had only affection, in whose wisdom and willingness to help they had full confidence, and who were gratefully remembered as fathers, elders, and wise in counsel, and whose return would have been gladly welcomed. this thought seems to be the foundation of the wide-spread and ancient cult or worship of ancestors. such cases were certainly common at a somewhat later date, as in the greek cities, where the bones of the dead leader or hero were guarded as the chief protection of the state. this feeling seems to find expression in the dolmen or house of the dead, with a carefully prepared opening in the door as if inviting the spirit to free egress. anniversary feasts in honor of the departed were certainly common in ancient days. close friendship and social relations were cultivated with the departed as knowledge and culture increased. the egyptian pyramids and mummies, the graves and older dolmens, seem to testify to a very close and dependent relation between spirit and body. the spirit hovered around the body and returned to it, and where the mouldering bones lay there was the spirit's home. its life was a very direct continuance of the life in the body. hence also the food and libations and the rich burial gifts. but toward the close of the neolithic period we find the great stone chamber giving place to a small cyst or vault, hardly more than a stone coffin, and entirely underground. at the same time the great stone circles seem at least to be changing from burial places to temples or centres of worship. a new method of disposal of the dead has appeared in different parts of europe, in brittany, for example. up to this time the body has been of great importance; it has been scrupulously preserved, and provision made in the grave for the supply of all bodily needs, though the burial gifts have steadily diminished in number and value. now the body is burned immediately after death, as if its preservation were no longer of any importance but a clog and hindrance from which the spirit was to be set free as soon as possible. the custom of incineration gains ground in europe until in the bronze age it is the rule and inhumation the exception. the old crass materialistic view has evidently given place to a far higher and more spiritual conception of life after death, and probably also before it. we here catch a fascinating glimpse of the steady bold working and tendency of the mind of neolithic man. it is only a glimpse of one aspect of his thought and tendency. we lack the facts to enable us to widen or deepen it. but it is enough to promise a broad field of future discoveries. but one fact leads us to hazard a question. not very far in the bronze age the first great wave of celtic migration seems to have broken into northern europe, as the achæans had already found their way toward or into greece. the celts seem to have had their vale of avalon and islands of the blessed, whither the spirits of the departed migrated. we remember that when ulysses went in search of the spirit of achilles, and of other comrades in the war before troy, he sought him in no underground world, but sailed far across the seas into the west. such beliefs, and customs like incineration, are a slow growth, probably far older in origin than the indo-european or aryan migrations, of which some have thought them characteristic. may not this old and wide-spread belief be merely a continuance of views and conceptions already held by our neolithic folk? we have already noticed the wide distribution of these megalithic structures.[ ] they stretch along the shore of the baltic, north sea, and atlantic ocean down to the mediterranean. here they form a band along the south shore. we find them also in soudan. in egypt and greece a far more precocious culture made it possible to replace them by pyramids and "treasure-houses." we find them in palestine and farther eastward, along the black sea, and in india. in europe they follow the coast lines, and do not seem to have been erected by the dwellers in the valley of the danube. their distribution is very similar to that of the great mediterranean race and its extensions, but they extend far beyond the boundaries of any one tribe or people. they are the expression of a certain thought or conception which spread widely. it might be more correct to say that the general underlying conception was practically universal, but found expression in this form in one area, while in other regions it could not find this expression because conditions were unfavorable. it is exceedingly difficult to say just where the first dolmens were built. opinions differ widely. they could have been built only in an area which had a fairly large and settled population who could unite in a large and difficult work, and had the means of carrying it out. the people were agriculturists who possessed no low grade of natural material or mental culture. many such general considerations lead us to look for their first appearance somewhere in the region east of the mediterranean, which was evidently the home of many other very ancient forms of culture.[ ] chapter vii neolithic industries our very hasty glance at different aspects of neolithic culture has shown its marked diversity in different regions. its essential and fundamental characteristic was the introduction of tillage and cattle-raising, gradually replacing the mere collecting stage of hunting life, and accompanying a steady growth of independence or control of nature's bounty or stinginess of food supply. this change increased rather than diminished the diversity of culture in different regions. in the rich soil of the loess country and the danube valley there were genuine farms; in the north cattle and hog-raising probably prevailed, gradually shading over into hunting as one neared the forests. along the baltic and the great lakes of sweden and on all the european rivers fishing was an important source of food. differences in size, form, and comfort of dwellings tell the same story. in the north we find half-underground huts, probably with shelters of logs or skins in or along the forests. at grosgartach and in the lake-dwellings and elsewhere we find rectangular houses, veritable homes rather than mere shelters. primitive man bound the body of his dead with thongs and buried it away in the earth. then he deposited it in a small stone hut much like his shelter. he enlarged and improved it. finally the great monument with its circle and alignments seems to have become a temple, and the body, placed in a small cyst or vault, is completely buried, or is burned. these marked changes in burial customs and rites in western and northern, not in eastern or central, europe, must have been accompanied by changes in the conception of the after life, whether we can trace and interpret them or not. the same must be said of all industrial products. every one of them tells a story, if we can understand and interpret it. we are not surprised to find in the late paleolithic (or early neolithic) paintings at cogul women dressed in waist and short skirt not unlike those worn to-day. the dress represented in the idols of southeastern europe has persisted in the peasant dress of certain isolated regions, especially in albania, almost or quite into the present.[ ] we have noticed the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of the lake-dwellers, and a similar industry was spread all over europe. the costume of the bronze period has been preserved in the oak coffins of scandinavia.[ ] we do not know how much it had changed and improved since neolithic times. the use of wool had doubtless increased greatly. our northern neolithic hunters were probably clad largely in skins and furs. [illustration: modern albanian peasants in neolithic garments] two manufactured articles are of especial interest to the archæologist: the stone axes and the pottery. they occur in every settlement. stone is imperishable, and clay well fired lasts almost as well. they vary according to age, place, fashion, and conditions, and form the foundation for all comparative, "typological" study.[ ] their remains play the same part in archæology as the characteristic fossils, "_leit-fossilien_," in paleontology, not only determining age but throwing light on the migrations, relations, life, and thought of their makers. the neolithic period gained its name from the polished stone implements which then appeared. paleolithic man had learned by long experience the value of flint as the best material for his tools. he had learned to chip and flake it; first by blows, then by pressure, until the solutrean lance-heads or "points" showed a beauty of form and finish unsurpassed by the best craftsmen of any later date. he had learned to give it a fair cutting edge by small "retouches." it seems never to have occurred to him to grind or whet the edge of his tools. if the axe thickened rapidly from the edge and was somewhat like a wedge, it was a good remedy against the brittleness of the flint, its great defect; and he put the more strength into the blow. the extreme hardness of flint made polishing very difficult. most utensils of daily use were not polished at all. many of the beautiful daggers, genuine works of art, were finished by a uniform, fine flaking down to the close of the period. flint implements were not polished in italy, greece, spain, and large parts of eastern europe;[ ] they increase in abundance in scandinavia and england. other kinds of less brittle but somewhat softer rock were generally used for polished axes. during the upper paleolithic period, especially in the magdalenian epoch, daggers, lance-heads, awls, and needles were made of bone. for pointed implements, flint, while sometimes used, was far less suitable, except when the point was very short, as in engraving and carving tools. these bone implements were scraped into shape and often well smoothed. it seems but a step from smoothing a bone to polishing the edge of an axe, if not of too hard rock. but the chipped flint axe was very good, and they were accustomed to it. forrer thinks that the change must have been made where flint was scarce and pebbles abundant.[ ] in scandinavia the kitchen-midden period was followed by an "arctic" culture, so called because of its distribution in the far north. here we find implements of slate or schist polished only along the edges. this seems like a very natural intermediate stage. we do not know just where those attempts were first made. they may have been made at different points in asia and europe and at different times, and thus there may have been several independent centres of discovery and of radiation. the lake-dwellers used a variety of material; indeed, they seem to have been quite expert practical mineralogists. characteristic is their use of certain rocks which combined great toughness and hardness, and were thus superior to flint; so chloromelanite, saussurite, nephrite, and jadeite. these minerals are rare, and the implements made of them were small chisel-like blades, rarely exceeding an inch in length. they were usually mounted in a socket of horn fastened into a wooden handle. we shall see that the source of these minerals is still anything but clear. the axe of the kitchen-midden[ ] is hardly more than a disk struck off from a flint nucleus, with two sides broken off and the top of the triangular remnant removed. the axe of later neolithic time was at first nearly of the shape of a flattened almond, but gradually changed and took more of the form of a chisel. the stages in this process of change are of value in determining the chronology of the period, and will be discussed in the next chapter. these axes were rudely shaped by flaking and then ground and polished on large flat stones, which still show the grooves left by the implement as it was rubbed back and forth. the different steps in shaping and finishing such axes are well shown by hoernes in specimens selected from the rich collections made at butmir, bosnia. [illustration: axes from lake-dwellings showing attachment to handles] the lake-dwellers followed a different and improved method. they selected from the bed of a stream a smooth pebble of somewhat flattened and elongated egg shape. with a flint flake or saw[ ] and sand they cut a groove in the edge, and split the stone by a sharp blow, somewhat as a peanut or almond falls apart. the rounded surface of each half was nearly of the desired form, and only the flat surface required much shaping. a skilful workman now can finish an axe of this kind in half a day.[ ] we cannot trace the variety of axes characteristic of different times, places, and uses. one, which from its resemblance to a shoemaker's last has been called by the germans the "_schuhleistenbeil_," demands mention.[ ] this is a heavy, thick, clumsy implement, with one end edged or pointed. the lower surface is flat or slightly concave, the upper nearly semi-circular in cross-section. it reminds us somewhat of the grub-hoe or mattock, and probably served a similar purpose--to break up the ground. it is very common in the loess regions of southeastern europe, but in the more stony soils of the uplands was generally replaced by a pick made of a stout tine of deer's horn. broader and flatter hoes are found, and stone ploughshares. we must clearly recognize the distinction between the mattock and a somewhat similar but lighter polished concave axe, with sharp transverse cutting edge, used along the baltic and elsewhere for hollowing out boats. adze and mattock are similar in general form, but the carpenter's tool is a much finer instrument than the agricultural implement, and serves a very different purpose. bone was still used for pointed tools and weapons. a bundle of sharp pointed ribs found at robenhausen had probably been used for hackling flax, horn was used for sockets for the smaller chisels, and for a variety of other purposes. wooden bowls, scoops, and other articles occur among the remains of the lake-dwellings. flint held much the same place in neolithic industry as iron or steel with us. its quality varied greatly in different localities. our neolithic ancestors had discovered that it worked better when freshly mined than when long exposed and weathered. hence a mine of flint of the best quality was as valuable as a field of iron ore or a gold mine to-day. the most celebrated source of flint in france was grand pressigny, near tours, department of indre-et-loire.[ ] the color and texture of this flint enables us to recognize it wherever found. it was exported as far as brittany, normandy, belgium, and western switzerland. at spiennes, in belgium, they sunk shafts sometimes to a depth of forty feet. here horizontal galleries extended out into the layers of chalk containing the best quality of flint. similar mines were located at grimes graves and at cissbury, in england.[ ] the flint was exported sometimes in blocks, sometimes as half or completely finished implements. around grand pressigny workshops are numerous. but they are by no means limited to the immediate vicinity of the mines. in some localities the manufacture was almost limited to one particular article. here the product was exported in finished form. during the bronze period halle was a seat of wealth, and the large amount of copper found here suggests that the production of salt had begun here before the close of neolithic times. hoernes says that the production of salt at hallstadt, a source of great wealth and luxury during the earliest iron epoch, and of no small extent during the bronze period, had its beginnings in neolithic days. the value of salt in trade or barter can hardly be overestimated. a very small amount of gold, mostly in the form of beads, has been found in the neolithic monuments of france erected at the very close of this period. occurring native in small nuggets in the beds of streams and rivers of many parts of europe, its color and malleability must have attracted the notice of the searchers after new material for implements. large nuggets were found in spain at a much later date with callais, a mineral resembling turquoise, which occurs from portugal to brittany.[ ] objects of copper were found by pumpelly at anau contemporary with the appearance of turbary sheep, about b. c.[ ] it appears in egypt perhaps , years later. we find traces of it in the oldest city of troy (hissarlik). it may well have entered southeastern europe by way of troy, or northward from greece through the balkan peninsula to the danube valley. a more westerly route lay open through italy, or the islands west of it, into spain. native metallic copper seems to fail in europe proper, but mines for ore were opened in tyrol, and probably elsewhere, before the end of the period. copper was very useful for ornaments, especially rings, armlets, and bracelets; for pointed objects like needles, pins, awls, and even daggers; to a certain extent for knives and razors. copper axes were modelled at first after old stone patterns. this metal had one fatal defect, however; it would not hold an edge. copper utensils were beautiful, but generally less useful than similar ones made of stone. they were largely for display and luxury, though this may hardly be true of its use in egypt and the orient. in europe it could not shake the hold of the old, established flint. when the copper ore contained impurities of antimony or zinc, the alloy was harder. then we find a very small percentage of tin, which slowly increases. there must have been long searching and experimenting before the classical recipe for bronze, ninety per cent copper and ten per cent tin, was established. we cannot well speak of a new copper culture or period. this began with the introduction of the harder and more beautiful, but always rare and expensive bronze. still the great characteristic of the bronze age lay not so much in the introduction of a new metal as in the wider relations, communications, exchange of goods, and knowledge, and freer movements of individuals and peoples, which had brought it about. the discovery of metals, of salt, of minerals, and other materials useful for ornament and of the baltic amber, was gradually furnishing considerable material which could be readily exchanged for the products of other sometimes distant and more advanced provinces and lands. the centres of distribution were often at some or considerable distance from the sources of the raw material, so especially in the case of flint implements. the location of the seat of manufacture and distribution depends largely on freedom and ease of communication. this leads us to glance at trade and trade-routes during this period. we must bear in mind that the means of transportation were few and inadequate. the wheeled cart appeared during the bronze period, but we have no proof of its use earlier. the horse was not yet domesticated in europe, and did not come into use in the orient much before b. c.[ ] cattle may have been used as beasts of burden at an early period, but of this we know nothing. roads of a certain kind, often probably hardly more than mere trails, almost certainly existed, especially in the neighborhood of the great stone monuments and larger villages. the great bar to free communication was the forest. to avoid this almost impassable barrier the roads and trails seem usually to have kept to the uplands, especially those where the chalk prevented a heavy forest growth. certain river valleys, like that of the thames, were heavily forested almost or quite to the shore, and hardly inhabited at this time. but when the forest drew back somewhat from the water's edge there was a most attractive place for human settlement. the river bottoms were fertile and easy of cultivation. there was grass for herds, wood for buildings and fuel. the rivers swarmed with fish down to recent times, and there was a great variety and abundance of smaller animal life. such valleys formed natural routes of trade and migration.[ ] we are not surprised to find that the earliest settlers of sweden made their way from shore to interior along the rivers and lakes, whose shores are dotted with settlements of this age.[ ] déchelette tells us that this was true of the grouping of the neolithic stations of france in three great provinces in the basins of the seine, the garonne, the rhone, the saone and the loire. we remember the lake-dwellers. the valley of the danube has been the great thoroughfare since the arrival of man in europe. the great ancient civilizations of egypt and chaldea arose in the valleys of the nile and the euphrates. we know that the people of the shell-heaps must have ventured some distance from shore, fishing for cod. the transition from paleolithic to neolithic might almost be characterized as a time of change from a hunting life to one very largely of fishing. long before this emigrants, probably from asia minor, had sailed out into the mediterranean and settled crete. here, before b. c., a veritable sea-power had arisen carrying on trade with egypt and the shores of the Ægean. the voyage of the argonauts, a "much-sung" story and saga in homer's time, may well have had a historical foundation in expeditions for trade and plunder along the shores of the black sea, up its rivers, and extending as far as distant colchis. hence the importance of troy in ancient times and of constantinople to-day. returning to the baltic region,[ ] we find that a cave on the island of stora karlso, close to the west shore of gothland, contained neolithic deposits nearly three metres thick. in the upper layers there were remains of domestic animals, in the lower only wild forms. this island lies some thirty miles from oland, just off the east coast of sweden. montelius tells us that before the end of the neolithic period there was communication between sweden and finland, as well as with denmark and germany; that trade between these regions was active, and that there is reason for thinking that there was communication between the west coast of sweden and england. it seems highly probable that boats were creeping along the coast of spain and france from harbor to harbor, although the evidence is here less clear and compelling. our knowledge of neolithic boats is still very incomplete.[ ] those of the lake-dwellers seem to have been usually hardly more than dugouts hollowed by fire. one, however, from lake châlain (jura) was about thirty feet long and two and one-half wide, made out of an oak-trunk. such boats served well for river navigation, but were too shallow and clumsy for the open sea. it would have been a comparatively easy matter to add one or two planks along each side of such a dugout and thus build up a fairly seaworthy craft. the rock-sculptures of bohuslan, sweden, which probably date from early in the bronze age, represent boats of fair size carrying as many as thirty men.[ ] the wares exchanged in this trade were limited in material and value. metals and metallic objects were still unknown, except as copper and gold came in before the end of the period. still, there were many objects which met a fairly wide demand. we have already seen that different lake-dwellings differed markedly in their products. some were almost purely agricultural. in others we find remains of pottery evidently manufactured on the spot in larger quantities than the village could use. much of this must have been exported along the lake, perhaps farther. schliz distinguished at grosgartach a rude home-made pottery from a finer ware apparently brought from some centre of finer and more artistic work. the neolithic housewife was probably very proud of this "china." the finer grades of cloth manufactured at robenhausen and elsewhere were probably carried far and wide, but it is impossible to trace it. the flint mined at grand pressigny was transported to greater or less distances, as well as manufactured at the mouth of the mine. at the various workshops the implements were made in great numbers and still more widely disseminated. this was equally true of flint regions in other parts of europe. stone arm-rings, mace-heads and other fine articles found sparsely in northern europe may well have been copies of a few articles brought from italy or even farther.[ ] the nephrite and jadeite of the lake-dwellings were long supposed to be imports from eastern asia--until it was discovered that the material of many of those implements differed in microscopic structure from the asiatic, and then were supposed to be of indigenous material. probably both extreme views are untenable. a certain amount of communication with the orient is shown by the occurrence of rings made of recent shells of tridacna or spondylus in egypt, throughout the mediterranean region, in france, and occasionally in middle europe. the material apparently came from the red sea or the indian ocean. the same is true of a shell of meleagrinia found in a hut-foundation in rivatella, italy.[ ] ornaments in the form of mediterranean shells strung as necklaces are not uncommon in france, and occur elsewhere. the mediterranean lands were in close communication with egypt and asia minor; spain with africa, which furnished ivory and carved ostrich egg-shells carried farther north in rare instances. stone palettes similar to those found in egyptian graves occur in southern france and elsewhere. more careful search and study will doubtless greatly increase the number of similar illustrations. scandinavia was already showing its appreciation of beauty of form and finish, which made its products unsurpassed during the bronze period. its marvellous flint daggers and hammer-axes were widely distributed and excite our admiration to-day. but the product which it was later to export to greece and italy in payment for the metal and art-treasures of the south was amber, an admirable material for jewelry, easily cut, transparent, of various hues, and taking a brilliant polish. so homer speaks of a royal necklace, "golden, adorned with amber, like a blazing sun." far back in neolithic times we find jars containing large quantities of amber in the form of rude beads. one such hoard contained , articles, and weighed pounds. the amber was evidently used for necklaces, and was common in the graves of the earlier epochs. it seems to have made its way slowly over north germany. amber beads occur very sparingly in the lake-dwellings. during the bronze period it disappears largely in scandinavian graves and is here less used for ornaments, but appears in greece and italy, where its beauty and possibilities could be properly appreciated. the value of amber in scandinavia as an article of export rose to such an extent that the inhabitants largely gave up the use of it and exchanged it wholesale for the more attractive and useful metal. during this period there was a regular trade-route between the baltic and the mediterranean. [illustration: boats from rock carvings in bohuslan, sweden. (early bronze age)] as hoernes[ ] says, it was this new trade which brought with it the close of the neolithic period in northern europe. but the change from the age of stone to that of bronze was anything but abrupt or sudden; in fact, it extended over more than , years. it was apparently not brought about by the invasion of a conquering race, though it was accompanied and followed by marked change and shifting of the population of central europe. first we find a few copper ornaments and implements stealing into france and southern europe. then the metal becomes more abundant as people increase in wealth and can afford luxuries. then bronze comes in from southeast and south, and very slowly north of the alps. it meets the current of amber from the north. thus the two most beautiful, precious, and desirable materials of the time have come together. both are easy of transport. a trade which has long been preparing or proceeding on a small scale expands rapidly, perhaps suddenly, and ushers in a new period, which, after all, chiefly carries on or brings into prominence that which had begun or advanced during the preceding age. more interesting and, perhaps, more important than exchange of flint axes and amber is the spread of patterns, methods, influences; of new ideas and stimuli from mind to mind and people to people. a new implement, like the mace-heads and arm-rings, of which we have spoken; a new form of axe or dagger; the form and ornament of pottery; the building of dolmens or the spread of immigration with the accompanying change of cult and thought--all these brought not only economic improvement but growth of mind. sophus müller, and montelius in a less degree, may have been somewhat extreme in their emphasis on the importance of oriental and mediterranean influences and leadership, but their main thesis was correct.[ ] civilization and culture were far older in the orient than in europe, and far more advanced south than north of the alps. these were the centres of radiation of ideas and stimuli as well as patterns, inventions, and discoveries. this does not mean that northern europe was a passive recipient. it accepted and adopted whatever and only what it would, and probably refused many a valuable suggestion. in many cases it improved on the patterns or example of its teacher and inspirer. the art of polishing stone implements and the use of bronze may not have been indigenous in scandinavia; but here, as time went on, genuine works of art were produced superior to any in the world, far more artistic than the beautiful technique of the egyptians. prehistoric domestic animals were almost certainly introduced from the east. but the lake-dwellers usually improved the breed by intercrossing with forms derived from their own fauna. they increased the list of cultivated plants. the idea or conception passed from tribe to tribe, but the new stimulus did its fermenting work differently, according to the mind or medium into which it fell. there was always readaptation and more or less change. to be a wide borrower and at the same time to usually improve on one's teacher requires something very close to genius, though the originality may be less obtrusive. we have no reason to be ashamed of our neolithic ancestors. the result of this exchange of products and ideas will be more apparent during the next period. trade-routes and lines of communication will then become far more clear and fixed. but it is important to notice that these routes are already opening in all directions, perhaps more numerous because still experimental, tentative, and somewhat vague. the routes of transportation during prehistoric times, as usually in pioneer periods, were mainly along river valleys. where basins almost or quite touch one another centres of contact and distribution naturally arise. hence the prosperity of the department of saone-et-loire, in france. a study of any good relief-map of europe will show the chief routes of trade almost at a glance. the great east-and-west artery is the valley of the danube, with its tributaries extending far northward, almost touching the headwaters of rivers flowing into the north sea or baltic. the westernmost north-and-south route is by sea along the atlantic coast from spain to england or denmark. a second was formed by the rhone and rhine, eastward and parallel to the french highlands extending from the mediterranean to belgium, broken by the pass of belfort. a third ran up the valley of the elbe and down the moldau to the danube. this was the most important route in europe, especially for amber. a fourth, from the baltic to the black sea, followed the vistula and the dniester. from ancient times the black sea and its tributaries have been the great route of communication between the Ægean and southern russia as well as parts of the balkan peninsula. during the greater part of the neolithic period it was probably only a sluggish and irregular current of trade which trickled along most of these routes, put it was the beginning and promise of larger and better things, and must not be despised or neglected. in any study of the industries of this period the manufacture of pottery is of the greatest interest and most fundamental importance. pottery is to the archæologist what characteristic fossils are to the paleontologist. it is almost indestructible. in its texture, form, and ornament it affords wide scope for individual or tribal skill and invention, and yet over wide areas the general type shows a remarkable unity and persistency. a single sherd may often tell a long and reliable story. the pottery of the mediterranean basin and of many oriental localities is a fairly sure guide to the age of a long-buried settlement and to the relations of its people with other, often distant regions. the chronology and much of the history of egypt, troy, and crete, and many ancient settlements of greece and italy, are based largely on the study of their pottery. it is far more expressive and informing than the average stone or bone implement. the time is not yet ripe, however, for such deductions from the study of the pottery of northern and middle europe. a good foundation has been laid, much material gathered which is being built up into a firm system. but in this pioneer work many rash generalizations have been based upon a foundation of facts drawn from a very narrow area, often incompletely understood. here we must proceed cautiously and can give only a very brief and inadequate outline sketch of the most important results in which we may have a fair degree of confidence and which are needed in our further study. pottery appears first in the transition epoch from paleolithic to neolithic, at campigny and in the kitchen-middens. long before this time there must have been containers for fluids. a concavity in the rock may have been the first reservoir and a mussel-shell the first drinking-cup. wherever gourds occurred they were doubtless hollowed out and made most convenient jars and dishes. vessels of bark and wood probably came into use early in the north. skins of animals tightly sewn with sinew and with well-greased seams formed excellent bottles, still used in the orient. where the art of plaiting twigs, splints, or reeds into mats and baskets had been discovered, it was not a long step to coat the inside with clay and dry or finally burn it before the fire. the potter's wheel did not come into use until the bronze period. pottery had been used in the orient long before this time. it is found well made and beautifully decorated in the oldest strata at susa. the art may have been introduced from asia or lost during the long migration and then reacquired. here we are still in the dark. [illustration: pottery from neolithic graves] the pottery of northern europe can be distributed into a few groups or general types, every one of which is wide-spread and fairly distinct, though mixture or combination of types is not uncommon, especially along the boundaries of distribution where two types meet. there is much difference of opinion and discussion concerning details, but general agreement as to fundamentals and essentials.[ ] intermediate or "hybrid" forms also occur. the classification is hardly natural and is responsible for much confusion and dispute. it can have only temporary and provisional value. these three groups are: . banded pottery, _céramique rubanée_, _bandkeramik_. . corded pottery, _céramique cordée_, _schnurkeramik_. . calyciform pottery, _vases caliciforms_, _zonenbecher._ they differ mostly in ornamentation, but often also as distinctly in form. . _banded pottery_ occurs all over europe except northeast of the oder, perhaps also in great britain. its shape is usually that of a spheroidal gourd with the upper fourth removed; and its system of ornament may have been derived from the system of cords by which the jar was once suspended. sometimes we find a low neck, rim, or collar around the large mouth. the ornament in what seems to be its most primitive form consists of lines marked in the clay, arranged parallel to one another in bands covering most of the body of the jar. these bands, either broad or narrow, run in a zigzag or saw-tooth pattern horizontally around the base. by doubling each saw-tooth we get a diamond-shaped area. even this simple ornament admits of a large variety of patterns. but the bands may be curved instead of angular, forming scrolls, meanders, or spirals. logically, these should represent the latest development of the type. but the spiral may yet prove to be actually older than the angle. the bands may be raised and projecting (bosnia) or be merely painted on a flat, sometimes burnished, surface. the incised lines may be plain or filled with a white material (encrusted). the briefest consideration shows that we have here a very generalized type or group of types which made its first appearance in europe on the lower danube and then underwent development by simplification or sometimes, perhaps, by increased complexity, as it radiated from this centre, becoming more and more modified as it went westward or northward. the banded pottery of southwest germany and the rhine region is found in dwellings as well as graves, usually accompanied by the mattock or the deer-horn pick, but lance-heads fail. the rectangular houses belonged to people of a settled and quite advanced agriculture. we find cellars, and barns or granaries. the dwellings are single or in groups, sometimes, as at grosgartach, forming quite a village or town. they are situated by preference on the loess terraces of the streams and rivers, near enough to the water for boat communication. the pottery varies in fineness and beauty according to the size of the dwelling and therefore the wealth of its owner. social differences, rank, and fashion are appearing in truly modern form. . _corded pottery._ the most characteristic and, perhaps, culminating form is the amphora or flasklike vase with wide neck, which starts abruptly from a globose portion with flat base. its prototype may have been the leathern flask or bottle. here the ornament consists of parallel lines arranged in a band or in bands around the neck, but often extending somewhat on to the upper surface of the bulb. the lines look as if made by winding a cord around the neck while the clay was still soft; hence the name of the group. it seems to have been originally a purely northern product, which toward the close of the neolithic period was carried southward by a distinct movement of population. it is found almost entirely in graves, often accompanied by calyciform cups. schliz says that it is never found in remains of dwellings. the household pottery was apparently crude and coarse, with no distinctive type of ornament. the carriers of the culture were apparently herdsmen rather than tillers of the soil, and always more or less hunters. their finest implements were their weapons. . _calyciform pottery, zonen-or glocken-becher_, has been by some united with corded pottery. it has the shape of a goblet or inverted bell with flaring rim and flat base. [illustration: pottery _a._ banded pottery. _b._ . origin of banded ornament from cords suspending a more or less hemispherical vessel derived from the hollow gourd. . corded ornament derived from suspension of flask (amphora). _c._ cups and kugelamphore (globular flask) from groszgartach.] the ornament is in circular zones separated by bands of well-polished surface covering the whole outside. it is found in asia minor, egypt, italy, and in western europe along the whole zone of megalithic monuments, whence it spread northward and eastward into middle europe. the incrusted pottery characterized by incised lines filled with a white material may have had a distinct origin and development, though its technique has often been borrowed and applied to other types. the pottery of the oldest lake-dwellers is crude, coarse, with little or no ornament. hence it is difficult to connect it with any other type. form and shape of pottery are often quite or very persistent. we cannot understand why the base of so many jars was left rounded, or in some old lake-dwellings pointed, when it might easily have been flattened, apparently to good advantage. but even the form, and still more the ornament, changes according to time, place, and fashion; hence these are very useful in tracing periods and cultures and their relations. where different types meet there is usually more or less change or modification, often difficult to interpret. our knowledge of european pottery is still small and unsatisfactory, but it has already been of much use in tracing migrations of culture and relations between provinces often widely separated. chapter viii neolithic chronology "we must imagine europe in upper paleolithic times again as a terminal region, a great peninsula toward which the human emigrants from the east and from the south came to mingle and to superpose their cultures. these races took the grand migration routes which had been followed by other waves of animal life before them; they were pressed upon from behind by the increasing populations from the east; they were attracted to western europe as a fresh and wonderful game country, where food in the forests, in the meadows, and in the streams abounded in unparalleled profusion.... between the retreating alpine and scandinavian glaciers europe was freely open toward the eastern plains of the danube, extending to central and southern asia; on the north, however, along the baltic, the climate was still too inclement for a wave of human migration, and there is no trace of man along these northern shores until the close of the upper paleolithic, nor of any residence of man in the scandinavian peninsula until the great wave of neolithic migration established itself in that region."[ ] we must now attempt to determine the succession of these great changes in the climate and face of europe, and then see if we can fix any dates for some of the changes and for the introduction of new cultures. in the oscillations of the ice-front marking the final retreat of the alpine glaciers there were three epochs of advance. two of these, the bühl and gschnitz advances, with the interval of retreat between them, were occupied by the magdalenian or last epoch of upper paleolithic time. the third advance, the daun epoch, or perhaps the latter part of the gschnitz and the first part of the daun, is represented by the azilian-tardenoisian epoch, a period of transition from paleolithic to neolithic time. these changes have been clearly traced by osborn.[ ] we are most closely concerned with the changes which took place around the baltic in denmark and scandinavia during this post-glacial retreat of the ice. here also we find the same disappearance of the tundra and "barren-ground" fauna already noticed in france, and the appearance of a park-flora of forests interspersed with open glades or meadows. but we need not be surprised if we find that the retreat of the great baltic or scandinavian ice-sheet does not keep step exactly with that of the alpine.[ ] . the last ice-sheet had covered most of scandinavia except the western half of denmark and, perhaps, the most southern portion of sweden. but a broad mass of ice covered most of schleswig, at least the eastern half of holstein, and a fairly wide zone of land south of and more or less parallel to the south shore of the baltic. to the eastward and northward a great sea extended to the arctic ocean. this earliest stage marked the farthest advance of the ice just before the final retreat. . slowly and gradually the ice retreated until finally it occupied only the mountains of the backbone of scandinavia. the region of the baltic sea and the gulf of bothnia, a large part of sweden and a good portion of finland were covered by a great sheet of water, the yoldia sea, connected by a broad sound at the present skager rack with the north sea and atlantic, and still opening widely into the arctic ocean northeastward. the submerged regions had been greatly depressed, especially in the north. the clays deposited along the shores of the sea are now raised often to a height of one hundred metres above tide-level. but to the southward the depression was only slightly marked. [illustration: successive stages and forms of baltic sea . culmination of last advance of ice. . yoldia sea during retreat of ice. . yoldia sea at greatest size. . scandinavia during ancylus epoch. (the white represents the ice; dark gray represents the land; light gray the baltic sea.)] it is important to our later study to notice that these clays, which are thick and fine-grained, are composed of thin layers of alternating dark material deposited in fall or winter, and lighter, more sandy, brought down by the spring freshets. the temperature of the sea could hardly have been much above freezing-point, as is shown by the presence of arctic forms of mollusks, like _yoldia arctica_ and _astarte borealis_. the land-plants of this epoch, the so-called dryas flora, are dwarf cold tundra forms, now occurring in spitzbergen, lapland, and arctic russia and siberia. but certain plants, especially in sweden, lead us to infer that while the winters were long and severe, the short summers were warm or even hot. this does not surprise us in northern tundra regions. reindeer still lived in the region. this yoldia epoch is our second great post-glacial stage. man had apparently not yet reached denmark, though some reindeer hunters probably roamed over germany. . toward the end of the yoldia epoch the land rose in southwest sweden, connecting this country with denmark and cutting the connection of the remains of the yoldia sea with the north sea. a similar emergence in finland completed the change of this sea into a great landlocked body of water called the ancylus lake, from the most common and characteristic mollusk, _ancylus fluviatilis_. the glaciers had shrunken to a narrow band covering the mountains between norway and sweden. the climate, while moderating, was still cold. the arctic flora retreated northward and was followed in denmark by woods and even forests of willows, aspens, and poplars, entering from the south and southeast. these were followed by pines, especially in the dryer districts, later by alders, coming from the east across finland, according to hoops.[ ] the ancylus epoch forms our third stage. the settlement at maglemose probably took place toward its close. . the elevation and emergence of land so characteristic of the ancylus epoch was followed by a depression of this region, especially in its southern portions. that part of the ancylus lake corresponding to the baltic regained broader and deeper connections with the north sea than it has at present. hence the waters of the baltic contained a larger percentage of salt than now. the marine life, _littorina littorea_, _tapes_, and others, testifies to a rise in temperature since the ancylus epoch. oaks had already begun to crowd out the pines, and will be followed after a time by the beeches loving a soil rich in humus, rather than the sandy barrens occupied by the pines. a similar evidence is furnished by other plants, some of which reached a higher latitude than now. the summer temperature was perhaps - / ° cent. higher than at present, an "optimum temperature" for the plant life of this region. this improvement of climate is most marked in northeastern europe and seems far less noticeable even in germany. our fourth stage is marked by a greatly improved climate and the spread of the shell-heaps. . a fifth stage ushers in the full neolithic period. between the littorina stage and the genuine neolithic culture of lake-dwellings and megaliths there is a considerable gap in our knowledge, a period during which agriculture and domestic animals were brought in and utensils and pottery and general conditions were greatly improved. we may now venture to attempt to gain an absolute chronology of more or less definite dates for the appearance of the cultures which we have noticed. we must clearly recognize that our best results can be only tentative and provisional. a careful study and comparison of the pottery of northern europe will some day furnish data for a reliable system. for the sake of convenience we will begin by attempting to set a date for the close, rather than the beginning, of the whole neolithic period. we have seen that this was brought about by the introduction of the metal bronze. copper had come into use somewhat or considerably earlier, but it seems hardly worth while to consider it as characterizing a distinct period. it is rather the last phase of the stone age, when wider communications and trade were making the transition to the use of metals like bronze and iron. according to montelius,[ ] who is our best authority on chronology, the use of bronze in sufficient quantities to mark the beginning of a new period took place in different countries at the dates given in the second column of the following table, the first column showing the date of the first use of copper:[ ] +-------------------------------+-----------------+ | region | year b. c. | +-------------------------------+--------+--------+ | | copper | bronze | | +--------+--------+ | egypt and chaldæa | | | | troy, greece, and sicily | | | | hungary and spain | | | | middle europe and france | | | | north germany and scandinavia | | | +-------------------------------+--------+--------+ these dates mark the beginning of the more or less general use of metals, not the first appearance of a few imported articles. some authorities would place the beginning of the bronze period a few centuries earlier, and that of the introduction of copper some years earlier.[ ] forrer dates the beginning of both epochs a little later than montelius. the date b. c. would seem to mark the end of the neolithic period in middle europe with approximate accuracy. in attempting to determine the date of the beginning of the neolithic period we may begin with a remote point of departure for comparison and select the bühl stage and the beginning of the magdalenian epoch. nuesch made a careful estimate from the deposits at schweizersbild near schaffhausen, switzerland. his method of estimating is described fully by obermaier.[ ] he places the beginning of the neolithic deposits here at b. c., and considers , years as a fair estimate for the time elapsed since the first occupation of this locality by magdalenian hunters at some time during the bühl epoch. obermaier, summing up the evidence, concludes that the beginning of the magdalenian epoch could not have been later than , - , b. c., and that it ended not far from , b. c. osborn says: "bühl moraines in lake lucerne are estimated as having been deposited between , and , years b. c." he also appears to place the maglemose culture at about b. c.[ ] we may now turn to the great scandinavian ice-sheet, whose retreat may have begun somewhat later and proceeded more slowly on account of its more northerly position. here de geer has made a report based on a very careful study of the annual layers of deposition formed during the glacial retreat. we have already seen that the material brought down by the spring freshets differs in color and texture from that of late summer and autumn. hence these annual layers are almost as distinct and as easily counted as the rings in the trunk of a tree. this method promises great accuracy of results, and the thickness and character of the layers and their included organic remains throw much light on the climatic and other conditions under which they were laid down. but even here the length of certain periods of halt in the glacial retreat can be only very roughly approximated. the number of annual layers of deposit in the swedish lake ragunda lately drained shows the number of years since the lake was uncovered almost at the end of the retreat of the scandinavian ice. says sollas: "the ancylus lake was in existence at a time when the ice had very nearly, though not quite, accomplished its full retreat, _i. e._, a little more than , years ago (the length of post-glacial time); and baron de geer, although he has not yet been able to bring the beach of the lake into connection with his system of measurements, thinks, as he has kindly informed me, that its probable date may be , years counting from the present."[ ] menzel, in a chart embodying the results of his study of de geer's work, places the beginning of the retreat of the ice in germany at , b. c., the maximum of the littorina depression and epoch of kitchen-middens at b. c., full neolithic at b. c., beginning of bronze period b. c.[ ] keilhack, basing his study on the silting and dune-formation at swinepforte, estimates that the time elapsed since the maximum of the littorina depression down to the present has been about , years, making the date of the depression about b. c. he considers his estimate as somewhat more probable than de geer's. anderson has called attention to the change of position of the earth's axis at different times. when the position of the earth's axis was such as to give most sunlight in sweden, the midnight sun was above the horizon at karesuanda, the most northern astronomical station, days. during the time of most unfavorable position it was above the horizon only days, a difference of days. this change should influence climate and vegetation. the period of maximum sunshine, according to this view, was , years ago, about b. c., somewhat earlier than the maximum of the littorina depression. it would tend to give a climatic optimum at nearly the same time as estimated by menzel. steenstrup[ ] discovered the succession of forest growths in the peat-bogs or moors of zealand, north of copenhagen. in the layers of some of the depressions he found what seemed to be almost a complete record of forest life from the time of the retreat of the glaciers. the upper layers of peat contained remains of trees still flourishing in the surrounding country: alders, birches, and beeches. then came oaks, and still deeper the pines. beneath these were aspens, arctic willows, and other plants of the far north. remains of the reindeer occur in their lowest layer. the pines hardly, if at all, reached denmark before the ancylus epoch, preceding periods showing only the dryas flora. the pines had a hard struggle for life at first. they are dwarfed and their rings of annual growth are very thin, sometimes as many as seventy to the inch of thickness. still some of these dwarfs attain the very respectable age of to years. gradually they prospered, and in the upper layers there are trunks more than a metre in diameter. all these facts point to early and long occupation. steenstrup reckoned the age of the oldest layers of these accumulations at , to , years, dating their beginnings therefore at to , b. c. pine was still growing in the neighborhood of the shell-heaps, or the capercailzie or pine partridge would probably not have occurred. but in the shell-heaps we find only oak charcoal, not pine. this was at least beginning to retreat and give place to the oak. at maglemose we find pine charcoal but oak pollen grains in layers apparently of the same age as the settlement. placing the shell-heaps in the early part of the pine epoch would date them as early as b. c., or even earlier, according to this chronometer. hence the older writers, who placed the shell-heaps in the pine epoch, dated them considerably farther back than we do now. steenstrup's study, a work of genius, is entirely compatible with and probably implies a considerably later date than we used to accept. the following table shows the dates assigned by different students to maglemose and the shell-heaps: +---------------+-------------------+------------------------+ | | b. c. | b. c. | | obermaier | maglemose, , | shell-heaps, | | forrer | | shell-heaps, - | | sollas | maglemose, , | | | osborn | maglemose, , | | | menzel (chart)| | shell-heaps, | | keilhack | | shell-heaps, | +---------------+-------------------+------------------------+ the shell-heaps and maglemose hardly seem to differ in age as much as obermaier thinks; de geer's study was very careful and certainly demands respectful attention. the tendency toward later dates for these cultures seems to be strong and increasing. if we place maglemose at to b. c., and the shell-heaps to we have probably made them as ancient as the facts can well allow. it is better to hold judgment still somewhat in suspense. even if obermaier should yet prove to be correct in his apparently extreme dates, it is still evident that the neolithic period began late and was of short duration compared with the millennia in which paleolithic time was reckoned. our records are scanty for the earlier portions of the more or less than , years which we have allowed for the neolithic period.[ ] we find the shell-heap culture spreading from denmark into sweden and norway. following closely, or overlapping it, crossing norway from the region of christiania, we find the nostvet and arctic cultures, perhaps nearly related, perhaps distinct, but leading over to the genuine neolithic scandinavian culture. here we find forms intermediate between the axe and "pick" of the shell-heap and the axes of later epochs. we have already described the rude, somewhat triangular axe of the shell-heaps. the axe of paleolithic time had had nearly the shape of an almond. we will compare the pointed end to the back, and the cutting edge to the edge of our axe or carpenter's hatchet. the earliest polished axes of denmark still retained nearly the shape of a somewhat long and thin almond.[ ] their cross-section might be compared to an ellipse with pointed instead of rounded ends. this is the "_spitznackiges beil_" of müller and montelius. it occurs all over europe and still farther, while the two following forms have a continually more restricted distribution. it is not found in the village settlements or stone graves, and evidently characterizes a period between these and the shell-heaps. the second form, the _dunn_--or _schmalnackiges beil_--may be compared to a long and flattened almond with a small part at the pointed end removed and a narrow strip cut off from each side. the flatter surfaces nearly meet at the end opposite the cutting edge, leaving this end thin. the surfaces have become much more nearly flat, and the cross-section a rectangle with somewhat short ends and slightly curved sides. these belong to the period of the earliest stone graves or still earlier. they could be easily fastened in a wooden handle. this form is very common in scandinavia. the third form, the _breit_--or _dick_--_nackiges beil_, has almost exactly the shape of a thick chisel-blade with broad and thick back opposite the edge, and is rectangular in cross-section. it appears in the later megalithic tombs and the underground stone vaults or cists. [illustration: forms of prehistoric axe hammer axes--late neolithic. thin-backed axe. dunn-nackiges beil--early and mid-neolithic. palæolithic hand-stones--"coups-de-poing."] late in the neolithic period, usually after the introduction of copper, we find an axe--or "hammer-axe"--shorter and much thicker, somewhat in the shape of a very light stonemason's hammer, and with a hole for the handle. these axes sometimes had two cutting edges, sometimes one edged and the other blunt for hammering. many of them were exceedingly beautiful in form, design, and finish. but this method of fastening the head to the handle greatly weakened the brittle stone. many of them were probably merely articles of luxury or adornment. the hole was made by twirling a stick or bone, with plenty of sand, water, and patience. we have thus in the axes and the megaliths a well-established sequence of forms, but no means of fixing dates except at the beginning and end of the whole period. apparently there was a long time between the scandinavian shell-heaps and the fully established neolithic culture, of which we have practically no records. peculiar types of axes (except the mattock), and the megaliths do not occur in the province of the banded pottery, which itself will probably some day give us the clew to a system of chronology. the pottery of thessaly, thrace, and certain parts of the balkan peninsula is being gradually synchronized with that of mycenæan and pre-mycenæan greece. important discoveries seem reasonably certain in a not distant future. we can only wait for them with what patience we can assume. our real and definite knowledge of the age of the lake-dwellings is hardly better. hoops tells us that they belong to the beech period of the swiss flora. but this period may be much older in switzerland than in scandinavia; how much older we do not know. the underground stone burial-cysts of switzerland look late. the small number of the villages containing no trace of copper and the high grade of household arts and technique in even the oldest of them suggest the same conclusion. here again it seems dangerous to even conjecture a date. montelius, whose opinion on these subjects is certainly of great value, says: "all things considered, i am convinced that the first stone graves were erected here in the north more than , years before christ."[ ] (it may be safe, therefore, to date them provisionally between and b. c.) "the epoch of the dolmens with covered entrance (_gangräber_) begins about the middle of the third millennium b. c., and the epoch of the stone vaults or cysts (_steinkisten_) corresponds to the centuries about b. c." chart i. postglacial stages retreat of ice and changes +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ | | | parallels in | | | scandinavia | western and | asia and | date | | | middle europe | elsewhere[ ] | | +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ | | . aachen stage. | | , (to | | | | | , ) b. c. | | ice-retreats in| solutrean. dry | | [ ] | | northern | and cold. | | | | germany. | steppe and | | | | | tundra fauna. | | | | | | | | | swedish-finnish| . bühl stage. | | , (to | | moraines. | early | | , ) b. c. | | | magdalenian. | | [ ] | | | moist and cold. | | | | | tundra. | | | | | | | | | yoldia period. | middle magd. | | | | dryas flora. | steppe | | | | | loess formed. | susa founded. | | | | | | | | glaciers in | . gschnitz stage. | anau founded.[ ]| , b. c.? | | mountains. | late magdalenian.| neolithic | [ ] | | | | settlements in | | | ancylus | | crete. | | | dryas, birch, | | | | | pine | | | | | maglemose. | | | | | | | | | | littorina | . daun stage. | | , b. c.? | | depression. | | | | | optimum | azilian-tard. | | ( , ) b. c.? | | climate. | | | | | oak. | campignian. | sumerians in | | | shell-heaps. | | babylonia. | | | | | | | | full neolithic.| full neolithic. | predynastic | , | | beech. | | egyptians. | (- , ) b. c.?| | | | copper period. | | | | | | | | bronze period. | bronze period. | xi-xiii egyptian | , - | | | | dynasties. | , b. c. | +----------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------------+ chart ii. changes of climate in denmark[ ] . arctic climate. temperature about ° cent. younger yoldia layers, older dryas period. flora: _dryas octopetala_, _salix polaris_. . subarctic climate. temp. °- ° cent. older dryas. flora as in . . climate becomes moderate, continental. first maximum temp. °- ° cent. birches, poplars, junipers. . climate subarctic. temp. °- ° cent. birches. . climate arctic. temp. ° cent. _salix polaris._ . climate subarctic. temp. °- °. younger dryas period. . temperature moderates. dry continental climate. _a._ aspen epoch; _b._ pine period with oaks beginning to appear=ancylus period. . moderate insular climate. temp. °- ° cent. climatic optimum. older tapes layers, maximum of littorina depression. shell-heaps. . temp. °- ° cent. probably slightly cooler than . oak epoch. beech begins to appear but is still rare. younger tapes (dosinia) layers. . moderate insular climate about . ° cent. beech epoch. mya layers. these climatic changes seem to argue for a comparatively recent date for the littorina depression and the shell-heaps. chapter ix neolithic peoples and their migrations the study of history without a thorough knowledge of geography is almost as futile as the hope of interpreting the structure of the ape without thinking of his arboreal life.[ ] contour lines are of vast, often dominant, importance in the life of every nation. john bull has been moulded, if not made, by his island. italy could never be safe until its boundary followed the crest of the alps. great mountain chains mark limits, and river valleys are thoroughfares. whoever holds constantinople controls the trade of a boundless area. if this is true to-day, it must have been far more important in prehistoric times, when man had only begun to gain a certain degree of independence or mastery of nature. culture was then very largely determined by position and routes of communication. the alps and pyrenees formed a long, impassable barrier between northern and southern europe, broken only by the rhone valley; and northern europe was split into an eastern or middle and a western province by the juras, the vosges, and the forested ardennes. then, as now, the pass of belfort was the narrow opening, and belgium, always the battle-ground of nations, the great thoroughfare between middle europe and france. from the south, and to a certain degree from the west, middle europe was not easy of access. but to the eastward there are few or no natural boundaries as it goes over into the great russian plain, of which north germany is practically a westward projection. we might possibly go farther and accept literally the somewhat exaggerated statement that all europe is only a peninsula of asia. osborn has called attention to the fact that from paleolithic to neolithic time europe gave rise to no new races.[ ] the immigrants entered their new home with all their physical and mental characters already fixed or determined. the routes of migration of the successive waves of lower paleolithic immigrants are still unknown. remains of chellean and acheulean cultures are rich and widely distributed everywhere around the mediterranean, especially in northern africa, at this time well watered. the entrance of neanderthal man into europe may well have been from this direction. the cro-magnon race very probably came along the northern or southern shores of the mediterranean, and then pushed northward into france; though the evidence is far from compelling. the race is evidently asiatic in its physical characters, reminding us of tribes still living along the himalayas, most strikingly of the sikhs. if they entered from the south, northern africa was a station on their march, not their original home. the solutrean culture may have been brought by the brünn people, who probably came through hungary and up the danube, but its origin and route of migration is still very obscure. breuil's arguments for the migration of magdalenian culture from poland across europe are very strong, and his view seems to accord well with the facts, though osborn seems to lean toward a somewhat different interpretation.[ ] the broad-headed people of furfooz and grenelle apparently came by the central european route. the only race showing any negroid characters is that of grimaldi, apparently accompanying the cro-magnons, few in number and having little or no influence on the population of europe. evidently the mediterranean region was far more precocious than northern europe, and the genuine mediterranean race may have arrived here bringing the neolithic culture almost or quite as early as the beginning of the upper paleolithic epoch in france. sergi is of the opinion, though he does not press it, that the mediterranean race originated in africa, perhaps in the region of the great lakes, and that its most primitive representatives of to-day are the hamitic peoples along the southern shore of the mediterranean.[ ] his definition of the race is based less upon mere breadth and length of skull than upon contours and form and development of regions. it was a work of observation, insight, and genius, and was a landmark in the progress of the science of anthropology. the area of distribution of the race takes the form of a y, the arms following the north and south shores of the mediterranean while the stem or lower portion extends through asia minor. it includes the hamitic peoples, also the pelasgi and the hittites, but leaves out the semites. huxley had described the distribution of his melanochrooi, or dark europeans, very similarly, except that in his group the stem of the y lay farther south and extended into arabia. in locating the origin of the mediterranean race in africa, sergi was doubtless influenced by the opinion of darwin and others that man's birthplace was in africa. nearly all paleontologists to-day favor the asiatic origin; and the stem of the y stretching eastward toward asia minor or arabia points to a possible or probable primitive route of migration. the asiatic cradle is really in better accord with sergi's theory, and meets some objections or difficulties better, than the african. we vaguely located this asiatic cradle somewhere westward or northwestward of the great plateau of thibet. we may call it the iranian plateau, using the term in the broadest possible sense, including afghanistan and perhaps western turkestan: a great area extending more than miles from northwest to southeast, where it sinks into the valley of the euphrates. we found a branch of the great negroid race starting very early from this region and migrating westward past arabia into africa. this was an easy line of least resistance through regions where the moist, cooler climate of the glacial period brought only blessing instead of calamity and curse. the hamitic and semitic peoples naturally followed the same route, travelling as one people or nearly together, if the relations between the languages are as fundamental and close as some good authorities think. the semites settled in arabia, while the hamites went on westward and found a home along the southern shore of the mediterranean. we do not know when this migration took place. this route was easy and wide, and led into a broad, favored continent. it would not be surprising if for a very long time most of the travel went this way. we may venture to guess that neanderthal man may have followed it long before the beginning of the hamitic-semitic migrations, but this is only a guess. while rich, well-watered, and probably park-like in its flora during the moist climate of the glacial epochs, it was sure to degenerate into desert as the climate became warmer and dryer; as the sahara desert is dotted with the remains of paleolithic settlements where the explorer to-day is in danger of perishing from thirst. any traveller by this southern route must pass through italy or spain before reaching northern europe. [illustration: _f. b. loomis, del._ migrations of peoples . the southernmost route to the mediterranean and africa. the middle part of this route follows roughly breasted's "fertile crescent," as shown in his history of the ancient world, around the headwaters of the euphrates and tigris. . middle route through asia minor. . northern route around caspian sea to carpathians. _a._ grass-lands and steppe. _b._ iranian plateau (central portion). _c._ valley of mesopotamia.] a second great western route must have begun very early to compete with the african. this led along the curve of the mountain ranges of persia and armenia, with breasted's fertile crescent at their base, up the valley of the euphrates and elsewhere into asia minor. this route continued in use as a great thoroughfare for migrating peoples and invading armies through historic times. xenophon and his , explored it. it is surrounded on three sides by water, although mountain chains cut off the influence of the sea to some extent. it is a plateau of glade and forest, though the forests have now largely disappeared. it has the features of a semitropical climate; here the flora of northern and southern provinces meet and overlap. one great characteristic of the region is the abundance and variety of its fruit-trees. it was apparently the original home of apricot, peach, fig, and orange, as well as of other fruits introduced into italy from this region by the romans. the vine is luxurious. somewhere along the line of this great thoroughfare the wild olive was domesticated, improved, and transformed. oaks, walnuts, chestnuts, and many smaller growths furnish a variety of nuts. the open glades tempted to agriculture and furnished no small contributions of grain to rome. though suffering from dessication, it may yet again become the garden of the world. when once a wave of westward migration had entered asia minor it was walled in on the north and south by mountain and sea. there were no by-roads. crowded and pressed from behind, it could not stop until they reached the shores of the Ægean sea. here there were two possible outlets. one was by sea, using as stations the islands with which the sea is dotted and leading to crete and to greece. crete, according to evans, was settled some , years ago, and is on the whole less easily reached by short voyages than attica. a second outlet led across the hellespont and around the Ægean sea into greece, or still farther northward and westward around the adriatic and down into italy. we might add still a third fork of this great highway running northward to the danube. when we remember how neolithic settlements in northern europe clustered around the lakes and dotted the river valleys, the primitive minor routes of communication, how early islands like crete in the south and gothland in the baltic were settled, we can imagine the importance of a city--or even a village--like troy even in prehistoric times. here a sea route running east and west crossed a great land route running north and south. here was a point of exchange, trade, and transshipment--if we may use the word. we do not wonder that before the close of the neolithic period, and perhaps far earlier, patterns and influences were radiating through the balkan region, far up the danube, and we know not how far into russia. it is hardly an exaggeration to say that greece, and italy to a less extent, were in climate and many other features bits of asia minor, almost shut off from northern europe by the great alpine barrier. the two regions were entered by different routes, each of which had left its mark on its travellers. immigrants seeped into italy and greece through broken and rough mountain regions. great invasions were difficult or impossible. they were sunny, smiling lands compared with the grim and dreary north. men living in this milder climate did not need to be gross eaters. they lived from the fruits of their orchards to a far larger extent. nuts were in early times almost a surrogate for grain. the olive furnished a delicious oil, and the grapes wine. the butter and cheese of northern europe were neither needed nor desired.[ ] most of these habits, tastes, and desires had become fixed during the march through asia minor. the peoples which gradually went westward from the iranian plateau through asia minor, across or around the Ægean sea into greece and italy and spain, generally found a very similar environment from beginning to end of their long journey. there was little in food, climate, or conditions to compel or stimulate change. everything tended to more firmly fix in their structure the already long-inherited characters of their iranian ancestors. these characteristics thus fixed have become stable and persistent, and have remained so in modern times in spite of repeated invasions and infusions of northern blood. we are perhaps justified in speaking of a mediterranean race. it seems strange that sergi should find traces of his mediterranean race in russia. did these find their way so far northward directly from the mediterranean area or are they merely sporadic groups more resistant to modifying influences; or are they perhaps groups which have separated from the westward migration at the hellespont and turned northward? the nordic peoples of europe are perhaps after all not so far from their mediterranean cousins. the mediterranean race still holds its own around the mediterranean. in france its blood is much mixed and greatly diluted with later infusions. in england it has generally been almost completely swamped by aryan invasions. neither of the two routes already sketched leads directly into middle or northern europe. the trend in both is toward the mediterranean. we must now consider the third and last route, which is of chief interest to us. we have already seen that the black sea prevented all migrations northward from asia minor except at the hellespont. eastward from the black sea lies the caspian, probably much larger in glacial times. the two seas are separated by the forbidding, almost unbroken, mountain barrier of the caucasus; but a narrow passage at each end is left. east of the caspian sea must lie the point where a more northerly westward route diverges from the road through asia minor. our third route starts, therefore, from the northern edge of the iranian plateau, perhaps mostly from turkestan, and runs westward north of the great barrier of seas and mountains just described. it follows the great steppe or prairie which stretches through southern siberia and russia into hungary. its western portion lies along the valley of the lower danube, the great east and west artery of communication and migration through europe. it lies farther north than any other great route, and leads over steppe instead of through forest. as the arabia-africa route was the first to be traversed, this may well have been the last. furthermore, the route through asia minor, ending in a sort of _cul de sac_, may easily have become well inhabited and hence less open before the neolithic period had begun in northern europe. it was by no means the most attractive route. it offered far less to people in the collecting stage than the well-watered parklands of asia minor. the steppe offers to the hunter few means of concealment or approach to the game. the animals are swift and wary. in any migration of peoples toward the frontier, the hunters lead the advance and spread out like an army of scouts. every river which crossed the steppe would offer to them a tempting by-road leading off into the forests of siberia or russia. how deeply they would penetrate into the primeval forest or away from the river valleys is still a question. very likely they would find their best hunting-grounds not very far from the northern edge of the steppe, where the forest is less dense. this question we cannot yet answer. but most of european russia is well watered, and here these hunters would find themselves at home. the main route of the steppe would be left for a very different population. the piedmont zone of grasslands in turkestan was an ideal land for primitive agriculturists practising a hoe-culture, as at anau. the northern edge of this steppe zone, where it joined the forest, may have been equally favorable. but the piedmont zone and the river banks of the steppe must have been occupied by agriculturists before , b. c., probably much earlier. pumpelly's explorations seem to warrant this view. alongside of agriculture, but at a somewhat later date, sheep-herding and cattle-raising were practised. but the nomad of these days was a less dangerous neighbor than at later times because the horse had not yet been domesticated. during these post-glacial times he would be less dangerous here than farther south around arabia, when the dryness which finally produced the arabian desert was making itself felt, burning up the pastures and leaving only the choice between starvation and migration in mass. again comparing this migration with the pioneer movements of peoples in historic times, we have good reason to believe that the sheep-herders and cattle men--and they were probably both at the same time--advanced faster than the agriculturists, who were more bound to the soil. between herdsmen and farmers there were almost certainly many intermediate grades. we may be fairly confident, therefore, that the movement or tide along this route did not take the form of a procession marching in lock-step, but of a series of waves, generally with hunters in front and along the forest flank, herdsmen in the middle, and farmers bringing up the rear and making permanent settlements at favored spots. hunters had been spreading northward at least as early as the beginning of upper paleolithic times. farming on the lowest grades of agriculture is essentially neolithic. a town or village had risen at susa , years ago. neolithic civilization probably reached crete nearly or quite , years ago. small sumerian cities were being founded in southern babylonia at or before b. c. population was increasing in density in the iranian plateau, as almost every mountain region with its healthy atmosphere and low death-rate quickly becomes overpopulated. our pioneer column was continually pressed forward by new recruits from the rear as well as by its natural increase. we have practically no records of the march. but our sketch is no mere invention of fancy. it applies to every great migration of peoples extending over centuries or millennia. the last illustration was the great westward movement in america beginning a century or two ago, and still far from completed. the hungarian plain is the last extension of the great south russian steppe far into europe. west of this anything like nomadic life was practically impossible. here our pioneers scattered and followed the river valleys, settling more or less permanently the loess deposits as farmers, but on less favorable soils devoting themselves more largely to cattle-raising. the latter form of life seems to have been more common on the great north german plain, though accompanied by much hunting, a genuine pioneer life. we may now turn to europe and consider the distribution of its races and peoples. of the route of migration of the neanderthal race we have no sure knowledge. the wide and rich distribution of ancient paleolithic implements in egypt and northern africa tempts us to guess that it represents a very early migration along the arabian route after the negroids and before the hamites and semites. we have glanced at the origin of the cro-magnon people, and have discovered our uncertainty. the tardenoisian culture, with its pygmy flints, is exceedingly wide-spread,[ ] and seems to have started in europe in the mediterranean region, arriving from still farther east. we are tempted to guess that the great bulk of westward migrations in paleolithic times followed the southern, arabian, route, but there were probably exceptions. coming down to neolithic times we find the hamitic peoples in africa, apparently representing the first wave in the migration of the mediterranean race. it may well have arrived at its present home long before the beginning of the neolithic period. it had followed the southern route. peoples physically and racially closely akin to the hamites followed, probably in successive waves. the tardenoisian people, if their culture was carried by a distinct people, may represent an early wave. the bulk of the population of greece, italy, and spain followed, but migration seems to shift gradually from the arabian route to that through asia minor, as the zone of most favorable climatic conditions moved slowly northward. before the close of the neolithic period the relations between greece, crete, and western asia minor have become so marked and close that they almost represent one culture and people. the mediterranean race, thus established in europe, spread northward. it could not cross the alpine barrier. it followed the rhone valley and the atlantic coast, and furnished the basic population in france and great britain, though here frequently crowded back into corners or submerged by later invasions, peaceful or otherwise. it furnished the great link or means of communication between the mediterranean basin and the far north of europe. schliz has some reason for calling these megalith people largely traders. in a cave near furfooz, belgium, there were found crania, probably of azilian-tardenoisian time, noticeably distinct from those of the long-headed or dolichocephalic paleolithic peoples in being short--and broad-headed, brachycephalic.[ ] brachycephalic crania, perhaps early neolithic, were also found at grenelle near paris. we remember their occurrence in the shell-heaps at mugem, portugal. similar crania were found of about the same age at ofnet, bavaria, on a tributary of the danube. somewhat later we find broad-headed people occupying the higher lands of southeastern france, the _massif_, juras and vosges, forming thus a north-and-south zone separating france from middle europe. they seem later to have gradually spread westward, somewhat irregularly, and to have mingled with the mediterranean peoples of france. the relation of these "protobrachycephals" to the great alpine race, most of which arrived later, is still a matter of discussion, and the whole problem of the brachycephalic peoples bristles with interesting questions. they seem to have originated in the mountain regions of western asia, possibly in or near the armenian highlands, though this has been disputed.[ ] it looks as if they came originally from a region bordering on or overhanging the steppe route and came into europe by way of the valley of the danube. there were certainly several if not many waves of brachycephalic migrations into europe, of which this was the first. other waves may have come from different parts of a great area, and hence show modifications of type. everywhere the neolithic brachycephals seem to inhabit mountainous or rough country, perhaps because of preference, perhaps because as they gradually made their way they found these regions unoccupied. they seem to be an unassuming, unpretentious, peaceable, exceedingly persistent and enduring stock, which has held on its way with remarkable pertinacity. some still maintain that brachycephaly is everywhere largely an adaptation to conditions and habits of life.[ ] the rough country, generally heavily forested, and well populated with this quiet but firm and solid people, greatly hindered free communication between france and central europe. no human remains have been found in the danish kitchen-middens, which may well have been heaped up by broad-heads from belgium but apparently mingled with eastern immigrants who brought with them the domesticated dog not found at mugem. they left their axes and picks in sweden and across into norway. behind them came people bearing the nostvet culture.[ ] our knowledge of russian prehistory is still very scanty. but we find here a variety of cultures, such as we should expect from a confusion of hunting tribes far from their original home much broken up and remingled during the long migration. we find in poland the remains of a culture akin in its carvings to the magdalenian culture of western europe. it would hardly have crossed europe from the west. breuil[ ] seems to consider it as the station from whence it was carried to france. the question is exceedingly interesting and important, but is one to which we can give no sure answer. the carved bone implements are certainly to be found in poland and to the northward. behind these bits and wrecks of tribes and cultures, for they were hardly more, came the first great recognizable body of nordic peoples, probably also in successive waves mingling on this northern coast toward which they had been drawn by the climatic optimum. kossina,[ ] who has given an excellent account of these early northern migrations, speaks of them as _urfinnen_ and _urgermanen_, primitive finns and germans. _urskandinavier_, primitive scandinavians, would seem to be a more appropriate name. for the centre of the least mixed blood of this group is to be found in the scandinavian peninsula. these scandinavian representatives of the so-called nordic race or stock are characterized by tall stature, blond complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and long head and face. their origin is still a matter of much discussion. kossina and others derive them from cro-magnon people, following the reindeer in its migration northeastward from france at or toward the end of the magdalenian epoch. some suggest that the cro-magnon people were also blonds. if this were so they formed a marked exception to the color of paleolithic stocks coming from and through southern regions. the possibility cannot be denied. but, if the cro-magnons were light-colored, they have left no traces of this in their descendants at perigeux and elsewhere. the face of the cro-magnon was short and broad, that of the scandinavian long and narrow. it might have changed but has not done so at perigeux. the cro-magnon race was already declining in physique and numbers during the magdalenian. even if all migrated, could they have furnished enough descendants to give rise to the scandinavian population? it seems to me far more probable that the scandinavians were hunters or partially herdsmen, who had wandered by the steppe route through the forests or along their edge, and had lost the dark pigmentation in the northern climate. this has been noticed, perhaps to a less extent among asiatic steppe-dwellers. the study of prehistoric anthropology in russia, a vast territory, is still in its infancy. we have touched upon only one or two of the questions concerning this so-called nordic race, which is probably hardly more than a name for a mixture of peoples.[ ] we must not forget that even in scandinavia we find traces of a very early immigration of short-headed people.[ ] we still know little concerning life in north germany during the neolithic period. it was probably what we should call pioneer life, where hunting and cattle-raising and a rude tillage combined to furnish support. we must now turn to the valley of the danube. here we find a population characterized by similar ground form of skull, although according to schliz[ ] showing two fairly distinct varieties, a longer and a shorter cranium. probably this population arrived in several successive waves. its culture is evidently homogeneous. they are agriculturists forming fixed and permanent settlements, practising farming of a high grade. the characteristic implement is the mattock. daggers and lance-heads are rare, or fail. they were a peaceful folk settling by preference, though not exclusively, in the loess districts, as at grosgartach. we find, as we had every reason to expect, that northern germany and scandinavia were peopled by a pioneer folk not yet completely agricultural. the danube people represent the farmers of the steppe whose migration probably went on more slowly and gradually, and who always remained more homogeneous physically and culturally. they may, or may not, have reached the danube valley as early as the germans and scandinavians arrived at the baltic, for they had far less distance to march. they spread out westward and northward. here we trace them by their pottery. starting from hungary and the surrounding regions we find them in moravia, bohemia, silesia, across south and middle germany as far as the rhine. we have already noticed that the banded pottery covered all this region, while the home of the corded pottery was north germany. but, while the form of the banded pottery is quite constant, the ornament varies greatly. we find the plain, often rude, saw-tooth pattern, the meander and scroll, the spiral-painted pottery--sometimes in the southeast plant patterns, perhaps introduced. i regret that i cannot find any clear or definite theory as to the exact relations of any of this pottery to that of anau or susa. the greatest variety, as well as the most complex patterns, seem to occur in most southeasterly regions, which, at least in later neolithic times, were much under the influence of the Ægean culture, just as western europe borrowed from italy and spain. here there was evidently a great and very complex mixture of cultures, and probably of peoples all of one great primitive stock, shown least modified in the mediterranean race, here more influenced, changed, and varied by steppe climate and conditions, and more or less admixture. along the swiss lakes we find the lake-dwellers. the few human remains from the earliest lake-dwellings are all brachycephalic--short-heads. then in the period when copper was beginning to come in we find long-heads arriving in greater numbers, but the short-heads regain their superiority during the bronze period. the weight of evidence seems to favor the view that these settlers did not come from the zone of "proto-brachycephals" inhabiting eastern france, but represent a new immigration from the east, and, according to schliz, founded fortified settlements on the heights of baden, wurtemberg, and along the valley of the rhine as far as cologne.[ ] we have seen that the pottery of these earliest immigrants was crude and almost or quite without definite ornament. northern and central europe seem to have been settled mainly or almost entirely directly from the east, along western russia and the danube valley. but, especially toward the close of the period, people from the megalithic zone seem to have penetrated much farther southward into germany than their monuments would prove. schliz thinks that he has recognized their skulls as well as calyciform pottery over a wide region. their presence seems fairly clear, but whether they were comparatively very few in number, or fairly numerous, is still uncertain. there seems to be good reason for believing that in late paleolithic time the population of middle europe north of the alps was very sparse and the baltic region hardly inhabited. a hunting population without domestic animals except the dog pressed northward through russia in waves and fragments, and along the baltic mingled with a strain coming from the west, probably broad-heads from belgium. the great scandinavian and north german peoples followed with a frontier culture, a combination of hunting, fishing, cattle-raising, and agriculture mingled in proportions varying according to time and place. their exact route of migration from the region of the steppes must yet be traced. but the weight of evidence favors an eastern origin. at a time probably not so very far from their arrival in the north, agriculturists--we might safely speak of them as farmers--were coming into the danube valley and spreading along its tributaries. apparently somewhat or considerably later the lake-dwellers appear along the northern piedmont zone of the alps as broad-heads, marking the arrival of the advance guard of the great alpine race of to-day. but here again our certainty is not as firm as we could wish. they extend northward toward and along the rhine valley. the close of the period is marked by the southward spread of peoples from northern germany crowding back the farmers characterized by the banded pottery. this movement is augmented somewhat, perhaps very little, by recruits from the megalithic zone of northwestern europe and denmark. all these people are closing in on central or middle western europe. in the rhine valley along the middle of the course of the river we find a region of mingling or overlapping cultures which have not yet been satisfactorily disentangled. we have spoken of them as pioneers. it was a time and place of pioneer, frontier life. and frontier men and life have their peculiar physical, cultural, mental, and temperamental characteristics, almost apart from time and place. the people have something, at least, in common with the great american westward migrations and frontiersmen of a far later date. we have the successive waves of hunters, herdsmen, and farmers often overlapping or mingling. we have a grand mixing of peoples and cultures, if not of races. many a fine art or technique is left behind. life is rude, hard, vigorous, vital, joyous. it was so yesterday, it was probably so millennia ago. for the stratum of frontiersman and barbarian--not to say savage--lies just below the surface in us all, and a scratch exposes it. this was a period of vitality, hope, and promise. chapter x neolithic religion man's ancestors, as we have seen, owed their progress to their training, policing, and harassing by stronger and better-armed competitors. the earliest vertebrates developed a notochordal rod of cartilage, and then a backbone, by the habit of swimming forced upon them by the mollusks and crustacea which held the rich feeding-grounds of the ocean bottom along the shores. in early paleozoic time the sharks crowded the ganoids in successive waves toward and into fresh water, until finally some crawled out on the shore as amphibia. land life and air-breathing gave the possibility of warm blood and high development of brain, and a strong tendency toward viviparous and finally intrauterine development of the embryo. reptiles harassed mammals into the attainment of a certain amount of wariness and intelligence. the comparatively weak primates were kept in the trees and forced to develop hand and brain by the fierce and well-armed carnivora. only a "saving remnant" has progressed, and these mostly under stern and strenuous pressure. the "aspiring" ape exists only in our imagination. the apes had become accustomed to life in the trees, and found it safe and comfortable. a change of climate compelled those dwelling farthest north to seek their living on the ground. most of them fled southward, many became extinct, a few came down and adapted themselves to the new mode of life. nature was in no sense a "fairy god-mother" to them, but a stern, harsh disciplinarian whose method of education was "not a word and a blow and the blow first, but the blow without the word, leaving the pupil to find out why his ears had been boxed"[ ]; and nature's cuffs were frequently fatal. the pupil had to learn by others' experience. paleolithic man lived in france poorly armed and ill-protected against a threatening climate steadily changing for the worse. food may have been abundant, but enemies hunting for him were also numerous. he was compelled to be keen, watchful, prying, wary; to discover distant danger, and to notice every trace of its approach. he learned the habits and behavior of animals, and the ways of things--an excellent course of study. he had to rely on his wits, and they were none too keen or many. some things he could understand: he learned to avoid or to ward off many dangers. others seemed altogether beyond his understanding or control. here he could only wonder; but the wise old greeks knew that wonder was the mother of wisdom. he wondered at storm, lightning, hail, and flood; at disease and death, and a hundred other things. he sat in the mouth of his cave and watched that strange creature fire devouring the wood and sending smoke and sparks skyward. he thought a very little in a dull, stupid way, dozed and dreamed and awaked to wonder again. or he saw fire raging through the forest and fled for his life. but it was warming and fascinating, and somehow akin to himself. did it not devour wood and lap up water on the hearth? he seems to have come to feel rather than recognize that he was surrounded by invisible powers, in some respects like himself but vastly more powerful, who knew what he was doing, and who would hurt him if he did certain things and might help him if he did others. certain places were to be strictly avoided, certain objects must not be touched, certain things must never be done, or could be permitted only at certain times. they were taboo. he has started on a long journey of exploration, experiment, and discovery. how had he come to believe this? largely through hard experience of nature's buffets, whenever he acted contrary to this hypothesis or feeling. his religion was largely one of fear fitted for a savage mind, though not without a mingling of hope. of course in us cultured folk perfect love, sentimentality, softness of fibre, heedlessness, forgetfulness, and general superficiality of life--to make a very inadequate list--have combined to cast out fear, "for fear hath torment"; and we thank god loudly that we are so much wiser than our benighted ancestors. even our new england fathers feared god, though they feared nothing else, but we fear only everything else except god and law. but the unlucky scientific wight living and working in the shadow of adamantine law remains in hopeless bondage to fear. "nach ewigen ehernen, grossen gesetzen mussen wir alle unseres daseins kreise vollenden."[ ] these great powers might not necessarily be hopelessly hostile. they might be appeased or won over, possibly controlled. what could he do to please them? for something must be done. here ritual arises.[ ] possibly he offers to one or more of them a share in the feast which he so much enjoys after a successful hunt. in time this may become a sacrifice, sent up and out on the wings of fire.[ ] or he practises a wind or rain dance as the outlet and expression of his intense desire; and to awaken, encourage, and help the powers of these elements. he holds a hunting-dance to rehearse and gain power for the killing of the bear. call it objectification of his heart's desire, or magic if you prefer. magic and religion grow up side by side, and probably from the same root in these early stages: as alchemy and chemistry, astrology and astronomy will spring up later. the pictures on the cave-walls of france probably had a magical or religious purpose. here we find very few representations of human beings. but in a rock-painting at cogul, possibly neolithic though probably older, we see a group of women apparently engaged in some rite of magic or religion. the occurrence of amulets also does not surprise us. we cannot make a study of primitive ritual magic and religion, their origin, form, and content. but even our hasty glance shows us that man had been wondering and thinking about this subject during millennia before our neolithic time, had been forced to accept many profound convictions, containing germs of sublime truth overlaid, like our own, with many errors; he had elaborated a system of ritual, and had travelled far along the road of religious experience and discoveries long before this comparatively recent epoch. the conspicuous features of the religion of this ancient period of primeval stupidity, or _urdummheit_, to borrow the german word, were the host of invisible powers or dæmons, and the law of taboo, the forbidden thing. breach of taboo rendered not only the individual lawbreaker but the whole tribe, however innocent, liable to punishment. the whole community was responsible for every deed of any and every one of its members, and suffered or prospered accordingly. when agamemnon had wronged the priest of apollo, the god shot his arrows not at agamemnon but throughout the innocent greek host. the children of israel were routed at ai, because achan had taken the devoted or forbidden thing. this stage of tribal responsibility seems to be practically universal. it gave the law an iron grip on the people, tamed them, and made them march in lock-step, a necessary stage of terrible discipline. but only under the protection and stimulus of this tribal feeling of common responsibility and resulting tribal conscience could the individual conscience be gradually awakened and developed, and finally break through the cake or crust of custom into freedom and light. all these forces and influences were acting throughout the neolithic and later periods, and are still with us. perhaps we can gain a tolerably distinct and correct view of neolithic religion among the mediterranean peoples by a glance at the ancient greek mysteries. students of greek art and literature quite naturally have been very slow to take interest in these crude, often ugly and indecent, rituals. but for this very reason the primitive stands out all the more sharply defined against the brilliant, beautiful, artistic olympian religion of greek art and literature, and particularly of homer. students like professor murray could hardly be expected to explore these lower strata with great sympathy. for this very reason, as somewhat unwilling witnesses to whatever is good or great in primitive greek ritual, their testimony is all the more valuable, though probably hardly as just as that of miss harrison.[ ] we shall follow mainly professor murray's vivid portrayal.[ ] in his _saturnia regna_ he pictures the ritual and belief of the ancient greeks before the arrival of achæans or hellenes in any strict sense of the word. strictly speaking, it is a description of the religion of the bronze age during the earlier part of the second millennium b. c. it has been growing, developing, and undergoing modifications since neolithic time, but in all its essential features it is ancient. we find here very few traces of the chief olympian divinities, which belong to a later age than the objects of worship or cult of these ancient peoples whom we venture to call pelasgi. they worshipped powers or dæmons in indefinite numbers, but with no individual names: represented, if at all, by emblems or symbols, very rarely in bodily human form. of these spirits of death, disease, madness, and calamity there were "thousands upon thousands, from whom man can never escape or hide." so much is mainly a heritage from paleolithic times. but the conception of spirit has grown more clear, distinct, and elevated, as we saw in our study of burial rites. but neolithic men lived in communities and devoted themselves largely to tillage of the ground and to raising sheep, goats, swine, and cattle. their life was still precarious. "their food depended on the crops of one tiny plot of ground. all the while they knew almost nothing of the real causes that made crops succeed or fail. they only felt sure it was a matter of pollution, of unexpiated defilement. it is this state of things that explains the curious cruelty of agricultural works, which like most cruelty had its roots in terror, terror of the breach of taboo--the 'forbidden thing.'" neolithic man, with his new discoveries and industries, had given new hostages to fortune, and a new and wider scope of application to the old doctrine of taboo and of tribal responsibility. this strengthened the hold of the priest or magician on the hopes, fears, and faith of his people. the law is going deeper as well as wider. there arises an individual feeling of pollution and of the need of expiation which will blaze out in the oldest greek tragedies as almost a veritable sense of sin. we might almost say that a sense of morality toward the spirit world is now appearing in a religion previously almost or quite unmoral. we may easily overestimate the extent and power of the change, but we can hardly be mistaken in recognizing its dawn and the vast germinal possibilities of this dim feeling or conception. in agriculture and throughout nature seed-time was followed by harvest, fall, and winter's gloom and death. then in the next spring there was a return, a rebirth or a resurrection. if the seed failed to come up, if the blade withered or was blighted, it was because the vegetation spirit or dæmon had failed to reappear or had been reborn weak or sickly, and all this because some one had broken taboo, had touched the forbidden thing. this must be prevented at all cost, they must help the spirit. hence there must be every year a time of purification, of renovation, when the old garments and utensils and everything which could carry the pollution of death were cast off or cleansed. all these conclusions, and some others of equal importance to which we will return later, are expressed or symbolized in the great dromena, festivals, mysteries, or whatever you may call these rites of pre-homeric greece. then, for a time, they are partially, though never totally, eclipsed, by the brilliant beauty of the olympian religion with its glorious temples, statues, and other works of art. the olympian gods had conquered the world. they practise neither agriculture nor industry, nor any honest work. they fight and feast and drink and play. they are conquering chieftains, royal buccaneers. the olympian religion had its time and place, and did its work. it swept out many indecent features of the older cults, many superstitions and abuses. it suited the achæans and their civilization exactly, and we can never forget its "sheer beauty," but it went bankrupt, lost its hold on men's minds and hearts, failed and faded out. professor murray compares its end to that of a garden of rare exotic flowers overrun by the rank weeds which it had temporarily displaced. miss harrison more justly compares it to a flower withering because cut off from its roots. there was vastly more vitality in the ancient crude symbols and chaos of conceptions than in the ordered and artistic olympian hierarchy with its marvellous representations of the gods in human or superhuman form and beauty. even its art and literature could not save it. it had lost its mysticism. the old neolithic religion, handed down by peasants and artisans reoccupied the field, transformed sometimes almost beyond recognition, like the ugly duckling of the fairy tale. it returned triumphant through sheer power of unlimited vitality and adaptability. plato draws his finest illustrations from its mysteries, out of which, also, the greek drama arose. paul quotes from them or from a similar stratum of belief. some of the many sources of its vitality are obvious. it was rooted in the firm conviction of the existence of a spiritual world toward and into which its every rootlet was forcing its way and from which it drew nourishment and power. we might better change the illustration and say that it was slowly developing a spiritual eye which peered into a higher world and developed in keenness and clearness of vision in response to the higher pulsations. by patient experiment and experience, which produced a hope that could not make ashamed and a faith in which hope and experiment combined, it was feeling its way into spiritual knowledge. it knew nothing of practical science or of material cause and effect. but its world pulsated with the universal life. it recognized the law of forbidden things and the sure penalty of law-breaking. it had a tribal conscience and recognized the need of purification. it had the promise, at least, of individual conscience and consciousness of sin. its symbol was the mystery which lifted only a corner of the veil and left an abundant opportunity for wonder, imagination, thought, and mysticism, which was entirely lacking in the perfect statue and the finished creed. it made man, through its sympathetic magic, a coworker with his divinities or dæmons in gaining the answer to an intensive desire or prayer acted by all the members of the community with all their united might, instead of expressed merely in words, the utterance of his whole being and life. such a system or chaos overflows with sublime possibilities. the introduction of agriculture had produced another most important change in religious views and ritual. in tillage the earth brought forth and gave birth to the crops which furnished their chief food supply, and probably, in their view, to animals and men also; just as the human mother gives birth to the child. hence there was a wide-spread belief in, and cult of, an earth divinity, of course female, or in a goddess or dæmon of fertility. she is sometimes or usually accompanied by a male partner, companion or son, but he occupies a lower place. [illustration: female idols, thrace] [illustration: female idol, anau reproduced from "explorations in turkestan." carnegie institute of washington, publishers.] this cult of the goddess seems to have been a marked feature of neolithic religion.[ ] we find it in the remains of the minoan periods in crete; isis and her companion god osiris were very prominent in egypt. the cult was wide-spread throughout asia minor: diana, or better artemis, of the ephesians, ma in anatolia, the great goddess of the hittites are a few examples. farther eastward we find astarte. pumpelly found a female idol (astarte?) at anau. the cult dots, if it does not cover, the old middle migration route. we remember the wide-spread distribution of the painted pottery from susa to anau and over to boghaz-keui in the land of the hittites. art and religion are closely related during the early times and a wide-spread type of art suggests, though it does not prove, an accompanying form of religion similar throughout the same wide area. in greece we find demeter, and in "pelasgic athens" the goddess athena always held the highest place. hera may well have been another great goddess of the pelasgi. when the conquering achæans came in and their chieftains wedded the princesses of the land, they married their god zeus to the goddess of the land. hence this cult has been displaced and its records blotted out by later changes. that so many traces of it outlasted the bronze age is a proof of its firm hold and great vitality. we have studied these ancient cults in greece and the mediterranean basin because here they are easily discovered and can be restored. they are covered by only a thin layer of later cults which could not destroy their vitality. when we attempt to explore northern europe the situation is quite different. christianity blotted out all traces of the worship of odin and thor; what it could not blot out it took over into its own service in a modified form. behind thor and odin we see the shadowy form of dyaus (ziu?), perhaps a sky-god akin to the hellenic zeus, whose name has come down to us in our weekday, tuesday. behind all these we must search for traces of the deeply buried and almost obliterated genuine neolithic cults. these traces could persist only as superstitions of peasants. we notice first of all that we find one race extending northward along the coast of france into england and denmark, the zone of the megalithic monuments. in this zone we find figurines and carvings of divinities. here déchelette tells us that the female divinity was undoubtedly preferred as the guardian of the tombs.[ ] this zone was so closely connected with the mediterranean region that we should expect nothing else. in southeastern europe, around the valley of the danube, at cucuteni, jablanica, and elsewhere, we find figurines, and here again the female divinity is at least the more prominent, if not decidedly dominant.[ ] déchelette tells us as to its source: "from the earliest times striking analogies have been proven between the old villages of the danube and the balkans and the Ægean settlements of the troad and phrygia. primitive idols, painted pottery, frequent employment of the spiral in decorative art: all these occur scattered through the stations of southeastern europe in neolithic times and in the eastern mediterranean basin in pre-mycenæan and mycenæan days. between butmir (near sarajevo, bosnia) and hissarlik (troy) these discoveries mark the routes which without doubt were already opening communication between the pre-hellenic peoples and the pre-celtic tribes." reinach adds: "eastern europe, part of asia minor and of egypt, have been revealed as very intense centres of neolithic civilization."[ ] they may be traced in rare examples still farther northward into bohemia and even in thuringia. but their distribution outside of southeastern europe is very sparse. traces of the worship of an earth mother,[ ] though vague and few, can still be discovered in the superstitions of the peasant folk of northern germany. a primitive belief in spirits of the earth, of vegetation, of fertility--of dæmons who preside over the crops, who die in the autumn or winter and reappear in the spring--is common in the folk-lore and customs of the peasants in many parts of europe. our maypole has an interesting history and is probably the last survival of an ancient cult. still other more interesting illustrations might easily be cited.[ ] the balder-myth is familiar to us all. he is a "rare exotic," entirely out of place in that circle of berserker gods and brutal giants who lived in or over against the norse valhalla, but would have found himself at home in the land and times of dionysus. have we possibly here an intrusion of a far more ancient religious element which even the rude dwellers in a harsh northland could not forget, and would not allow to die? usually accompanying the cult of the goddess we find frequent and wide-spread traces of a related trend of thought, mother-right (mutterrecht), maternal kinship, matriarchy: under which were generally included the reckoning of descent in the female line, rights of inheritance by the daughter, hence female rights of property and general high social and economic position of woman. these features need not be united--they may appear separately, one here and another there. we are probably not studying a system of thought or law, but a general tendency of life.[ ] mother-right, to use the most general term, survived, partially at least, down to historic time in egypt. it persisted in asia minor. perhaps it crops out in the story of the amazons. we find traces of it in ancient law and custom in northern europe. says hoernes: "among the greeks, romans, celts, germans, and slavs, remains of mother-right occur even in historic times."[ ] wundt thinks that maternal kinship was once universal.[ ] we have no time or room to discuss the origin of mother-kinship. we may yet find that it and mother-right represent distinct forms of a deep-seated universal tendency, often of independent origin, occurring usually together but sometimes separate. something akin to mother-right, and to a high position and dominating influence of woman in the family and in society, is only what we should expect at this time. we have seen that women were the first great discoverers and inventors; discoverers and founders of all our household arts and crafts as well as of most of our science. women were the first spinners and weavers, the first potters. they were the first herbalists and botanists and the first household physicians. in the care of the children they were compelled to be alert, quick-minded, ready for all sorts of emergencies. paleolithic man was a mere hunter; the rest of the time he ate and loafed. the woman provided the vegetable food, as well as much of the animal, and became the first gardener or farmer. she introduced tillage of the ground, and thus became economically by far the more important member of the partnership, and she probably had by far the more alert, quick-witted brain. the establishment of agriculture was followed by the cult of the earth-mother, who gave birth to all the fruits of the ground and probably to all life. the goddess, with or without a male companion, was the head of the hierarchy. this again could not have been without its influence. says miss harrison: "woman to primitive man is a thing at once weak and magical, to be oppressed, yet feared. she is charged with powers of child-bearing denied to man, powers only half understood, sources of attraction but also of danger and repulsion, forces that all over the world seem to fill him with dim terror. the attitude of man to woman and, though perhaps to a less degree, of woman to man is still essentially magical. man cannot escape being born of woman: but he can, and if he is wise he will, as soon as he comes to manhood, perform ceremonies of riddance and purgation."[ ] one other fact deserves notice. in times of dearth the savage man always eats up all the grain reserved as seed for the next year, and there is none to sow. this is the rock on which attempts to introduce agriculture among savages or nomads have usually been shipwrecked. here the priest, or perhaps priestess, of the goddess came to her aid, armed with the weapon of taboo. against this alliance the poor, stupid, clumsy, and slow-witted neolithic man struggled in vain. he could vent his fury by pulling his wife about by the hair, but this availed little or naught. he had to submit and be resigned. female magic increases in power as we approach the frontier and frontier life. at the fall of the roman empire northern tribes swept away the old civilization. grass grew in the ruined cities, only villages remained inhabited. the priests, by a liberal preaching of hell and other dire torments, attempted to subdue these barbarians to law and to introduce order. agriculture and industry rearose or returned slowly. finally after the "dark ages" great cathedrals sprang up, dedicated not to apostles or martyrs but to the virgin, queen of heaven. mr. adams tells us that at this time the women of france were the real leaders. is this apparent parallelism mere chance, or is it due to a certain amount of similarity in conditions? some one has said that our neolithic ancestors, especially the megalith-builders, were priest-ridden. if he had added that they were tamed and led, and very possibly diligently hen-pecked, by a veritable matriarchate, i suspect that he would have discovered and correctly estimated the two great sources of their marvellous progress. for at this stage, as at some others, the priests and the women were the élite, and the government was, therefore, ideal for its day. but the tendency was based upon something far broader and deeper than changing social and economic conditions and religious feeling. even the "mere man" must admit that it was biological and natural. "nature," says humboldt, "has taken woman under her special protection." she has always been partial to the female. throughout the long period of mammalian evolution she has showed very little regard for the males. the more they fight and kill one another off, the fewer useless individuals to feed. the same tendency reaches its logical conclusion in the parthenogenesis of insects. havelock ellis says of woman: "she bears the special characteristics of humanity in a higher degree than man, and represents more nearly than man the human type which man is approximating." he boldly asserts that man seems to be the "weaker vessel," and brings strong arguments for his assertion.[ ] "das ewig-weibliche zieht uns hinan." the buried pelasgic religion regained its rightful place. it had more vital reality than the olympian. has the great roman catholic church, in its worship of the virgin, retained at least the symbol of an element of vital reality which we protestants, in our recoil from so-called "mariolatry," have neglected to our cost in favor of a purely paternal conception of god? we leave this question to the theologians. chapter xi progress it is a far cry and long and weary road from the ape descending from the trees and the ape-man shuffling over the ground, keeping close to his arboreal refuge, to the lake-dweller and builder of stone monuments. there was very little in the appearance or structure of the ape-man to encourage great hopes for the future. the sleek, graceful, wiry, well-armed cats were far more attractive, promising, and thrilling actors on the world's stage. why did not they progress, win the future, and insure that all the future meetings of art and learning should be held on the back fence? they certainly did not progress--that is a stubborn fact. they had largely or completely exhausted the possibilities of their special line of development; as cats they were perfect and could dominate the portion of the world in which as cats they were solely interested. this was an impassable bar to progress. why should they change? they were so thoroughly conformed to the environment of their time and conditions that any marked change would have been a disadvantage. but when conditions did change, and the fashion of the world which had produced them passed away, they became out of fashion, "back numbers," incapable of meeting new emergencies and crises--like men, parties, and governments in all ages of human history. they suffered from over-adaptation and the resulting limitations. man did not make this mistake. isolated tribes and even races might settle down in contentment, become completely adapted to easy conditions of life, and stagnate or degenerate. but a saving remnant was always marching out into new physical or social surroundings, exposed to new needs, fears, and opportunities, and readapting itself to meet and profit by them. man was not, and could not be, precocious. he was always a bundle of possibilities and great expectations, which he has even now only begun to realize. overpopulation, or other pressure in his primeval home, resulted in great racial migrations, sending him all over the world to seek his fortune. he became one of the very few physically cosmopolitan animals, living everywhere from the equator to the arctic zone. he became toughened and hardened and adaptable, able to live under the most trying circumstances. everywhere he had to be a close observer, watchful and wary. he was weak and defenseless, and his life depended upon his quick recognition of "nature's signs of displeasure," upon the full exercise of his few small wits. he learned to be faithful in a few things. we need not repeat or review this weary chapter of his history. "there were years that no one talked of. there were times of horrid doubt. there was faith and hope and whacking and despair." man was experimenting with all kinds of climates and conditions. it was in the hard and cold northern regions that he developed farthest, though less rapidly at first. we have already glanced at the educational results of language, of family life in the rock-shelter around the fire, of the fashioning and use of tools, of his love of ornaments and display, of his dawning and clearing self-consciousness, of the beginnings of ownership. we have noticed his burial rites and their suggestions. all these may have been rude and crude, but they contained the germs of vast possibilities, though painfully slow of development. his "castles in spain" were his richest possessions, though he probably never knew or suspected them. one hundred thousand years of human life in europe produced nothing higher than neanderthal man. suddenly, at the beginning of upper paleolithic time cro-magnon man appeared. his splendid physique and large brain, his production and appreciation of art, and many other qualities, have led some one to speak of him as the "prehistoric greek." in our enthusiasm we may easily overestimate his powers; but, as we study him and his work, we feel that here was a great race, and that now some great human possibilities are to be fully attained and made permanent. apparently he had come from the plateau region of western asia. near his birthplace there must have been other peoples capable of great things. we remember that susa was probably founded not much later than the beginning of the magdalenian epoch in europe. but the cro-magnon folk decreased in numbers, in stature, apparently also in ability and vitality. during the period of transition to neolithic time europe was occupied only by a sparse population of fishermen along the rivers, while barbarous hunting tribes were working their way northward toward the baltic. the shell-heaps of denmark are the monuments of the attainments of this epoch. a higher civilization had already entered the mediterranean basin. it was building houses, villages, possibly forerunners of the greek city-states. especially in greece they were sufficiently separated to allow independence of development and great variety, and yet near enough to one another to prevent the ill effects of complete isolation. here there was rapid interchange and improvement of physical and mental attainments, mental stimulation and rivalry, change and progress. implements, weapons, pottery; new discoveries, inventions, ideas, arts, and habits of life and thought spread slowly and gradually from these centres of progressing culture far to the northward. this was undoubtedly one important source of stimuli. but we must not overestimate its influence.[ ] it spread through france into england and denmark. as time went on this northward current increased and strengthened until, during the bronze period, the baltic region, especially denmark, became almost a second mediterranean centre of culture and art; just as at a far later time flemish cities became the venices of the north. but the north was never a beggarly dependent and imitator of the south. it selected and accepted only what it would, almost always modified and frequently improved what it had selected. [illustration: ancient fishermen from the mural painting by fernand cormon in the muséum d'histoire naturelle, paris.] the larger part of central and northern europe lay outside of this great current and was reached by it only slightly and very indirectly. these regions or provinces were largely working out their own civilization and culture. what then was the real source of neolithic progress?[ ] it is not to be sought in great wars and revolutions. genuine wars are carried on by nations with a national government, and as yet there were no nations, and even tribal government--outside of religion, the great bond of tribal unity at this stage--was probably weak, loose, and inefficient. there were no such strong towns or city-states as sprang up later in greece. there were here no nomadic hordes to be driven by drought from their withering pastures to migrate _en masse_ and force their way into less thirsty and starving regions. there was, as yet, no great overpopulation of mountainous areas compelling raids or forays into piedmont zones. the nearest approach to this condition is the slow, evidently peaceful penetration of parts of france by broad-heads from its eastern uplands filtering in and mixing with the long-headed older population, and betraying their arrival mainly by a change in form of head and rise of cephalic index. there was little wealth to tempt invasion. there were no cities or large towns to plunder. there were wide stretches of land thinly or not at all populated and open to any newcomer. all that we know of neolithic religion, far more dominant in tribal life and action than the very feebly developed political or social organization, the cult of the goddess, and the accompanying mother-right, suggest peace. the great invasions of the bronze and iron periods introduced or stimulated the cult of war gods and patriarchal family life and kinship. but these were still in the future. the picture of europe at this time as a great arena of roving savages, thirsting for blood and always at war, seems to be a caricature. the people of the banded pottery were evidently peaceful. they left no weapons except mattocks and hammers. no one, i believe, has ever accused the broad-heads of blood-thirst. the graves of northern hunters with corded pottery are all about grosgartach. the little village was deserted and decayed. it showed no signs of having been burned. the lake-dwellings were open to attack at all times, especially after the ice had formed during the winter. robenhausen during its long history burned several times; hardly as often as most of our new england villages. here a single brand or fire-tipped arrow in a thatched roof would have destroyed the whole settlement. only in northern europe, in the country of the corded pottery, do we find great attention paid to the making of fine weapons like the flint daggers and axes. here we have chiefly herdsmen and hunters. here there were probably village incompatibilities--donnybrook fairs, cattle-lifting, and forays. but these should hardly be dignified with the name of wars. we find then some north german peoples at the very end of the neolithic period pushing southward, often by peaceable infiltration, sometimes perhaps by violent incursions, when the resistance was great.[ ] says wundt:[ ] "so long as he is not obliged to protect himself against peoples that crowd in upon him, primitive man is familiar with the weapon only as an implement of the chase. the old picture of a war of all with all, as thomas hobbes once sketched the natural state of man, is the very reverse of what obtained. the natural condition is one of peace, unless this is disturbed by external circumstances, one of the most important of which is contact with a higher culture." we remember, also, the fewness of fortified villages in northern europe until toward the end of the neolithic period, and then mainly along great routes of migration; and around mines and workshops. they seem to fail altogether in scandinavia at this time. even the wars, battles, or quarrels which occurred probably hindered progress far more than they aided it. haeckel in his younger days was fierce in his denunciations of the stupidity of war. political or economic revolutions could hardly occur when there was probably little organized government and even less wealth and class difference. conditions in france may have been somewhat different. here the great stone monuments suggest a denser population under a more advanced organization, religious or political, or both, reminding us of conditions in the mediterranean region, with whose culture it was closely connected. here fortifications seem to have been quite numerous.[ ] but our knowledge is too slight to allow even a conjecture. [illustration: early agriculture from the mural painting by fernand cormon in the muséum d'histoire naturelle, paris.] in the southeastern part of europe we find the people of the banded pottery who practised an advanced form of agriculture. here apparently the men as well as the women worked in the fields. we find their stone mattocks and ploughshares. hoe-culture was giving place to ploughing. here men were receiving a very different education and training from the hunters, fishermen, and herdsmen of the north, though there also a gradual increase of tillage was doubtless taking place. they were tilling the ground laboriously, monotonously, doing what was wearisome and disagreeable for a reward sometimes large, sometimes scanty. the peasant farmer learns forethought, thrift, economy, industry, and a host of homely virtues, far less known to hunter or herdsman. he is no more a collector taking what he finds: he has gone into partnership with nature. he is studying her ways, moods, and whims. he amasses a steadily increasing store of most valuable lore concerning climate, weather, soil, plants, animals, and things. he is rooted in a little patch of ground. his outlook is narrow and he is slow to change. but he learns his lessons thoroughly. he may enter the school unwillingly but he stays in it. he has a permanent home even if it is hardly more than a hut, which is the centre of his life and thought. it is a hard, healthy life, and population increases rapidly under such conditions. he probably has a large family of children, and they educate and socialize him and one another. he is trained and moulded by "home surroundings." is not this the history of the frontiersman or homesteader everywhere at all times? the home and family attachments and instincts are deeply rooted because very ancient and entirely natural. he lives in a village or neighborhood, which is hardly more than a great patriarchal family, closely united by intermarriage, and by the pressure of common work to satisfy common needs, common ownership of the soil, mutual aid in hard times. the religious rites and ceremonies, the feasts and mysteries, the prayers or magic, are all community affairs. many of the divinities are local. these religious bonds are all the firmer and more compelling because, in the lack of any developed and permanent political organization, religion is the great tribal bond. we easily forget the civilizing, refining, and improving unremitting pressure and power of these simple, uninteresting peasant influences. he is learning to get on with the members of the family and neighborhood. he is experimenting upon his neighbors: his experiments and experiences may often be very trying to himself and them; the results may sometimes be discouraging. but he is not only practising the essentials and fundamentals of morality, very incomplete and without code; but a sort of preparatory course in government. it may easily be self-government in these small villages. the town-meeting originated here or somewhat farther north. we have already seen that his religion had grown out of the experiences of his daily life. may we not claim that science and a sort of philosophy may have sprung from the same source? he knew nothing of cause and effect in the material world. but he was seeking diligently the invisible bond of relations of things and events. the relation, according to his views, was mainly of a spiritual character through the agency of dæmons. his ritual, call it magic if you will, was the expression of his conviction that results in the material world might be modified by his lending a helping hand to all the beneficent spirits. he indulged freely in hypotheses, but these were the outgrowth of millennia of experience and life, a very healthy form of pragmatism. he who has never laughed at a modern scientific theory, useful and fruitful in its time but now outgrown and replaced by a somewhat better one, may cast the first stone at his "benighted" neolithic ancestor. we might even venture to suspect that in his own crude way he was a philosopher. he must have had something like a philosophy of life, even if it was hardly more than a dumb instinct. says miss harrison: "dike" (usually translated justice), "in common greek parlance is the way of life, normal habit. dike is the way of the world, the way things happen, and themis is that specialized way for human beings which is sanctioned by the collective conscience, by herd instinct. a lonely beast in the valley, a fish in the sea, has his dike, but it is not till man congregates together that he has his themis. greeks and indians alike seem to have discovered that the divine way was also the truth and the life. this notion of the way, which was also the truth and the life, seems to have existed before the separation of indian from iranian. closely allied to dike and to vedic rta is the chinese tao, only it seems less moralized and more magical. deep-rooted in man's heart is the pathetic conviction that moral goodness and material prosperity go together, that if man keep the rta, he can magically affect for good nature's ordered going."[ ] thus primitive man, long before the dawn of anything like civilization, was seeking, finding, clearing, and treading out the "way" to an ordered, right, and healthy individual and social life--not through, but to, codes of morals and systems of philosophy. his thought was more or less chaotic, perhaps; it was crudely, often indecently, expressed in ugly form or action; but it was always acted upon, kept close to life. we might possibly call him an "ur-pragmatist," if you will pardon the barbarism. he had neither the language nor the "conveniences for thinking" and other things, to write out a cool, logical abstract system in long words. in this we have outrun him until we have left him out of sight. his philosophy was not a guidebook or map, but a rough and often miry trail. we have tried to express briefly the results of a glance at the agriculturists of southeastern europe. before the close of the neolithic period they were in fairly close communication with Ægean culture and owed considerable or much progress to stimuli from this source. in the great essentials of human training and development something quite similar might be said of the lake-dwellers and the broad-heads of eastern france. north germany had a different culture and probably somewhat different religious cults and general views and conceptions. france and england, too, represented a quite distinct province whose peoples were always under mediterranean influence. denmark was already a meeting-place for a variety of cultures, thoughts, and influences. peoples were gradually closing in from all directions on the central provinces of northern europe, and here apparently they met. we find here a mixture of head-forms, of culture; mixture or modifications of styles of ceramic ornament, of burial customs--all suggesting a mingling of peoples of a variety of cultures. here at or toward the end of the neolithic period was the "melting-pot" for the fusion of these peoples and their cultures. there was conflict of customs and ideas, of _ways_ of life. there was probably much incompatibility, many broken heads. the pacific people of the banded pottery seem largely to have withdrawn, or been driven out, before the infiltration or invasions of northern folk. it was hardly a comfortable place for conservative pacificists. there were doubtless battles in many regions--perhaps now and here we might speak of wars. in some places there may have been extermination of the fighting men. but in most parts there was large fusion, and out of this mixture of cultures, ideas, thoughts, and habits of life came the culture of the beginning of the bronze age. the great characteristic of neolithic culture seems to be a rude, often barbarous, sometimes ugly but generally healthy, always hardy and vigorous growth--it grew "like a weed"--the manifestation of an intense vitality. because it was healthy it was essentially and generally fairly sane, matter-of-fact, whole, and balanced. the neoliths were certainly no "reversed cripples," in whom one or two of the less essential powers had outgrown and dwarfed the man. it was an adaptable stock giving rise to many marked and vigorous varieties, from whose intercrossing something great and good could hardly fail to arise. green refuses to write a "trumpet-and-drum history of england." "happy the people--here we cannot say nation--that has no annals." here is surely a certain amount of truth which we may be in danger of forgetting. in plants, and often in men, a long period of silent unnoticeable growth usually precedes the brief season of flowers and fruit. is this the rule in racial, or internal, development? is it true, as some historians tell us, that a dormant period of national history best repays investigation, and that dormant peoples will bear watching? is the dormant nation often storing up nutriment, strength, vitality, just as the plant is doing in its ugly underground roots and stem? are fallow periods necessary to its fertility and apparently dormant times essential to its life and growth? must periods of energetic action and effort be followed by times of exhaustion and rest, as in the history of the strong athlete rejoicing to run a race? is china awakening from just such a dormant period? what of india, still the home of philosophy? because a nation, after bearing a marvellous harvest of culture, thought, art, or religion, seems barren and exhausted, does this discourage or arouse the hope that it will some day produce an equal or greater fruitage? how about "darkest africa"? here surely we have a case of degeneration beyond all hope of recovery, not to mention a great future. but is this quite as certain as some of us seem to think? is not much of our so-called occidental progress really an orgy of wasted energy, neurotic excitement, half-camouflaged decadence, which will end in degeneration? we do not know yet. may there some day be a family rather than league of nations to which every one will contribute according to its special ability? if this be granted, will huxley's statement concerning the individual be applicable to races and peoples: "its aim will be not so much the survival of the fittest as the fitting of as many as possible to survive"? these are sphinx questions demanding an answer from statesmen. unfortunately most of our statesmen are only waiting to be gathered to their fathers in the graveyard of dead politicians. we will turn homeward after our excursion, gladly leaving our little bundle of facts and questions at the door of the philosopher of history. but one question confronts us directly. is our whole estimate and valuation of neolithic life, work, and progress extreme and practically worthless? were they, in spite of all our arguments, a mob of crude, worthless barbarians, undeserving of any gratitude or sympathy, much less of respect? do we really owe anything to them? one historic event of great importance had its growth and rise during the neolithic period out of neolithic life, conditions, and culture. this was the aryan culture of persia and india, of greece and rome, and of our northern ancestors. no one seems to deny its importance and value. we must glance at its origin and growth, and see if it supports at all the tentative and often conjectural conclusions at which we have arrived. this will be the object of our work and study in the next and closing chapter. chapter xii the coming of the indo-europeans said max müller in his _biographies of words_: "i have declared again and again that, if i say aryan, i mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair nor skull; i mean simply those who speak an aryan language. the same applies to hindus, greeks, romans, germans, celts, and slavs. when i speak of them i commit myself to no anatomical characteristics. the blue-eyed and fair-haired scandinavians may have been conquerors or conquered, they may have adopted the language of their darker lords or their subjects, or vice versa. i assert nothing beyond their language.... to me an ethnologist who speaks of aryan race, aryan blood, aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar." we may well take this warning to heart, and remember that the first and most noticeable, if not the one essential, characteristic of the aryans was their language. for the sake of convenience and clearness, and of avoiding misunderstanding or prejudice, we will use the word indo-european for the whole group of languages to which müller applied the word aryan. these languages fall into two great divisions or branches: ( ) the indian and iranian (persian), which we will call aryan; and ( ) the european branch, including greek, latin, german, slavic, and others. our first question is: what inferences can we safely draw from a study and comparison of these different european and asiatic languages? evidently they have all sprung from a parent language no longer adequately represented by any one of them. they have all been considerably or greatly modified during the lapse of time. they, and others whose names we have omitted, are all sister languages descended or developed from a parent language which must once have been spoken by a people, very probably representing a mixture of races, having a definite local habitation, cradle, or home. here the language originated as the expression of a certain culture or civilization, and from this region, large or small, it spread into persia and india and throughout europe. the wide spread of the language testifies to the superiority in some important respects of either language, culture, people, or all three. we may well recognize two homes, the first, original cradle of the language and culture, and the second homeland, far more extensive, over which the original language, probably with well-marked dialects, was used just before the final separation and dispersal. in its distribution from india to western europe it must often have wandered far from its original home. its introducers must often have been few compared with the large and dense populations among which they came. the aryans could have been hardly more than a handful among the peoples of india. something similar may be said of its introduction into europe about the close of the neolithic period. middle europe was at this time fairly well populated, at least in its more fertile regions. the bearers of the new language must have represented a ruling, conquering, or otherwise very influential class, else it would never have been accepted by the mass of the people. when the original or modified indo-european language, perhaps in several distinct dialects, was introduced into europe, it was carried to peoples of several or many stocks and languages. these had to learn and acquire it as we acquire a foreign language, but only as a spoken, unwritten language. probably no one of them acquired it exactly in its original form. it was almost impossible for them to pronounce all its consonants or combinations, its "shibboleths." they retained much of the stress and accent and more of the cadence of their own tongue. similarly at a far later date latin developed into the various romance languages of modern europe. under the new conditions content and meanings changed as well as forms of language. words little used in the new home, especially names of objects, might easily be lost, while others would be replaced by favorite apt words from the aboriginal language. a name might be applied to a new object and thus change its meaning. to cite a familiar modern instance, the robin redbreast of america is quite a different bird from that of england. for a long time it was supposed that the occurrence of the root of the word "beech" in the european languages proved beyond doubt that the language must have originated in a region where the beech-tree was common. but the greek word derived from the same root means oak; a similar, perhaps not the same, root word in kurdish means elm. our knowledge of the original meaning of the word is very uncertain. through all the languages there runs a single word for weaving or plaiting, but whether the original word referred to the weaving of cloth or to the plaiting of mats or baskets we do not know. the work of discovering and restoring the original language is difficult and far from finished. but the comparative philologists or "linguistic paleontologists" have established certain facts, or at least theories, on which we may rely with a fair degree of confidence. we find names for all the most important domestic animals, including the horse. there are words for the wagon, its wheels, and various other parts. words for tillage and land cultivation agree in the western branch, but are far less noticeable in the aryan languages. here the vocabulary is rather that of the herdsman. this seems to allow us to conclude that, when eastern and western branches separated, and probably long before that time, the eastern people were herdsmen paying slight attention to agriculture: the western predominantly tillers of the ground. the linguist, as we have already seen, is frequently or usually unable to discover the exact meaning of the word in the original language, and hence is uncertain as to the degree of development of any art or technique. but the culture, as far as discovered, seems to be that of the average of neolithic peoples, perhaps fairly well represented by that of the swiss lake-dwellers. it may have varied in different areas or provinces. the language seems to represent most clearly features of the undivided life and settlement of the people or peoples when it had spread over a wide territory and become the property of a large population, otherwise it would be impossible to explain the successive great waves of indo-european migration. the cradle where the language originated and took form must have been far more limited and the culture simpler. the original language contains words for summer and winter, ice and snow; it tells of a fairly cold climate. they had a common word for metal, probably copper, hence they were living together after the introduction of this metal. they lived in villages apparently surrounded by a hedge or wall, or some sort of fortification. the family was decidedly patriarchal. of the older mother-right scarcely more than traces remain, survivals from an older alien culture. the goddess is no longer supreme. a new divinity, a sky-god, or sun-god, or manifestation of light or brightness had already appeared--the greek zeus, latin ju-piter, with the same root appearing in all the languages. the earth-goddess is not banished, but remains as consort of the male divinity. the supreme divinity of the religious cult is no longer local. there is in it an element or germ of universality overleaping all provincial boundaries, in many respects a vast improvement over the old neolithic religions. it generally held its own, but only by adopting much from the older native religions on which it was superimposed, as was the case in greece. indo-europeanism must have had something to recommend it and make it highly attractive to enable it to spread so fast and far. the language itself, while apparently somewhat clumsy, was certainly rich in conceptions and shades of expression. the clearness and beauty of the religious cult may have attracted some, though this seems doubtful. all these features are inadequate to explain the rapidity and extent of its spread. we must leave this problem for the present. even the original language frequently describes the same object or even action by words having very different roots. it shows great variety in synonyms and inflections. feist compares it with english and considers it a "mixed language" almost from the start, and many facts seem to favor this view. this does not surprise us when we remember that its growth and development were late, during the latter half of neolithic time, when great movements and minglings of people were taking place and long routes of trade and communication had opened. the date of the earliest migrations of indo-european peoples is roughly indicated by the presence of a word for metal, probably copper, in the original undivided language. aryan names appear in western asia about or b. c. meyer says that the achæans had arrived in the southern balkans as early as b. c. and reached greece about or b. c.; the dorians followed about b. c. we can hardly be far from the truth if we consider that they were in their original home until about b. c., and that the separation began very soon after. their development was a product of the neolithic period, their spread was the striking event of earliest historic times. inasmuch as their migrations are so recent, especially when compared with those of the semites, it ought to be possible for us to discover certain traits which they brought with them from the homeland. the achæans had apparently marched southward from hungary or thereabouts through the balkans into greece, arriving there not far from b. c. they did not come in one invading horde but in successive waves, each crowding the other before it. behind the achæans came the dorians, behind them were the thracians and other wayfarers. their unit of organization was the band, brotherhood, or clan, each with its own leader, reminding us of the scotch clans of a century or two ago. they came with their horses and carts, perhaps with war-chariots. they were the "horse-taming" achæans. they were youthful, red-blooded, irresponsible and irresistible, careless, untamed barbarians, swaggering in from hard battles and long campaigns, having seen the manners and tested the might of many peoples. they came in contact with ancient, settled, staid, conservative pelasgic wealth and culture. they were the rough riders of their day. they were hard drinkers and fighters; loud, boastful talkers, good-natured if not opposed; good "mixers." their chieftains married the princesses of the old régime, who seem to have held the right of succession in the kingdom or city-state. the wooing was rough and more or less forceful; but i suspect that the princesses yielded not altogether unwillingly, even if the course of true love did not always continue to run smooth in after years. they married their gods to the goddesses of the land, and made little further interference with the old Ægean religion or popular life. in comparison with the native peoples who had builded tiryns and mycenæ the achæans were probably few, scattered over greece. they probably robbed the subject peoples with one hand, but with the other they defended them against the forays of sea-pirates and other enemies. they were no worse than former native rulers, far better watch-dogs of the city, attractive leaders of an admiring crowd, the best possible missionaries of a new culture and language. they turned the old neolithic world upside down. evolution had brought revolution: old things passed away and, for a time, all things became new. we cannot easily overestimate the extent and importance of the change. the leaders, and naturally their followers to a less degree, show clearly the characteristics of the new era, which wundt has called the age of heroes in distinction from the age of totemism and the iron supremacy of tribal custom. the chief feature was the rise, development, and dominance of individual personality in the leaders and the enthusiastic, individual loyalty of the members of the brotherhood or clan. up to this time the individual has been entirely submerged in the customs and culture of the tribe, whose control has been mostly in the hands of the old men and the priests; now the young warrior and champion has grasped the reins. in all homer's pictures the ranks of the common people, however firm, count for little. the battle is won in single, hand-to-hand combat by the leader--a dour giant of an ajax, a dashing menelaus, "good at the rescue," a crafty ulysses, a heroic hector. the wisdom of old nestor is endured with kindly tolerance, hardly with enthusiasm. it is an age of young men with all their virtues and vices. but every leader is a distinctly marked individual; no two are alike. city-states are beginning to appear, but their success depends very largely on the wisdom and power of the ruler, who seems at first to be largely irresponsible, a despot in the ancient sense of the word. it is anything but a true democracy, but it is government by the élite of their day and world. the new era or _zeitgeist_ is putting its stamp on all its peoples. homer's description of the achæans would apply almost equally well to the celts when they first appear in history; and kindred spirits are marching and fighting in india and persia. all seem to represent a new type which all brought from the common homeland. the chieftains, with this clan or brotherhood of warlike followers, came into a country occupied by agriculturists or peasants unused and untrained to war, such as we have found in the mediterranean region and in most of northern europe. conquest was usually easy and left little bitterness. there was no national consciousness or pride to arouse resistance. it was a totally different kind of invasion from that of nomadic semites in asia, or of mongols into europe. it came almost as a new movement, a renaissance for which the people were ready. celt and greek alike were usually absorbed and lost in the masses of the people to whom they came. physically they produced little permanent change in the people with whom they mingled. they seem to have accepted fully as much as they contributed, and may often have received credit for many improvements which they really had little share in bringing about. we have already seen that greek philosophy and religion, while retaining much of the olympian or indo-european form, sprang essentially from the old pelasgic cults with their greater vitality. how far were achæans and dorians responsible for the glory of greek art, especially in "pelasgic athens"? the answer can hardly be as obvious and sure as it has appeared to some. how far was roman government and law due to indo-european influence? neither greeks nor celts seem to have been very successful in founding great or permanent states. italy was far less easy of access from the north than from greece, and rome lay well southward beyond the apennines. some of its most important political features seem to have sprung from uprisings of the _plebs_, the common people, probably mostly of native stock; others, perhaps, from the etruscans. i cannot attempt to answer this question or any one of many similar ones. the indo-europeans brought in a new era and started a new world; but just what was their definite and permanent contribution to european culture? europe had been long enough in the school of neolithic discipline. agriculture and settled home life had trained peasants to do many things which they disliked to do, to observe taboo and to obey ancient custom, to march in rank and file, and even in lock-step. it was a hard school in which savage man had been tamed, home-broken, and socialized, and he had learned its lessons thoroughly. it was high time that men should be promoted to a higher grade of education the aim of whose training should be the development of free and vigorous personality. the crust or cake of custom must yield or be broken and allow the individual to enter upon the possession of his rights. it was a critical and revolutionary change. it had been rendered easier by the accumulation of wealth, and of a certain amount of personal property in cattle and other goods. in centres of trade the individual was thrown more and more on his own resources and initiative. with exchange of goods came exchange of knowledge, ideas, and methods undermining the ancient customs and traditions. movements or migrations of peoples or smaller bands called for leadership by the most capable. and those became more and more numerous about the close of the neolithic period. neolithic culture had been largely the product of peace and isolation; it was inadequate to the new conditions. matriarchy and the cult of the goddess were unsuited to times of struggle and migration; with the rise of the chieftain comes the worship of the war-god. where did this change or revolution and the rise of this new language and culture and remarkable people take place? all agree that the cradle or original homeland must have been somewhere on our third route of migration, the great zone of steppe and parkland stretching from western turkestan westward along the caspian and black seas into the valley of the danube, and from the hungarian extension of the asiatic steppe northward to the great plain of north germany and to scandinavia. in our study of racial migrations we found that the great mongoloid branch went eastward from the neighborhood of the iranian plateau, while successive waves of migration turned westward into europe, both following a zone of steppe and parkland enjoying unusually favorable climatic conditions in early post-glacial times. the discovery of sanskrit and the belief that it represented the parent of the indo-european languages led students to place the original centre of their dispersal far toward the eastern end of this zone. when it became evident that this view of sanskrit was untenable, they began to locate the centre in europe. finally some or many students have sought it in the extreme west and north in germany or also in scandinavia. when careful and thorough scholars have arrived at so many and so different conclusions, we may well be cautious and remember that new discoveries may necessitate a change in our own views. the chief argument in favor of the north german homeland is anthropological. the earliest indo-europeans both in europe and asia were apparently blonds, with light hair and eyes; and such people have lived along the shore of the baltic since early neolithic times. the claim that the ancient celts and achæans were physically more like germans and scandinavians than any other european people is certainly not without foundation. it has been urged that the indo-europeans were acquainted with the sea and with the eel, which is said to be unknown in the tributaries of the black and caspian seas, as also their acquaintance with the beech. other arguments can be found in special articles. we have seen that arguments based on the meaning of words like beech, eel, and sea, rest on a very insecure foundation. the finns are almost as blond as the germans, and kossina[ ] places them with the germans as ancestors of the indo-europeans. there are in europe also blond brachycephals, generally acknowledged to have been of western asiatic origin. the arguments for a germanic origin are attractive, but hardly convincing, and anything but conclusive. the objections to this view are weighty. one marked feature of indo-european culture was the use of the horse, which held the highest rank among their domestic animals. but the domestic horse seems to have been introduced into europe from the east. the few traces of its presence in northern europe during neolithic times are usually explained as remains of wild animals killed in the hunt. if they played so large a part in indo-european culture, it is strange that they have left so few remains. kossina, in one of his studies, places the cradle of indo-european culture in "scandinavia, denmark, and northwest germany, wherever megalithic monuments with their characteristic pottery occur." wherever such monuments occur we find incineration coming in late in neolithic time, or more exactly with the bronze period, except in brittany and england, of which later. but incineration seems to accompany the progress of the european branch, and must have come into use among these peoples well back in their history to explain its wide occurrence. the word town, in the original language, seems to signify a settlement surrounded by a hedge or wall, or some sort of defense. but fortified towns are hardly known in north germany at this time. all these cultural features seem to appear somewhat or considerably too late in north germany to suit kossina's theory. a second feature of indo-european culture is the rise of the chieftain. but the germans seem to have borrowed the name for king and other expressions for military organizations, as well as many culture-words, from the celts. this fact has led some good authorities to declare that the germans received their indo-european language from the celts. the homeland of the indo-europeans must have supported a large population to send out all the tribes which went out from it. only such a region can satisfy our requirements, and such was germany, an _officina gentium_, some , years later. but we notice that the migrations of peoples have always set westward into europe, not in the reverse direction. similarly the new discovery or idea has come westward or northward from western asia or from the mediterranean region. the north has almost never been a centre of origination of new ideas and movements. it has borrowed from the richer south. we would not expect that the indo-european movement would form an exception to this rule. moreover, the peoples of the banded pottery who had filled southeastern europe, coming in, as is generally acknowledged, from the east, had brought with them a good knowledge of agriculture which could support a large population. now kossina finds evidence of the spread of the corded pottery southward at the close of the neolithic period, and infers that it was carried by a migration from the north. i am inclined to think that his conclusion is correct, though it may be doubtful whether the invasion went so far into the province of the banded pottery as he thinks. he sees in this the first stage of the indo-european movement which was to sweep eastward as far as india. the people of the banded pottery apparently retreated eastward before this movement, and thus tended still further to increase the density and power of resistance in these regions. furthermore, had this southeastward movement continued, it would have met the first of a series of waves of invasion which would surely have turned it backward. we have seen that all through the neolithic period brachycephals of the furfooz or grenelle race have been spreading from belgium and the rough eastern part of france. at the end of the neolithic period they are being crowded by the long-heads. during the bronze age the cephalic index rises all over middle and western europe. at its very beginning we find a new people in england--tall, rugged, heavy-faced round-heads, who burned their dead and deposited the ashes in round barrows. they seem to have come from the rhine valley, and may well have introduced incineration into brittany, where it appears early. they differ markedly in stature and features from the furfooz people. they have quite certainly come from the east, perhaps from the region of the armenian highlands. they have crossed europe in sufficient numbers and compactness to retain their anthropological characters until they strike england and crowd back the old iberian or mediterranean peoples. the movement looks like an invasion in mass, not like a quiet, slow infiltration. they were the forerunners of a general advance and spread of the broad-heads. were these people celts or at least partially celticized? to express an opinion on a celtic question is to accept an invitation to a donnybrook fair. anthropologically they differ markedly from the later celtic invaders. but their custom of incineration is certainly suggestive, and it is not at all impossible that they spoke a celtic dialect. they certainly seem to prove that the westward migration from the region of the black sea or from farther eastward had not ceased or been turned backward at this time. the spread of north german people southward at this time would have brought them where they would mingle with celts coming westward and receive their first lesson in indo-european language and culture, if it came from the east. there is at present a strong tendency to seek the original indo-european homeland neither in the extreme east or extreme west or north, but somewhere in the open country of southern russia lying to the north of the black sea or farther eastward toward the caspian. here they locate them mainly in a long zone of parkland extending along the southern edge of the forest zone and in the valleys of the great rivers. here at a much later date scythians were settled who raised large quantities of wheat, while others were nomadic. we remember that neolithic trade-routes followed mainly rivers and seashore. the islands of the mediterranean were occupied early and sea commerce found a centre in crete. a great centre of trade arose very early at troy (hissarlik), on the highway between the Ægean and the settlements along the shores of the black sea and in the valleys of the rivers descending from the interior. déchellette has called attention to the striking analogies in form of settlement, in primitive idols, in pottery with painting and spiral ornament between the villages of the balkans, troy (hissarlik) and of the troad and phrygia, and of the pre-mycenæan culture of crete and greece. "between butmir and hissarlik these discoveries mark the routes which already undoubtedly connected pre-hellenic peoples and pre-celtic tribes." meyer tells us that the banded pottery shows the same motives in ornament in butmir and tordos as in troy and the Ægean, and spreads thence northward and westward; and that painted pottery in europe starts at the end of the neolithic ( - b. c.) in the great plain east of the carpathians in the region of the dniester and dnieper, a region of high culture in other respects. "here the connection with the Ægean world is evident (_augenfällig_)." this people was agricultural. they burned their dead, and meyer thinks that incineration spread northward and westward from this centre. they show no use of metal. their culture breaks off suddenly at the end of the neolithic period. here is a region which stands in free communication with the agricultural population of the parkland zone, open to influences from the steppe, accepting the higher civilization of phrygia and the Ægean. it is a people of advanced agriculture, hence probably of rapidly increasing population, open to trade and commerce. here wide and free communications would be likely to prevent the formation of an unyielding cake or crust of custom. people meeting from all lands and cultures might well make and use a language capable of expressing a great variety of shades of thought peculiar to a variety of peoples and cultures; we might safely call it a mixed language springing from a mixture of peoples. here, as in the Ægean region, the more or less fortified town or village would be a necessity. here the horse and wagon would be early introduced from the east. here the patriarchate, so characteristic of nomadic tribes, would be early imported from the steppe, or may have been developed independently. there is a universality in the indo-european religion, a sanity and proportion in their whole mode of thought, a broad sympathy, a willingness to accept new ideas and conditions--in general, a breadth of mind which could hardly be the product of isolation but rather of men who had "seen the customs of many men and many cities," and could look with tolerance and charity on alien cultures and fully appreciate their worth and advantages. our teutonic ancestors carried their mental and cultural environment with them wherever they went. they were apostles of purity of blood and hence of isolation. they were never good mixers, as were celt and achæan. all three migrated and conquered far and wide, and both usually disappeared in the alien population. but the teuton left little impression on the alien culture, while achæan and celt leavened the whole mass. here, as in other respects, celt and teuton show an incompatibility and oppositeness which strongly suggest difference of origin. but we must carefully avoid too great certainty and definiteness of assertion. the weight of probability seems to be against any theory which locates the first, original homeland in the far east or in the far northwest. but we deal only with probabilities, and may well "carry our theories on our finger-tips." if the cradle was somewhere in southern russia north of the black sea, or somewhat farther east or west, its second homeland just before the great dispersal was vastly larger. myres thinks that it extended far to the eastward of the volga, which perhaps was the boundary between the eastern and western branches, and whose upper waters drained a very early home of the finns. the indo-europeans were settled in a goodly land capable with their improved agriculture of supporting a very large population. why did they migrate in all directions? here, again, we are left much in the dark. but pumpelly, in his explorations at anau, found the settlement deserted during the bronze period about the same time when we find the indo-europeans leaving the homeland. at anau there are signs that the desertion was due primarily to aridity or to disturbances accompanying such a change. it seems highly probable that climatic changes may have played a most important part in this movement, as they seem to have done in the later historical migrations from this region or from farther eastward. we may close this chapter of uncertainties with one deduction which seems fairly evident. if the germans were the first and original indo-europeans, the movement developed here directly out of preceding neolithic conditions. if, as seems more probable, it originated farther to the southeast, and was introduced by the celts, or in connection with the amber trade, it made little marked interruption in the development of the germans. they and the scandinavians continued to take from the south whatever they would, but their development was largely independent. a complete conquest of germany and scandinavia by the celts seems very improbable. the teutonic and scandinavian peoples were not precocious, and appear in history very late. but here apart, in the misty northland, a people was very slowly developing who, after the decadence and fall of rome, could come forward and slowly and wearily rebuild a civilization better than that which had fallen, and a government of, by, and for the people, guaranteeing to the individual the right of free action and development, the grandest feature of indo-european culture. this, rather than any precocity, is the glory of the northern peoples. once again we find history in the making in an inconspicuous people during an apparently dormant period. he that believeth will not despise the day of small things, neither will he make haste. if the vision tarries long, he will wait for it. "it shall come and shall not tarry." it will probably come by the way which he least suspects. there seems to be a wide-spread opinion that the rise of the indo-europeans was the first dawn of day in a benighted world. their migrations were a missionary movement on a grand scale. they dispelled darkness, ignorance, and superstitions, broke the crust of a stagnant conservatism, overthrew outworn customs, brought an entirely new culture, and revolutionized life and the world. we might call attention to the fact that indo-european culture and life were a product of neolithic experience, that it was the blossoming of neolithic growth, that it represented only one part or phase of neolithic attainment. "the best traditions make the best rebels."[ ] the question remains: was neolithic thought and feeling destroyed by their coming, or did it still persist, like a river flowing underground, and is most of our deepest life to-day a fairly direct continuation of the older current only somewhat modified by the revolution? we notice first of all the commonness or community of neolithic feeling and life, its almost monotonous uniformity, over europe, eastern asia, and probably even far wider areas. we may easily exaggerate this. the cultures of the mediterranean basin, of spain and france, of the danube valley, of northern germany and scandinavia, not to mention smaller, more isolated provinces, showed well-marked differences. there was probably more diversity in the people of every one of these provinces, especially at centres of trade, even in every larger village, than our hasty study would lead us to suspect. but in fundamental characters there was wide-spread and marked similarity; and this, like the wide range of dominant genera and species of animals, is a sign of vitality and fitness. the neolithic period coincides roughly with the latter part of wundt's totem age: the bronze period ushered in his age of heroes.?[ ] during the first period the individual counted for very little, everything was tribal. in the second period the great leaders of popular migrations emerge, young, vigorous, hot-blooded. with the appearance of these "kings of men" comes the rise of nations. tribal control wanes, and the slow development of individual, personal judgment and conscience, self-control, and responsibility replaces it to a great extent. we read in the history of israel that the long egyptian bondage of a stiff-necked nomad people, being broken to the rudiments of order and civilization, was followed by an exodus and a period of judges or popular leaders, when "there was no king in israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." it was a period of lawlessness and anarchy; recovery was slow and painful, and finally only partially attained by the appointment of a king. a similar education, on a vastly larger scale both of area and time, was going on all over europe. prehistoric man was guided and controlled by feelings usually expressing the dictates of a long experience out of which instincts had crystallized. his feelings were his instinctive responses to new emergencies. he could not analyze them, reason or argue about them; he was spared the "malady of thought." he had little or no logic or science; his philosophy, as we have seen, was a _way_ smoothed by the feet of his ancestors. he was a man of taste in the literal sense of the word. he knew what he liked and what he disliked; probably he could not have explained the reason for either feeling. he was wise in following these instinctive feelings and tastes; they represented the accumulated and assimilated experience of millennia. of course the experience had been that of individuals. neolithic man's school and laboratory of education was mostly the family and the neighborhood. here he had to learn to get on with other individuals, to live and let live, to practise co-operation and mutual aid. here he learned the first and grandest lessons in morals; that he would be done by as he did, and hence that it was best to do as he would be done by. he has never lost or forgotten the lessons learned in this excellent "dame's school." most of his higher education--and hence of his feeling, conscience, religion, and life--was tribal. laws, or rather customs, were propounded by the elders of the tribe or priests, an exceedingly conservative court. the chief aim was not rapidity of progress, but confirming and practising that which long experience had proved to be good. slowly but surely the fund of wisdom increased. "it is the three-per-cent man who gets all the money in the end." responsibility was tribal. the man who tried experiments or "fooled" with the forbidden thing was a common nuisance summarily and thoroughly abated by the tribe. land was common property, though the individual had probably gained some rights of use. it is doubtful whether he could use the whole or any part of it entirely as he would. even at a much later date his use was largely limited and controlled by ancient custom. the ritual which still made up most of his religion was also tribal.[ ] dance and song were practised by the whole community. his creed, so far as he had one, was a belief in spiritual beings, dæmons, of great power and marvellous efficiency. some or many were beneficent; more were probably maleficent; but those might be appeased, mollified, bribed, won over, or controlled, if rightly approached through magical rites or ceremonies. these dæmons seem to have been supposed to be almost innumerable. no one was supreme, but some were more important than others. here then was room for variety of opinion, of ritual, of the spirit occupying the most important place; hence also of change and development. the gods in one country were those of the hills; in another, those of the plains; in a third, of the forest. fishing and agricultural tribes had different dæmons. the wandering trader, passing from tribe to tribe, in his own heart respected or neglected all alike. every land had its own gods or goddesses. when a man migrated to another country he usually left his old gods at home. if he was adopted into the brotherhood of another tribe, he changed his religious allegiance also. a religious hierarchy seems to have grown up during the neolithic period headed by the goddess-mother of life. her rise seems to have accompanied the introduction of agriculture, which must have brought great changes in religious ritual and belief. dæmons who had heretofore held a high place in the fear or affection of hunting tribes gradually lost their supremacy or were neglected. the dethronement of gods or dæmons was usually not sudden or revolutionary. the new mode of life and its accompanying cult gained ground slowly. probably it was at first an extension or modification of some older one. the dethroned divinity long retained his hold on the fears or affections of many of the tribe. finally he was remembered only by certain old wives in remote or isolated settlements. with the rest of the people he, or she, was fast becoming an imp, kobold, or fairy--the subject of fascinating stories, still tinged with mystery, joy, or fear, but not to be taken too seriously. here, apparently, is one, by no means the only, source of folk-lore and fairy-tale. folk-lore is an exceedingly wide field and our path leads through only a little corner of it. it was the growth of millennia. it preserves for us remnants of ancient beliefs and practices, whose original meaning had been forgotten long before the birth of the story-teller. fossil beliefs of the most widely separated ages may be found jumbled together in the same story. it was always intended to be told to a group of sympathetic listeners or to the whole community. it is genuine literature, but when reduced to writing or cold print it chills and dies. the story-teller must feel at once the sympathy or coldness of his listeners. the substance may remain unchanged, but the shading and emphasis must vary with the feeling and temper of the audience. thus in a very true sense it was moulded by the people. if a story survived with certain forms and content, it was because it was essentially common and human, appealing to that which is not individual but at least tribal or racial. says mr. chesterton: "our modern novels, which deal with men as they are, are chiefly produced by a small and educated section of the society. but this other literature (the kind now called folk-lore, the literature of the people) deals with men greater than they are--with demigods and heroes--and that is far too important a matter to be trusted to the educated classes. the fashioning of these portents is a popular trade, like ploughing or bricklaying; the men who made bridges, the men who made ditches, were the men who made deities. men could not elect their kings, but they could elect their gods. so we find ourselves faced with a fundamental contrast between what is called fiction and what is called folk-lore. the one exhibits an abnormal degree of dexterity, operating within our daily limitations; the other exhibits quite normal desires extended beyond those limitations. fiction means the common things as seen by the uncommon people. fairy-tales mean the uncommon things as seen by the common people. "as our world advances through history toward its present epoch, its becomes more specialist, less democratic, and folk-lore turns gradually into fiction. but it is only slowly that the old elfin fire fades into the light of common realism. for ages after our characters have dressed up in the clothes of mortals they betray the blood of the gods."[ ] the charm and wisdom of folk-lore and fairy-tale are mostly due to the commonness, in the best sense, of their subject, thought, and feeling. they suit all times and places, and are immortal and timeless like their heroes. when we attempt to reclothe them in modern form or language to suit "private interpretation" their strength is departed from them. neolithic feeling, belief, ritual, religion; its music, art, and literature; its customs, institutions, morals, ways, and life--all these sprang from the life and experience of the tribe or community. they were essentially growths in and from the mass of the people, usually owing comparatively little to the genius of any individual inventor or discoverer. we have called them neolithic, but some or many of them were old far back in paleolithic time. like the tree ygdrasil their roots lay hold on the foundations of the world. so deeply rooted a growth or culture is almost ineradicable, though it has a marvellous adaptability and possibilities of growth and modification. it could never have been destroyed by its own indo-european children, however rebellious. it must survive somewhere though probably changed for the better. we have found reasons to doubt whether roman capacity for discipline and government, roman laws and institutions, were predominantly of indo-european origin. we were still more doubtful whether the glory of teutonic or scandinavian history is due to its being indo-european, or whether it was the result of a continuous, unbroken development from neolithic times. if ever any culture seems largely native and indigenous, responsive to outside influences but always retaining its independent self-determination and power of selection and choice as to what and how far it will assimilate, that culture is to be found in northern germany and scandinavia. we have seen the fate of olympian religion and achæan thought in greece. the achæans were a small minority completely outnumbered by an exceedingly conservative native population. they were absorbed and became a part of the greek people, and their contribution must not be underestimated. we have noted the marvellous vitality of the old neolithic thought, its re-emergence, its influence on greek philosophy. we remember that the great seat of progress was not in dorian sparta but in "pelasgic athens," almost unknown to homer. the celt was, if anything, a better "mixer" and more adaptable than even the achæan. his prejudices and zeal in regard to morals and religion seem not to have been deep or strong. the celts were finally absorbed, affecting the temper of the people far more than their daily life. through all these revolutions, as well as those which were to follow, family and neighborhood retained their compact unity, perhaps with all its mutual attractions strengthened by the pressure of the conquerors. they were still the controlling influence in the life and education of the individual, as they probably remain to this day. the power of these smaller communities may have waxed, as tribal control waned. what they had lost in the mutual support within the tribe they made good by leaning more closely on their neighbors. this solidarity makes the common people very stiff-necked, in an excellent sense of the word. like the neolithic folk of scandinavia, they select and accept from their more cultured neighbors only that which they can assimilate to the stores of experience and instincts which they already possess. the fickleness, of which they are often accused, is characteristic of a very different class or stratum of the population, and of far later origin and development. their own development is naturally slow, gradual, and continuous. we have ventured the opinion that the essentials of neolithic culture survived the conquests of the indo-europeans in a but slightly modified form. if this is granted, we have every reason to think that the effects of all succeeding invasions and conquests, changes of dynasties and governments, international or national policies, internal legislation and reforms, have been even more temporary, slight, and superficial. modern revolutions have been more and more uprisings of the people asserting the inalienable rights and privileges of their dignity as men. the trend of popular life and feeling has resembled the flow of a river or the incoming of the tide. it turns or winds as it meets obstacles in its path, but keeps in the main to a fairly clear course and direction. the people may not be against the government, they merely go their way regardless of it. but we must not trespass on the field of the historian. during the neolithic period everybody, except perhaps certain priests and elders, belonged to the common people. but accumulation of wealth, the rise of leaders, the conquest of new lands developed a distinct aristocracy of birth, wealth, prowess, leadership, and genius. the common people of to-day, whom, as mr. lincoln said, "god must have loved or he never would have made so many of them," seem to be the whole population minus the uncommon aristocracy. it is not easy to see just where we ought to draw the line between mass and class. all the virtues, brains, and possibilities of progress can hardly be confined to this upper stratum. can we define or describe our common people? they are a very mixed multitude. there is probably more individual variety than among the conventional refined and cultured, and this makes them more original and interesting. hence any composite picture is usually a blur; a definite picture of any group or part would be partial and one-sided, very possibly a caricature of the whole. we dare not try to offer one. men and women like mr. robert woods, of boston, and miss jane addams, of chicago, have set themselves patiently, persistently, sympathetically, respectfully, and wisely to study and help these people. they can and will describe them, if we will listen. their faith in the people seems to be deep and strong. we all recognize that in times of trial and emergency, when great testing moral issues are at stake, the people are practically unanimous in recognizing and supporting the cause of justice and right, unless befogged, divided, or misled by statesmen. their taste for right ends is keen and reliable. their feelings ring true, and they act accordingly, whatever the cost. they are not inarticulate, though their speech is often interjectory. they are only beginning to produce a large number of spokesmen. now and then their demands are voiced by a prophet, asserting that what jehovah demands is "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy god"; or the prophecy is sung by a poet, like burns. they may sometimes or often be misled; but if their heart and feeling is not healthy we may well despair of the republic. but the true prophet is very rarely a statesman. his feeling and taste for ends is marvellously good. here his word, like the feeling of the people from whom he sprang, is almost infallible. but the choice of means and policy, the selection of the next step toward the attainment of the end, is the real business of the statesman. the _élite_ of wealth, learning, and culture to-day have generally given up the search for ends in life. the old question: "what is man's chief end?" sounds archaic. we are doubtful as to the existence or desirability of such a thing. we are, in the language of the broker, very "long" on means, but terribly "short" on ends, for which there is no market. some day we shall again find a place for end and purpose in our philosophy and science, as in the systems of paul, plato, and especially of aristotle, with his "passion for the obvious," but at present these thinkers are back numbers. yet we must have ends of life beyond mere survival, comfort, or luxury, and getting a living. some scale of values, not solely and purely mercantile, would also be useful. if the aristocracy of wealth, learning, and culture can provide us no adequate system of ends and values in life, would it not be well for us to borrow temporarily a few from the people? might we not to good advantage even go into partnership with them, cordially accepting their ends, and loyally and honestly attempting to find the means of attaining them? the result might be a solidarity of thought, feeling, action, and final attainment superior even to those of our neolithic ancestors. you may possibly say: "we in america are already living under a democratic form of government--'of the people, by the people, and for the people.'" is this the statement of an accomplished fact or the definition of a dim, far-off event toward which we hope we are moving? how far did the framers of our constitution desire or intend that the will of the people should govern? was the method of choosing and electing the president of the united states, as originally devised, intended to make that election popular or not? we have changed that. did they intend that the senate of the united states should be a means of carrying out the will of the people, or rather that it should defer or check its becoming the law of the land? does our governmental action to-day represent the will of the people? is it truly representative? perhaps our ancestors were wise in their caution. perhaps a change has become advisable. we are asking how far government changes or modifies the people; how far governmental action, change of president or controlling party, their legislation and policies, affect the deeper currents of character and life. the people seem to me to be still continuing to go their own way and to follow quietly but firmly their own line of development, largely regardless of the votes of national congress or state legislature, perhaps sometimes with a slight sigh of relief at their adjournment. it may be best that it is so. the independence and continuity of popular development is still maintained to-day as throughout prehistoric times. how far do our vast accumulations of learning and discovery, our deep or superficial systems of philosophy, our splendid or decadent _fin de siècle_ art and literature reach and affect these people? their chief characteristic is an attempt at distinction, an artificial uncommonness, a self-consciousness entirely foreign to the thinker of the common mind. the institution which has the widest and deepest influence on their feeling, thought, and life is the church. they generally love it, for they are "incurably religious." it is conservative in the best sense of the word. it represents, of course imperfectly, the feelings, aspirations, and hopes of all men everywhere in all ages--in one word, of humanity. it stands for the worth, dignity, and brotherhood of man, and the fatherhood of god. it is almost alone to-day in recognizing that there are ends in life. it offers a way of progress and a reasonable ground of hope in a somewhat weary age inclined to indulge in criticism, fault-finding, and pessimism. the fact that it is generally roundly abused for its defects, mistakes, and sins of omission, for its inability to accomplish the impossible, is a sign of the great hope and confidence which we have rightly reposed in it. the discordant chorus of mutually destructive criticisms arising from the cultured and intellectual classes seems to show that it is following fairly well a straight, right, and wise course, as mr. lincoln is said to have suggested concerning his own experience, plans, and leadership in a similar situation. "wisdom is justified of her children," but the families of the elect are small. that the church does not conform to all the theories--not to say vagaries and fads--of to-day is no discredit. most of them will be very unfashionable to-morrow. "the fashion of this age passeth away." the existence of our nation evidently depends far more upon the fundamental and essential, nay obvious, old and common human virtues of very common people than upon our art and learning, the shrewdness of our politicians and profiteers, the amount of our wealth and exports, our inventions or luxuries, the winning of an election, or the defeat of any party. in one word, which we have already repeated _ad nauseam_, our chief business to-day is to continue the line of development clearly marked out by our benighted ancestors of prehistoric days--to exercise, develop, and strengthen the best instincts and feelings crystallized out of millennia of experience; to see to it that they are expressed in the law and practices of the land and commonwealth; and that they are not smothered under a mass of inventions of yesterday and of conventions of to-day. the fact that all this is entirely obvious should not conceal its importance. the old message comes to us: "if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed; and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" in the northern ocean we see icebergs moving slowly southward. they are not driven by the winds which to-day are blowing against their broad fronts. the most conspicuous feature of our field of vision is the white foam capping the waves. to-morrow it will be blown away, evaporate, and disappear in the shifting winds which have tossed it into view. the berg is carried by the great polar current, silent, inconspicuous, irresistible, unchanging in its course, guided by still deeper and more ancient and permanent cosmic forces. we know something about oceanic currents. of the current of the evolution of life we know almost nothing; but hope that our theories are no more inadequate than the feelings of our neolithic ancestors. certainly the current has not yet been charted. we catch glimpses of the direction of its sweep. over what stormy and dangerous seas and to what undiscovered island or continent it is carrying us we do not know. it seems to set toward fairer climes beyond our vision. we set sail millions of years ago; we shall not arrive to-morrow. bibliography a few suggestions the first series of books referred to in the following lists (a-o) are general, and every one covers a large field. the works of déchelette and hoernes (a and b) contain a very rich bibliography down to or . they should be carefully studied first of all; afterward the remainder of the list. i have omitted from the following list many excellent articles to which they refer. this list will satisfy the needs of the ordinary reader. the second list ( - ) contains references to articles or books on special subjects which i have been obliged to treat very briefly in this small book. these will introduce the reader to other writers on the same subject. he is urged to make his own bibliography, and will find that he has started on an endless chain of most fascinating research, for which i hope he may form an insatiable appetite. the following list of abbreviations and corresponding complete titles may save the reader some inconvenience. in this connection he may well consult the introduction to déchelette's _manuel_ (a) i, pp. xv-xix. _amer. nat._ _american naturalist._ _amer. anth._ _american anthropologist._ _sci. mo._ _science monthly._ (continuation of _popular science monthly_.) _a. f. a. (arch. f. anth.)_ _archiv für anthropologie._ _zts. f. eth._ _zeitschrift für ethnologie._ _l'anth._ _l'anthropologie._ _r. e. a._ _revue d'école d'anthropologie_, paris. _rev. arch._ _revue archéologique._ _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._ _korrespondenz-blatt der deutschen_ _gesellschaft für anthropologie._ _cong. int._ _congrès international d'anthropologie_ _et d'archéologie._ general a. déchelette, j. _manuel d'archéologie préhistorique._ paris, . vols. vol. i. _archéologie préhistorique._ b. hoernes, m. _natur-und urgeschichte des menschen._ vienna, . vols. c. ---- _urgeschichte des menschen_, vienna, . d. obermaier, h. _der mensch aller zeiten._ berlin, - . vol. i. _der mensch der vorzeit._ e. forrer, r. _urgeschichte des europäers._ stuttgart, . f. ---- _reallexikon der prähistorischen, klassichen und frühchristlichen alterthümer._ stuttgart, - . g. müller, s. _nordische Älterthumskunde_ (trans. jiriczek). strassburg, . vol. i. steinzeit-bronzezeit. h. ---- _urgeschichte europas_ (trans. jiriczek). strassburg, . i. ---- _l'europe préhistorique_ (trans. philipot). paris, . j. montelius, o. _kulturgeschichte schwedens._ leipsic, . k. ---- _les temps préhistoriques en suède_ (trans. reinach). paris, . l. avebury, lord (sir john lubbock). _prehistoric times._ new york, . m. elliot, g. f. s. _prehistoric man and his story._ london, . n. schwantes, g. _aus deutschland's urzeit._ leipsic, . o. wundt, w. _elements of folk psychology_ (trans. schaub, e. l.). london, . chapter i--the coming of man . lull, r. s. _organic evolution._ new york, . . wilder, h. h. _history of the human body._ new york, . . cope, e. d. _primary factors of evolution._ chicago, , p. . . osborn, h. f. _age of mammals._ new york, . . loomis, f. b. "adaptation of primates," _amer. nat._, xlv, , . . gregory, w. k. "studies in the evolution of primates," _bull. amer. mus. nat. hist._, xxv, , art. xix, . . barrell, j. "probable relations of climatic changes to origin of tertiary ape-man," _sci. mo._, n. s., iv, , . . matthew, w. d. "climate and evolution," _ann. n. y. acad. sci._, xxiv, , . . pilgrim, g. e. "new siwalik primates," _records of geol. survey of india_, xliii, , part iv, . . chamberlain, t. c., and salisbury, r. d. _geology._ new york, , vol. iii, . . lydekker, l. k. _geographical history of mammals._ cambridge, , , , , . . pirsson, l. v., and schuchert, c. _text-book of geology._ new york, , part ii, , , , . . smith, g. e. _presidential address_, brit. assoc. adv. sci. dundee, , . . heinemann, t. w. _physical basis of civilization._ chicago, . . fiske, j. _destiny of man._ boston, . . drummond, h. _ascent of man._ new york, . . kropotkin, p. a. _mutual aid a factor in evolution._ new york, . . jones, f. w. _arboreal man._ new york and london, . pithecanthropus see a, i, ; b, i, ; d, i, ; , . . du bois, e. _smithson. report_, - , . . berry, e. w. "environment of ape-man," _sci. mo._, n. s., iii, , . . keith, a. _ancient types of man._ new york, . primitive human migrations . keane, a. h. _ethnology._ cambridge, . . deniker, j. _races of man._ london, . . haddon, a. c. _the wanderings of peoples._ cambridge, . . ---- _races of man and their distribution._ new york, . man's arrival in europe . osborn, h. f. _men of the old stone age._ new york, . . ranke, j. _der mensch._ leipsic, . . geikie, j. _antiquity of man in europe._ edinburgh, . . ---- _the great ice age._ d ed. london, . . reinhardt, l. _der mensch zur eiszeit in europa._ munich, . . geikie, j. "tundras and steppes of prehistoric europe," _smithson. report_, - , . . nehring, a. _tundren u. steppen der jetzt-und vor-zeit._ berlin, . . schöetensack, o. _der unterkiefer des "homo heidelbergensis."_ leipsic, . . maccurdy, g. g. "the eolith problem," _amer. anth._, n. s., vii, , . . sollas, w. j. _ancient hunters._ d ed. london, . . hoops, j. _waldbäume und kulturpflanzen, im german. alterthum._ strassburg, . danish shell-heaps. see d, - ; g, i, ; l, . . steenstrup, j. _arch. f. anth._, xix, , . . sarauw, f. c. "maglemose," _prähist. zeits._, iii, , ; vi, , . . virchow, r. "rinnekalns," _korresp.-blatt. der deutschen ges. f. anthrop._, xxviii, , . . ebert, m. "die baltischen provinzen," _prähist. zeits._, v, , ; mugem, c, . . cartailhac, e. _ages préhistoriques de l'espagne et du portugal_, p. . . munro, r. _palæolithic man and terramara settlements in europe._ new york, . . morlot, a. _société vandoise des sci. nat._, vi, no. . "etudes géologico-archéologiques." (shell-heaps and lake-dwellings.) lausanne, . chapter iii--land habitations cave-dwellings b, ; c, ; e, , . . dawkins, w. b. _cave hunting._ london, . . fraipont, j. _les cavernes et leurs habitants._ paris, . huts and villages b, , , . . montelius, o. "zur ältesten geschichte des wohnhauses in europa," _arch. f. anth._, xxiii, , . cf. h, , ; j, . . schliz, a. "der bau vorgeschichtlicher wohnanlagen," _mitt. d. anth. ges. wien_, , . . castelfranco, p. "les fonds des cabanes," _rev. d'anth._, xvi, , . cf. a, , ; e, . . schliz, a. _das steinzeitliche dorf grosgartach._ stuttgart, . rev. virchow, r., _arch. f. anth._, xxvii, , . rev. reinach, s., _l'anth._, xii, , . . possler, w. "die abarten des altsächsischen bauernhauses," _arch. f. anth._, xxxvi, , . . mielke, r. "entwickelungsgeschichte der sächsischen hausform," _zts. f. eth._, xxxv, , . chapter iv--lake-dwellings . munro, r. _lake dwellings of europe._ london, . full bibliography until . see also l, ; a, ; e, ; b, ; c, ; d, . . keller, f. _lake dwellings of switzerland._ d ed. london, . . troyon, f. _habitations lacustres du lac de neuchâtel._ paris, . . gross, v. _les protohelvéites._ paris, . . schuhmacher. _arch. f. anth._, n. f., vii, , . . heierlei, j. _urgeschichte der schweiz._ zurich, . . schenk, a. _la suisse préhistorique._ lausanne, . . bölsche, w. _mensch der pfahlbauzeit._ th ed. stuttgart, . . heer, o. _die pflanzen der pfahlbauten_, . see , i, . cf. . chapter v--a glance eastward . pumpelly, r. _explorations in turkestan_, carnegie inst. pub., washington, no. , , vols., vol. i, p. , chaps. i, iii, v. . rev. by schmidt, h. _prähist. zeits._, i, - , . . capitan, l. "l'histoire d'Élam," _rev. d'éc. d'anth._, xii, , . . düssaud, r. "anciennes civilisations orientales," _rev. d'éc. d'anth._, xvii, , . . schrader, fr. "questions d'orient," _rev. d'éc. d'anth._, xviii, , ; xx, , . . delitzsch, f. _rep. smithson. inst._, , . . morgan, j. de. _premières civilisations._ paris, . . _mémoires de la delegation en perse, i_, , - (susa). . _mémoires de la delegation en perse i_ (tepeh moussian), viii, . cf. b, ii, . . morgan, j. de. "les ages de la pierre dans l'asie mineure," _bull. soc. d'anth._ paris, ser. v, iii, , . . king, l. w. _history of babylonia and assyria_, part i. new york, . . sayce, a. h. _archæology of cuneiform inscriptions._ london, , - . . hall, h. r. "discoveries in crete, and their relations to palestine and egypt," _proc. soc. bib. arch._, xxxi, , . . myres, j. l. _dawn of history._ new york, , , . . breasted, j. h. _ancient times._ new york, , . origin of agriculture and cattle-raising see b, i, - ; m, chaps. xii, xiii. . reinhardt, l. _die erde und die kultur._ munich, (?). a. vol. i, _die erde und ihr wirthschaftsleben._ b. vol. ii, _kulturgeschichte des menschen._ c. vol. iii, _kulturgeschichte der nutzthiere._ d. vol. iv, _kulturgeschichte der pflanzen._ . _la grande encycl._, art. "agriculture." . hehn, v. _kulturpflanzen und hausthiere._ berlin, . . mason, o. t. _woman's share in primitive culture._ new york, , , chap. ii. . buschan, g. "heimat und alter der europäischen kulturpflanzen," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xviii, , . . roth. "origin of agriculture," _journ. anth. inst._, xvi, . . zaborowski, m. s. "le blé en asie et en europe," _rev. d'éc. d'anth._, xvi, , . . much, m. "vorgeschichtliche nähr-und nutz-pflanzen in europa," _mitt. anth. ges. wien_, xxxviii, , ff. favors european origins. chapter vi--megaliths see a, i, chap. iii; b, ii, ; d, ; g, chap. v; j, ; l, chap. v. . peet, t. e. _rude stone monuments and their builders._ new york, . . windle, b. c. a. _remains of prehistoric age in england._ london, . . krause, e., und schötensack, o. "die megalithischen gräber deutschlands," _zts. f. eth._, xxv, , . . lienau, m. m. "megalithgräber u. sonstige grabformen der lüneburger gegend," _mannusbib._, xiii, . . montelius, o. _orient und europa._ stockholm, . . wilke, g. "sudwesteurop. megalithkultur," _mannusbib._ vii. . hermet (abbé), "statues-menhirs," _l'anth._, xii, , . . cartailhac, e. _la france préhistorique._ paris, . disposal of dead . helm, k. _altgermanische religionsgeschichte_. heidelberg, , , bib. . schliz, a. "steinzeitliche bestattungsformen in südwestdeutschland," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xxxii, , . . andrée, r. "hockerbestattung und ethnologie," _a. f. a._, xxxiv, , , . . schötensack, o. "bedeutung der hockerbestattung," _zts. f. eth._, xxxii, , . . götze, a. "ueber hockergräber," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, , . . olshausen, o. "leichenverbrennung," _zts. f. eth._, , . . seger, h. "entstehung der leichenverbrennung," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xli, , . chapter vii--neolithic industries . veblen, t. _the instinct of workmanship._ new york, . clothing. g, i, ; j, ; , f. ornaments. b, ii, ; a, ii, . implements. a, ; b, ii, ; d, , ; e, ; f, art. "axt"; g, ; , ; j, . salt. b, ii, , ; f, art. "salz"; n, . gold. a, ; b, ii, ; c, . copper. a, ii; b, ii, ; d, , , ; e, . . much, _m. die kupferzeit in europa._ auf. jena, . . hampel, j. "neue studien über die kupferzeit," _zts. f. eth._, xxviii, , . . montelius, o. "die chronologie der ältesten bronzezeit," _arch. f. anth._, xxv, ; xxvi. ships, rock-carvings of. j, ; c, ; g, ; e, . nephrite and jadeite. a, i, , ; b, ii, ; d, ; , ; , index. . mehlis, c. "exotische steinbeile der neol. zeit," _arch. f. anth._, xxvii, , . . peet, t. e. _stone and bronze ages of italy._ oxford, . amber. a, ; b, i, ; ii, , ; d, ; g, i, . trade. b, ii, - ; a, i, ; ; . pottery. a, ; d, ; , - ; f, art. "gefässe," , . . hoernes, m. "die neol. keramik in oestreich," _zts. f. eth._, , . . smith, r. a. "development of neolithic pottery," _archæologia_, lxii, . . meyer, e. _geschichte des alterthums_, ii, . d ed. stuttgart, . . schuchhardt, c. "das technische element in den anfängen der kunst," _prähist. zeits._, i, . . verworn, m. _kulturkreis der bandkeramik._ ii, . . reche, o. "zur anthropologie der jüngeren steinzeit in böhmen," _arch. f. anth._, xxxv, , . . seger, h. "steinzeit in schlesien," _arch. f. anth._, n. f. v., . . götze, a. "neolithische kugelamphoren," _zts. f. eth._, xxxii, , . . ---- "eintheilung der neol. periode in mitteleuropa," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xxxi, , . . schuchhardt, c. "neol. häuser bei lissdorf," _zts. f. eth._, xliii, , . . wosinsky, m. _die inkrustierte keramik._ berlin, . . closmadeuc, g. de. "la céramique dans les dolmens de morbihan," _rev. arch._, i, . . schmidt, h. "vorgeschichte spaniens," _zts. f. eth._, xlv, , . . volkow, th. "l'industrie prémycénienne des stations néolithiques de l'ukraine," _l'anth._, xiii, , . . zaborowski, m. s. "industrie Égéenne sur le dnieper et le dniester," _bull. soc. anth._, paris, , . chapter viii--neolithic chronology . menzel, h. "geologische entwickelungsgeschichte der älteren postglacialzeit," _zts. f. eth._, xlvi, , - . . montelius, o. "chronologie der jüngeren steinzeit in skandinavien," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xxii, , - . . ---- "chronologie der ältesten bronzezeit," _arch. f. anth._, xxvi, , . . ---- "preclassical chronology of greece and italy," _journ. anth. inst._, . . ---- "chronologie préhistorique," _cong. int. d'anth. et d'arch._, xii, . cf. müller, s. ibid., x. paris, . . scheitelig, h. "vorgeschichte norwegens," _mannus._, iii, , . . kossina, g. "urfinnen und urgermanen," _mannus._, i, . . worsaae, j. j. a. "arctic cultures," _cong. int. d'anth. et d'arch._ stockholm, vii, , . also, j, ; m, and _bib._, . . types of axe, g, i, ; b, ii, ; a, i, ; f, art "aexte." cf. also "zeitalter." . montelius, o. "les differents types des haches," _cong. int. d'anth. et d'arch._ stockholm, vii, i, . . schmidt, r. r. "die grundlagen für die diluviale chronologie u. paläethnologie westeuropas," _zts. f. eth._, xliii, , . cf. _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xli, . . holst. "commencement et fin de la période glacieuse," _l'anth._, xxiv, , . . wilke, g. "kulturbeziehungen zwischen indien, orient und europa," _mannusbibliothek_, x, . . schmidt, h. "troja, mykene, ungarn," _zts. f. eth._, xxxvi, , , . . anthes, e. "alte und neue steinzeitliche funde aus hessen," _prähist. zeits._, ii, , . chapter ix--neolithic peoples and their migrations atlases . bartholemew, j. g. _advanced atlas of physical and political geography._ london, . . ---- _international student's atlas_. london,----? . see , ; and , , , ; b, i, , - ; _bib._ e, ; j, ; m, chaps. x-xiv, ; _bib._ , . . breuil, l'abbé, h. "les subdivisions du paléolithique supérieur et leur signification," _cong. int. d'anth. et d'arch_. session xiv, genève, , . . sergi, g. _the mediterranean race_, london, , chaps. ii, x, . . myres, j. l. essay ii, - , in marvin, f. s. _the unity of western civilization._ . ripley, w. l. _the races of europe._ new york, . . deniker, j. "les races européennes," _journ. anth. inst._, xxiv. . ---- "les six races composant la population de l'europe," _ibid._ . schliz, a. "vorgeschichtliche schädeltypen deutschen länder," _arch. f. anth._, xxxvi (n. f. ix), , . cf. b, ii, . . ---- "beiträge zur prähistorischen ethnologie," _prähist. zeits._, iv, , . . ---- "bedeutung der somatischen anthropologie," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xl, , . . ---- "vorstufen der nordisch-europäischen schädelbildung," _arch. f. anth._, xli, , . . ---- "der schnurkeramische kulturkreis," _zts. f. eth._, xxxviii, , . . reche, o. "zur anthropologie der jüngeren steinzeit in schlesien und böhmen," _arch. f. anth._, . . see . . klassen, k. _die völker, europas zur jüngeren steinzeit._ stuttgart, , bib. . fleure, h. j. _human geography in western europe._ london, . . montelius, o. "die einwanderung unserer vorfahrer im norden," _arch. f. anth._, xvii, . . ---- "sur les tombeaux et la topographie de la suède pendant l'âge de pierre," _cong. int. d'anth. et d'arch._, session vii, stockholm, i, . . virchow, r. "altnordische schädel zu kopenhagen," _arch. f. anth._, . ---- "die ältesten einwohner von nordeuropa," _arch. f. anth._, xxv, , . . arbo, c. o. e. "anthropo-ethnologie des südwestnorwegens," _arch. f. anth._, xxxi, , . . hervé, g. "l'ethnographie des populations françaises," _r. e. a._, vi, , . . ---- "les brachycephales néolithiques," _rev. ec. an._, iv, , ; v, , . . hamy, e. t. "l'anthropologie de nord-france," _l'anth._, xix, , . . bloch, a. "origines des brachycephales en france," _l'anth._, xii, , . . luschan, f. von. "beziehung zwischen der alpinen bevölkerung und den vorderasiaten," _korr.-bl. d. d. ges._, xliv, , . a. a, ; b, - ; . . studer, t. h., und bannwarth, e. _crania helvetica antiqua._ leipsic, . reviewed r. e. a., iv, , . . hervé, g. "les populations lacustres," _r. e. a._, v, , . for effects of geographic environment . ratzel. _anthropogeographie._ te auf. stuttgart, . . semple, e. _influences of geographical environment._ new york. . demolins, e. _les français d'aujourd'hui._ paris, . . ---- _les grandes routes des peuples._ paris, . chapter x--neolithic religion . huxley, t. h. _science and education_, essays. new york, , p. . . ---- _method and results_, essays. new york, . essay i, p. . . goethe, j. w. _gedichte, das göttliche._ . harrison, j. e. _ancient art and ritual._ new york, . . smith, w. r. _religion of the semites._ edinburgh, . origin of religion. see o, . . durkeim, e. _elementary forms of the religious life_. trans. j. w. swain, london, bib. . tylor, e. b. _primitive culture._ th ed. new york, . . ---- _anthropology._ new york, . . frazer, j. g. _the golden bough._ d ed. london, , bib. . müller, f. m. _origin and growth of religion._ new york, . . bagehot, w. _physics and politics._ new york and london. . montgomery, j. e. (editor). _religions of the past and present._ philadelphia, . bib. . lang, a. myth, _ritual and religion._ london, . . murray, g. _four stages of greek religion._ new york, . . harrison, j. e. _themis._ cambridge, . . ---- _prolegomena to greek religion. cambridge, ._ cult of goddess and mother-right o, index "maternal descent"; b, ii, . . farnell, l. r. _greece and babylon._ edinburgh, , chap. v. . dietrich, r. _muttererde._ berlin, . . frazer, j. g. _adonis, attis, osiris, studies in history of oriental religion._ london, . see index, "mother-right." . hartley, c. g. (mrs. w. m. gallichan). _the position of woman in primitive society._ london, . . bennett, f. m. "religious cults associated with amazons," _col. univ. press._ new york, . . reinach, s. "la station néolithique," _le jablanica l'anth._, , . . smith, w. r. _kinship and marriage in early arabia._ cambridge, . . mannhard, w. _wald-und feld-kulte._ d ed. berlin, . . helms, k. _altgermanische religionsgeschichte._ heidelberg, , i. cf. , . . ellis, h. _man and woman_. london, . cf. th ed., . chapter xi--progress . marvin, f. s., editor. _unity of western civilization._ london, . . ---- _progress and history._ london, . . ---- _the living past._ d ed. oxford, . . murray, g. _religio grammatici._ boston, . chapter xii--the coming of the indo-europeans . müller, f. max. _biographies of words and home of aryans._ london, . . meillet, a. _les langues dans l'europe nouvelle._ paris, . . ---- _les dialectes indo-européens._ paris, . . ---- _introduction à l'Étude comparative des langues indo-européennes._ th ed. paris, . . meyer, e. _geschichte des alterthums._ d ed. stuttgart, . vol. i, pt. , p. . . schrader, o. _reallexikon der indogermanischen alter-thumskunde._ strassburg, . . ---- _sprachvergleichung und urgeschichte._ d ed. jena, . . ---- _die indogermanen._ leipsic, , pp. ---- (trans. jevons, f. b.) _prehistoric antiquities of the aryan peoples._ london, . . feist, s. kultur. _ausbreitung und herkunft der indogermanen._ berlin, . . ---- _europa im lichte der vorgeschichte._ berlin, . . hirt, h. _die indogermanen_. vols. strassburg, - . . kossina, g. "die indogermanische frage archäologisch beantwortet," _zts. f. eth._, xxxiv ( ), , n. b. cf. . . much, m. _heimat der indogermanen._ d ed. berlin, . . reinach, s. _origine des aryens._ paris, . . wilser, l. _die germanen_. leipsic, . . ---- _herkunft und urgeschichte der arier._ heidelberg, . . zaborowski, moindron s. "la patrie originaire des aryens," _r. e. a._ paris, xiii ( ), . . ---- _les peuples aryens d'asie et d'europe._ paris, . . brunnhofer, g. h. _arische urzeit._ bern, . . laponge, g. v. de. _l'aryen, son rôle social._ paris, . . hehn, v. _kulturpflanzen und hausthiere._ th ed. berlin, . . holmes, t. r. _ancient britain._ oxford, . chap. iii and pp. - . . veblen, t. _imperial germany and the industrial revolution._ new york, . . huntington, e. _the pulse of asia._ boston, . . ---- _palestine and its transformations_. boston, . . ---- _world power and evolution._ new haven, . . murray, g. _euripides and his age._ new york, . . chesterton, g. k. _charles dickens._ london, . . lang, a. _custom and myth._ new york, . . gummere, f. b. _the beginnings of poetry_. new york, . footnotes: [ ] , . [ ] : ; , chap. xxix. [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] : [ ] : - [ ] m: chap. v. [ ] : . [ ] : , , . [ ] , . [ ] - . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] : chap, ii. d: i, - . [ ] for maps showing extent of ice at different glacial epochs, see : vol. ii, p. . : end of volume. [ ] see charts, : - . . also : , ; - ; . [ ] : . . [ ] d: i, - . . [ ] : , . [ ] d: i, . [ ] : , . [ ] e: - . [ ] : - . [ ] d: , ; : . [ ] d: , ; : . [ ] c: ; . [ ] : . [ ] l: . [ ] a: . [ ] . [ ] : ; a: i, ; d: . [ ] : . [ ] a: i, . [ ] c: . [ ] . [ ] : . [ ] b: . [ ] e: . [ ] g: ; j: . [ ] . [ ] b. see bibliography. [ ] i: . [ ] h: . [ ] a: i, . [ ] : ; ; : i, - . [ ] : , . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] l: . [ ] b: . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] l: ; : ; d: ; : - . [ ] : ; : . [ ] ; c: and . [ ] . [ ] quoted in : chap. iii, . [ ] : ; . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] l: ; : - , . [ ] : . [ ] : ; : , , . [ ] for a study of examples grouped according to epoch, see : p. - . [ ] : ii, . [ ] d: , . [ ] : . [ ] . [ ] : plate , opposite pp. , . [ ] . cf. : i, . [ ] d: i, . [ ] b: ii, ; d: . [ ] - . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] : ; ; d: . [ ] : _ff._, _bib._ [ ] : . [ ] : chap. ii, . [ ] m: . [ ] : , map. [ ] o: . [ ] l: chap. v. [ ] a: i, . [ ] g: cf. j: . [ ] a: . [ ] d: . [ ] : i, . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] a: i, . [ ] b: . [ ] g: i, ; j: . [ ] b: i, . [ ] h: . [ ] f: article "axt." [ ] g: ; e: . [ ] e: plate ; a: ; : . [ ] b: . [ ] figs. a, . [ ] a: , . [ ] m: . [ ] a: ; b: . [ ] : (chart). [ ] : . [ ] b: ii, ; d: . [ ] g: . [ ] g: , . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] g: . [ ] h: . [ ] : . [ ] b: i, . [ ] h: . [ ] a: ; d: . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] d: ; : . [ ] . [ ] - . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] e: . [ ] d: i, . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] . [ ] c: . [ ] - . [ ] , . [ ] j: . [ ] see d: . [ ] : , , ; d: , . [ ] : , . [ ] : i, . [ ] : , . [ ] see . chart ., cf. . [ ] , . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] : - . [ ] . [ ] : . [ ] - _a._ [ ] . [ ] b: i, . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] b: i, - , . [ ] . [ ] : , . [ ] : . [ ] : . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] - . [ ] a: - , . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] . [ ] , . [ ] b: ii, . [ ] o: . [ ] : . [ ] . [ ] h: . [ ] : _n._ [ ] . [ ] o: , . [ ] a: . [ ] . [ ] i have selected for examination professor kossina's article, and that not his latest, because it seems to furnish the strongest and clearest brief statement of the theory of the germanic origin of the indo-europeans. hirt's work and his references should also be consulted. it is to be regretted that the judgment and work of some of the north german prehistorians on this question are tinged by national prejudice. we must make allowance for their omissions and remember that we have our own pet prejudices. the dogma of the superiority of the dolichocephalic blond has been made a cult by mr. j. h. chamberlin and other far less brilliant writers. it has received little support in scandinavia. the works of this school should not be taken too seriously. [ ] : . [ ] o. [ ] . [ ] : ; : ; cf. . index achæans, , . adaptation, extreme, . agriculture, origin of, , ; and religion, . amber, . anau, , , . ancylus epoch, , , . apes, , . arboreal life, , . aryans, . asia, , . axe, , , . azilian-tardenoisian, , , . babylonia, . balder, myth of, . balkans, , , . baltic culture, , , , , . baltic sea, changes of, , , . barley, , . boats, . brachycephals, , , , , ; in lake-dwellings, . bread, . bronze, ; age of, . burial of dead, , . campigny, . cattle, domestic, , , . cave frescoes, ; remains, . celts, , . chronology, , , , , , , . climatic changes, , , , . copper, ; age of, . crescents of clay, . crete, , . cro-magnon race, , , . dæmons, , . danube, . dead, disposal of, , , . dog, , . dolichocephals, , , . dolmens, . domestic animals, , , . dormant periods and nations, . dress, . education, neolithic , . family, aryan, . flax, . flint, , , . folk-lore and fairy-tales, . forests, , ; succession of, in denmark, . fortifications, , , . glacial period, . goddess, cult of, . gold, . greek mysteries, . grosgartach, , , . hamites, , , . heidelberg man, . hoe-culture, . horse, . houses and huts, , . incineration, . indo-europeans, ; homeland, ; language, ; religion, , . industries, . iranian plateau, . lake-dwellings, , . littorina epoch, , . loess, , . magelmose, , . mattock, . mediterranean race, , , ; culture, . megaliths, . menhirs, . microliths, . migrations, indo-european, ; routes, , , , . millet, . mother-right, . mugem, . neanderthal race, . neolithic culture, persistence of, , . nephrite and jadeite, . oaks in denmark, , . oats, . paleolithic age, lower, ; upper, . peace, , . pelasgi, . piedmont zones, . pig, . piltdown skull, . pines in denmark, , . pioneer life, , , . pithecanthropus, . plough, . pottery, , , , , . primates, , . progress, . races, human, ; paleolithic ; neolithic . religion, paleolithic, ; neolithic, , ; of lake-dwellings, ; of indo-europeans, , . rinnekalns, . ritual, . river-valleys as trade-routes, , . roman law, . sahara, once well-watered, . salt, . "_schuhleistenbeil_" (mattock), . semites, , , . sheep, , . shell-heaps, , , . siwalik strata, . social development, . steppe, , , , . stutzheim, , . susa, . taboo, . tertiary period, . trade, ; routes, . tribal education, . tridachna shells in europe, . tumuli, . tundra, , . weaving, . wheat, , . women, position in neolithic time, , . yoldia epoch, , . * * * * * transcriber's note: in the bibliography, p. , under "chapter i", there was no number in the original. the cambridge manuals of science and literature prehistoric man cambridge university press london: fetter lane, e.c. c. f. clay, manager [illustration] edinburgh: , princes street london: h. k. lewis, , gower street, w.c. william wesley & son, , essex street, strand berlin: a. asher and co. leipzig: f. a. brockhaus new york: g. p. putnam's sons bombay and calcutta: macmillan and co., ltd. _all rights reserved_ [illustration] prehistoric man by w. l. h. duckworth m.a., m.d., sc.d. university lecturer in physical anthropology, cambridge cambridge: at the university press _first edition_, _second edition_, _with the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known cambridge printer, john siberch, _ preface this book deals with the earliest phases in the past history of mankind: the selected period ends at the aurignacian division of the palaeolithic age. i regret to be unable to affix definite dates in years to the several divisions of time now recognised. to illustrate the difficulty of forming conclusions on this subject, it should be noted that in professor rutot (p. ) assigned a duration of , years to the pleistocene period, while in dr sturge claimed , years for a portion only of the same period. evidently the present tendency is to increase enormously the drafts on geological time, and to measure in millions the years that have elapsed since the first traces of human existence were deposited. but in the face of estimates which differ so widely, it seemed preferable to distinguish subdivisions of time by reference to animal-types or the forms of stone-implements, rather than by the lapse of years. in the attempt to summarise a considerable amount of evidence, i have tried to select the facts most relevant to the subject in hand. and where an opinion is expressed i have endeavoured to indicate the reasons for the decision that is adopted. additional evidence is pouring in at the present time, and there is no doubt but that the next few years will witness great extensions of knowledge. in this connection, i take the opportunity of mentioning the discovery made a few weeks ago by m. henri martin at la quina, of a human skeleton resembling the neanderthal type but presenting (it is said) definite features of inferiority to that type. another subject of vast importance is mr moir's recent demonstration (p. ) of elaborately worked implements resting beneath strata referred to the pliocene period. for the loan of blocks, or for permission to reproduce illustrations, my cordial thanks are due to the editors and publishers of the journals mentioned in the following list. the authors' names are appended to the several illustrations. anatomischer anzeiger, archiv für anthropologie, archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia, beiträge zur urgeschichte bayerns, korrespondenzblatt der deutschen anthropologischen gesellschaft, l'anthropologie, royal dublin society, royal society of edinburgh, zeitschrift für ethnologie. w. l. h. duckworth _december_ , contents chap. 	 page i. the precursors of palaeolithic man ii. palaeolithic man iii. alluvial deposits and caves iv. associated animals and implements v. human fossils and geological chronology vi. human evolution in the light of recent research	 table a _to face p._ " b _to " "_ list of illustrations fig. 	 page . outline tracings of skulls of pithecanthropus etc. (from dubois) . outline tracings of jawbones, (a) mauer (b) ancient briton . tooth from taubach: surface of crown. (from nehring) . tooth of chimpanzee. (from nehring) , . tooth from taubach: inner and outer sides. (from nehring) . human skull from krapina. (from birkner) . tracings of teeth from krapina and mauer. (from kramberger) . human skull from la chapelle-aux-saints. (from birkner) . outline tracings of skull from la chapelle-aux-saints etc. (from boule) . contours of skulls, (a) new guinea man (b) european woman . outline tracing of human skull from le moustier . outline tracings of jawbones from mauer and le moustier . outline tracings of jawbones from mauer, la naulette, etc. (from frizzi) . outline tracings of jawbones, (a) ancient briton (b) le moustier (c) mauer . outline tracings of the forbes quarry (gibraltar) skull. (from sera) . human skull of the grimaldi-type. (from birkner) . outline tracings of skulls from galley hill etc. (from klaatsch) . section of the strata at trinil in java. (from dubois) . view of the mauer sand-pit. (from birkner) . section of the krapina rock-shelter. (from birkner) . plan of the cave at la chapelle-aux-saints. (from boule) . two sections of the grotte des enfants, mentone. (from boule) . chart of the relative duration of miocene, pliocene, and pleistocene time. (from penck) . chart of oscillations of snow-level in the glacial period. (from penck) . outline tracings of skulls of pithecanthropus etc. (from dubois) . position of palaeolithic man in the scale of evolution. (from cross) . thigh-bones arranged to illustrate klaatsch's theory. . the human skeleton found beneath the boulder-clay at ipswich. (from a drawing by dr keith, reproduced with permission) chapter i the precursors of palaeolithic man our knowledge of prehistoric man is based naturally upon the study of certain parts of the human skeleton preserved in a fossil state. in addition to these materials, other evidence is available in the form of certain products of human industry. these include such objects as implements of various kinds, owing their preservation to the almost indestructible nature of their material, or again artistic representations, whether pictorial or glyptic. the evidence of the bones themselves will be considered first, partly for convenience and partly in view of the cogency possessed by actual remains of the human frame. other branches of the subject will come under review afterwards. of all the discoveries of ancient remains, whether possibly or certainly human, two in particular stand out pre-eminently in marked relief. the specimens thus distinguished are known as the remains of _pithecanthropus erectus_, on the one hand, and on the other a jaw-bone which is attributed to a human type described (from the locality of the discovery) as _homo heidelbergensis_. the geological antiquity assigned in each instance is greater than that claimed for any bones acknowledged unreservedly to be human. it is thus clear that a high value attaches to these specimens if they be regarded as documents testifying to the course of human evolution. when the bones are examined, the contrast they provide with all human remains is so marked as to emphasise at once the necessity for a thorough and critical examination of their structure. _pithecanthropus erectus._ in the case of these bones, the facts are now so widely known and so easily accessible as to render unnecessary any detailed exposition here. the discoveries were made in the years and by professor dubois[ ], who was engaged at the time on an investigation of the remains of various animals found embedded in a river-bank in java. as is well known, the actual remains are scanty. they comprise the upper part of a skull, part of a lower jaw (which has never been described), three teeth, and a left thigh-bone. [ ] the numbers refer to the bibliography at the end of the volume. before entering upon any criticism of the results of professor dubois' studies, it is convenient to give a general statement of his conclusions. here we find described a creature of pliocene age, presenting a form so extraordinary as hardly to be considered human, placed so it seems between the human and simian tribes. it is caliban, a missing link,--in fact a pithecanthropus. with the erect attitude and a stature surpassing that of many modern men were combined the heavy brows and narrow forehead of a flattened skull, containing little more than half the weight of brain possessed by an average european. the molar teeth were large with stout and divergent roots. the arguments founded upon the joint consideration of the length of the thigh-bone and the capacity of the skull are of the highest interest. for the former dimension provides a means of estimating approximately the body-weight, while the capacity gives an indication of the brain-weight. the body-weight is asserted to have been about kgm. (eleven stone) and the brain-weight about gm. and the ratio of the two weights is approximately / . the corresponding ratios for a large anthropoid ape (orang-utan) and for man are given in the table following, thus: orang-utan / _pithecanthropus erectus_ / man / the intermediate position of the javanese fossil is clearly revealed. the same sequence is shewn by a series of tracings representative of the cranial arc in the middle line of the head (fig. ). and the results of many tests of this kind, applied not only by professor dubois but also by professor schwalbe, are confirmatory of the 'intermediate' position claimed for _pithecanthropus erectus_. the molar teeth are of inadequate size if the skull-cap is that of an ape, whereas they are slightly larger than the corresponding teeth furnished by primitive existing human types. and now some of the objections to this account may be taken. in the first place, the claim to pliocene antiquity is contested. so keen an interest was excited by professor dubois' discovery that more than one expedition has been dispatched to survey and review the ground. it is now declared in certain quarters that the horizon is lower quaternary: i do not know that any attempt has been made to reduce the age of the strata further. as the matter stands, the difference is not very material, but professor dubois refuses to accept the revised estimate and still adheres to his own determination. incidentally the more recent work (blanckenhorn[ ], ) has resulted in the discovery of a tooth claimed as definitely human (this is not the case with the teeth of _pithecanthropus erectus_), and yet of an antiquity surpassing that of the remains found by professor dubois. the latter appears unconvinced as to the genuineness of the find, but no doubt the case will be fully discussed in publications now in the course of preparation. [illustration: fig. . outline tracings of skulls reduced in size to a common dimension, viz. the line _gl--op_, representing a base-line of the brain-case. _pe_, pithecanthropus. _papua_, a new guinea native. _hl_, _sm_, _at_ are from skulls of monkeys. (after dubois.)] professor dubois assigned the bones to one and the same skeleton, and for this he has been severely criticised. apart from arguments affecting the geological age of the specimens, the question of their forming part of a single individual is very momentous. for if two skeletons are represented, one may be human, while the other is that of an ape. it is admitted that the larger bones were separated by a distance of forty-six feet. by way of meeting this criticism, it is submitted that the distance is by no means so great as to preclude the possibility of the common and identical origin of the various bones. moreover it is at least curious that if two skeletons are here represented, no further remains should have been detected in the immediate vicinity. the fact that the thigh-bone might easily have passed as that of a man, while the skull-fragment is so divergent from all modern forms as to be scarcely human, is of great interest. the contrast between the indications provided by the two bones was remarked at once. some writers, rejecting certain other evidence on the point, then drew the inference that the human thigh-bone had been evolved and had arrived at the distinctive human condition in advance of the skull. the importance of this conclusion lies in the fact that the human thigh-bone bears indications of an erect attitude, while the form of the skull gives guidance as to the size of the brain, and consequently to some extent provides a clue to the mental endowment of the individual. whether the erect attitude or the characteristic brain-development was first obtained by man has been debated for many years. in this case, the evidence was taken to shew that the assumption of the erect attitude came as a means of surmounting the crux of the situation. thenceforth the upper limb was emancipated entirely from its locomotor functions. upon this emancipation followed the liberation of jaws and mouth from their use as organs of prehension. simultaneously the mechanism whereby the head is attached to the neck and trunk became profoundly modified. this alteration gave to the brain an opportunity of growth and increase previously denied, but now seized, with the consequent accession of intellectual activity so characteristic of the hominidae. the story thus expounded is attractive from several points of view. but while possessing the support of the javan fossil remains, it is not confirmed in the embryonic history of man, for there the growth of the brain is by far the most distinctive feature. nor did those who adopted this opinion (in ), take into account all the characters of the ancient human remains even then available. for the evidence of those remains points to an order exactly the reverse of that just stated, and it indicates the early acquisition of a large and presumably active brain. and now that additions have been lately made to those older remains (other than the javan bones), the same 'reversed' order seems to be confirmed. on the whole therefore, the soundest conclusion is that following a preliminary increment of brain-material, the erect attitude came as a further evolutionary advance. but to return from this digression to the objections against the _pithecanthropus erectus_, it must now be explained that the very contrast between the thigh-bone and the skull-cap in respect of these inferences, has been used as an argument against the association of these bones as part of one skeleton. the objection may be met in two ways at least. for instance, the thigh-bone may yet possess characters which lessen its resemblance to those of recent men, but are not recognised on a superficial inspection. careful investigation of the thigh-bone seems to shew that such indeed is the case (indeed the human characters are by some absolutely denied). but together with this result comes the discovery that the characters of straightness and slenderness in the shaft of the bone from which the inference as to the erect attitude was largely drawn, do not give trustworthy evidence upon this point. in fact, a human thigh-bone may be much less straight and less slender than that of arboreal animals such as the gibbon, the cebus monkey, or the lemurs (especially nycticebus). the famous eppelsheim femur is straighter than, and as slender as that of pithecanthropus. it was regarded at first as that of a young woman, but is now ascribed to an anthropoid ape. and in fact, even if the skull-cap and thigh-bone of pithecanthropus should be retained in association, it seems that the title 'erectus' is not fully justified. another method of rebutting the objection is based on the suggestion that pithecanthropus is not a human ancestor in the direct line. thus to describe an uncle as a parent is an error not uncommon in palaeontology, and it was treated leniently by huxley. to my mind this position can be adopted without materially depreciating the value of the evidence yielded by the conjoint remains, provided only that their original association be acknowledged. should this assumption be granted, the claims put forward on behalf of his discovery by professor dubois seem to be justified. on the other hand, should the association of skull-cap and thigh-bone be rejected, the former has not lost all claim to the same position. for the most recent researches of professor schwalbe[ ] of strassburg, and the further elaboration of these by professor berry[ ] and mr cross[ ] of melbourne, support professor dubois' view. and though the objections may not have been finally disposed of, a review of the literature called forth by professor dubois' publications will shew a slight margin of evidence for, rather than against his view. _the heidelberg or mauer jaw_[ ]. professor dubois' javanese researches were carried out in the years and . fifteen years separate the discovery of the _pithecanthropus erectus_ from that of the second great find mentioned in the introductory paragraph of this chapter. this period was by no means barren in respect of other additions to the list of human fossils. but the other results (including even the finds at taubach) are regarded as of subsidiary importance, so that their consideration will be deferred for the present. in a lower jaw, known now as the heidelberg or mauer jaw, was discovered by workmen in the sand-pit of mauer near heidelberg. the mauer jaw is indeed a most remarkable specimen. the first general outcome of an inspection of the photographs or of the excellent casts (which may now be seen in many museums) is a profound impression of its enormous strength (figs. , , and _c_). by every part of the specimen save one, this impression is confirmed. this massiveness, together with the complete absence of any prominence at the chin, would have caused great hesitation in regard to the pronouncement of a decision as to the probable nature of the fossil. the one paradoxical feature is the relatively small size of the teeth. all of these have been preserved, though on the left side the crowns of four have been removed by accident in the process of clearing away some adherent earth and pebbles. the net result shews that the teeth are actually within the range of variation provided by human beings of races still extant, though commonly regarded as 'primitive,' if not pithecoid (such as the aboriginal race of australia). yet these teeth are implanted in a jaw of such size and strength as render difficult the reference of the specimen to a human being. [illustration: fig. . _a_ outline tracing of a cast of the mauer jawbone. _b_ a similar tracing from an unusually large jaw of an ancient briton. (from specimens in the cambridge museum.)] the most striking features of the mauer jaw have been mentioned already. before entering upon a further discussion of its probable nature, it will be well to note some of the other distinctive characters. thus the portion fig. (_a_) known technically as the ascending ramus is of great size, and particularly wide, surpassing all known human specimens in this respect. the upper margin of this part is very slightly excavated, a slight depression (_b_) replacing the very definite 'sigmoid' notch found in almost all human jaws (though the relative shallowness of this notch has been long recognised as distinctive of the lowest human types). the difference in vertical height between the uppermost points of the condyle (_c_) and the coronoid process (_d_) is therefore unusually small. on the other hand, the lower margin of the bone is undulating, so that it presents a hollow on each side, as well as one near the middle line in front. the two halves of the bone are definitely inclined to one another and this convergence is faintly marked in the two rows of teeth behind the canines. the latter teeth do not project markedly above the level of those adjacent to them. the incisor teeth are remarkably curved in their long axes, with a convexity in front. the prominences called 'genial tubercles' behind the chin are replaced by a shallow pit or fossa. in one sense the reception accorded by palaeontologists to the fossil jaw of mauer differs remarkably from most of the comparable instances. that difference consists in the comparative absence of controversy excited by its discovery. this must not be ascribed to any lack of ardour on the part of archaeologists. more probable is it that with the lapse of time, the acceptance of an evolutionary interpretation of the origin of man has gained a wider circle of adherents, so that the claims of even so sensational a specimen as this, are sifted and investigated with a judicial calm much more appropriate and certainly more dignified than the fierce outbursts occasioned by some of the earlier discoveries. it remains to institute brief anatomical comparisons between the mauer jaw and those of the highest apes on the one hand, and of the most primitive of human beings on the other. (_a_) of the three larger anthropoid apes available for comparison, it is hard to say which presents the closest similarity. the gibbons do not appear to approach so nearly as these larger forms. among the latter, no small range of individual variations occurs. my own comparisons shew that of the material at my disposal the mandible of an orang-utan comes nearest to the mauer jaw. but other mandibles of the same kind of ape (orang-utan) are very different. the chief difficulty in assigning the possessor of the mauer jaw to a pithecoid stock has been mentioned already. it consists in the inadequate size of the teeth. in addition to this, other evidence comes from the results of an examination of the grinding surfaces (crowns) of the molar teeth. these resemble teeth of the more primitive human types rather than those of apes. finally the convergence of the two rows when traced towards the canine or eye-tooth of each side, points in the same direction. (_b_) if the apes be thus rejected, the next question is, would the mauer jaw be appropriate to such a cranium as that of pithecanthropus? i believe an affirmative answer is justifiable. it is true that an excellent authority (keith[ ]) hesitates on the ground that the mandible seems too massive for the skull, though the same writer recognises that, in regard to the teeth, the comparison is apt. this is a difficult point. for instance the _h. moust. hauseri_ (cf. chapter ii) has a mandible which is far 'lower' than the capacity of the brain-case would lead one to expect. therefore it seems that the degree of correlation between mandible and capacity is small, and to predict the size of the brain from evidence given by the jaw is not always safe. it is to be remembered that special stress was laid by professor dubois (cf. p. ) on the fact that the teeth of pithecanthropus when compared with the skull-cap are inadequately small, if judged by the ape-standard of proportion. the characters of the teeth, in so far as upper and lower molars can be compared, present no obstacle to such an association, and in fact provide some additional evidence in its favour. the crucial point seems therefore to be the massiveness of the jaw. with regard to this, the following remarks may be made. first, that the skull-cap of pithecanthropus is on all sides admitted to shew provision for powerful jaw-muscles. and further, in respect of actual measurements, the comparison of the transverse width of the javanese skull-cap with that of the mauer jaw is instructive. for the skull-cap measures mm. in extreme width, the jaw mm. the association of the two does not, in my opinion, make an extravagant demand on the variability in size of either part. a curious comparison may be instituted between the mauer jaw and the corresponding bone as represented by professor manouvrier (cf. dubois[ ], ) in an attempted reconstruction of the whole skull of pithecanthropus. professor manouvrier's forecast of the jaw differs from the mauer specimen chiefly in regard to the size of the teeth, and the stoutness of the ascending ramus. the teeth are larger and the ascending ramus is more slender in the reconstruction than in the mauer specimen. (_c_) passing from the consideration of pithecanthropus to that of human beings, the general results of the comparisons that can be made will shew that the gap separating the jaw of mauer from all modern human representatives is filled by human jaws of great prehistoric antiquity. the progress of an evolutionary development is accordingly well-illustrated by these specimens. and although _homo heidelbergensis_ is seen to be separated from his modern successors by great differences in form as well as a vast lapse of time, still the intervening period does provide intermediate forms to bridge the gulf. not the least interesting of many reflections conjured up by the mauer jaw, is that this extraordinary form should be met with in a latitude so far north of that corresponding to the javanese discoveries. this difference, together with that of longitude, suggests an immense range of distribution of these ancestral types. some of their successors are considered in the next chapter. chapter ii palaeolithic man the fossil remains described in the preceding chapter possess good claims to that most interesting position, viz. an intermediate one between mankind and the more highly-developed of the apes. from such remarkable claimants we turn to consider fossil bones of undoubted human nature. of such examples some have been regarded as differing from all other human types to such an extent as to justify their segregation in a distinct species or even genus. yet even were such separation fully justified, they are still indubitably human. in the early phases of the study of prehistoric archaeology, the distinction of a 'stone age' from those of metals was soon realised. credit is due to the present lord avebury[ ] for the subdivision of that period into the earlier and later parts known as the palaeolithic and neolithic stages. at first, those subdivisions possessed no connotation of anatomical or ethnical significance. but as research progressed, the existence of a representative human type specially characteristic of the palaeolithic period passed from the stage of surmise to that of certainty. yet, although characteristic, this type is not the only one recognisable in those early days. in the following pages, some account is given of the most recent discoveries of human remains to which palaeolithic antiquity can undoubtedly be assigned. the very numerous works relating to prehistoric man are full of discussions of such specimens as those found in the neanderthal, at spy, engis, malarnaud, la naulette or denise. that some of these examples are of great antiquity is inferred from the circumstances under which they were discovered. the evidence relates either to their association with extinct animals such as the mammoth, or again the bones may have been found at great depths from the surface, in strata judged to have been undisturbed since the remains were deposited. one of the earliest discoveries was that of the engis skull; the differences separating this skull from those of modern europeans are so extraordinarily slight that doubt has been expressed as to the antiquity assigned to the specimen, and indeed this doubt has not been finally dispelled. the bones from denise (now rehabilitated in respect of their antiquity by professor boule) present similar features. but on the other hand the jaws found at la naulette and malarnaud suggest the former existence of a lowlier and more bestial form of humanity. support is provided by the famous skull of the neanderthal, but in regard to the latter, conclusive evidence (as distinct from presumption) is unfortunately lacking. further confirmation is given by the forbes quarry skull from gibraltar, but although its resemblance to that of the neanderthal was clearly noted by dr busk and sir william turner[ ] as long ago as , the specimen was long neglected. in this case, as in that of the neanderthal, corroborative evidence as to the geological or archaeological horizon is lamentably defective. after a lapse of some twenty years, the discoveries of human skeletons at spy in belgium, undoubtedly associated as they were with remains of mammoth, threw a flood of light on the subject, and enormously enhanced the significance of the earlier discoveries. the former existence in europe of a human type, different from all other known inhabitants of that continent, and presenting no small resemblance to the lowliest modern representatives of mankind, may be said to have been finally established by the results of the excavations at spy. moreover the differences thus recognised are such as to lend strong support to the evolutionary view as to the origin of the more recent human stocks from an ancestral series including representatives of a simian phase. yet the co-existence of a higher type represented by the engis skull must not be overlooked, nor indeed has this been the case. the significance of so remarkable a phenomenon is more fully discussed in the sequel; but no detailed account of the earlier discoveries need be given. a bibliography is appended and here references (h[oe]rnes[ ], ; schwalbe[ ]) will be found to the more important sources of information upon those specimens. _locality_ | _date_ | _literary reference_ | _synonyms_ | | | taubach | | nehring[ ] | krapina | | kramberger[ ] | s. brélade | - | marett[ ] | la chapelle aux | | boule[ ] | "corrèze" saints | | | le moustier | | klaatsch[ ] | "homo mousterensis | | | hauseri" la ferrassie | | peyrony[ ] | pech de l'aze | | peyrony[ ] | forbes quarry | - | sollas[ ] sera[ ] | "gibraltar" andalusia | | verner[ ] | grotte des | - | verneau[ ] | "grimaldi" enfants | | | baradero | | (s. roth) lehmann- | | | nitsche ( )[ ] | monte hermoso | ? | lehmann-nitsche | "homo neogaeus" | | ( )[ ] | combe capelle | | klaatsch[ ] | "homo aurignacensis | | | hauseri" galley hill | | newton[ ] | "homo fossilis" in the present instance, an attempt will be made to provide some account of the most recent advances gained through the results of excavations carried out in late years. and herein, prominence will be given in the first place to such human remains as are assignable to the lowlier human type represented previously by the spy skeletons. following upon these, come examples possessing other characters and therefore not referable to the same type. the discoveries are commonly designated by the name of the locality in which they were made. those selected for particular mention are enumerated in the list on p. . _taubach in saxe-weimar._ certain specimens discovered at taubach and first described in possess an importance second only to that of the mauer jaw and of the javan bones found by professor dubois. indeed there would be justification for associating the three localities in the present series of descriptions. but upon consideration, it was decided to bring the taubach finds into the present place and group. it may be added that they are assigned to an epoch not very different from that represented by the mauer strata whence the mandible was obtained. [illustration: fig. . the grinding surface of the first right lower molar tooth from taubach. the letters denote several small prominences called cusps.] [illustration: fig. . the grinding surface of the corresponding tooth (cf. fig. ) of a chimpanzee. (figs. , , , and are much enlarged.)] the actual material consists only of two human teeth of the molar series. one is the first lower 'milk' molar of the left side. this tooth exceeds most corresponding modern examples in its dimensions. in a large collection of modern teeth from berlin no example provided dimensions so large. the surface is more worn than is usual in modern milk teeth of this kind. the second tooth (fig. ) is the first lower 'permanent' molar of the left side. it bears five cusps. neither this number of cusps, nor its absolute dimensions, confer distinction upon the tooth. its chief claim to notice is based upon its relative narrowness from side to side. that narrowness (proportion of transverse to anteroposterior diameter), represented by the ratio . : , is present in a distinctly unusual and almost simian degree. in this character the taubach tooth resembles the same tooth of the chimpanzee (fig. ), to which it stands nearer than does the corresponding tooth of the mauer jaw. the manner in which the worn surface of the tooth slopes downwards and forwards has been claimed as another simian character. in these respects, the taubach tooth is among the most ape-like of human teeth (whether prehistoric or recent) as yet recorded, and in my opinion there is some difficulty in deciding whether this is the tooth of a human being or of a pithecoid human precursor. there is a very slight tendency (figs. , ) to concrescence of the roots, and these are curiously parallel in direction, when viewed from the side. in the latter respect no similarity to the teeth of apes can be recognised. [illustration: fig. . inner side of the taubach tooth.] [illustration: fig. . outer side of the same. (from nehring.)] _krapina in croatia._ next in order to the discovery of human teeth at taubach, the results of excavations in a so-called 'rock-shelter' on the bank of the river krapini[vc]a in croatia, call for consideration. immense numbers of bones were obtained, and the remains of a large number of human beings were found to be mingled with those of various animals. apart from their abundance, the fragmentary character of the human bones is very remarkable. the discovery that one particular stratum in the cave consisted mainly of burnt human bones has suggested that some of the early inhabitants of the krapina shelter practised cannibalism. indeed this view is definitely adopted by professor kramberger, and he makes the suggestion that the remains include representatives of those who practised as well as those who suffered from this custom. both young individuals and those of mature age are represented, but very aged persons have not been recognised. turning to the details of the actual bones, the conclusion of outstanding interest is the recognition of further instances of the type of the neanderthal and of spy, the latter discovery being separated by a lapse of twenty years and more from that at krapina. an attempt has been made to reconstruct one skull, and the result is shewn in fig. , which provides a view of the specimen in profile. viewed from above, the chief character is the width of the cranial portion, which exceeds very distinctly in this respect the corresponding diameter in the more classic examples from the neanderthal and spy. it is very important to note that the brain-case is thus shewn to be remarkably capacious, and this is all the more remarkable since the limb-bones do not denote a very great stature or bulk. [illustration: fig. . profile view of a reconstructed human skull from krapina. (from birkner, after kramberger.)] having recently examined the specimens now in the museum of palaeontology at agram in croatia, i venture to add some notes made on that occasion. the krapina skull-fragments and the head of a femur are certainly most impressive. it is shewn that early palaeolithic man presents examples of skulls both of brachy-cephalic and dolicho-cephalic proportions. variations in the form and arrangement of the facial bones also occur. the form and proportions of the brain-case have been noted already. the profile view (cf. fig. ) shews the distinctive features of the brow region. the brow-ridges are very large, but they do not absolutely conform to the conditions presented by the corresponding parts in the skulls of aboriginal australian or tasmanian natives. the region of the forehead above the brows is in some instances (but not in all) flattened or retreating, and this feature is indicated even in some small fragments by the oblique direction of the lamina cribrosa of the ethmoid bone. two types of upper jaw are distinguishable: no specimen projects forwards so far as might be expected, but the teeth are curiously curved downwards (as in some crania of aboriginal australians). the facial surface of the jaw is not depressed to form a 'canine fossa.' the nasal bones are flattened. the mandibles present further remarkable characters. by these again, two types have been rendered capable of distinction. in their massiveness they are unsurpassed save by the mandible from mauer. in absolute width one specimen actually surpasses the mauer jaw, but yet fails to rival that bone in respect of the great width found to characterise the ascending ramus in that example. in the krapina jaws, the chin is absent or at best feebly developed. in one specimen the body of the jaw is bent at an angle between the canine and first premolar tooth, and is thus reminiscent of the simian jaw. behind the incisor teeth the conformation is peculiar, again suggestive of the arrangement seen in the mauer jaw, and differing from that found in more recent human specimens. the distinction of two types of lower jaw was made in the following manner. the bone was placed on a flat surface. the vertical height of the tooth-bearing part was measured in two regions, (_a_) near the front, (_b_) further back, and close to the second molar tooth (cf. fig. _f_, _g_). in some of the bones these measurements are nearly equal, but the hinder one is always the less. in the instances in which the two measurements approximate to one another, the proportion is as : . in other instances the corresponding proportion differed, the ratio being about : or less. the former type is considered by professor kramberger to indicate a special variety (krapinensis) of the neanderthal or _homo primigenius_ type. the second type is that of the spy mandible no. . professor schwalbe[ ] ( ) objects to the distinction, urging that the indices ( and ) are not sufficiently contrasted. however this may be, it is noteworthy that other bones shew differences. thus the curvature of the forehead is a variable feature, some skulls having had foreheads much flatter and more retreating than others. the limb bones are also called upon to provide evidence. some of the arm-bones and thigh-bones are longer and more slender than others. how far these differences really penetrated and whether the thesis of two types can be fully sustained, does not appear to admit of a final answer. the view here adopted is that, on the whole, the distinction will be confirmed. but nevertheless i am far from supporting in all respects the view of professor klaatsch to whose imagination we owe the suggestion of realistic tableaux depicting the murderous conflict of the two tribes at krapina, the butchery of one act culminating suitably in a scene of cannibalism. nor am i persuaded that either variety or type found at krapina can be reasonably identified with that of the galley hill skeleton. but of these matters further discussion is reserved for the sequel. * * * * * [illustration: fig. . tracings (from skiagrams) of various molar teeth. the specimen _k.o._ from krapina shews the conjoined roots characteristic of teeth found at krapina, and in jersey at s. brélade's bay. the large pulp-cavity of the krapina teeth should be noted. _k.o._, _k.c._, _k.e._, _k.g._, from krapina; _h._ mauer. (from kramberger.)] this brief sketch of the cranial characters of the krapina remains must be supplemented by a note on the teeth. great numbers were found, and some of them are of enormous dimensions, surpassing those of the mauer jaw. but some of the molar teeth are further distinguished in a very remarkable way, for the roots supporting the crown of the tooth are conjoined or fused: they are not distinct or divergent as is usual. the contrast thus provided by these anomalous teeth is well illustrated in the accompanying figure ( , _ko_). now such fusion of roots is not absolutely unknown at the present day; but the third molar or wisdom tooth is most frequently affected. the occurrence is extremely unusual in the other molar teeth of modern men. yet among the krapina teeth, such fusion is striking both in its degree and in its frequency. so marked a characteristic has attracted much attention. professor kramberger holds the view that it constituted a feature of adaptation peculiar to the palaeolithic men of krapina. in opposition to this, professor adloff holds that the character is so definite and marked as to enter into the category of distinctive and specific conformations. the discussion of these views was carried on somewhat warmly, but yet to some extent fruitlessly so long as the only known examples were those from krapina. dr laloy supported professor kramberger, and on the other side may be ranged the support of professor walkhoff. but a recent discovery has very substantially fortified the view adopted by professor adloff and his supporters. for in a cave near s. brélade's bay in jersey, the explorations of messrs nicolle, sinel and marett ( - ) have brought to light palaeolithic human teeth of very similar form. they are said indeed by dr keith to be precisely comparable to those from krapina. the conjoined roots of such teeth should be regarded therefore as more than a peculiarity of the palaeolithic men of croatia, and rather as a very definite means of assigning to a particular palaeolithic epoch any other instances of a similar nature. space will not admit of more than a simple record of two other features of the krapina teeth. they are (_a_) the curvature of the canine teeth and (_b_) the remarkable size and extent of the 'pulp-cavity' (cf. fig. , _ko_) of the molar teeth. in entering upon so protracted a discussion of this part of the evidence, the excuse is proffered that, as may be noted in the instances at trinil and taubach, teeth are remarkably well-fitted for preservation in the fossil state, since they may be preserved in circumstances leading to the complete destruction of other parts of the skeleton. the limb bones of the krapina skeletons are chiefly remarkable for the variety they present. some are short and stout, of almost pygmy proportions: others are long and slender, inappropriate in these respects to the massive skull fragments which predominate. the distinction of two human types upon evidence furnished by the limb bones has already been mentioned. _s. brélade's bay, jersey._ a cave in this locality has been explored during the last two years ( , ). human remains are represented by the teeth already mentioned on account of their resemblance to those found at krapina. the resemblance depends primarily upon the curious fusion of the roots in the molar teeth. moreover, the circumference of the combined and thickened roots is so great as to confer a most remarkable 'columnar' appearance on the affected teeth (cf. fig. , _k.o._). the teeth from krapina and jersey while thus associated must be contrasted with some specimens which they resemble in other respects. the corresponding teeth in the mauer jaw have been described as similar to those from krapina, but i cannot confirm this from dr schoetensack's illustrations, of which fig. (_h_) is a fair representation. the teeth of the forbes quarry and le moustier specimens do not conform to the precise requirements of the test. the spy teeth are said to have three distinct roots save in two cases, where the numbers are four and two respectively. the test of combined molar roots therefore provides a means of subdividing a group of examples otherwise similar, rather than a mark of recognition applicable to all alike. the s. brélade teeth also resemble those from krapina in the proportions of their crowns and the unusually large size of the pulp-cavity. the latter character may prove more important than the fusion of the roots. but the evidence of their surroundings assigns the teeth from jersey to an epoch less ancient than that of the krapina men. _la chapelle-aux-saints (corrèze)._ [illustration: fig. . profile view of the skull from la chapelle-aux-saints (corrèze). (from birkner, after boule.)] the human skeleton from la chapelle-aux-saints holds a very distinguished position among its congeners. in the first place, the discovery was not haphazard, but made by two very competent observers during their excavations. again, the remains comprise not only the nearly intact brain-case, but much of the facial part of the skull, together with the lower jaw and many bones of the trunk and limbs. the individual was a male of mature age, but not senile (manouvrier). for these reasons, the value of this skeleton in evidence is singularly great. speaking generally, the specimen is found to resemble very closely the neanderthal skeleton in practically every structure and feature common to the two individuals. this correspondence is confirmatory therefore of the view which assigns great antiquity to the neanderthal man, and in addition to this, further support is given to the recognition of these examples (together with those from spy and krapina) as representatives of a widely distributed type. it is increasingly difficult to claim them as individual variations which have been preserved fortuitously. beyond these inferences, the skeleton from la chapelle adds very greatly to the sum total of our knowledge of the structural details of these skeletons. for here the facial bones are well preserved. before proceeding to their consideration reference should be made to the side view of the skull (fig. ), as well as to the tracings of the brain-case brought into comparison with those provided by the neanderthal and spy crania. in the case of one illustration of those tracings (fig. ) it must be remarked that objection is taken by professor klaatsch to the base-line selected, though in this particular instance, that objection has less weight than in others. [illustration: fig. . outline tracings (cf. fig. ) of various human skulls of the palaeolithic age. (from boule.)] turning to the facial parts of the skull, the brows will be seen to overhang the face less than in many crania of aboriginal australians. prognathism, _i.e._ projection of the jaws (fig. ), though distinct, is less pronounced than might be expected. hereby the reconstruction of the facial parts of the neanderthal skull, as prepared by professor klaatsch, is shewn to be much exaggerated. the skeleton of the nose reveals some simian traits, and on either side, the canine fossa (below the eye) is shallow or non-existent. a good deal of stress has been laid on this character, perhaps more than is justifiable. yet it is quite uncommon in this degree among modern european crania, though alleged by giuffrida ruggeri to characterise certain skulls from the far east. the reconstructed skull contains teeth which are large and in the incisor region (_i.e._ in front) are much curved downwards in the direction of their length. but this, though probably correct, is yet a matter of inference, for only a couple of teeth (the second premolars of the left side) were found _in situ_. and so far no detailed description of these teeth has appeared. the mandible is of extraordinary dimensions; very widely separated 'ascending rami' converge to the massive body of the jaw. the sigmoid notch is almost as shallow as in the mauer jaw. the chin is retreating or absent. [illustration: fig. . contours of two skulls, _a_ of a new guinea man; _b_ of an european woman. the angle _b.pr.p_ measures the degree of prognathism, and in this respect, the two specimens are strongly contrasted. (from specimens in the cambridge museum.)] such are the more easily recognisable features of the skull. it will be understood that many more details remain for discussion. but within the allotted space, two only can be dealt with. the capacity of the brain-case is surprisingly large, for it is estimated at cubic centimetres: from this figure (which will be the subject of further discussion in the sequel) it appears that the man of la chapelle was amply provided with cerebral material for all ordinary needs as judged even by modern standards. in the second place, mm. boule and anthony, not content with a mere estimate of capacity, have published an elaborate account of the form of the brain as revealed by a cast of the interior of the brain-case. as the main result of their investigations, they are enabled to record a list of characters indicative of a comparatively lowly status as regards the form of the brain, although in actual size it leaves little to be desired. the principal points of interest in the remainder of the skeleton refer in the first instance to the estimate of stature and the evidence provided as to the natural pose and attitude of the individual. using professor pearson's table, i estimate the stature as being from to mm. ( ft. in. or ft. in.), a result almost identical with the estimate given for the neanderthal man. in both, the limb bones are relatively thick and massive, and by the curvature of the thigh-bones and of the upper parts of the shin-bones, a suggestion is given of the peculiar gait described by professor manouvrier as 'la marche en flexion'; the distinctive feature consists in an incompleteness of the straightening of the knee-joint as the limb is swung forwards between successive steps. the bones of the foot are not lacking in interest, and, in particular, that called astragalus is provided with an unusually extensive joint-surface on its outer aspect. in this respect it becomes liable to comparison with the corresponding bone in the feet of climbing animals, whether simian or other. that these features of the bone in question are not peculiar to the skeleton from la chapelle, is shewn by their occurrence in bones of corresponding antiquity from la quina (martin, ) and (it is also said) from la ferrassie (boule, l'anthropologie, mai-juin, ). _homo mousterensis hauseri_ (_dordogne_) this skeleton was discovered in the lower rock-shelter of le moustier (dordogne, france) in the course of excavations carried out by professor hauser (of swiss nationality) during the year . the final removal of the bones was conducted in the presence of a number of german archaeologists expressly invited to attend. the omission to inform or invite any french archaeologists, and the immediate removal of the bones to breslau, are regrettable incidents which cast a shadow quite unnecessarily on an event of great archaeological interest. by a curious coincidence this took place a few days after the discovery of the human skeleton of la chapelle (_v. supra_). the two finds are very fortunately complementary to each other in several respects, for the dordogne skeleton is that of a youth, whereas the individual of la chapelle was fully mature. in their main characters, the two skeletons are very similar, so that in the present account it will be necessary only to mention the more important features revealed by the study of the dordogne specimen. outline drawings of the two skulls are compared with the corresponding contour of the neanderthal calvaria by klaatsch. [illustration: fig. . outline tracing of a cast of the moustier skull (dordogne). (from a specimen in the cambridge museum.)] [illustration: fig. . tracings from casts (in the cambridge museum) of the jaw-bone from mauer and of that of the moustier skeleton. the mauer jaw is indicated by the continuous line.] in the dordogne youth the bones were far more fragile than in the older man from la chapelle. nevertheless, photographs taken while the bones were still _in situ_ but uncovered, provide a means of realising many features of interest. moreover although the face in particular was greatly damaged, yet the teeth are perfectly preserved, and were replaced in the reconstructed skull of which a representation is shewn in fig. . this reconstruction cannot however be described as a happy result of the great labour bestowed upon it. in particular it is almost certain that the skull is now more prognathous than in its natural state. apart from such drawbacks the value of the specimen is very great, and this is especially the case in regard to the teeth and the lower jaw. the former are remarkably large, and they agree herein with the teeth from krapina (though their roots are distinct and not conjoined as in the krapina examples). in respect of size, the teeth of the dordogne individual surpass those of the mauer jaw, but the first lower molar has proportions similar to the corresponding tooth of that specimen. but, large as they are, the lower teeth are implanted in a mandible falling far short of the mauer jaw in respect of size and weight (fig. ). in fact one of the great characteristics of the dordogne skeleton is the inadequacy of the mandible when compared to the remainder of the skull, even though allowance is made for the youth of the individual. were it not that the facts are beyond dispute, it is difficult to imagine that such a mandible could be associated with so large and capacious a cranium. and yet the jaw is not devoid of points in which it resembles the mauer bone, in spite of its much smaller bulk. thus the chin is defective, the lower border undulating, and the ascending branch is wide in proportion to its height. a good idea of these features is provided by the illustration of the side-view (cf. fig. ) given by professor frizzi. seen from above, the contour is in close agreement with that of several well-known examples, such as the jaws from spy (cf. fig. ) and krapina. [illustration: fig. . outline tracings of jaw-bones. in the lower row, sections are represented as made vertically in the median plane through the chin, which is either receding or prominent. in this series, the numbers refer to those given in the upper set. (from frizzi.)] [illustration: fig. . outline tracings of jaw-bones viewed from above. _a_ an ancient briton (cf. fig. , _b_). _b_ moustier. _c_ mauer. (_b_ and _c_ are from casts in the cambridge museum.)] the limb bones agree in general appearance with those of the skeletons of the neanderthal and la chapelle. though absolutely smaller than in those examples, they are yet similar in regard to their stoutness. the femur is short and curved, and the articular ends are disproportionately large as judged by modern standards. the tibia is prismatic, resembling herein the corresponding bone in the spy skeleton. it is not flattened or sabre-like, as in certain other prehistoric skeletons. another point of interest derived from the study of the limb bones is the stature they indicate. having regard to all the bones available, a mean value of about mm. (about ft. in.) is thus inferred. yet the youth was certainly years of age and might have been as much as years. the comparison of stature with that of the other examples described is given in a later chapter. at present, it is important to remark that in view of this determination (of ft. in.) and even when allowance is made for further growth in stature the large size of the skull must be regarded as very extraordinary indeed. a similar remark applies to the estimate of the capacity of the brain-case. a moderate estimate gives c.c. as the capacity of the brain-case (practically identical with that of the la chapelle skull). in modern europeans of about ft. in., this high figure would not cause surprise. in a modern european of the same stature as the dordogne man ( ft. in.), so capacious a brain-case would be regarded if not as a pathological anomaly, yet certainly as the extreme upper limit of normal variation. without insisting further on this paradoxical result (which is partly due to defective observations), it will suffice to remark that early palaeolithic man was furnished with a very adequate quantity of brain-material, whatever its quality may have been. in regard to the amount, no symptom or sign of an inferior evolutionary status can be detected. _la ferrassie_ (_dordogne, france_). this discovery was made in a rock-shelter during its excavation in the autumn of by m. peyrony. a human skeleton was found in the floor of the grotto, and below strata characterised by mousterian implements. the bones were excessively fragile, and though the greatest care was taken in their removal, the skull on arrival at paris was in a condition described by professor boule (l'anthropologie, , p. ) as 'très brisée.' no detailed account has yet appeared, though even in its fragmentary condition, the specimen is sure to provide valuable information. from the photographs taken while the skeleton lay _in situ_ after its exposure, it is difficult to arrive at a definite conclusion as to its characters. but in regard to these, some resemblance at least (in the jaws) to the neanderthal type can be detected. m. peyrony found also in the same year and in the same region (at le pech de l'aze) the cranium of a child, assignable to the same epoch as the skeleton of la ferrassie. but so far no further details have been published. _forbes quarry_ (_gibraltar_). the human skull thus designated was found in the year . it was, so to speak, rediscovered by messrs busk and falconer. the former authority described the specimen in , but this description is only known from an abstract in the reports of the british association. broca published an account of the osteological characters a few years later. after , the skull again fell into obscurity for some twenty years: thereafter it attracted the attention of dr macnamara, professor schwalbe, and above all of professor sollas, who published the first detailed and critical account in . this has stimulated yet other researches, particularly those of professor sera (of florence) in , and the literature thus growing up bids fair to rival that of the neanderthal skeleton. a most important feature of the specimen consists in the fact that the bones of the face have remained intact and in connection with the skull. but the mandible is wanting, and the molar teeth of the upper set are absent. as may be gathered from the tracing published by dr sera (cf. fig. ) the upper part of the brain-case is imperfect. nevertheless the contour has been restored, and the neanderthal-like features of distinct brow-ridges, followed by a low flattened cranial curve, are recognisable at once. the facial profile is almost complete, and in this respect the forbes quarry skull stood alone until the discovery of the specimen from la chapelle. since that incident, this distinction is not absolute, but the forbes quarry skull is still unique amidst the other fossils in respect of the bones forming what is called the cranial base. in no other specimen hitherto found, are these bones so complete, or so well preserved in their natural position. [illustration: fig. . outline tracing and sectional view of the gibraltar (forbes quarry) skull. the various angles are used for comparative purposes. (from sera.)] the forbes quarry skull is clearly of neanderthaloid type as regards the formation of the brain-case; in respect of the face it resembles in general the skull from la chapelle. but in respect of the estimated capacity of the brain-case (estimated at c.c.), the forbes quarry skull falls far short of both those other examples. moreover the cranial base assigns to it an extremely lowly position. the individual is supposed by some to have been of the female sex, but there is no great certainty about this surmise. the enormous size of the eye-cavities and of the opening of the nose confer a very peculiar appearance upon the face, and are best seen in the full-face view. some other features of the skull will be considered in the concluding chapter, when its relation to skulls of the neanderthal type will be discussed in detail. _andalusia, spain._ in , colonel willoughby verner discovered several fragments of a human skeleton in a cave in the serranía de ronda. these fragments have been presented to the hunterian museum. they seem to be absolutely mineralised. though imperfect, they indicate that their possessor was adult and of pygmy stature. the thigh-bone in particular is of interest, for an upper fragment presents a curious conformation of the rounded prominence called the greater trochanter. in this feature, and in regard to the small size of the head of the bone, the femur is found to differ from most other ancient fossil thigh-bones, and from those of modern human beings, with the exception of some pygmy types, viz. the dwarf-like cave-dwellers of aurignac (compared by pruner-bey in to the bushmen), the aborigines of the andaman islands, and the aboriginal bushmen of south africa. a full description of the bones has not been published, but will probably appear very shortly. _grimaldi_ (_mentone caves_). among the numerous human skeletons yielded by the caves of mentone, two were discovered at a great depth in a cave known as the 'grotte des enfants.' the excavations were set on foot by the prince of monaco, and these particular skeletons have been designated the 'grimaldi' remains. their chief interest (apart from the evidence as to a definite interment having taken place) consists in the alleged presence of 'negroid' characters. the skeletons are those of a young man (cf. fig. ), and an aged woman. the late professor gaudry examined the jaw of the male skeleton. he noted the large dimensions of the teeth, the prognathism, the feeble development of the chin, and upon such grounds pointed out the similarity of this jaw to those of aboriginal natives of australia. some years later dr verneau, in describing the same remains, based a claim to (african) negroid affinity on those characters, adding thereto evidence drawn from a study of the limb bones. in both male and female alike, the lower limbs are long and slender, while the forearm and shin-bones are relatively long when compared respectively with the arm and the thigh-bones. [illustration: fig. . profile view of young male skull of the type designated that of 'grimaldi,' and alleged to present 'negroid' features. _locality._ deeper strata in the grotte des enfants, mentone. (from birkner, after verneau, modified.)] from a review of the evidence it seems that the term 'negroid' is scarcely justified, and there is no doubt that the grimaldi skeletons could be matched without difficulty by skeletons of even recent date. herein they are strongly contrasted with skeletons of the neanderthal group. and although modern europeans undoubtedly may possess any of the osteological characters claimed as 'negroid' by dr verneau, nevertheless the african negro races possess those characters more frequently and more markedly. caution in accepting the designation 'negroid' is therefore based upon reluctance to allow positive evidence from two or three characters to outweigh numerous negative indications; and besides this consideration, it will be admitted that two specimens provide but a feeble basis for supporting the superstructure thus laid on their characters. lastly dr verneau has been at some pains to shew that skulls of the 'grimaldi-negroid' type persist in modern times. yet the possessors of many and probably most such modern crania were white men and not negroes. enough has however been related to shew how widely the skeletons from the 'grotte des enfants' differ from the palaeolithic remains associated as the neanderthal type. * * * * * _south america._ with the exception of pithecanthropus, all the discoveries mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs were made in europe. from other parts of the world, actual human remains referable to earlier geological epochs are scanty save in south america. the discoveries made in this part of the new world have been described at great length. in many instances, claims to extraordinary antiquity have been made on their behalf. it is necessary therefore to examine the credentials of such specimens. upon an examination of the evidence, i have come to the conclusion that two instances only deserve serious attention and criticism. _baradero._ fragmentary remains of a human skeleton: the mandible is the best preserved portion; unfortunately the front part has been broken off so that no conclusion can be formed as to the characters of the chin. otherwise in regard to its proportions, some resemblance is found with the mandible of the spy skull (no. ). more important and definite is the direction of the grinding surfaces of the molar teeth. in the lower jaw, this surface is said to look forwards. the interest of this observation consists in the fact that the tooth from taubach presents the same feature, which is unusual. beyond these, the skeleton from the löss of baradero presents no distinctive features save the remarkable length of the upper limbs. _monte hermoso._ from this region two bones were obtained at different dates. these are an atlas vertebra (the vertebra next to the skull) and a thigh-bone. the latter is of less than pygmy dimensions. both are from fully adult skeletons. an attempt has been made to reconstruct an individual (the tetraprothomo of ameghino) to which the two bones should be referred. it will be noticed that the circumstances bear some, although a very faint, analogy to those in which the remains of pithecanthropus were found. the results are however extraordinarily different. professor branco has ably shewn that in the case of the bones from monte hermoso, the association in one and the same skeleton would provide so large a skull in proportion to the rest of the body, that the result becomes not only improbable, but impossible. it is therefore necessary to treat the bones separately. if this is done, there is no reason to regard the thigh-bone as other than that of a large monkey of one of the varieties known to have inhabited south america in prehistoric as well as in recent times. the vertebra is more interesting. it is small but thick and strong in a degree out of proportion to its linear dimensions. professor lehmann-nitsche supposes that it may have formed part of a skeleton like that of pithecanthropus, that is to say that it is not part of a pygmy skeleton. on the other hand, dr rivet considers that the monte hermoso vertebra could be matched exactly by several specimens in the large collection of exotic human skeletons in the national museum, paris. be this as it may, there is no doubt that the atlas vertebra in question constitutes the most interesting discovery of its kind made so far in south america. it is important to notice that time after time the attempts made to demonstrate the early origin of man in the american continent have resulted in failure, which in some instances has been regrettably ignominious. _combe capelle_ (_h. aurignacensis hauseri_). returning to europe, it is to be noted that in a rock-shelter near combe-capelle (dordogne), the excavations of dr hauser led to the discovery in of an entire human skeleton of the male sex. the interment (for such it was) had taken place in the aurignacian period. the skeleton presents a very striking appearance. in stature, no important divergence from the neanderthal type can be noted. but the more vertical forehead, more boldly-curved arc of the brain-case, the diminished brow-ridges, large mastoid processes and distinct canine fossae provide a complete contrast between the aurignac man and those of the neanderthal group. moreover the aurignac jaw has a slight projection at the chin, where an 'internal process' is now distinct. the brain-case has dolicho-cephalic proportions in a marked degree. the limb bones are straight and slender, and not so much enlarged in the regions of the several joints. the aurignac skeleton of combe capelle has been associated with several others by professor klaatsch. by some authorities they are considered as transitional forms bridging the gap between the early palaeolithic types and those of the existing hominidae. but professor klaatsch evidently regards them as intruders and invaders of the territory previously occupied by the more lowly neanderthaloid type. _galley hill._ among the skeletons which have been thus associated with the aurignac man, are three which have for many years attracted the attention of anthropologists. for this reason, no detailed account of their characters will be given here. of the three instances referred to, two are the fragmentary skull-caps of the skeletons found at brüx and at brünn in moravia. the latter specimen is generally described as brünn ( ) to distinguish it from brünn ( ), a different and earlier find of less interest. it will suffice to mention here that both specimens agree in possessing what may be described as a distinctly mitigated form of the characters so strongly developed in the neanderthal skull and its allies. the aurignac and brüx skulls are distinctly longer and narrower than that of brünn ( ). the limb bones are not available for the purposes of evidence. the third specimen possesses a very much greater interest. it is known as the galley hill skeleton from the site of its discovery near northfleet in kent. since it was first described by mr e. t. newton (in ), much literature has accumulated about the difficult problems presented by the galley hill skeleton. by some authors it is regarded as clearly associated with the other examples just mentioned (brüx, brünn, and aurignac). others reject its claims to high antiquity; of the latter some are courteous, others are scornful, but all are absolutely decided. having investigated the literature as well as i could, and having seen the cranium, i decided that the claims to great antiquity made on its behalf do really justify its inclusion. but i am quite convinced that the skeleton will give no more than very general indications. thus the bones are fragile in the extreme. and besides this, the skull is so contorted that measurements made in the usual way must be extraordinarily misleading and the possible error is too great to be successfully allowed for (cf. fig. ). [illustration: fig. . outline tracing of the galley hill skull, viewed from above. (from klaatsch.) --- galley hill. =---= ancient german. ... neanderthal. =...= modern south german.] to insist upon these points is the more important since nowadays various indices based on such measurements of the galley hill cranium will be found tabulated with data yielded by other skulls, and yet no mark of qualification distinguishes the former figures. the description of the skeleton may be given in a very few words. in the great majority of its characters, it is not seen to differ from modern human beings (though the stature is small, viz. mm., ft. in.). and so far as i am able to judge, the characters claimed as distinctive (separating the galley hill skull from modern dolichocephalic european skulls) are based upon observations containing a very large possibility of error. having regard to such statements, the inference is that the galley hill skull does not in fact differ essentially from its modern european counterparts. similar conclusions have been formed in regard to the other parts of this skeleton. it is important to note that the specimen does not lose its interest on this account. _summary._ from the foregoing descriptions, it follows that of the most ancient remains considered, at least three divisions can be recognised. in the first place, come the examples described as pithecanthropus and _homo heidelbergensis_ (mauer). in the second category come instances as to which no reasonable doubt as to their definitely human characters now exists (save possibly in the case of the taubach tooth and the hermoso atlas). of the members of this second series, two sub-divisions here designated (_a_) and (_b_) can be demonstrated; these with the first examples complete the threefold grouping set out in the table following, with which table a, p. , should be compared. group i. early ancestral forms. _ex. gr. h. heidelbergensis._ group ii. _subdivision a. homo primigenius. ex. gr. la chapelle._ {h. fossilis. _ex. _subdivision b. h. recens_; with varieties {gr. galley hill._ {h. sapiens. taking the first group (pithecanthropus and _homo heidelbergensis_) it is to be noticed that close correlation is quite possible. besides this, evidence exists in each case to the effect that far-distant human ancestors are hereby revealed to their modern representatives. of their physical characters, distinct indications are given of the possession of a small brain in a flattened brain-case associated with powerful jaws; the lower part of the face being distinguished by the absence of any projection of the chin. the teeth indicate with some degree of probability that their diet was of a mixed nature, resembling in this respect the condition of many modern savage tribes. beyond this, the evidence is weak and indefinite. it is highly probable that these men were not arboreal: though whether they habitually assumed the distinctive erect attitude is a point still in doubt. and yet again, while the indications are not clear, it is probable that in stature they were comparable, if not superior, to the average man of to-day. passing from this division to the second, a region of much greater certainty is entered. of the second group, one subdivision (_a_) retains certain characters of the earlier forms. thus the massive continuous brow-ridge persists, as do also the flattened brain-case with a large mass of jaw-muscle, and a ponderous chinless lower jaw. for the rest, the points of contrast are much more prominent than those of similarity. the brain has increased in size. this increase is very considerable in absolute amount. but relatively also to the size of the possessor, the increase in brain-material is even more striking, for the stature and consequently bulk and weight are less. the thigh-bone offers important points of difference, the earlier long slender form (in _p. erectus_) being now replaced by a shorter, curved, thick substitute. if there has been inheritance here, marked and aberrant variation is also observed. the second subdivision (_b_) remains for consideration. here the stature has not appreciably changed. the limb bones are long, slender, and less curved than those of the other associated human beings (_a_), and herein the earliest type is suggested once more. but the differences occur now in the skull. the brain is as large as in the other subdivision (_a_) and in modern men. the brain-case is becoming elevated: the brow-ridges are undergoing reduction; this process, commencing at their outer ends, expresses to some extent the degree of reduction in the muscles and bone of the lower jaw. the teeth are smaller and the chin becomes more prominent. the distinction from modern types of humanity is often impossible. in the next chapter some account is given of the circumstances under which the bones were discovered, and of the nature of their surroundings. chapter iii alluvial deposits and caves the principal characters of the oldest known human remains having been thus set forth, the circumstances of their surroundings next demand attention. a brief indication of these will be given with the aid of the illustrations provided in the original memoirs in each case, and the order of descriptions followed in the preceding chapter will be observed. _pithecanthropus._ the remains of pithecanthropus were recovered from an alluvial deposit at trinil. a section of this is shewn in fig. . an idea may thus be gained of the very considerable amount of superincumbent materials. the associated fauna cannot be compared directly to that of any western european locality. but in comparison with the modern fauna of java, the strata in which the pithecanthropus was found shew a predominance of extinct species, though not of genera. elephants and hippopotami were present: they point to a close relation between the fauna of trinil and that of certain siwalik strata in india, referred to a late pliocene age. the difference of opinion upon this point has been mentioned in the preceding chapter: here it will suffice to repeat that a final conclusion does not appear to have been reached, and that the experts who have examined the strata in situ still differ from each other. [illustration: fig. . section of the strata at trinil in java. _a_ vegetable soil. _b_ sand-rock. _c_ lapilli-rock. _d_ level at which the bones were found. _e_ conglomerate. _f_ clay. _h_ rainy-season level of river. _i_ dry-season level of river. (from dubois.)] _mauer._ impressed by the similarity of the conditions at mauer to those of the fossiliferous tufa-beds near taubach and weimar, dr schoetensack had anticipated the possibility of obtaining valuable fossil relics from the former locality. for some twenty years, dr schoetensack kept in touch with the workmen of mauer, and thus when the jawbone was found, he was summoned at once. even so, the jaw had been removed from its resting-place, and broken in two fragments. yet there is no doubt as to the exact position in which it was found. sand and löss (a fine earthy deposit) had accumulated above it to a thickness of seventy feet. the nature of the surroundings may be estimated by reference to the illustration (fig. ) reproducing dr schoetensack's photograph of the sand-pit. the sands which contained the mandible represent an alluvial deposit, and so far resemble the trinil beds in java. the attempt to institute an exact comparison would be unprofitable, but on the whole it would seem that, of the two, the mauer sands represent the later stage. the fauna associated with the mauer jaw includes such forms as _elephas antiquus_, _rhinoceros etruscus_, _ursus arvernensis_, _u. deningeri_ (an ancestral form of _u. spelaeus_), together with a species of horse intermediate between _equus stenonis_, and the fossil horse found at taubach. the cave-lion, bison, and various deer have also been recognised. [illustration: fig. . view of the mauer sand-pit. x (in white) position of jawbone when found. (from birkner, after schoetensack.)] the aspect of this collection shews a marked similarity to that of the so-called forest-bed of cromer, though at the same time indicating a later age. the mauer jaw must therefore be assigned to the very earliest part of the pleistocene epoch. in his original memoir, dr schoetensack gave no account of any associated 'industry,' in the form of stone implements. but now ( ) professor rutot unhesitatingly (though the reasons are not stated) ascribes to the horizon of the mauer jaw, that division of the eolithic industries termed by him the "mafflien." upon the correctness of such a view judgment may well be reserved for the present. _taubach_. the bone-bed (_knochenschicht_) of taubach whence the two human teeth were recovered, lies at a depth of some feet ( · m.) from the adjacent surface-soil. no fewer than eleven distinct horizons have been recognised in the superincumbent strata. palaeoliths had often been obtained from the same stratum as that which yielded the human teeth. dr weiss referred it to the first, i.e. the earlier of two inter-glacial periods judged to have occurred in this region. the associated fauna includes _elephas antiquus_, _rhinoceros merckii_, _bison priscus_, with cervidae and representatives of swine, beaver and a bear. the similarity of this assemblage to that of the mauer sands has been noted already. the hippopotamus however does not seem to have been recorded in either locality. nevertheless, the general aspect of the mammalian fauna is 'southern' (_faune chaude_ of french writers). upon this conclusion, much depends, for the palaeolithic implements (claimed as contemporaneous with the extinct 'southern' mammals recorded in the foregoing paragraphs) are said to correspond to the type of le moustier. but mousterian implements are (it is alleged) practically never associated with 'southern' animals, so that in this respect the taubach bone-bed provides a paradox. without discussing this paradox at length, it may be stated that the implements just described as 'mousterian' are not recognised as such by all the experts. thus obermaier identifies them with those of levallois, _i.e._ a late s. acheul type (cf. obermaier, ). others declare that the type is not that of le moustier, but of chelles. the latter type of implement is found habitually in association with the southern fauna, and thus the paradox described above may prove to be apparent only and not real. but the unravelling of the different opinions relating to the taubach finds is among the easier tasks presented to anyone desirous of furnishing a clear statement of the actual state of our knowledge on these matters. the difficulties with which the whole subject bristles may thus be realised. _krapina._ researches productive of evidence as to the existence of palaeolithic man in croatia, were commenced at krapina so long ago as august, , by professor kramberger. a preliminary report was published in december, . until the year these researches passed almost unnoticed in this country. the site was not exhausted until . the actual excavations were made in a rock-shelter on the right bank of the krapini[vc]a river, near the village of krapina. the rock-shelter had been to some extent invaded not long before the archaeological work commenced, and evidence of early human occupation of the site was revealed in the form of dark bands of earth, containing much charcoal. these bands were seen as lines in the lower parts of the exposed section of the cave contents. fragments of human and other bones to the number of several thousands were removed. in one season's work six hundred stone implements were found. a section of the several strata has been published and is reproduced in fig. . human bones or artefacts were found throughout a wide series of strata, in which no variations of a cultural nature were detected. throughout the period of human occupation, the palaeolithic inmates of the cave remained on an unaltered and rather lowly level of culture. this is described by some authorities as mousterian, by others as aurignacian; in either case as of an early palaeolithic aspect. [illustration: fig. . section of the krapina rock-shelter. , strata with human remains. _b_ former level of river-bed. (from birkner, after kramberger.)] but when the animal remains are considered, krapina seems to present the difficulty already encountered in the case of taubach. for there is no doubt but that the 'southern' fauna is to some extent represented at krapina. this qualified form of statement is employed because one representative only, viz. _rhinoceros merckii_, has been discovered, whereas its habitual companions, _elephas antiquus_ and hippopotamus, have left no traces at krapina. other animals associated with the cave-men of krapina are not so commonly found in the presence of the _rhinoceros merckii_. thus the _ursus spelaeus_, _u. arctos_, _bos primigenius_, and the arctomys (marmot) are suggestive of a more northern fauna. but the presence of even a possibly stray _rhinoceros merckii_ is sufficient to confer an aspect of great antiquity on this early croatian settlement. no evidence of formal interments has come to light, and as regards the cannibalistic habits of the human cave-dwellers, no more than the merest surmise exists. _s. brélade's bay, jersey._ in the cave thus designated, old hearths were met with at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface. human beings are represented by teeth only. no evidence of interments has been recorded. the implements are of mousterian type. associated with the hearths and implements were many fragmentary remains of animals. up to the present time, the following forms have been identified: _rhinoceros tichorhinus_ (the hairy rhinoceros), the reindeer, and two varieties of horse. so far as this evidence goes, the age assigned to the implements is supported, or at least not contra-indicated. it is most improbable that the period represented can be really earlier than the mousterian, though it might be somewhat later. that the krapina teeth (which so curiously resemble those of s. brélade's bay in respect of the fusion of their roots) should be assigned to the same (mousterian) epoch is perhaps significant. _la chapelle-aux-saints_ (_corrèze_). this is the best example of an interment referable to the early palaeolithic age (fig. ). two reasons for this statement may be given. in the first place, the skeleton lay in a distinctly excavated depression, beneath which no signs of an earlier settlement are recorded. secondly, the superincumbent strata can be assigned to one period only of the archaeological series, viz. that of le moustier. indications of the preceding period (s. acheul) as well as of the subsequent one (aurignac) are practically negligible. moreover the surroundings had not been disturbed since the interment: this is shewn by the leg-bones of a large bovine animal (bison or bos) found in their natural relations just above the head of the human skeleton. [illustration: fig. . plan of the cave at la chapelle-aux-saints (corrèze). (from boule.)] the latter lay on the back, the right arm bent, the left extended; both legs were contracted and to the right. in general, this attitude recalls that of the skeletons of la ferrassie and the grotte des enfants (grimaldi). at le moustier too, the skeleton was found in a somewhat similar position. at la chapelle-aux-saints, the associated fauna includes the reindeer, horse, a large bovine form (? bison), _rhinoceros tichorhinus_, the ibex, wolf, marmot, badger and boar. it would seem that this particular cave had served only as a tomb. for other purposes its vertical extent is too small. the stone artefacts are all perfect tools: no flakes or splinters being found as in habitations. the animal remains are supposed to be relics of a funeral feast (or feasts). but the presence of the rhinoceros is perhaps antagonistic to such an explanation. _le moustier_ (_dordogne_). the skeleton lay on its right side, the right arm bent and supporting the head; the left arm was extended. the stratum upon which the body rested consisted largely of worked flint implements. these are assigned to the later acheulean and earlier mousterian epochs. two features in contrast with the conditions at la chapelle are to be noticed. it is doubtful whether the skeleton at le moustier had been literally interred. it seems rather to have been placed on what was at the time the floor of the grotto, and then covered partly with earth on which implements were scattered. indications of a definite grave were found at la chapelle. again at le moustier, other parts of the same grotto had been occupied as habitations of the living. at la chapelle this seems not to have been the case. the evidence of the accompanying animal remains also differs in the two cases. at le moustier, only small and very fragmentary animal bones with the tooth of an ox were found in the immediate vicinity of the human skeleton. an extended search revealed bones of _bos primigenius_ in the cave. no bones of the reindeer were found and their absence is specially remarked by professor klaatsch, as evidence that the skeleton at le moustier is of greater antiquity than the skeleton accompanied by reindeer bones at la chapelle. in any case, it would seem that no great lapse of time separates the two strata. _la ferrassie._ the skeleton was found in the same attitude as those of la chapelle and le moustier, viz. in the dorsal position, the right arm bent, the left extended, both legs being strongly flexed at the knee and turned to the right side. the bones were covered by some · m. of _débris_: stone implements were yielded by strata above and below the body respectively. beneath the skeleton, the implements are of acheulean type, while above and around it the type of le moustier was encountered. aurignacian implements occurred still nearer the surface. in regard to the evidence of interment the conditions here resemble those at le moustier rather than those of la chapelle. the human skeleton did not appear to have been deposited in a grave, but simply laid on the ground, covered no doubt by earth upon which flint implements were scattered. but the cave continued to be occupied until at the close of the aurignacian period a fall of rock sealed up the entrance. it is difficult to realise the conditions of life in such a cave, after the death of a member of the community, unless, as among the cave-dwelling veddas of ceylon, the cave were temporarily abandoned (seligmann, ). it is possible that the normal accumulation of animal remains created such an atmosphere as would not be greatly altered by the addition of a human corpse, for professor tylor has recorded instances of such interments among certain south american tribes. but it is also conceivable that the enormously important change in custom from inhumation to cremation, may owe an origin to some comparatively simple circumstance of this kind. the animal remains at la ferrassie include bison, stag, and horse, with a few reindeer. the general aspect is thus concordant with that at la chapelle. _pech de l'aze._ it is impossible to decide whether the child's skull had been buried intentionally or not. the associated fauna is apparently identical with that of la ferrassie and la chapelle. _forbes quarry_ (_gibraltar_). of the surroundings of the forbes quarry skull at the time of its discovery nothing is known. in the present writer explored forbes quarry and a small cave opening into it. but no evidence of the presence of prehistoric man was obtained. bones of recent mammalia and certain molluscs found during the excavations, throw no light on this subject. _andalusia._ at the time of writing, only the following information is available as to the surroundings of these human cave-bones. they were discovered on or near the floor of a deep fissure leading to a series of labyrinthine passages. the walls of the fissure or cave were decorated with drawings of animals resembling those at cretas in aragon. besides the mineralised bones, other fragments of less antiquated aspect were found. potsherds were also obtained, but i have no information as to the occurrence of implements. _grotte des enfants_ (_mentone_). with regard to the two 'negroid' skeletons of this cave, the first important point is the enormous thickness of accumulated _débris_ by which the bones were covered. a depth of some twenty-four feet had been reached before the discovery was made (fig. ). [illustration: fig. . two sections of the grotte des enfants, mentone. _i._ stratum in which the "grimaldi" skeletons were found. (from boule.)] the bodies had been definitely interred, large stones being found in position, adjusted so as to protect the heads particularly. the bodies had been placed on the right side. of the woman, both arms were bent as were the lower limbs. the male skeleton has the right arm flexed, but the left extended (as in the cases of la chapelle, le moustier, and la ferrassie). it is practically certain that the skeletons do not belong to an epoch represented, as regards its culture or fauna, by strata lower than that which supported the human remains. this conclusion is very important here. for the evidence of the stone implements accompanying the human bones is fairly definite: it points to the mousterian age. the animal bones are those of the reindeer and cave hyaena. the presence of the former animal supports the conclusion arrived at on the evidence of the human artefacts. the presence of the cave hyaena does not controvert that conclusion. but an interesting fact remains to be considered. below the two human skeletons, the animal remains are those of the 'southern' fauna. all the characteristic representatives were found, viz. _elephas antiquus_, _rhinoceros merckii_, and hippopotamus. the hyaena was also associated with these large animals. it is not clearly stated whether implements of mousterian type occurred in these, the deepest strata of the cave-floor. were this so, the contention made in respect of the taubach implements (cf. _supra_, p. ) would be remarkably corroborated, as would also the somewhat similar suggestion made in regard to krapina. for the moment, however, it must suffice to attribute these human remains of negroid aspect to the mousterian period at mentone. inasmuch as the reindeer appears in several strata overlying the remains of the grimaldi race (for so it has been named by dr verneau), it is certainly conceivable that the two individuals are aurignacian or even later. but this is to enter a wilderness of surmise. human skeletons were actually found in those more superficial strata and also were associated with the reindeer. but their cranial features are of a higher type (cro-magnon) and contrast very clearly with those of the more deeply buried individuals. _south america._ the two discoveries mentioned in the preceding chapter were made in the so-called pampas formation of argentina. this formation has been subdivided by geologists into three successive portions, viz. upper, middle and lower. the distinction is based partly upon evidence derived from the actual characters of deposits which differ according to their level. but the molluscan fauna has also been used as a means of distinction. the whole formation is stated by some to be fluviatile. other observers speak of it as löss. this need not necessarily exclude a fluviatile origin, but speaking generally that term now suggests an aerial rather than a subaqueous deposit. the upper subdivision is designated the yellow löss in contrast to the brown löss forming the middle layer. opinion is much divided as to the exact geological age of the pampas formation. ameghino refers it to the pliocene period, excepting the lower divisions which he regards as upper miocene. professor lehmann-nitsche assigns pliocene antiquity to the lowest subdivision only. dr steinmann regards the middle and lower subdivisions as equivalents of the 'older' löss of european pleistocene deposits. the latter determinations are more probably correct than is the first. _baradero._ the baradero skeleton was obtained from the middle formation or brown löss, in a locality marked by the presence of mollusca corresponding with modern forms, and contrasted with the tertiary argentine mollusca. the skeleton was in a 'natural' (_i.e._ not a contracted) position, the head being depressed on the front of the chest. no associated implements or remains of mammalian skeletons are recorded. _monte hermoso._ the vertebra and femur were found in the lower subdivision of the pampas formation. we have seen that ameghino refers this to the miocene epoch: lehmann-nitsche speaks of it as pliocene, steinmann's opinion suggests a still later date, while scott also declares that no greater age than that of the pleistocene period can be assigned. the two specimens were obtained at very different times, an interval of many years separating the dates of the respective discoveries. so far as is known, no mammalian or other animal remains have been yielded by the strata in question, so that the whole case in regard to evidence is one of the most unsatisfactory on record. indeed the whole question of 'dating' the argentine discoveries, whether absolutely or relatively, must be regarded as an unsolved problem. _combe capelle_ (_dordogne_). the circumstances of this discovery were as follows. the skeleton lay in an extended position, and it had been placed in an excavation made for the purpose of interment. this excavation entered a stratum distinguished as mousterian. but the interment is considered to be later, and of aurignacian antiquity. stone implements of aurignacian type were disposed around the skeleton: in addition to these, a number of molluscan shells were arranged about the skull. this suggestion of ornament would of itself suggest the later period to which the skeleton is assigned. no remains of animals are mentioned in the accounts accessible to me. _brüx_ (_bohemia_). the brüx skeleton was discovered in . it lay some five feet beneath the surface in a deposit which seems to be an ancient one of fluviatile origin. the biela river is not far from the spot. the bones were very fragmentary, and in particular the skull-cap has been reconstructed from no less than a dozen fragments. the limb bones were also fractured. near the skeleton, some remains of an ox were found on the same level. two feet above the skeleton, a stone implement, seemingly a neolithic axe, was brought to light. the information is thus meagre in the extreme, and when the condition of the skull is taken into account, it is evident that the brüx skeleton is not one upon which far-reaching arguments can be successfully based. the interest of the specimen depends above all upon the results of the careful analysis of its characters made by professor schwalbe[ ] ( ). _brünn_ ( ). this discovery was made at a depth of · metres in red löss. close to the human bones lay the tusk and the shoulder-blade of a mammoth. the same stratum subsequently yielded the skull of a young rhinoceros (_r. tichorhinus_): some ribs of a rhinoceros are scored or marked in a way suggestive of human activity: other ribs of the same kind were artificially perforated. more noteworthy, however, is a human figurine carved in ivory of a mammoth tusk. several hundreds of the shell of _dentalium badense_ lying close to the human remains were truncated in such a way as to suggest that they had once formed a necklace. _galley hill_ (_kent_). the gravel-pit whence the skeleton was obtained invades the 'high-level terrace-gravel' of the thames valley. such is the opinion of expert geologists (hinton[ ]). in the gravel-pit a section through ten feet of gravel is exposed above the chalk. the bones were eight feet from the top of the gravel. palaeolithic implements of a primitive type have been obtained from the same deposit at galley hill. no precise designation seems to have been assigned to them. from the published figures, they seem to correspond to the earlier acheulean or to the chellean type. one in particular, resembles the implements found at reculver, and i have recently seen similar specimens which had been obtained by dredging off the kentish coast near whitstable. some of the galley hill implements are compared to the high plateau forms from ightham. these must be of great antiquity. professor rutot in assigned the galley hill skeleton to a period by him named mafflian. this diagnosis seems to have been based upon the characters of the implements. recently however ( ) professor rutot has brought the skeleton down into the strépyan epoch, which is much less ancient than that of maffle. the associated fauna comes now into consideration. from the galley hill gravel-pit no mammalian remains other than the human skeleton have been reported, but the fauna of the 'high-level terrace' has been ascertained by observations in the vicinity of galley hill as well as in other parts of the thames basin. the mollusc _cyrena fluminalis_, indicative of a sub-tropical climate, has been found in these strata. as regards the mammalian fauna, it is interesting to compare the list given by mr e. t. newton in , with that published by mr m. a. c. hinton in on the basis of independent observations. _mr newton's list_, . . elephas primigenius. . hippopotamus. . rhinoceros: species uncertain. . bos. " " . equus. " " . cervus. " " . felis leo. " " _mr hinton's list_, . . elephas antiquus (a more primitive form than e. primigenius). . no hippopotamus (this occurs later, in the middle terrace). . rhinoceros megarhinus. . bos: species uncertain. . equus: species similar to the pliocene e. stenonis. . cervus: species: one resembles the fallow-deer (c. dama), a 'southern' form. . felis leo. . sus: species uncertain: bones of limbs shew primitive features. . canis: species uncertain. . delphinus: species uncertain. . trogontherium: species differing from the pliocene form. . various smaller rodents, such as voles. no definitely 'arctic' mammals are recorded: the general aspect of the above fauna shews a strong similarity to the pliocene fauna, which appears to have persisted to this epoch without much alteration of the various types represented. table a table headings: col i: classification by characters of human bones[ ] col ii: example col iii: circumstances and surroundings - immediate surroundings (ims) col iv: circumstances and surroundings - associated animals (asa) col v: circumstances and surroundings - name of types of associated implements (nai) i ii iii, iv, v vi division ii subdivision ( ) combe capelle ims cave interment _b_ asa reindeer nai aurignacian " ( ) galley hill ims alluvial drift of ? high terrace[ ] no asa {elephas antiquus interment {rhinoceros megarhinus[ ] {trogontherium (rodent) {mimomys (rodent) nai acheulean to ?strépyan " ( ) grimaldi ims cave interment (mentone) asa {reindeer {hyaena spelaea {felis spelaea {(marmot in higher strata) nai mousterian ? also aurignacian subdivision ( ) la ferrassie ims cave interment _a_ asa {reindeer {bison priscus nai mousterian " ( ) pech de l'aze ims cave (head asa {reindeer only {bison priscus found?) nai mousterian " ( ) le moustier ims cave interment asa {bos primigenius {_no reindeer_ nai mousterian " ( ) la chapelle ims cave interment asa {reindeer (_scarce_) {bison priscus nai mousterian " ( ) s. brélade ims cave ? asa {reindeer {bos ? sp. {rhinoceros tichorhinus nai mousterian " ( ) krapina ims cave (rock-shelter) asa {rhinoceros merckii {cave bear {bos primigenius {marmot (arctomys) nai mousterian " ( ) taubach ims alluvial deposit[ ] no asa {elephas antiquus interment {rhinoceros merckii {felis leo {no hippopotamus nai {? mousterian {? upper acheulean { = levallois {? chellean division i ( ) mauer ims alluvial deposit no asa {elephas antiquus interment {rhinoceros etruscus( ) {ursus arvernensis {no hippopotamus nai none found " ( ) trinil ims alluvial deposit no asa {hippopotamus? interment {rhinoceros sivasoudaicus {other sivalik types nai none found by dubois [ ] south american remains and some others are omitted owing to insufficiency of data relating to their surroundings. [ ] names of fossil varieties of rhinoceros. these are very confused. the term r. _leptorhinus_ should be avoided altogether. r. _megarhinus_ represents the r. _leptorhinus_ of falconer and cuvier. r. _merckii_ represents r. _hemitoechus_ of falconer, which is the r. _leptorhinus_ of owen and boyd dawkins. r. _tichorhinus_ is r. _antiquitatis_ of falconer and some german writers. [ ] the formation of the high terrace drift is earlier than the date of arrival of the 'siberian' invasion of britain by certain voles. already in pliocene times, some voles had come into britain from the south-east of europe. but the galley hill man, if contemporary with the high terrace drift, had arrived in britain ages before the appearance of _homo aurignacensis_ supposed by klaatsch to be closely allied, and to have come into europe through central if not northern asia. the 'high terrace' mammals have a 'pliocene' facies. [ ] the upper strata at taubach yielded reindeer and mammoth. near weimar, wüst says the stratigraphical positions of _r. merckii_ and _r. antiquitatis_ have been found inverted. [ ] typical val d'arno (pliocene) form. chapter iv associated animals and implements the most important of recent discoveries of the remains of early prehistoric man have now been considered. not only the evidence of the actual remains, but also that furnished by their surroundings has been called upon. it is evident that the last decade has been remarkably productive of additions to the stock of information on these subjects. in the next place, enquiry has to be made whether any relation exists between the two methods of grouping, viz. ( ) that in which the characters of the skeletons are taken as the test, and ( ) that dependent upon the nature of the surroundings. a first attempt to elucidate the matter can be made by means of a tabulated statement, such as that which follows. in constructing this table, the various finds have been ordinated according to the degree of resemblance to modern europeans presented by the respective skeletons. thus division ii with subdivision _b_ heads the list. then follows subdivision _a_, and finally division i will be found in the lowest place. this order having been adopted, the remaining data were added in the sequence necessarily imposed upon them thereby. (_a_) in an analysis of this table the several columns should be considered in order. taking that headed 'immediate surroundings,' it is evident that whereas most of the members of division ii were 'cave-men,' two exceptions occur. of these, the galley hill skeleton is by far the most remarkable. the taubach remains represent, it will be remembered, a form almost on the extreme confines of humanity. that it should resemble the members of division i, themselves in a similar position, is not very remarkable. and indeed it is perhaps in accordance with expectation, that remains of the more remote and primitive examples should be discovered, so to speak, 'in the open.' all the more noteworthy therefore is the position of the galley hill man, whose place according to his surroundings is at the end of the list opposite to that assigned to him by his physical conformation. (_b_) passing to the 'associated animals,' similar conclusions will be formed again. thus in the first place, most of the 'cave-men' were accompanied by remains of the reindeer. le moustier and krapina are exceptions but provide bison or urus which are elsewhere associated with the reindeer. otherwise galley hill and taubach again stand out as exceptions. moreover they have again some features in common, just as has been noted in respect of their alluvial surroundings. for the elephant (_e. antiquus_) is identical in both instances. but the rhinoceros of the 'high level' terrace gravel is not the same as that found at taubach, and though the succession is discussed later, it may be stated at once that the _rhinoceros megarhinus_ has been considered to stand in what may be termed a grand-parental relation to that of taubach (_r. merckii_), the _rhinoceros etruscus_ of the mauer sands representing the intervening generation (gaudry[ ], ). for the various names, reference should be made to the list of synonyms appended to table a. should further evidence of the relative isolation of the galley hill skeleton be required, the gigantic beaver (trogontherium) is there to provide it, since nowhere else in this list does this rodent appear. the paradoxical position of the galley hill skeleton having been indicated, it is convenient to deal with all the examples of skeletons from alluvial deposits taken as a single group, irrespective of their actual characters. (i) the study of the animals found in the corresponding or identical _alluvial deposits_, leads to inferences which may be stated as follows. the trinil (java) fauna will not be included, since the javanese and european animals are not directly comparable. if attention is confined to the remaining instances, viz. galley hill, taubach and mauer, agreement is shewn in respect of the presence of _elephas antiquus_, and this is absent from all the cave-deposits considered here [_v. infra_ (ii) p. ]. a rhinoceros appears in all three localities, but is different in each. finally, two (viz. galley hill and mauer) of the three, provide at least one very remarkable mammalian form, viz. trogontherium (_mimomys cantianus_ is equally suggestive) of the high-level gravels, and the _ursus arvernensis_ of the mauer sands. the significance of these animals may be indicated more clearly by the following statement. if the history of _elephas antiquus_ be critically traced, this animal appears first in a somewhat hazy atmosphere, viz. that of the transition period between pliocene and pleistocene times. it is a more primitive form of elephant than the mammoth. indeed, gaudry[ ] ( ) placed it in a directly ancestral relation to the last-mentioned elephant. and though the two were contemporary for a space, yet _elephas antiquus_ was the first to disappear. moreover this elephant has much more definite associations with the southern group of mammals than has the mammoth. its presence is therefore indicative of the considerable antiquity of the surrounding deposits, provided always that the latter be contemporaneous with it. with regard to the rhinoceros, the species _r. megarhinus_ and _r. etruscus_ have been found in definitely pliocene strata. the former (_r. megarhinus_) seems to have appeared earliest (at montpellier), whereas the etruscan form owes its name to the late pliocene formations of the val d'arno, in which it was originally discovered. the third species (_r. merckii_) is somewhat later, but of similar age to _elephas antiquus_, with which it constantly appears. it is remarkable that the _r. etruscus_, though not the earliest to appear, seems yet to have become extinct before the older _r. megarhinus_. the latter was contemporary with _r. merckii_, though it did not persist so long as that species. with regard to the three alluvial deposits, the rhinoceros provides a means of distinction not indicated by the elephantine representative, and the presence of _r. etruscus_ is a test for very ancient deposits. from what has been stated above, it follows that of the three localities the mauer sands have the more ancient facies, and it is significant that here also the human form proves to be furthest removed from modern men. but the other localities are not clearly differentiated, save that the taubach strata are perhaps the more recent of the two. coming next to the 'peculiar' animals; the _ursus arvernensis_ of mauer is almost as distinctively 'pliocene' as its associate, _rhinoceros etruscus_. the taubach strata have yielded nothing comparable to these, nor to the trogontherium (or mimomys) of the high-level terrace gravel. these animals are also strongly suggestive of the pliocene fauna. to sum up, it will be found that the evidence of the elephant is to the effect that these alluvial deposits are of early pleistocene age. it leads to the expectation that the fauna in general will have a 'southern,' as contrasted with an 'arctic' aspect. from the study of the rhinoceros it appears that the mauer sands are probably the most ancient in order of time, that the strata of taubach are the latest of the three and that _elephas antiquus_ will occur there (as indeed it does). the other animals mentioned clinch the evidence for the pliocene resemblance, and (at latest) the early pleistocene antiquity of the mauer sands and the high-level terrace gravels. within the limits thus indicated, the deposit of mauer is again shewn to be the oldest, followed by the terrace-gravels, while taubach is the latest and youngest of the three. all the characteristic animals are now entirely extinct. for the reasons stated above, the fossil javanese mammals of trinil have not been discussed. it will suffice to note that on the whole they indicate a still earlier period than those of the european deposits in question. (ii) the animals associated with the _cave-men_ now call for consideration. the great outstanding feature is the constancy with which the reindeer is found. this leads to a presumption that the climate was at least temperate rather than 'southern.' beyond this, it will be noted that in general the cave-fauna is more familiar in aspect, the reindeer having survived up to the present day, though not in the same area. again, save in one locality, not a single animal out of those discussed in connection with the alluvial deposits appears here. the exception is the krapina rock-shelter. the surviving animal is _rhinoceros merckii_, described above as one of the later arrivals in the epochs represented by the alluvial deposits. krapina does not provide the reindeer, and in this respect is contrasted again with the remaining localities. yet the presence of the marmot at krapina may be nearly as significant as that of the reindeer would be. another cave, viz. the grotte des enfants, may also need reconsideration. for instance, the _rhinoceros merckii_ was found in the deepest strata of this cave: but i do not consider that adequate evidence is given of its contemporaneity with the two human skeletons here considered. but the reindeer is found in the same cave, as indicated in the table. with the exception of krapina therefore, the conditions are remarkably uniform. this conclusion is confirmed by the evidence from many caves not described in detail here because of the lack of human bones therein or the imperfection of such as were found. such caves have yielded abundant evidence in regard to the 'associated fauna.' a few of the more important results of the investigation of the mammals may be given. thus the distribution of the reindeer is so constant that except in regard to its abundance or rarity when compared with the remains of the horse in the same cave, it is of little or no use as a discriminating agency. the mammoth (_e. primigenius_) was contemporaneous with the reindeer, but was plentiful while the reindeer was still rare. a similar remark applies to the hairy rhinoceros (_r. tichorhinus_), and also to the cave-bear. the cervidae (other than the reindeer), the equidae, the suidae (swine) and the smaller rodentia (especially voles) are under investigation, but the results are not applicable to the finer distinctions envisaged here. to sum up the outcome of this criticism; it appears that of the cave-finds, krapina stands out in contrast with the remainder, in the sense that its fauna is more ancient, and is indicative of a southern rather than a temperate environment. the latitude of krapina has been invoked by way of explaining this difference, upon the supposition that the _rhinoceros merckii_ survived longer in the south. yet krapina does not differ in respect of latitude from the caves of le moustier and la chapelle, while it is rather to the north of the mentone caves. lastly, some weight must be attached to the alleged discovery at pont newydd in wales, of mousterian implements with remains of _r. merckii_. the fauna of the other caves suggests temperate, if not sub-arctic conditions of climate. in all cases, the cave-finds are assignable to a period later in time than that in which the fluviatile deposits (previously discussed) were formed. the cave-men thus come within the later subdivisions of the pleistocene period. (_c_) the fifth column of the table gives the types of stone implements found in association with the respective remains. as is well known, and as was stated in the introductory sentences of this book, stone artefacts constitute the second great class of evidence on the subject of human antiquity. as such they might appropriately have been accorded a separate chapter or even a volume. here a brief sketch only of their significance in evidence will be attempted. the value of stone implements in deciding upon the age of deposits (whether in caves or elsewhere) depends upon the intimacy of the relation existing between various forms of implement and strata of different age. how close that intimacy really is, has been debated often and at great length. opinions are still at variance in regard to details, but as to certain main points, no doubt remains. yet the study is one in which even greater specialisation is needed than in respect of comparative osteology. the descriptions following these preliminary remarks are based upon as extensive an examination as possible, both of the literature, and of the materials. to discuss the validity of the claims made in favour of or against the recognition of certain individual types will be impossible, save in the very briefest form. the better-known varieties have received names corresponding to the localities where they were first discovered, or where by reason of their abundance they led to the recognition of their special value as a means of classification. these designations will be employed without further definition or explanation, save in a few instances. commencing again with the fifth column of the table, the first point to notice is that no implements at all have been discovered in immediate association with the fossil remains at mauer and trinil (java). yet in the absence of evidence, it must not be concluded that the contemporary representatives of mankind were incapable of providing such testimony. evidence will be adduced presently to show the incorrectness of such a conclusion. in the next place, the great majority of the cave-men are associated with implements of one and the same type, viz. the mousterian, so called from the locality (le moustier) which has furnished so complete an example of ancient prehistoric man. lastly, the galley hill skeleton maintains the distinctive position assigned to it, for as in the previous columns, it disagrees also here with the majority of the examples ranged near it. if enquiry be made as to the significance, _i.e._ the sequence in point of time and the general status of the various types of implements mentioned in the table, it will be found that all without exception are described as of palaeolithic type. indeed they furnish largely the justification for the application of that term (employed so often in chapter ii) to the various skeletons described there. to these palaeolithic implements, others of the neolithic types succeeded in europe. [it is necessary to insist upon this succession as european, since palaeoliths are still in use among savage tribes, such as the aboriginal (bush) natives of south africa.] confining attention to palaeoliths and their varieties, the discovery of a form alleged to fill the gap separating the most ancient neolithic from the least ancient palaeolithic types may be mentioned. the implements were obtained from the cave known as le mas d'azil in the south of france. in germany, the researches of professor schmidt[ ] in the caverns of württemburg have revealed a series of strata distinguished not only in position and sequence but also by the successive types of stone implements related to the several horizons. the sequence may be shewn most concisely if the deposits are compared in a tabular form as follows (table i). these caves give the information necessary for a correct appreciation of the position of all the cave-implements in table a. reverting to the latter, and having regard to the cave-men, both subdivisions of division ii (cf. table a) appear, but no example or representative of the earliest form (designated by division i). the fauna is entirely pleistocene, if we except such a trifling claim to pliocene antiquity as may be based upon the presence of _rhinoceros merckii_ at krapina. the results of this enquiry shew therefore that genuine mousterian implements are of pleistocene age, that they were fabricated by human beings of a comparatively low type, who lived in caves and were by occupation hunters of deer and other large ungulate animals. so much has long been known, but the extraordinary distinctness of the evidence of superposition shewn in professor schmidt's work at sirgenstein, furnishes the final proof of results arrived at in earlier days by the slow comparison of several sites representing single epochs. that work also helps to re-establish the aurignacian horizon and period as distinctive. table i. +-------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | | type of implement | | | levels +-----------+-----------+ fauna | | | ofnet |sirgenstein| | +-------------------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------+ |a. most superficial| -- | bronze | | | | | | | | | neolithic | -- | | | | | | | |b. . intermediate | azilian | -- | | | | | | | | palaeolithic | | | | | | | . deepest |magdalenian|magdalenian|} myodes torquatus (the | | stratum at | | |} banded lemming) | | ofnet | | |} | | | | |} | | . | -- | solutréan |} fauna of a northern | | | | |} character throughout: | | | | |} with reindeer, | | . | -- |aurignacian|} mammoth, rhinoceros | | | | |} tichorhinus and horse | | | | |} | | . deepest | -- |mousterian |} myodes obensis (a | | stratum at | | | siberian lemming) | | sirgenstein | | | | +-------------------+-----------+-----------+-------------------------+ when attention is turned from the cave-finds to those in alluvial deposits, names more numerous but less familiar meet the view. as the animals have been shewn to differ, so the types of implements provide a marked contrast. yet a transition is suggested by the claim made on behalf of mousterian implements for the taubach deposits, a claim which (it will be remembered) is absolutely rejected by some experts of high authority. in pursuing the sequence of implements from the mousterian back to still earlier types, cave-hunting will as a rule provide one step only, though this is of the greatest value. in a few caves, implements of the type made famous by discoveries in alluvial gravels at s. acheul in france (and designated the acheulean type) have been found in the deeper levels. such a cave is that of la ferrassie (cf. p. ); another is that of la chapelle, in which (it will be remembered) the acheulean implements underlay the human interment. kent's hole in devonshire is even more remarkable. for the lowest strata in this cavern yielded implements of the earliest chellean form, though this important fact is not commonly recognised. such caves are of the greatest interest, for they provide direct evidence of the succession of types, within certain limits. but the indefatigable labours of m. commont[ ] of amiens have finally welded the two series, viz. the cave-implements and the river-drift implements, into continuity, by demonstrating in the alluvial deposits of the river somme, a succession of types, from the mousterian backwards to much more primitive forms. these newly-published results have been appropriately supplemented by discoveries in the alluvial strata of the danube. combining these results from the river deposits, and for the sake of comparison, adding those from the caves at ofnet and sirgenstein, a tabulated statement (table ii) has been drawn up. the two examples of human skeletons from alluvial deposits given in table a are thus assigned to epochs distinguished by forms of implement more primitive than those found usually in caves; and moreover the more primitive implements are actually shewn to occur in deeper (_i.e._ more ancient) horizons where superposition has been observed. the greater antiquity of the two river-drift men (as contrasted with the cave-men) has been indicated already by the associated animals, and this evidence is now confirmed by the characters of the implements. it may be remarked again that the details of stratigraphical succession have but recently received complete demonstration, mainly through the researches of messrs commont, obermaier[ ], and bayer[ ]. the importance of such results is extraordinarily far-reaching, since a means is provided hereby of correlating archaeological with geological evidence to an extent previously unattained. (_d_) it will be noted that this advance has taken little or no account of actual human remains. for in the nature of things, implements will be preserved in river deposits, where skeletons would quickly disintegrate and vanish. table ii. +---------------------------------------------+ | a. caves[ ] | +-----------------+-------------+-------------+ | type of | ofnet[ ] | sirgenstein | | implement | | [ ] | | | | | +-----------------+-------------+-------------+ | .| | bronze | | | | | | neolithic .| neolithic | -- | | | | | | intermediate .| azilian | -- | | | | | | palaeolithic .| magdalenian | magdalenian | | | | | | .| -- | solutréan | | | | | | .| -- | aurignacian | | | | | | .| -- | mousterian | | | | | | .| -- | -- | | | | | | .| -- | -- | | | | | | .| -- | -- | | | | | +-----------------+-------------+-------------+ +-----------------------------------------+ | b. alluvial deposits | +-------------+-------------+-------------+ | s. acheul | willendorf | s. acheul | | (tellier) | (austria) | (tellier, | | [ ] | [ ] | etc.)[ ] | +-------------+-------------+-------------+ | -- | -- | -- | | | | | | -- | -- | -- | | | | | | -- | -- | -- | | | | | | magdalenian | -- | -- | | | | | | -- | solutréan | -- | | | | | | -- | aurignacian | -- | | | | | | -- | -- | mousterian | | | | | | -- | -- | acheulean | | | | | | -- | -- | chellean | | | | | | -- | -- | "industrie | | | | grossière" | +-------------+-------------+-------------+ [ ] for the occurrence of acheulean and chellean implements in caves, v. page . [ ] schmidt, . [ ] commont, . [ ] obermaier and bayer, . the next subject of enquiry is therefore that of the antiquity of man as indicated by the occurrence of his artefacts. the succession of palaeolithic implements has just been given and discussed, as far back as the period marked by the chellean implements of the lower river gravels (not necessarily the lower terrace) of s. acheul. for up to this point the testimony of human remains can be called in evidence. and as regards the associated animals, the chellean implements (taubach) have been shewn to accompany a group of animals suggestive of the pliocene fauna which they followed. but implements of the type of chelles have been found with a more definitely 'pliocene' form of elephant than those already mentioned. at s. prest and at tilloux in france, chellean implements are associated with _elephas meridionalis_, a species destined to become extinct in very early pleistocene times. near the jalón river in aragon, similar implements accompany remains of an elephant described as a variety of _e. antiquus_ distinctly approaching _e. meridionalis_. in pursuing the evidence of human antiquity furnished by implements, a start may be made from the data corresponding to the galley hill skeleton in column of table a. two divergent views are expressed here, since the alternatives "acheulean" or "strépyan" are offered in the table. in the former instance (acheulean) a recent writer (mr hinton, ) insists on the pliocene affinities of the high-level terrace mammals. but as a paradox, he states that the high-level terrace deposits provide implements of the acheulean type, whereas the chellean type would be expected, since on the continent implements associated with a fauna of pliocene aspect, are of chellean type. to follow mr hinton in his able discussion of this paradox is tempting, but not permissible here; it must suffice to state that the difficulty is reduced if professor rutot's[ ] view be accepted. for the strépyan form of implement (which m. rutot recognises in this horizon) is older than the others mentioned and resembles the chellean type. to appreciate this, the sequence which professor rutot claims to have established is here appended. a. _pleistocene period._ (all palaeolithic types except no. .) . azilian } } . magdalenian } } . solutréan } types found in caves as well as in alluvial deposits. } . aurignacian } } . mousterian } . acheulean. fauna of s.-e. britain has a pliocene aspect. high-level terrace of thames valley (hinton, ). . chellean. fauna of continent has pliocene affinities (hinton, ). . strépyan. galley hill skeleton. high-level terrace, thames basin (rutot, ). . mesvinian. implements on surface of chalk-plateau, ightham, kent (rutot, ). . mafflian. galley hill skeleton (rutot, ). mauer jaw (rutot, ). . reutelian. high-level terrace of thames basin, rutot, . the reutelian implement is "eolithic," and is found unchanged in stages assigned to the pliocene, miocene and oligocene periods (rutot, ). the duration of the pleistocene period is estimated at about , years (rutot, ). b. _pliocene period._ . kentian (reutelian). c. _miocene period._ . cantalian (reutelian). d. _oligocene period._ . fagnian (reutelian). e. _eocene period._ . [eoliths of duan and other french sites: not definitely recognised in by rutot.] several results of vast importance would follow, should the tabulated suggestions be accepted unreservedly in their entirety. an inference of immediate interest is to the effect that if professor rutot's view be adopted, the high-level terrace of the thames valley is not contrasted so strongly with continental deposits containing the same mammals, as mr hinton suggests. for professor rutot's strépyan period is earlier than the chellean. it may be questioned whether mr hinton is right in assigning only acheulean implements to the high-terrace gravels. indeed mr e. t. newton ( ) expressly records the occurrence at galley hill, of implements more primitive than those of acheulean form, and 'similar to those found by mr b. harrison on the high plateau near ightham,'--_i.e._ the mesvinian type of professor rutot. a final decision is perhaps unattainable at present. but on the whole, the balance of evidence seems to go against mr hinton; though _per contra_ it will not escape notice that since , professor rutot has 'reduced' the galley hill skeleton from the mafflian to the strépyan stage, and it is therefore possible that further reduction may follow. leaving these problems of the galley hill implements and the strépyan period, the mesvinian and mafflian types are described by professor rutot as representatives of yet older and more primitive stages in the evolution of these objects. as remarked above (chapter iii), the mauer jaw is referred by professor rutot to the mafflian (implement) period of the early pleistocene age, though the grounds for so definite a statement are uncertain. more primitive, and less shapely therefore, than the mafflian implements, are the forms designated 'reutelian.' they are referred to the dawn of the quaternary or pleistocene period. but with these the initial stage of evolution seems to be reached. such 'eoliths,' as they have been termed, are only to be distinguished by experts, and even these are by no means agreed in regarding them as products of human industry. if judgment on this vital point be suspended for the moment, it will be seen that professor rutot's scheme carries this evidence of human existence far back into the antiquity denoted by the lapse of the pliocene and miocene periods of geological chronology. but let it be remarked that when the names kentian, cantalian and fagnian are employed, no claim is made or implied that three distinctive types of implement are distinguished, for in respect of form they are all reutelian. herein the work of m. commont must be contrasted with that of professor rutot. for the gist of m. commont's researches lies in the demonstration of a succession of types from the more perfect to the less finished, arranged in correspondence with the superimposed strata of a single locality. a vertical succession of implements accompanies a similar sequence of strata. professor rutot examines the pliocene deposits in england, miocene in france and oligocene in belgium, and finds the same reutelian type in all. the names kentian, cantalian, and fagnian should therefore be abandoned, for they are only synonyms for pliocene-reutelian, etc. it is hard to gain an idea of the enormous duration of human existence thus suggested. but a diagram (fig. ) constructed by professor penck[ ] is appended with a view to the graphic illustration of this subject. the years that have elapsed since the commencement of the oligocene period must be numbered by millions. the human type would be shewn thus not merely to have survived the hipparion, mastodon and deinotherium but to have witnessed their evolution and the parental forms whence they arose. [illustration: fig. . chart of the relative duration of miocene, pliocene and pleistocene time: (from penck.) . line of oscillation of level of lowest snow-line. (central europe.) . localities where 'eolithic implements' occur. . names of representatives of ancestral forms of the modern horse. the claim of anchitherium to occupy the position it holds here, is strongly criticised by depèret. . names of representatives of ancestral forms of modern elephants. the chart is to be read from right to left. the gradual sinking of the snow-line is to be noticed, and the oscillations of the same line during the glacial period are also shewn (cf. fig. ).] such is the principal outcome of the opinions embodied in the tabulation of professor rutot. that observer is not isolated in his views, though doubtless their most energetic advocate at the present day. we must admire the industry which has conferred upon this subject the support of evidence neither scanty in amount, nor negligible in weight. but the court is still sitting, no final verdict being yet within sight. while the so-called eocene eoliths of duan (eure-et-loire) fail to receive acceptance (laville[ ], ), even at professor rutot's hands ( ), it is otherwise with those ascribed to the oligocene period. mr moir[ ] of ipswich has lately recognised prepalaeoliths beneath the suffolk crag (newbourn) at ipswich resting the underlying london clay. some objections to the recognition of the so-called 'eoliths' as artefacts may now be considered. ( ) the case of the opponents rests mainly on a fourfold basis of argument. thus the nature of the splintering or chipping is called in question. some writers appeal to weathering, others to movements in the deposits ('earth-creep,' and 'foundering of drifts,' warren[ ] . and breuil, ), and others again to the concussions experienced by flints in a torrential rush of water. the last explanation is supported by observations on the forms of flints removed from certain rotary machines used in cement-factories (boule[ ], ). ( ) a second line of opposition impugns the association of the flints with the strata wherein they were found, or the geological age of those strata may be called in question as having been assigned to too early a period. ( ) then (in the third place) comes the objection that the eoliths carry man's existence too far back; having regard to the general development of the larger mammals, pliocene man might be accepted, but 'oligocene' man is considered incredible. moreover the period of time which has elapsed since the oligocene period must be of enormous length. ( ) in the last place will be mentioned criticism of the distribution of the eolithic type (obermaier[ ], ). ( ) having regard to the first of these arguments, the balance of evidence appears so even and level that it is hardly possible to enter judgment on this alone. but experiments recently carried out by mr moir, and in belgium by munck and ghilain ( ; cf. grist[ ], ) should do much to settle this point. moreover the 'wash-tub' observations in cement-factories (boule, ) prove too much, for it is alleged that among the flint-refuse, fragments resembling magdalenian or even neolithic implements were found. yet such forms are not recorded in association with the comparatively shapeless eoliths. further experiments are desirable, but so far they support professor rutot and his school rather than their opponents. ( ) the position of the eoliths and the accuracy with which their immediate surroundings are determined may be impugned in some instances, but this does not apply to mr moir's finds at ipswich, nor to the pliocene eoliths found by mr grist[ ] at dewlish ( ). ( ) while the general evidence of palaeontology may be admitted as adverse to the existence of so highly-evolved a mammal as man in the earlier tertiary epochs, yet the objection is of the negative order and for this reason it must be discounted to some extent. if the lapse of time be objected to, dr sturge[ ] ( ) is ready to adduce evidence of glacial action upon even neolithic flints, and to propose a base-line for the commencement of the neolithic phase no less than , years ago. ( ) the distribution of the implements finds a weak spot in the defences of the eolithic partisans. it is alleged that eoliths are almost always flints: and that they occur with and among other flints, and but rarely elsewhere. palaeoliths (of flint) also occur among other flints, but they are not thus limited in their association. this distinction is admitted by some at least of the supporters of the 'artefact' nature of the eoliths, and the admission certainly weakens their case. the question is thus far from the point of settlement, and it may well continue to induce research and discussion for years to come. that a final settlement for the very earliest stages is practically unattainable will be conceded, when the earliest conditions are recalled in imagination. for when a human being first employed stones as implements, natural forms with sharp points or edges would be probably selected. the first early attempts to improvise these or to restore a blunted point or edge would be so erratic as to be indistinguishable (in the result) from the effects of fortuitous collisions. while such considerations are legitimately applicable to human artefacts of oligocene or miocene antiquity, they might well appear to be less effective when directed to the pleistocene representatives where signs of progress might be expected. yet professor rutot ( ) does not distinguish even the pleistocene reutelian from the oligocene (eolithic) forms. if, on such evidence as this, early pleistocene man be recognised, oligocene man must needs be accepted likewise. professor rutot's mode of escape from this difficult position is interesting and instructive, if not convincing. it is effected by way of the assumption that in regard to his handiwork, man (some say a tool-making precursor of man) was in a state of stagnation throughout the ages which witnessed the rise and fall of whole genera of other mammals. that this proposition is untrue, can never be demonstrated. on the other hand, the proposition may be true, and therefore the unprejudiced will maintain an open mind, pending the advent of more conclusive evidence than has been adduced hitherto. chapter v human fossils and geological chronology in the preceding chapter, the remains of palaeolithic man were studied in relation to the associated animals (especially mammals), and again (so far as possible) in connection with the accompanying implements. in the comparison of the different types of implement, evidence was adduced to shew that certain forms of these are distinctive of corresponding geological horizons. of the three series, ( ) human remains, ( ) mammalian remains, ( ) stone implements, the first two, ( ) and ( ), have been compared as well as ( ) and ( ). a comparison between ( ) and ( ) has now to be instituted. and this is of interest, for mammalian remains have been found in the presence of implements where no human bones could be discovered. moreover the expectation is well founded, whereby the mammalian fauna will prove to supply information unobtainable from either human skeletons or implements by themselves. that information will bear upon the climatic conditions of the different phases which mark the geological history of man. and in this way, a more perfect correlation of the past history of man with the later geological history of the earth may be fairly anticipated. in chapter iv, use was frequently made of the expression 'southern,' 'temperate' or 'sub-arctic,' in connection with the various groups of mammals mentioned in table a. and while the geological period is limited, during which these investigations are profitably applicable, yet the matter is one of no small importance. for the very fact that the fauna can be described in one case as 'southern' in character, in another as 'temperate,' suggests some variation of climate. and the relation of the history of man to the great variation of climate implied in the expression 'glacial period,' may be reasonably expected to receive some elucidation from this branch of study. it will be noticed that man himself is at present comparatively independent of climate, and even in earlier times he was probably less affected than some other animals. but while the importance of these studies must be recognised, it is also very necessary to notice that as elsewhere so here the difficulties are great, and pitfalls numerous. it is no part of the present work to attempt a history of the stages through which opinion passed in developing the conception embodied in the phrase 'ice-age.' long before that idea had been formulated, the presence of animal remains both in cave and alluvial deposits was a matter of common knowledge. the late professor phillips is believed to have been the first to make definite use of the terms 'pre-glacial' and 'post-glacial' in reference to the later geological formations ( ). and to the pre-glacial era that geologist referred most of the ossiferous caves and fissures. but in , this, the accepted view, was overthrown by the late dr falconer[ ] at least so far as the caves (with the exception of the victoria cave) then explored in britain were concerned. in the same year, the post-glacial position and antiquity of various brick-earths and gravels of the thames valley were considered to have been definitely established by the late professor prestwich. it is very important to note in this connection, that the palaeontological evidence of those brick-earths was nevertheless held to indicate pre-glacial antiquity and thus to contradict the evidence of stratigraphy. the method employed in the latter mode of enquiry consisted in ascertaining the relation of the boulder-clay to certain deposits distinguished by their fauna, the mollusca being especially employed in the identifications. boulder-clay seems, in this country, to have been taken as the premier indication of the glacial period; it was supposed to be a submarine deposit formed during a submergence of large parts of these islands in the course of that period. that the late sir charles lyell dwelt upon the problems of the boulder clay should also be recalled, for he expressly recounts how constantly it proved a barrier marking the extreme limit to which the works of man could be traced. implements or even bones had been found in the drift and above the boulder-clay, but not below. for a while no attempt seems to have been made to subdivide the boulder-clay or to question its exact identity over all the area occupied by it. yet such a subdivision might have resulted in explaining the contradiction or paradox (curiously analogous to that propounded by mr hinton in , cf. p. supra) just mentioned as existing between the age to be assigned to the thames river-drift upon (_a_) stratigraphical evidence ('post-glacial'), and (_b_) palaeontological evidence ('pre-glacial'). that there might be several deposits of the boulder-clay with intervening strata, does not appear to have been suggested. the glacial period was long regarded as one and indivisible. by some able geologists that view is still held. yet even in those comparatively early days, some succession of glaciations was suspected. in , ramsay recognised three phases of ice-action in north wales. in , morlot took in hand the work of charting the extent of several swiss glaciations. at last the possibility of a subdivision of the boulder-clay was realised, and it was demonstrated by the researches of sir a. geikie[ ] ( ). but such division of the boulder-clay leads directly to an inference of successive periods of deposition--and when the earlier opinion (whereby the boulder-clay was regarded as a submarine deposit) was partly abandoned in favour of its origin as a 'ground-moraine,' the plurality of glaciations was still more strongly supported. the work of julien (auvergne, ) and professor james geikie ( ) carries the story on to the year which is marked by a very memorable contribution from professor skertchley[ ], by whom account was taken of the stratigraphical position of stone implements. the names of these pioneers (and that of croll should be added to the list) may be fittingly recalled now that the names of later continental observers figure so largely. but the work of professors penck, brückner, boule and obermaier, admirable as it is, may be regarded justly as an extension or amplification of pre-existing research. a multiplicity of glaciations demonstrated whether by successive 'end-moraines,' or by a series of boulder-clays or 'tills,' implies intervening 'inter-glacial' epochs. to the earlier-recognised pre-glacial and post-glacial periods, one or more inter-glacial phases must therefore be added. consequently the absence of evidence (indicative of man's existence) from the boulder-clay need not exclude his presence in the inter-glacial deposits; and in fact the appearance of strongly-supported evidence that some implements of only neolithic antiquity occur in inter-glacial surroundings, has been mentioned already (chapter iv, sturge, ). and thus, whether the series be one of grand oscillations constituting as many periods, or on the other hand a sequence of variations too slight to deserve distinctive terms, the fact of alternations prolonged over a considerable time seems to be established. attempts to correlate various phases in the history of the animal and particularly of the human inhabitants of the affected area with these changes, still remained to be made. of such attempts, an early one, if not absolutely the earliest, stands to the credit of dr skertchley ( ). but in a much more definite advance was made by professor boule[ ]. still later came the suggestions of professors mortillet, hoernes[ ] ( ), penck, obermaier[ ] ( ) and tornqvist. and the employment of implements in evidence was found practicable by them. ample compensation is thus provided for the lack of human bones, a deficiency almost as deplorable in as it was when lyell called attention to it in . but the literature on this subject is so controversial and has attained such proportions, that the attempt to present current views will be limited to the discussion of the appended table (b). here an endeavour has been made to submit the views expressed by the most competent observers of the day. the first point to which attention is directed consists in the manner in which the several glacial periods are distributed over the geological time-table. boule claims one glaciation of pliocene antiquity, followed by two pleistocene glaciations. the remaining authors agree in ascribing all the glaciations to the pleistocene period. herein they follow the lead of professor penck, whose diagram of the oscillations in level of the snow-line in central europe is reproduced in fig. . in the next place, the fact that professor penck's scheme was primarily intended to serve for the swiss alps must not be overlooked. that this system should leave traces everywhere else in europe is not necessarily implied in accepting the scheme just mentioned. table b. _list of types of associated implements._ +------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+ | | | | | | penck's scheme[ ] +-------------+-------------+--------------+ | | boule[ ] | penck | hoernes | +------------------------+---- -------+-------------+--------------+ | postglacial = = = with | magdalenian | magdalenian | -- | | achen and other | solutréan( )| | | | oscillations (penck) | | | | | |=============++ | | | =glacial iv= nd | mousterian || solutréan | -- | | pleistocene( ) | || [ ] | | | glaciation of boule. | ++============++ | | "würmian" of penck | | || | | | | || | | _interglacial_ = = | acheulean | mousterian || magdalenian | | = riss-würm interval | (obermaier) | (warm phase)|| | | (penck) | chellean | || | | | | || | | =glacial iii= st | chellean | mousterian || -- | | pleistocene glaciation | | (cold phase)|| | | of boule. "rissian" | | || | | of penck | | || | | | | || | | _interglacial_ = = | ? | acheulean || solutréan | | = mindel-riss interval | | chellean ++=============| | (penck) | | | | | | | | | | =glacial ii= | ? | ? | -- | | "mindelian" of penck | | | | | | | | | | _interglacial_ = = | ? | ? | mousterian | | = günz-mindel interval | | | chellean | | (penck) | | | | | | | | | | =glacial i= "günzian" | ? | ? | -- | | of penck | | | | | | | | | +------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+ +------------------------+--------------+------------+-----------------+ | | | | | | penck's scheme[ ] +--------------+------------+-----------------+ | | rutot | sollas | skertchley[ ] | +------------------------+--------------+------------+-----------------+ | postglacial = = = with | neolithic | ? | neolithic | | achen and other | period | | period | | oscillations (penck) | | | | | | | | | | =glacial iv= nd | lower | ? | hessle | | pleistocene( ) | magdalenian | | boulder-clay | | glaciation of boule. | solutréan | | | | "würmian" of penck | aurignacian | | | | | | | | | _interglacial_ = = | mousterian | acheulean | palaeoliths | | = riss-würm interval | upper | | of the | | (penck) | acheulean | | "modern-valley" | | | | | type. | | | | | valley-gravels | | | | | of present | | | | | ouse, cam, etc. | | | | | | | =glacial iii= st | lower | [chalky | purple | | pleistocene glaciation | acheulean |boulder-clay| boulder-clay | | of boule. "rissian" | chellean | of hoxne] | | | of penck | | | | | | | | | | _interglacial_ = = | strépyan | ? | palaeoliths of | | = mindel-riss interval | mesvinian | |"ancient-valley" | | (penck) | mafflean | | type. | | | | | ?flood-gravels. | | | | | valleys do not | | | | | correspond to | | | | | modern river | | | | | | | =glacial ii= | -- | ? | chalky | | "mindelian" of penck | | | boulder-clay | | | | | | | _interglacial_ = = | -- | ? | brandon beds | | = günz-mindel interval | | | with implements | | (penck) | | | | | | | | | | =glacial i= "günzian" | -- | ? | cromer till. | | of penck | | | later than | | | | | forest-bed | +------------------------+--------------+------------+-----------------+ [ ] penck postulates four glaciations, all "pleistocene." [ ] boule recognises two pleistocene glaciations (seemingly nos. iii and iv of penck), and one pliocene glaciation. the latter is not indicated in the table. [ ] skertchley's scheme is now ignored, if not abandoned, by the best authorities. it has been introduced here on account of its historical interest only. its correlation with the other schemes is speculative. [ ] the differences between the rival schemes of boule, penck and hoernes are best realised by comparing the position assigned to the solutréan industry by each in turn. the löss and its divisions are not indicated in this table. [illustration: fig. . chart of the oscillations of the snow-level in central europe during the pleistocene period. (from penck.) in the uppermost space. _n_ neolithic age. _ma_ magdalenian. _sol_ solutréan. _günz_, _mindel_, _riss_, _würm_, denote the several glacial phases. this chart is to be read from right to left; on the extreme right the snow-line is first shewn m. above its present level. then it falls to nearly m. below the present level, the fall corresponding to the günzian glaciation. after this it nearly attains its former level, but does not quite reach the line marked + . this chart represents the part marked glacial epoch in fig. , with which it should be compared.] in attempting to adjust the scale of glacial periods to that provided by the succession of implement-forms, it is suggested that a commencement should be made by considering the period designated mousterian. if the position of the mousterian period can be correlated with a definite subdivision of the ice age, then other periods will fall into line almost mechanically. the first enquiry to make is that indicated in the introductory paragraphs of this chapter, viz. what is the general nature of the fauna accompanying mousterian implements? investigation of the records shews that this is characteristically of a northern or a temperate, but not a southern type. for the combination commonly regarded as indicative of the southern type (viz. _elephas antiquus_, _rhinoceros merckii_, and _hippopotamus major_) is very doubtfully demonstrable in this association, save in the very remarkable instance of the grotte du prince, mentone, and boule ( ) makes somewhat laboured efforts to explain this example, which is exceptional in his opinion. on the other hand, that combination does occur in well-recognised inter-glacial deposits, _e.g._ the swiss lignites of dürnten, etc. the mousterian implements commonly accompany much more definitely northern animal forms, so that a glacial rather than an inter-glacial age is indicated. but there are four such glacial phases from which to choose in professor penck's scheme, and in professor boule's scheme there are two (for the 'pliocene glaciation,' appearing in the latter, is hardly in question). it will be seen (by reference to table b) that professor boule assigns typical mousterian implements to the most recent glacial period (boule's no. iii = penck's no. iv = würm), whereas professor penck places them in his penultimate grand period (riss), carrying them down into the succeeding (riss-würmian) inter-glacial period. much diligence has been shewn in the various attempts to decide between these, the two great alternatives. (the view of professor hoernes, who assigns the mousterian types to the first inter-glacial period of penck, has received so little support as to render it negligible here.) upon an examination of the controversial literature, the award here given is in favour of professor boule's scheme. the following reasons for this decision deserve mention. ( ) almost the only point of accord between the rival schools of thought, consists in the recognition by each side that the magdalenian culture is post-glacial. but beyond this, the two factions seem to agree that the mousterian culture is 'centred' on a glacial period but that it probably began somewhat earlier and lasted rather longer than that glacial period, whichever it might be. ( ) the chellean implements, which precede those of mousterian type, are commonly associated with a fauna of southern affinities. this denotes an inter-glacial period. therefore an inter-glacial period is indicated as having preceded the mousterian age. but after the mousterian age, none of the subsequent types are associated with a 'southern fauna.' indications are thus given, to the following effect. the mousterian position is such that a distinct inter-glacial period should precede it, and no such definite inter-glacial period should follow it. the last glacial period alone satisfies these requirements. the mousterian position therefore coincides with the last great glaciation, whether we term this the fourth (with professor penck), or the third, with professor boule. ( ) the mousterian industry characterises a palaeolithic settlement at wildkirchli in switzerland: the position of this is indicated with great accuracy to be just within the zone limited by the moraine of the last great glacial period (penck's no. iv or würmian). the associated fauna is alleged to indicate that the age is not post-würmian, as might be supposed. this station at wildkirchli probably represents the very earliest mousterian culture, and its history dates from the last phase of the preceding (_i.e._ the riss-würm) inter-glacial period. but it belongs to penck's glaciation no. iv, not to no. iii. ( ) discoveries of implements of pre-mousterian (acheulean) form in the neighbourhood of the château de bohun (ain, rhone basin, france, ), and conliège (jura, ) are accompanied by stratigraphical evidence whereby they are referred to an inter-glacial period later than the riss glaciation (penck's no. iv, boule's no. iii). the remaining arguments are directed against the position assigned by professor penck to the mousterian implements. ( ) professor penck admits that the epoch of the mousterian type was glacial, and he recognises that it was preceded by a definitely inter-glacial epoch, with a southern fauna. but by selecting his no. iii as the glacial period in question he is led to postulate a subsequent but warmer inter-glacial subdivision of the mousterian period. the difficulty is to find convincing evidence of this post-mousterian inter-glacial period, and of the corresponding 'southern' fauna. professor penck believes that the 'southern' animals returned. professor boule can find no post-mousterian evidence of such a fauna. the constituent forms became extinct or migrated southwards, never to return. if this contention be true, and there is much in its favour, professor boule's view must be adopted. to shew how far-reaching some of the discussions are, attention may be directed to the fact that in this particular argument, much turns upon the nature of the implements found with the 'southern fauna' at taubach (_v. ante_ chapters ii and iii). if the implements are of mousterian type, they support professor penck's view, for the 'warm mousterian' sought by him will thus be found: but if the type is chellean, the arguments of professor boule are notably reinforced. ( ) the position assigned to one stage in the series of implements will affect all the rest. professor penck's view has been attacked with vigour and also with great effect, on account of the position he allots to the type of solutré. the consensus of opinion regarding the position of solutré (_i.e._ its typical implements) is very extensive and quite definite. in effect, the type of solutré is assigned to the newer (_jüngerer_) löss deposits. but these are also widely recognised as entirely post-glacial. moreover in the last few years, the excavations in these particular löss-deposits in lower austria have not only confirmed that opinion, but have also revealed there the presence of aurignacian implements, which closely follow those of mousterian type. professor penck's scheme seems therefore to carry the solutréan implements too far back. the attempt to overcome this objection by attributing an earlier (? inter-glacial) age to the special variety of löss in question, has not been attended with conspicuous success. such are the main considerations upon which the decision has been taken in favour of professor boule's chronological scale. but when such an authority as professor sollas[ ] ( ) is undecided, an amateur must not attempt to ignore the difficulties to be met. and while it is expedient to arrive at a final judgment, yet, in these controversies, the tendency is very marked to allow theory to run too far ahead of fact. facts of the following kind are hard to reconcile with the schemes just described. (i) a mousterian type of implement is recorded by commont from the later (younger) löss of the third terrace at s. acheul. according to the theory, the type of solutré, and not of le moustier, should have occurred, (ii) in this country at least, an admixture of 'northern' and 'southern' animals in a single deposit, has been demonstrated not infrequently, as in italy also (torre della scalea, cosenza). (iii) professor boyd dawkins[ ] ( ) insists upon the occurrence of chellean, acheulean, and mousterian implements in one and the same british river deposit. consequently the distinction of a northern from a southern fauna may yet prove to be destitute of sound foundations. many years ago, saporta pointed out instances of regions with a sub-tropical climate actually adjacent to glacial areas. this subject has fortunately now the advantage of the attention and criticism provided by such talented observers as mr hinton, professor laville, and professor schmidt. a trustworthy scheme of the relative chronology of culture (as denoted by the forms of implements), of mammalian variation and evolution (as shewn by the fauna), and of great climatic oscillations has not yet been obtained, but it has not been shewn to be unattainable. meanwhile the schemes outlined in table b mark a very great advance upon their predecessors. it may be of interest to note that professor penck believes that the several periods varied both in duration and in intensity. their relative proportions are shewn in professor penck's diagram (fig. ). the smaller oscillations, following the close of the last great glaciation (würmian), should be noticed. chapter vi human evolution in the light of recent discoveries in this, the concluding chapter, account is taken of the bearing of the foregoing discoveries and discussions, in relation with the light which they throw on the story of human development. a. up to a certain point, the evidence is strikingly favourable to the hypothesis of human evolution. by this is meant the gradual development of the modern type of skeleton found in association with a large and active brain, capable of manifesting its activity in a great variety of ways. most of the oldest human skeletons just described, differ from this type. although a difference cannot be demonstrated in respect of cranial capacity, yet those older skeletons are usually distinguished by the heavier jaw and by stout curved limb-bones of such length as to indicate an almost dwarf stature. still these indications, even though marking a more primitive status, point undeniably to human beings. passing beyond these, a few fragments remain to suggest a still earlier stage in evolution. and with these at least we find ourselves definitely on the neutral ground between the territories of man and ape, though even here on the human side of that zone. in the same way, and again up to a certain point, the characters of human implements confirm the inferences drawn from the skeleton. for the older implements are re-gressively more and more crude, and an increasing amount of skill is needed to distinguish artefact from natural object. again, the associated animals seem to become less familiar, and the percentage of extinct species increases the further we peer into the stages of the past. one of the most remarkable researches ever published upon these subjects is due to a group of scientists associated with professor berry of melbourne university. in this place, only the most important of their memoirs ( ) can be called in evidence. in those particular publications, the initial objective was an attempt to measure the degree of resemblance between different types of skull. that endeavour may be roughly illustrated by reference to fig. , in which tracings of various skull-outlines are adjusted to a conventional base-line. should a vertical line be drawn from the mid-point of the base-line so as to cut the several contours, the vertical distances between the successive curves could be measured. the distance separating pithecanthropus (_p.e._ of the figure) from that of the corresponding curve for the spy skull no. (spy of the figure) is clearly less than the distance between the curves for the second spy skull (spy ) and the papuan native. [illustration: fig. . outline tracings of skulls reduced in size to a common dimension, viz. the line _gl_--_op_, representing a base-line of the brain-case. _pe_, pithecanthropus. _papua_, a new guinea native. _hl_, _sm_, _at_ are from skulls of monkeys. (after dubois.)] but mr cross used a much more delicate method, and arrived at results embodied in the figure ( ) reproduced from his memoir. a most graphic demonstration of those results is provided in this chart. yet it must be added, that the galley hill skull, although shewn in an intermediate position, should almost certainly be nearer the upper limit. this criticism is based upon the conviction that many of the measurements upon which the results are dependent, assign to the galley hill skull a lowlier status than it originally possessed before it became distorted (posthumously). again the pithecanthropus is apparently nearer to the anthropoid apes than to mankind of to-day. let it be noticed however that this is not necessarily in contradiction with the opinion expressed above (p. line ). for mr cross' diagram is based upon cranial measurements, whereas the characters of the thigh-bone of pithecanthropus tend to raise it in the general scale of appreciation. on the whole then, the evolutionary hypothesis seems to receive support from three independent sources of evidence. [illustration: fig. . (from cross.)] b. but if in one of the very earliest of those stages, a human form is discovered wherein the characters of the modern higher type are almost if not completely realised, the story of evolution thus set forth receives a tremendous blow. such has been the effect of the discovery of the galley hill skeleton. time after time its position has been called 'abnormal' or 'isolated,' because it provides so many contrasts with the skeletons found in deposits regarded perhaps as leading towards but admittedly more recent than the galley hill gravel. and the juncture is long past at which its exact relation to that gravel could be so demonstrated as to satisfy the demands raised in a connection so vital to an important theory. some authors of great experience have refused to recognise in evidence any claim made on behalf of the galley hill skeleton. yet it is at least pardonable to consider some of the aspects of the situation created by its acceptance. (i) for instance, the argument is reasonable, which urges that if men of the galley hill type preceded in point of time the men of the lower neanderthal type, the ancestry of the former (galley hill) must be sought at a far earlier period than that represented by the galley hill gravels. as to this, it may be noted that the extension of the 'human period,' suggested by eoliths for which pliocene, miocene, and even oligocene antiquity is claimed, will provide more than this argument demands. the suggestion that a flint-chipping precursor of man existed in miocene time was made as long ago as by gaudry[ ]. (ii) but if this be so, the significance of the neanderthal type of skeleton is profoundly altered. it is no longer possible to claim only an 'ancestral' position for that type in its relation to modern men. it may be regarded as a degenerate form. should it be regarded as such, a probability exists that it ultimately became extinct, so that we should not expect to identify its descendants through many succeeding stages. that it did become extinct is a view to which the present writer inclines. attempts have been made to associate with it the aborigines of australia. but an examination of the evidence will lead (it is believed) to the inference that the appeal to the characters of those aborigines is of an illustrative nature only. difficulties of a similar kind prevent its recognition either in the eskimo, or in certain european types, although advocates of such claims are neither absent nor obscure. again, it is well to enquire whether any other evidence of degeneration exists in association with the men of the neanderthal type. the only other possible source is that provided by the implements. this is dangerous ground, but the opinion must be expressed that there is some reason to believe that mousterian implements (which rather than any other mark the presence of the neanderthal type of skeleton) do present forms breaking the sequence of implement-evolution. one has but to examine the material, to become impressed with the inferiority of workmanship displayed in some mousterian implements to that of the earlier acheulean types. in any case, a line of evidence is indicated here, which is not to be overlooked in such discussions. (iii) the galley hill skeleton has been described as comparatively isolated. yet if it be accepted as a genuine representative of man in the age of the gravel-deposits of the high-level terrace, it helps towards an understanding of the characters of some other examples. thus a number of specimens (rejected by many authors as lacking adequate evidence of such vast antiquity as is here postulated) appear now, in this new light, as so many sign-posts pointing to a greater antiquity of that higher type of human skeleton than is usually recognised. above all (to mention but a few examples), the cranium of engis, with those from s. acheul (discovered in by mr h. duckworth), and tilbury, the fragment of a human skull from gravel at bury st edmunds, and a skeleton discovered near ipswich beneath the boulder-clay in october , seem to find their claims enhanced by the admission of those proffered on behalf of the galley hill specimen. and since huxley wrote his memoir on the skulls from engis and the neanderthal, the significance of the former (engis), fortified by the characters of the galley hill skeleton, has been greatly increased. consequently it is not surprising to find confident appeals to the characters of a galley hill race or stock, near associates being the specimens mentioned in a preceding chapter as brünn ( ) and the aurignac man next to be considered. the relations of these to the well-known cro-magnon type will be mentioned in the next paragraph. c. the appearance of the higher type of humanity in the period next following the mousterian, viz. that distinguished by the aurignacian type of implement, has now to be discussed. as already remarked, the man of aurignac, as compared with him of the neanderthal, has less protruding jaws, the lower jaw in particular being provided with the rudiment of a chin, while the limb bones are slender and altogether of the modern type. upon such contrasts a remarkable theory has been based by professor klaatsch[ ]. he made a comparison between the anthropoid apes on the one hand, and the two human types on the other (fig. ). as a result, he pointed out that the orang-utan differs from the gorilla much as the aurignac does from the neanderthal man. assuming this statement to be correct, a hypothesis is elaborated to the effect that two lines of human descent are here in evidence. of these one includes an ancestor common to the orang-utan (an asiatic anthropoid ape) and the aurignac man; the other is supposed to contain an ancestor common to the gorilla (of african habitat), and the neanderthal man. [illustration: fig. . various thigh-bones arranged to shew the alleged similarity between _a_ orang-utan and _b_ aurignac man, as also between _c_ neanderthal and _d_ gorilla. _a_ and _b_, while resembling each other, are to be contrasted with _c_ and _d_. they are referred to as the a/o and n/g groups. (from klaatsch.)] the further development of the story includes the following propositions. the more primitive and gorilla-like neanderthal type is introduced into europe as an invader from africa. then (at a subsequent epoch probably) an asiatic invasion followed. the new-comers owning descent from an orang-utan-like forerunner are represented by the aurignac skeleton and its congeners. in various respects they represented a higher type not only in conformation but in other directions. having mingled with the neanderthal tribes, whether by way of conquest or pacific penetration, a hybrid type resulted. such was the origin of the cro-magnon race. the hypothesis has been severely handled, by none more trenchantly than by professor keith[ ]. a notable weakness is exposed in the attribution to the ancestors of the orang-utan so close an association to any human ancestral forms, as professor klaatsch demands. to those familiar with the general anatomy of the orang-utan (_i.e._ the anatomy of parts other than the skeleton) the difficulties are very apparent. another effect of the hypothesis is that the so-called neanderthaloid resemblances of the aborigines of australia are very largely if not entirely subverted. this would not matter so much, but for the very decided stress laid by professor klaatsch upon the significance of those resemblances (cf. klaatsch, , p. , 'die neanderthalrasse besitzt zahlreiche australoide anklänge'). again in earlier days, professor klaatsch supported a view whereby the australian continent was claimed as the scene of initial stages in man's evolution. finally, up to the year , professor klaatsch was amongst the foremost of those who demand absolute exclusion of the orang-utan and the gorilla from any participation in the scheme of human ancestry. having regard to such facts and to such oscillations of opinion, it is not surprising that this recent attempt to demonstrate a 'diphyletic' or 'polyphyletic' mode of human descent should fail to convince most of those competent to pronounce upon its merits. yet with all its defects, this attempt must not be ignored. crude as the present demonstration may be, the possibility of its survival in a modified form should be taken into account. these reflections (but not necessarily the theory) may be supported in various ways. by a curious coincidence, professor keith, in rebutting the whole hypothesis, makes a statement not irrelevant in this connexion. for he opines that 'the characters which separate these two types of men (viz. the aurignac and neanderthal types) are exactly of the same character and of the same degree as separate a blood-horse from a shire-stallion.' now some zoologists have paid special attention to such differences, when engaged in attempts to elucidate the ancestry of the modern types of horse. as a result of their studies, professors cossar ewart and osborn (and professor ridgeway's name should be added to theirs) agree that proofs have been obtained of the 'multiple nature of horse evolution' (osborn). if we pass to other but allied animals, we may notice that coarser and finer types of hipparion (_h. crassum_ and _h. gracile)_ have been contrasted with each other. a step further brings us to the peat-hog problem (_torf-schwein frage_ of german writers), and in the discussion of this the more leggy types of swine are contrasted with the more stocky forms. owen (in ) relied on similar points for distinguishing the extinct species of bovidae (oxen) from one another. the contrast maybe extended even to the proboscidea, for dr leith adams believed that the surest test of the limb bones of _e. antiquus_ was their stoutness in comparison with those of _e. primigenius_. this is the very character relied upon by professor klaatsch in contrasting the corresponding parts of the human and ape skeletons concerned. but such analogies must not be pressed too far. they have been adduced only with a view to justifying the contention that the diphyletic scheme of professor klaatsch may yet be modified to such an extent as to receive support denied to it in its present form. d. in commenting upon the hypothesis expounded by professor klaatsch, mention was made of its bearing upon the status of the cro-magnon race. this is but part of a wide subject, viz. the attempt to trace in descent certain modern european types. it is necessary to mention the elaborate series of memoirs now proceeding from the pen of dr schliz[ ], who postulates four stocks at least as the parent forms of the mass of european populations of to-day. of these four, the neanderthal type is regarded as the most ancient. but it is not believed to have been extirpated. on the contrary its impress in modern europe is still recognisable, veiled though it may be in combination with any of the remaining three. the latter are designated the cro-magnon, engis, and truchère-grenelle types, the last-mentioned being broad-headed as contrasted with all the rest. of professor schliz' work it is hard to express a final opinion, save that while its comprehensive scope (without excessive regard to craniometry as such) is a feature of great value, yet it appears to lack the force of criticism based upon extensive anatomical, _i.e._ osteological study. e. the remarkable change in professor klaatsch's views on the part played by the anthropoid apes in human ancestral history has been already mentioned. in earlier days the simiidae were literally set aside by professor klaatsch. but although the anthropoid monkeys have gained an adherent, they still find their claim to distinction most energetically combated by professor giuffrida-ruggeri[ ]. the latter declares that though he now ( ) repeats his views, it is but a repetition of such as he, following de quatrefages, has long maintained. in this matter also, the last word will not be said for some time to come. f. the significance of the peculiar characters of massiveness and cranial flattening as presented by the neanderthal type of skeleton continues to stimulate research. in addition to the scattered remarks already made on these subjects, two recently-published views demand special notice. (i) professor keith has ( ) been much impressed with the exuberance of bone-formation, and the parts it affects in the disease known as acromegaly. the disease seems dependent upon an excessive activity of processes regulated by a glandular body in the floor of the brain-case (the pituitary gland). the suggestion is now advanced that a comparatively slight increase in activity might result in the production of such 'neanderthaloid' characters as massive brow-ridges and limb bones. (of existing races, some of the aborigines of australia would appear to exemplify this process, but to a lesser degree than the extinct type, since the aboriginal limb bones are exempt.) professor keith adopts the view that the neanderthal type is ancestral to the modern types. and his argument seems to run further to the following effect: that the evolution of the modern from the neanderthal type of man was consequent on a change in the activity of the pituitary gland. it is quite possible that the agency to be considered in the next paragraph, viz. climatic environment, may play a part in influencing pituitary and other secretions. but heavy-browed skulls (and heavy brows are distinctive tests of the glandular activity under discussion) are not confined to particular latitudes, so that there are preliminary difficulties to be overcome in the further investigation of this point. it is possible that the glandular activity occasionally assumed pathological intensity even in prehistoric times. thus a human skull with leontiasis ossea was discovered near rheims at a depth of fifteen feet below the level of the surrounding surface. (ii) dr sera[ ] ( ) has been led to pay particular attention to the remarkably flattened cranial vaulting so often mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. as a rule, this flattening has been regarded as representative of a stage in the evolution of a highly-developed type of human skull from a more lowly, in fact a more simian one. this conclusion is challenged by dr sera. the position adopted is that a flattened skull need not in every case owe its presence to such a condition as an early stage in evolution assigns to it. environment, for which we may here read climatic conditions, is a possible and alternative influence. if sufficient evidence can be adduced to shew that the flattened cranial arc in the neanderthal skull does actually owe its origin to physiological factors through which environment acts, the status of that type of skull in the evolutionary sequence will be materially affected. a successful issue of the investigation will necessitate a thorough revision of all the results of professor schwalbe's work[ ], which established the neanderthal type as a distinct species (_homo primigenius_) followed closely and not preceded by a type represented by the gibraltar skull. dr sera commenced with a very minute examination of the gibraltar (forbes quarry) skull. in particular, the characters of the face and the basal parts of the cranium were subjected to numerous and well-considered tests. as a first result of the comparison of the parts common to both crania, dr sera believes that he is in a position to draw correct inferences for the neanderthal skull-cap in regard to portions absent from it but present in the forbes quarry skull. but in the second place, dr sera concludes that the characters in question reveal the fact that of the two, the gibraltar skull is quite distinctly the lowlier form. and the very important opinion is expressed that the gibraltar skull offers the real characters of a human being caught as it were in a lowly stage of evolution beyond which the neanderthal skull together with all others of its class have already passed. the final extension of these arguments is also of remarkable import. the gibraltar skull is flattened owing to its low place in evolution. but as regards the flatness of the brain-case (called the platycephalic character) of the neanderthal calvaria and its congeners (as contrasted with the gibraltar specimen), dr sera suggests dependence upon the particular environment created by glacial conditions. the effect is almost pathological, at least the boundary-line between such physiological flattening and that due to pathological processes is hard to draw. upon this account therefore, dr sera's researches have been considered here in close association with the doctrines of professor keith. dr sera supports his argument by an appeal to existing conditions: he claims demonstration of the association (regarded by him as one of cause and effect) between arctic latitudes or climate on the one hand, and the flattening of the cranial vault on the other. passing lightly over the eskimo, although they stand in glaring contradiction to his view, he instances above all the ostiak tribe of hyperborean asia. the platycephalic character has a geographical distribution. thus the skull is well arched in northern australia, but towards the south, in south australia and tasmania, the aboriginal skull is much less arched. it is thus shewn to become more distinctly platycephalic towards the antarctic regions, or at least in the regions of the australian continent considered by professor penck to have been glaciated. so too among the bush natives of south africa as contrasted with less southern types. the demonstration of a latitudinal distribution in the new world is complicated by the presence of the great cordillera of the rocky mountains and andes. great altitudes are held by dr sera to possess close analogy with arctic or antarctic latitudes. therefore the presence of flat heads (artificial deformation being excluded) in equatorial venezuela is not surprising. it is felt that the foregoing statement, though made with every endeavour to secure accuracy, gives but an imperfect idea of the extent of dr sera's work. yet in this place, nothing beyond the briefest summary is permissible. by way of criticism, it cannot be too strongly urged that the eskimo provide a head-form exactly the converse of that postulated by dr sera as the outcome of 'glacial conditions.' not that dr sera ignores this difficulty, but he brushes it aside with treatment which is inadequate. moreover, the presence of the aurignac man with a comparatively well-arched skull, following him of the mousterian period, is also a difficulty. for the climate did not become suddenly cold at the end of the mousterian period, and so far as evidence of arctic human surroundings goes, the fauna did not become less arctic in the aurignac phase. _conclusion._ in section a of this chapter, an outline was given of the mode in which the evolution of the human form appears to be traceable backwards through the neanderthal type to still earlier stages in which the human characters are so elementary as to be recognisable only with difficulty. then (b) the considerations militating against unquestioning acquiescence in that view were grouped in sequence, commencing with the difficulties introduced by the acceptance (in all its significance) of the galley hill skeleton. from an entirely different point of view (c), it was shewn that many difficulties may be solved by the recognition of more than one primordial stock of human ancestors. lastly (f) came the modifications of theory necessitated by appeals to the powerful influence of physiological factors, acting in some cases quite obscurely, in others having relation to climate and food. the impossibility of summing up in favour of one comprehensive scheme will be acknowledged. more research is needed; the flatness of a cranial arc is but one of many characters awaiting research. at the present time a commencement is being made with regard to the shape and proportions of the cavity bounded by the skull. from such characters we may aspire to learn something of the brain which was once active within those walls. yet to-day the researches of professors keith and anthony provide little more than the outlines of a sketch to which the necessary details can only be added after protracted investigation. it is tempting to look back to the time of the publication of sir charles lyell's 'antiquity of man.' there we may find the author's vindication of his claims (made fifty years ago) for the greater antiquity of man. in comparison with that antiquity, lyell believed the historical period 'would appear quite insignificant in duration.' as to the course of human evolution, it was possible even at that early date to quote huxley's opinion 'that the primordial stock whence man has proceeded need no longer be sought ... in the newer tertiaries, but that they may be looked for in an epoch more distant from the age of the elephas primigenius than that is from us.' the human fossils at the disposal of those authors included the neanderthal, the engis, and the denise bones. with the neanderthal specimen we have (as already seen) to associate now a continually increasing number of examples. and (to mention the most recent discovery only) the ipswich skeleton (p. ) provides in its early surroundings a problem as hard to solve as those of the engis skull and the 'fossil man of denise.' but we have far more valuable evidence than lyell and huxley possessed, since the incomparable remains from mauer and trinil provide an interest as superior on the anatomical side as that claimed in archaeology by the sub-crag implements. turning once more to the subject of human remains, the evolution of educated opinion and the oscillations of the latter deserve a word of notice. for instance, in , the engis skull received its full and due share of attention. then in a period marked by the discoveries at spy and trinil, the claims of the engis fossil fell somewhat into abeyance. to-day we see them again and even more in evidence. so it has been with regard to details. at one period, the amount of brain contained within the skull of the neanderthal man was underestimated. then that opinion was exchanged for wonder at the disproportionately large amount of space provided for the brain in the man of la chapelle. the tableau is changed again, and we think less of the neanderthal type and of its lowly position (in evolutionary history). our thoughts are turned to a much more extended period to be allotted to the evolution of the higher types. adaptations to climatic influences, the possibilities of degeneracy, of varying degrees of physiological activity, of successful (though at first aberrant) mutations all demand attention in the present state of knowledge. if progress since the foundations were laid by the giant workers of half a century ago appears slow and the advance negligible, let the extension of our recognition of such influences and possibilities be taken into account. the extraordinarily fruitful results of excavations during the last ten years may challenge comparison with those of any other period of similar duration. appendix the forecast, made when the manuscript of the first impression of this little book was completed, and in reference to the rapid accumulation of evidence, has been justified. while it would be impossible to provide a review of all the additional literature of the last few months, it is thought reasonable to append notes on two subjects mentioned previously only in the preface. (a) a short account of the 'la quina' skeleton has now appeared (in 'l'anthropologie,' , no. , p. ). the skull is of the form described so often above, as distinctive of the neanderthaloid type, but the brow-ridges seem even more massive than in the other examples of that race. the cranial sutures are unclosed, so that the individual is shewn to be of mature age, or at any rate, not senile. the teeth are, however, much worn down. nearly all the teeth have been preserved in situ, and they present certain features which have been observed in the teeth found in jersey (s. brélade's cave). the skeleton lay in a horizontal position, but no evidence of an interment has been adduced. the bones were less than a metre below the present surface, and in a fine mud-like deposit, apparently ancient, and of a river-bed type. implements were also found, and are referred unhesitatingly to the same horizon as the bones. the mousterian period is thus indicated, but no absolutely distinctive implements were found. the general stratigraphical conditions are considered to assign the deposit to the base of what is termed the 'inferior mousterian' level. (b) the 'sub-boulder-clay' skeleton, discovered near ipswich in , was in an extraordinarily contracted attitude. many parts are absent or imperfect, owing to the solvent action of the surroundings, but what remains is sufficient to reveal several features of importance (cf. fig. ). save in one respect, the skeleton is not essentially different from those of the existing representatives of humanity. the exception is provided by the shin-bone. that of the right limb has been preserved, and it presents an anomaly unique in degree, if not in kind, viz.: the substitution of a rounded for a sharp or keel-like edge to the front of the bone. it can hardly be other than an individual peculiarity, though the spy tibia (no. ) suggests (by its sectional contour) the same conformation. so far as the skeleton is concerned, even having regard to the anomaly just mentioned, there is no good reason for assigning the ipswich specimen to a separate racial type. its interest depends largely upon the circumstances of its surroundings. it was placed beneath about four feet of 'boulder-clay,' embedded partly in this and, to a much smaller extent, in the underlying middle-glacial sand which the bones just entered. there is some evidence that the surface on which the bones lay was at one time exposed as an old 'land-surface.' a thin band of carbonised vegetable matter (not far beneath the bones) contains the remains of land plants. on this surface the individual whose remains have been preserved is supposed to have met with his end, and to have been overwhelmed in a sand drift. the latter it must be supposed was then removed, to be replaced by the boulder-clay. several alternatives to this rather problematical interpretation could be suggested. the most obvious of these is that we have to deal here with a neolithic interment, in a grave of which the floor just reached the middle-glacial sand of the locality. if we enquire what assumptions are requisite for the adoption of this particular alternative, we shall find, i think, that they are not very different in degree from those which are entailed by the supposition that the skeleton is really that of 'sub-boulder-clay' man. the contracted attitude of the skeleton, and our familiarity of this as a feature of neolithic interments, taken together with the fact that the skeleton does not differ essentially from such as occur in interments of that antiquity, are points in favour of the neolithic age of the specimen. on the other hand, mr moir would urge that man certainly existed in an age previous to the deposition of the boulder-clay; that the implements discovered in that stratum support this claim; that the recent discovery of the bones of a mammoth on the same horizon (though not in the immediate vicinity) provides further support; that the state of mineralisation of the bones was the same in both cases, and that it is at least significant that they should be found on strata shewn (by other evidence) to have once formed a 'land-surface.' on the whole then, the view adopted here is, that the onus of proof rests at present rather with those who, rejecting these claims to the greater antiquity of this skeleton, assign it to a far later date than that to which even the overlying boulder-clay is referred. and, so far as the literature is at present available, the rejection does not seem to have been achieved with a convincing amount of certainty. it is to be remarked, finally, that this discovery is entirely distinct from those made previously by mr moir in the deposits beneath the red crag of suffolk, with which his name has become associated. [illustration: fig. . human skeleton found beneath boulder-clay near ipswich in . (from the drawing prepared by professor keith, and published in the _east anglian daily times_. reproduced with permission.)] references to literature chapter i [ ] dubois, . pithecanthropus, ein Übergangsform, &c. [ ] blanckenhorn, . zeitschrift für ethnologie. band , s. . [ ] schwalbe, . zeitschrift für morphologie und anthropologie. from onwards. [ ] berry, . proceedings of the royal society of edinburgh, xxxi. part . . [ ] cross, . proceedings of the royal society of edinburgh, xxxi. part . . [ ] schoetensack, . der unterkiefer des homo heidelbergensis. [ ] keith, . lancet, march , , abstract of the hunterian lectures. [ ] dubois, . anatomischer anzeiger. band xii. s. . chapters ii and iii [ ] avebury (lubbock), . international congress for prehistoric archaeology. [ ] turner, (quoting busk). quarterly journal of science, oct. , p. . [ ] nehring, . zeitschrift für ethnologie, , s. . [ ] kramberger, . mittheilungen der anthropologischen gesellschaft zu wien. "der mensch von krapina." wiesbaden, . [ ] marett, archaeologia, ; also keith, . nature, may , . keith and knowles, journal of anatomy, . [ ] boule, . l'anthropologie. tome xix. p. . [ ] klaatsch and hauser, . archiv für anthropologie. band , , p. . [ ] peyrony (and capitan), - . bulletins de la société d'anthropologie de paris, jan. , . [ ] sollas, . philosophical transactions of the royal society. vol. b. [ ] sera, . atti della società romana di antropologia, xv. fasc. ii. [ ] verner, . ann. rep. hunterian museum. r.c.s. london. saturday review, sep. , , and five following numbers. [ ] verneau, . l'anthropologie. tome xvii. [ ] lehmann-nitsche, . rivista del museo de la plata, xiv. . [ ] lehmann-nitsche, . naturwissenschaftliche wochenschrift, jena, viii. . [ ] klaatsch, . prähistorische zeitschrift, i. [ ] newton, . quarterly journal of the geological society, august, . [ ] schwalbe, . "der schädel von brüx." zeitsch. für morphologie und anthropologie. [ ] hinton, . proceedings of the geologists' association. vol. xxi. part . . chapter iv [ ] gaudry, . les ancêtres de nos animaux. [ ] schmidt, . archiv für anthropologie. band , s. , . [ ] commont, . l'anthropologie. tome xix. p. . [ ] obermaier and bayer, . korrespondenzblatt der wiener anthropologischen gesellschaft, xl. / . [ ] rutot, . congrès international d'archéologie préhistorique. paris, . [ ] rutot, , ? . quoted in schwalbe . "vorgeschichte, usw." zeitschrift für morphologie und anthropologie. [ ] rutot, . revue de l'université. brussels, . [ ] penck, . zeitschrift für ethnologie. band xl. s. . [ ] laville, . bulletin de la société d'anthropologie de paris, . [ ] moir, . proceedings of the geologists' association, july , . prehistoric society of east anglia, . [ ] warren, . journal of the royal anthropological institute. vol. xxxv., , p. . [ ] boule, . l'anthropologie. tome xvi. "sur l'origine des eolithes." [ ] obermaier, . l'anthropologie. tome xix. p. (abstract), also p. (abstract). [ ] grist, . journal of the royal anthropological institute. vol. xl. , p. . [ ] sturge, . prehistoric society of east anglia, january (published in ). chapter v [ ] falconer. . collected memoirs. vol. ii. p. . [ ] geikie, a. . text-book of geology, , p. and footnote _ibidem_. [ ] skertchley, . the fenland, p. . [ ] boule, . revue d'anthropologie, "essai de stratigraphie humaine." [ ] hoernes, . urgeschichte des menschen. ( nd edn., .) [ ] obermaier, . l'anthropologie. tome xx. p. . [ ] sollas, . science progress in the xxth century, "palaeolithic man." (reprinted in book-form, .) [ ] boyd dawkins, . huxley lecture. royal anthropological institute, . chapter vi [ ] gaudry, . mammifères tertiaires. [ ] klaatsch, . prähistorische zeitschrift. band i. [ ] keith, . nature, feb. , ... also dec. , . [ ] schliz, . archiv für anthropologie. band , ss. et seq. "die vorgeschichtlichen schädeltypen der deutschen länder." [ ] giuffrida-ruggeri, . archivio per l'antropologia e per la etnologia, xl. . [ ] sera, . archivio per l'antropologia e per la etnologia, xl. fasc. / . [ ] schwalbe, . "vorgeschichte des menschen," zeitschrift für morphologie und anthropologie. _recent publications containing a summary of the latest discoveries._ birkner. beiträge zur urgeschichte bayerns. bd xvii. / . . branco. der stand unserer kenntnisse vom fossilen menschen, . buttel-reepen. aus dem werdegang der menschheit. . giuffrida-ruggeri. "applicazioni, &c." monitore zoologico italiano. no. . . rivista d'italia. agosto, . keith. hunterian lectures, . ancient types of mankind, . kohlbrugge. die morphologische abstammung des menschen, . lankester. the kingdom of man. . leche. der mensch. . mccurdy. "the antiquity of man in europe." smithsonian report ( ), p. . . read and smith, r. a. guide to the antiquities of the stone age. british museum, . rutot. revue de l'université. bruxelles, january . schwalbe. darwin and modern science (centenary volume), cambridge, . sollas. palaeolithic man. (cf. no. supra.) . spulski. zentralblatt für zoologie. band . nos. / . . wright. hunterian lectures, royal college of surgeons, . index acheulean type of implement, ; _v. also_ s. acheul acromegaly, adloff, ameghino, , andalusia, , andaman islands, aborigines of, anthony, , anthropoid ape (_v. also_ gorilla _and_ orang-utan), , , , , arctomys, , atlas vertebra, , aurignac, ; implements of the type of, , , ; skeleton from, - , ; _v. also_ _homo aurignacensis hauseri_ australian aborigines, avebury, badger, baradero, , , bayer, berry, , bison _priscus_, ; (species unknown), , , blanckenhorn (on trinil strata), bos (? species), ; _primigenius_ (_v. also_ urus), , , , boulder-clay, , boule, , , , , , , , , brain, , , , , - brain-case (as distinct from the face), , , , , - branco, breuil, brow-ridges, , , brückner, brünn, , , brüx, , ; strata, bury s. edmunds, bush race (south african aborigines), , busk, , canine fossa (of face), , , cave bear, _v._ ursus cave hyaena, cervidae (_v. also_ stag), , chelles, implements, , , classification of human fossil remains, ; also table a combe-capelle (dordogne), , , commont, , , , corrèze (_v. also_ la chapelle), cranial base, croll, cro-magnon, , cromer, forest-bed fauna, cross, , - (diagram, p. ) cyrena _fluminalis_, dawkins, boyd, de bohun, château, dénise, , , dewlish, eoliths from, dolichocephalic proportions of skull, , dordogne, , : _v. also_ _h. mousteriensis hauseri_ duan, eocene eoliths, dubois, references under _pithecanthropus erectus_ elephas _antiquus_, , , , , , - , , ; _meridionalis_, , ; _primigenius_, _v._ mammoth engis, , , , , eocene period, eoliths, - erect attitude, , , falconer, , forbes quarry (_v. also_ gibraltar), , , , - , forest-bed, _v._ cromer frizzi, galley hill, ; gravel pit, , ; skeleton, - , , , - , gaudry, geikie, sir a., geikie, j., germany, caves in, - , ghilain, gibraltar (_v. also_ forbes quarry), , - , , - giuffrida-ruggeri, gorilla (_v._ anthropoid ape), - grimaldi (_v. also_ grotte des enfants), - grotte des enfants, , - grotte du prince, günz, glacial phase of, hauser, , : _v._ homo heidelberg, _v. homo heidelbergensis_ high-level terrace gravels (of thames), hinton, , - , , hippopotamus, , , hoernes, , , homo _aurignacensis hauseri_, , , , - ; _fossilis_, , ; _heidelbergensis_, , - , , , , , , - ; _mousteriensis hauseri_, , , , - , ; _neogaeus_, , - ; _primigenius_, , horse, , , huxley, , , , ibex, implements, sequence of, , interglacial phases, , , table b ipswich skeleton, , - jalón river (aragon) implements, jawbone, - , , , - , , , - , , , , jersey, _v._ s. brélade julien, keith, , , , , , , klaatsch, , , , ; _diphyletic theory_, , , kramberger, , , , krapina, , - , , , , - ; _fauna_, , la chapelle-aux-saints, , - , , la ferrassie, , , , , , laloy, la naulette, , and fig. la quina, preface, vi, , laville, , lehmann-nitsche, , , le mas d'azil, , le moustier, , ; _cave_, - : _v. also_ mousterian leontiasis _ossea_, levallois, limb bones, , löss, , ; in lower austria, lyell, , , , macnamara, maffle, implements of, , , magdalenian period, malarnaud, mammoth, , , manouvrier, , , marett, , marmot, , mastoid process, mauer, _v. also_ _h. heidelbergensis_, - , , , mentone, _v._ grimaldi _and_ grotte des enfants mimomys, , mindel, glacial phase of, miocene period, moir, , monte hermoso, , , , morlot, mortillet, mousterian period, - ; _types of implement of_, , , , , , - , , munck, mural decorative art in caves, neanderthal, , , , , - , , , , - , , negroid characters, , nehring, neolithic implements, newton, , new world, _v._ s. america nicolle, northfleet, : _v._ galley hill obermaier, , , , , ofnet, - , oligocene period, implements in, orang-utan, - : _v. also_ anthropoid ape ostiaks, cranial form, pech de l'aze, , , penck, , , - , peyrony, , _pithecanthropus erectus_, - , , , , , - , pituitary gland and secretion, , pleistocene mammals and period, , pliocene strata, , prestwich, prince of monaco, prognathism, , pruner-bey, pygmy types of mankind, , ramsay, reindeer, , - , , , , , rhinoceros _etruscus_, , - ; _megarhinus_, - ; _merckii_, , , , , , , , , , ; _tichorhinus_, , , , riss, glacial phase of, river-drift, ronda, roth, rutot, , - , s. acheul, , , s. brélade, , , , , , table a saporta, schliz, schmidt, , schoetensack, , schwalbe, , , , , , scott, sera, , - , - sinel, sirgenstein, - , skeletons, contracted position of, , , skertchley, , sollas, , , solutré-period and implements of, south america, , - , - southern fauna, spy cave-men, , , , , , , , , stag, : _v. also_ cervidae stature, , , , , steinmann, stone implements, value in evidence, strépy, implements of, , , sturge, , suidae, _v._ swine swine, , , taubach, , , - , , , , , ; _fauna_, ; _implements_, , , teeth, , , , , , - , , , - , , , , , , tertiary mollusca, tetraprothomo, thames gravels, tilloux, implements and fauna of, tornqvist, trinil, , _v. also_ _p. erectus_ trogontherium, , turner, ursus _arctos_, ; _arvernensis_, , , ; _deningeri_, ; _spelaeus_, , , urus, _v. bos primigenius_ venezuela, verneau, , , verner, , voles, ; _v._ mimomys walkhoff, warren, weiss, wildkirchli, wolf, würm: glacial phase of, württemburg, caverns of, - , * * * * * cambridge: printed by john clay, m.a. at the university press. * * * * * the cambridge manuals of science and literature published by the cambridge university press under the general editorship of p. giles, litt.d., master of emmanuel college, and a. c. seward, f.r.s., professor of botany in the university of cambridge. a series of handy volumes dealing with a wide range of subjects and bringing the results of modern research and intellectual activity within the reach both of the student and of the ordinary reader. volumes now ready _history and archaeology_ ancient assyria. by rev. c. h. w. johns, litt.d. ancient babylonia. by rev. c. h. w. johns, litt.d. a history of civilization in palestine. by prof. r. a. s. macalister, m.a., f.s.a. the peoples of india. by j. d. anderson, m.a. china and the manchus. by prof. h. a. giles, ll.d. the evolution of modern japan. by j. h. longford. the civilization of ancient mexico. by lewis spence. the vikings. by prof. allen mawer, m.a. new zealand. by the hon. sir robert stout, k.c.m.g., ll.d., and j. logan stout, ll.b. 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[from boule.] -> (from boule.) p. : (dordogne) -> (_dordogne_) p. : implements were scattered -> scattered. p. : in the preceding chapter, -> chapter p. : from the effects of fortuitious -> fortuitous p. : as also between _n_ -> _c_ p. : band xii, s. . -> band xii. s. . p. : für ethnologie, , s. . -> s. . p. : für anthropologie. band , s. -> s. p. : für ethnologie. band xl. s. -> s. p. : nd edn -> edn. p. : sollas -> sollas, p. : die morphologische abstämmung -> abstammung p. : v. also -> _v. also_ p. : v. also -> _v. also_ p. : heidelberg, v. -> heidelberg, _v._ p. : v. also -> _v. also_ p. : v. also -> _v. also_ p. : urus, v. -> urus, _v._ p. : by a. wood, m.a -> m.a. available by internet archive (https://archive.org) note: images of the original pages are available through internet archive. see https://archive.org/details/b transcriber's note: text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). text enclosed by plus signs is in bold face (+bold+). sexual life of primitive people * * * * * * by s. herbert, m.d., m.r.c.s., i.r.c.p. +an introduction to the physiology and psychology of sex.+ large crown vo. illustrated. price + / + net. +fundamentals in sexual ethics.+ an enquiry into modern tendencies. large crown vo. price + / + net. +first principles of heredity.+ second edition. containing illustrations. large crown vo. price + / + net. +first principles of evolution.+ second edition. containing illustrations, diagrams and tables. large crown vo. price + / + net. by mrs. s. herbert. +sex lore.+ a primer on courtship, marriage and parenthood. containing illustrations. large crown vo. price + / + net. by mrs. havelock ellis. +the new horizon in love and life.+ with a preface by edward carpenter and an introduction by marguerite tracy. large crown vo. price + / + net. published by a. & c. black, ltd., , & soho square, london, w. . agents america the macmillan company & fifth avenue, new york australasia the oxford university press flinders lane, melbourne canada the macmillan company of canada, ltd. st. martin's house, bond street toronto india macmillan & company, ltd. macmillan building, bombay bow bazaar street, calcutta * * * * * * sexual life of primitive people by h. fehlinger translated by s. herbert, m.d., m.r.c.s., l.r.c.p. author of "an introduction to the physiology and psychology of sex," "fundamentals in sexual ethics," etc. and mrs. s. herbert, author of "sex lore." a. & c. black, ltd. , & soho square, london, w. preface to most lay people the established order of sex relationships and marriage seems something so self-evident and stable that they cannot conceive the possibility of a variation in the established order. yet here, as in all things, the law of evolution applies. our sexual system is the outcome of a long continuous series of changes beginning with the very dawn of human history. to understand the modern sex problem rightly it is essential to know its origin and gradual development. most of the material about the sex life of primitive people is inaccessible to the ordinary reader, being hidden away in learned treatises and ponderous scientific works. the translators are, therefore, glad to have found in fehlinger's book a short comprehensive outline of the subject, which may serve as a convenient introduction. s. h. f. h. manchester, _july, _. contents chapter page i. modesty among primitive people ii. pre-marital freedom and conjugal fidelity iii. courtship customs iv. marriage v. birth and feticide vi. ignorance of the process of generation vii. mutilation of the sex organs viii. maturity and decline ix. bibliography sexual life of primitive people i modesty among primitive people in cold and temperate climates, it is necessary to clothe the body as a protection against cold. in hot parts of the world, the need for protection against the effects of the weather by means of clothing disappears, and therefore in those regions primitive people go about naked. it is only when they come under the influence of foreign civilisation that they put on clothing. it is erroneous to assume that clothing came into use because of an inborn sexual modesty. in australia, in the indonesian and melanesian islands, in tropical africa, and in south america, there are still many peoples that go about naked. it is true that many of them cover their sex organs; but the contrivances used for this purpose are not in reality intended to hide the sex region, though to our mind they seem to do so. primitive people do not cover their bodies out of modesty; "the sinfulness of nakedness" is unknown to them. karl von den steinen (pp. , ) says that the naked indian tribes of the xingu region of brazil know no secret parts of the body. "they joke about these parts in words and pictures quite unabashed, so that it would be foolish to call them indecent. they are envious of our clothing, as of some precious finery; they put it on and wear it in our presence with a complete disregard of the simplest rules of our own society, and in complete ignorance of its purpose. this proves that they still possess the pristine guilelessness of adam and eve in eden. some of them celebrate the advent of puberty in members of both sexes by noisy festivals, when the 'private parts' come in for a good deal of general attention. if a man wishes to inform a stranger that he is a father, or a woman that she is a mother, they gravely denote the fact by touching the organs from which life springs, in a most spontaneous and natural manner. it is, therefore, not possible to understand these people properly unless we put aside our conception of 'clothing,' and take them and their manners in their own natural way." the absence of sexual modesty in our sense also struck von steinen when questions about words arose. if he asked about a word which to our minds might give cause for shame, the reply was given without hesitation or any semblance of shame. nevertheless, conversations about sexual subjects gave the indians, men and women, decided pleasure; but their merry laughter was "neither impudent, nor did it give the impression of hiding an inward embarrassment. it had, however, a slightly erotic tone, and resembled the laughter aroused by the jokes in our own spinning-rooms, by games of forfeits, and by other harmless jokes exchanged in intercourse between the sexes, although the occasions and accompanying circumstances must be so very different among truly primitive people." naked savages are, however, not devoid of sexual modesty. it shows itself immediately when any remark addressed to them can be construed as an invitation to sexual intercourse, or when coarse jokes are made about sexual subjects. this is clearly shown in an account by koch-grünberg (i., p. ). his european companion wanted to perform a kind of stomach dance before some savage indians of the upper rio negro, such as is danced in places of ill repute in brazilian towns. the very indecent movements of the dancer caused the women and girls to retire shyly. the european in his attempt to "entertain" the company failed completely. yet one can converse quietly with these indians on all sexual subjects so long as they are natural; it is only obscenity that shocks them. according to eylmann, the australians, at least the men, show no modesty in sex matters, though they are by no means devoid of it in other respects. thus, _e.g._, they are ashamed of any mutilation of their bodies. young men do not cover their sex organs, but the old ones do so, because they seem to be aware that this part of the body, of which they were once so proud, bears signs of old age. the women also rarely make use of an apron, yet they show clearly marked sexual modesty. a woman is always very careful not to expose the external sex organs when she sits or lies down in the presence of men. the greatest decency is observed during the time of menstruation. in indonesia the feeling of modesty among those tribes that are in constant contact with europeans is essentially different from that of the tribes less under foreign influence. thus nieuwenhuis (i., pp. , ) mentions, for instance, the bahaus and kenyas of central borneo. of these the latter are only slightly influenced by the mohammedan malays, the former, however, relatively much more so. although members of both tribes bathe completely naked, yet the bahaus dress immediately after the bath, whilst the kenyas go naked to and from the bath. the kenya women also go naked to the spring to bring water and to bathe their children. whilst getting the boats through the rapids the kenya men take off their loin-cloths, but the bahau men never do this. when nieuwenhuis' expedition stayed some time among the kenyas, it was noticed that the people got out of the habit of going about naked at times. this was only because the malays and bahaus belonging to the expedition had told the kenyas that the white people objected to the naked appearance of the natives (which was not correct). nieuwenhuis adds: "it can thus be seen what a great _rôle_ acquired modesty plays in the evolution of clothes." the clothing of the present-day dyaks serves as a protection against the heat of the sun, and in the mountains against cold, and as a prevention of the darkening of the skin (which, particularly in women, is considered ugly); it is also used as an ornament and to scare enemies, but never for the concealment of the body. the dyaks show shame when made embarrassed before other people; on such occasions they blush right down to the breast. nieuwenhuis made use of this circumstance in the case of the bahaus in order to make them keep their promises and do their duties (ii., p. ). the eskimos in the far north of america are, as a rule, thickly clothed; but it is quite usual for them to go about naked in their snow huts without any thought of offending against decency. whoever lives for a time among naked savages becomes accustomed to their nakedness, and does not feel anything objectionable in it. Æsthetically there is this disadvantage, that the sick and the aged look very repulsive in their decline; but then again youth and strength show off to great advantage in nakedness. if the origin of clothing is not due to sexual modesty, it would at first appear strange that so many naked savages cover their sexual organs either completely or partly, wearing a pubic apron or some similar arrangement. the contrivances used are sometimes so small that they can hardly have been intended as coverings. thus the women of the karaib, aruak, and tupi tribes in the xingui region all wear a triangular piece of bark bast not more than centimetres wide and centimetres high. the lower end of the triangle runs into a perineal strip of hard bark about millimetres wide. two narrow cords coming from the two upper ends pass along the groins, and meet the narrow perineal strip coming from the lower end of the triangle. these _uluri_ only just cover the beginning of the pubic cleft, pressing tightly on it. the triangle does not reach the introitus vaginæ, which is, however, closed, or at least kept inwards, by the pressure exerted by the tightened strip of bast running from front to back. similar binders are used by the indian women of central brazil. the binder used by the trumai women is twisted into a cord, serving still less as a cover. in fact, none of these binders serve as covers, but they are intended to close up and to protect the mucous membrane. this also applies to the binders used by the various peoples living on the islands of the pacific ocean, as, _e.g._, by the mafulus of papua. various contrivances are also to be met with among many primitive men which seem to have the purpose of protecting the penis, and which really achieve that end. among certain tribes of brazil penis wraps made from palm straw are worn; other tribes use a t-shaped bandage, which is also very common in polynesia, micronesia and melanesia. the penis is pulled up by means of the t-bandage, the testicles remaining free. sometimes old men use a broad band, under which they can also push the testicles. in the new hebrides, new caledonia, and other places, the penis is tightly bandaged, and is drawn up and fastened to the girdle by means of a cord or band, the testicles hanging free. calabashes are also used to protect the penis. in melanesia the penis pin goes with the calabash. georg friederici (p. ) says about its use: "the penis pin, which is the shape of a wooden knitting needle, is stuck into the hair near the comb, and is often brought into use. the calabash, which serves the purpose of protecting the penis against injury in the bush and attacks from insects, has the disadvantage of easily becoming loose and filling quickly with water during swimming and wading. after every passage of a river reaching above the pubic region a halt had to be made, during which my men took off their calabashes and emptied them; then they put a new layer of green leaves into the round opening, stuck the penis in, and, with the help of the penis pin, pushed it in until it had completely disappeared and the calabash lay close to the abdomen." when sitting round the camp fire, and at other times, the men can be seen drawing the pins from their hair and making their toilet. the covering of the penis is undoubtedly intended as a protection of the sensitive glans. thus in the brazilian forest the penis becomes endangered by spines of leaves being brushed off the branches and boring themselves deeply into the flesh; the spines get torn when pulled out, and cause painful inflammations. for warding off insects the women of many indian tribes have tassels hanging in front of the sex organs. in the northern territory of australia both men and women wear such tassels. there are still greater dangers in the wilderness. in brazil there exists a small fish (_cetopsis candiru_) which has a tendency towards boring itself into any of the exposed orifices of the body. it slips into the urethra, and is prevented by its fins from getting out again, and thus may easily bring about the death of the victim, to whom nothing remains but to attempt an impromptu operation by slitting open the urethra with his knife. friederici remarks that it is just in those regions of tropical america where the protection of the penis is most prevalent that fish with sharp teeth (pygocentrus species) are to be found which have a tendency towards attacking protruding unprotected parts of the body, thus often causing castration in men. there is no foundation for the assumption of adolf gerson that men invented the apron or resorted to binding up of the penis in order to hide its erection, which would make them appear ridiculous, for sex matters do not appear ridiculous to primitive people. in fact, such contrivances cannot hide sexual excitement. many peoples who use them do not even have the wish to keep their excitement secret. habituation to nakedness ultimately lessens the stimulus to excitement. the following fact, stated by friederici, is worthy of notice: "during the many months in which i lived exclusively among the natives i never saw even the slightest sign of an erection in sleeping men, nor have i ever heard or read that any one else has noticed such a thing among naked primitive peoples, untouched by civilisation." clothing has nothing to do with sexual feelings or modesty among primitive people. to the people living in the tropics clothes are essentially ornamental; they are worn for reasons of vanity, not out of modesty. this can be well observed in those cases where loin-cloths which actually cover up the pubic region are raised without any consideration for people present, if there is any danger of their becoming soiled or injured. the malay women in the central part of luzon (philippines), when working in the fields, discard their wrappings without worrying in the least if observed by the men. it is the same in other places. as has been said before, among some naked peoples it is the custom for the men to fasten up the penis without any covering under a hip band. in other places they tie up the foreskin with a thread. by this means protection is also given to the glans, but it is questionable whether this was always the origin of this custom. in fact, it is doubtful whether the need for protection was always the only reason for the wearing of sheaths, binders, etc., for at least among some of the people it is connected with some ceremonial which implies its sexual significance. in the case of women, another factor may have played a _rôle_, viz., the fact that menstruation is considered an illness, as may be seen in the widespread custom of treating girls medically during menstruation. the binder may have been intended to counteract the loss of blood. the stretching of the foreskin which results from the use of penis wraps, penis binders, etc., may be looked upon as a precaution against phimosis, serving the same purpose as circumcision does among numerous peoples. sexual modesty with regard to the naked body cannot be considered innate in mankind, for it is unknown among many naked peoples. on the other hand, there is an instinctive tendency in man to hide from his fellows the effluvia of the sexual and digestive organs. thus h. ellis (p. ) gives a good explanation of the impulse towards concealment during the sex act: "both male and female need to guard themselves during the exercise of their sexual activities from jealous rivals, as well as from enemies who might take advantage of their position to attack them. it is highly probable that this is one important factor in the constitution of modesty, and it helps to explain how the male, not less than the female, cultivates modesty and shuns publicity in the exercise of sexual functions." the idea, begotten from fear, that sexual intercourse must be kept secret, became easily extended to the feeling that such intercourse was in itself wrong. the mystery surrounding sexual intercourse has certainly been one of the factors leading to its concealment. primitive man has a tendency towards endowing with supernatural powers all processes that he cannot understand; they become sacred, and hence have to be carried out in privacy. the feeling of disgust may perhaps be an additional reason for the concealment of the sex act. the objects arousing disgust vary among different peoples according to the conditions of their lives; but almost everywhere dangerous things are classed under this category, to which belong, according to the notion of primitive people, the discharges from the sexual and digestive organs. it thus comes about that primitive man is ashamed of urinating and defæcating even before persons of his own sex. even the lowest savage will seek out a very secluded spot for the fulfilment of these functions. thus koch-grünberg, for instance, says: "the indian goes deep into the wood for a certain business, comparing favourably in this respect with our own peasants." friederici writes of the melanesians that they are not at all ashamed to show the sexual parts, but are extremely shy of exposing the anus, and will always avoid letting themselves be seen during defæcation. in the central districts the people betake themselves for this purpose early in the morning to some outlying place, while those living near the sea go to the beach, each person keeping as far away as possible from his neighbour. the africans that have not yet become spoiled by contact with strangers also seek remote places (weule and schweinfurth). the negroes, however, who are under mohammedan influence, approach in this respect the beasts of the field. the tales of licentiousness among primitive people that are to be found in old works of travel are mostly invented or grossly exaggerated. looseness and laxity do not exist anywhere, though the unwritten laws which regulate the behaviour of the sexes are different from ours. unbridled indulgence is nowhere to be found; the public performance of the sex act takes place only exceptionally among some peoples, and then for ceremonial purposes. even where, on festival occasions, marital intercourse takes place as a matter of course, the couples disappear into the darkness. so far as can be judged from ethnological literature, europeans have rarely had the opportunity of observing the sex act, and then nearly exclusively among the african negroes, who must be reckoned the most sensual of all existing peoples. (see the works of leo frobenius and georg schweinfurth.) ii pre-marital freedom and conjugal fidelity travellers and missionaries, seeing things merely from the standpoint of european civilisation, have for a long time attributed to primitive people conceptions of sexual behaviour like our own. but the real truth could not be hidden for long. it is now firmly established that the moral ideas of primitive people differ as widely from ours as does their sense of modesty. they do not consider sexual intercourse _per se_ as immoral, and generally allow unmarried people full liberty. it is only where a more advanced civilisation leads to material considerations in the matter of sex relationship that, as a rule, this liberty is restricted or entirely in abeyance. should any consequences ensue from the practice of free love, the lover is generally in duty bound to marry the girl. among some tribes, however, no such obligation exists; the lover may break off his connection with the pregnant girl. frequently in cases of pre-marital pregnancy abortion is resorted to, which is very prevalent among primitive races. among some people, on the contrary, a girl who has had a child gets married the more easily, for she has given proof of her fertility. besides, the child will be an additional worker in the house. most peoples demand conjugal fidelity from their married women, though we shall hear of some exceptions. it is certainly not correct, as buschan ( , p. ) says, that the rules concerning sexual intercourse are stringent throughout for women, and that only in a childless marriage may a woman take up with another man. among many peoples, living so far apart as asia, australia, oceania and africa, we find that married men and women are in certain cases allowed intercourse with other persons. the full meaning of this arrangement is as yet unknown. the idea of sexual purity is not innate nor unchangeable. ethnographical research has fully proved that purity in our sense of the term is unknown even to-day among many peoples, and that there exist no restrictions upon sexual intercourse except for the prevention of cohabitation among blood relations. a greater or less degree of sexual liberty before marriage prevails among most of those peoples in asia that are not under the influence of islam, buddhism and hinduism. indeed, it even exists among some uncivilised hindu tribes, as, _e.g._, among the lower hindu castes of kashmir and of the punjab mountains, the various lower castes of agra-oudh, in the central provinces and berar, and in southern india; but they restrict pre-marital relationship to persons of their own community. most dravidian races, however, forbid intercourse between members of the same exogamic group, though it takes place at times in spite of this. the mongolian races generally show indifference in this respect. thus t. c. hudson (p. ) says of the nagas in manipur that they are conspicuous for their exceptionally loose pre-marital relationship, although they demand strict fidelity in marriage. pre-marital intercourse between persons to whom marriage is forbidden is not considered improper, which may be due to the fact that the nagas, like the australian tribes, are ignorant of the process of generation. among many native indian tribes the grown-up children do not sleep in their parents' huts, but in houses of their own, in which they commonly visit each other by night. should a girl become pregnant, the probable father is expected to marry her. if he refuses, he has to pay damages, and the girl is at liberty to marry some one else, which she can do without any difficulty. sometimes abortion is resorted to, especially when both persons belong to the same exogamic group, the members of which are not allowed to intermarry. the tribes of baroda, the maduvars of madras, and the ghasyas of the united provinces, permit a probationary period of cohabitation. it is considered no disgrace for a girl if the trial marriage does not result in a permanent marriage. among the garos it is an unwritten law that after certain great festivals young men and women may sleep together. otherwise these garos, like the tribes and castes previously referred to, are strictly monogamous. sexual promiscuity often occurs after feasts, and it is not restricted to the unmarried (playfair, p. ). it is only seldom that unfaithfulness on the part of married women is tolerated. but there are exceptions. gait states that in the djamna mountains the women of the thakkar, megh, and other low castes lead just as unrestrained a life after marriage as before. the djats of baluchistan are in ill repute because they incite their married women to unfaithfulness, if any advantage can be obtained thereby for the men. certain nomadic castes, such as the mirasis, prostitute their women, and the love affairs of married women of the servant class meet with no opposition whatever. in the eastern region of djamba, in the punjab, the husband is expected to allow a guest free entrance to the women's chambers. in the western part of this province the djats and pathans will often take back married women who have eloped, and not rarely a husband will recognise as his own a son who may have been born while the woman was away. in southern india married women enjoy a great deal of sexual freedom, especially in those communities where the descent is reckoned in the female line. where marriage between cousins is customary, grown-up girls are often married to quite young boys. during the immaturity of the husband the wife is allowed to have sexual relations with the father of her child husband or another near relation, sometimes even with any one member of the caste chosen by her. this custom also exists in kashmir, not only among the ladakhis, but also among other low hindu castes, and is also to be found in other parts of the world. many south indian castes allow their married women much freedom with the relatives of their husbands. the tootiyans go so far as to forbid a husband to enter his house if he finds the door locked and a relation's shoe before it. the maloyali, a mountain tribe, accept unfaithfulness on the part of their wives quite lightly, unless the partner belongs to another caste; if a woman lives for a time with a lover and has children during this time, the husband will on her return recognise the children as his own. the state of affairs is similar among the kudans and parivarams. many low hindu castes in north kanara allow their women extra-marital intercourse with men of their own or of a higher caste. among some castes, such as the irulas and kurumbas, formal marriage is completely unknown, an almost unbridled sexual promiscuity taking its place. a korawa of madras who has debts to pay either pawns or simply sells his wife. the todas and other polyandrous communities of south india do not know jealousy (rivers, , p. ; iyer, i., p. ). an exception to the rule that faithfulness in marriage is more strictly enforced than purity before marriage is to be found among the pongalakapus of madras, who allow extra-marital intercourse of married women, but punish that of unmarried girls and widows (gait). the veddahs of ceylon, who, according to paul and fritz sarasin, are physically and intellectually of the lowest human type, practise monogamy, which lasts until the death of one of the partners. marital unfaithfulness is rare, and leads to heavy punishment of the offending rival, who, as a rule, is assassinated. only where foreign influence has become apparent is there a tendency to dissolve marriage before death (paul and fritz sarasin). hose and macdougall mention that among the nomadic hunting tribes of inner borneo "the women are chaster after marriage than before." apparently neither sex practises much restraint. a girl's pregnancy generally results in her marriage with the father of the expected child. amongst the settled tribes of borneo a young man seeks a love affair as soon as he is attracted to the other sex; he may have relations with several girls one after another, but generally marries early. the marriage age of the men is about twenty, of the girls still earlier. there is no information about their marital fidelity. the dutchmen hinlopen and severijn state that in they found on the poggi islands, on the west coast of sumatra, a state of complete promiscuity. some of the men are said to get married, but only very late, between the ages of forty and fifty, when their detailed tattooing is completed; it is only seldom that a young man takes a separate wife. g. a. wilken enumerates the following east indian communities as living in sexual promiscuity: the lubus, the orang-sakai of malacca, the olo-ot, and other bornean tribes; the inhabitants of the island peling. he adduces no evidence, however; and his statement is certainly incorrect as far as the sakai of malacca are concerned. among the non-christian tribes of the philippine islands considerable pre-marital liberty prevails. among the igorotes, _e.g._, the dormitory of the unmarried girls (the _olag_) serves also as the pairing place of the marriageable young people. in the villages young people, joking and laughing, can frequently be seen going about wrapped in one blanket and with their arms round each other. there is no secrecy about the wooing; it is carried on mainly in the _olag_. marriage rarely takes place without previous intercourse, and seldom before the girl is pregnant. an exception to this rule only occurs when a rich man marries a girl against her will at the parents' wish. not infrequently a young man has affairs with two or three girls at one and the same time. the girls quite openly and unmistakably invite the men to go with them into the _olag_. as soon as a girl becomes pregnant, she at once joyfully informs the father of the child, for these people are very fond of children. if the man refuses to marry the girl, there is likely to be tears, but no one is much concerned about the infidelity itself, because the girl can find a husband later on in spite of her having borne a child; indeed, the more so, as there can be no doubt of her fertility. it is not customary for married men to enter the _olag_. a young man, however, can go there if his former love has remained single and welcomes him, because she still has hopes of becoming his wife, for it is easy to get a separation, and if a man can afford it, he may have two or three wives, though polygamy is rare. a man whose wife is pregnant does not visit the _olag_, for it is feared that this may bring about a premature birth and cause the death of the child. married women apparently remain always faithful (a. e. jenks, p. ). ferdinand blumentritt makes a statement, based on spanish information, that the girls' houses of the igorotes serve the purpose of ensuring pre-marital purity. this, however, is incorrect. very similar customs prevail among the naga tribes of assam (peal, pp. _et seq._). the pure senoi and semang tribes of the malay peninsula practise strict monogamy. marriage takes place at an early age, sometimes between boys of fourteen and girls of thirteen. even betrothals of children seem to occur. marital unfaithfulness is punished with death (martin, , p. ). in many districts of australia, indeed, among the majority of the natives of the australian continent, there exist two forms of sexual union side by side. the one form consists in a girl's being given in marriage to one man without regard to the difference in ages, and also without any consideration for feelings of personal sympathy. indeed, such is hardly possible, for the girls are given to the men at a very young age. the main cause of these unions is apparently economic. it ensures the man a housekeeper for himself who has to gather the largest share of provisions, for the result of the man's hunting yields only a very small part of the absolutely essential food. a man may have, according to his social position, one or more such housekeepers. in addition, each man and woman may form a union with one or more of the other sex merely for the purpose of sexual intercourse. unlike the "marriages" previously mentioned, these unions do not take place without any formality--there is a special ceremony for the occasion. they do not last for life, at least among some of the tribes, but are regulated from time to time. this form of sexual union is generally called _pirauru_ in ethnographical literature, after the designation in use among the tribes of the dieri, where this kind of sex community was first observed. the men of a _pirauru_ group are either consanguineous or collateral brothers, members of one and the same subdivision of the tribe; similarly, the women of a _pirauru_ group are consanguineous or collateral sisters. sexual intercourse with a _pirauru_ wife is allowed during the absence of the husband who is her usual mate, and also at special festivals. when a man's housekeeper dies, her children are cared for by one of his _pirauru_ wives until he gets another housekeeper. without the institution of _pirauru_, the younger men would be barred from sexual intercourse. many of them are without housekeepers, as most of the young women are in the possession of the older influential men. it has been said that the old men are often killed by the young men on this account (spencer, p. ). the majority of the tribes that have the institution of _pirauru_ are ignorant of the connection between sexual intercourse and conception (see chapter vi.). it is therefore not the production of progeny which seems to be the purpose of a common household between man and woman, nor of the _pirauru_ unions. institutions similar to the australian _pirauru_ also exist outside australia. codrington (p. ) has established the fact that in the solomon islands and in other parts of melanesia a woman of an exogamic group who is not yet married to one particular man may legitimately have sexual intercourse with all men of another exogamic group who are her potential husbands. the exogamic groups play a far more important _rôle_ than individual marriage. in the fijian islands every man has the right to sexual intercourse with his wife's sisters. on special ceremonial occasions intercourse is permitted between those groups of men and women who stand in the relationship of possible conjugal partners (thomson, p. ). pre-marital sexual freedom of both sexes exists, or did exist, all over the south sea islands before the advent of european influence. thus, _e.g._, robert w. williamson (pp. - ) writes of the mafulus, in the mountains of new guinea, that unmarried youths and maidens are allowed to associate with each other without any precautions. there exists a good deal of "immorality." even after marriage (which takes place with an elaborate pretence of bride capture) husband and wife are, as a rule, not faithful to each other, the marriage bond being very loose. but it is said that unfaithfulness on the part of the women (though not of the men) is considered a great offence. the injured husband used to have the right of killing the guilty man, which he did, as a rule, until the british authorities put an end to the practice. nowadays the deceived husband is generally satisfied if he receives a pig or some other article of value from the guilty rival. in africa sexual community is allowed at certain periods among the hereros (brinker, p. ). among many other bantu tribes sexual communism is customary, particularly at the initiation of the young people. the girls, too, are allowed to choose male partners for a time, and among many tribes of south africa it was customary for the girls who refused to be given to men against their will. the colonial government has now put a stop to this (theal). the statements about the hottentots of south africa vary. but the custom of _sore_, which is found among them, seems to point to the existence of an institution similar to the australian _pirauru_. schultze (pp. , ) thinks that illicit love was punished among the hottentots before the extensive immigration of the white people into south africa led to the overthrow of their old customs. either the guilty couple were beaten, with the consent of the parents, or the lover received, in addition to his own, his sweetheart's share of punishment. but schultze mentions also that the institution of _sore_, intended ostensibly for the exchange of love gifts, really means in many cases a secret agreement for intimate extra-marital relationship, though it is generally quite honourable. this institution is by no means an innovation. the hamitic tribes of east africa, who belong to the most warlike races of mankind, permit pre-marital intercourse of both sexes. a. c. hollis ( , pp. , ) says of the nandi; "the unmarried warriors, as many as ten, sleep in the huts called _sigiroinet_, where the girls visit them and remain with them a few days, living with them in free love." married women are not allowed to enter these huts. when the warriors go away for a time or go to war, their sweethearts keep the huts in order. real "family life" is unknown, for the bigger boys and girls also live alone in special huts or together with the old women; the little boys who serve the warriors sleep in their houses. there is no publicly recognised punishment for adultery; but if a husband discovers another man not belonging to his _mat_ (one of the subdivisions of each of the seven age classes) with his wife or one of his wives, he beats him severely. adultery is also not considered wrong when it concerns a couple that have previously lived together in free love in the warriors' house, even when the woman does not belong to a _mat_ comrade. when a nandi travels and wishes to remain somewhere overnight, he must first of all apply to another member of his _mat_ in the place. if there is one, and both men are married, the latter gives hospitality to the guest, commissions his wife to fulfil his wishes, and leaves the hut in order to sleep elsewhere. the wife pours water over the hands of the guest, brings him a stool and food, puts his weapons into a place of safety, and spends the night with him. should there be no member of his _mat_ in the place, the traveller betakes himself to a member of the nearest _mat_; and, after having explained the situation, he is treated exactly as if both men belonged to the same _mat_. members of different age classes do not offer each other hospitality or expect it. if the traveller is unmarried, he spends the night in the warriors' hut. children born before marriage are killed by the nandis, only one group making an exception to this rule. the masai have when travelling the same customs as the nandis. sexual intercourse with a girl or woman of the same age class is not considered wrong. a warrior marries the girl he makes pregnant. children born before marriage are considered a disgrace. a person who has relations with a woman belonging to the paternal age class must beg pardon of the older men and give as reparation two oxen or a commensurate quantity of honey wine. an old man who has sexual intercourse with his daughter or with another girl of her age is severely punished, if the affair comes to light: he is beaten, his kraal is pulled down, and his cattle are killed _ad libitum_ (hollis, , pp. , , ). of the conditions existing among the baganda in east africa the missionary john roscoe (p. ) gives us the following picture: "neither the men nor the women controlled their sexual cravings unless insurmountable obstacles came in the way. women, however, could only attain their aims by stratagem. if an unmarried girl became pregnant, the guilty man had to pay a fine, and he was induced to marry the girl. if a husband discovered his wife with another man, he had the right to kill them both. nevertheless the married women kept in strict seclusion used to receive lovers, which even the most dreadful punishments for adultery could not prevent." it has to be noticed that the social formation of classes was already greatly developed among the baganda at the time described by roscoe. the wealthy men were in a position to have as many wives as they could support, so that there was a scarcity of women for the remaining men. it is not remarkable, therefore, that these tried to meet this fact by force and cunning. although married women were secluded, single girls had a fair amount of liberty. among the bushmen of south africa, now nearly extinct, husband and wife remained faithful to each other for life. but if they became tired of each other, no hindrance was put in the way of separation and remarriage. a second husband, however, or a second wife was most probably never accepted into the family; their passionate temperament was against it (theal). about the indians of north-west brazil koch-grünberg relates: "whilst young girls enjoy the greatest liberty, their purity not being necessarily above suspicion, marriage itself is generally on a higher plane; a married couple are rarely unfaithful to each other." koch-grünberg has never noticed even the semblance of indecent behaviour between married people, nor under normal circumstances any serious quarrels or ugly scenes. the same or similar conditions prevail nearly all over south america where european influence is not yet predominant. karl von den steinen (p. ) mentions one exception to this rule. the bororos, who live on the st. lourenco river, and who were visited by him, have greatly degenerated, thanks to the civilising arts of the brazilians. a marriage is concluded without any formality and without the consent of the parents. the young wife remains with her children in her parents' house. the young husband only spends the night there; during the day he lives in the men's house when he is not hunting. the young couple have a hearth for themselves, the grandmother with the grandchildren sitting somewhat apart. thus it remains up to the death of the grandparents. the grandmother suckles the child when the young wife accompanies her husband on the hunt or fetches palm nuts from the woods; she still has milk when her children marry. young unmarried men live together in special men's houses. they look out betimes for wives. there are two customs which deserve our interest. a girl's ear-lobes are bored by her future husband. if he himself does not marry her, his son does so. furthermore, the man who puts the penis cuff on a boy becomes related to him and marries his sister or his aunt. girls were taken to the men's house quite openly by day, or were caught at night. these girls were not married to one man; any children born were fathered on those men with whom the girl had had relations. this state of affairs is the result of the overweening power wielded by the older men. the women are their possession, and a regular income of arrows and trinkets is earned by hiring out the girls to the men's house. unnatural intercourse is not unknown in the men's house, but it occurs only when there is an exceptionally great scarcity of girls. according to a statement of a native, the same conditions prevail in the remote villages, where some only of the members of a tribe have permanent possession of the women. but such information given by the natives must be accepted with great caution. no similar customs have become known anywhere else in south america. in north america the young people also had great liberty, but the married women dared not break their faith. among many tribes, especially the nomadic hunting tribes, there existed patriarchal conditions, with complete subordination of the women. intercourse with any one but their rightful husbands was taken in bad part. nowadays the indians of north america, with the exception of a small remnant living in the canadian tundra, have come under the influence of christianity. the probable existence of an earlier sex communism among the north american indians has been described in full by l. h. morgan. f. nansen reports that among the christian eskimos of the west coast of greenland the girls do not consider pre-marital motherhood as a disgrace. the green hair-band which the unmarried mothers have to wear is put on by them long before it is necessary. the young greenland girls do not deem any concealment of their love affairs necessary. in east greenland, which has not yet been reached by christianity, it is customary for a man who wants a wife simply to abduct the girl from her house or tent. the abduction is often only a pretence, for the couple have settled it all between themselves. formerly this form of marriage was in vogue all over greenland. the relations look on quietly, for it is all a private affair of those immediately concerned. should the girl really not wish to have the suitor, she will defend herself until she quietens down or the wooer renounces her. divorce also takes place without any difficulties; but generally the marriage is continued if there is a child, particularly if it should be a boy. if a man covets the wife of another, he will take her without any hesitation, if he is the stronger. among the non-christian eskimos most of the skilful hunters have two wives, but never more. the first wife is generally looked upon as the superior. temporary exchange of wives occurs up to the present time even among the christians on the west coast, especially when the people have to spend the summer hunting the reindeer in the interior of the country. as a rule, married people live on exceptionally good terms with each other. among the netchili eskimos near the magnetic north pole, however, conjugal harmony is, according to roald amundsen, not of the best. as a rule, the wife only escapes being beaten when she is stronger than the man. exchange of women is quite common. most of the girls are destined from birth for certain men, though sometimes things do not turn out as the parents wish it. when the girl is fourteen years old she seeks out her bridegroom, or he comes to her. there is no wedding. amundsen doubts whether the couple have, as a rule, any tender feelings towards each other. the girl is just given to the man by the parents, the man marrying her in order to have one more domestic drudge, for in reality the wife is nothing more nor less than a domestic animal. most eskimos offer their wives to any one. among the kamchadales, chukchee, jukagiers and tunguses of north asia the girls have pre-marital liberty, and there exists no marital fidelity. w. bogoras (p. ) describes "group marriage" among the chukchee, which seems to be an institution similar to the australian _pirauru_. there are groups, consisting of up to ten men or women, that have the right to sexual intercourse with each other; "but this right is comparatively rarely taken advantage of, only when a man has for some reason to visit the camp of one of his group companions. the host then gives up to him his place in the sleeping room, and if possible leaves the house for the night, going, for instance, to his flock. afterwards the host generally seeks an opportunity of returning the visit, so as to exercise his rights in turn." the sex communities are generally composed of neighbours and friends. the offspring of brothers and sisters in the second and third generations are, as a rule, united in the same sex community, but not brothers. bogoras thinks that the communities were originally limited to members of a group who were related, and were only later extended to other people; the ceremonies at the formation of a group seem to imply this. the persons concerned bring sacrifices and anoint themselves with blood, first in the one and then in the other camp. the admission into a group of persons who greatly diverge from each other in age is not welcomed, and single men are also not willingly admitted. the inhabitants of one and the same camp are seldom willing to form a sex community, for reciprocal relationship is intended as an exception rather than the rule, though there are deviations from this rule. every individual family of the chukchee belongs in practice to some sex community. should a family keep to themselves, it would indicate that they had no friends and no protectors in time of need. the children of members of a sex community are reckoned as near blood relations, and may not marry one another. it is quite different among the koryaks, the neighbours of the chukchee. they demand abstinence from the girls before marriage, and there is rarely any transgression against this law. pregnancy before marriage is a disgrace, and unmarried mothers are forced to give birth in the wilderness. children born before marriage are killed. after the advent of puberty the girls sleep in their "combinations," which are fashioned in such a way as to exclude undesirable intercourse. intercourse between engaged couples is also looked upon as sinful. sometimes the girl lives with relatives in another place for a time, or is kept hidden until the bridegroom works off at her parents' home the service which he owes to them. incest is strictly avoided, for it is feared that the evil-doers must die in consequence of it. the various prohibitions existing at the present day with regard to the marriage of certain consanguineous or adopted relations are only of recent date; they were unknown formerly (jochelson, p. ). perhaps the other existing sexual customs are also the result of missionary activities. the above examples, chosen at random, plainly show that the conceptions of sexual morality generally held by primitive people are different from those prevalent under european civilisation. very often these primitive customs have been greatly influenced or altogether exterminated by the example or the power of the european colonists. whether this was of benefit to the races cannot be discussed here. after all, european morality is not so very superior to that of the "savages." as georg friederici (p. ) pertinently says: "almost everywhere in our society we shut our eyes to the fact that our young men do what is forbidden to them, but is permitted to the melanesian and polynesian girls. we admit the state regulation of prostitution or, to avoid greater scandal, even street prostitution; yet we set out in moral indignation to reform the customs of primitive peoples which have proved their value and are consistent with their moral laws. having nothing better to put in their place, we merely introduce among them what happens to be our own canker." everywhere the fight against the traditional moral ideals has resulted merely in the introduction of prostitution, with all its corruption. we should therefore refrain from reforms that are misplaced, and should not attack customs that cannot be replaced by better ones, and that do not stand in the way of colonisation. iii courtship customs very often we find among primitive people that marriage is preceded by a pretended bride capture, though the couple themselves and their relations have agreed to the union. this gave occasion to the belief that the capture of women was formerly a widespread and original form of marriage. the pretended capture does not, however, seem to imply the existence of true "marriage by capture," but rather seems to indicate the fact that formerly brides were often given to men against their will and had to be forced to go with them. the fact that often the abducting bridegroom is in fun beaten by the brothers or other male relations of the girl does not exclude this conclusion, for the thrashing may be a later embellishment of the game of abduction, its purpose being to increase the pleasure of the guests by satisfying their spectacular desire. it is worthy of note that in assam among the matriarchal garos there is a pretended capture of the bridegroom. it would be a mistake to conclude from this that formerly mother-rule actually existed among the garos. in the report on the ethnographical survey of the indian central provinces (v., p. ) it is stated that it was formerly customary among the kulams to capture men for those of their girls who would otherwise have remained unmarried. among the peoples whose girls are married at a very young age no wooing is customary, as, _e.g._, among the dravidian indians, the australians, their near relations, and others. marriage in these cases takes place without any or with very little ceremony (jagor, spencer, howitt). it has been impossible so far in india to check the evil custom of child marriage; on the contrary, it is becoming more prevalent among the animistic tribes. child engagements rather than child marriages are prevalent among many peoples, as among the asiatic polar races and the eskimos of north america. but among most of these peoples free courtship exists. thus jochelson writes about the koryaks in the extreme north-east of asia: "if a koryak falls in love with a girl, he generally sends a match-maker to the father of the girl; but this is not always the case, and particularly so if the parents do not agree to the son's choice. frequently the young man, without telling anybody of his intentions, goes to the girl's home and does all the work there which is seemly for a man. the father-in-law accepts his services also in silence. if he is pleased with the bridegroom, he entrusts him with commissions; otherwise he lets him feel that he must leave the house. the bridegroom's service lasts from six months to three years. this service cannot be conceived as 'payment' for the bride, for the wealthier of the konaks could pay with reindeer instead of working off the price of the bride. besides, the bride receives a dowry of reindeer, which is worth much more than the service given by the son-in-law. this service is only an empty formality, if the wooer is an older man. it rather seems as if the main purpose of the service is to put the bridegroom to the test, for it is not the actual work done that is of most importance, but the harsh treatment that he has to endure and the meagre and laborious life that he is forced to lead. the service comes to an end whenever the father-in-law decides. the man then leads his bride home without any formality, although she at first pretends to struggle against it; she gives up this pretence as soon as the man succeeds in touching her sex organs. should a girl really not care for the man intended for her, she will attempt to escape in reality; but she is ultimately forced by her parents into marriage. often, however, the girl's inclination is taken into consideration before she is given into marriage." among the inland tribes of borneo young people get married as soon as they have reached maturity. the young man sends a confidential friend to the parents of the girl desired, who, as a matter of form, make objections and invent all manner of excuses. only after the second or third visit of the go-between is the matter taken at all seriously and a decision arrived at. if the parents agree, they receive from the go-between presents sent by the bridegroom, and the girl sends her lover strings of pearls. the time of the new moon is considered the best time for marriage. the wedding day is kept count of by both parties having strings with an equal number of knots, from which one knot is cut off each day. the marriage is celebrated with festivities, the bridegroom and guests appearing in war dress; there is great feasting and much ceremony (hose and mcdougall, ii., pp. _et seq._). among the mafulu, a hill tribe of new guinea, child engagements are frequent, but the courting of adults seems to predominate. r. w. williamson writes (p. ) that in one case known to him a girl of sixteen or seventeen years old was looked upon as married to the yet unborn son of a chief. when the boy died in early childhood, the girl was reckoned to be his widow. if a young mafulu youth wishes to marry and does not know where to look for a bride, he will sometimes light a fire outside the village; he will wait to see in which direction the next gust of wind will blow the smoke, and there he will turn to seek a wife. often the youth carries about with him a bag with small pieces of wood and stone. he rubs a piece of tobacco between two pieces and sends it to the girl of his choice by one of her female relatives. he believes that by this procedure the girl's heart will be turned towards him through some mysterious power. the young men often obtain the necessary pieces of wood or stone from a magician. the offer of marriage is also made through a third person, generally a woman. the consent of the parents is necessary; the marriage takes place without any special ceremony. among the pigmy races of asia and africa child marriage exists side by side with adult courtship. of the negritos of zambales (philippine islands) w. a. reed (p. ) says that the suitor has to pay a price for the bride. the parents try to bargain for as much as possible, and it is only when these demands have been fulfilled that the daughter has any choice in the matter. the young man who has found a suitable girl informs his family of the fact; they decide how much the girl is worth and how much must be paid for her. thereupon the suitor or a relative inquires of the girl's family whether they agree to the marriage. if they do, the purchase price is brought within a few days, and in case this proves satisfactory to the parents these give their consent. in many cases the girls are already in early youth promised to the boys chosen by the parents, but the children remain with their parents until maturity. sometimes little girls are given to grown-up men, so that the difference in ages is great, and the girls very unwillingly obey their parents' will. when two families have daughters _and_ sons the girls are exchanged as wives without either of the families paying a price. it is said that slaves and stolen strange children are given as payment for the bride. it is doubtful, however, according to w. a. reed, whether this still occurs. in many parts of the country the settlement of the price is followed by feasting and dancing, at which pretended capture of the bride plays a great _rôle_. among the hamites of east africa the custom exists of assigning girls still far from mature as wives to certain adult men. if, _e.g._, a masai wishes to marry, he courts a very young girl, whose father receives presents repeatedly. after the ritual operation is performed upon the girl the young man goes to live in the house of his father-in-law, bringing with him as gifts three cows and two oxen. when the time comes for taking the bride home, an additional present of three sheep is made. the girl puts on her bridal dress and follows the man without further ceremony. a man who possesses a big herd of cattle can have many wives, some rich men having as many as ten or twenty wives (hollis, , pp. , ). among the negroes adult people have the right to choose their mates, though choice is restricted through various traditional considerations. child engagements are not uncommon. thus among the bantus it is even to-day often customary to assign children at an early age to each other for marriage. weule (p. ) says of the jaos in east africa: "it is a general custom for a woman who has just given birth to a child to say to a pregnant neighbour: 'i have a daughter' (or 'a son'); 'if your child proves to be a son' (or 'a daughter'), 'they shall marry each other.' the other generally agrees, and this arrangement is adhered to later. for adults there exist no special rules in the choice of mates nowadays, and it is doubtful whether such existed previously. if a serf wants to marry, he tells his father, who informs the master. the latter then speaks with the father of the chosen girl. if the father agrees, the daughter is brought in and asked for her opinion. if she is not willing to marry the suitor, the affair is at an end. if she agrees, the relatives, with the master at the head, consult together, and the decision is then made. among the mokondes in the north of the rowuma river the young man looking out for marriage lets his parents negotiate with the girl's parents. if they come to an agreement, the bridegroom gives the bride's parents a present, which makes the affair binding. among the more conservative classes the eldest brother of the girl's mother also has a voice in the matter, getting a share of the bridegroom's presents. in olden times a makonde boy lived after his circumcision with one of his maternal uncles, into whose family he afterwards married. if there were no girls in the family, he waited for a cousin. the young man had to do all the work at his uncle's house until the daughter grew up. among the makuas the suitor himself goes to the girl's father, who again must get the consent of the mother's eldest brother. often all the brothers, instead of one, must be consulted. the suitor goes the next day for his answer. if the answer is 'yes,' the time for the wedding is appointed, at which well-meant speeches are made, and advice is given to the bridal pair. as a rule, the couple are more or less of the same age, but it sometimes happens that young girls are married by men much older than themselves." of the hottentots schultze (p. ) writes: "a man who wishes to get a confession of love from the girl of his choice gives her a little piece of wood. if the two have come to an agreement, they break it, each holding at one end, and then they throw the broken pieces at each other's chest. the couple then commence courting, during which time they are not allowed to speak a word with each other or to reach each other anything. an intermediary acts between them for this purpose. transgressions have to be expiated by presents. it is all an amorous game of hide-and-seek, which has hardened into a rigid custom. it can continue thus for months or for a year, and longer, before the affair ripens. this can happen in two ways: either openly by the parents' consent being asked, or secretly by means of a symbolic action which expresses the girl's agreement to complete surrender. the young man draws off one of his skin shoes and throws it to the girl in private. if she disregards the shoe, the proposal for an early union is rejected; in the contrary case she gives the shoe back. when the wedding is to come off, the parents negotiate with each other for some time, but more in pretence than real earnest. when an agreement has been reached, the marriage is celebrated with feasting." among the indians marriage is entered into by free courtship, though girls in particular, just as with us, are greatly dependent upon the will of their parents. the girls marry sometimes at a very early age, but marriage before maturity seems non-existent. koch-grünberg (i., pp. , ) says of the siusis that the choice of partners is not always the affair of those directly concerned. often the parents, or the father alone, choose the husband for the daughter. the parents have no such strong influence on the son's choice. the wedding is celebrated by dancing, which goes on for several days at the house of the bride's father. at the end of the festivities the latter makes a long speech to his son-in-law, and gives him over his daughter as wife, wherewith the marriage is consummated. the young wife goes to her husband's house, which, as a rule, also serves as the home of her parents-in-law. the trousseau is generally small. among the kobeua indians of the upper rio negro a young man wishing to marry asks the permission of the father of his bride-elect. if he consents, the bridegroom remains for five days in the house of his parents-in-law, and a big dance and banquet is held, in which many guests take part. at the end of the feast the father gives over his daughter to his son-in-law, whereupon the couple go off, the father breaking out into a ceremonial lament. amongst some races capture of women is said to be still customary. in any case the wife has to be from another tribe. evidence of woman capture is still to be found in the tradition of the tribe (koch-grünberg, ii., pp. , ). the bakairis have no wedding celebrations. the marriage is discussed by the parents. if they come to an agreement, the bride's father receives some trifles as a present. the bridegroom hangs up his hammock above that of the girl, and everything is settled. it is only where the tribe has fallen into decay that great differences in the ages of the married people occur, and that older men in particular have the privilege of possessing young wives (compare chapter ii.). divorce can be got without difficulty, even when the man is unwilling. among the paressis the marriage is arranged by the parents on both sides, and the bride, after having received a few presents, is led by her parents without any formality to her bridegroom's hammock (von den steinen, pp. , ). the custom of paying a price for the bride, prevalent among many races all over the world, is frequently spoken of as marriage by purchase. the price is very varied, and its value very unequal, but as a rule it is relatively small, and not infrequently it is so small as to have no economic value for the parents-in-law. among the animistic tribes of british india, who, as a rule, pay a price for the bride, the sum may be as much as rupees. generally more is paid for a virgin than for a widow; but there are some indian castes of manual labourers among whom the woman takes a share in the industrial work, and among whom the reverse is the case. it sometimes happens that the price is adjusted according to the age of the bride. often brides are exchanged between two families, so that the payment of a price is dispensed with. "marriage by service" still persists in various places, especially in asia. here the future son-in-law, instead of paying a price for the bride, has to work a certain number of years for the father of the bride. among most primitive people the woman represents labour power in the house, as the men, either wholly or to a large extent, occupy themselves with social concerns (e. hahn). domestic prosperity depends wholly on the women's work. thus it can easily be seen how the custom came about of demanding some service from the man who wanted a wife. real purchase of a wife occurs only exceptionally among primitive people. it is never the rule, nor is the woman a real object of barter. if actual sale of women occurs in some cases, it is only an exception. such cases are only frequent where the influence of islam is most pronounced. the bride price is wholly or partly paid back should the wife run away, or even if she meets with an early death. if there are sisters, the forsaken husband or widower may sometimes forego the restitution of the price paid and accept one of the sisters as his wife. in india a price for the bridegroom is paid, not only among the upper castes of the civilised races, but also occasionally among the lower castes and among the primitive natives. iv marriage by far the greatest number of primitive peoples are monogamous. only in relatively few cases is there polyandry. polygyny often occurs among persons who are specially favoured, either economically or socially; but it is nowhere the form of marriage of the majority of the population. the polygyny reported among certain tribes generally refers only to chiefs, magic doctors, or some other special persons who have more than one wife. sexual group communism at the side of monogamy or polyandry has been found in various places, but it is wrong to speak of it as "group marriage." this is evident from the previously quoted examples of the _pirauru_ in australia, the sex communities among the chukchee, the nandi, masai, and others. it is possible, of course, that monogamy which now co-exists with certain cases of sex communism may have been a later addition, but this is not proven. it is more likely that the pairing instinct (not identical with the instinct of procreation) is characteristic of our sub-human ancestors. in fact, even in the animal world there are numerous examples of monogamy (p. deegener). it has been established that in africa, indonesia, melanesia, and elsewhere, the small children remain with their parents, while the bigger children are lodged together in special boys' and girls' houses, and are, as it were, brought up communally. the relationship of the children to their own parents is not notably closer than that between them and other persons of the same age class. we must not look upon this child communism solely as a curiosity, but as the relic of a very ancient primitive institution. most likely there is some connection between child communism and the interchange of children which is customary, for example, among the dravidian races of india ("ethnographical survey of the central india agency") and on the murray islands, in the torres straits (australia). according to w. h. r. rivers ( , p. ), the interchange of children between families is very frequent here without the peoples being able to give any explanation of it. nor do other social and religious institutions offer any indication as to the origin of this custom. rivers surmises that it has been preserved from a social organisation in which "children were largely common to the women of the group so far as nurture was concerned." at any rate, this adoption _en masse_ will help civilised man to understand that less civilised peoples have ideas about parenthood different from those that exist among us, and also that group motherhood is not absurd. the existence of group motherhood among primitive communities--whose members were much more dependent on each other in the struggle for existence than are the members of much more advanced societies--must often have been of considerable advantage to these communities. on the assumption of "group motherhood" it is easily explainable that children use the same mode of address for their own sisters and brothers as for all the other children of the group, and that all the women of equal ages are called "mother." hence the classificatory system of relationship ceases to be puzzling. it becomes clear why under this system whole groups of persons designate each other as husbands and wives, and why the children of all the persons of these groups call each other brothers and sisters, etc. the assumption is justified that man in a low state of civilisation knew only group relationship; further distinctions were derived only later from these relationships, the present-day classificatory system arising ultimately from them. among the peoples where rivers could examine this system there were indications of a development in the direction of using it rather for the distinction of real blood and marriage relationship than for the distinction of social position, for which it was originally intended. a connection between marriage regulation and the classificatory system of relationships exists not only among the dravidian races, but also among the north american indians, and certainly among other branches of the human race. rivers says: "the classificatory system in one form or another is spread so widely over the world as to make it probable that it had its origin in some universal stage of social development"; and further he says: "the kind of society which most readily accounts for its chief features is one characterised by a form of marriage in which definite groups of men are the husbands of definite groups of women." rivers does not mean thereby institutions like the _pirauru_, but a permanent group marriage. it may be objected against this latter assumption that permanent (not occasional) sex communism does not necessarily need to be connected with communism of children. it is quite possible that monogamy and child communism may exist side by side, as, _e.g._, among the murray islanders. but even if group marriage did really exist in some places, and if the existence of child communism would prove this, it still cannot be asserted that it is a phase of development through which all human races have passed. for the assumption of a parallel development of all races is untenable. it is true the basic psychic organisation is the same for all human beings, being due to the common descent of mankind. but owing to the continual adaptation to changing environmental conditions, it was not preserved, but underwent different changes. there is no ground for the assumption that, while environmental changes brought about bodily modifications, mental changes did not take place also, therewith leading at the same time to differences in social culture. on the contrary, we must rather assume that together with anthropological variations among the races there also arose variations in social development, the different civilisations resulting from differentiated mental dispositions and deviating more and more from each other. certain elements of the original primitive civilisation have been preserved in the various later developments, but not everywhere the same elements, nor were the differentiations that did take place all of the same degree. certain fundamental conceptions may remain unchanged for long periods, and may produce analogous phenomena in different civilisations. since deviations from monogamy are extremely rare among primitive peoples, the assumption is justified that monogamy is one of the fundamental factors of human civilisation. how could its practically universal occurrence be explained otherwise? there can be no question of convergence, nor has a world-wide transmission of a cultural element that has arisen later been proved up to the present. the opinion, first expressed by l. h. morgan, that the classificatory relationship system is evidence of the existence of group marriage (not merely in the form of _pirauru_ existing at the side of monogamy), is contradicted by the etymological meaning of the terms used by primitive people, which are generally translated by "father," "mother," "grandfather," "brother," "sister," "child," etc. these collective names show nowhere an allusion to procreation, but only to age differences: father and mother are the "elder," the "big ones," the "grown-ups"; the children are the "little ones," the "young ones"; brothers and sisters are the "comrades." we often find that among the australian negroes and the south sea islanders no distinction is made between father and mother. all persons of an older generation of a horde or a totem (or of a phratry respectively) are simply the "elder," the "big ones." if a native wishes to indicate more clearly the sex of a person of an older class, he must add the word "man" or "woman" (or the adjective "male" or "female"). it often happens that grandparents and grandchildren use the same form of address, which in no way refers to descent (cunow). other facts point to the same conclusion. where the _pirauru_ exists in australia, the same form of address is used for persons standing in _pirauru_ relationship to the speaker as for members of the same age class who have no such relationship. this could not be so if the appellation had originated from common sexual relationship. cunow rightly concludes: "sexual communities can be proved to exist here and there among primitive peoples, but the nomenclature of the classificatory relationships has not grown out of such group relationships. these so-called group marriages are rather adventitious growths, playing only a secondary _rôle_ in the history of the family." buschan ( , p. ) looks upon the pre-marital sexual freedom of girls among many primitive peoples (most probably among the majority of them) as a relic of communal marriage from earlier times. he assumes that the girls had promiscuous relationships with the other sex. this, however, is not the case. as a rule, couples meet together for a time, and only rarely does a person have relationship with several persons at the same time. the conditions are essentially the same as in europe, except that amongst "savages" a love affair going as far as intercourse is not considered immoral. the assumption of many authors that man is polygynous is far from being proved, at least not in the sense that the majority of men are inclined to have relationship with several women at the same time. it cannot, however, be disputed that after some time the relationship between two people tends to lose its attraction, often causing a breaking of the marriage vow. there is a custom among many peoples that a man's widow falls to his younger brother (or cousin)--the _levirate_. according to another custom, a man has the right to marry the sisters of his wife. both these customs have been explained as being relics of a form of marriage in which brothers married several sisters or sisters married brothers at the same time (frazer, ii., p. ). but it seems much more likely that we have here before us merely a case of property rights. even if constancy in marriage is not the rule, especially among primitive people, yet we must still regard the permanent living together of one man and one woman as a state that has always prevailed amongst human beings (westermarck). many of the speculations, at first sight so learned, about the apparently intricate paths in the development of marriage, remain merely speculations which cannot stand the test of modern ethnological research. heinrich schurtz (p. ) makes the pertinent remark that nothing excited the hostile camps of the sociological idealists and naturalists more than the dispute about promiscuity in primitive times. while the one party painted with zest the indiscriminate and irregular sex relationship of primitive races, claiming it as an established original stage in human development, the adherents of idealism rose in indignation against a theory that places primitive man far below the level of the higher animals, and that leaves the riddle unsolved how such a chaos could lead to the idea of sexual purity and a spiritualisation of the sexual impulse. in this battle for and against promiscuity even facts were unfortunately too often not respected, attempts being made to disregard them at any cost. this cannot be good for the ultimate victory of truth. facts should not be passed over, but should be taken into full consideration. in this conflict of opinions the institution of _pirauru_ especially has fared particularly badly. some anthropologists wanted to do away with it altogether at any price (for instance, josef müller); others drew conclusions from it that are utterly unjustified. but even if this were not so, even if the _pirauru_ could be used as a proof of previous sexual promiscuity, it still does not follow that it was a general custom in man, for the majority of the peoples show no trace of it. first of all, it must be noticed that even the _pirauru_ possesses various restrictions upon marriage with persons outside certain groups, which alone exclude unrestrained promiscuity. furthermore, individual marriage, the binding force of which is undoubtedly even stronger and closer, is well known to exist beside it. there is a good deal of probability for the assumption of schurtz that marriage regulations establishing the right of several men to one wife may first have arisen from mere friendly acts, or the original sexual licentiousness may have developed occasionally under specially favourable circumstances into the institution of _pirauru_, while at other places such a systematic development did not take place. it is easily to be understood that lower civilisations will show a looser standard of the marriage bond than those where many interests of a rich cultural development require the strengthening of this bond. sexual needs may also have brought about the origin of the _pirauru_ institutions. thus there exist in australia tribes among which the loan of wives was customary owing to the scarcity of women. there is only one step from this state of affairs to the _pirauru_. among many tribes complicated marriage restrictions make a "legitimate" marriage very difficult, and this may easily lead to other sex relationships taking the place of marriage. it is a mistake to assume hastily that customs among primitive people that appear strange to us must therefore be ancient and be relics of a primitive state. every primitive race has a long history behind it, and it is not likely that it has remained static all the time. primitive people are not stationary in development; there is much change among them in the course of generations. this applies also to customs and habits which seem absolutely stable. external conditions may produce new developments, or result in foreign influences. not everything, therefore, that is peculiar to uncivilised races of the present day must be looked upon as primitive. polyandry deserves our special consideration. as a recognised social institution it has so far been definitely established only among the indian peoples and castes, as well as in tibet, on the borders of northern india. in exceptional cases polyandry occurs among the eskimos and the asiatic polar races. the older accounts of polyandry occurring in australia are not confirmed by the new ethnographical literature. the reports about polyandry among the american indians are also incorrect. john roscoe ( , pp. _et seq._) has proved its existence among the bahima and baziba tribes of central africa, though here polyandry is not the rule, but is only practised occasionally. if a man is poor, if he cannot get together the number of cows required for the bride price, or if he is unable to support a wife, he can combine with one or several of his brothers and take a wife in common with them. it is easy to get the women for this purpose. furthermore, among these tribes the housewife may be claimed by a guest, while exchange of wives also occurs. in india polyandry is prevalent among the peoples of the himalayan mountains and among some southern indian tribes. some cases of this curious form of marriage are already mentioned in the ancient indian literature. it may be assumed, therefore, that it was more prevalent formerly than at present. this institution was certainly never very general nor of great importance in the life of the people of india. at the present time it is restricted to a number of comparatively small tribes and castes. two forms of polyandry can be distinguished among them, namely, the fraternal form, where several brothers or cousins have one wife in common, and the matriarchal form, where a woman has several husbands, not necessarily related to each other. in northern india polyandry is general among the tibetans and bhotias of the himalayan border districts. here, when the oldest of several brothers takes a wife, she has the right--but not the duty--to have sexual relationship with the other brothers living in the same household. if a younger brother also marries, the other still younger brothers have the choice in which household they wish to live. the surplus women become nuns. this system is said to be due to the poverty of the country. the himalayan peoples, being intent on preventing the increase of the population and a further reduction of the means of existence, consign many women to celibacy and childlessness. yet at the same time they make it possible, by this system, for the socially privileged man to satisfy his sexual needs. the children of polyandrous marriages belong, as a rule, legally to the oldest brother. but it also occurs that each brother in turn, according to his age, has a child assigned to him regardless of whether the brother concerned was on the spot at the time of the child's conception. sometimes the mother has the right to name the father of each of her children. fraternal polyandry also exists in cashmir and among certain sudra castes of the punjab mountains. in the punjab, however, the rajputs and other castes of that neighbourhood are also influenced by polyandry. the ceremonies which take place at marriage in the punjab bear traces of "marriage by capture." the dwellings of the polyandrous castes of this district consist of two rooms, one for the woman and one for the group of brothers. in tibet, as also among the polyandrous southern indians, they have, however, mostly one room. the surplus women in the punjab become objects of commerce. in the native state of bashar, for instance, an active export trade is carried on with the surplus women, for whom sums up to rupees are given. among the dyats in the punjab, the gudyars in the united provinces, as among all the hindu castes in the mountain districts of ambala, polyandry existed until lately; but it is said not to do so there any longer. in ambala not only brothers, but also first cousins, were considered to be husbands of the oldest brother's wife. further, in east india the santal caste ( , , persons in bengal, bihar and orissa) is the only community among which a similar custom exists. among the santals not only have the younger brothers access to the wife of the older brother, but the husband also may have relations with the younger sisters of his wife. this state of affairs may perhaps be looked upon as sexual communism among a small group. in ladakh, too, and in other places of cashmir, the wife common to several brothers may bring with her her sister into the marriage as co-partner. in the punjab the fraternal husbands may also marry a second and third wife. among indian migratory labourers it seems to have been formerly the rule that the brother remaining at home served as a conjugal substitute for the husband temporarily absent. nowadays this custom has almost disappeared. in southern india polyandry is a recognised institution among the toda and kurumba of the nilgiri mountains, as also among a number of the lower castes, especially on the coast of malabar. here polyandry and polygyny occasionally co-exist side by side. the polyandry among the toda has been described in detail by w. h. r. rivers. the whole tribe is divided into two endogamous groups, which, again, are split up into a number of exogamous sub-groups. the husbands shared in common by a woman are in most cases brothers; they are rarely other members of the same exogamous group and of the same age class. when the husbands are brothers, there never ensue any quarrels about access to the wife. all the brothers are reckoned as fathers of a child. yet it often occurs that a toda only calls one man his father. it is exclusively external circumstances that are here decisive; often one of the fathers is more influential and more respected than his brothers, and naturally the sons prefer to speak of him as their father. if only one of the fathers is alive, the offspring always describe him as their father. if the husbands are not real brothers, they live, like these, in one household, but the children are allotted to single definite fathers. that man is considered the father of a child who in the seventh month of the mother's pregnancy has gone with her through the ceremony of the presentation of bow and arrow (which is also customary in fraternal polyandry). the husbands may take turns in the practice of this ceremony at every pregnancy; it results, therefore, frequently that the first two or three children belong to one and the same man, the other husbands acquiring formal father-right only at the later births. if the husbands separate and give up the common household, each one takes with him the children belonging to him by right of the bow-and-arrow ceremony. as everywhere else in india, polyandry has fallen into decay among the toda. it may happen that several men have in common several wives, or that of a group of brothers each has his own wife. but polyandry has remained up to the present time the prevalent form of marriage among these hill-folk. the surplus girls used formerly to be killed without exception; and it is certain, says rivers, that girl infanticide is still practised to some extent, although the toda themselves deny this. it must be noted that child marriage exists among the toda. matriarchal polyandry, which, in contradistinction to fraternal polyandry, goes with descent through the mother, still occurs among the munduvars of the travancore plateaus, the nayars in some parts of travancore and cochin, the western kallan, and also among some other southern indian communities. among numerous other races having mother descent, but not among all, relics of the former existence of matriarchal polyandry have been established. the secular authorities, and no less the european missions, are trying hard to exterminate this form of marriage. it is difficult to trace any connection between the polyandry in the north and that in the south of india. it is most probable that this custom was carried into southern india by the tibetan conquerors in ancient times. many southern indian polyandrous races, like the toda and the nayar, are distinguished from their real dravidian neighbours by their more powerful build, lighter colouring, higher noses, etc. furthermore, the architecture of the malabar temples bears traces of tibetan influence. the demon masks carved thereon show almost the same faces as the tibetan masks. among the kallan the tradition of northern descent has been preserved up to the present time, and they bury their dead with their faces turned towards the north. exogamy is the custom which forbids the choice of partners for marriage within a certain group, and which has the effect of preventing near relations from sexual intercourse. it is found very frequently among primitive people, and is very prevalent, as sir j. g. frazer shows in his book "totemism and exogamy." this, however, does in no way justify the assumption that it was a general stage of civilisation of all mankind, and that it once existed even in those places where it is not found to-day. although european travellers, colonists and scientists had long been in contact with coloured races, it was the scotsman j. f. mclennan who first discovered the existence of exogamy. he was led to this discovery by the study of that peculiar marriage custom which consists in the pretence of forcible bride capture, though the marriage of the couple concerned has been agreed to by both families beforehand. mclennan tried to find an explanation for this custom, and came to the conclusion that capture of women, which only took place in pretence, must once have been practised in reality to a large extent. in searching for facts confirmatory of this assumption, he was struck by the fact that among savage and barbarous people the men married women not of their own, but of another, tribal group. he described this as "exogamy," in contradistinction to "endogamy," by which marriage partners are restricted in their choice to their own group. in a tribe or other social group both sexual arrangements may exist side by side, in such a manner that the tribe is closely endogamous and is divided into several exogamous groups. the theory put forward by mclennan as an explanation of the origin of exogamy is very simple and on superficial examination very convincing. he assumed that exogamy arose from a scarcity of women, which forced men to obtain wives by capture from other groups and thus gradually led to a general preference for strange women. the cause of this assumed scarcity of women was considered to be the infanticide of new-born females, which was carried on systematically, for savage people foresaw that in the struggle for existence it would be a hindrance to have a great number of women, who could take no share in the battle with enemies, and who presumably would contribute less to the food supply than the men. h. cunow also traces back the origin of exogamy to the scarcity of women and wife capture. he starts from the assumption that among the australian and other uncivilised races the number of persons in a horde is very limited. "if one assumes that the number of members of a horde is sixty, the youngest class would contain, according to present-day reckoning, about twenty-five persons, the middle class twenty, and the oldest class about fifteen persons. in the middle class there would, therefore, be only about ten women. among these a young man entering the middle class would often not find a single woman that he could take for his wife, for, after pairing marriage had become general, the few existing women had already found a spouse; they had already been disposed of. there was nothing left for the young man but to capture a woman from a strange horde as soon as possible, or to try to persuade a comrade of the same age class to let him share in his marriage relationship on the understanding that his hunting bag would contribute towards the 'household of the three.' this multiple conjugal partnership is customary among most of the australian tribes even to-day." to this it must be added that the man needs to show much less consideration for a captured strange woman than for one of his own tribe, who would run away if badly treated. nor can the young man remain single, for he himself would then have to drag his property about, which would hinder him in the hunt and expose him to the ridicule of his companions. (in reality there are many unmarried men even in australia.) the search for wives led ultimately, according to cunow, to wife capture and exogamy. infanticide, which mclennan assumes, is at present a rare exception among primitive people. almost all explorers praise their great love for children, and even malformed children are not always killed. even where infanticide does occur, the sex of the child is certainly not the factor that decides whether it is to be killed or not. the assumption that scarcity of women is brought about by girl infanticide is not correct. the female sex is, indeed, in the minority among uncivilised natives where they have been counted; but the excess of men is only small. mutual capture of women could not alter this disparity, for it is unlikely that some tribes permitted the capture of their women without retaliation. besides, even among primitive people men are careful in risking their lives. capture of women is, therefore, nowhere the rule, but is everywhere the exception. had it been the rule anywhere, the continuous fighting would have led to the extermination of the tribes in question. frazer is right when he says: "if women are scarce in a group, many men will prefer to remain single rather than expose themselves to the danger of death by trying to capture women from their neighbours." this is what really happened among many tribes of the australian natives who lived on a friendly footing with each other. it even happens that the old men who claim the women expressly forbid the young men to steal women from other tribes, because that will lead to bloodshed. further, scarcity of women is most likely overcome, as previously mentioned, by several men's sharing one wife, which arrangement, unlike the capture of women, avoids arousing the hostility of neighbours. among peaceable tribes, therefore, a numerical preponderance of men results not in exogamy, but in polyandry. but admitting that a warlike tribe has not sufficient women and therefore captures them from their neighbours, it is still unexplainable why the men should altogether avoid sexual relationship with their own women, few as they are, and have no desire for them whatsoever. this will certainly not be the result; on the contrary, the few women obtainable without force will be all the more in demand. frazer thinks that the origin of exogamy has been rightly explained by the american ethnologist l. h. morgan, who for many years lived among the exogamic indians as one of them, and thus came into direct contact with exogamy. morgan assumed that sexual promiscuity was general at a very early period in the history of mankind, and that exogamy was instituted for the deliberate purpose of preventing cohabitation between blood relations, particularly between brothers and sisters, as was previously customary. this struck promiscuity at the root; it removed its worst peculiarity, and resulted at the same time in a powerful movement towards the establishment of sexual monogamy. frazer, in supporting morgan's theory, relies exclusively on the australian natives, who, according to him, though extremely primitive savages, "carry out the principle of exogamy with a practical astuteness, logical thoroughness, and precision such as no other race shows in its marriage system." frazer finds that the effects of the australian marriage class system are in complete harmony with the deeply rooted convictions and feelings of the natives as regards sexual intercourse, and concludes that the successive tribal subdivisions have been brought about deliberately in order to avoid marriage of blood relations. according to him, it is not going too far to assert that "no other human institution bears the stamp of deliberate purpose more clearly than the exogamous classes of the australians. to assume that they serve only accidentally the purpose that they actually fulfil, and which is approved by them unreservedly, would be to test our credulity nearly as much as if we were told that the complicated mechanism of a watch has originated without human design." nearly all australian tribes have the system of division into marriage classes. every tribe consists of two main groups (called in ethnographical literature phratries or moieties), and each of these groups is again divided into two, four, or eight classes. sometimes the phratries and classes have special names, but not always. in the latter case it may be assumed that the names have been lost, while the division of the tribes into marriage groups remains. these groups are strictly exogamous. in no case are the members of the main group of the tribe (phratry) or of the same class allowed to marry each other. only members of two given classes may marry, and their children are again assigned to given classes. among some of the tribes there exists paternal descent, among others maternal descent. which of the two modes of descent prevails in australia can hardly be determined. among some tribes property is inherited in the female line. other rights of the female sex connected with mother descent are unknown. an example of the australian marriage classes is given here, namely, that of the tribe warrai, who live on the railway line running from port darwin to the south. among this tribe indirect paternal descent is the custom; _i.e._, the children belong to the main group (phratry) of the father, but to other marriage classes. phratry i. | phratry ii. --------------+---------------- adshumbitch | apungerti *aldshambitch | *alpungerti --------------+---------------- apularan | auinmitch *alpularan | *alinmitch the female marriage classes are marked with an asterisk. each member of a certain male marriage class may only marry a member of a marriage class of the other phratry, placed opposite in the table. thus, for instance, an adshumbitch man marries an alpungerti woman, an apungerti man an aldshambitch woman, etc. the children always belong to the phratry of the men, but to another marriage group of theirs. thus, for instance, the boys born from the union of an adshumbitch man with an apungerti woman belong to the apularan class, and the girls born of this marriage belong to the alpularan class. further complications arise in consequence of the totem system, which exists among most of the australian tribes. as the local groups of a tribe are numerically weak and consist of members of all marriage classes, the choice of mates is restricted to quite a small number of persons, being further limited to a great extent by the marriage of girls in childhood. but even when adults marry, they can rarely decide according to their own will, but are dependent on the circumstances of relationship. on the northern coast of australia the marriage class system does not exist, but exogamy exists there, the members of certain local groups not being allowed to marry each other. the now extinct tribes in the south-east of the continent also had no marriage class system. but it still remains a mystery how it was found out that marriages of blood relations were harmful. one objection is, that some of the australians are ignorant of the process of generation; they do not even know that pregnancy is the result of cohabitation. it is also doubtful whether the australian natives can in any case be considered as typical representatives of primitive man. if this were so, all mankind would still be in a very low state of civilisation, for the australians appear incapable of progressive development. and further, if exogamous classes were purposely instituted in order to prevent cohabitation between blood relations, how is it that other people also are excluded from sexual intercourse who are not blood relations? frazer's comparison with a watch is also badly chosen. we must take into consideration the intellectual stage of development of mankind at the time when exogamy arose, and when the watch was invented. even if we do not admit that exogamy was instituted with a conscious purpose, this does not by any means, as frazer says, do away altogether with will and purpose from the history of human institutions. there is no need to doubt that the australian system of exogamy became more and more complicated through the deliberate action of man. frazer himself assumes that the australians had an aversion to cohabitation between brothers and sisters even before it was definitely fixed by binding rules. sexual aversion between parents and children, according to him, is universal among them, whether there be in vogue the two-, four- or eight-classes system, _i.e._, whether incest between parents and children is expressly forbidden or not. "in democratic societies like those of the australian natives, the law sanctions only thoughts that have already been long the mental possession of the majority of people." hence the agreement of the marriage class system with the feelings of the people becomes explainable. since the aversion to sexual intercourse within certain classes was already in existence before the formation of marriage classes, the classificatory system being merely the formal expression of it, we have to find some explanation for it. for the appearance of this aversion marks the real beginning of exogamy, which cannot be explained by the complicated system of the australians. it is possible that the sexual aversion towards blood relations is already a characteristic trait of the human race before its truly human development, and that it may have to be looked upon as an instinct. this is the opinion of f. hellwald, which has also been upheld of late by a. e. crawley. it is assumed that among brothers and sisters, as among boys and girls who have lived together from childhood, the pairing instinct generally remains in abeyance, because the conditions are wanting that are likely to awaken this instinct. courting the favour of a person of the other sex is the process that gradually brings about the sexual excitement necessary for union. the possibility of sexual excitation between people who have lived together from childhood is decidedly lessened through habituation, if not completely inhibited. in this respect brothers and sisters reach already at puberty that state towards each other to which people married for a long time approach gradually, through the constant living together and the exhaustion of youthful passion. if brother and sister sometimes show passion for each other, it is generally the result of the same circumstances that are necessary to arouse it under normal conditions, _e.g._, a long separation. as the absence of sexual attraction between brother and sister who have grown up together is a natural thing, it is strange that cohabitation between them should have to be specially prohibited and enforced by strict measures among primitive peoples. the explanation, according to crawley, is simple. "in many departments of primitive life we find a naïve desire to, as it were, assist nature, to affirm what is normal and later to confirm it by the categorical imperative of custom and law. this tendency still flourishes in our civilised communities, and, as the worship of the normal, is often a deadly foe to the abnormal and eccentric, and too often paralyses originality. laws thus made, and with this object, have some justification, and their existence may be due, in some small measure, to the fact that abnormality increases _pari passu_ with culture. but it is a grave error to ascribe a prevalence of incest to the period preceding the law against it." all the facts tend to show that the most primitive people procured their wives by friendly arrangements. from this standpoint it would be most practical if each tribe were divided into two groups, the men of each group marrying wives from the other group. this state of affairs is actually to be found among many uncivilised peoples that are divided into two exogamous groups or phratries. it has still to be discovered how this bipartition arose. it is unthinkable that a division into two groups was intentionally brought about by the members of the groups for the purpose of preventing marriages between blood relations of a certain grade. no tribe has ever been divided in such a manner; the division must therefore be explainable in another way. the phratries are large families (in the broad sense of the word); they descend from families (in the narrower sense of the word), reciprocally supplying each other with wives. the names of the phratries are generally unintelligible, in contradistinction to the names of the totem groups, and therefore most probably older. the totem groups, of which a phratry consists, are to be considered as younger branches of the original double family, which have arisen through wives being taken from other groups whose children again received the name of their mothers. if it should be asked why the members of two phratries should constantly intermarry, it should be pointed out that among communities in the lowest stage of civilisation women are not easily procurable, and the force of external circumstances would favour the unions just mentioned (crawley, pp. _et seq._). a biological explanation of the origin of exogamy is given by herbert risley. without basing it on the assumption that primitive people have a knowledge of the harmfulness of incest, he gives the following exposition: "exogamy can be brought under the law of natural selection without extending it too far. we know that among individuals or groups of individuals there exists a tendency to vary in their instincts, and that useful variations (such as are suitable to the conditions of life) tend to be preserved and transmitted by inheritance. let us assume now that in a primitive community the men varied in the direction towards choosing wives from another community, and that this infusion of fresh blood was advantageous. the original instinct would then be strengthened by inheritance, and sexual selection would be added in the course of time. for an exogamous group would have a greater choice of women than an endogamous one, ... and in the competition for women the best would fall to the strongest and most warlike men. in this way the strengthened exogamous groups would in time exterminate the endogamous neighbours, or at least take away their best marriageable maidens. exogamy would spread partly through imitation, partly through the extermination of endogamous groups. the fact that we cannot explain how it came about that the people varied in the aforesaid direction is not fatal to this hypothesis. we do not doubt natural selection in the case of animals because we cannot give the exact cause of a favourable variation." e. westermarck holds a similar theory about the cessation of incest. he thinks that "among the ancestors of man, as among other animals, there was, no doubt, a time when blood relationship was no bar to sexual intercourse. but variations here, as elsewhere, would naturally present themselves; and those of our ancestors who avoided in-and-in breeding would survive, while the others would gradually decay and ultimately perish. thus an instinct would be developed which would be powerful enough, as a rule, to prevent injurious unions. of course it would display itself simply as an aversion on the part of individuals to union with others with whom they lived; but these, as a matter of fact, would be blood relations, so that the result would be the survival of the fittest. whether man inherited the feeling from the predecessors from whom he sprang, or whether it was developed after the evolution of distinctly human qualities, we do not know. it must necessarily have arisen at a stage when family ties became comparatively strong, and children remained with their parents until the age of puberty or even longer." it may be surmised that the impulse towards the appearance of the exogamous tendency arose through economic progress, which led to an increase of the means of existence, and this in its turn produced a more friendly relationship between neighbouring groups that previously had quarrelled about food. the men thus came into contact with strange women, and this awakened a heightened sexual feeling, in other words the instinct which is said to have led to the avoidance of incest. thus among the peoples on a very low economic level (_e.g._, the pigmies) no laws for the prevention of incest are to be found, a fact that may be held to confirm this idea. primitive people could in any case not understand the harmfulness of incest, while it is certain that strange members of the opposite sex could exert a stronger attraction, and thus render the sexual impulse permanent, which previously was periodical, as among the animals. v birth and feticide the slow increase in the population of primitive peoples, which is also to be noticed wherever the conditions of life have not been influenced by european settlers and missionaries, is chiefly due to the want of proper midwifery, and no less to the frequent practice of abortion. the opinion is often met with, particularly in older writings, that among primitive people childbirth is extremely easy. but more extended knowledge has shown how dangerous childbirth is for the primitive mother also. though childbirth is a natural physiological process, it does not always pass off quite without danger, no less under natural conditions than among highly civilised peoples. primitive people know full well that the hour of childbirth is the hardest time in a woman's life, but not all have progressed far enough in the knowledge of physiology to be able to render efficient assistance to the woman in labour. some people leave her, incredible as it may seem to us, without any assistance, either through indifference to life or through a superstitious fear of the mystery of life. such cases are, however, very rare exceptions. sometimes means are used for furthering the birth that are not only inefficacious, but actually injurious. often, however, delivery is actually furthered by the assistance given. internal manipulation is seldom resorted to, and operations are still more rare. r. w. felkin's report about the operation of cæsarian section among the negroes in uganda seems to be unique. ploss and bartels have compiled a great deal of information about childbirth among primitive people. we add here some examples from the later literature. feticide occurs most likely among all primitive peoples to a larger or lesser degree, and injures them accordingly. the reasons are the same as with us: inability to support a large number of children or aversion to the worries of child-rearing. unmarried girls procure abortion usually because the child might be a hindrance to a future marriage, particularly when the father of the expected child jilts the mother. still pre-marital births are not always considered a disgrace among primitive people. the abortives resorted to are generally inefficacious, though some native peoples have discovered really effective remedies. külz (p. ) says quite rightly, "it is to be assumed that woman everywhere, even in a low state of civilisation, has her attention directed to the occurrence of involuntary premature birth by often recurring effective causes. such external causes are not very remote from the mechanically and medically produced abortions. we only need to think of the fact that among all primitive peoples the chief work in the fields falls to the women, and that it is just heavy labour that has the tendency to interrupt pregnancy. it required only some little thought to discover this frequently observed coincidence and to learn from the involuntary interruption of pregnancy how to produce it voluntarily.... in the same way the production of abortions by poisons can easily be derived from a rational application of chance remedies producing corresponding involuntary effects.... just as primitive man discovered many medicinal plants by repeatedly partaking of them, so he also found out the specific use of some of these for feticide. this could happen the more readily as among abortive remedies in use there were many that in a way served him as food and condiment, such as nutmeg, or the papaia kernels, or others that he used at the same time for poisoning fish, or others, again, like the aperient _cajanus indicus_, which in moderate doses acts medicinally, in large doses, however, as an abortive." the use of poisons and mechanical feticide not only brings about limitation of offspring, but often results in the death of the mother. where they are very prevalent they contribute greatly to the scarcity of women, with all its attendant biological disadvantages. the contact of primitive people with europeans generally increases the frequency of abortions. this is due partly to the desire for hiding the results of sexual intercourse with strangers, partly to the incitement to loose living which the acquaintance with european culture sometimes brings about. how defective the state of midwifery is among primitive people is shown by many accounts in newer works of ethnology. thus the missionary endle writes (p. ): "the native tribes of assam and burma have no special midwives. every old woman may perform the duties of a midwife, and she does it without payment. there is no information about the treatment of the woman during parturition. the navel cord is generally cut off with a bamboo knife. the katshári do not perform this with one cut, but make five cuts in the case of a boy and seven for a girl. the mother is considered unclean for several weeks after her confinement. this is also the case among many races of southern and eastern asia, and in other parts of the world. isolation even before the confinement sometimes occurs, and is due to the belief that women in this state are unclean." among the savage tribes of formosa the birth of a child passes off so lightly that the lying-in woman is able to go on with her work on the following day. she only avoids heavy labour in the field for a month. after the birth certain superstitious ceremonies, according to old customs, are performed, such as driving away the devil, etc. among many tribes twins are held to be a misfortune, and the second child is therefore killed. this also occurs frequently in other places (w. müller, p. ). among the igorots of bontoc (philippines) the woman works in the field almost to the hour of her confinement. there are no festivities or ceremonies connected with the birth. the father of the child, if he is the husband of the woman, is present, as is also the woman's mother, but no one else. the parturient woman bends her body strongly forward, holding firmly on to the beam of the house, or she takes up an animal-like position, so that hands and feet are on the ground. medicines and baths are not resorted to for hastening the labour pains, but the people present massage the abdomen of the labouring woman. about ten days after the birth her body is washed with warm water. there is no special diet, but the mother refrains from field work for two or three months. if twins are born, it is believed to be due to an evil spirit who has had connection with the woman whilst she was asleep. no blame is attached to the mother, but the quieter of the children (and when both children are quiet, the longer one) is buried alive near the house immediately after birth. abortion is practised by married women as well as by single girls, if for some reason the child is not wanted. the mother warns her unmarried daughter against abortion, telling her that a girl who produces abortion will not get a faithful husband, but will become the common partner of several men. the foetus is driven off in the second month of pregnancy by hot baths and massage. abortion is not considered a disgrace (jenks). among the kayan of borneo there are everywhere older women who serve as midwives. one of them is called in good time to the pregnant woman. she examines her abdomen from time to time, and pretends to be able to give the child the right position. she hangs some magical remedies about the living room, and applies various remedies externally. the pregnant woman follows her usual occupation until the labour pains commence. then the midwife and other old relatives or friends assist her. the husband may also remain in the room, but he is prevented by a screen from seeing the parturient woman, who gets hold tightly of a cloth hung over or in front of her. the pains are generally of short duration, rarely lasting more than two or three hours. in order to prevent the rising of the child, the women bind a cloth tightly round the abdomen of the parturient woman, and two of them press firmly on the womb on either side. after the delivery of the child the navel cord is cut with a bamboo knife. if the after-birth does not follow soon, the women become anxious; two of them lift up the patient, and if that has no result, the navel cord is fastened to an axe in order to prevent it from re-entering the body, and presumably also to hasten the delivery of the after-birth. internal manipulations are not resorted to. the after-birth is buried. if the child is born with a caul, the caul is dried, pounded into powder, and used in later years as medicine for the child. if the labour pains are exceptionally severe or long-lasting, or if an accident happens, the news travels rapidly. everybody is overcome by fear, as the death of a parturient woman is particularly dreaded. the men and the boys take flight. if death actually ensues, most of the men remain in hiding for some time, and the corpse is quickly buried by old men and women who are least afraid of death. the pregnant women of the punan of borneo continue with their usual work until the arrival of labour pains, and they resume it immediately after the confinement. to assist delivery the body is tightly bound above the womb. nothing further is known about special help (hose and mcdougall, ii., pp. , ). the papua women are said to give birth easily, as a rule, but difficult deliveries and fatal cases do occur exceptionally. the custom exists in various places for the mother to throw the after-birth into the river or the sea after confinement (williamson, p. ; seligmann, p. ). of the mafulu williamson says that when the after-birth is thrown into the river the mother gives the new-born child some water to drink. if the child partakes of it, it is considered a good omen; otherwise the child is believed not to be viable and is drowned. williamson thinks that the purpose of this custom is to enable the mother to choose whether she wishes to keep the child alive or not. it also may happen that a childless woman accompanies the mother to the river and there adopts the child. wilful abortion also occurs very often, not only in single girls, but also in married women, who thus keep their families small. among the barriai in new pomerania the woman is confined whilst sitting on a log of wood, being massaged from above downwards by an older woman. the husband is not allowed to be present. the birth generally passes off quite easily. the navel cord is cut off with an obsidian knife. the parents may not eat pork and certain kinds of fish until the child has begun to walk. disregard of this prohibition is believed to bring about the death of the child. the parents abstain also during this time from sexual intercourse. abortives do not seem to be known, though miscarriages sometimes occur through the rough treatment of pregnant women by men (friederici, p. ). in polynesia abortion is generally produced by women professionally. this is brought about by the use of certain foods or drinks, by the application of mechanical means, etc. how widespread feticide is in melanesia can be seen from a statement of parkinson, according to whom in new mecklenburg quite young girls make no secret of having produced abortion three or four times. among the jabim (finschhafen) the mothers present their daughters with abortives when they get married (buschan, i., p. ). on the eastern islands of the torres straits (australia) the women chew as a prevention of pregnancy the leaves of callicarpa, or of a eugenia species called _sobe_, also the leaves of a large shrub called _bok_; but these remedies are inefficacious. medicines and mechanical methods are used for abortion. among the former are the leaves of the convolvulus, of clerodendron, _pouzolzia microphylla_, _macaranga tanarius_, _terminala catappa_, eugenia, _hibiscus tiliaceus_, and callicarpa. if these do not help, the abdomen is beaten with large stones, with a rope or twigs or a wand, or a heavy load is put on it. sometimes the woman leans with her back against a tree, and two men grasp a wand and press it against her abdomen, so as to bring about the delivery of the foetus. this often results in the death of the mother. on the easter island, in the eastern pacific ocean, there were several men with a knowledge of midwifery, but recently only one of them has survived. nowadays older women act as midwives. walter knoche writes ( , pp. _et seq._): "the birth takes place either in the open or in the house, the woman standing with legs spread out, or recently in a sitting position. the accoucheur stands behind the parturient woman, embracing her abdomen. the thumbs are spread out, and touch each other in a horizontal position somewhat above the navel, while the remainder of the hand is turned diagonally downwards. in this way massage is applied by a slow, rhythmical, strong and kneading movement vertically from above downwards. when the birth is sufficiently advanced, the child is drawn out; the assistant bites off the navel cord (among some brazilian indian tribes the husband does this, but on the easter island he takes no part in the delivery); then a knot is made a few centimetres from the navel. the after-birth is not specially dealt with; it is buried. the navel cord, however, is placed in a calabash, which is buried or put under a rock. after the event the lying-in woman lies down upon a mat in the house, and warm, flat, fairly heavy stones are applied to the abdomen. perhaps this is the reason why even women who have had difficult confinements still preserve a good figure. the infant remains at the mother's breast for about a year." knoche also heard that the women sometimes pass a piece of an alga into the vulva right up to the womb before intercourse with a stranger, believing this method to be a very safe one. it could, unfortunately, not be ascertained whether this precaution was formerly, as seems likely, resorted to generally in order to limit the number of children, or whether its use was only intended to keep the tribe untainted by foreign blood. the latter assumption is contradicted by the fact that "the easter island women have children from strangers living for some time on the easter island, and that nowadays the use of contraceptives in the case of strangers who come and go quickly may simply be due to the circumstance that at the birth of a child there would be no man to support it. it is most probable that the use of preventives had its origin in malthusian principles. the little island, whose population has been variously estimated by travellers of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century at a few thousand, must herewith have reached its maximum number of inhabitants, which could of necessity not be exceeded. deaths and births had therefore to balance. this employment of contraceptives in polynesia is unique, and it may be truly reckoned as a sign of a higher civilisation, together with other facts, such as the existence of a script, of stone houses and of large stone idols, the moai, which have made this lonely little island so famous. on the other oceanic islands, as, for instance, on the westward-situated tahiti, infanticide, committed by the mother as many as ten times in succession, served to limit the number of children, either on account of economy or for reasons of convenience. contraceptives are otherwise unknown in oceania." of the jao in east africa karl weule relates (p. ): "during the delivery the parturient woman lies upon her back on a mat on the floor of the hut. the older children and the husband are not allowed to be present, but a number of older women are there, amongst whom there is always a near relative of the husband, who takes special note of any evidence of extra-marital intercourse given by the parturient woman. it is the chief business of the midwives to submit the woman to a very strict _questionnaire_: 'how many men have you had, three, or four, or even more? your child will not come until you have mentioned the right father. yes, you will die, if you do not tell us how many men you have had.' such speeches are hurled at the woman from all sides. no mechanical help is given her. she rolls about in pain, under great bodily and mental torture, and shrieks and cries until all is over. the navel cord is cut off by an old woman. ancient instruments, such as are used by the east african bantu tribes, are unknown among the jao. the cutting of the navel cord seems to be performed clumsily, for umbilical rupture, which has become an ideal of beauty in many places in eastern africa, is here frequent. the after-birth and the navel cord are buried, if possible without a witness. they are considered effective magical remedies. the new-born child is washed and then wrapped in a cloth or a piece of bark fabric. a real lying-in is not kept up; the mother gets up again the same or the following day. sex intercourse can only be resumed again with the permission of the village elder. it is only given when the child can sit up, or when it is six or seven months old. children are welcome; twins are no less joyfully received. but infanticide is said to occur. if, however, children are not wanted, married women as well as girls resort to abortion. plant juices are generally used for this purpose, though sometimes mechanical means are resorted to. abortion is in no way considered reprehensible. in order to prevent conception, the woman puts herself into communication with a _fundi_, who understands something of making knots. the _fundi_ goes into the wood, seeks out two different barks, and twists them together into a cord. into the cord he rubs the yolk of an egg, for to the jao the curse of infertility abides in the egg. he knots into the cord three knots, saying at the same time, 'you tree are called thus and thus, and you thus; but you egg, you become a living animal. but now i do not want anything living.' he then twists the final knot. this cord is worn by the woman round her body. boots are also placed under her head at night to prevent conception. if the woman wishes to become pregnant again, she needs only to untie the knots in the cord, to put it into water, and then drink the water. afterwards the cord is thrown away." among the makua, on the makonda plateau in east africa, at the first sign of labour pains the woman lies down upon her back on a mat in the house. a cloth is put under her back by the helping women, which is drawn tightly and pulled up when the pains become stronger. after the birth the navel cord is cut, not with a knife, but with a splinter from a millet stalk. here, as in other phases in the life of man, an ancient implement has survived for sacred purposes long after the period of its common use. the navel cord is not tied, but dries off. the removed part is buried. the lying-in woman remains at home three or four days. among the masai an old woman is always called in as midwife. if the birth goes on normally, no superstitious or useless operations are undertaken (merker, pp. _et seq._). should an increase of labour pains appear necessary, the parturient woman is led round by the women for a few steps, and if this does not produce the desired result light massage is applied. only when these remedies prove to be inefficacious an extreme step is taken: the labouring woman is slowly lifted up by her feet by several women until her body hangs perpendicularly and her head touches the ground, whereupon the midwife massages the body in the direction of the navel. medicaments are seldom used for hastening the delivery. internal manual or operative manipulations do not seem to be practised anywhere. in the case of a narrow pelvis preventing birth, no help is available; mother and child perish. the confinement takes place on all fours or in a sitting position; in the latter case the legs and the back are pressed against the posts of the hut. for the production of abortion a decoction of dried goat dung or of _cordia quarensis_ or some other remedy is used. of the hottentots it has sometimes been reported that the women have easy births. according to schulze's inquiries (p. ), this is not always the case. the birth takes place in the side position. during very difficult births the women attempt to widen the vulva of the parturient woman. if that does not help, the perineum is deliberately torn up to the anus. no attempt is made to cure the perineal tear, for the belief exists that it would hinder the passage of the next child. all manipulations are carried out beneath the skin rug under which the woman lies. the navel cord is cut without delay; no one troubles about the delivery of the after-birth. the woman resumes her occupation generally on the seventh or eighth day. feticide is not unusual among the hottentots. a hot decoction of badger urine, drunk, if necessary, for several days in succession, is considered an effective abortive remedy. the procedure itself is characteristically called "drinking and falling" (schulze, p. ). among the uti-krag indians of the rio doce (espirito santo, brazil) the woman goes through the labour alone. she disappears in the bush, and herself bites off the navel cord; after the delivery she goes to the nearest stream to wash herself and the child, and rejoins her tribe immediately (walter knoche, , p. ). among the indians of the aiary, when a woman is taken with labour pains all the men leave their house, which is common to several families. the woman lies in her hammock in her part of the house, which is securely closed by a lattice railing. all the women remain with her and help at the birth. the navel cord and after-birth are buried immediately on the spot. after the birth the mother and the child remain strictly secluded for five days. the husband remains in the house during the lying-in period, but there is no real _couvade_ (the male lying-in custom). the women of the kobéua indians give birth in the common family house, or in an outlying hut, or even in the wood, with the assistance of all married women, who first paint their faces red for the festive occasion. the navel cord is cut off by the husband's mother with a blade of scleria grass, and is immediately buried, together with the after-birth. of twins the second born is killed, or the female if they are of different sexes. after the birth, the witch doctor performs exorcism. the parents keep up a five days' lying-in, and eight days after the birth a drinking feast is held (koch-grünberg, i., p. ; ii., p. ). among the bakairi of brazil, according to karl von den steinen (p. ), abortion is said to occur frequently. the women are afraid of the confinement. they prepare for it by drinking tea, and mechanical measures are also resorted to. the women are delivered on the floor in a kneeling position, holding firmly to a post. the hammocks must not be soiled. women who have had experience declared with emphasis, and showed by pantomime, that the pains were great. but they soon get up and go to work, the husband going through the famous _couvade_ (the man's lying-in), keeping strict diet, not touching his weapons and passing the greatest part of his time in his hammock. he only leaves the house to satisfy his physical needs, and lives completely on a thin _pogu_, manioc cake crumbled into water. there exists the belief that anything else might injure the child, as if the child itself ate meat, fish or fruit. the _couvade_ only ends when the remainder of the navel cord falls off. among the bororo, according to the same author (p. ), the woman is delivered in the wood. the father cuts the navel cord with a bamboo splinter, and ties it with a thread. for two days the parents do not eat anything, and on the third day they may only partake of some warm water. if the man were to eat he and the child would become ill. the after-birth is buried in the wood. the woman is not allowed to bathe until the reappearance of menstruation; but then, as generally after menstruation, she does it frequently. abortion by the help of internal means is said to be frequent, especially among the ranchao women. if the mother wishes to stop suckling, they squeeze the breasts out, and "dry the milk over the fire, whereupon it keeps away." medicine for sick children, which the chemist had prepared, was swallowed by the parents, as among the bakairi. among the paressi the woman is confined in a kneeling position, being held by her mother under her breast. the _couvade_ is also customary among them. vi ignorance of the process of generation the mentality of the different branches of mankind varies a great deal. a good example of this is the fact that there are peoples who do not know the connection between cohabitation and conception. there are other tribes, again, who, as we have reason to assume, did not possess this knowledge previously. in fact, ferdinand von reitzenstein thinks that there was a time when the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy was unknown to all mankind, and he adduces examples which show that traces of such a state are to be found in the legends and customs of many peoples. and, says von reitzenstein, we need hardly be surprised at this ignorance of the generative process when we consider that "it is only since the days of swammerdam, who died in , that we know that both egg and spermatozoon have to come together for fertilisation, and only since du barry ( ) that we know that the spermatozoon must penetrate the egg." the belief in supernatural conception has been preserved, not only in the christian churches, but also in the myths of the gods in most religions. originally man could not conclude from the mere appearance of a pregnant woman that the cohabitation which had occurred months ago was the cause of her condition. primitive people do not bring into causal connection phenomena separated by wide intervals. von reitzenstein writes that primitive people, who generally marry their girls before the advent of puberty, must have been turned aside from seeing the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy because these girls had no children at first in spite of having sexual intercourse. but to this it may be objected that even the lowest races must have noticed that pregnancy only occurs after the advent of the first menstruation. the appearance and abeyance of menstruation must have formed a step towards the understanding of the generative process. it is otherwise with von reitzenstein's objection that by far the largest number of cohabitations do not lead to pregnancy. even among comparatively enlightened races this observation led to the assumption that some additional supernatural process is necessary for fertilisation. among the australians, the least developed race of man, the necessity of cohabitation for pregnancy is totally unknown. baldwin spencer and frank j. gillen have shown ( , pp. _et seq._; , pp. , ) that among the natives of northern and central australia there exists the general belief that the children penetrate into the woman as minute spirits. these spirits are said to come from persons that have lived once before and are reborn in this manner. the belief in rebirth, together with the ignorance of the generative process, is very widespread in australia, _e.g._, among many tribes in queensland, in southern australia, in the northern territory and in western australia. it is now too late to get reliable information in this matter from those parts of australia where the natives are in regular contact with whites. spencer takes it as certain that the belief in asexual propagation was once general in australia. among all those tribes by whom this belief has been preserved up to the present the traditions concerning the tribal ancestors are quite definite. among the arunta, for instance, who live in the district of the transcontinental telegraph line between charlotte waters and the mcdonnel mountains, and among whom ignorance of the process of generation was first discovered, there exists the tradition that in bygone times, called _altcheringa_, the male and female ancestors of the tribe carried spirit children about with them, which they put down in certain places. these spirit children, like the spirits of the tribal ancestors, themselves enter into the women and are borne by them. the arunta believe that at the death of a person his spirit returns to a special tree or rock, out of which it came, and which is called _nandcha_. it remains there until it thinks fit once more to enter into a woman, and thus go amongst the living. all these spirits are called _iruntarinia_. but before the first rebirth of an _iruntarinia_ there arose another spirit from the _nandcha_, which is the double of the _iruntarinia_, and is called _arumburinga._ this _arumburinga_ never becomes embodied, but remains always a spirit, which accompanies its human representative whenever inclined, and, as a rule, remains invisible. only specially gifted people, particularly witch doctors, can see _arumburinga;_ they can even speak with them. among other australian tribes which believe in rebirth, no belief in spirits like the _arumburinga_ has been traced (compare b. ankermann, "totenkult und seelenglauben bei afrikanischen völkern," _zeitschrift für ethnologie,_ jahrgang , pp. _et seq._). there is, however, general agreement in the belief that the ancestral parents brought into the world the spirit children, who are continually reborn. among many tribes, as the dieri and the warramunga, it is believed that the sex changes at every rebirth, so that the ancestral spirit once takes the form of a male and the next time that of a female. the conditions are such among the australians that their ignorance of the connection between sexual intercourse and propagation is not at all surprising. spencer points out that among the australians there are no "virgins," for as soon as a girl is sexually ripe she is given to a particular man, with whom she has sexual intercourse right through life. in this respect there is no difference among the native women; yet the people see that some women have children and others none, and also that the women with children have them at unequal intervals that have no connection with sexual intercourse. besides, the women know that they are pregnant only when they feel the quickening, and that is often at a time when they have had nothing to do with a man. therefore they attempt to explain the origin of children in some other manner, which is in accordance with the very primitive mode of thought of these unprogressive people. in this connection it may be mentioned that the australian mothers attribute the birth of half-castes to their having eaten too much of the white man's flour. therefore old australians accept without question as their own the half-caste children of their wives, and treat them as such. though the natives of northern queensland know that the animals propagate sexually, they dispute this as regards human beings, because man, in contradistinction to the animals, has a living spirit, a soul, which could not be begotten by a material process. a. lang thinks that with regard to the genesis of mankind the psychology of these primitive people has obscured their knowledge of physiology. according to him, the idea that there is no connection between cohabitation and generation cannot be considered as primary in man. a proof of this ignorance of the fertilisation process among the australians is the splitting of the penis practised by them. otherwise these tribes, which have a scarcity of women and children, and which desire progeny, would not perform an operation by which the semen fails to fulfil its function in the majority of cases of cohabitation. it is becoming more and more certain that this splitting of the penis serves exclusively the purpose of lust, and is least of all intended as a deliberate birth preventative (von reitzenstein). evidences of the ignorance of generation are also to be found elsewhere in cases where the above-mentioned objection of lang does not apply. in melanesia the connection between cohabitation and conception seems to have been unknown until lately. r. thurnwald says that among the tribes on the bismarck and solomon islands visited by him this connection is well known nowadays, but the causal relationship is not so clearly conceived as by our psychologically trained physicians. as a natural phenomenon conception sometimes occurs and sometimes not. intentional and real forgetting, inexact calculation of time, and the strangeness of men towards women, who are held as inferiors, all make it appear logically probable that conception can take place without cohabitation. to this must be added the weirdness of the whole process, which is therefore given a mysterious interpretation, and also that mode of thought which connects the young product with the place where it is found, with the fruits of a plant, and with the young ones of a bird, etc. codrington reports the same conditions among the banks islanders. many tribes of central borneo, being mentally and economically far above the australian natives, assume that pregnancy only lasts four or five months, namely, as long as it is recognised externally in the woman, and that the child enters the body of the woman shortly before the sign of pregnancy. these tribes of borneo also do not know that the testicles are necessary for propagation (nieuwenhuis, p. ). in africa it has been established, at least of the baganda, that they believe in the possibility of conception without cohabitation. conceptional totemism, the assumption of impregnation by the animals venerated as totems, which exists among the bakalai in the congo region, points to a similar belief. conceptional totemism also exists among the indian tribes of north-western america (frazer, vol. ii., pp. , , and , ). among the ancient mexicans there existed, according to von reitzenstein, the belief that the children come from a supernal habitation, the flower land, to enter into the mother. various objects were thought to carry the foetal germs, especially shuttlecocks and green jewels. for this reason these were placed on the mat for the mexican bridal pair after the marriage ceremony. the rattle club is perhaps also considered as the bearer of fertility. in india various trees play a _rôle_ in fertilisation ideas. noteworthy is the belief found in various places that only the nourishment of the child is supplied by the mother before birth, while the germ of the new being comes from the father. this is the opinion of certain tribes of south-east australia described by howitt and the same belief exists among south american tribes who have the well-known _couvade_. karl von den steinen writes regarding this: "one might be tempted to explain this curious custom, which is very advantageous to the women, by the hunting life. but even if the custom suits the women, it is not evident why the men should have submitted to it. the father cuts off the navel cord of the new-born child, goes to bed, looks after the child, and fasts strictly until the rest of the navel cord falls off (or even longer). one might consider him as the professional doctor who also fasts like the student medicine-man, as otherwise his cure would be endangered and the child harmed. but not only the xingu, but many other tribes, say that the father must not eat fish, meat, or fruit, as it would be the same as if the child itself ate them; and there is no reason to doubt that this is the real belief of the natives. the medicine-man of the village is always at disposal, and he is called in in all cases when the mother or child falls ill. the father is the patient in so far as he feels himself one with the child. nor is it difficult to understand how this comes about. the native cannot very well know anything about the egg cell and the graafian follicle, and he cannot know that the mother harbours elements corresponding to the bird's egg. for the native the man is the bearer of the egg, which, to put it clearly and concisely, he lays into the mother, and which she hatches during pregnancy." this idea of the _couvade_ is confirmed by linguistic peculiarities: there are the same or similar words for "father," "testicle," "egg," and "child." the child is considered part of the father, and therefore, as long as the child is at its weakest, the father must keep diet, and must avoid anything that the other could not digest. the child is considered the reproduction of the father, and "for the sake of the helpless, unintelligent creature, representing a miniature copy of himself, he must behave as if he were a child to whom no harm must come. should the child happen to die in the first days, how could the father, with such views as he has, doubt that he is to blame, seeing that he has eaten indigestible things, particularly as all illnesses are due to the fault of others? what we call _pars pro toto_ prevails in all folk belief in connection with witch or healing magic," though it cannot be assumed "that the magic worker has a clear conception of the 'part' with which he works. the _couvade_ proceeds according to the same logic, only that in this case the whole stands for the 'part.' it comes to the same whether the enemy's hair is poisoned, and he is thus brought into a decline, or whether food is eaten which is harmful to the child detached from one's own body, because it could not digest it, at least not during the time when the detachment takes place." besides south america and australia, the _couvade_ is also frequent in asia and africa. previously it existed also in south-western europe. hugo kunike, who gives a survey of the prevalence and literature of the _couvade_, thinks that this custom arose from prohibitions which the man was subject to in matriarchal families. the prohibitions condemned the man to inactivity for some time after the birth, so that he took to his hammock. there resulted an external condition which led to an analogy with the lying-in period. there can, according to kunike, be no question of an imitation of the woman's lying-in, for with the south american indians and other primitive peoples among whom the _couvade_ is found no lying-in of the women occurs. vii mutilation of sex organs mutilations of the sex organs are performed by many primitive peoples for religious reasons. they occur much more rarely for the purpose of sex stimulation, as, _e.g._, the artificial lengthening of the small labia among the hottentots and the negro women and the slitting of the penis among the australians. the most frequent mutilation is the abscission of the foreskin of the penis. circumcision of boys is widespread in asia, africa, and australia. among the mohammedan tribes of asia and the negroes of northern and middle africa it is mostly performed with a razor. in indonesia a sharp bamboo splinter serves as the instrument for operation; in other places sharp stone splinters are used. in addition to the familiar circular abscission of the foreskin, numerous primitive peoples practise incision of the foreskin, which is split downwards in its full length. bleeding is stopped generally by very simple means, either by some kind of tampon or by styptic powders. in girls, as, for instance, on some of the indonesian islands, the operation often merely consists in the abscission of a small piece of the preputium clitoridis. among the east african tribes, however, parts of the mons veneris and of the large labia are removed, generally with a dirty razor. after the removal of the labia the two wounds are made to coalesce by letting the girl lie in a suitable position, or sometimes by a suture, which serves the purpose of closing up the vagina. a little tube is inserted to allow for micturition. the united parts are again partly severed for marriage, and completely in case of confinement. after the recovery from confinement partial occlusion is again resorted to (bartels, p. ). among the natives of southern asia living under the influence of islam circumcision of boys is practised universally, but it is also customary among many peoples that are quite free from islamitic influence. circumcision of girls is practised by various islamitic peoples of western asia and india. the operation is performed by old women. in baroda and bombay the clitoris is cut away, ostensibly in order to lessen the sensuality of the girls. in the province of sindo the circumcision of girls is fairly prevalent, especially among the pathan and baluchi tribes. it is performed shortly before marriage by the barber's wife or a female servant, who uses a razor, and it is said to make the confinement easier. among many tribes in the north-western border province the girls are also circumcised at the age of marriage, and here, besides the clitoris, the small labia are also sometimes cut away. in baluchistan among some peoples the tip of the clitoris is pinched off; while among others the labia are slashed, so that scars are formed. the operation is performed partly in childhood, partly on the bridal night; in the latter case it assures the requisite flow of blood at the first coition. among some tribes, in place of circumcision or in addition to it, the hymen is torn on the bridal night (should it still exist), and the vaginal entrance is wounded, so that bleeding is sure to take place at cohabitation. in sind the castes which prostitute their women are said to practise partial infibulation for contracting the vagina. it is reported from the punjab that formerly men leaving their home for a time used to close up the sex passage of the wives they left behind. on the philippine islands circumcision is frequently practised by the non-christian natives, but not everywhere. the igorots of luzon incise the foreskin of boys from four to seven years old at the upper side of the glans with a bamboo knife or the edge of a battle axe. they say this is necessary in order to prevent the skin from growing longer and longer. no other reason is now known to them for this operation. circumcision is practised by the mohammedans of the southern philippine islands. incision of the foreskin is customary on the indonesian islands, thus, _e.g._, on buru, ceram, the watu-bela islands, in the minahassa, partly also in the remaining north and central celebes, also on ambon and halmaheira. circumcision is customary on the aru and kei islands, on the ceram laut and goram group, in certain parts of central celebes, ambon, etc. it is doubtful whether circumcision here is due to the influence of islam. incision is practised on various islands in the western pacific ocean, according to friederici (p. ), for instance, on new guinea, on the south-east coast, among the jabim and on the astrolabe bay. in wide districts of new guinea, however, the inhabitants are not circumcised. on the island umboi, between new guinea and new pomerania, incision is customary, also in various places on the north coast of new pomerania, on the witu islands, some islands of the admiralty group, etc. if incision is performed at a very early age, the result is similar to that of circumcision. frequently, however, only completely mature young men are circumcised; in such cases the cut foreskin hangs down as an ugly brown flap. it is questionable whether this intensifies the women's excitement. as many people as possible are circumcised, in order to have the opportunity for a great festival. this is the result of the liking for numbers shown by primitive people, which is to be met with everywhere. for the operation, the person is laid on his back and held down by relatives. the boys scream and wince at the moment of cutting; but the adults are ashamed before the women, and take an areca nut, into which they bite. among the east barriari on the north coast of new pomerania, the operator--a wise man, but not the priest--pushes an oblong piece of wood under the preputium of the patient, and cuts it from the top downward with an obsidian splinter. the custom of incision is widespread in the new hebrides, new caledonia (with the exception of the loyalty islands), and also in fiji. while with the empress augusta river expedition in new guinea, a. roesike found the foreskin cut among a number of men. it was not a circumcision, nor an incision of the foreskin, but a deep cut into the glans about to ½ centimetres long, sometimes a single one, sometimes a double one crosswise. among some tribes of indonesia a mutilation is customary, which is most likely intended to intensify the lust of the women. it consists in a perforation of the glans or the body of the male organ, into which a little stick is inserted. these little sticks are called _palang_, _ampallang_, _utang_ or _kampion_, and are replaced on journeys or at work by feather quills. among some tribes several little sticks are stuck through the penis. nieuwenhuis describes this operation as follows: "at first the glans is made bloodless by pressing it between the two arms of a bent strip of bamboo. at each of these arms there are openings at the required position opposite each other, through which a sharp pointed copper pin is pressed after the glans has become less sensitive. formerly a pointed bamboo chip was used for this purpose. the bamboo clamp is removed, and the pin, fastened by a cord, is kept in the opening until the canal has healed up. later on the copper pin (_utang_) is replaced by another one, generally of tin, which is worn constantly. only during hard work or at exhausting enterprises is the metal pin replaced by a wooden one." exceptionally brave men have the privilege, together with the chief, of boring a second canal, crossing the first, into the glans. distinguished men may, in addition, wear a ring round the penis, which is cut from the scales of the _pangolin_, and studded with blunt points. it may hence be concluded that the perforation of the penis is not intended as an endurance test for the young men, but that the pin is introduced for the heightening of sexual excitement. many natives assert that the insertion of a pin in the perforated penis has the purpose of preventing pederasty, which is very frequent among the malays (compare nieuwenhuis, vol. i., p. ; kleiweg de zwaan, p. ; meyer, p. ; hose and mcdougall, vol. ii., p. ; buschan, , p. ). among the australians the slitting of the male urethra is frequently practised. formerly it was believed that this custom was intended to prevent conception. but as the australians who are not under european influence are ignorant of the process of generation, this cannot be its meaning. the operation is generally performed in boyhood or early youth, but even adult men undergo it. where this operation on the urethra is customary, the hymen of the girls is cut, the cut often going through the perineum. many tribes practise simple circumcision. among the australian tribe worgait, for instance, certain relatives decide about the circumcision of the boys. after a previous elaborate ceremonial the boy who is to be circumcised is laid on the backs of three men lying on the ground; another man sits on his chest, one holds his legs apart, and the sixth performs the operation by drawing the foreskin forward and cutting it off with a sharp splinter of stone. the group is hidden from the view of the women by a screen made of pieces of bark. afterwards the youth is instructed by old men how he must behave as a man, and he is informed about the matters kept secret from women. he remains for another two months under the supervision of two sons of his maternal uncle, and has further to go through a number of ceremonies. other tribes of the australian north territory have similar customs. circumcision among the hamites of east africa is particularly elaborate. as an example we may take the pastoral tribe of the nandi. these people used to circumcise boys every seven and a half years, and celebrated the occasion with great festivals. since circumcision takes place at shorter intervals. the usual age for circumcision is from the fifteenth to the nineteenth year. younger boys are only circumcised if they are rich orphans, or if their fathers are old men. the ceremony begins at the time of the first quarter of the moon. three days before the operation the boys are given over by their fathers or guardians into the charge of old men, called _moterenic_, as many as ten boys going to two of these men. the _moterenic_ and their boys betake themselves to a neighbouring wood, where they build a hut, in which they spend the six months after the circumcision. the boys have their heads shaved and are given a strong aperient of arsidia sp. warriors visit the hut, and take away all the boys' clothes and ornaments. then young girls visit the boys and give them a part of their clothing and ornaments. after the boys have put these on they inform their relations of the forthcoming circumcision. there is dancing on the next day, after which the warriors draw the boys aside to discover from their expressions whether they will behave cowardly or bravely at the circumcision. after this examination the boys receive necklaces from their girl friends, with which they decorate themselves. after sunset they must listen to the sharpening of the operating knife. warriors are present, and tease the boys. later on all undress, and a procession is formed with a _moterenic_ at the head and rear of it. four times they have to crawl through a small cage, where warriors are stationed at the entrance and exit with nettles and hornets. with the former they beat the boys in the face and on the sex organs; the hornets they set on their backs. a fire is kept burning in the middle of the room, around which old men are seated. each boy has to step before them and beg for permission to be circumcised. he is questioned about his early life; and if the old men think that he has told an untruth or is hiding something, he is put among nettles. if the old men are satisfied with his words, the price of the circumcision has to be arranged, whereupon the boys are led back to their huts. there the warriors and elders assemble the next morning, and at dawn the circumcision begins. the boy to be circumcised is supported by the senior _moterenic_, the others sitting close by and looking on. the operator kneels before the boy, and with a quick cut performs the first part of the operation; the foreskin is drawn forward and cut off at the tip of the glans penis. the surrounding men watch the boy's face in order to see whether he winces or shows any sign of pain. if this is the case, he is called a coward, and receives the dishonourable nickname of _kilpit_; he is not allowed to be present at later circumcisions nor at the children's dances. the brave boys receive bundles of ficus from the women, who welcome them with cries of joy when they return the necklaces which they have previously received from their girl friends. the foreskins are collected and placed in an ox horn. friends and relatives make merry together, while the second part of the operation begins. at this only sterile girls may be present, and also women who have lost several brothers and sisters at short intervals. many boys become unconscious during this part of the operation. the wounds are only washed with cold water, and the boys are led back to their huts, where they spend some weeks quietly. during the first four days they are not allowed to touch food with their hands; they must eat either out of a half-calabash or with the help of some leaves. they get what they like, also milk and meat. but, apart from their _moterenic_, nobody may come near them for four days. afterwards the hand-washing ceremony is performed; the foreskins are taken out of the ox horn, sacrificed to their god, and then buried in cowdung at the foot of a croton tree. now the boys may eat with their hands again, but still no one may see them except the young children who bring them food. three months later, when the boys are quite well again, they have to go through a new ceremony, during which they have to dive repeatedly into the river. if one of them should meet with an accident, his father has to kill a goat. only now may the boys move about freely, but they still have to wear women's clothes (as hitherto) and a special head-dress that hides their faces. they must not enter a cattle kraal nor come near the cattle, nor are they allowed to be outdoors when the hyena howls. this period of semi-seclusion lasts about eight weeks. its conclusion is celebrated by a feast. still more ceremonies follow, and again a feast, after which the boys finally enter the status of manhood. girls are circumcised when some of them in the settlement have reached marriage age. they are shaved, given aperients, have to put on men's clothes, which they receive from their lovers, and take their clubs, loin bells, etc. after three days' ceremonial the circumcision is performed in the morning, at which the mothers and some old women are present; men are only admitted when they have lost several brothers and sisters in succession. the mothers run about crying and shouting during the operation. only the clitoris is cut out. if a girl behaves bravely, she may return the clothes and other things of her lover, otherwise they are thrown away. the girls, too, must not touch food with their hands for four days; afterwards they are put into long dresses with a kind of head mask, and have to go through a period of seclusion. after the completion of various other formalities they are fit for marriage (hollis, , pp. _et seq._). no satisfactory explanation has so far been forthcoming of the purpose of these elaborate circumcision customs. similar customs are observed by other hamites of eastern africa. among the masai there exists the belief that circumcision was introduced by the command of god (merker, p. ). after the circumcision boys and girls are considered grown up. the former have to be circumcised as soon as they are strong enough to take part in a war expedition. the circumcision of sons whose parents have no property and of poor orphans takes place last of all. for the meat banquet which the newly circumcised hold every one present has to supply an ox. poor boys must first acquire it by working for it. the circumcision is a public affair, and is arranged by the witch doctor in certain years. the old men consult in all the districts, and fix a day for the circumcision of the first batch of boys. all the boys circumcised during a certain number of years form an age class with a particular name (as among the nandi). several weeks before the circumcision the boys, adorned with many ornaments, dance and sing in their own and neighbouring kraals, in order to express their joy at their approaching admission into the warrior class. on the day before the circumcision the boys' heads are shaved. on the appointed day itself the boys and the warriors who are present at the operation assemble before dawn at the place chosen by the operators. the boys pour cold water over each other, so as to become less sensitive. after the operation the wounded member is washed with milk; no remedy for stopping the bleeding is applied. later on all the men of the neighbourhood assemble in the kraal, where they are regaled with meat and honey beer by the parents of the newly circumcised boys. the girls are circumcised as soon as signs of puberty become evident, sometimes even earlier. the operation consists in a complete abscission of the clitoris. the wound, as with the boys, is washed in milk. the girl remains in her mother's hut until the wound is healed. as soon as the man to whom the girl is promised as bride hears of her recovery he pays her father the remaining part of the bride-price, and nothing more stands in the way of the marriage. among the somals in north-east africa the boys are circumcised when six years old, and the girls are infibulated at three or four years of age. the infibulation is preceded by the shortening of the clitoris and the clipping of the external labia. the operation is performed by experienced women, who also sew up the inner labia (except for a small aperture) with horse-hair, bast, or cotton thread. the girls have to rest for several days with their legs tied together. before marriage the above-mentioned women or the girls themselves undo the stitching, which, however, is in most cases only severed completely before the confinement (paulitschke, p. ). in western africa most peoples practise the circumcision of boys. the age at which this takes place varies greatly. the duala in cameron have the boys circumcised when four or five years old, the bakwiri as late as the twelfth to fourteenth year, and the dahomey even postpone the circumcision to the twentieth year. but it always takes place before marriage, as women would refuse to have relationship with uncircumcised men (buschan, "sitten," iii., p. ). a peculiar disfigurement of the sex organs is customary among the hottentots, bushmen, and many bantu tribes of middle and south africa. this consists in the artificial elongation of the small labia. it was first observed among the hottentot women, and therefore the elongated labia were called the "hottentot apron." among the jao, makonde, and other east african bantu tribes, the girls at the ages of seven, eight, or nine years are instructed by old women about sex intercourse and their behaviour towards grown-up people. at the same time they are encouraged to systematically alter the natural shape of the genital organs by continually pulling at the labia minora and thus unnaturally lengthening them. karl weule has seen such disfigured organs from to centimetres long. according to the assertion of numerous male natives, the elongated labia assume such dimensions that they hang half-way down to the knee. the main purpose of this disfiguration seems to be erotic; it is said to excite the men. the assumption that the labia minora are naturally exceptionally large among the hottentots is certainly wrong. karl weule is right when he definitely maintains that his proof of the artificial elongation of the labia among the east africans establishes it as an indubitable fact that the famous hottentot apron is also an artificial product. le vaillant established this independently almost years before weule; but the error dragged on from decade to decade, chiefly because nobody troubled or had the good fortune to study the puberty rites as weule did. it is time at last to give up this erroneous idea. among the jaos the operation of the boys consists in a combination of incision with circumcision so that only a tiny piece of the under-part of the preputium remains. the boy must show courage at the operation. screams, if they occur, are drowned by the laughter of the bystanders. bleeding is stilled by bark powder. the boys have to lie down for about twenty days or more, until healing has taken place. as usual, circumcision is combined with instruction about sex behaviour. in former times the jaos are said to have imposed castration as a punishment on men for misbehaviour with the chief's wife (weule, pp. , ). castration still takes place for this reason among other negro races, especially the mohammedan sudanese. in north america the few indians still living in a state of nature do not practise mutilation of the sex organs. in south america circumcision exists among the linguistically isolated tribes and the neighbouring aruake and karaib tribes of the north-west, also among the tribes on the ucayali and the tributaries of the apure (w. schmidt, p. ). the kayapo indians on the araguay river cut the frenulum of the penis with a taquara splinter, and the penis cuff is fastened on to the rolled-up foreskin (w. kissenberth, p. ). the purpose of circumcision is probably to prolong the sex act, for the bare glans is less sensitive than the covered one. friederici says (p. ) that the black boys congregating on the stations and plantations frequently discuss these matters amongst themselves; they know that the glans of the circumcised is much less sensitive than that of the uncircumcised. many authors are of the opinion that the abscission or incision of the foreskin in boys has the purpose of making cohabitation easier in later years, as this is often made difficult by phimosis (tightness of the foreskin). külz (p. ) found that among the youthful plantation workers in new mecklenburg nearly a quarter were afflicted with phimosis, and often to such a degree that normal sex functioning was quite impossible. but such a condition does not seem to prevail among most of the primitive peoples practising circumcision. and, further, of what use would mutilations be that had nothing to do with tightness of the foreskin? the prolonged festivals and elaborate ceremonials which are so often connected with the circumcision of boys and of girls, or with their admission to the state of manhood and womanhood (without accompanying circumcision), are intended to preserve the event in the memory. the long ceremony is deeply impressed upon the mind, and forms a firm nucleus round which other memories cluster which otherwise would be lost in the humdrum of ordinary life. how could the time of entry into manhood remain without ceremonious festival? this seems all the more necessary because the growth into manhood is gradual and almost unnoticeable, and if there were no ceremony, it would pass without making any impression. it is therefore the intention not only to give expression to the beginning virility, but above all to the admission into the league of youth (schurtz, pp. , ). viii maturity and decline among all human races the signs of maturity appear later and less distinctly in the male than in the female. in europeans the period of puberty coincides with the second period of increased bodily growth, which ceases in the male between the sixteenth and the eighteenth year, and in the female between the fourteenth and the sixteenth year. the end of the puberty period may, however, in individual cases, be postponed for some years. the exact time of the advent of sex maturity, which, on account of their menstruation, can be fixed much more readily in girls than in boys, varies not only individually, but racially. the same applies to the difference in time between the advent of maturity and the cessation of bodily growth. sexual maturity, as well as the cessation of bodily growth, takes place much earlier in europeans than in some of the primitive peoples. among other primitive peoples, however, maturity occurs comparatively late, and bodily growth ceases shortly after. to the latter belong certainly some of the peoples living in the tropics. the opinion still prevails that climate has a considerable influence on the advent of maturity. rudolf martin ( ) remarks: "races living in the tropics grow more quickly and mature earlier than the races living in temperate zones. this is undoubtedly due to the earlier advent of puberty." as regards the japanese, e. baelz had already in disputed the statement that they mature early. he found, however, that the growth of both sexes ceases in japan earlier than in europe; still sex maturity in the female does not occur earlier. according to the concordant statements of female teachers of various girls' schools, the japanese girls, in fact, reach maturity later than european girls, and half-caste girls take a medium position. since then reliable data about the advent of maturity among non-european races have seldom been given, but those to hand show that most probably even among coloured primitive people puberty generally occurs late. very important material has been collected by o. reche in matupi (new pomerania, melanesia), with the assistance of the catholic mission of the place. he found that the rhythm of growth of the melanesians corresponds on the whole to that of the europeans, except that the growth ceases altogether a few years earlier. development in height is finished on the whole in girls at the beginning of the seventeenth year, and in boys in the eighteenth year. but, as regards the advent of puberty, reche's researches led to the surprising result that all matupi girls, with the exception of those seventeen years old, had not yet menstruated. reche remarks that this strikingly late appearance of menstruation is also known to the missionaries, because in order to prevent early marriages they only consent to the marriage of a girl after the first menstruation has taken place. reche's experience is in strong contradiction to the belief formerly taken for granted, for puberty occurs among these inhabitants of the tropics not only not earlier, but, on the contrary, later than with the europeans living in temperate climates. of importance is the fact that in the matupi natives puberty coincides with the highest point of the curve of growth, namely, with the end of the development in height. puberty commences when growth ceases. it almost seems as if the advent of maturity absorbs all the strength and hinders further growth. it is quite different with europeans in this respect: the beginning of puberty falls with them in the second period of growth (in boys the twelfth to the sixteenth, in girls the eleventh to the fourteenth year), and therefore long before growth ceases altogether. it would seem that the conditions existing among europeans are the primitive state, as with the majority of animals also puberty begins before the cessation of growth. reche reports further that, corresponding to the late puberty, the secondary sexual characteristics also appear exceptionally late in matupi children. this is the chief reason why the boys and girls, especially as they are small, appear remarkably young even shortly before maturity, and why their age seems much less than it actually is. the first beginning of the change from the areola mamma to the budding breast shows itself among the matupi girls not before the sixteenth year; the development of the breast seems to coincide with the first menstruation. axillary hair did not appear in sixteen-year-old matupi girls, with one exception; and it was scanty in those seventeen years old, though it is generally copious in adults. there was also no trace of a beard in seventeen-year-old boys, though it is well developed in the older men. it must be added that the late differentiation of secondary sexual characteristics is also noticeable among other coloured races, as, _e.g._, among the philippines and other indonesian races. among the papuans of new guinea also sex maturity occurs late. as richard neuhaus wrote, according to information given by missionaries who have lived for a long time among the natives on tami and among the jabim, the first menstruation generally appears in the fifteenth to sixteenth year. young males look very undeveloped up to the sixteenth year. neuhaus thought this late maturity was the result of bad feeding, though it does not appear from his other descriptions that the economic conditions of the papuans are especially unfavourable. a. e. jenks reports of the igorots on luzon that boys as well as girls attain puberty at a late age, generally between fourteen and sixteen years. the civilised ilkano people settled among the igorots definitely declare that the girls do not menstruate before they have reached the sixteenth or seventeenth year. a considerable error as regards their age seems to be excluded with these people, who have lived a long time under european influence. of the andamanese, a pigmy race, portman and molesworth write that puberty appears in boys and girls round about the fifteenth year. bodily growth is finished at eighteen years, and is in any case after maturity very trivial. eugen fischer makes the following statements about the bastards in german south-west africa: "in one family five out of six daughters menstruated for the first time at the age of fifteen, one at the age of sixteen. one bastard woman had first menstruated at the age of seventeen, three of her daughters at thirteen, the fourth, who was anæmic, at seventeen. another bastard woman, who herself had her first menstruation at fifteen, had two daughters from a white man who had reached puberty at sixteen and seventeen years of age. a girl with distinct anæmia stated that she had had her first period at sixteen years, her sister even as late as eighteen," fischer knows of three girls that became mature at sixteen, fourteen, and thirteen years. l. schultze reports that with the hottentots the first menstruation appears, as a rule, between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. there is, unfortunately, no information to be had about the negroes with regard to this subject. the puberty rites practised by them give no clue to the real age at the advent of puberty. ales hrdlicka (pp. - ) tried to determine the age of puberty among indian girls of the south-west of the united states by their height, as definite statements of age are not to be had. this method is not without objection, for it is certain that individuals who have attained puberty are decidedly taller than persons of the same age who have not reached maturity. hrdlicka found that of those examined in the twelfth or thirteenth year one-third of the apache girls and as many as three-quarters of the pima girls had already menstruated. in the age class of thirteen to fourteen years four-fifths of the apache and nine-tenths of the pima girls had already menstruated, while of forty-six older girls only one had not yet attained puberty. the first signs of breast development were noticed by hrdlicka in clothed indian maidens whose ages he estimated to be from eleven to twelve years. but it was only between fifteen and seventeen that the girls acquired the typical womanly form; until then they have, as hrdlicka says, "a somewhat male appearance." in youths the beard begins to grow at the fifteenth or sixteenth year. the climate is moderate in the country of the apache and pima indians; the days are decidedly hot in the low-lying regions, but the nights are generally cold in these regions, even in summer. in comparison it may be noted that, according to h. p. bowditch's investigations in boston, nearly four-fifths of the white girls born in america mature between the thirteenth and seventeenth year. puberty is reached relatively most often between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, though over per cent. of girls examined had not yet menstruated at the completed fifteenth year. within one and the same race the conditions of life seem to have a great influence on the age of puberty and bodily development. unfavourable conditions produce a retardation of puberty; favourable conditions accelerate it. this may be the chief cause why the beginning of puberty varies individually by several years. there exists so far no definite explanation of the racial differences in the age of puberty. reche says, "it is conceivable that the characteristically late maturity of a tropical race (like that of the melanesians) may gradually have been acquired by the unfavourable influence of too hot a climate or of continual underfeeding acting on many generations." it is remarkable that, in contradistinction to the melanesians, the indians become mature very early, and the same applies most likely to the australians. in india, as in australia, sexual intercourse is begun at a very youthful age, among the girls often long before the first menstruation. it is possible that on account of this the age of puberty is lowered, so that girls who mature late are more easily injured and perish in greater number than the girls maturing earlier, who are less injured by the premature sexual intercourse. the male sex may have been influenced in the same direction through heredity. just as physical maturity, so is the cessation of generative power and bodily decline more marked in women than in men. in middle and northern europe, procreation generally ceases with women of an age between forty-five and fifty years. numerous birth statistics from all countries of this continent show that birth in women over fifty years old is very rare. it is not quite clear how the case stands in this respect among the coloured races. hrdlicka reports of the north american indian women that with them the climacterium occurs apparently at about the same age as with european women. it must be taken into consideration that accurate statements of age are wanting, and that the age of indian women can easily be greatly overrated. otherwise it has generally been reported of coloured women that they age rapidly, and that their reproductive period is comparatively short. in north-west brazil the indian girls marry as soon as in their tenth to twelfth year, on account of their rapid development. early maturity and marriage may be one of the chief causes of their rapid decline. the indian women are generally beyond their prime at the age of twenty. their straight figure is frequently covered with a disgusting accumulation of fat, and the elasticity of movement gives way to indolence. other women become very thin after several confinements, their features become sharp and bony, and among old women one often comes across real hag-like creatures with half-blind, running eyes (koch-grünberg, ii., p. ). in india the women of the dravidian as well as of the mongolian races age rapidly. their generative power rarely lasts longer than the beginning of the forties. among the pigmies the time of procreation is said to be equally short (portman and molesworth). spencer and gillen say that with the australian women a rapid bodily decline takes place as early as the twenty-fifth and at the latest in the thirtieth year, which cannot be attributed to exceptional privations or harsh treatment. the australian women apparently reach the age of fifty years or more only exceptionally. jochelson (pp. _et seq._) writes that the koryak women age very rapidly. they cease to bear children at about the age of forty. other travellers have made statements about the great age that the koryaks are said to attain. jochelson's thorough-going investigations showed that of persons only thirteen could possibly have been over sixty-five years old, and among them there was only one really old man. schultze (p. ) mentions two hottentot women who had given birth at the age of forty-seven, and another who still had her period at fifty-five. among the negresses late births also occur. unfortunately, ethnographical literature only rarely gives facts with regard to this subject. ix bibliography amundsen, r. die nordwestpassage. münchen, . baelz, e. die körperlichen eigenschaften der japaner. bd. . baelz, e. das wachstum der geschlechter. verhandl. d. berliner ges. f. anthropologie, , s. . bagge, s. the circumcision 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Über die perforation des penis bei den malayen. mitt. der anthrop. gesellschaft wien, bd. , . morgan, l. h. die urgesellschaft. stuttgart, . mÜller, josef. das sexuelle leben der naturvölker. leipzig, . mÜller, w. die wildenstämme der insel formosa. zeitschrift für ethnologie, . nansen, f. eskimoleben. berlin, . neuhauss, r. deutsch-neuguinea, bd. . berlin, . nieuwenhuis, a. w. quer durch borneo. leiden, . paulitschke, philipp. beiträge zur ethnographie und anthropologie der somal usw. leipzig, . peal, e. s. on the morong. journal of the anthropological institute, vol. . playfair, a. the garos. london, . ploss, h., und bartels, m. das weib in der natur- und völkerkunde, . aufl. leipzig, . portman and molesworth. record of the andamanese, - . ms. in british museum. reche, otto. untersuchungen über das wachstum und die geschlechtsreife bei melanesischen kindern. korrespondenzbl. d. d. ges. f. anthropol., . jahrg., nr. . reed, w. the negrito of zambales. manila, . reitzenstein, ferdinand von. der kausalzusammenhang zwischen geschlechtsverkehr und empfängnis in glaube und branch der natur- und kulturvölker. zeitschrift für ethnologie, . jahrg., , s. - . rivers, w. h. r. the toda. london, . rivers, w. h. r. on the origin of the classificatory system of relationship. essays presented to e. b. tylor. oxford, . roesike, a. ethnographische ergebnisse der kaiserin. augusta-fluß-expedition. zeitschrift für ethnologie, . roscoe, john. the baganda. london, . roscoe, john. the bahima. journal of the anthropological institute, vol. . sarasin, paul und fritz. ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher forschungsreisen auf ceylon, bd. . wiesbaden, - . schmidt, wilhelm. kulturkreise und kulturschichten in südamerika. zeitschrift für ethnologie, . schultze, l. aus namaland und kalahari. jena, . schurtz, heinrich. altersklassen und männerbünde. berlin, . schweinfurth, georg. im herzen von afrika. rd ed. leipzig, . seligmann, c. g. the melanesians of british new guinea. cambridge, . spencer, baldwin. native tribes of the northern territory of australia. london, . spencer, baldwin, and gillen, f. the native tribes of central australia. london, . spencer, baldwin, and gillen, f. the northern tribes of central australia. london, . steinen, karl v. d. unter den naturvölkern zentralbrasiliens. berlin, . theal, g. m. the yellow and dark-skinned people of africa south of the zambesi. london, . thomson, basil h. the fijians. london, . thurnwald, r. ethno-psychologische studien. leipzig, . westermarck, e. history of human marriage. london, . weule, karl. wissenschaftliche ergebnisse meiner ethnogr. forschungsreise in den südosten deutsch-ostafrikas. berlin, . mitt. a. d. d. schutzgeb., erg.-heft . wilken, g. a. handleiding voor de vergelijkende volkenkunde van nederl.-indië. leiden, . williamson, robert w. the mafulu. london, . the whitefriars press, ltd., london and tonbridge. _by s. herbert, m.d., m.r.c.s., l.r.c.p._ an introduction to the physiology & psychology of sex large crown vo, with illustrations in the text. price + s. d.+ net (by post, / ). 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(paper cover) memoirs of the national academy of sciences volume xxiii first memoir the manÓbos of mindanÁo john m. garvan presented to the academy at the annual meeting, the manÓbos of mindanÁo by john m. garvan contents part i. descriptive chapter i. classification and geographical distribution of manóbos and other peoples in eastern mindanáo explanation of terms "eastern mindanáo" the term "tribe" present use of the word "manóbo" the derivation and original application of the word "manóbo" geographical distribution of the manóbos in eastern mindanáo in the agúsan valley on the eastern side of the pacific cordillera on the peninsula of san agustin the mamánuas, or negritos, and negrito-manóbo half-breeds the banuáons the mañgguáñgans the mansákas the debabáons the mandáyas the tágum branch the agúsan valley branch the pacific coast branch the gulf of davao branch the moros the biláns the tagakaólos the lóaks or lóags the _conquistas_ or recently christianized peoples the manóbo _conquistas_ the mandáya _conquistas_ the mamánua _conquistas_ the mañgguáñgan _conquistas_ the mansáka _conquistas_ the debabáon _conquistas_ the bisáyas or christian filipinos chapter ii. physical characteristics and general appearance of the manóbos of eastern mindanáo physical type divergence of types general physical type racial and tribal affinities montano's indonesian theory keane's view the indonesian theory as applied to manóbos physical type of contiguous peoples the mañgguáñgans the mandáyas the debabáons the mamánuas the banuáons physical appearance as modified by dress and ornamentation chapter iii. a survey of the material and sociological culture of the manóbos of eastern mindanáo general material culture dwellings alimentation narcotic and stimulating enjoyments means of subsistence weapons and implements industrial activities general sociological culture domestic life marital relations pregnancy, birth, and childhood medicine, sickness, and death social and family enjoyments political organization system of government and social control methods of warfare intertribal and analogous relations administration of justice general principles and various laws regulations governing domestic relations and property; customary procedure in settlement of disputes chapter iv. religious ideas and mental characteristics in general a brief survey of religion the basis, influence, and machinery of religion the hierarchy of manóbo divinities, beneficent and malignant priests, their functions, attributes, and equipment the main characteristics of manóbo religion mental and other attainments and characteristics part ii. general material culture chapter v. the manobo home in general motives that determine the selection of the site religious motives material motives religious ceremonies connected with the erection of a house structure of the house the materials the dimensions and plan of construction the floor the roof and the thatch the walls the doorway and the ladder internal arrangements decorations the furniture and equipment of the house the underpart and the environment of the house order and cleanliness of the house chapter vi. dress general remarks delicacy in exposure of the person variety in quantity and quality of clothes the use of bark cloth dress as an indication of rank dress in general preferential colors in dress the man's dress hats and headkerchiefs the jacket the lower garment the girdle the betel-nut knapsack the woman's dress the jacket the upper agúsan style the style of the central group the girdle and its pendants the skirt chapter vii. personal adornment general remarks hair and head adornment care and ornamentation of the head combs ear disks neck and breast ornaments arm and hand ornamentation knee and ankle adornments body mutilations general remarks mutilation of the teeth mutilation of the ear lobes depilation tattooing circumcision chapter viii. alimentation fire and its production the "fire saw" the steel and flint process continuation of the fire lighting culinary and table equipment various kinds of food the preparation and cooking of food preparing the food cooking the food food restrictions and taboos meals ordinary meals festive meals chapter ix. narcotic and stimulating enjoyments drinks used by the manobos sugar-palm wine _báhi_ toddy sugarcane brew extraction of the juice boiling fermentation mead drinking general remarks the sumsúm-an drinking during religious and social feasts evil effects from drinking tobacco preparation and use the betel-nut masticatory ingredients and effect of the quid betel chewing accessories chapter x. means of subsistence agriculture general remarks the time and place for planting rice the sowing ceremony the clearing of the land the sowing of the rice and its culture the rice harvest the harvest feast the culture of other crops hunting hunting with dogs offering to sugúdun, the spirit of hunters the hunt hunting taboos and beliefs other methods of obtaining game trapping trapping ceremonies and taboos the bamboo spear trap other varieties of traps fishing shooting with bow and arrow fishing with hook and line fish-poisoning the _túba_ method the _túbli_ method the _lágtañg_ method dry-season lake fishing fishing with nets, traps, and torches chapter xi. weapons and implements introductory remarks offensive weapons the bow and arrow the bolo and its sheath a magic test for the efficiency of a bolo the lance the dagger and its sheath defensive weapons the shield armor traps and caltrops agricultural implements the ax the bolo the rice header fishing implements the fishing bow and arrow the fish spear fishhooks hunting implements the spear the bow and arrow the blowgun chapter xii. industrial activities division of labor male activities female activities male industries in detail boat building mining plaiting and other activities female industries in detail weaving and its accessory processes pottery tailoring and mat making part iii. general sociological culture chapter xiii. domestic life and marital relations arranging the marriage selection of the bride courtship and antenuptial relations begging for the hand of the girl determination of the marriage payment the marriage feast and payment the reciprocatory payment and banquet marriage and marriage contracts the marriage rite marriage by capture prenatal marriage contracts and child marriage polygamy and kindred institutions endogamy and consanguineous marriages intertribal and other marriages married life and the position of the wife residence of the son-in-law and the brother-in-law system chapter xiv. domestic life: pregnancy, birth, and childhood desire for progeny birth and pregnancy taboos taboos to be observed by the husband taboos to be observed by the wife taboos to be observed by both husband and wife taboos enjoined on visitors abortion artificial abortion involuntary abortion the approach of parturition the midwife prenatal magic aids prenatal religious aids accouchement and ensuing events postnatal customs taboos the birth ceremony the naming and care of the child birth anomalies monstrosities albinism hermaphroditism chapter xv. domestic life: medicine, sickness, and death medicine and disease natural medicines and diseases magic ailments and means of producing them the composition of a few "kometán" other magic means bodily ailments proceeding from supernatural causes sickness due to capture of the "soul" by an inimical spirit epidemics attributed to the malignancy of sea demons propitiation of the demons of contagious diseases sickness and death the theory of death fear of the dead and of the death spirits incidents accompanying deaths preparation of the corpse the funeral certain mourning taboos are observed death and burial of one killed by an enemy, of a warrior chief, and of a priest the after world the death feast chapter xvi. social enjoyments instrumental music the drum the gong flutes the _paúndag_ flute the _to-áli_ flute the _lántui_ the _sá-bai_ flute guitars the vine-string guitar the bamboo-string guitar the _takúmbo_ the violin the jew's-harp the stamper and the horn of bamboo sounders vocal music the language of song the subject matter of songs the music and the method of singing ceremonial songs dancing the ordinary social dance the religious dance mimetic dances the bathing dance the dagger or sword dance the apian dance the depilation dance the sexual dance the war dance chapter xvii. political organization: system of government and social control clans territories of the clans and number of people composing them interclan relations the chief and his power the source of the chief's authority equality among the people respect for ability and old age the warrior chief general character insignia and prowess of the warrior chief the warrior's title to recognition various degrees of warrior chiefship the warrior chief in his capacity as chief the warrior chief as priest and medicine man chapter xviii. political organization: war, its origin, inception, course, and termination military affairs in general the origin of war vendettas private seizure debts and sexual infringements inception of war declaration of war time for war preparations for war the attack time and methods of attack events following the battle celebration of the victory the capture of slaves the return of the warriors ambushes and other methods of warfare peace chapter xix. political organization: general principles of the administration of justice: customary, proprietary, and liability laws general considerations general principles the principle of material substitution right to a fair hearing securing the defendant's good will foundations of manóbo law customary law its natural basis its religious basis proprietary laws and obligations conception of property rights land and other property laws of contract the law of debt interest, loans, and pledges interest loans and pledges laws of liability liability arising from natural causes liability arising from religious causes liability arising from magic causes the system of fines chapter xx. political organization: customs regulating domestic relations and family property; procedure for the attainment of justice family property rules of inheritance rules governing the relations of the sexes moral offenses marriage contracts and payments illegitimate children extent of authority of father and husband residence of the husband crimes and their penalties crimes the private seizure penalties for minor offenses customary procedure preliminaries to arbitration general features of a greater arbitration determination of guilt by witnesses by oaths by the testimony of the accused by ordeals the hot-water ordeal the diving ordeal the candle ordeal by circumstantial evidence enforcement of the sentence chapter xxi. political organization: intertribal and other relations intertribal relations interclan relations external commercial relations exploitation by christian natives exploitation by falsification defraudation by usury and excessive prices exploitation by the system of commutation wheedling or the _puának_ system bartering transactions general conditions of trading internal commercial relations money and substitutes for it prevailing manóbo prices weights and measures slave trade and slaves slave trade classes of slaves delivery and treatment of slaves part iv. religion chapter xxii. general principles of manóbo religion and nature and classification of manobo deities introductory general principles of religion sincerity of belief basis of religious belief means of detecting supernatural evil belief in an hierarchy of beneficent and malignant deities other tenets of manobo faith spirit companions of man general character of the deities classification of deities and spirits benevolent deities gods of gore and rage malignant and dangerous spirits agricultural goddesses giant spirits gods of lust and consanguineous love spirits of celestial phenomena other spirits nature of the various divinities in detail, the primary deities the secondary order of deities the gods of gore, and kindred spirits chapter xxiii. maleficent spirits the origin and nature of malignant demons methods of frustrating their evil designs through priests by various material means by propitiation the _tagbánua_, or local forest spirits their characteristics and method of living definite localities tenanted by forest spirits worship of the forest spirits chapter xxiv. priests, their prerogatives and functions the _bailán_ or ordinary manobo priests their general character their prerogatives, sincerity of the priests their influence their dress and functions the _bagáni_, or priests of war and blood chapter xxv. ceremonial accessories and religious rites general remarks the paraphernalia of the priest the religious shed and the _bailán's_ house equipment for ceremonies ceremonial decorations sacred images ceremonial offerings religious rites classification method of performance the betel-nut tribute the offering of incense invocation prophylactic fowl waving blood lustration lustration by water chapter xxvi. sacrifices and war rites the sacrifice of a pig rites peculiar to the war priests the betel-nut offering to the souls of the enemies various forms of divination the betel-nut cast divination from the _báguñg_ vine divination from _báya_ squares, invocation of the omen bird the _tagbúsau's_ feast human sacrifice chapter xxvii. divination and omens in general miscellaneous casual omens divination by dreams divination by geometrical figures the vine omen the rattan omen divination by suspension and other methods the suspension omen the omen from eggs divination by sacrificial appearances the blood omen the neck omen the omen from the gall the omen from the liver the omen from a fowl's intestinal appendix ornithoscopy in general respect toward the omen bird interpretation of the omen bird's call birds of evil omen chapter xxviii. mythological and kindred beliefs the creation of the world celestial phenomena the rainbow thunder and lightning eclipse of the moon origin of the stars and the explanation of sunset and sunrise the story of the _ikúgan_, or tailed men, and of the resettlement of the agúsan valley giants peculiar animal beliefs the petrified craft and crew of kagbubátañg angó, the petrified manóbo chapter xxix. the great religious movement of - the extent of the movement reported origin and character of the revival spread of the movement its exterior character and general features the principal tenets of the movement new order of deities observances prescribed by the founder religious rites the real nature of the movement and means used to carry on the fraud the sacred traffic religious tours the whistling scheme pretended chastity and austerity the end of the movement similar movements in former years appendix historical references to the manóbos of eastern mindanao early history up to from to methods adopted by the missionaries in the christianization of the manóbos the secret of missionary success explanation of plates part i. descriptive chapter i classification and geographical distribution of manÓbos and other peoples in eastern mindanÁo explanation of terms throughout this monograph i have used the term "eastern mindanáo" to include that part of mindanáo that is east of the central cordillera as far south as the headwaters of the river libagánon, east of the river tágum and its influent the libagánon, and east of the gulf of davao. the term "tribe" the word "tribe" is used in the sense in which dean c. worcester defines and uses it in his article on the non-christian tribes of northern luzon:[ ] a division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect. [ ] philip. journ. sci., : , . present use of the word "manÓbo" the word "manóbo" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, and language. thus it is applied to the people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of point san agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the sarangani peninsula. those, again, that occupy the _hinterland_ of tuna bay[ ] come under the same designation. so it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the mohammedanized people of mindanáo, much as the name _harafóras_ or _alfúros_ was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the moros. [ ] tuna bay is on the southern coast of mindanáo, about halfway between sarangani bay and parang bay. in the agúsan valley the term _manóbo_ is used very frequently by christian and by christianized peoples, and sometimes by pagans themselves, to denote that the individual in question is still _unbaptized_, whether he be tribally a mandáya, a mañgguáñgan, or of some other group. i have been told by mandáyas on several occasions that they were still _manóbo_, that is, still unbaptized. then, again, the word is frequently used by those who are really manóbos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or a culture[sic] way as they are. thus i have heard manóbos of the upper agúsan refer to their fellow-tribesmen of libagánon as _manóbos_, with evident contempt in the voice. i asked them what they themselves were, and in answer was informed that they were _agusánon_--that is, upper agúsan people--not _manóbos_. the derivation and original application of the word "manÓbo" one of the earliest references that i find to the manóbos of the agúsan valley is in the general history of the discalced augustinian fathers ( - ) by father pedro de san francisco de assis.[ ] the author says that "the mountains of that territory[ ] are inhabited by a nation of indians, heathens for the greater part, called manóbos, a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, _robust or very numerous people._" i have so far found no word in the manóbo dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. it may be said, however, in favor of this derivation that _manúsia_ is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the malay, moro (magindanáo), and tirurái languages. in bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to manóbo, the word _manóbo_ means "man," and in magindanáo moro it means "mountain people,"[ ] and is applied by the moros to all the mountain people of mindanáo. it might be maintained, therefore, with some semblance of reason that the word _manóbo_ means simply "people." some of the early historians use the words _manóbo_, _mansúba_, _manúbo_. these three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix _man_, signifying "people" or "dweller," and _súba_, a river. from the form _manúbo_, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of _man_ ("people"), and _húbo_ ("naked"), therefore meaning the "naked people." the former derivation, however, appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which mindanáo tribal names, both general and local, are formed. thus _mansáka_, _mandáya_, _mañgguáñgan_ are derived, the first part of each, from _man_ ("people" or "dwellers"), and the remainder of the words, respectively, from _sáka_ ("interior"), _dáya_ ("up the river"), _guáñgan_ ("forest"). these names then mean "people of the interior," "people that dwell on the upper reaches of the river," and "people that dwell in the forest." other tribal designations of mindanáo races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographic position of the tribe in question. the _banuáon_ and _mamánua_ are derived from _banuá_, the "country," as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. the bukídnon are the mountain people (_bukid_, mountain); _súbanun_, the river people (_súba_, river); _tirurái_, the mountain people (_túduk_, mountain, _etéu_, man);[ ] _tagakaólo_, the people at the very source of a river (_tága_, inhabitant, _ólo_, head or source). [ ] blair and robertson, : , . [ ] the author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of líano, a town that stood down the river from the present veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided. [ ] fr. jacinto juanmarti's diccionario moro magindanáo-español (manila, ), . [ ] my authority for this derivation is a work by dr. t. h. pardo de tavera on the origin of philippine tribal names. the derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word _manóbo_ means by derivation a "river-man," and not a "naked man." a further alternative derivation has been suggested by dr. n. m. saleeby,[ ] from the word _túbo_, "to grow"; the word _manóbo_, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. the word _túbo_, "to grow," is not, however, a manóbo word, and it is found only in a few mindanáo dialects. [ ] origin of malayan filipinos, a paper read before the philippine academy, manila, nov. , . father f. combes, s. j.,[ ] says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of mindanáo, were called manóbos and mananápes.[ ] in a footnote referring to mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time. [ ] historia de mindanáo y jolo (madrid, ). ed. retana (madrid, ). [ ] the word _mananáp_ is the word for _animal_, _beast_ in the cebu bisáya, bagóbo, tirurái, and magindanáo moro languages. among some of the tribes of eastern mindanáo, the word is applied to a class of evil forest spirits of apparently indeterminate character. it is noteworthy that these spirits seem to correspond to the _manubu_ spirits of the súbanuns as described by mr. emerson b. christie in his súbanuns of sindangan bay (_pub. bur. sci., div. eth._, , ). hence there seems to be some little ground for supposing that the word _manóbo_ was originally applied to all the people that formerly occupied the coast and that later fled to the interior, and settled along the rivers, yielding the seashore to the more civilized invaders. the following extract from dr. n. m. saleeby[ ] bears out the above opinion: [ ] the origin of the malayan filipinos, a paper read before the philippine academy on nov. , . the traditions and legends of the primitive tribes of the philippine archipelago show very clearly that they believe that their forefathers arose in this land and that they have been here ever since their creation. they further say that the coast tribes and foreigners came later and fought them and took possession of the land which the latter occupy at present. when masha'ika, the earliest recorded immigrant, reached súlu island, the aborigines had already developed to such a stage of culture as to have large settlements and rajas or _datus_. these aborigines are often referred to in súlu and mindanáo as manubus, the original inhabitants of súlu islands, the budanuns, were called manubus also. so were the forefathers of the magindanáo moros. the most aboriginal hill tribes of mindanáo, who number about , souls or more, are called manubus. [transcriber's note: both of the above paragraphs comprise the quotation.] the idea that the original owners were called manóbos is the opinion of san antonio also, as expressed in his cronicas.[ ] such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different manóbo people in mindanáo, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the rio grande de kotabáto--the batañgan, the biktósa, the luan, the narkanitan, etc., and especially on the river pulañgi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the hiñgoog river in the province of misamis. as we shall see later on, even in the agúsan valley, the manóbos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the banuáons. crossing the eastern cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the mamánuas--we find manóbos occupying the upper reaches of the rivers hubo, marihátag, kagwáit, tágo, tándag, and kantílan, on the pacific coast. i questioned the manóbos of the rivers tágo and hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river kasilaían, but that, owing to the hostility of the banuáons, they had fled to the river wá-wa. at the time of the coming of the catholic missionaries in , these manóbos made their way across the lofty eastern cordillera in an attempt to escape from the missionary activities. these two migrations are a forcible example of what may have taken place in the rest of mindanáo to bring about such a wide distribution of what was, perhaps, originally one people. each migration led to the formation of a new group from which, as from a new nucleus, a new tribe may have developed in the course of time. [ ] blair and robertson, : , . geographical distribution of the manÓbos in eastern mindanÁo[ ] in the agÚsan valley [ ] see tribal map. the manóbos occupy the whole agúsan valley as far as the town of buai on the upper agúsan _with the following exceptions_: . the upper parts of the rivers lamiñga, kandiisan, hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the river maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the district of misamis, as far over as the habitat of the bukídnon tribe.[ ] [ ] the reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters of the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the bukídnons, if i may judge from my slight acquaintance with the latter. . the towns of butuán, talakógon, bunáwan, veruéla, and prosperidad. . the town of tagusab and the headwaters of the tutui and binuñgñgaan rivers. on the eastern side of the pacific cordillera in this region i include the upper waters of the liañga, hubo, oteiza, marihátag, kagwáit, tágo, tándag, and kantílan rivers. on the peninsula of san agustin i desire to call the reader's attention to the fact that _this monograph has no reference to the manóbos of port san agustin nor to the manóbos of the libagánon river and its tributaries, nor to the manóbos that occupy the hinterland above nasipit as far as the bugábus river_. i had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last-named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them, i am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples of the agúsan valley as a distinct tribe. as to the manóbos of libagánon, it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the manóbos that form the subject matter of this paper, but, as i did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, i prefer to leave them untouched until further investigation. of the manóbos of the lower half of the peninsula of san agustin, i know absolutely nothing except that they are known as manóbos. i noted, however, in perusing the jesuit letters[ ] that there were in the year not only manóbos but moros, biláns, and tagakaólos in that region. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, : , _et seq_., . the mamÁnuas, or negritos, and negrito-manÓbo half-breeds the mamánuas, or negritos, and negrito-manóbo half-breeds of mindanáo occupy the mountains from anao-aon near surigao down to the break in the eastern cordillera, northwest of liañga. they also inhabit a small range that extends in a northeasterly direction from the cordillera to point kawit on the east coast. i heard three trustworthy reports of the existence of negritos in eastern mindanáo. the first report i heard on the umaíam river (walo, august, ). it was given to me by a manóbo chief from the river ihawán. he assured and reassured me that on the lañgilañg river, near the libagánon river exists a group of what he called manóbos but who were very small, _black as an earthen pot_, kinky-haired, without clothes except bark-cloth, very peaceable and harmless, but very timid. i interrogated him over and over as to the bark-cloth that he said these people wore. he said in answer that it was called _agahan_ and that it was made out of the bark of a tree whose name i can not recall. he described the process of beating the bark and promised to bring me, days from the date of our conference, a loin cloth of one of these people. i inquired as to their manner of life, and was assured that they were _tau-batañg_; that is, people who slept under logs or up in trees. he said that he and his people had killed many of them, but that he was still on terms of friendship with some of them. the second report as to the existence of negritos i heard on the baglásan river, a tributary of the sálug river. the chiefs whom i questioned had never visited the negritos but had purchased from the tugawanons[ ] many negrito slaves whom they had sold to the mandáyas of the kati'il and karága rivers. this statement was probably true, for i saw one slave, a full-blooded negrito girl, on the upper karága during my last trip and received from her my third and most convincing report of the existence of negritos other than the mamánuas of the eastern cordillera. she had been captured, she said, by the manóbos of libagánon and sold to the debabáons (upper sálug people). she could not describe the place where her people live, but she gave me the following information about them. they are all like herself, and they have no houses nor crops, because they are afraid of the manóbos that surround them. their food is the core[ ] of the green rattan and of fishtail palm,[ ] the flesh of wild boar, deer, and python, and such fish and grubs, etc., as they find in their wanderings. they sleep anywhere; sometimes even in trees, if they have seen strange footprints. [ ] the tugawanons were described by my sálug authorities as a people that lived at the headwaters of the river libagánon on a tributary called tugawan. they were described as a people of medium stature, as fair as the mansákas, very warlike, enemies of the reported negritos, very numerous, and speaking an atás dialect. perhaps the term tugawanon is only a local name for a branch of the atás tribe. [ ] _o-bud_. [ ] _ba-hi_ (_caryota_ sp.). their weapons are bows and arrows, lances, daggers, and bolos. according to her description, the bolos are long and thin, straight on one side and curved on the other. the men purchase them from the atás in exchange for beeswax. the people are numerous, but they live far apart, roaming through the forests and mountains, and meeting one another only occasionally. the statements of this slave girl correspond in every particular with the report that i received on the upper sálug, except that the sálug people called these negritos tugmaya and said that they live beyond a mountain that is at the headwaters of the libagánon river. putting together these three reports and assuming the truth of them, the habitat of these negritos must be the slopes of mount panombaian, which is situated between, and is probably the source of, the rivers tigwa (an important tributary of the rio grande de kotabáto), sábud (the main western tributary of the ihawán river), and libagánon (the great western influent of the tágum river). montano states that during his visit to the philippines ( - ) there were on the island of samal a class of half-blood _ata'_ with distinctly negroid physical characteristics. treating of _ata'_ he says that it is a term applied in the south of mindanáo by bisáyas to negritos "that exist (or existed not long ago) in the interior toward the northwest of the gulf of davao."[ ] a careful distinction must be made between the term atás[ ] and the racial designation _ata'_, for the former are, according to doctor montano, a tribe of a superior type, of advanced culture, and of great reputation as warriors. they dwell on the northwestern slope of mount apo, hence their name atás, _hatáas_, or _atáas_, being a very common word in mindanáo for "high." they are, therefore, the people that dwell on the heights. i heard of one branch of them called tugawanons, but this is probably only a local name like agúsanons, etc. [ ] une mission aux philippines, , . [ ] called also itás. i found reports of the former existence of negritos in the karága river valley at a place called sukipin, where the river has worn its way through the cordillera. an old man there told me that his grandfather used to hunt the negritos. the mandáyas both of that region and of tagdauñg-duñg, a district situated on the karága river, five days' march from the mouth, on the western side of the cordillera, show here and there characteristics, physical and cultural, that they could have inherited only from negrito ancestors. one interesting trait of this particular group is the use of blowpipes for killing small birds. in the use of the bow and arrow, too, they are quite expert. these people are called _taga-butái_--that is, mountain dwellers--and live in places on the slopes of high mountains difficult of access, their watering-place being frequently a little hole on the side of the mountain. the banuÁons the banuáons,[ ] probably an extension of the bukídnons of the bukídnon subprovince. they occupy the upper parts of the rivers lamiñga, kandiisan, hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the river maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably extend over to the bukídnons. [ ] also called higaunon or higagaun, probably "the hadgaguanes--a people untamed and ferocious"--to whom the jesuits preached shortly after the year . (jesuit mission, blair and robertson, : , .) these may be the people whom pigaffetta, in his first voyage around the world ( - ) calls benaian (banuáon ?) and whom he describes as "shaggy and living at a cape near a river in the islands of butuán and karága--great fighters and archers--eating only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons" (blair and robertson, : , ). the maÑgguÁÑgans this tribe occupies the towns of tagusab and pilar on the upper agúsan, the range between the sálug and the agúsan, the headwaters of the mánat river, and the water-shed between the mánat and the mawab. the physical type of many of them bespeaks an admixture of negrito blood, and their timidity and, on occasions, their utter lack of good judgment, brand them as the lowest people, after the mamánuas, in eastern mindanáo. one authority, a jesuit missionary, i think, estimated their number at , . an estimate, based on the reports of the people of compostela, places their number at , just before my departure from the agúsan valley in . the decrease, if the two estimates are correct, is probably due to intertribal and interclan wars. the mansÁkas the mansákas do not seem to me to be as distinct tribally as are the manóbos and mandáyas. it would appear from their physical appearance and other characteristics that they should be classed as mandáyas, or as a subtribe of mandáyas with whom they form one dialect group. i judge them to be the result of intermarriage between the mañgguáñgans and the mandáyas. they occupy the mawab river valley and the region included between the hijo, mawab, and madawan rivers. they are probably the people whom montano called tagabawas, but i think that this designation was perhaps a mistaken form of _tagabaas_, an appellation given to mañgguáñgans who live in the _bá-as_, or prickly swamp-grass, that abounds at the headwaters of the mánat river. the debabÁons the debabáons are probably a hybrid group forming a dialect group with the manóbos of the ihawán and baóbo, and a culture group in dress and other features with the mandáyas. they claim relationship with manóbos, and follow manóbo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. for this reason i have retained the name that they apply to themselves, until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. they inhabit the upper half of the sálug river valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the baóbo river. the mandÁyas these form the greatest and best tribe in eastern mindanáo.[ ] one who visits the mandáyas of the middle kati'il can not fail to be struck with the fairness of complexion, the brownness of the hair, the diminutiveness of the hands and feet, and the large eyes with long lashes that are characteristic of many of these people. here and there, too, one finds a distinctly caucasian type. in psychological characteristics they stand out still more sharply from any tribe or group of people that i know in eastern mindanáo. shrewd and diplomatic on the one hand, they are an affectionate, good-natured and straight-forward people, with little of the timidity and cautiousness of the manóbo. their religious instincts are so highly developed that they are inclined to be fanatical at times. [ ] it is very interesting to note that the people called _taga-baloóyes_ and referred to by so many of the writers on mindanáo can be none other than the mandáyas. thus san antonio (blair and robertson, : , ) states that "the taga-baloóyes take their name from some mountains which are located in the interior of the jurisdiction of caraga. they are not very far distant from and trade with the villages of (karága) and some, indeed, live in them who have become christians. * * * these people, as has been stated above, are the descendants of lately arrived japanese. this is the opinion of all the religious who have lived there and had intercourse with them and the same is a tradition among themselves, and they desired to be so considered. and it would seem that one is convinced of it on seeing them: for they are light complexioned, well-built, lusty, very reliable in their dealings, respectful, and very valiant, but not restless. so i am informed by one who has had much to do with them: and above all these are the qualities which we find in the japanese." in further proof, father pedro de san francisco de assis (ibid. : , _et seq_.) says: "the nearest nation to our village [bislig] is that of the taga-baloóyes who are so named from certain mountains that they call balooy. * * * they are a corpulent race, well built, of great courage and strength, and they are at the same time of good understanding, and more than halfway industrious. their nation is faithful in its treaties and constant in its promises, as they are descendants, so they pride themselves, of the japanese, whom they resemble in complexion, countenance, and manners." the writer describes briefly their houses and their manner of life, and mentions in particular the device they make use of in the construction of their ladders. it is interesting to note that the same device is still made use of by the more well-to-do mandáyas on the karága, manorigao, and kati'il rivers. in other respects their character, as described, is very similar to that of the present mandáyas of the kati'il river who in physical type present characteristics that mark them as being a people of a superior race. in medina's historia (blair and roberston, : , ,) we find it related that captain juan niño de tabora mistreated the chief of the taga-baloóyes in karága and that as a result the captain, father jacinto cor, and soldiers were killed. subsequently four more men of the religious order were killed and two others wounded and captured by the _taga-baloóyes_. zuñiga in estadismo (ibid. : , _et seq_.) notes the fairness of complexion of the taga-baloóyes, a tribe living in the mountains of balooy in karága. father manual buzeta in diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de las islas filipinas ( : , ) makes the same observation, but m. felix renouard de sainte croix in voyage commercial et politique aux indes orientales ( - ) goes further still by drawing attention to these people as meriting distinction for superior mentality. the jesuit missionary pastells in (cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, : , ) writes that the people above manresa (southeastern mindanáo) are perhaps of moro origin but bettered by a strain of noble blood, which their very appearance seems to him to indicate. in support of this view he cites the authority of santayana, who claims japanese descent for them and repudiates the opinion of those who attribute hollandish descent. in a footnote, the above celebrated missionary and scholar adds that the town of kinablangan (a town on the east coast of mindanáo) owes its origin to a party of europeans who were shipwrecked on point bagoso and took up their abode in that place, intermarrying with the natives. i was informed by a bisáya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain mandáyas, that he had seen a circular, clocklike article with strange letters upon it in a settlement on the middle kati'il. the following year i made every effort to see it, but i could not prevail upon the possessors to show it to me. they asserted that they had lost it. it is probable that this object was a ship's compass. [transcriber's note: the preceding six paragraphs are all part of footnote .] on the whole, the impression made upon me in my long and intimate dealings with the mandáyas of the kati'il, manorigao, and karága rivers is that they are a brave, intelligent, clean, frank people that with proper handling might be brought to a high state of civilization. they are looked up to by manóbos, mañgguáñgans, mansákas, and debabáons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the bisáyas of the agúsan valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. the mandáyas consist of four branches: the tÁgum branch these occupy the country from near the mouth of the tágum to the confluence of the sálug and libagánon rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. it is probable that the debabáons farther up are the issue of manóbos and tágum mandáyas. the agÚsan valley branch it is usual for the people of the upper agúsan from gerona to compostela to call themselves mandáyas, but this appears to be due to a desire to be taken for mandáyas. they have certainly absorbed a great deal of mandáya culture and language, but, with the exception of pilar and tagusab, they are of heterogeneous descent--mandáya, manóbo, mañgguáñgan, debabáon, and mansáka. at the headwaters of the agúsan and in the mountains that encircle that region live the mandáyas that are the terror of mandáyaland. they are called by the upper agúsan people _kau-ó_, which means the same as _tagakaólo_, but are mandáyas in every feature, physical, cultural, and linguistic. the pacific coast branch they occupy the following rivers with their tributaries: the kati'il, the baganga, the mano-rigao, the karága, the manai, the kasaúman, and the upper reaches of the mati. there are several small rivers between the kasaúman and the mati, the upper parts of all which, i think, are occupied by mandáyas. the gulf of davao branch these occupy the upper reaches of all the rivers on the east side of the gulf of davao, from sumlug to the mouth of the hijo river whose source is near that of the agúsan and whose mandáyas are famous in mandáyaland. the moros moros or people with a preponderance of moro blood and culture occupy the coast towns on the eastern and northern sides of the gulf from sumlug to the mouth of the tágum. of course they have other settlements on the north and west sides of the gulf. in mati and its vicinity, i believe there are a comparatively large number of moros or mohammedanized mandáyas. the bilÁns[ ] [ ] called also, i think, _bi-la-an_. biláns were found according to the testimony of the jesuit missionaries[ ] in sigaboi, tikbakawan, and baksal, on the peninsula of san agustin. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, : , _et seq_., - . the tagakaÓlos according to the authorities just cited there were tagakaólos in sigaboi, uañgen, kabuaya, and makambal between the years and . it is probable that these people are scattered throughout the whole of the hinterland to the west of pujada bay, and that they are only mandáyas who, unable to withstand the stress of war, fled from the mountains at the headwaters of the agúsan river. i base this suggestion on the fact that the mandáyas at the headwaters of the agúsan are known as, and call themselves, kau-ó[ ] and that they were, and are probably still at the date of this writing, the terror of mandáyaland. if the tagakaólos of point san agustin are fugitive _kau-ó_, according to the prevailing custom they would have retained their former name; this name, if _kau-ó_, would have been changed by bisáyas and by spanish missionaries to _tagakaólo_. [ ] _kau-ó_ would be _ka-ólo_ in bisáya, from the prefix _ka_, and _ólo_, head or source. the lÓaks or lÓags according to the authority of father llopart[ ] the lóaks dwell in the mountains southwest of pujada bay. he says that in customs they differ from other tribes. they dress in black and hide themselves when they see anyone dressed in a light color. no stranger is permitted to enter their dwellings. the same writer goes on to state that their food is wholly vegetable, excluding tubers, roots, and everything that grows under the ground. their chief is called _posáka_,[ ] "an elder who with his mysterious words and feigned revelations keeps his people in delusion and under subjection." it is the opinion of father llopart that these people are only fugitives, as he very justly concludes from the derivation of their name.[ ] [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, : - , . [ ] _posáka_ means in malay, and in nearly all known mindanáo dialects, an "inheritance" so that in the usage attributed to these lóaks it would appear that there may be some idea of an hereditary chieftainship. the word in bagóbo, however, means something beloved, etc., so that the reported lóak _posáka_ or chief might be so called because of his being beloved by his people. [ ] he states that _lóak_ is probably from _lóog_, "to flee," "to take to the mountains." in several dialects of eastern mindanáo _laag_, _lag_, means, "to get lost," while _lágui_ is a very common word for "run" or "run away." another writer, father pablo pastells[ ] makes mention of these lóak as being wild tagakaólos who are more degraded than the mamánuas. he designates the mountains of hagimitan on the peninsula of san agustin as their habitat. i am inclined to think that the authority for this statement was also a jesuit missionary. [ ] ibid., : , . the conquistas or recently christianized peoples the work of christianizing the pagans of eastern mindanáo was taken up in earnest in by the jesuit missionaries and carried on up to the time of the revolution in . during that time some , souls were led to adopt christianity. these included mandáyas, manóbos, debabáons, mansákas, mañgguáñgans, and mamánuas, and members of the other tribes that live in eastern mindanáo. for the present, however, we will refer to the _conquistas_ of the manóbo, mandáya, mamánua, mañgguáñgan, mansáka, and debabáon tribes. the manÓbo conquistas the inhabitants of all the settlements in the agúsan valley except novela, rosario, the towns south of buai, the towns within the banuáon habitat, and a few settlements of pagan manóbos on the upper umaíam, argáwan, and ihawán, wá-wa and maitum are manobó _conquistas_. on the eastern slope of the pacific cordillera in the vicinity of san miguel (tágo river), on the marihátag and oteiza rivers there are several hundred manóbo _conquistas_. the towns up the hinatuán and bislig rivers are made up of both manóbo and mandáya _conquistas_. the mandÁya conquistas in the agúsan valley the towns on the sulibáo river and perhaps on the adlaian river are made up of mandáya _conquistas_ for the most part. these mandáyas evidently worked in from the hinatuán river for one reason or another, perhaps to avoid missionary activity on the east coast or to escape from moro raids. on the pacific coast we find mandáya _conquistas_ to a greater or less extent in nearly all the municipalities and barrios from tándag to mati, with the exception of such towns as have been formed by immigration of bisáyas from bohol and other places. there can be no doubt but that in former years the mandáyas covered the whole pacific slope from tándag to mati, for we still find recently christianized mandáyas in kolon and alba on the tágo river and in kagwáit and bakolod on the kagwáit river. the inhabitants of these eastern towns are not known by the designation of _conquistas_, but assume the name and status of bisáyas and are not so dependent on the older christians as are the _conquistas_ of the agúsan valley who are called _conquistas_ and treated as inferiors by the older christians. i think that from liñgig to mati all the _barrios_, both of the coast and in the hinterland, are made up of mandáyas that have been christianized since . the mamÁnua conquistas these mamánua _conquistas_ live in the vicinity of anao-aon and malimono' on the northeast coast; in san roque and san pablo, also on lake maínit; on the river asiga, a tributary of the river jabonga; and somewhere up the lanusa river on the east coast. the maÑgguÁÑgan conquistas during my stay on the upper agúsan, there were only two towns of mañgguáñgan _conquistas_--tagusab and pilar--and even these were mere suggestions of towns. it may be, however, that since the appointment of a deputy governor, the great numbers of christianized mañgguáñgans that had fled from the wrath of their enemies into the swamp region at the headwaters of the mánat river have returned and that mañgguáñgan towns now exist. the mansÁka conquistas in compostela, gandia, and tagaunud are found a few mansáka _conquistas_. the inhabitants of these towns, however, are of such a heterogeneous blend that it is difficult to assign any tribal place to them. it may be said, in general, that these towns are still passing through a formative period, the result of which will probably be their complete adoption of mandáya culture and language, if they are left free to follow their own bent. the debabÁon conquistas the debabáon _conquistas_ are found in the town of moncayo and are also scattered about on the upper sálug. the missionaries found the debabáon people very recalcitrant; the comparatively few converts made evinced, on the one hand, all the fickleness and instability of the manóbo and, on the other, the aggressiveness of the mandáya. the bisÁyas or christian filipinos the bisáyas or christian filipinos in the agúsan valley occupy the towns of butuán, talakógon, veruéla, bunáwan, and prosperidad, of which latter they formed, during my last visit to the agúsan valley, a majority. outside of the agúsan valley, they occupy all the towns on the north coast except the towns of tortosa, maasao, tamolayag, and malimono'. on, and in the vicinity of lake maínit, they occupy the towns of sison, timamana, maínit, jabonga, santiago, santa ana and several other small ones. on the east coast they occupy all the coast towns from surigao to bislig. south of bislig only the towns, of kati'il, baganga, karága, santiago, and mati may be said to be bisáya, although the christianized mandáyas of the intervening towns call themselves bisáyas. but even the above-mentioned towns, with the exception of santiago, have hardly any claim to be considered bisáya in the sense in which that word is applied to the bisáyas of the town of surigao. the same holds true of a great portion of the inhabitants of tándag, tágo, la paz, and kagwáit, where the mandáya element in language and in superstitious beliefs still holds sway to a considerable extent among the lower class of the inhabitants. in the agúsan valley a great part of the bisáyas of talakógon can not be considered as bisáyas in the full sense of the word. many of them called sulibáonon are of no higher culture than the _conquistas_ of the river sulibáo from which they come. they are distinctly mandáya in physical type and in manner of life except that they have abandoned the ancient mandáya religious beliefs and adopted those of christianity. they are probably the first group of mandáya _conquistas_ that were induced to leave the sulibáo and take up their abode in talakógon. chapter ii physical characteristics and general appearance of the manÓbos of eastern mindanÁo physical type divergence of types there seem to be differences in physical type between the manóbos on the lower part of the agúsan as far as the bugábus river and those of the ihawán and the upper agúsan rivers. on the upper agúsan the variations become more noticeable as we approach the confines of the mandáyas and the debabáons, both of whom differ from the manóbos in physical characteristics to such an extent that even an ordinary observer can not fail to notice it. again, on the upper agúsan, in the vicinity of tagusab, we find types that remind us of the mañgguáñgan with his manifestly negroid characteristics. over on the tágo river, too, and on the far upper wa-wa, there are groups of so-called manóbos who are clearly descendants of mamánuas. with these exceptions the following delineation holds good, i think, for the great mass of manóbos with whom one comes in contact throughout eastern mindanáo. general physical type in general, the manóbo man is of athletic build and of strong constitution, although he is often short of stature. his muscular development denotes activity, speed, and endurance rather than great strength. corpulency and prominence of the abdomen are never present, so far as i have observed. his skin, as a rule, is of a reddish-brown color that turns to a somewhat dark brown after long exposure to the sun, as in the case of those who engage in fishing in the lake region. the hair is abundant, long, black, straight, and coarse. as we approach the domains of the mañgguáñgans and of the mamánuas, the hair is a little less abundant and shows traces of curliness. occasional waviness may be observed also among those manóbos who live near the territory of the mandáyas, debabáons, and mansákas. beard and body hair are not abundant. in this respect the manóbo differs from the mandáya and from the banuáon, both of whom have a more copious growth (though i can not be definite as regards the latter people), and, in some cases, beards that are abundant enough to suggest admixture with white people. the head appears to be well developed, being rather high and arched, as compared with that of the average bisáya.[ ] there is no flattening of the occiput. this roundness of the posterior part of the cranium, due, as montano[ ] states, to the prominence of the parietal bumps, becomes very apparent when comparison is made with the heads of bisáyas of other islands. the occipital arch of the latter is invariably flattened. [ ] in physical comparisons between manóbos and bisáyas no reference is made to the bisáyas of eastern mindanáo, the great majority of whom are undoubtedly of manóbo or other pagan origin. [ ] une mission aux philippines, , . owing to the prominence of the jawbones and to the above-mentioned height of the cranium, the face is decidedly lozenge-shaped, a feature that distinguishes it, on the one hand, from the long face of the mandáya and of the banuáon and, on the other, from the short, round face of the mamánua and of the mañgguáñgan. montano[ ] says that this peculiar shape is due to the development of the zygomatic arches or cheek bones and to the diminution of the minimum frontal line, that is, the shortest transverse measurement of the forehead. [ ] loc. cit. prognathism is marked but variable according to the testimony of montano, who took the anthropometrical measurements of many crania which he obtained from caves in northeastern mindanáo. the forehead is somewhat high and prominent, and the superciliary ridges are salient. the eyes are brown in color. the palpebral opening is elongated as compared with that of the mandáya, whose eye is round. there is no trace of the mongolian falciform fold, and the transverse axis is perfectly horizontal. the nose is prominent and well-developed but short, and, as a rule, straight. toward the confines of the banuáons we sometimes notice a slight curve upward at the top. the nostrils are somewhat slender, but otherwise well developed. they are a little larger than those of bisáyas. the ridge is broader than that of bisáyas, and the root is lower down. the lips bear resemblance to those of the bisáyas except that the upper lip of the manóbo is more prominent and more developed, due, it is suggested, to the universal, incessant practice of carrying a quid of tobacco partly under it and partly protruding out between it and the lower lip. the chin is round and well developed, but is not prominent. the above statements hold true of the women in all details except that of stature. the difference between the stature of the male and female manóbo is much greater than that between the sexes among bisáyas and other civilized people of the philippines. this difference in the stature of the sexes is apparent in all the tribes of eastern mindanáo with the exception of certain groups of mandáyas, and may be attributed, on the one hand, to the excessive burdens carried, and the onerous labor performed by the women in the discharge of their household and other duties, and, on the other, to the unencumbered outdoor life pursued by the men in their hunting, fishing, and trading expeditions. the other parts of the bodies of both sexes are in good proportions. the thorax is especially well developed, and the feet are, perhaps, inordinately large. the general appearance of the men is somewhat unpleasing and, perhaps, among the manóbos of remote regions, might be said to be coarse. this is especially noticeable among the latter, as their eyes usually bulge out and give them a somewhat wild and even vindictive air. the blackening of the teeth and lips, the quid of black tobacco between the lips, the look of alarm and suspicion, and various other characteristics all tend to heighten this expression. the women have a more pleasing expression, but the timid furtive look, the ungainly gait, and the ungraceful contour of their _abaká_ skirts, detract from the moderate beauty that they possess in their youth. after marriage their beauty wanes incredibly fast. comparing the manóbo's physical and general appearance with that of neighboring peoples, we may say that he stands fifth, the mandáya, mansáka, debabáon, and banuáon leading, while below him stand without any question the mañgguáñgan and the mamánua. he has not the height, the proportions, the fairness, nor the gentility of the first three. he lacks the nobility, courage, and intelligence of the fourth,[ ] but he maintains his superiority over the mañgguáñgan, whose repellent features, sparse hair, scanty clothing, and low intelligence put him only a little above the mamánuas. these latter are only poor homeless forest dwellers like the negritos of luzon, and physically, mentally, and culturally stand lowest in the plane of civilization of all the people of the eastern mindanáo. [ ] my acquaintance with banuáons is so slight that i can not make any definite physical comparison. racial and tribal affinities with our present lack of knowledge concerning the great number of tribes that inhabit not only the island of mindanáo but borneo, sumatra, and other islands of the indies, it is impossible to make any definite statement as to the racial and the tribal affinities of the manóbo people. montano's indonesian theory montano proposed the indonesian theory to explain the origin of the samals, bagóbos, giangas, atás, tagakaólos, manóbos, and mandáyas. he asserts that these peoples are pure indonesians whose origin can not be explained otherwise than by supposing them to be the indigenes of all the islands included under the term indonesia. hence he calls the above tribes indonesians of mindanáo. he claims that these indonesians are the result of a fusion of three elements: ( ) the polynesian, ( ) the malay-bisáya, and ( ) the negrito. the bisáya element, he says, is considerable and becomes apparent in the increase of transverse diameter of the cranium. the negrito element is apparent only in the waviness of the hair, the height and prominence of the forehead, and the darker color of the skin. he further states that the anatomical characteristics of these tribes are their superior stature, their muscular development, and the prominence of the occipital region in contradistinction to the flattening noticeable in malays in general, and especially in those of the philippines. keane's view keane in his ethnology[ ] notes that-- the term "indonesian," introduced by logan to designate the light-colored non-malay inhabitants of the eastern archipelago, is now used as a convenient collective name for all the peoples of malaysia and polynesia who are neither malays nor papuans but of caucasic type. * * * doctor hamy, who first gave this extension to the term indonesian, points out that the battaks and other pre-malay peoples of malaysia so closely resemble the eastern polynesians, that the two groups should be regarded as two branches of an original non-malay stock. although all speak dialects of a common malayo-polynesian language, the physical type is quite distinct and rather caucasic than mongolic, though betraying a perceptible papuan (or negrito) strain especially in new zealand and mikronesia. the true indonesians are of tall stature ( feet inches), muscular frame, rather oval features, high, open forehead, large straight or curved nose, large full eyes always horizontal and with no trace of the third lid, light brown complexion (cinnamon or ruddy brown), long black hair, not lank but slightly curled or wavy, skull generally brachycephalous like that of the melanochroic european. [ ] ethnology, _et seq_., . regarding the indonesians of the philippine islands, he says:[ ] apart from the true negrito aborigines blumentritt distinguishes two separate "malay" invasions, both prehistoric. montano also recognizes these two elements which, however, he more correctly calls indonesian and malay. the indonesians whom he affiliates to the "polynesian family" were the first to arrive, being followed by the malays and then, in the sixteenth century, by the spaniards, who were themselves followed, perhaps also preceded, by chinese and others. thus blumentritt's malays of the first invasion, whom he brings from borneo, are montano's indonesians, who passed through the philippines during their eastward migrations from borneo and other parts of malaysia. the result of these successive movements was that the negritoes were first driven to the recesses of the interior by the indonesians with whom they afterwards intermingled in various degrees. then the indonesians were in their turn driven by the malays from the coast lands and open plains, which are consequently now found occupied mainly by peoples of true malay stock. then with peaceful times fresh blends took place and to previous crossings are now added spaniards and chinese with malays, there "quadroons" and "octoroons" with indonesians, and even here and there with negritoes. it has thus become difficult everywhere to distinguish between the true malays and the indonesians, who are also less known, dwelling in the more remote upland districts, often in association with the negritoes and not always standing at a much higher grade of culture. [ ] op. cit., . the indonesian theory as applied to manÓbos comparing the physical characteristics of the manóbos with those which are predicated of the indonesians by these and other writers, i find that, in the case of the manóbos of the agúsan valley, in stature, waviness of the hair, abundance of the beard, and lightness of the skin color there appears to be a divergence from keane's indonesian standard. keane requires . meters as an average for the stature of the indonesian, whereas the average of the manóbo, as i found it from cursory measurements, is approximately only . meters and doctor montano found it to be only . meters. as to waviness of the hair, i have observed it rarely among the manóbos to which this paper refers. neither is the beard abundant, and as for fairness in the color of the skin, a casual glance at the great mass of manóbos that occupy the agúsan and its tributaries will convince one that their color is decidedly ruddy brown and not light. it is true that in the mountains children and even young women are found with fair complexions, but this is probably due to confinement in the house or to protection from the sun while out of doors. physical type of contiguous peoples in the first part of this chapter a broad comparison was made between the manóbos and the contiguous tribes of eastern mindanáo, but, in order to bring out in stronger relief the physical characteristics of the manóbo, it is considered expedient to give a brief description of the contiguous tribes. the maÑgguÁÑgans in stature the mañgguáñgan is shorter than the manóbo. his physical configuration gives one the impression that he is undersized. his cranium is elongated from the front backward along the antero-posterior curve, there being formed accordingly an enlargement on the upper part of the occiput. from this enlargement downward there is a flattening of the curve. the forehead is large, high, and very prominent, and diverges backward from the plane of the face at an observable angle. the face is narrow and flat, the narrowness being due to the prominence of the lower jaw and to a depression that is formed in the side of the face between the jaw and the cheek bone. the hair is lank, coarse, and in males, scant. the beard is very sparse except in elderly men, and even then it is far from being as abundant as that of the manóbos and especially that of the mandáyas. the nose is broad and conspicuously depressed, while the nasal orifices are rather large. on the whole, the prognathism is considerable but is not as variable as that of manóbos and of mandáyas. there can be no doubt as to the negritic character of the mañgguáñgan. owing to the peculiar circumstances that arose after my arrival on the upper agúsan in , i found it impossible to get into communication with any but the more domesticated mañgguáñgan in the vicinity of compostela, but my observation of their physical and mental characteristics and of their low degree of culture led me to a strong conviction of a negrito origin not far removed. the mandÁyas the mandáya, on the other hand, with the exception of groups on the upper karága and perhaps on the upper kasaúman rivers, is of superior stature. montano found the stature to be only . meters, but the number of men measured by him was so small that we can not base any conclusion on his figures. i did not make any measurements of mandáyas, but it is my impression that the male mandáyas of the kati'il, karága, and manorigao rivers are noticeably taller than manóbos. in fact, one meets a great number that seem to come up to the indonesian standard of keane. the mandáya's cranial conformation differs, according to montano, from that of the manóbo only in one particular, namely, in the straightness of the middle part of the antero-posterior curve of the cranium. in other respects his cranium is similar to that of the manóbo. the face is oval rather than lozenge-shaped and has a pleasant, sympathetic look, due no doubt to the greater width of the palpebral opening, the largeness of the eye, and the length, darkness, and prominence of the eyelashes. the nose is straight and prominent, occasionally quite european, and the nostrils are not depressed nor flattened. their lower edges, instead of being horizontal, slant slightly upward from the tip. the nasal apertures are of medium size. the superciliary ridges are prominent, but as the hair of the eyebrows is constantly kept shaved, there is not such an impression of prominence as in the christianized mandáyas of the southeastern seaboard of mindanáo. as to the abundance of beard, it is hard to form a judgment because from youth it is constantly and conscientiously eradicated. the hair of the head is long, black, and abundant, often somewhat wavy and not as coarse, i think, as that of manóbos. the most striking characteristic of the mandáya is his fair color. it is not my intention to give the impression that he is one of a "lost white tribe" or that he is entitled to be called white in the sense in which we use the term when speaking of europeans. but for a native of the philippine islands he certainly may be denominated white, though his skin is not tawny white like that of the japanese or chinese but has a peculiar ashy tint. i have seen a few individuals that were very nearly as white as the average american, but who otherwise were not of a pronounced caucasian type. it is very difficult to explain the prevailing fairness of this tribe except by presupposing an admixture of some other blood. the manóbo lives in as dark forests and on as lofty mountains as those occupied by mandáyas. his manner of life is practically the same, and yet the average tint of his skin is far darker, so much so that the mandáya, in speaking not only of him but of mañgguáñgan and even of bisáya, spurns them all as being "black." the debabÁons as to the debabáons, i have not come in touch with a sufficient number of them to enable me to make any general statements. the groups that i met in moncayo, on the sálug where the baglásan river empties into it, and in the country extending some kilometers to the west of it, closely resemble the mandáyas in physical characters, and yet in language, general culture, and religious belief, and by genealogy, they belong to the manóbo tribe. it is probable that they are the result of intermarriage of manóbo men of baóbo and ihawán origin with mandáya women of the lower sálug and tágum rivers. the mamÁnuas the mamánuas need little comment. they are full-blooded negritos in every respect, physical and cultural, like the negritos of mariveles, as montano very explicitly states. the manóbos of the upper tágo river constantly intermarry with mamánua women, as i had occasion to observe on several visits which i made to that region. it is probable that the same thing takes place on the húbo, marihátag, lanusa, and kantílan rivers. in the vicinity of lake maínit, a great many mamánuas are reported to be half-breeds. the banuÁons i visited only one settlement of banuáons, near the mouth of the maásam river. i met members of the tribe here and there along the agúsan between san luis and las nieves, but my observations of them were casual and superficial so that i am not prepared to make any statements as to their physical characteristics. all reports, both of manóbos and bisáyas and the testimony of the jesuit missionaries, state that they are a superior people. it is probable that this group of people, known as banuáon in the agúsan valley, is a branch of the bukídnons of whom the celebrated missionary urios and others make such commendatory mention,[ ] the former in one place going so far as to make the statement that the bukídnons are fit to be kings of the manóbos. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, passim. physical appearance as modified by dress and ornamentation the upper garment of both sexes among the manóbos is a closed square-cut garment with sleeves and with a sufficient opening on top to admit the head. it fits the body either closely or fairly loosely. it is made of _abaká_ fiber when imported cloth is not available. it is always adorned with embroidery of imported red, white, blue, and yellow cotton, on the cuffs, on the seams of the shoulders and the side, and on the neck and lower edges. the garment of the man differs from that of the woman in being all of one color, except that across the back, over the shoulders, and as far down as the breasts, are horizontal, parallel, equidistant lines of inwoven blue cotton yarn. the body and sleeves of the woman's garment are of different colors. thus, if the sleeves are black, the body is red and vice versa. another distinguishing feature is the profuseness of cotton embroidery on the front of the garment. the lower garment of the man is a pair of trousers, generally of native cotton and _abaká_ fiber, reaching somewhat below the knees, with cotton embroidery in the above-mentioned colors on the sides and at the bottom. the ends of the draw string that holds the trousers in place hang down in front and are ornamented with tassels of the same colors. the lower garment of the women is a doubled sacklike skirt of _abaká_ fiber, almost invariably of a reddish color, with beautiful designs in horizontal panels or with a series of horizontal equidistant black stripes. a girdle of human hair or of plaited vegetable fiber, held in place with a shell button or with a plaited cord, retains this garment in place. the consequent gathering of the capacious opening of the skirt at the waist and the bulging out at the bottom (which is just a little below the knees), detracts not a little from the gracefulness of the manóbo woman's figure. from the girdle hang, in varying number and quality, beads, hawk bells, redolent, medicinal, and magic seeds, sea shells, and fragrant herbs. the hair is worn long by both sexes. it is dressed much like that of a chinese woman except that it is twisted and tied up in a chignon on the crown of the head. the man wears a long narrow bamboo hat which protects only the top of the head, and which is held on the head by two strings passing from end to end behind the ears. it usually has a plume of feathers standing up at right angles to the back part. the woman wears no hat as a general rule, but in lieu thereof adorns her head with a bamboo comb, at times inlaid with mother-of-pearl, at others covered with a lamina of beaten silver, but nearly always ornamented with decorative incisions. a pair of ear plugs with ornamental metal laminae are placed in the enlarged ear lobes. i have seen men who had each ear lobe pierced in one or two places and small buttons fastened over the orifices, but i never saw a case of a manóbo woman with any other perforation in the ears than the great aperture in each lobe for her ear disks. around the neck the woman wears in more or less profusion, according to her means and opportunities for purchase, necklets of beads, and necklaces of seeds, beads, shells, and crocodile teeth. on her forearms she wears one or more sea-shell bracelets, circlets of black coral or of copper wire, and a close-fitting ringlet of plaited _nito_. this last adornment is also worn by men, who dispense with the use of other forms of bracelets, but who usually adorn the upper arm with a finely plaited ligature made of a dark fibrous vine. both men and women frequently wear similar ligatures just below one or both knees. on solemn and festive occasions the woman decks her ankles with loose coils of heavy wire. a square knapsack of hemp, frequently fringed with cotton yarn of many colors and suspended from the back by strings passing over the shoulders and under the arms, constitutes the man's receptacle for his chewing paraphernalia. it may be more or less elaborate in beadwork and embroidery, but as a rule there is no ornamentation of this kind. both sexes blacken the lips with soot black, and continually keep them more or less in that condition by the use of a large quid of tobacco, mixed with lime and _máu-mau_ juice, the whole being carried between the lips. this mixture serves not only as an indispensable and pleasing narcotic, but also as the principal factor in bringing about the complete and permanent staining of the teeth. in order that "they may not look like dogs," both sexes have the upper and lower incisors ground at an early age. they proceed at once to stain what is left with frequent applications of the above-mentioned masticatories. as white and sharp teeth are doglike, so beard and body hair are suggestive of the monkey. hence all straggling hairs are sedulously and constantly eradicated. tattooing by both sexes is universal. it consists of the puncturing of the skin and the rubbing in of a soot made from a very common variety of resin. the figures tattooed, often artistic, are representations of stars, leaves, crocodiles, etc. both sexes are tattooed on the breast, arms, and fingers, but it is customary for women to have an extra design on the calves of the legs and sometimes on the whole leg. as to the christianized manóbos, it is obvious that the great majority have adopted the garb of their bisáya brethren and abandoned the use of ornaments and mutilations characteristic of their pagan compeers. the change was enjoined by spanish missionaries for religious reasons and, in the case of clothing, was encouraged by bisáya traders for commercial motives, but did not benefit the new christians, as far as my observation goes, either religiously, financially, or esthetically. chapter iii a survey of the material and sociological culture of the manÓbos of eastern mindanÁo general material culture dwellings for a home the manóbo selects a site that is clearly approved by supernatural agencies, and that is especially suitable for agricultural purposes by reason of its fertility, and for defense, because of its strategic position. hereon he builds an unpretentious, square, one-roomed building at a height of from . meters to meters from the ground. the house measures ordinarily about meters by meters. posts, usually light, and varying in number between and , support the floor, roof, and intervening parts. the materials are all rattan lashed and seldom consist of anything but light materials taken from the immediate vicinity. the floor is made of slats of palm or bamboo, the roof is thatched with palm leaves, and the walls are light, horizontal, superimposed poles laid to about the height of the shoulders of a person sitting on the floor. the space between the top of the walls and the roof constitutes a continuous window. this open space above the low house wall permits the inmates during a fight to shoot their arrows at the enemy in any direction. the one ceilingless room serves for kitchen, bedroom, and reception room. there is no decoration nor furniture. scattered around or hung up, especially in the vicinity of the fireplace, are the simple household utensils, and the objects that constitute the property of the owner--weapons, baskets, and sleeping mats. on the floor farthest away from the door are the hearth frames, one or more, and the stones that serve as support for the cooking pots. a round log with more or less equidistant notches, leading from the ground up to the narrow doorway, admits the visitor into the house. under the house is the pigpen. here the family pigs and the chickens make a living off such refuse or remnants as fall from above. the sanitary condition of this part of the establishment is in no wise praiseworthy. the only redeeming point is that the bad odors do not reach the house, being carried away by the current of air that is nearly always passing. the house itself is far from being perfectly clean. the low, cockroach-infested thatch, the smoke-begrimed rafters, the unswept, dirt-bestrewn floor, the bug-infested slats, the smoke-laden atmosphere, the betel-nut-tinged walls and floor, these and other features of a small over-populated house make cleanliness almost impossible. the order and quietude of the home is no more satisfactory. the crying of the babies, the romping and shouting of the boys, the loud talking of the elders, the grunting of the pigs below, the whining and growling of the dogs above, and the noise of the various household occupations produce in an average house containing a few families a din that baffles description. but this does not disturb the serenity of the primitive inmates, who laugh, chew, talk, and work, and enjoy themselves all the more for the animation of which they form a great part. alimentation in the absence of such a luxury as matches, the fire-saw or friction method of producing fire is resorted to, although the old steel and flint method is sometimes employed. the cooking outfit consists of a few homemade earthen pots, supplemented by green bamboo joints, bamboo ladles, wooden rice paddles, and nearly always a coconut shell for receiving water from the long bamboo water tube. the various articles of food may be divided into two classes, one of which we will call the staple part of the meal and the other the concomitant. it must be remembered that for the manóbo, as well as for so many other peoples of the philippine islands, rice or _camotes_ or some other bulky food is the essential part of the meal, whereas fish, meat, and other things are merely complements to aid in the consumption of the main food. under the heading, then, of staples we may classify in the order of their importance or abundance the following: _camotes_, rice, taro, sago, cores of wild palm trees, maize, tubers and roots (frequently poisonous). among the concomitant or supplementary foods are the following, their order being indicative of the average esteem in which they are held: fish (especially if salted), domestic pork, wild boar meat (even though putrefied), venison, iguana, larvae from rotted palm trees, python, monkey, domestic chicken, wild chicken, birds, frogs, crocodile, edible fungi, edible fern, and bamboo shoots. as condiments, salt, _if on hand_, and red pepper are always used, but it is not at all exceptional that the latter alone is available. sweetpotatoes, taro, tubers, and rice are cooked by steaming. maize and the cores of palm trees are roasted over the fire. there are only two orthodox methods of cooking fish, pork, venison, iguana and chicken: ( ) in water without lard; ( ) by broiling. python, monkey, crocodile, wild chicken, and birds must be prepared by the latter method. when the meal is prepared, it is set out on plates, banana leaves, or bark platters, with the water in glasses or in the coconut-shell dipper. on ordinary occasions the husband, wife, children and female relatives of a family eat together, the unmarried men, widowers, and visitors partaking of their meals alone, but on festive occasions, all the male members, visitors included, gather in the center of the floor. the hands and mouth are washed both before and after the meal. all begin to eat together on the floor. the men eat with their left hands and, on occasions, when the remotest suspicion of trouble exists, keep their right hand on their ever-present weapons. it is customary not to leave one's place after the meal without giving due notice. narcotic and stimulating enjoyments the most common and indispensable source of everyday enjoyment is the betel-nut quid, it would be an inexcusable breach of propriety to neglect to offer betel nut to a fellow tribesman. not to partake of it when offered would be considered a severance of friendship. the essential ingredients of the quid are betel leaf, betel nut, and lime, but it is common to add tobacco, cinnamon, lemon rind, and several other aromatic elements. at times substitutes may be used for the betel leaf and the betel nut, if there is a lack of either. another important masticatory is the tobacco quid with its ingredients of lime and _máu-mau_ juice. this is carried constantly between the lips. occasionally, however, the men like to smoke a little mixed tobacco in small pipes or in little leaf cones. the greatest and the most cherished enjoyment of all is drinking: men, women, and children indulge, the last two sparingly. in manóboland the fame of a banquet is in direct proportion to the number of those who became drunk, sobriety being considered effeminate, and a refusal to drink an affront to the host. the main drinks are of four kinds: _cabo negro_ toddy, sugarcane brew, _bahi_ toddy, and mead. the first and third are nothing but the sap of the palms that bear their respective names, the sap being gathered in the same manner as the ordinary coconut _tuba_. the second or sugarcane brew is a fermented drink made from the juice of the sugarcane boiled with a variety of the ginger plant. it is the choice drink of manóbo deities. the fourth drink mentioned above is mead. it is similar to the last mentioned except that instead of sugar-cane juice, honey is used in its preparation. one feature of the drinking is that it is seldom unaccompanied by meat or fish. hence, on every occasion that a supply of these may be obtained, there is a drinking bout. religious sacrifices, too, afford abundant opportunity for indulgence. quarrels sometimes ensue as a result of the flowing bowl, and war expeditions are proposed, but on the whole it may be said that the manóbo is a peaceful and a merry drinker. means of subsistence the manóbo makes his living by farming, fishing, hunting, and trapping. he clears a patch of the primeval forest, and his womenfolk clean off the brush, sow broadcast a little rice, plant _camotes_, some taro, maize, and sugarcane. as the rice crop seldom is sufficient for the sustenance of his household, the manóbo must rely also on the _camote_ for his maintenance. he obtains his supply of fish from the streams and rivers. when the water is deep and the current is not strong, he shoots the fish with a special bow and arrow. when the water is shallow and swift, he makes use of bamboo traps and at times poisons the whole stream. to provide himself with meat, he occasionally starts off into the forest with dogs and seldom returns without a deer or a wild boar. he keeps several spring traps set somewhere in the forest but it is only during the rainy season that he may be said to be successful with these. he has a trap for monkeys, a snare for birds, a decoy for wild chickens, and uses his bow and arrow on monkeys and birds. with the meat that he procures from the above sources, together with lizards and pythons which he sometimes catches, and fungi, larvae, and palm trees, which he finds in the forest, he manages to fill in the intervals between the ceremonial and the secular celebrations that recur so frequently during the year, and to keep himself fairly well supplied. weapons and implements the bolo and, in some districts, the dagger, is the inseparable companion of the manóbo. on the trails he always carries a lance and frequently a shield. for war he has an _abaká_ coat of mail and a bow and arrow. in time of alarm he sets out bamboo caltrops, makes an abatis of fallen trees, and places human spring traps around his lofty house. for work he has a bolo and a primitive adze[sic]. these, with a rice header, a small knife, a hunting spear, a special arrow for hunting, a fish spear, and perhaps a few fishhooks, serve all the purposes of his primitive life. with one or the other of these he fells the mighty trees of the primordial forest, performs all the operations of agriculture, of hunting and fishing, builds himself a house, in certain districts hews out shapely canoes, whittles out handsome bolo sheaths, and makes a variety of other necessary and often artistic articles. they are the sum total of his tools and serve him instead of all the implements of modern civilization. industrial activities the burden of toil falls on the woman. the man fells the heavy timber once a year, builds the house, hunts, fishes, traps, and fights. practically all the rest of the daily labor is the woman's share. the man is the master, and as such he attends to all matters that may arise between his family and that of others. besides the occupations mentioned above, the man may engage, usually under the stress of a contract or of a debt, in canoe making, mining, and basket making. the women weave all the clothes of the family except when imported cloth has been obtained. most of the manóbos' clothes, both for men and women, are made of native-woven cloth. the woman does all the sewing. a needle of brass wire in the absence of an imported needle, and a thread of _abaká_ fiber, constitute her sewing outfit. almost all the material employed in weaving is _abaká_ fiber. the dyes are vegetable, their fastness depending upon the duration of the boiling. the manóbo woman, unlike the mandáya women, and women of most other tribes in mindanáo, has never developed the art of inweaving ornamental figures. the best she can do is to produce warp and weft stripes. the making of simple earthen pots is also one of the industries of the woman. pots are not, however, made in great quantities, the demand being, i think, a little greater than the supply. bed mats and rice bags are made out of various materials such as _pandanus_ and _buri_ in the ordinary philippine style. the work is done principally by the woman and the supply is not equal, as a rule, to the family needs. general sociological culture domestic life _marital relations_.--in his choice of a wife the man is guided to a great extent by the wishes of his relatives, but the woman is given no option. there are no antenuptial relations between the pair, the marriage contract and all arrangements being made by their respective relatives. the transactions usually cover years. the woman's relatives demand for her an amount of worldly goods--slaves, pigs, bolos, and spears--that is almost impossible of payment. the man's relatives, on the other hand, strive to comply, but make use of every means to gain the friendship of the other side and thereby bring about a more considerate demand. when, perhaps after years of effort, an agreement is reached, a great feast is prepared by the two parties. the final payment is made by the man's relatives, and the following day a reciprocal banquet is given by the girl's relatives, in the course of which one-half of the value of the payment made by the man's relatives is returned by the girl's relatives as an indication that "she has not been sold like a slave." the marriage ceremony consists in the exchange of rice between the bride and the bridegroom. this is followed by a religious rite that consists mainly in determining by divination the fate of the couple. marriage is sometimes effected by capture, usually, i think, with the connivance of the woman. but the procedure involves a heavier payment to the throng of armed relatives that invariably set out in pursuit of the captors. prenatal marriage contracts are rare, but child marriage without cohabitation is practiced to a certain extent, especially among the more influential members of the tribe. the age for marriage is about the age of puberty for the women and about the age of for the men. polygamy is a recognized institution, but is comparatively rare except among those who have the means to pay for the luxury of a second, third, or fourth wife. it presupposes the consent of the first wife, who always retains and maintains her position, there being no jealously, as far as my observation goes, and few domestic broils. polyandry is considered swinish, and concubinage is unknown. divorce is not in accord with tribal customs. the same holds true of prostitution. there is no evidence of the practice of endogamy which is so widespread among the oceanic peoples. as a rule, however, the manóbo marries within his own tribe. this is due to his environment, to the hostile relations he ever holds with surrounding tribes, and to differences of religious beliefs. the only impediment to marriage is consanguinity, but even this impediment may be removed in the case of cousins by appropriate religious ceremonies. consanguineous marriages are rare. upon the death of the husband, the wife is considered to belong to his relatives. upon the presentation of a second suitor, she is remarried in the same manner as on her first marriage, but the payments demanded are not so high. marriages seem to result in reciprocal good understanding and happiness. the wife goes about her manifold duties day after day without a murmur, while her master keeps his weapons in good condition, fishes and hunts occasionally, goes on a trading trip at times, takes part in social gatherings, lends his voice in time of trouble, and goes off to fight if there should be occasion for it. faithfulness to the marriage tie is one of the most striking features of manóboland. adultery is extremely rare. the husband lives, at least during the first part of the married life, with his father-in-law, and displays toward his parents-in-law the same feelings that he entertains for his own parents. his wife is always under the eyes of her own parents, so that he is restrained from indulging in any marital bickerings. _pregnancy, birth, and childhood_.--the desire for children is strong. hence voluntary abortion and infanticide are unknown. in case of involuntary abortion, which is comparatively frequent, the fetus is hung or buried under the house. when the child begins to quicken in the womb, the mother undergoes a process of massage at the beginning of every lunar month. parturition is effected almost invariably without any difficulty, the umbilical cord is cut usually with a bamboo sliver, the mother sits up to prevent a reflux of the afterbirth into the womb, the child is washed, and the operation is over. if the mother can not suckle her child it is nourished with rice water, sugar cane juice, and other light food, but is not given to another to be suckled. in a few days after her delivery the mother is up and back at her work. a little birth party takes place soon after the birth in which the midwife receives a slight guerdon for her services. the child is named, without any ceremony, after some ancestor or famous manóbo, or occasionally receives a name indicative of something which happened at the time of the birth. he is treated with the greatest tenderness and lack of restraint. as he grows up he learns the ways of the forest, and about the age of he is a full-fledged little man. if the child is a girl, she helps her mother from the first moment that she is able to be of service. birth anomalies are rare. i have seen several albinos and several people who might be called in a loose sense hermaphrodites. _medicine, sickness, and death_.--the manóbo attributes some twelve bodily ailments to natural causes, and for the cure of such he believes in the efficacy of about as many herbs and roots. for wounds, tobacco juice and the black residue of the smoking pipe are considered a good remedy. betel nut and betel leaf are a very common cure for pains in the stomach. the gall of snakes has a potency of its own for the same trouble. as a rule, all natural remedies are applied externally until such time as they prove unavailing, and the symptoms assume a more serious aspect. whenever an ailment is of a lingering character, especially if accompanied by increasing emaciation and not classifiable as one of the familiar maladies, it is attributed to magic causes. certain individuals may have the reputation of being able to compound various noxious substances, the taking of which, it is believed, may superinduce lingering ailments. the pulverized bone from a corpse or the blood of a woman, dried in the sun and exposed to the light of the moon and then mixed with finely cut human hair, are example of such compounds. other magic medicines exist such as aphrodisiacs, and bezoar stones. when it is decided that the ailment is due to any of these magic causes, neutralizing methods must be resorted to, the nature and application of which are very secret. epidemics are attributed to the malignancy of sea demons, and by way of propitiation, and inducement to these plague spirits to hurry off with their epidemic, offerings placed on raftlets are launched in the nearest rivers. as soon as it is realized that the malady is beyond the power of natural or of magic resources, recourse is had to the deities or good spirits, as will be explained under the resume of religion. upon the occurrence of a death, wild scenes frequently take place, the relatives being unable to restrain their grief. signals, by bamboo horns, are often boomed out to neighboring settlements to warn them to be on their guard. war raids to settle old feuds are sometimes decided upon on these occasions, so all trails leading to the house are closed. the corpse is washed and laid out on its back in its best apparel. the coffin is a hexagonal piece of wood made out of a log with a three-faced lid also hewn out of a log. the body is often wrapped in a grass mat before being laid in the coffin. before decomposition sets in, the coffin is borne away by men amidst great grief and loud shouts. a high piece of ground is selected in a remote part of the forest for the last resting place of the deceased. a shallow grave is dug, a roof of thatch is erected, a potful of boiled rice is placed over the grave as a last collation for the departed one, and the burial party hurry back in fear to the settlement. as soon as they can provide themselves with temporary huts they almost always abandon the settlement. _social and family enjoyments_.--music, instrumental and vocal, and dancing are the two great sources of domestic enjoyment. there are several kinds of instruments, which i will mention in the order of their importance and frequency of use. the drum, the gong, four varieties of flutes, four species of guitars, a violin, and a jew's-harp. with the exception of the first two, the instruments are made of bamboo and are, in every sense of the word, of the most primitive kind. the strings are of vine, bamboo, or _abaká_ fiber. the drum is the instrument of most frequent use. it is played during all dancing and at other times when a tribesman feels inclined. it is used as a signal to give alarm or to call an absent one. during the dance, religious or secular, it is nearly always accompanied by the gong. the use of the other instruments seems to depend upon the caprice of the individuals, though two of them appear to have a religious character. with the exception of the gong and the jew's-harp, all of these instruments can be made to produce varied and pleasing rhythms or music, according to the knowledge and skill of the performer. each strain has its appropriate name, taken frequently from the name of the animal that it is supposed to imitate. instrumental music, in general, is of minor tonality, melancholy, weird, and suggestive in some ways of chinese music. bamboo stampers are sometimes used to give more animation to a dancing celebration, and bamboo sounders are attached to looms to draw attention to the industry of the weaver. songs are always sung as solos. they are all extemporaneous and for the most part legendary. the language is archaic and difficult for an outsider to understand. the singing is a kind of declamation, with long slurs, frequent staccatos, and abrupt endings. of course, there are war songs that demand loudness and rapidity, but on the whole the song music is as weird and melancholy as the instrumental. ceremonial chants do not differ from secular songs, except that they treat of the doings of a supernatural world, and are the medium through which supplications are made to supernatural beings. perhaps the greatest of all social enjoyments, both for men and deities, is the dance. it is performed by one person at a time. men, women and children take part. dressed in a woman's skirt and decked out in all obtainable finery, the dancer keeps perfect time to the rhythm of the drum and the clang of the gong. political organization _system of government and social control_.--manóboland is divided into districts, more or less extensive, which are the property of the different clans. each district is under the nominal leadership of the warrior chiefs and of the more influential men. in time of peace these districts are open to everybody, but in time of war--and wars were formerly very frequent--only persons of tried friendship are permitted to enter. a clan consists of a chief whose authority is merely nominal, and of a number of his relatives varying from to perhaps souls. the whole system is patriarchal, no coercion being used unless it is sanctioned by the more influential members, approved by the consensus of opinion of the people, and in accord with traditional custom. the authority of the elder people is respected as long as they are physically and mentally able to participate in public gatherings. those who have distinguished themselves by personal prowess always command a following, but they have a greater influence in time of trouble than in time of peace. perfect equality reigns among the members of the clan, except in the one respect that the recognized warriors are entitled to the use of a red headkerchief, jacket, and pantaloons, each of these articles, beginning with the first, being added as the number of people whom the warrior has killed is increased. the chieftainship naturally falls to one who has attained the rank of _bagáni_--that is, to one who has killed a certain number of persons--provided he is otherwise sufficiently influential to attract a following. his duties consist in lending his influence to settle disputes and in redressing the wrongs of those who care to appeal to him. as a priest he is thought to be under the protection of a war god whose desire for blood he must satisfy. the _bagáni_ also acts as a medicine man, for he is reputed to have certain magic powers both for good and for evil. the natural secretiveness of the _bagáni_ made it difficult for me to secure much information on this point, but his power of harming at a distance and of making himself invisible are matters of general belief. in his character as a priest, he performs ceremonies for the cure of diseases in which fluxes of blood occur. _methods of warfare_.--there is no military organization in manóboland. the greater part of those who form a war party are relatives of the aggrieved one, though it is usual to induce some others of acknowledged prowess to take part. no resentment is harbored by the opposing party toward paid warriors. vendettas and debts are the most usual cause of war, and not, as has been reported, glory and the capture of slaves. there is never wanting on the part of those who originate the war a reasonable motive. the vendetta system is not only recognized, but vengeance is considered incumbent on the relatives of one who has been killed, and, as a reminder, a piece of green rattan is sometimes strung up in the house. the rattan suggests that until it rots the wrong will not be forgotten. if the father is unable to avenge the wrong, he bequeathes[sic] the revenge to his son as a sacred legacy. sometimes another person is deputed to take vengeance, in which case no blame is attached to him. the peculiar custom prevails of killing a third party who may be neutral, or of seizing his property, but i have known such an act to be resented. as a result of this custom a war party returning from an unsuccessful raid is dangerous. there is usually no formal declaration of war. in fact, the greatest secrecy is generally observed, and in urgent cases a body of ambushers proceed at once to kill the first one of the enemy that happens to pass their lurking place. as a rule, the enemy's house and his actions are watched for weeks, perhaps for years, until a favorable opportunity for attack presents itself. the usual times for undertaking an expedition are during the rice harvest and after a death. the preparation consists in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the enemy's house and of its environment. everything being ready, the warriors assemble, a sacrifice is made, omens are taken, and the band starts out at such an hour as will enable them to reach the vicinity of the enemy about nightfall. from the last stopping point a few warriors make a final reconnaissance in the gloom of the night, release the enemy's traps, and return. the whole band, numbering anywhere from to , advance and, surrounding the house, await the dawn, for it is at the first blush of the morning that sleep is supposed to be heaviest. moreover, there is then sufficient light to enable the party to make the attack. hence the peep of dawn is almost always the hour of attack. if the enemy's house is within spear reach, it is usually an easy matter to put the inmates to death, but if it is a high house, and, especially, if the inmates are well prepared, a warrior climbs up silently under the house and spears one of them. this, followed by the killing of pigs and by the battle cry, usually causes consternation. a battle of arrows then takes place; there is a bandying of fierce threats, taunts, and challenges, and the attacking party endeavors to set the roof on fire with burning arrows. if they succeed the inmates flee from the flames, but only the children, as a rule, escape the bolo and the spear. it is seldom that the attack is prolonged more than a few hours, and it is seldom that the attack is unsuccessful, for if other means fail, hunger and thirst will drive the besieged ones to flight, in which case they become the victims of the besieging warriors. if one of the latter is wounded or killed, the attack is abandoned at once, such an occurrence being considered extremely inauspicious. each warrior gets credit for the number of people whom he kills, and is entitled to the slaves that he may capture. the warrior chiefs open the breasts of one or more of the headmen of the slain, insert a portion of their charm collars into the openings, and consume the heart and liver in honor of their war spirits. during the return home the successful warriors make the forest resound with the weird ululation of the battle cry, and adorn their lances with palm fronds. upon arrival at their settlement they are welcomed with drum and song and loud acclaim. a purificatory bath is followed by a feast in which each one recounts the minutest details of the attack. after the feast some of the captives may be given to warriors who were unlucky or who desire to satisfy their vengeance. the captives are dispatched in the near-by forest. ambush is also a very ordinary method of warfare. several warriors station themselves in a selected position near the trail and await their enemy. whenever there is open rupture between two parties, it is customary for each of them to erect a high house in a place remote and difficult of access, and to surround it with such obstacles as will make it more dangerous. in these houses, with their immediate relatives and with such warriors as desire to take their part, they bide their time in a state of constant watch and ward. when both parties to a feud are tired, either of fighting constantly or of taking refuge in flight, a peacemaking may be brought about through the good services of friendly and influential tribesmen. on the appointed day, the parties meet, balance up their blood debts and other obligations and decide on a term within which to pay them. as an evidence of their sincere desire to preserve peace and to make mutual restitution, a piece of green rattan is cut by the leaders, and a little beeswax is burnt, both operations being symbolic of the fate that will befall the one that breaks his plighted word. _intertribal and analogous relations_.--intertribal relations between pagan manóbos and christtianized[sic] manóbos, and between the former and bisáyas were comparatively pacific during my residence in the agúsan valley. between manóbos and other mountain tribes, excepting mañgguáñgans, the relations were, with casual exceptions, rather friendly, due, no doubt, to the lessons learned by the manóbos in their long struggles with mandáyas, banuáons, and debabáons up to the advent of the missionaries about . the manóbos are inferior to the tribes mentioned in tribal cohesion and in intellect. their dealings, however, with mañgguáñgans, who are undoubtedly their physical and intellectual inferiors, present a different aspect. with the mandáyas and debabáons, they have helped to reduce the once extensive mañgguáñgan tribe to the remnant that it is to-day. manóbos and other mountain tribes have little to do with each other. only particular individuals of the various tribes, who have the happy faculty of avoiding trouble, travel among other tribes. in general, manóbos are afraid of the aggressiveness of their neighbors (excluding the mañgguáñgans), and their neighbors f ear manóbo instability and hot-headedness; hence both sides pursue the prudent policy of avoidance. interclan relations have been comparatively peaceful since the establishment of the special government in the agúsan valley. occasional killings took place formerly and probably still take place in remote regions, notably on the upper baóbo. it is probable that since my departure from the agúsan in these murders take place much less frequently, as the special government organized in has made great headway in getting in contact with the more warlike people of the interior. up to the time of my departure dealings between the various clans were purely commercial and of a sporadic nature. old enmities were not forgotten, and it was considered more prudent to have as little as possible to do with one another. on all occasions, when there is any apprehension of danger, arms are worn. during meals, even of festive occasions, the manóbo eats with his left hand, holding his right in readiness for an attack. the guests at a feast are seated in such a way that an attack may be easily guarded against. various other laws of intercourse, such as those governing the passing of one person behind another and method of unsheathing a bolo, regulate the dealings of man with man and clan with clan. commercial relations between bisáyas and manóbos, both pagan and christianized, constitute, on the part of the first-mentioned, a system of deliberate and nefarious spoliation which has been denounced from the time of the first missionaries and which, by the establishment of trading posts by the government, eventually will be suppressed. absolutely inadequate values both in buying and selling commodities, use of false weights and measures, defraudation in accounts, demands of unspeakably high usury, wheedling by the _puának_ or friendship system, advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates, especially just before the rice harvest, and the system of commutation by which an article not contracted for was accepted in payment though at a paltry price--these were the main features of the system. it may be said that the resultant and final gain amounted to between and , per cent. the bartering was carried on in a spirit of dissimulation, the manóbo being cozened into the idea that the sale was an act of friendship and involved a comparative loss on the part of the bisáya. a period, more or less extended, was allowed him wherein to complete the payment, with a promise of further liberal advances. since the manóbo has become aware of the stupendous gain of the bisáya, he is not so prompt in his payments and in fact often thwarts his creditor by deliberate delays. hence the frequent bickerings, quarrels, and ill will that are ever a result of these commercial relations. it is needless to say that throughout the valley there was most undue fluctuation of prices. moreover, the manóbo sold a part of his rice in harvest time at centavos a sack, and in time of scarcity repurchased it at as much as pesos. the internal commerce of the manóbos presents, on the whole, a very different spectacle. it consists in simple exchanges. there is no circulating medium. the units of exchange are slaves (valued at from to pesos each), pigs, and plates, but with the exception of the first, these units are not constant in value. the measures used are the _gántang_, a cylindrical wooden vessel with a capacity of from to liters; the _kabán_,[ ] which contains gántang; the yard, measured from the end of the thumb to the middle of the sternum; the span, the fathom, the finger, and the finger joint. [ ] called also _bákid_ and _anéga_. a _kabán_ is measured by counting out _gántang_. slavery is a recognized institution, but since the diminution of intertribal and interclan wars the number of slaves has diminished. slaves were originally obtained by capture and then passed from hand to hand in making marriage payments. it sometimes occurs, in an exigency, that a man delivers a child, even his own, into captivity. the slave is generally not ill-treated but has to do all the work that is assigned to him. he has no rights of any kind, possesses no property except a threadbare suit, and is usually not allowed to marry. however, he receives a sufficiency of food and seems to be contented with his lot. administration of justice _general principles and various laws_.--it is frequently stated by bisáyas and others that manóbo justice consists in the oppression of the weak by the strong, but i have not found this to be true. the manóbo is too independent and too much a lover of revenge to brook coercion. he recognizes a set of customary rules, and any departure from them is resented by himself and by his relatives. nearly all violations of rights are considered as civil and not as criminal wrongs, and upon due compensation are condoned. failure on the part of the offender to make this compensation leads the aggrieved man and his relatives to take justice into their own hands. the guilty one in nearly every case is allowed a fair and impartial hearing in the presence of his own relatives. the matter is argued out, witnesses are called, and the offender's own relatives generally exert their influence to make him yield with good will. hence the feast that follows nearly every case of successful arbitration. one of the fundamental customs of the manóbos is to regard as a duty the payment of one's debts, and this duty is performed sacredly and often at a sacrifice. another fundamental custom is the right of revenge. revenge is a sacred duty that is bequeathed from generation to generation, and from it result the long and terrible feuds that have devastated manóboland. customary law is based on the intense conservation of the manóbo, fostered by the priests and strengthened by a system of religious injunctions and interdictions. anyone who violates these taboos or interdictions becomes liable for all evil consequences that may follow. property rights are understood and rigidly upheld, so much so that there seems to be no conception of a gift as such. large tracts of land are considered the property of a clan, but anyone on good terms with the clan may settle on the land and may have all the rights of a clansman except those of fishing. each individual becomes the temporary owner of the land that he selects and of the crops that he plants thereon. as soon as he abandons the land it becomes the collective property of the clan. land disputes are unknown. property that is the result of one's labor or one's purchase belongs to the individual except in the case of women, children, and slaves. loss of and damage to property belonging to another must be made good, no excuses being admitted. the law of contracts is stringent, but a certain amount of consideration is shown in case of a failure to fulfill a contract on time, unless a definite stipulation to the contrary has been previously made. all contracts are made in the presence of witnesses, and frequently a knotted rattan slip, representing the number of items or the number of days to elapse before payment, is delivered by the one who makes the contract. nearly all transactions are made on a credit basis, hence frequent disputes arise out of the failure of one party or the other to fulfill the terms of the contract. the failures are sometimes due to the fact that one individual man depends on payment from another in order to satisfy his debt to a third party. undue delay on the part of a debtor finally gives the creditor the right to seize the property of the debtor, or even the property of a third party. such an action is not common and is always taken under the stress of exasperation after repeated efforts to collect have proved unavailing. as a rule the relatives of the debtor prefer to settle the obligation rather than to allow matters to become too serious, but it happens at times that they, too, are obstinate and allow things to take their course. no interest is charged on loans except in the case of paddy. there are few loans made, and no leases or pledges. these last imply a distrust that is not pleasing to the manóbo. the law of liability is very strict. for instance, if one should ask another to accompany him on a journey and the latter should fall sick or die, the former would be liable for his death. if one should die in the house, thereby causing the abandonment of it, the relatives of the dead man would have to pay the value of the house. similar instances are of frequent occurrence and can readily be understood. this liability law extends to evils supposed to be due to the violation of taboos and to the possession of magic powers. there is a system of fining that serves, harsh though it may seem, to maintain proper deference to the person and the property of another. thus, spitting on another, rudely grasping another's person, entering another's district without due permission, bathing in river without the owner's leave, are a few of the many cases that might be adduced. the fine varies according to the damage and amount of malice that may be proved in the subsequent arbitration. _regulations governing domestic relations and property; customary procedure in settlements of disputes._--the house belongs collectively to the builders. the property in it belongs to the male inmates who have acquired it. the elder brother takes possession of the property of his deceased brother, unless the eldest son of the deceased is of such an age as to be capable of managing the household. in case the deceased did not have a brother, a brother-in-law or a son-in-law becomes the representative of the household. the eldest son inherits his father's debts and must pay them. there is so little property in the ordinary manóbo home that there are no disputes as to the inheritance. after a death the house is abandoned and the grief-stricken relatives scurry off with their baskets, mats, and simple utensils to make another home in a solitary part of the forest. the relations both prenuptial and postnuptial between the sexes are of the strictest kind. all evil conduct from adultery down to immodest gazing is punished with appropriate fines and even with death. the fines vary from the equivalent of three slaves down to the equivalent of a few pesos. the marriage contract is very rigid. i know of few cases in which the stipulated price was not paid prior to the delivery of the fiancé. in case of the death of one of the affiancéd parties, the payments made must be refunded. in case of the refusal of the bridegroom to continue his suit even though there has been no fault on the part of the bride or of her relatives, he loses all right to recover. should the bride's people, however, decide to discontinue the proceedings, they must return the previous payments and make, i believe, compensation for the trouble and expenses incurred during the previous transactions. no case of a discontinuance of the marriage proceedings ever passed under my observation. the father has theoretically full power over his wife and children, but in practice his domestic jurisdiction is of the most lenient kind. marital affection and filial devotion reign in the household. the husband may not marry a second wife during the lifetime of the first without the latter's consent. this rule, as well as the lack of sufficient worldly possessions to purchase another helpmate, makes polygamy comparatively infrequent. the bridegroom is supposed to live with his father-in-law or with the previous owner of his wife, very often his wife's brother, but nearly always sets up his own establishment a few years after marriage. with the exception of adultery, fornication, rape, and wanton homicide, all crimes presuppose an appeal to arbitration. the one that is the author of another's death is the one on whom vengeance must be taken, if it is possible. when an outraged party is unable to obtain redress by arbitration or by the direct reprisal, he avenges himself on a third party, preferably a relative of his enemy, by killing him or by seizing his property. he thus brings matters to a head. it is usual to compound with the relatives of this third party, either for the death or for the seizure, on condition that they will league themselves with the one who is seeking revenge, in opposition to the original wrongdoer or that they themselves will undertake, as his paid agents, to wreak vengeance on his enemy. minor offenses are punished by fines that are determined by arbitration. these fines vary in amount, but nearly always include a feast, more or less elaborate, the expenses of which are borne by the party that lost the case. the arbitration of a question may be made immediately after it has arisen or it may not be brought about for weeks or months. when the discussion has begun it is not considered politic for either side to yield at once. threats are bandied between the principals until, through the influence of friendly chiefs, they are brought together. then the relatives discuss the affair, each side exaggerating its own view of the question. it is only after lengthy discussions, and the use of similitudes and allegories, loud shouts, dissimulation, and through the sagacity and influence of the chief men that the opinions of the parties are so molded that an agreement is reached. it may be necessary to determine the offense. this is done by witnesses who give, as far as i have been able to judge, truthful testimony. whenever the veracity of a witness is doubted he may be obliged to take a kind of oath which consists in the burning of beeswax. a little beeswax is melted by holding a firebrand over it. while this is being done, the person whose veracity it is desired to test, utters a wish that in case of falsehood his body may be melted like the wax. in the case of suspects, ordeals are employed. they consist of making the parties under suspicion either plunge their hands into boiling water, or undergo the diving test, or take the candle ordeal. circumstantial evidence is admissible. by means of it, the authors of hidden crimes are often brought to punishment after years of patient waiting. it is customary for the guilty one to make at least a partial payment immediately after the arbitration, and to treat the assembly to a banquet in which it is good form for the two opponents to close the breaches of friendship by generous quaffs to each other's health. chapter iv religious ideas and mental characteristics in general a brief survey of religion a study of manóbo religion is difficult because of the natural secretiveness and suspiciousness of this primitive man, because of his dependence for his religious ideas on his priests, because of the variations and apparent contradictions that arise at every step, and, finally, because of his inability to expound in a satisfactory manner the beliefs of his religious system. the basis, influence, and machinery of religion the religious belief of the manóbo is an essential part of his life. on his person he often carries religious objects. the site for his home is not selected till omens and oracles are consulted. in his method of cooking there are religious rules. he can not procure his meat from the forest nor his fish from the streams without making an appropriate offering. he sows and harvests his rice under the auspices of certain deities. his hunting dogs are under the protection of a special divinity. his bolo and his spear must answer a special magic test. he can not go forth to fight till divination and sacrifice have assured him success. all the great events of his life--his marriage, the pregnacy[sic] and parturition of his wife, death, burial, war--all are consecrated by formal, and often public, religious rites. as far as i have been able to judge, fear of the deities of evil spirits, of the dead--of all that is unintelligible, unusual, somber--is the mainspring of the manóbos religious observances and beliefs. in order to detect the evils, natural and supernatural, to which he may be exposed, he has recourse to dreams, divination, auguries, and omens, and, in more serious cases he calls upon his priests to ascertain by invocation, oblation, and sacrifice, the source of the evil that has befallen him, or of the danger that he fears. the hierarchy of manÓbo divinities, beneficent and malignant there is no supreme being in the manóbo pantheon, though there are two principal classes of beneficent divinities. little is known of one of these classes beyond its supposed existence. the other class is made up of humanlike deities called _diwáta_ that retain a fondness for this world and the good things thereof. they select mortals for their favorites, and through them keep themselves provided with such earthly delicacies as they may desire, even though they may have to plague their mortal votaries in order to secure them. there is another category of spirits, of a slightly different character, whose desire is blood. these are the war divinities that select certain individuals for their champions and urge them on to deeds of valor, with the hope of procuring blood. in contradistinction to the above divinities are others of a malignant or dangerous character. chief among them are the _búsau_, black, hideous spirits that dwell in dark, desolate places, and who are for the most part implacable enemies of man. to counteract the machinations of these spirits, the beneficent dieties[sic] are called upon by manóbo priests and feasted with song and dance and sacrifice. pleased with these tokens of friendship, the good spirits pursue the evil ones, and even engage in battle with them. the _tagbánua_ are a class of local spirits that reign over the forest tracts and mountains. they are not of an unkindly nature as long as a certain amount of respect is paid them. hence the practice of making offerings during hunting and other forest occupations. among the other inimical spirits are: the rice pilferer, _dágau_; _anit_, the thunderbolt spirit; numerous epidemic demons; the goddess of consanguineous love and marriage; the spirit of sexual excess; the wielder of the lightning and the manipulator of the winds and storms; the cloud spirit; and various others. agricultural and hunting operations are all performed under the auspices of gods and goddesses. thus _hakiádan_ and _taphágan_ take care of the rice during sowing and harvest time, respectively; _tagamáling_ attends to other crops; _libtákan_ is the god of sunshine and good weather; and _sugújun_ is the god of the chase. there are other gods: _mandáit_, the birth deity; _ibú_, the goddess of the afterworld; _makalídung_, the founder of the world; _manduyápit_, the ferryman; and _yúmud_, the water wraith. priests----their functions, attributes, and equipment the performance of nearly all the greater religious rites is left to the priests who are of two classes--_bailán_ or ordinary priests, and _bagáni_ or war priests. it is the prerogative of these priests to hold communication with their familiar spirits; to find out from them their desires; to learn the doings of the unfriendly spirits, and the means to be taken for a mitigation of the evil in question. the ordinary priests are simple intermediaries, claiming no wondrous powers, making use of no deceptive nor mercenary methods, as far as my observation goes, with no particular dress and little paraphernalia, having no political influence, but possessing, in all that concerns religion, paramount authority. their title to priesthood is derived from violent manifestations, such as trembling, perspiring, belching, semiunconsciousness, that are believed to be a result of communication with their familiars. the war priests have blood spirits for their favorites, and accordingly perform their rites only in matters that concern war and wounds. ceremonial accessories consist of a few heirlooms, a small altar house, a wooden oblation tray, a one-legged stand, a sacrificial table, ceremonial decorations, sacred images, and sacrificial offerings. the religious rites peculiar to the ordinary priests, consist of betel-nut offerings, the burning of incense, invocations, prophylactic fowl waving, omen taking, blood unction, the child ceremony, the death feast, the rice-planting ceremony, the hunting rite, and the sacrifice of pig or fowl. the ceremonies peculiar to the warrior priests, besides the betel-nut tribute to the war spirits and invocation offered to them, are: invocation and offerings to the spirit companions or "souls" of the living enemy, special forms of divination connected with war, a special invocation to the omen bird preparatory to the war raid, placation and propitiation of the tutelary war deities by invocation, by sacrifice, and ceremonial cannibalism; and, probably, in the remote districts, by human sacrifice. the main characteristics of manÓbo religion the main features, then, of the manóbo religious system are: ( ) a firm traditional belief in the existence of anthropomorphic beneficent deities that will help the manóbo if he supplies them with the offerings they desire, but, if not, that will allow and even cause evil to befall him. ( ) a belief in the existence of forest spirits and sky spirits, who on occasions may become hostile and must be propitiated. ( ) an absolute reliance on priests, who are the favorites of one or more of the friendly divinities, and through whose mediation he secures their good will and assistance. ( ) the fear of the dead who are thought to harbor an envious feeling toward the living. ( ) the frequent consultation or interpretation of omens, auguries, and oracles for ascertaining future events. ( ) a rigid adherence to a numerous set of taboos, some based on religious ideas, some founded on sympathetic magic. ( ) a frequent application of the principle of sympathetic magic by which one act is believed to be productive of a correlated result. ( ) a conscientious avoidance of everything disrespectful in word and act toward one of the brute creation. ( ) a belief in two spirit companions that accompany each mortal from birth till death. ( ) a belief in the possibility of capture of one of these spirit companions by malignant spirits. ( ) a universal and constant faith in the existence of an afterworld and of the eternal survival of at least one spirit companion therein. ( ) a belief in dreams as being often indicative of future evil. ( ) a belief in secret methods that may be productive of harm to others. ( ) the recourse to oaths and ordeals for the enforcement of promises and for the determination of truth. ( ) the unmistakable apotheosis of bravery as illustrated by the warlike character of one class of deities. such are the main characteristics of this form of primitive religion. the peculiar fear, entertained by its lowly votary, of lonely mountains, odd-shaped rocks, gloomy caves and holes, hot springs and similar formations of nature; his belief that planted things have "souls" and his peculiar respect for animals and insects--these and minor manifestations may point perhaps to a former nature and animal worship, but at present there is no indication of such. the manóbo's conduct in the presence of such objects and phenomena is one of fear toward, and placation of, the agencies which he believes produce the phenomena or of the spirit owners of the objects that come across his path. it is to them alone that he pays his respect, and not to the material object or manifestation that has become the object of his perception. though one of the characteristics of manóbo religion is the apotheosis of bravery, as is apparent from the warlike character of the divinities, and from the general desire to die the death of the slain, yet i find little trace of ancestor worship. the dead are feared, their burial place is shunned, their character is deemed perfidious, and relations with them are terminated by a farewell mortuary feast, after which it is expected that they will depart, to vex the living no more. mental and other attainments and characteristics the manóbo's intellectual attainments are very limited. he counts on his fingers and on his toes, or by means of material objects such as grains of maize. he has never had any system of writing and does not know how to read. his "letters" and his "contracts" are material objects in the shape of bolos and other things, sent from one person to another with a verbal message, or strips of rattan with knots. his method of counting is decimal, and comprehends all numbers up to a hundred, though i am inclined to think that this last number represents to him infinity. the reckoning of time is equally simple. the day is divided into day and night, the hour being indicated by stretching out the arm and open hand in the direction of that part of the sky where the sun or the moon would be at the time it is desired to indicate. the month is not divided into weeks but the lunar month itself is carefully followed, each phase of the moon having its distinct name, though it is only in the case of the extreme of each phase that they agree on its name. years are reckoned by the recurrence of the rice-harvesting season, which varies according to the climate and geographical position of different regions. it is seldom that one can count backwards more than four or five years unless he can help his memory by some event such as an earthquake, and extra heavy flood, the arrival of the spanish missionaries, the philippine insurrection, or the growth of trees, but as a rule no attempt is made to determine the number of years that have elapsed since any event. i have seldom met a manóbo who had any idea as to his age, or any ability to judge approximately of the age of another. historical knowledge is confined almost entirely to events that have occured[sic] within one's lifetime. there are few traditions that have any historical value, and even in these there is an element of the wonderful that makes them unreliable as guides. it is obvious that the pagan manóbo has made no advance along academic lines, clue to the fact that he never has had an opportunity afforded him, but judging of his intellectual ability by that of the christianized manóbos, it is not inferior to that of the bisáya. i had experience in organizing and conducting schools among the _conquistas_, and it has been my experience that _ceteris paribus_, they advance as rapidly as bisáyas. if the _conquistas_ have not progressed as far intellectually, it is due to lack of facilities and not to any inherent inability to learn. knowledge of astronomy is limited among the manóbos to the names of a few of the principal stars and constellations. the nature of the stars, moon, sun, eclipses, and kindred phenomena are all explained in mythological tales, from a belief in which no amount of reasoning can move them. the old story that the comet is the harbinger or bearer of disease is in vogue. esthetic arts, such as painting and architecture, are unknown, though manóbos can carve rude and often fantastic wooden images, and can make crude tracings and incisions on lime tubes and baskets. notwithstanding their lack of scientific and esthetic knowledge, their observation of nature is marvelous. this is obviously due to long familiarity with the forest, the stream, and the mountains. from his boyhood years the manóbo has lived the life of the forest. he has scanned the trees for birds and monkeys, the streams for fish. living, as he generally has, within a definite district, and roaming over it in search of game and other things to eat, at the same time keeping a close watch for any variation that might indicate the presence of an outsider, he has come to possess those marvelous powers of sight and of observation that would astonish the average white man. within his own district the position of every tree is known. every stream and every part of it, every mountain, every part of the forest is known and has its appropriate name. the position of a place is explained in a few words to a fellow tribesman, and is understood by the latter. trees and plants are recognized, and their adaptation in a great many cases for certain economic uses is known, though i think that, in his knowledge of the latter, the manóbo is inferior to both the bisáya and the mandáya, as he is undoubtedly of a more conservative and less enterprising disposition. the manóbo character has been so maligned by missionaries, and by all the bisáyas who have dealings with them, that it deserves a clearance from the aspersions that have been cast upon it. in dealing with the manóbo, as with all primitive peoples, the personal equation brings out more than anything else the good qualities that underlie his character. several of the missionaries seem not to have distinguished between the pagan and the man. to them the pagan was the incarnation of all that is vile, a creature whose every act was dictated by the devil. the bisáya regarded him somewhat in the same light, but went further. he looked upon him as his enemy because of the many acts of retribution, even though retribution was merited, that had been committed by the manóbo or by his ancestors. he entertained a feeling of chagrin and disappointment that this primitive man was unwilling to become an absolute tool in his hands for thorough exploitation. hence no name, however vile, was too bad for the poor forest dweller who refused to settle near his plantation and toil--man, woman, and child--for an utterly inadequate wage. his feeling toward the _conquistas_ is little, if at all, better. upon first acquaintance the manóbo is timid and suspicious. this is due to the extreme cautiousness that teaches him to guard a life that among his own people has only a nominal value. when in the presence of strangers for the first time, he remembers that reprisals have been bandied from time immemorial between his people on the one hand, and bisáyas, on the other, and he realizes that without proper care, reprisals might be made on him. again, if the visitor has penetrated into his district, his suspicion may be aroused to its full force by calumnious reports or rumors that may have preceded the visitor's arrival. my own visits were frequently preceded by rumors to the effect that i had magic power to poison or to do other things equally wonderful, that i was a solider[sic] in disguise, or by other similar reports. but in these cases and in all others one may allay the timorousness and suspiciousness of these primitive people to a great extent by previous announcement of one's visit and intentions, and upon arrival in their settlement, by refraining from any act or word that might betray one's curiosity. surprise must not be expressed at anything that takes place. the mere question as to what, for instance, is beyond such and such a mountain, or where is the headwaters of such and such a stream, may start up the full flame of suspicion. hence prudence, a kind, quiet, but alert manner, a good reputation from the last visited locality and a distribution of trifling gifts, is always efficacious in removing that feeling of distrust that these primitive people feel toward a stranger. another charge is that they are revengeful. they certainly believe in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." revenge for an unatoned wrong is a stern, fundamental, eternal law, sanctioned by manóbo institutions, social, political, and religious; one that is consecrated by the breath of the dying, and passed on from generation to generation to be fulfilled; but it has one saving clause, _arbitration_. hence a stranger must inform himself of such past happenings as might jeopardize him. the manóbo has a very limited conception of the extent of the outside world and of the number of its inhabitants, and he is inclined to believe that one american, for instance, knows every other one and may be related by blood to any other. hence any imprudent action on the part of one may draw down revenge on the head of another[ ], relative or not, for even innocent third parties may, by manóbo custom, be sacrificed to the unsatisfied spirit of revenge. the danger, however, in which a stranger might find himself from this cause, is easily eliminated by questioning the people as to who had wronged them on previous occasions; and should he learn that he is considered a party to the wrong through identity of blood or of race with the guilty one, he must gently suggest a plan for arbitration at some later date, and in other pacific ways avert the revenge from himself. [ ] it is not improbable that the death of mr. h. m. ickis, geologist of the bureau of science, manila, was partly due to the capture and exile of one gubat of the upper umaíam some or years ago. it is, moreover, affirmed that manóbos are treacherous. if by treachery is meant a violation of faith and confidence, they can not be said to be treacherous. they kill when they feel that they are wronged. i know of few cases where they did not openly avow their feelings and demand reparation. refusal to make the reparation demanded is equivalent to a declaration of war, and in war all is fair. it is every man's duty to safeguard himself as best he can. the manóbo, mandáya, mañgguáñgan, and debabáon houses erected in strategic positions throughout the interior of eastern mindanáo, bear witness to the fact that these people recognize the principle that all is fair in war. the fact that they frequently carry their spears and shields when on the trail, and in time of trouble accompany their womenfolk to the farms and guard them there, is sufficient evidence of the fact that every means must be taken to safeguard one's self and interests from an enemy. but let a case be once arbitrated, and beeswax burned or other solemn manifestation of agreement be made, and it is my opinion that the pledge will not, as a rule, be broken. cowardice is a trait attributed to manóbos and other people of mindanáo. it is true that they do not take inordinate risks. the favorite hour for attack on an enemy's house is dawn. they prefer to thrust a spear through the floor rather than to call the enemy out to fight a hand-to-hand battle. in other cases they prefer to ambush him on the trail, or men against . again, it may be more convenient to pick off a lone woman in a _camote_ patch. such are recognized methods of warfare. once aroused, however, the manóbo will fight, and fight to a finish. throughout the jesuit letters we find mentioned various instances of really brave deeds on the part of manóbos. in some cases the husband killed his family and then himself rather than fall into the hands of the spanish troops. i have been informed of hundreds of instances in which the male members of the attacked party threw themselves against superior numbers in order that their wives might escape. hand-to-hand encounters are not uncommon, if i may believe the endless stories that have been narrated to me by warriors throughout eastern mindanáo. laziness and dilatoriness can certainly be predicated of manóbo men, but such qualities are to be attributed to lack of incentive to work and to hurry. all the household duties fall, by custom, upon the shoulders of the women, so that there is little left for the man except to fish, hunt, trap, trade, and fight. when, however, the men set themselves to clearing the forest or to other manual tasks, it is surprising with what agility, skill, and perseverance they work, though such spells of labor are short lived. no one has ever uttered or written a word against the manóbo's sexual morality. it is true that sexual matters are discussed with the greatest freedom, but the most venial breaches of morality are punished. the greatest modesty is observed in regard to the exposure of the private parts. gazing at an undressed woman, for instance, at the bathing place results in a fine. unseemly insinuations to a woman are visited with a similar punishment, but should such overtures go further, even death may be the penalty. as to temperance and sobriety, the rule is to eat and drink all one can, hence the amount of food and drink consumed depends upon the supply. sobriety is not a virtue. to lose one's equilibrium and senses is to do honor to the host and justice to his generosity. honesty is certainly a trait of the manóbo character. i do not mean to maintain that there are not occasional pilferings, especially in small things that are considered to be more or less communal in their nature, such as palm wine while still flowing from the tree, but other kinds of property are perfectly safe. the rare violations of the rule of honesty are punished more or less severely according to the amount of the property stolen and according to other considerations. though respect for another's property is decidedly the rule, yet it is surprising to note with what care everything is counted, tied up, or put away, and how marks of ownership are set up on all occasions. i think, however, that these precautions are due not so much to a fear of pilferers as to a feeling of the instability of conditions in a country that has always been subject to turmoil. honesty in the payment of debts is one of the most striking characteristics of these people. i have advanced merchandise on credit to people whom i had never met before and the whereabouts of whose houses i did not know except from their own information, and yet, six months or a year later, when i entered their region i had no difficulty in locating them nor in collecting from them. so high is their feeling of obligation to pay a debt that even children are sometimes parted with in settlement, but this occurs in extreme cases only. though debts are satisfied conscientiously, yet a certain amount of consideration is expected as to the time and other details of payment, except in some very urgent cases. honesty in other matters, as in the performance of formal agreements, is equally noticeable though i must say that the performance may not be as prompt in point of time as we would expect. but it must be remembered, in connection with this last point, that in making an agreement one is presumed to make allowance for a great many impediments, such as evil omens, that do not figure in our system of contracts. another difference, which applies also to the matter of debts, is that the man who owes a debt must be reminded of his obligation and urged in a gentle way to the performance of it. it occurs in some rare instances that a debtor is under a definite contract as to the exact time for meeting his obligation. in these cases the creditor may be more insistent upon payment. it is to the credit of the manóbo that he never disowns a debt nor runs away to avoid the payment thereof. it has been said that the manóbo is ungrateful, but i do not think that his gratitude is so rare nor so transitory a virtue as is claimed by those who pretend to know him. it is true that he has no word to express thanks, but he expects the giver to make known his desires and ask for what he wants. this is the reason why he himself is such an inveterate beggar. he receives you into his house, feeds you, considers you his friend, and proceeds to make you reciprocate by asking for everything he sees. if he is under any obligation to you, he expects you to ask in a similar manner. if you do not do it, he considers you either apathetic or rich, and hence no reciprocation is forthcoming. among manóbos no presents are made except of such trifles as have no value. the manóbo feels that he is at perfect liberty to conceal his real thoughts and to give utterance to such distortions of truth as may not compromise him with others. the penalty for slander is so great that this is a fault that is seldom committed. hence to get the truth from a manóbo, it is useless, as a rule, to question him singly or even in the presence of his friends alone. he must be brought face to face with those who hold an adverse opinion or belong to an opposite faction. if this can be done, in a more formal way, as for example, by having a number of principal men attend, it will be so much the easier to obtain the desired information. queries as to trails or the dwelling places of neighboring manóbos are hardly ever answered truthfully and do more harm than good, because they tend to arouse suspicions as to the questioner's motives. such information is obtained more readily by cultivating the friendship of boys than by consulting the older folks. this tendency to disguise or to distort the truth, though it has its natural basis in a desire for self-protection, gives the manóbos a reputation for lack of that straightforwardness and frankness that is so noticeable among the mandáyas, even after very short acquaintance. this lack of frankness, coupled with a certain amount of natural shrewdness, makes the truth difficult to discover, unless the suggestion made before be carried out, or unless one is willing to wait till the truth leaks out in private conversation among the manóbos themselves. one trait of the manóbo that seems hard to understand is his love for long discussions. no matter how trifling the matter may be, it always becomes the subject of an inordinately long conference even though there are no dissenting parties. even in such trifles as getting a guide to take me, by well-known trails, to settlements of people with whom i was well acquainted, the inevitable discussion would always take place. a great number of people would assemble. the matter would be discussed at length by every one present without a single interruption, except such exclamations of assent as are continuously uttered whether the speaker's views are acceptable or not. it seems that these and more solemn discussions afford the speakers an opportunity to make themselves conspicuous or to display their judgment. i can divine no other reason for these conferences because, in many cases that i have known, the result of the discussion was a foregone conclusion from the beginning. perhaps such discussions are for the purpose of "making no concessions" or if they must be made, of making them begrudgingly. these conferences are as a rule rather noisy, for though one speaker at a time "has the floor," there are always a number of collateral discussions, that, joined to the invariable household sounds, produce somewhat of a din. noise, in fact, is a general characteristic of manóbo life, so much so that at times one is inclined to be alarmed at the loud yelling and other demonstrations of apparent excitement, even though the occasion for it all may be nothing more than the arrival in the settlement of a visitor with a dead monkey. harmony and domestic happiness are characteristic of the manóbo family. the manóbo is devoted to his wife, fond of his children, and attached to his relatives, more so than the mañgguáñgan, but much less so than the bisáya or the mandáya. he is dearly fond of social gatherings for, besides the earthly comforts that he gets out of them, they afford him an opportunity to display such wealth, rank, and possessions as he may possess. his invitations to neighbors serve to keep him high in their estimation and thereby gather around him a number of friends who will be of service in the hour of trouble. of the manóbo, as of the other people of mindanáo, too much can not be said of his hospitality. if he has once overcome his suspicions as to a stranger's motives, he takes him into his house and puts himself to infinite pains to feast him as best he knows how. in manóboland one who travels carries no provisions. he drops into the first house and when the meal hour arrives he sits down upon the floor and helps himself without any invitation. it is practically his own house, because for the time being he becomes one of the family. if there happens to be a feast, he partakes without any special invitation, and when he is ready to go, he proceeds upon his journey, only to repeat the operation in the next house, for it is customary always to pay at least a short visit to every friendly house on or near the trail. one of the mental traits that has perhaps done more than anything else to retard the manóbo in his progress towards a higher plane of civilization is his firm adherence to traditional customs. all things must be done as his forefathers did them. innovations of any kind may displease the deities, may disturb the present course of events, may produce future disturbances. "let the river flow as it ever flowed--to the sea," is a refrain that i heard quoted on this subject by manóbos. "fish that live in the sea do not live in the mountains," is another, and there are many others, all illustrating that conservatism that tends to keep the manóbo a manóbo and nothing else. he is christianized but, after going through the christian ritual, he will probably invoke his pagan divinities. he takes on something new but does not relinquish the old. hence the difficulty of inducing the manóbo to leave the district of his forefathers, and take up his abode in a new place amid unfamiliar spirits. this feature of their character explains the inconstancy and fickleness exhibited by the christianized manóbos at the beginning of their conversion. these were due to the call of the forest hailing them back to their old haunts. these characteristics will explain also a host of anomalies that are noticeable throughout the manóbo's life. the first visit of a stranger to a primitive settlement may produce upon him a very unfavorable impression. he may find that the women and children have fled, so that he finds himself surrounded by men, all armed. this should not discourage him, as it happens in many cases that the men were unable to keep the women from flight. the wearing of arms is as much a custom with manóbos as the wearing of a watch is with us. the bolo is his life and his livelihood. were he not to wear it he would be branded as insane, and he looks upon a defenseless person, stranger or otherwise, much in the same light, unless he attributes the absence of a weapon to the possession of secret powers of protection, in which case he is inclined to follow the example of the fugitive women and betake himself beyond the reach of harm. upon first acquaintance the manóbo will ask a host of questions that will tax the patience of the visitor if he ventures to answer them personally. these questions spring from a desire to learn the motives of the visit. people from the neighboring houses drop in at intervals just as soon as word reaches them of the new arrival, and may continue to do so until the time of the visitor's departure, thereby keeping the house crowded. the assembling of these people arises from a desire to see the visitor and to find out the object of his visit. hence the newcomers will proceed to ask him every imaginable question that may suggest itself and if any answer conveys information that has anything of the wonderful in it for them, it gives rise to a thousand and one other questions, the responses to which often tax a visitor's patience. another part of the visit is the frank demand on the part of the primitive people for any object of the visitor which they may take a fancy to. they always understand, however, a quiet refusal, if it is accompanied by an appropriate reason. it happens sometimes that the chief of the settlement will claim a fee for transgression upon his territory, but he will usually accept a small present in lieu thereof, or will forego any gift, if the matter is argued, quietly and diplomatically. the manóbo resents harsh words, especially when used toward him in the presence of those who are his nominal subjects. personalities or threats in such a case often prove fatal. it is not good etiquette to ask a manóbo his name, especially if he is a chief, until one has acquired somewhat of an acquaintance with him. the information must be secured from a third party and in a quiet way. moreover, it is customary to address chiefs and other persons of distinction by the names of their corresponding titles. thus a warrior chief is addressed _bagáni_, and not by his proper name. it is needless to say that no familiarity should be taken with the person of another until acquaintance has been cultivated far enough to permit it. thus touching another on the arm to call his attention to something may be resented and may result in an attempt to collect a fine. the handling of arms requires a word. the lance must be stuck in the ground, head up, at the foot of the house ladder; or, if it must be brought into the house, as at night, the owner must take care that it points at no one while being handled. if one desires to draw a bolo from its sheath, he must draw it slowly, and if it is to be presented to another, the blade must be kept facing the owner's body and the handle presented to the other man. the same rule holds for the dagger. it will be noticed that as a general rule the men in a manóbo settlement go armed and keep their hands on their weapons, especially during mealtime, at which time it is customary to eat with the left hand, the right hand being reserved for the use of the weapon in an emergency. there are a number of other rules of intercourse that serve to safeguard life and to maintain proper respect on the part of each individual for the person of his neighbor. these will be found scattered throughout this paper. part ii. general material culture chapter v the manÓbo home in general the manóbo, as a rule builds a house of no great pretensions, because he always remembers that an evil combination of omens or a death in the house or an attack by his enemies, may deprive him in the near future of his home. his best structure is better than the low wall-less mañgguáñgan home but can not compare with the comparatively solid structure of the mandáyas of kati'il and the debabáons of the sálug country. he has no tribal halls, no assembly houses. in fact, with the exception of a rude shack[ ] on his farm, built to shelter those who are guarding the crops against marauders (monkeys and birds), he builds only one house, where he and usually several of his relatives dwell until such time (usually after a year) as he finds it convenient or necessary to abandon it. [ ] _pin-ái-ag_. motives that determine the selection of the site the motives that determine the selection of the site are twofold. religious motives it is obvious that in such an important undertaking the manóbo must be guided by the omens and oracles that manifest to him the will of the supernal powers. hence, as he sallies forth to seek the site, he keeps his ear alert for the turtledove's[ ] prophetic cry. if this is unfavorable, he returns home and resumes his search the following day. it frequently happens that this omen may be unfavorable for two or three successive days, but, however urgent the case may be, this bird's sacred warning must on no account be disregarded, for it would mean failure, disaster, or death, as the manóbo can prove to you by a host of instances that happened within his memory, or that of his relatives. once satisfied, however, with this first omen, he proceeds upon his journey and selects, from material motives that will be mentioned later on, a site for the new house, and returns to his people to inform them of the outcome of his journey. [ ] _li-mo-kon_. now, the selection of the site is of such serious import to the manóbo that he must assure himself, by every means in his power, that it is approved by the unseen powers, and for this purpose he has recourse to the egg omen and the suspension oracle. the former i witnessed on several occasions and in every case it proved auspicious. the _bu-dá-kan_ or vine omen is sometimes consulted in selecting a house site, and the significance of the various configurations is the same as that described under "divination or omens." i was told that this latter omen is also taken _in the forest_ before the final decision as to the selection of the site is made. the occurrence of ominous dreams at this juncture, as also the passing of a snake across the trail, are considered of evil import, but the evil is neutralized by the fowl-waving ceremony that will be described later. material motives when no further objection is shown by the "powers above" to the selection of the home site, the manóbo is guided by such motives as fertility of soil, proximity of water, and fishing facilities, and, if he is in a state of vigilance against his enemies, as in remote regions he nearly always is, by desirability of the site for defense. in this latter case he selects a high place difficult of access, frequently a lofty mountain, and chooses the most strategic point upon it. religious ceremonies connected with the erection of a house an invocation to the special deities of the family is made by a priest, usually a relative. after an offering of a betel nut has been made to the local deities of this particular part of the forest, the head of the family, assisted by such of his numerous relatives as are able to help him, proceeds to clear the ground for the new building. when a more influential manóbo begins to erect a capacious house, usually everyone in the vicinity--men, women, and children--attracted by the prospective conviviality that is sure to accompany the work, throng to lend a helping hand, so that in a few days the clearing is made, cleaned and planted, and the frame of the house with the roof completed. people belonging to the less influential class may take months to complete the house, depending on the number of relatives who help them and on the leisure that they have. it is of importance to note here that the house must not be completed at once.[ ] [ ] it is believed that the thatch must be allowed to turn yellow before the house is completed. when the first post is put into the ground, a sacrifice is frequently made and a part of the victim's blood is poured upon the base of the post. as soon as the roof and floor have been constructed, a formal sacrifice of a chicken is made to the special divinities under whose protection the family is thought to be. the chicken must be of the color that is pleasing to these deities. an interesting feature of this ceremony is that the center of the floor, the place intended for the doorway, and one or more of the posts, are lustrated with the blood of the victim. structure of the house the materials the materials for the house are taken from the surrounding forest and are generally of a light character. it is only in the erection of a house[ ] for defense that more substantial materials are employed. [ ] _i-li-hán_. the dimensions and plan of construction in height from the ground to the floor the house may vary from . to meters, though a structure of the latter height is infrequent. in size it may be between by meters and by meters, but as a rule it is nearer to the former than to the latter figures. rectangular in form, it is built upon light posts varying in number from to , the corner ones being larger and extending up to support the roof. four horizontal pieces attached to these corner posts and, supported by several of the small posts, form, together with a few joints, the support for the floor. in order to give more rigidity to the building and to render the floor stronger, the joints are supported by several posts, these last being propped by braces set at an angle of about °. in the case of a house built for defense, the number of supports and crosspieces is such that the enemy would find it impossible to hack it down. houses built on trees were rare at the time of my stay among the manóbos of the agúsan valley. in the few cases which i saw, the tree was cut off at a point about meters above the divergence of the main branches from the trunk. then the house was built in the ordinary way by erecting long auxiliary posts, the trunk of the tree and its main branches forming the principal support. in baglásan, upper sálug river, i saw a debabáon house, belonging to bagáni pinamailan lantayúna, built on a tree but without any auxiliary posts. no nails, and pegs only very occasionally are employed in fastening together the various parts of the structure. either rattan strips or pieces of a peculiar vine[ ] are used in lashing the beams and crosspieces to the posts, whereas for the other fastenings, rattan strips are universally employed. [ ] hag-nái-a (_stenochlena_ spp.). the floor the floor consists of laths of bamboo, or of a variety of palm[ ] laid parallel and running along the length of the house with more or less regular interstices. almost universally one or both sides of the floor, for a width of centimeters to . meters, are raised to a height varying from to centimeters above the main floor. this raised portion serves for a sleeping place, but in the poorer classes of houses the height of this platform is so slight that i think that there exists or has existed some superstitious belief connected with it, though i have been unable to elicit any positive information on the point. in houses of the better class one occasionally finds roughhewn boards used for the floor of these platforms, as also for the walls. [ ] a-ná-nau. palma brava. (_livistonia_ sp.). the roof and the thatch the roof is of the gable style, but is four-sided, with two smoke vents, as may be seen in plates b and a. the four beams that form the main support for the rafters are lashed to the posts of the house at a height varying from . meters to meters above the floor. four substantial rafters, resting upon the four beams just mentioned, run up at an angle of ° from the corner posts. upon these rafters rests the ridgepole. numerous light rafters of wood or of bamboo extend from the ridgepole in parallel rows at intervals of to centimeters. they project about centimeters beyond the side beams upon which they rest and serve to support the roofing material. the thatch consists almost invariably of fronds of rattan gathered in the adjoining forest. this thatch is made by bending back on the midrib every alternate spike till all the spikes lie parallel. another way is to cut the midrib in the center at the small end and tear the frond into two pieces. these half-fronds are neither so durable nor so serviceable as if the midrib is left entire. two, three, or four of these fronds, or double that number of half-fronds, are then superimposed, and fastened to the rafters with rattan in shingle fashion. in localities where sago palm is available an excellent thatch is made in the ordinary philippine fashion by sewing the spikes of the frond to a slat of bamboo. it is claimed that this thatch will not last much more than a year, as it is a breeding place for a multitude of small cockroaches that seem to thrive upon it. in the mountainous districts, where up to a few years ago feuds were rife, it was not uncommon to find houses roofed with big strips of bark, or with shingles of flattened bamboo. this style of roofing was employed as a precaution against the burning arrows used by the enemy during an attack. there is always an extra layer of leaves over the ridgepole as a protection against the rain. occasionally a long strip or two of bark is placed as a hood on the ridgepole to help prevent the entrance of the rain during the northwest monsoon, when it comes down in indescribable torrents. a glance at the illustrations will show better than words can describe the peculiar smoke outlets invariably found in manóbo houses. they not only afford an exit for the smoke, and admit light, but also permit, during storms, the entrance of an amount of rain that does not conduce to comfort. the walls the walls are nearly always in the case of better class houses, light poles of wood or of bamboo, laid horizontally one above the other and tied to upright pieces placed at intervals for their support. in poorer houses palm fronds are tied loosely to a few upright pieces. the eaves project down almost as far as the top of the walls. the latter never extend to the roof, but are usually of such a height that a person sitting on the floor can see between the walls and the eaves the space surrounding the house. it is rare to find boards used for the walls, but, if used, they are roughhewn, and are laid horizontally and edgewise, one above the other. they are held in place with rattan strips. the space, then, between the top of the walls and the roof is open all around the house and serves as one continuous window that affords more ventilation than light. the purpose of this peculiar arrangement seems to be for defense, for no one can approach the house from any side without being seen, and, in time of attack, it affords the inmates of the house an admirable vantage ground from which to ply their arrows. the doorway and the ladder there is no door in a manóbo house. in the middle of one end of the house a small opening is left scarcely wide enough for two persons to enter at one time. a notched pole leads up to this opening. if the house is high, a certain amount of maneuvering on the part of one not accustomed to it, may be required in climbing the pole, for there is seldon[sic] any rail to aid one and the notches are not of the deepest. this is another of the manóbo's devices against enemies, for on occasions of attack the inmates of a house can dislodge by a slight movement of this cylindrical ladder any foolhardy enemy who might attempt, under protection of his shield, to make an ascent during a fight. in the house of a chief or well-to-do manóbo, one frequently finds a crude ladder for the convenience of the family dogs. internal arrangements the internal arrangements of the house are very simple. the one ceilingless square area between the roof and the floor constitutes the house. there is no dining room, no kitchen, no bedroom, no toilet. even the little stalls erected by mandáyas for the married couples are very seldom to be found. the owner of the house occupies the part farthest from the door, and nearest the fire, while visitors are relegated to the part near the door. decorations no paint is applied to the house and, with the exception of a rude carving of the ridgepole into the suggestion of a human head with a rudimentary body, there is no decoration in the interior. on the outside, one frequently sees at the ends of the ridgepole, and set upright at right angles to each other, two narrow, thin pieces of wood about meter long. along the sides of these are cuttings which are intended to represent the crested head of a fowl, as the name given to them indicates.[ ] [ ] _min-an-úk_ from _mán-uk_, a fowl. the furniture and equipment of the house the manóbo house fittings are of the scantiest and most necessary kind. the tenure of the house may be brief, depending, as it does, upon a suspicion of danger or even on a dream. so the manóbo does not indulge in the luxury of chairs, tables, or similar articles. the upraised portion of the floor, or the floor itself, serves him as a chair and a bench. for a table he uses a small board such as is so universally used throughout mindanáo by the poorer classes. yet many are the houses that can not boast of even this simple equipment. he has no bedsteads, for the bamboo floor with a grass mat thrown over it affords him a cool and comfortable resting place. he has a fair abundance of mats, but they are ordinarily short, being made according to the length of the grass he happens to find. by day these mats are rolled up and laid aside on the floor or upon the beams of the house. if left on the floor, they afford the family dogs, who ensconce themselves therein, a convenient refuge from flies. he dispenses with the use of pillows, unless the handiest piece of wood or of bamboo can be called a pillow. lacking that, he lays his head upon the mat and enjoys as good a sleep, perhaps, as his more civilized fellowmen. it is seldom, indeed, that he uses a mosquito bar, though wild _abaká_ is abundant and his wife is a weaver. the mosquito bars which are in use are made out of _abaká_ fiber. as the cloth for them, made on the ordinary loom, is less than a meter wide, and as much as meters long, it must be cut up into strips nearly meters long and sewn together to form the mosquito bar. it must be made of an odd number of pieces of cloth, for an even number is unlucky. a net made of or pieces is considered especially lucky. the use of the mosquito bar is very common among the _conquistas_ of the lake region. pictures and like ornaments are unknown, but in lieu of them may be seen trophies of the chase, such as wild-boar jawbones, deer antlers, and hornbill skulls and beaks. it is not infrequent to see the tail of some large fish fastened to one of the larger beams, under the roof. there is a special significance in the preservation of this trophy. there is one article, however, which the manóbo prizes as a mark of wealth and as a venerable relic. it is the sacred jar.[ ] i have been unable to obtain any information as to the origin of these jars except that they were usually obtained as marriage fees and that they were bought from the banuáons. be that as it may, they are a matter of pride in manóboland, and on every occasion, festive and religious, they are set out, brimful of brew. not every manóbo is the proud possessor of one of these, but he who has one is loath to part with it. a glance at plate _k_, _l_, will give an idea of what these jars look like. they are decorated, as a rule, in alto relievo with figures of birds, snakes, etc., and to judge from their appearance are of chinese workmanship. when given as marriage payments or for other purposes they are valued at about pesos if they have no ears, but when they have ears they are worth as many pesos minus as they have ears. [ ] _ba-hán-di_. next to jars the manóbo values plates and bowls, even those of the cheapest kind, and it is with a gleam of satisfaction on his face that the host sets out an array of old-fashioned plates for his guests. the manóbo of the middle agúsan, unlike his mandáya neighbor, is particularly poor in plateware. i found houses that could not boast of a single plate, but as a rule each house has about four plates, a bowl, and a glass. depending from the roof are to be seen baskets of various shapes intended for a variety of uses, fish baskets, rice baskets of several kinds, storage baskets, betel-nut baskets, pack baskets, some of wickerwork and some of plaited rattan. also, hanging from the rafters are to be seen fish traps, wild chicken traps, religious objects such as oblation trays, a guitar, or a bamboo harp, and if it is a priest's house, a drum and gong. one sees almost invariably a nest or two up in a corner under the roof. they are for the domestic hens and are ungainly things, made ordinarily out of a piece of old matting. in these the hens lay their eggs, after meandering around the rafters and disturbing the inmates of the house with their cackling. after the eggs are laid, it is frequently necessary to drive the hens from the house. the fireplace is another very important item in the house. it is usually located on the side of the house away from the door and near the wall. it consists of four roughhewn pieces of wood approximately meter long and about centimeters high, set together on the floor and lashed in the form of a rectangle. a piece of bark is placed on the floor within this rectangle, and the inclosed space is filled with earth. a half dozen stones form supports for the earthen jars. above the fireplace is a rough frame for firewood, of which there is usually a plentiful supply. here the wood is dried thoroughly before it is used. in close proximity to the hearth and scattered around without any regard for tidiness may be seen the rice winnow, the bamboo water tube, the coconut-shell watercup, the rice paddles and ladles, leaves of banana and other plants, and the whetstone, while on the fireplace are seen a variety of earthen pots with their covers, and frequently an imported iron pan for cooking. tied up under the roof, but within reach, may be seen bows and arrows, probably a fish spear, or it may be, a fish rod. spears and other weapons of defense which, when not in use, are unsheathed and put into a rude wooden rack made for the purpose, while the sheaths are hung up close by. it is not exceptional to find a cage with a turtledove[ ] or a variety of parrakeet[sic][ ] in it. the cage is usually hung from the roof under the eaves outside the wall. the turtledove is kept for religious purposes, whereas the parrakeet[sic] is kept as other people keep a pet bird, though it is occasionally employed by the young folks as a lure to attract its wild fellows to the bird line. [ ] _li-mó-kon_. (_phabitreron brevirostris_ tweedale). generally called fruit dove. [ ] _ku-li-li-si_. the underpart and the environment of the house the space under the fireplace is usually not occupied because of the water and refuse that fall from the kitchen, but to one side of it is the inevitable pigpen, containing a pig or two. it is only the wealthier manóbos who can boast of more than a few, for the maintenance of many would be a heavy drain on their limited food supply. these few pigs subsist on such scraps and parings as may be thrown or allowed to fall down to them. to one side of the pigpen, if there is room, is placed the rice mortar, an article of indispensable necessity in every household. in it is hulled with wooden pestles, and frequently in measured time, the daily supply of rice. at the time when the house is constructed, the forest adjoining is cleared, and _camotes_,[ ] a little sugarcane, and a few other things are planted. the house usually overlooks this clearing at least on one side. on the other sides there is usually the grim, silent forest. when the house is built with a view to defense, trees are felled all around in such a way as to make a regular abatis. ordinarily there are at least two trails, one, a main trail, so tortuous and difficult, in the generality of cases, that it would lead one to imagine that the owner of the house had deliberately selected it for its difficulties, the other, a trail leading to the watering place. in approaching the house the visitor is obliged to climb over fallen logs, the passing of which requires no little maneuvering on the part of a novice. without a guide it would be often difficult, if not impossible, to locate the houses, even if one had been shown their location from a distance. [ ] _ipomoea batatas_. order and cleanliness of the house as from one to four families may live in a single house, it is needless to say that there is generally a decided appearance of disorder, as well as a tumult that baffles description. in the only room of the house are congregated the married couples, generally a few extra relatives, their children, and their dogs. the manóbos are naturally very loud talkers, their children, especially the infants, are as noisy as children the world over, and their dogs, which may number from to , are so constituted that, when they are not fighting with one another, they may at any moment, without apparent motive or provocation, begin one grand dismal howl which, united to the crying of the babies and to the loud tones of their elders, produces a pandemonium. it is at meal times that the pandemonium waxes loudest, for at that time the half-starved dogs, in their efforts to get a morsel to eat, provoke the inmates to loud yells of "sida, sida,"[ ] and to other more forcible actions. [ ] an exclamation to drive away a dog. in a large house, with such a conglomeration of human beings, it is obvious that an impression of confusion is made upon the visitor. the performance of the various culinary operations by the women, the various employments in which the men are engaged, making arrows, fish traps, etc., the romping of the children, all these tend to heighten the impression. but the manóbo goes on with his work, tranquil in the midst of it all, savoring his conversation with incessant quids of betel nut or tobacco. the manóbo has not yet come to a knowledge of the various microbes and parasites that are liable to undermine the foundations of health, so that the sanitary condition of his house is not such as would pass a modern inspection. both men and women are inveterate chewers of betel nut and tobacco, and, instead of using a spittoon, they expectorate the saliva through the interstices of the floor or anywhere that they may find convenient, thereby tinging the floor and walls a bright red. as the manóbo broom is a most crude affair made out of a few twigs, it does not remove all the remains of the meals as they lie spread over the floor. the peelings of sugarcane, the skin of bananas and of other fruits, the remains of rattan, and such other refuse as may be the result of the various occupations that take place in the house are all strewn around the floor and frequently are not removed for a considerable length of time. in the preparation and cooking of food a considerable amount of water fails necessairly[sic] under the house which, together with the excreta of the inmates and the other refuse, animal and vegetable, produces a somewhat unfavorable appearance and sometimes an unpleasant odor. there is no drainage, artificial or natural and no means are provided for the removal of the ordure, unless it be the services of the scavenger pigs, who busy themselves as soon as they become aware of the presence of refuse. the effluvium, however, usually does not reach the inmates unless the house is very low. as the smoke outlets are comparatively remote from the fireplace, it is obvious that the smoke does not make a rapid exit, but wreathes up among the beams and rafters thereby blackening them out of all semblance to wood. the underside of the thatch, especially those portions above the fire, receives a goodly coating of soot which, mixed with the greasy emanations from the pots, assumes a lustrous black. another matter that tends to give the house an air and feeling of uncleanliness is the host of small insects, presumably a species of cockroach, that infest the thatch, and, notwithstanding the volume of smoke that at times almost suffocates the inmates, swarm down into the baskets used for provisions and for other things. these multitudinous insects seem to flourish on the rattan vine especially, and no means are known whereby to exterminate them. ants, especially the white ant, pay frequent visits to the house, but the worst scourge of all is the ravenous bedbug. this unpleasant insect is found under the joists just beneath the floor laths, but in greatest numbers under those parts of the floor that are continually used as sleeping places, and in the hammocks. occasionally an effort is made to scrape them out, but they are so cunning in concealing themselves and breed with such rapidity that efforts to get rid of them are unavailing. the presence of vermin on the bodies of the manóbos is due to the lack of soap and of washing facilities. but, if questioned, these primitive people will inform you, that the vermin are natural growths or excretions proceeding from the inside.[ ] it is for this reason that no shame is exhibited in removing publicly the pests from the clothes or from the hair. owing to the custom of the people of huddling together during the night these insects are propagated from one individual to another, so that it is seldom that the manóbo is free from them. [ ] i found this belief to be almost universal in eastern mindanáo. chapter vi dress general remarks delicacy in exposure of the person like all tribes of eastern mindanáo, manóbos, both men and women, wear sufficient clothes to cover the private parts of the body. children up to the age of or years may go without clothes, but female children commonly wear a triangular pubic shield[ ] of coconut shell, suspended by a waist string. men, though they may denude themselves completely when bathing, always conceal their pudenda from one another's gaze. [ ] _pú-ki_. married and elderly women may occasionally expose the upper part of their persons, but unmarried girls seldom do so. no delicacy is felt in exposing the breasts during the suckling of a babe. variety in quantity and quality of clothes the quantity and quality of clothes worn varies slightly in different localities. the farther away from settlements the people live, the poorer and less elaborate is the dress, due to their inability to obtain the imported cloth and cotton yarn, for which they entertain a high preference. on the upper agúsan, where the manóbos have adopted a certain amount of mandáya culture, their apparel partakes of the more gorgeous character of that of the mandáya. in places where they are of mañgguáñgan descent, as is often the case on the upper agúsan, on the mánat, on the upper ihawán and tributaries, and on the upper sálug, their clothes resemble those of their poor progenitors. in the middle agúsan (including the wá-wa, kasilaían, lower argáwan, lower umaíam, lower ihawán, híbung, and simúlau rivers) the dress may be called characteristically manóbo. the use of bark cloth the use of bark cloth[ ] in a region situated somewhere between the headwaters of the libagánon and the sábud, a western tributary of the ihawán, was reported to me. my informants, both on the sálug river and on the umaíam river, spoke of the people of that locality as _true manóbos_, very dark in color, and wearing bark clothes. if this report is correct, and i am inclined to give credence to it, it is probably the only case at the present time of the use of bark cloth in mindanáo, excepting perhaps among the manánuas[sic]. [ ] _a-ga-hán_. dress as an indication of rank there are no characteristic dresses by which the rank or profession of the wearer is indicated except that of the warrior chief. female priests very frequently may be distinguished by a prodigality of charms, talismans, and girdle pendants, as also by a profuseness of embroidery on the jacket, but such lavishness is not necessarily an infallible sign of their rank as priestesses but rather of their wealth. neither is it a mark of their unmarried condition, for in manóboland, as in other parts of the world, the maiden loves to display her person to good advantage and for that reason decks herself with all the finery of which she may be the possessor. slaves may be recognized by the wretchedness of their clothes. dress in general the man's dress invariably consists of long loose trousers or of close-fitting breeches, and of a moderately tight-fitting, buttonless jacket. these two articles of dress are supplemented by a bamboo hat, a betel-nut knapsack, and by such adornments in the shape of beads, and other things, as the man may have been able to acquire. the woman's dress consists almost invariably of a close-fitting, buttonless jacket with red body and black sleeves. her skirt is a double sacklike garment made out of _abaká_ fiber. a girdle of braided human hair or of braided vegetable fiber holds this coarse dress in place. a selection of beads, shells, and herbs hang from this girdle at the right side. a comb in the hair, a pair of ear disks in the ears, a few necklets, and frequently leglets, complete the apparel. the children's clothing is a duplicate of that of their respective parents on a smaller and less elaborate scale. preferential colors in dress in the matter of color a decided preference is shown for red, yellow, white, and dark blue. this is not so exacting in the case of beads, which are purchased indiscriminately, but even in these i am of the opinion that if there were a choice in the supply, the above-mentioned colors would be preferred. the manóbo, then, is not encumbered with all the weight and variety of modern modes and fashions. shoes, slippers, and hose are not a part of his apparel. blankets and other articles for protection against cold are not to be found in his wardrobe. in the house and out of the house, by night and by day, in peace and in war, his dress is the same, one suit for every day usage and one for festal occasions and for visits. the man's dress hats and headkerchiefs the hat worn on the ihawán, upper agúsan, and upper simúlau resembles that worn by mandáyas. it is made out of two pieces of bamboo,[ ] dried over the fire into the desired shape, and is held together by two slender strips of rattan running around and stitched to the edges of the headpiece proper. these pieces project backward and overlap to form the tail of the hat. the upper surface of the whole hat is then painted with beeswax. the sustaining pieces of rattan around the rim and the under surface of the back part receive a heavy coating of this same material mixed with pot black. odd tracings and dottings of beeswax and soot or of the juice of a certain tree[ ] serve to decorate the whole upper surface; small seed beads, usually white, are often sewed around the rim in a single row and at slight intervals, or are sewed on the top, especially around the conical peak. little tufts of cotton are sometimes dotted over the top, and occasionally one finds the emerald green wings of a beetle[ ] placed in the seams on top. all of these devices serve to enhance the beauty of the headpiece. [ ] _caña bojo_. [ ] _ka-yú-ti_. [ ] called _dú-yau_. a notable feature of the hat is five or six tail plumes of a domestic rooster. these are set upright in small holes in the back part of the hat and are held in place by lumps of beeswax placed at the ends of the quills, which protrude through the bamboo. it is needless to say that the most gaudy plumes are selected for this purpose. they enhance in no small degree the elegant appearance of the hat. these plumes curve very gracefully indeed, and nod in unison with every movement of the wearer. the hat is held on the head by two strings made either of braided imported cotton of the typical colors, of _abaká_ fiber of the same colors, of vegetable fiber, or of slender slips of rattan. these two strings, often strung with beads, are attached at both ends of the hat and are sufficiently loose to permit the head of the wearer to be inserted between them. a further adornment may consist of two or more beaded pendants that may be tipped with tassels of imported cotton of the preferential colors. the hat, on the whole, is serviceable, economical, and cool, and serves to set off its wearer to good advantage and to protect his hair from the rain. as far as i have been able to ascertain, the decorative tracings and appanages on the hat have no other significance than that of personal adornment. a second form of head covering, in use in the parts of the agúsan river valley not mentioned above, as also among the manóbos of the pacific coast,[ ] is circular. it is made of the sago palm or of bamboo. it varies in diameter between and centimeters and has the shape of a low broad cone. the edges, like those of the hat already described, are reinforced with rattan painted with a mixture of beeswax and pot black for preserving the rattan against atmospheric influences. no paint is applied to the sago sheath, but the beeswax is applied to the bamboo as a preservative against cracking. neither are any decorative incisions or tracings used in this form of hat, it being primarily and essentially for protection against sun and rain. two parallel strips of rattan fastened at the ends of a diagonal serve to hold the hat in position on the head. [ ] the manóbos of the pacific coast inhabit the upper waters of the kantílan, tándag, tágo, marihátag, húbo, bislig, and liñgig rivers. a noteworthy feature of this hat is that within the area mentioned above, it is frequently worn by women. i know of no other headdress that is employed by the female members of the manóbo, mandáya, and debabáon tribes.[ ] [ ] the manóbos of the lower agúsan, inhabiting the towns of san vicente, amparo, san mateo, las nieves, and surrounding regions are not referred to here. the debabáons are looked upon as forming a separate tribe till further investigation. besides the headkerchief,[ ] worn universally by warrior chiefs[ ] and recognized warriors[ ] throughout all tribes in eastern mindanáo, a kerchief[ ] bound round the head is very often worn by manóbos of the argáwan and umaíam rivers. [ ] _tá-bang_. [ ] _ba-gá-ni_. [ ] _man-ík-i-ad_. [ ] _pó-dung_. the jacket in general the jacket is close-fitting, square-cut, and closed. it has long sleeves and a tongue-shaped opening for the head extending from the neck downward in front. ordinarily the jacket is scarcely long enough to reach the top of the trousers. it is not rare to find a narrow strip of cloth of a color different from the rest of the jacket inserted between the sleeves and body of the garment or running down the waist between the two pieces that form the body. this sidepiece in the jacket of men and women serves to give the desired width to the garment and the variation in color secured by it is regarded as an addition to the general ornamental effect. the jacket is embroidered more or less elaborately according to the skill of the embroiderer and the amount of imported cotton yarn available. this embroidery is done on the back from shoulder to shoulder in a band from to centimeters broad, and in continuous narrow lines around the neck opening, along the seams between the sleeves and body of the garment, on the lower parts of the sleeves, around the waist at the bottom of the garment, and down the arm at the joining of the sleeves; in a word, over all seams. in the central portion of the agúsan valley and on the pacific coast, the most common form of jacket is made of unstained _abaká_ fiber cut like the one just described. it has, however, inwoven in the cloth, horizontal parallel lines of dark-blue yarn on the back and the upper part of the front. these dark-blue bands are set at intervals from each other and usually amount to from six to nine lines in number. tufts of cotton in a continuous recurrence of red, yellow, and dark blue, without any interstices, cover all the seams. if there is any embroidery, it is upon the lower part of the sleeves, on that part of the jacket that covers the back of the neck, and along the seams between the sleeves and the body of the jacket. the distribution of this style of garment is very wide. i have seen it on the tágo river (pacific coast), on the upper umaíam, argáwan, kasilaían, and simúlau rivers. on the upper agúsan, including the upper bahaí-an, ihawán, and baóbo rivers, a style that resembles the mandáya is most frequently to be seen. the jacket is made of a gauze-like _abaká_ cloth dyed black, or preferably of black or blue imported cloth. one frequently finds, for ornamental purposes, just above the wrists or between the sleeves and the body of the jacket, or down the waist between the main pieces of the garment, thin strips of white cloth inserted. usually there is no embroidery as such, the previously described alternating tufts of cotton yarn covering all, or nearly all, the seams. when, however, it is desired and it is feasible to adorn the garment with embroidery, the back-of the jacket from shoulder to shoulder, the space along the shoulder seams and the back and front of the sleeves are selected for this prupose[sic]. bands to centimeters in breadth of more or less intricate pattern are embroidered in these places, with much patient labor and no little skill. it is needless to say that the ordinary colors, with a predominance of red, are used. the lower garment the lower garment is of two kinds, one being a short, close-fitting garment made out of either undyed _abaká_ fiber with a woof of native cotton or of imported blue cloth. this garment resembles closely the ordinary bathing tights. it is the working breeches of the manóbo and makes no pretense of being ornamental. the white or undyed form is the more common. the other kind of lower garment worn by the men may be called trousers, though they reach only about halfway between the knees and the ankles. they are square-legged and baggy, made of undyed _abaká_ fiber or of _abaká_ fiber with a woof of cotton, both undyed. whenever it is obtainable, imported blue cloth is used. the two legs of the trousers are each about centimeters long by centimeters broad and are joined together by a triangular piece of cloth. these trousers are worn on festive and other occasions that require a display of personal dignity. the decoration of the trousers consists usually of fringes of imported cotton attached to all the seams except those around the waist. when it is considered desirable to make a more showy garment, embroidery of cotton yarn is added to the ends of the legs and to the part that covers the sides of the calves. the designs used depend on whether the wearer is of the central or of the upper agúsan group. the girdle around the waist of the garment is a hem through which passes a drawstring or girdle usually of braided _abaká_ fiber dyed in the usual colors, with dependent extremities and tassels of imported cotton, also in the preferential colors. on the upper agúsan one finds at times beads and even small bells added to the tassels. these are allowed to hang down in front. the method of fastening the girdle is by the ordinary method of tieing[sic], or by another simple method, which consists in attaching near one end of the drawstring the operculum of a shell said to be found in the forests. at the other end of the girdle is a loop large enough to admit the operculum, which on being slipped into this loop retains the garment in position. the betel-nut knapsack[ ] [ ] _pú-yó_. the knapsack is such an omnipresent, indispensable object that it may be considered a part of manóbo raiment. it is a rectangular bag, on an average approximately by centimeters, with a drawstring for closing it. this string is nearly always of multicolored braided _abaká_ fiber, and is a continuation of the strings by which the knapsack is suspended on the back from the shoulders, so that when it is carried in that position the mouth of it is always closed. the cloth of which it is made is the usual undyed _abaká_ cloth, though among the upper agúsan group one finds in use blue imported cloth or, perhaps more frequently, mandáya cloth,[ ] imported especially for knapsacks. [ ] called _gú-au_. the decoration consists of embroidery, more or less extensive, of the type that is characteristic of the wearer's group and which corresponds to that of his dress, if the dress is decorated. tassels of imported cotton at the extremities of the drawstrings, and perhaps pendants of small seeds, or beads, usually white, together with cotton fringes in proper colors, enhance the beauty of the knapsack. as a rule, however, among the manóbos of regions remote from christian settlements, one finds little attempt at decoration, either of the dress or of the knapsack. a few fringes of cotton yarn and a little ornamental stitchwork are about the only display attempted. this lack of decoration is due not only to the fact that they have little cotton yarn, but also to lack of ability on the part of the women. the latter fact might lead the observer to conclude that the art of embroidery and cloth decoration originated outside the tribe. the woman's dress the jacket the great distinguishing mark of a woman's dress is the difference in color between the body of the upper garment, which is almost invariably red, and the sleeves, which must always be of a different color. should the body be made of black cloth, then the sleeves are always of red. and if the sleeves are of black, blue, or white, then the body must be of red. another differentiating feature of the woman's jacket is that the cuffs, if they may be so called, are generally of the color of the body of the garment, and that the pieces often inserted between the main parts of the body and extending vertically down the sides from the armpits are of the same color, and, if possible, of the same material as the upper parts of the sleeves. these two points, together with the more extensive and elaborate embroidery, serve to distinguish the woman's upper garment from the man's. in the regions which i visited the styles of jackets may be reduced to two, the more elaborate types of which are as follows: _the upper agúsan style_.--on the upper agúsan, on the ihawán (excepting on its western tributaries), and on the bahaían, the woman's jacket partakes of the style and characteristics of that of the mandáya. in shape it is not different from that of the man, but is more close-fitting, especially the sleeves, which may be compared to a long cylinder. lines of cotton yarn in alternating colors cover and adorn the seams and the oval-shaped opening for the neck, but are not found on the bottom of the jacket. embroidery of skillful and intricate design, in bands about or centimeters wide, adorns the garment on the back from shoulder to shoulder and around the seam at which the sleeves are joined to the body of the jacket. this garment is made out of either gauzelike _abaká_ cloth of native weaving, dyed either red or black, or it is of imported european cloth obtained by barter. sometimes it is a combination of the two, when enough imported cloth has not been obtained. _the style of the central group_.--the main differences between this style and that just described are that the latter is more loosely cut in the body and sleeves, is more profusely embroidered, and has a longitudinal cut in the cuffs for the admission of the hands. one finds, too, but only very occasionally, a type of jacket in which the sleeves are white and the body black. the embroidery may be so profuse that it covers not only the lower halves of the sleeves and the back of the neck, but the whole front of the garment. the girdle and its pendants the girdle may be a mere braided cord of _abaká_ fiber often mixed with strands of cotton yarn, but more commonly it is a series of braided cords of _nito_,[ ] or of human hair. the girdle is made by braiding the _nito_ or the hair into circular cords, each about centimeters in length and about millimeters in width. anywhere from to of these braids are fastened together by involving the ends in small pieces of cloth wrapped with cotton yarn of the preferential colors. [ ] _lygodium circinnatum_ sp. to one end of this girdle is attached a numerous array of beads, shells, and charms. to the other is attached a braided _abaká_ cord, also variegated with the proper colors, which enables the wearer to fasten and tighten the girdle. one frequently sees white seed beads in greater or less quantity strung on each cord of this form of belt. the pendants are a very noticeable feature of the girdle. hung from the right side they present to the eye anything but a pleasing effect. bundles of white scented grass, about centimeters long by centimeter in diameter, that have dried to a semblance of hay, detract most from the appearance of the wearer. the whole mass of pendants is a tangle of divers objects, the quantity of which depends upon the good fortune of the wearer. the following are the objects that may be found among these pendants: large hawk bells, seldom exceeding six in number and ordinarily not more than three; bunches of odorous grass, amounting sometimes to as much as eight in number; the red seed of the _ma-gu-hai_ tree; small shells, especially cowry shells, picked up, it is said, in the forest; the pods of the _ta-bí-gi_ tree, one or more, used for carrying incense[ ] for religious purposes; odoriferous seeds and roots[ ] cut up small and strung on _abaká_ filaments with such beads as the wearer may not desire to use, because of their color or shape, for the ornamentation of other parts of his body. [ ] called _pa-lí-na_. it is obtained by tapping the _ma-gu-baí_ tree. [ ] the following are the native names of the roots and plants seen by the writer: _ta-bó_, the seed of a plant which looks like a sweet potato; _sá-i_, a helmet-shaped seed of a tree of the same name; _kú-su_, the root of a leguminous plant; _ma-gu-baí_, the bright red seed of a tree of the same name. it is interesting to note that this same seed is used for the eyes of sacred images. _ka-bis-da'_ and _ko-múd-la_ are also made use of. the purpose of these various objects is, to all appearances, to ornament the person and to impart a fragrance to the wearer. in this last respect the redolent herbs and seeds admirably fulfill their purpose. but many of these objects serve other ends, medicinal and religious. i took no little pains in investigating this point, but the replies to my inquiries were at times so indeterminate, at others so varied, and so contradictory that i can not make any definite statement; but i am strongly inclined to believe, for sundry reasons, that both medicinal and magic powers are attributed to many of the innocent-looking objects that go to make up the girdle pendants. the skirt the manóbo woman is not encumbered with all the wearing apparel of more cultured tribes. she vests herself with the simple sacklike skirt of good strong _abaká_ cloth, durable, and admirably suited to her manner of life. as the cloth comes from the loom it is in one long rectangular piece ( . meters by centimeters more or less). it is cut in two and the ends of each of the two pieces are sewed together, so that two bottomless sacks are made. these two sacks are then joined together, thus forming one long rectangular garment, which by night serves for blanket, sheet, and frequently mosquito bar, and by day for a skirt. when used as a skirt, it is folded over in such a way that it resembles two sacks, one inside the other. as it is considerably larger than the person of the wearer it must be drawn to one side, always the left, and tucked in. the lower part of the garment on the left side bulges out so far that it makes the woman's figure ungraceful in appearance. from the dimensions given above it follows that the dress does not reach much below the knees, a salutary arrangement, indeed, for one whose occupations lead her through the slush of forest trails and the grime of farming life. there are two types of skirt in common use; first, the type that is of purely manóbo manufacture, and, second, the type that is imported from the mandáyas of southeastern mindanáo. the purely manóbo type is distinguished by its simplicity and absence of elaborate design. alternating bands of red and black, with dividing lines of white, all running longitudinally along the warp, and inwoven, are the only effort at beauty of design. the second form of skirt is that imported from the mandáyas or purchased, whenever obtainable, from bisáya traders or, on the upper agúsan, from trafficking intermediaries. it is striking with what appreciation the manóbo regards this article. a manóbo from the argáwan and umaíam will travel over to hinatuán, a journey of three or four days, to procure a piece of mandáya skirt cloth. he values it above the costliest pieces of european fabric that he has seen. the manóbo woman upon seeing a fine specimen dances with joy, and is long and loud in her praise of it. no value is too high for such a specimen and no sacrifice too great to purchase it. the explanation of this high regard in which mandáya cloth is held is simple. the cloth is made, i was habitually assured by manóbos, _by enchantment_, under the direction of the priestesses in the lofty mountain fastnesses of mandáyaland.[ ] no other explanation will satisfy the credulous manóbo. he can not possibly understand how the fanciful and elegant designs on mandáya cloth can be produced by other than supernatural means. [ ] i have covered nearly the whole of the mandáya country and can testify to the numerous religious practices and restrictions connected with the fabrication of the cloth. the cloth as it comes from the loom is of practically the same size as manóbo cloth and it is made into the form of a skirt in identically the same way. the only difference is that the mandáya fabric is heavier and has a beautiful inwoven pattern. a minute description of the patterns would be needlessly lengthy and necessarily deficient. in general, it may be said that the designs are executed in longitudinal panels, of which there are several lateral and one central, all of which run parallel and warpwise. the main figures are four, two grotesquely suggestive of a crocodile but more nearly portraying a turtle, and two that delineate the fanciful figure of a woman. the intermediate parts of the panels consist of reticulations whose general design depends upon the skill and whim of the weaver.[ ] [ ] the cloth is classified ( ) according to the color of the woof threads (_pu-gáu-a_) into _kan-aí-yum_ (black) and _lin-í-ba_ (red); ( ) according to the design on the central panel--_ím-pis no laí-ag_ if it is centimeters wide, _bin-a-ga-kís_ if the central panel is no wider than the lateral ones; ( ) according to the use of narrow (_sin-ák-lit_) or of broad (_pin-al-áw-an_) white stripes; ( ) according to the locality in which the cloth is manufactured, the most famous and most prized cloth being called _ban-a-háw-an_, which proceeds from the banaháwan district in the kasaúman river valley in the southeastern part of mindanáo. the mañg-á-gan type is highly esteemed for being very similar in design and dye effects to the banaháwan. it is made by the _tagabuztai_ group of mandáyas in the karága river valley. chapter vii personal adornment general remarks the adornment of the person is confined almost exclusively to women so that the following observations apply principally to them. in the discussion of bodily mutilations reference will be made to such permanent adornment as tattooing, perforation and elongation of the ear lobes, superciliary and axillary depilation, grinding of the teeth, and the blackening of the teeth and lips--all of which, with the exception of the elongation of the ear lobes, are common to both men and women. the finger nails of both sexes are sedulously clipped, not even thumb-nails being allowed to grow long. this may be due to the fact that these latter are not required for playing the guitar, nor for gambling with cards, in which occupations they prove a valuable aid to the bisáya of the agúsan valley. hair and head adornment care and ornamentation of the head with the exception of the manóbos of the far upper reaches of the argáwan, umaíam, and sábud rivers, whom i did not visit, and of manóbos who live in settlements and may have adopted the hairdressing methods of bisáyas, one mode of dressing the hair is almost invariably in use by both men and women. the hair is parted in a straight line over the cranium from ear to ear. the front division is then combed forward over the forehead where it is banged square from ear to ear in the plane of and parallel to the superciliary ridges. the back division is combed back, and after being twisted into a compact mass, is tied in a chignon upon the crown of the head. the knot is a single bow, which from our standpoint is not very prepossessing. in men the chignon is usually lower, being about half way between the crown and the nape of the neck. one occasionally sees two locks of hair left hanging down in front of the ears to the level of the jaws. this fashion is not very prevalent even on the upper agúsan, and is probably adopted from the mandáyas. no fillets, flowers, garlands nor any other ornamentation are ever used on the hair. coconut oil, if obtainable, is used, but the meat of the coconut, rasped or chopped into small particles, is preferred, whenever it can be obtained. as a wash for the hair, wild lemons, the seed of an uncommon tree whose name has escaped my memory, and the bark of a tree, are used sporadically. i can not laud the condition of the hair. notwithstanding the fact that a crude bamboo comb with close-set teeth is made use of, the vermin are never eliminated. on occasions the hair of children is cut for the purpose of promoting its growth, and the hair of female slaves is often cut as a punishment. with these exceptions, the hair is never cut, being left with all the profusion which nature gives it. combs an ornamental comb is always worn by women. it consists of a segment of bamboo, or centimeters long and centimeters high, curved while still green and made to retain its shape by a slip of bamboo fastened into two holes on the concave side. the teeth are whittled out and the upper part and sides are cut into the characteristic shape seen in plate . on the front or convex side of the comb are ornamental incisions the style and variety of which depend upon the caprice and adeptness of the fashioner. skeat and blagden[ ] quote an authority who asserts that the tribes of the malay peninsula attribute magic properties to the decorative incisions on their combs. following out this idea, the writer made numerous inquiries in the agúsan valley as to the existence of a similar or of an analogous attribution but found none. according to all reports these patterns are purely esthetic in their character, with no magic or other attributes. the fact that among the manóbos of the upper agúsan in the vicinity of veruéla, one finds combs without incised work and among the manóbos of argáwan, umaíam, and kasilaían one occasionally sees combs with circular, square, and triangular pieces of mother-of-pearl inlaid, is an indication of the absence of the aforesaid belief. in fact, combs of the last-mentioned type seem to be more highly prized than the plain incised bamboo ones, a fact due probably to the scarcity of mother-of-pearl. another point that goes to bear out the above statement is the fact that no reluctance is displayed in parting with a comb, no matter how intricate or unusual may be its incisions. [ ] pagan races of the malay peninsula. on the upper agúsan it is not rare to find combs that have a band of beaten silver with a fretwork pattern laid across the convex part above the teeth. these combs, however, are imported from the debabáons of moncáyo or from the composite group living farther up the river. the writer knows of no manóbo silversmith. no hairpins nor other means of fastening the hair are made use of, neither are any dyes nor other materials used to alter its color. ear disks another ornament found on the manóbo woman's head is the ear disk. this is a disk of wood[ ] about centimeters in diameter, and millimeters wide, with a small groove around the edge in which rests the edge of the ear perforation. when the wearer has been lucky enough to get a thin lamina of silver or of gold[ ] it is fastened on the outside of the wooden disk by means of a few strands of imported cotton yarn nearly always red. the yarn passes through a hole in the lamina and in the disk, a little tuft being left over the hole. these metal plates have usually stellate edges and are often decorated with a simple chiseled pattern. they are rare except on the upper agúsan where there are debabáon and mandáya smiths. in lieu of gold and silver, a lamina made out of beaten brass wire answers the purpose. [ ] usually of _ku-li-pá-pa_. [ ] gold laminae are very rare and are seldom parted with. they are highly valued heirlooms. the silver lamina is beaten out of a piece of silver money. on the upper agúsan both men and women suspend four strings of beads from each ear, when the dignity of the occasion requires it. these strings are about centimeters long and have colored cotton tassels at the ends. both these tassels and the strings of beads are of the preferred colors, red, white, black, and yellow. i am inclined to think that this custom is also of mandáya origin. occasionally one or two buttons[ ] are worn in the ear lobes of men on the upper agúsan. this practice seems to have been adopted from the mandáyas. [ ] ordinary undershirt buttons. neck and breast ornaments the number of necklets and necklaces worn depends on the wealth of the wearer or on her good fortune in having been able to secure a supply of beads. the components of the necklace are principally beads with alternating odoriferous seeds or pieces of seeds. here and there a small shell may be added, or a larger bead, or a crocodile tooth. the writer has seen worn coils of beads with small shells, seeds, and crocodile teeth, that must have weighed at least kilograms. such an array as this is not worn every day but is reserved for occasions of religious or secular festivity and for times when the possessor feels bound to make an unusual display. the seeds worn are the same as those that form part of the girdle--pendants, above described. it may not be out of place here to note the fondness displayed by the feminine portion of the tribe for perfumes. this is characteristic of all the peoples of eastern mindanáo with whom i have been in contact. though medicinal and magic virtues are attributed, perhaps, to these odorous seeds, yet their fragrance is also undoubtedly a determining factor in the choice of them. in the color of the beads used the manóbo is restricted by the character of the supply, but it may be said that where he has his choice he selects red, yellow, black, and white. he prefers the small seed bead, but likes to have a few large beads to place at recurring intervals. necklets are occasionally worn. they consist of bands of beads, arranged symmetrically according to color in geometrical figures--a triangle of yellow beads, a rectangle of black ones, or other patterns. this necklet is usually about centimeters broad and long enough to fit the neck tightly. it is fastened at the back by a button and usually has a single string of beads depending from it and lying upon the back. men may wear this necklet, but its use by them is very infrequent. they, however, occasionally wear a necklace from which to suspend the hair eradicator. i observed this only on the upper agúsan, and, as it is an ordinary mandáya practice i suppose that the custom is borrowed--another indication of the influence of mandáya culture on the manóbos of the upper agúsan. the eradicator is a small pair of tweezers made, ordinarily, out of a piece of beaten brass wire bent double and having inturned edges. the only breast ornament, besides tattooing on the skin and embroidery on the jacket, is the silver plaque or disk worn nearly always by unmarried women and frequently by others. the wearing of these disks is a custom practiced only on the upper agúsan, ihawán, and simúlau rivers, and is without doubt of mandáya origin. the plaque is a large thin sheet of beaten silver varying from to centimeters in diameter. it is of debabáon or of mandáya workmanship. it has a pattern of concentric circles and other symmetrical figures traced upon it, together with a fretwork of small triangular holes. the more elaborate ones display an amount of artistic skill that gives the mandáya[ ] the high reputation that he has in eastern mindanáo as a man of superior attainments. [ ] mandáyaland produces nearly all the lances, spears, bolos, daggers, and artistic cloth used by the manóbos throughout eastern mindanáo. outside of a few silversmiths among the debabáons, and a few among the hybrid group occupying the upper agúsan from gerona to tagaúnud, the mandáya smiths are the only ones that are skilled in silverwork. arm and hand ornamentation men wear on one or both upper arms black bands of braided _nito_. these are about . centimeters in breadth and are braided into one continuous piece of such a size as to fit the arm tightly. the writer has seen many that fitted so closely that they caused sores. they are, besides being distinctly ornamental, designed to serve another purpose, for they are supposed to impart strength to the muscles. men often wear, on one or both wrists, one or more vegetable ligatures plaited in one continuous piece. these are of a jet black glossy color when made of the _ág-sam_[ ] vine. they are rectangular in cross section, being about millimeters by millimeters. they must be moistened to make the filaments expand so that the wearer can pass them over his hands on the wrist. on drying they contract to the size of the wrist, women often wear a few of these with their forearm ornaments. [ ] both _pug-nút_ and _ág-sam_ are species of _nito_ (_lygodium_ sp.). crude rings, round or flat, more commonly beaten out of brass wire or of copper money, but occasionally made of silver money and still less occasionally of carabao horn, adorn in greater or less number the fingers of both men and women. the forearm adornments of women are more numerous and elaborate than those of men. besides the vegetable circlets described above, segments of the black coral plant,[ ] cut into palm lengths and bent into rings by heating, are worn on either or both arms, though, in case of an insufficient supply, the left arm is adorned in preference to the right. these marine ringlets are not solely for purposes of ornamentation, for a magic influence is attributed to them, at least by the manóbos of the upper agúsan. they are thought to contract and grip, as it were, the wearer's arm on the approach and in the presence of danger. hence they are greatly prized but are comparatively rare. this is due to the difficulty of obtaining the plant as it grows in deep water where the danger from sharks deters the native divers. [ ] called _sag-ai-ság-ai_ in manóbo and _baná-ug_ in bisáya (_antipatharia_ sp.). the whorl of a sea shell,[ ] ground and polished into white heavy rings, whose cross section is an isosceles triangle, form a very common forearm adornment for women on the upper agúsan. sometimes as many as five of these are worn, ordinarily on the left arm. the weight of a full equipment of shell bracelets may amount to at least a kilo. the use of such cumbrous adornments is confined to festal occasions except in the case of unmarried maidens, who nearly always wear them. these shell bracelets with the black alternating rings of sea coral are very becoming indeed, as they tend, by the contrast of jet black and marble white, to set off the color of the skin to advantage. [ ] tak-lo-bo (_tridacna gigas_). it is noticeable that as one approaches the mandáya country, the similarity in dress and personal adornment to that of the mandáyas becomes more apparent. this is true on the upper simúlau, agúsan, and ihawán, another indication of the influence of mandáya culture on the manóbo. hence in those regions one finds forms of bracelets that are typical of mandáya adornment. thus bands of beaten brass wire, centimeter broad approximately, are seen occasionally. also flat braided bands of jungle fiber covered with white beads are sometimes used. on one occasion the writer saw a hollow circular brass bangle into which a piece of lead had been inserted, and which with every movement of the arm produced a tinkling sound. in the central agúsan region and among the manóbos of the pacific coast, one finds the use of a small whorl of a sea shell[ ] as a bracelet but its use is uncommon, especially on the pacific side. this is due to the fact that only an occasional shell has made its way into the country. in these regions the manóbo is particularly poor in arm adornments. [ ] called _lá-gang_. knee and ankle adornments men, especially unmarried ones, often wear on one or both legs just below the knee a ligature similar in every respect to that worn on the upper arms. its purpose, too, is twofold, to strengthen, and, at the same time, to adorn the legs. on the upper agúsan one sees beads sewn on these bands. women have similar ligatures on one or both legs just above the ankles. they are worn for decorative purposes, but it is said by some that they are a sign of virginity and that upon marriage it costs the husband the value of one slave to remove them. but the fact that married women occasionally wear them seems to contradict this statement. women wear at festal periods and especially during dances a few rings[ ] of stout brass wire some millimeters in diameter. the rings are large enough to allow the foot to be passed through them, hence they hang loosely at the ankles. in number they rarely exceed two to each leg. during a dance they tintillate to the jingling of the hawk bells that depend from the girdle and are considered highly ornamental. [ ] dú-tus. body mutilations general remarks the purpose of most body mutilations among the manóbos is ornamentation. the one exception is circumcision which will be discussed later. scarification is nowhere practiced in eastern mindanáo except among the mamánuas. in i came in contact with several mamánuas of the upper tágo river (within the jurisdiction of tándag, province of surigáo) and noticed that they had cicatrices on the breast and arms. i concluded that the scars were due to the practice of scarification. inquiries since that time made among both manóbos and bisáyas have confirmed these conclusions. head deformation is not practiced in eastern mindanáo. no painting of the body is resorted to other than the blackening of the lips with soot. to effect this a pot is taken from the fireplace and the bottom of it is dexterously passed across the lips, leaving a black coating that, with the fluid from the chewing quid made up of tobacco, lime, and _máu-mau_ frequently becomes permanent till moistened by drinking. it is a strange sight to see a handsome manóbo belle, decked out with beads and bells, or a dapper manóbo dandy, take the _olla_, and darken the lips. no religious or magic significance is attributed to any of the following mutilations, nor are any religious or other celebrations performed in connection with them. mutilation of the teeth[ ] [ ] _há-sa-to-únto_. as the age of puberty approaches, both boys and girls have their teeth ground. the process is very simple but extremely painful, so much so that the operation can not be completed at one sitting. i think, however, that the painfulness of the process depends on the quality of the stone used, for the mandáyas of the upper karága river claim that there is a species of stone that does not cause much pain. a piece of wood is inserted between the teeth to keep them apart. the operator, usually the father, then inserts a small flat piece of sandstone, such as is used for sharpening bolos, into the mouth and with a moderate motion grinds the upper and lower incisors to the gums. it is only the difficulty of reaching the molars that saves them, as the writer was informed. in all, front teeth disappear, and a portion of others. after filing, the teeth of the upper jaw appear convex and those of the lower, concave. i estimate the minimum time necessary to grind the teeth to be from to hours, spread over a period varying from to days. the patient displays more or less evidence of pain, according to his powers of endurance but is continually exhorted to be patient so that his mouth will not look like a dog's. this is the reason universally asserted for their objection to white, sharp teeth: "they look like a dog's." after each grinding, the subject experiences sensitiveness in the gums and can not masticate hard food. when this sensitiveness is no longer felt, usually the following day, the grinding is resumed. blackening of the teeth is effected principally by the use of a plant called _máu-mau_ which, besides being used as a narcotic, has the property of giving the teeth a rather black appearance. after being chewed, it is rubbed across the teeth. the juice of the skin is expressed into a quid of tobacco mixed with lime and pot black, the whole forming the inseparable companion of the manóbo man, woman, and even child. it is a compound about the size of a small marble and is carried, until it loses its strength and flavor, between the upper lip and the upper gum, but projecting forward between the lips. it is to be noted here that the primary object in the use of this combination is not the discoloration of the teeth. the compound is used mainly for the stimulating effects it produces, the pot-black being added as an ingredient in order to blacken the lips and so improve the personal appearance of the user of it. the quid is frequently carried behind the ear when circumstances require the use of the mouth for other purposes. another means that helps to stain the teeth is the constant use of betel nut and betel leaf mixed with lime, and, in certain localities, with tobacco. mutilation of the ear lobes the practice of mutilating the ear lobes[ ] is universal and is not confined to either sex. it consists in piercing the ear lobes in one, two, or three places. this is done usually at an early age, with a needle. a thread of _abaká_ fiber is then inserted and prevented from coining out by putting a tiny pellet of beeswax at each end. as soon as the wound heals, the perforation is enlarged in the case of a woman in the following manner: small pieces of the rib of the rattan leaf are inserted at intervals of a couple of days until the hole is opened enough to receive larger pieces. when it has expanded sufficiently, a small spiral of grass, usually of _pandanus_[ ] is inserted. this, by its natural tendency to expand, increases the size of the aperture until a larger spiral can be inserted. [ ] _ti-dáng_. [ ] _bá-ui_ (bisáya, _ba-ló-oi_). the opening is considered of sufficient size and beauty when it is about . centimeters in diameter. in addition to this large aperture, which is located on the lower part of the lobulus, there may be two other small perforations about . centimeters further up. these latter serve both in men and women for the attachment of small buttons, while the former is confined exclusively to women and serves for the insertion of ornamental ear disks. depilation a beardless face is considered a thing of beauty, so that a systematic and constant eradication of the face hair is carried on by the manóbo from the first moment that hair begins to appear upon his face. for this purpose he often has a pair of tweezers,[ ] ordinarily made out of beaten brass wire, with which he systematically plucks out such straggling hairs as he may find upon his upper lip and on the chin, as well as the axillary hair. the pubic hair is not always eradicated. a small knife[ ] is frequently employed as a razor, not only on the chin and upper lip but also for shaving the eyebrows. the removal of the last mentioned is a universal practice, for hair on the eyebrows is considered very ungraceful. hence both sexes shave the eyebrows, leaving only a pencil line, or, in some districts, not even a trace of hair. [ ] _pan-úm-pa'_. [ ] called _ba-di'_ or _kám-pit_. the hair on other parts of the body is not abundant and it is not customary to remove it. tattooing[ ] [ ] _pang-o-túb_. after making an infinity of inquiries, i learned that tattooing is merely for the purpose of ornamentation. by a few i was given to understand that under the spanish regime, when killing and capturing was rife, the tattooing was for the purpose of the identification of a captive. it was customary to change the name of a captive, and as he was sold and resold, the only way to identify him was by his tattoo marks. be that as it may, the practice seems to have at present no further significance than that of ornamentation. no therapeutic nor magical nor ceremonial effects are associated with it. neither is it symbolic of prowess, nor distinctive of family, place, nor person, for two persons from different localities and groups may have the same designs. no particular age is required for the inception of the process, but from my observation, corroborated by general testimony, i believe it is performed usually from the age of puberty onwards. the operator is nearly always a woman, or a so-called hermaphrodite,[ ] who has acquired a certain amount of skill in embroidering. these professionals are not numerous, due, possibly, to the natural aversion felt by women for the sight of blood, as also to the fact that no remuneration is made for their services, though this last reason alone would not explain the paucity. [ ] one meets occasionally among the peoples of eastern mindanáo certain individuals who are known by a special name and who are reputed to be incapable of sexual intercourse. the individuals whom i saw were most feminine in their ways, preferring to keep the company of women and to indulge in womanly work rather than to associate with men. the process is very simple. a pigment is prepared by holding a plate or an _olla_, over a burning torch[ ] made of resin until enough soot has collected. then without any previous drawing, the operator punctures, to a depth of approximately millimeters, the part of the body that is to be tattooed. the blood that flows from these punctures is wiped off, usually with a bunch of leaves, and a portion of the soot from the resin is rubbed vigorously into the wounds with the hand of the operator. [ ] _saí-yung_ (_canarium villosum_). the process occupies a variable length of time, depending on the skill of the operator and on the endurance and patience of the subject. it is painful, but no such manifestations of pain are made as in teeth grinding. the portion tattooed is sensitive for about hours, but no other evil consequences, such as festering, etc., follow as far as my observations go. without the aid of diagrams or pictures it is difficult to describe in an intelligible and comprehensive manner the numerous designs that are used in tattooing. each locality may have its own distinct fashion, differing from the fashion prevalent in another region. and as the designs seem to be the result of individual whim and fancy it would be an almost endless task to describe all of them in detail. suffice it to say in general that they follow in both nomenclature and in general appearance the figures embroidered on jackets, with the important addition of figures of a crocodile, and of stars and leaves, as is indicated by the names.[ ] [ ] _bin-u-á-ja_, (from _bu-wá-ja_, crocodile), _gin-í-bang_ (from _gí-bang_, iguana) and _bin-úyo_ (from _bú-jo'_, the betel leaf). the figures are neither intricate nor grotesque, but simple and plain, displaying a certain amount of artistic merit for so primitive and so remote a people. on close inspection they show up in good clear lines, but at a distance they appear as nothing but dim blue spots or blotches. for durability they can not be surpassed. no means are known whereby to eradicate them. i compared tattoo marks on old men with those on young men and i could not discern any difference in the brightness nor in the preservation of the design. in men the portions of the body tattooed are the whole chest, the upper arms, the forearms, and the fingers. women on the other hand, in addition to tattooings on those parts, receive an elaborate design on the calves, and sometimes on the whole leg. circumcision[ ] [ ] _tú-li'_. unlike the four mutilations already described, circumcision is not for ornamental purposes. according to the manóbo's way of thinking it serves a more utilitarian purpose, for it is supposed to be essential to the procreation of children. how such a belief first originated i have been unable to learn, but nevertheless the belief is universal, strong, and abiding. to be called uncircumcised is one of the greatest reproaches that can be thrown at a manóbo, and it is said that he would stand no chance for marriage unless the operation had been performed; the womenfolk would laugh and jeer at him. so it may be said that the custom is obligatory. the operation is performed a year or two before puberty. no ceremonies or feasts are held in connection with it. the father, or a male relative of the child, takes the small knife (_ba-dí_) and placing it lengthwise over the lower part of the prepuce, makes a slit by hitting the back of the knife with a piece of wood or any convenient object at hand. it thus appears that it is not circumcision in the full meaning of the word but rather an incision. this operation is confined to males and is the only sexual mutilation practiced. chapter viii alimentation fire and its production the manóbo is unable to explain the nature of fire, but he has two very primitive but effective ways of producing it, namely, the fire-saw, and the flint and steel. owing to the sale of manila and japanese matches to such of the manóbos as come in contact with traders or with trading posts, the ancient methods of making fire are falling into disuse. the fire-saw[ ] [ ] _gut-gút-an_. this might be more properly called the friction method, for the fire is obtained by rubbing edgewise one piece of bamboo at right angles to, and over the back of, another. the "saw," as it is usually called, or upper piece, must be long enough, say centimeters, to enable one to hold it firmly with both hands. the breadth is immaterial, provided it be broad enough to resist the pressure. one edge must be cut sharp. the "horse," or lower piece, ought to be at least centimeters broad and of any length. it is essential that the under surface be sufficiently convex to admit the free passage of air when the bamboo is placed upon a solid resting place. in the center of this bamboo is made a hole at least millimeter in diameter. all is now ready for the operation. the "horse" is set down upon some clean solid piece of wood or stone with its inner or concave side downwards, in such a way that it can not move. the "saw" is placed transversely across the "horse," the sharp edge being right over the hole. holding it firmly with a hand at each end, it is worked steadily, rapidly and with great pressure across the "horse," precisely as if it were desired to saw it in two. after some strokes, there appears a little smoke, and the operator increases the rapidity of his movement, until he thinks that there is sufficient fire underneath the bamboo. then he blows down through the hole in order to separate any such bamboo dust as may still remain in or around it. he removes the "horse" applying at once a little lint or other tinder to the glowing particles of bamboo. he then transfers his fire to a piece of good dry wood, preferably to an old firebrand, and in a few seconds has a permanent fire. for the process it is essential that the bamboo selected be dry and well seasoned, for otherwise the dust produced by the rubbing will not ignite. there are a few varieties of wood that answer the same purpose, but i am unable to give the names though i have seen them used. the steel and flint process[ ] [ ] _ti'-ti_. the manóbo method of making fire with flint and steel differs in no wise from that used by our own forbears. the tinder used is a fluff obtained from the sugar palm.[ ] it is found around the frond bases and after being thoroughly dried, is kept with the flint and steel in a special bamboo or rattan receptacle. [ ] _arenga saccharifera_. it is called _hi-juíp_ or _hi-diúp_ in manóbo. continuation of the fire once lighted, the fire in the house is kept up, ordinarily not for any ceremonial reason, as far as i have been able to ascertain, but because it is the custom. it is commonly used to furnish light and is kept burning during the night for that purpose. in the mountainous districts, where there is always the possibility of an attack, the fire is sedulously maintained both for light and heat. on occasions fraught with danger from malignant spirits, fire is kept burning for ceremonial reasons as a safeguard against the stealthy approach of the spirits. should the fire become extinguished, a fire brand is borrowed from another house, if there is one in the vicinity, but, if there are no neighbors recourse is had to one of the above-described methods. lighting fire is ordinarily the principal, and not infrequently the only source of light. it is only in districts in close proximity to the settlements of christianized manóbos that the luxury of coal oil is enjoyed. the only source of light in the house, other than that from the fire, is a species of resin which is collected from a tree that is found in great abundance in eastern mindanáo.[ ] the method of obtaining the resin is to make a good cut in the tree about millimeter above the ground and to catch the resin in a bark or leaf receptacle. this is usually done overnight. broken pieces of the resin are then placed in a conical receptacle, made of green leaves, usually of the rattan, bound with rattan strips or other vegetable fastening. when needed, the larger end of this bundle of resin is lighted at the fire and the torch is set upon the floor supported in a tilted position by the most convenient object at hand, frequently the whetstone. [ ] called _sai'-gung_ or _saung_. (_oanarium villosum_). this torch is a good and economical illuminant. it has, however, two defects: first, the ugly habit of spitting out occasional sparks, which cause a somewhat painful sore if they happen to hit the flesh; and, second, a tendency to extinguish itself at intervals on account of the burnt residue that gradually covers the resin. the ash may be easily removed with a stick and then the light blazes out at once, casting a bright glare on the brown and naked figures of the inmates. when a light is needed for outdoor purposes, a piece of seasoned bamboo, split at one end, or a firebrand of wood, is carried in lieu of the resin. it is an invariable custom to carry a firebrand, while outdoors at night, not only for the purpose of lighting the way but for daunting the evil spirits that are thought to roam about in the gloom of night. culinary and table equipment the manóbo is particularly poor in cooking utensils. with the exception of a very occasional iron pot, and a much less frequent pan, he has none of the kitchen apparatus of more civilized peoples. the earthen pot of his own manufacture is his mainstay. it resembles the _ollas_ or earthen pots used so universally throughout the philippines. in addition to this there is used, though very rarely among the remote manóbos, an imported cast-iron pan.[ ] it is from centimeters to centimeters in depth and from centimeters to centimeters in diameter, concave, and of the poorest material. it is used for general cooking, for dyeing, and for making a sugar-cane beverage. as it is not provided with a cover, the leaves of the bamboo are used to keep the soot and dirt out and to keep the heat in, especially in steaming _camotes_ and taro. [ ] called _ki-ú-ja_. when there are not enough pots for the cooking, as on some exceptional occasion, green bamboo internodes with one end open are brought into requisition. bamboo of the variety known as _bo_ or _bóho_, is preferred, for it gives an extra delicate savor to the contents, as i can testify. even upon ordinary occasions, fish or meat is sometimes cooked in bamboo for the same reason. the pieces of bamboo are put into the fire in a slanting position, the open end being stopped with leaves. they are turned around occasionally till they are burnt nearly through. the contents are removed by splitting the charred joint into strips. these strips are usually given to the expectant children who scrape and lick them clean. i once saw the bark of a tree used for cooking rice, but without success. i was assured that for cooking meat or fish it would answer admirably. a ladle, with a handle of wood or bamboo and a head of coconut shell, is about the only article that the manóbo ordinarily has to serve the purpose of spoons and forks. in the absence of the coconut ladle, he employs the bottom of a bamboo internode to which has been left attached a strip that serves as a handle. for stirring the rice he uses a little paddle made out of a flat piece of wood, or if he has no paddle he uses the handle of his coconut. a coconut shell is used for a water cup, though, if he has an imported glass, he will offer it to visitors. no rags are employed in the cleaning of plates and other dishes. at times a few leaves are required to clean out the iron pan, but for plates and bowls and other utensils a little cold water and a little rubbing with the hand are sufficient. the manóbo uses no tablecloth nor has he any of the appurtenances that equip a modern table, except plates, bowls, and, perhaps, a glass. of plates he frequently has too few for his family. bowls are still scarcer. many and many are the houses which i have visited that could not boast of a single bowl; the same may be said of glasses. this is due to the exorbitant prices charged for them. as a substitute for plates, the manóbo uses platters of bark from the sago[ ] and other palm trees. it may happen on the occasion of some big festivity that he still finds himself short of plates and platters, so he utilizes his low panlike weaving baskets by lining them with banana or other leaves and putting them on the table loaded with rice. should all these not be sufficient for the number of his guests, he spreads out a few banana leaves in the center of the table, or on the floor, and lays the rice upon them. [ ] _lúm-bia_. a piece of bamboo serves for cup and glass as auxiliary to, or a substitute for, the coconut-shell cup mentioned above. various kinds of food the great staple of manóboland is the _camote_.[ ] during harvest time and for several weeks ensuing rice may constitute the bulk of his daily food, but after that he reserves for feasts, for friends, and for the sick what he does not sell, or part with in payment of debts. should his _camote_ crop fail he falls back upon the sago[ ] that abounds in the central agúsan; or, when sago is not available, he seeks the wild fishtail palm,[ ] that affords him as pleasant and nutritious a food as any sago palm that ever grew. in the upper agúsan the manóbo plants a fair quantity of taro, and in the middle agúsan, a small amount of maize in season, or even some beans,[ ] so that it is seldom he has to have recourse to the forest for his maintenance. but the mountain manóbo is occasionally compelled to draw his sustenance from the various palm trees and vines that are found in such luxuriance throughout his forest domain. i have seen poisonous tubers gathered in time of famine by the manóbos of the upper wá-wa region and eaten, after they had been scraped on a prickly rattan branch, and the poison had been removed by a series of washings and dryings. [ ] _ipomoea batatas_ poir. [ ] _lúm-bia_. [ ] _bá-hi'_ (_caryota_ sp.) [ ] called _bá-tung_. he nearly always has a little sugar cane on the farm but, when it is not intended for making an inebriating drink, it is planted only in sufficient quantity to furnish occasionally a few pieces to the members of the household. besides the above-mentioned plants, he has probably only a few banana plants, a few ginger plants, some semiwild tomatoes, a little mint[ ] and, perchance, a few other plants intended for seasoning. he is not accustomed to plant more than will supply the bare necessities of life. [ ] called _labwéna_ probably from the spanish _yerba buena_. as a concomitant of his rice or _camotes_, he must have his _is-da_[ ] which he procures from the forest[ ] or from the river.[ ] [ ] this word in its present usage corresponds to the spanish _vianda_, to the bisáya _súdan_, and the tagalog _úlam_. note that the generic word for _is-da_, "fish," has received a still more general application among the manóbos and bisáyas of the middle agúsan. originally, no doubt, it meant simply "fish," but as the _háu-an_ is almost the only fish in the middle agúsan that is caught with frequency and in numbers, the generic term for fish was narrowed down to this one particular fish. thence the application of the word expanded and it now corresponds to the tagalog _úlam_ and the cebu-bisáya _sú-dan_. [ ] see under "hunting." [ ] see under "fishing." it is not essential that the meat or fish should be fresh. i have seen pig meat eaten after three days' decomposition. neither is the rawness an impediment, for it is customary in certain localities to eat pork absolutely raw, for ceremonial reasons. besides pork, venison, and fish, an occasional wild chicken or other bird snared in the forest, or a hornbill killed with an arrow, helps to keep his larder supplied. when no fish or meat has been procured, and this is more often the rule than the exception, he may have found on his rambles some mushroomlike fungi,[ ] or even mushrooms,[ ] or he may have taken a notion to cut down some palm tree, and get a fine palm [ ] or rattan core [ ] or even young bamboo shoots.[ ] while straying along the river bank he may pick some fern tops of an edible variety.[ ] any of these things affords as fair supplement to his rice, as butter does to bread. the palm-tree cores are full of big luscious larvae.[ ] he may have a chance to kill an iguana[ ] or monarch lizard.[ ] the killing of a monkey with his bow and arrow, or in his traps, affords him a choice piece of meat. and when he has the good fortune to kill a python, he has enough _ís-da_ for himself, his relatives, and his neighbors for at least one meal. occasionally, during the proper season, he locates a bees' nest and therefrom procures an amount of honey, larvae, and beebread that proves an uncommon treat for himself and his family. again, on the river at certain periods he has nothing else to do except to scoop into his dugout (if he has one) the exhausted "water-skimmers,"[ ] or while passing near some sand bank to spy the spot where the water lizard buried her delicious eggs. in the little side streams he may catch a few frogs and go on his way rejoicing. [ ] _ta-líng-a bá-tang_. [ ] _líg-bus, sa-gíng-sá-ging_. [ ] _Ó-bud_. [ ] _pá-san_. [ ] _da-búng_. [ ] _pá-ko'_ (_asplenium esculentum_) [ ] _a-bá-tud_. [ ] _gí-bang_. [ ] _ibíd_. [ ] these are a variety of insect called _dá-li_, of a whitish color about centimeters long, and having two threadlike appendages extending from the posterior part. they are eaten raw, usually with vinegar and salt. this insect is said to be, probably, one of the neuroptera or pseudoneuroptera. with these random finds, with wild boar and deer that come from an occasional chase, with such salted and dried fish, including jerked crocodile, as he may purchase directly or indirectly from bisáya traders or from christianized manóbos, and with a casual pig or fowl killed on ceremonial or festival occasions, he manages to keep his family fairly well supplied with an accompaniment for the mess of rice or other staple food. salt, the native red pepper,[ ] and at times ginger constitute a very important part of the meal, if they are obtainable. the first mentioned article is far from being abundant, especially in certain localities, such as the baóbo river and the upper parts of the ihawán, umaíam, and bahaían rivers. in such places as these the writer found such an intense craving for it that it was eaten ravenously and declared to be "sweet." there is such an inordinate desire for salt, especially the rock salt made out of salt water and ash lye, that the manóbo will submit sometimes to tyranny and to the most exorbitant rates in order to obtain it. this craving for salt will explain the general preference that is felt for salted food as against fresh meat. the small salted fish, peddled in such quantities by bisáya traders, are prized above the choicest pieces of venison and jerked crocodile, presumably for the salt that they contain. it may be wondered why the manóbo does not salt his own meat and fish, but this is explained by the fact that such an operation is strictly tabooed. red pepper is a _sine qua non_. it is eaten much as we eat salt, and is said to impart courage. in the regions near the mandáyas it is put up in a special form,[ ] this being nothing more than the dried pepper pounded, mixed with salt, and preserved in bamboo joints in a dry place, usually in the smoke above the hearth. in this condition it acquires an extraordinary strength that makes the plain red pepper taste mild. this is explained, perhaps, by the fact that in the pounding the seeds of the pepper are triturated. [ ] _ka-tum-bä_ (_capsicum_ sp.). [ ] _dú-mang_. the preparation and cooking of food preparing the food the remote preparation consists in getting a supply of sweet potatoes or rice from the farm. this may be a mile or more from the house, so that once a day at least the women, with baskets on their heads and paddles in their hands, if they live on navigable water, leave for the farm. in localities where an ambush is a possible contingency, a few men with lance and shield, and hunting dogs accompany the women as a guard, for the _camote_ field is a favorite spot for the enemy to wreak his vengeance, according to the recognized laws of manóboland. the women and girls dig up the _camotes_ with a bolo or with a small pointed stick, and get a little rice from the granary.[ ] after performing any necessary work such as weeding and planting, they return and prepare the meal, the men taking no part except to clean and quarter the game or other meat that may have been selected for it. [ ] _tam-bó-bung_. the preparation of pigs and fowls is such a frequent occurrence in manóboland, as also among bisáyas, mañgguáñgans, debabáons, and mandáyas of the agúsan valley, that it merits a detailed description. in preparing a pig, wild boar, or deer, a rough support, consisting of four vertical pieces of wood and a few horizontal parallel pieces, is erected outside the house, if the weather permits. a fire is built beneath the frame and the whole animal, minus the entrails, is laid upon it. two men or more then set to work with pieces of wood, sharpened lengthwise, and scrape off the hair as fast as it becomes well singed. the operation lasts only about minutes in the case of a large animal. when the hair has been removed the carcass is given a washing more or less thorough, according to the amount of water conveniently available, and the quartering begins. the game is laid upon leaves; the four legs are removed in order; the head is chopped off; the ribs and remaining parts are hacked crossbone. during this operation the family dogs usually cause an infinite amount of trouble by their incessant attempts to secure a piece of the meat. if the meat is for distribution, as it always is, except on occasions of festivity or of sacrifice, it is scrupulously divided at this moment. if it is for a feast, it is hacked up into small pieces and loaded into earthen pots, iron pans, and bamboo joints. the dogs are then allowed to lick the blood-stained leaves and to clean the floor. the preparation of a domestic fowl is also left to the men and deserves a few words. when the fowl is not killed sacrificially, it is burnt to death. catching the chicken firmly by the feet and wings with one hand and by the head and neck with the other, the owner singes it over the fire till it shows no more signs of life. it may be thought that this is a cruel way of killing an animal, for it kicks and twists and flutters unless firmly held, but the manóbo is not allowed by his tribal institutions to kill the fowl as other peoples do. to cut off the head is strictly tabooed, a cruel and unbecoming procedure, for there is no one "to revenge the deed," he will tell you. so he chokes and burns it to death. all signs of life being extinct, he pulls out a few of the tail and wing feathers. i can give no reason for this procedure, but as the custom is so universal, i think it has a peculiar significance of its own. as the singeing proceeds, the feather ends are plucked out and a. cursory washing given the fowl. the entrails, even the intestines with the exception of the gall bladder, are removed and utilized. finally the head, the ends of the wings, and the lower parts of the legs are cut off, and ordinarily are given to the children who have been anxiously awaiting such delicacies. the pounding and winnowing of the rice is such a common and important operation in the whole of eastern mindanáo that it deserves special mention. as the rice used by the mountain manóbos is exclusively of their own harvesting, it must be hulled, a process that is performed just before every meal wherein it is used. the implements are a wooden mortar and a few heavy wooden pestles. the mortar is a piece of wood of varying dimensions, in the center of which is hollowed out, by burning and cutting, a conical hole, whose depth averages centimeters in height and whose diameter is about centimeters. one sees from time to time a mortar with two holes, or one on which there is evidence of an attempt at artistic effect by means of primitive carving, but, in the main, the mortar is a rough-hewn log with a conical hole in it and with the upper surface so cut that the paddy or rice will have a tendency to fall back into the hole. the pestle is a pole, preferably and usually of heavy hardwood, about . meters long and centimeters in circumference. it is a marked exception to find pestles decorated in any way. on the umaíam river i saw one the end of which had been carved in open fretwork with a round loose piece of wood within the fretwork, a device that was as useful as it was ornamental, for the wooden ball by its rattling within the fretwork cage served to animate the holder and her companions to vigorous and constant strokes. the following is the process of hulling: the mortar is more than half filled with unhulled rice. one or more women or girls grasp the pestles in the middle with one hand. one begins by driving down her pestle with force upon the paddy. then another, and still another, if there be three. it stands to reason that, since the hole in the mortar is small, the most exact time must be kept, otherwise the pestles would interfere with one another. the sound made by the falling pestles often resembles that general but strange beat so prevalent in manóbo drum rhythm. a visitor who has once seen three manóbo women dressed in gala attire, with coils of beads and necklets, ply their pestles in response to the animated tattoo on the drum will never forget the scene. the pestles are tossed from one hand to the other to afford an instant's rest. they bob up and down with indescribable rapidity and in perfect rhythm as if they were being plied on some imaginary drum. in a few minutes, from to , the hull is shattered from the rice and one of the women bends down and with her hands removes the contents of the mortar to the winnowing tray. after winnowing, they repeat the process till all the husk has been separated from the grain. they then pound a new supply until there is enough rice for the purpose in view. the husk has been shattered from the grain as perfectly, though not as quickly, as if it had been done by a machine. the winnowing tray is a round shallow tray, centimeters in diameter and usually of plaited rattan strips with a rim of thicker rattan. it is held in both hands and by a series of shuffling motions, which are better seen than described, accompained[sic] by a peculiar movement of the thumb of the left hand, the chaff and the little broken fragments of rice are thrown off into another receptacle for the family pigs. cooking the food rice is not usually washed before cooking. it is put into a homemade earthen pot,[ ] which is often lined with sugarcane leaves, not only to prevent the rice from burning, but to impart to it a finer flavor. it is covered with water, the rice being about centimeters below the surface of the water. the pot is set on a hot fire until the water evaporates to the level of the surface of the rice, whereupon the greater part of the fire is removed and the rice is allowed to steam dry. these remarks also apply to the cooking of a variety of millet,[ ] which is sown sparingly with the rice. [ ] _kó-don_. [ ] _daú-wa_. another method of cooking rice, especially when on the trail, is in green bamboo. joints of green bamboo are filled with rice and water, or rice is wrapped in rattan leaves and then packages are put into the water. rice cooked in this latter way will keep for three days. there are two orthodox methods of cooking fish and meat and no other is admissible, under penalty of infringing a very important taboo. one method consists of boiling them in water, with a little seasoning of red pepper, ginger, and possibly lemon grass and one or two other ingredients. the second method consists of broiling the pieces of meat and fish in or over the fire. meat and fish already cooked are thrown into the fire in order to heat them. the fact that they may be burnt and covered with ashes does not detract from the flavor. the most usual method of broiling, however, is to put the meat on skewers of wood or bamboo a few inches above the fire. when large game has been secured at such a distance from the house that it must be cooked in the forest, it is cut into quarters, and broiled over a heaping fire. this is the invariable method of cooking the heads even of domestic pigs. chicken heads, legs, and wing ends are invariably broiled, while the intestines are wrapped up in leaves and cooked better than might be supposed, though the flavor, to my taste, is not the most delicate. they seem, however, to be a choice morsel to the majority of my manóbo friends. monkeys, frogs, and the forest carrion lizard are always broiled. _camotes_ and taro are usually cooked unpeeled in the common earthen pot. about a half a liter of water is used in an ordinary pot, so that the process is practically one of steaming. if the pot has no cover, or if the imported pan be used, leaves are employed to confine the heat. a favorite dish of the manóbo and an indispensable one of the mandáya is the famous _á-pai_.[ ] this consists of taro tops (stem and leaves) cut up fine and cooked with water, red pepper, mint, semiwild tomatoes, and any other vegetable seasoning which may be on hand. this makes a very palatable and wholesome dish. [ ] mandáya, _ug-bús_. food restrictions and taboos certain birds such as the hornbill, wild chicken, varieties of wild pigeons, and a few others, must not be divided and given to anyone else before eating. they must be cooked by the broiling method [ ] and not in water. after cooking, these birds can not be partaken of by anyone who is not a relative or a member of the household. neither should a part of a bird belonging to a stranger be accepted or partaken of. the whole bird or nothing must be offered. an infringement of these restrictions would lead, it is believed, to serious results,[ ] such as ill luck to the hunting dogs, tangling of the snares, and other misfortunes.[ ] [ ] _dáng-dang_. [ ] _ma-ko-lí-hi_. [ ] in the upper agúsan the partition of such small birds would lead, i was told, to a dismemberment of the family. an unmarried man who has ever made indecent suggestions to a woman is prohibited from eating wild-boar meat. the guilty one must free himself from this restriction by making a small present to a priestess. a violation of this taboo would be prejudicial to the success of the hunting dogs. the use of lard in cooking is interdicted, but it may be eaten raw, even when its smell is not the most wholesome. on a few occasions, i noticed that some individuals abstained from rice or from chicken. i was unable to elicit any other reason for the abstinence than the good pleasure of the persons concerned. as they admitted that they had been accustomed to use these foods and would use them again after certain periods, i suspect religious motives for the abstinence. meals ordinary meals though it may be said that three meals a day are not the rule among the manóbos, yet they eat the equivalent of three or more, for between pieces of sugarcane and munchings of wild fruit,[ ] they keep replenishing the inner man pretty constantly. they eat breakfast at about o'clock in the morning, dinner about p. m., and supper at any hour between and p. m. [ ] there are many wild fruits in the agúsan valley, the most common of which are: the famous durian (_durio zibethinus_), the jackfruit, _lanka_ (_artocarpus integrifolia_ l. f.), _lanzones_ (_lansium domesticum_ jack.), _makópa_ (_eugenia javanica_ lam.), _mámbug_, _támbis_, _kandíis_, _kátom_ (_dillenia_ sp.), and the fruit of the rattan (_kápi_). most of these are of a sour acid nature but for this reason seem to be relished all the more. all being ready for the meal, the inmates of the house squat down upon the floor, the husband with his wife and children apart, male visitors and the unmarried portion of the house eating together. slaves eat when all have finished, and get what is left in the pots. just before beginning to eat, the host and, in fact, everybody except the women, tenders to visitors and others who have come in an invitation to join in the meal and nobody will begin to eat till everybody else has squatted down and is ready. once the meal is begun, no one leaves, nor is it good etiquette to call anyone from his meal. the hands are washed by pouring a little water upon them from a bowl, tumbler, coconut shell, or piece of bamboo; the mouth is rinsed, the water being ejected, frequently with force, through the interstices of the floor. then all begin to eat. it is the invariable rule for men to eat with the left hand, and where others than relatives are present, to wear a weapon of defense, the right hand resting upon it in anticipation of a possible attack. the various articles of food have already been set on the floor in the various receptacles heretofore described. each one falls to with an appetite that can hardly be described. one or more of the womenfolk keep the wants of the diners supplied. the method of eating rice among the mountain manóbos differs from that prevalent among the christian tribes. a good-sized mass of rice is pressed together between the five fingers of the left hand and pushed up into the palm where it is made into a ball. thence it is conveyed to the mouth. at intervals the rice (or _camote_) is flavored with a little accompaniment of meat or fish, and all is washed down with the soup of the meat or fish. the custom of sipping, with a sucking sound, the scalding soup from a plate or bowl and of then passing it on to one's neighbor is almost universal. great predilection is shown for this soup, even though it be, as happens in a great many instances, practically nothing but hot water. in the upper agúsan, the taro-top soup previously mentioned is the ordinary soup and substitute for meat and fish. another peculiar feature in eating is the method of cutting meat from the bone. the carver, who is in a squatting position with his feet close to the body, holds the bolo with the handle between the big first toe in a vertical position, the back of it being toward him. he draws the meat over the edge, thereby doing the carving in a quicker, more convenient, and more effective manner than do a great many more civilized men. no one may retire from the meal without giving notice to his neighbors. a violation of this custom constitutes a gross breach of manóbo etiquette. the reason for this custom is that the chances for a sudden attack are thereby lessened. it is not polite to remain seated in the same place after a meal. if the place can not be changed, it is necessary to rise and then sit down again. i can give no explanation for the practice, unless it be a precaution against treachery. festive meals festive meals are indulged in more especially on the occurrence of the great religious and social celebrations that recur with such frequency in the manóbo world. the arrival of a visitor, or even an unusual catch of fish, is also an occasion for such enjoyments. i have had ample opportunities of witnessing them, because during a trading expedition i was frequently honored with invitations, the reason for which was, of course, to secure from me good bargains, or credit. before the meal the house is a scene of indescribable animation. the guests, together with the members of the household, rarely number less than and may reach or more. the pig is cooked in bamboo joints, earthern[sic] pots and iron pans, both in the host's house and, if necessary, in neighboring houses. the same may be said of the rice and _camotes_. if the host has enough drink, and if there is a little meat or fish to serve as a lunch, he has the food brought out and orders a part of the drink to be distributed to the guests according to their importance. joyous laughter and loud conversation, together with chewing of tobacco and betel nut, fill up the interval before the meal. when all is ready, the available number of plates, bowls, glasses, bark platters, and leaves are set out and the boiled meat is apportioned in small pieces, with great exactitude as to size and quality, to the several plates. the same thing is done for the broiled meat after it has been hacked into suitable sizes. no one is forgotten, not even the children of the guests, nor the slaves. the rice is then brought along in bamboo joints, in pots, and even in baskets lined with leaves, and to each person is assigned a heaping portion. when all has been impartially and equally distributed, the guests are bidden to take their places on the floor, each one at his appointed plate, for where visitors other than relatives are present, no precaution is omitted to safeguard the guests against trouble. experience has proved that the festive board may be tinged with blood before the end. this even distribution of the food and the collocation of the guests often occupies the better part of an hour. if these duties are not properly performed envious feelings and a quarrel might ensue before the end of the meal. the guest of honor is always given preference and the host may also especially favor others whom he may have reason to honor but he always makes public the reason for his partiality. all being seated the meal begins with a goodly quaff of homemade brew. then all begin to eat. as the feasters warm under the kindling influence of the drink, they express their good will by giving material tokens, each one to his friend or to one whose friendship he desires to gain. these tokens consist of handfuls of meat--lean, fat, bone, gristle, or anything--smeared with salt and pepper, and bestowed by one friend into the mouth of another without any consideration of the proportion existing between the size of the mouth and the size of the gift. it is not good etiquette to refuse this gift or to remove it from the mouth. this offering is followed probably by a bamboo jointful of beverage which must be received in the same friendly spirit and is gulped down with a mumbled expression corresponding to our "here goes." the recipient of these favors returns the courtesy in kind, and so the meal goes on in mutual goodfellowship[sic] and congeniality till the food has completely disappeared, for it is against the conventionalities of manóbodom to leave a scrap on the plate. indeed the manóbo loves a good eater and drinker. it is an honor to gorge and a glory to get drunk. now it happens at times at a manóbo banquet, as it does in all drinking bouts the world over, that a quarrel ensues and recourse is had to the ever present bolo to settle an argument that wild shouts and frantic gestures can not decide. for this reason the manóbo eats with his left hand and rolls his eyes from side to side in constant vigilance. these remarks do not apply to the women and children, who sit apart in little groups of their own, and, while feasting one another in their own gentle way, attend to the shouts for more food when they are heard above the din of the revellers. during the course of a feast of this kind an observer is struck with the hearty appetite exhibited by these primitive people. man vies with man in holding out. friend honors friend with plenteous bestowals of food and drink and the host strives to induce his guests to eat to their utmost capacity. rarely does one see a manóbo troubled with nausea but, if he is, he returns later to the feast, to finish his appointed portion. i have seen this happen on occasions. chapter ix narcotic and stimulating enjoyments drinks used by the manÓbos intoxicating drinks are of four kinds: sugar-palm wine,[ ] _bá-hi_ toddy,[ ] sugarcane brew,[ ] and mead.[ ] [ ] _tuba_ or _sai-yan_ or _san_, the sap of the _hi-di-up_ (_arenga saccharifera_) commonly known in the philippines as _cabo negro_. [ ] the fishtail palm (_caryota_ sp.). the extracted sap is called _túng-gang_. [ ] _Ín-tus_. [ ] _bá-is_ or _bi-aí-lis_. sugar-palm wine sugar-palm wine is obtained by tapping the fruit stem of the cabo negro palm. the process is very simple. at the time of efflorescence the spadix is cut off and the pithy stem is tapped. this operation lasts from to minutes each day and is continued for from to days. after the tapping the stem must be bent into a downward position. this is effected by inclining it downward every day, a piece of rattan or vine being used to retain it in position. the gentlest of force must be used in this operation, as a forcible strain will prevent the sap from flowing. once the sap begins to flow from the stem, it is caught in a bamboo receptacle, the mouth of which must be carefully covered to prevent the entrance of the myriads of insects that are attracted by the odor and sweetness of the liquid. day after day the end of the stem must be pared as otherwise the sap would cease to exude. a tree will produce daily anywhere from to liters according to the fertility of the soil and the humidity of the atmosphere. the humidity determines the duration of time that the tree produces toddy. this time varies from one to three months. the sap has the color and transparency of water to which a little milk has been added. when fresh, it is a sweet, refreshing laxative, but the fermentation is so rapid that after a few hours it acquires the inebriating qualities of ordinary coconut toddy. in order to promote fermentation and to eliminate the laxative quality of the sap, the bark[ ] of a tree is added. on the third day acetification begins to take place, unless a handful of the ordinary native red pepper is thrown into the beverage, in which case the further fermentation is withheld for a period of about four more days. [ ] called _la-gúd_. the palm from which this sap is obtained is found in great abundance on the eastern[ ] side of the lower and middle agúsan valley and is universally tapped in this region. on the western side, however, it is not found with such frequency. the manóbo is therefore obliged to seek other means of satisfying the craving which he, like a good many of his fellowmen the world over, feels for a stimulant. [ ] in the vicinity of tudela, simúlau river, there are groves of sugar-palm. i estimated that they contained , trees. bÁhi toddy _túng-gang_ is the sap of the _báhi_ palm. the method of extraction is identical with that of the sugar-palm wine. it is neither as pleasant nor as strong as the previously described drink, but it is not by any manner of means unwholesome. it is employed as a beverage only when no other is obtainable. i have been reliably informed that sometimes the tree is cut down as a preliminary to the extraction of the sap. incisions are made in the trunk for the purpose of permitting the flow of the sap. sugarcane brew _in-tus_ is a beverage made out of the juice of the sugarcane. it is the most common and the most popular drink, so much so that it is deemed worthy of being presented to the spirits on sacrificial and other occasions. _extraction of the juice_.--the sugarcane is first peeled and then crushed, stalk by stalk, or piece by piece, under the li-gi-san. this is a very primitive mill, consisting of a round, smooth, heavy log usually of _palma brava_[ ] or of the fishtail palm, set horizontally about meter above the ground on two crude frames. it is provided with a vertical handle, by means of which it can be rolled from side to side over a fiat piece of wood. the cane is introduced gradually between this latter piece and the log, which is kept in constant motion. as soon as the whole or a part of a piece of cane has been crushed, it is doubled up into a mass about centimeters long and is again crushed. by this method about liters of juice are obtained in a day. [ ] _an-a-hau_ (_livistona_ sp.). _boiling_.--the iron cooking pan described in a previous chapter is preferred for preparing the drink, unless an empty kerosene can has been secured. in the absence of both, the ordinary pot answers the purpose. in the center of the cooking utensil is placed a small cylinder made of slats of bamboo to serve for gaging the amount of evaporation. the boiling vessel is filled with small slices of the root of a gingerlike plant[ ] and sugarcane juice is added to fill the interstices. [ ] _lan-kwas_ (_cordeline terminalis_ willd.). the amount of boiling determines the quality of the resulting liquor. if the sap is boiled down only one-fourth, the drink produced is of a sweetish taste and of a whitish appearance and, in my estimation, is not palatable. the more the sap is evaporated, the more it mellows and browns. the manóbos of the upper agúsan make a better drink than those of the lake region for the reason that they evaporate the juice one-half, while those of the latter-mentioned district only give it a cursory boiling. it is usual to employ a little gaging rod of bamboo for measuring the amount of evaporation, this being done by inserting it into the bamboo cylinder in the center of the pot, but an old hand at brewing can gage by the smell. _fermentation_.--after cooking, the decoction is unfit for immediate use. it must be left to undergo fermentation for at least three whole days. five days are sufficient to render it fairly drinkable. the longer the period of fermentation, the liner the quality of the resulting liquor, _ceteris paribus_. when well-cooked brew has been kept for a few months, it assumes a translucid amber color, smells and tastes strongly of rum, and is highly intoxicating. the liquor during fermentation must be kept in closed jars or earthen pots in a cool moist place. if kept in bamboo joints, it will spoil. in general, the drink is more intoxicating than coconut toddy, but it is wholesome, and its use is not attended by the after effects that are the result of overindulgence in certain other alcoholic drinks like _vino_. in this connection it may be well to remark that i have never observed a case of delirium tremens nor of any of the other serious consequences that in other parts of the world frequently afflict the habitual drinker. the only ill effects i have seen are the proverbial headache and thirst, but even these are very rare and usually occur only after periods of long and uninterrupted indulgence. as a rule such effects are at once dispelled by taking hot taro-top soup or by munching sugarcane. mead this is probably the finest beverage produced in manóboland, but as the honey season is short and as the honey is consumed, both in the forest after taking the nest and in the house by the members of the family, the drink is scarce. the preparation of the drink is identical with that of sugarcane brew. the same ferment is used, the same method of cooking is employed, and in general the same remarks apply, with the exception that in place of the sugarcane juice, honey and water are used. the honey is mixed with water in varying proportions. it is the proportion of water to honey that determines the strength, quality, and flavor of the final drink, a mixture of half and half is said to yield the best beverage. if fermentation is allowed to continue for a few months, the resulting liquor is of a clear crystalline color, and will compare both in flavor and strength with those more up to date. drinking general remarks though the manóbos invariably drink during religious feasts, yet neither during the feast itself, nor in the preparation of the toddy, have i ever observed any religious ceremony nor were any magic or other preternatural means employed. it is true that when the crushing appliance[ ] is set up, the fowl-waving ceremony, followed by the blood unction, is performed. i witnessed this ceremony myself in several parts of the agúsan river valley. but such ceremonies are customary on the erection of houses, smithies, and so forth, and bear no relation to the actual production of the drink. [ ] _li-gi-san_. during religious ceremonies a bowlful of the brew is set out with the usual viands, such as meat and rice, for the _di-u-a-ia_, _tag-la-nu-a_ (lords of the hills and the valleys), and for other spirits, for they, too, like to be regaled with the good things of this world. drink is taken on the occurrence of all the great religious and social feasts and upon the arrival of a distinguished friend or visitor--also when it is desired to make a good bargain or to secure any other end by convivial means. the acquisition of an unusual amount of fish or of meat is a common occasion for the making of the brew and gives rise to the following practice: the sumsÚm-an the _sumsúm-an_, i. e., the eating of meat or fish with an accompaniment of drink, a universal practice throughout the agúsan valley, the salúg valley, and the whole mandáya country, is a thing that appeals especially to the true mandáya, manóbo, and mañgguáñgan. when a man of one of these tribes has secured a good catch of fish, or has trapped a wild boar, he procures a supply of beverage and meets his guests at the appointed place, usually his little farmhouse. as soon as all are assembled, the fish or the meat is broiled on sticks of wood over the fire. when it is cooked, the women lay it out and it is slashed into pieces, usually by the host, and apportioned with great precision as to weight, quality, amount of bone, and quantity of inept. during this operation, a few bamboo jointfuls of brew are brought from some hiding place and a relative of the householder sits down with one under his arm. before him are set such articles as glasses and bowls, if obtainable, or in lieu thereof, small pieces of bamboo joints, each holding about a tumblerful, and not very different in shape from handleless german steins. these bamboo cups admirably fulfill the purpose. the distributor of the liquor slices a little strip from under the mouth of his bamboo deposit to prevent loss of the liquor during pouring, then he inserts two fingers into the mouth of the bamboo and makes an opening through the leaves for the drink, but not so large as to give free exit to such insects as may have found their way into the liquid. he then fills up the vessels at hand, taking care to give to each an equal amount. it is to be noted that it is an inviolable custom that the host drinks first. this is because of the widespread belief in secret poisons. after drinking the host passes the cup to those whom he wishes to honor, unless they are already provided, and using some expression corresponding to our english "here goes," the guest or guests quaff the brew. the bowls or other vessels are returned to the distributor, and the process is repeated until all have had a drink. drinking during religious and social feasts during religious and social feasts the drinking customs are as above described, except that the beverage is set out in sacred jars, when on hand, and with such an array of bowls as the host may possess. one of these feasts, notably the marriage feast, may be attended by as many as persons and last from to days and nights, so that to hear of jars or bamboo[ ] jointfuls of sugarcane brew being consumed on the occasion of a great festival is not strange. [ ] _sugúng_. the amount of drink used, both individually and collectively during one of the feasts, gives one an idea of the great capacity which these primitive peoples enjoy. the average white man in my opinion would be deliriously drunk before the mandáya or manóbo would be feeling merry. it is not according to tribal customs to refuse food and drink as long as the host has them to set before his guest. on a few occasions i have seen a tribesman rise, quietly empty the stomach, and calmly return to the feast to finish his appointed portion and wash his hands and his plate as an evidence of that fact. with regard to women and children, it may be said that they drink little, not from any religious or moral principles, but simply because they do not care to. the men, however, are inveterate drinkers. no disgrace is attached to drunkenness. on the contrary to take the allotted portion is considered a duty and a virtue. evil effects from drinking it goes without saying that quarrels sometimes result from these drinking bouts, though not oftener, i venture to say, than among more highly cultured peoples in other parts of the world. the custom of carrying weapons on all occasions where others than relatives are present has a deterrent effect on quarreling, yet there are occasions when daggers or bolos terminate an argument that wild shouts and frantic gestures can not settle. with regard to the amount of drink consumed, i could as well venture an approximation as to the number of stars in the firmament. this will be readily understood when one is told, that according to the social institutions of the manóbos, it is considered no breach of manners to ask a neighbor for any thing of his to which one may take a fancy. a refusal on his part, unless couched in the most diplomatic terms, might give rise to unneighborly feelings and prompt a reprisal in kind on some other occasion. hence drink is almost invariably kept deposited in the grass outside of the settlement. when it is needed it is brought to the appointed place secretly or at night, for were others than the invited ones aware of the existence of drink in one's possession they, too, would flock to the scene. in view of the secrecy maintained about the possession of drink it is impossible to give an estimate of the amount of liquor consumed in manóboland. suffice it to say that the manóbo drinks on every possible occasion and will travel many a mile to secure a little of the flowing bowl. tobacco preparation and use when the tobacco is ripe, it is gathered, cut fine with a sliver of bamboo, and dried in the sun for a day or two. it is then frequently pounded into bamboo internodes and laid away in a cool, dry place, often in the rice granary, for fermentation. before using the tobacco it is customary to set it out in the grass for a night or two. this causes a sweating and makes the tobacco fit for chewing. this is the only form in which tobacco is prepared among the mountain manóbos. the quantity of tobacco raised is insignificant, being a little more than is sufficient for their personal use. as they dispose of a great deal of it during harvest time, it not infrequently comes to pass that there is a dearth long before the next crop. no harmful effects are attributed to the use of tobacco, though from childhood to the grave it is made use of by men, women, and children. only men and boys smoke. the pipe employed for this purpose is commonly a little cone made out of a piece of imported tin or of a piece of steel. the stem is a piece of small bamboo. one occasionally finds wooden pipes, but they have probably been acquired from christianized manóbos or from bisáyas. the first-mentioned pipe holds about one thimbleful of tobacco. it is usually lighted with a firebrand, unless it is used when the people are on the trail; at such a time the flint, steel, and tinder are called into requisition. there are two forms of tobacco chewing: first, the _bal-ut_ method. in this a mixture is made of minced tobacco, lime, the juice of a vine,[ ] and pot black. this combination, which in bulk may be the size of a large marble, is carried between the upper lip and the upper gums but resting upon the lower lip and projecting out of the mouth, thereby keeping the lips apart. it is made use of principally for its narcotic qualities, but at the same time it serves as an ornament and tends to blacken the teeth. it is carried in the mouth until its strength is exhausted. during meals it is placed behind the ear. when tobacco is scarce, the same quid receives several additions of lime, pot black, and vine juice, so that it may be used for a whole day. the women are more accustomed than the men to the use of this _bal-ut_, for the reason that the former do not smoke, and also because they usually have hidden away a less limited supply of tobacco than the men. the second method of using tobacco is known as the _la-gút_. this consists of chewing a little pinch of tobacco in combination with betel nut. tobacco is seldom chewed alone. [ ] _maú-mau_. the betel-nut masticatory ingredients and effect of the quid the betel-nut quid is to the manóbo more than the cigarette, cigar, or pipe is to his more civilized fellow man. with him the use of it is a universal, eternal habit. by day and by night, in the house and on the trail, in health and in sickness, he turns for stimulation to the quid of betel nut, betel leaf, and lime. a visitor comes to his house and the first act of hospitality is the offering of the betel-nut quid. he meets an acquaintance upon the trail, and he sits down and offers the soothing chew. he is anxious that his omen be good and he lays a tribute of betel nut upon the trail for the forest deity, and goes on, confident that his desires will be fulfilled. and when he calls upon his gods, the first and most essential offering must be the quid of betel nut, for the fragrance of the nut and the redolence of the blossom are said to be the chief delicacy of the spirits. the betel nut[ ] is obtained from the palms found in the forest. these palms were planted either by the manóbos themselves or by their ancestors. the nuts are found in scarcely sufficient quantity to supply the demand. when they can not be obtained, other plants [ ] are used, but they are an inferior substitute. in taste the betel nut is exceedingly astringent and can not be used except in combination with the betel leaf and lime. as a rule the green and tender nut is preferred by the mountain manóbos, but the ripe nut seems to be the choice of those who have come in contact with christianized manóbos or with bisáyas. [ ] _areca betel_. [ ] _kan-ín-yag_, cinnamon, is one of the substitutes. also called _kanéla_. the betel leaf[ ] is from a species of pepper, of which there are innumerable species both domestic and wild. a domestic variety is preferred but, since the supply is not always equal to the demand, as in the case of the betel nut, the wild species afford a tolerable substitute. the tender leaves are preferred as being less pungent. for the same reason domestic species are used in preference to the wild ones, these latter possessing a highly acrid taste. [ ] _betel_ sp. the lime is made from the shells of shellfish found in the rivers, streams, and lakes. the shells are burnt in a very hot fire, usually of bamboo strips, the fire being fanned continually. the shells are then slaked with a sprinkling of water and the lime is ready for use. to prepare the quid, the betel nut, frequently stripped of its fibrous rind, is cut into small slices. one slice is laid upon a piece of betel leaf, and a little lime is shaken upon it from the lime tube. the leaf is then wrapped around the nut and the lime, and the pellet is ready for use. the amount of lime must be such that the saliva will turn red, and depends upon the size of the betel nut and the betel leaf. an excess of lime burns the integuments of the mouth and tongue, but this is avoided by increasing immediately the amount of leaf. a little pinch of tobacco, the stronger the better, completes the ordinary quid. there are sometimes added to this masticatory certain other aromatic ingredients, such as cinnamon, lemon rind, and other things. the first and immediate effect of chewing this combination is to promote salivation. following this is the reddening of the saliva by the chemical action of the lime upon the betel nut and the leaf. however, the most important effect produced by the quid is the soothing sensation that follows its use. in this respect it far exceeds tobacco chewing, both in the manóbos' opinion and in my own. the sensations which i experienced on my first trials were a feeling of inflation of the head and a transient sensation of weakness, accompanied by a cold sweat upon the forehead. this was followed by a feeling of exhilaration and quickened vitality. it may be said in general that betel-nut chewing acts as an efficacious restorative, especially during a journey, and as a harmless narcotic which it would be hard to replace. the addition of tobacco intensifies this narcotic effect considerably, other additions such as cinnamon serving only to soften the astringency and the piquancy of the leaf and to impart an aroma to the quid. betel chewing accessories the manóbo man carries on his back, in a little bag [ ] of _abaká_ or other cloth, all the requisites for betel-nut chewing. the woman deposits them in an open basket unless she is on a journey, in which case she carries them in a little closed basket. [ ] _pú-yo_. the betel nut and the betel leaf are put into the bottom of the sack for the purpose of concealment, for there is a continual clamor for one or the other, and should it be known that a certain individual has a supply, the manóbos' social regulations would oblige him to part with it upon request. hence he keeps it out of view, and is always ready to excuse himself, when asked for one or the other, on the ground that he has no more. he keeps a few nuts and leaves for immediate use in a moro brass box,[ ] if he is so fortunate as to possess one. otherwise he puts them in a cylindrical receptacle [ ] usually made out of a small bamboo internode, or in a little round receptacle [ ] of plaited rattan coated with the pulp of the seed of a tree.[ ] his tobacco for immediate use he keeps in another similar receptacle, the main supply being hidden away in the bottom of the knapsack. [ ] _ta-bon-tábon_ (_parinarium mindanaense_ perkins). the lime is invariably kept in a small internode [ ] of bamboo. this is open at one end and has a spherical plug of plaited rattan inserted into the mouth for the purpose of preventing an excess of lime from issuing. this spherical network resembles in miniature the football seen so commonly throughout the philippines. when it is desired to add lime to the quid, the tube is taken in one hand and held in a downward position with the thumb and little finger underneath it and the other fingers above it. the first finger is then made to slide with force from the middle finger down to the tube, thereby tapping out the lime. this tapping motion is similar to that performed when winnowing rice. [ ] _táng-tang_. the men use their bolos to cut up the betel nut, but the women have a small knife [ ] which also answers the purpose of a general utility implement corresponding to our scissors. [ ] _ba-di'_ or _kam-pit_. when the chewer's teeth have deteriorated from age, the quid is mashed in a small mortar made of hardwood, a piece of steel serving as a pestle. in this way the betel nut and leaf are rendered sufficiently soft for mastication. in conclusion, it may be said that though the habit seems a dirty one, owing to the discoloration of the mouth and lips of the chewer and to the ruby expectorations that tinge his surroundings, yet on the whole it is a necessary and beneficial practice. from my observation and experience, i believe that the habit eliminates toothache and other disorders of the teeth. christianized manóbos and bisáyas who have relinquished the habit suffer from dental troubles, whereas the inveterate chewer of the mountains is free from them. the manóbo can not endure the long and frequent hikes, nor carry the heavy loads that he does, without this mild but efficacious restorative. chapter x means of subsistence agriculture general remarks agriculture is in a very primitive condition. it is true that most of the christianized manóbos living in the river settlements have a few hundred _abaká_ plants each, yet the care of them is left practically to nature, their productivity depending upon the soil. but the true mountaineer plants nothing except the bare necessities of life--rice and _camotes_, some taro,[ ] a little sugarcane in season, a little patch of maize, and sometimes ginger and other spices. [ ] in districts close to the mandáya country the use of taro is more common, but even in the upper agúsan it is not a permanent crop. the mandáyas subsist to a great extent on it whenever the soil is adapted to its growth. taro is the _colocasia antiquorum_. his system of agriculture is in perfect adaptation to his social and political institutions. living as he does in a state of eternal vigilance, and knowing that the first death in the house or an unlucky combination of omens or the menaces of his enemies may drive him from his home and from his farm, he is content with a small clearing. he builds no embankments, no irrigation ditches, no terraces. he has no plows, nor draft animals. he selects a patch of the virgin forest every year, and with the bolo and rude axe, clears and cultivates the land. for a permanent crop he keeps his _camote_ patch, on which he may plant a few bananas and also invariably a sprinkling of sugarcane. scattered around this small farm may be found some native tomatoes, more often planted by the birds than by the hand of man, a few ginger and other plants that serve to season the food. a betel-nut palm is planted occasionally, and some betel leaf, but with these exceptions no trees, not even those whose fruit is dearly relished, are planted. the time and place for planting rice the time for planting is at hand when the voice of the bird _kuaháu_ first breaks from the forest and the leaves of _lanípau_ tree begin to fall.[ ] then the farmer hies to the woods to select the site for the rice field, calling upon the omen bird to direct him in his choice. of course he is governed in his selection by reasons of proximity to water, safety from floods, distance from the settlement, etc., but the omen bird's cry must be favorable. having decided on the location he makes an offering of betel nut to the _tagbánua_ and to such other spirits as may dwell in the neighborhood. this act of homage is performed in order to make friends with these forest lords so that they may not be displeased on account of the usurpation of a part of their domain. then he selects a spot for the house and clears it, if he has time, but if not, he cuts down a few small trees as a public notice of his proprietorship. special attention is here called to the fact that the spot selected must be one of virgin forest. the manóbo never plants his rice in the same place during two successive years, because it would not yield a plentiful harvest. [ ] certain trees, such as the _ná-to'_ and the _ba-ró-bo'_, begin to fruit at this season, and are also signs of the approach of the rice-planting season. the following day, or when all is ready, he and his household begin the work by erecting a small shack sufficiently large to accommodate them. in the middle of the farm[ ] is erected a small platform for the seed and, near the house, the usual offering house[ ] and other sacrificial perquisites. then he is ready to perform the rice-planting sacrifice. [ ] _u-ma'_. [ ] _ka-má-lig_. the sowing ceremony[ ] [ ] the _täp-hag_ sacrifice. täphágan is a female _diuata_ under whose special superintendence are placed the rice crop and all that pertains to it. she is thought to guard the crop against man and beast, even revealing, it is said, to her chosen ones the names of all trespassers. in return for this she must be frequently feasted from the beginning of the rice season up to the harvest, for at that time her duties cease, and she yields the field to hakiádan. the officiant in the rice-planting ceremonies is either one or more family priests. the victim is either a pig or a fowl, sacrificed in a special manner. the invocations consist of the same interminable supplications, promises, and repetitions that are characteristic of all manóbo prayers. one variation is observed during this ceremony. the fowl, on being killed, is thrown on the ground and left to flutter around, thereby, it is thought, removing from the soil with its blood such evils as might harm the rice or lessen its production. if a pig, however, has been killed the blood lustration is performed in the ordinary way by smearing a near-by log, the priest bidding the evil[ ] of the earth begone. i have often been told that a special ceremony is necessary at the time of rice planting. this ceremony is called _hú-gad to sá-ya_ or _hú-gad to sä_ which means "to cleanse the sin." i am inclined to think that this rite is a purificatory one, as the name of it indicates. i suppose that it is a secret expiation of such transgressions as might be punished by a failure of the future crop. [ ] _ka-dú-ut_. as in all undertakings of import, the entrails of the victim are carefully observed. other forms of divination, especially the egg omen, are employed to determine whether the supernal powers approve the site or not. among the offerings to täphágan is a handful of unhulled rice taken from the last harvesting and now set out in the religious shed. it is customary during this feast to give a little rice to such animals and insects as are liable to harm the crop later on. among these may be mentioned rats, ricebirds, crows, parrakeets[sic],[ ] and ants. a little rice is set out on a log for them and they are bidden welcome, and requested not to commit any future depredations. nor are the omen birds, prophets of plentiful crops, and the _kuaháu_, harbinger and companion of the rice crop, forgotten. [ ] _abúkai_. during the growth of the rice the above practices are observed from time to time. no special rule is observed, but it may be said, in general, that the occurrence of ill omens, or the suspicion of danger, urge the owner of the crop to feast täphágan and thereby obtain immunity from evil. the priest is the best judge as to the necessity of such things. the clearing of the land the omens being favorable, the farmer, assisted by his relatives and friends, begins the clearing without delay. it is essential that at least a little work be done in order to clinch the bargain with the powers above, for should a delay occur the omens might go awry and necessitate a repetition of the ceremonies and even an abandonment of the farm. i heard of several cases where prospective farms were abandoned under these circumstances. the clearing, like all other agricultural operations, is done on the mutual-help system,[ ] that is, the farmer's relatives and friends unite to help him clear the land, which favor he and his family is expected to return in kind. [ ] _pag-a-bai-yús-an_. the average clearing does not comprise more than a few acres, and is completed ordinarily in from two to five days. the first step [ ] in the clearing process consists in cutting down the underbrush and small trees. in this the men are assisted by the women and children who gather these into heaps for burning. this may take only a few days, if no inauspicious omens occur, but, according to my observation, it is seldom that some omen or other does not interfere with the work. thus a dead animal, such as a wild boar, or snake, found on the farm makes blood lustrations necessary. the rumbling of thunder means a temporary discontinuance of the work, and often a purificatory ceremony, of which i can give no details, becomes necessary and delays the work. [ ] called _gás_ or _gái-as_. the next operation consists in the felling of trees.[ ] for this purpose, scaffolds, usually of bamboo, are erected around the tree at a height several feet above the buttresses of the tree or at such a point as is considered expedient. trees are cut down high above the base because the wood at the bottom of the tree is usually exceedingly tough. standing on his perch at a distance of about feet from the ground, the feller plies his native axe[ ] until the tree yields and crashes down in its fall such of its fellows as may stand in its way. it may be observed here that the manóbo as a rule is an expert at tree felling and takes great pleasure in it. practically all the felling and clearing of bisáya land in the agúsan valley is done by manóbos of christian or of pagan persuasion and at a merely nominal cost. [ ] _gú-ba_. [ ] _hu-wá-siu_. after the trees have been cut down, all branches and parts of the tree that would be too much of an obstruction in the farm are cut[ ] and mounted into heaps for future burning.[ ] this burning, of course, can not take place till after the hot weather,[ ] which comes at this period and lasts about a month. unless the clearing was exceptionally free from heavy timber, the ground remains encumbered with the larger trunks and branches, even after the burning, but this is no impediment, for the rice and _camotes_ can be planted between the stumps. [ ] _gú-ang_. [ ] _sáng-ag_. [ ] _gu-yá-bang_. the sowing of the rice and its culture it is essential that the sowing take place between the time of the burning and the next full moon. but the exact date varies according to the locality. thus, in umaíam district, the time for sowing is said to be the ninth day after the first waning moon that follows that spell of hot weather, known as _guyábang_, whereas in the upper agúsan nights are counted from the first new moon after the _guyábang_ and the sowing takes place the following day. it is thought that this procedure will insure a plentiful crop. the method of sowing is simple. the owner of the farm takes a handful of rice from the woven-grass[ ] bag in the center of the clearing and scatters it broadcast. then the members of the family complete the sowing. there seems to be a knack in so scattering the seed that it may not cover the ground too closely. once cast upon the surface, the seed is covered[ ] immediately so as to get it under the ground and away from the ravages of vermin. this is done by breaking the ground slightly with bolos. [ ] _kam-bu-yaí_. [ ] the process of covering the seed is called _hi-la-bón_. as a protection against weeds, _camotes_, sugarcane, and even maize are planted in places where the rice is not so close, and especially where the weeds have sprung up. these latter must be removed from time to time until the crop is sufficiently tall to shade the ground. this and all subsequent work connected with the farm, except the making of wild-boar traps and the caring for them, falls upon the women and children. the growth of the rice is carefully observed, and the owner of the farm must be ever ready to counteract evil indications and to feast täphágan upon their appearance. thus finding a dead animal, such as a large bird, lizard, or monkey, is considered of ill import and lustration of blood must be resorted to. again the appearance of certain birds in the vicinity of the farm is looked upon as of evil omen, and it becomes necessary to drive away the impending evil by proper ceremonial means. drought, though an uncommon occurrence, is especially feared. i once witnessed a peculiar method of rain making. it was performed under the auspices of täphágan and in the following manner: the rain makers[ ] each secured a frond of some palm tree and went to the bank of the stream near by. here they beat their fronds upon the surface of the water until the leaves were torn. then each one stuck his frond upon the bank in a vertical position and went his way, certain that rain would follow. [ ] _mig-pa-áyao_. there are, on the other hand, divers good omens and indications of a plenteous harvest. the swarming of bees on the farm is one of these. so is the continuous cry of _kuaháu_. there are many other omens both good and evil that render the growing season one of constant question and answer between nature and primitive man. as the time for the harvest approaches, means must be taken to protect the crop against its enemies. traps and light fences are the principal defense against wild boar. scarecrows, consisting of pieces of palm frond, tin cans, and other things, are suspended from long rattan cords that diverge in all directions from the watch house [ ] in the center of the field. the waving of these rattan strips, when manipulated by the young person on watch, accompanied by loud yells, serve to frighten away the ricebirds,[ ] parrakeets[sic], and monkeys. a little offering of rice is frequently made by way of gaining the good will and speedy departure of the latter. [ ] _ban-taí-an_. [ ] _máya_. a final feast, similar to that described in the preceding pages, is given to täphágan by way of thanksgiving, when the crop is nearly ripe for the harvest, and she then passes out of the manóbo's memory for another year. the rice harvest the harvest time is the merriest of all the year. it ends, in most cases, the long period of abstinence from rice, and many times terminates a period of actual hunger. it is the season for the celebration of marriages, with their attendant festivals; for hunting and for fishing, especially with poison. and yet it is fraught with religious fear and safeguarded by severe taboos and other restrictions that make it to some extent a season of mystery. in many places it is a time of vigilance against the attacks of the enemy. the first thing that must be done when the rice is ripe enough to harvest is to close all trails leading to the house and farm. no one may now, under penalty of a fine, enter the precincts, nor may any one but an inmate of the household be present, for otherwise the crop might never come to maturity.[ ] should any one trespass upon the farm, it is imperative that work be discontinued until the following day. this gives a good opportunity to collect the fine imposed on the trespasser. i did not care to violate this taboo, and for this reason can offer only second-hand information as to what takes place from the time of the closing of the trails till the harvest feast. [ ] _makadúya_ is the term used to express the evil that might befall the crop. the owner makes solemn invocation to the omen bird and, if the omens are satisfactory, proceeds to cut some of the ripe heads of rice in the center of the farm. these are then put into a grass bag prepared especially for this purpose. this bag is said to have bezoar stones[ ] placed in it in order that the rice may not only not diminish but may even increase in quantity. for the six following days the women and children reap a little every day and deposit the rice in the above receptacle. [ ] _mút-ja_ or _mút-da_. the rice thus harvested is carefully preserved as seed for the following year, though a little of it may be employed for ceremonial purposes during the sowing and harvesting celebrations. the new rice must on no account be eaten before the harvest feast is ready, and it must not be given away, for that would certainly result in a mysterious decrease.[ ] in fine, it has such a sacred character that it must be pounded at night and never in the presence of anyone who is not a member of the household, for should anyone visit the house at this time the rice would be found to have much chaff[ ] in it. [ ] _ka-gu-yú-dun_, i. e., literally, that it would be pulled away. [ ] _Á-pa_. the harvest feast the harvest feast must take place before the real work of harvesting begins. it usually occurs on the seventh day after the closing of the trails, if everything is in readiness. the importance of this feast is such that he who can not kill a pig for the occasion has no title to aristocracy in the tribe. all being ready, the trails are opened and the drum and gong boom out to announce to relatives and friends that they are welcome to the feast of hakiádan, the goddess of grain. the ceremony differs but little from that to täphágan, as described on previous pages. the invocation to hakiádan is most elaborate, lasting for several hours in the few instances which i witnessed. it is taken up by one priest after another and every inducement is offered to hakiádan to prevent the rice from being stolen, or destroyed by their enemies, carried away by floods, wet by rain, raided by rats and ants, or stolen by dágau, that fickle mischievous spirit whose pleasure seems to be to bring hunger [ ] to humankind. the dead, whose final feast[ ] has not yet been celebrated, are given a betel-nut offering and requested most devoutly not to tamper with the rice. even the greedy parrakeets[sic], the gregarious ricebirds, and other enemies of the rice have portions of the first fruits set out for them in little leaf packages. hakiádan is asked to instruct these creatures to behave themselves during this delicate season. [ ] _ma-ka-bun-tas-úi_. [ ] _ka-ta-pús-an_. the pig is killed in the ordinary way, and the feast ends with the usual revels. when the farmer is unable to procure a pig, a chicken is substituted, specious excuses being made for the failure to provide a larger victim. after the celebration the women and children of the household, assisted by such of their friends and relatives, women and children, as have agreed to harvest the rice, begin the work in real earnest. each one starts out with her basket hanging upon her back, supported by the string which passes over her head. in her hand she carries the harvesting knife, which is a clamshell set at right angles in a palm's length of rattan, or in lieu of the shell a similarly shaped piece of tin. with this she snips off a ripe ear with a few inches of the stalk and throws it into her basket, which now hangs from her shoulder. when her basket is full she returns to the place where a larger basket[ ] has been set and deposits her load in it. thus the process goes on for the few days (three to five) necessary to harvest the crop. [ ] _diwítan_. the men in the meantime make the granary [ ] somewhere in the clearing, usually in the center. it is ordinarily a crude structure consisting of four small posts, upon which rests a roof of rattan leaf thatch. intermediate between the roof and the ground is a floor either of bamboo slats or of bark, upon which are set the cylindrical bark or grass receptacles for the rice. sometimes wooden disks or inverted cones of bamboo slatwork are attached to the posts of the rice granary to prevent the entrance of rats and mice. [ ] _tam-bó-bung_. the rice in the larger baskets is brought to the granary and in the course of a few days is put on coarse mats of grass and threshed with hands and feet. it is then spread out thinly on these same mats and dried in the sun for one day. after it is dried it is cleaned of chaff by being tossed into the air from the winnowing tray. it is then ready for permanent deposit in the granary, to be disposed of later either by sale or by home consumption. a field hectare in area will yield, at a low estimate, sacks, but where the soil is particularly well adapted for rice culture, as it is on the upper parts of nearly every river in the agúsan valley, sacks are not considered an extraordinary yield. the culture of other crops the rice straw that stands upon the field is burnt down, and sweet potatoes, some maize, a score or more of sugarcane plants, a patch of taro, and sometimes a few banana plants are put in at intervals after the harvest entertainments. the time selected for the planting of sugarcane and bananas is around noon. it is thought that, if planted then, they will grow taller and bigger than if planted at any other hour. taro and corn, on the contrary, must be planted during the morning hours, probably for some reason analogous to the above. if the rumbling of thunder is heard during the planting of these crops, it is an intimation that the planting should be discontinued till the following day, or, in case of urgency, till proper omens be taken to ascertain the attitude of the powers above. fruit trees of divers kinds are found scattered throughout the broad expanse of forest that covers eastern mindanáo, but they are not of man's sowing nor does the manóbo ever lay claim to them. he takes the fruit, frequently branch and all, eats it, throws the seed away and goes his way rejoicing. hunting the manóbos are excellent hunters, keen, clever, determined, and enduring, but by no means incessant. in fact, it is only under the stress of hunger or when a few of them rally together that they start off with hunting spears and dogs. occasionally one meets a professional who takes pride in the business, as may be observed by the trophies of wild-boar tusks and jaws hung in his house. hunting with dogs the dogs used are of the usual type seen throughout the philippines, except that only the better and pluckier or luckier ones are chosen for hunting. these are recognized by the size and relative position of the nipples on the breast. it is said that from these and other marks the fate of the dog can be foreseen. i was frequently instructed in these signs, but found it impossible to master them for the simple reason that no two experts seemed to agree. thus in one case, where i consulted those versed in this matter, they respectively informed me that a certain dog would be mangled [ ] by a wild boar, swallowed by an alligator,[ ] and devoured by a cobra, and advised me not to purchase it. good hunting dogs are often valued as highly as a human life ( pesos) and sometimes more so. i have seen dogs that seldom returned without having run down a deer or wild boar. [ ] _pan-ii-gón-on_. [ ] _si-bad-ón-on to bu-a-ja_ (_budáa_). the ordinary manóbo house has at least a few dogs, and these are allowed the liberty of the house. they share the family mats, and sometimes have a special ladder provided for their ascent and descent. their food at the best is somewhat scanty. they have names such as "diguim,"[ ] "sápas,"[ ] and are addressed by their masters with the greatest familiarity. a dog, however, that howls in its sleep, is thought to forebode the death of its master or of some inmate of the house. it must be sold, else the owner or one of his family might die. dogs are supposed to be messengers of the blood spirits [ ] and to be under the protection of the god of hunting,[ ] for whom the following ceremony must be made by the hunter if he desires continued success in the chase and the safety of his dogs from the perils thereof. [ ] "black." [ ] "cotton." [ ] _tagbú-sau_. [ ] _sugúdun_. offering to sugÚdun, the spirit of hunters a triangular tray of _bayug_ or of _ilang-ilang_ wood decorated with palm fronds is made and suspended from the rafters of the house. the owner of the dogs then calls upon sugúdun, offers him a quid of betel nut, and promises to kill a fowl if only he will be so kind as to assist in getting a wild boar or a deer the following day. the fowl must be a male and of a red color. this invocation occupies the better part of an hour, and, when the hunter is satisfied that he has convinced sugúdun of the necessity and expediency of being propitious, he slays the red fowl in his honor. the blood is caught in a sacred saucer [ ] and placed upon the oblation tray[ ] for the special entertainment of the hunting deity. in one case i saw the blood anointment[ ] made on the principal dog in order to remove from him some evil influence that he was thought to possess. after the fowl is cooked, a piece of the meat, a little cooked rice, and a few eggs are put upon the sacrificial tray and left there. [ ] _apú-gan_. [ ] _su-gú-gan_. [ ] _lím-pas_. the hunt on one of the ensuing days, provided he has observed no ill omen, the hunter starts off, usually with one or more companions, for the selected hunting grounds. as the forests of the agúsan valley teem with wild boar and deer, the hunters usually do not have to travel far before the dogs get on the scent. this they announce by their continuous yelping. the hunt then begins. the game strives to elude its pursuers by constantly doubling on its path, so that the hunters do not have such a long run as might be imagined. they never cease to encourage their dogs with a peculiar monotonous cry that resembles a long-drawn _u_ sound. the dogs keep on the heels of their prey and worry and harass it with repeated snaps and bites till it finally comes to bay with its back to a tree. the hunters at once become aware of this by the change in the cry of the dogs, and, accordingly, hasten their steps. upon arriving at the scene, they cautiously steal up behind the game and put it to death with their spears. accidents are uncommon during the hunt, but i have seen several in which both men and dogs were mangled by some fierce wild boar that on being wounded had proved a dangerous enemy. where several hunters have participated in the hunt, the game is divided in the forest according to the number of dogs engaged. if the hunters are relatives of the same household, as generally happens, the distribution is made after they reach home. the game is carried back by one of the party, and, if there are other relatives in the settlement, they, too, receive a share. thus a wild boar or a deer is sufficient for just about one meal. hunting taboos and beliefs the following taboos in connection with hunting are of interest: ( ) the mention of such things as are displeasing to the local forest deities must be positively avoided, such as the mention of salt, of fish that are not found in the region, and of the name of the quarry. ( ) the meat must not be cooked with lard, garlic, or in any other way except in the orthodox manóbo manner of broiling it, or cooking it in water. ( ) the meat must not be salted and dried. ( ) the game must not be skinned, but singed, for the former act would be one of rashness that would incur divine displeasure and result in lack of success on the part of the dogs during all ensuing hunts. ( ) the bones of the game must not be rapped on the floor to remove the marrow. they must be broken with a bolo. ( ) during the process of boiling the water in which the meat has been placed must be allowed to run over. ( ) the bones of the game must not be thrown into water. such an act would, it is thought, bring sickness on the transgressor or on a member of his family. ( ) an unmarried man, who has had clandestine relations with a woman, may not partake of the meat before he has made an expiatory offering to the owner of the dogs. this offering need not be of any great value and is usually given in an informal way. the infringement of this taboo is said to be attended with the same baneful effects on the hunting dogs as that mentioned above. ( ) for the same reason a married man must make a compensatory offering of some little thing to his wife in case he has been unfaithful to her. however, the majority of those whom i questioned knew of no such counteracting practice. a consideration of the above restrictions will explain the reluctance that the manóbo feels in dividing his game with those who are not of his persuasion. he is afraid that the meat may be cooked in lard or that some other regulation may be broken, thereby bringing down upon himself the displeasure of the spirit owner of the game and upon his dogs ill luck or total lack of success in future hunts. there are various traditional accounts of people who have been charmed [ ] by deer and never heard of again. it seems that, at first, they were approached by a circling herd of deer, which they did not fear and allowed to come close. but among the deer was a transformed _búsau_ or demon that advanced and devoured the solitary hunter. it is said that a dog will not follow a deer of this description.[ ] [ ] _pag-u-sa-hán_. [ ] called _ma-paí-yag_. other methods of obtaining game the ordinary bow is used but the arrow frequently varies from the regular fighting arrow in being heavier, thicker, and not provided with feathering. an arrow with a forked point is occasionally used for small birds, while for hornbills sharp spikes of _palma brava_ are used at times to perforate their tough skins. dart arrows are favorite for monkeys. the blowpipe (_sum-pí-tan_)[ ] is not used. little game is obtained by the bow and arrow, except when the hunter builds a shelter in a fruit tree and picks off, unseen, such birds as come to feast themselves. [ ] i found a long slender blowpipe all over mandáyaland used for shooting birds, but it is not a very successful weapon, nor is it used in fighting. "birdlime," made out of the viscid sap of certain trees, is occasionally used to capture small birds. trapping trapping ceremonies and taboos as on all occasions, the invocation to the turtledove, the consultation of its cry, and the betel-nut offering to the forest deities of the locality are performed at the outset by the prospective trapper. the omission of the last ceremony might expose him to the danger of being speared by his own trap. i observed in several districts the use of an ordinary toy magnet,[ ] as a charm [ ] to insure success in trapping, but i suspect that belief in the efficacy of the magnet was inspired by some inventive trader who wanted to dispose of his magnets with more dispatch and at a bigger gain. the use, however, of magic herbs [ ] is said to have been learned from the mamánuas and is resorted to in the eastern parts of the middle and lower agúsan. i was afforded no information either as to the names or the nature of the herbs used. they are carried around the neck carefully concealed. [ ] _bá-to báni_. [ ] _súm-pa'_. [ ] _sin-lá-ub_. the male priests and the warrior priests invoke their respective tutelaries before a trapping expedition and the _manikiad_[ ] calls upon the emissary[ ] of the war deities. the trapper sets a sign [ ] near his house upon his departure. this consists of a bunch of grass or twigs ti'ed to a stick, and is an intimation to passers-by of his absence and of the reason for it. he then sets out for his trapping grounds, but if on the route he meets anyone he must return to the house at least temporarily,[ ] for otherwise he would catch nothing in the traps. [ ] a title conferred upon a man who has one or two deaths to his credit. the number depends upon the locality. [ ] this class of spirits is called _pan-aí-yang_. [ ] _ba-li-úg_. [ ] manóbos claim that the violation of this taboo would bring about a condition that is expressed by the word _ma-ka-dú-ya_; i can not state definitely what this condition is. i never have had a satisfactory explanation. in his absence the following are a few of the taboos that must be observed: ( ) the trapper's wife must neither do work nor leave the house until his return, or, in case of protracted absence, until sunset. ( ) no one, not even a dog, may enter the trapper's home unless the visitor leaves, or unless there is left for him his departure, an object of personal use, such as his bolo. this is intended as a deposit and will be returned. the dog must be tied till sunset or a similar deposit made for it. ( ) the mention of the words pig and deer must be sedulously avoided, and no one must refer to the purpose of the hunter unless it be in a periphrastic way. i observed on several trapping expeditions in which i took part, that the trapper built a little offering house [ ] near his shelter house, and at first was very regular in his offerings and prayers to the spirit lord of the forest. his religious fervor, however, decreased in direct proportion to the bountifulness with which heaven rewarded his prayers. when he found game becoming scarce, he decided that probably the local forest spirit was displeased, and tried his luck in other parts. [ ] _baí-yui-baí-yui_, literally, a little house. the bamboo spear trap [ ] [ ]_ba-tik_. a common method of trapping among the manóbos, more especially practiced during the rainy season, is by the use of the bamboo spear trap that is in very common use throughout the philippine islands. without entering into details, it may be described as a trap in which a spring of bent wood, upon being released, drives a bamboo spear that has been attached to it into the side of a passing pig or deer. the whole apparatus is laid horizontally about foot above the ground, and is carefully concealed. it is a simple contrivance, speedily and cheaply made, and in the rainy season very successful. accidents to human beings from these traps are rare, due to the keen sight and forest instinct with which the manóbo is endowed. as the pig or deer passes along the trail, it releases the spring and is speared in the side. it is seldom that a wild boar dies on the spot or in the vicinity. it usually has to be tracked for hours and sometimes is never found. other varieties of traps bamboo caltrops are sharp bamboo slats[ ] between and feet long set in the ground, usually at an angle of about ° in places where the wild boar have to make a descent. it is not a very successful contrivance, as these animals are endowed with such extraordinary sight and scent. [ ] _pa-dúg-pa_. the _pa-yu-pa-yu_ trap consists of a set of bamboo slats as described above, set on each side of a pig trail, and of a good-sized log held in a slanting position by a trigger. when released by the boar, the log falls down behind him, and, by the sudden noise, frightens him and causes him to jump into the bamboo spikes. the pitfall[ ] is little used. it consists of a hole large enough for a wild boar or deer, carefully covered so as to deceive the animal. the bottom bristles with sharp bamboo stakes. [ ] _tu-kí-bung_. the monkey spring trap[ ] is on the style of the bamboo spear trap described above but is much smaller, being set on the branch of a tree without any attempt at concealment. the poor, simple-minded monkey, on catching sight of the bait, walks up innocently, seizes it, and is wounded by the spear. he does not travel far after that, for monkeys succumb quickly to a wound. [ ] _pú-kis_. an ordinary noose trap [ ] consists of a string with a piece of wood bent back and held in position by a trigger. when the trigger is released, the bent piece of wood draws up the noose tight on the bird's leg. it is used for catching wild pigeons, jungle fowl, and other birds. [ ] _lít'-ag_. the circle of nooses [ ] is a series of rattan nooses placed around a decoy cock. this bird, by his lusty crowing, challenges his wild fellows to fight. when the fight begins the champion of the woods soon finds his feet enmeshed in the nooses, and within a short time his whole body safely lodged in the trapper's carrying basket. [ ] _ka-lí-as_. fishing the manóbo fishes more than he hunts, yet he can by no manner of means be said to be an incessant fisherman. the following are the methods commonly employed for catching fish. shooting with bow and arrow in shooting fish an arrow[ ] that has a detachable head is used. the fisherman conceals himself in a tree or on the bank of a stream or lake, and upon spying the fish lets fly a two-pronged arrow which has a steel or iron point. [ ] _bág'-ai_. this method is in universal use in the lake region of the agúsan valley and in rivers which are too deep for other methods, especially during floods, when the fish roam around over the inundated land. it is ordinarily not attended with great success, three or four fish being an average day's catch. the common catfish, called _dalág_ in manila, is the ordinary victim, other species being rare victims to the arrow. fishing with hook and line the hook[ ] is a stout one and is made out of the iron handle of the ordinary kerosene can or out of a piece of brass wire of similar size. it is attached to a substantial _abaká_ cord,[ ] meters long, more or less. a piece of lead or a stone for sinker and a suitable bait complete the outfit. the fish caught with this apparatus are the swordfish[ ] and the sawfish. the fisherman seats himself in his boat or on a sand bank, and with the line tied to his foot or to his arm awaits a bite. he immediately pulls in his victim, never giving him a chance to tire himself out as our fishermen do; of course the fish is always pulled upstream. [ ] _kaúad_. [ ] _ha-pón_. [ ] _ta-gá-han_. fish poisoning[ ] [ ] _pag-tu-bá-han_. poisoning is a common and successful method of fishing, practiced more frequently on the upper reaches of a river. there are four methods, all of which i have witnessed frequently throughout manóboland. _the túba_[ ] _method_.--a quantity of _túba_ varying from one-half to two sacksful is put into a dugout and brought to the spot selected. everybody comes provided with a fish spear, fishing bow, bolo, boat or raft, and conical traps[ ] made for the occasion. the _túba_ is then pounded as it lies in the boat, a little water being added. this process occupies the greater part of an hour, and is a very animated one, everybody being in high hopes of a grand feast. where there are no boats, the _túba_ is pounded in the rice mortars and brought in bamboo joints to the selected spot. [ ] _túba_ is the croton tiglium or croton-oil tree. [ ] _sán-au_. at a point possibly a mile or more down the stream from the place in which it is decided to cast the poison, the women and girls, aided by a few men, fix their conical traps across the stream so that no large fish may escape. when all is ready the _túba_ is thrown into the river, and everyone dashes downstream with loud exclamations, some in boats, some on rafts, or; where the water is shallow, wading or jumping from rock to rock. it is some minutes before the poison begins to take effect and then the women and children at the traps may have a busy time removing the fish in order to keep their traps free for the entrance of more. during this time the men and boys scurry around jabbing, hitting, missing, and rushing from side to side with mad shouts of joy and exultation, sometimes two or three after some fine big dazed fish of extra size. thus they may continue for a few hours if the river is a good sized one and the fish plentiful, for at the beginning a great number of fish probably dart up side creeks, thus escaping from the effects of the poison, and when all the fish in the main stream have fallen a prey, these lurkers must be sought out. _túba_ has a deleterious effect on man, producing colic and diarrhea, if taken in fairly strong solution. yet the fish that die from the effects of it are perfectly harmless in that respect. the famous _ís-da_ of the agúsan valley is the only fish that does not succumb to the effects of this poison. the _túbli_ method.--the root of the _túbli_ plant is used for poisoning. it is a quicker-acting poison and more universal than the preceding, in the sense that nothing, not even shellfish, escapes its baneful effects. as the plant has to be cultivated, it is obvious that it is not obtainable in large quantities, and for this reason is not used as a rule on the main streams, the quantity available not being sufficient to have an effect. it is used in the same manner as _túba_. the _lágtañg method_.--the _lágtañg_ is the seed of a tree that is not found in the middle and upper agúsan valley. i never witnessed the use of this poison on a large scale, due undoubtedly to the absence of it in the middle and upper agúsan. the following was the procedure followed in using it as witnessed by me. a few handfuls of the seeds are toasted in a frying pan and then pounded in a rice mortar. then ordinary earthworms, or even the intestines of a bird, are cut into small bits and mixed with the poison. a deep quiet pool in a river or a likely place in a lake is selected and the mixture of worms and _lágtañg_ dropped into the water at the edge of the pool. in less than five minutes the minnows and small fish rise to the surface, and begin to circle around giddily. these are followed by the larger ones but it is not an easy undertaking to catch them till they have exhausted themselves in their giddy circles or die in the tall _runo_ grass that grows along the banks. this poison affects only such fish as eat the worms. people who eat fish caught in this way seem to suffer no ill effects. there are other vegetable poisons used in killing fish, but i remember only the name of the tree called _tigaú_. dry season lake fishing[ ] [ ] _língig_. the mass of lakes and channels in the central agúsan dries up into mere pools once a year, or once in a few years, and affords an admirable opportunity for fishing on a large scale. thousands of people from as far south as lankiláan, and from as far north as guadalupe, from los arcos on the east and from walo on the west, troop to the lake region in their boats. they bring with them their entire families, a supply of salt, a little rice, if they have it, or the usual substitute (sago and bananas), their earthen pots and pans, and their bolos. upon arriving at a suitable place, they erect a rude shack and start to work. wading into the mud and water now half-boiling under a torrid sun, they slash at every fish that by his hurried dash makes known his presence. after the fish have been chased in this manner for some time, some of them bury themselves in the mud, whence they are easily removed with the hand. in this manner a few men may secure hundreds of fish in a few hours, but these are only of two species.[ ] other varieties of fish do not remain in places that dry up to mere ponds. the _haú-an_ are known to leave the torrid water by wriggling up on land and making their way to other water. the fish after being caught are taken to the temporary shack and placed in water[ ] until such time as the owners are ready for the cleaning and salting operations. [ ] the _ís-da_ or _haú-an_ and _pu-yo'-pu-yo_. [ ] it is believed that the flesh of fish will harden if they are left in water after being caught. the heads, except such few as are used for the family meals, are discarded, but the roe and the intestines are carefully preserved as a delicacy. the body is so cut that it can be spread out into one thin piece and then salted, usually in a rather stingy way, about . liters of salt being used for as many as fish. the fish are then set up on an elevated bamboo frame and left to dry for a whole day or more, according to the strength of the sun. though the fishing season is one of the merriest of the year, yet it is a time of work and of stench. it is no unusual thing for the whole family to work till the late hours of the night in order to prevent the fish from putrefying. the odor that prevails where thousands of fish heads--that have not been consumed by the crocodiles that infest the main channels--are rotting under a blazing sun is left to the reader's imagination. the season may last as much as one month and one family may have thousands of dried fish.[ ] ordinarily the lack of salt makes it impossible for any of the manóbos, except those of the better class, to remain long, unless they choose to work for the bisáyas. [ ] _dá-ing_. fishing with nets, traps, and torches fishing with nets is not practiced except by a few manóbos on the seacoast or by the christianized manóbos who have learned the practice from bisáyas, though i have seen cast nets used on the upper tágo, upper simúlao, and upper agúsan. the _búbo_ is a cigar-shaped trap made of slats of rattan, from . to meter in length. the swifter the current, the smaller the trap used. the large end has a cone with its apex pointing inward. it is made of bamboo slats which are left unfastened at the apex of the cone so that the fish may enter but not get out. this trap is set with its mouth facing either up or down stream. another form of this trap[ ] is cylindrical and not conical like the _búbo_. it is set in swamps with an evil-smelling bait and quickly becomes filled with a very savory mudfish.[ ] [ ] _bág-yas_. [ ] _pán-tat_. the _hí-pon_, _u-yáp_, and _u-yáp tá-na_ are varieties of small fish that at fixed intervals make their way up the agúsan to a distance of from to miles in innumerable quantities. it is said that they arrive at the expected date and hour. they are scooped into dugouts with scoop nets in immense quantities and salted for sale. this method of fishing is confined practically to bisáyas, but a goodly number of christianized manóbos who live in the vicinity of butuán take part in it. a fairly common method of fishing among the christianized manóbos, as also among the pagan manóbos who do not live in too warlike a country, is by the use of a spear and torch. going along the banks of the stream, the fisherman lures the fish with the light and secures them with a jab of his three-pronged spear. in this way he may secure enough for a meal or two. where the water is deep enough, this method of fishing is attended with great danger from crocodiles, especially in the lake region where they abound in numbers beyond conception. chapter xi weapons and implements introductory remarks there is no knowledge of a former use of stone implements in manóboland. during my peregrinations throughout eastern mindanáo i saw no stone implements except the ordinary whetstone, so universally used for sharpening steel weapons and knives, the cooking stones upon which the pots are placed, and the flint used in the production of fire. it is true that there is a common rumor as to the existence of stone missiles hurled in wrath by anítan[ ] at irreverent mortals, but i have never seen these tokens of divine anger. [ ] one of the powerful spirits of the sky world. weapons and implements will be subdivided, the former into offensive and defensive weapons, and the latter into agricultural, hunting, and fishing implements. offensive weapons the bow and arrow as the use of the bow and arrow in the philippines is generally considered by ethnologists to indicate negrito influence, the subject requires more than passing notice, especially as the geographical distribution of this primitive weapon extends to not only every non-christian tribe and group east of the central cordillera of mindanáo, except perhaps the banuáons,[ ] but, according to various rumors, to the manóbos occupying the central portion of mindanáo in the subprovince of bukídnon. [ ] i am very much inclined to think that it exists among them as well. the bow is a piece of _palma brava_,[ ] or less frequently of bamboo[ ] varying in length between . and meters and in thickness between and millimeters. in the center it is about millimeters broad and gradually tapers to a breadth of about millimeters at each end. except on the upper agúsan[ ] no means are taken to strengthen this stock by winding rattan around it, unless the bamboo or wood shows indications of splitting, in which case a girdle of plaited rattan obviates the danger. no attempt at ornamentation is made except the smoothing and polishing of the wood. in the case of bamboo stocks, the projecting pieces of the joints are not removed on the proximal side of the bow. at about or centimeters from the extremities, two notches are made to hold the string. at the extremity, which we will call the upper one, from its being held up during use, one often sees a few concentric incised circles in one of which is set a little ring of steel, iron, or brass wire. the object of this is to increase the twang of the bow upon the release of the arrow. [ ] _an-á-hau_. [ ] of the species called _pa-túng_. [ ] mandáya and mañgguáñgan bows are smaller and neater than manóbo bows. they are made commonly of a piece of betel-nut palm and have graceful lashings of rattan strips on the stock for the purpose of imparting strength thereto. the bowstring is nearly always a strip of rattan about millimeters broad. this is attached to the lower end of the stock by a simple series of loops. to the upper extremity it is attached by a loop that slips along the stock into the upper notch when the bow is strung for shooting. it is needless to remark that the bowstring is about or centimeters shorter than the stock, which in the moment of stringing must be bent to enable the upper extremity of the string to reach the upper notch and thereby acquire a sufficient tension to propel the arrow. arrows are of several kinds according to the purpose for which they are used, such as hunting, fishing, and fighting. those intended for hunting and fishing will be described in their proper places. the following description applies exclusively to the offensive arrow used in fighting. the shaft of this arrow consists of a reed of bamboo[ ] about millimeters in diameter and somewhat over a meter long, with a bamboo head. the head is a sliver of bamboo[ ] varying in length from to centimeters. on the upper agúsan, where the manóbos seem to have assimilated much from the mandáyas, both the head and the shaft of the arrow are much shorter, much neater, and, in general, much handier. the arrowhead is broadest at about two-thirds of its distance from the point. from this broad part, or shoulder, as we might call it, the head tapers to a sharp point at one end and to such a size at the other that it can be inserted into the natural socket of the shaft. in this socket it is retained by a lashing of fine rattan, which serves at once to retain it in place and to prevent the frail bamboo shaft from splitting. a coating of _tabon-tábon_[ ] seed pulp over the lashing prevents it from loosening or slipping and at the same time preserves it from atmospheric action. occasionally one sees arrowheads with square shoulders that act as barbs. i have never seen steel arrowheads in use among manóbos, though it is certain that they are used by mañgguáñgans between the agúsan and the sálug.[ ] it is not unlikely, moreover, that they are used by the people of the ihawán and baóbo rivers. [ ] of the species known as _la-hí'_. [ ] _da-mu-án_ species. [ ] _parinarium mindanaense_ (_rosaceae_). [ ] i purchased for the bureau of science museum a unique specimen which, besides having a steel head, is provided with an ugly spur. the owner claimed that it was one of the arrows that had been shot at him and the party that accompanied him by the people of a mañgguáñgan settlement. i was one of his party. a very important feature from an ethnological standpoint is the feathering of the arrow. the object of this is to steady the arrow in its flight and thereby prevent windage. the method of feathering is as follows: the quills of the wing feathers of a hornbill, or sometimes of a fish eagle, are parted down the middle. then three, or sometimes only two, of these parted quills with their adhering vanes are placed longitudinally at equal distances along the arrow shaft so that their extremities are about centimeters from the butt of the shaft and their webs stand straight out from the surface of the reed, forming equal obtuse angles to one another. these vanes are retained in this position by windings of very light, flexible rattan at their extremities. as a security against slipping or change of relative position, a coating of the above-mentioned fruit pulp, often mixed with pot black, is applied. the final preparation of the arrow consists in chopping off with a bolo or small knife the outer edges of the vanes. this is done in a slightly slanting direction within about centimeter of the butt end of the vanes, at which point they are cut in a direction transverse to the length of the arrow shaft. the feathering of the arrow is always done with precision, as the accuracy of its flight, the uniformity of its rotation, the length of its trajectory, and the consequent penetrative power are known to depend upon proper care in this respect. unlike other bowmen, the manóbo makes a notch in the butt end of his arrow, but as far as my observations go, there are never any decorative incisions and tracings on manóbo arrows.[ ] [ ] among the mandáyas arrow shafts frequently have ornamental wavy lines and concentric circles incised along the length of the shaft, but this decoration has been observed among no other tribe that i know of in eastern mindanáo. there seem to be no special arrow makers. nearly every adult manóbo, who has not relinquished the use of the bow and arrow, with no other tool than his bolo and perhaps a small knife, can complete a bow and a bunch of arrows in a relatively short time. in stringing the bow it is grasped by the center of the stock with the left hand and the top, where the loose loop of the bowstring is placed, is held with the right hand. the bottom of the bow rests upon the ground and is supported by the right foot. the right hand then, by a movement toward the person, bends the stock sufficiently to allow the loop of the bowstring to reach and slip into its notch, the left hand and foot retaining the bow in a bent position. the bowman then grasps the central part of the stock between the thumb and the four fingers of the left hand and seizing the feathered part of the arrow between the first and middle fingers of the right, he places the end of it at right angles to, and in contact with, the center, or thereabouts, of the string. the part of the arrow in front of the feathering rests upon the thumb and middle finger and under the index finger of the left hand. raising up the bow and holding it inclined at an angle of about ° from the vertical, the top being toward the right, the string, with the arrow butt always pressed against it, is drawn back sufficiently (about centimeters) to give the requisite tension. the string is then allowed to fly back, while at the same time the bowman releases his hold upon the arrow butt, and thus the arrow speeds on its way. when ready to be released the end of the arrow points to the bowman's right shoulder. the greatest range of a good arrow is about meters. its effective range, however, is only about one-third of that. i can not laud the expertness of the manóbo as a bowman. here and there one meets a really good shot, but the average man can not score per cent at close range. no quivers worthy of the name are used. when a war raid is undertaken, the arrows are placed in a bamboo internode, which is carried in a horizontal position at the bowman's side. arrows are never poisoned. the bamboo of which the spearhead is made seems to have a somewhat poisonous effect as a wound caused by it is very painful and hard to cure. the bolo and its sheath the next important offensive weapon used by the manóbo is the bolo. it is his inseparable companion by day and, in regions where the influence of civil or military authority is not strongly felt, also by night. as there are but two manóbo blacksmiths that i know of, all bolos used are imported, either from the mandáyas or from the banuáons, though one sees from time to time a weapon that has made its way from the bagóbos. the prevailing bolo is of mandáya workmanship and merits a more detailed description. it is a substantial steel blade varying in length from to centimeters. at its juncture with the handle it is about as broad as the handle but narrows gradually on top, and less so on the lower edge, to a breadth of millimeters[ ] at a point one-sixth of the length of the blade from the handle. at this point the back of the bolo changes its direction, running off at an angle to its previous direction of °. the lower part or edge of the weapon gradually bellies out until the blade, at a point one-fourth of its entire length from the tip attains its maximum breadth ( to centimeters) whence it curves like the segment of a circle to the point of the weapon. [ ] figures given are approximate only. they vary in different bolos. the type of bolo that is considered more pretentious, and that is more common on the upper agúsan, has a thin straight back[ ] up to within or centimeters from the handle, at which point the direction of the back is slightly changed. in other respects this bolo is similar to the one described above. [ ] hence it is called _li-kúd-li-kud_. at the narrowest part of the bolo and on the underside there is occasionally a serrated decoration in the steel, the significance of which i do not know. the handle is occasionally of ebony, but more commonly of some other wood. the grasp for the hand is cylindrical. the handle is often bound with a braid of rattan, or a band or two of steel or of brass, to prevent splitting, or less commonly with silver bands for ornament's sake. curving downward beyond the grasp is a carved ornamentation that suggests remotely the head of a bird with an upturned curving bill. this is one continuous piece with the grasp. it is rare to find brass ferrules and hand guards at the juncture of the blade with the handle. the sheath, which is of manóbo production, consists of two pieces of thin light wood a little broader than the bolo. it is almost rectangular in form for a distance equal to the length of the blade, and then the edges become gradually narrower up to a point that is about centimeters from the end; at this point they expand into a small square with incurving sides. the two pieces are held together closely by bands of rattan coiled around them at equal intervals. a coating of beeswax serves to preserve the wood and at the same time to impart a finished appearance to the sheath. frequently pot black is mixed with the beeswax, and on the upper and central parts, and on the ends and edges, symmetrical bands of this black paint are applied according to the fancy of the wearer. other decorations of beads, cotton tassels, and strips of a yellow parasitic plant, are not at all infrequent. the girdle, which is nearly always of braided _abaká_ fiber, frequently multicolored, and which holds the weapon to the left side of the wearer, passes through a hole on the outer side of the sheath. this hole is made through the central embossed part of the outer piece of the sheath. a noteworthy feature of the sheath is that it is so made that by pushing the handle to the lower side of the aperture of the sheath, the weapon remains locked and can not fall out or be withdrawn until the handle is pushed back to the upper side of the aperture. a magic test for the efficiency of a bolo it is very interesting to observe the method pursued in determining the value of the bolo. a piece of rattan the length of the weapon is cut into small pieces, each one, excepting perhaps the last, exactly as long as the maximum width of the bolo. these pieces are then placed in the following positions and in the order indicated by the number. (see fig. .) it is obvious that, as a rule, there is one piece of rattan that is not as long as the others. this piece is always set down last, and its position is the determining factor of the test. [figure ] in figure _a_ all the pieces of rattan happen to be equal, there being no short piece. moreover, there are enough pieces to complete the figure. this combination is not inauspicious in so far as it does not augur evil, but it is thought to be a sure indication of a failure to kill.[ ] [ ] this combination is called _lí-mut_. in figure _b_ all the pieces are of equal length, but there are not enough to complete the figure as in figure _a_. this is a doubtful con-figuration. on the one hand the weapon may or may not kill, on the other it will prove efficient to the owner in matters not connected with fighting. in figure _c_ we have only four pieces of rattan, three of which are equal to the maximum width of the bolo and one of which is short. this is a good combination. it indicates that in a fight the enemy will suffer loss.[ ] [ ] this formation is called _sá-kab_. in figure _d_ we have the best conformation possible. the fact that the short section falls, as it were, inside, indicates that a short fight and speedy death may be expected. the owner of a weapon that passes this test is reluctant to part with it unless very advantageous offers are made to him. a form of divination in which a suspended bolo, especially a consecrated one, takes the part of the _deus ex machina_ is described in the chapter on divination. the lance the lance, like the bolo, is imported. it is of two kinds: ( ) the mandáya lance, which is found everywhere except on the lower agúsan and on the upper reaches of the umaíam, argáwan, and kasilaían, and in the eastern cordillera; ( ) a lance, probably of moro production, which is said to come from the pulángi river, and which is used in the regions just mentioned where the mandáya lance is not considered lucky or effective. in general, lances consist of a steel head and a long shaft, usually of _palma brava_, but rarely of some other species.[ ] the head is firmly attached to the shaft with a viscous substance. [ ] wood of the tree _ku-li-pá-pa_ is used occasionally. the lance is the inseparable companion of the manóbo in his travels through dangerous places, of which there are not a few in remote regions. when he arrives at a house he sticks the lance in the ground, head up, near the ladder. in traveling he carries it upon his right shoulder, head forward, in a horizontal position and is ever ready to throw it if he fears an ambush. i have frequently startled my manóbo friends while they were engaged in some occupation, such as fishing, just to study their demeanor. the result was always the same--a quick turn and an attitude of offense, with lance poised and defiant eye. the lance is held during the poise in the upturned right hand under the thumb and over the first and second fingers. the arm is extended in a slight curve just in front of the line of the shoulders. in making a thrust, the lance is darted parallel to the line of the shoulders and on a level with them, the left side of the person being presented to the adversary. the lance is not thrown, but is nearly always retained in the hand. the mandáya lance merits most attention, as it is more generally used, and is usually of better mechanical and ornamental workmanship. the shaft is a piece of either _palma brava_ or of _kulipápa_ palm, varying from . to . meters in length. it has a uniform diameter of about millimeters for a distance equal to one-half of its length from, the head; the other half tapers very gradually to about one-half of its original thickness, ending in a fairly sharp point, which may be capped with a conical piece of tin or of steel to protect the wood against injury from stones. the head is a long, slender, pointed blade. from the shoulders, which are from to centimeters apart, it may taper uniformly to a point; much more commonly, however, it tapers gradually to within about millimeters of the extremity. here its width is about millimeters. at this point the edges converge at an angle of ° to the axis, until they meet, forming the point of the lance. from the shoulders of the blade the edges likewise slant inward to the neck at an angle of °. the neck is a solid cylindrical piece, about centimeters in length, nearly always ornamented with embossed work, and ends in a rod or in a conical socket about centimeters long. it is very common to see ornamental chisel work along the axis near the neck. the general outline of the engraving is that of the spearhead in miniature, within which there are often little leaflike puncturings. when the lance head has a socket it is attached to the shaft with a resinous substance similar to that used for bolos. when the lance head ends in a solid cylindrical piece and must be inserted in the hollow shaft, the end of the shaft is reinforced with a moro brass ferrule, if the possessor of the lance has been so lucky as to have acquired one, or with coils of _abaká_ fiber over which has been wound _abaká_ cloth stuck with the above mentioned resin. lances of the better style have ornamental rings of beaten silver, sometimes amounting to as many as , placed at equal distances along the shaft for a distance of as much as centimeters from the juncture of the head and the shaft. a lance of another style is common among the highland manóbos of the central cordillera, and is not infrequently found among the manóbos of kantílan and tágo. though not so striking in dimensions and in general appearance, it is preferred by the manóbo, because it is said to cause a more severe wound and because it is less liable to have the head detached when driven through the floor or wall of a house. its head is much narrower at its broadest part than the one just described, is not so long, and nearly always tapers to a point. it is without any shoulders. it never has the conical steel socket that the mandáya lance sometimes has, is always straight edged, and is set into the shaft in identically the same manner as the socketless mandáya weapon. another point of distinction is the decorative scallop that runs parallel to the edges of the head on each side. there is very seldom any decorative work within the periphery of these scallops. the dagger and its sheath a weapon, whose distribution among manóbos is limited almost exclusively to manóbos south of the ° of latitude, is the mandáya dagger, of mandáya workmanship, and indicative of mandáya influence.[ ] [ ] it is the mandáya tribal weapon that never leaves its wearer's side by night or by day, on the trail or in the house, whenever there is apprehension of danger. its component parts are a thin laminated piece of steel from to centimeters long with a thin, tapering rod somewhat shorter, projecting in the line of the axis, and a hilt of _banáti_ through which the projection of the blade passes. it is carried in a sheath which is held at the wearer's right side by a girdle. the blade is two-edged, widening from a sharp point to two shoulders from to centimeters apart, whence the edges incurve gradually and finally end in two projecting spurs or centimeters apart. the rod for the reception of the hilt extends from this point along the line of the axis for a distance of from to centimeters. from time to time one finds a blade that is inlaid with tiny pieces of brass or silver, but there is never any other kind of ornamentation. the handle is of a type that is unique, as far as i know, in the philippine islands. in using the dagger the body of the hilt is seized in the right hand, the index finger is inserted between one horn of the crescent and the central steel tang, and the thumb between the latter and the other point of the crescent, while the other three fingers hold the weapon within the palm. this method seems clumsy, but nevertheless it is the orthodox way of holding it. fastened to the right side of the wearer in a more or less horizontal position and with the handle projecting forward, it is always at the owner's disposal for prompt and deadly action, especially so as only a mere thread or two of _abaká_ fiber running from the handle to the under part of the sheath retains the weapon in its sheath. the handle is usually strengthened at the neck with plaited rings of _nito_ fiber and may have ornamental silver work, both at that point and on the horns, or even at times on the whole outer surface of it. the sheath consists of two pieces of wood of an elongated rectangular shape, spreading out at the extremity. strips of rattan wound at intervals hold the two pieces together and a paint of blended beeswax and pot black is ordinarily employed to give a finish to it. but occasionally one sees bands of beaten silver at the head of the sheath, and, less frequently, a profusion of beautiful, artistic silverwork set over the whole sheath.[ ] [ ] the steelwork and silverwork are nearly always the production of mandáya smiths living in and beyond the southeastern cordillera, though on the agúsan there are a few silversmiths. manóbos in general, with the exception of those who live on the upper agúsan, take but little care of their weapons, except to sharpen them. in this respect they are very unlike the mandáyas and the debabáons, who are most conscientious and incessant in the care of their bolos, lances, and daggers. they keep these weapons burnished by rubbing them on a board that has been covered with the dust from a pulverized plate, or if they have rusted, by filing them with an imported file. a final touch is given to them by rubbing them with the leaves of what we might call the sandpaper plant.[ ] once burnished they are protected from rust by applications of hog fat, a little piece of which is suspended from the roof whenever a pig is killed. another point of difference between the manóbos, not including those of the upper agúsan, and the above-mentioned peoples is the infrequency with which the former make use of racks for their fighting weapons. the mandáyas and the debabáons very commonly have ornamental racks in which they keep their weapons. [ ] _ficus fiskei_ and _ficus fiskei adorata_ (_moracae_). defensive weapons the shield two varieties of shield are in use, the mandáya and the manóbo. the diffusion of the former is limited to the district south of the ° latitude, not including the ihawán and baóbo river district; the latter, to the rest of the agúsan valley with the exception of the portion where banuáon influence is prevalent,[ ] such as the upper agúsan and rivers to the north of it, which are the western tributaries of the agúsan. in general, shields are made of _kalántas_[ ] wood, varying from to centimeters in length. in the center is a projecting knob resembling a low truncated cone about centimeters high and varying in width at the base from to centimeters, and at the truncation from to . centimeters. the inside of this knob is hollowed out in such a way that a longitudinal piece is left on the inside of it for holding the shield. the upper end has a transverse piece of the same material as the rest of the shield dovetailed into the main body, the object being to prevent the body of the shield, whose grain runs longitudinally, from splitting as a result of a blow. [ ] the banuáon types of shield seen by the writer were circular in form, concave on the proximal side, and made of plaited rattan painted with _tabon-tábon_ pulp. [ ] _la-níp-ga_. as a further protection against splitting, two strips of _palma brava_ or of bamboo in upper agúsan types, and in other types three strips as wide as the shield itself are set horizontally on each side, facing each other, and are held in position by sewings of rattan slips passing through perforations in the wood. the ornamentation of all shields consists of a coating of beeswax, and of thin scallops painted with beeswax and pot black, passing in a single series around the shield and near its edge, and in a double series longitudinally down the center. the operculum,[ ] of a seashell, or very occasionally some bright object, may set off the knob. not infrequently tufts of human hair secured in some war raid are stuck into holes at distances of about centimeters on both sides of the shield, and are considered highly ornamental and indicative of the valor of the owner of the shield. one might be inclined to think that the employment of human hair is a relic of head-hunting, but i was unable to find a single tradition of its practice in eastern mindanáo and i doubt if such ever existed. [ ] called _pas-lí-tan_. the typical manóbo shield has a straight top about centimeters broad. from the corners the sides gradually curve inward for a distance (measured upon the central longitudinal line of the shield) of about centimeters, at which point they curve out to the original width at a distance of about centimeters farther on, where the strengthening strips are fastened on both the inner and outer surfaces. thence the sides curve in to form the second segment, in the center of which is situated the knob, and at the end of which are placed two more sustaining crosspieces. beyond this section, the sides gently curve to the bottom of the shield, which is about centimeters broad and practically straight. the mandáya type, as adopted from the mandáyas by the agusánon manóbos[ ] differs from the manóbo shield in being generally narrower--about centimeters at the top and about centimeters in the central section. from the top, where the transverse protective piece is placed the sides slope out gently to the first sustaining crosspiece placed at a distance from the end of about one-fourth of the entire length of the shield; thence they run parallel for a distance equal to one-half of the shield length, forming to the eye an elongated rectangle, in the center of which is the knob. the remaining quarter of the shield is hyperbolic in form with a small lozenge-shaped protrusion at the focus. the upper edge of the shield is not quite straight, an ornamental effect being produced by slight curves. in the center of the upper edge is a very small projection or sometimes a round incision, that might serve as an eyehole. [ ] also by the mañgguáñgans and by the debabáon and mansáka groups. the manóbos and other peoples of the upper agúsan call themselves agusánon. another difference in this type of shield is the addition of ornamental toothlike tracings. these serrations are done with beeswax and pot black, and are ordinarily set in groups of four at right angles to and along the central and the lateral scallops. the last distinction is the more noticeable longitudinal bend which the mandáya type has as compared with the manóbo style, the top and the bottom being inflected uniformly inward at an angle of about ° to the vertical. among the mandáyas it is interesting to note that a broad shield is looked down upon as indicative of cowardice, and that a narrow shield is considered evidence of valor in its owner. in using the shield it is held in the left hand by the grasp that is located in the inner part of the hollow knob in the center. it is always held in an upright position, the transverse piece being on top, at the left side of the warrior, who never presents the front of his person to the enemy. to protect the feet and legs he must crouch down. i was a constant witness of mimic encounters, and occasionally of what appeared to be the preliminaries to more serious affairs, and can bear witness to the skill displayed in the manipulation of the shield. the rapidity with which the warrior can move about, now advancing, now retreating, now thrusting, now parrying, and all the time concealing the whole of his person except a part of the head and one eye, is a marvel. armor another article used for defensive purposes is the _abaká_ armor.[ ] whenever the warrior has been able to procure a piece of mandáya skirt fabric, he sews it into an ordinary coat with sleeves and, in lieu of imported buttons, uses little slivers of bamboo or wood to keep it closed. when, however, the mandáya cloth is not to be had, his female relatives braid for him a number of multicolored cords of _abaká_ fiber, millimeters broad, which are sewn together in the form of an american or european coat and answer the purpose perhaps better than the mandáya cloth. [ ] _lim botung_. this armor is intended to resist arrows, and is said to be efficient when the wearer is at long range. at short range, however, it helps only to lessen the penetration, as i had occasion to observe after an attack on the upper agúsan, in which one of my warrior friends was wounded on the shoulder by an arrow. a band of debabáons went to make a demonstration at the house of one of their enemies on the river nábuk. the particular warrior chief referred to, desiring to initiate his young son into the art of warfare, carried him on his back to the scene of the demonstration. after surrounding the house, the attacking party broke out into the war cry and challenged their foes to a hand-to-hand combat. the surrounded party replied with a shower of arrows, one of which struck the chief on the shoulder. as he explained to me, he was so solicitous about guarding his child that he exposed his person and received the arrow in his shoulder. the point, he said penetrated to a depth of about centimeters. i once saw another form of protective clothing on the river argáwan. it was a very long strip of cotton cloth which, it was said, was used for wrapping around and around the body before an attack. this article, as i later ascertained, was of banuáon manufacture and use.[ ] [ ] as a further protection in war there is used, it is said, a conical piece of wood on which the hair is bound up. i never saw this device in use and doubt if it is employed commonly by manóbos. it was reported to me as also being of banuáon origin and make. traps and caltrops the dwellings of manóbos who live in actual fear of attack are always surrounded by traps and by bamboo caltrops of one or two varieties. these form an efficient and common means of defense. the trap is of the type described in the chapter on hunting. when this trap is used as a means of defense, the spear is set at such a height that it will wound a human being between the shoulders and the thigh. the traps are set in varying numbers in the immediate vicinity of the house, though if an attack is considered imminent they are set on the trails leading to the house and some distance away. they may be so set that they will not strike the one who releases them but the first or second person following him. it is always prudent for a white man in a hostile country to so safeguard himself and his men that no one will be injured by these traps. the bamboo caltrops referred to are slivers of sharpened bamboo, about centimeters long, set in the ground at an angle of °, and at some point where the enemy has to descend to a lower level. a favorite spot is behind a log or at the descent to a stream. they are carefully concealed and, to a white man not aware of the use of such traps, a dangerous device. another form of caltrops very common indeed, and very treacherous in its character, consists of small spikes made of slivers of bamboo, about centimeters long, or of pointed pieces of hardwood. these are set in goodly numbers in the trails that lead from the adjoining forest to the house. the peculiar danger of these is that they protrude only about or centimeters above the ground, the soil being loosened around them so that the pressure of the wayfarer's foot presses down the loose soil, thereby giving the treacherous spike an opportunity to pierce the foot to a considerable depth. agricultural implements implements of husbandry are few and far between. as there are no draft animals in manóboland, no plows, harrows, or other implements which require animals are made use of. the ax for felling the larger trees a simple steel ax is used. it is set in a hole in a hardwood handle, usually of guava wood, and is retained in place by a couple of plaits of rattan. the edge of the ax is only or centimeters long and yet it is surprising what the average manóbo man can accomplish with this insignificant-looking implement. mounted upon his frail scaffold he attacks the mighty trees of his forest home and with unerring blow brings them down in a surprisingly short time. the bolo for cutting off the branches, the bolo, which may be at the same time his weapon for attack or defense, is used. the work bolo is in no wise distinguished from the fighting weapon except that the former has a broad straight back. it is more usual to find a bolo of bisáya manufacture in use by manóbos of the lower agúsan. these bolos come from bohol or from cebu and, being comparatively cheap and answering the purpose equally well, are readily purchased. the rice header during the harvest time the rice heads are cut with a header made of a small piece of rattan or wood about . centimeters in diameter and between and centimeters long. in the center of this and at right angles to it is lashed a piece of tin or one of the valves of a common shellfish.[ ] [ ] _bi-bi_. fishing implements the fishing bow and arrow the bow and arrow are used for fishing, wherever the agúsan peoples, christian and non-christian, have access to the lakes and pools that abound in the central agúsan. the bow used in fishing and its accessories in nowise differs from the more serious article intended for warfare, except that, due to its more frequent use, it may be more dilapidated in appearance. fishing arrows, however, are different from those used in fighting. the shaft of the former is a piece of bamboo,[ ] varying in length from . to . meters and in maximum diameter from to . millimeters. [ ] of the variety called _lá-hi_ or _da-ga-sá'_. the head is a -pronged piece of iron or steel about centimeters long, with barbs on the inner side of each prong, equidistant from the extremity and facing each other. these two prongs unite to form a solid neck that runs into the natural hole in the shaft, a ferrule of brass, or more frequently a winding of rattan coated with _tabon-tábon_ seed pulp, serving to prevent the splitting of the frail bamboo tube. the head is attached to the shaft by a substantial string of _abaká_ fiber, about . meters long, which is wound about the shaft, but which is unwound by the fish in its frantic efforts to escape, leaving him with the arrowhead in his body, and with the shaft breaking the water and indicating to the fisherman the whereabouts of his victim. on the far upper agúsan the arrowhead is not of the -pronged type but is a thin, laminated steel point that expands gradually to form the two lateral barbs. it is of mandáya manufacture and origin. the fish spear the fish spear,[ ] except on the far upper agúsan, consists of a long bamboo shaft from . to . meters in length with a heavy -pronged barbed head set into a node at its larger end and with strengthening girdles of rattan strips serving to reinforce it. the iron head is of bisáya or of christian manóbo workmanship. on the upper agúsan the head is -pronged and the shaft is frequently somewhat longer than that of the spear used on the lower river. in other respects it is identical. [ ] _sá-pang_. fishhooks large hooks are much more commonly used than small ones. both are made out of either brass wire or of iron, the latter often from the handle of a kerosene can, and in general they resemble ordinary fishhooks such as are made in civilized countries. the method of using the hook has been described already under "fishing." for crocodiles a peculiar hook is used. it consists of a piece of _palma brava_, sharpened at one end, and provided with a spur projecting backward at an angle of about °. to this piece of wood is attached a stout rope of _abaká_ fiber, which in its turn is tied to a piece of stout bamboo about . meters long. the bamboo is then set firmly in the ground, and the bait is allowed to hang within about centimeters of the water. the hungry crocodile, lured by the odor, springs at the bait, and gets the hook between his jaws. it is seldom that by dint of frantic pulling and wriggling he does not free the bamboo and rush off to one of his favorite haunts, where, by the presence of the bamboo float above him, he is discovered and dispatched. hunting implements the spear the chief weapon used in the chase is the spear. it consists of a stout, wooden shaft between . and . meters long, which is set into the hollow conical socket of a spearhead. the blade in general appearance resembles the more serious weapon of war, but it is only about or centimeters long and makes no pretense to beauty, being fashioned solely for utilitarian purposes. as a necessary accessory to the spear the inseparable bolo is carried. the bow and arrow in the chapter on hunting reference has been made already to the hunting bow and arrow. it is an ordinary bow, but the arrow differs in not being feathered and finished like the arrow intended for human game. a very effective and easily made arrow consists of a piece of bamboo about centimeters long and to millimeters in diameter, with a sharp tapering point. in lieu of feathering, four or five tufts near one extremity, set at a distance of about . centimeters from each other, are made by scraping the surface so as to form little tufts of shavings. this style of dart arrow is used principally for monkeys, but a supply is always on hand for warlike purposes, when the more finished and efficient arrows become exhausted. another difference in the hunting arrow is the -pronged bamboo head formed either by splitting a regular bamboo arrow or, more commonly, by lashing together two arrows. i saw on a few occasions _palma brava_ spike heads used by the manóbos of the far upper agúsan. these latter forms are used exclusively for hornbills whose tough hide and abundant plumage require something stronger than the ordinary arrow. the blowgun the blowgun[ ] is used sporadically and perfunctorily on the far upper agúsan, but i have never seen it anywhere else among manóbos.[ ] it is used for shooting small birds, chickens, and mice. it is made of an internode of a variety of bamboo[ ] about . meters long and . millimeters in diameter, to which is joined another internode about centimeters long and of slightly larger diameter. this forms the mouthpiece. i have never seen any decorative work on a blowpipe. the dart is a thin tapering piece of bamboo about centimeters long and . millimeters in diameter at the butt. enough cotton to fill the bore of the gun is fastened at the butt end of the dart. it is discharged by the breath. the point is never poisoned, nor is there any tradition as to the former use of poison on these darts. [ ] _sum-pí-tan_. [ ] its use by the mandáyas of the kati'il, manorígau, and karága rivers is very common, but so far as i know it is neither a defensive nor an offensive weapon. [ ] _la-hi'_. the blowgun, when in use, is held to the mouth with the right hand. the maximum range is about meters. i have seen very small birds killed at a distance of about meters. chapter xii industrial activities division of labor it is to be expected that among a people whose women have been obtained practically by purchase the burden of work will fall on the woman. the manóbo man, however, at times performs an amount of heavy, hard work that makes the division somewhat equitable. male activities house building, hunting, fishing, and trapping fall to the lot of the man. when the rice-planting season is at hand, he fells the trees and does the heavier work of clearing. an occasional war raid or an occasional visit to some distant settlement for trading purposes may impose upon him a few days of hard travel. outside of these occupations his work is comparatively light. he attends to his weapons, makes such objects of wood or of bamboo as may be needed, and decorates them after his style. he splits the rattan and does nearly all the plait work in basket making. all the necessary implements for fishing, hunting, and trapping are made by him, with the exception of steel weapons. he strips the _abaká_ for the family clothes and procures the dye plants. in certain districts he is the miner and in others he is the boat builder, and in all districts he conducts trading transactions. female activities the manóbo woman certainly has her share of work. she does all the dyeing, weaving, and tailoring, besides attending to the various household duties of providing fuel, food, and water. these latter occupations impose upon her at least one trip daily to the _camote_ field, and several to the watering place, which in the mountainous districts is ordinarily at a considerable distance down steep and rugged trails. she attends to the children and cares for the sick, and day after day dries, pounds, winnows and cooks the rice. when her helpmate has felled the trees for the new farm, she does the looping, lighter clearing, burning, sowing, weeding, tilling, and harvesting. in her spare moments she makes mats, rice bags, and earthen vessels, braids an occasional armlet, does the beadwork, and a thousand and one little things according to the exigency of the moment or the requirements of her spouse. male industries in detail the various operations of fishing, hunting, trapping, house building, agriculture, and trading have been already described so that there remain to be considered only boat building, mining, and plait work. boat building the art of boat building is known only to manóbos who have been in contact with banuáons, so that one would be led to think that the art is of banuáon origin. it is confined practically to the kasilaían, líbang, maásam, Óhut, and wá-wa rivers, though one finds a boat builder here and there on the híbung river and on the simúlau river, but only an occasional one, if any, on the argáwan, umaíam, ihawán, and upper agúsan. the boat is a dugout usually made of _magasinó'_, _kalántas_, or some light durable wood. the tree is selected, hewed down with the simple ax, and by dint of hard chopping hollowed out and shaped. in this way are made nearly all the skiffs, canoes, and boats that ply up the network of rivers in the agúsan valley. it is not uncommon to see a _banca_, or large boat, meters long by meter beam. mining mining is confined to the híbung river and its tributaries, to the wá-wa river, and to the taligamán district, a few hours' walk to the southeast of butuán. it is a desultory occupation followed more at the request of bisáya traders, or in fulfillment of a contract, than out of any desire for gold. the time selected is usually after a flood. the gold is washed out with a circular, hollow, wooden pan.[ ] the operation has an established religious procedure which, must be followed if one wishes to be successful in the acquisition of the gold. the theory is as follows: the gold is the property of a gold spirit, whose place in the manóbo pantheon i can not state. to enter upon his domains and to remove the ore which is his without feasting him and making him a present of a living victim for a future repast would provoke his wrath and result in failure to obtain the object of the search. hence the leader of the miners upon arrival at the mining ground turns loose a white fowl and kills a white pig in honor of the gold spirit. he also presents to the spirit leaf packages of boiled native rice. the mining operations then begin, but the peculiar feature of the whole procedure is that the rice packages are purchased from the leader at the rate of _ku-len-tás-on_[ ] for two packages. noise and merriment are interdicted during the mining operations as being displeasing to the gold spirit, but if, upon infringement of this taboo, further oblations of rice are made to him he resumes his good humor and permits the gold to be found. [ ] _bi-ling-án_. [ ] _ku-len-tás-on_ are said to weigh one-half of the gold piece that was in circulation in the philippine islands, in pre-american days, and which was valued at . cents united states currency. i found these beliefs to be held as far over as the upper tágo river, on the eastern side of the pacific cordillera. plaiting and other activities the plaiting and braiding of such objects as arm and leg ligatures out of _nito_ or other vegetable fiber nearly always falls to the lot of the women. the plaiting of baskets out of rattan, as well as the making of fish traps and pack baskets, is generally a male occupation. the process of basket making is fairly simple. a more or less cylindrical, solid piece of wood with flat bottom and top forms the mold upon which the strips of rattan are interlaced. a circular band of bamboo strengthens the upper rim, a coating of the pulp of the seed of the _tabon-tábon_ fills up the crevices and makes the basket almost perfectly water-tight. pack baskets that are used for carrying game and for general utility on long voyages are of the open wickerwork description. i know of only two manóbo blacksmiths in the whole of manóboland. they learned the trade from bisáyas and produce bolos much like the bisáya or bohol type seen in the agúsan valley. here and there one meets a manóbo who understands how to beat out a fish spear or a fishhook, or to make a crude pipe, but, with these exceptions, the manóbo knows nothing of steel or iron work. as to the decoration, it is manifest from what has been said that he can do simple but creditable work. the ornaments on bamboo tubes, combs, baskets, and certain other things are evidences of his skill. so are the tattoo and embroidery designs described in a previous chapter. female industries in detail weaving and its accessory processes _abaká_ fiber is stripped by men and delivered to the womenfolk. the women pound it for a long time in a wooden mortar to soften it, then patiently tie strand to strand, placing it carefully in small hollow baskets, where it is free from danger of entangling. sand is often sprinkled on it as a further means of preventing tangling. cotton yarn is prepared from the native plant by means of a very primitive spindle, which consists of a small rod of wood at the end of which is a top-shaped piece of the same material which serves to sustain the necessary rotation. a tuft of cotton is attached to the end of this bar, and, as the top rotates the thread is twisted. when the thread is sufficiently long it is wound around the handle and the operation is. repeated. by this slow and tedious process a sufficient amount of yarn is spun for the requirements of the spinner. the dyeing process consists in boiling the _abaká_ yarn with finely chopped pieces of various woods.[ ] in order to produce a permanent dye, the process of boiling must be repeated more than once with new dyeing material. as the boiling apparatus consists nearly always of small earthen pots and the boiling is continually interrupted by culinary operations, it is obvious that the process is an inordinately slow and unsatisfactory one. i am of the opinion that to produce a fast red dye on sufficient yarn for about seven skirts, the boiling occupies the better part of two wrecks. [ ] _si-ká-lig_ root for red effects, pieces of _kanai-yum_ tree for black and pieces of _du-au_ for yellow effects. cotton yarn is never dyed. whenever colors are desired, imported cotton must be obtained through christian or christianized intermediaries. the weaving is performed on a simple, portable loom, consisting of two internodes of bamboo, one at the back part and one at the front part. the warp threads pass serially around these two pieces of bamboo and between the slits of a primitive comb situated within arm reach of the posterior bamboo internode. the comb consists of an oblong rectangle about by centimeters, having a series of little reeds set parallel at a distance of . millimeters from each other. through these interstices pass the warp threads. just beyond this comb and farther away from the weaver is a hardwood rood[sic], as wide as the weft, around which are single loops of _abaká_ or other fiber. through these loops pass alternately the warp threads in such a way that when the batten is inserted the upper and lower alternate warp threads are reversed, thereby holding the weft threads in the position to which they have been driven by the batten. the weft thread is wound upon a bobbin made out of a slender piece of rattan which has two slits at each end, through which the weft thread passes. the bobbin is driven through by the hand from side to side and between the upper and the lower warp threads. the heavy, hardwood, flat, polished batten is then worked by the hand, driving the weft thread into juxtaposition with the part of the fabric finished already. the weaver then inserts the batten between the warp threads at the point where they alternately pass up and down through the previously mentioned loops on the distal side of the comb, and between it and the rod that holds the loops. by pulling the comb back to the finished part of the fabric, the warp threads are reversed and the last weft thread is securely held in place. thus the process is repeated over and over again until the fabric is finished. the setting up of a piece of skirt cloth would occupy some two whole days of uninterrupted work and the weaving some three days, but as multitudinous household duties call the woman away constantly, she spends the better part of at least two weeks on one piece, this period not including the preparation of the yarn by tying and dyeing. in weaving the woman sits upon the floor and keeps the warp threads stretched by a rope that passes round her back from each extremity of the yarn beam. when not in use, the web and the finished fabric are folded up around the beam. the products of the manóbo loom are not as numerous and artistic as those of the mandáyas. the cloth produced is of four kinds: ( ) the ordinary skirt or mosquito-bar cloth made out of _abaká_ fiber and having white and black longitudinal warp stripes, alternating with the stripes of the red background; ( ) a closely woven but thin cloth of _abaká_ having sometimes, as in the case of men's jackets, straight weft stripes of imported blue cotton; ( ) a cloth of the same material, but so thin as to be diaphanous, and not adorned with any stripes; ( ) a cloth for trousers made out of an _abaká_ warp and a native cotton woof. in the chapter on dress reference has been made to the elaborate and beautiful effects produced by the mandáyas on _abaká_ cloth. the manóbo woman has no knowledge of the process by which such effects are obtained. it is interesting to note that the two yarn beams are cut in such a manner as to emit a booming sound at each stroke of the batten. i have seen an additional internode attached to the end yarn beam in a vertical position, with a view to increasing the resonance. the object of these sounders is to call attention to the industry and assiduity of the weaver. pottery the whole pottery industry consists in the making of rude earthen pots out of clay. it is confined to places near which the proper clay is found. a piece of clay is kneaded and mixed with fine sand till it attains the proper consistency. a piece is then laid over a round stone and beaten gently till it becomes sufficiently dry and rigid to serve for a bottom to which clay is added strip by strip, at first thick but gradually thinned with the fingers, until the pot is completed. it is in the union of these strips that defects are liable to occur. hence the best workers patiently sit for hours beating their pots with a little wooden mallet. the pots are then put into a hot fire and burnt several times till they become sufficiently brittle to resist the fire, but the manufacturers seem to lack a proper test, because the cracking of a new pot is an ordinary occurrence. the pot is spherical in shape with a wide mouth and a neck which, by its incurving, makes it possible to hang it up by means of a piece of rattan when it is not in use. there may be a few indentations running around the neck for the purpose of decoration. it is customary to provide the pot with a crude cover, also made of sand and clay. tailoring and mat making tailoring is such a simple affair in manóboland that it hardly deserves mention. whenever an imported needle of european or american make is not to be had, a piece of brass wire is filed down and an eye made in it. with the simple utensil and with a thread of _abaká_ fiber, the garment is sewn with a kind of a transverse cross-stitch. when imported cotton is on hand, nearly all seams are covered with either a continuous fringe of cotton in alternate colors or with neat wavy stitches, all of which serve both to conceal the seams and to embellish the garment. in making a garment the piece of cloth is folded into a rectangle which forms the body of the garment. a piece large enough to make the sleeves remains. no piece is thrown away, there being no superfluous clippings. all cutting is done with a bolo.[ ] [ ] in the chapter on dress reference has been made to the method of embroidery and to the various designs in common use. mats and bags are made out of _pandanus_. the same methods so commonly used throughout the philippine islands are employed by the manóbos. part iii. general sociological culture chapter xiii domestic life and marital relations arranging the marriage manóbo marriages, in general, may be said to be unions of convenience sought with a view to extending the circle of relatives in such directions as may result in an increase of power, prestige, protection, and sundry other material advantages. an instance passed under my notice in in which the daughter of a mañgguáñgan warrior chief was captured in marriage for the purpose of securing his aid against the captor's enemies. the captor was a manóbo-mañgguáñgan of the upper agúsan. selection of the bride in the selection of his future wife, the manóbo consults his own tastes as far as he can, but he is influenced to a great extent by the opinion of his parents and near relatives, all of whom ordinarily look to the advantages to be derived from connection with powerful members of the tribe. hence rank and birth are nearly always a determining factor, and where the wishes of the man's elders are in opposition to his own natural choice, he yields and is contented to take the helpmate chosen for him. courtship and antenuptial relations sometimes the young man is bidden to take up his residence in the girl's house, observe her general character and especially her diligence, find out if she has been bespoken, gain the good will of her father and relatives, and report to his people. no communication of any kind takes place between him and his prospective wife. when the subject is broached to the girl, she simply bids him see her relatives. i have known of cases among the upper agúsan manóbos where improper suggestions to the girl were at once reported by her to her parents, and the author of them was at once brought to order with a fine, the equivalent of p or p . one white man is reported to have met his death at the hand of a manóbo for a mistake of this kind many years ago. in deepest manóboland, when the offense passes, however slightly, the boundaries of suggestion, it becomes the source of many a deadly feud. happily, however, such cases are extremely rare. begging for the hand of the girl three, four, or five of the nearest male relatives of the man, after procuring a little beverage, repair early some evening to the house of the nearest relative of the girl. after they have partaken of the inevitable betel-nut quid, and have offered a drink of sugarcane brew or other beverage to the household, and have discussed a few topics of daily life--it may be about the last wild boar killed, or the capture of a polecat in the snares[ ]--the prologue begins. this lasts from one to two days, including often the better part of the nights. each of the visitors comes in his turn and rattles off, with many a significant haw and cough, in good manóbo style a series of periphrastic platitudes and examples that apparently give no clue to the object of their visit. the owner of the house and father, let us say, of the girl quickly understands the situation and then assumes a most indifferent air. the visitor who has taken up the discourse continues, with never a care for the various household sounds, such as the chopping of wood, or the yelping of dogs; and not even the announcement of supper, and the partaking thereof, can stay his eloquence. the householder at times emits a sleepy grunt of approval, relapses apparently into a drowse, and after several hours, rolls into his mat and feigns sleep. at this juncture one of the visitors hastens down the notched pole and gets the silver-ferruled lance or silver-sheathed knife that has been left concealed near the house. the spokesman of the visitors then offers it to the father of the hoped-for bride on condition that he rise and listen, for they have come with an object in view--to beg for the hand of his daughter. it is then his turn to begin a painfully drawn-out discourse, to which the visitors assent periodically with many an humble and submissive "_ho_" and "_ha_," "_bai da man_" (yes, indeed), and so forth. he strains and racks his brains to think of every imaginable reason against the marriage, and finally, after he has exhausted every resource, he bids his visitors go home and come back on such a day, because he has to consult his relatives; but he can not get them to stir until he gives them a counterpresent, which he claims is of much more value than their present to him. [ ] _lítag_. on the appointed day the young man's relatives again proceed to the same house, but in this case reinforced by all the relatives within reach, each one carrying his present. upon the arrival the same performance is repeated and the same tactics pursued as before, except that this time the visitors kill their fatted pig and set it out, inviting the householder and all his relatives to partake, but, lo and behold! no one will eat. no amount of persuasion will induce them--they have eaten already--they are all sick--they do not like to be invited to eat by their visitors, it being against all the rules of hospitality, etc. to all of these objections the visitors by turn answer, offsetting one reason by another and all the while trying to put the other people into good humor and soften their hearts. but no, the owner of the house and his party refuse, and all this while the fatted pig lies in big black chunks on the floor, surrounded by rice in platters, baskets, and leaves. at this point a few of the visitors again hasten down the notched pole, and gather up out of the grass or underbrush in the adjacent jungle the concealed presents. the arrival of the presents is a grand moment for the father and relatives of the young man. even the future bride, who up to this time has coyly hidden away in a corner, can not help stealing a few peeps at the display of spears, bolos, daggers, plates, and jars. picking them up one by one the owner descants on their beauty, their value (naming an outrageous sum), and his relatives express their sorrow at parting with them. "but," he goes on to say, "it matters not, provided that you see our good will and will join us in this banquet." whereupon he distributes among his guests according to the order of their standing the array of presents, after which all squat down and begin to eat, the visitors giving an extra dose of wassail to their friends in order that under its warming influence they may soften and yield. during the course of the meal, the discussion is continued and every appeal made to motives of friendship and self-interest, but in vain--the other side shows no signs of yielding; they say that they can not yet make a fixed contract, that the girl is too young, or that she does not want the suitor; and so the hosts are bade to have patience and to go their way. but now that they have spent an amount varying from p to p they are not minded to lose it, but will persist in their suit for years. i have heard of marriage transactions that covered years and have personal knowledge of numerous cases that have extended over . the case of a manóbo in pilar, upper agúsan, will illustrate the point. his father, during the interregnum of , first made the proposal for the hand of the girl. it was refused until toward the end of the parents finally yielded, but on condition that slaves be paid. a few months subsequently, after a course of hard haggling and cunning bargaining, the contract was modified to four slaves plus the equivalent of the value of six. three slaves were delivered after a raid on a mañgguáñgan settlement on the middle sálug (about april, ). the "thirties,"[ ] or p , were paid in lances, knives, and other things before the demise of the father toward the latter part of , so that one slave still remained to be delivered. on my last visit to pilar (february, ) the poor fiancé was still doing chores around his mother-in-law's house, and the slave was still unpaid. if he can not procure that slave it will probably cost him, in other effects, several times the value of the slave. [ ] _kat-lo-án_, meaning , is a monetary unit, representing the value of a good slave. proceedings of the kind described before are repeated at frequent intervals for a number of years, but with this exception, that on the ensuing visits presents of no great value are bestowed on the father of the expected bride--a bunch of bananas, a piece of venison, or a few chickens, or some such offering are made, with a reiteration of the petition. a capacious porker with a bounteous supply of sugar-cane brew in big bamboo internodes is brought along occasionally to break down the obdurateness of the householder's heart, until one fine day, under the benign influence of "the cup that cheers," he yields, but intimating that his petitioners can never afford the marriage payments.[ ] he will then probably recount the purchase price of this own wife, always with exaggerations; descant on the qualities of his daughter, her strength, her beauty, her diligence, her probable fecundity; and deplore the grievous loss to be sustained by her departure from her parents' side. whereupon the visitors respond that they are willing to substitute a number of slaves to make up for the loss of the daughter, but that in any case she will not leave the paternal home and that the bridegroom will take up his residence there and help his father-in-law in all things; and so the matter is discussed and the payment of a certain number of slaves is determined in the following manner: determination of the marriage payment determination of the marriage payment is the very soul of the whole marriage proceeding. years and years of service on the part of the would-be husband, presents innumerable on the part of his relatives, and feigned indifference or opposition on the other side have led up to this moment. for the sake of clearness, let us call the father or nearest male relative of the future bride a and the father or nearest male relative of the bridegroom, b. a, aided by all the cunning of his relatives, lays down as a condition, let us say, seven slaves and one female relative of b, who is to be a substitute for his daughter. to this b rejoins that it is a high price and impossible of fulfillment, that he is not a warrior chief, nor a _datu_, nor such a wealthy person as a, and that he can never satisfy such a demand, giving a thousand and one reasons, such as sickness or debt. a responds and belittles him for being so deficient in resources, asks if b wants to get a wife for his son gratuitously, and tells him to go home and buy a slave girl for him. he yells indignation at the top of his voice, probably with his hand on his bolo, in a very menacing way. b and his party, seeing that it is unavailing, go home, consult over the matter, and during the course of a year or two take every possible means to procure the necessary slaves. they may be successful in securing one or more, let us say two, and at the same time may manage to get together, say, lances, bolos, jars, plates, and pigs; and so one fine day they start off to a's for another trial. b proceeds to make a feel merry before he reports his failure to comply with the demand. this report is usually a tissue of the most atrocious "oriental diplomacies" that the human mind can concoct. a listens to this prologue, interlarded as it always is with ejaculations of corroboration from b's party. then a begins: it is an outrage, he will have none of the pigs; the idea of selling his daughter for a bunch of pigs! he gets up and says he will first kill the pigs and then the owner, but his relatives make a pretense at restraining him. after a few hours of this simulation, by which he has induced b to make many gifts, he softens, but as the demand was not complied with to the letter, the payment must be increased, he says, by more pigs, a piece of chinese cloth, mandáya skirts, and jars. at this point his relatives interfere. his sister wants three pigs and four skirts. she was midwife at the birth of the girl in question and, due to her contact with the unclean blood, was approached by a foul spirit and fell sick. surely she deserves a big payment-- female slave, pigs, shell bracelets, and a piece of turkey red cloth. and the third cousin claims that she nursed the child, the future bride, two months during the illness of its mother, and demands two mandáya skirts. and so the haggling is continued, a and his party doling out the marriage effects as sparingly as possible, taking care to make presents to the more vehement and unyielding parties on the other side. [ ] _Ábat_. this operation always lasts a few days, during which b keeps his prospective relatives in high glee with pork and potations, until a consents. the marriage feast and payment the marriage feast almost invariably takes place during the harvest, for the simple reason that food is more abundant and also because the harvest days are the gladdest of all the year. when the time for the marriage is close at hand the father-in-law makes an announcement to friends and neighbors, sending out messengers and leaving at each house a rattan strip[ ] to indicate the number of days to elapse before the marriage. if his own house is not sufficiently large for the expected attendance, he changes to another and awaits the eventful day. [ ] _ba-lén-tus_. the whole country flocks to the house at the appointed time, the relatives of the bridegroom being loaded down with the marriage presents, which are all carefully concealed in baskets, leaf wraps, etc., and are deposited secretly in the woods adjoining the house. of course the omen bird must be consulted. on this occasion above all others it is essential that the omens be favorable, as there are no means, so i have been informed, to counteract an inauspicious marriage omen. while preparations are being made for the banquet by the bridegroom's party, the interminable parley[ ] is continued. the bride's father and relatives make their last efforts for securing all they can in worldly effects. they almost repent of the bargain--it was too cheap--think of the price paid for the bride's mother--the expenses incurred during a long illness of the bride in her infancy--and compare the modicum demanded for her marriage; it is outrageous! no, the marriage can not go on, the girl is not in good health, and the ordeal might increase her ailment. every sort of trick is resorted to in order that the other side may be more generous in the bestowal of gifts. the discussion is thus one big tissue of simulation, and is carried on in succession by the elders on each side. the bridegroom's father keeps offering betel nut and brew to his new "cofather-in-law"[ ] and selects a favorable moment to make him a big present, possibly of an old heirloom, a jar, or a venerable old spear, the value of which he estimates at p , although it may be worth only p . [ ] _bi-sä_. [ ] _bá'-i_. the meal is finally spread out on the floor. the roasted part of the pig has been hacked into small chunks and is piled up on plates, leaves, bark platters, and shallow baskets. the boiled portion remains in charred bamboo internodes placed close at hand. the rice is loaded on plates, or placed in large baskets lined with leaves, and the beverage is put in the ancient family jars, or is left in long bamboos: the host, in this case the bridegroom's father or nearest male relative, assisted by a few others, distributes the meat, carefully selecting the pieces according to weight, size, and quality, so that no one can complain of not having had as good a share as his neighbor. such toothsome parts as the brains, heart, and liver are divided among the relatives who enjoy greater prestige, the tougher and more gizzly[sic] pieces falling to the lot of the people of lesser importance. this operation takes up the better part of an hour. it is needless to say that a hubbub of voices helps to give animation to the occasion. the manóbo speaks in no angelic whisper on ordinary occasions, but at a solemn time like this his vocal chords twang with all the intensity of which they are capable. finally all squat down on the floor, armed with the inseparable bolo if suspicious visitors are present. hands are washed by pouring a little water out of a bowl, tumbler, or bamboo joint; the mouth is rinsed, and the meal is begun. with their right hands on their bolos, if they have not ungirded[sic] them, they lay their left hands over their portions of rice, knead handfuls of it into a compact mass, and raising their hands to their mouths ram it in with the palms. the two "cofathers-in-law" pay special attention to each other, each trying to get the other intoxicated, and each feeding the other with chunks of fat and other things. this custom is called _daiyápan_ and is universal among the non-christian tribes of the agúsan valley. it is a mark of esteem and the highest token of hospitality. a few pieces of fat and bone are scooped up, dipped in a mixture of red pepper, salt, and water and thrust, nolens volens, into the mouth of the good fellow whom it is desired to honor. and it is not good etiquette to remove it. it must be gorged at once and the fortunate man must proceed to reciprocate in the same way. the brew is distributed in tumblerfuls or in bamboo joints holding about a tumblerful each. to refuse the allotted portion would degrade one in the eyes of everyone, for here it is a sin to be sober and a virtue to get drunk. gluttony finds no place in a manóbo dictionary--one is merely full,[ ] but always ready to go on; friend divides his rice with friend, when he sees that the latter's supply is getting low, and his own is immediately replenished by one of the womenfolk, or slaves that attend to the culinary work. nor must one finish before anybody else. it is not polite. nothing must be left on the plate, a fact that each one makes clear by washing the plate clean with water. [ ] _mahántoi_. the pandemonium increases in direct proportion as the brew diminishes. one's neighbor may be yelling to somebody else at the other end of the house while the latter is trying at the top of his voice to reach the fellow that sits far away from him. goodnatured, though rather inelegant, jokes and jests are howled at the bride, who coyly conceals herself behind a neighbor, and at the bridegroom, who does not seem at all abashed. the women, who eat all together near the hearth, carry on the same operations but in their own more gentle way, never falling under the influence of the liquor. the meal is usually finished in about three hours, when the pig and rice are exhausted. after a chew of betel nut, comes the supreme moment for payment,[ ] ushered in by many a "_ho_" and "_ha_" with another discussion. the tenor of this is that the father of the bridegroom is not as well provided with goods[ ] as he had desired to be, owing, let us say, to a failure to obtain certain effects he had ordered from so-and-so, together with numerous other pretexts and excuses that on the face of them are untrue. pointing out his slaves, he descants on them; and goes on to explain how much trouble he had to get them; he could not value them for less than p apiece. or, if they are captives, he describes the fatigues of his march and the imminent danger to which he was exposed during the attack, together with such other reasons, mostly fictitious, as would tend to enhance their value and thereby avoid subsequent haggling. he then delivers the other goods demanded.[ ] where two slaves had been asked he gives two kinds of goods,[ ] say a lance and a bolo, whereupon there is invariably a howl of dissatisfaction, according to custom. but things are settled nicely either by granting a few plates or some such thing for a solace, or by playing on the good will or simplicity of the person who objected. the distribution is not completed in one day. usually about one-third of the entire amount of goods is held over with a view to observing if there is anyone who is not quite pleased with his portion, and also for the purpose of keeping up their hopes. [ ] _Á-bat_. [ ] _máng-gad_. [ ] by his cofather-in-law and relatives. [ ] _da-dú-a no baíyo no máng-gad_. the reciprocatory payment and banquet the following day, or whenever the payment has been completed, begins the reciprocatory payment[ ] in which the bride's relatives return to those of the bridegroom a certain amount of goods varying in value, but approximately one-half of what has been paid as the marriage portion. as a soother, they also kill a pig and right earnestly set about putting their new circle of relatives in good humor. it may be noted that the duration of these feasts depends on the rapidity with which the pig is dispatched. i have known a marriage feast to cover a period of seven days, though it may be said that it is generally terminated the second day, at least in the case of less well-to-do manóbos. [ ] _sú-bak_. the reciprocatory payment being successfully carried through, it now remains for the bridegroom's relatives to give the farewell feast and carry off the bride. but it often happens that the girl's relatives have ascertained that there are still a number of goods in the possession of their new relatives and it is considered proper to secure them. a few hours before departure the bride is decked out with all available ornaments. bead necklaces, with pendants of crocodile teeth and strips of mother-of-pearl; bracelets of seashell,[ ] large, white and heavy; bracelets of vegetable fiber and of sea wood; a comb inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and adorned with beads and tassels of cotton; leglets of plaited jungle fiber--all these constitute her finery. during the process of dressing, the bride's female relatives usually weep, while the more distant ones set up a howl, often, i think, of ficticious[sic] grief, in which the children, babies, and dogs may join. at this juncture the female relatives of the bridegroom intercede and endeavor to assuage their grief. it is only after numerous presents have been given them that they become resigned, but at the last moment, when the bride is about to be led away, they surround her and hold her and perhaps repeat the wail till they receive more material consolation. this necessitates another supply of presents. then the children have to be appeased. finally the girl is led down the pole, but as her father may have espied, let us say, a fine dagger, or a lance that struck his fancy, nothing will satisfy him except to order them all back and tell his cofather-in-law that he must needs have the lance or dagger, giving some sly reason, as, for instance, that his wife had an ominous dream last night. in one marriage feast that i witnessed, after all the bridegroom's people had left the house, the bride's father told his son to beat the dog. whereupon he ordered the party back and told his cofather-in-law that it was passing strange that the dog should have howled just as they left the house and that he should leave his lance and bolo as an offering to one of the family deities. it was done accordingly and in all good nature. then they started off again, but were recalled because the old fox happened to remember that his cofather-in-law had on several occasions during the early marriage proceedings displeased him, and so it became necessary to atone for the sin[ ] by another gift. finally they got a start, filched of all they had. it happens frequently that the marriage suitors are deprived even of their personal weapons and of part of their clothes. it may be remarked that the bestowal of a person's upper garment is considered an act of deep friendship, and is of fairly frequent occurrence. [ ] _tak-ló-bo_ (_tridacna gigas_). [ ] _húgad to saí-ya_. this is another instance of that peculiar belief in an atonement rite of which i can give no details. the above is a description of the upper class marriage feast, but that of the poorer class is carried on in much the same style, except that the proceedings are much briefer. the bride's father and people on the one hand strive by might and main to get the highest payment obtainable, while the bridegroom's folk exert themselves to hold the price down. whatever is given in payment is overvalued--it is a keepsake, an heirloom, would never be given away under any other circumstances--in fact, may result in evil to the giver. on the other hand everything that is received is depreciated--it is old, or of no use to the receiver. an old trick is to return it, whereupon a little additional gift is made for a consolation. but even then it is never admitted that the gift is received for its intrinsic value, but rather out of good will. marriage and marriage contracts the marriage rite we will now follow the bride to her father-in-law's house and witness the religious ceremony by which the hymeneal tie is indissolubly knitted. it is essential that the omen bird should be favorable on the trip to the bridegroom's house, otherwise the party must return. usually the parting injunction of the bride's father to his cofather-in-law warns him to watch for the omen bird. a pig is killed as soon as possible and set out in the usual style at the house of the bridegroom. the bride and bridegroom sit side by side on an ordinary grass mat. no special decorations have been made; no bridal chamber has been prepared, except sometimes a rude stall of slatted bamboo or of bark. when the meal is ready, the bridegroom takes a handful of rice from his plate and offers it to the bride while she also gives a similar portion to him. then he passes his rice from hand to hand behind his back seven times, after which he says in a loud voice: "we are now married; let our fame ascend."[ ] the bride imitates him. whereupon loud howls of assent proclaim the consummation of the marriage contract. [ ] _kanámi no miño nakalíbto ang bántug námi_. the meal goes on in the same riotous style as described before. i seldom witnessed a marriage during which the bridegroom did not become rather hilarious toward the end of the meal, but never displayed anything but feelings of delicacy and respect toward the bride. instructions of a kind that would be considered highly indecent, according to our standards of morality, are howled out in the most candid way, so that this ordeal proves embarrassing for the bride. she eats hastily and retires to her female friends in the cooking portion of the house. i have seen several cases where the girl, being a mere child, continued to weep during the whole proceeding. the feast being concluded a female priest takes the betel-nut omen. seven quids of betel nuts are placed by one of the family priestesses upon a sacred dish.[ ] she then sets it upon the head of the bridegroom and falls into an ecstatic condition, steadying the plate with her hand. should one of the betel-nut slices become separated from its betel leaf, the omen is considered unpropitious and is followed immediately by the prophylactic rite--the fowl-waving ceremony. [ ] _a-púg'-an_. the matter of overcoming the delicacy of the newly married maiden is not infrequently attended with considerable difficulty. it is accomplished, however, by means of an elderly relative of the girl, who occupies night after night the mat between the newly married couple, until such time as she thinks that her ward has become well enough acquainted with her husband so that she will not run away. the go-between returns the following day and claims her guerdon. several cases passed under my observation, in which the husband was unable to use his marital rights for weeks owing to the timorousness and bashfulness of his youthful spouse. in no case was anything but patience and gentleness displayed by the husband. marriage by capture the custom of wife capture is fairly frequent, especially in the upper agúsan where the manóbo is within the mandáya culture area. during my last visit to the upper agúsan (september, , to february, ) three cases occurred, and i had the pleasure of taking part in the settlement of one of them. the capture is effected by a band of some four to eight friends of the party interested. they repair to the vicinity of the _camote_ patch, which is almost invariably situated at some distance from the house of its owner. here a watch is kept until the intended captive, in company probably with a few of her own tribe, appears upon the scene. probably it has been already ascertained that the male relatives have gone on a hunting or fishing expedition, but to make assurance doubly sure one or two of the party advance toward the women unarmed and make inquiries hi an offhand way. if the absence of the male relatives is confirmed, they thereupon seize the girl, and their companions rush out in full panoply from their hiding places and carry off the fair prize. by the time the girl's relatives become aware of the occurrence, the captors have eluded all chance of discovery and the captive has probably resigned herself to her fate, if she had not already consented by connivance. with regard to wife capture it may be remarked that it is generally resorted to under the advice and protection of some more powerful and affluent personage. if undertaken on one's own initiative it might be risky, and certainly always is a highly expensive affair. even when carried out with the connivance of a _datu_ or a warrior chief, it has on occasions proved fatal, so i was assured. the case referred to was that of the son of an influential manóbo of the nábuk river, in the upper agúsan valley. his son had a few months before my arrival lost his first wife in a raid made by a neighboring settlement. he determined to avoid the prolixities and delay of the ordinary matrimonial course, and, accordingly, captured the daughter of a mañgguáñgan warrior chief who lived near pilar. i was in compostela at the time and on hearing that an expedition[ ] to recapture the girl or to collect the marriage payment would take place, i asked that i might be allowed to accompany the party. [ ] _duk-i-ús_. (mandáya, _dúk-lus_). we arrived at the house of the _datu_ and found everything and everybody prepared for war. this _datu_ informed me that he anticipated trouble, as the mañgguáñgan was of a different breed, being at times altogether unamenable to reason. during the rest of that day nothing occurred, but no one ventured out of the clearing without a strong guard, and during the night the strictest watch was maintained. the _datu_ said that among manóbos and mandáyas a wife capture was easy of arrangement and was never attended with any trouble, provided they had the wherewithal to pay the marriage price, but that the mañgguáñgan was an unruly character and in a fit of rage or drunkenness was liable to commit acts of atrocity even against his nearest relatives. he cited the case of a mañgguáñgan from sálug who discovered the whereabouts of his son-in-law and of the captured bride and killed them without further ado. about a. m. we were disturbed from our slumbers by one of the watchers who had heard a distinct crackling in the adjoining forest. this report brought everybody to his feet and provoked a chorus of yells of intimidation, that never ceased till sunrise. about a. m. we espied forms in the forest, approaching from all sides. when they, some altogether, had taken up their positions on the edge of the clearing wherein stood the house, they sounded their weird and wild war whoop,[ ] and four warriors, headed by the warrior chief referred to, and armed with all the accouterments of war, rushed forward toward the house, yelling, prancing around, defying, challenging, and cursing. the warrior chief speared one of the two large pigs under the house and proceeded, aided by his three companions to cut down the house posts, never ceasing to yell in the most stentorian voice i ever heard. at this juncture the _datu_ let down with a long strip of rattan a silver-banded lance, a silver-sheathed war knife, and a silver-sheathed mandáya dagger. as everybody was howling, it was difficult to follow the tenor of conversation, but i observed that the warrior chief accepted the gift though he did not apparently relax his fury. he jumped around, menacing, and animating his companions to fire the house. the _datu_ kept letting down presents of lances, mandáya cloth, pigs, and other things until everyone of the assailants had received a token of his good will. their fury very visibly diminished, and the _datu_ was finally able to hold a colloquy with his new cofather-in-law, in which he persuaded him to come up into the house and hold a conference[ ] over the matter. the latter, after numerous reiterations that he would never enter the house except to chop heads off, finally ascended the notched pole, followed by his braves. we of the house retired to the further half, all armed, while the newcomers squatted in that portion of the house near the ladder. then began the conference which lasted till breakfast was ready. it resembled in all respects the usual marriage haggling, except that the warrior chief asseverated persistently that the act of the _datu's_ son was deception and robbery, and that only blood would atone for it. his companions howled assent and clutching their bolos, half rose as if to begin a massacre. they were invited to sit down and regale themselves, but that only made them howl all the more. finally the _datu_ ordered out a stack of weapons and other presents, and made another allotment to the visitors, in due proportion to relationship. this had a soothing effect and induced them to drink copious draughts of sugarcane brew, which kept on soothing them more and more as the end of the meal approached. during all this time special attention was paid to the warrior chief, so that before long he was feeling so happy that he ordered his followers to remove all weapons from their persons, and began to feed huge chunks of half-raw hog meat into the mouth of the _datu_ according to the immemorial custom. [ ] _pa-nad-jáu-an_. [ ] _bisa_. after the feast i returned to the agúsan but learned later that everything had been settled amicably, the _datu_ having provided a superabundance of wordly[sic] effects, in payment for the captured woman. among them were two slaves valued at p apiece. prenatal marriage contracts and child marriage prenatal marriage contracts have been made in the upper agúsan, especially when it was desired to secure the friendship of some more powerful chieftain. i was informed by a _bagáni_ of the upper sálug that it is not an uncommon thing for two warrior chiefs or other powerful men to make such contracts in order to cement the friendship between themselves and between their respective clans. he cited several instances, in some of which the sex of the child proved an impediment to the carrying out of the prenatal marriage contract. child marriages, however, are not uncommon. i know of two cases in compostela, in one of which the boy husband was minor, the girl having already attained the age of puberty at the time of the marriage. in the other case both were mere children. it is needless to say that cohabitation was not permitted in the latter case. the marriage payment had been made in the usual way and the bride delivered over to her father-in-law. according to my observation, the young man is married somewhere between the ages of and , and the woman from to . the effect of these early marriages is very apparent in the physical appearance of the wife after a few years of married life. on account of the onerous duties that fall to the lot of the woman, only a staunch constitution can maintain unblemished the bloom of youthful beauty. i am of the opinion that the average woman reaches her prime at about years of age. polygamy and kindred institutions it may be said that the manóbo is in practice a monogamist, but polygamy is permitted with the consent of the first wife and, in cases that i have known, by her direction and even according to her selection. she finds her work too burdensome and directs her husband to get another helpmate. as a rule, however, it is only a warrior chief who has more than one wife, as he is in a better position to procure the wherewithal to pay the purchase price, namely, slaves. i am acquainted with a number of warrior chiefs, both manóbo and mandáya, who have as many as four wives, all dwelling in the same house, each having her little stall[ ] and living in perfect peace and happiness with her sister wives. there appear to be no jealousy and no family broils, the wish of the first wife being paramount in all things. [ ] _sin-á-bung_. i found the abhorrence to polyandry so great and so universal that all tribes that i came in contact with throughout eastern mindanáo branded the practice as swinish. concubinage is unknown. in a country where a woman is worth a small fortune to her relatives, and where she can not offer her love according to her own choice, but must follow her relatives' desires,[ ] it is not likely that she would be delivered over temporarily to even a warrior chief, nor is she likely to be repudiated except for strong reasons. hence divorce is never allowed, as far as my observation and knowledge go, being considered an infringement of tribal customs that would provoke divine wrath and bring disaster on the settlement. [ ] i heard of a case in guadalupe in which the girl, not being allowed to marry the man of her choice, took _tuble_ poison and ended her life. among the non-christianized manóbos i never heard of a case of prostitution. the mere suggestion of it would probably result in a fine. fornication, however, probably takes place, but only very rarely and under very abnormal circumstances, as when the sexual temperament of the girl and a very favorable opportunity encourage the transgression. i know of cases where manóbo maidens actually recounted to their relatives improper suggestions on the part of bisáyas, and in every case these relatives, with wild yells, and with menacing movements of bolo and spear, collected a sufficient compensation to atone for the imprudence. in one instance i paid the fine imposed upon a half-blind paddler of mine for a very innocent joke that was not appreciated by the relatives of a certain woman. when, however, the manóbo is removed from the stern influences of his pagan institutions he goes the way of all flesh, as may be observed by a study of conditions in _conquista_ towns. i heard of a few cases of adultery among christianized manóbos but, though the guilty wife was reported to have received a heavy punishment in the form of a good beating, she was not divorced. endogamy and consanguineous marriages i found no vestige of endogamy nor of the totem system that is such a remarkable and widespread feature of polynesian, melanesian, and cognate peoples in oceania. neither is there any theoretical endogamic institution which obliges a manóbo to marry within his tribe, but, in practice, such is his custom. the only impediment to marriage is consanguinity. consanguineous marriages are everywhere regarded as baneful. it is a universal belief that unless such marriages are consummated under the special auspices of the goddesses ináyao and tagabáyao, they result in physical evil to both the parents and the children. the following are the persons between whom marriage is forbidden: ( ) all carnal relatives closer than first cousin. ( ) first, second, and third cousins, unless the proper ceremonies to tagabáyao and ináyao have been performed, various omens very carefully taken, and, after marriage, the yearly offering of a pig or chicken made in order to avoid the ill effects that might follow the marriage. ( ) stepmothers and stepfathers. ( ) mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law. ( ) daughters-in-law and sons-in-law. ( ) captives and their captors. this marriage is believed to bar the way to warriorship and to otherwise result in evil.[ ] captives may, however, be married by others than those who captured them. [ ] _ma-lí-hi_. ( ) slaves; marriages among them are not tabooed absolutely, but they are regarded as something unbecoming, and the person who marries a slave girl is spoken of as _áyo-áyo_ (no good). marriage with a sister-in-law is fairly common, and may take place during the wife's lifetime, usually at her instigation, but never without her consent. intertribal and other marriages it may be remarked that in the case of marriages between cousins within the forbidden degrees, the actual marriage payment is much less, as the matter is considered a family affair, but on the whole such a marriage is a most expensive affair. in the first place, before the marriage, the priest instructs the prospective husband to dedicate a number of objects to tagabáyao, the goddess of consanguineous love. this presupposes a sacrificial ceremony in which, as in one case which i witnessed, a white pig was killed, and a lance valued at p , a bolo valued at p , a dagger valued at p , and sundry other objects were formally consecrated to tagabáyao. the consecration was followed by a sacrifice to tagabáyao, after which the marriage payment was made. then came a similar series of offerings to ináyao, goddess of the thunderbolt, that she might not harm the newly married. i was told that year after year the newly married cousins had to repeat this ceremony, and thereby keep in ináyao's good graces. intermarriage with a member of another tribe occurs occasionally but is not looked upon with favor owing to the differences of religious belief as also to the fact that it might not be possible for the husband to take away his wife. in the cases that have come under my notice of marriages between manóbos and mañgguáñgans, mañgguáñgans and mandáyas, and mandáyas and manóbos, the man almost invariably married a girl belonging to what was considered a higher tribe; for instance, manóbo man to a mandáya girl, or a mañgguáñgan man to a mandáya girl. the reason assigned was in nearly every case the assurance that the girl would not be taken from the paternal roof, and that a bigger marriage price would be forthcoming. gratuitous marriages occur rarely. in the few cases that passed under my observation, all the expenses of the wedding feast were borne by the bride's relatives, and the bridegroom took up his residence with his father-in-law, and virtually entered a state of slavery. his children also become the property of the father-in-law. it is not intended to give the impression that the recipient of a gratuitous wife has to perform the duties of an ordinary slave. on the contrary, he is treated as one of his wife's family and is expected, in view of the favor that he has received and the debt that he has incurred, to help his father-in-law when called upon. if he should happen on a definite occasion to prove recalcitrant, he is gently reminded of his debt and of the sacredness with which a good manóbo pays it, and so he goes off on his errand and the matter is concluded. remarriage takes place frequently, owing to the fact that a widow does not command so high a price as a maiden and that she has something to say in the selection of her new husband. she can not, however, be married if a funeral feast[ ] for a near relative of the family is still unfulfilled. [ ] _ka-ta-pú-san_. there is absolutely no trace of a levirate system by which the nearest male kinsman must marry his deceased brother's widow. on the contrary, a marriage with any relative's widow is absolutely tabooed, and this taboo, as far as my observations warrant the assertion, is never violated. married life and the position of the wife married life appears to be one of mutual good understanding and kindliness. the husband addresses his wife as _búdyag_ (wife) and leaves to her the management of the establishment in everything except such little business transactions as may have to be carried on. the wife gets the wood and water every day, toiling up and down the steep mountain sides. she goes off to the farm once or twice a day and returns with her basket of _camotes_. in the meantime the husband whittles out his bolo sheath or his lance shaft, or occasionally goes off on a fishing expedition or a hunt, if the omens are good. every once in awhile, especially during the winter months, he sets up his wild boar traps, and they may keep him busy about two days a week. then comes the news of a wedding feast, two days' journey hence, and off he goes for perhaps a week, or there may be a big question to settle in another part of the country and he must attend the discussion because there is a relative of his involved; anyhow, it will end up with a big pig and plenty of brew. so he goes away and has a roaring time, and comes back after a week with a nice piece of pork and some betel nuts for his wife and tells her all about the doings. she bears it all, makes her comments on it, and then goes to get the _camotes_ for dinner, with never a complaint as to her hard work. it is the custom of the tribe, and the institution of the great men of bygone days, that the woman should toil and slave. i have known of very few domestic broils and have never known of a case of ill treatment, except when in a drunken fit the husband wreaked his wrath on his wife. faithfulness to the marriage tie is a remarkable trait in manóboland, due to the stringent code of morals upheld by the spear and the bolo. the few cases of adultery related to me among the non-christian manóbos were mere memories. i heard of one case of fornication just before leaving the upper agúsan. it was narrated to me by a warrior chief of the upper kati'il. his fourth wife, a relative of the _datu_ who figured in the case of wife capture described in this chapter, had in the days of her maidenhood secretly fallen from grace, which fact she revealed to her warrior husband, together with the name of the offender. the warrior chief thereupon made a two-day march to compostela and located the house of his enemy, publicly vowing speedy vengeance. i visited the latter's house a few days after and found it in a state of defense, a large clearing having been made, with a mass of felled trees, underbrush, and bamboo pegs all around. this man was a manóbo of the debabáon group who had spent many years under the tuition of the older christians of the agúsan valley. rape, incest, and other such abominations are practically unheard of. from what has been stated frequently throughout this monograph, it may be seen that the position of the woman is merely that of a chattel. in moments of anger, which are not frequent, the husband or the father-in-law addresses the object of his wrath as _binótuñg_, that is, purchased one, chattel. a woman, the manóbo will tell you, has no _tribunal_, or _tilibuná_;[ ] she was born to be the bearer of children and the planter of _camotes_. she can not carry a shield nor thrust a spear. [ ] the meaning is that she has not enough brains to take part in the discussions held in the town halls, called in spanish "tribunal," and erected by the spaniards in the various christianized settlements for the arbitration of judicial and administrative matters pertaining to the settlement. following out these views to their legitimate conclusions, and both experience and observation verify them, it is obvious that there is no evidence of the matriarchate system in manóbo-land. the husband is the lord of his household, of his wife, and of his children, and i do not hesitate to say, probably would abandon or kill either, if the urgency of a definite occasion required it.[ ] [ ] maliñgáan of the upper simúlau, to prevent his wife and children from falling into the hands of the spanish forces, slew them and himself in full view of the soldiery. i found this incident related in one of the jesuit letters, to which reference has been made already. residence of the son-in-law and the brother-in-law system after a few months, dependent on the term determined upon in the marriage contract, the young husband returns to his father-in-law's house, to whose family he is now considered to belong, and takes up his permanent residence there. his respect for both his father-in-law and mother-in-law is such that he will not mention them by name. he always addresses them as father-in-law and mother-in-law, respectively. he aids his father-in-law in everything as a son. every year for years during the harvest time he is expected to kill a pig for him. of course, occasions arise on which he is called upon by his own relatives and has to leave his father-in-law. sometimes it happens that he does not return, but in such cases he is expected to act in a diplomatic way, and leave something, say a big pig, as a substitute for his person. brothers-in-law, and their name is legion, for the term includes all who have married any relative however distant, are expected to aid the relatives of their wives, especially in warfare. and it is my observation that at least such of them as are married to nearer relatives of a given individual, do effectively help him when he really needs either financial or other assistance. the brothers-in-law of a warrior chief nearly always live with him or in his immediate vicinity. this custom is maintained, no doubt, both for the protection and for the prestige thereby acquired. chapter xiv domestic life: pregnancy, birth, and childhood desire for progeny the desire to fulfill the end of marriage is so strong that it may be said that there is almost rivalry and envy between the young men. many a time i have heard the remark made that so and so is _a-yo-á-yo_--a sorry specimen of humanity--because he had no children. if you ask a manóbo how many children he has he will seldom forget to tell you not only the number that died, but also the number of times that his wife suffered miscarriage, owing to a faulty selection of food, or to the noxious influence of some evil spirits, or to the violation of certain taboos, or to some other cause. and thus it is that when the first evidences of motherhood manifest themselves, the husband procures a _white_ or _black_ chicken and after inviting a few friends, holds an informal party in honor of the occasion. i know of one case in which the ritual waving ceremony[ ] took place on pregnancy, but it was performed, so the husband told me, because of a conjunction of ill omens, and not because such a ceremony was customary. [ ] _kú-yab to má-nuk_. birth and pregnancy taboos the precautions taken by both husband and wife during pregnancy, as also on the approach of parturition, are evidence of the sacredness with which they guard the dearest hope of their married lives. the following pregnancy and birth taboos, verified by the writer, hold with little variation in every part of the agúsan valley, and several of them are still adhered to by the bisáyas of that region.[ ] [ ] i find that some of these taboos are observed by the uneducated tagalogs of manila and by the peasants of tayábas province. the general idea prevailing in the observation of these taboos is one of sympathy by which a certain action, productive of a certain physical effect in one subject may produce by some sympathetic correlation an analogous effect in another. an instance will make this clear. to wear a necklace is an action in itself perfectly innocuous and even beneficial, in so far as it enhances the person of the wearer, but for the manóbo man and wife such a proceeding at this particular time would produce, by some species of mystic correlation, a binding effect on the child in the hour of parturition, and must accordingly be eschewed. these taboos are in force from the time when the young wife announces her condition until the end of that trying period that follows conception. taboos to be observed by the husband . he must avoid all untoward acts, such as quarreling and haggling. . his demeanor must be quiet; he must avoid noisy and impetuous actions, such as taking part in the capture of a domestic pig. . he must avoid all heavy work, such as the felling of trees, making of canoes, or erection of house posts. . he must not engage in any work connected with rattan, such as tying or splicing. . he must in no case use resin[ ] for the purpose of sticking handles or shafts on weapons. [ ] _sái-yung_ or _saung_. taboos to be observed by the wife . she must not do any heavy work nor carry anything on her head. . she must not sit on a corner of the hearth frame. . while in a sitting posture she must leave one knee uncovered. . she must be careful in the selection of her food for a period that seems to depend, according to my observation, on individual whim. hence after the inception of pregnancy a woman becomes almost fastidious in the choice of her food. her every whim must be catered to. no general rule can be given, but her general preference is for vegetable food, especially the core of the various wild palm trees,[ ] plantains, and when obtainable, young coconuts. acid fruits, such as the various species of lemons or the fruits of rattan vines, seem to be her special predilection. [ ] _Ó-bud_. taboos to be observed by both husband and wife . they must not thrust their hands through the floor nor through an opening in the walls of the house. . anything taken by them from the fire must not be returned by them, but by a third party. . they must not return after having once started to descend the house ladder until they have reached the ground. . they must not sit at the entrance to the house in such a way as to impede free en trance or exit. . they must be careful that the firewood is not unusually speckled or dirty, as the child that is to come might be lacking in due comeliness. i have seen many a husband assiduously peeling off the bark from the more-ugly-looking firewood. taboos enjoined on visitors visitors also are cautioned and expected to observe the third and fourth taboos mentioned under the last section.[ ] [ ] the taboo that forbids a visitor to sit at the door of the house is observed by the lower classes of manila. also the taboo that forbids quarreling. abortion infanticide is never practiced; on the contrary, every means, natural, magic, and religious, are taken to safeguard the life of the babe. abortion, however, occurs. artificial abortion artifical[sic] abortion is unknown among the pagan manóbos, but the christianized members of the tribe who have come under the influence of culture of a different stamp, have acquired a knowledge of its practice for the purpose of concealing their condition and of thereby avoiding subsequent shame and trouble. for this purpose various vegetable products are used, such as the sap of the red dyewood,[ ] the core of a wild palm,[ ] the sap of black dyewood,[ ] and the juice of mint.[ ] i was told that these are very effective and, as a rule, not attended with evil consequences to the health of the woman. [ ] _si-ká-lig_. [ ] called _báñg-a_. [ ] _tá-gum_. [ ] _la-bwé-na_. involuntary abortion involuntary abortion, however, is a matter of frequent, occurrence. it would be hard to form an approximate estimate, but, from the opinions expressed by several warrior chiefs and headmen, i believe that it occurs not infrequently. no explanation as to its cause was obtained. the fetus is usually buried without any ceremony under the house. in the upper agúsan, the manóbo follows a mandáya custom by erecting over the grave, which is always under the house, an inverted cone of bamboo slatwork, about centimeters high and centimeters in diameter. the usual feelings of fright are not displayed on these occasions as on the death of one that has died an ordinary death, for the child has not yet been consociated with its two soul companions. neither is the house abandoned, as would ordinarily be done on the death of an older person. the approach of parturition the midwife[ ] [ ] _pa-na-gám-hon_. about the seventh month when the expectant mother feels the quickening impulse of life within her, she selects a midwife and undergoes almost daily at her hands a massage, without which it is thought she would be in danger of a painful delivery. as far as i could learn, the method followed is such as to keep the creature in a vertical position within the womb, with the head downward. the massage is said to take place at the beginning of a lunar month. the midwife is eminently the most important personage in all that concerns birth. she is not necessarily a priestess, but is usually a relative of the prospective mother. she is always a woman of advanced age who has had abundant experience, and "has never lost a case." she is reputed to be versed in many secret medicines and devices necessary for the cure of any ailment proceeding from natural causes and connected with childbirth. i always found the midwife very reluctant to disclose the secrets of her profession. when the woman announces the maternal pains, the midwife goes at once to the house, taking with her various herbs and other things, all carefully concealed on her person. she is not alone on such occasions, but is usually accompanied, if not preceded, by the greater portion of the female population in the community. few of the male portion, and none of the bachelors, attend, but they keep themselves informed of the progress of the patient by frequent yells of inquiry from the neighboring houses. the midwife bids the patient lie upon her back and, aided by a few relatives of the parturient, proceeds to administer one of the most ferocious massages imaginable. i witnessed one case in which the mother was tightly bound with swathing clothes and the husband called upon to exert his strength in an endeavor to force delivery. as soon as it becomes apparent that the patient is in great pain, the midwife, and perhaps others expert in such matters, resort to means which are designed to produce an easy and speedy delivery. prenatal magic aids[ ] [ ] _ta-gi-á-mo_. during several childbirths which i attended in various parts of the valley, i observed the use of the following aids to delivery: . a piece of rattan[ ] is taken by one of the women present and, after being slightly burnt, is extinguished by the midwife and held close to the person[ ] of the parturient. with her hands the midwife then wafts the smoke over the patient, muttering at the same time a formula. [ ] _lá-gus_. [ ] vulva. the explanation of this procedure, as given to me in all cases, was the following: the rattan is symbolic of the various fleshy bonds with which the child is confined within the mother and as the rattan, wound round and round the various portions of the house, is an impediment to the removal of the piece which it retains, a piece of it is burnt in order that by some mystic power the puerperal bonds may be undone. during the burning the child is exhorted not to resemble the tardy rattan but to come forth free and untrammeled from its mortal tenement. this charm, it was explained to me, counteracts the violations of the taboos whereby husband or wife, or both, are enjoined not to wear necklaces or bodily bindings, and not to work in rattan and resin, or to carry anything on the head. should the burning of a piece of rattan be omitted, it is believed that the umbilical cord[ ] would be found to have actually become tangled around the neck or body of the child during the act of delivery, thereby increasing the difficulty and the danger. [ ] _pó-sud_. . the burning of a small piece of the house ladder[ ] and the subsequent fumigation of the person of the parturient are practiced in identically the same manner as the above, and are thought to neutralize the evil effects that might result from the transgressions, even involuntary, of those taboos which forbid that anyone should sit at the door of a pregnant woman's house, or return to the house after having begun his descent down the house pole or ladder. [ ] _pá-sung_. . a third magic means, helpful in birth, is the consuming of a portion of the hearth frame followed, as described above, by a fumigation of a part of the patient's person. the particular effect of this charm is to counteract the evil influences which might otherwise result to the child from the nonobservance of the various other taboos mentioned previously. . finally, various herbs, of which i did not learn the names because of secretiveness on the part of the women, are put on a plate or on anything that is convenient, and burned. on one occasion i observed that the leaves[ ] used to cover sweetpotatoes and other vegetables during the process of steaming were employed, and on another i procured a piece of grass that had fallen from the plate and later on i ascertained it to be the leaf of a variety of bamboo. i was unable to learn the purpose of this charm, the replies being contradictory or variable in different localities. [ ] _tú-yus_. the midwife applies numerous other medicinal herbs and has various other secret expedients of which i have been utterly unable to learn the nature. in one case a midwife claimed to have a bezoar stone[ ] found in the body of an eel. this could not be seen, for it was wrapped in cloth. when the patient gave signs of suffering, she would dip this stone in water and rub it over the woman's abdomen. [ ] _mút-ya_. prenatal religious aids it is very rarely, indeed, that any serious difficulty is encountered in childbirth, but i have been informed that difficulties are occasionally met with. in such cases, when all human resources fail, the matter is said to be left in the hands of the family priestesses and the usual religious invocation and rites are performed. in every case one or more priestesses are present, and take the usual precautions, such as the placing of lemon and _sasá_ reed under the house, against the approach of evil spirits. accouchement and ensuing events the midwife and her companions continue to assist the patient until the moment of delivery, which takes place ordinarily within from four to six hours after the first pangs of childbirth have been felt. the umbilical cord is immediately cut with a sliver[ ] of bamboo, and the mother is made to sit up at once in order to prevent a reflux of the afterbirth into the womb. at least such is the reason assigned for this last practice. [ ] _ba-lís_. the child is immediately washed with water and some medicine sprinkled over its navel.[ ] it is then returned to its mother. should the birth have occurred during the period between new and full moon, it is said that the child will have good luck[ ] during life. [ ] i was informed on one occasion that the medicine used was pulverized coconut shell, but this point needs further inquiry. [ ] _paí-ad_. i desire to call special attention here to the fact that should the mother be in such a condition that she is unable to nourish her babe, it is not given to another woman for nurture, but is sustained temporarily on soup, rice water, and sugarcane juice. i have heard of several cases in which the child succumbed for want of natural nourishment. one case that occurred in san luis on the middle agúsan, i verified beyond a doubt. father pastells, s. j.,[ ] states that if the child can not be suckled, it is buried alive, its mouth being sometimes filled with ashes. i, however, have never heard of such a practice. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañia de jesus, , . the reason for allowing no woman other than the mother to nourish the child is that, if the child were nourished by another woman, it would die. in this connection it may be well to state that infant mortality is high. i do not hesitate to say that it is not less than per cent and may be . per cent. the afterbirth, together with the umbilical cord, is nearly always buried under the house. i was told that it is sometimes wrapped up and hung from the beams that are just under the hearth. no reason is given for the selection of this particular place, except that "no one passes there." postnatal customs as a rule parturition is not attended with much weakness nor with any danger. in fact, the mother usually can move around the house on the day following the birth or even on the same day. after two or three days she purifies herself by an informal bath, which is taken more for sanitary than for ceremonial reasons, as far as i have been able to ascertain. taboos for a period of a week, more or less, the mother must refrain from the use of all food except the following: the core of the wild palm tree, native rice, fresh fish, and chicken. the chicken must be of a certain color; in the lake region of the agúsan valley it must be either black or white, and the leg must be dark in color. bathing is interdicted for two or three days according to the custom of the locality. after bathing, the new mother and her husband leave the house in order that the little one may have good luck, and also that they themselves may be removed from the malign influence of the malevolent spirits that are inevitably present on the occasion of a birth. the birth festivity is not a very solemn nor magnificent affair. the midwife and a few friends, perhaps a dozen in all, are invited. it is at the end of this repast that some little remuneration is made to the midwife and to the priestess for their services. among the pagan manóbos there seems to be no fixed rule as to the amount to be given to the midwife, but among the _conquistas_ or christianized tribes, there prevails the customary price of p . for the first birth, p . for the second, and p . for the third and all successive ones. the birth ceremony[ ] [ ] _tag-un-ún to bá-ta_. when the child is born it is supposed not yet to have received the two spirit companions[ ] that are to accompany it during its earthly pilgrimage. whence proceed these spirit-companions, or what is their nature, i have not been able to learn to my satisfaction. _mandáit_, the tutelary god of the little ones, after being invoked and appeased with offerings, is supposed to select two spirit companions out of the multitudinous beings that hover over human haunts. these spirits then become guardians, as it were, of the child, and do not separate themselves from him till one of them becomes the prey of some foul demon. [ ] _um-a-gád_, from _á-gad_, to accompany. these spirit companions are said to be invisible, and in physical appearance like their corporal companion,[ ] whose every action they are supposed to imitate. as was explained to me, when we sit down, our spirit companions also sit down, and when we dress, they also prepare themselves, and when we go forth they accompany us. when the mother leaves the house with her babe, she adjures the spirits to follow and to guard their ward. of the effect and purpose of this consociation no very definite explanation has so far been given to me. [ ] in stature they are described as being somewhat smaller. the rites of the birth ceremony are observed usually within a month after the birth. there seems to be no stated time, but according to my observation and information they take place on the first symptoms of sickness, or of unusual restlessness on the part of the child. it is firmly believed and openly avowed that these symptoms are due to the machinations of mandáit, who is desirous of being regaled with a fowl, for he, like all his fellow spirits, is an epicure and likes the good things of this world. the ceremony begins with an invocation to mandáit. a tiny canoe, more or less perfect in design and equipment, according to the caprice and skill of the fashioner, is made, and is hung up in the house after sunset. the nearer relatives assemble and a priest, preferably a relative, takes the chicken that has already been dedicated[ ] to mandáit, and waves it over the babe and around the house, in order to ward off all such bad influences and harmful spirits as might be flitting around, for in the manóbo's mind, there are not a few of these demons waiting to devour the expected spirit companions. [ ] _sin-ug-bá-han_. the chicken is killed and the head, legs, and wings offered to mandáit. to these delicacies are added little leaf packages of cooked maize[ ] or native rice.[ ] the priest, on these occasions invariably a woman, goes through her invocations while the offerings are being placed on the ceremonial boat. she burns incense[ ] whose fragrance is said to be especially acceptable to mandáit. by the direction of the smoke, she ascertains the position of mandáit and of her own guardian or familiar spirit, and turning to him, welcomes him. she falls into the usual state of tremor during which mandáit is supposed to partake spiritually of the repast set out for him. [ ] _búd-bud_. [ ] _ba-kí_. [ ] _pa-lí-na_, the gum of the _ma-gu-bái_ tree. this ceremony being concluded, the fowl is partaken of, and a little sugarcane beverage[ ] is drunk, if it can be obtained. after the meal, the priestess recounts in the old archaic language of song the chronicles of bygone days. this is taken up by such other makers of manóbo monody as may be present. if the child proves to be restless, it is lulled to sleep with the weird staccato of the bamboo guitar.[ ] during the course of the night the two souls are supposed to enter into mystic consociation with the babe, and thenceforth to be its companions. [ ] _Ín-tus_. [ ] _tan-kó_. the following morning the priestess removes the little leaf packages and, placing them on a rice winnow, tosses them into the air. the children present at once grab for the packages. the ceremonial canoe, however, with the offering of fowl, must be left suspended indefinitely. in the lower half of the agúsan valley from san luis to the mouth of the agúsan, a tray of bamboo trelliswork is used for the offering to mandáit instead of the sacrificial canoe described above. otherwise the ritual is identical. the naming and care of the child the child receives, without any ceremony or formality, a name that seems to depend on the caprice of the parents. it is usually that of some famed ancestor, or of some well-known manóbo but at other times it may depend on some happening at the birth. thus the writer knows of manóbos who bore the names bágio (typhoon), línug (earthquake), bádau (dagger), bíhag (captive), Áñglañg (slave), ká-ug (maggot). the child is treated by the parents and by the other relatives with the greatest tenderness. he is petted and pampered from his very youngest days, and punishment of any kind is seldom administered. a hammock made out of a hemp skirt or a little bamboo frame, suspended by a string from a bamboo pole in the fishing-rod style, is often provided for his resting place. he is tenderly set in one of these by day, and the usual little maternal devices are used to keep him from crying and to put him to sleep. when the little fellow is somewhat bigger and stronger, he is carried about with his legs straddled across his mother's hip, or allowed to crawl around the floor. if the mother has to absent herself and there is no one to watch him, he is simply tied to the floor and left to his own thoughts. he is not weaned till the advent of another child, or till he of his own accord relinquishes the breast. his dress is of the simplest in most cases. as soon as the male child reaches the age of to years, and is able to run around, he not infrequently accompanies his father or any other male relative on a fishing or on a hunting expedition, often carrying the betel-nut bag or some other object at times almost too heavy for his tender years. while at home he is often in an emergency sent out to do little chores. he is bidden to run out and get some betel leaf or some firewood from the surrounding forest, or again is sent for a little water. such errands, however, are the exception. he has most of his time to himself, and passes it in merry rompings with his little brothers and cousins. if he lives near the river he spends a few hours a day in the water, bathing, splashing his playmates, and catching frogs and other edibles. a favorite pastime of his is to make a diminutive bow and ply his arrows at some old stump or some unlucky lizard or other living thing that he may have espied. if monkeys, crows, or other bold marauders are overnumerous, he probably has to sit out in the rude watch-house in the little clearing and keep the scarecrows moving, or by shouts and other means drive off the uninvited pests. he soon learns to smoke tobacco, to chew betel nut, and even to take a drink of the brew that is being passed around, and thus he grows up to be, at the age of or , a little full-fledged man with his teeth blackened, his lips stained, and his bolo at his side. he enters youth without any special ceremony. it is true that as the boy grows to puberty his teeth are ground and blackened and he is tatooed[sic] and circumcised. such operations might be considered as an initiation into manhood or at least as a survival of a custom that is so much in vogue in certain parts of oceania. in other words, the youth begins to tattoo and to assume other ornamentation in order that he may attract the attention of the female portion of the tribe. it is needless to say that he receives no schooling. in fact, the average manóbo who has not come in contact with civilization would not know what to think of a pencil. on one occasion i accidentally allowed some manóbos to see my pencil. the sight of it aroused an animated discussion as to the nature of the tree that yielded such peculiar wood. all the schooling which the manóbo boy gets is from the forest and the streams. from them he learns to trap the timid deer and to catch the wily fish. in them he acquires a quick step, a sharp eye, and a keen ear. in the ways of nature he is a scholar, because the first moment that he can clamber down the notched pole he betakes himself to the surrounding forest and schools himself in all her ways and moods. as soon as the boy reaches the age at which he feels that he is a man, he ceases to be under paternal restraint, which even up to that age has been more or less lax. at this period he assumes as much independence as his father, but will obey any behest without understanding the propriety or the necessity of complying. as a general rule, filial relations are most cordial, and great respect is entertained for both parents, but it may be said that male children respect and love the father, while girls love their mother. birth anomalies monstrosities monstrosities are extremely rare. i met only one case, that of a child with an abnormally large head.[ ] idiocy also is very uncommon, only one case having come under my observation. [ ] bása, simúlao river, middle agúsan. albinism albinism also is very infrequent. an albino is considered to be the child of an evil spirit in so far as one of those relentless demons is supposed to have exercised a malign influence on the mother. it is believed that an albino can pay nightly visits to the haunt of its demon sire. among the mandáyas on the upper kati'il river, i saw some cases of albinism in a settlement of about mandáyas. no explanation was obtained as i did not think it prudent at the time to ask for one. hermaphroditism hermaphrodites,[ ] in a secondary sense, are found occasionally. i am personally acquainted with five. in every case they were womanly in their ways, showing a preference for sewing, and other occupations of women, and frequenting the company of women more than that of men. [ ] _bán-tut_ (mandáya _bi-dó_). in one case at san isidro, simúlao river, an hermaphrodite, a fine specimen of manhood to all appearances, was dressed as a woman. in another case a mandáya hermaphrodite of the báklug river, a few miles south of compostela, was married. i was informed on all hands that the marriage was for the purpose of securing the alliance of the hermaphrodite's relatives against certain hereditary enemies and that probably there would be no issue. i hope to get further information on this point at a future date. on the lamíñga river, a tributary of the kasilaían river, there lived a woman who presented all the outward characteristics of a man. her voice was deep and resonant, her countenance of a male type. she constantly carried a bolo, by day and by night, and in manual labor, such as building houses, was the equal of any man in the settlement. she had never married and had always rejected overtures toward marriage. chapter xv domestic life--medicine, sickness, and death medicine and disease the subject of manóbo medicine may be divided into three parts, according to the causes that are supposed to produce the malady or according to the means that are used to cure it. these classes will be described as natural, magic, and religious. natural medicines and diseases natural remedies in the form of roots and herbs are used for the ordinary bodily ailments that afflict the manóbo. the following are the more common forms of sickness: fever,[ ] tuberculosis,[ ] pain in the diaphragm,[ ] pains in the stomach and abdomen,[ ] pains in the chest,[ ] pain in the head,[ ] colds,[ ] chronic cough (probably bronchitis),[ ] pernicious malaria,[ ] ordinary malaria or chills and fever,[ ] cutaneous diseases,[ ] intestinal worms,[ ] and some few others. [ ] _híñg-yau_. [ ] _súg-pa_. [ ] _ka-bú-hi_, or _gi-húb_, probably a reversal of the diaphragm. [ ] _pús-on_ and _go-túk_. [ ] _da-gá-ha_. [ ] _Ó-yo_. [ ] _u-bó_. [ ] _pás-mo_. [ ] _pid-pid_. [ ] _Ó-yud_. [ ] _ká-do_. [ ] _bí-tuk_. the natural remedies used in the cure of the above-mentioned diseases are not very numerous, but they are applied as a rule externally. in each settlement there are always a few who have gained a reputation above others for their knowledge of these medicines, but their proficiency is not high as may be judged by the degree of their success and by the opinion of many of their fellow tribesmen. for wounds, tobacco juice and the black residue found in a tobacco pipe are considered an effective ointment. saliva mixed with betel nut is used for the same purpose, and also for pains in the stomach. for other pains the leaves of various trees, according to the knowledge or faith of each individual, are applied. for pains in the stomach the gall of a certain snake[ ] is said to be efficacious. it is mixed with a little water and applied externally, or it may be taken internally, provided it be mixed with a little powder from a piece of pulverized plate.[ ] [ ] _ba-ku-sán_. the gall of this snake is reported as being a panacea used by the mamánuas. [ ] _píñg-gan_, an imported plate of very inferior make. the perfume of certain resins and especially that of the _manumbá_ tree are considered medicinal in some cases. the root of a tree called _lú-na_ when left to steep in water, is said to be a very potent remedy for pains in the stomach. the seed of the _sá-i_ grass is also used for the same purpose, and is said to be a prophylactic against stomach troubles. no amount of persuasion will overcome the manóbos' suspicions of european medicine till the administrator of it follows the old saying of "physician, heal thyself," and takes the first dose. in any case it is not prudent to offer it except after long acquaintance, for should any change for the worse occur in the patient's condition after taking the foreign medicine he might imitate people of greater intellectual caliber, and say, as he probably would, "post hoc, ergo propter hoc," and the ensuing events might be sudden and unexpected. on one occasion i administered a small dose of quinine to a child that was suffering from fever. it died the following day. the father, who had requested me to give the child some medicine, through the medium of a mañgguáñgan, sent me a few days later a present of a chicken and about two glassfuls of sugarcane brew, and would not accept a reciprocatory gift of beads and jingle bells that i sent him. the chicken and the beverage were partaken of in due time, each of my servants drinking about half a glass of the liquor. the following morning at about o'clock i awoke with a sense of impending death. the servants were called and they, too, complained of an uneasy feeling and one of them suggested that we might have been poisoned. a dose of ipecacuanha saved our lives, and at about o'clock i proceeded to look for the bearer of the gift, but was unable to locate him, as he had gone to his forest home. a diplomatic investigation revealed the fact that he was an expert in poisons and that the poison administered to me in the liquor was probably the root of the _túbli_ vine that is also used for poisoning fish. fragrant flowers and redolent seeds and herbs are thought to be very efficacious for the relief of headaches, fainting spells, and for the peculiar diaphragm trouble referred to before. the resin of the _magubái_ tree, which also is used as incense in ceremonial rites, is considered very potent. i have frequently seen patients held over the smoke till i thought that death by suffocation would result. in fine, it may be said that the manóbos' knowledge of medicinal plants is very limited, and his application of them equally so, for as soon as he thinks that the condition of the patient has changed for the worse the malady is at once attributed to preternatural causes, and corresponding remedies are resorted to. on casual observation it might appear that the sick are neglected, but this is not the case. the relatives, especially the womenfolk, display the tenderest solicitude toward them and keep them provided with an abundance of food. the lack of blankets leaves the patient exposed to the inequalities of temperature and explains, no doubt, the frequent occurrence of colds, of rheumatism, and sometimes of tuberculosis. this also may account for the high death rate among children. magic ailments and means of producing them it is a common thing to hear that a _kometán_ was the cause of a person's death. this may be defined as a secret method by which death is superinduced in a certain person by means either supposedly magic in character or so secret in administration that they may be looked upon as magic. thus (to give an example of a purely magical sickness), it is thought that by making a wooden mannikin to represent the victim and by mistreating it the person whom it represents will immediately fall sick and die unless countervailing methods are employed to neutralize the effects of the charm. i heard of a case in the lower agúsan near esperanza where a wooden figure was made to represent the person of a thief. the figure was cruelly tortured by sticking a bolo into its head, and when sufficient punishment had been administered to cause its death, had it been a thing of life, it was buried amid much wailing. i was assured that the party whom it represented was taken with a lingering disease shortly afterwards and finally died. the belief in the _kometán_ or secret means of superinducing sickness is widespread, but it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the subject because, for obvious reasons, no one will admit that he is acquainted with the secret nor will he affirm that anyone else is unless it be a person so far away that there is no danger of future complications by reason of the imputation. the composition of a few "kometÁn" . the fine flossy spiculæ of a species of bamboo[ ] placed in the food or in the drink is supposed to cause a slow, lingering sickness that ends in death. [ ] _caña bojo_, or bamboo of the genus _schizostachyum_. . a piece of a dead man's bone pulverized and put into the food, even into the betel-nut quid, is said to have the same effect but in a more expeditious way, as it superinduces death within a few months. . another reported _kometán_ consists of the blood of a woman dried in the sun and exposed to the light of the moon. this is mixed with human hair cut very fine. administered in the food, it produces a slow lingering disease that leads to the grave. it is said that after death the hair reappears resting upon the lips and nostrils. . human hair mixed with bits of fingernails and powdered glass is said to be especially virulent. the secret of compounding it is known only to a few. i was informed that the knowledge of this secret composition was acquired from bisáyas.[ ] [ ] it is called _pa-ágai_. it is generally believed that the war chiefs are provided with antidotes[ ] against the _kometán_. in fact, several assured me that they possessed them, but they were unwilling to enter into any details. i once saw a little bottleful of strange-looking herbs and water sold for p . . it was said to be an antidote against the particular species of _kometán_, which, on being placed in the path, would affect the one for whom it was intended when he passed the spot. [ ] _súm-pa_. a piece of lodestone,[ ] or even an ordinary toy magnet, is thought, in certain localities, to act as a safeguard against divers kinds of evil charms. [ ] _bá-to bá-ni_. other magic means i found a prevalent belief in the existence of an _aphrodisiac_[ ] which is said to consist of wax made by a small insect called _kí-ut_, and of the ashes of various trees. the secret of compounding it is known to very few. there is a persistent rumor that this was first learned from the mamánuas,[ ] who are supposed to be very proficient in the making and use of it even to this day. if a little of the composition is put on the dress of a woman, or, better still, if a little packet of it is attached to her girdle charms she will become attached to the man who placed it there and will aid him, as far as it can be done, in his suit for her hand. [ ] called _hu-pai_. [ ] it is strange that the more advanced tribes in eastern mindanáo attribute a knowledge of magic methods to inferior ones. i have been informed that both mamánuas and mañgguáñgans are more expert in the manufacture and administration of charms than other tribes. there is also a charm which is said to produce an aversion or dislike between those who had formerly been friends. bezoar stones are hard substances, of a dark color, and vary in size from a pea to a chestnut. they are said to be found in various trees and plants,[ ] and animals and fishes such as the monkey and eel. [ ] such as the _a-nís-lag_, the _tú-ba_, the _túb-li_. their properties are both medicinal and magic. thus the bezoar stones from three different plants are supposed to be efficacious in the hour of birth, but, at the same time, in all the doings of life they give the fortunate possessor success over his rival. hence they are called _pandáug_, that is, they will enable one to get ahead of or beat another. there is a bezoar stone from the _banti_ tree that gets its owner to a place more quickly than his rival. bodily ailments proceeding from supernatural causes _sickness due to capture of the soul by an inimical spirit_.--when a malady is of such a nature that it can not be diagnosed, or of so serious a character that fear is entertained for the recovery of the patient, it is ascribed to the maleficence of evil spirits, and supernatural means are resorted to in order to save the captured soul from their spirit clutches. for this purpose the priest intercedes with his divine tutelars, and prevails upon them, by offerings and promises, to rescue the captive. if the ailment is attributed to the war divinities, then the warrior chief becomes the officiant and, after appeasing the angry spirit with a blood offering, secures the release of the unfortunate soul. _epidemics attributed to the malignancy of sea demons_.--epidemics of cholera and smallpox are thought to be due directly to evil spirits who bring the diseases from their faraway sea haunts. it is said that friendly deities and war spirits of the settlement announce from the lofty mountain heights the approach of these pestiferous demons. thus, i was assured by many in the kasilaían river district, that mount tatamba on a tributary of the lamiñga river gave out a loud booming noise before the epidemic of - . the same is said of mount _mag-diuáta_ by the súlibao people. be that as it may, those who live along the main rivers scurry away on the approach of contagion into the depths of the forest or upon the heights of the mountains, and do not return until they feel assured that all danger is past. i was a personal witness of this among the upper agúsan manóbos, where i found a settlement, more than one year after the appearance of a contagious disease, still ensconced in the heart of the forest a few miles away from all water.[ ] [ ] the inhabitants lived on the water that exuded from a tree known as _ba-sí-kung_. the reason given for avoiding the larger watercourses during epidemics is that streams are thought to be the high roads for the sea demons when they come upon their work of destruction. there were never wanting some in each settlement who had seen these demons under some monstrous form or other. _propitiation of the demons of contagious diseases_.--besides such offerings as may be made to them during the regular ritual, there is a special method of propitiating these plague bearers and thereby of inducing them to betake themselves whither they hailed. a raftlet[ ] is made of bamboo, with a platform of the same material raised several inches above the surface of the craft. this is adorned with palm fronds arched over it. upon it is firmly lashed a young pig or a large fowl, of a white color, and by its side are placed various other offerings of betel nut, rice, or eggs, according to the bounty and good will of the priest and of the settlement. when all is ready, it is taken to the water's edge about sunset, for that is the hour when the mightiest of the demons begin their destructive march. here the priest makes an address to the demon of the epidemic, descanting on the value of the offerings, the scarcity of victims at that particular time, the reasons for mutual friendship between him (the demon) and the settlement. the demon is then requested to accept these tokens of good will and to go his seaward way. the disease itself, though never mentioned by name, is requested in the same manner to take passage upon the raft and to accompany its master downstream. the raft is then launched into the water and allowed to follow the will of the current. no one may even touch it or approach it on its downward course, for it has become foul by contact with its pestilential owners.[ ] [ ] _gá-kit_. [ ] bisáyas have no scruples in appropriating the fat fowls and pigs thus found floating to doom. sickness and death the theory of death except in the case of a warrior chief, or a priest, or one who has met his end at the hands of an enemy, death is ordinarily attributed to the maleficence of the inimical spirits. the latter are believed to be relentless, insatiable demons "seeking whom they may devour." in some mysterious manner they are said to waylay a poor defenseless soul, and ruthlessly hold it in captivity till such time as it suits their whims, when they actually devour it. notwithstanding the numerous explanations given to me throughout the agúsan valley, i have never been able to satisfy myself as to the various circumstances of time, place, and manner in which the capture and consumption of the soul takes place. suffice it to say, however, that in its essential points this is the universal belief: one of the soul companions is seized, and the owner falls sick. every available means is tried to effect a cure. when everything fails the priest declares that the ailment is due, not to any natural infirmity, but to the capture or wounding of one of the souls of the patient by inimical spirits. sacrifices are ordered, during which usually a large number (from four to eight) of priests of both sexes invoke their various divinities and beseech them to rescue the spirit companion of the patient. during these ceremonies the priests describe minutely how the capture was effected. in lengthy chants they set forth the efforts of their deities to find the missing soul; they describe how they travel to the ends of the sky, seeking the cruel captors and vowing vengence[sic] upon their heads. they are said to make use of an _espiho_[ ] to discover the whereabouts of the enemy and of the captive. the recapture of the soul and frequently the mighty encounter between the good and bad spirits is chanted out at length by the priests. i was told that in some cases the rescued soul is taken to the home of the deities and there consoled with feast and dance and song before its return to its earthly companion. [ ] this _es-pi-ho_ (from spanish _espejo_, a looking-glass) is some kind of a wonderful telescope by which objects can be described at the farther extremities of the firmament. no lurking place is so remote or so secret as to be hidden from its marvelous power. fear of the dead and of the death spirits the utter fear, not only of the malignant spirits but also of the person of the dead and of his soul, is one of the most peculiar features of manóbo culture. in the death chamber and hovering around the resting place of the dead there is a certain noxious influence[ ] by the infection of which one is liable to become an object of attraction to the dark-visaged, hungry, soul ghouls that, lured by the odor, stalk to the death house and await an opportunity to secure a victim. [ ] _bá-ho_. then, again, the envious spirits of the dead are feared, for they, in their eagerness to participate in the farewell and final death feast, avail themselves of every occasion to injure the living in some mysterious but material way. sickness, especially one in which the only symptoms are emaciation and debility, are attributed to their noxious influence. failure of the crops, bodily accidents, want of success in important undertakings--these and a thousand and one other things--are attributed to a lack of proper attention to the envious dead. "you have been affected by an _umagad_,"[ ] is a common saying to express the peculiar effect that the departed may cause on the living. to avert this unkindly feeling and thereby prevent the evil consequences of it, it is not an infrequent thing to see propitiatory offerings made to the departed in the shape of betel nut, chickens, and other things. in one instance the father of a child that had died, presumptively from eating new rice, imposed upon himself an abstinence from that article for a period of several months. [ ] _in-um-a-gád ka_. as another evidence of fear of the departed souls may be cited the unwillingness of the manóbo to use anything that belonged to the dead, such as clothes. an exception, however, is made in the case of weapons and other heirlooms,[ ] all of which have been consecrated and are supposed not to retain the odor or evil influence of death. [ ] _Án-ka_. offerings made to the dead to appease their ill will are not partaken of by the living. they are supposed to produce baneful effects.[ ] hence they are carefully removed to the outside of the house after the departed visitor is supposed to have regaled himself. this applies to betel-nut offerings, and to such offerings as chickens and pigs that in cases of unusual pestering on the part of the dead may be set out with a view to propitiating them. [ ] _ka-dú-ut_. one or more priests are present invariably in the death chamber. the female priests take up their position near the corpse, and by the use of lemons, pieces of the _sa-sá_ reed, and other things, said to be feared by the demons, protect themselves and those present. hence, during the average "wake" the womenfolk huddle around the priestesses with many a startled glance. on one occasion i saw a male priest take up his stand at the door, lance poised, ready to dispatch such spirits as might dare to intrude into the death chamber. drums and gongs are beaten throughout the night, not merely as a distraction for their grief but as a menace to the ever-present demons. an acquaintance of mine in san luis, middle agúsan, is reported to have wounded seven evil spirits in one evening on the occasion of a death. i was assured by many in the town that they had seen the gory lance after each encounter. several other precautions besides those mentioned above are taken to secure immunity from the stealthy attacks of the demons. a fire is kept burning under the house, and the usual magic impediments, such as _sa-sá_ reed, lemons, and a piece of iron, are placed underneath the floor as menace to these insatiate spirits. moreover, the food while still in the process of cooking is never left unguarded, lest some malicious spirit should slyly insert therein poison wherewith to kill his intended victim or to spirit away an unwary soul. for several days both before and after the death, supper is almost invariably partaken of before sunset, as this is the hour when the most mighty of the demons are supposed to go forth on their career of devastation. if, however, it should be necessary to take supper after sunset, it is the invariable custom to put a mat on the floor and thereby foil the stealthy spirits in their endeavors to slip some baneful influence[ ] into the plates from below. [ ] this custom is prevalent among many of the bisáyas of eastern mindanáo and may perhaps explain the origin of the peculiar low table used by them. after the burial it is almost an invariable rule for the inmates of a house to abandon it. this remark, however, does not hold good in the case of the decease of priests, warrior chiefs, and children, nor in the case of those who have been slain in war. should a stranger, or one who is not a relative of the inmates, die in the house, it is an established custom to collect the value of the house from the relatives of the deceased. father pastells in one of the "cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús" cites an incident that happened to him in the house of selúñgan on the upper sálug in the year . it seems that one of pastells' followers died and that selúñgan desired to collect the value of the house. i know of one case where the fine was actually collected. i was asked by a warrior chief on the upper tágo, who would pay for the house in the case of my death. incidents accompanying deaths when death ensues, the relatives burst forth into loud wails of grief. in one death scene that i witnessed the wife of the deceased fell down on the floor, and in the wildness of her grief kept striking her head against the _palma brava_ slats until she rendered herself unconscious. upon returning to herself, she violently embraced the corpse of her deceased husband, bidding him return. then she broke out into loud imprecations against her tutelary deities upbraiding them for their ingratitude in not having saved her husband's soul from the clutches of its enemies. she bade them be off, would have no more to do with them, and finally ended up by bidding them go on the war trail and destroy the foul spirits that deprived her of her husband. in nearly every death scene that i witnessed this last procedure was the ordinary one, and i may say that it is quite characteristic of the manóbo. on several occasions i witnessed some fierce displays of fury, to which the mourners were driven by their poignant grief for some beloved relative. in one instance the father of the deceased, drawing his bolo, started to hack down one of the house posts, and in another the son, after a frantic outburst of grief, seizing his shield and lance, declared that he would ease his sorrow in the joy of victory over his enemies and actually had to be detained by his relatives. the grief and fury felt on these occasions will readily explain the frequency of war raids after the occurrence of a death. this was explained to me by líno of the upper sálug, probably the greatest warrior of eastern mindanáo, in the following manner: "after the decease of a near relative, our enemies will rejoice and may, as is done with frequency, proclaim their joy. we do not feel in good humor anyhow, so, if it can be arranged speedily, we start off to assuage the sorrow of our friends and our relatives with the palms of triumph." this statement of líno may explain the origin of the taboo that is observed throughout the agúsan valley. the taboo referred to prohibits anyone except a near relative from visiting the house of the deceased for seven days after the death. it is suggested that this custom was instituted to prevent the enemy from learning whether an expedition was being set afoot. to enforce compliance with this custom, the trails leading to the house are closed by putting a few branches across them at a short distance from the house. it is not infrequent to find a broken jar suspended (or placed) at these points, symbolic, probably, of the cruel fate that may overtake the transgressor. infringements of this taboo are punished with a fine that varies from p to p . preparation of the corpse after the first paroxysm of grief has subsided, the body of the deceased is washed, the greatest delicacy in exposing the person being shown, and it is then attired in the finest garments obtainable. no personal ornaments, such as necklaces and bracelets, are removed. charms and talismans, however, are removed, being considered heirlooms. the corpse is then laid on its back, with the hands lying at the side, in the rude coffin. there is a tradition that, in the olden days, the bolo of the deceased used to be buried with him but i never saw this done. the bolo, however, was placed by his side in a few cases that i witnessed. among the mountain manóbos there exists the custom of winding strands of colored cotton on the fingers and feet of young girls and maidens after death. i witnessed this in the upper agúsan, and, in answer to my inquiry, was informed that such was the custom of the agusánon people. the coffin is a hexagonal receptacle hewn out of a log,[ ] and provided with a truncated prism lid of the same wood. it frequently has a few ornamental tracings of soot or other pigment, and where european cloth is procurable a few pieces may be employed as a wrapping. the corpse is wrapped in a mat and laid in the coffin, the head being placed upon a rude pillow of wood. the coffin is then firmly lashed with rattan and is not removed till the hour for interment. frequently lemons, _sá-i_ grass, and various other redolent herbs are placed on or near it with a view, i was told, to repressing the odor of the dead. it is probable, however, that they are thought to have magic or other virtues. they certainly are objects of fear to the death demons. [ ] _a-yu-yao_, said to be very durable, being found in perfect preservation after two years; _kibidid_ or _ilang-ilang_ are also used. the wailing, weird and wild, of the women was violent in nearly every case i witnessed, especially when the corpse was taken out of the house on its way to the burial place. the grief displayed by the male relatives is not so intense but i noticed frequently that even they broke into tears. i may add here that i was often informed that the absence of the outward signs of grief is an infallible evidence of a speedy death, and that it is considered unlucky to allow one's tears to fall on the corpse. before describing the burial, i desire to mention a peculiar proceeding which i observed on one occasion.[ ] before the corpse had been placed in the coffin, one of those present, seizing a dog, placed it transversely on the breast of the deceased for a few seconds. i was told that the object of the action was to remove the dog's bad luck[ ] by putting him in the above-mentioned position, as he had for some time been rather unlucky in the chase. this proceeding was verified by subsequent inquiries in other settlements, and the custom and its explanation were found to be identical with the above mentioned. [ ] san luis, . [ ] _pá-yad_. the funeral as a rule the burial takes place the morning after the death, unless the death occurred during the night, in which case it takes place the following afternoon. decomposition is never allowed to set in. when all is ready, a last tribute and farewell are paid to the deceased. the family priest sets an offering of betel nut near the coffin, beseeching the dead one to depart in peace and bear no ill will to the living. he promises at the same time that the mortuary feast[ ] will be prepared with all possible speed. the deceased is addressed, usually by several relatives and friends who wish him well in his new home and repeat the invitation to come to the death feast and bring grandfather and grandmother and all other relatives that had preceded him to the land of ibú. [ ] _ka-ta-pús-an_. then, amid great wailing, the coffin is borne away hastily. only men assist at the burial, and as a rule a male priest, sometimes several, accompany the funeral party in order to assist them against the evil ones that throng to the grave. the priests take up their positions, as i witnessed on several occasions, at strategic points behind trees, with balanced lance and not infrequently with shield. i have seen others provided with _sa-sá_ reed in anticipation of wounding some over-bold spirits. i observed a very peculiar custom on several occasions. on the way to the grave the men indulged in wild shouts. no other explanation was offered except that such was the custom. it was suggested, however, that it is a means of driving off the demons who may have got the scent of death, or, again, it may be to warn travelers that there is a funeral, thus enabling them to avoid meeting it, as this is said to be most unlucky. i have heard of the dead being buried under the house. however, the practice is infrequent and is usually followed at the request of the dying one. it is needless to add that the house and neighboring crops are abandoned. when possible a high piece of ground is selected in the very heart of the forest and a small clearing is made. the work at the grave is apportioned without much parleying, some of the men devoting themselves to making the customary roof[ ] to be placed over the grave, while others do the excavating. sometimes a fence is erected around the burying ground. the work always proceeds in absolute silence, and a fire is always kept burning as a menace to the evil spirits. when all is ready, the coffin is laid in its resting place and covered in all haste. here it may be remarked with regard to the orientation of the corpse, that men are buried with their feet toward the east and women with their feet toward the west. then the little roof is set upon four supports about centimeters above the grave. one of those present, sometimes a priest, lays a plate with seven offerings of betel nut upon the grave. then an earthen pot[ ] with its collation of boiled rice[ ] and with a hole broken in the bottom of it is hung up under the roof. [ ] _bin-aí-iu_. [ ] _kó-don_. [ ] imported rice can not be used. as explained to me, rice is intended as a last refection for the departed one before he sets out on his journey to the land of ibú. the hole that is invariably made in the bottom is intended, so i was told by many, to facilitate the consumption of the rice. the family heirlooms are occasionally brought to the grave but are not left there. there is a common tradition to the effect that the ancient mode of sepulture was a more pompous and solemn affair than the present one. i was told that the deceased was buried with all his personal arms, except his lance and shield, which were laid over his grave. sacred jars[ ] were also left. i never have been able to get sufficient information as to the exact whereabouts of the old burial grounds. the cave of tinágo near taganáan, about miles south of surigáo, is easily accessible. the bisáyas of the town state that it was a burial place for the ancient bisáyas, but montano, who procured some skulls from this cave, pronounced it to be a manóbo cemetery. the fact is, however, that up to this day the townspeople repair to the cave on occasions and invoke their ancestors. i was told of one gambler who used to go there and burn a candle in order to increase his luck. [ ] _ba-hán-di_. the mourners carefully efface the footprints that have been made by them on the loose clay around the grave and, scurrying away sadly and silently, leave the dead one in the company of the spirits of darkness. henceforth this, the resting place of one who was beloved in life, possibly of a loving wife, or of a darling child, will be eschewed as a place of terror where stalk with silent footfall and dark-visaged face the foul and insatiate soul ghouls. on arriving at the house whence they started, the funeral party invariably find a vessel, usually a coconut-shell cup, containing a mixture of water and herbs,[ ] placed at the door of the house. each one in turn wets his hands and purifies himself by rubbing the water on some portion of his body. i never saw this process omitted. the explanation afforded me was that the water had a purificatory[ ] effect in removing the evil influence to which they had become susceptible by contact with the dead. after the burial, a little repast is set out by way of compensation for those who assisted at the burial, and then begins the time of mourning which ends only with the mortuary feast. [ ] i was told that _u-li-ú-li_ grass is always used as an ingredient. [ ] _pan-dí-has_. certain mourning taboos are observed ( ) black must be worn by the nearest relatives. ( ) for seven days the wife and nearest relatives must remain confined to the house. ( ) the house must be abandoned or the inmates must change their sleeping quarters to another part of the house. ( ) no marriage can be celebrated by any of the carnal relatives until the death feast has been celebrated. ( ) the deceased must not be mentioned by name, but spoken of as "my father" or "my cousin" or other relative. this taboo holds indefinitely. ( ) no work must be undertaken nor business of any importance transacted, by the nearer relatives, for seven days. ( ) no one other than a near relative may visit the house for seven days after the decease. death and burial of one killed by an enemy, of a warrior chief, and of a priest as one killed by an enemy is thought to have suffered no ill through the machinations of the evil ones, his death is considered a glorious one, and he is buried fearlessly. it sometimes happens that, due to the distance between the place where he was killed and his home, it is found impossible to convey his body to the settlement. he is, accordingly, buried in some convenient spot in the forest without further ceremony. no mortuary feast is held for him because he is supposed to enter the abode of his chief's war deity and there to await the coming of his chief. i never witnessed the death of a warrior chief, but i made numerous inquiries from which i gleaned the following particulars: the death and burial of a warrior chief seems not to differ from that of an ordinary person except in the greater pomp displayed and in the absence of fear. the tutelary war deities, either one or several, of the warrior chief are present and the evil spirits are said to maintain a respectful distance. the war chief's spirit companions or souls, which it is maintained are susceptible to injury at the hands of demons, are present and accompany him to the home of his tutelar deities, as do also mandaláñgan or mandayáñgan, the great ancestral hero of manóboland. the war chief has no special burial ground, nor any special mode of sepulture, though i heard on the upper part of the tágo river, in the eastern part on mindanáo, that a certain Ónkui, an acquaintance of mine, had been buried in a dugout placed on the summit of a mountain. this report appears from further investigation to be true. i have heard of a similar practice at the headwaters of the ihawán river. there is no material difference between the mortuary customs at the death of a priest and those practiced at that of a warrior chief. the tutelar deities of the priest are all present, together with all their relatives and friends of the unseen world. his seven spirit companions or souls are also present, so that little or no fear of the uncanny demons is exhibited by the mourners. the after world the land of ibú is described as being somewhere down below the pillars of the earth. it is said to resemble, in all particulars, this world of ours. lofty mountains, lakes, rivers, and plains, such as are seen in the agúsan valley, exist there. about halfway between this world and the big country of ibú, mistress of the lower world, is a large river described to me as being as big as the agúsan, but with red water. here lives manduyápit, the ferryman. from manduyápit's to ibú's is said to be a journey of seven days along a good broad trail. americans, spaniards, and peoples of other nations do not pass on the manóbo's trail because each is said to have its own, and the country of ibú is said to be divided into districts, one for each nation. hence, when the soul or spirit companion of the deceased finds that it is all alone, its fellow spirit having been ruthlessly seized and devoured, it begins its long journey to ibú's. one week's travel brings it to the great red river. here it is ferried across gratuitously by manduyápit, and begins the second half of its journey. on arriving at ibú's it naturally seeks the spirits of its relatives, preferably its nearest relative, and takes up its abode with them. if manduyápit, for one reason or another, should refuse to ferry it across, it returns to its starting place and plagues its former friends for aid. the priest is made aware of this and interprets to the relatives of the returning one the reason for its failure to pass the great red river. if the souls of the deceased should desire to pay a visit to their living relatives, they invoke the family deities and are borne back to the world on the wings of the wind, without having to undergo the fatigues of the days' journey. ibú's great settlement is no gloomy hades, nor, on the other hand, is it a paradise of celestial joy. it is simply a continuation of the present life, except that all care and worry and trouble are ended. the spirits of deceased earthly relatives take up their abode in one house and pass a quiet existence under the mild sway of ibú. there they eat, work, and even marry. occasionally, with the aid of the family deities with whom they can commune, they pay a brief visit to the home of their living relatives and then return to the tranquil realms of ibú as fleetly as they came. the death feast[ ] [ ] _ka-ta-pú-san_, meaning end, termination. the death feast is the most important of all manóbo feasts, for it marks the ending of all relations between the living and their departed relatives. until its celebration the immediate relatives of the deceased are said to fare poorly. in some mysterious way the departed are said to harm them until they have received this final fete. hence, the nearest relative sets himself to work with all dispatch to provide the necessary pigs, beverage, and rice for the feast. it is a common belief that unless this celebration is as sumptuous as possible, ill luck may still pursue them. this will explain the long delay so frequently observed before the celebration of this festivity. i know of several such feasts which were not held until nearly a year after the decease, the delay being due to inability to secure sufficient edibles for the death revels. the importance and magnitude of this feast will be readily understood when one bears in mind the fact that, when given by a well-to-do manóbo, it is attended by everybody in the vicinity, and lasts frequently for a period of seven days. it happens occasionally that, in the interim between the death of one member of a family and the death feast, another member of the same family goes his mortal way. in such a case only one feast is held for the two departed ones. the religious character of the feast deserves special mention. the dinner being prepared, an ordinary winnow is set out in the middle of the floor and on it are placed cooked rice and, when obtainable, bananas. around the winnowing tray are set all the requisites for a plenteous meal. then the relatives sit around on the floor in a circle and each one lays on the tray his offering of betel nut to the deceased. the family priests act as interpreters and intermediaries. the deceased are then addressed, care being taken never to mention their names. they are called, father, brother, etc., by relatives, and by those who are not relatives, father of so-and-so, or sister of so-and-so, mentioning the name of the corresponding living relative. the near relatives then give salutary advice to the dead one as to the future dealings between the latter and the living. they are begged to have a little patience, are reminded that only a few years hence all will be united in the land of ibú, and are requested to accept this final feast as a farewell until that time. "you shall go your way and molest us not. let this feast be a token of good will and a final farewell till we meet you in the realms of ibú." such, in brief, is the strain of discourse consisting of exhortations, advice, supplication, and valediction[sic], that lasts several hours. finally a handful of rice is formed by the oldest relative into an image suggestive of a human figure and the deceased are invited to approach and to partake of the viands. the relatives pass the rice mannikin around, each one taking a bite or two out of it. while this is being done, the dead are invited to eat heartily, the living relatives exhorting the dead ones; one urging them to take more soup, another to increase their meat, another to take more bananas, and all reminding the deceased diners of the great expense incurred in connection with this banquet. the priests describe the actions of the mystic diners and the hearty appetite with which they partake of the fragrance of the viands, after their long journey from ibúland. during the mystic meal no one dares to approach the rice winnow, but when the meal is finished, those who carried the deceased to his last resting place approach the winnow and, raising it up in their hands, with an upward movement conjointly toss the victuals into the air, retreating instantly to avoid the food in its fall, for should a particle of it touch their persons it is considered a prognostication of speedy death. the origin and significance of this peculiar custom, which i witnessed on many occasions, have never been explained to me. inquiry elicited no further information than that it was the custom. such is the repast of the dead and the ending of all relations between them and the living. henceforth they are not feasted, as they have no more claim on the hospitality of the living. in all the greater religious celebrations, however, they are present and receive an offering of betel nut, which is placed at the doorway for them but they are not invited to the feast. the secular and social part of the feast in no wise differ from any other celebration, except that those who buried the deceased have marked attention paid them. there are the same motley group of primitive men and women, the same impartial distribution of the food, the same wild shouts of merriment, the same rivalry to finish each one his allotted portion, the same generous reciprocation of food and drink, and, finally, the same condition of inebriation that on many such occasions has abruptly terminated the feast by a fatal quarrel.[ ] [ ] an instance of a killing had taken place a short time before my visit in to the manóbos of the binuñgñgaan river, upper agúsan. the rest of the day, and probably a goodly portion of the night, are spent in dancing to the tattooing of the drum and the clanging of the gong, interrupted at times by long tribal chants of the priests and others versed in chronicles of manóboland. if the death revels continue more than one day, the second day is a repetition of the first with the exception that only the betel-nut offering is made to the dead. as the celebration of this mortuary feast is the termination of the anxious period of mourning, and the release from the subtle secret importunateness of the dead, everybody with his wife and children flocks to the scene. no relative of the departed one may be absent for that would leave him still exposed to the strange waywardness of the envious dead. chapter xvi social enjoyments instrumental music the drum the drum is the instrument of universal use in manóboland. wherever one travels, by day or by night, its measured booming may be heard. it is made out of a piece of a palm tree, by removing the core and bark. it is ordinarily about centimeters high by centimeters in diameter. the top and bottom consist, in nearly every case, of a piece of deerskin,[ ] from which the fur has been scraped, a little fringe of it, however, being left around the edges to prevent the hide from slipping when stretched. the stretching is effected by means of rattan rings or girdles, very often covered with cloth, and just large enough to fit the cylindrical body of the drum. a few blows with a piece of wood forces these girdles down the sides of the drum, thereby stretching the heads perfectly tight so as to give the drum the proper tone. after a certain amount of heating over the fire the drum is ready for use. no attempts at ornamentation are made, the heavy ends of the hide being left protruding in an ungainly way. [ ] monkey and lizard skins are made use of in rare instances, and i have heard it said that the skin of a dog makes a very fine drumhead. the drum is played at either end, and in certain tunes at both ends. the left hand serves to bring out the notes corresponding to our bass. the drum is tapped, with more or less force and rapidity, on an upturned head with the left hand, while the right hand with a piece of wood, preferably a little slat of bamboo, raps out the after beat. manóbo men, women, and children can play the drum and mention the names of from to rhythms, each one of which is to their trained ears so different that it can be recognized at once. the rhythms are varied by the number of beats of the right hand to one of the left, and by the different degrees of speed with which the tune is played. the general beat may be compared to the dactyl of ancient greek and roman versification. the left hand plays the long syllable, if we may so speak, while the right plays the two short ones. the combinations, however, are as intricate as the versification just referred to. as the nomenclature[ ] used in speaking of the tunes indicates, the various forms of drum music are based on imitations of animals and birds, or are adapted to certain occasions, such as the war roll signaling for help. [ ] the following are some of the names of drum-tunes: _sin-ak-aí-sá-kai_ (significant of the movement of a raft or canoe); _kum-bá-kum-bá to u-sá_ (imitative of the sporting of a deer); _kin-am-pi-lán_ (indicative of the flourishing of the moro weapon called _kampilan)_; _min-an-dá-ya_, an adaptation from the mandáyas; _bo-túñg-bó-tuñg_, _ka-ta-hud-án_, _ya-mút-yá-mut_, _pa-di-dít_, _pin-án-dan_, _pa-tug-da-dúk tí-bañg_, _min-añg-gu-áñg-an_, _tin-úm-pi_, _ma-sañg-aú-it_, _to-mán-do_, _in-ág-kui_, _pa-dú-au_, _bin-ág-bad_, _pai-úm-bug_, _pa-dúg-kug_, _tum-bá-lig_, _mañg-úd_. to one who hears manóbo drum music for the first time, it sounds dull and monotonous, but as the ear grows accustomed to the roll the compass can be detected and the skill of the drummer becomes apparent. now loud and then soft, now fast and then slow, the tune is rattled off in perfect measure and with inspiring verve. as one travels through the crocodile-infested lake region in the middle agúsan on a calm night, the manóbo drums may be heard tattooing from distant settlements. they produce a solemn but weird impression on the listener. the gong the gong[ ] is of the small imported type and is purchased from bisáya traders. as these gongs, when new, have several ornamental triangular figures on the front, the manóbo is taught to value them at as many pesos minus one as the gong has figures. this gives a gong that cost originally about pesos a value of or pesos. [ ] _a-guñg_. as a musical instrument it is played in combination with the drum. suspended from something or held up in the hand, it is beaten on the knob with a piece of wood. the general time kept is the same as that kept by the left hand of the drummer. its constant clanging serves to heighten the animation of the dance. both the drum and gong have a certain religious character. they are used in all greater religious celebrations and seem to be a part of the paraphernalia of the priest, for they are nearly always kept in his house. flutes the flute, unlike the drum and gong, has no religious idea whatsoever associated with it. it is played at the caprice of the tribesman, to while away a weary hour, to amuse the baby, or to entertain a visitor. the melody produced by it is soft and low, plaintive and melancholy, resembling in general features chinese music, with its ever recurring and prolonged trill, its sudden rises and falls, and its abrupt endings. flutes are not used by women, and not all men have attained a knowledge of them. here and there one meets a man who is an expert and who is glad to display his skill. the tunes are said to be suggestive of birds' and animals' cries[ ] and seem to be the product of each. [ ] the more common pieces are: _sin-a-gáu to bu-á-da_ (the roaring of the crocodile), _bu-a-bú-a to á-mo_ (the monkey scare), and the _din-a-go-yu-án_. flutes are made from the internodes of a variety of bamboo and are of four kinds, depending on the number and position of the fingerholes. _the paúndag flute_.[ ]--the _paúndag_ is the commonest form. the joints of the bamboo are cut off and the circumference of the resulting internode is measured accurately with a piece of _abaká_ or other fiber. with this for a measure, marks or rings are cut on the segment and at each end beyond the first and last mark, a distance equal to one-half the circumference is marked off, the remainder of the segment being then cut off square at each end. at the eighth mark a hole about millimeters in diameter is cut or burned in the bamboo. the same is done, but on the opposite side, at the ninth, eleventh, twelfth, and fourteenth marks, respectively. the ends are then cut in much the same shape as an ordinary whistle, and the flute, a segment of bamboo about meter long, is ready for use. [ ] called also _pan-dag_. while being played, it is held in a vertical position, the side with the one fingerhole being toward the body of the player. the end with the first mark, that which is farther away from the fingerholes, is placed just under the upper lip. the thumb and middle finger of the right hand control the openings at the eighth and ninth marks, while those at the eleventh and twelfth are covered by the first and middle fingers of the left hand, respectively, the hole at the fourteenth mark being uncovered. the blowing is performed without effort in the gentlest way possible, as a very slight increase in the force of the breath raises the tone about two octaves. _the to-áli flute_.--the _to-áli_ is an abbreviated form of the flute just described and is made in a similar way, except that only divisions are made, and that on one side two holes are made at the fifth and seventh marks, and on the other at the fourth and sixth openings, respectively. there is no fifth fingerhole. this form of flute is played like the _paúndag_ flute, except that the thumb and middle fingers of the right hand cover the fifth and sixth openings, respectively, while the thumb and fourth finger of the left hand control the seventh and eighth openings. in pitch this form of flute is considerably higher than the previous one but in other respects the music is similar. _the lántui flute_,[ ]--a flute known as _lántui_ is in existence, but i am not acquainted with the details of it. [ ] called also _yántui_. _the sá-bai flute_.--the _sá-bai_ flute differs from the three already mentioned in being a direct flute. the joint at one end of the bamboo is cut off. seven circumference lengths are then marked off, beginning at the remaining joint, and holes are made at the first (that is, the point), fifth, sixth, and seventh divisions, one or more holes being added in the center between the sixth and seventh divisions. for a mouthpiece, a segment of bamboo about centimeters long is placed over the jointed end of the flute at the first division but in such a way as not to cover completely the opening at that point. the sound is produced by the breath passing through the opening last mentioned and _striking the edge of the aperture_ that it partially covers. when played, this form of flute is held in a horizontal position. the point is inserted into the mouth and the three consecutive holes at divisions nos. , . , and are covered by the first, second, and third fingers, respectively, of the right hand. in pitch this instrument is lower than the other three but in the quality of the music it in no wise differs from them. guitars _the vine-string guitar_.--there are two kinds of vine-string guitars, differing only in size and name, as far as i know, so that a description of the smaller one[ ] will answer for the larger.[ ] [ ] _kúd-luñg_. [ ] _bin-i-já-an_. it varies in length from . meters to meters.[ ] the combined neck and finger board and the hollow boat-shaped sounding box are of one piece. the other part of the guitar is a thin strip of wood with a lozenge-shaped hole in the center, that fits with great accuracy on the bottom of the sounding box. the head is always a scroll, rudely carved into a remote suggestion of a rooster's head, as the name indicates,[ ] and two holes are pierced in it for the insertion of the tuning pegs. along the neck are from to little wooden frets, fastened to the finger board with beeswax. i can give no information as to the rule by which the interfret distances are determined. [ ] ordinarily the _bán-ti_ or the _sa-gu-bád-bad_ wood is used. [ ] _min-an-úk_, from _manuk_, a fowl. the strings are two in number and extend from the tuning pegs through two holes in the neck and over the finger board and the sounding box to an elevated piece left on the sounding piece. an interesting feature of these strings is that they are the central part or core of a small vine[ ] and give out rather sweet tones, though not so loud as catgut. [ ] _bís-lig_. projecting from the end of the sounding box, and forming one continuous piece with it, is an ornamental piece carved into a semblance of the favorite fowl head. the guitar is held like guitars the world over, and the playing is performed by twanging the strings with a little plectrum of bamboo or wood.[ ] [ ] as to the tuning and modulating of the instrument i can give no information. the matter requires further study. the quality of the music is soft and melancholy, wholly in minor keys and of no great range, probably not exceeding one octave. as far as i can judge it bears a resemblance to chinese music. various tunes are played on both forms of guitar according to the caprice and skill of the performer.[ ] [ ] the following are the names of some of the melodies: _di-u-wá-ta ko_ (oh, my familiar spirit), _a-yáu-u-yáu-á_ (don't, oh, don't), _to-láñg-it_ (the sky), _i-ka-nuñg-úd_, _ta-ta-lí-buñg_, _pan-in-ó-ug_, _mi-a-pí tin-ig-bás-ai_, _du-yúg-dú-yug_, _ta-ga-lín-dug_, _tiñg-ga-sau_, _ma-sú-gud_, _pa-má-bá to ba-ku-ta_, _da-gí-tan_. there are no special occasions for playing this guitar. it is not played by women nor is it used as an accompaniment for singing. the performer takes up the instrument as the whim prompts him and in the semidarkness plays his rude, melancholy tune. _the bamboo string guitar_.[ ]--the bamboo guitar is made of an internode of one of the larger varieties of bamboo.[ ] five small cylindrical strips are cut along the surface and small wedges of wood are inserted under them at the ends to stretch them and retain them in an elevated position. these strips extend from joint to joint. there are usually two bass strings on one side and three treble strings on the other. between these treble bass strings is a longitudinal slit in the bamboo joint intended to increase the resonance of the instrument. the strings are at intervals of about centimeters. two holes are made in the joint walls, the purpose of which is to increase the volume of sound. [ ] _tan-kó_. [ ] _pa-túñg_, _da-nu-án_, _kai-yaú-an_. the tuning is regulated by the size of the little wedges which impart greater or lesser tension as desired. i understand neither the theory nor the practice of tuning this guitar. while being played the guitar is held in both hands. the first finger and thumb of the right hand manipulate the bass strings, while the three treble strings are controlled by the other hand. the weird staccato music produced by this instrument is indescribable. one must hear it and hear it repeatedly in order to appreciate its fantastic melodies. both men and women make use of it for secular and, i am inclined to think, for religious motives. during the famous _túñgud_[ ] movement ( - ) it was used universally in the religious houses, but i was unable to obtain definite information as to its sacred character. in the postnatal ceremony that has been described under "birth" i observed the use of the instrument on several occasions, but could obtain no further information except that the strains of this primitive guitar are pleasing to mandáit, the tutelary spirit of infants. this point merits further investigation.[ ] [ ] a religious movement that sprang up in and spread itself all over the southeastern quarter of mindanáo. (see chapter xxix.) [ ] the following are the names of some of the tunes played on the above guitar: _ma-sú-gud_, _tám-bid_, _gam-aú-gá-mau_, _pa-ma-yá-bui_, _tig-ba-bau_. _the takúmbo_.--though classed here as guitar, the _takúmbo_ hardly deserves the name. it is a bamboo joint which has one joint wall opened. at the other end beyond the second joint it is so cut as to resemble a miter. two strings, uplifted from the surface about centimeters apart, and held in an elevated position and at their requisite tension by little wooden wedges placed underneath, form the strings. a lozenge-shaped hole in the center between the strings increases the resonance. the instrument is played by beating the strings with little sticks preferably of bamboo. two persons may play at one time. the time observed is the drum rhythm. the sound produced is very faint and unimpressive, and the instrument is of very sporadic occurrence. the fact that one end is carved in the form of a miter tends to confirm my supposition that this is a purely religious instrument. the carving is supposed to represent the mouth of a crocodile.[ ] [ ] this figure is called _bin-u-á-da_, or _bin-u-wá-ya_ from _bu-á-ya_, crocodile. i was given to understand that this instrument is used in the immolation to the blood-deities in case of hemorrhage and such other illnesses as are accompanied by fluxes of blood. it is said that the instrument is set in a vertical position, the miterlike cutting being upward, and that a part of the victim's blood is placed upon the node as if it were a little saucer. the instrument is then played. i never witnessed the ceremony, nor heard the instrument played, and am not prepared to give credence to the above story till further investigation corroborates it. the violin[ ] [ ] _kó-gut_. i neither saw nor heard this instrument, but my inquiries substantiate the existence of it. the body is said to be of coconut shell with the husk removed. the bow is made of bamboo bent into the form of a defensive bow, to the ends of which are attached several threads of _abaká_ fiber that serve as the bowstring. the strings of the violin are two in number and are made of _abaká_ fiber. the violin is said to be played as our violins are by drawing the bow across the strings. it is not played by women, according to reports, nor are there any stated times and reasons, religious or otherwise, for its use.[ ] [ ] the names of some of the tunes played are: _pan-un-gá-kit_, _lin-íg-tui ka-bú-ka_, _ba-yú-bas_, _pan-ig-á-bon to ka-bí_. the jew's-harp[ ] [ ] _kubíñg_. another instrument which is found occasionally in manóboland, is a species of jew's-harp, made out of bamboo. it is a frail instrument made more for a toy than for its musical qualities. it is ordinarily about centimeters long, and consists of a slender piece of bamboo from the central part of which a small tongue about centimeters long is cut. the tongue remains attached at one end, the tip of it being toward the middle of the instrument. on the the reverse side there is a small cavity in the body of the instrument intended to allow sufficient room for the tongue of the harp to move while being played. the instrument is played by putting the mouth to the above-mentioned cavity and by blowing as we do in an ordinary jew's-harp. the tongue is made to vibrate by tapping with the finger a needlelike spur that is left at the end of the instrument. this vibration, in conjunction with variations of the mouth cavity of the performer, produces tones which are not unlike those of an ordinary jew's-harp but which are not so loud nor so harmonious. the stamper and the horn[ ] of bamboo [ ] _tam-bú-li_. on the upper agúsan i witnessed the use of bamboo stampers. they consist of large bamboo joints with one partition wall removed. they are stamped on the floor in rhythm with the drum and gong during a dance, the open end being held up. the use of these stampers by manóbos is rare, the custom being confined almost exclusively to mañgguáñgans of the upper agúsan and upper sálug valleys. another instrument, but one which can hardly be called musical, is the bamboo horn used for signaling and calling purposes. it consists of an internode of bamboo with one partition wall removed. an opening large enough for the mouth is made on the side of the bamboo near the other node. in using it the mouth is applied to this aperture and a good pair of lungs can produce a loud booming blast. after the occurrence of a death, especially if the deceased has been slain, it is customary to use this instrument as a means of announcing the death to near-by settlements, thereby putting them on their guard against any of the slain one's relatives who might be impelled to take immediate vengeance on the first human being he met. sounders a method of signaling, much in use among the mixed manóbo-mañgguáñgans of the upper agúsan, consists in beating on the butresses[sic][ ] of trees. it is surprising how far the resultant sound travels in the silence and solitude of the forest. [ ] _da-líd_. in connection with musical instruments it may not be out of place to mention the bamboo sounders[ ] attached to looms. they are internodes of bamboo with apertures in the joint wall and a longitudinal slit extending almost from node to node. one of these always constitutes the yarn beam of the loom. [ ] _ka-gú_. these internodes, besides serving to support the fabric during the process of weaving, denote by their resonance that the weaver is busy at work. the movement of the batten in driving home the weft produces a sound that, owing to the resonance of the bamboo yarn beam may be heard for several hundred meters. when the manóbo maiden is especially desirous of calling attention to her assiduity and perseverance, she has an extra internode placed in an upright position against the yarn beam just described. this doubles the volume of sound and serves to intimate to visiting young men that she would be an industrious wife. vocal music singing is as common among the manóbos as among their countrymen of the christian tribes. the fond mother croons her babe to sleep with a lullaby. in festive hours the song is the vehicle of praise, of joke, of taunt, and of challenge, and in religious celebrations it is the medium through which the priests address their deities. the language of song the language used in singing is so different from the common vernacular that bisáyas and christianized manóbos who speak and understand perfectly the ordinary dialect of conversation find the language of song unintelligible. i have had several songs dictated to me and found the song words to be plainly archaic. this observation applies also to the song-dialect of mañgguáñgans, debabáons and mandáyas. as interpreted to me on many occasions, songs are improvisations spun out with endless repetitions of the same ideas in different words. to give an instance, a mountain might be described in the song as a "beauteous hill," a "fair mount," a "lovely eminence," a "beautiful elevation," all depending on the facility with which the maker[ ] can use the language. this feature of the song serves to explain its inordinate length, for a song may occupy the greater part of a night, apparently without tiring the audience by its verbose periphrases and its exuberant figures. [ ] _pán-dui_, a smith or maker. the subject matter of songs the subjects of songs are as varied as those of other nations, but legendary songs, in which the valiant deeds of departed warriors are recounted, seem to be the favorite. as far as i know, the songs are always extemporaneous and not composed of any set form of words and verses. the music and the method of singing one must hear the song in order to get an idea of it. in general it is a declamatory solo. the staccatolike way in which the words are sung, the abrupt endings, and the long slurs covering as much as an octave remind one somewhat of chinese singing. the singer's voice frequently ascends to its highest natural tone and, after dwelling there for from three to six seconds, suddenly slurs down an octave, where it remains playing around three or four consecutive semitones. there is no choral singing and no accompaniment. no time is observed, the song having wholly the character of a recitation. neither are there any attempts at rhyming nor at versification. recurring intervals are the rule. the music is, in general, of minor tonality and, unless the subject of the song is fighting or doing some other thing that demands loudness, rapidity, and animation, it is of a weird, melancholy character. when, however, the subject of the song requires anything of the _spiritoso_ or _veloce_, the strain is sung with verve and even furore. it seems to be good etiquette to cover the mouth with the hand when the singer, desiring to add special vigor to the strain, rises to his highest natural pitch and dwells there with an almost deafening prolonged yell. ceremonial songs[ ] [ ] _túd-um_. sacred songs, as distinguished from secular songs for festive and other occasions, are sung only by the priests and by warrior chiefs. they are supposed to be taught by a special divinity.[ ] the remarks that apply to music and singing in general apply to these religious songs. the only difference is that sacred singing is the medium by which the spirits are invoked, supplicated, and propitiated, and by which the doings of the supernatural world are communicated to manóbodom. these ceremonial chants are performed not only during religious celebrations but more commonly at night. the greater part of the night is often worn away with a protracted diffuse narration in which is described, with grandiloquent circumlocution and copious imagery, the doings of the unseen world. [ ] _tu-tu-dú-mon no diu-wá-ta_. dancing the manóbo dance is somewhat on the style of an irish jig or a scotch hornpipe. it is indulged in on nearly all occasions of social and ceremonial celebrations. though it may be performed at any time of the day if there is a call for it, yet it usually takes place in the evening or at night, and especially after a drinking bout, when the feasters are feeling extra cheerful in their cups. there are no special dance houses in manóboland, the ordinary dwelling place of the host serving the purpose. whenever the floor is in poor condition (and that is often the case) a mat or two may be spread upon it for the safety of the dancer. this may be done out of respect also. though dances are held the year round during all great rejoicings and during the greater sacrificial celebrations, it is during the harvesting season that they are given with greatest frequency. the ordinary social dance by the social dance is meant the dance which takes place on an occasion of rejoicing and which is indulged in by men, women, and children, one at a time. it is exceptional that two or more persons dance simultaneously. a striking peculiarity in dancing is the wearing of a woman's skirt by males during the dance. no reason is assigned for the practice except the force of custom. it is customary, also, to array the dancer in all the available wealth of manóboland--waist jacket, hat, necklaces, girdle, hawk bells, and, in case of a female, with brass anklets. two kerchiefs, held by the corner, one in each hand, complete the array. no flowers nor leaves are used in the decoration of the person during dancing. the drum, and when it is available, the gong are the only musical accompaniments to the dancing. when these are lacking an old tin can, if such a thing by some good luck has made its way into the house, answers the purpose of a musical instrument. even the floor is sometimes beaten to produce an accompaniment for the dance. on the upper agúsan bamboo stampers are occasionally used, in imitation of mañgguáñgan custom, to impart more animation to the dance. the dance is never accompanied by vocal music unless the constant scream of approbation and encouragement from the spectators be included under that term. the time to which the dancing is performed is the same as that described under "the drum" at the beginning of this chapter. it corresponds somewhat to that of our waltz when played presto, although the movements of the feet do not correspond to those of that dance. the dancer names the rhythm he desires and it is the rule, rather than the exception, that several starts are made, and several drummers tried before a good dancer feels satisfied with the method of playing. this is an indication of the excellent ear which the manóbo has developed for this apparently rude and primitive form of music. the women in dancing are more gentle in their manner than the men; they make fewer bending motions and do not posture so much. in other respects the dancing of the men and women is identical. the step may be called dactyllic[ ] in that a long or accented beat is struck with one foot and, in immediate succession, two quick short steps are taken with the other. this is varied at recurring intervals by omitting the two short steps, especially in mimetic or dramatic dances when the dancer desires to return to the center or to execute some extra evolution. [ ] a term borrowed from latin and greek versification. to give a satisfactory description of the attitude and movements of the dancer is impossible, as the skill and grace of the dance consists essentially in postures and gestures, and each individual has his own variations and combination. in fact no two men dance alike, though the women are much alike in their style of dancing, due to the fact that they bend the body and gesticulate comparatively little and that they display less force and exertion. suffice it to say that the dancer moves his feet in perfect time to the rhythm of the drum and gong, at the same time keeping the arms, hands, fingers, head, and shoulders in constant movement. now one hand is laid upon the hip while the other is extended upward and at an oblique angle from the shoulder. again both hands are placed upon the hips and the dancer trips around a few times when suddenly turning, he retires hastily, but in perfect time, with both arms extended upwards and at an angle from the shoulders, the two kerchiefs waving all the time to the movements of the body. during all his movements the arms, hands, and fingers are twisted and turned with graceful and varied, but measured, modulation. now he raises one shoulder and then another. now he gazes up with a look of defiance upon his countenance, as if at some imaginary foe, and then down, as if in quest of something. at one time he stops and gently moves his feet to the rhythm of the music for several seconds, at another he circles around with uplifted arms and flying kerchiefs, and scurries to the other end of the dancing space, as if pursued by some foeman. at this point he may circle around again and, the music of the drum and gong surging loud, stamp defiance as if at an imaginary enemy, in measured beat and with quick, wild movements of the legs and the whole body. and thus the dance goes on, now slow, now fast, now stately, now grotesque, the feet pounding the floor in regular and exact time to the music, and every part of the body moving, according to the whim of the dancer, with graceful and expressive modulation. the whole dance requires great exertion, as is evidenced by the perspiration that appears upon the dancer's body after a few minutes. for this reason, a dancer rarely continues for more than ten minutes. he names his successor by dancing up to him, and putting the kerchiefs on his shoulders. the appointee nearly always excuses himself on the plea that he does not know how to dance, that his foot is sore, or with some other excuse, but finally yields to the screams of request and exhortation from the encircling spectators. one who has witnessed a manóbo dance at night by the flare of fire and torch will not forget the scene. squatted around in the semidarkness are the russet figures of the merry, primitive spectators, lit up by the flickering glare of the unsteady light, the children usually naked, and the men having frequently bared the upper parts of their bodies. in the center circles the dancer with his wealth of ornaments, advancing, retreating, and posturing. the drum booms, the gong clangs, and the dancer pounds the floor in rhythm. the jingle bells and the wire anklets of the dancer tinkle. the spectators scream in exultation, encouragement, and approval. the dogs add to the pandemonium by an occasional canine chorus of their own, which coupled with the crying of the babies and several other incidental sounds, serves to enhance the rejoicing and to add eclat to the celebration. the religious dance unlike the secular dance just described, the sacred dance is performed exclusively by the male and female priests and by the warrior chiefs of the tribes. it may be performed either in the house or out on the ground, according to the place selected for the sacrifice. in the case of the sacrifice of a pig, the dance and its accompanying rites are always performed out of doors near the house of one of the priests. the dress of the priests is always as elaborate as possible, as in ordinary festive dancing. their various portable charms and talismans are always worn around the neck and, instead of kerchiefs being held in the hands, palm fronds[ ] are used, one in each hand. [ ] _ma-yún-hau_. the music is similar to that described for the ordinary dance, and the step and movements are identical except that the dance is more moderate, there being no attempt at grotesque or fantastic movements. as it is usually performed before an altar, a mat is spread upon the floor, so that the dancing range is limited. in general, the sacred dance presents, in its simplicity and its lack of violent contortions, rapid motions, and gestures, an element of respect and religious quietude that is not observed in secular dancing. the encircling spectators do not indulge in such unseemly acclamations, though it may be remarked that they assume no posture indicative of religious worship, for they continue to talk among themselves and to indulge in the ordinary occupation of betel-nut chewing, leaving the performance of the dance and the attendant ceremonies to the priests, whose profession it is to attend to such matters. the dance is performed either consecutively or simultaneously by the priests but is interrupted occasionally by other rites proper to the ceremony.[ ] [ ] see chapter xxvi. mimetic dances mimetic dances in no wise differ from the ordinary festal dancing except that they are a pantomimic representation, by gestures, by postures, and by mimicry of some feature of manóbo life. so far as i know these dances are never performed by women. mimetic dances are very popular in manóboland, and visitors whom it is desired to honor, are often treated, without solicitation on their part, to a series of these performances. they often contain an element of what we would call lasciviousness, but to the manóbo they merely represent ordinary natural acts. the following are some of the mimetic dances which i have witnessed. _the bathing dance_.--the dancer gyrates and pirouettes in the ordinary style for several minutes when, by a bending movement, he intimates the picking up of some heavy object. he simulates placing this on his shoulder and then imitates a woman's walk, indicating thereby that he is a woman and that he is going either to get water or take a bath. all this, as well as subsequent representations, are performed in perfect time to the music. by a slow movement and with many a backward glance to see whether he is being watched, he reaches the end of the dancing place which evidently represents the stream for he goes through a pantomimic drinking. he then cautiously and after repeated backward glances, divests himself of all his clothes, and begins the bathing operations. he is frequently interrupted, and upon the supposed appearance of a person presumably a male, he indicates that he has to resume his skirt. the operation of washing the hair and other parts of the body are portrayed with appropriate gestures and movements, as are also the resuming of his dress and the return to the house with a bamboo tubeful of water. _the dagger or sword dance_.--this dance is performed only by men, two of whom may take part in it at the same time. it consists in portraying a quarrel between them, the weapon used being either the mandáya dagger, as on the upper agúsan, or the ordinary war bolo, as in the central and lower agúsan. appropriate flourishes, parries, lunges, foils, advances, and retreats, all extremely graceful and skillful, are depicted just as if a real encounter were taking place. _the apian dance_.--this is a dramatic representation of the robbing of a bee's nest. the gathering of the materials and the formation of them into a firebrand, the lighting of it, and the ascent of the tree, are all danced out to perfection. a striking part of the pantomine is the apparently fierce stinging the robber undergoes, especially on certain parts of his body.[ ] [ ] the pubic region is referred to. this part of the performance always draws screams of laughter from the spectators. the whole ends with a vivid but very comic representation of the avid consumption of the honey and beebread. _the depilation dance_.--this is an illustration, by dancing movements, of the eradication of hair especially in the pubic region. the dancer, indicating by continual glances that he is afraid of being seen, simulates the depilation of the pubic hair. the pain thereby inflicted he manifests by the most comic contortions of his face.[ ] [ ] though depilation of the pubic region is represented in dancing, i do not know positively that it takes place in reality. _the sexual dance_.--this is a dramatic representation of sexual intercourse on the part of one who apparently has made no overtures or any previous arrangements with the object of his desire. he is supposed to enter the house and approach the recumbent object of his love (in this case represented by a piece of wood or of bamboo) in a timorous, stealthy way. a hand to the ear intimates that he thinks he hears some one approaching. he therefore retires a little distance, and after reassuring himself that all is well, proceeds to attain his object. it is only after protracted circling, approaching, and retiring, that he simulates the attainment of his desire. no indications of bashfulness nor delicacy are exhibited, by the female spectators.[ ] [ ] i have been informed that sexual relations between a hen and a rooster form the main feature of another mimetic dance. _the war dance_.--the war dance is performed outside of the house on the ground by one man alone or by two men simultaneously. the dancer is attired in full festive array with hat and red turban, and is armed with lance, war bolo, and shield. the accompaniment to the dance is the drum, but both the rhythm executed on it and the step performed by the dancer baffled description. suffice it to say that the music is a continuous roll tattooed by two expert players, one at each end of the drum. the dancer keeps his feet moving with the greatest conceivable velocity in perfect unison to the rhythm which gives one the general impression of a rapid two-step. the movement of the feet reminds one of the movements made by a rooster or a turkey cock at times. the nodding of the head of the dancer is also similar to that of a game-cock before a fight. as the dance is supposed to represent an encounter and harid-to-hand fight, all the movements of advancing and retreating, thrusting and parrying are displayed. the combatants move around in circles, now approaching, now receding, always under the protection of the shield. they gaze savagely at each other, now over the shield, now at the side, constantly sticking out their tongues at each other much as a snake does. at times they place a heel in the ground with upraised foot, and with the knee placed against the shield, and lance poised horizontally above the shoulder, make rapid darts at each other. every once in a while they kneel down on one leg behind their shields and with rapid movements of the head and spear look defiance at each other. during all the movements of the dance the spear is held horizontally and is thrust forward rapidly. the shoulders are constantly moved up and down, and the shield follows this movement, all being in perfect time to the rapid roll of the drum. the dance ordinarily does not last more than five minutes as the extreme exertion and rapidity of movement soon tire the dancer. it is a magnificent display of warlike skill and of physical agility and endurance. chapter xvii political organization: system of government and social control clans territories of the clans and number of people composing them manóboland, with the exception of such settlements as have been formed by non-christian manóbos in the vicinity of christian _settlements_ and usually situated at the head of navigation on the tributaries of the agúsan, is divided into districts, well defined, and, in case of hostility, jealously and vigilantly guarded. these territorial divisions vary in extent from a few square miles to immense tracts of forest and are usually bounded by rivers and streams or by mountains and other natural landmarks. each of these districts is occupied by a clan that consists of a nominal superior with his family, sons-in-law, and such other of his relatives as may have decided to live within the district. they may number only souls and again they may reach a few hundred. interclan relations in the main it may be said that in time of peace the members of the various clans live on good terms, visiting one another and claiming relationship with one another, but peace in manóboland was formerly very transitory. a drunken brawl might stir up bad blood and every clan and every individual would make ready for a fight. the agúsan valley was styled by montano, the french traveler, "le pais de terreur," and from the accounts given to me it must have deserved the name. a perusal of the "cartas de los pp. de la compañia de jesus," which set forth the religious conquest of the agúsan valley, begun about , will give an idea of the continuous raids and ambuscades that interfered to no inconsiderable extent with the work of christian conquest undertaken by the missionaries. upon my arrival in the agúsan in such rivers as the ihawán, the baóbo, the upper umaíam, the upper argáwan, and all tributaries of the upper agúsan, were seldom visited by any but members of the clan to whose territorial jurisdiction these rivers and the adjoining districts belonged. the establishment of a special form of government on the lower and middle agúsan, now known as the subprovince of butuán, did wonders toward repressing the interclan raids, but on the upper agúsan they continued at least until my departure in , though not to such an extent as in previous years. for example, in february, , the settlements of dugmánon and moncáyo were in open hostility. i traveled both by land and water with members of the two unfriendly clans. in traveling by water it was necessary to proceed in midstream with shields protecting the occupants of the canoe against the arrows of their enemies. on the trail it was imperative to travel in bodies with a warrior on each side of the trail to guard against ambush. this feud arose out of a mere bagatelle, followed by the seizure of a pig, and up to the time i left the region had given rise to four deaths. i made every effort to adjudicate the case, but as each clan seemed unwilling to yield, failed to bring the parties together. the chief and his power the source of the chief's authority it may be said in general that the chief is a man who, by his fluency of speech and by his penetration and sagacity in unraveling the intricate points of a dispute, by his personal prowess, combined with sagacity and fair dealing, has won influence. personal prowess appeals to the manóbo, so that in time of hostility the warrior chief is looked up to more than any man who in time of peace might have enjoyed more influence and prestige. it must be borne in mind that the whole political organization of manóboland, including the system of government, social control, and administration of justice, is essentially patriarchal, so that the chieftainship is really only a nominal one. the very entity of a clan springs from the kinship of its individual members, and, as in a family, the stronger or abler brother might be selected on a given occasion to represent, defend, or otherwise uphold the family, so in a manóbo clan or sect the stronger or the wiser member is recognized as chief. however, he can not lay claim to any legal authority nor use any coercion unless it is sanctioned by the more influential members of the clan, is approved by public opinion, and is in conformity with customary law and tribal practices, for there is no people that i know of that is so tenacious and so jealous of ancient usages as the manóbos of eastern mindanáo. equality among the people besides the titles applied to warrior chiefs and to priests, there is no title that is in common use to express the influence and authority wielded by any individual. it is not infrequent to hear of so-and-so being spoken of as a _datu_ by the bisáyas of the agúsan valley, but the title is not used by manóbos, but only by the banuáon group inhabiting the northwestern part of the valley or by bisáyas when they desire to cajole their manóbo friends. the term _kuláno_ is sometimes used by the bisáyas, but as far as my knowledge goes is not used by manóbos. it is in all probability a form of the word _kuláno_ that is applied, i think, to bukídnon chiefs in the subprovince of bukídnon. the fact that no titles appear to exist for influential men except that of warrior chief and of priest is an indication of the inferiority of the manóbo to the mandáya in tribal organization.[ ] [ ] in mandáya a very influential chief is styled _á-ri-á-ri_, a kind of petty king, and the elder of a settlement or even of an individual house has a special name, significative of influence and of respect, to wit, _ma-tá-duñg_. there is no hereditary chieftainship, though a warrior chief makes earnest endeavors to instill the spirit of valor into his first born male child from the time he attains the use of reason. no insignia are worn except by the warrior chief and the recognized warrior[ ] to denote the influence that they exert in the tribe or in the clan. perfect equality is conspicuous in nearly all things. the chief or the warrior chief sallies forth, often in company with his slaves, and takes part in fishing and in hunting expeditions. on the trail he may carry his own share of the burden if he has been unable to induce others to take it. i have had warrior chiefs, priests, and other influential people many a time act as my carriers, but, of course, out of courtesy and respect, had to allow them more in the way of recompense than was given to those of lesser importance. the chief has no subordinate officers, no heralds, and no assembly house. he lives in his own house and when any trouble arises he settles it, in company with other influential men, either at his own house or at any other house to which it may have been deemed expedient to repair. hence we may say that little or no formal demonstration of respect is shown a chief. he is a manóbo of more than usual ability, of strong character, quick to discover the intricacies of an involved question, facile of tongue, loved for his hospitality and generous nature, more frequently better provided with worldly goods than his fellow clansmen, and as a rule with a reputation for fair dealing. such are, in general, the sources of the respect that gives him a moral weight in the arbitration of clan troubles or even of tribal concerns when no hostility reigns. [ ] _ma-ni-ki-ád_. i have never heard among the manóbos of any special celebration in which a chief, other than a warrior chief, is formally recognized. he seems to grow gradually into recognition, just as one brother of a family may, after years of demonstrated ability, be looked up to by the rest of the family. respect for ability and old age although the chiefs almost invariably look upon other men of the tribe as their equals and show no affectation because of their position, yet by those who come in contact with them a certain amount of respect is shown. this is especially true in the great social and religious gatherings and on the visit of a chief to another house. here he gets an extra supply of pork and of brew and of everything that is being distributed. from what has been said in a previous part of this monograph it is obvious that women play no part in the control of public affairs. there are no female chiefs. women are domestic chattels relegated to the house and to the farm. there is a common saying that women have no tribunal--that is, are not fitted to take part in public discussions--the reference being to the town hall of the spanish regime. yet i know of one woman, sinápi by name, who travels around like a chief and through her influence arbitrates questions that the more influential men of the region are unable to settle. she lives on the simúlao river, just above the settlement of san isidro, and is without doubt the individual of most influence on the upper simúlao and bahaían. in the jesuit letters mention is made of one pínkai who had great weight among her fellow tribesmen of the argáwan river. _ceteris peribus_, the word and authority of the old are respected more than those of others, probably because the former have more numerous relatives, including often their great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, as well as the indefinite number of relatives by marriage that have joined the family since their first sons or their first daughters married. when, however, they reach the age at which they can no longer travel around and take part in the numerous imbroglios and disputes that arise their influence is much less. this, it seems, is one of the great differences between the social system of the mandáyas and that of the manóbos and will explain the greater constancy and stability of the mandáya character as compared with that of the manóbo. the warrior chief[ ] [ ] _ba-gá-ni_ from _ba-rá-ni_ (malay), valiant. the sword in manóboland, as in all other parts of the world, is the final arbiter when conciliation fails. hence the prominent part played by the warrior chief in time of war and frequently in time of peace. for this reason it becomes necessary to discuss at more length the powers, prerogatives, and character of the warrior chief. general character the general character of the warrior chief is, among all the tribes of the agúsan valley, that of a warrior who has to his credit an average of five deaths. as such deaths are attributed primarily to the special protection of divinities, called _tagbúsau_, who delight in the shedding of blood, the chief is regarded in the light of a priest in all that concerns war in somewhat the same way as the _bailán_ or ordinary priest, under the protection of his familiars of tutelary spirits, is expected to officiate in all ordinary religious matters. to the priestly office of the warrior chief is added that of magician to the extent that he can safeguard himself and his friends with magic means against the evil designs of his enemies. finally, in a country where there is no supremely constituted authority with sufficient force to remedy grievances, but only personal valor and the lance and the bolo to appeal to, it may be expected that in the majority of cases the warrior will assume a fourth prerogative, namely, that of chief. thus the warrior chief will be considered heir in his warlike character of warrior, in his magic character as medicine man, and finally in his political character as chief. the christian conquest of the agúsan valley, begun in , and the establishment of a special form of government therein in , have contributed in no small measure to diminish the number of feuds and bloody reprisals that had given the agúsan valley its reputation as "the country of terror," and as a consequence leave little opportunity for the recognition of new warriors. thus it is that at the present day the ancient system is fast fading away, and it is only a matter of years before the warrior chief will be a thing of the past. insignia and prowess of the warrior chief as a person of recognized prowess, the warrior chief is naturally the leader in all warlike expeditions, and in time of peace he is looked up to as the future defender of the settlement in which he resides. red is the distinguishing mark of the war chief's dress, which ordinarily consists of a red headkerchief with embroidery of white, blue, and yellow cotton at the corners, of a red jacket with similar embroidery on the shoulders and around the back, and of long trousers, sometimes red. his bolo is usually larger and more costly than those carried by ordinary men and is generally of mandáya origin. his spear, too, is apt to be an expensive one, while his shield not infrequently is tufted with human hair. when leading his band of braves to the attack or during a sacrifice to his protector, the tagbúsau, he wears his charm-collar[ ] with its magic herbs.[ ] on the warpath he binds his hair knot securely and envelops it with a rough hewn hemisphere of wood. his influence in arranging all the details of the plan of attack is strong, but during the attack itself he has little control over his followers.[ ] this might be expected from the spirit of independence which the manóbo displays even in the ordinary affairs of life when not influenced by religious or other motives. [ ] _ta-li-hán_. [ ] these collars are often as thick as a man's arm in the center, tapering down to the ends. they are about centimeters long, made out of cloth, and contain in sections charms made of trees, plants, herbs, and bezoar and other magic stones, all thought to have divers mystic powers. [ ] so i have been assured by many great warriors. in personal valor the warrior chief invariably surpasses his fellows. there are many who will fight face to face, especially in the upper sálug, baóbo, ihawán, and agúsan regions. líno and his brother, the late gúnlas, both of the upper sálug, are two of the numerous examples that might be adduced. it is true that they take no inordinate risks before an attack, and especially where firearms are opposed to them, yet during an attack they become desperate and will take any risk. the warrior has often been branded as a traitor, a coward, and butcher, but such an opinion, i unhesitatingly assert, is based on ignorance and prejudice. the warrior's title to recognition when one of the braves who accompany an expedition has killed one or two men in fair fight he acquires the title of _manikiád_ and is entitled to wear a headkerchief striped with red and yellow. his prowess is acknowledged, and he is considered to be so favored by the powers above that he is looked upon as a prospective _bagáni_ or warrior chief. if during ensuing expeditions, or by ambushes, he increases to five[ ] the number of people whom he has killed, his position as a full-fledged warrior is recognized, but he does not become a warrior chief until such time as the spirits of the gods of war become manifested in him. he is then said to be possessed,[ ] as it were, and it requires only a banquet to the neighboring _datus_ and warrior chiefs to confirm his title. these peculiar operations of divine influence consist of manifestations of indescribable violence during the attack, of eating the heart and liver of a slain enemy, and of various other exhibitions. [ ] the number of killings required for promotion to the rank of _bagáni_, or recognized warrior, varies according to the locality. [ ] _tag-bu-sau-án_. various degrees of warrior chiefship the rank of a warrior chief depends on the number of deaths which he may have to his credit. there is apparently no fixed rule in this matter, the custom of one region demanding five deaths for a certain rank while that of another locality may require eight or only two deaths for a similar one. from all reports made to me in nearly every district in the middle and upper agúsan it appears that the number of deaths requisite in the olden days for the various degrees of warrior chiefship was much higher than it is at present, due no doubt to the greater frequency with which people were killed in those times. for this reason the more recent warrior chiefs are spoken of by the older warriors as worthless.[ ] [ ] _a-yo-á-yo_. the following are the titles recognized by the manóbos of the agúsan valley: ( ) _hanágan_; ( ) _tinabudán_;[ ] ( ) _kinaboan_; ( ) _lúto_ or _linambúsan_; ( ) _lunúgum_; ( ) _lípus_. [ ] _tinabudán_, i. e., wrapped, the full expression being "_tinabudán to tabañg_," i. e., wrapped with a red handkerchief. the first title, _hanágan_, is given to one who has killed five or more people but has not yet been admitted to the full favor of a _tagbúsau_ or blood spirit. the second title, _tinabudán_, is given to a warrior who has made it evident that he has divine favor and protection, made manifest in the consumption of the heart and the liver, and who falls into a condition similar to that of the priest while in an ecstasy. the insignia of this degree consists of a red kerchief worn wrapped around the hair knot at the back of the head. the third degree, _kinaboan_, as the word itself indicates,[ ] entitles the bearer to add to his apparel a red jacket. accounts are so various that the exact time when this title is conferred can not be definitely stated. thus in umaíam i was given to understand that deaths were a sine qua non, whereas on the kasilaían river , and on the sálug deaths were reported as sufficient. [ ] from _ká-bo_, a jacket. the fourth title, _lúto_, by its derivation means "cooked," "done," "finished," so that on attaining this degree a warrior is complete, at least as far as his raiment is concerned, for he adds a pair of red trousers. though the number of deaths requisite for the attainment of this degree is variously stated as being from to , yet i suggest as being, on the average, nearer the truth. the next degree, _lunúgum_, as the word indicates, entitles the bearer to dress himself all in black. it is a title acquired fortuitously, being given to one who during an attack happened _to lance unknowingly a dead man in the house of the enemy_. i can offer no further information on the point, except that the recipient of this title must have been already a recognized warrior. it seems probable that when a man commits such an act on a dead man he is believed to be especially favored by the war gods. the warrior chief who acquires the last title, _lípus_, is supposed to have innumerable deaths to his credit, but i venture to put as a safe standard of eligibility to this title. fifty deaths extending over a period of many years, and recounted with such additions as a little vanity and a wine-flushed head might suggest, might easily be converted into infinity. i know of no living warrior chief who bears the title of _lípus_. twenty-five deaths is the largest number reached by any warrior with whom i am acquainted. the famous líno of sálug and his brother the defunct gúnlas, reached this rank. the warrior chief in his capacity as chief it may be said that in nearly every case the warrior chief is the chief of the clan or settlement. as a man of proved prowess, of sufficient age, and with a good family following he is nearly always recognized as the only one competent to deal with all cases that may come up between his retainers and those of some other chief. thus it may be said that the manóbo political system is a patriarchal one in which an elder member of a family, through the respect due to his personal prowess, age, and following, and not through any legal or hereditary sanction adjudges such matters of dispute as inevitably arise between his followers and those of some one else. the system is based on custom and is carried out in a spirit of great fairness and equality. the territory over which the warrior chief extends his sway is recognized as being the collective ancestral property of the settlement. in time of war no one except a relative is permitted to enter it under the penalty of death, but in time of peace it lies open to all friendly fellow tribesmen. such matters, however, as fish poisoning[ ] and hunting by aliens are always interdicted. [ ] _pag-tu-bá-han_. over this territory, usually occupying miles and miles of virgin forest, lofty mountain, and fair valley, are scattered the dependents and relatives of the warrior. it is only in times of trouble or of expected attack that they build high houses for purposes of defense in closer proximity to the chief. these settlements number between and souls, the former number being nearer the average than the latter. the attitude of the followers toward their chief is in time of peace one of kinship feeling or one of indifference. he has practically no authority until called upon in time of trouble to lend the weight of his influence and the fame of his prowess. he collects no tribute and receives no services. in every respect he does as his lowest retainer does, hunts, fishes, etc., except that he travels more to visit friendly neighboring chiefs, who always receive him as a guest of honor and feast him when they have the wherewithal. various grades of chiefs are occasionally reported, such as _kuyáno_,[ ] _masikámpo_,[ ] and _dátu_ but such grades do not exist. these names have probably been conferred by mercenary bisáyas for commercial reasons and are not assumed by manóbos even for purposes of ostentation. [ ] _kuláno_, a title applied, i think, to moros of the rio grande of mindanáo, and used, i have heard, by the banuáons. [ ] _maestre de campo_--i. e., field marshal--was a title given by the spaniards to faithful bukídnon chiefs. the warrior chief is in almost every case the person of greatest influence and authority, both by reason of his position in the family and because of the prestige of his valor. in a country where the bolo and lance are final arbiters when all else has failed the warrior must of necessity be chief or be a person of very marked influence. if he is not recognized as such, he generally removes himself with as many as will or must follow to another locality, and there he becomes chief. nothing said here is intended to apply to the political organization of the christianized manóbos, or _conquistas_ into settlements under the special government of the agúsan province. my remarks are confined exclusively to the pagan people. the warrior chief as priest and medicine man the reader is referred to the second part of chapter xxiv, part iv, for a detailed account of the functions and prerogatives of the warrior chief in his capacity as priest. for the present we will pass on to consider him in his role of medicine man, summarizing briefly his magic methods for the cure of various ailments ascribed to supernatural agency. as to the warrior's knowledge and powers in both capacities, i have always found the many warrior chiefs with whom i have come in contact very reticent and have accordingly been unable to secure detailed information on this subject. it is beyond a doubt, however, that great powers are attributed to them both in causing and curing certain ailments. it may be said that any disease attributed to the displeasure of the blood spirits falls within their jurisdiction as priests and may be cured by a sacrifice or by other ceremonial methods. as a general rule they are supposed to have a knowledge of various magic and medicinal herbs. they are always the possessors of necklaces,[ ] to which are attributed such powers as those of imparting invisibility and invulnerability. these peculiar charms, as well as numerous herbs, roots, and other things possessing magic power for good and for evil, are often bound up in the charm collars and can not be seen. nothing will prevail upon the owner to declare even their names. after opening the breast of the slain enemies they dip these mystic collars in the blood and thereby, through the instrumentality of their blood spirits, impart to the collars greater potency. [ ] _ta-li-hán_. hemorrhages and all wounds or other troubles in which a flux of blood appears are thought to emanate from the desire of the familiars of the warrior priests for blood. hence he is called upon to make intercession and to propitiate[ ] these bloodthirsty spirits with the sacrifice of a pig or fowl. after the pig has been killed, a little of the blood is caught in a split bamboo receptacle,[ ] which is then hung up in the house with the blood left in it for the regalement of these insatiate spirits. [ ] _dá-yo to tag-búsau_. [ ] _bin-u-ká_. besides curative means the warrior medicine man is said to have secret means of causing bodily harm to those against whom he feels a grievance. these means are called _kometán_ and have been described in chapter xv. it is true that others are reputed to have these secret magic means, but none except the warrior priest will make open confession of their reputed powers. chapter xviii political organization: war, its origin, inception, course, and termination military affairs in general there exists no military organization in manóboland, no standing army, no reviews, no conscription. the whole male circle of relatives and such others as desire to take part, either for friendship's sake or for the glory and spoil, form the war party. there is no punishment for failure to join an expedition but as blood is thicker than water, the nearer male relatives always take part and there are never wanting others who either bear a grudge against the author of the grievance or go for the emolument that they may receive or even for the sport and the spoil of it. it is customary to bring along such male slaves as may be depended upon to render faithful and efficient work. it is only fear of incurring enmity that holds back the majority of those who do not take part. i here desire, to impress upon my readers one important point in the manóbo's idea of war, and it is this: _that no blame is laid upon nor resentment harbored toward anyone who joins an expedition as a paid warrior_.[ ] i have ascertained beyond reasonable doubt, after continual questioning on my part and open unsolicited avowals on the part of others, that warrior chiefs are frequently paid to redress a wrong in which they have no personal concern. [ ] _sin-nó-ho_. in the case of ordinary tribesmen, i know that where personal feelings and the hope of material advantages are not an inducement to partake in the expedition, they are frequently tempted with an offer of some such thing as a fine bolo or a lance, to lend their services to the leader of the war party. it is needless to say that only close ties of friendship or relationship to the enemy prevent the offer from being accepted, _especially as the acceptance of it relieves the manóbo from all responsibility for such deaths as may accrue to his credit during the prospective encounter_. when, however, previous feuds, or other unfriendly antecedents existed between the warrior and his opponent, the acceptance of a remuneration for his participation in the fray would not shield him from the dire vengeance that would, sooner or later, surely follow. for a description of the weapons used and of the manner of using them, the reader is referred to chapter xi. in the description of the manóbo house (chapter v), reference was made to the high houses erected for defense when an unusual attack is expected. tree houses, at the time i left the valley, were very few and far between, even in the eastern cordillera and at the headwaters of the tágo river. besides building high houses and resorting to devices referred to in chapter v, the manóbos occasionally slash down the surrounding forest in such a way as to form a veritable abatis of timber. in one place i saw a very unique and effective form of defense. a fence surrounded the house. to gain access to the latter it was necessary to ascend a notched pole about meters high and then to pass along two horizontal bamboo poles about meters long. numerous deadly bamboo caltrops bristled out of the ground underneath the precarious bamboo bridge that led to a platform whence the house could be reached only by climbing the usual notched pole. whosoever ventured to cross this perilous bridge, would certainly meet death from one source or another, either from the hurtling shower of arrows from above or from the bristling caltrops below. the origin of war fighting arises from one or more of the following causes: vendettas, sexual infringements, debts, and sometimes from a system of private seizure, by which the property or life of an innocent third party is taken. the manóbo expresses the same thing in a simpler way by saying that war has its origin in two things, namely "debt (blood debt included) and deceit." it has been said that glory and the capture of slaves are the springs of war in manóboland, but this, in my opinion, is not true. nor will i concede that war is undertaken for merely religious reasons. it is my belief, verified by numerous observations made during several years of intimate dealing with manóbos throughout eastern mindanáo, that fighting or killing takes place in order to redress a wrong or to collect a debt, whether it be of blood or of anything else. it is true that many who have no grievance, take part merely for the sport, the spoil, and the glory of it, but in no case that i know of was there wanting on the part of those who inaugurated the war a real and reasonable motive. i have heard of cases of unjust warfare but my informants were enemies of the parties against whom they complained and most probably were calumniating them. vendettas vendettas, which exist in many more enlightened countries of the world, are the most common cause of war, or it would be better to say, of the continuance of war. there is no doubt, in my mind, but that the whole eastern quarter of mindanáo would flame out into interclan warfare, were it not for the efficient form of government now established there. i can bear witness to this fact, as i was cognizant of various raids that took place from to and of the fact that they were much less frequent from the close of till my departure from the agúsan valley in . as in other countries, so in manóboland, not only is the vendetta regarded as legitimate but it is considered the duty of every relative of the slain to seek revenge for his death. living in a state of absolute independence from the restraints of outside government, as they had been up to the beginning of the christian conquest in , the manóbos, according to their own accounts, passed a very unquiet existence. on account of blood feuds, most of them lived in tree houses built in lofty inaccessible places, as i have been repeatedly told by old men. i have been assured that if ever the americans leave the valley, old blood scores will be settled, even should it be necessary "to do without salt."[ ] [ ] the enjoyment of salt seems to be, in the manóbo's estimation, one of the greatest blessings, if not the greatest, that he has derived from civilization. yet he would be willing to forego the use of it, if it were possible for him to take revenge upon the slayers of his relatives. the vendetta system was so prevalent during my first travels in eastern mindanáo that on one occasion a manóbo of the tágo river inquired of me whether there were any living relatives of a certain manóbo of the upper argáwan who had killed his grandfather. upon learning that there were, he forthwith besought me to accompany him in a raid against the relatives of his grandfather's murderers. another instance will show the persistency with which the idea of revenge is entertained. i noticed in a house on the wá-wa river a strong rattan vine strung taut from a rafter to one of the floor joists. my host, the owner of the house, waxed over-merry in his cups and was descanting on his valiant feats in the pre-american days. he suddenly jumped up and twanged the rattan, intimating that he might yet be able to take revenge on a certain enemy of his but that if he were unable to do it, his son after him would strive to fulfill his teaching and that in any case vengeance would be had before the vine rotted. anyone familiar with the rattan knows its durability, when protected from the influences of the sun and rain. this practice of stretching a green rattan in some part of the house and of vowing vengeance "till it rot" is not uncommon, and is an indication of the deep, eternal desire for vengeance so characteristic of the manóbos. another practice, also indicative of the vendetta system, is the bequeathing from father to son[ ] of the duty of seeking revenge. i have never been present at the ceremony but have heard over and over again that so-and-so received the inheritance and must endeavor to carry out the dying behest of his father or other relative. one man, who had received this "teaching," on being questioned as to whether he would like to make peace with his enemy, seemed shocked and vehemently protested, saying, "it can't be done, it can't be done, it is tabooed;" he then went on to upbraid me soundly for the suggestion. [ ] it is called _ka-tud-li-án_. in some cases, the task of revenge is turned over to a third party, who has no personal interest in the feud. as explained to me, such a person is in a better position to attack the enemy than one whose duty it is. in case he succeeds in getting revenge, no blame, i was assured, is attached to him, as he is regarded in the light of a paid warrior or mercenary. such an institution as this of the vendetta together with the system of private seizure render life in manóboland very hazardous, and serve to explain the extreme caution and forbearance exhibited by one manóbo toward another in the most trivial concerns of life. private seizure[ ] [ ] _tau-a-gán_. the practice of private seizure is a very peculiar one, according to our way of thinking, yet it is universal among the tribes of eastern mindanáo. as long as it is confined to material things, it is not ordinarily a cause for war, but when practiced on a human being, it frequently results in retaliation in kind. the practice consists in seizing the property of a third, frequently a neutral, party, as a "call" on the debtor. for example, a owes b a slave and for one reason or another has been unable or unwilling to pay his debt. b has exhibited a sufficient amount of patience, while at the same time he has used every means to bring pressure to bear upon a. finally, despairing of collecting in an amicable way, and, most probably, suspecting that his debtor is playing with him, he seizes a relative or a slave or a pig of c as a "call" to a. c thus pays a's debt and then takes measures to collect from him, the understanding being that b is to take all responsibility for the consequences. this system seldom gives rise to a blood feud except when blood has been shed. thus in the above instance, had b killed c, as a summons to a, a feud would almost infallibly have followed. yet c's relatives might have been willing to accept a money compensation from b, and might have come to an agreement whereby they would jointly operate against a in order to avenge the death of c. i witnessed a case in which the seizure of a pig was the origin of a bloody feud that had not ended at the time of my departure from the upper agúsan. as the individuals involved in the case are still living their names will be represented by letters. a had been fined p because his wife had made the statement that b had knowledge of a secret or magic[ ] poison. c who was a relative of a and already owed b to the amount of p , with the consent of all parties concerned, assumed the responsibility of paying a's debt, thereby putting himself in debt to b to the amount of one slave (at p ). now some of c's relatives had certain little claims against some of b's relatives and thought it a good opportunity to collect their own dues and to diminish their kinsman's debt by presenting their claims for payment. b refused to pay on the ground that his kinsfolk and not himself were responsible for the settlement of said claims, whereupon c refused to deliver his slave till the payment to his relatives was forthcoming. [ ] _ko-me-tán_. the matter thus lingered for several months until b, who owed a slave to another party, and was pressed for payment thought it time to force matters, and, in company with three relatives, seized a's sow as a "call" on c. the result of this was that after a few weeks b's wife and another woman were speared to death in a _camote_ patch, and in revenge b took the lives of two of c's party. i made every possible effort to have the matter adjudicated in an informal way but neither party seemed to be anxious to come to terms. owing to this system of private seizure, a party of warriors returning from an unsuccessful raid are considered dangerous, and settlements on their trail put themselves in a state of watchfulness,[ ] for when returning without having secured a victim the party might be incited to make a seizure in order to avoid thereby the derision of their enemies. [ ] _lá-ma_. debts and sexual infringements long-continued failure to pay a debt is very frequently the remote cause of war. this is easy to understand if we consider the sacredness with which debts are regarded in manóboland. an excessive delay in meeting obligations gives rise to hot and hasty words on the part of the creditor; the debtor takes umbrage and retorts, a quarrel with bolos ensues, thereby giving rise to a feud that, under favorable conditions, may continue for generations with its fierce mutual reprisals. a feature that serves to increase the number of these financial bickerings is the fact that questions of indebtedness are almost invariably discussed while drinking is going on and as a result, according to an immemorial rule the world over, the creditor frequently indulges in personalities. sexual infringements are a cause of war. only one case passed under my personal notice but instances of olden days were related to me. there is no doubt in my mind as to the result of a serious sexual misdemeanor; it is death by the lance or the bolo for the offender without much parleying, if one may give credence to the universal outspoken manóbo opinion on the subject. inception of war declaration of war no heralds go forth to announce to the enemy the coming conflict. on the contrary, the greatest secrecy is maintained. if the grievance is a sudden and serious one, such as the death of a clansman, a set of ambushers may be dispatched at the earliest moment that the omens are found favorable. or it may be decided to attack the settlement of the enemy in full force. if the latter decision is reached, a party is sent out to reconnoiter the place of attack. all information possible is obtained from neighbors of the enemy, and, if the reconnaissance shows conditions favorable for an attack, the march is begun in due form. should the reconnoitering party, however, report unfavorably, the attack is put off until, after weeks, months, or years of patient, but close, vigilance and inquiry, a favorable opportunity presents itself. sometimes a bolder warrior chief who has a personal grievance may send a war message in the shape of a fighting-bolo,[ ] or of a lance with an abusive challenge, but this is rare, as far as i have been able to ascertain. it is common, however, for the more famed war chiefs to keep their personal enemies on the _qui-vive_, by periodic threats. "i will begin my march nights from now," "i will reap his rice," "i will eat his heart and liver," "he won't be able to sow rice for four years," "i need his wife to plant my _camotes_"--are samples of the messages that reach a clansman and keep him and his family on some mountain pinnacle for many a long year till such time as the threat is carried out and the posts of his house, all wreathed with secondary growth, tell the grim tale of revenge. i have seen such posts scattered over the face of eastern mindanáo--a memory of the dead. [ ] _li-kúd-lí-kud_. time for war the usual time for war is either on the occasion of death in the family or at the time of the harvest season. the former is selected both to soften, by the joy of victory, the sorrow felt for the loss of a dear relative, and to check the jubilation that the enemy would naturally feel and frequently express on such an occasion. the latter is chosen for the purpose of destroying the enemy's rice crop or at least of making it difficult for him to harvest it. war is undertaken at other times also. thus a sudden and grievous provocation would cause an expedition to start just as soon as the necessary number of warriors could be assembled, and a favorable combination of omens obtained. it often happens, i have been told over and over again, that when an attack proves unsuccessful, those who repelled the attack set out at once to surprise their enemies by a shower of arrows while the latter are returning to their homes, or, if possible, reach the settlement before them and massacre the defenseless women and children. preparations for war the remote preparations for war consist in locating the house of the enemy and in getting all information, even the minutest, as to the trails, position of traps and bamboo spears. all this must be done through a third party, preferably someone who has a grievance to satisfy, and may require months or even years, for the manóbo is a cautious fighter and will take no unnecessary risks. during all this time the aggrieved party is enlisting, in a quiet, diplomatic way, the good will of as many as he can trust. if he has no recognized warrior chief on his side he must by all means secure the services of at least one, even though it should be necessary to offer him a material compensation and in divers other ways gain his good will and cooperation. the immediate preparations consist in sending out a few of the nearest male relatives several days or even a week before the intended attack to reconnoiter the settlement of the enemy. on the return of this party word is sent to those who have agreed to join the expedition and a day and place are appointed for meeting. a pig and a supply of rice are procured and on the appointed day the relatives and friends of the leader assemble at the trysting place, which was, in nearly every instance that i witnessed or heard of, a house somewhat remote from the settlement. with a warrior chief for officiant certain religious rites[ ] are performed. the pig is partaken of in the usual style and, if the omens are favorable, all is ready. but should the omens portend evil, the expedition is put off to a more auspicious occasion. in one instance that passed under my personal observation the departure of the warriors was postponed for several days by reason of inauspicious omens. i have heard of some cases in which the war party returned after several days' march in order to await more reassuring signs of success. [ ] see pt. iv, ch. xxvi. no particular demonstrations of sorrow are manifested by the women when the war party sets out. revenge is of more importance than love. moreover, it is seldom that the casualties on the side of the aggressors amount to more than one, so that no fear is entertained and all are sanguine as to the outcome, for have not the omens been consulted and have they not portended so many deaths and so many captives? the band glides off silently and stealthily into the forest. a war chief, if one has been willing to join the expedition, usually leads, accompanied, it is believed, by his invisible war deities. a little ahead, just the distance of a whisper, the manóbos say, strides mandayáñgan, the giant and the hero of the old, old days. all ears are alert for the turtledove's cry, and when its prophetic voice is heard, every arm is up and points with closed fist in the direction of it. but it is only its direction with regard to the leader that is considered. if this is unfavorable, the march is discontinued till the next day, but, if favorable, the party proceeds, selecting, as much as possible, tortuous and seldom trodden trails. the following are some of the taboos that must be observed by the party while en route. ( ) they may speak to no one met on the trail. ( ) nothing once taken in the hand may be thrown away until night or until arriving at the enemies' settlement. thus a piece of a branch caught in the hand and broken off accidentally must be retained. ( ) they may eat nothing that is found on the trail. thus killing game is prohibited. i heard of one man who had been wounded in an ambush arranged by the enemy on the trail. he assured me that his ill luck was due to his having taken a fish dropped by a fish eagle.[ ] [ ] _man-dá-git_. ( ) the food taken on the trail must be placed upon one shield, preferably that of the leader, and thence distributed to the members of the party. ( ) the wives of the warriors are forbidden to indulge in unnecessary shouting and noise, and to remain within the house as far as possible till the return of their husbands. ( ) no cooking may be done on the trail till the settlement of the enemy is reached. this does not mean that food may not be cooked in a house along the trail. on the contrary, i was assured that on a long trip it is customary to call at the house of some friendly person and to make a sacrifice, at the same time taking further observations from the intestines of the victim. i was an eyewitness of this proceeding on one occasion and did not fail to observe also with what relish the war party replenished the inner man. besides taboos, there are a number of evil omens that must be guarded against. thus, if a snake were to cross the path, or any insect such as a bee or a scorpion were to bite or sting one of the party, the return of the whole number would be necessary unless they were too far advanced already. in the latter case other omens must be consulted, and, when it is felt that these new omens have neutralized the effect of the previous ones, the march may be continued. owing to the observance and reobservance of omens it is obvious that great delays are occasioned and at times the expedition is stopped. on the one that i accompanied in , the turtledove gave a cry, the direction of which was considered to portend neither good nor evil, and the leader expressed his opinion at the time that the object of the expedition would not be attained. he was overruled, however, by the consensus of opinion of his companions, and the march was resumed. notwithstanding the fact that ensuing signs all proved favorable, yet as i observed very clearly, the first omen had depressed the spirits of the party. when my efforts to settle the dispute without a fight failed, and an open attack was decided upon, there seemed to be no morale in the party, and the attack was abandoned without any special reason. this instance will serve to show the uncompromising faith of the manóbo in omens, especially in that of the turtledove. there is one omen of a peculiar nature that is of singular importance while on the warpath. on such a journey red pepper and ginger are consumed in considerable quantities for the purpose, it is said, of increasing one's courage. naturally, no matter how accustomed one may have become to these spices, he always feels their piquancy to a certain extent, so that the warrior who fails to become aware of a sharp biting taste, regards this as an ill omen and, though he accompanies his fellows to the scene of combat, takes no part in the attack. it is usual, as was said before, to stop over at a friendly house nearest to that of the enemy and to send forward a few of the band to make another reconnaissance but, if no house is available, a stop is made anywhere. a reason for this is that they may arrive near the settlement at nightfall or during the night. when the party arrives within a few miles of the actual ascent to the mountain where the enemy's house is situated, a halt is again made in a concealed position and a few of the more experienced warriors advance at dusk on the trail to the house. if the enemy has been in a state of constant vigilance, this undertaking is one of extreme difficulty. the house is on the top of a lofty hill and frequently access can not be had to it except by passing through a series of swamps. in addition one must climb up precipitous ascents, and break through a network of felled trees and such other obstacles as the reader can readily imagine for himself. there is, moreover, the danger from spring traps set both for man and animal, and from sharp bamboo slivers placed all around the house and on the trails. thus a fair idea can be obtained of the difficulties that are encountered by those who, in the silence and darkness of the night, inform themselves of all that is necessary for a successful attack. after going around the house and unspringing traps and removing sufficient of the bamboo slivers to afford a safe passage, the scouts return to the camp and a whispered consultation takes place. positions are assigned to each man and a general plan of attack is made. then, groping along in the gloom of the night, with never a sound but that of their own stumbling steps, they put themselves in position around the settlement and await with bated[sic] breath the break of day. the attack time and methods of attack the break of day is selected as the hour for the attack because sleep is then thought to be soundest and the drowsiness and sluggishness following the awakening to be greater. moreover, at that time there is sufficient light to enable the attacking party to see their opponents whether they fight or flee. the number of combatants depends entirely on the strength and position of the enemy. as a rule as many as possible are enlisted for an expedition where the enemy has numerical strength and a strong position. in the expedition which i accompanied in , the party numbered some . i have heard of war parties that numbered . when the house or houses of the enemy are low, the aggressors steal up noiselessly and, breaking out into the dismal war cry,[ ] drive their lances through the floor or through the sides of the house, if it is low enough. they then retire and by listening and questioning ascertain whether any of the inmates still survive. if any remain alive they are to surrender. [ ] _pa-nad-jáu-an_. when, however, the settlement is a large one, consisting of one or more high houses, the matter is a more difficult one. the aggressors advance to the house and if the floor is out of reach of their lances one or more of the bolder ones may quietly climb up the posts and after dispatching one or more of the inmates with a few thrusts hurriedly slide down to the ground. then the war cry is called out to increase the consternation that has begun to reign in the house. if the enemy is known to have a large stock of arrows the aggressors retire and allow them to expend part of their supply. no unnecessary risks are taken in fighting. when the male portion of the enemy are considered capable of making a stand, the house is not approached but a battle of arrows takes place, the aggressors advancing to entice the enemy to shoot, while their bowmen, usually only a few in number, reply. during all this time there is a bandying of hot words, threats, and imprecations on both sides. "i'll have your hair," "i'll eat your liver," "i'll sacrifice your son," "your wife will get my water," are a few of the expressions that are used. the drum and gong in the house may be beaten all this time as a signal of distress to call such relatives or friends as may live within hearing distance. the priestesses of the attacked party may go through a regular sacrifice if there is a chicken or a pig in the house, beseeching their deities to protect them in this the hour of danger. when the arrows of the enemy are thought to be expended, the attacking party try by means of a burning arrow to fire the roof. should this succeed, the inmates are doomed, for when they escape from the house the enemy close in upon them, and kill with lances or bolos, men and women, whether married or single. as a rule, only the children are spared. should the roof, however, fail to catch fire another means of attack is employed. putting their shields upon their heads in a formation much like the old roman testudo, they advance to the house in bodies of four or six and begin to hack down the posts. but here again they may be foiled, for it has happened that the inmates of the house were provided with a supply of big stones, or had a little boiling water on hand, and made their opponents retire out of fear of the arrows that would be sure to follow when the stones had broken the arrangement of their shields. moreover, the ordinary manóbo, who has lived in expectation of an attack sooner or later, has his house set on a number of posts varying from to . no little time would be required to cut these and the aggressors would be in danger of receiving wounds and thereby bringing the attack to an end, _for it is the invariable practice for the party to retire after one of its members has been wounded or slain_. the reason for this custom i am unable to state. there occurred on the argáwan in an instance which i verified, and in the various accounts of manóbo fighting that i received all over the agúsan valley, there were numerous instances of the observance of this custom. in besieging the house, which may not be captured for several days, either firewood, food, or water may give out quickly, and the besieged succumb to hunger, or to thirst. in their last extremity they make a dash for liberty, especially during the night, and, though many of them fall victims, not a few frequently save themselves. sometimes, i was told, the besieged rush forward and meet death fighting. again the men are said to kill their wives and children with their own hands, and then to go forth to meet the enemy. father urios, s. j., makes mention of a case of this kind. as to the number of slain, and of captives, it depends on the size of the settlement. in an instance which i verified on the húlip river, upper agúsan, some souls perished in one attack. though this number seems large, yet it goes to show that on occasions raids are made on a somewhat larger scale than might be expected. as each one of the attacking party strikes down the victim that falls in his way he notifies his companions of the fact by a fierce yell, calling out at the same time the name of his victim. this is to avoid disputes later and to secure the credit for the killing. though the killing of a woman does not entitle the warrior to any special title, yet it adds one to his glory list and is supposed to make him more apt to fall into the favor of a war deity. it is said that in the confusion of the flight many women meet their end but that a good many remain in the houses and yield themselves to the mercy of their captors. some of these, especially the younger ones, are bound with rattan, if they offer resistance and dragged to the settlement of their captors. as soon as it is ascertained that there is no one left to offer resistance the warriors adorn their lances with leaves of _palma brava_ or such other palm fronds as may be found in the vicinity. many warrior chiefs, especially of the debabáon[ ] group, have described the fight to me and all agree that it is generally of short duration. this might be expected from the number of precautions taken to insure success. according to all reports a strongly entrenched enemy is seldom attacked, unless it is ascertained that a goodly portion of the male members are absent. [ ] babáo is the district between the sálug and libagánon rivers. as a resume of the method of attack, based on what i learned during my sojourn among the manóbos, i may say that there are no general nor partial encounters. the house or the settlement is surrounded stealthily just before day, the warriors being spread out at intervals in bands of three or four around the settlement and protected if possible by trees. the leader, who is nearly always a warrior chief, takes up his position with some trusty warriors at the place of closest approach to the house, or at some other strategic point. the arrowmen, who number only a few, are stationed near him. they work at a disadvantage for they have to shoot upward while their opponents in the houses can discharge their arrows downward. from these positions the attacking party make every effort to cause a panic among the inmates of the house either by chopping down the posts which support the house or by firing the roof. if either purpose is accomplished the besieged rush forth only to meet the point of the lance or the edge of the bolo. there are no preconcerted movements, no combinations with centers, wings, and reserves. the chief has little or no influence with his followers during the fight, though on account of his personal prowess he is looked up to as a pillar of strength and would, no doubt, if given the opportunity, or if the abuse and banter were extreme, engage in a hand-to-hand encounter. numerous cases of this kind are on record. no women nor priests take part in the attack. there are no orators to inspire the warriors to deeds of valor. in lieu of oratory, the warriors on each side engage in the most ferocious abuse imaginable. challenge after challenge is yelled out defiantly by the besiegers. in the expedition which i joined in , the attacking party incessantly defied their enemies to come down, while the latter in return challenged the besiegers to approach. neither party seemed willing to take the risk so the arrowmen plied their arrows, the priestesses in the houses continued their invocations, and everybody howled challenges and imprecations at everybody else. events following the battle celebration of the victory after the fight is over the warrior chiefs perform a ceremony of which i have been able to learn but few details. they are said to become possessed by their tutelary war spirits. they dance and jump around the lifeless body of their chief enemy.[ ] after performing their dance they open the breast of the enemy and remove the heart and liver, and place their charm collars[ ] in the opening. when the heart and liver have been cooked, they consume them. but as several war chiefs have assured me, it is not they that partake of the flesh, but their protecting deities. be that as it may, lemon[ ] whenever obtainable, is mixed with the gory viands. some warriors informed me that their deities preferred the heart and liver raw. [ ] their tongues are said to loll out of their mouths "one palm-length." this may seem somewhat exaggerated but i can throw no further light on the matter. [ ] _ta-li-hán_. [ ] _sú-ái_. it is interesting to note the frequency of the use of lemons or limes in religious proceedings. it is perfectly legitimate to despoil the enemy's house and to bear away such few valuables as may be found. the house, or houses, are then burnt, and the victors, leaving the slain where they fell, hasten back with their captives to cheer the fond ones at home.[ ] [ ] i have heard it said that the bodies of the slain are doubled up and put into holes in the ground in an upright position. as far as i know this is an exceptional proceeding. it is said that, as a rule, the aggressors are victorious, for rarely do they attack an enemy that is too strongly entrenched. they prefer to wait, even for years, till an occasion favorable in time, place, and circumstances, presents itself. it is only under special provocation, such as continual attacks by their enemy, that they attack him while he is in a strong position and then more with a view to destroying his crops than with the hope of securing a victim. the capture of slaves the capture of slaves is one of the important features of the expedition. a slave becomes the property of the captor, although a certain number are very frequently given in payment to the warrior chief or chiefs who were engaged to help the raiding party. this number depends on a previous agreement. the age of the captive decides whether he or she will be taken into captivity or slain on the spot. as a rule, all but children under the age of puberty are despatched[sic] there and then as they are liable to escape sooner or later if taken captive. however, i was assured by several warrior chiefs that the better looking unmarried girls are not killed, but are kept to be married, or to be retailed in marriage, thereby bringing a handsome remuneration to the owner. it must not be supposed by the reader that this implies anything inconsistent with sexual morality, for these female slaves are treated with as much delicacy as if they were the captor's daughters. to the numerous inquiries that i made on this point, there was only one reply--that sexual intercourse with them was foul and would make the offender _ga-bá-an_.[ ] a warrior who would be guilty of violating this taboo would never, it is thought, attain the rank of warrior chief. should anyone of the warriors desire to marry his captive he must go through a purificatory[ ] process, the details of which i am unable to furnish. [ ] i have never yet been able to grasp the significance of this word. it is used by bisáyas in the form _hi-ga-bá'-an_, which has apparently a very similar meaning. [ ] _hú-gad_. the above taboo goes even further. not only is the person of the living female captives to be respected but also that of the dead, in so far as it-is considered improper to remove from their persons any object such as bracelets or hair. men's bodies, however, are rifled of everything, even their hair, and are then unmercifully hacked and hewn. the return of the warriors if the war party is unsuccessful, they return hastily and cautiously. it frequently happens that the enemy take a short cut, being better acquainted with the geography of the region, and lay an ambush at a suitable point. for this reason a close watch is kept on the return home; a few warriors take the lead, and where a beaten trail is followed, a few keep guard on each side at a distance of several yards, to avoid falling into an ambush. when the party arrive at their settlement each repairs to his own house. a thousand and one reasons are assigned for failure, but never is it attributed to a falseness of the omens--anything but that. should the band, however, have been victorious, or have brought about the death of the chief enemy at least, no words can describe their joy and jubilation. the woods reecho with their wild screams and the weird ululations of the battle cry. each one provides himself with a bamboo trumpet and makes the forest resound with its deep boom. the captives that offer any resistance, are dragged along, or even killed, if they become too troublesome. upon nearing a friendly settlement the din is redoubled and the whole settlement turns out to welcome the victors. but when their home settlement is reached the scene is indescribable. i witnessed an occasion of this kind. before the party came into sight the bamboo trumpets could be heard, first faintly and then increasing in strength. as soon as the expectant women and the few men who had remained in the village had satisfied themselves that their relatives and friends were returning, drums and gongs were beaten in answer. the young men and boys rushed out and crossing the river on their rafts or in their boats dashed into the forest to meet the conquerors. even the women became hilarious and gave vent to loud cries. for a few minutes before the appearance of the party the war cry could be heard and when they came into view on the other side of the river the din was indescribable. the gong and drum were brought down to the bank and the war tattoo was beaten. the clanging of the gong, the rolling of the drum, the booming of the trumpets, the ululation of the war cry, and the lusty yells and shrieks of joy, welcome, and inquiry produced a pandemonium that baffles description. before the victors crossed the river they all took a bath,[ ] not for sanitary but for ceremonial reasons. the bath is thought to have a purificatory effect in that it removes the evil influence[ ] of death. [ ] this is an invariable custom, i was told. [ ] _bá-ho_, literally foul smell. when the victors had crossed the river they removed the palm fronds[ ] with which they had adorned their lances and put them on the necks and heads of their wives and friends. later on a banquet was prepared and the reader is left to conceive for himself the revels that followed. it is said that not infrequently at this time some of the captives are given to the unsuccessful warriors for immediate slaughter. that this has occurred i have absolutely no reason to doubt, and every reason to believe. i have heard many describe among themselves how it was done, and what joy it gave them to be able to take revenge upon one of their hereditary enemies. [ ] called _ma-yún-hau_. it is said that these are frequently stained with the blood of the slain. ambushes and other methods of warfare ambush[ ] is a legitimate method of warfare, according to manóbo customs. it consists in locating one's self with one or more companions at a place which the enemy is expected to pass. a favorite place for the ambush is on the trail between the enemy's house and his rice or _camote_ field, but a spot on a river bank or at any suitable point may be selected. great precautions are taken by putting up screens of leaves to prevent the enemy from discovering the ambush. this is always made on the right hand[ ] and very frequently there is a supply of sticks and stones in readiness. the position on the right hand is chosen because it gives those in wait an opportunity to deal a blow on the weaker side of the enemy, all of whom carry the shield in the left hand. [ ] _báñg-an_. [ ] right hand refers to the right hand of the party to be attacked. it is customary to take an ear or the right forearm of one slain in ambush as a proof of his death if the conditions of the ambush require such a proof. an instance occurred during my first visit to the upper agúsan in . three mañgguáñgans were ambushed by a mixed group of manóbos and debabáons, and the above-mentioned parts of their bodies were taken by the victors to their clans as a proof of the killing. after a rupture between two parties, one or both of them go into a state which is expressed by the word _láma_. this signifies that one or both of them abandons his homestead and transfers himself and the members of his household (usually a few brothers-in-law with their families) to some place difficult of access. if the house can be built on a bluff, or a hill that is approachable from only one or two sides, so much the better. on such a site a house[ ] is built varying from meters to meters in height, sometimes, though rarely nowadays, being built upon a tree trunk. the felled timber at the edge of the forest is left unburned. bamboo or _palma brava_ caltrops are placed in the encircling forest. in addition to these, spring traps[ ] for human beings may be set out if it is suspected that an attack is imminent. in certain localities i have seen a stockade[ ] erected around the house. sometimes a wall of old bamboo may be built from the ground up to the floor, inclined inward at the bottom at an angle of about ° to the ground. the ladder is invariably a log with a number of notches in it. strips of bark or even bamboo shingles may form the roof but as a rule the manóbo takes his chances with a roof of rattan leaf. [ ] _i-li-hán_. [ ] _bá-tik_. [ ] _in-á-gud_. on approaching the house of one who is in state of vigilance, it is not unusual to find certain signs on the trail. thus a broken earthen pot is frequently hung up, or if the trail leads to the house of a warrior chief, there will be probably the parted bamboo called _binúka_, and a number of saplings slashed down at a certain point on the trail, both of which signs are symbolic of the evil fate that will befall such as dare to enter the guarded region. no one but a near relative may live within a certain definite distance of a house which is in a state of defense, nor may anyone visit it except by special request. if the inmate has to meet anyone he appoints a trysting place at some spot in the woods and there the visitor, by beating on the butress[sic] of a tree or by any other preconcerted signal, announces his presence. the former may be suspicious and may first circle around to examine the footprints before he ventures to approach. peace[ ] [ ] _dug-kút_. when the opposing parties have evened up their blood accounts and are wearied of ambushes, surprises, loss of relatives, destruction of crops, and continual fight and flight, they agree to make peace either through a friendly chief, or by a formal peacemaking. the desire to make peace is made known by sending to the enemy a work bolo. if it is accepted, it is a sign that the desire is mutual but if it is returned, arbitration must be brought about through a third party, usually a warrior chief or a _datu_. for this purpose a clear open space, such as a big sandbar, is appointed and a day fixed. on the appointed day the parties arrive in separate bands and take up their positions facing one another, a line being drawn or a long piece of rattan being placed on the ground beyond which no member of either party may pass. matters are then discussed in the presence of such _datus_ or persons of influence as may have been selected for that purpose and after balancing up blood and other debts, the leaders agree to make the payments at an appointed time and thereby put an end to the feud. as an evidence of their sincerity, they part between them a piece of green rattan.[ ] then beeswax[ ] is burned. this is a kind of oath which serves to bind them to their contracts.[ ] [ ] i have been informed of a very interesting custom said to be observed by the banuáon group in settling their troubles. it was said that peace is made by hand-to-hand fights in which single pairs of opponents fight until the _datus_ who act as umpires award the victory to one or the other. this is called _din-a-tú-an_. [ ] _tó-tuñg_. [ ] i never witnessed a peacemaking and i never had a chance to assist at one of the referred combats of the banuáon people, mentioned above. chapter xix political organization: general principles of the administration of justice; customary, proprietary, and liability laws general considerations bisáyas and other people who have had more or less familiar dealings with manóbos almost invariably make the statement that manóbo justice is the oppression of the weak by the strong; that there is no customary law that governs in social dealings except that one which is founded on the caprice and villainy of the warrior chiefs and of those who have most influence and following. now i utterly repudiate such statements and rumors as being due either to lack of familiarity; to a too ready tendency to believe malicious reports; or to undisguised ill will toward, and contempt of, manóbos. i have lived on familiar terms with these primitive people for a considerable period and have found no evidence of oppression and tyranny. disputes and misunderstandings arise at times, people sometimes fly into a rage, killings take place on occasions, but such things happen among other peoples. it is truly surprising, considering the lack of tribal and interclan cohesion in manóboland, that such occurrences are not more frequent or even continual. the statement that the warriors and other influential men rule by caprice and oppression is unfounded. there is no coercion in manóboland, except such as arises from the influence of relatives, and from gentle persuasion and general consent. a warrior chief, or any other man who would try to use a despotic hand or even to be insolent, exacting, or unrelenting in his manner, would not only lose his friends and his influence, but would arouse hostility and place himself and his relatives in jeopardy. it must be understood from the outset that in manóboland there is no constituted judicial authority nor any definite system of laws. there are no courts, and no punishments such as imprisonment, torturing, and whipping. all social dealings by which one contracts an obligation to another are regulated by the principle that one and all must act according to established custom. this principle governs the procedure even of chiefs and influential men when they endeavor to bring about a settlement through the weight of their influence. voluntary and involuntary departures from the beaten track cause disputes when these deviations affect another's rights. thus to refuse one the hospitality of the house, or to overlook him intentionally in the distribution of betel nut would give rise to a dispute, because these courtesies are customary and are therefore obligatory. punishment for a violation of customary obligation then becomes a matter of private justice. the injured one either singly, or by means of his relatives and of such friends as he may interest in his cause, seeks reparation from the offender. if he can not secure it through an appeal to customary law supported by the consensus of opinion of the relatives on each side, he takes justice into his own hands and kills his opponent or orders him to be killed. general principles the principle of material substitution the manóbo system of law is still in its indefinite primitive stage. its fundamental principles are involved in the retention, preservation, and devolution of property. unlike the highly developed legal systems of the world, it tends, in general, to consider violations as civil, and not as criminal, wrongs. hence upon due restitution, offered with good will, the great majority of transgressions upon another's rights are quickly condoned. in this it is far more humane than other systems that seek not only justice for the injured party but the corporal punishment of the wrongdoer. right to a fair hearing as far as my observation goes justice is administered on a patriarchal plan in a spirit of fairness and equality. except in the case of flagrant public wrongs the transgressor is given a fair and impartial hearing, aided by the presence of his relatives and of others whom he may select or who may choose to attend the arbitration of the case. the presence of the relatives contributes in nearly every case an element of good will, and prevents the use of intimidation. it helps greatly to promote, and not to prevent, justice. it is the paramount factor in determining the defendant to yield, even when bad feeling has been aroused on each side, and when their desire for revenge and spirit of independence would naturally prompt them to have recourse to violent methods. though the female relatives do not take formal part in the arbitration, yet in their own gentle way they exert a certain amount of influence for good. securing the defendant's good will because of the desire for revenge which the manóbo inherits and the universal recognition of the revenge system in manóboland, an appeal to good will in the settlement of matters is very important, and is a feature of every case of arbitration. i have attended many and many a manóbo arbitration at which the wrongdoer, after being condemned by the consensus of opinion, was asked over and over whether he recognized his fault and whether he received the sentence with good will. in nearly every instance he replied that he did, and, as an evidence of his sincerity, procured, as soon as convenient, a pig and invited the assembly to a feast. on one occasion i acted as the judge in a case of rape committed by a manóbo who had had frequent dealings with christian manóbos. at my urgent request his life was spared and a fine of pesos was imposed upon him. after he had expressed his conformity with the sentence and his lack of ill feeling toward his accusers, i notified the chief of the other party of my intention to leave the settlement, whereupon he told me secretly that i had better wait as the defendant in the case would undoubtedly entertain the company with pork and potations. and so it happened, for the defendant procured a pig that must have been worth pesos, and a supply of sugarcane wine that must have cost him a few more, expenditures that would not be deducted from the amount of his fine. foundations of manÓbo law owing to the utter lack of interclan and tribal organization there is no set of statute laws in manóboland, but, in lieu of them, there are a number of traditional laws, simple and definite, that, in conjunction with religious interdictions, serve in the main to uphold justice, the foundation of all law. there is no word for law in the whole manóbo dialect, but the word for custom[ ] is used invariably to express the regulations that govern dealings between man and man. [ ] _ba-tá-san_. one fundamental law is the obligation to pay a debt, whether it be a blood debt or a material one. a very common axiom says that "there is no debt that will not be paid"--if not to-day, to-morrow; if not during one lifetime, during another--for the collection of it will be bequeathed as a sacred inheritance from father to son, and from son to grandson. montano[ ] notes with surprise the sacredness in which debts are held, not only by manóbos of the agúsan valley but by all the numerous tribes with which he came in contact in his travels around the gulf of davao. i noted the same throughout eastern mindanáo. the manóbo, when called to account, will never deny his true indebtedness, and when no further time is given him, he will satisfy his obligations, even if he has to part with his personal effects at a nominal value or put himself deeply in debt to others. he is never considered insolvent. it is true that the christianized part of manóboland is not so punctilious in the settlement of financial obligations to outsiders (bisáyas), but this is explained by the bad feeling that has arisen toward the latter on account of-the wholesale, fraudulent exploitation carried on in commercial dealings between them and the christian manóbos. [ ] une mission aux isles philippines. so many references have already been made in previous chapters to the practice of revenge that it is not necessary to dilate upon it here. suffice it to say that it is not only the right but the duty, often bequeathed by father to son, to obey this stern law. one who would allow a deliberate breach of his rights to pass without obtaining sufficient compensation would be looked down upon as a sorry specimen of manhood. the feeling is so deeply rooted in the heart that the wife may urge her husband, and the fiancé, her lover, to carry out the law, and the father may instill into the hearts of his little ones the desire to wreak vengeance upon their common enemies. customary law its natural basis the intense conservatism of the manóbo, fostered by the priestly order, is the basis of the customary law that determines and regulates social and individual dealings in manóboland. so strong is this conservatism, based on a religious principle, that it is believed that any act not consistent with established customs arouses the resentment of the spirit world. this feeling exerts so powerful an influence that in many cases a definite custom is carried out even when a departure from it would be manifestly to the material advantage of the individual. as has been set forth before in this monograph, the ridiculously low prices at which rice is sold in harvest time is a case in point. the extreme cautiousness and suspiciousness that is such a dominant feature of manóbo character tends also to maintain the customary law. the manóbo prefers to jog along in the same old way rather than to do anything unusual, thereby laying himself open to the displeasure of his fellowmen and to that of the gods. its religious basis the legion of taboos, religious and magic, limits the manóbo's actions, in no inconsiderable manner, within fixed and definite rules, the nonobservance of which would render him responsible for such evil consequences as might follow. to cite an instance: when i first went into a region near talakógon that was considered to belong to a local deity, my guide cautioned me to avoid certain actions which, he said, were displeasing to the reigning deity. i asked him what would be the consequence if harm were to befall him as a result of my failure to comply with his instructions. he quietly informed me that i would be responsible to his relatives for any harm which might come to him. again if one enters a rice field during harvest time the displeasure of the goddess of grain is aroused, and the rice is likely to be diminished in quantity. the transgressor may do all in his power to appease the offended goddess, but if she refuses to be appeased and permits a decrease of the supply, not otherwise explainable, he will be held responsible, and in the due course of events will have to make good the shortage according to the tenets of customary law. another example will show the rigid regulations that custom imposes in the matter of omens. i started out with a manóbo of the upper agúsan for a point up the nábok river. at the beginning of our trip the turtle bird's cry came from a direction directly in front of us--an indication of impending evil either during the trip or at its termination. my guide and companion begged me not to proceed, but i managed to convince him that there was nothing to be feared, so he consented to continue the trip with me. now it happened that he had a quantity of loose beads in his betel-nut knapsack and that a hole was worn in the sack before the end of the trip, the result being that he lost his beads. he held a consultation with the chief of the settlement at which we had arrived, explaining the omen bird's evil cry and the efforts he had made to persuade me to desist from the trip. it was decided that because of my failure to follow the directions indicated by the omen bird, i was responsible for the loss of the beads. on further discussion of the point it became apparent that i would have had to answer for the life of my companion, if he had lost it on the trail, for it was intimated to me that the omen bird's voice had clearly warned us of danger and i was requested to explain my failure to heed the warning. the observance of customs for religious reasons suggests an explanation of many acts that to an outsider seem inexplicable, not to say unreasonable. the selection of farm sites at considerable distances from the dwelling, the reluctance to leave the region of one's birth, the unwillingness to visit remote mountains and similar places, the fear of doing anything unusual in places thought to be the domain of a deity--these and numerous other ideas--are to be attributed to the observance of customary law. in this connection it may be well to remark that a stranger visiting remote manóbo settlements without an introduction or without previous warning should be very careful, if he desires to deal with these primitive people in a spirit of friendship, not to break openly and flagrantly any such regulations, principally religious ones, as may be pointed out to him. in fact it would be well to ascertain as soon as possible what is expected of him. i have always made it a point to announce that i would not be responsible for any evil consequences attending my violation of customs that i was ignorant of and i have requested my new friends to acquaint me with such customs and beliefs as might differ from those of other manóbo settlements. proprietary laws and obligations conception of property rights property rights in the full sense of the word are not only very clearly understood but very sternly maintained. the manóbo conception of them is so high that, with the exception of such things as _camotes_ and other vegetable products, even gifts must be paid for. and even for such trifling things as _camotes_, an equivalent in kind is expected at the option of the donor. during my wanderings i was always in the habit of making presents as compensation for the food furnished me, and was frequently asked why i had done so, and why i did not make the recipients of these presents pay me. no explanation could change the strong belief that all property of any value, whether given under contract or not, should be paid for. this principle is further evidenced by the fact that there is no word in the manóbo dialect for gift nor is there any word for thanks. in some places, however, they have a conception of "alms."[ ] on many occasions one of the first requests made to me by a new acquaintance of some standing was a request for alms. i am of opinion that this idea was acquired by them from the universal reports concerning the liberality of the missionaries who from the middle of the seventeenth century labored in the agúsan valley. a request for alms or for a present of any value is seldom made by one manóbo of another, but when it is made it is met by a simple answer, "i do not owe you anything." that settles the question at once. [ ] _lí-mos_, probably from the spanish _limosna_, alms. my practice of distributing gifts frequently aroused some ill feeling. for example, on many occasions i was asked by individuals why i had made presents to so-and-so and not to them. it was necessary in these cases to explain that i owed a debt of good will to the individuals referred to and that i would most assuredly give like gifts to others whenever i should become indebted to them in a similar manner. land and other property customary law regarding public land is very simple. each clan and, in some cases, one or more individual family chiefs, have districts which are the collective property of the clan or family. theoretically this ownership gives hunting, fishing, agricultural, and other rights to that clan or family, to the exclusion of others. in practice, however, anyone who is on good terms with the chief who represents the family or the clan in question, may occupy a portion of the land without any other formality than that of mentioning the matter to the proper chief. the occupation presumes that the occupant is on terms of good will with the chief, and it never implies that the new occupant is required to pay anything for the use of the land. with regard to fishing rights, especially when the fish-poisoning method is employed, it is very often stipulated that a share of the catch shall be given to the owner. when the two parties concerned are on good terms, the territory of one may be used by the other for hunting, apparently without any question. when the rice-sowing season is at hand, the manóbo goes over the clan district and selects any piece of vacant land that, because of its fertility and closeness to water, may have recommended itself to him after a due consultation of the omens. having made the selection, he formally takes possession of the land by slashing down a few small trees in a conspicuous place and by parting the top of a small tree stem and inserting into it at right angles a piece of wood. he then returns to his settlement and announces his selection. he has become now the owner of the land. anyone who might attempt to claim the land would become cleft, so it is believed, like the parted stem that was left as a proof of the occupation of the land. in a few cases i saw a broken earthen pot left on an upright stick. it was explained to me that this, too, was a symbol of what would befall the one who would dare to dispute the right to the property. this is another evidence of the widespread belief in sympathetic magic. in my travels throughout eastern mindanáo i never heard of a single instance of a land dispute among the non-christian peoples. there is no reason for dispute because the whole of the interior is an immense and very sparsely populated forest that could support millions instead of the scant population which is now scattered through it. moreover, the religious element in the selection, the consultation of omens, and the approval by the unseen world seem to prevent disputes. from the moment of occupation, then, till the abandonment of the site the occupant is the sole lawful owner of the land and has full rights to proprietorship of all that it produces. when he abandons the land he still retains the ownership of such crops or plants as may be growing on it. hence betel-nut palms, betel plants, bananas, and other plants, belong, to him and to his descendants after him. even such fugitive crops as _camotes_ are his until they die off or are destroyed by wild boars. fruit trees, such as durian, jack-fruit, and others growing in the forest, are, in theory, the collective property of a clan or of a family, but in practice anyone may help himself. however, the finder becomes sole and exclusive owner of a bee's nest as soon as he sets up an indication of his ownership in the form of a split stick with a small crosspiece, and announces his possessive rights on his return to the settlement. the parted trunk has a form and significance similar to that which it has in connection with the selection of a new site. as far as i know a bee's nest once located by one individual is seldom appropriated by another, but the theft of palm wine is common enough, especially if the palm tree be at a considerable distance from the owner's settlement. all other property that is the result of one's own labor, or that has been acquired by purchase or in any other customary way, belongs to the individual, unless he is a slave. even slaves, captured during war raids, become the property of their captors, unless stipulation to the contrary has been made before the raid. in one expedition that took place in a certain warrior chief was delegated to punish a mañgguáñgan. as an advance payment he received a few bolos and lances, but it was expressly agreed that after the attack he and his party were to receive all the slaves captured. with regard to the loss of, or damage to, property belonging to another, the customary law is rigid; the damage or the loss must be made good, no matter how unfortunate may have been the circumstances of the loss. this will explain the great care that carriers exercise in transporting the property of others through the mountains, for if by any mischance the things were to get lost or wet or broken, or damaged in any other way, they would be required to make good the loss. this custom, as applied in some cases, may seem somewhat harsh, but it must be remembered that manóboland is a land where the law of vengeance prevails, and that no opportunity to wreak vengeance must be given. such opportunities would occur if anyone were permitted to attribute a loss or other accident to involuntary causes. this rigid law will explain also the peculiar liability under which one is sometimes placed for an absolutely unintentional and unforeseen act. thus, on a certain occasion, one of my carriers died a few days after my arrival in a settlement. shortly after the occurrence of the death i was confronted by a band of the relatives of the deceased in full panoply and requested to pay the commercial equivalent of a slave. on another occasion i ran after a child in play. the child out of fright rushed into the forest and hid. the same afternoon it was taken with a violent fever to which it succumbed a few days later. i was not in the settlement at the time of the death, and was not sorry, for it was reported to me that the father of the deceased child had said that he would have killed me. on my return to his settlement a few days later i visited the father for the purpose of having the case arbitrated. he broached the subject and demanded three slaves, or their equivalent, in payment for the death of his child, which was due, he firmly believed and asseverated, to the scare that i had given it. many instances might be adduced to illustrate the peculiar liability which one undergoes in dealing with these primitive men who follow out in practice the old fallacy of _post hoc ergo propter hoc_. laws of contract the conception of contract is as universal as the conception of property rights, but a certain amount of leniency seems to be expected in such details as fulfilling the terms of the contract on the specified date, unless it has been expressly and formally agreed that no leniency is to be looked for. in case of a failure to fulfill the contract at the stated time it is customary to offer either what is called an "excuse,"[ ] in the form of extra hospitality or a free gift of some article, not so valuable as to constitute a debt, or to make many explanations, very frequently fictitious. these remarks apply only to cases in which the creditor has undergone the hardship of a reasonably long trip or of other necessary expenditures. thus, to illustrate the point, a owes b a pig deliverable, according to agreement, after the lapse of so many days, there being no express provisions for any penalty in case of nonfulfillment of the agreement. b goes to a's house and is treated to a special meal with an accompaniment of drink when obtainable. toward the termination of the meal, he is informed by a of the latter's inability to pay, for numerous real, or more numerous fictitious, reasons. b accepts this excuse but before leaving asks for some little thing that he may take a fancy to. it is always given as an "excuse." another day for the payment is agreed upon. this leniency may be displayed on one or more occasions till the delay in paying exasperates b or renders him liable to loss. ill feeling arises all the more readily if b feels that a has not been as assiduous as he should have been. then a stringent contract is entered upon, the nonperformance of which will render a liable to interest or to a fine, as may be stipulated. [ ] _ba-lí-bad_. in cases where serious consequences might result from a failure to fulfill a contract, it is customary for the contractor and often for the other party to make a number of knots on a strip of rattan, each knot signifying a day of the time to elapse before payment, or representing one article of the goods to be paid for, or one item of the goods to be delivered. all more important contracts are made in the presence of witnesses, and the time and the number of articles to be delivered are counted out on the floor with grains of corn or with little pieces of wood, or are indicated by counting a corresponding number of the slats of the floor. the law of debt the law of debt in manóboland is so rigid that failure to comply with it has given rise to many a bloody feud. all commercial transactions are conducted on a credit basis. an individual whom we will call a needs a pig, for instance, and starts out on a quest to secure one. he visits one of his acquaintances and informally brings up the subject, remarking, for example, that he would like to buy a certain pig that is in the settlement. he may not be able to make the purchase until he has tried several settlements, for it may happen that the owner of each pig may want in exchange objects that a does not have and is unable to get. thus b, the owner of a pig in the first settlement, wants in payment a mandáya lance of a certain length, breadth, and make. now a knows of no one from whom he can procure such a lance, so he has to go on to the settlement of c who in exchange for his pig wants five pieces of mandáya cloth. a is afraid to take the pig on such terms because the ihawán manóbos are in arms on account of a recent killing, and as the trade route for mandáya cloth passes through the territory of the ihawán manóbos he sees no possibility of fulfilling a contract to deliver the cloth. so off he goes to the settlement of d where he finds a pig for which the owner demands four yards of blue cloth, two of red, and two of black, together with a specified quantity of salt. a thinks that it will be easy for him to run over to some christian settlement and get those articles in time to pay d, so he clinches the bargain by putting a series of knots in a strip of rattan to represent the number of days to expire before the date of payment. this he delivers to d and the contract is sealed. he then returns to his settlement with his pig, and turns it over to some one else perhaps, to whom he owes a pig, or, if it was intended for a sacrifice, to the family priest or priestess. in due time it is disposed of with much satisfaction to the gods and to the inner man. as the day for payment approaches, a must take measures to get the salt and the cloth for d, so he hastens to the settlement of e, if sickness in the family, or heavy rains, or some other obstacle does not prevent him, but finds that e requires a mandáya bolo for the articles needed and as a has no such object and sees no immediate prospect of obtaining it, he goes on to f's. f demands a certain amount of beeswax and a mandáya dagger in exchange for the cloth and the salt and as a feels that he can procure these articles, he closes the bargain, promising to deliver the goods within so many days or weeks. a now owes d cloth and salt, payable within days, let us suppose. he is also under contract to f to furnish him a dagger and a specified amount of beeswax, also on a specified date. upon the approach of the time agreed upon a runs over to f's only to find that f had been unable to get the cloth and the salt, either because no bisáya trader has been up to the christianized settlement on the river; or because of heavy rains or for some other reason. the result is that a returns to his settlement without the cloth and the salt. upon his arrival at d's or upon d's arrival at his settlement, as the case may be, he excuses himself to d, setting forth in detail the reason for his failure. he treats d as best he can, and fixes another date for the delivery of the salt and the cloth, the same to be delivered at d's settlement. d returns to his home without the salt and the cloth and awaits the delivery. now it may happen that, through the fault of a or through the fault of f or through unforeseen circumstances, a is unable to keep his agreement. d has made many useless trips to collect from a. it is true that d has been feasted by a upon every visit but the long delay, and possibly his debt of salt to someone else, is gradually provoking him. so one day he speaks somewhat strongly to a, setting a definite term for the payment. if a is unable to meet his obligations after this ultimatum, or if d suspects or has proof that a is playing a game, matters become strained and d has recourse to one of three methods: ( ) collection by armed intimidation; ( ) the _tawágan_ or seizure; ( ) war raid. the last two methods have been sufficiently explained in chapter xviii but the first needs a little explanation. after all attempts to collect by peaceable means have failed, the creditor assembles his male relatives and friends and proceeds to the house of the debtor with all the accoutrements of war. it is customary to bring along a neutral chief or two from other clans. upon arriving at the debtor's house no hostile demonstrations are made. the creditor and his party enter as if their object were an ordinary visit. should, however, the debtor have abandoned his house, this part of the affair would be at an end, for the creditor would be justified in adopting the second method (i. e., the seizing of any object, human of other that he might see), or the third method. should his debtor, however, be present, the creditor and his companions are regaled with betel nut and food and the meeting is perfectly goodnatured. but gradually the subject of the debt is introduced and then begins the pandemonium. if the chiefs who have accompanied the creditor's party have enough moral influence to bring about an agreement, the matter is settled, but if not, the visiting party may depart suddenly with yells of menace and defiance, and very frequently may have recourse to the seizure method, taking on their way home any object that they may encounter such as a pig, or even a human being. hence as soon as it becomes known that no settlement has been made bamboo joints[ ] are blown--the invariable signal in manóboland of danger--and everybody goes into armed vigilance. children and women are not allowed to leave the house, and pigs are frequently taken from below and put up in the house until the enraged creditor and his party have gone. [ ] _tam-bú-li_. i was in one place where such a state of things existed. my merchandise was taken by my host from under the house and carefully hidden upstairs. i wished to go to meet the collecting party but no one would volunteer to accompany me. if an agreement to pay has been brought about, the debtor has to make the settlement before the departure of his creditor, even though it may require several days to complete the payment. in this latter case the sustenance of the visiting party and all their needs fall, by custom, upon the poor debtor. such is the customary method of collecting debts when all peaceable efforts have been unavailing. to understand the principle involved in it, as also the circumstances that bring it about, it is necessary to bear in mind that once the creditor becomes disgusted with the delay of his debtor in settling the account, he announces his intention to add to the indebtedness a financial equivalent of all fatigues[ ] and expenses to be subsequently incurred in the collection of the debt. these fatigues not only include the actual trips made both by himself and such messengers as he may send to collect the debt, but such incidental losses, sicknesses, or accidents as may be the outcome of such trips. [ ] _ka-há-go_. another principle recognized in this matter is the liability into which the debtor may fall for such losses as the creditor may undergo through his failure to fulfill his obligations to a third person. thus a owes b a pig, and b owes c, who in his turn must pay a lance to d at a certain time. on account of c's failure to deliver the lance in due time to d, he is, according to a previous contract, mulcted to the equivalent of pesos. had c been able to purchase a lance with the pig that b owed him he would, by customary law, be justified in putting the fine of pesos to b's account. b attributes his failure to a's delay and on the same grounds, adds pesos to the latter's indebtedness. it is clear that the principle of liability involved in this system gives rise to an infinity of disputes that may lead to bloodshed whenever the matter can not be arbitrated by the more influential men and chiefs in a public assembly. the debt after a certain time increases beyond reasonable proportions until it finally becomes so great as to be beyond the debtor's means. notwithstanding the sacredness with which the average manóbo regards his debts, it happens occasionally that a little bad feeling springs up which, in the course of time may lead to serious consequences. it will be readily understood how easy it is for one party to take umbrage at the words or actions of another and to become obstinate. happily, however, this does not happen frequently, on account of the salutary fear inspired by the lance and the bolo, and the urgent endeavors of the chiefs and the more influential men to settle matters amicably. i am surprised that disputes and bloodshed arising from, the great credit system do not occur more frequently among such primitive people. though in practice the relatives of a debtor assist him to settle his obligations, especially when he is hard pressed by his creditor, yet in theory there is no joint obligation to pay the debt. neither do they, as a rule, assume a collective responsibility for it. between relatives, as between others, the law regarding the payment of a debt is strenuously maintained, though i know of no case between near relatives in which it led to more than family bickerings. a very careful account of the indebtedness of one relative to another is sedulously kept. interest, loans, and pledges interest no interest is charged unless an express contract is made to that effect. in the case of a loan of paddy, however, even if no formal contract has been made, twice as much must be returned as was borrowed. express contracts that call for interest are rather rare, as far as my observation goes, and when such contracts are made they are usually of a usurious nature, due, as i have noticed on several occasions, not so much to the desire for material gain, as to that of satisfying an old grudge against the borrower. in settlements that have had experience with the usurious methods of christian natives, one finds here and there an individual who tries to follow the example set him by people that he looks up to. this practice is universally discountenanced, and, though it is submitted to under necessity in commercial dealings with bisáyas, it gives rise to no inconsiderable ill feeling, a fact that explains, to my mind, the difficulties that bisáyas experience in collecting from christianized manóbos, as also the killing of many a bisáya in pre-american days. during my trading tour of there was universal complaint made to me by manóbos of the upper agúsan, upper umaíam, and upper argáwan rivers against the system of usury employed by bisáya traders, and many a time i heard this remark made concerning certain individuals: "we would kill him if we were not afraid of the americans." loans and pledges with the exception of articles borrowed on condition that they are to be returned, loans are very rare in manóboland. the most usual loan is that of paddy. articles borrowed must be returned in as good a condition as that in which they were received. i know of no leases among non-christian manóbos. land is too plentiful to lease; other property is either sold or borrowed. i have never known a material pledge to be given, but the custom of going bond seems to be very generally understood though not much practiced, as such a custom insinuates a distrust that does not seem to be pleasing to the manóbo. a notable feature of the practice is the principle that the _bondsman becomes the payer_. i am inclined to think that this principle was taught to their mountain compeers by bisáya and christianized manóbos who found in it a convenient expedient whereby to make the collection of debts easier and sure. on the strength of it, a chief or a more well-to-do member of the tribe becomes responsible for the debt of one whose surety he became. laws of liability liability arising from natural causes the liability here referred to is the general responsibility that a person acquires for consequences that are imputed to an act of his, whether voluntary or involuntary. instances of this strange law arise on many occasions in manóboland. the reader is referred to the case of the loss of the beads, the attempt to collect from me for the natural death of one of my carriers, for the death of a child that i had frightened, and other instances mentioned previously, all of which show the idea of responsibility for consequences following an act. a few more instances will make the principle involved clearer. on the upper agúsan, a manóbo of nábuk river went over to moncáyo to collect a debt. according to custom he carried his shield and spear. now it happened that there were two women walking along the river bank, one of whom was the wife of an enemy of this nábuk warrior. upon seeing him she became frightened, fell into the river, and was drowned. the result of this was that the nábuk man was condemned to pay a slave or its equivalent. as a near relative of his enemy owed him "thirty" (p ) he transferred the fine to him but the transference was not accepted on the ground that the nábuk man ought to pay his fine first. a few days' discussion of the matter resulted in the departure of the nábuk man, who upon his arrival in a near settlement killed, in his rage, one of his slaves. the outcome of the whole affair was a feud between moncáyo and nábuk. liability arising from religious causes the violation of the numerous taboos is believed to bring about evil consequences that are chargeable to the account of the infringer. for example, a man in búai was charged pesos for the breaking of a certain birth taboo, a violation which was supposed to have been responsible for the stillbirth of a child. i was warned on many occasions to desist from making disrespectful remarks about animals, such as monkeys or frogs, because, if anítan were to hurl her thunderbolts at one of my companions and harm were to befall him i would be fined or killed. i would undergo a similar punishment, i was told on other occasions, for using such tabooed words as crocodile and salt; it was believed that a storm would be the result of the use of these words. on one occasion i thought it prudent to give a carrier of mine a piece of rubber cloth wherewith to cover his salt, for he had threatened to collect from me if it became wet from the storm that was impending, and which all my companions imputed to my deliberate use of the names of certain fish not native to their mountain water. liability arising from magic causes another pregnant source of fines and of sanguinary feuds is the belief in the possession, by certain individuals, of magic power to do harm. no one that i know of or have heard of, except a few fearless warrior chiefs, has made open avowal of the possession of such power and yet on many occasions i have heard of the supposed possession of it by various individuals. to give an instance, a manóbo on the upper agúsan had the reputation of having secret poisons. one day another manóbo and his wife visited him. with the exception of a trifling altercation about a debt, everything went well. on her return home the woman was suddenly taken sick and died. her death was ascribed to the magic power of the person recently visited and the outcome was that the party with the bad reputation had to build a tree house, one of the few that i have seen, and surround his settlement with an abatis of brush and of sharp spikes, all in anticipation of an attack by the deceased woman's husband. it was the rule rather than the exception that i, myself, had the same reputation applied to me. upon arrival in heretofore unvisited regions i was fequently[sic] informed that they had heard of my wonderful power of killing. on many occasions it was only by assuming a bold front and by vowing vengeance on my traducers that i freed myself from the imputation. in such cases i always asked for the name of the slanderer, and, upon learning it, announced my intention of seeking him without delay, for the purpose of clearing myself from the imputation and of demanding satisfaction from him. the system of fines it is not intended here to consider the system of fines as penalties for voluntary wrongdoings but only as punishments for certain little acts of forgetfulness or of omission that might be construed as conscious acts of disrespect. the system is a very strange one and, to our way of thinking, very harsh, productive sometimes of bad feeling and even of more serious results. instances that have passed under my personal observation will illustrate the system. thus, on one occasion an acquaintance of mine left the house without making his intention known to those present. while he was under the house, one of the guests happened to spit through the floor upon the clothes of the man underneath. upon his return he identified the guilty one both by his position in the house, and by the quality of the chewing material he was using. the case was discussed at length and it was decided that for carelessness the guilty one should make material reparation in the form of a chicken and some drink. again, the dog of a certain individual on the upper agúsan was guilty of soiling the clothes of a person that happened to be working under the house. as the owner of the sick dog (it had been mangled by a wild boar) had been previously warned of the possibility of something untoward happening, he was fined and was condemned to make further reparation in the form of a convivial meeting in order to remove the ill feeling. instances of fines that were imposed on me will illustrate the principle involved. upon my arrival in new regions i was almost invariably called upon to pay a certain amount, on the ground that i had had no permission to enter the settlement, or that the local deities had been displeased at my visit, or that i was a spy, or for some other reason. the refusal to pay was always accepted after lengthy explanations and after the distribution of a few trifling gifts to the more vehement members of the settlement, but in one case arms were drawn and i had to take my stand with, back to the wall and await developments. other instances in which unintentional disrespect toward the person or property of anyone was displayed might be adduced to profusion. it will suffice to say, however, that such acts as the following, even when unintentional, lay the agent under a liability, the commercial value of which must be determined by the circumstances and very frequently by formal arbitration: spitting upon, or otherwise soiling another; rudely seizing the person of another; unbecoming treatment of another's property, especially of his clothes, as when, for instance, one steps upon another's shirt; opening another's betel-nut knapsack or other concealed property; borrowing things without formal announcement and due permission; going into certain places interdicted by the owner, as bathing, for instance, in that part of a river which the owner has forbidden the use of,[ ] or visiting his rice granary; and using disrespectful language, even in joke, about another, as, for instance, speaking of one as an insect, a mañgguáñgan.[ ] [ ] due, presumably, to the fact that the place, usually a deep pool, is the abode of a water wraith. [ ] this is a term of reproach when applied to a manóbo. these interdictions are necessary among the manóbos in order that in their social dealings with one another proper deference may be shown toward their person and property. for were a mere "pardon me" a sufficient reparation for an act, however unintentional, advantage might be taken of it to inflict a thousand and one little incivilities that would serve to arouse the relentless spirit of revenge that centuries of feuds have instilled into the manóbo character. chapter xx political organization: customs regulating domestic relations and family property; procedure for the attainment of justice family property the property of a manóbo family is so scanty that the rules governing it have never developed beyond a primitive stage. the house belongs collectively to the father and to such of his sons-in-law and brothers-in-law as may have constructed it. the structure represents little value to the owner except that of the rough-hewn boards which may be transported to another place. the reason that such cheap houses are built is that they may be abandoned without much loss at any moment that a death, or even a suspicion of danger, arising from religious or from natural reasons, may dictate. the movable property in the house belongs to the individuals who have made, purchased, or in any other lawful way acquired it. in this respect it is to be noted that each married couple provides itself with household utensils and such other things as may be necessary. these things do not become the property of the head of the family, but remain the individual property of the person who brings them. it must be noted, too, that women, children, and slaves have theoretically no right to ownership. it is true that women are allowed to dispose of the products of their labor like rice and cloth, but usually, if not always, the consent of their husbands or of their husbands' nearest male relatives is first secured if the article is of much value. frequently a consultation is held with the head of the whole household. rules of inheritance when a man dies and leaves no near relatives that are of sufficient age to manage the inheritance, the elder brother-in-law inherits the property. the deceased brother's wife is a part of this property. when the father dies, the son is the heir, and, if of sufficient age and capabilities, takes the place of his father. but should he be deemed incompetent by his near male relatives, his paternal uncle, or, if he has none, a brother-in-law, becomes the manager of the household. any property which may be of value is thus retained within the line of male descent. this is in accordance with the principles of the patriarchate system which prevails in manóboland. the eldest son inherits his father's debts, but the administrator (if in such unpretentious matters we may use so pretentious a word) pays the debts collecting in turn from the son unless he be a near kinsman of the deceased father. about matters of inheritance i have never even heard of a dispute. the valuable property may consist of only a lance and a bolo, or a dagger, and a few jars. the best suit of clothes together with personal adornments, such as necklaces, are carried with the deceased to his last resting place so that there is little left to quarrel over. with the exception of the few heirlooms, if there be any, consisting of a jar and some few other things, the greatest fear is entertained of articles that belonged to the departed one. this fear is due to the peculiar belief in the subtle, wayward feeling of the departed toward the living. rules governing the relations of the sexes moral offenses in the chapter on marriage the general principles governing the relations of the sexes is set forth. the relations both antenuptial and postnuptial are of the most stringent character. as a manóbo once told me, sexual morality is bound up with religion and the greater violations of it are sometimes punished by the divinities. such lighter offenses, as gazing at the person of a woman while she is bathing, or on any other occasion when her person is exposed, are punished with appropriate fines. improper suggestions and unseemly jokes undergo the same fate. it is a very common report among bisáyas that to touch a manóbo woman's heel is an exceptionally serious offense against manóbo law. i never heard of any such regulation among manóbos, although it may exist. to touch any other part of her person, however, is an offense punishable by a good-sized fine. death is the consequence of adultery, fornication, and seduction, except in very exceptional cases where the influence of the guilty one's relatives may save him. but it is certain that in these cases the fine is very heavy. i believe that it is never less than the equivalent of three slaves. all reports, both bisáya and manóbo, state that when fornication has been attempted or accomplished the woman herself may make known the offense to her parents and relatives. the law is even more rigid in the matter of adultery. while i was on the upper agúsan river a case of adultery committed by a christianized man and woman was discovered. the death of the man had been decided upon, and that of the woman was being mooted. i succeeded in having the death sentence commuted to a heavy fine of three slaves. it is the common report in manóboland that, when a woman makes known the act of her lover, the latter does not deny it. not only under such circumstances, but in nearly all other instances when brought face to face with the truth a manóbo will confess, sometimes even though there be no witness against him. such is my observation of dealings between manóbo and manóbo. in his relations with outsiders, however, the manóbo is not so veracious; on the contrary, he displays no little art in suppressing or in twisting the truth. marriage contracts and payments in the chapter on marital relations it was made manifest that marriage is practically a sale in which a certain amount of the marriage price is returned to the bridegroom. this rule is very stringent. should the marriage negotiations discontinue without any fault of the man or of his relatives all payments previously made have to be returned, item for item. in this respect it is to be noted that marriage contracts are almost relentlessly rigid, a fact that suggests an explanation of the length of the period that is usually required to terminate the negotiations. for it is only by many acts of attention and even of subservience that the suitor's relatives break down the obdurateness of the fiancé's relatives and make them relax the severity of their original demands. very minute and strict accounts of the various payments, including such small donations as a few liters of rice, are recorded on a knotted rattan strip in anticipation of a final disagreement. when it is decided that the marriage is not to take place by reason of the death of one of the affianced parties, the father and relatives of the fiancé must return all the purchase payments which may have been made. custom provides that these payments shall be returned gradually, the idea being, presumably, to allow the fiancé's relatives an opportunity to profit by the donations of a new suitor, if one should present himself within a stipulated period. it will be readily understood that the nature of the debts incurred by an obligation to return marriage payments determines the character of the payments that will be exacted from a new suitor. thus, if a's relatives, for good reasons, decide not to continue their suit for the hand of b's daughter, b would be granted a specified time in which to await the presentation of a new suitor for his daughter's hand. this new suitor would be required to bring a lance, for example, and other objects that would serve as first and more urgent payments to a. in the case of fornication committed by a man with his fiancé, death may be the penalty if the girl's father desires to have the marriage broken off, but i was given to understand that such a heavy penalty is rarely inflicted, the girl's father contenting himself with imposing a heavy fine. illegitimate children in all my wandering among the manóbos, i never knew nor heard of an illegitimate child, so can not say what regulations govern, if such births occur. in mandáyaland the father of an illegitimate child is obliged to marry the girl and to enter his father-in-law's family in a state of semiservitude. the marriage takes place before the birth of the child. i was told by mandáyas that illegitimate children belong to the nearest male relative of the mother, that in case of her marriage they still belong to her relative, and that they are treated in all other respects as legitimate children. extent of authority of father and husband the laws governing family relations are very simple. the father has theoretically absolute power of life and death over his wife, children, and slaves. in practice, however, this power is seldom used to its full extent. an arbitrary exercise of domestic authority over his wife and children would arouse the antagonism of her relatives and lead to a rupture of friendly relations. hence, in family dealings there are displayed on one side paternal affection and leniency and on the other filial devotion and a sense of duty, so much so that the members of the family live in peace and happiness with seldom a domestic grievance. the wife, of course, is the absolute property of her husband, but is rarely, if ever, sold. i know of only one wife who was sold and she was a bisáya woman married to a recently christianized manóbo. it is not in accord with manóbo custom for a man to have two or more wives unless the first wife consents to the later marriages, and, if she does consent, she must always be considered the man's favorite and must be allowed to have a kind of motherly jurisdiction over the other wives. in all cases that have come under my observation, this rule was followed among manóbos but not among mandáyas. the latter frequently seem more attached to their second, third, or fourth wives, but do not separate the first wife either from bed or board. as a result of the necessity of the first wife's consent to a second marriage, bigamy is comparatively rare. residence of the husband the man is always expected to take up his residence in his wife's family and he nearly always does so. in fact, such is the implied and frequently the explicit contract made between his relatives and those of the girl. but after a few years, if not sooner, he usually takes his wife back to his own clan, leaving his father-in-law or other male relative of his wife some gift in the shape of a pig or other payment. in such a case it seems to be the custom for the father-in-law to acquiesce. crimes and their penalties crimes it must be laid down as a general principle that in manóboland it is considered proper and obligatory to seek redress for all wrongs (except a few serious ones) by an appeal to the relatives of the wrongdoer, either directly by a formal meeting or indirectly through the mediation of a third party. the first exceptions to this rule are cases of adultery, fornication, rape, and homicide when the murderer, wantonly, and without an attempt to arbitrate, kills a fellow man. the great law of vengeance presupposes in nearly every case a recourse to arbitration, and not a hasty, unannounced, deliberate killing. the one who orders the death of another or in any other way deliberately causes it is the one on whom vengeance must be taken. thus, if a pays a neutral warrior chief to kill his opponent, the responsibility for the death will be laid, not on the warrior who did the killing (unless he had personal motives for committing the murder) but on the one who ordered the death. the warrior was paid and accordingly bears no responsibility. he may be paid again by the relatives of the slain to do a similar act to their enemies. thus it is, that in manóboland, it is very necessary to be on such terms of friendship with the members of the warrior class that they will not be inclined to undertake for payment the task of taking vengeance for another. killing for public policy is a recognized institution, but such executions very seldom take place. on the upper tágo river word was sent to me that my guide would be killed if he led me into a certain remote region at the headwaters of that river. it was reported on all sides that the principal chiefs of the region had assembled before my departure and had decided upon his death. for some reason, probably fear, the sentence was not carried into effect. it was reported to me that in time of an epidemic it is permitted to kill anyone who dares to break the quarantine. involuntary killing when it is manifest that it was a pure accident can be compounded. the private seizure by the _tawágan_ system a manóbo is permitted to kill or seize anything or anybody that he may decide upon, _provided that he has made every endeavor to settle the dispute by amicable means_. having failed to adjust the matter without bloodshed, he may avenge himself, first and above all, on the guilty party. i will not make a positive statement to the effect that he must announce his intention to make use of the right accorded him by the _tawágan_ custom, but i am of opinion that this must be done, for in every instance that came under my observation it had been generally known beforehand that the aggrieved party would make a seizure within a specified time. i know that on one occasion i had to exact a promise from a man that he would not lay hands on merchandise of mine that was deposited under a house in the vicinity of his settlement. he had made public announcement that he would make a seizure, even though it should be that of my merchandise. the aggrieved party in making use of his right must, if possible, inflict damage, even death, upon the debtor or other wrongdoer or on some of his relatives, but should this prove impracticable he is at liberty to select anyone. if he kills a neutral party, he must compound with the relatives of the slain one for the death inflicted and enter with them into a solemn promise to act jointly against the offending party. in the case of seizure, he can not dispose of the object seized until the owner be consulted. it is customary for the two to enter a compact by which they bind themselves to take joint action against the offender, advantageous terms being guaranteed to the new colleague. the man whose property is thus seized is very often one who has had an old-time grudge against the original offender or debtor. penalties for minor offenses minor offenses such as stealing, slandering, failure to pay debts, deception that causes material damage to another, loss or damage to another's property, the lesser violations of sexual propriety, disrespect to another's property, etc., are punishable by fines that must be determined by the assembled relatives of the two parties. i have never been able to find the least trace of any definite system of fines. in the determination of them for the more serious of offenses (adultery, wanton killing, etc.), the equivalent of a human life, or pesos, is the basis of the calculation. in the case of minor offenses, however, lesser quantities are determined upon after a lengthy discussion of the subject by the respective relatives of the parties involved. customary procedure preliminaries to arbitration the aggrieved party, upon hearing of the offense and after making many futile efforts to come to an agreement, consults with his relatives, when, after being assured of their cooperation he begins to issue threats, all of which reach the ear of his opponent. at first the latter probably is not disturbed by these, but, as they begin to pour in from all sources, he makes up his mind either to face his opponent in person, if the affair has not gone too far, or to look around for a friendly chief or other person of influence and sagacity to mediate. all this time new rumors of his enemy's anger and determination to appeal to arms reach him, but he must not display cowardice, neither must his opponent openly seek arbitration, for such an action would bespeak fear on both sides. so, on the part of the aggrieved one, there is menace, revenge, and a pretense at least not to be amenable to peaceable measures. on the part of the other, there must be no display of fear, no hurry to arbitrate, and a general indifference, at least simulated, as to the outcome. if the offending party answers threat by threat, his opponent may become incensed and hostilities may break out, as happens in other parts of the world. in the meantime neighboring chiefs and influential people are throwing the weight of their opinions in favor of peace and if they prevail one or more of them are requested to assist in the final settlement, definite emolument sometimes being promised, especially when either of the contending parties is very anxious to have the matter settled. it is the duty now of the mediating chiefs or other persons to bring the parties together. this they do either by inviting the contestants to a neutral house or by persuading one of them to invite the other to his house. it may happen that the aggrieved party, instead of following this procedure, precipitates a settlement by sending a fighting bolo or a dagger or a lance to his opponent. this is an ultimatum. if the weapon is retained it means hostilities. if it is returned, it denotes a willingness to submit the matter to arbitration. but the one who receives the weapon probably will not return it at once as he desires to disguise, in the presence of his opponent's emissary, the bearer of the ultimatum, any eagerness he may feel for arbitration. once having decided that he will submit the matter to arbitration or that he will yield, he announces to the messenger that he will visit his opponent within a specified period and talk matters over and that he is willing to have the affair settled but that his relatives are unwilling. if a bolo or other such object has been sent to him he returns it, for to retain it would signify his unwillingness to submit and his readiness to take the consequences. a few days before the appointed time he orders drink to be made and he may go out on a big fishing expedition. he procures also a pig or two. with these, and accompanied by a host of male relatives, he sets out for the house that has been agreed upon. the pigs and drink and other things are deposited in a convenient place near the house, for it would be impolitic to display such proofs of his willingness to yield. this is the procedure followed in more serious cases. cases of lesser importance, which occur with great frequency, are settled almost informally in the following manner: when the subject under dispute is not of such a serious nature, either in itself or by reason of aggravating circumstances, like quarrels or violent language that may have preceded it, the ordinary method of settling the trouble consists in a good meal given by one party to the other. toward the end of the repast, when all present are feeling convivial from the effects of the drink, the question at issue, usually a debt, is taken up and discussed by the parties concerned and their respective relatives. it happens often that the matter is put off to another time, and thus it may require several semifriendly meetings to settle it. on the whole, however, the proceedings are terminated amicably, although i have seen a few very animated scenes at such times. on one occasion a member of the party, accompanied by his relatives, rushed down the pole and seizing his lance and shield challenged his adversary to single combat. the challenge was not accepted, so he and his party marched away vowing vengeance. i have seen bolos or daggers drawn on many occasions but the relatives and others always intervened to prevent bloodshed. it is to be noted that such violent actions are due often to the influence of drink but do not take place more frequently than drunken brawls do in other parts of the world. when the case in question is of such an involved and serious character as to make it dangerous for the accused one to enter the house, he remains hidden till he ascertains how his relatives and friends are progressing. in other cases he personally attends and may argue in his own defense.[ ] [ ] there is a very formal peace-making procedure followed by the manóbos who have been in contact with the banuáons of maásam river, but i never witnessed it, so i can not give any first-hand information as to the details. in the chapter on war will be found such details as have been given to me by trustworthy bisáyas of talakógon. general features of a greater arbitration the general features of the procedure are the following: the policy of the aggrieved one and of his party is to maintain a loud, menacing attitude, and to insist on a fine three or four hundred times larger than they expect to be paid. the accused and his relatives keep up a firm attitude, not so firm, however, as to incense unduly their opponents, and from the beginning make an offer of a paltry sum in payment. although everybody at times may break into the discussion, or all may yell at the same time, the ordinary procedure is to allow each one to speak singly and to finish what he has to say. the others listen and assent by such expressions as correspond to our "yes indeed," "true," etc., whether they are in accord with the speaker's opinions or not. these lengthy talks are, at least to an outsider, most wearisome, given, as they are, in a dreary monotone, but they explain the inordinate length of arbitrations that may last for several days. the whole party is squatted on the floor and makes use of grains of corn, of pieces of wood or leaf, of the bamboo slats of the floor, of their fingers and toes or of anything convenient, to aid them in the enumeration of the objects of which they treat. everybody is armed, probably with his hand on his weapon, and his eyes alert. in very serious cases women and children may not be present. this, of course, is an indication of possible bloodshed and is a very rare occurrence. the chiefs or other influential men who have been selected to aid each side in the settlement take a conspicuous part in the proceedings and help to influence the parties concerned to come to an understanding, but it can not be said that their word is paramount. the contestants' own relatives have more weight than anyone else. the procedure at a manóbo arbitration may be likened to that of a jury when in retirement. point after point is discussed, similitudes and allegories are brought up by each speaker until, after wearisome hours or days, the opinion of each side has been molded sufficiently to bring them into agreement. in one respect it differs from the jury method in that loud shouts and threats are made use of occasionally, proceeding either from natural vehemence or from a deliberate intention on one side to intimidate the other. it is not good form for the defendant to yield readily. on the contrary, it is in accordance with manóbo custom and character to yield with reluctance, feigned if not real. when a small pig is really considered a sufficient payment, a large one is demanded. when the pig is received and is really in conformity with the contract, defects are found in it--it is lean or sick or short or light in weight--in a word, it is depreciated in one way or another. the giver, on the contrary, exaggerates its value, descants on its size, length, form, and weight, tells of the exorbitant price he paid for it, reminds the receiver of the difficulty of procuring pigs at this season, and in general manifests his reluctance to part with it. it must not be supposed that such actions and statements are believed at once. on the contrary, it is only after lengthy talks on each side that opinions are formed, an agreement entered into, a contract is drawn up, or reparation made. it is the identical case of stubborn jurymen. in the settlement of these disputes much depends upon the glibness of tongue and on the sagacity of one or more of the principal men. for were it not for their skill in understanding the intricacies of the subject and in sidetracking irrelevant claims the disputes would be impossible of satisfactory arrangement. this will be understood more readily if it is borne in mind that outside of the reasonable facts of the case, counterclaims are made by the debtor or the accused party. these claims are sometimes of an extraordinary nature and date back to the time of his grandfather or other distant relative. thus he may say that his opponent's great uncle owed his grandfather a human life and that this blood debt has never been paid nor revenge obtained. such an affirmation as this will be corroborated by his relatives and they may immediately break out into menaces of vengeance. again, he may aver that his opponent was reputed to have had a charm by which death might be caused, and that his son had died as a result of this use of evil magic powers. whereupon the other vigorously repudiates the imputation and demands a slave in payment of the slander. it is only the popularity of the chief men, their reputation for fair dealing, their sagacity, and perhaps their relationship with the respective contestants that dispose of such side issues and bring about an amicable and satisfactory settlement. it is customary for the one who loses to regale the assembly with a good meal. in manóbo-land this latter is the great solace for all ills and the source of all friendship. so, when the question under dispute has been settled, the one who lost sends out and gets the pig and drink that have been brought for that purpose. when prepared, the food is set out on the floor, the guests are distributed in due order, and then begins one of those meals that must be witnessed in order to be understood. one feature of this feast is that the two former adversaries are seated together and vie with each other in reciprocating food and drink. as they warm up under the influence of the liquor they load large masses of food into each other's mouths, each with an arm around the other's neck. upon the following day, or perhaps that same day, the winner of the case reciprocates with another banquet. when that is finished, the other party may give another banquet and so they may continue, if their means permit, for many days. i assisted at one peacemaking in which the banqueting lasted for successive days. determination of guilt by witnesses the usual and natural method of determining the guilt of the accused is through the instrumentality of witnesses. they are questioned and requestioned at great length even if the defendant be not present. there seems to be no necessity for this procedure, for the defendant admits his guilt when brought face to face with the plaintiff or with the witnesses. the testimony of children is not only admissible but is considered conclusive. that of a woman testifying against a man for improper suggestions and acts is considered sufficient to convict him. false testimony in the presence of witnesses and relatives is almost unheard of. i suppose that this marvel is to be attributed to the fear of the dire retribution that would infallibly overtake the false witness. by oaths ordinarily no oath is administered nor any other formal means adopted to make certain that the accused or the witnesses will tell the truth, but there is a practice which is sometimes followed whenever the veracity of anyone is doubted. this is called _tó-tung_ or burning of the wax, a ceremony that may be used not only with witnesses but with anyone from whom it is desired to force the truth. i have used it very successfully on numerous occasions in getting information about trails. the ceremony consists in burning a piece of beeswax in the presence of the party to be questioned. this signifies that if he does not answer truthfully his body by some process of sympathetic magic, will be burned in a similar manner. after making his statement and while the wax is being burned, he expresses the desire that his body may burn and be melted like the wax if his statement is untrue. this is another example of the pervading belief in sympathetic magic. by the testimony of the accused in the various instances that have come under my observation, the guilty one, as a rule, vigorously denied his guilt until confronted in public assembly by his accusers, so that i judge that custom does not require him to make a self-accusation until that time. but when duly confronted with witnesses, he nearly always admits his guilt. for if the defendant should deny his guilt and if there were no evidence against him other than suspicion, the injured party would be justified in inflicting injury on anyone else, according to the principles of the private-seizure system. if it should later be discovered that the defendant was the original offender, the innocent parties who were the victims of this seizure would ultimately take terrible vengeance on him. i was informed by the debabáons that a false denial of one's guilt before the assembled arbiters and relatives is especially displeasing to the deities. i failed to get information on this point from manóbos, but it would be fairly reasonable to conclude that their belief in the matter is identical with that of the debabáons. should the accused one deny his guilt and should circumstantial evidence point to him as the guilty one, the wax-burning ceremony above described would be performed. if he should still maintain that he was innocent, various methods for the determination of his guilt would be resorted to. by ordeals the tests made to determine the innocence or guilt of a person are threefold: ( ) the hot-water ordeal, ( ) the diving ordeal, and ( ) the candle ordeal. _the hot-water ordeal_.[ ]--a brass anklet, armlet, or similar metal object is put into boiling water in one of the iron pans so common throughout the agúsan valley. the suspected party, or parties, is then called upon to insert a hand into the water and to remove the object that has been placed at the bottom of the shallow pan. although i have heard many threats of an appeal to this test, i never saw the actual operation of it, but i have been assured repeatedly by those who claimed to have seen the performance that the hand of the guilty one gets badly scalded, while that of an innocent one remains uninjured. the belief in the truth of this test is so strong, that, at times when the ordeal was threatened, i have heard many express not only their willingness but their eagerness to undergo it. [ ] _pag-ínit_. i have made numerous and very definite inquires in different localities and from members of different tribes as to the reason for the value of the ordeal as a test and as to whether or not it might be explained by the agency of supernatural beings, but in reply always received the answer that no reason could be given except that it had always been so and that religion had no connection with it. _the diving ordeal_.[ ]--i never witnessed the actual operation of this ordeal except in play, but the belief in its efficacy is strong and widespread. the operation consists in a trial between the parties under suspicion as to the length of time they can remain under water. two at a time undergo the test. the one that retains his head under water longer is declared innocent for the time being, but has to undergo the test with each one of the suspected parties. this method seems impossible as a final proof, but such is the procedure as described to me on the upper tágo river. [ ] _sún-ub_. another and more common method is a simultaneous trial by all the accused. at a given signal they submerge their heads. the one that first raises his from the water is declared guilty. i was told by one party that the respective relatives of the accused ones stand by and hold them down by main force. this statement was corroborated by all those present at the time, but, as neither my informant nor anyone else could explain what it would be necessary to do in case of asphyxiation, i do not give credence to the story. on numerous occasions i made diving tests in sport with manóbos and found that i could retain my breath longer than they could. they assured me, nevertheless, that if the test were made as an ordeal and if i were the guilty party, i would infallibly lose. _the candle ordeal_.--among the christianized manóbos of the lake region i found the belief in the efficacy of the candle ordeal for determining the guilt of one of the suspected parties. candles of the same size are made and are given to the suspects, one to each of them. they are then stuck to the floor and lit at the same time. the contestants have the right to keep them erect and to protect them from the wind. the one whose candle burns out first is declared guilty. a belief in the value of ordeals is widespread, but the actual practice of them is very rare. no reason for this has been given to me, although it is stated that the refusal to submit to one would be considered evidence of guilt. by circumstantial evidence in manóboland circumstantial evidence, in the absence of other evidence, has sufficient weight to convict one who is under suspicion. hence footprints and other traces of a man's presence are carefully examined. in fact, as a gatherer of testimony, even of the most insignificant kind, the manóbo is peerless; he is patient, ceaseless, and thorough. this is due, no doubt, to his cautious, suspicious nature and to that spirit of revenge that never smolders. he may wait for years until the suspicion seems to have died out, when one fine day he hears a rumor that confirms his suspicions and the flame of contention bursts forth. one by one the successive bearers of the incriminating rumor are questioned in open meeting until the truth of it is ascertained and the guilty one brought to justice. i have known many cases, principally of slander, traced in this way from one rumor bearer to another. this illustrates the statement made before that in cases involving damage or loss to another the guilty party and the witnesses as a rule declare the truth, when they are called upon, knowing that one day or another the secret will probably be ferreted out and then the punishment will be greater. enforcement of the sentence the sentence having been agreed to by the consensus of opinion of both sides, and the defendant having manifested his concurrence therein, a time is set for the payment. when the offense is of a very serious character, partial payment is made at once, the object being to mollify the feelings of the enraged plaintiff. this payment ordinarily consists of a weapon belonging either to the defendant himself or to one of his relatives, but in urgent cases it might be a human being, as a relative for instance. i myself saw delivery of a son made after the termination of an adultery case. the whole payment or compensation is not exacted at once but a suitable length of time for the completion of it is always agreed upon. the defendant receives a strip of rattan with a number of knots and is at times made to take the wax-burning oath. his conduct on these occasions is apparently submissive for he does not want to run counter to tribal opinion, but it happens sometimes that upon leaving the house of adjudication he expresses his dissatisfaction with the decision or throws the blame upon somebody else. in this case there may arise another contention. on the whole, however, he abides by the decision. in the great majority of cases the convicted man makes the stipulated payment, for a refusal to do so would lead to more serious difficulties than those already settled, and excuses for nonfulfillment are not accepted as readily as before. moreover, a second arbitration subjects his opponent and his opponent's relatives to unnecessary trouble and long journeys. hence, realizing that a second trial will only serve to exasperate his opponent and arm public opinion against him, he fulfills his obligations faithfully. chapter xxi political organization: intertribal and other relations intertribal relations dealings on the part of. manóbos with other tribes such as the banuáon, the debabáon, and the mandáya are almost without exception of the most pacific kind. i made frequent inquiries, especially while on the upper agúsan river, as to the reason for this, and was always given to understand that any trouble with another tribe was carefully avoided because it might give rise to unending complications and to interminable war. i am of the opinion that, in his avoidance of war with neighboring tribes, there is ever present in the manóbo's mind a consciousness of his inferiority to the mandáya, debabáon, and banuáon, and a realization of the consequences that would inevitably follow in case of a clash with them. thus the manóbos of the upper agúsan, who had provoked the mandáyas of the katí'il river at the beginning of the christian conquest, suffered a dire reprisal on the húlip river, upper agúsan, when some of them were massacred in one night.[ ] [ ] see oartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, : , . the current accounts of debabáon warriors, as narrated to me by many of them on the upper sálug river, show the severe losses suffered by manóbos of the upper agúsan in their conflicts with debabáons. the same holds true of the manóbos on the lower agúsan when they matched their strength with the banuáons of the maásam, líbañg, and Óhut rivers. a perusal of the "cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús" will give one a vivid picture of the devastation caused by not only the banuáons but by the mandáyas and the debabáons in manóboland. the reason for these unfriendly intertribal relations and for the consequent defeats of the manóbos in nearly every instance is not far to seek. the manóbo lacks the organization of the mandáya, debabáon, and banuáon. like the mañgguáñgan he is somewhat hot-headed, and upon provocation, especially while drunk, prefers to take justice into his own hands, striking down with one fell swoop his mandáya or other adversary, without appealing to a public adjudication. the result of this imprudent proceeding is an attack in which the friends and relatives of the slain one become the aggressors, invading manóbo territory and executing awful vengeance upon the perpetrator of the wrong. the friends and relatives of the latter, with their inferior tribal organization and their conscious feeling of inferiority in courage, together with a realization of the innumerable difficulties that beset the path of reprisals, very rarely invade the territory of the hostile tribe. both from the accounts given in the aforesaid jesuit letters and from my own observations and information, i know that the same statements may be made of the intertribal relations of mañgguáñgans and mandáyas, mañgguáñgans and debabáons, and mañgguáñgans and manóbos. the mañgguáñgans are much lower in the scale of culture than the manóbos, and when they are under the influence of liquor yield to very slight provocation. as a result of a rash blow, the mañgguáñgan's territory is invaded and his settlement is surrounded. he is an arrant coward as a rule, and, hot-headed fool as he is, jumps from his low, wall-less house only to meet the foeman's lance. thus it happens that thousands and thousands of them have been killed. if we may believe the testimony of a certain jesuit missionary, as stated in one of the jesuit letters, the mañgguáñgan tribe numbered , at one time and their habitat extended eastward from the tágum river and from its eastern tributary, the sálug, between the híjo and the tótui rivers, to the agúsan and thence spread still eastward over the simúlau river. in father pastells estimated them to number some , . in , i made an estimate, based on the reports of their hereditary enemies in compostela, gandía, geróna, and moncáyo, and venture to state that in that year they did not number more than about , souls. their territory, too, at that date, was confined to the low range of mountains that formed the agúsan-sálug divide and to the swamp tracts in the region of the mánat river, with a scattered settlement here and there on the east of the agúsan to the north of the mánat river. the manóbos of the ihawán, baóbo, and agúsan rivers played a bloody part in the massacre of the mañgguáñgans. while on my first visit to the upper agúsan in , i used to hear once or twice a week of the killing of mañgguáñgans. many a time my mandáya or manóbo or debabáon companions would say to me, upon seeing a mañgguáñgan: "shoot him, grandpa, he is only a mañgguáñgan." i know from the personal accounts of manóbo, mandáya, and debabáon warrior chiefs that in nearly every case they had acquired their title of warrior chief by bloody attacks made upon mañgguáñgans. the warrior chiefs of the upper agúsan, upper karága, upper manorígau and upper and middle katí'il had nearly to a man earned their titles from the killing of mañgguáñgans. this is eminently true of the debabáon group. moncáyo itself boasts of more warrior chiefs than any district in eastern mindanáo, and stands like a mighty watchtower over the thousands and thousands of mañgguáñgan and manóbo graves that bestrew the lonely forest from libagánon to the agúsan. interclan relations it must be borne in mind that, judging from the testimony of all with whom i conversed on the subject as well as from my own personal observation, interclan feuds among manóbos have diminished notably since the beginning of missionary activity and more especially since the establishment of the special government in the agúsan valley. upon the establishment of this government in the lower half of the agúsan valley, there was a perceptible decrease in bloody fights due to the effective extension of supervision under able and active officials. here and there in remote regions, such as the upper reaches of the baóbo, ihawán, umaíam, argáwan, and kasilaían rivers, casual killings took place. on the upper agúsan, however, where no effective government had been established until after my departure in , interclan relations were not of the most pacific nature. thus, in , the settlements of dugmánon and moncáyo were in open hostility, and up to the time of my departure four deaths had occurred. the mandáyas of katí'il and manorígao had contemplated an extensive movement against compostela and after my departure did bring about one death. however, the intended move was frustrated happily by the establishment of a military post in moncáyo in . several mañgguáñgans at the headwaters of the mánat river met their fate in . the whole mañgguáñgan tribe went into armed vigilance that same year and rendered it impossible for me to meet any but the milder members of the tribe living in the vicinity of compostela. on one occasion i had made arrangements to meet a mañgguáñgan warrior chief at an appointed trysting place in the forest. upon arriving at the spot, one of my companions beat the buttress of a tree as a signal that we had arrived, but it was more than an hour before our mañgguáñgan friends made their appearance. upon being questioned as to the delay, they informed us that they had circled around at a considerable distance, examining the number and shape of our footprints in order to make sure that no deception was being practiced upon them. when we approached the purpose of the interview, namely, to request permission to visit their houses, they positively refused to allow it, telling us that they were on guard against three warrior chiefs of the upper sálug who had recently procured guns and who had threatened to attack them. upon questioning my companions as to the likely location of the domicile of the mañgguáñgans, i was assured that they probably lived at the head of the mánat river in a swampy region and that access to their settlement could be had only by wading through tracts of mud and water thigh deep. during the same year various other raids were made, notably on the watershed between the sálug and the ihawán rivers. the manóbos of the baóbo river, which has been styled by the well-known jesuit missionary urios "the river of bagáni" (warrior chiefs), were reported to be in a state of interclan war. such a condition, however, was nothing unusual, for i never ascended the upper agúsan without hearing reports of atrocities on baóbo river.[ ] [ ] the baóbo river rises in a mountain that is very near the confluence of the sálug and libagánon rivers, and empties into one of the myriad channels into which the agúsan is divided just below veruéla. in time of peace, interclan dealings are friendly, but it may be said in general that dealings of any kind are not numerous and that their frequency is in inverse ratio to the distance between the two clans. it is seldom that a given individual has no feudal enemy in one district or another so that in his visits to other clans he usually has either to pass through the territory of an enemy or to run the risk of meeting one at his destination. this does not mean that he will be attacked then and there, for he is on his guard, but it must be remembered that he is in manóboland and that a mere spark may start a conflagration. hence, visits to others than relatives and trips to distant points are not frequent. this is particularly true of the womenfolk. here and there one finds a manóbo man who travels fearlessly to distant settlements for the purpose of securing some object that he needs, but he never fails to carry his lance, and frequently, his shield; he is never off his guard, either on the trail or in the house he may be visiting. during the greater social and religious gatherings the greatest vigilance is exerted by all concerned as everyone realizes beforehand the possibility of trouble. hence bolos or daggers are worn even during meals. enemies or others who are known to be at loggerheads are seated at a respectful distance from each other with such people around them as are considered friendly or at least neutral. this arrangement of guests is a very striking feature of a manóbo meal and one of great importance, for it prevents many an untoward act. the host, in an informal way, sees to the distribution of the guests, and when his arrangement is not acceptable to any of the interested parties, a rearrangement is made and all seat themselves. this proceeding has nothing formal about it. the whole thing seems to be done by instinct. external commercial relations exploitation by christian natives the shameless spoliation[ ] practiced during my residence and travels in eastern mindanáo ( - ) by christian natives upon the christianized and un-christianized manóbos is a subject that deserves special mention. [ ] since the establishment in of government trading posts, this spoliation has practically ceased in the agúsan valley. _exploitation by falsification_.--the hill people, living in their mountain fastnesses out of communication with the more important traders, had to depend wholly for their needs on petty traders and peddlers of the christian population. they were accordingly kept in absolute ignorance of the true value of the commodities that they required. false reports as to the value of rice, hemp, and _vino_ were constantly spread. to-day, it would be a report of a war between china and japan that caused a rise of several pesos in the price of a sack of rice. to-morrow, it would be an international complication between japan and several of the great european powers which caused a paralysis in the exportation of hemp and a corresponding fall of several pesos in the value of it. these and numerous other fabrications were corroborated by letters purporting to come from butuán, but in most cases written by one trader to another on the spot, with a view to giving plausibility to the lie. it was a common practice for the trader's friend or partner in butuán to direct, usually by previous arrangement, two letters to him, in one of which was stated the true value of the commodity and in the other the value at which it was desired to purchase or to dispose of it. the latter letter was for public perusal and rarely failed to beguile the ignorant _conquistas_ and manóbos. but it was not only in the exorbitant rates charged and in the unspeakably low prices paid for objects of merchandise that the christian trader swindled his pagan fellow men. the use of false weights and measures was a second means. the manóbo had little conception of a _pikul_[ ] or of an _arroba_[ ] of hemp, so that he was utterly at the mercy of the trader. the steelyards used by christian traders from to were never less than per cent out of true and frequently as much as per cent. one pair of scales i found to be so heavily leaded that the hemp that weighed pounds on them weighed between and pounds on a true english scales. [ ] a _pikul_ is the equivalent of . spanish pounds. [ ] an _arroba_ is spanish pounds. another method of defraudation consisted in false accounts. the manóbo had no account book to rely upon in his dealings with the trader, but trusted to his memory and to the honesty of his friend. the payment was made in occasional deliveries of hemp or other articles, such deliveries covering a period usually of many months. when the day for settling accounts came, the manóbo was allowed to spread out his little grains of corn or little bits of wood on the floor and to perform the calculation as best he could. any mistakes in his own favor were promptly corrected by the trader, but mistakes or omissions in favor of the trader were allowed to pass unobserved. the account would then be closed and the trader would mark with a piece of charcoal on a beam, rafter, or other convenient place, the amount of the debt still due him, for it was extremely rare that he allowed the poor tribesman to escape from his clutches. _defraudation by usury and excessive prices_.--another method of exploitation consisted in a system of usury, practiced throughout the valley but more especially on the upper agúsan. an example will illustrate this: a bisáya advances pesos in various commodities with the understanding that at the next harvest he is to receive sacks of paddy in payment. at the next harvest the manóbo is unable to pay more than sacks. he is given to understand that he must pay the balance within two months. after that period the trader goes upstream again and proceeds to collect. the paddy is not forthcoming, so the trader informs his customer that the prevailing price of paddy in such and such a town is actually pesos per sack and that he accordingly loses pesos by the failure to receive the paddy stipulated for and that the debtor must answer for the amount. the poor manóbo then turns over a war bolo or perhaps a spear at one-half their original value, for the contract called for paddy and not weapons. in that way he pays up a certain amount, let us say pesos, and has still a balance of pesos against him, he having no available resources wherewith to settle the account in full. he is then offered the alternative of paying sacks at the next harvest or of performing some work that he is unwilling to do, so he accepts the former alternative. the bargain is then clinched with many threats on the part of the trader to the effect that the americans will cut off his head or commit some other outrageous act should he fail to fulfill this second contract. the worst depredation committed on the manóbo consisted of the advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates just before harvest time with a view to purchasing rice and tobacco. it is principally at this time that the manóbo stands in special need of a supply of pigs and chickens for the celebrations, religious and social, that invariably take place. as he has little foresight in his nature and rarely, if ever, speculates, he was accustomed to bartering away in advance a large amount of his paddy and tobacco. the result was that after paying up as much of his paddy debts and tobacco debts as he could, he found that his stock was meager, barely sufficient for a few months. so the time came when he had to repurchase at from to pesos per bamboo joint that which he had sold for centavos. _exploitation by the system of commutation_.--another means of defrauding perpetrated on the manóbo was the system of commutation by which the debt had to be paid, if the creditor so desired, in other effects than those which were stipulated in the contract. the value of the goods thus substituted was reckoned extraordinarily low. for example, in the event of a failure to pay the stipulated amount of tobacco, its value in some other part of the agúsan, where that commodity was high, would be calculated in money, and any object would be asked for that the trader might desire. suppose the customary value of this object, a pig for instance, to be pesos, at which price it would be offered to the trader, who would reply that he had contracted for tobacco and not pigs. he would go on to show that he had no use for pigs, that he could procure a pig of the same size for pesos in another town, and he would finally persuade the debtor to turn over the pig for pesos. i adjudicated unofficially, at the request of the manóbos, several cases where the bisáya trader tried to collect not only the value of a sow but of the number of young ones that it might have given birth to had it lived. these pigs had been left with manóbos for safe-keeping and either had died from natural causes or had been killed. one bisáya went so far as to demand payment for the chickens that a hen would have produced had it not been stolen from the manóbo to whom it had been entrusted. this part of the claim i did not allow, so the claimant demanded pay for the eggs that might have been laid. _wheedling or the puának system_.--another means of exploitation practiced on the manóbos of the upper agúsan was the _puának_ system, invented by the bisáya trader. the _puának_ was some prosperous manóbo who was chosen as an intimate friend and who, out of friendship, was expected to furnish his bisáya friend anything which the latter might ask for. the bisáya in return was expected to do the same. the bisáya paid his manóbo friend a few visits every year, on which occasions he was received with all the open-hearted hospitality so characteristic of the manóbo. pigs and chickens, purchased frequently at high rates, were killed in his honor. the country was scoured for sugar-cane wine or other drink, and no means were left untried to make the reception royal. the bisáya, in the meanwhile, lavished on his host soft, wheedling words, at the same time giving him sad tales of the rise in the price of merchandise, of his indebtedness to the chinese, and before leaving gave him a little cloth or some other thing of small value. in return he received paddy, tobacco, and such other articles as he needed. the farewell was made with great demonstrations of friendship on the bisáya's part and with an invitation to his manóbo friend to visit him at a certain stated time. during his friend's visit the manóbo had gone around the country canvassing for paddy and such other articles as he had been instructed to barter for. his wife and female relatives had stamped out several sacks of paddy for their friend. his sons and other male relatives had cleaned the bisáya's boat and supplied him with rattan. in a word, the whole family had made menials of themselves to satisfy the bisáya's every desire. at the stated time the manóbo started downstream with the various commodities that had been requested of him, paddy, tobacco, and other things. at his friend's house he was received with a great exhibition of joy and welcome. during his stay he was kept happy by constant doses of _vino_. besides the killing of a suckling pig and of a few chickens, a little wheedling and palavering were about the only entertainment he received. but as the grog kept him in good humor and it is supposed to cost one peso per liter, he was perfectly happy, turned over his wares to the host, had his accounts balanced for him (he was usually in a hilarious condition while this was being done), received further advances of merchandise at the usual usurious rates, and left for his upland home to tell his family and relatives of the glorious time he had at his _puának's_. _bartering transactions_.--the following schedule of approximate values of commodities in the agúsan, to , will serve to show the commercial depredations committed on manóbos and _conquistas_ by the bisáyas who have ever looked upon them as their legitimate prey. sale price in gain value barter in of for weighing abaká quantity original monetary abaká or in article retailed cost value fiber measuring butuán ------- --------- ---- ----- ----- --------- ------ pesos pesos kilos per cent pesos rice sack - - - - - vino demijohn . - - salt sack . - - salted fish jar . -- - turkey red piece . - - ----- ----- . - to this list might be appended the values of exchange in paddy, beeswax, and rattan and the corresponding gain made when these latter are bartered in their turn for hemp or disposed of to the chinese merchants. from the above list it is evident that a bisáya trader could go up the river with goods valued at pesos and within a few weeks return with _abaká_ valued at pesos to pesos, according to the scales and other measures used. his total expenses, including his own subsistence, probably would not exceed pesos. no mention is here made of such luxuries as shoes, hats, or european clothes on which gains of from to , per cent are the rule. neither have various other usuries been included, such as high interest or payment of expenses in case of delays, all of which go to swell the gain that a bisáya considers his right and his privilege when he has to deal with beings whom he hardly classes as men. among the manóbos the credit system almost invariably prevails, based upon the sacredness with which the manóbo pays his debts. it is true that the christianized manóbo occasionally is not very scrupulous in this respect, but this is because he has been fleeced so much by his christian brethren. arriving in a settlement, the trader displays only a part of his wares at a time. if he has two pieces of cloth, he displays only one. of five sacks of rice, only two are his, he claims. in answering the inquiry as to whether he has dried fish, he says that he has just a little for his personal use, for the price of it in butuán was prohibitive. on being besought to sell a little, he secretly orders it taken out from the jar and delivered to his customer, at an outrageous price. the object of this simulation is to hasten the sales of his wares, for should he display all his stock, many of his customers might prefer to wait in hopes of a reduction in prices, a sort of a diminutive "clearance sale." as the article for which the exchange is made is nearly always _abaká_ fiber, it is evident that a certain period, longer or shorter according to the amount of fiber contracted for, must be allowed the customer. when this period exceeds a week, the stipulation is made that the payment shall be made in installments. a shorter period is allowed than is necessary for the stripping of the hemp, under the pretense that the trader is in a hurry to leave the settlement and catch a certain steamer with which he deals. this is a prudent precaution as the manóbo is not very methodical in his affairs nor quick in his movements. a thousand and one things--omens, sickness, bad weather--may delay him in the fulfillment of his contract. it is this tardiness that gives rise to the ill feeling and bickering that are not infrequently the outcome of this system of trading. the manóbo, moreover, has long since become aware of the stupendous gain made by the traders, and, when not dealt with gently, becomes exasperated and on occasions deliberately delays his creditor. then again, some other trader may have got into the settlement in the meantime and seduced him into buying, cash down, some more enticing article, for this primitive man, like the rest of the world, often buys what he lays his eyes upon without any thought of the future. for this reason, the trader keeps close observation upon all who owe him, almost daily visiting their houses and profiting by the occasion to help himself to whatever little fish or meat or other edibles he may find therein. one who has been in debt a long time is a favorite victim, for when he is unable to pay his debt on time he is shamelessly required to offer a substantial apology[ ] in the form of a chicken or some other edible. [ ] _ba-lí-bad_. general conditions of trading in general, there was no established system in the agúsan valley as far as the dealings of bisáyas went. the constant fluctuation of prices was a sufficient explanation of this. thus, rice might be worth centavos per kilogram in butuán, while at the same time it might command a price of centavos on the híbung river or in veruéla. salted fish might be selling in butuán for a trifle, whereas up the simúlau a jar of it at retail might be worth or sacks of paddy. in general the increase in price of a commodity was in direct proportion to its distance from points of distribution. by points of distribution are meant the chinese stores in butuán and talakógon. again the old-time custom of selling paddy at a fixed customary price held the manóbo in commercial servitude to his bisáya compeer. this was due to the intense conservatism of the manóbo and to his peculiar religious tenets in this regard, both of which were fostered and sustained by the tribal priests and encouraged by bisáyas. could he have been induced to retain his paddy instead of selling it at centavos per sack he would not have been obliged to repurchase at p per sack. the same might be said of his tobacco, which he sold wholesale by the bamboo joint at centavos each, or, at most, at a peso each, and which he repurchased, paying, in times of scarcity, centavos for enough to chew a few times. the credit system, too, was an impediment to his financial advance. it seems to have been a tribal institution. during my trading tour i frequently heard my manóbo debtors proclaim boastingly to their fellow tribesmen that i had much confidence in their integrity. the manóbo who could gain the confidence of the traders and accumulate his debts seemed to be an honored person, but when he was able to make sufficient payment to satisfy his creditors he was a great man. hence, the traders played upon his vanity and advanced him such commodities as he desired, seldom obliging him to settle in full his obligations, and induced him to accept on credit a certain amount so as to retain him in bondage to them. it must not be imagined that there was anything tyrannical in the manner of collecting outstanding debts. on the contrary, it was almost always done in a gentle diplomatic way, the trader knowing full well that the manóbo regarded a debt as sacred and that he would finally pay it. but it must not be supposed that the transactions were entirely free from disputes and quarrels. it happened occasionally that the manóbo detected the frauds in his creditor's accounting or remembered omissions of his own in a past reckoning, and so the bickering began, the bisáya never caring to admit his errors or frauds, while the manóbo, who is a hard and fast bargainer, insisted on claiming what he considered his rights. as a rule, the matter was settled peaceably by the principal men of the region. numerous instances, however, occurred wherein the manóbo, exasperated by the numerous frauds of his creditor, awaited a favorable occasion to dispatch him. on the whole, it may be said that differences which arose between bisáyas and their mountain compeers in eastern mindanáo are to be attributed in no small degree to the ruinous, relentless exploitation of the unsophisticated, untutored manóbo by the greedy bisáya traffickers. internal commercial relations by internal trading is meant those simple transactions that take place between manóbo and manóbo. the subject presents a striking contrast to the merciless system adopted by the christian traders in their dealings with their pagan congeners. the transactions are simple exchanges of the absolute necessities of life. money and substitutes for it there is little conception of money as such among the hillmen unless they have been in contact with christian or christianized traders, and even then although monetary terms are made use of, there is but a vague conception of the real value of what they represent. i asked a manóbo of the upper wá-wa the price of his little bamboo lime tube. the answer was pesos. money, therefore, has no value as a circulating medium, although it may be prized as a material out of which to make rings and other ornamental objects. as substitutes, there are several units of more or less indefinite value. thus, the value of a slave which, expressed in monetary value, varies between and pesos, is mentioned in connection with large fines and with marriage payments. again, plates of the type called _píñggan_ are referred to in small fines and in other payments, but as these are imported articles the price varies. on the whole, however, _píñggan_ are worth a good serviceable slave--that is, pesos. pigs also are mentioned as a unit of value, but here again the value is not wholly definite, as a great many of them are imported and vary with the purchasing price. prevailing manÓbo prices the following list will give a fair idea of the monetary value of some of the commodities that are most frequently exchanged between manobos. . a slave who can perform a full-grown person's work. ..... . pesos . a slave who can do a certain amount of work. ..... . . a slave whose right hand can not reach the tip of his left ear ..... . . a male pig year old ..... . . a sow that has given birth once ..... . . one fathom of _abaká_ cloth nearly meter wide ..... . . a woman's skirt of _abaká_ ... . . one double sack of paddy ( liters) ..... . . three double _gantas_ ( liters) ..... . . one large basket ( liters) of _camotes_, corn, taro, etc. ..... . . one bunch of bananas ..... . . one dugout, fathoms long, with a beam of spans ..... . . one dugout, fathoms long, with a beam of spans ..... . . one bamboo jointful of tobacco, into whose mouth the closed hand can not be easily inserted ..... . . one bamboo jointful of tobacco, into whose mouth the closed hand can be easily inserted ..... . . one full-grown hen or rooster ..... . the values above indicated are based on the monetary terms used to represent their value, and borrowed, possibly, from the terms which are still in vogue in eastern mindanáo.[ ] [ ] _i-sá-ka sá-pi_ (bis., _ú-sa'-ka sa-lá-pi_), p . ; _ka-há-ti_, p . ; _si-ká-pat_, p . ; _si-kau-au_, p . . from the above scale it will be seen that a pig year old could be exchanged for full-grown chickens, sacks of paddy, and bamboo joints of tobacco. it is not customary to trade in such things as _camotes_, taro, and corn, the return of them being the usual stipulation, but the corresponding values have been inserted in the above list in order to give the reader an idea of the value of food commodities. weights and measures no measure of weight is used by the hill manóbo. the christianized manóbo may have obtained some old scales of the type used by bisáyas for weighing _abaká_ fiber. these scales are steelyards, the construction of which permitted the bisáya trader to fleece his non-christian customers of as much as per cent of their _abaká_ fiber. the method of falsifying the balance was by loading the counterpoising weight with lead, and by filing the crosspiece that acts as fulcrum. another method which might be used with even true steelyards consisted in giving the counterpoise arm a downward tilt, after the _abaká_ fiber had been loaded on the other arm. this was usually done on the pretense of picking up the counterpoising weight which had been purposely left on the ground. in measures of volume the manóbo is almost equally destitute for he has only the _gántañg_. this is a cylindrical measure made out of the trunk of a palm tree, with a bottom of some other wood. it has a capacity of from to liters, but i know of no rule which fixes its exact size. an interesting point with regard to the size of this measure is that it is double that of the one used by bisáyas.[ ] it is suggested that the early bisáya traders, on the introduction of the spanish _ganta_ and _fanega_, taught, for obvious purposes, their unsuspecting mountain friends to make a measure double the size of the legal one. [ ] the _gántang_ measure in eastern mindanáo is of two kinds, _de almacen_, "of the store," and _de provincia_, "of the province." the latter is twice the size of the former, and is universally used by the mountain peoples. in the manner of measuring out paddy (for it is practically only for this purpose that the _gántang_ serves) there is a feature that is characteristic of manobo frugality and economy. the paddy is scooped with the hands, little by little, into the measure, which is not moved until it is full. then with a piece of stick the surface of the paddy is leveled off and it is emptied into the larger receptacle. at the same time the number is counted out loudly. the intention in not moving or disturbing the measure is to allow the paddy to have greater bulk, for if it is disturbed the grains settle and it requires more to fill the measure. twenty-five of these _gántang_ make a _kabán_, _bákkid_, or _anéga_, as it is variously called. this _kabán_, although there is no measure corresponding to it in manóboland, would be equivalent in bulk to two sacks of rice, or about liters. the yard is the distance from the end of the thumb, when the arm is extended horizontally, to the middle of the sternum. it, of course, varies somewhat with each individual. the bisáya trader, in measuring cloth, considerably shortens his yard by not giving a full stretch to the arm, and by slightly turning the outstretched hand toward his body. this gain, together with another little one secured when he bites off the measured piece from the bolt, makes a total gain of centimeters approximately. remonstrances on the part of the customer are unavailing, for he is told that such is the length of the trader's yard and, if the customer is not satisfied, he is not obliged to accept the cloth. as it is a credit transaction, the poor manóbo is obliged to yield. the fathom[ ] is the distance between the thumb tips when the arms and hands are outstretched. the fraud practiced by the bisáya trader in the yard measure is also employed in this. [ ] _dú-pa'_. the span [ ] is the stretch between the tip of the first finger and that of the thumb as they are stretched over the object to be measured. [ ] _dáng-au_. the finger length[ ] is the length of either the first or of the middle finger, according to the custom of each locality. [ ] _túd-lo_. the joint length [ ] is the length of the middle joint of the finger. it is a measure that is very seldom used. [ ] _lúm-po_. slave trade and slaves slave trade i have not visited the agúsan valley since , so that i am unable to give any information as to the actual extent of slave trading at the present day. from to the practice was in vogue, but to no great extent. it is reported on all sides by mañgguáñgans, mandáyas, manóbos, and banuáons that since the american occupation it has diminished to a remarkable degree, due to the wonderful reputation of the americans for having overcome the spaniards. this diminution was a natural sequence of the decrease of war raids. slave trading among the manóbos of eastern mindanáo was practically confined to the ihawán, baóbo, upper simúlau, and agúsan rivers. i am of the opinion that during my four years' residence in the agúsan there were not more than cases of slave trade in the regions outside of the ihawán and baóbo river valleys. the customary value of a slave has been mentioned in this chapter, but it is only proper to add that a great many considerations, such as poor health, weak constitution, and other defects which might lessen the ability of the slave to work, detract from his value. it may be said in general that the value of a slave ranges between and pesos, never exceeding the last figure, at which he stands on a par with an unusually good hunting dog, or with an extra large prolific sow. slave trading does not, in the manóbo's mind, involve the idea of degradation which attaches to it among other nations. a slave is to the manóbo a chattel which he can sell, kill, or dispose of in any other way that he may deem expedient. classes of slaves captives[ ] are those who have been captured from the enemy. at first their treatment may be a little harsh, or they may, when their owners happen to be angry, be killed outright. this is due to the fact that the feelings of revenge have not cooled off. but after a few days their condition and treatment is similar to that of ordinary slaves, except that more precautions are taken to prevent their escape. if fear of their escape is entertained, it is usual to sell them as soon as possible. [ ] _bi-ha_. by ordinary slaves[ ] are meant those who have been purchased or who have been delivered over in payment of fines or marriages. there is no institution in manóboland by which a freeman, not a minor, can become a slave by reason of debt. but minors, usually relatives of the debtor, sometimes in an exigency are turned over in payment of a debt. this is usually done with a view to avoiding bloodshed. [ ] _Áñg-lañg_. delivery and treatment of slaves the manner of delivering the slave to a new owner depends ordinarily upon the feelings with which he regards the change, except in the case of children, who are easily coaxed into accepting it. in the case of older persons who have been attached to their owners, the matter is more difficult, as they display a reluctance to change hands. a ruse is then resorted to, as in a case which i witnessed. the person, in this case a slave girl, was sent to her purchaser's house, ostensibly for the purpose of procuring salt and of delivering a basket of paddy. as she was about to return her purchaser called her back into the house. she then, realizing the circumstances, burst into tears, but was soon soothed by the wives of her new owner. on the whole slaves are not mistreated. like all menials, they at times become remiss in the performance of what is expected of them, and accordingly are given a few blows with a stick or other convenient object. in a very passionate moment, or when drunk, the master may cut off his slave girl's hair or denude her completely in the presence of the household, but such acts are of very rare occurrence. immediately after being captured, or after a change of master, the slave feels his lot keenly, but as time goes on and as he realizes that there is no hope of deliverance, the remembrance of his relatives fades away and he resigns himself to his fate. sometimes one finds a slave who has become so attached to his master that he is unwilling to return to his relatives. this is true of those who have been captured when young, and especially of girls. a fondness often grows up between the latter and their master's wife, and separation causes loud and long weeping. a slave enjoys no rights, either personal or political. he can be disposed of without his consent either by sale or in marriage, or in any other way his master sees fit. if he runs away he is pursued and brought back to his master's house. if he runs away with frequency, and the owner is unable to dispose of him to some one else, he is simply speared to death. i never witnessed the actual killing, but trustworthy accounts authenticate the fact that formerly, at least, it occasionally took place. if a slave flees from his master's house no one may aid or abet him in his flight, though it is lawful for anyone to capture him with the intention of returning him to his master, who in this case must pay the capturer p .[ ] [ ] on my last trip among the mandáyas of southeastern mindanáo (karága river) i was instrumental in saving the life of a woman slave who had escaped six times. at the time of her escape six slaves, led by a boy slave of about years of age, had fled from the house of their master. they were recaptured and no punishment except a good scolding and an infinity of threats was meted out to them. a few days afterwards an elderly slave again escaped. she was discovered in a neighboring house and brought back by the wife and daughter of her owner. when her master saw her he rushed from his house with spear and bolo and would have killed her had it not been for my remonstrances and entreaties. the slave does his share of domestic service. to the female falls the task of drawing water, gathering firewood, pounding rice, cooking, and weeding; to the male that of acting as his master's companion, porter, and general messenger, and of planting _camotes_ and other crops. the slave's dress is usually sufficient to cover his nakedness and no more. ear disks, bracelets, and similar articles of feminity[sic] are not allowed, and too neat arrangement of the hair is not countenanced, as it might be indicative of matrimonial inclinations. marriage of his slaves is not looked upon with favor by the master, and he does not permit it unless the material advantages are so great that they will repay him for the loss of the slave's services. i know of few slave marriages. captives, however, are said to be married off for a good payment, when their looks and other good qualities have won the heart of some young man. my observation and the testimony of manóboland as to the sexual morality of slaves is that it is excellent, though no vigilance seems to be exercised over them in the matter. the female slave makes trips alone to the water place even by night, and spends many hours of the day in solitary places while working in the clearings or traveling to the granary. this sexual morality is due to the fact that intercourse with a female slave is looked down upon with unmitigated contempt. the slave fares no worse in the matter of food than the inmates of the house; possibly he fares even better, for he gets more secret tastes of sugarcane and roasted _camotes_ between meal hours; during meals he does not forget himself, as he often has the handling of the pots. part iv. religion chapter xxii general principles of manÓbo religion and nature and classification of manÓbo deities introductory the matter of manóbo religious belief is so difficult of investigation, and withal so important, that i feel a certain amount of timidity in taking up the subject. the natural suspiciousness of the manóbo and his inclination not to answer questions truthfully until he has assured himself of his interrogator's motives in asking it are the principal sources of this difficulty. then again his fear of offending the divinities, coupled with his absolute subjection in spiritual affairs to his priests, do not render the undertaking easier. and finally his primitive, untutored mind is not capable of setting forth in a satisfactory manner the intricacies, and not infrequently, the numerous variations and apparent contradictions that arise at every step in the investigation. however, my sojourn among, and intimate dealings with, both laymen and priests give me hope that the following is in its essentials a true interpretation of this primitive religion. general principles of religion sincerity of belief the life of a manóbo is as deep an expression of his religious beliefs as that of any man i know. belief in the supernatural seems to be instinctive with him. he undertakes no action out of the ordinary routine without consulting the powers above, and when he has assured himself of their disapprobation, he refrains most sacredly from his intended project, even if it should be one so cherished as vengeance on an enemy. but if these higher powers manifest their approbation he carries out his project with full assurance of success. to the manóbo his deities and demons, spirits, giants, ghouls, and goblins are as real as his own existence, and his belief in them seems to him entirely rational and well founded, because for authority he has tradition and revelation--tradition handed down from generation to generation, revelation imparted to priests while manifesting all the indications of what he considers supernatural influence. basis of religious belief i have had occasion to study the working of the manóbo mind when brought into contact with phenomena which it had never contemplated before and i observed that when the phenomenon impressed him as being not prejudicial nor unintelligible it was ascribed to a beneficent supernatural agency, but when it produced the impression of being unintelligible or detrimental it was at once condemned as being the work of evil spirits. on one occasion a manóbo of the upper agúsan accompanied me to talakógon and, upon seeing the government launch, made inquiries as to its nature. his questions being answered to his satisfaction, he made his comments, praised its form, and finally declared it to be the work of a god. but when it began to move, giving forth its shrill whistle and producing the noise characteristic of a gasoline launch, he at once condemned it as being the work of evil agency. i saw another instance illustrative of this tendency upon the arrival of the first phonograph in the simúlau river district. my companion was a manóbo of the upper bahaían. upon hearing the strains of the phonograph he concluded at once that there was an evil spirit within it. notwithstanding the fact that i assured him to the contrary, he persisted in his belief, averring that no good spirit would give vent to such an unearthly noise. almost invariably my watch, cornet, compass, and barometer were condemned as being the work of malevolent spirits. instances might be multiplied indefinitely, but the general conclusion is that anything that suggests the unintelligible, the unusual, the suspected, the gloomy, is at once attributed to inimical powers. hence a crow that caws at night is thought to be an evil spirit. the crashing of a falling tree in the forest is the struggle of mighty giants. the rumbling of thunder, the flash of lightning, the tempest's blast, and all the other phenomena of nature are the operations of unseen agencies. the darkness is peopled with hosts of spirits. on the desolate rocks, in the untrodden jungle, on the dark mountain tops, in gloomy caves, by mad torrents, in deep pools, dwell invisible powers whose enmity he must avoid or whose good will he must court, or whose anger he must placate. fear then seems to be the foundation of the manóbo's religious beliefs and observances. untutored as he is, he fails to understand occurrences which the average trained mind can easily explain. on one occasion i was at the headwaters of the abagá river, a tributary of the tágo river. i had to cross the river at a point where a mighty rock stood in midstream, dividing the river in two. i noticed that each of my manóbo carriers deposited a little stone near an aperture in the rock. i asked them why they had made their tribute to the spirit dweller of the rock, and i could not convince them that the rock was not placed there by the spirit, but was a natural result of the action of the water. they would never, they said, be able to return to the agúsan unless they showed their good will to the spirit lord of abagá. means of detecting supernatural evil in all the concerns of life the manóbo must secure immunity from the ill will of the multitudinous spirits that surround him. but this alone is not sufficient. he must be able to detect future evil, otherwise how can he avoid it? his ancestors for long bygone generations, have taught him how to foresee and avoid evil, for they have learned, often after bitter experience, the signs of present and approaching evil and the means of effectively avoiding it. these signs are embodied in a system of augury, that forms one of the most important parts of manóbo religion. hence, before all important undertakings, and, above all, whenever there is any suspicion of bodily danger or any apprehension of supernatural ill will, the omens must be sedulously consulted and the machinations of evil or of inimical spirits thereby detected. belief in an hierarchy of beneficent and malignant deities now it happens that at times these omens can not be observed, so that it might seem that the manóbo is left exposed to, and defenseless against, a host of spirit enemies.[ ] however, he knows a means of defense, for the good old people of yore have handed down the belief that there is an hierarchy of beneficent divinities called _diwáta_ that are ever ready to be his champions against the powers of evil. the old, old, people found this faith justified and experienced the help of the beneficent gods. why should not he? [ ] _búsau_. how then is he to communicate with these invisible champions? evidently through those who have been chosen by the deities themselves for that purpose--the order of priests called italian. and so, following out the practice of his forefathers, he has recourse to the priests in more important concerns in which he can not otherwise ascertain the schemes of malignant spirits or determine the pleasure of the gods. the priest, in answer to his call, either by means of divination, or by ecstatic communion with his tutelary deity, or by appropriate offerings, learns the means to ward off the impending or suspected evil. living in a "land of terror," as he had up to about years ago, surrounded on all sides by mortal enemies, and in constant warfare with them, the manóbo, like his forebears, felt the necessity of having recourse to spiritual agents for protection against his enemies and for assistance in conquering them. herein is involved another feature of manóbo religion--the belief in a multitude of warlike spirits called _tagbúsan_ with whom communication is held through the mediation of warrior chiefs called _bagáni_. other tenets of manÓbo faith other points of importance in the religious ideas of the manóbos are the belief in a future life and in the existence, immortality, and duality of the soul.[ ] an inordinate fear of the dead and of all connected with them, a host of religious and of other taboos, and a belief in the efficacy of charms, talismans, and sympathetic magical means complete the summary of manóbo religion. for champions the manóbo has the tutelary _diuáta_; for mediators, the _bailán_; for guides, dreams, divination, auguries, and omens; for propitiation, prayers, invocations, oblations, and sacrifice; for proof of faith, tradition, revelation, and personal experience. [ ] not the metaphysical soul that is maintained in biblical and theological belief, but a material counterpart of each individual. spirit companions of man the _umágad_,[ ] or spirit companions of man, as understood by the manóbo, may be defined as his material invisible counterparts without whose presence he would cease to live. he attributes to these spirits or souls invisibility, power of locomotion, and to at least one of them immortality. he invests not only men, but also animals and such plants as are cultivated by man for his sustenance, with souls or spirits. he will tell you that the soul of rice is like rice, and exists as a separate invisible form beside the visible material entity known as rice. i was given to understand that trees once had souls and in proof of the assertion the narra tree was cited, for even yet, it was explained, it bleeds when cut.[ ] no other explanation is offered in the case of animals, than that they live and die and dream, therefore they must have a spirit or soul. [ ] from _á-gad_, accompany. [ ] the sap of the _narra_ tree bears a very striking resemblance to blood. _narra_ is one of the _pterocarpus_ species. vegetable souls in such plants as are used for the nourishment of man, are explained in the following way: the offerings of rice and drink which are set out for the deities, tutelary or other, are partaken of and after repast of the gods the offerings become insipid, because they have lost their "soul." i frequently tested the substantial remains of the spirits' feast and found that they had still retained their pristine savor and strength. no argument of mine, however, could convince my manóbo friends to the contrary. the spirits had consumed the soul, and there remained, according to their staunch belief, nothing but the outward form and inert bulk of the former offerings. the manóbo supposes himself to have been endowed by mandáit with two invisible companions and he is convinced that without their attendance he could not exist. these souls or spirits are not indwelling principles of life but are two separate indeterminate entities that differ only in two respects from the person whose associates they are. the first difference is that of size, for it is the general belief that they are a trifle smaller than their bodily associates. besides being smaller, they are invisible. no mortal eye, it is said, except the priest's, has seen a man's spirit companion, and yet it is only for brief intervals that they are absent from their corporal companions. at times they crouch upon the shoulders. when the man is making ready for a journey, they do likewise. when he sets out upon his travels they follow him, one on each side in somewhat the same way as the "guardian angels" of other creeds accompany their wards. i once witnessed a little incident illustrative of this belief. it was on the middle agúsan, when a mother was about to leave the house of birth. at the last moment she addressed the spirits of her little one, conjuring them to follow and to care for their tender ward. hence our souls are as our shadows, our other selves. notwithstanding the close association between them and their human companions, they are seldom invoked. they are considered to have little, if any, power to help. it is thought that without their presence man would become mad, and in proof of this i was informed of cases where persons, on being awakened rudely and hurriedly, had recourse to the bolo, in a fit of madness due as it was thought, to the absence of their souls.[ ] [ ] this belief explains the reluctance that the manóbo, like members of other philippine tribes, feels in arousing a person hurriedly from sleep. it is said that when we sleep these spirits wander off for a brief space on their own mystic errands, and their doings are mirrored in our dreams. hence the strong and abiding belief of the manóbo in dreams. these strange companions of man have no material wants yet they lead an insecure existence, exposed, as they are, to the insidious attacks of the common foes of mortals. hence it comes to pass that one of them, while away on its random rambles some unlucky day, is mysteriously kidnaped and finally "devoured" by a ruthless evil spirit.[ ] as soon as the surviving soul realizes what has taken place, it bemoans the loss of its companion and leaving its corporal companion unattended wends its way, sad and solitary, to the land of ibú. i have been assured by priests that this companionless soul frequently returns to the scene of sickness and there bemoans with piteous cries the loss of its companion, heaping horrid imprecations on the head of the foul spirit that wrought the evil. only the priest can hear its wild wail of woe and see its piteous face, all suffused with tears. upon seeing the spirit's grief the priest renews at once his supplications to his tutelary deities, beseeching them to rescue the captured soul from the clutches of its enemy and thereby save the life of the patient. should the prayers of the priest prove unavailing, the soul wends its way to the region of ibú, where, free from the agressions[sic] of earthly enemies, it begins its second and unending existence in the company of its spirit relatives. [ ] the "souls" of an ordinary priest and of war priests, as also those of the slain, are not subject to such attacks, being under the protection of numerous dieties[sic]. general character of the deities manóbo religion consists primarily of a belief in an innumerable number of deities called _úmli_ and of secondary deities called _diuáta_. in contradistinction to these is a multitudinous host of demons known as búsau, waging incessant and ruthless war against the manóbo world. in addition to these there is a numerous array of spirits known as _tagbánua_ to whom is assigned the ownership of the forests, hills, and valleys, while the various other divisions and operations of nature are thought to be under the superintendence of other preternatural beings, beneficent or otherwise. the conception which the manóbo has of the supernatural world is very much like his idea of the world in which he lives. his gods, like his warrior chiefs, are great chiefs, no one of whom recognizes the sovereignty of the other. we find no idea of a supreme being as such. the priests of one settlement have their own special deities to whom they and their relatives have recourse, while the priests of another settlement have another set of deities for their tutelaries, with whom they intercede, either for themselves or for such of their friends as may need assistance. it is true that each priest has amongst his familiars a major divinity from whom he may have experienced more help, but in the spirit world there does not exist, according to manóbo belief, one supreme universal being.[ ] each priest declares the supremacy of his major deity over those of other priests, and manóbos declare manóbo deities to be superior to those of other tribes. [ ] during the great religious movement that was at its height in , there was a general belief in the existence of a _magbabáya_, or supreme being, that was to overthrow the world, but before my departure from the agúsan in , this supreme being was multiplied and was being sold to anyone of manóbo belief who could afford to pay the equivalent of a human life. thus one frequently heard that so-and-so had received one or more _magbabáya_. classification of deities and spirits the following is a general classification of manóbo deities and spirits. benevolent deities ( ) _Úm-li_, a class of higher beings who on special occasions, through the intercession of the _diuáta_, succor mortals. ( ) _diuáta_, a minor order of benignant deities, with whom the priests hold communion on all occasions of impending danger, before all important undertakings, and whenever it is considered necessary to feast or to propitiate them. gods of gore and rage ( ) _tagbúsau_, a category of sanguinary gods who delight in blood and who incite their chosen favorites, the _bagáni_ or warrior chiefs, to bloodshed and revenge, and ordinary laymen to acts of violence and madness. ( ) _panaíyang_, a class of fierce deities related by ties of kinship, and subordinate to the _tagbúsau_ or gods of gore. their special function seems to be to drive men to madness.[ ] [ ] they are called _ma-ka-yáng-ug_, i. e., "can make mad." ( ) _pamáiya_, retainers of the _tagbúsau_, and their emissaries, when it is desired to incite men to acts of rage. malignant and dangerous spirits _bú-sau_, an order of insatiable fiends, who, with some exceptions, occupy themselves wantonly in the destruction of human kind. the following are some of the classes and individuals who are commonly believed in but who, unlike most of the other _búsau_, are not of a perfidious nature unless aroused to anger. ( ) _tag-bánua_, a class of spirits who are not unkind, if duly respected, and who live in all silent and gloomy places. ( ) _táme_, a gigantic spirit, that dwells in the untraveled jungle and beguiles the traveler to his doom. ( ) _dágau_, a mischievous, fickle spirit that delights in stealing the rice from the granary. if aroused to anger she may cause a failure of the rice crop.[ ] [ ] she is called also _ma-ka-bún-ta-sái_, i. e., "can cause hunger." ( ) _anit_ or _anítan_, is the spirit of the thunderbolt, and one of the mightier class of spirits that dwell in the upper sky world.[ ] [ ] _in-ug-tú-han_. ( ) epidemic demons, who hail from the extremity of the world at the navel[ ] of the ocean. [ ] _pós'-ud to dá-gat_. agricultural goddesses ( ) _kakiádan_, the goddess of the rice, and its custodian during its growth. ( ) _tagamáling_, the goddess of other crops. ( ) _taphágan_, the harvest goddess, and guardian of the rice during its storage in the granary. giant spirits ( ) _mandáyangan_, a harmless humanlike giant whose home is in the far-off mountain forests. ( ) _Ápíla_, an innocuous humanlike giant, the rival of mandáyanñgan for the wrestling championship. ( ) _táme_, the giant demon referred to above. gods of lust and consanguineous love ( ) _tagabáyau_, a dangerous goddess, that incites to consanguineous love and marriage. ( ) _agkui_, half _diuáta_, half _búsau_, who urges men to consanguineous love and to sexual excesses. spirits of celestial phenomena ( ) _inaíyau_, an empyrean god, the wielder of the thunderbolt and the lightning, and the manipulator of the winds and storms. ( ) _tagbánua_, who, besides being local gods reigning over the forest, have the power to produce rain. ( ) _umoúiuí_, the cloud spirit. other spirits ( ) _sugúdon_ or _sugújun_, the god of hunters and trappers, under whose auspices are conducted the operations of the chase and all that pertains thereto. he is also the protector of the hunting dogs. ( ) _libtákan_, the god of sunrise, sunset, and good weather; a god who dwells in the firmament and seems to have special power in the production of light and good weather. ( ) _mandáit_, the soul spirit who bestows upon every human being two invisible, not indwelling, material counterparts. ( ) _yúmud_, the water wraith, an apparently innocuous spirit, abiding in deep and rocky places, usually in pools, beneath the surface of the water. ( ) _ibú_, the queen of the afterworld, the goddess of deceased mortals, whose abode is down below the pillars of the world. ( ) _manduyápit_, the spirit ferryman, the proverbial ferryman who ferries the departed soul across the big red river on its way to ibúland. ( ) _makalídung_, the founder of the world, who set the world on huge pillars (posts). nature of the various divinities in detail the primary deities [ ] [ ] called also _úm-li_ or _ma-di-góon-an no di-u-á-ta_. the primary _diuáta_ are a class of supernatural beings that dwell in the upper heavens. it is generally believed that at one time they led a human existence in manóboland but finally built themselves a stone structure up into the sky and became transformed into divinities of the first order. they stand aloft in a category by themselves and have no dealings with the manóbo world. on occasions the minor _diuáta_ or those of the second class, when they are unable to afford man the required help, have recourse to these greater deities. during my last trip to the agúsan valley, it was the common report that the _diuáta_ of a certain manóbo clan on the upper umaíam river, having been unable to protect the people from military persecution had recourse to this higher hierarchy and that it was only a matter of time when the members of the clan would be taken up into the higher-sky regions where the supreme powers dwell and where they would themselves become _úmli_ or _madigónan no diuáta_. it is thought that these deities have brass intestines and that they can draw up a house into their ethereal abodes with a gold _limbá_,[ ] but the conception of them is so vague and so varying that i am unable to give further definite information. [ ] _lim-bá_ possibly means chain. the secondary order of deities it is with the secondary order of divinities, however, that we have to deal more at length, for they are the guardians and champions of the manóbo in all the vicissitudes and concerns of life. they are thought to be beings that in the long forgotten past lived their earthly lives here below and after their mortal course was run were in some inexplicable way changed into _diuáta_. though belonging now to a different and more powerful order, they still retain a fondness for the tribesmen who sojourn here below. selecting certain men and women for their favored friends [ ] they keep in touch with worldly affairs and at the call of their favorites hasten to the help of humankind. [ ] _lim-bá_ possibly means chain. [ ] these are the _báilan_ or priests and priestesses of manóboland. in physical appearance these deities are human and manóbo-like but they are described as being "as fair as the moon." warriors they are, to a certainty, for they are said to carry their shield and all the insignia of a manóbo warrior chief and to fare forth at times to punish some bold demon for his evil machinations against the tribe. they are said to reside on the highest and most inaccessible mountains [ ] in the vicinity of their favorite priests but are ready to fly "on the wings of the wind" to any part of the world in answer to a call for help. [ ] we find several mountains and promontories in eastern mindanáo named after these gods, notably mount magdiuáta to the southwest, and the magdiuáta range to the northwest, of the town of liañga. point diuáta also, to the west of butuán, is reported as being the dwelling place of manóbo divinities. on these lofty heights they ordinarily lead a peaceful life. they are blessed with wives and children and have attendant spirits [ ] to do their bidding. they have slaves, too, in their households, black ill-visaged demons captured in some great raid. they have few material wants, for betel nut is said to be their food but still they love to join in the feasts of mortals and to be regaled with all the good things of this world. they do not consume mortal offerings in a material way, for the offerings remain intact except for some slight fingerings that have been found at times on the surface of the rice and other offerings. it is only the "soul," or, as is held by others, the redolence of the viands that is partaken of. an exception, however, must be made in the case of the blood of victims, for this is actually consumed by the deities. [ ] these retainers are called _lim-bó-tung_. so great is their desire for the savory things of life that they are said to plague their mortal friends into providing them. thus mandáit, the soul spirit, makes the babe restless, and even indisposed, with no other intention than to induce the people to provide a fatted fowl. it is believed too that manaúg, the special patron of the sick, causes many a bodily ailment in order that his idol may be set up and that he may be treated to the various delicacies that he is fond of. and the bloodthirsty war lords, tagbúsau, must have their blood libation periodically, whether it comes from a human being or from an animal victim. it is true that this blood offering is to all appearance taken by the warrior chief or by the priest, for they ravenously suck it from the gory wound, or gulp it down from the vessel in which it has been caught. but it is believed that neither the priest nor the warrior chief drinks it, but the familiar spirits of the former, or the gods of the latter, who at the moment of sacrifice have taken possession of them, and produce in them violent tremblings and other manifestations of preternatural possession. i could get no satisfactory explanation of the manner of this possession. it is said to be effected by a mysterious corporal transformation of the divinity such as even the demons are capable of when they desire to ply their malice on humankind. it is during this period of ecstatic seizure that the priest reveals to the assembled tribesmen the directions and desires of his deities. breaking forth with loud voice and great belching into a wild strain, he announces to the people the recovery of the sick one, or a plentiful harvest, but it is not the priest that utters these prophecies and instructions, but the _diuáta_ that speaks through him. the gods of gore, and kindred spirits these warlike beings are an order of divinities under whose special protection the priest warrior chief performs his feats of valor, and for whose special veneration he makes sacrifices and other offerings. the prevailing idea with regard to them is that they are a class of deities whose sole delight is the blood of the human race. this is said to be their choice food, though they are willing, on nearly all occasions, to accept as a substitute that of a pig or of a fowl. they are said to dwell in high, rocky places on far-away mountains. in order to be supplied with the delicacies of which they are so fond, they select certain individuals for their favorites and servants, and accord to them an immunity from personal danger. it is seldom that they leave their rocky dwelling places, but when they do it is because they consider themselves neglected by their servants or when they experience an inordinate craving for blood. in such cases they hasten to plague their favorites in divers ways into watchfulness and compliance, and thereby keep themselves supplied with the viands so acceptable to them. they have messengers, too. these are called _pamáiya_ and are sent by their masters to human haunts to incite men to anger, and thereby bring on an occasion for bloodshed, much as the proverbial devil is said to tempt humankind. during all ceremonial feasts in their honor they are present and partake of the blood of the victim, human or animal. and when their favorite servants go forth to take revenge upon some long-standing enemy, they accompany him and during the attack are by his side, protecting him and inciting him to superhuman deeds. and when the enemy, men and women, lie bleeding all around and the captives have been bound, these terrible spirits eat, through their favorite's mouth, the heart and liver and the blood of one of the slain, preferably that of the chief enemy. chapter xxiii maleficent spirits the origin and nature of malignant demons standing out in strong antithesis to the benevolent divinities is an order of maleficent spirits corresponding to the proverbial devils of other cults. throughout this paper they will be called, for want of a better name, búsau or demons; that is, evil agents holding an intermediate place between the higher divinities and men. no uniform tradition as to the origin of these spirits appears to exist. it is certain, however, from my investigation that the belief in such spirits antedates the recent partial christian conquest of the agúsan.[ ] it is said that in the old, old days, these spirits were rather well disposed toward men, and that children used to be entrusted to their care during the absence of the parents. be that as it may, at the present day they have acquired a degree of maleficence that causes them to be considered the implacable enemies of the human race. [ ] the introduction of catholicism among the pagan tribes of eastern mindanáo was begun on a large scale by the jesuits about the year . as frequently described to me by priests and by others who claimed to have seen them, these foul spirits are human in all other respects except that they are unusually tall, fathoms being the average height accorded them. black and hideous in appearance they are said to stalk around in the darkness and silence of the night. by day they retire to dark thickets, somber caves, and the joyless resting places of the dead. they have no families nor houses, neither do they experience physical wants and so they wander around in wanton malice toward men. seizing an unwary human "soul," they make it a prisoner and, sweeping away with it "on the wings of the wind," in some mysterious way devour it. or, again, simulating the shape of a wild boar, an uncommon bird, or even a fish, they inflict bodily harm on their human victim. the story of "Ápo bóhon"[ ] illustrates the belief in the metamorphosis of these demons. Ápo bóhon was a manóbo of the kasilaían river. one day, in the olden time, he went forth to hunt but had no luck, though three times he had offered his tributes to the lord of the agibáwa marshland. wearied with this hunt, he lay down to rest toward evening when lo! he spied a monkey and taking his bow and dart arrow he shot it. but he could not cook it. he piled wood upon the fire but still the flesh only blackened with soot and would not cook. in his hunger he ate the flesh raw but he never returned home, for the monkey was an evil spirit and Ápo bóhon fell into his power. thus it is that until this day he wanders around the woods of kasilaían and may be heard toward evening calling his dogs together for his return to his home on agibáwa marshland. woe betide the unlucky mortal who may cross his path, for now his quest is human. but if, upon hearing his voice, the traveler calls upon him and offers him a quid, Ápo bóhon will pass on his way and do no harm. [ ] _a-po_ means "grandfather" and _bo-on_ "ulcer." methods of frustrating their evil designs through priests naturally to the priest falls the task of opposing, through his influence with men's supernal friends, these malicious beings. having got together the proper offerings he calls upon his friendly gods, one or several, and beseeches them to rescue and release the missing spirit or umagdd, and to punish the offending demons. well pleased with the tokens of good will offered by the priest and by his earthly friends, the friendly deities are said to hasten to their home and gird themselves for the pursuit. with lance and shield and hempen coat[ ] they start off on the raid. they are described as having their hair bound up in small wooden hemispheres, their heads turbaned with the red kerchief, and their necks adorned with a wealth of charms, much like the great warrior chiefs of manóboland. guiding their footsteps by means of a powerful glass,[ ] and traveling with tremendous speed, they are said to overtake quickly the fleeing enemy, even though they may have to travel to the other side of the world. then begins a fierce battle between them and the enemy for the recovery of a human soul, or for the purpose of punishing the demons for acts of malice. [ ] _lim-bo-tung_. [ ] called _espiho_. there is a universal belief among the manóbos in an _espiho_ (from the spanish _espejo_, looking-glass) by which one can see into the bowels of the earth or to the extremities of the world. this battle is described in minutest detail by the priests during the period of divine possession through which they pass in the course of the religious ceremonies. at times a hand-to-hand combat between a friendly deity and some more powerful demon is described at great length. again the capture of many evil spirits is the theme of a story. a common occurrence during these combats is the use of an iron ball by the friendly deities. the sight of this is said to inspire terror in the demons and leaves them at the mercy of their opponents. shut up in this ball as in an iron prison they are brought back in triumph to the domains of their conquerors and the rescued companion spirit of man hurries joyously back to its mortal counterpart. these evil demons are said to be held as captives in the houses of the good spirits and to serve them in the capacity of slaves, accompanying and aiding them in their warlike expeditions against other evil spirits. by various material means besides having recourse to the _diuáta_ the manóbos make use of a reed,[ ] or vine,[ ] of the branches of a wild lemon tree[ ] and other plants,[ ] in order to counteract the evil influence of these fiends. it may be remarked that of these cause a painful wound on an ordinary human being but that they are said to be particularly irritating to evil spirits; this is especially true of the wound made by the _sá sá_ reed. hence, on occasions when these demons are expected to be present, the priest secures the above-mentioned plants and sets them in places where it is thought the demons may be enticed to enter. it is mostly on the occasion of a death or of a birth that these precautions have to be taken for the smell of death and of human blood seems to have a great attraction for these monsters. on such occasions branches of lemon trees or of the other plants above mentioned are hung under the house or at any opening in the wall. the priest, also, frequently carries a sharpened _sá sá_ reed in the hope of encountering some overbold demon. although the wound inflicted by the reed does not kill the demon, yet it is very slow to heal and is said to be at times incurable. [ ] _sá-sá_. [ ] _u-ág_. [ ] _su-á_ and _ka-ba-yan-á_. [ ] _ka-míli_ and _húás_. such is the fear which the evil spirits have of these reeds, vines, and branches that the mere mention of them is believed to be sufficient to frighten the demons. fire and smoke, also, are said to keep them away and for that reason a fire is often kept burning under the house during times of sickness and death. great care is used to keep alive the fire at night on nearly all occasions of apprehension. loud shouts, too, are resorted to in order to intimidate the evil spirits. during funerals the yelling is particularly noticeable; the loud yells which one hears while traveling through solitary places in the mountains and down the rivers are intended as a menace to the malevolent spirits. by propitiation when all other means have proved unavailing, propitiation is resorted to. i witnessed the propitiatory ceremony during several cases of serious sickness. in each case, when the offerings had been set out for the benevolent divinities on the regular sacrificial stands,[ ] a corresponding offering of meat, rice, and other things was set out for the evil demons that were supposed to be responsible for the sickness. their offerings were not placed in the house but outside, on a log or on the ground, and were not touched again, nor eaten by anyone, for the spirit of evil might have rendered them baneful.[ ] [ ] _ban-ká-so_ and _ta-lí-duñg_. [ ] compare with the customs in vogue in the case of offerings made to the _diuáta_. after the various supplications have been made by the priests to the good deities, the evil ones are called upon but not in the same way, for they are not allowed within the precincts of the house, where various objects, like _sá sá_ and lemon branches, have been placed to prevent their entrance. they are addressed from the opening around the house as if they were at a considerable distance, and no very endearing terms are used. during cases of sickness and especially during epidemics the custom of making a ceremonial raft is very common. i have heard numerous accounts both as to the uniformity of this practice and the reason for it. sickness of an unusual kind and especially of a contagious nature is supposed to be due to the agency of some very powerful epidemic spirits, who ascend the river, spreading the infection, and eluding at the same time, the _diuáta_ in pursuit. when the priests decide that all efforts to secure aid of the good deities are unavailing, they determine to propitiate the evil epidemic spirits in the following manner: a small raft of bamboo, meter by meters in the instance i witnessed, is constructed. on this is securely bound a victim, such as a pig. fowl also may be offered on similar occasions and more or less elaborate ceremonies may be performed, like the blood-unction and the fowl-waving rite. in the ceremony which i witnessed the demons in question were formally requested to accept the pig, not to molest the settlement further, and to take themselves and their pig "down the river." the sickness was then addressed and requested to transfer itself to the body of the pig. after this the raft was freed and in its seaward course floated into the hands of persons who had less fear of demons than their manóbo friends.[ ] [ ] i know that the pig in question was taken and consumed in a less religious way by a bisáya trader. the "tagbÁnua" or local forest spirits their characteristics and method of living the _tagbánua_[ ] or lords of the mountains and the valleys, are a class of local deities, each one of whom reigns over a certain district. to them is assigned the ownership of the mountains and the deep forest and all lonely patches and uncommon places that give an impression of mystery and solitude. [ ] _tag_ a prefix denoting ownership, and _bá-n-u-a_, "uninhabited place," the open uninhabited country as distinguished from the territory in the immediate vicinity of the main rivers or of settled regions. the _tagbánua_ are thought to be neither kindly nor unkindly spirits, and without guile, provided a proper deference is shown them when we trespass upon their domains. a _tagbánua_ with his family selects a particular place for his habitation, sometimes a lonely mountain, sometimes a solitary glade or some high cliff or gloomy cavern. on one of my trips from esperanza to the headwaters of the tágo river, i saw the dwelling place of a _tagbánua_. it was a huge bowlder[sic], called buhiísan, that stood at the junction of the two torrents that form the abagá river, a tributary of the tágo. a favorite haunt of the _tagbánua_ is a natural open place in the center of the forest. here he builds a house, or more often makes his domicile in a balete tree. i have heard it said that he may at times select the _lauán_ or any other lofty tree but that his choice is usually the _baléte_. here he dwells with his family and is said to lead a quiet, peaceful life. day by day he wanders through his realm and provides himself with the necessaries of life. uncommon varieties of plants, such as ferns and ricelike growths, furnish him with the vegetable part of his meal, while venison and pork are obtained from the abundance of wild boars and deer. he and his family return home toward sunset and begin to prepare supper by pounding their rice. many manóbos have heard with their own ears, they assured me, not only the sound of the rice mortar but all the sounds that are customarily heard in any manóbo home. definite localities tenanted by forest spirits there are in the vicinity of talakógon two localities where _tagbánua_ are said to reign. one is called agibáwa and the other kasawáñgan. both of them are remote timberless places in the center of swampy regions. in the former the reigning deity had constructed a house, so i was told by one who claimed to have seen the posts while the house was still in the process of construction. according to other reports this deity had a herd of carabaos whose footprints had been seen by several of my friends and acquaintances.[ ] [ ] these carabaos were evidently the remnant, or the offspring, of a small herd that escaped to the woods in the time of the philippine insurrection. the kasawáñgan district was my hunting ground for nearly a year and i had occasion to observe the character and habits of its deity, as interpreted to me by manóbo guides and companions. it was with the very greatest fear and reluctance that my first guide introduced me to the marshland. no sooner had i set foot upon it than it began to rain and my guide requested permission to return. in answer to an inquiry as to why he wished to leave me he proffered the information that he was afraid of the _tagbánua_, who was evidently displeased, for had not this deity already sent down a shower of rain? the guide then went on to say that if we persisted in transgressing on the marshland some greater evil was sure to follow. as i told him that we would make friends with the diety[sic] he consented to remain with me. after all preparations for camping had been completed, my companion set out an offering of betel nut on a rude stand and addressing the invisible owner of the marshland, requested him to accept the betel nut and not to be displeased. my guide offered in his own defense that he had come into this region unwillingly. after a few hours' vain endeavors to procure game, my companion made another donation, requesting the lord of the marsh to forego his ill will and permit us to get a wild boar. his prayers were unavailing for no game was forthcoming. when i lost my compass shortly afterwards my guide assured me that the misfortune was due to the persistent ill will of the _tagbánua_ toward me. i continued to visit this region week after week and had considerable success in getting game, but it was attributed, partly to the fact that the lord of the marsh had taken a liking to me, and partly to the offerings of betel nut and eggs made by my manóbo boys. illustrations similar to this of the fear and deference displayed toward this invisible ruler of solitary places might be multiplied indefinitely. suffice it to say, however, that the belief in this class of spirits is widespread throughout all tribes of eastern mindanáo, bisáyas[ ] included. [ ] among the bisáyas who come from bohol, the respect paid the _tagbánua_ amounts almost to worship. worship of the forest spirits the existence of a _tagbánua_ in any particular locality is determined by a priest who, through his protecting deities, learns the name [ ] of the spirit, ascertains the cause of his displeasure on a given occasion, and prescribes the offerings to be made to him either for reasons of propitiation or of supplication. [ ] only the priests may pronounce the name. respect must be shown toward the _tagbánua_ in various ways. his territory must not be trespassed upon, nor any of his property, such as trees, interfered with unless some little offering is made. his name, if known, as also the names of fish and of crocodiles, and of other things which are not indigenous to the region, must in no wise be mentioned. a violation of this taboo would be followed by a storm or by some other evil indicative of the _tagbánua's_ displeasure, unless immediate measures were taken to appease his anger. again, if one points the finger at places like a mountain where dwells a _tagbánua_, the displeasure of its owner is aroused and the transgressor is liable to feel the spirit's anger. it was explained to me by several manóbos that pointing at the dwelling place of these spirits might result in petrifaction of the arm. the occupation of a new site is almost invariably the occasion for an invocation to the _tagbánua_, especially if the site be in the vicinity of a balete tree tenanted by him, for to occupy the place without obtaining his good will and permission would expose the would-be occupant to numberless vicissitudes. during hunting and trapping operations supplication is resorted to, especially when the hunter finds that game is scarce.[ ] [ ] in the chapter on hunting, the various observances on such occasions have been described. in case it is decided by the priest, or even suspected by an individual that an adversity, such as bad weather or sudden floods, is a result of a _tagbánua's_ animosity, and that the ordinary simple offerings are not sufficient to placate him, then a white chicken must be killed and the regular rites peculiar to a blood sacrifice must be performed. it is rare, however, that a manóbo has so far forgotten himself as to draw down the resentment of this kindly deity, and render propitiation necessary. i, however, witnessed a case wherein it was considered expedient to placate his anger; i was requested to take the necessary steps, as i was considered the object of his wrath. my manóbo oarsmen desired to discontinue the journey at an early hour of the afternoon, but for several reasons i wished to reach a certain point before nightfall, so a little ruse was resorted to. i granted their request to rest and they very promptly went to sleep. not long afterwards i struck a few blows on the outriggers with a piece of iron. the manóbo could explain it in no other way except that the local _tagbánua_ had been displeased with my demeanor, for had i not, they said, gone into the forest in the vicinity of his arboreal dwelling and, notwithstanding their advice to the contrary, given vent to loud and disrespectful vociferations. as we were in the vicinity of the _baléte_ tree it was unanimously decided to push on. at the next few stopping places the ruse was repeated, so that no doubt was any longer entertained as to the supposed cause of the occurrence, the wrath of the _tagbánua_. several little incidents, such as striking a hidden snag, and the increase of the flood, both of which were also attributed to this spirit's malign influence, heightened their fear. they finally begged me to stop for the purpose of sacrificing one of my chickens to the offended deity. we finally reached the desired spot and the supposed supernatural sounds were heard no longer. chapter xxiv priests, their prerogatives and functions the bailÁn or ordinary manÓbo priests their general character the _bailán_[ ] is a man or woman who has become an object of special predilection to one or more of those supernatural friendly beings known among the manóbos as _diuáta_. this will explain why the word _diuatahán_ is frequently used, especially by the mountain people, instead of _bailán_. i was frequently told by priests that this special predilection of the deities for them is due to the fact that they happened to be born at the same time as their divine protectors. this belief, however, is not general. [ ] _bai-lán_ is probably a transformation of the malay word _be-li-an_, a medicine man. (mandáya, bagóbo, and subánun, _ba-li-án_.) as a result of the favor in which the supernatural beings hold him, the priest becomes the favorite and familiar of spirits with whom he can commune and from whom he can ask favors and protection both for himself and for his friends. hence he is regarded by his fellow tribesmen in the light of a mediator through whom they transact all their business with the other world. in the hour of danger the _bailán_ is consulted, and after a brief communion with his spirit mends he explains the measures to be adopted, in accordance with the injunctions of his tutelary deities. should a _baléte_ tree have to be removed from the newly selected forest patch, who else could coax its spirit dwellers not to molest the tiller of the soil, if not the _bailán_? should a tribesman have a monstrous dream and no one of all the dream experts succeed in giving a satisfactory interpretation, the _bailán_ is called in to consult the powers above and ascertains that the dream forebodes, perhaps, an impending sickness and that an offering of a white fowl must be made to manáug, the protector of the sick. and should this offering prove unavailing, he has recourse to his supernal friends again and discovers that a greater oblation must be made to save the patient. and if there is a very unfavorable conjunction to omens, who else but the _bailán_ could learn through his divine friends the significance thereof and whether the home must be abandoned or the project relinquished? at every turn of life, whether the deities have to be invoked, conciliated, or appeased, the manóbo calls upon the priest to intercede for himself, for his relatives, and for his friends. the office of priest may be said to be hereditary. i found that with few exceptions it had remained within the immediate circle of the _bailán's_ relatives. toward the evening of life the aged priest selects his successor, recommending his choice to the _diuáta_. in one instance that i know of the mother, a _bailán_, instructed her daughter in the varieties of herbs which she had found to be acceptable to her familiars, and i was told that such is the usual procedure when the priest himself has a personal concern in the succession. but no matter how proficient the _bailán_-elect may be in the sacred rites and legendary songs of the order, he is not recognized by his fellow tribesmen until he falls into the condition of what is known as _dundan_, a state of mental and physical exaltation which is considered to be an unmistakable proof of the presence and operation of some supernal power within him. this exaltation manifests itself by a violent trembling accompanied by loud belching, copious sweating, foaming at the mouth, protruding of the eyeballs, and in some cases that i have seen, apparent temporary loss of sight and unconsciousness. these symptoms are considered to be an infallible sign of divine influence, and the novice is accordingly recognized as a full-fledged priest ready to begin his ministrations under the protection of his spiritual friends. i know of one case on the lower lamlíñga river, a tributary of the kasilaían, where a certain individual[ ] became a _bailán_ without previous premonition and without any aspirations on his part. he was a person of little guile and one who had never had any previous training in the practices of his order. [ ] báya (or bório) is the young man referred to. when he receives a familiar deity the new priest becomes endowed with five more spirits or soul companions, for his greater protection and for the prolongation of his life. it is evident that his duties as mediator create a deadly hate on the part of the evil spirits toward him; hence the need of greater protection, such as is said to be afforded by the increase in number of spirit companions. it is generally believed that, due also to this special protection, the priests are more long-lived than ordinary men. i was informed by some that with the increase of each familiar there was an addition of five more souls or spirit companions, but i did not find this to be the common belief. their prerogatives ( ) the priest holds converse with his divine friends, whose form he sees and describes, whose words he hears and interprets, and whose injunctions, whether made known directly by personal revelation or through divination or through dreams, he announces. when under supernal influence he is not a voluntary agent but an inspired being, through whose mouth the deity announces his will and to whose eyes he appears in visible incarnation. ( ) by means of his friendship with these unseen beings he is enabled to discover the presence of the inveterate enemies of human kind, the _búsau_, and even to wound them. i investigated two[ ] cases of the latter kind and found that not a shadow of doubt as to the truth of the killing and as to the reality of this last-mentioned power was entertained by those who had been in a position to see and hear the facts. [ ] san luis and san miguel. ( ) as a result of the favor with which he is looked upon by the beneficent deities, he is enabled to discover the presence of various spirits in certain localities, and he knows the proper means of dealing with them. this statement applies to the spirits of "souls"[ ] of the departed whose wishes and wants he interprets; to the spirits of the hills and the valleys, the _tagbánua_, whose favor must be courted and whose displeasure must not be provoked, and to the whole order of supernatural beings that people the manóbo world, with the exception of the blood spirits, the worship of whom falls to the war priests. [ ] _um-a-gád_. sincerity of the priests on first becoming acquainted with the _bailán_ system, i was very dubious, to say the least, of the sincerity and disinterestedness of these favorites of the gods. but long and careful observation and frequent dealings with them have thoroughly convinced me of their sincerity. they affect no austere practices, no chastity, nor any other observance peculiar to the order of priesthood in other parts of the world. they claim no high prerogatives of their own; they can not slay at a distance nor metamorphose themselves into animals of fierce aspect. they have no cabalistic rites nor magic formulas nor miraculous methods for producing wondrous effects. in a word, as far as my personal observation goes, they are not impostors nor conjurers, plying thrifty trade with their fellow tribesmen, but merely intermediaries, who avail themselves of their intimacy with powers unseen to solicit aid for themselves and for their fellows in the hour of trial or tribulation. "i will call on _si inimigus_" (her _diuáta's_ pet name, his real name being si inámpo), said a priestess of the kasilaían river to me once when i consulted her as to the sickness of a child, "and i will let you know his answer." on her return she informed me that the child had fallen under the influence of an evil spirit and that si inimigus required the sacrifice of a pig as a token of my good will towards him and also as a gratification of a desire that he felt for such nourishment. she departed as she came, never asking any compensation for her advice. i might cite many cases of a similar nature that passed under my personal observation and in which i made every endeavor to discover mercenary motives. i frequently interrogated men of political and social standing as to the possibility of hypocrisy and deceit on the part of the priests. the invariable answer was that such could not be the case, as the deities themselves would be the first to resent and punish such deception. one shrewd manóbo of the upper agúsan assured me that the manóbos themselves were wise enough to detect attempts at fraud in such matters. moreover, the fact that the priest incurs comparatively heavy expenses is another evidence of his sincerity, for, in order to keep his tutelary spirits supplied with the delicacies they desire, he must offer constant oblations of pig and fowl, since he believes that when these spirits are hungry they lose their good humor and are liable to permit some evil spirit to work malice on him or on some of his relatives. of course his relatives and friends help to keep them supplied, but at the same time he probably undergoes more expense himself than any other individual. finally, as further proof of the absence of mercenary motives, it may be stated that the priest is not entitled to any share of the sacrificial victim except that which he eats in company with those who attend the sacrifice and the subsequent consumption of the victim. their influence the priest has no political influence as a rule. i am acquainted with none and have heard of very few priests, who have attained the chieftainship of a settlement, even among the _conquistas_, or christianized manóbos, who live within the pale of the established government. but in matters that pertain to the religious side of life their influence is paramount, for it is chiefly due to them that tribal customs and conditions are unflinchingly maintained. the following incident is an illustration of this influence: during a visit which i made to the lamiñga river, a western tributary of the kasilaían river, i met mandahanán, a warrior chief. among other matters i referred to the ridiculously low price, . per sack, at which manóbos were wont to sell rice to the bisáya peddlers who at that time were swarming in the district. i suggested that they dispose of their rice at the current bisáya rate of p . per sack. he replied that he had been of that opinion for some time, but that the four priests of his following had decided that an increase of the customary value of rice would entail a mysterious lessening of the present crop and a partial or even total loss of that of next year, the reason assigned by them being that such an action would be displeasing to _hakiádan_, the goddess of rice, and to _tagamáling_, the protector of other crops. these deities, he assured me, were very capricious, and when they took umbrage at anything, they either caused the rice in the granaries to diminish mysteriously, or brought about a failure in the following year's crop.[ ] [ ] the killing of mr. ickis, of the bureau of science, according to an account that i received, also demonstrates the influence exerted by the priests. to the priests may be ascribed the rigid adherence to tribal practices and the opposition to modern innovations, even when the change confessedly would be beneficial to them. their dress and functions the priest has no distinctive dress, but while officiating garbs himself with all the wealth of beads, bells, and baubles that he may have acquired. as a rule he has an abundance not only of these but of charms, talismans, and amulets, all of which are hung from his neck, or girded around his waist. these charms have various mystic powers for the protection of his person and some of them are said to have been revealed to him by his favorite deities. while performing the invocation and the sacred dance on the occasion of a greater sacrifice, he always carries, one in each hand, a parted palm frond with the spikes undetached. all the rites of the manóbo ritual consist of one or more of the following elements: invocation, petition, consultation, propitiation, and expiation. the priest is, in fact, either alone or aided by others of his kind, the officiant in nearly every religious ceremony; laymen merely sit round and take desultory interest in the ceremonial proceedings. these rites are the following: ( ) the betel-nut offering.[ ] [ ] _pag-á-pug_. ( ) the burning of incense.[ ] [ ] _pag-pa-lí-na_. ( ) ceremonial omen taking.[ ] [ ] _ti-maí-ya_. ( ) prophylactic fowl waving.[ ] [ ] _kú-yab to má-nuk_. ( ) the death feast.[ ] [ ] _ka-ta-pú-san_. ( ) the sacrifice of a fowl or of a pig[ ] to his own tutelaries in the event of sickness or in the hour of impending danger. [ ] _hín-añg to ka-hi-mó-nan_. ( ) the offering of a fowl or of a pig to taphágan, the goddess of grain during the season of rice culture. ( ) the harvest ceremonies in honor of hakiádan for the purpose of securing an abundant crop and of protecting the rice from sundry insidious enemies and dangers. ( ) the birth ceremony in honor of mandáit for the protection of the recently born babe. ( ) conciliatory offerings to the demons during epidemics, as also in cases where the power of the evil spirits is thought to predominate over that of the kindly deities. madness and inordinate sexual passion, as also the continuance of an epidemic after incessant efforts have failed to secure the aid of the friendly spirits are illustrations of the power of the evil spirits. ( ) lustration[ ] either by anointing with blood or by aspersion with water. [ ] _paí-as_. ( ) the betel-nut omen.[ ] [ ] _ti-maí-a to man-ó-on_. ( ) the invocation of the _diuáta_ with the sacred chant.[ ] [ ] _túd-um_. the bagÁni or priests of war and blood the _bagáni_ or warrior priests are under the protection of preternatural beings called tagbúsau, whose bloodthirsty cravings they must satisfy. this peculiar priesthood is not hereditary, but is a pure gift from warlike spirits, who select certain mortals for favorites, constantly guard them against the attacks of their enemies, teach them the use of various secret herbs whereby to render themselves invisible and invulnerable, bestow upon them an additional number of soul companions that in some indefinable way protect them against the ire of the resentful slain, and in general afford them an immunity from all dangers, material and spiritual. it is believed that when the warrior priest dies his soul companions return to the war spirits from whom they proceeded, and with whom they take up their eternal abode upon the far-off mountain heights. upon their return to these heights it is said that they are pursued by a monstrous crowd of inexorable demons and vexed spirits of those that have fallen victims to their arm, but that, owing to the power and vigilance of the mighty gods of war, they reach their last home unscathed. like the priest, a war chief is recognized as a priest when he falls into that state of paroxysm that is considered to be of preternatural origin. this condition is usually the result of a wild fight, in which, after slashing down one or more of the enemy, he eats the heart and liver of one of the slain and dances around in ungovernable fury. i have been frequently informed that the companions of a man thus possessed cautiously withdraw while he is under this influence, as he might do something rash. i witnessed the actions of several _bagáni_ during ceremonial performances to the _tagbúsau_, and i felt no little fear as to what might be the outcome of the warrior chiefs fury. what has been said of the sincerity of the ordinary priest and of his disinterestedness and freedom from mercenary motives applies equally to the war chief in his position as war priest. in return for the protection accorded to his select ones the gods of war require frequent supplies of blood and other delicacies, the denial of which would render the favorite liable to constant plaguing by his protectors in their efforts to make him mindful of their needs. in another chapter we shall see the means whereby the _bagáni_ keeps himself in the good graces of his inexorable deities.[ ] [ ] for a full description of the rites peculiar to the warrior chief as priest the reader is referred to chapter xxvi. chapter xxv ceremonial accessories and religious rites general remarks the differences which i observed in the performance of ceremonies in different localities appear to be due to the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the individual performers and not to any established system. but in the main these variations are not essential. for example, in certain localities the blood of the pig as it issues forth from the lance wound is sucked from the wound, while in others it is caught in convenient receptacles and then drank. in the following pages i will attempt to give a description of the accessories, the sacrifices, and their associated ceremonies which may be considered general for the manóbos of the middle and upper agúsan. the paraphernalia of the priest the religious shed[ ] and the bailÁn's house [ ] _ka-má-lig_. the priest has no special residence nor any special religious structure except a little wooden shed and a few ceremonial trays that will be described later. his house is not more capacious nor pretentious than that of anyone else, in fact it is often less so, but it may be recognized always by the presence of the drum and gong, by the little religious shed near by, and by the presence of a few lances, bolos, daggers, and various other objects that are considered heritages,[ ] handed down from his predecessors in the priestly office. it is not unusual for the priest, especially among the christianized manóbos, to have two houses, one for the residence of his family and another which, by its seclusion, is better adapted for the celebration of religious rites. hither he may repair, after assisting perhaps at the catholic services in the settlement, to perform the pagan ceremonies that for him have more truth and efficacy than the christian rites. while in the settlement and in contact with christians, he is to all appearances a christian, but in the moment of trial or tribulation he hies him to the seclusion of his other house and, in the presence of his fellow believers, performs the primitive rites in honor of beings who, to his mind, are more potent to help or to hurt than the hierarchy of catholic belief. [ ] _Án-ka_. in this second house, then, will be found, without fail, not only the priestly heirlooms, but all such objects as have been consecrated[ ] either by himself or by one of the settlement to the friendly deities. it may be remarked here that these consecrated objects can not be disposed of except by performing a sacrifice, or by making a substitution, usually in the form of pigs and fowl which ipso facto become consecrated, and are eventually sacrificed to the proper deity. [ ] _sin-ug-bá-han_. equipment for ceremonies the altar house is a rude bamboo structure consisting of four posts, averaging . meters high, upon which is a roof of palm thatch. about centimeters beneath this are set one or two shelves for the reception of the oblation bowls and dishes. the whole fabric is decorated with a few fronds of palm trees,[ ] and covers a space of approximately . square meters. [ ] the fronds used are one or more of the following palms: betel nut, _anibung_, _kagyas_, and coconut. the ceremonial salver[ ] is a rectangular wooden tray, generally of _iláñg-iláñg_ wood, usually decorated with incised, traced, or carved designs, and having pendants of palm fronds. it is the ceremonial salver on which are set out the offerings of pig, fowl, rice, betel nut, and other things for the deities. [ ] _ban-ká-so_. the sacrificial stand[ ] also is made out of _iláñg-iláñg_ wood. it consists of a disk of wood set upon a leg, and is used for making the offerings of betel nut and other things. [ ] _ta-lí-dung_. when it is decided to make an offering of a pig, a sacrificial table[ ] of bamboo is set up close to the house that has been selected as the place of sacrifice. upon this is bound the victim, lying on its side. over it are arched fronds of betel-nut and other palms. this stand is used exclusively for the sacrifice of a pig. it is a rude, unpretentious structure. [ ] _Áñg-ka_. ceremonial decorations fronds of the coconut, betel nut and other palms are the only decorations used at ceremonies. the betel-nut fronds, however,[ ] enjoy a special preference, being used in every important ceremony when they are obtainable. no other leaves and no flowers, unless the bloom of the betel nut be considered such, are used as decorations. [ ] known as _ba-gaí-bai_. the consecrated objects, consisting of such things as lances, bolos, daggers, and necklaces, are frequently set out upon a ceremonial structure or put in the ceremonial shed in order to give more solemnity to the occasion, and it is not infrequent to find the structure draped with cloth, preferably red. sacred images[ ] [ ] _man-á-ug_. sacred images are of neither varied nor beautiful workmanship. at best they are but rudimentary suggestions of the human form, frequently without the lower extremities. varying in length from to centimeters they are whittled with a bolo out of pieces of _báyud_ wood, or of any soft white wood when _báyud_ is not obtainable. more elaborate images are furnished with berries of a certain tree[ ] for eyes and adorned with tracings of sap from the _kayúti_ or the _narra_ tree, but the ordinary idol has a smearing of charcoal for eyes and mouth and a few tracings of the same for body ornamentation. [ ] _ma-gu-baí_. images are made in two forms, one representing the male and distinguished by the length of its headpiece and occasionally by the representation of the genital organ, the other representing the female, and distinguished most frequently by the representation of breasts, though in a good image there is often a fair representation of a comb. images are intended for the same use as statues in other religions. they are not adored nor worshiped in any sense of the word. they are looked upon as inanimate representations of a deity, and tributes of honor and respect are paid not to them, but to the spirits that they represent. i have seen rice actually put to the lips of these images and bead necklaces hung about their necks; but in answer to my inquiries the response was always the same that not the images, but the spirits, were thereby honored. it is principally in time of sickness that these images are made. they are placed somewhere near the patient, generally just under the thatch of the roof. the priest almost invariably has one, or a set of better made ones, which he sets out during the more important ritual celebrations and before which he places offerings for the spirits represented. in a sacrifice performed for the recovery of a sick man on the upper agúsan, i saw two images, one male and one female, carried in the hand by the presiding priests and made to dance and perform some other suggestive movements. occasionally one finds very crude effigies of deities carved on a pole and left standing out on the trail or placed near the house. these are supposed to serve for a resting place for the deities that are expected to protect the settlement or the house. this practice is very common when fear of an attack is entertained, and also during an epidemic. ceremonial offerings offerings consist, in the main, of the blood[ ] and meat of pig and fowl, betel-nut quids, rice, cooked or uncooked, and an exhilarating beverage. but occasionally a full meal, including every obtainable condiment, is set out, even an allowance of water, wherewith to cleanse[ ] the hand, being provided for the visiting deities. such offerings are set out upon consecrated plates[ ] which are used for no other purpose and can not be disposed of. [ ] no reference is here made to human blood, a subject which will be found treated in chapter xxvi. [ ] _pañg-hú-gas_. [ ] _a-pú-gan_. as a rule the offerings must be clean and of good quality. the priest is very careful in the selection of the rice, and picks out of it all dirty grains. cooked rice given in offering is smoothed down, and, after the deity has concluded his mystic collation is examined for traces of his fingering. the color of the victims is a matter of importance, too, for the divinities have their special tastes. thus _sugúdan_, the god of hunters, prefers a red fowl, while the _tagbánua_ display a preference for a white victim. religious rites classification ( ) the betel-nut offering.[ ] [ ] _pag-á-pug_. ( ) the burning of incense.[ ] [ ] _pag-pa-lí-na_. ( ) the address or invocation.[ ] [ ] _tawág-táwag_. ( ) the ceremonial omen taking.[ ] [ ] _pag-ti-ná-ya_. ( ) the prophylactic fowl waving.[ ] [ ] _kú-yab to mán-uk_. ( ) the blood unction.[ ] [ ] _pag-lím-pas_. ( ) the child ceremony.[ ] [ ] _tag-un-ún to bá-ta'_. ( ) the death feast.[ ] [ ] _ka-ta-pú-san_. ( ) the sacrifice of fowl or pig.[ ] [ ] _ka-hi-mó-nan_. ( ) the rice planting.[ ] [ ] _täp-hag_. ( ) the hunting rite.[ ] [ ] _pañg-o-múd-an_. ( ) the harvest feast. ( ) the conciliation of evil spirits. ( ) the divinatory rites. ( ) the warrior priest's rites. ( ) human sacrifice.[ ] [ ] _hu-á-ga_. a description of the more important of these ceremonies will be found distributed throughout this monograph under the various headings to which such ceremonies belong. thus the child ceremony is placed under the heading "birth," the death feast in the chapter on death, the warriors' sacrifice in that portion of this sketch which treats of the warrior. for the present only the minor and more general ceremonies that may be performed separately, or that may enter into the major ceremonies as subrites, will be described. method of performance _the betel-nut tribute_.--in all dealings with the unseen world, the offering of betel nut is the first and most essential act, just as it constitutes in the ordinary affairs of manóbo life the essential preliminary to all overtures made by one man to another. the ceremony may be performed by anyone, but partakes of only a semireligious character when not performed by a _bailán_. the ceremony consists in setting out on a consecrated plate,[ ] or in lieu of it on any convenient receptacle, the ordinary betel-nut quid, consisting of a slice of betel nut placed upon a portion of _buyo_ leaf, and sprinkled with a little lime. the priest who has more than one divine protector, must give a tribute to each one of them. in certain ceremonies seven quids are invariably set out by him, always accompanied by an invocation, the strain of which is usually very monotonous and always couched in long periphrastic preambles. it is really an invitation to the spirit whose aid is to be implored to partake of the offering. [ ] _a-pú-gan_. out in the lonely forest the hunter may set his offering upon a log for the spirit owner of the game, or if in the region of a balete tree, he may think it prudent to show his deference to its invisible dwellers by offering them this humble tribute. again, should a storm overtake him on his way, and should he dread the "stony tooth" of the thunder, he lays out his little offering, quite often with the thought that he has in some unknown way annoyed anítan, the wielder of the thunderbolt, and must in this fashion appease the offended deity. _the offering of incense_.--this ceremony appears to be confined to priestesses. i have never seen a manóbo priest offer incense. the resin[ ] of a certain tree is used for the purpose, as its fragrance is deemed to be especially pleasing to the deities. the priestess herself, or anyone else at her bidding, removes from the pod[ ] at her side, where it is always carried depending from the waist, a little of the resin and lights it. it is then set on the altar or in any convenient spot. the direction of its smoke is thought to indicate the approach and position of the deity invoked. as the smoke often ascends in a slanting direction, it frequently directs itself toward the suspended oblation trays. this is taken as an indication that the deity is resting or sitting upon the _bankáso_ tray, in which case he is called _bankasúhan_, or on the _talíduñg_, when he is said to be _talidúñgan_. this ceremony is preliminary to the invocation. [ ] _tú-gak to ma-gu-bái_. [ ] this is the pod of a tree called _ta-bí-ki_. the deities are very partial to sweet fragrances like that of the betel nut frond and of the incense and seem to be averse to strange or evil smells. hence fire and smoke are usually avoided during the celebration of regular sacrifices, as was stated before. on one occasion i wished to do a favor by lending my acetylene lamp during a ceremonial celebration, but it was returned to me with the information that the smell was not acceptable to the presiding deities. _invocation_.--the invocation is a formal address to the deities, and on special occasions even to the demons, when it is desired to make a truce with them. it is the prerogative of the priest in nearly all ceremonies. as a rule it begins in a long, roundabout discourse and extends itself throughout the whole performance, continuing at intervals for a whole night or longer in important ceremonies. it may be participated in by one priest after another, each one addressing himself to his particular set of divinities and beseeching them by every form of entreaty to be propitious. the invocation to the good spirits is made at the discretion of the officiating priest, either in the house or outside, and in a moderate voice, but the invocation to the evil ones is shouted out in a loud voice usually from the opening around the walls of the house, as it is considered more prudent to keep the demons at a respectful distance. in addressing his gods the manóbo proceeds in about the same way as he does when dealing with his fellow men. he starts well back from the subject and by a series of circumlocutions slowly advances to the point. the beginning of the invocation is ordinarily in a laudatory strain; he reminds his divinities of his past offerings, descants on the size of the victims offered on previous occasions, and the general expenses of past sacrifices. he then probably recalls to their minds instances where these sacrifices had not been reciprocated by the deities. having thus intimated to the invisible visitors, for they are thought to be present during these invocations, that he and his people are somewhat ill pleased, he goes on to express the hope that in the future and especially on this occasion they will show themselves more grateful. he next proceeds to enumerate the expenses which in their honor are about to be incurred. the fatness and price of the pig are set forth and every imaginable reason adduced why they should be well pleased with the offerings and make a bountiful return of good will and friendship. the spirits may be even bribed with the promise of a future sacrifice, or they may be threatened with desertion and the cessation of all worship of them. after a long prologue the priest makes an offering of something, it may be a glass of brew, or a plate of rice, and confidentially imparts to his spirits the object of the ceremony. in this manner the invocation is continued, interrupted at intervals by the sacred dance or by periods of ecstatic possession of the priest himself. _prophylactic fowl waving_.--the fowl-weaving ceremony may be performed by one not of the priestly order. the performance is very simple. a fowl of no special color is taken in one hand and, its legs and wings being secured to prevent fluttering, it is waved over the person or persons in whom the evil influence is thought to dwell and at the same time a short address is made in an undertone to this same influence,[ ] bidding it betake itself to other parts. the chicken may be then killed ceremonially and eaten, but if it is not killed it becomes consecrated and is given to the priest until it can be disposed of in a ceremonial way on a future occasion. [ ] _ka-dú-ut_. this ceremony is very common, especially after the occurrence of a very evil dream or a bad conjunction of omens or in case of severe sickness or on the erection of a new house or granary. on one occasion it was performed on me under the impression, it is presumed, that i was the bearer of some malign influence. i have never been definitely informed as to the reason for the efficacy of this rite, nor of its origin. tradition handed down by the old, old folks and everyday experience are sufficient foundation for the popular belief in its efficacy. _blood lustration_.--when a fowl or a pig has been killed sacrificially, it is customary to smear the blood on the person or object from whom it is desired to drive out the sickness, or in order to avert a threatened or suspected danger, or when it is desired to nullify an evil influence. the ceremony is performed only by a priest and in the following way: taking blood in a receptacle to the person for whose benefit it is intended, the priest dips his hand in it and draws his bloody finger over the afflicted part, or on the back of the hand and along the fingers in the case of a sick person, or on the post of the house, thereby leaving bloody stripes. during the operation he addresses the indwelling evil and bids it begone. this ceremony usually follows the preceding one and is performed in all cases where the previous ceremony is applicable, if the circumstances are considered urgent enough to call for its performance. i once saw a variation of this ceremony. instead of killing the fowl the priest made a small wound in one leg and applied the blood that issued to a sick man. the fowl then became the property of the priest and could never be eaten, for the evil influence that had produced the sickness in the man was supposed to have passed into the fowl. _lustration by water_.--lustration by water is somewhat similar in its purpose to the preceding ceremony. it is performed as a subrite among the christianized manóbos of the lake region. i am inclined to think that it is only an imitation of an institution of the catholic church because i never saw it performed by non-christian manóbos. the following is the cermony[sic]: when the divinities are thought to have eaten the soul or redolence[ ] of the viands set out for them, and to have cleansed their hands in the water provided for that purpose, the priest seizes a small branch, dips it in this water and sprinkles the assembly. though, on the occasions on which i witnessed this rite, the recipients did not seem to relish the aspersion, as was evinced by their efforts to avoid it, yet it was believed to have great efficacy in removing ill luck and malign influences.[ ] [ ] _bá-ho_ and _um-a-gád_. [ ] _paí-ad_. chapter xxvi sacrifices and war rites the sacrifice of a pig religion is so interwoven with the manóbo's life, as has been constantly stated in this monograph, that it is impossible to group under the heading of religion all the various observances and rites that properly belong to it.[ ] i will now give an account of the sacrifice of a pig that took place on the kasilaían river, central agúsan, for the recovery of a sick man. this sacrifice may be considered typical of the ordinary ceremony in which a pig is immolated, whether it be for the recovery of a sick man or to avert evil or to solicit any other favor. [ ] the reader is referred to chapter xv for a description of the important religious ceremonies and beliefs connected with the subject of death, to chapter x for rice culture ceremonies, to chapter xiv for the birth ceremony. descriptions of various other ceremonies will be found scattered through this monograph, each under its proper heading. i arrived at the house at about p.m. near the pole leading up to the house stood the newly erected rectangular bamboo stand.[ ] on this, with a few palm fronds arched over it, was tightly bound the intended victim, a fat castrated pig. within a few yards of this had been erected the small houselike structure,[ ] which has been described already. it contained several plates full of offerings of uncooked rice and eggs, which had been placed there previously. the ceremonies began shortly after my arrival. three women of the priestly order sat down near the ceremonial house and prepared a large number of betel-nut quids for their respective deities, but the spectators never ceased for a moment to ask for a share of them. finally, however, the quids were prepared and placed on the sacred plates, seven to each plate. then one of the priestesses placed a little resin upon a piece of bamboo and, calling for a firebrand, placed it upon the resin. the other two priestesses, seizing in each hand a piece of palm branch, proceeded to dance to the sound of drum and gong. they were soon joined by the third officiant. all three danced for some five minutes until, as if by previous understanding, the gong and drum ceased, and one of the priestesses broke out into the invocation. this consisted of a series of repetitions and circumlocutions in which her favorite deities were reminded of the various sacrifices that had been performed in their honor from time immemorial; of the number of pigs that had been slain; of the size of these victims; of the amount of drink consumed; of the number of guests present; and of an infinity of other things that it would be tedious to recount. this was rattled off while the spectators were enjoying themselves with betel-nut chewing and while conversation was being carried on in the usual vehement way. then the drum and gong boomed out again and the three priestesses circled about in front of the ceremonial shed for about five minutes, after which comparative quiet ensued and another priestess took up the invocation. during her prolix harangue to the spirits the other two busied themselves, one in rearranging the offerings in the little shed, the other in lighting more incense, while the spectators continued their prattle, heedless of the services. after an interval of some minutes the sacred dance was continued, the priestesses circling and sweeping around with their palm branches waving up and down as they swung their arms in graceful movements through the air. this continued for several minutes, until one of them stopped suddenly and began to tremble very perceptibly. the other two continued their dance around her, waving their palm fronds over her. the trembling increased in violence until her whole body seemed to be in a convulsion. her eyes assumed a ghastly stare, her eyeballs protruded, and the eyelids quivered rapidly. the drum and gong increased their booming in volume and in rapidity, while the dancers surged in rapid circles around the possessed one, who at this period was apparently unconscious of everything. her eyes were shaded with one hand and a copious perspiration covered her whole body. when finally the music and the dancing ceased her trembling still continued, but now the loud belching could be heard. no words can describe the vehemence of this prolonged belching, accompanied as it was by violent trembling and painful gasping. the spectators still continued their loud talking with never a care for the scene that was being enacted, except when some one uttered a shrill cry of animation, possibly as menace to lurking enemies, spiritual or other. [ ] _añg-kan_. [ ] _ka-má-lig_. it was some minutes before the paroxysm ceased, and then the now conscious priestess broke forth into a long harangue in which she described what took place during her trance, prophesying the cure of the sick man, but advising a repetition of the sacrifice at a near date, and uttering a confusion of other things that sounded more like the ravings of a madman than the inspirations of a deity. during all this time frequent potations were administered to the spectators, so that in the early night everyone was feeling in high spirits. after the first priestess had emerged fully from the trance the drum and gong resounded for the continuation of the dance. in turn the other priestesses fell under the influence of their special divinities and gave utterance to long accounts of what had passed between them. it was at a late hour of the night that the whole company retired to the house, leaving the victim still bound upon his sacrificial table. the religious part of the celebration was then abandoned, for the priestesses took no further part. social amusements, consisting of various forms of dancing, mimetic and other, were performed for the benefit of the attendant deities and finally long legendary chants[ ] by a few priests consumed the remainder of the night. [ ] _túd-um_. next morning at about o'clock the ceremonies were resumed by the customary offering of betel nut and by burning of incense, but instead of dancing before the small religious house the three priestesses, joined by a priest, took up their position near the sacrificial table on which the victim had remained since the preceding day. the invocations were pronounced in turn, followed by short intervals of dancing. during these invocations the victim was bound more securely, and a little lime was placed on its side just over the heart. the priest then placed seven betel-nut quids upon the body of the pig and made a final invocation. a rice mortar was placed at the side of the sacrificial table, a relative of the sick man stepped upon it, and, receiving a lance from the hands of the male priest, poised it vertically above the spot designated by the lime and thrust it through the heart of the victim. one of the female priestesses at once placed an iron cooking pan under the pig and caught the blood as it streamed out from the lower opening of the wound. applying her mouth to the pan she drank some of the blood and gave the pan to a sister priest.[ ] at the same time a little was given to the sick man, who drank it down with such eager haste that it ran upon his cheeks. one of the priestesses then performed blood lustration by anointing the patient's forehead with the remainder of the blood. a few others, of whom i was one, had these bloody ministrations performed on them. [ ] not infrequently the blood is sucked from the upper wound. this is a custom more prevalent among the mandáyas than among the manóbos. the priest and priestesses at this period presented a most strange spectacle. with faces and hands besmirched with clotted blood, they stood trembling with indescribable vehemence. their jingle bells tinkled in time with the movement of their bodies. the priestesses recovered from their furious possession after a few minutes, but not so the male priest, for to prevent himself from collapsing completely he clutched a near-by tree, shading his eyes with his bloodstained hand. the drum and gong came into play again and the priestesses took up the step, circling around their entranced companion and addressing him in terms that on account of the rattle of the drum and the clanging of the gong could not be heard. he finally emerged, however, all dazed and covered with perspiration. through him a _diuáta_ announced the recovery of the patient, at which yells of approval rang out, and then began a social celebration consisting of dancing and drinking. this was continued till the hour for dinner, when the victim was consumed in the usual way. in this instance, as in many others witnessed, the sick man recovered, and with a suddenness that seemed extraordinary. this must be attributed to the deep and abiding faith that the manóbo places in his deities and in his priests. the circumstances of the sacrifice are such as to inspire him with confidence and, strong in his faith, he recovers his health and strength in nearly every case. rites peculiar to the war priests ( ) the betel-nut tribute to the gods of war. ( ) the supplication and invocation of the gods of war. ( ) the betel-nut offering to the souls of the enemies. ( ) the various forms of divination. ( ) the ceremonial invocation of the omen bird. ( ) the _tagbúsau's_ feast. ( ) human sacrifice. the first two ceremonies differ from the corresponding functions performed by the ordinary priests in only two respects, first that they are performed in honor of the war spirits, and secondly that the invocation includes an interminable list of the names of those slain by the officiating warrior chief and by his ancestors for a few generations back. the sacred dance for the entertainment of the attending divinities with which this invocation and supplication is repeatedly interrupted will be described later on. the betel-nut offering to the souls of the enemies the ceremony is performed only before an expedition, with a view to securing the good will of souls of the enemies who may be slain in the intended fray. as was set forth before, souls, or departed spirits, seem to have a grievance against the living, and are wont to plague them in diverse ways. now, in order to avoid such ill will as might follow the separation of these spirits from their corporal companions, a ceremony is performed by the warrior priest in the following way: he orders an offering of rice to be set out upon the river bank, or on the trail over which the spirits are expected to wing their way, and hastens to invite them to a conference. then a number of pieces of betel leaf are set out on a shield, so that each soul or spirit has his portion of betel leaf, his little slice of betel nut, and his bit of lime. then the warrior chief, or some one else at his bidding, addresses the souls without making it known that an attack[ ] is soon to be made. it is then explained to these spirits that they are invited to partake of the offering in good will and peace, that the warrior priest's party has a grievance against their enemies, and that some day they may be obliged to redress the matter in a bloody way. the souls next are urged to forego their displeasure, should it become necessary at any time to redress the wrongs by force and possibly slay the authors of them. the invisible souls are then supposed to partake of the offering and to depart in peace as if they understood the whole situation. [ ] i was informed that a sometime friend or distant relative of the enemy is generally selected for this task. there is an incident, which is said to occur during the above ceremony, that deserves special mention, as it illustrates very pointedly the spirit in which the ceremony is performed. all arms are said to be placed upon the ground and carefully covered with the shields in such a way that the spirit guests will be unable to detect their presence on their arrival. the betel-nut portions are placed upon one of the upper shields. various forms of divination _the betel-nut cast_.[ ]--this form of divination is never omitted, according to all accounts. in the instance which i witnessed the procedure was as follows: the leader of the expedition invoked the _tagbúsau_, informing him that each of the quids represented one of the enemy, and beseeching him (or them) to indicate by the position of these symbols after the ceremony the fate of the enemy. the warrior priest or his representative, lifting up the shield with one hand under it, and one hand above it, turned it upside down with a rapid movement, thus precipitating the quids on the floor. now those that fell vertically under the shield represented the number of the enemy who would fall into their clutches, while those that lay without the pale of the shield represented the individuals who would escape, and to whose slaughter accordingly they must devote every energy. there are numerous little details in this, as in most other forms of divination, each one of which has an interpretation, subject, it would appear, to the vagaries of each individual augur. [ ] _ba-lís-kad to ma-má-on_. _divination from the báguñg vine_.--before leaving the point from which it has been decided to begin the march two pieces of green rattan, the length of the middle finger and about centimeter thick, are laid upon the ground parallel to each other and about . centimeters apart. one of these stands for the enemy and the other for the attacking party. a firebrand is then held over the two until the heat causes one of them to warp and twist to one side or the other. thus if the strip that represents the enemy were to begin to twist over toward that of the aggressors, while that of the latter twists away from the former, the omen would be bad, for it would denote the flight of the assaulting party. should, however, the rattan of the aggressors twist over and fall on the other, the omen would be auspicious and the march might be entered upon. the various twists and curls of these strips of rattan are observed with the closest attention and interpreted variously. should the omen prove ill, the _tagbúsau_ must be invoked and other forms of divination tried until the party feels assured of success. _divination from báya squares_.--the _báya_ is a species of small vine, a fathom of which is cut by the leader into pieces exactly the length of the middle finger. these pieces are then laid on the ground in squares. should the number of pieces be sufficient to constitute complete squares without any remainder the omen is bad in the extreme, but should a certain number of pieces remain the omen is good. thus if one piece remains the attack will be successful and of short duration. if two remain, the outcome will be the same, but there will be some delay; and if three remain, the delay will be considerable, as it will be necessary to construct ladders.[ ] [ ] _pa-ga-hag-da-nán_. when any of the omens taken by one of the above forms of divination prove unpropitious, the tagbúsau must be invoked and other divinatory methods tried until the party is satisfied that a reasonable amount of success is assured. but should the omens indicate a failure or a disaster, the expedition must be put off or a change made in the party. thus, for instance, the bad luck[ ] might be attributed to the presence of one or more individuals. in that case these persons are eliminated and the omens repeated. it is needless to say that the observance of all the omens necessary for an expedition, together with the concomitant ceremonies, may occupy as much as three days and nights. [ ] _paí-ad_. invocation of the omen bird[ ] [ ] _pan-áu-ag-táu-ag to li-mó-kon_. though at the beginning of ordinary journeys the consultation of the omen bird is of primary importance, yet before a war expedition it acquires a solemnity that is not customary on ordinary occasions. this ceremony is the last of all those that are made preparatory to the march. the warrior priest turns toward the trail and addresses the invisible turtledove, beseeching it to sing out from the proper direction and thereby declare whether they may proceed or not. in one of the instances that came under my personal observation a little unhulled rice was placed upon a log for the regalement of the omen bird, and a tame pet omen bird in an adjoining house was petted and fed and asked to summon its wild mates of the encircling forest to sing the song of victory. many of the band imitate the turtle bird's cry[ ] as a further inducement to get an answer from the wild omen birds that might be in the neighborhood. [ ] this is done by putting the hands crosswise, palm over palm and thumb beside thumb. the cavity between the palms must be tightly closed, leaving open a slit between the thumbs. the mouth is applied to this slit and by blowing in puffs the manóbo can produce a sound that is natural enough to elicit in many cases response from a turtledove that may be within hearing distance. in fact, i have known the birds to approach within shooting distance of the artificial sounds. the tagbÚsau's feast in the ceremonies connected with, the celebration in honor of his war lord the warrior priest is the principal personage, but he is usually assisted by several of the chief priests of the ordinary class. such is the general account, and such was the procedure in the ceremony that i witnessed in , of which the following are the main details and which will serve as a general description of the ceremony: the appurtenances of the ceremony were identical with those described before under ceremonial accessories, except that a piece of bamboo, about centimeters long, parted and carved into the form of a crude crocodile with a betel-nut frond hanging from it, was suspended in the diminutive offering house referred to so many times before. objects of this kind, like this piece of bamboo, have a mouthlike form and vary from to centimeters in length. they are, as it were, ceremonial salvers on which are set the offerings of blood and meat and _gíbañg_[ ] for the war deities. [ ] _gí-bañg_ is the nape of the neck, and here refers to that of a pig. in the ceremony that i am describing i noticed a plate of rice set out on an upright piece of bamboo, the upper part of which had been spread out into an inverted cone to hold the plate. the pig had been bound already to its sacrificial table, but was ceaseless in its cries and in its efforts to release itself. several war and ordinary priests, covered with all their wealth of charms and ornaments, were scattered throughout the assembly. the war priests particularly presented an imposing appearance, vested in the blood-red insignia of their rank. around their necks were thrown the magic charm collars, with their pendants of shells, crocodile teeth, and herbs. about o'clock in the afternoon of the day in question the ceremony was ushered in in the usual way by several male and female priests. the warrior priests did not take part till the following day, though during the night they chanted legendary tales of great manóbo fights and fighters. the following morning, however, they led the ceremonies. during the whole performance there seemed to be no established system or order. both warrior priests and others took up the invocation and the dance as the whim moved or as the opportunity allowed them. one noteworthy point about the ceremony was the ritual dance of the warrior priests in honor of their war deities. attired as they were in the full panoply of war, with hempen coat and shield, lance, bolo, and dagger, they romped and pirouetted in turns around the victim to the wild war tattoo of the drum and the clang of the gong. imagining the victim to be some doughty enemy of his, the dancer darted his lance at it back and forth, now advancing, now retreating, at times hiding behind his shield, and at others advancing uncovered as if to give the last long lunge. under the inspiration of the occasion their eyes gleamed with a fierce glare and the whole physiognomy was kindled with the fire of war. the spectators on this particular occasion maintained silence and attention and manifested considerable fear. it is believed that the warrior priest, being under the influence of his war god, is liable to commit an act of violence. at the time i did not understand the tenor of the invocations that followed each dance, but was informed that they are such as would be expected on such an occasion, namely, an invitation to the spirits of war to partake of the feast and a prayer to them to accompany the party and assist them in capturing their enemies. when the moment for the sacrifice arrived the leader of the party, the chief warrior priest, danced the final dance and, stepping up to the pig, plunged his spear through its heart, and, applying his mouth to the wound, drank the blood. several of the other priests caught the blood in plates and pans and partook of it in the same manner. the leader put the blood receptacle under the wound and allowed some of the blood to flow into it. he then returned it to the diminutive offering house. the ordinary priests fell into the customary trance, but the war-priest, together with several of the spectators, took the blood omen. apparently this was not favorable, for they ordered the intestines to be removed at once and examined the gall bladder and the liver. the priests emerged from their trance and no further ceremonies were performed except the taking of omens. this occupied several hours and was performed by little groups, even the young boys trying their hand at it. when the pig had been cooked it was set out on the floor and was partaken of in the usual way. there was little brew on hand. i learned that on such occasions it is not customary to indulge to any great extent in drinking. the party expected to begin the march that afternoon; but as the scouts had not returned they waited until the next morning. when the march was about to begin, and while the party still stood on the river bank, the leader wrenched the head off a chicken and took observations from the blood and intestines. these were not as satisfactory as was desired, but were considered favorable enough to warrant beginning the march tentatively. upon the entrance of the party into the forest the omen bird was invoked; its cry proved favorable, and the march began. human sacrifice[ ] [ ] _hu-á-ga_. i never witnessed a human sacrifice nor was i ever able to verify the facts in the locality in which one had occurred, but i have no doubt that such sacrifices were made occasionally by manóbos in former times. it is not strange that a custom of this kind should exist in a country where a human being is a mere chattel, sometimes valued at less than a good dog. when it is considered that in manóboland revenge is not only a virtue but a precept, and often a sacred inheritance, it stands to reason that to sacrifice the life of an enemy or of an enemy's friend or relative would be an act of the highest merit. from what i have observed of manóbo ways i can readily conceive the satisfaction and glee with which an enemy would be offered up to the war deities of a settlement, slowly lanced or stabbed to death, and then the heart, liver, and blood taken ceremonially. a very common expression of anger used by one manóbo to another is "_huagon ka_," that is, "may you be sacrificed." i find verbal evidences of human sacrifices in those regions only that are near to the territory of the bagóbos and the mandáyas. this leads me to think that the custom is either of bagóbo or of mandáya origin. the jesuit missionary urios[ ] makes mention of the case of maliñgáan who lived on the upper simúlao, contiguous to the mandáya country. in order to cure himself of a severe illness he had a little girl sacrificed. urios describes the punitive expedition sent out against him, and the death of maliñgáan by his own hand. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, cuaderno v, letter from father saturnine urios, patrocinio, sept. , . i have heard of numerous cases, especially in the region at the headwaters of the báobo, ihawán, and sábud rivers. one particular case will illustrate the manner in which the ceremony is performed. my authority for the account is one who claimed to have participated in the sacrifice. a boy slave, who belonged to the man that arranged the sacrifice, was selected. the slave was given to understand that the object of the ceremony was to cure him of a loathsome disease from which he was suffering.[ ] the preparatory ceremonies were described as being of the same character as those which take place in the ordinary pig sacrifice for the war spirit, namely, the offering of the betel-nub tribute, the solemn invocation of the war spirits and supplication for the recovery of the officiant's son, the sacred dance performed by the warrior priests, and the offering of betel nut to the soul of the slave that it might harbor no ill will against the participants in the ceremony. [ ] _to-bu-káw_. the slave, the narrator informed me, was left unmolested, being entertained by companions of his age until the moment for the sacrifice arrived, when he was seized and quickly bound to a tree. the warrior priest, who was the father of the sick one, then shouted out in a loud voice to his war spirits asking them to accept the blood of this human creature, and without further ado planted his dagger in the slave's breast. several others, among whom my informant was one, followed suit. the victim died almost instantly. then each one of the warrior priests inserted a crocodile tooth from his neck collar[ ] into one of the wounds and they became, as the narrator put it, _tagbusauán_; that is, filled with the blood spirit. the reader is left to imagine the scene that must have followed. [ ] _ta-ti-hán_. human sacrifice takes place in other forms, according to universal report. thus one hears now and then that a warrior chief had his young son kill a slave or a captive in order to receive the spirit of bravery through the power of a war deity, who would impart to him the desire to perform feats of valor. three warrior chiefs informed me personally that they had done this in order to accustom their young sons to the sight of blood and to impart to them the spirit of courage. i have no doubt whatsoever of the truth of their statements, as they were made in a matter-of-fact, straightforward way, as if the affair were a most natural occurrence. accounts of such performances may be overheard when manóbos speak among themselves. there is also another way in which human lives are sacrificed, but it partakes less of ceremonial character than the two previous methods. i was given the names of several warrior chiefs who had practiced it. the following are the details: if the warriors have been lucky enough to kill an enemy during a fray and at the same time to secure human booty in the form of captives, they are said on occasions to turn one or more of these same captives over to their less successful friends in order that the latter may sate their bloody thirst and feel the full jubilation of the victory. i was informed that the victims are dragged out into the near-by forest, speared to death or stabbed, and thrust with broken bones into a narrow round hole. that this is true i have every reason to believe, for i heard these reports under circumstances of a convincing nature. furthermore, such proceedings would be highly typical of manóbo character and would probably occur among any people that valued human life so lightly and that cherished revenge so dearly. what could be more natural and more pleasing in the exultation of victory and in the wildness of its orgies than to deliver a captive, probably a mortal enemy, to an unsuccessful friend or relative that he too might glut his vengeance and fill his heart with the full joy of victory? chapter xxvii divination and omens in general the manóbo not only consults his priest in order to determine the will of the deities but he himself questions nature at every step of life and discovers, by what he considers definite and unerring indications, the course that he may pursue with personal security and success. to set down the multitudinous array of these signs would be to attempt a task of extreme prolixity and one encompassed with infinite uncertainties and seeming contradictions. upon being questioned as to the origin of these manifold omens and auguries the manóbo can afford no further information than that they have been tried for long generations and found to be true. show him that on a given occasion the omen bird's cry augured ill but that the undertaking was a success, and he will explain away the apparent inconsistency. show him that the omens were auspicious and that the enterprise was a failure and he will ascribe the failure to an unnoticed violation of a taboo or to the infraction of some tribal custom which aroused the displeasure of a deity. in every undertaking he must have divine approbation to give him assurance. if one omen is unsatisfactory, he must consult another, and if that one fails also, he tries a third, and after various other trials, if all are unfavorable, he suspends or discontinues the work until he receives a more favorable answer. after getting a satisfactory omen he proceeds with the full assurance of success. there can hardly be said to be professional augurers in manóboland. here and there one finds one with a reputation for skill but this reputation is never so great as to overcome differences of opinion on the part of others who also claim to be experts. in fact, where a combination of good and bad omens occurs, it is customary to hold a long consultation until the consensus of opinion inclines one way or the other. miscellaneous casual omens the following are a few of the accidental omens that portend ill: ( ) sneezing when heard by one who is about to leave the house, prognosticates ill luck for him. he must return to the house and wait a few minutes in order to neutralize the bad influence.[ ] [ ] _pan-dú-ut_. ( ) it is an evil portent to see a snake on the trail. the traveler must return and wait till next day, or if that can not be done, recourse must be had to other omens, such as the egg omen, or the suspension omen, in order to determine beyond a doubt what fortune awaits him. ( ) should a frog, a large lizard, or any other living creature that is a stranger to human habitations, enter a house, the portent is unlucky and means must be taken at once to discover, through divination, the exact significance of the occurrence. in such cases the egg omen is tried, and then the suspension omen, and others until no doubt is entertained as to the significance of the unusual occurrence. ( ) the settling of bees on the gable ornaments of a house, or even in the immediate vicinity of the house, is a sure intimation of the approach of a war party or even of certain death, unless the occurrence has taken place during the rice-planting season and in the new clearing. the fowl-waving ceremony and the blood lustration must be performed immediately and other omens taken at once to determine whether these ceremonies were sufficient to neutralize the threatened danger. i arrived at a house on the upper karága, shortly after the occurrence of this portent, and took part in the countervailing ceremonies. according to all reports the belief in this omen and the neutralization of it by the above-mentioned ceremonies is common to manóbos and mañgguáñgans. ( ) the howling of a dog while asleep portends evil to the owner. this omen is considered very serious and the evil of which it is an intimation must be averted by prompt means. moreover, the dog must be sold. ( ) the appearance of shooting stars, meteors, and comets prognosticates sickness. ( ) the breaking of a plate or of a pot before an intended trip is of such evil import that the trip is postponed until the following day. ( ) the discovery of blood on an object when no satisfactory explanation of its presence can be found is an omen of very evil import. ( ) the nibbling of clothes by mice is an evil sign, and, though the clothes need not be discarded, neutralizing means must be resorted to. ( ) the finding of a dead animal on the farm is of highly evil import and no means should be left untried toward offsetting the threatened ill. ( ) the crying of birds at night is considered ominous; the sound is thought to be the voice of evil spirits who with intent to do harm have metamorphosed themselves into the form of birds. divination by dreams as already stated, dreams are believed to be pictures of the doings of the soul companions of the manóbo and in some mystic way are thought to foreshadow his own fate. should a person yell in his sleep it is a proof that his soul or spirit is in danger, and he must be instantly aroused but not rudely.[ ] the belief in dreams is strong and abiding and plays no small part in the manóbo's religious life. [ ] if not awakened at once he may fall into a condition in which he is said to be _pa-ga-tam-ái-un_, a term that i have failed to learn the meaning of. the interpretation of them, however, is so variable and so involved in apparent contradictions that i have obtained little definite and reliable information. in cases where manóbo experts differ, and where other forms of divination have to be employed to determine whether a dream is to be considered ominous or otherwise, it is not suprising[sic] that a stranger should have received little enlightenment on the subject. much more importance attaches to the dreams of the priest than to those of ordinary individuals, for the former are thought to have a more general application and to be more definite in their significance. but the difficulty of interpretation may frequently make the dream of no value because it may happen that the future must be determined by recourse to other divinatory methods. there is a general belief that both the ordinary priest and the warrior chief may receive a knowlege[sic] of future events in their dreams and also may receive medicine, but i know of only one case in which the latter claim was made. in that case a priest maintained that he had been instructed in a dream to fish for eels the following day. he stated that he had done so and that he had found a bezoar stone which he had given to a sick relative of his. however, when once the dream has been interpreted to the satisfaction of the dream experts as ill-boding, means must be taken immediately to avert the impending evil. a common method of doing this is by the fowl-waving ceremony and in serious cases by the blood-lustration rite. divination by geometrical figures the vine[ ] omen [ ] _bu-dá-kan_, a species of creeper. i witnessed the taking of this omen both in , before the war expedition referred to on previous pages, and also at the time of the selection of a new town site for the town of monacayo[sic] on the upper agúsan. as a rule the omen is taken on occasions of this kind. the procedure in the rite is as follows: a piece of a vine one fathom long is cut up into pieces the length of the middle finger; these pieces are then arranged as in the figure shown herewith as far as the number of the pieces permits. the sides of the square and the pieces which radiate from the corners are first laid in position. one piece is then placed in the center, and those which remain are set at right angles to the rectangle. (see fig. _c_, _e_.) the six pieces of vine that are set at right angles to the rectangle, as in figure _a_, represent the ladders or poles by which entrance is gained to the house, represented in this case by the rectangle itself. the pieces that radiate from the four corners represent the posts that support the house. now, whenever the pieces of vine are not sufficient to form even one "ladder," it is evident that all hopes of entering the house and getting the enemy are vain. the principle of the omen consists in the observation of the presence and number of ladders, and of the length of the central piece which represents the inmates of the house to be attacked. the following are some of the main and more intelligible figures. [figure ] as there is no side piece or "ladder" in figure _b_, _c_ it is a sign that the house of the opponent can not be entered. in figure _c_ the shortness of the central piece is an indication that one of the attacking party will be wounded. this configuration is called _lahúñgan_[ ] and is very inauspicious. [ ] from _la-húñg_, to carry on a pole between two or more persons. in figure _d_ the necessary ladders are present and the inmates of the house will be reached. the omen is favorable and is called _hagdanan_.[ ] [ ] from _hágdan_, a pole ladder. in figure _e_ there are the necessary means of getting access to the house as may be seen by the presence of the three "ladders" at right angles to the house. moreover, the piece representing the inmates is shorter, an indication of great slaughter. this is a most favorable omen and, as there will be great weeping as a result of the killing, it is called luha'an.[ ] [ ] from _lú-ha_, a tear. in figure _f_ the absence of a piece within the rectangle is symbolical of the flight of the inmates of the house so that the intended attack is put off for a few days and a few scouts sent forward to reconnoiter. there are several other combinations to which different interpretations may be given according to whether the omen is employed for a war expedition or for the selection of a new site, but the above figures give a general idea of this method of divination.[ ] [ ] the interpretation of these figures can not be given in greater detail because the manóbos themselves can not always give consistent explanations of them. should the above omen prove unfavorable, the sacrifice of a pig[ ] or of a chicken in honor of the leader's war gods should be performed, and then another attempt to secure a favorable omen by the use of the vine may be made. [ ] _dá-yo to tag-bú-sau_. the rattan omen[ ] [ ] _tí-ko_. the rattan-frond omen is taken to determine either the success of a prospective attack or the suitability of a new site for a house or farm. the observation is performed in the following way: a frond of rattan one fathom in length is taken and its midrib is cut into pieces each the length of the middle finger, as in the preceding omen, but in such a way that each piece of the midrib retains spikes, one on each side. these two spikes are then tied together, thus forming a kind of a ring or leaf circle. all these leaf circles are taken in one hand and thrown up into the air. should any of these circlets be found entwined or stuck together when they reach the ground the omen is considered unlucky, for it denotes that one or more of the enemy will engage in a hand-to-hand fight with the attacking party.[ ] should, however, the different leaf circles reach the ground without becoming entangled, the omen is excellent. there are a great variety of possible interpretations arising from the number of tangles, each one of which has a special name and a special import, but i am unable to give any further reliable information as to these. this rattan-frond omen appears to be used very rarely. in fact, in some districts no great reliance seems to be placed on it by many with whom i conversed.[ ] [ ] the omen is then said to be _na-ba-ká-an_. the exact meaning of this term, i am unable to state. [ ] for other omens of a similar nature see chapter xxvi. divination by suspension and other methods the suspension omen the ordinary manner of divining future events by this method is to suspend a bolo or a dagger that has been consecrated to a deity and from its movement, or from the absence of movement, obtain the desired information. in case of emergency such a common-place object as an old smoking pipe may be used. the object is suspended, preferably in front of a sacrificial tray, or table, and then questioned just as if it were a thing of life. the answers are somewhat limited, being confined to "yes" and "no," and are expressed by the faint and silent movement or by the utter quietude of the object suspended. movement denotes an affirmative response to the question, quietude or lack of movement a negative answer. i was often struck with the childlike simplicity displayed by the taker of the oracle in the particular case wherein a pipe was employed, the party wished to discover whether it would be safe for him to proceed on a journey the following day. the pipe by a slight gyratory motion at once intimated its assent. he then besought it to make no mistake, and, after carefully stilling the movement of his oracle, repeated the question two different times, receiving each time an affirmative answer. the consultation was made within a heavy hempen mosquito net of _abaká_ fiber, and, as the pipe had been suspended in a position where the heated air from the candle could affect it, it is not surprising that it displayed a tendency to be in constant movement. the omen from eggs[ ] [ ] _ti-maí-ya to a-tá-yug_. a fresh egg, or one that is known still to be in good condition, is broken in two and the contents gently emptied into a plate or bowl. if the white and the yoke remain separated, the omen is favorable but if they should mix, it is of ominous import. should the egg prove to be rotten, the omen is thought to be evil in the extreme. i never in a single instance witnessed the failure of this omen. i was informed, however, that on occasions it has proved unfavorable. divination by sacrificial appearances hieromancy is a form of divination that is resorted to on all occasions where the object of a sacrifice is one of very great importance. i witnessed this form of divination practiced upon the departure of a war party in the upper agúsan in . the blood omen the blood from the neck of a sacrificed chicken or from the side of a pig is caught, usually in a bowl. if it is found to be of a bright, spotless red, without any frothing or bubbles, the omen is excellent, but the appearance of foam or dark spots, or blotches is regarded as indicative of evil in a greater or less degree according to the number and size of the spots. the appearance of circular streaks in the blood is highly favorable, as it is taken as an indication that the enemy will be completely encircled, thereby assuring the capture of all the enemy or their annihilation. in this, as in all other omens, the interpretation is given by those who are considered experts. i can afford no reliable information as to the rules governing the interpretation. answers to inquiries show that in the interpretation of this omen there is involved an infinity of contradictions, uncertainties, and intricacies. the neck omen before the expedition referred to above i observed a peculiar method of determining which of the warriors would distinguish himself. the leader of the expedition seized a fowl, made a short invocation, wrenched the head from the body and allowed the blood of the beheaded bird to flow into a bowl. when all the blood had been caught in this vessel, the leader held up the still writhing fowl, leaving the neck free. then several of those present addressed the fowl, beseeching it to point out the ones who would display most valor during the attack. naturally, through the violent action of the muscles, the neck was twisted momentarily in a certain direction. this signified that the person in whose direction it pointed would show especial courage during the fray. the fowl was questioned a second and a third time with the result that it always pointed more or less in the direction of some one of the party famed for his prowess, which person was then and there acclaimed as one of the hectors of the coming fight. i was repeatedly assured that this omen is always consulted before all war expeditions[ ] or war raids. in the lake region of the agúsan valley the omen is interpreted differently for it is said to be good if the neck finally twists itself towards the east or towards the north. [ ] _mañg-ái-yau_ is a word used by nearly all tribes in mindanáo to express a band of warriors on a raid, or the raid itself. mr. h. o. beyer, of the bureau of science, tells me that the word is used also by some northern luzon tribes. i myself found it in use by the negritos of the gumaín and kauláman rivers in western pampanga. the omen from the gall the only rule with regard to the gall bladder is that it should be of normal size in order to denote success. an unusually large, or an unusually small one, prognosticate, respectively, misfortune or failure.[ ] when the gall bladder is unusually large, however, the omen gives rise to great misgivings and calls for a very careful observance of the following omen, for it portends not only failure but disaster. [ ] in the former case the omen is said to be _gu-tús_ and in the latter case _gí-pus_. the omen from the liver this omen is taken from the liver of pigs only. in the observation of it dark spots and blotches are an indication of evil and are counted and examined as to size and form. for all of these there is a corresponding interpretation, varying, probably, according to the idiosyncrasies of each individual augur. on occasions of great importance such as war raids, or epidemics, this omen is always consulted. but it is taken with great frequency in other contingencies as an auxiliary omen to overcome the influence of previous evil ones. the omen from a fowl's intestinal appendix[ ] [ ] _pós-ud_. this appendix is a small blind projection found on the intestines of fowls. i have never determined whether the appendix of a pig is a subject for augury or not. if it is, it escaped my observation. the appendix of a chicken, however, is invariably observed as an auxiliary to the observation of the liver and the gall of a pig. if it is found to be erect, that is, at right angles to the intestine, it is considered a favorable omen but if found in a horizontal or supine position with reference to the intestine, it is said to be highly inauspicious. in every case which i saw the omen was favorable. ornithoscopy in general divination by birds is confined practically to the turtledove.[ ] this homely inert creature is considered the harbinger of good and evil, and is consulted at the beginning of every journey and of every undertaking where its prophetic voice can be heard. should its cry forebode ill, the undertaking is discontinued no matter how urgent it may be. but should the cry presage good, then the project is taken up or continued with renewed assurance and a glad heart, for is not this bird the envoy of the deities and its voice a divine message? [ ] _li-mó-kon_. no arguments can shake the manóbo's[ ] faith in the trusty omen bird. for him it can not err, it is infallible. for every case you cite him of its errors, he quotes you numberless cases where its prophecies have come true, and ends by attributing the instance you cite to a false interpretation or to divine intervention that saved you from the evil prognosticated by the bird. [ ] mandáyas, mañgguáñgans, debabáons, and banuáons of the agúsan valley have practically the same beliefs as the manóbos in regard to this omen bird. respect toward the omen bird the omen bird is never killed, for to kill it would draw down unmitigated misfortune. on the contrary, it is often captured and is carefully fed and petted, especially when an inmate of the house is about to undertake a journey. the prospective traveler takes a little _camote_ or banana and, placing it in the cage, addresses the captive bird and asks it to sing to its companions of the woods that they too in turn may sing to him the song of success and safe return. and again, on the safe return of the traveler, if there is a captive omen bird in his household, it is a common practice to feed it and give it drink, addressing it tenderly as if it had been the cause of the success of the trip. when the undertaking is one of importance, such as the selection of a site for a new clearing, or one fraught with possible danger, such as a trip into a dangerous locality, the free wild bird of the woods and not the captive bird is solemnly invoked.[ ] it is requested to sing out its warning or its auspicious song in clear unmistakable tones. before a war expedition an offering of rice is set out on a log near the house as a further inducement to it to be propitious. [ ] _táu-ag-táu-ag to li-mó-kon_. interpretation of the omen bird's call it frequently requires an expert to interpret exactly the meaning of the various positions from which the bird has sung and in certain cases even several experts can not arrive at a consensus of opinion. hence the following interpretation is intended as a mere general outline from which an idea may be gained of the intricacies and sometimes apparent contradictions involved in manóbo ornithoscopy. the observations may be divided into three kinds, good, bad, and indifferent, and these three kinds into infinite combinations, for the interpretation of the first original observation may be modified and remodified by subsequent cries proceeding from other directions. thus what was originally a good omen, may become, in conjunction with subsequent ones, most fatal. the directions of the calls are calculated from eight general positions of the bird with reference to the person making the observation. ( ) directly in front. ( ) directly behind. ( ) directly at right angles on the right. ( ) directly at right angles on the left. ( ) in front to the right and at an angle of °. ( ) in front to the left and at an angle of °. ( ) behind to the right and at an angle of °. ( ) behind to the left and at an angle of °. the first direction is bad. it denotes the meeting of obstacles that are not necessarily of a very serious character unless subsequent observations lead to such a conclusion. the trip need not be discontinued but vigilance must be exerted. the second direction[ ] is also bad. it is a sign that behind one there are obstacles or impediments such as sickness in the family. the trip must not be undertaken or continued until the following day. [ ] called _ga-biñg_. the third and fourth directions[ ] are indeterminate. one's fate is unknown until subsequent omen cries reveal the future, hence all ears are alert. [ ] on the upper agúsan it is called _bá-us-bá-us_, on the central, _bí-tang_. the fifth direction[ ] is good and one may proceed with full assurance of success. [ ] called _bág-to_. the sixth position[ ] merely guarantees safety to life and limb but one must not be sanguine of attaining the object of the trip. [ ] also called _bág-to_. the seventh and eighth directions are like the second direction; that is, bad. between the above directions are others that receive an intermediate interpretation. there may also be combinations of calls from different directions. the omen bird heard in the fifth or in the sixth direction augurs success and safety, respectively, as we saw above, but if heard simultaneously from those two positions it is considered a most fatal omen; the trip or enterprise must be abandoned at once. again if the bird calls from the fifth position and then after a short interval from the eighth position, success is assured but upon arriving at the destination one must hurry home without delay. should, however, the cry proceed from the sixth direction and then be immediately followed by one from the seventh, great vigilance must be exerted, for the cry is an intimation that one will have to use his shield and spear in defense. i have found the interpretation of the omen bird's call so varied and so difficult that i refrain from entering any further into the matter. suffice it to say that at the beginning of every journey the bird is consulted and its call interpreted to the best of the traveler's ability. should it be decided that the call augurs ill he invariably abandons the trip until the following day when he makes another attempt to secure favorable omens. it thus happens that his journey may be delayed for several days. on one occasion i was delayed three days because the cry of this mysterious bird was unfavorable. birds of evil omen besides the turtledove there is no other bird that is the harbinger of good luck. there are, however, several that by their cry, forebode evil. thus the cry of all birds that ordinarily do not cry by night is of evil omen. the various species of hornbills, crows, and chickens are examples. the cawing of crows and the shrieking of owls in the night have a particularly evil significance, for these birds are then considered to be the embodiment of demons that hover around with evil intent. an unusual cackling of a hen at night without any apparent reason is also of ill import. on one occasion it was thought to be so threatening that the following morning the owner went through the fowl-waving ceremony and killed the hen for breakfast. he told me that he had to kill it or to sell it because bad luck might come if he kept it around the house. again, the alighting of a large bird, such as a hornbill, on the house forebodes great evil. ceremonial means must be taken without delay to avert the evil presaged by such an occurrence. on one occasion i observed the fowl-waving ceremony, the sacrifice of a chicken, and the blood lustration performed with a view to neutralizing the evil portent. chapter xxviii mythological and kindred beliefs the creation of the world the story of the creation of the world varies throughout the agúsan valley. in the district surrounding talakógon creation is attributed to makalídung, the first great manóbo. the details of his work are very meager. he set the world up on posts, some say iron posts, with one in the center. at this central post he has his abode, in company with a python, according to the version of some, and whenever he feels displeasure toward men he shakes the post, thereby producing an earthquake and at the same time intimating to man his anger. it is believed that should the trembling continue the world would be destroyed. in the same district it is believed that the sky is round and that its extremities are at the limits of the sea. somewhere near these limits is an enormous hole called "the navel of the sea,"[ ] through which the waters descend and ascend. this explains the rise and the fall of the tide. [ ] _pó-sud to dá-gat_. it is said that in the early days of creation the sky was low, but that one day a woman, while pounding rice, hit it with her pestle, and it ascended to its present position. another version of the creation, prevalent among the manóbos of the argáwan and híbung rivers, gives the control of the world to _dágau_, who lives at the four fundamental pillars in the company of a python. being a woman, she dislikes the sight of human blood, and when it is spilled upon the face of the earth she incites the huge serpent to wreathe itself around the pillars and shake the world to its foundations. should she become exceedingly angry she diminishes the supply of rice either by removing it from the granary or by making the soil unproductive. according to another variation of the story, which is heard on the upper agúsan, on the simúlau, and on the umaíam, the world is like a huge mushroom and it is supported upon an iron pillar in the center. this pillar is controlled by the higher and more powerful order of deities who, on becoming angered at the actions of men, manifest their feelings by shaking the pillar, thereby reminding mortals of their duties. celestial phenomena the rainbow the rainbow, according to the general account, is an inexplicable manifestation of the gods of war. at one end of the rainbow there is thought to be a huge tortoise, one fathom broad. the appearance of the rainbow is an indication that the gods of war, with their associate war chiefs and warriors from the land of death, have gone forth in search of blood. if red predominates among the colors of the rainbow it is thought that the mightier war spirits are engaged in hand-to-hand combat; but if the colors are dark, it is a sign of slaughter. if the rainbow should seem to approach, precautions are taken to defend the house against attack, as it is believed that a real war party is approaching. on no account must the finger be pointed at the rainbow, as it might become curved. thunder and lightning thunder is a demonstration by anit of her anger towards men for disrespect to brute animals. lightning is spoken of as her tongue and is described as being a reddish tongue-shaped stone that is flung by her at the guilty one. anit is one of the mighty spirits that dwell in inugtúhan, the sky world, and together with inaíyau is the wielder of the thunderbolt and of the storm. she is a very watchful spirit and, in case one offends her, he must hurry to a house and get a priest to appease her with an offering of blood. the belief in this tongue stone is universal, but no one claims to have seen one nor can anyone tell where it can be found. eclipse of the moon the almost universal belief regarding an eclipse of the moon is that a gigantic tarantula[ ] has attacked the moon and is slowly encompassing it in its loathsome embrace. upon perceiving the first evidences of darkness upon the face of the moon, the men rush out from the houses, shout, shoot arrows toward the moon, slash at trees with their bolos, play the drum and gong, beat tin cans and the buttresses of trees, blow bamboo resounders and dance around wildly, at the same time giving forth yells of defiance at the monster saying, "let loose our moon," "you will be hit by an arrow." the women at the same time keep sticking needles or pointed sticks in the wall in the direction of the enemy that is trying to envelop the moon. [ ] _tam-ban-a-káu-a_. (bisáya, _ba-ka-náu-a_.) some say that a huge scorpion is the cause of eclipses. the explanation of these curious proceedings is simple. if the moon does not become freed from the clutches of this gigantic creature, it is believed that there will be no dawn and that, in the eternal darkness that will subsequently fall upon the world, the evil spirits will reign and all human apparel will be turned into snakes. during the eclipse the priests never cease to call upon their deities for aid against the mighty tarantula that is menacing the moon. as to the origin, habitat, and character of this tarantula i have never been afforded the least information. the huge creature seizes upon the moon, but soon releases it on account of the shouts and menacing actions of the human spectators. objections that one may raise as to the invisibility, magnitude, and other obvious anomalies are at once refuted by the simple and sincere declaration that such belief is true because it has been handed down from the days of yore. origin of the stars and the explanation of sunset and sunrise it is said that in the olden time the sun and the moon were married. they led a peaceful, harmonious life and two children were the result of their wedlock. one day the moon had to attend to one of the household duties that fall to the lot of a woman--some say to get water, others say to get the daily supply of food from the little farm. before departing she crooned the children to sleep and told her husband to watch them but not to approach them lest, by the heat that radiated from his body he might harm them. she then started upon her errand. the sun, who never before had been allowed to touch his bairns, arose and approached their sleeping place. he gazed upon them fondly and, bending down, kissed them, but the intense heat that issued from his countenance melted them like wax. upon preceiving[sic] this he wept and quietly betook himself to the adjoining forest in great fear of his wife. the moon returned duly and, after laying down her burden in the house, turned to where the children slept, but found only their inanimate forms. she broke out into a loud wail, and in the wildness of her grief called upon her husband. but he gave no answer. finally softened by the long loud plaints he returned to his house. at the sight of him the wild cries of grief and of despair and of rebuke redoubled themselves until finally the husband, unable to soothe his wife, became angry and called her his chattel.[ ] at first she feared his anger and quieted her sobs, but finally, breaking out into one long wail, she seized the burnt forms of her babes and in the depth of her anguish and her rage, threw them out on the ground in different directions. then the husband became angry again and, seizing some taro leaves that his wife had brought from the farm, cast them in her face and went his way. upon his return he could not find his wife, and so it is to this day that the sun follows the moon in an eternal cycle of night and day. and so it is, too, that the stars stand scattered in the sable firmament, for they are her discarded children that accompany her in her hasty flight. ever and anon a shooting star breaks across her path, but that is only a messenger from her husband to call her back. she, however, heeds it not but speeds on her way in never-ending flight with the marks of the taro leaves[ ] still upon her face, and with her starry train accompanying her to the dawn and on to the sunset in one eternal flight. [ ] _máñg-gad_ (chattel) and _bin-ó-tuñg_ (purchase slave) are the ordinary terms of reproach used by an angry husband toward his wife and refer to her domestic status as originating in the marriage payment. [ ] some say that spots upon the moon are a cluster of bamboos; others, that they are _baléte_ trees, and others again, that they are the taro marks referred to. the story of the ikÚgan,[ ] or tailed men, and of the resettlement of the agÚsan valley [ ] from _i-kug_, tail. it seems that long, long ago a ferocious horde of tailed men, tíduñg,[ ] overran the agúsan valley as far south as veruéla. they were tailed men from all accounts, the tail of the men being like a dagger, and that of the women like an adze of the kind used by manóbos. for years they continued their depredations, devastating the whole valley till all the manóbos had fled or been killed, except one woman on the argáwan river or, as some say, on the umaíam. [ ] it would be interesting to know whether these tíduñg were members of a tribe in borneo that made piratical raids to the súlu archipelago. when the manóbos first arrived in the agúsan valley they tried to withstand the tailed men. the manóbos of the kasilaían river are said to have dug trenches and to have made valiant resistance, but were finally obliged to flee to the pacific coast.[ ] it is said that when encamped near the present site of san luis these tailed folks slept on a kind of nettle[ ] and being severely stung, took it for a bad omen and returned. [ ] it is true that the manóbos of the tágo river, province of surigao, claim kinship with those of the kasilaían and argáwan rivers, but their migration from the agúsan valley seems to have been comparatively recent, if i may believe their own testimony. [ ] _ság-ui_. as to the origin and departure of these invaders nothing seems to be known, but they devastated the valley from butuán to veruéla and from east to west. the solitary woman who had hidden in the _runo_ reeds of argáwan continued to eke out an existence and to pass her time in weaving _abaká_ cloth. one day as she was about to eat she found a turtledove's egg in one of her weaving baskets and she was glad, for meat and fish were scarce. but when the hour to eat arrived she forgot the egg. thus it happened day after day until the egg hatched out, when lo! instead of a little dove there appeared a lovely little baby girl who, under her foster mother's care and guidance, throve and grew to woman's estate. now it happened that, as the war had ended, scouts began to travel through the country to discover whether the ikúgan had really departed, and one day a band of them found the woman and foster daughter. amazed at the young girl's marvelous beauty the chief asked for her hand. the foster mother granted his request, but upon one condition--that he would place a married couple upon every river in the valley. well pleased with such a simple condition he started upon his quest and before long succeeded in placing upon every river a married couple. in this way came about the repopulation of the agúsan valley. the chief then married the beautiful maiden and peace reigned throughout the land. giants the great mythic giants of manóboland are _táma_, _mandayáñgan_, and _apíla_. all three are described as of marvelous height, "as tall as the tallest trees of the mountains," and their domain is said to be the deep and dark forest. _táma_ is a wicked spirit, whose special malignancy consists in beguiling the steps of unwary travelers. leading his victim off the beaten trail by cunning calls and other ruses, he devours him bodily. his haunt is said to be sometimes the balete tree, as the enormous footprints occasionally seen in its vicinity testify. a manóbo of the kasilaían river assured me that he had seen them and that they were a fathom long. i have heard various accounts of this fabulous being all over eastern mindanáo. _mandayáñgan_, on the contrary, is a good-natured, humanlike giant, who loves to attend the combats of manóboland. he is said to have been one of the great warriors of the days of yore. his dwelling is in the great mountain forests, where live the gods of war. _apíla_ is an innocuous giant whose one great pleasure is to leave his far-off forest home and, crashing down the timber in his giant strides, go in quest of a wrestling bout with mandayáñgan. the noise of their fierce engagement can be heard, it is said, for many and many a league, and there are not wanting those who have witnessed their mighty struggle for supremacy. besides these three greater giants, there are others, lesser but more human, the principal of whom is _dábau_. _dábau_ lived on a small mountain in view of the present site of veruéla. it is said that, before beginning his trip up the agúsan, he sent word to the inhabitants of the umaíam river that on a certain day he would pass through the lake region and that all rice should be carefully protected against the commotion of the waters.[ ] [ ] the nearest settlements to the channel through which _dábau_ must have passed were several kilometers distant. on the appointed day he is said to have seized the trunk of a _palma brava_ palm and, using it for a pole, to have poled his bamboo raft from butuán to the mouth of the maásin creek, near veruéla, in one day.[ ] with him lived his sister, also a person of extraordinary strength, for it is on record that she would at times pluck a whole bunch of bananas and throw it to her brother on a neighboring hill. [ ] this trip is a row of from to days in a large native canoe and under normal conditions. peculiar animal beliefs there is, besides the various omens taken from birds, bees, dogs, and mice, a very peculiar observance prevailing among the tribes of eastern mindanáo with regard to members of the animal kingdom. this strange observance consists in paying them a certain deference in that they must not be laughed at, imitated, nor in anywise shown disrespect. this statement applies particularly to those creatures which enter a human haunt contrary to their usual custom. to laugh at them, or make jeering remarks as to their appearance, etc., would provoke the wrath of anítan[ ] the thunder goddess, who dwells in inugtúhan. if they enter the house, they must be driven out in a gentlemanly way and divinatory means resorted to at once, for they may portend ill luck. [ ] called also _Á-nit_ and _in-a-ní-tan_. i have myself at times been upbraided for my levity toward frogs and other animals. i also received numerous accounts of disrespect shown to brute visitors to a house and of the ill results that might have followed had not proper and timely propitiation been made to anítan. the two following incidents, of which the narrators were a part, will sufficiently illustrate the point. two manóbos of the kasilaían river entered a house and, upon perceiving a chicken that was afflicted with a cold, began to make unseemly remarks to it by upbraiding it for getting wet. shortly after it began to thunder and, remembering the offense that they had committed, they had recourse to their aunt, a priestess, who decided that anítan was displeased and had to be propitiated. finding no other victim than a hunting dog, for the chicken was considered by her ceremonially unclean, she at once ordered the dog to be killed for anítan. the thunder and the lightning passed away promptly. it may be noted here that the dog may have had considerable value, for a really good hunting dog commands as high a value as a human life. in another case on the same river the narrator had captured a young monkey. when he arrived at the house its uncouth appearance caused a little merriment and induced the owner to place upon its head a small earthen pot in imitation of a hat. almost immediately the first mutterings of thunder were heard, and the owner, remembering his indiscretion, slew the monkey and offered it in propitiation to anítan. as he had expected he averted the danger that he feared from the threating[sic] thunderbolts. in some cases those who are guilty of this peculiar offense become turned into stone, unless they take the proper means of appeasing divine wrath, as the following legend will show. the petrified craft and crew of kagbubÁtaÑg in the old, old days a boat was passing the rocky promontory of kagbubátañg.[ ] the occupants espied a monkey and a cat fighting upon the summit of the promontory. the incongruity of the thing impressed them and they began to give vent to derisive remarks, addressing themselves to the brute combatants, when lo and behold, they and their craft were turned into stone, and to this day the petrified craft and crew may be seen on the promontory and all who pass must make an offering,[ ] howsoever small it be, to the vexed souls of these petrified people. if one were to pass the point without making an offering, the anger of its petrified inhabitants might be aroused and the traveler might have bad weather and rough seas.[ ] [ ] _kag-bu-bá-tañg_ is a point within sight of the town of placer, eastern mindanáo. [ ] the offering may consist of a little piece of wood, in fact anything, and must be thrown overboard while one is passing the point. [ ] there is said to be a similar locality near taganíto, between clavér and carrascál. in further explanation of this singular belief it may be stated that the imitation of the sounds made by frogs is especially forbidden, for it might be followed not merely by thunderbolts, as in some cases, but by petrifaction of the offender; in proof of this i will adduce the legend of añgó, of bináoi.[ ] [ ] _bin-á-oi_ is the name of an oddly shaped peak at the source of the river añgadanán, tributary of the wá-wa river. from the upper tágo its white crest may be seen overlooking the source of the stream malitbug that delivers its waters to the tágo river through the borubuán. aÑgÓ, the petrified manÓbo añgó lived many years ago on a lofty peak in the eastern cordillera with his wife and children. one day he went to the forest with his dogs in quest of game. fortune granted him a fine big boar, but he broke his spear in dealing the mortal blow. upon arriving at a stream he sat down upon a stone and set himself to repairing his spear. the croaking of the near-by frogs attracted his attention and, imitating their shrill notes, he boldly told them that it would be better to cease their cries and help him mend his spear. he continued his course up the rocky torrent, but noticed that a multitude of little stones began to follow behind in his path. surprised at such a happening he hastened his steps. looking back, he saw bigger stones join in the pursuit. he then seized his dog and in fear began to run but the stones kept on in hot pursuit, bigger and bigger ones joining the party. upon arriving at his _camote_ patch he was exhausted and had to slacken his pace, whereupon the stones overtook him and one became attached to his finger. he could not go on. he called upon his wife. she, with the young children, sought the magic lime[ ] and set it around her husband, but all to no avail, for his feet began to turn to stone. his wife and children, too, fell under the wrath of anítan. the following morning the whole family had petrified up to the knees, and during the following three days the process continued from the knees to the hips, then to the breast, and then on to the head. and thus it is that to this day there may be seen on bináoi peak the petrified forms of añgó and his family. [ ] limes and lemons, it will be remembered, are supposed to be objects of fear to the evil spirits. chapter xxix the great religious movement of - the extent of the movement the religious revival of to began, according to universal report, among the manóbos of the libagánon river.[ ] it was thence propagated eastward till it extended over the whole region that lies south of the eighth parallel of north latitude and east of the libagánon and tágum rivers. if the rumors that it spread among the manóbos of the upper paláñgi, among the subánuns, and among the atás be true (and the probability is that it is so), then this great movement affected one-third of the island of mindanáo, exclusive of that part occupied by moros[ ] and bisáyas. i am acquainted with some bisáyas who, moved by the extent and intensity of the movement on the upper agsúan[sic], became adherents. [ ] the libagánon river is the western influent of the tágum river, which empties into the northern part of the gulf of davao. [ ] i am informed by capt. l. e. case, p.o., deputy-governor of davao, that the moros of máti took a zealous part in the movement. it is then not improbable that the moros of the gulf of davao participated in it likewise. among the christianized and non-christianized manóbos, mandáyas, mañgguáñgans, and debabáons i know of only a few men and of not a single woman or child old enough to walk who did not take part in it. upon my arrival in compostela i was told about this religious revival, but to make myself better informed i went to the settlement of the one who had introduced the movement into the agúsan valley. the following is his story, corroborated since that time in every detail by unimpeachable evidence. reported origin and character of the revival one meskínan,[ ] a manóbo of the libagánon river, was taken sick with what appeared to be cholera. he was abandoned by his relatives. on the third day, however, he recovered and went in search of his fugitive people. naturally his appearance caused consternation, but he allayed the fears of his fellow tribesmen by assuring them that his return was not due to the influence of any evil spirit but to that of a beneficent spirit, who, he asserted, had presented him with a medicine which he showed them. they readily gave credence to his story in view of his marvelous recovery, and also because of the extraordinary state of trembling and of apparent divine possession into which he fell after recounting his story. accounts of this event spread far and wide, until it reached the mawab river,[ ] but in so altered a form that it not only attributed to meskínan an ordinary priesthood but declared that he had actually been transformed into a deity, and that as such he could impart himself to all whom he might desire to honor. the chief of the mansáka group of mandáyas on the mawab sent an urgent message to relatives of his near compostela. my informant was one of these, and he described to me the midnight exodus of the whole settlement on its way to mawab. the following is substantially his account. [ ] meskínan is the religious pseudonym of mapákla, a manóbo of the libagánon river. [ ] a tributary of the híjo river which empties into the gulf of davao. upon their arrival at mawab the most powerful chief on the river laid before them the messages that had been received from libagánon; how meskínan had been changed into a deity and had ceased to perform the natural functions of eating and drinking. on the following day a messenger arrived at mawab settlement, purporting to come directly from meskínan. he stated that meskínan had announced the destruction of the world after one moon. the old tribal deities would cease to lend their assistance to those that garbed themselves in black.[ ] in the intervening time he (meskínan) would direct men how to save themselves from destruction. [ ] my informant interpreted this as meaning non-christianized people. this reference to dark-colored dress is not clear. my informant said that the following orders were issued by meskínan: ( ) all chickens and pigs were to be killed at once; otherwise they would devour their owners. ( ) no more crops were to be planted. ( ) a good building for religious purposes was to be erected in each settlement. ( ) in each settlement there was to be one priest[ ] who must have received his power from meskínan himself, and several assistants[ ] who were to help to propagate the news and to perform the prescribed services in distant "churches." [ ] called _pun-ó-an_. [ ] _tai-tái-an_, that is, "bridges," meaning probably that these emissaries were to be the bridge over which the religious doctrines would pass in spreading from settlement to settlement. ( ) the services were to consist of praying to meskínan, performing sacred dances in his honor, and _forwarding offerings to him_. my informant described to me how several people of máwab settlement went over the libagánon for the purpose of ascertaining the truth of the numerous messages and of the ceaseless rumors. on their return they reported that meskínan was truly a deity; that his body was all golden; that he ate only the fragrance of offerings made to him; and that he bestowed his special protection on those alone who made these offerings. the visitors to libagánon brought the news that the toppling over[ ] of the world would take place within one moon, and that the orders of meskínan, the magbabáya, should be carried out at once, for otherwise, when the day of destruction arrived, all would be irretrievably lost; husband would be separated from wife, and mother from child; pigs and chickens would prey upon whomsoever they could catch, and all would live a life of darkness and despair. but those who had complied with instructions would be saved; their bodies, at the moment of the fall of the world, would become golden and they would fly around in the air with never a care for material wants, _the men on their shields, and the women on their combs_. [ ] _kíliñg_. a high priest from the tágum river conferred a "_magbabáya_"[ ] or spirit upon my informant and upon several others who were to act as his assistants and emissaries. [ ] as the narration proceeds an attempt will be made to explain this term. the people who had assembled at máwab settlement decided accordingly to erect an immense house for the performance of the religious acts enjoined by the magbabáya of libagánon. in this edifice they passed one month in expectation of the impending cataclysm. men, women, and children, half starving as my informant assured me, danced and sang to the sound of drum and gong, while he and his assistants broke out at intervals into supplications to the magbabáya of libagánon and fell into the state of violent exaltation that was the outward manifestation of the fact that a spirit had taken possession of them. spread of the movement toward the end of the month word was received from meskínan that the end of the world would not take place for three more moons in order that every settlement might have an opportunity of erecting its religious house and of saving itself thereby from the impending doom. the priests and their assistants were bidden to spread the news far and wide, even in the most inaccessible haunts of the land. my informant and his relatives then returned to their settlement on the báklug river, but only to find that their pigs and chickens had been stolen by christianized people of compostela. they constructed a religious house of very fine appearance and faithfully fulfilled all the other behests of the magbabáya. all this time reports and messages as to the approach of the end of the world kept pouring into compostela from libagánon, so that it was not long before my informant was invited to establish a religious house in compostela. as this town is the principal intertribal trading point to which christianized manóbos, mañgguáñgans, and mandáyas resort, it is evident that within a short time word of the approaching calamity was received and believed by all the surrounding peoples, and my informant, the high priest, was invited to establish "churches" in all the settlements of mandáyaland. through the instrumentality of other priests and their assistants the movement spread among the debabáons of the sálug country, among the mañgguáñgans of the mánat and sálug districts and among the manóbos of the upper agúsan, the baóbo, the ihawán, and the simúlau rivers. this great religious movement was known as "túñgud."[ ] [ ] i am unable to give any suggestion as to the meaning of this word, nor have i been able to find anyone, from high priests down, who pretended to know its meaning. its exterior character and general features when i arrived on the upper agúsan the movement was in full swing, and i had every opportunity to hear the messages and rumors from libagánon and to watch the proceedings of the high priests and of their assistants. i was handicapped by my inability to follow the language used in the sacred songs and supplications, but i had many of them interpreted to me. with this exception the following statements as to the character of the movement are first hand. the first and most tangible feature of the revival was the lack of food. no rice nor taro had been planted because of the magbabáya's injunction, so that the whole population of the upper agúsan and of the mandáya country had been compelled to subsist for the months preceding my arrival on the taro that had already been planted and on the _camote_ crop. hence on my arrival rice was so scarce that it cost me three days' wandering, no little amount of begging, and a good round sum of money to procure a supply sufficient for my own needs. the scarcity or utter lack of food was further made evident by the fact that on several occasions i had to leave settlements because i was unable to get food. when in their homes the people showed fear at all hours, but especially during the night. the falling of a tree in the forest, the rumbling of thunder, an earthquake, an untoward report from libagánon, and similar things would draw from them the repetition, in low fearful tones, of the mystic word "túñgud" and would send them off in a hurry to the religious house. in compostela the people vehemently denied to the visiting catholic missionary their adherence to the new movement, but as he was leaving the town an earthquake occurred and the words "_túñgud, túñgud_," broke from the lips of one of the most influential men in the town. another and very noticeable feature of the movement, indicative of its profound influence, upon these people, was the cessation of all feuds and quarrels. after all that has been said on the subject of manóbos in general and their social institution of revenge in particular, one can readily realize and greatly marvel at the paramount influence exerted by the great revival of those two years. bisáyas and others more or less conversant with manóbo ways and character were amazed at the wonderful effect which this religious movement exerted on these peoples, one and all. from tribe to tribe, from settlement to settlement, from enemy to enemy, traveled priests, assistants, everybody. mañgguáñgans, who seldom or never visited compostela, might be found performing their religious services there. some of them even went so far as to penetrate into the almost inaccessible haunts of the upper manorígao mandáyas, the hereditary and truculent enemies of compostela whom even the catholic missionaries could never convert. debabáons from the sálug-libagánon region went fearlessly over to the karága, kasaúman, and manái districts and returned unscathed. many a time in compostela and other places i heard it remarked concerning a particular individual that, were it not for the order of the magbabáya of libagánon to refrain from quarrels and to forego revenge, he would be killed. so great then was the sway of this religious movement that the natural law of vengeance yielded to it and its adherents almost starved themselves for it. the principal tenets of the movement new order of deities in the first place the spirit that received a particular individual under his tutelary protection was either a new divinity communicable to others or one of a new class of divinities. i incline to the latter interpretation as being more in accordance with general manóbo religious ideas. in either case the old order of deities was relegated to an inferior position, and no further worship was paid to them. the magbabáya, whether one or more, had come, according to all the statements of meskínan, to announce the dissolution of the world or at least of that part of the world inhabited by those who dressed in black--that is, pagan peoples--and to teach men to save themselves from a future life of darkness and desolation. after his deification meskínan acquired the power to impart himself to such as he deemed worthy, if they presented themselves to him. they were said, after being thus endowed, to have a _magbabáya_, in much the same way as we speak of a person having got the spirit. upon further development of the movement certain individuals acquired the power of imparting their spirit to others, but a spirit bestowed personally by meskínan was considered to be of greater potency than that granted by others. observances prescribed by the founder the means prescribed by meskínan through his priests and emissaries for escaping from the consequences of the approaching demolition were: ( ) the construction of well-made and clean religious buildings[ ] in each settlement. [ ] _ka-má-lig_. ( ) the frequent worship of him in these buildings by dance and chant under the direction of local priests or of their assistants. ( ) the material offerings of worldly goods to these same officiants. that these injunctions were carried out faithfully and in the most remote regions i can personally testify. all through the mountainous mandáya country (kati'il, manorígao, karága, and the very sources of the agúsan) i found the same religious structures, the same class of priests and faithful congregations. as i learned in my last trip in up the karága, the christianized mandáyas of the coast towns in the municipalities of karága, bagáñga, and kati'il had joined the movement. from bagáñga to the point on the libagánon that was the cradle of the movement is a linear distance of some kilometers, and it takes under very favorable conditions at least seven days of continuous travel over unspeakable trails to communicate from one point to the other. yet the religious movement spread from libagánon to bagáñga and to more distant points in an incredibly short time. as a further proof of the fidelity with which the observances were carried out, let me say that i frequently dropped into settlements only to find the houses practically empty and the inhabitants all assembled in the religious house. while passing along the trails i could hear on all sides the roll of drums from the distant almost inaccessible settlements as the settlers danced in honor of their unseen gods. upon my arrival probably the first words that greeted me would be "túñgud, túñgud."[ ] in some places, as on the central kati'il, i could not open my mouth to speak without hearing the women and children utter at once these strange words. perhaps it was their idea that my conversation might bring about the consummation that they feared so much. [ ] besides this there was another mystic word equally unintelligible, _ta-gá-an_. in many places i was not allowed to enter the religious buildings, being assured that the new local deity might be displeased, but in such places as i was permitted to enter i noticed the following: ( ) a small alcove[ ] in one corner, frequently provided with a door, sometimes of the folding type. the purpose of this alcove was to serve as a sanctuary solely for the priests and for their assistants. within they were supposed to hold closer communion with their deities, while the worshipers chanted and danced outside. as the story of the movement proceeds, the real purpose of this alcove or stall will be explained. [ ] called _sin-á-buñg_. ( ) an altar consisting of a shelf supported on two legs and having on it offerings of bolos, daggers, lances, and necklaces, together with a supply of drink. ( ) a drum and gong, a mat or two for dancing, and a hearth made out of four logs set upon the floor. ( ) eight or more rudely carved posts supporting the house. along the walls small carved pieces of wood intended for ornamentation. ( ) great cleanliness under and in the immediate vicinity of the building. in compostela the devout worshipers actually carried sand from the river and spread it on the ground around the building. flowers, a variety of wild begonia, i think, were planted around some of the buildings. such actions as these showed the zeal with which the movement inspired them, for in the regulation of their homes such ornamentation is unprecedented. ( ) an offering stand close to the building. on this were placed offerings of betel nut and drink, which were deemed acceptable to the deities. religious rites several rites, such as that of the conferring of a magbabáya, i was unable to witness, because up to the time of my departure from the upper agúsan they were not usually performed there, but nearly always over on the libagánon, tágum, or mawab rivers. the investment of priests and emissaries with magbabáya spirits did take place a few times in compostela, but i was not permitted to attend, the assigned reason being that my presence might be displeasing to these deities. the ordinary religious performance, however, in honor of meskínan i witnessed repeatedly, and will now describe a typical one. the ceremony was performed at a settlement on the central kati'il. the high priest and his assistants were my guide and carriers who had taken advantage of my trip to earn a little and at the same time to spread the new religion. upon our approach to the settlement one of the assistant priests went ahead to announce our arrival. the first building we reached was the religious house. before ascending the notched pole that served for a stairs the high priest gave a grand wave of his arm and asked in a loud voice: "art thou here already, perchance?" in answer i heard a distinct whistle proceeding, as i thought, from the building. the priest went on: "when dids't thou get here?" this was answered by several low whistling sounds which the priest interpreted to mean "early this morning." the dialogue was continued in a similar strain for several minutes, the responses always being in the form of low prolonged whistling or low sharp chirps, and always proceeding, as it seemed to me, from the building, though to others the sound appeared to come from the opposite direction or from the sky, so they said. i questioned the priest and he pointed his hand in a diametrically opposite direction to that from which the sounds appeared to me to come. when we went up into the building we found nearly the whole settlement assembled. the high priest gave the latest report from libagánon, which was to the effect that meskínan had determined not to overthrow the world for three months more in order to give the settlements that had not yet joined the movement an opportunity to do so and thereby to save themselves. the high priest went on to tell the listeners how the magbabáya of libagánon had departed to the underworld and had taken up his abode near the pillars of the earth; how he had been engaged in weaving a piece of cloth and had only yard to finish, upon the completion of which the world would be destroyed. after having convinced the audience of the necessity of making known these particulars to neighboring clans and of complying with the orders of meskínan, he announced the request of meskínan that a certain number of lances be donated from each settlement. when he had concluded his narration, which was substantiated by his assistants, it was proposed by the assembled people that he perform the _túñgud_ services, whereupon he and his assistants danced and chanted for about an hour, the tenor of the chants being, according to the interpretation given to me, the latest doings and orders of the great magbabáya of libagánon. the following morning it was decided to hold a sacrifice in honor of meskínan, so the chief of the settlement with great difficulty procured a pig. all being ready and the pig being in position on the sacrificial table with the usual fronds, the ceremony began. even while vesting himself in a woman's skirt, according to the customs adopted in the performance of the religious dance, the high priest manifested signs of the influence of his magbabáya, for he trembled noticeably. one feature of the dance was different from those of the ordinary religious dance in that the priest carried a small shield in one hand and a dagger in the other, though he did not make any pretense of performing the dagger dance as described in a previous part of this monograph.[ ] the use of this shield was enjoined as part of the new ritual and was intended to remind the congregation that faithful male followers would be saved by means of their shields when the world toppled over. [ ] it may be noted here that the mandáya dance is neither so graceful nor so impressive as the manóbo dance. the feet move faster and there are fewer flexings of the body and no mimetic movements, so characteristic of the manóbo dance. neither is a woman's skirt worn nor are handkerchiefs carried in the hands. the high priest danced only about two minutes, because his spirit came upon him, and he fell down upon one knee, unable to rise. i never saw a more gruesome spectacle. a bright unnatural light gleamed in his eyes, his countenance became livid, the eyeballs protruded, a copious perspiration streamed from his body, the muscles of his face twitched, and his whole frame shook more and more vehemently as the intensity of the paroxysm increased. fearing an utter collapse, i assisted him to his feet and left him resting against the wall. as soon as the high priest fell under the spell of his spirit, one of the assistants broke forth into a loud chant, which ever and anon he interrupted with a loud coughlike sound followed by the words, "_túñgud, túñgud, tagáan_." this chant, as well as the subsequent ones, was taken up by several of the assistants successively and, according to the interpretation furnished me, dealt with the wondrous doings of meskínan in the underworld and described in detail the end of the world as announced by meskínan. in succession each of the priests, including the local ones, danced and fell under the influence of their deities, but not with such vehemence as the high priest whose spirit was declared to be "very big." an important point to be noted in the dance was the removal by the dancer at some part of the dance of his sacred headdress,[ ] the emblem of his new priesthood. this was a kerchief which was supposed to have been given personally by meskínan to everyone upon whom he had conferred a _magbabáya_. removing his handkerchief the priest waved it over the heads of the congregation and finally over or near any object that he desired. this was an intimation that such object became consecrated and thereby the property of the great magbabáya of libagánon. a refusal to surrender it was tantamount to perdition when the end should come. such was the doctrine universally preached and as uniformly believed and practiced. [ ] _mo-sá_. continuing the ceremony, the high priest made several efforts to dance, but always with the same result. he chanted, however, frequently, but always made use of many words that had been taught him by his spirit and which were unintelligible to my interpreters. after about two hours we all left the religious building and took up our positions around the sacrificial table, the priests in the center. those whose spears, daggers, bracelets, and other property had been consecrated by the waving of a priest's headdress now deposited them under or near the table. the high priest was the principal officiant, but was assisted by his fellow priests from the agúsan and by the new local priests. none of the priests of the old religion took any part, the old gods being supposed to have yielded to the new magbabáya. the only divergences from the usual ceremonial proceedings on the occasion of a sacrifice were the placing of the sacred headdresses over the victim and the omission of omen taking, blood libation, and blood drinking. the pig was killed by plunging a dagger through its left side, the blood was caught in a pan, and the meat was consumed in a subsequent feast in which the priests did not participate, not being permitted, they said, by their respective deities. the scene that followed the killing of the pig was indescribable. the priests covered their heads and faces with their sacred kerchiefs and trembled with intense vehemence, some leaning against the posts of the sacrificial table, the high priest himself groveling on the ground on all fours, unable to arise from sheer exhaustion. when the death-blow had been dealt to the victim they broke into the mystic words, "_túñgud, túñgud, tagáan_," with loud coughs at the end. these words were taken up by the bystanders and shouted with vehemence. many of them, especially the small girls, fell into paroxysms of trembling. many of the men and adult women divested themselves of their property, such as necklaces, bracelets, and arms, and laid them near the sacrificial table. others promised to make an offering as soon as they could procure one. the real nature of the movement and means used to carry on the fraud i can state unqualifiedly that the whole movement carried on in the agúsan valley among the mandáyas, debabáons, and mañgguáñgans of the sálug-libagánon region was a fraud from beginning to end. i state this on the testimony of the high priest who introduced it into the agúsan valley, on that of the other priests, and on my own discovery of the fraud. the abandonment of the movement and the open avowal of the mandáyas of the karága, manorígao, bagáñga, mánai, and kasáuman rivers, who are still bemoaning the loss of many valuables that they had given as offerings, is unimpeachable evidence that the whole movement was a great religious deception. i have no reason for doubting the wonderful recovery of meskínan, whose real name was mapákla, nor do i see any improbability in the report that he fell suddenly under the influence of a spirit, for such an occurrence is not without precedent in manóboland. i will admit even that at the beginning belief in the revival was sincere, but as time went on and the reputation of the power of meskínan's spirit became greater, abuses crept in, so that shortly after my arrival in compostela the whole system became an atrocious deception for the purpose of wheedling innocent believers out of their valuables. the scheme was most probably engineered by some mandáyas of the tágum river in league with one of the men of the mawab river and two of the upper sálug. the mandáyas of the tágum river have had dealings with moros from time immemorial, and undoubtedly they learned from them much craft and chicanery. it is far from being impossible that they were prompted by moros in the present case or that moros themselves set the movement afoot. i have one reason for being inclined to adopt the latter opinion, namely, that the moros did actually originate a movement of this kind in the seventeenth century as stated by combes in his "historia de mindanáo," and a similar movement about the year , as is mentioned in one of the cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús. let us now examine the various artifices by which the fraud was carried out. the sacred traffic meskínan lived somewhere up the libagánon river, far from the tágum, and was therefore practically out of communication with the agúsan. hence there was little danger of discovery in reporting him deified and his body all golden. after his deification he was always absent, either "down at the pillars of the earth" or on an "island at the sea" or winging his way "on a shield through the starry region." it is easy to understand how difficult it would be to secure an interview with him under these circumstances. as soon as it was reported from the tágum and máwab rivers that meskínan could take anyone under his special protection--in other words, that he could bestow his spirit upon others--several went over to tágum and mawab and did actually receive a spirit, but only at the hands of those who purported to be the representative of meskínan. now those who received this spiritual influence were expected to give a consideration[ ] for the gift, or _magbabáya_, as it was called. as time went on this usage developed into the custom of paying the equivalent of a slave (p ) for every _magbabáya_ received from the representatives of meskínan. this payment had to be made not only for the original bestowal of these spirits but also in case of their flight and return, for they were of a fugitive disposition. i have seen several young fellows start off for libagánon in fear and trembling to redeem their runaway spirits. it may be noted here that the flight of a spirit was ascribed to some act on the part of its possessor that provoked its displeasure. thus one young fellow assured me that his _magbabáya_ had fled because of his failure to abstain from eating rice. [ ] called _á-lo_. perhaps this is an abbreviated form of the spanish word _regalo_, which means gift, and which is a word of frequent use among those with whom the catholic missionaries came in contact. i have seen mandáyas of the kati'il river, men of influence and of renown, travel over to the mawab--a wearisome journey of some four days--loaded down with lances, bolos, daggers, slaves, and other chattels, with which to purchase a _magbabáya_. i saw them return, too, happy in the possession of their newly acquired spirits but worse off in a worldly way. but the religious traffic was not confined to the sale of _magbabáya_ alone. wooden images and sacred handkerchiefs, supposed to proceed from meskínan, were sold at very profitable rates, as were also religious shields, and various other objects. thus on one occasion i made a present to a high priest of several yards of cloth. my astonishment may be imagined when i discovered that he had cut it up into handkerchiefs which he had disposed of far down the kati'il river for the equivalent of pesos apiece, assuring the purchasers that they had been made and consecrated by the great _magbabáya_ of libagánon, and that they were of the utmost efficacy in case of sickness, and above all on the day of dissolution. i asked my friend, the high priest, why he dared to perpetrate such a fraud on his fellow tribesmen. he said that the mawab and tágum people had fooled him out of all his possessions and that he was taking this means to get back the equivalent. a chief from the upper sálug sold a wooden religious image for the value of p on the bahaían river. he asserted that it was presented to him by meskínan as a marvelous cure for all the ills of life. i was present in the house of this selfsame chief and high priest while he was whittling out similar ones. during my recent trip to the manorígao river i was shown kerchiefs of khaki that had been sold by a highpriest of compostela about two years before. the indignation and threats of the owners were terrible when i explained to them that i had traded the khaki for some mandáya skirt cloth. one cunning individual made a feint at throwing the responsibility on me, but happily i was able to evade the liability. religious tours in order that the pious fraud might be carried out more effectively and with less risk to the missionaries of it, it was proclaimed at the beginning that all feuds should cease and that all quarrels were tabooed. this permitted intercourse between former enemies and enabled the priests and their assistants to travel unmolested from settlement to settlement. together with an injunction that prohibited any controversy as to the truth of the movement or of any of its tenets, under penalty of failing to participate in its ultimate advantages, the proscription of feuds and quarrels insured personal safety to all who might desire to visit other settlements. to provide a lodging for the great number of priests and others who would presumably visit settlements outside of their own, the originators of the fraud decided and proclaimed that religious structures should be erected in every settlement. it was thought, probably, that the erection of these would give greater eclat to the affair and thereby tend to bring about a general and more ready adherence to the movement. as a safeguard against the discovery of the fraud, it was taboo to dispute or to express doubts about any detail of the doctrines, even the most minute. as a further precaution against the suspicions of doubting thomases, great care was exerted in the selection of priests and of their assistants. in nearly every case the persons selected were active, popular, and, apparently at least, guileless young men. i myself was shocked on discovering to what length these young fellows, in all other respects attractive and popular, went in their propagation of the fraud and of their insidious utilization of its benefits. they traveled from settlement to settlement, bearing the latest reports about meskínan; how he had failed to come to an agreement with the ancient deities, how he was wandering around in the starry regions; how he had assistants who were forging chains of steel with which to pull up the religious building in the hour of the earth's doom. after convincing their listeners of the gravity of the situation and of the necessity for renewed efforts, they would dance, chant, tremble, prophesy, shake their sacred kerchief at or over some desired object, receive a harvest of donations, and go on their way rejoicing with the sacred booty in their possession. an idea of the magnitude of the pious offerings sometimes made may be gained from the following list of articles received by a high priest from the upper sálug during a religious tour from the agúsan to the manorígao, karága, mánai, and kasaúman districts. old english muzzle-loaders. ornamental silver breastplates. old spanish and mexican pesos. pieces of mandáya skirt cloth. pigs (not including those that had been sacrificed in the course of the tour). various other objects, such as suits of clothes. i estimate the cash value of the above to be, more or less, , pesos, an amount with which the priest could have purchased slaves or of the most costly maids in his tribe. the case of a high priest who was under old financial obligations to me is another instance of the extent of the sacred traffic. upon my arrival i advised him of my purpose and told him to get ready to settle his debt. though he had absolutely no property at the time, he assured me that he could pay as much as a thousand pesos, so he started out for a trip among the mandáyas of manorígao and within a few weeks received enough pious offerings wherewith to pay his debt. the whistling scheme the greatest deception of all was the whistling scheme. this was carried on usually at night, because it was distinctly against the spirit of the movement to call upon one's _magbabáya_ for an answer except at nighttime and in the absence of a bright light, unless the _magbabáya_ of the priest or priests present first intimated his desire to speak. the method of audible communication between the priest and his familiar deity was very simple. the priest called out in his ordinary voice, "_magbabáya_." if the deity was present, and had not gone off on some errand of his own, or had not run away, he answered by a long, low whistle. the interrogating priest then went on to consult the deity about the matter which he had in view, whether the end of the world was nigh, whether the prospective trip would be dangerous, or whether a boar hunt would be successful. the deity answered by a number of whistles, intelligible to the priest only, and long or short according to the amount of information supposed to be conveyed. that this procedure was fraud i need not say. i investigated the matter personally and found that the whistling was done either by the priest himself or by a colleague of the priest. thus in kati'il, where i first heard it, i slyly looked into the alcove whence the sound proceeded and descried[sic] one of my companions, an assistant of the priest, squeezed into one corner with his hand over his mouth for the purpose of disguising the direction of the sound. upon the first favorable opportunity i quietly upbraided my companion, the high priest, for his complicity, but he merely conjured me not to reveal it to anyone else lest he and his companions be killed. on another occasion i heard a high priest question his divinity as to the amount of a fine to be imposed and distinctly heard low chirps proceeding from the supposed _magbabáya_ in answer. the priest interpreted this to signify pesos. as the priest continued to consult his familiar on various subjects, i proceeded to investigate and saw a young friend of mine seated in a hammock, his head bent down and his hand placed at his mouth in an effort to divert the direction of the sound. i was within a few feet of this young fellow and could plainly see by the light of the kitchen fire the attitude of the impersonator and distinctly hear his whistling. the seance continued for some minutes, the impersonator chirping out answers to the questioning priest. the listeners were fully convinced that the sounds were of divine origin and expressed that conviction by uttering some such expressions as, "oh what a beautiful voice the magbabáya has," "túñgud, túñgud," "oh, he is up on the roof now!" as it is often difficult to determine the direction whence a sound comes, the people would sometimes dispute as to where the god was, one maintaining, for example, that he was above the house, while another maintained that he was below it. of course such matters were referred to the priest, who always knew the exact location of the imaginary god. some priests made use of small bamboo contrivances and some used their little hawk bells to produce the voice of their spirits. in one case the use of a small jingle bell elicited expressions of great admiration for the softness and sweetness of the supposed deity's voice. "oh, what a melodious voice," one would say, while another would respond, "yes; it is like a tiny flute." seances of this kind were of constant occurrence and yielded the priest a harvest of donations. those who desired to acquire definite knowledge concerning any subject of importance had to ask a priest to consult his deity, and after the consultation they were expected to make a suitable offering. i once called upon a priest to find out for me the name of the individual who had stolen my scissors. the deity did not respond at the first call, for the reason that, as the priest informed me, he had gone on a trip to libagánon, so we postponed the consultation in order to afford him time to recall the absent divinity. i can not say what means he was supposed to have taken to bring about the return of the spirit, but the extra service cost me a trifle more. not long after, when the fire did not cast such a glare and the light had been extinguished, there was a fairly audible chirp proceeding, as all those present said, from the _camote_ clearing. "ah! he is here," they all said. the priest then accosted the deity in this manner: "why dids't thou delay, magbabáya?" and then went on to find out the name of the stealer of my scissors. the supposed deity, however, would not reveal the actual name lest i should quarrel with the individual--a proceeding that would be in violation of a current taboo--but he vouchsafed me the information that it was a female that was guilty. as it turned out subsequently the supposed divinity erred on this point, so as a matter of policy i claimed the restitution of what i had paid the priest for the consultation. pretended chastity and austerity chastity and austerity also were means calculated to promote faith in the sincerity of the priest, and consequently in the truth of their assertions and divine interpretations. the abstention from sexual intercourse was strictly enjoined on all who had received a _magbabáya_, and observance of the restriction was rigid apparently. the priests and their wives slept in the religious building, but did not cohabit, the men sleeping in one place and the women in another. but, as i was told by one high priest before my departure that he had observed the injunction only in appearance, i am inclined to think that the same was true of all the other priests. abstinence from food was also enjoined by the decrees of the great _magbabáya_ of libagánon. hence priests pretended to abstain from all food when in their own settlements but during their religious tours ate and drank on the plea that the spirits had forbidden them to abstain, as such abstinence might cause offense because of the laws of hospitality, which require a visitor not to refuse the bounty of his host. the customs as to abstinence were not uniform. one priest maintained that his deity required from him total abstinence while he was in his own settlement. another asserted that only partial abstinence was required of him, as, for example, from rice, or from chicken, or from drink, and he observed the rule rigidly. total abstinence, however, was only a pretense. i had occasion to verify this fact in the case of a priest who maintained emphatically that he had not eaten a morsel for three whole days. i went to his house and found him eating inside the mosquito-bar. of course i was fined for my curiosity. the doctrine of the withdrawal of the ancient tribal divinities and the substitution for them of the new-fangled ones at a time of such common peril was well calculated to arouse the inherent religious fanaticism and fear of these primitive peoples. let us review the principal points of the creed. the ancient deities had abandoned the world in disgust and decreed its downfall. the great _magbabáya_ of libagánon had gone down to the pillars of the world and was prepared to shake the earth to its very foundations until it toppled over. he and the spirits with whom he communicated were powerful deities, able and disposed to rescue their worshipers not only in the awful moment of dissolution when the earth would become a vast charnel house full of darkness and desolation, but also in all the concerns of life up to the very end. these new-fangled spirits were endowed with marvelous powers. they could resuscitate the dead, restore the sick to health, discern the future, impart invulnerability and other wondrous qualities, and in the moment of final dissolution rescue their faithful worshipers from the irrevocable vengeance of the ancient tribal divinities. many and many a manóbo told me, when i suggested to him the possibility of error or of deception in the whole system, that it was better to be sure than sorry, and that it was well worth the loss of the worldly goods to be sure of securing immunity from the threatened danger. who would not be afraid when even the mighty _magbabáya_ of libagánon would at times demand a lance from every settlement and keep careful watch? when many of them began to discover the fraud they were ashamed to confess their credulity and fanaticism, and so, seeing a good opportunity to recover their pecuniary losses, joined in the fraud and deliberately swindled others out of their temporal goods. the end of the movement the beginning of the end came about december, . the various inconsistencies in the reports from libagánon, the continual postponement by meskínan of the end for one flimsy reason or another, the discovery by individuals of lies and fraudulent conduct on the part of the priests, the hunger and misery consequent upon the abandonment of the crops, the constant advice on the part of bisáyas and others, and the ever-increasing scarcity of valuables that might be given as offerings to the priests and to their assistants--all these contributed to bring about the termination of a religious swindle that victimized at least , people. it is evident that when the time announced for the dissolution approached some reason for its failure to take place would have to be patched up and propagated. thus in the beginning the catastrophe was to take place after one moon, but meskínan made a long journey for the purpose of interceding with the old tribal gods and succeeded in getting a prorogation of three moons. toward the end of the three moons, meskínan decided to wait for one more before putting into execution the fatal decree. and so things went on from moon to moon. now the end would be postponed because meskínan had to finish a mystic piece of cloth on a loom near the pillars of the world. then it would not take place because he had hied him to an "island of the sea." and thus things continued until people began to weary of the suspense and to suspect the fraud. at the time of my departure from the upper agúsan the whole country was getting into a turmoil. the mandáyas, enraged at the loss of their property bootlessly bestowed on the priest, threatened to make an attack upon the people of the agúsan. the manóbos announced their intention of raiding the debabáons. the mañgguáñgans menaced the tágum mandáyas. in a word trouble was so imminent that had it not been for the establishment of government on the upper agúsan to protect the christianized peoples already settled in towns, probably there would have been much bloodshed. similar movements in former years in the "cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús" i find similar movements reported. one is reported in a letter of father pastells of may , , and the other in some other letter, the date and writer of which i am unable to cite. the general features were the same, that is, the appearance of a person, in one case a woman, in another a child, with body all golden, who announced the destruction of the world. crops were not to be planted, domestic animals were to be killed, and all were to await in prayer and fasting the consummation. the object of these frauds was to make the christian conquest of the upper agúsan peoples impossible. on my trip to the upper karága a venerable old mandáya informed me that in his youth there had been a similar fraud which was engineered by the moros of súmlug, on the east side of the gulf of davao, and that when the mandáyas of karága discovered the fraud they made a raid on the authors of it and killed many. i also find mention of a similar movement in a letter from father urios,[ ] dated jativa, july , . it seems that one manáitai, a manóbo chief, residing at the headwaters of the bahaían river, was told by his familiar spirit, sindatúan, to lead all the manóbos of patrocinio back to the mountains. by orders of sindatúan the whole clan was to meet in one house and for the space of one moon they were to unite in prayers and shouts, at the end of which time all would be transported, body and soul, into the sky. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, ; , . the letter states that manáitai was obliged to abstain from everything except roots, sugar-cane, and fish. the worshipers of sindatúan complied with directions in every particular, even to the burning of candles; but as there was no immediate prospect of a celestial assent, the belief was abandoned and the parties concerned returned to their original creed and observances. from these examples it does not seem too bold to state that religious revivals of a similar character may be looked for periodically, perhaps every or years, especially on the occurrence of public perils such as contagious diseases or fear of invasion. appendix historical references to the manÓbos of eastern mindanÁo early history up to from until manóbo history is for the most part veiled in the obscurity of traditional accounts of the past. now and then it is brightened by the transient light of a missionary's pen only to relapse into the unfathomable darkness of the past. the few traditions that come down to us in manóbo legendary song and oral tradition furnish but little light in the darkness, arid that little is probably not the pure and simple light of truth, but the multicolored rays of the popular imagination that have transformed warriors into giants and enemies into hideous monsters. thus dábao, of whom mention will be made presently, was a giant according to the general tradition. the moros that invaded the agúsan are spoken of as "tailed men." there is, however, one tradition--persistent and universal--to the effect that up to , and even later, though in a lesser degree, there was war--ruthless, relentless, never-ending war. this tradition is borne out by the events that succeeded the advent of the missionaries and their efforts to thrust christianity upon a people who neither understood its doctrines nor relished its rigorous precepts. mention of the agúsan river and of butuán is found in the writings of various historians, notably of father francisco combes[ ] who states that magellan landed in butuán in . it is believed by various historians that the first mass in the philippine islands was celebrated here, and that the planting of a cross on a small promontory at the mouth of the agúsan river was intended by magellan as a formal occupation of the philippine islands in the name of spain.[ ] a later governor, to commemorate this event, erected a monument which stands to this day near the mouth of the agúsan river. [ ] historia de mindanáo y jolo (madrid, ), . [ ] it is strange that pigafetta who records the doings of magellan with such marvelous minuteness, does not mention this first mass. - a letter from andrés mirandola to philip ii[ ] some time after the arrival of legaspi in states that mirandola was ordered to explore the islands of magindanáo and to seek a port called butuán. upon arrival in that town he made friends with the chief. he found moros trading at the port. he describes the people as being of a warlike character. in another letter of mirandola,[ ] dated , we find butuán spoken of as a district with much gold. [ ] e. h. blair and j. a. robertson, the philippine islands, : , . [ ] ibid., : . in various letters and other documents translated by blair and robertson from original sources we learn that the district of butuán was an _encomienda_[ ] and that tributes were collected as early as . [ ] an _encomienda_ was a royal allotment or grant of land, including the natives that lived thereon, to a spaniard for the purpose of government. in chirino's[ ] relation it is set forth that in the jesuits, valero de ledesma and manuel martinez, began their missionary labors in the agúsan valley where they found the inhabitants "by no means tractable on account of their fierce and violent nature." christianity, however, made surprising advances, so great that the principal chief of the district, siloñgan, divorced five of his wives, and protected the missionaries in every way possible.[ ] religious fervor is said to have reached such a height that the people publicly flagellated themselves until the blood flowed. [ ] ibid., : . [ ] ibid., : , et seq. it is interesting to note here that ledesma in one of his letters mentions the fact that the ternatans were accustomed to swoop down on the coast of mindanáo and kept the natives of mindanáo on the alert. in citations from other writers quoted by blair and robertson we find evidence of dealings of the ternatans, both friendly and unfriendly, and with the natives of mindanáo. ledesma and martinez were succeeded by other jesuit missionaries who preached the doctrine to the hadgaguanes,[ ] "a people untamed and ferocious--to the manóbos and to other neighboring peoples."[ ] [ ] perhaps the hadgaguánes here referred to are the higagáons or banuáons of the present day. [ ] ibid., : . there must have been opposition to the propagation of christianity as we find that a fort was constructed in línao[ ] some time after . the headman, however, of the línao region invited one father francisco vicente to visit his people and it seems that "even the blacks[ ] visited him and gave him hopes of their conversion."[ ] [ ] línao was a town situated some miles to the south of veruéla. it and the surrounding country subsided in recent times. its former site is now under a maze of mad torrents that carry the waters from the upper to the middle agúsan. [ ] we should bear in mind that spanish historians frequently referred to the mountain people as _little blacks_ (negrillos), otherwise we might be led to believe that the ancestors of the present people living in the vicinity of the old townsite of línao were negritos. [ ] ibid., : , et seq. morga in his sucesos[ ] speaks of butuán as being peaceable. he makes mention of the industry of obtaining civet from the civet cats. [ ] ibid., . in the general history of the discalced augustinian fathers, by fray andres de san nicolas,[ ] we learn that missionaries had penetrated the district of butuán as early as , but that they had been unable to withstand the hostility of the mountain people. [ ] ibid., . in the recollects succeeded the jesuits in ecclesiastical administration of butuán district. father jacinto de fulgencio seems to have been the most energetic of the band of eight that undertook the conquest, for it is related[ ] that he traveled leagues up the river, preaching the faith to the villages. "he had serious and frequent difficulties in making himself heard," polygamy and slavery being the two great obstacles to the reception of the christian doctrines. the results, however, were successful, for he is said to have converted , souls, and to have founded three _conventos_[ ] one of which was in the village of línao.[ ] at this period butuán is said to have had , christians, and línao, or laylaía as it was also called, , souls. [ ] ibid., : . [ ] a convento is a building erected for the accommodation of the spiritual administrators of a town and their assistants. [ ] ibid., : . in [ ] there was a general uprising of the súlus and of the karágas. one balíntos arrived in butuán with letters from the famous corralát, decreeing the death of all the missionaries and urging the people of butuán to rebel, but they, "with a faithfulness that has ever been a characteristic of them," refused to follow the orders of corralát, and instead of killing the missionaries, protected them by every means in their power. [ ] ibid., : . the arrival of the dutch in manila[ ] in incited the natives to sedition. a decree, issued by the governor of manila, don diego faxardo, helped to foment the restlessness into rebellion. santa teresa[ ] sets forth some of the results of the rebellion among the manóbos. [ ] ibid., : . [ ] historia de los religiosos descalzos, translated by blair and robertson ( : , et seq.). he says that there were certain wild indians in the mountains of butuán in the province of karága.[ ] "they had kinky hair, oblique eyes, a treacherous disposition, brutish customs, and lived by the hunt.[ ] they had no king to govern them nor houses to shelter them. their clothing was just sufficient to cover the shame of their bodies, and they slept wherever night overtook them. they were pagans, and in their manner of life almost irrational. they were warlike and waged an incessant war with the coast people." santa teresa describes how dábao, a manóbo chieftain of great strength and sagacity and undoubtedly the original of the legendary giant that still lives in manóbo tradition, stirred up rebellion and succeeded in killing many spaniards in línao.[ ] [ ] the province of karága at this time extended from dapítan on the northwest of mindanáo to karága on the southeast. [ ] the reference to the possession of kinky hair might lead us to think that the ancestors of the present manóbos were negritos. the only trace of curly hair among the manóbos of the agúsan valley is observed among those who occupy the northwestern parts of the valley, and northeastern contiguous to butuán. [ ] santa teresa says that a poisoned arrow pierced the leg of a soldier. this reference to the use of poisoned arrows, taken in consideration with santa teresa's description of the manóbos of that region as being kinky haired, and living by the hunt, seem to indicate that the manóbos of those days were negritos. a further evidence is added by the application of the term _negrillos_ (little negroes) to manóbos. the use of poisoned arrows is, to this day, a distinctly negrito custom. at the present time the use of poisoned arrows is unknown to manóbos and, as far as i have been able to learn, no tradition as to the former employment of them exists. the rebellion extended all over the valley and fray augustin and other churchmen lost their lives as a result. it was finally suppressed by the capture of innumerable slaves. "manila and its environments were full of slaves." "the butuán chiefs, who were the mirror of fidelity, suffered processes, exiles, and imprisonments; and although they were able to win back honor, it was after all their property had been lost."[ ] in peace was restored by the return of the innumerable slaves captured by the spanish forces. [ ] blair and robertson, : . - between the years and the recollects pursued their evangelical labors in the agúsan valley, notwithstanding the constant opposition of the manóbos. father pedro de san francisco de asis describes the natives as being "robust and very numerous." he says that in time of peace they were tractable, docile, and reasonable, had regular villages, lived in human society, were superior to the surrounding mountain people, and were easily converted. he claims that there were , converts living between butuán and línao. the people to whom he refers are most probably the ancestors of the bisáyas of the present day, because, as we shall see later on, the christianized manóbo towns of the present day did not exist before . father combes[ ] is the authority for the statement that butuán was the origin of "the rulers and nobility of all the islands of jolo and basilan." the following is the extract: [ ] ibid., : . but the rulers and nobility of all the islands of jolo and basilan recognize as the place of their origin the village of butuán (which, although it is located in this island, is within the pale of the bisáyan nation) on the northern side, in sight of the bóol, and but a few leagues away from leyte and from bóol, islands which are in the same stage of civilization. therefore, that village can glory at having given kings and nobility to these nations.[ ] [ ] san francisco in his cronicas (see blair and robertson, : ) says: "they [the butuáns] are the origin of the best blood and nobility of the basílans and joloans, for the king of jolo even confessed that he was a butuán." it is surprising to note the dialectical similarity between súlu and the variety of bisáya spoken in the agúsan valley. words that are not found in any other bisáya dialect, are common to these two dialects. it is therefore probable that formerly there was intercourse between the two peoples. speaking of the native peoples and their customs san antonio[ ] in says that "some of the manóbos in the mountains of karága (who are heathen and without number, although some are christians, a people civilized and well inclined to work, who have fixed habitations and excellent houses) pay tribute." [ ] ibid., : , we learn from the same authority that one of the missionaries obtained wonderful results in the conversion of manóbos in línao. he was unable to specify the number but says that it increased greatly, for up to that time there were only , converts in the whole district of butuán. my authority seems to believe that there were two classes of people around línao, the one whom he distinctly calls manóbos--"tractable, docile, and quite reasonable," living in villages in human society in a very well ordered civilization--and the other, an inferior people leading a brutish life. it is reasonable to suppose that the people whom san antonio refers to as manóbos are the ancestors of the present bisáyas of veruéla, bunáwan, and talakógon, who have traditions as to the pagan condition of their ancestors. concepcion[ ] gives a detailed record of the moro raids in mindanáo. "butuán was laid waste and some captives seized; the little military post at línao, up the river, alone escaped." the tradition of the fight between the moros and the people of línao still exists among the bisáyas of the agúsan valley. a statue of the virgin is still preserved in veruéla that is said to have been struck by a ball from a moro _lantaka_ (small cannon). it is believed that this unseemly accident aroused the anger of the virgin herself, who promptly turned the tide of battle against the moros. the only tradition regarding this invasion that i found extant among the manóbos is the legend of the tailed men, and of their own flight. [ ] ibid., : . from to - for the nineteenth century we have few historical records of the manóbos until the jesuits who had been expelled from the philippines in and returned in , resumed their work in eastern mindanáo in . the material concerning the manóbos is contained in a series of selected letters[ ] from the missionaries in the field to their provincial and higher superiors. though containing little ethnological data of a detailed character, they afford in their ensemble, a vivid picture of the work of the missionaries in reducing the pagan tribes of mindanáo to civilization and outward christianity. dates of the formation of the various town and _rancherias_[ ] are furnished; with the names of the chiefs, friendly and in many cases unfriendly, the opposition on the part of the mountain people to the adoption of christianity, and the armed resistance on their part to its implantation, as well as the interclan feuds, frequently with details as to the number of slain and of captives, and the number of converts in each district are stated. in a word, these letters form a most valuable and accurate account of the christian subjugation of a large portion of the pagan peoples of mindanáo. [ ] these letters are called cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús de la mision de filipinas, and were printed consecutively in manila from to and probably later. [ ] a rancheria is a small dependent settlement of christianized people. in the agúsan valley the first efforts of the missionaries were directed to the bisáyas or old christians, as they are called, of butuán, talakógon, veruéla, and bunáwan. father bove[ ] in writes that he reunited many bisáyas of híbung and bunáwan in talakógon, which is at present one of the few municipalities in the sub-province of butuán. he notes the extent of the slave trade between manóbos and bisáyas, and that he made a preliminary trip to the upper agúsan and to the upper sálug. in the same year peruga visited bunáwan and organized the church among the bisáyas of bunáwan who had not been annexed to talakógon. in the meantime urios and others rounded up the stragglers of butuán, tolosa (now kabarbarán), and maínit. [ ] cartas de los pp. de la compañía de jesús, . in urios reports the establishment of las nieves, remedies, esperanza, guadalupe, maásam (now santa ines), and san luis, all of which _rancherias_ of _conquistas_[ ] or christianized manóbos are still in existence. [ ] _conquista_ is a spanish word meaning conquest. it is of universal use in the agúsan valley to denote a recently christianized member of a non-christian tribe. in the same year luengo, who was in charge of the bisáya settlement of talakógon, succeeded in settling the manóbos to the south of talakógon in the town of martines. these manóbos were for the most part from the rivers pudlúsan, lábnig, and aniláwan. he comments on the ignorance of the talakógon bisáyas who came, he asserts, from the rivers sulibáo and híbung, and from the district west of mount magdiuáta. the same year pastells converted manóbos of the simúlao river. he then visited the upper agúsan, and negotiated with the pagans of that district--a conglomerate group of mandáyas, mañgguáñgans, manóbos, and debabáons--for the foundation of compostela and gandia. he founded moncayo, and jativa (pronounced hativa), with debabáon and manóbo converts, respectively. urios took up the work of pastells on the river simúlao and baptized , manóbos, whom he induced to found the town of tudela. he then pursued his work among the manóbos to the south of veruéla and founded the town of patrocinio. he reports that for some trifling reason the town was moved not long after. from to i know that the site of the town was changed five times. la concepcion,[ ] near nasipit, san vicente, san ignacio, and tortosa were founded the same year. urios remarks that the class of people that he induced to settle in the last-mentioned town were half-negrito. the present inhabitants are known as manóbos but a casual glance will convince one of their negrito derivation. [ ] this rancheria is not in existence. during the same year urios founded loreto on the umaíam river, and succeeded in getting the manóbos of san rafael to settle in túbai. this is interesting as the inhabitants of túbai pass for bisáyas at the present day. - from to we find continuous reports of the armed opposition of all the unconverted peoples to the adoption of christianity, so much so that troops had to be stationed in esperanza and talakógon. guadalupe and amparo were abandoned, the ostensible reason being fear of doctor montano who was taking anthropometrical measurements of manóbos in the towns through which he passed, but as urios remarks, this was only a pretext for withdrawing from a form of life that did not suit them. guadalupe was burned by the pagans shortly after its abandonment. several new towns had been formed, namely, maásao, bugábus, Óhut, los remedies, and hauilián, but the opposition of the still un-christianized people increased, and, as a result, all the newly formed towns on the lower and middle agúsan, except la paz, loreto, and the simúlao towns, were abandoned. one reason assigned for this was the fear entertained by the inhabitants that revenge might be taken on them for the murder of certain butuán bisáyas who had been killed by the _conquistas_ of esperanza. however, there is little doubt but that the real reason for the abandonment was the fear on the part of the newly christianized people toward their mountain congeners and relatives, for it must be borne in mind that the newly christianized people were the tools used by the missionaries to reach the pagans. these _conquistas_ were prevailed upon to act as intermediaries, interpreters, guides, carriers, and soldiers. it is obvious that their cooperation with the missionaries, especially in armed expeditions, brought upon them the enmity of the pagan peoples whom the missionaries intended to convert, sometimes _nolens volens_. to avoid the ill feeling of the pagans and the results that would follow as a consequence, the _conquistas_ preferred to flee and join the pagans, or at least to maintain a neutral attitude. the desertion of all the towns on the lower agúsan meant the return of some , _conquistas_ to their original manner of life, for at this period the total number of converts in the valley was , .[ ] the upper agúsan had , , la paz, , , and the simúlao district, , . [ ] ibid., : . on the upper agúsan affairs followed the same trend. the mandáyas of the kati'il river killed on the húlip river. jativa and búal were attacked by mandáyas, the latter place being abandoned immediately. baóbo, "the river of _bagáni_,"[ ] continued to keep patrocinio, búai, and gracia on the alert. [ ] a _bagáni_ is a mandáya, mañgguáñgan, debabáon, or manóbo warrior who has a certain number of deaths to his account and who gives evidence of being under the influence of war deities. notwithstanding these vicissitudes, the missionaries succeeded in establishing pilar, a mañgguáñgan town, on the mánat. it is described as being made up of the most ignorant and depraved people on the upper agúsan. in the same year ( ) gracia was founded between patrocinio and jativa. this town is not now in existence, and i am unable to state just where its location was, unless it may have been near the present site of langkiláan. on the lower agúsan, gángub, or nuevo guadalupe, and tortosa on the kabarbarán river were formed. neither of them is in existence at the present day. the missionaries, not yet being able to reunite the manóbos, directed their activities to the conversion of mamánuas. hence in we read that the mamánua settlements of santa ana, san roque, san pablo, santiago, and tortosa were formed, the total number of converts being about . most of these settlements are still in existence, though there are times when not a soul may be found in any of them. in little is recorded. it was calculated that at this time there were still , unconverted pagans in the upper agúsan district. jativa, which was the headquarters of the mission, and which had a population of families, was attacked by mandáyas. on the lower agúsan matters were at a standstill, the conversion of mamánuas being the only important item that is recorded in the letters. on the pacific coast the labors of the missionaries had been confined to the bisáyas up to , in which year peruga converted the pagan mandáyas of marihátag and kagwáit. he also ascended the tágo river converted the pagan mandáyas of alba, establishing at the same time a town of that name. guardiet worked among the manóbos to the west of hinatu'an and baptized in ginhalínan near javier (pronounced havier). he made his way over to the híbung river and founded los arcos with converts. there is no record of the work in among the manóbos of the lower agúsan except that urios founded the town of san ignacio near butuán. on the upper agúsan, however, things took a turn for the worse. eighty families, or a little more than half of jativa, abandoned the town. all the people of gandia went out but were finally persuaded to return and associate themselves with the people of compostela. the mañgguáñgans of clavijo (pronounced claviho)[ ] moved to gandia. not long afterwards compostela, gandia, and jativa were abandoned, the town of compostela having been burned on two separate occasions. the same year, however, they were re-formed. [ ] i can not state just where the town of clavijo on the upper agúsan was located. up to there was a town of the same name on the middle agúsan, near the mouth of the ihawán river, but it consisted entirely of christianized manóbos, and not of mañgguáñgans such as are stated by my authority to have been the people of clavijo on the upper agúsan. in moncayo and pilar were deserted and jativa was attacked. on the lower agúsan affairs remained in status quo. the mamánua settlements were increased by one which was located on the dáyag river, near maínit. in the middle agúsan, gracia and concepcion were founded on the ihawán river. it is interesting to note that the total number of converts in the agúsan valley from to is put down at , souls, living in towns.[ ] [ ] ibid., , appendix. in it became necessary to increase the number of troops in jativa, owing to the flight of the inhabitants of moncayo, compostela, and gandia. as a consequence of this move, these towns re-formed. san isidro was abandoned this same year. - on the lower agúsan the missionaries, notably urios, continued their labors and succeeded in gaining over to christianity many of the banuáon people of the upper hut and libang rivers. the year - seems to have been one of comparative peace except in the district to the west of la paz, on the argáwan river, where it became necessary to make use of armed troops. in cholera got into the agúsan valley. the inhabitants of tortosa abandoned their town. on the pacific coast puntas penetrated among the manóbos of the tágo river above the town of alba, and alaix visited the mamánuas of kantílan and lanusa, among whom he made converts. in the same year peruga made more mandáya converts in alba on the tágo river. in moncayo and gandia had a feud, as a result of which the people of the former abandoned their town. matters progressed so favorably on the argáwan that sagunto was pacified and asuncion was founded farther up on the same river. this town is no longer in existence, but a small _rancheria_ called tilyérpan was founded in nearer to sagunto. bása on the kasilaían river and san isidro on the bahaían river were founded the same year, but, on the other hand, an outbreak of fever led to the abandonment of gracia and concepcion on the ihawán. many mamánua and mandáya converts were added to los arcos. the conversion of these is attributed to the fighting that had previously taken place in las navas and borbon, on the same river. milagros on the Óhut was founded this same year. the year does not show any further special development except the foundation of a banuáon settlement, called concordia, on the líbang river. in vigo and borja (pronounced borha) on the baóbo river were established. manóbos of the sibágat river were converted and a settlement was founded at its juncture with the wá-wa. this settlement is now called pait. san miguel on the tágo river was founded with families, most of whom were manóbos. this town is no longer in existence. amparo, on the other hand, was abandoned, and my authority for this statement remarks that this was the seventh time since its foundation that the town had been abandoned. other towns had passed through the same experience, though not so many times. in misericordia, now no longer in existence, was reestablished on the bugábus river. san estanislao, at the mouth of the labáo river, was founded this year. it is not in existence under this name. santa fe is the present name and the settlement occupies a new site, selected in , i think. on the tágo river the conversion of the mandáyas was completed and more manóbos were added to the roll of christians, thus bringing the number of christianized manóbo families to . in the agúsan valley, moncayo and milagros were abandoned. in castellon was founded at the mouth of the lángkilaan river. at the present day no such town is in existence, though near the old town site of castellon there is a small rancheria called lángkilaan. during the same year pilar, which up to this time had been on the mánat, was transferred to the agúsan, between gandia and compostela. another town is said to have been founded on the mánat river. gerona, between moncayo and gandia, cuevas on the bahaían, and corinto on the agsábo, a branch of the Óhut, were founded during this year, and san isidro was re-formed. - i have been unable to peruse the letters of the missionaries from to the present day, but i was given to understand by well-informed bisáyas of butuán that at the time of the philippine insurrection in the christianized manóbos lived in a state of comparative tranquillity. during the time of the revolution few outbreaks are recorded, notwithstanding the fact that the missionaries had abandoned their upriver parishes and the spanish troops had been withdrawn. from to affairs on the lower and middle agúsan, excepting along the upper kasilaían, argáwan and umaíam, were very peaceful, a fact that was due to the enthusiasm with which the christianized manóbos devoted themselves to the culture of _abaká_ and to the production of its fiber. on the upper kasilaían, argáwan and umaíam, ihawán, and baóbo there occurred occasional killings and the country was always in a condition of alarm. on the upper agúsan, especially in the region of compostela, the old feuds broke out and it became necessary for the government of the moro province to station troops at compostela.[ ] [ ] upon my arrival in the agúsan valley in i found the following _rancherias_ in existence: on the main river, butuán (a bisáya settlement), san vincente, amparo, san mateo, las nieves, esperanza, guadalupe, santa ines, san luis, martines, clavijo, san pedro, veruéla (a bisáya settlement), patrocinio, langkiláan, hagimítan, tagusáb, búai, moncayo, gerona, gandia, pilar, compostela, and taga-únud. on the Óhut river, milagros and remedies. on the wá-wa river, vérdu. on the líbang river, concordia. on the kasilaían river, basa. on the híbung river, borbon, ebro, prosperidad, azpeitia, and los arcos. on the súlibao river (tributary of the híbung), novele and rosario. on the argáwan river, la paz and sagunto. on the umaíam river, loreto, kandaugong. on the simúlao river, san jose, bunáwan (a bisáya settlement), libertad, basa, tudela, and san isidro. on the nábuk river, dugmánon. from to the following towns were formed: santa fe, at the mouth of the labáo river. pait on the wá-wa, at the mouth of the sibagat river. nuevo trabajo (pronounced trabaho), a few hours up the maásam river. ba'ba', on the híbung river between prosperidad and azpeitia. tilierpan and kamóta, above sagunto on the argáwan. violanta, santo tomas, and wálo, on the upper umaíam. maitum, on the river of the same name, which is a tributary of the híbung river. mambalíli, below bunáwan on the simúlao river. comparing the towns in existence at the beginning of with those whose establishment is reported in the jesuit letters we find that the following towns have ceased to exist: tolosa, some few hours up the kabarbarán river. tortosa, on a river to the west of the present máasao. san ignacio, a little to the south of butuán. concepcion, near the town of nasípit. san rafael (i do not know the location of this town, but i am under the impression that it was located near túbai). nuevo guadalupe, near the present guadalupe. misericordia, about miles up the bugábus river. hauwilián, at the mouth of the hauwilián river. san estanislao, at the mouth of the labáu river. patai, between martires and borbon. basa, on the kasiliágan river. las navas, on the híbung. asuncion, on the argáwan river. clavijo, on the agúsan near the mouth of the ihawán river, gracia and concepcion, on the ihawán river. bigo and borja, on the baóbo river. castellon, gracia, clavijo, and jativa, on the upper agúsan san miguel, on the tágo river (pacific coast). the number of converts from the pagan peoples in the agúsan valley up to must have reached , , divided as follows: mamánuas, , ; banuáons and the branch of manóbos occupying the northeastern part of the valley, , ; mandáyas, , ; mañgguáñgans, , ; debabáons, , ; manóbos, , . these came finally to live in some towns, including the unstable settlements of mamánuas. from until the present time the conversion of pagans in the agúsan valley has been insignificant. methods adopted by the missionaries in the christianization of the manÓbos the methods adopted by the missionaries in the conversion of the pagans in mindanáo are made clear in a report by father juan ricart, s. j., to the governor general of the philippine islands.[ ] the following extracts are pertinent: [ ] ibid., , appendix. the first thing that the missionaries seek to attain before penetrating the territory occupied by these pagans is a knowledge of the various races or tribes dwelling therein, of their customs and superstitions, of their feuds and wars, who are their enemies and their allies, respectively, the names of the principal chiefs, their traits of character, and finally their particular dialect as far as it may be possible to acquire it. then they dispatch selected and trustworthy emissaries, preferably inhabitants of the christian towns who have commercial dealings with the pagans, bidding them announce the intended visit of the missionary. on the appointed day, the missionary, armed with meekness and condescension, presents himself, speaking to them with dignity and authority. he tells them that he is their friend, that he wishes them well, that he has known of such-and-such misfortunes that have befallen them, and that in pity he comes to succor them. he invokes the name of the king and of the governor of the district, whose power they had learned to fear and respect through their dealings with the christians. he reminds them of some wrong that either they or their neighbors had committed on the christians, for it is seldom that they are not guilty of some fault or other, and intimates to them that it is the intention of the governor to send soldiers to punish them for their conduct. he (the missionary), however, has interceded with the governor on their behalf and has received a promise from him that he will not only pardon their fault but that he will take them under his protection and defend them against their enemies. he (the missionary) goes on to explain the advantages of civilized life, and the mildness of spanish rule, as far as their limited understanding can grasp. he undoes their suspicions, forestalls their misgivings, and overcomes their fears; and by means of presents and kind words, especially to the little ones, he strives to soften their hearts. these interviews and lengthy discussions are repeated as often as it is opportune or necessary, every effort being made in the meanwhile to convince and gain over the chiefs and elders, a result that will be attained all the more quickly if he succeeds in settling their differences, in bringing about peace with some more redoubtable enemy, or in helping them in the attainment of any proper object that they may have in view. all this does not take place without great long-suffering and bitterness on the part of the missionary. having decided on a site that is to their own liking and even according to their superstitions, though sometimes it be not best adapted for the purpose, a day is selected for the clearing, a plaza[ ] and streets are plotted out, and then the erection of the tribunal and of the private dwellings begins. [ ] a public square. it is at this period that the constancy and firmness of the missionary is taxed, for he has to overcome the unspeakable sluggishness of the uncivilized people, and to defeat the futile and continuous pretexts that they invent for the purpose of desisting from the work and of returning to the obscurity of the forest. it is helpful to be able to provide sufficient alimentation for them for a few days at least, so that it will not be necessary for them to return to the mountains in search of food. at the same time it is expedient to give them little rewards to induce them to begin their plantations near the new town by planting _camotes_ and other crops which yield quickly. the appointment of officers for the government of the settlement is the next step and must be conducted in a most solemn manner, it being sometimes necessary to increase the number of jobs in order to satisfy the ambition of the chiefs and of the elders. the chosen ones are presented with the official staff of command in the name of the governor, and with the traditional jacket. thus the new town is established. it is placed under the rule and guardianship of the gobernadorcillo[ ] of the nearest christian town, for the purpose of bringing about compliance with the orders that emanate from the chief of the province. [ ] this means in spanish "little governor," and was the name given to the chief executive of a municipality in spanish days. it corresponds to "mayor" at the present time. the missionary maintains his power and influence through an inspector, who is usually a person of trust and worth among the older christians, and through two teachers, preferably a married couple selected from among the best families. these then take up their residence in the new town and begin their teaching. as soon as the new settlement gives evidence of stability and perseverance, an effort is made to have the governor of the district visit it in order that the newly converted christians may lay aside their fear, gain new courage, and learn to become devoted to the government. the presence of an armed force upon suitable occasions is also calculated to have some effect at this early period, as it serves to keep quiet the dissatisfied and grumbling ones, of whom there are always some, as well as to infuse a feeling of fear into outside enemies who might be inclined to trouble the settlement, either because they do not regard it in an auspicious light or because they wish to satisfy a desire for revenge which they have harbored for a long time. up to this time these unhappy people (the pagans) have had no other law than the caprice of their chiefs, nor other justice than oppression by the strong, nor other customs than an amorphous mass of practices that are at once repulsive and opposed to the natural law. their guides and their teachers have been augurs or visionary women who, in connivance with the chief, sometimes make them abandon the territory in which they live for fear of some invisible deity, sometimes make them launch themselves on neighboring peolpe[sic] in order to avenge some supposed grievance, or sometimes induce them to sacrifice a slave to appease the anger of their gods. while such influences are paramount, there can be no firmness nor possible security for the new settlement; on the day least expected it will be found deserted and even burned. on the other hand, it becomes necessary to give these people, recently denizens of the forest, a simple code that contains the principal duties of man, that sets forth the relation of one to another, that teaches subjects to obey their superiors, the strong to protect the weak, and parents to teach their children, and that enjoins upon all work and mutual respect. it is also necessary to satisfy the innate desire, if we may so speak, for a cult, that natural feeling for a religion which these people, like all others, have. it is necessary to substitute for their barbarous and inhuman practices others that may lift them up and revive their drooping and pusillanimous spirits. it is necessary that in the town there should be something to attract and to hold them with irresistible charm. in a word, the faith must be preached to them and they must be baptized; a religion and a church are necessary. until a great part of the inhabitants of a new settlement have been baptized, until the feast of the patron saint and other religious ceremonies have been solemnly celebrated, it is useless to hope for the stability of the new town. the catholic religion is a simple and powerful means for transforming those savages into good spanish subjects; it is the mold wherein they leave their barbarous practices and shape themselves perfectly unto ours. the missionaries do not speak of baptism nor of religion till they have gained the good will of the pagans, until they realize that they are being listened to willingly and that they (the pagans) put trust in their words. when they begin to like the spaniards, and to hold in esteem their customs and ideas, then the missionaries gently insinuate themselves and begin to teach them the truths of our holy faith and to show them the observances and rites of our religion. at the beginning some sick person or other is baptized: afterwards, when there is some prospect of stability, the children, and finally the adults, provided that they have been instructed as much as their capacity and the circumstances permit. with this prudent procedure the missionary encounters no serious obstacle. his evangelic[sic] eloquence easily convinces those simple people of truths so much in harmony with human nature and of practices so much in accord with the good inclinations of mankind. the tendency that they still retain to maintain their ancient superstitions vanishes before the sway exerted by that superior man from whom they have received so many favors. the greatest difficulty for them consists in leaving the free life of the forest and in bringing themselves to live in a settlement with its attendant restrictions; this is especially true in the case of the chiefs and of such others as previously had exercised any authority. but having once adopted christianity, baptism costs them nothing. here and there one finds a chief who is opposed at the beginning to being baptized because he has several wives, but this condition, though it is not approved, is tolerated, provided he does not trouble the others nor disturb the settlement. but as a rule all become ashamed and repent, and end by yielding and by following the example of the rest. the grace of god is of transcendent power in these transformations. the savage, as long as he continues pagan, is governed in all his acts by ancient observances inspired by superstition and fanaticism. it is only when he has been baptized that he understands the necessity of a change of life and customs. then he ceases to be manóbo or mandáya, in order to be a christian; he relinquishes his pagan name and in the course of time can hardly be distinguished from the inhabitants of the ancient christian towns. even the mamánuas, a group of negritos usually considered to be recalcitrant, now live submissively and joyfully in their settlements. the secret of missionary success i endeavored during my tours in the interior of eastern mindanáo to ascertain definitely the secret of the success of the spanish missionaries in inducing forest-loving people to leave their ancient homes and ways and adopt a life of dependence, political, economic, and religious, and i have arrived at the following conclusions, based on the information furnished me by the _conquistas_, both those who are still living under the effective control of the government and those who have returned to their primitive haunts. ( ) in a great many regions the first factor of success is the personal equation. some of the missionaries, notably urios and pastells, must have been men of wonderfully winning ways and of deep tact, if i am to believe my informants. in districts such as the upper sálug, where many of the christianized debabáons had retired for many years, i was told stories of the wonderful condescension of urios, and of his understanding of debabáon ways and customs. the pagans present on one occasion assured me that if urios were to visit them, they would all be baptized. in other districts i heard other missionaries spoken of whose names were so garbled that i have been unable to identify them. in most of the districts there were kind inquiries for one or another of the missionaries and expressions of regret that they could not see them again. ( ) in other regions (upper umaíam, upper argáwan, and others) the chief means used were threats of extermination, and, in cases, armed expeditions were actually sent out to overcome opposition to the adoption of christianity. i base this statement on the testimony of _conquistas_ who asserted that they were acquainted with the facts, and who went into such minute details as to lead me to believe that they were telling the truth. how far such action is due to irresponsible and overzealous officers leading these expeditions i am unable to say, but the impression given me by my informants invariably was that such expeditions were planned by the missionaries for the purpose of forcing christianity upon the pagans. bisáyas were frequently in charge of native soldiers and for commercial reasons were interested in the conversion of the mountain people to christianity, so that it would not be surprising if they took unauthorized measures to effect the christianization of the pagans. ( ) the third factor of success was the distribution of presents and alms by the missionaries. frequent mention is made of this throughout the jesuit letters. it undoubtedly did a great deal toward attracting the pagan people and convincing them of the friendship, from their point of view, of the missionaries toward them. it has been my experience that with a people of this stamp one present has more persuasive force than ten thousand arguments. it opens the way to conviction more readily than kind words and condescending manner, as it puts the tribesmen under a feeling of obligation. ( ) the fourth factor was the general policy adopted by the missionaries of posing as mediators between the government and the pagans. this, coupled with a previous general knowledge of the conditions of the country, and of the customs and language of the people, and accompanied by a dignified but condescending and genial manner, enabled the missionaries to ingratiate themselves at once into the favor of the people they were visiting. ( ) the next and last factor in the conversion of the pagan peoples was the religious character of the men who undertook it. religion appeals strongly to all primitive people and especially to the peoples of eastern mindanáo, in which, as will be seen in the fourth part of this monograph, there seems to occur periodically a religious movement that for the time being subverts the ancient religious beliefs. it is natural then, that the pomp and glitter of catholic ceremonial appealed strongly to the manóbo. i can not say, from my observation, that he became a very devout worshiper in his new faith. in fact, i know that the average christianized manóbo understands little, and practices less, of the catholic doctrines. in so far, however, as the imposition of the doctrine was a means to an end, namely, to radicate[sic] him in selected centers where he fell within social and governmental control, it can not be criticized. on the other hand, the effect of the change was, i am inclined strongly to believe for the worse, for he lost that spirit of manliness and independence that is a characteristic of the pagan, and he became a prey to the more christianized people within whose sphere of influence and exploitation he fell. i have always been struck by the differences, moral, economic, and even physical, between the debt-ridden, cringing _conquistas_, and his manly, free, independent, vigorous pagan compeer. one-half of the _conquista's_ time is consumed in contracting debts to the bisáya trader, and the other half in paying them. his rice is sold before it is harvested. his _abaká_ patch often is mortgaged before the planting is completed. he is an economic serf to an inconsiderate taskmaster.[ ] [ ] the special government established in the subprovince of butuán took immediate steps toward ameliorating the condition of the _conquistas_ by opening trading posts on the lower and middle agúsan, so that the above observations refer to the period preceding the formation of the special government. explanation of plates plate . _a_, _b_, manóbo women. lankilaan, upper agúsan. note tattooing. _c_, forearm of woman in _d_. _d_, mandáya woman. compostela. note shaven eyebrows and personal ornaments. plate . _a_, mañgguáñgan man and manóbo woman. jativa, upper agúsan. _b_, debabáon man and manóbo woman. upper agúsan. _c_, manóbo woman. tagusáb, upper agúsan. _d_, mandáya man. compostela, upper agúsan. plate . _a_, manóbo man. tagusáb, upper agúsan. _b_, manóbos. ihawán river, agúsan valley. plate . _a_, manóbo women. umaían river, agúsan valley. _b_, manóbo house. moncayo, upper agúsan. note thatched roof, notched pole, and opening around the sides above the walls. plate . _a_, manóbo house, built for defense. near veruéla, upper agúsan. _b_, manóbo house, gandia, upper agúsan. note notched pole, numerous posts, smoke vent, gable pieces, thatched roof, and bamboo shingles. plate . _a_, typical manóbo house. near compostela. _b_, manóbo house. central agúsan. built on a tree stump for defense. such houses are now very rare. plate . _a_, armor coat made of _abaká_, with war chief's red jacket inside. upper agúsan manóbos. _b_, manóbo _abaká_ skirt, woven in red, white, and black. this is the only lower garment worn by women. it serves at night as a blanket. _c_, white trousers made of _abaká_. central agúsan. _d_, trousers made of blue cotton cloth. upper agúsan. _e_, mandáya _abaká_ skirt. worn by manóbos when obtainable. the design is produced by the tie and dye process. plate . _a_, _b_, women's jackets of cotton and _abaká_, embroidered with red, yellow, white, and black cotton yarn. upper agúsan. _c_, war chief's red jacket. insignia of _bagáni_-ship used by manóbos of the upper agúsan. _d_, war chief's red headkerchief. this indicates that the wearer has killed at least three people. _e_, hat of sago palm bark. middle agúsan. _f_, man's jacket worn by wild manóbos of the eastern and central cordilleras. _g_, man's jacket. upper agúsan style. _h_, central agúsan style. _i_, hat worn in the agúsan valley south of ° latitude. _j_, woman's jacket. central agúsan. _k_, ihawán and baóbo style. _l_, manóbo-mañgguáñgan style. _m_, manóbo betel-nut bag. _n_, betel-nut bag made of mandáya _abaká_ and cotton cloth. plate . _a_, cage for keeping the sacred omen bird. _b_, _d_, bamboo guitars. _c_, wooden two-stringed guitar. _e_, _f_, _h_, bamboo flutes. _g_, bamboo jew's-harp. _i_, drum with head of deerskin. _j_, _l_, _m_, _n_, fish traps and fishing line. _k_, _o_, _p_, _q_, _r_, rattan baskets. _s_, _t_, women's incised bamboo combs. _u_, _z_, _cc_, bead necklaces, worn by manóbo men and women. _v_, _y_, seed and shell necklaces, worn by manóbo women. _w_, _aa_, _bb_, _dd_, _ee_, women's incised bamboo combs. _x_, woman's silver breastplate. made by mandáyas out of coins; worn by upper agúsan manóbos. _ff_, _ll_, _rr_, _nito_ bracelets, worn by manóbo men and women. _gg_, _ii_, _kk_, shell bracelets, worn by manóbo women. _hh_, _jj_, beaded girdles made of _nito_ and human hair, worn by manóbo women. _mm_, _nn_, _oo_, _pp_, wooden ear disks and pendants. _qq_, black coral bracelet, bent by heating. worn by manóbo men and women. _ss_, _nito_ armlet, worn by manóbo men. _tt_, bear's bracelet, worn by manóbo men and women. plate . _a_, fish spear. central agúsan. _b-f_, fishing bows and arrows. the arrows have detachable points. _g_, mandáya spear used by manóbos of upper agúsan. _h_, central agúsan spear. _i-k_, manóbo bow and arrows. _l_, manóbo shield. upper agúsan. _m_, mandáya shield. _n_, shield. central manóbo. _o-r_, mandáya daggers and sheaths, used by manóbos. upper agúsan. _s_, mandáya betel-nut knife, used by manóbos. _t-v_, manóbo bamboo lime tubes. _w_, moro brass box, used by manóbos. _x_, _y_, manóbo work bolo and sheath. _z_, _aa_, mandáya war bolo and sheath. highly prized by manóbos. plate . _a_, mandáya woman in a dancing attitude that is characterisitc of manóbos. compostela, upper agúsan. _b_, men of the mixed compostela group in a dancing attitude that is characteristic of the manóbo war dance. plate . _a_, altar house, used during the greater sacrifices. upper agúsan. _b_, religious house. lankilaan upper agúsan. note superiority of this house over the ordinary dwelling house. this kind of house was built by the manóbos during the great religious movement. plate . _a_, sacred image and offering stand. note the egg on the stand. gerona, upper agúsan. _b_, c, sacred posts with offering trays for the _magbabáya_, used on the upper agúsan during the great religious movement. plate . _a_, _d_, ceremonial birth canoes. _b_, _c_, blood oblation trays, used by warrior priests and for invoking the spirits of blood. _e_, ceremonial stand, offering plate, and rice paddle. _f-i_, sacred images, used to attract manóbo divinities. _j_, sacred shield. _k_, _l_, sacred jars. _m_, _o_, wooden stands used on the upper agúsan during religious ceremonies. _n_, _p_, war chief's charms, worn during war raids. they contain magic herbs. _q_, ceremonial birth offering stand. middle agúsan. _r_, ceremonial ladder for a religious house, ceremonial chair, and sacred image. bamboo guitars like that shown were used constantly during the great religious movement. upper agúsan. _s_, bukídnon man. silay, bukídnon subprovince. negritos of zambales by william allan reed manila bureau of public printing letter of transmittal department of the interior, the ethnological survey, manila, march , . sir: i have the honor to transmit a study of the negritos of zambales province made by mr. william allan reed, of the ethnological survey, during the year . it is transmitted with the recommendation that it be published as part i of volume ii of a series of scientific studies to be published by this survey. respectfully, chief of the ethnological survey. hon. dean c. worcester, secretary of the interior, manila, p. i. letter of submittal department of the interior, the ethnological survey, manila, march , . sir: i have the honor to submit herewith my report on the negritos of zambales. very respectfully, william allan reed. dr. albert ernest jenks, chief of the ethnological survey, manila, p. i. table of contents letter of transmittal letter of submittal illustrations preface chapter : distribution of negritos present distribution in the philippines in luzon in the southern islands conclusion chapter : the province of zambales geographical features historical sketch habitat of the negritos chapter : negritos of zambales physical features permanent adornment clothing and dress chapter : industrial life home life agriculture manufacture and trade hunting and fishing chapter : amusements games music dancing the potato dance, or piña camote the bee dance, or piña pa-ni-lan the torture dance the lovers' dance the duel dance chapter : general social life the child marriage rice ceremony head ceremony "leput," or home coming polygamy and divorce burial morals slavery intellectual life + superstitions chapter : spanish attempts to organize negritos anthropometric measurements vocabularies plates illustrations i. outline map of the philippine islands, showing distribution of negritos. ii. outline map of zambales, showing distribution of negritos. iii. negrito women of bataan on a rock in a stream. iv. negrito man from nangsol, near subig, zambales. v. negrito man from aglao, zambales. vi. negrito woman of zambales. vii. view near santa fé, zambales. viii. capitán of villar. ix. negrito man of zambales. x. showing the relative height of american, mixed blood and pure negrito. xi. group of negritos and constabulary at cabayan, zambales. xii. old man of zambales, pure negrito. xiii. old man of zambales, pure negrito, showing hair on face and chest. xiv. negrito of zambales, showing hair on the chin and skin disease on the arm. xv. pure negrito of zambales, showing hair on the chin. xvi. negrito man of zambales, showing hair on the face. xvii. negrito girls of zambales, one with hair clipped behind to eradicate vermin. xviii. negrito man of zambales, pure blood. xix. negrito man of zambales, mixed blood. xx. negrito man of zambales, pure blood. xxi. negrito man of zambales, mixed blood. xxii. negrito girl of zambales, pure blood. xxiii. negrito woman of zambales, mixed blood. xxiv. old negrito woman of zambales, pure blood. xxv. negrito man of zambales, pure blood. xxvi. negrito man of negros, mixed blood. xxvii. negrito man of zambales. xxviii. negritos (emigrants from panay) of maao, occidental negros; mixed bloods. xxix. group of negrito men at santa fé, zambales. xxx. principal men of tagiltil, zambales; pure zambal and mixed negrito. xxxi. negritos of zambales, mixed bloods. xxxii. group of people called aburlin; non-christian zambal and negrito mixed bloods. xxxiii. negrito women of zambales. xxxiv. group of negrito women at santa fé, zambales, showing dress. xxxv. negrito girls of zambales, one wearing necklace of dried berries. xxxvi. combs worn by negritos of zambales. xxxvii. ornaments worn by negritos of zambales. xxxviii. negrito man, wife, and hut, bataan. xxxix. better class of negrito hut, zambales. xl. negrito man of bataan making fire with bamboo. xli. negrito men of bataan making fire with bamboo. xlii. bows and arrows used by negritos of zambales. xliii. position taken by negritos of zambales in shooting. xliv. negrito man of bataan drawing a bow; hog-bristle ornaments on the legs. xlv. negrito man of negros (emigrant from panay) drawing a bow. xlvi. musical instruments used by negritos of zambales. xlvii. negritos of zambales singing the "talbun." xlviii. negritos of zambales dancing. xlix. negrito men of bataan beating gongs and dancing. l. negritos of zambales dancing the "torture dance." li. negrito woman and daughter, bataan. lii. pure negrito woman and mixed blood, with babies, zambales. liii. negrito women and children, zambales. liv. negrito children, santa fé, zambales. lv. capitán of cabayan, zambales, with negrito and zambal wives. lvi. boys of zambales, showing scars made by blistering for fevers, etc. lvii. negrito woman of zambales, pure blood, showing scars made by blistering for fevers, etc. lviii. negrito woman of zambales, pure blood, showing skin disease. lix. negrito man of zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. lx. negrito boy of zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. lxi. negrito man of zambales, mixed blood, showing skin disease. lxii. capitán-general del monte, negrito of zambales. figure . "belatic," trap used by negritos. figure . marks on dice used by negritos. preface this report is based on two months' field work pursued during may and june, . accompanied by mr. j. diamond, a photographer, the writer went in the latter part of april to iba, zambales, where a few days were spent in investigating the dialects of the zambal people and in preparation for a trip to the interior. after a journey of miles inland a camp was established near tagiltil. during the three weeks we were there the camp was visited by about negritos, who came in from outlying settlements, often far back in the mountains; but, owing to the fact that most of them would remain only as long as they were fed, extended investigations had to be conducted largely among the residents of tagiltil and the neighboring rancheria of villar. from tagiltil a trip was made southward behind the low mountain chain, which marks the limit of the plain, and through a hitherto unexplored territory, very broken and next to impassable except in the dry season. the trail, known only to negritos and but little used, followed for the most part the beds of mountain streams. four little rancherias were passed, the people of two of which had already visited us. a hard two-day trip brought us to santa fé, a barrio of san marcelino. after a week with the negritos at this place a trip was made toward the pampanga boundary to cabayan and aglao, the former locality inhabited by several small groups of negritos, the latter an isolated ilokano barrio in and near which the negritos live. a visit to the rancherias near subig and olongapo concluded the investigation. in all, more than a thousand negritos were seen. with only a short time at a place it is evident that an exhaustive study of the people of any particular locality could not be made. but the culture plane of the entire area is practically the same, and the facts as here presented should give a good idea of the customs and the general condition of the negritos of zambales province. the short time at my disposal for the investigation is my only excuse for the meager treatment given some lines of study--as, for example, physical anthropology and language. inasmuch as nothing has yet been published by the ethnological survey on the negritos of the philippines, i have thought it not out of place to preface my report with an introductory chapter on their distribution. the data contained therein have been compiled by me from information gathered by the survey during the past two years and are sufficiently authentic for the present purpose. the photographs of the zambales negritos were made by mr. j. diamond and those of the bataan negritos are from the collection of hon. dean c. worcester, secretary of the interior. credit for each photograph is given on the plate as it appears. chapter i distribution of negritos probably no group of primitive men has attracted more attention from the civilized world than the pygmy blacks. from the time of homer and aristotle the pygmies, although their existence was not absolutely known at that early period, have had their place in fable and legend, and as civilized man has become more and more acquainted with the unknown parts of the globe he has met again and again with the same strange type of the human species until he has been led to conclude that there is practically no part of the tropic-zone where these little blacks have not lived at some time. mankind at large is interested in a race of dwarfs just as it would be in a race of giants, no matter what the color or social state; and scientists have long been concerned with trying to fix the position of the pygmies in the history of the human race. that they have played an important ethnologic rôle can not be doubted; and although to-day they are so scattered and so modified by surrounding people as largely to have disappeared as a pure type, yet they have everywhere left their imprint on the peoples who have absorbed them. the negritos of the philippines constitute one branch of the eastern division of the pygmy race as opposed to the african division, it being generally recognized that the blacks of short stature may be so grouped in two large and comprehensive divisions. other well-known branches of the eastern group are the mincopies of the andaman islands and perhaps also the papuans of new guinea, very similar in many particulars to the negritos of the philippines, although authorities differ in grouping the papuans with the negritos. the asiatic continent is also not without its representatives of the black dwarfs, having the sakai of the malay peninsula. the presence of negritos over so large an area has especially attracted the attention of anthropologists who have taken generally one or the other of two theories advanced to explain it: first, that the entire oceanic region is a partly submerged continent, once connected with the asiatic mainland and over which this aboriginal race spread prior to the subsidence. the second theory is that the peopling of the several archipelagoes by the negritos has been a gradual spread from island to island. this latter theory, advanced by de quatrefages, [ ] is the generally accepted one, although it is somewhat difficult to believe that the ancestors of weak and scattered tribes such as to-day are found in the philippines could ever have been the sea rovers that such a belief would imply. it is a well-known fact, however, that the malays have spread in this manner, and, while it is hardly possible that the negritos have ever been as bold seafarers as the malays, yet where they have been left in undisputed possession of their shores they have remained reckless fishermen. the statement that they are now nearly always found in impenetrable mountain forests is not an argument against the migration-by-sea theory, because they have been surrounded by stronger races and have been compelled to flee to the forests or suffer extermination. the fact that they live farther inland than the stronger peoples is also evidence that they were the first inhabitants, for it is not natural to suppose that a weaker race could enter territory occupied by a stronger and gain a permanent foothold there. [ ] the attention of the first europeans who visited the philippines was attracted by people with frizzly hair and with a skin darker in color than that of the ruling tribes. pigafetta, to whom we are indebted for an account of magellan's voyage of discovery in , mentions negritos as living in the island of panglao, southwest of bohol and east of cebu. [ ] if we are to believe later historians the shores of some of the islands fairly swarmed with negritos when the spaniards arrived. meyer gives an interesting extract from an old account by galvano, the discoveries of the world (ed. bethune, hakluyt soc., , p. ): [ ] in the same yeere , and in moneth of august, the generall rui lopez sent one bartholomew de la torre in a smal ship into new spaine to acquaint the vizeroy don antonio de mendoça, with all things. they went to the islands of siria, gaonata, bisaia and many others, standing in and degrees towards the north, where magellan had beene. * * * they found also an archepelagus of islands well inhabited with people, lying in or degrees: * * * there came vnto them certaine barkes or boates handsomely decked, wherein the master and principall men sate on high, and vnderneath were very blacke moores with frizled haire * * *: and being demanded where they had these blacke moores, they answered, that they had them from certaine islands standing fast by sebut, where there were many of them. zúñiga [ ] quotes the franciscan history [ ] as follows: the negritos which our first conquerors found were, according to tradition, the first possessors of the islands of this archipelago, and, having been conquered by the political nations of other kingdoms, they fled to the mountains and populated them, whence no one has been able to accomplish their extermination on account of the inaccessibility of the places where they live. in the past they were so proud of their primitive dominion that, although they did not have strength to resist the strangers in the open, in the woods and mountains and mouths of the rivers they were very powerful. they made sudden attacks on the pueblos and compelled their neighbors to pay tribute to them as to lords of the earth which they inhabited, and if these did not wish to pay them they killed right and left, collecting the tribute in heads. * * * one of the islands of note in this archipelago is that called isla de negros on account of the abundance of them [negroes]. in one point of this island--on the west side, called "sojoton"--there is a great number of negritos, and in the center of the island many more. chirino has the following to say of the negritos of panay at the end of the sixteenth century: [ ] amongst these (bisayas) there are also some negroes, the ancient inhabitants of the island of which they had taken possession before the bisayas. they are somewhat less black and less ugly man those of guinea, but are smaller and weaker, although as regards hair and beard they are similar. they are more barbarous and savage than the bisayas and other filipinos, for they do not, like them, have houses and fixed settlements. they neither sow nor reap, and they wander through the mountains with their women and children like animals, almost naked. * * * their sole possessions are the bow and arrow. meyer, [ ] who has given the subject much study and has conducted personal investigations on the field, states that "although at the time of the arrival of the spaniards in the country, and probably long before, the negritos were in process of being driven back by the malays, yet it appears certain that their numbers were then larger, for they were feared by their neighbors, which is now only exceptionally the case." of the vast amount of material that has been written during the past century on the negritos of the philippines a considerable portion can not be taken authoritatively. exceptions should be made of the writings of meyer, montano, marche, and blumentritt. a large part of the writings on the philippine negritos have to do with their distribution and numbers, since no one has made an extended study of them on the spot, except meyer, whose work (consisting of twelve chapters and published in volume ix of the publications of the royal ethnographical museum of dresden, ) i regret not to have seen. two chapters of this work on the distribution of the negritos, republished in , form the most recent and most nearly correct exposition of this subject. meyer summarizes as follows: it may be regarded as proved with certainty that negritos are found in luzon, alabat, corregidor, panay, tablas, negros, cebu, northeast mindanao, and palawan. it is questionable whether they occur in guimaras, mindoro, and the calamianes. this statement would be more nearly correct if corregidor and cebu were placed in the second list and guimaras in the first. in this paper it is possible, by reason of special investigations, to give more reliable and detailed information on this subject than any yet published. present distribution in the philippines [ ] in luzon this paper concerns itself chiefly with the zambales negritos whose distribution in zambales and the contiguous provinces of bataan, pampanga, and tarlac is treated in detail in the following chapter. but negritos of more or less pure blood, known variously as aeta, agta, baluga, dumagat, etc., are found in at least eleven other provinces of luzon. beginning with the southern end of the island there are a very few negritos in the province of sorsogon. they are found generally living among the bicol population and do not run wild in the woods; they have probably drifted down from the neighboring province of albay. according to a report submitted by the governor of sorsogon there are a few of these negritos in bacon and bulusan, and four families containing negrito blood are on the island of batang near gabat. eight pueblos of albay report altogether as many as negritos, known locally as "agta." it is not likely any of them are of pure blood. in all except three of the towns they are servants in bicol houses, but malinao, bacacay, and tabaco report wandering groups in the mountains. meyer, who makes no mention of negritos in sorsogon or albay, deems their existence in the camarines sufficiently well authenticated, according to blumentritt, who places negrito half-breeds in the neighborhood of lagonoy and around mount isarog. information received by the ethnological survey places them in the mountains near baao, bulic, iriga, lagonoy, san josé, gao, and tigaon, as well as scattered over the cordillera de isarog around sagnay. all of these places are in the extreme southeastern part of the province contiguous to that part of albay inhabited by negritos. in neither province is the type pure. in the northern part of the province a few negritos, called "dumagat," are reported near sipocot and ragay. the towns of san vicente, labo, paracale, mambulao, and capalonga along the north coast also have negritos, generally called "aeta." these are probably of purer blood than those around mount isarog. more than a hundred families of "dumagat" are reported on the islands of caringo, caluat, and jomalic. farther to the north the island of alabat was first stated by blumentritt to be inhabited by dumagat, and in his map of he places them here but omits them in the map of . meyer deems their occurrence there to be beyond all doubt, as per steen bille's reports (reise der galathea, german ed., ). reports of the ethnological survey place aeta, baluga, and dumagat on alabat--the former running wild in the mountains, the latter living in the barrios of camagon and silangan, respectively. on the mainland of the province of tayabas the negritos are generally known as aeta and may be regarded as being to a large degree of pure blood. they are scattered pretty well over the northern part of the province, but do not, so far as is known, extend down into the peninsula below pitogo and macalelon. only at mauban are they known as baluga, which name seems to indicate a mixed breed. the island of polillo and the districts of infanta and principe, now part of the province of tayabas, have large numbers of negritos probably more nearly approaching a pure physical type than those south of them. the negritos of binangonan and baler have received attention in short papers from blumentritt, but it yet remains for someone to make a study of them on the spot. meyer noted in that negritos frequently came from the mountains to santa cruz, laguna province. these probably came from across the tayabas line, as none are reported in laguna except from santa maria, in the extreme northern part. even these are probably very near the boundary line into rizal province; perhaps they are over the line. tanay, rizal province, on the shore of laguna de bay, reports some negritos as living in the mountains north of that town. from descriptions given by natives of tanay they do not appear to be pure types. there is also a small group near montalbán, in rizal province, not more than miles from manila. going northward into bulacan we are in possession of more definite information regarding the whereabouts of these forest dwellers. zúñiga in spoke of the negritos of angat--in those days head-hunters who were accustomed to send messages by means of knotted grass stalks. [ ] this region, the upper reaches of the angat river, was visited by mr. e. j. simons on a collecting trip for the ethnological survey in february, . mr. simons saw twenty-two little rancherias of the dumagat, having a total population of people. some of them had striking negroid characteristics, but nearly all bore evidence of a mixture of blood. in some cases full-blooded filipinos have married into the tribe and adopted negrito customs entirely. their social state is about the same as that of the negritos of zambales, though some of their habits--for instance, betel chewing--approach more nearly those of lower-class filipinos. a short vocabulary of their dialect is given in appendix b. negritos are also found in northern bulacan and throughout the continuous mountain region extending through nueva ecija into isabela and the old province of principe. they are reported from peñaranda, bongabong, and pantabangan, in nueva ecija, to the number of . this region is yet to be fully explored; the same may be said also of that vast range of mountains, the sierra madre, of isabela and cagayan. in the province of isabela negritos are reported from all the towns, especially palanan, on the coast, and carig, echague, angadanan, cauayan, and cabagan nuevo, on the upper reaches of the rio grande de cagayan, but as there is a vast unknown country between, future exploration will have to determine the numerical importance of the negritos. it has been thought heretofore that this region contained a large number of people of pure blood. this was the opinion set forth by blumentritt. he says: this coast is the only spot in the philippines in which the original masters of the archipelago, the negritos, hold unrestricted possession of their native land. the eastern side of the cordillera which slopes toward this coast is also their undisputed possession. however, the western slopes they have been compelled to share with branches of malay descendants. here they retain the greatest purity of original physique and character. these statements stand much in need of verification. inquiries pursued by the ethnological survey do not bear them out--in fact, point to an opposite belief. there is a small body of what may be pure types near the boundary between isabela and cagayan, west of the cagayan river, but the coast region, so far as is known, does not hold any negritos. as many as sixteen towns of cagayan report negritos to the total number of about , . they are known commonly as "atta," but in the pueblo of baggao there are three groups known locally as "atta," "diango," and "paranan." they have been described by natives of baggao as being very similar to the ordinary filipinos in physical characteristics except that they are darker in color and have bushy hair. their only weapons are the bow and arrow. their social status is in every way like that of the negritos as distinguished from the industrious mountain. malayans of northern luzon. yet future investigations may not associate these robust and warlike tribes with the weak, shirking negritos. negritos of pure type have not so far been reported from cagayan. at only two places in the western half of northern luzon have negritos been observed. there is a small group near piddig, ilokos norte, and a wandering band of about thirty-five in the mountains between villavieja, abra province, and santa maria, ilokos sur province, from both of which towns they have been reported. it is but a question of time until no trace of them will be left in this region so thickly populated with stronger mountain peoples. in the southern islands although negritos were reported by the early spanish writers to be especially numerous in some of the southern islands, probably more of them are found on luzon than on all the other islands in the archipelago. besides luzon, the only large islands inhabited by them at present are panay, negros, mindanao, and paragua, but some of the smaller islands, as tablas and guimaras, have them. negritos of pure blood have not been reported from mindoro, but only the half-breed manguian, who belong in a group to themselves. it is questionable whether the unknown interior will produce pure types, though it is frequently reported that there are negritos in the interior. there is a rather large colony of negritos on the west coast of tablas near odiungan, and also a few on the isla de carabao immediately south of tablas. these have probably passed up from panay. all the provinces of the latter island report negritos, locally known as "ati" and "agta." they seem to be scattered pretty well over the interior of panay, being especially numerous in the mountainous region where the provinces of antique and iloilo join. in antique there are about , negritos living in groups of several families each. they are reported from nearly all the towns, being more numerous along the dalanas and sibalon rivers. the number of pure types is said, however, to be rapidly decreasing on account of intermarriage with the bukidnon or mountain visayan. they are of very small stature, with kinky hair. they lead the same nomadic life as the negritos in other parts, except that they depend more on the products of the forest for subsistence and rarely clear and cultivate "ca-ing-in." [ ] they seem to have developed more of religious superstitions, and believe that both evil spirits and protecting spirits inhabit the forests and plains. however, these beliefs may have been borrowed from the bukidnon, with whom they come much in contact. from a mixing of the ati and bukidnon are sprung the calibugan, who partake more of the characteristics of their visayan ancestors than those of the ati, and generally abandon the nomadic life and live in clearings in the forest. about ten years ago there was a group of about ati at a place called labangan, on the dalanas river, governed by one capitán andres. they made clearings and carried people across the river for a small remuneration. many of them are said to have emigrated to negros to escape public work to which the local authorities subjected them without compensation. there is a small, wandering group of negritos on guimaras, probably emigrants from panay. they have been reported from both nagaba and nueva valencia, pueblos of that island. investigation does not bear out the statements of the historian previously quoted in regard to the early populations of negros. at least it seems that if the southwestern part of that island known as sojoton had been so thickly populated with negritos early in the eighteenth century more traces of them would remain to-day. but they seem to have left no marks on the malayan population. while in the isio region in august, , i made special investigation and inquiry into this subject and could find no trace of negritos. expeditions of the constabulary into the interior have never met with the little blacks except a single colony near the boundary line between the two provinces just north of tolon. a few negritos have also been seen scattered in the interior of southern oriental negros back from nueva valencia, ayuquitan, and bais. from there no trace of them exists until the rugged mountains north of the volcano of canlaon are reached, in the almost impenetrable recesses of which there are estimated to be a thousand or more. they are especially numerous back of escalante and formerly made frequent visits to that pueblo, but recent military operations in the region have made them timid, as scouting parties have fired on and killed several of them. the sight of a white man or native of the plain is a signal for an immediate discharge of arrows. also in the mountains behind sagay, cadiz, and manapla live a few scattered families. i was fortunate in securing photographs of a negrito captured by the constabulary near cadiz. (see pl. xxvi.) he was much taller than the negritos of zambales, but with very little muscular development. he spoke visayan, and said he knew no other dialect. while in negros i also secured photographs of a small colony of ati, who emigrated from panay about twenty years ago and now live on a mountain hacienda on the slope of mount canlaon. so far there is no evidence that negritos exist on cebu, bohol, samar, and leyte. in mindanao they are found only in the extreme northern part of surigao, not having been reported below tago. they are called "mamanua," and are not very numerous. we have detailed accounts of both the tagbanua and batak of paragua, by señor manuel venturello, a native of puerto princesa, who has lived among them twenty years. these interesting articles, translated by capt. e. a. helmick, tenth united states infantry, and published in pamphlet form by the division of military information, manila, are especially full as to customs, religion, language, etc., of the tagbanua who inhabit the central part of paragua from the bay of ulugan south to apurahuan. however, the tagbanua, although perhaps having a slight amount of negrito blood, can not be classed with the negritos. but, in my opinion, the batak who inhabit the territory from the bay of ulugan north to caruray and barbacan may be so classed, although they are by no means of pure blood. they are described as being generally of small stature but well developed and muscular. they have very curly but not kinky hair, except in rare cases. their weapons are the bow and arrow and the blowgun or sumpitan, here called "sumpit." their only clothing is a breechcloth and a short skirt of flayed bark. a notable feature of their customs is that both polygyny and polyandry are permitted, this being the only instance of the latter practice so far observed among the tribes of the philippines. the batak are not very numerous; their villages have been decimated by ravages of smallpox during the past five years. conclusion this rapid survey leaves much to be desired, but it contains about all that is definitely known to-day concerning the whereabouts of the negritos in the philippines. no attempt has been made to state numbers. the philippine census will probably have more exact information in this particular, but it must be borne in mind that even the figures given by the census can be no more than estimates in most instances. the habits of the negritos do not lend themselves to modern methods of census taking. after all, blumentritt's opinion of several years ago is not far from right. including all mixed breeds having a preponderance of negrito blood, it is safe to say that the negrito population of the philippines probably will not exceed , . of these the group largest in numbers and probably purest in type is that in the zambales mountain range, western luzon. however, while individuals may retain in some cases purity of blood, nowhere are whole groups free from mixture with the malayan. the negritos of panay, negros, and mindanao are also to be regarded as pure to a large extent. on the east side of luzon and in the island of paragua, as we have just seen, there is marked evidence of mixture. the social state of the negritos is everywhere practically the same. they maintain their half-starved lives by the fruits of the chase and forest products, and at best cultivate only small patches of maize and other vegetables. only occasionally do they live in settled, self-supporting communities, but wander for the most part in scattered families from one place to another. chapter ii the province of zambales geographical features this little-known and comparatively unimportant province stretches along the western coast of luzon for more than miles. its average width does not exceed miles and is so out of proportion to its length that it merits the title which it bears of the "shoestring province." [ ] the zambales range of mountains, of which the southern half is known as the cordillera de cabusilan and which is second in importance to the caraballos system of northern luzon, forms the entire eastern boundary of zambales and separates it from the provinces of pangasinan, tarlac, and pampanga. a number of peaks rise along this chain, of which mount pinatubo, , feet in height, is the highest. all of the rivers of zambales rise on the western slope of these mountains and carry turbulent floods through the narrow plains. still unbridged, they are an important factor in preventing communication and traffic between towns, and hence in retarding the development of the province. another important factor in this connection is the lack of safe anchorages. the zambales coast is a stormy one, and vessels frequently come to grief on its reefs. at only one point, subig bay, can larger vessels find anchorage safe from the typhoons which sweep the coast. the soil of the well-watered plain is fertile and seems adapted to the cultivation of nearly all the products of the archipelago. the forests are especially valuable, and besides fine timbers for constructional purposes they supply large quantities of pitch, resin, bejuco, and beeswax. there are no industries worth mentioning, there being only primitive agriculture and stock raising. the following opinions of zambales set forth by a spanish writer in still hold good: [ ] there are more populous and more civilized provinces whose commercial and agricultural progress has been more pronounced, but nowhere is the air more pure and transparent, the vegetation more luxuriant, the climate more agreeable, the coasts more sunny, and the inhabitants more simple and pacific. historical sketch according to buzeta, another spanish historian, it was juan de salcedo who discovered zambales. [ ] this intrepid soldier [he says], after having conquered manila and the surrounding provinces, resolved to explore the northern part of luzon. he organized at his own expense an expedition, and general legaspi gave him forty-five soldiers, with whom he left manila may , . after a journey of three days he arrived at bolinao, where he found a chinese vessel whose crew had made captives of a chief and several other natives. salcedo, retook these captives from the chinese and gave them their liberty. the indians, who were not accustomed to such generosity, were so touched by this act that they became voluntary vassals of the spaniards. it seems that nothing further was done toward settling or evangelizing the region for twelve years, although the chronicler goes on to say that three years after the discovery of bolinao a sergeant of salcedo's traversed the bolinao region, receiving everywhere the homage of the natives, and a franciscan missionary, sebastian baeza, preached the gospel there. but in the augustinians established themselves at the extreme ends of the mountain range, bolinao and mariveles. one of them, the friar esteban martin, was the first to learn the zambal dialect. the augustinians were succeeded by the recollets, who, during the period from to , founded missions at agno, balincaguin, bolinao, cabangan, iba, masinloc, and santa cruz. then in , more than a hundred years after salcedo landed at bolinao, the dominicans undertook the active evangelization of the district. let us now examine [continues the historian [ ]] the state of these savage indians whom the zealous spanish missionaries sought to convert. father salazar, after having described the topography of this mountainous province, sought to give an idea of the political and social state of the pagans who formed the larger part of the aboriginal population: "the principal cause," he said, "of the barbarity of these indians, and that which prevents their ever being entirely and pacifically converted, is that the distances are so great and communication so difficult that the alcaldes can not control them and the missionaries find it impossible to exercise any influence over them." each village was composed of ten, twenty, or thirty families, united nearly always by ties of kinship. it was difficult to bring these villages together because they carried on wars continually, and they lived in such a state of discord that it was impossible to govern them; moreover they were so barbarous and fierce that they recognized only superior power. they governed through fear. he who wished to be most respected sought to inspire fear by striking off as many beads as possible. the one who committed the most assassinations was thus assured of the subordination of all. they made such a glory of it that they were accustomed to wear certain ornaments in order to show to the eyes or all the murders they had committed. when a person lost a relative either by a violent or a natural death he covered his head with a strip of black cloth as a sign of mourning and could take it off only after having committed a murder, a thing which they were always eager to do in order to get rid of the sadness of mourning, because so long as they wore the badge they could not sing or dance or take part in any festivity. one understands then that deaths became very frequent in a country where all deaths were necessarily followed by one or more murders. it is true that he who committed a murder sought to atone for it by paying to the relatives of the deceased a certain quantity of gold or silver or by giving them a slave or a negrito who might be murdered in his place. the zambal had nevertheless more religion than the inhabitants of other provinces. there was among them a high priest, called "bayoc," who by certain rites consecrated the other priests. he celebrated this ceremony in the midst of orgies and the most frightful revels. he next indicated to the new priest the idol or cult to which he should specially devote himself and conferred on him privileges proportionate to the rank of that divinity, for they recognized among their gods a hierarchy, which established also that of their curates. they gave to their principal idol the name of "malyari"--that is, the powerful. the bayoc alone could offer sacrifice to him. there was another idol, acasi, whose power almost equaled that of the first. in fact, they sang in religious ceremonies that "although malyari was powerful, acasi had preëminence." in an inferior order they worshiped also manlobog or mangalagan, whom they recognized as having power of appeasing irritated spirits. they rendered equal worship to five less important idols who represented the divinities of the fields, prosperity to their herds and harvests. they also believed that anitong sent them rains and favorable winds; damalag preserved the sown fields from hurricanes; dumanga made the grain grow abundantly; and finally calascas ripened it, leaving to calosocos only the duty of harvesting the crops. they also had a kind of baptism administered by the bayoc with pure blood of the pig, but this ceremony, very long and especially very expensive, was seldom celebrated in grand style. the sacrifice which the same priest offered to the idol malyari consisted of ridiculous ceremonies accompanied by savage cries and yells and was terminated by repugnant debaucheries. of course it is impossible to tell how much of this is the product of the writer's imagination, or at least of the imagination of those earlier chroniclers from whom he got his information, but it can very well be believed that the natives had a religion of their own and that the work of the missionaries was exceedingly difficult. it was necessary to get them into villages, to show them how to prepare and till the soil and harvest the crops. and the writer concludes that "little by little the apathetic and indolent natives began to recognize the advantages of social life constituted under the shield of authority and law, and the deplorable effects of savage life, offering no guarantee of individual or collective security." a fortress had been built at paynaven, in what is now the province of pangasinan, from which the work of the missionaries spread southward, so that the northern towns were all organized before those in the south. it is not likely that this had anything to do with causing the negritos to leave the northern part of the province, if indeed they ever occupied it, but it is true that to-day they inhabit only the mountainous region south of a line drawn through the middle of the province from east to west. the friar martinez zúñiga, speaking of the fortress at paynaven, said that in that day, the beginning of the last century, there was little need of it as a protection against the "infidel indians" and blacks who were very few in number, and against whom a stockade of bamboo was sufficient. it might serve against the moros [he continues], but happily the zambales coast is but little exposed to the attacks of these pirates, who always seek easy anchorage. the pirates are, however, a constant menace and source of danger to the zambal, who try to transport on rafts the precious woods of their mountains and to carry on commerce with manila in their little boats. the zambal are exposed to attack from the moros in rounding the point at the entrance of manila bay, from which it results that the province is poor and has little commerce. [ ] everything in the history of the zambal people and their present comparative unimportance goes to show that they were the most indolent and backward of the malayan peoples. while they have never given the governing powers much trouble, yet they have not kept pace with the agricultural and commercial progress of the other people, and their territory has been so steadily encroached on from all sides by their more aggressive neighbors that their separate identity is seriously threatened. the rich valleys of zambales have long attracted ilokano immigrants, who have founded several important towns. the zambal themselves, owing to lack of communication between their towns, have developed three separate dialects, none of which has ever been deemed worthy of study and publication, as have the other native dialects of the philippines. a glance at the list of towns of zambales with the prevailing dialect spoken in each, and in case of nearly equal division also the second most important dialect, will show to what extent zambal as a distinct dialect is gradually disappearing: dialects in zambales province town primary dialect secondary dialect olongapo tagalog subig tagalog castillejos tagalog ilokano san marcelino ilokano tagalog san antonio ilokano san narciso ilokano san felipe ilokano cabangan zambal botolan zambal iba zambal palauig zambal masinloc zambal candelaria zambal santa cruz zambal infanta zambal dasol pangasinan zambal agno ilokano pangasinan barri zambal san isidro ilokano balincaguin pangasinan alos ilokano pangasinan alumnos pangasinan ilokano zaragoza zambal bolinao zambal anda zambal of twenty-five towns zambal is the prevailing dialect of less than half. as will be seen, the ilokano have been the most aggressive immigrants. as a prominent ilokano in the town of san marcelino expressed it, when they first came they worked for the zambals, who held all the good land. but the zambal landowners, perhaps wanting money for a cockfight, would sell a small piece of land to some ilokano who had saved a little money, and when he ran out of money he would sell a little more land, until finally the ilokano owned it all. this somewhat lengthy and seemingly irrelevant sketch of the early history of zambales and of the character of its inhabitants to-day is given to show the former state of savagery and the apathetic nature of the people who, in the days before the arrival of the europeans, were in such close contact with the negritos as to impose on them their language, and they have done it so thoroughly that no trace of an original negrito dialect remains. relations such as to-day exist between the people of the plains and those of the mountains would not change a dialect in a thousand years. another evidence of a former close contact may be found in the fact that the negritos of southern zambales who have never personally come in contact with the zambal but only with the tagalog also speak zambal with some slight variations, showing, too, that the movement of the negritos has been southward away from the zambal territory. close study and special investigation into the linguistics of this region, carried also into bataan and across the mountain into pampanga and tarlac, may throw more light on this very interesting and important subject and may reveal traces of an original negrito dialect. prominent natives of zambales, whom i have questioned, and who are familiar with the subject, affirm that the negritos know only the dialect of the zambal. indeed those are not lacking who believe in a blood relationship between the negritos and the zambal, but this belief can not be taken seriously. [ ] very little mention is made by the early writers of the negritos. in fact they knew nothing of them except that they were small blacks who roamed in the mountains, living on roots and game which they killed with the bow and arrow. they were reported to be fierce little savages from whom no danger could come, since they did not leave their mountain fastnesses, but whose territory none dared enter. habitat of the negritos as has been stated, the present range of the negritos of this territory embraces the mountainous portion of the lower half of zambales and the contiguous provinces of tarlac and pampanga, extending southward even to the very extremity of the peninsula of bataan. this region, although exceedingly broken and rough, has not the high-ridged, deep-canyoned aspect of the cordillera central of northern luzon. it consists for the most part of rolling tablelands, broken by low, forest-covered ridges and dotted here and there by a few gigantic peaks. the largest and highest of these, mount pinatubo, situated due east from the town of cabangan, holds on its broad slopes the largest part of the negritos of zambales. many tiny streams have their sources in this mountain and rush down the slopes, growing in volume and furnishing water supply to the negrito villages situated along their banks. some of the larger of these streams have made deep cuts on the lower reaches of the mountain slopes, but they are generally too small to have great powers of erosion. the unwooded portions of the table-lands are covered with cogon and similar wild grasses. here is enough fertile land to support thousands of people. the negritos occupy practically none of it. their villages and mountain farms are very scattered. the villages are built for the most part on the table-land above some stream, and the little clearings are found on the slope of the ridge at the base of which the stream runs. no use whatever is made of the grass-covered table-land, save that it offers a high and dry site for a rancheria, free from fevers. practically all of the negrito rancherias are within the jurisdiction of the two towns of botolan and san marcelino. following the winding course of the bucao river, miles southeast from botolan, one comes to the barrio of san fernando de riviera, as it is on the maps, or pombato, as the natives call it. this is a small filipino village, the farthest out, a half-way place between the people of the plains and those of the uplands. here a ravine is crossed, a hill climbed, and the traveler stands on a plateau not more than half a mile wide but winding for miles toward the big peak pinatubo and almost imperceptibly increasing in elevation. low, barren ridges flank it on either side, at the base of each of which flows a good-sized stream. seven miles of beaten winding path through the cogon grass bring the traveler to the first negrito rancheria, tagiltil, one year old, lying sun baked on a southern slope of the plateau. here the plateau widens out, is crossed and cut up by streams and hills, and the forests gradually become thicker. in the wide reach of territory of which this narrow plateau is the western apex, including mount pinatubo and reaching to the tarlac and pampanga boundaries, there are situated no less than thirty rancherias of negritos, having an average population of persons or a total of more than , . besides these there are probably many scattered families, especially in the higher and less easily accessible forests of mount pinatubo, who live in no fixed spot but lead a wandering existence. and so uncertain are the habits of the more settled negritos that one of the thirty rancherias known to-day may to-morrow be nothing more than a name, and some miles away a new rancheria may spring up. the tendency to remain in one place seems, however, to be growing. the mountainous portions of the jurisdictions of the two towns of botolan and san marcelino, themselves many miles apart with three or more towns between, are contiguous, the one extending southeast, the other northeast, until they meet. the san marcelino region contains about the same number of negritos, grouped in many small communities around five large centers--santa fé, aglao, cabayan, pañibutan, and timao--each of which numbers some negritos. they are of the same type and culture plane as those nearer piñatubo, and their habitat is practically the same, a continuation of the more or less rugged cordillera. they are in constant communication with the negritos north of them and with those across the pampanga line east of them. the negritos of aglao are also in communication with those of subig, where there is a single rancheria numbering souls. still farther south in the jurisdiction of olongapo are two rancherias, numbering about people, who partake more of the characteristics of the negritos of bataan just across the provincial line than they do of those of the north. here mention may be made also of the location of rancherias and numbers of negritos in the provinces adjoining zambales, as attention is frequently called to them later, especially those of bataan, for the sake of comparison. negritos are reported from all of the towns of bataan, and there are estimated to be , of them, or about half as many as in zambales. they are more numerous on the side toward manila bay, in the mountains back of balanga, orion, and pilar. moron and bagac on the opposite coast each report more than a hundred. there is a colony of about thirty near mariveles. owing to repeated visits of tourists to their village and to the fact that they were sent to the hanoi exposition in , this group has lost many of the customs peculiar to negritos in a wild state and has donned the ordinary filipino attire. cabcabe, also in the jurisdiction of mariveles, has more than a hundred negritos, and from here to dinalupijan, the northernmost town of the province, there are from to scattered in small groups around each town and within easy distance. sometimes, as at balanga, they are employed on the sugar plantations and make fairly good laborers. the negritos of bataan as a whole seem less mixed with the malayan than any other group, and fewer mixed bloods are seen among them. their average stature is also somewhat lower. they speak corrupt tagalog, though careful study may reveal traces of an original tongue. (see appendix b for a vocabulary.) in the section of pampanga lying near zambales province more than a thousand negritos have been reported from the towns of florida blanca, porac, angeles, and mabalacat. there are estimated to be about , in tarlac, in the jurisdiction of the towns of o'donnell, moriones, capas, bamban, and camiling. there are two or three good trails leading from this province into zambales by which the negritos of the two provinces communicate with each other. it is proposed to convert the one from o'donnell to botolan into a wagon road, which will have the effect of opening up a little-known territory. across the line into pangasinan near the town of mangataren there is a colony of mixed negritos somewhat more advanced in civilization than is usually the case with these forest dwellers. according to dr. d. p. barrows, who visited their rancherias in december, , it seems to have been the intention of the spanish authorities to form a reservation at that place which should be a center from which to reach the wilder bands in the hills and to induce them to adopt a more settled life. a filipino was sent to the rancheria as a "maestro" and remained among the people six years. but the scheme fell through there as elsewhere in the failure of the authorities to provide homes and occupations for the negritos. the ilokano came in and occupied all the available territory, and the negritos now hang around the ilokano homes, doing a little work and picking up the little food thrown to them. dr. barrows states that the group contains no pure types characterized by wide, flat noses and kinky hair. in addition to the bow and arrows they carry a knife called "kampilan" having a wide-curving blade. they use this weapon in a dance called "baluk," brandishing it, snapping their fingers, and whirling about with knees close to the ground. this is farther north than negritos are found in zambales but is in territory contiguous to that of the tarlac negritos. the entire region contains about , souls. the groups are so scattered, however, that the territory may be said to be practically unoccupied. chapter iii negritos of zambales physical features the characteristics which serve more than any others to distinguish the true negrito from other inhabitants of the philippines are his small stature, kinky hair, and almost black skin. his eyes may be more round, his nose more short and flat, and his limbs more spindling than is the case with peoples of malayan extraction, but these features are usually less noticeable. perhaps undue emphasis has been given by writers on the negrito to his short stature, until the impression has gone abroad that these primitive men are veritable dwarfs. as a matter of fact, individuals sometimes attain the stature of the shortest of the white men, and apparently only a slight infusion of malayan blood is necessary to cause the negrito to equal the malay in, height. the aeta of zambales range in stature from to feet. to be more exact, the maximum height of the individuals measured by me, taking them as they came, with no attempt to select, was , millimeters ( feet inches); the maximum height for females was , millimeters ( feet inches); the minimum height for males was , millimeters ( feet inches), for females, , millimeters ( feet). the average of the males measured was , millimeters ( feet inches); of the females, , millimeters ( feet inches). there is perhaps no greater variation between these figures than there would be between the averages of stature of as many individuals selected at random from any other race. yet it should be remembered that some of the negritos included in this list are not pure types--in fact, are no more than half-breeds. the abnormal length of the arm of the negritos has been regarded by some writers as an essentially simian characteristic, especially in the case of the pygmy blacks of central africa. with the aeta this characteristic is not so marked, yet out of males had a reach or span greater than the height. the proportion was not so large among the females, being only in . the maximum span for males was , millimeters, for females , millimeters, but in neither case did the individuals having the greatest span also have the greatest height. the average span of males exceeded the average height by millimeters; the difference in the case of the females was only millimeters. length of arm was taken on only individuals, males and females. the longest arm measured millimeters ( feet inches), which is not so long as the average caucasian arm, though more out of proportion to the height, in this case being nearly half the latter measurement. the shortest arm, that of an adult female, was millimeters ( inches). so far from being ape like in appearance, some of the aeta are very well-built little men, with broad chests, symmetrical limbs, and well-developed muscles hardened by incessant use. this applies of course only to the young men and boys just approaching manhood, and is especially noticeable in the southern regions, where the aeta are generally more robust and muscular. the younger females are also as a rule well formed. in the case of unmarried girls the breasts are rounded and erect, but after marriage gradually become more and more pendant until they hang almost to the waist line. with advancing age the muscles shrink, the skin shrivels up until an individual of to years usually has the decrepit appearance of an octogenarian; in fact, is old age with the aeta. (see plates.) anthropometric observations fall naturally into two groups, dealing with the proportions of the head and body, the latter of which have already been discussed. great interest attaches also to the relative proportions of the different dimensions of the head and especially to the cephalic index obtained by multiplying the maximum breadth by and dividing by the maximum length. heads with an index of or under are called _dolichocephalic;_ those between and , _mesaticephalic;_ and those over _brachycephalic._ the beads of the aeta are essentially _brachycephalic._ owing to the lack of proper calipers during the greater part of my stay among them, i was able to measure only individuals, but of those all but were in the _brachycephalic_ group, one instance being noted where the index was as great as ; the lowest was . the average of the males was and of the females . considerable importance in anthropometry is attached to the study of the nose. the typical aeta nose may be described as broad, flat, bridgeless, with prominent arched alæ almost as high as the central cartilage of the nose and with the nostrils invariably visible from the front. the nasal index obtained by dividing the nasal breadth by the height from the root of the nose to the septum and multiplying the quotient by serves to indicate the group to which the individual belongs. thus it will be seen that races with a nasal index of more than have a nose wider than it is long. this is a marked characteristic of the aeta. of the aeta i measured, were _ultraplatyrhinian_--that is, had a nasal index greater than . one individual, a female, showed the surprising index of . , the greatest so far recorded to my knowledge. the greatest nasal index among the males was . . only one example of a _mesorhine_ nose was noted, also of a female, and but _platyrhine._ the most of them belonged in the _hyperplatyrhine_ group. the following table will show the proper classification of the individuals measured by me: nasal index of zambales negritos group sex and number males females mesorhine ( . - . ) -- platyrhine ( . - . ) hyperplatyrhine ( . - . ) ultraplatyrhine ( and over) the shape of the eye varies from the round negroid of the pure bloods to the elongated mongoloid in the case of mixed types. the color of the eyes is a very dark brown or black. the lips are medium thick, far less thick than the lips of the african negro, and are not protruding. the hair of the aeta is uniformly kinky in the case of the pure types. individuals were noted with other negroid features but with curly hair, showing a probable mixture of blood. the hair grows low on the forehead and is very thick. eyebrows are not heavy, save in particular instances, and beard is very scanty, though all adult males have some beard. there is very little body hair on adults of either sex, except in the axillary and pubic regions, and it is scant even in these places. the northern negritos have practically none in the armpits. two or three old men were seen with a coating of hair over the back, chest, and legs. the head hair is uniformly of a dirty black color, in some instances sunburned on top to a reddish brown. it turns gray at a comparatively early age, and baldness is frequent. (see pls. xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi.) in the case of women the hair is generally allowed to grow long, and in this tangled, uncombed state furnishes an excellent breeding place for vermin. however, if the vermin become troublesome the hair is sometimes cut short. (see pl. xvii.) the cutting is done with the ever-useful bolo or sharp knife and is a somewhat laborious and painful process. sometimes the hair may be cropped behind and left long on top. this is a favorite style of wearing it among the men, and is frequently followed by the women. attempt is seldom made to comb the hair, but frequent vermin-catching onslaughts are made, the person performing the work using a sharp piece of bamboo to separate the tangled kinks and to mash the offending parasite against the thumb nail. in bataan the negritos sometimes shave a circular place on the crown, but i am not informed as to the reason. the practice is not followed in zambales. the color of the skin is a dark chocolate brown rather than black, and on unexposed portions of the body approaches a yellowish tint of the malayan. the loathsome skin disease common in the northern region of luzon gives it a mottled appearance. the aeta have practically no prognathism. the hands are not large, but the feet are larger in proportion to the size of the body than those of filipinos. the toes are spreading, and the large toe frequently extends inward so much as to attract attention, though this can not be said to be a marked characteristic of all individuals. it may be caused by a constant practice of the tree climber--that of grasping a branch between the large toes and the other toes. i have seen negrito boys who would use their feet in this respect as well as they used their hands. permanent adornment the custom prevails throughout the entire negrito territory of sharpening the teeth. usually only the upper teeth are so treated, but numerous cases were noted where the teeth were sharpened both above and below, and still there were others where they were not sharpened at all. this sharpening is not performed at any certain age, and it is apparently not obligatory; i do not believe parents compel their children to submit to this practice. the object seems to be largely for the sake of adornment, but the negritos say that sharpened teeth enable them to cat corn with greater ease. the sharpening is done by placing the blade of a bolo against the part of the tooth to be broken away and giving it a sharp rap with a piece of wood. the operation, called "ta-li-han," is a somewhat delicate one, requiring care to prevent breaking through into the soft part of the tooth and exposing the nerve, and is no doubt practiced by only one or two persons in a group, though this fact could not be ascertained. notwithstanding this mutilation, the teeth seem to be remarkably healthy and well preserved except in old age. in like manner each group of people possesses its scarifier, who by practice becomes adept. scarification simply for purposes of ornamentation is not practiced to any great extent by the negritos around pinatubo. they burn themselves for curative purposes (see chap. vi) and are sometimes covered with scars, but not the kind of scars produced by incisions. only occasionally is the latter scarification seen near pinatubo. in regions where it is common the work is usually done at the age of or , although it may be done at any age. the incisions are made with a knife or a very sharp piece of cane, and generally follow some regular design. scarification is called "ta-bád," and it has no other significance than adornment. the parts of the body usually marked are the breast, shoulders, and back, although scars are occasionally seen on the legs. clothing and dress the clothing of the negrito consists simply of the breechcloth and an occasional cast-off shirt given him by some filipino in exchange for articles. sometimes in cases of extreme prosperity he may possess a hat and a pair of trousers. the latter garment is usually worn, however, only by the chief man or "capitán" of the tribe, and the rank and file wear only the breechcloth. a strip of cloth fastened around the waist and extending to the knees serves a woman for a dress. with unmarried girls this strip may be wound under the arms and so cover the breast. rarely a short camisa is worn, but seldom do the camisa and the saya, or skirt, join. sometimes, owing to the scarcity of cloth, a narrow strip will be worn over the breast, leaving a broad expanse of dark skin between it and the saya. (pls. xxix et seq.) if given their choice among a variety of colors the negritos always select black for their breechcloth and saya, because, they explain, the black will not show dirt as will other colors. gaudy colors seem to attract and will be readily accepted as gifts if nothing else is at hand; yet i had some difficulty in disposing of a bolt of red cloth i had taken among them, and finally had to take the greater part of it back to the pueblo and exchange it for black. so far as i could learn the breechcloth and saya are never washed, and any cloth other than black would soon lose its original color. the cloth used by negritos is procured in trade from the christian towns. in the less easily accessible regions where the wilder negritos live the breechcloth and saya are made of the inner bark of certain trees which is flayed until it becomes soft and pliable. the negrito takes little pride in his personal appearance, and hence is not given to elaborate ornamentation. the women wear seed necklaces, called "col-in'-ta," of black, white, and brown seeds, sometimes of a single solid color and sometimes with the colors alternating. i have also seen necklaces of small stones, hard berries of some sort, pieces of button or bone, and little round pieces of wood. some women possess glass beads secured in trade from the christianized natives. often two or three white or black beads are used for ear ornaments, though it is not a very common practice to puncture the ears for this purpose as in bataan, where leaves and flowers are often worn stuck in a hole through the lobe of the ear. what appears to be a necklace and really answers the purpose of such is a string of dried berries, called "a-mu-yong'," which are said to be efficacious for the pangs of indigestion. (see pl. xxxv.) when the negrito feels a pain within him he pulls off a berry and eats it. one may see a string with just a few berries, and again a complete necklace of them, evidently just put on. these are worn by both sexes and are so worn for the sake of convenience as much as with the idea of ornamentation, for the negrito has no pocket. necklaces of fine woven strips of bejuco or vegetable fiber are sometimes seen but are not common. these strands are woven over a piece of cane, the lengthwise strands being of one color, perhaps yellow, and the crosswise strands black, giving a very pretty effect and making a durable ornament which the negritos call "la-lao'." hair ornaments are not generally worn, but nearly every negrito, male and female, especially in southern zambales and bataan, possesses one or more of the so-called combs of bamboo. a single style prevails over the entire negrito territory, differing only in minor details. a section of bamboo or mountain cane, varying in length from to inches, is split in thirds or quarters and one of these pieces forms the body of the comb. teeth are cut at one end and the back is ornamented according to the taste of the maker by a rude carving. this carving consists simply of a series of lines or cuts, following some regular design into which dirt is rubbed to make it black. the combs may be further decorated with bright-colored bird feathers fastened with beeswax or gum to the concave side of the end which has no teeth. the feathers may be notched saw-tooth fashion and have string tassels fastened to the ends. in lieu of feathers horsehair and a kind of moss or other plant fiber are often used. the most elaborate decorations were noticed only in the north, while the combs of the south have either no ornamentation or have simply the hair or moss. these combs, which the negritos call "hook'-lay," are made and worn by both men and women, either with the tasseled and feathered ends directly in front or directly behind. (see pl. xxxvi.) leglets of wild boars' bristles, called "a-yá-bun," are more common in the south than in the north. these are made by taking a strip of bejuco and fastening the bristles to it so that they stand out at right angles to the leg of the wearer. they are used only by men and are worn on either leg, usually on the right just below the knee. the negritos say these leglets give the wearer greater powers of endurance and are efficacious in making long journeys less tiresome. "for is not the wild boar the most hardy of all animals?" they ask. this idea is further carried out in the wearing of pieces of boars' skin with the hair attached, which may often be seen tied around the legs or wrists. deerskin, which is quite as common among the negritos, is never used in such fashion. metal rings and bracelets are entirely unknown among the negritos except where secured from the coast towns. (see pl. xxxvii.) chapter iv industrial life home life the general condition of the negritos, although not one of extreme misery, is indeed pitiable. their life is a continual struggle for sufficient food, but their efforts to provide for themselves stop short at that; clothing and houses are of secondary importance. the average negrito takes little pride in his dwelling place. a shelter sufficient to turn the beating rains is all he asks. he sees to it that the hut is on ground high enough so that water will not stand in it; then, curled up beside his few coals of fire, he sleeps with a degree of comfort. the most easily constructed hut, and therefore the most common, consists simply of two forked sticks driven into the ground so they stand about feet apart and feet high. a horizontal piece is laid in the two forks, then some strips of bamboo are inclined against this crosspiece, the other ends resting on the ground. some cross strips are tied with bejuco to these bamboos and the whole is covered with banana leaves. with the materials close at hand a half hour is sufficient for one man to construct such a shelter. where a comparatively long residence in one place is contemplated more care may be given the construction of a house, but the above description will apply to many dwellings in a rancheria two or three years old. instead of two upright pieces make it four, somewhat higher, and place a bamboo platform within so the occupants do not have to sleep on the ground, and you have an approved type of negrito architecture. sometimes as an adjunct to this a shelter may be erected in front, provided with a bamboo seat for the accommodation of visitors. the more prosperous negritos in the long-established rancherias have four-posted houses of bamboo, with roof and sides of cogon grass. the floors are feet from the ground and the cooking is done underneath the floors. a small fire is kept burning all night. the inmates of the house sleep just above it, and in this way receive some benefit of the warmth. if it were not for these fires the negrito would suffer severely from cold during the night, for he possesses no blanket and uses no covering of any sort. for two reasons he never lets his fire go out; first, because he likes to feel the warmth continually, and second, because it is something of a task to build a fire, once it has gone out. (see pls. xxxviii, xxxix.) the method of making fire used universally by the negritos of zambales is that of the flint and steel, which apparatus they call "pan'-ting." the steel is prized highly, because it is hard to get; it is procured in trade from the christianized natives. nearly every negrito carries a flint and steel in a little grass basket or case dangling down his back and suspended by a fiber string from his neck. in the same basket are usually tobacco leaves, buyo, and other small odds and ends. sometimes this pouch is carried in the folds of the breechcloth, which is the only pocket the negrito possesses. the flint-and-steel method of fire making has almost entirely supplanted the more primitive method of making fire by rubbing two sticks together; but in some instances this method is still followed, and everywhere the negritos know of it. they do not know whether the method is original with them or, not, but they admit they borrowed the flint-and-steel idea from the filipinos. when the friction process is employed a piece of bamboo with a hole in it, in which are firmly held some fine shavings or lint, is violently rubbed crosswise against the edge of another piece until the friction ignites the lint. it is called "pan-a-han'." when two men are working together one holds the lower piece firmly while the other man rubs across it the sharpened edge of the upper piece. if a man is working alone the piece with the sharpened edge is held firmly between the ground and the man's waist; the other piece of bamboo with the slit in is rubbed up and down on the sharp edge. (see pls. xl, xli.) in lieu of other vessels, rice and similar foods are cooked in joints of green bamboo, which are placed in the coals and hot ashes. when the food is cooked the bamboo is split open and the contents poured out on banana leaves. this is by far the most common method employed, though not a few negritos possess earthenware pots, and some few have a big iron vessel. meats are always roasted by cutting into small bits and stringing on a strip of cane. maize is roasted on hot coals. everything is eaten without salt, although the negritos like salt and are very glad to get it. it has already been noted that the negrito has a hard time to get enough to cat, and for that reason there is scarcely anything in the animal or vegetable kingdom of his environment of which he does not make use. he never has more than two meals a day, sometimes only one, and he will often start early in the morning on a deer hunt without having eaten any food and will hunt fill late in the afternoon. in addition to the fish, eels, and crayfish of the streams, the wild boar and wild chicken of the plain and woodland, he will eat iguanas and any bird he can catch, including crows, hawks, and vultures. large pythons furnish especially toothsome steaks, so he says, but, if so, his taste in this respect is seldom satisfied, for these reptiles are extremely scarce. besides rice, maize, camotes, and other cultivated vegetables there is not a wild tuber or fruit with which the negrito's stomach is not acquainted. even some that in their raw state would be deadly poisonous he soaks and boils in several waters until the poison is extracted, and then he eats them. this is the case with a yellow tuber which he calls "ca-lot'." in its natural form it is covered with stiff bristles. the negritos peel off the skin and slice the vegetable into very thin bits and soak in water two days, after which it is boiled in two or three waters until it has lost its yellow color. in order to see if any poison still remains some of it is fed to a dog, and if he does not die they themselves eat it. in taste it somewhat resembles cooked rice. this was told me by an old negrito who i believe did not possess enough invention to make it up, and is in part verified by mr. o. atkin, division superintendent of zambales, who says in a report to the general superintendent of education, october, , concerning the destitution of the town of infanta, that the people of that town were forced by scarcity of food to eat this tuber, there called "co-rot'." he was told that it was soaked in running water five or six days before cooking, and if not prepared in this way it would cause severe sickness, even death. in fact, some cases were known where persons had died eating co-rot'. a white, thin-skinned tuber, called "bol'-wi," which is found in the forests, is highly prized by the negritos, although it grows so deep in the ground that the labor of digging it is considerable. among the cultivated vegetables are the common butter beans, called "an-tak'," and black beans, known as "an-tak' ik-no'" or "sitting-down beans" from the fact that the pods curl up at one end. ga-bi and bau'-gan are white tubers, and u'-bi a dark-red tuber--which they eat. other common products are maize, pumpkins, and camotes. the negrito has ordinarily no table but the bare ground, and at best a coarse mat; he has no dishes but banana leaves and cocoanut shells, and no forks or spoons but his fingers. he brings water from a stream in a piece of bamboo about three joints long in which all but one joint has been punched out, and drinks it from a piece of cocoanut shell. if he needs to cut anything to eat he has his ever-ready bolo, which he may have used a moment before in skinning a pig and which is never washed. he is repulsively dirty in his home, person, and everything he does. nothing is ever washed except his hands and face, and those only rarely. he never takes a bath, because he thinks that if he bathes often he is more susceptible to cold, that a covering of dirt serves as clothing, although he frequently gets wet either in the rain or when fishing or crossing streams. this is probably one reason why skin diseases are so common. agriculture the negrito can not by any stretch of imagination be called a worker. his life for generations has not been such as to teach habits of industry. but for the fact that he has to do some work or starve, he would spend all his days in idleness except that time which he devoted to the chase. yet when under pressure or urged on by anticipation of gain from the white man, whose wealth and munificence appear boundless, he is tireless. he will clear ground for a camp, cut and split bamboo, and make tables and sleeping platforms, which he would never think of doing for himself. he can get along without such things, and why waste the time? yet when the camp is abandoned he will carry these things to his house. most negritos have seen the better style of living followed by the more civilized filipinos in the outlying barrios; yet they seem to have no desire to emulate it, and i believe that the lack of such desire is due to a disinclination to perform the necessary manual labor. by far the greater part of the negrito's energies are directed to the growing of tobacco, maize, and vegetables. he does not plant rice to any extent. all planting is done in cleared spots in the forest, because the soil is loose and needs no plowing as in the case of the lowland. the small trees and underbrush are cut away and burned and the large trees are killed, for the negrito has learned the two important things in primitive farming--first, that the crops will not thrive in the shade, and second, that a tree too large to cut may be killed by cutting a ring around it to prevent the flow of sap. the clearings are never large. usually each family has its clearing in a separate place, though sometimes two or more families may cultivate adjoining clearings. the places are selected with a view to richness of soil and ease in clearing. in addition to preparing the ground it is necessary to build a fence around the clearing in order to keep out wild hogs. a brush fence is constructed by thrusting sticks in the ground a few inches apart and twining brush between them. all work of digging up the soil, planting, and cultivating is done with sharpened sticks of hard wood, sometimes, but not always, pointed with iron, for iron is scarce. this instrument is called "ti-ad'," the only other tool they possess being the bolo, with which they do all the cutting. men, women, and children work in these clearings, but i did not see any division of labor, except that the men, being more adept with the bolo, do whatever cutting there is to be done. once planted, the weeding and care of the crops falls largely on the women and children, while the men take their ease or hunt and fish. the piece of ground for planting is regarded as the personal property of the head of the family which cleared it, and he can sell it or otherwise dispose of it at his pleasure. no one else would think of planting on it even though the owner has abandoned it, unless he declared that he had no more use for it, then it could be occupied by anyone else. an instance of the respect which the negritos have for the property rights of others was given me by a native of the town of botolan. his grandfather had acquired a piece of land near mount pinatubo from a negrito who had committed some crime in his rancheria and fled to the pueblo to escape death. in return for protection the negrito had given him the land. this fact became known to the other negritos, but although the new owner made no use of the land whatever, and never even visited it, it has never been molested or cultivated by others. now two generations later they have sent down to the grandson of the first filipino owner asking permission to buy the land. land may be sold to others, but of course there exists no record of such transactions other than that of memory. manufacture and trade the negrito knows little of the art of making things. aside from the bows and arrows which he constructs with some degree of skill he has no ingenuity, and his few other products are of the most crude and primitive type. the bows of the negritos of zambales are superior to any the writer has seen in the philippines. they are made from the wood of the well-known _palma brava_ and are gracefully cut and highly polished. the strings are of twisted bark, as soft and pliable and as strong as thongs of deerskin. although made from the same wood, the bows of the negritos of negros are not nearly so graceful, and the strings consist simply of one piece of bejuco with a small loop at either end which slips over the end of the bow, and, once on, can neither be loosened nor taken up. the negritos of panay generally use a bamboo bow, much shorter and clumsier than those of _palma brava._ also, while the negritos of the southern islands generally use arrows with hardwood points and without feathered shafts, those used in zambales are triumphs of the arrow maker's art. in either case the shafts are of the light, hard, and straight mountain cane, but instead of the clumsy wooden points the zambales negritos make a variety of iron points for different purposes, some, as for large game, with detachable points. (see pl. xlii.) the shafts are well feathered with the feathers of hawks and other large birds. three feathers are placed about the arrow and securely wrapped at each end with a thin strip of bejuco or some strong grass. the war arrows, in addition to having more elaborately barbed points, are further embellished by incised decorations the entire length of the shaft. these incisions consist simply of a series of lines into which dirt has been rubbed so that they offer a striking contrast to the white surface of the arrow. the women weave some coarse baskets out of bamboo, but they are neither well shaped nor pretty. sometimes to adorn them one strand or strip of bamboo is stained black and the other left its natural color. other objects of manufacture are their ornaments, already described in chapter iii, and musical instruments. (see chap. vi.) the negrito knows that the people of the lowlands for some reason have more food than he. he can not go down and live there and work as they do, because, being timid by nature, he can not feel secure amid an alien people, and, besides, he likes his mountain too well to live contentedly in the hot plains. he makes nothing that the lowlands want, but he knows they use, in the construction of their houses, bejuco, of which his woods are full, and he has learned that they value beeswax, which he knows where to find and how to collect. moreover, there are certain mountain roots, such as wild ginger, that have a market value. his tobacco also finds a ready sale to the filipinos. the bolo is the only tool necessary to cut and strip the bejuco, which he ties into bunches of one hundred and takes into his hut for safety until such a time as a trade can be made. these bunches never bring him more than a peseta each. he collects the beeswax from a nest of wild bees which he has smoked out, melts it, and pours it into a section of bamboo. it is not always necessary that he take his products down to the town, for the filipinos are eager enough to trade with him to go out to his rancheria carrying the little cloth, rice, iron, or steel that he is willing to take for his hard-gained produce. perhaps the townspeople go out because they can drive better bargains. however that may be, the negrito always gets the worst of the deal, whether in town or at his own home. hunting and fishing the negrito is by instinct, habits, and of necessity a hunter. although he has advanced somewhat beyond that stage of primitive life where man subsists wholly from the fruits of the chase, yet it is so necessary to him that were he deprived of it the existence of his race would be seriously threatened. since the chase has furnished him a living for centuries, it is not strange that much of the ingenuity he possesses should be devoted to the construction of arms and traps and snares with which he may kill or capture the creatures of the woods and streams. his environment does not supply a great variety of game, but there are always deer and wild boars in abundance. then there are wild chickens and many birds which none but the negrito would think of eating, and the mountain streams have a few small fish. it is the capture of the deer which makes the greatest demands on the negrito's skill. doubtless his first efforts in this direction were to lie in wait by a run and endeavor to get a shot at a passing animal. but this required an infinite amount of patience, for the deer has a keen nose, and two or three days might elapse before the hunter could get even a glimpse of the animal. so he bethought himself of a means to entrap the deer while he rested at home. at first he made a simple noose of bejuco so placed in the run that the deer's head would go through it and it would close on his neck like a lasso. but this was not very effective. in the first place it was necessary that the run be of the right width with underbrush on either side, because if the noose were too large the deer might jump through it and if too small he might brush it to one side. the results of this method were so uncertain that the practice has fallen into disuse. recourse is now had to the deadly "belatic." i do not believe that this trap, which is common nearly all over the philippines, is original with the negrito. it is probably the product of the malayan brain. a trap almost identical with this and called "belantay" is described by mr. abraham hale [ ] as belonging to the sakai of the malay peninsula, whom the philippine negrito resembles in many ways. the similarity between the two words "belatic" and "belantay" is apparent. in ilokano and pampanga this trap is called "balantic," accented, like the sakai term, on the last syllable. in tagalog and bisayan the letter "n" is dropped and the word is pronounced "be-lat'-ic." mr. hale does not state whether the word is sakai or is borrowed from the malay. but according to clifford and swettenham's malay dictionary the pure malay term is "belante," which, as it is even more similar to the terms in use in the philippines, puts an end to the doubt concerning the origin of the word. the belatic consists of a long arrow or spear, which is driven, with all the force of a drawn bough or other piece of springy wood, across the path of the animal which strikes the cord, releasing the spring. (see fig.  .) when the string c is struck it pulls the movable ring g, releasing k, which immediately flies up, releasing the string i and hence the spring f. the spear, which is usually tied to the end of the spring, though it may simply rest against it, immediately bounds forward, impaling the animal. the spring is either driven into the ground or is firmly held between the two uprights l. this trap is almost invariably successful. wild chickens and birds are caught with simple spring traps. the hungry bird tugging at an innocent-appearing piece of food releases a spring which chokes him to death. the noose snare for catching wild chickens invented by the christianized natives is also used to some extent by the negritos. this trap consists of a lot of small nooses of rattan or bejuco so arranged on a long piece of cane that assisted by pegs driven into the ground they retain an upright position. this is arranged in convex form against a wall or thicket of underbrush so that a bird can not enter the space thus inclosed except by way of the trap. in this inclosed area is placed a tame cock whose crowing attracts the wild one. the latter, spoiling for a fight, makes for the noisy challenger and runs his head through a noose which draws the tighter the more he struggles. the negrito, as has been said, is remarkably ingenious in the construction of arrows. those with which he hunts the deer are provided with cruelly barbed, detachable iron point. (figs. , , pl. xlii.) when the animal is struck the point leaves the shaft, unwinding a long woven coil with which the two are fastened together. the barbs prevent the point from tearing out of the flesh and the dangling shaft catches on the underbrush and serves to retard the animal's flight. in spite of this, however, the stricken deer sometimes gets away, probably to die a lingering death with the terrible iron point deeply embedded in its flesh. a similar arrow is mentioned by de quatrefages as having been found by alan among the mincopies of the andamans. [ ] the arrows which are used to kill smaller animals and birds have variously shaped iron heads without barbs. (figs. , , , , pl. xlii.) however, in shooting small birds a bamboo arrow is used. one end is split a little way, or inches, into three, four, or five sections. these are sharpened and notched and are held apart by small wedges securely fixed by wrappings of cord. if the bird is not impaled on one of the sharp points it may be held in the fork. (figs. , , , pl. xlii.) the fish arrows have long, slender, notched iron points roughly resembling a square or cylindrical file. the points are from to inches in length. sometimes they are provided with small barbs. (figs. , , , pl. xlii.) the negritos of zambales are not so expert in the use of bows and arrows as their daily use of these weapons would seem to indicate. they seldom miss the larger animals at close range, but are not so lucky in shooting at small objects. i have noticed that they shoot more accurately upward into the trees than horizontally. for instance, a boy of would repeatedly shoot mangoes out of a tree, but when i posted a mark at , yards and offered a prize for the best shot no one could hit it. the negritos usually hunt in bands, and, because they have little else to do and can go out and kill a deer almost any time, they do not resort much to the use of traps. a long line of thirty men winding down the path from their village, all armed with bows twice their height and a handful of arrows, their naked bodies gleaming in the early morning sun, presents a truly novel sight. they have with them five or six half-starved dogs. when the haunts of the deer are reached, a big gully cutting through the level table-land, thick with cane and underbrush through which a tiny stream finds its way, half a dozen boys plunge into the depths with the dogs and the rest walk along either side or lie in wait at runs. the negritos in the thicket yell continually and beat the brush, but the dogs are silent until game is scented. then the cries of the runners are redoubled and the din warns those lying in wait to be alert. presently from one of the many runs leading out of the ravine a deer appears and, if there happens to be a negrito on the spot, gets an arrow. but, unless vitally wounded, on he goes followed by the dogs, which never give up the chase of a wounded deer. when a deer is killed it is hung up in a tree and the hunt proceeds. sometimes the thick canebrakes along the river beds are beaten up in this way, or the lightly timbered mountain ravines; for the negrito knows that the deer lie in a cool, sheltered place in the daytime and come forth to browse only at night. on clear, moonlight nights they sometimes attempt to stalk the deer while grazing in the open field, but are not usually successful. quite often in the chase a long rope net, resembling a fish net but much coarser and stronger, is placed in advance of the beating party in some good position where the deer is likely to run if started up. these are absolutely sure to hold the deer should the unfortunate animal run into them--a thing which does not happen often. the negritos are tireless in the chase. they will hunt all day without eating, unless they happen to run across some wild fruit. women frequently take part, especially if dogs are scarce, and they run through the brush yelping to imitate the dogs. but they never carry or use the bows and arrows. this seems to be the especial privilege of the men. boys from an early age are accustomed to their use and always take part in the hunt, sometimes performing active service with their little bows, but girls never touch them. not infrequently the runners in the brush emerge carrying wild pigs which they have seared up and killed, and if, by chance, a big snake is encountered, that ends the hunt, for the capture of a python is an event. the snake is killed and carried in triumph to the village, where it furnishes a feast to all the inhabitants. this sketch of hunting would not be complete without mention of a necessary feature of every successful hunt--the division of the spoils. when the hunt is ended the game is carried back to the village before the division is made, provided the hunters are all from the same place. if two or more villages have hunted together the game is divided in the field. a bed of green rushes or cane is made on which the animal is placed and skinned. this done, the bead man of the party, or the most important man present, takes a small part of the entrails or heart, cuts it into fine bits and scatters the pieces in all directions, at the same time chanting in a monotone a few words which mean "spirits, we thank you for this successful hunt. here is your share of the spoils." this is done to feed and appease the spirits which the negritos believe inhabit all places, and the ceremony is never neglected. then the cutting up and division of the body of the animal takes place. the head and breast go to the man who first wounded the deer, and, if the shot was fatal, he also receives the backbone--this always goes to the man who fired the fatal shot. one hind quarter goes to the owner of the dog which seared up the deer, and the rest is divided as evenly as possible among the other hunters. every part is utilized. the negritos waste nothing that could possibly serve as food. the two hunts i accompanied were conducted in the manner i have related, and i was assured that this was the invariable procedure. the mountain streams of the negrito's habitat do not furnish many fish, but the negrito labors assiduously to catch what he can. in the larger streams he principally employs, after the manner of the christianized natives, the bamboo weir through which the water can pass but the fish can not. in the small streams he builds dams of stones which he covers with banana leaves. then with bow and arrow he shoots the fish in the clear pool thus formed. not infrequently the entire course of a creek will be changed. a dam is first made below in order to stop the passage of the fish, and after a time the stream is dammed at some point above in such a way as to change the current. then, as the water slowly runs out of the part thus cut off, any fish remaining are easily caught. chapter v amusements games a gambling game was the only thing observed among the negritos of zambales which had the slightest resemblance to a game. even the children, who are playful enough at times, find other means of amusing themselves than by playing a systematic game recognized as such and having a distinct name. however, they take up the business of life, the quest for food, at too early an age to allow time, to hang heavy, and hence never feel the need of games. probably the fascination of bow and arrow and the desire to kill something furnish diversion enough for the boys, and the girls, so far as i could see, never play at all. the game of dice, called "sa'-ro," is universal. instead of the familiar dots the marks on the small wooden cubes are incised lines made with a knife. these lines follow no set pattern. one pair of dice which i observed were marked as shown in fig. . the player has five chances, and if he can pair the dice one time out of five he wins, otherwise he loses. only small objects, such as camotes, rough-made cigars, or tobacco leaves, are so wagered. a peculiar feature of the game is the manner in which the dice are thrown. the movement of the arm is an inward sweep, which is continued after the dice leave the hand, until the hand strikes the breast a resounding whack; at the same time the player utters a sharp cry much after the manner of the familiar negro "crap shooter." the negritos do not know where they got the game, but say that it has been handed down by their ancestors. it might be thought that the presence of a negro regiment in the province has had something to do with it, but i was assured by a number of filipinos who have long been familiar with the customs of the negritos that they have had this game from the first acquaintance of the filipinos with them. music in their love for music and their skill in dancing negritos betray other striking negroid characteristics. their music is still of the most primitive type, and their instruments are crude. but if their notes are few no fault can be found with the rhythm, the chief requisite for an accompaniment to a dance. their instruments are various. the simple jew's-harp cut from a piece of bamboo and the four-holed flutes (called "ban'-sic") made of mountain cane (figs. , , pl. xlvi) are very common but do not rise to the dignity of dance instruments. rarely a bronze gong (fig. , pl. xlvi), probably of chinese make, has made its way into negrito hands and is highly prized, but these are not numerous--in fact, none was seen in the northern region, but in southern zambales and bataan they are occasionally used in dances. the most common instrument is the bamboo violin. (fig. , pl. xlvi.) it is easy to make, for the materials are ready at hand. a section of bamboo with a joint at each end and a couple of holes cut in one side furnishes the body. a rude neck with pegs is fastened to one end and three abacá strings of different sizes are attached. then with a small bow of abacá fiber the instrument is ready for use. no attempt was made to write down the music which was evolved from this instrument. it consisted merely in the constant repetition of four notes, the only variation being an occasional change of key, but it was performed in excellent time. rude guitars are occasionally found among the negritos. they are made of two pieces of wood; one is hollowed out and has a neck carved at one end, and a flat piece is glued to this with gum. these instruments have six strings. if a string breaks or becomes useless it is only a question of cutting down a banana stalk and stripping it for a new one. these guitars and violins are by no means common, though nearly every village possesses one. the ability to play is regarded as an accomplishment. a stringed instrument still more primitive is made from a single section of bamboo, from which two or three fine strips of outer bark are split away in the center but are still attached at the ends. these strips are of different lengths and are held apart from the body and made tight with little wedges. (figs. , , pl. xlvi.) another instrument is made by stretching fiber strings over bamboo tubes, different tensions producing different tones. (figs. , , pl. xlvi.) these simpler instruments are the product of the negrito's own brain, but they have probably borrowed the idea of stringed violins and guitars from the christianized natives. the negritos of the entire territory have but two songs, at least so they affirmed, and two were all i heard. strange as it may seem, at least one of these is found at both the extreme ends of the region. an extended acquaintance with them might, and probably would, reveal more songs, but they are reluctant to sing before white men. one of these songs, called "du-nu-ra," is a kind of love song. owing to the extreme embarrassment of the performer i was able to hear it only by going into my tent where i could not see the singer. it consisted of a great many verses--was interminable, in fact. the second of the two songs was called "tal-bun'." this is sung on festive occasions, especially when visitors come. the words are improvised to suit the occasion, but the tune and the manner of rendering never vary. five or six men, each holding with one hand the flowing end of the breechcloth of the one in front or with the hand on his shoulder and the other hand shading the mouth, walk slowly about a circle in a crouching posture, their eyes always cast on the ground. presently the leader strikes a note, which he holds as long as possible and which the others take up as soon as he has sounded it. this is kept up a few minutes, different tones being so sounded and drawn out as long as the performers have breath. the movement becomes more rapid until it is nearly a run, when the performers stop abruptly, back a few steps, and proceed as before. after they have about exhausted the gamut of long-drawn "o's" they sing the words, usually a plea for some favor or gift, being first sung by the leader and repeated after him by the chorus. i did not get the native words of the song i heard, but it was translated to me as follows: we are singing to the american to show him what we can do; perhaps if we sing well he will give us some rice or some cloth. the words are repeated over and over, with only the variation of raising or lowering the tone. at intervals all the performers stop and yell at the top of their voices. sometimes a person on the outside of the circle will take up the strain on a long-held note of the singers. this song also serves for festive occasions, such as weddings. (see pl. xlvii.) dancing dancing forms the chief amusement of the negritos and allows an outlet for their naturally exuberant spirits. i had no more than set, up camp near the first rancheria i visited than i was entertained by dancing. among the negritos helping me was one with an old violin, and as soon as a place was cleared of brush and the tent was up he struck up a tune. whereupon two or three youngsters jumped out and performed a good imitation of a buck-and-wing dance. however, dancing is not generally indulged in by everybody, but two or three in every rancheria are especially adept at it. aside from the general dances, called "ta-li'-pi," which consist of a series of heel-and-toe movements in excellent time to the music of violin or guitar, and which are performed on any occasion such as the setting up of my tent, there are several mimetic dances having a special character or meaning. such are the potato dance, the bee dance, the torture dance, the lover's dance, and the duel dance. (see pls. xlviii, xlix.) the potato dance, or piña camote only one person takes part in the potato dance. at first the performer leaps into the open space and dances around in a circle, clapping his hands as if warming up, the usual preliminary to all the dances. presently in pantomime he finds a potato patch, and goes through the various motions of digging the potatoes, putting them in a sack, and throwing the sack over his shoulder, all the time keeping close watch to prevent his being caught in the act of stealing. he comes to the brush fence which surrounds every "caingin," draws his bolo, cuts his way through, and proceeds until he comes to a river. this is significant as showing that the potato patch he is robbing does not belong to anyone in his own village but is across a river which he must pass on his way home. he sounds for deep water with a stick. it is too deep, and he tries another place. here he loses his footing, drops his sack, and the swift current carries it beyond his reach. while going through the various motions necessary to depict these actions the movement of the dance is kept up, the body bent forward in a crouching position, the feet leaving the ground alternately in rapid motion but never out of time with the music. such agility and tirelessness one could scarcely find anywhere else. the bee dance, or piña pa-ni-lan this dance is also performed by one person and in a similar manner as the potato dance. a piece of cloth tied to a pole serves as a nest of bees. the performer dances around the circle several times; presently he spies the nest and approaches slowly, shading his eyes for a better view. having satisfied himself that he has really made a find, he lights a smudge, goes through the motion of climbing the tree, and in holding the smudge under the nest he is stung several times and has to retreat. this is repeated until all the bees are smoked out and the honey is gathered. then comes a feast in which, drunk with honey, he becomes hilarious. the torture dance this dance, which commemorates the capture of an enemy, is performed in much the same manner as the "talbun" except that there is no song connected with it. the captive is bound to a stake in the center and a dozen men circle slowly around him, in the same manner as already described, one hand over the mouth and uttering long-drawn notes. the movement becomes faster and faster until it consists wholly of frenzied leaps, and the performers, worked up to the proper pitch draw their bolos, close in on their victim, and slash him to pieces. when executed at night in the light of a bonfire this dance is most grotesque and terrible. the naked black bodies, gleaming in the fire, the blood-curdling yells, and the demoniacal figures of the howling, leaping dancers, remind one of the indian war dances. the dance seems to be a relic of more barbarous days when the negritos were, in truth, savages. they say that they never kill a prisoner in this manner now, but that when they find it necessary to put a man to death they do it in the quickest manner possible with a single blow of the knife. (see pl. l.) the lovers' dance as might be expected, a man and a woman take part in the lovers' dance. the women are not such energetic and tireless dancers as the men, and in the lovers' dance the woman, although keeping her feet moving in time to the music, performs in an indolent, passive manner, and does not move from the spot where she begins. but the man circles about her, casting amorous glances, now coming up quite close, and then backing away again, and at times clapping his hands and going through all sorts of evolutions as if to attract the woman. this sort of thing is kept up until one or both are tired. the duel dance the duel dance is by far the most realistic and interesting of any of the negrito dances. is the name suggests, the dance, is performed by two men, warriors, armed with bows and arrows and bolos. an oblong space about feet in width and feet long serves as an arena for the imaginary conflict. after the musician has got well into his tune the performers jump into either end of the space with a whoop and a flourish of weapons, and go through the characteristic negrito heel-and-toe movement, all the time casting looks of malignant hate at each, other but each keeping well to his end of the ring. then they advance slowly toward each other, swinging the drawn bow and arrow into play as if to shoot, then, apparently changing their minds or the opportunity not being good for a death shot, they withdraw again to the far ends of the ring. advancing once more each one throws the drawn bow and arrow upward, then toward the ground, calling heaven and earth to witness his vow to kill the other. presently one gets a favorable opportunity, his bowstring twangs, and his opponent falls to the ground. the victor utters a cry of triumph, dances up to the body of his fallen foe, and cuts off the head with his bolo. he beckons and cries out to the relatives of the dead man to come and avenge the deed. nobody appearing, he bears aloft the head of the enemy, shouting exultingly and triumphantly as if to taunt them to respond. still no one comes. then after waiting and listening for a time he replaces the head with the trunk and covers the body over with leaves and dirt. this ends the dance. ordinarily it requires fifteen minutes for the full performance. during this time the one who by previous arrangement was to be the victor never for a single instant pauses or loses step. chapter vi general social life the child i was unable to learn anything in support of montano's statement that immediately after the birth of a child the mother rushes to a river with it and plunges into the cold water. [ ] on the contrary, the child is not washed at all until it is several days old, and the mother does not go to the stream until at least two days have elapsed. it is customary to bury the placenta. the birth of a child is not made the occasion of any special festivity. the naming is usually done on the day of birth, but it may be done any time within a few days. it is not common for the parents of the child to do the naming, though they may do so, but some of the old people of the tribe generally gather and select the name. names of trees, objects, animals, places near which the child was born, or of certain qualities and acts or deeds all furnish material from which to select. for instance, if a child is born under a guijo tree he may be called "guijo;" a monkey may be playing in the tree and the child will be named "barac" (monkey); or if the birth was during a heavy rain the child may be called "layos" (flood). usually the most striking object near at hand is selected. like most primitive peoples, the negritos use only one name. if the child is sickly or cries very much, the name is changed, because the negritos believe that the spirit inhabiting the place where the child was born is displeased at the choice of the name and takes this means of showing its displeasure, and that if the name is not changed the child will soon die. apparently no distinction is made between the names for the two sexes. the child may be given the name of the father, to whose name the word "pan," meaning elder, is prefixed for the sake of distinction. for instance, if a man named manya should have either a son or a daughter the child might be called manya, and the father would henceforth be known as pan-manya. this practice is very common, and when names like pan-benandoc, pan-turico, and pan-palaquan' are encountered it may be regarded as a certainty that the owners of these names have children of the same name without the prefix. although one may change his name at any time of life, if the years of infancy are safely passed, no change is likely to be made. it is regarded as a sign of disrespect to address elders or superiors by name. the word "pan" alone is frequently used. relatives are addressed by the term which shows the relationship, as "anac" (son), and names are used only when speaking of persons and seldom if ever when speaking to them. parents seem to have great affection for their children, but exact obedience from them. punishment is inflicted for small offenses, striking with the hand being the usual method. i have never seen a switch used. sometimes, as in cases of continual crying, the child is severely pinched in the face or neck. children also exhibit great affection for their parents; this continues through life, as is shown in the care which the aged receive at the hands of their juniors. (see pls. li et seq.) marriage whatever differences there may be in the manner of conducting the preliminaries to a wedding and of performing the ceremony, there is one feature that never varies, the gift of some articles of value from the prospective bridegroom to the parents of the girl he wishes to marry. with the negritos a daughter is regarded as an asset of so much value, not to be parted with until that price is paid, and, while she is allowed some freedom in the choice of a husband, parental pressure usually forces her to the highest bidder. the following is the customary procedure: the young man who wishes to marry and has found a girl to suit him informs his parents of the fact. he has probably already talked the matter over with the girl, though not necessarily so. the affair is discussed in the family of the suitor, the main topic being how much the girl is worth and how much they can afford to pay. then either the suitor or some relative acting for him goes to the parents of the girl to ask if the suit will be favorably considered. if it will, they return and a few days later go again bearing presents of tobacco, maize, bejuco, knives, cloth, forest products, or anything else they may happen to have. if these gifts are of sufficient value to compensate the father for the loss of his girl, he gives his consent. value is determined by the attractiveness of a girl and hence the probability of her making a good match, also by her health and strength, as women are good workers on the little farms. if the first gifts do not come up to the demands of the girl's parents the wedding can not take place until the amount lacking is made up. as to the money value of these gifts i have been told different things by negritos in different villages, the values given ranging from pesos to pesos. as a matter of fact this means nothing, for the negrito's idea of value as measured by pesos is extremely vague; but there is no doubt that the gifts made represent almost all the wealth of which a young man and his family can boast. this system of selling girls, for that is what it amounts to, is carried to an extreme by parents who contract their daughters at an early age to the parents of some boy, and the children are regarded as man and wife, though of course each remains with the parents until the age of puberty is reached. whether or not the whole payment is made in the beginning or only enough is paid to bind the bargain, i do not know, but i do know that cases of this kind may be met with frequently among the negritos of pinatubo, who give as an excuse that the girl is thus protected from being kidnapped by some neighboring tribe, the relatives of the boy making common cause with those of the girl in case anything like this should happen. it seems more likely, however, that the contract is simply a desire on the part of the parents of the girl to come into early possession of the things which are paid for her, and of the parents of the boy to get her cheaper than they could by waiting until she was of marriageable age. this practice is not met with in southern zambales and bataan, where marriage does not seem to partake so much of the nature of a sale but where presents are nevertheless made to a girl's parents. if it happens that there is a young man in the girl's family who is seeking a wife in that of the boy, an even exchange may be made and neither family has to part with any of its possessions. i was told also that in lieu of other articles a young man might give a relative to the bride's family, who was to remain as a sort of slave and work for his master until he was ransomed by payment of the necessary amount; or he might buy a person condemned to death and turn him over at an increased price, or sell children stolen from another barrio. as a bride may be worth as much as pesos and a slave never more than pesos, it would seem necessary to secure several individuals as payment. this was told me more than once and in different villages, but i was unable to find any examples, and am forced to conclude that if it ever was the practice, it is no longer so, at least among the "conquistas." as to the true savages, still lurking in the inmost recesses of the zambales mountains, i am unable to say. the question of slavery among negritos is reserved to another chapter. rice ceremony all the preliminaries having been satisfactorily attended to, it remains only to perform the ceremony. this proceeding varies in different sections from practically no ceremony at all in the pinatubo region to a rather complicated performance around subig and olongapo. in some of the northern villages, when the matter of payment has been arranged, a feast and dancing usually follow, in which all the relatives of both families participate, and after this the couple go to their own house. there may be two feasts on succeeding days, one given by the parents of the boy to the relatives of the girl, and vice versa. if only one feast is given both families contribute equally in the matter of food. no single act can be pointed out as constituting a ceremony. in other places, especially at cabayan and aglao, near santa fé, an exchange of food between the pair is a necessary part of the performance. a mat is placed on the ground, and in the center is set a dish of cooked rice or some other food. the pair seat themselves on either side of the dish, facing each other, while all the relatives and spectators crowd around. the man takes a small piece of the food and places it in the mouth of the girl, and she does the same for the man. at this happy conclusion of the affair all the people around give a great shout. sometimes the girl leaps to her feet and runs away pursued by her husband, who calls after her to stop. this she does after a little, and the two return together; or they may take a bamboo tube used for carrying water and set off to the river to bring water for the others to drink, thus performing in unison the first act of labor of their married life. i was fortunate enough to witness a ceremony where the exchange of food was the important feature. in this instance a piece of brown bread which i was about to throw away served as the wedding cake. it seems that the girl had been contracted by her parents when very young to a man old enough to be her father, and when the time for the wedding arrived she refused to have anything to do with it. for two years she had resisted entreaties and threats, displaying more force of will than one would expect from a negrito girl of . the man had paid a large price for her-- pesos, he said--and the girl's parents did not have it to return to him. it was suggested that if we made her some presents it might induce her to yield. she was presented with enough cloth for two or three camisas and sayas, a mirror, and a string of beads, and she finally gave an unwilling assent to the entreaties of her relatives, and the ceremony was performed in the manner already described. at the conclusion a yell went up from the assembly, and i, at the request of the capitán, fired three pistol shots into the air. everybody seemed satisfied except the poor girl, who still wept furtively over her new treasures. some days later, however, when i saw her she appeared to be reconciled to her fate, and was happy in the possession of more valuables than any other woman in the rancheria. head ceremony in the southern rancherias a bamboo platform is erected or feet high, with a ladder leading up to it from the ground. on the day fixed for the marriage the groom, accompanied by his parents, goes to the house of the bride and asks for her. they are usually told that she has gone away, but some small gifts are sufficient to have her produced, and the whole party proceeds to the place of marriage. here bride and groom mount the ladder--some accounts say the bride is carried up by her prospective father-in-law. an old man of the tribe, and, if the platform be large enough, also the parents of the pair, go up and squat down in the rear. the bride and bridegroom also squat down facing each other, and the old man comes forward and knocks their heads together. i was told at subig that only the bride and groom mount the platform and seat themselves for a talk, the relatives remaining below facing each other with drawn weapons. if by any chance the pair can not agree, it means a fight. but if they do agree, they descend from the platform and the head bumping completes the ceremony. this is an extremely unlikely story, probably the product of malayan imagination. "leput," or home coming after the ceremony has been performed the newly wedded pair return to the home of the girl's parents where they remain a few days. when the husband possesses enough gifts for his bride to fulfill the requirements of the leput that important event takes place. although the writer heard repeated accounts of this ceremony in southern zambales he never had an opportunity to witness it. however, the leput is described as follows by mr. c. j. cooke, who saw it in bataan: [ ] the bride had already left the home of her mother and formed the center of a group passing through a grove of heavy timber with very little underbrush. the evening sun cast strange shadows on the weird procession as it moved snakelike along the narrow path. occasionally there would be short stops, when the bride would squat to receive some bribes or tokens from her husband, his relatives, or friends. nor would she move until she received something each time she elected to stop. clad in a bright-red breechcloth and extra-high silk hat was the capitán who headed the procession. he carried a silver-headed cane. next in order came some of the elders of both sexes. then came the bride attended by four women and closely followed by her husband, who also had a like number of attendants. last came the main body, all walking in single file. two musicians were continually executing a running dance from one end of the procession to the other and always keeping time with their crude drums or copper gongs, the noise of which could be heard for miles around. whenever they passed the bride they would hold the instruments high in the air, leaping and gyrating at their best. when the bride would squat the dancers would even increase their efforts, running a little way to the front and returning to the bride as if endeavoring to induce her to proceed. it did not avail, for she would hot move till she received some trinket. in crossing streams or other obstacles the bride was carried by her father-in-law; the bridegroom was carried by one of his attendants. presently they arrived at a critical spot. this is the place where many a man has to let his wife return to her mother; for here it is the bride wants to see how many presents are coming to her. if satisfied, she goes on. in this case there was a shortage, and everybody became excited. the husband huddled to the side of his bride and looked into her face with a very pitiful expression, as if pleading with her to continue. but she was firm. in a few minutes several people formed a circle and commenced dancing in the same way as at their religious ceremony, and chanting low and solemnly an admonition to the husband's parents and friends to give presents to the bride. this was repeated several times, when there came a lull. the bride was still firm in her opinion that the amount offered was insufficient. i had supplied myself with some cheap jewelry, and a few trinkets satisfied her desires; so the "music" again started. louder it became--wilder--resounding with a thousand echoes, and as the nude bodies of the negritos glided at lightning speed from the glare of one torchlight to the other, with no word uttered but a continual clangor of the metal gongs, one thought that here was a dance of devils. in due time we came to a place in the path that was bordered on either side by small strips of bamboo about feet long with both points sticking in the ground, resembling croquet arches, six on either side. when the bride arrived there she squatted and her maids commenced to robe her in a new gown (à la filipina) over the one she already had on. she then continued to another similar place and donned a new robe over those already on. this was repeated twice, when she arrived at a triumphal arch. there she donned a very gaudy dress consisting of red waist and blue skirt, with a large red handkerchief as a wedding veil. rejoicing in her five complete dresses, one over the other, she passed through the arch and again squatted. meanwhile a fire was built midway between the arch and a structure specially prepared for the couple. all present except those waiting on the groom and bride joined in a dance around the fire, chanting gleefully and keeping time with hands and feet. all at once the circle divided just in front of the arch; two persons on opposite sides joined bands overhead. the bride now stood up, immediately her father-in-law caught her in his arms, ran under the human arch, and deposited her gently in the house of his son. when the husband, from where he was squatting under the arch, saw his bride safely laid in his house his joy knew no bounds. with a yell he leaped up, swinging his unsheathed bolo over his head, and in a frenzy jumped over the fire, passed through the human arch, and with a final yell threw his arms around his wife in a long embrace. the ceremony as above described contains many details which i did not meet with in zambales, but the main feature, the sitting down of the bride to receive her gifts, is the same. polygamy and divorce as might be expected among the negritos, a man may marry as many wives as he can buy. his inability to provide the necessary things for her purchase argues against his ability to provide food for her. hence it is only the well-to-do that can afford the luxury of more than one wife. visually this practice is confined to the capitán or head man of the tribe, and even he seldom has more than two wives, but one case was noticed in the village of tagiltil, where one man had seven. at cabayan the capitán had two wives, a curly-haired one, and a straight-haired one, the latter the daughter of filipinos who had taken up their abode with the negritos. (see pl. lv.) polygamy is allowed throughout the negrito territory. it is not uncommon for a man to marry sisters or a widow and her daughter. marriage between blood relatives is prohibited. divorce is not very common with the negritos in zambales. there seems to be a sentiment against it. if a man is powerful enough he may divorce his wife, but if he does so for any other reason than desertion or unfaithfulness her relatives are likely to make a personal matter of it and cause trouble. a man and his wife may separate by mutual agreement and that of their families. in such a case whatever property they may have is divided equally, but the mother takes the children. a more frequent occurrence than that, however, is the desertion of her husband by a woman who has found some one of greater attractions elsewhere, probably in another rancheria, but even these cases are rare. if it is possible to reach the offender the new husband will have to pay up, otherwise it is necessary for the woman's parents to pay back to the injured husband all that he has paid for her. but if the offender is caught and is found to be unable to pay the necessary price the penalty is death. in any event the husband's interests are guarded. ile can either recover on his investment or get revenge. burial notwithstanding the repeated statements of travelers that negritos bury their dead under their houses, which are then abandoned, nothing of this kind was met in zambales, and mr. cooke did not see it in bataan. he says that in the latter province the body is placed in a coffin made by hollowing out a tree, and is buried in some high spot, but there is no regular burying ground. a rude shed and a fence are built to protect the grave. in zambales any spot may be selected. the body is wrapped up in a mat and buried at a depth of or feet to protect it from dogs and wild boars. with their few tools such interment constitutes an arduous labor. i was unable to learn of any special ceremony performed at a burial. montano says they have one, and mr. cooke states that all the relatives of the deceased kneel in a circle around the coffin and sing a mournful monotone. the negritos of zambales repeatedly affirmed that they had no burial ceremony. morals i believe that many of the vices of the negrito are due to contact with the malayan to whom he is, at least in point of truthfulness, honesty, and temperance, far superior. it is rare that he will tell a lie unless he thinks he will be greatly benefited by it, and he seems not to indulge in purposeless lying, as so often do his more civilized neighbors. so far as my acquaintance with him goes, i never detected an untruth except one arising from errors of judgment. in their dealings with each other there seldom occur disputes among the negritos, which in itself is an evidence of their natural honesty. with filipinos, they are inclined to accept and respect the opinions of their more knowing, if less honest, patrons, and take what is offered for their produce with little protest. it is to be feared, however, that as they realize the duplicity of the filipinos they themselves may begin to practice it. alcoholism is unknown among them, but they drink willingly of the native drinks, "tuba" and "anisado," whenever it is offered them. they do not make these beverages. nowhere does it seem to have gotten a hold on them, and there are no drunkards. the practice of smoking is followed by negritos of both sexes, old and young, although they are not such inveterate smokers as are the filipinos. the custom prevails of smoking roughly made cigars of tobacco leaves tied up with a grass string, always with the lighted end in the mouth. after smoking a few whiffs, the cigar is allowed to go out, and the stump is tucked away in the breechcloth or behind the ear for future use. one of these stumps may be seen somewhere about a negrito at almost any time. pipes are never used. very few negritos chew betel nut, and their teeth, although sharpened as they are, offer a pleasing contrast to the betel-stained teeth of the average filipino. while one can not speak authoritatively in regard to relation of the sexes without a long and close study of their customs, yet all the evidence at band goes to show that the negritos as a race are virtuous, especially when compared with the christianized natives. their statement that death is their penalty for adultery is generally accepted as true, and probably is, with some modifications. montano mentions it twice, [ ] and he asserts further in regard to the negritos of bataan that "sexual relations outside of marriage are exceedingly rare. a young girl suspected of it must forever renounce the hope of finding a husband." in zambales the negritos continually assert that adultery is punishable by death, but closer questioning usually brought out the fact that the offenders could buy off if they possessed the means. montano makes the statement that in case of adultery it is the injured husband who executes the death sentence. however, the injured husband is satisfied if he recovers what he paid for his wife in the beginning. in case of a daughter, the father exacts the payment, and only in case he is destitute is it likely to go hard with the offender. it has been asserted also that theft is punishable by death. the negritos say that if a man is caught stealing and can not pay the injured person whatever he considers the value of the stolen article and the fine that is assessed against him, he will be put to death. but, as a matter of fact, it is never done. he is given his time in which to pay his fine or someone else may pay it; and in the latter case the offender becomes a sort of slave and works for his benefactor. murder is punishable by death. the victim is executed in the manner already described in the torture dance. but murder is so rare as to be almost unknown. the disposition of the negrito is peaceable and seldom leads him into trouble. cooke [ ] states that as a punishment for lighter offenses the negritos of bataan use an instrument, called "con-de-mán," which is simply a split stick sprung on the neck from six to twenty hours, according to the degree of the crime, and which is said to be very painful. nothing like this was seen in zambales. slavery notwithstanding the statements of montano that the negritos have no slaves and know nothing of slavery, the reverse is true, in zambales at least; so say the negritos and also the filipinos who have spent several years among them. the word "a-li'-pun" is used among them to express such social condition. as has been stated, a man caught stealing may become a slave, as also may a person captured from another rancheria, a child left without support, a person under death sentence, or a debtor. it was also stated that if a man committed a crime and escaped a relative could be seized as a slave. it will take a long acquaintance with the negritos and an intimate knowledge of their customs to get at the truth of these statements. intellectual life the countenance of the average negrito is not dull and passive, as might reasonably be expected, but is fairly bright and keen, more so than the average malayan countenance. the negrito also has a look of good nature--a look usually lacking in the malayan. his knowledge of things other than those pertaining to his environment is, of course, extremely limited, but he is possessed of an intellect that is capable of growth under proper conditions. he always manifests the most lively interest in things which he does not understand, and he tries to assign causes for them. natural phenomena he is unable to explain. when the sun sets it goes down behind a precipice so far off that he could not walk to it, but he does not know how it gets back to the east. rain comes from the clouds, but he does not know how it got there except that thunder and lightning bring it. these things are incomprehensible to him and he has apparently invented no stories concerning them. while thunder and lightning are good because they bring rain, yet if they are exceedingly violent he becomes afraid and tries to stop them by burning deer's bones, which, he says, are always efficacious. the mathematical knowledge of the negritos is naturally small. they count on their fingers and toes, beginning always with the thumb and great toe. if the things they are counting are more than twenty they go through the process again, but never repeat the fingers without first counting the toes. to add they use rice or small stones. they have no weights or measures except those of the civilized natives, but usually compare things to be measured with some known object. distance is estimated by the time taken to walk it, but they have no conception of hours. it may take from sunrise until the sun is directly overhead to go from a certain rancheria to another, but if asked the number of hours the negrito is as likely to say three or eight as six. they have no division of time by weeks or months, but have periods corresponding to the phase of the moon, to which they give names. the new moon is called "bay'-un bu'-an," the full moon "da-a'-na bu'-an," and the waning moon "may-a'-mo-a bu'-an." they determine years by the planting or harvesting season. yet no record of years is kept, and memory seldom goes back beyond the last season. hence the negritos have no idea of age. they know that they are old enough to have children or grandchildren, and that is as far as their knowledge of age goes. to count days ahead they tie knots in a string of bejuco and each day cut off one knot. in regard to units of value they are familiar with the peso and other coins of the philippines and have vague ideas as to their value. but one meets persistently the word "tael" in their estimate of the value of things. a tael is pesos. if asked how much he paid for his wife a mail may say "luampo fact." where they got this chinese term i do not attempt to say, unless it points to very remote commercial relations with the chinese, a thine, which seems incredible. [ ] the negritos have developed to a high degree a sense of the dramatic, and they can relate a tale graphically, becoming so interested in their account as to seem to for get their surroundings. for instance, a head man was giving me one night an account of their marriage ceremony. he went through all the motions necessary to depict various actions, talking faster and louder as if warming up to his theme, his eyes sparkling and his face and manner eager. they are much like children in their curiosity to see the white man's belongings, and are as greatly pleased with the gift of a trinket. their expressions and actions on beholding themselves in a mirror for the first time are extremely ludicrous. one man who had a goatee gazed at it and stroked it with feelings of pride and admiration not unmixed with awe. superstitions it will also take a close acquaintance to learn much of the superstitious beliefs of the negritos. some hints have already been given in regard to feeding the spirits after a hunt and reasons for changing names of children. other superstitious were mentioned, as the wearing of bracelets and leglets of wild boar's skin and the burning of deer's bones to scare away thunder. the basis of all the superstitious beliefs of the negritos, what might else be termed their religion, is the constant presence of the spirits of the dead near where they lived when alive. all places are inhabited by the spirits. all adverse circumstances, sickness, failure of crops, unsuccessful hunts, are attributed to them. so long as things go well the spirits are not so much considered. there seems to be no particular worship or offerings to gain the good will of the spirits, other than the feeding already noted, except in one particular. on the tarlac trail between o'donnell (tarlac province) and botolan (zambales province) there is a huge black bowlder which the negritos believe to be the home of one powerful spirit. so far as i could learn, the belief is that the spirits of all who die enter this one spirit or "anito" who has its abiding place in this rock. however that may be, no negrito, and in fact no christianized native of zambales or tarlac, ever passes this rock without leaving a banana, camote, or some other article of food. if they do, bad luck or accident is sure to attend the trip. señor potenciano lesaca, the present governor of zambales, when quite young, once passed the rock and for amusement--and greatly to the horror of the negritos with him-spurned it by kicking it with his foot and eating part of a banana and throwing the rest in the opposite direction. the negritos were much concerned and said that something would happen to him. sure enough, before he had gone far he got an arrow through both legs from savage negritos along the trail who could have known nothing of the occurrence. of course this only strengthened the belief. there is nothing unusual about the shape of the stone. it is merely a large, round bowlder. disease is usually considered a punishment for wrongdoing, the more serious diseases coming from the supreme anito, the lesser ones from the lesser anitos. if smallpox visits a rancheria it is because someone has cut down a tree or killed an animal belonging to a spirit which has invoked the aid of the supreme spirit in inflicting a more severe punishment than it can do alone. for the lesser diseases there are mediquillos or medicine men or women, called "mañga-anito," who are called to exorcise the spirit creating the disturbance. anyone who has cured patients or belongs to a family of mediquillos can follow the profession. there is an aversion to being a mediquillo, although it pays, because if a patient dies the medicine man who treated him is held accountable. as a rule they are treated with respect, and people stand more or less in awe of them, but they have sometimes been killed when they failed to effect a cure. señor benito guido, a native of botolan, who accompanied me to the barrio of tagiltil as interpreter, became slightly ill while in a camp. the negritos were much worked up over it. they said it was caused by cutting the bamboo for our camp, the spirits that owned the bamboo being offended. in order that we might witness their customs in such cases, an old woman who practiced as "mañga-anito" was called and offered to relieve the patient for a little money. a peso was given her and she began. upon being asked how he was affected señor guido said that he felt as if something was weighing him down. of course this was the spirit, which had to be removed before a cure could be effected. the mañga-anito danced around the patient and bad him dance and turn somersaults. this was to make the spirit sorry he had chosen such an unstable abiding place. finally she took hold of his hands, gave a mighty tug and then dropped back stiff. the spirit had passed from the body of the patient into her body. during all these gymnastics the other negritos had preserved a most solemn mien, but at this juncture they set to work to restore the stricken woman, rubbing and working her arms and legs until the spirit was gone. all disease is caused by spirits, which must be expelled from the body before a cure can be effected. use is also made of other remedies to supplement the ministrations of the mañga-anito. attention has been called to the string of dried berries, called "a-gata," which the negritos of pinatubo wear around their necks for convenience in case of pains in the stomach. in southern zambales what seem to be these same berries are used as a charm against snake bite. here for pains in the stomach they boil a piece of iron in water and drink the water hot. pieces of certain woods are believed efficacious for rheumatism, and old men especially may often be seen with them tied around the limbs. this superstition is not far removed from the belief entertained in certain rural districts of the united states that rheumatism may be prevented by carrying a horse chestnut in the pocket. the negritos also wear such pieces of wood around the neck for colds and sore throat. in cases of fever a bed is made from the leaves of a plant called "sam'-bon," which much resembles mint, and leaves are bound to the affected parts. the action of these leaves is cooling. for fractures they use bamboo splints and leaves of a plant called "ta-cum'-ba-o." a bad cut is also bound up in these leaves or with the sap of a tree called "pan-da-ko'-kis." the negritos do nothing for skin disease, a form of herpes, with which a great many are afflicted. they probably do not regard it as a disease. (see pls. lvi et seq.) in case of centipede bites, if on a finger, the affected member is thrust in the anus of a chicken, where, the negrito affirms, the poison is absorbed, resulting in the death of the chicken. goiter is quite common. it is said to be caused by strain from carrying a heavy load of camotes or other objects on the head. smallpox, as has been said, is believed to be a visitation of the wrath of the supreme spirit, and if it breaks out in a rancheria the victim is left with a supply of food and water and the place is abandoned. after several days have elapsed the people return cautiously, and if they find the patient is dead they go away again never to return, but if he has recovered they take up their abode in the rancheria. a great many of the negritos seen in zambales have scars of smallpox. the practice of blistering the body in case of sickness is very common in the pinatubo region. the belief prevails with some individuals that in the healing up of the sore thus produced the sickness with which the body is afflicted will go away. others affirmed that blistering was done only in case of fevers, and that the pain inflicted caused the patient to break out in a profuse perspiration which relieved the fever. this seems a more rational belief. individuals were seen with as many as twenty scars produced in this manner. aside from the anito belief, the negritos have other superstitions. cries of birds at night are especially unlucky. if a person is starting out on a journey and someone sneezes just as he is leaving he will not go then. it is regarded as a sign of disaster, and delay of an hour or so is necessary in order to allow the spell to work off. a certain parasitic plant that much resembles yellow moss and grows high up in trees is regarded as a very powerful charm. it is called "gay-u-ma" and a man who possesses it is called "nanara gayuma." if his eyes rest on a person during the new moon he will become sick at the stomach, but he can cure the sickness by laying hands on the afflicted part. señor benito guido says that when a young man he was told by negritos that this charm would float upstream. and when he offered to give a carabao for it if that were so, its power was not shown. in spite of this, however, the negritos are firm believers in it, and, for that matter, so also are the christianized zambal and tagalog. it is likewise thought to be of value in attracting women. if it is rubbed on a woman or is smoked and the smoke blows on her the conquest is complete. chapter vii spanish attempts to organize negritos the attention of the spanish government was early attracted to the negritos and other savages in the philippines, and their subjection and conversion was the subject of many royal orders, though unfortunately little was accomplished. one of the first decrees of the gobierno superior relating especially to the negritos was that of june , . it runs substantially as follows: in my visits to the provinces of these islands, having noticed, with the sympathy that they must inspire in all sensitive souls, the kind of life and the privations that many of the infidel tribes, and especially the negritos who inhabit the mountains, are forced to endure; and persuaded that it is a duty of all civilized governments and of humanity itself to better the condition of men, who, hidden thus from society, will in time become extinct, victims of their customs, of the unhealthfulness of the rugged places where they live, and of our negligence in helping them; and desirous of making them useful, that some day, influenced by the benefits of social life, they may enter the consoling pale of our holy mother, the catholic church, i hereby decree the following: article . the alcaldes and military and political governors of provinces in whose district there may be tribes or rancherias of the aforesaid negritos or of other infidels shall proceed with the consent of the devoted curas parrocos, whose charity i implore for them, through their head men or capitanes, to induce them to take the necessary steps to assemble in villages, lands being given for that purpose, in places not very near to christian pueblos, and seeds of grains and vegetables being furnished that they may cultivate the land. * * * * * * * art. . two years after the pueblo shall have been formed the inhabitants thereof shall pay a moderate tribute, which shall not for the present exceed one real per head, the youths and children being excepted, obtaining in compensation the usufruct of the lands which they may hold as their own property so long as they do not abandon the cultivation, being able to sell to others under the same conditions with the knowledge of the authority of the district. art. . said authorities and also the priests shall maintain the greatest zeal and vigilance that the christian pueblos do not intrude on those of the infidels or negritos, neither that individuals live among them nor that they harass or molest them on any pretext whatsoever under penalty of being punished. * * * art. . as i have understood that if the negritos refuse social life it is on account of their being warned by the christians who employ them in cutting wood, bamboo, and bejuco, and in the collection of other products of the woods which they inhabit, the chiefs of the provinces and the justices of the peace shall take care that no one enters into such contracts with the negritos without competent authorization, leaving his name in a register in order that if he fail to pay the true value of the articles satisfactory to the negritos or mistreats them it will be possible to fix the blame on him and to impose the proper penalty. article states that-- it shall not be necessary for the negritos to embrace the catholic faith, but the priests shall go among them to examine their condition and learn their needs and teach them the advantages of civil life and the importance of religion. article provides for a report every three months from those officers in charge of such districts. this all sounds very well, and if carried out might have succeeded in improving the condition of the unfortunate negritos, but we can not find that the provincial officials showed great zeal in complying with the executive request. on january , , a decree very similar to this was issued. the first part of this decree related to the newly converted or "sometidos." but article authorized the provincial authorities to offer in the name of the state to aetas and other pagans the following advantages in exchange for voluntary submission: life in pueblos; unity of families; concession of good lands and direction in cultivating them in the manner which they wished and which would be most productive; maintenance and clothing during one year; respect for their usages and customs so far as they did not oppose the natural law; to leave to their own wishes whether or not they should become christians; to buy or facilitate the sale of their crops; exemption from contributions and tributes for ten years and lastly, government by local officials elected by themselves under the direct dependency of the head of the province or district. these provisions were certainly liberal enough, but they bore little fruit so far as the negritos were concerned. being sent out as circulars to the chiefs of all provinces, such decrees received scant attention, each provincial head probably preferring to believe that they were meant for someone else. although it sounded well on paper, the difficulties in the way of successful compliance with such an order were many. but in one way and another the authorities sought to reach the hill tribes, though it must be confessed they were actuated rather by a desire to preserve peace in their provinces and to protect the plainsmen from the plundering raids of the savages than by motives of philanthropy in improving the condition of the latter. the negritos of zambales were classed as conquistados and non-conquistados, according to whether they lived in amicable relations with the filipinos or stole carabaos and killed the people whenever they had the opportunity. the guardia civil made many raids into the mountains for the purpose of punishing the predatory negritos, and many are the stories related by old members of that military organization now living in the province concerning conflicts which they had with the little black bow-and-arrow men, who always got the worst of it. gradually they came to see the futility of resistance. as a matter of fact these raids were only for the purpose of securing food and not because of enmity toward the filipinos. when a group expressed their desire to live peaceably in their hills they were dubbed "conquistados" and left alone so long as they behaved. the number of conquistados grew and the "unconquered" retreated farther into the mountains. carabao raids are very infrequent now, for the people disposed to make them are too remote from the plains and would have to pass through territory of the settled and peaceable negritos, who would inform the party sent in pursuit. but the constabulary has had two or three raids of this kind to deal with during the past two years. those negritos still living in a wild state have very simple government. they simply gather around the most powerful man, whom they recognize as a sort of chief and whom they follow into raids on the plains or neighboring tribes of negritos. but when living peaceably scattered through their mountains each head of a family is a small autocrat and rules his family and those of his sons who elect to remain with him. when he dies the oldest son becomes the head of the family. usually, however, a group of families living in one locality recognizes one man as a capitán. he may be chosen by the president of the nearest pueblo or by the negritos themselves, who are quick to recognize in this way superior ability or greater wealth. the capitán settles disputes between families. the next step in the civilizing process is the gathering together to form villages. this was the end to which the spaniards worked, but the process was retarded by the christianized natives who profited by trade with the negritos in forest products and who advised them to avoid coming under spanish rule where they would have to pay tribute. if a community became sufficiently large and bade fair to be permanent it was made a barrio of the nearest pueblo and given a teniente and concejales like other barrios. this was the case with aglao and santa fé, in the jurisdiction of san marcelino, but ilokano immigrants settled in these places and the negritos gradually withdrew to the hills and settled in other places, until now there are very few negritos actually living in these towns. one old man in aglao, who once went to spain as a servant to an officer, speaks very good spanish. in spite of the reprisals made by the guardia civil and other means employed by the spaniards, negrito raids went on without much cessation until . in that year the authorities induced a head man named layos to come down to the town of san marcelino for an interview. layos came down about as nature had provided him and was received with much ceremony by the town authorities. they dressed him up from head to foot, made him presents, and feasted him for several days. then with the customary spanish pomp, parade of soldiery, and flare of trumpets, they presented him with a gaudy sash and named him capitán general del monte. he was given charge of all the negritos in the district and charged to keep them under control. the sash was a cheap print affair, but it answered the purpose. the effect of all this on an untamed savage can be imagined. layos was impressed. he went back to the hills with his new treasures and an experience worth relating. it is said that the robbing and killing of christian natives lessened materially after that. when i was at cabayan in that district i saw layos. he was a heavy-set man of about , harelipped, an old ragged shirt and breechcloth his only apparel, and with nothing of his former grandeur but the memory. the sash, his badge of office, he said had long since gone in breechcloths. in the same year ( ) all negritos in the botolan district who would come down from the mountains were fed for five or six months in hope that they would settle down and remain. but they were given nothing to do and were not shown how to work, and when the feeding stopped they all went back to the hills, the only place where they knew how to secure sustenance. although this experiment did not result as desired, it probably had good effects, for the people of this region are the farthest advanced to-day and are most inclined to live in villages. i am informed that since my visit some of the negritos have moved down to the filipino village of pombato and there are several negrito children in the native school. the people of tagiltil have even expressed a desire for a school. the presence of several zambal and halfbreeds in this village and its nearness to the filipinos probably account for its being ahead of other villages in this as in other respects. appendix a anthropometric measurements the paucity of measurements has already been explained, but those that were taken are given here for what they are worth. i do not attempt to draw any conclusions from them or undertake any discussion other than that already given in the chapter on physical features. in the following tables it should be noted that where the age is given the number indicates only an estimate, as no negrito knows his age. it has been thought better to give these approximate ages than to leave them out entirely, in order to distinguish the very young from the middle aged and old: measurements of negritos no. | sex | | age | | | standing height | | | | span of arms | | | | | length of nose | | | | | | breadth of nose | | | | | | | nasal index | | | | | | | | length of ear | | | | | | | | | female , , do , , do , , do , , do , , male , , do , , do , , do , , do , , do , , female , , do , , do , , do , , do , , male , , do , , do , , do , , do , , do , , do , , do , , female , , do , , male , , do , , female , , do , , do , , do , , do , , male , , do , , do , , do , , do , , do , , female , , do , , do , , do , , do , , male , , do , , do , , female , , do , , male , , do , , do , , do , , female , , do , , do , , male , , do , , no. | sex | | age | | | standing height | | | | height of shoulders | | | | | span of arms | | | | | | width of shoulders | | | | | | | length of hand | | | | | | | | length of arm | | | | | | | | | height sitting | | | | | | | | | | length of foot | | | | | | | | | | | length of head | | | | | | | | | | | | breadth of head | | | | | | | | | | | | | cephalic index | | | | | | | | | | | | | | length of nose | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | breadth of nose | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | nasal index | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | length of ear | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | male , , , , . . do , , , , . do , , , , . . do , , , , . . do , , , , . do , , , , . . do , , , . do , , , . . do , , , , . . do , , , , . do , , , , . do , , , . . do , , , . . female , , , . . do , , , . do , , , . . male , , , . . do , , , . . do , , , . . appendix b vocabularies as has been pointed out already, the negritos of zambales seem to have lost entirely their own language and to have adopted that of the christianized zambal. a study of the vocabularies here given will show that in various sections of the province zambal is to-day the language of the negritos. differences will be found, of course, in the dialects of regions which do not come much into contact with each other, and contact with other dialects creates different changes in different localities. the chief difference between the bolinao dialect and that of the region south is the substitution of the letter "r" in the former for "l"; as "arong" for "along," nose; "dira" for "dila," tongue. yet not a few words are entirely different. these differences may arise from the use of synonyms or from misinformation, as i was able to take the bolinao vocabulary from only two individuals. this dialect is spoken in the towns of bolinao, anda, bani, and zaragoza, although i am informed that there are even slight differences in the speech of the people of some of these towns. the towns from infanta to iba have the second dialect. when the aeta element enters the differences become more apparent, although the relationship between the differing words may often be seen; for instance, "sabot," hair, becomes "habot;" "along," nose, becomes "balongo." but the number of words which bear no relationship is greater than in the case of the first two dialects. it is possible that here we find traces of an original negrito language, but i believe that all these words can be traced to malay roots. it will be noticed also that the two following vocabularies taken from negritos at santa fé and subig do not differ materially from the zambal-aeta--in fact, they may be regarded as identical. the writer can not vouch for the vocabularies from bataan and bulacan, but gives them for the sake of comparison. the words collected by montano are mostly tagalog and differ somewhat from cooke's. the latter states that he verified his seven times. the two sets are probably from different parts of the province. the dumagat vocabulary from bulacan province, while offering greater differences, is plainly of malay origin like all the others. english man zambal of bolinao la-la'-ki zambal of iba la-la'-ki zambal--aeta la-la'-ki aeta of santa fé la-la'-ki aeta of subig ya'-ki aeta, bataan province la-la-ke'* dumagat, bulacan province ta'-nun-gu'-bat english woman zambal of bolinao ba-bay'-e zambal of iba ba-bay'-e zambal--aeta ba-bay'-e aeta of santa fé ba-bay'-e aeta of subig ba-bay'-e aeta, bataan province ba-bay'-e* dumagat, bulacan province mow'-na english father zambal of bolinao a'-ma zambal of iba a'-ma zambal--aeta a'-ma aeta of santa fé ba'-pa aeta of subig ba'-pa aeta, bataan province ba'-pa, ama* dumagat, bulacan province english mother zambal of bolinao i'-na zambal of iba i'-na zambal--aeta na'-na aeta of santa fé in'-do aeta of subig in'-do aeta, bataan province in'do, inang* dumagat, bulacan province english brother zambal of bolinao bu'-sat zambal of iba ta-la-sa'-ka zambal--aeta pa'-tel aeta of santa fé ka-pa-tel aeta of subig aeta, bataan province ka'-ka, kapatid* dumagat, bulacan province english sister zambal of bolinao bu'-sat zambal of iba ta-la-sa'-ka zambal--aeta pa'-tel aeta of santa fé ka-pa-tel aeta of subig aeta, bataan province o-pa-tel', kapatid* dumagat, bulacan province english uncle zambal of bolinao ba'-pa zambal of iba ba'-pa zambal--aeta ba'-pa aeta of santa fé da'-ra aeta of subig aeta, bataan province ale'* dumagat, bulacan province english aunt zambal of bolinao da'-da zambal of iba da'-ra zambal--aeta in'-do aeta of santa fé da'-ra aeta of subig aeta, bataan province mama* dumagat, bulacan province english son zambal of bolinao a'-nak zambal of iba a'-nak zambal--aeta a'-nak aeta of santa fé a'-nak aeta of subig a'-nak aeta, bataan province a'-nak* dumagat, bulacan province anak english daughter zambal of bolinao a'-nak zambal of iba a'-nak zambal--aeta a'-nak aeta of santa fé a'-nak aeta of subig a'-nak aeta, bataan province a'-nak* dumagat, bulacan province anak na mowna english head zambal of bolinao o'-ro zambal of iba o'-lo zambal--aeta o'-lo aeta of santa fé o'-lo aeta of subig la'-bo aeta, bataan province o'-o, ulo* dumagat, bulacan province pun'-tuk english hair zambal of bolinao sa-bot' zambal of iba sa-bot' zambal--aeta ha-bot' aeta of santa fé ha-bot' aeta of subig ha-bot' aeta, bataan province la-buk', bohoc* dumagat, bulacan province english mouth zambal of bolinao bo-bo'-y zambal of iba bo-bo'-y zambal--aeta bo-bo'-y aeta of santa fé bo-bo'-y aeta of subig bo-bo'-y aeta, bataan province ba-lu'-go, bebec* dumagat, bulacan province un'-suk english eye zambal of bolinao ma'-ta zambal of iba ma'-ta zambal--aeta ma'-ta aeta of santa fé ma'-ta aeta of subig ma'-ta aeta, bataan province ma'-ta* dumagat, bulacan province english nose zambal of bolinao a'-rong zambal of iba a'-long zambal--aeta ba-loñg'-o aeta of santa fé ba-long'-o aeta of subig ba-long'-o aeta, bataan province ba-tong', ilong* dumagat, bulacan province an-gut english teeth zambal of bolinao ni'-pen zambal of iba ni'-pen zambal--aeta ni'-pin aeta of santa fé n-i'-pen aeta of subig ni'-pen aeta, bataan province nil-pul dumagat, bulacan province ni'-pon english tongue zambal of bolinao di'-ra zambal of iba di'-la zambal--aeta di'-la aeta of santa fé di'-la aeta of subig di'-la aeta, bataan province gi'-lo dumagat, bulacan province english ear zambal of bolinao to-tor'-yan zambal of iba to-tol'-yan zambal--aeta tu'-li aeta of santa fé tu'-li aeta of subig to'-ok aeta, bataan province tu'-uk, taenga* dumagat, bulacan province ta-ling'-a english arm zambal of bolinao ta-ki-ay' zambal of iba ta-ki-ay' zambal--aeta ta-ki-ay' aeta of santa fé ta-ki-ay' aeta of subig ta-ki-ay' aeta, bataan province tu-ki-ay', camay* dumagat, bulacan province co-mot' english leg zambal of bolinao pa'-a zambal of iba pa'-a zambal--aeta pa'-a aeta of santa fé pa'-a aeta of subig pa'-a aeta, bataan province pam'-pa, paa' dumagat, bulacan province pa'-a english chest zambal of bolinao ke-rep' zambal of iba ke-lep' zambal--aeta nib'-nib aeta of santa fé nib'-nib aeta of subig dub'-dub aeta, bataan province dub'-dub, debdeb* dumagat, bulacan province dib'-dib english back zambal of bolinao gu-rot' zambal of iba bo-kot' zambal--aeta bo-kot' aeta of santa fé bo-kot' aeta of subig aeta, bataan province li'-kul dumagat, bulacan province english foot zambal of bolinao ay'-e zambal of iba ay'-e zambal--aeta bi'-ti aeta of santa fé bi'-ti aeta of subig ta-lim-pa-pa'-kan aeta, bataan province ta-lan-pa'-kin dumagat, bulacan province english hand zambal of bolinao ga'-met zambal of iba ga'-met zambal--aeta ga'-met aeta of santa fé ga'-met aeta of subig ga'-met aeta, bataan province a'-ma-kam'-a-ha dumagat, bulacan province english finger zambal of bolinao ga-ra-may'-e zambal of iba ga-la-may'-e zambal--aeta ga-la-may'-e aeta of santa fé ga-la-may'-e aeta of subig da-le'-di aeta, bataan province da-li-ri, dalin* dumagat, bulacan province english earth zambal of bolinao lu'-ta zambal of iba lu'-ta zambal--aeta lu'-ta aeta of santa fé lu-ta aeta of subig lu'-ta aeta, bataan province lul-ta dumagat, bulacan province pu'-tok english sky zambal of bolinao rañg'-it zambal of iba lañg-it zambal--aeta lañg'-it aeta of santa fé lang'-it aeta of subig lang'-it aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province lang'-ot english sun zambal of bolinao au'-ro zambal of iba au'-lo zambal--aeta al'-lo aeta of santa fé al'-lo aeta of subig al'-lo aeta, bataan province u'-lo dumagat, bulacan province a-da'-o english moon zambal of bolinao bu'-ran zambal of iba bu'-lan zambal--aeta bu'-an aeta of santa fé bu'-an aeta of subig bu'-yan aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province ina-tal'-lung english star zambal of bolinao bi-tu'-un zambal of iba bi-tu'-un zambal--aeta bi-tu'-in aeta of santa fé bi'-tu-in aeta of subig bi'-tu-in aeta, bataan province ba'-tu-in dumagat, bulacan province bu'-ta-tul'-ya english cloud zambal of bolinao re'-rem zambal of iba a-la-pa'-ap zambal--aeta da'-yim aeta of santa fé lo'-om aeta of subig ta'-la aeta, bataan province u'-wip dumagat, bulacan province english rain zambal of bolinao ra'-peg zambal of iba a-ba-gat' zambal--aeta u'-ran aeta of santa fé u'-ran aeta of subig a-ba'-gat aeta, bataan province ulan* dumagat, bulacan province english thunder zambal of bolinao ko'-dor zambal of iba zambal--aeta cu'-rol aeta of santa fé ku'-rol aeta of subig ki'-lot aeta, bataan province da-ug-dug' dumagat, bulacan province english lightning zambal of bolinao ki'-mat zambal of iba zambal--aeta ki'-mat aeta of santa fé ki'-mat aeta of subig ki'-mat aeta, bataan province ma-la'-wut dumagat, bulacan province english water zambal of bolinao ra'-nom zambal of iba la'-nom zambal--aeta la'-nom aeta of santa fé la'-nom aeta of subig la'-num aeta, bataan province la'-num, tubig* dumagat, bulacan province o'-rat english fire zambal of bolinao a-po'-y zambal of iba a-po'-y zambal--aeta a-po'-y aeta of santa fé a'-po-y aeta of subig a'-po-y aeta, bataan province a'-po-y* dumagat, bulacan province a'-po-y english white zambal of bolinao ma-pu'-ti zambal of iba ma-pu'-ti zambal--aeta ma-pu'-ti aeta of santa fé ma-pu'-ti aeta of subig ma-pu'-ti aeta, bataan province maputi* dumagat, bulacan province ma-lup'-say english black zambal of bolinao mañg-i'-sit zambal of iba mañg-í'-tit zambal--aeta mañg-i'-tit aeta of santa fé mang-i'-tit aeta of subig ma'-o-lin aeta, bataan province maltim* dumagat, bulacan province mal-a-ton' english red zambal of bolinao ma-o-dit' zambal of iba ma-ti-bi'-a zambal--aeta ma-o-rit' aeta of santa fé ma-o-rit' aeta of subig aeta, bataan province mapula* dumagat, bulacan province mat-la english yellow zambal of bolinao ma-sil-ya'-o zambal of iba ma-hol-ya'-o zambal--aeta ma-hol-ya'-o aeta of santa fé ma-hol-ya'-o aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province sa-la-kut' english cooked rice zambal of bolinao ka'-nen zambal of iba ka'-nen zambal--aeta ka'-nin aeta of santa fé ka'-un aeta of subig ka'-nen aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english uncooked rice zambal of bolinao bu'-yas zambal of iba bu'-yas zambal--aeta bu'-ya aeta of santa fé bu'-ya aeta of subig bu'-ya aeta, bataan province bigas* dumagat, bulacan province a'-moy english day zambal of bolinao au'-ro zambal of iba au'-lo zambal--aeta al'-lo aeta of santa fé al'-lo aeta of subig al'-lo aeta, bataan province u'-lo dumagat, bulacan province adio english night zambal of bolinao ya'-bi zambal of iba ya'-bi zambal--aeta ya'-bi aeta of santa fé ya'-bi aeta of subig ya'-bi aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province du'-mong english cold zambal of bolinao ma-ra-yep' zambal of iba ma-la-yep' zambal--aeta ma-la-yip' aeta of santa fé mal-a-yep' aeta of subig mal-a-yep' aeta, bataan province ma-lam'-ig, maginao* dumagat, bulacan province mag'-id-non english hot zambal of bolinao ma-mot' zambal of iba ma-mot' zambal--aeta ma-mot' aeta of santa fé ma-o-mot' aeta of subig ma-o-mot' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province may-a-nit' english large zambal of bolinao a-la-ki' zambal of iba ma-hi-ban' zambal--aeta mal-hay' aeta of santa fé mal-hay' aeta of subig mal-hay' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province hun'-ga english small zambal of bolinao da-i-te' zambal of iba ma-ca-lug' zambal--aeta may-a'-mo aeta of santa fé may-a-mo' aeta of subig may-a-mo' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province ma-sa-ninp' english good zambal of bolinao ma-ong' zambal of iba la'-bas zambal--aeta ma'-ham-pat' aeta of santa fé ma-ham'-pat aeta of subig ma-ham'-pat aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province ma-sam'-pat english bad zambal of bolinao ma-ra-yet' zambal of iba ma-la-yet' zambal--aeta ma-la-yit' aeta of santa fé ma-la-yit' aeta of subig ma-la-yit' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province ma-lot' english rich zambal of bolinao may-a-man' zambal of iba may-a-man' zambal--aeta may-a-man' aeta of santa fé may-a-man' aeta of subig may-a-man' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province may-a-man' english poor zambal of bolinao ma-i-dap' zambal of iba ma-i-rap' zambal--aeta ma-i-rap' aeta of santa fé ma-i-rap' aeta of subig ma'-i-rap' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english sick zambal of bolinao ma-sa-kit' zambal of iba ma-sa-kit' zambal--aeta ma-ha-kit' aeta of santa fé ma-ha-kit' aeta of subig ma-in-ha'-kit aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province teoram english dead zambal of bolinao na'-ti zambal of iba na'-ti zambal--aeta na'-ti aeta of santa fé na'-ti aeta of subig na'-ti aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province nalebon english here zambal of bolinao i'-ti zambal of iba i'-ti zambal--aeta a-ka-lung'-un aeta of santa fé bi-er'-i aeta of subig a-ri'-di aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province dian english there zambal of bolinao i'-sen zambal of iba i'-sen zambal--aeta ba'-hen aeta of santa fé bay'-hen aeta of subig a-ri'-do aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province dedeyaya english no zambal of bolinao ka'-i zambal of iba ka'-i zambal--aeta a'-he aeta of santa fé a'-he aeta of subig a'-he aeta, bataan province ayaw* dumagat, bulacan province ayenok english yes zambal of bolinao ó zambal of iba ya zambal--aeta a'-o aeta of santa fé a'-o aeta of subig a-o aeta, bataan province o-o'* dumagat, bulacan province abu-kogid english to sleep zambal of bolinao ma'-rek zambal of iba ma'-lek zambal--aeta ma-to-lo'-i aeta of santa fé ma-to-lo'-i aeta of subig ma-to-lo'-i aeta, bataan province matulog* dumagat, bulacan province napediak english to jump zambal of bolinao ru-mok'-zo zambal of iba lu-mok'-zo zambal--aeta mi-tok-tok-pa'-o aeta of santa fé mag-tok-pa'-o aeta of subig lu-mo'-ko aeta, bataan province lemokso dumagat, bulacan province lumowat english to run zambal of bolinao mo-ray'-o zambal of iba mo-lay'-o zambal--aeta may'-o aeta of santa fé may'-o aeta of subig may'-o aeta, bataan province takumbao* dumagat, bulacan province gumekan english to fight zambal of bolinao mi-a-wa'-y, raban zambal of iba la'-ban zambal--aeta mi-a-wa'-y aeta of santa fé mi-awa'-y aeta of subig ina-ki'-a-wa'-y aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province sullo-sum-to-yan english to eat zambal of bolinao mañg'-an zambal of iba mañg'-an zambal--aeta mañg'-an aeta of santa fé mañg'-an aeta of subig mañg-an aeta, bataan province caïn* dumagat, bulacan province mumungan english to drink zambal of bolinao mi'-nom zambal of iba mi'-nom zambal--aeta mi'-nom aeta of santa fé mi'-nom aeta of subig mi'-nom aeta, bataan province minum* dumagat, bulacan province neniomok english tree zambal of bolinao ka'-yo zambal of iba kay'-yo zambal--aeta kay'-yo aeta of santa fé kay'-yo aeta of subig kay'-yo aeta, bataan province ka-hoy* kayo dumagat, bulacan province english mountain zambal of bolinao ba'-ker zambal of iba ba'-kil zambal--aeta ba'-kil aeta of santa fé ba'-kil aeta of subig ba'-kil aeta, bataan province bu'-kil dumagat, bulacan province english river zambal of bolinao i'-log zambal of iba i'-lug zambal--aeta ka-bu-la-san' aeta of santa fé ba'-la aeta of subig aeta, bataan province sa'-num dumagat, bulacan province english stone zambal of bolinao ba'-to zambal of iba ba'-to zambal--aeta ba'-to aeta of santa fé ba'-to aeta of subig ba'-to aeta, bataan province ba-to* dumagat, bulacan province english grass zambal of bolinao di'-kot zambal of iba di'-kot zambal--aeta di'-kot aeta of santa fé di'-kot aeta of subig di'-kot aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english dog zambal of bolinao a'-so zambal of iba a'-so zambal--aeta a'-ho aeta of santa fé a'-ho aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english rooster zambal of bolinao ma-nuk' zambal of iba ma-nook' zambal--aeta ma-nook' aeta of santa fé ma-nok' aeta of subig ma-nook' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english hen zambal of bolinao o'-pa zambal of iba tu'-a zambal--aeta tu'-a aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english one zambal of bolinao sa'-ya zambal of iba a'-sa zambal--aeta mi'-ha aeta of santa fé mi'-ha aeta of subig mi'-ha aeta, bataan province isa dumagat, bulacan province isin english two zambal of bolinao ru'-a zambal of iba lu'-a zambal--aeta lu'-a aeta of santa fé lu'-a aeta of subig lu'-a aeta, bataan province delawa* dumagat, bulacan province adua english three zambal of bolinao ta'-ro zambal of iba to'-lo zambal--aeta tat'-lo aeta of santa fé tat'-lo aeta of subig tat'-lo aeta, bataan province tatlo* dumagat, bulacan province telewan english four zambal of bolinao a'-pat zambal of iba a'-pat zambal--aeta a'-pat aeta of santa fé a'-pat aeta of subig a'-pat aeta, bataan province apat* dumagat, bulacan province english five zambal of bolinao ri'-ma zambal of iba li'-ma zambal--aeta li'-ma aeta of santa fé li'-ma aeta of subig li'-ma aeta, bataan province lima* dumagat, bulacan province english six zambal of bolinao a'-nem zambal of iba a'-nem zambal--aeta a'-nam aeta of santa fé a'-nem aeta of subig a'-nem aeta, bataan province anem* dumagat, bulacan province english seven zambal of bolinao pi'-to zambal of iba pi'-to zambal--aeta pi'-to aeta of santa fé pi'-to aeta of subig pi'-to aeta, bataan province pito* dumagat, bulacan province english eight zambal of bolinao ca'-ro zambal of iba ca'-lo zambal--aeta ca'-lo aeta of santa fé oa'-lo aeta of subig oa'-lo aeta, bataan province oalo* dumagat, bulacan province english nine zambal of bolinao si'-am zambal of iba si'-am zambal--aeta si'-am aeta of santa fé si'-am aeta of subig si-am aeta, bataan province siam* dumagat, bulacan province english ten zambal of bolinao ma-pu'-ro zambal of iba ma-po'-lo zambal--aeta ma'-po aeta of santa fé ma,-po aeta of subig ham'-po aeta, bataan province sampo* dumagat, bulacan province isin-a-mapolo english eleven zambal of bolinao la'-bin-sa'-ya zambal of iba la'-bin-a'-sa zambal--aeta la'-bin-mi'-ha aeta of santa fé la'-bin-mi-ha aeta of subig la'-bin-mi'-ha aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province isin-a-mopolo-a-isin english twelve zambal of bolinao la'-bin-ru'-a zambal of iba la'-bin-lu'-a zambal--aeta la'-bin-lu'-a aeta of santa fé la'-bin-lu'-a aeta of subig la-bin-lu'-a aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province isin-o-mopolo-adua english thirteen zambal of bolinao la'-bin-ta'-ro zambal of iba la'-bin-to'-lo zambal--aeta la'-bin-tat'-lo aeta of santa fé la'-bin-tat'-lo aeta of subig la-bin-tat'-lo aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english fourteen zambal of bolinao la'-bin-a'-pat zambal of iba la'-bin-a'-pat zambal--aeta lal-bin-a'-pat aeta of santa fé la'-bin-a'-pat aeta of subig la-bin-a'-pat aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english twenty zambal of bolinao ru'-an-pu'-ro zambal of iba lu'-am-po'-lo zambal--aeta lu-am'-po aeta of santa fé lu-am'-po aeta of subig lu-am'-pa aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province aduamapolo english twenty-one zambal of bolinao rul-an-pu'-ro-sa'-ya zambal of iba lu'-am-po'-lo-a'-sa zambal--aeta lu-am-po-mi'-ha aeta of santa fé lu-am'-po-mi'-ha aeta of subig lu-am'-po-mi'-ba aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english thirty zambal of bolinao ta-ron-pu'-ro zambal of iba to'-lom-po'-lo zambal--aeta tat-lom-po' aeta of santa fé tat-lom'-po aeta of subig tat-lom'-po aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english forty zambal of bolinao a'-pat-a-pu'-ro zambal of iba a'-pat-a-po'-lo zambal--aeta a'-pat-a-po' aeta of santa fé a'-pat-a-po' aeta of subig a'-pat-a-po' aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english one hundred zambal of bolinao san-ya'-sot zambal of iba say-a-tos' zambal--aeta mi'-hun-ga'-to aeta of santa fé mi-hun-ga'-to aeta of subig ma-ga'-to aeta, bataan province sandaan* dumagat, bulacan province isinadian english i zambal of bolinao si'-ko zambal of iba si'-ko zambal--aeta hi'-ko aeta of santa fé hi'-co aeta of subig aeta, bataan province a'-co* dumagat, bulacan province english you zambal of bolinao si'-ka zambal of iba kay'-o zambal--aeta kay'-o aeta of santa fé hi'-ca aeta of subig aeta, bataan province icao dumagat, bulacan province english he zambal of bolinao si-tao' zambal of iba hi'-a zambal--aeta aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english we zambal of bolinao si-ka'-mi zambal of iba hi-ta'-mo zambal--aeta hi-ta'-mo aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english they zambal of bolinao sa'-ra zambal of iba hi'-la zambal--aeta hi'-la aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english our zambal of bolinao i'-ko-mi zambal of iba i-kun'-ta-mo zambal--aeta i-kun-ta'-mo aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english my zambal of bolinao i-kon'-ko zambal of iba i-kon'-ko zambal--aeta i-kon'-ko aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english near zambal of bolinao a'-dam zambal of iba ma-ra'-mi zambal--aeta ma-ra'-mi aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province english far zambal of bolinao a-day'-o zambal of iba ma-day'-yo zambal--aeta ma-ro'-yo aeta of santa fé aeta of subig aeta, bataan province dumagat, bulacan province the words marked (*) were taken from montano's vocabulary in his mission aux philippines. the others were collected by c. j. cooke, ms. of the ethnological survey, and e. j. simons, ms. of the ethnological survey. notes [ ] les pygmées, . [ ] however, when one attempts to fathom the mysteries surrounding the origin and migrations of the negrito race he becomes hopelessly involved in a labyrinth of conjecture. did the negritos come from somewhere in asia, some island like new guinea, or is their original home now sunk beneath the sea? in the present state of our knowledge we can not hope to know. we find them in certain places to-day; we may believe that they once lived in certain other places, because the people now living there have characteristics peculiar to the little black men. but the negrito has left behind no archaeological remains to guide the investigator, and he who attempts seriously to consider this question is laying up for himself a store of perplexing problems. it may be of interest to present here the leading facts in connection with the distribution of the negrito race and to summarize the views set forth by various leading anthropologists who have given the subject most study. the deduction of the french scientists de quatrefages and hamy have been based almost entirely on craniological and osteological observations, and these authors argue a much wider distribution of the negritos than other writers hold. in fact, according to these writers, traces of negritos are found practically everywhere from india to japan and new guinea. de quatrefages in les pygmées, , divides what he calls the "eastern pygmies," as opposed to the african pygmies, into two divisions--the negrito-papuans and the negritos proper. the former, he says, have new guinea as a center of population and extend as far as gilolo and the moluccas. they are distinguished from the true papuans who inhabit new guinea and who are not classed by that writer as belonging to the negrito race. on the other hand, wallace and earl, supported by meyer, all of whom have made some investigations in the region occupied by the papuans, affirm that there is but a single race and that its identity with the negritos is unmistakable. meyer (distribution of negritos, , p. ) says that he and von maclay in saw a number of papuans in tidore. he had just come from the philippines and von maclay had then come from astrolabe bay, in new guinea. with these papuans before them they discussed the question of the unity of the races, and von maclay could see no difference between these papuans and those of astrolabe bay, while meyer declared that the similarities between them and the negritos of the philippines was most striking. he says: "that was my standpoint then regarding the question, neither can i relinquish it at present." although they defended the unity of the negritos and the papuans they recognized that the papuans were diversified and presented a variety of types, but meyer regards this not as pointing to a crossing of different elements but as revealing simply the variability of the race. he continues (p. ): "as the external _habitus_ of the negritos must be declared as almost identical with that of the papuans, differences in form of the skull, the size of the body, and such like have the less weight in opposition to the great uniformity, as strong contrasts do not even come into play here, and if the negritos do not show such great amount of variation in their physical characters as the papuans--which, however, is by no means sufficiently attested--it is no wonder in the case of a people which has been driven back and deprived of the opportunity of developing itself freely." thus it remains for future investigations to establish beyond doubt the identity of the papuans. de quatrefages divides all other eastern pygmies into two divisions--insular and continental--and no authors find fault with this classification. only in fixing the distribution of the negritos do the authorities differ. the islands admitted by everybody to contain negritos to-day may be eliminated from the discussion. these are the philippines and the andamans. in the latter the name "mincopies" has been given to the little blacks, though how this name originated no one seems to know. it is certain that the people do not apply the name to themselves. extensive study of the andamans has been made by flower and man. the moluccas and lesser sunda islands just west of new guinea were stated by de quatrefages in (les pygmées) to be inhabited by negritos, although three years previously, as recorded in hommes fossiles, , he had doubted their existence there. he gave no authority, and assigned no reason in his later work for this change of opinion. meyer thinks this sufficient reason why one should not take de quatrefages too seriously, and states that proofs of the existence of the negritos in this locality are "so weak as not to be worth discussing them in detail." from deductions based on the examination of a single skull hamy inferred that pure negritos were found on timor, but the people of timor were found by meyer to be mixed papuans and malays, resembling the latter on the coasts and the former in the interior. likewise in celebes, borneo, and java the french writers think that traces of an ancient negrito population may be found, while meyer holds that there is not sufficient evidence to warrant such an assumption. in sumatra he admits that there is an element not malayan, which on account of the nearness of malacca may be _negritic,_ but that fact is so far by no means proved. in regard to formosa meyer quotes scheteleg (trans. ethn. soc., n.s., , vii): "i am convinced * * * that the malay origin of most of the inhabitants of formosa is incontestable." but hamy holds that the two skulls which scheteleg brought were negrito skulls, an assumption which meyer (distribution of negritos, , p. ) disposes of as follows: "to conclude the occurrence of a race in a country from certain characters in two skulls, when this race has not been registered from that country, is, in the present embryonic state of craniology, an unwarrantable proceeding." in like manner hamy has found that a certain japanese skull in the paris museum resembles a negrito skull, and he also finds traces of negritos in japan in the small stature, crisp hair, and darker color of the natives of the interior of the island of kiusiu. but meyer holds that the facts brought forward up to the present time are far from being established, and objects to the acceptance of surmises and explanations more or less subjective as conclusive. there is no doubt of the occurrence of negritos in the peninsula of malacca, where both pure and mixed people have been found. these are reported under a variety of names, of which semang and sakaí are perhaps the best known. meyer (distribution of negritos, p. , footnote ) says: "stevens divides the negritos of malacca into two principal tribes--the belendas, who with the tumiors branched off from the kenis tribe, and the meniks, who consist of the panggans of kelantan and petani and the semangs of the west coast. only the panggans * * * and the tumiors are pure negritos. a name often recurring for the belendas is sakeis (malay: 'bondman,' 'servant'), a designation given them in the first instance by the malays but which they often also apply to themselves when addressing strangers." in their efforts to find negrito traces in the mao-tse, the aboriginal peoples of the chinese empire, de lacouperie and de quatrefages have, in the opinion of meyer, even less to stand on than had hamy in the case of japan. in like manner it remains to be proved whether the moií of annam are related to negritos, as the two french writers have stated, but whose opinions have been vigorously opposed by meyer and others. the question of the aboriginal inhabitants of india is one of even greater importance and presents greater difficulties. if it can be shown that this aboriginal population was negrito, and if the relations which researches, especially in philology, have indicated between the peoples of india and those of australia can be proved, a range of possibilities of startling importance, affecting the race question of oceania in general and the origin and distribution of the negritos in particular, will be opened up. in regard to the indian question there is much diversity of opinion. de quatrefages and hamy, as usual, regard the negritos as established in india, but topinard and virchow are opposed to this belief. meyer holds that "this part of the negrito question is in no way ripe for decision, and how much less the question as to a possible relationship of this hypothetical primitive population with the negroes of africa." (distribution of negritos, , p. .) in anthropology a statement may be regarded as proved for the time being so long as no opposition to it exists. with the exception of the philippine and the andaman islands and the malay peninsula, as we have seen, the presence of traces of negritos is an open question. the evidence at hand is incomplete and insufficient, and we must therefore be content to let future investigators work out these unsolved problems. [ ] english edition of stanley, , p. . [ ] distribution of negritos, , p. , footnote. [ ] zúñiga, estadismo de las islas filipinas. reprint by retana, vol. i, p. . [ ] by this is meant fr. san antonio's chronicas de la apostolica, provincia de san gregorio, etc., - . [ ] relación de las islas filipinas, ; d ed., , p. . [ ] meyer, distribution of negritos, , p. . [ ] see sketch map, pl. i. [ ] estadismo de las islas filipinas. ed. retana, , i, p. . [ ] ca-ing-in is a malayan word for cultivated clearing. [ ] the province has recently been divided by act of the philippine commission, the northern part above santa cruz being joined to pangasinan. [ ] francisco cañamaque, boletin de la sociedad geografica de madrid, vol ix, . [ ] diccionario geográfico, etc., de las islas filipinas, vol. ii, . [ ] cañamaque. [ ] zúñiga, estadismo de las islas filipinas, . [ ] this was evidently the belief of some of the old voyagers. navarette, whose account of his travels in is published in churchill's collection of voyages, , said that the people called "zambales" were great archers and had no other weapons than the bow and arrow. dr. john frances gemelli careri, who made a voyage around the world, - , says in his report (churchill's voyages, vol. iv): "this mixing [that is, of negritos] with the wild _indians_ produced the tribe of _manghian_ who are blacks dwelling in the isles of mindoro and mundos [probably panay], and who peopled the islands _de los negros,_ or of blacks. some of them have harsh frisled hair like the _african_ and _angola_ blacks. * * * "the _sambali,_ contrary to the others, tho' wild have long hair, like the other conquer'd _indians._ the wives, of these savages are deliver'd in the woods, like she goats, and immediately wash themselves and the infants in the rivers, or other cold water; which would be immediate death to _europeans._ these blacks when pursu'd by the _spaniards,_ with the sound of little sticks, give notice to the rest, that are dispers'd about the woods, to save themselves by flight. their weapons are bows and arrows, a short spear, and a short weapon, or knife at their girdle. they poison their arrows, which are sometimes headed with iron, or a sharp stone, and they bore the point, that it may break in their enemies body, and so be unfit to be shot back. for their defense, they use a wooden buckler, four spans long, and two in breadth, which always hangs at their arm. "tho' i had much discourse about it, with the fathers of the society, and other missioners, who converse with these blacks, _manghians, mandi_ and _sambali,_ i could never learn any thing of their religion; but on the contrary, all unanimously agree they have none, but live like beasts, and the most that has been seen among the blacks on the mountains, has been a round stone, to which they pay'd a veneration, or a trunk of a tree, or beasts, or other things they find about, and this only out of fear. true it is, that by means of the heathen _chineses_ who deal with them in the mountains, some deformed statues have been found in their huts. the other three beforemention'd nations, seem'd inclin'd to observing of auguries and _mahometan_ superstitions, by reason of their commerce, with the _malayes_ and _ternates._ the most reciev'd opinion is, that these blacks were the first inhabitants of the islands; and that being cowards, the sea coasts were easily taken from them by people resorting from _sumatra, borneo, macassar_ and other places; and therefore they retir'd to the mountains. in short, in all the islands where these blacks, and other savage men are, the _spaniards_ possess not much beyond the sea coasts; and not that in all parts, especially from _maribeles,_ to cape _bolinao_ in the island of _manila,_ where for leagues along the shoar, there is no landing, for fear of the blacks, who are most inveterate enemies to the _europeans._ thus all the in-land parts being possess'd by these brutes, against whom no army could prevail in the thick woods, the king of _spain_ has scarce one in ten of the inhabitants of the island, that owns him, as the _spaniards_ often told me." [ ] journal anth. inst. great britain and ireland, vol. . [ ] pygmies, p.  . [ ] montano, mission aux philippines, p. . [ ] ms. coll. of the ethnological survey. [ ] voyage aux philippines, p. ; mission aux philippines, p. . [ ] ms. coll. of the ethnological survey. [ ] in the footnote on page is given an extract from careri's voyages, in which the following occurs: "true it is, that by means of the heathen chinese who deal with them in the mountains, some deformed statues have been found in their huts." proofreading team (italy) for project gutenberg. argonauts of the western pacific an account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of melanesian new guinea by bronislaw malinowski ph.d. (cracow), d.sc. (london) with a preface by sir james george, frazer, f.b.a., f.r.s. with maps, illustrations, and figures, london: george routledge & sons, ltd. new york: e. p. dutton & co. to my friend and teacher professor c. g. seligman, f.r.s. preface by sir james g. frazer my esteemed friend, dr. b. malinowski has asked me to write a preface to his book, and i willingly comply with his request, though i can hardly think that any words of mine will add to the value of the remarkable record of anthropological research which he has given us in this volume. my observations, such as they are, will deal partly with the writer's method and partly with the matter of his book. in regard to method, dr. malinowski has done his work, as it appears to me, under the best conditions and in the manner calculated to secure the best possible results. both by theoretical training and by practical experience he was well equipped for the task which he undertook. of his theoretical training he had given proof in his learned and thoughtful treatise on the family among the aborigines of australia [ ]; of his practical experience he had produced no less satisfactory evidence in his account of the natives of mailu in new guinea, based on a residence of six months among them. [ ] in the trobriand islands, to the east of new guinea, to which he next turned his attention, dr. malinowski lived as a native among the natives for many months together, watching them daily at work and at play, conversing with them in their own tongue, and deriving all his information from the surest sources--personal observation and statements made to him directly by the natives in their own language without the intervention of an interpreter. in this way he has accumulated a large mass of materials, of high scientific value, bearing on the social, religious, and economic or industrial life of the trobriand islanders. these he hopes and intends to publish hereafter in full; meantime he has given us in the present volume a preliminary study of an interesting and peculiar feature in trobriand society, the remarkable system of exchange, only in part economic or commercial, which the islanders maintain among themselves and with the inhabitants of neighbouring islands. little reflection is needed to convince us of the fundamental importance of economic forces at all stages of man's career from the humblest to the highest. after all, the human species is part of the animal creation, and as such, like the rest of the animals, it reposes on a material foundation; on which a higher life, intellectual, moral, social, may be built, but without which no such superstructure is possible. that material foundation, consisting in the necessity of food and of a certain degree of warmth and shelter from the elements, forms the economic or industrial basis and prime condition of human life. if anthropologists have hitherto unduly neglected it, we may suppose that it was rather because they were attracted to the higher side of man's nature than because they deliberately ignored and undervalued the importance and indeed necessity of the lower. in excuse for their neglect we may also remember that anthropology is still a young science, and that the multitude of problems which await the student cannot all be attacked at once, but must be grappled with one by one. be that as it may, dr. malinowski has done well to emphasise the great significance of primitive economics by singling out the notable exchange system of the trobriand islanders for special consideration. further, he has wisely refused to limit himself to a mere description of the processes of the exchange, and has set himself to penetrate the motives which underlie it and the feelings which it excites in the minds of the natives. it appears to be sometimes held that pure sociology should confine itself to the description of acts and should leave the problems of motives and feelings to psychology. doubtless it is true that the analysis of motives and feelings is logically distinguishable from the description of acts, and that it falls, strictly speaking, within the sphere of psychology; but in practice an act has no meaning for an observer unless he knows or infers the thoughts and emotions of the agent; hence to describe a series of acts, without any reference to the state of mind of the agent, would not answer the purpose of sociology, the aim of which is not merely to register but to understand the actions of men in society. thus sociology cannot fulfil its task without calling in at every turn the aid of psychology. it is characteristic of dr. malinowski's method that he takes full account of the complexity of human nature. he sees man, so to say, in the round and not in the flat. he remembers that man is a creature of emotion at least as much as of reason, and he is constantly at pains to discover the emotional as well as the rational basis of human action. the man of science, like the man of letters, is too apt to view mankind only in the abstract, selecting for his consideration a single side of our complex and many-sided being. of this one-sided treatment molière is a conspicuous example among great writers. all his characters are seen only in the flat: one of them is a miser, another a hypocrite, another a coxcomb, and soon; but not one of them is a man. all are dummies dressed up to look very like human beings; but the likeness is only on the surface, all within is hollow and empty, because truth to nature has been sacrificed to literary effect. very different is the presentation of human nature in the greater artists, such as cervantes and shakespeare: their characters are solid, being drawn not from one side only but from many. no doubt in science a certain abstractness of treatment is not merely legitimate, but necessary, since science is nothing but knowledge raised to the highest power, and all knowledge implies a process of abstraction and generalisation: even the recognition of an individual whom we see every day is only possible as the result of an abstract idea of him formed by generalisation from his appearances in the past. thus the science of man is forced to abstract certain aspects of human nature and to consider them apart from the concrete reality; or rather it falls into a number of sciences, each of which considers a single part of man's complex organism, it may be the physical, the intellectual, the moral, or the social side of his being; and the general conclusions which it draws will present a more or less incomplete picture of man as a whole, because the lines which compose it are necessarily but a few picked out of a multitude. in the present treatise dr. malinowski is mainly concerned with what at first sight might seem a purely economic activity of the trobriand islanders; but, with his usual width of outlook and fineness of perception, he is careful to point out that the curious circulation of valuables, which takes place between the inhabitants of the trobriand and other islands, while it is accompanied by ordinary trade, is by no means itself a purely commercial transaction; he shows that it is not based on a simple calculation of utility, of profit and loss, but that it satisfies emotional and æsthetic needs of a higher order than the mere gratification of animal wants. this leads dr. malinowski to pass some severe strictures on the conception of the primitive economic man as a kind of bogey who, it appears, still haunts economic text-books and even extends his blighting influence to the minds of certain anthropologists. rigged out in cast-off garments of mr. jeremy bentham and mr. gradgrind, this horrible phantom is apparently actuated by no other motive than that of filthy lucre, which he pursues relentlessly, on spencerian principles, along the line of least resistance. if such a dismal fiction is really regarded by serious inquirers as having any counterpart in savage society, and not simply as a useful abstraction, dr. malinowski's account of the kula in this book should help to lay the phantom by the heels; for he proves that the trade in useful objects, which forms part of the kula system, is in the minds of the natives entirely subordinate in importance to the exchange of other objects, which serve no utilitarian purpose whatever. in its combination of commercial enterprise, social organisation, mythical background, and magical ritual, to say nothing of the wide geographical range of its operations, this singular institution appears to have no exact parallel in the existing anthropological record; but its discoverer, dr. malinowski, may very well be right in surmising that it is probably a type of institution of which analogous, if not precisely similar, instances will hereafter be brought to light by further research among savage and barbarous peoples. not the least interesting and instructive feature of the kula, as it is described for us by dr. malinowski, is the extremely important part which magic is seen to play in the institution. from his description it appears that in the minds of the natives the performance of magical rites and the utterance of magical words are indispensable for the success of the enterprise in all its phases, from the felling of the trees out of which the canoes are to be hollowed, down to the moment when, the expedition successfully accomplished, the argosy with its precious cargo is about to start on its homeward voyage. and incidentally we learn that magical ceremonies and spells are deemed no less necessary for the cultivation of gardens and for success in fishing, the two forms of industrial enterprise which furnish the islanders with their principal means of support; hence the garden magician, whose business it is to promote the growth of the garden produce by his hocus-pocus, is one of the most important men in the village, ranking next after the chief and the sorcerer. in short, magic is believed to be an absolutely essential adjunct of every industrial undertaking, being just as requisite for its success as the mechanical operations involved in it, such as the caulking, painting and launching of a canoe, the planting of a garden, and the setting of a fish-trap. "a belief in magic," says dr. malinowski, "is one of the main psychological forces which allow for organisation and systematisation of economic effort in the trobriands." this valuable account of magic as a factor of fundamental economic importance for the welfare and indeed for the very existence of the community should suffice to dispel the erroneous view that magic, as opposed to religion, is in its nature essentially maleficent and anti-social, being always used by an individual for the promotion of his own selfish ends and the injury of his enemies, quite regardless of its effect on the common weal. no doubt magic may be so employed, and has in fact probably been so employed, in every part of the world; in the trobriand islands themselves it is believed to be similarly practised for nefarious purposes by sorcerers, who inspire the natives with the deepest dread and the most constant concern. but in itself magic is neither beneficent nor maleficent; it is simply an imaginary power of controlling the forces of nature, and this control may be exercised by the magician for good or evil, for the benefit or injury of individuals and of the community. in this respect, magic is exactly on the same footing with the sciences, of which it is the bastard sister. they, too, in themselves, are neither good nor evil, though they become the source of one or other according to their application. it would be absurd, for example, to stigmatise pharmacy as antisocial, because a knowledge of the properties of drugs is often employed to destroy men as well as to heal them. it is equally absurd to neglect the beneficent application of magic and to single out its maleficent use as the characteristic property by which to define it. the processes of nature, over which science exercises a real and magic an imaginary control, are not affected by the moral disposition, the good or bad intention, of the individual who uses his knowledge to set them in motion. the action of drugs on the human body is precisely the same whether they are administered by a physician or by a poisoner. nature and her handmaid science are neither friendly nor hostile to morality; they are simply indifferent to it and equally ready to do the bidding of the saint and of the sinner, provided only that he gives them the proper word of command. if the guns are well loaded and well aimed, the fire of the battery will be equally destructive, whether the gunners are patriots fighting in defence of their country or invaders waging a war of unjust aggression. the fallacy of differentiating a science or an art according to its application and the moral intention of the agent is obvious enough with regard to pharmacy and artillery; it is equally real, though to many people apparently it is less obvious, with regard to magic. the immense influence wielded by magic over the whole life and thought of the trobriand islanders is perhaps the feature of dr. malinowski's book which makes the most abiding impression on the mind of the reader. he tells us that "magic, the attempt of man to govern the forces of nature directly by means of a special lore, is all-pervading and all-important in the trobriands"; it is "interwoven into all the many industrial and communal activities"; "all the data which have been so far mustered disclose the extreme importance of magic in the kula. but if it were a question of treating of any other aspect of the tribal life of these natives, it would also be found that, whenever they approach any concern of vital importance, they summon magic to their aid. it can be said without exaggeration that magic, according to their ideas, governs human destinies; that it supplies man with the power of mastering the forces of nature; and that it is his weapon and armour against the many dangers which crowd in upon him on every side." thus in the view of the trobriand islanders, magic is a power of supreme importance either for good or evil; it can make or mar the life of man; it can sustain and protect the individual and the community, or it can injure and destroy them. compared to this universal and deep-rooted conviction, the belief in the existence of the spirits of the dead would seem to exercise but little influence on the life of these people. contrary to the general attitude of savages towards the souls of the departed, they are reported to be almost completely devoid of any fear of ghosts. they believe, indeed, that the ghosts return to their villages once a year to partake of the great annual feast; but "in general the spirits do not influence human beings very much, for better or worse"; "there is nothing of the mutual interaction, of the intimate collaboration between man and spirit which are the essence of religious cult." this conspicuous predominance of magic over religion, at least over the worship of the dead, is a very notable feature in the culture of a people so comparatively high in the scale of savagery as the trobriand islanders. it furnishes a fresh proof of the extraordinary strength and tenacity of the hold which this world-wide delusion has had, and still has, upon the human mind. we shall doubtless learn much as to the relation of magic and religion among the trobrianders from the full report of dr. malinowski's researches in the islands. from the patient observation which he has devoted to a single institution, and from the wealth of details with which he has illustrated it, we may judge of the extent and value of the larger work which he has in preparation. it promises to be one of the completest and most scientific accounts ever given of a savage people. j. g. frazer. the temple, london. th march, . foreword by the author ethnology is in the sadly ludicrous, not to say tragic, position, that at the very moment when it begins to put its workshop in order, to forge its proper tools, to start ready for work on its appointed task, the material of its study melts away with hopeless rapidity. just now, when the methods and aims of scientific field ethnology have taken shape, when men fully trained for the work have begun to travel into savage countries and study their inhabitants--these die away under our very eyes. the research which has been done on native races by men of academic training has proved beyond doubt and cavil that scientific, methodic inquiry can give us results far more abundant and of better quality than those of even the best amateur's work. most, though not all, of the modern scientific accounts have opened up quite new and unexpected aspects of tribal life. they have given us, in clear outline, the picture of social institutions often surprisingly vast and complex; they have brought before us the vision of the native as he is, in his religious and magical beliefs and practices. they have allowed us to penetrate into his mind far more deeply than we have ever done before. from this new material, scientifically hall-marked, students of comparative ethnology have already drawn some very important conclusions on the origin of human customs, beliefs and institutions; on the history of cultures, and their spread and contact; on the laws of human behaviour in society, and of the human mind. the hope of gaining a new vision of savage humanity through the labours of scientific specialists opens out like a mirage, vanishing almost as soon as perceived. for though at present, there is still a large number of native communities available for scientific study, within a generation or two, they or their cultures will have practically disappeared. the need for energetic work is urgent, and the time is short. nor, alas, up to the present, has any adequate interest been taken by the public in these studies. the number of workers is small, the encouragement they receive scanty. i feel therefore no need to justify an ethnological contribution which is the result of specialised research in the field. in this volume i give an account of one phase of savage life only, in describing certain forms of inter-tribal, trading relations among the natives of new guinea. this account has been culled, as a preliminary monograph, from ethnographic material, covering the whole extent of the tribal culture of one district. one of the first conditions of acceptable ethnographic work certainly is that it should deal with the totality of all social, cultural and psychological aspects of the community, for they are so interwoven that not one can be understood without taking into consideration all the others. the reader of this monograph will clearly see that, though its main theme is economic--for it deals with commercial enterprise, exchange and trade--constant reference has to be made to social organisation, the power of magic, to mythology and folklore, and indeed to all other aspects as well as the main one. the geographical area of which the book treats is limited to the archipelagoes lying off the eastern end of new guinea. even within this, the main field of research was in one district, that of the trobriand islands. this, however, has been studied minutely. i have lived in that one archipelago for about two years, in the course of three expeditions to new guinea, during which time i naturally acquired a thorough knowledge of the language. i did my work entirely alone, living for the greater part of the time right in the villages. i therefore had constantly the daily life of the natives before my eyes, while accidental, dramatic occurrences, deaths, quarrels, village brawls, public and ceremonial events, could not escape my notice. in the present state of ethnography, when so much has still to be done in paving the way for forthcoming research and in fixing its scope, each new contribution ought to justify its appearance in several points. it ought to show some advance in method; it ought to push research beyond its previous limits in depth, in width, or in both; finally, it ought to endeavour to present its results in a manner exact, but not dry. the specialist interested in method, in reading this work, will find set out in the introduction, divisions ii-ix and in chapter xviii, the exposition of my points of view and efforts in this direction. the reader who is concerned with results, rather than with the way of obtaining them, will find in chapters iv to xxi a consecutive narrative of the kula expeditions, and the various associated customs and beliefs. the student who is interested, not only in the narrative, but in the ethnographic background for it, and a clear definition of the institution, will find the first in chapters i and ii, and the latter in chapter iii. to mr. robert mond i tender my sincerest thanks. it is to his generous endowment that i owe the possibility of carrying on for several years the research of which the present volume is a partial result. to mr. atlee hunt, c.m.g., secretary of the home and territories department of the commonwealth of australia, i am indebted for the financial assistance of the department, and also for much help given on the spot. in the trobriands, i was immensely helped in my work by mr. b. hancock, pearl trader, to whom i am grateful not only for assistance and services, but for many acts of friendship. much of the argument in this book has been greatly improved by the criticism given me by my friend, mr. paul khuner, of vienna, an expert in the practical affairs of modern industry and a highly competent thinker on economic matters. professor l. t. hobhouse has kindly read the proofs and given me valuable advice on several points. sir james frazer, by writing his preface, has enhanced the value of this volume beyond its merit and it is not only a great honour and advantage for me to be introduced by him, but also a special pleasure, for my first love for ethnology is associated with the reading of the "golden bough," then in its second edition. last, not least, i wish to mention professor c. g. seligman, to whom this book is dedicated. the initiative of my expedition was given by him and i owe him more than i can express for the encouragement and scientific counsel which he has so generously given me during the progress of my work in new guinea. b. m. el boquin, icod de los vinos, tenerife. april, . acknowledgements it is in the nature of the research, that an ethnographer has to rely upon the assistance of others to an extent much greater than is the case with other scientific workers. i have therefore to express in this special place my obligations to the many who have helped me. as said in the preface, financially i owe most to mr. robert mond, who made my work possible by bestowing on me the robert mond travelling scholarship (university of london) of £ per annum for five years (for and for - ). i was substantially helped by a grant of £ from the home and territories department of australia, obtained by the good offices of mr. atlee hunt, c.m.g. the london school of economics awarded me the constance hutchinson scholarship of £ yearly for two years, - . professor seligman, to whom in this, as in other matters i owe so much, besides helping me in obtaining all the other grants, gave himself £ towards the cost of the expedition and equipped me with a camera, a phonograph, anthropometric instruments and other paraphernalia of ethnographic work. i went out to australia with the british association for the advancement of science in , as a guest, and at the expense, of the commonwealth government of australia. it may be interesting for intending field-workers to observe that i carried out my ethnographic research for six years-- to --making three expeditions to the field of my work, and devoting the intervals between expeditions to the working out of my material and to the study of special literature, on little more than £ a year. i defrayed out of this, not only all the expenses of travel and research, such as fares, wages to native servants, payments of interpreters, but i was also able to collect a fair amount of ethnographic specimens, of which part has been presented to the melbourne museum as the robert mond collection. this would not have been possible for me, had i not received much help from residents in new guinea. my friend, mr. b. hancock, of gusaweta, trobriand islands, allowed me to use his house and store as base for my gear and provisions; he lent me his cutter on various occasions and provided me with a home, where i could always repair in need or sickness. he helped me in my photographic work, and gave me a good number of his own photographic plates, of which several are reproduced in this book (plates xi, xxxvii, and l-lii). other pearl traders and buyers of the trobriands were also very kind to me, especially m. and mme. raphael brudo, of paris, messrs. c. and g. auerbach, and the late mr. mick george, all of whom helped me in various ways and extended to me their kind hospitality. in my interim studies in melbourne, i received much help from the staff of the excellent public library of victoria, for which i have to thank the librarian, mr. e. la touche armstrong, my friend mr. e. pitt, mr. cooke and others. two maps and two plates are reproduced by kind permission of professor seligman from his "melanesians of british new guinea." i have to thank the editor of man (captain t. a. joyce) for his permission to use here again the plates which were previously published in that paper. mr. william swan stallybrass, senior managing director of messrs. geo. routledge & sons, ltd., has spared no trouble in meeting all my wishes as to scientific details in the publication of this book, for which i wish to express my sincere thanks. phonetic note. the native names and words in this book are written according to the simple rules, recommended by the royal geographical society and the royal anthropological institute. that is, the vowels are to be pronounced as in italian and the consonants as in english. this spelling suits the sounds of the melanesian languages of new guinea sufficiently well. the apostrophe placed between two vowels indicates that they should be pronounced separately and not merged into a diphthong. the accent is almost always on the penultimate, rarely on the anti-penultimate. all the syllables must be pronounced clearly and distinctly. table of contents preface by sir james frazer vii foreword by the author xv introduction: the subject, method and scope of this enquiry i--sailing, and trading in the south seas; the kula. ii--method in ethnography. iii--starting field work. some perplexing difficulties. three conditions of success. iv--life in a tent among the natives. mechanism of "getting in touch" with them. v--active methods of research. order and consistency in savage cultures. methodological consequences of this truth. vi--formulating the principles of tribal constitution and of the anatomy of culture. method of inference from statistic accumulation of concrete data. uses of synoptic charts. vii--presentation of the intimate touches of native life; of types of behaviour. method of systematic fixing of impressions; of detailed, consecutive records. importance of personal participation in native life. viii--recording of stereotyped manners of thinking and feeling. corpus inscriptionum kiriwiniensium. ix--summary of argument. the native's vision of his world i the country and inhabitants of the kula district i--racial divisions in eastern new guinea. seligman's classification. the kula natives. ii--sub-divisions of the kula district. iii--scenery at the eastern end of new guinea. villages of the s. massim; their customs and social institutions. iv--the d'entrecasteaux archipelago. the tribes of dobu. the mythological associations of their country. some of their customs and institutions. sorcery. a vision on sarubwoyna beach. v--sailing north. the amphlett group. savage monopolists ii the natives of the trobriand islands i--arrival in the coral islands. first impression of the native. some significant appearances and their deeper meaning. ii--position of women; their life and conduct before and after marriage. iii--further exploration in the villages. a cross country walk. gardens and gardening. iv--the native's working power; their motives and incentives to work. magic and work. a digression on primitive economics. v--chieftainship: power through wealth; a plutocratic community. list of the various provinces and political divisions in the trobriands. vi--totemism, the solidarity of clans and the bonds of kinship. vii--spirits of the dead. the overweening importance of magic. black magic. the prowling sorcerers and the flying witches. the malevolent visitors from the south, and epidemics. viii--the eastern neighbours of the trobrianders. the remaining districts of the kula iii the essentials of the kula i--a concise definition of the kula. ii--its economic character. iii--the articles exchanged; the conception of vaygu'a. iv--the main rules and aspects of the kula: the sociological aspect (partnership); direction of movement; nature of kula ownership; the differential and integral effect of these rules. v--the act of exchange; its regulations; the light it throws on the acquisitive and "communistic" tendencies of the natives; its concrete outlines; the sollicitory gifts. vi--the associated activities and the secondary aspects of the kula: construction of canoes; subsidiary trade--their true relation to the kula; the ceremonial, mythology and magic associated with the kula; the mortuary taboos and distributions, in their relation to the kula iv canoes and sailing i--the value and importance of a canoe to a native. its appearance, the impressions and emotions it arouses in those who use or own it. the atmosphere of romance which surrounds it for the native. ii--analysis of its construction, in relation to its function. the three types of canoes in the trobriand islands. iii--v--sociology of a large canoe (masawa). iii--(a)--social organisation of labour in constructing a canoe; the division of functions; the magical regulation of work. iv--(b)--sociology of canoe ownership; the toli-relationship; the toliwaga, "master" or "owner" of a canoe; the four privileges and functions of a toliwaga. v--(c)--the social division of functions in manning and sailing a canoe. statistical data about the trobriand shipping v the ceremonial building of a waga i--construction of canoes as part of the kula proceedings. magic and mythology. the preparatory and the ceremonial stage of construction. ii--the first stage: expelling the wood-sprite tokway; transport of the log; the hollowing-out of the log and the associated magic. iii--the second stage: the inaugural rite of kula magic; the native at grips with problems of construction; the wayugo creeper; the magical spell uttered over it; caulking; the three magical exorcisms. iv--some general remarks about the two stages of canoe-building and the concomitant magic. bulubwalata (evil magic) of canoes. the ornamental prow-boards. the dobuan and the muruwan types of overseas canoe vi launching of a canoe and ceremonial visiting--tribal economics in the trobriands i--the procedure and magic at launching. the trial run (tasasoria). account of the launching and tasasoria seen on the beach of kualukuba. reflections on the decay of customs under european influence. ii--digression on the sociology of work: organisation of labour; forms of communal labour; payment for work. iii--the custom of ceremonial visiting (kabigidoya); local trade, done on such expeditions. iv--vii--digression on gifts, payments, and exchange. iv--attitude of the native towards wealth. desire of display. enhancement of social prestige through wealth. the motives of accumulating food stuffs. the vilamalya (magic of plenty). the handling of yams. psychology of eating. value of manufactured goods, psychologically analysed. v--motives for exchange. giving, as satisfaction of vanity and as display of power. fallacy of the "economically isolated individual" or "household." absence of gain in exchange. vi--exchange of gifts and barter. list of gifts, payments and commercial transactions: . pure gifts; . customary payments, repaid irregularly and without strict equivalents; . payments for services rendered; . gifts returned in strictly equivalent form; . exchange of material goods against privileges, titles and non-material possessions; . ceremonial barter with deferred payment; . trade pure and simple. vii--economic duties corresponding to various social ties; table of eight classes of social relationship, characterised by definite economic obligations vii the departure of an overseas expedition scene laid in sinaketa. the local chiefs. stir in the village. the social differentiation of the sailing party. magical rites, associated with the preparing and loading of a canoe. the sulumwoya rite. the magical bundle (lilava). the compartments of a canoe and the gebobo spell. farewells on the beach viii the first halt of the fleet on muwa i--the definition of an uvalaku (ceremonial, competitive expedition). ii--the sagali (ceremonial distribution) on muwa. iii--the magic of sailing ix sailing on the sea-arm of pilolu i--the landscape. mythological geography of the regions beyond. ii--sailing: the winds; navigation; technique of sailing a canoe and its dangers. iii--the customs and taboos of sailing. privileged position of certain sub-clans. iv--the beliefs in dreadful monsters lurking in the sea x the story of shipwreck i--the flying witches, mulukwausi or yoyova: essentials of the belief; initiation and education of a yoyova (witch); secrecy surrounding this condition; manner of practising this witch-craft; actual cases. ii--the flying witches at sea and in ship-wreck. other dangerous agents. the kayga'u magic; its modes of operation. iii--account of the preparatory rites of kayga'u. some incantations quoted. iv--the story of ship-wreck and rescue. v--the spell of the rescuing giant fish. the myth and the magical formula of tokulubwaydoga. xi in the amphletts--sociology of the kula i--arrival in gumasila. example of a kula conversation. trobrianders on long visits in the amphletts. ii--sociology of the kula: . sociological limitations to participation in the kula; . relation of partnership; . entering the kula relationship; . participation of women in the kula. iii--the natives of the amphletts: their industries and trade; pottery; importing the clay; technology of pot-making; commercial relations with the surrounding districts. iv--drift of migrations and cultural influences in this province xii in tewara and sanaroa--mythology of the kula i--sailing under the lee of koytabu. the cannibals of the unexplored jungle. trobriand traditions and legends about them. the history and song of gumagabu. ii--myths and reality: significance imparted to landscape by myth; line of distinction between the mythical and the actual occurrences; magical power and mythical atmosphere; the three strata of trobriand myths. iii--v--the myths of the kula. iii--survey of kula mythology and its geographical distribution. the story of gere'u of muyuwa (woodlark island). the two stories of tokosikuna of digumenu and gumasila. iv--the kudayuri myth of the flying canoe. commentary and analysis of this myth. association between the canoe and the flying witches. mythology and the lukuba clan. v--the myth of kasabwaybwayreta and the necklace gumakarakedakeda. comparison of these stories. vi--sociological analysis of the myths. influence of the kula myths upon native outlook; myth and custom. vii--the relation between myth and actuality restated. viii--the story, the natural monuments and the religious ceremonial of the mythical personalities atu'a'ine, aturamo'a and their sister sinatemubadiye'i. other rocks of similar traditional nature xiii on the beach of sarubwoyna i--the halt on the beach. the beauty magic. some incantations quoted. the spell of the ta'uya (conch shell). ii--the magical onset on the koya. psychological analysis of this magic. iii--the gwara (taboo) and the ka'ubana'i spell xiv the kula in dobu--technicalities of the exchange i--reception in dobu. ii--the main transactions of the kula and the subsidiary gifts and exchanges: some general reflections on the driving force of the kula; regulations of the main transaction vaga (opening gift) and yotile (return gift); the sollicitory gifts (pokala, kwaypolu, kaributu, korotomna); intermediary gifts (basi) and final clinching gift (kudu); the other articles sometimes exchanged in the main transaction of the kula (doga, samakupa, beku); commercial honour and ethics of the kula. iii--the kula proceedings in dobu: wooing the partner; kwoygapani magic; the subsidiary trade; roamings of the boyowans in the dobu district xv the journey home--the fishing and working of the kaloma shell i--visits made on the return trip. some articles acquired. ii--the spondylus shell fishing in sanaroa lagoon and in home waters: its general character and magic; the kaloma myth; consecutive account of the technicalities, ceremonial and magic of the diving for the shell. iii--technology, economics and sociology of the production of the discs and necklaces from the shell. iv--tanarere, display of the haul. arrival of the party home to sinaketa xvi the return visit of the dobuans to sinaketa i--the uvalaku (ceremonial expedition) from dobu to southern boyowa: the preparations in dobu and sanaroa; preparations in gumasila; the excitement, the spreading and convergence of news; arrival of the dobuan fleet in nabwageta. ii--preparations in sinaketa for the reception of the visiting party. the dobuans arrive. the scene at kaykuyawa point. the ceremonial reception. speeches and gifts. the three days' sojourn of the dobuans in sinaketa. manner of living. exchange of gifts and barter. iii--return home. results shown at the tanarere xvii magic and the kula i--the subject matter of boyowan magic. its association with all the vital activities and with the unaccountable aspects of reality. ii--v--the native conception of magic. ii--the methods of arriving at its knowledge. iii--native views about the original sources of magic. its primeval character. inadmissibility to the native of spontaneous generation in magic. magic a power of man and not a force of nature. magic and myth and their super-normal atmosphere. iv--the magical acts: spell and rite; relation between these two factors; spells uttered directly without a concomitant rite; spells accompanied by simple rite of impregnation; spells accompanied by a rite of transference; spells accompanied by offerings and invocations; summary of this survey. v--place where magic is stored in the human anatomy. vi--condition of the performer. taboos and observances. sociological position. actual descent and magical filiation. vii--definition of systematic magic. the "systems" of canoe magic and kula magic. viii--supernormal or supernatural character of magic; emotional reaction of the natives to certain forms of magic; the kariyala (magical portent); rôle of ancestral spirits; native terminology. ix--ceremonial setting of magic. x--institution of taboo, supported by magic. kaytubutabu and kaytapaku. xi--purchase of certain forms of magic. payments for magical services. xii--brief summary xviii the power of words in magic--some linguistic data i--study of linguistic data in magic to throw light on native ideas about the power of words. ii--the text of the wayugo spell with literal translation. iii--linguistic analysis of its u'ula (exordium). iv--vocal technique of reciting a spell. analysis of the tapwana (main part) and dogina (final part). v--the text of the sulumwoya spell and its analysis. vi--xii--linguistic data referring to the other spells mentioned in this volume and some general inferences. vi--the tokway spell and the opening phrases of the canoe spells. vii--the tapwana (main parts) of the canoe spells. viii--the end parts (dogina) of these spells. ix--the u'ula of the mwasila spells. x--the tapwana and the dogina of these spells. xi--the kayga'u spells. xii--summary of the results of this linguistic survey. xiii--substances used in these magical rites. xiv--xviii--analysis of some non-magical linguistic texts, to illustrate ethnographic method and native way of thinking. xiv--general remarks about certain aspects of method. xv--text no. , its literal and free translation. xvi--commentary. xvii--texts no. and translated and commented upon xix the inland kula i--to'uluwa, the chief of kiriwina, on a visit in sinaketa. the decay of his power. some melancholy reflections about the folly of destroying the native order of things and of undermining native authority as now prevailing. ii--the division into "kula communities;" the three types of kula, with respect to this division. the overseas kula. iii--the inland kula between two "kula communities" and within such a unit. iv--the "kula communities" in boyowa (trobriand islands) xx expeditions between kiriwina and kitava i, ii--account of an expedition from kiriwina to kitava. i--fixing dates and preparing districts. ii--preliminaries of the journey. departure from kaulukuba beach. sailing. analogies and differences between these expeditions and those of the sinaketans to dobu. entering the village. the youlawada custom. sojourn in kitava and return. iii--the so'i (mortuary feast) in the eastern district (kitava to muyuwa) and its association with the kula xxi the remaining branches and offshoots of the kula i--rapid survey of the routes between woodlark island (murua or muyuwa) and the engineer group and between this latter and dobu. ii--the ordinary trade carried on between these communities. iii--an offshoot of the kula; trading expeditions between the western trobriand (kavataria and kayleula) and the western d'entrecasteaux. iv--production of mwali (armshells). v--some other offshoots and leakages of the kula ring. entry of the kula vaygu'a into the ring. xxii the meaning of the kula index list of illustrations a ceremonial act of the kula frontispiece plate facing page i the ethnographer's tent on the beach of nu'agasi ii the chief's lisiga (personal hut) in omarakana iii street of kasana'i (in kiriwina, trobriand island) iv scene in yourawotu (trobriands) v scenes on the beach of silosilo (southern massim district) vi village scenes during a so'i feast vii in the amphletts viii group of natives in the village of tukwa'ukwa ix men of rank from kiriwina x fishermen from teyava xi a typical nakubukwabuya (unmarried woman) xii boyowan girls xiii kaydebu dance xiv dancers in full decoration xv a family group xvi armshells xvii two men wearing armshells xviii two necklaces, made of red spondylus discs xix two women adorned with necklaces xx a kula gathering on the beach of sinaketa xxi a masawa canoe xxii putting a canoe into its hangar xxiii canoe under sail xxiv the fishing canoe (kalipoulo) xxv the dug-out in the village xxvi carving a tabuyo xxvii construction of a waga xxviii sail making xxix rolls of dried pandanus leaf xxx launching of a canoe xxxi the tasasoria on the beach of kaulukuba xxxii a chief's yam-house in kasana'i xxxiii filling a yam-house in yalumugwa xxiv display of pigs and yams at a distribution (sagali) xxxv communal cooking of mona (taro dumplings) xxxvi scene in the wasi (ceremonial exchange of vegetables for fish) xxxvii vava, direct barter of vegetables for fish xxxviii koutau'ya, one of the chiefs of sinaketa xxxix a loaded canoe xl a waga sailing on a kula expedition xli the rigging of a canoe xlii scenery in the amphletts xliii landing in the main village of gumasila xliv technology of pot-making (i) xlv technology of pot-making (ii) xlvi fine specimens of amphlett pots xlvii a canoe in gumasila loading pots xlviii a kula fleet halting to perform the final rites of mwasila xlix the beauty magic of the mwasila l (a) working the kaloma shell (i) l (b) working the kaloma shell (ii) li working the kaloma shell (iii) lii working the kaloma shell (iv) liii on the beach of nabwageta liv the dobuan canoes pulled up on sinaketa beach lv some canoes moored on the shallow lagoon near the shore lvi dobuan visitors in sinaketa lvii a magical spell associated with pregnancy lviii a rite of war magic lix a rite of garden magic lx armshells brought from kitava lxi bringing in a soulava lxii offering the soulava lxiii ceremonial destruction during a so'i feast lxiv nagega canoe lxv a corpse covered with valuables maps i eastern new guinea xxxiii ii racial distribution in eastern new guinea iii the kula district iv the trobriand archipelago v the kula ring tables i chronological list of kula events witnessed by the writer ii time-table of the uvalaku expedition, dobu to sinaketa, iii table of kula magic and of the corresponding activities - figures in text i diagram of canoe stability and construction ii diagrammatic sections of canoes introduction: the subject, method and scope of this inquiry i the coastal populations of the south sea islands, with very few exceptions, are, or were before their extinction, expert navigators and traders. several of them had evolved excellent types of large sea-going canoes, and used to embark in them on distant trade expeditions or raids of war and conquest. the papuo-melanesians, who inhabit the coast and the out-lying islands of new guinea, are no exception to this rule. in general they are daring sailors, industrious manufacturers, and keen traders. the manufacturing centres of important articles, such as pottery, stone implements, canoes, fine baskets, valued ornaments, are localised in several places, according to the skill of the inhabitants, their inherited tribal tradition, and special facilities offered by the district; thence they are traded over wide areas, sometimes travelling more than hundreds of miles. definite forms of exchange along definite trade routes are to be found established between the various tribes. a most remarkable form of intertribal trade is that obtaining between the motu of port moresby and the tribes of the papuan gulf. the motu sail for hundreds of miles in heavy, unwieldy canoes, called lakatoi, which are provided with the characteristic crab-claw sails. they bring pottery and shell ornaments, in olden days, stone blades, to gulf papuans, from whom they obtain in exchange sago and the heavy dug-outs, which are used afterwards by the motu for the construction of their lakatoi canoes. [ ] further east, on the south coast, there lives the industrious, sea-faring population of the mailu, who link the east end of new guinea with the central coast tribes by means of annual trading expeditions. [ ] finally, the natives of the islands and archipelagoes, scattered around the east end, are in constant trading relations with one another. we possess in professor seligman's book an excellent description of the subject, especially of the nearer trades routes between the various islands inhabited by the southern massim. [ ] there exists, however, another, a very extensive and highly complex trading system, embracing with its ramifications, not only the islands near the east end, but also the louisiades, woodlark island, the trobriand archipelago, and the d'entrecasteaux group; it penetrates into the mainland of new guinea, and exerts an indirect influence over several outlying districts, such as rossel island, and some parts of the northern and southern coast of new guinea. this trading system, the kula, is the subject i am setting out to describe in this volume, and it will be seen that it is an economic phenomenon of considerable theoretical importance. it looms paramount in the tribal life of those natives who live within its circuit, and its importance is fully realised by the tribesmen themselves, whose ideas, ambitions, desires and vanities are very much bound up with the kula. ii before proceeding to the account of the kula, it will be well to give a description of the methods used in the collecting of the ethnographic material. the results of scientific research in any branch of learning ought to be presented in a manner absolutely candid and above board. no one would dream of making an experimental contribution to physical or chemical science, without giving a detailed account of all the arrangements of the experiments; an exact description of the apparatus used; of the manner in which the observations were conducted; of their number; of the length of time devoted to them, and of the degree of approximation with which each measurement was made. in less exact sciences, as in biology or geology, this cannot be done as rigorously, but every student will do his best to bring home to the reader all the conditions in which the experiment or the observations were made. in ethnography, where a candid account of such data is perhaps even more necessary, it has unfortunately in the past not always been supplied with sufficient generosity, and many writers do not ply the full searchlight of methodic sincerity, as they move among their facts and produce them before us out of complete obscurity. it would be easy to quote works of high repute, and with a scientific hall-mark on them, in which wholesale generalisations are laid down before us, and we are not informed at all by what actual experiences the writers have reached their conclusion. no special chapter or paragraph is devoted to describing to us the conditions under which observations were made and information collected. i consider that only such ethnographic sources are of unquestionable scientific value, in which we can clearly draw the line between, on the one hand, the results of direct observation and of native statements and interpretations, and on the other, the inferences of the author, based on his common sense and psychological insight. [ ] indeed, some such survey, as that contained in the table, given below (div. vi of this chapter) ought to be forthcoming, so that at a glance the reader could estimate with precision the degree of the writer's personal acquaintance with the facts which he describes, and form an idea under what conditions information had been obtained from the natives. again, in historical science, no one could expect to be seriously treated if he made any mystery of his sources and spoke of the past as if he knew it by divination. in ethnography, the writer is his own chronicler and the historian at the same time, while his sources are no doubt easily accessible, but also supremely elusive and complex; they are not embodied in fixed, material documents, but in the behaviour and in the memory of living men. in ethnography, the distance is often enormous between the brute material of information--as it is presented to the student in his own observations, in native statement, in the kaleidoscope of tribal life--and the final authoritative presentation of the results. the ethnographer has to traverse this distance in the laborious years between the moment when he sets foot upon a native beach, and makes his first attempts to get into touch with the natives, and the time when he writes down the final version of his results. a brief outline of an ethnographer's tribulations, as lived through by myself, may throw more light on the question, than any long abstract discussion could do. iii imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by all your gear, alone on a tropical beach close to a native village, while the launch or dinghy which has brought you sails away out of sight. since you take up your abode in the compound of some neighbouring white man, trader or missionary, you have nothing to do, but to start at once on your ethnographic work. imagine further that you are a beginner, without previous experience, with nothing to guide you and no one to help you. for the white man is temporarily absent, or else unable or unwilling to waste any of his time on you. this exactly describes my first initiation into field work on the south coast of new guinea. i well remember the long visits i paid to the villages during the first weeks; the feeling of hopelessness and despair after many obstinate but futile attempts had entirely failed to bring me into real touch with the natives, or supply me with any material. i had periods of despondency, when i buried myself in the reading of novels, as a man might take to drink in a fit of tropical depression and boredom. imagine yourself then, making your first entry into the village, alone or in company with your white cicerone. some natives flock round you, especially if they smell tobacco. others, the more dignified and elderly, remain seated where they are. your white companion has his routine way of treating the natives, and he neither understands, nor is very much concerned with the manner in which you, as an ethnographer, will have to approach them. the first visit leaves you with a hopeful feeling that when you return alone, things will be easier. such was my hope at least. i came back duly, and soon gathered an audience around me. a few compliments in pidgin-english on both sides, some tobacco changing hands, induced an atmosphere of mutual amiability. i tried then to proceed to business. first, to begin with subjects which might arouse no suspicion, i started to "do" technology. a few natives were engaged in manufacturing some object or other. it was easy to look at it and obtain the names of the tools, and even some technical expressions about the proceedings, but there the matter ended. it must be borne in mind that pidgin-english is a very imperfect instrument for expressing one's ideas, and that before one gets a good training in framing questions and understanding answers one has the uncomfortable feeling that free communication in it with the natives will never be attained; and i was quite unable to enter into any more detailed or explicit conversation with them at first. i knew well that the best remedy for this was to collect concrete data, and accordingly i took a village census, wrote down genealogies, drew up plans and collected the terms of kinship. but all this remained dead material, which led no further into the understanding of real native mentality or behaviour, since i could neither procure a good native interpretation of any of these items, nor get what could be called the hang of tribal life. as to obtaining their ideas about religion, and magic, their beliefs in sorcery and spirits, nothing was forthcoming except a few superficial items of folk-lore, mangled by being forced into pidgin-english. information which i received from some white residents in the district, valuable as it was in itself, was more discouraging than anything else with regard to my own work. here were men who had lived for years in the place with constant opportunities of observing the natives and communicating with them, and who yet hardly knew one thing about them really well. how could i therefore in a few months or a year, hope to overtake and go beyond them? moreover, the manner in which my white informants spoke about the natives and put their views was, naturally, that of untrained minds, unaccustomed to formulate their thoughts with any degree of consistency and precision. and they were for the most part, naturally enough, full of the biassed and pre-judged opinions inevitable in the average practical man, whether administrator, missionary, or trader; yet so strongly repulsive to a mind striving after the objective, scientific view of things. the habit of treating with a self-satisfied frivolity what is really serious to the ethnographer; the cheap rating of what to him is a scientific treasure, that is to say, the native's cultural and mental peculiarities and independence--these features, so well known in the inferior amateur's writing, i found in the tone of the majority of white residents. [ ] indeed, in my first piece of ethnographic research on the south coast, it was not until i was alone in the district that i began to make some headway; and, at any rate, i found out where lay the secret of effective field-work. what is then this ethnographer's magic, by which he is able to evoke the real spirit of the natives, the true picture of tribal life? as usual, success can only be obtained by a patient and systematic application of a number of rules of common sense and well-known scientific principles, and not by the discovery of any marvellous short-cut leading to the desired results without effort or trouble. the principles of method can be grouped under three main headings; first of all, naturally, the student must possess real scientific aims, and know the values and criteria of modern ethnography. secondly, he ought to put himself in good conditions of work, that is, in the main, to live without other white men, right among the natives. finally, he has to apply a number of special methods of collecting, manipulating and fixing his evidence. a few words must be said about these three foundation stones of fieldwork, beginning with the second as the most elementary. iv proper conditions for ethnographic work. these, as said, consist mainly in cutting oneself off from the company of other white men, and remaining in as close contact with the natives as possible, which really can only be achieved by camping right in their villages (see plates i and ii). it is very nice to have a base in a white man's compound for the stores, and to know there is a refuge there in times of sickness and surfeit of native. but it must be far enough away not to become a permanent milieu in which you live and from which you emerge at fixed hours only to "do the village." it should not even be near enough to fly to at any moment for recreation. for the native is not the natural companion for a white man, and after you have been working with him for several hours, seeing how he does his gardens, or letting him tell you items of folk-lore, or discussing his customs, you will naturally hanker after the company of your own kind. but if you are alone in a village beyond reach of this, you go for a solitary walk for an hour or so, return again and then quite naturally seek out the natives' society, this time as a relief from loneliness, just as you would any other companionship. and by means of this natural intercourse, you learn to know him, and you become familiar with his customs and beliefs far better than when he is a paid, and often bored, informant. there is all the difference between a sporadic plunging into the company of natives, and being really in contact with them. what does this latter mean? on the ethnographer's side, it means that his life in the village, which at first is a strange, sometimes unpleasant, sometimes intensely interesting adventure, soon adopts quite a natural course very much in harmony with his surroundings. soon after i had established myself in omarakana (trobriand islands), i began to take part, in a way, in the village life, to look forward to the important or festive events, to take personal interest in the gossip and the developments of the small village occurrences; to wake up every morning to a day, presenting itself to me more or less as it does to the native. i would get out from under my mosquito net, to find around me the village life beginning to stir, or the people well advanced in their working day according to the hour and also to the season, for they get up and begin their labours early or late, as work presses. as i went on my morning walk through the village, i could see intimate details of family life, of toilet, cooking, taking of meals; i could see the arrangements for the day's work, people starting on their errands, or groups of men and women busy at some manufacturing tasks (see plate iii). quarrels, jokes, family scenes, events usually trivial, sometimes dramatic but always significant, formed the atmosphere of my daily life, as well as of theirs. it must be remembered that as the natives saw me constantly every day, they ceased to be interested or alarmed, or made self-conscious by my presence, and i ceased to be a disturbing element in the tribal life which i was to study, altering it by my very approach, as always happens with a new-comer to every savage community. in fact, as they knew that i would thrust my nose into everything, even where a well-mannered native would not dream of intruding, they finished by regarding me as part and parcel of their life, a necessary evil or nuisance, mitigated by donations of tobacco. later on in the day, whatever happened was within easy reach, and there was no possibility of its escaping my notice. alarms about the sorcerer's approach in the evening, one or two big, really important quarrels and rifts within the community, cases of illness, attempted cures and deaths, magical rites which had to be performed, all these i had not to pursue, fearful of missing them, but they took place under my very eyes, at my own doorstep, so to speak (see plate iv). and it must be emphasised whenever anything dramatic or important occurs it is essential to investigate it at the very moment of happening, because the natives cannot but talk about it, are too excited to be reticent, and too interested to be mentally lazy in supplying details. also, over and over again, i committed breaches of etiquette, which the natives, familiar enough with me, were not slow in pointing out. i had to learn how to behave, and to a certain extent, i acquired "the feeling" for native good and bad manners. with this, and with the capacity of enjoying their company and sharing some of their games and amusements, i began to feel that i was indeed in touch with the natives, and this is certainly the preliminary condition of being able to carry on successful field work. v but the ethnographer has not only to spread his nets in the right place, and wait for what will fall into them. he must be an active huntsman, and drive his quarry into them and follow it up to its most inaccessible lairs. and that leads us to the more active methods of pursuing ethnographic evidence. it has been mentioned at the end of division iii that the ethnographer has to be inspired by the knowledge of the most modern results of scientific study, by its principles and aims. i shall not enlarge upon this subject, except by way of one remark, to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding. good training in theory, and acquaintance with its latest results, is not identical with being burdened with "preconceived ideas." if a man sets out on an expedition, determined to prove certain hypotheses, if he is incapable of changing his views constantly and casting them off ungrudgingly under the pressure of evidence, needless to say his work will be worthless. but the more problems he brings with him into the field, the more he is in the habit of moulding his theories according to facts, and of seeing facts in their bearing upon theory, the better he is equipped for the work. preconceived ideas are pernicious in any scientific work, but foreshadowed problems are the main endowment of a scientific thinker, and these problems are first revealed to the observer by his theoretical studies. in ethnology the early efforts of bastian, tylor, morgan, the german völkerpsychologen have remoulded the older crude information of travellers, missionaries, etc., and have shown us the importance of applying deeper conceptions and discarding crude and misleading ones. [ ] the concept of animism superseded that of "fetichism" or "devil-worship," both meaningless terms. the understanding of the classificatory systems of relationship paved the way for the brilliant, modern researches on native sociology in the field-work of the cambridge school. the psychological analysis of the german thinkers has brought forth an abundant crop of most valuable information in the results obtained by the recent german expeditions to africa, south america and the pacific, while the theoretical works of frazer, durkheim and others have already, and will no doubt still for a long time inspire field workers and lead them to new results. the field worker relies entirely upon inspiration from theory. of course he may be also a theoretical thinker and worker, and there he can draw on himself for stimulus. but the two functions are separate, and in actual research they have to be separated both in time and conditions of work. as always happens when scientific interest turns towards and begins to labour on a field so far only prospected by the curiosity of amateurs, ethnology has introduced law and order into what seemed chaotic and freakish. it has transformed for us the sensational, wild and unaccountable world of "savages" into a number of well ordered communities, governed by law, behaving and thinking according to consistent principles. the word "savage," whatever association it might have had originally, connotes ideas of boundless liberty, of irregularity, of something extremely and extraordinarily quaint. in popular thinking, we imagine that the natives live on the bosom of nature, more or less as they can and like, the prey of irregular, phantasmagoric beliefs and apprehensions. modern science, on the contrary, shows that their social institutions have a very definite organisation, that they are governed by authority, law and order in their public and personal relations, while the latter are, besides, under the control of extremely complex ties of kinship and clanship. indeed, we see them entangled in a mesh of duties, functions and privileges which correspond to an elaborate tribal, communal and kinship organisation (see plate iv). their beliefs and practices do not by any means lack consistency of a certain type, and their knowledge of the outer world is sufficient to guide them in many of their strenuous enterprises and activities. their artistic productions again lack neither meaning nor beauty. it is a very far cry from the famous answer given long ago by a representative authority who, asked, what are the manners and customs of the natives, answered, "customs none, manners beastly," to the position of the modern ethnographer! this latter, with his tables of kinship terms, genealogies, maps, plans and diagrams, proves an extensive and big organisation, shows the constitution of the tribe, of the clan, of the family; and he gives us a picture of the natives subjected to a strict code of behaviour and good manners, to which in comparison the life at the court of versailles or escurial was free and easy. [ ] thus the first and basic ideal of ethnographic field-work is to give a clear and firm outline of the social constitution, and disentangle the laws and regularities of all cultural phenomena from the irrelevances. the firm skeleton of the tribal life has to be first ascertained. this ideal imposes in the first place the fundamental obligation of giving a complete survey of the phenomena, and not of picking out the sensational, the singular, still less the funny and quaint. the time when we could tolerate accounts presenting us the native as a distorted, childish caricature of a human being are gone. this picture is false, and like many other falsehoods, it has been killed by science. the field ethnographer has seriously and soberly to cover the full extent of the phenomena in each aspect of tribal culture studied, making no difference between what is commonplace, or drab, or ordinary, and what strikes him as astonishing and out-of-the-way. at the same time, the whole area of tribal culture in all its aspects has to be gone over in research. the consistency, the law and order which obtain within each aspect make also for joining them into one coherent whole. an ethnographer who sets out to study only religion, or only technology, or only social organisation cuts out an artificial field for inquiry, and he will be seriously handicapped in his work. vi having settled this very general rule, let us descend to more detailed consideration of method. the ethnographer has in the field, according to what has just been said, the duty before him of drawing up all the rules and regularities of tribal life; all that is permanent and fixed; of giving an anatomy of their culture, of depicting the constitution of their society. but these things, though crystallised and set, are nowhere formulated. there is no written or explicitly expressed code of laws, and their whole tribal tradition, the whole structure of their society, are embodied in the most elusive of all materials; the human being. but not even in human mind or memory are these laws to be found definitely formulated. the natives obey the forces and commands of the tribal code, but they do not comprehend them; exactly as they obey their instincts and their impulses, but could not lay down a single law of psychology. the regularities in native institutions are an automatic result of the interaction of the mental forces of tradition, and of the material conditions of environment. exactly as a humble member of any modern institution, whether it be the state, or the church, or the army, is of it and in it, but has no vision of the resulting integral action of the whole, still less could furnish any account of its organisation, so it would be futile to attempt questioning a native in abstract, sociological terms. the difference is that, in our society, every institution has its intelligent members, its historians, and its archives and documents, whereas in a native society there are none of these. after this is realised an expedient has to be found to overcome this difficulty. this expedient for an ethnographer consists in collecting concrete data of evidence, and drawing the general inferences for himself. this seems obvious on the face of it, but was not found out or at least practised in ethnography till field work was taken up by men of science. moreover, in giving it practical effect, it is neither easy to devise the concrete applications of this method, nor to carry them out systematically and consistently. though we cannot ask a native about abstract, general rules, we can always enquire how a given case would be treated. thus for instance, in asking how they would treat crime, or punish it, it would be vain to put to a native a sweeping question such as, "how do you treat and punish a criminal?" for even words could not be found to express it in native, or in pidgin. but an imaginary case, or still better, a real occurrence, will stimulate a native to express his opinion and to supply plentiful information. a real case indeed will start the natives on a wave of discussion, evoke expressions of indignation, show them taking sides--all of which talk will probably contain a wealth of definite views, of moral censures, as well as reveal the social mechanism set in motion by the crime committed. from there, it will be easy to lead them on to speak of other similar cases, to remember other actual occurrences or to discuss them in all their implications and aspects. from this material, which ought to cover the widest possible range of facts, the inference is obtained by simple induction. the scientific treatment differs from that of good common sense, first in that a student will extend the completeness and minuteness of survey much further and in a pedantically systematic and methodical manner; and secondly, in that the scientifically trained mind, will push the inquiry along really relevant lines, and towards aims possessing real importance. indeed, the object of scientific training is to provide the empirical investigator with a mental chart, in accordance with which he can take his bearings and lay his course. to return to our example, a number of definite cases discussed will reveal to the ethnographer the social machinery for punishment. this is one part, one aspect of tribal authority. imagine further that by a similar method of inference from definite data, he arrives at understanding leadership in war, in economic enterprise, in tribal festivities--there he has at once all the data necessary to answer the questions about tribal government and social authority. in actual field work, the comparison of such data, the attempt to piece them together, will often reveal rifts and gaps in the information which lead on to further investigations. from my own experience, i can say that, very often, a problem seemed settled, everything fixed and clear, till i began to write down a short preliminary sketch of my results. and only then, did i see the enormous deficiencies, which would show me where lay new problems, and lead me on to new work. in fact, i spent a few months between my first and second expeditions, and over a year between that and the subsequent one, in going over all my material, and making parts of it almost ready for publication each time, though each time i knew i would have to re-write it. such cross-fertilisation of constructive work and observation, i found most valuable, and i do not think i could have made real headway without it. i give this bit of my own history merely to show that what has been said so far is not only an empty programme, but the result of personal experience. in this volume, the description is given of a big institution connected with ever so many associated activities, and presenting many aspects. to anyone who reflects on the subject, it will be clear that the information about a phenomenon of such high complexity and of so many ramifications, could not be obtained with any degree of exactitude and completeness, without a constant interplay of constructive attempts and empirical checking. in fact, i have written up an outline of the kula institution at least half a dozen times while in the field and in the intervals between my expeditions. each time, new problems and difficulties presented themselves. the collecting of concrete data over a wide range of facts is thus one of the main points of field method. the obligation is not to enumerate a few examples only, but to exhaust as far as possible all the cases within reach; and, on this search for cases, the investigator will score most whose mental chart is clearest. but, whenever the material of the search allows it, this mental chart ought to be transformed into a real one; it ought to materialise into a diagram, a plan, an exhaustive, synoptic table of cases. long since, in all tolerably good modern books on natives, we expect to find a full list or table of kinship terms, which includes all the data relative to it, and does not just pick out a few strange and anomalous relationships or expressions. in the investigation of kinship, the following up of one relation after another in concrete cases leads naturally to the construction of genealogical tables. practised already by the best early writers, such as munzinger, and, if i remember rightly, kubary, this method has been developed to its fullest extent in the works of dr. rivers. again, studying the concrete data of economic transactions, in order to trace the history of a valuable object, and to gauge the nature of its circulation, the principle of completeness and thoroughness would lead to construct tables of transactions, such as we find in the work of professor seligman. [ ] it is in following professor seligman's example in this matter that i was able to settle certain of the more difficult and detailed rules of the kula. the method of reducing information, if possible, into charts or synoptic tables ought to be extended to the study of practically all aspects of native life. all types of economic transactions may be studied by following up connected, actual cases, and putting them into a synoptic chart; again, a table ought to be drawn up of all the gifts and presents customary in a given society, a table including the sociological, ceremonial, and economic definition of every item. also, systems of magic, connected series of ceremonies, types of legal acts, all could be charted, allowing each entry to be synoptically defined under a number of headings. besides this, of course, the genealogical census of every community, studied more in detail, extensive maps, plans and diagrams, illustrating ownership in garden land, hunting and fishing privileges, etc., serve as the more fundamental documents of ethnographic research. a genealogy is nothing else but a synoptic chart of a number of connected relations of kinship. its value as an instrument of research consists in that it allows the investigator to put questions which he formulates to himself in abstracto, but can put concretely to the native informant. as a document, its value consists in that it gives a number of authenticated data, presented in their natural grouping. a synoptic chart of magic fulfils the same function. as an instrument of research, i have used it in order to ascertain, for instance, the ideas about the nature of magical power. with a chart before me, i could easily and conveniently go over one item after the other, and note down the relevant practices and beliefs contained in each of them. the answer to my abstract problem could then be obtained by drawing a general inference from all the cases, and the procedure is illustrated in chapters xvii and xviii. [ ] i cannot enter further into the discussion of this question, which would need further distinctions, such as between a chart of concrete, actual data, such as is a genealogy, and a chart summarising the outlines of a custom or belief, as a chart of a magical system would be. returning once more to the question of methodological candour, discussed previously in division ii i wish to point out here, that the procedure of concrete and tabularised presentation of data ought to be applied first to the ethnographer's own credentials. that is, an ethnographer, who wishes to be trusted, must show clearly and concisely, in a tabularised form, which are his own direct observations, and which the indirect information that form the bases of his account. the table on the next page will serve as an example of this procedure and help the reader of this book to form an idea of the trustworthiness of any statement he is specially anxious to check. with the help of this table and the many references scattered throughout the text, as to how, under what circumstances, and with what degree of accuracy i arrived at a given item of knowledge, there will, i hope remain no obscurity whatever as to the sources of the book. chronological list of kula events witnessed by the writer first expedition, august, -march, . march, . in the village of dikoyas (woodlark island) a few ceremonial offerings seen. preliminary information obtained. second expedition, may, -may, . june, . a kabigidoya visit arrives from vakuta to kiriwina. its anchoring at kavataria witnessed and the men seen at omarakana, where information collected. july, . several parties from kitava land on the beach of kaulukuba. the men examined in omarakana. much information collected in that period. september, . unsuccessful attempt to sail to kitava with to'uluwa, the chief of omarakana. october-november, . departure noticed of three expeditions from kiriwina to kitava. each time to'uluwa brings home a haul of mwali (armshells). november, -march, . preparations for a big overseas expedition from kiriwina to the marshall bennett islands. construction of a canoe; renovating of another; sail making in omarakana; launching; tasasoria on the beach of kaulukuba. at the same time, information is being obtained about these and the associated subjects. some magical texts of canoe building and kula magic obtained. third expedition, october, -october, . november, -december, . inland kula; some data obtained in tukwaukwa. december-february, . parties from kitava arrive in wawela. collection of information about the yoyova. magic and spells of kaygau obtained. march, . preparations in sanaroa; preparations in the amphletts; the dobuan fleet arrives in the amphletts. the uvalaku expedition from dobu followed to boyowa. april, . their arrival; their reception in sinaketa; the kula transactions; the big intertribal gathering. some magical formulæ obtained. may, . party from kitava seen in vakuta. june, july, . information about kula magic and customs checked and amplified in omarakana, especially with regard to its eastern branches. august, september, . magical texts obtained in sinaketa. october, . information obtained from a number of natives in dobu and southern massim district (examined in samarai). to summarise the first, cardinal point of method, i may say each phenomenon ought to be studied through the broadest range possible of its concrete manifestations; each studied by an exhaustive survey of detailed examples. if possible, the results ought to be embodied into some sort of synoptic chart, both to be used as an instrument of study, and to be presented as an ethnological document. with the help of such documents and such study of actualities the clear outline of the framework of the natives' culture in the widest sense of the word, and the constitution of their society, can be presented. this method could be called the method of statistic documentation by concrete evidence. vii needless to add, in this respect, the scientific field-work is far above even the best amateur productions. there is, however, one point in which the latter often excel. this is, in the presentation of intimate touches of native life, in bringing home to us these aspects of it with which one is made familiar only through being in close contact with the natives, one way or the other, for a long period of time. in certain results of scientific work--especially that which has been called "survey work"--we are given an excellent skeleton, so to speak, of the tribal constitution, but it lacks flesh and blood. we learn much about the framework of their society, but within it, we cannot perceive or imagine the realities of human life, the even flow of everyday events, the occasional ripples of excitement over a feast, or ceremony, or some singular occurrence. in working out the rules and regularities of native custom, and in obtaining a precise formula for them from the collection of data and native statements, we find that this very precision is foreign to real life, which never adheres rigidly to any rules. it must be supplemented by the observation of the manner in which a given custom is carried out, of the behaviour of the natives in obeying the rules so exactly formulated by the ethnographer, of the very exceptions which in sociological phenomena almost always occur. if all the conclusions are solely based on the statements of informants, or deduced from objective documents, it is of course impossible to supplement them in actually observed data of real behaviour. and that is the reason why certain works of amateur residents of long standing, such as educated traders and planters, medical men and officials, and last, not least, of the few intelligent and unbiassed missionaries to whom ethnography owes so much, this is the reason why these works surpass in plasticity and in vividness most of the purely scientific accounts. but if the specialised field-worker can adopt the conditions of living described above, he is in a far better position to be really in touch with the natives than any other white resident. for none of them lives right in a native village, except for very short periods, and everyone has his own business, which takes up a considerable part of his time. moreover, if, like a trader or a missionary or an official he enters into active relations with the native, if he has to transform or influence or make use of him, this makes a real, unbiassed, impartial observation impossible, and precludes all-round sincerity, at least in the case of the missionaries and officials. living in the village with no other business but to follow native life, one sees the customs, ceremonies and transactions over and over again, one has examples of their beliefs as they are actually lived through, and the full body and blood of actual native life fills out soon the skeleton of abstract constructions. that is the reason why, working under such conditions as previously described, the ethnographer is enabled to add something essential to the bare outline of tribal constitution, and to supplement it by all the details of behaviour, setting and small incident. he is able in each case to state whether an act is public or private; how a public assembly behaves, and what it looks like; he can judge whether an event is ordinary or an exciting and singular one; whether natives bring to it a great deal of sincere and earnest spirit, or perform it in fun; whether they do it in a perfunctory manner, or with zeal and deliberation. in other words, there is a series of phenomena of great importance which cannot possibly be recorded by questioning or computing documents, but have to be observed in their full actuality. let us call them the imponderabilia of actual life. here belong such things as the routine of a man's working day, the details of his care of the body, of the manner of taking food and preparing it; the tone of conversational and social life around the village fires, the existence of strong friendships or hostilities, and of passing sympathies and dislikes between people; the subtle yet unmistakable manner in which personal vanities and ambitions are reflected in the behaviour of the individual and in the emotional reactions of those who surround him. all these facts can and ought to be scientifically formulated and recorded, but it is necessary that this be done, not by a superficial registration of details, as is usually done by untrained observers, but with an effort at penetrating the mental attitude expressed in them. and that is the reason why the work of scientifically trained observers, once seriously applied to the study of this aspect, will, i believe, yield results of surpassing value. so far, it has been done only by amateurs, and therefore done, on the whole, indifferently. indeed, if we remember that these imponderable yet all important facts of actual life are part of the real substance of the social fabric, that in them are spun the innumerable threads which keep together the family, the clan, the village community, the tribe--their significance becomes clear. the more crystallised bonds of social grouping, such as the definite ritual, the economic and legal duties, the obligations, the ceremonial gifts and formal marks of regard, though equally important for the student, are certainly felt less strongly by the individual who has to fulfil them. applying this to ourselves, we all know that "family life" means for us, first and foremost, the atmosphere of home, all the innumerable small acts and attentions in which are expressed the affection, the mutual interest, the little preferences, and the little antipathies which constitute intimacy. that we may inherit from this person, that we shall have to walk after the hearse of the other, though sociologically these facts belong to the definition of "family" and "family life," in personal perspective of what family truly is to us, they normally stand very much in the background. exactly the same applies to a native community, and if the ethnographer wants to bring their real life home to his readers, he must on no account neglect this. neither aspect, the intimate, as little as the legal, ought to be glossed over. yet as a rule in ethnographic accounts we have not both but either the one or the other--and, so far, the intimate one has hardly ever been properly treated. in all social relations besides the family ties, even those between mere tribesmen and, beyond that, between hostile or friendly members of different tribes, meeting on any sort of social business, there is this intimate side, expressed by the typical details of intercourse, the tone of their behaviour in the presence of one another. this side is different from the definite, crystalised legal frame of the relationship, and it has to be studied and stated in its own right. in the same way, in studying the conspicuous acts of tribal life, such as ceremonies, rites, festivities, etc., the details and tone of behaviour ought to be given, besides the bare outline of events. the importance of this may be exemplified by one instance. much has been said and written about survival. yet the survival character of an act is expressed in nothing as well as in the concomitant behaviour, in the way in which it is carried out. take any example from our own culture, whether it be the pomp and pageantry of a state ceremony, or a picturesque custom kept up by street urchins, its "outline" will not tell you whether the rite flourishes still with full vigour in the hearts of those who perform it or assist at the performance or whether they regard it as almost a dead thing, kept alive for tradition's sake. but observe and fix the data of their behaviour, and at once the degree of vitality of the act will become clear. there is no doubt, from all points of sociological, or psychological analysis, and in any question of theory, the manner and type of behaviour observed in the performance of an act is of the highest importance. indeed behaviour is a fact, a relevant fact, and one that can be recorded. and foolish indeed and short-sighted would be the man of science who would pass by a whole class of phenomena, ready to be garnered, and leave them to waste, even though he did not see at the moment to what theoretical use they might be put! as to the actual method of observing and recording in field-work these imponderabilia of actual life and of typical behaviour, there is no doubt that the personal equation of the observer comes in here more prominently, than in the collection of crystalised, ethnographic data. but here also the main endeavour must be to let facts speak for themselves. if in making a daily round of the village, certain small incidents, characteristic forms of taking food, of conversing, of doing work (see for instance plate iii) are found occurring over and over again, they should be noted down at once. it is also important that this work of collecting and fixing impressions should begin early in the course of working out a district. because certain subtle peculiarities, which make an impression as long as they are novel, cease to be noticed as soon as they become familiar. others again can only be perceived with a better knowledge of the local conditions. an ethnographic diary, carried on systematically throughout the course of one's work in a district would be the ideal instrument for this sort of study. and if, side by side with the normal and typical, the ethnographer carefully notes the slight, or the more pronounced deviations from it, he will be able to indicate the two extremes within which the normal moves. in observing ceremonies or other tribal events, such, for instance as the scene depicted in plate iv, it is necessary, not only to note down those occurrences and details which are prescribed by tradition and custom to be the essential course of the act, but also the ethnographer ought to record carefully and precisely, one after the other, the actions of the actors and of the spectators. forgetting for a moment that he knows and understands the structure of this ceremony, the main dogmatic ideas underlying it, he might try to find himself only in the midst of an assembly of human-beings, who behave seriously or jocularly, with earnest concentration or with bored frivolity, who are either in the same mood as he finds them every day, or else are screwed up to a high pitch of excitement, and so on and so on. with his attention constantly directed to this aspect of tribal life, with the constant endeavour to fix it, to express it in terms of actual fact, a good deal of reliable and expressive material finds its way into his notes. he will be able to "set" the act into its proper place in tribal life, that is to show whether it is exceptional or commonplace, one in which the natives behave ordinarily, or one in which their whole behaviour is transformed. and he will also be able to bring all this home to his readers in a clear, convincing manner. again, in this type of work, it is good for the ethnographer sometimes to put aside camera, note book and pencil, and to join in himself in what is going on. he can take part in the natives' games, he can follow them on their visits and walks, sit down and listen and share in their conversations. i am not certain if this is equally easy for everyone--perhaps the slavonic nature is more plastic and more naturally savage than that of western europeans--but though the degree of success varies, the attempt is possible for everyone. out of such plunges into the life of the natives--and i made them frequently not only for study's sake but because everyone needs human company--i have carried away a distinct feeling that their behaviour, their manner of being, in all sorts of tribal transactions, became more transparent and easily understandable than it had been before. all these methodological remarks, the reader will find again illustrated in the following chapters. viii finally, let us pass to the third and last aim of scientific field-work, to the last type of phenomenon which ought to be recorded in order to give a full and adequate picture of native culture. besides the firm outline of tribal constitution and crystallised cultural items which form the skeleton, besides the data of daily life and ordinary behaviour, which are, so to speak, its flesh and blood, there is still to be recorded the spirit--the natives' views and opinions and utterances. for, in every act of tribal life, there is, first, the routine prescribed by custom and tradition, then there is the manner in which it is carried out, and lastly there is the commentary to it, contained in the natives' mind. a man who submits to various customary obligations, who follows a traditional course of action, does it impelled by certain motives, to the accompaniment of certain feelings, guided by certain ideas. these ideas, feelings, and impulses are moulded and conditioned by the culture in which we find them, and are therefore an ethnic peculiarity of the given society. an attempt must be made therefore, to study and record them. but is this possible? are these subjective states not too elusive and shapeless? and, even granted that people usually do feel or think or experience certain psychological states in association with the performance of customary acts, the majority of them surely are not able to formulate these states, to put them into words. this latter point must certainly be granted, and it is perhaps the real gordian knot in the study of the facts of social psychology. without trying to cut or untie this knot, that is to solve the problem theoretically, or to enter further into the field of general methodology, i shall make directly for the question of practical means to overcome some of the difficulties involved. first of all, it has to be laid down that we have to study here stereotyped manners of thinking and feeling. as sociologists, we are not interested in what a or b may feel qua individuals, in the accidental course of their own personal experiences--we are interested only in what they feel and think qua members of a given community. now in this capacity, their mental states receive a certain stamp, become stereotyped by the institutions in which they live, by the influence of tradition and folk-lore, by the very vehicle of thought, that is by language. the social and cultural environment in which they move forces them to think and feel in a definite manner. thus, a man who lives in a polyandrous community cannot experience the same feelings of jealousy, as a strict monogynist, though he might have the elements of them. a man who lives within the sphere of the kula cannot become permanently and sentimentally attached to certain of his possessions, in spite of the fact that he values them most of all. these examples are crude, but better ones will be found in the text of this book. so, the third commandment of field-work runs: find out the typical ways of thinking and feeling, corresponding to the institutions and culture of a given community, and formulate the results in the most convincing manner. what will be the method of procedure? the best ethnographical writers--here again the cambridge school with haddon, rivers, and seligman rank first among english ethnographers--have always tried to quote verbatim statements of crucial importance. they also adduce terms of native classification; sociological, psychological and industrial termini technici, and have rendered the verbal contour of native thought as precisely as possible. one step further in this line can be made by the ethnographer, who acquires a knowledge of the native language and can use it as an instrument of inquiry. in working in the kiriwinian language, i found still some difficulty in writing down the statement directly in translation which at first i used to do in the act of taking notes. the translation often robbed the text of all its significant characteristics--rubbed off all its points--so that gradually i was led to note down certain important phrases just as they were spoken, in the native tongue. as my knowledge of the language progressed, i put down more and more in kiriwinian, till at last i found myself writing exclusively in that language, rapidly taking notes, word for word, of each statement. no sooner had i arrived at this point, than i recognised that i was thus acquiring at the same time an abundant linguistic material, and a series of ethnographic documents which ought to be reproduced as i had fixed them, besides being utilised in the writing up of my account. [ ] this corpus inscriptionum kiriwiniensium can be utilised, not only by myself, but by all those who, through their better penetration and ability of interpreting them, may find points which escape my attention, very much as the other corpora form the basis for the various interpretations of ancient and prehistoric cultures; only, these ethnographic inscriptions are all decipherable and clear, have been almost all translated fully and unambiguously, and have been provided with native cross-commentaries or scholia obtained from living sources. no more need be said on this subject here, as later on a whole chapter (chapter xviii) is devoted to it, and to its exemplification by several native texts. the corpus will of course be published separately at a later date. ix our considerations thus indicate that the goal of ethnographic field-work must be approached through three avenues: . the organisation of the tribe, and the anatomy of its culture must be recorded in firm, clear outline. the method of concrete, statistical documentation is the means through which such an outline has to be given. . within this frame, the imponderabilia of actual life, and the type of behaviour have to be filled in. they have to be collected through minute, detailed observations, in the form of some sort of ethnographic diary, made possible by close contact with native life. . a collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic narratives, typical utterances, items of folk-lore and magical formulæ has to be given as a corpus inscriptionum, as documents of native mentality. these three lines of approach lead to the final goal, of which an ethnographer should never lose sight. this goal is, briefly, to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realise his vision of his world. we have to study man, and we must study what concerns him most intimately, that is, the hold which life has on him. in each culture, the values are slightly different; people aspire after different aims, follow different impulses, yearn after a different form of happiness. in each culture, we find different institutions in which man pursues his life-interest, different customs by which he satisfies his aspirations, different codes of law and morality which reward his virtues or punish his defections. to study the institutions, customs, and codes or to study the behaviour and mentality without the subjective desire of feeling by what these people live, of realising the substance of their happiness--is, in my opinion, to miss the greatest reward which we can hope to obtain from the study of man. these generalities the reader will find illustrated in the following chapters. we shall see there the savage striving to satisfy certain aspirations, to attain his type of value, to follow his line of social ambition. we shall see him led on to perilous and difficult enterprises by a tradition of magical and heroical exploits, shall see him following the lure of his own romance. perhaps as we read the account of these remote customs there may emerge a feeling of solidarity with the endeavours and ambitions of these natives. perhaps man's mentality will be revealed to us, and brought near, along some lines which we never have followed before. perhaps through realising human nature in a shape very distant and foreign to us, we shall have some light shed on our own. in this, and in this case only, we shall be justified in feeling that it has been worth our while to understand these natives, their institutions and customs, and that we have gathered some profit from the kula. chapter i the country and inhabitants of the kula district i the tribes who live within the sphere of the kula system of trading belong, one and all--with the exception perhaps, of the rossel island natives, of whom we know next to nothing--to the same racial group. these tribes inhabit the easternmost end of the mainland of new guinea and those islands, scattered in the form of the long-drawn archipelago, which continue in the same south-easternly trend as the mainland, as if to bridge over the gap between new guinea and the solomons. new guinea is a mountainous island-continent, very difficult of access in its interior, and also at certain portions of the coast, where barrier reefs, swamps and rocks practically prevent landing or even approach for native craft. such a country would obviously not offer the same opportunities in all its parts to the drifting migrations which in all probability are responsible for the composition of the present population of the south seas. the easily accessible portions of the coast and the outlying islands would certainly offer a hospitable reception to immigrants of a higher stock; but, on the other hand, the high hills, the impregnable fastnesses in swampy flats and shores where landing was difficult and dangerous, would give easy protection to the aborigines, and discourage the influx of migrators. the actual distribution of races in new guinea completely justifies these hypotheses. map ii shows the eastern part of the main island and archipelagoes of new guinea and the racial distribution of the natives. the interior of the continent, the low sago swamps and deltas of the gulf of papua--probably the greater part of the north coast and of the south-west coast of new guinea, are inhabited by a "relatively tall, dark-skinned, frizzly-haired" race, called by dr. seligman papuan, and in the hills more especially by pygmy tribes. we know little about these people, swamp tribes and hill tribes alike, who probably are the autochtons in this part of the world. [ ] as we shall also not meet them in the following account, it will be better to pass to the tribes who inhabit the accessible parts of new guinea. "the eastern papuasians, that is, the generally smaller, lighter coloured, frizzly-haired races of the eastern peninsula of new guinea and its archipelagoes now require a name, and since the true melanesian element is dominant in them, they may be called papuo-melanesians. with regard to these eastern papuasians, dr. a. c. haddon first recognised that they came into the country as the result of a 'melanesian migration into new guinea,' and further, 'that a single wandering would not account for certain puzzling facts.'" [ ] the papuo-melanesians again can be divided into two groups, a western and an eastern one, which, following dr. seligman's terminology, we shall call the western papuo-melanesians and the massim respectively. it is with these latter we shall become acquainted in the following pages. if we glance at a map and follow the orographical features of eastern new guinea and its coast line, we see at once that the high main range of mountains drops off between the th and th meridians, and again that the fringing reef disappears at the same point, that is, at the west end of orangerie bay. this means that the extreme east end of new guinea, with its archipelagoes, in other words, the massim country, is the most easily accessible area, and might be expected to be inhabited by a homogeneous stock of people, consisting of immigrants almost unmixed with the autochtons (cf. map ii). "indeed, while the condition actually existing in the massim area suggests that there was no slow mingling of the invaders with a previous stock, the geographical features of the territory of the western papuo-melanesians with its hills, mountains and swamps, are such that invaders could not have speedily overrun the country, nor failed to have been influenced by the original inhabitants..." [ ] i shall assume that the reader is acquainted with the quoted work of dr. seligman, where a thorough account is given of all the main types of papuo-melanesian sociology and culture one after the other. but the tribes of the eastern papuo-melanesian or massim area, must be described here somewhat more in detail, as it is within this fairly homogeneous area that the kula takes place. indeed, the kula sphere of influence and the ethnographic area of the massim tribes almost completely overlap, and we can speak about the kula type of culture and the massim culture almost synonymously. ii the adjacent map iii shows the kula district, that is, the easternmost end of the main island and the archipelagoes lying to its east and north-east. as professor c. g. seligman says: "this area can be divided into two parts, a small northern portion comprising the trobriands, the marshall bennets, the woodlarks (murua), as well as a number of smaller islands such as the laughlans (nada), and a far larger southern portion comprising the remainder of the massim domain" (op. cit., p. ). this division is represented on map iii by the thick line isolating to the north the amphletts, the trobriands, the small marshall bennet group, woodlark island and the laughlan group. the southern portion, i found convenient to divide further into two divisions by a vertical line, leaving to the east misima, sud-est island and rossel island. as our information about this district is extremely scanty, i have preferred to exclude it from the area of the southern massim. in this excluded area, only the natives of misima enter into the kula, but their participation will play a very small part only in the following account. the western segment, and this is the part of which we shall speak as the district of the southern massim, comprises first the east end of the mainland, the few adjacent islands, sariba, roge'a, side'a, and basilaki; to the south, the island of wari, to the east the important, though small archipelago of tubetube (engineer group); and to the north, the big archipelago of the d'entrecasteaux islands. from this latter, only one district, that of dobu, interests us more specially. the culturally homogeneous tribes of the southern massim have been marked off on our map as district v, the doubans as district iv. returning to the two main divisions into the southern and northern portion, this latter is occupied by a very homogeneous population, homogeneous both in language and culture, and in the clear recognition of their own ethnic unity. to quote further professor seligman, it "is characterised by the absence of cannibalism, which, until put down by the government, existed throughout the remaining portion of the district; another peculiarity of the northern massim is their recognition" in certain districts, though not in all, of chieftains who wield extensive powers (op. cit. p. ). the natives of that northern area used to practise--i say used because wars are a thing of the past--a type of warfare open and chivalrous, very different from the raids of the southern massim. their villages are built in big compact blocks, and they have storehouses on piles for storing food, distinct from their rather miserable dwellings, which stand directly on the ground and are not raised on piles. as can be seen on the map, it has been necessary to sub-divide this northern massim further into three groups, first, that of the trobriand islanders, or the boyowans (the western branch); secondly that of the natives of woodlark island and the marshall bennets (the eastern branch); and, thirdly, the small group of the amphlett natives. the other big sub-division of the kula tribes is composed of the southern massim, of which, as just said, the western branch mainly concerns us. these last natives are smaller in stature, and with, broadly speaking, a much less attractive appearance than those of the north. [ ] they live in widely scattered communities, each house or group of houses standing in its own little grove of palm and fruit trees, apart from the others. formerly they were cannibals and head-hunters, and used to make unexpected raids on their adversaries. there is no chieftainship, authority being exercised by the elders in each community. they build very elaborately constructed and beautifully decorated houses on piles. i have found it necessary for the purpose of this study to cut out of the western branch of the southern portion of the massim the two areas (marked iv and v on the map iii), as they are of special importance to the kula. it must, however, be borne in mind that our present knowledge does not allow of any final classification of the southern massim. such are the general characteristics of the northern and southern massim respectively, given in a few words. but before proceeding with our subject, it will be good to give a short but more detailed sketch of each of these tribes. i shall begin with the southernmost section, following the order in which a visitor, travelling from port moresby with the mail boat, would come in contact with these districts, the way indeed in which i received my first impressions of them. my personal knowledge of the various tribes is, however, very uneven, based on a long residence among the trobriand islanders (district i), on a month's study of the amphletts (district iii); on a few weeks spent in woodlark island or murua (district ii), the neighbourhood of samarai (district v), and the south coast of new guinea (also v); and on three short visits to dobu (district iv). my knowledge of some of the remaining localities which enter into the kula is derived only from a few conversations i had with natives of this district, and on second-hand information derived from white residents. the work of professor c. g. seligman, however, supplements my personal acquaintance in so far as the districts of tubetube, woodlark island, the marshall bennets, and several others are concerned. the whole account of the kula will therefore naturally be given from the perspective, so to speak, of the trobriand district. this district is often called in this book by its native name, boyowa, and the language is spoken of as kiriwinian, kiriwina being the main province of the district, and its language considered by the natives as a standard speech. but i may add at once that in studying the kula in that part, i ipso facto studied its adjacent branches between the trobriands and the amphletts, between the trobriands and kitava, and between the trobriands and dobu; seeing not only the preparations and departures in boyowa, but also the arrival of the natives from other districts, in fact, following one or two of such expeditions in person. [ ] moreover, the kula being an international affair, the natives of one tribe know more about kula customs abroad than they would about any other subject. and in all its essentials, the customs and tribal rules of the exchange are identical throughout the whole kula area. iii let us imagine that we are sailing along the south coast of new guinea towards its eastern end. at about the middle of orangerie bay we arrive at the boundary of the massim, which runs from this point north-westwards till it strikes the northern coast near cape nelson (see map ii). as mentioned before, the boundary of the district inhabited by this tribe corresponds to definite geographical conditions, that is, to the absence of natural, inland fastnesses, or of any obstacles to landing. indeed, it is here that the great barrier reef becomes finally submerged, while again the main range of mountains, which follows up to this point, always separated from the foreshore by minor ranges, comes to an end. orangerie bay is closed, on its eastern side, by a headland, the first of a series of hills, rising directly out of the sea. as we approach the land, we can see distinctly the steep, folded slopes, covered with dense, rank jungle, brightened here and there by bold patches of lalang grass. the coast is broken first by a series of small, land-locked bays or lagoons; then, after fife bay, come one or two larger bays, with a flat, alluvial foreshore, and then from south cape the coast stretches in an almost unbroken line, for several miles, to the end of the mainland. the east end of new guinea is a tropical region, where the distinction between the dry and wet season is not felt very sharply. in fact, there is no pronounced dry season there, and so the land is always clad in intense, shining green, which forms a crude contrast with the blue sea. the summits of the hills are often shrouded in trailing mist, whilst white clouds brood or race over the sea, breaking up the monotony of saturated, stiff blue and green. to someone not acquainted with the south sea landscape it is difficult to convey the permanent impression of smiling festiveness, the alluring clearness of the beach, fringed by jungle trees and palms, skirted by white foam and blue sea, above it the slopes ascending in rich, stiff folds of dark and light green, piebald and shaded over towards the summit by steamy, tropical mists. when i first sailed along this coast, it was after a few months' residence and field work in the neighbouring district of the mailu. from toulon island, the main centre and most important settlement of the mailu, i used to look towards the east end of orangerie bay, and on clear days i could see the pyramidal hills of bonabona, of gadogado'a, as blue silhouettes in the distance. under the influence of my work, i came to regard this country within the somewhat narrow native horizon, as the distant land to which perilous, seasonal voyages are made, from whence come certain objects--baskets, decorated carvings, weapons, ornaments--particularly well formed, and superior to the local ones; the land to which the natives point with awe and distrust, when speaking of specially evil and virulent forms of sorcery; the home of a folk mentioned with horror as cannibals. any really fine touch of artistic taste, in mailu carvings, would always be directly imported or imitated from the east, and i also found that the softest and most melodious songs and the finest dances came from the massim. many of their customs and institutions would be quoted to me as quaint and unusual, and thus, i, the ethnographer working on the borderland of two cultures, naturally had my interest and curiosity aroused. it seemed as if the eastern people must be much more complex, in one direction towards the cruel, man-eating savage, in the other towards the finely-gifted, poetical lord of primitive forest and seas, when i compared them with the relatively coarse and dull native of mailu. no wonder, therefore, that on approaching their coast--travelling on that occasion in a small launch--i scanned the landscape with keen interest, anxious to catch my first glimpse of natives, or of their traces. the first distinctly visible signs of human existence in this neighbourhood are the patches of garden land. these big clearings, triangular in shape, with the apex pointing uphill, look as if they were plastered on to the steep slopes. from august to november, the season when the natives cut and burn the bush, they can be seen, at night, alight with slowly-blazing logs, and in daytime, their smoke clings over the clearings, and slowly drifts along the hill side. later on in the year, when the plantation sprouts, they form a bright spot, with the light green of their fresh leaves. the villages in this district are to be found only on the foreshore, at the foot of the hills, hidden in groves of trees, with here and there a golden or purplish bit of thatch showing through the dark green of the leaves. in calm weather a few canoes are probably not far off, fishing. if the visitor is lucky enough to pass at the time of feasts, trading expeditions, or any other big tribal gathering, many a fine sea-going canoe may be seen approaching the village with the sound of conch shells blowing melodiously. in order to visit one of the typical, large settlements of these natives, let us say near fife bay, on the south coast, or on the island of sariba, or roge'a, it would be best to go ashore in some big, sheltered bay, or on one of the extensive beaches at the foot of a hilly island. we enter a clear, lofty grove, composed of palms, bread fruit, mangoes, and other fruit trees, often with a sandy subsoil, well weeded-out and clean, where grow clumps of ornamental bushes, such as the red-flowering hybiscus, croton or aromatic shrub. here we find the village. fascinating as may be the motuan habitations standing on high piles in the middle of a lagoon, or the neat streets of an aroma or mailu settlement, or the irregular warren of small huts on the trobriand coast, all these cannot compete in picturesqueness or charm with the villages of the southern massim. when, on a hot day, we enter the deep shadow of fruit trees and palms, and find ourselves in the midst of the wonderfully designed and ornamented houses hiding here and there in irregular groups among the green, surrounded by little decorative gardens of shells and flowers, with pebble-bordered paths and stone-paved sitting circles, it seems as if the visions of a primeval, happy, savage life were suddenly realised, even if only in a fleeting impression. big bodies of canoes are drawn high up the beach and covered with palm leaves; here and there nets are drying, spread out on special stands, and on the platforms in front of the houses sit groups of men and women, busy at some domestic work, smoking and chatting. walking along the paths which lead on for miles, we come every few hundred yards on another hamlet of a few houses. some of these are evidently new and freshly decorated, while others are abandoned, and a heap of broken household objects is lying on the ground, showing that the death of one of the village elders has caused it to be deserted. as the evening approaches, the life becomes more active, fires are kindled, and the natives busy themselves cooking and eating food. in the dancing season, towards dusk, groups of men and women foregather, singing, dancing, and beating drums. when we approach the natives closer and scan their personal appearance, we are struck--if we compare them with their western neighbours--by the extreme lightness of their skin, their sturdy, even lumpy stature, and a sort of soft, almost effete general impression which their physique produces. their fat, broad faces, their squashed noses, and frequently oblique eyes, make them appear quaint and grotesque rather than impressively savage. their hair, not so woolly as that of the pure papuans, nor growing into the enormous halo of the motuans, is worn in big mops, which they often cut at the sides so as to give the head an oblong, almost cylindrical shape. their manner is shy and diffident, but not unfriendly--rather smiling and almost servile, in very great contrast to the morose papuan, or the unfriendly, reserved south coast mailu or aroma. on the whole, they give at first approach not so much the impression of wild savages as of smug and self-satisfied bourgeois. their ornaments are much less elaborate and more toned down than those of their western neighbours. belts and armlets plaited of a dark brown fern vine, small red shell disks and turtle shell rings as ear ornaments are the only permanent, every-day decorations worn. like all melanesians of eastern new guinea, they are quite cleanly in their persons, and a personal approach to them does not offend any of our senses. they are very fond of red hibiscus flowers stuck in their hair, of scented flower wreaths on their head, of aromatic leaves thrust into their belts and armlets. their grand, festive head-dress is extremely modest compared with the enormous erections of feathers used by the western tribes, and consists mainly of a round halo of white cockatoo feathers stuck into their hair (see plate v and vi). in olden days, before the advent of white men, these pleasant, apparently effete people were inveterate cannibals and head-hunters, and in their large war-canoes they carried on treacherous, cruel raids, falling upon sleeping villages, killing man, woman and child, and feasting on their bodies. the attractive stone circles in their villages were associated with their cannibal feasts. [ ] the traveller, who could settle down in one of their villages and remain there sufficiently long to study their habits and enter into their tribal life, would soon be struck by the absence of a well recognised general authority. in this, however, the natives resemble not only the other western melanesians of new guinea, but also the natives of the melanesian archipelago. the authority in the southern massim tribe, as in many others, is vested in the village elders. in each hamlet the eldest man has a position of personal influence and power, and these collectively would in all cases represent the tribe and carry out and enforce their decisions--always arrived at in strict accord with tribal tradition. deeper sociological study would reveal the characteristic totemism of these natives, and also the matrilineal construction of their society. descent, inheritance, and social position follow the female line--a man always belongs to his mother's totemic division and local group, and inherits from his mother's brother. women also enjoy a very independent position, and are exceedingly well treated, and in tribal and festive affairs they play a prominent part (see plates v and vi). some women, even, owing to their magical powers, wield a considerable influence. [ ] the sexual life of these natives is extremely lax. even when we remember the very free standard of sex morals in the melanesian tribes of new guinea, such as the motu or the mailu, we still find these natives exceedingly loose in such matters. certain reserves and appearances which are usually kept up in other tribes, are here completely abandoned. as is probably the case in many communities where sex morals are lax, there is a complete absence of unnatural practices and sex perversions. marriage is concluded as the natural end of a long and lasting liaison. [ ] these natives are efficient and industrious manufacturers, and great traders. they own large sea-going canoes, which, however, they do not manufacture themselves, but which they import from the northern massim district, or from panayati. another feature of their culture, which we shall meet again, consists of their big feasts, called so'i (see plates v and vi), associated with mortuary celebrations and with a special mortuary taboo called gwara. in the big inter-tribal trading of the kula, these feasts play a considerable rôle. this general, and necessarily somewhat superficial description, is meant to give the reader a definite impression of these tribes, provide them, so to speak, with a physiognomy, rather than to give a full account of their tribal constitution. for this the reader is referred to professor c. g. seligman's treatise, our main source of knowledge on the melanesians of new guinea. the above sketch refers to what professor seligman calls the southern massim, or more exactly to the portion marked off in the ethnographic sketch map no. iii as "v, the southern massim"--the inhabitants of the easternmost mainland and the adjacent archipelago. iv let us now move north, towards the district marked "iv, the dobu," in our map, which forms one of the most important links in the chain of kula and a very influential centre of cultural influence. as we sail north, passing east cape, the easternmost point of the main island--a long, flat promontory covered with palms and fruit belts, and harbouring a very dense population--a new world, new both geographically and ethnographically, opens up before us. at first it is only a faint, bluish silhouette, like a shadow of a distant mountain range, hovering far north over the horizon. as we approach, the hills of normanby, the nearest of three big islands of the d'entrecasteaux archipelago, become clearer and take more definite shape and substance. a few high summits stand out more distinctly through the usual tropical haze, among them the characteristic double-peaked top of bwebweso, the mountain where, according to native legend, the spirits of the dead in these parts lead their latter existence. the south coast of normanby, and the interior are inhabited by a tribe or tribes of which we know nothing ethnographically, except that they differ culturally from the rest of their neighbours. these tribes also take no direct part in the kula. the northern end of normanby, both sides of the dawson straits which separate the two islands of normanby and fergusson, and the south-eastern tip of fergusson, are inhabited by a very important tribe, the dobu. the heart of their district is the small extinct volcano forming an island at the eastern entrance to dawson straits--dobu, after which island they are named. to reach it, we have to sail through this extremely picturesque channel. on either side of the winding, narrow strait, green hills descend, and close it in, till it is more like a mountain lake. here and there they recede, and a lagoon opens out. or again they rise in fairly steep slopes, on which there can be plainly seen triangular gardens, native houses on piles, large tracts of unbroken jungle and patches of grass land. as we proceed, the narrow straits broaden, and we see on our right a wide flank of mt. sulomona'i on normanby island. on our left, there is a shallow bay, and behind it a large, flat plain, stretching far into the interior of fergusson island, and over it, we look into wide valleys, and on to several distant mountain ranges. after another turn, we enter a big bay, on both sides bordered by a flat foreshore, and in the middle of it rises out of a girdle of tropical vegetation, the creased cone of an extinct volcano, the island of dobu. we are now in the centre of a densely populated and ethnographically important district. from this island, in olden days, fierce and daring cannibal and head-hunting expeditions were periodically launched, to the dread of the neighbouring tribes. the natives of the immediately surrounding districts, of the flat foreshore on both sides of the straits, and of the big neighbouring islands were allies. but the more distant districts, often over a hundred miles away by sail, never felt safe from the dobuans. again, this was, and still is, one of the main links in the kula, a centre of trade, industries and general cultural influence. it is characteristic of the international position of the dobuans that their language is spoken as a lingua franca all over the d'entrecasteaux archipelago, in the amphletts, and as far north as the trobriands. in the southern part of these latter islands, almost everyone speaks dobuan, although in dobu the language of the trobriands or kiriwinian is hardly spoken by anyone. this is a remarkable fact, which cannot be easily explained in terms of the present conditions, as the trobrianders, if anything, are on a higher level of cultural development than dobuans, are more numerous, and enjoy the same general prestige. [ ] another remarkable fact about dobu and its district is that it is studded with spots of special, mythological interest. its charming scenery, of volcanic cones, of wide, calm bays, and lagoons overhung by lofty, green mountains, with the reef-riddled, island-strewn ocean on the north, has deep, legendary meaning for the native. here is the land and sea where the magically inspired sailors and heroes of the dim past performed feats of daring and power. as we sail from the entrance into dawson straits, through dobu and the amphletts to boyowa, almost every new configuration of the land which we pass is the scene of some legendary exploit. here the narrow gorge has been broken through by a magic canoe flying in the air. there the two rocks standing in the sea are the petrified bodies of two mythological heroes who were stranded at this spot after a quarrel. here again, a land-locked lagoon has been a port of refuge to a mythical crew. apart from its legends, the scenery before us, fine as it is, derives still more charm from the knowledge that it is, and has been a distant eldorado, a land of promise and hope to generation after generation of really daring native sailors from the northern islands. and in the past these lands and seas must have been the scene of migrations and fights, of tribal invasions, and of gradual infiltrations of peoples and cultures. in personal appearance, the dobuans have a very distinct physique, which differentiates them sharply from the southern massim and from the trobrianders; very dark-skinned, small of stature, with big heads and rounded shoulders, they give a strange, almost gnome-like impression on a first encounter. in their manner, and their tribal character, there is something definitely pleasant, honest and open--an impression which long acquaintance with them confirms and strengthens. they are the general favourites of the whites, form the best and most reliable servants, and traders who have resided long among them compare them favourably with other natives. their villages, like those of the previously described massim, are scattered over wide areas. the fertile and flat foreshores which they inhabit are studded with small, compact hamlets of a dozen or so houses, hidden in the midst of one continuous plantation of fruit trees, palms, bananas and yams. the houses are built on piles, but are cruder architecturally than those of the s. massim, and almost without any decorations, though in the olden days of head-hunting some of them were ornamented with skulls. in their social constitution, the people are totemic, being divided into a number of exogamous clans with linked totems. there is no institution of regular chieftainship, nor have they any system of rank or caste such as we shall meet in the trobriands. authority is vested in the elders of the tribe. in each hamlet there is a man who wields the greatest influence locally, and acts as its representative on such tribal councils as may arise in connection with ceremonies and expeditions. their system of kinship is matrilineal, and women hold a very good position, and wield great influence. they also seem to take a much more permanent and prominent part in tribal life than is the case among the neighbouring populations. there is notably one of the features of dobuan society, which seems to strike the trobrianders as peculiar, and to which they will direct attention while giving information, even although in the trobriands also women have a good enough social position. in dobu, women take an important part in gardening, and have a share in performing garden magic, and this in itself gives them a high status. again, the main instrument for wielding power and inflicting penalties in these lands, sorcery, is to a great extent in the hands of women. the flying witches, so characteristic of the eastern new guinea type of culture, here have one of their strongholds. we shall have to go into this subject more in detail when speaking about shipwreck and the dangers of sailing. besides this, women practice ordinary sorcery, which in other tribes is only man's prerogative. as a rule, amongst natives, a high position of women is associated with sex laxity. in this, dobu is an exception. not only are married women expected to remain faithful, and adultery considered a great crime, but, in sharp contrast to all surrounding tribes, the unmarried girls of dobu remain strictly chaste. there are no ceremonial or customary forms of licence, and an intrigue would be certainly regarded as an offence. a few more words must be said here about sorcery, as this is a matter of great importance in all inter-tribal relations. the dread of sorcery is enormous, and when the natives visit distant parts, this dread is enhanced by the additional awe of the unknown and foreign. besides the flying witches, there are, in dobu, men and women who, by their knowledge of magical spells and rites, can inflict disease and cause death. the methods of these sorcerers, and all the beliefs clustering round this subject are very much the same as those in the trobriands which we shall meet later on. these methods are characterised by being very rational and direct, and implying hardly any supernatural element. the sorcerer has to utter a spell over some substance, and this must be administered by mouth, or else burnt over the fire in the victim's hut. the pointing stick is also used by the sorcerers in certain rites. if his methods are compared with those used by flying witches, who eat the heart and lungs, drink the blood, snap the bones of their enemies, and moreover possess the powers of invisibility and of flying, the dobuan sorcerer seems to have but simple and clumsy means at his disposal. he is also very much behind his mailu or motu namesakes--i say namesakes, because sorcerers throughout the massim are called bara'u, and the same word is used in mailu, while the motu use the reduplicated babara'u. the magicians in these parts use such powerful methods as those of killing the victim first, opening up the body, removing, lacerating or charming the inside, then bringing the victim to life again, only that he may soon sicken and eventually die. [ ] according to dobuan belief, the spirits of the dead go to the top of mt. bwebweso on normanby island. this confined space harbours the shades of practically all the natives of the d'entrecasteaux archipelago, except those of northern goodenough island, who, as i was told by some local informants, go after death to the spirit land of the trobrianders. [ ] the dobuans have also the belief in a double soul--one, shadowy and impersonal, surviving the bodily death for a few days only, and remaining in the vicinity of the grave, the other the real spirit, who goes to bwebweso. it is interesting to note how natives, living on the boundary between two cultures and between two types of belief, regard the ensuing differences. a native of, say, southern boyowa, confronted with the question:--how it is that the dobuans place spirit-land on bwebweso, whereas they, the trobrianders, place it in tuma?--does not see any difficulty in solving the problem. he does not regard the difference as due to a dogmatic conflict in doctrine. quite simply he answers:--"their dead go to bwebweso and ours to tuma." the metaphysical laws of existence are not yet considered subject to one invariable truth. as human destinies in life change, according to varieties in tribal custom, so also the doings of the spirit! an interesting theory is evolved to harmonise the two beliefs in a mixed case. there is a belief that if a trobriander were to die in dobu, when on a kula expedition, he would go for a time to bwebweso. in due season, the spirits of the trobrianders would sail from tuma, the spirit land, to bwebweso, on a spirit kula, and the newly departed one would join their party and sail with them back to tuma. on leaving dobu, we sail the open sea, a sea studded with coral patches and sand-banks, and seamed with long barrier reefs, where treacherous tides, running sometimes as much as five knots, make sailing really dangerous, especially for helpless native craft. this is the kula sea, the scene of the inter-tribal expeditions and adventures which will be the theme of our future descriptions. the eastern shore of ferguson island, near dobu, along which we are sailing, consists first of a series of volcanic cones and capes, giving the landscape the aspect of something unfinished and crudely put together. at the foot of the hills there stretches for several miles beyond dobu a broad alluvial flat covered with villages--deide'i, tu'utauna, bwayowa, all important centres of trade, and the homes of the direct kula partners of the trobrianders. heavy fumes can be seen floating above the jungle, coming from the hot geysers of deide'i, which spurt up in high jets every few minutes. soon we come abreast of two characteristically shaped, dark rocks, one half hidden in the vegetation of the shore, the other standing in the sea at the end of a narrow sand-spit dividing the two. these are atu'a'ine and aturamo'a, two men turned into stone, as mythical tradition has it. here the big sailing expeditions, those starting northwards from dobu, as well as those arriving from the north, still make a halt--just as they have done for centuries, and, under observation of many taboos, give sacrificial offerings to the stones, with ritual invocations for propitious trade. in the lee of these two rocks, runs a small bay with a clean, sandy beach, called sarubwoyna. here a visitor, lucky enough to pass at the right moment of the right season would see a picturesque and interesting scene. there before him would lie a huge fleet of some fifty to a hundred canoes, anchored in the shallow water, with swarms of natives upon them, all engaged in some strange and mysterious task. some of these, bent over heaps of herbs, would be mumbling incantations; others would be painting and adorning their bodies. an onlooker of two generations ago coming upon the same scene would no doubt have been led to suspect that he was watching the preparations for some dramatic tribal contest, for one of those big onslaughts in which the existence of whole villages and tribes were wiped out. it would even have been difficult for him to discern from the behaviour of the natives whether they were moved more by fear or by the spirit of aggression, as both these passions might have been read--and correctly so--into their attitudes and movements. that the scene contained no element of warfare; that this fleet had come here from about a hundred miles sailing distance on a well regulated tribal visit; that it had drawn up here for the final and most important preparations--this would not have been an easy guess to make. nowadays--for this is carried out to this day with undiminished pomp--it would be an equally picturesque, but of course, tamer affair, since the romance of danger has gone from native life. as we learn in the course of this study to know more about these natives, their general ways and customs, and more especially about their kula cycle of beliefs, ideas and sentiments, we shall be able to look with understanding eyes upon this scene, and comprehend this mixture of awe with intense, almost aggressive eagerness and this behaviour, which appears cowed and fierce at the same time. v immediately after leaving sarubwoyna and rounding the promontory of the two rocks, we come in sight of the island of sanaroa, a big, sprawling, coral flat, with a range of volcanic hills on its western side. on the wide lagoon to the east of this island are the fishing grounds, where year after year the trobrianders, returning from dobu, look for the valuable spondylus shell, which, after their arrival home, is worked into the red discs, which form one of the main objects of native wealth. in the north of sanaroa there is a stone in one of the tidal creeks called sinatemubadiye'i, once a woman, the sister of atu'a'ine and aturamo'a, who, with her brothers came in here and was petrified before the last stage of the journey. she also receives offerings from canoes, coming either way on kula expeditions. sailing further, some fine scenery unfolds itself on our left, where the high mountain range comes nearer to the sea shore, and where small bays, deep valleys and wooded slopes succeed one another. by carefully scanning the slopes, we can see small batches of some three to six miserable huts. these are the dwellings of the inhabitants, who are of a distinctly lower culture than the dobuans, take no part in the kula, and in olden days were the cowed and unhappy victims of their neighbours. on our right there emerge behind sanaroa the islands of uwama and tewara, the latter inhabited by dobuan natives. tewara is of interest to us, because one of the myths which we shall get to know later on makes it the cradle of the kula. as we sail on, rounding one after the other the eastern promontories of fergusson island, a group of strongly marked monumental profiles appears far on the horizon from behind the receding headlands. these are the amphlett islands, the link, both geographically and culturally, between the coastal tribes of the volcanic region of dobu and the inhabitants of the flat coral archipelago of the trobriands. this portion of the sea is very picturesque, and has a charm of its own even in this land of fine and varied scenery. on the main island of fergusson, overlooking the amphletts from the south, and ascending straight out of the sea in a slim and graceful pyramid, lies the tall mountain of koyatabu, the highest peak on the island. its big, green surface is cut in half by the white ribbon of a watercourse, starting almost half-way up and running down to the sea. scattered under the lea of koyatabu are the numerous smaller and bigger islands of the amphlett archipelago--steep, rocky hills, shaped into pyramids, sphinxes and cupolas, the whole a strange and picturesque assemblage of characteristic forms. with a strong south-easterly wind, which blows here for three quarters of the year, we approach the islands very fast, and the two most important ones, gumawana and ome'a, almost seem to leap out of the mist. as we anchor in front of gumawana village at the s.e. end of the island, we cannot but feel impressed. built on a narrow strip of foreshore, open to the breakers, and squeezed down to the water's edge by an almost precipitously rising jungle at its back, the village has been made sea-proof by walls of stone surrounding the houses with several bulwarks, and by stone dykes forming small artificial harbours along the sea front. the shabby and unornamented huts, built on piles, look very picturesque in these surroundings (see plates vii and xliii). the inhabitants of this village, and of the four remaining ones in the archipelago, are a queer people. they are a numerically weak tribe, easily assailable from the sea, getting hardly enough to eat from their rocky islands; and yet, through their unique skill in pottery, their great daring and efficiency as sailors, and their central position half way between dobu and the trobriands, they have succeeded in becoming in several respects the monopolists of this part of the world. they have also the main characteristics of monopolists: grasping and mean, inhospitable and greedy, keen on keeping the trade and exchange in their own hands, yet unprepared to make any sacrifice towards improving it; shy, yet arrogant to anyone who has any dealings with them; they contrast unfavourably with their southern and northern neighbours. and this is not only the white man's impression. [ ] the trobrianders, as well as the dobuans, give the amphlett natives a very bad name, as being stingy and unfair in all kula transactions, and as having no real sense of generosity and hospitality. when our boat anchors there, the natives approach it in their canoes, offering clay pots for sale. but if we want to go ashore and have a look at their village, there is a great commotion, and all the women disappear from the open places. the younger ones run and hide in the jungle behind the village, and even the old hags conceal themselves in the houses. so that if we want to see the making of pottery, which is almost exclusively women's work, we must first lure some old woman out of her retreat with generous promises of tobacco and assurances of honourable intentions. this has been mentioned here, because it is of ethnographic interest, as it is not only white men who inspire this shyness; if native strangers, coming from a distance for trade, put in for a short time in the amphletts, the women also disappear in this fashion. this very ostentatious coyness is, however, not a sham, because in the amphletts, even more than in dobu, married and unmarried life is characterised by strict chastity and fidelity. women here have also a good deal of influence, and take a great part in gardening and the performance of garden magic. in social institutions and customs, the natives present a mixture of northern and southern massim elements. there are no chiefs, but influential elders wield authority, and in each village there is a head man who takes the lead in ceremonies and other big tribal affairs. their totemic clans are identical with those of murua (district ii). their somewhat precarious food supply comes partly from the poor gardens, partly from fishing with kite and fish trap, which, however, can only seldom be carried out, and does not yield very much. they are not self-supporting, and receive, in form of presents and by trade, a good deal of vegetable food as well as pigs from the mainland, from dobu and the trobriands. in personal appearance they are very much like the trobrianders, that is, taller than the dobuans, lighter skinned, and with finer features. we must now leave the amphletts and proceed to the trobriand islands, the scene of most of the occurrences described in this book, and the country concerning which i possess by far the largest amount of ethnographic information. chapter ii the natives of the trobriand islands i leaving the bronzed rocks and the dark jungle of the amphletts for the present--for we shall have to revisit them in the course of our study, and then shall learn more about their inhabitants--we sail north into an entirely different world of flat coral islands; into an ethnographic district, which stands out by ever so many peculiar manners and customs from the rest of papuo-melanesia. so far, we have sailed over intensely blue, clear seas, where in shallow places the coral bottom, with its variety of colour and form, with its wonderful plant and fish life, is a fascinating spectacle in itself--a sea framed in all the splendours of tropical jungle, of volcanic and mountainous scenery, with lively watercourses and falls, with steamy clouds trailing in the high valleys. from all this we take a final farewell as we sail north. the outlines of the amphletts soon fade away in tropical haze, till only koyatabu's slender pyramid, lifted over them, remains on the horizon, the graceful form, which follows us even as far as the lagoon of kiriwina. we now enter an opaque, greenish sea, whose monotony is broken only by a few sandbanks, some bare and awash, others with a few pandanus trees squatting on their air roots, high in the sand. to these banks, the amphlett natives come and there they spend weeks on end, fishing for turtle and dugong. here is also laid the scene of several of the mythical incidents of primeval kula. further ahead, through the misty spray, the line of horizon thickens here and there, as if faint pencil marks had been drawn upon it. these become more substantial, one of them lengthens and broadens, the others spring into the distinct shapes of small islands, and we find ourselves in the big lagoon of the trobriands, with boyowa, the largest island, on our right, and with many others, inhabited and uninhabited, to the north and north-west. as we sail in the lagoon, following the intricate passages between the shallows, and as we approach the main island, the thick, tangled matting of the low jungle breaks here and there over a beach, and we can see into a palm grove, like an interior, supported by pillars. this indicates the site of a village. we step ashore on to the sea front, as a rule covered with mud and refuse, with canoes drawn up high and dry, and passing through the grove, we enter the village itself (see plate viii). soon we are seated on one of the platforms built in front of a yam-house, shaded by its overhanging roof. the round, grey logs, worn smooth by contact with naked feet and bodies; the trodden ground of the village-street; the brown skins of the natives, who immediately surround the visitor in large groups--all these form a colour scheme of bronze and grey, unforgettable to anyone, who, like myself, has lived among these people. it is difficult to convey the feelings of intense interest and suspense with which an ethnographer enters for the first time the district that is to be the future scene of his field-work. certain salient features, characteristic of the place, at once rivet his attention, and fill him with hopes or apprehensions. the appearance of the natives, their manners, their types of behaviour, may augur well or ill for the possibilities of rapid and easy research. one is on the lookout for symptoms of deeper, sociological facts, one suspects many hidden and mysterious ethnographic phenomena behind the commonplace aspect of things. perhaps that queer-looking, intelligent native is a renowned sorcerer; perhaps between those two groups of men there exists some important rivalry or vendetta which may throw much light on the customs and character of the people if one can only lay hands upon it? such at least were my thoughts and feelings as on the day of my arrival in boyowa i sat scanning a chatting group of trobriand natives. the great variety in their physical appearance is what strikes one first in boyowa. [ ] there are men and women of tall stature, fine bearing, and delicate features, with clear-cut aquiline profile and high foreheads, well formed nose and chin, and an open, intelligent expression (see plates ix, xv, xvii). and besides these, there are others with prognathic, negroid faces, broad, thick-lipped mouths, narrow foreheads, and a coarse expression (see plates x, xi, xii). the better featured have also a markedly lighter skin. even their hair differs, varying from quite straight locks to the frizzly mop of the typical melanesian. they wear the same classes of ornaments as the other massim, consisting mainly of fibre armlets and belts, earrings of turtle shell and spondylus discs, and they are very fond of using, for personal decoration, flowers and aromatic herbs. in manner they are much freer, more familiar and confident, than any of the natives we have so far met. as soon as an interesting stranger arrives, half the village assembles around him, talking loudly and making remarks about him, frequently uncomplimentary, and altogether assuming a tone of jocular familiarity. one of the main sociological features at once strikes an observant newcomer--the existence of rank and social differentiation. some of the natives--very frequently those of the finer looking type--are treated with most marked deference by others, and in return, these chiefs and persons of rank behave in quite a different way towards the strangers. in fact, they show excellent manners in the full meaning of this word. when a chief is present, no commoner dares to remain in a physically higher position; he has to bend his body or squat. similarly, when the chief sits down, no one would dare to stand. the institution of definite chieftainship, to which are shown such extreme marks of deference, with a sort of rudimentary court ceremonial, with insignia of rank and authority, is so entirely foreign to the whole spirit of melanesian tribal life, that at first sight it transports the ethnographer into a different world. in the course of our inquiry, we shall constantly meet with manifestation of the kiriwinian chief's authority, we shall notice the difference in this respect between the trobrianders and the other tribes, and the resulting adjustments of tribal usage. ii another sociological feature, which forcibly obtrudes itself on the visitor's notice is the social position of the women. their behaviour, after the cool aloofness of the dobuan women, and the very uninviting treatment which strangers receive from those of the amphletts, comes almost as a shock in its friendly familiarity. naturally, here also, the manners of women of rank are quite different from those of low class commoners. but, on the whole, high and low alike, though by no means reserved, have a genial, pleasant approach, and many of them are very fine-looking (see plates xi, xii). their dress is also different from any so far observed. all the melanesian women in new guinea wear a petticoat made of fibre. among the southern massim, this fibre skirt is long, reaching to the knees or below, whereas in the trobriands it is much shorter and fuller, consisting of several layers standing out round the body like a ruff (compare the s. massim women on plates v and vi with the trobrianders on plate iv). the highly ornamental effect of that dress is enhanced by the elaborate decorations made in three colours on the several layers forming the top skirt. on the whole, it is very becoming to fine young women, and gives to small slender girls a graceful, elfish appearance. chastity is an unknown virtue among these natives. at an incredibly early age they become initiated into sexual life, and many of the innocent looking plays of childhood are not as innocuous as they appear. as they grow up, they live in promiscuous free-love, which gradually develops into more permanent attachments, one of which ends in marriage. but before this is reached, unmarried girls are openly supposed to be quite free to do what they like, and there are even ceremonial arrangements by which the girls of a village repair in a body to another place; there they publicly range themselves for inspection, and each is chosen by a local boy, with whom she spends a night. this is called katuyausi (see plate xii). again, when a visiting party arrives from another district, food is brought to them by the unmarried girls, who are also expected to satisfy their sexual wants. at the big mortuary vigils round the corpse of a newly deceased person, people from neighbouring villages come in large bodies to take part in the wailing and singing. the girls of the visiting party are expected by usage to comfort the boys of the bereaved village, in a manner which gives much anguish to their official lovers. there is another remarkable form of ceremonial licence, in which indeed women are openly the initiators. during the gardening season, at the time of weeding, the women do communal work, and any strange man who ventures to pass through the district runs a considerable risk, for the women will run after him, seize him, tear off his pubic leaf, and ill-treat him orgiastically in the most ignominious manner. side by side with these ceremonial forms of licence, there go, in the normal course of events, constant private intrigues, more intense during the festive seasons, becoming less prominent as garden work, trading expeditions, or harvesting take up the energies and attention of the tribe. marriage is associated with hardly any public or private rite or ceremony. the woman simply joins her husband in his house, and later on, there is a series of exchanges of gifts, which in no way can be interpreted as purchase money for the wife. as a matter of fact, the most important feature of the trobriand marriage is the fact that the wife's family have to contribute, and that in a very substantial manner, to the economics of her household, and also they have to perform all sorts of services for the husband. in her married life, the woman is supposed to remain faithful to her husband, but this rule is neither very strictly kept nor enforced. in all other ways, she retains a great measure of independence, and her husband has to treat her well and with consideration. if he does not, the woman simply leaves him and returns to her family, and as the husband is as a rule economically the loser by her action, he has to exert himself to get her back--which he does by means of presents and persuasions. if she chooses, she can leave him for good, and she can always find someone else to marry. in tribal life, the position of women is also very high. they do not as a rule join the councils of men, but in many matters they have their own way, and control several aspects of tribal life. thus, some of the garden work is their business; and this is considered a privilege as well as a duty. they also look after certain stages in the big, ceremonial divisions of food, associated with the very complete and elaborate mortuary ritual of the boyowans (see plate iv). certain forms of magic--that performed over a first-born baby, beauty-magic made at tribal ceremonies, some classes of sorcery--are also the monopoly of women. women of rank share the privileges incidental to it, and men of low caste will bend before them and observe all the necessary formalities and taboos due to a chief. a woman of chief's rank, married to commoner, retains her status, even with regard to her husband, and has to be treated accordingly. the trobrianders are matrilineal, that is, in tracing descent and settling inheritance, they follow the maternal line. a child belongs to the clan and village community of its mother, and wealth, as well as social position, are inherited, not from father to son, but from maternal uncle to nephew. this rule admits of certain important and interesting exceptions, which we shall come across in the course of this study. iii returning to our imaginary first visit ashore, the next interesting thing to do, after we have sufficiently taken in the appearance and manners of the natives, is to walk round the village. in doing this, again we would come across much, which to a trained eye, would reveal at once deeper sociological facts. in the trobriands, however, it would be better to make our first observations in one of the large, inland villages, situated on even, flat ground with plenty of space, so that it has been possible to build it in the typical pattern. in the coastal villages, placed on marshy ground and coral outcrop, the irregularity of the soil and cramped space have obliterated the design, and they present quite a chaotic appearance. the big villages of the central districts, on the other hands, are built one and all with an almost geometrical regularity. in the middle, a big circular space is surrounded by a ring of yam houses. these latter are built on piles, and present a fine, decorative front, with walls of big, round logs, laid crosswise on one another, so as to leave wide interstices through which the stored yams can be seen (see plates xv, xxxii, xxxiii). some of the store-houses strike us at once as being better built, larger, and higher than the rest, and these have also big, ornamented boards, running round the gable and across it. these are the yam houses of the chief or of persons of rank. each yam house also has, as a rule, a small platform in front of it, on which groups of men will sit and chat in the evening, and where visitors can rest. concentrically with the circular row of yam houses, there runs a ring of dwelling huts, and thus a street going all round the village is formed between the two rows (see plates iii, iv, viii). the dwellings are lower than the yam houses, and instead of being on piles, are built directly on the ground. the interior is dark and very stuffy, and the only opening into it is through the door, and that is usually closed. each hut is occupied by one family (see plate xv), that is, husband, wife and small children, while adolescent and grown-up boys and girls live in separate small bachelor's houses, harbouring some two to six inmates. chiefs and people of rank have their special, personal houses, besides those of their wives. the chief's house often stands in the central ring of the store-houses facing the main place. the broad inspection of the village would therefore reveal to us the rôle of decoration as insignia of rank, the existence of bachelors' and spinsters' houses, the great importance attached to the yam-harvest--all these small symptoms which, followed up, would lead us deep into the problems of native sociology. moreover, such an inspection would have led us to inquire as to the part played by the different divisions of the village in tribal life. we should then learn that the baku, the central circular space, is the scene of public ceremonies and festivities, such as dancing (see plates xiii, xiv), division of food, tribal feasts, mortuary vigils, in short, of all doings that represent the village as a whole. in the circular street between the stores and living houses, everyday life goes on, that is, the preparation of food, the eating of meals, and the usual exchange of gossip and ordinary social amenities. the interior of the houses is only used at night, or on wet days, and is more a sleeping than a living room. the backs of the houses and the contiguous groves are the scene of the children's play and the women's occupations. further away, remote parts of the grove are reserved for sanitary purposes, each sex having its own retreat. the baku (central place) is the most picturesque part, and there the somewhat monotonous colour scheme of the brown and grey is broken by the overhanging foliage of the grove, seen above the neat fronts and gaudy ornamentation of the yam-houses and by the decorations worn by the crowd when a dance or ceremony is taking place (see plates xiii, xxxiii). dancing is done only at one time in the year, in connection with the harvest festivities, called milamala, at which season also the spirits of the dead return from tuma, the nether-world, to the villages from which they hail. sometimes the dancing season lasts only for a few weeks or even days, sometimes it is extended into a special dancing period called usigola. during such a time of festivities, the inhabitants of a village will dance day after day, for a month or longer, the period being inaugurated by a feast, punctuated by several more, and ending in a big culminating performance. at this many villages assist as spectators, and distributions of food take place. during an usigola, dancing is done in full dress, that is, with facial painting, floral decorations, valuable ornaments, and a head-dress of white cockatoo feathers (see plates xiii, xiv). a performance consists always of a dance executed in a ring to the accompaniment of singing and drum-beating, both of which are done by a group of people standing in the middle. some dances are done with the carved dancing shield. sociologically, the village is an important unit in the trobriands. even the mightiest chief in the trobriands wields his authority primarily over his own village and only secondarily over the district. the village community exploit jointly their garden lands, perform ceremonies, wage warfare, undertake trading expeditions, and sail in the same canoe or fleet of canoes as one group. after the first inspection of the village, we would be naturally interested to know more of the surrounding country, and would take a walk through the bush. here, however, if we hoped for a picturesque and varied landscape, we should receive a great disappointment. the extensive, flat island consists only of one fertile plain, with a low coral ridge running along portions of the coast. it is almost entirely under intermittent cultivation, and the bush, regularly cleared away every few years, has no time to grow high. a low, dense jungle grows in a matted tangle, and practically wherever we move on the island we walk along between two green walls, presenting no variety, allowing of no broader view. the monotony is broken only by an occasional clump of old trees left standing--usually a tabooed place--or by one of the numerous villages which we meet with every mile or two in this densely populated country. the main element, both of picturesqueness and ethnographic interest, is afforded by the native gardens. each year about one quarter or one fifth of the total area is under actual cultivation as gardens, and these are well tended, and present a pleasant change from the monotony of the scrub. in its early stages, the garden site is simply a bare, cleared space, allowing of a wider outlook upon the distant coral ridge in the east, and upon the tall groves, scattered over the horizon, which indicate villages or tabooed tree clumps. later on, when the yam-vines, taro, and sugar cane begin to grow and bud, the bare brown soil is covered with the fresh green of the tender plants. after some more time still, tall, stout poles are planted over each yam-plant; the vine climbs round them, grows into a full, shady garland of foliage, and the whole makes the impression of a large, exuberant hop-yard. iv half of the natives' working life is spent in the garden, and around it centres perhaps more than half of his interests and ambitions. and here we must pause and make an attempt to understand his attitude in this matter, as it is typical of the way in which he goes about all his work. if we remain under the delusion that the native is a happy-go-lucky, lazy child of nature, who shuns as far as possible all labour and effort, waiting till the ripe fruits, so bountifully supplied by generous tropical nature, fall into his mouth, we shall not be able to understand in the least his aims and motives in carrying out the kula or any other enterprise. on the contrary, the truth is that the native can and, under circumstances, does work hard, and work systematically, with endurance and purpose, nor does he wait till he is pressed to work by his immediate needs. in gardening, for instance, the natives produce much more than they actually require, and in any average year they harvest perhaps twice as much as they can eat. nowadays, this surplus is exported by europeans to feed plantation hands in other parts of new guinea; in olden days it was simply allowed to rot. again, they produce this surplus in a manner which entails much more work than is strictly necessary for obtaining the crops. much time and labour is given up to æsthetic purposes, to making the gardens tidy, clean, cleared of all debris; to building fine, solid fences, to providing specially strong and big yam-poles. all these things are to some extent required for the growth of the plant; but there can be no doubt that the natives push their conscientiousness far beyond the limit of the purely necessary. the non-utilitarian element in their garden work is still more clearly perceptible in the various tasks which they carry out entirely for the sake of ornamentation, in connection with magical ceremonies, and in obedience to tribal usage. thus, after the ground has been scrupulously cleared and is ready for planting, the natives divide each garden plot into small squares, each a few yards in length and width, and this is done only in obedience to usage, in order to make the gardens look neat. no self-respecting man would dream of omitting to do this. again, in especially well trimmed gardens, long horizontal poles are tied to the yam supports in order to embellish them. another, and perhaps the most interesting example of non-utilitarian work is afforded by the big, prismatic erections called kamkokola, which serve ornamental and magical purposes, but have nothing to do with the growth of plants (comp. plate lix). among the forces and beliefs which bear upon and regulate garden work, perhaps magic is the most important. it is a department of its own, and the garden magician, next to the chief and the sorcerer, is the most important personage of the village. the position is hereditary, and, in each village, a special system of magic is handed on in the female line from one generation to another. i have called it a system, because the magician has to perform a series of rites and spells over the garden, which run parallel with the labour, and which, in fact, initiate each stage of the work and each new development of the plant life. even before any gardening is begun at all, the magician has to consecrate the site with a big ceremonial performance in which all the men of the village take part. this ceremony officially opens the season's gardening, and only after it is performed do the villagers begin to cut the scrub on their plots. then, in a series of rites, the magician inaugurates successively all the various stages which follow one another--the burning of the scrub, the clearing, the planting, the weeding and the harvesting. also, in another series of rites and spells, he magically assists the plant in sprouting, in budding, in bursting into leaf, in climbing, in forming the rich garlands of foliage, and in producing the edible tubers. the garden magician, according to native ideas, thus controls both the work of man and the forces of nature. he also acts directly as supervisor of gardening, sees to it that people do not skimp their work, or lag behind with it. thus magic is a systematising, regulating, and controlling influence in garden work. the magician, in carrying out the rites, sets the pace, compels people to apply themselves to certain tasks, and to accomplish them properly and in time. incidentally, magic also imposes on the tribe a good deal of extra work, of apparently unnecessary, hampering taboos and regulations. in the long run, however, there is no doubt that by its influence in ordering, systematising and regulating work, magic is economically invaluable for the natives. [ ] another notion which must be exploded, once and for ever, is that of the primitive economic man of some current economic text books. this fanciful, dummy creature, who has been very tenacious of existence in popular and semi-popular economic literature, and whose shadow haunts even the minds of competent anthropologists, blighting their outlook with a preconceived idea, is an imaginary, primitive man, or savage, prompted in all his actions by a rationalistic conception of self-interest, and achieving his aims directly and with the minimum of effort. even one well established instance should show how preposterous is this assumption that man, and especially man on a low level of culture, should be actuated by pure economic motives of enlightened self-interest. the primitive trobriander furnishes us with such an instance, contradicting this fallacious theory. he works prompted by motives of a highly complex, social and traditional nature, and towards aims which are certainly not directed towards the satisfaction of present wants, or to the direct achievement of utilitarian purposes. thus, in the first place, as we have seen, work is not carried out on the principle of the least effort. on the contrary, much time and energy is spent on wholly unnecessary effort, that is, from a utilitarian point of view. again, work and effort, instead of being merely a means to an end, are, in a way an end in themselves. a good garden worker in the trobriands derives a direct prestige from the amount of labour he can do, and the size of garden he can till. the title tokwaybagula, which means "good" or "efficient gardener," is bestowed with discrimination, and borne with pride. several of my friends, renowned as tokwaybagula, would boast to me how long they worked, how much ground they tilled, and would compare their efforts with those of less efficient men. when the labour, some of which is done communally, is being actually carried out, a good deal of competition goes on. men vie with one another in their speed, in their thoroughness, and in the weights they can lift, when bringing big poles to the garden, or in carrying away the harvested yams. the most important point about this is, however, that all, or almost all the fruits of his work, and certainly any surplus which he can achieve by extra effort, goes not to the man himself, but to his relatives-in-law. without entering into details of the system of the apportionment of the harvest, of which the sociology is rather complex and would require a preliminary account of the trobriand kinship system and kinship ideas, it may be said that about three quarters of a man's crops go partly as tribute to the chief, partly as his due to his sister's (or mother's) husband and family. but although he thus derives practically no personal benefit in the utilitarian sense from his harvest, the gardener receives much praise and renown from its size and quality, and that in a direct and circumstantial manner. for all the crops, after being harvested, are displayed for some time afterwards in the gardens, piled up in neat, conical heaps under small shelters made of yam vine. each man's harvest is thus exhibited for criticism in his own plot, and parties of natives walk about from garden to garden, admiring, comparing and praising the best results. the importance of the food display can be gauged by the fact that, in olden days, when the chief's power was much more considerable than now, it was dangerous for a man who was not either of high rank himself, or working for such a one, to show crops which might compare too favourably with those of the chief. in years when the harvest promises to be plentiful, the chief will proclaim a kayasa harvest, that is to say, ceremonial, competitive display of food, and then the straining for good results and the interest taken in them are still higher. we shall meet later on with ceremonial enterprises of the kayasa type, and find that they play a considerable part in the kula. all this shows how entirely the real native of flesh and bone differs from the shadowy primitive economic man, on whose imaginary behaviour many of the scholastic deductions of abstract economics are based. [ ] the trobriander works in a roundabout way, to a large extent for the sake of the work itself, and puts a great deal of æsthetic polish on the arrangement and general appearance of his garden. he is not guided primarily by the desire to satisfy his wants, but by a very complex set of traditional forces, duties and obligations, beliefs in magic, social ambitions and vanities. he wants, if he is a man, to achieve social distinction as a good gardener and a good worker in general. i have dwelt at this length upon these points concerning the motives and aims of the trobrianders in their garden work, because, in the chapters that follow, we shall be studying economic activities, and the reader will grasp the attitude of the natives best if he has it illustrated to him by various examples. all that has been said in this matter about the trobrianders applies also to the neighbouring tribes. v with the help of this new insight gained into the mind of the native, and into their social scheme of harvest distribution, it will be easier to describe the nature of the chief's authority. chieftainship in the trobriands is the combination of two institutions: first, that of headmanship, or village authority; secondly, that of totemic clanship, that is the division of the community into classes or castes, each with a certain more or less definite rank. in every community in the trobriands, there is one man who wields the greatest authority, though often this does not amount to very much. he is, in many cases, nothing more than the primus inter pares in a group of village elders, who deliberate on all important matters together, and arrive at a decision by common consent. it must not be forgotten that there is hardly ever much room for doubt or deliberation, as natives communally, as well as individually, never act except on traditional and conventional lines. this village headman is, as a rule, therefore, not much more than a master of tribal ceremonies, and the main speaker within and without the tribe, whenever one is needed. but the position of headman becomes much more than this, when he is a person of high rank, which is by no means always the case. in the trobriands there exist four totemic clans, and each of these is divided into a number of smaller sub-clans,--which could also be called families or castes, for the members of each claim common descent from one ancestress, and each of them holds a certain, specified rank. these sub-clans have also a local character, because the original ancestress emerged from a hole in the ground, as a rule somewhere in the neighbourhood of their village community. there is not one sub-clan in the trobriands whose members cannot indicate its original locality, where their group, in the form of the ancestress, first saw the light of the sun. coral outcrops, water-holes, small caves or grottoes, are generally pointed out as the original "holes" or "houses," as they are called. often such a hole is surrounded by one of the tabooed clumps of trees alluded to before. many of them are situated in the groves surrounding a village, and a few near the sea shore. not one is on the cultivable land. the highest sub-clan is that of the tabalu, belonging to the malasi totem clan. to this sub-clan belongs the main chief of kiriwina, to'uluwa, who resides in the village of omarakana (see plate ii and frontispiece). he is in the first place the headman of his own village, and in contrast to the headmen of low rank, he has quite a considerable amount of power. his high rank inspires everyone about him with the greatest and most genuine respect and awe, and the remnants of his power are still surprisingly large, even now, when white authorities, very foolishly and with fatal results, do their utmost to undermine his prestige and influence. not only does the chief--by which word i shall designate a headman of rank--possess a high degree of authority within his own village, but his sphere of influence extends far beyond it. a number of villages are tributary to him, and in several respects subject to his authority. in case of war, they are his allies, and have to foregather in his village. when he needs men to perform some task, he can send to his subject villages, and they will supply him with workers. in all big festivities the villages of his district will join, and the chief will act as master of ceremonies. nevertheless, for all these services rendered to him he has to pay. he even has to pay for any tributes received out of his stores of wealth. wealth, in the trobriands, is the outward sign and the substance of power, and the means also of exercising it. but how does he acquire his wealth? and here we come to the main duty of the vassal villages to the chief. from each subject village, he takes a wife, whose family, according to the trobriand law, has to supply him with large amounts of crops. this wife is always the sister or some relation of the headman of the subject village, and thus practically the whole community has to work for him. in olden days, the chief of omarakana had up to as many as forty consorts, and received perhaps as much as thirty to fifty per cent. of all the garden produce of kiriwina. even now, when his wives number only sixteen, he has enormous storehouses, and they are full to the roof with yams every harvest time. with this supply, he is able to pay for the many services he requires, to furnish with food the participants in big feasts, in tribal gatherings or distant expeditions. part of the food he uses to acquire objects of native wealth, or to pay for the making of them. in brief, through his privilege of practising polygamy, the chief is kept supplied with an abundance of wealth in food stuffs and in valuables, which he uses to maintain his high position; to organise tribal festivities and enterprises, and to pay, according to custom, for the many personal services to which he is entitled. one point in connection with the chief's authority deserves special mention. power implies not only the possibility of rewarding, but also the means of punishing. this in the trobriands is as a rule done indirectly, by means of sorcery. the chief has the best sorcerers of the district always at his beck and call. of course he also has to reward them when they do him a service. if anyone offends him, or trespasses upon his authority, the chief summons the sorcerer, and orders that the culprit shall die by black magic. and here the chief is powerfully helped in achieving his end by the fact that he can do this openly, so that everybody, and the victim himself knows that a sorcerer is after him. as the natives are very deeply and genuinely afraid of sorcery, the feeling of being hunted, of imagining themselves doomed, is in itself enough to doom them in reality. only in extreme cases, does a chief inflict direct punishment on a culprit. he has one or two hereditary henchmen, whose duty it is to kill the man who has so deeply offended him, that actual death is the only sufficient punishment. as a matter of fact, very few cases of this are on record, and it is now, of course, entirely in abeyance. thus the chief's position can be grasped only through the realisation of the high importance of wealth, of the necessity of paying for everything, even for services which are due to him, and which could not be withheld. again, this wealth comes to the chief from his relations-in-law, and it is through his right to practise polygamy that he actually achieves his position, and exercises his power. side by side with this rather complex mechanism of authority, the prestige of rank, the direct recognition of his personal superiority, give the chief an immense power, even outside his district. except for the few of his own rank, no native in the trobriands will remain erect when the great chief of omarakana approaches, even in these days of tribal disintegration. wherever he goes, he is considered as the most important person, is seated on a high platform, and treated with consideration. of course the fact that he is accorded marks of great deference, and approached in the manner as if he were a supreme despot, does not mean that perfect good fellowship and sociability do not reign in his personal relations with his companions and vassals. there is no difference in interests or outlook between him and his subjects. they sit together and chat, they exchange village gossip, the only difference being that the chief is always on his guard, and much more reticent and diplomatic than the other, though he is no less interested. the chief, unless he is too old, joins in dances and even in games, and indeed he takes precedence as a matter of course. in trying to realise the social conditions among the trobrianders and their neighbours, it must not be forgotten that their social organisation is in certain respects complex and ill-defined. besides very definite laws which are strictly obeyed, there exist a number of quaint usages, of vague graduations in rules, of others where the exceptions are so many, that they rather obliterate the rule than confirm it. the narrow social outlook of the native who does not see beyond his own district, the prevalence of singularities and exceptional cases is one of the leading characteristics of native sociology, one which for many reasons has not been sufficiently recognised. but the main outlines of chieftainship here presented, will be enough to give a clear idea of it and of some of the flavour of their institutions, as much, in fact, as is necessary, in order to understand the chief's rôle in the kula. but it must to a certain extent be supplemented by the concrete data, bearing upon the political divisions of the trobriands. the most important chief is, as said, the one who resides in omarakana and rules kiriwina, agriculturally the richest and most important district. his family, or sub-clan, the tabalu, are acknowledged to have by far the highest rank in all the archipelago. their fame is spread over the whole kula district; the entire province of kiriwina derives prestige from its chief, and its inhabitants also keep all his personal taboos, which is a duty but also a distinction. next to the high chief, there resides in a village some two miles distant, a personage who, though in several respects his vassal, is also his main foe and rival, the headman of kabwaku, and ruler of the province of tilataula. the present holder of this title is an old rogue named moliasi. from time to time, in the old days, war used to break out between the two provinces, each of which could muster some twelve villages for the fight. these wars were never very bloody or of long duration, and they were in many ways fought in a competitive, sporting manner, since, unlike with the dobuans and southern massim, there were neither head-hunting nor cannibalistic practices among the boyowans. nevertheless, defeat was a serious matter. it meant a temporary destruction of the loser's villages, and exile for a year or two. after that, a ceremony of reconciliation took place, and friend and foe would help to rebuild the villages. [ ] the ruler of tilataula has an intermediate rank, and outside his district he does not enjoy much prestige; but within it, he has a considerable amount of power, and a good deal of wealth, in the shape of stored food and ceremonial articles. all the villages under his rule, have, of course, their own independent headman, who, being of low rank, have only a small degree of local authority. in the west of the big, northern half of boyowa (that is of the main island of the trobriand group) are again two districts, in past times often at war with one another. one of them, kuboma, subject to the chief of gumilababa, of high rank, though inferior to the chief of kiriwina, consists of some ten inland villages, and is very important as a centre of industry. among these villages are included those of yalaka, buduwaylaka, kudukwaykela, where the quicklime is prepared for betel chewing, and also the lime pots made. the highly artistic designs, burnt in on the lime pots, are the speciality of these villagers, but unfortunately the industry is fast decaying. the inhabitants of luya are renowned for their basket work, of which the finest specimens are their production. but the most remarkable of all is the village of bwoytalu, whose inhabitants are at the same time the most despised pariahs, the most dreaded sorcerers, and the most skilful and industrious craftsmen in the island. they belong to several sub-clans, all originating in the neighbourhood of the village, near which also, according to tradition, the original sorcerer came out of the soil in the form of a crab. they eat the flesh of bush-pigs, and they catch and eat the stingaree, both objects of strict taboos and of genuine loathing to the other inhabitants of northern boyowa. for this reason they are despised and regarded as unclean by the others. in olden days they would have to crouch lower and more abjectly than anyone else. no man or woman would mate with anyone from bwoytalu, whether in marriage or in an intrigue. yet in wood carving, and especially in the working out of the wonderful, round dishes, in the manufacture of plaited fibre work, and in the production of combs, they are far more skilful than anyone else, and acknowledged to be such; they are the wholesale manufacturers of these objects for export, and they can produce work not to be rivalled by any other village. the five villages lying on the western coast of the northern half, on the shores of the lagoon, form the district of kulumata. they are all fishing villages, but differ in their methods, and each has its own fishing grounds and its own methods of exploiting them. [ ] the district is much less homogeneous than any of those before mentioned. it possesses no paramount chief, and even in war the villagers used not to fight on the same side. but it is impossible to enter here into all these shades and singularities of political organisation. in the southern part of boyowa, there is first the province of luba, occupying the waist of the island, the part where it narrows down to a long isthmus. this part is ruled by a chief of high rank, who resides in olivilevi. he belongs to the same family as the chief of omarakana, and this southern dominion is the result of a younger line's having branched off some three generations ago. this happened after an unsuccessful war, when the whole tribe of kiriwina fled south to luba, and lived there for two years in a temporary village. the main body returned afterwards, but a number remained behind with the chief's brother, and thus the village of olivilevi was founded. wawela, which was formerly a very big village, now consists of hardly more than twenty huts. the only one on the eastern shore which lies right on the sea, it is very picturesquely situated, overlooking a wide bay with a clean beach. it is of importance as the traditional centre of astronomical knowledge. from here, for generation after generation up to the present day, the calendar of the natives has been regulated. this means that some of the most important dates are fixed, especially that of the great annual festival, the milamala, always held at full moon. again, wawela is one of the villages where the second form of sorcery, that of the flying witches, has its main trobriand home. in fact, according to native belief, this form of sorcery has its seat only in the southern half, and is unknown to the women in the north, though the southern witches extend their field of operations all over boyowa. wawela, which lies facing the east, and which is always in close touch with the villages of kitava and the rest of the marshall bennetts, shares with these islands the reputation of harbouring many women who can fly, kill by magic, who also feed on corpses, and are especially dangerous to seamen in peril. further down to the south, on the western shore of the lagoon, we come to the big settlement of sinaketa, consisting of some six villages lying within a few hundred yards from one another, but each having its own headman and a certain amount of local characteristics. these villages form, however, one community for purposes of war and of the kula. some of the local headmen of sinaketa claim the highest rank, some are commoners; but on the whole, both the principle of rank and the power of the chief break down more and more as we move south. beyond sinaketa, we meet a few more villages, who practice a local kula, and with whom we shall have to deal later on. sinaketa itself will loom very largely in the descriptions that follow. the southern part of the island is sometimes called kaybwagina, but it does not constitute a definite political unit, like the northern districts. finally, south of the main island, divided from it by a narrow channel, lies the half-moon-shaped island of vakuta, to which belong four small villages and one big one. within recent times, perhaps four to six generations ago, there came down and settled in this last mentioned one a branch of the real tabalu, the chiefly family of highest rank. but their power here never assumed the proportions even of the small chiefs of sinaketa. in vakuta, the typical papuo-melanesian system of government by tribal elders--with one more prominent than the others, but not paramount--is in full vigour. the two big settlements of sinaketa and vakuta play a great part in the kula, and they also are the only two communities in the whole trobriands where the red shell discs are made. this industry, as we shall see, is closely associated with the kula. politically, sinaketa and vakuta are rivals, and in olden days were periodically at war with one another. another district which forms a definite political and cultural unit is the large island of kayleula, in the west. the inhabitants are fishermen, canoe-builders, and traders, and undertake big expeditions to the western d'entrecasteaux islands, trading for betel-nut, sago, pottery and turtle shell in exchange for their own industrial produce. it has been necessary to give a somewhat detailed description of chieftainship and political divisions, as a firm grasp of the main, political institutions is essential to the understanding of the kula. all departments of tribal life, religion, magic, economics are interwoven, but the social organisation of the tribe lies at the foundation of everything else. thus it is essential to bear in mind that the trobriands form one cultural unit, speaking the same language, having the same institutions, obeying the same laws and regulations, swayed by the same beliefs and conventions. the districts just enumerated, into which the trobriands are sub-divided, are distinct politically and not culturally; that is, each of them comprises the same kind of natives, only obeying or at least acknowledging their own chief, having their own interests and pursuits, and in case of war each fighting their own fight. again, within each district, the several village communities have each a great deal of independence. a village community is represented by a headman, its members make their gardens in one block and under the guidance of their own garden magician; they carry on their own feasts and ceremonial arrangements, mourn their dead in common, and perform, in remembrance of their departed ones, an endless series of food distributions. in all big affairs, whether of the district or of the tribe, members of a village community keep together, and act in one group. vi right across the political and local divisions cut the totemic clans, each having a series of linked totems, with a bird as principal one. [ ] the members of these four clans are scattered over the whole tribe of boyowa, and in each village community, members of all four are to be found, and even in every house, there are at least two classes represented, since a husband must be of a different clan from his wife and children. there is a certain amount of solidarity within the clan, based on the very vague feeling of communal affinity to the totem birds and animals, but much more on the many social duties, such as the performance of certain ceremonies, especially the mortuary ones, which band the members of a clan together. but real solidarity obtains only between members of a sub-clan. a sub-clan is a local division of a clan, whose members claim common ancestry, and hence real identity of bodily substance, and also are attached to the locality where their ancestors emerged. it is to these sub-clans that the idea of a definite rank attaches. one of the totemic clans, the malasi, includes the most aristocratic sub-clan, the tabalu, as well as the lowest one, the local division of the malasi in bwoytalu. a chief of the tabalu feels very insulted if it is ever hinted that he is akin to one of the stingaree-eaters of the unclean village, although they are malasi like himself. the principle of rank attached to totemic divisions is to be met only in trobriand sociology; it is entirely foreign to all the other papuo-melanesian tribes. as regards kinship, the main thing to be remembered is that the natives are matrilineal, and that the succession of rank, membership in all the social groups, and the inheritance of possessions descend in the maternal line. the mother's brother is considered the real guardian of a boy, and there is a series of mutual duties and obligations, which establish a very close and important relation between the two. the real kinship, the real identity of substance is considered to exist only between a man and his mother's relations. in the first rank of these, his brothers and sisters are specially near to him. for his sister or sisters he has to work as soon as they are grown up and married. but, in spite of that, a most rigorous taboo exists between them, beginning quite early in life. no man would joke and talk freely in the presence of his sister, or even look at her. the slightest allusion to the sexual affairs, whether illicit or matrimonial, of a brother or sister in the presence of the other, is the deadliest insult and mortification. when a man approaches a group of people where his sister is talking, either she withdraws or he turns away. the father's relation to his children is remarkable. physiological fatherhood [ ] is unknown, and no tie of kinship or relationship is supposed to exist between father and child, except that between a mother's husband and the wife's child. nevertheless, the father is by far the nearest and most affectionate friend of his children. in ever so many cases, i could observe that when a child, a young boy or girl, was in trouble or sick; when there was a question of some one exposing himself to difficulties or danger for the child's sake, it was always the father who worried, who would undergo all the hardships needed, and never the maternal uncle. this state of things is quite clearly recognised, and explicitly put into words by the natives. in matters of inheritance and handing over of possessions, a man always shows the tendency to do as much for his children as he is able, considering his obligations to his sister's family. it is difficult, in one phrase or two, to epitomise the distinction between the two relations, that between a boy and his maternal uncle, and that between a son and a father. the best way to put it shortly might be by saying that the maternal uncle's position of close relation is regarded as right by law and usage, whereas the father's interest and affection for his children are due to sentiment, and to the intimate personal relations existing between them. he has watched the children grow up, he has assisted the mother in many of the small and tender cares given to an infant, he has carried the child about, and given it such education as it gets from watching the elder ones at work, and gradually joining in. in matters of inheritance, the father gives the children all that he can, and gives it freely and with pleasure; the maternal uncle gives under the compulsion of custom what he cannot withhold and keep for his own children. vii a few more words must be said about some of the magico-religious ideas of the trobrianders. the main thing that struck me in connection with their belief in the spirits of the dead, was that they are almost completely devoid of any fear of ghosts, of any of these uncanny feelings with which we face the idea of a possible return of the dead. all the fears and dreads of the natives are reserved for black magic, flying witches, malevolent disease-bringing beings, but above all for sorcerers and witches. the spirits migrate immediately after death to the island of tuma, lying in the north-west of boyowa, and there they exist for another span of time, underground, say some, on the surface of the earth, though invisible, say others. they return to visit their own villages once a year, and take part in the big annual feast, milamala, where they receive offerings. sometimes, at this season, they show themselves to the living, who are, however, not alarmed by it, and in general the spirits do not influence human beings very much, for better or worse. [ ] in a number of magical formulæ, there is an invocation of ancestral spirits, and they receive offerings in several rites. but there is nothing of the mutual interaction, of the intimate collaboration between man and spirit which are the essence of religious cult. on the other hand, magic, the attempt of man to govern the forces of nature directly, by means of a special lore, is all-pervading, and all-important in the trobriands. [ ] sorcery and garden magic have already been mentioned. here it must suffice to add, that everything that vitally affects the native is accompanied by magic. all economic activities have their magic; love, welfare of babies, talents and crafts, beauty and agility--all can be fostered or frustrated by magic. in dealing with the kula--a pursuit of immense importance to the natives, and playing on almost all their social passions and ambitions--we shall meet with another system of magic, and we shall have then to go more into detail about the subject in general. disease, health, or death are also the result of magic or counter-magic. the trobrianders have a very complex and very definite set of theoretical views on these matters. good health is primarily of course the natural, normal state. minor ills may be contracted by exposure, over-eating, over-strain, bad food, or other ordinary causes. such ailments never last, and have never any really bad effects, nor are they of immediate danger. but, if a man sickens for any length of time, and his strength seems to be really sapped, then the evil forces are at work. by far the most prevalent form of black magic, is that of the bwaga'u, that is the black sorcerer, of whom there are a number in each district. usually even in each village there are one or two men more or less dreaded as bwaga'u. to be one does not require any special initiation except the knowledge of the spells. to learn these--that is, to learn them in such a manner as to become an acknowledged bwaga'u--can only be done by means of high payment, or in exceptional circumstances. thus, a father will often "give" his sorcery to his son, always, however, without payment; or a commoner will teach it to a man of rank, or a man to his sister's son. in these two latter cases a very high payment would have to be given. it is important as a characteristic of the kinship conditions of this people, that a man receives sorcery gratis from his father, who according to the traditional kinship system is no blood-relation, whereas he has to pay for it to his maternal uncle, whose natural heir he is. when a man has acquired the black art, he applies it to a first victim, and this has always to be some one of his own family. it is a firm and definite belief among all the natives that if a man's sorcery has to be any good, it must first be practised on his mother or sister, or any of his maternal kindred. such a matricidal act makes him a genuine bwaga'u. his art then can be practised on others, and becomes an established source of income. the beliefs about sorcery are complex; they differ according as to whether taken from a real sorcerer, or from an outsider; and there are also evidently strata of belief, due perhaps to local variation, perhaps to superimposed versions. here a short summary must suffice. when a sorcerer wants to attack someone, the first step is to cast a light spell over his habitual haunts, a spell which will affect him with a slight illness and compel him to keep to his bed in his house, where he will try to cure himself by lying over a small fire and warming his body. his first ailment, called kaynagola, comprises pains in the body, such as (speaking from our point of view) would be brought about by rheumatism, general cold, influenza, or any incipient disease. when the victim is in bed, with a fire burning under him, and also, as a rule, one in the middle of the hut, the bwaga'u stealthily approaches the house. he is accompanied by a few nightbirds, owls and night-jars, which keep guard over him, and he is surrounded by a halo of legendary terrors which make all natives shiver at the idea of meeting a sorcerer on such a nocturnal visit. he then tries to insert through the thatch wall a bunch of herbs impregnated with some deadly charm and tied to a long stick, and these he attempts to thrust into the fire over which the sick man is lying. if he succeeds, the fumes of the burnt leaves will be inhaled by the victim, whose name has been uttered in the charm, and he will be seized by one or other of the deadly diseases of which the natives have a long list, with a definite symptomatology, as well as a magical etiology. thus the preliminary sorcery was necessary, in order to keep the victim to his house, in which spot only can the mortal magic be performed. of course, the sick man is on the defensive as well. first of all, his friends and relatives--this is one of the main duties of the wife's brothers--will keep a close watch over him, sitting with spears round the hut, and at all approaches to it. often have i come across such vigils, when walking late at night through some village. then, the services of some rival bwaga'u are invoked (for the art of killing and curing is always in the same hand), and he utters counter-spells, so that at times the efforts of the first sorcerer, even should he succeed in burning the herbs according to the dreaded toginivayu rite, are fruitless. should this be so, he resorts to the final and most fatal rite, that of the pointing-bone. uttering powerful spells, the bwaga'u and one or two accomplices, boil some coco-nut oil in a small pot, far away in a dense patch of jungle. leaves of herbs are soaked in the oil, and then wrapped round a sharp stingaree spine, or some similar pointed object, and the final incantation, most deadly of all, is chanted over it. then the bwaga'u steals towards the village, catches sight of his victim, and hiding himself behind a shrub or house, points the magical dagger at him. in fact, he violently and viciously turns it round in the air, as if to stab the victim, and to twist and wrench the point in the wound. this, if carried out properly, and not counteracted by a still more powerful magician, will never fail to kill a man. i have here summarised the bare outlines of the successive application of black magic as it is believed by sorcerer and outsider alike to be done, and to act in producing disease and death. there can be no doubt that the acts of sorcery are really carried out by those who believe themselves to possess the black powers. it is equally certain that the nervous strain of knowing one's life to be threatened by a bwaga'u is very great, and probably it is much worse when a man knows that behind the sorcerer stands the might of the chief, and this apprehension certainly contributes powerfully towards the success of black magic. on the other hand, a chief, if attacked, would have a good guard to protect him, and the most powerful wizards to back him up, and also the authority to deal directly with anyone suspected of plotting against him. thus sorcery, which is one of the means of carrying on the established order, is in its turn strengthened by it. if we remember that, as in all belief in the miraculous and supernatural, so also here, there is the loophole of counterforces, and of the sorcery being incorrectly or inefficiently applied, spoilt by broken taboos, mispronounced spells, or what not; again, that suggestion strongly influences the victim, and undermines his natural resistance; further that all disease is invariably traced back to some sorcerer or other, who, whether it is true or not, often frankly admits his responsibility in order to enhance his reputation, there is then no difficulty in understanding why the belief in black magic flourishes, why no empirical evidence can ever dispel it, and why the sorcerer no less than the victim, has confidence in his own powers. at least, the difficulty is the same as in explaining many contemporary examples of results achieved by miracles and faith healing, such as christian science or lourdes, or in any cure by prayers and devotion. although by far the most important of them all, the bwaga'u is only one among the beings who can cause disease and death. the often-mentioned flying-witches, who come always from the southern half of the island, or from the east, from the islands of kitava, iwa, gava, or murua, are even more deadly. all very rapid and violent diseases, more especially such as show no direct, perceptible symptoms, are attributed to the mulukwausi, as they are called. invisible, they fly through the air, and perch on trees, house-tops, and other high places. from there, they pounce upon a man or woman and remove and hide "the inside," that is, the lungs, heart and guts, or the brains and tongue. such a victim will die within a day or two, unless another witch, called for the purpose and well paid, goes in search and restores the missing "inside." of course, sometimes it is too late to do it, as the meal has been eaten in the meantime! then the victim must die. another powerful agency of death consists of the tauva'u, non-human though anthropomorphic beings, who cause all epidemic disease. when, at the end of the rainy season the new and unripe yams have come in, and dysentery rages, decimating the villages; or, when in hot and damp years an infectious disease passes over the district, taking heavy toll, this means that the tauva'u have come from the south, and that, invisible, they march through the villages, rattling their lime gourds, and with their sword-clubs or sticks hitting their victims, who immediately sicken and die. the tauva'u can, at will, assume the shape of man or reptile. he appears then as a snake, or crab, or lizard, and you recognise him at once, for he will not run away from you, and he has as a rule a patch of some gaudy colour on his skin. it would be a fatal thing to kill such a reptile. on the contrary, it has to be taken up cautiously and treated as a chief; that is to say, it is placed on a high platform, and some of the valuable tokens of wealth--a polished green stone blade, or a pair of arm-shells, or a necklace of spondylus shell beads must be put before it as an offering. it is very interesting to note that the tauva'u are believed to come from the northern coast of normanby island, from the district of du'a'u, and more especially from a place called sewatupa. this is the very place where, according to dobuan belief and myth, their sorcery originated. thus, what to the local tribes of the originating place is ordinary sorcery, practised by men, becomes, when looked at from a great distance, and from an alien tribe, a non-human agency, endowed with such super-normal powers as changing of shape, invisibility, and a direct, infallible method of inflicting death. the tauva'u have sometimes sexual intercourse with women; several present cases are on record, and such women who have a familiar tauva'u become dangerous witches, though how they practise their witchcraft is not quite clear to the natives. a much less dangerous being is the tokway, a wood-sprite, living in trees and rocks, stealing crops from the field and from the yam-houses, and inflicting slight ailments. some men in the past have acquired the knowledge of how to do this from the tokway, and have handed it on to their descendants. so we see that, except for the very light ailments which pass quickly and easily, all disease is attributed to sorcery. even accidents are not believed to happen without cause. that this is the case also with drowning, we shall learn more in detail, when we have to follow the trobrianders in their dangerous sea-trips. natural death, caused by old age, is admittedly possible, but when i asked in several concrete cases, in which age was obviously the cause, why such and such a man died, i was always told that a bwaga'u was at the back of it. only suicide and death in battle have a different place in the mind of the natives, and this is also confirmed by the belief that people killed in war, those that commit suicide, and those who are bewitched to death have, each class, their own way to the other world. this sketch of trobriand tribal life, belief and customs must suffice, and we shall still have opportunities of enlarging upon these subjects that most matter to us for the present study. viii two more districts remain to be mentioned, through which the kula trade passes on its circuit, before it returns to the place from where we started. one of them is the eastern portion of the northern massim, comprising the marshall bennett islands (kitava, iwa, gawa, kwayawata), and woodlark island (murua), with the small group of nada islands. the other district is that of st. aignan island, called by the natives masima, or misima, with the smaller island panayati. looking from the rocky shores of boyowa, at its narrowest point, we can see over the white breakers on the fringing reef and over the sea, here always blue and limpid, the silhouette of a flat-topped, low rock, almost due east. this is kitava. to the trobrianders of the eastern districts, this island and those behind it are the promised land of the kula, just as dobu is to the natives of southern boyowa. but here, unlike in the south, they have to deal with tribesmen who speak their own language, with dialectic differences only, and who have very much the same institutions and customs. in fact, the nearest island, kitava, differs only very little from the trobriands. although the more distant islands, especially murua, have a slightly different form of totemism, with hardly any idea of rank attached to the sub-clans, and consequently no chieftainship in the trobriand sense, yet their social organisation is also much the same as in the western province. [ ] i know the natives only from having seen them very frequently and in great numbers in the trobriands, where they come on kula expeditions. in murua, however, i spent a short time doing field-work in the village of dikoyas. in appearance, dress, ornaments and manners, the natives are indistinguishable from the trobrianders. their ideas and customs in matters of sex, marriage, and kinship are, with variations in detail only, the same as in boyowa. in beliefs and mythology, they also belong to the same culture. to the trobrianders, the eastern islands are also the chief home and stronghold of the dreaded mulukwausi (flying witches); the land whence love magic came, originating in the island of iwa; the distant shores towards which the mythical hero tudava sailed, performing many feats, till he finally disappeared, no one knows where. the most recent version is that he most likely finished his career in the white man's country. to the eastern islands, says native belief, the spirits of the dead, killed by sorcery, go round on a short visit not stopping there, only floating through the air like clouds, before they turn round to the north-west to tuma. from these islands, many important products come to boyowa (the trobriands), but none half as important as the tough, homogeneous green-stone, from which all their implements were made in the past, and of which the ceremonial axes are made up till now. some of these places are renowned for their yam gardens, especially kitava, and it is recognised that the best carving in black ebony comes from there. the most important point of difference between the natives of this district and the trobrianders, lies in the method of mortuary distributions, to which subject we shall have to return in a later part of the book, as it is closely connected with kula. from murua (woodlark island) the kula track curves over to the south in two different branches, one direct to tubetube, and the other to misima, and thence to tubetube and wari. the district of misima is almost entirely unknown to me--i have only spoken once or twice with natives of this island, and there is not, to my knowledge, any reliable published information about that district, so we shall have to pass it over with a very few words. this is, however, not so alarming, because it is certain, even from the little i know about them, that the natives do not essentially differ from the other massim. they are totemic and matrilineal; there is no chieftainship, and the form of authority is the same as in the southern massim. their sorcerers and witches resemble those of the southern massim and dobuans. in industries, they specialise in canoe-building, and in the small island of panayati produce the same type of craft as the natives of gawa and woodlark island, slightly different only from the trobriand canoe. in the island of misima, a very big supply of areca (betel) nut is produced, as there is a custom of planting a number of these nuts after a man's death. the small islands of tubetube and wari, which form the final link of the kula, lie already within the district of the southern massim. in fact, the island of tubetube is one of the places studied in detail by professor seligman, and its ethnographical description is one of three parallel monographs which form the division of the southern massim in the treatise so often quoted. finally, i want to point out again that the descriptions of the various kula districts given in this and in the previous chapter, though accurate in every detail, are not meant to be an exhaustive ethnographic sketch of the tribes. they have been given with a few light touches in order to produce a vivid and so-to-speak personal impression of the various type of natives, and countries and of cultures. if i have succeeded in giving a physiognomy to each of the various tribes, to the trobrianders, to the amphlettans, the dobuans, and the southern massim, and in arousing some interest in them, the main purpose has been achieved, and the necessary ethnographic background for the kula has been supplied. chapter iii the essentials of the kula i having thus described the scene, and the actors, let us now proceed to the performance. the kula is a form of exchange, of extensive, inter-tribal character; it is carried on by communities inhabiting a wide ring of islands, which form a closed circuit. this circuit can be seen on map v, where it is represented by the lines joining a number of islands to the north and east of the east end of new guinea. along this route, articles of two kinds, and these two kinds only, are constantly travelling in opposite directions. in the direction of the hands of a clock, moves constantly one of these kinds--long necklaces of red shell, called soulava (plates xviii and xix). in the opposite direction moves the other kind--bracelets of white shell called mwali (plates xvi and xvii). each of these articles, as it travels in its own direction on the closed circuit, meets on its way articles of the other class, and is constantly being exchanged for them. every movement of the kula articles, every detail of the transactions is fixed and regulated by a set of traditional rules and conventions, and some acts of the kula are accompanied by an elaborate magical ritual and public ceremonies. on every island and in every village, a more or less limited number of men take part in the kula--that is to say, receive the goods, hold them for a short time, and then pass them on. therefore every man who is in the kula, periodically though not regularly, receives one or several mwali (arm-shells), or a soulava (necklace of red shell discs), and then has to hand it on to one of his partners, from whom he receives the opposite commodity in exchange. thus no man ever keeps any of the articles for any length of time in his possession. one transaction does not finish the kula relationship, the rule being "once in the kula, always in the kula," and a partnership between two men is a permanent and lifelong affair. again, any given mwali or soulava may always be found travelling and changing hands, and there is no question of its ever settling down, so that the principle "once in the kula, always in the kula" applies also to the valuables themselves. the ceremonial exchange of the two articles is the main, the fundamental aspect of the kula. but associated with it, and done under its cover, we find a great number of secondary activities and features. thus, side by side with the ritual exchange of arm-shells and necklaces, the natives carry on ordinary trade, bartering from one island to another a great number of utilities, often unprocurable in the district to which they are imported, and indispensable there. further, there are other activities, preliminary to the kula, or associated with it, such as the building of sea-going canoes for the expeditions, certain big forms of mortuary ceremonies, and preparatory taboos. the kula is thus an extremely big and complex institution, both in its geographical extent, and in the manifoldness of its component pursuits. it welds together a considerable number of tribes, and it embraces a vast complex of activities, interconnected, and playing into one another, so as to form one organic whole. yet it must be remembered that what appears to us an extensive, complicated, and yet well ordered institution is the outcome of ever so many doings and pursuits, carried on by savages, who have no laws or aims or charters definitely laid down. they have no knowledge of the total outline of any of their social structure. they know their own motives, know the purpose of individual actions and the rules which apply to them, but how, out of these, the whole collective institution shapes, this is beyond their mental range. not even the most intelligent native has any clear idea of the kula as a big, organised social construction, still less of its sociological function and implications. if you were to ask him what the kula is, he would answer by giving a few details, most likely by giving his personal experiences and subjective views on the kula, but nothing approaching the definition just given here. not even a partial coherent account could be obtained. for the integral picture does not exist in his mind; he is in it, and cannot see the whole from the outside. the integration of all the details observed, the achievement of a sociological synthesis of all the various, relevant symptoms, is the task of the ethnographer. first of all, he has to find out that certain activities, which at first sight might appear incoherent and not correlated, have a meaning. he then has to find out what is constant and relevant in these activities, and what accidental and inessential, that is, to find out the laws and rules of all the transactions. again, the ethnographer has to construct the picture of the big institution, very much as the physicist constructs his theory from the experimental data, which always have been within reach of everybody, but which needed a consistent interpretation. i have touched on this point of method in the introduction (divisions v and vi), but i have repeated it here, as it is necessary to grasp it clearly in order not to lose the right perspective of conditions as they really exist among the natives. ii in giving the above abstract and concise definition, i had to reverse the order of research, as this is done in ethnographic field-work, where the most generalised inferences are obtained as the result of long inquiries and laborious inductions. the general definition of the kula will serve as a sort of plan or diagram in our further concrete and detailed descriptions. and this is the more necessary as the kula is concerned with the exchange of wealth and utilities, and therefore it is an economic institution, and there is no other aspect of primitive life where our knowledge is more scanty and our understanding more superficial than in economics. hence misconception is rampant, and it is necessary to clear the ground when approaching any economic subject. thus in the introduction we called the kula a "form of trade," and we ranged it alongside other systems of barter. this is quite correct, if we give the word "trade" a sufficiently wide interpretation, and mean by it any exchange of goods. but the word "trade" is used in current ethnography and economic literature with so many different implications that a whole lot of misleading, preconceived ideas have to be brushed aside in order to grasp the facts correctly. thus the aprioric current notion of primitive trade would be that of an exchange of indispensable or useful articles, done without much ceremony or regulation, under stress of dearth or need, in spasmodic, irregular intervals--and this done either by direct barter, everyone looking out sharply not to be done out of his due, or, if the savages were too timid and distrustful to face one another, by some customary arrangement, securing by means of heavy penalties compliance in the obligations incurred or imposed. [ ] waiving for the present the question how far this conception is valid or not in general--in my opinion it is quite misleading--we have to realise clearly that the kula contradicts in almost every point the above definition of "savage trade." it shows to us primitive exchange in an entirely different light. the kula is not a surreptitious and precarious form of exchange. it is, quite on the contrary, rooted in myth, backed by traditional law, and surrounded with magical rites. all its main transactions are public and ceremonial, and carried out according to definite rules. it is not done on the spur of the moment, but happens periodically, at dates settled in advance, and it is carried on along definite trade routes, which must lead to fixed trysting places. sociologically, though transacted between tribes differing in language, culture, and probably even in race, it is based on a fixed and permanent status, on a partnership which binds into couples some thousands of individuals. this partnership is a lifelong relationship, it implies various mutual duties and privileges, and constitutes a type of inter-tribal relationship on an enormous scale. as to the economic mechanism of the transactions, this is based on a specific form of credit, which implies a high degree of mutual trust and commercial honour--and this refers also to the subsidiary, minor trade, which accompanies the kula proper. finally, the kula is not done under stress of any need, since its main aim is to exchange articles which are of no practical use. from the concise definition of kula given at the beginning of this chapter, we see that in its final essence, divested of all trappings and accessories, it is a very simple affair, which at first sight might even appear tame and unromantic. after all, it only consists of an exchange, interminably repeated, of two articles intended for ornamentation, but not even used for that to any extent. yet this simple action--this passing from hand to hand of two meaningless and quite useless objects--has somehow succeeded in becoming the foundation of a big inter-tribal institution, in being associated with ever so many other activities. myth, magic and tradition have built up around it definite ritual and ceremonial forms, have given it a halo of romance and value in the minds of the natives, have indeed created a passion in their hearts for this simple exchange. the definition of the kula must now be amplified, and we must describe one after the other its fundamental characteristics and main rules, so that it may be clearly grasped by what mechanism the mere exchange of two articles results in an institution so vast, complex, and deeply rooted. iii first of all, a few words must be said about the two principal objects of exchange, the arm-shells (mwali) and the necklaces (soulava). the arm-shells are obtained by breaking off the top and the narrow end of a big, cone-shaped shell (conus millepunctatus), and then polishing up the remaining ring. these bracelets are highly coveted by all the papuo-melanesians of new guinea, and they spread even into the pure papuan district of the gulf. [ ] the manner of wearing the arm-shells is illustrated by plate xvii, where the men have put them on on purpose to be photographed. the use of the small discs of red spondylus shell, out of which the soulava are made, is also of a very wide diffusion. there is a manufacturing centre of them in one of the villages in port moresby, and also in several places in eastern new guinea, notably in rossell island, and in the trobriands. i have said "use" on purpose here, because these small beads, each of them a flat, round disc with a hole in the centre, coloured anything from muddy brown to carmine red, are employed in various ways for ornamentation. they are most generally used as part of earrings, made of rings of turtle shell, which are attached to the ear lobe, and from which hang a cluster of the shell discs. these earrings are very much worn, and, especially among the massim, you see them on the ears of every second man or woman, while others are satisfied with turtle shell alone, unornamented with the shell discs. another everyday ornament, frequently met with and worn, especially by young girls and boys, consists of a short necklace, just encircling the neck, made of the red spondylus discs, with one or more cowrie shell pendants. these shell discs can be, and often are, used in the make-up of the various classes of the more elaborate ornaments, worn on festive occasions only. here, however, we are more especially concerned with the very long necklaces, measuring from two to five metres, made of spondylus discs, of which there are two main varieties, one, much the finer, with a big shell pendant, the other made of bigger discs, and with a few cowrie shells or black banana seeds in the centre (see plate xviii). the arm-shells on the one hand, and the long spondylus shell strings on the other, the two main kula articles, are primarily ornaments. as such, they are used with the most elaborate dancing dress only, and on very festive occasions such as big ceremonial dances, great feasts, and big gatherings, where several villages are represented, as can be seen in plate vi. never could they be used as everyday ornaments, nor on occasions of minor importance, such as a small dance in the village, a harvest gathering, a love-making expedition, when facial painting, floral decoration and smaller though not quite everyday ornaments are worn (see plates xii and xiii). but even though usable and sometimes used, this is not the main function of these articles. thus, a chief may have several shell strings in his possession, and a few arm-shells. supposing that a big dance is held in his or in a neighbouring village, he will not put on his ornaments himself if he goes to assist at it, unless he intends to dance and decorate himself, but any of his relatives, his children or his friends and even vassals, can have the use of them for the asking. if you go to a feast or a dance where there are a number of men wearing such ornaments, and ask anyone of them at random to whom it belongs, the chances are that more than half of them will answer that they themselves are not the owners, but that they had the articles lent to them. these objects are not owned in order to be used; the privilege of decorating oneself with them is not the real aim of possession. indeed--and this is more significant--by far the greater number of the arm-shells, easily ninety per cent., are of too small a size to be worn even by young boys and girls. a few are so big and valuable that they would not be worn at all, except once in a decade by a very important man on a very festive day. though all the shell-strings can be worn, some of them are again considered too valuable, and are cumbersome for frequent use, and would be worn on very exceptional occasions only. this negative description leaves us with the questions: why, then, are these objects valued, what purpose do they serve? the full answer to this question will emerge out of the whole story contained in the following chapters, but an approximate idea must be given at once. as it is always better to approach the unknown through the known, let us consider for a moment whether among ourselves we have not some type of objects which play a similar rôle and which are used and possessed in the same manner. when, after a six years' absence in the south seas and australia, i returned to europe and did my first bit of sight-seeing in edinburgh castle, i was shown the crown jewels. the keeper told many stories of how they were worn by this or that king or queen on such and such occasion, of how some of them had been taken over to london, to the great and just indignation of the whole scottish nation, how they were restored, and how now everyone can be pleased, since they are safe under lock and key, and no one can touch them. as i was looking at them and thinking how ugly, useless, ungainly, even tawdry they were, i had the feeling that something similar had been told to me of late, and that i had seen many other objects of this sort, which made a similar impression on me. and then arose before me the vision of a native village on coral soil, and a small, rickety platform temporarily erected under a pandanus thatch, surrounded by a number of brown, naked men, and one of them showing me long, thin red strings, and big, white, worn-out objects, clumsy to sight and greasy to touch. with reverence he also would name them, and tell their history, and by whom and when they were worn, and how they changed hands, and how their temporary possession was a great sign of the importance and glory of the village. the analogy between the european and the trobriand vaygu'a (valuables) must be delimited with more precision. the crown jewels, in fact, any heirlooms too valuable and too cumbersome to be worn, represent the same type as vaygu'a in that they are merely possessed for the sake of possession itself, and the ownership of them with the ensuing renown is the main source of their value. also both heirlooms and vaygu'a are cherished because of the historical sentiment which surrounds them. however ugly, useless, and--according to current standards--valueless an object may be, if it has figured in historical scenes and passed through the hands of historic persons, and is therefore an unfailing vehicle of important sentimental associations, it cannot but be precious to us. this historic sentimentalism, which indeed has a large share in our general interest in studies of past events, exists also in the south seas. every really good kula article has its individual name, round each there is a sort of history and romance in the traditions of the natives. crown jewels or heirlooms are insignia of rank and symbols of wealth respectively, and in olden days with us, and in new guinea up till a few years ago, both rank and wealth went together. the main point of difference is that the kula goods are only in possession for a time, whereas the european treasure must be permanently owned in order to have full value. taking a broader, ethnological view of the question, we may class the kula valuables among the many "ceremonial" objects of wealth; enormous, carved and decorated weapons, stone implements, articles of domestic and industrial nature, too well decorated and too clumsy for use. such things are usually called "ceremonial," but this word seems to cover a great number of meanings and much that has no meaning at all. in fact, very often, especially on museum labels, an article is called "ceremonial" simply because nothing is known about its uses and general nature. speaking only about museum exhibits from new guinea, i can say that many so-called ceremonial objects are nothing but simply overgrown objects of use, which preciousness of material and amount of labour expended have transformed into reservoirs of condensed economic value. again, others are used on festive occasions, but play no part whatever in rites and ceremonies, and serve for decoration only, and these might be called objects of parade (comp. chap. vi, div. i). finally, a number of these articles function actually as instruments of a magical or religious rite, and belong to the intrinsic apparatus of a ceremony. such and such only could be correctly called ceremonial. during the so'i feasts among the southern massim, women carrying polished axe blades in fine carved handles, accompany with a rhythmic step to the beat of drums, the entry of the pigs and mango saplings into the village (see plates v and vi). as this is part of the ceremony and the axes are an indispensable accessory, their use in this case can be legitimately called "ceremonial." again, in certain magical ceremonies in the trobriands, the towosi (garden magician) has to carry a mounted axe blade on his shoulders, and with it he delivers a ritual blow at a kamkokola structure (see plate lix; compare chapter ii, division iv). the vaygu'a--the kula valuables--in one of their aspects are overgrown objects of use. they are also, however, ceremonial objects in the narrow and correct sense of the word. this will become clear after perusal of the following pages, and to this point we shall return in the last chapter. it must be kept in mind that here we are trying to obtain a clear and vivid idea of what the kula valuables are to the natives, and not to give a detailed and circumstantial description of them, nor to define them with precision. the comparison with the european heirlooms or crown jewels was given in order to show that this type of ownership is not entirely a fantastic south sea custom, untranslatable into our ideas. for--and this is a point i want to stress--the comparison i have made is not based on purely external, superficial similarity. the psychological and sociological forces at work are the same, it is really the same mental attitude which makes us value our heirlooms, and makes the natives in new guinea value their vaygu'a. iv the exchange of these two classes of vaygu'a, of the armshells and the necklaces, constitutes the main act of the kula. this exchange is not done freely, right and left, as opportunity offers, and where the whim leads. it is subject indeed to strict limitations and regulations. one of these refers to the sociology of the exchange, and entails that kula transactions can be done only between partners. a man who is in the kula--for not everyone within its district is entitled to carry it on--has only a limited number of people with whom he does it. this partnership is entered upon in a definite manner, under fulfilment of certain formalities, and it constitutes a life-long relationship. the number of partners a man has varies with his rank and importance. a commoner in the trobriands would have a few partners only, whereas a chief would number hundreds of them. there is no special social mechanism to limit the partnership of some people and extend that of the others, but a man would naturally know to what number of partners he was entitled by his rank and position. and there would be always the example of his immediate ancestors to guide him. in other tribes, where the distinction of rank is not so pronounced, an old man of standing, or a headman of a hamlet or village would also have hundreds of kula associates, whereas a man of minor importance would have but few. two kula partners have to kula with one another, and exchange other gifts incidentally; they behave as friends, and have a number of mutual duties and obligations, which vary with the distance between their villages and with their reciprocal status. an average man has a few partners near by, as a rule his relations-in-law or his friends, and with these partners, he is generally on very friendly terms. the kula partnership is one of the special bonds which unite two men into one of the standing relations of mutual exchange of gifts and services so characteristic of these natives. again, the average man will have one or two chiefs in his or in the neighbouring districts with whom he kulas. in such a case, he would be bound to assist and serve them in various ways, and to offer them the pick of his vaygu'a when he gets a fresh supply. on the other hand he would expect them to be specially liberal to him. the overseas partner is, on the other hand, a host, patron and ally in a land of danger and insecurity. nowadays, though the feeling of danger still persists, and natives never feel safe and comfortable in a strange district, this danger is rather felt as a magical one, and it is more the fear of foreign sorcery that besets them. in olden days, more tangible dangers were apprehended, and the partner was the main guarantee of safety. he also provides with food, gives presents, and his house, though never used to sleep in, is the place in which to foregather while in the village. thus the kula partnership provides every man within its ring with a few friends near at hand, and with some friendly allies in the far-away, dangerous, foreign districts. these are the only people with whom he can kula, but, of course, amongst all his partners, he is free to choose to which one he will offer which object. let us now try to cast a broad glance at the cumulative effects of the rules of partnership. we see that all around the ring of kula there is a network of relationships, and that naturally the whole forms one interwoven fabric. men living at hundreds of miles' sailing distance from one another are bound together by direct or intermediate partnership, exchange with each other, know of each other, and on certain occasions meet in a large intertribal gathering (plate xx). objects given by one, in time reach some very distant indirect partner or other, and not only kula objects, but various articles of domestic use and minor gifts. it is easy to see that in the long run, not only objects of material culture, but also customs, songs, art motives and general cultural influences travel along the kula route. it is a vast, inter-tribal net of relationships, a big institution, consisting of thousands of men, all bound together by one common passion for kula exchange, and secondarily, by many minor ties and interests. returning again to the personal aspect of the kula, let us take a concrete example, that of an average man who lives, let us assume, in the village of sinaketa, an important kula centre in the southern trobriands. he has a few partners, near and far, but they again fall into categories, those who give him arm-shells, and those who give him necklaces. for it is naturally an invariable rule of the kula that arm-shells and necklaces are never received from the same man, since they must travel in different directions. if one partner gives the armshells, and i return to him a necklace, all future operations have to be of the same type. more than that, the nature of the operation between me, the man of sinaketa, and my partner, is determined by our relative positions with regard to the points of the compass. thus i, in sinaketa, would receive from the north and east only arm-shells; from the south and west, necklaces are given to me. if i have a near partner next door to me, if his abode is north or east of mine, he will always be giving me arm-shells and receiving necklaces from me. if, at a later time he were to shift his residence within the village, the old relationship would obtain, but if he became a member of another village community on the other side of me the relationship would be reversed. the partners in villages to the north of sinaketa, in the district of luba, kulumata, or kiriwina all supply me with arm-shells. these i hand over to my partners in the south, and receive from them necklaces. the south in this case means the southern districts of boyowa, as well as the amphletts and dobu. thus every man has to obey definite rules as to the geographical direction of his transactions. at any point in the kula ring, if we imagine him turned towards the centre of the circle, he receives the arm-shells with his left hand, and the necklaces with his right, and then hands them both on. in other words, he constantly passes the arm-shells from left to right, and the necklaces from right to left. applying this rule of personal conduct to the whole kula ring, we can see at once what the aggregate result is. the sum total of exchanges will not result in an aimless shifting of the two classes of article, in a fortuitous come and go of the armshells and necklaces. two continuous streams will constantly flow on, the one of necklaces following the hands of a clock, and the other, composed of the arm-shells, in the opposite direction. we see thus that it is quite correct to speak of the circular exchange of the kula, of a ring or circuit of moving articles (comp. map v). on this ring, all the villages are placed in a definitely fixed position with regard to one another, so that one is always on either the arm-shell or on the necklace side of the other. now we pass to another rule of the kula, of the greatest importance. as just explained "the armshells and shell-strings always travel in their own respective directions on the ring, and they are never, under any circumstances, traded back in the wrong direction. also, they never stop. it seems almost incredible at first, but it is the fact, nevertheless, that no one ever keeps any of the kula: valuables for any length of time. indeed, in the whole of the trobriands there are perhaps only one or two specially fine armshells and shell-necklaces permanently owned as heirlooms, and these are set apart as a special class, and are once and for all out of the kula. 'ownership,' therefore, in kula, is quite a special economic relation. a man who is in the kula never keeps any article for longer than, say, a year or two. even this exposes him to the reproach of being niggardly, and certain districts have the bad reputation of being 'slow' and 'hard' in the kula. on the other hand, each man has an enormous number of articles passing through his hands during his life time, of which he enjoys a temporary possession, and which he keeps in trust for a time. this possession hardly ever makes him use the articles, and he remains under the obligation soon again to hand them on to one of his partners. but the temporary ownership allows him to draw a great deal of renown, to exhibit his article, to tell how he obtained it, and to plan to whom he is going to give it. and all this forms one of the favourite subjects of tribal conversation and gossip, in which the feats and the glory in kula of chiefs or commoners are constantly discussed and re-discussed." [ ] thus every article moves in one direction only, never comes back, never permanently stops, and takes as a rule some two to ten years to make the round. this feature of the kula is perhaps its most remarkable one, since it creates a new type of ownership, and places the two kula articles in a class of their own. here we can return to the comparison drawn between the vaygu'a (kiriwinian valuables) and the european heirlooms. this comparison broke down on one point: in the european objects of this class, permanent ownership, lasting association with the hereditary dignity or rank or with a family, is one of its main features. in this the kula articles differ from heirlooms, but resemble another type of valued object, that is, trophies, gauges of superiority, sporting cups, objects which are kept for a time only by the winning party, whether a group or an individual. though held only in trust, only for a period, though never used in any utilitarian way, yet the holders get from them a special type of pleasure by the mere fact of owning them, of being entitled to them. here again, it is not only a superficial, external resemblance, but very much the same mental attitude, favoured by similar social arrangements. the resemblance goes so far that in the kula there exists also the element of pride in merit, an element which forms the main ingredient in the pleasure felt by a man or group holding a trophy. success in kula is ascribed to special, personal power, due mainly to magic, and men are very proud of it. again, the whole community glories in a specially fine kula trophy, obtained by one of its members. all the rules so far enumerated--looking at them from the individual point of view--limit the social range and the direction of the transactions as well as the duration of ownership of the articles. looking at them from the point of view of their integral effect, they shape the general outline of the kula, give it the character of the double-closed circuit. now a few words must be said about the nature of each individual transaction, in so far as its commercial technicalities are concerned. here very definite rules also obtain. v the main principle underlying the regulations of actual exchange is that the kula consists in the bestowing of a ceremonial gift, which has to be repaid by an equivalent counter-gift after a lapse of time, be it a few hours or even minutes, though sometimes as much as a year or more may elapse between payments. [ ] but it can never be exchanged from hand to hand, with the equivalence between the two objects discussed, bargained about and computed. the decorum of the kula transaction is strictly kept, and highly valued. the natives sharply distinguish it from barter, which they practise extensively, of which they have a clear idea, and for which they have a settled term--in kiriwinian: gimwali. often, when criticising an incorrect, too hasty, or indecorous procedure of kula, they will say: "he conducts his kula as if it were gimwali." the second very important principle is that the equivalence of the counter-gift is left to the giver, and it cannot be enforced by any kind of coercion. a partner who has received a kula gift is expected to give back fair and full value, that is, to give as good an arm-shell as the necklace he receives, or vice versa. again, a very fine article must be replaced by one of equivalent value, and not by several minor ones, though intermediate gifts may be given to mark time before the real repayment takes place. if the article given as counter-gift is not equivalent, the recipient will be disappointed and angry, but he has no direct means of redress, no means of coercing his partner, or of putting an end to the whole transaction. what then are the forces at work which keep the partners to the terms of the bargain? here we come up against a very important feature of the native's mental attitude towards wealth and value. the great misconception of attributing to the savage a pure economic nature, might lead us to reason incorrectly thus: "the passion of acquiring, the loathing to lose or give away, is the fundamental and most primitive element in man's attitude to wealth. in primitive man, this primitive characteristic will appear in its simplest and purest form. grab and never let go will be the guiding principle of his life." [ ] the fundamental error in this reasoning is that it assumes that "primitive man," as represented by the present-day savage, lives, at least in economic matters, untrammelled by conventions and social restrictions. quite the reverse is the case. although, like every human being, the kula native loves to possess and therefore desires to acquire and dreads to lose, the social code of rules, with regard to give and take by far overrides his natural acquisitive tendency. this social code, such as we find it among the natives of the kula is, however, far from weakening the natural desirability of possession; on the contrary, it lays down that to possess is to be great, and that wealth is the indispensable appanage of social rank and attribute of personal virtue. but the important point is that with them to possess is to give--and here the natives differ from us notably. a man who owns a thing is naturally expected to share it, to distribute it, to be its trustee and dispenser. and the higher the rank the greater the obligation. a chief will naturally be expected to give food to any stranger, visitor, even loiterer from another end of the village. he will be expected to share any of the betel-nut or tobacco he has about him. so that a man of rank will have to hide away any surplus of these articles which he wants to preserve for his further use. in the eastern end of new guinea a type of large basket, with three layers, manufactured in the trobriands, was specially popular among people of consequence, because one could hide away one's small treasures in the lower compartments. thus the main symptom of being powerful is to be wealthy, and of wealth is to be generous. meanness, indeed, is the most despised vice, and the only thing about which the natives have strong moral views, while generosity is the essence of goodness. this moral injunction and ensuing habit of generosity, superficially observed and misinterpreted, is responsible for another wide-spread misconception, that of the primitive communism of savages. this, quite as much as the diametrically opposed figment of the acquisitive and ruthlessly tenacious native, is definitely erroneous, and this will be seen with sufficient clearness in the following chapters. thus the fundamental principle of the natives' moral code in this matter makes a man do his fair share in kula transaction and the more important he is, the more will he desire to shine by his generosity. noblesse oblige is in reality the social norm regulating their conduct. this does not mean that people are always satisfied, and that there are no squabbles about the transactions, no resentments and even feuds. it is obvious that, however much a man may want to give a good equivalent for the object received, he may not be able to do so. and then, as there is always a keen competition to be the most generous giver, a man who has received less than he gave will not keep his grievance to himself, but will brag about his own generosity and compare it to his partner's meanness; the other resents it, and the quarrel is ready to break out. but it is very important to realise that there is no actual haggling, no tendency to do a man out of his share. the giver is quite as keen as the receiver that the gift should be generous, though for different reasons. then, of course, there is the important consideration that a man who is fair and generous in the kula will attract a larger stream to himself than a mean one. the two main principles, namely, first that the kula is a gift repaid after an interval of time by a counter-gift, and not a bartering; and second, that the equivalent rests with the giver, and cannot be enforced, nor can there be any haggling or going back on the exchange--these underlie all the transactions. a concrete outline of how they are carried on, will give a sufficient preliminary idea. "let us suppose that i, a sinaketa man, am in possession of a pair of big armshells. an overseas expedition from dobu in the d'entrecasteaux archipelago, arrives at my village. blowing a conch shell, i take my armshell pair and i offer it to my overseas partner, with some such words as 'this is a vaga (opening gift)--in due time, thou returnest to me a big soulava (necklace) for it!' next year, when i visit my partner's village, he either is in possession of an equivalent necklace, and this he gives to me as yotile (return gift), or he has not a necklace good enough to repay my last gift. in this case he will give me a small necklace--avowedly not equivalent to my gift--and he will give it to me as basi (intermediary gift). this means that the main gift has to be repaid on a future occasion, and the basi is given in token of good faith--but it, in turn, must be repaid by me in the meantime by a gift of small arm-shells. the final gift, which will be given to me to clinch the whole transaction, would then be called kudu (clinching gift) in contrast to basi" (loc. cit., p. ). although haggling and bargaining are completely ruled out of the kula, there are customary and regulated ways of bidding for a piece of vaygu'a known to be in the possession of one's partner. this is done by the offer of what we shall call solicitary gifts, of which there are several types. "if i, an inhabitant of sinaketa, happen to be in possession of a pair of arm-shells more than usually good, the fame of it spreads, for it must be remembered that each one of the first-class armshells and necklaces has a personal name and a history of its own, and as they circulate around the big ring of the kula, they are all well known, and their appearance in a given district always creates a sensation. now, all my partners--whether from overseas or from within the district--compete for the favour of receiving this particular article of mine, and those who are specially keen try to obtain it by giving me pokala (offerings) and kaributu (solicitary gifts). the former (pokala) consist as a rule of pigs, especially fine bananas, and yams or taro; the latter (kaributu) are of greater value: the valuable, large axe-blades (called beku), or lime spoons of whale bone are given" (loc. cit., p. ). the further complication in the repayment of these solicitary gifts and a few more technicalities and technical expressions connected herewith will be given later on in chapter iv. vi i have enumerated the main rules of the kula in a manner sufficient for a preliminary definition, and now a few words must be said about the associated activities and secondary aspects of the kula. if we realise that at times the exchange has to take place between districts divided by dangerous seas, over which a great number of people have to travel by sail, and do so keeping to appointed dates, it becomes clear at once that considerable preparations are necessary to carry out the expedition. many preliminary activities are intimately associated with the kula. such are, particularly, the building of canoes, preparation of the outfit, the provisioning of the expedition, the fixing of dates and social organisation of the enterprise. all these are subsidiary to the kula, and as they are carried on in pursuit of it, and form one connected series, a description of the kula must embrace an account of these preliminary activities. the detailed account of canoe building, of the ceremonial attached to it, of the incidental magical rites, of the launching and trial run, of the associated customs which aim at preparing the outfit--all this will be described in detail in the next few chapters. another important pursuit inextricably bound up with the kula, is that of the secondary trade. voyaging to far-off countries, endowed with natural resources unknown in their own homes, the kula sailors return each time richly laden with these, the spoils of their enterprise. again, in order to be able to offer presents to his partner, every outward bound canoe carries a cargo of such things as are known to be most desirable in the overseas district. some of this is given away in presents to the partners, but a good deal is carried in order to pay for the objects desired at home. in certain cases, the visiting natives exploit on their own account during the journey some of the natural resources overseas. for example, the sinaketans dive for the spondylus in sanaroa lagoon, and the dobuans fish in the trobriands on a beach on the southern end of the island. the secondary trade is complicated still more by the fact that such big kula centres as, for instance, sinaketa, are not efficient in any of the industries of special value to the dobuans. thus, sinaketans have to procure the necessary store of goods from the inland villages of kuboma, and this they do on minor trading expeditions preliminary to the kula. like the canoe-building, the secondary trading will be described in detail later on, and has only to be mentioned here. here, however, these subsidiary and associated activities must be put in proper relation with regard to one another and to the main transaction. both the canoe-building and the ordinary trade have been spoken of as secondary or subsidiary to the kula proper. this requires a comment. i do not, by thus subordinating the two things in importance to the kula, mean to express a philosophical reflection or a personal opinion as to the relative value of these pursuits from the point of view of some social teleology. indeed, it is clear that if we look at the acts from the outside, as comparative sociologists, and gauge their real utility, trade and canoe-building will appear to us as the really important achievements, whereas we shall regard the kula only as an indirect stimulus, impelling the natives to sail and to trade. here, however, i am not dealing in sociological, but in pure ethnographical description, and any sociological analysis i have given is only what has been absolutely indispensable to clear away misconceptions and to define terms. [ ] by ranging the kula as the primary and chief activity, and the rest as secondary ones, i mean that this precedence is implied in the institutions themselves. by studying the behaviour of the natives and all the customs in question, we see that the kula is in all respects the main aim: the dates are fixed, the preliminaries settled, the expeditions arranged, the social organisation determined, not with regard to trade, but with regard to kula. on an expedition, the big ceremonial feast, held at the start, refers to the kula; the final ceremony of reckoning and counting the spoil refers to kula, not to the objects of trade obtained. finally, the magic, which is one of the main factors of all the procedure, refers only to the kula, and this applies even to a part of the magic carried out over the canoe. some rites in the whole cycle are done for the sake of the canoe itself, and others for the sake of kula. the construction of the canoes is always carried on directly in connection with a kula expedition. all this, of course, will become really clear and convincing only after the detailed account is given. but it was necessary at this point to set the right perspective in the relation between the main kula and the trade. of course not only many of the surrounding tribes who know nothing of the kula do build canoes and sail far and daringly on trading expeditions, but even within the kula ring, in the trobriands for instance, there are several villages who do not kula, yet have canoes and carry on energetic overseas trade. but where the kula is practised, it governs all the other allied activities, and canoe building and trade are made subsidiary to it. and this is expressed both by the nature of the institutions and the working of all the arrangements on the one hand, and by the behaviour and explicit statements of the natives on the other. the kula--it becomes, i hope, more and more clear--is a big, complicated institution, insignificant though its nucleus might appear. to the natives, it represents one of the most vital interests in life, and as such it has a ceremonial character and is surrounded by magic. we can well imagine that articles of wealth might pass from hand to hand without ceremony or ritual, but in the kula they never do. even when at times only small parties in one or two canoes sail overseas and bring back vaygu'a, certain taboos are observed, and a customary course is taken in departing, in sailing, and in arriving; even the smallest expedition in one canoe is a tribal event of some importance, known and spoken of over the whole district. but the characteristic expedition is one in which a considerable number of canoes take part, organised in a certain manner, and forming one body. feasts, distributions of food, and other public ceremonies are held, there is one leader and master of the expedition, and various rules are adhered to, in addition to the ordinary kula taboos and observances. the ceremonial nature of the kula is strictly bound up with another of its aspects--magic. "the belief in the efficiency of magic dominates the kula, as it does ever so many other tribal activities of the natives. magical rites must be performed over the sea-going canoe when it is built, in order to make it swift, steady and safe; also magic is done over a canoe to make it lucky in the kula. another system of magical rites is done in order to avert the dangers of sailing. the third system of magic connected with overseas expeditions is the mwasila or the kula magic proper. this system consists in numerous rites and spells, all of which act directly on the mind (nanola) of one's partner, and make him soft, unsteady in mind, and eager to give kula gifts" (loc. cit., p. ). it is clear that an institution so closely associated with magical and ceremonial elements, as is the kula, not only rests on a firm, traditional foundation, but also has its large store of legends. "there is a rich mythology of the kula, in which stories are told about far-off times when mythical ancestors sailed on distant and daring expeditions. owing totheir magical knowledge they were able to escape dangers, to conquer their enemies, to surmount obstacles, and by their feats they established many a precedent which is now closely followed by tribal custom. but their importance for their descendants lies mainly in the fact that they handed on their magic, and this made the kula possible for the following generations" (loc. cit., p. ). the kula is also associated in certain districts, to which the trobriands do not belong, with the mortuary feasts, called so'i. the association is interesting and important, and in chapter xx an account of it will be given. the big kula expeditions are carried on by a great number of natives, a whole district together. but the geographical limits, from which the members of an expedition are recruited, are well defined. glancing at map v, "we see a number of circles, each of which represents a certain sociological unit which we shall call a kula community. a kula community consists of a village or a number of villages, who go out together on big overseas expeditions, and who act as a body in the kula transactions, perform their magic in common, have common leaders, and have the same outer and inner social sphere, within which they exchange their valuables. the kula consists, therefore, first of the small, internal transactions within a kula community or contiguous communities, and secondly, of the big over-seas expeditions in which the exchange of articles takes place between two communities divided by sea. in the first, there is a chronic, permanent trickling of articles from one village to another, and even within the village. in the second, a whole lot of valuables, amounting to over a thousand articles at a time, are exchanged in one enormous transaction, or, more correctly, in ever so many transactions taking place simultaneously" (loc. cit., p. ). "the kula trade consists of a series of such periodical overseas expeditions, which link together the various island groups, and annually bring over big quantities of vaygu'a and of subsidiary trade from one district to another. the trade is used and used up, but the vaygu'a--the armshells and necklets--go round and round the ring" (loc. cit., p. ). in this chapter, a short, summary definition of the kula has been given. i enumerated one after the other its most salient features, the most remarkable rules as they are laid down in native custom, belief and behaviour. this was necessary in order to give a general idea of the institution before describing its working in detail. but no abridged definition can give to the reader the full understanding of a human social institution. it is necessary for this, to explain its working concretely, to bring the reader into contact with the people, show how they proceed at each successive stage, and to describe all the actual manifestations of the general rules laid down in abstract. as has been said above, the kula exchange is carried on by enterprises of two sorts; first there are the big overseas expeditions, in which a more or less considerable amount of valuables are carried at one time. then there is the inland trade in which the articles are passed from hand to hand, often changing several owners before they move a few miles. the big overseas expeditions are by far the more spectacular part of the kula. they also contain much more public ceremonial, magical ritual, and customary usage. they require also, of course, more of preparation and preliminary activity. i shall therefore have a good deal more to say about the overseas kula expeditions than about the internal exchange. as the kula customs and beliefs have been mainly studied in boyowa, that is, the trobriand islands, and from the boyowan point of view, i shall describe, in the first place, the typical course of an overseas expedition, as it is prepared, organised, and carried out from the trobriands. beginning with the construction of the canoes, proceeding to the ceremonial launching and the visits of formal presentation of canoes, we shall choose then the community of sinaketa, and follow the natives on one of their overseas trips, describing it in all details. this will serve us as a type of a kula expedition to distant lands. it will then be indicated in what particulars such expeditions may differ in other branches of the kula, and for this purpose i shall describe an expedition from dobu, and one between kiriwina and kitava. an account of inland kula in the trobriands, of some associated forms of trading and of kula in the remaining branches will complete the account. in the next chapter i pass, therefore, to the preliminary stages of the kula, in the trobriands, beginning with a description of the canoes. chapter iv canoes and sailing i a canoe is an item of material culture, and as such it can be described, photographed and even bodily transported into a museum. but--and this is a truth too often overlooked--the ethnographic reality of the canoe would not be brought much nearer to a student at home, even by placing a perfect specimen right before him. the canoe is made for a certain use, and with a definite purpose; it is a means to an end, and we, who study native life, must not reverse this relation, and make a fetish of the object itself. in the study of the economic purposes for which a canoe is made, of the various uses to which it is submitted, we find the first approach to a deeper ethnographic treatment. further sociological data, referring to its ownership, accounts of who sails in it, and how it is done; information regarding the ceremonies and customs of its construction, a sort of typical life history of a native craft--all that brings us nearer still to the understanding of what his canoe truly means to the native. even this, however, does not touch the most vital reality of a native canoe. for a craft, whether of bark or wood, iron or steel, lives in the life of its sailors, and it is more to a sailor than a mere bit of shaped matter. to the native, not less than to the white seaman, a craft is surrounded by an atmosphere of romance, built up of tradition and of personal experience. it is an object of cult and admiration, a living thing, possessing its own individuality. we europeans--whether we know native craft by experience or through descriptions--accustomed to our extraordinarily developed means of water transport, are apt to look down on a native canoe and see it in a false perspective--regarding it almost as a child's plaything, an abortive, imperfect attempt to tackle the problem of sailing, which we ourselves have satisfactorily solved. [ ] but to the native his cumbersome, sprawling canoe is a marvellous, almost miraculous achievement, and a thing of beauty (see plates xxi, xxiii, xl, xlvii, lv). he has spun a tradition around it, and he adorns it with his best carvings, he colours and decorates it. it is to him a powerful contrivance for the mastery of nature, which allows him to cross perilous seas to distant places. it is associated with journeys by sail, full of threatening dangers, of living hopes and desires to which he gives expression in song and story. in short, in the tradition of the natives, in their customs, in their behaviour, and in their direct statements, there can be found the deep love, the admiration, the specific attachment as to something alive and personal, so characteristic of the sailors' attitude towards his craft. and it is in this emotional attitude of the natives towards their canoes that i see the deepest ethnographic reality, which must guide us right through the study of other aspects--the customs and technicalities of construction and of use; the economic conditions and the associated beliefs and traditions. ethnology or anthropology, the science of man, must not shun him in his innermost self, in his instinctive and emotional life. a look at the pictures (for instance plates xxi, xxiv, xxxix, or xlvii) will give us some idea of the general structure of the native canoes: the body is a long, deep well, connected with an outrigger float, which stretches parallel with the body for almost all its length (see plates xxi and xxiii), and with a platform going across from one side to the other. the lightness of the material permits it to be much more deeply immersed than any sea-going european craft, and gives it greater buoyancy. it skims the surface, gliding up and down the waves, now hidden by the crests, now riding on top of them. it is a precarious but delightful sensation to sit in the slender body, while the canoe darts on with the float raised, the platform steeply slanting, and water constantly breaking over; or else, still better, to perch on the platform or on the float--the latter only feasible in the bigger canoes--and be carried across on the sea on a sort of suspended raft, gliding over the waves in a manner almost uncanny. occasionally a wave leaps up and above the platform, and the canoe--unwieldy, square raft as it seems at first--heaves lengthways and crossways, mounting the furrows with graceful agility. when the sail is hoisted, its heavy, stiff folds of golden matting unroll with a characteristic swishing and crackling noise, and the canoe begins to make way; when the water rushes away below with a hiss, and the yellow sail glows against the intense blue of sea and sky--then indeed the romance of sailing seems to open through a new vista. the natural reflection on this description is that it presents the feelings of the ethnographer, not those of the native. indeed there is a great difficulty in disentangling our own sensations from a correct reading of the innermost native mind. but if an investigator, speaking the native's language and living among them for some time, were to try to share and understand their feelings, he will find that he can gauge them correctly. soon he will learn to distinguish when the native's behaviour is in harmony with his own, and when, as it sometimes happens, the two are at variance. thus, in this case, there is no mistaking the natives' great admiration of a good canoe; of their quickness in appreciating differences in speed, buoyancy and stability, and of their emotional reaction to such difference. when, on a calm day, suddenly a fresh breeze rises, the sail is set, and fills, and the canoe lifts its lamina (outrigger float) out of the water, and races along, flinging the spray to right and left--there is no mistaking the keen enjoyment of the natives. all rush to their posts and keenly watch the movements of the boat; some break out into song, and the younger men lean over and play with the water. they are never tired of discussing the good points of their canoes, and analysing the various craft. in the coastal villages of the lagoon, boys and young men will often sail out in small canoes on mere pleasure cruises, when they race each other, explore less familiar nooks of the lagoon, and in general undoubtedly enjoy the outing, in just the same manner as we would do. seen from outside, after you have grasped its construction and appreciated through personal experience its fitness for its purpose, the canoe is no less attractive and full of character than from within. when, on a trading expedition or as a visiting party, a fleet of native canoes appears in the offing, with their triangular sails like butterfly wings scattered over the water (see plate xlviii), with the harmonious calls of conch shells blown in unison, the effect is unforgettable. [ ] when the canoes then approach, and you see them rocking in the blue water in all the splendour of their fresh white, red, and black paint, with their finely designed prow-boards, and clanking array of large, white cowrie shells (see plates xlix, lv)--you understand well the admiring love which results in all this care bestowed by the native on the decoration of his canoe. even when not in actual use, when lying idle beached on the sea front of a village, the canoe is a characteristic element in the scenery, not without its share in the village life. the very big canoes are in some cases housed in large sheds (see plate xxii), which are by far the largest buildings erected by the trobrianders. in other villages, where sailing is always being done, a canoe is simply covered with palm leaves (see plates i, liii), as protection from the sun, and the natives often sit on its platform, chatting, and chewing betel-nut, and gazing at the sea. the smaller canoes, beached near the sea-front in long parallel rows, are ready to be launched at any moment. with their curved outline and intricate framework of poles and sticks, they form one of the most characteristic settings of a native coastal village. ii a few words must be said now about the technological essentials of the canoe. here again, a simple enumeration of the various parts of the canoe, and a description of them, a pulling to pieces of a lifeless object will not satisfy us. i shall instead try to show how, given its purpose on the one hand, and the limitations in technical means and in material on the other, the native ship-builders have coped with the difficulties before them. a sailing craft requires a water-tight, immersible vessel of some considerable volume. this is supplied to our natives by a hollowed-out log. such a log might carry fairly heavy loads, for wood is light, and the hollowed space adds to its buoyancy. yet it possesses no lateral stability, as can easily be seen. a look at the diagrammatic section of a canoe fig. i ( ), shows that a weight with its centre of gravity in the middle, that is, distributed symmetrically, will not upset the equilibrium, but any load placed so as to produce a momentum of rotation (that is, a turning force) at the sides (as indicated by arrows at a or b) will cause the canoe to turn round and capsize. if, however, as shown in fig. i ( ), another smaller, solid log (c) be attached to the dug-out, a greater stability is achieved, though not a symmetrical one. if we press down the one side of the canoe (a) this will cause the canoe to turn round a longitudinal axis, so that its other side (b) is raised, fig. i ( ). the log (c) will be lifted out of the water, and its weight will produce a momentum (turning force) proportional to the displacement, and the rest of the canoe will come to equilibrium. this momentum is represented in the diagram by the arrow r. thus a great stability relative to any stress exercised upon a, will be achieved. a stress on b causes the log to be immersed, to which its buoyancy opposes a slight resistance. but it can easily be seen that the stability on this side is much smaller than on the other. this asymmetrical [ ] stability plays a great part in the technique of sailing. thus, as we shall see, the canoe is always so sailed that its outrigger float (c) remains in the wind side. the pressure of the sail then lifts the canoe, so that a is pressed into the water, and b and c are lifted, a position in which they are extremely stable, and can stand great force of wind. whereas the slightest breeze would cause the canoe to turn turtle, if it fell on the other side, and thus pressed b--c into the water. another look at fig. i ( ) and ( ) will help us to realise that the stability of the canoe will depend upon (i) the volume, and especially the depth of the dug-out; (ii) the distance b--c between the dug-out and the log; (iii) the size of the log c. the greater all these three magnitudes are, the greater the stability of the canoes. a shallow canoe, without much freeboard, will be easily forced into the water; moreover, if sailed in rough weather, waves will break over it, and fill it with water. (i) the volume of the dug-out log naturally depends upon the length, and thickness of the log. fairly stable canoes are made of simply scooped-out logs. there are limits, however, to the capacity of these, which are very soon reached. but by building out the side, by adding one or several planks to them, as shown in figure i ( ) the volume and the depth can be greatly increased without much increase in weight. so that such a canoe has a good deal of freeboard to prevent water from breaking in. the longitudinal boards in kiriwinian canoes are closed in at each end by transversal prow-boards, which are also carved with more or less perfection (see plates xxiv c, xlvii). (ii) the greater the distance b--c between dug-out and outrigger float, the greater the stability of the canoe. since the momentum of rotation is the product of b--c (fig. i), and the weight of the log c, it is clear, therefore, that the greater the distance, the greater will be the momentum. too great a distance, however, would interfere with the wieldiness of the canoe. any force acting on the log would easily tip the canoe, and as the natives, in order to manage the craft, have to walk upon the outrigger, the distance b--c must not be too great. in the trobriands the distance b--c is about one-quarter, or less, of the total length of the canoe. in the big, sea-going canoes, it is always covered with a platform. in certain other districts, the distance is much bigger, and the canoes have another type of rigging. (iii) the size of the log (c) of which the float is formed. this, in sea-going canoes, is usually of considerable dimensions. but, as a solid piece of wood becomes heavy if soaked by water, too thick a log would not be good. these are all the essentials of construction in their functional aspect, which will make clear further descriptions of sailing, of building, and of using. for, indeed, though i have said that technicalities are of secondary importance, still without grasping them, we cannot understand references to the managing and rigging of the canoes. the trobrianders use their craft for three main purposes, and these correspond to the three types of canoe. coastal transport, especially in the lagoon, requires small, light, handy canoes called kewo'u (see fig. ii ( ), and plates xxiv, top foreground, and xxxvi, to the right); for fishing, bigger and more seaworthy canoes called kalipoulo (see fig. ii ( ), and plates xxiv, and xxxvi, to the left, also xxxvii) are used; finally, for deep sea sailing, the biggest type is needed, with a considerable carrying capacity, greater displacement, and stronger construction. these are called masawa (see fig. ii ( ) and plates xxi, xxiii, etc.). the word waga is a general designation for all kinds of sailing craft. only a few words need to be said about the first two types, so as to make, by means of comparison, the third type clearer. the construction of the smallest canoes is sufficiently illustrated by the diagram ( ) in fig. ii. from this it is clear that it is a simple dug-out log, connected with a float. it never has any built-up planking, and no carved boards, nor as a rule any platform. in its economic aspect, it is always owned by one individual, and serves his personal needs. no mythology or magic is attached to it. type ( ), as can be seen in fig. ii ( ), differs in construction from ( ), in so far that it has its well enclosed by built-out planking and carved prow-boards. a framework of six ribs helps to keep the planks firmly attached to the dug-out and to hold them together. it is used in fishing villages. these villages are organised into several fishing detachments, each with a headman. he is the owner of the canoe, he performs the fish magic, and among other privileges, obtains the main yield of fish. but all his crew de facto have the right to use the canoe and share in the yield. here we come across the fact that native ownership is not a simple institution, since it implies definite rights of a number of men, combined with the paramount right and title of one. there is a good deal of fishing magic, taboos and customs connected with the construction of these canoes, and also with their use, and they form the subject of a number of minor myths. by far the most elaborate technically, the most seaworthy and carefully built, are the sea-going canoes of the third type (see fig. ii ( )). these are undoubtedly the greatest achievement of craftsmanship of these natives. technically, they differ from the previously described kinds, in the amount of time spent over their construction and the care given to details, rather than in essentials. the well is formed by a planking built over a hollowed log and closed up at both ends by carved, transversal prow-boards, kept in position by others, longitudinal and of oval form. the whole planking remains in place by means of ribs, as in the second type of canoes, the kalipoulo, the fishing canoes, but all the parts are finished and fitted much more perfectly, lashed with a better creeper, and more thoroughly caulked. the carving, which in the fishing canoes is often quite indifferent, here is perfect. ownership of these canoes is even more complex, and its construction is permeated with tribal customs, ceremonial, and magic, the last based on mythology. the magic is always performed in direct association with kula expeditions. iii after having thus spoken about, first, the general impression made by a canoe and its psychological import, and then about the fundamental features of its technology, we have to turn to the social implications of a masawa (sea-going canoe). the canoe is constructed by a group of people, it is owned, used and enjoyed communally, and this is done according to definite rules. there is therefore a social organisation underlying the building, the owning, and the sailing of a canoe. under these three headings, we shall give an outline of the canoe's sociology, always bearing in mind that these outlines have to be filled in in the subsequent account. (a) social organisation of labour in constructing a canoe. in studying the construction of a canoe, we see the natives engaged in an economic enterprise on a big scale. technical difficulties face them, which require knowledge, and can only be overcome by a continuous, systematic effort, and at certain stages must be met by means of communal labour. all this obviously implies some social organisation. all the stages of work, at which various people have to co-operate, must be co-ordinated, there must be someone in authority who takes the initiative and gives decisions; and there must be also someone with a technical capacity, who directs the construction. finally, in kiriwina, communal labour, and the services of experts have to be paid for, and there must be someone who has the means and is prepared to do it. [ ] this economic organisation rests on two fundamental facts--( ) the sociological differentiation of functions, and ( ) the magical regulation of work. ( ) the sociological differentiation of functions.--first of all there is the owner of the canoe, that is, the chief, or the headman of a village or of a smaller sub-division, who takes the responsibility for the undertaking. he pays for the work, engages the expert, gives orders, and commands communal labour. besides the owner, there is next another office of great sociological importance, namely, that of the expert. he is the man who knows how to construct the canoe, how to do the carvings, and, last, not least, how to perform the magic. all these functions of the expert may be, but not necessarily are, united in one person. the owner is always one individual, but there may be two or even three experts. finally, the third sociological factor in canoe-building, consists of the workers. and here there is a further division. first there is a smaller group, consisting of the relations and close friends of the owner or of the expert, who help throughout the whole process of construction; and, secondly, there is, besides them, the main body of villagers, who take part in the work at those stages where communal labour is necessary. ( ) the magical regulation of work.--the belief in the efficiency of magic is supreme among the natives of boyowa, and they associate it with all their vital concerns. in fact, we shall find magic interwoven into all the many industrial and communal activities to be described later on, as well as associated with every pursuit where either danger or chance conspicuously enter. we shall have to describe, besides the magic of canoe-making, that of propitious sailing, of shipwreck and salvage, of kula and of trade, of fishing, of obtaining spondylus and conus shell, and of protection against attack in foreign parts. it is imperative that we should thoroughly grasp what magic means to the natives and the rôle it plays in all their vital pursuits, and a special chapter will be devoted to magical ideas and magical practices in kiriwina. here, however, it is necessary to sketch the main outlines, at least as far as canoe magic is concerned. first of all, it must be realised that the natives firmly believe in the value of magic, and that this conviction, when put to the test of their actions, is quite unwavering, even nowadays when so much of native belief and custom has been undermined. we may speak of the sociological weight of tradition, that is of the degree to which the behaviour of a community is affected by the traditional commands of tribal law and customs. in the trobriands, the general injunction for always building canoes under the guidance of magic is obeyed without the slightest deviation, for the tradition here weighs very heavily. up to the present, not one single masawa canoe has been constructed without magic, indeed without the full observance of all the rites and ceremonial. the forces that keep the natives to their traditional course of behaviour are, in the first place, the specific social inertia which obtains in all human societies and is the basis of all conservative tendencies, and then the strong conviction that if the traditional course were not taken, evil results would ensue. in the case of canoes, the trobrianders would be so firmly persuaded that a canoe built without magic would be unseaworthy, slow in sailing, and unlucky in the kula, that no one would dream of omitting the magic rites. in the myths related elsewhere (chap. xii) we shall see plainly the power ascribed to magic in imparting speed and other qualities to a canoe. according to native mythology, which is literally accepted, and strongly believed, canoes could be even made to fly, had not the necessary magic fallen into oblivion. it is also important to understand rightly the natives' ideas about the relation between magical efficiency and the results of craftsmanship. both are considered indispensable, but both are understood to act independently. that is, the natives will understand that magic, however efficient, will not make up for bad workmanship. each of these two has its own province: the builder by his skill and knowledge makes the canoe stable and swift, and magic gives it an additional stability and swiftness. if a canoe is obviously badly built, the natives will know why it sails slowly and is unwieldy. but if one of two canoes, both apparently equally well constructed surpasses the other in some respect, this will be attributed to magic. finally, speaking from a sociological point of view, what is the economic function of magic in the process of canoe making? is it simply an extraneous action, having nothing to do with the real work or its organisation? is magic, from the economic point of view, a mere waste of time? by no means. in reading the account which follows, it will be seen clearly that magic puts order and sequence into the various activities, and that it and its associated ceremonial are instrumental in securing the co-operation of the community, and the organisation of communal labour. as has been said before, it inspires the builders with great confidence in the efficiency of their work, a mental state essential in any enterprise of complicated and difficult character. the belief that the magician is a man endowed with special powers, controlling the canoe, makes him a natural leader whose command is obeyed, who can fix dates, apportion work, and keep the worker up to the mark. magic, far from being a useless appendage, or even a burden on the work, supplies the psychological influence, which keeps people confident about the success of their labour, and provides them with a sort of natural leader. [ ] thus the organisation of labour in canoe-building rests on the one hand on the division of functions, those of the owner, the expert and the helpers, and on the other on the co-operation between labour and magic. iv (b) sociology of canoe ownership. ownership, giving this word its broadest sense, is the relation, often very complex, between an object and the social community in which it is found. in ethnology it is extremely important not to use this word in any narrower sense than that just defined, because the types of ownership found in various parts of the world differ widely. it is especially a grave error to use the word ownership with the very definite connotation given to it in our own society. for it is obvious that this connotation presupposes the existence of very highly developed economic and legal conditions, such as they are amongst ourselves, and therefore the term "own" as we use it is meaningless, when applied to a native society. or indeed, what is worse, such an application smuggles a number of preconceived ideas into our description, and before we have begun to give an account of the native conditions, we have distorted the reader's outlook. ownership has naturally in every type of native society, a different specific meaning, as in each type, custom and tradition attach a different set of functions, rites and privileges to the word. moreover, the social range of those who enjoy these privileges varies. between pure individual ownership and collectivism, there is a whole scale of intermediate blendings and combinations. in the trobriands, there is a word which may be said approximately to denote ownership, the prefix toli--followed by the name of the object owned. thus the compound word (pronounced without hiatus) toli-waga, means "owner" or "master" of a canoe (waga); toli-bagula, the master of the garden (bagula--garden); toli-bunukwa, owner of the pig; toli-megwa (owner, expert in magic, etc.) this word has to be used as a clue to the understanding of native ideas, but here again such a clue must be used with caution. for, in the first place, like all abstract native words, it covers a wide range, and has different meanings in different contexts. and even with regard to one object, a number of people may lay claim to ownership, claim to be toli--with regard to it. in the second place, people having the full de facto right of using an object, might not be allowed to call themselves toli--of this object. this will be made clear in the concrete example of the canoe. the word toli--in this example is restricted to one man only, who calls himself toli-waga. sometimes his nearest maternal relatives, such as his brothers and maternal nephews, might call themselves collectively toli-waga, but this would be an abuse of the term. now, even the mere privilege of using exclusively this title is very highly valued by the natives. with this feature of the trobriand social psychology, that is with their characteristic ambition, vanity and desire to be renowned and well spoken of, the reader of the following pages will become very familiar. the natives, to whom the kula and the sailing expeditions are so important, will associate the name of the canoe with that of its toli; they will identify his magical powers and its good luck in sailing and in the kula; they will often speak of so-and-so's sailing here and there, of his being very fast in sailing, etc., using in this the man's name for that of the canoe. turning now to the detailed determination of this relationship, the most important point about it is that it always rests in the person of the chief or headman. as we have seen in our short account of the trobrianders' sociology, the village community is always subject to the authority of one chief or headman. each one of these, whether his authority extends over a small sectional village, or over a whole district, has the means of accumulating a certain amount of garden produce, considerable in the case of a chief, relatively small in that of a headman, but always sufficient to defray the extra expenses incidental to all communal enterprise. he also owns native wealth condensed into the form of the objects of value called vaygu'a. again, a headman will have little, a big chief a large amount. but everyone who is not a mere nobody, must possess at least a few stone blades, a few kaloma belts, and some kuwa (small necklets). thus in all types of tribal enterprises, the chief or headman is able to bear the burden of expense, and he also derives the main benefit from the affair. in the case of the canoe, the chief, as we saw, acts as main organiser in the construction, and he also enjoys the title of toli. this strong economic position runs side by side with his direct power, due to high rank, or traditional authority. in the case of a small headman, it is due to the fact that he is at the head of a big kinship group (the totemic sub-clan). both combined, allow him to command labour and to reward for it. this title of toliwaga, besides the general social distinction which it confers, implies further a definite series of social functions with regard to its individual bearer. ( ) there are first the formal and ceremonial privileges. thus, the toliwaga has the privilege of acting as spokesman of his community in all matters of sailing or construction. he assembles the council, informal or formal as the case may be, and opens the question of when the sailing will take place. this right of initiative is purely a nominal one, because both in construction and sailing, the date of enterprise is determined by outward causes, such as reciprocity to overseas tribes, seasons, customs, etc. nevertheless, the formal privilege is strictly confined to the toliwaga, and highly valued. the position of master and leader of ceremonies, of general spokesman, lasts right through the successive stages of the building of the canoe, and its subsequent use, and we shall meet with it in all the ceremonial phases of the kula. ( ) the economic uses and advantages derived from a canoe are not limited to the toliwaga. he, however, gets the lion's share. he has, of course, in all circumstances, the privilege of absolute priority in being included in the party. he also receives always by far the greatest proportion of kula valuables, and other articles on every occasion. this, however, is in virtue of his general position as chief or headman, and should perhaps not be included under this heading. but a very definite and strictly individual advantage is that of being able to dispose of the canoe for hire, and of receiving the payment for it. the canoe can be, and often is, hired out from a headman, who at a given season has no intention of sailing, by another one, as a rule from a different district, who embarks on an expedition. the reason of this is, that the chief or headman who borrows, may at that time not be able to have his own canoe repaired, or construct another new one. the payment for hire is called toguna, and it consists of a vaygu'a. besides this, the best vaygu'a obtained on the expedition would be kula'd to the man from whom the canoe was hired. [ ] ( ) the toliwaga has definite social privileges, and exercises definite functions, in the running of a canoe. thus, he selects his companions, who will sail in his canoe, and has the nominal right to choose or reject those who may go on the expedition with him. here again the privilege is much shorn of its value by many restrictions imposed on the chief by the nature of things. thus, on the one hand, his veyola (maternal kinsmen) have, according to all native ideas of right and law, a strong claim on the canoe. again, a man of rank in a community could be excluded from an expedition only with difficulty, if he wished to go and there were no special grievance against him. but if there were such a cause, if the man had offended the chief, and were on bad terms with him, he himself would not even try to embark. there are actual examples of this on record. another class of people having a de facto right to sail are the sailing experts. in the coastal villages like sinaketa there are many of these; in inland ones, like omarakana, there are few. so in one of these inland places, there are men who always go in a canoe, whenever it is used; who have even a good deal to say in all matters connected with sailing, yet who would never dare to use the title of toliwaga, and would even definitely disclaim it if it were given to them. to sum up: the chief's privilege of choice is limited by two conditions, the rank and the seamanship of those he may select. as we have seen, he fulfils definite functions in the construction of the canoe. we shall see later on that he has also definite functions in sailing. ( ) a special feature, implied in the title of toliwaga, is the performance of magical duties. it will be made clear that magic during the process of construction is done by the expert, but magic done in connection with sailing and kula is done by the toliwaga. the latter must, by definition, know canoe magic. the rôle of magic in this, and the taboos, ceremonial activities, and special customs associated with it, will come out clearly in the consecutive account of a kula expedition. v (c) the social division of functions in the manning and sailing of the canoe. very little is to be said under this heading here, since to understand this we must know more about the technicalities of sailing. we shall deal with this subject later on (chap. ix, div. ii), and there the social organisation within the canoe--such as it is--will be indicated. here it may be said that a number of men have definite tasks assigned to them, and they keep to these. as a rule a man will specialise, let us say, as steersman, and will always have the rudder given to his care. captainship, carrying with it definite duties, powers and responsibilities, as a position distinct from that of the toliwaga, does not exist. the owner of the canoe will always take the lead and give orders, provided that he is a good sailor. otherwise the best sailor from the crew will say what is to be done when difficulties or dangers arise. as a rule, however, everyone knows his task, and everyone performs it in the normal course of events. a short outline of the concrete details referring to the distribution of canoes in the trobriands must be given here. a glance at the map of boyowa shows that various districts have not the same opportunities for sailing, and not all of them direct access to the sea. moreover, the fishing villages on the lagoon, where fishing and sailing have constantly to be done, will naturally have more opportunities for cultivating the arts of sailing and ship-building. and indeed we find that the villages of the two inland districts, tilataula and kuboma, know nothing about ship-building and sailing, and possess no canoes; the villages in kiriwina and luba, on the east coast, with indirect access to the sea, have only one canoe each, and few building experts; while some villagers on the lagoon are good sailors and excellent builders. the best centres for canoe-building are found in the islands of vakuta and kayleula and to a lesser degree this craft flourishes in the village of sinaketa. the island of kitava is the traditional building centre, and at present the finest canoes as well as the best canoe carvings come from there. in this description of canoes, this island, which really belongs to the eastern rather than to the western branch of the n. massim, must be included in the account, since all boyowan canoe mythology and canoe industry is associated with kitava. there are at present some sixty-four masawa canoes in the trobriands and kitava. out of these, some four belong to the northern district, where kula is not practised; all the rest are built and used for the kula. in the foregoing chapters i have spoken about "kula communities," that is, such groups of villages as carry on the kula as a whole, sail together on overseas expeditions, and do their internal kula with one another. we shall group the canoes according to the kula community to which they belong. kiriwina canoes. luba ,, sinaketa ,, vakuta ,, kayleula about ,, kitava about ,, ---------- total for all kula communities canoes. to this number, the canoes of the northern district must be added, but they are never used in the kula. in olden days, this figure was, on a rough estimate, more than double of what it is now, because, first of all, there are some villages which had canoes in the old days and now have none, and then the number of villages which became extinct a few generations ago is considerable. about half a century ago, there were in vakuta alone about sixty canoes, in sinaketa at least twenty, in kitava thirty, in kiriwina twenty, and in luba ten. when all the canoes from sinaketa and vakuta sailed south, and some twenty to thirty more joined them from the amphletts and tewara, quite a stately fleet would approach dobu. turning now to the list of ownership in kiriwina, the most important canoe is, of course, that owned by the chief of omarakana. this canoe always leads the fleet; that is to say, on big ceremonial kula sailings, called uvalaku, it has the privileged position. it lives in a big shed on the beach of kaulukuba (see plates xxii, xxx), distant about one mile from the village, the beach on which also each new canoe is made. the present canoe (see plates xxi and xli) is called nigada bu'a--"begging for an areca-nut." every canoe has a personal name of its own, sometimes just an appropriate expression, like the one quoted, sometimes derived from some special incident. when a new canoe is built, it often inherits the name of its predecessor, but sometimes it gets a new name. the present omarakana canoe was constructed by a master-builder from kitava, who also carved the ornamental prow-board. there is no one now in omarakana who can build or carve properly. the magic over the latter stages ought to have been recited by the present chief, to'uluwa, but as he has very little capacity for remembering spells, the magic was performed by one of his kinsmen. all the other canoes of kiriwina are also housed in hangars, each on a beach of clean, white sand on the eastern coast. the chief or headman of each village is the toliwaga. in kasana'i, the sub-village of omarakana, the canoe, called in feigned modesty tokwabu (something like "landlubber"), was built by ibena, a chief of equal rank, but smaller power than to'uluwa, and he is also the toliwaga. some other characteristic names of the canoes are:--kuyamataym'--"take care of yourself," that is, "because i shall get ahead of you"; the canoe of liluta, called siya'i, which is the name of a government station, where some people from liluta were once imprisoned; topusa--a flying fish; yagwa'u--a scarecrow; akamta'u--"i shall eat men," because the canoe was a gift from the cannibals of dobu. in the district of luba there are at present only three canoes; one belongs to the chief of highest rank in the village of olivilevi. this is the biggest canoe in all the trobriands. two are in the village of wawela, and belong to two headmen, each ruling over a section of the village; one of them is seen being relashed on plate xxvii. the big settlement of sinaketa, consisting of sectional villages, has also canoes. there are about four expert builders and carvers, and almost every man there knows a good deal about construction. in vakuta the experts are even more numerous, and this is also the case in kayleula and kitava. chapter v the ceremonial building of a waga i the building of the sea-going canoe (masawa) is inextricably bound up with the general proceedings of the kula. as we have said before, in all villages where kula is practised the masawa canoes are built and repaired only in direct connection with it. that is, as soon as a kula expedition is decided upon, and its date fixed, all the canoes of the village must be overhauled, and those too old for repair must be replaced by new ones. as the overhauling differs only slightly from building in the later, ceremonial stages of the procedure, the account in this chapter covers both. to the native, the construction of the canoe is the first link in the chain of the kula performances. from the moment that the tree is felled till the return of the oversea party, there is one continuous flow of events, following in regular succession. not only that: as we shall see, the technicalities of construction are interrupted and punctuated by magical rites. some of these refer to the canoe, others belong to the kula. thus, canoe-building and the first stage of kula dovetail into one another. again, the launching of the canoe, and especially the kabigidoya (the formal presentation visit) are in one respect the final acts of canoe-building, and in another they belong to the kula. in giving the account of canoe-building, therefore, we start on the long sequence of events which form a kula expedition. no account of the kula could be considered complete in which canoe-building had been omitted. in this chapter, the incidents will be related one after the other as they happen in the normal routine of tribal life, obeying the commands of custom, and the indications of belief, the latter acting more rigidly and strongly even than the former. it will be necessary, in following this consecutive account, to keep in mind the definite, sociological mechanism underlying the activities, and the system of ideas at work in regulating labour and magic. the social organisation has been described in the previous chapter. we shall remember that the owner, the expert or experts, a small group of helpers, and the whole community are the social factors, each of which fulfils a different function in the organisation and performance of work. as to the magical ideas which govern the various rites, they will be analysed later on in the course of this and some of the following chapters, and also in chapter xvii. here it must suffice to say that they belong to several different systems of ideas. the one based on the myth of the flying canoe refers directly to the canoe; it aims at imparting a general excellence, and more especially the quality of speed to the canoe. the rites of the other type are really exorcisms directed against evil bewitchment (bulubwalata) of which the natives are much afraid. the third system of magic (performed during canoe construction) is the kula magic, based on its own mythological cycle, and although performed on the canoe, yet aiming at the imparting of success to the toliwaga in his kula transactions. finally, at the beginnings of the proceedings there is some magic addressed to the tokway, the malignant wood-sprite. the construction of the canoe is done in two main stages, differing from one another in the character of the work, in the accompanying magic, and in the general sociological setting. in the first stage, the component parts of the canoe are prepared. a big tree is cut, trimmed into a log, then hollowed out and made into the basic dug-out; the planks, boards, poles, and sticks are prepared. this is achieved by slow, leisurely work, and it is done by the canoe-builder with the assistance of a few helpers, usually his relatives or friends or else those of the toliwaga. this stage generally takes a long time, some two to six months, and is done in fits and starts, as other occupations allow, or the mood comes. the spells and rites which accompany it belong to the tokway magic, and to that of the flying canoe cycle. to this first stage also belongs the carving of the decorative prow-boards. this is done sometimes by the builder, sometimes by another expert, if the builder cannot carve. the second stage is done by means of intense communal labour. as a rule this stage is spread over a short time, only perhaps a week or two--including the pauses between work. the actual labour, in which the whole community is energetically engaged, takes up only some three to five days. the work consists of the piecing together of the planks and prow-boards, and, in case these do not fit well, of trimming them appropriately, and then of the lashing them together. next comes the piecing and lashing of the outrigger, caulking and painting of the canoe. sail-making is also done at this time, and belongs to this stage. as a rule, the main body of the canoe is constructed at one sitting, lasting about a day; that is, the prow-boards are put in, the ribs and planks fitted together, trimmed and lashed. another day is devoted to the attaching of the float and binding of the outrigger frame and the platform. caulking and painting are done at another sitting, or perhaps at two more, while the sail is made on yet another day. these times are only approximate, since the size of the canoe, as well as the number of people participating in communal labour, greatly varies. the second stage of canoe-building is accompanied by kula magic, and by a series of exorcisms on the canoe, and the magic is performed by the owner of the canoe, and not by the builder or expert. this latter, however, directs the technicalities of the proceedings, in which he is assisted and advised by builders from other villages; by sailing experts, and by the toliwaga and other notables. the lashing of the canoe with a specially strong creeper, called wayugo, is accompanied by perhaps the most important of the rites and spells belonging to the flying canoe magic. ii after the decision to build a waga has been taken, a tree suitable for the main log has to be chosen. this, in the trobriands, is not a very easy task. as the whole plain is taken up by garden land, only the small patches of fertile soil in the coral ridge which runs all round the island, remain covered with jungle. there the tree must be found, there felled, and thence transported to the village. once the tree is chosen, the toliwaga, the builder and a few helpers repair to the spot, and a preliminary rite must be performed, before they begin to cut it down. a small incision is made into the trunk, so that a particle of food, or a bit of areca-nut can be put into it. giving this as an offering to the tokway (wood-sprite), the magician utters an incantation:-- vabusi tokway spell. "come down, o wood-sprites, o tokway, dwellers in branches, come down! come down, dwellers in branch forks, in branch shoots! come down, come, eat! go to your coral outcrop over there; crowd there, swarm there, be noisy there, scream there! "step down from our tree, old men! this is a canoe ill spoken of; this is a canoe out of which you have been shamed; this is a canoe out of which you have been expelled! at sunrise and morning, you help us in felling the canoe; this our tree, old men, let it go and fall down!" this spell, given in free translation, which, however, follows the original very closely, word for word, is far clearer than the average sample of trobriand magic. in the first part, the tokway is invoked under various names, and invited to leave his abode, and to move to some other place, and there to be at his ease. in the second part, the canoe is mentioned with several epithets, all of which denote an act of discourtesy or ill-omen. this is obviously done to compel the tokway to leave the tree. in boyowa, the yoba, the chasing away, is under circumstances a great insult, and at times it commands immediate compliance. this is always the case when the chaser belongs to the local sub-clan of a village, and the person expelled does not. but the yoba is always an act of considerable consequence, never used lightly, and in this spell, it carries these sociological associations with it. in the usual anticipatory way, characteristic of native speech, the tree is called in the spell "canoe" (waga). the object of this spell is written very plainly in every word of it, and the natives also confirm it by saying that it is absolutely necessary to get rid of the tokway. what would happen, however, if the tokway were not expelled, is not so unequivocally laid down by tradition, and it cannot be read out of the spell or the rite. some informants say that the canoe would be heavy; others that the wood would be full of knots, and that there would be holes in the canoe, or that it would quickly rot. but though the rationale of the expulsion is not so well defined, the belief in the tokway's evil influence, and in the dangers associated with his presence is positive. and this is in keeping with the general nature of the tokway, as we find him delineated by native belief. the tokway is on the whole a harmful being, though the harm he does is seldom more than an unpleasant trick, perhaps a sudden fright, an attack of shooting pains, or a theft. the tokway live in trees or in coral rocks and boulders, usually in the raybwag, the primeval jungle, growing on the coastal ridge, full of outcrops and rocks. some people have seen a tokway, although he is invisible at will. his skin is brown, like that of any boyowan, but he has long, sleek hair, and a long beard. he comes often at night, and frightens people. but, though seldom seen, the tokway's wailing is often heard from the branches of a big tree, and some trees evidently harbour more tokways than others, since you can hear them very easily there. sometimes, over such trees, where people often hear the tokway and get a fright, the above quoted incantation and rite are performed. in their contact with men, the tokway show their unpleasant side; often they come at night and steal food. many cases can be quoted when a man, as it seemed, was surprised in the act of stealing yams out of a storehouse, but lo! when approached he disappeared--it was a tokway. then, sickness in some of its lighter forms is caused by the tokway. shooting pains, pricking and stabbing in one's inside, are often due to him, for he is in possession of magic by which he can insert small, sharp-edged and sharp-pointed objects into the body. fortunately some men know magic by which to extract such objects. these men, of course, according to the general rule of sorcery, can also inflict the same ailments. in olden days, the tokway gave both the harmful and beneficent magic to some men, and ever since, this form of sorcery and of concomitant healing have been handed on from one generation to another. let us return to our canoe, however. after the rite has been performed, the tree is felled. in olden days, when stone implements were used, this must have been a laborious process, in which a number of men were engaged in wielding the axe, and others in re-sharpening the blunted or broken blades. the old technique was more like nibbling away the wood in small chips, and it must have taken a long time to cut out a sufficiently deep incision to fell the tree. after the tree is on the ground, the preliminary trimming is done on the spot. the branches are lopped off, and the log of appropriate length is made out of the tree. this log is cut into the rough shape of a canoe, so as to make it as light as possible, for now it has to be pulled to the village or to the beach. the transporting of the log is not an easy task, as it has to be taken out of the uneven, rocky raybwag, and then pulled along very bad roads. pieces of wood are put on the ground every few metres, to serve as slips on which the log can more easily glide than on the rocks and uneven soil. in spite of that, and in spite of the fact that many men are summoned to assist, the work of pulling the log is very heavy. the men receive food in payment for it. pig flesh is cooked and distributed with baked yams; at intervals during the work they refresh themselves with green coco-nut drinks and with sucking sugar cane. gifts of such food, given during work in payment of communal labour, are called puwaya. to describe how heavy the work sometimes is, the native will say, in a characteristically figurative manner: "the pig, the coco drinks, the yams are finished, and yet we pull--very heavy!" in such cases the natives resort to a magical rite which makes the canoe lighter. a piece of dry banana leaf is put on top of the log. the owner or builder beats the log with a bunch of dry lalang grass and utters the following spell: kaymomwa'u spell. "come down, come down, defilement by contact with excrement! come down, defilement by contact with refuse! come down, heaviness! come down, rot! come down fungus! ..." and soon, invoking a number of deteriorations to leave the log, and then a number of defilements and broken taboos. in other words, the heaviness and slowness, due to all these magical causes, are thrown out of the log. this bunch of grass is then ritually thrown away. it is called momwa'u, or the "heavy bunch." another handful of the long lalang grass, seared and dry, is taken, and this is the gagabile, the "light bunch," and with this the canoe is again beaten. the meaning of the rite is quite plain: the first bunch takes into it the heaviness of the log, and the second imparts lightness to it. both spells also express this meaning in plain terms. the second spell, recited with the gagabile bunch, runs thus: kaygagabile spell. "he fails to outrun me" (repeated many times). "the canoe trembles with speed" (many times). a few untranslatable words are uttered; then a long chain of ancestral names is invoked. "i lash you, o tree; the tree flies; the tree becomes like a breath of wind; the tree becomes like a butterfly; the tree becomes like a cotton seed fluff. one sun" (i.e., time) "for my companions, midday sun, setting sun; another sun for me----" (here the reciter's name is uttered)--"the rising sun, the rays of the (rising) sun, (the time of) opening the huts, (the time of the) rising of the morning star!" the last part means: "my companions arrive at sunset, while i arrive with the rising sun"--(indicating how far my canoe exceeds them in speed.) [ ] these formulæ are used both to make the log lighter for the present purpose of pulling it into the village, and in order to give it greater speed in general, when it is made up into a waga. after the log has been finally brought into the village, and left on the baku, the main central place, the creeper by means of which it has been pulled and which is called in this connection duku, is not cut away at once. this is done ceremonially on the morning of the following day, sometimes after even two or three days have passed. the men of the community assemble, and the one who will scoop out the canoe, the builder (tota'ila waga, "the cutter of the canoe") performs a magical rite. he takes his adze (ligogu) and wraps some very light and thin herbs round the blade with a piece of dried banana leaf, itself associated with the idea of lightness. this he wraps only half round, so that a broad opening is left, and the breath and voice have free access to the herbs and blade of the adze. into this opening, the magician chants the following long spell: kapitunena duku spell. "i shall wave them back, (i.e., prevent all other canoes from overtaking me)!" repeated many times. "on the top of si'a hill; women of tokuna; my mother a sorceress, myself a sorcerer. it dashes forward, it flies ahead. the canoe body is light; the pandanus streamers are aflutter; the prow skims the waves; the ornamental boards leap, like dolphins; the tabuyo (small prow-board) breaks the waves; the lagim' (transversal prow-board) breaks the waves. thou sleepest in the mountain, thou sleepest in kuyawa island. we shall kindle a small fire of lalang grass, we shall burn aromatic herbs (i.e., at our destination in the mountains)! whether new or old, thou goest ahead." this is the exordium of the formula. then comes a very long middle part, in a form very characteristic of trobriand magic. this form resembles a litany, in so far as a key word or expression is repeated many times with a series of complementary words and expressions. then the first key word is replaced by another, which in its turn, is repeated with the same series of expressions; then comes another key word, and so on. we have thus two series of words; each term of the first is repeated over and over again, with all terms of the second, and in this manner, with a limited number of words, a spell is very much lengthened out, since its length is the product of the length of both series. in shorter spells, there may be only one key word, and in fact, this is the more usual type. in this spell, the first series consists of nouns denoting different parts of the canoe; the second are verbs, such as: to cut, to fly, to speed, to cleave a fleet of other canoes, to disappear, to skim over the waves. thus the litany runs in such a fashion: "the tip of my canoe starts, the tip of my canoe flies, the tip of my canoe speeds, etc., etc." after the long litany has been chanted, the magician repeats the exordium, and finishes it off with the conventional onomatopoetic word saydididi--which is meant to imitate the flying of the witches. after the recital of this long spell over the herbs and blade of his adze, the magician wraps up the dry banana leaf, thus imprisoning the magical virtue of the spell round the blade, and with this, he strikes and cuts through the duku (the creeper used for the pulling of the canoes.) with this, the magic is not over yet, for on the same evening, when the canoe is put on transversal logs (nigakulu), another rite has to be carried out. some herbs are placed on the transversals between them and the body of the big canoe log. over these herbs, again, another spell has to be uttered. in order not to overload this account with magical texts, i shall not adduce this spell in detail. its wording also plainly indicates that it is speed magic, and it is a short formula running on directly, without cross-repetitions. after that, for some days, the outside of the canoe body is worked. its two ends must be cut into tapering shape, and the bottom evened and smoothed. after that is done, the canoe has to be turned over, this time into its natural position, bottom down, and what is to be the opening, upwards. before the scooping out begins, another formula has to be recited over the kavilali, a special ligogu (adze), used for scooping out, which is inserted into a handle with a moveable part, which then allows the cutting to be done at varying angles to the plane of striking. the rite stands in close connection to the myth of the flying canoe, localised in kudayuri, a place in the island of kitava, and many allusions are made to this myth. [ ] after a short exordium, containing untranslatable magical words, and geographical references, the spell runs: ligogu spell. "i shall take hold of an adze, i shall strike! i shall enter my canoe, i shall make thee fly, o canoe, i shall make thee jump! we shall fly like butterflies, like wind; we shall disappear in mist, we shall vanish. you will pierce the straits of kadimwatu (between the islands of tewara and uwama) you will break the promontory of saramwa (near dobu), pierce the passage of loma (in dawson straits), die away in the distance, die away with the wind, fade away with the mist, vanish away. break through your seaweeds (i.e., on coming against the shore). put on your wreath (probably an allusion to the seaweeds), make your bed in the sand. i turn round, i see the vakuta men, the kitava men behind me; my sea, the sea of pilolu (i.e., the sea between the trobriands and the amphletts); to-day the kudayuri men will burn their fires (i.e., on the shores of dobu). bind your grass skirt together, o canoe" (here the personal name of the canoe is mentioned), "fly!" the last phrase contains an implicit hint that the canoe partakes of the nature of a flying witch, as it should, according to the kudayuri myth. after this, the canoe-builder proceeds to scoop out the log. this is a long task, and a heavy one, and one which requires a good deal of skill, especially towards the end, when the walls of the dug-out have to be made sufficiently thin, and when the wood has to be taken off evenly over the whole surface. thus, although at the beginning the canoe carpenter is usually helped by a few men--his sons or brothers or nephews who in assisting him also learn the trade--towards the end he has to do the work single-handed. it, therefore, always happens that this stage takes a very long time. often the canoe will lie for weeks, untouched, covered with palm leaves against the sun, and filled with some water to prevent drying and cracking (see plate xxv). then the carpenter will set to work for a few days, and pause again. in almost all villages, the canoe is put up in the central place, or before the builder's hut. in some of the eastern villages, the scooping out is done on the sea beach, to avoid pulling the heavy log to and from the village. parallel with the process of hollowing out, the other parts of the canoe are made ready to be pieced together. four broad and long planks form the gunwale; l-shaped pieces of wood are cut into ribs; long poles are prepared for longitudinal support of the ribs, and for platform rafters; short poles are made ready as transversals of the platform and main supports of the outrigging; small sticks to connect the float with the transversals; finally, the float itself, a long, bulky log. these are the main, constituent parts of a canoe, to be made by the builder. the four carved boards are also made by him if he knows how to carve, otherwise another expert has to do this part of the work (see plate xxvi). when all the parts are ready, another magical rite has to be performed. it is called "kapitunela nanola waga": "the cutting off of the canoe's mind," an expression which denotes a change of mind, a final determination. in this case, the canoe makes up its mind to run quickly. the formula is short, contains at the beginning a few obscure words, and then a few geographical references to some places in the d'entrecasteaux archipelago. it is recited over a few drops of coco-nut oil, which is then wrapped up in a small bundle. the same spell is then again spoken over the ligogu blade, round which a piece of dry banana has been wrapped in the manner described above. the canoe is turned bottom up, the bundle with coco-nut oil placed on it and struck with the adze. with this the canoe is ready to be pieced together, and the first stage of its construction is over. iii as has been said above, the two stages differ from one another in the nature of work done and in their sociological and ceremonial setting. so far, we have seen only a few men engaged in cutting the tree and scooping it out and then preparing the various parts of the canoe. industriously, but slowly and deliberately, with many pauses, they toil over their work, sitting on the brown, trodden soil of the village in front of the huts, or scooping the canoe in the central place. the first part of the task, the felling of the tree, took us to the tall jungle and intricate undergrowth, climbing and festooned around the fantastic shapes of coral rocks. now, with the second stage, the scene shifts to the clean, snow-white sand of a coral beach, where hundreds of natives in festive array crowd around the freshly scraped body of the canoe. the carved boards, painted in black, white and red, the green fringe of palms and jungle trees, the blue of the sea--all lend colour to the vivid and lively scene. thus i saw the building of a canoe done on the east shore of the trobriands, and in this setting i remember it. in sinaketa, instead of the blue, open sea, breaking in a belt of white foam outside on the fringing reef and coming in limpid waves to the beach, there are the dull, muddy browns and greens of the lagoon, playing into pure emerald tints where the clean sandy bottom begins. into one of these two scenes, we must now imagine the dug-out transported from the village, after all is ready, and after the summons of the chief or headman has gone round the neighbouring villages. in the case of a big chief, several hundreds of natives will assemble to help, or to gaze on the performance. when a small community with a second-rate headman construct their canoe, only a few dozen people will come, the relatives-in-law of the headman and of other notables, and their close friends. after the body of the canoe and all the accessories have been placed in readiness, the proceedings are opened by a magical rite, called katuliliva tabuyo. this rite belongs to the kula magic, for which the natives have a special expression; they call it mwasila. it is connected with the inserting of the ornamental prow-boards into their grooves at both ends of the canoe. these ornamental parts of the canoe are put in first of all, and this is done ceremonially. a few sprigs of the mint plant are inserted under the boards, as they are put in, and the toliwaga (owner of the canoe) hammers the boards in by means of a special stone imported from dobu, and ritually repeats a formula of the mwasila magic. the mint plant (sulumwoya) plays an important part in the mwasila (kula magic) as well as in love spells, and in the magic of beauty. whenever a substance is to be medicated for the purpose of charming, seducing, or persuading, as a rule sulumwoya is used. this plant figures also in several myths, where it plays a similar part, the mythical hero always conquering the foe or winning a woman by the use of the sulumwoya. i shall not adduce the magical formulæ in this account, with the exception of the most important one. even a short summary of each of them would obstruct the narrative, and it would blur completely the outline of the consecutive account of the various activities. the various complexities of the magical ritual and of the formulæ will be set forth in chapter xvii. it may be mentioned here, however, that not only are there several types of magic performed during canoe building, such as the mwasila (kula magic), the canoe speed magic, exorcisms against evil magic, and exorcism of the tokway, but within each of these types, there are different systems of magic, each with its own mythological basis, each localised in a different district, and each having of course different formulæ and slightly different rites. [ ] after the prow-boards are put in, and before the next bit of technical work is done, another magical rite has to be performed. the body of the canoe, now bright with the three-coloured boards, is pushed into the water. a handful of leaves, of a shrub called bobi'u, is charmed by the owner or by the builder, and the body of the canoe is washed in sea water with the leaves. all the men participate in the washing, and this rite is intended to make the canoe fast, by removing the traces of any evil influence, which might still have remained, in spite of the previous magic, performed on the waga. after the waga has been rubbed and washed, it is pulled ashore again and placed on the skid logs. now the natives proceed to the main and most important constructive part of their work; this consists of the erection of the gunwale planks at the sides of the dug-out log, so as to form the deep and wide well of the built-up canoe. they are kept in position by an internal framework of some twelve to twenty pairs of ribs, and all of this is lashed together with a special creeper called wayugo, and the holes and interstices are caulked with a resinous substance. i cannot enter here into details of building, though from the technological point of view, this is the most interesting phase, showing us the native at grips with real problems of construction. he has a whole array of component parts, and he must make them fit together with a considerable degree of precision, and that without having any exact means of measurement. by a rough appreciation based on long experience and great skill, he estimates the relative shapes and sizes of the planks, the angles and dimensions of the ribs, and the lengths of the various poles. then, in shaping them out, the builder tests and fits them in a preliminary manner as work goes on, and as a rule the result is good. but now, when all these component parts have to be pieced finally together, it nearly always happens that some bit or other fails to fit properly with the rest. these details have to be adjusted, a bit taken off the body of the canoe, a plank or pole shortened, or even a piece added. the natives have a very efficient way of lashing on a whole bit of a plank, if this proves too short, or if, by some accident, it breaks at the end. after all has been finally fitted, and made to tally, the framework of ribs is put into the canoe (see plate xxvii), and the natives proceed to lash them to the body of the dug-out, and to the two longitudinal poles to which the ribs are threaded. and now a few words must be said about the wayugo, the lashing creeper. only one species of creeper is used for the lashing of boats, and it is of the utmost importance that this creeper should be sound and strong. it is this alone that maintains the cohesion of the various parts, and in rough weather, very much depends on how the lashings will stand the strain. the other parts of the canoe--the outrigger poles--can be more easily tested, and as they are made of strong, elastic wood, they usually stand any weather quite well. thus the element of danger and uncertainty in a canoe is due mainly to the creeper. no wonder, therefore, that the magic of the creeper is considered as one of the most important ritual items in canoe-building. in fact, wayugo, the name of that creeper species, is also used as a general term for canoe magic. when a man has the reputation of building or owning a good and fast canoe, the usual way of explaining it is to say that he has, or knows "a good wayugo." for, as in all other magic, there are several types of wayugo spells. the ritual is always practically the same: five coils of the creeper are, on the previous day, placed on a large wooden dish and chanted over in the owner's hut by himself. only exceptionally can this magic be done by the builder. next day they are brought to the beach ceremonially on the wooden plate. in one of the wayugo systems, there is an additional rite, in which the toliwaga (canoe owner) takes a piece of the creeper, inserts it into one of the holes pierced in the rim of the dug-out for the lashing, and pulling it to and fro, recites once more the spell. in consideration of the importance of this magic, the formula will be here adduced in full. it consists of an exordium (u'ula), a double main part (tapwana), and a concluding period (dogina). [ ] wayugo spell. in the u'ula he first repeats "sacred (or ritual) eating of fish, sacred inside," thus alluding to a belief that the toliwaga has in connection with this magic to partake ritually of baked fish. then come the words--"flutter, betel plant, leaving behind," all associated with leading ideas of canoe magic--the flutter of pandanus streamers; the betel-nut, which the ancestral spirits in other rites are invited to partake of; the speed by which all comrades will be left behind! a list of ancestral names follows. two of them, probably mythical personages, have significative names; "stormy sea" and "foaming." then the baloma (spirits) of these ancestors are asked to sit on the canoe slips and to chew betel, and they are invoked to take the pandanus streamer of the kudayuri--a place in kitava, where the flying canoe magic originated--and plant it on top of teula or tewara, the small island off the east coast of fergusson. the magician after that chants: "i shall turn, i shall turn towards you, o men of kitava, you remain behind on the to'uru beach (in the lagoon of vakuta). before you lies the sea arm of pilolu. to-day, they kindle the festive fire of the kudayuri, thou, o my boat" (here the personal name of the boat is uttered), "bind thy skirts together and fly!" in this passage--which is almost identical with one in the previously quoted ligogu spell--there is a direct allusion to the kudayuri myth, and to the custom of festive fires. again the canoe is addressed as a woman who has to bind her grass petticoat together during her flight, a reference to the belief that a flying witch binds her skirts when starting into the air and to the tradition that this myth originates from na'ukuwakula, one of the flying kudayuri sisters. the following main part continues with this mythical allusion: na'ukuwakula flew from kitava through sinaketa and kayleula to simsim, where she settled down and transmitted the magic to her progeny. in this spell the three places: kuyawa (a creek and hillock near sinaketa), dikutuwa (a rock near kayleula), and la'u (a cleft rock in the sea near simsim, in the lousançay islands) are the leading words of the tapwana. the last sentence of the first part, forming a transition into the tapwana, runs as follows: "i shall grasp the handle of the adze, i shall grip all the component parts of the canoe"--perhaps another allusion to the mythical construction of the kudayuri canoe (comp. chap. xii, div. iv)--"i shall fly on the top of kuyawa, i shall disappear; dissolve in mist, in smoke; become like a wind eddy, become alone--on top of kuyawa." the same words are then repeated, substituting for kuyawa the two other above-mentioned spots, one after the other, and thus retracing the flight of na'ukuwakula. then the magician returns to the beginning and recites the spell over again up to the phrase: "bind thy skirt together and fly," which is followed this time by a second tapwana: "i shall outdistance all my comrades with the bottom of my canoe; i shall out-distance all my comrades with the prow-board of my canoe, etc., etc.," repeating the prophetic boast with all the parts of the canoe, as is usual in the middle part of magical spells. in the dogina, the last part, the magician addresses the waga in mythological terms, with allusions to the kudayuri myth, and adds: "canoe thou art a ghost, thou art like a wind eddy; vanish, o my canoe, fly; break through your sea-passage of kadimwatu, cleave through the promontory of saramwa, pass through loma; die away, disappear, vanish with an eddy, vanish with the mist; make your imprint in the sand, cut through the seaweed, go, put on your wreath of aromatic herbs." [ ] after the wayugo has been ritually brought in, the lashing of the canoe begins. first of all the ribs are lashed into position then the planks, and with this the body of the canoe is ready. this takes a varying time, according to the number of people at work, and to the amount of tallying and adjusting to be done at the final fitting. sometimes one whole day's work is spent on this stage, and the next piece of work, the construction of the outrigger, has to be postponed to another day. this is the next stage, and there is no magic to punctuate the course of technical activities. the big, solid log is put alongside the canoe, and a number of short, pointed sticks are driven into it. the sticks are put in crossways on the top of the float (lamina). then the tops of these sticks are again attached to a number of horizontal poles, which have to be thrust through one side of the canoe-body, and attached to the other. all this naturally requires again adjusting and fitting. when these sticks and poles are bound together, there results a strong yet elastic frame, in which the canoe and the float are held together in parallel positions, and across them transversely there run the several horizontal poles which keep them together. next, these poles are bridged over by many longitudinal sticks lashed together, and thus a platform is made between the edge of the canoe and the tops of the float sticks. when that is done, the whole frame of the canoe is ready, and there remains only to caulk the holes and interstices. the caulking substance is prepared in the hut of the toliwaga, and a spell is recited over it on the evening before the work is begun. then again, the whole community turn out and do the work in one day's sitting. the canoe is now ready for the sea, except for the painting, which is only for ornamentation. three more magical rites have to be performed, however, before it is painted and then launched. all three refer directly to the canoe, and aim at giving it speed. at the same time all three are exorcisms against evil influences, resulting from various defilements or broken taboos, which possibly might have desecrated the waga. the first is called vakasulu, which means something like "ritual cooking" of the canoe. the toliwaga has to prepare a real witches' cauldron of all sorts of things, which afterwards are burnt under the bottom of the canoe, and the smoke is supposed to exercise a speed-giving and cleansing influence. the ingredients are: the wings of a bat, the nest of a very small bird called posisiku, some dried bracken leaves, a bit of cotton fluff, and some lalang grass. all the substances are associated with flying and lightness. the wood used for kindling the fire is that of the light-timbered mimosa tree (liga). the twigs have to be obtained by throwing at the tree a piece of wood (never a stone), and when the broken-off twig falls, it must be caught in the hand, and not allowed to touch the ground. the second rite, called vaguri, is an exorcism only, and it consists of charming a stick, and then knocking the body of the canoe all over with it. this expels the evil witchery (bulubwalata), which it is only wise to suspect has been cast by some envious rivals, or persons jealous of the toliwaga. finally, the third of these rites, the kaytapena waga, consists in medicating a torch of coco-leaf with the appropriate spell, and fumigating with it the inside of the canoe. this gives speed and once more cleanses the canoe. after another sitting of a few days, the whole outside of the canoe is painted in three colours. over each of them a special spell is chanted again, the most important one over the black colour. this is never omitted, while the red and white spells are optional. in the rite of the black colour, again, a whole mixture of substances is used--a dry bracken leaf, grass, and a posisiku nest--all this is charred with some coco-nut husk, and the first strokes of the black paint are made with the mixture. the rest is painted with a watery mixture of charred coco-nut. for red colour, a sort of ochre, imported from the d'entrecasteaux islands, is used; the white one is made of a chalky earth, found in certain parts of the sea shore. sail-making is done on another day, usually in the village, by communal labour, and, with a number of people helping, the tedious and complicated work is performed in a relatively short time. the triangular outline of the sail is first pegged out on the ground, as a rule the old sail being used as a pattern. after this is done, tapes of dried pandanus leaf (see plates xxviii, xxix) are stretched on the ground and first fixed along the borders of the sail. then, starting at the apex of the triangle, the sail-makers put tapes radiating towards the base, sewing them together with awls of flying fox bone, and using as thread narrow strips of specially toughened pandanus leaf. two layers of tapes are sewn one on top of the other to make a solid fabric. iv the canoe is now quite ready to be launched. but before we go on to an account of the ceremonial launching and the associated festivities, one or two general remarks must be made retrospectively about the proceedings just described. the whole of the first stage of canoe-building, that is, the cutting of the tree, the scooping out of the log, and the preparation of the other component parts, with all their associated magic, is done only when a new canoe is built. but the second stage has to be performed over all the canoes before every great overseas kula expedition. on such an occasion, all the canoes have to be re-lashed, re-caulked, and re-painted. this obviously requires that they should all be taken to pieces and then lashed, caulked and painted exactly as is done with a new canoe. all the magic incidental to these three processes is then performed, in its due order, over the renovated canoe. so that we can say about the second stage of canoe-building that not only is it always performed in association with the kula, but that no big expedition ever takes place without it. we have had a description of the magical rites, and the ideas which are implied in every one of them have been specified. but there are one or two more general characteristics which must be mentioned here. first, there is what could be called the "ceremonial dimension" of magical rites. that is, how far is the performance of the rite attended by the members of the community, if at all; and if so, do they actively take part in it, or do they simply pay keen attention and behave as an interested audience; or, though being present, do they pay little heed and show only small interest? in the first stage of canoe-building, the rites are performed by the magician himself, with only a few helpers in attendance. the general village public do not feel sufficiently interested and attracted to assist, nor are they bound by custom to do so. the general character of these rites is more like the performance of a technicality of work than of a ceremony. the preparing of herbs for the ligogu magic, for instance, and the charming it over, is carried out in a matter-of-fact, businesslike manner, and nothing in the behaviour of the magician and those casually grouped around him would indicate that anything specially interesting in the routine work is happening. the rites of the second stage are ipso facto attended by all those who help in piecing together and lashing, but on the whole those present have no special task assigned to them in the performance of these rites. as to the attention and behaviour during the performance of the magic, much depends of course on whether the magician officiating is a chief of great importance or someone of low rank. a certain decorum and even silence would be observed in any case. but many of those present would turn aside and go away, if they wanted to do so. the magician does not produce the impression of an officiating high priest performing a solemn ceremony, but rather of a specialised workman doing a particularly important piece of work. it must be remembered that all the rites are simple, and the chanting of the spells in public is done in a low voice, and quickly, without any specially effective vocal production. again, the caulking and the wayugo rites are, in some types of magic at least, performed in the magician's hut, without any attendance whatever, and so is that of the black paint. another point of general importance is what could be called the stringency of magic rites. in canoe magic, for instance, the expulsion of the tokway, the ritual cutting of the pulling rope, the magic of the adze (ligogu), that of the lashing creeper (wayugo), of the caulking, and of the black paint can never be omitted. whereas the other rites are optional, though as a rule some of them are performed. but even those which are considered indispensable do not all occupy the same place of importance in native mythology and in native ideas, which is clearly expressed in the behaviour of the natives and their manner of speaking of them. thus, the general term for canoe magic is either wayugo or ligogu, from which we can see that these two spells are considered the most important. a man will speak about his wayugo being better than that of the other, or of having learnt his ligogu from his father. again, as we shall see in the canoe myth, both these rites are explicitly mentioned there. although the expulsion of the tokway is always done, it is definitely recognised by the natives as being of lesser importance. so are also the magic of caulking and of the black paint. a less general point, of great interest, however, is that of evil magic (bulubwalata) and of broken taboos. i had to mention several exorcisms against those influences, and something must be said about them here. the term bulubwalata covers all forms of evil magic or witchery. there is that which, directed against pigs, makes them run away from their owners into the bush; there is bulubwalata for alienating the affections of a wife or sweetheart; there is evil magic against gardens, and--perhaps the most dreaded one--evil magic against rain, producing drought and famine. the evil magic against canoes, making them slow, heavy, and unseaworthy, is also much feared. many men profess to know it, but it is very difficult for the ethnographer to obtain a formula, and i succeeded only in taking down one. it is always supposed to be practised by canoe-owners upon the craft which they regard as dangerous rivals of their own. there are many taboos referring to an already constructed canoe, and we shall meet with them later when speaking about sailing and handling the canoe. but before that stage is reached, any defilement with any unclean substance of the log out of which the canoe is scooped, would make it slow and bad; or if anybody were to walk over a canoe log or stand on it there would be the same evil result. one more point must be mentioned here. as we have seen, the first magical rite, of the second stage of construction, is performed over the prow-boards. the question obtrudes itself as to whether the designs on these boards have any magical meaning. it must be clearly understood that any guesswork or speculations about origins must be rigidly excluded from ethnographic field work like this. for a sociologically empirical answer, the ethnographer must look to two classes of facts. first of all, he may directly question the natives as to whether the prow-boards themselves or any of the motives upon them are done for magical purposes. whether he questions the average man, or even the specialist in canoe magic and carving, to this he will always receive in kiriwina a negative answer. he can then enquire whether in the magical ritual for formulæ there are no references to the prow-boards, or to any of the decorative motives on them. here also, the evidence on the whole is negative. in one spell perhaps, and that belonging not to canoe but to the kula magic (comp. below, chap. xiii, div. ii, the kayikuna tabuyo spell), there can be found an allusion to the prow-boards, but only to the term describing them in general, and not to any special decorative motive. thus the only association between canoe decoration and canoe magic consists in the fact that two magical rites are performed over them, one mentioned already, and the other to be mentioned at the beginning of the next chapter. the description of canoe-building, in fact, all the data given in this chapter, refer only to one of the two types of sea-going canoe to be found in the kula district. for the natives of the eastern half of the ring use craft bigger, and in certain respects better, than the masawa. the main difference between the eastern and western type consists in the fact that the bigger canoes have a higher gunwale or side, and consequently a greater carrying capacity, and they can be immersed deeper. the larger water board offers more resistance against making leeway, and this allows the canoes to be sailed closer to the wind. consequently, the eastern canoes can beat, and these natives are therefore much more independent of the direction of the wind in their sailings. with this is connected the position of the mast, which in this type is stepped in the middle, and it is also permanently fixed, and is not taken down every time after sailing. it obviously, therefore, need not be changed in its position every time the canoe goes on another tack. i have not seen the construction of a nagega, as these canoes are called, but i think that it is technically a much more difficult task than the building of a masawa. i was told that both magic and ceremonial of construction are very much the same in the building of both canoes. the nagega, that is the larger and more seaworthy type, is used on the section of the kula ring beginning in gawa and ending in tubetube. it is also used in certain parts of the massim district, which lie outside the kula ring, such as the island of sud-est, and surrounding smaller islands, and it is used among the southern massim of the mainland. but though its use is very widely spread, its manufacture is confined to only a few places. the most important centres of nagega building are gawa, a few villages on woodlark islands, the island of panayati, and perhaps one or two places on misima. from there, the canoes are traded all over the district, and indeed this is one of the most important forms of trade in this part of the world. the masawa canoes are used and manufactured in the district of dobu, in the amphletts, in the trobriands, in kitava and iwa. one point of great importance in the relation of these two forms of canoe is that one of them has, within the last two generations, been expanding at the expense of the other. according to reliable information, gathered at several points in the trobriands and the amphletts, the nagega type, that is the heavier, more seaworthy and better-sailing canoe, was driven out some time ago from the amphletts and trobriands. the masawa, in many respects inferior, but less difficult to build, and swifter, has supplanted the bigger type. in olden days, that is, about two or three generations ago, the nagega was used exclusively in iwa, kitava, kiriwina, vakuta, and sinaketa, while the amphlettans and the natives of kayleula would usually use the nagega, though sometimes they would sail in masawa canoes. dobu was the real home and headquarters of the masawa. when the shifting began, and when it was completed, i could not ascertain. but the fact is that nowadays even the villages of kitava and iwa manufacture the smaller masawa canoe. thus, one of the most important cultural items is spreading from south to north. there is, however, one point on which i could not obtain definite information: that is, whether in the trobriands the nagega in olden days was imported from kitava, or whether it was manufactured locally by imported craftsmen (as is done even nowadays in kiriwina at times), or whether the trobrianders themselves knew how to make the big canoes. there is no doubt, however, that in olden days, the natives of kitava and iwa used themselves to make the nagega canoes. the kudayuri myth (see chapter xii), and the connected magic, refer to this type of canoe. thus in this district at any rate, and probably in the trobriands and amphletts as well, not only the use, but also the manufacture of the bigger canoe has been superseded by that of the smaller one, the masawa, now found in all these parts. chapter vi launching of a canoe and ceremonial visiting--tribal economics in the trobriands i the canoe, painted and decorated, stands now ready to be launched, a source of pride to the owners and to the makers, and an object of admiration to the other beholders. a new sailing craft is not only another utility created; it is more: it is a new entity sprung into being, something with which the future destinies of the sailors will be bound up, and on which they will depend. there can be no doubt that this sentiment is also felt by the natives and expressed in their customs and behaviour. the canoe receives a personal name, it becomes an object of intense interest to the whole district. its qualities, points of beauty, and of probable perfection or faultiness are canvassed round the fires at night. the owner and his kinsmen and fellow villagers will speak of it with the usual boasting and exaggerations, and the others will all be very keen to see it, and to watch its performances. thus the institution of ceremonial launching is not a mere formality prescribed by custom; it corresponds to the psychological needs of the community, it rouses a great interest, and is very well attended even when the canoe belongs to a small community. when a big chief's canoe is launched, whether that of kasana'i or omarakana, olivilevi or sinaketa, up to a thousand natives will assemble on the beach. this festive and public display of a finished canoe, with its full paint and ornament, is not only in harmony with the natives' sentiments towards a new sailing craft; it also agrees with the way they treat in general the results of their economic activities. whether in gardening or in fishing, in the building of houses or in industrial achievements, there is a tendency to display the products, to arrange them, and even adorn at least certain classes of them, so as to produce a big, æsthetic effect. in fishing, there are only traces of this tendency, but in gardening, it assumes very great proportions, and the handling, arranging and display of garden produce is one of the most characteristic features of their tribal life, and it takes up much time and work. [ ] soon after the painting and adorning of the canoe, a date is fixed for the ceremonial launching and trial run, the tasasoria festivities, as they are called. word is passed to the chiefs and headmen of the neighbouring villages. those of them who own canoes and who belong to the same kula community have always to come with their canoes and take part in a sort of regatta held on the occasion. as the new canoe is always constructed in connection with a kula expedition, and as the other canoes of the same kula community have to be either done up or replaced, it is the rule that on the tasasoria day a whole fleet of brand new or renovated canoes assemble on the beach, all resplendent in fresh colours and decoration of cowrie shells and bleached pandanus streamers. the launching itself is inaugurated with a rite of the mwasila (kula magic), called kaytalula wadola waga ("staining red of the mouth of the canoe"). after the natives have taken off the plaited coco-nut leaves with which the canoe is protected against the sun, the toliwaga chants a spell over some red ochre, and stains both bow and stern of the canoe. a special cowrie shell, attached to the prow-board (tabuyo) is stained at each end. after that the canoe is launched, the villagers pushing it into the water over pieces of wood transversely placed which act as slips (see plate xxx). this is done amidst shouts and ululations, such as are made on all occasions when some piece of work has to be done in a festive and ceremonial manner, when, for instance, the harvest is brought in and given ceremonially by a man to his brother-in-law, or when a gift of yams or taro is laid down before a fisherman's house by an inland gardener, or the return gift of fish is made. thus the canoe is finally launched after the long series of mingled work and ceremony, technical effort and magical rite. after the launching is done, there takes place a feast, or, more correctly, a distribution of food (sagali) under observation of all sorts of formalities and ritual. such a distribution is always made when the toliwaga has not built the canoe himself, and when he therefore has to repay the cutter of the canoe and his helpers. it also takes place whenever the canoe of a big chief is launched, in order to celebrate the occasion, to show off his wealth and generosity, and to give food to the many people who have been summoned to assist in the construction. after the sagali (ceremonial distribution of food) is over, as a rule, in the afternoon, the new canoe is rigged, the mast is put up, the sail attached, and this and all the other boats make a trial run. it is not a competitive race in the strict sense of the word. the chief's canoe, which indeed would as a rule be best and fastest, in any case always wins the race. if it did not sail fastest, the others would probably keep back. the trial run is rather a display of the new canoe, side by side with the others. in order to give one concrete illustration of the ceremonial connected with canoe building and launching, it may be well to relate an actual event. i shall therefore describe the tasasoria, seen on the beach of kaulukuba, in february, , when the new canoe of kasana'i was launched. eight canoes took part in the trial run, that is, all the canoes of kiriwina, which forms what i have called the "kula community," the social group who make their kula expeditions in a body, and who have the same limits within which they carry on their exchange of valuables. the great event which was the cause of the building and renovating of the canoes, was a kula expedition planned by to'ulawa and his kula community. they were to go to the east, to kitava, to iwa or gawa, perhaps even to muruwa (woodlark island), though with this island the natives do not carry on the kula directly. as is usual in such cases, months before the approximate date of sailing, plans and forecasts were made, stories of previous voyages were recounted, old men dwelt on their own reminiscences and reported what they had been told by their elders of the days when iron was unknown and everyone had to sail to the east in order to get the green stone quarried in suloga on woodlark island. and so, as it always happens when future events are talked over round village fires, imagination outran all bounds of probability; and the hopes and anticipations grew bigger and bigger. in the end, everyone really believed his party would go at least to the easternmost marshall bennetts (gawa), whereas, as events turned out, they did not sail beyond kitava. for this occasion a new canoe had to be constructed in kasana'i, and this was done by ibena himself, the chief of that village, a man of rank equal to the highest chief (his kinsman, in fact) but of smaller power. ibena is a skilled builder as well as a fair carver, and there is no class of magic in which he does not profess to be versed. the canoe was built, under his guidance; he carved the boards himself, he also performed the magic, and he was, of course, the toliwaga. in omarakana, the canoe had to be slightly altered in construction; it had to be re-lashed and re-painted. to do this to'uluwa, the chief, had summoned a master builder and carver from the island of kitava, the same one who a couple of years before, had built this canoe. also a new sail had to be made for the omarakana boat, as the old one was too small. the ceremony of tasasoria (launching and regatta) ought by rights to have been held on the beach of kasana'i, but as its sister village, omarakana, is so much more important, it took place on kaulukuba, the sea-shore of the latter. as the date approached, the whole district was alive with preparations, since the coastal villages had to put their canoes in order, while in the inland communities, new festive dresses and food had to be made ready. the food was not to be eaten, but to be offered to the chief for his sagali (ceremonial distribution). only in omarakana, the women had to cook for a big festive repast to be eaten on return from the tasasoria. in the trobriands it is always a sign that a festive event is pending when all the women go in the evening to the bush to collect plenty of firewood. next morning, this will be used for the kumkumuli, the baking of food in the ground, which is one of the forms of cooking used on festive occasions. on the evening of the tasasoria ceremony, people in omarakana and kasana'i were also busy with the numerous other preparations, running to the shore and back, filling baskets with yams for the sagali, getting ready their festive dress and decorations for the morrow. festive dress means, for a woman, a new grass skirt, resplendent in fresh red, white and purple, and for the man a newly bleached, snow-white pubic leaf, made of the stalk of areca palm leaf. early in the morning of the appointed day, the food was packed into baskets of plaited leaf, the personal apparel on top of it, all covered as usual with folded mats and conveyed to the beach. the women carried on their heads the large baskets, shaped like big inverted bells, the men shouldered a stick with two bag-shaped baskets at each end. other men had to carry the oars, paddles, rigging and sail, as these paraphernalia are always kept in the village. from one of the villages, one of the large, prismatic receptacles for food made of sticks was carried by several men right over the raybwag (coral ridge) to be offered to the chief of omarakana as a share in the sagali. the whole village was astir, and on its outskirts, through the surrounding groves, parties from inland could be seen making their way rapidly to the shore. i left the village with a party of notables at about eight o'clock in the morning. after leaving the grove of fruit and palm trees which grows especially densely around the village of omarakana, we entered between the two walls of green, the usual monotonous trobriand road, which passes through the low scrub. soon, emerging on a garden space, we could see, beyond a gentle declivity, the rising slope of the raybwag, a mixture of rank vegetation with monumental boulders of grey coral standing out here and there. through this, the path led on, following in an intricate course between small precipices and towering outcrops, passing huge, ancient ficus trees, spreading around them their many trunks and aerial roots. at the top of the ridge, all of a sudden the blue sea shone through the foliage, and the roar of waves breaking on the reef struck our ears. soon we found ourselves among the crowd assembled on the beach, near to the big boat-shed of omarakana. by about nine o'clock, everybody was ready on the beach. it was fully exposed to the eastern sun, but this was not yet sufficiently high to drop its light right from above, and thus to produce that deadly effect of tropical mid-day, where the shadows instead of modelling out the details, blur every vertical surface and make everything dull and formless. the beach appeared bright and gaudy, and the lively brown bodies looked well against the background of green foliage and white sand. the natives were anointed with coco-nut oil, and decorated with flowers and facial paint. large red hibiscus blossoms were stuck into their hair, and wreaths of the white, wonderfully scented butia flowers crowned the dense black mops. there was a good display of ebony carvings, sticks and lime spoons. there were decorated lime pots, and such objects of personal adornment as belts of red shell discs or of small cowrie shells, nose sticks (very rarely used nowadays), and other articles so well known to everybody from ethnological collections in museums, and usually called "ceremonial," though, as said above (chapter iii, div. iii) the description "objects of parade" would be much more in agreement with the correct meaning of the words. such popular festivities as the one just being described are the occasions on which these objects of parade, some of which astonish us by their artistic perfection, appear in native life. before i had opportunities to see savage art in actual display, in its proper, "living" setting, there seemed to me always to exist some incongruity between the artistic finish of such objects and the general crudity of savage life, a crudity marked precisely on the æsthetic side. one imagines greasy, dirty, naked bodies, moppy hair full of vermin, and other realistic features which make up one's idea of the "savage," and in some respects reality bears out imagination. as a matter of fact though, the incongruity does not exist when once one has seen native art actually displayed in its own setting. a festive mob of natives, with the wonderful golden-brown colour of their skins brought out by washing and anointing and set off by the gaudy white, red and black of facial paint, feathers and ornaments, with their exquisitely carved and polished ebony objects, with their finely worked lime pots, has a distinct elegance of its own, without striking one as grotesque or incongruous in any æsthetic detail. there is an evident harmony between their festive mood, the display of colours and forms, and the manner in which they put on and bear their ornaments. those who have come from a distance, and who would spoil their decorations by the long march, wash with water and anoint themselves with coco-nut grease immediately before arriving at the scene of festivities. as a rule the best paint is put on later on, when the climax of the proceedings approaches. on this occasion, after the preliminaries (distribution of food, arrival of other canoes) were over, and when the races were just going to be started, the aristocracy of omarakana--the wives and children of to'uluwa, his relatives and himself--withdrew behind the shelters, near the boat shed, and proceeded to put on the red, white and black of full facial paint. they crushed young betel-nut, mixed it with lime, and put it on with the pestles of betel mortars; then some of the aromatic black resin (sayaku) and white lime were applied. as the habit of mirrors is not quite well established yet in the trobriands, the painting was done by one person on the face of another, and great care and patience were displayed on both sides. the numerous crowd spent the day without taking much refreshment--a feature strongly differentiating kiriwinian festivities from our ideal of an entertainment or picnic. no cooking was done, and only a few bananas were eaten here and there, and green coco-nuts were drunk and eaten. but even these refreshments were consumed with great frugality. as always on such occasions, the people collected together in sets, the visitors from each village forming a group apart. the local natives kept to their own boat houses, those of omarakana and kurokaiwa having their natural centres on the beach of kaulukuba. the other visitors similarly kept together in their position on the beach, according to their local distribution; thus, men from the northern villages would keep to the northern section of the beach, those from the south would stick to that point of the compass, so that villages which were neighbours in reality would also be side by side on the shore. there was no mingling in the crowd, and individuals would not walk about from one group to another. the aristocrats, out of personal dignity, humble folk because of a modesty imposed by custom, would keep in their places. to'uluwa sat practically still during the whole performance, on the platform erected for this purpose, except when he went over to his boat, to trim it for the race. the boat shed of omarakana, round which the chief, his family and the other villagers were grouped, was the centre of all the proceedings. under one of the palms, a fairly high platform was put up to accommodate to'uluwa. in a row in front of the sheds and shelters, there stood the prismatic food receptacles (pwata'i). they had been erected by the inhabitants of omarakana and kasana'i, on the previous day, and partially filled with yams. the rest had to be supplied by people from the other villages, on the day of the boat races. as the natives came to the beach on that day, village after village, they brought their contribution, and before settling down on their particular spot on the shore, they paid a visit to the chief and offered him their tributes. these would be put into one of the pwata'i. all the villages did not contribute their share, but the majority did, though some of them brought only a few baskets. one of the villages brought one complete pwata'i, filled with yams, and offered the whole to the chief. in the meantime, the eight canoes arrived, including that of kasana'i, which had been ceremonially launched that morning with the accompanying magical rite, on its own beach about half a mile away. the canoe of omarakana had also been launched on this morning (plate xxx), and the same rite performed over it. it ought to have been done by to'uluwa, the chief. as he, however, is quite incapable of remembering magical spells--in fact, he never does any of the magic which his rank and office impose on him--the rite was performed on this occasion by one of his kinsmen. this is a typical case of a rule very stringently formulated by all informants when you ask about it, yet in reality often observed with laxity. if you inquire directly, everyone will tell you that this rite, as all others of the mwasila (kula magic) has to be done by the toliwaga. but every time when he ought to perform it, to'uluwa will find some excuse, and delegate it to another. when all the canoes were present, as well as all the important villages, at about eleven o'clock a.m., there took place the sagali (ceremonial distribution). the food was given to people from various villages, especially such as took part in the races, or had assisted in the building of the new canoe. so we see that food contributed by all the villages before the sagali was simply redistributed among them, a considerable quantity having been added first by the chief; and this indeed is the usual procedure at a sagali. in this case, of course, the lion's share was taken by the kitavans who helped at the building. after the sagali was over, the canoes were all brought up to one spot, and the natives began to prepare them for the race. the masts were stepped, the fastenings trimmed, the sails made ready (see plate xxxi). after that the canoes all put off and gathered about half a mile off the shore, beyond the fringing reef; and at a sign given by some one on one of them, they all started. as said before, such a run is not a race properly speaking, in which the canoes would start scrupulously at the same minute, have the same distance to cover, and which would clearly show which is the fastest. in this case, it was merely, as always, a review of the boats sailing along as well as they were able, a review in which they all began to move, more or less at the same time, went in the same direction, and covered practically the same distance. as to the time table of the events, the sagali was over before mid-day. there was a pause; and then, at about one p.m., the natives began rigging the canoes. then all hands had a spell, and not before three p.m. were the races started. the whole affair was over by about four o'clock, and half an hour later, the boats from the other villages started to sail home, the people on the shore dispersed, so that by sunset, that is, about six o'clock, the beach was almost deserted. such was the tasasoria ceremony which i saw in february, . it was a fine sight from the spectacular point of view. a superficial onlooker could have hardly perceived any sign of white man's influence or interference. i was the only white man present, and besides myself only some two or three native missionary teachers were dressed in white cotton. amongst the rest of us there could be seen sparsely a coloured rag, tied round as a neckerchief or head-dress. but otherwise there was only a swarm of naked brown bodies, shining with coco-nut oil, adorned in new festive dress, with here and there the three-coloured grass skirt of a woman (see plates xxx and xxxi). but alas, for one who could look below the surface and read the various symptoms of decay, deep changes would be discernible from what must have been the original conditions of such a native gathering. in fact, some three generations ago, even its appearances would have been different. the natives then would have been armed with shields and spears; some would have borne decorative weapons, such as the big sword-clubs of hard wood, or massive ebony cudgels, or small throwing-sticks. a closer inspection would have shown many more decorations and ornaments, such as nose-sticks, finely carved lime spatulæ, gourds with burnt-in designs, some of which are now out of use, or those used of inferior workmanship or without decoration. but other and much deeper changes have taken place in the social conditions. three generations ago both the canoes in the water and the people on the shore would have been more numerous. as mentioned above, in the olden days there would have been some twenty canoes in kiriwina, as against eight at the present time. again, the far stronger influence of the chief, and the much greater relative importance of the event would have attracted a larger proportion out of the then more numerous population. nowadays, other interests, such as diving for pearls, working on white man's plantations, divert the native attention, while many events connected with missions, government and trading, eclipse the importance of old customs. again, the people on the shore would have had to adhere in olden days even more closely to the local distribution, men of the same village community keeping together still more strictly, and looking with mistrust and perhaps even hostility, at other groups, especially those with whom they had hereditary feuds. the general tension would often be broken by squabbles or even miniature fights, especially at the moment of dispersing, and on the way home. one of the important features of the performance, and the one of which the natives think perhaps most--the display of food--would also have been quite different. the chief whom i saw sitting on a platform surrounded by a few wives only, and with small attendance would, under the old conditions, have been the owner of thrice as many wives and consequently relatives-in-law, and as it is these from whom he derives most of his income, he would have provided a much bigger sagali than he is able to do nowadays. three generations ago the whole event would have been much more solemn and dramatic to the natives. the very distance to the neighbouring island of kitava is nowadays dwarfed. in the past, it would not, as now, be quickly obliterated by a white man's steam-launch. then, the canoes on the beach were the only means of arriving there, and their value in the eyes of the natives must have, therefore, been even higher, although they think so much of them now. the outlines of the distant island and the small fleet of canoes on the beach formed for the natives the first act of a big over seas expedition, an event of far deeper significance to them then than now. a rich haul of arm-shells, the arrival of many much-coveted utilities, the bringing back of news from the far-off land, all this meant much more in older days than it can mean at present. war, dancing, and the kula supplied tribal life with its romantic and heroic elements. nowadays, with war prohibited by the government, with dancing discredited by missionary influence, the kula alone remains, and even that is stripped of some of its glamour. ii before we proceed to the next stage, we must pause in following the events of a kula expedition, and consider one or two points of more general importance. i have touched in the narrative, but not dwelt upon, certain problems of the sociology of work. at the outset of the preceding chapter it was mentioned that canoe-building requires a definite organisation of work, and in fact we saw that in the course of construction, various kinds of labour were employed, and more especially towards the end, much use was made of communal labour. again, we saw that during the launching ceremony payment was given by the owner to the expert and his helpers. these two points therefore, the organisation of labour and communal labour in particular, and the system of payment for experts' work must be here developed. organisation of labour.--first of all, it is important to realise that a kiriwinian is capable of working well, efficiently and in a continuous manner. but he must work under an effective incentive: he must be prompted by some duty imposed by tribal standards, or he must be lured by ambitions and values also dictated by custom and tradition. gain, such as is often the stimulus for work in more civilised communities, never acts as an impulse to work under the original native conditions. it succeeds very badly, therefore, when a white man tries to use this incentive to make a native work. this is the reason why the traditional view of the lazy and indolent native is not only a constant refrain of the average white settler, but finds its way into good books of travel, and even serious ethnographic records. with us, labour is, or was till fairly recently, a commodity sold as any other, in the open market. a man accustomed to think in terms of current economic theory will naturally apply the conceptions of supply and demand to labour, and he applies them therefore to native labour. the untrained person does the same, though in less sophisticated terms, and as they see that the native will not work well for the white man, even if tempted by considerable payment and treated fairly well, they conclude that his capacity for labour is very small. this error is due to the same cause which lies at the bottom of all our misconceptions about people of different cultures. if you remove a man from his social milieu, you eo ipso deprive him of almost all his stimuli to moral steadfastness and economic efficiency and even of interest in life. if then you measure him by moral, legal or economic standards, also essentially foreign to him, you cannot but obtain a caricature in your estimate. but the natives are not only capable of energetic, continuous and skilful work; their social conditions also make it possible for them to employ organised labour. at the beginning of chapter iv, the sociology of canoe-building was given in outline, and now, after the details of its successive stages have been filled in, it is possible to confirm what has been said there, and draw some conclusions as to this organisation of labour. and first, as we are using this expression so often, i must insist again on the fact that the natives are capable of it, and that this contention is not a truism, as the following considerations should show. the just mentioned view of the lazy, individualistic and selfish savage, who lives on the bounties of nature as they fall ripe and ready for him, implicitly precludes the possibility of his doing effective work, integrated into an organised effort by social forces. again, the view, almost universally accepted by specialists, is that the lowest savages are in the pre-economic stage of individualistic search for food, whereas the more developed ones, such as the trobrianders, for instance, live at the stage of isolated household economy. this view also ignores, when it does not deny explicitly, the possibility of socially organised labour. the view generally held is that, in native communities each individual works for himself, or members of a household work so as to provide each family with the necessities of life. of course, a canoe, even a masawa, could obviously be made by the members of a household, though with less efficiency and in a longer time. so that there is a priori nothing to foretell whether organised labour, or the unaided efforts of an individual or a small group of people should be used in the work. as a matter of fact, we have seen in canoe-building a number of men engaged in performing each a definite and difficult task, though united to one purpose. the tasks were differentiated in their sociological setting; some of the workers were actually to own the canoe; others belonged to a different community, and did it only as an act of service to the chief. some worked in order to derive direct benefit from the use of the canoe, others were to be paid. we saw also that the work of felling, of scooping, of decorating, would in some cases be performed by various men, or it might be performed by one only. certainly the minute tasks of lashing, caulking and painting, as well as sail-making, were done by communal labour as opposed to individual. and all these different tasks were directed towards one aim: the providing the chief or headman with the title of ownership of a canoe, and his whole community with its use. it is clear that this differentiation of tasks, co-ordinated to a general purpose, requires a well developed social apparatus to back it up, and that on the other hand, this social mechanism must be associated and permeated with economic elements. there must be a chief, regarded as representative of a group; he must have certain formal rights and privileges, and a certain amount of authority, and also he must dispose of part of the wealth of the community. there must also be a man or men with knowledge sufficient to direct and co-ordinate the technical operations. all this is obvious. but it must be clearly set forth that the real force which binds all the people and ties them down in their tasks is obedience to custom, to tradition. every man knows what is expected from him, in virtue of his position, and he does it, whether it means the obtaining of a privilege, the performance of a task, or the acquiescence in a status quo. he knows that it always has been thus, and thus it is all around him, and thus it always must remain. the chief's authority, his privileges, the customary give and take which exist between him and the community, all that is merely, so to speak, the mechanism through which the force of tradition acts. for there is no organised physical means by which those in authority could enforce their will in a case like this. order is kept by direct force of everybody's adhesion to custom, rules and laws, by the same psychological influences which in our society prevent a man of the world doing something which is not "the right thing." the expression "might is right" would certainly not apply to trobriand society. "tradition is right, and what is right has might"--this rather is the rule governing the social forces in boyowa, and i dare say in almost all native communities at this stage of culture. all the details of custom, all the magical formulæ, the whole fringe of ceremonial and rite which accompany canoe-building, all these things add weight to the social scheme of duties. the importance of magical ideas and rites as integrating forces has been indicated at the outset of this description. it is easy to see how all the appurtenances of ceremony, that is, magic, decoration, and public attendance welded together into one whole with labour, serve to put order and organisation into it. another point must be enlarged upon somewhat more. i have spoken of organised labour, and of communal labour. these two conceptions are not synonymous, and it is well to keep them apart. as already defined, organised labour implies the co-operation of several socially and economically different elements. it is quite another thing, however, when a number of people are engaged side by side, performing the same work, without any technical division of labour, or social differentiation of function. thus, the whole enterprise of canoe-building is, in kiriwina, the result of organised labour. but the work of some twenty to thirty men, who side by side do the lashing or caulking of the canoe, is communal labour. this latter form of work has a great psychological advantage. it is much more stimulating and more interesting, and it allows of emulation, and therefore of a better quality of work. for one or two men, it would require about a month to do the work which twenty to thirty men can do in a day. in certain cases, as in the pulling of the heavy log from the jungle to the village, the joining of forces is almost indispensable. true, the canoe could be scooped out in the raybwag, and then a few men might be able to pull it along, applying some skill. but it would entail great hardships. thus, in some cases, communal labour is of extreme importance, and in all casesit furthers the course of work considerably. sociologically, it is important, because it implies mutual help, exchange of services, and solidarity in work within a wide range. communal labour is an important factor in the tribal economy of the trobriand natives. they resort to it in the building of living-huts and storehouses, in certain forms of industrial work, and in the transport of things, especially at harvest time, when great quantities of produce have to be shifted from one village to another, often over a great distance. in fishing, when several canoes go out together and fish each for itself, then we cannot speak of communal labour. when on the other hand, they fish in one band, each canoe having an appointed task, as is sometimes done, then we have to do with organised labour. communal labour is also based upon the duties of urigubu, or relatives-in-law. that is, a man's relatives-in-law have to assist him, whenever he needs their co-operation. in the case of a chief, there is an assistance on a grand scale, and whole villages will turn out. in the case of a commoner, only a few people will help. there is always a distribution of food after the work has been done, but this can hardly be considered as payment, for is is not proportional to the work each individual does. by far the most important part communal labour has to play, is in gardening. there are as many as five different forms of communal labour in the gardens, each called by a different name, and each distinct in its sociological nature. when a chief or headman summons the members of a village community, and they agree to do their gardens communally, it is called tamgogula. when this is decided upon, and the time grows near for cutting the scrub for new gardens, a festive eating is held on the central place, and there all men go, and takayva (cut down) the scrub on the chief's plot. after that, they cut in turn the garden plots of everyone, all men working on the one plot during a day, and getting on that day food from the owner. this procedure is reproduced at each successive stage of gardening; at the fencing, planting of yams, bringing in supports, and finally, at the weeding, which is done by women. at certain stages, the gardening is often done by each one working for himself, namely at the clearing of the gardens after they are burnt, at the cleaning of the roots of yams when they begin to produce tubers, and at harvesting. there are, as a rule, several communal feasts during the progress, and one at the end of a tamgogula period. gardens are generally worked in this fashion, in years when big ceremonial dancing or some other tribal festivity is held. this usually makes the work very late, and it has then to be done quickly and energetically, and communal labour has evidently been found suitable for this purpose. when several villages agree to work their gardens by communal labour, this is called lubalabisa. the two forms do not differ very much except by name, and also by the fact that, in the latter form, more than one chief or headman has to direct the process. the lubalabisa would only be held when there are several small villages, clustered together, as is the case in the village compounds of sinaketa, kavataria, kabwaku or yalaka. when a chief or headman, or man of wealth and influence summons his dependents or his relatives-in-law to work for him, the name kabutu is given to the proceedings. the owner has to give food to all those co-operating. a kabutu may be instituted for one bit of gardening, for example, a headman may invite his villagers to do his cutting for him, or his planting or his fencing. it is clear that whenever communal labour is required by one man in the construction of his house or yam store, the labour is of the kabutu type, and it is thus called by the natives. the fourth form of communal labour is called ta'ula, and takes place whenever a number of villagers agree to do one stage of gardening in common, on the basis of reciprocity. no great or special payments take place. the same sort of communal labour extending over all stages of gardening, is called kari'ula, and it may be counted as the fifth form of communal labour in the gardens. finally, a special word, tavile'i, is used when they wish to say that the gardens are done by individual labour, and that everyone works on his own plot. it is a rule, however, that the chief's plots, especially those of an influential chief of high rank, are always gardened by communal labour, and this latter is also used with regard to certain privileged plots, on which, in a given year, the garden magic is performed first, and with the greatest display. thus there is a number of distinct forms of communal labour, and they show many more interesting features which cannot be mentioned in this short outline. the communal labour used in canoe-building is obviously of the kabutu type. in having a canoe made, the chief is able to summon big numbers of the inhabitants of a whole district, the headman of an important village receives the assistance of his whole community, whereas a man of small importance, such as one of the smaller headmen of sinaketa or vakuta, would have to rely on his fellow villagers and relations-in-law. in all these cases, it would be the call of duty, laid down by custom, which would make them work. the payment would be of secondary importance, though in certain circumstances, it would be a considerable one. the distribution of food during launching forms such a payment, as we have seen in division i of this chapter. in olden days, a meal of pigs, an abundance of betel-nut and coco-nut and sugar cane would have made a veritable feast for the natives. another point of importance from the economic aspect is the payment given by the chief to the builder of the canoe. the canoe of omarakana was made, as we saw, for to'uluwa by a specialist from kitava, who was well paid with a quantity of food, pigs and vaygua (native valuables). nowadays, when the power of the chiefs is broken, when they have much less wealth than formerly to back up their position, and cannot use even the little force they ever did and when the general breaking up of custom has undermined the traditional deference and loyalty of their subjects, the production of canoes and other forms of wealth by the specialist for the chief is only a vestige of what it once was. in olden days it was, economically, one of the most important features of the trobriand tribal life. in the construction of the canoe, which a chief in olden days would never build himself, we meet with an example of this. here it will be enough to say that whenever a canoe is built for a chief or headman by a builder, this has to be paid for by an initial gift of food. then, as long as the man is at work, provisional gifts of food are given him. if he lives away from home, like the kitavan builder on the beach of omarakana, he is fed by the toliwaga and supplied with dainties such as coco-nut, betel-nut, pigs' flesh, fish and fruits. when he works in his own home, the toliwaga will bring him choice food at frequent intervals, inspecting, as he does so, the progress of the work. this feeding of the worker or bringing him extra choice food is called vakapula. after the canoe is finished, a substantial gift is given to the master-builder during the ceremonial distribution of food. the proper amount would be a few hundred basketfuls of yams, a pig or two, bunches of betel-nut, and a great number of coco-nuts; also, a large stone blade or a pig, or a belt of red shell discs, and some smaller vaygua of the non-kula type. in vakuta, where chieftainship is not very distinct, and the difference in wealth less great, a toliwaga also has to feed the workers during the time of hollowing out, preparing, and building a canoe. then, after the caulking, some fifty basketfuls are given to the builder. after the launching and trial run, this builder gives a rope, symbol of the canoe, to his wife, who, blowing the conch shell, presents the rope to the toliwaga. he, on the spot, gives her a bunch of betel or bananas. next day, a considerable present of food, known as yomelu, is given by the chief, and then at the next harvest, another fifty or sixty basketfuls of yams as karibudaboda or closing up gift. i have chosen the data from two concrete cases, one noted in kiriwina, the other in vakuta--that is, in the district where the chief's power is greatest, and in that where there never has been more than a rudimentary distance in rank and wealth between chief and commoner. in both cases there is a payment, but in kiriwina the payment is greater. in vakuta, it is obviously rather an exchange of services, whereas in kiriwina the chief maintains, as well as rewards his builder. in both cases we have the exchange of skilled services against maintenance by supply of food. iii we shall pass now to the next ceremonial and customary performance in the succession of kula events, to the display of a new canoe to the friends and relatives of the toliwaga. this custom is called kabigidoya. the tasasoria (launching and trial run) is obviously at the same time the last act of ship-building, and by its associated magical rite, by the foretaste of sailing, it is also one of the beginning stages of the kula. the kabigidoya being a presentation of the new canoe, belongs to the series of building ceremonials; but in so far as it is a provisioning trip, it belongs to the kula. the canoe is manned with the usual crew, it is rigged and fitted out with all its paraphernalia, such as paddles, baler, and conch shell, and it sets out on a short trip to the beaches of the neighbouring villages. when the canoe belongs to a compound settlement like sinaketa, then it will stop at every beach of the sister villages. the conch shell is blown, and people in the village will know "the kabigidoya men have arrived." the crew remains in the canoe, the toliwaga goes ashore, taking one paddle with him. he goes to the house of his fellow-headman, and thrusts the paddle into the frame of the house, with the words: "i offer thee thy bisila (pandanus streamer); take a vaygua (valuable), catch a pig and break the head of my new canoe." to which the local headman will answer--giving a present: "this is the katuvisala dabala (the breaking of the head) of thy new canoe!" this is an example of the quaint, customary wording used in the exchange of gifts, and in other ceremonial transactions. the bisila (pandanus streamer) is often used as a symbol for the canoe, in magical spells, in customary expressions, and in idiomatic terms of speech. bleached pandanus streamers are tied to the mast, rigging and sail; a specially medicated strip is often attached to the prow of the canoe to give it speed, and there is also other bisila magic to make a district partner inclined for kula. the gifts given are not always up to the standard of those mentioned in the above customary phrase. the kabigidoya, especially from the neighbouring villages, often brings only a few mats, a few dozen coco-nuts, some betel-nut, a couple of paddles, and such articles of minor value. and even in these trifles there is not much gain from the short kabigidoya. for as we know, at the beginning of the kula all the canoes of, say, sinaketa or kiriwina are either rebuilt or renewed. what therefore one canoe receives on its kabigidoya round, from all the others, will have to be more or less returned to them, when they in their turn kabigidoya one after the other. soon afterwards, however, on an appointed day, all the canoes sail together on a visit to the other districts, and on this kabigidoya, they receive as a rule much more substantial presents, and these they will only have to return much later, after a year or two, when the visited district will come back to them on their own kabigidoya. thus, when the canoes of kirwina are built and renovated for a big kula expedition, they will sail south along the coast, and stop first in olivilevi, receiving presents from the chief there, and walking on a round of the inland villages of luba. then they will proceed to the next sea village, that of wawela, leaving their canoes there, and going from there across to sinaketa. thence they proceed still further south, to vakuta. the villages on the lagoon, such as sinaketa and vakuta, will return these visits, sailing north along the western shore on the lagoon side. then they stop at tukwaukwa or kavataria, and from there walk inland to kiriwina, where they receive presents (see map iv, p. ). the kabigidoya trips of the vakutans and sinaketans are more important than those of the northern or eastern districts, because they are combined with a preliminary trade, in which the visitors replenish their stock of goods, which they will need presently on their trip south to dobu. the reader will remember that kuboma is the industrial district of the trobriands, where are manufactured most of the useful articles, for which these islands are renowned in the whole of eastern new guinea. it lies in the northern half of the island, and from kiriwina it is only a few miles walk, but to reach it from sinaketa or vakuta it is necessary to sail north. the southern villages therefore go to kavataria, and from there walk inland to bwoytalu, luya, yalaka and kadukwaykela, where they make their purchases. the inhabitants of these villages also when they hear that the sinaketans are anchored in kavataria, bring their wares to the canoes. a brisk trade is carried on during the day or two that the sinaketans remain in kavataria. the natives of kuboma are always eager to buy yams, as they live in an unfertile district, and devote themselves more to industrial productions than to gardening. and they are still more eager to acquire coco-nuts and betel-nut, of which they have a great scarcity. they desire besides to receive in exchange for their produce the red shell discs manufactured in sinaketa and vakuta, and the turtle-shell rings. for objects of great value, the sinaketans would give the big clay pots which they receive directly from the amphletts. for that they obtain different articles according to the villages with which they are exchanging. from bwoytalu, they get the wonderfully fashioned and decorated wooden dishes of various sizes, depths and finish, made out of either hard or soft wood; from bwaytelu, wabutuma and buduwaylaka, armlets of plaited fern fibre, and wooden combs; from buduwaylaka, yalaka, and kadukwaykela, lime pots of different qualities and sizes. from the villages of tilataula, the district north-east of kuboma, the polished axe blades used to be acquired in olden days. i shall not enter into the technicalities of this exchange, nor shall i give here the approximate list of prices which obtain. we shall have to follow the traded goods further on to dobu, and there we shall see how they change hands again, and under what conditions. this will allow us to compare the prices and thus to gauge the nature of the transaction as a whole. it will be better therefore to defer all details till then. iv here, however, its seems necessary to make another digression from the straight narrative of the kula, and give an outline of the various forms of trade and exchange as we find them in the trobriands. indeed, the main theme of this volume is the kula, a form of exchange, and i would be untrue to my chief principle of method, were i to give the description of one form of exchange torn out of its most intimate context; that is, were i to give an account of the kula without giving at least a general outline of the forms of kiriwinian payments and gifts and barter. in chapter ii, speaking of some features of trobriand tribal life, i was led to criticise the current views of primitive economic man. they depict him as a being indolent, independent, happy-go-lucky, yet at the same time governed exclusively by strictly rational and utilitarian motives, and logical and consistent in his behaviour. in this chapter again, in division ii, i pointed out another fallacy implied in this conception, a fallacy which declares that a savage is capable only of very simple, unorganised and unsystematic forms of labour. another error more or less explicitly expressed in all writings on primitive economics, is that the natives possess only rudimentary forms of trade and exchange; that these forms play no essential part in the tribal life, are carried on only spasmodically and at rare intervals, and as necessity dictates. whether we have to deal with the wide-spread fallacy of the primitive golden age, characterised mainly by the absence of any distinction between mine and thine; or whether we take the more sophisticated view, which postulates stages of individual search for food, and of isolated household catering; or if we consider for the moment the numerous theories which see nothing in primitive economics but simple pursuits for the maintenance of existence--in none of these can we find reflected even a hint of the real state of affairs as found in the trobriands; namely, that the whole tribal life is permeated by a constant give and take; that every ceremony, every legal and customary act is done to the accompaniment of material gift and counter gift; that wealth, given and taken, is one of the main instruments of social organisation, of the power of the chief, of the bonds of kinship, and of relationship in law. [ ] these views on primitive trade, prevalent though erroneous, appear no doubt quite consistent, that is, if we grant certain premises. now these premises seem plausible, and yet they are false, and it will be good to have a careful look at them so that we can discard them once and for all. they are based on some sort of reasoning, such as the following one: if, in tropical conditions, there is a plenty of all utilities, why trouble about exchanging them? then, why attach any value to them? is there any reason for striving after wealth, where everyone can have as much as he wants without much effort? is there indeed any room for value, if this latter is the result of scarcity as well as utility, in a community, in which all the useful things are plentiful? on the other hand, in those savage communities where the necessities of life are scarce, there is obviously no possibility of accumulating them, and thus creating wealth. again, since, in savage communities, whether bountifully or badly provided for by nature, everyone has the same free access to all the necessities, is there any need to exchange them? why give a basketful of fruit or vegetables, if everybody has practically the same quantity and the same means of procuring it? why make a present of it, if it cannot be returned except in the same form? [ ] there are two main sources of error at the bottom of this faulty reasoning. the first is that the relation of the savage to material goods is a purely rational one, and that consequently, in his conditions, there is no room for wealth or value. the second erroneous assumption is that there can be no need for exchange if anyone and everyone can, by industry and skill, produce all that represents value through its quantity or its quality. as regards the first proposition, it is not true either with regard to what may be called primary wealth, that is, food stuffs, nor with regard to articles of luxury, which are by no means absent in trobriand society. first as to food-stuffs, they are not merely regarded by the natives as nourishment, not merely valued because of their utility. they accumulate them not so much because they know that yams can be stored and used for a future date, but also because they like to display their possessions in food. their yam houses are built so that the quantity of the food can be gauged, and its quality ascertained through the wide interstices between the beams (see plates xxxii and xxxiii). the yams are so arranged that the best specimens come to the outside and are well visible. special varieties of yams, which grow up to two metres length, and weigh as much as several kilograms each, are framed in wood and decorated with paint, and hung on the outside of the yam houses. that the right to display food is highly valued can be seen from the fact that in villages where a chief of high rank resides, the commoners' storehouses have to be closed up with coco-nut leaves, so as not to compete with his. all this shows that the accumulation of food is not only the result of economic foresight, but also prompted by the desire of display and enhancement of social prestige through possession of wealth. when i speak about ideas underlying accumulation of food stuffs in the trobriands, i refer to the present, actual psychology of the natives, and i must emphatically declare that i am not offering here any conjectures about the "origins" or about the "history" of the customs and their psychology, leaving this to theoretical and comparative research. another institution which illuminates the native ideas about food storage is the magic called vilamalya, performed over the crops after harvest, and at one or two other stages. this magic is intended to make the food last long. before the store-house is filled with yams, the magician places a special kind of heavy stone on the floor, and recites a long magical spell. on the evening of the same day, after the food houses have been filled, he spits over them with medicated ginger root, and he also performs a rite over all the roads entering into the village, and over the central place. all this will make food plentiful in that village, and will make the supplies last long. but, and this is the important point for us, this magic is conceived to act, not on the food, but on the inhabitants of the village. it makes their appetites poor, it makes them, as the natives put it, inclined to eat wild fruit of the bush, the mango and bread fruit of the village grove, and refuse to eat yams, or at least be satisfied with very little. they will boast that when this magic is performed well, half of the yams will rot away in the storehouses, and be thrown on the wawa, the rubbish heap at the back of the houses, to make room for the new harvest. here again we meet the typical idea that the main aim of accumulating food is to keep it exhibited in the yam houses till it rots, and then can be replaced by a new étalage. the filling of the storehouses involves a double display of food, and a good deal of ceremonial handling. when the tubers are taken out of the ground they are first displayed in the gardens. a shed of poles is erected, and covered with taitu vine, which is thrown thickly over it. in such arbours, a circle is pegged out on the ground, and within this the taitu (the ordinary small yams of the trobriands which form the staple harvest) are carefully piled up into a conical heap. a great deal of care is lavished on this task, the biggest are selected, scrupulously cleaned, and put on the outside of the heap. after a fortnight or more of keeping the yams in the garden, where they are much admired by visiting parties, the owner of the garden plot summons a party of friends or relatives-in-law, and these transport them into a village. as we know already, from chapter ii, such yams will be offered to the owner's sister's husband. it is to his village that they are brought, where again they are displayed in conical heaps, placed before his yam house. only after they have thus remained for several days--sometimes up to a fortnight--are they put into the storehouse (see plate xxxiii). indeed, it would be enough for anyone to see how the natives handle the yams, how they admire big tubers, how they pick out freaks and sports and exhibit them, to realise that there is a deep, socially standardised sentiment centring round this staple product of their gardens. in many phases of their ceremonial life, big displays of food form the central feature. extensive mortuary distributions called sagali, are, in one of their aspects, enormous exhibitions of food, connected with their re-apportionment (see plate xxxiv). at harvest of the early yams (kuvi) there is an offering of first fruits to the memory of the recently dead. at the later, main harvest of taitu (small yams), the first tubers are dug out ceremonially brought into the village and admired by the whole community. food contests between two villages at harvest, in olden days often followed by actual fighting, are also one of the characteristic features which throw light on the natives' attitude towards edible wealth. in fact, one could almost speak of a "cult of food" among these natives, in so far as food is the central object of most of their public ceremonies. in the preparation of food, it must be noted that many taboos are associated with cooking, and especially with the cooking pots. the wooden dishes on which the natives serve their food are called kaboma, which means "tabooed wood." the act of eating is as a rule strictly individual. people eat within their family circles, and even when there is public ceremonial cooking of the taro pudding (mona) in the big clay pots, especially tabooed for this purpose (see plate xxxv), they do not eat in one body, but in small groups. a clay pot is carried into the different parts of the village, and men from that part squat round it and eat, followed afterwards by the women. sometimes again the pudding is taken out, placed on wooden dishes, and eaten within the family. i cannot enter here into the many details of what could be called the social psychology of eating, but it is important to note that the centre of gravity of the feast lies, not in the eating, but in the display and ceremonial preparation of the food (see plate xxxv). when a pig is to be killed, which is a great culinary and festive event, it will be first carried about, and shown perhaps in one or two villages; then roasted alive, the whole village and neighbours enjoying the spectacle and the squeals of the animal. it is then ceremonially, and with a definite ritual, cut into pieces and distributed. but the eating of it is a casual affair; it will take place either within a hut, or else people will just cook a piece of flesh and eat it on the road, or walking about in the village. the relics of a feast such as pigs' jaws and fish tails, however, are often collected and displayed in houses or yam stores. [ ] the quantity of food eaten, whether in prospect or retrospect, is what matters most. "we shall eat, and eat till we vomit," is a stock phrase, often heard at feasts, intended to express enjoyment of the occasion, a close parallel to the pleasure felt at the idea of stores rotting away in the yam house. all this shows that the social act of eating and the associated conviviality are not present in the minds or customs of the trobrianders, and what is socially enjoyed is the common admiration of fine and plentiful food, and the knowledge of its abundance. naturally, like all animals, human or otherwise, civilised or savage, the trobrianders enjoy their eating as one of the chief pleasures of life, but this remains an individual act, and neither its performance nor the sentiments attached to it have been socialised. it is this indirect sentiment, rooted of course in reality in the pleasures of eating, which makes for the value of food in the eyes of the natives. this value again makes accumulated food a symbol, and a vehicle of power. hence the need for storing and displaying it. value is not the result of utility and rarity, intellectually compounded, but is the result of a sentiment grown round things, which, through satisfying human needs, are capable of evoking emotions. the value of manufactured objects of use must also be explained through man's emotional nature, and not by reference to his logical construction of utilitarian views. here, however, i think that the explanation must take into account, not so much the user of these objects, as the workman who produces them. these natives are industrious, and keen workers. they do not work under the spur of necessity, or to gain their living, but on the impulse of talent and fancy, with a high sense and enjoyment of their art, which they often conceive as the result of magical inspiration. this refers especially to those who produce objects of high value, and who are always good craftsmen and are fond of their workmanship. now these native artists have a keen appreciation of good material, and of perfection in craft. when they find a specially good piece of material it lures them on to lavish on it an excess of labour, and to produce things too good to be used, but only so much the more desirable for possession. the careful manner of working, the perfection of craftmanship, the discrimination in material, the inexhaustible patience in giving the final touches, have been often noted by those who have seen natives at work. these observations have also come under the notice of some theoretical economists, but it is necessary to see these facts in their bearing upon the theory of value. that is, namely, that this loving attitude towards material and work must produce a sentiment of attachment to rare materials and well-worked objects, and that this must result in their being valued. value will be attached to rare forms of such materials as the craftsman generally uses: classes of shell which are scarce, lending themselves especially to fashioning and polishing; kinds of wood which are also rare, like ebony; and more particularly, special varieties of that stone out of which implements are made. [ ] we can now compare our results with the fallacious views on primitive economic man, sketched out at the beginning of this division. we see that value and wealth exist, in spite of abundance of things, that indeed this abundance is valued for its own sake. great quantities are produced beyond any possible utility they could possess, out of mere love of accumulation for its own sake; food is allowed to rot, and though they have all they could desire in necessities, yet the natives want always more, to serve in its character of wealth. again, in manufactured objects, and more especially in objects of the vaygu'a type (comp. chapter iii, div. iii), it is not rarity within utility which creates value, but a rarity sought out by human skill within the workable materials. in other words, not those things are valued, which being useful or even indispensable are hard to get, since all the necessities of life are within easy reach of the trobriand islander. but such an article is valued where the workman, having found specially fine or sportive material, has been induced to spend a disproportionate amount of labour on it. by doing so, he creates an object which is a kind of economic monstrosity, too good, too big, too frail, or too overcharged with ornament to be used, yet just because of that, highly valued. v thus the first assumption is exploded, "that there is no room for wealth or value in native societies." what about the other assumption, namely, "that there is no need to exchange if anyone can by industry and skill, produce all that represents value through its quantity or its quality?" this assumption is confuted by realising a fundamental fact of native usage and psychology: the love of give and take for its own sake; the active enjoyment in possession of wealth, through handing it over. in studying any sociological questions in the trobriands, in describing the ceremonial side of tribal life, or religion and magic, we constantly meet with this give and take, with exchange of gifts and payments. i had occasion several times to mention this general feature, and in the short outline of the trobriand sociology in chapter ii, i gave some examples of it. even a walk across the island, such as we imagined in that chapter, would reveal to an open-eyed ethnographer this economic truth. he would see visiting parties--women carrying big food baskets on their head, men with loads on their shoulders--and on inquiring he would learn that these were gifts to be presented under one of the many names they bear, in fulfilment of some social obligation. offerings of first fruits are given to the chief or to relatives-in-law, when the mango or bread fruit or sugar cane are ripe. big quantities of sugar cane being borne to a chief, carried by some twenty to thirty men running along the road, produce the impressions of a tropical birnam wood moving through the jungle. at harvest time all the roads are full of big parties of men carrying food, or returning with empty baskets. from the far north of kiriwina a party will have to run for some twelve miles to the creek of tukwa'ukwa, get into canoes, punt for miles along the shallow lagoon, and have another good walk inland from sinaketa; and all this is in order to fill the yam house of a man who could do it quite well for himself, if it were not that he is under obligation to give all the harvest to his sister's husband! displays of gifts associated with marriage, with sagali (food distributions), with payments for magic, all these are some of the most picturesque characteristics of the trobriand garden, road and village, and must impress themselves upon even a superficial observer. the second fallacy, that man keeps all he needs and never spontaneously gives it away, must therefore be completely discarded. not that the natives do not possess a strongly retentive tendency. to imagine that they differ from other human beings in this, would be to fall out of one fallacy into the opposite one also already mentioned, namely that there is a sort of primitive communism among the natives. on the contrary, just because they think so much of giving, the distinction between mine and thine is not obliterated but enhanced; for the presents are by no means given haphazardly, but practically always in fulfilment of definite obligations, and with a great deal of formal punctilio. the very fundamental motive of giving, the vanity of a display of possession and power, a limine rules out any assumption of communistic tendencies or institutions. not in all cases, but in many of them, the handing over of wealth is the expression of the superiority of the giver over the recipient. in others, it represents subordination to a chief, or a kinship relation or relationship-in-law. and it is important to realise that in almost all forms of exchange in the trobriands, there is not even a trace of gain, nor is there any reason for looking at it from the purely utilitarian and economic standpoint, since there is no enhancement of mutual utility through the exchange. thus, it is quite a usual thing in the trobriands for a type of transaction to take place in which a gives twenty baskets of yams to b, receiving for it a small polished blade, only to have the whole transaction reversed in a few weeks' time. again, at a certain stage of mortuary ritual, a present of valuables is given, and on the same day later on, the identical articles are returned to the giver. cases like that described in the kabigidoya custom (div. iii of this chapter), where each owner of a new canoe made a round of all the others, each thus giving away again what he receives, are typical. in the wasi--exchange of fish for yams, to be described presently--through a practically useless gift, a burdensome obligation is imposed, and one might speak of an increase of burdens rather than an increase of utilities. the view that the native can live in a state of individual search for food, or catering for his own household only, in isolation from any interchange of goods, implies a calculating, cold egotism, the possibility of enjoyment by man of utilities for their sake. this view, and all the previously criticised assumptions, ignore the fundamental human impulse to display, to share, to bestow. they ignore the deep tendency to create social ties through exchange of gifts. apart from any consideration as to whether the gifts are necessary or even useful, giving for the sake of giving is one of the most important features of trobriand sociology, and, from its very general and fundamental nature, i submit that it is a universal feature of all primitive societies. i have dwelt at length on economic facts which on the surface are not directly connected with the kula. but if we realise that in these facts we may be able to read the native's attitude towards wealth and value, their importance for the main theme becomes obvious. the kula is the highest and the most dramatic expression of the native's conception of value, and if we want to understand all the customs and actions of the kula in their real bearings we must, first and foremost, grasp the psychology that lies at its basis. vi i have on purpose spoken of forms of exchange, of gifts and counter-gifts, rather than of barter or trade, because, although there exist forms of barter pure and simple, there are so many transitions and gradations between that and simple gift, that it is impossible to draw any fixed line between trade on the one hand, and exchange of gifts on the other. indeed, the drawing of any lines to suit our own terminology and our own distinctions is contrary to sound method. in order to deal with these facts correctly it is necessary to give a complete survey of all forms of payment or present. in this survey there will be at one end the extreme case of pure gift, that is an offering for which nothing is given in return. then, through many customary forms of gift or payment, partially or conditionally returned, which shade into each other, there come forms of exchange, where more or less strict equivalence is observed, arriving finally at real barter. in the following survey i shall roughly classify each transaction according to the principle of its equivalence. such tabularised accounts cannot give the same clear vision of facts as a concrete description might do, and they even produce the impression of artificiality, but, and this must be emphatically stated, i shall not introduce here artificial categories, foreign to the native mind. nothing is so misleading in ethnographic accounts as the description of facts of native civilisations in terms of our own. this, however, shall not be done here. the principles of arrangement, although quite beyond the comprehension of the natives, are nevertheless contained in their social organisation, customs, and even in their linguistic terminology. this latter always affords the simplest and surest means of approach towards the understanding of native distinctions and classifications. but it also must be remembered that, though important as a clue to native ideas, the knowledge of terminology is not a miraculous short-cut into the native's mind. as a matter of fact, there exist many salient and extremely important features of trobriand sociology and social psychology, which are not covered by any term, whereas their language distinguishes sub-divisions and subtleties which are quite irrelevant with regard to actual conditions. thus, a survey of terminology must always be supplemented by a direct analysis of ethnographic fact and inquiry into the native's ideas, that is, by collecting a body of opinions, typical expressions, and customary phrases by direct cross-questioning. the most conclusive and deepest insight, however, must always be obtained by a study of behaviour, by analysis of ethnographic custom and concrete cases of traditional rules. list of gifts, payments, and commercial transactions. . pure gifts.--by this, as just mentioned, we understand an act, in which an individual gives an object or renders a service without expecting or getting any return. this is not a type of transaction very frequently met in trobriand tribal life. it must be remembered that accidental or spontaneous gifts, such as alms or charities, do not exist, since everybody in need would be maintained by his or her family. again, there are so many well-defined economic obligations, connected with kinship and relationship-in-law, that anyone wanting a thing or a service would know where to go and ask for it. and then, of course, it would not be a free gift, but one imposed by some social obligation. moreover, since gifts in the trobriands are conceived as definite acts with a social meaning, rather than transmissions of objects, it results that where social duties do not directly impose them, gifts are very rare. the most important type of free gift are the presents characteristic of relations between husband and wife, and parents and children. among the trobrianders, husband and wife own their things separately. there are man's and woman's possessions, and each of the two partners has a special part of the household goods under control. when one of them dies, his or her relations inherit the things. but though the possessions are not joint, they very often give presents to one another, more especially a husband to his wife. as to the parents' gifts to the children, it is clear that in a matrilineal society, where the mother is the nearest of kin to her children in a sense quite different to that in our society, they share in and inherit from her all her possessions. it is more remarkable that the father, who, according to native belief and law, is only the mother's husband, and not the kinsman of the children, is the only relation from whom free gifts are expected. [ ] the father will give freely of his valuables to a son, and he will transmit to him his relationships in the kula, according to the definite rules by which it is done (see chapter xi, division ii). also, one of the most valuable and valued possessions, the knowledge of magic, is handed over willingly, and free of any counter-gift, from father to son. the ownership of trees in the village grove and ownership in garden plots is ceded by the father to his son during the lifetime of the former. at his death, it often has to be returned to the man's rightful heirs, that is, his sister's children. all the objects of use embraced by the term gugua will be shared with him as a matter of course by a man's children. also, any special luxuries in food, or such things as betel-nut or tobacco, he will share with his children as well as with his wife. in all such small articles of indulgence, free distribution will also obtain between the chief or the headman and his vassals, though not in such a generous spirit, as within the family. in fact, everyone who possesses betel-nut or tobacco in excess of what he can actually consume on the spot, would be expected to give it away. this very special rule, which also happens to apply to such articles as are generally used by white men for trade, has largely contributed to the tenacity of the idea of the communistic native. in fact, many a man will carefully conceal any surplus so as to avoid the obligation of sharing it and yet escape the opprobrium attaching to meanness. there is no comprehensive name for this class of free gifts in native terminology. the verb "to give" (sayki) would simply be used, and on inquiry as to whether there was repayment for such a gift, the natives would directly answer that this was a gift without repayment; mapula being the general term for return gifts, and retributions, economic as well as otherwise. the natives undoubtedly would not think of free gifts as forming one class, as being all of the same nature. the acts of liberality on the part of the chief, the sharing of tobacco and betel-nut by anybody who has some to spare, would be taken as a matter of course. gifts by a husband to a wife are considered also as rooted in the nature of this relationship. they have as a matter of fact a very coarse and direct way of formulating that such gifts are the mapula (payment) for matrimonial relations, a conception in harmony with the ideas underlying another type of gift, of which i shall speak presently, that given in return for sexual intercourse. economically the two are entirely different, since those of husband to wife are casual gifts within a permanent relationship, whereas the others are definite payment for favours given on special occasions. the most remarkable fact, however, is that the same explanation is given for the free gifts given by the father to his children; that is to say, a gift given by a father to his son is said to be a repayment for the man's relationship to the son's mother. according to the matrilineal set of ideas about kinship, mother and son are one, but the father is a stranger (tomakava) to his son, an expression often used when these matters are discussed. there is no doubt, however, that the state of affairs is much more complex, for there is a very strong direct emotional attitude between father and child. the father wants always to give things to his child, as i have said, (compare chapter ii, division vi), and this is very well realised by the natives themselves. as a matter of fact, the psychology underlying these conditions is this: normally a man is emotionally attached to his wife, and has a very strong personal affection towards his children, and expresses these feelings by gifts, and more especially by trying to endow his children with as much of his wealth and position as he can. this, however, runs counter to the matrilineal principle as well as to the general rule that all gifts require repayment, and so these gifts are explained away by the natives in a manner that agrees with these rules. the above crude explanation of the natives by reference to sex payment is a document, which in a very illuminating manner shows up the conflict between the matrilineal theory and the actual sentiments of the natives, and also how necessary it is to check the explicit statements of natives, and the views contained in their terms and phraseology by direct observation of full-blooded life, in which we see man not only laying down rules and theories, but behaving under the impulse of instinct and emotion. . customary payments, re-paid irregularly, and without strict equivalence.--the most important of these are the annual payments received at harvest time by a man from his wife's brothers (cf. chapter ii, divisions iv and v). these regular and unfailing gifts are so substantial, that they form the bulk of a man's income in food. sociologically, they are perhaps the strongest strand in the fabric of the trobriands tribal constitution. they entail a life-long obligation of every man to work for his kinswomen and their families. when a boy begins to garden, he does it for his mother. when his sisters grow up and marry, he works for them. if he has neither mother nor sisters, his nearest female blood relation will claim the proceeds of his labour. [ ] the reciprocity in these gifts never amounts to their full value, but the recipient is supposed to give a valuable (vaygu'a) or a pig to his wife's brother from time to time. again if he summons his wife's kinsmen to do communal work for him, according to the kabutu system, he pays them in food. in this case also the payments are not the full equivalent of the services rendered. thus we see that the relationship between a man and his wife's kinsmen is full of mutual gifts and services, in which repayment, however, by the husband, is not equivalent and regular, but spasmodic and smaller in value than his own share; and even if for some reason or other it ever fails, this does not relieve the others from their obligations. in the case of a chief, the duties of his numerous relatives-in-law have to be much more stringently observed; that is, they have to give him much bigger harvest gifts, and they also have to keep pigs, and grow betel and coco-nut palms for him. for all this, they are rewarded by correspondingly large presents of valuables, which again, however, do not fully repay them for their contributions. the tributes given by vassal village communities to a chief and usually repaid by small counter-gifts, also belong to this class. besides these, there are the contributions given by one kinsman to another, when this latter has to carry out a mortuary distribution (sagali). such contributions are sometimes, but irregularly and spasmodically, repaid by objects of small value. the natives do not embrace this class under one term, but the word urigubu, which designates harvest gifts from the wife's brothers, stands for one of the most important conceptions of native sociology and economics. they have quite a clear idea about the many characteristics of the urigubu duties, which have been described here, and about their far-reaching importance. the occasional counter gifts given by the husband to his wife's kinsmen are called youlo. the chief's tributes which we have put in this category are called pokala. the placing of these two types of payment in one category is justified both by the similar mechanism, and by the close resemblance between the urigubu gifts, when given to a chief, and the pokala received by him. there are even resemblances in the actual ceremonial, which however, would require too much of a detailed description to be more than mentioned here. the word pokala is a general term for the chief's tributes, and there are several other expressions which cover gifts of first fruit, gifts at the main harvest, and some other sub-divisions. there are also terms describing the various counter-gifts given by a chief to those who pay him tribute, according to whether they consist of pig's flesh or yams or fruit. i am not mentioning all these native words, in order not to overload the account with details, which would be irrelevant here. . payment for services rendered. this class differs from the foregoing one in that here the payment is within limits defined by custom. it has to be given each time the service is performed, but we cannot speak here of direct economic equivalence, since one of the terms of the equation consists of a service, the value of which cannot be assessed, except by conventional estimates. all services done by specialists for individuals or for the community, belong here. the most important of these are undoubtedly the services of the magician. the garden magician, for instance, receives definite gifts from the community and from certain individuals. the sorcerer is paid by the man who asks him to kill or who desires to be healed. the presents given for magic of rain and fair weather are very considerable. i have already described the payments given to a canoe-builder. i shall have to speak later on of those received by the specialists who make the various types of vaygu'a. here also belong the payments, always associated with love intrigues. disinterested love is quite unknown among these people of great sexual laxity. every time a girl favours her lover, some small gift has to be given immediately. this is the case in the normal intrigues, going on every night in the village between unmarried girls and boys, and also in more ceremonial cases of indulgence, like the katuyausi custom, or the mortuary consolations, mentioned in chapter ii, division ii. a few areca-nuts, some betel pepper, a bit of tobacco, some turtle-shell rings, or spondylus discs, such are the small tokens of gratitude and appreciation never omitted by the youth. an attractive girl need never go unprovided with the small luxuries of life. the big mortuary distributions of food, sagali, have already been mentioned several times. on their economic side, these distributions are payments for funerary services. the deceased man's nearest maternal kinsman has to give food gifts to all the villagers for their assuming mourning, that is to say, for blackening their faces and cutting their hair. he pays some other special people for wailing and grave digging; a still smaller group for cutting out the dead man's ulna and using it as a lime spoon; and the widow or widower for the prolonged and scrupulously to be observed period of strict mourning. all these details show how universal and strict is the idea that every social obligation or duty, though it may not on any account be evaded, has yet to be re-paid by a ceremonial gift. the function of these ceremonial re-payments is, on the surface of it, to thicken the social ties from which arise the obligations. the similarity of the gifts and payments which we have put into this category is expressed by the native use of the word mapula (repayment, equivalent) in connection with all these gifts. thus in giving the reason why a certain present is made to a magician, or why a share is allotted to a man at the sagali (distribution), or why some valuable object is given to a specialist, they would say: "this is the mapula for what he has done." another interesting identification contained in linguistic usage is the calling of both magical payments and payments to specialists: a 'restorative,' or, literally, a 'poultice.' certain extra fees given to a magician are described as 'katuwarina kaykela' or 'poultice for his leg'; as the magician, especially he of the garden or the sorcerer, has to take long walks in connection with his magic. the expression 'poultice of my back,' will be used by a canoe-builder who has been bending over his work, or 'poultice of my hand' by a carver or stone-polisher. but the identity of these gifts is not in any way expressed in the detailed terminology. in fact, there is a list of words describing the various payments for magic, the gifts given to specialists, love payments, and the numerous types of gifts distinguished at the sagali. thus a magical payment, of which a small part would be offered to ancestral spirits, is called ula'ula; a substantial magical gift is called sousula; a gift to a sorcerer is described by the verb ibudipeta, and there are many more special names. the gifts to the specialists are called vewoulo--the initial gift; yomelu--a gift of food given after the object has been ceremonially handed over to the owner; karibudaboda--a substantial gift of yams given at the next harvest. the gifts of food, made while the work is in progress are called vakapula; but this latter term has much wider application, as it covers all the presents of cooked or raw food given to workers by the man, for whom they work. the sexual gifts are called buwana or sebuwana. i shall not enumerate the various terminological distinctions of sagali gifts, as this would be impossible to do, without entering upon the enormous subject of mortuary duties and distributions. the classification of love gifts and sagali gifts in the same category with gifts to magicians and specialists, is a generalisation in which the natives would not be able to follow us. for them, the gifts given at sagali form a class in themselves and so do the love gifts. we may say that, from the economic point of view, we were correct in classing all these gifts together, because they all represent a definite type of equivalence; also they correspond to the native idea that every service has to be paid for, an idea documented by the linguistic use of the word mapula. but within this class, the sub-divisions corresponding to native terminology represent important distinctions made by the natives between the three sub-classes; love gifts, sagali gifts, and gifts for magical and professional services. . gifts returned in economically equivalent form.--we are enumerating the various types of exchange, as they gradually assume the appearance of trade. in this fourth class have been put such gifts as must be re-paid with almost strict equivalence. but it must be stressed that strict equivalence of two gifts does not assimilate them to trade altogether. there can be no more perfect equivalence between gift and counter-gift, than when a gives to b an object, and b on the same day returns the very same object to a. at a certain stage of the mortuary proceedings, such a gift is given and received back again by a deceased man's kinsmen and his widow's brothers. yet it is obvious at once that no transaction could be further removed from trade. the above described gifts at the presentation of new canoes (kabigidoya) belong to this class. so do also numerous presents given to one community by another, on visits which are going to be returned soon. payments for the lease of a garden plot are at least in certain districts of the trobriands returned by a gift of equivalent value. sociologically, this class of gifts is characteristic of the relationship between friends (luba'i). thus the kabigidoya takes place between friends, the kula takes place between overseas partners and inland friends, but of course relations-in-law also belong par excellence to this category. other types of equivalent gifts which have to be mentioned here shortly, are the presents given by one household to another, at the milamala, the festive period associated with the return of the ancestral spirits to their villages. offerings of cooked food are ceremonially exposed in houses for the use of the spirits, and after these have consumed the spiritual substance, the material one is given to a neighbouring household. these gifts are always reciprocal. again, a series of mutual gifts exchanged immediately after marriage between a man and his wife's father (not matrilineal kinsman in this case), have to be put into this category. the economic similarity of these gifts is not expressed in terminology or even in linguistic use. all the gifts i have enumerated have their own special names, which i shall not adduce here, so as not to multiply irrelevant details of information. the natives have no comprehensive idea that such a class as i have spoken of exists. my generalisation is based upon the very interesting fact, that all through the tribal life we find scattered cases of direct exchange of equivalent gifts. nothing perhaps could show up so clearly, how much the natives value the give and take of presents for its own sake. . exchange of material goods against privileges, titles and non-material possessions. under this heading, i class transactions which approach trade, in so far as two owners, each possessing something they value highly, exchange it for something they value still more. the equivalence here is not so strict, at any rate not so measurable, as in the previous class, because in this one, one of the terms is usually a non-material possession, such as the knowledge of magic, the privilege to execute a dance, or the title to a garden plot, which latter very often is a mere title only. but in spite of this smaller measure of equivalence, their character of trade is more marked, just because of the element of mutual desire to carry out the transaction and of the mutual advantage. two important types of transaction belong to this class. one of them is the acquisition by a man of the goods or privileges which are due to him by inheritance from his maternal uncle or elder brother, but which he wishes to acquire before the elder's death. if a maternal uncle is to give up in his life time a garden, or to teach and hand over a system of magic, he has to be paid for that. as a rule several payments, and very substantial ones, have to be given to him, and he gradually relinquishes his rights, giving the garden land, bit by bit, teaching the magic in instalments. after the final payment, the title of ownership is definitely handed over to the younger man. i have drawn attention already in the general description of the trobriand sociology (chapter ii, division vi) to the remarkable contrast between matrilineal inheritance and that between father and son. it is noteworthy that what is considered by the natives rightful inheritance has yet to be paid for, and that a man who knows that in any case he would obtain a privilege sooner or later, if he wants it at once, must pay for it, and that heavily. none the less, this transaction takes place only when it appears desirable to both parties. there is no customary obligation on either of the two to enter on the exchange, and it has to be considered advantageous to both before it can be completed. the acquisition of magic is of course different, because that must naturally always be taught by the elder man to the younger in his life time. the other type of transaction belonging to this class, is the payment for dances. dances are "owned"; that is, the original inventor has the right of "producing" his dance and song in his village community. if another village takes a fancy to this song and dance, it has to purchase the right to perform it. this is done by handing ceremonially to the original village a substantial payment of food and valuables, after which the dance is taught to the new possessors. in some rare cases, the title to garden-lands would pass from one community to another. for this again, the members and headman of the acquiring community would have to pay substantially to those who hand over their rights. another transaction which has to be mentioned here is the hire of a canoe, where a temporary transference of ownership takes place in return for a payment. the generalisation by which this class has been formed, although it does not run counter to native terminology and ideas, is beyond their own grasp, and contains several of their sub-divisions, differentiated by distinct native terms. the name for the ceremonial purchase of a task or for the transfer of a garden plot is laga. this term denotes a very big and important transaction. for example, when a small pig is purchased by food or minor objects of value, they call this barter (gimwali) but when a more valuable pig is exchanged for vaygu'a, they call it laga. the important conception of gradual acquisition in advance of matrilineal inheritance, is designated by the term pokala, a word which we have already met as signifying the tributes to the chief. it is a homonym, because its two meanings are distinct, and are clearly distinguished by the natives. there can be no doubt that these two meanings have developed out of a common one by gradual differentiation, but i have no data even to indicate this linguistic process. at present, it would be incorrect to strain after any connection between them, and indeed this is an example how necessary it is to be careful not to rely too much on native terminology for purposes of classification. the term for the hire of a canoe is toguna waga. . ceremonial barter with deferred payment.--in this class we have to describe payments which are ceremonially offered, and must be received and re-paid later on. the exchange is based on a permanent partnership, and the articles have to be roughly equivalent in value. remembering the definition of the kula in chapter iii, it is easy to see that this big, ceremonial, circulating exchange belongs to this class. it is ceremonial barter based on permanent partnership, where a gift offered is always accepted, and after a time has to be re-paid by an equivalent counter-gift. there is also a ceremonial form of exchange of vegetable food for fish, based on a standing partnership, and on the obligation to accept and return an initial gift. this is called wasi. the members of an inland village, where yams and taro are plentiful have partners in a lagoon village, where much fishing is done but garden produce is scarce. each man has his partner, and at times, when new food is harvested and also during the main harvest, he and his fellow villagers will bring a big quantity of vegetable food into the lagoon village (see plate xxxvi), each man putting his share before his partner's house. this is an invitation, which never can be rejected, to return the gift by its fixed equivalent in fish. as soon as weather and previous engagements allow, the fishermen go out to sea and notice is given to the inland village of the fact. the inlanders arrive on the beach, awaiting the fishermen, who come back in a body, and their haul of fish is taken directly from the canoes and carried to the inland village. such large quantities of fish are always acquired only in connection with big distributions of food (sagali). it is remarkable that in the inland villages these distributions must be carried out in fish, whereas in the lagoon villages, fish never can be used for ceremonial purposes, vegetables being the only article considered proper. thus the motive for exchange here is not to get food in order to satisfy the primary want of eating, but in order to satisfy the social need of displaying large quantities of conventionally sanctioned eatables. often when such a big fishing takes place, great quantities of fish perish by becoming rotten before they reach the man for whom they are finally destined. but being rotten in no way detracts from the value of fish in a sagali. the equivalence of fish, given in return for vegetable food, is measured only roughly. a standard sized bunch of taro, or one of the ordinary baskets of taytu (small yams) will be repaid by a bundle of fish, some three to five kilograms in weight. the equivalence of the two payments, as well as the advantage obtained by one party at least, make this exchange approach barter. [ ] but the element of trust enters into it largely, in the fact that the equivalence is left to the repayer; and again, the initial gift which as a rule is always given by the inlanders, cannot be refused. and all these features distinguish this exchange from barter. similar to this ceremonial exchange are certain arrangements in which food is brought by individuals to the industrial villages of kuboma, and the natives of that place return it by manufactured objects when these are made. in certain cases of production of vaygu'a (valuables) it is difficult to judge whether we have to do with the payment for services rendered (class ), or with the type of ceremonial barter belonging to this class. there is hardly any need to add that the two types of exchange contained in this class, the kula and the wasi (fish barter) are kept very distinct in the minds of the natives. indeed, the ceremonial exchange of valuables, the kula, stands out as such a remarkable form of trade that in all respects, not only by the natives, but also by ourselves, it must be put into a class by itself. there is no doubt, however, that the technique of the wasi must have been influenced by the ideas and usages of the kula, which is by far the more important and widespread of the two. the natives, when explaining one of these trades, often draw parallels to the other. and the existence of social partnership, of ceremonial sequence of gift, of the free yet unevadible equivalence, all these features appear in both forms. this shows that the natives have a definite mental attitude towards what they consider an honourable, ceremonial type of barter. the rigid exclusion of haggling, the formalities observed in handing over the gift, the obligation of accepting the initial gift and of returning it later on, all these express this attitude. . trade, pure and simple.--the main characteristic of this form of exchange is found in the element of mutual advantage: each side acquires what is needed, and gives away a less useful article. also we find here the equivalence between the articles adjusted during the transaction by haggling or bargaining. this bartering, pure and simple, takes place mainly between the industrial communities of the interior, which manufacture on a large scale the wooden dishes, combs, lime pots, armlets and baskets and the agricultural districts of kiriwina, the fishing communities of the west, and the sailing and trading communities of the south. the industrials, who are regarded as pariahs and treated with contumely, are nevertheless allowed to hawk their goods throughout the other districts. when they have plenty of articles on hand, they go to the other places, and ask for yams, coco-nuts, fish, and betel-nut, and for some ornaments, such as turtle shell, earrings and spondylus beads. they sit in groups and display their wares, saying "you have plenty of coco-nuts, and we have none. we have made fine wooden dishes. this one is worth forty nuts, and some betel-nut, and some betel pepper." the others then may answer, "oh, no, i do not want it. you ask too much." "what will you give us?" an offer may be made, and rejected by the pedlars, and so on, till a bargain is struck. again, at certain times, people from other villages may need some of the objects made in kuboma, and will go there, and try to purchase some manufactured goods. people of rank as a rule will do it in the manner described in the previous paragraph, by giving an initial gift, and expecting a repayment. others simply go and barter. as we saw in the description of the kabigidoya, the sinaketans and vakutans go there and purchase goods before each kula expedition to serve for the subsidiary trade. thus the conception of pure barter (gimwali) stands out very clearly, and the natives make a definite distinction between this and other forms of exchange. embodied in a word, this distinction is made more poignant still by the manner in which the word is used. when scornfully criticising bad conduct in kula, or an improper manner of giving gifts, a native will say that "it was done like a gimwali." when asked, about a transaction, whether it belongs to one class or another, they will reply with an accent of depreciation "that was only a gimwali--(gimwali wala!)" in the course of ethnographic investigation, they give clear descriptions, almost definitions of gimwali, its lack of ceremony, the permissibility of haggling, the free manner in which it can be done between any two strangers. they state correctly and clearly its general conditions, and they tell readily which articles may be exchanged by gimwali. of course certain characteristics of pure barter, which we can perceive clearly as inherent in the facts, are quite beyond their theoretical grasp. thus for instance, that the element of mutual advantage is prominent in gimwali; that it refers exclusively to newly manufactured goods, because second-hand things are never gimwali, etc., etc. such generalisations the ethnographer has to make for himself. other properties of the gimwali embodied in custom are: absence of ceremonial, absence of magic, absence of special partnership--all these already mentioned above. in carrying out the transaction, the natives also behave quite differently here than in the other transactions. in all ceremonial forms of give and take, it is considered very undignified and against all etiquette, for the receiver to show any interest in the gift or any eagerness to take it. in ceremonial distributions as well as in the kula, the present is thrown down by the giver, sometimes actually, sometimes only given in an abrupt manner, and often it is not even picked up by the receiver, but by some insignificant person in his following. in the gimwali, on the contrary, there is a pronounced interest shown in the exchange. there is one instance of gimwali which deserves special attention. it is a barter of fish for vegetables, and stands out in sharp contrast therefore to the wasi, the ceremonial fish and yam exchange. it is called vava, and takes place between villages which have no standing wasi partnership and therefore simply gimwali their produce when necessary (see plate xxxvii). this ends the short survey of the different types of exchange. it was necessary to give it, even though in a condensed form, in order to provide a background for the kula. it gives us an idea of the great range and variety of the material give and take associated with the trobriand tribal life. we see also that the rules of equivalence, as well as the formalities accompanying each transaction, are very well defined. vii it is easy to see that almost all the categories of gifts, which i have classified according to economic principles, are also based on some sociological relationship. thus the first type of gifts, that is, the free gifts, take place in the relationship between husband and wife, and in that between parents and children. again, the second class of gifts, that is, the obligatory ones, given without systematic repayment, are associated with relationship-in-law, mainly, though the chief's tributes also belong to this class. if we drew up a scheme of sociological relations, each type of them would be defined by a special class of economic duties. there would be some parallelism between such a sociological classification of payments and presents, and the one given above. but such parallelism is only approximate. it will be therefore interesting to draw up a scheme of exchanges, classified according to the social relationship, to which they correspond. this will give us good insight into the economics of trobriand sociology, as well as another view of the subject of payments and presents. going over the sociological outline in chapter ii, divisions v and vi, we see that the family, the clan and sub-clan, the village community, the district and the tribe are the main social divisions of the trobriands. to these groupings correspond definite bonds of social relationship. thus, to the family, there correspond no less than three distinct types of relationship, according to native ideas. first of all there is the matrilineal kinship (veyola) which embraces people, who can trace common descent through their mothers. this is, to the natives, the blood relationship, the identity of flesh, and the real kinship. the marriage relation comprises that between husband and wife, and father and children. finally, the relationship between the husband and the wife's matrilineal kinsmen forms the third class of personal ties corresponding to family. these three types of personal bonds are clearly distinguished in terminology, in the current linguistic usage, in custom, and in explicitly formulated ideas. to the grouping into clans and sub-clans, there pertain the ties existing between clansmen and more especially between members of the same sub-clan, and on the other hand, the relationship between a man and members of different clans. membership in the same sub-clan is a kind of extended kinship. the relationship to other clans is most important, where it assumes the form of special friendship called luba'i. the grouping into village communities results in the very important feature of fellow membership in the same village community. the distinction of rank associated with clanship, the division into village communities and districts, result, in the manner sketched out in chapter ii, in the subordination of commoners to chiefs. finally, the general fact of membership in the tribe creates the bonds which unite every tribesman with another and which in olden days allowed of a free though not unlimited intercourse, and therefore of commercial relations. we have, therefore, eight types of personal relationship to distinguish. in the following table we see them enumerated with a short survey of their economic characteristics. . matrilineal kinship.--the underlying idea that this means identity of blood and of substance is by no means forcibly expressed on its economic side. the right of inheritance, the common participation in certain titles of ownership, and a limited right to use one another's implements and objects of daily use are often restricted in practice by private jealousies and animosities. in economic gifts more especially, we find here the remarkable custom of purchasing during lifetime, by instalments, the titles to garden plots and trees and the knowledge of magic, which by right ought to pass at death from the older to the younger generation of matrilineal kinsmen. the economic identity of matrilineal kinsmen comes into prominence at the tribal distributions--sagali--where all of them have to share in the responsibilities of providing food. . marriage ties.--(husband and wife; and derived from that, father and children). it is enough to tabulate this type of relationship here, and to remind the reader that it is characterised by free gifts, as has been minutely described in the foregoing classification of gifts, under ( ). . relationship-in-law.--these ties are in their economic aspect not reciprocal or symmetrical. that is, one side in it, the husband of the woman, is the economically favoured recipient, while the wife's brothers receive from him gifts of smaller value in the aggregate. as we know, this relationship is economically defined by the regular and substantial harvest gifts, by which the husband's storehouse is filled every year by his wife's brothers. they also have to perform certain services for him. for all this, they receive a gift of vaygu'a (valuables) from time to time, and some food in payment for services rendered. . clanship.--the main economic identification of this group takes place during the sagali, although the responsibility for the food rests only with those actually related by blood with the deceased man. all the members of the sub-clan, and to a smaller extent members of the same clan within a village community, have to contribute by small presents given to the organisers of the sagali. . the relationship of personal friendship.--two men thus bound as a rule will carry on kula between themselves, and, if they belong to an inland and lagoon village respectively, they will be partners in the exchange of fish and vegetables (wasi). . fellow-citizenship in a village community.--there are many types of presents given by one community to another. and, economically, the bonds of fellow-citizenship mean the obligation to contribute one's share to such a present. again, at the mortuary divisions, sagali, the fellow-villagers of clans, differing from the deceased man's, receive a series of presents for the performance of mortuary duties. . relationship between chiefs and commoners.--the tributes and services given to a chief by his vassals on the one hand, and the small but frequent gifts which he gives them, and the big and important contribution which he makes to all tribal enterprises are characteristic of this relationship. . relationship between any two tribesmen.--this is characterised by payments and presents, by occasional trade between two individuals, and by the sporadic free gifts of tobacco or betel-nut which no man would refuse to another unless they were on terms of hostility. with this, the survey of gifts and presents is finished. the general importance of give and take to the social fabric of boyowan society, the great amount of distinctions and sub-divisions of the various gifts can leave no doubt as to the paramount rôle which economic acts and motives play in the life of these natives. chapter vii the departure of an overseas expedition we have brought the kula narrative to the point where all the preparations have been made, the canoe is ready, its ceremonial launching and presentation have taken place, and the goods for the subsidiary trade have been collected. it remains only to load the canoes and to set sail. so far, in describing the construction, the tasasoria and kabigidoya, we spoke of the trobrianders in general. now we shall have to confine ourselves to one district, the southern part of the island, and we shall follow a kula expedition from sinaketa to dobu. for there are some differences between the various districts and each one must be treated separately. what is said of sinaketa, however, will hold good so far as the other southern community, that of vakuta, is concerned. the scene, therefore, of all that is described in the following two chapters will be set in one spot, that is, the group of some eight component villages lying on the flat, muddy shore of the trobriand lagoon, within about a stone's throw of one another. there is a short, sandy beach under a fringe of palm trees, and from there we can take a comprehensive view of the lagoon, the wide semi-circle of its shore edged with the bright green of mangroves, backed by the high jungle on the raised coral ridge of the raybwag. a few small, flat islands on the horizon just faintly thicken its line, and on a clear day the mountains of the d'entrecasteaux are visible as blue shadows in the far distance. from the beach, we step directly into one of the villages, a row of houses faced by another of yam-stores. through this, leaving on our right a circular village, and passing through some empty spaces with groves of betel and coco-nut palms, we come to the main component village of sinaketa, to kasiyetana. there, overtopping the elegant native huts, stands an enormous corrugated iron shed, built on piles, but with the space between the floor and the ground filled up carefully with white coral stones. this monument testifies both to native vanity and to the strength of their superstitions--vanity in aping the white man's habit of raising the house, and native belief in the fear of the bwaga'u (sorcerer), whose most powerful sorcery is applied by burning magical herbs, and could not be warded off, were he able to creep under the house. it may be added that even the missionary teachers, natives of the trobriands, always put a solid mass of stones to fill the space beneath their houses. to'udawada, the chief of kasiyetana, is, by the way, the only man in boyowa who has a corrugated iron house, and in fact in the whole of the island there are not more than a dozen houses which are not built exactly according to the traditional pattern. to'udawada is also the only native whom i ever saw wearing a sun-helmet; otherwise he is a decent fellow (physically quite pleasant looking), tall, with a broad, intelligent face. opposite his iron shanty are the fine native huts of his four wives. walking towards the north, over the black soil here and there pierced by coral, among tall trees and bits of jungle, fields and gardens, we come to kanubayne, the village of kouta'uya, the second most important chief in sinaketa. very likely we shall see him sitting on the platform of his hut or yam-house, a shrivelled up, toothless old man, wearing a big native wig. he, as well as to'udawada, belongs to the highest ranks of chieftainship, and they both consider themselves the equals of the chiefs of kiriwina. but the power of each one is limited to his small, component village, and neither in ceremonial nor in wealth did they, at least in olden days, approach their kinsmen in the north. there is still another chief of the same rank in sinaketa, who governs the small village of oraywota. this is sinakadi, a puffed up, unhealthy looking, bald and toothless old man, and a really contemptible and crooked character, despised by black and white alike. he has a well-established reputation of boarding white men's boats as soon as they arrive, with one or two of his young wives in the canoe, and of returning soon after, alone, but with plenty of tobacco and good merchandise. lax as is the trobriander's sense of honour and morality in such matters, this is too much even for them, and sinakadi is accordingly not respected in his village. the rest of the villages are ruled by headmen of inferior rank, but of not much less importance and power than the main chiefs. one of them, a queer old man, spare and lame but with an extremely dignified and deliberate manner, called layseta, is renowned for his extensive knowledge of all sorts of magic, and for his long sojourns in foreign countries, such as the amphletts and dobu. we shall meet some of these chiefs later on in our wanderings. having described the villages and headmen of sinaketa let us return to our narrative. a few days before the appointed date of the departure of the kula expedition there is a great stir in the villages. visiting parties arrive from the neighbourhood, bringing gifts mostly of food, to serve as provisions for the journey. they sit in front of the huts, talking and commenting, while the local people go about their business. in the evenings, long conferences are held over the fires, and late hours are kept. the preparation of food is mainly woman's work, whereas the men put the finishing touches to the canoes, and perform their magic. sociologically the group of the departing differentiates itself of course from those who remain. but even within that group a further differentiation takes place, brought about by their respective functions in the kula. first of all there are the masters of the canoe, the toliwaga, who will play quite a definite part for the next few weeks. on each of them fall with greater stringency the taboos, whether those that have to be kept in sinaketa or in dobu. each has to perform the magic and act in ceremonies. each will also enjoy the main honours and privileges of the kula. the members of the crew, the usagelu, some four to six men in each canoe, form another group. they sail the craft, perform certain magical rites, and as a rule do the kula each on his own account. a couple of younger men in each canoe, who do not yet kula, but who help in the work of sailing, form another class, and are called silasila. here and there a small boy will go with his father on a kula expedition--such are called dodo'u--and makes himself useful by blowing the conch shell. thus the whole fleet consists of four classes, that of the toliwaga, the usagelu, the helpers and the children. from sinaketa, women, whether married or unmarried, never go on overseas expeditions, though a different custom prevails in the eastern part of the trobriands. each toliwaga has to give a payment in food to his usagelu, and this is done in the form of a small ceremony of distribution of food called mwalolo, and held after the return from the expedition, in the central place of the village. a few days before the sailing, the toliwaga starts his series of magical rites and begins to keep his taboos, the women busy themselves with the final preparation of the food, and the men trim the waga (canoe) for the imminent, long journey. the taboo of the toliwaga refers to his sexual life. during the last two nights, he has in any case to be up late in connection with his magical performances, and with the visits of his friends and relatives from other villages, who bring provisions for the voyage, presents in trade goods, and who chat about the forthcoming expedition. but he has also to keep vigil far into the night as a customary injunction, and he has to sleep alone, though his wife may sleep in the same house. the preparations of the canoe are begun by covering it with plaited mats called yawarapu. they are put on the platform, thus making it convenient for walking, sitting and spreading about of small objects. this, the first act of canoe trimming, is associated with a magical rite. the plaited leaves are chanted over by the toliwaga on the shore as they are put on the canoe. or, in a different system of kula magic the toliwaga medicates some ginger root and spits it on the mats in his hut. this is a specimen of the magical formula which would be used in such a rite: yawarapu spell. "betel-nut, betel-nut, female betel-nut; betel-nut, betel-nut, male betel-nut; betel-nut of the ceremonial spitting!" "the chiefs' comrades; the chiefs and their followers; their sun, the afternoon sun; their pig, a small pig. one only is my day"--here the reciter utters his own name--"their dawn, their morning." this is the exordium of the spell. then follows the main body. the two words boraytupa and badederuma, coupled together, are repeated with a string of other words. the first word of the couple means, freely translated, 'quick sailing,' and the second one, 'abundant haul.' the string of words which are in succession tacked on to this couple describe various forms of kula necklaces. the necklaces of different length and of different finish have each their own class names, of which there are about a dozen. after that, a list of words, referring to the human head, are recited: "my head, my nose, my occiput, my tongue, my throat, my larynx, etc., etc." finally, the various objects carried on a kula expedition are mentioned. the goods to be given (pari); a ritually wrapped up bundle (lilava); the personal basket; the sleeping mat; big baskets; the lime stick; the lime pot and comb are uttered one after the other. finally the magician recites the end part of the spell; "i shall kick the mountain, the mountain moves, the mountain tumbles down, the mountain starts on its ceremonial activities, the mountain acclaims, the mountain falls down, the mountain lies prostrate! my spell shall go to the top of dobu mountain, my spell will penetrate the inside of my canoe. the body of my canoe will sink; the float of my canoe will get under water. my fame is like thunder, my treading is like the roar of the flying witches." the first part of this spell contains a reference to the betel-nut, this being one of the things which the natives expect to receive in the kula. on the other hand, it is one of the substances which the natives charm over and give to the partner to induce him to kula with them. to which of these two acts the spell refers, it is impossible to decide, nor can the natives tell it. the part in which he extols his speed and success are typical of the magic formulæ, and can be found in many others. the main part of the spell is as usual much easier to interpret. it implies, broadly speaking, the declaration: "i shall speed and be successful with regard to the various forms of vaygu'a; i shall speed and be successful with my head, with my speech, with my appearance; in all my trade goods and personal belongings." the final part of the spell describes the impression which is to be made by the man's magic upon 'the mountain,' which stands here for the district of dobu and its inhabitants. in fact, the districts in the d'entrecasteaux to which they are sailing are always called koya (mountain). the exaggerations, the metaphors, and the implicit insistence on the power of the spell are very characteristic of all magical spells. the next day, or the day after, as there is often a delay in starting, a pig or two are given by the master of the expedition to all the participants. in the evening of that day, the owner of each canoe goes into the garden, and finds an aromatic mint plant (sulumwoya). taking a sprig of it into his hand, he moves it to and fro, uttering a spell, and then he plucks it. this is the spell: sulumwoya spell. [ ] "who cuts the sulumwoya of laba'i? i, kwoyregu, with my father, we cut the sulumwoya of laba'i! the roaring sulumwoya, it roars; the quaking sulumwoya, it quakes; the soughing sulumwoya, it soughs; the boiling sulumwoya, it boils." "my sulumwoya, it boils, my lime spoon, it boils, my lime pot, it boils, my comb ... my basket ... my small basket ... my mat ... my lilava bundle ... my presentation goods (pari) ..." and with each of these terms, the word 'boils' or 'foams up' is repeated often several times. after that, the same verb 'it boils' is repeated with all parts of the head, as in the previously quoted formula. the last part runs thus: "recently deceased spirit of my maternal uncle mwoyalova, breathe thy spell over the head of monikiniki. breathe the spell upon the head of my light canoe. i shall kick the mountain; the mountain tilts over; the mountain subsides; the mountain opens up; the mountain jubilates; it topples over. i shall kula so as to make my canoe sink. i shall kula so as to make my outrigger go under. my fame is like thunder, my treading is like the roar of the flying witches." the exordium of this spell contains some mythical references, of which, however, my informants could give me only confused explanations. but it is clear in so far as it refers directly to the magical mint, and describes its magical efficiency. in the second part, there is again a list of words referring to objects used in the kula, and to the personal appearance and persuasiveness of the magician. the verb with which they are repeated refers to the boiling of the mint and coco-nut oil which i shall presently have to mention, and it indicates that the magical properties of the mint are imparted to the toliwaga and his goods. in the last part, the magician invokes the spirit of his real maternal kinsman, from whom he obtained this spell, and asks him to impart magical virtue to his canoe. the mythological name, monikiniki, with which there is no myth connected, except the tradition that he was the original owner of all these spells, stands here as synonym of the canoe. at the very end in the dogina, which contains several expressions identical with those in the end part of the yawarapu spell, we have another example of the strongly exaggerated language so often used in magic. after having thus ritually plucked the mint plant, the magician brings it home. there he finds one of his usagelu (members of crew) who helps him by boiling some coco-nut oil (bulami) in a small native clay pot. into the boiling oil the mint plant is put, and, while it boils, a magical formula is uttered over it. kaymwaloyo spell. "no betel-nut, no doga (ornament of circular boar's tusk), no betel-pod! my power to change his mind; my mwasila magic, my mwase, mwasare, mwaserewai." this last sentence contains a play on words very characteristic of kiriwinian magic. it is difficult to interpret the opening sentence. probably it means something like this: "no betel-nut or pod, no gift of a doga, can be as strong as my mwasila and its power of changing my partner's mind in my favour!" now comes the main part of the spell: "there is one sulumwoya (mint) of mine, a sulumwoya of laba'i which i shall place on top of gumasila." "thus shall i make a quick kula on top of gumasila; thus shall i hide away my kula on top of gumasila; thus shall i rob my kula on top of gumasila; thus shall i forage my kula on top of gumasila; thus shall i steal my kula on top of gumasila." these last paragraphs are repeated several times, inserting instead of the name of the island of gumasila the following ones: kuyawaywo, domdom, tewara, siyawawa, sanaroa, tu'utauna, kamsareta, gorebubu. all these are the successive names of places in which kula is made. in this long spell, the magician follows the course of a kula expedition, enumerating its most conspicuous landmarks. the last part in this formula is identical with the last part of the yawarapu spell, previously quoted: "i shall kick the mountain, etc." after the recital of this spell over the oil and mint, the magician takes these substances, and places them in a receptacle made of banana leaf toughened by grilling. nowadays a glass bottle is sometimes used instead. the receptacle is then attached to a stick thrust through the prow boards of the canoe and protruding slantwise over the nose. as we shall see later on, the aromatic oil will be used in anointing some objects on arrival at dobu. with this, however, the series of magical rites is not finished. the next day, early in the morning, the ritual bundle of representative trade goods, called lilava, is made up with the recital of a magical spell. a few objects of trade, a plaited armlet, a comb, a lime pot, a bundle of betel-nut are placed on a clean, new mat, and into the folded mat the spell is recited. then the mat is rolled up, and over it another mat is placed, and one or two may be wrapped round; thus it contains, hermetically sealed, the magical virtue of the spell. this bundle is placed afterwards in a special spot in the centre of the canoe, and is not opened till the expedition arrives in dobu. there is a belief that a magical portent (kariyala) is associated with it. a gentle rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, sets in whenever the lilava is opened. a sceptical european might add, that in the monsoon season it almost invariably rains on any afternoon, with the accompaniment of thunder, at the foot or on the slopes of such high hills as are found in the d'entrecasteaux group. of course when, in spite of that, a kariyala does not make its appearance, we all know something has been amiss in the performance of the magical rite over the lilava! this is the spell recited over the tabooed lilava bundle. lilava spell. "i skirt the shore of the beach of kaurakoma; the beach of kayli, the kayli of muyuwa." i cannot add any explanation which would make this phrase clearer. it obviously contains some mythological references to which i have no key. the spell runs on: "i shall act magically on my mountain... where shall i lie? i shall lie in legumatabu; i shall dream, i shall have dream visions; rain will come as my magical portent... his mind is on the alert; he lies not, he sits not, he stands up and trembles, he stands up and is agitated; the renown of kewara is small, my own renown flares up..." this whole period is repeated over and over again, each time the name of another place being inserted instead of that of legumatabu. legumatabu is a small coral island some two hundred yards long and a hundred yards wide, with a few pandanus trees growing on it, wild fowl and turtle laying their eggs in its sand. in this island, half way between sinaketa and the amphletts, the sinaketan sailors often spend a night or two, if overtaken by bad weather or contrary winds. this period contains first a direct allusion to the magical portent of the lilava. in its second half it describes the state of agitation of the dobuan partner under the influence of this magic, a state of agitation which will prompt him to be generous in the kula. i do not know whether the word kewara is a proper name or what else it may mean, but the phrase contains a boast of the magician's own renown, very typical of magical formulæ. the localities mentioned instead of legumatabu in the successive repetitions of the period are: yakum, another small coral island, urasi, the dobuan name for gumasila, tewara, sanaro'a, and tu'utauna, all localities known to us already from our description of dobu. this is a very long spell. after the recital, and a very lengthy one, of the last period with its variants, yet another change is introduced into it. instead of the first phrase "where shall i lie? etc." the new form runs "where does the rainbow stand up? it stands up on the top of koyatabu," and after this the rest of the period is repeated: "i shall dream, i shall have dream visions, etc." this new form is again varied by uttering instead of koyatabu, kamsareta, koyava'u, and gorebubu. [ ] this again carries us through the landscape; but here, instead of the sleeping places we follow the beacons of the sailing expedition by mentioning the tops of the high mountains. the end part of this spell is again identical with that of the yawarapu spell. this magical rite takes place on the morning of the last day. immediately after the recital of the spell, and the rolling up of the lilava, it is carried to the canoe, and put into its place of honour. by that time the usagelu (members of the crew) have already made the canoe ready for sailing. each masawa canoe is divided into ten, eleven, or twelve compartments by the stout, horizontal poles called riu, which join the body of the canoe with the outrigger. such a compartment is called liku, and each liku has its name and its function. starting from the end of the canoe, the first liku, which, as is easily seen, is both narrow and shallow, is called ogugwau, 'in the mist,' and this is the proper place for the conch-shell. small boys will sit there and blow the conch-shell on ceremonial occasions. the next compartment is called likumakava, and there some of the food is stowed away. the third division is called kayliku and water-bottles made of coco-nut shells have their traditional place in it. the fourth liku, called likuguya'u, is, as its name indicates, the place for the guya'u or chief, which, it may be added, is unofficially used as a courtesy title for any headman, or man of importance. the baler, yalumila, always remains in this compartment. then follow the central compartments, called gebobo, one, two or three, according to the size of the canoe. this is the place where the lilava is put on the platform, and where are placed the best food, not to be eaten till the arrival in dobu, and all valuable trade articles. after that central division, the same divisions, as in the first part are met in inverse order (see plate xxxix). when the canoe is going to carry much cargo, as is always the case on an expedition to dobu, a square space is fenced round corresponding to the gebobo part of the canoe. a big sort of square hen-coop, or cage, is thus erected in the middle of the canoe, and this is full of bundles wrapped up in mats, and at times when the canoe is not travelling, it is usually covered over with a sail. in the bottom of the canoe a floor is made by a framework of sticks. on this, people can walk and things can rest, while the bilgewater flows underneath, and is baled out from time to time. on this framework, in the gebobo, four coco-nuts are placed, each in the corner of the square, while a spell is recited over them. it is after that, that the lilava and the choice food, and the rest of the trade are stowed away. the following spell belongs to the class which is recited over the four coco-nuts. gebobo spell. "my father, my mother ... kula, mwasila." this short exordium, running in the compressed style proper to magical beginnings, is rather enigmatic, except for the mention of the kula and mwasila, which explain themselves. the second part is less obscure: "i shall fill my canoe with bagido'u, i shall fill my canoe with bagiriku, i shall fill my canoe with bagidudu, etc." all the specific names of the necklaces are enumerated. the last part runs as follows: "i shall anchor in the open sea, and my renown will go to the lagoon, i shall anchor in the lagoon, and my renown will go to the open sea. my companions will be on the open sea and on the lagoon. my renown is like thunder, my treading is like earthquake." this last part is similar to several of the other formulæ. this rite is obviously a kula rite, judging from the spell, but the natives maintain that its special virtue is to make the food stuffs, loaded into the canoe, last longer. after this rite is over, the loading is done quickly, the lilava is put into its place of honour, and with it the best food to be eaten in dobu. some other choice food to serve as pokala (offerings) is also put in the gebobo, to be offered to overseas partners; on it, the rest of the trade, called pari, is piled, and right on top of all are the personal belongings of the usagelu and the toliwaga in their respective baskets, shaped like travelling bags. the people from the inland villages, kulila'odila, as they are called, are assembled on the beach. with them stand the women, the children, the old men, and the few people left to guard the village. the master of the fleet gets up and addresses the crowd on the shore, more or less in these words: "women, we others sail; you remain in the village and look after the gardens and the houses; you must keep chaste. when you get into the bush to get wood, may not one of you lag behind. when you go to the gardens to do work keep together. return together with your younger sisters." he also admonishes the people from the other villages to keep away, never to visit sinaketa at night or in the evening, and never to come singly into the village. on hearing that, the headman of an inland village will get up and speak in this fashion: "not thus, oh, our chief; you go away, and your village will remain here as it is. look, when you are here we come to see you. you sail away, we shall keep to our villages. when you return, we come again. perhaps you will give us some betel-nut, some sago, some coco-nuts. perhaps you will kula to us some necklace of shell beads." after these harangues are over, the canoes sail away in a body. some of the women on the beach may weep at the actual departure, but it is taboo to weep afterwards. the woman are also supposed to keep the taboo, that is, not to walk alone out of the village, not to receive male visitors, in fact, to remain chaste and true to their husbands during their absence. should a woman commit misconduct, her husband's canoe would be slow. as a rule there are recriminations between husbands and wives and consequent bad feeling on the return of the party; whether the canoe should be blamed or the wife it is difficult to say. the women now look out for the rain and thunder, for the sign that the men have opened the lilava (special magical bundle). then they know that the party has arrived on the beach of sarubwoyna, and performs now its final magic, and prepares for its entrance into the villages of tu'utauna, and bwayowa. the women are very anxious that the men should succeed in arriving at dobu, and that they should not be compelled by bad weather to return from the amphletts. they have been preparing special grass skirts to put on, when they meet the returning canoes on the beach; they also hope to receive the sago, which is considered a dainty, and some of the ornaments, which their men bring them back from dobu. if for any reason the fleet returns prematurely, there is great disappointment throughout the village, because this means the expedition has been a failure, nothing has been brought back to those left at home, and they have no opportunity of wearing their ceremonial dress. chapter viii the first halt of the fleet on muwa i after so many preparations and preliminaries, we might expect that, once embarked, the natives would make straight for the high mountains, which beckon them alluringly from the distant south. quite on the contrary, they are satisfied with a very short stage the first day, and after sailing a few miles, they stop on a big sand bank called muwa, lying to the southwest of the village of sinaketa. here, near the sandy shore, edged with old, gnarled trees, the canoes are moored by sticks, while the crews prepare for a ceremonial distribution of food, and arrange their camp for the night on the beach. this somewhat puzzling delay is less incomprehensible, if we reflect that the natives, after having prepared for a distant expedition, now at last for the first time find themselves together, separated from the rest of the villagers. a sort of mustering and reviewing of forces, as a rule associated with a preliminary feast held by the party, is characteristic of all the expeditions or visits in the trobriands. i have spoken already about big and small expeditions, but i have not perhaps made quite clear that the natives themselves make a definite distinction between big, competitive kula expeditions, called uvalaku, and sailings on a smaller scale, described as 'just kula,' ("kula wala"). the uvalaku are held every two or three years from each district, though nowadays, as in everything else, the natives are getting slack. one would be held, whenever there is a great agglomeration of vaygu'a, due to reasons which i shall describe later on. sometimes, a special event, such as the possession by one of the head men of an exceptionally fine pig, or of an object of high value, might give rise to an uvalaku. thus, in , a big competitive expedition (uvalaku) from dobu was held ostensibly for the reason that kauyaporu, one of the head men of tu'utauna, owned a very large boar with tusks almost curling over into a circle. again, plenty of food, or in olden days the completion of a successful war expedition, would form the raison d'être of an uvalaku. of course these reasons, explicitly given by the natives, are, so to speak, accessory causes, for in reality an uvalaku would be held whenever its turn came, that is, barring great scarcity of food or the death of an important personage. the uvalaku is a kula expedition on an exceptionally big scale, carried on with a definite social organisation under scrupulous observance of all ceremonial and magical rites, and distinguished from the smaller expeditions by its size, by a competitive element, and by one or two additional features. on an uvalaku, all the canoes in the district will sail, and they will sail fully manned. everybody will be very eager to take part in it. side by side with this natural desire, however, there exists the idea that all the members of the crews are under an obligation to go on the expedition. this duty they owe to the chief, or master of the uvalaku. the toli'uvalaku, as he is called, is always one of the sectional chiefs or headmen. he plays the part of a master of ceremonies, on leaving the beach of sinaketa, at the distributions of food, on arrival in the overseas villages, and on the ceremonial return home. a streamer of dried and bleached pandanus leaf, attached to the prows of his canoe on a stick, is the ostensible sign of the dignity. such a streamer is called tarabauba'u in kiriwinian, and doya in the dobuan language. the headman, who is toli'uvalaku on an expedition, will as a rule receive more kula gifts than the others. on him also will devolve the glory of this particular expedition. thus the title of toli, in this case, is one of honorary and nominal ownership, resulting mainly in renown (butura) for its bearer, and as such highly valued by the natives. from the economic and legal point of view, however, the obligation binding the members of the expedition to him is the most important sociological feature. he gives the distribution of food, in which the others participate, and this imposes on them the duty of carrying out the expedition, however hard this might be, however often they would have to stop or even return owing to bad weather, contrary winds, or, in olden days, interference by hostile natives. as the natives say, "we cannot return on uvalaku, for we have eaten of the pig, and we have chewed of the betel-nut given by the toli'uvalaku." only after the most distant community with whom the sinaketans kula has been reached, and after due time has been allowed for the collection of any vaygu'a within reach, will the party start on the return journey. concrete cases are quoted in which expeditions had to start several times from sinaketa, always returning within a few days after all the provisions had been eaten on muwa, from where a contrary wind would not allow the canoes to move south. or again, a memorable expedition, some few decades ago, started once or twice, was becalmed in vakuta, had to give a heavy payment to a wind magician in the village of okinai, to provide them with a propitious northerly wind, and then, sailing south at last, met with a vineylida, one of the dreadful perils of the sea, a live stone which jumps from the bottom of the sea at a canoe. but in spite of all this, they persevered, reached dobu in safety, and made a successful return. thus we see that, from a sociological point of view, the uvalaku is an enterprise partially financed by the toli'uvalaku, and therefore redounding to his credit, and bringing him honour; while the obligation imposed on others by the food distributed to them, is to carry on the expedition to a successful end. it is rather puzzling to find that, although everyone is eager for the expedition, although they all enjoy it equally and satisfy their ambition and increase their wealth by it, yet the element of compulsion and obligation is introduced into it; for we are not accustomed to the idea of pleasure having to be forced on people. none the less, the uvalaku is not an isolated feature, for in almost all tribal enjoyments and festive entertainments on a big scale, the same principle obtains. the master of the festivities, by an initial distribution of food, imposes an obligation on the others, to carry through dancing, sports, or games of the season. and indeed, considering the ease with which native enthusiasms flag, with which jealousies, envies and quarrels creep in, and destroy the unanimity of social amusements, the need for compulsion from without to amuse oneself appears not so preposterous as at first sight. i have said that an uvalaku expedition is distinguished from an ordinary one, in so far also as the full ceremonial of the kula has to be observed. thus all the canoes must be either new or relashed, and without exception they must be also repainted and redecorated. the full ceremonial launching, tasasoria, and the presentation, kabigodoya, are carried out with every detail only when the kula takes the form of an uvalaku. the pig or pigs killed in the village before departure are also a special feature of the competitive kula. so is the kayguya'u ceremonial distribution held on muwa, just at the point of the proceedings at which we have now arrived. the tanarere, a big display of vaygu'a and comparison of the individual acquisitions at the end of an expedition, is another ceremonial feature of the uvalaku and supplies some of the competitive element. there is also competition as to the speed, qualities and beauties of the canoes at the beginning of such an expedition. some of the communities who present their vaygu'a to an uvalaku expedition vie with one another, as to who will give most, and in fact the element of emulation or competition runs right through the proceedings. in the following chapters, i shall have, in several more points, occasion to distinguish an uvalaku from an ordinary kula sailing. it must be added at once that, although all these ceremonial features are compulsory only on an uvalaku sailing, and although only then are they one and all of them unfailingly observed, some and even all may also be kept during an ordinary kula expedition, especially if it happens to be a somewhat bigger one. the same refers to the various magical rites--that is to say the most important ones--which although performed on every kula expedition, are carried out with more punctilio on an uvalaku. finally, a very important distinctive feature is the rule, that no vaygu'a can be carried on the outbound sailing of an uvalaku. it must not be forgotten that a kula overseas expedition sails, in order mainly to receive gifts and not to give them, and on an uvalaku this rule is carried to its extreme, so that no kula valuables whatever may be given by the visiting party. the natives sailing from sinaketa to dobu on ordinary kula may carry a few armshells with them, but when they sail on a ceremonial competitive uvalaku, no armshell is ever taken. for it must be remembered that kula exchanges, as has been explained in chapter iii, never take place simultaneously. it is always a gift followed after a lapse of time by a counter-gift. now on a uvalaku the natives would receive in dobu a certain amount of gifts, which, within a year or so, would be returned to the dobuans, when these pay a visit to sinaketa. but there is always a considerable amount of valuables which the dobuans owe to the sinaketans, so that when now the sinaketans go to dobu, they will claim also these gifts due to them from previous occasions. all these technicalities of kula exchange will become clearer in one of the subsequent chapters (chapter xiv). to sum up, the uvalaku is a ceremonial and competitive expedition. ceremonial it is, in so far as it is connected with the special initial distribution of food, given by the master of the uvalaku. it is also ceremonial in that all the formalities of the kula are kept rigorously and without exception, for in a sense every kula sailing expedition is ceremonial. competitive it is mainly in that at the end of it all the acquired articles are compared and counted. with this also the prohibition to carry vaygu'a, is connected, so as to give everyone an even start. ii returning now to the sinaketan fleet assembled at muwa, as soon as they have arrived there, that is, some time about noon, they proceed to the ceremonial distribution. although the toli'uvalaku is master of ceremonies, in this case he as a rule sits and watches the initial proceedings from a distance. a group of his relatives or friends of lesser rank busy themselves with the work. it might be better perhaps here to give a more concrete account, since it is always difficult to visualise exactly how such things will proceed. this was brought home to me when in march, , i assisted at these initial stages of the kula in the amphlett islands. the natives had been preparing for days for departure, and on the final date, i spent the whole morning observing and photographing the loading and trimming of the canoes, the farewells, and the setting out of the fleet. in the evening, after a busy day, as it was a full-moon night, i went for a long pull in a dinghy. although in the trobriands i had had accounts of the custom of the first halt, yet it gave me a surprise when on rounding a rocky point i came upon the whole crowd of gumasila natives, who had departed on the kula that morning, sitting in full-moon light on a beach, only a few miles from the village which they had left with so much to-do some ten hours before. with the fairly strong wind that day, i was thinking of them as camping at least half way to the trobriands, on one of the small sand banks some twenty miles north. i went and sat for a moment among the morose and unfriendly amphlett islanders, who, unlike the trobrianders, distinctly resented the inquisitive and blighting presence of an ethnographer. to return to our sinaketan party, we can imagine the chiefs sitting high up on the shore under the gnarled, broad-leafed branches of the shady trees. they might perhaps be resting in one group, each with a few attendants, or else every headman and chief near his own canoe, to'udawada silently chewing betel-nut, with a heavy and bovine dignity, the excitable koutauya chattering in a high pitched voice with some of his grown-up sons, among whom there are two or three of the finest men in sinaketa. further on, with a smaller group of attendants, sits the infamous sinakadi, in conference with his successor to chieftainship, his sister's son, gomaya, also a notorious scoundrel. on such occasions it is good form for chiefs not to busy themselves among the groups, nor to survey the proceedings, but to keep an aloof and detached attitude. in company with other notables, they discuss in the short, jerky sentences which make native languages so difficult to follow, the arrangements and prospects of the kula, making now and then a mythological reference, forecasting the weather, and discussing the merits of the canoes. in the meantime, the henchmen of the toli'uvalaku, his sons, his younger brothers, his relatives-in-law, prepare the distribution. as a rule, either to'udawada or koutauya would be the toli'uvalaku. the one who at the given time has more wealth on hand and prospects of receiving more vaygu'a, would take over the dignity and the burdens. sinakadi is much less wealthy, and probably it would be an exception for him and his predecessors and successors to play the part. the minor headmen of the other compound villages of sinaketa would never fill the rôle. whoever is the master of the expedition for the time being will have brought over a couple of pigs, which will now be laid on the beach and admired by the members of the expedition. soon some fires are lit, and the pigs, with a long pole thrust through their tied feet, are hung upside down over the fires. a dreadful squealing fills the air and delights the hearers. after the pig has been singed to death, or rather, into insensibility, it is taken off and cut open. specialists cut it into appropriate parts, ready for the distribution. yams, taro, coco-nuts and sugar cane have already been put into big heaps, as many as there are canoes--that is, nowadays, eight. on these heaps, some hands of ripe bananas and some betel-nut bunches are placed. on the ground, beside them, on trays of plaited coco-nut leaves, the lumps of meat are displayed. all this food has been provided by the toli'uvalaku, who previously has received as contributions towards it special presents, both from his own and from his wife's kinsmen. in fact, if we try to draw out all the strands of gifts and contributions connected with such a distribution we would find that it is spun round into such an intricate web, that even the lengthy account of the foregoing chapter does not quite do it justice. after the chief's helpers have arranged the heaps, they go over them, seeing that the apportionment is correct, shifting some of the food here and there, and memorising to whom each heap will be given. often in the final round, the toli'uvalaku inspects the heaps himself, and then returns to his former seat. then comes the culminating act of the distribution. one of the chief's henchmen, always a man of inferior rank, accompanied by the chief's helpers, walks down the row of heaps, and at each of them screams out in a very loud voice: "o, siyagana, thy heap, there, o siyagana, o!" at the next one he calls the name of another canoe: "o gumawora, thy heap, there! o gumawora o!" he goes thus over all the heaps, allotting each one to a canoe. after that is finished, some of the younger boys of each canoe go and fetch their heap. this is brought to their fire, the meat is roasted, and the yams, the sugar cane and betel-nut distributed among the crew, who presently sit down and eat, each group by itself. we see that, although the toli'uvalaku is responsible for the feast, and receives from the natives all the credit for it, his active part in the proceedings is a small one, and it is more nominal than real. on such occasions it would perhaps be incorrect to call him 'master of ceremonies,' although he assumes this rôle, as we shall see, on other occasions. nevertheless, for the natives, he is the centre of the proceedings. his people do all the work there is to be done, and in certain cases he would be referred to for a decision, on some question of etiquette. after the meal is over, the natives rest, chew betel-nut and smoke, looking across the water towards the setting sun--it is now probably late in the afternoon--towards where, above the moored canoes, which rock and splash in the shallows, there float the faint silhouettes of the mountains. these are the distant koya, the high hills in the d'entrecasteaux and amphletts, to which the elder natives have often already sailed, and of which the younger have heard so many times in myth, tales and magical spells. kula conversations will predominate on such occasions, and names of distant partners, and personal names of specially valuable vaygu'a will punctuate the conversation and make it very obscure to those not initiated into the technicalities and historical traditions of the kula. recollections how a certain big spondylus necklace passed a couple of years ago through sinaketa, how so-and-so handed it to so-and-so in kiriwina, who again gave it to one of his partners in kitava (all the personal names of course being mentioned) and how it went from there to woodlark island, where its traces become lost--such reminiscences lead to conjectures as to where the necklace might now be, and whether there is a chance of meeting it in dobu. famous exchanges are cited, quarrels over kula grievances, cases in which a man was killed by magic for his too successful dealings in the kula, are told one after the other, and listened to with never failing interest. the younger men amuse themselves perhaps with less serious discussions about the dangers awaiting them on the sea, about the fierceness of the witches and dreadful beings in the koya, while many a young trobriander would be warned at this stage of the unaccommodating attitude of the women in dobu, and of the fierceness of their men folk. after nightfall a number of small fires are lit on the beach. the stiff pandanus mats, folded in the middle, are put over each sleeper so as to form a small roof, and the whole crowd settle down for the night. iii next morning, if there is a fair wind, or a hope of it, the natives are up very early, and all are feverishly active. some fix up the masts and rigging of the canoes, doing it much more thoroughly and carefully than it was done on the previous morning, since there may be a whole day's sailing ahead of them perhaps with a strong wind, and under dangerous conditions. after all is done, the sails ready to be hoisted, the various ropes put into good trim, all the members of the crew sit at their posts, and each canoe waits some few yards from the beach for its toliwaga (master of the canoe). he remains on shore, in order to perform one of the several magical rites which, at this stage of sailing, break through the purely matter-of-fact events. all these rites of magic are directed towards the canoes, making them speedy, seaworthy and safe. in the first rite, some leaves are medicated by the toliwaga as he squats over them on the beach and recites a formula. the wording of this indicates that it is a speed magic, and this is also the explicit statement of the natives. kadumiyala spell. in this spell, the flying fish and the jumping gar fish are invoked at the beginning. then the toliwaga urges his canoe to fly at its bows and at its stern. then, in a long tapwana, he repeats a word signifying the magical imparting of speed, and with the names of the various parts of the canoe. the last part runs: "the canoe flies, the canoe flies in the morning, the canoe flies at sunrise, the canoe flies like a flying witch," ending up with the onomatopoetic words "saydidi, tatata, numsa," which represent the flapping of pandanus streamers in the wind, or as others say, the noises made by the flying witches, as they move through the air on a stormy night. after having uttered this spell into the leaves, the toliwaga gives them to one of the usagelu (members of the crew), who, wading round the waga, rubs with them first the dobwana, 'head' of the canoe, then the middle of its body, and finally its u'ula (basis). proceeding round on the side of the outrigger, he rubs the 'head' again. it may be remembered here that, with the native canoes, fore and aft in the sailing sense are interchangeable, since the canoe must sail having always the wind on its outrigger side, and it often has to change stern to bows. but standing on a canoe so that the outrigger is on the left hand, and the body of the canoe on the right, a native will call the end of the canoe in front of him its head (dabwana), and that behind, its basis (u'ula). after this is over, the toliwaga enters the canoe, the sail is hoisted, and the canoe rushes ahead. now two or three pandanus streamers which had previously been medicated in the village by the toliwaga are tied to the rigging, and to the mast. the following is the spell which had been said over them: bisila spell. "bora'i, bora'i (a mythical name). bora'i flies, it will fly; bora'i bora'i, bora'i stands up, it will stand up. in company with bora'i--sidididi. break through your passage in kadimwatu, pierce through thy promontory of salamwa. go and attach your pandanus streamer in salamwa, go and ascend the slope of loma." "lift up the body of my canoe; its body is like floating gossamer, its body is like dry banana leaf, its body is like fluff." there is a definite association in the minds of the natives between the pandanus streamers, with which they usually decorate mast, rigging and sail, and the speed of the canoe. the decorative effect of the floating strips of pale, glittering yellow is indeed wonderful, when the speed of the canoe makes them flutter in the wind. like small banners of some stiff, golden fabric they envelope the sail and rigging with light, colour and movement. the pandanus streamers, and especially their trembling, are a definite characteristic of trobriand culture (see plate xxix). in some of their dances, the natives use long, bleached ribbons of pandanus, which the men hold in both hands, and set a-flutter while they dance. to do this well is one of the main achievements of a brilliant artist. on many festive occasions the bisila (pandanus streamers) are tied to houses on poles for decoration. they are thrust into armlets and belts as personal ornaments. the vaygu'a (valuables) when prepared for the kula, are decorated with strips of bisila. in the kula a chief will send to some distant partner a bisila streamer over which a special spell has been recited, and this will make the partner eager to bestow valuables on the sender. as we saw, a broad bisila streamer is attached to the canoe of a toli'uvalaku as his badge of honour. the flying witches (mulukwausi) are supposed to use pandanus streamers in order to acquire speed and levitation in their nightly flights through the air. after the magical pandanus strips have been tied to the rigging, beside the non-magical, purely ornamental ones, the toliwaga sits at the veva rope, the sheet by which the sail is extended to the wind, and moving it to and fro he recites a spell. kayikuna veva spell. two verbs signifying magical influence are repeated with the prefix bo---which implies the conception of 'ritual' or 'sacred' or 'being tabooed.' [ ] then the toliwaga says: "i shall treat my canoe magically in its middle part, i shall treat it in its body. i shall take my butia (flower wreath), of the sweet-scented flowers. i shall put it on the head of my canoe." then a lengthy middle strophe is recited, in which all the parts of a canoe are named with two verbs one after the other. the verbs are: "to wreathe the canoe in a ritual manner," and "to paint it red in a ritual manner." the prefix bo-, added to the verbs, has been here translated, "in a ritual manner."[ ] the spell ends by a conclusion similar to that of many other canoe formulæ, "my canoe, thou art like a whirlwind, like a vanishing shadow! disappear in the distance, become like mist, avaunt!" these are the three usual rites for the sake of speed at the beginning of the journey. if the canoe remains slow, however, an auxiliary rite is performed; a piece of dried banana leaf is put between the gunwale and one of the inner frame sticks of the canoe, and a spell is recited over it. after that, they beat both ends of the canoe with this banana leaf. if the canoe is still heavy, and lags behind the others, a piece of kuleya (cooked and stale yam) is put on a mat, and the toliwaga medicates it with a spell which transfers the heaviness to the yam. the spell here recited is the same one which we met when the heavy log was being pulled into the village. the log was then beaten with a bunch of grass, accompanied by the recital of the spell, and then this bunch was thrown away. [ ] in this case the piece of yam which has taken on the heaviness of the canoe is thrown overboard. sometimes, however, even this is of no avail. the toliwaga then seats himself on the platform next to the steersman, and utters a spell over a piece of coco-nut husk, which is thrown into the water. this rite, called bisiboda patile is a piece of evil-magic (bulubwalata), intended to keep all the other canoes back. if that does not help, the natives conclude that some taboos pertaining to the canoe might have been broken, and perhaps the toliwaga may feel some misgivings regarding the conduct of his wife or wives. chapter ix sailing on the sea-arm of pilolu i now at last the kula expedition is properly set going. the canoes are started on a long stage, before them the sea-arm of pilolu, stretching between the trobriands and the d'entrecasteaux. on the north, this portion of the sea is bounded by the archipelago of the trobriands, that is, by the islands of vakuta, boyowa and kayleula, joining in the west on to the scattered belt of the lousançay islands. on the east, a long submerged reef runs from the southern end of vakuta to the amphletts, forming an extended barrier to sailing, but affording little protection from the eastern winds and seas. in the south, this barrier links on to the amphletts, which together with the northern coast of fergusson and goodenough, form the southern shore of pilolu. to the west, pilolu opens up into the seas between the mainland of new guinea and the bismarck archipelago. in fact, what the natives designate by the name of pilolu is nothing else but the enormous basin of the lousançay lagoon, the largest coral atoll in the world. to the natives, the name of pilolu is full of emotional associations, drawn from magic and myth; it is connected with the experiences of past generations, told by the old men round the village fires and with adventure personally lived through. as the kula adventurers speed along with filled sails, the shallow lagoon of the trobriands soon falls away behind; the dull green waters, sprinkled with patches of brown where seaweed grows high and rank, and lit up here and there with spots of bright emerald where a shallow bottom of clean sand shines through, give place to a deeper sea of strong green hue. the low strip of land, which surrounds the trobriand lagoon in a wide sweep, thins away and dissolves in the haze, and before them the southern mountains rise higher and higher. on a clear day, these are visible even from the trobriands. the neat outlines of the amphletts stand diminutive, yet firmer and more material, against the blue silhouettes of the higher mountains behind. these, like a far away cloud are draped in wreaths of cumuli, almost always clinging to their summits. the nearest of them, koyatabu--the mountain of the taboo-- [ ] on the north end of fergusson island, a slim, somewhat tilted pyramid, forms a most alluring beacon, guiding the mariners due south. to the right of it, as we look towards the south-west, a broad, bulky mountain, the koyabwaga'u--mountain of the sorcerers--marks the north-western corner of fergusson island. the mountains on goodenough island are visible only in very clear weather, and then very faintly. within a day or two, these disembodied, misty forms are to assume what for the trobrianders seems marvellous shape and enormous bulk. they are to surround the kula traders with their solid walls of precipitous rock and green jungle, furrowed with deep ravines and streaked with racing water-courses. the trobrianders will sail deep, shaded bays, resounding with the, to them unknown, voice of waterfalls; with the weird cries of strange birds which never visit the trobriands, such as the laughing of the kookooburra (laughing jackass), and the melancholy call of the south sea crow. the sea will change its colour once more, become pure blue, and beneath its transparent waters, a marvellous world of multi-coloured coral, fish and seaweed will unfold itself, a world which, through a strange geographical irony, the inhabitants of a coral island hardly ever can see at home, and must come to this volcanic region to discover. in these surroundings, they will find also wonderful, heavy, compact stones of various colours and shapes, whereas at home the only stone is the insipid, white, dead coral. here they can see, besides many types of granite and basalt and volcanic tuff, specimens of black obsidian, with its sharp edges and metallic ring, and sites full of red and yellow ochre. besides big hills of volcanic ash, they will behold hot springs boiling up periodically. of all these marvels the young trobriander hears tales, and sees samples brought back to his country, and there is no doubt that it is for him a wonderful experience to find himself amongst them for the first time, and that afterwards he eagerly seizes every opportunity that offers to sail again to the koya. thus the landscape now before them is a sort of promised land, a country spoken of in almost legendary tone. and indeed the scenery here, on the borderland of the two different worlds, is singularly impressive. sailing away from the trobriands on my last expedition, i had to spend two days, weatherbound, on a small sandbank covered with a few pandanus trees, about midway between the trobriands and the amphletts. a darkened sea lay to the north, big thunderclouds hanging over where i knew there was the large flat island of boyowa--the trobriands. to the south, against a clearer sky, were the abrupt forms of the mountains, scattered over half of the horizon. the scenery seemed saturated with myth and legendary tales, with the strange adventures, hopes and fears of generations of native sailors. on this sandbank they had often camped, when becalmed or threatened with bad weather. on such an island, the great mythical hero, kasabwaybwayreta stopped, and was marooned by his companions, only to escape through the sky. here again a mythical canoe once halted, in order to be re-caulked. as i sat there, looking towards the southern mountains, so clearly visible, yet so inaccessible, i realised what must be the feelings of the trobrianders, desirous to reach the koya, to meet the strange people, and to kula with them, a desire made perhaps even more acute by a mixture of fear. for there, to the west of the amphletts, they see the big bay of gabu, where once the crews of a whole fleet of trobriand canoes were killed and eaten by the inhabitants of unknown villages, in attempting to kula with them. and stories are also told of single canoes, drifted apart from the fleet and cast against the northern shore of fergusson island, of which all the crew perished at the hands of the cannibals. there are also legends of some inexperienced natives, who, visiting the neighbourhood of deyde'i and arriving at the crystal water in the big stone basins there, plunged in, to meet a dreadful death in the almost boiling pool. but though the legendary dangers on the distant shores may appall the native imagination, the perils of actual sailing are even more real. the sea over which they travel is seamed with reefs, studded with sandbanks and coral rocks awash. and though in fair weather these are not so dangerous to a canoe as to a european boat, yet they are bad enough. the main dangers of native sailing, however, lie in the helplessness of a canoe. as we have said before, it cannot sail close to the wind, and therefore cannot beat. if the wind comes round, the canoe has to turn and retrace its course. this is very unpleasant, but not necessarily dangerous. if, however, the wind drops, and the canoe just happens to be in one of the strong tides, which run anything between three and five knots, or if it becomes disabled, and makes leeway at right angles to its course, the situation becomes dangerous. to the west, there lies the open sea, and once far out there, the canoe would have slender chances of ever returning. to the east, there runs the reef, on which in heavy weather a native canoe would surely be smashed. in may, , a dobuan canoe, returning home a few days after the rest of the fleet, was caught by a strong south-easterly wind, so strong that it had to give up its course, and make north-west to one of the lousançay islands. it had been given up as lost, when in august it came back with a chance blow of the north-westerly wind. it had had, however, a narrow escape in making the small island. had it been blown further west, it would never have reached land at all. there exist other tales of lost canoes, and it is a wonder that accidents are not more frequent, considering the conditions under which they have to sail. sailing has to be done, so to speak, on straight lines across the sea. once they deviate from this course, all sorts of dangers crop up. not only that, but they must sail between fixed points on the land. for, and this of course refers to the olden days, if they had to go ashore, anywhere but in the district of a friendly tribe, the perils which met them were almost as bad as those of reefs and sharks. if the sailors missed the friendly villages of the amphletts and of dobu, everywhere else they would meet with extermination. even nowadays, though the danger of being killed would be smaller--perhaps not absolutely non-existent--yet the natives would feel very uncomfortable at the idea of landing in a strange district, fearing not only death by violence, but even more by evil magic. thus, as the natives sail across pilolu, only very small sectors of their horizon present a safe goal for their journey. on the east, indeed, beyond the dangerous barrier reef, there is a friendly horizon, marked for them by the marshall bennett islands, and woodlark, the country known under the term omuyuwa. to the south, there is the koya, also known as the land of the kinana, by which name the natives of the d'entrecasteaux and the amphletts are known generically. but to the south-west and west there is the deep open sea (bebega), and beyond that, lands inhabited by tailed people, and by people with wings, of whom very little more is known. to the north, beyond the reef of small coral islands, lying off the trobriands, there are two countries, kokopawa and kaytalugi. kokopawa is peopled with ordinary men and women, who walk about naked, and are great gardeners. whether this country corresponds to the south coast of new britain, where people really are without any clothing, it would be difficult to say. the other country, kaytalugi, is a land of women only, in which no man can survive. the women who live there are beautiful, big and strong, and they walk about naked, and with their bodily hair unshaven (which is contrary to the trobriand custom). they are extremely dangerous to any man through the unbounded violence of their passion. the natives never tire of describing graphically how such women would satisfy their sensuous lust, if they got hold of some luckless, shipwrecked man. no one could survive, even for a short time, the amorous yet brutal attacks of these women. the natives compare this treatment to that customary at the yousa, the orgiastic mishandling of any man, caught at certain stages of female communal labour in boyowa (cf. chapter ii, division ii). not even the boys born on this island of kaytalugi can survive a tender age. it must be remembered the natives see no need for male co-operation in continuing the race. thus the women propagate the race, although every male needs must come to an untimely end before he can become a man. none the less, there is a legend that some men from the village of kaulagu, in eastern boyowa, were blown in their canoe far north from the easterly course of a kula expedition, and were stranded on the coast of kaytalugi. there, having survived the first reception, they were apportioned individually and married. having repaired their canoe, ostensibly for the sake of bringing some fish to their wives, one night they put food and water into it, and secretly sailed away. on their return to their own village, they found their women married to other men. however, such things never end tragically in the trobriands. as soon as their rightful lords reappeared their women came back to them. among other things these men brought to boyowa a variety of banana called usikela, not known before. ii returning again to our kula party, we see that, in journeying across pilolu, they move within the narrow confines of familiar sailing ground, surrounded on all sides both by real dangers and by lands of imaginary horrors. on their track, however, the natives never go out of sight of land, and in the event of mist or rain, they can always take sufficient bearings to enable them to make for the nearest sand-bank or island. this is never more than some six miles off, a distance which, should the wind have dropped, may even be reached by paddling. another thing that also makes their sailing not so dangerous as one would imagine, is the regularity of the winds in this part of the world. as a rule, in each of the two main seasons, there is one prevailing direction of wind, which does not shift more than within some ninety degrees. thus, in the dry season, from may to october, the trade wind blows almost incessantly from the south-east or south, moving sometimes to the north-east, but never beyond that. as a matter of fact, however, this season, just because of the constancy of the wind, does not lend itself very well to native sailing. for although with this wind it is easy to sail from south to north, or east to west, it is impossible to retrace the course, and as the wind often blows for months without veering, the natives prefer to do their sailings between the seasons, or in the time when the monsoon blows. between the seasons--november, december or march and april--the winds are not so constant, in fact they shift from one position on the compass to another. on the other hand, there is very seldom a strong blow at this time, and so this is the ideal season for sailing. in the hot summer months, december till march, the monsoon blows from the north-west or south-west, less regularly than a trade wind, but often culminating in violent storms which almost always come from the north-west. thus the two strong winds to be met in these seas come from definite directions, and this minimises the danger. the natives also as a rule are able to foretell a day or two beforehand the approach of a squall. rightly or wrongly, they associate the strength of the north-westerly gales with the phases of the moon. there is, of course, a good deal of magic to make wind blow or to put it down. like many other forms of magic, wind magic is localised in villages. the inhabitants of simsim, the biggest village in the lousançay islands, and the furthest north-westerly settlement of this district, are credited with the ability of controlling the north-westerly wind, perhaps through association with their geographical position. again, the control over the south-easterly wind is granted to the inhabitants of kitava, lying to the east of boyowa. the simsim people control all the winds which blow habitually during the rainy season, that is the winds on the western side of the compass, from north to south. the other half can be worked by the kitavan spells. many men in boyowa have learnt both spells and they practise the magic. the spells are chanted broadcast into the wind, without any other ritual. it is an impressive spectacle to walk through a village, during one of the devastating gales, which always arise at night and during which people leave their huts and assemble in cleared spaces. they are afraid the wind may lift their dwellings off the ground, or uproot a tree which might injure them in falling, an accident which actually did happen a year or two ago in wawela, killing the chief's wife. through the darkness from the doors of some of the huts, and from among the huddled groups, there resound loud voices, chanting, in a penetrating sing-song, the spells for abating the force of the wind. on such occasions, feeling myself somewhat nervous, i was deeply impressed by this persistent effort of frail, human voice, fraught with deep belief, pitting itself so feebly against the monotonous, overpowering force of the wind. taking the bearing by sight, and helped by the uniformity of winds, the natives have no need of even the most elementary knowledge of navigation. barring accidents they never have to direct their course by the stars. of these, they know certain outstanding constellations, sufficient to indicate for them the direction, should they need it. they have names for the pleiades, for orion, for the southern cross, and they also recognise a few constellations of their own construction. their knowledge of the stars, as we have mentioned already in chapter ii, division v, is localised in the village of wawela, where it is handed over in the maternal line of the chiefs of the village. in order to understand better the customs and problems of sailing, a few words must be said about the technique of managing a canoe. as we have said before, the wind must always strike the craft, on the outrigger side, so the sailing canoe is always tilted with its float raised, and the platform slanting towards the body of the canoe. this makes it necessary for it to be able to change bows and stern at will; for imagine that a canoe going due south, has to sail with a north-easterly wind, then the lamina (outrigger) must be on the left hand, and the canoe sails with what the natives call its "head" forward. now imagine that the wind turns to the north-west. should this happen in a violent squall, without warning, the canoe would be at once submerged. but, as such a change would be gradual, barring accidents, the natives could easily cope with it. the mast, which is tied at the fourth cross-pole (ri'u) from the temporary bows of the canoe, would be unbound, the canoe would be turned degrees around, so that its head would now form the stern, its u'ula (foundation) would face south, and become its bows, and the platform would be to our right, facing west. the mast would be attached again to the fourth cross-pole (ri'u), from the u'ula end, the sail hoisted, and the canoe would glide along with the wind striking it again on its outrigger side, but having changed bows to stern (see plate xli). the natives have a set of nautical expressions to describe the various operations of changing mast, of trimming the sail, of paying out the sheet rope, of shifting the sail, so that it stands up with its bottom end high, and its tip touching the canoe, or else letting it lie with both boom and gaff almost horizontal. and they have definite rules as to how the various manoeuvres should be carried out, according to the strength of the wind, and to the quarter on which it strikes the canoe. they have four expressions denoting a following wind, wind striking the outrigger beam, wind striking the canoe from the katala (built-out body), and wind striking the canoe on the outrigger side close to the direction of sailing. there is no point, however, in adducing this native terminology here, as we shall not any further refer to it; it is enough to know that they have got definite rules, and means of expressing them, with regard to the handling of a canoe. it has been often remarked here, that the trobriand canoes cannot sail close to the wind. they are very light, and shallow, and have very little water board, giving a small resistance against making lee-way. i think that this is also the reason, why they need two men to do the steering for the steering oars act as lee-boards. one of the men wields a big, elongated steering oar, called kuriga. he sits at the stern, of course, in the body of the canoe. the other man handles a smaller steering paddle, leaf-shaped, yet with a bigger blade than the paddling oars; it is called viyoyu. he sits at the stern end of the platform, and does the steering through the sticks of the pitapatile (platform). the other working members of the crew are the man at the sheet, the tokwabila veva, as he is called, who has to let out the veva or pull it in, according as the wind shifts and varies in strength. another man, as a rule, stands in the bows of the ship on the look-out, and if necessary, has to climb the mast in order to trim the rigging. or again, he would have to bale the water from time to time, as this always leaks through, or splashes into the canoe. thus four men are enough to man a canoe, though usually the functions of the baler and the man on the look-out and at the mast are divided. when the wind drops, the men have to take to the small, leaf-shaped paddles, while one, as a rule, wields a pulling oar. but in order to give speed to a heavy masawa canoe, at least ten men would have to paddle and pull. as we shall see, on certain ceremonial occasions, the canoes have to be propelled by paddling, for instance when they approach their final destination, after having performed the great mwasila magic. when they arrive at a halting place, the canoes, if necessary, are beached. as a rule, however, the heavily loaded canoes on a kula expedition, would be secured by both mooring and anchoring, according to the bottom. on muddy bottoms, such as that of the trobriand lagoon, a long stick would be thrust into the slime, and one end of the canoe lashed to it. from the other, a heavy stone, tied with a rope, would be thrown down as an anchor. over a hard, rocky bottom, the anchor stone alone is used. it can be easily understood that with such craft, and with such limitations in sailing, there are many real dangers which threaten the natives. if the wind is too strong, and the sea becomes too rough, a canoe may not be able to follow its course, and making lee-way, or even directly running before the wind, it may be driven into a quarter where there is no landfall to be made, or from where at best there is no returning at that season. this is what happened to the dobuan boat mentioned before. or else, a canoe becalmed and seized by the tide may not be able to make its way by means of paddling. or in stormy weather, it may be smashed on rocks and sandbanks, or even unable to withstand the impact of waves. an open craft like a native canoe easily fills with sea water, and, in a heavy rain-storm, with rain water. in a calm sea this is not very dangerous, for the wooden canoe does not sink; even if swamped, the water can be baled out and the canoe floats up. but in rough weather, a water-logged canoe loses its buoyancy and gets broken up. last and not least, there is the danger of the canoe being pressed into the water, outrigger first, should the wind strike it on the opposite side. with so many real dangers around it, it is a marvellous thing, and to the credit of native seamanship, that accidents are comparatively rare. we now know about the crew of the canoe and the different functions which every man has to fulfil. remembering what has been said in chapter iv, division v, about the sociological division of functions in sailing, we can visualise concretely the craft with all its inmates, as it sails on the pilolu; the toliwaga usually sits near the mast in the compartment called kayguya'u. with him perhaps is one of his sons or young relatives, while another boy remains in the bows, near the conch-shell ready to sound it, whenever the occasion arises. thus are employed the toliwaga and the dodo'u (small boys). the usagelu or members of the crew, some four or five strong, are each at his post, with perhaps one supernumerary to assist at any emergency, where the task would require it. on the platform are lounging some of the silasila, the youths not yet employed in any work, and not participating in the kula, but there for their pleasure, and to learn how to manage a boat (see plate xl). iii all these people have not only special posts and modes of occupation assigned to them, but they have also to keep certain rules. the canoe on a kula expedition, is surrounded by taboos, and many observances have to be strictly kept, else this or that might go wrong. thus it is not allowed to 'point to objects with the hand' (yosala yamada), or those who do it will become sick. a new canoe has many prohibitions connected with it, which are called bomala wayugo (the taboos of the lashing creeper). eating and drinking are not allowed in a new canoe except after sunset. the breaking of this taboo would make the canoe very slow. on a very quick waga this rule might perhaps be disregarded, especially if one of the young boys were hungry or thirsty. the toliwaga would then bale in some sea-water, pour it over one of the lashings of the creeper with the words: "i sprinkle thy eye, o kudayuri creeper, so that our crew might eat." after that, he would give the boy something to eat and drink. besides this eating and drinking taboo, on a new waga the other physiological needs must not be satisfied. in case of urgent necessity, a man jumps into the water, holding to one of the cross sticks of the outrigger, or if it were a small boy, he is lowered into the water by one of the elders. this taboo, if broken, would also make the canoe slow. these two taboos, however, as was said, are kept only on a new waga, that is on such a one which either sails for the first time, or else has been relashed and repainted before this trip. the taboos are in all cases not operative on the return journey. women are not allowed to enter a new waga before it sails. certain types of yams may not be carried on a canoe, which has been lashed with the rites of one of the wayugo magical systems. there are several systems of this magic (compare chapter xvii, division vii) and each has got its specific taboos. these last taboos are to be kept right through the sailing. on account of a magic to be described in the next chapter, the magic of safety as it might be called, a canoe has to be kept free from contact with earth, sand and stones. hence the natives of sinaketa do not beach their canoes if they can possibly avoid it. among the specific taboos of the kula, called bomala lilava (taboos of the magical bundle) there is a strict rule referring to the entering of a canoe. this must not be entered from any other point but on the vitovaria, that is, the front side of the platform, facing the mast. a native has to scale the platform at this place, then, crouching low, pass to the back or front, and there descend into the body of the canoe, or sit down where he is. the compartment facing the lilava (magical bundle) is filled out with other trade goods. in front of it sits the chief, behind it the man who handles the sheets. the natives have special expressions which denote the various manners of illicitly entering a canoe, and, in some of the canoe exorcisms, these expressions are used to undo the evil effects of the breaking of these taboos. other prohibitions, which the natives call the taboo of the mwasila, though not associated with the lilava, are those which do not allow of using flower wreaths, red ornaments, or red flowers in decorating the canoe or the bodies of the crew. the red colour of such ornaments is, according to native belief, magically incompatible with the aim of the expedition--the acquisition of the red spondylus necklaces. also, yams may not be roasted on the outward journey, while later on, in dobu, no local food may be eaten, and the natives have to subsist on their own provisions, until the first kula gifts have been received. there are, besides, definite rules, referring to the behaviour of one canoe towards another, but these vary considerably with the different villages. in sinaketa, such rules are very few; no fixed sequence is observed in the sailing order of the canoes, anyone of them can start first, and if one of them is swifter it may pass any of the others, even that of a chief. this, however, has to be done so that the slower canoe is not passed on the outrigger side. should this happen, the transgressing canoe has to give the other one a peace offering (lula), because it has broken a bomala lilava, it has offended the magical bundle. there is one interesting point with regard to priorities in sinaketa, and to describe this we must hark back to the subject of canoe-building and launching. one of the sub-clans of the lukwasisiga clan, the tolabwaga sub-clan, have the right of priority in all the successive operations of piecing together, lashing, caulking, and painting of their canoes. all these stages of building and all the magic must first be done on the tolabwaga canoe, and this canoe is also the first to be launched. only afterwards, the chief's and the commoners' canoes may follow. a correct observance of this rule 'keeps the sea clean' (imilakatile bwarita). if it were broken, and the chiefs had their canoes built or launched before the tolabwaga, the kula would not be successful. "we go to dobu, no pig, no soulava necklace is given. we would tell the chiefs: 'why have you first made your canoes? the ancestor spirits have turned against us, for we have broken the old custom!'" once at sea, however, the chiefs are first again, in theory at least, for in practice the swiftest canoe may sail first. in the sailing custom of vakuta, the other south boyowan community, who make the kula with the dobu, a sub-clan of the lukwasisiga clan, called tolawaga, have the privilege of priority in all the canoe-building operations. while at sea, they also retain one prerogative, denied to all the others: the man who steers with the smaller oar, the tokabina viyoyu, is allowed permanently to stand up on the platform. as the natives put it, "this is the sign of the tolawaga (sub-clan) of vakuta: wherever we see a man standing up at the viyoyu, we say: 'there sails the canoe of the tolawaga!'" the greatest privileges, however, granted to a sub-clan in sailing are those which are to be found in kavataria. this fishing and sailing community from the north shore of the lagoon makes distant and dangerous sailings to the north-western end of fergusson island. these expeditions for sago, betel-nut, and pigs will be described in chapter xxi. their sea customs, however, have to be mentioned here. the kulutula sub-clan of the lukwasisiga clan enjoy all the same privileges of priority in building, as the tolabwaga and tolawaga clans in the southern villages, only in a still higher degree. for their canoe has to pass each stage of construction on the first day, and only the day after can the others follow. this refers even to launching, the kulutula canoe being launched one day, and on the next those of the chiefs and commoners. when the moment of starting arrives, the kulutula canoe leaves the beach first, and during the sailing no one is allowed to pass ahead of it. when they arrive at the sandbanks or at an intermediate place in the amphletts, the kulutula have to anchor first, and first go ashore and make their camp ready. only after that can the others follow. this priority expires at the final point of destination. when they arrive at the furthest koya the kulutula go ashore first, and they are the first to be presented with the welcoming gift of the 'foreigner' (tokinana). he receives them with a bunch of betel-nut, which he beats against the head of the canoe, till the nuts scatter. on the return journey, the kulutula clan sink again into their naturally inferior position. it may be noted that all the three privileged sub-clans in the three villages belong to the lukwasisiga clan, and that the names of two of them, tolawaga, tolabwaga have a striking resemblance to the word toliwaga, although these resemblances would have to be tested by some stricter methods of etymological comparison, than i have now at my disposal. the fact that these clans, under special circumstances of sailing, resume what may be a lost superiority points to an interesting historical survival. the name kulutula is undoubtedly identical with kulutalu, which is an independent totemic clan in the eastern marshall bennetts and in woodlark. [ ] iv let us return now to our sinaketan fleet, moving southwards along the barrier reef and sighting one small island after the other. if they did not start very early from muwa--and delay is one of the characteristics of native life--and if they were not favoured with a very good wind, they would probably have to put in at one of the small sand islands, legumatabu, gabuwana or yakum. here, on the western side, sheltered from the prevalent trade winds, there is a diminutive lagoon, bounded by two natural breakwaters of coral reef running from the northern and southern ends of the island. fires are lit on the clean, white sand, under the scraggy pandanus trees, and the natives boil their yam food and the eggs of the wild sea fowl, collected on the spot. when darkness closes in and the fires draw them all into a circle, the kula talk begins again. let us listen to some such conversations, and try to steep ourselves in the atmosphere surrounding this handful of natives, cast for a while on to the narrow sandbank, far away from their homes, having to trust only to their frail canoes on the long journey which faces them. darkness, the roar of surf breaking on the reef, the dry rattle of the pandanus leaves in the wind, all produce a frame of mind in which it is easy to believe in the dangers of witches and all the beings usually hidden away, but ready to creep out at some special moment of horror. the change of tone is unmistakable, when you get the natives to talk about these things on such an occasion, from the calm, often rationalistic way of treating them in broad daylight in an ethnographer's tent. some of the most striking revelations i have received of this side of native belief and psychology were made to me on similar occasions. sitting on a lonely beach in sanaroa, surrounded by a crew of trobrianders, dobuans, and a few local natives, i first heard the story of the jumping stones. on a previous night, trying to anchor off gumasila in the amphletts, we had been caught by a violent squall, which tore one of our sails, and forced us to run before the wind, on a dark night, in the pouring rain. except for myself, all the members of the crew saw clearly the flying witches in the form of a flame at the mast head. whether this was st. elmo's fire i could not judge, as i was in the cabin, seasick and indifferent to dangers, witches, and even ethnographic revelations. inspired by this incident, my crew told me how this is, as a rule, a sign of disaster, how such a light appeared a few years ago in a boat, which was sunk almost on the same spot where the squall had caught us; but fortunately all were saved. starting from this, all sorts of dangers were spoken about, in a tone of deep conviction, rendered perfectly sincere by the experiences of the previous night, the surrounding darkness, and the difficulties of the situation--for we had to repair our sail and again attempt the difficult landing in the amphletts. i have always found that whenever natives are found under similar circumstances, surrounded by the darkness and the imminent possibility of danger, they naturally drift into a conversation about the various things and beings into which the fears and apprehensions of generations have traditionally crystallised. thus if we imagine that we listen to an account of the perils and horrors of the seas, sitting round the fire at yakum or legumatabu, we do not stray from reality. one of those who are specially versed in tradition, and who love to tell a story, might refer to one of his own experiences; or to a well-known case from the past, while others would chime in, and comment, telling their own stories. general statements of belief would be given, while the younger men would listen to the tales so familiar, but always heard with renewed interest. they would hear about an enormous octopus (kwita) which lies in wait for canoes, sailing over the open seas. it is not an ordinary kwita of exceptional size, but a special one, so gigantic that it would cover a whole village with its body; its arms are thick as coco-nut palms, stretching right across the sea. with typical exaggeration, the natives will say: 'ikanubwadi pilolu,' ... 'he covers up all the pilolu' (the sea-arm between the trobriands and the amphletts). its proper home is in the east, 'o muyuwa,' as the natives describe that region of sea and islands, where also it is believed some magic is known against the dreadful creature. only seldom does it come to the waters between the trobriands and amphletts, but there are people who have seen it there. one of the old men of sinaketa tells how, coming from dobu, when he was quite young, he sailed in a canoe ahead of the fleet, some canoes being to the right and some to the left behind him. suddenly from his canoe, they saw the giant kwita right in front of them. paralysed with fear, they fell silent, and the man himself, getting up on the platform, by signs warned the other canoes of the danger. at once they turned round, and the fleet divided into two, took big bends in their course, and thus gave the octopus a wide berth. for woe to the canoe caught by the giant kwita! it would be held fast, unable to move for days, till the crew, dying of hunger and thirst, would decide to sacrifice one of the small boys of their number. adorned with valuables, he would be thrown overboard, and then the kwita, satisfied, would let go its hold of the canoe, and set it free. once a native, asked why a grown-up would not be sacrificed on such an occasion, gave me the answer: "a grown-up man would not like it; a boy has got no mind. we take him by force and throw him to the kwita." another danger threatening a canoe on the high seas, is a big, special rain, or water falling from above, called sinamatanoginogi. when in rain and bad weather a canoe, in spite of all the efforts to bale it out, fills with water, sinamatanoginogi strikes it from above and breaks it up. whether at the basis of this are the accidents with waterspouts, or cloud-bursts or simply extremely big waves breaking up the canoe, it is difficult to judge. on the whole, this belief is more easily accounted for than the previous one. the most remarkable of these beliefs is that there are big, live stones, which lie in wait for sailing canoes, run after them, jump up and smash them to pieces. whenever the natives have reasons to be afraid of them, all the members of the crew will keep silence, as laughter and loud talk attracts them. sometimes they can be seen, at a distance, jumping out of the sea or moving on the water. in fact i have had them pointed to me, sailing off koyatabu, and although i could see nothing, the natives, obviously, genuinely believed they saw them. of one thing i am certain, however, that there was no reef awash there for miles around. the natives also know quite well that they are different from any reefs or shallows, for the live stones move, and when they perceive a canoe will pursue it, break it up on purpose and smash the men. nor would these expert fishermen ever confuse a jumping fish with anything else, though in speaking of the stones they may compare them to a leaping dolphin or stingaree. there are two names given to such stones. one of them, nuwakekepaki, applies to the stones met in the dobuan seas. the other, vineylida, to those who live 'o muyuwa.' thus, in the open seas, the two spheres of culture meet, for the stones not only differ in name but also in nature. the nuwakekepaki are probably nothing but malevolent stones. the vineylida are inhabited by witches, or according to others, by evil male beings. [ ] sometimes a vineylida will spring to the surface, and hold fast the canoe, very much in the same manner as the giant octopus would do. and here again offerings would have to be given. a folded mat would first be thrown, in an attempt to deceive it; if this were of no avail, a little boy would be anointed with coco-nut oil, adorned with arm-shells and bagi necklaces, and thrown over to the evil stones. it is difficult to realise what natural phenomena or actual occurrences might be at the bottom of this belief, and the one of the giant octopus. we shall presently meet with a cycle of beliefs presenting the same striking features. we shall find a story told about human behaviour mixed up with supernatural elements, laying down the rules of what would happen, and how human beings would behave, in the same matter of fact way, as if ordinary events of tribal life were described. i shall have to comment on the psychology of these beliefs in the next chapter, where also the story is told. of all the dangerous and frightful beings met with on a sailing expedition, the most unpleasant, the best known and most dreaded are the flying witches, the yoyova or mulukwausi. the former name means a woman endowed with such powers, whereas mulukwausi describes the second self of the woman, as it flies disembodied through the air. thus, for instance, they would say that such and such a woman in wawela is a yoyova. but sailing at night, one would have to be on the look out for mulukwausi, among whom might possibly be the double of that woman in wawela. very often, especially at moments when the speaker would be under the influence of fear of these beings, the deprecating euphemism--'vivila' (women) would be used. and probably our boyowan mariners would speak of them thus in their talk round the campfire, for fear of attracting them by sounding their real name. dangerous as they always are, at sea they become infinitely more dreaded. for the belief is deep that in case of shipwreck or mishap at sea, no real evil can befall the crows except by the agency of the dreaded women. as through their connection with shipwreck, they enter inevitably into our narrative, it will be better to leave our kula expedition on the beach of yakum in the midst of pilolu, and to turn in the next chapter to kiriwinian ethnography and give there an account of the natives' belief in the flying witches and their legend of shipwreck. chapter x the story of shipwreck i in this chapter an account will be given of the ideas and beliefs associated with shipwreck, and of the various precautions which the natives take to insure their own safety. we shall find here a strange mixture of definite, matter of fact information, and of fantastic superstitions. taking a critical, ethnographic side view, it may be said directly that the fanciful elements are intertwined with the realities in such a manner, that it is difficult to make a distinction between what is mere mytho-poetic fiction and what is a customary rule of behaviour, drawn from actual experience. the best way of presenting this material will be to give a consecutive account of a shipwreck, as it is told in kiriwinian villages by the travelled old men to the younger generation. i shall adduce in it the several magical formulæ, the rules of behaviour, the part played by the miraculous fish, and the complex ritual of the saved party as they flee from the pursuing mulukwausi. these--the flying witches--will play such an important part in the account, that i must begin with a detailed description of the various beliefs referring to them, though the subject has been touched upon once or twice before (chapter ii, division vii, and other places). the sea and sailing upon it are intimately associated in the mind of a boyowan with these women. they had to be mentioned in the description of canoe magic, and we shall see what an important part they play in the legends of canoe building. in his sailing, whether he goes to kitava or further east, or whether he travels south to the amphletts and dobu, they form one of the main preoccupations of a boyowan sailor. for they are not only dangerous to him, but to a certain extent, foreign. boyowa, with the exception of wawela and one or two other villages on the eastern coast, and in the south of the island, is an ethnographic district, where the flying witches do not exist, although they visit it from time to time. whereas all the surrounding tribes are full of women who practice this form of sorcery. thus sailing south, the boyowan is travelling straight into the heart of their domain. these women have the power of making themselves invisible, and flying at night through the air. the orthodox belief is that a woman who is a yoyova can send forth a double which is invisible at will, but may appear in the form of a flying fox or of a night bird or a firefly. there is also a belief that a yoyova develops within her a something, shaped like an egg, or like a young, unripe coco-nut. this something is called as a matter of fact kapuwana, which is the word for a small coco-nut. [ ] this idea remains in the native's mind in a vague, indefinite, undifferentiated form, and any attempt to elicit a more detailed definition by asking him such questions, as to whether the kapuwana is a material object or not, would be to smuggle our own categories into his belief, where they do not exist. the kapuwana is anyhow believed to be the something which in the nightly flights leaves the body of the yoyova and assumes the various forms in which the mulukwausi appears. another variant of the belief about the yoyova is, that those who know their magic especially well, can fly themselves, bodily transporting themselves through the air. but it can never be sufficiently emphasised that all these beliefs cannot be treated as consistent pieces of knowledge; they flow into one another, and even the same native probably holds several views rationally inconsistent with one another. even their terminology (compare the last division of the foregoing chapter), cannot be taken as implying a strict distinction or definition. thus, the word yoyova is applied to the woman as we meet her in the village, and the word mulukwausi will be used when we see something suspicious flying through the air. but it would be incorrect to systematise this use into a sort of doctrine and to say: "an individual woman is conceived as consisting of an actual living personality called yoyova, and of an immaterial, spiritual principle called mulukwausi, which in its potential form is the kapuwana." in doing this we would do much what the mediæval scholastics did to the living faith of the early ages. the native feels and fears his belief rather than formulates it clearly to himself. he uses terms and expressions, and thus, as used by him, we must collect them as documents of belief, but abstain from working them out into a consistent theory; for this represents neither the native's mind nor any other form of reality. as we remember from chapter ii, the flying witches are a nefarious agency, second in importance to the bwaga'u (male sorcerer), but in efficiency far more deadly even than he himself. in contrast to the bwaga'u, who is simply a man in possession of a special form of magic, the yoyova have to be gradually initiated into their status. only a small child, whose mother is a witch, can become a witch herself. when a witch gives birth to a female child, she medicates a piece of obsidian, and cuts off the navel string. the navel string is then buried, with the recital of a magical formula, in the house, and not, as is done in all ordinary cases, in the garden. soon after, the witch will carry her daughter to the sea beach, utter a spell over some brine in a coco-nut cup, and give the child to drink. after that, the child is submerged in water and washed, a kind of witch's baptism! then she brings back the baby into the house, utters a spell over a mat, and folds her up in it. at night, she carries the baby through the air, and goes to a trysting place of other yoyova, where she presents her child ritually to them. in contrast to the usual custom of young mothers of sleeping over a small fire, a sorceress lies with her baby in the cold. as the child grows up, the mother will take it into her arms and carry it through the air on her nightly rounds. entering girlhood at the age when the first grass skirt is put on a maiden, the little prospective witch will begin to fly herself. another system of training, running side by side with flying, consists in accustoming the child to participation in human flesh. even before the growing witch will begin to fly on her own account, the mother will take her to the ghoulish repasts, where she and other witches sit over a corpse, eating its eyes, tongue, lungs, and entrails. there the little girl receives her first share of corpse flesh, and trains her taste to like this diet. there are other forms of training ascribed to mothers solicitous that their daughters should grow up into efficient yoyova and mulukwausi. at night the mother will stand on one side of the hut, with the child in her hands, and throw the little one over the roof. then quickly, with the speed only possible to a yoyova, she will move round, and catch the child on the other side. this happens before the child begins to fly, and is meant to accustom it to passing rapidly through the air. or again, the child will be held by her feet, head down, and remain in this position while the mother utters a spell. thus gradually, by all these means, the child acquires the powers and tastes of a yoyova. it is easy to pick out such girls from other children. they will be recognisable by their crude tastes, and more especially by their habit of eating raw flesh of pigs or uncooked fish. and here we come to a point, where mythical superstition plays over into something more real, for i have been assured by reliable informants, and those not only natives, that there are cases of girls who will show a craving for raw meat, and when a pig is being quartered in the village will drink its blood and tear up its flesh. these statements i never could verify by direct observations, and they may be only the result of very strong belief projecting its own realities, as we see on every side in our own society in miraculous cures, spiritistic phenomena, etc., etc. if, however, the eating of raw flesh by girl children really occurs, this simply means that they play up to what they know is said and believed about them. this again is a phenomenon of social psychology met with in many phases of trobriand society and in our own. this does not mean that the character of a yoyova is publicly donned. indeed, though a man often owns up to the fact that he is a bwaga'u, and treats his speciality quite openly in conversation, a woman will never directly confess to being a yoyova, not even to her own husband. but she will certainly be marked by everyone as such a one, and she will often play up to the rôle, for it is always an advantage to be supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers. and moreover, being a sorceress is also a good source of income. a woman will often receive presents with the understanding that such and such a person has to be injured. she will openly take gifts, avowedly in payment for healing someone who has been hurt by another witch. thus the character of a yoyova is, in a way, a public one, and the most important and powerful witches will be enumerated by name. but no woman will ever openly speak about being one. of course to have such a character would in no way spoil matrimonial chances, or do anything but enhance the social status of a woman. so deep is the belief in the efficacy of magic, and in magic being the only means of acquiring extraordinary faculties, that all powers of a yoyova are attributed to magic. as we saw in the training of a young yoyova, magic has to be spoken at every stage in order to impart to her the character of a witch. a full blown yoyova has to utter special magic each time she wishes to be invisible, or when she wants to fly, or acquire higher speed, or penetrate darkness and distance in order to find out whether an accident is happening there. but like everything referring to this form of witchcraft, these formulæ never come to light. although i was able to acquire a whole body of spells of the bwaga'u sorcery, i could not even lift the fringe of the impenetrable veil, surrounding the magic of the yoyova. as a matter of fact, there is not the slightest doubt for me that not one single rite, not one single word of this magic, have ever existed. once a mulukwausi is fully trained in her craft, she will often go at night to feed on corpses or to destroy shipwrecked mariners, for these are her two main pursuits. by a special sense, acquired through magic, she can 'hear,' as the natives say, that a man has died at such and such a place, or that a canoe is in danger. even a young apprenticed yoyova will have her hearing so sharpened that she will tell her mother: "mother, i hear, they cry!" which means that a man is dead or dying at some place. or she will say: "mother, a waga is sinking!" and then they both will fly to the spot. when she goes out on such an errand, the yoyova leaves her body behind. then she climbs a tree, and reciting some magic, she ties a creeper to it. then, she flies off, along this creeper, which snaps behind her. this is the moment when we see the fire flying through the sky. whenever the natives see a falling star, they know it is a mulukwausi on her flight. another version is that, when a mulukwausi recites a certain spell, a tree which stands somewhere near her destination bends down towards the other tree on which she is perched. she jumps from one top to the other, and it is then that we see the fire. according to some versions, the mulukwausi, that is, the witch in her flying state, moves about naked, leaving her skirt round the body, which remains asleep in the hut. other versions depict her as tying her skirt tightly round her when flying, and beating her buttocks with a magical pandanus streamer. these latter versions are embodied in the magic quoted above in chapter v. arrived at the place where lies the corpse, the mulukwausi, with others who have also flown to the spot, perches on some high object, the top of a tree or the gable of a hut. there they all wait till they can feast on the corpse, and such is their greed and appetite that they are also very dangerous to living men. people who collect round the dead body to mourn and wake over it often have a special spell against the mulukwausi recited over them, by the one who knows it. they are careful not to stray away from the others, and, during burial of the dead and afterwards, they believe the air to be infested with these dangerous witches, who spread the smell of carrion around them. the mulukwausi will eat out the eyes, the tongue, and the 'insides' (lopoula) of the corpse; when they attack a living man they may simply hit him or kick him, and then he becomes more or less sick. but sometimes they get hold of an individual and treat him like a corpse and eat some of his organs, and then the man dies. it is possible to diagnose this, for such a person would quickly fail, losing his speech, his vision, sometimes suddenly being bereft of all power of movement. it is a less dangerous method to the living man when the mulukwausi instead of eating his 'insides' on the spot, simply remove them. they hide them in a place only known to themselves, in order to have provision for a future feast. in that case there is some hope for the victim. another yoyova, summoned quickly by the relations of the dying and well paid by them, will, in the form of a mulukwausi, go forth, search for the missing organs, and, if she is fortunate enough to find and restore them, save the life of the victim. kenoriya, the favourite daughter of to'ulawa, the chief of omarakana, while on a visit to another village, was deprived of her internal organs by the mulukwausi. when brought home, she could neither move nor speak, and lay down as if dead. her mother and other relatives already began their mortuary wailing over her, the chief himself broke out into loud lamentations. but nevertheless, as a forlorn hope, they sent for a woman from wawela, a well-known yoyova, who after receiving valuables and food, flew out as a mulukwausi, and the very next night found kenoriya's insides somewhere in the raybwag, near the beach of kaulukuba, and restored her to health. another authentic story is that of the daughter of a greek trader and a kiriwinian woman from oburaku. this story was told me by the lady herself, in perfectly correct english, learnt in one of the white settlements of new guinea, where she had been brought up in the house of a leading missionary. but the story was not spoilt by any scepticism; it was told with perfect simplicity and conviction. when she was a little girl, a woman called sewawela, from the island of kitava, but married to a man of wawela, came to her parents' house and wanted to sell a mat. they did not buy it, and gave her only a little food, which, as she was a renowned yoyova and accustomed therefore to deferential treatment, made her angry. when night came, the little one was playing on the beach in front of the house, when the parents saw a big firefly hovering about the child. the insect then flew round the parents and went into the room. seeing that there was something strange about the firefly, they called the girl and put her to bed at once. but she fell ill immediately, could not sleep all night, and the parents, with many native attendants, had to keep watch over her. next morning, added the kiriwinian mother, who was listening to her daughter telling me the tale, the girl "boge ikarige; kukula wala ipipisi," "she was dead already, but her heart was still beating." all the women present broke out into the ceremonial lamentations. the father of the girl's mother, however, went to wawela, and got hold of another yoyova, called bomrimwari. she took some herbs and smeared her own body all over. then she went out in the form of a mulukwausi in search of the girl's lopoulo (inside). she searched about and found it in the hut of sewawela, where it lay on the shelf on which are kept the big clay-pots, in which the mona (taro pudding), is cooked ceremonially. there it lay "red as calico." sewawela had left it there, while she went into the garden with her husband, meaning to eat it on her return. had this happened, the girl could not have been saved. as soon as bomrimwari found it, she made some magic over it then and there. then she came back to the trader's compound, made some more magic over ginger-root, and water, and caused the lopoulo to return to its place. after that, the little girl soon got better. a substantial payment was given by the parents to the yoyova for saving their child. living in oburaku, a village on the southern half of boyowa, i was on the boundary between the district where the yoyova do not exist, and the other one, to the east, where they are plentiful. on the other side of the island, which is very narrow at this part, is the village of wawela, where almost every woman is reputed to be a witch, and some are quite notorious. going over the raybwag at night, the natives of oburaku would point out certain fireflies which would suddenly disappear, not to relight again. these were the mulukwausi. again, at night, swarms of flying foxes used to flap over the tall trees, making for the big, swampy island of boymapo'u which closes in the lagoon opposite the village. these too were mulukwausi, travelling from the east, their real home. they also used to perch on the tops of the trees growing on the water's edge, and this was therefore an especially dangerous spot after sunset. i was often warned not to sit there on the platforms of the beached canoes, as i liked to do, watching the play of colours on the smooth, muddy waters, and on the bright mangroves. when i fell ill soon after, everybody decided that i had been 'kicked' by the mulukwausi, and some magic was performed over me by my friend molilakwa, the same who gave me some formulæ of kayga'u, the magic spoken at sea against witches. in this case his efforts were entirely successful, and my quick recovery was attributed by the natives solely to the spells. ii what interests us most about mulukwausi, is their association with the sea and shipwreck. very often they will roam over the sea, and meet at a trysting place on a reef. there they will partake of a special kind of coral, broken off from a reef, a kind called by the natives nada. this whets their appetite for human flesh, exactly as the drinking of salt water does with the bwaga'u. they have also some indirect power over the elements in the sea. although the natives do not quite agree on the point, there is no doubt that a definite connection exists between the mulukwausi and all the other dangers which may be met in the sea, such as sharks, the 'gaping depth' (ikapwagega wiwitu), many of the small sea animals, crabs, some of the shells and the other things to be mentioned presently, all of which are considered to be the cause of death of drowning men. thus the belief is quite definite that, in being cast into the water by the shipwreck, men do not meet any real danger except by being eaten by the mulukwausi, the sharks, and the other animals. if by the proper magic these influences can be obviated, the drowning men will escape unscathed. the belief in the omnipotence of man, or rather, woman in this case, and of the equal power in antidoting by magic, governs all the ideas of these natives about shipwreck. the supreme remedy and insurance against any dangers lies in the magic of mist, called kayga'u, which, side by side with kula magic, and the magic of the canoes, is the third of the indispensable magical equipments of a sailor. a man who knows well the kayga'u is considered to be able to travel safely through the most dangerous seas. a renowned chief, maniyuwa, who was reputed as one of the greatest masters in kayga'u as well as in other magic, died in dobu on an expedition about two generations ago. his son, maradiana, had learnt his father's kayga'u. although the mulukwausi are extremely dangerous in the presence of a corpse, and though the natives would never dream of putting a dead body on a canoe, and thus multiplying the probabilities of an attack by the witches, still, maradiana, trusting to his kayga'u, brought the corpse back to boyowa without mishap. this act, a testimony to the daring sailor's great prowess, and to the efficiency of the kayga'u magic, is kept alive in the memory and tradition of the natives. one of my informants, boasting of his kayga'u, told me how once, on a return from dobu, he performed his rites. such a mist arose as a consequence of it that the rest of the canoes lost their way, and arrived in the island of kayleula. indeed, if we can speak of a belief being alive, that is, of having a strong hold over human imagination, the belief in the danger from mulukwausi at sea is emphatically such a one. in times of mental stress, in times of the slightest danger at sea, or when a dying or dead person is near, the natives at once respond emotionally in terms of this belief. no one could live among these natives, speaking their language, and following their tribal life, without constantly coming up against the belief in mulukwausi, and in the efficiency of the kayga'u. as in all other magic, also here, there are various systems of kayga'u, that is, there are various formulæ, slightly differing in their expressions, though usually similar in their fundamental wordings and in certain 'key' expressions. in each system, there are two main types of spells, the giyotanawa, or the kayga'u of the underneath, and the giyorokaywa, or the kayga'u of the above. the first one usually consists of a short formula or formulæ spoken over some stones and some lime in a lime pot and over some ginger root. this giyotanawa, as its name indicates, is magic directed against the evil agencies, awaiting the drowning men from below. its spells close up 'the gaping depth' and they screen off the shipwrecked men from the eyes of the sharks. they also protect them from the other evil things, which cause the death of a man in drowning. the several little sea worms found on the beach, the crabs, the poisonous fish, soka, and the spiky fish, baiba'i, as well as the jumping stones, whether vineylida or nu'akekepaki, are all warded off and blinded by the giyotanawa. perhaps the most extraordinary belief in this connection is that the tokwalu, the carved human figures on the prow boards, the guwaya, the semi-human effigy on the mast top, as well as the canoe ribs would 'eat' the drowning men if not magically 'treated.' the kayga'u of the 'above,' the giyorokaywa, consists of long spells, recited over some ginger root, on several occasions before sailing, and during bad weather or shipwreck. they are directed exclusively against the mulukwausi, and form therefore the more important class of the two. these spells must never be recited at night, as then the mulukwausi could see and hear the man, and make his magic inefficient. again, the spell of the above, when recited at sea, must be spoken so that the magician is not covered with spray, for if his mouth were wet with sea water, the smell would attract rather than disperse, the flying witches. the man who knows the kayga'u must also be very careful at meal times. children may not speak, play about, or make any noise while he eats, nor should anyone go round him behind his back while he is thus engaged; normay they point out anything with the finger. should the man be thus disturbed during his food, he would have to stop eating at once, and not resume it till the next meal time. now the leading idea of kayga'u is that it produces some sort of mist. the mulukwausi who follow the canoe, the sharks and live stones which lie in wait for it, the depth with all its horror, and the débris of the canoe ready to harm the owner, all these are blinded by the mist that arises in obedience to these spells. thus the paralysing effect of these two main forms of magic and the specialised sphere of influence of each of them, are definite and clear dogmas of native belief. but here again we must not try to press the interpretation of these dogmas too far. some sort of mist covers the eyes of all the evil agencies or blinds them; it makes the natives invisible from them. but to ask whether the kayga'u produces a real mist, visible also to man, or only a supernatural one, visible only to the mulukwausi; or whether it simply blinds their eyes so that they see nothing, would be asking too much. the same native who will boast of having produced a real mist, so great that it led astray his companions, will next day perform the kayga'u in the village during a burial, and affirm that the mulukwausi are in a mist, though obviously a perfectly clear atmosphere surrounds the whole proceedings. the natives will tell how, sailing on a windy but clear day, after a kayga'u has been recited into the eye of the wind, they hear the shrieks of the mulukwausi, who, losing their companions and the scent of the trail, hail one another in the dark. again, some expressions seem to represent the view that it is mainly an action on the eyes of the witches. 'idudubila matala mulukwausi,'--'it darkens the eyes of the mulukwausi,' or 'iguyugwayu'--'it blinds,' the natives will say. and when asked: "what do the mulukwausi see, then?" they will answer: "they will see mist only. they do not see the places, they do not see the men, only mist." thus here, as in all cases of belief, there is a certain latitude, within which the opinions and views may vary, and only the broad outline, which surrounds them, is definitely fixed by tradition, embodied in ritual, and expressed by the phraseology of magical formulæ or by the statements of a myth. i have thus defined the manner in which the natives face the dangers of the sea; we have found, that the fundamental conceptions underlying this attitude are, that in shipwreck, men are entirely in the hands of the witches, and that from this, only their own magical defence can save them. this defence consists in the rites and formulæ of the kayga'u, of which we have also learnt the leading principles. now, a consecutive description must be given of how this magic is performed when a toliwaga sets out on an expedition. and following up this expedition, it must be told how the natives imagine a shipwreck, and what they believe the behaviour of the shipwrecked party would be. iii i shall give this narrative in a consecutive manner, as it was told to me by some of the most experienced and renowned trobriand sailors in sinaketa, oburaku, and omarakana. we can imagine that exactly such a narrative would be told by a veteran toliwaga to his usagelu on the beach of yakum, as our kula party sit round the camp fires at night. one of the old men, well-known for the excellence of his kayga'u, and boastful of it, would tell his story, entering minutely into all the details, however often the others might have heard about them before, or even assisted at the performance of his magic. he would then proceed to describe, with extreme realism, and dwelling graphically on every point, the story of a shipwreck, very much as if he had gone through one himself. as a matter of fact, no one alive at present has had any personal experience of such a catastrophe, though many have lived through frequent narrow escapes in stormy weather. based on this, and on what they have heard themselves of the tradition of shipwrecks, natives will tell the story with characteristic vividness. thus, the account given below is not only a summary of native belief, it is an ethnographic document in itself, representing the manner in which such type of narrative would be told over camp fires, the same subject being over and over again repeated by the same man, and listened to by the same audience, exactly as we, when children, or the peasants of eastern europe, will hearken to familiar fairy tales and märchen. the only deviation here from what would actually take place in such a story-telling, is the insertion of magical formulæ into the narrative. the speaker might indeed repeat his magic, were he speaking in broad daylight, in his village, to a group of close kinsmen and friends. but being on a small island in the middle of the ocean, and at night, the recital of spells would be a taboo of the kayga'u; nor would a man ever recite his magic before a numerous audience, except on certain occasions at mortuary vigils, where people are expected to chant their magic aloud before hundreds of listeners. returning then again to our group of sailors, who sit under the stunted pandanus trees of yakum, let us listen to one of the companions of the daring maradiana, now dead, to one of the descendants of the great maniyuwa. he will tell us how, early in the morning, on the day of departure from sinaketa, or sometimes on the next morning, when they leave muwa, he performs the first rite of kayga'u. wrapping up a piece of leyya (wild ginger root) in a bit of dried banana leaf, he chants over it the long spell of the giyorokaywa, the kayga'u of the above. he chants this spell into the leaf, holding it cup-shaped, with the morsel of ginger root at the bottom, so that the spell might enter into the substance to be medicated. after that, the leaf is immediately wrapped round, so as to imprison the magical virtue, and the magician ties the parcel round his left arm, with a piece of bast or string. sometimes he will medicate two bits of ginger and make two parcels, of which the other will be placed in a string necklet, and carried on his breast. our narrator, who is the master of one of the canoes, will probably not be the only one within the circle round the camp fire, who carries these bundles of medicated ginger; for though a toliwaga must always perform this rite as well as know all the other magic of shipwreck, as a rule several of the older members of his crew also know it, and have also prepared their magical bundles. this is one of the spells of the giyorokaywa, such as the old man said over the ginger root: giyorokaywa no. (leyya kayga'u). "i will befog muyuwa!" (repeated). "i will befog misima!" (repeated). "the mist springs up; the mist makes them tremble. i befog the front, i shut off the rear; i befog the rear, i shut off the front. i fill with mist, mist springs up; i fill with mist, the mist which makes them tremble." this is the opening part of the formula, very clear, and easy to be translated. the mist is magically invoked, the word for mist being repeated with several verbal combinations, in a rhythmic and alliterative manner. the expression tremble, maysisi, refers to a peculiar belief, that when a sorcerer or sorceress approaches the victim, and this man paralyses them with a counter spell, they lose their bearings, and stand there trembling. the main part of this spell opens up with the word 'aga'u,' 'i befog,' which, like all such leading words of a spell is first of all intoned in a long, drawn-out chant, and then quickly repeated with a series of words. then the word 'aga'u' is replaced by 'aga'u sulu,' 'i befog, lead astray,' which in its turn makes way for, 'aga'u boda,' 'i befog, shut off.' the list of words repeated in succession with each of these three expressions is a long one. it is headed by the words 'the eyes of the witches.' then, 'the eyes of the sea-crab.' then, always with the word 'eyes,' the animals, worms and insects which threaten drowning men in the sea, are enumerated. after they are exhausted, the various parts of the body are repeated; then finally, a long list of villages is recited, preceded by the word aga'u, forming phrases such as: "i befog the eyes of the women of wawela, etc." let us reconstruct a piece of this middle part in a consecutive manner. "i befog ...! i befog, i befog, the eyes of the witches! i befog the eyes of the little crabs! i befog the eyes of the hermit crab! i befog the eyes of the insects on the beach! ... etc." "i befog the hand, i befog the foot, i befog the head. i befog the shoulders ... etc." "i befog the eyes of the women of wawela; i befog the eyes of the women of kaulasi; i befog the eyes of the women of kumilabwaga, i befog the eyes of the women of vakuta ... etc., etc." "i befog, lead astray, the eyes of the witches; i befog, lead astray the eyes of the little crab! ... etc." "i befog, shut off the eyes of the witches, i befog, shut off the eyes of the little crab ... etc., etc." it can easily be seen how long drawn such a spell is, especially as in this middle part, the magician will often come back to where he has started, and repeat the leading word over and over again with the others. indeed, this can be taken as a typical tapwana, or middle part, of a long spell, where the leading words are, so to speak, well rubbed into the various other expressions. one feature of this middle part is remarkable, namely, that the beings from below, the crabs, the sea insects and worms are invoked, although the spell is one of the giyorokaywa type, the magic of the above. this is an inconsistency frequently met with; a contradiction between the ideas embodied in the spell, and the theory of the magic, as explicitly formulated by the informants. the parts of the body enumerated in the tapwana refer to the magician's own person, and to his companions in the canoe. by this part of the spell, he surrounds himself and all his companions with mist, which makes them invisible to all the evil influences. after the long tapwana has been recited, there follows the last part, which, however, is not chanted in this case, but spoken in a low, persuasive, tender voice. "i hit thy flanks; i fold over thy mat, thy bleached mat of pandanus; i shall make it into thy mantle. i take thy sleeping doba (grass skirt), i cover thy loins; remain there, snore within thy house! i alone myself" (here the reciter's name is uttered) "i shall remain in the sea, i shall swim!" this last part throws some interesting sidelights on native belief in mulukwausi. we see here the expression of the idea that the body of the witch remains in the house, whilst she herself goes out on her nefarious errand. molilakwa, the magician of oburaku who gave me this spell, said in commentary to this last part: "the yoyova casts off her body (inini wowola--which really means 'peals off her skin'); she lies down and sleeps, we hear her snoring. her covering (kapwalela that is, her outward body, her skin) remains in the house, and she herself flies (titolela biyova). her skirt remains in the house, she flies naked. when she meets men, she eats us. in the morning, she puts on her body, and lies down in her hut. when we cover her loins with the doba, she cannot fly any more." this last sentence refers to the magical act of covering, as expressed in the last part of the spell. here we find another variant of belief as to the nature of the mulukwausi, to be added to those mentioned before. previously we met the belief of the disassociation of the woman into the part that remains, and the part that flies. but here the real personality is located in the flying part, whereas what remains is the 'covering.' to imagine the mulukwausi, the flying part, as a 'sending,' in the light of this belief, would not be correct. in general, such categories as 'agent,' and 'sending,' or as 'real self' and 'emanation' etc., etc., can be applied to native belief as rough approximations only, and the exact definition should be given in terms of native statement. the final sentence of this spell, containing the wish to remain alone in the sea, to be allowed to swim and drift, is a testimony to the belief that without mulukwausi, there is no danger to a man adrift on a piece of wreckage among the foaming waves of a stormy sea. after reciting this lengthy spell, the toliwaga, as he tells us in his narrative, has had to perform another rite, this time, over his lime-pot. taking out the stopper of rolled palm leaf and plaited fibre from the baked and decorated gourd in which he keeps his lime, he utters another spell of the giyorokaywa cycle: giyorokaywa no. (pwaka kayga'u). "there on muruwa, i arise, i stand up! iwa, sewatupa, at the head--i rumble, i disperse. kasabwaybwayreta, namedili, toburitolu, tobwebweso, tauva'u, bo'abwa'u, rasarasa. they are lost, they disappear." this beginning, full of archaic expressions, implicit meanings and allusions and personal names, is very obscure. the first words refer probably to the head-quarters of sorcery; muruwa (or murua--woodlark island), iwa, sewatupa. the long list of personal names following afterwards contains some mythical ones, like kasabwaybwayreta, and some others, which i cannot explain, though the words tobwebweso, tauva'u, and bo'abwa'u suggest that this is a list in which some sorcerers' names figure. as a rule, in such spells, a list of names signifies that all those who have used and handed down this formula, are enumerated. in some cases the people mentioned are frankly mythical heroes. sometimes a few mythical names are chanted, and then comes a string of actual people, forming a sort of pedigree of the spell. if these in this spell are ancestor names they all refer to mythical personalities, and not to real ancestors. [ ] the last words contained an expression typical of the kayga'u. then comes the middle part. "i arise, i escape from bara'u; i arise, i escape from yoyova. i arise, i escape from mulukwausi. i arise, i escape from bowo'u, etc.," repeating the leading words "i arise, i escape from--" with the words used to describe the flying witches in the various surrounding districts. thus the word bara'u comes from muyuwa (woodlark island), where it describes the sorceress, and not, as in other massim districts, a male sorcerer. the words yoyova, mulukwausi need no explanation. bowo'u is an amphlettan word. words from dobu, tubetube, etc., follow. then the whole period is repeated, adding 'eyes of' in the middle of each phrase, so that it runs: "i arise, i escape from the eyes of the bara'u. i arise, i escape from the eyes of the yoyova, etc." the leading words, 'i arise, i escape from' are then replaced by: 'they wander astray,' which, again, make way to 'the sea is cleared off.' this whole middle part of the spell is clear, and needs no commentary. then comes the concluding period (dogina): "i am a manuderi (small bird), i am a kidikidi (small sea bird), i am a floating log, i am a piece of sea-weed; i shall produce mist till it encloses all, i shall befog, i shall shut off with fog. mist, enveloped in mist, dissolving in mist am i. clear is the sea, (the mulukwausi are) straying in mist." this part also needs no special commentary. this is again a long spell of the giyorokaywa type, that is, directed against the mulukwausi, and in this the spell is consistent, for the mulukwausi alone are invoked in the middle period. after the spell has been chanted into the lime pot, this is well stoppered, and not opened till the end of the journey. it must be noted that these two giyorokaywa spells have been spoken by our toliwaga in the village or on muwa beach, and in day time. for, as said above, it is a taboo to utter them in the night or at sea. from the moment he has spoken these two spells, both medicated substances, the ginger root and the lime in the lime pot, remain near him. he has also in the canoe some stones of those brought from the koya, and called binabina, in distinction to the dead coral, which is called dakuna. over these stones, at the moment of the occurrence of danger, a spell of the underneath, a giyotanawa will be recited. the following is a formula of this type, short as they always are. giyotanawa no. (dakuna kayga'u). "man, bachelor, woman, young girl; woman, young girl, man, bachelor! traces, traces obliterated by cobwebs; traces, obliterated by turning up (the material in which they were left); i press, i close down! sharks of dukutabuya, i press, i close down; sharks of kaduwaga, i press, i close down," etc., the sharks of muwa, galeya, bonari, and kaulokoki being invoked in turn. all these words are names of marked parts of the sea, in and around the trobriand lagoon. the formula ends up with the following peroration: "i press down thy neck, i open up thy passage of kiyawa, i kick thee down, o shark. duck down under water, shark. die, shark, die away." the commentary to the opening sentences given by my informant, molilakwa of oburaku, was: "this magic is taught to people when they are quite young. hence the mention of young people." the obliterating of traces will be made clearer by the account which follows, in which we shall see that to obliterate traces, to put off the scent the shark and mulukwausi are the main concerns of the shipwrecked party. the middle part refers to sharks only, and so does the peroration. the passage of kiyawa near tuma is mentioned in several types of magical exorcisms, when the evil influence is being banished. this passage lies between the main island and the island of tuma, and leads into the unknown regions of the north-western seas. it will be best to quote here another formula of the giyotanawa type, and a very dramatic one. for this is the formula spoken at the critical moment of shipwreck. at the moment when the sailors decide to abandon the craft and to plunge into the sea, the toliwaga stands up in the canoe, and slowly turning round so as to throw his words towards all four winds, intones in a loud voice this spell: giyotanawa no. . "foam, foam, breaking wave, wave! i shall enter into the breaking wave, i shall come out from behind it. i shall enter from behind into the wave, and i shall come out in its breaking foam!" "mist, gathering mist, encircling mist, surround, surround me!" "mist, gathering mist, encircling mist, surround, surround me, my mast! mist, gathering mist, etc. ... surround me, the nose of my canoe. mist, etc. ... surround me, my sail, mist, etc. ... surround me, my steering oar, mist, etc. ... surround me, my rigging, mist, etc. ... surround me, my platform," and so on, enumerating one after the other all the parts of the canoe and its accessories. then comes the final part of the spell: "i shut off the skies with mist; i make the sea tremble with mist; i close up your mouth, sharks, bonubonu (small worms), ginukwadewo (other worms). go underneath and we shall swim on top." little is needed as a commentary to this magic. its beginning is very clear, and singularly well depicts the situation in which it is uttered. the end refers directly to the primary aim of the magic, to the warding off of the underneath, of the dangerous animals in the sea. the only ambiguity refers to the middle part, where the magical leading words of 'enveloping by mist' are associated with a list of names of the parts of the canoe. i am not certain whether this is to be interpreted, in the sense that the toliwaga wants to surround his whole canoe with mist so that it may not be seen by the sharks, etc., or whether, on the contrary, just on the verge of abandoning his canoe, and anxious to cut himself off from its various parts which may turn on him and 'eat him,' he therefore wants to surround each of them with mist so that it may be blinded. the latter interpretation fits the above-quoted belief that certain parts of the canoe, especially the carved human figures on the prow-board and the mast, the ribs of the canoe, and certain other parts of its construction, 'eat' the shipwrecked men. but again, in this spell, there are enumerated not certain parts, but every part, and that undoubtedly is not consistent with this belief, so the question must remain open. iv i have anticipated some of the events of the consecutive narrative of shipwreck, in order to give the two last mentioned magical formulæ first, and not to have to interrupt the tale of our toliwaga, to which we now return. we left it at the point where, having said his first two kayga'u formulæ over the ginger and into the lime pot, he embarks, keeping these two things handy, and putting some binabina stones within his reach. from here, his narrative becomes more dramatic. he describes the approaching storm: narrative of shipwreck and salvage. "the canoe sails fast; the wind rises; big waves come; the wind booms, du-du-du-du.... the sails flutter; the lamina (outrigger) rises high! all the usagelu crouch on the lamina. i speak magic to calm the wind. the big spell of the sim-sim. they know all about yavata (north-westerley monsoon wind). they live in the eye of the yavata. the wind abates not, not a little bit. it booms, it gains strength, it booms loud du-du-du-du-du. all the usagelu are afraid. the mulukwausi scream, u-ú, u-ú, u-ú, u; their voices are heard in the wind. with the wind they scream and come flying. the veva (sheet rope) is torn from the hands of the tokabinaveva. the sail flutters freely in the wind; it is torn away. it flies far into the sea; it falls on the waters. the waves break over the canoe. i stand up. i take the binabina stones; i recite the kayga'u over them, the giyotanawa, the spell of the underneath. the short spell, the very strong spell. i throw the stones into the deep. they weigh down the sharks, the vineylida; they close the gaping depth. the fish cannot see us. i stand up, i take my lime pot; i break it. the lime i throw into the wind. it wraps us up in mist. such a mist that no one can see us. the mulukwausi lose sight of us. we hear them shout near by. they shout u-û, u-û, u-û, u. the sharks, the bonubonu, the soka do not see us; the water is turbid. the canoe is swamped, the water is in it. it drifts heavily, the waves break over us. we break the vatotuwa, (the sticks joining the float to the platform). the lamina (outrigger float) is severed; we jump from the waga; we catch hold of the lamina. on the lamina we drift. i utter the great kaytaria spell; the big fish iraviyaka comes. it lifts us. it takes the lamina on its back, and carries us. we drift, we drift, we drift." "we approach a shore; the iraviyaka brings us there, the iraviyaka puts us on the shallows. i take a stout pole, i lift it off; i speak a spell. the iraviyaka turns back to the deep sea." "we are all on the dayaga (fringing reef). we stand inwater. the water is cold, we all shiver with cold. we do not go ashore. we are afraid of the mulukwausi. they follow us ashore. they wait for us ashore. i take a dakuna (piece of coral stone), i say a spell over it. i throw the stone on the beach; it makes a big thud; good; the mulukwausi are not there. we go ashore. another time, i throw a stone, we hear nothing: mulukwausi are on the beach; they catch it; we hear nothing. we remain on the dayaga. i take some leyya (ginger). i spit it at the beach. i throw another stone. the mulukwausi do not see it. it falls down; we hear it. we go ashore; we sit on the sand in a row. we sit in one row, one man near another, as on the lamina (in the same order as they drifted on the lamina). i make a charm over the comb; all the usagelu comb their hair; they tease their hair a long time. they are very cold; we do not make the fire. first, i put order on the beach; i take the piece of leyya, i spit it over the beach. one time, when the leyya is finished, i take some kasita leaves (the beach is always full of these). i put them on the shore, i put a stone on them, uttering a spell--afterwards, we make fire. all sit round and warm themselves at the fire." "at day time, we don't go to the village; the mulukwausi would follow us. after dark, we go. like on the lamina, we march in the same order, one after the other. i go last; i chant a spell over a libu plant. i efface our traces. i put the libu on our track; i put the weeds together. i make the path confused. i say a charm to the spider, that he might make a cobweb. i say a charm to the bush-hen, that she might turn up the soil." "we go to the village. we enter the village, we pass the main place. no one sees us; we are in mist, we are invisible. we enter the house of my veyola (maternal kinsman), he medicates some leyya; he spits (magically) on all of us. the mulukwausi smell us; they smell the salt water on our skins. they come to the house, the house trembles. a big wind shakes the house, we hear big thuds against the house. the owner of the house medicates the leyya and spits over us; they cannot see us. a big fire is made in the house; plenty of smoke fills the house. the leyya and the smoke blind their eyes. five days we sit in smoke, our skin smells of smoke; our hair smells of smoke; the mulukwausi cannot smell us. then i medicate some water and coco-nut, the usagelu wash and annoint themselves. they leave the house, they sit on the kaukweda (spot before the house). the owner of the house chases them away. 'go, go to your wife;' we all go, we return to our houses." i have given here a reconstruction of a native account, as i have often heard it told with characteristic vividness: spoken in short, jerky sentences, with onamatopoetic representations of sound, the narrative exaggerates certain features, and omits others. the excellency of the narrator's own magic, the violence of the elements at critical moments, he would always reiterate with monotonous insistence. he would diverge into some correlated subject, jump ahead, missing out several stages, come back, and so on, so that the whole is quite incoherent and unintelligible to a white listener, though the native audience follows its trend perfectly well. for it must be remembered that, when a native tells such a story, the events are already known to his listeners, who have grown up gradually becoming familiar with the narrow range of their tribal folklore. our toliwaga, telling this story over again on the sandbank of yakum, would dwell on such points as allowed him to boast of his kayga'u, to describe the violence of the storm, to bear witness to the traditional effects of the magic. it is necessary for an ethnographer to listen several times to such a narrative, in order to have a fair chance of forming some coherent idea of its trend. afterwards, by means of direct examination, he can succeed in placing the facts in their proper sequence. by questioning the informants about details of rite and magic, it is possible then to obtain interpretations and commentaries. thus the whole of a narrative can be constructed, the various fragments, with all their spontaneous freshness, can be put in their proper places, and this is what i have done in giving this account of shipwreck. [ ] a few words of comment must now be given on the text of the above narrative. in it, a number of magical rites were mentioned, besides those which were described first with their spells. something must be said more in detail about the spells of the subsequent magical performances. there are some eleven of them. first comes the ritual invocation of the fish which helps the shipwrecked sailors. the spell corresponding to this, is called kaytaria, and it is an important formula, which every toliwaga is supposed to know. the question arises, has this rite ever been practised in reality? some of the actions taken by the shipwrecked natives, such as the cutting of the the outrigger float when the boat is abandoned, are quite rational. it would be dangerous to float on the big, unwieldy canoe which might be constantly turned round and round by the waves, and if smashed to pieces, might injure the sailors with its wreckage. in this fact, perhaps there is also the empirical basis for the belief that some fragments of the canoe 'eat' the shipwrecked men. the round, symmetrical log of the lamina, on the other hand, will serve as an excellent lifebuoy. perhaps a toliwaga, arrived at such a pass, would really utter the kaytaria spell. and if the party were saved, they would probably all declare, and, no doubt believe, that the fish had come to their summons, and somehow or other helped in the rescue. it is less easy to imagine what elements in such an experience might have given rise to the myth that the natives, landed on the shore, magically lift the fish from the shallow waters by means of a charmed pole. this indeed seems a purely imaginary incident, and my main informant, molilakwa of oburaku, from whom i obtained the kaytaria spell, did not know the spell of the pole, and would have had to leave the iraviaka to its own fate in the shallows. nor could i hear of anyone else professing to know this spell. the formula uttered over the stone to be thrown on the beach was equally unknown to the circle of my informants. of course, in all such cases, when a man carrying on a system of magic would come to a gap in his knowledge, he would perform the rite without the spell, or utter the most suitable spell of the system. thus here, as the stone is thrown in order to reconnoitre whether the mulukwausi are waiting for them, a spell of the giyorokaywa, the spell of the mulukwausi, might be uttered over the stone. over the combs, as well as over the herbs on the beach, a giyorokaywa spell would be uttered, according to my informants, but probably, a different spell from the one spoken originally over the ginger root. molilakwa, for instance, knows two spells of the giyorokaywa, both of which are suitable to be spoken over the ginger and over the beach respectively. then there comes another spell, to be uttered over the libu plant, and in addressing the spider and the bush-hen. molilakwa told me that the same spell would be said in the three cases, but neither he, nor anyone else, among my informants could give me this spell. the magic done in the village, while the shipwrecked men remained in the smoky hut, would be all accompanied by the leyya (ginger) spells. one incident in the above narrative might have struck the reader as contradictory of the general theory of the mulukwausi belief, that, namely, where the narrator declares that the party on the beach have to wait till nightfall before they enter the village. the general belief expressed in all the mulukwausi legends, as well as in the taboos of the kayga'u, is that the witches are really dangerous only at night, when they can see and hear better. such contradictions, as i have said, are often met in native belief, and in this, by the way, the savages do not differ from ourselves. my informant, from whom i had this version, simply said that such was the rule and the custom, and that they had to wait till night. in another account, on the other hand, i was told that the party must proceed to the village immediately after having performed the several rites on the beach, whether night or day. there also arises the main question, regarding this narrative, to which allusion has been made already, namely, how far does it represent the normal behaviour in shipwreck, and how far is it a sort of standardised myth? there is no doubt that shipwreck in these seas, surrounded in many parts by islands, is not unlikely to end by the party's being saved. this again would result in some such explanation as that contained in our narrative. naturally, i tried to record all the actual cases of shipwreck within the natives' memory. some two generations ago, one of the chiefs of omarakana, named numakala, perished at sea, and with him all his crew. a canoe of another eastern trobriand village, tilakaywa, was blown far north, and stranded in kokopawa, from where it was sailed back by its crew, when the wind turned to the north-west. although this canoe was not actually shipwrecked, its salvation is credited to kayga'u magic, and to the kind fish, iraviyaka. a very intelligent informant of mine explained this point of view in answer to some of my cavillings: "if this canoe had been wrecked, it would have been saved also." a party from muyuwa (woodlark island) were saved on the shore of boyowa. in the south of the island, several cases are on record where canoes were wrecked and saved in the d'entrecasteaux islands or in the amphletts. once the whole crew were eaten by cannibals, getting ashore in a hostile district of fergusson island, and one man only escaped, and ran along the shore, south-eastwards towards dobu. thus there is a certain amount of historical evidence for the saving power of the magic, and the mixture of fanciful and real elements makes our story a good example of what could be called standardised or universalised myth--that is, a myth referring not to one historical event but to a type of occurrence, happening universally. v let us now give the text of the remaining spells which belong to the above narrative, but have not been adduced there, so as not to spoil its flow. first of all there is the kaytaria spell, that which the toliwaga, drifting alongside his crew on the detached canoe float, intones in a loud, slow voice, in order to attract the iraviyaka. kaytaria spell. "i lie, i shall lie down in my house, a big house. i shall sharpen my ear, i shall hear the roaring of the sea--it foams up, it makes a noise. at the bottom of kausubiyai, come, lift me, take me, bring me to the top of nabonabwana beach." then comes a sentence with mythological allusions which i could not succeed in translating. after that follows the main part of the spell: "the suyusayu fish shall lift me up; my child, the suyusayu shall lift me up; my child's things, the suyusayu shall lift me up; my basket, etc.; my lime pot, etc.; my lime spoon, etc.; my house, etc.;" repeating the words "the suyusayu fish shall lift me up" with various expressions describing the toliwaga's equipment as well as his child, presumably a member of the shipwrecked crew. there is no end part to this spell, as it was given to me; only the beginning is repeated after the main part. it is not impossible that molilakwa himself, my informant, did not know the spell to the end. such magic, once learnt by a native, never used, and recited perhaps once a year during a mortuary ceremony, or occasionally, in order to show off, is easily forgotten. there is a marked difference between the vacillating and uncertain way in which such spells are produced by informants, and the wonderful precision and the easy flow with which, for example, the spells, year after year performed in public, will trip off the tongue of the garden magician. i cannot give a correct commentary to the mythological names kausubiyai and nabonabwana, in the first part of the spell. what this part means, whether the reclining individual who hears the noises of the sea is the magician, or whether it represents the sensations of the fish who hears the calling for help, i could not make out. the meaning of the middle part is plain, however. suyusayu is another name for iraviyaka, indeed, its magical name used only in spells, and not when speaking of it in ordinary conversations. the other formula to be given here is the other giyorokaywa spell, which would be used in spitting the ginger on the beach after rescue, and also in medicating the herbs, which will be put on the beach and beaten with a stone. this spell is associated with the myth of the origin of kayga'u, which must be related here, to make the formula clear. near the beginning of time, there lived in kwayawata, one of the marshall bennetts, a family strange to our ideas of family life, but quite natural in the world of kiriwinian mythology. it consisted of a man, kalaytaytu, his sister, isenadoga, and the youngest brother, a dog, tokulubweydoga. like other mythological personages, their names suggest that originally they must have conveyed some sort of description. doga means the curved, almost circular, boar's tusk used as ornament. the name of the canine member of the family might mean something like man-with-circular-tusks-in-his-head, and his sister's name, woman-ornamented-with-doga. the eldest brother has in his name the word taytu, which signifies the staple food (small yams) of natives, and a verb, kalay, signifying 'to put on ornaments.' not much profit, however, can be deduced from this etymology, as far as i can see, for the interpretation of this myth. i shall quote in a literal translation the short version of this myth, as i obtained it first, when the information was volunteered to me by molilakwa in oburaku. myth of tokulubwaydoga. "they live in kwayawata; one day kalaytayta goes to fish, gets into a small canoe (kewo'u). behind him swims the dog. he comes to digumenu. they fish with the older brother. they catch fish! the elder brother paddles; that one again goes behind; goes, returns to kwayawata. they died; came modokei, he learned the kayga'u, the inside of tokulubwaydoga. the name of their mother, the mother of tokulubwaydoga, is tobunaygu." this little fragment gives a good idea of what the first version is, even of so well fixed a piece of narrative as a myth. it has to be supplemented by inquiries as to the motives of the behaviour of the various personages, as to the relations of one event to the other. thus, further questions revealed that the elder brother refused to take the dog with him on this fishing expedition. tokulubwaydoga then determined to go all the same, and swam to digumenu, following the canoe of his brother. this latter was astonished to see him, but none the less they went to work together. in fishing, the dog was more successful than his brother, and thus aroused his jealousy. the man then refused to take him back. tokulubwaydoga then jumped into the water, and again swam and arrived safely in kwayawata. the point of the story lies in the fact that the dog was able to do the swimming, because he knew the kayga'u, otherwise the sharks, mulukwausi, or other evil things would have eaten him. he got it from his mother, the lady tobunaygu, who could teach him this magic because she was a mulukwausi herself. another important point about this myth, also quite omitted from the first version volunteered to me, is its sociological aspect. first of all, there is the very interesting incident, unparalleled in kiriwinian tradition: the mother of the three belonged to the lukwasisiga clan. it was a most incongruous thing for a dog, who is the animal of the lukuba clan, to be born into a lukwasisiga family. however, there he was, and so he said: "good, i shall be a lukuba, this is my clan." now the incident of the quarrel receives its significance in so far as the dog, the only one to whom the mother gave the kayga'u, did not hand it over to his brother and sister who were of the lukwasisiga clan, and so the magic went down only the dog's own clan, the lukuba. it must be assumed (though this was not known to my informant) that madokei, who learnt the magic from the dog, was also a lukuba man. like all mythological mother-ancestresses, tobunaygu had no husband, nor does this circumstance call forth any surprise or comment on the part of the natives, since the physiological aspect of fatherhood is not known among them, as i have repeatedly observed. as can be seen, by comparing the original fragment, and the subsequent amplification by inquiries, the volunteered version misses out the most important points. the concatenation of events, the origin of the kayga'u, the important sociological details, have to be dragged out of the informant, or, to put it more correctly, he has to be made to enlarge on points, to roam over all the subjects covered by the myth, and from his statements then, one has to pick out and piece together the other bits of the puzzle. on the other hand, the names of the people, the unimportant statements of what they did and how they were occupied are unfailingly given. let us adduce now the kayga'u, which is said to be derived from the dog, and ultimately from his mother: kayga'u of tokulubwaydoga. "tobunaygu (repeated), manemanaygu (repeated), my mother a snake, myself a snake; myself a snake, my mother a snake. tokulubwaydoga, isenadoga, matagagai, kalaytaytu; bulumava'u tabugu madokei. i shall befog the front, i shall shut off the rear; i shall befog the rear, i shall shut off the front." this exordium contains at first the invocation of the name of the mulukwausi, who was the source of the spell. its pendant manemanaygu is, according to my informant, derived from an archaic word nema, equivalent to the present day yama, hand. "as the right hand is to the left one, so is tobunaygu to manemanaygu," which was expressed as a matter of fact in the less grammatically worded form; "this right hand, this left" (clapped together) "so tobunaygu, manemanaygu." whether this analysis of my informant is correct must remain an open question. it must be remembered that magic is not taken by the natives as an ethnographic document, allowing of interpretations and developments, but as an instrument of power. the words are there to act, and not to teach. questions as to the meaning of magic, as a rule, puzzled the informants, and therefore it is not easy to explain a formula or obtain a correct commentary upon it. all the same there are some natives who obviously have tried to get to the bottom of what the various words in magic represent. to proceed with our commentary, the phrase "my mother a snake, etc.," was thus explained to me by molilakwa: "supposing we strike a snake, already it vanishes, it does not remain; thus also we human beings, when mulukwausi catch us, we disappear." that is, we disappear after having spoken this magical formula, for in a formula the desired result is always expressed in anticipation. molilakwa's description of a snake's behaviour is, according to my experience, not sound natural history, but it probably expresses the underlying idea, namely the elusiveness of the snake, which would naturally be one of the metaphorical figures used in the spell. the string of words following the invocation of the snake are all mythical names, four of which we found mentioned in the above myth, while the rest remain obscure. the last-named, that of modokei, is preceded by the words bulumavau tabugu, which means, 'recent spirit of my ancestor,' which words are as a rule used in spells with reference to real grandfathers of the reciters. the middle part of the spell proceeds:-- "i shall cover the eyes of the witches of kitava; i shall cover the eyes of the witches of kumwageya; i shall cover the eyes of the witches of iwa; i shall cover the eyes of the witches of gawa, etc., etc.," enumerating all the villages and islands renowned for their witches. this list is again recited, substituting for the expression "i shall cover," in succession, "i shall befog," and "dew envelopes." this middle part needs no commentary. the end of this formula runs as follows: "i shall kick thy body, i shall take thy spirit skirt, i shall cover thy buttocks, i shall take thy mat, a pandanus mat, i shall take thy mantle. i shall strike thee with my foot, go, fly over tuma, fly away. i myself in the sea (here the reciter's name is mentioned), i shall drift away, well." this last part of the spell is so much alike to the end of the spell first quoted in this chapter, that no commentary is needed. the mythological and magical data presented in this chapter all bear upon the native belief in flying witches and dangers at sea, a belief in which elements of reality are strangely blended with traditionally fixed fancies, in a way, however, not uncommon to human belief in general. it is time now to return to our party on the beach at yakum, who, after having spent the night there, next morning rig up their masts, and with a favourable wind, soon reach the waters of gumasila and domdom. chapter xi in the amphletts--sociology of the kula i our party, sailing from the north, reach first the main island of gumasila, a tall, steep mountain with arched lines and great cliffs, suggesting vaguely some huge gothic monument. to the left, a heavy pyramid, the island of domdom, recedes behind the nearer mountain as the travellers approach. the fleet now sails along the westerly shore of gumasila, on which side the jungle, interspersed with bald patches, ascends a steep slope, ribbed with rocky ridges, and creased by valleys which run at their foot into wide bays. only here and there can be seen triangular clearings, signs of cultivation made by the natives from the other side of the island, where the two villages are situated. at the south-west end of gumasila, a narrow promontory runs into a flat, low point with a sandy beach on both sides. on the north side of the point, hidden from the villages, the fleet comes to a halt, on the beach of giyawana (called by the trobrianders giyasila). this is the place where all the fleets, arriving from the north, stop before approaching the villages. here also the inhabitants of the amphletts rest for a day, after the first false start they have made from the villages, and before they actually set off for the trobriands. this beach, in short, is the amphlettan counterpart of the sandbank muwa. it was also here that i surprised the gumasilan canoes on a full moon night, in march, , after they had started to join the uvalaku expedition to sinaketa. on this beach, the sinaketans perform the final stage of kula magic, before approaching their partners in gumasila. the same magic will be repeated before arriving in dobu, and as a matter of fact, when the objective of the big uvalaku is dobu, the full and ceremonial performance of the magic might usually be deferred till then. it will be better therefore to postpone the description of this magic till we have brought our fleet to the beach of sarubwoyna. here it will be enough to mention that on occasions when magic is performed, after an hour's or half hour's pause on the beach of giyawana, all the men get into their canoes, take the paddles and oars, and the fleet sails round the point where, in a small, very picturesque bay, there lies the smaller village of gumasila, called nu'agasi (see plate i). this village in olden days was perched on a narrow ledge some one hundred metres above the sea level, a fastness difficult of access, and overlooking all its approaches. now, after the white man's influence has rendered unnecessary all precautions against raiding parties, the village has come down to the narrow strip of foreshore, a bridge between the sea and a small swamp formed at the foot of the hill. some of the canoes will come to this beach, the others will sail further, under a precipitous black rock of some metres high and metres wide (see plate xlii). turning another corner, they arrive at the big village of gumasila, built on artificial stone terraces, surrounded by dykes of small stones, forming square lagoons and diminutive harbours (compare the description given above in chapter i, division v). this is the old village which, practically inaccessible by sea, formed a fastness of a different kind from the other, high-perched villages typical of this district. exposed to the full onslaught of the south-easterly winds and seas, against which it was protected by its stone bulwarks and dykes, it was approachable only in all weathers by a small channel to the south, where a big rock and a reef shelter it from the rough waters. without any preliminary welcoming ceremony or formal reception, the sinaketan guests now leave their canoes and disperse among the villagers, settle down in groups near the houses of their friends, and engage in betel chewing and conversations. they speak in kiriwinian, a language which is universally known in the amphletts. almost as soon as they go ashore, they give to their partners presents of pari (opening gift), some small object, such as a comb, a lime pot, or a lime stick. after that, they await some kula gifts to be given them. the most important headman will offer such a gift first to kouta'uya, or to'udawada, whichever of them is the toli'uvalaku of the occasion. the soft, penetrating sound of a conch-shell soon announces that the first gift has been given. other blasts of conch-shells follow, and the kula is in full swing. but here again, what happens in the amphletts, is only a minor interlude to the sinaketan adventurers, bent on the bigger goal in dobu. and in order for us to remain in harmony with the native perspective we shall also wait for the detailed and circumstantial description of the kula proceedings till we arrive on the beach of tu'utauna, in dobu. the concrete account of how such a visiting fleet is received and behaves on arrival will be given, when i describe a scene i saw with my own eyes in the village of nabwageta, another amphlett island, when sixty dobuan canoes arrived there on their uvalaku, en route for boyowa. to give a definite idea of the conversations which take place between the visitors and the amphlettans, i shall give a sample noted down, during a visit of some trobrianders to nu'agasi, the smaller village of gumasila. a few canoes had arrived a day or two before, in the neighbouring island, nabwageta, coming from the small western islands of the trobriands on a kula. one of them paddled across to nu'agasi with a crew of some six men, in order to offer pari gifts to their partners and see what was to be done in the way of kula. the canoe was sighted from a distance, and its purpose was guessed at once, as word had been brought before of the arrival in nabwageta of this small expedition. the headman of nu'agasi, tovasana, hurried back to his house from my tent, where i was taking great pains to obtain some ethnographic information from him. tovasana is an outspoken character, and he is the most important headman in the amphletts. i am not using the word 'chief,' for in the amphletts, as i have said, the natives do not observe either the court ceremonial with crouching and bending, nor do the headmen have any power or economic influence, at all comparable with those of the trobriands. yet, although i came from the trobriands, i was struck by the authoritative tone used, and the amount of influence evidently wielded by tovasana. this is partly due undoubtedly to the lack of white man's interference, which has so undermined native authority and morality in the trobriands, whereas the amphletts have so far escaped to a large extent missionary teaching and government law and order. on the other hand, however, the very narrow sphere of his powers, the authority over a small village, consolidates the headman's influence. the oldest and the most aristocratic by descent of all the headmen, he is their acknowledged 'doyen.' in order to receive his visitors he went to the beach in front of his house and sat there on a log, looking impassively over the sea. when the trobrianders arrived each man took a gift and went to his partner's house. the chief did not rise to meet them, nor did they come in a body to greet him. the toliwaga came towards the place where tovasana was sitting; he carried a bundle of taro and a piece of gugu'a (objects of small value, such as combs, lime pots, etc.). these he laid down near the seated headman, who, however, took no notice of it. a small boy, a grandchild of tovasana, i think, took up the gifts and put them into his house. then, without having yet exchanged a word, the toliwaga sat down on the platform next to tovasana. under a shady tree, which spread its branches like a canopy above the bleached canoe, the men formed a picturesque group sitting cross-legged on the platform. beside the slim, youthful figure of the kaduwaga man, the old tovasana, with his big, roughly carved features, with his large aquiline nose sticking out from under an enormous turban-like wig, looked like an old gnome. at first exchanging merely a word or two, soon they dropped into more animated conversation, and when other villagers and the rest of the visitors joined them, the talk became general. as they spoke in kiriwinian, i was able to jot down the beginning of their conversation. tovasana asked: "where have you anchored?" "in nabwageta." "when did you come?" "yesterday." "from where did you start on the last day before arriving?" "from gabuwana." "when?" "the day before yesterday." "what wind?" "started from home with yavata; wind changed. arrived on sandbank (gabuwana); we slept; so-and-so made wind magic; wind changed again; good wind." then tovasana asked the visitors about one of the chiefs from the island of kayleula (to the west of kiriwina), and when he was going to give him a big pair of mwali. the man answered they do not know; to their knowledge that chief has no big mwali at present. tovasana became very angry, and in a long harangue, lapsing here and there into the gumasila language, he declared that he would never kula again with that chief, who is a topiki (mean man), who has owed him for a long time a pair of mwali as yotile (return gift), and who always is slow in making kula. a string of other accusations about some clay pots given by tovasana to the same chief, and some pigs promised and never given, were also made by the angry headman. the visitors listened to it with polite assent, uttering here and there some noncommital remark. they, in their turn, complained about some sago, which they had hoped to receive in nabwageta, but which was churlishly refused for some reason or other to all the men of kaduwaga, kaysiga and kuyawa. tovasana then asked them, "how long are you going to stay?" "till dobu men come." "they will come," said tovasana, "not in two days, not in three days, not in four days; they will come tomorrow, or at the very last, the day after tomorrow." "you go with them to boyowa?" "i sail first to vakuta, then to sinaketa with the dobu men. they sail to susuwa beach to fish, i go to your villages, to kaduwaga, to kaysiga, to kuyawa. is there plenty of mwali in your villages?" "yes, there are. so-and-so has..." here followed a long string of personal names of big armshells, the approximate number of smaller, nameless ones, and the names of the people in whose possession they were at the time. the interest of both hearers and speakers was very obvious, and tovasana gave the approximate dates of his movements to his visitors. full moon was approaching, and the natives have got names for every day during the week before and after full moon, and the following and preceding days can therefore be reckoned. also, every seven-day period within a moon is named after the quarter which falls in it. this allows the natives to fix dates with a fair exactitude. the present example shows the way in which, in olden times, the movements of the various expeditions were known over enormous areas; nowadays, when white men's boats with native crews often move from one island to the other, the news spreads even more easily. in former times, small preliminary expeditions such as the one we have just been describing, would fix the dates and make arrangements often for as much as a year ahead. the kaduwaga men next inquired as to whether any strangers from the trobriands were then staying in gumasila. the answer was that there was in the village one man from ba'u, and one from sinaketa. then inquiries were made as to how many kula necklaces there were in gumasila, and the conversation drifted again into kula technicalities. it is quite customary for men from the trobriands to remain for a long time in the amphletts, that is, from one expedition to another. for some weeks or even months, they live in the house of their partner, friend, or relative, careful to keep to the customs of the country. they will sit about with the men of the village and talk. they will help in the work and go out on fishing expeditions. these latter will be specially attractive to a trobriander, a keen fisherman himself, who here finds an entirely new type of this pursuit. whether an expedition would be made on one of the sandbanks, where the fishermen remain for a few days, casting their big nets for dugong and turtle; or whether they would go out in a small canoe, trying to catch the jumping gar fish with a fishing kite; or throwing a fish trap into the deep sea--all these would be a novelty to the trobriander, accustomed only to the methods suitable to the shallow waters of the lagoon, swarming with fish. in one point the trobriander would probably find his sojourn in the amphletts uncongenial; he would be entirely debarred from any intercourse with women. accustomed in his country to easy intrigues, here he has completely to abstain, not only from sexual relations with women married or unmarried, but even from moving with them socially, in the free and happy manner characteristic of boyowa. one of my main informants, layseta, a sinaketa man, who spent several years in the amphletts, confessed to me, not without shame and regret, that he never succeeded in having any intrigues with the women there. to save his face, he claimed that he had had several amphlett belles declaring their love to him, and offering their favours, but he always refused them: "i feared; i feared the bowo'u of gumasila; they are very bad." the bowo'u are the local sorcerers of the amphletts. whatever we might think about layseta's temptations--and his personal appearance and charm do not make his boastings very credible--and whether he was afraid of sorcery or of a sound thrashing, the fact remains that a trobriander would have to change his usual mode of behaviour when in the amphletts, and keep away from the women entirely. when big parties arrive in gumasila, or nabwageta, the women run away, and camp in the bush till the beach is clear. the amphlettans, on the contrary, were used to receive favours from unmarried women in sinaketa. nowadays, the male inhabitants of that village, always disapproving of the custom, though not to the extent of taking any action, tell the amphlettans that the white man's government has prohibited the men from gumasila and nabwageta to have sexual relations in sinaketa. one of the very few occasions, when the men from the amphletts showed any interest in talking to me was when they asked me whether this was true. "the sinaketa men tell us that we will go to jail if we sleep with girls in sinaketa. would the government put us into jail, in truth?" as usually, i simply disclaimed all knowledge of the white man's arcana in such matters. the small party of kaduwaga men, whose visit to tovasana i have just been describing, sat there for about two hours, smoked and chewed betel-nut, the conversation flagging now and then, and the men looking into the distance with the habitual self-important expression worn on such occasions. after the final words about mutual plans were exchanged, and a few pots had been brought by small boys to the canoe as taio'i (farewell gift to the visitors), they embarked, and paddled back three or four miles across to nabwageta. we must imagine the big kula party from sinaketa, whom we just watched landing in the two villages of gumasila, behaving more or less in the same manner; conducting similar conversations, offering the same type of pari gifts to their partners. only everything happens of course on a much bigger scale. there is a big group seated before each house, parties walk up and down the village, the sea in front of it is covered with the gaudy, heavily laden canoes. in the little village, of which tovasana is headman, the two chiefs, to'udawada and kouta'uya, will be seated on the same platform, on which we saw the old man receiving his other guests. the other headmen of the sinaketans will have gone to the bigger village round the corner, and will encamp there under the tall palms, looking across the straits towards the pyramidal forms of domdom, and further south, to the main island fronting them with the majestic form of koyatabu. here, among the small houses on piles, scattered picturesquely through the maze of little harbours, lagoons and dykes, large groups of people will be seated on mats of plaited coco-nut, each man as a rule under the dwelling of his partner, chewing betel-nut stolidly, and watching stealthily the pots being brought out to be presented to them, and still more eagerly awaiting the giving of kula gifts, although he remains to a superficial glance quite impassive. ii in chapter iii i spoke about the sociology of kula, and gave a concise definition of partnership with its functions and obligations. i said there that people enter into this relationship in a definite manner, and remain in it for the rest of their life. i also said that the number of partners a man possesses, depends upon his social position and rank. the protective character of an overseas partner becomes now clearer, after we have realised the nervous tension with which each kula party in olden days would have approached a land full of mulukwausi, bowo'u and other forms of sorcery, a land from which originate the very tauva'u themselves. [ ] to have a friend there, one who will not on the surface of it have bad intentions, is a great boon. what this really means to the natives can, however, only be realised when we arrive at dobu, learn the special safety magic performed there and find how genuinely serious these apprehensions are. we must now make another short digression from our consecutive account, and discuss the several aspects of the sociology of the kula one after the other. . sociological limitations to the participation in the kula.--not everyone who lives within the cultural sphere of the kula does participate in it. more especially in the trobriand islands, there are whole districts which do not practise the kula. thus a series of villages in the north of the main island, the villages on the island of tuma, as well as the industrial villages of kuboma and the agricultural ones of tilataula do not practise kula. in villages like sinaketa, vakuta, gumasila and nabwageta, every man carries on the kula. the same applies to the small islands which link up the big gaps of the kula chain, the islands of kitava, iwa, gawa and kwayawata, strewn on the seas between the trobriands and woodlark island, to tubetube and wari, etc., etc. in the dobuan speaking district, on the other hand, i think that certain village complexes either do not practice kula at all, or else practice it on a small scale, that is, their headmen have only a few partners in the neighbouring villages. in some of the big chiefs' villages in kiriwina there are certain people who never practice kula. thus, in a village where the headman has the rank of guya'u (chief) or gumguya'u (minor chief) the commoners of the lowest rank and unrelated to the headman are not supposed to carry on the kula. in olden days this rule would be very strictly observed, and nowadays even, though somewhat relaxed, not many commoners of this description practice the kula. limitations as to entry into the kula, therefore, exist only in big kula districts such as that of dobu and of the trobriands, and they are partly local, excluding whole villages, and partly social, excluding certain people of low rank. . the relation of partnership.--the name for an overseas partner is in the trobriand language karayta'u; 'my partner' is styled ulo karayta'u, ulo being the possessive pronoun of remote relation. in gumasila he is called ulo ta'u, which means simply 'my man'; in dobuan, yegu gumagi. the inland partners are known in kiriwinian by the term denoting a friend, 'lubaygu,' the suffixed possessive pronoun gu being that of nearest possession. only after this relationship has been established between two men, can the two make kula with one another. an overseas visitor would as a rule go to his partner's house and offer him a small present as pari. this again would be returned by the local man by means of a talo'i present. there would not be any great intimacy between two overseas partners. but, in sharp contrast to the essential hostility between two strange tribesmen, such a relationship of friendship would stand out as the most remarkable deviation from the general rule. in inland relations between two partners of neighbouring villages, the closeness and intimacy would be relatively small as compared to other ties. this relation was defined to me in these words: "my partner same as my clansman (kakaveyogu)--he might fight me. my real kinsman (veyogu), same navelstring, would always side with us." the best way of obtaining detailed information, and of eliminating any errors which might have crept into ethnographic generalisations, is to collect concrete data. i have drawn up a complete list of the partners of kouta'uya, who is one of the biggest kula men in the whole ring; another list of a smaller sinaketa headman, toybayoba; and of course i know several complements of partners of smaller men, who, as a rule, have about four to six partners each. the full list of kouta'uya includes fifty-five men in the northern half of boyowa, that is, in luba, kulumata and kiriwina. from these the chief receives armshells. to the south, his partners in the southern districts of boyowa and vakuta are twenty-three by number; in the amphletts eleven, and twenty-seven in dobu. thus we see that the numbers to the south and north almost balance, the southern exceeding the northern by six. these numbers include his partners in sinaketa, where he makes kula with all his fellow chiefs, and with all the headmen of the divisional villages, and in his own little village he kulas with his sons. but even there, everyone of his partners is either south or north to him, that is, either gives him the necklaces or armshells. all the clans are represented in the list. often when asked with regard to the name of some man, why he is in partnership with him, the answer would be--"because he is my kinsman," which means, in this case, clansman of equal rank. men of other clans are included, as 'friends' or relatives-in-law, or for some other reason more or less imaginary. i shall speak presently of the mechanism through which the man enters on this relation. the list of toybayoba's partners includes twelve men to the north, four in southern boyowa, three in the amphletts and eleven in dobu, the balance here also being on the southern side. as said above, minor men might have anything between four to ten partners all told, whereas there are men in northern boyowa who have only two partners, one on each side of the ring, so to speak, with whom they make kula. in drawing up these lists, which i shall not reproduce here in extenso, another striking feature comes to light: on both sides, there is a definite geographical limit, beyond which a man cannot have any partners. for all men in the village of sinaketa, for instance, this limit, as regards the armshells, coincides with the furthest boundary of kiriwina; that is, no man from sinaketa has any partners in kitava, which is the next kula district beyond kiriwina. south, in the direction from which the soulava are received, the villages at the south-east end of fergusson island are the last places where partners of sinaketan men are still to be found. the small island of dobu itself lies just beyond this boundary, and no man in this island or in any of the villages on normanby island makes kula with the sinaketans (compare the circles, indicating kula communities on map v). beyond these districts, the men still know the names of what could be called their partners-once-removed, that is, the partners of their partners. in the case of a man who has only a couple of partners on each side, who, again being modest men, have also only one or two, this relationship is not devoid of importance. if i, in sinaketa, have one partner, say in kiriwina, who again has one partner in kitava, it is no small matter for me to learn that this kitava man just obtained a splendid pair of armshells. for this means that there is about a quarter of a chance of my receiving these armshells, on the supposition that the kitavan and kiriwinian have two partners each between whom they can choose in bestowing them. in the case of a big chief like kouta'uya, however, the number of once-removed partners becomes so great that they lose any personal significance for him. kouta'uya has some twenty-five partners in kiriwina; among them to'uluwa, the big chief, makes kula with more than half of all the men in kitava. some other of kouta'uya's partners in kiriwina, of lesser rank, yet quite important, also make kula with a great number, so that probably practically everybody in kitava is kouta'uya's partner-once-removed. if we were to imagine that on the kula ring there are many people who have only one partner on each side, then the ring would consist of a large number of closed circuits, on each of which the same articles would constantly pass. thus if a in kiriwina always kulas with b in sinaketa who kulas with c in tubetube, who kulas with d in murua, who kulas with e in kitava, who kulas with a in kiriwina, then a b c d e f would form such one strand in the big kula circuit. if an armshell got into the hands of one of them, it could never leave this strand. but the kula ring is nothing approaching this, because every small kula partner has, as a rule, on one side or the other, a big one, that is a chief. and every chief plays the part of a shunting-station for kula objects. having so many partners on each side, he constantly transfers an object from one strand to another. thus, any article which on its rounds has travelled through the hands of certain men, may on its second round come through an entirely different channel. this, of course, supplies a large part of the zest and excitement of the kula exchange. the designation of such a partner-once-removed in the language of kiriwina is muri-muri. a man will say that such and such a one is 'my partner-once-removed,' 'ulo murimuri.' another expression connected with this relationship is to inquire 'whose hand' has passed on such and such a vaygu'a. when to'uluwa gives a pair of armshells to kouta'uya, this latter will ask: 'availe yamala' ('whose hand')? the answer is 'yamala pwata'i,' ('the hand of pwata'i'). and, as a rule, more or less the following conversation will ensue: "who gave this pair of armshells to pwata'i?" "how long were they kept by a man in the island of yeguma, and then distributed on the occasion of a so'i (feast)?" "when they had been the last time in boyowa?" etc., etc. . entering the kula relationship.--in order to become a practising member of the kula, a man must have passed the stage of adolescence; he must have the status and rank required, that is in such villages where this condition is demanded; he must know the magic of the kula; and last, not least, he must be in possession of a piece of vaygu'a. the membership, with all its concomitant implications, may be received from the father, who teaches his son the magic, gives him a piece of vaygu'a, and provides him with a partner, very often in his own person. supposing one of the sons of kouta'uya has reached the stage where a lad may begin to kula. the chief will have been teaching him the spells for some time already. moreover the lad, who from childhood has taken part in overseas expeditions, has many a time seen the rites performed and heard the spells uttered. when the time is ripe, kouta'uya, having the conch-shell blown, and with all due formalities, presents a soulava to his son. this latter, soon afterwards, goes somewhere north. perhaps he goes only to one of the neighbouring villages within sinaketa, perhaps he accompanies his father on a visit as far north as omarakana, and in any case he makes kula, either with one of his father's friends and partners, or with a special friend of his own. thus, at one stroke, the lad is equipped with magic, vaygu'a, and two partners, one of whom is his father. his northern partner will give him in due course an armshell, and this he will probably offer to his father. the transactions once started continue. his father soon gives him another vaygu'a, which he may kula with the same northern partner, or he may try to establish another partnership. the next mwali (armshells) he receives from the north, he will probably give to another partner in the south, and thus establish a new relationship. a chief's son, who is always a commoner himself (since the chief cannot marry within his own sub-clan and the son has the status of his mother), would not multiply his partners beyond the limit numerically given by the above mentioned partners of toybayoba. not everyone, however, is as fortunate as to be the son of a chief, which in the trobriands is, on the whole, one of the most enviable positions, since it confers many privileges, and entails no special responsibilities. a young chief himself would have to pay substantially for establishing his position in the kula, for a chief is always the son of a woman of high rank, and the nephew of a chief, though his father may be a commoner of small influence only. in any case, his maternal uncle will expect from him some pokala (offerings by instalment), in payment for magic, vaygu'a, and finally for a leading position in the kula. the young chief would marry, and thus acquire wealth within limits, and with this he would have to give presents to his maternal uncle, who in turn would introduce him into the kula, exactly as a chief does his son, only not disinterestedly. a commoner enters into the kula like a chief, with the only exception that everything is on a smaller scale, the amount of the pokala which he gives to his maternal uncle, the vaygu'a which he receives, and the number of partners with whom he kulas. when a man gives to another a piece of vaygu'a, of the kula kind, but not as a kula exchange but as a gift, let us say as youlo (gift in repayment for the harvest supply offerings, see above, chapter vi, division vi), this vaygu'a does not leave the kula ring. the receiver, if he had not been in the kula yet, enters into it by acquiring the vaygu'a, and can then choose his partner, and go on with the exchange. there is one important qualification of the statement made at the beginning of this section. i said there that a man entering the kula ring, must learn the mwasila magic. this refers only to those who practise overseas kula. for people who do only the inland exchange, magic is not necessary, and in fact it is never learned by them. . participation of women in the kula.--as i have said in the general descriptive chapter on the kula tribes, the position of women among them is by no means characterised by oppression or social insignificance. they have their own sphere of influence, which, in certain cases and in certain tribes, is of great importance. the kula, however, is essentially a man's type of activity. as mentioned above, in the section between sinaketa and dobu, women do not sail on the big expeditions. from kiriwina young, unmarried girls would sail east to kitava, iwa, and gawa, and from these islands even old, married women, indeed whole families, come to kiriwina. but they do not carry on overseas kula exchange, neither among themselves, nor with men. in kiriwina, some women, notably the chief's wives, are admitted to the honour and privilege of exchanging vaygu'a, though in such cases the transactions are done en famille. to take a concrete case, in october or november, , to'uluwa, the chief of omarakana, brought a fine haul of mwali from kitava. the best pair of these he presented to his veteran wife, bokuyoba, a wife whom he had inherited from his elder brother numakala. bokuyoba in turn gave the pair, without much delay, to kadamwasila, the favourite wife of the chief, the mother of five sons and one daughter. she again gave it to her son, namwana guyau, who kula'd it on to some of his southern partners. next time he receives a soulava necklace, he will give it, not to his father directly, but to his mother, who will hand it over to her senior colleague, and this venerable lady will give it to to'uluwa. the whole transaction is evidently a complimentary interpolation of the two giyovila (chief's wives) in between the simple transaction of the chief giving the vaygu'a to his son. this interpolation gives the women much pleasure, and is highly valued by them. in fact, at that time i heard more about that than about all the rest of the exchanges associated with this overseas trip. in southern boyowa, that is in sinaketa and vakuta, the rôle of women is similar, but they play besides another part. a man would sometimes send his wife with a kula gift to his partner in the neighbouring village. on some occasions, when he needs vaygu'a very badly, as for instance when he is expecting some uvalaku visitors, his wife may help him to obtain the vaygu'a from that partner. for, though this latter might refuse to give it to his sinaketan partner, he would not do so to his wife. it must be added that no sexual motives are associated with it, and that it is only a sort of customary compliment paid to the fair sex. in dobu, the wife, or the sister of a man, is always credited with a great influence over his kula decisions. therefore, there is a special form of magic, used by the sinaketans, in order to act on the minds of the dobuan women. although, in matters of sex, a trobriander would have absolutely to keep aloof from dobuan women, married or unmarried, he would approach them with nice speeches and gifts in matters of kula. he would reproach an unmarried girl with her brother's conduct towards him. she would then ask for a piece of betel-nut. this would be given with some magic spoken over it, and the girl, it is believed, would then influence her brother to kula with his partner. [ ] iii in the short outline of the amphlett tribe which was given in chapter ii, division iv, i called them 'typical monopolists,' both with reference to their economic position and to their character. monopolists they are in two respects, namely as manufacturers of the wonderful clay pots which form the only supply for the surrounding districts; and in the second place, as a commercial community, situated half-way between the populous country of dobu, with its rich gardens and coco-nut plantations, on the one hand, and the trobriands, the main industrial community in eastern new guinea on the other. the expression 'monopolists' must, however, be correctly understood. the amphletts are not a centre of commercial middle-men, constantly busy importing and exporting desirable utilities. only about once or twice a year, a big expedition comes to their islands, and every few months they themselves will sail south-east or north and again receive visits from smaller expeditions from one of the neighbours or the other. it is through just such small expeditions that they collect a relatively considerable amount of utilities from all surrounding districts, and these they can give to such visitors as need and desire them. nor would they impose high prices on any such exchange, but they are certainly considered less liberal, less ready to give or to trade and always on the look out for higher return gifts and extras. in their bartering away of the clay pots, they also cannot ask extortionate prices, such as, according to the laws of supply and demand, they could impose on their neighbours. for, no more than any other natives, can they run counter to customary rules, which regulate this exchange as much as all others. indeed, considering the great amount of trouble which they have in obtaining the clay, and the high degree of skill necessary to produce the pots, the prices for which they sell them are very low. but here again, their manners over this transaction are distinctly haughty, and they are well aware of their value as potters and distributors of pots to the other natives. a few more words must be said about their pot making industry as well as about the trade in these islands. the natives of the amphletts are exclusive manufacturers of pottery, within a wide radius. they are the only purveyors to the trobrianders, to the inhabitants of the marshall bennett islands, and also, i believe, all the clay-pots in woodlark come from the amphletts. [ ] to the south, they export their pots to dobu, du'a'u, and further south as far as milne bay. this is not all, however, for although in some of these farther districts the amphlett pots are used side by side with other ones, they are infinitely superior to any earthenware found in the whole of british new guinea. of a large size, yet extremely thin, they possess great durability, and in form they are extremely well shaped and finished (see plate xlvi). the best amphlett pots owe their high quality to the excellence of their material as well as their workmanship. the clay for them has to be imported into the islands from yayawana, a quarry on the northern shore of fergusson island, about a day's journey from the amphletts. only a very inferior clay can be found in the islands of gumasila and nabwageta, good enough to make small pots, but quite useless for the big ones. there is a legend, explaining why the good clay cannot be obtained nowadays in the amphletts. in olden days, two brothers, torosipupu and tolikilaki, lived on one of the summits of gumasila called tomonumonu. there was plenty of fine clay there at that time. one day torosipupu went to fish with a trap. he caught a very fine giant clam-shell. when he came back, tolikilaki said: "o my shell! i shall eat it!" torosipupu refused it and answered with a very obscene allusion to the bivalvular mollusc and to the uses he was going to make of it. tolikilaki asked again; torosipupu refused. they quarrelled. tolikilaki then took part of the clay with him, and went to yayawana on the main island. torosipupu afterwards took the rest and followed him. what were their further destinies, the legend does not say. but on gumasila there remained only very poor clay, which is all that can be found there ever since. since then, the men have to go about twice yearly to yayawana in order to bring the clay from which the women afterwards will manufacture the pots. it takes them about a day to reach yayawana, to which, as it lies to the south-west, they can travel with any of the prevailing winds and return equally well. they remain for a couple of days there, digging the clay, drying it and filling a few vataga baskets with it. i estimate that each canoe carries about two ton weight on its return journey. this will last the women for half a year's production. the pale, straw-coloured clay is kept under the houses in big troughs made of sides of discarded canoes. in olden days, before the white man's advent, the conditions were a little more complicated. only one island, kwatouto, being on friendly terms with the natives had the freedom of the northern shore. whether the other islands used also to fetch the clay from there, doing so armed and ready for attack; or whether they used to acquire the clay by barter from kwatouto, i could not definitely establish. the information one receives in the amphletts is exceedingly unsatisfactory, and my several informants gave contradictory accounts on this point. the fact seems clear, in my case, that kwatouto, then as now, was the source of the best pottery, but that both gumasila and nabwageta also always manufactured pots, though perhaps inferior ones. the fourth island, domdom, never participated in this trade, and up to the present there is not a single woman in domdom who can shape a pot. the manufacturing of this article, as said, is exclusively the work of women. they sit in groups of two or three under the houses, surrounded by big clumps of clay and the implements of their craft, and produce in these very shabby and mean conditions, veritable masterpieces of their art. personally i had only the opportunity of seeing groups of very old women at work, although i spent about a month in the amphletts. with regard to the technology of pot-making, the method is that of first roughly moulding the clay into its form and then beating with a spatula and subsequently scraping the walls to the required thinness with a mussel-shell. to give the description in detail, a woman starts first by kneading a certain amount of clay for a long time. of this material she makes two semi-circular clumps, or several clumps, if a big pot is to be made. these clumps are then placed in a ring, touching one another upon a flat stone or board, so that they form a thick, circular roll (plate xliv, top). the woman now begins to work this roll with both hands, gradually pressing it together, and at the same time bringing it up all round into a slanting wall (see plate xliv, bottom). her left hand works as a rule on the inside, and her right on the outside of this wall; gradually it begins to shape into a semi-spherical dome. on the top of the dome there is a hole, through which the woman thrusts her left hand, working with it on the inside of the dome (see plate xlv, top). at first the main movements of her hands were from downward up, flattening out the rolls into thin walls. the traces of her fingers going up and down on the outside leave longitudinal furrows (see details on plate xlv, top). towards the end of this stage her hands move round and round, leaving concentric, horizontal marks on the dome. this is continued until the pot has assumed a good curvature all round. it seems almost a miracle to see how, in a relatively short time, out of this after all brittle material, and with no implements whatever, a woman will shape a practically faultless hemisphere, often up to a metre in diameter. after the required shape has been obtained the woman takes a small spatula of light-wood into her right hand and she proceeds to tap the clay gently (see plate xlv, bottom). this stage lasts a fairly long time, for big pots about an hour. after the dome has been sufficiently worked in this way small pieces of clay are gradually fitted in at the top, closing the orifice, and the top of the dome is beaten again. in the case of small pots the beating is done only after the orifice has been closed. the pot is put with the mat into the sun, where it remains for a day or two to harden. it is then turned round, so that its mouth is now uppermost, and its bottom is carefully placed into a basket. then, round the rim of the mouth, a flat strip of clay is placed horizontally, turned towards the inside, forming a graceful lip. three small lumps of clay are put ° distance from each other near the lip as ornaments, and, with a pointed stick, a design is scratched in round the lip and sometimes down the outside of the body. in this state the pot is again left in the sun for some length of time. after it has sufficiently hardened to be handled with safety, though it must be done with the utmost care, it is placed on some dried sticks, mouth downwards, supported by stones put between the sticks. it is surrounded with twigs and pieces of wood on its outside, fire is kindled, the sticks below bake it from the inside, and those from above on the outside. the final result is a beautiful pot, of a brick red colour when new, though after several uses it becomes completely black. its shape is not quite semi-spherical; it is rather half an ellipsoid, like the broader half of an egg, cut off in the middle. the whole gives the feeling of perfection in form and of elegance, unparalleled in any south sea pottery i know (see plate xlvi). these pots in kiriwinian language kuria, are called by the amphlett natives kuyana or va'ega. the biggest specimens are about a metre across their mouth, and some sixty centimetres deep; they are used exclusively for the ceremonial cooking of mona (see plate xxxv), and are called kwoylamona (in the amphletts: nokunu). the second size kwoylakalagila (in the amphletts, nopa'eva) are used for ordinary boiling of yams or taro. kwoylugwawaga (amphletts, nobadala), are used for the same purposes but are much smaller. an especial size, kwoylamegwa (amphletts, nosipoma) are used in sorcery. the smallest ones, which i do not remember ever having seen in the trobriands though there is a trobriand word for them, kwoylakekila, are used for everyday cooking in the amphletts where they are called va'ega, in the narrower sense of the word. i have expatiated on this singular and artistic achievement of the natives of the amphletts, because from all points of view it is important to know the details of a craft so far in advance of any similar achievement within the melanesian region. a few words must now be said about trade in the amphletts. the central position of this little archipelago situated between, on one side, the big, flat, extremely fertile coral islands, which, however, are deprived of many indispensable, natural resources; and on the other, the rich jungle and varied mineral supplies of the volcanic regions in the d'entrecasteaux archipelago, indicates on which lines this trade would be likely to develop. to this natural inequality between them and their neighbours are added social elements. the trobrianders are skilful, industrious, and economically highly organised. in this respect, even the dobuans stand on a lower level, and the other inhabitants of the d'entrecasteaux much more so. if we imagine a commercial diagram drawn on the map, we would first of all notice the export in pottery, radiating from the amphletts as its source. in the inverse direction, flowing towards them, would be imports in food such as sago, pigs, coco-nut, betel-nut, taro and yams. an article very important in olden days, which had to be imported into the amphletts, was the stone for implements coming via the trobriands from woodlark island. these indeed would be traded on by the amphlettans, as all the d'entrecasteaux relied, for the most part at least, on the imports from woodlark, according to information i obtained in the amphletts. the amphlett islands further depended on the trobriands for the following articles: wooden dishes, manufactured in bwoytalu; lime-pots manufactured in several villages of kuboma; three-tiered baskets and folding baskets, made in luya; ebony lime pots and mussel shells, these latter fished mainly by the village of kavataria in the lagoon. these articles were paid for, or matched as presents by the following ones: first of all, of course the pots; secondly, turtle-shell earrings, special nose sticks, red ochre, pumice stone and obsidian, all of these obtainable locally. further, the natives of the amphletts procured on fergusson island, for the trobrianders, wild banana seeds used for necklaces, strips of rattan used as belts and for lashing, feathers of the cassowary and red parrot, used for dancing decorations, plaited fibre-belts, bamboo and barbed spears. it may be added that in olden days, the natives in the amphletts would not sail freely to all the places on the main island. each amphlett village community had a district on the mainland, with which they were on friendly terms and with which they could trade without incurring any danger. thus, as said above, only the village of kwatouto, in the southernmost inhabited amphlett island, was free to go unmolested to the district round yayawana, from whence they obtained the pale yellow clay, so excellent for pottery. the natives of nabwageta had a few villages eastwards from yayawana to deal with, and those of gumasila went further east still. domdom natives were never great traders or sailors. the trading conditions in the islands were further complicated by the constant internal quarrels and warfare between the districts. kwatouto and domdom on the one side, gumasila and nabwageta on the other were allies, and between these two factions there was a constant, smouldering hostility, preventing any development of friendly commercial intercourse, and breaking out now and then into open warfare. this was the reason why the villages were all perched on high, inaccessible ledges, or like gumasila, were built so as to be protected by the sea and reefs from attack. the influence of the surrounding great districts, that is, of the trobriands and of dobu upon the amphletts neither was nor is merely commercial. from the limited linguistic material collected in the amphletts, i can only say that their language is related both to that of the trobriands and of dobu. their social organisation resembles closely that of the trobrianders with the exception of chieftainship, which is lacking in the amphletts. in their beliefs as to sorcery, spirits, etc., they seem to be more akin to the dobuans than to the trobrianders. their canoe magic has come from the trobriands, but the art of building their canoes is that of dobu, which as we have seen before is also the one adopted by the trobrianders. the magic of the kula, known in the amphletts, is partly adopted from the trobriands, and partly from dobu. there is only one indigenous system of magic which originated in the islands. long ago there lived a man of the malasi clan, who had his abode in the rock of selawaya, which stands out of the jungle, above the big village of gumasila. this man knew the magic of ayowa, which is the name given to mwasila (kula magic) in the language of the amphletts and of dobu. some people passed near the stone while it was being recited within it; they learned it, and handed it over to their descendants. iv one more point of importance must be mentioned here, a point bearing upon the intertribal relations in this district. as we saw, some trobriand people remain sometimes on prolonged visits in the amphletts. this custom, however, is never reciprocated, and people from the amphletts never visit for any length of time their northern neighbours. the same refers to the relations between the trobriands and the district of dobu. in discussing the lists of kula partners of kouta'uya and toybayoba, i was told about some of their southern partners, that they were veyola (maternal kinsmen) of my informant. on further inquiry it appeared that these people were emigrants from the trobriands, who settled down in tewara, sanaroa or the big dobuan settlements on the north-west shores of dawson straits. when i asked whether, on the contrary, there were any cases of dobuans settling in boyowa, it was emphatically denied that such a thing could happen. and indeed, in the numerous genealogical data which i have collected from all over the district, there is no trace of migration from the south, although frequent migrations occur within the district and some from the marshall bennett islands. in general, all these migrations within the trobriands show also a marked tendency to move form north to south. thus, the most aristocratic sub-clan, the tabalu, originated in the northernmost village of laba'i. but now their stronghold is further south in omarakana, and the members of the same sub-clan are ruling in olivilevi, and tukwa'ukwa, that is in the middle of the island. some of them even migrated as far south as vakuta, where they established a feeble imitation of chieftainship, never being able to subdue the other natives to any extent. several sub-clans, now firmly established in the middle and southern portions of the island, trace their descent from the north, and in the amphletts there are also a couple of cases of sub-clans immigrated from boyowa. in contrast to this migration of people from north to south, we have noted the spread of one of the main cultural elements, of the canoe, from south to north. we saw how the nagega, the big, sea-worthy, but heavy and slow canoe has been superseded by the masawa or tadobu, which spread a few generations ago, till it arrived at the island of kitava. it is more difficult to follow the movements of beliefs. but i have reason to assume that beliefs in sorcery, more especially in the mulukwausi and tauva'u, move from south to north. in the next chapter, we shall return to our sinaketan expedition, in order to move them for a short distance along their route into the first settlements of the dobu speaking people. these places will suggest a new theme for a lengthy digression, this time into the mythological subjects and legends connected with the kula. chapter xii in tewara and sanaroa--mythology of the kula i at daybreak the party leave the amphletts. this is the stage when the parting gifts, the talo'i are given. the clay pots, the several kinds of produce of the islands and of the koya, which had been laid aside the previous day, are now brought to the canoes (see plate xlvii). neither the giver nor the main receiver, the toliwaga, take much notice of the proceedings, great nonchalance about give and take being the correct attitude prescribed by good manners. children bring the objects, and the junior members of the crew stow them away. the general behaviour of the crowds, ashore and in the canoes, is as unostentatious at this moment of parting as it was at the arrival. no more farewells than greetings are spoken or shouted, nor are there any visible or formal signs of grief, or of hope of meeting again, or of any other emotions. the busy, self-absorbed crews push off stolidly, step the mast, set sail, and glide away. they now approach the broad front of koyatabu, which with a favourable wind, they might reach within two hours or so. they probably sail near enough to get a clear view of the big trees standing on the edge of the jungle, and of the long waterfall dividing the mountain's flank right down the middle; of the triangular patches under cultivation, covered with the vine of yams and big leaves of taro. they could also perceive here and there smoke curling out of the jungle where, hidden under the trees, there lies a village, composed of a few miserable huts. nowadays these villages have come down to the water's edge, in order to supplement their garden yield with fish. in olden days they were all high up on the slope, and their huts hardly ever visible from the sea. the inhabitants of these small and ramshackle villages are shy and timid, though in olden days they would have been dangerous to the trobrianders. they speak a language which differs from that of dobu and is usually called by the natives 'the basima talk.' there seem to be about four or five various languages on the island of fergusson, besides that of dobu. my acquaintance with the basima natives is very small, due only to two forced landings in their district. they struck me as being physically of a different type from the dobuans, though this is only an impression. they have got no boats, and do the little sailing they require on small rafts of three or five logs tied together. their houses are smaller and less well-made than those in dobu. further investigation of these natives would be very interesting, and probably also very difficult, as is always the case when studying very small communities, living at the same time right out of touch with any white man. this land must remain, for the present anyhow, veiled for ourselves, as it also is for the trobriand natives. for these, indeed, the few attempts which they occasionally made to come into contact with these natives, and the few mishaps which brought them to their shores, were all far from encouraging in results, and only strengthened the traditional superstitious fear of them. several generations ago, a canoe or two from burakwa, in the island of kayeula, made an exploring trip to the district of gabu, lying in a wide bay under the north-west flank of koyatabu. the natives of gabu, receiving them at first with a show of interest, and pretending to enter into commercial relations, afterwards fell on them treacherously and slew the chief toraya and all his companions. this story has become famous, and indeed one of the outstanding historical events of the trobriands, because tomakam, the slain chief's younger brother, went to the koya of gabu, and killed the head man of one of the villages, avenging thus his brother's death. he then composed a song and a dance which is performed to this day in kiriwina, and has indeed one of the finest melodies in the islands. this is the verbatim account of the story as it was told to me by to'uluwa himself, the chief of omarakana, who at present 'owns' this gumagabu dance, his ancestors having acquired it from the descendants of tomakam by a laga payment. [ ] it is a commentary to the song, and begins only with the avenging expedition of tomakam, which is also the theme of the song. the story of gumagabu "tomakam got a new waga. he blew the conch shell and went to the koya. he spoke to his mother" (that is, before leaving), "'my mother, you remain, i shall sail. one conch shell you hear, it will be a conch shell of a necklace.'" (that is, it will be a sign that he has been successful in getting a good kula necklace). "'the second conch shell will be the conch shell of the dead man; the sign that i have already carried out my revenge. i shall sail, i shall anchor, i shall sleep. the second day i shall sail, i shall anchor, i shall sleep. the third day i shall anchor in a village, having already arrived in the mountain. the fourth day i shall give pari, the kinana (the southern foreigner) will come, i shall hit him. the fifth day i shall return. i shall sail fast, till night grows on the sea. the next day i shall anchor at burakwa. you hear the conch shell, you sleep in the house, arise. one blow you hear of the shell--the blow of the bagi (necklace). two blows you hear, the blow of the dead man! then the men of burakwa will say: 'two conch shells, two necklaces,' then, you come out of the house, you speak: 'men of burakwa, from one side of the village and from the other; indeed you mocked my son, tomakam. your speech was--go, carry out thy vendetta in gabu. the first conch shell is that of the necklace, the second conch shell is that of the dead man. i have spoken!'" (here ends the speech of tomakam to his mother.) "he anchored in the village in the koya. he told his younger brother: 'go, tell the kinana men these words: your friend has a sore leg, well, if we together go to the canoe he will give the pari!' the younger brother went and spoke those words to the headman of the kinana: 'some green coco-nuts, some betel-nut, some pig, bring this to us and we shall give you pari. your arm-shells, your big stone blade, your boar's tusk, your whale-bone spatula await you in the canoe. the message for you is that your friend has a sore leg and cannot walk.' says the kinana man: 'well, let us go!'" "he caught a pig, he collected betel-nut, sugar cane, bananas, necklaces, betel-pod, he said: 'well, let us go together to the canoe.' pu'u he gives the necklace; pu'u, the pig; then he gave the coco-nut, the betel-nut, the sugar cane, the bananas. tomakam lay on one side; his leg he wrapped up in a white, soft pandanus mat. before he had spoken to his younger brother": (i.e., he gave him this instruction also, when he sent him to meet the people of gabu): "'you all come with the kinana man. do not remain in the village.' then" (after the first gifts were exchanged) "the kinana man stood up in the canoe. his betel-pod fell down. spoke tomakam, addressing the kinana man: 'my friend, pick up the betel-pod. it fell and went down into the canoe.' the kinana man bent down, he took the betel-pod. tomakam saw that the kinana bent down, he took an axe, and sitting he made a stroke at him. he cut off his neck. then tomakam took the head, threw the body into the sea. the head he stuck on a stick of his canoe. they sailed, they arrived in their village. he caught a pig, prepared a taro pudding, cut sugar cane, they had a big feast, he invented this song." such was the story told me by the chief of omarakana about the song and dance of gumagabu, which at that time they were singing and performing in his village. i have adduced it in full, in an almost literal translation from the native text, in order to show it side by side with the song. the narrative thus reproduced shows characteristic gaps, and it does not cover even the incidents of the song. the following is a free translation of the song, which, in its original native text, is very condensed and impressionistic. a word or two indicates rather than describes whole scenes and incidents, and the traditional commentary, handed on in a native community side by side with the song, is necessary for a full understanding. the gumagabu song i the stranger of gumagabu sits on the top of the mountain. 'go on top of the mountain, the towering mountain....' ----they cry for toraya...---- the stranger of gumagabu sits on the slope of the mountain. ----the fringe of small clouds lifts above boyowa; the mother cries for toraya---- 'i shall take my revenge.' the mother cries for toraya. ii our mother, dibwaruna, dreams on the mat. she dreams about the killing. 'revenge the wailing; anchor; hit the gabu strangers!' ----the stranger comes out; the chief gives him the pari; 'i shall give you the doga; bring me things from the mountain to the canoe!' iii we exchange our vaygu'a; the rumour of my arrival spreads through the koya we talk and talk. he bends and is killed. his companions run away; his body is thrown into the sea; the companions of the kinana run away, we sail home. iv next day, the sea foams up, the chief's canoe stops on the reef; the storm approaches; the chief is afraid of drowning. the conch shell is blown: it sounds in the mountain. they all weep on the reef. v they paddle in the chief's canoe; they circle round the point of bewara. 'i have hung my basket. i have met him.' so cries the chief, so cries repeatedly the chief. vi women in festive decoration walk on the beach. nawaruva puts on her turtle rings; she puts on her luluga'u skirt. in the village of my fathers, in burakwa, there is plenty of food; plenty is brought in for distribution. the character of this song is extremely elliptic, one might even say futuristic, since several scenes are crowded simultaneously into the picture. in the first strophe we see the kinana, by which word all the tribesmen from the d'entrecasteaux archipelago are designated in boyowa, on the top of his mountain in gabu. immediately afterwards, we are informed of the intentions of tomakam to ascend the mountain, while the women cry for toraya, for the slain chief--probably his kinswomen and widows. the next picture again spans over the wide seas, and on the one shore we see the gabuan sitting on the slopes of his hill and far away on the other, under the fringe of small clouds lifting above boyowa, the mother cries for her son, the murdered chief. tomakam takes a resolve, 'i shall take my revenge,' hearing her cry. in the second strophe, the mother dreams about the expedition; the words about revenge to be taken on the gabu men and the directions to anchor and hit him are probably taken from her dream. then suddenly we are transported right across to the mountain, the expedition having arrived there already. the strangers, the kinana are coming down to the canoe, and we assist at the words spoken between them and the people of buakwa. then in the third strophe, we arrive at the culminating scene of the drama; even here, however, the hero, who is also his own bard, could not help introducing a few boastful words about his renown resounding in the koya. in a few words the tragedy is described: the kinana bends down, is killed, and his body is thrown into the water. about his head we hear nothing in this verse. in the next one, a storm overtakes the returning party. signals of distress are re-echoed by the mountain, and like homeric heroes, our party are not ashamed to weep in fear and anguish. somehow they escape, however, and in the next verse, they are already near their village and tomakam, their leader, bursts into a pæan of triumph. it is not quite clear what the allusion to the basket means, whether he keeps there his kula trophies or the slain enemy's head; this latter, in contradiction to what we heard in the prose story of its being impaled. the song ends with a description of a feast. the woman mentioned there is tomakam's daughter, who puts on festive attire in order to welcome her father. comparing now the song with the story, we see that they do not quite tally. in the story, there is the dramatic interest of the mother's intervention. we gather from it that tomakam, goaded by the aspersions of his fellow-villagers, wishes to make his return as effective as possible. he arranges the signals of the two conch shell blasts with his mother, and asks her to harangue the people at the moment of his return. all this finds no expression in the song. the ruse of the chief's sore leg is also omitted from there, which, however, does not mean that the hero was ashamed of it. on the other hand, the storm described in the song is omitted from the story, and there is a discrepancy about the head of the gabu man, and we do not know whether it really is conveyed in a basket as the song has it or impaled, as the story relates! i have adduced in detail the story and the song, because they are a good illustration of the native's attitude towards the dangers, and towards the heroic romance of the koya. they are also interesting as documents, showing which salient points would strike the natives' imagination in such a dramatic occurrence. both in the story and in the song, we find emphasised the motives of social duty, of satisfied self-regard and ambition; again, the dangers on the reef, the subterfuge in killing, finally the festivities on return home. much that would interest us in the whole story is omitted, as anyone can see for himself. other stories, though not made illustrious through being set into a song, are told about the koya. i met myself an old man in the island of vakuta, who, as a boy, had been captured with a whole party by a village community of dobu-speaking people on normanby island. the men and another small boy of the party were killed and eaten, but some women took pity on him, and he was spared, to be brought up amongst them. there is another man, either alive or recently dead in kavataria, who had a similar experience in fergusson island. another man called kaypoyla, from the small island of kuyawa in the western trobriands, was stranded with his crew somewhere in the west of fergusson island, but not in the district where they used to trade. his companions were killed and eaten. he was taken alive and kept to fatten for a proximate feast. his host, or rather the host of the feast in which he was going to furnish the pièce de résistence, was away inland, to invite the guests, while the host's wife went for a moment behind the house, sweeping the ground. kaypoyla jumped up and ran to the shore. being chased by some other men from the settlement, he concealed himself in the branches of a big tree standing on the beach, and was not found by his pursuers. at night he came down, took a canoe or a raft, and paddled along the coast. he used to sleep on shore during the night, and paddle on in day time. one night he slept among some sago-palms, and, awakening in the morning, found himself, to his terror, surrounded by kinana men. what was his joyful surprise after all, when he recognised among them his friend and kula partner, with whom he always used to trade! after some time, he was sent back home in his partner's canoe. many such stories have a wide currency, and they supply one of the heroic elements in tribal life, an element which now, with the establishment of white man's influence, has vanished. yet even now the gloomy shores which our party are leaving to the right, the tall jungle, the deep valleys, the hill-tops darkened with trailing clouds, all this is a dim mysterious background, adding to the awe and solemnity of the kula, though not entering into it. the sphere of activities of our traders lies at the foot of the high mountains, there, where a chain of rocks and islands lies scattered along the coast. some of them are passed immediately after leaving gumasila. then, after a good distance, a small rock, called gurewaya, is met, remarkable for the taboos associated with it. close behind it, two islands, tewara and uwama, are separated by a narrow passage, the mythical straits of kadimwatu. there is a village on the first-mentioned, and the natives of this make gardens on both islands. the village is not very big; it may have some sixty to eighty inhabitants, as it can man three canoes for the kula. it has no commercial or industrial importance, but is notable because of its mythological associations. this island is the home of the mythological hero, kasabwaybwayreta, whose story is one of the most important legends of the kula. here indeed, in tewara, we are right within the mythological heart of the kula. in fact, we entered its legendary area with the moment the sinaketan fleet sailed out of the lagoon into the deep waters of pilolu. ii once more we must pause, this time in an attempt to grasp the natives' mental attitude towards the mythological aspect of the kula. right through this account it has been our constant endeavour to realise the vision of the world, as it is reflected in the minds of the natives. the frequent references to the scenery have not been given only to enliven the narrative, or even to enable the reader to visualise the setting of the native customs. i have attempted to show how the scene of his actions appears actually to the native, to describe his impressions and feelings with regard to it, as i was able to read them in his folk-lore, in his conversations at home, and in his behaviour when passing through this scenery itself. here we must try to reconstruct the influence of myth upon this vast landscape, as it colours it, gives it meaning, and transforms it into something live and familiar. what was a mere rock, now becomes a personality; what was a speck on the horizon becomes a beacon, hallowed by romantic associations with heroes; a meaningless configuration of landscape acquires a significance, obscure no doubt, but full of intense emotion. sailing with natives, especially with novices to the kula, i often observed how deep was their interest in sections of landscape impregnated with legendary meaning, how the elder ones would point and explain, the younger would gaze and wonder, while the talk was full of mythological names. it is the addition of the human interest to the natural features, possessing in themselves less power of appealing to a native man than to us, which makes the difference for him in looking at the scenery. a stone hurled by one of the heroes into the sea after an escaping canoe; a sea passage broken between two islands by a magical canoe; here two people turned into rock; there a petrified waga--all this makes the landscape represent a continuous story or else the culminating dramatic incident of a familiar legend. this power of transforming the landscape, the visible environment, is one only of the many influences which myth exercises upon the general outlook of the natives. although here we are studying myth only in its connection with the kula, even within these narrow limits some of its broader connections will be apparent, notably its influence upon sociology, magic and ceremonial. the question which presents itself first, in trying to grasp the native outlook on the subject is: what is myth to the natives? how do they conceive and define it? have they any line of demarcation between the mythical and the actual reality, and if so, how do they draw this line? their folk-lore, that is, the verbal tradition, the store of tales, legends, and texts handed on by previous generations, is composed of the following classes: first of all, there is what the natives call libogwo, 'old talk,' but which we would call tradition; secondly, kukwanebu, fairy tales, recited for amusement, at definite seasons, and relating avowedly untrue events; thirdly, wosi, the various songs, and vinavina, ditties, chanted at play or under other special circumstances; and last, not least, megwa or yopa, the magical spells. all these classes are strictly distinguished from one another by name, function, social setting, and by certain formal characteristics. this brief outline of the boyowan folk-lore in general must suffice here, as we cannot enter into more details, and the only class which interests us in the present connection is the first one, that called libogwo. this, the 'old talk,' the body of ancient tradition, believed to be true, consists on the one hand of historical tales, such as the deeds of past chiefs, exploits in the koya, stories of shipwreck, etc. on the other hand, the libogwo class also contains what the natives call lili'u--myths, narratives, deeply believed by them, held by them in reverence, and exercising an active influence on their conduct and tribal life. now the natives distinguish definitely between myth and historic account, but this distinction is difficult to formulate, and cannot be stated but in a somewhat deliberate manner. first of all, it must be borne in mind, that a native would not trouble spontaneously to analyse such distinctions and to put them into words. if an ethnographer succeeded in making the problem clear to an intelligent informant (and i have tried and succeeded in doing this) the native would simply state: "we all know that the stories about tudava, about kudayuri, about tokosikuna, are lili'u; our fathers, our kadada (our maternal uncles) told us so; and we always hear these tales; we know them well; we know that there are no other tales besides them, which are lili'u. thus, whenever we hear a story, we know whether it is a lili'u or not." indeed, whenever a story is told, any native, even a boy, would be able to say whether this is one of his tribal lili'u or not. for the other tales, that is the historical ones, they have no special word, but they would describe the events as happening among 'humans like ourselves.' thus tradition, from which the store of tales is received, hands them on labelled as lili'u, and the definition of a lili'u, is that it is a story transmitted with such a label. and even this definition is contained by the facts themselves, and not explicitly stated by the natives in their current stock of expressions. for us, however, even this is not sufficient, and we have to search further, in order to see whether we cannot find other indices, other characteristic features which differentiate the world of mythical events from that of real ones. a reflection which would naturally present itself would be this: "surely the natives place their myths in ancient, pre-historic times, while they put historical events into recent ages?" there is some truth in this, in so far as most of the historical events related by the natives are quite recent, have occurred within the community where they are told and can be directly connected with people and conditions existing at present, by memory of living man, by genealogies or other records. on the other hand, when historical events are told from other districts, and cannot be directly linked with the present, it would be erroneous to imagine that the natives place them into a definite compartment of time different from that of the myth. for it must be realised that these natives do not conceive of a past as of a lengthy duration, unrolling itself in successive stages of time. they have no idea of a long vista of historical occurrences, narrowing down and dimming as they recede towards a distant background of legend and myth, which stands out as something entirely different from the nearer planes. this view, so characteristic of the naive, historical thinking among ourselves, is entirely foreign to the natives. whenever they speak of some event of the past, they distinguish whether it happened within their own memory or that of their fathers' or not. but, once beyond this line of demarcation, all the past events are placed by them on one plane, and there are no gradations of 'long ago' and 'very long ago.' any idea of epochs in time is absent from their mind; the past is one vast storehouse of events, and the line of demarcation between myth and history does not coincide with any division into definite and distinct periods of time. indeed, i have found very often that when they told me some story of the past, for me obviously mythological, they would deem it necessary to emphasise that this did not happen in their fathers' time or in their grand-fathers' time, but long ago, and that it is a lili'u. again, they have no idea of what could be called the evolution of the world or the evolution of society; that is, they do not look back towards a series of successive changes, which happened in nature or in humanity, as we do. we, in our religious and scientific outlook alike, know that earth ages and that humanity ages, and we think of both in these terms; for them, both are eternally the same, eternally youthful. thus, in judging the remoteness of traditional events, they cannot use the co-ordinates of a social setting constantly in change and divided into epochs. to give a concrete example, in the myths of torosipupu and tolikalaki, we saw them having the same interest and concerns, engaged in the same type of fishing, using the same means of locomotion as the present natives do. the mythical personages of the natives' legends, as we shall presently see, live in the same houses, eat the same food, handle the same weapons and implements as those in use at present. whereas in any of our historical stories, legends or myths, we have a whole set of changed cultural conditions, which allow us to co-ordinate any event with a certain epoch, and which make us feel that a distant historical event, and still more, a mythological one, is happening in a setting of cultural conditions entirely different from those in which we are living now. in the very telling of the stories of, let us say, joan of arc, solomon, achilles, king arthur, we have to mention all sorts of things and conditions long since disappeared from among us, which make even a superficial and an uneducated listener realise that it is a story of a remote and different past. i have said just now that the mythical personages in the trobriand tradition are living the same type of life, under the same social and cultural conditions as the present natives. this needs one qualification, and in this we shall find a very remarkable criterion for a distinction between what is legendary and what is historical: in the mythical world, although surrounding conditions were similar, all sorts of events happened which do not happen nowadays, and people were endowed with powers such as present men and their historical ancestors do not possess. in mythical times, human beings come out of the ground, they change into animals, and these become people again; men and women rejuvenate and slough their skins; flying canoes speed through the air, and things are transformed into stone. now this line of demarcation between the world of myth and that of actual reality--the simple difference that in the former things happen which never occur nowadays--is undoubtedly felt and realised by the natives, though they themselves could not put it into words. they know quite well that to-day no one emerges from underground; that people do not change into animals, and vice versa; nor do they give birth to them; that present-day canoes do not fly. i had the opportunity of grasping their mental attitude towards such things by the following occurrence. the fijian missionary teacher in omarakana was telling them about white man's flying machines. they inquired from me, whether this was true, and when i corroborated the fijian's report and showed them pictures of aeroplanes in an illustrated paper, they asked me whether this happened nowadays or whether it were a lili'u. this circumstance made it clear to me then, that the natives would have a tendency, when meeting with an extraordinary and to them supernatural event, either to discard it as untrue, or relegate it into the regions of the lili'u. this does not mean, however, that the untrue and the mythical are the same or even similar to them. certain stories told to them, they insist on treating as sasopa (lies), and maintain that they are not lili'u. for instance, those opposed to missionary teaching will not accept the view that biblical stories told to them are a lili'u, but they reject them as sasopa. many a time did i hear such a conservative native arguing thus:-- "our stories about tudava are true; this is a lili'u. if you go to laba'i you can see the cave in which tudava was born, you can see the beach where he played as a boy. you can see his footmark in a stone at a place in the raybwag. but where are the traces of yesu keriso? who ever saw any signs of the tales told by the misinari? indeed they are not lili'u." to sum up, the distinction between the lili'u and actual or historical reality is drawn firmly, and there is a definite cleavage between the two. prima facie, this distinction is based on the fact that all myth is labelled as such and known to be such to all natives. a further distinctive mark of the world of lili'u lies in the super-normal, supernatural character of certain events which happen in it. the supernatural is believed to be true, and this truth is sanctioned by tradition, and by the various signs and traces left behind by mythical events, more especially by the magical powers handed on by the ancestors who lived in times of lili'u. this magical inheritance is no doubt the most palpable link between the present and the mythical past. but this past must not be imagined to form a pre-historic, very distant background, something which preceded a long evolution of mankind. it is rather the past, but extremely near reality, very much alive and true to the natives. as i have just said, there is one point on which the cleavage between myth and present reality, however deep, is bridged over in native ideas. the extraordinary powers which men possess in myths are mostly due to their knowledge of magic. this knowledge is, in many cases, lost, and therefore the powers of doing these marvellous things are either completely gone, or else considerably reduced. if the magic could be recovered, men would fly again in their canoes, they could rejuvenate, defy ogres, and perform the many heroic deeds which they did in ancient times. thus, magic, and the powers conferred by it, are really the link between mythical tradition and the present day. myth has crystallised into magical formulæ, and magic in its turn bears testimony to the authenticity of myth. often the main function of myth is to serve as a foundation for a system of magic, and, wherever magic forms the backbone of an institution, a myth is also to be found at the base of it. in this perhaps, lies the greatest sociological importance of myth, that is, in its action upon institutions through the associated magic. the sociological point of view and the idea of the natives coincide here in a remarkable manner. in this book we see this exemplified in one concrete case, in that of the relation between the mythology, the magic, and the social institution of the kula. thus we can define myth as a narrative of events which are to the native supernatural, in this sense, that he knows well that to-day they do not happen. at the same time he believes deeply that they did happen then. the socially sanctioned narratives of these events; the traces which they left on the surface of the earth; the magic in which they left behind part of their supernatural powers, the social institutions which are associated with the practice of this magic--all this brings about the fact that a myth is for the native a living actuality, though it has happened long ago and in an order of things when people were endowed with supernatural powers. i have said before that the natives do not possess any historical perspective, that they do not range events--except of course, those of the most recent decades--into any successive stages. they also do not classify their myths into any divisions with regard to their antiquity. but in looking at their myths, it becomes at once obvious that they represent events, some of which must have happened prior to others. for there is a group of stories describing the origin of humanity, the emerging of the various social units from underground. another group of mythical tales gives accounts of how certain important institutions were introduced and how certain customs crystallised. again, there are myths referring to small changes in culture, or to the introduction of new details and minor customs. broadly speaking, the mythical folk-lore of the trobrianders can be divided into three groups referring to three different strata of events. in order to give a general idea of trobriand mythology, it will be good to give a short characterisation of each of these groups. . the oldest myths, referring to the origin of human beings; to the sociology of the sub-clans and villages; to the establishment of permanent relations between this world and the next. these myths describe events which took place just at the moment when the earth began to be peopled from underneath. humanity existed, somewhere underground, since people emerged from there on the surface of boyowa, in full decoration, equipped with magic, belonging to social divisions, and obeying definite laws and customs. but beyond this we know nothing about what they did underground. there is, however, a series of myths, of which one is attached to every one of the more important sub-clans, about various ancestors coming out of the ground, and almost at once, doing some important deed, which gives a definite character to the sub-clan. certain mythological versions about the nether world belong also to this series. . kultur-myths.--here belong stories about ogres and their conquerors; about human beings who established definite customs and cultural features; about the origin of certain institutions. these myths are different from the foregoing ones, in so far as they refer to a time when humanity was already established on the surface of the earth, and when all the social divisions had already assumed a definite character. the main cycle of myths which belong here, are those of a culture hero, tudava, who slays an ogre and thus allows people to live in boyowa again, whence they all had fled in fear of being eaten. a story about the origins of cannibalism belongs here also, and about the origin of garden making. . myths in which figure only ordinary human beings, though endowed with extraordinary magical powers. these myths are distinguished from the foregoing ones, by the fact that no ogres or non-human persons figure in them, and that they refer to the origin, not of whole aspects of culture, such as cannibalism or garden-making, but to definite institutions or definite forms of magic. here comes the myth about the origins of sorcery, the myth about the origins of love magic, the myth of the flying canoe, and finally the several kula myths. the line of division between these three categories is, of course, not a rigid one, and many a myth could be placed in two or even three of these classes, according to its several features or episodes. but each myth contains as a rule one main subject, and if we take only this, there is hardly ever the slightest doubt as to where it should be placed. a point which might appear contradictory in superficial reading is that before, we stressed the fact that the natives had no idea of change, yet here we spoke of myths about 'origins' of institutions. it is important to realise that, though natives do speak about times when humanity was not upon the earth, of times when there were no gardens, etc., yet all these things arrive ready-made; they do not change or evolve. the first people, who came from underground, came up adorned with the same trinkets, carrying their lime-pot and chewing their betel-nut. the event, the emergence from the earth was mythical, that is, such as does not happen now; but the human beings and the country which received them were such as exist to-day. iii the myths of the kula are scattered along a section of the present kula circuit. beginning with a place in eastern woodlark island, the village of wamwara, the mythological centres are spread round almost in a semi-circle, right down to the island of tewara, where we have left for the present our party from sinaketa. in wamwara there lived an individual called gere'u, who, according to one myth, was the originator of the kula. in the island of digumenu, west of woodlark island, tokosikuna, another hero of the kula, had his early home, though he finished his career in gumasila, in the amphletts. kitava, the westernmost of the marshall bennetts, is the centre of canoe magic associated with the kula. it is also the home of monikiniki, whose name figures in many formulæ of the kula magic, though there is no explicit myth about him, except that he was the first man to practice an important system of mwasila (kula magic), probably the most widespread system of the present day. further west, in wawela, we are at the other end of the kasabwaybwayreta myth, which starts in tewara, and goes over to wawela in its narrative of events, to return to tewara again. this mythological narrative touches the island of boyowa at its southernmost point, the passage giribwa, which divides it from vakuta. almost all myths have one of their incidents laid in a small island between vakuta and the amphletts, called gabuwana. one of the myths leads us to the amphletts, that of tokosikuna; another has its beginning and end in tewara. such is the geography of the kula myths on the big sector between murua and dobu. although i do not know the other half through investigations made on the spot, i have spoken with natives from those districts, and i think that there are no myths localised anywhere on the sector murua (woodlark island), tubetube, and dobu. what i am quite certain of, however, is that the whole of the trobriands, except the two points mentioned before, lie outside the mythological area of the kula. no kula stories, associated with any village in the northern half of boyowa exist, nor does any of the mythical heroes of the other stories ever come to the northern or western provinces of the trobriands. such extremely important centres as sinaketa and omarakana are never mentioned. this would point, on the surface of it, to the fact that in olden days, the island of boyowa, except its southern end and the eastern settlement of wawela, either did not enter at all or did not play an important part in the kula. i shall give a somewhat abbreviated account of the various stories, and then adduce in extenso the one last mentioned, perhaps the most noteworthy of all the kula myths, that of kasabwaybwayreta, as well as the very important canoe myth, that of the flying waga of kudayuri. the muruan myth, which i obtained only in a very bald outline, is localised in the village of wamwara, at the eastern end of the island. a man called gere'u, of the lukuba clan, knew very well the mwasila magic, and wherever he went, all the valuables were given to him, so that all the others returned empty-handed. he went to gawa and iwa, and as soon as he appeared, pu-pu went the conch shells, and everybody gave him the bagi necklaces. he returned to his village, full of glory and of kula spoils. then he went to du'a'u, and obtained again an enormous amount of arm-shells. he settled the direction in which the kula valuables have to move. bagi necklaces have 'to go,' and the arm-shells 'to come.' as this was spoken on boyowa, 'go' meant to travel from boyowa to woodlark, 'come' to travel from gere'u's village to sinaketa. the culture hero gere'u was finally killed, through envy of his success in the kula. i obtained two versions about the mythological hero, tokosikuna of digumenu. in the first of them, he is represented as a complete cripple, without hands and feet, who has to be carried by his two daughters into the canoe. they sail on a kula expedition through iwa, gawa, through the straits of giribwa to gumasila. then they put him on a platform, where he takes a meal and goes to sleep. they leave him there and go into a garden which they see on a hill above, in order to gather some food. on coming back, they find him dead. on hearing their wailing, an ogre comes out, marries one of them and adopts the other. as he was very ugly, however, the girls killed him in an obscene manner, and then settled in the island. this obviously mutilated and superficial version does not give us many clues to the native ideas about the kula. the other version is much more interesting. tokosikuna, according to it, is also slightly crippled, lame, very ugly, and with a pitted skin; so ugly indeed that he could not marry. far north, in the mythical land of kokopawa, they play a flute so beautifully that the chief of digumenu, the village of tokosikuna, hears it. he wishes to obtain the flute. many men set out, but all fail, and they have to return half way, because it is so far. tokosikuna goes, and, through a mixture of cunning and daring, he succeeds in getting possession of the flute, and in returning safely to digumenu. there, through magic which one is led to infer he has acquired on his journey, he changes his appearance, becomes young, smooth-skinned and beautiful. the guya'u (chief) who is away in his garden, hears the flute played in his village, and returning there, he sees tokosikuna sitting on a high platform, playing the flute and looking beautiful. "well," he says, "all my daughters, all my granddaughters, my nieces and my sisters, you all marry tokosikuna! your husbands, you leave behind! you marry tokosikuna, for he has brought the flute from the distant land!" so tokosikuna married all the women. the other men did not take it very well, of course. they decided to get rid of tokosikuna by stratagem. they said: "the chief would like to eat giant clam-shell, let us go and fish it." "and how shall i catch it?" asks tokosikuna. "you put your head, where the clam-shell gapes open." (this of course would mean death, as the clam-shell would close, and, if a really big one, would easily cut off his head). tokosikuna, however, dived and with his two hands, broke a clam-shell open, a deed of super-human strength. the others were angry, and planned another form of revenge. they arranged a shark-fishing, advising tokosikuna to catch the fish with his hands. but he simply strangled the big shark, and put it into the canoe. then, he tears asunder a boar's mouth, bringing them thus to despair. finally they decide to get rid of him at sea. they try to kill him first by letting the heavy tree, felled for the waga, fall on him. but he supports it with his outstretched arms, and does no harm to himself. at the time of lashing, his companions wrap some wayaugo (lashing creeper) into a soft pandanus leaf; then they persuade him to use pandanus only for the lashing of his canoe, which he does indeed, deceived by seeing them use what apparently is the same. then they sail, the other men in good, sea-worthy canoes, he in an entirely unseaworthy one, lashed only with the soft, brittle pandanus leaf. and here begins the real kula part of the myth. the expedition arrives at gawa, where tokosikuna remains with his canoe on the beach, while the other men go to the village to kula. they collect all the smaller armshells of the soulava type, but the big ones, the bagi, remain in the village, for the local men are unwilling to give them. then tokosikuna starts for the village after all the others have returned. after a short while, he arrives from the village, carrying all the bagido'u bagidudu, and bagiriku--that is, all the most valuable types of spondylus necklaces. the same happens in iwa and kitava. his companions from the other canoes go first and succeed only in collecting the inferior kinds of valuables. he afterwards enters the village, and easily obtains the high grades of necklace, which had been refused to the others. these become very angry; in kitava, they inspect the lashings of his canoe, and see that they are rotten. "oh well, to-morrow, vakuta! the day after, gumasila,--he will drown in pilolu." in vakuta the same happens as before, and the wrath of his unsuccessful companions increases. they sail and passing the sandbank of gabula (this is the trobriand name for gabuwana, as the amphlettans pronounce it) tokosikuna eases his helm; then, as he tries to bring the canoe up to the wind again, his lashings snap, and the canoe sinks. he swims in the waves, carrying the basket-full of valuables in one arm. he calls out to the other canoes: "come and take your bagi! i shall get into your waga!" "you married all our women," they answer, "now, sharks will eat you! we shall go to make kula in dobu!" tokosikuna, however, swims safely to the point called kamsareta, in the island of domdom. from there he beholds the rock of selawaya standing out of the jungle on the eastern slope of gumasila. "this is a big rock, i shall go and live there," and turning towards the digumenu canoes, he utters a curse: "you will get nothing in dobu but poor necklaces, soulava of the type of tutumuyuwa and tutuyanabwa. the big bagido'u will stop with me." he remains in the amphletts and does not return to digumenu. and here ends the myth. i have given an extensive summary of this myth, including its first part, which has nothing to do with the kula, because it gives a full character sketch of the hero as a daring sailor and adventurer. it shows, how tokosikuna, after his northern trip, acquired magic which allowed him to change his ugly and weak frame into a powerful body with a beautiful appearance. the first part also contains the reference to his great success with women, an association between kula magic and love magic, which as we shall see, is not without importance. in this first part, that is, up to the moment when they start on the kula, tokosikuna appears as a hero, endowed with extraordinary powers, due to his knowledge of magic. in this myth, as we see, no events are related through which the natural appearance of the landscape is changed. therefore this myth is typical of what i have called the most recent stratum of mythology. this is further confirmed by the circumstance that no allusion is made in it to any origins, not even to the origins of the mwasila magic. for, as the myth is at present told and commented upon, all the men who go on the kula expedition with our hero, know a system of kula magic, the mwasila of monikiniki. tokosikuna's superiority rests with his special beauty magic; with his capacity to display enormous strength, and to face with impunity great dangers; with his ability to escape from drowning, finally, with his knowledge of the evil magic, bulubwalata, with which he prevents his companions from doing successful kula. this last point was contained in a commentary upon this myth, given to me by the man who narrated it. when i speak about the kula magic more explicitly further on, the reader will see that the four points of superiority just mentioned correspond to the categories into which we have to group the kula magic, when it is classified according to its leading ideas, according to the goal towards which it aims. one magic tokosikuna does not know. we see from the myth that he is ignorant of the nature of the wayugo, the lashing creeper. he is therefore obviously not a canoe-builder, nor acquainted with canoe-building magic. this is the point on which his companions are able to catch him. geographically, this myth links digumenu with the amphletts, as also did the previous version of the tokosikuna story. the hero, here as there, settles finally in gumasila, and the element of migration is contained in both versions. again, in the last story, tokosikuna decides to settle in the amphletts, on seeing the selawaya rock. if we remember the gumasilan legend about the origin of kula magic, it also refers to the same rock. i did not obtain the name of the individual who is believed to have lived on the selawaya rock, but it obviously is the same myth, only very mutilated in the gumasilan version. iv moving westwards from digumenu, to which the tokosikuna myth belongs, the next important centre of kula magic is the island of kitava. with this place, the magical system of monikiniki is associated by tradition, though no special story is told about this individual. a very important myth, on the other hand, localised in kitava, is the one which serves as foundation for canoe magic. i have obtained three independent versions of this myth, and they agree substantially. i shall adduce at length the story as it was told to me by the best informant, and written down in kiriwinian, and after that, i shall show on what points the other versions vary. i shall not omit from the full account certain tedious repetitions and obviously inessential details, for they are indispensable for imparting to the narrative the characteristic flavour of native folk-lore. to understand the following account, it is necessary to realise that kitava is a raised coral island. its inland part is elevated to a height of about three hundred feet. behind the flat beach, a steep coral wall rises, and from its summit the land gently falls towards the central declivity. it is in this central part that the villages are situated, and it would be quite impossible to transport a canoe from any village to the beach. thus, in kitava, unlike what happens with some of the lagoon villages of boyowa, the canoes have to be always dug out and lashed on the beach. the myth of the flying canoe of kudayuri. "mokatuboda of the lukuba clan and his younger brother toweyre'i lived in the village of kudayuri. with them lived their three sisters kayguremwo, na'ukuwakula and murumweyri'a. they had all come out from underground in the spot called labikewo, in kitava. these people were the u'ula (foundation, basis, here: first possessors) of the ligogu and wayugo magic." "all the men of kitava decided on a great kula expedition to the koya. the men of kumwageya, kaybutu, kabululo and lalela made their canoes. they scooped out the inside of the waga, they carved the tabuyo and lagim (decorated prow boards), they made the budaka (lateral gunwale planks). they brought the component parts to the beach, in order to make the yowaga (to put and lash them together)." "the kudayuri people made their canoe in the village. mokatuboda, the head man of the kudayuri village, ordered them to do so. they were angry: 'very heavy canoe. who will carry it to the beach?' he said: 'no, not so; it will be well. i shall just lash my waga in the village.' he refused to move the canoe; it remained in the village. the other people pieced their canoe on the beach; he pieced it together in the village. they lashed it with the wayugo creeper on the beach; he lashed his in the village. they caulked their canoes on the sea-shore; he caulked his in the village. they painted their canoes on the beach with black; he blackened his in the village. they made the youlala (painted red and white) on the beach; he made the youlala in the village. they sewed their sail on the beach; he did it in the village. they rigged up the mast and rigging on the beach; he in the village. after that, the men of kitava made tasasoria (trial run) and kabigidoya (visit of ceremonial presentation), but the kudayuri canoe did not make either." "by and by, all the men of kitava ordered their women to prepare the food. the women one day put all the food, the gugu'a (personal belongings), the pari (presents and trade goods) into the canoe. the people of kudayuri had all these things put into their canoe in the village. the headman of the kudayuri, mokatuboda, asked all his younger brothers, all the members of his crew, to bring some of their pari, and he performed magic over it, and made a lilava (magical bundle) of it." "the people of other villages went to the beach; each canoe was manned by its usagelu (members of the crew). the man of kudayuri ordered his crew to man his canoe in the village. they of the other villages stepped the mast on the shore; he stepped the mast in the village. they prepared the rigging on the shore; he prepared the rigging in the village. they hoisted the sail on the sea; he spoke 'may our sail be hoisted,' and his companions hoisted the sail. he spoke: 'sit in your places, every man!' he went into the house, he took his ligogu (adze), he took some coco-nut oil, he took a staff. he spoke magic over the adze, over the coco-nut oil. he came out of the house, he approached the canoe. a small dog of his called tokulubweydoga jumped into the canoe. [ ] he spoke to his crew: 'pull up the sail higher.' they pulled at the halyard. he rubbed the staff with the coco-nut oil. he knocked the canoe's skids with the staff. then he struck with his ligogu the u'ula of his canoe and the dobwana (that is, both ends of the canoe). he jumped into the canoe, sat down, and the canoe flew!" "a rock stood before it. it pierced the rock in two, and flew through it. he bent down, he looked; his companions (that is, the other canoes of kitava) sailed on the sea. he spoke to his younger brothers, (that is to his relatives in the canoe): 'bail out the water, pour it out!' those who sailed on the earth thought it was rain, this water which they poured out from above." "they (the other canoes) sailed to giribwa, they saw a canoe anchored there. they said: 'is that the canoe from dobu?' they thought so, they wanted to lebu (take by force, but not necessarily as a hostile act) the buna (big cowrie) shells of the dobu people. then they saw the dog walking on the beach. they said: 'wi-i-i! this is tokulubweydoga, the dog of the lukuba! this canoe they lashed in the village, in the village of kudayuri. which way did it come? it was anchored in the jungle!' they approached the people of kudayuri, they spoke: 'which way did you come?' 'oh, i came together with you (the same way).' 'it rained. did it rain over you?' 'oh yes, it has rained over me.'" "next day, they (the men of the other villages of kitava), sailed to vakuta and went ashore. they made their kula. the next day they sailed, and he (mokatuboda) remained in vakuta. when they disappeared on the sea, his canoe flew. he flew from vakuta. when they (the other crews) arrived in gumasila, he was there on the promontory of lububuyama. they said: 'this canoe is like the canoe of our companions,' and the dog came out. 'this is the dog of the lukuba clan of kudayuri.' they asked him again which way he came; he said he came the same way as they. they made the kula in gumasila. he said: 'you sail first, i shall sail later on.' they were astonished: 'which way does he sail?' they slept in gumasila." "next day they sailed to tewara, they arrived at the beach of kadimwatu. they saw his canoe anchored there, the dog came out and ran along the beach. they spoke to the kudayuri men, 'how did you come here?' 'we came with you, the same way we came.' they made kula in tewara. next day, they sailed to bwayowa (village in dobu district). he flew, and anchored at the beach sarubwoyna. they arrived there, they saw: 'oh, look at the canoe, are these fishermen from dobu?' the dog came out. they recognised the dog. they asked him (mokatuboda) which way he came: 'i came with you, i anchored here.' they went to the village of bwayowa, they made kula in the village, they loaded their canoes. they received presents from the dobu people at parting, and the kitava men sailed on the return journey. they sailed first, and he flew through the air." on the return journey, at every stage, they see him first, they ask him which way he went, and he gives them some sort of answer as the above ones. "from giribwa they sailed to kitava; he remained in giribwa; he flew from giribwa; he went to kitava, to the beach. his gugu'a (personal belongings) were being carried to the village when his companions came paddling along, and saw his canoe anchored and the dog running on the beach. all the other men were very angry, because his canoe flew." "they remained in kitava. next year, they made their gardens, all the men of kitava. the sun was very strong, there was no rain at all. the sun burned their gardens. this man (the head man of kudayuri, mokatuboda) went into the garden. he remained there, he made a bulubwalata (evil magic) of the rain. a small cloud came and rained on his garden only, and their gardens the sun burned. they (the other men of kitava) went and saw their gardens. they arrived there, they saw all was dead, already the sun had burned them. they went to his garden and it was all wet: yams, taitu, taro, all was fine. they spoke: 'let us kill him so that he might die. we shall then speak magic over the clouds, and it will rain over our gardens.'" "the real, keen magic, the kudayuri man (i.e. mokatuboda) did not give to them; he gave them not the magic of the ligogu (adze); he gave them not the magic of kunisalili (rain magic); he gave them not the magic of the wayugo (lashing creeper), of the coco-nut oil and staff. toweyre'i, his younger brother, thought that he had already received the magic, but he was mistaken. his elder brother gave him only part of the magic, the real one he kept back." "they came (to mokatuboda, the head man of kudayuri), he sat in his village. his brothers and maternal nephews sharpened the spear, they hit him, he died." "next year, they decided to make a big kula expedition, to dobu. the old waga, cut and lashed by mokatuboda, was no more good, the lashings had perished. then toweyre'i, the younger brother, cut a new one to replace the old. the people of kumwageya and lalela (the other villages in kitava) heard that toweyre'i cuts his waga, and they also cut theirs. they pieced and lashed their canoes on the beach. toweyre'i did it in the village." here the native narrative enumerates every detail of canoe making, drawing the contrast between the proceedings on the beach of the other kitavans, and of toweyre'i building the canoe in the village of kudayuri. it is an exact repetition of what was said at the beginning, when mokatuboda was building his canoe, and i shall not adduce it here. the narrative arrives at the critical moment when all the members of the crew are seated in the canoe ready for the flight. "toweyre'i went into the house and made magic over the adze and the coco-nut oil. he came out, smeared a staff with the oil, knocked the skids of the canoe. he then did as his elder brother did. he struck both ends of the canoe with the adze. he jumped into the canoe and sat down; but the waga did not fly. toweyre'i went into the house and cried for his elder brother, whom he had slain; he had killed him without knowing his magic. the people of kumwageya and lalela went to dobu and made their kula. the people of kudayuri remained in the village." "the three sisters were very angry with toweyre'i, for he killed the elder brother and did not learn his magic. they themselves had learnt the ligogu, the wayugo magic; they had it already in their lopoula (belly). they could fly through the air, they were yoyova. in kitava they lived on the top of botigale'a hill. they said: 'let us leave kitava and fly away.' they flew through the air. one of them, na'ukuwakula, flew to the west, pierced through the sea-passage dikuwa'i (somewhere in the western trobriands); she arrived at simsim (one of the lousançay). there she turned into a stone, she stands in the sea." "the two others flew first (due west) to the beach of yalumugwa (on the eastern shore of boyowa). there they tried to pierce the coral rock named yakayba--it was too hard. they went (further south on the eastern shore) through the sea-passage of vilasasa and tried to pierce the rock kuyaluya--they couldn't. they went (further south) and tried to pierce the rock of kawakari--it was too hard. they went (further south). they tried to pierce the rocks at giribwa. they succeeded. that is why there is now a sea passage at giribwa (the straits dividing the main island of boyowa from the island of vakuta)." "they flew (further south) towards dobu. they came to the island of tewara. they came to the beach of kadimwatu and pierced it. this is where the straits of kadimwatu are now between the islands of tewara and uwama. they went to dobu; they travelled further south, to the promontory of saramwa (near dobu island). they spoke: 'shall we go round the point or pierce right through?' they went round the point. they met another obstacle and pierced it through, making the straits of loma (at the western end of dawson straits). they came back, they returned and settled near tewara. they turned into stones; they stand in the sea. one of them cast her eyes on dobu, this is murumweyri'a; she eats men, and the dobuans are cannibals. the other one, kayguremwo, does not eat men, and her face is turned towards boyowa. the people of boyowa do not eat man." this story is extremely clear in its general outline, and very dramatic, and all its incidents and developments have a high degree of consistency and psychological motivation. it is perhaps the most telling of all myths from this part of the world which came under my notice. it is also a good example of what has been said before in division ii. namely that the identical conditions, sociological and cultural, which obtain at the present time, are also reflected in mythical narratives. the only exception to this is the much higher efficiency of magic found in the world of myth. the tale of kudayuri, on the one hand, describes minutely the sociological conditions of the heroes, their occupations and concerns, and all these do not differ at all from the present ones. on the other hand, it shows the hero endowed with a truly super-normal power through his magic of canoe building and of rain making. nor could it be more convincingly stated than is done in this narrative that the full knowledge of the right magic was solely responsible for these supernatural powers. in its enumeration of the various details of tribal life, this myth is truly a fount of ethnographic information. its statements, when made complete and explicit by native comment, contain a good deal of what is to be known about the sociology, technology and organisation of canoe-making, sailing, and of the kula. if followed up into detail, the incidents of this narrative make us acquainted for instance, with the division into clans; with the origin and local character of these latter; with ownership of magic and its association with the totemic group. in almost all mythological narratives of the trobriands, the clan, the sub-clan and the locality of the heroes are stated. in the above version, we see that the heroes have emerged at a certain spot, and that they themselves came from underground; that is, that they are the first representatives of their totemic sub-clan on the surface of the earth. in the two other versions, this last point was not explicitly stated, though i think it is implied in the incidents of this myth, for obviously the flying canoe is built for the first time, as it is for the last. in other versions, i was told that the hole from which this sub-clan emerged is also called kudayuri, and that the name of their magical system is viluvayaba. passing to the following part of the tale, we find in it a description of canoe-building, and this was given to me in the same detailed manner in all three versions. here again, if we would substitute for the short sentences a fuller account of what happens, such as could be elicited from any intelligent native informant; if for each word describing the stages of canoe-building we insert a full description of the processes for which these words stand--we would have in this myth an almost complete, ethnographic account of canoe-building. we would see the canoe pieced together, lashed, caulked, painted, rigged out, provided with a sail till it lies ready to be launched. besides the successive enumeration of technical stages, we have in this myth a clear picture of the rôle played by the headman, who is the nominal owner of the canoe, and who speaks of it as his canoe and at the same time directs its building; overrides the wishes of others, and is responsible for the magic. we have even the mention of the tasasoria and kabigidoya, and several allusions to the kula expedition of which the canoe-building in this myth is represented as a preliminary stage. the frequent, tedious repetitions and enumerations of customary sequences of events, interesting as data of folk-lore, are not less valuable as ethnographic documents, and as illustrations of the natives' attitude towards custom. incidentally, this feature of native mythology shows that the task of serving as ethnographic informant is not so foreign and difficult to a native as might at first appear. he is quite used to recite one after the other the various stages of customary proceedings in his own narratives, and he does it with an almost pedantic accuracy and completeness, and it is an easy task for him to transfer these qualities to the accounts, which he is called upon to make in the service of ethnography. the dramatic effect of the climax of the story, of the unexpected flight of the canoe is clearly brought out in the narrative, and it was given to me in all its three versions. in all three, the members of the crew are made to pass through the numerous preparatory stages of sailing. and the parallel drawn between the reasonable proceedings of their fellows on the beach, and the absurd manner in which they are made to get ready in the middle of the village, some few hundred feet above the sea, makes the tension more palpable and the sudden denouement more effective. in all accounts of this myth, the magic is also performed just before the flight, and its performance is explicitly mentioned and included as an important episode in the story. the incident of bailing some water out of a canoe which never touched the sea, seems to show some inconsistency. if we remember, however, that water is poured into a canoe, while it is built, in order to prevent its drying and consequently its shrinking, cracking and warping, the inconsistency and flaw in the narrative disappear. i may add that the bailing and rain incident is contained in one of my three versions only. the episode of the dog is more significant and more important to the natives, and is mentioned in all three versions. the dog is the animal associated with the lukuba clan; that is, the natives will say that the dog is a lukuba, as the pig is a malasi, and the igwana a lukulabuta. in several stories about the origin and relative rank of the clans, each of them is represented by its totemic animal. thus the igwana is the first to emerge from underground. hence the lukulabuta are the oldest clan. the dog and the pig dispute with one another the priority of rank, the dog basing his claims on his earlier appearance on the earth, for he followed immediately the igwana; the pig, asserting himself in virtue of not eating unclean things. the pig won the day, and therefore the malasi clan are considered to be the clan of the highest rank, though this is really reached only in one of its sub-clans, that of the tabalu of omarakana. the incident of the lebu (taking by force) of some ornaments from the dobuans refers to the custom of using friendly violence in certain kula transactions (see chapter xiv, division ii). in the second part of the story, we find the hero endowed again with magical powers far superior to those of the present-day wizards. they can make rain, or stay the clouds, it is true, but he is able to create a small cloud which pours copious rain over his own gardens, and leaves the others to be shrivelled up by the sun. this part of the narrative does not touch the canoe problem, and it is of interest to us only in so far as it again shows what appears to the natives the real source of their hero's supernatural powers. the motives which lead to the killing of mokatuboda are not stated explicitly in the narrative. no myth as a rule enters very much into the subjective side of its events. but, from the lengthy, indeed wearisome repetition of how the other kitava men constantly find the kudayuri canoe outrunning them, how they are astonished and angry, it is clear that his success must have made many enemies to mokatuboda. what is not so easily explained, is the fact that he is killed, not by the other kitava men, but by his own kinsmen. one of the versions mentions his brothers and his sister's sons as the slayers. one of them states that the people of kitava ask toweyre'i, the younger brother, whether he has already acquired the flying magic and the rain magic, and only after an affirmative is received, is mokatuboda killed by his younger brother, in connivance with the other people. an interesting variant is added to this version, according to which toweyre'i kills his elder brother in the garden. he then comes back to the village and instructs and admonishes mokatuboda's children to take the body, to give it the mortuary attentions, to prepare for the burial. then he himself arranges the sagali, the big mortuary distribution of food. in this we find an interesting document of native custom and ideas. toweyre'i, in spite of having killed his brother, is still the man who has to arrange the mortuary proceedings, act as master of ceremonies, and pay for the functions performed in them by others. he personally may neither touch the corpse, nor do any act of mourning or burial; nevertheless he, as the nearest of kin of the dead man, is the bereaved one, is the one from whom a limb has been severed, so to speak. a man whose brother has died cannot mourn any more than he could mourn for himself. [ ] to return to the motives of killing, as this was done according to all accounts by mokatuboda's own kinsmen, with the approval of the other men, envy, ambition, the desire to succeed the headman in his dignity, must have been mixed with spite against him. in fact, we see that toweyre'i proceeds confidently to perform the magic, and bursts out into wailing only after he has discovered he has been duped. now we come to one of the most remarkable incidents of the whole myth, that namely which brings into connection the yoyova, or the flying witches, with the flying canoe, and with such speed of a canoe, as is imparted to it by magic. in the spells of swiftness there are frequent allusions to the yoyova or mulukwausi. this can be clearly seen in the spell of the wayugo, already adduced (chapter v, division iii), and which is still to be analysed linguistically (chapter xviii, divisions ii to iv). the kariyala (magical portent, cf. chapter xvii, division vii) of the wayugo spell consists in shooting stars, that is, when a wayugo rite is performed at night over the creeper coils, there will be stars falling in the sky. and again, when a magician, knowing this system of magic, dies, shooting stars will be seen. now, as we have seen (chapter x, division i), falling stars are mulukwausi in their flight. in this story of the kudayuri we see the mythological ground for this association. the same magic which allowed the canoe to sail through the air gives the three sisters of kudayuri their power of being mulukwausi, and of flying. in this myth they are also endowed with the power of cleaving the rocks, a power which they share with the canoe, which cleft a rock immediately after leaving the village. the three sisters cleave rocks and pierce the land in several places. my native commentators assured me that when the canoe first visited giribwa and kadimwatu at the beginning of this myth, the land was still joined at these places and there was a beach at each of them. the mulukwausi tried to pierce boyowa at several spots along the eastern coast, but succeeded only at giribwa. the myth thus has the archaic stamp of referring to deep changes in natural features. the two sisters, who fly to the south return from the furthest point and settle near tewara, in which there is some analogy to several other myths in which heroes from the marshall bennett islands settle down somewhere between the amphletts and dobu. one of them turns her eyes northwards towards the non-cannibal people of boyowa and she is said to be averse to cannibalism. probably this is a sort of mythological explanation of why the boyowan people do not eat men and the dobuans do, an explanation to which there is an analogy in another myth shortly to be adduced, that of atu'a'ine and aturamo'a, and a better one still in a myth about the origins of cannibalism, which i cannot quote here. in all these traditions, so far, the heroes belonged to the clan of lukuba. to it belong gere'u, tokosikuna, the kudayuri family and their dog, and also the dog, tokulubwaydoga of the myth told in chapter x, division v. i may add that, in some legends told about the origin of humanity, this clan emerges first from underground and in some it emerges second in time, but as the clan of highest rank, though in this it has to yield afterwards to the malasi. the main kultur-hero of kiriwina, the ogre-slayer tudava, belongs, also to the clan of lukuba. there is even a historic fact, which agrees with this mythological primacy, and subsequent eclipse. the lukuba were, some six or seven generations ago, the leading clan in vakuta, and then they had to surrender the chieftainship of this place to the malasi clan, when the sub-clan of the tabalu, the malasi chiefs of the highest rank in kiriwina, migrated south, and settled down in vakuta. in the myths quoted here, the lukuba are leading canoe-builders, sailors, and adventurers, that is with one exception, that of tokosikuna, who, though excelling in all other respects, knows nothing of canoe construction. v let us now proceed to the last named mythological centre, and taking a very big step from the marshall bennetts, return to tewara, and to its myth of the origin of the kula. i shall tell this myth in a translation, closely following the original account, obtained in kiriwinian from an informant at oburaku. i had an opportunity of checking and amending his narrative, by the information obtained from a native of sanaro'a in pidgin english. the story of kasabwaybwayreta and gumakarakedakeda "kasabwaybwayreta lived in tewara. he heard the renown of a soulava (spondylus necklace) which was lying (kept) in wawela. its name was gumakarakedakeda. he said to his children: 'let us go to wawela, make kula to get this soulava.' he put into his canoe unripe coco-nut, undeveloped betel-nut, green bananas." "they went to wawela; they anchored in wawela. his sons went ashore, they went to obtain gumakarakedakeda. he remained in the canoe. his son made offering of food, they (the wawela people) refused. kasabwaybwayreta spoke a charm over the betel-nut: it yellowed (became ripe); he spoke the charm over the coco-nut: its soft kernel swelled; he charmed the bananas they ripened. he took off his hair, his gray hair; his wrinkled skin, it remained in the canoe. he rose, he went he gave a pokala offering of food, he received the valuable necklace as kula gift, for he was already a beautiful man. he went, he put it down, he thrust it into his hair. he came to the canoe, he took his covering (the sloughed skin); he donned the wrinkles, the gray hairs, he remained." "his sons arrived, they took their places in the canoe, they sailed to giribwa. they cooked their food. he called his grandson; 'oh, my grandson, come here, look for my lice.' the grandson came there, stepped near him. kasabwaybwayreta spoke, telling him: 'my grandson, catch my lice in the middle (of my hair).' his grandson parted his hair; he saw the valuable necklace, gumakarakedakeda remaining there in the hair of kasabwaybwayreta. 'ee...' he spoke to his father, telling him, 'my father, kasabwaybwayreta already obtained gumakarakedakeda.' 'o, no, he did not obtain it! i am a chief, i am beautiful, i have not obtained that valuable. indeed, would this wrinkled old man have obtained the necklace? no, indeed!' 'truly, my father, he has obtained it already. i have seen it; already it remains in his hair!'" "all the water-vessels are empty already; the son went into the canoe, spilled the water so that it ran out, and only the empty vessels (made of coco-nut shell) remained. later on they sailed, they went to an island, gabula (gabuwana in amphlettan and in dobuan). this man, kasabwaybwayreta wanted water, and spoke to his son. this man picked up the water vessels--no, they were all empty. they went on the beach of gabula, the usagelu (members of the crew) dug out their water-holes (in the beach). this man remained in the canoe and called out: 'o my grandson, bring me here my water, go there and dip out my water!' the grandson said: 'no, come here and dip out (yourself)!' later on, they dipped out water, they finished, and kasabwaybwayreta came. they muddied the water, it was muddy. he sat down, he waited." "they went, they sailed in the canoe. kasabwaybwayreta called out, 'o, my son, why do you cast me off?' spoke the son: 'i think you have obtained gumakarakedakeda!' 'o, by and by, my son, when we arrive in the village, i shall give it to you!' 'o, no!' 'well, you remain, i shall go!' he takes a stone, a binabina one, this man kasabwaybwayreta, he throws so that he might make a hole in the canoe, and the men might go into the sea. no! they sped away, they went, this stone stands up, it has made an island in the sea. they went, they anchored in tewara. they (the villagers) asked: 'and where is kasabwaybwayreta?' 'o, his son got angry with him, already he had obtained gumakarakedakeda!'" "well, then, this man kasabwaybwayreta remained in the island gabula. he saw tokom'mwawa (evening star) approach. he spoke: 'my friend, come here, let me just enter into your canoe!' 'o no, i shall go to another place.' there came kaylateku (sirius). he asked him: 'let me go with you.' he refused. there came kayyousi (southern cross). kasabwaybwayreta wanted to go with him. he refused. there came umnakayva'u, (alpha and beta centauri). he wanted a place in his canoe. he refused. there came kibi (three stars widely distant, forming no constellation in our sky-chart). he also refused to take kasabwaybwayreta. there came uluwa (the pleiades). kasabwaybwayreta asked him to take him. uluwa said: 'you wait, you look out, there will come kaykiyadiga, he will take you.' there came kaykiyadiga (the three central stars in orion's belt). kasabwaybwayreta asked him: 'my friend, which way will you go?' 'i shall come down on top of taryebutu mountain. i shall go down, i shall go away.' 'oh, my friend, come here, let me just sit down (on you).' 'oh come,--see on one side there is a va'i (stingaree) on the other side, there is the lo'u (a fish with poisonous spikes); you sit in the middle, it will be well! where is your village?' 'my village is tewara.' 'what stands in the site of your village?' 'in the site of my village, there stands a busa tree!'" "they went there. already the village of kasabwaybwayreta is straight below them. he charmed this busa tree, it arose, it went straight up into the skies. kasabwaybwayreta changed place (from orion's belt on to the tree), he sat on the busa tree. he spoke: 'oh, my friend, break asunder this necklace. part of it, i shall give you; part of it, i shall carry to tewara.' he gave part of it to his companion. this busa tree came down to the ground. he was angry because his son left him behind. he went underground inside. he there remained for a long time. the dogs came there, and they dug and dug. they dug him out. he came out on top, he became a tauva'u (evil spirit, see chapter ii, division vii.) he hits human beings. that is why in tewara the village is that of sorcerers and witches, because of kasabwaybwayreta." to make this somewhat obscure narrative clearer, a short commentary is necessary. the first part tells of a kula expedition in which the hero, his son, his grandson, and some other members of the crew take part. his son takes with him good, fresh food, to give as solicitory offering and thus tempt his partners to present him with the famous necklace. the son is a young man and also a chief of renown. the later stages are clearer; by means of magic, the hero changes himself into a young, attractive man, and makes his own unripe, bad fruit into splendid gifts to be offered to his partner. he obtains the prize without difficulty, and hides it in his hair. then, in a moment of weakness, and for motives which it is impossible to find out from native commentators, he on purpose reveals the necklace to his grandson. most likely, the motive was vanity. his son, and probably also the other companions, become very angry and set a trap for him. they arrange things so that he has to go for his own water on the beach of gabula. when they have already got theirs and while he is dipping it out, they sail away, leaving him marooned on the sand-bank. like polyphemus after the escaping party of odysseus, he throws a stone at the treacherous canoe, but it misses its mark, and becomes an outstanding rock in the sea. the episode of his release by the stars is quite clear. arrived at the village, he makes a tree rise by his magic, and after he has given the bigger part of his necklace to his rescuer, he descends, with the smaller part. his going underground and subsequent turning into a tauva'u shows how bitter he feels towards humanity. as usual, the presence of such a powerful, evil personality in the village, gives its stamp to the whole community, and this latter produces sorcerers and witches. all these additions and comments i obtained in cross-questioning my original informant. the dobuan informant from sanaro'a introduced one or two variants into the second part of the narrative. according to him, kasabwaybwayreta marries while in the sky, and remains there long enough to beget three male and two female children. after he has made up his mind to descend to earth again, he makes a hole in the heavens, looks down and sees a betel-nut tree in his village. then he speaks to his child, 'when i go down, you pull at one end of the necklace.' he climbs down by means of the necklace on to the betel palm and pulls at one end of gumakarakedakeda. it breaks, a big piece remains in the skies, the small one goes with him below. arrived in the village, he arranges a feast, and invites all the villagers to it. he speaks some magic over the food and after they have eaten it, the villagers are turned into birds. this last act is quite in harmony with his profession of tauva'u, which he assumed in the previous version of the myth. my dobuan informant also added, by way of commentary, that the companions of kasabwaybwayreta were angry with him, because he obtained the necklace in boyowa, which was not the right direction for a necklace to travel in the kula. this, however, is obviously a rationalisation of the events of the myth. comparing the previously related story of tokosikuna with this one, we see at once a clear resemblance between them in several features. in both, the heroes start as old, decrepit, and very ugly men. by their magical powers, they rejuvenate in the course of the story, the one permanently, the other just sloughing off his skin for the purpose of a kula transaction. in both cases, the hero is definitely superior in the kula, and by this arouses the envy and hatred of his companions. again, in both stories, the companions decide to punish the hero, and the island or sandbank of gabuwana is the scene of the punishment. in both, the hero finally settles in the south, only in one case it is his original home, while in the other he has migrated there from one of the marshall bennett islands. an anomaly in the kasabwaybwayreta myth, namely, that he fetches his necklace from the north, whereas the normal direction for necklaces to travel is from south to north in this region, makes us suspect that perhaps this story is a transformation of a legend about a man who made the kula from the north. ill-treated by his companions, he settled in tewara, and becoming a local kultur-hero, was afterwards described as belonging to the place. however this might be, and the hypothetical interpretation is mine, and not obtained from the natives, the two stories are so similar that they must be regarded obviously as variants of the same myth, and not as independent traditions. vi so much about the ethnographic analysis of these myths. let us now return to the general, sociological considerations with which we opened this digression into mythology. we are now better able to realise to what extent and in what manner kula myths influence the native outlook. the main social force governing all tribal life could be described as the inertia of custom, the love of uniformity of behaviour. the great moral philosopher was wrong when he formulated his categorical imperative, which was to serve human beings as a fundamental guiding principle of behaviour. in advising us to act so that our behaviour might be taken as a norm of universal law, he reversed the natural state of things. the real rule guiding human behaviour is this: "what everyone else does, what appears as norm of general conduct, this is right, moral and proper. let me look over the fence and see what my neighbour does, and take it as a rule for my behaviour." so acts every 'man-in-the-street' in our own society, so has acted the average member of any society through the past ages, and so acts the present-day savage; and the lower his level of cultural development, the greater stickler he will be for good manners, propriety and form, and the more incomprehensive and odious to him will be the non-conforming point of view. systems of social philosophy have been built to explain and interpret or misinterpret this general principle. tarde's 'imitation,' giddings' 'consciousness of kind,' durkheim's 'collective ideas,' and many such conceptions as 'social consciousness,' 'the soul of a nation,' 'group mind' or now-a-days prevalent and highly fashionable ideas about 'suggestibility of the crowd,' 'the instinct of herd,' etc., etc., try to cover this simple empirical truth. most of these systems, especially those evoking the phantom of collective soul are futile, to my mind, in so far as they try to explain in the terms of a hypothesis that which is most fundamental in sociology, and can therefore be reduced to nothing else, but must be simply recognised and accepted as the basis of our science. to frame verbal definitions and quibble over terms does not seem to bring us much more forward in a new branch of learning, where a knowledge of facts is above all needed. whatever might be the case with any theoretical interpretations of this principle, in this place, we must simply emphasise that a strict adherence to custom, to that which is done by everyone else, is the main rule of conduct among our natives in the trobriands. an important corollary to this rule declares that the past is more important than the present. what has been done by the father--or, as the trobriander would say, by the maternal uncle--is even more important as norm of behaviour than what is done by the brother. it is to the behaviour of the past generations that the trobriander instinctively looks for his guidance. thus the mythical events which relate what has been done, not by the immediate ancestors but by mythical, illustrious forbears, must evidently carry an enormous social weight. the stories of important past events are hallowed because they belong to the great mythical generations and because they are generally accepted as truth, for everybody knows and tells them. they bear the sanction of righteousness and propriety in virtue of these two qualities of preterity and universality. thus, through the operation of what might be called the elementary law of sociology, myth possesses the normative power of fixing custom, of sanctioning modes of behaviour, of giving dignity and importance to an institution. the kula receives from these ancient stories its stamp of extreme importance and value. the rules of commercial honour, of generosity and punctiliousness in all its operations, acquire through this their binding force. this is what we could call the normative influence of myth on custom. the kula myth, however, exercises another kind of appeal. in the kula, we have a type of enterprise where the vast possibilities of success are very much influenced by chance. a man, whether he be rich or poor in partners, may, according to his luck, return with a relatively big or a small haul from an expedition. thus the imagination of the adventurers, as in all forms of gambling, must be bent towards lucky hits and turns of extraordinarily good chance. the kula myths feed this imagination on stories of extreme good luck, and at the same time show that it lies in the hands of man to bring this luck on himself, provided he acquires the necessary magical lore. i have said before that the mythological events are distinct from those happening nowadays, in so far as they are extraordinary and super-normal. this adds both to their authoritative character and to their desirability. it sets them before the native as a specially valuable standard of conduct, and as an ideal towards which their desires must go out. vii but i also said before that, distinct as it is, the mythical world is not separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the present order of events. indeed, though an ideal must be always beyond what actually exists, yet it must appear just within reach of realisation if it is to be effective at all. now, after we have become acquainted with their stories, we can see clearly what was meant when it was said, that magic acts as a link between the mythical and the actual realities. in the canoe myth, for instance, the flying, the super-normal achievement of the kudayuri canoe, is conceived only as the highest degree of the virtue of speed, which is still being imparted nowadays to canoes by magic. the magical heritage of the kudayuri clan is still there, making the canoes sail fast. had it been transmitted in its complete form, any present canoe, like the mythical one, could be seen flying. in the kula myths also, magic is found to give super-normal powers of beauty, strength and immunity from danger. the mythological events demonstrate the truth of the claims of magic. their validity is established by a sort of retrospective, mythical empiry. but magic, as it is practised nowadays, accomplishes the same effects, only in a smaller degree. natives believe deeply that the formulæ and rites of mwasila magic make those who carry them out attractive, irresistible and safe from dangers (compare next chapter). another feature which brings the mythical events into direct connection with the present state of affairs, is the sociology of mythical personages. they all are associated with certain localities, as are the present local groups. they belong to the same system of totemic division into clans and sub-clans as obtains nowadays. thus, members of a sub-clan, or a local unit, can claim a mythical hero as their direct ancestor, and members of a clan can boast of him as of a clansman. indeed, myths, like songs and fairy stories, are 'owned' by certain sub-clans. this does not mean that other people would abstain from telling them, but members of the sub-clan are supposed to possess the most intimate knowledge of the mythical events, and to be an authority in interpreting them. and indeed, it is a rule that a myth will be best known in its own locality, that is, known with all the details and free from any adulterations or not quite genuine additions and fusions. this better knowledge can be easily understood, if we remember that myth is very often connected with magic in the trobriands, and that this latter is a possession, kept by some members of the local group. now, to know the magic, and to understand it properly, it is necessary to be well acquainted with the myth. this is the reason why the myth must be better known in the local group with which it is connected. in some cases, the local group has not only to practise the magic associated with the myth, but it has to look after the observance of certain rites, ceremonies and taboos connected with it. in this case, the sociology of the mythical events is intimately bound up with the social divisions as they exist now. but even in such myths as those of the kula, which have become the property of all clans and local groups within the district, the explicit statement of the hero's clan, sub-clan and of his village gives the whole myth a stamp of actuality and reality. side by side with magic, the sociological continuity bridges over the gap between the mythical and the actual. and indeed the magical and the sociological bridges run side by side. i spoke above (beginning of division ii) of the enlivening influence of myth upon landscape. here it must be noted also that the mythically changed features of the landscape bear testimony in the native's mind to the truth of the myth. the mythical word receives its substance in rock and hill, in the changes in land and sea. the pierced sea-passages, the cleft boulders, the petrified human beings, all these bring the mythological world close to the natives, make it tangible and permanent. on the other hand, the story thus powerfully illustrated, re-acts on the landscape, fills it with dramatic happenings, which, fixed there for ever, give it a definite meaning. with this i shall close these general remarks on mythology though with myth and mythical events we shall constantly meet in further inquiries. viii as we return to our party, who, sailing past the mythical centre of tewara, make for the island of sanaro'a, the first thing to be related about them, brings us straight to another mythological story. as the natives enter the district of siayawawa, they pass a stone or rock, called sinatemubadiye'i. i have not seen it, but the natives tell me it lies among the mangroves in a tidal creek. like the stone gurewaya, mentioned before, this one also enjoys certain privileges, and offerings are given to it. the natives do not tarry in this unimportant district. their final goal is now in sight. beyond the sea, which is here land-locked like a lake, the hills of dobu, topped by koyava'u loom before them. in the distance to their right as they sail south, the broad easterly flank of koyatabu runs down to the water, forming a deep valley; behind them spreads the wide plain of sanaro'a, with a few volcanic cones at its northern end, and far to the left the mountains of normanby unfold in a long chain. they sail straight south, making for the beach of sarubwoyna, where they will have to pause for a ritual halt in order to carry out the final preparations and magic. they steer towards two black rocks, which mark the northern end of sarubwoyna beach as they stand, one at the base, the other at the end of a narrow, sandy spit. these are the two rocks atu'a'ine and aturamo'a, the most important of the tabooed places, at which natives lay offerings when starting or arriving on kula expeditions. the rock among the mangroves of siyawawa is connected with these two by a mythical story. the three--two men whom we see now before us in petrified form, and one woman--came to this district from somewhere 'omuyuwa,' that is, from woodlark island or the marshall bennetts. this is the story: myth of atu'a'ine, aturamo'a and sinatemubadiye'i. "they were two brothers and a sister. they came first to the creek called kadawaga in siyawawa. the woman lost her comb. she spoke to her brethren: 'my brothers, my comb fell down.' they answered her: 'good, return, take your comb.' she found it and took it, and next day she said: 'well, i shall remain here already, as sinatemubadiye'i.'" "the brothers went on. when they arrived at the shore of the main island, atu'a'ine said: 'aturamo'a, how shall we go? shall we look towards the sea?' said aturamo'a; 'o, no, let us look towards the jungle.' aturamo'a went ahead, deceiving his brother, for he was a cannibal. he wanted to look towards the jungle, so that he might eat men. thus aturamo'a went ahead, and his eyes turned towards the jungle. atu'a'ine turned his eyes, looked over the sea, he spoke: 'why did you deceive me, aturamo'a? whilst i am looking towards the sea, you look towards the jungle.' aturamo'a later on returned and came towards the sea. he spoke, 'good, you atu'a'ine, look towards the sea, i shall look to the jungle!' this man, who sits near the jungle, is a cannibal, the one who sits near the sea is good." this short version of the myth i obtained in sinaketa. the story shows us three people migrating for unknown reasons from the north-east to this district. the sister, after having lost her comb, decides to remain in siyawawa, and turns into the rock sinatemubadiye'i. the brothers go only a few miles further, to undergo the same transformation at the northern end of sarubwoyna beach. there is the characteristic distinction between the cannibal and the non-cannibal. as the story was told to me in boyowa, that is, in the district where they were not man-eaters, the qualification of 'good' was given to the non-cannibal hero, who became the rock further out to sea. the same distinction is to be found in the previously quoted myth of the kudayuri sisters who flew to dobu, and it is to be found also in a myth, told about the origins of cannibalism, which i shall not quote here. the association between the jungle and cannibalism on the one hand, and between the sea and abstention from human flesh on the other, is the same as the one in the kudayuri myth. in that myth, the rock which looks towards the south is cannibal, while the northern one is not, and for the natives this is the reason why the dobuans do eat human flesh and the boyowans do not. the designation of one of these rocks as a man-eater (tokamlata'u) has no further meaning, more especially it is not associated with the belief that any special dangers surround the rock. the importance of these two rocks, atu'a'ine and aturamo'a lies, however, not so much in the truncated myth as in the ritual surrounding them. thus, all three stones receive an offering--pokala--consisting of a bit of coco-nut, a stale yam, a piece of sugar cane and banana. as the canoes go past, the offerings are placed on the stone, or thrown towards it, with the words: "old man (or in the case of sinatemubadiye'i, 'old woman') here comes your coco-nut, your sugar cane, your bananas, bring me good luck so that i may go and make my kula quickly in tu'utauna." this offering is given by the boyowan canoes on their way to dobu, and by the dobuans as they start on the kula northwards, to boyowa. besides the offerings, certain taboos and observances are kept at these rocks. thus, any people passing close to the rock would have to bathe in the sea out of their canoes, and the children in the canoes would be sprinkled with sea-water. this is done to prevent disease. a man who would go for the first time to kula in dobu would not be allowed to eat food in the vicinity of these rocks. a pig, or a green coco-nut would not be placed on the soil in this neighbourhood, but would have to be put on a mat. a novice in the kula would have to make a point of going and bathing at the foot of atu'a'ine and aturamo'a. the dobuans pokala some other stones, to which the boyowans do not give any offerings. the previously mentioned gurewaya rock receives its share from the dobuans, who believe that if they passed it close by without making a pokala, they would become covered with sores and die. passing gurewaya, they would not stand up in their canoes, nor would they eat any food when camping on a beach within sight of gurewaya. if they did so, they would become seasick, fall asleep, and their canoe would drift away into the unknown. i do not know whether there is any myth in dobu about the gurewaya stone. there is a belief that a big snake is coiled on the top of this rock, which looks after the observance of the taboos, and in case of breach of any of them would send down sickness on them. some of the taboos of gurewaya are also kept by the boyowans, but i do not exactly know which. i obtained from a dobuan informant a series of names of other, similar stones, lying to the east of dobu, on the route between there and tubetube. thus, somewhere in the district of du'a'u, there is a rock called kokorakakedakeda. besides this, near a place called makaydokodoko there is a stone, tabudaya. further east, near bunama, a small stone called sinada enjoys some kula prestige. in a spot sina'ena, which i cannot place on the map, there is a stone called taryadabwoyro, with eye, nose, legs and hind-quarters shaped like those of a pig. this stone is called 'the mother of all the pigs,' and the district of sina'ena is renowned for the abundance of these animals there. the only mythical fragment about any of these stones which i obtained is the one quoted above. like the two kula myths previously adduced, it is a story of a migration from north to south. there is no allusion to the kula in the narrative, but as the stones are pokala'd in the kula, there is evidently some association between it and them. to understand this association better, it must be realised that similar offerings are given in certain forms of magic to ancestral spirits and to spirits of kultur-heroes, who have founded the institution in which the magic is practised. this suggests the conclusion that atu'a'ine and aturamo'a are heroes of the kula like tokosikuna and kasabwaybwayreta; and that their story is another variant of the fundamental kula myth. chapter xiii on the beach of sarubwoyna i when the sinaketan fleet passes the two mythical rocks of atu'a'ine and aturamo'a, the final goal of the expedition has been already reached. for before them, there stretch in a wide expanse the n.w. shores of dawson straits, where on the wide beach, there are scattered the villages of bwayowa, tu'utauna and deyde'i, at the foot of koyava'u. this latter, the boyowans call koyaviguna--the final mountain. immediately behind the two rocks, there stretches the beach of sarubwoyna, its clean, white sand edging the shallow curve of a small bay. this is the place where the crews, nearing their final destination, have to make a halt, to prepare themselves magically for approaching their partners in dobu. as, on their start from sinaketa, they stopped for some time on muwa and there performed the last act of their inaugurating rites and ceremonies, so in the same manner this beach is the place where they once more muster their forces after the journey has been accomplished. this is the place which was already mentioned in chapter ii when, in giving a description of the district, we imagined ourselves passing near this beach and meeting there a large fleet of canoes, whose crews were engaged in some mysterious activities. i said there that up to a hundred canoes might have been seen anchored near the beach, and indeed, on a big uvalaku expedition in olden days such a figure could easily have been reached. for, on a rough estimate, sinaketa could have produced some twenty canoes; the vakutans could have joined them with about forty; the amphlettans with another twenty; and twenty more would have followed from tewara, siyawawa, and sanaroa. some of them would indeed not have taken part in the kula, but have followed only out of sheer curiosity, just as in the big uvalaku expedition, which i accompanied in from dobu to sinaketa, the sixty dobuan canoes were joined by some twelve canoes from the amphletts and about as many again from vakuta. the sinaketans having arrived at this beach, now stop, moor the canoes near the shore, adorn their persons, and perform a whole series of magical rites. within a short space of time they crowd in a great number of short rites, accompanied by formulæ as a rule not very long. in fact, from the moment they have arrived at sarubwoyna up to their entry into the village, they do not cease doing one magical act or another, and the toliwaga never stop incessantly muttering their spells. to the observer, a spectacle of feverish activity unfolds itself, a spectacle which i witnessed in when i assisted at an analogous performance of the dobuan kula fleet approaching sinaketa. the fleet halts; the sails are furled, the masts dismounted, the canoes moored (see plate xlviii). in each canoe, the elder men begin to undo their baskets and take out their personal belongings. the younger ones run ashore and gather copious supplies of leaves which they bring back into the canoes. then the older men again murmur magical formulæ over the leaves and over other substances. in this, the toliwaga is assisted by others. then, they all wash in sea-water, and rub themselves with the medicated leaves. coco-nuts are broken, scraped, medicated, and the skin is rubbed with the mess, which greases it and gives it a shining surface. a comb is chanted over, and the hair teased out with it (see plate xlix). then, with crushed betel-nut mixed with lime, they draw red ornamental designs on their faces, while others use the sayyaku, an aromatic resinous stuff, and draw similar lines in black. the fine-smelling mint plant, which has been chanted over at home before starting, is taken out of its little receptacle where it was preserved in coco-nut oil. the herb is inserted into the armlets, while the few drops of oil are smeared over the body, and over the lilava, the magical bundle of pari (trade goods). all the magic which is spoken over the native cosmetics is the mwasila (kula magic) of beauty. the main aim of these spells is the same one which we found so clearly expressed in myth; to make the man beautiful, attractive, and irresistible to his kula partner. in the myths we saw how an old, ugly and ungainly man becomes transformed by his magic into a radiant and charming youth. now this mythical episode is nothing else but an exaggerated version of what happens every time, when the mwasila of beauty is spoken on sarubwoyna beach or on other similar points of approach. as my informants over and over again told me, when explaining the meaning of these rites: "here we are ugly; we eat bad fish, bad food; our faces remain ugly. we want to sail to dobu; we keep taboos, we don't eat bad food. we go to sarubwoyna; we wash; we charm the leaves of silasila; we charm the coco-nut; we putuma (anoint ourselves); we make our red paint and black paint; we put in our fine-smelling vana (herb ornament in armlets); we arrive in dobu beautiful looking. our partner looks at us, sees our faces are beautiful; he throws the vaygu'a at us." the bad fish and bad food here mentioned are the articles which are tabooed to those who know the mwasila, and a man may often unwittingly break such a taboo. there is no doubt that a deep belief in the efficacy of such magic might almost make it effective. although actual beauty cannot be imparted by spells, yet the feeling of being beautiful through magic may give assurance, and influence people in their behaviour and deportment, and as in the transaction it is the manner of the soliciting party which matters, this magic, no doubt, achieves its aim by psychological means. this branch of kula magic has two counter-parts in the other magical lore of the trobrianders. one of them is the love magic, through which people are rendered attractive and irresistible. their belief in these spells is such that a man would always attribute all his success in love to their efficiency. another type closely analogous to the beauty magic of the kula is the specific beauty magic practised before big dances and festivities. let us now give one or two samples of the magic which is performed on sarubwoyna beach. the ritual in all of it is exceedingly simple. in each case the formula is spoken over a certain substance, and then this substance is applied to the body. the first rite to be performed is that of ceremonial washing. the toliwaga brings his mouth close to the big bundles of herbs, brought from the shore and utters the formula called kaykakaya (the ablution formula) over them. after an ablution, these leaves are rubbed over the skins of all those in the canoe who practise kula. then, in the same succession as i mention them, the coco-nut, the comb, the ordinary or the aromatic black paint or the betel-nut are charmed over. [ ] only one, as a rule, of the paints is used. in some cases the toliwaga does the spell for everybody. in other cases, a man who knows, say, the betel-nut or the comb spell, will do it for himself or even for all others. in some cases again, out of all these rites, only the kaykakaya (ablution) and one of the others will be performed. kaykakaya spell "o katatuna fish, o marabwaga fish, yabwau fish, reregu fish!" "their red paint, with which they are painted; their red paint, with which they are adorned." "alone they visit, together we visit; alone they visit, together we visit a chief." "they take me to their bosom; they hug me." "the great woman befriends me, where the pots are boiling; the good woman befriends me, on the sitting platform." "two pigeons stand and turn round; two parrots fly about." "no more it is my mother, my mother art thou, o woman of dobu! no more it is my father, my father art thou, o man of dobu! no more it is the high platform, the high platform are his arms; no more it is the sitting platform, the sitting platform are his legs; no more it is my lime spoon, my lime spoon is his tongue; no more it is my lime pot, my lime pot is his gullet." this formula then passes into the same ending as the sulumwoya spell, quoted previously, chapter vii, which runs: "recently deceased spirit of my maternal uncle, etc." at the beginning of this spell, we find enumerated a series of fish names. these fishes all have red markings on their bodies, and they are tabooed to the people, who recite the mwasila magic and do the kula. if eaten, they would give a man an ugly appearance. the above quoted saying of one of my informants: "we eat bad fish, we are ugly," refers to these fishes amongst others. in this formula, the invocation is partly an appeal for assistance, and partly a sort of exorcism, which is meant to undo the evil effects of breaking the taboo of eating these fish. as this formula is associated with the ritual washing, the whole proceeding possesses a sort of magical consistency, which obtains within an exceedingly obscure and confused concatenation of ideas: the redness of the fish, the red painting on the human bodies for beauty, the invocation of the fishing magic, the taboo on this fish. these ideas hang together somehow, but it would be unwise and incorrect to attempt to put them into any logical order or sequence. [ ] the sentence about 'visiting,' in this spell could not be made clear by any of my native informants. i venture to suggest that the fish are invited to assist the adventurer on his kula visit, and to help him with their beauty. the next few sentences refer to the reception he anticipates at dobu, in the forcible and exaggerated language of magic. the words which have been here translated by 'take to his bosom,' 'hug,' 'befriend,' are the terms used to describe the fondling and rocking and hugging of small children. according to native custom, it would not be considered effeminate or ridiculous for men to put their arms round each other and walk or sit about thus. and it must be added, this is done without any homo-sexual intention, at least of the grosser type. none the less, no such fondling would really take place between the dobuans and their kula partners. the mention of the 'great woman,' the 'great good woman' refers to the wife and sister of the partner, who, as we have said before, are considered to wield great influence in the transactions. the two pigeons and the two parrots express metaphorically the friendship between the reciter of this magic and his partner. the long list that follows expresses the exchange of his ordinary relations for his dobuan friends. an exaggerated description follows of the intimacy between him and his partner, on whose arms and legs he will sit, and from whose mouth he will partake of the betel chewing materials. i shall give a sample of another of these spells, associated with adornment and personal beauty. this is the spell spoken over the betel-nut with which the toliwaga and the members of his canoe draw lines of vermilion red on their faces. young betel-nut, when crushed with lime in a small mortar, produces pigment of wonderful brightness and intensity. travellers in the countries of the indian ocean and parts of the pacific know it well, as the paint that colours the lips and tongues of the natives. talo spell "red paint, red paint of the udawada fish! red paint, red paint, of the mwaylili fish! at the one end of the aromatic pandanus flower-petal; at the other end of the duwaku flower. there are two red paints of mine, they flare up, they flash." "my head, it flares up, it flashes; my red paint, it flares up, it flashes, my facial blacking, it flares up, it flashes; my aromatic paint, it flares up, it flashes; my little basket, it flares up, it flashes; my lime spoon, it flares up, it flashes; my lime pot, it flares up, it flashes; my comb, it flares up, it flashes." and so on, enumerating the various personal appurtenances, such as the mat, the stock-in-trade, the big basket, the charmed bundle (lilava) and then again the various parts of his head, that is his nose, his occiput, his tongue, his throat, his larynx, his eyes, and his mouth. the whole series of words is again repeated with another leading word instead of "it flares up, it flashes." the new word, 'mitapwaypwa'i' is a compound, expressing a desire, a coveting, nascent in the eyes. the eyes are, according to native psycho-physical theories, the seat of admiration, wish and appetite in matters of sex, of greed for food, and for material possessions. here, this expression conveys that the dobuan partner, will, on beholding his visitor, desire to make kula with him. the spell ends: "my head is made bright, my face flashes. i have acquired a beautiful shape, like that of a chief; i have acquired a shape that is good. i am the only one; my renown stands alone." at the beginning we have again the mention of two fishes; evidently the redness of the fish is the right redness for the kula! i am unable to explain the meaning of the second sentence, except that the petals of the pandanus flower are slightly coloured at one end, and that they are considered as one of the finest and most attractive ornaments. the middle part and the end of this spell need no commentary. these two spells will be sufficient to indicate the general character of the beauty magic of the kula. one more spell must be adduced here, that of the conch shell. this shell is as a rule medicated at this stage of the kula proceedings. sometimes, however, the toliwaga would, before departure from home, utter the formula into the opening of the conch shell, and close this up carefully, so that the virtue might not evaporate. the conch shell is made of a big specimen of the cassis cornuta shell, at the broad end of which the apex of the spiral windings is knocked out, so as to form a mouth-piece. the spell is not uttered into the mouthpiece, but into the broad opening between the lips, both orifices being afterwards closed with coco-nut husk fibre until the shell has actually to be blown. the spell of the ta'uya (conch shell) "mwanita, mwanita! come there together; i will make you come there together! come here together; i will make you come here together! the rainbow appears there; i will make the rainbow appear there! the rainbow appears here; i will make the rainbow here." "who comes ahead with the kula? i" (here the name of the reciter is uttered), "come ahead with the kula, i shall be the only chief; i shall be the only old man; i shall be the only one to meet my partner on the road. my renown stands alone; my name is the only one. beautiful valuables are exchanged here with my partner; beautiful valuables are exchanged there with my partner; the contents of my partner's basket are mustered." after this exordium there comes a middle part, constructed on the general principle of one word's being repeated with a series of others. the keyword here is an expression denoting the state of excitement which seizes a partner, and makes him give generous kula offerings. this word here is repeated first with a series of words, describing the various personal belongings of the partner, his dog, his belt; his tabooed coco-nut and betel-nut; and then, with a new series of terms denoting the different classes of kula valuables which are expected to be given. this part could therefore be translated thus:-- "a state of excitement seizes his dog, his belt, his gwara" (taboo on coco-nuts and betel-nuts) "his bagido'u necklace, his bagiriku necklace, his bagidudu necklace, etc." the spell ends in a typical manner: "i shall kula, i shall rob my kula; i shall steal my kula; i shall pilfer my kula. i shall kula so as to make my canoe sink; i shall kula so as to make my outrigger go under. my fame is like thunder, my steps are like earthquake!" the first word of this spell, mwanita, is the native name for a long worm covered with rings of black armour. i was told that it is mentioned here because of its similarity to the spondylus shell necklaces, which also consist of many rings. i obtained this formula in sinaketa, hence this interpretation heeds only the necklaces, though the simile might also obviously be extended to armshells, for a number of armshells threaded on a string, as they can be seen on plate lx, presents also a likeness to the mwanita worm. it may be added here that sinaketa is one of these kula communities in which the overseas expeditions are done only in one direction, to the south, from where only the spondylus necklaces are fetched. its counterpart, kiriwina, to the north, carries on again only one-sided overseas kula. the formulæ which i obtained in kiriwina differ from those of sinaketa in their main parts: whenever there is a list of spondylus necklaces in a sinaketan tapwana (main part) a list of the several varieties of armshells would be used in a kiriwinian tapwana. in kitava, where, as in several other kula communities, the overseas expeditions are carried out in both directions, the same formula would be used by the same man with two different main parts, according as to whether he was sailing east to fetch mwali, or west to fetch soulava. no changes, however, would be made in the beginning of a spell. the sentence 'come here together' refers to the collected valuables. the play on 'there' and 'here,' represented in the native language by the sounds 'm' and 'w,' which are used as interchangeable formatives, is very frequent in magic; (see chapter xviii, division xii). the rainbow here invoked is a kariyala (magical portent) of this formula. when the conch shell is blown, and the fleet approaches the shore, a rainbow will appear in the skies. the rest of the exordium is taken up by the usual boasts and exaggerations typical of magic. the middle part needs no commentary. it is clear that the sound of the conch shell is meant to arouse the partner to do his duty eagerly. the magic spoken into the conch shell heightens and strengthens this effect. ii after the beauty magic and the spell over the conch shell are finished--and the whole performance does not take more than half an hour or so--every man, in full festive array, takes his place in his canoe. the sails have been folded and the masts removed, and the final stage is done by paddling. the canoes close in, not in any very regular formation, but keeping near to one another, the canoe of the toli'uvalaku as a rule moving in the van. in each canoe, the toliwaga sits at his proper place in the middle of the canoe near the gebobo (special erection made for cargo). one man sits in the front, right against the prow-board, and another at the stern on the platform. all the remaining members of the canoe wield the paddles, while the small boy or the junior member of the crew, sits near the front, ready to blow the conch shell. the oarsmen swing their leaf-shaped paddles with long, energetic and swift strokes, letting the water spray off them and the glistening blades flash in the sunlight--a ceremonial stroke which they call kavikavila (lightening). as the canoes begin to move, the three men, so far idle, intone a chant, reciting a special magical formula, each a different one. the man in the front, holding his hand on the tabuyo (oval prow-board), recites a spell, called kayikuna tabuyo (the swaying of the prow-board). the toliwaga in the middle recites the powerful formula called kavalikuliku (the earthquake spell), a formula which makes "the mountain tremble and subside." the man at the stern recites what is called kaytavilena moynawaga, a name which i cannot very well explain, which literally means, "the changing of the canoe entrance." thus, laden with magical force, which is poured forth irresistibly on to the mountain, the canoes advance towards the goal of their enterprise. with the voices of the reciters mingle the soft, penetrating sounds of the conch shell, blending their various pitches into a weird, disturbing harmony. samples of the three spells must be given here. kayikuna tabuyo "moruborogu, mosilava'u!" "fish-hawk, fall on thy prey, catch it. my prow-board, o fish-hawk, fall on thy prey, catch it. this key expression, the invocation of the fish-hawk, is repeated with a string of words, denoting, first, the ornamental parts of the canoe; afterwards, certain of its constructive parts; and finally, the lime-pot, the lime stick, the comb, the paddles, the mats, the lilava (magical bundle), and the usagelu (members of the crew). the spell ends with the words:-- "i shall kula, i shall rob my kula, etc.," as in the previously given formula of the conch shell. the first two words of this spell are personal names of men, as the initial syllable mo- indicates, but no information about them was available. the allusion to the fish-hawk in the main part suggests a connection between the action of the rite, that is, the moving of the tabuyo, with this part of the spell, for the ornamental prow-boards are called synonymously buribwari (fish-hawk). on the other hand, the expression: "fish-hawk, fall on thy prey," is no doubt also a magical simile, expressing the idea: "as a fish-hawk falls on his prey and carries it off, so let this canoe fall on the kula valuables and carry them off." the association of this simile with the act of shaking the prow-boards is very suggestive. it may be an attempt to assimilate the whole canoe and all its parts to a fish-hawk falling on its prey, through the special mediation of the ornamental prow-board. the spell recited by the toliwaga in the middle of the canoe runs thus:-- kavalikuliku "i anchor at the open sea beach, my renown reaches the lagoon; i anchor at the lagoon, my renown reaches the open sea beach." "i hit the mountain; the mountain shivers; the mountain subsides; the mountain trembles; the mountain falls down; the mountain falls asunder. i kick the ground on which the mountain stands. i bring together, i gather." "the mountain is encountered in the kula; we encounter the mountain in the kula." the expression, kubara, takuba, kubara, which we have here translated by "the mountain is met in the kula, etc." is then repeated with a long string of words denoting the various classes of valuables to be received in the kula. it ends with the conclusion already quoted: "my renown is like thunder, my steps are like earthquake." the opening two sentences are clear; they contain a typical magical exaggeration, and equally typical permutation of words. then comes the terrible verbal onslaught on "the mountain," in which the dreadful upheaval is carried on in words. "the mountain" (koya) stands here for the community of partners, for the partner, for his mind. it was very difficult to translate the expression kubara, takuba kubara. it is evidently an archaic word, and i have found it in several formulæ of the mwasila. it seems to mean something like an encounter between the approaching fleet and the koya. the word for sea battle is kubilia in the trobriand language, and kubara in that of the amphletts and dobu, and as often the words of the partner's language are mixed up into these formulæ, this etymology and translation seem to be the correct ones. the third formula, that of the man in the stern, is as follows:-- kaytavilena mwoynawaga "crocodile, fall down, take thy man! push him down under the gebobo! (part of the canoe where the cargo is stowed away)." "crocodile, bring me the necklace, bring me the bagido'u, etc." the formula is ended by the usual phrase: "i shall kula, i shall rob my kula, etc.," as in the two previously quoted spells (ta'uyo and kayikuna tabuyo). this formula is obviously a pendant to the first of these three spells, and the crocodile is here invoked instead of the fish-hawk, with the same significance. the rest of the spell is clear, the crocodile being appealed to, to bring all the different classes of the spondylus shell valuables. it is interesting to reflect upon the psychological importance of this magic. there is a deep belief in its efficiency, a belief cherished not only by those who advance chanting it, but shared also by the men awaiting the visitors on the shore. the dobuans know that powerful forces are at work upon them. they must feel the wave of magical influence slowly advancing, spreading over their villages. they hear the appeal of the conch-shell, wafting the magic to them in its irresistible note. they can guess the murmur of the many voices accompanying it. they know what is expected from them, and they rise to the occasion. on the part of the approaching party, this magic, the chant of the many voices blended with the ta'uyo (conch shell), expresses their hopes and desires and their rising excitement; their attempt to "shake the mountain," to stir it to its very foundations. at the same time, a new emotion arises in their minds, that of awe and apprehension; and another form of magic has to come to their assistance at this juncture, to give expression to this fear and to assuage it--the magic of safety. spells of this magic have been spoken previously, perhaps on the beach of sarubwoyna alongside with the rest, perhaps even earlier, at one of the intermediate stages of the journey. but the rite will be performed at the moment of setting foot ashore, and as this is also the psychological moment to which the magic corresponds, it must be described here. it seems absurd, from the rational point of view, that the natives, who know that they are expected, indeed, who have been invited to come, should yet feel uncertain about the good will of their partners, with whom they have so often traded, whom they have received in visit, and themselves visited and re-visited again and again. coming on a customary and peaceful errand, why should they have any apprehensions of danger, and develop a special magical apparatus to meet the natives of dobu? this is a logical way of reasoning, but custom is not logical, and the emotional attitude of man has a greater sway over custom than has reason. the main attitude of a native to other, alien groups is that of hostility and mistrust. the fact that to a native every stranger is an enemy, is an ethnographic feature reported from all parts of the world. the trobriander is not an exception in this respect, and beyond his own, narrow social horizon, a wall of suspicion, misunderstanding and latent enmity divides him from even near neighbours. the kula breaks it through at definite geographical points, and by means of special customary transactions. but, like everything extraordinary and exceptional, this waiving of the general taboo on strangers must be justified and bridged over by magic. indeed, the customary behaviour of the dobuans and of the visitors expresses this state of affairs with singular accuracy. it is the customary rule that the trobrianders should be received first with a show of hostility and fierceness; treated almost as intruders. but this attitude entirely subsides after the visitors have ritually spat over the village on their arrival. the natives express their ideas on this subject very characteristically: "the dobu man is not good as we are. he is fierce, he is a man-eater! when we come to dobu, we fear him, he might kill us. but see! i spit the charmed ginger root, and their mind turns. they lay down their spears, they receive us well." iii this show of hostility is fixed into a definite ceremonial attitude when the dobuan village, which consists of a collection of hamlets, has been laid under a taboo. on the death of a man of importance in any of the hamlets, the whole community undergoes the so called gwara taboo. the coco-nut and betel-nut palms around and within the village are not allowed to be scaled, and the fruit must not be touched by the dobuans themselves, and still less by strangers. this state of affairs lasts a varying length of time, according to the importance of the dead man, and to other circumstances. only after the gwara has run out its course, and is ripe for expiring, do the kiriwinians dare to come on a visit to dobu, having been advised beforehand of the circumstance. but then, when they arrive, the dobuans put up a show of real hostility, for the visitors will have to break the taboo, they will have to scale the palms, and take the forbidden fruit. this is in accordance with a wide-spread papuo-melanesian type of custom of finishing tabooed periods: in all cases, someone else, who is not under the taboo, has to put an end to it, or to force the imposer of the taboo to break it. and in all cases, there is some show of violence and struggle on the part of the one who has to allow it to be broken. in this case, as the kiriwinian natives put it: "supposing we do not perform the ka'ubana'i (safety magic), we are afraid, when there is a gwara in dobu. the dobuans put on war paint, take spear in hand, and a puluta (sword club); they sit and look at us. we run into the village; we climb the tree. he runs at us 'don't climb,' he cries. then we spit leyya (ginger root) at him. he throws down his spear, he goes back and smiles. the women take the spears away. we spit all around the village. then he is pleased. he speaks: 'you climb your coco-nut, your betel-nut; cut your bananas.'" thus the taboo is broken, the gwara is finished, and the customary and histrionic moment of tension is over, which must have been none the less a strain on the nerves of both parties. this is the lengthy formula which a toliwaga utters over several bits of ginger root, which are afterwards distributed among his crew, each of whom carries a piece when getting ashore. ka'ubana'i "floating spirit of nikiniki! duduba, kirakira." (these words are untranslatable). "it ebbs, it ebbs away! thy fury ebbs, it ebbs away, o man of dobu! thy war paint ebbs, it ebbs away, o man of dobu! thy sting ebbs, it ebbs away, o man of dobu! thy anger ebbs, it ebbs away, o man of dobu! thy chasing away ebbs, it ebbs away, o man of dobu!" a long string of various expressings denoting hostile passions, disinclination to make kula, and all the paraphernalia of war are here enumerated. thus, such words as "kula refusal," "growling," "sulking," "dislike"; further: "weapon," "bamboo knife," "club-sword," "large-barbed spear," "small-barbed spear," "round club," "war blackening," "red war paint," are uttered one after the other. moreover, all of them are repeated in their dobuan equivalents after the list has been exhausted in kiriwinian. when this series has been exhausted with reference to the man of dobu, part of it is repeated with the addition "woman of dobu," the mention of weapons, however, being omitted. but this does not end this extremely long formula. after the protracted litany has been finished, the reciter chants: "who emerges at the top of kinana? i" (here the name of the reciter is mentioned) "emerge on the top of kinana." then the whole litany is again repeated, the key word, instead of, "it ebbs, it ebbs away" being "the dog sniffs." in connection with all the other words, this would run, more or less, in a free translation:-- "thy fury, o man of dobu, is as when the dog sniffs," or, more explicitly:-- "thy fury, o man of dobu, should abate as the fury of a dog abates when it comes and sniffs at a new-comer." the simile of the dog must be very strongly ingrained in the magical tradition, for in two more versions of this formula, obtained from different informants, i received as key-words the expressions: "the dog plays about," and "the dog is docile." the final part of this formula is identical with that of the kaykakaya spell previously given in this chapter:-- "no more it is my mother, my mother art thou, o woman of dobu, etc.," running into the ending "recently deceased, etc." in comment on this formula, there is first of all the name mentioned in the first line, that of nikiniki, or monikiniki, as it is usually pronounced, with the prefix of masculinity, mo-. he is described as "a man, an ancient man; no myth about him; he spoke the magic." indeed, the main system of mwasila magic is named after him, but none of my informants knew any legend about him. the first key word of the middle part is quite clear. it describes the ebbing away of the dobuans' passions and of their outward trappings. it is noteworthy that the word for 'ebbing' here used, is in the dobuan, and not in the kiriwinian language. the reference to the dog already explained may be still made clearer in terms of native comment. one explanation is simple:-- "they invoke the dog in the mwasila, because when master of dog comes, the dog stands up and licks; in the same way, the inclinations of the dobu people." another explanation is more sophisticated: "the reason is that dogs play about nose to nose. supposing we mentioned the word, as it was of old arranged, the valuables do the same. supposing we had given away armshells, the necklace will come, they will meet." this means, by invoking the dog in this magic, according to old magical tradition, we also influence the kula gifts. this explanation is undoubtedly far-fetched, and probably does not express the real meaning of the spell. it would have no meaning in association with the list of passions and weapons, but i have adduced it as an example of native scholasticism. the dog is also a taboo associated with this magic. when a man, who practices the ka'ubana'i eats and a dog howls within his hearing, he has to leave his food, else his magic would 'blunt.' safe under the auspices of this magic, the trobriand sailors land on the beach of tu'utauna, where we shall follow them in the next chapter. chapter xiv the kula in dobu--technicalities of the exchange i in the last chapter, we spoke about the institution of gwara (mortuary taboo) and of the threatening reception accorded to the visiting party, at the time when it is laid upon the village, and when it has to be lifted. when there is no gwara, and the arriving fleet are on an uvalaku expedition, there will be a big and ceremonial welcome. the canoes, as they approach, will range themselves in a long row facing the shore. the point selected will be the beach, corresponding to a hamlet where the main partner of the toli'uvalaku lives. the canoe of the toli'uvalaku, of the master of the uvalaku expedition, will range itself at the end of the row. the toli'uvalaku will get up on to the platform and harangue the natives assembled on the beach. he will try to appeal to their ambition, so that they might give the visitors a large amount of valuables and surpass all other occasions. after that, his partner on the shore will blow a conch-shell, and, wading through the water, advance towards the canoe, and offer the first gift of valuables to the master of the expedition. this may be followed by another gift, again given to the toli'uvalaku. other blasts then follow, and men disengage themselves from the throng on the shore, approaching the canoes with necklaces for their partners. a certain order of seniority will be observed in this. the necklaces are always carried ceremonially; as a rule they will be tied by both ends to a stick, and carried hanging down, with the pendant at the bottom (see plate lxi). sometimes, when a vaygu'a (valuable) is carried to the canoes by a woman (a headman's wife or sister) it will be put into a basket and carried on her head. ii after this ceremonial reception, the fleet disperses. as we remember from chapter ii, the villages in dobu are not built in compact blocks of houses, but scattered in hamlets, each of about a dozen huts. the fleet now sails along the shore, every canoe anchoring in front of the hamlet in which its toliwaga has his main partner. we have at last arrived at the point when the real kula has begun. so far, it was all preparations, and sailing with its concomitant adventure, and a little bit of preliminary kula in the amphletts. it was all full of excitement and emotion, pointing always towards the final goal, the big kula in dobu. now we have at last reached the climax. the net result will be the acquisition of a few dirty, greasy, and insignificant looking native trinkets, each of them a string of flat, partly discoloured, partly raspberry-pink or brick-red discs, threaded one behind the other into a long, cylindrical roll. in the eyes of the natives, however, this result receives its meaning from the social forces of tradition and custom, which give the imprint of value to these objects, and surround them with a halo of romance. it seems fit here to make these few reflections upon the native psychology on this point, and to attempt to grasp its real significance. it may help us towards this understanding to reflect, that not far from the scenes of the kula, large numbers of white adventurers have toiled and suffered, and many of them given their lives, in order to acquire what to the natives would appear as insignificant and filthy as their bagi are to us--a few nuggets of gold. nearer, even, in the very trobriand lagoon, there are found valuable pearls. in olden days, when the natives on opening a shell to eat it, found a waytuna, as they called it, a 'seed' of the pearl shell, they would throw it to their children to play with. now they see a number of white men straining all their forces in competition to acquire as many of these worthless things as they can. the parallel is very close. in both cases, the conventionalised value attached to an object carries with it power, renown, and the pleasure of increasing them both. in the case of the white man, this is infinitely more complex and indirect, but not essentially different from that of the natives. if we would imagine that a great number of celebrated gems are let loose among us, and travel from hand to hand--that koh-i-noor and orloff and other celebrated diamonds, emeralds and rubies--were on a continuous round tour, and to be obtained through luck, daring and enterprise, we would have a still closer analogy. even though the possession of them would be a short and temporary one, the renown of having possessed them and the mania of 'collectioneering' would add its spur to the lust for wealth. this general, human, psychological foundation of the kula must be kept constantly in mind. if we want, however, to understand its specific forms, we have to look for the details and technicalities of the transaction. a short outline of these has been given before in chapter iii. here, after we have acquired a better knowledge of preliminaries, and a more thorough grasp of native psychology and custom, we shall be more ready to enter into a detailed description. the main principle of the kula exchange has been laid down in the before-mentioned chapter; the kula exchange has always to be a gift, followed by a counter-gift; it can never be a barter, a direct exchange with assessment of equivalents and with haggling. there must be always in the kula two transactions, distinct in name, in nature and in time. the exchange is opened by an initial or opening gift called vaga, and closed by a final or return present called yotile. they are both ceremonial gifts, they have to be accompanied by the blow of a conch shell, and the present is given ostentatiously and in public. the native term "to throw" a valuable describes well the nature of the act. for, though the valuable has to be handed over by the giver, the receiver hardly takes any notice of it, and seldom receives it actually into his hands. the etiquette of the transaction requires that the gift should be given in an off-hand, abrupt, almost angry manner, and received with equivalent nonchalance and disdain. a slight modification in this is introduced when, as it happens sometimes, in the trobriands, and in the trobriands only, the vaygu'a is given by a chief to a commoner, in which case the commoner would take it into his hand, and show some appreciation of it. in all other cases, the valuable would be placed within the reach of the receiver, and an insignificant member of his following would pick it up. it is not very easy to unravel the various motives which combine to make up this customary behaviour on receiving and giving a gift. the part played by the receiver is perhaps not so difficult to interpret. right through their ceremonial and commercial give and take, there runs the crude and fundamental human dissatisfaction with the value received. a native will always, when speaking about a transaction, insist on the magnitude and value of the gift he gave, and minimise those of the equivalent accepted. side by side with this, there is the essential native reluctance to appear in want of anything, a reluctance which is most pronounced in the case of food, as we have said before (chapter vi, division iv). both these motives combine to produce the, after all, very human and understandable attitude of disdain at the reception of a gift. in the case of the donor, the histrionic anger with which he gives an object might be, in the first place, a direct expression of the natural human dislike of parting with a possession. added to this, there is the attempt to enhance the apparent value of the gift by showing what a wrench it is to give it away. this is the interpretation of the etiquette in giving and taking at which i have arrived after many observations of native behaviour, and through many conversations and casual remarks of the natives. the two gifts of the kula are also distinct in time. it is quite obvious this must be so in the case of an overseas expedition of an uvalaku type, on which no valuables whatever are taken with them by the visiting party, and so, any valuable received on such an occasion, whether as vaga or yotile, cannot therefore be exchanged at the same time. but even when the exchange takes place in the same village during an inland kula, there must be an interval between the two gifts, of a few minutes at least. there are also deep differences in the nature of the two gifts. the vaga, as the opening gift of the exchange, has to be given spontaneously, that is, there is no enforcement of any duty in giving it. there are means of soliciting it, (wawoyla), but no pressure can be employed. the yotile, however, that is, the valuable which is given in return for the valuable previously received, is given under pressure of a certain obligation. if i have given a vaga (opening gift of valuable) to a partner of mine, let us say a year ago, and now, when on a visit, i find that he has an equivalent vaygu'a, i shall consider it his duty to give it to me. if he does not do so, i am angry with him, and justified in being so. not only that, if i can by any chance lay my hand on his vaygu'a and carry if off by force (lebu), i am entitled by custom to do this, although my partner in that case may become very irate. the quarrel over that would again be half histrionic, half real. another difference between a vaga and a yotile occurs in overseas expeditions which are not uvalaku. on such expeditions, valuables sometimes are carried, but only such as are due already for a past vaga, and are to be given as yotile. opening gifts, vaga, are never taken overseas. as mentioned above, the vaga, entails more wooing or soliciting than the yotile. this process, called by the natives wawoyla, consists, among others of a series of solicitary gifts. one type of such gifts is called pokala, and consists of food. [ ] in the myth of kasabwaybwayreta, narrated in chapter xii, this type of gift was mentioned. as a rule, a considerable amount of food is taken on an expedition, and when a good valuable is known to be in the possession of a man, some of this food will be presented to him, with the words: "i pokala your valuable; give it to me." if the owner is not inclined to part with his valuable, he will not accept the pokala. if accepted, it is an intimation that the vaygu'a will sooner or later be given to the man who offers the pokala. the owner, however, may not be prepared to part with it at once, and may wish to receive more solicitary gifts. another type of such a gift is called kaributu, and consists of a valuable which, as a rule, is not one of those which are regularly kulaed. thus, a small polished axe blade, or a valuable belt is given with the words: "i kaributu your necklace (or armshells); i shall take it and carry it off." this gift again may only be accepted if there is an intention to satisfy the giver with the desired vaygu'a. a very famous and great valuable will often be solicited by gift of pokala and of kaributu, one following the other. if, after one or two of such solicitory gifts, the big vaygu'a is finally given, the satisfied receiver will often give some more food to his partner, which gift is called kwaypolu. the food gifts would be returned on a similar occasion if it arises. but there would be no strict equivalence in the matter of food. the kaributu gift of a valuable, however, would always have to be returned later on, in an equivalent form. it may be added that the pokala offerings of food would be most often given from a district, where food is more abundant than in the district to which it is carried. thus, the sinaketans would bring pokala to the amphletts, but they would seldom or never pokala the dobuans, who are very rich in food. again, within the trobriands, a pokala would be offered from the northern agricultural district of kiriwina to men of sinaketa, but not inversely. another peculiar type of gift connected with the kula is called korotomna. after a sinaketan has given a necklace to a man of kiriwina, and this latter receives a minor valuable from his partner further east, this minor valuable will be given to the sinaketan as the korotomna of his necklace. this gift usually consists of a lime spatula of whalebone ornamented with spondylus discs, and it has to be repaid. it must be noted that all these expressions are given in the language of the trobriands, and they refer to the gifts exchanged between the northern and southern trobriands on the one hand, and these latter and the amphletts on the other. in an overseas expedition from sinaketa to dobu, the solicitary gifts would be rather given wholesale, as the visitors' gifts of pari, and the subtle distinctions in name and in technicality would not be observed. that this must be so becomes clear, if we realise that, whereas, between the northern and southern trobriands the news about an exceptionally good valuable spreads easily and quickly, this is not the case between dobu and boyowa. going over to dobu, therefore, a man has to make up his mind, whether he will give any solicitory presents to his partner, what and how much he will give him, without knowing whether he has any specially fine valuables to expect from him or not. if, however, there was any exceptionally valuable gift in the visitors' pari, it will have to be returned later on by the dobuans. another important type of gift essential to the kula is that of the intermediary gifts, called basi. let us imagine that a sinaketan man has given a very fine pair of armshells to his dobuan partner at their last meeting in sinaketa. now, arriving in dobu, he finds that his partner has not got any necklace equivalent in value to the armshells given. he none the less will expect his partner to give him meanwhile a necklace, even though it be of inferior value. such a gift is a basi, that is, not a return of the highly valuable vaga, but a gift given to fill in the gap. this basi will have to be repaid by a small equivalent pair of armshells at a later date. and the dobuan on his side has still to repay the big armshells he received, and for which he has as yet got no equivalent in his possession. as soon as this is obtained, it will be given, and will close the transaction as a clinching gift, or kudu. both these names imply figures of speech. kudu means 'tooth,' and is a good name for a gift which clinches or bites. basi means to pierce, or to stab, and this is the literal translation of a native comment on this name: "we say basi, for it does not truly bite, like a kudu (tooth); it just basi (pierces) the surface; makes it lighter." the equivalence of the two gifts, vaga and yotile, is expressed by the word kudu (tooth) and bigeda (it will bite). another figure of speech describing the equivalence is contained in the word va'i, to marry. when two of the opposite valuables meet in the kula and are exchanged, it is said that these two have married. the armshells are conceived as a female principle, and the necklaces as the male. an interesting comment on these ideas was given to me by one of the informants. as mentioned above, a gift of food is never given from sinaketa to kiriwina, obviously because it would be a case of bringing coals to newcastle. when i asked why this is so, i received the answer: "we do not now kwaypolu or pokala the mwali, for they are women, and there is no reason to kwaypolu or pokala them." there is little logic in this comment, but it evidently includes some idea about the smaller value of the female principle. or else perhaps it refers to the fundamental idea of the married status, namely that it is for the woman's family to provide the man with food. the idea of equivalence in the kula transaction is very strong and definite, and when the receiver is not satisfied with the yotile (return gift) he will violently complain that it is not a proper 'tooth' (kudu) for his opening gift, that it is not a real 'marriage,' that it is not properly 'bitten.' these terms, given in the kiriwinian language, cover about half of the kula ring from woodlark island and even further east, from nada (loughlan islands) as far as the southern trobriands. in the language of dobu, the same word is used for vaga and basi, while yotile is pronounced yotura, and kudu is udu. the same terms are used in the amphletts. so much about the actual regulations of the kula transactions. with regard to the further general rules, the definition of kula partnership and sociology has been discussed in detail in chapter xi. as to the rule that the valuables have always to travel and never to stop, nothing has to be added to what has been said about this in chapter iii, for there are no exceptions to this rule. a few more words must be said on the subject of the valuables used in the kula. i said in chapter iii, stating the case briefly, that in one direction travel the armshells, whilst in the opposite, following the hands of the clock, travel the necklaces. it must now be added that the mwali--armshells--are accompanied by another article, the doga, or circular boar's tusks. in olden days, the doga were almost as important as the mwali in the stream of the kula. nowadays, hardly any at all are to be met as kula articles. it is not easy to explain the reason for this change. in an institution having the importance and traditional tenacity which we find in the kula, there can be no question of the interference of fashion to bring about changes. the only reason which i can suggest is that nowadays, with immensely increased intertribal intercourse, there is a great drainage on all kula valuables by other districts lying outside the kula. now, on the one hand the doga are extremely valued on the main-land of new guinea, much more, i assume, than they are within the kula district. the drainage therefore would affect the doga much more strongly than any other articles, one of which, the spondylus necklaces, are actually imported into the kula region from without, and even manufactured by white men in considerable quantities for native consumption. the armshells are produced within the district in sufficient numbers to replace any leakage, but doga are extremely difficult to reproduce, as they are connected with a rare freak of nature--a boar with a circular tusk. one more article which travels in the same direction as the mwali, consists of the bosu, the big lime spatulæ made of whale-bone and decorated with spondylus shells. they are not strictly speaking kula articles, but play a part as the korotomna gifts mentioned above and nowadays are hardly to be met with. with the necklaces, there travel only as an unimportant subsidiary kula article, belts made of the same red spondylus shell. they would be given as return presents for small armshells, as basi, etc. there is one important exception in the respective movements of necklace and armshell. a certain type of spondylus shell strings, much bigger and coarser than the strings which are used in the kula, are produced in sinaketa, as we saw in the last chapter. these strings, called katudababile in kiriwinian, or sama'upa in dobuan, are sometimes exported from sinaketa to dobu as kula gifts, and function therefore as armshells. these katudababile, however, never complete the kula ring, in the wrong direction, as they never return to the trobriands from the east. part of them are absorbed into the districts outside the kula, part of them come back again to sinaketa, and join the other necklaces in their circular movement. another class of articles, which often take a subsidiary part in the kula exchange, consists of the large and thin polished axe blades, called in the kiriwinian language beku. they are never used for any practical purposes, and fulfil only the function of tokens of wealth and objects of parade. in the kula they would be given as kaributu (solicitary gifts), and would go both ways. as they are quarried in woodlark island and polished in kiriwina, they would, however, move in the direction from the trobriands to dobu more frequently than in the opposite one. to summarise this subject, it may be said that the proper kula articles are on the one hand, the armshells (mwali), and the curved tusks (doga); and, on the other hand, the fine, long necklaces (soulava or bagi), of which there are many sub-classes. an index of the special position of these three articles is that they are the only ones, or at least, by far the most important ones, mentioned in the spells. later on, i shall enumerate all the sub-classes and varieties of these articles. although, as we have seen, there is both a good deal of ceremony attached to the transaction and a good deal of decorum, one might even say commercial honour, implied in the technicalities of the exchange, there is much room left as well for quarrelling and friction. if a man obtains a very fine valuable, which he is not already under an obligation to offer as yotile (return payment), there will be a number of his partners, who will compete to receive it. as only one can be successful, all the others will be thwarted and more or less offended and full of malice. still more room for bad blood is left in the matter of equivalence. as the valuables exchanged cannot be measured or even compared with one another by an exact standard; as there are no definite correspondences or indices of correlation between the various kinds of the valuables, it is not easy to satisfy a man who has given a vaygu'a of high value. on receiving a repayment (yotile), which he does not consider equivalent, he will not actually make a scene about it, or even show his displeasure openly in the act. but he will feel a deep resentment, which will express itself in frequent recriminations and abuse. these, though not made to his partner's face, will reach his ears sooner or later. eventually, the universal method of settling differences may be resorted to--that of black magic, and a sorcerer will be paid to cast some evil spell over the offending party. when speaking about some celebrated vaygu'a, a native will praise its value in the words: "many men died because of it"--which does not mean that they died in battle or fight, but were killed by black magic. again, there is a system of signs by which one can recognise, on inspecting the corpse the day after death, for what reasons it has been bewitched. among these signs there are one or two which mean that the man has been done away with, because of his success in kula, or because he has offended somebody in connection with it. the mixture of punctilio and decorum, on the one hand, with passionate resentment and greed on the other, must be realised as underlying all the transactions, and giving the leading psychological tone to the natives' interest. the obligation of fairness and decency is based on the general rule, that it is highly improper and dishonourable to be mean. thus, though a man will generally strive to belittle the thing received, it must not be forgotten that the man who gave it was genuinely eager to do his best. and after all, in some cases when a man receives a really fine valuable, he will boast of it and be frankly satisfied. such a success is attributed of course not to his partner's generosity, but to his own magic. a feature which is universally recognised as reprehensible and discreditable, is a tendency to retain a number of valuables and be slow in passing them on. a man who did this would be called "hard in the kula." the following is a native description of this feature as exhibited by the natives of the amphletts. "the gumasila, their kula is very hard; they are mean, they are retentive. they would like to take hold of one soulava, of two, of three big ones, of four perhaps. a man would pokala them, he would pokapokala; if he is a kinsman he will get a soulava. the kayleula only, and the gumasila are mean. the dobu, the du'a'u, the kitava are good. coming to muyuwa--they are like gumasila." this means that a man in gumasila would let a number of necklaces accumulate in his possession; would require plenty of food as pokala--a characteristic reduplication describes the insistence and perseverance in pokala--and even then he would give a necklace to a kinsman only. when i inquired from the same informant whether such a mean man would also run a risk of being killed by sorcery, he answered "a man who is very much ahead in the kula--he will die--the mean man not; he will sit in peace." iii returning now to the concrete proceedings of the kula, let us follow the movements of a sinaketan toliwaga. he has presumably received a necklace or two on his arrival; but he has more partners and he expects more valuables. before he receives his fill, he has to keep a taboo. he may not partake of any local food, neither yams, nor coco-nuts, nor betel pepper or nut. according to their belief, if he transgressed this taboo he would not receive any more valuables. he tries also to soften the heart of his partner by feigning disease. he will remain in his canoe and send word that he is ill. the dobu man will know what such a conventional disease means. none the less, he may yield to this mode of persuasion. if this ruse does not succeed, the man may have recourse to magic. there is a formula called kwoygapani or 'enmeshing magic,' which seduces the mind of a man on whom it is practised, makes him silly, and thus amenable to persuasion. the formula is recited over a betel-nut or two, and these are given to the partner and to his wife or sister. kwoygapani spell "o kwega leaf; o friendly kwega leaf; o kwega leaf hither; o kwega leaf thither!" "i shall enter through the mouth of the woman of dobu; i shall come out through the mouth of the man of dobu. i shall enter through the mouth of the man of dobu; i shall come out through the mouth of the woman of dobu." "seducing kwega leaf; enmeshing kwega leaf; the mind of the woman of dobu is seduced by the kwega leaf, is enmeshed by the kwega leaf." the expression "is seduced," "is enmeshed "by the kwega leaf, is repeated with a string of words such as: "thy mind, o man of dobu," "thy refusal, o woman of dobu," "thy disinclination, o woman of dobu," "thy bowels, thy tongue, thy liver," going thus over all the organs of understanding and feeling, and over the words which describe these faculties. the last part is identical with that of one or two formulæ previously quoted: "no more it is my mother; my mother art thou, o woman of dobu, etc." (compare the kaykakaya and ka'ubana'i spells of the previous chapter.) kwega is a plant, probably belonging to the same family as betel pepper, and its leaves are chewed with areca-nut and lime, when real betel-pods (mwayye) are not available. the kwega is, remarkably enough, invoked in more than one magical formula, instead of the real betel-pod. the middle part is quite clear. in it, the seducing and enmeshing power of the kwega is cast over all the mental faculties of the dobuan, and on the anatomical seats of these faculties. after the application of this magic, all the resources of the soliciting man are exhausted. he has to give up hope, and take to eating the fruit of dobu, as his taboo lapses. side by side with the kula, the subsidiary exchange of ordinary goods takes place. in chapter vi, division vi, we have classified the various types of give and take, as they are to be found in the trobriand islands. the inter-tribal transactions which now take place in dobu also fit into that scheme. the kula itself belongs to class ( ), 'ceremonial barter with deferred payment.' the offering of the pari, of landing gifts by the visitors, returned by the talo'i or farewell gifts from the hosts fall into the class ( ) of presents more or less equivalent. finally, between the visitors and the local people there takes place, also, barter pure and simple (gimwali). between partners, however, there is never a direct exchange of the gimwali type. the local man will as a rule contribute a bigger present, for the talo'i always exceeds the pari in quantity and value, and small presents are also given to the visitors during their stay. of course, if in the pari there were included gifts of high value, like a stone blade or a good lime spoon, such solicitary gifts would always be returned in strictly equivalent form. the rest would be liberally exceeded in value. the trade takes place between the visitors and local natives, who are not their partners, but who must belong to the community with whom the kula is made. thus, numanuma, tu'utauna and bwayowa are the three communities which form what we have called the 'kula community' or 'kula unit,' with whom the sinaketans stand in the relation of partnership. and a sinaketa man will gimwali (trade) only with a man from one of these villages who is not his personal partner. to use a native statement: "some of our goods we give in pari; some we keep back; later on, we gimwali it. they bring their areca-nut, their sago, they put it down. they want some article of ours, they say: 'i want this stone blade.' we give it, we put the betel-nut, the sago into our canoe. if they give us, however, a not sufficient quantity, we rate them. then they bring more." this is a clear definition of the gimwali, with haggling and adjustment of equivalence in the act. when the visiting party from sinaketa arrive, the natives from the neighbouring districts, that is, from the small island of dobu proper, from the other side of dawson straits, from deyde'i, the village to the south, will assemble in the three kula villages. these natives from other districts bring with them a certain amount of goods. but they must not trade directly with the visitors from boyowa. they must exchange their goods with the local natives, and these again will trade them with the sinaketans. thus the hosts from the kula community act as intermediaries in any trading relations between the sinaketans and the inhabitants of more remote districts. to sum up the sociology of these transactions, we may say that the visitor enters into a threefold relation with the dobuan natives. first, there is his partner, with whom he exchanges general gifts on the basis of free give and take, a type of transaction, running side by side with the kula proper. then there is the local resident, not his personal kula partner, with whom he carries on gimwali. finally there is the stranger with whom an indirect exchange is carried on through the intermediation of the local men. with all this, it must not be imagined that the commercial aspect of the gathering is at all conspicuous. the concourse of the natives is great, mainly owing to their curiosity, to see the ceremonial reception of the uvalaku party. but if i say that every visitor from boyowa, brings and carries away about half-a-dozen articles, i do not under-state the case. some of these articles the sinaketan has acquired in the industrial districts of boyowa during his preliminary trading expedition (see chapter vi, division iii). on these he scores a definite gain. a few samples of the prices paid in boyowa and those received in dobu will indicate the amount of this gain. kuboma to sinaketa. dobu to sinaketa. tanepopo basket = coco-nuts = coco-nuts + sago + belt comb = coco-nuts = coco-nuts + bunch of betel armlet = coco-nuts = coco-nuts + bundles of betel lime pot = coco-nuts = coco-nuts + pieces of sago this table shows in its second column the prices paid by the sinaketans to the industrial villages of kuboma, a district in the northern trobriands. in the third column what they receive in dobu is recorded. the table has been obtained from a sinaketan informant, and it probably is far from accurate, and the transactions are sure to vary greatly in the gain which they afford. there is no doubt, however, that for each article, the sinaketan would ask the price which he paid for them as well as some extra article. thus we see that there is in this transaction a definite gain obtained by the middlemen. the natives of sinaketa act as intermediaries between the industrial centres of the trobriands and dobu, whereas their hosts play the same rôle between the sinaketans and the men from the outlying districts. besides trading and obtaining of kula valuables, the natives of sinaketa visit their friends and their distant relatives, who, as we saw before, are to be found in this district owing to migrations. the visitors walk across the flat, fertile plain from one hamlet to the other, enjoying some of the marvellous and unknown sights of this district. they are shown the hot springs of numanuma and of deyde'i, which are in constant eruption. every few minutes, the water boils up in one spring after another of each group, throwing up jets of spray a few metres high. the plain around these springs is barren, with nothing but here and there a stunted kind of eucalyptus tree. this is the only place in the whole of eastern new guinea where as far as i know, eucalyptus trees are to be found. this was at least the information of some intelligent natives, in whose company i visited the springs, and who had travelled all over the eastern islands and the east end of the mainland. the land-locked bays and lagoons, the northern end of dawson strait, enclosed like a lake by mountains and volcanic cones, all this must also appear strange and beautiful to the trobrianders. in the villages, they are entertained by their male friends, the language spoken by both parties being that of dobu, which differs completely from kiriwinian, but which the sinaketans learn in early youth. it is remarkable that no one in dobu speaks kiriwinian. as said above, no sexual relations of any description take place between the visitors and the women of dobu. as one of the informants told me: "we do not sleep with women of dobu, for dobu is the final mountain (koyaviguna dobu); it is a taboo of the mwasila magic." but when i enquired, whether the results of breaking this taboo would be baneful to their success in kula only, the reply was that they were afraid of breaking it, and that it was ordained of old (tokunabogwo ayguri) that no man should interfere with the women of dobu. as a matter of fact, the sinaketans are altogether afraid of the dobuans, and they would take good care not to offend them in any way. after some three or four days' sojourn in dobu, the sinaketan fleet starts on its return journey. there is no special ceremony of farewell. in the early morning, they receive their talo'i (farewell gifts) of food, betel-nut, objects of use and sometimes also a kula valuable is enclosed amongst the the talo'i. heavily laden as they are, they lighten their canoes by means of a magic called kaylupa, and sail away northwards once more. chapter xv the journey home--the fishing and working of the kaloma shell i the return journey of the sinaketan fleet is made by following exactly the same route as the one by which they came to dobu. in each inhabited island, in every village, where a halt had previously been made, they stop again, for a day or a few hours. in the hamlets of sanaroa, in tewara and in the amphletts, the partners are revisited. some kula valuables are received on the way back, and all the talo'i gifts from those intermediate partners are also collected on the return journey. in each of these villages people are eager to hear about the reception which the uvalaku party have received in dobu; the yield in valuables is discussed, and comparisons are drawn between the present occasion and previous records. no magic is performed now, no ceremonial takes place, and there would be very little indeed to say about the return journey but for two important incidents; the fishing for spondylus shell (kaloma) in sanaroa lagoon, and the display and comparison of the yield of kula valuables on muwa beach. the natives of sinaketa, as we have seen in the last chapter, acquire a certain amount of the koya produce by means of trade. there are, however, certain articles, useful yet unobtainable in the trobriands, and freely accessible in the koya, and to these the trobrianders help themselves. the glassy forms of lava, known as obsidian, can be found in great quantities over the slopes of the hills in sanaroa and dobu. this article, in olden days, served the trobrianders as material for razors, scrapers, and sharp, delicate, cutting instruments. pumice-stone abounding in this district is collected and carried to the trobriands, where it is used for polishing. red ochre is also procured there by the visitors, and so are the hard, basaltic stones (binabina) used for hammering and pounding and for magical purposes. finally, very fine silica sand, called maya, is collected on some of the beaches, and imported into the trobriands, where it is used for polishing stone blades, of the kind which serve as tokens of value and which are manufactured up to the present day. ii but by far the most important of the articles which the trobrianders collect for themselves are the spondylus shells. these are freely, though by no means easily, accessible in the coral outcrops of sanaroa lagoon. it is from this shell that the small circular perforated discs (kaloma) are made, out of which the necklaces of the kula are composed, and which also serve for ornamenting almost all the articles of value or of artistic finish which are used within the kula district. but, only in two localities within the district are these discs manufactured, in sinaketa and in vakuta, both villages in southern boyowa. the shell can be found also in the trobriand lagoon, facing these two villages. but the specimens found in sanaroa are much better in colour, and i think more easily procured. the fishing in this latter locality, however, is done by the sinaketans only. whether the fishing is done in their own lagoon, near an uninhabited island called nanoula, or in sanaroa, it is always a big, ceremonial affair, in which the whole community takes part in a body. the magic, or at least part of it, is done for the whole community by the magician of the kaloma (towosina kaloma), who also fixes the dates, and conducts the ceremonial part of the proceedings. as the spondylus shell furnishes one of the essential episodes of a kula expedition, a detailed account both of fishing and of manufacturing must be here given. the native name, kaloma (in the southern massim districts the word sapi-sapi is used) describes both the shell and the manufactured discs. the shell is the large spondylus shell, containing a crystalline layer of a red colour, varying from dirty brick-red to a soft, raspberry pink, the latter being by far the most prized. it lives in the cavities of coral outcrop, scattered among shallow mud-bottomed lagoons. this shell is, according to tradition, associated with the village of sinaketa. according to a sinaketan legend, once upon a time, three guya'u (chief) women, belonging to the tabalu sub-clan of the malasi clan, wandered along, each choosing her place to settle in. the eldest selected the village of omarakana; the second went to gumilababa; the youngest settled in sinaketa. she had kaloma discs in her basket, and they were threaded on a long, thin stick, called viduna, such as is used in the final stage of manufacture. she remained first in a place called kaybwa'u, but a dog howled, and she moved further on. she heard again a dog howling, and she took a kaboma (wooden plate) and went on to the fringing reef to collect shells. she found there the momoka (white spondylus), and she exclaimed: "oh, this is the kaloma!" she looked closer, and said: "oh no, you are not red. your name is momoka." she took then the stick with the kaloma discs and thrust it into a hole of the reef. it stood there, but when she looked at it, she said: "oh, the people from inland would come and see you and pluck you off." she went, she pulled out the stick; she went into a canoe, and she paddled. she paddled out into the sea. she anchored there, pulled the discs off the stick, and she threw them into the sea so that they might come into the coral outcrop. she said: "it is forbidden that the inland natives should take the valuables. the people of sinaketa only must dive." thus only the sinaketa people know the magic, and how to dive. this myth presents certain remarkable characteristics. i shall not enter into its sociology, though it differs in that respect from the kiriwinian myths, in which the equality of the sinaketan and the gumilababan chiefs with those of omarakana is not acknowledged. it is characteristic that the malasi woman in this myth shows an aversion to the dog, the totem animal of the lukuba clan, a clan which according to mythical and historical data had to recede before and yield its priority to the malasi (compare chapter xii, division iv). another detail of interest is that she brings the kaloma on their sticks, as they appear in the final stage of manufacturing. in this form, also, she tries to plant them on the reef. the finished kaloma, however, to use the words of one of my informants, "looked at her, the water swinging it to and fro; flashing its red eyes." and the woman, seeing it, pulls out the too accessible and too inviting kaloma and scatters them over the deep sea. thus she makes them inaccessible to the uninitiated inland villagers, and monopolises them for sinaketa. there can be no doubt that the villages of vakuta have learnt this industry from the sinaketans. the myth is hardly known in vakuta, only a few are experts in diving and manufacturing; there is a tradition about a late transference of this industry there; finally the vakutans have never fished for kaloma in the sanaroa lagoon. now let us describe the technicalities and the ceremonial connected with the fishing for kaloma. it will be better to give an account of how this is done in the lagoon of sinaketa, round the sandbank of nanoula, as this is the normal and typical form of kaloma fishing. moreover, when the sinaketans do it in sanaroa, the proceedings are very much the same, with just one or two phases missed out. the office of magician of the kaloma (towosina kaloma) is hereditary in two sub-clans, belonging to the malasi clan, and one of them is that of the main chief of kasi'etana. after the monsoon season is over, that is, some time in march or april, ogibukuvi (i.e., in the season of the new yams) the magician gives the order for preparations. the community give him a gift called sousula, one or two bringing a vaygu'a, the rest supplying gugu'a (ordinary chattels), and some food. then they prepare the canoes, and get ready the binabina stones, with which the spondylus shell will be knocked off the reef. next day, in the morning, the magician performs a rite called 'kaykwa'una la'i,' 'the attracting of the reef,' for, as in the case of several other marine beings, the main seat of the kaloma is far away. its dwelling place is the reef ketabu, somewhere between sanaroa and dobu. in order to make it move and come towards nanoula, it is necessary to recite the above-named spell. this is done by the magician as he walks up and down on the sinaketa beach and casts his words into the open, over the sea, towards the distant seat of the kaloma. the kaloma then 'stand up' (itolise) that is start from their original coral outcrop (vatu) and come into the lagoon of sinaketa. this spell, i obtained from to'udavada, the present chief of kasi'etana, and descendant of the original giver of this shell, the woman of the myth. it begins with a long list of ancestral names; then follows a boastful picture of how the whole fleet admires the magical success of the magician's spell. the key-word in the main part is the word 'itolo': 'it stands up,' i.e., 'it starts,' and with this, there are enumerated all the various classes of the kaloma shell, differentiated according to size, colour and quality. it ends up with another boast; "my canoe is overloaded with shell so that it sinks," which is repeated with varying phraseology. this spell the magician may utter once only, or he may repeat it several times on successive days. he fixes then the final date for the fishing expedition. on the evening before that date, the men perform some private magic, every one in his own house. the hammering stone, the gabila, which is always a binabina (it is a stone imported from the koya), is charmed over. as a rule it is put on a piece of dried banana leaf with some red hibiscus blossoms and leaves or flowers of red colour. a formula is uttered over it, and the whole is then wrapped up in the banana leaf and kept there until it is used. this will make the stone a lucky one in hitting off many shells, and it will make the shells very red. another rite of private magic consists in charming a large mussel shell, with which, on the next morning, the body of the canoe will be scraped. this makes the sea clear, so that the diver may easily see and frequently find his spondylus shells. next morning the whole fleet starts on the expedition. some food has been taken into the canoes, as the fishing usually lasts for a few days, the nights being spent on the beach of nanoula. when the canoes arrive at a certain point, about half-way between sinaketa and nanoula, they all range themselves in a row. the canoe of the magician is at the right flank, and he medicates a bunch of red hibiscus flowers, some red croton leaves, and the leaves of the red-blossomed mangrove--red coloured substances being used to make the shell red, magically. then, passing in front of all the other canoes, he rubs their prows with the bundle of leaves. after that, the canoes at both ends of the row begin to punt along, the row evolving into a circle, through which presently the canoe of the magician passes, punting along its diameter. at this place in the lagoon, there is a small vatu (coral outcrop) called vitukwayla'i. this is called the vatu of the baloma (spirits). at this vatu the magician's canoe stops, and he orders some of its crew to dive down and here to begin the gathering of shells. some more private magic is performed later on by each canoe on its own account. the anchor stone is charmed with some red hibiscus flowers, in order to make the spondylus shell red. there is another private magic called 'sweeping of the sea,' which, like the magic of the mussel shell, mentioned above, makes the sea clear and transparent. finally, there is an evil magic called 'besprinkling with salt water.' if a man does it over the others, he will annul the effects of their magic, and frustrate their efforts, while he himself would arouse astonishment and suspicion by the amount of shell collected. such a man would dive down into the water, take some brine into his mouth, and emerging, spray it towards the other canoes, while he utters the evil charm. so much for the magic and the ceremonial associated with the spondylus fishing in the trobriand lagoon. in sanaroa, exactly the same proceedings take place, except that there is no attracting of the reef, probably because they are already at the original seat of the kaloma. again i was told that some of the private magic would be performed in sinaketa before the fleet sailed on the kula expedition. the objects medicated would be then kept, well wrapped in dried leaves. it may be added that neither in the one lagoon nor in the other are there any private, proprietary rights to coral outcrops. the whole community of sinaketa have their fishing grounds in the lagoon, within which every man may hunt for his spondylus shell, and catch his fish at times. if the other spondylus fishing community, the vakutans, encroached upon their grounds, there would be trouble, and in olden days, fighting. private ownership in coral outcrops exists in the northern villages of the lagoon, that is in kavataria, and the villages on the island of kayleula. iii we must now follow the later stages of the kaloma industry. the technology of the proceedings is so mixed up with remarkable sociological and economic arrangements that it will be better to indicate it first in its main outlines. the spondylus consists of a shell, the size and shape of a hollowed out half of a pear, and of a flat, small lid. it is only the first part which is worked. first it has to be broken into pieces with a binabina or an utukema (green stone imported from woodlark island) as shown on plate l (a). on each piece, then, can be seen the stratification of the shell: the outside layer of soft, chalky substance; under this, the layer of red, hard, calcareous material, and then the inmost, white, crystalline stratum. both the outside and inside have to be rubbed off, but first each piece has to be roughly rounded up, so as to form a thick circular lump. such a lump (see foregrounds of plates l (a), l (b)) is then put in the hole of a cylindrical piece of wood. this latter serves as a handle with which the lumps are rubbed on a piece of flat sandstone (see plate l (b)). the rubbing is carried on so far till the outside and inside layers are gone, and there remains only a red, flat tablet, polished on both sides. in the middle of it, a hole is drilled through by means of a pump drill--gigi'u--(see plate li), and a number of such perforated discs are then threaded on a thin, but tough stick (see plate lii), with which we have already met in the myth. then the cylindrical roll is rubbed round and round on the flat sandstone, until its form becomes perfectly symmetrical (see plate lii). thus a number of flat, circular discs, polished all round and perforated in the middle, are produced. the breaking and the drilling, like the diving are done exclusively by men. the polishing is as a rule woman's work. this technology is associated with an interesting sociological relation between the maker and the man for whom the article is made. as has been stated in chapter ii, one of the main features of the trobriand organisation consists of the mutual duties between a man and his wife's maternal kinsmen. they have to supply him regularly with yams at harvest time, while he gives them the present of a valuable now and then. the manufacture of kaloma valuables in sinaketa is very often associated with this relationship. the sinaketan manufacturer makes his kutadababile (necklace of large beads) for one of his relatives-in-law, while this latter pays him in food. in accordance with this custom, it happens very frequently that a sinaketan man marries a woman from one of the agricultural inland villages, or even a woman of kiriwina. of course, if he has no relatives-in-law in one of these villages, he will have friends or distant relatives, and he will make the string for one or the other of them. or else he will produce one for himself, and launch it into the kula. but the most typical and interesting case is, when the necklace is produced to order for a man who repays it according to a remarkable economic system, a system similar to the payments in instalments, which i have mentioned with regard to canoe making. i shall give here, following closely the native text, a translation of an account of the payments for kaloma making. account of the kaloma making supposing some man from inland lives in kiriwina or in luba or in one of the villages nearby; he wants a katudababile. he would request an expert fisherman who knows how to dive for kaloma. this man agrees; he dives, he dives ... till it is sufficient; his vataga (large folding basket) is already full, this man (the inlander) hears the rumour; he, the master of the kaloma (that is, the man for whom the necklace will be made) says: "good! i shall just have a look!" he would come, he would see, he would not give any vakapula payment. he (here the sinaketan diver is meant) would say: "go, tomorrow, i shall break the shell, come here, give me vakapula." next day, he (the inlander) would cook food, he would bring, he would give vakapula; he (the diver) would break the shell. next day, the same. he (the inlander) would give the vakapula, he (the diver) would break the shell. supposing the breaking is already finished, he (the diver) would say: "good! already the breaking is finished, i shall polish." next day, he (the inlander) would cook food, would bring bananas, coco-nut, betel-nut, sugar cane, would give it as vakapula; this man (the diver) polishes. the polishing already finished, he would speak: "good! to-morrow i shall drill." this man (the inlander) would bring food, bananas, coco-nuts, sugar cane, he would give it as vakapula: it would be abundant, for soon already the necklace will be finished. the same, he would give a big vakapula on the occasion of the rounding up of the cylinder, for soon everything will be finished. when finished, we thread it on a string, we wash it. (note the change from the third singular into the first plural). we give it to our wife, we blow the conch shell; she would go, she would carry his valuable to this man, our relative-in-law. next day, he would yomelu; he would catch a pig, he would break off a bunch of betel-nut, he would cut sugar cane, bananas, he would fill the baskets with food, and spike the coco-nut on a multi-forked piece of wood. by-and-by he would bring it. our house would be filled up. later on we would make a distribution of the bananas, of the sugar cane, of the betel-nut. we give it to our helpers. we sit, we sit (i.e., we wait); at harvest time he brings yams, he karibudaboda (he gives the payment of that name), the necklace. he would bring the food and fill out our yam house. this narrative, like many pieces of native information, needs certain corrections of perspective. in the first place, events here succeed one another with a rapidity quite foreign to the extremely leisurely way in which natives usually accomplish such a lengthy process as the making of a katudababile. the amount of food which, in the usual manner, is enumerated over and over again in this narrative would probably not be exaggerated, for--such is native economy--a man who makes a necklace to order would get about twice as much or even more for it than it would fetch in any other transaction. on the other hand, it must be remembered that what is represented here as the final payment, the karibudaboda, is nothing else but the normal filling up of the yam house, always done by a man's relations-in-law. none the less, in a year in which a katudababile would be made, the ordinary yearly harvest gift would be styled the 'karibudaboda payment for the necklace.' the giving of the necklace to the wife, who afterwards carries it to her brother or kinsman, is also characteristic of the relation between relatives-in-law. in sinaketa and vakuta only the necklaces made of bigger shell and tapering towards the end are made. the real kula article, in which the discs are much thinner, smaller in diameter and even in size from one end of the necklace to the other, these were introduced into the kula at other points, and i shall speak about this subject in one of the following chapters (chapter xxi), where the other branches of the kula are described. iv now, having come to an end of this digression on kaloma, let us return for another short while to our sinaketan party, whom we have left on the lagoon of sanaroa. having obtained a sufficient amount of the shells, they set sail, and re-visiting tewara and gumasila, stopping perhaps for a night on one of the sandbanks of pilolu, they arrive at last in their home lagoon. but before rejoining their people in their villages, they stop for the last halt on muwa. here they make what is called tanarere, a comparison and display of the valuables obtained on this trip. from each canoe, a mat or two are spread on the sand beach, and the men put their necklaces on the mat. thus a long row of valuables lies on the beach, and the members of the expedition walk up and down, admire, and count them. the chiefs would, of course, have always the greatest haul, more especially the one who has been the toli'uvalaku on that expedition. after this is over, they return to the village. each canoe blows its conch shell, a blast for each valuable that it contains. when a canoe has obtained no vaygu'a at all, this means great shame and distress for its members, and especially for the toliwaga. such a canoe is said to bisikureya, which means literally 'to keep a fast.' on the beach all the villagers are astir. the women, who have put on their new grass petticoats (sevata'i) specially made for this occasion, enter the water and approach the canoes to unload them. no special greetings pass between them and their husbands. they are interested in the food brought from dobu, more especially in the sago. people from other villages assemble also in great numbers to greet the incoming party. those who have supplied their friends or relatives with provisions for their journey, receive now sago, betel-nuts and coco-nuts in repayment. some of the welcoming crowd have come in order to make kula. even from the distant districts of luba and kiriwina natives will travel to sinaketa, having a fair idea of the date of the arrival of the kula party from dobu. the expedition will be talked over, the yield counted, the recent history of the important valuables described. but this stage leads us already into the subject of inland kula, which will form the subject of one of the following chapters. chapter xvi the return visit of the dobuans to sinaketa i in the twelve preceding chapters, we have followed an expedition from sinaketa to dobu. but branching off at almost every step from its straight track, we studied the various associated institutions and underlying beliefs; we quoted magical formulæ, and told mythical stories, and thus we broke up the continuous thread of the narrative. in this chapter, as we are already acquainted with the customs, beliefs and institutions implied in the kula, we are ready to follow a straight and consecutive tale of an expedition in the inverse direction, from dobu to sinaketa. as i have seen, indeed followed, a big uvalaku expedition from the south to the trobriands, i shall be able to give some of the scenes from direct impression, and not from reconstruction. such a reconstruction for one who has seen much of the natives' tribal life and has a good grip over intelligent informants is neither very difficult nor need it be fanciful at all. indeed, towards the end of my second visit, i had several times opportunities to check such a reconstruction by witnessing the actual occurrence, for after my first year's stay in the trobriands i had written out already some of my material. as a rule, even in minute details, my reconstructions hardly differed from reality, as the tests have shown. none the less, it is possible for an ethnographer to enter into concrete details with more conviction when he describes things actually seen. in september, , an uvalaku expedition was led by kouta'uya from sinaketa to dobu. the vakutans joining them on the way, and the canoes of the amphletts following them also, some forty canoes finally arrived at the western shore of dawson straits. it was arranged then and there that a return expedition from that district should visit sinaketa in about six months' time. kauyaporu, the esa'esa (headman) of kesora'i hamlet in the village of bwayowa, had a pig with circular tusks. he decided therefore to arrange an uvalaku expedition, at the beginning of which the pig was to be killed and feasted upon and its tusks turned into ornaments. when, in november, , i passed through the district, the preparing of the canoes was already afoot. all of those, which still could be repaired, had been taken to pieces and were being relashed, recaulked and repainted. in some hamlets, new dug-outs were being scooped. after a few months stay in the trobriands, i went south again in march, , intending to spend some time in the amphletts. landing there is always difficult, as there are no anchorages near the shore, and it is quite impossible to disembark in rough weather at night. i arrived late in a small cutter, and had to cruise between gumasila and domdom, intending to wait till daybreak and then effect a landing. in the middle of the night, however, a violent north-westerly squall came down, and making a split in the main-sail, forced us to run before the wind, southwards towards dobu. it was on this night that the native boys employed in the boat, saw the mulukwausi flaming up at the head of the mast. the wind dropped before daybreak, and we entered the lagoon of sanaroa, in order to repair the sail. during the three days we stopped there, i roamed over the country, climbing its volcanic cones, paddling up the creeks and visiting the villages scattered on the coral plain. everywhere i saw signs of the approaching departure for boyowa; the natives preparing their canoes on the beach to be loaded, collecting food in the gardens and making sago in the jungle. at the head of one of the creeks, in the midst of a sago swamp, there was a long, low shelter which serves as a dwelling to dobuan natives from the main island when they come to gather sago. this swamp was said to be reserved to a certain community of tu'utauna. another day i came upon a party of local natives from sanaroa, who were pounding sago pulp out of a palm, and sluicing it with water. a big tree had been felled, its bark stripped in the middle of the trunk in a large square, and the soft, fleshy interior laid open. there were three men standing in a row before it and pounding away at it. a few more men waited to relieve the tired ones. the pounding instruments, half club, half adzes, had thick but not very broad blades of green stone, of the same type as i have seen among the mailu natives of the south coast. [ ] the pulp was then carried in baskets to a neighbouring stream. at this spot there was a natural trough, one of the big, convex scales, which form the basis of the sago leaf. in the middle of it, a sieve was made of a piece of coco-nut spathing, a fibre which covers the root of a coco-nut leaf, and looks at first sight exactly like a piece of roughly woven material. water was directed so that it flowed into the trough at its broad end, coming out at the narrow one. the sago pulp was put at the top, the water carried away with it the powdered sago starch, while the wooden, husky fibres were retained by the sieve. the starch was then carried with the water into a big wooden canoe-shaped trough; there the heavier starch settled down, while the water welled over the brim. when there is plenty of starch, the water is drained off carefully and the starch is placed into another of the trough-shaped, sago leaf bases, where it is allowed to dry. in such receptacles it is then carried on a trading expedition, and is thus counted as one unit of sago. i watched the proceedings for a long time with great interest. there is something fascinating about the big, antideluvian-looking sago palm, so malignant and unapproachable in its unhealthy, prickly swamp, being turned by man into food by such simple and direct methods. the sago produced and eaten by the natives is a tough, starchy stuff, of dirty white colour, very unpalatable. it has the consistency of rubber, and the taste of very poor, unleavened bread. it is not clear, like the article which is sold under the name of sago in our groceries, but is mealy, tough, and almost elastic. the natives consider it a great delicacy, and bake it into little cakes, or boil it into dumplings. the main fleet of the dobuans started some time in the second half of march from their villages, and went first to the beach of sarubwoyna, where they held a ceremonial distribution of food, eguya'i, as it is called in dobu. then, offering the pokala to aturamo'a and atu'a'ine, they sailed by way of sanaroa and tewara, passing the tabooed rock of gurewaya to the amphletts. the wind was light and changeable, weak s.w. breezes prevailing. the progress of this stage of the journey must have been very slow. the natives must have spent a few nights on the intermediate islands and sandbanks, a few canoes' crews camping at one spot. at that time i had already succeeded in reaching the amphletts, and had been busy for two or three weeks doing ethnographic work, though not very successfully; for, as i have already once or twice remarked, the natives here are very bad informants. i knew of course that the dobuan fleet was soon to come, but as my experience had taught me to mistrust native time-tables and fixtures of date, i did not expect them to be punctual. in this, however, i was mistaken. on a kula expedition, when the dates are once fixed, the natives make real and strenuous efforts to keep to them. in the amphletts the people were busy preparing for the expedition, because they had the intention of joining the dobuans and proceeding with them to the trobriands. a few canoes went to the mainland to fetch sago, pots were being mustered and made ready for stowing away, canoes were overhauled. when the small expedition returned from the mainland with sago, after a week or so, a sagali (in amphlettan: madare), that is, a ceremonial distribution of food was held on the neighbouring island, nabwageta. my arrival was a very untoward event to the natives, and complicated matters, causing great annoyance to tovasana, the main headman. i had landed in his own little village, nu'agasi, on the island of gumasila, for it was impossible to anchor near the big village, nor would there have been room for pitching a tent. now, in the amphletts, a white man is an exceedingly rare occurrence, and to my knowledge, only once before, a white trader remained there for a few weeks. to leave me alone with the women and one or two old men was impossible, according to their ideas and fears, and none of the younger men wanted to forgo the privilege and pleasure of taking part in the expedition. at last, i promised them to move to the neighbouring island of nabwageta, as soon as the men were gone, and with this they were satisfied. as the date fixed for the arrival of the dobuans approached, the excitement grew. little by little the news arrived, and was eagerly received and conveyed to me: "some sixty canoes of the dobuans are coming," "the fleet is anchored off tewara," "each canoe is heavily laden with food and gifts," "kauyaporu sails in his canoe, he is toli'uvalaku, and has a big pandanus streamer attached to the prow." a string of other names followed which had very little meaning for me, since i was not acquainted with the dobuan natives. from another part of the world, from the trobriands, the goal of the whole expedition, news reached us again: "to'uluwa, the chief of kiriwina has gone to kitava--he will soon come back, bringing plenty of mwali." "the sinaketans are going there to fetch some of the mwali." "the vakutans have been in kitava and brought back great numbers of mwali." it was astonishing to hear all this news, arriving at a small island, apparently completely isolated with its tiny population, within these savage and little navigated seas; news only a few days old, yet reporting events which had occurred at a travelling distance of some hundred miles. it was interesting to follow up the way it had come. the earlier news about the dobuans had been brought by the canoes, which had fetched the sago to gumasila from the main island. a few days later, a canoe from one of the main island villages had arrived here, and on its way had passed the dobuans in tewara. the news from the trobriands in the north had been brought by the kuyawa canoe which had arrived a couple of days before in nabwageta (and whose visit to nu'agasi i have described in chapter xi). all these movements were not accidental, but connected with the uvalaku expedition. to show the complexity, as well as the precise timing of the various movements and events, so perfectly synchronised over a vast area, in connection with the uvalaku, i have tabulated them in the chart, facing this page, in which almost all the dates are quite exact, being based on my own observations. this chart also gives a clear, synoptic picture of an uvalaku, and it will be useful to refer to it, in reading this chapter. in olden days, not less than now, there must have been an ebullition in the inter-tribal relations, and a great stirring from one place to another, whenever an uvalaku kula was afoot. thus, news would be carried rapidly over great distances, the movements of the vast numbers of natives would be co-ordinated, and dates fixed. as has been said already, a culminating event of an expedition, in this case the arrival of the dobuan fleet in sinaketa, would be always so timed as to happen on, or just before, a full moon, and this would serve as a general orientation for the preliminary movements, such as in this case, the visits of the single canoes. the previous uvalaku date september, the expedition, led by kouta'uya from sinaketa to dobu. preparatory stage oct., -feb., building of new canoes and repairing of old ones, in the district of n.w. dobu. feb.-march, sago making, collecting of trade and food. middle of march launching, fitting and loading of the canoes; preliminary magic. the sailing about th march the dobuan canoes start on their overseas trip. about same time [in boyowa: the vakutans return from kitava with a good haul of mwali]. same time [in the amphletts: preparations to sail; collecting food; repairing canoes.] about th march [in boyowa: to'uluwa returns from kitava bringing mwali.] same time [in the amphletts: news reach of the approaching fleet from dobu; of the doings in boyowa.] th march [in the amphletts: part of the canoes sail ahead to vakuta.] st march the dobuan fleet arrives in the amphletts. st april they proceed on their journey to boyowa. nd april [in the amphletts: rest of local canoes sail to boyowa.] same day [in boyowa: the sinaketans go to kiriwina.] rd april [in boyowa: they return with the armshells.] the arrival of the dobuans in boyowa rd april the dobuan fleet appears in vakuta. rd- th april they receive kula gifts, exchange presents and trade in vakuta. th april arrival of the dobuan fleet in sinaketa, magic at the beach of kaykuyawa, ceremonial reception. th- th april the dobuans (as well as the amphlettans) remain in sinaketa, receiving kula presents, giving pari gifts and trading. th april they all leave sinaketa, receiving talo'i (farewell) gifts. the dobuans sail south (and the amphlettans to kayleula and the smaller western trobriand islands). th- th april the dobuans are engaged in fishing in the s. lagoon. return journey th april they reappear in vakuta, and receive their talo'i (farewell) gifts. th april they leave vakuta. about th or st tanarere (competitive display and comparison) on the beach of sarubwoyna, and return to dobu. indeed, from that moment, the events on and about the amphlett islands moved rapidly. the day after the visit from the kuyawan canoes, the canoes of the main village of gumasila sailed off to the trobriands, starting therefore a few days ahead of the dobuan uvalaku fleet. i rowed over in a dinghy to the big village, and watched the loading and departing of the canoes. there was a bustle in the village, and even a few old women could be seen helping the men in their tasks. the large canoes were being pushed into the water from their supports, on which they were beached. they had been already prepared for the journey there, their platforms covered with plaited palm leaves, frames put in their bottoms to support the cargo, boards placed crossways within the canoe to serve as seats for the crew, the mast, rigging and sail laid handy. the loading, however, begins only after the canoe is in water. the large, trough-shaped chunks of sago were put at the bottom, while men and women carefully brought out the big clay pots, stowing them away with many precautions in special places in the middle (see plate xlvii). then, one after the other, the canoes went off, paddling round the southern end of the island towards the west. at about ten o'clock in the morning, the last canoe disappeared round the promontory, and the village remained practically empty. there was no saying of farewells, not a trace of any emotion on the part of those leaving or those remaining. but it must be remembered that, owing to my presence, no women except one or two old hags, were visible on the shore. all my best informants gone, i intended to move to nabwageta next morning. at sunset, i made a long excursion in my dinghy round the western shores of gumasila, and it was on that occasion that i discovered all those who had left that morning on the kula sitting on giyasila beach, in accordance with the kula custom of a preliminary halt, such as the one on muwa described in chapter vii. next morning, i left for the neighbouring island and village of nabwageta, and only after he saw me safely off, tovasana and his party left in his canoe, following the others to vakuta. in nabwageta, the whole community were in the midst of their final preparations for departure, for they intended to wait for the dobuans and sail with them to kiriwina. all their canoes were being painted and renovated, a sail was being repaired on the beach (see plate liii). there were some minor distributions of food taking place in the village, the stuff being over and over again allotted and re-allotted, smaller pieces carved out of the big chunks and put into special wrappings. this constant handling of food is one of the most prominent features of tribal life in that part of the world. as i arrived, a sail for one of the canoes was just being finished by a group of men. in another canoe, i saw them mending the outrigger by attaching the small log of light, dry wood to make the old, waterlogged float more buoyant. i could also watch in detail the final trimming of the canoes, the putting up of the additional frames, of the coco-nut mats, the making of the little cage in the central part for the pots and for the lilava (the sacred bundle), i was, nevertheless, not on sufficiently intimate terms with these nabwageta natives to be allowed to witness any of the magic. their system of mwasila is identical with that of boyowa, in fact, it is borrowed from there. next day--in this village again i had difficulty in finding any good informants, a difficulty increased by the feverish occupation of all the men--i went for a long row in the afternoon with my two 'boys,' hoping to reach the island of domdom. a strong current, which in this part is at places so pronounced that it breaks out into steep, tidal waves, made it impossible to reach our goal. returning in the dark, my boys suddenly grew alert and excited, like hounds picking up a scent. i could perceive nothing in the dark, but they had discerned two canoes moving westwards. within about half-an-hour, a fire became visible, twinkling on the beach of a small, deserted island south of domdom; evidently some dobuans were camping there. the excitement and intense interest shown by my boys, one a dobuan, the other from sariba (southern massim), gave me an inkling of the magnitude of this event--the vanguard of a big kula fleet slowly creeping up towards one of its intermediate halting places. it also brought home to me vividly the inter-tribal character of this institution, which unites in one common and strongly emotional interest so many scattered communities. that night, as we learnt afterwards, a good number of canoes had anchored on the outlying deserted islands of the amphletts, waiting for the rest of the fleet to arrive. when we came that evening to nabwageta, the news had already been received of the important event, and the whole village was astir. next day, the weather was particularly fine and clear, with the distant mountains wreathed only in light cumuli, their alluring outlines designed in transparent blue. early in the afternoon, with a blast of conch shell, a dobuan waga, in full paint and decoration, and with the rich pandanus mat of the sail glowing like gold against the blue sea, came sailing round the promontory. one after the other, at intervals of a few minutes each, other canoes came along, all sailing up to some hundred yards from the beach, and then, after furling the sail, paddling towards the shore (see plate xl). this was not a ceremonial approach, as the aim of the expedition this time did not embrace the amphletts, but was directed towards the trobriands only, vakuta, and sinaketa; these canoes had put in only for an intermediate halt. nevertheless, it was a great event, especially as the canoes of nabwageta were going to join with the fleet later on. out of the sixty or so dobuan canoes, only about twenty-five with some men in them had come to nabwageta, the others having gone to the big village of gumasila. in any case, there were about five times as many men gathered in the village as one usually sees. there was no kula done at all, no conch-shells were blown on the shore, nor do i think were any presents given or received by either party. the men sat in groups round their friends' houses, the most distinguished visitors collected about the dwelling of tobwa'ina, the main headman of nabwageta. many canoes were anchored along the coast beyond the village beach, some tucked away into small coves, others moored in sheltered shallows. the men sat on the shore round fires, preparing their food, which they took out of the provisions carried on the canoes. only the water did they obtain from the island, filling their coco-nut-made water vessels from the springs. about a dozen canoes were actually moored at the village beach. late at night, i walked along the shore to observe their sleeping arrangements. in the clear, moonlit night, the small fires burnt with a red, subdued glow; there was always one of them between each two sleepers, consisting of three burning sticks, gradually pushed in as they were consumed. the men slept with the big, stiff pandanus mats over them; each mat is folded in the middle, and when put on the ground, forms a kind of miniature prismatic tent. all along the beach, it was almost a continuous row of man alternating with fire, the dun-coloured mats being nearly invisible against the sand in the full moonlight. it must have been a very light sleep for every now and then, a man stirred, peeping up from under his shell, re-adjusting the fire, and casting a searching glance over the surroundings. it would be difficult to say whether mosquitoes or cold wind or fear of sorcery disturbed their sleep most, but i should say the last. the next morning, early, and without any warning, the whole fleet sailed away. at about o'clock the last canoe punted towards the offing, where they stepped their mast and hoisted their sail. there were no farewell gifts, no conch shell blowing, and the dobuans this time left their resting place as they had come, without ceremony or display. the morning after, the nabwagetans followed them. i was left in the village with a few cripples, the women and one or two men who had remained perhaps to look after the village, perhaps specially to keep watch over me and see that i did no mischief. not one of them was a good informant. through a mistake of mine, i had missed the cutter which had come two days before to the island of gumasila and left without me. with bad luck and bad weather, i might have had to wait a few weeks, if not months in nabwageta. i could perhaps have sailed in a native canoe, but this could only be done without bedding, tent, or even writing outfit and photographic apparatus, and so my travelling would have been quite useless. it was a piece of great good luck that a day or two afterwards, a motor launch, whose owner had heard about my staying in the amphletts, anchored in front of nabwageta village, and within an hour i was speeding towards the trobriands again, following the tracks of the kula fleet. ii on the next morning, as we slowly made our way along the channels in the opalescent, green lagoon, and as i watched a fleet of small, local canoes fishing in their muddy waters, and could recognise on the surrounding flat shores a dozen well-known villages, my spirits rose, and i felt well pleased to have left the picturesque, but ethnographically barren amphletts for the trobriands, with their scores of excellent informants. moreover, the amphletts, in the persons of their male inhabitants were soon to join me here. i went ashore in sinaketa, where everybody was full of the great moment which was soon to arrive. for the dobuan fleet was known to be coming, though on that morning, so far, no news had reached them of its whereabouts. as a matter of fact, the dobuans, who had left nabwageta forty-eight hours ahead of me, had made a slow journey with light winds, and sailing a course to the east of mine, had arrived that morning only in vakuta. all the rumours which had been reported to me in the amphletts about the previous movements of the trobriand natives had been correct. thus the natives of vakuta had really been to the east, to kitava, and had brought with them a big haul of armshells. to'uluwa, the chief of kiriwina, had visited kitava later, and about five or six days before had returned from there, bringing with him pairs of armshells. the sinaketans then had gone to kiriwina, and out of the pairs had succeeded in securing . as there had been previously pairs in sinaketa, a total of was awaiting the dobuans. on the morning of my arrival, the sinaketan party had just returned from kiriwina, hurrying home so as to have everything ready for the reception of the dobuans. of these, we got the news that very afternoon--news which travelled overland from one village to another, and reached us from vakuta with great rapidity. we were also told that the uvalaku fleet would be at sinaketa within two or three days. this period i utilised in refurbishing my information about that phase of the kula, which i was going to witness, and trying to get a clear outline of every detail of all that was going soon to happen. it is extremely important in sociological work to know well beforehand the underlying rules and the fundamental ideas of an occurrence, especially if big masses of natives are concerned in it. otherwise, the really important events may be obliterated by quite irrelevant and accidental movements of the crowd, and thus the significance of what he sees may be lost to the observer. no doubt if one could repeat one's observations on the same phenomenon over and over again, the essential and relevant features would stand out by their regularity and permanence. if, however, as it often happens in ethnographic field-work, one gets the opportunity only once of witnessing a public ceremony, it is necessary to have its anatomy well dissected beforehand, and then concentrate upon observing how these outlines are followed up concretely, gauge the tone of the general behaviour, the touches of emotion or passion, many small yet significant details which nothing but actual observation can reveal, and which throw much light upon the real, inner relation of the native to his institution. so i was busy going over my old entries and checking them and putting my material into shape in a detailed and concrete manner. on the third day, as i was sitting and taking notes in the afternoon, word ran all round the villages that the dobuan canoes had been sighted. and indeed, as i hastened towards the shore, there could be seen, far away, like small petals floating on the horizon, the sails of the advancing fleet. i jumped at once into a canoe, and was punted along towards the promontory of kaykuyawa, about a mile to the south of sinaketa. there, one after the other, the dobuan canoes were arriving, dropping their sails and undoing the mast as they moored, until the whole fleet, numbering now over eighty canoes, were assembled before me (see plate xlviii). from each a few men waded ashore, returning with big bunches of leaves. i saw them wash and smear themselves and perform the successive stages of native, festive adornment (see plate xlix). each article was medicated by some man or another in the canoe before it was used or put on. the most carefully handled articles of ornamentation were the ineffective looking, dried up herbs, taken out of their little receptacles, where they had remained since they had been becharmed in dobu, and now stuck into the armlets. the whole thing went on quickly, almost feverishly, making more the impression of a piece of technical business being expeditiously performed, than of a solemn and elaborate ceremony taking place. but the ceremonial element was soon to show itself. after the preparations were finished, the whole fleet formed itself into a compact body, not quite regular, but with a certain order, about four or five canoes being in a row, and one row behind the other. in this formation they punted along over the lagoon, too shallow for paddling, towards the beach of sinaketa. when they were within about ten minutes of the shore, all the conch shells began to be sounded, and the murmur of recited magic rose from the canoes. i could not come sufficiently near the canoes, for reason of etiquette, to be able to see the exact arrangement of the reciters, but i was told that it was the same as that observed by the trobrianders on their approach to dobu, described in chapter xiii. the general effect was powerful, when this wonderfully painted and fully decorated fleet was gliding swiftly over the green waters of the lagoon towards the palm grove above the sand beach, at that moment thick with expectant natives. but i imagine that the arrival of a trobriand fleet in dobu must be considerably more effective even than that. the much more picturesque landscape, the ceremonial paddling with the leaf-shaped oars over the deep water, the higher sense of danger and tension, than that which the dobuans feel, when coming to visit the meek trobrianders, all this must make it even more dramatic and impressive than the scene i have just described. within some twenty metres from the shore, the canoes formed themselves into a double row, the canoe of the toli'uvalaku on the left flank of the first row. kauyaporu, as soon as all the craft were in position, rose in his canoe, and in a loud voice, addressed in dobuan those standing on the shore. his words, preserved in the memory of his hearers, were transmitted to me that same evening in their kiriwinian equivalent. he spoke: "who will be first in the kula? the people of vakuta or yourselves? i deem you will have the lead! bring armshells, one basketful, two baskets; catch pigs; pluck coco-nuts; pluck betel-nut! for this is my uvalaku. by and by, thou, kouta'uya, wilt make an uvalaku, and we shall give thee then plenty of vaygu'a!" so spoke kauyaporu, addressing his main partner, kouta'uya, the second chief of sinaketa. he did not address to'udawada, the most important chief, because he was not his main partner. as soon as the speech was finished, kouta'uya waded through the water from the beach, carrying a pair of armshells in each hand. behind him came a small boy, the youngest son, blowing a conch shell. he was followed again by two men, who between them had a stick resting on their shoulders, on which several pairs of mwali (armshells) were displayed. this procession waded towards the canoe of kauyaporu, whom kouta'uya addressed in these words, throwing the armshells on the platform of the canoe: "this is a vaga (opening gift)! in due time, i shall make a uvalaku to dobu; thou shalt return to me a big soulava (necklace) as kudu (equivalent gift) for this. plenty more armshells thou wilt receive now. there are plenty of armshells in sinaketa. we know there were plenty of armshells in vakuta. by and by thou and thy usagelu come ashore, i shall catch a pig. i shall give you plenty of food, coco-nuts, betel-nut, sugar cane, bananas!" as soon as he was back on the shore, his wife, the eldest one, with a peta basket on her head, containing a pair of armshells, went into the water and carried it to kauyaporu's canoe, the boy with the conch shell following her also. after that, conch shells were blown on all sides on the shore, and single men or groups detached themselves from the rest, and waded towards the canoes. the mwali were carried with ceremony on sticks or in outstretched arm. but the grossly exaggerated way of putting one pair of armshells into a basket which was big enough to hold some four score, was only done by the chief's wife. all this lasted for perhaps half-an-hour, while the setting sun poured down its glowing light on the painted canoes, the yellow beach, and the lively bronze forms moving upon it. then, in a few moments, the dobuan canoes were partly beached, partly moored, whilst their crews spread over the seven villages of sinaketa. large groups could be seen sitting on platforms chewing betel-nut and conversing in dobuan with their hosts (see plate lvi). for three days, the dobuans remained in sinaketa. every now and then, blasts of conch shell announced that a kula transaction had taken place, that is, that a pair of armshells had been handed over to one of the visitors. swarms of people from the other districts had assembled in sinaketa; every day, natives from the inland villages of southern boyowa crowded into their capital, whilst people from kuboma, luba, and kiriwina, that is, the central and northern districts, were camping in their relatives' houses, in yam stores and under provisional shelters. reckoning that the number of the visitors, that is, the dobuans, the amphlettans and the vakutans, who had joined them on their way, amounted to some eight hundred; that the sinaketans numbered about five hundred people, and that some twelve hundred had come from the other villages, it will be seen that the crowd in and about sinaketa was considerable, numbering over two thousand. the trobriand natives, of course, looked after their own provisions. the dobuans had also brought a considerable amount of food with them, and would receive some additional vegetables and pigs' flesh from their hosts, while they acquired fish from some of the other villages of boyowa. as a matter of fact, stingaree, shark and some other fish are the only articles for which the dobuans barter on their own account. the rest of the trade, in the same way as is done in dobu by the sinaketans, must be done with the community who receive visitors, that is, with sinaketa. the sinaketans buy from the manufacturing districts of boyowa the same industrial products that they take with them to dobu, that is baskets, lime pots, lime spatulæ, etc. then they sell these to the dobuans in just the same manner and with the same profit as was described in chapter xv. as has been said there also, a man of sinaketa would never trade with his partner, but with some other dobuan. between the partners, only presents are exchanged. the gift offered by the dobuans to the sinaketans is called vata'i, and it differs only in name and not in its economic or sociological nature from the pari gift offered by the boyowans to their overseas partners. the talo'i, or farewell gift offered to them is as a rule more substantial than the vata'i. the dobuans, during their stay in sinaketa, lived on the beach or in their canoes (see plates liv and xx). skilfully rigged up with canopies of golden mats covering parts of the craft, their painted hulls glowing in the sun against the green water, some of the canoes presented the spectacle of some gorgeously fantastic pleasure boat (see plate lv). the natives waded about amongst them, making the lagoon lively with movement, talk and laughter. groups camped on the sea shore, boiling food in the large clay pots, smoking and chewing betel-nut. big parties of trobrianders walked among them, discreetly but curiously watching them. women were not very conspicuous in the whole proceedings, nor did i hear any scandal about intrigues, although such may have taken place. iii on the fourth day, conch shells were blown again in the morning, though on the last of the three days their sounds had almost died out. these were the signs of the departure. food and small presents were brought to the canoes as talo'i, and a few mwali were given at the last, for which the conch shells were blown. without any ceremony or farewell speeches, the dobuan canoes sailed away, one after the other. their journey home was also interrupted by a customary halt for fishing, but this time for fish, not shell. some of them stop on the beach of muwa, but the bulk camp on a beach called susuwa, half way between sinaketa and vakuta, where they catch the fish by means of a poisonous root, which they have brought for this purpose from home. this time, they remained three days in susuwa and muwa, and then sailed to vakuta to receive there talo'i. their further journey i could not trace step by step, but afterwards i heard that quickly, and without any accident, they had reached their homes. their tanarere on sarubwoyna beach--that is, the competitive display of the yield--gave more or less the following results: from sinaketa they received armshells. from vakuta they received armshells. the total therefore was . as there were about sixty canoes making the proper uvalaku from dobu, that is, not counting those from the amphletts and vakuta which joined on the way and appeared before sinaketa, there were at the outside some five hundred dobuan natives on that expedition. out of these, however, not more than half were grown-up, kula making men. so that, on the average, there were nearly thirteen armshells for every five men. some would not get more than one pair, some perhaps even none, whilst the headmen received large quantities. we shall follow in a later chapter the movements of some at least of those who had collected in sinaketa from the other districts, in connection with the kula. it did not take them more than a few days to disperse completely, and for the village to resume its ordinary aspect and routine. chapter xvii magic and the kula i in treating of the various customs and practices of the kula, i had at every step to enter into the description of magical rites and into the analysis of spells. this had to be done, first of all, because magic looms paramount in the natives' view of the kula. again, all magical formulæ disclose essentials of belief and illustrate typical ideas in a manner so thorough and telling that no other road could lead us as straight into the inner mind of the native. finally, there is a direct, ethnographic interest in knowing the details of magical performance, which has such an overweening influence over tribal life, and enters so deeply into the make-up of the natives' mentality. it is now necessary to complete our knowledge of magic and to focus all the dispersed data into one coherent picture. so far, the many scattered references and numerous concrete details have not furnished a general idea, of what magic means to the natives; how they imagine the working of the magical forces; what are their implied and expressed views on the nature of magical power. collecting all the material which has already been presented in the previous chapters, and supplementing it with native and ethnographic comments, we shall be able to arrive at a certain synthesis, respecting the kiriwinian theory of magic. all the data which have been so far mustered disclose the extreme importance of magic in the kula. but if it were a question of treating of any other aspect of the tribal life of these natives, it would also be found that, whenever they approach any concern of vital importance, they summon magic to their aid. it can be said without exaggeration that magic, according to their ideas, governs human destinies; that it supplies man with the power of mastering the forces of nature; and that it is his weapon and armour against the many dangers which crowd in upon him on every side. thus, in what is most essential to man, that is in his health and bodily welfare, he is but a plaything of the powers of sorcery, of evil spirits and of certain beings, controlled by black magic. death in almost all its forms is the result of one of these agencies. permanent ill-health and all kinds of acute sickness, in fact everything, except such easily explainable ailments as physical overstrain or slight colds, are attributed to magic. i have spoken (chapter ii) of the several ways in which the evil powers bring disease and death. the tauva'u, who bring epidemics and the tokway, who inflict shooting pains and minor ailments, are the only examples of non-human beings' exerting any direct influence on human destinies, and even the members of this restricted pantheon of demonology only occasionally descend among the mortals to put into action their potential powers. by far the deepest dread and most constant concern of the natives are with the bwaga'u, the entirely human sorcerers, who carry out their work exclusively by means of magic. second to them in the quantity of magical output and in the frequency of their exploits, are the mulukwausi, the flying witches, which have been described in detail in chapter xi. they are a good example of how every belief in a superior power is at the bottom a belief in magic. magic gives to these beings the capacity to destroy human life and to command other agents of destruction. magic also gives man the power and the means to defend himself, and if properly applied, to frustrate all the nefarious attempts of the mulukwausi. comparing the two agencies, it may be said that in every-day life, the sorcerer is by far the most feared and is most frequently believed to be at work; while the mulukwausi enter upon the scene at certain dramatic moments, such as the presence of death, a catastrophe on land, and more especially at sea; but then, they enter with even deadlier weapons than the bwaga'u. health, the normal state of human beings can, if once lost, be regained by magic and by magic only. there is no such thing as natural recovery, return to health being always due to the removal of the evil magic by means of magical counter-action. all those crises of life, which are associated with fear of danger, with the awakening of passions or of strong emotions, have also their magical accompaniment. the birth of a child is always ushered in by magic, in order to make the child prosper, and to neutralise the dangers and evil influences. there is no rite or magic at puberty; but then, with this people, puberty does not present any very definite crisis in the life of the individual, as their sexual life starts long before puberty arrives, and gradually shapes and develops as the organism matures. the passion of love, however, has a very elaborate magical counterpart, embodied in many rites and formulæ, to which a great importance is attached, and all success in sexual life is ascribed to it. the evil results of illicit love--that is love within the clan, which, by the way, is considered by these natives as the main class of sexual immorality--can also be counteracted by a special type of magic. the main social interests, ambition in gardening, ambition in successful kula, vanity and display of personal charms in dancing--all find their expression in magic. there is a form of beauty magic, performed ceremonially over the dancers, and there is also a kind of safety magic at dances, whose object is to prevent the evil magic of envious sorcerers. particular garden magic, performed by an individual over his crops and seeds, as well as the evil magic which he casts on the gardens of his rivals, express the private ambitions in gardening, as contrasted with the interests of the whole village, which are catered for by communal garden magic. natural forces of great importance to man, such as rain and sunshine, the appropriate alternative operation of which makes his crops thrive; or wind, which must be controlled for purposes of sailing and fishing, are also governed by magic. the magic of rain and sunshine can be used for good, as well as for nefarious purposes, and in this they have a special interest in the trobriands, because the most powerful system of this magic is in the hands of the paramount chiefs of kiriwina. by bringing about a prolonged drought, the chiefs of omarakana have always been able to express their general displeasure with their subjects, and thus enhance their wholesale power, independently of any other mechanism, which they might have used for forcing their will on private individuals or on whole communities. the basic, food-providing economic activities, which in the trobriands are mainly gardening and fishing, are also completely magic-ridden. the success of these pursuits is of course largely due to luck, chance or accident, and to the natives they require supernatural assistance. we had examples of economic magic in describing the construction of a canoe, and the fishing for kaloma shell. the communal garden-magic and the fishing magic of certain village communities show to a higher degree even than the cases described, the feature which we found so distinct in canoe magic, namely: that the rites and formulæ are not a mere appendage, running side by side with economic efforts, without exercising any influence over these. on the contrary, it may be said that a belief in magic is one of the main, psychological forces which allow for organisation and systemisation of economic effort in the trobriands. [ ] the capacity for art, as well as the inspiration in it, is also ascribed to the influence of magic. the passions of hatred, envy, and jealousy, besides finding their expression in the all powerful sorcery of the bwaga'u and mulukwausi, are also responsible for many forms of witchery, known by the generic term of bulubwalata. the classical forms of this magic have as their object the estrangement of the affections of a wife or a sweetheart, or the destruction of the domestic attachment of a pig. the pig is sent away into the bush, having been made to take a dislike to its master and to its domestic habits; the wife, though the spells used to estrange her are slightly different, can be made also to take a dislike to her domestic life, abandon her husband and return to her parents. there is a bulubwalata of gardens, of canoes, of kula, of kaloma, in fact of everything, and a good deal of beneficial magic is taken up with exorcising the results of bulubwalata. the list of magic is not quite exhausted yet. there is the magic of conditional curses, performed in order to guard property from possible harm, inflicted by others; there is war-magic; there is magic associated with taboos put on coco-nuts and betel-nuts, in order to make them grow and multiply; there is magic to avert thunder and resuscitate people who are struck by lightning; there is the magic of tooth-ache, and a magic to make food last a long time. all this shows the wide diffusion of magic, its extreme importance and also the fact that it is always strongest there, where vital interests are concerned; where violent passions or emotions are awakened; when mysterious forces are opposed to man's endeavours; and when he has to recognise that there is something which eludes his most careful calculations, his most conscientious preparations and efforts. ii let us now proceed to formulate some short statement of the essential conception of magic, as it is entertained by the natives. all statement of belief, found among human beings so widely different from us, is full of difficulties and pitfalls, which perhaps beset us most there, where we try to arrive at the very foundation of the belief--that is, at the most general ideas which underlie a series of practices and a body of traditions. in dealing with a native community at the stage of development which we find in the trobriands, we cannot expect to obtain a definite, precise and abstract statement from a philosopher, belonging to the community itself. the native takes his fundamental assumptions for granted, and if he reasons or inquires into matters of belief, it would be always only as regards details and concrete applications. any attempts on the part of the ethnographer to induce his informant to formulate such a general statement would have to be in the form of leading questions of the worst type because in these leading questions he would have to introduce words and concepts essentially foreign to the native. once the informant grasped their meaning, his outlook would be warped by our own ideas having been poured into it. thus the ethnographer must draw the generalisation for himself, must formulate the abstract statement without the direct help of a native informant. i am saying direct help because the generalisation must be entirely based on indirect data supplied by the natives. in the course of collecting information, of discussing formulæ and translating their text, a considerable number of opinions on matters of detail will be set forth by the natives. such spontaneous opinions, if placed in a correctly constructed mosaic, might almost of themselves give us a true picture, might almost cover the whole field of native belief. and then our task would only be to summarise this picture in an abstract formula. the ethnographer, however, possesses an even better supply of evidence from which to draw his conclusions. the objective items of culture, into which belief has crystallised in the form of tradition, myth, spell and rite are the most important source of knowledge. in them, we can face the same realities of belief as the native faces in his intimate intercourse with the magical, the same realities which he not only professes with his tongue, but lives through partly in imagination and partly in actual experience. an analysis of the contents of the spells, the study of the manner in which they are uttered; in which the concomitant rites are performed; the study of the natives' behaviour, of the actors as well as of the spectators; the knowledge of the social position and social functions, of the magical expert--all this reveals to us, not only the bare structure of their ideas on magic, but also the associated sentiments and emotions, and the nature of magic as a social force. an ethnographer who, from the study of such objective data, has been able to penetrate into the natives' attitude, to formulate a general theory of magic, can then test his conclusions by direct questionings. for he will be already in a position to use native terminology and to move along the lines of native thought, and in his questionings he will be able to accept the lead of his informant instead of misleading the latter and himself by leading questions. more especially in obtaining opinions of actual occurrences from the natives, he will not have to move in abstract generalities, but will be able to translate them into concrete applications and into the native modes of thought. in arriving at such general conclusions about vast aspects of primitive human thought and custom, the ethnographer's is a creative work, in so far as he brings to light phenomena of human nature which, in their entirety, had remained hidden even from those in whom they happened. it is creative in the same sense as is the construction of general principles of natural science, where objective laws of very wide application lie hidden till brought forth by the investigating human mind. in the same sense, however, as the principles of natural science are empirical, so are also the final generalisations of ethnographic sociology because, though expressly stated for the first time by the investigator, they are none the less objective realities of human thinking, feeling and behaviour. iii we can start from the question of how the natives imagine their magic to have originated. if we would ask even the most intelligent informant some such concretely framed questions as: "where has your magic been made? how do you imagine its invention?"--they would necessarily remain unanswered. not even a warped and half-suggested reply would be forthcoming. yet there is an answer to this question, or rather to its generalised equivalent. examining the mythology of one form of magic after the other, we find that there are in every one either explicitly stated or implied views about how magic has become known to man. as we register these views, compare them, and arrive at a generalisation, we easily see, why our imaginary question, put to the natives, would have to remain unanswered. for, according to native belief, embedded in all traditions and all institutions, magic is never conceived as having been made or invented. magic has been handed on as a thing which has always been there. it is conceived as an intrinsic ingredient of everything that vitally affects man. the words, by which a magician exercises his power over a thing or a process, are believed to be co-existent with them. the magical formula and its subject matter were born together. in some cases, tradition represents them literally as being 'born' by the same woman. thus, rain was brought forth by a woman of kasana'i, and the magic came with it, and has been handed on ever since in this woman's sub-clan. again, the mythical mother of the kultur-hero tudava gave birth, among other plants and animals, also to the kalala fish. the magic of this fish is also due to her. in the short myth about the origin of kayga'u magic--the one to protect drowning sailors from witches and other dangers--we saw that the mother, who gave birth to the tokulubweydoga dog, also handed the magic over to him. in all these cases, however, the myth does not point to these women's inventing or composing the magic; indeed, it is explicitly stated by some natives that the women had learned the magic from their matrilineal ancestors. in the last case, the woman is said in the myth to have known the magic by tradition. other myths are more rudimentary, yet, though less circumstantial about the origin of the magic, show us just as unmistakably that magic is a primeval thing, indeed, in the literal sense of the word, autochthonous. thus, the kula magic in gumasila came out of the rock of selawaya; the canoe magic out of the hole in the ground, brought by the men, who originally emerged with it; garden magic is always conceived as being carried from underground by the first ancestors, who emerged out of the original hole of that locality. several minor forms of magic of local currency, such as fish magic, practised in one village only, wind magic, etc., are also imagined to have been carried out of the ground. all the forms of sorcery have been handed over to people by non-human beings, who passed them on but did not create them. the bwaga'u sorcery is due to a crab, who gave it to a mythical personage, in whose dala (sub-clan) the magic was carried on and from it distributed all over the islands. the tokway (wood-sprites) have taught man certain forms of evil magic. there are no myths in kiriwina about the origin of flying witch magic. from other districts, however, i have obtained rudimentary information pointing to the fact that they were instructed in this magic by a mythical, malevolent being called taukuripokapoka, with whom even now some sort of relations are kept up, culminating in nocturnal meetings and sexual orgies which remind one very strongly of the walpurgisnacht. love magic, the magic of thunder and lightning, are accounted for by definite events. but in neither of them are we led to imagine that the formula is invented, in fact, there is a sort of petitio principii in all these myths, for on the one hand they set out to account for how magic came, and on the other, in all of them magic is represented as being there, ready made. but the petitio principii is due only to a false attitude of mind with which we approach these tales. because, to the native mind, they set out to tell, not how magic originated, but how magic was brought within the reach of one or other of the boyowan local groups or sub-clans. thus it may be said, in formulating a generalisation from all these data, that magic is never invented. in olden days, when mythical things happened, magic came from underground, or was given to a man by some non-human being, or was handed on to descendants by the original ancestress, who also brought forth the phenomenon governed by the magic. in actual cases of the present times and of the near-past generations whom the natives of to-day knew personally, the magic is given by one man to another, as a rule by the father to his son or by the maternal kinsman. but its very essence is the impossibility of its being manufactured or invented by man, its complete resistance to any change or modification by him. it has existed ever since the beginning of things; it creates, but is never created; it modifies, but must never be modified. it is now easy to see that no questions about the origins of magic, such as we formulated before, could have been asked of a native informant without distorting the evidence in the very act of questioning, while more general and quite abstract and colourless inquiries cannot be made intelligible to him. he has grown up into a world where certain processes, certain activities have their magic, which is as much an attribute of theirs' as anything else. some people have been traditionally instructed how this magic runs, and they know it; how men came by magic is told in numerous mythical narratives. that is the correct statement of the native point of view. once arrived at this conclusion inductively, we can of course, test our conclusions by direct questions, or by a leading question, for the matter of that. to the question: "where human beings found magic?" i obtained the following answer:-- "all magic, they found long ago in the nether world. we do not find ever a spell in a dream; should we say so, this would be a lie. the spirits never give us a spell. songs and dances they do give us, that is true, but no magic." this statement, expressing the belief in a very clear and direct manner, i had confirmed, reiterated with variations and amplifications, by ever so many informants. they all emphasise the fact that magic has its roots in tradition, that it is the most immutable and most valuable traditional item, that it cannot leak into human knowledge by any present human intercourse with spirits or with any non-human beings such as the tokway or tauva'u. the property of having been received from previous generations is so marked that any breach of continuity in this succession cannot be imagined, and any addition by an actual human being would make the magic spurious. at the same time, magic is conceived as something essentially human. it is not a force of nature, captured by man through some means and put to his service; it is essentially the assertion of man's intrinsic power over nature. in saying that, i, of course translate native belief into abstract terms, which they would not use themselves for its expression. none the less it is embodied in all their items of folk-lore and ways of using magic and thinking about it. in all the traditions, we find that magic is always in possession of man, or at least of anthropomorphic beings. it is carried out from underground by man. it is not conceived as having been there somewhere outside his knowledge and then captured. on the contrary, as we saw, often the very things which are governed by magic have been brought forth by man, as for instance rain, the kalala fish; or disease, created by the anthropomorphic crab. the close sociological association of magic with a given sub-clan emphasises this anthropocentric conception of magic. in the majority of cases indeed, magic refers to human activities or to the response of nature to human activities, rather than to natural forces alone. thus, in gardening and in fishing, it is the behaviour of plants and animals tended or pursued by man; in the canoe magic, in the carver's magic, the object is a human-made thing; in the kula, in love magic, in many forms of food magic, it is human nature on to which the force is directed. disease is not conceived as an extraneous force, coming from outside and settling on the man, it is directly a man-made, sorcerer-made something. we may, therefore, amplify the above given definition, and say that magic is a traditionally handed on power of man over his own creations, over things once brought forth by man, or over responses of nature to his activities. there is one more important aspect of the question of which i have spoken already--the relation of magic to myth. it has been stated in chapter xii, that myth moves in the realm of the supernatural, or better, super-normal, and that magic bridges over the gap between that and present-day reality. now this statement acquires a new importance; magic appears to us as the essence of traditional continuity with ancestral times. not only, as i have emphasised in this chapter, is it never conceived as a new invention, but it is identical in its nature with the supernatural power which forms the atmosphere of mythical events. some of this power may have been lost on its way down to our times--mythical stories relate how it has been lost; but never has anything been added to it. there is nothing in it now which has not been in it in the ancient, hoary times of myth. in this the natives have a definitely regressive view of the relation between now and before; in this they have their counterpart to a golden age, and to a garden of eden of sorts. thus we fall back upon the recognition of the same truth, whether we approach the matter by looking for beginnings of magic, or by studying the relations between the present and the mythical reality. magic is a thing never invented and never tampered with, by man or any other agency. this, of course, means that it is so in native belief. it hardly needs explicitly stating that in reality magic must constantly change. the memory of men is not such, that it could hand over verbally exactly what it had received, and, like any other item of traditional lore, a magical formula is in reality constantly being re-shaped as it passes from one generation to another, and even within the mind of the same man. as a matter of fact, even from the material collected by me in the trobriands, it can be unmistakably recognised that certain formulæ are much older than others, and indeed, that some parts of spells, and even some whole spells, are of recent invention. here i cannot do more than refer to this interesting subject, which, for its full development, needs a good deal of linguistic analysis, as well as of other forms of "higher criticism." all these considerations have brought us very near to the essential problem: what does magic really mean to the natives? so far, we have seen that it is an inherent power of man over those things which vitally affect him, a power always handed over through tradition. [ ] about the beginnings of magic they know as little, and are occupied as little as about the beginnings of the world. their myths describe the origin of social institutions and the peopling of the world by men. but the world is taken for granted, and so is the magic. they ask no questions about magiogony any more than they do about cosmogony. iv so far we have not gone beyond the examination of myths and of what we can learn from them about the nature of magic. to gain a deeper insight into this subject, we must study more closely the concrete data about magical performance. even in the foregoing chapters a sufficient material has been collected to allow of correct inferences, and i shall only here and there have to allude to other forms of magic, besides that of canoe, kula and sailing. i have spoken so far about "magic" in a wholesale manner, as if it were all of one piece. as a matter of fact, magic all the world over, however rudimentary or developed it might be, presents three essential aspects. in its performance there enter always some words spoken or chanted, some actions carried out, and there are always the minister or ministers of the ceremony. in analysing the concrete details of magical performances, therefore, we have to distinguish the formula, the rite, and the condition of the performer. these three factors stand out quite clearly and definitely in the trobriand magic, whether we examine the facts themselves or the natives' way of looking at them. it may be said at once that in this society the relative importance of the three factors is not quite the same. the spell is by far the most important constituent of magic. in their linguistic use, although these natives have a special word, yopa, they very often use the word magic, megwa, to describe a spell. the spell is the part of the magic which is kept secret and known only to the esoteric circle of practitioners. when a magic is handed over, whether by purchase, gift, or inheritance, only the spell has to be taught to the new recipient, and as already once said before, it is usually taught in instalments, while the payment is received in that manner. when one speaks about magical knowledge, or in inquiries whether an individual knows some magic, this invariably refers to the formula, for the nature of the rite is always quite public property. even from the examples given in this book, it can be seen how simple are the rites and how elaborate often the formulæ. to direct questions on the subject, the natives always reply that the spell is the more important part. the question: "where is the real strength of magic?" would receive the reply: "in the spell." the condition of the magician is, like the rite, essential to the performance of the magic, but it also is considered by the natives as subservient to the spell. all this must be made clearer by the examination of actual facts. first of all, let us examine the relation between spell and rite; and to this purpose it will be best to group the various magical performances into several classes according to the complexity of the concomitant rite. we shall begin with the simplest rites. spells uttered directly without concomitant rite.--we had one or two examples of such magic where the performer simply utters a formula directly into space. for example, the communal magician of the kaloma (spondylus shell) fishing performs the first act by walking on the beach and reciting his spell towards the sea. in the moment of actual shipwreck, before abandoning the canoe, the toliwaga launches his last kayga'u directly into the elements. again, he lets his voice float over the waters, when invoking the marvellous fish, who will bring the drowning party to some friendly shore. the final spell of the kula, by which the approaching canoe 'shakes the mountain,' chanted by a trio of magical reciters, is thrown directly towards the koya. the clearing of the sea in the kaloma fishing is also done this way, and many more examples could be adduced from garden magic, wind magic, and other classes not described in this book. the natives have a special expression for such acts; they say that the formula is recited 'by the mouth only,' 'o wadola wala.' this form of magic with such a rudimentary rite is, however, relatively uncommon. although one could say that there is no rite at all in such cases, for the magician does not manipulate anything or perform any action beyond speaking, yet from another point of view, the whole performance is ritual in so far as he has always to cast his voice towards the element, or being, which he addresses. indeed here, as in all other cases, the voice of the reciter has to be somehow or other conveyed to the object which he wishes to becharm. we see, moreover, that in all these instances, the nature of this object is such that it can be directly reached by the voice, whilst on the other hand, there would be some difficulty in applying any substance or performing any action over, let us say, wind, or a shell growing on a distant reef or the koya (mountain). spells accompanied by simple rites of impregnation.--a large number of the cases described in this book falls under this heading. we saw quite at the beginning (chapter v, division ii and iii) how the magician charms the blade of his adze, the ropes by which the canoe had been pulled, the lashing creeper, the caulking, and the paint of the canoe. among the kula rites, the initial magic over the aromatic mint, over the lilava (magical bundle) over the gebobo (central part of canoe); all the beauty magic on sarubwoyna beach, over coco-nuts, over the facial paints as well as the conch shell magic, belong here. in all these performances an object is put well within reach of the voice, and in an appropriate position. often, the object is placed within a receptacle or covering so that the voice enters an enclosed space and is concentrated upon the substance to be charmed. thus, when the lilava is chanted over, the voice is cast into the mats, which are afterwards carefully wrapped up. the aromatic mint is charmed, lying at the bottom of a bag made of baked and thus toughened banana leaf, which afterwards is carefully folded together and bound with string. again, the adze blade is first of all half wrapped up in a banana leaf, and the voice enters the blade and the inside of the leaf, which subsequently is folded over and tied over the blade. in the magic of the conch shell, i drew attention to the fact that immediately after the charm has been spoken, both holes of the instrument are carefully stuffed up. in all cases where an object is going to be used immediately, not so many precautions are taken, but always, without any exception, the mouth is put quite close to the object medicated (see plate lvii) and wherever possible, this latter is placed in some sort of cavity, such as a folded piece of leaf, or even the two palms of the hand put together. all this shows that it is essential to a correct performance of magic, that the voice should be conveyed directly to the substance, if possible enclosed and condensed round it, and then, imprisoned permanently there by means of some wrapping. thus, in this type of rite, the action serves mainly to convey carefully and to retain the spell round the object. it may be noted that in almost all cases described, the substance harmed in the rite is not the final aim of the magic, but forms only a constituent part of the object in view or is an accessory of it, or an instrument used in its making. thus the wayugo creeper, the kaybasi (caulking), the paint, the prow-boards, all these are constituent parts of the canoe, and the magic performed over them does not aim at giving them any qualities, but aims at imparting swiftness and lightness to the canoe of which they are parts only. again, the herbs and the colours of the coco-nut ointment medicated in the kula are accessories of the final end of this magic, that is, of the personal beauty and attractiveness of the performer. the adze, the breaking stone in kaloma magic are implements used in obtaining the object, towards which the magic is directed. there are only a few instances in which the simple rite of impregnation is directly performed on the object in view. if we compare this type of rite with the one of the previous category, we see that the difference lies mainly in the size of the object. if you want to cast a charm over a mountain, over a reef, or over the wind, you cannot put your object into a little bag made of banana leaf. nor can you put there the human mind. and as a rule, the final objects of magical rites are not small things, which could be easily handled. in the magic described in this book, there is, i think, not one single instance, in which the substance handled in the rite and impregnated by condensing the charm upon it artificially, is the final object of the spell. in war magic the points of the spears are made effective and the shields are made spear-proof (see plate lviii) by magic uttered over them. in private garden magic, the planted yams are made fruitful by a spell, and a few more examples could be adduced from other types of magic. spells accompanied by a rite of transference.--when we compare the rite of medicating the adze blade with the rite of medicating some dried grass, with which the canoe is afterwards beaten, we see that, in the second case, the magic is uttered over a something, which has no intrinsic connection with the final object of the magic, that is, with the canoe. it is neither to become a part of it, nor to be used as an implement in its manufacture. we have here the introduction for purposes of the rite, of a special medium, used to absorb the magical force, and to transfer it to the final object. we can therefore call rites where such mediums are used rites of transference. when a stick is charmed to be used afterwards for the magical knocking out of a canoe; or a mussel-shell, with which the canoe will be scraped; or a piece of coco-nut husk, which will be thrown into the water to remove the heaviness of the canoe; or a pandanus streamer, which will give it swiftness, there is introduced into every one of these rites a substance which has to play a magical rôle only. the rite, therefore, is not the simple charming of a part or of a constructive implement, which will enter into the composition or be used in the making of an object. the rite here is more autonomous, possesses more of its own significance. the beating of a canoe with two bunches of grass, one after the other, in order first to extract its heaviness and then impart to it lightness, has a meaning parallel to the spell but independent of it. so has also the throwing down of the coco-nut husk. the flutter of the pandanus streamers has direct association with speed, as the natives explicitly state. as the bisila streamers flutter in the wind, so should the canoe and the sail shake with the swiftness of their going. in the case of the ginger, which is spat over the dobuans feigning hostility, the inherent quality of the substance, which our pharmacopæas describe as a stimulant, makes the meaning of the rite plain. we can easily see that some of the rites are rather more creative than others. that is, the very act performed produces, according to native ideas, a more definite effect than in others. so it is with the spitting of the ginger, and still more directly the spilling of the lime, in order to produce a mist, and shut the eyes of the mulukwausi. these two, for instance, are more creative than the hanging up of the pandanus streamer. spells accompanied by offerings and invocations.--in the very first rite described in this book, we saw an offering being laid before, and an invocation being addressed to the wood-sprite, tokway. there are a number of rites, accompanied by offerings given to ancestral spirits, whose participation in the offering is solicited. such rites are performed in garden magic (see plate lix) in fishing magic, and in weather magic. it must, however, be said at once that there is no worship and no sacrificial offering involved in these rites, that is, not of the usual description, because the spirits are not imagined to serve as agents of the magician, in carrying out the bidding of his magic. we shall return to the subject presently. here it will be enough to notice that the only instance of such a spell we have come across--that is, the invocation of the tokway--has its concomitant offering made only as a sort of compensation for having chased him out, or as a means of persuading him to go. probably it is the first rather than the second, because the tokway has no free choice left, after he has been exorcised. he must obey the bidding of the magician. this survey shows clearly that the virtue, the force, the effective principle of magic lies in the spell. we saw that in many cases, the spell is quite sufficient, if directly breathed upon the object. again, in what may be called the prevalent type of ritual, the action which accompanies the utterance of the formula serves only to direct and condense the spell upon the object. in all such cases the rite lacks all independent significance, all autonomous function. in some cases, the rite introduces a substance which is used for magical purposes only. as a rule, the substance then intensifies, through a parallel action, the meaning of the spell. on the whole, it may be said that the main creative power of magic resides in the formula; that the rite serves to convey, or transfer it to the object, in certain cases emphasising the meaning of the spell through the nature of the transferring medium, as well as through the manner in which it is finally applied. it is hardly necessary to state that in the trobriand magic, there are no rites performed without the spell. v it is also evident in studying the manner in which the force of the spell is conveyed to the object, that the voice of the reciter transfers the virtue. indeed, as has been repeatedly pointed out, in quoting the formulæ, and as we shall have to discuss later still, the magical words are, so to speak, rubbed in by constant repetition to the substance. to understand this better we must inquire into the natives' conceptions of psycho-physiology. the mind, nanola, by which term intelligence, power of discrimination, capacity for learning magical formulæ, and all forms of non-manual skill are described, as well as moral qualities, resides somewhere in the larynx. the natives will always point to the organs of speech, where the nanola resides. the man who cannot speak through any defect of his organs, is identified in name (tonagowa) and in treatment with all those mentally deficient. the memory, however, the store of formulæ and traditions learned by heart, resides deeper, in the belly. a man will be said to have a good nanola, when he can acquire many formulæ, but though they enter through the larynx, naturally, as he learns them, repeating word for word, he has to stow them away in a bigger and more commodious receptacle; they sink down right to the bottom of his abdomen. i made the discovery of this anatomical truth, while collecting war magic, from kanukubusi, the last office holder of the long succession of war magicians to the chiefs of omarakana. kanukubusi is an old man, with a big head, a broad, high forehead, a stumpy nose, and no chin, the meekest and most docile of my informants, with a permanently puzzled and frightened expression on his honest countenance (see plate lviii). i found this mild old man very trustworthy and accurate, an excellent informant indeed, within the narrow sphere of his speciality, which he and his predecessors had used to make 'anger flare up in the nanola' of omarakana men, to make the enemy fly in terror, pursued and slaughtered by the victorious warriors. i paid him well for the few formulæ he gave me, and inquired at the end of our first session, whether he had any more magic to produce. with pride, he struck his belly several times, and answered: "plenty more lies there!" i at once checked his statement by an independent informant, and learned that everybody carries his magic in his abdomen. there exist also certain ideas about stratification of magic, namely, that certain forms of magic have to be learnt first, so that they sink down, while others come on top. but these ideas are vague and contradictory, whereas the main idea, that magic rests in the belly, is clear and definite. this fact gives us a new insight into native ideas about magic. the force of magic, crystallised in the magical formulæ, is carried by men of the present generation in their bodies. they are the depositories of this most valuable legacy of the past. the force of magic does not reside in the things; it resides within man and can escape only through his voice. vi so far, we only spoke of the relation between spell and rite. the last point, however, brings us to the problem of the condition of the performer. his belly is a tabernacle of magical force. such a privilege carries its dangers and obligations. it is clear that you cannot stuff foreign matter indiscriminately into a place, where extremely valuable possessions are kept. food restrictions, therefore, become imperative. many of them are directly determined by the contents of the spell. we saw some examples of this, as when red fish, invoked in magic, is tabooed to the performer; or the dog, spoken about in the ka'ubanai spell, may not be heard howling while the man eats. in other cases, the object which is the aim of the magic, cannot be partaken by the magician. this is the rule in the case of shark fishing, kalala fishing, and other forms of fishing magic. the garden magician is also debarred from partaking of new crops, up to a certain period. there is hardly any clear doctrine, as to why things mentioned in magical formulæ, whether they are the aims of the magic or only cooperating factors, should not be eaten. there is just the general apprehension that the formula would be damaged by it. there are other taboos, binding the magician, some of them permanent, some of them temporary, during the season of his magical performance. we saw some permanent ones, as in the case of the man who knows kayga'u magic, and is not allowed to eat while children make noises. the temporary ones, such as the sexual abstinence during the first rites of the kula, could be supplemented by numerous examples from other forms of magic. thus, in order to bring about rain, the magician paints himself black and has to remain unwashed and unkempt for some time. the shark magician has to keep his house open, to remove his pubic leaf and to sit with his legs apart, while the fishing and the magic last, "so that the shark's mouth might remain gaping." but we cannot enter too much into enumeration of these taboos and observances, and have only to make it clear that the proper behaviour of the magician is one of the essentials of magic, and that in many cases this behaviour is dictated by the contents of the spell. the taboos and observances are not the only conditions which a man must fulfil in order to carry out certain forms of magic. in many cases the most important condition is his membership in a social group, for many forms of magic are strictly local, and must be performed by one, who is the descendant of the mythical, original owner of the magic. thus in every case of garden magic, a magic which to the natives ranks first among all the other types of beneficent magic, the performer must be genealogically related to the first ancestor, who locally emerged from the hole. certain exceptions to this rule are to be found only in cases where a family of high rank has come and usurped the headmanship of the group, but these exceptions are rare. in the case of the several systems of local fishing magic, the office of magician is hereditary, and associated with the locality. the important rain and sun magic which have been 'born' in kasana'i, can only be performed by the chiefs of that spot, who have usurped this important privilege from the original local headman. the succession, is of course, always matrilineal. a man may make a gift of such a magic to his son, but this latter may be obliged to relinquish the privilege at his father's death, and he never will be allowed to hand it over to his son, unless this latter belongs again to the local group, through cross-cousin marriage. even in transactions where magic is sold or given away from one clan to another, the prestige of certain local groups as main specialists and experts in a branch of magic still remain. for instance, the black magic, though practised all over the place and no more localised, is still believed to be best known in the villages of ba'u and bwoytalu, where the original crab fell down from the skies, and brought with him the magic. the kula magic is also spread over the whole district, yet it is still associated with definite localities. to summarise these sociological observations, we may say that, where the local character of magic is still maintained, the magician has to belong to the dala (sub-clan or local group) of the mythical ancestor. in all other cases, the local character of magic is still recognised, even though it does not influence the sociology of the magician. the traditional character of magic and the magical filiation of the performer find their expression in another important feature of the spells. in some of them, as we have seen, references to mythical events are made, or names of mythical ancestors are uttered. even more often, we find a whole list of names, beginning with the mythical founder of the magic, and ending with the name of the immediate predecessor, that is, of the man from whom the magic was obtained by the actual performer. such a list links up the present magician by a sort of magical pedigree with all those, who had previously been using this formula. in other formulæ again, the magician identifies himself with some mythical individual, and utters the latter's name in the first person. thus, in the spell uttered whilst plucking the mint plant, we found the phrase: "i, kwoyregu, with my father, we cut the sulumwoya of laba'i." both the actual genealogical descent of the magician from the mythical ancestors, and the magical filiation expressed in the formulæ show again the paramount importance of tradition, in this case acting on the sociological determination of the performer. he is placed in a definite social group of those, who by birth, or what could be called 'magical adoption', have had the right of performing this magic. in the very act of uttering the spell, the magician bears testimony to his indebtedness to the past by the enumeration of magical names, and by references to myth and mythical events. both the sociological restrictions, wherever they still exist, and the magical filiation confirm once more the dependence of magic on tradition. on the other hand, both show, as also do the taboos, that the obligations imposed on the magician and the conditions he has to fulfil, are largely derived from the spell. vii closely connected with the questions discussed in the preceding division, is the subject of the systems of magic and the distinction between 'systematic' and 'independent' magical rites and formulæ. as we saw in the beginning of this chapter, the whole body of magic naturally falls into several big divisions, each of them corresponding to a department of nature, such as wind or weather; to some activity of man, such as gardening, fishing, hunting or warfare; or to some real or imaginary force, such as artistic inspiration, witchcraft, personal charm or prowess. there is, however, an important distinction to be made within each such division of magic; some of the rites and spells are isolated and independent, they can be used by themselves, whenever the need arises. such are almost all the incantations of wind magic; some spells of individual garden magic; formulæ against toothache, and minor ailments; some spells of hunting and food collecting; a few rites of love magic and of the magic of carving. when a man, for instance, paddles along the lagoon in his canoe and an unfavourable wind sets in, he will utter a spell to make it abate and change. the same spell would be recited in the village, when there arises a wind so strong as to be dangerous. the incantation is a free, individual act, which may be performed and is performed in any of the circumstances which require it. it is quite another matter with the spells belonging to what i have called here systematic magic. such magic consists of a connected and consecutive body of incantations and concomitant rites, no one of which can be torn out of its sequence and performed by itself. they have to be carried out one after the other in a determined order, and the more important of them, at least, can never be omitted, once the series has been started. such a series is always closely connected with some activity, such as the building of a canoe or an overseas kula voyage, a fishing expedition or the making and harvesting of a garden. it will not be difficult for us to realise the nature of systematic magic, for in this book almost all the rites and spells described belong to this class. in general, in the trobriands, the independent uncorrelated rites and formulæ are quite an insignificant minority, both in number and in importance. let us consider one of the forms of systematic magic previously described, whether canoe magic or that of the kula, whether the kayga'u formulæ, or the magical ritual of kaloma fishing. the first general fact to be noted here is, that we are in the presence of a type of enterprise or activity, which is never embarked upon without magic. no canoe will be built, no uvalaku started, no kaloma fished, without its magic ceremonial. this ceremonial will be scrupulously observed in its main features, that is, some of the most important formulæ will never be omitted, as some minor ones might be, a fact which has been previously noted. the association between the practical activity and its magical concomitant is very intimate. the stages and acts of the first, and the rites and spells of the latter, correspond to each other one by one. certain rites have to be done in order to inaugurate certain activities; others have to be performed at the end of the practical work; others again are part and parcel of the activity. but each of the rites and spells is to the native mind, quite as indispensable for the success of the enterprise, as is the practical activity. thus, the tokway has to be expelled, or the tree would be entirely unsuitable for a canoe; the adze, the lashing creeper, the caulking and the paint have to be charmed, or else the canoe would be heavy and unwieldy, and such an omission might even prove dangerous to life. going mentally over the various cases quoted in the previous chapters, it can be easily seen, how this intimate association between enterprise and magic imparts to systematic magic its specific character. the consecutive progress of work and of magic are inseparable, just because, according to native ideas, work needs magic, and magic has only meaning as an indispensable ingredient of work. both work and magic are directed towards the same aim; to construct a swift and a stable canoe; to obtain a good kula yield; to insure safety from drowning and so on. thus we see that systematic magic consists in a body of rites and spells associated with one enterprise, directed towards one aim, and progressing in a consecutive series of performances which have to be carried out in their proper place. the point--the proper understanding of what is meant by systematic magic--is of the greatest theoretical importance because it reveals the nature of the relation between magical and practical activities, and shows how deeply the two are connected with one another. it is one of these points, also, which cannot be properly explained and grasped without the help of a chart. in the appended "table of kula magic and of the corresponding activities," i have prepared such a chart, in which has been summarised the substance of several of the foregoing chapters. the table allows of a rapid survey of the consecutive activities of the kula in their relation to magic, beginning with the first act of canoe-building and finishing with the return home. it shows the salient features of systematic magic in general, and of the mwasila and canoe magic in particular. it shows the relation between magical, ritual and practical activities, the correlated sequence of the two, their rolling off, stage after stage, and side by side, towards one central aim--a successful kula. the table thus serves to illustrate the meaning of the expression 'systematic magic,' and it provides a firm outline of the essentials, magical, ceremonial and practical, of the kula. table of kula magic and of the corresponding activities i--first stage of canoe-building (chapter v, division ii) season and place activity magic approximate duration beginning: raybwag. felling of inaugurated the vabusi june--august. tree, (done by tokway by the (offering and builder and spell) aiming helpers); at the expulsion of the wood-sprite from the tree (performed by owner or builder). immediately same trimming of no magic. afterwards. place. the log-canoe (done by builder with helpers). a few days road. pulling the helped out double rite of later. log (done by by lightness all (kaymomwa'u villagers); and kaygagabile). on morning main the log is until the magical after arrival place in left as it act at village. the is; (kapitunena village. duhu) ceremonially inaugurating the work over the canoe. evening of main working out no magic the same day. place in of the accompanying the outside of it. village. the log. several days main scooping out inaugurated ligogu spell, or weeks place. of the by over the following. inside of havilali, the the canoe; adze with the moveable handle. towards the in the other parts no magic. end of the village of canoe foregoing before made ready period. builder's by builder house. and helpers. after all concluding work is over. rite: kapitunena nanola waga. all the magic of this stage is canoe magic. it is performed only when a new canoe is built and not when an old one is renovated. the spells are uttered by the builder and not by the owner, except the first one. work at this stage is done by one man mainly, the builder and carver, with the help of a few men; except for the pulling of the log, in which many men assist. ii--the second stage of canoe building (chapter v, division iii) time place activity magic first day on the fixing the inaugurated katuliliva of work. sea-front prow-boards; by tabuyo rite, of a performed over lagoon the ornamental village, prow-boards by or on a the toliwaga. it beach of belongs to the one of mwasila (kula the magic). eastern villages. the inaugurated vakakaya rite. a following by magical, activities ceremonial are cleansing of the canoe, performed by the owner or builder to remove all evil influence and thus to make the canoe fast. (at times, lashing of associated the wayugo spell the lashing the canoe; with (lashing cannot be creeper) rite; done in one the most day and has important of the to be magical continued performances in into the second another stage. done by session.) builder or owner to make canoe swifter and stronger. second on the caulking of associated kaybasi sitting: sea-front the canoe; with (caulking) during this of a magic; spell the lagoon uttered over caulking is village caulking by done and or on a builder or owner the three beach of to make canoe exorcisms one of safe. performed the vakasulu, an afterwards. eastern exorcism. villages. vaguri, an exorcism. kaytapena waga, an exorcism. painting of associated magic of; the canoe; with kayhoulo (black paint) malakava (red paint). pwaka (white paint). iii--the ceremonial launching of a canoe (chapter vi, division i) activity magic the launching and inaugurated by kaytalula wadola waga rite, trial run belonging to the mwasila cycle of magic. after this, there comes the interval, filled out by the kabigidoya (ceremonial visiting,) by the preliminary trade and other preparations for the expedition overseas. iv--the magic during, and preparations before the departure (chapter vii) time: some three to seven days before setting sail. activity magic preparing the canoe inaugurated yawarapu rite over the coco-palm for sailing (placing by leaves, done by the toliwaga to of the mats on the ensure success in the kula. platform, and of the frames in the body); kayikuna sulumwoya rite over the aromatic mint. kaymwaloyo rite over the mint boiled in coco-nut oil, performed by the toliwaga. packing of the trade associated gebobo rite (called also: kipwo'i goods; with sikwabu), made over four coco-nuts by a friend or relative in law of the toliwaga, to make all the food last (the spell expresses only the desire for a good kula.) all this magic belongs to the mwasila, and it has to be performed by the toliwaga, with the exception of the last spell. v--canoe magic, performed at the final start on overseas voyage (chapter viii, division iii) the series of rites starts at the moment when the canoes are ready to set sail on the long voyage on pilolu. they are not associated with a progressive series of acts; they all refer to one aim: canoe speed and reliability. they are all performed by the toliwaga. activity: overseas sailing, kadumiyala, ritual rubbing or cleansing inaugurated by a series of of the canoe with leaves charmed over. magical rites. time: morning of the second bisila magic; pandanus streamers, day of the expedition. previously chanted over are tied to the mast and rigging. kayikunaveva; swaying the sheet rope uttering an incantation. vabusi momwa'u; "expelling the heaviness" out of a canoe by means of a place: the beach of muwa. stale potato. aim of magic: imparting of speed to canoe. bisiboda patile; a rite of evil magic performer of the rites: the to make other canoes slow and thus toliwaga. achieve relative speed. vi--the mwasila, performed on arrival at the final destination (a) beauty magic (chapter xiii, division i) activity: washing, anointing and kaykakaya--ritual washing and painting. rubbing with charmed leaves. luya (coco-nut) spell--over the scraped coco-nut used for anointing. sinata (comb) spell--over the place: the beach, on or near which comb. the party rest before starting on the last stage (on the way to dobu; sayyaku--aromatic black paint. sarubwoyna beach. on the way to sinaketa: kaykuyawa). bowa--ordinary charcoal blacking. performers: the spells are uttered usually by the toliwaga, sometimes talo--red paint of crushed by an elder member of the crew. areca-nut. (b) magic of the final approach (chapter xiii, division ii) activity: the fleet are paddling ta'uya--the ritual blowing of the (on the approach to dobu) or conch shell, which has been punting (to sinaketa) in a body. charmed over before. kayihuna-tabuyo--the swaying of the front prow-board while the spell is being uttered. performers: in each canoe, kavalikuliku--the spell by the simultaneously, the toliwaga and toliwaga. two members of the crew. aim: to "shake the mountain," to kaytavilena mwoynawaga--the produce an impression on the incantation uttered at the stern partners awaiting on the beach. towards the koya. (c) magic of safety (chapter xiii, division iii) activity magic entering the dobuan village ka'ubana'i, charm uttered over (this magic is performed only ginger, which is then ritually spat when boyowans come to the over the dobuan village and the koya). partners, and makes their hearts soft. (d) magic of persuasion (chapter xiv, division iii) activity magic the wooing in kula (wawoyla) of kwoygapani--a spell uttered over a the of the overseas partner by piece of areca-nut, given the visitor. subsequently to the partner. vii--a canoe spell, uttered on the departure home (chapter xiv, division iii) activity magic loading of the canoe with the its gifts kaylupa--a spell to make the received from overseas partners, with canoe lighter, to "lift" it the trade gain, and with the provisions out of the water. for the home journey. within each department of systematic magic, there are again various systems of magic. thus we saw that, although the type of rite and formula is the same in all villages, the actual details, let us say, of the wayugo magic, are not identical, but vary according to the system with which a given reciter is acquainted. the differences are, as a rule, less pronounced in the rites, which are generally very simple in the trobriand magic, and are identical in all the systems, but the formulæ differ completely in their wording. thus, in the wayugo magic (chapter v, division iii) we found only a slight difference in the rite, but one or two wayugo spells, which i have also recorded, differ essentially from the one given in the text. each system of magic has a more or less developed mythological pedigree, and in connection with it a local character, a point which has been elaborated in the previous division. the wayugo spell given in chapter v, and all the spells of canoe-building quoted in this book belong to the kaykudayuri system of canoe magic. this system is believed to have been known and recited by the mythical builder of the flying canoe, and to have been handed down to his descendants, that is, as we know, in an incomplete form. as has been said in the previous division, the knowledge and the use of this magic and of other systems does not abide strictly within the original clan, but it spreads outside of it, and it becomes known to many people who are connected with the original owner by a sort of magical filiation. according to native belief, all these people know identical formulæ. in fact, in the course of years and of repeated transmission, considerable differences have been introduced, and nowadays many of the 'real kudayuri' spells differ from one another completely. a system of magic is therefore a number of magical formulæ, forming one consecutive series. the main system of canoe magic is that of the kaykudayuri, which is associated with the place of the same name in kitava. this system comprises the whole series of canoe-building spells, from the expelling of the tokway to the final exorcisms. another comprehensive system is called kaykapayouko, and is localised in the island of kayleula. an important system called ilumte'ulo is nowadays claimed by sinaketa, but probably hails from dobu. the mythological data of some of these systems are not known to me, and some of them seem to be exceedingly rudimentary, not going beyond the assertion that such and such a system originated at such and such a place, and was originally the property of such and such a clan. of the systems of mwasila, the best known in south boyowa is that called monikiniki, to which belong the majority of the formulæ here quoted. this system is sometimes loosely associated with the myth of tokosikuna, who is sometimes said to have been the original owner of the system. according to another version, monikiniki is the name of the original owner. the dobuan mwasila is called kasabwaybwayreta, and is ascribed to that hero. from muyuwa, hails the momroveta system of kula magic, while in kiriwina the system of monikiniki is usually recited, and only a few formulæ are inserted into it, belonging to a local magic, called kwoygapani (a name not to be confused with the name in a formula quoted in chapter xiv). in the light of these remarks, the many references to 'magical systems' given in the text, will become clear, so there is no need to add more here. viii we saw before in the chapter on mythology that magic bridges over the cleavage between the super-normal world of myth and the normal, ordinary happenings of to-day. but then, this bridge itself must necessarily touch the super-normal, it must lead into that domain. magic surely, therefore, must partake of the supernatural character? there is no doubt that it is so. the effects of magic, although constantly witnessed, and although considered as a fundamental fact, are regarded as something distinctly different from the effects of other human activities. the natives realise quite well that the speed and buoyancy of a canoe are due to the knowledge and work of the constructor; they are well acquainted with the properties of good material and of good craftsmanship. yet the magic of swiftness adds something more to even the best constructed canoe. this superadded quality is regarded very much like the properties of the mythical canoe which made it fly through the air, though in the present day canoes these properties have dwindled down to mere surpassing speed. the language of spells expresses this belief through the constant allusions to myth, similes in which the present canoe is invited to imitate the mythical one. in the explicit comments on the kudayuri myth, the natives also state definitely that the prodigious speed which well-charmed canoes develop is the legacy and counterpart of the old flying speed. thus the effects of magic are something superadded to all the other effects produced by human effort and by natural qualities. the same is to be found in love magic. the importance of a fine face and figure, of ornaments, decorations and nice scents, is well recognised as being of attractive value, yet almost every man ascribes his success to the perfection of his love magic. the force of magic is considered as something independent of, and surpassing even, the power of all other personal charms. a statement very often met with expresses this quite well: "look, i am not good looking, yet so many girls want me. the reason of that is that i have good magic." in garden magic, soil, rain, proper work, are given their full due. none the less, no one would dream of making a garden without the full magical performance being done over it. garden magic is thought to make just this difference, which a man hopes for from 'chance,' or 'good luck,' when he sees everybody round him working as hard as he can, and in all other respects under similar conditions to himself. so we see that, in all these cases, magical influence runs parallel to and independently of the effects of human work and natural conditions. it produces these differences and those unexpected results, which cannot be explained by any of the other factors. so far, we see that magic represents, so to speak, a different sort of reality. when i call this different sort 'super-natural' or 'super-normal,' one of the criteria which i use here lies in the emotional reaction of the natives. this, of course, is most pronounced in the case of evil magic. the sorcerer is not only feared because of his bad intentions. he is also feared as ghosts are feared by us, as an uncanny manifestation. one is afraid of meeting him in the dark, not so much because he might do any harm, but because his appearance is dreadful and because he has at his bidding all sorts of powers and faculties which are denied to those not versed in black magic. his sweat glows, night birds run with him to give him warning; he can become invisible at will and produce paralysing fear in those he meets. in short, the same hysterical dread, associated amongst ourselves with the idea of haunted places, is produced by the sorcerers in the minds of the natives. and it must be added that the natives have no such emotion of dread at all with regard to the spirits of the departed. the horror which they have of the bwaga'u is even stronger in the case of the mulukwausi, to whom all sorts of most uncanny properties are attributed. their ghoulish feasting on corpses, their capacity of flying, of making themselves invisible, of changing into night birds, all this inspires the natives with extreme terror. the other magicians and their art do not inspire such strong emotions in the natives, and of course in any case the emotion would not be that of dread. there is a very great value and attachment to systems of local magic, and their effects are distinctly considered as an asset for a community. each form of magic also has its associated magical portent, kariyala. when a magic formula is spoken, a violent natural upheaval will take place. for example, when garden magic is performed, there will be thunder and lightning; with certain forms of kula magic, a rainbow will appear in the skies. others will produce shower clouds. the portent of a mild storm, accompanying the opening of the magical bundle (lilava) has already been quoted. the kayga'u may produce a tidal wave, whereas an earthquake will be the result of other forms of magic. war magic, in an unexpectedly bucolic way, affects only some plants and birds. in certain forms of magic, a portent would take place whenever the formula is uttered, in others, this will not be so regular, but a kariyala will invariably occur when a magician dies. when asked, what is the real cause of any of these natural phenomena enumerated, they will say: "magic is the real cause (u'ula); they are a kariyala of magic." another point, where magic touches the super-normal or supernatural, is in the association of spirits with certain magical performances. a special type of magical payment, the ula'ula, is at the same time an offering to the baloma (spirits). the magician will detach a small bit of the large quantity of food brought to him, and put it down on some special place, with the words: "partake, o spirits, of your ula'ula, and make my magic thrive." at certain ceremonies, the spirits are supposed to be present (see plate lix). when something goes wrong with magic, or it is badly performed, 'the spirits will become angry,' as it is often expressed by the natives. in some cases the baloma will appear in dreams and advise the magician what to do. as this is the most active interference of the spirits in human affairs, as far as magic is concerned, i shall quote in free translation some statements obtained on the matter. "the owners of fish magic will often dream that there is plentiful fish. the cause of it is the magician's ancestor spirit. such a magician would then say: 'the ancestral spirit has instructed me in the night, that we should go to catch fish! and indeed, when we get there, we find plenty of fish, and we cast the nets.'" "mokudeya, the maternal uncle of narugo," who is, the main fishing magician of oburaku "comes to his nephew in a dream and instructs him: 'tomorrow, cast the nets for fish in kwabwawa!' narugo then says: 'let us come, the old man instructed me last night.'" "the kaloma (spondylus shell) magician of sinaketa dreams about a plentiful patch of kaloma shell. next morning, he would dive and knock it off on the reef. or he dreams of a canoe, and he then paddles and casts the anchor at that place. to'udawada, luvayam, sinakadi dream that they knock it off in plenty. when next morning we go there, it is plentiful." in all these examples (except the last) we see that the spirits act as advisors and helpers. they fill the rôle of guardian of the traditions when they get angry because of a bad performance, or as associates and sympathisers when they share the magician's ula'ula. but they are not agencies which get to work directly. in the trobriand demonology, the magician does not command the spirits to go and set to work. the work is done by the agency of the spell, assisted by the accompanying ritual, and performed by the proper magician. the spirits stand in the same relation, as the performer does, to the magical force, which alone is active. they can help him to wield it properly, but they can never become his instruments. to summarise the results of what we have learned about the super-normal nature of magic, it may be said that it has a definite character of its own, which differentiates it from the non-magical actions of man. the manner in which the magical force is conceived to act, parallel to the ordinary efforts but independent of them; the emotional reaction to certain types of magic and magician; the kariyala; the intercourse with spirits during the performances, all these properties differentiate magic from the ordinary activities of man. in native terminology, the realm of the magical is called by the word megwa, which describes the 'magical performance,' the 'spell,' the 'force' or 'virtue' of magic, and can be used as adjective to describe in general everything which presents a magical character. used as a verb, the words megwa, miga-megwa, miga, all of which are variations of the same root, mean: 'to perform magic,' 'to utter a spell,' 'to carry out a rite.' if the natives want to express that certain actions are done in connection with magic, and not with work, and that certain effects are due to magical forces, and not to other efforts, they used the word megwa as a substantive or adjective. it is never used to describe any virtue residing in a man or a thing, nor for any action which is independent of a spell. the associated concept of taboo is covered by the kiriwinian word bomala (with suffixed possessive pronouns). it means a 'prohibition,' something which a man is not allowed to do under any circumstances. it is used for magical taboos, for prohibitions associated with rank, for restrictions in regard to food generally considered as unclean, as, for example, the flesh of lizards, snakes, dogs and man. there is hardly any trace of the meaning of 'sacred' attached to the word bomala. if anywhere, it can be found in the use of the word boma, for a tabooed grove where men usually are not allowed to enter, and where traditional spots, often original holes where men came out and whence magic issued, are to be found. the expression toboma (to-, prefix denoting personal noun) means a man of high rank, but hardly a sacred man. ix finally, a few words must be said about the sociological or ceremonial setting of magic. reference has often been made to the simplicity of rites, and to their matter-of-fact character. this has been mentioned with reference to canoe-building, and in garden magic we would have found equally simple and purely businesslike performances. in calling a magical action 'ceremonial' we imply that it was done with a big public attendance; under the observance of definite rules of behaviour by the spectators as well as by the performer, such as general silence, reverent attention to what is being done, with at least a show of some interest. now if, in the middle of some work, a man quickly performs an action whilst others talk and laugh and leave him entirely on one side, this gives a definite sociological stamp to the magical actions, and does not allow us to use the term 'ceremonial,' as the distinguishing mark of the magical acts. some of them, it is true, do have this character. for instance, the initial rite with which the kaloma fishing begins, requires the assistance of the whole fleet, and a definite type of behaviour on the part of the crews, while the magician officiates for all of them, but with their assistance, in the complex evolutions of the fleet. similar rites are to be found in two or three systems of fishing magic, and in several rites of the garden magic of certain villages. in fact, the initial rite of garden magic is everywhere connected with a ceremonial performance. the garden rite, associated with the ceremonial offering of food to spirits, and attended by a body of villagers, a scene of which is shown on plate lix, has been elsewhere described. [ ] one or two rites in war magic imply the active assistance of large numbers of men, and take the form of big ceremonies. thus we see that magical rites may or may not be ceremonial, but that the ceremonial is by no means an outstanding or universal feature of trobriand magic. x we found that taboos are associated with magic, in so far as it is the magician who has to observe them. there are, however, certain forms of restrictions or prohibitions, set up for special purposes, and associated with magic in a somewhat different form. thus, in an institution called kaytubutabu we find a ban made on the consumption of coco-nuts and betel-nuts, associated with a specific magic to make them grow. there is also a protective taboo, used to prevent the theft of ripening fruits or nuts, too far away from the village to be watched. in these cases a small parcel of medicated substance is placed on the tree or near it, on a small stick. the magic spoken over such a substance is a 'conditional curse,' to use the excellent term introduced by professor westermarck. the conditional curse would fall upon anyone who would touch the fruits of that tree, and would bring upon him one form of disease or another. this is the only form of magic, in which the personal agency is invoked, for in some of these spells, the tokway (wood-sprite) is invited to take up his abode on the kaytapaku, that is the stick, with the substance on it, and to guard the fruit. some such small divergencies from the general trend of native belief are always to be found. sometimes they contain important clues, and a deeper insight into the facts, sometimes they mean nothing, and only emphasise the fact, that it is not possible to find absolute consistency in human belief. only a deeper analysis, and a comparative study of similar phenomena can decide which is the case. xi in order to complete the survey of all the characteristics of magic, i shall rapidly mention here the economic aspect of the position of magician, although the data referring to it have already been given, scattered through the previous chapters. i have spoken of the matrilineal inheritance of magic, and of the deviations from it which consist in inheritance from father to son, and in the transmission of magic by purchase (chapter ii, division vi, and chapter vi, division vi under ( )). this latter transaction may take place under two names, which really cover two essentially different operations; the pokala or payment to a maternal kinsman from whom one is going to obtain the magic, and the laga, which is the purchase of magic from a stranger. only certain forms of magic can freely pass from one clan or sub-clan to another, and are purchasable by the laga system. the majority of magical systems are local, and can descend only in the same sub-clan with an occasional deviation to the son of a member, from whom, however, the magic must return to the sub-clan again. a further economic feature of magic is the payment, which the magician receives for his services. there are many types of payment; some given occasionally by an individual for a definite act of magic, as in the case of sorcery or healing magic; others, paid at regular intervals by the whole community, as in the case of garden and fishing magic. in some cases the payments are considerable, as in sorcery, in rain and fine weather magic, and in garden magic. in others, they amount to little more than a mere formal offering. xii in all this, we have been dealing with general characteristics of boyowan (trobriand) magic. this has been done mainly on the basis of the material presented in this volume, with only a few examples from other branches of magic. the result so far can be set down thus: magic to the natives represents a special department; it is a specific power, essentially human, autonomous and independent in its action. this power is an inherent property of certain words, uttered with the performance of certain actions by the man entitled to do it through his social traditions and through certain observances which he has to keep. the words and acts have this power in their own right, and their action is direct and not mediated by any other agency. their power is not derived from the authority of spirits or demons or supernatural beings. it is not conceived as having been wrested from nature. the belief in the power of words and rites as a fundamental and irreducible force is the ultimate, basic dogma of their magical creed. hence we find established the ideas that one never can tamper with, change or improve spells; that tradition is the only source from which they can be derived; that it has brought them down from times lying beyond the speculation of man, that there can be no spontaneous generation of magic. we are naturally led now to inquire one stage further into the manner in which the magical words and rites act. obviously the only way to obtain correct information on this point is to analyse and compare a great number of well authenticated formulæ, and minutely recorded rites. even the collection of kula magic here partially given in free translation, would allow us to arrive at certain interesting conclusions. but we can go deeper still with the help of linguistic analysis, and we shall proceed to this inquiry in the next chapter. chapter xviii the power of words in magic--some linguistic data i the aim of this chapter is to show by a linguistic analysis of two magical texts, and by a general survey of a greater number, what sort of words are believed to exercise magical power. this, of course, does not mean that we are under the delusion that the composers or inventors of magic had a theory about the efficiency of words, and carried this theory into practice by inventing the formula. but, as the moral ideas and rules prevalent in society, though not codified, can be found out by analysing human behaviour; as we reach the underlying principles of law and social propriety by examining customs and manners; as in the study of rites, we see some definite tenets of belief and dogmas--so, in analysing the direct verbal expressions of certain modes of thinking in the magical formulæ, we are justified in assuming that these modes of thinking must have somehow guided those who shaped them. the exact manner in which we must imagine the relation between a typical way of thinking in a society on the one hand, and the fixed, crystallised results of this thinking on the other, is a problem of social psychology. for this branch of science we are, in ethnography, under the obligation of gathering material, but we need not encroach upon its field of study. thus much may, however, be put down, that, in whatever manner we might imagine a spell to have come into existence, it cannot be considered as the creation of one man; for as has been said before, if we examine any one of them, not with the eyes of the natives, but as outside critics, each spell shows unmistakable signs of being a collection of linguistic additions from different epochs. there is in practically every one of them a good deal of archaic material, but not a single one bears the stamp of having come down to us in the same form in which it must have presented itself a few generations ago. so that it may be said that a spell is constantly being remoulded as it passes through the chain of magicians, each probably leaving his mark, however small, upon it. it is the general attitude in matters of magical belief common to all of the successive holders which will be at the bottom of all the regularities, all the typical features found in the spells. i shall adduce a formula of canoe magic and one of the spells belonging to the mwasila, choosing two texts of which a translation and a commentary of average quality have been obtained, and which show clearly the several characteristic features of verbal magic. those who are not interested in linguistic technicalities and details of method, may omit the following division, and take up the trend of our argument at division xii. ii the following text is the wayugo spell, obtained from layseta, the headman of kopila, one of the sub-villages of sinaketa. the commentary was obtained from himself, and from another informant, motago'i, a man of exceptional intelligence, and a very straightforward and a reliable informant. this spell has been given in free translation before in chapter v, and, as has been said there, the rite consists simply in chanting the words over five coils of the wayugo creeper put on a wooden platter between two mats. wayugo spell a. u'ula (initial part) kala bosisi'ula, kala bomwalela. his ritual eating of fish, his tabooed inside. papapa, siliubida, monagakalava. flutter, betel plant, leaving behind. tubugu kalabotawosi, tubugu kwaysa'i, grandfather kalabotawosi, grandfather kwaysa'i, tubugu pulupolu, tubugu semkuku, grandfather pulupolu, grandfather semkuku, tubugu kabatuwayaga, tubugu ugwaboda, grandfather kabatuwayaga, grandfather ugwaboda, tubugu kitava, bulumava'u nawabudoga, grandfather kitava, new spirit nawabudoga, kaykapwapu mogilawota. immediate predecessor mogilawota. kusilase onikola, bukwa'u'i kambu'a. you sit on canoe slips, you chew your areca-nut. kwawoyse bisalena kaykudayuri you take his pandanus streamer (of) kaykudayuri kusaylase odabana teula you place (it) on top (of) teula. basivila, basivitake'i kitava mito'uru, i might turn, i might turn on kitava your touru, mimilaveta pilolu. your sea-arm pilolu. nagayne isipukayse girina kaykudayuri. to-day they kindle festive fire (of) kaykudayuri. kumwam dabem siyaygana, bukuyova. thou bind together thy skirt siyaygana, thou fly. bakabima kaykabila, bakipatuma i might clutch the adze handle, i might grip yogwayogula the component sticks. baterera odabana kuyawa. i might fly on top (of) kuyawa. b. tapwana (main part) odabana kuyawa, odabana kuyawa ... on top (of) kuyawa, on top (of) kuyawa ... (repeated several times) bayokokoba odabana kuyawa; i might become like smoke on top (of) kuyawa; bayowaysulu odabana kuyawa; i might become invisible on top (of) kuyawa; bayovivilu'a, etc.; bayomwaleta, etc.; i might become as a wind eddy, etc. i might become alone, etc.; bayokarige, etc.; bayotamwa'u, etc; i might become as dead, etc. i might disappear, etc.; bayogugwa'u, etc.; i might become like mist, etc. the verses , and are repeated, substituting dikutuva for kuyawa. the verses , and are repeated, substituting la'u for kuyawa. after this, the u'ula is repeated, and then a secondary tapwana follows. bakalatatava, bakalatatava ... i might heel over, i might heel over ... (repeated several times) ula sibu bakalatatava ulo koumwali my keel i might heel over; my canoe gunwale bakalatatava uli sirota, etc. i might heel over my canoe bottom, etc. ulo katukulu, etc.; ulo gelu, etc. ulo kaysuya, etc. my prow, etc.; my rib, etc. my threading stick, etc.; uli tabuyo, etc.; uli lagim, etc.; ulo kawaydala, etc. my prow-board, etc.; my transverse board, etc.; my canoe side, etc. the u'ula is repeated again and the spell is closed by the dogina (concluding part). c. dogina (conclusion) wagam, kousi, wagam, vivilu'a, canoe (thou art) ghost, canoe, (thou art) wind eddy, kuyokarige siyaygana, bukuyova. thou vanish siyaygana, thou fly. kwarisasa kamkarikeda kadimwatu; kwaripwo thou pierce thy sea-passage kadimwatu; thou break through kabaluna saramwa; kwabadibadi loma. nose his saramwa; thou meet loma. kuyokarige, kuyotamwa'u, kuyovivilu'a thou become as dead, thou disappear, thou become as a wind eddy, kuyogugwa'u. thou become like mist. kusola kammayamaya, kwotutine kamgulupeya; kuna, thou mould the fine sand, thou cut thy seaweed; thou go, kugoguna kambwoymatala. thou put on thy butia wreath. we have here the native text, translated word for word, each expression and formative affix being rendered by its english equivalent. in obtaining such a verbatim translation and subsequently putting it into a free, intelligible english rendering, there are two main difficulties to be overcome. a considerable proportion of the words found in magic do not belong to ordinary speech, but are archaisms, mythical names and strange compounds, formed according to unusual linguistic rules. thus the first task is to elucidate the obsolete expressions, the mythical references, and to find the present day equivalents of any archaic words. even if we obtain a series of meanings corresponding to each term of the original text, there is often considerable difficulty in linking these meanings together. magic is not built up in the narrative style; it does not serve to communicate ideas from one person to another; it does not purport to contain a consecutive, consistent meaning. it is an instrument serving special purposes, intended for the exercise of man's specific power over things, and its meaning, giving this word a wider sense, can be understood only in correlation to this aim. it will not be therefore a meaning of logically or topically concatenated ideas, but of expressions fitting into one another and into the whole, according to what could be called a magical order of thinking, or perhaps more correctly, a magical order of expressing, of launching words towards their aim. it is clear that this magical order of verbal concatenations--i am purposely avoiding the expression 'magical logic' for there is no logic in the case--must be known and familiar to anyone who wishes really to understand the spells. there is therefore a great initial difficulty in 'reading' such documents, and only an acquaintance with a great number makes one more confident and more competent. iii. in the ordinary routine of working out such texts, i tried to obtain from the magician the equivalents, word for word, of the more cryptic expressions. as a rule the magician himself knows a good deal more than anyone else about the mythical references, and about certain esoteric expressions contained in the spell. there are some unintelligent old men, unfortunately, who rattle off a formula, and who evidently never were interested about its significance or else forgot all about it, and are no good as commentators. often a fairly good informant, quite capable of reciting a spell slowly and intelligibly, without losing his thread, will be of no use as linguistic informant, that is in helping to obtain a definition of a word, in assisting to break it up into its formative parts; in explaining which words belong to ordinary speech, which are dialectic, which are archaic, and which are purely magical compounds. i had only a few informants who could help me in this way, and among them the previously mentioned motago'i was one of the best. the analysis to which i now proceed can be given only in an approximate manner, for in a full one, a long disquisition on grammar would have to be given first. it will be enough, however, to show in broad outline the main linguistic features of a spell, as well as the methods which have been used in constructing the free translation given in the previous chapters. the formula here quoted, shows the typical tripartition of the longer spells. the first part is called u'ula. this word means the 'bottom part' of a tree or post, the 'foundation' of any structure, and in more figurative uses, it means 'reason,' 'cause,' or, again, 'beginning.' it is in this last sense that the natives apply it to the first strophe of a song, and to the exordium of a magical formula. the second part of the spell is called tapwana, literally: 'surface,' 'skin,' 'body,' 'trunk,' 'middle part' of a tree, 'main part' of a road, and thus 'main part' of a spell or song. the word dogina, literally the 'tip' or 'end,' used for the 'tip' of a tree or the 'end' of a tail, is used to designate the 'final part' or the 'conclusion' of a spell. sometimes the word dabwana, 'top,' or 'head,' (not human head) is substituted for dogina. thus the spell must be imagined turned upside down, its beginning put at the basis, the u'ula, its main part where the middle trunk would be, and its end at the tip, the dogina. the opening words of the u'ula in this spell are short, cutting, pithy expressions, each standing for its own cycle of ideas, for a sentence or even a whole story. in this they are typical of the beginnings of kiriwinian spells. they are also typical, in the great difficulty which they present to the interpreter. out of the seven words contained in phrases and , four do not belong to ordinary speech, and are obscure compounds. thus the words bosisi'ula and bomwalela are made up first of the prefix bo-, which carries with it the meaning of 'tabooed,' 'belonging to magic,' and of the two roots sisiula and mwalela, neither of which is a complete word. the first is the root part of the word visisi'ula, which designates a custom associated with this magic. at certain times, in connection with the performance of the wayugo rite, the magician has fits of trembling and then he has to be given some baked fish, and after partaking of it his trembling fit passes. the natives say that he trembles like a bisila (pandanus streamer) and that this shows that his magic is good, since the trembling of the pandanus is a symbol of speed. mwalela is derived from olumwalela which means 'inside.' with the prefix bo- the word can be translated 'the tabooed inside.' it is even more difficult to interpret the general meaning of these two expressions, than to find out their literal equivalents. we have an allusion to a ritual eating of fish, associated with a trembling which symbolises speed, and we have an expression 'tabooed inside.' the custom of eating fish after trembling has a magical importance. it adds to the efficiency of magic, as all such observances do. the force or merit of this observance, which, dissociated from the spell and the rite can have no direct effect, is made available by being mentioned in the formula; it is so to speak, magically discounted. this is the best way in which i can interpret the two words of ritual eating and of tabooed interior of the magician. the three words of sentence have each to tell its own story. the word papapa, 'flutter,' stands for a phrase: "let the canoe speed so that the pandanus leaves flutter." of course the word expresses much more than this sentence, because it is intelligible only to those who are acquainted with the part played by the pandanus leaves in the decoration of canoes, with the native ideas about magical association between flutter and speed, and with the ritual use of pandanus streamers. therefore the word has a meaning only if taken with the context of this formula, in connection with its aim, with the various associated ideas and customs. to the native, who knows all this and in whose mind the whole context rises, when he hears or repeats 'papapa' the word quivers with magical force. the word silubida, an especial magical transformation of lilobida, stands for a certain variety of the betel pepper plant. the word monagakalava is again an elaborate compound carrying the meaning 'to leave behind.' the betel plant is a common magical ingredient, and in this spell, the ancestral spirits will presently be invited to chew betel-nut. 'leaving behind' undoubtedly refers to the other canoes which will be outrun by that of the reciter. both these words, therefore, can be placed without much difficulty into the context of this spell. it is quite clear, as has been said, that each of these expressions stands alone and represents a self-contained cycle of ideas. the two expressions of sentence probably do belong to one another, but even they represent each one-half of a complex story. then, in , there comes a long list of names of ancestors, all of whom are said to be real men who had lived in kitava, the home of this magic. the words kwaysa'i, 'stormy sea,' and pulupolu, 'boiling up,' 'foaming up,' suggest that the names are significant and therefore mythical. nawabudoga, a kitavan man, was father of the last-mentioned one, mogilawota, a maternal relative of the present owner. we see here, therefore, a good case of 'magical filiation,' by which the present owner, a man of sinaketa, is connected with the mythical district of kitava. the following two sentences, and , are linguistically much clearer and simpler, and they present connected sequences of words. they are an invocation to ancestral spirits, asking them to join the magician at the canoe, which is called here kaykudayuri, 'the craft of the kudayuri,' and to place the pandanus streamers on the top of teulo. this, in an exaggerated and figurative speech, expresses an invitation to the spirits to follow the man on his trip. it must be noted that, according to the present belief at least, the spirits are not conceived as agents or forces which carry the canoe at the behest of the magician, but as passive companions only. sentence contains a scornful address to his companions; the magician in prospect sees himself sailing ahead towards the mountains; as he turns round, the kitava men, that is his companions, are far behind on the beach of to'uru, and the whole sea-arm of pilolu still lies before them. in , the same trend of ideas is followed; the custom of kindling the fire by the first canoe is alluded to, and the magician sees himself carrying out this privilege. it is to be noted that he speaks always of his canoe under the name of kudayuri, that is of the mythical flying canoe of ancient times. in , the canoe is addressed as a flying witch, who is asked to bind her skirt together and to fly. in , the magician verbally retraces an incident from the original myth of kudayuri. he takes the adze handle, gets hold of the canoe, and strikes it, whereupon the canoe flies. thus the u'ula begins with archaic, condensed compounds each carrying a self-contained cycle of magical meaning. then follows a list of forbears; then more explicit and, at the same time more dramatic sentences; an invocation to ancestral spirits, the anticipated victory in speed, the reconstructed mythical incident. iv let us pass now to the tapwana. this is always the longest part of a spell, since we have a whole list of words which have to be repeated with several key expressions, of which in the present case there are three. moreover, the magician can ad libitum repeat the same words over and over again with a key word. he will not go in any fixed order over all the words of the list, but is allowed, in this part of the formula, to return and repeat with one key-word the various items of the list. it will be best to say here a few words about the manner in which the magical formulæ are actually recited. the opening words are always intoned with a strong, melodious cadence which is not permanently fixed, but varies with the magician. the first words are repeated some several times. thus here, kala bosisi'ula would be reiterated three or four times, and so would be the following two words (kala bomwalela). the words of no. are recited slowly and ponderously but not repeated. the list of ancestors is run over quickly and perfunctorily. the rest of the u'ula, its dramatic part so to speak, is spoken with less melody, more with the ordinary speaking voice and more rapidly. then comes the last sentence of the u'ula, which in almost all spells links it up with the main part. this is always intoned slowly, solemnly and distinctly; the voice drops at the end by the interval of a tone. in the tapwana, the key word, or key expression, which forms always the concluding part of the u'ula, is taken up again. it is repeated several times, as if to fix or rub it well in. then, dropping into a quick, continuous stream of utterance, the magician runs over one word of the list after the other. the key-word is inserted between each of them, said sometimes once, sometimes two or three times. it gives an effect as if the key-word were being rubbed in into every one of the other expressions. they as a rule spoken more slowly, mark the rhythm of this part. the reciting of the last part of a spell, the dogina or dabwana, is more perfunctory, usually it is rather spoken than chanted. after this digression, let us return to the analysis of our spell. it is a rule that the tapwana, the main part of a formula, is easier to translate, expressed in less archaic and less condensed terms, than the u'ula. the tapwana of this spell has quite easy key-words, both in its first and in its second part. in the first one (phrase ) the key-words are of mythical nature, referring to localities associated with the flying of one of the kudayuri sisters. in the second tapwana, the key-word means: 'i might heel over' or 'i shall heel over,' that is with speed. and this expression stands here for: 'i shall overtake,' and the list of words pronounced with this verb denotes the various parts of a canoe. the second part of the tapwana (phrase ) is much more typical than the first, because the key word is a verb, whilst the list words are nouns. it is typical also, in that the verb expresses, in a simple and direct manner, the magical effect of the spell (the overtaking of the other canoes) whereas the sum of the words of the list gives the object of the spell, that is, the canoe. such tapwana, in which the magical action is expressed as a verb, while in the list of words we have mentioned the various parts of a garden or of fishing nets, or weapons or parts of the human body, are to be found in all classes of magic. the first part of the tapwana (phrases , , and ) is less typical, in so far that the verbs depicting various magical actions are relegated into the list, while the key-words are adverbial expressions of locality. the verbal links of the long chain express all and one in a metaphoric manner the speed of the canoe. 'i shall fly, i shall become like smoke, i shall become invisible, i shall become as a wind eddy, etc,' are all rather picturesque, concrete descriptions of surpassing speed. they present also a linguistic symmetry and singularity. the prefix ba- is the form of the future or potential tense, which i have literally translated 'might,' but which stands here for 'shall.' the formative prefix yo- is a causative, and stands for 'become as' or 'become like.' then follows the root: kokoba- 'smoke which trails in clouds above a burning garden.' hence the expression bayokokoba, in its full concrete meaning, could be translated: 'i shall become like clouds of trailing smoke.' again, boyowaysula in its full meaning could be translated: 'i shall become invisible as distant spray.' the only abstract word in this list is tamwa'u, which literally means, 'to disappear.' so, in this tapwana, the list consists of a number of formally similar words, each expressing the same general meaning in a concrete metaphorical manner. the length of the whole tapwana (main body) of the spell can be imagined, since in the middle between its two sections the u'ula is recited once more. the last part of this spell, the dogina, contains an explicit allusion to the kudayuri myth and to several geographic localities, which are mentioned in that myth. it also shows the usual crescendo, characteristic of the conclusions of a spell. the final results are anticipated in exaggerated, forceful language. v so much about the wayugo spell. i shall adduce now another spell of a somewhat different type, belonging to the mwasila (kula magic). it is distinctly a more modern formula; there are hardly any archaic expressions; words are not used, as independent sentences each; on the whole it is easily understandable and has a consecutive meaning. rayikuna sulumwoya (also called sumgeyyata) a. u'ula (initial part) avayta'u netata'i sulumwoyala laba'i? yaygu, kwoyregu, who cuts the mint plant of laba'i? i, kwoyregu, sogu tamagu, katata'i sulumwoyala laba'i. together with my father, we cut the mint plant of laba'i. silimwaynunuva, inunuva; silimwayniku, the roaring sulumwoya, it roars; the quaking sulumwoya iniku; silimwayyega, iyega; it quakes; the soughing sulumwoya, it soughs; silimwaypolu, ipolu. the boiling sulumwoya, it boils. b.--tapwana (main part) ipolu, ipolu ipolu ... agu sulumwoya ipolu; it boils, it boils, it boils ... my mint plant it boils; agu vana, ipolu; agu kena ipolu; agu my herb ornaments, it boils my lime spatula it boils; my yaguma ipolu; agu sinata ipolu; agu mo'i ipolu; lime pot it boils; my comb it boils; my mat it boils; agu pari ipolu; agu vataga ipolu; my presentation goods it boils; my big basket it boils; agu kauyo ipolu; agu lilava ipolu. my personal basket it boils; my magical bundle it boils. dabagu ipolu; kabulugu ipolu; kaygadugu ipolu; my head it boils; my nose it boils; my occiput it boils; mayyegu ipolu; tabagu ipolu; kawagu my tongue it boils; my larynx it boils; my speaking organ ipolu; wadogu ipolu; ula woyla ipolu. it boils; my mouth it boils; my kula courting it boils. c.--dogina (conclusion) avaliwo koya-- isikila koya; i kick the mountain--it tilts over, the mountain; imwaliku koya; ikaywa'u koya; it subsides, the mountain; it opens up, the mountain; isabwani koya; itakubile koya; it jubilates, the mountain it topples over, the mountain; itakubilatala koya. it topples down, the mountain. avapwoyma dabana koyava'u; avapokayma i breathe (a spell over) the head (of) koyava'u; i charm lopoum siyaygana; akulubeku wagana thy inside (of) siyaygana (canoe); i drown the waga akulisonu lumanena. i submerge the lamina. gala butugu, butugu pilapala; gala valigu, not my renown my renown thunder; not my treading, valigu lumwadudu tudududu. my treading noise made by flying witches(?) tudududu. the opening sentences of the formula are so clear that the translation word for word explains itself without any closer commentary, except of course as far as the names are concerned. laba'i is a village in the north of kiriwina, and it plays a considerable part in the mythology of the origin of man, since several of the principal sub-clans emerged there from underground. laba'i is also the home of the mythical culture-hero tudava. the mythology of the kula, however, does not include laba'i amongst the places, on which it touches. perhaps this somewhat anomalous features of the formula may be connected with its obvious linguistic modernity? the other personal name mentioned in this spell is kwoyregu, on which layseta, who gave me this magic, commented in the following manner: "a man, he lived in laba'i, the master of the magic. it was not this man who first knew the magic of monikiniki. that magic was partly found by tokosikuna, partly in olden days in sinaketa." in explaining this commentary it must be noted that the informant was a sinaketan man, hence his local patriotism, for there is no definite, mythological version connecting the early practice of the mwasila with the village of sinaketa. as we saw, tokosikuna is indeed one of the mythical heroes with whose story the magic of mwasila is associated. monikiniki is the name of one of the systems of the mwasila magic, which usually is said to come from a man of that name. phrase of this spell contains four couples, each consisting of a compound and a verb. the substantival compounds have all, according to the alliterative symmetry so dear to kiriwinian magic, the prefix silimway-, derived from sulumwoya, the mint plant. such play on words, especially on what is the leading word in a spell, as sulumwoya is here, shows that the purely phonetic handling of words must be associated with the idea or feeling of their inherent power. the keyword of the tapwana (phrase ), has been translated, literally 'it boils.' perhaps it might have been translated in its other slightly different meaning 'it foams.' probably it has both meanings to the mind of the native reciter. i think that the use of a word fraught with two meanings at the same time is one of the characteristics of native language. in this spell, for instance, the word polu appears as one in a series of such verbs as 'to roar,' 'to quake,' 'to sough,' all carrying the meaning of 'noise,' 'commotion,' 'stir,' a meaning which is in harmony with the magical effects to be produced by the mwasila magic. in this context the obvious translation of the word would be: 'to foam.' on the other hand, this spell is said over a piece of mint, which will be preserved in boiled coco-nut oil, and the double meaning here contained might be paraphrased in this manner: "as the oil of the sulumwoya boils, so may my renown (or the eagerness of my partner?) foam up." thus the word polu would link up the meaning of the rite of boiling with the context of this spell. this explanation, however, has not been obtained from a native informant, though it is undoubtedly in keeping with the general type of current explanations. what i have called before the magical concatenation of magical ideas consists in just such connections of words and their meanings. the dogina (final part) contains one or two typical features. for instance, in phrase , the maternal uncle of the present reciter is asked to breathe the spell over the head of monikiniki. in this, the present owner of the spell identifies his canoe with that of the mythical hero. in , and , we have several grandiloquent expressions such as that referring to the commotion on the mountain; that comparing his renown to thunder, and his treading to the noise made by mulukwausi; and that describing how the waga will sink, through being overfilled with valuables. the last part would, as usual, be recited in a much more perfunctory and quick manner, giving it the effect of piling up words, one forceful phrase following another it ends with the onomatopoetic sound tudududu ... which stands for the roll of the thunder. vi the two specimens of magic here given in the original with a verbal translation, show how the linguistic analysis allows us a much deeper insight into the magical value of words, as it is felt by the natives. on the one hand, the various phonetic characteristics show the handling of words when these have to convey magical force. on the other hand, only an analysis word for word of the spells could give us a good insight into the frequently mentioned magical concatenation of ideas and verbal expressions. it is, however, impossible to adduce here all the spells in their full original version with linguistic comments, as this would lead us into a treatise on the language of magic. we may, however, quickly pass over some of the other spells and point out in them the salient features of magical expression, and thus amplify the results so far obtained by the detailed analysis of these two spells. of course these two examples belong to the longer type consisting of three parts. many of the spells previously quoted in free translation contain no main part, though it is possible to distinguish their u'ula (exordium) from their dogina (finale). the very first spell quoted in chapter v, the formula of the vabusi tokway (the expulsion of the wood-sprite) is an anomalous one. it is an invocation, and it is not even chanted but has to be spoken in a low persuasive voice. it consists of two parts: in the first one the word kubusi ('thou comest down') used as an imperative, 'come down!' is repeated with all sorts of descriptions and circumscriptions of the woodsprites. in the second part, several sentences are repeated to make the wood-sprite feel that he has been chased away. both the keyword of the first part, kubusi, and the sentences of the second part have a direct force of their own. it must be realised that, for the natives, it is a great insult to be told to go away. yoba, the 'expulsion,' the 'command to go,' stands in a category of its own. people are yoba'd, expelled from communities in certain circumstances, and a man would never dream of remaining, when thus treated. therefore the words in this spell possess a force due to social sanctions of native custom. the next spell, given in chapter vi, the kaymomwa'u, is also anomalous for it consists of one part only. the word kubusi, 'come down' is also repeated here, with various words designating defilements and broken taboos. these qualities are, however, not thought of as personified beings. the force of the word is probably also derived from the ideas about the yoba. the second spell, which is a pendant to the kaymomwa'u, the kaygagabile, or spell of lightness, begins with a typical u'ula:-- susuwayliguwa (repeated); titavaguwa (repeated); he fails to outrun me; the canoe trembles with speed; mabuguwa (repeated) mabugu, mabugamugwa; mabugu, magical word; mabugu, mabugu-ancient; mabugu, mabuguva'u. mabugu-new. the first two words are compounds with prefixes and suffixes added for magical purposes, as a sort of magical trimming. the untranslatable word, said by the natives to be megwa wala ('just magic') is repeated several times in symmetry with the previous two words and then with the two suffixes; ancient and new. such repetitions with prefixes or suffixes of antithetic meaning are a frequent feature of magical trimming of words. this exordium affords a clear example of the magical play on words, of transformations for the sake of rhythm and symmetry; of repetitions of the same words with antithetic affixes. in the following part of the spell, the word ka'i (tree) is repeated with verbs:--'the tree flies' etc., and it functions as a key-word. it is difficult to decide whether this part is a true tapwana or only one of the not infrequent examples of an u'ula with a keyword. let us survey a few more of the u'ula (first parts) of the canoe spells, and then proceed to the examination of the middle parts and ends. in the next spell of chapter vi, the kapitunena duku spell, the word bavisivisi, 'i shall wave them back,' (that is; the other canoes), is repeated ponderously several times. the opening of a spell with one word, which summarises in a metaphorical manner the aim of the spell is often found in kiriwinian magic. in this spell there follow the words:-- sîyá dábanâ tókunâ ínenâ. sinegu bwaga'u, siya hill (on) top of takuna the women. my mother sorcerer, tatogu bwaga'u. myself sorcerer. these words are pronounced with a heavy, thumping rhythm, as indicated by the sharp and circumflex accents. the second line shows a rhythmic and symmetrical arrangement of words. the remainder of the u'ula of this spell is similar to the same part in the wayugo spell, which has been given here in full native text (compare the free translations of both spells in previous chapters). in the ligogu spell of the same chapter, the u'ula opens with another juggling of words:-- virayra'i (repeated); morayra'i (repeated); basilabusi female rayra'i; male rayra'i; i shall penetrate wayayla, basilalaguwa oyanaki; basilalaguwa (at) wayayla, i shall emerge (at) oyanaki; i shall emerge wayayla, basilabusi oyanaki; (at) wayayla, i shall penetrate oyanaki; this part of the u'ula has not been translated in the text, as its meaning is 'magical' and can be better grasped in connection with the native text. the word rayra'i is a magical word only. it is first given with the antithetic opposition of the male and female prefixes vi- and mo-. the following phrase is a typical example of a geographical antithesis. the two names refer to the promontories facing one other across the sea passage kaulokoki, between boyowa and kayleula. why those two points are mentioned i could not find out. in the kadumiyala spell, given in chapter ix, we have the following opening:-- vinapega, pega; vinamwana, mwana; nam mayouyai, makariyouya'i, odabwana; nam mayouya'i, makariyouya'i, o'u'ula. in the first line, we have the symmetrically uttered and prefixed names of the two flying or jumping fishes, pega and mwana. the prefix vina- is probably the female prefix and may convey the meaning of flying's being associated with women, that is with the flying witches. the second and third verse contain a play on the root yova or yo'u 'to fly,' reduplicated and with several affixes added. these two verses are brought into a sort of antithesis by the last two words, odabwana and o'u'ula, or 'at the top,' and 'at the bottom,' or here, probably, at the one end of the canoe and at the other. in the bisila spell, given in the same chapter, we have the beginning:-- bora'i, bora'i, borayyova, biyova; bora'i, bora'i, borayteta, biteta. the word bora'i seems to be again a purely magical one. the prefix bo- carries the meaning of tabooed, or ritual; the root ra'i suggests similarity with the above quoted magical word rayra'i, which is obviously merely a reduplicated form of ra'i. this is therefore a rhythmically constructed play on the magical root ra'i, and the words yova, 'to fly,' and teta, 'to be poised,' 'to soar.' the kayikuna veva spell presents the following rhythmic and symmetrical exordium:-- bosuyasuya (repeated); boraguragu (repeated). bosuya olumwalela; boyragu akatalena. the exact meaning of the two words is not quite clear, except that they represent magical influences. their arrangement and the antithesis of olumwalela ('middle part,' 'inside'), and katalena ('body' or 'outside') is in keeping with the features observed in the other beginnings here quoted. vii the tapwana (main parts) of the spells, though they take a much longer time in reciting, are simpler in construction. many spells, moreover have no middle part at all. the first regular tapwana we find in our spells is that in the kapitunena duku. there, we have a series of key-words recited with a list of complimentary expressions. the key-words are verbs, spoken in the form:-- mata'i, matake'i, meyova, etc. cut, cut at, fly, etc. these verbs are used in this spell with the prefix ma- or me-, which represents the tense of indefinite duration. this prefix, although, as far as i know, found in several melanesian languages in full vigour, has in kiriwina a distinctly archaic flavour, and is only used in certain locutions and in magic. some of the verbs used in this spell are metaphorical in their meaning, describing the speed of the canoe in a figurative manner. the list of the complimentary words repeated with the key-words contains the enumeration of the different parts of the canoe. it is typical that the key-words are in their form archaic and in their meaning figurative while the complimentary terms are just ordinary words of everyday speech. another regular tapwana has been given in the kadumiyala spell in chapter ix, where the only key-word, napuwoye, has been translated: 'i impart speed magically.' the prefix na- is that of the definite tense. the formative pu- i was unable to translate, while the root woye means literally 'to beat' and in a somewhat more remote sense, 'to impart magic.' in the kayikuna veva spell, the pair bwoytalo'i, bosuyare, meaning 'paint red in a ritual manner,' and 'wreathe in a ritual manner,' are given formal resemblance by the alliterative prefix bo-, which carries with it the meaning of 'ritual.' we see that the number of the tapwana is smaller, since only three spells out of seven have got it. in form, the tapwana are simpler than the u'ula, and an examination of a greater number of key-words would show that they also express directly or figuratively the magical action or its effect. thus, here we had a verb denoting the imparting of magic, that is the direct expression of the action; then two words figuratively expressing it, and the series of verbal key-words enumerating the effects of the magic, such as flying, speed, etc. in other canoe spells, not given in this book, there could be found similar types of key-words such as: 'the canoe flies'; 'the buriwada fish is poised on a wave'; 'the reef-heron wades'; 'the reef-heron skirts the beach...' all of them expressing the aim of the spell in accordance with the magical trend of thought. viii from the linguistic point of view, the final parts of the spells, the dogina, present, as a rule, fewer remarkable features. phonetically the most outstanding trait is the purely onomatopoetic sound complexes, such as sididi or saidididi, or the three words sididi, tatata, numsa, found in the kadumiyala spell. from the point of view of meaning, there are in some of the dogina interesting metaphorical turns of speech, such as the descriptions of time in the kaygagabile spell, where the difference in speed between the magician and his companions is expressed by allusions to the morning and evening sun, couched in figurative speech. some mythical allusions also find their way into the dogina. these parts of a spell are undoubtedly the least important in the natives' eyes; very often the same dogina is used with a number of formulæ belonging to the one cycle, as we have noticed. other spells have no dogina at all, for instance, that of kapitunena duku, where the onomatopoetic sound sidididi stands for the whole dogina. as said above, the manner of reciting these parts is more perfunctory, with fewer melodic modulations and phonetic peculiarities. ix i have given so far a short linguistic survey of the canoe spells, dealing first with their initial parts, u'ula, then with their main parts, tapwana, and lastly saying a few words about the dogina. in a still more summary manner, i shall give a short survey of the mwasila (kula magic) spells, quoted or mentioned in this book, beginning with the u'ula. in the yawarapu spell (chapter vii) we have the beginning:-- bu'a, bu'a, bovinaygau, vinaygu; bu'a, bu'a, bomwanaygu, mwanaygu ... here the word bu'a (areca-nut) is repeated and used as a prefix bo-, with the antithetic roots -vinay- (female), and -mwanay- (male) and with the suffix -gu (first possessive pronoun). the kaymwaloyo (chapter vii) begins:-- gala bu'a, gala doga, gala mwayye ... this is spoken in a solemn manner, and then follows the play on the root mwase, described above in the free translation of this spell. another rhythmic beginning, spoken with regular, strongly marked accent is to be found in the kaykakaya spell (chapter xiii): kaýtutúna íyanâ, márabwága iyanâ ... symmetrical arrangements of words, with alliterative prefixing of a particle and with antithetic uses of word couples are to be found in several other spells. the talo formula (chapter xiii): talo, talo'udawada, udawada talo, talomwaylili, mwaylili ... the ta'uya spell (chapter xiii): mwanita, monimwanita; deriwa, baderideriwa; derima, baderiderima ... the ka'ubana'i spell (chapter xiii): mose'una nikiniki, moga'ina nikiniki ... the kwoygapani spell (chapter xiv): kwega, kweganubwa'i, nubwa'i; kwega, kweganuwa'i, nuwa'i; kwega, kweganuma'i, numa'i ... i have written them down here without full comment, to show their formal phonetic characteristics, which are indeed in all essentials quite similar to the samples previously quoted and analysed. x the main parts of the spells in the magic of the kula do not essentially differ in their characteristics from the tapwana of the canoe magic. in their form, some key-words are simply verbs used without any transformation in their narrative tense. thus in the talo (red paint) formula, the pair of verbs ikata ('it flares up'), inamila ('it flashes') is used with various nouns describing parts of the human head. the key-words of the kayikuna tabuyo (chapter xiii) are also grammatically simple: buribwari, kuvakaku kuvakipusa ('fish-hawk, fall on thy prey, catch it')--the verbs being in the second person of the narrative tense. in other cases we find the key-word transformed by reduplication, composition or by affixes. in the yawarapu spell (chapter vii) the pair boraytupa, badederuma repeated as key expressions is a compound which i did not succeed in analysing completely, though the consensus of my informants makes me satisfied with the approximate translation:--'quick sailing, abundant haul.' in the gebobo spell (chapter vii) the expression tutube tubeyama is a play on the root tubwo used as a rule verbally and meaning 'to be full in the face,' 'to be fine looking.' in the ta'uya spell (chapter xiii) there is the reduplication munumweynise of the root mwana or mwayna expressing the 'itching' or 'state of excitement.' in the ka'ubanai the first key-expression ida dabara is an archaic or dialectical couple (the root is dabara, and ida is only a phonetic addition), which signifies 'to ebb.' the other key-expressions 'ka'ukwa yaruyaru,' 'ka'ukwa mwasara,' 'ka'ukwa mwasara baremwasemwasara' have all the verbal part irregularly reduplicated and in the last expression repeated and transformed. the last formula of the mwasila (kula magic) given in chapter xiv, has a pair of expressions used as key-phrase: 'kwoygapani, pani; kwoyga'ulu, ulu.' the word kwega, a variety of betel plant, is used in a modified form as a prefix and compounded with the verbal roots pani (seduce) and ulu (enmesh). as to the final parts of this class of spell, i have said before that it is much less variable than the initial and main parts of a formula. within the same cycle or system, the dogina often varies little and a man will often use the same one with all his spells. the sample given with the sulumwoya text will therefore be sufficient to show the various characteristics of this part of the mwasila spell, and there is no need to say anything more about it. xi a very rapid survey of the phonetic characters of the kayga'u spells (chapter xi) must be sufficient and we shall confine ourselves to their tapwana. the word gwa'u or ga'u means 'mist' or 'fog'; verbally used with the meaning 'to make mist' 'to befog,' it has always the form ga'u. in the main parts of some of the formulæ of this class, this phonetically very expressive word is used with very great sound effect. for example in the giyorokaywa spell no. , the key-words are aga'u ('i befog'), aga'usulu ('i befog, lead astray'); aga'uboda ('i befog, shut off'). spoken, at the beginning of the tapwana slowly and sonorously, and then quickly and insistently these words produce a really 'magical' effect--that is as far as the hearers' subjective impressions are concerned. even more impressive and onomatopoetic is the phrase used as key-expression in the giyotanawa no. : ga'u, yaga'u, yagaga'u, yaga'u, bode, bodegu! this sentence, giving the vowels a full italian value, such as they receive in the melanesian pronunciation, does certainly have an impressive ring; fittingly enough, because this is the dramatic spell, uttered into the wind in the sinking waga, the final effort of magic to blind and mislead the mulukwausi. the causative prefix ya- is used here with a nominal expression yaga'u which has been translated 'gathering mist'; the reduplicated one yagaga'u i have rendered by 'encircling mist.' it can be seen from this example how feebly the equivalents can be given of the magical phrases in which so much is expressed by phonetic or onomatopoetic means. the other spells have much less inspired key-words. giyotanawa no. uses the word atumboda, translated 'i press,' 'i close down,' which literally renders the meanings of the verbs tum, 'to press,' and boda, 'to close.' the giyorokaywa no. has the somewhat archaic key-words spoken in a couple: 'apeyra yauredi,' 'i arise,' 'i escape' and the grammatically irregular expression suluya, 'to lead astray.' the main part of the kaytaria spell, by which the benevolent fish is summoned to the rescue of the drowning party has the key-phrase 'bigabaygu suyusayu: the suyusayu fish shall lift me up.' this expression is noteworthy: even in this spell, which might be regarded as an invocation of the helpful animal, it is not addressed in the second person. the result is verbally anticipated, proving that the spell is to act through the direct force of the words and not as an appeal to the animal. xii with this, the survey of linguistic samples from various spells is closed, and we can briefly summarise our results. the belief in the efficiency of a formula results in various peculiarities of the language in which it is couched, both as regards meaning and sound. the native is deeply convinced of this mysterious, intrinsic power of certain words; words which are believed to have their virtue in their own right, so to speak; having come into existence from primeval times and exercising their influence directly. to start first with the meaning of the magical expressions, we have seen that in this respect they are plain and direct enough. most of the key-words simply state the magical action, for example when in one of the spells the key-word napuwoye, 'i impart magical virtue (of speed),' or in another the key-words 'to paint red in a festive manner, to wreathe in a festive manner,' simply describe what the magician is doing. much more often the principal expressions, that is the initial words and the key-words, of a spell refer to its aim, as for instance, when we find words and phrases denoting 'speed' in canoe magic; or, in kula magic, designations for 'success' 'abundant haul,' 'excitement,' 'beauty.' still more often the aim of magic is stated in a metaphorical manner, by similes and double meanings. in other parts of the spell, where the magical meaning is imprisoned not so much in single words and expressions, as in explicit phraseology and long periods, we found that the predominant features are: lists of ancestral names; invocations of ancestral spirits; mythological allusions; similes and exaggerations; depreciating contrasts between the companions and the reciter--most of them expressing an anticipation of the favourable results aimed at in the spell. again, certain parts of the spell contain systematic, meticulous enumerations, the reciter going over the parts of a canoe one by one; the successive stages of a journey; the various kula goods and valuables; the parts of the human head; the numerous places from which the flying witches are believed to come. such enumerations as a rule strive at an almost pedantic completeness. passing to the phonetic characteristics, we saw that a word will often be used in a shape quite different from those in which it is used in ordinary speech; that it will show notable changes in form and sound. such phonetic peculiarities are most conspicuous in the main words, that is in the key-words and initial words. they are sometimes truncated, more often provided with additions, such as symmetrical or antithetic affixes; formatives added for the sake of sound. by these means there are produced effects of rhythm, alliteration and rhyme, often heightened and accentuated by actual vocal accent. we found play on words by symmetrical couples of sounds, with antithetic meaning like mo- and vi-, or mwana- and vina-, both couples signifying 'male' and 'female' respectively; or -mugwa (ancient) and -va'u (new); or ma- (hither) and wa- (thither), etc., etc. especially we found the prefix bo-, carrying the meaning of ritual or tabooed, with derivation from bomala; or with the meaning 'red,' 'festive' in its derivation from bu'a (areca-nut); onomatopoetic sounds such as sididi or saydidi, tatata, numsa, in imitation of speed noises, of the wailing of wind, rustling of sail, swish of pandanus leaves; tududu, in imitation of the thunder claps; and the rhythmical, expressive, though perhaps not directly onomatopoetic, sentence: ga'u, yaga'u, yagaga'u, yaga'u, bode, bodegu. xiii if we now turn to the substances used in the magical rites, as means of ritual transference of the spell, we find in canoe magic, dried lalang grass, dried banana leaf, dried pandanus leaf, all used in the magic of lightness. a stale potato is employed to carry away the heaviness of the canoe; although on another occasion heaviness is thrown away with a bunch of lalang grass. the leaves of two or three shrubs and weeds, which as a rule the natives take to dry their skin after bathing, are used for magical cleansing of a canoe body, and a stick and a torch serve in other rites of exorcism. in the rite associated with the blackening of a canoe, charred remains of several light substances such as lalang grass, the nest of a small, swift bird, the wings of a bat, coco-nut husk and the twigs of an extremely light mimosa tree are employed. it is easy to see that, not less than the words, the substances here used are associated with the aim of the magic, that is, with lightness, with swiftness and with flying. in the magic of the kula we find betel-nut, crushed with lime in a mortar, used to redden the tip of the canoe. betel-nut is also given to a partner, after it has been charmed over with a seducing spell. aromatic mint, boiled in coco-nut oil and ginger root are also used in the mwasila. the conch-shell, and the cosmetic ingredients, charmed over on sarubwoyna beach are really part of the outfit, and so is the lilava bundle. all the substances used in this magic are associated either with beauty and attractiveness (betel-nut, cosmetics, the mint plant) or with excitement (conch-shell, chewed betel-nut). here therefore, it is not with the final aim--which is the obtaining of valuables--that the magic is concerned, but with the intermediate one, that is that of being agreeable to one's partner, of putting him into a state of excitement about the kula. xiv i wish to close this chapter by adducing a few texts of native information. in the previous chapters, several statements and narratives have been put into the natives' mouths and given in quotations. i wish now to show some of the actual linguistic data from which such quotations have been derived. numerous utterances of the natives were taken down by me as they were spoken. whenever there was a native expression covering a point of crucial importance, or a characteristic thought, or one neatly formulated, or else one especially hazy and opalescent in meaning--i noted them down in quick handwriting as they were spoken. a number of such texts, apart from their linguistic importance, will serve as documents embodying the native ideas without any foreign admixture, and it will also show the long way which lies between the crude native statement and its explicit, ethnographic presentation. for what strikes us at first sight most forcibly in these texts is their extreme bareness, the scantiness of information which they appear to contain. couched in a condensed, disjointed, one might say telegraphic style, they seem to lack almost everything which could throw light on the subject of our study. for they lack concatenation of ideas, and they contain few concrete details, and few really apt generalisations. it must be remembered, however, that, whatever might be the importance of such texts, they are not the only source of ethnographic information, not even the most important one. the observer has to read them in the context of tribal life. many of the customs of behaviour, of the sociological data, which are barely mentioned in the texts, have become familiar to the ethnographer through personal observation and the direct study of the objective manifestations and of data referring to their social constitution (compare the observations on method in the introduction). on the other hand, a better knowledge of and acquaintance with the means of linguistic expression makes the language itself much more significant to one who not only knows how it is used but uses it himself. after all, if natives could furnish us with correct, explicit and consistent accounts of their tribal organisation, customs and ideas, there would be no difficulty in ethnographic work. unfortunately, the native can neither get outside his tribal atmospheres and see it objectively, nor if he could, would he have intellectual and linguistic means sufficient to express it. and so the ethnographer has to collect objective data, such as maps, plans, genealogies, lists of possessions, accounts of inheritance, censuses of village communities. he has to study the behaviour of the native, to talk with him under all sorts of conditions, and to write down his words. and then, from all these diverse data, to construct his synthesis, the picture of a community and of the individuals in it. but i have dwelt on these aspects of method already in the introduction and here i want only to exemplify them with regard to the linguistic material directly representing some of the natives' thoughts on ethnographic subjects. xv i shall give here first a text on the subject of the priority in sailing, which as described in chapter ix, is the privilege of a certain sub-clan in sinaketa. i was discussing with a very good informant, toybayoba of sinaketa, the customs of launching the canoes, and i tried, as usually, to keep my interlocutor as much as possible to concrete details and to the stating of the full sequence of events. in his account he uttered this sentence: "the tolabwaga launch their canoe first; by this the face of the sea is cleared." i thereupon perceived that a new subject had been brought within my notice, and i headed my informant on to it, and obtained the following text, sentence after sentence:-- the tolabwaga sub-clan and their sea-faring privileges bikugwo, ikapusi siwaga he might be first he fall down (it is launched) their canoe tolabwaga, boge bimilakatile bwarita. tolabwaga, already he might be clear sea. igau kumaydona gweguya, tokay siwaga later on all chiefs, commoner their canoe ikapusisi oluvyeki. they fall down (are launched) behind. kidama takapusi takugwo bitavilidasi supposing we fall down, we are first they might turn (on) us baloma; bitana dobu, gala tabani bunukwa soulava. spirits; we might go dobu, no we find pig necklace. makawala yuwayoulo: bikugwo isipusi alike (lashing creeper) he (it) might be first they bind siwayugo, iga'u yakidasi. their wayugo lashing, later on ourselves. takeulo dobu, gala bikugwasi tolabwaga; we sail dobu, no they might be first tolabwaga; okovalawa boge aywokwo. on sea front already he was over. obwarita tananamse kayne isakauli taytala in sea we consider whether he run one (masculine) lawaga, ikugwo. his canoe, he is first. gala bikaraywagasi patile. no they might command canoe fleet. dobu, gweguya bikugwasi, biwayse dobu, chiefs they might be first, they might come there kaypatile gweguya. canoe fleet chiefs. m'tage tolabwaga boge aywokwo sikaraywaga indeed tolabwaga already he (it) was over their command ovalu. in village. the tolabwaga sub-clan belong to the lukwasisiga clan, and live at present in kasi'etana. only one man and two women are surviving. simwasila siwaga migavala, vivila boge their kula magic their canoe magic his, woman already iyousayse. they grasp. "datukwasi boge kasakaymi megwa kwaraywagasi "our magical property already we give you magic you command agayle!" to-day!" thus would they say on handing their magic to their male descendants. informant's commentary. commenting on verse , the expression, 'bitalividasi baloma,' my informant said: 'bitavilida': bilivalasi baloma "avaka 'they might turn (on) us': they might say spirit "what pela gala ikugwo tolabwaga, kukugwasi gumgweguya; for no he is first tolabwaga, you are first sub-chiefs; kayuviyuvisa tolabwaga!" sweepers of the sea tolabwaga!" tavagi gaga igiburuwasi, ninasi igaga, pela we do bad they angry mind theirs' he bad for magisi balayamata tokunabogwo aygura. desire theirs we might watch long ago he has decreed. the verbal translation renders word for word the individual meaning of every particle and root, according to a definite grammatical and lexicographical scheme which has been adopted for this text in common with a few hundred more. in this place, i cannot give the commentary and justification of the linguistic details, which will be fairly obvious to a melanesian scholar, who might, however, find some new and even controversial features in my translation. to other readers, these details are of small interest. i have not included in this translation any distinction between the inclusive and exclusive first person, dual and plural. of the two tenses which are to be found in this text, the narrative one is translated by the english verb in infinitive, the potential, by the addition of the word 'might.' in brackets underneath, the special meaning of a word in its context is indicated, or some comments are added. the free translation of the text must now be given:-- free translation. the tolabwaga canoe would be launched first; by this the face of the sea is cleared. afterwards, all the chiefs', the commoners' canoes are launched. if we would launch our canoes first, the spirits (of ancestors) would be angry with us; we would go to dobu and we would receive no pigs, no necklaces. it is likewise with the lashing of the canoe: first, the tolabwaga would bind the lashing creeper and afterwards ourselves. on our journey to dobu, the tolabwaga would not sail ahead, for their priority ends on the beach of sinaketa. on the sea it is according to our wish, and if one man's canoe runs fast, he would be first. they (the tolabwaga) do not wield the command of the canoe fleet. in dobu, the chiefs would be first; the chiefs would arrive there at the head of the fleet. but the supremacy of the tolabwaga ends here already, in the village. the kula magic, the magic of the canoe, belonging to the tolabwaga clan has passed already into the hands of their womenfolk. (these would say speaking to their male children): -- "we shall give you the magic, the magical inheritance, you rule henceforward." when the spirits become angry, they would tell us:-- "why are the tolabwaga not first and you minor chiefs are ahead? are not the tolabwaga cleaners of the sea?" when we do wrong, they (the spirits) are angry, their minds are malevolent, for they desire that we should keep to the old customs. xvi comparing the free translation with the literal one, it is easy to see that certain additions have been made, sentences have been subordinated and co-ordinated by various english conjunctions which are either completely absent from the native text, or else represented by such very vague particles as boge (already), and m'tage (indeed). on these linguistic questions i cannot enlarge here, but it will be good to go over each sentence in succession, and to show how much it was necessary to add from the general store of sociological and ethnographic knowledge, in order to make it intelligible. . the meaning of the word 'fall down' is specialised here by the context, and i translated it by 'launch.' the particle boge had to be translated here by 'by this.' the words about the 'clearing of the sea' suggested at once to me that there was a special ancient custom in question. then there is the name of the sub-clan tolabwaga. in order to understand the full meaning of this phrase, it is necessary to realise that this name stands for a sub-clan; and then one has to be well acquainted with native sociology, in order to grasp what such a privilege, vested in a sub-clan, might mean. thus, a word like this can in the first place be understood only in the context of its phrase, and on the basis of a certain linguistic knowledge. but its fuller meaning becomes intelligible only in the context of the native life and of native sociology. again the expression referring to the clearing of the sea required a further comment, for which i asked my informant, and was answered by phrase . . in this phrase the expressions 'chiefs,' 'commoners' etc., are fully intelligible only to one, who has a definition of these words in terms of native sociology. indeed, only the knowledge of the usual supremacy of the chiefs allows one to gauge their importance and the survival character of this custom, by which this importance is diminished for a time. . here, we have the explanation of the obscure clause in phrase , 'a clear sea' means the good temper of the spirits which again means good luck. the question as to whether the spirits are to be imagined as actively interfering or helping still remained open. i asked for a further elucidation, which was given to me in the text of phrases and . . this contains a condensed reference to the stages of ship-building, previous to launching. this, of course, to be understood, pre-supposes a knowledge of these various activities. to . the limitations of the powers of the tolabwaga sub-clan are outlined, giving interesting side-lights on the rôle played by females as repositories of family (sub-clan) traditions. needless to say, this statement would be entirely meaningless without the knowledge of the natives' matrilineal institutions, of their customs of inheritance and of property in magic. the correct knowledge of these facts can only be gathered by a collection of objective, ethnographic documents, such as concrete data about cases of actual inheritance, etc. and . here it is explained how far the baloma would become angry and how they would act if a custom were broken. it can be distinctly seen from it that the anger of the spirits is only a phrase, covering all these forces which keep the natives to the observance of old customs. the baloma would go no further than to reproach them for breaking the old rules, and there are no definite ideas among these natives about actual punishment being meted out by offended spirits. these considerations show convincingly that no linguistic analysis can disclose the full meaning of a text without the help of an adequate knowledge of the sociology, of the customs and of the beliefs, current in a given society. xvii another sample of a native text may be given here, as it is of especial interest, in that it throws light upon the previously given magical formula of the wayugo. it is the text i obtained trying to find the meaning of the word bosisi'ula, which figures at the beginning of the above-mentioned spell. according to two informants of sinaketa, the word visisi'una refers to the belief already described, that the owner of a wayugo charm is liable to fits of trembling, during which he trembles as a bisila (pandanus) streamer trembles in the wind. he then should ritually eat some baked fish, and this is called visisi'una. such a man would then ask somebody of his household:-- "kugabu, kumaye, avisisi'una." "thou bake, thou bring, i ritually eat." or someone else would urge his wife or daughter:-- "kugabu, kumaye, ivisisi'una." "thou bake, thou bring, he eats ritually." again, asked for a direct equation, my informant said:-- "ivisisi'una -- bigabu, tomwaya ikam." "ivisisi'una -- he bake, old man he eat." the following text contains a more explicit definition of the term, which i was trying at that time to make clear and to translate by an appropriate english expression. explanation of word visisi'una a.--first informant. pela isewo wayugo, itatatuva for he learn wayugo, (the creeper magic) he (it) tremble wowola matauna, isa'u (or isewo) wayugo. body his this (man), (who) he learn wayugo. "nanakwa, kugabu kusayki, tomwaya "quick, thou bake thou give old man (magician) ivisisi'una boge itatatuva kana bisila, he ritually eats, already he tremble his pandanus streamer, kana wayugo." his wayugo creeper." b.--second informant. tayta isewo bisila, gala bikam (if) one (man) he learn bisila, not he might eat yena, boge itatuva wowola. fish, already he tremble body his. free translation. (a.) . the body of a man who has learned the wayuga spell, trembles, because he learned the spell. (someone seeing him tremble, would tell someone of his household:) "quick, bake fish, give to the old man that he might ritually eat, his pandanus streamer trembles, his wayugo." (b.) a man who learns the bisila magic and does not eat fish will tremble. this text, with its foregoing short comments and with its two versions will give an inkling of how i was able to obtain from my native informants the definition of unknown and sometimes very involved expressions and how, in the act of doing it, i was given additional enlightenment on obscure details of belief and custom. it will also be interesting to give another text referring to the gwara custom. i have given in chapter xiv a native definition of this custom, and of the reception accorded to the trobrianders in dobu when there is a taboo on palms there. the statement was based on the following text, and on certain other additional notes. gwara in dobu and the ka'ubana'i magic tama dobu ikarigava'u--gwara: bu'a bilalava we come (to) dobu, he die anew--gwara: areca he might ripen usi bimwanogu, nuya bibabayse ka'i banana he might ripen, coco-nut they might spike stick kayketoki. small stick. gala ka'ubana'i, takokola: ikawoyse bowa no ka'ubana'i, we fright: they take (put on) war paints kayyala, kema; isisuse biginayda spear, axe; they sit they might look at us. batana ovalu tasakaulo, gala tanouno batawa we go in village we run, no we walk. we might arrive tamwoyne bu'a. we (i.d.) climb areca. idou: "e! gala bukumwoyne bu'a." he cries "e! no thou mightst climb areca." bogwe ika'u kayyala, mwada biwoyda. already he take spear, mayhap he might hit us. tapula nayya ka'ubana'i: ika'ita we ritually spit wild ginger root ka'ubana'i: he return ima, igigila iluwaymo kayyala, kema. he come he laugh, he throw spear, axe. tapula valu kumaydona, boge itamwa'u we ritually spit village all, already he vanish ninasi ilukwaydasi: mind theirs', they tell us: "bweyna, kumwoynasi kami bu'a, nuya, kami "good, you climb your areca, coco-nut (palms) your usi kuta'isi." banana you cut." in comment added: gala ikarige veyola ninasi bweyna. no he die kinsman his, mind their well. vivila kayyala ikawo, pela tokamsita'u. woman spear her she take for cannibals. free translation we come to dobu, (there) someone has recently died--there is a gwala: the areca nut will ripen, the bananas will ripen, they will stick up coco-nuts on small spikes. if there is no ka'ubana'i charm made--we are afraid: they (sc. the dobuans) put on war paint, take up spear and axe, they sit (waiting) and look at us. we go into the village running, not walking; we arrive and climb the areca palm. he (the dobuan) shouts: "don't climb the areca palm!" already he takes the spear, so as to hit us. we ritually spit about wild ginger root charmed with the ka'ubana'i spell--he returns, comes to us, laughs, he throws away spear and axe. we ritually bespit the whole village, already their intention vanishes, they tell us: "well, climb your areca palm and your coco-nut, cut your banana." if no kinsman had died, their intentions are good. a woman would also take up a spear, as they (the dobuans) are cannibals. these three texts will be quite sufficient to give an idea of the method of dealing with linguistic evidence, and of the documentary value of immediately recorded native opinions. they will also make clear what i have said before, that only a good, working knowledge of a native language on the one hand, and a familiarity with their social organisation and tribal life on the other, would make it possible to read all the full significance into these texts. chapter xix the inland kula i after the somewhat long digression on magic, we can now return once more to the description of the kula. so far, we have been treating only one incident in it, the overseas expedition between sinaketa and dobu, and the return visit. but in dealing with this one typical stage we have received a picture of the whole kula, and we have incidentally learnt all about the fundamentals of the exchange, the magic, the mythology, and the other associated aspects. now it remains to put the finishing touches to the general picture, that is, to say a few words, first about the manner in which it is conducted within a district, and then to follow the exchange on the remaining part of the ring. the exchange within each kula community has been called the 'inland kula.' this part of the subject i know from personal experience in the trobriands only. all that will be said therefore in this chapter will apply primarily to that part of the ring. as boyowa, however, is by far the biggest and most densely populated piece of land within the kula, it is clear that in treating the inland exchange in that island, we treat it in its most developed and typical form. it has been mentioned before, in chapter xvi that in april, , to'uluwa had come to sinaketa in connection with the uvalaku visit of the dobuans. to'uluwa is the present chief of omarakana, indeed, the last chief of kiriwina, for after his death no one will succeed him. his power has been broken by the interference of government officials and the influence of mission work. the power of the trobriand chief lay mainly in his wealth, and this he was able to keep constantly at a high level through the institution of polygamy. now that he is forbidden to acquire more wives, though he may keep his old ones; and now that his successor will not be allowed to follow this immemorial custom of polygamy practised by their dynasty, the power of the chief has no basis, and has to a great extent collapsed. i may add that this interference, inflicted for no comprehensible purposes, except if it be an exceedingly parochial and narrow-minded application of our sense of morality and propriety, has no legal basis whatever in the regulations of that colony, and could not be justified either formally or on account of any results it may produce. indeed, the undermining of old-established authority, of tribal morals and customs tends on the one hand completely to demoralise the natives and to make them unamenable to any law or rule, while on the other hand, by destroying the whole fabric of tribal life, it deprives them of many of their most cherished diversions, ways of enjoying life, and social pleasures. now once you make life unattractive for a man, whether savage or civilised, you cut the taproot of his vitality. the rapid dying out of native races is, i am deeply convinced, due more to wanton interference with their pleasures and normal occupations, to the marring of their joy of life as they conceive it, than to any other cause. in the trobriands, for instance, the chief has always been the organiser of all the big, tribal festivities. he received large contributions from the commoners under various legal obligations (see chap. vi, division vi) but he gave away all his wealth again in the form of big, ceremonial distributions, of presents at festivities, of food gifts to the partakers in dances, tribal sports and diversions. these were the pleasures in which the natives found real zest, which largely gave meaning to their lives. nowadays all these pursuits have greatly slackened, because of the lack of concentration of wealth and power in the chief's hands. he can neither afford to finance the big pastimes of yore, nor has he influence enough to give the same energetic initiative to start them going. after his death, things will be worse still. there are reasons to fear, and even natives express their misgivings, that in a generation or two the kula will become entirely disorganised. it is a well-known fact that the resistance and health of a native depend on auto-suggestion more even than is the case with ourselves, though new developments in psychotherapy seem to indicate that medicine has up till now largely underrated the general influence of this factor. even the old ethnographic observers, more in polynesia perhaps than anywhere else, have reported clear, unmistakable instances in which the loss of interest in life and the determination to die brought about death without any other cause. my own experience, though i have no one very striking case to cite, bears this out fully from all sorts of corroborating types of evidence. it is therefore not going beyond what is fully granted by facts, to maintain that a general loss of interest in life, of the joie de vivre, the cutting of all the bonds of intense interest, which bind members of a human community to existence, will result in their giving up the desire to live altogether, and that therefore they will fall an easy prey to any disease, as well as fail to multiply. a wise administration of natives would, on the one hand, try to govern through the chief, using his authority along the lines of old law, usage, and custom; on the other hand it would try to maintain all which really makes life worth living for the natives, for it is the most precious inheritance, which they have from the past ages, and it is no good to try to substitute other interests for those lost. it is easy to hand over one's vices to a man racially and culturally different; but nothing is as difficult to impart as a keen interest in the sports and amusements of other people. even from one european nation to another, the last stronghold of national peculiarity can be found in its traditional diversions, and without diversion and amusement a culture and a race cannot survive. the application of a heavy, indeed, crushing machinery of european law and moral regulations, with their various sanctions, simply destroys the whole delicate fabric of tribal authority, eradicating good and bad alike, and leaves nothing but anarchy, bewilderment and ill will. [ ] with a mere show of his former authority, therefore, poor old to'uluwa arrived with a handful of followers at sinaketa. he still keeps to all the strict observances and onerous duties with which his exalted position was weighted in olden days. thus, he may not partake of ever so many kinds of food, considered to be unclean for the members of the sub-clan of tabalu. he may not even touch any defiled objects, that have been in contact with unclean food; he may not eat from dishes or drink out of vessels which have been used previously by other people. when he goes to sinaketa, for instance, where even the highest chiefs do not keep the taboos, he remains almost on starvation diet; he can only eat the food which has been brought from his own village, or drink and eat green coco-nut. of the honours attaching to his position, not many are observed. in olden days, on his approach to a village, a runner would enter first, and in a loud voice cry out "o guya'u," whereupon all the people would stand in readiness, and at the chief's approach the commoners would throw themselves on the ground, the headman would squat down, and men of rank would bend their heads. even now, no commoner in the trobriands would stand erect in the presence of to'uluwa. but he no more announces his arrival in such a loud and proud manner, and he takes his dues as they are given, not demanding them with any show of authority. ii on that occasion in sinaketa, i met him again after about two years interval since the time when i lived as his neighbour in omarakana for some eight months, my tent pitched side by side with his lisiga (chief's man's abode). i found him changed and aged, his tall figure more bent, his large face, with its expression half of benevolence and half of cunning, wrinkled and clouded over. he had some grievances to tell about the offhand treatment which had been given to him in sinaketa, where he had received no necklaces at all, although a few days before the sinaketans had carried from kiriwina over pairs of armshells. indeed, the relative change of position between the chiefs of sinaketa and himself is a permanent sore point with the old chief. all coastal natives, and especially the headman of sinaketa, have become very rich owing to the introduced industry of pearling, where their services are paid for by the white men in tobacco, betel-nut, and vaygu'a. but to'uluwa, ruined through white man's influence, receives nothing from pearling, and compared to his sinaketan inferiors, is a pauper. so after a day or two in sinaketa, highly displeased, and vowing never to return again, he went back to omarakana, his residence, and thither we shall follow him. for omarakana is still the centre of the trobriand inland kula, and, in certain respects, still one of the most important places on the ring. it is probably the only locality where the kula is or ever was to some extent concentrated in the hands of one man, and it is also the capital of the important district of kiriwina, which dominates all the inland kula of the northern trobriands, and links up the island of kitava with the western islands of kuyleula and kuyawa. it is also an important link between kitava and sinaketa, though between these two last mentioned places there are some minor means of communication, as we shall presently see. previously, in chapter iii, in the definition of the fundamentals of the kula, we saw that the population of the ring can be divided into what we called kula communities. these divisions, as we remember, were distinguished by the fact that each one makes overseas expeditions of its own. for example, the sinaketans, as we saw, make their trips to dobu in a body, and although the vakutans may go with them at the same time, the two fleets sail and act as independent units. again, the whole district of kiriwina sails to the east, to kitava, as one fleet. but no sinaketan canoe could ever form part of it. another distinguishing characteristic of a kula community is that the furthest limits of partnership are the same for all its members. thus for instance, a man from any village in kiriwina, provided he is in the kula, may have a partner anywhere up to the furthest limits of the sinaketa district in the south, and in any of the villages of the island of kitava to the east. but beyond that, no kiriwinian, not even to'uluwa himself, can enter into kula partnership. there are again certain differences between the manner of conducting transactions within a kula community on the one hand, and between members of two communities on the other. kiriwina is one of such kula communities, and sinaketa is another. yet the two are not divided by sea, and the style of exchange, when this is carried on between two kula communities which lie in the same district, differs also from that of overseas kula. our first task here will be therefore to mark out clearly the lines of distinction between: . the transactions of kula carried on overseas, from one district to another. . kula between two distinct but contiguous 'kula communities.' . transactions within a 'kula community.' the facts belonging to the first heading have been described at length, and it will be enough to point out in what the second type differs from the first. obviously, when two districts on the same island, such as kiriwina and sinaketa, make the exchange there is no overseas sailing, no preparation of canoes, no launching, no kabigidoya. sometimes big joint expeditions are made by the one community to the other and a great haul of vaygu'a is carried home. as an example of that, we may mention the visit made by the sinaketans to kiriwina in the last days of march, , when a great number of mwali were brought, in readiness for the dobuan uvalaku visit. when such an important visit is made from one trobriand district to another, some of the kula magic will be performed, but obviously not all, for there is no lilava bundle to be medicated, since no trade is carried; no dangerous cannibals have to be tamed by the ka'ubana'i rite, for the hosts are, and always have been, friendly neighbours. but some of the beauty magic, and the enticing formula over betel-nut would be recited to obtain as many valuables as possible. there is nothing corresponding to uvalaku in such big visits between neighbouring districts, though i think that they would be held only in connection with some uvalaku visit from another part of the ring to one of the two districts, as was the case in the example quoted, that is the sinaketan visit to kiriwina (chapter xvi). of course there is no associated trade on such expeditions, for there is very little to exchange between sinaketa and kiriwina, and what there is, is done independently, in a regular manner all the year round. partnership between people of such two kula communities is very much the same as within one of them. it obtains between people speaking the same language, having the same customs and institutions, many of whom are united by bonds of actual kinship or relationship-in-law. for, as has been mentioned already, marriages between sinaketa and kiriwina take place frequently, especially between natives of high rank. the rule is, in such cases, that a man of sinaketa marries a woman of kiriwina. iii let us pass now to the relation between categories and , that is between kula of two contiguous 'kula communities,' and the kula within one of them. first of all, in the inland kula within the same community, there never take place big, wholesale transactions. the circulation of vaygu'a consists of individual exchanges, sometimes more frequent, that is, whenever an overseas expedition has come home laden with many valuables, sometimes done at long intervals. no magic is performed in this type of kula, and though there is a certain amount of ceremony accompanying each gift, there are no big, public gatherings. a concrete description of an actual case may serve best to illustrate these general statements. during the eight months i stayed in omarakana in - , i had the opportunity of watching many cases of inland kula, as there was a constant come and go between kiriwina and kitava, and subsequent to each influx of armshells from the east, a series of exchanges took place. in the month of november, to'uluwa went with his canoe on a small expedition across the sea to kitava, and brought back a good haul of mwali (armshells). he arrived on an evening on the beach of kaulukuba, and word was sent over to the village that next day he would come up with his trophies. in the morning, blows of conch-shell, heard from the distance, announced the approach of the returning party, and soon, preceded by one of his small sons carrying the conch-shell, to'uluwa made his appearance followed by his companions. each man carried a few pairs which he had obtained, whilst the chief's share was brought in on a stick, hanging down in a chaplet (see plate lx). the people in the village sat before their huts, and according to native custom, there was no special concourse to meet the chief, nor any outward signs of excitement. the chief went straight to one of his bulaviyaka, that is, one of his wives' houses, and sat on the platform before it, waiting for some food to come. that would be the place where he would seat himself, if he wanted just to have a domestic chat with some of his wives and children. had any strangers been there, he would have received them at his place of official reception, in front of his lisiga, the extremely large and high chief's house, standing in the inner row of yam houses, and facing the main place, the baku (see plate ii). on that occasion he went to the hut of kadamwasila, his favourite wife, the mother of four sons and one daughter. she is quite old now, but she was the first wife married by to'uluwa himself, that is, not inherited, and there is an unmistakable attachment and affection between the two, even now. though the chief has several much younger and one or two really fine looking wives, he is usually to be found talking and taking his food with kadamwasila. he has also a few older wives, whom, according to the custom, he inherited from his predecessor, in that case, his elder brother. the eldest of them, bokuyoba, the dean of the body of the chief's wives, has been twice inherited; she is now a source of income--for her male kinsmen have to supply yams to the chief--and an object of veneration, and is now even relieved of the duty of cooking the chief's food. to'uluwa sat, ate, and talked about his journey to myself and some of the village elders assembled there. he spoke of the amount of mwali at present in kitava, told us from whom and how he obtained those at which we were then looking, naming the most important ones, and giving bits of their histories. he commented on the state of gardens in kitava, which in one respect, in the production of the big yams (kuvi) are the admiration of all the surrounding districts. he spoke also about future kula arrangements, expeditions to arrive from the east in kiriwina, and of his own planned movements. on the afternoon of the same day, people from other villages began to assemble, partly to hear the news of the chief's expedition, partly in order to find out what they could obtain themselves from him. headmen from all the dependent villages sat in one group round the chief, who now had moved to the official reception ground, in front of his lisiga. their followers, in company with the chief's henchmen, and other inhabitants of omarakana, squatted all over the baku (central place), engaged in conversation. the talk in each group was of the same subjects, and did not differ much from the conversation, i had heard from the chief on his arrival. the newly acquired armshells were handed round, admired, named, and the manner of their acquisition described. next day, several soulava (spondylus shell necklaces) were brought to omarakana by the various men from neighbouring villages to the west, and ceremonially offered to to'uluwa (see plates lxi, lxii, and frontispiece). this was, in each case a vaga (opening gift), for which the giver expected to receive his yotile (clinching gift) at once from the store of mwali. in this case we see the influence of chieftainship in the relation between kula partners. in the inland kula of kiriwina, all gifts would be brought to to'uluwa, and he would never have to fetch or carry his presents. moreover, he would always be given and never give the opening gift (vaga); while his gift would invariably be a yotile. so that the chief sometimes owes a kula gift to a commoner, but a commoner never owes a gift to a chief. the difference between the rules of procedure here and those of an uvalaku overseas expedition is clear: in a competitive overseas expedition, valuables for exchange are never carried by the visiting party, who only receive gifts and bring them back home; in the inland kula, the determining factor is the relative social position of the two partners. gifts are brought to the man of superior by the man of inferior rank, and the latter has also to initiate the exchange. the following entry is quoted literally from my notes, made in omarakana, on november the th, . "this morning, the headman of wagaluma brought a bagido'u (fine necklace). at the entrance to the village (it is omarakana), they (the party) halted, blew the conch shell, put themselves in order. then, the conch shell blower went ahead, the men of highest rank took the stick with the bagido'u, a boy carrying the heavy wooden bell pendant on a kaboma (wooden dish)." this requires a commentary. the ceremonial way of carrying the spondylus shell necklaces is by attaching each end to a stick, so that the necklace hangs down with the pendant at its lowest point (see frontispiece and pl. lxi and lxii). in the case of very long and fine necklaces, in which the pendant is accordingly big and heavy, while the actual necklace is thin and fragile, the pendant has to be taken off and carried apart. resuming the narrative:--"the headman approached to'uluwa and said: 'agukuleya, ikanawo; lagayla lamaye; yoku kayne gala mwali.' this he said in thrusting the stick into the thatch of the chief's house." the words literally mean: 'my kuleya (food left over), take it; i brought it to-day; have you perhaps no armshells?' the expression 'food left over,' applied to the gift was a depreciating term, meaning something which is an overflow or unwanted scrap. thus he was ironically depreciating his gift, and at the same time implying that much wealth still remained in his possession. by this, in an oblique manner, he bragged about his own riches, and with the last phrase, expressing doubt as to whether to'uluwa had any armshells, he threw a taunt at the chief. this time the gift was returned immediately by a fine pair of armshells. it was in connection with the same expedition that the little exchange between two of the chief's wives took place, mentioned before (in chapter xi, division ii, under ) and one or two more domestic kula acts were performed, a son of to'uluwa offering him a necklace (see plates lxi and lxii) and receiving a pair of armshells afterwards. many more transactions took place in those two days or so; sounds of conch shells were heard on all sides as they were blown first in the village from which the men started, then on the way, then at the entrance to omarakana, and finally at the moment of giving. again, after some time another blast announced the return gift by to'uluwa, and the receding sounds of the conch marked the stages of the going home of the party. to'uluwa himself never receives a gift with his own hands; it is always hung up in his house or platform, and then somebody of his household takes charge of it; but the commoner receives the armshell himself from the hands of the chief. there was much life and movement in the village during this time of concentrated exchange; parties came and went with vaygu'a, others arrived as mere spectators, and the place was always full of a gazing crowd. the soft sounds of the conch shell, so characteristic of all south sea experiences, gave a special flavour to the festive and ceremonial atmosphere of those days. not all the armshells brought from kitava were thus at once given away. some of them were kept for the purposes of more distant kula; or to be given on some future, special occasion when a present had to be handed over in association with some ceremony. in the inland kula, there is always an outbreak of transactions whenever a big quantity of valuables is imported into the district. and afterwards, sporadic transactions happen now and then. for the minor partners who had received armshells from to'uluwa would not all of them keep them for any length of time, but part of them would be sooner or later passed on in inland transactions. but, however these valuables might spread over the district, they would be always available when an expedition from another kula community would come and claim them. when the party from sinaketa came in march, , to omarakana, all those who owned armshells would either come to the capital or else be visited in their villages by their sinaketan partners. of the or so armshells obtained in kiriwina on that occasion, only thirty came from to'uluwa himself, and fifty from omarakana altogether, while the rest were given from other villages, in the following proportions: liluta osapola mtawa kurokaywa omarakana (to'uluwa) omarakana (other men) yalumugwa kasana'i other villages --- thus the inner kula does not affect the flow of the main stream, and, however, the valuables might change hands within the 'kula community,' it matters little for the outside flow. iv it will be necessary to give a more detailed account of the actual conditions obtaining in boyowa with regard to the limits of the various kula communities in that district. looking at map iv, p. , we see there the boundaries of kiriwina, which is the easternmost kula community in the northern part of the islands. to the west of it the provinces of tilataula, kuboma, and kulumata form another kula community, or, it would be more correct to say, some of the men in these districts make the inland kula with members of neighbouring communities. but these three provinces do not form as a whole a kula community. in the first place, many villages are quite outside the kula, that is, not even their headmen belong to the inter-tribal exchange. remarkably enough, all the big industrial centres, such as bwoytalu, luya, yalaka, kadukwaykela, buduwaylaka, do not take part in the kula. an interesting myth localised in yalaka tells how the inhabitants of that village, prevented by custom from seeing the world on kula expeditions, attempted to erect a high pillar reaching to heaven, so as to find a field for their adventures in the skies. unfortunately, it fell down, and only one man remained above, who is now responsible for thunder and lightning. another important omission in the kula is that of the northern villages of laba'i, kaybola, lu'ebila, idaleaka, kapwani and yuwada. if we remember that laba'i is the very centre of kiriwinian mythology, that there lies the very hole out of which the original ancestors of the four clans emerged from underground, that the highest chiefs of kiriwina trace their descent from laba'i, this omission appears all the more remarkable and mysterious. thus the whole western half of the northern trobriands forms a unit of sorts in the chain of kula communities, but it cannot be considered as a fully fledged one, for only sporadic individuals belong to it, and again, that district as a whole, or even individual canoes from it, never take part in any overseas kula expedition. the village of kavataria makes big overseas sailings to the western d'entrecasteaux islands. though these expeditions really have nothing to do with the kula we shall say a few words about this in the next chapter but one. passing now to the west, we find the island of kayleula, which, together with two or three smaller islands, to its south, kuyawa, manuwata, and nubiyam, form a 'kula community' of its own. this community is again slightly anomalous, for they make kula only on a small scale, on the one hand with the chiefs and headmen of kiriwina, and of the north-western district of boyowa, and on the other hand with the amphletts, but never with dobu. they also used to make long and perilous trips to the western d'entrecasteaux, sailing further west and for longer distances than the natives of kavataria. the main kula communities in the south of boyowa, sinaketa and vakuta, have been described already, and sufficiently defined in the previous chapters. sinaketa is the centre for inland kula of the south, which, though on a smaller scale than the inland kula of the north, still unites half-a-dozen villages round sinaketa. that village also carries on kula with three coastal villages in the east, okayaulo, bwaga, and kumilabwaga, who link it up with kitava, to where they make journeys from time to time. these villages form again the sort of imperfect 'kula community,' or perhaps one on a very small scale, for they would never have an uvalaku of their own, and the amount of transactions which pass through them is very small. another such small community, independent as regards kula, is the village of wawela. the district of luba, which sometimes joins with kiriwina in carrying on a big expedition, also sometimes joins with wawela on small expeditions. such nondescript or intermediate phenomena of transition are always to be found in studying the life of native races, where most social rules have not got the same precision as with us. there is among them neither any strong, psychological tendency to consistent thinking, nor are the local peculiarities and exceptions rubbed off by the influence of example or competition. i cannot say very much about the inland kula in other regions besides the trobriands. i have seen it done in woodlark island, at the very beginning of my work among the northern massim, and that was the first time that i came across any of the symptoms of the kula. early in , in the village of dikoyas, i heard conch shells blown, there was a general commotion in the village, and i saw the presentation of a large bagido'u. i, of course, inquired about the meaning of the custom, and was told that this is one of the exchanges of presents made when visiting friends. at that time i had no inkling that i had been a witness of a detailed manifestation, of what i subsequently found out was kula. on the whole, however, i have been told by natives from kitava and gawa, later on whilst working in the trobriands, that the customs of kula exchange there are identical with those obtaining in kiriwina. and the same i was told is the case in dobu. it must be realised, however, that the inland kula must be somewhat different in a community where, as in kitava, for instance, the strands of the kula all come together in a small space, and the stream of valuables, which has been flowing through the broad area of the trobriands, there concentrates into three small villages. if we estimate the inhabitants of the trobriands with vakuta at up to ten thousand, while those of kitava at no more than five hundred, there will be about twenty times as many valuables per head of inhabitants in kitava as compared to the trobriands. another such place of concentration is the island of tubetube, and i think one or two places in woodlark island, where the village of yanabwa is said to be an independent link in the chain, through which every article has to pass. but this brings us already to the eastern kula, which will form the subject of the next chapter. chapter xx expeditions between kiriwina and kitava i the subject of which this book treats and the material at our disposal are nearly exhausted. in describing the southern branch of the kula (between sinaketa and dobu) i entered into the details of its rules and associated aspects, and almost all that was said there refers to the kula as a whole. in speaking of the n.e. branch of the kula, which i am now about to describe, there will not therefore be very much new to tell. all the general rules of exchange and types of behaviour are the same as those previously defined. here we have also big uvalaku expeditions and small, non-ceremonial sailings. the type of partnership between kiriwinians and kitavans is the same here, as the one obtaining within the trobriands, and described in the last chapter. for the natives of the eastern islands, from kitava to woodlark, have the same social organisation and the same culture as the trobrianders, and speak the same language with dialectical differences only. never any but friendly relations have obtained between them and many people are united by bonds of real kinship across the seas, for there have been migrations between the districts, and marriages are also not infrequent. thus the general relations between overseas partners are different here from those between sinaketa and dobu. the visiting is not associated with any deep apprehensions, there is no ka'ubana'i (danger magic), and the relations between the visitors and hosts are much more free and easy and intimate. the rest of the kula magic (except the ka'ubana'i) is identical with that in the south, and indeed much of it, as used all over boyowa, has been received from the kitavans. many of the preliminary customs and arrangements of the kula, the preparation of the canoes, ceremonial launching and kabigidoya are the same here. in fact, the launching described in chapter vi was the one i saw on the beach of omarakana. on the actual expeditions, much of the ceremonial and all the rules of the kula gifts, as well as of the pari and talo'i, the initial and farewell presents, are the same as in the south-western branch of the kula. the best plan will be to tell the story of a typical uvalaku expedition from kiriwina to kitava, noting the similarities and emphasising the differences, while one or two points of divergence will claim our special attention. there is a small, but interesting incident called youlawada, a custom which allows a visiting party to attack and damage the house ornaments of a man, to whom they bring a gift. another important speciality of this eastern kula is the association of a mortuary feast called so'i with particularly abundant distributions of vaygu'a. i had opportunities of collecting notes about the north-eastern kula and of making observations during my residence in omarakana, in - . i saw several expeditions from kitava arrive on the beach, and camp for a few days. to'uluwa went twice to kitava, and his return from one of these visits has been described in the last chapter. he also once started for an expedition there, of which i was a member. there was a change of wind, some time in september, and with the north wind which we hoped would last for a few hours, it would have been possible to cross to kitava and to return at our pleasure with the prevailing south-easterly. half-way to our goal, the wind changed and we had to return, to my great disappointment, though this gave me a good example of the entire dependence of the natives on the weather. unfortunately, to'uluwa got it into his head that i had brought him bad luck, and so when he planned his next trip, i was not taken into his confidence or allowed to form one of the party. two years later, when i lived in oburaka, about half-way between the northern and southernmost end of boyowa, several expeditions from kitava visited wawela, a village lying across on the other side of the island, which here is no more than a mile and a half wide; and one or two expeditions left from wawela for kitava. the only big expedition which came under my notice was the uvalaku which was to leave some time in april or may, , from kiriwina to the east. i saw only the preparatory stages, of which the launching was described in chapter vii. let us imagine that we follow the course of this kiriwinian uvalaku. the first general intimation that it would take place, came after one of the visits which to'ulawa made to kitava. he had heard there that a considerable quantity of armshells was soon to come to the island, for, as we shall see by the end of this chapter, such big, concerted movements of valuables along the ring take place from time to time. to'ulawa then and there made arrangements with his chief partner, kwaywaya, to make an uvalaku, which was to be the means of carrying on the big movement of the mwali. on his return to omarakana, when the headmen of the other kiriwinian villages assembled, the plans of the uvalaku were talked over and details arranged. even in olden days, before the chief's power was undermined, though he used to take the initiative, and give decisions in important matters, he had to put the case before the other headmen, and listen to what they had to say. their opinions on the occasion of which we are speaking, would hardly ever be in contradiction to his wishes, and it was decided without much discussion to make the uvalaku in about six months' time. soon after, the rebuilding or refitting of the canoes began, in the manner previously described. the only slight difference in the preparations between kiriwina and sinaketa lies in the preliminary trade. the kiriwinians have to go inland to the industrial districts of kuboma, and they go there every man on his own account, to acquire the articles needed. it will be best to say here at once all that is necessary about the trade between kiriwina and kitava. as these two districts are geologically and in other respects much more similar to one another than sinaketa and dobu are, the trade is not of such vital importance, with one notable exception, as we shall see. the articles of subsidiary trade, which a kiriwinian expedition would carry with them to kitava, are the following:--wooden combs; various classes of lime pots; armlets, plaited of fern fibre; turtle-shell earrings; mussel shell; coils of lashing creeper (wayugo); plaited fern belts, made originally in the d'entrecasteaux. of these articles, the most important are probably the mussel shells, used for scraping and as knives, the various kinds of lime pots, which are a speciality of kuboma, and last, but not least, the wayugo. i am not quite certain as to whether this creeper is not to be found in kitava, but as it grows only on marshy soil, it is hardly probable that it would thrive on a high, raised, coral island. in that case, the creeper is certainly the most indispensable of all the trade articles imported into kitava from the trobriands. the trobrianders import from the smaller islands a class of grass skirt made of coco-nut leaves; exceptionally well finished urn-shaped baskets; small hand-baskets; specially bleached pandanus mats; ornaments made of fragments of conus shell; certain classes of cowrie shell, used for ornamenting belts; ebony lime spatulæ; ebony walking staves; sword-clubs carved in ebony; and an aromatic black paint, made of charred sandal wood. none of these articles is of vital importance, as all of them, though perhaps in slightly different or even inferior quality, are manufactured or found in the trobriands. there was one article, however, which, in the olden days, was of surpassing utility to the trobriand natives, and which they could obtain only from kitava, though it came originally from further east, from murua (woodlark island). these were the kukumali, or roughly shaped pieces of green-stone, which were then polished in the trobriands, and in this state used as stone implements, while the biggest of them, very large and thin and well polished all over, became a specially important class of vaygu'a (articles of high value). although the practical use of stone implements has naturally been done away with by the introduction of steel and iron, the beku (valuable axe blades) have still an undiminished, indeed, an increased value, as the white traders have to use them for purchasing pearls from the natives. it is important to note that although all the raw material for these stone implements and valuables had to be imported from kitava, the finished valuables were and are re-exported again, as kiriwina is still the main polishing district. as to the manner in which the trade was done between the kiriwinians and kitavans, all that has been said previously on the subject of inter-tribal trade holds good; part of the goods carried were given as presents, part of them were exchanged with non-partners, some were gifts received from the partners on leaving. ii returning to to'ulawa and his companions, as time went on there was more and more stir in the villages. as usually, all sorts of ambitious plans were framed, and the youthful members of the party hoped that they would reach muyuwa (or murua, woodlark island) where kula was not done, but where kiriwinian parties sometimes went in order to witness certain festivities. on the subject of muyuwa, bagido'u, the elderly heir apparent of omarakana, who however, as said in the previous chapter, will never succeed his uncle, had to tell his own experiences. as a small boy, he sailed there with one of the big chiefs of omarakana, his maternal grandfather. they went to suloga, the place where the green stone was quarried. "there," spoke bagido'u, "there was a big dubwadebula (grotto or rock shelf). the members of the lukulabuta clan (this clan is called kulutalu in muyuwa) of suloga, were the toli (masters, owners) of this dubwadebula, and could quarry the stone. they knew some megwa (magic); they charmed their axe-blades, and hit the walls of the dubwadebula. the kukumali (pieces of stone) fell down. when the men of boyowa came to suloga, they gave pari (presents) to the lukulabuta men of suloga. they gave them paya (turtle shell), kwasi (armlets), sinata (combs). then, the suloga men would show us the kukumali, and tell us: 'take them with you, take plenty.' good kukumali, which could be made into a beku (big wealth-blades) we would pay for; we would give our vaygu'a (valuables) in exchange. at parting, they would give us more kukumali as talo'i (farewell gift)." it must be remembered, in comment on this narrative, that when bagido'u went to suloga, some thirty or forty years ago, the iron and steel had already long before rendered the small kukumali quite useless and worthless to the natives, while the big kukumali had still their full value, as material for the large blades which serve as tokens of wealth. hence, the big ones had still to be paid for, and hence also the generous invitation to take as many of the small ones, as they liked, an invitation of which the visitors, with corresponding delicacy, refused to avail themselves. [ ] another hero of the occasion was old ibena, one of the tabalu (members of the highest rank) of kasana'i, the sister village of omarakana. he has spent a long time on the island of iwa, and knew the myths and magic of the eastern archipelago very well. he would sit down and tell for hours various stories of famous kula expeditions, of mythological incidents, and of the peculiar customs of the eastern islands. it was from him that i first obtained my information about the mulukwausi and their customs, about shipwreck and the means of saving the party, about the love magic of iwa, and many other facts, which only a man of cosmopolitan experience and culture, like ibena, would know and understand thoroughly. he was a good informant, eager to instruct and to display his wisdom and knowledge, and not devoid of imagination; of the licentious and libidinous women of kaytalugi (see chapter x) and of what a man has to suffer there, he would speak as if he had been there himself. at this time, he was specially loquacious about the kula, and associated customs, inspired as he was by the hope of re-visiting his old haunts, and by the admiration and reverence shown to him by his listeners, myself included. the other members of the audience were most interested in his accounts of how they make gardens in kitava, iwa and gawa; of the special dances performed there, of the technicalities of kula, and of the great efficiency of the iwan love magic. at that time, i was able to obtain more information about the kula, and that more easily and in a shorter while, than i had, with strenuous efforts, for months before. it is by taking advantage of such epochs, when the interest of the natives is centred round a certain subject, that ethnographic evidence can be collected in the easiest and most reliable manner. natives will willingly state customs and rules, and they will also accurately and with interest follow up concrete cases. here, for instance, they would trace the way in which a given pair of armshells had passed through the hands of several individuals, and was now supposed to have come round again to kitava--and in such a way one receives from the natives definite ethnographic documents, realities of thought, and details of belief, instead of forced artificial verbiage. i saw the proceedings as far as the ceremonial launching of the chiefs' canoes in kasana'i and omarakana (cf. chapter vi), when the natives assembled in big numbers, and various festivities took place. afterwards when everything was ready for sailing, a similar crowd gathered on the beach, though less numerous than the previous one, for only the neighbouring villages were there instead of the whole district. the chief addressed the crowd, enjoining strict taboos on strangers entering the village while the men were away. such taboos, on the surface at least, are very carefully kept, as i had opportunities to observe during the two previous absences of to'uluwa. early in the evening, everybody retired into his or her house, the outside fires were extinguished and when i walked through the village, it was quite deserted and except for a few old men specially keeping watch, no one was to be seen. strangers would be careful not to pass even through the outskirts of the village after sunset, and would take another road to avoid the grove of omarakana. even men from the sister-village of kasana'i were excluded from entering the capital, and on one occasion when two or three of them wanted to visit their friends, they were stopped from doing it by some of the old men, with a considerable display of indignation and authority. as it happened, a day or two afterwards, but still while the kula party were away, one of the favourite sons of to'uluwa, called nabwasu'a, who had not gone on the expedition, was caught in flagrante delicto of adultery with the youngest wife of the very old chief of kasana'i. the people of the latter village were highly incensed, not without an admixture of malicious amusement. one of these who had been expelled two nights before from omarakana took a conch shell and with its blast announced to the wide world the shame and scandal of omarakana. as a conch shell is blown only on very important and ceremonial occasion, this was a slap in the face of the supposedly virtuous community, and a reproach of its hypocrisy. a man of kasana'i, speaking in a loud voice, addressed the people of omarakana:-- "you don't allow us to enter your village; you call us adulterous (tokaylasi); but we wanted only to go and visit our friends. and look here, nabwasu'a committed adultery in our village!" the uvalaku party, to whom we now return, would cross the sea in a few hours and arrive in kitava. their manner of sailing, the arrangement of men in the canoe, the taboos of sailing are the same as in sinaketa. my knowledge of their canoe magic is much smaller than of that in southern boyowa, but i think they have got far fewer rites. the sailing on these seas is on the whole easier, for there are fewer reefs, and the two prevailing winds would either bring them towards the eastern islands, or push them back towards the long coast of boyowa. the natives of kiriwina are on the other hand far less expert sailors than the sinaketans. they have the same beliefs about the dangers at sea, especially about the participation of the flying witches in shipwreck. the history of such a calamity and the means of escape from it, given in one of the foregoing chapters (chapter x), refers to these seas, as well as to the sea-arm of pilolu. these natives, as well as the southern boyowans, feel and appreciate the romance of sailing; they are visibly excited at the idea of an expedition, they enjoy even the sight of the open sea on the eastern coast beyond the raybwag (coral ridge), and often walk there on mere pleasure parties. the eastern coast is much finer than the beach of the lagoon; steep, dark rocks alternate there with fine, sandy beaches, the tall jungle spreading over the higher and lower parts of the shore. the sailing to kitava does not present, however, the same contrasts as an expedition to the d'entrecasteaux islands from southern boyowa. the natives remain still in the world of raised coral islands, which they know from their own home. even the island of muyuwa (or murua, woodlark island) where i spent a short time, does not present such a definite contrast in landscape as that between the trobriands and the koya. i do not know from personal experience the marshall bennett islands, but from an excellent description given by professor seligman, they seem to be good specimens of small raised atolls. [ ] with regard to magic, the most important initial rites over the lilava and sulumwoya are done in the village by the toliwaga (compare above, chapter vii). the magic over the four coco-nuts in the canoe is not performed in kiriwina. on arrival at the beach in kitava, all the rites of beauty magic, as well as the magic over the conch shell are recited in a manner identical to that in sarubwoyna (chapter xiii). here, however, the natives have to make the last stage of the journey on foot. the party, headed by a small boy, probably a youngest son of the toliwaga, after whom the chief and the others follow, would march towards the village which is situated beyond the elevated ridge. when soulava (necklaces) are brought by the party--which, it must be remembered is never the case on an uvalaku--they would be carried ceremonially on sticks by some men following the chief. in that case, that is when the party are bringing kula gifts--the youlawada ceremony is performed. on entering the village, the party march on briskly without looking to right or left, and, whilst the boy blows frantically the conch shell, and all the men in the party emit the intermittent ceremonial scream called tilaykiki, others throw stones and spears at the kavalapu, the ornamental carved and painted boards running in a gothic arch round the eaves of a chief's house or yam house. almost all the kavalapu in the eastern villages are slightly injured, that of to'uluwa having one of its ends knocked off. the damage is not repaired, as it is a mark of distinction. this custom is not known in the kula between sinaketa and dobu or sinaketa and kiriwina. it begins on the eastern shore of the trobriands, and is carried on as far as tubetube where it stops again, for it is not practised in wari (teste island) or on the portion of the kula between tubetube and dobu. i myself never saw it practised in the trobriands, but i saw a similar custom among the massim of the south coast of new guinea. at a so'i feast which i witnessed in three different villages as it progressed from one to the other, the party who brought in gifts of pigs to a man attempted to do some damage to his trees or his house. a pig is always slung by its legs on a long, stout pole, dangling head downwards (see plates v and lxiii): with this pole the natives would ram a young coco-nut or betel-nut palm or a fruit tree and if not stopped by the owners would break or uproot it, the pig squealing and the women of the damaged party screaming in unison. again, a party entering a village with gifts to one of the inhabitants, would throw miniature spears at his house. a distinct show of fierceness and hostility is displayed on both sides by the natives on such occasions. although the somewhat histrionic attack, and the slight but real damage to property were sanctioned by tribal usage, not infrequently among the southern massim serious quarrels and scrimmages were started by it. this custom has been observed by professor seligman among the natives of bartle bay. "as a man passed the house, they speared the wall with the branches they had been waving, and left them stuck in the walls." and again: "... the people bringing them (the pigs) in, carried branches of trees or pieces of stick with a wisp of grass tied to the end, and with these speared the house of the man to whom the pigs were given." [ ] when we remember what has been said about the style in which all gifts are given; that is, so to speak, thrown down fiercely and almost contemptuously by the giver; when we remember the taunts with which gifts are often accompanied, as well as the manner in which they are received, the youlawada custom appears only as an exaggerated form of this manner of giving, fixed into a definite ceremonial. it is interesting from this point of view to note that the youlawada is only done in association with vaga (initial gifts) and not with the yotile (return gifts). the kiriwinian party, after having paid their preliminary ceremonial visit in the village, given their gifts, both of the kula and of the pari type, and had a long chat with their partners and friends, return in the evening to the beach, where they camp near their canoes. sometimes temporary huts are erected, sometimes in fine weather the natives sleep under mats on the sand beach. food is brought to them from the village by young, unmarried girls, who very often on that occasion arrange their intrigues with the visitors. the party will remain for a few days paying calls to the other villages of the island, talking, inspecting the gardens and hoping for more kula presents. the food of kitava is not tabooed to the chiefs, as the kitavans abstain from the worst abominations. at parting the visitors receive their talo'i gifts which are brought down to their canoes. the visits are returned by the kitavans in very much the same manner. they camp on the sand beaches of the eastern coast. when weather-bound they erect temporary habitations, and i have seen whole families, men, women, and children living for days on some of the eastern shores. for it is the custom of the men of kitava to carry their women and small children on their trips. the kiriwinians take sometimes unmarried girls, but they would never take their wives and small children, whilst in the south no sinaketan women at all go on a kula voyage however small and unimportant a one it may be. from big uvalaku expeditions, women are excluded in all the districts. it has been mentioned in the last chapter that kitava enjoys a privileged position in the ring, for every single piece of valuables has to pass through it. the island of kitava is a 'kula community' in itself. all its neighbours to the west, the kula communities of kiriwina, luba, wawela, southern boyowa (that is, the villages of okayyaulo, bwaga and kumilabwaga) cannot skip kitava when they are exchanging, and the same refers to the kitavan neighbours in the east. in other words, a man from the eastern islands beyond kitava, if he wants to pass an armshell westwards, has to give it to a kitava man, and may not give it directly to some one beyond. the islands east of kitava, iwa, gawa, and kwayawata form one community. this is shown on map v, where each 'kula community' is represented by one circle. the kula stream, after having concentrated in kitava, spreads out again, but by no means as broadly as when it runs to the westward, and overflows over the broad area of the trobriands. another point, in which the kula of kitava differs from that of sinaketa or kiriwina, a point on which i have touched already once before (in chapter xiii, division i) is that the small island has to make overseas exchanges on both sides. as we saw, the sinaketans carry on big expeditions and make uvalaku only to their southern partners, so that they receive only the one kula article, the necklaces in this manner, while their armshells come to them by inland kula, from their northern and eastern neighbours. the same mutatis mutandis refers to the kiriwinians, who receive all their necklaces overland and make overseas kula for their armshells only. the two islands of kitava and vakuta, as well as the other marshall bennetts are, so to speak, ambidextrous in the kula and have to fetch and carry both articles overseas. this, of course, results primarily from the geographical position in a district and a glance at map v will easily show which kula communities have to carry all their transactions overseas and which of them have to do one half of them overland. these latter are only the trobriand districts mentioned in the previous chapter and the districts in dobu. iii this exhausts all the peculiarities of the kula in kitava except one, and that a very important one. it has been mentioned before, in fact it is obvious from the account of the uvalaku custom that the kula does not run with an even flow, but in violent gushes. thus the uvalaku expedition from dobu described in chapter xvi carried about pairs of armshells from boyowa. such sudden rushes of the kula articles are associated with an important institution, which is not known in the trobriands or in dobu, but which we find in kitava and further along the ring, as far as tubetube (see map v). when a man dies, custom imposes a taboo upon the inhabitants of that village. this means that no one on a visit is received in the village, and no kula articles are given away from there. the community lying under the taboo, however, expect to receive as many kula gifts as possible, and busy themselves in that matter. after a certain time, a big ceremony and distribution of goods, called so'i is held, and invitations are sent out to all the kula partners, and, in the case of a big affair, even to people from districts beyond the boundary of partnership. a big distribution of food takes place in which all the guests receive their share, and then the kula valuables are given in great quantities to the partners of that community. the association of taboo on economic goods with mourning is a wide-spread feature of the melanesian customs in new guinea. i found it among the mailu on the south coast of new guinea, where a taboo, called gora, is put on coco-nuts as one of the features of mourning. [ ] the same institution, as we saw, obtains in dobu. similar taboos are to be found among the southern massim. [ ] the importance of such economic taboos at times of mourning is due to another wide-spread association, that namely which obtains between mourning and feasts, or, more correctly, distributions of food, which are made at intervals during a more or less prolonged period after a person's death. an especially big feast, or rather distribution, is made at the end of the period, and on this occasion the accumulated goods, usually coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs, are distributed. death among all the coastal natives of eastern new guinea causes a great and permanent disturbance in the equilibrium of tribal life. on the one hand, there is the stemming of the normal flow of economic consumption. on the other hand, an innumerable series of rites, ceremonies and festive distributions, which one and all create all sorts of reciprocal obligations, take up the best part of the energy, attention and time of the natives for a period of a few months, or a couple of years according to the importance of the dead. the immense social and economic upheaval which occurs after each death is one of the most salient features of the culture of these natives, and one also which on its surface strikes us as enigmatic and which entices into all sorts of speculations and reflections. what makes the problem still more obscure and complex is the fact that all these taboos, feasts, and rites have nothing whatever to do, in the belief of the natives, with the spirit of the deceased. this latter has gone at once and settled definitely in another world, entirely oblivious of what happens in the villages and especially of what is done in memory of his former existence. the so'i (distribution of food) as found in kitava is the final act in a long series of minor distributions. what distinguishes it from its boyowan counterparts and the similar ceremonies among the other massim, is the accumulation of kula goods. in this case, as we have said, the taboo extends also to the valuables. immediately after death has occurred in a village, a large stick is placed on the reef in front of its landing beach, and a conch shell is tied to it. this is a sign that no visitors will be received who come to ask for kula goods. besides this, a taboo is also imposed on coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs. these details, as well as the following ones, i received from an intelligent and reliable kitavan informant, who has settled in sinaketa. he told me that according to the importance of the death, and the speed with which the goods were accumulating after a year or so, word would be sent round to all the partners and muri-muri (partners once removed). "when all are assembled," my informant told me, "the sagali (distribution) begins. they sagali first kaulo (yam food), then bulukwa (pig). when pig is plentiful it would be given in halves; when not, it will be quartered. a big heap of yam food, of coco-nut, betel-nut, and banana would be placed for each canoe. side by side with this row, a row of pig meat would be placed. one man calls out for the yam heaps, another for the pig-meat; the name of each canoe is called out. if it were a whole pig, they would say, 'to'uluwa kam visibala!' (to'uluwa, your whole pig)! otherwise they would call out, 'mililuta, kami bulukwa!' (men of liluta, your pig). and again, 'mililuta, kami gogula!' (men of liluta, your heap). they take it, take their heap to their canoe. there, the toliwaga (master of the canoe) would make another small sagali. those, who live near by, singe their meat, and carry it home in their canoes. those who live far away, roast the pig, and eat it on the beach." it will be noted that the supreme chief's name would be uttered when his and his companion's share is allotted. with the shares of men of less importance, the name of the village is called out. as on all such occasions, the strangers do not eat their food in public, and even its re-distribution is done in the privacy of their camping place near the canoe. after the distribution of the food, and of course before this is taken away by the parties, the master of the so'i goes into his house and takes out a specially good piece of valuable. with a blast of the conch shell, he gives it to the most distinguished of his partners present. others follow his example, and soon the village is filled with conch shell blasts, and all the members of the community are busy presenting gifts to their partners. first, the initial gifts (vaga) are given, and only after this is over, such valuables as have been due of old to their partners, and which have to be given as clinching gifts (yotile) are handed over. after the whole public distribution is finished and the guests have gone, the members of the sub-clan who organised it, at sunset make a small distribution of their own, called kaymelu. with that the so'i and the whole period of mourning and of consecutive distributions, is over. i have said before that this account of the so'i has been obtained only through the statements of several informants, one especially very clear and reliable. but it has not been checked by personal observation, and as is always the case with such material, there is no guarantee of its being complete. from the point of view in which it interests us, however, that is, in connection with the kula, the outstanding fact is well established; a mortuary taboo temporarily holds up the flow of kula goods, and a big quantity of valuables thus dammed up, is suddenly let loose by the so'i and spreads in a big wave along the circuit. the big wave of armshells, for instance, which travelled along and was taken up by the uvalaku expedition of the dobuans, was the ripple of a so'i feast, held one or two months previously at full moon in yanabwa, a village of woodlark island. when i was leaving boyowa, in september, , a mortuary taboo was in force in the island of yeguma, or egum, as it is pronounced in the eastern district (the alcester islands of the map). kwaywaya, the chief of kitava whom i met on his visit in sinaketa, told me that the people of yeguma had sent him a sprouting coco-nut, with the message: "when its leaves develop, we shall sagali (make the distribution)." they had kept a coco-nut at the same stage of development in their village, and sent others to to all the neighbouring communities. this would give a first approach in fixing the date, which would be appointed more precisely when the feast was close at hand. the custom of associating the so'i with kula is practised as far as tubetube. in dobu, there is no distribution of valuables at the mortuary feast. they have there another custom, however; at the final mortuary distribution, they like to adorn themselves with armshells and necklaces of the kula--a custom entirely foreign to the trobrianders. in dobu therefore, an approaching mortuary feast also tends to dam up the valuables, which, after its performance will ebb away in two waves of mwali and so'ulava along both branches of the kula. but they have no custom of distributing these valuables during the final mortuary feast, and therefore the release of the vaygu'a would not be as sudden as in a so'i. the same word--so'i--is used to denote the mortuary festivities over a wide area in the country of the massim. thus, the natives of bonabona and su'a'u, on the south coast of new guinea celebrate annually in november to january festivities, associated with dancing, gifts of pigs, the building of new houses, the erection of a platform and several other features. these feasts, which are held in an inter-connected series each year in several different localities, i had opportunities, as mentioned before, to see in three places, but not to study. whether they are associated with some form of exchange of valuables i do not know. mortuary feasts in other districts of the massim are also called so'i. [ ] what is the relation between these feasts and those of the northern massim i am unable to say. [ ] these considerations bring us more and more to the point, where the two branches of the kula which we have been following up from the trobriands southwards and eastwards bend back again and meet. on this remaining part of the kula, on which my information, however, is scanty, a few words will be said in the next chapter. chapter xxi the remaining branches and offshoots of the kula i in this chapter the ring of the kula has to be closed by a description of its remaining portions. it will also be found indispensable to speak about its offshoots, that is, the trade and the expeditions, regularly carried on from certain points of the ring to outlying places. we have come across such offshoots already, when we realised that the western trobriands, especially the village of kavataria, and the settlements on the island of kayleula make non-kula trading expeditions to the islands of fergusson and goodenough. such expeditions would naturally belong to a full picture of the kula, with its various associations. this is even more the case, as this lateral trade is associated with the import and export of some of the kula valuables in and out of the ring. we have brought the description of our southern expedition as far as dawson straits, and on the eastern route, we reached woodlark island in the last chapter. we have to link up these two points. the saying, that a chain is not stronger than its weakest link does not, let us hope, apply to ethnology. for indeed my knowledge of the remaining links of the kula chain is far less complete than that contained in the previous chapters. fortunately, what has been said there, remains true and valid, whatever might happen in the south-eastern portion of the kula. and again, there is no doubt that the fundamentals of the transaction are identical all over the ring, though some variations in detail probably occur. i had the opportunity of questioning informants from almost every place in the kula, and the similarity of the main outlines is established beyond a doubt. moreover, the information about some aspect of trade in the southern massim district contained in professor seligman's book, entirely, though indirectly, corroborates my results. but it is necessary to state emphatically and explicitly that the data given in this chapter are not in the same category as the rest of the information contained in this book. the latter was obtained from natives among whom i lived, and the bulk of it has been controlled and verified by personal experiences and observations (compare table i in the introduction). the material referring to the south eastern branch was obtained by cursory examination of natives from that district, whom i met abroad, not in their own country, whilst i have not been in any of the places between woodlark island and dobu. starting at woodlark island, and keeping map v before our eyes--we come at once on to an interesting ramification of the kula. to the east of woodlark, lies the coral group of the loughlans, inhabited by natives speaking the same language as in woodlark. they are in the ring, but it seems to be a cul-de-sac kula, for as i was told, the valuables, which go there, return again to woodlark. this is quite an unusual complication, a kind of eddy in the otherwise progressive current. i could not ascertain whether the difficulty is solved by the districts being sub-divided, a small ring being formed within it, and each class of articles moving on it in an opposite direction; or whether some other arrangement has been adopted. again, one of my informants told me that some of the vaygu'a went directly from the loughlans south to misima, but i was unable to verify this statement and this whole part of the kula must remain with a sketchy outline. whatever might be the routes on which the kula articles travel south from woodlark island, there is no doubt whatever that they all, or almost all, converge in the important commercial centre of tubetube. this small island, according to professor seligman, is not even self-supporting as far as food goes; nor are they a greatly industrial community. they are to a great extent engaged in trade, and probably gain part of their support from this activity. "tubetube has become a trading community, whose inhabitants are recognised as traders and middlemen over a very considerable area, extending westwards ... to rogea and eastward to murua." [ ] tubetube is known even in the trobriands as one of the crucial points of the kula, and it is well known that, whatever happens in the small island in the way of mortuary taboos and big feasts will affect the flow of valuables in boyowa. there is no doubt whatever that tubetube had direct relations with murua (to use the tubetube pronunciation of the native name for woodlark island) to the north-east, and with dobu to the north-west. i saw a canoe from the small island beached at dobu, and in woodlark i was told that men from tubetube used to come there from time to time. professor seligman also describes in detail the manner and the stages of their sailings to woodlark island: "their trade route to murua ... was, as they made it, about - miles. they would usually go during the monsoon, and come back on the trade, as those winds served their itinerary best. presuming that wind and weather served them throughout the passage, they slept the first night on an island called ore, a couple of miles or so from dawson island. the next night they made panamoti, the third night they slept at tokunu (the alcesters), and by the fourth night, they might reach murua." [ ] this description reminds us very much of the route on which we previously had followed the sinaketans to dobu--the same short stages with intermediate camping on sandbanks or islands, the same taking advantage of favourable following winds. from kitava eastward as far as tubetube, a different type of canoe was used, the nagega, mentioned already in chapter v, division iv. as we saw there, it was very much the same in principles of construction as the trobriand canoe, but it was bigger, of a greater carrying capacity, and more seaworthy. it was at the same time slower, but had one great advantage over the swifter counterpart; having more waterboard, it made less leeway in its sailing, and could be sailed against the wind. it would thus allow the natives to cross distances and to face changes in the weather, either of which would compel the frailer and swifter canoe of dobu and kiriwina to turn back. to the northern shores of normanby island (du'a'u) and to dobu, the men of tubetube would sail with the s.e. trade wind and return with the blow of the monsoon. according to professor seligman, such a trip to dobu would take them also about four days, under the most favourable conditions. [ ] thus, one fundamental fact can be regarded as definitely established; the main centre of the kula in its south-eastern branch, was the small island of tubetube. and this island was in direct communication with two points to which we have followed the kula in two directions, starting from the trobriands; that is, with dobu and with woodlark island. on points of detail, some queries must be left unsolved. were the visits returned by the dobuans and muruans? according to all probability, yes, but i possess no definite certainty on this point. another question is whether the natives of tubetube were direct partners of murua or dobu. we have seen that natives of kiriwina sail not infrequently to iwa, gawa, kwayawata and even to woodlark; yet they are not partners (karayta'u) of these natives, but partners once removed (murimuri). i have definite information that the natives of dobu island proper and of du'a'u, who, as we remember are not partners of the southern boyowans, stood in direct relation of partnership to the tubetube. i believe also that the natives of woodlark made direct kula exchange with those of tubetube. the fact, however, that there is a direct line of communication between murua-tubetube-dobu does not preclude the possibility of other and more complex routes running parallel with the direct one. indeed, i know that the island of wari, (teste island) lying almost due south of tubetube is also in the kula. the big island of misima (st. aignan island) about a hundred miles east of tubetube forms also part of the ring. thus a much wider circle runs from woodlark island, perhaps from the loughlans through misima, the neighbouring small island of panayati, wari, and further west, through the group of islands quite close to the east end of new guinea, that is, the islands of sariba, roge'a, and basilaki, and then northwards again towards normanby island. this duplicated circuit in the south-east has its north-western counterpart in the double ramification which unites kitava with dobu. the short route runs direct from kitava to vakuta and from vakuta to dobu. besides this, however, there are several longer ones. in one of them the stages are as follows: kitava, okayaulo, or kitava, wawela, thence sinaketa, then dobu direct; or via the amphletts. another and still wider ramification would run thus: kitava, to kiriwina, kiriwina to sinaketa, etc.; or, the widest, kiriwina to western boyowa, then kayleula, thence amphletts, and from there to dobu. this last route was not only longest in distance, but owing to the notorious 'hardness' of both the natives of kayleula and of the amphletts, would take up much more time. a glance at map v, and also at the more detailed map of the trobriands (map iv) will make all this clear. a more detailed knowledge of the north-western routes allowed us to see the complications and irregularities obtaining there; that the district of western boyowa carried on exclusively the inland kula, and that merely in the person of a few headmen of a few villages; that kayleula made kula on a small scale with the communities in the amphletts, and that all these, as well as the villages on the eastern shore of southern boyowa, were what we described as semi-independent kula communities. such details and peculiarities no doubt also exist with regard to the south-eastern ramifications of the kula, but must be taken here for granted. following the various threads further on, i have no doubt that the islands lying near the east end of new guinea--roge'a, sariba, basilaki--are and were in olden days in the kula ring, communicating in the east with tubetube and wari, while to the north they were in contact with the natives of normanby island. whether the large village complex lying at east cape was also in the kula i cannot definitely say. in any case all the strands led to the eastern shores of dawson straits, by way of the north-eastern shores of normanby island. from here, from the district of dobu, we have traced the further lines with complete exactness and detail. of the various details of these expeditions and technicalities of the kula observed in them, i have not much material available. the rules of actual exchange, the ceremonial of conch blowing, the code of honour or morality or vanity, perhaps, compelling people to give equivalent articles for what they have received, all these are the same all along the ring. so is also the kula magic, with variations in details. ii one subject on which more must be said is that of the associated trade. a new and important article of exchange accompanies the transaction in the south-eastern branch of the kula: the big, sea-going canoes. the main centres of manufacture, and to a great extent manufacture for export, were the islands of gawa and panayati. in these places, canoes were constructed for export to the southern districts where the natives did not know how to build such canoes (compare chapter i, division iii). in olden days the natives of woodlark island, before its present depopulation, also probably made some canoes for exchange in external trade. i have seen these canoes owned by natives in the southern massim district as far as orangerie bay, over two hundred miles from the place where they were manufactured. the trading of this article ran along with the kula lines of communication as there is no doubt that the natives of tubetube and wari were the main distributors and middlemen in this trade. how far canoe exchange was associated directly with kula transactions, i cannot say definitely. judging from the data given by professor seligman, [ ] armshells were paid by natives of tubetube for canoes purchased from panamoti in the north. thus, the mwali in this commercial transaction, travelled in a direction opposite to that in which they must move in the kula ring. this, again, suggests complete independence of the two transactions. besides the canoes, another important article of trade in the southern portion are the clay pots manufactured both in tubetube and wari. besides this, the two islands of "merchant venturers," as they are called by professor seligman, carry on their kula expeditions, and most likely independent of them also, they trade almost all the various articles of industry manufactured in the neighbouring districts and distributed by the two communities. this subject has been treated so fully by professor seligman in chapter xl of his "melanesians" that a reference here will suffice. [ ] having now before us the whole ring of the kula, we may inquire how far is this ring in contact commercially with other outlying districts, and, more especially, how far are certain articles of trade imported into it and others drawn out of it? what will interest us most in this connection is the entry into the ring and the exit out of it of the articles of kula proper, the mwali (armshells) and the soulava (necklaces). iii one such offshoot of the kula ring we met in the trobriands, to wit, the expeditions from the western village of kavataria, and from the island of kayleula, to the koya of fergusson and goodenough. we shall begin with a brief account of these expeditions. [ ] the preparations are very much the same, as in sinaketa. the canoes are built with more or less the same magic (cf. chapter v), they are launched ceremonially and the trial run, the tasasoria, also takes place (chapter vi). the island of kayleula is by far the more important centre of canoe building. whether some of the kavataria canoes were not actually made in kayleula and purchased by the kavatarians in olden days, i do not definitely know, though i think this was the case. nowadays, the community of kavataria are completely absorbed by the pearling industry, and since about a generation ago have given up the expeditions, and even do not own any canoes. the collecting of trade articles, the magic performed over the lilava, the yawarapu, and the sulumwoya are the same as those described before (chapter vii) except, that is, that there exists a different system of mwasila in the island of kayleula, a system which was used also by the kavatarians. it must be remembered in this connection that the natives of kayleula did make kula on a small scale with the amphlettans, and that their mwasila was connected with the kula. [ ] but the main object of the kavatarian and kayleulan mwasila was their non-kula trade with the natives of fergusson and goodenough. this is quite clear from mr. gilmour's account, and it was also corroborated by my informants. they told me that the mwasila is done because of the kavaylu'a (fine food) that is, of the sago and betel-nut and pigs, the main objects of their expedition: "if they (the western boyowans) would not make mwasila, they (the western d'entrecasteaux natives) would fight them. they are foolish men, the people of the koya, not like people of dobu, who are human beings. those in the koya are wild, eaters of man. if they (kavataria and kayleula) would make no mwasila, they would refuse them betel-nut, refuse them sago." the sailing is characterised by the priority enjoyed by the kulutula clan, who, as we have seen in a previous chapter (chapter ix, division iii) sail ahead and have the privilege of landing first on any beach, on which they stop. on arrival, they perform the beauty magic, and sailing towards the beach, the magic of "shaking the mountain" is also recited. in the koya, the transactions resemble to a certain extent those of the kula. as my informant said: "when they anchor, first of all they give the pari; they give combs, lime pots, wooden dishes, lime spatulæ, plenty of gugu'a (objects of use). at the talo'i (farewell gifts) this will be repaid." the following transaction, the main trade, is carried on as gimwali. the natives of the koya would bring the sago, or the betel-nut, put it on the beach near the canoes and say: "i want a beku (ceremonial axe blade)." and here my informants were positive that real bargaining would take place. "if they give us an insufficient quantity, we expostulate, then they bring another portion. they would go to the village, fetch some more goods, return and give it to us. if it is enough, we give him the beku." thus the barter would be carried on till the visitors had exhausted their stock in trade and received as much from the local natives as they could. these expeditions are interesting in that we see the same type of magic and a number of similar customs, as in the kula, associated with ordinary trading expeditions. i am not certain about the nature of partnership obtaining in these trading relations, except that kavataria and kayleula have their own districts each with whom they trade. as said already, the main objects for which they make these distant trips are sago, betel-nut, pig; also the various feathers, especially those of the cassowary and the red parrot; rattan-cane belts; plaited fibre belts; obsidian; fine sand for polishing axe blades; red ochre; pumice stone; and other products of the jungle and of the volcanic mountains. for that, they exported to the koya, to mention the most valuable first, armshells, the valuable axe blades, boars' tusks and imitations; and, of lesser value, wooden dishes, combs, lime pots, armlets, baskets, wayugo creeper, mussel shells and lime spatulæ of ebony. spondylus shell necklaces were not exported to the koya. iv another important activity of the two districts of kavataria and kayleula is their production of armshells. as sinaketa and vakuta are the only two places in the trobriands where spondylus discs are made, so kavataria and kayleula are the only localities where the natives fished for the large conus millepunctatus shell, and made out of it the ornaments so highly valued yet so seldom used. the main reason for the exclusive monopoly, held by these two places in the manufacture of mwali, is the inertia of custom and usage which traditionally assigns to them this sort of fishing and manufacture. for the shells are scattered all over the lagoon, nor is the fishing and diving for them more difficult than any of the pursuits practised by all the lagoon villages. only the communities mentioned, however, carry it on, and they only are in possession of a system of elaborate magic, at least as complex as that of the kaloma. the actual manufacturing of the armshells presents also no difficulties. the ornament is made out of a belt of the shell cut out nearest to its base. with a stone, the natives knock out the circular base along the rim, and they also knock a circle at some distance from the base and parallel to it, by which the broad band of shell is severed, from which the ornament is to be made. it has then to be polished, and this is done on the outside by rubbing off the soft calcareous surface on a flat sandstone. the interior is polished off with a long, cylindrical stone. [ ] it was the custom in kavataria that when a man found a fine conus shell, he would give it to his wife's brother as a youlo present, who in turn would send the finder a return present of food, such as specially fine yams, bananas, betel-nut, and also a pig if it were an especially fine shell. he then would work out the shell for himself. this arrangement is a pendant to the one described with reference to sinaketa, where a man would fish as well as work out a necklace for one of his wife's kinsmen. an even more interesting custom obtains in kayleula. a pair of shells would be fished and broken in one of the villages of that island, or in one of its small sister islands, kuyawa and manuwata. in this unfinished state, as a band of coarse shell, called as such makavayna, it is then brought to the amphletts, and there given as a kula gift. the gumasila man, who receives the shells, will then polish them up, and in that state again kula them to dobu. the dobuan who receives them then bores holes in the side, where one rim overlaps the other (clearly to be seen on plate xvi) and attaches there the ornaments of black, wild banana seeds, and spondylus discs. thus, only after it has travelled some one hundred miles and passed through two stages of the kula, has the mwali received its proper shape and final outfit. in this manner does a new-born kula article enter into the ring, taking shape as it goes through its first few stages, and at the same time, if it is a specially fine specimen, it is christened by its maker. some of the names express simply local associations. thus, a celebrated pair of mwali, of which the shell was found not long ago by a kavataria man near the island of nanoula, is named after that place. it may be added that, in each pair there is always a 'right' and a 'left' one, the first the bigger and more important of the two, and it is after that the name is given. of course, they never are found at the same time, but if a man has succeeded in obtaining a specially fine specimen, he will be busy trying to find its slightly inferior companion, or some of his relatives-in-law, friends or kinsmen will give him one. 'nanoula' is one of the most celebrated pairs, and it was known all over the trobriands, at that moment, that it was soon to come to kitava, and the general interest hung round the question who was going to get it in boyowa. a pair called 'sopimanuwata,' which means, 'water of manuwata' was found in olden days by a man of that island close to its shores. another famous pair, made in kayleula, was called 'bulivada,' after a fish of this name. the larger shell of this pair was found, according to tradition, broken, with a hole near its apex. when they brought it to the surface they found a small bulivada fish which had taken up its abode in the shell. another pair was called 'gomane ikola,' which means 'it is entangled in a net,' as, according to the story, it was brought up in a net. there are many other celebrated mwali, the names of which are so familiar that boys and girls are named after them. but the majority of the names cannot be traced as to their origins. another point at which the armshells enter into the ring is woodlark island. i do not know for certain, but i believe that the industry is quite or almost extinct now in that island. in the olden days, murua probably was quite as productive a centre of this manufacture as the trobriands, and in these latter though kayleula and the western islands fish and work the mwali as much as ever, the natives of kavataria are almost entirely out of it, busy all the time diving for pearls. both the main places of origin of the armshells, therefore, are within the kula ring. after they are made, or, as we saw in kayleula, in the process of making, they enter the circulation. their entry into the ring is not accompanied by any special rite or custom, and indeed it does not differ from an ordinary act of exchange. if the man who found the shell and made the mwali were not in the kula himself, as might happen in kavataria or kayleula, he would have a relative, a brother-in-law, or a head man to whom he would give it in the form of one or other of the many gifts and payments obligatory in this society. v let us follow the ring of the kula, noticing its commercial side tracks, of which so far we only described the trading routes of kavataria and kayleula. to the eastward, the section from kitava to woodlark island is the one big portion of the kula from which no lateral offshoots issue, and on which all the trade follows the same routes as the kula. the other branch, of which i have got a good knowledge, that from the trobriands to dobu, has the commercial relations of which i have just spoken. the amphletts, as described in chapter xi trade with the natives of fergusson island. the dobuan-speaking natives from tewara, sanaroa, and the dawson straits make exchange, though perhaps not on a very big scale, with the inland natives of fergusson. the dobuan-speaking communities on normanby island, and the natives of du'a'u, on the northern coast of normanby, all of whom are in the kula, trade with the other natives of normanby island who are not in the ring, and with the natives of the mainland of new guinea from east cape westwards. but, all this trade affects little the main current of the kula. from its main stream, possibly some of the less valuable articles ebb away into the jungle, which, in its turn, gives its produce to the coast. the most important leakage out and into the main stream takes place on the southern section, mainly at tubetube and wari, and at some points of lesser importance around these two main centres. the north coast of new guinea was connected with this district through the seafaring community at east cape. but this side branch is of very small importance as regards the main articles of the kula. it is the two connections to east and west, at the extreme southern point of the kula ring, which matter most. one of them links up the south coast of new guinea with the kula ring, the other joins the ring to the big islands of sud-est (tagula) and rossel with several adjacent small islands. the south coast, going from east to west, is at first inhabited by natives of the massim stock, speaking the su'a'u and bonabona dialects. these are in constant intercourse with the southern section of the kula district, that is with the natives of rogea, sariba, basilaki, tubetube and wari. the massim of the southern coast are again in commercial relations with the mailu, and from this point, a chain of trading relations unites the eastern districts with the central ones, inhabited by the motu. the motu again as we know from captain barton's contribution to professor seligman's work, are in annual trading relations with the gulf of papua, so that an article could travel from the delta of any of the papuan rivers to woodlark in the trobriands, and many things were in fact traded over all this distance. there is, however, one movement which specially interests us from the kula point of view, namely that of the two types of kula valuables. one of these articles, the armshells, travels on the south coast from east to west. there is no doubt that this article leaks out from the kula current at its southernmost point, and is carried away towards port moresby, where the value of armshells is, and was, in olden days much higher than in the eastern district. i found in mailu that the local native traders purchased, for pigs, armshells in the su'a'u district, and carried them west towards aroma, hula, and kerepunu. professor seligman, from his notes taken at port moresby, informs us that hula, aroma, and kerepunu import armshells into port moresby. some of these armshells, according to the same authority, travel further west as far as the gulf of papua. [ ] it was much more difficult to ascertain what was the direction in which the spondylus shell necklaces moved on the southern coast. nowadays, the industry of making these articles, which was once very highly developed among the port moresby natives is partially, though not completely in decay. i have myself still had the opportunity of watching the natives of bo'era at work on the ageva, the very small and fine shell discs, such as the very finest bagi would consist of. they were using in their manufacture a native pump-drill with a quartz point, in a place within a few miles of a large white settlement, in a district where white man's influence on a big scale has been exercised for the last fifty years. yet, this is only a vestige of the once extremely developed industry. my inquiries into this subject could not be exhaustive, for when i worked on the south coast, i did not have the problem before me, and on my second and third expeditions to new guinea i only passed through port moresby. but i think it may be considered certain that in olden days the shell strings moved from port moresby eastwards and were introduced into the kula ring, at the east end of new guinea. however this might be, unquestionable sources of this kula article are the islands of sud-est, rossel, and the surrounding small islands. the best spondylus shell, with the reddest colours is fished in these seas, and the natives are expert workers of the discs, and export the finished article to the island of wari, and, i believe, to the islands of misima and panayati. the most important articles for which the necklaces are traded are the canoes, and the large polished axe blades. casting now a glance at the kula ring we see that one class of kula article, the mwali or armshells, are produced within the ring at two points, that is, in woodlark island and in western boyowa. the other article, that is the soulava or bagi (necklaces) are poured into the ring at its southernmost point. one of these sources (rossel island) is still active, the other (port moresby) most probably furnished a good supply in olden days, but is now disconnected with the kula ring. the necklaces produced in sinaketa are not the real kula article, and though they are sometimes exchanged they sooner or later disappear from the ring according to a sort of gresham's law, which operates here on an article which is not money, and therefore acts in the opposite sense! the third type of valuable which sometimes flows in the kula stream but is not really of it, the large green stone axe blades, finely polished all over, are, as we know, or more correctly were, quarried in woodlark island, and polished in the district of kiriwina in the trobriands. another polishing centre is, or was, i believe, the island of misima. we see that the two sources of the mwali and soulava are at the northern and southern ends of the ring; the armshells being manufactured in the extreme north, the necklaces entering at the southern end. it is noteworthy that on the eastern portion of the ring, on the section woodlark-boyowa-dobu-tubetube, the two articles travel in the natural direction, that is, each is exported from the districts of its origin towards one, where it is not made or procured. on the other branch, woodlark-yeguma-tubetube, the current of the kula is inverse to a natural, commercial movement of the articles, for here, the tubetube people import armshells into murua, thus bringing coals to newcastle, while the muruans bring necklaces to tubetube and wari, that is, to the points at which the necklaces flow into the ring from the outside. these considerations are important for anyone who would like to reflect on the origins, or history of the kula, since the natural movement of valuables was no doubt the original one, and the western half of the kula from this point of view appears to be the older. but here we have come to an end of all the descriptive data referring to the kula, and some general remarks which i have to make upon it, will be reserved for the next and last chapter. chapter xxii the meaning of the kula we have been following the various routes and ramifications of the kula, entering minutely and meticulously into its rules and customs., its beliefs and practices, and the mythological tradition spun round it, till, arriving at the end of our information, we have made its two ends meet. we shall now put aside the magnifying glass of detailed examination and look from a distance at the subject of our inquiry, take in the whole institution with one glance, let it assume a definite shape before us. this shape will perhaps strike us as being something unusual, something not met before in ethnological studies. it will be well to make an attempt at finding its place among the other subjects of systematic ethnology, at gauging its significance, at assessing how much we have learned by becoming acquainted with it. after all there is no value in isolated facts for science, however striking and novel they might seem in themselves. genuine scientific research differs from mere curio-hunting in that the latter runs after the quaint, singular and freakish--the craving for the sensational and the mania of collecting providing its twofold stimulus. science on the other hand has to analyse and classify facts in order to place them in an organic whole, to incorporate them in one of the systems in which it tries to group the various aspects of reality. i shall not, of course enter upon any speculations or add any hypothetical assumptions to the empirical data contained in the foregoing chapters. i shall confine myself to some reflections on the most general aspect of the institution, and try to express somewhat more clearly what to me appears the mental attitude at the bottom of the various kula customs. these general points of view ought, i think, to be considered and tested in further field-work done on subjects akin to the kula as well as in theoretical research, and might thus prove fertile for future scientific work. in this form it may be granted that it is the privilege of the chronicler of a novel phenomenon to pass it over to the consideration of fellow-workers; but it is his duty as well as his privilege. for, apart from his first-hand acquaintance with the facts--and indeed, if his account is good, he ought to have succeeded in transferring the best part of his knowledge to the reader--the fundamental aspects and characteristics of an ethnographic phenomenon for being general are none the less empirical. it is therefore the chronicler's task to finish his account by a comprehensive, synthetic coup d'oeil upon the institution described. as said the kula seems to be, to a certain extent, a novel type of ethnological fact. its novelty lies partly in the size of its sociological and geographical extent. a big, inter-tribal relationship, uniting with definite social bonds a vast area and great numbers of people, binding them with definite ties of reciprocal obligations, making them follow minute rules and observations in a concerted manner--the kula is a sociological mechanism of surpassing size and complexity, considering the level of culture on which we find it. nor can this wide network of social co-relations and cultural influences be considered for a moment as ephemeral, new or precarious. for its highly developed mythology and its magical ritual show how deeply it has taken root in the tradition of these natives and of what ancient growth it must be. another unusual feature is the character of the transaction itself, which is the proper substance of the kula. a half commercial, half ceremonial exchange, it is carried out for its own sake, in fulfilment of a deep desire to possess. but here again, it is not ordinary possession, but a special type, in which a man owns for a short time, and in an alternating manner, individual specimens of two classes of objects. though the ownership is incomplete in point of permanency, it is in turn enhanced in point of numbers successively possessed, and may be called a cumulative possession. another aspect of great, perhaps the greatest, importance and which perhaps reveals best the unusual character of the kula is the natives' mental attitude towards the tokens of wealth. these latter are neither used nor regarded as money or currency, and they resemble these economic instruments very little, if indeed there is any resemblance at all, except that both money and vaygu'a represent condensed wealth. vaygu'a is never used as medium of exchange or as measure of value, which are the two most important functions of currency or money. each piece of vaygu'a of the kula type has one main object throughout its existence--to be possessed and exchanged; has one main function and serves one main purpose--to circulate round the kula ring, to be owned and displayed in a certain manner, of which we shall speak presently. and the exchange which each piece of vaygu'a constantly undergoes is of a very special kind; limited in the geographical direction in which it can take place, narrowly circumscribed in the social circle of men between whom it may be done, it is subject to all sorts of strict rules and regulations; it can neither be described as barter, nor as simply giving and receiving of presents, nor in any sense is it a play at exchange. in fact it is kula, an exchange of an entirely novel type. and it is just through this exchange, through their being constantly within reach and the object of competitive desire, through being the means of arousing envy and conferring social distinction and renown, that these objects attain their high value. indeed, they form one of the leading interests in native life, and are one of the main items in the inventory of their culture. thus, one of the most important and unusual features of the kula is the existence of the kula vaygu'a, the incessantly circulating and ever exchangeable valuables, owing their value to this very circulation and its character. the acts of exchange of the valuables have to conform to a definite code. the main tenet of this declares that the transaction is not a bargain. the equivalence of the values exchanged is essential, but it must be the result of the repayer's own sense of what is due to custom and to his own dignity. the ceremonial attached to the act of giving, the manner of carrying and handling the vaygu'a shows distinctly that this is regarded as something else than mere merchandise. indeed it is to the native something that confers dignity, that exalts him, and which he therefore treats with veneration and affection. their behaviour at the transaction, makes it clear that the vaygu'a is regarded, not only as possessing high value, but that it is treated also in a ritual manner, and arouses emotional reaction. this recognition is confirmed and deepened by the consideration of some other uses of vaygu'a, in which uses other valuables, such as kaloma belts and large stone blades also function, besides the kula articles. thus, when a malignant spirit, tauva'u (see chapter ii, division vii) is found in or near the village in the shape of a snake or a land crab, some vaygu'a is put before it ceremonially and this is not done so much in order to bribe the spirit sacrificially by a gift as rather to exercise a direct action on his mind, and to make it benevolent. in the annual festive and dancing period, the milamala, the spirits return to their villages. the kula valuables at that time in the hands of the community, as well as the permanent vaygu'a, such as stone blades, kaloma belts, and doga pendants, are exhibited sacrificially to the spirits on a platform, an arrangement and custom called yolova (compare chapter ii, division vii). thus the vaygu'a represent the most effective offering to be given to the spirits, through which they can be put into a pleasant state of mind; "to make their minds good," as the stereotyped phrase of the natives runs. in the yolova an offering is made to the spirits of what is most valued by the living. the shadowy visitors are supposed to take the spirit or shadow part of the vaygu'a home, and make a tanarere of it on the beach of tuma, just as a kula party make a tanarere of the acquired valuables on their home beach (cf. chapter xv, division iv). in all this there is a clear expression of the mental attitude of the natives, who regard the vaygu'a as supremely good in themselves, and not as convertible wealth, or as potential ornaments, or even as instruments of power. to possess vaygu'a is exhilarating, comforting, soothing in itself. they will look at vaygu'a and handle it for hours; even a touch of it imparts under circumstances its virtue. this is most clearly expressed by a custom observed at death. a dying man is surrounded and overlaid with valuables which all his relatives and relatives-in-law bring in loan for the occasion, to take it back when all is over while the man's own vaygu'a are left on the corpse for some time after death (see plate lxv). various rationalised versions and justifications of this custom are given. thus it is said to be a gift to topileta, the keeper of the nether world; or, again, that it has to be taken in its spiritual form to procure a high social standing in tuma, or simply, that it is laid to adorn and make happier the last moments of the dying. all these beliefs no doubt exist side by side, and they are all compatible with, and indeed express, the underlying emotional attitude; the comforting action of the valuables. it is applied to the dying as something full of good, as something exercising a pleasant action, soothing and fortifying at the same time. they put it on his forehead, they put it on his chest, they rub his belly and his ribs with it, they dangle some of the vaygu'a before his nose. i have often seen them do that, in fact, observed them do it for hours, and i believe there is a complex, emotional and intellectual attitude at the bottom of it; the desire to inspire with life; and at the same time to prepare for death; to hold him fast to this one, and to equip for the other world; but above all, the deep feeling that the vaygu'a are the supreme comfort, that to surround a man with them, even in his most evil moment, makes this moment less evil. the same mental attitude is probably at the bottom of the custom which prescribes that the widow's brothers should give a vaygu'a to the brothers of the dead man, the same vaygu'a being given back on the same day. but it is kept just long enough to be of comfort to those, who, according to native kinship ideas, are most directly hit by the death. in all this we find the expression of the same mental attitude, the extreme value attached to condensed wealth, the serious, respectful way of treating it, the idea and the feeling that it is the reservoir of highest good. the vaygu'a are valued in quite a different manner from that in which we value our wealth. the biblical symbol of the golden calf might even be better applied to their attitude than to ours, although it would be not quite correct to say that they 'worship' the vaygu'a, for they worship nothing. the vaygu'a might perhaps be called "objects of cult" in the sense expressed by the facts of the kula, and the data just adduced; that is, in so far as they are handled ritually in some of the most important acts of native life. thus, in several aspects, the kula presents to us a new type of phenomenon, lying on the borderland between the commercial and the ceremonial and expressing a complex and interesting attitude of mind. but though it is novel, it can hardly be unique. for we can scarcely imagine that a social phenomenon on such a scale, and obviously so deeply connected with fundamental layers of human nature, should only be a sport and a freak, found in one spot of the earth alone. once we have found this new type of ethnographic fact, we may hope that similar or kindred ones will be found elsewhere. for the history of our science shows many cases in which a new type of phenomena having been discovered, taken up by theory, discussed and analysed, was found subsequently all the world over. the tabu, the polynesian word and the polynesian custom, has served as prototype and eponym to similar regulations found among all the savage and barbarous as well as civilised races. totemism, found first among one tribe of north american indians and brought to light by the work of frazer, has later on been documented so widely and fully from everywhere, that in re-writing his early small book, its historian could fill out four volumes. the conception of mana, discovered in a small melanesian community has, by the work of hubert and mauss, marett and others, been proved of fundamental importance, and there is no doubt that mana, whether named or unnamed, figures and figures largely in the magical beliefs and practices of all natives. these are the most classical and best known examples, and they could be multiplied by others were it necessary. phenomena of the 'totemic type' or of the 'mana type' or of the 'tabu type' are to be found in all ethnographic provinces, since each of these concepts stands for a fundamental attitude of the savage towards reality. so with the kula, if it represents a novel, but not freakish, indeed, a fundamental type of human activity and of the mental attitude of man, we may expect to find allied and kindred phenomena in various other ethnographic provinces. and we may be on the lookout for economic transactions, expressing a reverential, almost worshipping attitude towards the valuables exchanged or handled; implying a novel type of ownership, temporary, intermittent, and cumulative; involving a vast and complex social mechanism and systems of economic enterprises, by means of which it is carried out. such is the kula type of semi-economic, semi-ceremonial activities. it would be futile, no doubt, to expect that exact replicas of this institution should be found anywhere and with the same details, such as the circular path on which the valuables move, the fixed direction in which each class has to travel, and existence of solicitory and intermediate gifts. all these technicalities are important and interesting, but they are probably connected in one way or another with the special local conditions of the kula. what we can expect to find in other parts of the world are the fundamental ideas of the kula, and its social arrangements in their main outline, and for these the field-worker might be on the look-out. for the theoretical student, mainly interested in problems of evolution, the kula might supply some reflections about the origins of wealth and value, of trade and economic relations in general. it might also shed some light upon the development of ceremonial life, and upon the influence of economic aims and ambitions upon the evolution of intertribal intercourse and of primitive international law. for the student mainly viewing the problems of ethnology from the point of view of the contact of cultures, and interested in the spread of institutions, beliefs and objects by transmission, the kula is no less important. here is a new type of inter-tribal contact, of relations between several communities slightly but definitely differing in culture, and a relation not spasmodic or accidental but regulated and permanent. quite apart from the fact that in trying to explain how the kula relationship between the various tribes originated, we are confronted with a definite problem of culture contact. these few remarks must suffice, as i cannot enter into any theoretical speculations myself. there is one aspect of the kula, however, to which attention must be drawn from the point of view of its theoretical importance. we have seen that this institution presents several aspects closely intertwined and influencing one another. to take only two, economic enterprise and magical ritual form one inseparable whole, the forces of the magical belief and the efforts of man moulding and influencing one another. how this is happening has been described before in detail in the previous chapters. [ ] but it seems to me that a deeper analysis and comparison of the manner in which two aspects of culture functionally depend on one another might afford some interesting material for theoretical reflection. indeed, it seems to me that there is room for a new type of theory. the succession in time, and the influence of the previous stage upon the subsequent, is the main subject of evolutional studies, such as are practised by the classical school of british anthropology (tylor, frazer, westermarck, sydney hartland, crawley). the ethnological school (ratzel, foy, gräbner, w. schmidt, rivers, and eliott-smith) studies the influence of cultures by contact, infiltration and transmission. the influence of environment on cultural institutions and race is studied by anthropo-geography (ratzel and others). the influence on one another of the various aspects of an institution, the study of the social and psychological mechanism on which the institution is based, are a type of theoretical studies which has been practised up till now in a tentative way only, but i venture to foretell will come into their own sooner or later. this kind of research will pave the way and provide the material for the others. at one or two places in the previous chapters, a somewhat detailed digression was made in order to criticise the view about the economic nature of primitive man, as it survives in our mental habits as well as in some text books--the conception of a rational being who wants nothing but to satisfy his simplest needs and does it according to the economic principle of least effort. this economic man always knows exactly where his material interests lie, and makes for them in a straight line. at the bottom of the so-called materialistic conception of history lies a somewhat analogous idea of a human being, who, in everything he devises and pursues, has nothing but his material advantage of a purely utilitarian type at heart. now i hope that whatever the meaning of the kula might be for ethnology, for the general science of culture, the meaning of the kula will consist in being instrumental to dispel such crude, rationalistic conceptions of primitive mankind, and to induce both the speculator and the observer to deepen the analysis of economic facts. indeed, the kula shows us that the whole conception of primitive value; the very incorrect habit of calling all objects of value 'money' or 'currency'; the current ideas of primitive trade and primitive ownership--all these have to be revised in the light of our institution. at the beginning of this book, in the introduction, i, in a way, promised the reader that he should receive a vivid impression of the events enabling him to see them in their native perspective, at the same time without for one moment losing sight of the method by which i have obtained my data. i have tried to present everything as far as possible in terms of concrete fact, letting the natives speak for themselves, perform their transactions, pursue their activities before the reader's mental vision. i have tried to pave my account with fact and details, equip it with documents, with figures, with instances of actual occurrence. but at the same time, my conviction, as expressed over and over again, is that what matters really is not the detail, not the fact, but the scientific use we make of it. thus the details and technicalities of the kula acquire their meaning in so far only as they express some central attitude of mind of the natives, and thus broaden our knowledge, widen our outlook and deepen our grasp of human nature. what interests me really in the study of the native is his outlook on things, his weltanschauung, the breath of life and reality which he breathes and by which he lives. every human culture gives its members a definite vision of the world, a definite zest of life. in the roamings over human history, and over the surface of the earth, it is the possibility of seeing life and the world from the various angles, peculiar to each culture, that has always charmed me most, and inspired me with real desire to penetrate other cultures, to understand other types of life. to pause for a moment before a quaint and singular fact; to be amused at it, and see its outward strangeness; to look at it as a curio and collect it into the museum of one's memory or into one's store of anecdotes--this attitude of mind has always been foreign and repugnant to me. some people are unable to grasp the inner meaning and the psychological reality of all that is outwardly strange, at first sight incomprehensible, in a different culture. these people are not born to be ethnologists. it is in the love of the final synthesis, achieved by the assimilation and comprehension of all the items of a culture and still more in the love of the variety and independence of the various cultures that lies the test of the real worker in the true science of man. there is, however, one point of view deeper yet and more important than the love of tasting of the variety of human modes of life, and that is the desire to turn such knowledge into wisdom. though it may be given to us for a moment to enter into the soul of a savage and through his eyes to look at the outer world and feel ourselves what it must feel to him to be himself--yet our final goal is to enrich and deepen our own world's vision, to understand our own nature and to make it finer, intellectually and artistically. in grasping the essential outlook of others, with the reverence and real understanding, due even to savages, we cannot but help widening our own. we cannot possibly reach the final socratic wisdom of knowing ourselves if we never leave the narrow confinement of the customs, beliefs and prejudices into which every man is born. nothing can teach us a better lesson in this matter of ultimate importance than the habit of mind which allows us to treat the beliefs and values of another man from his point of view. nor has civilised humanity ever needed such tolerance more than now, when prejudice, ill will and vindictiveness are dividing each european nation from another, when all the ideals, cherished and proclaimed as the highest achievements of civilisation, science and religion, have been thrown to the winds. the science of man, in its most refined and deepest version should lead us to such knowledge and to tolerance and generosity, based on the understanding of other men's point of view. the study of ethnology--so often mistaken by its very votaries for an idle hunting after curios, for a ramble among the savage and fantastic shapes of "barbarous customs and crude superstitions"--might become one of the most deeply philosophic, enlightening and elevating disciplines of scientific research. alas! the time is short for ethnology, and will this truth of its real meaning and importance dawn before it is too late? notes [ ] the family among the australian aborigines: a sociological study. london: university of london press, . [ ] "the natives of mailu: preliminary results of the robert mond research work in british new guinea." transactions of the royal society of south australia, vol. xxxix., . [ ] the hiri, as these expeditions are called in motuan, have been described with a great wealth of detail and clearness of outline by captain f. barton, in c. g. seligman's "the melanesians of british new guinea," cambridge, , chapter viii. [ ] cf: "the mailu," by b. malinowski, in transactions of the r. society of s. australia, ; chapter iv. , pp. to . [ ] op. cit. chapter xl. [ ] on this point of method again, we are indebted to the cambridge school of anthropology for having introduced the really scientific way of dealing with the question. more especially in the writings of haddon, rivers and seligman, the distinction between inference and observation is always clearly drawn, and we can visualise with perfect precision the conditions under which the work was done. [ ] i may note at once that there were a few delightful exceptions to that, to mention only my friends billy hancock in the trobriands; m. raffael brudo, another pearl trader; and the missionary, mr. m. k. gilmour. [ ] according to a useful habit of the terminology of science, i use the word ethnography for the empirical and descriptive results of the science of man, and the word ethnology for speculative and comparative theories. [ ] the legendary "early authority" who found the natives only beastly and without customs is left behind by a modern writer, who, speaking about the southern massim with whom he lived and worked "in close contact" for many years, says:--"...we teach lawless men to become obedient, inhuman men to love, and savage men to change." and again:--"guided in his conduct by nothing but his instincts and propensities, and governed by his unchecked passions...." "lawless, inhuman and savage!" a grosser misstatement of the real state of things could not be invented by anyone wishing to parody the missionary point of view. quoted from the rev. c. w. abel, of the london missionary society, "savage life in new guinea," no date. [ ] for instance, the tables of circulation of the valuable axe blades, op. cit., pp. , . [ ] in this book, besides the adjoining table, which does not strictly belong to the class of document of which i speak here, the reader will find only a few samples of synoptic tables, such as the list of kula partners mentioned and analysed in chapter xiii, division ii, the list of gifts and presents in chapter vi, division vi, not tabularised, only described; the synoptic data of a kula expedition in chapter xvi, and the table of kula magic given in chapter xvii. here, i have not wanted to overload the account with charts, etc., preferring to reserve them till the full publication of my material. [ ] it was soon after i had adopted this course that i received a letter from dr. a. h. gardiner, the well-known egyptologist, urging me to do this very thing. from his point of view as archæologist, he naturally saw the enormous possibilities for an ethnographer of obtaining a similar body of written sources as have been preserved to us from ancient cultures, plus the possibility of illuminating them by personal knowledge of the full life of that culture. [ ] the best accounts we possess of the inland tribes are those of w. h. williamson, "the mafulu," , and of c. keysser, "aus dem leben der kaileute," in r. neuhauss, "deutsch neu guinea," vol. iii. berlin, . the preliminary publications of g. landtmann on the kiwai, "papuan magic in the building of houses," "acta arboenses, humanora." i. abo, , and "the folk-tales of the kiwai papuans," helsingfors, , promise that the full account will dispel some of the mysteries surrounding the gulf of papua. meanwhile a good semi-popular account of these natives is to be found in w. n. beaver's "unexplored new guinea," . personally i doubt very much whether the hill tribes and the swamp tribes belong to the same stock or have the same culture. compare also the most recent contribution to this problem: "migrations of cultures in british new guinea," by a. c. haddon, huxley memorial lecture for , published by the r. anthrop. institute. [ ] see c. g. seligman, "the melanesians of british new guinea," cambridge, . [ ] cf. c. g. seligman, op. cit., p. . [ ] a number of good portraits of the s. massim type are to be found in the valuable book of the rev. h. newton, "in far new guinea," , and in the amusingly written though superficial and often unreliable booklet of the rev. c. w. abel (london missionary society), "savage life in new guinea" (no date). [ ] see table in the introduction (p. ), and also chapters xvi and xx. [ ] cf. professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., chapters xl and xlii. [ ] professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., chapters xxxv, xxxvi, xxxvii. [ ] cf. professor c. g. seligman, chapters xxxvii and xxxviii. [ ] my knowledge of the dobuans is fragmentary, derived from three short visits in their district, from conversation with several dobu natives whom i had in my service, and from frequent parallels and allusions about dobuan customs, which are met when doing field-work among the southern trobrianders. there is a short, sketchy account of certain of their customs and beliefs by the rev. w. e. bromilow, first missionary in dobu, which i have also consulted, in the records of the australasian association for the advancement of science. [ ] professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., pp. and ; and about the koita and motu; and b. malinowski, the mailu, pp. - . [ ] comp. d. jenness and a. ballantyne, "the northern d'entrecasteaux," oxford, , chapter xii. [ ] i spent about a month in these islands, and found the natives surprisingly intractable and difficult to work with ethnographically. the amphlett "boys" are renowned as good boat-hands, but in general they are not such capable and willing workers as the dobuans. [ ] already dr. c. g. seligman has noticed that there are people of an outstanding fine physical type among the northern massim, of whom the trobrianders form the western section, people who are "generally taller (often very notably so) than the individuals of the short-faced, broad-nosed type, in whom the bridge of the nose is very low." op. cit., p. . [ ] i have dealt with the subject of garden work in the trobriands and with its economic importance more fully in an article entitled "the primitive economics of the trobriand islanders" in the economic journal, march, . [ ] this does not mean that the general economic conclusions are wrong. the economic nature of man is as a rule illustrated on imaginary savages for didactic purposes only, and the conclusions of the authors are in reality based on their study of the facts of developed economics. but, nevertheless, quite apart from the fact that pedagogically it is a wrong principle to make matters look more simple by introducing a falsehood, it is the ethnographer's duty and right to protest against the introduction from outside of false facts into his own field of study. [ ] compare professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., pp. - ; also the author, article on "war and weapons among the trobriand islanders," in man, january, . [ ] compare the author's article on "fishing and fishing magic in the trobriands," man, june, . [ ] the discovery of the existence of "linked" totems, and the introduction of this term and conception are due to professor c. g. seligman. op. cit., pp. , ; see also index. [ ] see the author's article, "baloma, spirits of the dead," part vii, j.r.a.i., , where this statement has been substantiated with abundant evidence. further information obtained during another expedition to the trobriands, established by an additional wealth of detail the complete ignorance of physiological fatherhood. [ ] see the author's article "baloma, spirits of the dead," quoted above. [ ] i am using the words religion and magic according to sir james frazer's distinction (see "golden bough," vol. i). frazer's definition suits the kiriwinian facts much better than any other one. in fact, although i started my field work convinced that the theories of religion and magic expounded in the "golden bough" are inadequate, i was forced by all my observations in new guinea to come over to frazer's position. [ ] compare professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., the parallel description of the social institutions in the trobriands, marshall bennetts, woodlark island and the loughlans, chapters xlix-lv. [ ] by "current view," i mean such as is to be found in text-books and in passing remarks, scattered through economic and ethnological literature. as a matter of fact, economics is a subject very seldom touched upon either in theoretical works on ethnology, or in accounts of field-work. i have enlarged on this deficiency in the article on "primitive economics," published in the economic journal, march, . the best analysis of the problem of savage economy is to be found, in spite of its many shortcomings, in k. bücher's "industrial evolution," english translation, . on primitive trade, however, his views are inadequate. in accordance with his general view that savages have no national economy, he maintains that any spread of goods among natives is achieved by non-economic means, such as robbery, tributes and gifts. the information contained in the present volume is incompatible with bücher's views, nor could he have maintained them had he been acquainted with barton's description of the hiri (contained in seligman's "melanesians.") a summary of the research done on primitive economics, showing incidentally, how little real, sound work has been accomplished, will be found in pater w. kopper's "die ethnologische wirtschaftsforschung" in anthropos, x--xi, - , pp. - , and - . the article is very useful, where the author summarises the views of others. [ ] professor c. g. seligman, op. cit., p. , states that arm-shells toea, as they are called by the motu, are traded from the port moresby district westward to the gulf of papua. among the motu and koita, near port moresby, they are highly valued, and nowadays attain very high prices, up to £ , much more than is paid for the same article among the massim. [ ] this and the following quotations are from the author's preliminary article on the kula in man, july, . article number , p. . [ ] in order not to be guilty of inconsistency in using loosely the word "ceremonial" i shall define it briefly. i shall call an action ceremonial, if it is ( ) public; ( ) carried on under observance of definite formalities; ( ) if it has sociological, religious, or magical import, and carries with it obligations. [ ] this is not a fanciful construction of what an erroneous opinion might be, for i could give actual examples proving that such opinions have been set forth, but as i am not giving here a criticism of existing theories of primitive economics, i do not want to overload this chapter with quotations. [ ] it is hardly necessary perhaps to make it quite clear that all questions of origins, of development or history of the institutions have been rigorously ruled out of this work. the mixing up of speculative or hypothetical views with an account of facts is, in my opinion an unpardonable sin against ethnographic method. [ ] comparing the frail yet clumsy native canoe with a fine european yacht, we feel inclined to regard the former almost in the light of a joke. this is the pervading note in many amateur ethnographic accounts of sailing, where cheap fun is made by speaking of roughly hewn dug-outs in terms of "dreadnoughts" or "royal yachts," just as simple, savage chiefs are referred to as "kings" in a jocular vein. such humour is doubtless natural and refreshing, but when we approach these matters scientifically, on the one hand we must refrain from any distortion of facts, and on the other, enter into the finer shades of the natives' thought and feeling with regard to his own, creations. [ ] the crab-claw sails, used on the south coast, from mailu where i used to see them, to westwards where they are used with the double-masted lakatoi of port moresby, are still more picturesque. in fact, i can hardly imagine anything more strangely impressive than a fleet of crab-claw sailed canoes. they have been depicted in the british new guinea stamp, as issued by captain francis barton, the late governor of the colony. see also plate xii of seligman's "melanesians." [ ] a constructive expedient to achieve a symmetrical stability is exemplified by the mailu system of canoe-building, where a platform bridges two parallel, hollowed-out logs. cf. author's article in the transactions of the royal society of s. australia, vol. xxxix, , pp. - . chapter iv, - . plates xxxv-xxxvii. [ ] the whole tribal life is based on a continuous material give and take; cf. the above mentioned article in the economic journal, march, , and the digression on this subject in chapter vi, division iv-vii. [ ] this view has been more fully elaborated in the article on "primitive economics" in the economic journal, march, ; compare also the remarks on systematic magic in chapter xvii, division vii. [ ] the way of hiring a masawa (sea-going) canoe is different from the usual transaction, when hiring a fishing canoe. in the latter case, the payment consists of giving part of the yield of fish, and this is called uwaga. the same term applies to all payments for objects hired. thus, if fishing nets or hunting implements, or a small canoe for trading along the coast are hired out, part of the proceeds are given as uwaga. [ ] the words within brackets in this and in some of the following spells are free additions, necessary to make the meaning clear in the english version. they are implied by the context in the native original, though not explicitly contained. [ ] compare therefore chapter xii, division iv. [ ] all this is discussed at length in chapter xvii, division iv. [ ] it is necessary to be acquainted with the mythology of canoe-building and of the kula (chapter xii) in order to understand thoroughly the meaning of this spell. [ ] compare the linguistic analysis of this spell in chapter xviii. [ ] cf. chapter ii, divisions iii and iv, and some of the following divisions of this chapter. [ ] i am adducing these views not for any controversial purposes, but to justify and make clear why i stress certain general features of trobriand economic sociology. my contentions might run the danger of appearing as gratuitous truisms if not thus justified. the opinion that primitive humanity and savages have no individual property is an old prejudice shared by many modern writers, especially in support of communistic theories, and the so-called materialistic view of history. the "communism of savages" is a phrase very often read, and needs no special quotation. the views of individual search for food and household economy are those of karl bücher, and they have directly influenced all the best modern writings on primitive economics. finally, the view that we have done with primitive economics if we have described the way in which the natives procure their food, is obviously a fundamental premise of all the naïve, evolutionary theories which construct the successive stages of economic development. this view is summarised in the following sentence: "...in many simple communities, the actual food quest, and operations immediately arising from it, occupy by far the greater part of the people's time and energy, leaving little opportunity for the satisfaction of any lesser needs." this sentence, quoted out of "notes and queries on anthropology," p. , article on the "economics of the social group," represents what may be called the official view of contemporary ethnology on the subject, and in perusing the rest of the article, it can be easily seen that all the manifold economic problems, with which we are dealing in this book, have been so far more or less neglected. [ ] these views had to be adduced at length, although touched upon already in chapter ii, division iv, because they imply a serious error with regard to human nature in one of its most fundamental aspects. we can show up their fallacy on one example only, that of the trobriand society, but even this is enough to shatter their universal validity and show that the problem must be re-stated. the criticised views contain very general propositions, which, however, can be answered only empirically. and it is the duty of the field ethnographer to answer and correct them. because a statement is very general, it can none the less be a statement of empirical fact. general views must not be mixed up with hypothetical ones. the latter must be banished from field work; the former cannot receive too much attention. [ ] as a matter of fact, this custom is not so prominent in the trobriands as in other massim districts and all over the papuo-melanesian world, cf. for instance seligman, op. cit., p. and plate vi, fig. . [ ] again, in explaining value, i do not wish to trace its possible origins, but i try simply to show what are the actual and observable elements into which the natives' attitude towards the object valued can be analysed. [ ] these natives have no idea of physiological fatherhood. see chapter ii, division vi. [ ] compare plate xxxiii, where the yam houses of a headman are filled by his wife's brothers. [ ] this advantage was probably in olden days a mutual one. nowadays, when the fishermen can earn about ten or twenty times more by diving for pearls than by performing their share of the wasi, the exchange is as a rule a great burden on them. it is one of the most conspicuous examples of the tenacity of native custom that in spite of all the temptation which pearling offers them and in spite of the great pressure exercised upon them by the white traders, the fishermen never try to evade a wasi, and when they have received the inaugurating gift, the first calm day is always given to fishing, and not to pearling. [ ] compare the linguistic analysis of the original text of this spell, given in chapter xviii. [ ] koyatabu--the mountain on the north shore of fergusson; kamsareta,--the highest hill on domdom,--in the amphletts; koyava'u--the mountain opposite dobu island, on the north shore of dawson straits; gorebubu--the volcano on dobu island. [ ] the prefix bo- has three different etymological derivations, each carrying its own shade of meaning. first, it may be the first part of the word bomala, in which case, its meaning will be "ritual" or "sacred." secondly, it may be derived from the word bu'a, areca-nut, a substance very often used and mentioned in magic, both because it is a narcotic, and a beautiful, vermilion dye. thirdly, the prefix may be a derivation from butia, the sweet scented flower made into wreaths, in which case it would usually be bway, but sometimes might become bo-, and would carry the meaning of "festive," "decorated." to a native, who does not look upon a spell as an ethnological document, but as an instrument of magical power, the prefix probably conveys all three meanings at once, and the word "ritual" covers best all these three meanings. [ ] see division ii of chapter v. [ ] the word tabu, in the meaning of taboo--prohibition--is used in its verbal form in the language of the trobriands, but not very often. the noun "prohibition," "sacred thing," is always bomala, used with suffixed personal pronouns. [ ] at a later date, i hope to work out certain historical hypotheses with regard to migrations and cultural strata in eastern new guinea. a considerable number of independent indices seem to corroborate certain simple hypotheses as to the stratification of the various cultural elements. [ ] the word vineylida suggests the former belief, as vine--female, lida--coral stone. [ ] professor seligman has described the belief in similar beings on the north-east coast of new guinea. at gelaria, inland of bartle bay, the flying witches can produce a double, or "sending," which they call labuni. "labuni exists within women, and can be commanded by any woman who has had children.... it was said that the labuni existed in, or was derived from, an organ called ipona, situated in the flank, and literally meaning egg or eggs." op. cit., p. . the equivalence of beliefs here is evident. [ ] not all the spells which i have obtained have been equally well translated and commented upon. this one, although very valuable, for it is one of the spells of the old chief maniyuwa, and one which had been recited when his corpse was brought over from dobu by his son maradiana, was obtained early in my ethnographic career, and gomaya, maradiana's son, from whom i got it, is a bad commentator. nor could i find any other competent informant later on, who could completely elucidate it for me. [ ] such reconstructions are legitimate for an ethnographer, as well as for a historian. but it is a duty of the former as well as of the latter to show his sources as well as to explain how he has manipulated them. in one of the next chapters, chapter xviii, divisions xiv-xvii, a sample of this methodological aspect of the work will be given, although the full elaboration of sources and methods must be postponed to another publication. [ ] see chapter ii, division vii. [ ] i cannot tell what sort of influence this would be, exercised by a sister over her brother in dobu. i do not even know whether, in that district, there obtains the same taboo between brother and sister as in the trobriands. [ ] this is the information which i obtained during my short visit to murua (woodlark island), and which was confirmed by the trobriand islanders. professor seligman states, also, that the sepulchral pots, found in this island come from the amphletts. op. cit., p. . compare also pp. and . [ ] see chapter vi, division vi. [ ] the reader will note that this is the same name, which another mythical dog bore, also of the lukuba clan as all dogs are, the one namely from whom the kayga'u magic is traced. cf. chapter x, division v. [ ] cf. professor c. g. seligman, "the melanesians," chapter liv, "burial and mourning ceremonies" (among the natives of the trobriand islands, of woodlark and the marshall bennetts). [ ] compare also no. vi (a), in the synoptic table of kula magic, in chapter xvii, p. . [ ] there can be no better expression to denote the mutual relation of all these ideas than that used by frazer to describe one of the typical forms of magic thought, the 'contagion of ideas.' the subjective, psychological process leads the natives to the belief in magical contagion of things. [ ] it will be noted, that this is the third meaning in which the term pokala is used by the natives. (cf. chapter vi, division vi.) [ ] see the author's memoir, "the natives of mailu" in transactions of the r. society of s. australia for , p. . [ ] these views have been elaborated in the previously quoted article on "primitive economics" in the economic journal, march, . [ ] the association of magic with any vital interest is demonstrated by the case of pearling. here, through the advent of white men, a new and very lucrative and absorbing pursuit has opened up for the natives. a form of magic is now in existence, associated with this fishing. this of course apparently contradicts the native dogma that magic cannot be invented. the natives, if faced with this contradiction, explain that it is really an old magic of shell fishing which refers to all the shells found at the bottom of the lagoon, but which so far had only been used with regard to fishing for the conus. in fact, this magic is nothing but the adaptation of the mwali (armshell) magic to the pearls. i doubt, none the less, whether even such a transference or adaptation would have taken place before the foundations of native belief and custom had been shaken by the well-intentioned but not always wise and beneficent teachings and rulings of the white man and by the introduction of trade. [ ] see article by the author on the "baloma, spirits of the dead in the trobriand islands." j. a. i., . [ ] an example of this ill-judged attitude of interference is to be found even in a book written by an exceptionally well-informed and enlightened missionary, "in far new guinea," by henry newton. in describing the feasts and dancing of the natives, he admits these to be a necessity of tribal life: "on the whole the feasting and dancing are good; they give excitement and relaxation to the young men, and tone the drab colours of life." he himself tells us that, "the time comes when the old men stop the dancing. they begin to growl because the gardens are neglected, and they want to know if dancing will give the people food, so the order is given that the drums are to be hung up, and the people settle down to work." but in spite of mr. newton's recognition of this natural, tribal authority, in spite of the fact that he really admits the views given in our text, he cannot refrain from saying: "seriously, however, for the benefit of the people themselves, it would be a good thing if there could be some regulations--if dancing were not allowed after midnight, for while it lasts nothing else is done.--the gardens suffer and it would help the people to learn self-restraint and so strengthen their characters if the dancing could be regulated." he goes on to admit quite candidly that it would be difficult to enforce such a regulation because "to the native mind, it would seem that it was the comfort of the white man, not the benefit of the native which was the reason for the regulation." and to my mind also, i am afraid! the following quotations from a recent scientific work published by the oxford press--"the northern d'entrecasteaux," by d. jenness, and the rev. a. ballantyne, --are also examples of the dangerous and heedless tampering with the one authority that now binds the natives, the one discipline they can be relied upon to observe--that of their own tribal tradition. the relations of a church member who died, were "counselled to drop the harsher elements in their mourning," and instead of the people being bidden "to observe each jot and tittle of their old, time-honoured rites," they were advised from that day forth to leave off "those which had no meaning." it is strange to find a trained ethnologist, confessing that old, time-honoured rites have no meaning! and one might feel tempted to ask: for whom it is that these customs have no meaning, for the natives or for the writers of the passage quoted? the following incident is even more telling. a native headman of an inland village was supposed to keep concealed in his hut a magic pot, the "greatest ruler of winds, rain, and sunshine," a pot which had "come down from times immemorial," which according to some of the natives "in the beginning simply was." according to the authors, the owner of the pot used to descend on the coastal natives and "levy tribute," threatening them with the magical powers of the pot if they refused. some of the coastal natives went to the missionary and asked him to interfere or get the magistrate to do so. it was arranged they should all go with the missionary and seize the pot. but on the day "only one man turned up." when the missionary went, however, the natives blocked his path, and only through threats of punishments by the magistrate, were they induced to temporarily leave the village and thus to allow him to seize the pot! a few days later the missionary accordingly took possession of the pot, which he broke. the authors go on to say that after this incident "everyone was contented and happy;" except, one might add, the natives and those who would see in such occurrences the speedy destruction of native culture, and the final disintegration of the race. [ ] i have not seen the site of suloga myself. interesting details are to be found in "the melanesians" of professor seligman, who visited the spot himself, and who has collected a number of specimens in the locality, as well as many data about the production of the blades. op. cit., pp. - . [ ] cf. op. cit., pp. - . [ ] op. cit., description of the walaga feast, pp. - . [ ] see the author's memoir in the transactions of the royal society of s. australia. "the natives of mailu," pp. - . [ ] cf. professor c. g. seligman. op. cit., chapter xliv. [ ] cf. professor c. g. seligman. op. cit., p. . [ ] the ethnographic researches at present carried on in su'a'u by mr. w. e. armstrong, of cambridge, will no doubt throw light on this subject. [ ] seligman. op. cit., p. . [ ] op. cit., p. . [ ] ibid. [ ] cf. op. cit., pp. - . [ ] i cannot follow professor seligman in his use of the word currency, which is not very clearly defined by him. this word can be correctly applied to the armshells, spondylus discs, big polished blades of green stones, etc., only if we give it simply the meaning of "objects" or "tokens of wealth." currency as a rule means a medium of exchange and standard of value, and none of the massim valuables fulfil these functions. [ ] a short article on this subject has been published by the rev. m. gilmour, now head of the methodist mission in new guinea. (annual report of british new guinea, - , p. .) i used this article in the field, going over it with several natives of kavataria, and i found it substantially correct, and on the whole formulated with precision. the need for extreme compression of statement has, however, led the author into one or two ambiguities. thus, the constant mention of "feasting" might give a wrong impression, for it is always the matter of a public distribution of food, which is then eaten apart, or in small groups, while the word "feast" suggests eating in common. again, the data about the "sea-chief," as mr. gilmour calls the leader of the privileged clan in kavataria (cf. chapter ix, division iii), seemed to me over-stated, when he is said to be "supreme," to have "the right of determining an expedition," and especially when it is said that he "had the right of first choice of a canoe." this latter phrase must involve a misunderstanding; as we saw, each sub-clan (that is, each sub-division of the village) build their own canoe, and a subsequent swapping and free choice are out of the question. mr. gilmour was fully acquainted with the facts of the kula, as i learnt from personal conversation. in this article, he mentions it only in one phrase, saying that some of the expeditions "were principally concerned in the exchange of the circulated articles of native wealth ... in which trade was only a secondary consideration." [ ] mr. gilmour's statement to the contrary namely that "the trips from the west--kavataria and kaileuna--were pure trading expeditions" (loc. cit.)--is incorrect. first, i am inclined to think that some of the kavataria men did make the kula in the amphletts, where they always stopped on their way south, but this might have been only on a very small scale, and entirely overshadowed by the main object of the expedition, which was the trade with the southern koya. secondly, as to the natives of kayleula, i am certain that they made the kula, from conclusive data collected both in the trobriands and in the amphletts. [ ] i have given a more detailed description of this process which i had often opportunities to observe among the mailu on the south coast. i never saw the making of an armshell in the trobriands, but the two processes are identical according to detailed information which i obtained. (compare the monograph on "the natives of mailu" by the author, in the transactions of the royal society of s. australia, , pp. - .) [ ] both statements of professor seligman in the "melanesians" (p. ) are in entire agreement with the information i obtained among the mailu. see transactions of the royal society of s. australia, , pp. - . [ ] also in the before quoted article in the economic journal, march, . none traditions of the tinguian a study in philippine folk-lore by fay-cooper cole assistant curator of malayan ethnology contents preface introduction tales of the mythical period ritualistic and explanatory tales fables abstracts preface the following myths were collected by the writer in - during a stay of sixteen months with the tinguian, a pagan tribe of northwestern luzon in the philippines. the material, for the most part gathered in texts, was partially translated in the islands, while the balance was worked over during a brief visit to america in . in this task i was assisted by dumagat, a full blood tinguian, who accompanied me. while not, in all cases, giving a literal rendering, i have endeavored to follow closely the language of the story-tellers rather than to offer a polished translation. in some cases, where it was impossible to record the tales when heard, only the substance was noted, a fact which will account for the meagerness of detail evident in a few of the stories. the tinguian tribe numbers about twenty thousand individuals, most of whom are found in the sub-province of abra, and in the mountains of ilocos sur and norte. their material culture, beliefs, and ceremonials are quite uniform and exceedingly complex. it is my intention to publish a study of this people in the near future, but realizing that it will be quite impossible for readers unacquainted with tinguian life to understand many references in the tales, i have added such foot notes as will enable them to grasp the meaning of certain obscure passages. in the introduction, an attempt has been made to bring together the culture of the people as it appears in the myths, and to contrast it with present day conditions and beliefs. in this way we may hope to gain a clearer insight into their mental life, and to secure a better idea of the values they attach to certain of their activities than is afforded us by actual observation or by direct inquiry. it is also possible that the tales may give us a glimpse of the early conditions under which this people developed, of their life and culture before the advent of the european. it should be noted at the outset that no attempt is here made to reconstruct an actual historical period. as will appear later, a part of the material is evidently very old; later introductions--to which approximate dates may be assigned--have assumed places of great importance; while the stories doubtless owe much to the creative imaginations of successive story-tellers. a comparison of these tales with the folk-lore of neighboring tribes would be of greatest value, but unfortunately very little material for such a study is available. under the circumstances it has seemed best to defer the attempt and to call attention in the footnotes to striking similarities with other fields. in the main these tales are so closely associated with the religious beliefs of the present day that it is unlikely they will be found, in anything approaching their present form, outside the districts dominated by this tribe. nevertheless, isolated incidents corresponding to those of neighboring peoples or even of distant lands occur several times. observation has led me to the belief that the religious organization and ceremonies of the tinguian have reached a higher development than is found among the neighboring tribes, and that this complexity decreases as we penetrate toward the interior or to the south. if this be true, it seems evident that the tales based on or associated with them must likewise grow weaker as we go from abra. i wish here to acknowledge my indebtedness to dr. franz boas and dr. berthold laufer, whose interest and suggestions have been of greatest value in the preparation of the material for publication; also to express my gratitude to the late robert f. cummings, under whose liberal endowment the field work was carried on. his constant interest made possible the gathering of the extensive philippine collections now in the museum, and it is a matter of deep regret that he did not live to see all the results of his generosity made available to the reading public. fay-cooper cole, assistant curator of malayan ethnology. chicago, january, . traditions of the tinguian: a study in philippine folk-lore introduction for the purposes of our study, the tales have been roughly divided into three parts. the first, which deals with the mythical period, contains thirty-one tales of similar type in which the characters are for the most part the same, although the last five tales do not properly fit into the cycle, and the concluding story of indayo is evidently a recent account told in the form of the older relations. in the second division are the ritualistic and explanatory myths, the object of which seems to be to account for the origin of or way of conducting various ceremonies; for the belief in certain spirits and sacred objects; for the existence of the sun, moon, and other natural phenomena; for the attainment of fire, food plants, birds and domestic animals, as well as of magical jars and beads. here it should be noted that some of the most common and important beliefs and ceremonies are, so far as is known, unaccompanied by any tales, yet are known to all the population, and are preserved almost without change from generation to generation. division three contains the ordinary stories with which parents amuse their children or with which men and women while away the midday hours as they lounge in the field houses, or when they stop on the trail to rest and smoke. none of the folk-tales are considered as the property of the tellers, but only those of the third division are well known to the people in general. those of the first section are seldom heard except during the dry season when the people gather around bonfires in various parts of the village. to these go the men and women, the latter to spin cotton, the former to make fish nets or to repair their tools and weapons. in such a gathering there are generally one or more persons who entertain their fellows with these tales. such a person is not paid for his services, but the fact that he knows "the stories of the first times" makes him a welcome addition to the company and gives him an enviable position in the estimation of his fellows. the purely ritualistic tales, called _diams_, are learned word by word by the mediums, [ ] as a part of their training for their positions, and are only recited while an animal is being stroked with oil preparatory to its being sacrificed, or when some other gift is about to be presented to the superior beings. the writer has recorded these _diams_ from various mediums in widely separated towns and has found them quite uniform in text and content. the explanatory tales were likewise secured from the mediums, or from old men and women who "know the customs." the stories of the last division are the most frequently heard and, as already indicated, are told by all. it is evident even to the casual reader that these show much more evidence of outside influence than do the others; some, indeed, appear to have been recently borrowed from the neighboring christianized ilocano. [ ] tales of the mythical period _reconstruction of the culture_.--in the first division certain actors occur with great frequency, while others always take the leading parts. these latter appear under a variety of names, two or more titles often being used for the same individual in a single tale. to avoid confusion a list of the fourteen principal actors and their relationships are given in the accompanying table. it will appear that there are some conflicts in the use of names, but when it is realized that the first twenty-six myths which make up the cycle proper were secured from six story tellers coming from four different towns, the agreement rather than the disagreement is surprising. as a matter of fact there is quite as much variation between the accounts of the same narrator as between those gathered from different towns. _table of leading characters_ [ ] i. aponitolau. son of pagatipánan [male] [ ] and langa-an [female] of kadalayapan; is the husband of aponibolinayen. appears under the following names: (a) ligi, (b) albaga of dalaga, (c) dagdagalisit, (d) ingiwan or kagkagákag, (e) ini-init, (f) ling-giwan, (g) kadayadawan, (h) wadagan, (i) awig (?) ii. aponigawani. sister of aponitolau and wife of aponibalagen. iii. aponibolinayen. daughter of pagbokásan [ ] [male] and ebang [female] of kaodanan. wife of aponitolau. appears as (a) ayo, (b) dolimáman(?). iv. aponibalagen. brother of aponibolinayen, and husband of aponigawani; also appears as awig. v. kanag. son of aponitolau and aponibolinayen. appears as (a) kanag kabagbagowan, (b) balokanag, (c) dumanau, (d) ilwisan, (e) also at times is identified with dumalawi, his brother. vi. dapilísan, wife of kanag. vii. dagoláyan. son of aponibalagen and aponigawani. also appears as dondonyán of bagonan--the blood clot child. viii. alokotán. an old woman who acts as a medium. her home is at nagbotobotán, where the rivers empty their waters into the hole at the edge of the world. ix. gawigawen [male]. a giant who owns the orange trees of adasin. x. giambolan [male]. a ten-headed giant. xi. gaygayóma. a star maiden who marries aponitolau. the daughter of bagbagak [male], a big star,--and sinag [female], the moon--. xii. tabyayen. son of aponitolau and gaygayóma. half brother of kanag. xiii. kabkabaga-an. a powerful female spirit who falls in love with aponitolau. xiv. asibowan. the maiden of gegenáwan, who is related to the spirit kaboniyan. the mistress of aponitolau. in consequence of modern rationalism there is a tendency on the part of a considerable number of the tinguian to consider these tales purely as stories and the characters as fictitious, but the mass of the people hold them to be true and speak of the actors as "the people who lived in the first times." for the present we shall take their point of view and shall try to reconstruct the life in "the first times" as it appears in the tales. the principal actors live in kadalayapan and kaodanan, [ ] towns which our chief story teller--when trying to explain the desire of kanag to go down and get fruit--assures us were somewhere in the air, above the earth (p. ). [ ] at other times these places are referred to as sudipan--the term by which spirits are supposed to call the present earth--while the actors are referred to as ipogau--the spirit name for tinguian. whatever its location it was a place much like the present home of this people. the sky, the chief abode of spirits and celestial bodies, was above the land, and the heroes of the tales are pictured as ascending to visit the upper realms. the trees, plants, and animals were for the most part those known to-day. the ocean appears to have been well known, while mention is made of some places in luzon, such as dagopan and san fernando in pangasinan with which the people of to-day are not at all familiar (p. , ). we learn that each village is situated near to a river or waterway by the banks of which shallow wells are dug, and there we find the women gathering under the shade of the trees, dipping up water to be carried to their homes, washing and combing their hair, and taking their baths (p. ). they seldom go singly, for enemies are apt to be near, and unless several are in the company it will be impossible to spread the alarm and secure help in case of attack (p. ). leading up from the spring to the village are bamboo poles on which the heads of enemies are displayed (p. ). in cases where the warriors have been especially successful these trophies may surround the whole settlement (p. ). about the town is a defensive wall, generally of bamboo, but in some cases made up entirely of gigantic snakes (p. ). within this inclosure are many houses. the bamboo floors are raised high above the ground, while the thatching is of grass. ladders lead up to little porches, from which doors open into the dwellings. at least part of the houses have a cooking room in addition to that used by the family, while structures containing a ninth room are several times mentioned (pp. , , ). in one corner of the living room is a box containing blankets, above which are pillows and mats used by members of the household and guests; an iron caldron lies on the floor, while numerous chinese jars stand about. a hearth, made up of a bed of ashes in which stones are sunk, is used for cooking. above it is a bamboo food hanger, while near by stand jars of water and various cooking pots. food baskets, coconut shell cups, and dishes, and a quantity of chinese plates appear when the meal is served, while the use of glass is not unknown. cups of gold, wonderful jars, and plates appear at times, but seem to be so rare as to excite comment (pp. , , , ). scattered through the village are numerous small buildings known as _balaua_ (p. ), which are erected for the spirits during the greatest of the ceremonies, and still inside the enclosure are the rice drying plots and granaries, the latter raised high above the ground so as to protect their contents from moisture (p. ). about the town pigs and chickens roam at will, while half-starved hunting dogs prowl about below the kitchens and fight for morsels which drop from above (p. ). carabao are kept and used as food (p. ), but in the cycle proper no mention is made of using them as work animals. [ ] game, especially deer and wild chickens, and fish are added to the domestic supply of food (p. ), but the staple appears to be mountain rice. beans, coconuts, oranges, sugar cane, betel-nuts, and tobacco are also cultivated (pp. , , , ). clothing is scanty but nevertheless receives much attention. the poorest of the men wear clouts of banana leaf, and the women, when in danger of capture, don skirts of bark; but on most occasions we find the man wearing a colored cotton clout, above which is a bright belt of the same material, while for ceremonies he may add a short coat or jacket. a headband, sometimes of gold, keeps his long hair in place, and for very special events he may adorn each hair with a golden bead (pp. , , ). the cotton skirts of the women reach from the waist to the knees; the arms are covered with strands above strands of beads, while strings of agate beads surround the neck or help to hold the hair in place. to the real hair is often added a switch which appears to be valued highly (p. ). ornaments of gold adorn the ears, and finger rings of the same metal are several times mentioned (pp. , , ). the tales afford us a glimpse of the daily life. in the early morning the chilly mountain air drives the people from their mats to the yard, where they squat about the fires (p. ). as it becomes light, part of the women begin pounding out the rice from its straw and husks (p. ), while others depart for the springs to secure water (p. ). in planting time husband and wife trudge together to the fields, where the man plants the seeds or cuttings, and his wife assists by pouring on water (p. ). in midday, unless it is the busy season, the village activities are practically suspended, and we see the _balaua_ filled with men, asleep or lounging, while children may be playing about with tops or disk-like _lipi_ seeds (p. ). as it becomes cooler, the town again takes on life; in the houses the women weave blankets or prepare food, the older women feed the chickens and pigs (p. ), while the workers from the fields, or hunters with their dogs and game, add to the general din and excitement (p. ). when night comes on, if it be in the dry season, bonfires spring up in different parts of the village, and about them the girls and women gather to spin. here also come the men and boys, to lounge and talk (p. ). a considerable portion of the man's time is taken up in preparation for or actual participation in warfare (p. ). we have already seen that the constant danger of enemies makes it advisable for the women to go in parties, even to the village spring. one tale informs us of a girl who is left alone to guard the rice field and is promptly killed by the _alzado;_ [ ] another states that "all the tattooed igorot are enemies" (pp. , , ). revenge for the loss of relations or townspeople is a potent cause of hostile raids; old feuds may be revived by taunts; but the chief incentive appears to be the desire for renown, to be known as "a man who goes to fight in the enemies' towns" (pp. , ). warriors sometimes go in parties, sometimes alone, but generally in couples (p. ). at times they lie in ambush and kill young girls who go for water, or old men and women who pass their hiding place (p. ). again they go out boldly, armed with shield, spear, and headaxe; they strike their shields as they go and announce their presence to the enemy (p. ). in five of the tales the heroes challenge their opponents and then refuse to be the first to use their weapons. it is only when their foes have tried in vain to injure them that they enter the conflict. in such cases whole towns are wiped out of existence and a great number of heads and a quantity of jars and other booty is sent back to the towns of the victors (p. ). peace is restored in one instance by the payment of a number of valuable jars (p. ). upon the return of a successful war party, the relatives meet them at the gate of the town and compel them to climb the _sangap;_ [ ] then invitations are sent out to friends and relatives in neighboring towns to come and aid in the celebration of the victory (p. ). when they arrive at the entrance of the village they are met by the townspeople, who offer them liquor and then conduct them to the houses where they feast and dance to the music of _gansas_ (p. ). [ ] finally the captured heads are stuck on the _sagang_ [ ] and are placed by the gate, the spring, and, if sufficient in number, surround the town (p. ). taking the heads of one's neighbors does not appear to be common, yet cases are mentioned where visitors are treacherously killed at a dance (pp. , ). the use of poison [ ] is twice mentioned. in one case the victims are killed by drinking liquor furnished by the father of the girl about whose head they are dancing (pp. , ). bamboo spears appear to be used, but we are explicitly told that they fought with steel weapons, and there are frequent references to headaxes, spears, and knives (pp. , , ). marriage appears generally to be negotiated by the mother of the youth at his suggestion (p. ). at times both his parents go to the girl's home, and after many preliminaries broach the subject of their mission (p. ). the girl's people discuss the proposition, and if they are favorable they set a day for the _pakálon_--a celebration at which the price to be paid for the bride is decided upon (p. ). the parents of the groom then return home after having left some small present, such as a jar or an agate bead, as a sign of engagement (p. ) [ ]. the _pakálon_ is held a few days later at the girl's home, and for this event her people prepare a quantity of food (p. ). on the agreed day the close friends and relatives of both families will assemble. those who accompany the groom carry jars and pigs, either in part payment for the bride, or to serve as food for the company (pp. , ). the first hours are spent in bargaining over the price the girl should bring, but when this is settled a feast is prepared, and then all indulge in dancing the _tadek_ (p. ) [ ]. when the payment is made a portion is distributed among the girl's relatives (pp. , ), but her parents retain the greater part for themselves [ ]. the groom cannot yet claim his bride, although in one case he is allowed to take her immediately after the _pakálon_ by making a special payment for the privilege (p. ). a few nights later the groom goes to the girl's home carrying with him an empty jar with which he makes the final payment (p. ). the customary rice ceremony [ ] follows and he is then entitled to his bride (p. ). should the house or anything in it break at this time, it foretells misfortune for the couple, hence precautions are taken lest such a sign should, by accident, be given (p. ). in all but two cases mentioned the girl and her husband go to live with his people. in the first instance their failure to do so raises a protest; in the second, the girl's parents are of much more importance than those of the groom, and this may explain their ability to retain their daughter (pp. , ). when the bride reaches her future home, she sits on the bamboo floor with her legs stretched out in front of her. the slats which she covers are counted and a string of agate beads, equal in length to the combined width of the slats, is given to her. she now becomes a full member of the family and seems to be under the orders of her mother-in-law (p. ). the tales give constant sanction for the marriage of near relatives. dumanau, we are told, marries his cousin [ ], while we frequently meet with such statements as, "we are relatives and it is good for us to be married", or "they saw that they were related and that both possessed magical power, so they were married (p. )". it appears that a man may live with his sweetheart and have children by her, yet leave her, and, without reproach, marry another better fitted to be his wife (p. ). he may also accept payment for a wife who has deserted him, apparently without loss of prestige (p. ). no objection seems to be raised to a man having two wives so long as one of these is an inhabitant of the upper world (p. ), but we find kanag telling his former sweetheart that he cannot marry her since he is now married to another (p. ). again, when two women lay claim to aponitolau, as their husband, they undergo a test and the loser returns to her former home (p. ). however, this rule does not prevent a man from having several concubines (p. ). gawigawen, we are told, is accompanied to a _pakálon_ by eighteen young girls who are his concubines (p. ). divorce is twice mentioned, but it seems to call out protest only from the cast off wife (pp. , ). closely associated with the celebration of a marriage seems to be a ceremony known as _sayang_, during the progress of which a number of small structures--the largest known as _balaua_--are built. judging by their names and descriptions, we are justified in considering them "spirit houses" as they are to-day. the details of the extended _sayang_ ceremony are nowhere given, but so much is made plain:--at its beginning many people pound rice, for use in the offerings and for food, and _da-eng_ [ ] is danced (p. ). after the _libon_ [ ] invitations are sent out, by means of betel-nuts covered with gold, to those whose presence is especially desired (p. ). when the guests arrive at the village spring or gate they are offered food or drink, and then while they dance they are sprinkled with water or rice, after which all go up to the town (p. note ). a medium who knows the customs and desires of the spirits constructs a bamboo mat, which is known as _talapitap_, and on it offers food. to call their attention she frequently strikes the ground with the _dakidak_--split sticks of bamboo and _lono_ [ ] (p. ). the guests are not neglected, so far as regards food, for feasting and dancing occupy a considerable portion of their time. the ceremonial dance _da-eng_ is mentioned, but the _tadek_ [ ] seems to be the one in special favor (pp. , ). one tale tells us that the _sayang_ was held immediately following a head hunt; and another, that aponitolau went out to get the head of an old man before he started this ceremony (pp. , ); however, the evidence is by no means conclusive that it is related to warfare. on page we are told that kanag's half sister is a medium, and the description of her method of summoning the spirits tallies with that of to-day. at the _sayang_ ceremony she is called to perform the _dawak_ [ ], with the assistance of the old woman alokotán (p. ). the _dawak_ is also held in order to stop the flow of blood from aponitolau's finger (p. ). the only other ceremony mentioned is that made in order to find a lost switch (p. ). certain well-known customs are strongly brought out in our material. the first, and apparently most important, is the necessity of offering liquor and food, both to strangers and to guests (p. ). refusal is so keenly resented that in one instance a couple decline to allow their daughter to marry a man whose emissaries reject this gift (p. ). old quarrels are closed by the tender of food or drink, and friendships are cemented by the drinking of _basi_ [ ] (p. ). people meeting for the first time, and even friends who have been separated for a while, chew betel-nut together and tell their names and places of residence. we are repeatedly told that it is necessary to chew the nut and make known their names, for "we cannot tell our names unless we chew," and "it is bad for us if we do not know each other's names when we talk." a certain etiquette is followed at this time: old men precede the younger; people of the home town, the visitors; and men always are before the women (pp. , ). the conduct of awig when he serves liquor to the _alzados_ [ ] is that of to-day, i.e., the person who serves always drinks before passing it to others (p. ). certain other rules of etiquette or restrictions on conduct come out in the tales. we learn that it is not considered proper for a man to eat with the wife of another during his absence, nor should they start the meal before he comes in (p. ). the master of a dance is deeply chagrined and chides his wife severely, because she insists on dancing before he has invited all the others to take their turns (p. ). greediness is reproved in children and aponitolau causes the death of his concubines whose false tales had led him to maltreat his wife (p. ). unfaithfulness seems to be sufficient justification for a man to abandon his wife and kill her admirer (p. ); but kanag appears as a hero when he refuses to attack his father who has sought his life (p. ). of the ceremonies connected with death we learn very little except that the women discard their arm beads, the mourners don old clothing, and all wail for the dead (pp. , ). three times we are told that the deceased is placed on a _tabalang_, or raft, on which a live rooster is fastened before it is set adrift on the river. in the tales the raft and fowl are of gold, but this is surprising even to the old woman alokotán, past whose home in nagbotobotán all these rafts must go (p. ). up to this time in our reconstruction of the life of "the first times" we have mentioned nothing impossible or improbable to the present day tinguian, although, as we shall see later, there are some striking differences in customs and ideas. we have purposely left the description of the people and their practice of magic to the last, although their magical practices invade every activity of their lives, for it is here that the greatest variations from present conditions apparently occur. these people had intimate relations with some of the lesser spirits, especially with the _liblibayan_ [ ], who appear to be little more than their servants, with the evil spirits known as _banbanáyo_, and with the _alan_ (p. ). the _alan_, just mentioned, are to-day considered as deformed spirits who live in the forests: "they are as large as people but have wings and can fly; their toes are at the back of their feet and their fingers point backwards from their wrists." the several references to them in the tales such as "you _alan_ girls whose toes on your feet turn out" indicate they were so considered in the first times (p. ). some of them are addressed as "you _alan_ of the springs," and in one instance a man dives down into the water where the _alan_ live (p. ), but in general their homes seem to be similar to but much finer than those of the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan. these spirits appear time after time as the foster mothers of the leading characters: generally they secure a drop of menstrual blood, a miscarriage, or the afterbirth, and all unknown to the real parents, change them into children and raise them (p. ). these foster children are pictured as living in houses of gold situated near springs, the pebbles of which are of gold or beads; [ ] the places where the women set the pots while dipping water are big plates or dishes, while similar dishes form the stepping stones leading up to the house. articles of gold are found in the dwellings and valuable jars are numerous. when the true relationships of these children are established they always go to their blood parents, carrying with them these riches, which are a source of wonder and comment (pp. , ). the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan have many dealings with the celestial bodies. the big star bagbagak appears as the husband of sinag--the moon--and father of the star maiden gaygayóma, who, aponitolau assures his wife, is a spirit. when this girl comes down to steal sugar-cane she takes off her star dress and appears as a beautiful maiden; [ ] she becomes enamored with aponitolau and takes him to the sky, where he lives with her. they have a child, who later marries in kadalayapan and thereafter stays below. upon the occasion when aponitolau visits his first wife and fails to return to the sky at the appointed time, a great company of stars are sent to fetch him, with orders to devour him if he refuses to obey (p. , ff.). in the first tale aponitolau himself appears as "the sun," "the man who makes the sun," as "a round stone which rolls," but when it is established that he is the son of a couple in kadalayapan he apparently relinquishes his duties in the sky and goes to live in the village of his people. with him goes his wife aponibolinayen, who had been carried above by a vine. while at his post in the heavens, aponitolau is closely associated with the big star, whose duty it is to follow him in the sky. again we are told that aponitolau is taken up by the spirit kabkabaga-an, whom he marries and by whom he has a son (p. ). in some instances this hero and his son kanag converse with thunder and lightning, which appear at times not unlike human beings (p. ); but in the eighth relation the two kinds of lightning are pictured as dogs who guard the town of dona. these people enjoy unusual relations with inanimate things, and we find them conversing with spears and with jars. [ ] in one case the latter appear to be pastured like animals, and surround aponitolau when he goes to feed them with _lawed_ [ ] leaves and salt (p. ). weapons weep blood and oil when taken down for the purpose of injuring certain persons (p. ). a nose flute, when played by a youth, tells him of his mother's plight (p. ), while a bamboo jew's harp summons the brothers of its owner (p. ). animals and birds are frequently in communication with them: the hawk flies away and spreads the news of the fight at adasin [ ] (p. ); at the bidding of dalonágan a spider spins a web about the town (p. ); and aponitolau is enabled to fulfill the labors assigned him by the ten-headed giant only through the aid of spiders, ants, and flies (p. ). [ ] during certain dances the water from the river flows over the town and fish come up and bite the feet of the dancers (p. ). crocodiles are left to guard the sister of aponibalagen, and when they fail to explain their negligence they are whipped and sent away by their master (p. ). a great bird is pleased with aponitolau and carries him away [ ] to its home, where it forces him to marry a woman it had previously captured (p. ). in one instance an animal gives birth to a human child; a frog laps up the spittle of aponitolau, and as a result becomes pregnant [ ] and gives birth to a maiden who is taken away by the spirits (p. ). another account states that the three sons of aponitolau and aponibolinayen are born as pigs, but later assume human form (p. ). kanag becomes a snake when he tries to secure the perfume of baliwán, but is restored to human form when he bathes in a magic well (p. ). these and other mysterious happenings, many of which are not explained as being due to their own volition, befall them; thus ingiwan, while walking, is confronted by an impassable hill and is compelled to cross the ocean, where he finds his future wife, but upon his return the hill has vanished (p. ). in other instances the finger rings of people meeting for the first time exchange themselves (p. ). the headband of ligi flies away without his knowledge and alights on the skirt of a girl who is bathing in the river. as a result she becomes pregnant, and when the facts become known ligi is recognized as the child's father (p. ). it seems probable that the superior powers are responsible for these occurrences, for in at least one instance the great spirit kaboniyan steals a maiden and turns her into a flock of birds, who talk with and assist the owner of a rice field (p. ). while they thus appear to be to a certain extent under the control of the spirits and to be surrounded by animals and inanimate things with human intelligence and speech, the people of these "first times" possess great power over nature: time and space are annihilated, for at their will daylight comes at once (p. ), or they are transported to a place in an instant (p. ). at their command people appear: kanag creates betel-nut trees, then cuts the fruit into bits, which he sows on the ground. from these come many people who are his neighbors, and one of whom he marries (p. ). the course of nature is changed: a field is planted in an instant; the crops mature in a few days, and the grain and fruits take themselves to the store-house (p. ). a strike-a-light turns into a hill which impedes pursuers [ ] (p. ), while a belt or headaxe serves as a ferry across a body of water (p. ). a storm is called upon to carry a person or a building to a distance (p. ), and a spring is created by killing an old man (p. ). [ ] prepared food appears at a word; a stick when cooked becomes a fish, and though it is repeatedly broken and served it always appears ready for service at meal time (p. ); a small jar containing a single grain of rice supplies an abundance of food; another jar no larger than a fist furnishes drink for a company and still remains a third full; while a single earring fills a pot with gold [ ] (pp. , , ). quite as easy as the creation of beings is the causing of sleep or death. all the people of a village are put to sleep at the will of a single person (p. ) and albaga--while still at a distance--causes the death of aponibolinayen (p. ). at a word of command the spears and headaxes of the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan go out and kill great numbers of the enemy, and the heads and booty take themselves in orderly fashion to towns of their new owners (pp. , ). many methods of restoring the dead to life are employed; spittle is applied to the wounds, or the victim is placed in a magic well, but the common method is for the hero "to whip his perfume," [ ] whereupon the dead follow his commands (pp. , ). the birth of a child, to a woman of these times, is generally preceded by an intense itching between the third and last fingers, and when this spot is pricked the child pops out "like popped rice." [ ] its growth is always magical, for at each bath its stature increases by a span (p. ). within a few days the baby is a large child and then begins deeds of valor worthy of the most renowned warriors (pp. , ). the power of assuming animal forms appears to be a common possession, and we find the different characters changing themselves into fire-flies, ants, centipedes, omen birds, and in one case into oil [ ] (pp. , ). one of the most peculiar yet constantly used powers of these people is their ability to send betel-nuts on various missions. whenever an invitation to a ceremony or celebration is to be extended, nuts covered with gold are oiled and sent out. they go to the intended guest, state their errand, and, if refused, forthwith proceed to grow on his knee, forehead, or pet pig, until pain or pity compels him to accept (p. ). in some cases it appears that the nuts themselves possess the magic properties, for we find aponitolau demanding that his conquered foes give him their betel-nuts with magic power (p. ). relationships can be readily ascertained by the chewing of these nuts, for when the quids are laid down they are transformed into agate and golden beads and lie in such a manner that the associations are fully established (pp. , , ). enough has been mentioned to show how important a part magic and magical practices play in the life of this people, but one further reference should be made, since it is found in nearly every tale. when the marriage price is settled upon, the mother of the groom exercises her power and at once fills the spirit house with valuable jars and the like; this is repeated until enough are gathered to meet the demands of the girl's people (p. ). even when the agreed sum has been delivered we often find the girl's mother herself practicing magic, to secure additional payment, and by raising her elbows or eyebrows causing a part of the jars to vanish (pp. , ). despite their great gifts we find that these people are not all-powerful and that they deem it wise to consult the omens before starting on a task or a journey. the gall sack and liver of a pig are eagerly examined, [ ] while the calls of birds, actions of animals, or signs received from the thunder and lightning regulate their conduct. in cases where these warnings are disregarded misfortune or death always overtakes the individual (pp. , , ff). death comes to them, but apparently is only a temporary state. the deceased are often revived by some magical process (p. ), but if not the corpse is placed on a raft and is set adrift on the river. [ ] the streams and rivers, we are told, all flow past nagbotobotán before they empty into the hole where all streams go. in this place lives the old woman alokotán, who is related to the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan. her duty it is to watch for dead relatives, to secure them, and make them alive again (p. ). she is the owner of a magic pool, the waters of which revive the dead and renew youth. _comparison of the reconstructed culture with present day conditions_.--before passing to a consideration of the tales in the last two divisions of our material, it may be well to compare the life and beliefs of these "people of the first times" with those of the living tinguian. kadalayapan and kaodanan appear, in a vague way, to have been located in abra, for we learn that the ilocano, don carlos, went up the river from baygan (vigan) [ ] to kadalayapan; that the _alzados_ [ ] lived near by; while the tattooed igorot occupied the land to the south (pp. , ). the villages were surrounded by defensive walls such as were to be found about all tinguian villages until recent times, and which are still to be seen about abang and other settlements. within the walls were many houses, the descriptions of most of which would fit the dwellings of to day. the one thing which seems foreign to present conditions is the so-called "ninth room" which receives rather frequent mention. there is nothing in the tales referring to buildings or house construction which lends support to the contention of those who seek to class the tinguian as a modified sub-group of igorot. [ ] the bontoc type of dwelling with its ground floor sleeping box and its elevated one room kitchen and storage room is nowhere mentioned, neither is there any indication that in past or present times the tinguian had separate sleeping houses for the unmarried men and boys, and for the girls, as do their neighbors to the south. the other structures, such as the spirit houses, rice drying frames, and granaries were similar to those seen to-day in all the villages. likewise the house furnishings, the musical instruments, and even the games of the children were such as are to be found at present, while our picture of the village life given on page still fits nearly any tinguian settlement in abra. the animals mentioned are all familiar to the present people, but it is worthy of note that in the first twenty-six tales, which make up the cycle proper, the horse is not mentioned, nor does the carabao appear to be used as a work animal. still more important is the fact that the terraced fields and the rice culture accompanying them, which to-day occupy a predominant place in the economic life of the people, are nowhere mentioned. on the other hand, the _langpádan_, or mountain rice, assumes a place of great importance. references to the cultivation of the land all seem to indicate that the "hoe culture," which is still practiced to a limited extent, took the place of agriculture. the clothing, hair dressing, and ornaments, worn by these people, agree closely with those of to-day. beads seems to have been of prime importance, but could scarcely have been more prized or more used than at present. unless she be in mourning, the hair and neck of each woman are now ornamented with strings of beads, many of them of evident antiquity, while strands above strands cover the arms from the wrist to the elbow or even reach to the shoulder. [ ] the wealth of a person seems to have been, to a large extent, determined by the number of old jars in his possession. as at the present time, they formed the basis of settlement for feuds, as payment for a bride, and even figured in the marriage ceremony itself. the jars, as judged from their names, were evidently of ancient chinese manufacture, and possessed power of speech and motion similar to that of human beings; but in a lesser measure the same type of jars have similar powers to-day. [ ] the use of gold and jewels seems to have been common in the old times; the latter are seldom seen in the district to-day, but the use of bits of gold in the various ceremonies is still common, while earrings of gold or copper are among the most prized possessions of the women. [ ] placer mining is well known to the igorot of the south, who melt and cast the metal into various ornaments. so far as i am aware, this is not practiced by the present tinguian, but may point back to a time when the industry was known in this region, or when trade relations with the south were much freer than in recent years. the weapons of the warriors, which we are specifically told were of metal, are identical with those seen at the present time, while the methods of warfare agree with the accounts still told by the old men of their youthful exploits. a survey of the tales brings out boldly the fact that a headhunt was one of the most important events in tinguian life. to-day stress of circumstances has caused the custom to suffer a rapid decline, but even now heads are occasionally taken, while most of the old men have vivid recollections of the days when they fought "in the towns of their enemies." a spirited account of a head celebration seen in the village of lagangilang--from which ten of these tales were collected--will be found in the writings of la gironiere, already referred to. [ ] it is important to note that this account, as well as those secured from many warriors of the present generation, offers some striking differences to the procedure in the olden days, particularly as regards the disposal of the skulls. the tales tell of the heads being placed on the _sagang_ [ ] at the spring, at the gate, or about the town, after the celebration. certain of the present villages make use of the _sagang_, but the more common type of head holder is the _saloko_, [ ] which still figures in many ceremonies. however, the heads only remain in these receptacles until the day set for the festival. they are then carried to the centre of the village and there, amid great rejoicing, are cut open; the brains are removed and to them are added the lobes of the ears and joints of the little fingers, and the whole is then placed in the liquor, which is served to the dancers. before the guests depart the skulls are broken into small pieces and a fragment is presented to each male guest, who carries it home and is thus often reminded of the valor of the takers. [ ] a study of tinguian beliefs furnishes an additional religious motive for the taking of heads, but with the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan revenge and the desire for renown were the prime incentives. every tale emphasizes the importance of the _sayang_ ceremony and the spirit structure known as _balaua_. [ ] the ceremony is nowhere described in full, but the many details which are supplied show that it was almost identical with that of to-day. the same is true of the _dawak_, [ ] which we find mentioned on three different occasions, and of the ceremony made to aid in locating lost or stolen articles. the most noticeable fact, to the person familiar with tinguian life, is that these are the only ceremonies mentioned among the many known and practiced at present. more than a score of different rites are now well known to this people, and occupy a very considerable portion of their time and attention during the first four months of the year. the failure to make mention of these very important events is explained, it seems to me, not by their absence, but by the fact that these rites vary in importance and that the privilege of celebrating them is hereditary in a family. should one not entitled to hold such a ceremony desire to do so, he must first give, in order, all the lesser events, a costly procedure extending over a period of several years. the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan always appear as being closely related to the spirit kaboniyan, [ ] and exceedingly powerful. it seems probable that the story teller takes it for granted that all of them are entitled to hold the most important ceremony known to the tinguian. a prominent figure in these rites is the medium, through whom the ancient people generally conversed with the spirits, but in exceptional cases we found the heroes talking direct with the superior beings; however, this gift is not confined to the men of old, for in such tales as and people who are believed to have lived recently have conversed with the spirits and have even been joined to them in marriage. the procedure in choosing a bride, the engagement, the _pakálon_, [ ] and the marriage proper are all those of the present day, but the rules governing the marriage of relatives differ radically. as already noted, one of the chief qualifications for marriage, among the people of the tales, was relationship, and even cousins became husband and wife. such a thing is unthinkable among the tinguian of to-day; first cousins are absolutely barred from marrying, while even the union of second cousins would cause a scandal, and it is very doubtful if such a wife would be allowed to share in her deceased husband's property. [ ] it appears that only one real [ ] wife is recognized as legitimate, but that from "the first times" to the present a man might have as many concubines as he could secure. so far as mythology and present day conditions can inform us the bride has always gone to the home of her husband and, for a time at least, has been subject to the dictations of her mother-in-law, although the couple are generally soon established in a home of their own, in the town of the groom. there is nothing in tinguian life or tradition to indicate that they have ever had a clan system or a matriarchal form of government. the few references to the procedure immediately after a death indicate that, in part, the people of to-day follow the old custom; but here again an important departure occurs. we are thrice told that the corpse was placed on a little raft called _tabalang_ and set adrift on the river; and in one case the afterbirth was treated in the same manner. nothing of the sort is done to-day, nor does it seem at all likely that such has been the case in recent generations. the body is now buried beneath the house, and certain set rules govern the movements of all persons related to the deceased, as well as the disposal of the corpse. this procedure is so complex and so uniform throughout the whole tinguian belt that it seems improbable that it has grown up, except through a long period of time. at this point it is interesting to note that at many ceremonies it is necessary to construct a small raft called _tal-talababong,_ or _talabong_, to place offerings in it, and set it adrift on the stream, in order that any spirits who have been prevented from attending the ceremony may still secure their share. [ ] the festivals, the dances, the observances of the proprieties required by good breeding or custom of to-day, follow closely those given in the tales. the greatest divergence is in the offering of betel-nuts and the telling of names, which occupies such an important place in the narratives. the use of betel-nut for chewing is less common among the tinguian people than with most other philippine tribes, a fact which may be accounted for by their constant use of tobacco. however, betel-nuts still occupy a most important place in the various ceremonies, and many offerings intended for the spirits must be accompanied with the prepared nut. in nearly every instance when invitations were sent out, for a ceremony, the people of the tales intrusted an oiled betel-nut covered with gold with this duty. this has its counterpart to-day in the small gifts of gold which are often carried to some friend, in another town, whose presence is particularly desired. it seems not improbable that the golden colored husks of the ripe betel-nuts may have suggested the substitution. magic was practiced extensively in "the first time," but it is by no means unknown to the people of the present day. they cannot now bring a dead person to life, or create human beings out of bits of betel-nut; but they can and do cause sickness and death to their foes by performing certain rites or directing actions against garments or other objects recently in their possession. even the name of an enemy can be applied to an animal or inanimate object and action against it be transferred to the owner. like the tinguian, the people of kadalayapan and kaodanan are warned or encouraged by omens received through the medium of birds, thunder, lightning, or the condition of the gall and liver of a slaughtered pig; [ ] and like them they suffer for failure to heed these warnings, or for the infraction of a taboo. the myths of the first division make it plain that, to the people of those times, the sun, moon, and stars were animate--either spirits or human beings. in some cases a similar conception was held for thunder and lightning, while in others they appear as animals. it will appear that such ideas are not foreign to the second division of the tales, which represent present day beliefs. thus, in the mountain village of baay the sky is considered as a male spirit--the husband of the earth, and father of sun and moon. again, in lagangilang and abang, the thunderbolt is identified as kadaklan--the most powerful of all spirits--who "often eats the ground and releases his wife agemem." this brings us to a most interesting question, namely: are the chief actors in our tales to be considered as celestial beings and spirits, or as human heroes? we have already made note of the fact that in the first tale aponitolau is identified with ini-init whom, we are told, was "the sun," "the man who makes the sun," "a round stone which rolls." in this tale he marries aponibolinayen, a maiden whose name may possibly be construed to mean "the woman in the moon." [ ] however, we find aponitolau abandoning his place in the sky and going to reside in kadalayapan. this tale comes from the town of langangilang where, as we have already seen, the celestial beings are regarded as spirits. tale fifteen, coming from the same town, shows us this same aponitolau going up to the sky, where he marries the spirit kabkabaga-an, but as before he returns to his home below. a further indication of his celestial character is perhaps afforded us in tale fourteen, which was recorded in patok, a valley town in which the sun, moon, and stars are now regarded as "lights" belonging to the spirit kadaklan. here we find that aponitolau marries the star maid gaygayóma, who is the daughter of the big star bagbagak, and sinag--the moon. in this same tale aponibolinayen appears as the first wife of aponitolau, and it is clear that in the mind of the story teller she is not identified with sinag. aponitolau appears in the other tales without any hint of celestial qualities. aside from her name and the fact that she is once pictured as visiting the sky, there is nothing to indicate that his wife aponibolinayen is to be considered as the moon. a careful study of the other characters who reside in kadalayapan and kaodanan fails to yield any evidence that they are considered as celestial beings. during the _sayang_ ceremony held in san juan, a certain man and woman, who are then called iwaginán and gimbagon [ ], represent the good spirits and are defended by the people when evil spirits try to dispossess them of their property. this is the only instance i have observed in which the names of any of these characters of the tales appear in the ceremonies, while a list of more than one hundred and fifty spirits known to the tinguian fails to reveal more. while in the practice of magic, and in their communication with nature, celestial bodies, and spirits, these "people of the first times" far excelled the present tinguian, they had a material culture and ceremonial life much like that still found in abra. it seems then that these people, about whom the stories cluster, are not to be identified as celestial beings or spirits [ ]. they appear rather as generalized heroes whose life and deeds represent that of an earlier period, magnified and extolled by succeeding generations. ritualistic and explanatory myths the second division of the tales now assumes a position of importance to us, for in it we find present day ideas and beliefs of the people strongly brought out, and are thus in a position to contrast them with the tenets of the people in "the first times". the influence of custom is exceedingly strong among the tinguian of to-day. the fact that the ancestors did so and so is sufficient justification for performing any act for which they have no definite explanation. nowhere is this influence greater than in the ceremonies. these, which accompany all the important happenings in their daily life, are conducted by mediums who are fitted for office by long training, and each one of whom is a check on the others if they wilfully or through carelessness deviate from the old forms. the ritual of these ceremonies is very complex and the reason for doing many acts now seems to be entirely lost, yet the one explanation _"kadaúyan"_--custom--is sufficient to satisfy any tinguian. other acts, as well as the possession of certain things, are explained by myths, such as we are considering. it seems certain that we are here dealing not with present day beliefs alone, but with at least relatively old customs and tales, which while enabling us to understand present day conceptions also give us a glimpse into the past. the myths - , which are known to the people as _diams_, are now inseparable parts of the various ceremonies. thus, when a pig is to be offered in the _sayang_ ceremony, the medium sits down beside it and strokes it with oiled fingers while she "talks to the spirits". the translation of her "talk" shows that this is in no sense a prayer but is rather an account of how the greatest of the spirits taught the tinguian people to perform this ceremony correctly. likewise, when she offers food in the _dawak_ [ ] ceremony, she relates how the spirit kaboniyan taught the tinguian to do this in the same manner that he performs it. in the _pala-an [ ] diam_ she relates, in story form, the cause of the sickness, but in this case ends with a direct invocation to the spirits in dadáya to "make them well again if you please". the balance of the _diams_, - , are in story form, and seem intended more as an explanation to the people as to the causes of their troubles than to be directed toward the spirits. however, the medium seldom has an audience, and rarely ever a single listener, as she recites the _diams_ she has learned verbatim from her instructors when preparing for the duties of her office. myths - are of quite a different type. they are generally told by the mediums or wise old people, during the ceremonies, but always to a crowd of eager listeners. they are not learned word for word, as are the _diams_, but their content is constant and they are thoroughly believed. that they exert a great influence on the beliefs and conduct of both old and young is undoubted. the evil which befalls a person who molests the guardian stones is thus made known even to the children who generally keep at a distance from the grove in which they stand. again, these tales give sharp warning as to what befalls a person who even ignorantly breaks the taboos following a death; but at the same time advance means of thwarting the wrath of the enraged or evil spirits. myths to at first glance to not appear to be explanatory at all, but seem rather to be a series of stories dealing with the relations between certain persons and the natural spirits or those of the dead. however, it is the intent and use rather than the form of these stories which has caused them to be included in this division, for they give the people authority for certain beliefs and conceptions which they hold. tale gives us a glimpse of the prevalent idea of the abode of the dead, where the spirits lead much the same sort of life as they did while alive, but we secure quite a different picture of this realm from the baluga [ ] tale, in which the home of the deceased is said to be in the ground while the "life" of the dead woman is kept in a bamboo cup. this last account was heard in manabo, a town near to the igorot settlements of the upit river, and may be influenced by the beliefs held in that section. [ ] certain individuals appear to have intimate dealings with the natural spirits, in some instances even being joined to them in marriage. the afterbirth child, sayen, is believed to have lived "not very long ago", yet we find his life and actions quite similar to those of the heroes in "the first times", while his foster mother--the _alan_ [ ]--takes the same part as did the _alan_ of old. relations to appear as pure explanatory tales, accounting for the existence and appearance of celestial bodies and animals in their present state; they also account for the possession of fire and of many prized objects, such as jars and agate beads. incidentally many essential traits and old customs come out, such, for instance, as those of war and mourning, which appear in connection with the origin of the _kalau_ [ ]. with few exceptions the myths of this division correspond to present beliefs; the spirits are those known to-day; the towns mentioned are now existing or their former locations are well known. they have thus the appearance of being of more recent origin than those of the first division, yet it is worthy of note that there is little in them which seems foreign to or out of keeping with the older tales. fables the last division may be said to be made up of fables, for the story tellers without hesitation label them as fictions. the last of these appears to be only a worked over incident of myth , in which the big bird banog carries the hero to its nest, from which he escapes by holding to the wings of the young birds. it is possible that more of these fables are likewise incidents in tales prevalent among the tinguian, but not heard by the writer. whether or no this be true, it is certain that most of these stories are well known to the ilocano of the coast and the other christianized natives throughout the archipelago. comparison with the folk-lore from other regions shows that these stories are by no means confined to the philippines. the chief incidents in the narrative of the turtle and the monkey have been recorded from the kenyah of borneo [ ] and from the northern peninsula of celebes [ ]; the race between the shell and the carabao is told in british north borneo [ ] in regard to the plandok and crab, while it is known to european children as the race between the turtle and the hare. the threat of the mosquito in is almost identical with that recorded by evans in borneo [ ]; while many incidents in the fable of dogidog [ ] are found in the iban story of simpang impang [ ]. when comparing the tinguian versions of these fables with those of the ilocano, one is impressed with the fact that while the incidents upon which they are founded are often identical, the stories themselves have frequently been moulded and changed by the tellers, who have introduced bits of old customs and beliefs until they reflect, in a way, the prevalent ideas of the people. thus in the story of the magic _poncho_ [ ], which is evidently of spanish introduction, the owner is identified as the _banbantay_--a well-known minor spirit. again, the first part of tale is identical with that of the ilocano, but ends with the parents of the groom preparing the things used in the _pakálon_--a very necessary part of the tinguian marriage ceremony. the footnotes have called attention to the many incidents which have their parallels in other districts. reference to these shows that a large percentage are found in the islands toward the south. while recognizing that similarity of incidents does not necessarily mean identity of origin, we must still give full credit to the effects of borrowing, even over great distances. the easy communication along the coast during the past four hundred years and the contact with spanish and christianized officials and traders will readily explain the likeness of the tales in division iii to those held in distant islands, or even in europe, but, as just noted, these are now undergoing change. doubtless a similar inflow had been taking place, although at a slower rate, long before the spaniards reached the islands, and tinguian mythology has grown up as the result of blending of native tales with those of other areas, the whole being worked over and reshaped until it fitted the social setting. previous writers--among them ratzel and graebner [ ]--have sought to account for certain resemblances in culture, between malaysia, polynesia, and america, by historical connection. a part of our material--such as that of the blood-clot child (p. ), [ ] the rape of the maiden by the vine which carries her to the sky (p. ), the magic flight (p. ), and magic growth (p. ) [ ]--may seem to lend support to such a theory. these similarities are assuredly suggestive and interesting, but it appears to the writer that the material is too scanty and the folklore of intervening lands too little known to justify us in considering them as convincing proof of borrowing over such immense distances. [ ] general results our study has brought out certain general results. we have seen that tinguian folklore has much in common with that of other tribes and lands. while a part of this similarity is doubtless due to borrowing--a process which can still be seen at work--a considerable portion of the tales is probably of local and fairly recent origin, while the balance appears to be very old. these older tales are so intimately interwoven with the ceremonies, beliefs, and culture of this people that they may safely be considered as having been developed by them. they are doubtless much influenced by present day conditions, for each story teller must, even unconsciously, read into them some of his own experiences and the current beliefs of the tribe. at the same time these traditional accounts doubtless exercise a potent influence on the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the people. in tinguian society, where custom still holds undisputed sway, these well-known tales of past times must tend to cast into the same mould any new facts or experiences which come to them. we believe that we are justified when we take the viewpoint of the tinguian and consider "the stories of the first times" as essentially very old. how old it is impossible to state definitely, but a careful analysis of our material justifies us in believing that they reflect a time before the people possessed terraced rice fields, when domestic work animals were still unknown, and the horse had not yet been introduced into their land. that these are not recent events is attested by the great part they all now play in the ceremonial and economic life. it is evident that outside influences of great importance were introduced at a period later than the time when the chinese first began to trade along the coasts of the philippines for the prized jars, which play such an important rôle in the mythology, are not to be identified as those of native make but are ancient chinese vessels dating back at least to the fourteenth and perhaps even to the tenth century [ ]. it is probable that the glass, porcelain, and agate beads, which are second only to the jars in importance, are exceedingly old. many ancient specimens are still in use and are held for as fabulous prices as are those found among the interior tribes of borneo. nieuwenhuis has shown that the manufacture of beads had become a great industry in the middle ages, and had extended even to china and japan, whence the products may have spread contemporaneously with the pottery [ ]. we have seen that, for the most part, the life, customs, and beliefs which appear in our reconstruction of "the first times" agrees closely with present conditions; certain things which seem formerly to have been of prime importance--such as the sending of a betel-nut covered with gold to invite guests to a festival or ceremony--appear to have their echo in present conditions. the betel-nut which played such a momentous part in the old times still holds its place in the rituals of the many ceremonies, although it is not now much used in daily life. the magic of to-day is less powerful than formerly, but is still a tremendous force. the communication of the ancient people with other members of the animate world, as well as with the inanimate and spiritual, and their metamorphosis into animals and the like, offers nothing strange or inconsistent to the people of to-day. they even now talk to jars, they converse with spirits who come to them through the bodies of their mediums, and people only recently deceased are known to have had the power of changing themselves, at will, into other forms. in short, there is no sharp break between the mode of thought of to-day and that exhibited in the folklore. it is true that the tales give sanction to some things not in agreement with tinguian usage--such, for instance, as the marriage of relatives, or the method of disposing of the dead--and it may be that we have here a remembrance of customs which long ago fell into disuse. in a previous paper [ ] the writer showed that there have been many migrations into abra from the north, south, and west. a part of the emigrants have become thoroughly amalgamated with the tinguian people and have doubtless introduced some part of their material culture and beliefs. this helps us to understand such conflicts as we have already noted in regard to the place held by thunder and lightning in the spirit world, as to the future abode of the spirits of the departed, as well as other discrepancies which the limits of this paper have prevented us from discussing. it is not impossible that those customs of "the first times," which are at variance with those of to-day, may represent older ideas which have been swamped, or, on the other hand, the memory of the strange customs once practiced by the emigrants may have caused them to be attributed to the people of the tales. finally, we believe that a study of tinguian mythology has shown us that we can gain a real knowledge of the past of a people through their folklore; that we can secure an insight into their mental life; and can learn something of the valuation they attach to certain of their activities and beliefs, which to us may seem at the surface trite and trivial. tales of the mythical period "we go to take greens, sister-in-law dinay, perhaps the _siksiklat_ [ ] will taste good. i have heard that the _siksiklat_ is good," said aponibolinayen. they went to get her _siksiklat_. when they arrived at the place of small trees, which they thought was the place of the _siksiklat_, they looked. aponibolinayen was the first who looked. as soon as she began to break off the _siksiklat_ which she saw she did not break any more, but the _siksiklat_ encircled and carried her up. when they reached the sky (literally "the up"), the _siksiklat_ placed her below the _alosip_ [ ] tree. she sat for a long time. soon she heard the crowing of the rooster. she stood up and went to see the rooster which crowed. she saw a spring. she saw it was pretty because its sands were _oday_ [ ] and its gravel _pagapat_ [ ] and the top of the betel-nut tree was gold, and the place where the people step was a large chinese plate which was gold. she was surprised, for she saw that the house was small. she was afraid and soon began to climb the betel-nut tree, and she hid herself. the man who owned the house, which she saw near the well, [ ] was ini-init--the sun. but he was not in the place of his house, because he went out and went above to make the sun, because that was his work in the daytime. and the next day aponibolinayen saw him, who went out of his house, because he went again to make the sun. and aponibolinayen went after him to his house, because she saw the man, who owned the house, who left. when she arrived in the house, she quickly cooked, because she was very hungry. when she finished cooking, she took the stick used in roasting fish and cooked it, and the fish-stick which she cooked became cut-up fish, because she used her magic power. [ ] when she finished to cook the fish, she took out rice from the pot, and when she had finished to take out the rice from the pot, she took off the meat from the fish. when she finished taking the fish from the pot, she ate. when she finished eating, she washed. when she finished washing, she kept those things which she used to eat, the coconut shell cup and plate, and she laid down to sleep. when afternoon came, ini-init went home to his house after he finished fishing. he saw his house, which appeared as if it was burning, not slowly. he went home because it appeared as if his house was burning. when he arrived at his house, it was not burning, and he was surprised because it appeared as if there was a flame at the place of his bed. when he was in his house, he saw that which was like the flame of the fire, at the place of his bed, was a very pretty lady. soon he cooked, and when he had finished to cook he scaled the fish, and when he had finished scaling he cut it into many pieces, and he made a noise on the bamboo floor when he cut the fish. the woman awoke, who was asleep on his bed. she saw that the man who cut the fish was a handsome man, and that he dragged his hair. [ ] the pot she had used to cook in looked like the egg of a rooster [ ] and he was surprised because it looked like the egg of a rooster; and the rice which she cooked was one grain of broken rice. [ ] because of all this ini-init was surprised, for the pot was very small with which she cooked. after ini-init cooked, the woman vanished and she went to the leaves of the betel-nut, where she went to hide. after ini-init finished cooking the fish, he saw the bed, the place where the woman was sleeping, was empty. he was looking continually, but he did not find her. when he could not find her, he ate alone, and when he finished eating he washed, and when he finished washing the dishes he put away, and when he had finished putting away he went to the yard to get a fresh breath. not long afterwards he went to take a walk in the place of his betel-nuts. when he had finished to take a walk in the place of his betel-nuts, he went to sleep. when it began to be early morning, he left his house, he who went up, because it was his business to make the sun. and aponibolinayen went again into the house. when it became afternoon, ini-init went to his home, and aponibolinayen had cooked, after which she went out to the betel-nut trees. when ini-init arrived, he was surprised because his food was cooked, for there was no person in his house. as soon as he saw the cooked rice and cooked fish in the dish, he took the fish and the rice and began to eat. when he had finished eating, he went to his yard to take a fresh breath and he was troubled in his mind when he thought of what had happened. he said, "perhaps the woman, which i saw, came to cook and has left the house. sometime i shall try to hide and watch, so that i may catch her." he went to sleep, and when it became early morning he went to cook his food. when he had finished eating, he went again to make the sun, and aponibolinayen went again to his house. when the sun had nearly sunk, he sent the big star who was next to follow him in the sky, and he went home to spy on the woman. when he had nearly reached his home, he saw the house appeared as if it was burning. [ ] he walked softly when he went up the ladder. he slammed shut the door. he reached truly the woman who was cooking in the house. he went quickly and the woman said to him, "you cut me only once, so that i only cure one time, if you are the old enemy." "if i were the old enemy, i should have cut before," said ini-init, and he sat near her who cooked. he took out the betel-nut, and he arranged it so that they began to chew the betel-nut, and he said, "ala! young lady, we are going to chew, because it is bad for us to talk who do not know each other's names." aponibolinayen answered, "no, for if the rich man who practices magic is able to give to the rich woman who has magical power, soon there will be a sign." ini-init said, "no, hurry up even though we are related, for you come here if we are not related." [ ] he begged her and he cut the betel-nut, which was to be chewed, which was covered with gold, and he gave it to the woman who had magical power, and they chewed. when she laid down the quid, it looked like the agate bead, which has no hole for the thread. and the quid of ini-init looked like a square bead. "my name is ini-init, who often goes to travel over the world. i always stop in the afternoon. what can i do, it is my business," he said. aponibolinayen was next to tell her name. "my name is aponibolinayen, who lives in kaodanan, who am the sister of awig," she said, and when they had finished telling their names, both their quids looked like the agate bead which is _pinoglan_, which has no hole. ini-init said, "we are relatives, and it is good for us to be married. do not be afraid even though you did not come here of your own accord. i go to kaodanan," he said. then they married, and the sun went to shine on the world, because it was his business, and the big star also had business when it became night. aponibolinayen staid alone in the house, and in the afternoon the sun again went home, but first he went to fish in the river. he went home when he had caught the big fish for them to eat--both those married. and when he arrived in their house he found aponibolinayen, who was cooking, and he saw that she still broke up the fish-stick, which she cooked. ini-init asked her, "what are you doing with that stick which you are breaking, which you put in the jar?" and aponibolinayen replied, "i cook for us both to eat," and the sun laughed, because she cooked the stick. "you throw away that stick which you are cooking; this fish which i caught with the net is what you are to cook. it is not eatable that fish-stick which you cook," he said. aponibolinayen said, "you shall see by and by, when we eat, what it will become. you hang up the fish which you caught, which we shall eat to-morrow." "hurry up! you throw away that stick which you cook, it has no use. even though you cook for one month, it will not become soft, and i do not think it will become good," said ini-init. aponibolinayen said, "no, you hurry and hang that fish which you caught with the net, because it is nearly cooked--the rice and the fish." not long after she took out the rice from the jar, and she uncovered her cooked fish, which was a stick. when the sun saw that the fish came from the stick which she cooked, he was surprised and he asked her how she made the stick, which she cooked, turn to fish. aponibolinayen said, "you hurry come and eat, for i have finished taking out the rice and fish." [ ] not long after that the sun went truly in front of her to the place of the rice and cooked fish, and they ate. not long after they finished and aponibolinayen washed, and when she had finished washing she put away those things which they ate and ini-init made trouble because of the stick which became a fish. he again asked aponibolinayen how she made the stick into fish, and aponibolinayen said, "do not trouble yourself, perhaps you know about the rich woman who practices magic in kaodanan," and ini-init said, "yes, i know the rich woman who practices magic in kaodanan, who sometimes has much power, who changes, who has no equal." aponibolinayen said, "why do you still ask if you know?" "i ask because i want to be sure, even though i know you have much power," said ini-init. "if that is true, do not ask again," she said. not long after while they were talking, they went to sleep, and when it began to be early morning ini-init went to make the sun on all the world; when they had finished to eat he went to shine. aponibolinayen staid in the house. when it came afternoon, the sun went down and he went directly to fish in the river, for the fish which they ate--the two who were married. not long after he caught again a big fish, and he went home. when he arrived, aponibolinayen had finished cooking, and he asked where she got the fish which she had cooked, and she said, "why do you ask again? you know it is the stick which i cook, which is fish, which we ate, before you arrived again with fish. throw away the fish which you caught, for this stick is many fish which i cook." after that ini-init said, "why do you order to throw away, that which serves the purpose to which we put it, even though you cook many sticks?" "if you value it, hang it on the hanger, and you come and eat." not long after they ate, and when they had finished eating, they washed, and when they had finished washing those things which they used to eat on, they talked and they went to sleep. when it became the middle of the night, aponibolinayen woke up. "i go up with you when you go up in the early morning," she said. ini-init said to her, "do not come, for it is very hot up above. you cannot endure the heat, and you will repent when we are there." "no, if it is too hot, we shall take many blankets and pillows, which i shall go under," she said again and again until it became early morning, then ini-init agreed. they ate first and then they arranged those pillows and blankets which they took with them. not long after they went east, and when they arrived there the sun shone, and aponibolinayen became oil because it was so hot, and ini-init put her in a bottle, and he corked it and covered it with blankets and pillows, which sheltered her, and he dropped it down. she fell by the well in kaodanan, and indiápan, who was still dipping water, turned her face at the sound of the falling at her side. she saw many good blankets and pillows, and she unwrapped that which was wrapped, and when she had finished to unwrap she saw it was a pretty lady--none equal to her--and she was frightened. she went quickly to go up to the town, where they lived, and when she arrived there she said to the people, "we have been searching a long time for aponibolinayen, and you killed and used many cows as food for the searchers, and you spent much for her. she is at the spring. i was frightened when she fell by me, who was dipping water from the well. i saw many pretty blankets and pillows, and i unwrapped that which was wrapped, and it was aponibolinayen whom we are seeking," said indiápan. they went quickly--her father and mother--and the other men went to see her, and when they arrived at the place of the well they saw aponibolinayen whom they sought. "where did you come from, aponibolinayen, for whom we have been seeking? we have invited many and have fed many to search for you. among the towns there is not one we did not search for you, and now you are here," said her father and mother. she said, "i came from pindayan. i nearly did not come, because the _alzados_ [ ] closed the way, and i escaped while they slept." not long after they went up to the town, and not long after they went to wash their hair and bathe in the river, and when they had finished washing their hair they went home. ebang said, "ala! husband pagatipánan, let us make _balaua_ [ ] and invite our relatives who are sorrowing for aponibolinayen," and pagatipánan said, "we shall make _balaua_ when next month comes, but now aponibolinayen feels ill, perhaps she is tired." not long after that aponibolinayen commanded them to prick her little finger which itched; and when her mother pricked it out popped a pretty baby. [ ] her mother asked, "where did you get this baby, aponibolinayen?" but aponibolinayen did not tell. "i do not know where i got it, and i did not feel," she said. when they could not compel her to tell where she secured the baby, "ala, we make _balaua_ to-morrow," said the father and mother. they made _balaua_, and not long after ebang used magic, so that many people went to pound rice for them, and when they had finished to pound rice they built _balaua_, and they went to get the betel-nut which is covered with gold for chewing. when these arrived, ebang oiled them when it began to get dark. "you betel-nuts go to all the people in the whole world and invite them. if any of them do not come, you grow on their knees," said ebang. and those betel-nuts went to invite all the people in the whole world. every time they bathed the child they used magic, so that it grew as often as they washed it, until it walked. the betel-nuts arrived in the towns where they went to invite. the one that went to nagbotobotán--the place where lived the old woman alokotán--said, "good morning, i do not tarry, the reason of my coming is that ebang and pagatipánan commanded me, because aponibolinayen is there." "yes, you go first, i will come, i will follow you. i go first to wash my hair and bathe," she said. the betel-nut which is covered with gold said, "i wait for you, for if you do not come, i shall grow on your knee." the old woman alokotán started when she finished washing her hair and bathing. the betel-nut, which was covered with gold, took her, and not long after they arrived, and they met those whom the other betel-nuts went to summon in the other towns. no one wanted the baby to go to them, [ ] and when none wished it to approach, the old woman alokotán summoned the spirits. ("what town did they not yet invite?" this question was added by the story-teller. not part of tale.) the old woman alokotán said, "you invited all the people except ini-init, who is above. you did not send the prepared betel-nut covered with gold to summon him. perhaps he made aponibolinayen pregnant, because the _siksiklat_ took her up when they went to gather greens--she and her sister-in-law, who is dinay." they commanded the betel-nuts, and they oiled them, and sent them. not long after the betel-nut, whom they sent, arrived above, who went to call ini-init. and the betel-nut said, when he arrived, "good morning, sun, i do not tarry. the reason of my visit is that ebang and pagatipánan, who make _balaua_, send me. if you do not wish to come, i will grow on your head." the sun said, "grow on my head, i do not wish to go." the betel-nut jumped up and went on his head, and it grew. not long after the betel-nut became tall and the sun was not able to carry it, because it became big, and he was in pain. "you go to my pig, that is what you grow on," he said. not long after the betel-nut jumped on the head of his pig, and the pig began to squeal because it could not carry the betel-nut which began to grow on its head. and ini-init said, "ala! get off my big pig and i come." the betel-nut got off the pig. not long after they went and pagatipánan carried the baby near to the gate. when ini-init and the betel-nut approached, the baby was happy and he went to be carried by ini-init. when they arrived at the festival place, the people saw that he who carried the baby rolled because he was round, and they saw he was not a man but a stone, and ebang and pagatipánan said, "ala! aponibolinayen, you start and take off your arm beads and you dress in rags, you wrap your wrists with strings, in place of the arm beads, so that you can go with the stone when he takes you to his home, when our _balaua_ is finished." not long after aponibolinayen started. she took off her beads and her dresses and exchanged them for rags and strings. when she changed her dresses, she went down the ladder, and she saw that he who carried the baby was a stone, which was round. after that pagatipánan said, "ala! now our _balaua_ is finished, you go home to the town of the stone." aponibolinayen said, "yes, if that is what you say." those people who were invited bade them good-by, and when they went away, they went home also--those whom they invited. not long after they arrived at their home and the sun became a man, he who had been a stone before. "when next month comes we shall build _balaua_, aponibolinayen, so that we can invite our relatives, and i will pay the marriage price, because i marry you," [ ] said ini-init to her. soon the month arrived in which they said they would build _balaua_, and they summoned the old woman alokotán, to start the _balaua_. not long after they sent to get _bolo_ and _lono_ [ ] with which to make the _dakidak_ and _talapitap_. [ ] when it became afternoon the old woman alokotán began to sing _da-eng_ [ ] and the next night they sang _da-eng_ again. not long after they commanded to pound rice, and aponibolinayen used magic so that many women went to pound with them. [ ] and ini-init practiced magic so that they had many neighbors, and many who went to pound rice with them. soon they commanded to get the timbers for the _balaua_, and they prepared everything which they needed. when it became morning they built _balaua_, and not long after they went to get the prepared betel-nut, which is covered with gold, which they sent to invite their relatives. [ ] when they arrived--those prepared betel-nuts which were covered with gold--they oiled them at the beginning of the night, and sent them to invite. aponibolinayen said, "i will use magic, so that you, betel-nut, may reach the town of our relatives so that you invite all of them. when there is one who will not come, you grow on their knees, as long as they do not come." not long after they made _libon_ [ ] in the beginning of the night. those betel-nuts, whom they sent to invite, arrived, those which they sent to invite their relatives. they did not wish to go to make _balaua_. the betel-nuts who went to invite them said, "if you do not wish to come, i will grow on your knee." pagatipánan said, "you grow," and the betel-nut grew on his knee, and it became high and he was in pain. "ala! you get off my knee, and you go on my pig," he said, and the betel-nut went truly on his pig and it squealed. "you get off my pig, and we will come," he said, and the betel-nut truly got off the pig. "ala! you who live in the same town, you go and wash your hair and bathe, and wash your clothes so that we can go to make _sayang_ [ ] with the stone and aponibolinayen. here is a betel-nut covered with gold which they send," said pagatipánan. and the people who lived in the same town washed their hair and bathed, and they went to wash their clothes. not long after it became afternoon and pagatipánan used magic so that cake and singed pig appeared which they were to take to those who make _sayang_, which they exchanged with those who make _sayang_. [ ] not long after they arrived at the place of the gathering, and aponibolinayen and ini-init went to make _alawig_, [ ] and when they had finished, they brought them up to the town. pagatipánan said, "i did not think that the stone which rolled could change when he came to make _balaua_ with us." "_ala_! now all you who have arrived, rich men, you divide the prepared betel-nut which is covered with gold," said ini-init. not long after pagatipánan cut the betel-nut and chewed, and the quid of ini-init went to the quid of pagbokásan, and the quid of aponibolinayen went to the quid of pagatipánan. [ ] "ala! now that we have finished chewing, i will give the payment for aponibolinayen, and now that you have found out that i am your son--father and mother--let us give the payment," [ ] said ini-init. his father and mother said, "if that is what you say, my child, we will give," and they gave him the name of aponitolau. [ ] and aponitolau said, "ala! you play the _gansa_ [ ] so that we can dance." when they played the _gansa_, iwaginan took the _alap_ and _kinamayan_ [ ] and he gave them to aponibolinayen and agyokan. when aponibolinayen and agyokan had finished dancing, they made aponitolau and asindamáyan dance. when aponitolau and asindamáyan finished dancing he made to dance dinay of kabisilan, who was the daughter of dalonágan, and also they made to dance kanag, [ ] who was the son of aponibolinayen and aponitolau. when they finished to dance, datalan and dalonágan of kabisilan danced, and when they finished to dance, iwaginan made dagapan and indiápan dance. when they had finished dancing ginteban and agyokan were next. and the beads of ginteban were jars, which struck together while they danced. next were iwaginan and kindi-iñan who was the wife of ilwisan of dagapan. and when they had all danced they stopped playing the _gansa_. aponitolau gave the payment for aponibolinayen and it was the _balaua_ nine times filled with jars--_malayo, tadogan_, and _ginlasan_. [ ] and when he had given all the payment they played again on the _gansas_ for one month and they danced. when one month passed, they went home--their relatives whom they had invited. they said, "ala! now aponitolau and aponibolinayen, since the day has arrived on which we go home, do not detain us for we have been here for a month, we go home to our town." not long after they all went home. and the father and mother of aponitolau took them home with them to kadalayapan, and they took all their possessions from up above. when they arrived in kadalayapan those who lived in the same town were surprised, for aponitolau and aponibolinayen were there. they went to see them and balokánag (i.e., kanag--their son) was large. it is said. (told by magwati, a man of lagangilang abra.) "i am anxious to eat the mango fruit which belongs to algaba of dagála," said aponibolinayen. when she said this she was almost dying and she repeated it. "ala cousin dalonágan, you go and take cousin dina-ogan, and go and secure the mango fruit of algaba of dagála," said aponibalagen. "why does aponibolinayen want the mango fruit of algaba of dagála; does she not know that anyone who goes there cannot return?" asked dalonágan. "ala, you go and be careful and he will not hurt you," said aponibalagen. and dalonágan went truly, and started, and aponibalagen gave dalonágan a belt and earrings, which he was to trade for the mango fruit; and dalonágan went to get dina-ogan, and he took an egg. not long after they went and they held the egg all the time as they walked. when they were in the middle of the way the egg hatched. when they had almost arrived in dagála the chicken had become a rooster which could crow. not long after they arrived at the spring of algaba of dagála, and the people who dipped water from the spring were there. "you people who are dipping water from the spring, where is a shallow place where we can cross?" "where is the shallow place where we can cross you say, rich men, perhaps you are enemies," said the women who were dipping water. "if we are enemies we would kill you," said dalonágan. "you see the shallow place where the people cross," said the people who were dipping water from the well. not long after they spread their belt on the water and they rode across. when they arrived on the other side of the river they took a bath. as soon as they finished bathing they went on top of a high stone and dried their bodies. the water which dropped from their bodies became agates which have no holes through them, and the women who were dipping water saw the agates which dropped from their bodies and they touched each other and said, "look at that." when they put their clouts on they asked the women, "where is the road to the house of algaba of dagála?" "you follow the _sagang_; [ ] they lead to his house and his _balaua_," said the women who were dipping water from the well. "will one of you guide us to the house of our cousin algaba?" they said. "no, because no one comes to get water unless all are together," said the women. not long after dalonágan and his companion went up to the town and the defensive fence, which was made of boa constrictors, did not notice them for the snakes slept. not long after they arrived at the _balaua_. "_wes_," they said, and the old woman _alan_ [ ] came to look at them through the window. "how are you?" she said. "do not go to the _balaua_, because algaba can see you," said the _alan_. algaba was playing with his sweetheart in the other house, when his sweetheart arrived from the well. "your big snakes, which make the fence, did not see the enemies who came inside of the town." then algaba ran to his house and he was very angry when he saw the two men. he went to get his headaxe and spear and when he took them down the weapons shed tears which were of oil. "what is the matter with my weapons that they weep oil? perhaps these men are my relatives," said the angry man. he dropped them and when he took another set they shed bloody tears. the two men went up into the kitchen of the house, and algaba went there. "how do you do now?" he said, still angry. "what do you want here?" "what are you here for, you ask, and we came to buy the mango fruit for aponibolinayen who is nearly dead." "it is good that you came here," said algaba, but he was angry and the two men were frightened, and they did not eat much. as soon as they finished eating, "what do you want to pay?" said algaba. they let him see the one earring of aponibolinayen. "i don't like that; look at the yard of my house. all the stones are gold," said algaba. when he did not want the earring, they let him see the belt, and algaba smiled. "how pretty it is! i think the lady who owns this is much prettier," he said to them. "ala, you go and get two of the fruit." so they went truly, and dalonágan went to climb and when he secured two mangoes he went down. "we go now." "i will go with you for i wish to see aponibolinayen," said algaba. he said to his mother _alan_ "you, mother, do not feel anxious concerning me while i am gone, for i want to go and see the sick lady who so desires the mango fruit. watch for enemies who come inside the town." "yes, do not stay long," said his mother _alan_. not long after they went and when they were in the middle of the way algaba said, "is it far yet?" "it is near now," they answered. "i use my power so that the sick woman, for whom they came to get fruit, will feel very ill and nearly die," said algaba to himself. not long after, truly they almost arrived. when they reached the well, he asked again, "is it still far?" but he knew that the well belonged to aponibolinayen. "it is near now; she owns this well," they said. not long after they entered the gate of the town. "i use my power so that aponibolinayen will die," he said, and she truly died. "why is aponibolinayen dead? the mango fruit which we went to get is worthless now," they said. "perhaps she is the one they are wailing for," said algaba of dagála. when they reached the ladder, "the mango fruit which you went to get is no good at all," said aponibalagen to them. "yes, it is. i came because i wish to see her," said algaba of dagála. "if it is possible for you to bring her to life, please do so," said aponibalagen to him, and took him inside of the house. algaba looked at her, and she was a lady without an equal for beauty. not long after he took the body in his arms. "i use my power so that when i whip my perfume [ ] _kaladakad_ she will move directly," he said, and the body moved. "i use my power so that when i whip my perfume _banawes_ she will say '_wes_'" and she at once said "_wes_." "i use my power so that when i whip my perfume she will wake up," and she woke up. "_wes_, how long my sleep was!" said aponibolinayen, for she was alive again. "how long i sleep! you say. you have been dead," said algaba, and aponibolinayen looked at him and she it saw was not aponibalagen who held her in his arms. "why, aponibalagen, do you detest me? another man is holding me," she said, and she arose from his arms, because she was ashamed. "do not leave me, lady; you would have been dead a long time if i had not come," said algaba, and their rings exchanged of themselves while he was holding her and when aponibolinayen had regained her breath, algaba divided the mango fruit into two parts and he gave to aponibolinayen, but she did not want to take it for she was ashamed. "if you do not wish to eat this fruit which i give you, you cannot go to anyone but me," said algaba, and aponibalagen left them alone. not long after aponibolinayen could sit up straight, and she wanted to leave algaba, but he took her. when aponibolinayen looked at her ring she saw it was not her own. "why have i another ring?" she asked, and she caught the hand of algaba for he wanted to take her. "give me my ring. it is not good for you, for it looks like copper. take your ring, for it is really gold," said aponibolinayen. "no, this is good, for i did not take it from your finger. the spirits wanted it to come to my finger. our rings are both gold, but they are different colors," he said. "let us chew betel-nut for it is bad for us to talk when we do not know each other's names." "it is not my custom to chew betel-nut," said aponibolinayen. "then you learn," said algaba. not long after he made her chew and he gave to her. "now, lady, whom i visit you tell your name first," he said. "no, because i am ashamed, as a woman to tell my name first." not long after he said, "my name is algaba of dagála. i have looked in all parts of the world for a wife, but i did not find anyone like you, and now i have found you, and i want you to be married to me." "my name is aponibolinayen of kaodanan, sister of aponibalagen who are son and daughter of ebang and pagbokásan," said aponibolinayen. not long after they laid down their quids and they were rows of agate beads which have no holes. algaba said, "it is good for us to be married." so they were married and they went to dagála. as soon as they arrived in dagála, "mother," he said to his mother _alan_, "now we are going to take you to kadalayapan, because i have found a wife." "no," said the _alan_, "we must first build _balaua_ here." "that is good if it is what you desire," said algaba. not long after aponibolinayen commanded people to pound rice, and others to get betel-nuts which were covered with gold. so they truly made _sayang._ [ ] not long after when it became evening they made _libon._ "the best for us to do is to invite aponibalagen, and all the people of kadalayapan and some other places," said algaba. not long after they sent the betel-nuts which were covered with gold to invite their relatives. some of the betel-nuts they sent to kaodanan. "sir, come to dagála, because aponibolinayen and algaba build _balaua_," said the betel-nut to aponibalagen. when the other betel-nuts arrived at kadalayapan to invite the people they said to langa-an, "come to dagála because aponibolinayen and algaba make _balaua_." not long after aponibalagen and aponigawani and the other people went. when they reached the middle of the way they met the people of kadalayapan, so they were a large party who went. when they arrived at dagála, at the place where the spring is, they saw that all the stones by the river were gold and they were surprised, and the people who were dipping water from the spring were there. "you people who are dipping water, where is the shallow place for us to cross?" they said. "you look for the place where the people go across?" said the people who were dipping water. not long after they went across the river. as soon as they reached the other side of the river, they took a bath. the women who were dipping water saw that the water which ran from their bodies were agates which had no holes. "how wonderful are the people who live in kadalayapan and kaodanan, for they are relatives of kaboniyan [ ] and they have power," said the women who were dipping water from the well. "you people who are dipping water, where is the trail which leads to the house of algaba of dagála?" they said. "follow the head poles; they are along the road to his house," said the women who were dipping water. so they went up truly to the town, and the boa constrictors which made the fence around the town did not move when they passed, for they were afraid, and when they arrived at the house of algaba the _alan_ danced. when they sat down pagatipánan was in a hurry. "ala! langa-an, let us go and give the betel-nut which is covered with gold to algaba," he said and they went truly. they told algaba that they were going to chew betel-nut, because they wished to learn if they were relatives; and algaba said "that is good," and they called aponigawani to the house, and they cut the betel-nut in pieces. as soon as they cut it in pieces, "the best way to do is for you to tell your name first, because we came to visit you," said pagatipánan to algaba. "no, old man, you tell your name first," said algaba. not long after, "my name is pagatipánan who am the _lakay_ [ ] of kadalayapan." not long after, "my name is pagbokásan who is the father of aponibalagen of kaodanan." not long after, "my name is algaba who is the son of an _alan_ who has deformed feet, [ ] who has no sister; we are not like you people who have power," said algaba. not long after, "my name is aponibalagen of kaodanan who is the son of ebang and pagbokásan." not long after, "my name is aponigawani of kadalayapan who has no brother, so that when some enemies come into our town i dress in the bark of trees." not long after, "my name is aponibolinayen who is the sister of aponibalagen." as soon as they told their names, they laid down their betel-nut quids. the quids of algaba and aponigawani both went to the quid of pagatipánan, also the quids of aponibalagen and aponibolinayen went to the quid of pagbokásan. then aponigawani stood up. "you are so strange, algaba, you are my brother. i am so glad that i have a brother now. you are bad for you let the enemies come into kadalayapan," she said. "excuse me for i was far from kadalayapan and did not see; it is our custom for some of us to go to fight," said algaba. "the best way to do, aponitolau, [ ] is for you to go back with us to kadalayapan," said aponigawani. "if that is what you wish it is all right," he said. not long after the _balaua_ was finished and they took them to kadalayapan. the valuable things which the _alan_ owned she gave to them, and she flew away. when they arrived in kadalayapan, aponibalagen wanted to marry aponigawani. he sent his mother to go and give the message. as soon as she arrived in kadalayapan, "good morning, nephew aponitolau," said ebang. "good morning, what are you here for?" said aponitolau. "what are you coming for, you say. aponibalagen sent me to talk to you, for he wishes to marry aponigawani," she said. "if you think it is good it will be all right," said aponitolau, so she took out the engagement gift and she put one earring inside of a little jar and it was filled with gold. aponitolau lifted his eyebrows and half of the gold disappeared, so ebang put another earring in the pot and it was full again. "ala! when it becomes evening you come and bring aponibalagen," he said to ebang. "yes," she said. so she went home. as soon as she arrived in their house in kaodanan, aponibalagen asked the result of her trip. "they agreed all right; we will go when it becomes evening," said ebang. when it became night they went to kadalayapan and he lived with aponigawani. when it became morning he took aponigawani to kaodanan and the father and mother of aponigawani and the other people followed them. they went to get the marriage payment. it was the _balaua_ filled nine times with jars. as soon as they gave all the payment, aponitolau was the next to make his payment. it was also the _balaua_ filled nine times. as soon as they made all the payment they went home. (told by mano, a woman of patok.) "i am going to wash my hair. give me the rice straw, which has been inherited nine times," said aponitolau to his mother langa-an. so langa-an gave him some and he went to the river to wash. as soon as he arrived at the well he saw the pretty girl who was washing her hair. he went and sat down on her skirt and the pretty girl told him not to cut her in many places so she would not need to doctor the wounds. "if i were an old enemy i would have killed you at the first. it is bad for us to talk when we do not know each other's names. let us chew betel-nut," said aponitolau. "no, for it is not my custom," said the girl. but aponitolau compelled her to chew betel-nut with him. "you tell your name first," he said to her. "no, it is not good for me to tell my name first, for i am a woman. you are a man. you tell your name first." so aponitolau said, "my name is aponitolau of kadalayapan who am the son of langa-an and pagatipánan, who came here to wash my hair. it is good fortune for me that i met you here washing your hair." "my name is gimbangonan of natpangan, who am the daughter of it-tonagan, who is the sister of aldasan." as soon as she told her name she disappeared and went to hide among the betel nuts on the branch of a tree. so aponitolau was very sorry and he went back home without washing his hair. as soon as he arrived where langa-an was sitting he said to her "mother, when i arrived at the well by the river i met a pretty girl whose name was gimbangonan, the daughter of it-tonagan of natpangan. we chewed betel-nuts and told our names, but as soon as she told her name she disappeared and i could not see her. she said that she lived in natpangan. i want to marry her. will you go and arrange the _pakálon?"_ [ ] so langa-an went at once and got her hat which was as large as the _salakasak_ [ ] for she saw that aponitolau was sorrowful. when she took her hat it clucked. [ ] "why does my hat cluck when i take it down? i think they do not like you, aponitolau," said langa-an. "no, you go and try." so langa-an went again to get her hat and again it clucked, but nevertheless she took it and went. when she was in the middle of the way the head of the hat which was like a bird swung and made langa-an turn her head and it clucked again. langa-an sat down by the trail and wondered what would happen. not long after she went on again and she met asindamáyan near the ford. she asked where the ford was and when asindamáyan told her, she spread her belt on the water and it ferried her across. not long after she reached the other side of the river, and she inquired for the house of gimbangonan. asindamáyan answered, "you look for the house where many people are putting props under the house. that is the house of gimbangonan. her porch has many holes in it." when langa-an arrived at the house she said, "good afternoon." and it-tonagan and gimbangonan answered, "good afternoon." they invited her to go up into the house and she went. "why do you come here, aunt?" said gimbangonan. "i came to arrange for you to marry aponitolau, for he wants to marry you and has sent me to talk about the _pakálon_." gimbangonan was very happy and said to her mother, "you tell him yes, for i wish to marry aponitolau." so it-tonagan agreed to the marriage and langa-an asked how much the marriage price would be. "the regular custom of the people with magical power which is the _balaua_ nine times full," said aldasan, because it-tonagan was always restless and was walking outside the house. so langa-an left a little jar and agate bead, as a sign of the engagement, for gimbangonan. not long after she went back home to kadalayapan. when she arrived where aponitolau was lying down she said, "_wes_" for she was tired and aponitolau heard her and he went and inquired what was the matter. his mother answered that they had agreed on the marriage and the next day he could go and marry gimbangonan. as soon as the next day came they prepared jars of _basi_, [ ] and pigs to be carried to natpangan, and aponitolau carried one large empty jar. [ ] so they went. as soon as they arrived aponitolau asked where gimbangonan was, and the people said, "look at the big woman." he looked and saw that she was a very big woman and aponitolau cried, for she was not the girl he had seen before, and he bent his head. while the old men were talking to each other gimbangonan said to aponitolau, "come here, aponitolau. be very happy. why do you bend your head?" aponitolau did not listen, and he did not go. not long after langa-an and the others went back home and left aponitolau to be joined to gimbangonan. aponitolau was afraid to go to gimbangonan, for she was a very big woman. she called to him all the time, but he did not go to her. it-tonagan was restless and did not stay in the house even in the night, and they could not sleep. after ten days aponitolau said, "i am going to kadalayapan for a little while. i will return soon." "if you go to kadalayapan i will go with you," she said. "do not go this time and i will take you next time," he said, and he went. when he was near the gate of the town of kadalayapan he hung his head until he reached his house. his mother asked why he hung his head. "i do not wish to marry gimbangonan for she is not the woman i met by the river." "do not be angry with me for i did what you wished. i would not have engaged you to gimbangonan if you had not sent me." they sent their _liblibayan_ [ ] to go and get betel-nuts which were covered with gold, for they intended to make _sayang_, so that they could find out who the woman was who had been by the river. soon the _liblibayan_ returned and they said, "we did not get the betel-nuts which you desired for we found a pretty toy among the branches of the tree." aponitolau took the branch of the tree which shone as if covered with fire and he put a blanket on it and many pillows around it. as soon as they had again commanded the _liblibayan_ to get the betel-nuts they went and soon they arrived with the fruit. they oiled the betel-nuts and sent them to every place in the world and if anyone refused to come they were to grow on their knees. not long after the betel-nuts went to the different towns and invited all the people. when they arrived they danced and aponitolau looked at them to see if the woman he met at the river was there, but she was not among them, and he wondered what had become of the woman, for the betel-nuts had gone to all parts of the world. aponitolau went into the house for he was sorrowful, and he laid down near the blankets and he noticed that the blankets appeared as if on fire and he was frightened. [ ] he got up and unwrapped the blankets and he saw a pretty girl. "i did not think you were here. i have been engaged. you said your name was gimbangonan, and i sent my mother to engage me to you, but when i saw gimbangonan she was a big woman so i left her and came here to make _balaua_ so i might find you. you cannot escape from me now for i shall hold your hand. let us chew betel-nut." so they chewed and aponitolau said, "my name is aponitolau of kadalayapan who is the son of langa-an and pagbokásan to whom you told a lie for you said you were gimbangonan, and now i want to know your real name." "my name is aponibolinayen of natpangan who is the daughter of ebang and pagatipánan." when they had told their names they saw that they were related and that they both possessed magical power, so they were married. after three days, aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "wait for me in the house. do not be lonesome, for our mother is here. i am going to see my pasture." "do not stay long," said aponibolinayen. "if anyone comes you hide in the house," said aponitolau. not long after he went and when he arrived in the pasture all the jars went around him and all the jars stuck out their tongues for they were very hungry for they had not been fed for a long time. the jars were _somadag, ginlasan, malayo_, and _tadogan_, and other kinds also. [ ] when aponitolau thought that all the jars had arrived where he was he fed them with betel-nut, first covered with _lawed_ [ ] leaves. as soon as he had fed them he gave them some salt. not long after he went back home and he rode on a carabao. when he arrived at their house he called to aponibolinayen, but no one answered him and he was surprised. so he hurried to the house and he saw that aponibolinayen was dead and he was grieved. he took her in his lap and while her body was in his lap it began to sweat. he used his power so that when he whipped [ ] his perfume _banawes_ she said, "_wes_." when he whipped his perfume _dagimonau_ she awoke. when he whipped his perfume _alikadakad_ she stood up and said, "i told you not to go, aponitolau, but you went anyway. a big woman came here and stole all my things and killed me. i don't know who she was." aponitolau called his mother and asked who it was and his mother replied that it was gimbangonan. so aponitolau went to natpangan. "why did you go to kill aponibolinayen?" "i went to kill her for you do not care for me any more." "i do not like you, for you are a very big woman. every time you step the floor is broken. if you come again to kadalayapan i will cut your head off. do not come again to harm aponibolinayen." he went home to kadalayapan and he divorced gimbangonan. not long after they went to the pasture and they rode on the back of a carabao. as soon as they arrived, all the jars rolled around them and stuck out their tongues and aponibolinayen was afraid, for she feared the jars would eat them. the wide field was full of jars. aponitolau gave them betel-nut and _lawed_ vine and salt. as soon as they fed them they went back home. not long after aponibolinayen said to aponitolau, "we are going to natpangan to visit my father and mother," so they went. as soon as they arrived there aponibolinayen told her father and mother that aponitolau had a pasture filled with many different kinds of jars, in the place of kabinalan. when they had been in natpangan ten days they returned home and aponibolinayen's father and mother went with them and saw the jars. when they reached the field where the jars were they were afraid that the jars would eat them, but aponitolau fed them. the father and mother of aponibolinayen were surprised for there were many valuable jars which filled the wide field of kabinalan. not long after they went back home to natpangan. (told by angtan, a woman of lagangilang.) "sinogyaman, come and oil my hair so that i can go to war," said aponitolau. "and you, sinagayan, put some rice in the pot and cook it, and also some fish for us to eat." not long after she cooked, and sinogyaman oiled his hair. when sinagayan finished cooking they ate and started to go to gegenawan where asibowan lived. sinogyaman and sinagayan did not want him to go, but aponitolau went anyway. when he arrived at the edge of the town he stood still a long time, for he did not know the way to gegenawan. a bird went to him and said, "why do you stand here for a long time, aponitolau?" "why do you stand a long time, you say, and i am going to the town of asibowan, whom every one says is a pretty girl," said aponitolau to the bird. "ala, aponitolau, it is best for you to follow me and i will show you the way to the place where asibowan lives." not long after they went and they soon arrived at the town of gegenawan. "ala, aponitolau, i leave you now for i have showed you the way," said the bird. so aponitolau went alone to the house of asibowan. when he reached the ladder of her house asibowan was looking out of the window and she said, "oh, there is a rich gentleman. how are you? where are you going?" aponitolau said, "i am going to nagsingkawan, but i have lost my way and i thought that this was nagsingkawan. i saw this house so i came to get a drink." "this is not nagsingkawan. come up and i will cook and we will eat." aponitolau went up into the house and the girl gave him water to drink. she cooked and then she called him. "i do not want to eat yet. i will rest for awhile and eat when your husband comes," said aponitolau. not long after, while they were talking he saw asibowan break the fish stick and put it in the pot and he watched to see what would become of the stick. he saw that it became a fish. [ ] she called often for aponitolau to come and eat and he went and he said, "i want to wait until your husband comes, for it is not good for us to eat first, and it is not good for us to be eating when he arrives." "come, it will be all right. we will eat now, and he can eat when he comes" said asibowan. so he went to eat with her, for he was very hungry. he saw that she took all the rice and fish out of the pots, and there were only dishes for them. "what is the matter with this woman that she does not leave any fish for her husband?" he said to himself. while they were eating asibowan told him that she did not have a husband and aponitolau smiled. when they finished eating, they cut betel-nut for them to chew. "now be patient for we must chew betel-nut, for it is not good for us to talk until we know each other's names." asibowan said, "how can we chew betel-nut, for i do not chew for i am related to kaboniyan?" [ ] "you must chew anyway for we cannot tell our names unless we chew," said aponitolau. when aponitolau urged her a long time she took the betel-nut and they chewed. "since you are the lady who lives here, it is best that you tell your name first," said aponitolau. "no it is not good for a woman to tell her name first, so you must tell your name," said asibowan. not long after, "my name is aponitolau of kadalayapan who is the son of langa-an and pagatipánan, who goes to find a pretty girl who has power like me," said aponitolau. "my name is asibowan of gegenawan, who lives alone in the field, who has no neighbors for this is my fortune," said asibowan. so aponitolau staid with her nine months and his father and mother were searching for him. they had many people searching for him and they killed many animals to feed the people until all their animals were gone. the bones which they threw away made a pile nine times as large as the _balaua_. asibowan became pregnant and not long after she gave birth. "what shall we call our girl?" said aponitolau. "we will call her binaklingan." when asibowan bathed the baby it grew one span for she used magical power. so the baby grew one span every time. [ ] not long after she could walk, aponitolau saw the pile of bones which the searchers had thrown away when they ate, and it was nine times larger than the _balaua_. "the best thing for us to do, asibowan, is for us to go to kadalayapan, for my father and mother are still searching for me and the people who are searching are eating all their animals." "the best thing for you to do is to go home and find a woman whom you should marry and then when you are married you make _sayang_ [ ] and i will come to kadalayapan," said asibowan, for it was not good for them to be married because she had less magical power than aponitolau. "if you do not wish to go, i will take our daughter binaklingan." "wait awhile until we have commanded that a house be built for her to live in." not long after they commanded that a house be made for binaklingan, and it was all of gold. it was finished in the middle of the night and she used magic so that the golden house went to kadalayapan. when aponitolau woke up early in the early morning he heard many roosters crowing and many people talking. "my daughter binaklingan, how bad your mother is, for she sent us here to kadalayapan without telling us," said aponitolau. his daughter was very sorry but she played on the pan pipe. when it was morning langa-an saw the golden house by their house. "why there is a different house here. i think aponitolau has arrived and maybe he is in that house," said langa-an to pagbokásan, [ ] and pagbokásan went outdoors. "are you here aponitolau? we had sought you for a long time, but did not find you. none of our animals are left alive," said pagbokásan. "why did you search for me? i told sinogyaman and sinagayan that i was going to fight. did they not tell you?" said aponitolau. "we thought that you encountered our old, dangerous enemies, for you have been away many months. why do you have a daughter who is a young girl?" "yes, binaklingan who is here is my daughter, and her mother asibowan with whom i lived for a long time did not want to come here to kadalyapan, for she said i must find a girl suitable for me to marry and then we must make _balaua_ so that she will come to our town." when they had been in kadalayapan five days, they went to take a walk in the evening of the sixth day, and they went to the spring of lisnáyan. as soon as he arrived at the spring he used magic so that all the pretty girls who never go outdoors felt hot and went to the spring to bathe. [ ] not long after aponibolinayen felt very hot and she went to take a bath at the spring. aponitolau saw her taking a bath and she looked like the half of a rainbow, and aponitolau went to her, and aponibolinayen saw him while she was bathing. "do not wound me in more than one place so i will not have so much to cure." "if i was an enemy i would have killed you at once," said aponitolau. soon he cut a betel-nut into two pieces. "it is best for us to chew betel-nut for it is bad for us to talk when we do not know each other's names." aponibolinayen did not wish to chew, but when aponitolau urged her she chewed and they told their names. "my name is aponitolau of kadalayapan who is the son of pagbokásan and langa-an." "my name is aponibolinayen of kaodanan who is the sister of aponibalagen who put me at the place close to the spring of lisnáyan, for he does not wish anyone to see me, but you have found me." not long after, while they were talking, aponibolinayen used magic so that she vanished and she went among the betel-nuts on the branch of the tree. "where did the girl go? i did not see her when she vanished," said aponitolau to himself. not long after he went home with his head bent for he was very sorrowful. when he arrived at their house, "why are you bending your head aponitolau?" said his mother. "what are you bending your head for? you say, and i went to the well of lisnáyan and talked with aponibolinayen, but after a while she vanished and i could not see her anymore." "did you not give her any betel-nut?" asked his mother. "yes, i did." "what are you so sorry for if you gave her betel-nut? you will find her bye and bye," said his mother. on the second night he went again to lisnáyan and he used his power so that all the young girls, were hot again so that they went to the spring. when he looked up where there were many betel-nuts he saw aponibolinayen taking a bath. "i did not see you when you left me aponibolinayen," said aponitolau. "now i am going to take you home." "no, do not take me for my brother will hate me. i do not want to go to your house." he took her to his town of kadalayapan and he sent his mother to natpangan to tell aponibalagen that aponibolinayen was in kadalayapan. not long after his mother langa-an took her skirt and her hat which was like a bird and when she arrived at the gate of kaodanan sinogyaman was dipping water from the spring. "niece sinogyaman, where is the ford?" "look there at the shallow place, for it is the ford." she took off her belt and she spread it on the water, and she rode on it to the other side, and then she took a bath. when she finished bathing she stood on a high stone and the drops of water from her body were agate beads with no holes. "how strange, the people of kadalayapan are. they are very different from us," said the women who were dipping water from the spring. not long after langa-an put on her skirt, and when she finished she said, "are you not finished dipping water, sinogyaman? i want you to guide me to the house of my nephew aponibalagen, for i have forgotten the way, for i have not been here for a long time." "no, i am not through, but i will show you the way, aunt," said sinogyaman, and she guided her. when they reached the yard of aponibalagen, "good morning, nephew." "good morning, aunt," he said to her. "come up." not long after she went up the stairs. "what are you coming here for, aunt?" "what are you coming here for? you say. i come because i wish to see you." not long after he went to get _basi_, and he had made her drink. when they had drunk, she said, "the other reason i came here, nephew aponibalagen, is that aponitolau sent me, for he wishes to marry your sister." "i have no sister. i do not know what my mother did with her," he replied. "we have no daughter. aponibalagen is our only child," said ebang. while they were still talking they kept on drinking the _basi_. when the old woman langa-an became drunk she told them that aponibolinayen was in kadalayapan, and aponibalagen was surprised and his heart jumped. "i went to hide aponibolinayen in lisnáyan so that no one would see her, but now someone has found her." so langa-an gave them the engagement present [ ] and she asked how much they must pay as the marriage price. "you must fill the _balaua_ nine times," they answered. so langa-an filled the _balaua_ nine times with different kinds of valuable things. as soon as she had paid the marriage price she went back home. when she arrived in kadalayapan and reached the top of the ladder of the house she laid down and slept, for she was drunk. "how strange you act, mother. why don't you tell us the news before you sleep?" said aponitolau, and she said, "the engagement and marriage gifts were accepted." in the afternoon they began to make _sayang_. [ ] not long after the old woman alokotán, who conducted the _sayang_ and made them dance _da-eng_, [ ] arrived and she began to perform the ceremony. when it became morning, "you people who live with us, come and pound rice," said aponibolinayen. so the people gathered and pounded rice for them. as soon as they finished pounding rice she commanded her _liblibayan_ [ ] to go and get betel-nuts. when they arrived with the betel-nuts, "you betel-nuts come and oil yourselves and go to invite all our relatives, for we are making _sayang_. invite all the people except the old enemies," she said and when it became evening they made _libon_ [ ] asibowan was anxious to chew betel-nut and she went to search for one in the corner of her house and she found an oiled nut which was covered with gold. when she tried to cut it in two it said to her. "do not cut me, for i came to invite people to attend the _sayang_ of aponitolau and aponibolinayen." and asibowan said, "i cannot go." "if you do not come i will grow on your knee," said the betel-nut. "no, go on my big pig." so the betel-nut jumped on the head of her pig and it grew very high, and the pig squealed. "get off from my pig and i will come," said asibowan. late in the afternoon they saw her below the _talagan_. [ ] "asibowan is here now, aponibolinayen, come and see her," said aponitolau. so aponibolinayen came and she took her to their house, and iwaginan took two skirts and he made them dance. he danced first with asibowan before he made the others dance and his wife gimbagonan was jealous. when they finished dancing he gave the skirts to aponibalagen and sinagayan. as soon as aponibalagen had finished iwaginan made aponitolau dance with gimbagonan. while they were dancing gimbagonan danced to the sound of the jars which she had about her neck and in her hair, i.e., she had necklaces of big jars and they stuck together so she could not hear the _gansas_. not long after asibowan wished to go back home. "now i am going home, aponibolinayen, for no one is watching my house," "no, do not go yet, for someone wants to marry your daughter binaklingan." "i must go now, you take care of her." so she went back home and they did not see her. as soon as the _sayang_ was over dina-ogan was engaged to binaklingan. soon he paid the marriage price, and it was the _balaua_ filled nine times with valuable things. not long after all the people went back to their homes, and aponibalagen was left alone and he acted as if he was drunk, but he was not drunk. he laid down in the _balaua_, and aponibolinayen covered him with blankets. not long after aponigawani went outdoors for she felt hot, and aponibalagen peeped at her. not long after she went inside of the house and went into the ninth room, and aponibalagen watched her. when it became night aponibalagen went to the place where she was and aponitolau did not see him. so he looked for her in the ninth room, and she was playing the pan pipe. while she was playing she saw a firefly, and she tried to hit it with her pan pipe, and aponibalagen said "do not strike me or you will hit my headaxe," and he became a man again. "how did you get in here?" said aponigawani. "i came, because i saw you when i was lying in the _balaua_." he sat down beside her and tried to cut a betel-nut for her to chew. "we will chew betel-nut so we can tell our names," said aponibalagen. she took the betel-nut and they chewed. "you tell your name first, for you live here." "no it is not good for me to tell my name first, for i am a woman. you are the first." "my name is aponibalagen who is the brother of aponibolinayen who is the son of pagbokásan of kaodanan." "my name is aponigawani who is the sister of aponitolau who is the daughter of pagatipánan and langa-an." when they had been in the room nine nights aponitolau went to see aponigawani, and when he got to the room aponibalagen was there. "why are you here, brother-in-law?" said aponitolau. "i am here, because i wish to marry your sister," said aponibalagen. "if you want to marry her you must engage her and you come another day to make _pakálon_." [ ] not long after aponibalagen went home and told his father and mother that they would go next day to make the _pakálon_ so he could marry aponigawani. aponitolau and his father and mother went to kaodanan and took the marriage price before aponibalagen and his people made the _pakálon_. aponibalagen paid the same as aponitolau did for aponibolinayen. not long after they returned to kadalayapan and the next day aponibalagen went and got aponigawani. they danced for one month and then they took aponigawani to kaodanan, and all the people went home. this is all. (told by lagmani, a woman of patok.) "mother dinawágan go and engage me to someone, for i want to be married. i like the sister of aponibalagen of natpangan" said gawigawen of adasin. "yes," said his mother. so she took her hat which looked like the moonbeam and she started to go and when she arrived in natpangan she said, "good morning, nephew aponibalagen." "what do you want here, aunt?" he replied. "what do you want, you say, and i want to talk with you." "come up, aunt, and we will hear what you have to say." so he asked his mother ebang to prepare food. as soon as ebang had prepared the food and called them to eat, aponibalagen went to get the _basi_ and they drank before they ate. and ebang broke up the fish stick and put it in the pot and it became fish. [ ] not long after they ate, and when they had finished aponibalagen said to dinawágan, "come and see this." "no, i better stay here." when aponibalagen urged her she came in and he opened the _basi_ jar which was nine times inherited and as soon as they had drank dinawágan said that she could not tarry for it was afternoon, "i have something to tell you, aponibalagen." "what is it?" said aponibalagen. "my son gawigawen of adasin wants to marry your sister." aponibalagen agreed, so she gave a golden cup which looked like the moon as an engagement present, and they agreed on a day for _pakálon_. [ ] aponibalagen said, "tomorrow will be the day for _pakálon_." dinawágan went home. "did they accept our golden cup which looks like the moon, mother?" asked gawigawen. "yes. tomorrow will be the _pakálon_," said the mother. not long after she said, "all you people who live in the same town with us, prepare to go to the _pakálon_ of gawigawen in natpangan tomorrow afternoon." the people agreed and in the morning they truly started and they went. "you, my jar _bilibili_ which always salutes the visitors, go first; and you my jar _ginlasan_ follow, and you _malayo_ and _tadogan_ and you _gumtan_." [ ] so they went first to natpangan, and gawigawen and the people followed them, and also eighteen young girls who were gawigawen's concubines went also. not long after they arrived in natpangan and iwaginan and the other people went to attend the _pakálon_, and also many people from the other towns. when all whom they had invited arrived they agreed how much gawigawen should pay for his wife. aponibalagen told them to fill the _balaua_ [ ] eighteen times with valuable things. so the _balaua_ was filled. not long after they ate and when they had finished they went to the yard and they played on _gansas_ and danced. iwaginan took the skirts and gave one to nagten-ngaeyan of kapanikiyan and they danced. [ ] when she danced she looked like the spindle. she did not go around, but always moving and the water from the river went up into the town and the striped fishes bit her heels. not long after they stopped dancing and gimbagonan was jealous and she said "ala, give me the skirt and i will dance next." "do not say that gimbagonan, for it is shameful for us," he answered her. not long after he gave the cloth to dakandokan of pakapsowan. she danced with algaba of dagala. not long after they finished dancing and iwaginan made aponibolinayen and balogaygayan dance. he often went to fight in the enemies towns. not long after aponibolinayen went down from the house and the sunshine vanished when she appeared. she danced with balogaygayan and when she moved her feet the water from the river went up again into the town and the fish bit at her heels as they did before. after they stopped iwaginan made his wife gimbagonan dance and she was happy when she danced with aponibalagen. when they danced the big jars around gimbagonan's neck made more noise than the _gansas_ and the jars said "kitol, kitol, kanitol, inka, inka, inkantol." as soon as they finished dancing the people said, "the best thing to do is to go home, for we have been here three months now." "we will take aponibolinayen" said dinawágan to the people who lived in the same town with her and she spoke to aponibalagen. so they prepared rice and coconut soaked together and wrapped in leaves, and a cake made of rice flour and coconut shaped like a tongue, a rice cake, which was fried for aponibolinayen's provision on the road. "you who live in the other towns who were invited, do not go home yet for we are going to take aponibolinayen to adasin," said aponibalagen. soon it became morning and they all went to adasin and gimbagonan carried two big baskets of cakes, and while they were walking she ate all the time and she ate half of them. when they arrived at the spring of gawigawen of adasin, they were surprised, for it was very beautiful and its sands were of beads, and the grass they used to clean pots with was also beads and the place where the jars sat was a big dish. [ ] "go and tell gawigawen that he must come here and bring an old man, for i am going to take his head and make a spring for aponibolinayen," said aponibalagen. so someone went and told gawigawen to bring the old man taodan with him to the spring. so aponibalagen cut off his head and he made a spring and the water from it bubbled up and the body became a big tree called alangigan [ ] which used to shade aponibolinayen when she went to the spring to dip water, and the blood of the old man was changed to valuable beads. not long after they went up to the town and the place where they walked--from the spring to the ladder of the house--was all big plates. gimbagonan sat below the house ladder, because they were afraid the house could not hold her, for she was a big woman, and she hated them and she said to iwaginan, "why do you put me here?" "we put you there because we are afraid that you will break the house and give a bad sign to the boy and girl who are to be married." [ ] aponibolinayen covered her face all of the time and she sat down in the middle of the house, for indiápan said that she must not uncover her face for her husband gawigawen had three noses, and she was afraid to look at him. [ ] but gawigawen was a handsome man. aponibolinayen believed what indiápan had told her. not long after dinawágan spread the string of agate beads along the floor where aponibolinayen sat. [ ] after a month they were still there and the people from the other towns wished to go home, and aponibalagen said to aponibolinayen, "ala, be good to your husband and uncover your face. we are going back home now." but aponibolinayen would not uncover her face. not long after all the people went back to their towns and aponibolinayen's mother-in-law commanded her to go and cook. she did not uncover her face, but always felt when she went about, and when she had cooked, she refused to eat, but gawigawen and his father and mother ate. when gawigawen went to aponibolinayen at night she changed to oil, and she did that every night, and they put the carabao hides under her mat so the oil would not drop to the ground. on the fifth night she used magic so that they could not see her go out and she dropped her beads under the house and then she became oil and dropped her body. so she went away and always walked and gawigawen looked for her, for a long time. he went to natpangan for he could not find her in any of the towns. when aponibolinayen was in the middle of the jungle she met a wild rooster which was crowing. "where are you going aponibolinayen?" it said to her. "why are you walking in the middle of the jungle?" and aponibolinayen said, "i came here for i am running away from my husband for i do not want to be married to him for he has three noses." "no, gawigawen is a handsome man. i often see him, for this is where he comes often to snare chickens. do not believe what indiápan said to you, for she is crazy," said the rooster. not long after she walked on and she reached the place of many big trees and the big monkey met her and said, "where are you going, aponibolinayen?" and she answered, "where are you going, you say. i am running away because i do not want to marry gawigawen." "why don't you wish to marry gawigawen?" "because indiápan told me he has three noses." the monkey laughed and said, "do not believe that. indiápan wants to marry gawigawen herself. he is a handsome man." aponibolinayen walked on and soon she reached a wide field and she did not know where she was. she stopped in the middle of the field and she thought she would go on to the other side. not long after she reached the ocean and she sat down on a log and a carabao came along. it passed often where she sat. aponibolinayen thought she would ride on the carabao, and she got on its back and it took her to the other side of the ocean. when they reached the other side aponibolinayen saw a big orange tree with much fruit on it. the carabao said, "wait here while i eat grass and i will return soon." aponibolinayen said, "yes," but the carabao went to the place of the man who owned him and said, "come over here, for there is a good toy for you." and kadayadawan of pintagayan said, "what is it?" "come, hurry," said the carabao. so he combed his hair and oiled it and put on his striped coat and his clout and belt, and he took his spear and he rode on the carabao's back. not long after kadayadawan saw the pretty girl in the orange tree and he said, "how pretty she is!" and the carabao said, "that is the toy i told you about." when they reached the orange tree aponibolinayen heard him when he stuck his spear in the ground and she looked down and saw a handsome man. "good morning, lady," he said. "good morning," answered aponibolinayen. not long after they chewed betel-nut and they told their names. "my name is kadayadawan of pintagayan who is the son of an _alan_." [ ] "my name is aponibolinayen of natpangan, who is the daughter of pagbokásan and ebang, who is the sister of aponibalagen." their betel-nut quids became agate beads and kadayadawan said to her, "ala, it is good for us to marry. i am going to take you home." so he took her to his home and he was good to his carabao, because it had found him a pretty woman. when they reached the house he put her in a room, and the _ati_ [ ] commanded the soldiers to call kadayadawan. when they reached the yard of kadayadawan's house they called "good morning." and he looked out of the window and said, "what do you want?" "we came, because the king wants you and we came to get you." so they started and went. when they arrived where the king was, "why kadayadawan have you a pretty girl in your house? every night i notice that your house appears as if it were burning." "no, i have not," answered kadayadawan. "i think you have, for i notice the flames every night." "no, i have not. where would i find a pretty woman?" [ ] not long after he went back home. when he reached home aponibolinayen said to him, "it is best for us to make _sayang_." [ ] and kadayadawan asked, "how do we make _sayang_ by ourselves? our neighbors are all soldiers." "do not worry about that, i will see," said aponibolinayen. not long after kadayadawan took the betel-nuts and they oiled them and they sent them to the towns of their relatives to invite them to their _balaua_. the betel-nuts went. aponibolinayen told kadayadawan to go and get _molave_ sticks. when he arrived with them aponibolinayen used magic and she said, "i use magic so that when i thrust the _molave_ stick in the ground it will become a _balaua_." not long after the stick became a _balaua_. the betel-nuts arrived in natpangan and said to aponibalagen, "we came to call you, for kadayadawan of pintagayan is making _balaua_." aponibalagen said, "how can we attend the _balaua_ when we are searching for my sister?" "if you do not wish to come i will grow on your knee." "go on my pig." so the betel-nut grew on the pig, and it was so high the pig could not carry it and it squealed very much. "ala, get off from the pig and we will come." so the betel-nut got off and they started. "all you people who live in the same town come with me to attend the _balaua_ of kadayadawan of pintagayan." so they went. they arrived at the same time as gawigawen of adasin and they met near to the river. not long after kadayadawan saw them by the river and he sent the betel-nuts to carry the people across the river. when they were in the middle of the river kadayadawan used his power so that their old clothes, which they wore in mourning for aponibolinayen were taken off from them, and they were surprised, for they did not know when their old clothes had been taken off. when they reached the other side aponibalagen said to the people who lived with kadayadawan. "we are ashamed to come up into the town, for we have no clothes." then the betel-nuts told kadayadawan and he said, "ala, go and tell them that i will come and bring some clothes for them." not long after he arrived where they were and he gave them some clothes to use. "ala, take these clothes and use them, and come up to the town." but aponibalagen and his companions were ashamed. kadayadawan urged them until they accepted the clothes. soon they reached the town and they danced and iwaginan and nagten-ngeyan danced again and the water from the river went up into the town and the fish bit her feet. not long after that they stopped dancing and iwaginan made gawigawen and aponibolinayen dance. while they were dancing gawigawen watched aponibolinayen, and when they had danced around nine times gawigawen seized her and put her in his belt. [ ] "why do you do that gawigawen?" said kadayadawan to him, and he threw his spear and gawigawen fell down and aponibolinayen escaped and kadayadawan put her in a room. as soon as he put her in the room he went to bring gawigawen back to life. not long after he revived him, "why did you do that, gawigawen? i did not steal aponibolinayen from you." and gawigawen said, "even if you did steal aponibolinayen from me, she was my wife and i could not find her until now. that is why i put her in my belt, and aponibalagen knows that she is my wife." and kadayadawan said, "she is my wife now." not long after the _alan_ who took care of kadayadawan told langa-an "kadayadawan is your son. i picked him up when he was only blood which fell from you." [ ] "why do you say that you are not my mother?" said kadayadawan to the _alan_. langa-an said to the _alan_, "it is good if he is my son." they were very happy and they said to aponibalagen, "now we will pay the marriage price and also the price which gawigawen paid before, we will repay to him." aponibalagen agreed, "you fill my _balaua_ nine times with valuable things." not long after they filled the _balaua_ nine times with valuable things and they repaid gawigawen what he had paid when he married aponibolinayen. when they had paid they danced again. "ala, now we must go home, for we have staid here a month," said the people from the other towns. so they went home and they took aponibolinayen's marriage price. "ala, now my cousin _alan_, we are going to take aponitolau [ ] home for you have said he is our son," and the _alan_ said, "yes, take all of my things. i took him for i had no children to inherit my possessions." so they took them to kadalayapan. the _alan_ went to the other part of the world, and langa-an used magic so that the golden house which the _alan_ gave to aponitolau went to their town of kadalayapan. not long after the golden house arrived and the people were surprised when they woke up in the morning and saw the big golden house. not long after aponitolau and aponibolinayen and their father arrived there. (told by magwati of lagangilang.) there was a woman whose name was ginambo of gonigonan, who went to fight aponibolinayen of kaodanan. when she reached the place where the spring was she said, "you people who are dipping water from the spring, whose place is this where the spring is?" "it belongs to aponibolinayen of kaodanan," they said and when they went up to the town they raised a clamor. "what are you so noisy about, you women who are like me?" said aponibolinayen. "you ask why we are noisy? because there are many women, who have come to fight against you, at the place where the spring is," they said, and aponibolinayen hurried to take her spear. "what are you so noisy for, women like aponibolinayen?" asked her father pagatipánan. "what are we noisy about, you ask? because there are many of my enemies at the spring." "do not go aponibolinayen, for i will go." "no for you are weak. what can you do now? once you did kill people in the place where the spring is, and now perhaps it is my fortune," she said, and she went to the spring. she looked down and truly the enemies looked like many locusts about the spring. "ala," said ginambo of gonigonan, "you people who live with me, you are anxious to carry away this woman whom we do not like." "yes," they answered, "but only our names will go back to the towns we came from," i.e. they expected to be killed. ginambo answered, "no, we are anxious to capture her without fail." aponibolinayen said, "you old enemy take this betel-nut," and she cut it in two and gave it to them. "how are we sure ginambo of gonigonan that only our names will not go back, we are afraid." ginambo said, "do not be afraid, but hurry to be brave." "ala, now do what you can," shouted aponibolinayen who stood on a high rock. when they started toward aponibolinayen their spears looked like rain they were so many. she glanced off the spears with both elbows. "now i am the next to throw my spears," said aponibolinayen. "yes, because all our weapons are gone," they said. aponibolinayen was next, she said, "i will use my magic, and you, my spear, shall kill six and seven at one time, and you, my headaxe, cut off their heads from the left side and from the right side, and in back and in front." "ala, you spare me so that i may tell the people in gonigonan where i live," said ginambo. "yes, but next month i will come to your town gonigonan to fight," said aponibolinayen. ginambo went home alone to her town. "why are you alone?" asked the people who lived in the same town when she arrived. "what can we do, all my companions who went to fight are lost, because they did not throw their spears at aponibolinayen." "that is what we told you ginambo of gonigonan when you started, but you did not heed, you know that the people of kaodanan are powerful like kaboniyan." [ ] soon after that gináwan of nagtinawan said, "you people who live in the same town in which i live, let us go to fight aponigawani of kadalayapan." "no, we do not wish to go, because the people who live in kadalayapan are powerful like kaboniyan. we do not know whether she has a brother or not though someone has said that aponigawani has no brother." "no we go," said gináwan. "if that is what you say, we will go," said the people. so they went and they walked and walked until they reached the spring at kadalayapan. gináwan said, "you women who are dipping water from the spring, to whom does it belong?" "to aponigawani," they said. ginawan said, "ala, you go and tell your bravest that we fight with steel weapons." the women who dipped water from the well said, "we do not know who is the bravest, whom we should tell, for aponigawani has no brother." they went up to the town, and said, "uncle pagbokásan the place about the spring is filled with enemies." then aponigawani was in a hurry to go. "do not go you will kill somebody," said her father. "no, father, the spring will be lost and then what can we do? father, i am a woman and since i have no brother, perhaps it is my fortune to fight, for you are weak." she took her skirt, headaxe, and spear and she went to the edge of the hill above the spring. she looked and looked at the place where the spring was for truly the enemies were thick like locusts about the well. "what did you come for?" she asked. "we come to fight the people who live in kadalayapan, because we have heard that the woman who is always in the house [ ] has no brother, so we have come to carry her away," they said. "ala, if you wish to prove her bravery you take this betel-nut." she cut it in two pieces and gave it to them. "we asked you to excuse us from going gináwan," they said. "ala, you begin and see what you can do," said aponigawani who stood on a high stone and she stood with her hands on her hips while they threw their weapons. "now, i am next," she said. "you, my spear, when i throw you, kill at once seven and six; and you, my headaxe, cut off their heads from the left and right sides, from in back and in front." when aponigawani had killed all of them except gináwan and she had all their weapons, gináwan said, "please, my friend, let me live so that someone may go back to the town we came from." "ala, yes, if that is what you ask, my friend, but i will come next to your town," she said, and gináwan went home alone. not long after that the month which they had agreed on came. "now, mother, go and make cakes and after that i will go to fight," said aponibolinayen. "do not go," said her mother ebang of kaodanan, but she could not detain her, so she made the cake, and when she finished, aponibolinayen went. "mother, make preparations for me to go to war, for this is the month we agreed upon with gináwan of nagtinawan," said aponigawani to her mother langa-an of kadalayapan. bye and bye aponibolinayen who was walking in the middle of the road, stopped because she was tired. aponigawani was also walking and when she looked up she saw a woman to whom none compared, and she was startled, and she said, "here is a woman who looks like me. i do not like to approach her who looks like me, yet i am ashamed not to do so, for she has seen me," she said. "good morning," said aponigawani to aponibolinayen who sat on a high stone by the road. they leaned their spears together between them and then they talked. "now, my friend, where are you going," said aponibolinayen. "i am going to war," said aponigawani. "and where are you going?" said aponigawani to aponibolinayen. "i am going to gonigonan, because the month which i agreed upon with ginambo of gonigonan has come," said aponibolinayen. "ala, let us chew betel-nut." "yes, if that is what you say, we will chew betel-nut," said aponigawani. after that they exchanged quids. and the quid which had been chewed by aponigawani was covered with agate beads which are called _pinogalan_, and the quid of aponibolinayen was covered with gold. aponigawani said, "you are more beautiful and have more power than i, because your betel-nut is covered with gold." after that they spat in front of them. the place looked like the place where a child had been born. "now, my friend, we are going to tell our names." "yes," said each one, and they told their names. "i am aponibolinayen of kaodanan who has no brother, and ginambo of gonigonan came to fight against me and the month in which we agreed to fight has come, so i go meet her." "i go also to the town of gináwan of nagtinawan, because the month which we agreed on has arrived, my name is aponigawani of kadalayapan who also has no brother." "if that is what you are going to do, we will go first to gonigonan, then we will go to the town of nagtinawan," said aponibolinayen to her. "if that is what you say we will both go." so they went. not long after they arrived at gonigonan. "now, ginambo of gonigonan i am here because the month which we agreed has come." "you people who live in the same town with me prepare, because the woman who always stays in the house in kaodanan has come to fight against us," said ginambo. "yes, ginambo, we will fight against her. we told you not to go against her before, because the people of her town are related to kaboniyan. we do not know what magic they may use," they said. "now, what can we do, we are lost." after that they began to fight. "ala, you my spears and headaxes kill the people from the left and the right sides, from in back and in front," said aponibolinayen and aponigawani. as soon as they commanded their spears and headaxes their invisible helpers flew and they went to dangdangáyan of naglitnan. "oh, sir, you are so happy, who are in bed in the house. the people who live in gonigonan have nearly killed your sister, because she went to fight against them," said the helpers. after that he went to bathe and wash his hair. "ala, you three girls take the rice straw and wash my hair," he said, and the three girls washed his hair. after that he finished to wash and he went up to the town. as soon as they arrived in the town the three girls combed his hair. when they finished to comb his hair, "now, you put little golden beads on each of my hairs," he said. as soon as they put all the gold in his hair he took his spear and headaxe and he went. lingiwan of nagtangpan was in bed in his house. "sir, you are so happy in your bed in your house, your sister went to fight and the enemies have nearly killed her," said the invisible spirit helpers. "mother _alan_ i ask you if i have a sister? i never have seen her." "what can you do? i picked you up where you had fallen when your father was jealous of your mother," [ ] she said. after that he hurried to start and he went. when dangdangáyan of naglitnan was in the road, he sat down on a high stone where the two women had set before. how terrible it is that those women who never go out of the house have gone to war, for here is where they exchanged their weapons. while he was sitting, "good morning, my friend," said lingiwan of nagtangpan. "where are you going?" said the man who sat on the high stone. "i am going anywhere," he answered, and they talked. "we are going to tell our names, because it is bad for us when we do not know each others names." they cut and chewed the betel-nut. as soon as they chewed they found that they were relatives. "my name is lingiwan of nagtangpan." "my name is dangdangáyan of naglitnan. let us go together when we go to fight." after that they went. when they truly arrived they looked into the town, they saw the two women who looked like flames of fire, because of their beauty. "how terrible that those ladies who always stay in the house have gone to war," they said. after that they went to them, and the people whom they killed were so many that the pig troughs floated in their blood. so they went to them. when the women saw them they said, "how terrible are those two rich men who have power." after that, "oh, ladies how were you born," they said. "why are you here you ask? ginambo came to fight against us, that is why we are here in the town of gonigonan." so dangdangáyan went in front of them, and he scooped them up with his headaxe and put them inside of his belt. [ ] after that the two men fought against the enemies. "please leave someone to bear children," said ginambo of gonigonan. "if that is what you ask we will kill you last," they said and she begged mercy. "now we will go to nagtinawan which is the town of gináwan, with whom aponigawani agreed to fight this month." after that, "you plunder and heads go before us to kadalayapan, when you arrive at the gate you divide equally and part of you go to kaodanan." so they went to nagtinawan. when they arrived in nagtinawan, "you gináwan of this town now the agreed month is here." "how are you gináwan? we told you not to go before and you went; now we will all be killed," said the people who lived in the same town. "now we seek vengeance." they looked as if they cut down banana trees when they cut down their enemies. "please spare me, and if you wish marry me," said gináwan. "if that is what you say we will kill you last," but they did not kill her. after that they went home and sent all the heads before them and also the plunder. after that they arrived in kaodanan. "good afternoon, uncle," said dangdangáyan to old man pagbokásan. "come up the ladder," he said. "you go and cook so that these boys may eat," he said. after that, "you go and get one jar of _basi_ which you used to like when you were young," said his wife ebang. as soon as she said this they went and they drank, and pagbokásan said to them. "this is reserved for aponibolinayen to drink when she returns from fighting." when the old woman had finished cooking, she took the rice from the jar and put it on the woven basket, and she took the meat from the jar and put it in the coconut shells, and so they ate. as soon as they finished to eat, "now we are not going to stay long, because we must go home," they said. so dangdangáyan dropped down the women who never go out of the house. "why aponibolinayen is here and lingiwan also," they said. dingowan of nagtangpan took aponibolinayen and put her inside of a big jar; then they went to kadalayapan, because they went to take aponigawani. when they arrived they said, "good afternoon uncle," to the old man pagatipánan. "good morning," he answered, and he was glad. "come up," he said. when they went up the stairs they were given _basi_. while they were drinking they let aponigawani fall in front of them, and they were all glad, because aponigawani was there. "how fine that aponigawani is here; we feared that she was lost," said the old man and woman. "ala, boys if you go home now, return soon for we are going to chew betel nut." as soon as they went _lakay_ [ ] pagatipánan and his wife built _balaua_, and they called one woman medium [ ] to begin their _balaua_. as soon as they built their _balaua_ they sent someone to go and secure betel-nuts which were covered with gold. not long after the betel-nuts which were covered with gold arrived and the old woman langa-an oiled them, and she used magic so that the betel-nuts went to invite all their relatives, who lived in other towns, to attend _balaua_ with them. she told the betel-nuts that if any did not wish to attend _balaua_ with them, to grow on their knees. as soon as she commanded them they went, and the betel-nut which went to kaodanan arrived, "good morning," it said to the old man, pagbokásan who was lying in the _balaua_. he looked up and said, "who was that," and he saw it was a betel-nut, covered with gold and oiled, and the betel-nut said, "i come to bid you attend the _balaua_ of pagatipánan of kadalayapan, because aponigawani has returned from fighting. so they celebrate." pagbokásan sat up. after that he went down out of the _balaua_ and the told people to wash their hair and clothes and to bathe so as to attend the _balaua_ of pagatipánan of kadalayapan. so the people who lived with them all went to the river and washed their clothes and hair, and took a bath. as soon as they finished they went home, and they started to go to kadalayapan. old man pagbokásan took aponibolinayen from the jar, and put her inside of his belt, so they went. as soon as they arrived there the families who made the _balaua_ went to meet them at the gate of the town and made _alawig_ [ ] for them. after that they stopped dancing, and they talked to each other, and the two young men who met aponibolinayen and aponigawani were with them, because they arrived at the same time. so the old man pagatipánan said, "ala, cousin pagbokásan now we are going to chew betel-nut to see if those two young men who took home aponigawani are our relatives," and old man pagbokásan agreed. so they cut the betel-nut which was covered with gold for them to chew and as soon as they cut the nut they all chewed, and they all spat. the spittle of lingiwan went to the spittle of pagatipánan, and the spittle of aponigawani, went there also. the spittle of dangdangáyan went to the spittle of pagbokásan and that of aponibolinayen also, and thus they found out that they were relatives. pagbokásan was surprised, for he did not know that he had a son, and ebang took her son, and she carried him as if he was a baby. and lingiwan was glad, because he had met his sister during the fight and langa-an carried him as if a baby. when they had learned that the boys who had carried the girls home were their sons they all went back to town, and their people who had been invited were there. as soon as they sat down iwaginan commanded someone to play the _gansas_ and he took the two skirts and made everyone dance. his wife gintoban who was a big woman, who used the big jars like agate beads on her head and about her neck, said to iwaginan, "why don't you, my husband, bid me dance? i have been waiting for a very long time." iwaginan said, "gintoban do not say that or i shall be ashamed before the people. wait until i am ready for you." as soon as aponibolinayen and lingiwan finished dancing iwaginan took the skirts from them and he gave one to gintoban and the other to ilwisan, and so they danced. and the big jars which she had hung around her neck made a noise and the earth shook when she moved her body. as soon as they finished dancing the people who went to attend _balaua_ with them said, "now we going to put the heads around the town and then go for it is nearly one month now and our families are lonesome for us." so they went to put the heads on the sticks around the town. at that time the two _alan_ who had picked up lingiwan and dangdangáyan arrived. they did not wish to attend _balaua_, but the betel-nut had grown on their heads and they had arrived very late. as soon as lingiwan and dangdangáyan saw them they took them back to the town. as soon as pagatipánan knew that they were the _alan_ who took care of the boys he summoned the people around the town. they danced for one month. after that langa-an and ebang went to talk with the two _alan_, and said to them, "we are surprised for we did not feel our sons come out." the _alan_ said, "lingiwan i picked up by the side of the road while you were walking, that is why you did not feel him; he was a little bloody when i picked him up, and i made him a man because i have no child to inherit all my things. now that you found out that he is your son you come and take all my things in kabinbinlan, as soon as the _balaua_ is finished. as soon as you will get all of them i will fly somewhere." so when the people went home, after the _balaua_ was finished, lingiwan and dangdangáyan went to follow their _alan_ mothers. as soon as they arrived in the different places where the _alan_ lived they gave them all the things which they had and they used their power so that all the things went to their town. when all the things arrived in kadalayapan the people in the town were frightened, for there was a golden house. when the things arrived in kaodanan the people were frightened for there were the valuable things which dangdangáyan took with him. after one month passed lingiwan said to his father pagatipánan, "you go and make _pakálon_ for aponibolinayen for i want to marry her." so his father sent his wife langa-an to kaodanan to tell to the father and mother of aponibolinayen that lingiwan wished to marry her. so langa-an took her hat which looked like the salaksák [ ] and her new skirt. as soon as she dressed she started and went. when she arrived in kaodanan pagbokásan was lying down in his _balaua_. "good morning," she said to him. pagbokásan was a in hurry to sit up and he said to her, "i am glad to see you, what are you coming here for in the middle of the day." "what am i coming for you say? i am coming to see if you want lingiwan for a son for he wishes to marry aponibolinayen." pagbokásan took her to his house and said to his wife, "here is cousin langa-an who came to see us." so ebang told him that he should get some old _basi_ for them to drink. as soon as they drank ebang went to cook. as soon as she finished cooking they ate. after they finished eating they took the big coconut shell and filled it with _basi_ and each of them drank, and they were all drunk, and langa-an said, "i like to hear from you if you wish lingiwan to be a son." soon pagbokásan and ebang agreed. they decided on the day for _pakálon_. so langa-an went home and when she arrived she laid down on the porch of the house for she was drunk, and lingiwan saw her and waked her. "what is the matter with you?" he said. "i am drunk for pagbokásan and ebang urged me to drink much _basi_, so i was scarcely able to get home, that is why i slept on the porch." "mother, you go into the house, do not sleep on the porch." so she went in and lingiwan asked her the result of her visit to kaodanan. "they accepted you and we agreed to make _pakálon_ the day after tomorrow." so lingiwan was glad, and went to tell the people about his marriage, and all the people prepared so that they might go. as soon as the agreed day came they went to kaodanan and they took many pigs and _basi_ jars. when they arrived there pagbokásan, who was the father of aponibolinayen, and the other people were already there and had cooked many caldrons of rice and meat. pagbokásan took the _gansa_ [ ] and he commanded someone to play and they danced. after that they ate. as soon as they finished to eat they played the _gansa_ again and they danced. iwaginan of pindayan said, "stop playing the _gansas_ we are going to settle on how much they must pay for aponibolinayen. as soon as we agree we will dance." and the people were quiet and they agreed how much lingiwan was to pay. the father and mother of lingiwan offered the _balaua_ three times full of jars which are _malayo_ and _tadogan_ and _ginlasan._ [ ] the people did not agree and they said, "five times full, if you do not have that many lingiwan may not marry aponibolinayen." he was so anxious to marry her that he told his parents to agree to what the people said. as soon as they agreed langa-an used magic so that all the jars which the people wanted were already in the _balaua_--five times full. as soon as they gave all the jars which they paid, iwaginan ordered them to play the gansas and they danced. after they danced, all their relatives who went to attend _pakálon_ were anxious to go home for they had been there one month. "do not detain us, for we are one month here." so pagbokásan let them go. everyone carried home some jars and they all went home. [ ] so pagatipánan said to pagbokásan, "now that the _pakálon_ is over we will take aponibolinayen, because lingiwan wants her now." pagbokásan said, "do not take her now. you come and bring lingiwan day after tomorrow." "if that is what you say we will bring him, if you will not let us take aponibolinayen now." when they started to go home pagbokásan said to them, "dangdangáyan wants to marry aponigawani who is your daughter." "you will wait until next month," said langa-an. "after aponibolinayen and lingiwan are married, we will think first." not long after the day on which they agreed to take lingiwan to aponibolinayen came, and he carried one jar. [ ] as soon as they arrived there they made the rice ceremony. [ ] when the ceremony was over pagatipánan and langa-an and the others went home and left lingiwan. as soon as they arrived in kadalayapan langa-an asked aponigawani if she wanted dangdangáyan to be her husband. aponigawani said, "if you think it is good for me to be married now, and you think he is a good man for my husband it is all right, for he has magical power like us." as soon as the agreed month passed the parents of dangdangáyan came to ask if they wished the marriage. they prepared a number of _basi_ jars for them to drink from when they should arrive. when they arrived there pagatipánan was prepared and he met them with the _basi_ and they all drank. after that they told all the people who lived in their town that they were going to celebrate the arrival of pagbokásan and his companions. "ala, we do not stay long now, _abaláyan_, [ ] we want to know if you wish dangdangáyan to be married to aponigawani. we will have a good time during _pakálon_," they said. after that langa-an and pagatipánan said, "now the meal is ready. we are going to eat first and after that you will hear what we say." and pagbokásan and ebang did not wish to eat for they were in a hurry and only went to hear if they wished dangdangáyan to be the husband of aponigawani. "if you do not wish to come and eat with us, we do not want dangdangáyan to be married to aponigawani," they said. then they all went to eat. after they ate, "ala now that we have finished eating you excuse us, for we want to know if you wish dangdangáyan to be married to aponigawani." langa-an and pagatipánan said, "you will come next month, we will make _pakálon_." so they went home and dangdangáyan went to meet them at the gate of the town, and he asked at once, "father and mother did they accept me?" he said, "yes, if we can agree on what they want us to pay, and we have to go there next month." so dangdangáyan was glad and told the people about it, and he invited them to go the next month to make _pakálon_. as soon as the agreed month to go to kadalayanpan came, they went. as soon as they arrived there they danced for one month. lingiwan and aponibolinayen had their golden house, which the _alan_ had given them. the people agreed on how much they should pay for the _pakálon_, and pagatipánan and langa-an said, "pay just the same as we paid for aponibolinayen when lingiwan married her." "if that is what you say, it is all right," they said. and ebang used magic so that the _balaua_ was five times full of jars which are _malayo, tadogan_, and _ginlasan._ so the _balaua_ was filled five times, and each of the relatives who went to attend the _pakálon_ took some jars. as soon as the _pakálon_ was finished the people all went home, and pagbokásan and ebang said, "ala, now that the _pakálon_ is over let us take aponigawani," langa-an answered, "if you make extra payment you can take aponigawani now," and dangdangáyan said to his mother, "if they want the extra payment, ask them how much." langa-an replied, "another five times the _balaua_ full," and ebang said to her son, "we have to pay again the _balaua_ five times full." "that is all right mother i have many jars which my _alan_ mother gave me," so they gave the extra jars which they asked. as soon as they gave all the jars they took aponigawani of kaodanan with them. as soon as they arrived they made a big party, and they invited the _alan_. as soon as the _alan_ arrived at the party they danced and gave more presents to them. after that the _alan_ and the other people went home and aponigawani and dangdangáyan had their own house which the _alan_ gave them. this is all. (told by lagmani of patok.) aponitolau told aponibolinayen that they would go to the river to wash their hair. not long after aponibolinayen went with him. when they arrived at the spring they washed their hair. as soon as they washed their hair they went to get the _lawed_ [ ] vine and they went back home. as soon as they reached home aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "will you comb my hair? i am anxious to go to fight." so aponibolinayen combed his hair. as soon as she combed it he said, "ala, you go and get my clout, my belt which is sewed with gold, and my striped coat, and also get my _ambosau_." [ ] aponibolinayen got them and aponitolau dressed up. as soon as he was dressed he took his shield, his headaxe, and spear, and went. he struck the side of his shield, and it sounded like one hundred people. while he was walking and striking his shield in the middle of the way, gimbagonan, the wife of iwaginan, heard him, when he was near to pindayan. when he passed by the town he continued toward the town of giambólan. in a short time he arrived at the well of giambólan. he met the young girls who were dipping water from the well. he killed all of them with his headaxe and spear. not long after he cut off their heads and he went up to the town and directly to the house of giambólan. when he arrived at the house, he said, "good morning, giambólan. go and get your shield, headaxe and spear, and boar's tusk armlet for we are going to fight here in your yard." giambólan got his headaxe and spears for he wanted to fight. as soon as he arrived where aponitolau was he threw his spears at him and aponitolau soon got all the spears which he threw. then he tried to cut off aponitolau's head, but aponitolau got his headaxe and said to him, "now i am next, for you did not injure me at all," and giambólan said, "yes." aponitolau commanded his headaxe and spear to go to giambólan's side as soon as he threw them; so giambólan laid down and the headaxe went and cut off giambólan's ten heads. as soon as aponitolau had killed giambólan he again commanded his spear and headaxe to cut off the heads of all the people in the houses and the headaxe and spear went and aponitolau sat by the town waiting for them. as soon as the spear and headaxe had killed all the people who lived in the town they went back to him and aponitolau said, "you heads of the people gather in one place, but you heads of giambólan and you heads of the women be separate from the others. you gather by the house of giambólan." not long after all the heads gathered and he said again, "you heads of giambólango first, and you heads of the men precede the women. as soon as you arrive in kadalayapan stop by the gate of the town. you house of giambólango go directly to my house in kadalayapan. go with the big storm." so the house went. "you oranges of giambólan come and follow us." so the oranges followed them. he told them to go in front of his house. they went and aponitolau followed them, and the oranges followed him. not long after aponitolau looked back and he saw the _alzados_ following him, for they wished to kill him. as soon as he saw them he commanded his strike-a-light to become a high bank so the _alzados_ could not follow him. [ ] so the strike-a-light became a high bank, and the _alzados_ were on the other side and could not follow him. not long after he was near to kadalayapan. as soon as he arrived there he found all the heads near the gate of the town and he said to them, "you heads of giambólan stay by the well, and you heads of the people who lived with him gather here by the gate." he went to the town and told the people to gather by the gate and play the _gansas_ and dance, and he commanded someone to invite their friends in other towns. not long after the people from the other towns arrived in kadalayapan, and the people who lived there were still dancing. aponitolau danced with danay of kabisilan. the next was his son kanag kabagbagowan who danced with five young girls who never go outdoors. as soon as they had all danced they went to their towns. then they put the heads around the town of kadalayapan. (told by magwati of lagangilang.) aponibolinayen and aponitolau were anxious to make _sayang_, [ ] so aponitolau asked aponibolinayen about his clout and his striped belt. "well, you go and get them, for i am going to get the head of the old man to-odan of kalaskigan before we make _sayang_." so aponibolinayen went to get his clout and belt. after that he oiled his hair and aponibolinayen put a golden bead on each hair. not long after he went to get his headaxe and spear. as soon as aponibolinayen gave him his provisions for the journey, he started. when he was in the middle of the way he became very tired, for it was far. so he used magic and he said, "i use my power so that i will arrive at once at the town of to-odan of kalaskigan." soon after he arrived in kalaskigan. when he arrived at the yard beside the _balaua_ the old man was lying down. the old man saw him and said, "eb, i have a man to eat." and aponitolau said, "you will never eat me. go and get your headaxe and spear, for you must fight with me. i will take your head before i make _sayang_." the old man was angry and he stood up and went to get his headaxe and spear. "you are the only person who ever came in my town. go on, and throw your spear, if you are brave," said to-odan. "if i am the first to throw my spear you will never have a chance to throw yours, for i will kill you at once. you better throw yours first," said aponitolau. the old man was angry, and he threw his spear. but his spear glanced off from the body of aponitolau, for he used his power so that everything glanced away from his body. the old man to-odan ran toward him and tried to cut off his head, but the headaxe could not cut aponitolau, and the old man to-odan said to him, "you, truly, are a brave man, that was why you came to my town. try and throw your spear at me, for if you can hit me it is all right, for i have killed many people." aponitolau threw his spear at his side, and it went clear through his body and to-odan laid down. aponitolau cut off his head. not long after aponitolau went back home and don carlos of kabaiganan (vigan) [ ] was anxious to go and see aponibolinayen. so he commanded his spirit companions to be ready to go with him to kadalayapan. as soon as they were ready he said to them, "you go first, my companions, we are going to the town of aponibolinayen, for i have heard that she is a pretty woman, and i wish to see her." not long after they arrived at the river, and they got on to the raft. soon they arrived at the well of kadalayapan and indiápan was dipping water from the well, and don carlos spoke to her. "is this the well of aponibolinayen?" indiápan said, "yes." "will you go and tell her to come here and see what i have to sell?" indiápan went up to the town and said "aponibolinayen, don carlos wants you to see what he has to sell." "i don't wish to go and see what he has to sell." so indiápan went back to the well and said to don carlos "aponibolinayen does not wish to come, and she does not wish to buy what you have to sell." so he pondered what he should do. "the best thing for me to do is to go to their house to get a drink." so he went up to the town and said, "good morning, aponibolinayen, will you give me some water to drink? for a long time i have wished to drink your water." aponibolinayen answered, "why did you come from the well? why did you not drink while you were there?" "i did not drink there, for i wished to drink of your water." aponibolinayen did not give him any for she was afraid; then don carlos used magic so that she dropped her needle. the needle dropped and she said to him, "will you hand the needle which i dropped to me, don carlos." so don carlos picked up the needle and he put a love charm on it, and he gave it to her. [ ] not long after don carlos wanted to go back home, but aponibolinayen would not let him go, and she said, "come up in the house." so he went up into the house. not long after aponitolau shouted near to the town and he did not hear aponibolinayen answer. as soon as he reached the gate of the town he shouted again, and she did not answer, for don carlos was with her. not long after don carlos went home and aponibolinayen saw his belt which he had left, for he was in a hurry. so she ran and got the ladder to the rice granary, and she hid the belt. aponitolau met don carlos at the gate of the town and he asked him why he had gone into the town, and he answered, "i want to sell something." not long after aponitolau went to their house and asked aponibolinayen why she did not reply to him when he shouted two times. "i did not answer, for i have a headache." "why is the fastening on the door different from before?" "i don't know. no one came in." not long after aponitolau went up into the house. "now, aponibolinayen, i have taken the head of the old man to-odan of kalaskigan. you command the people to begin to pound rice, for we will make _sayang_" not long after aponitolau saw a flame of fire in the rice granary and he said, "why is there a fire in the rice granary?" so he ran to see. not long after he went inside of the granary and he saw what it was. as soon as he saw that it was a golden belt he said, "i think this is the belt of the man who came here while i was gone." so he took it and hid it and did not let aponibolinayen see it. not long after they commanded the people to go and get betel-nuts. when they arrived with the fruit they oiled them and aponitolau said, "tell me whom we shall invite beside our relatives in the other towns." and aponibolinayen told him to invite don carlos of kabaiganan, for she wished always to see him. so they sent a betel-nut to go and get don carlos, and they sent one to the old woman alokotán of nagbotobotán and awig of natpangan and other towns. not long after the betel-nut reached the place where don carlos lived and it met his spirit helpers. as soon as the betel-nut reached don carlos, "aponitolau and aponibolinayen are making _sayang_, and i came to invite you." "all right, you go first. i will dress and go after you," he said. not long after he dressed up and went to follow the betel-nuts. not long after all the other people from the other towns arrived where they were making _sayang_ and aponitolau tried to put the belt on each person to see if it fitted and no one was the right size. as soon as don carlos arrived aponitolau tried the belt on him and it was all right. so aponitolau gave him the belt and he got a golden chair and he put it in the middle of the party and made don carlos sit on it. all of the people were dancing and aponitolau went and sharpened his headaxe. not long after, "ala, you aponibolinayen take kanag and alama-an with you and dance with don carlos." not long after they danced. while they were dancing aponitolau cut off the head of don carlos. the head sprang up and went to the breast of aponibolinayen, and aponibolinayen and kanag and alama-an ran away, and their clothes were torn, for they ran through many thorns. not long after the people who went to attend the _sayang_ went home, and aponibolinayen and kanag and alama-an arrived in a level plain. they went to the shade of an _alosip_ [ ] tree and they sat there many days, for they were very tired. "i am anxious to drink water," said aponibolinayen, and not long after they heard a rooster crowing. "i think we are near a town, for i hear a rooster crowing." so they went where they had heard the rooster. "we go and drink," said aponibolinayen. not long after they reached the place where _silit_ (one kind of lightning) and the dog _kimat_ [ ] guarded. _silit_ and the dog were sleeping and did not see them go inside of the town. soon they arrived in the yard of the golden house of balbalaoga of dona and they were ashamed to ask for water to drink, for they were naked. so they went to the _balaua_ and slept, for they were tired. while they were sleeping, balbalaoga saw them in his _balaua_, and he was surprised, because no one was permitted to enter the town, for _silit_ and the dog prevented. he said, "what is the matter of the guards that they did not see those people enter the town? perhaps they are my relatives." so he took some clothes to the _balaua_ for them. he covered them with blankets while they slept. as soon as he covered them he sat down in the _balaua_ and waited until they got up. as soon as aponibolinayen awoke she saw him and said, "do not wound us in many places, so we will not need to cure so much." balbalaoga said, "if i were an enemy i would have killed you while you slept. we are going to chew betel-nut and see who you are." so he cut a betel-nut and gave to them, and their spittle was like agate beads. so he took them up into his golden house and told his mother _alan_ to give them some clothes. not long after they drank _basi_, after they had finished eating. all the _alan_ were drunk and the mother of balbalaoga of dona said to them, "aponibolinayen, balbalaoga is your brother, for he was the after-birth of awig, which they put in the _tabalang_ which they sent down the stream. [ ] so i picked him up, for i had no child to inherit all my things." not long after they knew that they were brother and sister balbalaoga asked his sister why they came to dona without clothes. she said, "aponitolau is jealous of don carlos and he cut off his head, and the head jumped to my breasts, so we were frightened and ran away. that is why we came here. i did not know i had a brother who lived here." the head still hung to the breasts of aponibolinayen, but they had not seen it before, for she had covered it. as soon as she showed it to balbalaoga he took the head from her breasts and they sent some betel-nuts to go and summon their mother. as soon as the betel-nut arrived in kaodanan it said to pagbokásan and ebang, "good morning. i came here for balbalaoga, and his sister sent me to come and get you." so ebang and pagbokásan were surprised, because aponibolinayen had another brother. so they called awig and said to him, "here is a betel-nut from dona which aponibolinayen and balbalaoga sent, for they want to see us." awig said to them, "i don't believe that aponibolinayen is still alive, for we have searched for her a very long time, and i never heard of a place called dona, and i have been all over the world." they started and the betel-nut led them. "where is dona?" they said to the betel-nut. "dona is somewhere. follow me. you must step on the big dishes where i step." not long after they arrived in the place where balbalaoga lived and were surprised at the big golden house, and balbalaoga and aponibolinayen were watching them from the window, and they went to the yard of the house. ebang and pagbokásan did not believe that balbalaoga was their son, so they chewed betel-nut. as soon as they chewed they found out that he was the after-birth of awig. so balbalaoga took them into his house. not long after balbalaoga said to them, "wait for me for awhile, for i am going to hunt deer." so he called his dogs who talked with the thunder, they were so big and also powerful. not long after he went to the wood and the dogs caught three deer. he cut up the deer and took them back home. not long after aponitolau heard that aponibolinayen was with her brother in dona. he went to follow her, for he intended to live with her again. ebang and pagbokásan took balbalaoga and aponibolinayen to kaodanan, and they used their power so that all the things which the _alan_ had given to balbalaoga went to kaodanan. not long after the house and the other things which the _alan_ had given went to kaodanan, all the _alan_ flew away. not long after they made _balaua_ in kaodanan, and they called all their relatives in the other towns and all of the _alan_ who cared for balbalaoga of dona. after that all the people went to attend their _balaua_. in that time balbalaoga was married and aponitolau was very sorry, because he could not remarry aponibolinayen, and he went to the _balaua_ even though he was not invited. as soon as the _balaua_ was over, all the people went back home, but balbalaoga did not go back to dona. the _alan_ flew away after he was married. (told by magwati of lagangilang). ayo went to the spring. when she went she met dagdagalisit, who was fishing in the river. when she reached him she became pregnant. not long after she went home. when she arrived in her house the space between the little finger and the next itched. "bolinayen, you stick the needle in my finger where it itches. i do not know what makes it itch so," she said. as soon as bolinayen stuck the needle the little baby popped out. [ ] "what shall we name the baby?" "dagoláyan will be his name." the baby shook his head, so they gave him the name kanag. awig went to wash his hair in the spring. when he finished washing his hair he went home. when he reached his house he made ayo louse him. while ayo was lousing him the milk from her breasts dropped on awig's legs. "why, ayo, does the milk from your breasts drop on my legs?" he asked. he sat up and asked them many times until they brought the baby. when they brought the baby, "we are going home to natpangan now, because it does not do me any good to try and hide you." he took them home and soon he made a bamboo bench by the gate of the town where the people passed when they went to the well, and he placed the baby on it. then they built _balaua_, for he wanted to see the father of the baby. not long after he commanded some one to go and get betel-nuts and he oiled them. he sent them to go and invite all the people in the world. when they arrived none of them wanted the baby to recognize them. when the baby did not go to any of them, he sent someone to get a betel-nut to send to dagdagalisit whom they had not invited. as soon as the betel-nut arrived at the place where dagdagalisit lived "dagdagalisit came to natpangan for awig makes _balaua_," it said. "i cannot go, for i am ashamed, because i have no good clothes," he said, for his clout was the dried bark of a banana tree. "if you do not come i will grow on your big pig," it said, and the betel-nut jumped on the back of the big pig, and it began to squeal. when his big pig began squealing loudly, because the tree grew on his back, dagdagalisit said, "i come now." not long after he went. when he came walking up the trail from the spring the baby saw him, and went to him, and awig saw him carrying the baby. "i did not think it would happen this way to aponibolinayen," he said. then he sent aponibolinayen away, and he made her carry the poor house box that they used to put the fish in which dagdagalisit caught in the river. "you carry the female pig so that you have something to eat by the river," said awig to dagdagalisit. so they went; aponibolinayen carried the poor box and awig took her beads and clothes off from her, and he gave her old clothes to use, and so they went. when they were near the spring they threw away the things they carried, the female pig and poor box. while they were walking near the town of dagdagalisit, which was kabenbenlan, ayo saw the golden house. "we must not walk by the side of the golden house, for i am ashamed before the man who owns it," said ayo to dagdagalisit. they were still walking and ayo followed him. as soon as they arrived at the ladder dagdagalisit went upstairs and ayo did not because she thought that dagdagalisit did not own that house, and dagdagalisit made her go up, and she did. as soon as she arrived above dagdagalisit went to get rice to give ayo to cook. "cook this, ayo, while i go to catch fish for us to eat," he said, and he went. as soon as he caught two fish he went home, and he left the dry bark of the banana, which he used as a clout, by the river, and he became ligi, [ ] so he went home. as soon as he arrived he made ayo wake up, when he finished cooking the fish, and the baby went to him to be carried. he called ayo and she did not go. "i wait for my husband, we will both eat at one time, bye and bye," she said, and she took the baby which he carried, for she was ashamed. "no, i was dagdagalisit, but used the bark of the banana tree for a clout, because i changed my form. let us eat." so they ate. as soon as they finished eating, "we shall make _balaua_ so that we invite all our relatives in the different towns, and we also shall invite awig and aponigonay," he said. not long after he went and took the betel-nuts which he cut. when he had cut them all he oiled them and sent them to the different towns. when the people from the different towns arrived by the spring in kabenbenlan they were surprised because all the stones of the spring were of gold. not long after they went up to the town. next day awig and aponigonay started to go. "ala, aponigonay, take rice so that we may cook it in kabenbenlan, because aponibolinayen and dagdagalisit have no rice to cook. what will dagdagalisit use for his _balaua?_ he ties a banana bark clout on his body. i do not think he has rice, so we will take some for us to eat. you people who live in the same town we go to attend _balaua_. you take food with you for aponibolinayen and dagdagalisit make _balaua_." not long after they went, and when they arrived in the place where the spring is in kabenbenlan they saw the beautiful spring whose stones were all gold. the gravel which they used to wash the pottery with was all agates which have no holes through them. "i do not think that dagdagalisit has a spring like this, for his clout is only the dry bark of the banana, but it is best for us to go and see in the town." they went, and when they had almost reached the town the golden house twinkled. "we must not walk by the golden house," said awig. "we must not walk by that golden house, you say, but that is where the people are dancing," said aponibolnay. as they walked they saw that the men and women who were making _alawig_ [ ] were the companions of aponibolinayen. awig said, "that is the man who used to put the clout of banana leaves on him." as soon as aponitolau [ ] and aponibolinayen finished dancing they went to take the hands of awig and aponibolay, and aponitolau commanded the people who lived with them to bring golden seats. after that aponitolau went to make awig sit down. "you sit down, brother-in-law, and we will forget the things which have passed." then he made him sit down and soon awig and asigtánan danced. while they were dancing aponitolau went to cut off awig's head. not long after the women who never go outdoors [ ] went to bring awig to life. as soon as they made him alive again, aponitolau gave the marriage price. it was nine times full, the _balaua_, and when aponibolnay raised up her elbow half of it vanished, which was in the _balaua_. and aponibolinayen used her power and the _balaua_ was full again. not long after they chewed betel-nut and the quid of langa-an and pagatipánan and the quids of dagdagalisit went together, and the quid of pagbokásan and ebang went to the quid of aponibolinayen and awig, and langa-an and pagatipánan changed the name of dagdagalisit to ligi. "ala, now mother old _alan_ do not feel sorry, for we take aponitolau to kadalayapan," said langa-an. "ala, yes, you take them, take all my valuable things. if it were not for me, aponitolau would not be alive, for you langa-an had a miscarriage and lost him, when you went to wash your hair, so i picked him up, because i had no one to inherit my possessions. take all my things, so that aponitolau and his wife may own them." not long after they went home and awig took all the payment for aponibolinayen and all the _alan_ flew away. so awig and aponitolau went to their towns. aponibalagen went to put aponibolinayen in kabwa-an, where no one could see her. as soon as they arrived at the ocean they rode on the crocodiles to kabwa-an. when they arrived there aponibalagen used magic so that a big golden house stood in the middle of a wide plain. in the yard were many betel-nut trees and a spring below the trees. the gravel where the stream flowed was beads called _pagatpat_ and _kodla_, and the leaves and grass used to rub the inside of the jars was a necklace of golden wire. when the golden house, and betel-nuts, and spring had appeared, aponibalagen left an old woman with aponibolinayen and alama-an, and sinogyaman and indiápan, and he went back home, and he said to them, "do not be afraid to stay, for no one can see you here, where i have put you, and if anyone tries to come here the crocodiles will eat them. you have everything you need." so he went home. ingiwan who lived in kabilabilan went to take a walk. as soon as he arrived at the ocean he wondered how he could get across. not long after he put his headaxe on the water and he rode on it, for he used magic, and his headaxe floated and went to the other side of the ocean. as soon as he reached the other side he took a walk and he saw the big golden house in the middle of the wide plain. he was surprised, and he went to see it, and the crocodiles all slept while he crossed the ocean. when he reached the spring he said, "how pretty the well is. i think the girl who owns this well has magical power, and that she is pretty also." so he went to the house and said, "good afternoon." alama-an was cooking, and she said, "good afternoon." she looked at him from the window, and she saw that he was a fine looking man. she did not tell aponibolinayen, but she had him go up the ladder. the old woman who took care of them asked why she did not tell her and aponibolinayen. alama-an said she did not know what she was doing when she had him go up. so the old woman went to ask him what he came for. he said, "i just took a walk and i did not know how to get home, for there was a very high bank in the way, so i came across the ocean to learn the other way back home. while i was still on the ocean i saw this big golden house. i came here, for i was very tired, for it is more than one month since i left kabilabilan." "ala, you alama-an go and cook some food for this young man," said the old woman, and alama-an went truly, and when she finished cooking, the old woman called him to eat. the young man said he did not wish to eat unless one of the ladies who never went outdoors [ ] ate with him. "alama-an is the girl who never goes outdoors," said the old woman, but he did not believe her, and so he did not go. when he would not eat she called sinogyaman to go and eat, but the young man said, "i do not wish to eat with anyone except the pretty girl who never goes outdoors." so the old woman called indiápan. as soon as she went outdoors to the place where the young man was, "no, that is not the girl i want. there is one prettier still. i will not go to eat." the old woman became angry and said, "if you are not hungry and do not wish to eat that is all right. i have offered three young girls to eat with you, but if you do not wish to eat with them i do not care." when the old woman and the three girls had eaten they gave him a place to sleep, and they slept also. while the others were talking to the young man, aponibolinayen was looking through a crack of the house, and she liked him very much. she wished to go outdoors and talk to him, but she was afraid because the old woman had said there were only the three young girls whom she called. as soon as they had finished talking, they went to bed. in the middle of the night ingiwan said to himself, "i believe there are other young girls here prettier than the last one she showed me. i will use my power and will become a firefly, and i will fly to all parts of the house, and see if there is a prettier one there." so he used his power and he became a firefly and he flew. [ ] when he was in the room where the old woman was, he left, and went where alama-an was, and he went on to sinogyaman. when he did not like her he went to indiápan. "this is the last girl she showed me and i like her, but i believe that there is another prettier." so he went to the next room, but no one slept there, and so he went on to the ninth room. he heard the sound of the pan pipe in the ninth room, and he was very glad. he flew over the head of the woman who was playing, and she stopped playing and struck at him. "how did the firefly get in here? i do not think there are any cracks in here." the firefly said, "do not strike at me, for i fear you will hit my headaxe and be cut." so he became a man and sat down beside her, and aponibolinayen saw that it was the man who had talked with the old woman and the girls, and she loved him, but she said, "go outdoors, do not come here. i am afraid that the old woman who cares for us will see us. if you want something wait until morning and we will talk with her." ingiwan did not get up and he would not go outdoors, and he said, "the best thing for us to do is to chew betel-nut, so we will know each other. do not be afraid for i would not have come here if it was not my fortune to marry you, for i was taking a walk and intended to go back home, but i met a high bank in the way, and there was no place to go except the ocean, so i came across the ocean. as soon as i reached the field i saw your house and i was surprised to see the golden house in the middle of the field. i spoke to the young girl who was cooking and she asked me to come up, and the old woman hated her. they asked me to eat, but i would not unless a pretty girl ate with me. so the old woman called two other pretty girls, but i did not want them, for they are not so pretty as you. i thought there were others prettier than the last one she showed me, so i became a firefly. it is my fortune to marry you." so he cut the betel-nut, but aponibolinayen did not want to chew. when he talked to her so she could not sleep she took the betel-nut, and when they chewed they saw that they both had magical power and that it was good for them to marry. ingiwan said, "you are the woman who lives here and you must tell your name first." "no, it is not good for a woman to tell her name first. you tell your name." not long after, "my name is ingiwan, the son of _alan_, of kabilabilan, who did not find a way to go home, but who found you." "my name is aponibolinayen, who is the sister of aponibalagen of natpangan, who put me here so no one might see me. it is bad that you have come." when the daylight came alama-an went to cook and when she finished the old woman said to her, "go and call the man and see if he wishes to eat with the girls. you call them, but do not call aponibolinayen, for that is why we are here, so no one can see her. i do not know why the alligators did not see him." aponibolinayen and ingiwan heard what she said and they laughed. so alama-an went to call him, but he was not in the room. she went to tell the old woman that he was not there, and they were surprised, for they thought he had gone home, for all the other rooms were locked. "if he is not there you go and call aponibolinayen and we will eat." the three girls went to the room of aponibolinayen, but ingiwan disappeared and they only saw aponibolinayen. so they all went to eat and ingiwan was not hungry, for aponibolinayen used magic, so that rice and meat went to where he was hiding. when they had lived together a long time aponibolinayen said to him, "you better go home now, for it is time for my brother to visit us. if you wish to marry me you must arrange with him and my father." so ingiwan went back home and the crocodiles only watched him, but did not try to eat him. he rode on his headaxe, and when he reached the other side of the ocean he saw that the high bank had disappeared and he found the way home. not long after aponibalagen went to wash his hair, and he went to the place where aponibolinayen and the other girls were living. the three girls and the old woman agreed not to tell that a man had been there. as soon as aponibalagen arrived in kabwa-an he asked the old woman if anyone had been there, and she replied, "no." he called alama-an and the other girls to the place where aponibolinayen was, so all of them might louse him. while aponibolinayen was lousing her brother the milk from her breasts dropped on his legs, and aponibalagen was surprised, and he said, "what have you done, aponibolinayen." she tried to rub it off from his leg. "no, do not rub it off; what is that?" "i do not know, brother. i guess i am sweating, for i am hot." "no, i do not believe you, i think someone has been here." he called the old woman and asked her. "you, grandmother, did you see a man who came here? do not tell a lie." "why?" asked the old woman. but she knew that aponibolinayen had a little baby, for she had pricked her little finger and the baby had come out. [ ] "when the girls were lousing me the milk from aponibolinayen's breast dropped on my legs. i think you know the man who has been here." "i do not believe anyone came here, for we are on this side of the ocean, and the crocodiles protect us." aponibalagen called all the crocodiles to the side of the house, and he whipped all the crocodiles, and he asked them why they did not eat the man who went to kabwa-an. as soon as he whipped them one of them said, "we did not see any man come here, but we were all very sleepy one day a long time ago. we would have eaten the man if we had seen him." aponibalagen whipped all of them again. "i put you here to prevent anyone from coming here, and you did not watch. go away." the crocodiles were afraid and they said, "if that is what you say we will go." so they went. aponibalagen went back to the house and whipped the girls. "we will go back now to kaodanan. i thought it was good for you to be here, but you have done wrong." so he took them back to kaodanan and they made _balaua_ in order to find out who was the father of the boy. the boy grew one span every time they bathed him, [ ] for they used their power. in a few days they built their _balaua_ and the _liblibayan_ [ ] got betel-nuts which were covered with gold, and they oiled them and sent them to invite the people in all parts of the world. so the betel-nuts went. as soon as the betel-nuts arrived in kabilabilan, they said, "good morning, kagkagákag," [ ] to the man who was lying in his _balaua_ covered with mud. "we came to invite you to the _balaua_ of aponibalagen." "i do not wish to go, for i have no clothes and am ashamed. i do not know the man who is going to make _balaua_." "if you do not go i will grow on your knee," said one of the betel-nuts. "do as you wish." so the betel-nut grew on his knee. when it grew big he became tired and he said, "get off from me now and i will go." so they went. all the people from the other towns had arrived and aponibalagen carried the baby, to see whom the baby would want to go to, but the baby did not want any of them. when the betel-nut and kagkagákag appeared the baby was happy and wanted to go to him. so aponibalagen gave the boy to him and all the people were surprised that aponibolinayen had wanted him. not long after they danced, and when they had finished aponibalagen said to aponibolinayen, "take off all your things and go to kagkagákag." aponibolinayen did not wish to go, for he was not the same man she was with before, but her brother made her go, and he said, "kagkagákag, take her to your town." so he took her to his town, and when they reached the gate aponibolinayen was crying, but he said to her, "do not feel bad, i am the man who came to kabwa-an. that is why the boy wants me, for i am his father." aponibolinayen did not believe him, but when they arrived at the spring of kabilabilan she was surprised to see that the stones were of gold, and the fruits of the trees were of gold and were beads, and she said to kagkagákag, "why do we come here? it is shameful for us to be seen by the man who owns this." kagkagákag laughed at her. "if you do not believe that i am your husband, you watch." and he went to take a bath, and the mud all washed off, and she saw that he was the man who was with her before in kabwa-an. so they went up to the town, and the _alan_ who cared for ingiwan was glad to see them. not long after they made _balaua_, for they wished to call aponibalagen so that he would not always feel badly about them. not long after they sent the betel-nuts to summon their relatives. as soon as the betel-nut arrived in kaodanan, "good afternoon, aponibolinayen and kagkagákag want you to attend their _sayang_." aponibalagen laughed and said, "yes," and he called all the people and told them to prepare to go to the _balaua_. when they arrived at the spring everyone was astonished, for all the fruit of the trees was of gold, and all the places they walked were covered with plates. and aponibalagen said, "i do not think this is the spring of kagkagákag. i think someone else owns it. we will go up to the house where he lives." when they reached the gate of the town they asked the young girl who was going to the spring where aponibolinayen and kagkagákag slept, and the woman said, "you follow these plates, for they go to the ladder of kagkagákag's house." so they went and they always walked on the plates. when they arrived they saw many people dancing in the yard and aponibalagen shook their hands. "kagkagákag, if you had come as you are now to my _balaua_ i would not have been bad to my sister." kagkagákag laughed at them and they all chewed betel-nut. while they were chewing langa-an and pagatipánan went to them and they said, "we came to chew betel-nut also to see if we are related to you." kagkagákag gave them betel-nut, and when they chewed they found out that they were relatives and they called kagkagákag, aponitolau, and he paid the marriage price for aponibolinayen. aponigawani said to him, "i thought i had no brother. i do not know what my father and mother did with you." the _alan_ who cared for aponitolau said, "he was by the road where langa-an had dropped him on her way to nagbotobotán, so i picked him up, for i have no children." as soon as aponitolau paid the marriage price they danced again, and the _alan_ gave all her things to aponitolau, for langa-an and pagatipánan took them home. not long after aponibalagen married aponigawani, and he paid the same as aponitolau had paid for aponibolinayen. (told by madomar, a woman of riang barrio patok.) "i go to visit my cousin gawigawen of adasin," said aponitolau. he pushed his raft until he reached pangasinan. at the spring he asked the women if his cousin aponibolinayen was there. "she is not, because she went to celebrate _sayang._ [ ] did you not get the invitation of gawigawen of adasin?" "no," said aponitolau. aponibolinayen went to have lisnaya fix her upper arm beads and they sat in the shade of the _pamlo-ongen_ tree, and aponibolinayen dropped her switch. "i wish to visit my relatives, but am ashamed because the invitation did not reach me," said aponitolau. so he went to rest in the shade of the _pamlo-ongen_ tree, and he saw there the switch which was spread out, and there was none like it. the women who had been at the spring said, "why did you not invite aponitolau? whenever we have trouble, it is he and his cousin that we call." "ala, we go down to the river to see." they went to get aponitolau and when they arrived at the spring he was there in the shade of the tree. "ala, forgive us because the invitation did not reach you and come up to the _sayang_" "yes, but if the old enemy is there, when i go, the dance circle will be disturbed, if we fight." they still requested him, and he went up to the place where they danced during the two months. dalinmanok of dalinapoyan said, "long ago, when my grandfather was young, the town of kadalayapan became wooded." (he meant that his grandfather had destroyed the town in which aponitolau's ancestors lived.) "my grandfather dagoláyen long ago said, 'dalinapóyan, dagala, and also dagopan became wooded.'" then dalinmanok became angry; he looked like a courting cock and seized aponitolau by the hair. "it is as i predicted, cousin gawigawen; the circle is now broken." they parted the fighters, but the hawk hastened to the town of kadalayapan to tell aponigawani. "cousin dumalágan, cousin agyokan; the enemy--the old one--has killed my brother aponitolau at the _sayang_ of gawigawen of adasin, so says the hawk." after that they started and soon arrived in adasin. they began at the south end of the town and killed so many it looked as though they were cutting down banana trees. "look down, aponitolau, and see if you know the men who are destroying the town." aponitolau truly looked. "why, cousin dumalágan and cousin agyokan, do you destroy the town?" "because the hawk reported to aponigawani that you had been killed by the old enemy in the town of adasin, and she has thrown away her upper arm beads [ ] by the gate of kadalayapan." "ala! you stop. ala! you who live, join their heads and their bodies; you join all," he said. "i will spit once and they will appear as if they were not cut at all. i will whip my perfume which is _banowes_, they quickly breathe. i whip my perfume which is _alikadakad_ (clatter), and they quickly stand up. i whip my perfume which is _dagimonau (monau_--just awakened) and they quickly recover." [ ] "oh, how long we have slept," they said. "how long we have slept, you say, and you have been dead." "oh, how powerful are the people of kadalayapan! even if we die, we may hope to live again at once," they said, and all went up to the house of gawigawen. "now dalinmanok of dalinapoyan, dumpoga of dagala, ligi of madagitan and ligi of dagopan, expect me in two months' time, for i shall come to fight you." after that they agreed and everybody went home. when they arrived at kadalayapan there were no upper arm beads on aponigawani, for she believed the hawk when it told her aponitolau was dead. "no, i am not dead, but when two months have passed i shall go to fight dalinmanok and his companions." "when you went to sail, did you not find the switch which belongs to aponibolinayen? they are now making a ceremony to find it." "it is here, that which i picked up in the shade of the _pamlo-ongen_ tree, and i will take it back when i go to fight." not long after that, according to the custom of the story, the second month came. "old men who know the signs and very old women, come and see the liver and gall sack, because i go to fight." after that they all gathered, they caught the pig and cut it in large pieces. "ala, old men who know the signs and very old women, come and see the gall, for i go to fight." [ ] "this is better than your grandfather had when he consulted the gall. how fearful you will be to the town which you go to fight!" "cousin agyokan, go and tell all our cousins that we start when morning comes." when early morning came--as goes in a story--they arrived. aponitolau played his jew's harp at the spring of the town, and it sounded like the song of a bird and the people smelt the odor of _alangigan (ilangilang)_ which is only possessed by the people of kadalayapan. "ala, it is aponitolau," said dalinmanok. "go and tell our companions that we go to fight him at the river, for we do not wish them to come on shore in our town." when it was day, they met at the river and they fought until afternoon; and when aponitolau was thirsty his headaxe turned slantwise and water blue as indigo flowed off it freely. "dumpoga of dagala, ligi of madagitan, ligi of dagopan, masilnag of kaskasilnagan, i come to teach you because you do not know how to kill. when one tries to kill your left side, receive the blow with your right, and when they try to kill the right side, receive it with the left. ala! you that are left alive, it is better that i spare you and that you marry the wives of your companions. i will spare you if you will all agree to give me one hundred jars which are _ginlasan, summadag_, and _tadogan_." they agreed. they rolled the jars which they took down to the river and there were among them _doldoli_ and _ginaang_, [ ] and the jars were glad, for they had formerly belonged to dagoláyen, the grandfather of aponitolau, but had been stolen. after that aponitolau said, "give me your betel-nut with magic power. you jars and all you heads of dead persons which are cut off, go first to kadalayapan." after that they went and aponitolau followed. after they arrived they danced with the heads and in a short time put them on the _sagang._ [ ] "now, aponigawani, bring me the switch of aponibolinayen, for i go to take it to her." he took the switch and used the power of the betel-nut, so that he went as quickly as a person can point to the place of many betel-nuts. in a short time, as the story goes, they arrived. "good evening," said aponitolau, but aponibolinayen thought him to be an enemy. "does the old enemy bring greetings?" asked aponitolau. then they went up into the house and he leaned against the corner pole. aponibolinayen looked at aponitolau and his good looks seemed to climb the corner pole. "it is better for us to tell our names," said aponitolau, "for it is difficult to talk when we do not know each other's names." after that he took out, from his little sack, nuts whose husks were of gold. he cut a nut and when he gave the half to aponibolinayen their golden finger rings exchanged themselves. "give back my ring," she said. "our relationship is the reason they change," said aponitolau. then they chewed and laid the quids on the headaxe and they became agate beads which looked like honey, and laid in parallel lines. "we are relatives," they said, and in a short time they told their names. when it became time to eat, aponibolinayen said, "what do we eat?" he took the boiling stick and broke it into pieces, and it became a fish which they ate, [ ] and aponitolau took the bone out of the fish which aponibolinayen ate. when they finished eating she spread the mat and the blanket which they kept in the box. "i do not like a blanket which is kept in a box, for it smells like _kimi_," [ ] said aponitolau. "why do you not like it? it is what we keep for company and is easy to use," said aponibolinayen. "the end of my clout is enough for my blanket," said aponitolau. then aponibolinayen used the power of the betel-nut and vanished. "why is there no one here?" said aponitolau. "i use your power betel-nut, so that i may become the insect which belongs to kaodanan (i.e., the firefly)." after that he flew and arrived in the ninth room and sailed back and forth near aponibolinayen who was playing a pan-pipe. he touched her body and she struck him away. "you must not strike me away, for you hit my headaxe." after that aponitolau sat down. "how did you pass in here?" she asked. "i passed through the crack in the wall," said aponitolau; and after that they laid together. when it was early morning aponibolinayen sent him away, for she feared her brother might come. as aponitolau went quickly to his raft, he was seen by balau of baboyan, a great bird. "how fine is aponitolau, ala! i shall take him to marry ginteban." [ ] then he was seized by balau and was carried to baboyan. "now aponitolau, you must marry ginteban who lived in baygan, for this place is surrounded with water blue as indigo and many crocodiles lie in that water." in a little while, as the story goes, aponibolinayen gave birth to a child. "ala! grandmother, prick my little finger, for it itches." she truly opened it and the baby popped out like popped rice. [ ] after that they bathed it and called him balokanag, for that is a name of the people of kadalayapan. soon the child was large and asked for a clout, then he asked the name of his father, but they told him falsely that it was dumanagan. "ala! get me a top so that i can play with the others," he said. then his mother gave him the top which was his father's when he was a little boy. after that he went to play with it. when it was late afternoon, the old woman alokotán went to feed the pigs, but kanag threw his top and it broke her jar. "pa-ya," said the old woman, "the son is brave; when you go to rescue your father who balau captured, it will not be my pot toward which you act brave." kanag cried, "you said, mother, that dumanagan is my father, but there is another who is my father--aponitolau whom balau stole." then aponibolinayen cried, "how bad you are, old woman! we should have exchanged for your jar if you had not told him of his father." "you must make me sweets, for i go to get my father," he said. "if he was seized, you who are little will be also," said his mother, but he insisted. then she used magic and secured for him the headaxe used by his father when he was a little boy, and she made him sweets. he started and went, and his mother planted a _lawed_ vine by their hearth. [ ] "your power betel-nut, so that i go as quickly as pointing to baboyan," said kanag. soon he arrived there, and he saw the crocodiles lying in the water. "you power betel-nut that i may walk on the crocodiles. make them all sleep so that they do not feel me." he reached the home of balau, where he saw great snakes hanging in the trees. he climbed the trees, he cut them so that they fell down, he cast them down--those big snakes--then he cut off the head of balau, and the earth trembled. after that he went to find his father who was in the place of many betel-nuts. "i am balokanag whom aponibolinayen desired, whom you left," he said. "now i take you home to kadalayapan." after that he truly took home aponitolau, and ginteban, who lived in baygan. in a short time they arrived in kadalayapan and kanag's mother was there, because aponigawani had taken her home. "now we are married forever, aponitolau," said ginteban who lived in baygan. "no, for aponibolinayen is his wife," replied aponigawani. "ala! you chance it and the one who loses is not the one who is married. put clay dishes in line, which you are to step on. the one who breaks them loses." aponibolinayen stepped first and there was nothing broken. ginteban followed and all those clay dishes which she stepped on were broken. then she went home to baygan and after that aponitolau and aponibolinayen were married. "i am anxious to eat the fruit of the _bolnay_ tree [ ] of matawitáwen," said aponibolinayen. "what is that?" said ligi. "i am anxious to eat fish roe, i said." "bring me a fish net and i will go and get some," said ligi. so she went to get the fish net and gave it to him. not long after he went to the river and he used magic so that all the fish in the river were caught, so truly all the fish were in the net. he caught one of them and cut it open and took out the roe. as soon as he secured the roe he let the fish all go out of the net and he went back home. not long after he reached the yard of their house. "aponibolinayen, come and get the fish roe which you desire," he said. she went to get it from him. she did not cook it, but put it on the bamboo hanger above the fire. ligi went to the _balaua_ and when aponibolinayen thought he was in the _balaua_ she threw away the roe and the dogs went to eat it, and they snarled and barked beneath the kitchen. "what are the dogs fighting about, aponibolinayen? i think you threw away the fish roe," he said to her. "i dropped one of them." aponibolinayen went again to the room and she said again that she wished to eat the fruit of matawitáwen, and ligi asked what she said. "i am anxious for the liver of a deer, i said." so ligi went to the woods to hunt deer. as soon as he reached the woods he sent his dogs and he said to them, "you, my black dog, do not catch deer except in the low grass, and you, my striped dog, do not touch any deer unless they have large horns." not long after his dogs caught some deer, and he took their livers and he let them go again. not long after he arrived at his house and he called aponibolinayen, "come and get the liver, which you wish to eat." aponibolinayen said to him, "put it in the rattan hanger." ligi went back to the _balaua_, and aponibolinayen used magic so that ligi slept. while he was asleep she went to the kitchen to throw away the livers of the deer, and the dogs went to eat and made such a great disturbance that ligi awoke and asked aponibolinayen what was the matter. "one small piece of liver which i did not eat." she went again to the room and laid down, and ligi used magic and became an ant, and he went to the crack of the floor, for he wanted to know what aponibolinayen was saying, for he suspected that she was not telling him the truth. as soon as he arrived in the crack aponibolinayen repeated her wish to eat the _bolnay_ fruit of matawitáwen, and ligi became a man again and appeared to her. "why did you not tell the truth, aponibolinayen?" he said and she answered, "i did not, because matawitáwen is very far and i am afraid that you will be lost." "no, give me a sack," he said to her. so he went and he used magic so that he arrived at the tree at once. not long after he arrived truly at the place and he secured the fruit and put it in the sack. as soon as the sack was filled he took some of the fruit to hold in his other hand and he went. not long after he reached the spring in kadalayapan and his sweethearts were at the spring. "ligi, how many and how pretty the _bolnay_ fruit are. your sack is filled and you have some in your hands. will you give us some of it to eat?" so ligi gave them all the fruit in the sack and all he held in his hand. "do not give everything to aponibolinayen, but give to us also." so he gave them all he had. "the baby inside of aponibolinayen, which desires the _bolnay_, is not your child, but is the child of maobágan," said his sweethearts, and when they had eaten all of the fruit ligi went home with nothing but the sack. he gave the sack to aponibolinayen. as soon as she received it she looked to see what was inside and she found one little piece of the fruit which the women had overlooked, and she ate it. as soon as she ate it: "i am anxious to eat more if there are more. my headache is gone." "what is that?" said ligi, angrily. "you get ready for i will put you in the place where the tree is if you want more." aponibolinayen said to him, "because i said that i wanted more you want to put me by the tree." ligi was angry and he seized her by the arm and dragged her to the tree. as soon as they arrived at the _bolnay_ tree, he dug a hole about neck deep and he put her in it. as soon as he put her in the hole he went back home. soon aponibolinayen was ready to give birth. "what can i do?" she said to the spirit ayo. ayo said, "the best thing for us to do is to prick your little finger." not long after the little baby popped out of her finger. [ ] "what shall we call him?" they said. "we will call him kanag, for it is the name of the people who live in kadalayapan." every time they gave him a bath the baby always grew, for they used magic. [ ] not long after the baby became a boy, and he wanted them to get out of the hole. "no, we do not get out, for i am afraid your father is watching us." the little boy got out even though his mother was afraid. as soon as the boy got out of the hole he listened to hear where many children were playing. so he walked to where the sounds came from. as soon as he arrived at the place where the boys were swimming dagoláyan saw him. "who is that boy?" he said to his companions, and the little boy went near to them. "why, this boy looks like my uncle in kadalayapan," said dagoláyan to his companions, and he asked him who his father was, and the boy said he was the son of an _alan_ of matawitáwen. not long after they agreed that they would go to fight. so kanag agreed with them and they decided on a day and dagoláyan told him that he would go to his home. "if that is what you say, it is all right," said kanag, and they all went home. as soon as he arrived at the hole by the _bolnay_ tree: "why, we are cousins," said the other boy to me. and aponibolinayen said, "perhaps it is the boy from kaodanan." "we agreed to go to fight, day after tomorrow. make cakes for me to take with me." "no, do not go, for i fear that your father will meet you." "no, i am going. i will plant the _lawed_ vine by the stove, and if it wilts i am dead," [ ] he said. not long after aponibolinayen went to make cakes for his provisions, and dagoláyan started early in the morning to go to see kanag, and it seemed as if a thousand men struck their shields. kanag heard the sound of the shield. "who are the boys with dagoláyan who go with us to fight?" as soon as kanag met dagoláyan they went, and they both struck their shields, and ligi heard them and he was surprised for it sounded like two thousand people. so ligi thought that dagoláyan had many companions. as soon as they arrived where ligi was waiting for them, "where did you get the other boy who is with you?" he said to dagoláyan. he answered that he met him where they were swimming, and that they agreed to go to fight together. ligi wanted to kill him, and he said, "i want to kill." "no, do not kill him," said dagoláyan. not long after they went. as soon as they arrived where there were no houses, kanag used his power so that it rained very hard and they had nothing to cook. not long after it rained and ligi and dagoláyan did not cook anything, for everything was damp. the spirit helpers of aponibolinayen always fed kanag, and ligi and dagoláyan ate with him. "what is the matter of this boy who is the son of _alan_? he has something to eat. i do not believe that his mother _alan_ knows how to prepare good food," said ligi, angrily. after they had finished eating they went, and after a while they wished to fight. "the best for us to do is to stand in different places and ambush the people," said ligi. "the best for you, son of _alan_, is to stay at the place where the carabao pass by." and ligi went to hide where the people passed by on the way to the spring, and dagoláyan staid on the other side. a young pretty girl passed by the place where kanag was hiding, so he cut off her head and he shouted, for he was very happy. "why did the son of _alan_ kill someone before us?" said ligi. not long after an old woman and an old man passed by where ligi and dagoláyan were hiding, and they killed them. not long after they saw the head which kanag had taken, and kanag saw the heads which ligi and dagoláyan had taken were those of an old man and old woman. dagoláyan said to him, "what did you say when you killed that pretty girl? i think i heard you say, 'your father does not like you.' i did not hear very well so i ask for sure." "'the son of _alan_ of matawitáwen kills the pretty girl is what i said.'" "no, that is not what you said. you said you were the son of a man who lives in kadalayapan." not long after, when dagoláyan could not make kanag repeat what he had said, they all went back to kadalayapan where ligi lived. when they arrived in kadalayapan they played the _gansa_ and danced, and aponibolinayen heard the sound of the _gansa_, and she was anxious to go, but her spirit companion would not let her go. they saw that the _lawed_ vine was green. not long after they made kanag dance, and when his body trembled, while he danced, the whole town of kadalayapan trembled also; and when he moved his feet the fish were around his feet and they went to lap his feet, because the water came up into the town. when he stamped his feet the coconuts fell from the trees, and ligi was very angry, and he went to sharpen his headaxe. as soon as he had sharpened his headaxe he went to where kanag was dancing and he cut off his head. when aponibolinayen looked at the _lawed_ vine each leaf was wilted. "grandmother, the _lawed_ vine which kanag planted is wilted," said aponibolinayen. "i am going to get him." so she went and as she approached the place where ligi used to live he saw her. "how angry you were, ligi; you killed your son," said aponibolinayen, and ligi bent his head, for he did not know it was his son. "i will use magic so that when i whip my perfume _alikadakad_ he will stand up." [ ] so the little boy stood up at once. not long after she used her power again, and whipped her perfume _dagimonau_ so that her son awoke. he woke up and said, "how long my sleep is!" "no, do not say that; your father killed you." she wanted to take him back to matawitáwen, but ligi prevented them and he begged them to forgive him, and aponibolinayen said, "no, we will go back, for you did not want us and you put us there." so they went to matawitáwen and ligi followed them. as soon as they arrived at the spring of matawitáwen aponibolinayen used her power. "i use my power so that ligi cannot see us, and the trail will become filled with thorns." [ ] not long after ligi could not walk in the trail and he could not see them, and he was very sorry. he laid down, because he could not follow them and his hair grew like vines along the ground; and he did not eat, for he was always sorry about the things he had done to his wife and son. not long after they forgave him and went to get him, and they all went back to kadalayapan. ligi commanded his spirit attendants to take his sweethearts and kill them, for they told falsehoods about aponibolinayen, so that he did not want her any more. this is all. (told by magwati of lagangilang.) there was a husband and wife who were aponitolau and aponibolinayen. aponitolau laid down in their _balaua_ and aponibolinayen was in the house and she had a headache. "i am anxious to eat the fruit of the orange tree which belongs to gawigawen of adasen," said aponibolinayen. aponitolau heard her. "what is that?" he said to her. "i am anxious to eat the _biw_ [ ] of matawitáwen." "give me a sack and i will go to get it," said aponitolau, and he went. as soon as aponitolau filled the sack with _biw_ he went back home. as soon as he arrived in their house, "here is the fruit you wished, aponibolinayen. come and get." "put it on the bamboo hanger above the fire, and i will go and get some to eat when my head does not feel so badly, for i cannot get up yet." so aponitolau went to put the fruit on the hanger above the fire and he laid down again in the _balaua_. as soon as aponitolau laid down in the _balaua_, aponibolinayen went to the kitchen and peeled one of the _biw_ fruit and she ate it truly. as soon as she ate she vomited and so she threw them away. "what is the matter, aponibolinayen; i think you threw away the fruit." "one of them i dropped." she went into the room and she said again, "i am anxious to eat the oranges of gawigawen of adasen." "what is that?" said aponitolau. "i am anxious to eat fish roe," said aponibolinayen. so aponitolau went to get his fish net and he fished in the river. as soon as he arrived at the river he threw his net and secured a fish with fish roe. he cut open the fish and took out the roe. when he had taken out the roe he spat on the place where he had cut the fish and it became alive again and swam in the river. after that he went back home. as soon as he arrived at their house he gave the fish to aponibolinayen, and he laid down in the _balaua_ again, and aponibolinayen went to the kitchen and she toasted the roe. when she finished she tasted it, and she vomited, so she threw it away also. "what is the matter, aponibolinayen? why are the dogs barking?" "i dropped some of the roe." she went again to the room of the house. "i am anxious to eat the oranges which belong to gawigawen of adasen." "what is that, aponibolinayen," said aponitolau. "i am anxious to eat a deer's liver, i said." so aponitolau called his dogs and he went to hunt deer. as soon as he arrived on the mountain, "ala, my black dog, do not catch a deer unless it is in the low grass. ala, my dog boko, do not catch deer unless it is in a level field." not long after his dogs caught deer, and he took out their livers. as soon as he took out the liver he spat on the places he had cut, and the deer ran away again. not long after he went back home. as soon as he arrived, "here is the liver which you wanted. come and take it." "put it in the kitchen. i will go and fix it when my head does not hurt." aponitolau put it in the kitchen and he went to the _balaua_ again. when aponitolau was in the _balaua_, aponibolinayen went to the kitchen and cooked the liver and she tried to eat, but she vomited again, so she threw it away, and the dogs all barked. "what is the matter? why do the dogs bark? i think you threw away the livers." aponibolinayen said, "i threw away what i did not eat, for i did not eat all of it." "do not throw them away, for bye and bye i will eat, for it is hard to go and get them." not long after she went again to the room, and aponitolau thought that aponibolinayen did not tell the truth, so he used his power. "i use my power so that i will become a centipede." so he became a centipede and he went in the crack of the floor where aponibolinayen was lying. not long after aponibolinayen said again, "i am anxious to eat the oranges which belong to gawigawen of adasen." "i know now what you want; why did you not tell the truth at first? that is why you threw away all the things i went to get for you," said aponitolau, and he became a man and appeared to her. "i did not tell the truth for i feared you would not return, for no one who has gone there has returned, so i am patient about my headache." "ala, go and get rice straw, and i will wash my hair." not long after he went to wash his hair. when he finished washing his hair he went to get one _lawed_ vine, and he went back home. he planted the vine by the hearth. "make some cakes for my provision on the journey." "no, do not go, aponitolau," said aponibolinayen. "make some, for if you do not i will go without provisions." not long after aponibolinayen went to cook cakes. as soon as she finished, "ala, you come and oil my hair." as soon as she oiled his hair, "go and get my dark clout and my belt and my headband." so aponibolinayen went to get them. as soon as he dressed he took his spear and headaxe and he told aponibolinayen that if the _lawed_ leaves wilted he was dead. [ ] so he went. as soon as he arrived at the well of gimbangonan all the betel-nut trees bowed, and gimbangonan shouted and all the world trembled. "how strange that all the world trembles when that lady shouts." so aponitolau took a walk. not long after the old woman alokotán saw him and she sent her little dog to bite his leg, and it took out part of his leg. "do not proceed, for you have a bad sign. if you go, you cannot return to your town," said the old woman alokotán. "no, i can go back." so he went. as soon as he arrived at the home of the lightning, "where are you going?" said the lightning. "i am going to get the oranges from gawigawen of adasen. go and stand on the high stone and i will see what your sign is." so he went and stood on the high stone and the lightning made a light and aponitolau dodged. "do not go, for you have a bad sign, and gawigawen will secure you." "no, i am going." so he went. as soon as he arrived at the place of _silit_ [ ] it said to him, "where are you going, aponitolau?" "i am going to get the oranges of gawigawen of adasen." "stand on top of that high stone so i can see if you have a good sign." so he went and _silit_ made a great noise. as soon as he made the great noise he jumped. "go back, aponitolau, and start another time, for you have a bad sign." [ ] "no, i go." he arrived at the ocean and he used magic. "i use my power so that you, my headaxe, sail as fast as you can when i stand on you." as soon as he stood on it it sailed very fast. not long after he was across the ocean and he was at the other edge of the ocean and he walked again. not long after he arrived at the spring where the women went to get water. "good morning, you women who are dipping water from the spring." "good morning. if you are an enemy cut us in only one place so we will not need to cure so much." "if i was an enemy i would have killed all of you when i arrived here." after that he asked them, "is this the spring of gawigawen of adasen?" "yes, it is," said the women. so he sent the women to the town to tell gawigawen, and the women did not tell him for he was asleep. so he went up to the town, but did not go inside, because the bank reached almost up to the sky, and he could not get in. he was sorrowful and bent his head. soon the chief of the spiders went to him: "what are you feeling sorry about, aponitolau?" "i feel sorry because i cannot climb up the bank and go into the town." "do not feel sorry. you wait for me while i go up and put some thread which you can hold," said the chief of the spiders. [ ] so aponitolau waited for him. not long after the spider said, "now you can climb;" so aponitolau climbed on the thread. after he got inside of the town of gawigawen he went directly to the house of gawigawen. when he arrived there gawigawen was still asleep in his _balaua_. as soon as he woke up and saw aponitolau sitting by his _balaua_ he stood and ran to his house and got his headaxe and spear. aponitolau said to him, "good morning, cousin gawigawen. do not be angry with me. i came here to buy your oranges for my wife. aponibolinayen wishes to eat one, for she always has a headache, because she has nothing she can eat." gawigawen took him to his house, and he fed him one carabao. "if you cannot eat all of the carabao which i give you, you cannot have the oranges which your wife wishes to eat." aponitolau was sorrowful, for he thought he could not eat all of the carabao and he bent his head. not long after the chiefs of the ants and flies went to him. "what makes you feel so badly, aponitolau?" they said to him. "i am sorrowful, for i cannot get the oranges which aponibolinayen wishes to eat until i eat this carabao which gawigawen feeds to me." "do not be sorrowful," said the chiefs of the ants and flies. so they called all the ants and flies to go and eat all the meat and rice. not long after the flies and ants finished eating the meat and rice, and aponitolau was very glad and he went to gawigawen and said to him, "i have finished eating the food which you gave me." gawigawen was surprised. "what did you do?" "i ate all of it." gawigawen took him where the oranges were and aponitolau saw that the branches of the tree were sharp knives. gawigawen said to him, "go and climb the tree and get all you want." he went to climb. when he got two of the oranges he stepped on one of the knives and he was cut. so he fastened the fruit to his spear and it flew back to kadalayapan. not long after the fruit dropped on the floor in the kitchen and aponibolinayen heard it, and she went into the kitchen. as soon as she got there she saw the fruit and she ate it at once, and the spear said to her, "aponitolau is in adasen. he sent me first to bring you the oranges which you wished." as soon as she ate the oranges she went to look at the _lawed_ vine by the stove and it was wilted, and she knew that aponitolau was dead. not long after aponibolinayen gave birth and every time they bathed the baby it grew one span and soon it was large. [ ] he often went to play with the other children and his mother gave him a golden top which had belonged to his father when he was a little boy. when he struck the tops of the other children they were broken at once. not long after he struck the garbage pot of the old woman, and she was angry and said, "if you are a brave boy, you go and get your father whom gawigawen of adasen has inherited." and kanag went back to their house crying. "i did not have a father, you said, mother, but the old woman said he was inherited by gawigawen, when he went to get the orange fruit. now prepare provisions for me to take, for i am going to get my father." aponibolinayen said to him, "do not go or gawigawen will get you as he did your father." but kanag said, "if you do not let me go and do not give me food, i will go without anything." not long after aponibolinayen cooked food for him and kanag was ready to go, and he took his headaxe which was one span long and his spear. not long after he went. as soon as he got to the gate of the town he struck his shield and it sounded like one thousand people, and everyone was surprised. "how brave that boy is! we think he is braver than his father. he can strike his shield and it sounds like one thousand." when he arrived at the spring of gimbangonan he was still striking his shield, and when gimbangonan heard she said, "someone is going to fight." he shouted, for he was very happy and the world trembled and kanag looked like a flitting bird, for he was always moving. as soon as he arrived at the place where alokotán lived she sent her dog against him, and the dog ran at him, and kanag cut off its head. "how brave you are, little boy! where are you going?" "where are you going, you say, i am going to adasen to follow my father." "your father is dead. i hope you secure him, for you have a good sign," said alokotán. so kanag went on in a hurry. not long after he arrived at the place where the thunder was and it said, "where are you going, little boy?" "i am going to follow my father in adasen." "go and stand on the high stone and see what your sign is." so he went. as soon as he stood on the high stone the thunder rolled, but kanag did not move and the thunder was surprised. "go at once; i think you can get your father whom gawigawen inherits." so kanag went. not long after he arrived at the place of the lightning, and he made him stand on the high stone. as soon as he stood on it the lightning made a big noise and flash, but he did not move. so the boy went at once, for he had a good sign. kanag struck his shield until it sounded like a thousand people, and all the women who were dipping water at the spring of gawigawen were surprised, for they saw only a little boy, who struck his shield, approaching them, and it sounded like a thousand. as soon as he arrived at the spring, "good morning, women who are dipping water. go and tell gawigawen of adasen that he must prepare for i am going to fight with him." so all the women ran to the town and told gawigawen that a strange boy was at the spring. gawigawen said to the women, "go and tell him that if it is true that he is brave he will come into the town if he can." so one of the women went to tell him and he went. when he arrived at the bank which reached to the sky kanag used his power and he jumped like the flitting bird, and he entered the town and went directly to the _balaua_ and house of gawigawen of adasen. not long after he had arrived he saw that the roof of his house and _balaua_ was of hair and around his town were heads, and kanag said, "this is why my father did not return. it is true that gawigawen is a brave man, but i think i can kill him." as soon as gawigawen saw kanag in the yard of his house he said, "how brave you are, little boy! why did you come here?" "i came to get my father, for you secured him when he came to get the oranges which my mother wanted. if you do not wish to give my father to me i will kill you." and gawigawen laughed at him and said, "one of my fingers will fight you. you will not go back to your town. you will be like your father." kanag said, "we shall see. go and get your arms and we will fight here in the yard of your house." gawigawen became angry and he went to get his headaxe, which was as big as half of the sky, and his spear. as soon as he returned to the place where kanag was waiting he said, "can you see my headaxe, little boy? if i put this on you you cannot get it off. so you throw first so you can show how brave you are." kanag said to him, "no, you must be first, so you will know that i am a brave boy." gawigawen tried to put his headaxe on him and the boy used his power and he became a small ant and gawigawen laughed at him and said, "now, the little boy is gone." not long after the little boy stood on his headaxe and he was surprised. "little boy, you are the first who has done this. your father did not do this. it is true that you are brave; if you can dodge my spear i am sure you will get your father." so he threw his spear at him and kanag used his power and he disappeared and gawigawen was surprised. "you are the next." then kanag used magic so that when he threw his spear against him it would go directly to the body of gawigawen. as soon as he threw gawigawen laid down. kanag ran to him and cut off his five heads and there was one left, and gawigawen said to him, "do not cut off my last head and i will go and show you where your father is." so kanag did not cut off the last head, and they went to see his father. the skin of his father had been used to cover a drum, and his hair was used to decorate the house, and his head was placed by the gate of the town, and the body was put below the house. as soon as kanag had gathered together the body of his father he used his power and he said, "i whip my perfume _banawes_ and directly he will say _wes_." [ ] his father said, "_wes_." not long after he said, "i whip my perfume _alakadakad_ and directly he will stand up." so his father stood beside him. after that he whipped his perfume _dagimonau_ and his father woke up and he was surprised to see the little boy by him and he said, "who are you? how long i slept." "i am your son. 'how long i slept,' you said. you were dead and gawigawen inherited you. take my headaxe and cut off the remaining head of gawigawen." so he took the headaxe of kanag and went to the place where gawigawen stood. when he struck the headaxe against gawigawen it did not hurt him and aponitolau slipped, and his son laughed at him. "what is the matter with you, father? gawigawen looks as if he were dead, for he has only one head left." he took the headaxe from his father and he went to gawigawen and he cut off the remaining head. not long after they used magic so that the headaxes and spears went to kill all the people in the town. so the spears and headaxes went among the people and killed all of them, and aponitolau swam in the blood and his son stood on the blood. "what is the matter with you, father, that you swim in the blood? can't you use your power so you don't have to swim?" then he took hold of him and lifted him up. as soon as all the people were killed they used their power so that all the heads and valuable things went to kadalayapan. aponibolinayen went to look at the _lawed_ vine behind the stove and it looked like a jungle it was so green, so she believed that her son was alive. not long after all the heads arrived in kadalayapan and aponibolinayen was surprised. not long after she saw her husband and her son and she shouted and the world smiled. not long after they went up into their house and summoned all the people and told them to invite all the people in other towns for kanag had returned from fighting, and had his father. so the people went to invite their relatives. not long after the people from other towns arrived and they danced. they were all glad that aponitolau was alive again, and they went to see the heads of gawigawen who killed aponitolau. as soon as the people returned to their towns, when the party was over, aponitolau went to take a walk. when he reached the brook he sat down on a stone and the big frog went to lap up his spittle. not long after the big frog had a little baby. [ ] not long after she gave birth, and the _anitos_ [ ] went to get the little baby and flew away with it. they used their power so that the baby grew fast and it was a girl, and they taught her how to make _dawak_. [ ] not long after the girl knew how to make _dawak_, and every time she rang the dish to summon the spirits. kanag went to follow his father, but he did not find him where he had been sitting by the brook, and kanag heard the sound of the ringing which sounded like the _bananâyo_. [ ] as soon as he heard it he stood still and listened. not long after he used his power so that he became a bird and he flew. as soon as he arrived at the place where the girl was making _dawak_ she said to him, "you are the only person who has come here. if you are an enemy cut me in only one place so i will not have so much to heal." "i am not an enemy; i came here for i heard what you were doing; so i became a bird and flew." kanag gave betel-nut to her and they chewed. their quids looked like the beads _pinogalan,_ so they knew that they were brother and sister. the girl said to him, "go inside of the big iron caldron so that the _anitos_ who care for me will not eat you." so kanag went inside of the big iron caldron. when the _anitos_ did not arrive at the accustomed time kanag went out of the caldron and said to his sister, "now, my sister, i will take you to kadalayapan. our father and mother do not know that i have a sister. do not stay always with the _anitos_" his sister replied, "i cannot go to sudipan [ ] when no one is making _balaua_, for i always make _dawak_ as the _anitos_ taught me. if i come in sudipan when no one is making _balaua_ it would make all of the people very ill." so kanag went home. as soon as he arrived he told his father and mother to make _balaua_ for he wanted his sister to see them. "we just made _balaua_. how can we make _balaua_ again?" said his father and mother. "i want you to see my sister whom i found up in the air, where the _anitos_ took her." "you are crazy, kanag; you have no sisters or brothers; you are the only child we have." kanag said to them, "it is sure that i have a sister. i don't know why you did not know about her. the _anitos_ took her when she was a little baby and they taught her how to make _dawak_, and she always makes _dawak_. i wanted to bring her when i came back, but she said she could not come to sudipan when no one makes _balaua_, for she is always making _dawak_. she said if she came to sudipan and did not make _dawak_ everyone would be ill, so i did not bring her. if you wish to see your daughter, father, make _balaua_ at once." so they made _balaua_, for they wished to see their daughter. they sent messengers to go and get betel-nuts which were covered with gold, and when they had secured the betel-nuts they oiled them and sent them to the different towns where their relatives lived, and they sent one into the air to go and get their daughter agten-ngaeyan. so all the betel-nuts went and invited the people to the _balaua_. as soon as the betel-nut went up into the air it arrived where agten-ngaeyan was making _dawak_. when she saw the betel-nut beside her she was startled, for it was covered with gold. she tried to cut it up, for she wished to chew it, and the betel-nut said, "do not cut me, for your brother and father in kadalayapan sent me to summon you to their _balaua_, for they are anxious to see you." so agten-ngaeyan told the _anitos_ that a betel-nut which was covered with gold had come to take her to aponitolau who was making _sayang_, and they wished to see her. the _anitos_ let her go, but they advised her to return. so she went. when they arrived in kadalayapan the people from the other towns were dancing and she went below the _talagan_, [ ] and kanag went to see what it was that looked like a flame beneath the _talagan_. when he reached her he saw it was his sister and he tried to take her away from the _talagan_, and she said to him, "i cannot get off from here, for the _anitos_ who care for me told me to stay here until someone comes to make _dawak_ with me." so they sent the old woman alokotán to make _dawak_ with her. all the people were surprised, for she made a pleasanter sound when she rang and they thought she was a _bananáyo_ [ ]. the young men who went to attend the _balaua_ loved her, for she was pretty and knew very well how to sing the _dawak_. as soon as they finished the _dawak_ she was free to leave the _talagan_, so her brother kanag took her and put her in his belt [ ] and he put her in the high house [ ] so the young men could not reach her. as soon as the _balaua_ was over the people went home, but the young men still remained below the house watching her, and the ground below became muddy, for they always remained there. when kanag saw the young men below the house fighting about her, he took her again into the air so that the young men could not see her. as soon as they arrived in the air they met the _anitos_, and kanag said to them, "i intended to keep my sister in sudipan, for i had made a little golden house for her to live in, but i have brought her back, for all the young men are fighting about her." the _anitos_ were glad that she was back with them and they gave kanag more power, so that when he should go to war he would always destroy his opponents. agten-ngaeyan used to go and teach the women how to make _dawak_ when anyone made _balaua_, so that she taught them very well how to make _dawak_. this is all. (told by a medium named magwati of lagangilang.) "ala, aponibolinayen prepare our things, for we are going to plant sugar cane," said aponitolau. not long after they went to see the cuttings and they were big. they took them and planted them when they arrived at the place where they wished to plant them. aponitolau planted them and aponibolinayen watered them. not long after aponibolinayen used magic and she said, "i use my power so that all the cuttings will be planted." soon they truly were all planted, so they went back home. after seven days aponitolau went to look at them and their leaves were long and pointed so he used magic and said, "i used my power so that after five days all the sugar cane which we planted will be ready to chew." then he went back home. in five days he went again to see them and as soon as he arrived at the planting he saw they were all tall and about ready to chew. not long after gaygayóma looked down on the sugar cane and she was anxious to chew it. "ala, my father bagbagak, [ ] send the stars to go and get some of the sugar cane which i saw, for i am anxious to chew it," she said, for she was pregnant and desired to chew the sugar cane. not long after, "ala, you salibobo [ ] and bitbitówen [ ] let us go and get the sugar cane, for gaygayóma is anxious to chew it," said bagbagak. not long after they went. as soon as they arrived where the sugar cane was, they went inside of the bamboo fence and some of them secured the beans which aponibolinayen had planted. the stems of the bean pods were gold, and they got five of them. most of them got one stalk of sugar cane. as soon as they secured them they went back up. when they arrived gaygayóma chewed one of the sugar cane stalks and she felt happy and well, and she saw the beans with the golden stems and she cooked and ate them. when she had chewed all the sugar cane which the stars had secured, she said, "ala, my father bagbagak, come and follow me to the place where the sugar cane grows, for i am anxious to see it." not long after, "ala, salibobo and bitbitówen we are going to follow gaygayóma, for she wishes to go and see the place of the sugar cane. some of you stay outside of the fence to watch and see if anyone comes, and some of you get sugar cane," said bagbagak to them, and the moon shone on them. soon they all arrived at the place of the sugar cane and they made a noise while they were getting the sugar cane, which they used to chew. gaygayóma went to the middle of the field and chewed sugar cane. as soon as they had chewed all they wished they flew up again. the next day aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "i am going to see our sugar cane, to see if any carabao have gone there to spoil it, for it is the best to chew." so he went. as soon as he arrived he saw that the sugar cane was spoiled, and he looked. he saw that there were many places near the fence where someone had chewed, for each one of the stars had gone by the fence to chew the cane which they wished. when he reached the middle of the field he saw the cane there which had been chewed, and there was some gold on the refuse and he was surprised and he said, "how strange this is! i think some beautiful girl must have chewed this cane. i will try to watch and see who it is. perhaps they will return tonight." then he went back home. as soon as he reached home he said, "ala, aponibolinayen cook our food early, for i want to go and watch our sugar cane; someone has gone and spoiled it. they have also spoiled our beans which we planted." so aponibolinayen cooked even though it was not time. as soon as she finished cooking she called aponitolau and they ate. when they had eaten he went and he hid a little distance from the sugar cane. in the middle of the night there were many stars falling down into the sugar cane field and aponitolau heard the cane being broken. soon he saw the biggest of them which looked like a big flame of fire fall into the field. not long after he saw one of the other stars at the edge of the fence take off her dress, which was like a star, and he saw that she looked like the half of the rainbow, and the stars which followed her got the sugar cane which they wished. they chewed it by the fence and they watched to see if anyone was coming. aponitolau said, "what shall i do, because of those companions of the beautiful woman? if i do not frighten them they will eat me. the best thing for me to do is to frighten them. i will go and sit on the star's dress." [ ] he frightened them. the stars flew up and aponitolau went and sat on the star dress. not long after the pretty girl came from the middle of the field to get her star dress; she saw aponitolau sitting on it. "you, ipogau, [ ] you must pardon us, for we came to steal your sugar cane, for we were anxious to chew it." "if you came to get some of my sugar cane it is all right. the best thing for you to do is to sit down, for i wish to know your name, for we ipogau have the custom to tell our names. it is bad for us if we do not know each others' names when we talk." not long after he gave her betel-nut and the woman chewed it. as soon as they chewed, "now that we have chewed according to our custom we will tell our names." "yes, if that is what you say, but you must tell your name first," said the woman. "my name is aponitolau who am the husband of aponibolinayen of kadalayapan." "my name is gaygayóma who am the daughter of bagbagak and sinag, [ ] up in the air," said the woman. "ala, now you, aponitolau, even though you have a wife i am going to take you up, for i wish to marry you. if you do not wish to come i will call my companion stars, and give you to them to eat." aponitolau was frightened, for he knew that the woman who was talking was a spirit. "if that is what you say, and you do not wish me to go and see aponibolinayen and you wish to be married to me, it is all right," said aponitolau to her. not long after the stars dropped the _galong-galong_ [ ] of gold which gaygayóma had ordered to be made. as soon as they dropped it aponitolau and gaygayóma got in it, and were drawn up, and soon they were there. as soon as they arrived he saw one of the stars come to the place where they were, and it was a very big star, for it was bagbagak. "someone is coming where we are," said aponitolau to gaygayóma. "do not be afraid; he is my father," said gaygayóma. "those stars eat people if you do anything wrong to them." not long after bagbagak reached the place where they were. "it is good for you aponitolau that you wished to follow my daughter here. if you had not we would have eaten you," he said. aponitolau was frightened. "yes, i followed her here, but i am ashamed before you who live here, for you are powerful," he said. while they were talking bagbagak went back home. after he had lived with gaygayóma five months she had him prick between her last fingers and a little baby popped out, and it was a beautiful baby boy. "what shall we call our son?" said aponitolau. "we are going to call him tabyayen, because it is the name of the people who used to live above," said gaygayóma. so they called him tabyayen, and they used their power so that the baby grew all the time. soon he was big. after three months, "now gaygayóma, let me go back down and see aponibolinayen of kadalayapan. i think she is searching for me. i will return soon, for you two are my wives," said aponitolau, but gaygayóma would not let him go. "ala, let me go and i will return soon," he said again. "ala, you go, but you come back here soon. i will send the stars to eat you if you do not wish to return," said gaygayóma to him. "yes," he said. not long after he rode again in the _galong-galong_, and the stars followed, and they went down. aponitolau wanted all of them to go to kadalayapan, but he went alone and the stars and gaygayóma and the boy went up. not long after aponitolau said, "_wes_" at the entrance to the yard of their house in kadalayapan. aponibolinayen got up from her mat and she had not eaten for a long time. when she looked at him she was very happy. aponitolau saw that she was thin. "why are you so thin, aponibolinayen?" said aponitolau. "i have not eaten since you went away. where have you been so long? i thought that you were dead." "no, i did not die, but gaygayóma took me up into the sky because they were the ones who spoilt our sugar cane. she would not let me come back any more, and she took me up. i did not want to go with her, but she threatened to feed me to the stars who were her companions. so i was afraid, and i went with her, for she is a spirit." when the day came on which aponitolau and gaygayóma had agreed for his return up, aponitolau failed to go, because aponibolinayen would not let him go. in the evening many stars came to the yard of their house and some of them went to the windows and some of them went beside the wall of the house, and they were very bright and the house looked as though it was burning. the stars said, "we smell the odor of the ipogau and we are anxious to eat." aponitolau said, "hide me, aponibolinayen, for those stars have come to eat me, because you would not let me go back to gaygayóma. i told you that if i did not go back to her she would send the stars to eat me, and now truly they have come. i told you i would come back, but you would not let me go." not long after the stars went inside of the house where they were, and they said to aponitolau, "do not hide from us, aponitolau. we know where you are. you are in the corner of the house." "come out of there or we will eat you," said bagbagak. soon he appeared to them and they said to him, "do you not wish to come back up with us?" "i will go with you," he answered, for he was afraid. so they did not eat him, for gaygayóma had told them not to eat him if he was willing to follow them. not long after they flew away with him and aponibolinayen cried. when they arrived up gaygayóma said, "why, aponitolau, did you lie to me and not return? you were fortunate when you followed the stars, for if you had not they would have eaten you." "i did not return because aponibolinayen would not let me. you and she are my wives. do not blame me," said aponitolau. after he had lived with her eight months he said, "now, i am going to leave you, for our son tabyayen is large. if you will not let me take our son tabyayen down, he can stay up here with you." "you may go now, but you cannot take our son. you will return here," said gaygayóma. "yes," said aponitolau. so they went down again in the _galong-galong._ aponitolau wanted to take them to kadalayapan, but they would not go with him. "no, do not take us, for it is not our custom to stay down here; we are always above," they said. so they went up and aponitolau went to kadalayapan. not long after he said, "_wes_" at the yard of the house, and aponibolinayen went to see who it was. she saw that it was aponitolau, and she was very glad. after one year with aponibolinayen he said, "command someone to pound rice, for we are going to make _balaua_, and i am going to call our son tabyayen from above." aponibolinayen had also given birth five days after gaygayóma had given birth, and they called the boy kanag. not long after aponitolau went to take tabyayen from above and gaygayóma was very glad to see him. when they were talking he said, "now i am going to take tabyayen down, for i want him to attend our _sayang_." "yes, you may take him, but you must bring him back when the _sayang_ is finished." so aponitolau took the boy to attend the _balaua_ in kadalayapan. as soon as they arrived there he began to play with kanag and they were the same size and looked alike, because they were half brothers. while they were playing, during the _sayang,_ kanag said, "mother, it is showering," and aponitolau heard what the boy said to aponibolinayen. he said, "it is the tears of tabyayen's mother, for i think she is thinking of him. i told them not to go over there, but they went anyway. i think gaygayóma saw them playing and she cried." then aponibolinayen went to take them away from the yard where they were playing. she took them upstairs. it was at the time when they were building the _balaua_. not long after that they made _libon_, [ ] and they invited gaygayóma and all their relatives from the other towns and they danced for one month. then the people from the other towns went home. as soon as all the people had gone home aponitolau went to take back the boy to his mother gaygayóma. when they arrived where gaygayóma lived he gave the boy to her and he staid there three days. after three days he went back home, and he said, "i am going now, but i will come back in a few days, for i cannot live here all the time, for we, ipogau, are accustomed to live below, and i also have another wife there. i cannot leave aponibolinayen alone most of the time." so gaygayoma let him go down and she said, "yes, you may go, but you come back sometimes." "it is good that tabyayen came down and made _sayang_ with us." then he went down again. when he arrived down aponibolinayen was glad to see him, for she feared he would not return to kadalayapan. not long after they arranged for kanag to be married, and as soon as kanag was married they arranged for tabyayen also and he lived down below and gaygayóma always staid above. (told by lagmani, a man of domayko.) "i am going to wash my hair," said aponitolau. not long after he went to the river and washed his hair. as soon as he finished he took a bath and went back home. when he arrived in his house he said, "aponibolinayen, please comb my hair." "take the comb and go to indiápan, for i have no time," answered aponibolinayen. "if you have no time, give it to me then," said aponitolau. aponibolinayen was angry and went to get it for him. "what is the matter that you cannot go and get it yourself?" as soon as he got it aponitolau went to indiápan. kabkabaga-an, who lived up in the air, was looking down, and said, "indiápan, you have good fortune, for aponitolau will come and ask you to comb his hair." not long after aponitolau arrived. "will you comb my hair, indiápan, because aponibolinayen is impatient and does not want to comb my hair?" "i am sleepy," said indiápan. she sat down. "ala, you come and comb my hair," said aponitolau. not long after indiápan went to comb his hair and aponitolau sat by the door. kabkabaga-an looked down on them and said, "indiápan has a good fortune, for she is combing the hair of aponitolau." when she had combed his hair she went to lie down again and aponitolau said to her, "will you please cut this betel-nut into pieces, indiápan." "you cut it. i am sleepy," answered indiápan. "hand me the headaxe then." so indiápan handed the headaxe to him. as soon as she gave the headaxe to him she went to lie down again. when aponitolau had cut the betel-nut he cut his first finger of his left hand. the blood went up in the air. "ala, indiápan, take your belt, for i cannot stop my finger from bleeding. come and wrap it," said aponitolau to her. so indiápan got up and she went to get her belt and she wrapped his finger, but the blood did not stop, so she called aponibolinayen, for she was frightened when she saw the blood go up. aponibolinayen said, "what is the matter with you?" she took her hat which looked like a woodpecker and she went, and the sunshine stopped when she went down out of her house, and kabkabaga-an saw aponibolinayen going to aponitolau. "what good fortune aponibolinayen has, for she is going to see aponitolau." as soon as she arrived where indiápan lived she wrapped her belt around the finger of aponitolau, but the blood did not stop and they were frightened. aponibolinayen commanded their spirit helpers to get ginalingan of pindayan, who was a sister of iwaginan, to make _dawak_ [ ] and stop the blood of aponitolau. not long after indiápan and the spirit helpers arrived where ginalingan lived they said, "good afternoon, you must excuse us, for we cannot stay here long, for aponibolinayen is in a hurry to have you come to kaldalayapan to see aponitolau. he cut his finger and his blood will not stop running, and we do not know what to do. you come and make _dawak_" ginalingan said, "even though i should go to make _dawak_ we could do nothing, for kabkabaga-an, who lives in the air, loves him." "we must try and see if kabkabaga-an will stop," said indiápan, and ginalingan went with them. as soon as they arrived in kadalayapan aponibolinayen said to ginalingan, "what is best for us to do for aponitolau's finger?" ginalingan said, "we cannot do anything. i told indiápan that kabkabaga-an loves aponitolau and even if i make _dawak_ we can do nothing, for kabkabaga-an is one of the greatest spirits." not long after aponitolau had become a very little man and ginalingan stopped making _dawak_, and she went home to pindayan. aponitolau became like a hair. not long after he disappeared. "you are good, indiápan, for aponitolau disappeared in your house." so they cried together. not long after aponibolinayen went back home and aponitolau was up in the air. he sat below a tree in a wide field, and he looked around the field. not long after he saw some smoke, so he went. as soon as he came near to the smoke he saw that there was a house there. "i am going to get a drink," he said. as soon as he arrived in the yard he said, "_wes_," for he was tired, and kabkabaga-an saw, from the window of her house, that it was aponitolau. "come up," she said. "no, i am ashamed to go up. will you give me water to drink, for i am thirsty." kabkabaga-an gave him a drink of water. as soon as he had drunk he sat down in the yard, for kabkabaga-an could not make him go up. not long after she went to cook. as soon as she cooked she called aponitolau and he said to her, "you eat first. i will eat with your husband when he arrives." "no, come up. i think he will arrive very late." not long after he went up, for he was hungry, and they ate. while they were eating kabkabaga-an said to him, "i have no husband and i live alone; that is why i brought you up here, for i love you." not long after she became pregnant and she gave birth. "what shall we call the baby?" said ligi [ ] "tabyayen." not long after the baby began to grow, for kabkabaga-an used magic, so that he grew all the time, and every time she bathed him he grew. when the baby had become a young boy kabkabaga-an said, "you can go home now, aponitolau, for our son tabyayen is a companion for me." "if you say that i must go home, i will take tabyayen with me," said aponitolau. she said, "we will tell my brother daldalipáto, [ ] who lives above, if you wish to take him." so they went truly. as soon as they arrived where daldalipáto lived, he said, "how are you, kabkabaga-an? what do you want?" "what do you want, you say. we came to tell you that aponitolau wants to take tabyayen." "do you want to give him up to aponitolau? if you let him go, it is all right," said daldalipáto, and kabkabaga-an said, "all right." so they went home. as soon as they arrived where kabkabaga-an lived she commanded some one to make something of gold to hold milk for the boy to drink and she filled it with the milk from her breasts. in the early morning she lowered her golden house by cords to the earth. when it became morning aponitolau awoke and he was surprised to see that they were in kadalayapan. "why, here is kadalayapan." he went outdoors and aponibolinayen also went outdoors. "why, there is aponitolau. i think he has returned from the home of kabkabaga-an." aponibolinayen went to him and was glad to see him, and she took her son kanag who looked the same as tabyayen, and they went to play in the yard. aponibolinayen and aponitolau did not know that they had gone to play. not long after tabyayen cried, for the tears of kabkabaga-an fell on him and hurt him, so aponibolinayen went down to the yard and took them up into the house. not long after aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "we will make _balaua_ and we will invite kabkabaga-an. i think that is why the boy cried." aponibolinayen said, "yes," and they truly made _sayang_. not long after they made _libon_ [ ] in the evening, and they commanded the spirit helpers to go and get betel-nuts. as soon as they arrived with the betel-nuts aponitolau and aponibolinayen commanded, "you betel-nuts go and invite all our relatives and kabkabaga-an." so one of the betel-nuts went to the place where kabkabaga-an lived. as soon as it arrived up above it said, "aponitolau and aponibolinayen of kadalayapan want you to attend their _balaua_. that is why i came here." kabkabaga-an said, "yes, i will follow you. you go first." when it became afternoon all the people from the other towns had arrived in kadalayapan. when they looked under the _talagan_ [ ] they saw kabkabaga-an, and aponibolinayen went to take her hand, and they made her dance. as soon as she finished dancing she told aponibolinayen and aponitolau that she would go back home. "no, do not go yet, for we will make _pakálon_ for tabyayen first," said aponibolinayen. "no, you care for him. i must go home now, for no one watches my house." not long after she went, for they could not detain her, and they did not see her when she went. as soon as the _sayang_ was over they made _pakálon_ for kanag and tabyayen, and kanag married dapilisan, and tabyayen married binaklingan, and the marriage price was the _balaua_ about nine times full for each of them. as soon as they both were married tabyayen staid in his house which had been up in the air before. kanag staid in another house which aponitolau and aponibolinayen had. (told by angtan of lagangilang.) "look out for our children, ligi, while i wash my hair," said ayo. "yes," said ligi. as soon as ayo reached the spring ligi went to make a basket, in which he put the three little pigs which had little beads around their necks. as soon as he made the basket he put the three little pigs in it, and he climbed a tree and he hung the basket in it. not long after he went down and ayo went back home from the well. "where are our children--the little pigs--?" [ ] said ayo to him. as soon as ligi said he did not know, ayo began to search for them, but she did not find them. the little pigs which ligi hung in the tree grunted, "gek, gek, gek," and the old woman, alokotán of nagbotobotán, went to take a walk. while she was walking she stopped under the tree where the pigs hung. she heard them grunting and she looked up at them and saw that the basket contained three pigs. "what man hung those little pigs in the basket in the tree? perhaps he does not like them. i am going to get them and take them home, so that i will have something to feed." so she got them. she took them home, and she named the older one kanag, the second one dumalawi, the third was ogogibeng. not long after the three little pigs, which had the beads about their necks, became boys, and ogogibeng was naughty. when the old woman alokotán gave them blankets, he was the first to choose the one he wished. "shame, ogogibeng, why are you always the naughtiest and are always selfish." "yes, i always want the best, so that the girls will want me," said ogogibeng. when alokotán gave the belts, and clouts, and coats, he always took the best, and kanag and dumalawi were jealous of him, and they said bad things. ogogibeng said to them, "i am not ashamed, for she is my mother, so i will take the best." not long after they were young men. "mother alokotán, will you let us go to walk? do not worry while we are gone, for we will return soon," said the three young men. the old woman said "yes" and they went. they agreed on the place they should go, and ogogibeng said to them, "we will go where the young girls spin." kanag and dumalawi agreed, so they went. not long after they arrived where the young girls were spinning. "good evening, girls," they said. "good evening," they replied. "this is the first time you have been here, rich young men. why do you come here?" "we came to join you and get acquainted," they said, and they talked. they waited for the girls to go home, but they did not go. not long after it became morning, and they did not wait any longer for the girls to go home, so they went away. as soon as the three boys went home the young girls went to their homes also. not long after they arrived where alokotán was and they ate breakfast. as soon as they finished eating they went to take a walk again. not long after they arrived in kaodanan, in the middle of the day. "good morning, aunt," they said to aponigawani. "good morning, my sons," she replied. "what do you come here for, boys?" "what do you come here for, you say, aunt; we come to take a walk, for we are anxious to see you," they said. "that is good. where did you come from?" said aponigawani. "we came from nagbotobotán where our mother alokotán lives." not long after aponigawani went to cook for them to eat. as soon as she cooked she fed them. so they ate. not long after they finished eating and they talked. after that it became night. when they had finished eating in the night they said, "we are going back home, aunt, but first we are going to the place where those young girls spin." "no, i will not let you go back to nagbotobotán now, for it is dark. if you are going to the place where the girls are spinning it is all right, but if you are going home i will not let you go down from the house, for i fear you will be lost." so the three young boys said to her, "if you will not let us go back home tonight we will go tomorrow, but we will go where the young girls spin." so aponigawani and aponibalagen let them go to where the girls were spinning. not long after they arrived at the place where the young girls were and they said, "good evening, young girls." "good evening," answered the girls who were spinning. "why do you come here, rich young men?" "'why do you come here,' you say, we come to see you spin and to talk with you." not long after they talked together, and the young men did not wait until the girls went home, for it became morning, so they went back home. as soon as they went away, the young girls went home. when the boys reached the house of aponigawani and aponibalagen they told them they were going home to nagbotobotán. aponigawani and aponibalagen did not want to let them go until they had eaten breakfast. the three boys went even though they did not want them to go. as soon as they reached nagbotobotán the old woman alokotán asked them where they had been, and she was very angry with them. "do not be angry with us, mother, for we want to take a walk; we were not lost." "where did you go, then?" "we went to kaodanan to see the pretty girls who never go out doors, but we did not find any. we found some young girls spinning at night, but they were not as pretty as we wished, and we talked with them until morning, for we wanted to see where they lived, but we could not wait for them to go back home." not long after the old woman alokotán went to cook. as soon as she finished cooking they ate. not long after they finished eating and they agreed to go at once to kadalayapan. the old woman alokotán would not let them go, so when they finished eating at night they went to kadalayapan without her consent. as soon as they arrived at the place where the young girls were spinning they said, "good evening, young girls." "good evening," the girls answered. "how are you? what do you want here?" "'what do you want here,' you say, and we came to watch you spin and we want to talk with you." so they talked until morning, but the young boys could not wait until the girls went to their homes. ayo was still searching for the pigs who had become boys. she heard somebody say that three young boys were talking with the girls last night and they said to her that they were pretty young boys. ayo said, "those were my sons. i think they have become men." so she went around the town looking for them. not long after she met them and she saw that they were no longer little pigs. "where did you come from, my dear sons?" "we came from nagbotobotán, aunt," they answered. "do not call me aunt, call me mother," said apon=lbolinayen. the young boys would not call her mother. so aponibolinayen pressed her breasts and the milk from her breasts went into kanag's mouth, and when she pressed again the milk went into the mouth of dumalawi, and when she pressed her breasts the third time the milk went to the mouth of ogogibeng. so aponibolinayen was sure that they were her sons. the little boys asked her why it was that the milk from her breasts went into their mouths. "i pressed my breasts to make sure that you are my sons. i am surprised that you have become men, for you were little pigs. that is why you must call me mother, not aunt. for a long time i have searched for you, and when i heard that you were talking with the young girls last night, i came to look for you." so the boys believed that she was their mother. "why did we grow up in nagbotobotán with our mother alokotán, if you are truly our mother?" "i think she found you and took you away, for she is a good woman. she thought you were lost and took you to nagbotobotán." so aponibolinayen took them home. as soon as they arrived home aponibolinayen said to aponitolau, "here are our sons whom i found. they said that they came from nagbotobotán and that alokotán was their mother. i told them that i was their mother, but they did not believe me." "i do not believe that they are our sons, for our children were three little pigs." "i also had doubts when i met them, but i pressed my breasts and the milk went to their mouths, so i am sure that they are our sons." aponitolau was glad that they were men, for he did not want them when they were pigs. not long after aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "we are going to make _balaua_, so that we can invite all our relations in the other towns, especially alokotán." aponibolinayen used magic, so that when she put a grain of rice in each of twelve big jars they were filled. [ ] not long after aponitolau commanded his spirit helpers to go and get betel-nuts, to send to the relatives who lived in other places, to invite them. as soon as one of the betel-nuts arrived in nagbotobotán it said, "good afternoon, old woman alokotán. i cannot stay long. aponibolinayen and aponitolau sent me to invite you to attend their _sayang_". "i cannot go, for i am searching for my three sons." "if you do not come i will grow on your knee." "you go first and i will follow, but i cannot stay there long." not long after all the people from the other towns arrived and they danced until the old woman alokotán arrived. the three young boys went to hide when alokotán arrived. not long after when the _batana_ was nearly finished, "i cannot wait until your _balaua_ is finished, for i am searching for my three boys." "do not go home yet, for we will see if they will come here to see the young girls. perhaps they are near here," said aponitolau. not long after the three boys appeared to her and alokotán was glad to see them. "where have you been, my sons?" "we came to this town and we intended to go back to nagbotobotán, but our mother aponibolinayen saw us and she detained us, for she was sure that we are her sons. she pressed her breasts and the milk came into our mouths." the old woman alokotán was surprised and she went to aponibolinayen and aponitolau and talked with them. "are you sure those boys are your sons? they are my sons. they grew up with me." "yes, we are sure that they are my sons, for the milk from my breasts went to their mouths. i am surprised that they have become men, for they were three pigs. i searched for them a long time. that is why i was surprised when i saw them, so i pressed my breasts." "why were you searching for them? did someone else hang them in the tree?" said alokotán. aponibolinayen was surprised and she asked aponitolau if he saw someone hang the little pigs in the tree while she was washing her hair. aponitolau laughed, "i did not see anyone get them." one of the women had seen aponitolau hang them in the tree and she told alokotán that aponitolau had hung them up. alokotán hated aponitolau and she asked why he had hung them in the tree. "i went to hang them up for i was ashamed, because they were not men but pigs." "that is why you hung them up. you have power. if you did not want them to be pigs you could change them to men. if i had not found them, perhaps they would have died." not long after the _balaua_ was finished, and the people went home, and the old woman alokotán went home after the others. she gave all her things to the three boys. this is all. (told by angtan of langangilang). aponibolinayen and aponitolau had a son and they called him kanag kabagbagowan, who was dumalawi every afternoon. soon he became a young man and he went to make love to aponitolau's concubines. when aponitolau went where his concubines were he said, "open the door." the women did not open the door, but answered, "we do not want to open the door unless you are dumalawi." "please open the door," said ligi [ ] to them. the women did not open the door, so he went back home and he was very angry. in the second night aponitolau went again. "good evening, women," he said. "good evening," said the women, and aponitolau asked them to open the door. "you put your hands into the door and let us see if the marks on the wrist are the marks on kanag kabagbagowan." aponitolau showed them his hands and they said, "you are not kanag, but you are ligi, and we do not wish you." ligi was very angry and he went back home. five days later he said, "sharpen your knife, kanag, and we will go to cut bamboo." so kanag sharpened his knife. not long after they went where many bamboo grew. as soon as they reached the place ligi said, "you go up and cut the bamboo and sharpen the ends." ligi cut the bamboo below him. as soon as ligi had cut many bamboo he asked kanag if he had cut many, and kanag said, "yes." "did you sharpen the ends? if you pointed them, put them in one place." kanag soon put them in one place. after that aponitolau said to him, "ala, my son, throw them at me so that we can see which is the braver of us." "ala, you are the first if you want to kill me," not long after aponitolau threw all the bamboo at kanag, but did not hit him. "ala, you are the next, my son," said aponitolau. kanag said, "no, i do not want to throw any at you, for you are my father and i am ashamed." aponitolau said, "if you do not wish to throw at me we will go back home." as soon as they arrived in kadalayapan kanag laid down in their _balaua_. when they called him at meal time he did not wish to go. when aponitolau and apo=nibolinayen finished eating they said, "if you do not wish to eat we will go to see our little house in the fields." "we will go and fix it so we will have some protection during the rainy season," said aponitolau. so they went truly. as soon as they arrived at the little house in their farm, "dig up the jar of _basi_ [ ] which i buried when i was a boy." so kanag dug up the _basi_ which aponitolau had made when he was a little boy. as soon as he had dug it up they drank it, and they put the _basi_ in a big coconut shell. aponitolau made his son drink a shell full of _basi_, so kanag truly drank all of it. "ala, dip again and i will drink next," said ligi to him, and ligi drank a shell cup of _basi_. "ala, dip again, we will drink three shell cups of this _basi_," said ligi. when kanag had drunk the three shells of wine he was drunk and he slept. as soon as he was asleep, "what shall i do now," said ligi to himself. "the best thing for me to do is to send him away with the storm." so he used his magical power and soon the big storm came and took kanag to kalaskigan while he was sleeping. not long after aponitolau went back home to kadalayapan. aponibolinayen asked him where kanag was. "i thought he came ahead of me," ligi said. "i think you have killed him," said aponibolinayen, "for you think he loves your concubines." aponitolau went to lie down in their _balaua_ and aponibolinayen laid down in the house and their hair grew long along the floor, they laid so long. not long after kanag awoke and he saw that he was in the middle of a field so wide that he could not see the edges of it. "how bad my father is to me, for he sent me here," he said. "the best thing for me to do is to create people so that i will have neighbors. i will use magic so that many betel-nut trees will grow in the middle of the field." not long after the betel-nut trees bore fruit which was covered with gold. he took the betel-nuts and cut them in many pieces. in the middle of the night he used his power and he said, "i will use magic and when i scatter all the betel-nuts which i have cut, they will become women and men, who will be my neighbors tomorrow." not long after it became morning and he saw that he had many neighbors and he heard many people talking near to his house and many roosters crowing. so kanag was glad, for he had many companions. he went down the ladder, and he went where the people were burning fires in the yards of their houses, and he went to see all of them. while he was visiting them he saw dapilísan in the yard of her house and kanag said to bangan and dalonágan, "my aunt bangan and my uncle dalonágan, do not be surprised, for i want to marry your daughter dapilísan." "if you marry our daughter, your father and mother will be greatly ashamed," said dalonágan. kanag said to them, "my father and mother did not want me and they will not interfere." so they were married. "the best way for us to do, dapilísan, is for us to make _sayang_" said kanag. so dapilísan commanded someone to go and get the betel-nut fruit which was covered with gold. not long after, "ala, you betel-nuts which are covered with gold come here and oil yourselves, and go and invite all the people to come and attend our _sayang_." so the betel-nuts oiled themselves and they went to invite the people in the different towns. not long after they went. one of the betel-nuts went to kadalayapan, and one went where kanag's sweetheart lived. some of them went to pindayan and donglayan, which is the home of iwaginan and gimbangonan. not long after aponibolinayen was anxious to chew betel-nut. "i am going to chew. what ails me, for i am so anxious to chew? i had not intended to eat anything while kanag is away." she looked up at her basket, and she saw that an oiled betel-nut, which was covered with gold, was in it. she picked it up and tried to cut it. "do not cut me, for i came to invite you, for kanag and his wife dapilísan sent me to summon you to their _sayang_ in kalaskigan," said the betel-nut. aponibolinayen was glad when she heard that kanag was alive. so she got up and told all the people of kadalayapan to wash their hair so that they might attend the _sayang_ in kalaskigan. the people asked who was making _sayang_ in kalaskigan, and she replied that it was kanag and his wife dapilísan. not long after they washed their clothes and hair, and took a bath. when it became afternoon they went and aponitolau followed them, and he looked as if he was crazy. as soon as they arrived at the river near the town of kalaskigan, kanag saw them and there were many of them by the river. he sent crocodiles and they went to take the people across the river. aponitolau was the first who rode on one of the crocodiles and the crocodile dived, so aponitolau went back again to the bank of the river. not long after aponitolau's companions were all on the other side of the river, and he was alone, for the crocodiles would not carry him across. he shouted as if crazy, and kanag sent one of the crocodiles to get him. not long after one crocodile went where aponitolau was, and he stood on its back and it took him to the other side of the river. when they all sat down beside the river, dalonágan said, "what shall we use for the _alawig_, [ ] for your father and mother?" "the singed pig, for it is the custom of the people in kadalayapan," said kanag to his mother-in-law. "go and get some of the pigs and singe them," said dalonágan to him. not long after he singed the pigs and he carried them to the people, and his wife dapilísan carried one little jar which looked like a fist, filled with _basi_. as soon as the woman who was making _sayang_ had finished the _diam_ [ ] near by the well, dapilísan made the people drink the _basi_ which she carried. each person drank from a golden cup filled with _basi_ from out of the little jar which looked like a fist, and one third of the _basi_ in the jar was still left. [ ] as soon as the people drank they took them up to the town. when they arrived in the town aponibolinayen was anxious for them to chew betel-nut. so she gave some to kanag and his wife dapilísan and to some others. so they chewed and kanag said to them, "you are first to tell your names." "my name is aponitolau of kadalayapan," said the man who looked like he was crazy. "my name is aponibolinayen." as soon as they had told their names kanag was the next and he said, "my name is kanag kabagbagowan who was carried by the big storm." "my name is dapilísan, who is the daughter of bangan and dalonágan, who is the wife of your son kanag, for whom you did not make _pakálon_. it is bad if you do not like the marriage." "our daughter, dapilísan, we like you, for kanag wanted to marry you," said aponibolinayen. not long after the _balaua_ was nearly finished, but the people were still dancing. "now my _abalayan_ [ ] dalonágan, we are going to pay the marriage price according to the custom," said aponibolinayen. "our custom is to fill the _balaua_ nine times with the different kind of jars." so aponibolinayen said, "ala, you _alan_ [ ] who live in the different springs and _bananáyo_ of kaodanan and you _liblibayan_, go and get the jars, _malayo_ and _tadogan, sumadag_ and _ginlasan_ and _addeban_ and _gumtan_, which kanag must pay as the marriage price for dapilísan." as soon as she had commanded they went, and they filled the _balaua_ nine times, and aponibolinayen said to dalonágan, "i think now that we have paid the marriage price," and dolonágan said, "no, there is more still to pay." "all right, if we still owe, tell us and we will pay." so dalonágan called her big pet spider and said, "you, my pet spider, go around the town of kalaskigan and spin a thread as you go, on which aponibolinayen must string golden beads." when the spider had put a thread around the town dalonágan said to aponibolinayen, "now, you put golden beads on the spider's thread which surrounds the town." aponibolinayen again commanded the _liblibayan, alan_, and the other spirits to go and get the golden beads. as soon as they secured the beads they put them on the thread which surrounded the town. not long after they arrived and they strung the beads on the thread. as soon as they finished, dalonágan hung on the thread to see if it would break. dapilisan said, "ala, you thread of the spider be strong and do not break, or i shall be ashamed." truly, the thread did not break when dalonágan hung on it. "ala, my _abalayan_, is there any other debt?" asked aponibolinayen, and dalonágan said, "no more." when the _balaua_ was over the people who went to attend the _sayang_ went home, and aponibolinayen said to kanag, "now, we will take you back to kadalayapan," and he replied, "no, for i wish to live here." when they could not take him to kadalayapan, aponibolinayen said to aponitolau, "i am going to stay here with him," but aponitolau would not let her stay, but took her back. (told by angtan of lagangilang). aponibolinayen went to the spring. as soon as she arrived there she washed her hair. when she washed her hair she dived into the water, and she did not know that blood from her body was being washed away by the water. "i am going to the spring," said the _alan_, who was inil-lagen. as soon as she arrived at the river she took her headaxe and scooped up the blood which was carried by the stream and she went back to dagápan. as soon as she reached her house she put the blood on a big plate which was inherited through nine generations, and she covered it. "i am going to the well," said aponigawani of natpangan. as soon as she arrived she burned rice straw, which had been inherited nine times, and she put it in the pot with water. after that she took the water from the jar and put it in the coconut shell and she washed her hair. as soon as she washed her hair she dived in the river, and she washed her arm beads which twinkled in the evening, and she did not know that her blood was flowing and was being carried away by the stream. "i am going to the well," said the _alan_ apinganan who lived in bagonan, and she saw the blood of aponigawani, and she secured it on her headaxe, and she put it inside of her belt. after that she went home. as soon as she arrived in her house she put the blood in the big dish, which had been nine times inherited, and she covered it. "i am going to uncover my toy," said the _alan_ inil-lagen. "no do not uncover me, grandmother; i have no clout and belt," said the little boy. so she gave him a clout and belt and after that she uncovered it. "ala, we will give him the name of ilwisan of dagápan," said all the _alan_. "i am going to uncover my toy," said the _alan_ apinganan. "no, do not uncover me, because i have no clout and belt," said the little boy. so apinganan gave him a clout and belt and uncovered him. "ala, there is no other good name, but dondonyán of bagonan. "i am going to fight," said dondonyán of bagonan. he took his headaxe, which was one span long, and he went to get ilwisan of dagápan, and so ilwisan took his headaxe, which was one span long, and they went. as soon as they got out of the town they began to strike their shields with a stick. the sound of the beating was as great as that made by one hundred. as soon as aponibolinayen heard the noise of the shields she shouted and danay of kabisilan shouted also, and those who shouted were the ladies who always staid in the house. [ ] when they passed by the spring of natpangan aponigawani shouted. when they passed by pindayán, gimbagonan shouted and the world trembled while she shouted. while they were walking they arrived at the spring of giambolan of kaboyboyan, who was an _alzado_. [ ] not long after they reached the _alzado_ woman at the spring, for she was still making _sayang_. not long after ilwisan of dagápan killed the tattooed _alzados_, who were more than one hundred, who were dipping water from the spring. "we go to the town," said ilwisan of dagápan to dondonyán. "yes," he said, and they went. as soon as they arrived in the town, giambolan saw them and he was surprised, for they were two boys who entered the town. "you little boys who come in my town, you are the first who ever came here," said giambolan, who had ten heads. he went up into the house and the little boys said, "take your headaxe and spear giambolan; although we are little boys we are not afraid of you, for we came here to fight with you. it is the last of your life now." "giambolan, you first fight against us," said ilwisan. he used his power. "you headaxe and spear of giambolan, if he throws you against us, do not strike us." when all the spears and headaxes of giambolan were lost, the boys truly were not hurt. "now we are next to throw our spears. you, our headaxes, when we strike and throw the spear you pierce the side of giambolan," they said. not long after giambolan laid down. "you, my headaxe, cut off the heads of giambolan at one blow," they said. so the ten heads were cut off. "you, my spear and headaxe, go and kill all the people in the houses of the town, who live with giambolan," they said. the spears and headaxes went and killed all the people in the town, and the pig troughs were floating in blood toward the river. "you, heads, gather together in the yard of giambolan. you, heads of the women, separate, and you, heads of giambolan, go first, and you, storm, carry the house of giambolan. you go near to our house in dagápan." "i will tramp on the town of giambolan so it will be like the ocean," they said. not long after the town was like the ocean. they went home and they followed after the heads, which they sent first to their town. not long after, "i use my power so that we arrive at once in dagápan," said ilwisan. so they arrived truly. "all the heads of giambolan stay by the gate of the town; all the heads of the people who live with him stay around the town." "you _alan_ who look like me, we will go and see ilwisan and make him go into the house, for he has returned from fighting." not long after they made him climb the _sangap_ [ ] so he could talk with the star, it was so high. ilwisan did not climb, but he jumped over the ladder and he did not touch it. "you, _alan_, take down the _gansas_ for we are going to have a big party, for we have come back from fighting." so the _alan_ took down the _gansas_ and they danced. "you send your people to go and invite our relatives," said ilwisan, "so that they will come to attend my big party, for i have returned from the fight." so they sent the messengers to the towns where the relatives lived. when the spirit messengers arrived by the _balaua_ where aponitolau of kadalayapan was lying down, "good morning," they said. "how are you," said aponitolau. "i came here because ilwisan of dagápan sent me to get you, for they make a big party, for they have returned from fighting." "this is the first time i have heard of a town called dagápan," said aponitolau. "you people who live with me, come with me and we all will go to dagápan, because ilwisan will make a big party, for he has returned from fighting; all you ladies who stay in the house come also." not long after they went and aponitolau guided them, and they met the people who live in natpangan and pindayan in the way. gimbagonan, who was the wife of iwaginan, and danay of kabisilan went to dagápan. when they arrived at the spring of ilwisan of dagápan they all stopped. "we will all stop here and wait until someone comes to meet us," said aponitolau. not long after ilwisan and dondonyan saw all the visitors who were at the spring, so they went to meet them. each of them took a glass of _basi_ and gave the drink to them. when they had all drank they took them up to the town. not long after, when they arrived in the town, they sat down, and aponitolau and the other people took the _gansa_, and iwaginan took the _alap_ [ ] and they danced first with aponibolinayen. as soon as they finished dancing they took out of their belts the girls who never go out doors, and they joined the people. the girl whom aponibolinayen took out of her belt was daliknáyan, and the girls whom aponigawani took out of her belt were indiápan, and alama-an, and the girl whom danay of kabisilan took out of her belt was asigtanán, and the girl whom gimbagonan took out of her belt was dalonagan. [ ] as soon as they had taken the girls out they made them sit in one row and the circle of people was very bright, because of the girls, for they were all pretty. after that iwaginan made daliknáyan and dalonagan and alama-an and asigtanán dance with ilwisan of dagápan. when they had danced across the circle five times they stopped. as soon as they finished dancing iwaginan made aponitolau dance with danay of kabisilan. when aponitolau stamped his feet as he was dancing all the fruit of the coconut trees fell down. after they finished balogagayan and gimbagonan danced. after they danced kabin-na-ogan of kabitaulan danced with aponigawani. after they danced they went to eat. the food was of thirty different kinds, and they were abashed in the golden house of ilwisan, which had many valuable jars in it, for the _alan_ had given them to him. as soon as they finished eating they gathered again, and the _alan_ kilagen told them that ilwisan was the son of aponibolinayen, and dondonyán was the son of aponigawani. she said, "the reason that we made your son come to life was that we might have someone to give our things to, for we have no children to inherit them." "if that is so we are going to change their names. ilwisan will be kanag kabagbagowan," said aponitolau. "dondonyán will be dagoláyen, who is a rich man." "now it is two months since we came here and we go home," they all said. as soon as they agreed, the _alan_ gave them valuable things. aponitolau used his power and the golden house of kanag which the _alan_ gave him was pulled up and went to kadalayapan and the gold house of dondonyán went to natpangan. aponigawani used her power, and when it became morning kanag cried because his golden house of dagápan, which was the _alan's_ town, went to kadalayapan. "do not cry, kanag; this is your town; we are your father and mother." so kanag stopped crying. the next month kanag said to his father and mother, "the best thing for you to do is to engage me to daliknáyan, who never goes out doors, and there is no one to compare with her, who looks like the firefly in the evening, and her footprints are loved by all the men, for they look like the rainbow." not long after aponibolinayen took the golden beads, which look like the moon, to use as an engagement present. not long after aponibolinayen and aponitolau arrived at kabisilan. "good morning, aunt danay," they said. "how are you?" said danay. "come up and we will eat." they went up the stairs, and danay took the rice out of the jar and took out the meat, and they ate. as soon as they finished eating, "we cannot stop here long, for we are in a hurry," and they showed her the gold which was like the moon, for they wished to make the engagement. danay of kabisilan agreed, and they set a day for _pakálon,_ and it was three days later. not long after they went back home. as soon as they arrived they told their son kanag and he was very happy. when the day for _pakálon_ came they summoned all the people, and so they went, and some of them went first. "you, my jar, _bilibili,_ and my jar _ginlasan_, and you my jar _malayo_, go first." so all the jars preceded them, and they followed. not long after they arrived. when all the people whom they invited arrived, they fed them all. when they had all finished eating, "now that we have finished eating we are going to settle on the price. my _balaua_ must be filled eighteen times with different jars before kanag and daliknáyan can be married." so they filled the _balaua_ eighteen times. "now that the _pakálon_ is finished and we have paid the price, we will take her home, and you prepare the food for her to take." so they started to fix a box for her with pillows, and they gave her a golden hat which looked like a bird, and she put her skirt on her head and it twinkled. not long after they went. as soon as they arrived in kadalayapan, they went upstairs, and they made her sit on the bamboo floor, and they counted the bamboo strips on which she sat, and it was an arm span long of agate beads. [ ] not long after they had a son and they named him dumalawig. this is all. (told by magwati of lagangilang). "i am going to hunt deer with the dogs, mother," said kanag. "no, do not go, you will be lost," said aponibolinayen. "no, i will not be lost. give me provisions to take," he said, and he fretted so his mother let him go, and she gave provisions, for she could not prevent him from going. so he went. "ey-ey-kota, my puppy, ey-ey, my fat dog, do not catch anything until we reach the middle of the wood, which is the place where the _anteng_ tree grows." not long after while he was walking the puppy went into the jungle and it barked in the wood. he went to reach it. when he arrived he saw that what the puppy barked at was a very small house by the resin tree. he went up to the house. wanwanyen-aponibolinayen went to hide under the hearth and kanag did not go out of the house until the girl appeared. one night had passed, then the girl who owned the house appeared. he saw that she was a beautiful girl and they talked. "it is not good for us to talk until we know our names," said dumanau, [ ] and he gave her betel-nut, and she did not receive it, so he made it very good so that she wanted it after two days. after that she received the betel-nut which was covered with gold. as soon as they chewed, "you first tell your name, for you live here; it is not good for me to tell first, for i come from another place," said dumanau. "no, it is not good for a girl to tell her name first. you are a boy and even though you came from another place you tell your name first," said wanwanyen-aponibolinayen. "my name is dumanau, who is the son of aponibolinayen and aponitolau of kadalayapan." "my name is wanwanyen-aponibolinayen, who is the daughter of an _alan_ in matawatawen." when they put down their quids, they laid in good order as agates with no holes in them. "we are close relatives, and it is good for us to be married." so they married. three years passed. "the best thing is for us to take our house to kadalayapan, and go there; perhaps my father and mother are searching for me." "no, we must not go, because i am ashamed, for they did not engage me to you," said wanwanyen-aponibolinayen. "no, we go; we must not stay always in the jungle," he said. so in the middle of the night dumanau used his power. "i use my magic so that this house we are in goes to kadalayapan. you stand there by our house," he said; so the little house went there while they were asleep. the next morning wanwanyen was surprised because many chickens were crowing and many people were talking, and when she went to look out of the window there were many houses. "why, dumanau, it is not the jungle where we are now; where are we?" she said. "it is the town of kadalayapan." not long after their three children went to look out of the window and they saw the sugar cane, and they were anxious to chew it. "father, go and get the sugar cane for us to chew," they said. dumanau went, and he advised wanwanyen-aponibolinayen to fasten the door while he was gone. "if anyone comes do not open the door." he went, and dumanau's father and mother were frightened, because the little house was by their dwelling, for there was no little house there before. as soon as dumanau arrived in the house of his father and mother they were surprised, for they had searched for him three years. they asked where he had been, and he said he had found a wife in the wood when he had staid for three years. he told his mother that she must not go to his house and say bad words to his wife. so dumanau went to the place of the sugar cane, and his mother went to the house and said bad words to his wife. "open the door, you bad woman, who has no shame. you are the cause of my son being lost, and we spent much time to find him. what did you come here for, worthless woman?" said aponibolinayen. wanwanyen-aponibolinayen did not answer her. not long after dumanau arrived at their house and wanwanyen said to him, "it is true what i told you. i told you not to go and you did truly, and your mother came and said many bad words. i said it was best for us to stay always in matawatawen, but you paid no heed. now my stomach is sick, for your mother came here to say many bad things to us." not long after she died. dumanau sharpened his headaxe and spear, for he wanted to kill his mother, because she said bad things to his wife wanwanyen, but he did not kill her, because she fastened the door. as soon as dumanau arrived in their house he made a _tabalang_ [ ] of gold, and put the body of wanwanyen inside of it, and he put a golden rooster on top of it. as soon as he finished he put the body of wanwanyen inside of it. as soon as he had done this he said, "if you pass many different towns where the people get water, you rooster crow." the rooster said, "tatalao, i am _tabalang_ of kadalayapan; on top of me is a golden rooster." he pushed the _tabalang_ into the river and so it floated away. when it passed by the springs in the other towns, the rooster said, "tatalao, i am _tabalang_ of kadalayapan, and on top of me is a golden rooster." that is what the rooster always said when they passed the springs in the other towns. dumanau wandered about as if crazy, and his oldest son walked in front of him. he carried the next child on his back and carried the third on his hip. when the _tabalang_ arrived in nagbotobotán, "tatalao, i am _tabalang_ of kadalayapan, and on me is a golden rooster," said the rooster on the _tabalang_ which was made of gold. the old woman alokotán was taking a bath by the river and she was in a hurry to put on her skirt and she followed the _tabalang_. "you _tabalang_, where did you come from? are you the _tabalang_ of kapaolan? if you are not from kapaolan, are you from kanyogan?" the _tabalang_ did not stop and it nearly went down into the hole where the stream goes. [ ] so alokotán ran very fast. "are you _tabalang_ from kaodanan?" the _tabalang_ hesitated a little. "are you _tabalang_ of kadalayapan?" "yes," said the _tabalang_ and stopped; so she went inside of the _tabalang_ and she took the body to her house. she was afraid of the _tabalang,_ because it was made of gold and she was surprised because the woman who was inside was beautiful and there was no one to compare with her. as soon as they arrived to her house, "i whip perfume _alikadakad_ and make her wake up directly." "i whip my perfume _banaues_ and directly she will say, '_wes_,'" "i whip my perfume _dagimonau_ and directly she will wake up entirely." [ ] "how long i slept, grandmother," said wanwanyen-aponibolinayen. the old woman alokotán took her inside of the house. "'how long my sleep,' you say, and you were dead. there is the _tabalang_ they put you in and i was surprised, for it was made of gold and has a golden rooster on top of it. they used it to send you down the river." not long after the old woman alokotán hid her, and dumanau, who was always wandering about with his children, approached the place where the women were dipping water from the spring. all the women who were dipping water from the well said, "here is a lone man who is carrying the babies. we agree that we all salute him at one time." as soon as they agreed dumanau arrived to the place where they were dipping water and he said, "good day, women." "good day also," answered all the women in unison. "where are you going, lone man who is carrying the babies?" "'where are you going,' you say, women. i am following wanwanyen-aponibolinayen whom i put inside the _tabalang_ for she was dead. did you see the _tabalang_ pass here?" said dumanau. "it passed by here long ago. perhaps it is in nagbotobotán now." "ala, i leave you now, women, and i go and follow." "yes," answered the women. while they were walking they arrived in nagbotobotán and dumanau saw the _tabalang_ in the yard by the house of alokotán and they exchanged greetings. "good afternoon," they said, and alokotán took them upstairs; so they went up. not long after while they were talking, "this was my _tabalang_, my grandmother old woman alokotán; bring out of hiding wanwanyen-aponibolinayen, so that i may take her home," said dumanau, and the old woman alokotán did not bring her out because she did not believe that he was the husband of wanwanyen-aponibolinayen; so she used magic, and when she found that he was the husband of wanwanyen she said, "she is over there. i hid her." so she went to get her and dumanau, was joyful, for he saw wanwanyen alive again. "ala, now grandmother old woman alokotán, how much must i pay, because you saved my wife wanwanyen?" "that is all right, no pay at all. that is why i stay in this place so as to watch and see if any of my dead relatives pass by my house and i make them alive again. if you were not my relative i would have let her go." so dumanau thanked her many times and they went back home. not long after they arrived in kadalayapan. "the best for us to do, wanwanyen-aponibolinayen, is for us to build _balaua_ and invite all of our relatives; perhaps you are not the daughter of an _alan,_" said dumanau. "why not? i am the daughter of the _alan,_" said wanwanyen-aponibolinayen. "ala, let us build _balaua_ anyway." not long after they commanded people to pound rice, and as soon as wanwanyen was ready she commanded someone to go and secure the betel-nuts which were covered with gold. as soon as they arrived they oiled them. when it became evening they made _libon._ [ ] the next morning they sent the betel-nuts to invite their relatives. so they went. not long after, "i am anxious to chew betel-nut. what is the matter with me?" said aponigawani, who was lying down on her bed. as soon as she got up she found an oiled betel-nut which was covered with gold beside her. "do not cut me; i came to invite you to the _balaua_ which wanwanyen and dumanau make," said the betel-nut, when she took it intending to cut it. so aponigawani told the people of kaodanan to start to attend _balaua_ with dumanau and wanwanyen-aponibolinayen. she was surprised because dumanau had arrived, for they had heard that he was lost when he went to hunt deer. she said, "perhaps he met a lady who never goes outdoors, who has power, when he went to hunt deer." not long after, "ala, you people who live in the same town, let us go now to kadalayapan for dumanau's and wanwanyen's _balaua_." as soon as they arrived in the place where the people dipped water from the spring they asked where the ford was. "you look for the shallow place," said the people who were dipping the water. not long after they went across the river and some of the people who were dipping water went to notify the people making _balaua_ that the visitors were there, so dumanau and wanwanyen went to the gate of the town and met them there and made _alawig_. [ ] aponigawani and aponibolinayen looked at the woman who was the wife of dumanau and she was almost the same as aponigawani. as soon as they finished _alawig_ they took them up to the town. while they were sitting, aponigawani was anxious to know who dumanau's wife really was, so she went to dumanau and said that they were going to chew betel-nut. "that is the best way to do so that we may know if we are related," said dumanau. so they took the betel-nuts and divided them in pieces. "you tell your name first, because you are the people who live here." "no, my uncle, you old men are the first to tell your names." "my name is aponibalagen, who is the son of pagatipánan and ebang of natpangan, who is the brother of aponibolinayen." "my name is aponitolau, who is the son of pagbokásan and langa-an, who is the brother of aponigawani, whose son is dumnau." "my name is dumanau, who is the son of aponitolau and aponibolinayen of kadalayapan." "my name is aponigawani of kaodanan, who is the wife of aponibalagen, who has no sister." "my name is aponibolinayen of kadalayapan, who is the wife of aponitolau, whose son is dumanau." "my name is wanwanyen-aponibolinayen, who is the daughter of an _alan_ of matawatawen." when they had told their names the quid of wanwanyen-aponibolinayen went to the quid of aponibalagen and aponigawani and dumanau laid down his quid. the quid of dumanau went to those of aponibolinayen and aponitolau. "now, aponitolau, we know wanwanyen-aponibolinayen is our daughter; it is best for you now to pay the marriage price, nine times full the _balaua_," said aponigawani and aponibalagen. aponibolinayen, the mother of dumanau, begged the pardon of dumanau and his wife, for she did not know that his wife was the daughter of aponigawani and aponibalagen, who was her brother. not long after they gave the marriage price. "i use my power so that the _balaua_ of wanwanyen and dumanau is nine times filled," said aponibolinayen, and it was nine times filled with different kinds of jars. then aponigawani raised her eyebrows and half disappeared, and aponibolinayen used magic again and the _balaua_ was full again. when they gave all the marriage price they danced. as soon as the dance was over they went to eat, all the people whom they invited. when they finished eating wanwanyen-aponibolinayen talked. "you, father and mother, you were not careful of your daughter. i would not have heard any bad words if you had been careful." "ala, wanwanyen-aponibolinayen, that is our custom, because we are related to the kaboniyan and the _alan_ always picks up some of us," said her father and mother. "it is good that dumanau found you, who is your husband. aponibolinayen, who talked bad before, is our relative. she is my sister," said aponibalagen. "it is true that i said bad words to her, because i did not know that we were related, though i am your relative; forgive me, daughter, your father is my brother," said aponibolinayen to wanwanyen. not long after they drank _basi_, for they knew each other and made friends. as soon as they drank they danced during one month. when the _balaua_ was finished all of the people went home and took some of the jars. as soon as they went home the father and mother-in-law of dumanau took all the other jars to kaodanan. it is said. (told by madomar of riang barrio patok.) "we are going away, cousin dagoláyan," said kanag. "if that is what you say we must go." not long after they went. as soon as they reached the middle of the way they agreed upon their destination. "where are we going?" they asked. "we are going to the place ginayod of binglayan," said kanag. "why are we going there?" said his cousin dagoláyan. "we are going because ginayod of binglayan has a pretty girl who never goes outdoors, and we are going to see her," said kanag. not long after they arrived where the young girls spun at night. "stay here, cousin dagoláyan, and i will meet you here. i am going to see the daughter of ginayod, who is asimbáyan of ilang." "if that is what you say it is all right," said dagoláyan. not long after kanag reached the place where the girl was, and he talked with her. the girl who never goes outdoors said to him, "if you will get the perfume of baliwán i will believe all you say." "if you will agree to my mission i will go and get whatever you want," said kanag. "ala, if you do not believe me, you take my arm beads from my left arm, for you are kind to go for me." so she gave him her arm beads, and kanag started to go at once. as soon as he arrived at the place where the young girls spun and had joined his companion, his cousin asked, "what did she say?" "she told me that if i will secure the perfume of baliwán she will do everything i ask of her. let us both go." "no, i do not wish to go with you, for you will not go with me where i wish to go." "please come with me and another time i will go with you," said kanag. not long after they went and they met the _doldoli_ [ ] in the way. "where are you going, rich young men?" it said to them. "where are you going,' you say, and we are going to get the perfume of baliwán, for though we are far from it still we can smell it now." "ala, young men, you cannot go there, for when anyone goes there, only his name goes back to his town." but the boys replied, "we are going anyway. that is the reason we are already far from home, and it is the thing the pretty girl wants." "if you say that you are going anyway, you will repent when you reach there." "it is the thing which will make the girls love us." so they left the jar and walked on. when they reached the middle of the jungle they met a big frog, and it said, "where are you going, young men?" "'where are we going,' you say, and we are going to get the perfume of baliwán, for that is what asimbáyan of ilang desires." "no, do not go there, for everyone who has gone there has died." "we will go on anyway, for we are already far from our town and we cannot return without the perfume." so they left the frog and walked on. not long after they approached the place where the perfume was, and while they were still a long way off they could smell its odor. "what a fine odor it has. that is why the young girl who never goes outdoors desires it so much." they walked on and in a short time they reached the place below the perfume. when they were there dagoláyan said to kanag, "take some from the lower branches." "no, it is better for me to climb and get some from the top, for i think they are better above than below." so kanag climbed and as soon as he broke off the stem which held the perfume his legs became like part of a snake. dagoláyan looked up and he saw that the legs of his companion had changed to part of a snake. he said, "now, my cousin kanag, i am going to leave you, for you are no longer a man, but you are a serpent." "do not leave me even if i do become a serpent. i will not injure you. do not be afraid." in a short time all his body had become a real serpent, and dagoláyan ran and went home, and the big serpent followed him. not long after dagoláyan arrived in kadalayapan, and aponitolau and aponibolinayen asked where kanag was. "kanag has become a big serpent. as soon as he broke off the perfume of baliwán which the young girl desired he became a serpent." aponitolau and aponibolinayen went around the town and told the people that they must accompany them, for they were going to see if kanag had really become a serpent. when aponitolau and aponibolinayen had killed many animals and given much food to the searchers and they did not find him, they stopped searching. not long after kanag thought he would go to the river where the people took their baths. so he went. not long after langa-ayan was anxious to wash her hair, so she went to the river and washed it, and do-ansowan washed his hair first and langa-ayan helped him, for he was her husband. as soon as she had washed his hair, he said to her, "i am going to the town." so he went and left langa-ayan alone by the river washing her hair. when she had washed her hair she washed her arm beads. while she was washing her upper arm beads she heard a great commotion in the river, and soon after a big serpent appeared on the other bank. langa-ayan saw that it was a big serpent and she was so frightened that she started to run, but the serpent said to her, "do not run, my aunt, i am not a real serpent, for i was a young boy before." so langa-ayan stopped and asked him why he had become a great serpent. "because i went to ilang to see the pretty girl, and she told me that if i could get the perfume of baliwán she would do whatever i asked, so i went. i did not want to go, for i was not sure that she told the truth, but she gave me her left bracelet, so i went. when i was still far away from baliwán i could smell the perfume, and when i reached the tree i climbed it and i tried to break the stem which held the perfume, and my companion saw that i was changing to a serpent and he ran away. i truly became a serpent and now i have come here and have met you. if you do not believe that i was truly a boy, i will show you the arm beads." so he lifted his head and langa-ayan truly saw the arm beads around his neck. "my aunt, will you find out how i may become a man again?" she said, "if what you have said is true you follow me." so they went up to the town. do-ansowan said to his wife, "how long you have staid at the river, my wife." "i was there a long time, for i met a big serpent. if you wish to see it, it is in the yard. he says he was a young boy and he showed me the arm beads of a young girl, which he has about his neck. i believe that he is a young boy who has become a serpent. when he broke the stem of the perfume which the girl wanted he became a serpent. he wants to know how he can again become a boy." "ala, if that is what he wants, you go and take him to my uncle ma-obagan." so they went and when they arrived where ma-obagan lived she said, "good morning, uncle." "good morning," he answered. "the reason i came is because a young boy who became a big snake is here. will you please put him in your magic well which changes everything which goes in it and make him a young boy again?" "if he will go into the water, even if it feels bad, you call him and let him go in." so they went and when they arrived at the well the serpent went into the water, and the serpent's skin began to crack and fall off and he became a boy again. not long after they went back to the house of langa-ayan. as soon as they arrived there the boy went to the _balaua_ and did not follow langa-ayan to the house. do-ansowan saw that he was a handsome young boy. as soon as langa-ayan had finished cooking they called him to come and eat and he said to them, "i do not wish to eat if there are no girls to eat with me." "we are afraid if you do not eat, for you did not eat for a long time, while you were a serpent." the boy said, "even though i did not eat while i was a serpent i will follow my custom, for i do not eat unless a pretty young girl who never goes outdoors eats with me." when they could not persuade him do-ansowan said to his wife, "go and call our daughter amau." not long after she went to call her. when she arrived where they had put her she said, "come and eat with the rich young man." "how can i go? i do not know how to walk." "take the big gold basket and hold on to it while you walk." not long after she arrived where the food was, and langa-ayan and do-ansowan said to the boy who was still in the _balaua_, "come and eat now, nephew, with our daughter who never goes outdoors." so the boy went quickly, and when he reached the place where the girl was, they ate. when they had finished eating he said that he was sick, but he was not. so they went to fix a place for him to lie and he said, "perhaps i am sick because of the spirit of the young girl." so they went to call their daughter, for kanag wanted her to touch him, and he wanted to see her. the girl went to touch his body and he was all right, for he wished her to touch him, and he said, "now, my uncle and aunt, if you wish me for a son-in-law i wish to marry amau. i will not go any further to find a wife." the father and mother of the girl agreed to what kanag said, for the girl wanted to marry him, so they were married. "now, kanag, we are going to make _sayang_ and invite your mother and father so that they can see that you are a young man again," said his father-in-law and mother-in-law. they made _sayang_ and they sent someone to invite their relatives, and someone went to asimbáyan of ilang and told her that kanag kabagbagowan, who lived in kalaskigan, and his wife amau were making _sayang_. some of the betel-nuts which they sent arrived in kadalayapan where aponitolau and aponibolinayen lived and they said, "good morning," to aponitolau who was lying down in the _balaua_. he felt badly because kanag was a serpent and he said to the betel-nut, "good morning. come to kalaskigan, for kanag and amau are making _sayang_ and they want you to come." so aponitolau got up quickly and told aponibolinayen who was lying down in the house that kanag and his wife were making _sayang_, and they were happy because kanag was a boy again. they told all the people to prepare to go to the _sayang_ of kanag and his wife. so they went, and when they arrived they saw that kanag was handsomer than before, and asimbáyan went also, for they had invited her. asimbáyan saw that kanag was the boy who had taken her bracelet and had gone to get the perfume for her, and while she was watching him kanag went to talk with her. he told her what had happened when he went to get the perfume for her, and he told her how he had become a snake and his mother-in-law had met him by the river and had taken him to the old man who changed him again to a boy, and he had married the daughter of do-ansowan and langa-ayan. kanag said, "now, i cannot marry you, so i will give back your bracelet." so he gave it back. not long after aponitolau and aponibolinayen asked how much they must pay for the wife of kanag, and langa-ayan and do-ansowan said, "fill our _balaua_ nine times with valuable things." when they had paid all, they said, "now we are going to take them to kadalayapan, for we have paid all you asked." "no, do not take them. they are going to stay here," said do-ansowan and langa-ayan. "they will come there bye and bye." "ala, if that is what you say they must come and visit us, even if they stay here." not long after kanag and his wife went to kadalayapan to visit his father and they staid there three months. then do-ansowan and his wife were anxious for them to return. when kanag and his wife returned to kalaskigan they said, "why did you stay so long? we thought you were going to live in kadalayapan and we intended to follow you." "we staid a long time, for my father and mother would not let us return when we wished," said kanag. (told by angtan of lagangilang.) "goto watch our _langpadan_, [ ] kanag, because the wild pigs spoil it." kanag went. when he arrived at the field he went around it and it was not injured, so he went to the little watch house and he was sorrowful, and he always hung his head. not long after aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "cook some rice and meat for i am going to our field and carry the food to kanag." so aponibolinayen went to cook. as soon as she finished cooking they ate first. as soon as they finished eating aponitolau took the rice and meat and started for the field where their son was. when aponitolau appeared kanag took his _lipi_ nuts and he played, and the mountain rice which he went to watch was not injured. as soon as aponitolau arrived to the place where he was playing, "come to eat, kanag," and kanag said, "i am not hungry yet. put the food in the house. i will play awhile first." when aponitolau could not make him eat he put the provisions in the house, and he went home and left the boy. kanag did not go and eat. the next morning aponitolau went to take him food again and as soon as kanag saw him he took his game and went to play. when aponitolau arrived he called him to go and eat, but he did not go for he wished to play, and he asked his father to put the rice and meat in the house. aponitolau was surprised, because he did not eat, and the provisions for the first day were still untouched. he asked, "why do you not like to eat?" and he said, "i am not hungry yet." when aponitolau could not make him eat he went home again, and kanag used magic and he became a _labeg_. [ ] aponitolau said to aponibolinayen, "i wonder why kanag does not like to eat." "i think he is sorrowful, because he was sent to watch the mountain rice." "what is the reason that you sent him to the field when the fences are strong and no wild pigs can get in," said aponibolinayen. "you must cook and we will eat, and then i will go and get him." aponibolinayen went to cook. as soon as she finished cooking they ate and after that aponitolau took some rice and meat for kanag to eat. aponibolinayen said to him, "as soon as he finishes eating bring him home. do not let him stay there alone. that is why he does not wish to eat." aponitolau said, "yes," and so he went. when he arrived at the field he could not see kanag any more. he called to him, and the little boy answered him from the top of the bamboo tree. his father felt very sorry that he had become a little bird. "why did you become a little bird, kanag? come and eat. i will not send you here any more." kanag said, "i do not wish to eat and i would rather be a bird and carry the signs to everyone." so his father went back home and he was sorrowful. as soon as aponitolau arrived in kadalayapan he said to aponibolinayen, "kanag has become a bird. perhaps he felt sorry because we sent him to watch the rice. he said that when i am going to war he will fly over me, and he will give me the good and bad signs." [ ] not long after aponitolau started out to fight. he took his spear, headaxe and shield, and he went. when he was near the gate of the town, kanag gave the bad sign. "go back, father, for you have a bad sign," said the little bird. so his father went back at once. the next morning he started again and he went. when he reached the gate of the town the little bird gave him a good sign, so he went. the little bird flew near to him and he always gave the good sign. aponitolau was happy for he knew that nothing would injure him. not long after they arrived at the _alzado_ [ ] town, and the _alzados_ were glad when they saw aponitolau and they said to him, "you are the only man who ever came to our town. now you cannot return home. we inherit you," said the bravest of them. "ala, if you say that i cannot go back home, you summon all the people in your town, for we are going to fight," said aponitolau, and the _alzado_ said to him, "you are very brave if you wish to fight with all of us." so the bravest summoned all the people to prepare, for aponitolau wished to fight all of them. the people were surprised that one man wished to fight with them, and they said to aponitolau, "one of my fingers will fight with you. don't say that you will fight with all of us." aponitolau replied, "do whatever you wish. i still want to fight you." the _alzados_ were angry. the bravest of them ran toward aponitolau, and he threw his spear and headaxe and aponitolau jumped. the _alzados_ were surprised, for he jumped very high, and they all began to throw their spears at him, and they ran and tried to cut his head off. aponitolau jumped and he secured all their spears and headaxes, and he said to them, "am i the next now?" "yes, because we are now unarmed." aponitolau used magic so that when he threw his spear it would fly among them until they were all dead. when he threw his spear it flew to all the _alzados_ and killed all of them; so aponitolau again used magic, and his headaxe cut off the heads of the _alzados_, and aponitolau sat by the gate of the town. the little bird flew by him and said, "the good sign which i gave to you, father, was all right and you have killed all the enemies." aponitolau said, "yes." as soon as the headaxe had cut off all the heads from the dead _alzados_, he used his power again so that all of the heads went to kadalayapan. the heads went first and he followed them, and the little bird always followed him. as soon as they arrived at the gate of the town the little bird flew away and aponitolau used magic so that the heads were stuck around the town. as soon as the heads were placed around the town, aponitolau commanded all the people in his town to go and invite the people who lived in different places to come and attend his big party. he told them to invite all the pretty girls who never go outdoors. so the people went all over the world to invite the people to attend the party. as soon as the people arrived in kadalayapan they played the _gansas_ and danced and aponitolau said to kanag, "come down, kanag. do not stay always in the tops of trees. come and see the pretty girls and see if you want to marry one of them. come and get the golden cup and put _basi_ in it, and make them drink." the little bird said, "i prefer to stay in the trees and make the signs when anyone goes to fight." when aponitolau could not make him become a boy and come down he felt very sorry. when the party was over all the people whom they invited went home and kanag said to his father, "now that your party is over and the people have gone, i will go down and get the fruit of the trees to eat." [ ] aponibolinayen said to him, "my dear little son, do not go down and eat the fruit of the trees; we have all we need here. forgive your father and me, we will not send you again to the field." kanag did not pay attention and he started to go down. so aponibolinayen and aponitolau commanded the spirit helpers. "go and follow kanag wherever he goes, so that he has companions; do not leave him. find a pretty girl for him so that he will not go down." not long after they overtook kanag in the forest and they all sat down and they said to him, "wait here for us a minute, kanag, while we find a toy for you." "no, i do not wish a toy; i am going down and eat the fruit of the trees." "no, please wait for us. it is very near; we will be back soon. if you do not care for any, you will see. wherever you go we shall accompany you." kanag answered to them, "yes," and they went. as soon as they arrived at the well they used their power so that all the pretty girls who never go outdoors felt very hot, so that they all came to the well to bathe. not long after the pretty girls went to the well in the early morning, and their parents did not know about it. as soon as the pretty girl arrived at the well the helpers saw the girl who appeared like the flame of fire about the betel-nut blossoms. as soon as they saw her washing her hair, they went back in a hurry where kanag was waiting. "kanag, come and hurry and see the pretty girl." kanag said, "i do not wish to see her. i am going down to eat the fruit of the trees," and they said again, "please come; it is very near. if you do not like her we will go wherever you wish." so kanag went with them, and when they arrived he flew to the top of the betel-nut tree, and he saw the pretty girl, and he flew to another betel-nut tree above her. "what can i do, if i become a man now? i have no clothes and headband." the helpers said, "do not worry about that. your father and mother told us to give you whatever you wish, and we have everything here." so kanag went down and took the clothes and headband and he became a man. he went and sat on the girl's skirt and she said, "do not harm me. if you are going to cut me, do it only in one place so there will not be so much to heal." "if i was an enemy i would have killed you at once." kanag went to her and handed the skirt to her. not long after he gave her betel-nut and they chewed. as soon as they chewed they saw that it was good for them to marry, for they both had magical power and kanag told his name first and said, "my name is kanag kabagbagowan, who is the son of aponitolau and aponibolinayen of kadalayapan, who did not like him, and they sent him to watch their mountain rice, and he became a bird which is a _labeg_." "my name is dapilísan, who is the daughter of bangan and dalonágan of kabno-angan." after that the girl was in a hurry to go home, for she was afraid her father and mother would see her, for they did not know that she had gone to the well. she did not want kanag to go with her to the town, but he did not want to leave her, and the sun shone in the east. the girl went home and kanag followed her. not long after they approached the town and bangan was in the yard of their house, and dalonágan was looking out of the door. not long after she saw them. "what is the matter with dapilísan? a boy is with her as she returns from the well," said dalonágan. bangan was surprised and he did not believe it, for their daughter never went outdoors. "if you do not believe it, look at them; they are coming here," she said. so bangan turned and saw them. as soon as they arrived where bangan sat, "good morning, uncle," said kanag. "do not be surprised because i am with your daughter, for i am to be married to her. my father and mother sent me to our rice field and left me there alone, and i was sorry that they did not like me, so i became a bird which gives the sign to those who go to war. when my father went to fight i went with him, and he killed all the _alzados_ in one town and he invited all the people in the world to his party to see if any of the young girls pleased me, but i do not think they came here. i did not like to go to the pretty girls who attended the party, so i started to go down to eat the fruit of the trees, but they sent their spirit helpers to follow and take care of me. when i was in the wood the helpers met me and said 'wait for us here while we go to find you a toy,' and i scarcely waited, but finally waited, and they made all the pretty girls go to the well, for they felt hot, so your daughter dapilísan went to take a bath. when the helpers saw her they came to tell me and i did not wish to go, but they compelled me. as soon as i saw her i thought it was good for me to marry her, so i became a man and came home with her. if you wish me for a son-in-law i will be very happy." bangan and dalonágan said to him, "i wondered why my daughter went to the well. i did not believe that dapilísan was there, and i am afraid that your father and mother will not like our daughter dapilísan, for they did not send an engagement present to us." kanag said to him, "this is why i came here, and they sent their spirit helpers with me to find a pretty girl to marry, so i will not go down. they will be glad when they know that i am here and want to marry your daughter." so bangan and his wife sent someone to call aponitolau and aponibolinayen, and to tell them that kanag was in kabno-angan. before the messenger arrived in kadalayapan aponitolau and aponibolinayen knew that kanag was in kabno-angan, for the spirit helpers went to them when kanag went with the girl to the town. aponibolinayen and aponitolau were ready to go to kabno-angan before the messenger arrived in kadalayapan. they went there directly, and they took many things to be used in the wedding. as soon as they arrived in kabno-angan they were glad to see that kanag was a man again. bangan and his wife asked if they liked dapílísan as a daughter-in-law, and they replied, "it is all right for kanag to marry dapílísan. we are glad he found her and did not go down, and remain always a bird." so they agreed on the marriage price, and bangan and his wife said, "the _balaua_ nine times full of different kinds of jars." as soon as the _balaua_ was filled nine times dalonágan raised her eyebrows and half of the jars vanished, and aponibolinayen used her power and the _balaua_ was filled again, so it was full truly and dalonágan said to aponibolinayen, "the web of the spider will be put around the town and you put golden beads on it, and if it does not break kanag can marry dapilísan." when aponibolinayen had put the golden beads on the web, dalonágan said again, "i am going to hang on the thread and if i do not break it the sign is good and kanag and his wife will not separate." when she hung on the thread and it did not break they allowed kanag to marry dapílísan. after that they played on the _gansas_ and they danced. when they had danced all the guests took some jars before they went home. as soon as the people went home, aponitolau and aponibolinayen took kanag and his wife to kadalayapan. this is all. (told by magwati of lagangilang.) "i am going to take a bath," said ligi, so he went. "i am going to take a bath," said gamayawán also. as soon as she arrived in the river she went to bathe and ligi took a bath further down the stream, and he put his _balangat_ [ ] on the bank, and it flew and alighted on the skirt of gamayawán. not long after gamayawán went in a hurry to seize it. "here is my toy," she said, and she put on her skirt, and ligi was sorrowful, and he went home. as soon as ligi arrived by his house he went at once to the _balaua_ and laid down in it and his mother saw him from the window. "what are you so downcast for? why do you lie on your stomach?" said his mother. "why are you downcast for, you say, my mother; my _balangat_ is lost," he said. "do not grieve; it will appear bye and bye," said his mother. when gamayawán arrived in her town of magsiliwan: "you _alan_ who live with me, look at my toy which i found by the river," she said, and was very happy, and the _alan_ truly looked at it and it was the _balangat_ of ligi, and they all laughed. "what are you laughing for?" said gamayawán to them? "we laugh because we are happy, because it is beautiful," said the _alan_. not long after gamayawán had a baby. not long after she gave birth. "what are we going to do? i am about to give birth to a child," she said. "the best thing for us to do is for us to get a thorn and stick your little finger." so they truly stuck her finger, and the little baby popped out like popped corn. [ ] "what are we going to name it?" they said. "the best name is galinginayen, for it is the name of the ancestor of the people who live in kadalayapan," said the _alan_. gamayawán gave him a bath and he grew about one span, for she used her magic. not long after the baby was large, for she always used her magic when she bathed him. [ ] not long after the baby could fly. "what can i do for this baby? i cannot work so well," said gamayawán. "the best thing for you to do, so you can do much work, is for you to carry him to kadalayapan and give him to his father," said the _alan_. "that is good, i think; we will go and take him to kadalayapan tomorrow." when it became early morning she truly prepared cakes to use as food for the boy on the way. when it became day they started. as soon as they arrived at the spring of kadalayapan she used her power so that all the people in the town and all who were dipping water at the well went to sleep; so all the people who were pounding rice and working slept truly. not long after they went up to the town. when they were approaching the _balaua_ of ligi they saw him there asleep. as soon as they reached the _balaua_ they put the boy beside the man who was sleeping. "stay here and wait, do not fall down," they said to him. "yes, mother," said the boy. they advised him not to tell who was his mother or where he came from, and they went home. as soon as they reached the edge of the town, she used her power again and all the people who were asleep woke up. ligi was surprised when he saw the boy beside him when he woke up. "why here is a boy by me, with my _balangat_ which i lost when i went to take a bath," said ligi, and he asked where the boy came from and the name of his mother and how he came. "who are you talking to," said his mother langa-an. "'who are you talking to,' you say mother, here is a boy with my _balangat_," said ligi. langa-an was in a hurry and she went down from the house and she went down two rounds of the ladder at one step. as soon as she got down she took the boy to their house, where she was cooking and they asked him many questions. "my mother is an _alan_" said galinginayen. "what is your name then?" "my name is galinginayen who is the son of an _alan_ of kabinbinlan," [ ] said the boy. "no you are not the son of an _alan_," they said. when langa-an finished cooking they tried to feed him, but he would not eat. "if you eat my cake i will eat with you," said the boy. so they ate truly of the boy's provisions and he ate also with them. when it became afternoon gamayawán went to get the boy. as soon as she arrived at the edge of the town of kadalayapan she used her power again and all the people who were working and dipping water slept. she went to the town and ligi slept again, and she took the boy. as soon as she reached the edge of the town she used her power again and all the people who slept woke up. as soon as ligi woke up he saw that the boy was not by him. "what has happened to the boy? perhaps his mother came to steal him while i was sleeping," said ligi. langa-an was surprised and sorry because the boy was gone. as soon as the boy and his mother arrived in their house, he asked his mother how many blankets she had woven while he was in kadalayapan. "ala, tomorrow you send me again to kadalayapan." "yes," said gamayawán. when it became early morning she made cakes for his provisions. when it became day they took the boy to kadalayapan. when they approached the town gamayawán used her power again so that all the people, even though they were working, slept again, and so they slept truly; then they went to the town and they left the boy beside ligi who was sleeping in the _balaua_. as soon as they were far away from the town gamayawán used her magic, and all the people who slept awoke. as soon as ligi woke up he saw the boy by him again, and they at once hid him. when it became afternoon gamayawán and her companions went to kadalayapan to get the boy and as soon as they arrived she used magic again so that all the people slept, then they went up to the town. they looked for the boy, but they could not find him, and they were troubled. they went back home crying. as soon as ligi woke up he went outdoors. five days later ligi told his mother he thought they should build _balaua_. "we are going to make _sayang_, mother, for we want to find the mother of this boy." langa-an said, "yes." not long after they made _balaua_ and when it became afternoon they made _libon_ [ ] and they commanded someone to go and get the betel-nuts which were covered with gold, so that they might send them to invite all the people in the world. as soon as the people whom they sent arrived they oiled the betel-nuts, and sent them to all parts of the world to invite all the people. not long after the betel-nut which went to the town of gamayawán arrived, "good afternoon, lady. i cannot tarry, i came to invite you, for ligi and his mother and father of kadalayapan make _sayang_," said the betel-nut. "i cannot come for there is no one to watch the house," said gamayawán. "if you do not wish to come i will grow on your knee," said the betel-nut. "grow on my big pig, for i cannot go," she said, so it went on to her big pig and the pig squealed very much. "you get off and come on my knee," said gamayawán to the betel-nut, for she was sorry for her pig. so the betel-nut went on her knee, and it grew high so that it hurt her. "ala, you betel-nut, i am going now to take a bath, and then i will come." so the betel-nut got off and she went to take a bath. when she arrived at the river she was in no hurry, for she did not wish to go, and the people from pindayan, who were iwaginan and his wife gimbagonan, and the other people passed by the place where she was bathing, when they were going to attend the _sayang_ in kadalayapan. they saw the pretty lady taking her bath by the river. "ala, you gimbagonan, give me some betel-nut so that i can give that lady a chew," said iwaginan. "no, do not lose any time, we are in a hurry," said gimbagonan. he compelled her to give it to him, so he went to give the lady the betel-nut and gimbagonan was angry. as soon as iwaginan reached the lady and offered her the betel-nut to chew she refused it, but he compelled her to chew it with him. as soon as he gave the betel-nut to her he urged her to go with them to attend the _sayang_. the lady did not want to go, but he urged her very long, until she went with them. she said, "wait for me here while i go to change my clothes, if you want me to accompany you, but it is shameful for me to go, for they did not invite me." she went slowly to their house and when iwaginan and the others waited a long time for her gimbagonan was angry with iwaginan and said bad words to him. not long after an agta [ ] woman passed by them at the river. "ay, agta, did you not see the lady for whom we are waiting?" said iwaginan. "no, i did not see her," said the agta. "if you did not see her you come with us and we will go to attend _sayang_" said iwaginan to her. "i am ashamed to go, for i have no clothes," said the agta. "no, if i wish it, do not be ashamed," said iwaginan. not long after they went. as soon as they arrived in kadalayapan the agta went to sit down behind a rice winnower, and galinginayen was carried by his father and he took him past all the people and he noticed none of them, and when they were in front of the agta he wanted to go to her, but the agta winked at him and he did not go to her though he recognized her as his mother. not long after the agta became drunk, for they gave her much _basi_ to drink. while she was drunk iwaginan called ligi. "now, cousin ligi, my companion the agta is drunk and she has laid down on the ground. i want you to take her into the house and give her a mat." ligi took her into the house and he held her by the little finger for he did not want to touch her. as soon as they were in the house he put her by the door and he put some old clothes over her, and the boy said, when he saw his mother, "how bad my father is, for he gave my mother the old blankets which the dogs lie on." as soon as his father was among the people the boy changed the blankets on his mother, and he sucked milk from her breasts. as soon as he had sucked the milk from her breasts he went to play by the window, and the guests went below him, for they feared that he would fall. when they were there all the time ligi went to the house. not long after he arrived in the house he saw the breasts of the agta twinkle like stars, and ligi took the sharp knife and cut the skin off from the agta. as soon as he had cut off all of the black skin, he threw it out of the window. he lifted her up and put her on a good mat, and all the people who went to attend _balaua_ went to where the skin had fallen, for they thought it was the child who had fallen, and they saw it was the skin of the agta. they were surprised. not long after iwaginan was anxious to go home. "ala, now, cousin ligi, i want to go home, for we have been here so long a time, do not detain us. go and get my agta companion so that we can go home." "i don't know where your agta companion is now, for i did not see where she went." iwaginan was sorry and he went to look for her. not long after he saw her on the mat. "she is on the mat, my cousin iwaginan, but i do not like to let her go with you, for she is the cause of my making _sayang_, for i wanted to find out who was the mother of the boy. now she is his mother. the best thing for you to do is to marry aponibolinayen and i am going to marry this woman," said ligi. not long after iwaginan went back home. as soon as they arrived in pindayan he divorced gimbagonan, and he went to marry aponibolinayen. so truly he married gamayawán. as soon as the _pakálon_ was over, he paid the marriage price. next evening iwaginan and aponibolinayen lived together. next morning they went to wash their hair. "wait for me here for i am going to dive in the river," said iwaginan. so he dived, and he went to the place where the _alan_ lived under the water and the _alan_ said, "eb we have something to eat for breakfast, it is a man." "no, do not eat me, i came to change my clothes," said iwaginan. "is aponibolinayen here?" they said. "no," he said, and the _alan_ covered each hair of his head with golden beads, and they gave clothes to him. after that when he went back home, they went to guide him. as soon as they arrived by the river they saw aponibolinayen. "how cunning you are, iwaginan! you told us she was not here, and she is here," said the _alan_. "if we had known that aponibolinayen was by the river we would have eaten you, for we wanted to take her," they said. "no," said iwaginan, and they went home. a day later he took aponibolinayen to pindayan and gimbagonan prepared the _baladon_ poison, because she wanted to kill iwaginan. as soon as he and aponibolinayen arrived in pindayan, gimbagonan went to their house, and she took betel-nuts. as soon as she reached the house she gave the nut to aponibolinayen, and it had _baladon_ poison on it. she gave also to iwaginan, but it had no poison on it. as soon as they chewed the betel-nut aponibolinayen died. not long after iwaginan sharpened his headaxe and spear, for he intended to cut off gimbagonan's head. they went to get a medium [ ] to make the ceremony for aponibolinayen, and when the medium was making the ceremony she said, "aponibolinayen cannot be cured unless gimbagonan comes to cure her, for she used the poison which is _baladon_." not long after they went to get gimbagonan and iwaginan was anxious to get her head, but she asked his pardon and she went to cure aponibolinayen. as soon as she made aponibolinayen drink of her medicine, she was at once alive again. not long after gimbagonan went back to her house, and when she went back iwaginan said to her, "do not do that." "you are not good, iwaginan. i do not know why you divorced me," she said. "tikgi, tikgi, ligi, if you want us to cut rice for you, we will come to work with you," said the _tikgi_ birds, "because we like to cut your rice _amasi_, which is mixed with _alomáski_ in the place of domayási." ligi said to them, "what are you going to do? i do not think you can cut rice, for you are birds and only know how to fly, you _tikgi_." but they still asked until he let them cut his rice. "ala, ligi, even if we are _tikgi_ we know how to cut rice." "if you want to come and cut, you must come again, because the rice is not yet ripe. when you think it is ripe, you come," he said. "if that is what you say ligi that we shall come when the rice is ripe, we will go home and come again," said the _tikgi_. not long after they went home. as soon as the birds went ligi fell sick; he wanted always to see them, and he had a headache, so he went home to kadalayapan. the _tikgi_ used magic so that ligi's rice was ripe in a few days. five days later, ligi went back to his rice field and the _tikgi_ went also, and they arrived at the same time. "tikgi, tikgi, ligi, ala, now we have come to cut your rice _amasi_ which is mixed with _alomáski_ in the place of domayási," said the _tikgi_. "come, _tikgi_, if you know how to cut rice," said ligi. not long after the _tikgi_ went. "we use magic so that you cut the rice. you rice cutters, you cut alone the rice. and you tying bands, you tie alone the rice which the rice cutters cut," said the _tikgi_. so the rice cutters and bands worked alone and ligi went home when he had shown them where to cut rice. he advised the _tikgi_ to cut rice until afternoon, and they said, "yes, ligi, when it is afternoon you truly come back." "yes," said ligi. when it became afternoon ligi went. as soon as he arrived at the field the rice which they had cut was gathered--five hundred bundles. "now, ligi, come and see the rice which we have cut, for we want to go back home," said the _tikgi_. ligi was surprised. "what did you do, you _tikgi_? you have nearly finished cutting my rice _alomáski_ in the place of domayási," he said. "'what did you do', you say, and we cut it with our rice cutters." "now you _tikgi_, i am ashamed to separate the payment for each of you. you take all you want," said ligi, so the _tikgi_ took truly one head of rice for each one. "now, ligi, we have taken all we can carry," said the _tikgi_. "all right if that is all you want, help yourself," said ligi, "and you come again." after that the _tikgi_ flew and took with them one head of rice each. after the _tikgi_ left ligi had the headache again, so he did not put the rice in the carabao sled, but went home in a hurry. as soon as he arrived in his house ligi used his power so that it again became morning. as soon as it became day the _tikgi_ went and ligi went also and they arrived at the same time. "tikgi, tikgi, ligi, can we cut your rice which is _amasi_ mixed with _alomáski_ in the place of domayási?" "are you here now, _tikgi_?" said ligi. "go and cut the rice and see if you can cut it very soon, and after that i will make _sayang_, and you must come _tikgi_," said ligi. "yes, we are going to cut and you do not need to stay here. you can go home if you wish," said the _tikgi_. so ligi went home. as soon as he arrived in his house he went to make a rice granary. when it became afternoon they had finished cutting the rice and ligi went to the fields to see them. as soon as he arrived there, "we have finished all the rice, ligi," they said. "come and give us the payment and then you can go home and see the rice granary where you put the rice, and all the rice bundles will arrive there directly, for you cannot carry them home." "i cannot take them home, for i always have a headache when you go. since you came i began to have headaches," said ligi. "why do you blame us, ligi?" "because since you came i have had headaches." after that ligi went home to see the rice granary. as soon as ligi left them they used magic so that all the rice went to the granary of ligi in his town. as soon as ligi arrived at the drying enclosure he saw the rice which the _tikgi_ had sent and he was surprised. "i wonder how those _tikgi_ sent all the rice? i think they are not real _tikgi_" said ligi. as soon as the _tikgi_ sent all the rice to the town they went home, and ligi went to his house. not long after he built _balaua_ and made _sayang_, and he invited all the _tikgi_. as soon as the people whom ligi invited arrived the _tikgi_ came also and they flew over the people and they made them drink _basi_. not long after they became drunk. "now ligi we must go home, because it is not good for us to stay for we cannot sit among the people whom you have invited, for we are _tikgi_ and always fly." not long after they went home and ligi followed them. he left the people in the party and he watched where they went, and they went to the _bana-ási_ tree and ligi went to them and he saw them take off their feathers and put them in the rice granary and ligi said to them, "is that what you become, a girl; sometimes you are _tikgi_ who come to cut rice for me. now that you are not _tikgi_ i would like to marry you." "it is true that i am the _tikgi_ who came to cut rice, because you would not have found me if i had not done it." he married the woman who had power so that she became several birds, [ ] and he took her home. when they arrived in kadalayapan the people whom ligi had invited were still there and were dancing. the father and mother of ligi were surprised and so they chewed betel-nut so as to find out who the lady was. the quid of ebang and pagatipánan and the quid of aponibolinayen (the _tikgi_) went together. the quid of langa-an and pagbokásan went to the quid of ligi and thus they knew who aponibolinayen was. ebang and pagatipánan were surprised that she was their daughter, and they called her aponibolinayen, and they called ligi aponitolau. as soon as they found out who she was, ligi gave the payment to the relatives of aponibolinayen. as soon as he made the payment, they played the _gansas_ and danced for three months. as soon as the _balaua_ was over all the people went home and aponibolinayen's father asked her where she had been. she said she had been in the _bana-ási_ tree where kaboniyan [ ] had put her, and they were surprised for they did not know when kaboniyan had taken her from them. after that they used magic and the house where aponibolinayen had lived went to kadalayapan. this is all. (told by madomar of riang barrio of patok.) there was a man named wadagan, and his wife was dolimáman. they were sitting together in the middle of the day, and dolimáman commanded wadagan to stick with a thorn the place between her fourth and little finger. so wadagan stuck her finger with the thorn and as soon as he did so a little baby popped out. "what name shall we give to this boy?" said wadagan. "you ask what name we shall give him, we are going to call him kanag kabagbagowan," she replied. "give him a bath every day." "i use my power so that every time i give him a bath he will grow." [ ] she always said this when she bathed him and every time the baby grew. not long after she said, "i use my power so that when i bathe him again he will be so big he will ask for his clout, belt, and top." as soon as she said this and bathed him the boy became big and asked for his clout, belt and top. not long after he dressed up and took his top and went to play with the other boys. not long after dolimáman said to wadagan, "take care of the boy while i go to the well," and wadagan said, "yes." as soon as dolimáman arrived at the well wadagan made a little raft and kanag went to the place where he was working and asked, "what is that for father?" "'what is that for,' you say. i am going to make it for your toy." not long after he said, "my son go and change your clothes and as soon as you change your clothes i will see you." when kanag went to change his clothes his father was watching for him. he said, "my dear son, now we will follow your mother to the well." so they went, but they did not go to the place where dolimáman was. they went to the east of dolimáman, and wadagan said, "ala, kanag, go on the raft which i have just made, and i will drag it up stream with a rope." kanag did not want to, but his father lifted him and put him on the new raft. as soon as he put him on the raft he pushed it out into the current and then he went back home. when he reached the yard wadagan went into the _balaua_ and laid down, and when dolimáman returned she inquired for kanag and she said, "where is kanag? why can i not see him here?" wadagan said, "i do not know. i think he is playing with the other boys in the east." not long after dolimáman went to ask agtanang and gamayawan, and she said to them, "did you see our son kanag?" "no, we did not see him," they replied. not long after, while she was inquiring, they told her the truth, and they said, "he went to the well with his father and they carried a little raft which had just been made." not long after dolimáman went to the west of the well and she saw the marks of the raft in the sand by the river and she sat there for along time and agtanang and gamayawan shaded her while she sat there by the river. not long after the old woman alokotán went to the well for she felt hot. as she was taking a bath she saw the little raft which was just made and said, "you new little raft, if the son of wadagan and dolimáman is inside of you, come here." so the little raft went to her where she was making a pool in which the dead or sick were put to restore them. as soon as she finished the pool she took him to her house and kanag asked for something to eat. the old woman alokotán said, "go and eat, it is already prepared." so kanag went and ate and he said, "mother, give me that nose flute so i can play." so she gave it to him and he played. "agdaliyan, you are feeling so happy while your mother is feeling unhappy, and is going to die by the river side," said the flute as he played. so he stopped playing and he said, "what is the matter with this flute? it sounds bad. i am going to break you into pieces." not long after he asked the old woman alokotán for the _bunkaka_ [ ] and she gave it to him. when he received it he played, and the _bunkaka_ said the same as the flute. "what is the matter with this _bunkaka_ that it talks bad? i am going to break you." he put it down again and said to alokotán, "mother, i am going to play with the other boys." "no, do not go," said the old woman, but he went nevertheless to play with the boys. not long after he reached the _balaua_, and he met a little boy playing with _lipi_ nuts, and they played together. "will you come with me to the place where my mother is while i ask for my tobacco?" said dagoláyan. "if that is what you say we will go," said kanag. so they went to the place where dolimáman was and the milk from her breasts went to kanag's mouth. "here is my son now," said dolimáman who was lying down and she sat up. "what is the matter of this woman, she called me her son and she is not my mother," said kanag. "where is your mother then?" said dolimáman. "my mother is in nagbotobotán and her name is alokotán," said the boy. "ala, let us go. where is nagbotobotán? guide me," said dolimáman. as soon as they arrived, she said, "good morning, my aunt." "good morning also," said alokotán. "my son is with you," said dolimáman. "yes, your son is with me, because i met him by the river near the well." "how much must i pay you, my aunt, because you found him and he has staid with you," said dolimáman to the old woman. "i do not wish anything, for my reason for taking him was so that i might have someone to inherit my possessions, because i have no child." "that is not my mother," said kanag to alokotán, and she replied, "yes, that is your mother, but your father put you on the river when you were a little boy, and i found you there and i took you, so i might have someone to inherit my things." not long after, "ala, my aunt, now we are not going home we will stay here, because my husband wadagan does not like us." so they used magic so that their house in kadalayapan went to nagbotobotán, and the people were surprised at the noise made by the house when it went to nagbotobotán. they saw that it was a big house all made of gold, and they placed it near to the house of alokotán. not long after wadagan made _balaua_, because he could not find his family in their golden house. wadagan got out of the _balaua_ and said, "i am going to take a walk and see if i can meet dolimáman and our house which is made of gold." not long after he went to walk, and he did not meet any of them. "i am going to go to nagbotobotán and see if the new raft went there." so wadagan went and not long after, while he was walking, he reached the edge of the town of nagbotobotán, and he saw the golden house, and he went to it directly, and he said, "perhaps that was our house, for there was no other to compare with it." when he arrived in the yard he said, "good morning." "good morning also," said the old woman alokotán. "how are you, my aunt?" she said, "we are well." and he asked her if she had seen the little raft pass by and she said, "yes, it passed by here and i took it." so they made him go upstairs and when he got up there he saw dolimáman and kanag, and kanag did not know his father. "you call me father, for you are my son," said wadagan to him. "no, you are not my father," said kanag, "if you do not wish to call me so, then i will go home, and we will leave you here. let us go dolimáman. if kanag does not like me it is all right," said wadagan. "i don't like you, for you sent me away," said kanag. "go back home, we are going to stay here," said dolimáman. so wadagan went back home and he went everywhere and dolimáman, kanag and dagoláyan staid in nagbotobotán. (told by madomar of riang.) there was a man awig and aponibolinayen, and there was a girl named linongan. "ala, you make linongan start for she goes to watch the mountain rice. you cook for her so that she goes to watch and i go to guide her," said awig. "why do you dislike our daughter linongan? do not make her go to watch for she is a girl. if she were a boy it would be all right. you know that a girl is in danger. that is why you must not put her to watch the field." "no you give her cooked rice and cooked meat and make her start, for i am ready to go now," said awig. not long after they went to the place where the mountain rice grew, and he went to station her in the high watch house. he commanded her to climb, and when she was in the middle of the ladder she was afraid, for she nearly fell down, it was so high. not long after she reached the watch house. when she looked down it seemed as if her eyes fell down it was so high. "ala, you my daughter linongan live here and watch our rice, i will come to see you. do not show yourself if anyone comes," said awig to her and he went home to natpangan. "ala, you are so happy now, awig, for you cannot see our daughter linongan," said his wife aponibolinayen, and awig laid down in the _balaua_ and aponibolinayen laid down in the room. as soon as awig left linongan in the field, the tattooed _alzados_ went to the watch house, and linongan laid down for she was afraid of them. when the tattooed _alzados_ looked up toward the watch house it seemed as if the moon shone, "ala, we will go up and see what that is." they went up, and when they arrived in the place where the girl was they were surprised at her beauty. "we will not kill her," said the young men to the bravest of them. "yes," said the bravest, "get away so i can see her, if she is very beautiful." when the young men got away he cut her in two at her waist. they took her body and her head and went home. "why did you kill her," said the young men. "so that you do not get a bad omen, young men," said the bravest of them. not long after they had killed linongan, "why does my breast flutter so, awig?" said aponibolinayen. "i feel sad also," said awig. "ala, aponibolinayen you cook food for me to take when i go and see our daughter," said awig. aponibolinayen truly went to cook for him. when aponibolinayen finished cooking, "ala, give me my dark colored clout and my belt which has pretty colors, so that i go at once to the place where the tattooed _alzados_ are. perhaps they found our daughter. look often at the _lawed_ which i shall plant by the stove. if it wilts so that its leaves are drooped, you can say awig is dead." [ ] when aponibolinayen thought he had arrived at the field she looked at the _lawed_ and it was green and flourishing. not long after awig saw the blood below the watch house. "perhaps this is the blood of my daughter. i am going to see if they have killed her." he climbed up, and when he got up, the body and head were not there, so he went down. as soon as he got down he sat and he bent his head, "what can i do? where am i going to go to find my daughter?" he said. not long after he took a walk. when he reached the jungle he looked at the big high tree. ["we can see all over the world from the high trees." this was a side remark by the story-teller.] "the best thing is for me to climb so that i watch and see where the _alzados_ live, where my daughter is," he said, and so he climbed. as soon as he climbed up he saw all over the world. he looked to the west, there were no people there who celebrated. "there is no one there," he said. he looked toward the north. there were none there who celebrated. "there is no one there," he said. he turned his face to the east, there was no one there. when he looked in the south he saw the _alzados_ who were making a celebration; and they danced with the head of his daughter. "perhaps that is my daughter," he said. "how terrible if it is my daughter," and his tears dropped. not long after he went down. as soon as he got down, "if i follow the path i will spend much time. the best way is for me to go through the woods, to make the way short. i will go where they are," he said, and he went. when he had almost reached the place where the _alzados_ were dancing he said, "what can i do to get the head of my daughter?" and he bent his head. not long after he remembered to go and get the juice of the poison tree. as soon as he secured it he split some bamboo for his torch, as he went to the celebration of the _alzados_. as soon as he arrived there he said, "good evening." "good evening," they answered. he laid down the torch by the fire of the _alzados_, who thought him a companion. "where did you come from? it has taken you so long to arrive we thought that you were dead. we did not meet you, but we found one lady who never goes out of the house, who is very beautiful, that is why we celebrate." "i took long because i was in the middle of the wood, for i wanted to get a head. i was ashamed to go back home without a head, but i did not meet anyone, so i did not secure one, for i had a bad sign. that is why i did not reach the town where i wanted to go and fight," he said. "ala, make him sit down," said the bravest. "yes," said _alzados_ and they made him sit, and they danced again. "ala, you give him a coconut shell filled with _basi_, then he must dance, when he finishes to drink," said the bravest again. awig stood up. "ala, i ask that if it is possible i take the coconut shell, for i am the one who must give the people to drink, and when i have made all drink, then i will dance. i will make _kanyau_ [ ] so that next time i may be successful," he said. "ala, you give the golden cup to him, and let him serve us drink. as soon as he will make us drink we will make him dance." "yes," they said. not long after he took the cup and he used his power so that though he drank the _basi_ the poison which he put in the big jar would not kill him, and he drank first. as soon as he drank he made the bravest drink. not long after he made all of them drink, and the _alzados_ all died, for he used magic so that when they had all drunk then they all died. he put a basket on his back, and he went to put the head of his daughter in the basket. he took the head into the middle of the circle, and he took all the valuable things which the _alzados_ had put on her. as soon as he got all the things he went home. when he was in the middle of the field he turned back his face and saw four young _alzados_ who followed him through the cogon grass, and he used magic so that the flame of the fire was so hot that the _alzados_ who followed could not reach him. [ ] when the flame of the fire was over he turned his face again when he reached the middle of the next field. he used his magic again so that the flame was so high there that the _alzados_, who always followed, could not reach him. as soon as the flame was gone they followed again, and awig shouted. the _alzados_ were frightened and were afraid to follow him for they were then near to kaodanan. "ala, we will go back or the people of kaodanan will inherit our heads," and they went back home. those were all who were left for awig did not give them poison. not long after awig arrived in natpangan. he went back to get the rest of his daughter's body from the place where the mountain rice grew. when he arrived in their house he joined the body and the head. they looked at her and she was sweating. "ala, awig you go and command someone to get the old woman alokotán. when she speaks to the cut on our daughter's body the body and head will join better," said aponibolinayen to awig. not long after, "ala, you spirit helpers go to get old woman alokotán of nagbotobotán, so she will speak to the cut on linongan," said awig. "yes," said the spirits and they went. not long after they arrived at nagbotobotán, "good morning," they said, "what are you coming for you spirits," said old woman alokotán. "'what are you coming for you say?' awig sent us to call you and take you to natpangan, for you to speak to the cut on their daughter, for the _alzados_ killed her when they sent her to watch the mountain rice." "that is why those people are bad, for when they have only one daughter they do not know how to take care of her." "ala, what can you do, that is their custom. please come," said the spirits. "ala, you go first, and i follow. i ought not come for i want them to feel sorrowful for their only daughter, which they sent to the field, but i will come for i want linongan to live. you go and i will follow," she said. "yes," they said. when the spirits arrived in kaodanan the old woman alokotán arrived also. as soon as she arrived she went at once where linongan was lying. "ala, you aponibolinayen and awig this is your pay, for although you have only one daughter you sent her to the mountain field," said the old woman alokotán to them. awig and aponibolinayen did not answer for they were ashamed. when the old woman had finished to talk to them she put saliva around the cut on linongan and caused it to join. when she finished joining it, "i use my power so that when i snap my perfume [ ] which is called _dagimonau_ ('to wake up') she will wake up at once." when she snapped her perfume linongan woke up at once. "i use my power so that when i use my perfume _alikadakad_ (sound of walking or moving) she will at once make a movement." when she snapped her perfume linongan moved at once. "i use my power so when i snap my perfume _banawes_ she will blow out her breath!" when she snapped her perfume, she at once breathed a long breath. "_wes_ how terrible my sleep was," said linongan. "'how terrible my sleep' you say. the tattooed _alzados_ nearly inherited you. i went to follow you because they took you to their town and they danced with your head," said awig. not long after awig went to take four small branches of the tree and he used magic, "i use my power so that when the four sticks will stand they will become a _balaua_." he used his power and truly the four sticks became a _balaua_ and aponibolinayen commanded someone to pound rice. ten days later they made _libon_, on the tenth night. when it became morning awig commanded someone to go and get the betel-nut which is covered with gold. as soon as they arrived they oiled the betel-nuts. "ala, all you betel-nuts, you go to invite the people from the other towns who are relatives so that they will come to make _balaua_ with us. you go to all the towns where our relatives live and invite them, and if they do not wish to come you grow on their knees." so the betel-nuts went. not long after the people whom they invited came to the place where they made _balaua_ and they all danced. the companion of ilwisan of dagápan in dancing was alama-an. when ilwisan stamped his feet the earth rumbled. when he looked up at alama-an he said, "how terrible is the love of the ladies toward me; she thinks that i love her," but he wished to dance with linongan. when they finished dancing, asigtanan and dondonyán of bagtalan danced next. when dondonyán shook his foot the world smiled and it rained softly. when they finished dancing, iwaginan and linongan, who never goes outdoors, danced. when iwaginan stamped his feet, all the coconuts in the trees fell, and when linongan moved her toes in dancing all the tattooed fish came to breathe at her feet for the water covered the town when they danced. when they were still dancing the water flowed, only a little while, and it was only knee deep, "ala, you iwaginan and linongan, stop dancing because we are deluged," said awig and the old woman alokotán. they stopped dancing and the water went down again from the town. "how terrible are the people who are like kaboniyan for they are so different from us," said the other people who went to attend _balaua_ with them. not long after, when all the people had finished dancing and the _balaua_ was over, the people went home and iwaginan was engaged to linongan. aponibolinayen said, "we do not wish that our daughter be married yet," but awig agreed. "why do you agree, awig, do you not like our only daughter?" said aponibolinayen. "i like her, but it is better for her to be married. he seems to have power. don't you know that a girl has many dangers? it is better for her to be married, because she is the only daughter we have," said awig. not long after they made _pakálon_. "ala, now, sister-in-law, how much will we pay?" said dinowágan to aponibolinayen. "the _balaua_ three times full of jewels," said aponibolinayen. "ala, yes, sister-in-law," she replied. so she used her magic and the _balaua_ was three times full of jewels, and aponibolinayen raised her eyebrows and half of the things in the _balaua_ disappeared, and dinowágan used her power again and filled the _balaua_. "ala, stop that is enough to pay for our daughter," said aponibolinayen. "i pay now." "yes," they said. "now that we have made the payment we will go home," said dinowágan. "if you do not let us take linongan to pindayan, iwaginan will live here and i will come to visit them," said dinowágan to awig and aponibolinayen. as soon as dinowágan and her companions went home. "ala, my wife we go to pindayan to see our mother dinowágan," said iwaginan. "yes, if that is what you say we will go," said linongan. not long after they asked awig and aponibolinayen, "you go, but do not stay long," they said. "yes," they answered. when they arrived in pindayan, iwaginan and linongan went to bathe in the river, and iwaginan saw the place where the _alzados_ had cut linongan in her side, and he went to make a magical well in which a person can bathe and lose all scars and wounds; and it looked as if she had no cut and she was prettier, and they went home. when they arrived in the house dinowágan was surprised, for she was more beautiful than before. "i made the magic pool and cured the cut in her side which i saw," he said. not long after when they had been two days in pindayan, they went to natpangan. dumanágan sent his mother langa-an to kaodanan. when she arrived there she said, "good morning ebang," and ebang replied, "good morning, cousin langa-an. why are you coming here?" "i came to visit you." so they made her go upstairs and they talked. not long after they all became drunk and the old woman asked if aponibalagen had a sister, and they told her that he had one. soon they agreed on the day for the _pakálon_. when the day agreed on came, aponibalagen put aponibolinayen inside of his belt [ ] so they went to kadalayapan. as soon as they arrived at the gate of the town of kadalayapan, sinogyaman carried cake and rice to the gate of the town, to take away a bad sign if one had been seen while on the way. they did not like her so she went back to the town and they sent kindi-ingan, and they did not like her either. as soon as kindi-ingan returned they sent aponigawani. when she arrived at the gate of the town they were very glad and dumanágan thought that aponibalagen had used his power so that the sweets, made of rice, were not in the basket until aponigawani went to meet them at the gate of the town. not long after they went up to the gate of the town and they agreed on the marriage price when dumanágan should marry aponibolinayen. they said the price was the _balaua_ filled nine times. not long after when they had paid they all danced. then the people went back home and aponibalagen and his people went back home also. not long after aponibolinayen was very anxious to eat _biw_ fruit of tagapolo. so dumanágan went to get it for her. he arrived where the _biw_ was and he got some, and in a short time he returned to kadalayapan and he gave the fruit to his wife to eat. as soon as she ate it she became well again. after seven months she gave birth and they called the boy asbinan. as soon as the boy became large he went to play with the girls. as soon as asigowan of nagwatowátan noticed the braveness of asbinan she made _balaua_, and she commanded the people to pound rice. not long after she commanded the betel-nuts to go and invite their relatives. the betel-nuts went to all the towns in the world and invited all the people. the next day they oiled the _gansas_ and the people played them and all the people who heard them danced for they liked the sound of them very much. so asbinan went to attend the _balaua_. all the people arrived at the place by the spring and a big storm came and wet all of them. not long after the people who lived in the same town as asigowan, which was the town of nagwatowátan, went to meet them at the spring, to give them dry clothes. they changed their clothes and went up to the town. as soon as they all danced asbinan saw asigowan and he wanted to marry her. so he gave her betel-nut to chew and they told their names, and when they had told their names their quids showed that it was good for them to marry. the father and mother of asigowan were gagelagatan and dinowágan, but she lived with the _alan_. her father and mother did not know her until she made _balaua_ and asbinan did not know her until the _balaua_, then he married her at once. as soon as he married her all his concubines used their magic power so that while he was living with asigowan she would cut her finger. not long after she truly cut her finger and died. they put her in the _tabalang_ [ ] which had a rooster on top of it. then all the concubines of asbinan were glad. not long after they sent the _tabalang_ along the stream and the rooster on top of it crowed, and the old woman alokotán went to see it. she stopped the _tabalang_ and took out the body of the dead person. not long after she made her alive again. as soon as she made her alive again she put her in a well and she became a beautiful girl. not long after she became a bird and she flew back to the place where asbinan lived. the bird flew above him, and he tried to catch it. when he could not catch her, she went to the top of a tree, and asbinan went into his house and he was sorrowful, because his wife was dead. soon he fell asleep and the bird went near to him and asbinan awoke and caught it. the bird became a girl again, the same as before, and asbinan saw that it was his wife, so he was very happy and they made a big party. they invited all their relatives. not long after all the people arrived and they all danced. the old woman alokotán was there and asigowan told asbinan that she was the woman who gave her life again, so they treated her very good and the old woman alokotán gave them all her property, and all the people who went to attend the party were very glad. (told by masnal of abang.) [ ] "when i was a young fellow i went to all parts of the world, to every town where the tattooed igorot live, who were all enemies. "mother dinowágan put the rice in the pot which looks like the rooster's egg, [ ] so that i eat rice, for i go to fight the tattooed igorots," said ibago wa agimlang who was four months old. "do not go my son agimlang your feet are too young and your hands look like needles they are so small. you just came from my womb." "oh, mother, dinowágan, do not detain me for it will make me heavy for fighting," said agimlang. as soon as he finished eating, "mother dinowágan and father dagilagatan let me start, and give me the little headaxe and spear and also a shield, for i am going to walk on the mountain daoláwan." not long after he started. as soon as he arrived on top of the mountain daoláwan he sat on a stone which looked like a bamboo bench under the alangigan tree, and there were _alan_ [ ] there who were young girls. "oh, why are you here ibago wa agimlang who just came from your mother's womb?" said the _alan_. "'what, are you here?' you say young _alan_, whose toes on your feet are spread out. i am going to fight with the tattooed igorot," said ibago wa agimlang to them, and they talked for nine months, in the place where the stone bench was. the _alan_ girls wanted to see him all the time. after that, "you young _alan_ girls, i am going to leave you." "do not go," said the _alan_, "because you are a little baby, you just came from the place where your mother gave birth to you." "do not detain me, young girls, for it is bad for me if you detain me, for i will be too heavy for fighting," said ibago wa agimlang. "if i return from war, i will invite you to attend my big party," he said to them, and so he went. not long after he arrived at the town where the tattooed igorot lived, and they were so many they looked like locusts. he used his power, "you, my headaxe and my spear, go and fight with the tattooed igorot, and kill all of them." as soon as the tattooed igorot heard what he said, they said, "why, do you brave baby come to fight with us for, you are very young? now you cannot return to your town, for we inherit you," said the bravest of the _alzados_. [ ] "if you had said that you intended to kill me i would have killed all of you, even though i am a baby just from my mother's womb," said agimlang. so the bravest of the _alzados_ told his people that they should prepare to fight with the baby, and they began to throw their spears at him, but they could not hit him. as soon as all the spears and headaxes were gone, the baby fought with them, and his spear and headaxes killed all the people who lived in that town. as soon as he killed all of them he used magic so that the heads of the tattooed _alzados_ went to pindayan. not long after truly all the heads went to pindayan and he followed them. when he arrived at the spring of lisnayan in the town of ibowan he rested and he sat on the high stone and began to play the bamboo jew's harp and igowan saw him. "adolan come and see this young fellow and hear him play the jew's harp." the harp said, "iwaginan adolan, inalangan come and see your brother, if he is your true brother." so adolan went truly to see him and he found that it was a newborn baby who was just beginning to walk. "where did you come from little baby?" said adolan. "'where did you come from?' you say. i come from fighting the tattooed igorot." "how does it happen that you went to war, for you are only just from your mother's womb?" "'how does it happen?' you say. i heard my father saying that when he was young he went to all parts of the world in all the towns," said ibago wa agimlang to adolan. not long after he gave him betel-nut and they chewed. as soon as they finished chewing they told their names, and adolan told his name first and ibago wa agimlang was next to tell his. after that they laid down their quids and they saw that they were brothers. "now, my brother, adolan we will go to pindayan, for i am going to make a big party, for i just return from fighting," said ibago wa agimlang. "ala, you go first and i will go to see our brother," said adolan. not long after ibago wa agimlang started to go and he lost his way, and he went through the mountain rice clearing of kabangoweyan, who was the _lakay_ [ ] and he walked through many _lawed_ vines which were wide spreading and when anyone cut off a leaf they smiled. as soon as he arrived at the little house of the old man, "oh, grandfather, tell me the way back home and i will not take your head," said ibago wa agimlang to the old man. "where are you going?" he said. "i am going home to the town of pindayan, for i am returning from fighting." "stop while i cook, and you can eat first, and then you can go," said the old man. "no, i do not wish to eat. tell me the way back home," said ibago wa agimlang. so he showed him the way to pindayan, but missed the way and they went through the middle of the reeds, and the place where the _lawed_ vines grew, and he met the pretty girl who was his sister, who had been hiding between two leaves. "now, pretty girl, i have found you among the _lawed_ vines, and i am going to take you," said ibago wa agimlang. so he took her and he put her inside of his belt. not long after he arrived in pindayan and he made a big party. adolan and iwaginan and igowan went to attend the party. not long after he took inalingan out of his belt, she was a pretty girl who looked like the newly opened flower of the betel-nut tree. "where did you get her?" "'where did you get her?' you say. i met her in the place where there are many _lawed_ vines, and when you cut their leaves they smile," said ibago wa agimlang. "now, brother, we are going to chew betel-nut, and see if we are truly relations," said daliwagenan (ibago wa agimlang), and he called adolan, igowan, and all his brothers and sisters, and his father and mother. he gave them betel-nut to chew, and dagilagatan and dinowágan told their names first and iwaginan was the next, and then adolan and then igowan, but he said that he was the son of the _alan_, and next was agimlang and then the pretty girl. she said, "my name is inaling who is the little girl who never goes out of the _lawed_ vines, which when somebody cuts they smile." after they finished chewing the betel-nut and telling their names, they laid down their quids, and the quids igowan and ginalingan (inaling) went to the quids of iwaginan and adolan. "oh, my son, igowan and my daughter ginalingan, i thought that i did not have any more my daughter and son and that the _alan_ had taken. we did not feed you rice," said the old woman dinowágan. "ala, my son, agimlang, do not feel sorry, because you heard what your father dagilagatan said to you, because you met your brothers and sister who are igowan and ginalingan," said the old woman dinowágan. after that they danced for about nine months. after that igowan and adolan and iwaginan went home and they did not let ginalingan go back home. as soon as igowan arrived in his town he built _balaua_ and he invited all his relatives who lived in different towns and all the _alan_ in the world. not long after the people whom he invited arrived in the town of igowan, and all the _alan_ went to his _sayang_, and the _alan_ were surprised that dagilagatan and dinowágan knew that igowan and ginalingan were their son and daughter, so they asked them. they said that ibago wa agimlang met them when he came from war and he took them to his party so they knew that they were their son and daughter for they chewed betel-nut. as soon as igowan's _sayang_ was over the _alan_ gave all their valuable things to him, and also those who had taken ginalingan. as soon as they had given them all their things the _alan_ flew away and dinowágan and her husband took their sons and daughters to pindayan. [ ] there was a man named asbinan who was the son of ayo, but the old woman alokotán took care of him. "ala, my grandmother alokotán, go and engage me to dawinisan who looks like the sunshine, for i want to marry her," said the young boy asbinan. the old woman replied, "i do not think they will like you, for she is a young girl who never goes outdoors." [ ] "ala, grandmother, you go anyway, and if they do not like me i will see what i shall do," said asbinan who was a handsome young man. not long after the old woman went. as soon as she arrived at the stairs of the house of the mother and father of dawinisan, they said, "good morning," and the mother of dawinisan said, "good morning, what did you come here for, ayo and alokotán of kadalayapan?" "'what did you come here for?' you say. our son asbinan wants to marry dawinisan," said ayo. she called them up into the house and they talked. "we will ask our daughter and hear what she says." when they asked dawinisan if she wished to marry asbinan, she said, "oh, my mother, i am ashamed to marry yet, i do not know how to do anything; so i do not wish to be married now. do not dislike me, but be patient with me." so her mother said, "pretty ayo, i think you heard what she said. be patient." not long after ayo and alokotán went back to kadalayapan. when they arrived there, asbinan asked them the result of their mission. "did they wish me to marry their daughter dawinisan?" his mother replied, "they said that dawin-isan does not wish to be married yet; so we came back home." when he knew that they did not wish him for a son-in-law, for they did not give any reason, he thought and he said, "my mother, hand me my golden cup, for i am going away." so his mother gave it to him. as soon as he arrived in the yard of dawinisan, he said, "good morning, dawinisan, will you look out of the window at me?" dawinisan said to the _alan_, who had spreading toes and who bent double when they walked, [ ] "look out of the window and see who it is." the _alan_ said to her, "he wants you to look at him." dawinisan said, "i cannot go to the window to look at him, for the sunshine is hot. i do not wish the sun to shine in my face." when asbinan could not get her to go to the window, he used magic and went inside of the golden cup, and he pretended that he was ill in his stomach. he said, "ana, mother, i am going to die, for my stomach suffers greatly," and he said to the _alan_, "ala, you _alan_, tell her that she must look out of the window to see me." the _alan_ said to dawinisan, "come and look at him; he wants you to see him. he says that his stomach is ill." but dawinisan said to the _alan_, "tell him that i cannot go and look at him, i am ashamed. you look at him and then you rub his stomach." the _alan_ told asbinan that dawinisan would not look at him, and he would not let the _alan_ rub his stomach. he said, "if dawinisan does not want to look at me from the window, and if i die it is her fault, for i came here because of her." the _alan_ who saw that asbinan was a beautiful young boy, said, "if you will not go to look at him, we are going to leave you, for we fear that he is going to die because of you." dawinisan did not wish the _alan_ to leave her, and she said, "ala, bring him up on the porch and i will see him." the _alan_ took him up on the porch, and she went to look at him. when she saw that he was a handsome boy, she said, "i am ashamed, for i did not think he was a rich and handsome boy." when she saw that the boy appeared to be suffering greatly she went into the house; she changed her dress and went out on the porch, and she looked like the sunshine. when she reached the porch, she rubbed the boy's stomach, and directly asbinan sat up. dawinisan said to him, "come into the house and we will tell our names and see if we are relatives." so they went into the house and she told him to set down on a golden seat which looked like a fawn. as soon as he sat down he said, "pretty, young girl, when i see you i am blinded by your beauty. i came here because i wish to marry you." "oh, asbinan! i am ashamed, but i do not want to be married yet," said dawinisan. "dawinisan, even if you tell me to leave you, i will not do it until you promise to marry me. i will stay with you now," he said. dawinisan replied, "even though you should stay here one month, i do not care," asbinan said. "let us chew betel-nut and see if the quids turn to beads with no hole, and lie side by side; or if they lie parallel, then it is not good for us to marry; so we shall see." not long after they chewed betel-nut, and when they laid down their quids they were agate beads, and they laid side by side; so they saw it was good for them to marry. "ala, now it is good for us to marry and we are related." dawinisan replied, "ala, go and tell your mother that if they have everything we want and will pay what we want, you can marry me." asbinan said, "yes," and he went to his grandmother alokotán. "ala, my grandmother alokotán, what shall we do? dawinisan said that if we have everything they want and will pay it for her, she will marry me." the old woman said, "ala, do not worry about that, i will see." not long after they started and took asbinan, and when they arrived at the house of dawinisan they agreed on the marriage price. her mother said, "if you can fill our _balaua_ nine times with gold shaped like deer, and jars which are _addeban_ and _ginlasan_, asbinan can marry our daughter." alokotán and the others replied, "ala, if that is what you say it is all right, and we can pay more." so alokotán used magic and the _balaua_ was filled nine times with the things they wished, and there were more golden deer than jars. the father and mother and relatives of the girl said, "asbinan and our daughter dawinisan can be married now." when the _pakálon_ was over, alokotán used magic and she said, "i use my power so that they will not know that they are transferred to kadalayapan," and all the houses went to kadalayapan. not long after the people who went to attend the _pakálon_ found that they were in kadalayapan and they were surprised, and the people from the other towns went home when the _pakálon_ was finished. "i am going to lie down on the stone which is like a seat below the _dumalotau_ tree," said ayo, for she felt hot in the middle of the day. "what shall we call our son?" "we shall call him asbinan, who looks like the spreading branch of the betel-nut tree which looks pretty in the afternoon," said ligi, her husband. "ala! agben, my loving son, go to eat," said ayo. "mother--pretty ayo--i do not wish to eat when we have no fish roe." after that ligi went to his friends who use the big fish net in the ocean. "ala, my friends, search fish roe, for my son asbinan wishes to eat." they went to examine the bellies of nine baskets of fish, but there was no roe. he went to his friends who fish in the river. "ala, friends secure fish roe which my son wishes to eat." soon after, "how much do i pay?" "you do not pay, for this is the first time you have come to buy," said those friends who fish in the river. "agben, my child, come and eat." "mother, pretty ayo, i do not wish to eat the fish roe when there is no _dolang_, [ ] and i do not like to drink out of the scraped cocoanut shell when there is no glass which comes from the place of the chinese, and i do not like to eat from the bamboo dish when there is no dish from baygan (vigan)." after that ligi went and got the cup and the dish from the chinese store. "agben, my loving son, come and eat, for everything is here which you wish," said pretty ayo. when they had finished eating, "father ligi give me your love charm [ ] which you used when you were young, for i wish to go to the place where the maidens spin at night." "good evening, young girls," said asbinan. "i do not like to light my tobacco unless the fire is taken from the light of your pipes." they were anxious to offer their pipes, but when tiningbengan stubbed her toe she stopped and sinobyaman, who was the prettiest, was the one on whom he blew his smoke (a part of the love charm). she vomited and her eyes were filled with tears, and after that they went home, all those who spun together. "ala! go and fetch asbinan, for she (sinobyaman) turns over and over and sways to and fro since he blew on her last night." they went to get asbinan who was sleeping, and he stepped on their heels as they walked. "ala, aunt, i cannot cure her unless we are married." then they decided on the day for _pakálon_, and the price was the lower part of the house filled nine times with jars, which are _malayo_ and _tadogan_. then she made the cakes for the parents-in-law, and they carried the pig, and they received the marriage price which was the lower part of the house nine times filled. "ala! my wife iwánen who loves me every afternoon, make cakes of rice which shall be my provisions when i go to the southern place san fernando and baknotan, which is a part of pangasinan. [ ] i am going to investigate the report concerning the beautiful women, who are like the rift in the clouds--the escaping place of the moon--; who are like the bright stems of good betel-nuts." "ala! my soldiers who are many, catch my horse which is a pinto, which paces, which walks fast, which goes, which gallops, which has sore sides." "it is here already, the horse which is a pinto, the saddle is already placed." "ala! now my wife iwánen, i am going to leave you here. keep your honor as a person of wealth. perhaps some one will entice you and we two will be ashamed before the people of our town." after that he went and started--tolagan who went toward the south. he whipped the pinto, he ran, he walked. when he was in the town of kaodanan his body was thirsty. "i go to the place of betel-nuts, where i shall drink the water which is white like coconut oil." he arrived at the place of the betel-nuts. he met a maiden who was like the place of a large fire. there was no other such maiden. "good morning, maiden who takes water in the shady place of the leaves which grow, which are stripped off in the middle of the place of betel-nuts, which bear fruit which anyone gathers. i come to drink with you the water which looks like oil," said tolagan. "if you are the old raider cut me only once so that i have less to heal," (she said). "no, i am not the old raider, for i live in baliwanan and i go to the south to pangasinan." "do not continue the journey, for you have a bad sign. the birds skimmed past in front of you, also in the rear and the sides. [ ] go back to baliwanan." "if that is what you say pretty one, i shall turn back because of this sign." he arrived at baliwanan, but his wife was not there, for she had run away with kaboniyan [ ] to the town of the sky. there was not a place he did not search for her. he went to the head man. "ala, _presidente_ of our town, i come to ask for companions while i search for my wife, who vanished last night." he gave (the searchers), but when they did not find her, he went to another town. he went to the place of baingan in the town of the north. "good morning, i came to ask companions to search for her who was absent last night." "if that is still your trouble" said baingan, "you go and see my sister, who is imbangonan, whom you shall take for wife, who cannot belt herself unless there are nine belts. she is in the middle of the place of the betel-nuts." "good morning, imbangonan," said tolagan. "i came to see you, for your brother told me we are to marry if you like me." "if you like me, we will chew green betel-nut and see what is your fortune." when they finished chewing, the two quids went into a line. "ala! we will marry if you agree to pay _gumtang_ and _ginalman_". [ ] there were two girls who went to take a walk and a rich man met them, and he asked, "where are you going, you two girls?" "we are going to walk around the town." the rich man said, "come and walk with me." when they reached their house he gave them some work to do and he treated them just the same as his daughters. the rich man was a king, and he put the girls in a room and the princesses mary and bintolada were in the other room. the king and the queen gave dresses to the girls but they did not give them any bracelets and rings. not long after the two girls went to the house of the jeweler and they ordered him to make rings and bracelets for them like those the princesses had. as soon as they went in the house of indayo and iwaginan in the town of pindayan, they asked for water to drink. after that iwaginan and indayo gave them water to drink, and they thought that the two girls, who were dressed like men, were ladies, so they followed them when they left and they took _basi_ for them to drink. as soon as the princesses arrived in the jeweler's house they commanded him to make rings and bracelets for them. as soon as the jeweler began to make the rings and bracelets for them iwaginan and indayo arrived with the _basi_. soon it became night and they ate and drank in the night and they became drunk, and they all slept in one room. the people saw the beads on their arms and the jeweler awakened them and put them in another room so they did not sleep in the same room with the others and he said, "i thought you were princes, for you dress like princes, but when i saw your beads i woke up, for i think those two men are planning bad for you. go and sleep in the other room." so they went into the other room to sleep. not long after it became daylight and they returned home, and iwaginan and indayo did not see them, and they were very sorry for they thought the princes were truly girls. so they went back home, and as soon as they arrived there they said, "we are going to make _balaua_, to find out if those princes were truly girls." so they began to build _balaua_. they sent messengers to go and invite people in every town. not long after the people whom they invited arrived, and they saw that the princes were not there. so they commanded their spirit aids to go to all the world and find those princes. so the spirits became hawks and they flew about the world. as soon as they came near to the palace of the king they alighted on a tree and they watched the princesses in the windows and hawks said, "_tingi_." the princesses heard the word "_tingi_," and they were ganinawan and asigtanan. they saw the birds from the window, and the hawks flew by them and the princesses stroked their feathers, because they were pretty. soon the hawks seized them in their talons and flew away with them and carried them to pindayan. not long after they reached there and iwaginan and indayo were very glad, and they made a big party and they invited the king. the king had been searching for them for a long time. some of the spirit helpers who had gone to the palace said, "good morning. we came here to invite you, for iwaginan and indayo sent us. they are making a big party for those princesses for whom you are searching, for we took them to pindayan, and iwaginan and indayo married them." when the king heard the news he was glad, and he went to the party. indayo and iwaginan made him dance when he arrived, and kanag and dagoláyen went to that party. not long after they put those girls, whom iwaginan and indayo had stolen, in their belts and they did not know what had become of their wives and they were sorry. kanag and dagoláyen took them home. when they arrived home they told their names and they chewed betel-nut and they found that it was good for them to be married, instead of iwaginan and indayo. kanag married asigtanan and dagoláyen married ganinawan. the mother of ganinawan was aponibolinayen and the mother of asigtanan was aponigawani. as soon as they were married and they had learned who their mothers were they built _balaua_, and they sent some betel-nuts to invite all of their relatives in other towns. iwaginan and indayo went to attend the _balaua_, and they danced. they saw that those girls were their wives and they tried to take them back home, but kanag and dagoláyen would not let them. they said it was not good for them to be married even though they wished to be married to them, because the girls would become oil when they went close to them. so indayo and iwaginan were very sorry. ganinawan was the sister of kanag and asigtanan was the sister of dagoláyen. they did not find out that they were related until indayo and iwaginan took them, for their mothers had lost them in miscarriages, and the girls became women by themselves, and the king found them. (told by talanak of manabo.) ritualistic and explanatory myths [ ] the ipogau [ ] are making _sayang_. [ ] "why do not those ipogau who are making _sayang_ start the _balaua_ [ ] correctly?" said the spirits above. those _anitos_ [ ] who are married, who are kadaklan and agemem, [ ] say, "it is better that you carry the pig." then truly they carried the pig up the river, those two ipogau who are married. "ala! you walk and walk until you arrive at sayau, for a person who lives there is making _sayang_," said the spirits. after that they arrived, those who are married who carried the pig, at the place of the man who made _sayang_. "where are you going?" asked the man of sayau of those who carried the pig. "we came to see how you make _sayang_, for we have not yet learned how to make _sayang_ correctly," said those who are married. "ala! watch what i am doing and imitate." they watched what he did when he made _sayang_, and he did everything. he made _balag, sagoyab, aligang,_ they made also _tangpap_, they made _adagang, balabago_, and what is needed for _al-lot_. [ ] after that, "you go home, and when you make _sayang_ you do as i did," said the man from sayau. they went home truly, those ipogau, and they imitated the man who made _sayang_ in sayau; then those who are married--kadaklan and agemem--caused the spirits to come whom they called, those who made _diam_ when they built _balaua_. (here the medium names the spirits which cause sickness.) now you get better, you who build _balaua_. [ ] "those who knew to make _dawak_, went to make _dawak_, but they did not prepare the pig correctly. not long after kaboniyan, [ ] above, was looking down on those who make _dawak_. kaboniyan went down to them, he went to tell those preparing the pig, because they did not prepare it correctly--those two who make _dawak_. after that they prepared the pig correctly and the sick person got well of the sickness. "ala, when there is again the repetition of the sickness to the person for whom you go to make _dawak_, do not neglect to prepare the pig correctly, so that the sick person may get better, whom you try to make well. i also, kaboniyan, prepare correctly when there is a person for whom i make _dawak_, and you, ipogau, do not prepare correctly when you make _dawak_." after that when there is the person they go to cure who is sick, they always prepare correctly because it was kaboniyan who told them to do always like that. when some one is ill whom they go to cure, they prepare correctly. [ ] the spirit who lives in dadaya [ ] lies in bed; he looks at his _igam_ [ ] and they are dull. he looks again, "why are my _igam_ dull? ala, let us go to sudipán where the tinguian live and let us take our _igam_, so that some one may make them bright again." after that they laid them (the _igam_) on the house of the ipogau [ ] and they are all sick who live in that house. kaboniyan [ ] looked down on them. "ala, i shall go down to the ipogau." he truly went down to them, "what is the matter with you?" "we are all sick who live in the same place," said those sick ones. "that is true, and the cause of your sickness is that they (the spirits) laid down their _igam_ on you. it is best that you make _pala-an_, since you have received their _igam_, for that is the cause of your illness." after that they made _pala-an_ and they recovered from their sickness, those who lived in the same place. (here the medium calls the spirits of dadaya by name and then continues.) "now those who live in the same place make bright again those _igam_ which you left in their house. make them well again, if you please." [ ] those who live in the same town go to raid--to take heads. after they arrive, those who live in the same town, "we go and dance with the heads," said the people who live in the same town, "because they make a celebration, those who went to kill." "when the sun goes down, you come to join us," said the mother and baby (to her husband who goes to the celebration). after that the sun truly went down; she went truly to join her husband; after that they were not (there), the mother and the baby (i.e., when the father arrived where they had agreed to meet, the mother and child were not there). he saw their hats lying on the ground. he looked down; the mother and the baby were in (the ground), which ground swallowed them. "why (are) the mother and the baby in the ground? how can i get them?" when he raises the mother and the baby, they go (back) into the ground. after that kaboniyan above, looking down (said), "what can you do? the spirits of ibal in daem are the cause of their trouble. it is better that you go to the home of your parents-in-law, and you go and prepare the things needed in _ibal_ [ ]," said kaboniyan. they went truly and prepared; after that they brought (the things) to the gate. after that the mother and child came out of the ground. "after this when there is a happening like this, of which you ipogau are in danger, you do like this (i.e., make the _ibal_ ceremony) and i alone, kaboniyan, am the one you summon," said kaboniyan. after that they got well because they came up--the mother and the baby. [ ] there is a very old woman in the sea who says to her spirits--dapeg (a spirit which kills people) and balingenngen (a spirit which causes bad dreams) and benisalsal (a spirit which throws things and is unpleasant), "go beyond the sea and spread your sicknesses." the spirits are going. they arrive and begin their work, and if the people do not make _sangásang_ many will die. now it is morning and the spirits are going to the river to see what the people have offered to the old woman, who is ináwen (mother). if they do not find anything, they will say, "all the people in this town shall die," and then they will go on to another place. ináwen, who is waiting, sends kideng (a servant) to search for the spirits who are killing people, to tell them to return. dapeg leaves the first town. he goes to another and the dogs bark so that the people cannot sleep. a man opens the door, to learn the cause of the barking, and he sees a man, fat and tall, with nine heads and he carries many kinds of cakes. the man says, "now take these cakes, and if you do not make sangásang for my mistress, at the river, you shall die. you must find a rooster with long tail and spurs; you must mix its blood with rice and put it in the river at dawn when no one can see you." the man makes _sangásang_ the next night, and puts the blood mixed with rice in a well dug by the river, so that the spirits may take it to their mistress. kideng also arrives and says, "you must come with me now, for she awaits you who are bearing this offering." they go and arrive. their mistress eats and says, "i did not think that the blood of people tasted so badly, now i shall not send you again, for you have already killed many people." [ ] "you whom i send, go to the place where our relatives live in sudipán," [ ] said maganáwan of nagbotobotán, "because i desire very much the blood of the rooster mixed with rice." he gave his cane and sack, "when you arrive at the place (of those who live) in sudipán you wave my cane and the husks of betel-nut which are here in my sack." they truly waved when they arrived: many snakes (were creeping) and many birds (flying) when they waved there by the gate. "how many snakes and birds now," said the ipogau. [ ] "go! command to make _sangásang_" said the married ones. "we shall wait the blood of the rooster mixed with rice, because they remember to command to make _sangásang_" said those who maganáwan of nagbotobotán commanded. they took the blood of the rooster mixed with rice, which was put in the _saloko_ [ ] in the yard; they arrived to their master. "how slow you are," said maganáwan. "we are only slow, because there was no one who listened to us where we arrived first," said those whom he commanded; "we went up (the river) until there was one who remembered to command to make _sangásang_, which is what we now bring to you--the blood of the rooster mixed with rice." they gave; he put in his mouth--the one who commanded them--he spit out. "like this which is spit out (shall be) the sickness of the ipogau who remember me," said maganáwan of nagbotobotán. after that it is as if nothing had happened to the family. [ ] the ipogau are digging where they make stand the poles of their houses. "you go to give the sign," said the master of the sign to the _siket_. [ ] _siket_ went. "why do we have a bad sign? we remove the poles," said the ipogau, and they removed that there might be no bad sign. the deer went to call when they were digging where they removed those poles which they made stand. "we remove again the poles," said the ipogau, and they removed again. when they were digging, where they made to stand those poles which they removed, the wild pig went to grunt. they removed again the poles which make the house. as before, the snake went to climb the pole with which they made the house, and they removed again. when they were digging again where they made the poles stand with which they made the house, the _labeg_ [ ] skimmed over, and as they had a bad sign the ipogau moved again the poles with which they made the house. "koling," and "koling" and again "koling" (the bird cried); they removed again the log which they made stand, with which they made the house. the _salaksák_ clucked, who flew where they dug, where they made those poles stand, with which they made the house. since they have the bad sign again, they say to the others--those who make the poles stand--"we are very tired always to dig and dig, and to make stand and make stand those poles, we go ahead to make the house," and they placed their lumber and they went--one family of the ipogau. then they finished what they built, their house. there was nothing good for them, and there was nothing which was not their sickness (i.e., they had all manner of sickness). "my wife," said kaboniyan, "give me the coconut oil, that i oil my spear, for i go to see those ipogau who are sick." when those ipogau who were sick were in their house, his spear fell in their house. "what is the matter with you, ipogau?" said kaboniyan. "what is the matter with you, you say, and there is nothing which we do not do for our sickness, and we are never cured," said those ipogau. and kaboniyan answered, "how can you become cured of your sickness when you have a bad sign for that which you made--your house? the reason of your sickness is because you do not make _sangásang_. the good way (is) you find a rooster, and that you command the one who knows how to make _diam_ of the _sangásang_ to make _sangásang_. i (am) always the one for whom you make _diam_," said kaboniyan. and truly, before they had finished making _sangásang_, it was as if there had been nothing wrong, that family was cured of their sickness. [ ] the poles of the ipogau's house were quarreling. said the floor supports to the poles who were quarreling, "what can you do if i am not?" "what can you do if i am not?" said the foot-boards to those floor supports who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the cross supports to those floor supports who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the cross supports to those foot-boards who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the floor to those cross supports who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the wall to the floor boards who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the beams to the wall boards who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the _pongo_ [ ] to the beams who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the _daplat_ [ ] to the _pongo_ who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the end pole to those _daplat_ who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not?" said the _salabáwan_ to those end poles who are quarreling. "what can you do if i am not--who am _legpet_?" said those _legpet_ to those _salabáwan_, "though you are _legpet_, you can do nothing if i am not," said the _gakot_, "because you fall," said the _gakot_ to the _legpet_ who are quarreling. "and what can you all do if i am not, who am grass? you all decay if i am not," said the grass (roof) to those who are quarreling. "therefore we are all the same use to the house of the ipogau; we will unite our thoughts and breath, so that in the same manner the thoughts of the ipogau are united, who live in us," said those who are quarreling. and they united their thoughts and breath. after that the ipogau who were sick were cured, those who lived in the house. it was as if there was nothing bad for that family. [ ] the great spirit lives in the sky, and he is carrying the goods of the people. he says to himself, "to whom shall i give these goods which i am carrying? i shall take them to the earth." he looked down on bisau, for the people there promised to make _ubaya_. soon the people saw a man entering the town and they sent a man to prevent him [ ]. he said, "let me come in, for i bring goods for you. your food and animals and other things which you need shall be increased." after that he said, "let all the people in the world know of this so that they will make _ubaya_ for me, and i will aid them also." dayapán was a woman who lived in ka-alang. for seven years she was sick. she went to the spring to bathe and while she was in the water a spirit sent by kadaklan [ ] entered her body. the spirit held sugar-cane and rice. he said to her, "take this sugar-cane and rice and plant them in the ground. after you reap the sugar-cane and rice, you will build a bin to hold the rice, and a sugar mill for the cane; after that you will make _sayang_ and that will make you well." dayapán took those things and went back home. she planted the sugar-cane and rice. when she was planting, the spirit entered her body again and taught her how to plant. when she reaped the sugar-cane and rice, she began to make _sayang_. the spirit kaboniyan went again into her to teach her how to make _sayang_. the spirit said, "send a man to get _bolo_ (bamboo) and weave it into _talapitap_. [ ] take _lono_ and _bolo_ as big as a finger and make _dakidak_, and put a jar with water upstairs in the house. dance _daeng_ [ ] for ten nights. you will pass seven evenings, then you will build _balaua_. [ ] send some persons to get wood and bamboo and rattan and cogon, and take ten baskets with cooked rice to follow the number of nights (i.e., on the first night one basket of cooked rice on the _talapitap_; the second night, two; and so on). when you finish the time you will know how to make _dawak_ and to call all the spirits, and you will teach the people how to do _dawak_." when she finished the _dawak_, the spirit sent her to wash in the river as a sign that she had finished _sayang_. he told her to get a dog and a cock. she went to the river and she tied the cock and the dog by the water, and while she was gone, the dog killed the cock. dayapán wept, but for a long time the spirit did not come. when kaboniyan came again, he said, "if the dog had not killed the cock, no person would die, but this is a sign and now somebody will die and some will be well." dayapán went home and when she arrived there she began to learn to make _dawak_, and she called all people to hear her and she told all she had seen and heard. then the people believed her very much. when somebody was sick, they called dayapán to see them and to show them how to make them well. so dayapán taught them all kinds of _dawak_ which the spirit had told her because before when dayapán was sick, no one knew the _dawak_. [ ] many years ago there was a woman whose name was bagutayka. she had had only one daughter whose name was bagan. a boy who lived in lantágan wished to marry bagan, but she did not wish to marry him because she had no vagina, and she was ashamed. her mother said, "take this little pot with pictures on the outside, and this sucker of banana and go to the roadside where people are passing. when people are passing, you will make them sick in their knees or feet." then poor bagan went by the roadside. in a short time a man passed by her; after that he was sick in his knees and did not walk, he only lived in his house, and could not move his hands or feet. his parents were troubled to find medicine for him, for none they found did him good. they used all the medicine that they knew. then bagan went to see him in his house and told him to make _bawi_. [ ] the sick man said to her, "how do we make _bawi_, for we have never heard about that?" bagan said, "bring me a white cloth, a basket of rice, some thread, a betel-nut, coconut, a rooster, and _toknang_." [ ] they brought all of these, and bagan took them. then they built a _bawi_ in the garden and planted the sucker by it. they broke the coconut shell, killed the rooster, and took his feathers to put in the coconut husk, and they broke the coconut meat. they made _sablau_ near the _bawi_ and put the coconut meat in it. when they had done this, the man who was sick was as good as if he had not been sick, he could walk just as before. this is the way the tinguian people learned to make _bawi_. [ ] in the first times kaboniyan told a sick man to go to the mango tree at the edge of the village. "take a feather for your hair, a clay dish with oil, a headaxe, a spear, and a small jar of _basi_, when you go to the tree." he did as he was bidden, and when he reached the tree the _pináing_ [ ] were there. "ala! now kill a small pig and offer its blood mixed with rice. oil the heads of the stones well, and decorate them with yellow head bands. when you do this apadel will always guard the town." the man and his companion always did as kaboniyan said, and when they made _balaua_, or were sick, or went to fight, they did this. they ate of the pig, they played the _gansas_ and danced. all who obeyed were always well, but one man who urinated on the stones became crazy. one day when the people were preparing to go and fight against manabo, [ ] they went to the _pináing_, and while they danced a red rooster with long tail feathers came out of the stones and walked around them. when they stopped dancing, he went again into the stones. since that time a white cock has sometimes appeared and once a white dog came out while the people danced. [ ] one night a man saw a woman, who wore a black cloth, walking near the _pináing_. when she would not speak to him, he cut her in the thigh with his _bolo_. [ ] she ran to the stones and vanished. next morning the man went to the guardian stones and found one of them cut in the middle, as it is now. the man soon died of smallpox. [ ] in the first times, the old men saw the stones traveling together down the river. above them flew many blackbirds. then the people went down to the river and watched the stones on their journey. after that they caught them and put them near to the gate of the town, where they still remain. the evil spirit ibwa once had a body like a man and used to visit the people. in those days they kept the body of the dead person seven days, and when the fat ran from the body they caught it and placed it in the grave. [ ] one day when he visited a funeral, a man gave ibwa some of this fat to drink. since that time he has always been bad and always tries to eat the body of the dead and steals his clothes. he comes to the funeral with another evil spirit akóp, who has a large head, long slim arms and legs, but no body. kaboniyan has told us how to keep the evil spirits away, but if we fail to do as he said, they always make trouble. a man died. he had a wife and married son. they buried him under the house and made _bagongon_. [ ] after that his wife was in the field and was watching their corn. his daughter-in-law was in the house watching her baby. while she was swinging the baby, the dead man said, "take this _saloyot_ [ ] to gadgadawan." the girl took it. the spirit said to her, "let me swing the baby and you cook the _saloyot_ in gadgadawan." when she cooked it, the spirit ate it, and he asked, "where is your mother-in-law?" she said, "she is in the field watching the corn." the spirit went there. when he reached there, his wife was afraid of him, but she did not run. he slept there that night with his wife, and he did what he wished with her that night. in the daytime he went away. his wife got big stomach, but had no baby, and died. the spirit did that because the fire for the dead man was not out yet and she had gone from the town before the _kanyau_ [ ] was past. one man in solay [ ] said to another, "tomorrow we meet on the mountain to get wild carabao." the other man agreed, and early the next morning the first man set out on horseback. the second man died that night, but the first man did not know this. when he got to the place agreed, he said "sh-sh" through his teeth, and the spirit of the dead answered a little way off. the man went towards the answer and signalled again. the spirit again answered, and then the man saw the spirit of the dead, which was very big, was running to catch him. he ran his horse at full speed, but the spirit was gaining when the _lasta_ [ ] on the saddle caught on a dead limb and was jerked away. "very good that you leave that or i would take your life," said the spirit. then the man ran his horse until he got to solay. when he got there, he could not get off his horse, for his legs were stuck very tight to each side of the horse, so a man had to pull each leg loose and lift him from the saddle. that is why we know that the spirits of the dead men sometimes do harm and go places. a man and his wife were living in the field where they planted corn and rice. when they were there, the man died. the woman did not want to go to the town, because there was no one to watch the dead man. she could not bury him. the ibwa [ ] noticed that there was a dead man in the house. he sent one of his sons to get the dead man. when the ibwa came in the house, the woman took the headaxes and cut him in the doorway. the ibwa went under the house. his father could not wait for him; he sent his second son and his third son. the boys could not take the body, because they were afraid of the headaxes, for the woman had one in each hand. the ibwa went there. he said to his sons, "why do you not take the dead man?" his sons said, "we could not take him, because if we go up in the house the woman takes the two headaxes and tries to kill us." ibwa went up into the house; he broke the door of the house. he said to the woman, "now i am your husband." the ibwa took the two ears of the dead man; he ate one and gave the other to the woman to chew, like betel-nut, to see the sign. the sign of the saliva was good. he made the woman's two breasts into one in the center of her chest. he took her to his house. the stems of the _alangtin_ are good charms against the spirits of the dead, and are often worn concealed in the hair or hat. there were two brothers, and one died. the other went to hunt and killed a deer. while he had it over the fire to singe, his dead brother's spirit came to him. [ ] then the man began to cut the meat into small pieces, and as fast as he cut it up, the spirit ate it; and as fast as he ate it, the meat came out of his anus. when the meat was almost all gone, the man became very much afraid and started to run, and the spirit chased him. when he ran where some _alangtin_ grew, the spirit stopped and said, "if you had not gone to the _alangtin_, i would have eaten you also." one person was dead in a town. they buried him under the house. they did not put _banal_ [ ] and a plow iron over the grave. the ibwa went there and saw there was no _banal_ on the grave, so he was not afraid. he went there and took the dead man. he put one foot of the dead man over each shoulder and let him hang down over his back. a man saw him while he was walking in the street. the man told the people in the town what he had seen. the people did not believe it and went to see the grave. no dead man there, only the clothes and mat. it is good to put some branches of trees in the ground near your head when you sleep out doors, so the spirits can not spit on you, for if they do, you will die. one man who had lost his carabao went to the mountains to find; and at night he did not find, so he lay down near the path to sleep. he did not put any branches near his head, and in the night an evil spirit came and wanted to eat him; but when the spirit saw that he had the skin disease, he did not care to eat, so he spit on him. the man got up and went home, but soon he got sick and died. when itneg [ ] go to hunt or have to sleep anywhere that spirits can get them it is good to use _sobosob_ [ ] or _banal_ under them for a mat. two men were in the mountains and had no mats to sleep on, so they pulled much _sobosob_ and put it under them. that night the evil spirits came to get them but did not come very near. the men heard them say that they wanted to get them, but that it was bad for them if they got near the _sobosob_, so they left them alone. (_sobosob_ and _banal_ are sometimes put with the plow iron over a new grave as an added protection.) in the first time, three tinguian went to hunt. at night they lay down to sleep and one of them, who had a _kambaya_, [ ] had not gone to sleep when two spirits came near and saw him under the blanket. one turned to the other and said, "here we have something to eat, for here is a little pig." then that man took the blanket from the other man and put his blanket in its place, and the spirits came and ate that man. so we know it is bad to use that kind of blanket when you go where the spirits can get. a man and woman had a beautiful daughter whom they always kept in the house. [ ] one day while they were away in the fields, the girl went outside to pound rice. while she pounded, the spirit bayon who lives in the sky came to see her. he was like a fresh breeze. then the girl was like a person asleep, for she could not see nor hear. when she awoke in the sky, she dropped her rice pounder so that it fell near her home and then the people knew she was above. bayon changed her two breasts into one large one, which he placed in the middle of her chest. when her parents made _sayang_, the mediums called bayon and his wife to come. they still come when some one calls them in the _sayang_. the woman's name is lokadya. in the first times men went to the mountains to hunt deer and hogs. one man kept his dog in the open land outside of the forest, to wait for the game. while he waited there with his dog, the big bird banog came to take him away; and it flew with him over the mountains near to licuan. [ ] the bird took him to her nest in the tree. there were two young birds in the nest. when the bird laid him in the nest he was on a branch of the tree. three young pigs were in the nest. the bird went away to get animals. after it went away, the man cut the meat in small pieces for the young birds, and the man ate also because the tree was big and he could not go away. the bird brought deer and pigs all the time, and the man always cut the meat in small pieces. after a while the two young birds could fly near to the nest. when they were standing outside of the nest he held on to their wings and the birds flew down under the tree. then the man took his bolo and cut off their heads and took them to his town and made _layog_ [ ] for the heads. after the man's _layog_, he wanted to go to _alzados_ [ ] town to fight them. he had been near to the _alzados_ town about one month. while he was away, his wife died. he came back to the town and in the way he met his wife (her spirit) with a cow and two pigs. the man asked his wife where she was going. she said to him, "i am not a person any more, i am dead." her husband wanted to touch her hand and his wife gave only her shortest finger. her husband said, "wait a while for me, i will go with you." his wife said, "if you go to our house, take the white chicken and you will see the footmarks of the cow and pigs." he followed the footmarks, and while he was walking he saw his wife washing in the river, under the tree. she said, "you come and i go with you to own town (i.e., spirit town), and i will put you in the rice bin, because the people in the town will want to eat you in the nighttime; but if they come in the nighttime, you must take some of the feathers of the chicken and throw at them, and i will bring you something to eat." they went to the spirit town, and she put him in the rice bin, and gave him something to eat. in the evening, the spirits came to eat the man. the man took some of the feathers and threw at them. the spirits were afraid of the feathers. they did this every night, and his wife brought him something to eat every day. the spirits said to the man's wife, "we smell ipogau." [ ] his wife said, "no ipogau in here." in about two weeks the feathers were nearly gone. then his wife told him, "it is better for you to go home, because there are no more feathers. i will give you some rice for you to eat in the way. i will show you the road." the man agreed, and they went in the way. she showed him the road. while the man was walking in the way he saw his town and he asked for his wife. they said his wife was dead and they had buried her under his house; then he made _layog_ for his wife. the father of siagon [ ] was head man of patok. he walked one night on the road which goes to domayko. in the road he saw a big man whom he thought was padawil. then he smelt a bad odor and knew it was a _ladag_ [ ] he struck it with his whip and it said, "hah." it was night and he ran very fast to the council house, and on the way he threw away his clothes. when they came to the place where the spirit had stood, they found a deep hole there like a carabao wallow. [ ] dalioya died; they put her in the ground under the house. after a while baluga's rice was ripe and was ready to cut. baluga went to cut it. he went home before dark from his field. dalioya came out from the ground. she went to cut the rice for him. the next morning he went to cut the rice again. he saw the rice had been cut, but he did not know who cut it. he went home again before dark and went to cut the rice again the next morning. he saw again the rice cut by dalioya, but he did not yet know who cut it. he said to himself, "i must wait for the person who comes to cut my rice." after dark his wife came, and baluga lay down very still; when dalioya walked near him, he waked up and caught her. dalioya said, "let me go." baluga said, "no, i will not let you go." she said, "if you come with me to get my life, i will be very glad." "yes," said he. then they went down in the ground where is the spirit's home. when they got there the spirits were sleeping. dalioya said, "take that green bamboo cup, because they put my life in it." baluga took it and they went up on the ground. one spirit waked up and said, "there are baluga and his wife walking in our vine way." all the spirits ran to catch them. when the spirits were going up in the vine, baluga cut the vine with his bolo. the spirits fell down. baluga and his wife went home. as soon as they reached their home, they made a party. there were many people there on that big day. they were drinking _basi_, eating rice and meat, and singing and dancing because they were having a good time. that party lasted two days. after that the people went home. baluga and dalioya went to cut their rice. the _alan_ [ ] once found the afterbirth outside the town and made it a real baby whose name was sayen. sayen lived in benben. he was very brave and often went to fight without companions. he wanted to marry danipán who lives in kadalayapan, but she did not wish. she hid; so sayen married her servant, thinking she was danipán. the name of the servant was laey. sayen took her home. they had one baby. one day sayen was making a plow under the house. laey was in the house with her baby. she was singing in the house to her baby. "sayen thinks i am danipán, but i am laey, laey no aglage-le-gey-ley." sayen heard the song and said to himself that his wife was not danipán. he went up into the house and said, "take off your upper arm beads, and in the morning you will go to the fields with your baby, because i will go there to plow." she said, "yes." in the morning he went there. he went to cut down the bamboo bridge. at noon his wife carried food to him. she took her baby with her. when she reached the bamboo bridge it fell with her and they fell into the water. sayen went back to his house. when he got there, he took his headaxe, spear, and shield, and he went to kadalayapan. when he got there, he began to kill the people of the town. when he had killed many people the _lakay_ [ ] called danipán, "come out, sayen is killing many people of the town, because you did something bad to him." she came out to sayen and said to him, "do not kill all the people, leave some of them so i can go to borrow fire from them." sayen answered her, "take the betel-nut in my bag and cut it in two pieces for me to eat, for i am very tired." she took the betel-nut from his bag and cut it in two pieces, and sayen chewed the betel-nut. sayen spat on some of the dead people and made them alive again and he married danipán and took her to benben. when the people in magisang [ ] went to hunt deer and when they went to divide it, the _komau_, a big spirit who looks like a man, and who kills people, [ ] went to them to ask them, "how many did you catch?" if they had caught two they told him "two," and the _komau_ said, "i caught two also." when they went to their town, there were two dead people there in their town. anytime they went to hunt the _komau_ asked them how many they had caught, and when they said how many, the _komau_ always said he had that many, and when they reached the town that many were dead. the _komau_ did that often and many people were dead. the people in magisang heard that sayen was a very brave man and they went to him to tell him about the _komau_. sayen said to them, "i come, but i must hide by the trees. when the _komau_ comes and asks you how many deer you have caught he will ask you where i am. you will say to him that you do not know where i am, because you did not hear of me yet. i am sure the _komau_ will ask you where i am, because he will smell me." the people said, "yes." they went to hunt. when they reached the forest, they caught two deer and they went to the place where they singed and divided those deer which they had caught. while they were sitting there, the _komau_ came to them and said, "how many have you?" they answered, "two." the _komau_ said, "i have two also. sayen is here." the people said, "we do not know about sayen, where he is." then sayen came out and killed the _komau_. kaboniyan [ ] went to sayen in benben and said, "are you a brave man, sayen? you are brave, because you killed the _komau_." sayen said, "yes, i am a brave man." kaboniyan said, "if you are a brave man, i will meet you in that place at a distance." sayen said, "yes." kaboniyan told him the day when he would meet him, and sayen was to stay in the lower place and kaboniyan in the higher place. sayen went there on that day. when he reached there and was waiting he heard a sound like a storm and said to himself, "here is kaboniyan." kaboniyan called to him, "are you there, sayen?" "i am here," said sayen. "are you a brave man?" said kaboniyan to sayen. sayen said, "yes." kaboniyan said to him, "catch this," and he threw his spear. sayen caught the spear. it was as big as a large tree. kaboniyan asked, "did you catch it?" "yes," said sayen. "here is again," said kaboniyan, and threw his headaxe. sayen caught it. "did you catch it, sayen?" said kaboniyan. sayen said, "yes." the axe was as large as the end roof of a house. kaboniyan said, "here is again," and threw his shield. sayen caught it again. "did you catch it, sayen?" sayen said, "yes." kaboniyan said, "here is again," and threw a very big stone. sayen caught it. "did you catch it, sayen?" said kaboniyan. sayen said, "yes," and kaboniyan said to him, "wait for me, i come down to you." when kaboniyan got there, he and sayen fought face to face and they got tired, because kaboniyan could not beat sayen, and sayen could not beat kaboniyan. sayen said, "i take my headaxe, because i am very tired." kaboniyan said, "do not take your headaxe; you are a brave man; i will be your friend and we will go to fight anywhere." sayen said, "yes." then they were friends and went to fight in many towns. if the people in the town caught them in the way when they went home from fighting, or when they were in the river, sayen could be a fish and hide. they fought in one town. sayen became a chicken after fighting. he went under the house where the chickens roost. he did that many times and the people in the town noticed that sayen could be a chicken or a fish. when he came with kaboniyan to the town to fight the people, he went under the house to the chickens' place. the people said to themselves, "we will put a fish trap there, because sayen after fighting goes in the chicken coop." they put a trap under the house by the coop. sayen came in the town again to fight. after fighting he went under the house and he went into the trap, and the people caught and killed him. this all happened not very long ago. in the old times malilipeng was walking along the trail in the woods when he heard the _alan_ [ ] in the trees. he laid down on his face as if dead and the _alan_ who saw him began to wail, for they thought he was dead. when they brought gold and beads to place on him, he sprang up and drove them away. "give us the one bead which is _nagaba_, or we will burn your house," said the _alan_. the man refused. when he reached home his house was burned, but he still had the bead. two men went to hunt wild pig. they killed one, but had no fire to singe it, so one man climbed a tree to see if he could see where was a fire. he saw a little fire at a distance and went to get it. when he got where the fire was, he saw it was in the house of an _alan_. he was very much afraid, but he went up and saw the _alan_, who had a baby, was asleep. he walked very quietly, but the _alan_ woke up and said, "what do you want?" "i want fire, for we have killed a little wild pig." "do not say little pig, but larger," said the _alan_. "larger," said the man, for he was afraid. "do not say larger, but big," said _alan._ "big." "do not say big, but very big," said the _alan_. "very big," said the man. then the _alan_ gave him the fire, and she took her big basket and went with him to where the pig was. they singed the pig, and the _alan_ cut it up with her nails. then she gave the liver to the man, and told him to take it to her house and feed the baby. the man went, but on the way he ate the liver. when he got to the house, he saw a big caldron with hot water on the fire. he took the _alan's_ baby and put it in the hot water and then went back. "did the baby eat well?" asked the _alan_. "very well," he answered. then the _alan_ put most of the meat in her basket and started home. the man told his companion what he had done and they were both very much afraid; so they ran to hide. when the _alan_ got home, she saw the baby dead in the water. then she went to find the men. they had climbed a high tree which stood near the water, and when the _alan_ looked in the water, she saw them in it. she put her hand in the water and tried to get them, but could not; then she looked up and saw them again. "how did you get up there?" she asked. "we climbed up feet first." then the _alan_ seized a vine and started up the tree feet first. when she had almost reached them, they cut the vine and the _alan_ fell to the ground and was dead. the men came down from the tree and went to the house of the _alan_. when they got there, they saw three jars: the first was full of dung; the second, of beads; the third, of gold. they took the jars with the beads and gold and went home. the earth, which is very flat, was made by the great spirit kadaklan. he also made the sun and moon, which chase each other over and under the earth. sometimes the moon almost catches the sun, but it always gets tired and gives up before it succeeds. the sun and moon are the lights of kadaklan and so are the stones which are stars. the dog of kadaklan is the lightning. kaboniyan once sent a flood which covered all the land. there was no place for the fire to go, so it went into the bamboo, the stones, and the iron. now that is why you can get fire out of the bamboo and stones. a man planted rice in the high land. when it was grown, he saw that something was eating it, though he had a fence around it. one night he went to watch his field. about midnight he heard many wings and saw some big animals with wings alight in his rice. he ran and caught one, and cut off its wings. the animal was pregnant and soon had a young one. since then there have been horses on the earth, but people have never seen any more fly. you can see the place on the horse's legs where the wings used to be. a lazy man was planting corn in the high land. he would plant a few seeds and then put his planting stick in the ground and lean back on it. after a while the stick grew there and was a tail, and the man became a monkey. [ ] a very lazy boy got a piece of sugar-cane and went home with it. when he got home, he told his mother to take off the outside of the stalk so he might eat it. his mother was angry to see him so lazy and told him that if he could not take it off himself, to stick it up his anus. he did so and became a monkey. a very lazy girl would not learn to spin, and always pretended that she did not know how. one day she took the cotton and asked the women what to do with it. "beat it out," they said. then she asked, "what shall i do with it then?" "put it in a betel leaf on a stick and spin it." again she asked, "how shall i spin it?" "if you do not know how to spin, put the stick up your anus." she did so, and became a monkey. after that there were many monkeys. [ ] in an early time, the tinguian were like the _alzado_, [ ] and hunted heads. the men from one town started to another on the other side of the abra river to get heads. while they were on the way, it rained very hard; and when they reached the river, they could not get across, so they prayed to the spirit that he would give them wings to cross. they at once became birds; but when they reached the other side of the river, they could not resume the forms of men. some of the men's wives had just died, and they had bark bands on their heads, as is the tinguian custom. when these became birds, their heads were white; but those of the others were black, and so they are to this day. a mother had a very lazy boy who could do nothing. one day she went away to get something, and she put a big basket over the boy. when she came home, she took the basket up, but instead of the boy there was a bird which flew away, crying "sigakok, sigakok, sigakok,"--"lazy, lazy, lazy." and so that bird is called _sigakok_. a long time ago there was a young man who cut all the trees in a little wood. when he had cut up them, he burned them, and he planted rice in the field. in a few days the rice was ready to cut and the young man went to find a girl for him to marry. he found a girl in the other town. he married her and he took her with him to his home. when they got home the man said to his wife, "let us go to see our rice." they went to see the rice. at midday they went home. the next day the man sent his wife to go to cut the rice. when she got to the rice, she thought to herself that she could not cut it in a month. said she to herself, "i want to be a bird." she lay down on the floor in a little house that the man had made. she put her hat over her to be her blanket. then she became a bird which we call _kakok_ now. her cloth became her feathers. in the morning the man went with some rice for his wife to eat. when he got there, he could not see his wife. he walked and walked, but he did not find her, then he came to the little house. he saw his wife's hat, and he picked it up. the bird flew away, crying "_kakok, kakok_." in the first time ganoway was the man who possessed a dog which caught many deer; and kaboniyan allowed. the dog pursued the deer which went in a cave in the rock. the dog went in also, and ganoway followed into the hole in the rock. he walked, always following the dog which was barking, and he felt the shrubs which he touched. the shrubs all had fruit which tinkled when he touched them. then he broke off those branches which tinkled as he touched them, and kaboniyan allowed. he came to the end of the cave in the rock which was at the river makatbay, and his dog was there, for he had already caught the deer, which was a buck. it was light in the place where he was, at the river makatbay, and he looked at the shrub which he had broken off in the dark place in the cave. he saw that the shrub was _denglay_ which bore fruit--the choice agate bead, which is good for the tinguian dress. he was glad. he cut up the deer into pieces and placed it on a bamboo pole which he carried. he thought always of the beads and wished to return to that shrub which he touched. he returned and searched, but was not able to find it, and because he failed he returned to his home in an-nay. there was not one who did not envy him those beads which he brought home, and they asked him to show them the way to the cave. he showed them the hole in the rock where he and his dog had gone in. they took torches and walked, always walked, but at last they were not able to go further, for the rest of the cave was closed. that place is now called ganoway, for he was the one who secured the beads which grew in the cave of kaboniyan, which cave the spirit always keeps clean. [ ] magsawi, my jar, when it was not yet broken talked softly, but now its lines are broken, and the low tones are insufficient for us to understand. the jar was not made where the chinese are, but belongs to the spirits or kaboniyan, because my father and grandfather, from whom i inherited it, said that in the first times they (the tinguian) hunted magsawi on the mountains and in the wooded hills. my ancestors thought that their dog had brought a deer to bay, which he was catching, and they hurried to assist it. they saw the jar and tried to catch it but were unable; sometimes it disappeared, sometimes it appeared again, and because they could not catch it they went again to the wooded hill on their way to their town. then they heard a voice speaking words which they understood, but they could see no man. the words it spoke were: "you secure a pig, a sow without young, and take its blood, so that you may catch the jar which your dog pursued." they obeyed and went to secure the blood. the dog again brought to bay the jar which belonged to kaboniyan. they plainly saw the jar go through a hole in the rock which is a cave, and there it was cornered so that they captured the pretty jar which is magsawi, which i inherited. (told by cabildo, of patok, the owner of the famous talking jar, magsawi.) once then sun and moon fought. the sun said, "you are moon, not so good; if i give you no light, you are no good." the moon answered, "you are sun and very hot. i am moon and am better. the women like me very much, and when i shine they go out doors to spin." then the sun was very angry and took some sand and threw it on the moon, and that is why there are dark places on the moon now. in the old time, a man went with others to get heads. they were gone very, very long, and the man's daughter, who was little when he went away, was grown up and beautiful when he returned. when he got to the gate of the town, his daughter went to hold the ladder for him to come in. [ ] the man did not recognize his daughter, and when he saw her holding the ladder for him, he threw his arms around the ladder and seized and kissed her. the girl was very sorrowful because her father had not recognized her and had misunderstood her intentions; so she went home and said to her mother, "it is better now that i become a coconut tree, to stand close by our house." in the morning the man and his wife missed the girl, and when they looked out doors, there stood a fine coconut tree close to the house; so they knew that she had changed to the tree. in the old times there were two flying snakes in the gap of the abra river. [ ] many men had been killed by them. so the head man of abra invited malona and biwag, two very brave men from cagayan, to come and help him kill the snakes. they came at once with big bolos, shields, and the trunk of the banana tree, which they used to fight with. when they arrived, they were taken to the gap, and the snakes attacked them. the men fought with the trunk of the banana tree, and the wings of the snakes stuck to the trunk; so they killed them easily. when they had killed them, they came back to the leader and showed him, and he asked what should be their pay. they did not ask any reward, but the leader gave them gold in the form of deer and horses. then they went home, and after that the people of abra could pass through the gap. hundreds of years ago there were two people who were husband and wife. their names were tagápen and giáben, and they had only one son whose name was soliben. those people came from ilocos norte; they came down to vigan to pass a while, then came into the abra river. when they were in banoáng, they sailed on a raft in the abra river to come up to langiden. when they reached that town, they stopped there to stay a short time, because tagápen went to the town to give thoughts to the people there and to give a nice face to the girls. when tagápen was in the town, in langiden, his son soliben was weeping on the raft by his mother. "sleep, sleep, sleep, my dear son, because your father is not here yet; it-to-tes, it-to-tes, so sleep my son, do not weep," said his mother, whose name is giáben. when tagápen came back from the town of langiden, they began to sail again until they came to pidigan. when they reached the town of pidigan, they stopped there because tagápen went to the town to give a nice face to the ladies and girls. then his son wept again, "oh, dear son, sleep, sleep, sleep; oh, dear son, sleep, sleep, sleep, for your father is not here yet. when he comes back, he will get bananas for you to eat. it-to-tes, it-to-tes, it-to-tes, sleep, soliben, sleep, my son; do not weep; your father will give you to eat," said the mother. in a short time tagápen came back from the town and they sailed to come up. when they reached the mouth of the sinalang river, they came up in the river; they sailed up here; this is the river of sinalang town (patok). "we go there to give the people some nice face and good thoughts, so they will be very wise." when they arrived in sinalang town, they left their raft in the river and went up in the town. when they reached the town, every person went to them to give their regards. tagápen and his wife with her son stayed in a little house we call _balaua_; they lived there teaching many _dalengs_ [ ] and _bagayos_ of the tinguian people. fables the turtle and the monkey there was once a turtle and a monkey who went to make a clearing. the monkey did not work, but the turtle was the one which cleared the land. when one day passed, "let us go to plant," said the turtle. they went, and banana was what they went to plant. the turtle planted his in the clearing, but the monkey hung his in a tree when he went to climb. five days passed. "let us go to see our planting," said the turtle. when they arrived where they had planted, the monkey saw that his banana was dry, but that which the turtle had planted bore ripe fruit. when the monkey reached the place where the turtle sat, "i am waiting for you, monkey, for i cannot climb my banana tree." "give me fruit, and i will go to climb. my banana which i hung in the tree did not bear fruit," said the monkey. the turtle laughed and agreed, but when the monkey climbed in the tree he only ate and did not throw down any fruit. "give me, monkey," said the turtle. "the thumb still eats," replied the monkey. then he pushed a banana up his anus and after that threw it down. the turtle ate it and again asked for fruit. "the little finger still eats," said the monkey. then he finished eating the fruit and he slept on the banana tree. the turtle went to search for long sharp shells, and when he had secured them he planted them upright around the tree, and cried, "bad in the east. bad in the west." then the monkey jumped, and the shells pierced his side so that he died. the turtle dried his meat and sold it to the other monkeys, and when he had finished selling he went under the house and hid beneath a coconut shell. when all the monkeys had eaten the turtle cried, "they eat their relative." then the monkeys heard, but could not see. the turtle called many times until at last they found him beneath the coconut shell. they agreed to kill him with the axe, but the turtle laughed and pointed to the marks on his back. [ ] the monkeys believed him when he said he had often been cut by his father and grandfather; so they did not cut, but went to get fire. "you cannot kill me with that. do you not see that my back is almost black from burning." "ay-ay," said the monkeys, "let us tie a stone to his waist and drown him in the lake." the turtle cried and begged them to spare him, but the monkeys did not know that the water was the cause of his living, for it was his home. they threw him in the lake and when they had watched a long time, they saw him float on the water and he was holding a large fish. then all the monkeys tied stones to their waists and dived in the lake to catch fish. they did not float in the lake, but they died. only a pregnant monkey was left, but the turtle came and drowned her also. [ ] a turtle and a big lizard went to the field of gotgotapa to steal ginger. when they got there the turtle told the lizard he must be very still; but when the lizard tasted the ginger, he exclaimed, "the ginger of gotgotapa is very good." "be still," said the turtle; but again the lizard shouted louder than before. then the man heard and came out of his house to catch the robbers. the turtle could not run fast, so he lay very still, and the man did not see him; but the lizard ran and the man chased him. when they were very far, the turtle went into the house. now, the man had a coconut shell which he used to sit on, and the turtle hid under it. the man could not catch the lizard, so in a while he came back to his house and sat on the shell. bye and bye, the turtle called "kook." then the man jumped up and looked all around to find where the noise came from, but he could not find. the turtle called "kook" again and the man tried very hard to find what made the noise. the turtle called a third time more loudly and then the man thought it was his testicles which made the noise, so he took a stone and hit them; then he died and the turtle ran away. when the turtle got a long way, he met the lizard again and they saw some honey on the branch of a tree. "i run first to get," said the turtle; but the big lizard ran fast and seized the honey; then the bees stung him and he ran back to the turtle. on their road they saw a bird snare. the turtle said, "that is the _paliget_ [ ] of my grandfather." then the lizard ran very fast to get it, but it caught his neck and held him until the man who owned it came and killed him. then the turtle went away. the _polo_ [ ] said to a boy named ilonen, "tik-tik-loden, come and catch me," many times. then the boy answered, "i am making a snare for you." the bird called again, "tik-tik-loden." "i am almost finished," said ilonen. then the bird called again and the boy came and put the snare over the bird and caught it. he took it home and put it in a jar and then went with the other boys to swim. while he was gone, his grandmother ate the bird. ilonen came back and went to the jar to see the bird, but no bird. "where is my bird?" he said. "i do not know," said his grandmother. "let me see your anus," said the boy. then he saw his grandmother's anus and he saw feathers there and was very angry. "it is better i get lost," he said and went away. he came to a big stone called _balintogan_ and said, "stone, open your mouth and eat me." then the stone opened his mouth and swallowed the boy. his grandmother went to find him and looked very much. when she came to the stone, it said, "here is." she called the horses to come to the stone. they kicked it, but could not break. she called the carabao and they hooked it, but only broke their horns; then she called the chickens and they pecked it, but could not open. then she called thunder, but it could not help. then her friends came to open the stone, but could not, so she went home without the boy. a frog was fastened to a fish hook in the water. a fish came and said, "what are you doing?" "i am swinging," said the frog, "come and try if you wish." but the fish was angry with the frog. "you can not catch me," said the frog. then the fish jumped up to catch him, but the frog pushed his anus upon the stick and left the hook so the fish was caught. the five fingers were brothers. the other four sent the little thumb to get _posel_. [ ] he went to get, but when he got there, the _posel_ said, "kiss me, for i have a good odor to you." so the thumb kissed him, and his nose stuck to the bamboo. the others could not wait so long, so they sent the first finger to get. when he got there, he saw the thumb, and said, "what are you doing?" "i am smelling this _posel_, for it has a good smell." then the first finger smelled and his nose was caught. the others could not wait, so they sent the second finger and it happened the same. also the third, and he also became fast. then little finger went and when he saw the others, he said, "you are very crazy," and he cut them loose. [ ] carabao met _loson_ [ ] in the river. "you are very slow," said the carabao. "no, i can beat you in a race," said _loson_. "let us try," said the carabao. so they started to run. when the carabao reached a long distance, he called, "shell," and another shell lying by the river answered, "yes." he ran again and again, and every time he stopped to call, another shell answered. at least the carabao ran until he died. a crab and _kool_ [ ] went to the forest to get wood for fuel. the crab cut his wood and the shell went to cut his. "tie very good your wood which you get," said _kool_ to the crab. the crab pulled the ropes so tightly that he broke his big legs and died. when the shell went to see where the crab was, he found him dead, and he begun to cry until he belched; then his meat came out of his shell and he was dead also. [ ] a mosquito came to bite a man. the man said, "you are very little and can do nothing to me." the mosquito answered, "if you had no ears, i would eat you." a boy's parents sent a man to carry gifts to the girl's house, and see if they would agree to a marriage. when he got to the door of the house, the people were all eating _kool_, and when they sucked the meat out of the shell, they nodded their heads. the man saw them nod, so did not state his errand, but returned and said that the people in the house all desired the union. then the boy's people got ready the things for _pakálon_ [ ] and went to the girl's house. the girl's parents were very much surprised. a man went to the other town. when he got there, the people were eating _labon_. [ ] he asked them what they ate, and they said _pangaldanen_ (the bamboo ladder is called "_aldan_".) he went home and had nothing to eat but rice, so he cut his ladder into small pieces and cooked all day, but the bamboo was still very hard. he could not wait longer, so called his friends and asked why he could not make it like the people had in the other town. then his friends laughed and told him his mistake. a man went to get coconuts and loaded his horse heavily. he met a boy and asked how long to his house. "if you go slowly, very soon; if you go fast, all day," said the boy. the man did not believe, so hurried his horse and the coconuts fell off, so he had to stop and pick them up. he did this many times and it was night before he got home. two women went to get _atimon_ [ ] which belonged to the crocodile. "you must not throw the rind with your teeth marks where the crocodile can see it," said the first woman. then they ate; but the other woman threw a rind with her teeth marks in the river, and the crocodile saw it and knew who the woman was. he was very angry and went to her house and called the people to send out the woman so he could eat her, for she had eaten his _atimon_. "yes," they said, "but sit down and wait a while." then they put the iron soil turner in the fire until it was red hot. "eat this first," they said to the crocodile, and when he opened his mouth, they threw it very far into his body and he died. [ ] there was a man named dogidog who was very lazy and very poor. his house was small and had no floor, only the boards to put the floor on. he went to the forest to cut bamboo with which to make a floor, and he carried cooked rice with him. when he got there he hung the rice in a tree and went to cut the bamboo. while he was gone, a cat came and ate the rice, so when the man got hungry and came to eat, he had no rice, so he went home. the next day he went to cut again, and when he had hung the rice in the tree, the cat came to eat it. the third day he went again and hung the rice in the tree, but fixed it in a trap; then he hid in some brush and did not cut bamboo. the cat came to eat the rice and was caught. then the man said, "i will kill you." "no," said the cat, "do not kill me." "alright, then i take you home to watch my house," said the man. then he took the cat home, and tied it near the door of his house and went away. when he came back, the cat had become a cock. "now i go to the cock fight at magsingal," [ ] said dogidog, and he put his rooster under his arm and started for the place. he was crossing a river when he met a crocodile. "where are you going, dogidog?" said the crocodile. "to the cock fight at magsingal," said the man. "wait, i go with you," said the crocodile. then they went. soon they met a deer. "where are you going, dogidog?" said the deer. "to the cock fight at magsingal," said the man. "wait, i go with you," said the deer. then they went again. in the way they met bunton. [ ] "where are you going?" said it. "to magsingal to the cock fight," said the man. "wait, i go with you," said the mound. then they went again and soon they met a monkey. "where are you going, dogidog?" said the monkey. "to the cock fight at magsingal," said the man. "wait, i go with you," said the monkey. then they went until they reached the place where was the fight in magsingal. the crocodile said to dogidog, "if any man wants to sink in the water, i can beat him." the deer said, "if any man wants to run, i am very fast." then the earth said, "if any man wants to wrestle, i know very well how to do." the monkey said, "if any man wants to climb, i can go higher." then they took the rooster to the place of the fighting, and dogidog had him fight the other rooster. but the rooster had been a cat before, and he seized the other rooster in his claws, as a cat does, and killed it. then the people brought many roosters and bet much money and the rooster of dogidog, which was a cat before, killed them all, so there were no more roosters in magsingal, and dogidog won much money. the people wanted some other sport, so they brought a man who could stay very long under water, and dogidog had him try with the crocodile. after more than two hours, the man had to come up first. then the people brought a man who runs very fast, and the deer raced with him, and the man could not beat the deer for he was very fast. then they brought a very big man, but he could not throw the earth. last, the people brought a man who climbs very well and the monkey climbed with him, and went much higher than the man. dogidog had very much money and he bought two horses to carry the sacks of silver to his house. when he got near to the town, he tied his horses and went to tell his mother to go and ask to buy the good house from the rich man. "how can you buy?" said the rich man, "when you have no money?" then his mother went home and the man went to get two sacks of money to send to the rich man. when the rich man saw so much money, he said, "yes," for the money was in sacks and was not counted. then dogidog went to live in the good house and the rich man still had no house, so he had no where to go when the rain came. a wood-chopper went to the woods. when he passed where the brook ran, "go away, go away," he said to banbantay, the spirit of the brook. he heard a voice in the thicket. the voice said, "i should think he would see me." the man answered, "yes, i see you." the spirit said, "where am i now?" the man answered, "you are in the thicket." the spirit came down and said, "put my _poncho_ on you." when he has it on, no one can see him. [ ] "see if i really can see you in my _poncho_." the man took the _poncho_ and put it on, then the spirit could not see him any more, because the cloth made him invisible. then the man went home. when he reached there, he said to his wife, "wife, where am i now?" she cried because she thought him dead. he said, "do not cry, for i am not dead, but i have received a _poncho_ which makes me invisible." the man took off his _poncho_ and embraced his wife, which made his wife laugh at him, for she knew then that her husband was powerful. a fisherman went to catch fish with his throw net. while he was fishing, a big bird, banog, saw him. it seized the man, put him on its back and flew away. it lighted on a very big tree in the forest. in the thicket there was a nest with two small banog in it. after the bird had put the man near the nest, it flew away again, and the nestlings wished to eat the man, but he defended himself so they could not eat him. he took one in each hand and jumped from the tree, and the young birds broke his fall so that he was not hurt. the man was much frightened by the things which had happened to him, and he ran to his home. when he arrived home, he told with tears what had happened to him. his family were very happy over his return, and made him promise not to go alone again to fish. abstracts i two women are gathering greens when a vine wraps around one and carries her to the sky. she is placed near to spring, the sands of which are rare beads. small house near by proves to be home of the sun. woman hides until owner goes into sky to shine, then goes to house and prepares food. breaks up fish stick and cooks it. it becomes fish. single grain of rice cooked in pot the size of a "rooster's egg" becomes sufficient for her meal. goes to sleep in house. sun returns and sees house which appears to be burning. investigates and finds appearance of flames comes from beautiful woman. starts to prepare food, but awakens visitor. she vanishes. each day sun finds food cooked for him. gets big star to take his place in sky; returns home unexpectedly and surprises woman. they chew betel-nut together and tell their names. the quids turn to agate beads, showing them to be related, and thus suitable for marriage. each night sun catches fish, but woman refuses it, and furnishes meat by cooking fish stick. woman decides to go with husband on daily journey through sky. when in middle of heavens she turns to oil. husband puts her in a bottle and drops it to earth. bottle falls in woman's own town, where she resumes old form and tells false tale of her absence. she becomes ill, asks mother to prick her little finger. mother does so and child pops out. child grows each time it is bathed. girl refuses to divulge name of child's father. parents decide to celebrate _balaua_ and invite all people. send out oiled betel-nuts covered with gold to invite guests. when one refuses, nut begins to grow on his knee or prized animal until invitation is accepted. child is placed by gate of town in hopes it will recognize its father. gives no sign until sun appears, then goes to it. sun appears as round stone. girl's parents are angry because of her choice of a husband and send her away without good clothes or ornaments. sun, wife and child return home. sun assumes form of man. they celebrate _balaua_ and invite all their relatives. guests chew betel-nuts and the quid of the sun goes to that of pagbokásan, so it is known that the latter is his father. parents of sun pay marriage price to girl's people. aponibolinayen who is very ill expresses a desire for mangoes which belong to algaba of dalaga. her brother dispatches two men with presents to secure them. one carries an earring, the other an egg. on way egg hatches and soon becomes a rooster which crows. they spread a belt on the water and ride across the river. when they bathe, the drops of water from their bodies turn to agate beads. find way to algaba's house by following the row of headbaskets, which reaches from the river to his dwelling. defensive fence around the town is made up of boa constrictors, which sleep as they pass. algaba seizes his spear and headaxe intending to kill the visitors, but weapons shed tears of oil. he takes other weapons, but they weep tears of blood. he then makes friends of the intruders. learning their mission he refuses their gifts, but gets fruit and returns with them to their town. on way he uses magic and causes the death of aponibolinayen. he takes her in his arms and restores her to life. while she rests in his arms, their rings exchange themselves. they chew betel-nuts and tell their names. the quids turn to agate beads and lie in rows. this is good sign. they marry and go to algaba's town. they celebrate _sayang_ and send betel-nuts to invite their relatives. when the guests cross the river, the drops of water which run from their bodies are agate beads and stones of the river are of gold. guests all chew betel-nut and lay down their quids. by arrangement of quids they learn the true parents of algaba. his brother-in-law wishes to marry his new found sister and offers an engagement present. an earring is put in a jar and it is at once filled with gold, but algaba lifts his eyebrows and half of the gold vanishes. another earring is put in jar, and it is again full. marriage price is paid later. aponitolau falls in love with girl he meets at the spring. they chew betel-nuts and tell their names. girl gives false name and vanishes. aponitolau sends his mother to arrange for his marriage with the girl. she wears a hat which is like a bird, and it gives her a bad sign, but she goes on. she crosses river by using her belt as a raft. the girl's parents agree to the match and price to be paid. girl accepts a little jar and agate beads as engagement present. when aponitolau goes to claim bride, he finds he is betrothed to wrong girl. his parents celebrate _sayang_ and invite many people, hoping to learn identity of girl at spring. she does not attend, but aponitolau finds her among betel-nuts brought him by the spirit helpers. they chew betel-nuts and learn they are related and that both possess magical power. after their marriage aponitolau goes to his field. there he keeps many kinds of jars which act like cattle. he feeds them with _lawed_ leaves and salt. while he is gone, the woman to whom he was first betrothed kills his new wife. he restores her to life. takes her and her parents to the field to see him feed his jars. a bird directs aponitolau in his search for the maiden asibowan. girl furnishes him with food by cooking a fish stick. they have a daughter who grows one span each time she is bathed. aponitolau discovers that his parents are searching for him, and determines to go home. asibowan refuses to accompany him, but uses magic and transfers him and child to his town. aponitolau falls in love with girl he sees bathing, and his mother goes to consult her parents. she crosses river by using her belt as a raft; when she bathes, the drops of water from her body become agate beads. the girl's people agree to the marriage and accept payment for her. aponitolau and his bride celebrate _sayang_ and send out betel-nuts to invite the guests. asibowan refuses to attend, but a betel-nut grows on her pig until, out of pity, she consents. after the ceremony the brother of the bride turns himself into a firefly and follows her new sister-in-law. later he again assumes human form and secures her as his wife. the mother of gawigawen is well received when she goes to seek a wife for her son. the girl's mother furnishes fish by breaking and cooking the fish stick. a day is set for payment of the marriage price. guests assemble and dance. when bride dances she is so beautiful that sunshine vanishes, water from the river comes up into the town and fish bite her heels. when she arrives at her husband's home, she finds sands and grass of spring are made up of beads, and the walk and place to set jars are large plates. her husband cuts off head of an old man and a new spring appears; his blood becomes beads and his body a great shade tree. bride who has not yet seen the face of her husband is misled by evil tales of jealous women, and believes him to be a monster. during night she turns to oil, slips through floor and escapes. in jungle she meets rooster and monkey, who tell her she is mistaken and advise her to return home. she continues her way and finally reaches ocean. is carried across by a carabao which at once informs its master of the girl's presence. the master comes and meets girl. they chew betel-nut, and the quids turn to agate beads, so they marry. they make _sayang_ and send betel-nuts to summon relatives. nuts grow on pet pigs of those who refuse to go. guests are carried across river by betel-nuts. during dance gawigawen recognizes his lost wife and seizes her. is speared to death by the new husband, but is later brought back to life. in meantime the _alan_ (spirits) inform the parents of the new groom that he is their child (from menstrual blood). parents repay gawigawen for his lost bride, and also make payment to the girl's family. the enemies of aponibolinayen, thinking her without the protection of a brother, go to fight her. she glances off their spears with her elbows. her weapons kill all but ginambo, who agrees to continue fight in one month. aponigawani has a similar experience with her enemies. a month later the two women meet as they go to continue the fight against their foes. they chew betel-nut, and quid of aponibolinayen is covered with gold and that of her companion becomes an agate bead. they agree to aid each other. go to fight and are hard pressed by foes. spirit helpers go to summon aid of two men who turn out to be their brothers--were miscarriage children who had been raised by the _alan_. they go to aid sisters and kill so many people that pig troughs are floating in blood. one puts girls inside belt. they kill all the enemies and send their heads and plunder to the girls' homes. brothers take girls to their parents. father and mother of aponigawani celebrate _balaua_ and summon guests by means of oiled betel-nuts covered with gold. guests chew betel-nut and spittle of children goes to that of parents, so relationship is established. _alan_ explain how they raised the miscarriage children. heads of enemies are placed around the town and people dance for one month. aponibolinayen marries brother of aponigawani, who in turn marries the brother of her friend. usual celebration and payments made. relatives receive part of price paid for brides. aponitolau dons his best garments, takes his headaxe and spear, and goes to fight. when he reaches the spring which belongs to the ten-headed giant giambólan, he kills all the girls, who are there getting water, and takes their heads. the giant in vain tries to injure him. spear and headaxe of aponitolau kill the giant and all the people of his town and cut off their heads. heads are sent in order to hero's town--giants' heads first, then men's, and finally women's. on return journey aponitolau is followed by enemies. he commands his flint and steel to become a high bank which prevents his foes from following. upon his arrival home a great celebration is held; people dance, and skulls are placed around the town. aponitolau and his wife decide to celebrate _sayang_, but he goes first to take the head of old man ta-odan. he uses magic and arrives at once where foe lives. they fight and ta-odan is beheaded. while aponitolau is gone, an ilocano comes to town and tries to visit his wife. she at first refuses to see him, but when he returns a needle she has dropped he puts a love charm on it. she then receives him into house. he remains until aponitolau returns, then leaves so hastily he forgets his belt of gold. woman hides belt in rice granary, but it reveals self by shining like fire. aponitolau is suspicious and determines to find owner. as guests arrive for the celebration, he tries belt on each until he finds right one. he cuts off his head and it flies at once to his wife's breasts and hangs there. she flees with her children. they reach town, which is guarded by two kinds of lightning, but they are asleep and let them pass. they sleep in the _balaua_ and are discovered by the owner of the place, who turns out to be an afterbirth brother of the woman. he removes the head of the dead ilocano from her breasts. betel-nuts are sent to summon their father and mother, who are surprised to learn of their afterbirth son. he returns home with them. aponitolau fails to be reconciled to his faithless wife. ayo is hidden by her brother, but meets dagdagalisit, who is fishing, and becomes pregnant. child pops out between third and fourth fingers when ayo has her hand pricked. baby objects to first name; so is called kanag. milk from ayo's breasts falls on her brother's legs while she is lousing him, and he thus learns of the child. he determines to build a _balaua_ and invite all people, so he may learn who the father is. sends out oiled betel-nuts to invite the guests and when one refuses to attend they grow on him or his pet pig. dagdagalisit attends wearing only a clout of dried banana leaves. brother of ayo is enraged at her match and sends her and the baby away with her poor husband. when they arrive at her new home, ayo finds her husband a handsome man who lives in a golden house, and whose spring has gravel of gold and agates. they summon their relatives to celebrate _balaua_ with them. while ayo's brother is dancing, her husband cuts off his head, but he is brought back to life. ayo's husband pays her parents for her, but half the payment vanishes when her mother raises eyebrows. husband again completes payment. they chew betel-nut and the quids of the children go to those of their parents. dagdagalisit's parents learn he is a miscarriage child who was cared for by the _alan_ (spirits). aponibalagen uses magic to create a residence in the ocean for his sister. takes her and companions there on backs of crocodiles. returns home. ingiwan who is walking is confronted by high bank and is forced to cross the ocean. rides on his headaxe past the sleeping crocodiles which guard the maiden. turns self into firefly and reaches girl. assumes own form and chews betel-nut with her. omens are good. he returns home and soon maiden is troubled with intense itching between her last fingers. she has place pricked, and baby boy pops out. child grows one span at each bath. aponibalagen learns of child when milk from sister's breasts falls on him. he takes her home and prepares to celebrate _balaua_. oiled betel-nuts are sent to summon guests. they grow on knees of those who refuse to attend. ingiwan, poorly clad, appears at the ceremony and is recognized by the child but not by its mother. girl's brother, in rage, sends her away with the stranger. he assumes own form and proves to be handsome and wealthy. when they celebrate _balaua_, they chew betel-nut and thus learn who are his true parents. when aponitolau goes to visit his cousin, he finds him celebrating _sayang_. he is incensed because no invitation has reached him, so sits in shade of tree near the spring instead of going up to the village. he finds the switch lost by aponibolinayen. he is induced to attend the ceremony, where he meets with an old enemy, and they fight. the hawk sees the struggle and reports the death of aponitolau to his sister. she sends her companions to avenge the death and they kill many people before they learn that the hawk was mistaken. aponitolau restores the slain to life. he agrees to fight his enemies in two months. before he goes to battle he summons the old men and women, and has them examine a pig's liver and gall. the omens are favorable. during the fight he becomes thirsty and his headaxe supplies him with water. he stops the slaughter of his enemies when they agree to pay him one hundred valuable jars. the jars and heads of the slain take themselves to his home. a celebration is held over the heads, and skulls are exhibited around the town. aponitolau goes to return the switch of aponibolinayen. they chew betel-nuts and tell their names. their finger rings exchange themselves, while their betel quids turn to agate beads and arrange themselves in lines--a sign of relationship. he cooks a stick and it becomes a fish. the girl vanishes, but aponitolau turns himself into a firefly and finds her. they remain together one night, then he departs. on his way home he is seized by an immense bird which carries him to an island guarded by crocodiles. he is forced to marry a woman also captured by the bird. aponibolinayen gives birth to a child called kanag. child is delivered when an itching spot on mother's little finger is pricked. kanag is kept in ignorance of father's fate until informed by an old woman whom he has angered. he goes in search of his father. by using power of the betel-nut he is enabled to cross the water on the backs of sleeping crocodiles. he kills gigantic snakes and finally the bird which had carried away his father. he takes father and the captive woman back home. both women claim aponitolau as husband. a test is held and aponibolinayen wins. pregnant woman expresses desire for fruit of _bolnay_ tree. her husband asks what it is she wishes, and she falsely tells him fish roe. he uses magic to catch all fish in the river, and selects one with roe, releases others. she throws it to the dogs, and tells husband it is the liver of a deer she needs. he secures it, but when it likewise is fed to the dogs, he changes self into an ant and hides near wife until he learns her real wish. he secures the _bolnay_ fruit, but upon his return allows his sweethearts to get all but a small piece of it. his wife eats the bit left and desires more. she quarrels with husband, who in rage drags her to the _bolnay_ tree and places her in a hole. her child kanag is born when an itching spot between her third and fourth fingers is pricked. child grows with each bath. he agrees to go with other boys to fight. plants a _lawed_ vine which is to keep his mother informed as to his condition. child's father is with war party, but does not recognize son. it rains continually so party cannot cook; but the spirit helpers of child's mother feed him, and he shares food with companions. they plan ambush near enemies' town. kanag cuts off head of a pretty girl; his companions kill an old man and woman. they return home and hold dance around the heads. when kanag dances, earth trembles, coconuts fall, water from river enters the town, and the fish lap his feet. his father is jealous and cuts off his head. his mother sees _lawed_ vine wilt and knows of son's death. informs her husband he has killed son. she restores kanag to life and they leave. husband tries to follow, but magic growth of thorns in trail prevents. he is finally reconciled to his family and has former sweethearts killed. a pregnant woman desires the fruit of an orange tree which belongs to the six-headed giant gawigawen. her husband asks her what it is she desires and she replies falsely; first, that she wishes a certain fruit, then fish roe, and finally deer liver. he secures each, taking the roe and liver out of the fish and deer without causing their death. each of the articles makes the woman vomit, so her husband knows that she is not satisfied. transforming self into a centipede he hides until he learns her real wish. arms self and starts on perilous mission, but first plants _lawed_ vine in house. by condition of vine wife is to know of his safety or death. on way small dog bites him; he is tested by lightning and by thunder, and in each case gets a bad sign, but continues journey. sails over ocean on his headaxe. reaches cliff on which the town of the giant is placed, but is unable to scale it. chief of spiders spins a web on which he climbs. giant promises him the fruit provided he eats whole carabao. chiefs of ants and flies calls their followers and eat animal for him. is allowed to pick fruit, but branches of tree are sharp knives on which he is cut. he puts two of oranges on his spear and it flies away to his home. he dies and _lawed_ vine at his house withers. giant uses his skin to cover end of drum, puts his hair on roof of house and places his head at gate of town. wife gives birth to child, which grows one span each time it is bathed. while still very small child angers old woman who tells him of his father's fate. child determines to go in search of father despite mother's protests. on journey he meets all the tests put to his father, but always receives good signs. jumps over cliff father had climbed on the spider web. he challenges giant to fight and shows valor by refusing to be the first to use his weapons. giant unable to injure him, for he first becomes an ant, then vanishes. he throws his spear and it goes through giant, while his headaxe cuts off five of adversary's heads. spares last head so it can tell him where to find his father. collects father's body together and restores it to life. _lawed_ vine at their home revives. father tries to cut off last head of giant, but fails; son succeeds easily. they send the headaxes to kill all people in town. slaughter is so great the father swims in blood, but son stands on it. both return home and hold a great celebration over the heads. the father's spittle is lapped up by a frog which becomes pregnant. frog gives birth to baby girl which is carried away by _anitos_. girl is taught to make _dawak_ (the duties of a medium). her half brother hears her, changes self into a bird and visits her in the sky. is hidden in a caldron to keep _anitos_ from eating him. tries to persuade sister to return with him. she promises to go when their father celebrates _balaua_. the ceremony is held and girl attends. is so beautiful all young men try to obtain her. they are so persistent that brother returns her to sky where she still lives and aids women who make _dawak_. aponitolau and his wife plant sugar cane, and by use of magic cause it to grow rapidly. the daughter of the big star sees the cane and desires to chew it. she goes with her companions and steals some of the cane, which they chew in the field. aponitolau hides near by and sees stars fall into the cane patch. he observes one take off her dress and become a beautiful woman. he sits on her garment and refuses to give it up until they chew betel-nut together. the star girl falls in love with him and compels him to return with her to the sky. five months later she has a child which comes out from space between her last two fingers. aponitolau persuades her to allow him to visit the earth. he fails to return at agreed time, and stars are sent to fetch him. he returns to the sky, but visits the earth again, eight months later. earth wife bears him a child and they celebrate _sayang_. sky child attends and later marries an earth maiden. the wife of aponitolau refuses to comb his hair; so he has another woman do it. she, in turn, refuses to cut betel-nut for him to chew. while doing it for himself he is cut on his headaxe. the blood flows up into the air, and does not cease until he vanishes. ceremonies made for him are without avail. aponitolau finds himself up in the air country. he meets maiden who is real cause of his plight. they live together and have a child which grows every time it is bathed. aponitolau takes boy down to earth to visit his half brother. while there the tears of the mother above fall on her son and hurt him. they celebrate _sayang_ and the sky mother attends. after it is over the half brothers marry earth girls. ayo gives birth to three little pigs. husband is ashamed, and while wife is at the spring he places the animals in a basket and hangs it in a tree. basket is found by old woman, alokotán, who takes it home. pigs soon turn into boys. when grown they go to court the girls while they spin. ayo hears of their visits and goes where they are. milk from her breasts goes to their mouths and thus proves her to be their mother. they celebrate _balaua_. ayo puts one grain of rice in each of twelve jars and they are at once filled with rice. betel-nuts summon the people to attend the ceremony. the old woman alokotán attends and the whole story of the children's birth and change to human form comes out. dumalawi makes love to his father's concubines who openly show their preference for the son. the father plans to do away with the youth. gets him drunk and has storm carry him away. dumalawi awakens in center of a large field. he causes betel trees to grow, then cuts the nuts into bits and scatters them on the ground. the pieces of nut become people who are his neighbors. he falls in love with daughter of one of these people and marries her. they celebrate _sayang_ and send out oiled betel-nuts to invite the guests. all guests, except dumalawi's father, are carried across river on the back of a crocodile. animal at first dives and refuses to carry him, but finally does so. all drink from a small jar which still remains a third full. parents of dumalawi pay the usual marriage price for girl, but her mother insists on more. has spider spin web around the town, and groom's mother has to cover it with golden beads. while two women are bathing, blood from their bodies is carried down stream. two _alan_ secure the drops of blood and place them in dishes. each drop turns into a baby boy. boys go to fight and kill many people at the spring. they challenge a ten-headed giant. he is unable to injure them, but their weapons kill him and his neighbors. heads of the victors take themselves to homes of the boys. a storm transports the giant's house. boys trample on town of the enemy and it becomes like the ocean. they use magic and reach home in an instant. hold celebration over the heads. some guests bring beautiful girls hidden in their belts. _alan_ tell history of lads and restore them to their people. one of boys falls in love and his parents negotiate match for him. the payment for the girl is valuable things sufficient to fill _balaua_ eighteen times, and other gifts in her new home. kanag is lead by his hunting dog to a small house in the jungle. girl who lives there hides, but appears on second day. they chew betel-nuts and tell their names. the quids turn to agate beads and lie in order, showing them to be related and hence suitable for marriage. they remain in forest two years and have children. kanag uses magical power and transfers their house to his home town during night. children see sugar cane which they wish to chew. kanag goes to secure it, and while away his mother visits his wife and abuses her. she becomes ill and dies. kanag tries to kill his mother, but fails. puts body of wife on a golden raft, places golden rooster on it and sets afloat on the river. rooster crows and proclaims ownership whenever raft passes a village. old woman alokotán secures raft before it vanishes into the hole where river ends. revives the girl. kanag and children reach home of alokotán, and girl is restored to them. they celebrate _balaua_ and send betel-nuts covered with gold to invite relatives. when guests arrive, they chew betel-nut and learn that kanag and his wife are cousins. kanag's parents pay marriage price, which is the _balaua_ filled nine times with jars. girl's mother raises eyebrows and half of jars vanish. _balaua_ is again filled. guests dance and feast. part of marriage price given to guests. kanag's sweetheart desires the perfume of baliwán and promises to fulfill his desires if he secures it for her. gives him arm beads from left arm in token of her sincerity. kanag and a companion set out on mission but are warned, first by a jar and later by a frog, not to continue. they disregard the advice and go on. they reach the tree on which perfume grows, and kanag climbs up and breaks off a branch. he turns into a great snake, and his companion flees. snake appears to langa-ayan and proves its identity by the arm beads around its neck. she takes it to a magic well, the waters of which cause the snake skin to peel off, and the boy is restored to his own form. kanag marries amau, and when they celebrate _balaua_ he returns the bracelet to his former sweetheart. his parents fill the _balaua_ nine times with valuable articles, in payment for his bride. kanag is sent to watch the mountain rice, although it is well protected from wild pigs. thinks parents do not care for him, is despondent. changes self into an omen bird and accompanies his father when he goes to fight. father obeys signs and secures many heads from his enemies. he holds a great celebration over the heads, but kanag refuses to attend. decides to go down to earth to eat certain fruits. parents order their spirit helpers to accompany him and dissuade him if possible. they show him a beautiful girl with whom he falls in love. he assumes human form and meets her. they chew betel-nut and tell their names. signs are favorable for their marriage. his parents agree to fill the _balaua_ nine times with various kinds of jars. they do so, but mother of girl raises eyebrows and half of jars vanish and have to be replaced. girl's mother demands that golden beads be strung on a spider web which surrounds the town. this is done, but web does not break. girl's mother hangs on thread which still holds. she then agrees to the marriage. guests dance and then return home, each carrying some of the jars. while ligi is bathing in river his headband flies away and alights on the skirt of a maiden who is bathing further down stream. the girl carries the headband home and soon finds herself pregnant. the child is born when she has the space between her third and fourth fingers pricked. with each bath the child grows a span and soon becomes so active that he hinders mother at her work. she decides to put him with his father during daytime. uses magic and causes people of the town to sleep while she places child beside father. ligi awakes and finds child and his headband beside him. child refuses to answer questions. mother secures child at nightfall and repeats acts next day. child is hidden, so she fails to get him. ligi determines to learn who mother of child is; sends out oiled betel-nuts covered with gold to invite all people to a _sayang_. when summoned, the mother refuses to go until a betel-nut grows on her knee and compels her. she goes disguised as a negrito, but is recognized by the child who nurses from her while she is drunk. ligi suspects her, and with a knife cuts off her black skin. learns she is child's mother and marries her. he divorces his wife aponibolinayen, who marries husband of gimbagonan. the latter poisons her rival, but later restores her, when threatened by her husband. a flock of birds offer to cut rice for ligi. he agrees, and goes home with a headache. birds use magic so that the rice cutters work alone, and the tying bands tie themselves around the bundles. the birds each take one grain of rice in payment. they use magic again so that bundles of rice take themselves to the town. ligi invites them to a ceremony, and then follows them home. he sees them remove their feathers and become one girl. they go back to the celebration, where all chew betel-nut. girl's quid goes to those of her parents, from whom she had been stolen by the spirit kaboniyan. the parents of ligi pay the usual marriage price for the girl. when the husband of dolimáman pricks an itching spot between her third and fourth fingers, a baby boy pops out. child who is called kanag grows each time he is bathed. while his wife is away the father puts child on a raft and sets it afloat on the river. child is rescued by old woman alokotán, who is making a pool in which sick and dead are restored to health. boy plays on nose flute which tells him about his mother, but he does not understand. plays on _bunkaka_ with same result. mother who is searching her child passes by while he is playing. milk from her breasts goes to his mouth, and she recognizes him. they stay with old woman despite pleading of husband. awig sends his daughter to watch the mountain rice. she stays in a high watch house, but is found by tattooed igorot, who cut her body in two and take her head. father goes to seek her murderers, but first plants a _lawed_ vine in the house; by its condition his wife is to know of his safety or death. he climbs high tree and looks in all directions. sees igorot, who are dancing around the head of his daughter. he takes juice from the poison tree and goes to the dance, where he is mistaken for a companion. he serves liquor to others and poisons them. takes daughter's head and starts home. is followed by four enemies. uses magic and causes _cogon_ field to burn, so foes are delayed. repeats this several times and finally escapes. he joins head and body of his daughter, and old woman alokotán puts saliva on cuts and revives her. old woman places four sticks in the ground and they become a _balaua_. betel-nuts are sent out to invite guests and many come. when the girl dances with her lover, the water comes up knee deep into the town and they have to stop. she is engaged and her lover's parents fill the _balaua_ three times with valuable gifts, in payment for her. half of gifts vanish, when her mother raises her eyebrows, and are replaced. her husband discovers the scar on her body where igorot had cut her. takes her to magic well where she bathes. scars vanish. the mother of dumanágan negotiates marriage for her son with aponibolinayen. brother of girl puts her in his belt and carries her to place where agreement is made. when they reach gate of town, young girls offer them cakes, in order to take away bad signs seen on road. boy's parents pay for girl and they marry. she gives birth to son named asbinan. he marries asigowan, but his jealous concubines cause her to cut her finger and she dies. her body is placed in a _tabalang_ on which a rooster sits, and is set afloat on the river. crowing of the cock causes old woman alokotán to rescue the corpse. she places it in her magic well and the girl is again alive and beautiful. she returns to her husband as a bird; is caught by him and then resumes own form. baby of four months hears his father tell of his youthful exploits. decides to go on head hunt despite protests of parents. is detained on his trip by young _alan_ girls. finally reaches igorot town and by means of magic kills all the people and takes their heads. heads take themselves to his home. on way back he plays bamboo jew's harp and it summons his brothers to come and see him. they chew betel-nut and make sure of relationship. continuing his journey, he is twice lost. finds an unknown sister hiding among _lawed_ vines. puts her in his belt and carries her home. upon his arrival a celebration is held and the new found brothers and sister, who had been stolen by _alan_, are restored to parents. the mother and caretaker of asbinan try to arrange for him to marry dawinisan, but are refused. asbinan goes to the girl's home and feigns sickness. is cared for by the girl, who becomes infatuated with him and accepts his suit. his parents pay jars and gold--in the shape of deer--for her. asbinan refuses to eat until his father secures fish roe. he then demands chinese dishes from the coast town of vigan. when these are supplied, he eats, and then demands the love charm which his father used when a young man. he goes to the place where the maidens are spinning, and when one offers to give him a light for his pipe, he blows smoke in her face. the charm acts and she becomes ill. he convinces her people that the only way she can be cured is by marrying him. her parents accept payment for the girl. tolagan decides to visit certain places in pangasinan. he rides on a pinto pony and carries rice cakes as provisions. at the spring in kaodanan he meets a beautiful maiden who warns him to return home, because the birds have given him a bad sign. he returns only to find that his wife has been stolen by the spirit kaboniyan. he fails to find her, but is comforted by winning a new bride (probably the girl of kaodanan). two girls are adopted by a rich man, who treats them as his daughters, except that he does not offer them bracelets or rings. they dress as men and go to see a jeweler. two young men suspect and follow them, but they succeed in escaping and return home. the spirit helpers of the youths take the forms of hawks and finally locate the maidens, whom they carry away. the youths plan to marry the girls and invite many friends to the celebration. kanag and his companion attend, become enamored with the brides and steal them. upon chewing betel-nuts they learn that they are related, so they are married. ii the ipogau who are trying to celebrate _sayang_ make errors. the spirit kadaklan and his wife instruct them to go and watch the _sayang_ at sayau. they do as bidden and after learning all the details return home and perform the ceremony. the chief spirits are pleased and cause the lesser spirits to attend the ceremony when summoned by the medium. the sick improve. the people who are conducting the _dawak_ ceremony fail to do it properly. kaboniyan (a spirit) goes down and instructs them. after that they are able to cure the sick. the spirits of dadaya notice that their feather headdresses have lost their lustre. they place them on the house of some mortals, who at once become ill. the spirit kaboniyan instructs them to make the _pala-an_ ceremony. they obey, the feathers regain their brightness and the people recover. the father who is starting for a head-dance agrees to meet his wife and baby at sun down. when he reaches the agreed spot, he finds only their hats; he looks down and sees them in the ground. he tries in vain to get them out. the spirit kaboniyan instructs him to perform the _ibal_ ceremony. he does so and receives his wife and child. the spirit ináwen, who lives in the sea, sends her servants to spread sickness. they kill many people who fail to make the _sangásang_ ceremony. a man is disturbed at night by barking of dogs, goes to door and meets a big spirit which has nine heads. spirit tells him how to make the offering in _sangásang_. he follows directions and spirits carry gift to their mistress. she mistakes the blood of a rooster for that of human beings. is displeased with the taste and orders spirits to stop killing. the spirit maganáwan sends his servants to secure the blood of a rooster mixed with rice. people see many snakes and birds near gate of town. they make the ceremony _sangásang_ and offer blood and rice. the servants of maganáwan carry the offering to him. he takes it in his mouth and spits it out, and in the same way the sickness is removed from the mortals. the people who are digging holes for house poles get a bad sign from the omen bird. they abandon the place and dig again. the deer gives a bad sign, then the snake, then different birds. they change locations many times, but at last ignore the signs and complete the house. the family are continually in trouble and are ill. the spirit kaboniyan goes to see the sick persons; he lets his spear drop through the house, and then tells them the cause of the trouble is that they have failed to make _sangásang_. he instructs them what to do, and when they obey all become well. the different parts of the house quarrel and each insists on its importance. at last they recognize how necessary each one is for the other and cease their wrangling; then the people who live in the house are again in good health. the great spirit sees the people of bisau celebrating the _ubaya_ ceremony, and determines to reward them by increasing their worldly goods. he appears as a man and rewards them. dayapán, who has been ill for seven years, goes to bathe. the spirit kaboniyan enters her body and instructs her how to perform healing ceremonies. he also teaches her how to plant and reap, and she in turn teaches the tinguian. while she is bathing she ties a cock and dog by the water side. the dog eats the cock, and thus death comes into the world. girl who lacks certain organs is ashamed to marry. she is sent by her mother to cause lameness to people who pass. a man who falls victim to her magic is only cured when the girl instructs him how to make the _bawi_ ceremony. the spirit kaboniyan instructs a sick man to make offerings at the guardian stones. he does as bidden and becomes well. they perform ceremonies near the stones when they go to fight or celebrate _balaua_, and sometimes the spirit of the stones appears as a wild rooster, a white cock, or a white dog. a man who defiles the stones becomes crazy. man sees a woman walking at night near the guardian stones. she refuses to talk and he cuts her in the thigh. she vanishes into the stones. next day it is seen that one of the stones is cut. man dies. the old men of lagayan see peculiarly shaped stones traveling down the river, accompanied by a band of blackbirds. they catch the stones and carry them to the gate of the village, where they have since remained as guardians. the spirit ibwa visits a funeral and is given some of the juices, coming from the dead body, to drink. since then he always tries to eat the body of the dead unless prevented. he is accompanied by another evil spirit whose embrace causes the living to die. a widow leaves the town before the period of mourning for her husband is past. the spirit appears first to the daughter-in-law and is fed by her, then asks for his wife. he goes to the place where she is watching the corn and sleeps with her. she apparently becomes pregnant, but fails to be delivered, and dies. two men agree to hunt carabao the following morning. in the night one dies, but the other not knowing this leaves the town and goes to the appointed place. he meets the spirit of the dead man, and only saves his life by running his horse all the way home. a man and his wife are living near to their field when the husband dies. an evil spirit comes to the door, but is driven away by the wife with a headaxe. several evil spirits attempt to gain entrance; then the chief comes. he breaks down the door; he cuts off the dead man's ears and makes the woman chew them with him--like betel-nut. the signs are propitious. he changes the woman's two breasts into one, in the center of her chest, and takes her home. a man, whose brother has just died, goes to hunt. he begins to cut up the game when his brother's spirit appears. he feeds it, but food comes out of its anus as fast as it eats. he flees and is pursued by the spirit until, by chance, he runs among _alangtin_ bushes. the spirit dislikes the bush and leaves. the people fail to put the _banal_ vine and iron on the grave. an evil spirit notices the omission and steals the body. a man goes to hunt his carabao in the mountains. he fails to plant branches at his head before he sleeps. a spirit expectorates on him, and he soon dies. two men who have to sleep in the mountains make beds of _sobosob_ leaves. in the night they hear the evil spirits come and express a desire to get them. spirits dislike the leaves, so do not molest the men. three hunters spend the night in the open. one covers himself with a red and yellow striped blanket. in the night two spirits come and think he is a little wild pig, and decide to eat him. the hunter hears them and exchanges blankets with one of his companions. the companion is eaten, and hence the _kambaya_, or striped blanket, is no longer used on the trail. the spirit bayon steals a beautiful girl and carries her to the sky, where he changes her breasts into one and marries her. she drops her rice pounder to the earth, and thus her people learn of her fate. both she and her husband still attend certain ceremonies. a hunter is carried away by a great bird. he is placed in the nest with its young and aids in feeding them. when they are large, he holds on to them, and jumps safely to the ground. he goes to fight against his enemies. while he is gone his wife dies. upon his return he sees her spirit driving a cow and two pigs. he follows her to the spirit's town and is hidden in a rice bin. when spirits try to get him during the night, he repels them by throwing feathers. feathers become exhausted, and he is forced to return home. a man encounters a large being, which, from its odor, he recognizes as the spirit of a dead man. he runs to get his friends, and they find the spot trampled like a carabao wallow. the dead wife of baluga harvests his rice during the nighttime. he hides and captures her. they go together to the spirit town, in the ground, and secure her spirit which is kept in a green bamboo cup. as they are returning to the ground they are pursued, but baluga cuts the vine on which their pursuers are climbing. when they reach home, they hold a great celebration. an _alan_ takes the afterbirth and causes it to become a real child named sayen. afterbirth child marries a servant, thinking he has married her mistress. learns he is deceived, and causes death of his wife; then kills many people in the town of the girl who has deceived him. she gets him to desist, and after he revives some of the slain marries him. people of neighboring town are troubled by the _komau_, an evil spirit, who always causes the death of as many people as the hunters have secured deer. sayen kills the _komau_. he fights with the great spirit kaboniyan. neither is able to overcome the other, so they become friends. they fight together against their enemies. sayen often changes himself into a fish or chicken, and hides after a fight. this is observed by people who set a trap and capture him. he is killed. a man while in the woods hears the _alan_ near him. he feigns death and the spirits weep for him. they put gold and beads on the body. he springs up and seizes the offerings. they demand the return of one bead; he refuses, and the spirits burn his house. two men who have killed a wild pig desire fire. one goes to house of an _alan_ and tries to secure it while the spirit sleeps. she awakes and goes with the man to the pig. man carries liver of the animal back to the baby _alan_. he eats the liver and then throws the child into a caldron of hot water. he tells his companion what he has done, and they climb a tree near the water. the _alan_ discovers their hiding place by seeing their reflection in the water. she climbs up, feet first, but they cut the vine on which she is ascending, and she is killed. they go to her house and secure a jar of beads and a jar of gold. the flat earth is made by the spirit kadaklan. he also makes the moon and sun, which chase each other through the sky. the moon sometimes nearly catches the sun, but becomes weary too soon. the stars are stones, the lightning a dog. a flood covers the land. fire has no place to go, so enters bamboo, stones and iron. it still lives there and can be driven out by those who know how. a man finds his rice field disturbed even though well fenced in. he hides and in middle of night sees some big animals fly into it. he seizes one and cuts off its wings. the animal turns out to be a mare which is pregnant and soon has male offspring. the place where the wings once grew are still to be seen on the legs of all horses. a lazy man, who is planting corn, constantly leans on his planting stick. it becomes a tail and he turns into a monkey. a boy is too lazy to strip sugar cane for himself. his mother in anger tells him to stick it up his anus. he does so and becomes a monkey. a lazy girl pretends she does not know how to spin. her companions, in disgust, tell her to stick the spinning stick up her anus. she does so and at once changes into a monkey. a war party are unable to cross a swollen river. they wish to become birds. their wish is granted and they are changed to _kalau_, but they are not able to resume the human forms. those who wore the white mourning bands, now have white heads. a mother puts a basket over her lazy son. when she raises it a bird flies away crying "sigakók" (lazy). a young man who owns a rice field gets a new wife. he leaves her to harvest the crop. she is discouraged over the prospect and wishes to become a bird. her wish is fulfilled, and she becomes a _kakok_. the dog of ganoway chases a deer into a cave. the hunter follows and in the darkness brushes against shrubs which tinkle. he breaks off some branches. cave opens again on the river bank, and he finds his dog and the dead deer at the entrance. he sees that fruits on the branches he carries are agate beads. returns, but fails to find more. his townspeople go with him to seek the wonderful tree, but part of the cave is closed by the spirit kaboniyan who owns it. the jar magsawi formerly talked softly, but now is cracked and cannot be understood. in the first times the dogs of some hunters chased the jar and the men followed, thinking it to be a deer. the jar eluded them until a voice from the sky informed the pursuers how it might be caught. the blood of a pig was offered, as the voice directed, and the jar was captured. the sun and moon fight. sun throws sand in moon's face and makes the dark spots which are still visible. a man who went with a war party is away so long that he does not recognize his daughter when he returns. he embraces her when she meets him at the town gate. in shame she changes herself into a coconut tree. two flying snakes once guarded the gap in the mountains by which the abra river reaches the sea. two brave men attack them with banana trunks. their wings stick in the banana trees and they are easily killed. the men are rewarded with gold made in the shape of deer and horses. a man named tagápen, of ilocos norte, with his wife and child goes up the abra river on a raft. they stop at various towns and tagápen goes up to each while his wife comforts the child. they finally reached patok where they go to live in the _balaua_. they remain there teaching the people many songs. iii a turtle and a monkey go to plant bananas. the turtle places his in the ground, but the monkey hangs his in a tree. soon the tree of the turtle has ripe fruit, but the monkey has none. turtle asks monkey to climb and secure the fruit. monkey eats all but one banana, then sleeps in the tree. turtle plants sharp shells around the tree and then frightens monkey which falls and is killed. turtle sells his flesh to other monkey and then chides them because they eat their kind. monkeys catch turtle and threaten first to cut and then to burn him. he deceives them by showing them marks on his body. they tie weight to him and throw him into the water. he reappears with a fish. monkeys try to imitate him and are drowned. a turtle and lizard go to steal ginger. the lizard talks so loudly he attracts the attention of the owner. the turtle hides, but the lizard runs and is pursued by the man. the turtle enters the house and hides under a coconut shell. when the man sits on the shell the turtle calls. he cannot discover source of noise and thinks it comes from his testicles. he strikes these with a stone and dies. the turtle and the lizard see a bees' nest. the lizard hastens to get it and is stung. they see a bird snare and turtle claims it as the necklace of his father. lizard runs to get it but is caught and killed. a little bird calls many times for a boy to catch it. he snares it and places it in a jar. lad's grandmother eats the bird. he discovers the theft, leaves home and gets a big stone to swallow him. the grandmother gets horses to kick the stone, carabao to hook it, and chickens to peck it, but without result. when thunder and her friends also fail, she goes home without her grandson. a frog, which is attached to a hook, lures a fish so that it is caught. the five fingers are brothers. the thumb goes to get bamboo. he tries to kiss the bamboo and his nose sticks. one by one the others go in search of the missing but are captured in the same manner. the little finger, which alone remains free, releases the others. a carabao and a shell agree to race along the river. the carabao runs swiftly, then pauses to call "shell." another shell replies and the carabao continues running. this is repeated many times until at last the carabao falls dead. a crab and a shell go to get wood. the crab pulls the rope on his load so tightly that he breaks his big legs and dies. the shell finds his friend dead and cries until he belches his own body out of the shell and he dies. a mosquito tells a man he would eat him were it not for his ears. a messenger goes to negotiate a marriage. when he arrives he sees the people nodding their heads as they suck meat out of shells. he returns home without stating his mission, but reports an acceptance. girl's people are surprised when people come for _pakálon_. a man sees people eating bamboo shoots, and is told they are eating _pagaldanen_. he understands them to say _aldan_--"ladder," so he goes home and cooks his bamboo ladder. is ridiculed by his friends. a man with heavily laden horse asks the length of a certain trip. boy replies, "if you go slowly, very soon; if you go fast, all day." the man hurries so that coconuts keep falling off the load and have to be replaced. it is dark when he arrives. a woman eats the fruit belonging to crocodile and throws away the rind. crocodile sees her tooth marks and recognizes the offender. he demands that she be given him to eat. her people agree, but first feed him a hot iron. he swallows it and dies. a lazy man goes to cut bamboo, and a cat steals his cooked rice. he catches the cat in a trap and takes it home. it becomes a fighting cock. the man starts for a cock fight, and on the way is joined by a crocodile, a deer, a mound of earth and a monkey. the rooster kills all the other birds at the fight, then the crocodile wins a diving contest, the deer a race, the mound of earth a wrestling match, and the monkey excels all in climbing. the man wins much money in wagers and buys a good house. a spirit lets a man take his _poncho_ which makes him invisible. he goes to his wife who recognizes his voice and thinks him dead. he takes off _poncho_ and appears before her. a fisherman is seized by a big bird which carries him to its nest. the small birds try to eat him, but he seizes one in each hand and jumps from the tree. he reaches the ground unhurt and returns home. notes [ ] men or women through whom the superior beings talk to mortals. during ceremonies the spirits possess their bodies and govern their language and actions. when not engaged in their calling, the mediums take part in the daily activities of the village. [ ] see page . [ ] the initial portion of some of these names is derived from the respectful term _apo_--"sir," and the attributive copulate _ni_; thus the original form of aponitolau probably was apo ni tolau, literally "sir, who is tolau." however, the story-tellers do not now appear to divide the names into their component parts, and they frequently corrected the writer when he did so; for this reason such names appear in the text as single words. following this explanation it is possible that the name aponibolinayen may be derived from apo ni bolan yan, literally "sir (mistress) who is place where the moon"; but _bolan_ generally refers to the space of time between the phases of the moon rather than to the moon itself. the proper term for moon is _sinag_, which we have seen is the mother of gaygayóma--a star,--and is clearly differentiated from aponibolinayen. [ ] [male]--male. [female]--female. [ ] occasionally the storytellers become confused and give pagbokásan as the father of aponitolau. [ ] the town of natpangán is several times mentioned as though it was the same as kaodanan. [ ] only the most important references found in the texts are given here. for a fuller list see the index. [ ] the only possible exception to this statement is the mention of a carabao sled on p. , and of aponitolau and aponibolinayen riding on a carabao p. . [ ] a term applied to any of the wilder head-hunting tribes. [ ] ladders are placed on each side of the town gate and are inclined toward one another until they meet at the top. returning warriors enter the village by climbing up the one and descending the other, never through the gate. [ ] copper gongs. [ ] sharpened bamboo poles which pass through the foramen magnum. [ ] this poison is placed in the food or drink. the use of poisoned darts or arrows seems never to have been known to this people. [ ] a similar custom is found among the kayan of borneo. see _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. (london, ). [ ] in this dance a man and a woman enter the circle, each holding a cloth. keeping time to the music, they approach each other with almost imperceptible movements of feet and toes, and a bending at the knees, meanwhile changing the position of the cloths. this is varied from time to time by a few quick, high steps. for fuller description see article by author in _philippine journal of science_, vol. iii, no. , , p. . [ ] the custom was formerly practised by the ilocano. see _reyes_, folklore filipino, p. (manila, ). [ ] see _philippine journal of science_, vol. iii, no. , , pp. , ff. [ ] the tinguian do not have a classificatory system of relationship terms. the term _kasinsin_ is applied alike to the children of mother's and father's brothers and sisters. [ ] a sacred dance in which a number of men and women take part. it takes place only at night and is accompanied by the singing of the participants. [ ] the night preceding the greatest day of the _sayang_ ceremony. [ ] runo, a reed. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a short ceremony held for the cure of fever and minor ills. it also forms a part of the more extensive rites. [ ] a sugar-cane rum. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] lesser spirits. [ ] like ideas occur in the folktales of british north borneo. see _evans_, _journal royal anthro. inst_., vol. xliii, , p. . [ ] in various guises the same conception is found in europe, asia, africa, and malaysia. see cox, an introduction to folklore, p. (london, ).--in an igorot tale the owner captures and marries the star maiden, who is stealing his rice. _seidenadel_, the language of the bontoc igorot, p. ff. (chicago, ). [ ] the dusun of borneo have tales of talking jars. _evans_, _journal royal anthro. inst_., vol. xliii, , pp. - . see also _cole_ and _laufer_, chinese pottery in the philippines (_pub. field museum of nat. hist_., vol. xii, no. , p. ff., ). [ ] _piper sp_. [ ] bagobo tales relate that in the beginning plants, animals, and rocks could talk with mortals. see _benedict_, _journal american folklore_, vol. xxvi, , p. . [ ] tales of animals who assist mortals are found in all lands; perhaps the best known to european readers is that of the ants which sorted the grain for cinderella. see also _evans_, _jour. royal anthro. inst.,_ vol. xliii, , p. , for borneo; _tawney's_ kathá sarit ságara, pp. ff., calcutta, , for india. [ ] fabulous birds of gigantic size, often known under the indian term _garuda_, play an important part in the beliefs of the peninsular malays. [ ] a similiar incident is cited by _bezemer_ (volksdichtung aus indonesien). see also the bagobo tale of the kingfisher (_benedict_, _jour. american folklore_, vol. xxvi, , p. ). [ ] the magic flight has been encountered in the most widely separated parts of the globe, as, for instance, india and america. see _tawney_, kathá sarit ságara, pp. , ff. and notes, (calcutta, ); _waterman_, _jour. american folklore,_ vol. xxvii, , p. ; _reinhold köhler_, kleinere schriften, vol. i, pp. , . [ ] in the dayak legend of limbang, a tree springs from the head of a dead giant; its flowers turn to beads; its leaves to cloth; the ripe fruit to jars. see _h. ling roth_, the natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. . [ ] similar incidents are to be found among the ilocano and igorot; in borneo; in java and india. see _reyes_, folklore filipino, p. , (manila, ); _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. , (manila, ); _seidenadel_, the language of the bontoc igorot, p. , , ff, (chicago, ); _evans_, _journal royal anthro. inst_., vol. xliii, , p. ; _ling roth_, natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. ; _tawney_, kathá sarit ságara, vol. ii, p. , (calcutta, ); _bezemer_, volksdichtung aus indonesien, p. , (haag, ). [ ] this peculiar expression while frequently used is not fully understood by the story tellers who in place of the word "whip" occasionally use "make." in one text which describes the _sayang_ ceremony, i find the following sentence, which may help us to understand the foregoing: "we go to make perfume at the edge of the town, and the things which we take, which are our perfume, are the leaves of trees and some others; it is the perfume for the people, which we give to them, which we go to break off the trees at the edge of the town." again in tale , kanag breaks the perfume of baliwán off a tree.--the use of sweetly scented oil, in raising the dead, is found in dayak legends. see _ling roth_, the natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. . [ ] according to a jakun legend, the first children were produced out of the calves of their mothers' legs. _skeat_ and _blagden_, pagan races of the malay peninsula, vol. ii, p. .--a creation tale from mangaia relates that the boy rongo came from a boil on his mother's arm when it was pressed. _gill_, myths and songs of the south pacific, p. (london, ). [ ] this power of transforming themselves into animals and the like is a common possession among the heroes of dayak and malay tales. see _ling roth_, the natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. ; _perham_, _journal straits branch r., asiatic society_, no. , ; _wilkinson_, malay beliefs, pp. , (london, ). [ ] the present day tinguian attach much importance to these omens. the gall and liver of the slaughtered animal are carefully examined. if the fluid in the gall sack is exceedingly bitter, the inquirer is certain to be successful; if it is mild he had best defer his project. certain lines and spots found on the liver foretell disaster, while a normal organ assures success. see also _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. ff. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the present capital of ilocos sur. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] _barrows_, census of the philippine islands, vol. i, pp. ff., . [ ] paul p. de la gironiere, who visited the tinguian in the early part of the nineteenth century, describes these ornaments as follows: "their heads were ornamented with pearls, coral beads, and pieces of gold twisted among their hair; the upper parts of the hands were painted blue; wrists adorned with interwoven bracelets, spangled with glass beads; these bracelets reached the elbow and formed a kind of half-plaited sleeve." _la gironiere_, twenty years in the philippines, pp. ff. [ ] see _cole_ and _laufer_, chinese pottery in the philippines (_pub. field museum of natural history_, vol. xii, no. ). [ ] this is entirely in agreement with chinese records. the islands always appeared to the chinese as an eldorado desirable for its gold and pearls. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a bamboo pole, about ten feet long, one end of which is slit into several strips; these are forced apart and are interwoven with other strips, thus forming a sort of basket. [ ] see _cole_, distribution of the non-christian tribes of northwestern luzon (_american anthropologist_, vol. ii, no. , , pp. , ). [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] among the ifugao, the lowest of the four layers or strata which overhang the earth is known as kabuniyan. see _beyer_, _philippine journal of science_, vol. viii, , no. , p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] an ifugao myth gives sanction to the marriage of brother and sister under certain circumstances, although it is prohibited in every day life. _beyer_, _philippine journal of science_, vol. viii, , no. , pp. ff. [ ] as opposed to the spirit mate of aponitolau. [ ] according to _ling roth_, the malanaus of borneo bury small boats near the graves of the deceased, for the use of the departed spirits. it was formerly the custom to put jars, weapons, clothes, food, and in some cases a female slave aboard a raft, and send it out to sea on the ebb tide "in order that the deceased might meet with these necessaries in his upward flight." natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. , (london, ). for notes on the funeral boat of the kayan, see _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. .--among the kulaman of southern mindanao an important man is sometimes placed in a coffin resembling a small boat, which is then fastened on high poles near to the beach. _cole_, wild tribes of davao district, mindanao (_pub. field museum of natural history_, vol. xii, no. , ).--the supreme being, lumawig, of the bontoc igorot is said to have placed his living wife and children in a log coffin; at one end he tied a dog, at the other a cock, and set them adrift on the river. see _jenks_, the bontoc igorot, p. , (manila, ); _seidenadel_, the language of the bontoc igorot, p. ff., (chicago, ). [ ] for similar omens observed by the ifugao of northern luzon, see _beyer_, origin myths of the mountain peoples of the philippines (_philippine journal of science_, vol. viii, , no. , p. ). [ ] page , note . [ ] see tale . [ ] for a discussion of this class of myths, see _waterman_, _jour. am. folklore_, vol. xxvii, , p. ff.; _lowie_, _ibid._, vol. xxi, p. ff., ; p.w. _schmidt_, grundlinien einer vergleichung der religionen und mythologien der austronesischen völker, (wien, ). [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the _pala-an_ is third in importance among tinguian ceremonies. [ ] tale . [ ] this is offered only as a possible explanation, for little is known of the beliefs of this group of igorot. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] tale . [ ] _hose_ and _mcdougall_, the pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. , (london, ). [ ] _bezemer_, volksdichtung aus indonesien, p. , haag, . for the tagalog version of this tale see _bayliss_, (_jour. am. folk-lore_, vol. xxi, , p. ). [ ] _evans_, folk stories of british north borneo. (_journal royal anthropological institute_, vol. xliii, , p. ). [ ] folk stories of british north borneo (_journal royal anthropological institute_, vol. xliii, p. , ). [ ] tale no. . [ ] _hose_ and _mcdougall_, the pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, pp. - . [ ] tale . the cloak which causes invisibility is found in grimm's tale of the raven. see _grimm's_ fairy tales, columbus series, p. . in a pampanga tale the possessor of a magic stone becomes invisible when squeezes it. see _bayliss_, (_jour. am. folk-lore_, vol. xxi, , p. ). [ ] _ratzel_, history of mankind, vol. i, book ii. _graebner_, methode der ethnologie, heidelberg, ; die melanesische bogenkultur und ihre verwandten (_anthropos_, vol. iv, pp. , , ). [ ] see _waterman_, _journal american folklore_, vol. xxvii, , pp. - . [ ] stories of magic growth are frequently found in north america. see _kroeber_, gross ventre myths and tales (_anthropological papers of the am. mus. of nat. hist._, vol. i, p. ); also _lowie_, the assiniboin (_ibid._, vol. iv, pt. , p. ). [ ] other examples of equally widespread tales are noted by _boas_, indianische sagen, p. , (berlin, ); l. _roth_, custom and myth, pp. ff., (new york, ); and others. a discussion of the spread of similar material will be found in _graebner_, methode der ethnologie, p. ; _ehrenreich_, mythen und legenden der südamerikanischen urvölker, pp. ff.; _ehrenreich_, die allgemeine mythologie und ihre ethnologischen grundlagen, p. . [ ] _cole_ and _laufer_, chinese pottery in the philippines (_publication field museum of natural history, anthropological series_, vol. xii, no. , chicago, ). [ ] _nieuwenhuis_, kunstperlen und ihre kulturelle bedeutung (_int. arch, für ethnographie_, vol. xvi, , pp. - ). [ ] _philippine journal of science_, vol. iii, no. , , pp. - . [ ] a vine the new leaves of which are used for greens. [ ] _antidesma ghesaembilla_ gaertn. [ ] rare beads. [ ] larger beads than _oday_. [ ] shallow wells are dug in the sands, near to the river. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] it was so long that it dragged. [ ] i.e., it was so small. the idea that roosters produce unusually small eggs is still held. the same conception is found in javanese folk-lore. here the "rooster's egg" or its substitute--the _kemiri_ nut--is placed in the granary to cause an increase in the supply of rice. _bezemer_, volksdichtung aus indonesien, p. , (haag, ). [ ] see p. , note , for similar incidents in other philippine tales, also from borneo and india. [ ] the illuminating power of beauty receives frequent mention. similiar references are met with in malay legends and indian tales. see _tawney_, kathá sarit ságara, p. ff. (calcutta, .) [ ] the meaning of this passage is not clear. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note , for similar incidents. [ ] this would have been a sign that the child wished to go to its father. [ ] see. p. ff. [ ] certain varieties of bamboo and reeds. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the rice used in this ceremony is pounded in a certain manner, by many women who sing as they work. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] like presents, or others of equal value, are generally given in return. [ ] a dance held at the gate of the town, on the great day of this ceremony. during the dance rice and water are thrown on the visitors. [ ] this was a sign that they were related. in this case the quids of the young people went to those of their fathers. [ ] they had not yet paid the customary marriage price for the girl. [ ] see p. . [ ] copper gong. [ ] a white and a black strip of cloth which the dancers carry in their hands. when the cloth is given to a person he is thus invited to dance. [ ] kanag was the baby born from aponibolinayen's finger. mentioned earlier in story. [ ] names of different kinds of jars. [ ] poles on which the heads of enemies are displayed. [ ] the _alan_ are lesser spirits. see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see pp. - . [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] the head man of a tinguian village. [ ] see p. . [ ] algaba is renamed aponitolau. [ ] see p. . [ ] a big bird. [ ] a bad sign. see p. , note for omens. [ ] sugar cane rum. [ ] the groom's gift. [ ] lesser spirits. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] _piper sp_. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the story tellers explain the very frequent mention of "girls who always stay in the house" or "who never go out of doors" by saying that in former times the prettiest girls were always protected from the sunlight in order that their skin might be of light color. these girls were called _lala-am_--those within. it is not thought they remained constantly within doors. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] small covered benches built during the _sayang_ ceremony for the use of spirits and mortals. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] each type of jar has its special name. [ ] see p. . [ ] this was the _tadek_. see p. , note . [ ] similiar ideas appear in tales from borneo. see p. , note . [ ] _ilangilang_. [ ] it is still considered a bad sign if anything falls or breaks at a wedding. [ ] apparently gawigawen had not been present at the _pakálon_. such a condition frequently exists nowadays. [ ] see pp. , . [ ] a minor spirit. [ ] king or ruler. [ ] this seems to be a late unconnected, intrusion into the tale. the _ati_ and soldiers are entirely foreign to the tinguian. [ ] see p. . [ ] this incident is frequently found in these tales. it also occurs in javanese literature. see _bezemer_, volksdichtung aus indonesien, p. . (haag, ). [ ] see p. . [ ] kadayadawan is re-named aponitolau by his new-found parents. [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the story teller paused here to explain that his mother did not know that she was pregnant, and that a miscarriage had occurred. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] head man. [ ] the term used is _alopogán_, which means "she who covers her face." for lack of a better designation we shall call her a medium. see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a bird. [ ] copper gong. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] it is the custom to distribute a part of the marriage price among the relatives of the bride. [ ] the groom's gift. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the term which expresses the relationship established between the parents of the bride and groom. [ ] _piper sp_. [ ] a headband of beads or gold. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] don carlos was evidently an ilocano, for his language is ilocano and his residence vigan. other points indicate that the story has many recent additions. [ ] the use of love charms is not confined to the tinguian and their ilocano neighbors, but is known also by the tribes of the malay peninsula. see _reyes_, folklore, filipino, p. , (manila, ); _skeat_ and _blagden_, pagan races of the malay peninsula, vol. ii, pp. , . (london, .) [ ] _antidesma ghesaembilla_ gaertn. [ ] ordinary lightning. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] another name for aponitolau. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] ligi (dagdagalisit) is now known by his true name. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] another name for ingiwan, who is really aponitolau. [ ] see p. . [ ] as a sign of mourning. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] an insect. [ ] ginteban was a woman from baygan (vigan) who had been captured by the bird. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a fruit tree. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the idea of a plant serving as a life or fidelity token was found in ancient egypt, in india, and europe. see cox, an introduction to folk-lore (london, ); _tawney_, kathá sarit ságara (calcutta, , vol. i, p. ); _parker_, village folk-tales of ceylon. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a fruit. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] lightning which is accompanied by a loud crash of thunder. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] spirits. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] an evil spirit which lives in the air and makes a sound like the medium when she is summoning the spirits. [ ] the spirit's word for world. [ ] a small bench made for the use of spirits and visiting mortals. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the term used is _al-ligan_--the high watch house in the fields. [ ] one of the big stars. [ ] a different kind of star. [ ] reduplicated form of _bitówen_--many stars. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the spirits' name for mortals. [ ] the moon. [ ] a sort of enclosed seat in which babies are suspended from the house rafters. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] aponitolau. [ ] the name means "sparks of fire." [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] similiar incidents, in which women give birth to snakes or animals, occur in borneo. see _evans_, _journal royal anthro. inst._, vol. xliii, , pp. ff. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] aponitolau. [ ] sugar cane rum. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] lesser spirits. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the cloth used in dancing. see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] another name for kanag. [ ] a raft. see p. , note . [ ] the tinguian believe that the rivers and waters finally empty over the edge of the world at a place known as nagbotobotán. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a jar. [ ] mountain rice. [ ] the omen bird. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the storyteller here paused to explain that kadalayapan was somewhere in the air, and that kanag was going down to the earth for fruit. see p. . [ ] a band of leaves worn about the head. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a place of great trees, many herbs, and continued dampness. [ ] see p. . [ ] negrito. it was gamayawán disguised. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. . [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a sort of tuning fork made of bamboo. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] the word is probably used in the igorot sense as "celebration." in the tinguian dialects _kanyau_ means "taboo." [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] this story does not belong to the cycle proper. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] the tinguian always refer to the igorot as _alzado_. [ ] head man. [ ] this story does not belong to the cycle. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] a low box-like table used by the ilocano. [ ] certain charms are still used by lovers to aid them in their suits. [ ] pangasinan is a province midway between abra and manila. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a spirit. [ ] jars. [ ] this _diam_ is recited by the medium when the spirit house known as _balaua_ is built. see also page . [ ] spirit name for tinguian. [ ] the greatest of tinguian ceremonies. [ ] a large house built for the spirits during the _sayang_ ceremony. [ ] spirits. [ ] kadaklan is the most powerful of the spirits. agemem is his wife. [ ] the names of small buildings or shrines elected for various spirits. [ ] chanted by the medium while making offerings in the _dawak_ ceremony which is made for the cure of minor illnesses, such as fever, etc. [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] the _diam_ recited during the _pala-an_ ceremony. [ ] the east. [ ] feathers attached to a stick, which serve as hair ornaments in the _sayang_ ceremony. [ ] spirit name for tinguian. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] chanted by the medium, over the offerings given to aid in the cure of a sick child, or to stop a child from incessant crying. [ ] the ceremony. [ ] _diam_ recited during the _sangásang_ ceremony in the town of lumaba. [ ] chanted when the _sangásang_ ceremony is made for sickness, or to take away a bad omen. [ ] spirit name for the earth. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] chanted when the ceremony is made to remove a bad sign. [ ] an omen bird. [ ] the true omen bird. [ ] _diam_ recited during the _sangásang_ ceremony held to remove continued misfortunes. [ ] several native names which have no exact english equivalents are used here. [ ] woven bamboo used on ceilings. [ ] this _diam_ was chanted during the _ubaya_ ceremony in villaviciosa, an igorot town much influenced by tinguian. the _ubaya_ is also held in lumaba, a tinguian settlement. [ ] no one is allowed to enter the town after the ceremony begins. [ ] the most powerful of all spirits. [ ] see p. . [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] a somewhat similar tale, current among the dayak, will be found in _roth_, the natives of sarawak and british north borneo, vol. i, p. ff. [ ] a small spirit house built during the _bawi_ ceremony. [ ] a kind of grass. [ ] account concerning the guardian stones at patok. [ ] peculiarly shaped stones in which apdel, the guardian spirit of the village is supposed to reside. [ ] a tinguian town several miles south of patok. [ ] told by the people of lumaba, to account for a peculiar knifelike cut in one of the guardian stones outside the village. [ ] large knife. [ ] account of the securing of the guardian stones at lagayan, abra. [ ] compare with account of _la gironière_, twenty years in the philippines, pp. ff; also with _cole_, _philippine journal of science_, vol. iii, no. , , pp. - . [ ] a ceremony held while the body is still in the house. [ ] a grass which is eaten. [ ] taboo. a fire is kept burning at the grave and at the foot of the house ladder for ten nights following the burial. during this time the members of the family and near relatives must remain close to home. [ ] a barrio of patok. [ ] a rope lasso. [ ] an evil spirit. [ ] people in the house with the dead and the relatives must observe the _kanyau_ (taboo) for ten days or they will meet the spirit of the dead person and it will harm them. [ ] _smilax vicaria_ kunth. [ ] the name by which the tinguian designate themselves. [ ] _blumea balsamifera_ d.c. [ ] a blanket with red or yellow stripes which resemble the markings on a young wild pig. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] a mountain town in eastern abra. [ ] a ceremony held about a year after a funeral. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] spirit name for tinguian. [ ] the three persons mentioned were still living when this story was recorded. [ ] the name of the spirit of a dead man which still remains near its old haunts. [ ] see p. , note . [ ] see p. . [ ] head man. [ ] near namarabar in ilocos sur. [ ] the ilocano consider the _komau_ a fabulous, invisible bird which steals people and their possessions. see _reyes_, el folklore filipino, p. . manila, . [ ] a powerful spirit. [ ] see p. . [ ] in the bagobo version of this tale, a ladle becomes the monkey's tail. see _benedict_, _journal american folklore_, vol. xxvi, , p. . [ ] a story accounting for the origin of the _kálau_, a bird. [ ] see page , note . [ ] the cave is situated in the mountains, midway between patok and santa rosa. [ ] the old custom was that when a party returned from a head hunt the women went to the gate and held ladders in a [lambda] so the men did not pass through the gate; or they laid them on the ground and the men jumped over them. [ ] the river emerges from abra through a narrow pass in the mountains. [ ] songs. [ ] a similiar incident is found in the northern celebes and among the kenyah of borneo. see _bezemer_, volksdichtung aus indonesien, p. . (haag, .) _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo. vol. ii, p, , london, . [ ] a variant of this tale is told by the bagobo of southern mindanao. see _benedict_, _journal of american folklore_, vol. xxvi, , p. . [ ] the gold or silver wire worn by women or men about their necks. [ ] a little bird. [ ] a kind of bamboo. [ ] for other versions of this tale see p. , note . [ ] a shell. [ ] a shell. [ ] see p. , note , for borneo parallel. [ ] see p. . [ ] bamboo sprouts. [ ] the fruit of a wild vine. [ ] the chief incidents in this tale resemble those in the sea dayak story of simpang impang. see _hose_ and _mcdougall_, pagan tribes of borneo, vol. ii, p. ff. (london, .) [ ] a town in ilocos sur. [ ] a mound of earth raised by the ants. [ ] same idea is held by the ilocano. see _reyes_, el folklore filipino, p. , manila, . see also p. , note . [illustration: ideal restoration of the neanderthal man.] a manual of the antiquity of man. by j. p. maclean. "in order to know what man is, we ought to know what man has been." --prof. max mÜller. _revised edition._ boston: universalist publishing house, _cornhill_, . entered, according to act of congress, in the year , by j. p. maclean, in the office of the librarian of congress, at washington. preface. in lecturing upon the antiquity of man i have found the minds of the people prepared to receive the evidences, and ready to believe the conclusions of the geologists. i have felt the need of a popular work to place in the hands of the public, that would be both instructive and welcome. the works of lyell and lubbock are too elaborate and too expensive to meet the popular need. my object has been to give an outline of the subject sufficient to afford a reasonable acquaintance with the facts connected with the new science, to such as desire the information but cannot pursue it further, and to serve as a manual for those who intend to become more proficient. as the unity of language and the unity of the race are so closely connected with the subject, i have added the two chapters on these questions, hoping they will be acceptable to the reader. it was my intention to have written a more extended chapter on the relation of the holy scriptures to this subject, but was forced to condense, as i had done in other chapters, in order not to transcend the proposed limits of the book. in the preparation of this work i have freely used lyell's "antiquity of man" and "principles of geology," lubbock's "pre-historic times," buchner's "man in the past, present, and future," figuier's "primitive man," wilson's "pre-historic man," keller's "lake-dwellings," the works of charles darwin, dana's "manual of geology," huxley's "man's place in nature," prichard's "natural history of man," pouchet's "plurality of the human race," and others, referred to in the margins. i am indebted to my friend, mr. frank cushing, for the ideal restoration of the neanderthal man. the engraving was made especially for this work. the references to buchner are from his work entitled, "man in the past, present and future." contents. chapter i. introduction. page interest in the subject--influence of lyell--usher's chronology--aimé boué first to proclaim the high antiquity of man--dr. schmerling the founder--boucher de perthes the apostle--classifications by lubbock, lartet, renevier, and westropp--plan of the work--no universal age of stone, bronze, or iron--epochs not sharply defined--outlines of history--superstitious notions--skull from constatt--stone hatchet from london--cavern of gailenreuth--axes from hoxne--human jaw from maestricht--skeleton from lahr-- "reliquiæ diluvianæ"--discoveries by tournal and christol-- engis and enghihoul caverns--schmerling's labors--lyell's opinions--arrow mark on skull of cave-bear--boucher de perthes and the valley of the somme--jaw of moulin-quignon-- kent's hole--fossil man of denise--remains from the manzanares--cave of aurignac--lyell declares his belief-- lake-dwellings of switzerland neanderthal skull--caverns near torquay--cave of massat--cave of lourdes--caverns of ariége--tertiary at st. prest--implements near gosport-- bones from colmar--implements near bournemouth--trou de la naulette--bones near savonia--reindeer station--foreland cliff--fossil man of mentone--other discoveries near mentone. chapter ii. glacial epoch. starting point for the investigation--advance of the ice-- fauna of europe--geological period--probable date--probable duration--evidences of the existence of man--implements from hampshire--flint tools at bournemouth--oval flint from foreland cliff--implements from the valley of the somme-- jaw of moulin-quignon--implements from the seine--axes near madrid--kent's hole--brixham cave--human jaw from maestricht--skeleton from lahr--cave of la naulette-- implements from hoxne--bones from colmar. chapter iii. glacial--continued. belgian caverns--caverns of liége--engis skull--remarks of prof. huxley--views of busk, schmerling, buchner, and vogt-- neanderthal skull--prof. huxley, dr. buchner, and dr. fuhlrott on geological time of neanderthal skull--opinions of huxley, buchner, schaaffhausen, and busk--skull from the loess of the rhine, constatt, cochrane's cave, island of moën, minsk, and plau--borreby skulls--human skulls of arno. chapter iv. pre-glacial epochs. north america during the tertiary--europe--climate--fauna of eocene--of miocene--of pliocene--traces of man--opinions of lyell, lubbock, and a. r. wallace--man in the pliocene-- hearth under osars--human bones from savonia--discoveries at st. prest--skull from altaville--prof. denton's statement-- man in the miocene--flints from pontlevoy--flint-flake from aurillac--marks on bones near pouance--implements from colorado and wyoming--eocene--glacial periods during the miocene. chapter v. condition of man in the earliest times. no knowledge of the first appearance of man--fauna of india during the miocene--intellect of man--contests with the beasts--a weapon invented--earliest type--advancement slow-- climate changes--sufferings of man--known by the remains-- structure of the neanderthal man--engis man--men both large and small--animal structure of jaws from la naulette and moulin-quignon. chapter vi. inter-glacial epoch. condition of the earth--numerous traces of man--cave of aurignac--conclusions of lartet and cartailhac--caverns of maccagnone--wokey hole--fossil man of denise--reindeer station on the schusse--dr. buchner's conclusions. chapter vii. condition of man in the inter-glacial. length of the inter-glacial--man an improvable being-- implements improved--art of engraving begun--religious nature--denton's description of primeval man--language improved. chapter viii. reindeer epoch. advance of the glaciers--fauna---reindeer epoch a distinct one--evidences of the existence of man--caves of central and southern france--implements from les eyzies--relics from la madeleine--workshops of laugerie-haute and laugerie-basse-- cave and rock shelters of bruniquel--cave of gourdan--fossil man of mentone--other remains near mentone--other bone caves of france--belgian caverns--trou de frontal--trou rosette-- trou des nutons--cave of chaleux--cave at furfooz--cave of thayngen--cave near cracow. chapter ix. man of the reindeer epoch. man under a more favorable aspect--type of--dwellings-- clothing--food--cannibalism--the arts--traffic--burial-- dupont's report. chapter x. neolithic epoch. how characterized--caves of this period--contents of--cave of saint jean d'alcas--danish shell-mounds--danish peat bogs--lake-dwellings of switzerland--enumeration of-- robenhausen--fauna and flora of--troyon and keller on-- other lake-dwellings--chronology. chapter xi. man of the neolithic. type of--advancement--habitations--clothing--food--arts and manufactures--vast number of implements discovered--war-- agriculture--burial--dolmens, tumuli, cromlechs, and menhirs-- victims, or cannibalism. chapter xii. bronze epoch. no direct relation to antiquity of man--how characterized-- type--habitation and food--clothing--implements--arts-- agriculture--fishing and navigation--burial--religious belief--stone crescents. chapter xiii. iron epoch. civilization established--swiss lake-dwellings--dr. keller's observations. chapter xiv. traces of man in america. great opportunities for the archæologist--aim of the chapter-- skull from osage mission--comstock lode--charcoal at toronto-- knife from kansas--pelvic bone from natchez--skeleton from new orleans--remains from the reefs of florida--caverns of brazil-- shell heaps--mound-builders--extent of mounds--implements of-- sacrificial--sephulchral--temple--symbolical--antiquity of-- fort shelby--how long the mound-builders remained. chapter xv. written history. mystery of ancient empires--rollin's difficulties--egypt-- manetho's list--statement of herodotus--mariette's explorations--borings in the mud deposits of the nile-- dr. schliemann's discoveries at troy--history of chaldea by berosus--astronomical calculations--chinese history-- mexican history. chapter xvi. language. a field for study--three divisions of language--rhematic period--origin of--various theories--change of--views of ancients--number of--comparative permancy of written language. chapter xvii. unity of the human race. objections to the unity of the race--anatomical-- geographical--disparity of--non-existence of medium types-- phenomena caused by two united types--objections answered-- both man and animals affected by climate, food, and condition--examples--argument from language--ocean navigated by frail crafts--examples--captain tyson and party--the two extremes exist in all nations, and even in families--people who have retrograded--races will amalgamate and perpetuate their kind--griquas--papuas--pitcairn islanders--law of hybridity--close affinity of the races--slow change of. chapter xviii. the bible. controversy--perversion of meaning--men of science branded-- design of the chapter--creation--"bara"--day--man's appearance--two accounts--case of cain--sons of god--remarks of dr. livingstone--doctrine of unity of the race-- chronology--the deluge--septuagint--monarchies--the dispersion--opinion of dr. hedge--no supernatural aid in the formation of language--what god may do does not imply what he has done--dean stanley on the biblical account of creation. a manual of the antiquity of man. chapter i. introduction. no subject, of late years, has so much engrossed the attention of geologists as the antiquity of the human race. the interest was greatly increased by the publication of sir charles lyell's "antiquity of man." this work called the attention of the public to the subject, and so great became the interest that many volumes and memoirs have been added to the list, discussing the question in various ways, and, for the most part, in such a manner as to add fresh interest and throw more light on the subject. the scientific men were slow to take advantage of the discoveries continually being made of the bones and works of man found in caves and associated with the remains' of extinct animals. it is probable, even at this late day, there would not have been so much discussion of this subject had not sir charles lyell lent the weight of his great name to it. educated men, everywhere, began to doubt the correctness of archbishop usher's chronology, and so complete has been the revolution of opinion that it is almost impossible to find an intelligent man who would limit the period of man's existence to , years. to aimé boué, a french geologist, must be attributed the honor of having been the first to proclaim the high antiquity of the human race; to dr. schmerling, the learned belgian osteologist, on account of his laborious investigations, untiring zeal, and great work on the subject, the merited title of being the founder of the new science; to m. boucher de perthes, its great apostle; while to sir charles lyell and sir john lubbock must be ascribed the honor of having made the new theory popular. the new science soon became permanently established, and the geologists at once set about classifying the facts before them, in order to assign to them their respective places in the geological epochs. all are agreed in respect to the chronological orders, but all have not used the same nomenclature, in consequence of which more or less confusion has been the result. sir j. lubbock has divided pre-historic archæology into four great epochs, as follows: "i. that of the drift; when man shared the possession of europe with the mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct animals. this we may call the 'palæolithic' period. "ii. the later or polished stone age; a period characterized by beautiful stone weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments. this we may call the 'neolithic' period. "iii. the bronze age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting instruments of all kinds. "iv. the iron age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for arms, axes, knives, etc."[ ] these divisions are recognized by lyell and tylor. edward lartet has proposed the following classification: i. the stone age. st. epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear and mammoth). d. epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch). d. epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished stone epoch). ii. the metal age. st. the bronze epoch. d. the iron epoch. this mode of division is adopted by m. figuier, in his "primitive man," by the museum of saint-germain in that portion devoted to pre-historic antiquities, and adhered to in essential points by troyon and d'archiac. professor renevier, of lausanne, has proposed a somewhat different scheme, founded upon the epochs of swiss glaciation. it is as follows: "i. _pre-glacial epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the elephant (_elephas antiquus_), rhinoceros (_r. hemitæchus_), and the cave-bear (_ursus spelæus_). "ii. _glacial epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the mammoth (_elephas primigenius_), rhinoceros (_r. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc. "iii. _post-glacial epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the mammoth and reindeer (_cervus tarandus_). "iv. _last epoch_, or epoch of the _pile-buildings_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the irish elk (_megaceros hibernicus_), aurochs (_bison europæus_)," etc.[ ] westropp divides the periods of man, in respect to his stages of civilization, as follows: _savagery_, _hunters_, _herdsmen_, and _agriculturists_. in the following pages a somewhat different classification has been adopted, and may be thus explained: i. _pre-glacial epoch_; that period antedating the glaciers of the post-tertiary, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of the tertiary, southern elephant (_e. meridionalis_), etc. ii. _glacial epoch_; that period of the post-tertiary when man was forced to contend with the great ice-fields and the floods immediately succeeding them, when the mammoth (_e. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_r. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc., began to flourish. iii. _interglacial epoch_; that period between the glacial and the second advance of the ice, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of the preceding epoch, and the cave bear became extinct. iv. _reindeer epoch_; that period when the glaciers again advanced; in which man's chief food consisted of the flesh of the reindeer (_c. tarandus_), that animal having made its way in numerous herds as far south as the pyrenees. v. _neolithic epoch_; that period in which man polished his weapons of stone, and sought to domesticate certain animals, the dog, etc. vi. _bronze epoch_; that period characterized by weapons and implements being made chiefly of bronze. vii. _iron epoch_; that period in which bronze was generally superseded by iron. this classification, on the whole, seems to be the best that could be devised, for the reason it attempts to place the evidences of the existence of man in their relative geological positions. other methods have misled the student. there was no universal stone, bronze, or iron age. the classification given by lubbock applies to europe, but is too general. i have adopted the word "neolithic" for want of a better term, although the signification of the word is appropriate to the period it is intended to represent. these various epochs are not sharply defined, the one from the other; but one merges into the other by gradual progression covering a period of thousands of years. the growth of the various plants and animals, and their retreat or final extinction, have also been very slow. an outline of the history of the discoveries which led to a careful investigation of the question, and which resolved the question into a science, is not only one of interest but also of importance to the careful thinker seeking information on the subject. prior to the study of the ancient implements the "people had so little notion of the nature and signification of the stone axes and weapons of earlier and later times that they were regarded with superstitious fear and hope, and as productions of lightning and thunder. hence for a long time they were called thunderbolts even by the learned.... as late as the year when mahndel explained in the academy of paris that these stones were human implements, he was laughed at, because he had not proved that they could not have been formed in the clouds."[ ] as early as the year , a human skull was dug out of the calcareous tuff of constatt, in company with the bones of the mammoth. it is preserved in the natural history museum at stuttgart. in the year , an englishman named kemp found in london, by the side of elephants' teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been subsequently found in great numbers in different parts of the world. this hatchet is still preserved in the british museum. in , in the cavern of gailenreuth, bavaria, j. f. esper discovered some human bones mingled with the remains of extinct animals. in , unpolished flint axes were dug out in great numbers from a brick-field near hoxne, county of suffolk, where they occurred at a depth of twelve feet, mingled with the bones of extinct species of animals. they were gathered up and thrown by basketsful upon the neighboring road. in the year , before the society of antiquaries, john frere read a paper upon them, in which he stated that they pointed to a very remote period. this communication, short as it was, contained the essence of all subsequent discoveries and speculations as to the antiquity of man. but the society regarded the subject as of no importance. during the construction of a canal ( - ) in hollerd, there was found, near maestricht, in the _loess_, a human jaw in company with the bones of extinct animals. this bone is preserved in the museum at leyden. in , aimé boué disinterred portions of a human skeleton from ancient undisturbed loess near lahr, a small village nearly opposite strasbourg. these bones were placed in the care of cuvier, but, having been neglected, are now lost. in the same year, dr. buckland, an english geologist, published his "reliquiæ diluvianæ," a work principally devoted to a description of the kirkdale cave. the author combined all the known facts which favored the coexistence of man, with the extinct animals. in , m. tournal and m. christol explored numerous caverns in the south of france. in the cavern of bize, tournal found human bones and teeth, and fragments of rude pottery, together with the bones of both living and extinct species of animals, imbedded in the same mud and breccia, cemented by stalagmite. the human bones were in the same chemical condition as those of the extinct species. m. christol found in the cavern of pondres, near nimes, some human bones in the same mud with the bones of an extinct hyena and rhinoceros. in , dr. schmerling explored the two bone-caverns of engis and enghihoul (belgium). in the former he found the engis skull (now in the museum of the university of liége), at a depth of nearly five feet, under an osseous breccia. the earth also contained the teeth of rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and exhibited no marks of disturbance. he also found the skull of a young person imbedded by the side of a mammoth's tooth. it was entire, but so fragile, that it fell to pieces before it was extracted. in the cave of enghihoul he found numerous bones belonging to three human individuals, mingled with the bones of extinct animals. in these caves he noted rude flint instruments, but did not collect many of them. in the care of chokier, he discovered a polished and jointed needle-shaped bone, with a hole pierced through it, at its base. the caves of engis and chokier have been annihilated, while only a part of enghihoul remains. soon after these discoveries dr. schmerling published a work which described and represented a vast quantity of objects which had been discovered in the belgian caverns. the scientific men were not yet prepared to receive the new discoveries, and it attracted but little attention at that time. too much praise cannot be bestowed upon dr. schmerling for his unremitting labors. of these labors sir charles lyell has said: "to have undertaken, in , with a view of testing its truth (antiquity of fossil human bones) to follow the belgian philosopher through every stage of his observations and proofs, would have been no easy task even for one well-skilled in geology and osteology. to be let down, as schmerling was, day after day, by a rope tied to a tree, so as to slide to the foot of the first opening of the engis cave, where the best-preserved human skulls were found; and, after thus gaining access to the first subterranean gallery, to creep on all fours through a contracted passage leading to larger chambers, there to superintend by torchlight, week after week and year after year, the workmen who were breaking through the stalagmitic crust as hard as marble, in order to remove piece by piece the underlying bone-breccia nearly as hard; to stand for hours with one's feet in the mud, and with water dripping from the roof on one's head, in order to mark the position and guard against the loss of each single bone of a skeleton; and at length, after finding leisure, strength, and courage for all these operations, to look forward, as the fruits of one's labor, to the publication of unwelcome intelligence, opposed to the prepossessions of the scientific as well as the unscientific public;--when these circumstances are taken into account, we need scarcely wonder.... that a quarter of a century should have elapsed before even the neighboring professors of the university of liége came forth to vindicate the truthfulness of their indefatigable and clear-sighted countryman."[ ] in , m. joly, then professor at the lyceum of montpellier, found in the cave of nabrigas (lozére) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an arrow had left its mark. close by, was a fragment of pottery marked by the finger of the moulder. it was in the valley of the somme (a river in the north of france) that m. boucher de perthes found those famous flint-axes of the rudest form. his explorations had been going on for a long time. he did all he could to bring these discoveries before the public. in the year he began to proclaim the high antiquity of man, in a series of communications addressed to the société d'emulation of abbeville. to the same society, in the year , he exhibited the flint-axes he had found, but without result. in , he took these hatchets to paris, and showed them to some of the members of the institute. at first they gave some encouragement toward these researches; but this favorable feeling did not last long. in he began to form his collection, which has since become so justly celebrated. he engaged trained workmen to dig in the diluvial beds, and in a short time he had collected twenty specimens of flint wrought by the hand of man, though in a very rude state. in , he published his first work on the subject, entitled "de l'industrie primitive, ou les arts et leur origine." in the following year he published his "antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes," in which he gave illustrations of these stone implements. this work attracted no attention until the year , when a french _savant_, named rigollot, made a personal examination and was successful in his search for these relicts in the neighborhood of amiens. he was soon followed by sir c. lyell, sir john lubbock, dr. falconer, sir roderick i. murchison, and other eminent scientists. boucher de perthes, continuing his researches, was rewarded, in the year , by finding the lower half of a human jaw bone, covered with an earthy crust, which he extracted with his own hands from a gravel-pit at abbeville. a few inches from it a flint hatchet was discovered. they were at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface. this bone has been called the jaw of moulin-quignon, and is preserved in the museum of natural history at paris. the discovery of this bone produced a great sensation among english geologists. christy, falconer, carpenter, and busk went to france and examined the locality where the bone was found. they went away satisfied with both its authenticity and antiquity. some geologists, however, doubted its authenticity; but at the present time all, or nearly all, recognize the truth of the conclusions of boucher de perthes. not far from the same locality, he was again successful, in , in finding a number of human bones presenting the same character as the jaw of moulin-quignon. in , rev. j. macenery, of devonshire, england, found in a cave, called kent's hole, human bones and flint knives among the remains of the mammoth, cave-bear, hyena, and two-horned rhinoceros, all from under a crust of stalagmite. mr. macenery began the explorations of this cave as early as . he did not publish his notes on his discoveries but they remained in manuscript until , when they were obtained by mr. vivian. mr. godwin-austen, in his communication to the geological society in the year , states, in his description of kent's hole, he found works of art in all parts of the cave. the fossil man of denise was discovered by a peasant, in an old volcanic tuff, near the town of le puy-en-velay, central france, an account of which was first published by dr. aymard, in . able naturalists, who have examined these bones, especially those familiar with the volcanic regions of central france, declared that they believed them to have been enveloped by natural causes in the tufaceous matrix in which they are now seen. in the years - , casiano de prado made discoveries on the banks of the manzanares, near madrid. they consisted of portions of the skeletons of the rhinoceros, and a nearly perfect skeleton of an elephant in the diluvial sand. lying beneath this ossiferous sand, were several flint axes of human workmanship. [illustration: fig. . sir charles lyell.] near the town of aurignac, france, a workman named bonnemaison, in the year , accidently discovered a cave containing the remains of seventeen human skeletons. these bones were taken by dr. amiel, the mayor of aurignac, who was ignorant of their value, and consigned to the parish cemetery. the spot of their re-inhumation has been forgotten, and this treasure is now lost to science. in , the cave was explored by edward lartet. after a long and patient examination, he came to the conclusion that the cave was a human burial place, cotemporary with the mammoth and other great animals of the quaternary epoch. it was at the meeting of the british association, in , that sir charles lyell declared his belief in the great antiquity of the human race. he had before opposed the idea, but was convinced of the truth by personal examination of human bones and flint hatchets, from the quarries of st. acheul. he became enthusiastic in his investigations, and, in order to present the discussion clearly to the scientific public, he published his "geological evidences of the antiquity of man," in . in the last edition of his "principles of geology," he bestows considerable space to the discussion of the subject. he was closely followed, in the same view, by other eminent geologists. the remains of the ancient lake dwellings of switzerland were discovered in the winter of - . that winter was so dry and cold that the water of the lakes fell far below its ordinary level. on account of this, a large tract of ground of lake zurich was gained by the people throwing up embankments. in the process of the work, the piles on which stood the dwellings, fragments of pottery, bone and stone implements, and various other relics, were discovered.[ ] dr. keller, of zurich, examined the objects, and at once came to a right understanding as to their signification. he carefully examined the remains, and described these lake habitations in six memoirs presented to the antiquarian society of zurich, in , , , , and . in these memoirs were translated into english by j. e. lee, together with articles from other antiquaries, under the title of "the lake dwellings of switzerland, and other parts of europe." this work contains ninety-seven plates, besides many wood-cuts. memoirs of the dwellers of different lakes have, from time to time, been published, but they are included in the translated work of dr. keller. the far-famed neanderthal skull was discovered by dr. fuhlrott, in the year , in a limestone cavern, near düsseldorf, in a deep ravine known by the name of neanderthal. this skull, with parts of the skeleton to which it belonged, was found under a layer of mud, about five feet in thickness. it is now in the cabinet of dr. fuhlrott, elberfeld, rhenish prussia. in , a bone-cavern was found near torquay, not far from kent's hole. this cave was examined by a scientific commission. at first it was undertaken by the royal society, but when its grants had failed, miss burdett-coutts paid the expenses of completing the work. in this cave, under a layer of stalagmite, were found many flint knives, associated with the bones of extinct mammals. m. a. fontan found in the cave of massat (department of ariége), in , human teeth and utensils associated with the remains of the cave-bear, the fossil hyena, and the cave-lion (_felis speloea_). in , m. a. milne edwards found certain relics of human industry mingled with the fossil bones of animals, in the cave of lourdes, france. in , dr. garrigou published the result of the researches which he, in conjunction with rames and filhol, had made in the caverns of ariége. these explorers found the jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion, which had been wrought by the hands of man. in the upper strata of the tertiary beds (pliocene) at st. prest (department of eure), in the year , m. desnoyers found the bones of extinct animals which were cut or notched by flint instruments. in the same strata abbé bourgeois discovered implements of stone. he communicated his discoveries to the international congress held at paris in . in , james brown found flint implements midway between gosport and southampton, included in gravel from eight to twelve feet thick, capping a cliff which at its greatest height is thirty-five feet above high-water mark. these flint tools exactly resemble those found at abbeville and amiens. some of them are preserved in the blackmore museum at salisbury. in , there was found in the loess of the rhine, near colmar, alsace, human bones in the same bed with bones of the mammoth, horse, stag, auroch, and other animals. in , alfred stevens first dug out a hatchet from the gravel at the top of the sea-cliff east of the bournemouth opening, southampton river. soon after, dr. blackmore, to the west of the valley, obtained two other flint implements. the spot was examined by lyell in . dr. edward dupont, an eminent belgian cave explorer, in the year , found a fragment of a human jaw in the trou de la naulette, a bone cave situated on the bank of the river lesse not far from chaleux. at the international congress of , m. a. issel reported he had found several human bones in beds of pliocene age, near savonia, in liguria. the reindeer station on the schusse, in swabia, was discovered in , during the operations undertaken for the improvement of a mill-pond. the schusse is a little river which flows into the lake of constance, and its source is upon the high plateau of upper swabia between the lake of constance and the upper course of the danube. in , thomas codrington discovered an oval flint implement in gravel at the top of the foreland cliff, isle of wight, five miles southeast of ryde. the fossil man of mentone was discovered, in , by m. riviére, in a cave near nice, france. the skeleton was almost entire, and imbedded twenty feet below the surface of the deposit. in , m. riviére discovered another human skeleton, by the side of which lay a few unpolished stone implements, in one of the caves in the same neighborhood. in and , m. riviére was again so fortunate as to discover, in neighboring caves, the remains of three persons, two of them those of children. the skeletons were in the same condition, and decked with similar ornaments, as those he had previously discovered. chapter ii. glacial epoch. happily for the archæo-geologist, there is given him a point from which to start in his researches into the antiquity of his race. without it his calculations would be very indefinite and his efforts would be shorn of much of their interest. the glacial epoch, that has puzzled the mind of both the geologist and the astronomer, is a guide-post where he may not only look both ways, but also estimate the length of ages and number the years of man. nothing, then, is of more importance, in this investigation, than an understanding of the condition of the earth prior to the glacial, and the knowledge of the date and length of this epoch. for untold ages the earth, to all appearance, had been preparing itself for the reception of man. there was an abundance of game, the forests were beautiful, the domestic animals had made their appearance, the climate was warm, the soil rich, and the coal had been formed. everything seemed to point to a bright and glorious future for man, who had already entered upon the scene. it is true there were fierce and savage beasts to contend with. these seemed but a motive power to stir man to action and develop the resources of his mind. should he fail for a time to overcome the wild beasts a retreat was provided in the hollow recesses of the earth. but nature felt her work was still unfinished. the earth had passed through the ordeal of fire, and withstood the devastations of water, and now her long summer must come to an end. the arctic regions had been growing colder and colder, and the change was felt in the countries to the south. the northern animals were being clothed with a hairy or woolly garment for their protection. the aspect began to be forbidding. the future prospect of man was not only gloomy, but foreboded he should perish along with the many species of animals that were gradually succumbing to the cold. great fields of ice were slowly accumulating at both the poles, and at last, by the power of their great weight, assisted by some geographical changes, began to move toward the equator, crushing and grinding the great rocks, and either driving before them, or else destroying, every living thing in their relentless march. slowly but surely they moved on. the mountains groaned under the enormous weight of ice. their heads were scarred, their sides bruised, torn and cut. the icy monsters listened not to the pleadings of earth, the lowing of cattle, or the cries of man. centuries elapsed before the sun re-asserted his power. the rays of the sun, the internal heat of the earth, and other causes, produced a change. the northern ice was broken up by the time it reached latitude ° north america, leaving its indelible traces in the bowlders, gravel, beds of sand and clay which mark its course. in europe this sheet of ice extended as far south as spain and corsica. the glaciers of the antarctic regions extended as far as latitude ° south. _fauna of europe._--among the fauna may be mentioned the gigantic elephants, of nearly twice the bulk of the largest individuals that now exist, which roamed in herds over england, and extended across the siberian plains and from behring strait to south carolina. two-horned rhinoceroses wallowed in the swamps of the ancient forests. hippopotamuses inhabited the lakes and rivers. the great cave-bear, which sometimes attained the size of a horse, and the cave-tiger, twice as large as the living tiger, preyed upon the animals of less strength than themselves. troops of hyenas, larger than those of south america, disputed with other beasts of prey. a species of wild-cat, lynx, and leopard found retreats in the same forests. then there was a remarkable carnivorous animal called _machairodus_, about the size of a tiger, and from the shape and size of the sword-like teeth, must have been a very destructive creature. the lemming and the musk ox found a home, and the wild horse pranced about unrestrained by the hand of man. the great irish elks swiftly moved over the ground, and must have been very numerous, as their remains occur in abundance in peat-bogs and marl-pits. nor should it be unmentioned that there was also a species of gigantic ox nearly as large as an elephant, that subsisted on the plains. all these animals followed the retreat of the glaciers and some of them were in close proximity to the ice. _geological period._--the glacial epoch occurred during the geological period known as the post-tertiary. the tertiary had gradually passed away and its time had been recorded on the pages of geological history. a new epoch began to dawn. this was the epoch of ice, the birth and almost the childhood of the post-tertiary. _probable date._--in discussing the probable date of the glacial epoch, sir charles lyell says, "the attempt to assign a chronological value to any of our geological periods except the latest, must, in the present state of science, be hopeless. nevertheless, independently of all astronomical considerations, it must, i think, be conceded that the period required for the coming on of the greatest cold, and for its duration when most intense, and the oscillations to which it was subject, as well as the retreat of the glaciers and the 'great thaw' or disappearance of snow from many mountain-chains where the snow was once perpetual, required not tens but hundreds of thousands of years. less time would not suffice for the changes in physical geography and organic life of which we have evidence. to a geologist, therefore, it would not appear startling that the greatest cold should be supposed to have been two hundred thousand years ago, although this date must be considered as very conjectural, and one which may be as likely to err in deficiency of time as in excess."[ ] sir john lubbock, in his dissent from some calculations made by mr. geikie on the general effect produced by rivers in excavating valleys and lowering the general level of the country, says, "as regards the higher districts, however, his data are perhaps not far wrong, and if we apply them to the valley of the somme, where the excavation is about two hundred feet in depth, they would indicate an antiquity for the palæolithic epoch of from one hundred thousand to two hundred and forty thousand years."[ ] dana, in his chapter on the length of geological time, says, in speaking of the time required to excavate the gorge of niagara river, that "on both sides of the gorge near the whirlpool, and also at goat island, there are beds of recent lake shells ... the same kinds that live in still water near the entrance to the lake, and which are not found in the rapids. the lake, therefore, spread its still waters, when these beds were formed, over the gorge above the whirlpool. a tooth of a mastodon (_m. giganteus_) has been found in the same beds. this locates the time in the champlain epoch.... six miles of the gorge have been excavated since that mastodon was alive.... "there is a lateral valley leading from the whirlpool through the queenstown precipice at a point a few miles west of lewiston. this valley is filled with drift of the glacial epoch, and this blocking up of the channel may have compelled it to open a new passage. "if, then, the falls have been receding six miles, and we can ascertain the probable rate of progress, we may approximate to the length of time it required. hall and lyell estimated the average rate at one foot a year,--which is certainly large. mr. desor concluded, after his study of the falls, that it was 'more nearly three feet a century than three feet a year.' taking the rate at one foot a year, the six miles will have required over thirty-one thousand years; if at one inch a year--which is eight and one third feet a century--three hundred and eighty thousand years."[ ] the calculation made by dana is for the champlain epoch. as this epoch was subsequent to the glacial, the time must be either thrown still farther back, or else allow the calculations to begin with the end of the glacial. _probable duration._--lyell has attempted to form an estimate of the duration of the glacial epoch by considering "the most simple series of changes in physical geography which can possibly account for the phenomena of the glacial period," and enumerates as follows: "first, a continental period, toward the close of which the forest of cromer flourished; when the land was at least five hundred feet above its present level, perhaps much higher, and its extent probably greater than that given in the map, fig. ." (in this map the whole of the british isles are connected with one another, and with the continent--the german ocean and the english channel constituting dry land). "secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of the thames and bristol channel, and that of ireland, was gradually reduced to an archipelago; and finally to such a general prevalence of sea as is seen in map, fig. ." (this map is intended to represent the british isles as they appeared above water when scotland was submerged to two thousand feet and other parts of the isles to one thousand three hundred feet.) "this was the period of submergence and of floating ice, when the scandinavian flora, which occupied the lower grounds during the first continental period, may have obtained exclusive possession of the only lands not covered with perpetual snow. "thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial sea, with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and when the quantity of land equalled that of the first period.... during this period there were glaciers in the higher mountains of scotland and wales.... "the submergence of wales to the extent of one thousand four hundred feet, as proved by glacial shells, would require fifty-six thousand years, at the rate of two and a half feet per century; but taking professor ramsay's estimate of eight hundred feet more, that depression being required for the deposition of some of the stratified drift, we must demand an additional period of thirty-two thousand years, amounting in all to eighty-eight thousand; and the same time would be required for the reëlevation of the tract to its present height. but if the land rose in the second continental period no more than six hundred above the present level ... this ... would have taken another twenty-six thousand years; the whole of the grand oscillation, comprising the submergence and reëmergence, having taken, in round numbers, two hundred and twenty-four thousand years for its completion; and this, even if there were no pause or stationary period, when the downward movement ceased, and before it was converted into an upward one."[ ] lyell admits that the average rate of two and a half feet per century is a purely arbitrary and conjectural one, and there are cases where the change is even six feet a century, yet the average rate of motion, he thinks, will not exceed that above proposed. with this opinion, lubbock believes most geologists will agree.[ ] by the estimates already given a basis is formed upon which a calculation can be made as to the time when this epoch began. at the time of the most intense cold the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was . ; the difference in millions of miles between the greatest and least distances of the earth from the sun - / ; the number of days by which winter, occurring in aphelion was longer than the summer in perihelion . ; the mean temperature of the hottest summer month in the latitude of london when the summer occurs in perihelion, °; the mean temperature of the coldest winter month in the latitude of london when the winter occurs in aphelion, ° '. sixty thousand years later the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was but . ; the difference of distance in millions of miles was ; number of winter days in excess, . ; mean of hottest month in latitude of london, °, and mean of coldest month °. it is evident then at this time (one hundred and fifty thousand years ago) a "great thaw" had taken place and the glaciers driven back, although fifty thousand years later less intense cold set in again. if thirty thousand years be allowed for the "great thaw" from the extreme point of cold, and that extreme point to have been two hundred and ten thousand years ago, then one hundred and eighty thousand years ago the glaciers had become so broken up as to allow vegetation to spring up in many localities, and the wild beasts to partially reassert their dominion. if to this be added the time required for the duration of the glacial epoch (two hundred and twenty-four thousand years) then the time when the ice began to accumulate was four hundred and four thousand years ago. but if the tables of mr. croll be correct, their beginning could not have been earlier than three hundred and fifty thousand years ago, as the eccentricity of the earth's orbit varied but little from the present, and five hundred and fifty thousand years ago it was almost identical with that of the present.[ ] during the last stages of this ocean of ice it must have melted very rapidly,[ ] for great rivers were formed, and the water pouring down its icy bed sought other streams, and on the bosom of the earth swept away loose sediment, depositing it along the course of rivers and in caves of the earth, covering the remains of man along with those of animals that perished during the long winter of ice. [illustration: fig. . stream issuing from a glacier.] _evidences of the existence of man._--the traces of man in the deposits made during the glacial epoch are numerous. out of the many, the most noted will be given, with a view to their chronological order. in all probability the very oldest implements of the post-tertiary, and consequently the beginning of the glacial epoch, if not of the pliocene, are those found in the south of hampshire, between gosport and southampton. they came from a tabular mass of drift which caps the tertiary strata. "the great bed of gravel resting on eocene tertiary strata, in which these implements have been found, consists in most places of half-rolled or semi-angular chalk flints, mixed with rounded pebbles washed out of the tertiary strata.... many of them exhibit the same colors and ochreous stain as do the flints in the gravel in which they lay." west of the southampton estuary, "on both sides of the opening at bournemouth, flint tools of the ancient type have been met with in the gravel capping the cliffs. the gravel from which the flint tool was taken at bournemouth is about one hundred feet above the level of the sea.... the gravel consists in great part of pebbles derived from tertiary strata." the oval flint implement discovered in gravel at the top of the foreland cliff "is of the true palæolithic type, and the gravel in which it is imbedded at the height of about eighty feet above the level of the sea, may have once extended to the cliffs near gosport; in which case we should have to infer that the channel called the solent had not yet been scooped out when this region was inhabited by palæolithic man."[ ] it may be safely inferred that the implements in the above three enumerations were imbedded at about the same time. the flint implements from the valley of the somme, which have been of so much interest, and convinced so many sceptical geologists, belong to the early part of this epoch. this valley may be represented by fig. . [illustration: fig. . section across the somme in picardy. . peat, twenty to thirty feet thick, resting on gravel, _a_. . lower level gravel, with elephants' bones and flint tools covered with fluviatile loam, twenty to forty feet thick. . upper level gravel, with similar fossils, and overlying loam. in all thirty feet thick. . upland loam without shells, five or six feet thick. . eocene tertiary strata, resting on the chalk in patches.] in explanation of the above it may be well to remark that no. indicates the lower level gravels, and no. the higher ones, which are from eighty to one hundred feet above the river. of a later date than these is the peat, no. , which is from ten to thirty feet in thickness. underneath the peat is a bed of gravel, _a_, from three to fourteen feet thick, resting on undisturbed chalk. but between the gravel and the peat is a thin layer of impervious clay. this section of the valley of the somme is a pretty fair representation of the arrangements of the different beds at abbeville, amiens, and and st. acheul. in these beds are the records of two drift periods, marked by and . the two are separated by a layer of fresh-water deposits, which contains river shells and is sometimes as much as sixteen feet thick. the lower, or gray diluvium, (no. ), marks the glacial epoch, as distinct from the glaciers of the reindeer epoch. in the lower gravel, lying immediately upon the tertiary formation, were found the flint hatchets, together with the bones of the mammoth and fossil rhinoceros. in order to understand the deposits still more clearly, the following figure is given. [illustration: fig. . section of a gravel-pit at st. acheul. . vegetable and made soil from two to three feet thick. . brown loam from four to five feet thick, containing a few angular flints. . bed of sandy marl from five to six feet thick, with land and fresh-water shells, covered with a thin layer of angular gravel from one to two feet thick. . a bed of partially rounded gravel containing well-rolled tertiary pebbles. in this bed the flint implements are chiefly found--ten to fourteen feet thick. . formation of chalk. _a._ part of elephant's molar, eleven feet from surface. _b._ entire molar of mammoth (_e primigenius_), seventeen feet from surface. _c._ position of flint hatchet, eighteen feet from surface. _d._ gravel projecting five feet.] at st. acheul, in bed no. , were found large numbers of flint implements. some of them have the shape of a spear-head, and are over seven inches in length. the oval-shaped hatchets are so rude in some instances as to require a practised eye to decide their human origin. in the same bed are found small round bodies having a tubular cavity in the centre. dr. rigollot has suggested that these perforated stones or gravel were used as ornaments, possibly strung together as beads. in this bed, no. , seventeen feet from the surface, was found a mammoth's tooth. about one foot below the tooth, in densely compressed gravel, was found a stone hatchet of an oval form. [illustration: fig. . flint implement from st. acheul. half the size of the original, which is seven and a half inches long. _a._ side view. _b._ same seen edgewise. "these spear-headed implements have been found in greater number, proportionally to the oval ones, in the upper level gravel at st. acheul, than in any of the lower gravels in the valley of the somme. in these last, the oval form predominates, especially at abbeville."--_antiquity of man_, p. .] that this bed was formed by action of glaciers is shown, not only from the well-rounded tertiary pebbles, but also from the great blocks of hard sandstone, some of which are over four feet in diameter. these large fragments not only abound at st. acheul in both the higher and lower level gravels at amiens, and at the higher level at abbeville, but they are also traced far up the valley wherever the old diluvium occurs. all of these sandstones have been derived from the tertiary strata which once covered the chalk. [illustration: fig. . flint implement from abbeville. _a._ oval-shaped flint hatchet from mautort near abbeville, half size of original, which is five and a half inches long, from a bed of gravel underlying the fluvio-marine stratum. _b._ same seen edgewise. _c._ shows a recent fracture of the edge of the same at the point _a_, or near the top. this portion of the tool, _c_, is drawn of the natural size, the black central part being the unaltered flint, the white outer coating, the layer which has been formed by discoloration or bleaching since the tool was first made. the entire surface of figure must have been black when first shaped, and the bleaching to such a depth must have been the work of time, whether produced by exposure to the sun and air before it was imbedded, or afterward when it lay deep in the soil.--_antiquity of man._] as the flint implements of abbeville and amiens are the same as those of st. acheul, and from the same beds, what has already been said will apply to them. these implements have been found in these localities in great numbers, as several thousand of them already taken from the beds will amply testify. from the gravel-pit in which were found the flint axes, at abbeville, and close to the ancient chalk, was taken the celebrated human bone known as the _jaw_ of moulin-quignon. it was cotemporary with the axes, and undoubtedly some of the flint implements there found were fashioned by the man of whom that jaw formed so necessary a part. this jaw-bone belonged to an old man, and is described as displaying "a tendency toward the animal structure in the shortness and breadth of the ascending ramus (the perpendicular portion of the lower jaw), the equal height of the two apophyses (a process or regular prominence forming a continuous part of the body of the bone), the indication of prognathism (projecting jaw) furnished by the very obtuse angle at which the ramus joins the body of the bone.[ ] near the same locality other human bones were discovered which presented the same characteristics. boucher de perthes having pointed out that flint implements could be found in the valley of the seine, in beds similar to those of abbeville, the antiquaries were soon rewarded and boucher de perthes' prediction was fulfilled. m. gosse, of geneva, found the abbeville type of implements in the lowest diluvial deposits associated with the remains of animals of that period. the discovery made by casiano de prado, near madrid, is very similar to those of abbeville. "first, vegetable soil; then about twenty-five feet of sand and pebbles, under which was a layer of sandy loam, in which, during the year , a complete skeleton of the mammoth was discovered. underneath this stratum was about ten feet of coarse gravel, in which some flint axes, very closely resembling those of amiens, have been discovered."[ ] the remains of man are also preserved in caverns associated with the fossil bones of the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear, and other extinct quadrupeds. among these should be noticed kent's hole, which has furnished a mine of wealth. of his discoveries godwin-austen says: "human remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and throughout the entire thickness of the clay; and no distinction founded on condition, distribution, or relative position can be observed, whereby the human can be separated from the other reliquiæ," which included bones of the mammoth (_e. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_r. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear (_ursus spelæus_), cave-hyena (_h. spelæus_), and other mammalia. these researches were conducted in parts of the cave which had never been disturbed, and the works of man, in every instance, were procured from undisturbed loam or clay, beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; and all these must have been introduced before the stalagmite flooring had been formed.[ ] these specimens of man's handicraft were found far below the stalagmite floor.[ ] closely allied to kent's hole is brixham cave. the following gives the general succession of deposits forming the contents of the cavern: . a layer of stalagmite varying from one to fifteen inches in thickness. . next below, ochreous cave-earth, from one foot to fifteen feet in thickness. . rounded gravel, in some places more than twenty feet in depth. in the second layer there were found the remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, reindeer, and seven other species. indiscriminately mixed with these bones were found many flint knives, but chiefly from the lowest part of the ochreous cave-earth, varying in depth from ten inches to thirteen feet. the antiquity of these cannot be doubted, from the simple fact, even if there was no other, that in close proximity to a very perfect flint tool was discovered the entire left hind leg of a cave-bear, and every bone in its natural position. from the bone earth there were taken fifteen knives, recognized, by the experienced antiquaries, as having been artificially formed. in the lowest gravel, underlying all, there were found imperfect specimens of flint knives. the fine layer of mud was deposited by the slow but regular action of water. since these layers were formed the stream has cut its channel seventy-eight feet below its former level.[ ] on both banks of the meuse, at maestricht (hollerd) are terraces of gravel covered with loess. below the city, on the left bank, one of these terraces projects into the alluvial plain of the meuse. during the construction of the canal the terrace was opened to a depth of sixty feet. the upper twenty feet consisted of loess and the lower forty feet of stratified gravel. great numbers of molars, tusks, and bones of elephants, together with those of other mammalia, and a human lower jaw with teeth, were found in or near this gravel. the human jaw was at a depth of nineteen feet from the surface, in a stratum of sandy loam, beneath a stratum of pebbly and sandy beds, and immediately above the gravel. the stratum from which the jaw was taken was intact and had never been disturbed. but the jaw was somewhat isolated, and the nearest fossil object was the tusk of an elephant six yards distant, though on a horizontal plane. this fossil is probably older than that discovered at lahr. it was probably covered just before the gush of the water when it first began to flow from the gorges and had washed the ground at some distance from the ice.[ ] the human skeleton from the undisturbed loess of the rhine, near lahr, was found in nearly a horizontal position, but in such a manner as to forbid the idea of sepulchre. these bones were exhumed from a perpendicular cliff of solid loess, about five feet high. the town of lahr is situated four miles from, and about one hundred feet above, the rhine, and not far from the tributary valley drained by the schutter, flowing from the black forest. in the alluvial plain into which the schutter flows the the loess is two hundred feet thick. the loess rises eighty feet above the schutter. at lahr it has been denuded so as to form a succession of terraces on the right bank. it was in the lowest of these from which the skeleton was taken. immediately below this bed there were found pebbles, and still lower down was a bed of gravel containing rounded stones of sandstone and gneiss from the black forest. there are several interesting facts connected with this discovery. m. boué considers that the loess of the lahr is continuous with that of the rhine, and before the loess had been denuded there was not less than eighty feet of loamy deposit above the human skeleton. the glaciers had deposited their great gravel beds, and had began to melt. the melting of them had formed a mixture of loam and gravel. then when the torrents poured forth from the glaciers the loam was formed without the pebbles. the unfortunate man, whose remains were found, was buried far beneath the surface, during the very first part of the course of the violent streams pouring forth from the field of ice. the glaciers were then on the retreat, and the incautious man probably fell a victim while on the chase.[ ] the cave of la naulette, belgium, afforded a jaw-bone similar to the moulin-quignon. the bone came from a river deposit of loam covered with a layer of stalagmite, and at a depth of thirteen feet from the surface. associated with it were the remains of the mammoth, woolly-haired rhinoceros, and flint implements. these implements present the same type as those of st. acheul. with this jaw were also found a human ulna, two human teeth, and a fragment of a worked reindeer born. this jaw-bone is very thick, round in form, and the projection of the chin is almost entirely absent. the chin is said to hold an intermediate position between that of the animals and those of the present race of men. the cavities for the reception of the canine teeth are very wide, and one of the most remarkable things is that the three molars are reversed, that is the first true molar is the smallest, and the last the largest. the inner surface of the jaw at the point of the suture or symphysis, forms a line obliquely directed upwards. taking the jaw all in all, it is the most ape-like human jaw ever discovered.[ ] the flint implements from hoxne were found under three different layers or beds. the first, vegetable, a foot and a half in depth. the second was clay, seven and a half feet thick. the third, a bed of sand, with shells one foot in thickness. the fourth layer, containing the implements was a bed of gravel two feet in depth. the number of these flints was so great that they were carried out by the baskets-full, and thrown into the ruts of the adjoining road. on account of the great number, this spot might have been the place where they were manufactured. their date is not coeval with the bowlder clay, but undoubtedly belong, to the last of this epoch. the human bones found in the loess of the rhine, near colmar, were two fossilized fragments of the skull. they were found in undisturbed soil along with the fossil bones of the extinct species of mammoth, horse, gigantic deer, aurochs, and other mammalia. the fragment of the skull "showed a depressed forehead, strongly projecting superciliary arches, and a type, on the whole, approaching the so-called _dolichocephalic_, or long-headed form."[ ] these remains date so near the end of the glacial as to almost enter the inter-glacial. chapter iii. glacial epoch--continued. _belgian caverns._--the relics discovered by dr. schmerling, in the caves of belgium, must be referred to the time of the retreat of the glaciers. the glaciers were still in existence, but their receding had freed immense tracts of land, and the space they now covered was small in proportion to their former extent. whether it be considered or not, that vegetation greatly nourished and the great wild beasts were rapidly increasing, one thing must be noticed, and that is, floods must have succeeded or followed closely upon the retreat of the ice. many remains, referred to the glacial epoch, may in reality, have occupied the time of the floods occurring just previous to the commencement of the inter-glacial. the belgian caverns, near liége, either belong exactly to the ice, or else to a period not far removed. lyell considers the older monuments of the palæolithic period to be the rude implements found in ancient river gravel and in the mud and stalagmite caves.[ ] caves of this description are those reported on by dr. schmerling. the caverns of the province of liége were not the dens of wild beasts, but their contents had been swept in by the action of water. the bones of man "were of the same color, and in the same condition as to the amount of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accompanying animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hyena, elephant, and rhinoceros, were extinct; others, like the wild-cat, beaver, wild boar, roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. the fossils were lighter than fresh bones, except such as had their pores filled with carbonate of lime, in which case they were often much heavier. the human remains of most frequent occurrence were teeth detached from the jaw, and the carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangial bones separated from the rest of the skeleton. the corresponding bones of the cave-bear, the most abundant of the accompanying mammalia, were also found in the liége caverns more commonly than any others, and in the same scattered condition."[ ] in some of these caves, rude flint implements, of a triangular form, were found dispersed through the cave mud. dr. schmerling did not pay much attention to these, as he was engrossed in his osteological inquiries. the human bones were met with at all depths, in the cave mud and gravel, both above and below those of the extinct mammalia. the floors of these caverns were incrusted with stalagmite.[ ] in the cavern at chokier there occur "three distinct beds of stalagmite, and between each of them a mass of breccia, and mud mixed with quartz pebbles, and in the three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds."[ ] fossil skull of the engis cave near liege. the fossil skull from the cavern of engis was deposited at a depth of about five feet, under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the rhinoceros, the teeth of the horse, and the remains of small animals. the breccia was about three and one-fourth feet wide, and rose to the height of about five feet above the floor of the cavern. in the earth which contained the skull there was found, surrounding it on all sides, the teeth of the rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and with no marks of the earth having been disturbed. there was also found the cranium of a young person, in the floor of the cavern, besides an elephant's tooth. when first observed, the skull was entire, but fell to pieces when removed from its position. besides these there were found a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, with the molar teeth worn down to the roots, indicating that of an old man; two vertebræ, a first and last dorsal; a clavicle of the left side, belonging to a young individual of great stature; two fragments of the radius, indicating a man of ordinary height; a fragment of an ulna: some metacarpal bones; six metatarsal, three phalanges of the hand and one of the foot. dr. schmerling found in this cave a pointed bone implement incrusted with stalagmite and joined to a stone. of the engis skull professor huxley has remarked, "as professor schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed, and the facial bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consisting of the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital bones, as far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire, or nearly so. the left temporal bone is wanting. of the right temporal, the parts in the immediate neighborhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and a considerable portion of the squamous element of the temporal, are well preserved." a piece of the occipital bone, which schmerling seems to have missed, has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by dr. spring, the accomplished anatomist of liége. "the skull is that of an adult, if not middle-aged man. the extreme length of the skull is . inches. its extreme breadth, which corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal protuberances, is not more than . inches. the proportion of the length to the breadth is therefore very nearly as to . if a line be drawn from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose, and which is called the 'glabella' (_a_, fig. ), to the occipital protuberance (_d_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be found to be . inches. viewed from above, the forehead presents an evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and back of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve. [illustration: fig. . professor t. h. huxley.] [illustration: fig. . side view of the human skull found in the cave of engis. _a._ superciliary ridge and glabella. _b._ coronal suture. _d._ the occipital protuberance.] "the front view shows that the roof of the skull was very regularly and elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the transverse diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances, than above them. the forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest of the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the contrary, the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that the distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the occipital protuberance, measures about . inches. the transverse arc of the skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across the middle of the sagittal suture, is about inches. the sagittal suture itself is . inches long. the superciliary prominences or brow-ridges (_a_) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a median depression. their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely that i judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses. if a line joining the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _d_, fig. ) be made horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more than one-tenth of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and the upper edge of the auditory foramen is almost in contact with a line drawn parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull."[ ] some of the views expressed by professor huxley are at variance with those of other eminent scientists. lubbock reports him as saying, "there is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. it is, in fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage."[ ] mr. busk agrees and partially disagrees with professor huxley, for he remarked to lyell, "although the forehead was somewhat narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of individuals of european race."[ ] dr. schmerling, buchner, and vogt are arrayed against huxley. the first says, "i hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a person of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization."[ ] "from the narrowness of the frontal portion it belonged to an individual of small intellectual development."[ ] buchner says, "in its length and narrowness, the slight elevation of its forehead, the form of the widely separated orbits and the well developed supra-orbital arches, it resembles, especially when viewed from above, the celebrated neanderthal skull, but in general is far superior to this in its structure."[ ] carl vogt "regards it, with reference to the proportion of length to breadth, as one of the most ill-favored, animal-like and simian of skulls."[ ] the cause of this wide difference of opinion may arise from the failure to observe the fact that the older the formation in which a skull is found, the lower is the type. the ordinary observer, judging by the cast of the skull, would see nothing ape-like about it, and certainly would fail to see any indications of a philosopher. neanderthal skull. the neanderthal skull was taken from a small cave or grotto in-the valley of the düssel, near düsseldorf, situated about seventy miles north-east of the region of the liége caverns. the grotto is in a deep ravine sixty feet above the river, one hundred feet below the surface of the country, and at a distance of about ten feet from the düssel river. it is fifteen feet deep from the entrance (_f_), which is seven or eight feet wide. before the cavern had been injured, it opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front. the floor of the cave was covered four or five feet in thickness with a deposit of mud or loam, and containing some rounded fragments of chert. two laborers, in removing this deposit, first noticed the skull, placed near the entrance, and further in met with the other bones. as the bones were not regarded as of any importance, at the time of their discovery, only the larger ones have been preserved. [illustration: fig. . section of the neanderthal cave. _a._ cavern sixty feet above the düssel, and one hundred feet below the surface of the country at _c_. _b._ loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which the human skeleton was found. _c_, _a_. rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the country. _d._ superficial sandy loam. _e._ devonian limestone. _f._ terrace, or ledge of rock.] some discussion has arisen in respect to the geological time of these bones. there was no stalagmite overlying the mud or loam in which the skeleton was found, and no other bones met with save the tusk of a bear. there is no certain data given whereby its position may be known. professor huxley declares that the bones "indicate a very high antiquity."[ ] buchner is very positive in his statement, and declares that "the loam-deposit which partly fills the caves of the neanderthal and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which both the neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvial origin of which is unmistakable."[ ] dr. fuhlrott says, "the position and general arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and therefore to primitive times, _i. e._ they come down to us from a period of the past when our native country was still inhabited by various kinds of animals, especially mammoths and cave-bears, which have long since disappeared out of the series of living creatures."[ ] the diluvial or glacial origin of the neanderthal skull is still further confirmed by the discoveries made, in the summer of , in the teufelskammer. this cavern is situated one hundred and thirty paces from the one in which the human bones were found, and on the same side of the river.. in the loam-deposit of this cave were found numerous fossil bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, and other extinct animals. "a great part of these bones, especially those of the cave-bears, agree in color, weight, density, and the preservation of their microscopic structure, with the human bones found in the feldhofner cave (in which the neanderthal man was found), and both are covered with the same _dendrites_, or tree-like markings."[ ] before entering into a description and discussion of this remarkable skull, an enumeration of the other bones will be given. all the bones are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great development of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of muscles. the two thigh bones were in a perfect state, also the right humerus and radius; the upper third of the right ulna; the left ulna complete, though pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much enlarged by bony growth that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle was impossible; the left humerus is much slenderer than the right, and the upper third is wanting. its anterior fossa for the reception of the coronoid process is filled up with a bony growth, and, at the same time, the olecranon process is curved strongly downwards. the indications are that an injury sustained during life was the cause of this defect. there was an ilium, almost perfect; a fragment of the right scapula; the anterior extremity of a rib of the right side, and two hinder portions and one middle portion of ribs resembling more the ribs of a carnivorous animal than those of man. this abnormal condition has arisen from the powerful development of the thoracic muscles. [illustration: fig. . side view of the human skull from feldhofner cave, in the neanderthal, near dÜsseldorf. _a._ the superciliary ridge and glabella. _c._ the apex of the lambdoidal suture. _b._ the coronal suture. _d._ the occipital protuberance.] the cranium is thus described by professor huxley. "it has an extreme length of inches, while its breadth is only - / inches, or in other words, its length is to its breadth as is to . it is exceedingly depressed, measuring only about . inches from the glabello-occipital line to the vertex. the longitudinal arc, measured in the same way as in the engis skull, is inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the temporal bones, but was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded - / inches. the horizontal circumference is inches. but this great circumference arises largely from the vast development of the superciliary ridges, though the perimeter of the brain case itself is not small. the large superciliary ridges give the forehead a far more retreating appearance than its internal contour would bear out. to an anatomical eye the posterior part of the skull is even more striking than the anterior. the occipital protuberance occupies the extreme posterior end of the skull, when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, and so far from any part of the occipital region extending beyond it, this region of the skull slopes obliquely upward and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture is situated well upon the upper surface of the cranium. at the same time, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, the sagittal suture is remarkably short ( - / inches) and the squamosal suture is very straight."[ ] ... "the cranium, in its present condition, contains about sixty-three english cubic inches of water. as the entire skull could hardly have held less than twelve cubic inches more, its minimum capacity may be estimated at seventy-five cubic inches.... it has certainly not undergone compression, and, in reply to the suggestion that the skull is that of an idiot, it may be urged that the _onus probandi_ lies with those who adopt the hypothesis. idiocy is compatible with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but i know of none which present the least resemblance to the neanderthal skull."[ ] professor huxley describes this skull to be the most ape-like of all the human skulls he has ever seen, and in its examination ape-like characters are met with in all its parts.[ ] buchner says that the face of the neanderthal man must have presented a frightfully bestial and savage, or ape-like expression (see frontispiece).[ ] professor schaaffhausen and mr. busk have stated that "this skull is the most brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes not only in the prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form of the brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward, from the superior occipital ridges."[ ] professor schaaffhausen and dr. buchner regarded this skull as a race-type, and professor huxley has said "that it truly forms only the extreme member of a series leading by slow degrees to the highest and best developed forms of human skulls."[ ] that this skull is a race-type is evident from the fact that it is not an isolated case. the fragment of the skull from the loess of the rhine (alsace), by its depressed forehead and strongly projecting superciliary arches, greatly resembles the neanderthal skull. the skull from the calcareous tuff of constatt, in its low, narrow forehead and strong superciliary arches, resembles the neanderthal.[ ] the cranium found in bone breccia, in cochrane's cave (gibraltar), "resembles, in all essential particulars, including its great thickness, the far-famed neanderthal skull. its discovery adds immensely to the scientific value of the neanderthal specimen, if only as showing that the latter does not represent, as many have hitherto supposed, a mere individual peculiarity, but that it may have been characteristic of a race extending from the rhine to the pillars of hercules."[ ] in speaking of the neanderthal skull, professor schaaffhausen says, "it is worthy of notice that a similar, although smaller projection of the superciliary arches has generally been found in the skulls of savage races.... the remarkably small skull from the graves on the island of moën, examined by professor eschricht; the two human skulls, described by dr. kutorga, from the government of minsk (russia), one of which, especially, shows a great resemblance to the neanderthal skull; the human skeleton found near plau, in mecklenburg, in a very ancient grave, in a squatting position, ... the skull of which indicates a very distant period, when man stood on a very low grade of development;" and other similar discoveries near mecklenburg, their skulls likewise presenting short, retreating foreheads and projecting eyebrows.[ ] professor huxley considers that the borreby skulls, belonging to the stone age of denmark, "show a great resemblance to the neanderthal skull, a resemblance which is manifested in the depression of the cranium, the receding forehead, the contracted occiput and the prominent superciliary ridges."[ ] _human skull of arno._--the human skull, found by professor cocchi in the valley of the arno, near florence, in diluvial clay, together with various bones of extinct species of animals, is considered by carl vogt to be of like antiquity with the engis and neanderthal skulls.[ ] chapter iv. pre-glacial epochs. the age immediately preceding the glacial, and consequently the post-tertiary, is known as the pliocene epoch, the last of the tertiary. the tertiary period began with the close of the cretaceous. a map of the early tertiary period would represent parts of maryland, virginia, the carolinas, georgia, the whole of florida, the lower parts of alabama, mississippi, texas, the whole of louisiana, and the adjoining territory on both sides of the mississippi, as far as cairo, as covered with water. also a great sea extending through nebraska and the western part of dacotah, and taking a north-westerly course until it emptied into the pacific. in europe, the great basin of paris (excepting a zone of chalk), the greater part of spain and italy, the whole of belgium, holland, prussia, switzerland, hungary, wallachia, and northern russia, as one vast sheet of water. england and france were connected by a band of rocks. about the middle of the tertiary, a tropical climate and tropical fauna and flora spread over the whole of europe. palms, cedars, laurels, and cinnamon trees flourished in the valleys of switzerland, and more than thirty different species of oak adorned the forests of that time. in europe, in the eocene, there have been found thirty species of crocodiles; many species of snakes, one twenty feet long; a dozen species of birds; tapirs (_palæothere_ and _lophiodon_), two species of hogs, some ruminants and rodents. in the miocene, among _pachyderms_ may be mentioned the mastodon, elephant, dinothere (an elephantine animal), rhinoceros, hog, horse, tapir, and hippopotamus; among _carnivores_, the machairodus, hyena, lion, and dog; among _ruminants_, the camel, deer, and antelope. there were monkeys, and many other animals. in the pliocene, besides those enumerated, are found the bear, hare, and other animals. in the tertiary beds of america have been found mastodons, elephants, rhinoceroses, deer, camels, foxes, wolves, horses, whales, and other mammalia. owing to the great lapse of time it cannot be expected that many traces of man will be discovered in this early period. upon theoretical grounds lyell thought it very probable that man lived in the pliocene; but in relation to miocene time, he says, "had some other rational being, representing man, then flourished, some signs of his existence could hardly have escaped unnoticed, in the shape of implements of stone or metal, more frequent and more durable than the osseous remains of any of the mammalia."[ ] sir j. lubbock, while admitting the existence of man in the pliocene, goes farther and says, "if man constitutes a separate family of mammalia, as he does in the opinion of the highest authorities, then, according to all palæontological analogies, he must have had representatives in miocene times. we need not, however, expect to find the proofs in europe; our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom are confined to hot, almost to tropical climates, and it is in such countries that we are most likely to find the earliest traces of the human race."[ ] alfred r. wallace out-distances any of his cotemporaries, for he says, "we are enabled to place the origin of man at a much more remote geological epoch than has yet been thought possible. he may even have lived in the miocene or eocene period, when not a single mammal was identical in form with any existing species."[ ] some of the older and some of the recent discoveries of geologists have settled the question of tertiary man; and the "signs of his existence," in the "shape of implements of stone," as demanded by lyell, have been furnished. _man in the pliocene._--it has already been intimated that the evidences of man are but few in this early epoch. the first example, in the following list, borders closely on the glacial, but far enough removed as to be referred to the pliocene. in the construction of a canal between stockholm and gothenburg it was necessary to cut through one of those hills called _osars_, or erratic blocks, which were deposited by the drift-ice during the glacial epoch. beneath an immense accumulation of osars, with shells and sand, there was discovered in the deepest layer of subsoil, at a depth of about sixty feet, a circular mass of stones, forming a hearth, in the middle of which there were wood-coals. no other hand than that of man could have performed the work.[ ] in the pliocene beds in the neighborhood of the town of savonia in liguria, m. a. issel found several bones which presented all the physical signs of very high antiquity. dr. buchner is of the opinion that before these bones can be employed as satisfactory evidence they must have a more accurate test by scientific authorities.[ ] in the upper pliocene beds at st. prest (france), m. desnoyers found traces of human action on the bones of animals belonging to the tertiary. these fractures are analogous to those of human action observed on bones from the glacial period, and identical with those made by northern tribes of the present day, on the skulls of ruminants. the marked bones found were those of the southern elephant (_e. meridionalis_), rhinoceros (_r. leptorinus_), hippopotamus major, several species of deer, and two of the ox. carl vogt states that this discovery is not only genuine, but also, the formation in which the bones were found is decidedly tertiary. it is further characterized by the presence of the southern elephant (_e. meridionalis_). as this elephant became extinct before the glacial age, the bones consequently precede the glacial, and the age of the cave-bear, the mammoth, and tichorrhine rhinoceros. the eminent french naturalist, quatrefages, confirms the testimony of desnoyers.[ ] the conclusions of desnoyers are confirmed beyond a doubt by the more recent discoveries of abbé bourgeois. in the same tertiary strata of st. prest, in which were found the marked or fractured bones, bourgeois discovered worked flints, including flakes, awls, and scrapers.[ ] a human skull, belonging to the pliocene, was found by james matson, at altaville, in calaveras county, california, at a depth of one hundred and thirty feet, under five beds of gravel separated by five layers of lava, associated with the bones of an extinct rhinoceros, camel, and horse. the base of the skull is imbedded in a mass of bone-breccia and small pebbles of volcanic rock. the shape of the skull resembles that of the digger indians, and is of remarkable thickness.[ ] _man in the miocene._[ ]--m. bourgeois has found, in a stratum of miocene near pontlevoy, numerous worked flints, and other flints which have been subjected to the action of heat. these works of man were associated with the remains of the acerotherium (an extinct species allied to the rhinoceros), and beneath five distinct beds, one of which contained the rolled bones of rhinoceros, mastodon, and dinotherium.[ ] m. tardy found a flint-flake of undoubted workmanship in the miocene beds of aurillac (auvergne), together with the remains of _dinotherium giganteum_, and _machaerodus latidens_.[ ] m. bourgeois reports that abbé delaunay had found near pouance (maine-et-loire), fossil bones of a _halitherium_ (an herbivorous cetacean of the miocene), with evident signs of having been operated upon by cutting instruments.[ ] in the miocene gravel beds of colorado and wyoming territories, chert-flakes, hammers, chisels, knives, and wrought shells have been found.[ ] _eocene._--as yet geologists have failed to discover any traces of man in the eocene epoch. chapter v. condition of man in the earliest times. of the first appearance of man on the globe there is no precise knowledge. his origin is a mystery. the place of his birth is generally supposed to be in central asia. there the geologist looks with a longing eye, and hopes ultimately to unravel, not only the hidden mystery of the birth-place of his race, but also, how or through what natural process he sprang into existence. if the miocene be the earliest point in his history, and central asia the place of his nativity, then he was ushered upon the scene of life during the period of, and surrounded by, the numerous fauna of india, at this time her mammalia included, besides the quadrumana, elephant (seven species), mastodon (three species), rhinoceros (five species), horse (three species), hippopotamus (four to seven species), hog (three species), camel, giraffe, sivatherium (an elephantine stag, having four horns and supposed to have had the bulk of an elephant and greater height), antelope, musk-deer, sheep, ox (several species), dinotherium, porcupine, species of hyena, lion, and many others. it cannot be presumed that man's intellectual faculties were ordinarily developed, as it would not be natural to suppose he was superior to that of later times. judging from the remains of later times, man could have been but very little removed from the brute. it is natural to suppose that at first he had no fire, no weapons of offence or defence. his food must have been the herbs, roots, and the fruits of the tree, possibly with an occasional morsel of raw meat. his pillow was a stone, his retreat a cave or the boughs of a wide-spreading tree, and his clothing a natural coat of hair. in the presence of the fierce beasts, man's domain might seem to be of short duration. providence has ordered all things wisely. placed low in the scale of life--brutal, selfish, prowling, yet cautious--man, by the very force of circumstances, was to develop gradually the powers of his mind. with the elephant and the mastodon he could not cope nor would they molest him. to the fierce carnivora he might fall a prey. from these he could flee, and find a shelter in the tops of the trees or some secure fastness of the earth. learning his own strength by experience, he would venture forth on excursions, and meet face to face his deadly foe. for self-defence he discovered, probably by accident, that a club was a powerful weapon with which to beat back his fierce opponent. gradually he came to learn that a sharp flint driven into the end of a club was a safer and more deadly weapon. with this he could withstand an unequal contest. the mode of life, together with the trials of his strength, developed his muscular system. his muscles became large and tough, and his bones thick and heavy. the earliest type of man is generally supposed to be _dolichocephalic_, or long-headed. the walls of the skull were thick, and the crown low. he was of ordinary stature, but built for action, and of great power. his make-up was the result of his surroundings. his advancement was very slow. throughout the entire length of the miocene and pliocene epochs it is not traceable. there was no revolution in his mind; one step in advance would have been a mighty leap. nor could it be expected that there should be rapid progress. the mind was brutal; and all the instincts sensual. but there was pending a mighty change. the tropical climate should change into a winter of snow and ice. man should feel it, and be benefited by the new danger. his sluggish mind should be quickened, and the inventive genius should be called into action. the sun no longer could give its heat. the forests grew cold, the chilling winds swept over the plains, and the retreat in the cave was damp and forbidding. the wild beasts were either dying of cold, or else becoming clothed with thick, long hair, and retreating before the accumulating snow. man earnestly looked about him. he suffered greatly, and his numbers grew less. fire had been produced. how, no one can tell; possibly by accident. he now became more careful of the fire, and with brand in hand he went from place to place kindling the fires at the various resting-places. nor was this sufficient. his ingenuity was taxed to its greatest extent. colder and colder grew the winds. the snow, coming in great flakes, was soon consolidated, and became as ice. the body could not be kept warm. clothing must be had, and this must be furnished by the wild beasts. their hides must assist in protecting the life of man. the stiffened, frozen animals would not alone furnish sufficient covering. knives must be invented. from the flint rude knives were fashioned, by means of which the skins were removed and transferred to the bodies of men. but the long winter continuing, the lives of the living animals must be forfeited, both for the flesh and and the skins. rude, almost shapeless arrow-heads were produced. wood must be had with which to warm and cook, and rude rafts formed, by means of which the swelling rivers might be crossed. then those stone hatchets of the somme were shaped, and answered the purpose. man was at last prepared to face the rigors of winter, the perils of ice, and secure himself against starvation. not content with his conflicts with nature, his brutal passion is aroused against his fellows. death-dealing blows fall rapidly upon each other, the blood flows freely, the bones give way, and the weaker one has succumbed. there are fierce contentions over the common prey, and the strong impose upon the weak. true to his instinct, he is gregarious. he lives in communities; and the more daring--the hunters--having their common places of meeting, fashion their weapons, and vie with each other in feats of prowess. during the glacial epoch the condition of man must have remained unchanged, after he had supplied himself with rude stone weapons. his time was spent, for the most part, in self-preservation. he was retreating before, yet bounding over, the frozen flood in pursuit of game. this experience must ultimately tell for good. when the glaciers began to recede, man followed closely, and forgot not the value of those stone weapons which had secured food for himself. they served against the cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, and would be of great service in the ages yet to come. by a little remodelling they could be used to greater advantage; and this change of shape was accomplished, and other uses of flint were made known. man's form, aspect, and true position are comprehended by the relics of the glacial age. the human bones tell a tale which any anatomist may read, and even one not well skilled in the art. the primitive type is no mystery, and those fossil bones tell of the terrific strifes of by-gone times. the neanderthal man has already been described. its structure is animal. its history agrees with the generally received idea of primitive man as conceived by the geologist. the illustration (frontispiece) presents him bestial and ape-like. a powerful organization, and well adapted to those times. his bones tell of fearful conflicts. he lived to an old age, as the traces of every suture are effaced. his skull was very thick. the strong, prominent superciliary arches denote large perceptives, making him watchful and always on the alert. those bones tell of a terrible conflict. the left arm was broken; who knows but in a contest with the great cave-bear. he survived the contest and lived to see that arm dwindle and become almost useless. over the right eye he received a blow, from some source, so great as to carry away a portion of the bone. the claw of a cave-bear, or a flint weapon in the hand of one of his race, may have produced that fracture. still he lived, and the wound healed. all this tells of his strength and hardihood. it gives an inside view of the wonderful hardships and vicissitudes of primeval man. the engis skull belongs to the same type, though less bestial. possibly this individual did not enter upon the chase, and engage in the manly pursuits of those times. he may have been an adviser or a dandy; or, his ingenuity may have led him to the vocation of fashioning weapons and implements from the flint. in the time of the engis man there were large as well as short, heavy-set men. in the same cavern there was found a clavicle belonging to a young person who must have been of great stature. the jaws of la naulette and moulin-quignon display a great tendency to animal structure, and confirm the impressions as given of the primitive condition of man during the glacial and pre-glacial ages. chapter vi. inter-glacial epoch. the glaciers have departed. summer comes again. the forests bloom and the wild beast roams about. many species withstood the long siege of cold; others perished; still others followed the ice as it retreated, preferring the cold to the coming heat. the floods had abated and man spread himself over the different tracts blooming with flowers and radiant with earthly splendors. the evidences of man's existence during this period are numerous, consisting in works of art and fossil remains. only a few examples are given, as not many will be required to present the evidence and show man's condition. the hyena-den at wokey hole, explored by mr. dawkins, affords specimens of the works of man. when discovered this den was filled to the roof with _débris_. under this rubbish was found several layers of the excrement of the cave-hyena (_h. spelæa_), each of which indicates an old floor and a separate period of occupation. the implements were under these layers of excrement, showing that the cave had been occupied by the hyenas after the time of the savages. these implements had not been disturbed by the action of water. in the bone earth along with the remains of the cave-hyena were found those of the mammoth, siberian rhinoceros, (_r. tichorrhinus_), gigantic ox (_bos primigenius_), gigantic irish deer (_megaceros hibernicus_), reindeer, cave-bear, cave-lion (_felis spelæa_), wolf (_canis lupus_), fox (_canis vulpes_), and the teeth and bones of the horse in great numbers. intermixed with these bones were chipped flints, a bleached flint weapon of the spear-head amiens type, and arrow-heads made of bone. [illustration: fig. . ideal scene in the post-tertiary. on the right is shown the megatherium. this animal belonged to the sloth tribe, and was a native of south america. it exceeded in size the largest rhinocerous, and the length of its skeleton sometimes attained eighteen feet. in front, near the centre, is the glyptodon another south american animal of the armadillo tribe. the length of its shell, along the curve, was five feet, and the total length of the animal, nine feet. just back of the glypodon, and holding on to a tree, is the mylodon, belonging to both north and south america, one species of which was much larger than the western buffalo. on the left, and in the rear, is the mastodon, the remains of which are found in both north and south america, though of different species. while this scene does not represent the animals with which we are dealing, yet the general features give an idea of those with which we are interested.] [illustration: fig. . section of the sepulchral grotto, in the hill of fajoles, aurignac. _a._ vault in which the seventeen human skeletons were found. _b._ layer of made ground, two feet thick, inside the grotto in which a few human bones, with entire bones of extinct and living species of animals, and many works of art, were imbedded. _c._ layers of ashes and charcoal eight inches thick, containing broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and living mammalia, also hearth-stones and works of art; no human bones. _d._ deposit with similar contents; also a few scattered cinders. _e._ talus of rubbish washed down from the hill above. _f_, _g._ slab of rock which closed the vault. _i_, _f._ rabbit-burrow. _h_, _k._ original terrace. _n._ nummulitic limestone.] in the cavern of maccagnone, in sicily, there were found ashes and rude flint implements in a breccia containing the bones of the elephant (_e. antiquus_), hyena, a large bear, lion, (probably _f. spelæa_), and large numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. the concrete of ashes had once filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still cemented to the roof. the vast number of hippopotamuses implies that the physical condition of the country was different from what it is at present. the bone breccia cemented to the roof, and coated with stalagmite, testifies that the cave, at some time since the formation of the breccia, has been washed out. the exact time of the formation of this breccia cannot be given, but, in all probability, not long after the extinction of the cave-bear, if not before. the cave or grotto of aurignac, in which the seventeen human skeletons were found, was carefully examined by lartet eight years after its discovery. the recess was formed in nummulitic limestone. in front of the grotto, and next to the limestone (_c_, fig. ) was a layer of ashes and charcoal, eight inches thick, containing hearth-stones, works of art, and broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and recent mammalia. immediately above this layer (_d_) was another, of made ground, two feet thick, extending into the grotto; and its contents similar to the other, save that within the grotto were found a few human bones. the grotto was closed by a slab, and the made earth without was covered by a talus of rubbish (_e_), washed down from the hill above. in these layers were found not less than one hundred flint instruments, consisting of knives, projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and a stone made for the purpose of modelling the flints. the bone implements were barbless arrows, a well-shaped and sharply pointed bodkin made of the horn of the roe-deer, and other tools made of reindeer horn. besides these there were found eighteen small round and flat plates, of a white shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (_cardium_), pierced through the middle; also the tusk of a young cave-bear, the crown of which had been carved in imitation of the head of a bird. the following is a list of the different species found in the layers, together with the approximate number of individuals belonging to each: i.--carnivora. number of individuals. . cave bear (_u. spelæus_) - . brown bear (_u. arctos_) . badger (_meles taxus_) - . polecat (_putorius vulgaris_) . cave lion (_felis spelæa_) . wild cat (_felis catus ferus_) . hyena (_h. spelæa_) - . wolf (_canis lupus_) . fox (_c. vulpes_) - ii.--herbivora. . mammoth (_e. primigenius_) two molars and an astragalus. . rhinoceros (_r. tichorrhinus_) . horse (_equus caballus_) - . ass (_e. asinus_) . boar (_sus scrofa_) two incisors. . stag (_cervus elephas_) . gigantic irish deer (_megaceros hibernicus_) . roebuck (_c. capreolus_) - . reindeer (_c. tarandus_) - . aurochs (_bison europæus_) - the bones on the outside of the grotto were found to be split open, as if for the extraction of the marrow, and many of them burned. the spongy parts were wanting, having been gnawed off by the hyenas. m. lartet came to the conclusion that this grotto was a place of sepulchre, and the broken or split bones were the remnants of the funeral feasts. this he argued from the fact that the bones within the grotto were not split, broken or gnawed, save the astragalus of the mammoth. this meat was placed in the grotto, probably as an offering to the dead. the bones without the cave were scraped, and while the men were yet engaged in the funeral feast, the hyenas prowled about the spot, and at the close of the banquet, devoured the flesh that remained. the slab in front of the cave debarred their entrance, and consequently the bones and human remains within were left untouched. the observations made by m. cartailhac, in , lead to different conclusions. on close inspection, he discovered a difference in the color of the walls of the cave, indicating that the lower deposit was of a yellow color, and the next above of a much lighter tint. in the crevices of the lower he found a tooth of the rhinoceros, one of the reindeer, and some fractured bones of the cave-bear. in the higher deposit occurred some small bones of living animals and of man, and a fragment of pottery. from these evidences, m. cartailhac inferred that the lower deposits of the grotto corresponded with that outside of it, and the layer containing human bones was formed at a subsequent time. that this grotto was a place of resort at a very early period is proven from the numerous remains of the cave-bear. this animal was one of the first of those great post-tertiary mammalia to become extinct. the exact position of the remains of the reindeer is not given. if its bones were intermixed with the others and found in the lowest as well as the other layers, it would indicate that the climate was not very warm during the deposit of the layers, but to have been similar to that of switzerland of the present day. the probability is, the reindeer bones did not occur in the lowest layer, and hence that layer was formed during the tropical climate, and the reindeer bones and human skeletons were consigned to the grotto about the close of the inter-glacial, or beginning of the reindeer epoch. the fossil man of denise, taken from an old volcanic tuff, must be assigned to this period, since there have been found, in similar blocks of tuff in the same region, the remains of the cave-hyena and hippopotamus major. this fossil man consists of a frontal part of the skull, the upper jaw, with teeth, belonging to both an adult and young individual; a radius, some lumbar vertebræ, and some metatarsal bones. the tuff is light and porous, and none of the bones penetrate into the more compact rock. in the rubbish heap, or reindeer station, at the source of the schusse, there were discovered more than six hundred split flints, with a quantity of partly worked antlers and bones of the reindeer. the bones were so numerous that mr. oscar fraas was enabled to put together a complete skeleton of the reindeer which is now preserved in the museum of stuttgart. most of the bones were split open for the purpose of extracting the marrow. there were numerous remains of fishes, and a fish-hook manufactured from reindeer horn. there were also the bones of other animals, such as the glutton, arctic fox, and other animals now living in high northern latitudes. speaking of this station, dr. buchner says, "not only the careful investigations of the geognostic conditions of the place, but also the flora of the time (for remains of mosses were found which now live only in the extreme north), leave no doubt that the reindeer station on the schusse belongs to the glacial epoch, or that it probably belongs exactly to the interval between the two glacial epochs which in all probability switzerland has experienced. mr. e. desor declared this deposit to be _the terminal moraine of the rhine-glacier_, which was formerly very large. moreover, according to him, this discovery is particularly remarkable, because it is the first example of a station of the reindeer-men in a free and open deposit, their remains having hitherto been found only in caves."[ ] from the remarks of dr. buchner, the great number of bones of the reindeer, and some show of advancement in the arts, it may be safe to conclude that this station belongs to the close of the inter-glacial. chapter vii. condition of man in the inter-glacial. the inter-glacial period continued a great length of time, covering many thousands of years. man is an improvable being, and some advancement may be expected in his condition. his mode of life, and continued conflicts with the fierce wild beasts, would tax his every device. necessity compelled him to be inventive. the limited, bestial mind which he possessed, could not grapple with the higher problems of existence. united efforts and fortified places were beyond his thoughts. those old axes of flint were great objects to his mind, and one step beyond them was a great stride in progress. that they developed but little cannot be wondered at, not only from their low type, but also from the knowledge that even in the era of history there are nations whose civilization has become fixed and stereotyped for ages; others, who, instead of advancing, have been retrograding. the impulse given by the rigors of glacial times acted beneficially throughout this period. the rude axes and flints were retained, but improvements were made in utilizing the bones and horns of animals. out of these, bodkins, fish-hooks, and arrow-heads were made. the teeth of wild animals were perforated, and, along with corals and shells, were used for ornaments. the caverns, used as dwelling-places, being destitute of water, this necessary of life was supplied and carried thither in rude vessels made of clay and dried in the sun. the arrows, flint knives, and axes were used for killing and skinning the animals, splitting the bones containing the marrow, shaping the bone implements, felling trees, and stripping the bark, which was used at times for clothing, after having been softened by beating. he commenced the art of engraving, as is witnessed by a sketch of the great cave-bear wrought on a curious stone found in the cave of massat (ariége), the bird's head formed from the bone of a cave-bear, at aurignac, and other examples. the lower jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion, in the shape of hoes, used for digging roots, were found in the caves of lherm and in bouicheta. he made hearth-stones, and on them cooked his food. that he paid honors to the dead, and sheltered them from the ravages of beasts of prey, at present, must remain an open question. if he did, it might seem to imply that he had a religious nature. but when it is considered that he was very low in the scale of existence, it may be inferred that this was done, if done at all, to propitiate an evil genius. or it may be a faint idea of a ghost state and that these feasts were made to dissuade the ghost from molesting him. that they had a conception of a supreme ruler, or a number of gods who ruled for the good of man, would be too preposterous to believe. professor denton has given a description of primeval time which, by a little change, would represent inter-glacial times: "the seasons are fairly established; and spring follows winter, and fall summer, as now; though the summer is longer and warmer than we are accustomed to see in those countries at the present time, and the winters colder. the country is covered with dense forests, through which ramble mighty elephants in herds, with immense curved tusks, coats of long, shaggy hair, and flowing manes.... shuffling along comes the great cave-bear from his rocky den--as large as a horse: fierce, shaggy, conscious of his strength, he fears no adversary. crouched by a bubbling spring lies the cave-tiger (_felis spelæa_); and, as the wild cattle come down to drink, he leaps upon the back of one, and a terrible combat ensues. it is as large as an elephant, and its horns of enormous size; and even cave-tigers could not always master such cattle as they. "are these the highest forms of life that the country contains? what being is that sitting on yon fallen tree? his long arms are in front of his hairy body, and his hands between his knees; while his long legs are dangling down. his complexion is darker than an indian's; his beard short, and like the hair of his body; the unkempt hair of his head is bushy and thick; his eyebrows are short and crisp; and with his sloping forehead and brutal countenance, he seems like the caricature of a man, rather than an actual human being. "beneath the shade of a spreading chestnut we may behold a group--one old man ... and women and children, lounging and lying upon the ground. how dirty! what forbidding countenances!--more like furies than women. one young man, with a stone axe, is separating the bark from a neighboring tree. others, agile as monkeys, are climbing the trees, and passing from branch to branch, as they gather the wild fruit that abounds on every side. some are catching fish in the shallows of the river, and yell with triumph as they hold their captives by the gills, dragging them to the shore."[ ] they have improved their language, and instead of the rude signs and undistinguishable sounds of the glacial, may now be heard short, but occasional sentences, which were the forerunners of the polished tongues of modern europe. chapter viii. reindeer epoch. the glaciers, to a limited extent, have again advanced. the gigantic animals of the past age have either disappeared or are fast becoming extinct. the great cave-bear, cave-lion, cave-hyena, mammoth, and woolly-haired rhinoceros have almost become extinct. they have given way to a less fierce and less gigantic fauna. the advance of the glaciers is announced by the numerous herds of reindeer which are overrunning the forests of western europe, and extending as far south as the pyrenees. in the forests there now existed the horse, bison, wild bull (_bos primigenius_), musk-ox, elk, deer, chamois, ibex, beaver, hamster-rat, lemming, and many others. these animals were capable of withstanding and flourishing in a rigorous climate. when the glaciers were again broken up and the climate became warmer, the reindeer, musk-ox, elk, chamois, wild-goat, hamster-rat, and lemming retired to the high northern latitudes in close proximity to the snow, or else to the lofty summits of great mountain-chains. the evidences of the antiquity of the reindeer epoch, and that it immediately followed the inter-glacial, are numerous. the vast number of the reindeer bones and horns attest to a distinct epoch, and by the remains of arctic animals, as well as the traces of glaciers, the climate must have been unlike that of the present time. the remains of the mammoth, cave-bear, and cave-lion, would not only connect this period with the inter-glacial, but also prove that a few stragglers continued to exist, at least for a short period, after the reindeer epoch had begun. that this epoch was earlier than the swiss lake-villages, or danish shell mounds, may be shown by the weapons or implements which point to a more primitive people, the absence of the remains of the dog, and, also, by the absence of the remains of the reindeer in the shell-mounds. there are no means, yet discovered, by which it can be told how long this epoch lasted. it lasted a sufficient length of time to permit the reindeer to increase greatly its species. _evidences of the existence of man._--m. christy and m. lartet examined in conjunction the caves of central and southern france. those which have been most carefully examined are ten in number, and belong to the department of dordogne. at perigord there seems to have been quite a settlement, judging by the number of caves and stations, the principal ones being les eyzies, la madeleine, laugerie-haute, and laugerie-basse. at les eyzies there were found a flint bodkin and a bone needle used for sewing, a barbed arrow made of reindeer horn and still fixed in a bone, a flint whistle made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer, and two slabs of schist, on both of which were scratched animal forms, but deficient in any special characteristic. at la madeleine there were found a geode very large and very thick, which, it is supposed, was used for a cooking vessel, as one side of it had been subjected to fire; an engraving of a reindeer on the horn of that animal; on another horn the carved outlines of two fishes, one on either side; a representation of an ibex on the palm of a horn; on another, a very curious group, consisting of an eel, a human figure, and two horses' heads. a slab of ivory, broken into five pieces, had an outline sketch of the mammoth (fig. ). this was so accurately drawn that the small eye, curved tusks, huge trunk, and the abundant mane, could readily be distinguished. there was also found, on an arrow-head, the figure of a tadpole. there were workshops at laugerie-haute and laugerie-basse, where weapons and utensils were manufactured; and they are noted for the abundance of instruments made of reindeer horn. among the works of art found at the latter station may be mentioned, the stiletto, needle, spoon made in the shape of rods tapering off at one end and hollow in the middle, staff of authority, whistle, and harpoon, all from the horn of the reindeer. on the head of a staff of authority is carved a mammoth's head; there is a representation of the hind-quarters of some herbivorous animal, sketched out with a bold and practiced touch; an animal's head, with ears laid back, and of considerable length, is carved on a round shaft of reindeer horn. it cannot be determined for what purpose this shaft was intended, but as the other end was pointed, and provided with a lateral hook, it may have been the harpoon of some chief. on a slab of slate was drawn, in outline, a reindeer fight. on a fragment of a spear-head there is a series of human hands, provided with four fingers only, and represented in demi-relief. the delineations of fish are principally on wands of authority--on one of which is a series following one another. [illustration: fig. . sketch of a mammoth, graven on a slab of ivory from la madeleine.] the cave and _rock shelters_ of bruniquel (tarn-et-garonne) have been carefully examined by competent explorers. these relics are so numerous that m. de lastic, the proprietor of the cavern, sold to the agent of the british museum fifteen hundred specimens, of every description, which had been found on his property. in the cave there were found, engraved on a bone, a perfectly recognizable horse's head and the head of a reindeer, and daggers made of ivory and bone, on which were representations of the above-mentioned animals. the engravings are mostly on the horn of the reindeer. the cave has also furnished two almost perfect human skulls, and two half-jaw bones which resemble the moulin-quignon. the _rock-shelters_ are overhanging rocks, under the projections of which man found a shelter and built his rude dwellings of boughs and sticks. in these shelters have been found fire-hearths, fish-hooks made of splinters of bone, saws made of flint, a complete sketch of the mammoth engraved on reindeer horn, the hilt of a dagger carved in the shape of a reindeer, the cave-lion, engraved with great clearness, on a fragment of a staff of authority, and two daggers made of ivory. in the excavations which were made in the rock-shelters, was found a quantity of human bones, including two skulls--one of an old man, the other that of an adult. the cave of gourdan (haute-garonne) contained the largest collection of implements of bone and horn ever discovered. the stones and reindeer horns are carved with great care, and indicate a high degree of artistic taste. there are sketches made of the reindeer, stag, chamois, goat, bison, horse, wolf, boar, monkey, badger, antelope, fishes, and birds, and also the representations of some plants. in the lowest layer of the soil the most perfect works occur, and they grow less as the surface is approached. several of those implements called "batons of command" occurred, ornamented with animals' heads. on the rib of a horse was carved an antelope, and on the bone of a bird various figures--plants, reindeer, and a fish. this cave was made the subject of a report by m. piette before the paris anthropological society. [illustration: fig. . the fossil man of mentone.] the fossil man of mentone, found in a grotto of mentone, a village near nice, for some time past has produced much comment among scientists. the skeleton was discovered in undisturbed earth; at a depth of twenty-one feet. the cause of the discussion is that the skeleton is accompanied by a multiplicity of bone-tools, needles, chisels, a baton of command, a necklace, various species of the deer, indicating the reindeer epoch, but surrounded also by the remains of the cave-bear, cave-hyena, and woolly-haired rhinoceros. dr. garrigou arrives at the conclusion that this cave was first inhabited by men of the preceding epoch, or inter-glacial, and during the reindeer epoch was used as a place of burial.[ ] the attitude of the skeleton was that of repose (see fig. ). it was stained by oxide of iron. the tibiæ, or shin-bones, present a noticeable feature by being more flattened than in the european of the present time. in the same neighborhood there have more recently been discovered, in different caves, four other human skeletons. they were all stained with oxide of iron, and two of them surrounded with pierced sea-shells, teeth of the stag, constituting the remains of necklaces and bracelets. with one skeleton, which belonged to a large individual, were discovered implements of stone and bone, tooth of a cave-bear, bones of other animals, and shells of edible marine mollusks. the other two skeletons were those of children, and not accompanied by either implements or ornaments. the other bone caves of france, which have afforded much valuable information, and belonging to this epoch, are: la gorge d'enfer, liveyre, pey de l'aze, combe-granal, le moustier and badegoule (dordogne), cave of bize (aude), cave of la vache (ariége), cave of savigné (vienne), grottos of la balme and bethenas, in dauphiné, the settlement of solutré, the cave of lourdes (hautes-pyrénées), and the cave of espalungue (basses-pyrénées)--the last two date back to the most ancient period of the reindeer epoch. the principal objects found in these caves, and the rock-shelters are worked flakes, scrapers, cores, awls, lance-heads, cutters, hammers, and mortar-stones. these works, though unpolished, are but little ruder than those of the esquimaux or the north american indian. _belgian caverns._--under the auspices of the belgian government m. edward dupont examined more than twenty caves on the banks of the lesse, in the province of namur. among these were four, in which occurred numerous traces of the reindeer-man, namely, trou du frontal, trou rosette, trou des nutons, and trou de chaleux. the cavern trou de frontal was a place of burial, and similar to the cave of aurignac. the mouth of the cave was closed by a slab of sandstone, and within were the remains of fourteen human beings belonging to persons of various ages, and some of them to infants scarcely a year old. in front of the cave was an esplanade, where were celebrated the funeral feasts, and which was marked by hearth-stone, traces of fire, flint-knives, bones of animals, shells, etc. the human bones were intermixed with a considerable number of the bones of the reindeer and other animals, as well as the different kinds of implements. among the remains were two perfect human skulls, in a good state of preservation. the bones were discovered in a state of great confusion, which m. dupont thinks was caused by the disturbance of water. sir john lubbock regards the disturbance of the bones as due to foxes and badgers.[ ] immediately above this cave is the trou rosette, in which the bones of three persons were found, mingled with those of the reindeer and beaver. it also contained fragments of a blackish kind of pottery, which were hollowed out in rough grooves and hardened by fire. dupont is of opinion that the three men were crushed to death by masses of rock at the time of the inundation of the valley of the lesse. in the trou des nutons, situated one hundred and sixty-four feet above the lesse, were found a great many bones of the reindeer, wild bull, and many other species. in the cave, indiscriminately mixed up with these bones, were one hundred and fifty worked reindeer horns, knuckle-bones of the goat, polished on both sides, a whistle made from the tibia of a goat, fragments of very coarse pottery, and fire-hearths. [illustration: fig. . earthen vase, found in the cave of furfooz, belgium.] the cave of chaleux was buried by a mass of rubbish caused by the falling in of the roof, consequently preserving all its implements. there were found the split bones of mammals and the bones of birds and fishes. there was an immense number of objects, chiefly manufactured from reindeer horn, such as needles, arrow-heads, daggers, and hooks. besides these, there were ornaments made of shells, pieces of slate with engraved figure, mathematical lines, remains of very coarse pottery, hearth-stones, ashes, charcoal, and last but not least, thirty thousand worked flints mingled with the broken bones. in the hearth, placed in the centre of the cave, was discovered a stone, with certain but unintelligible signs engraved upon it. m. dupont also found about twenty pounds of the bones of the water-rat, either scorched or roasted. in a cave at furfooz, dupont found an urn, or specimen of rough pottery (fig. ) intermingled with human bones. it was partly broken; by the care of m. hauzeur it has been put together again. france and belgium are not alone in their monuments of the reindeer epoch, for settlements of this epoch have been discovered in germany, switzerland, and poland. in the cave of thayngen, near schaffhausen, switzerland, have been discovered a few remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and cave-lion; the remains of two hundred and fifty reindeer, four hundred and thirty alpine hares; also the remains of the brown bear, stag, elk, auroch, glutton, wolf, and several kinds of fox. the large bones invariably appeared in fragments, and the pebbles used for breaking them were found in the refuse. among birds, the bones of the swan, grouse, and duck predominate. the implements consisted chiefly of needles, piercers, and arrow-heads made of the antlers of the reindeer. the art of engraving and carving was carried to quite a degree of perfection. the most notable of these objects is the delineation of a reindeer in the act of browsing, drawn on a piece of the horn of that animal. not far from cracow (poland), a cavern has been recently discovered and examined by count zawisza. in the upper part of the floor (four feet in depth), consisting of vegetable earth, mould, and _débris_, occurred ashes, flint implements, and the split bones of the cave-bear, reindeer, horse, elk, and other animals. beneath this layer appeared the broken bones of the mammoth, an ornament of ivory, and the perforated teeth of the cave-bear, stag, elk, wolf, and fox. two thousand flint implements were obtained; and from the frequent occurrence of flint the cave was used by the troglodytes, or cave-men, as a dwelling; and by the remains of the fauna, it must have been occupied during the inter-glacial, and at the beginning of the reindeer epoch. chapter ix. man of the reindeer epoch. the reindeer epoch, approaching nearer the present age than those already enumerated, presents man under a more favorable aspect, and affords a better view of his traits of character and manner of living. not only the sturdy climate spurs him to action, but a higher type is supplanting the original savages. the brachycephalic, or round-headed, has penetrated the recesses of that wild country and brought with him the art of making more perfect implements. this new type was of short stature, having small hands and feet. if asia be the home of man, then from that country, advanced in civilization, came the vanguard who were destined to supplant their predecessors, tame the wild beasts, and conquer the forests. representatives of this type are found in the lapps and fins. between the two existing races--dolichocephalic and brachycephalic--there may have been a long and bitter strife. the former was large, stout, fearless, and cruel; the latter, small, hardy, and more intelligent. it was a conflict between brute force and intelligence. the more perfect weapons must have told fearfully against the rude axes and arrows of the dolichocephalic. it could not have been a war of extermination, for finally an intermixture took place, producing a medium, as may be judged from the exhumed skulls. _dwellings._--as in the past ages, man continued to dwell, for the most part, in caves. if the cave was small, he occupied every portion; but if large, only that part near the opening was used. in the centre of this dwelling he made a hearth, out of stones sunk in the floor, and with the fire placed upon it, he cooked his meals and warmed his body. this mode of life did not always satisfy him, for he ventured out, and under the projection of an overhanging rock he built him a booth, or rude hut, out of boughs, and the poles of fallen timber. these dwellings, whether in caves or under the rocks, were near some stream. _clothing._--the climate being cold, he probably ceased to use the inner bark of trees, and depended solely on the skins of animals. the skins were prepared by the flint scrapers, and then rendered supple by rubbing into them the brains and the marrow extracted from the skulls and long bones of the reindeer. these garments may have been artistically shaped, for they understood the art of sewing. with the bodkin they pierced the skin, and with the needle, end was held to end and side to side, and the same made permanent by the sinew of some animal. _food._--these people were essentially hunters, and lived principally upon the reindeer, which they attacked with their spears and arrows. the horse, elk, ox, ibex, and the chamois, formed a considerable part of their food. the meat was cooked on the rough hearths, and the skull and the long bones were split open in order to extract the brains and marrow, which formed a delicious dish. to this they also added fish and, occasionally, certain birds, such as the heath-cock, swan, and owl. the chase did not always afford them sufficient food, and at times they were forced to subsist on the water-rat. enough evidence has been produced to show that these people were cannibals. human finger-joints were discovered among the remains of cooking at solutré in mâconnais. m. issel found, at a point on the road from genoa to nice, some human bones which had been calcined, and were of a whitish color, light, and friable. the incrustations on their surface still contained small fragments of carbon, and some of them showed notches made by some sharp instrument. in one of the grottos of northern italy m. costa de beauregard found the small shin-bone of a child, which had been carefully emptied and cleansed. professor owen thinks he can recognize the trace of human teeth on some human skulls and children's bones found in scotland, and promiscuously mixed with sculptured flints and the remains of pottery. _the arts._--man had not yet discovered the value of metal, but formed his instruments out of flint, bone, and the horn of the reindeer. the hatchet was but little used, and the principal weapons were the flint-knife, arrow-heads, and occasionally the lower jaw-bone of the cave-bear, with its pointed canine tooth. the articles of domestic use were rough pottery, knives, scrapers, saws, bodkins, needles, and other wrought implements. he had articles for ornamenting his person and pleasing his fancy, such as shells for beads, and the whistle for delighting his ear. the art of engraving was practised to a great extent, and so admirably did he execute his designs that, after the lapse of thousands of years, the figures are easily recognized. the staff of authority would imply that there were certain individuals who were recognized as chiefs or leaders. some system must have prevailed, for without it the manufactories at laugerie-basse and laugerie-haute could not have been carried on. in the first of these workshops the fabrications were almost wholly spear-heads, and in the second reindeer horn was used for the weapons and implements. _traffic._--commerce was begun. the inhabitants of belgium sought their flints in that part of france now called champagne. from the same locality they also brought back fossil shells, which were strung together and used for necklaces. there can be no doubt of this, as already fifty-four of these shells have been found at chaleux, and they are not found naturally anywhere else than in champagne. _burial._--as in the previous epoch, the dead were consigned to the same kind of caves as were used for habitations, and the entombment was celebrated by the funeral-feast. these banquets afford no evidence of worship. some have thought they not only saw signs of worship in the banquets, but also in some of the carvings. no idols have been found. that they should have no notion of a future state is not surprising, for sir j. lubbock has shown that there are tribes at the present time without this belief.[ ] m. edward dupont, in his report to the belgian minister of the interior, on the excavations carried on in the caves, has concisely but eloquently given a synopsis of man of the reindeer epoch, in the following language: "the data obtained from the fossils of chaleux, together with those which have been met with in the caves of furfooz, present us with a striking picture of the primitive ages of mankind in belgium. these ancient tribes, and all their customs, after having been buried in oblivion for thousands and thousands of years, are again vividly brought before our eyes; and, ... antiquity lives again in the relics of its former existence. "we may almost fancy that we can see them in their dark and subterranean retreats, crouching round their hearths, and skilfully and patiently chipping out their flint instruments and shaping their reindeer-horn tools, in the midst of all the pestilential emanations arising from the various animal remains which their carelessness has allowed to remain in their dwellings. skins of wild beasts are stripped of their hair, and, by the aid of flint needles, are converted into garments. in our mind's eye, we may see them engaged in the chase, and hunting wild animals--their only weapons being darts and spears, the fatal points of which are formed of nothing but a splinter of flint. again, we are present at their feasts, in which, during the period when their hunting has been fortunate, a horse, a bear, or a reindeer, becomes the more noble substitute for the tainted flesh of the rat, their sole resource in the time of famine. "now, we see them trafficking with the tribes inhabiting the region now called france, and procuring the jet and fossil shells with which they love to adorn themselves, and the flint which is to them so precious a material. on one side they are picking up the fluor spar, the color of which is pleasing to their eyes; on the other, they are digging out the great slabs of sandstone which are to be placed as hearth-stones round their fire. "but, alas! inauspicious days arrive." the roof of their principal cave falls in, burying their weapons and utensils, and forcing them "to fly and take up their abode in another spot. the ravages of death break in upon them.... they bear the corpse into its cavernous sepulchre; some weapons, an amulet, and perhaps an urn, form the whole of the funeral furniture. a slab of stone prevents the inroad of wild beasts. then begins the funeral banquet, celebrated close by the abode of the dead; a fire is lighted, great animals are cut up, and portions of their smoking flesh are distributed to each. how strange the ceremonies that must then have taken place! ceremonies like those told us of the savages of the indian and african solitudes. imagination may easily depict the songs, the dances, and the invocations, but science is powerless to call them into life.... "but the end of this primitive age is at last come. torrents of water break in upon the country. its inhabitants, driven from their abodes, in vain take refuge on the lofty mountain summits. death at last overtakes them, and a dark cavern is the tomb of the wretched beings, who, at furfooz, were witnesses of this immense catastrophe."[ ] chapter x. neolithic epoch. the neolithic, or epoch of tamed animals, is characterized by stone implements, polished or made smooth by a process of grinding and cutting, the greater development attained in the art of pottery, and by the presence of the bones of the domesticated animals. this age, in which no remains of the reindeer occur, immediately follows the reindeer epoch, and to it are referred in general all discoveries made in the so called _alluvial_ soil, the most ancient remains of the so called celts, the shell-heaps of denmark, the tumuli or grave-mounds, the dolmens, the earlier swiss pile-buildings, the irish lake-dwellings, and some of the caves of france. _caverns._--the caves belonging to this period, and explored by mm. garrigou and filhol, are those of the pyrenees and the caves of pradiérs, bedeilhac, labart, niaux, ussat, and fontanel. some of these caverns have been used in earlier ages, as is shown by the remains of extinct mammals. the upper crust of the floors of the caves belong to this period, and in them are found the bones of the ox, stag, sheep, goat, antelope, chamois, wild boar, wolf, dog, fox, badger, hare, and horse, intermingled with the remains of hearths, also piercers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads, made of bone; hatchets, knives, scrapers made of flints, and various other substances, such as silicious schist, quartzite, leptinite, and serpentine stone. these implements were carefully wrought, and mostly polished. the cave of saint jean d'alcas (aveyron), explored at different times by m. cazalis de fondace, was used as a place of sepulture. it was first examined about twenty-five years ago, and at that time five human skulls, in a good state of preservation, were found, but have been lost, as their importance was not then known. intermingled with these bones were flint, jade, and serpentine implements, carved bones, remains of rough pottery, stone amulets, and the shells of shell-fish, but no remains of funeral banquets. at the mouth of the cave were two large flag-stones lying across one another. the most recent discoveries in the cave have furnished metallic substances, which would place it, as a habitation, to the last of the neolithic. _danish kjökken-möddings, or shell-mounds, or kitchen-refuse heaps._--the refuse heaps of denmark were carefully examined by professors steenstrup, the naturalist, forchammer, a geologist, and worsaae, the archæologist, commissioned by the danish government, their reports being presented to the academy of sciences at copenhagen. they are found chiefly on the north coast of denmark, and consist of the shells of edible mollusks, such as the oyster, cockle, mussel, and periwinkle. these deposits are from three to ten feet in thickness, from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in width, and sometimes as much as one thousand feet in length. in them are found weapons and other instruments of stone, horn, and bone; fragments of rough pottery, stone-wedges, knives, etc., in great abundance, accompanied with charcoal and ashes; no traces of coin, bronze, or iron, or domestic animals, except the dog. the bones of animals are very numerous, but no human bones have ever been discovered. professor steenstrup estimates that ninety-seven per cent. of the bones belong to the stag, the roe-deer, and the wild boar. the other remains are those of the urus (_bos primigenius_), dog, fox, wolf, marten, wild-cat, hedgehog, bear (_ursus arctos_), and the mouse, and the bones of birds and fishes. the auroch, musk ox, domestic ox, elk, hare, sheep, and domestic hog are absent. the mollusca of these shell-mounds are of a size which are never obtained by the representatives of the same species now living on the baltic. they are not more than one-half or even one-third the size. at the time of the formation of these mounds, the baltic was a true sea, or an arm of the ocean, and these mollusks were taken from it. now the baltic has not the character of a true sea, but is merely brackish, and the oyster does not occur in the baltic except at its entrance into the ocean. these deposits have been found several miles inland, which would indicate that the sea had once covered the intervening space. on the western coast they have not been found, in consequence of their having possibly been swept away by the encroachments of the sea. they are also found on the adjacent islands. these mounds are not peculiar alone to denmark; for they are found in england, scotland, france, and america. _danish peat bogs._--the peat bogs of denmark, so faithfully investigated by professor steenstrup, mark three periods of deposition. the most ancient is called the _scotch-fir_; the second, immediately above, the _oak_, and the uppermost, the _beech_. the peat is from ten to forty feet in thickness, and to form a layer from ten to twenty feet thick would require, according to steenstrup, _at least_ four thousand years, and perhaps even from three to four times that period.[ ] these three epochs denote three periods of time. the lowest belongs to the neolithic, the middle to the bronze, and the last to the iron epoch. in the lowest, or _fir_ period, have been found worked flints and bones. human bones have been found, which correspond with the bones taken from the tumuli of this epoch. _the lake-dwellings of switzerland._--dr. ferdinand keller and his associates have made known to the world the wonderful remains of villages situated in the lakes of switzerland and other countries. the villages of switzerland do not all belong to the same period, and they represent the neolithic, bronze, and iron epochs; but there was no hard line of demarcation between these three periods. these habitations are so numerous that more than two hundred settlements hare been discovered in switzerland alone. among the lakes furnishing these remains may be counted the lake of neuchâtel (forty-six settlements); lake constance (thirty-two settlements); lake of geneva (twenty-four settlements); lake of bienne (twenty-one settlements); lake of morat (sixteen settlements); lake of zurich (three settlements); lake of pfæffikon (six settlements); lake of sempach (six settlements); lake of moosseedorf (two settlements); lake of inkwyl (one settlement); lake of nussbaumen (one settlement); lake greiffensee (one settlement); lake of zug (six settlements); lake of baldegg (five settlements), and others. the habitations belonging to the neolithic are lake constance thirty, neuchatel twelve, geneva two settlements; one each at morat, bienne, zurick, pfæffikon, inkwyl, moosseedorf, nussbaumen, the settlement of concise, the bridge thiéle, the peat-bog of wauwyl, and others. these dwellings were built near the shore, on piles of various kinds of wood, sharpened by tools and fire, and driven into the mud at the shallow bottom of the lake. in some of the settlements the piles were fastened by heaping stones around them. the piles were sometimes placed together, at others apart. the heads were brought to a level and then the platform beams were fastened upon them. this basis served for the foundation of the rude rectangular huts they erected. these piles are not now seen above the water, yet they are visible above the bottom of the lake. the number of piles in some of these settlements is as high as one hundred thousand, and the area occupied, not less than seventy thousand square yards. it has been estimated that the population of the lake-villages during the neolithic was over thirty thousand. the object of these dwellings was to protect the inhabitants from wild animals, the attacks of enemies, and for the ready obtaining of food by fishing. they were not only occupied by the inhabitants, but also by their herds and the stores of fodder.[ ] _robenhausen._--it is not necessary to go into an account of a number of these settlements to represent the neolithic epoch, for the settlement at robenhausen (lake pfæffikon) takes the first rank in giving the domestic arrangements of the ancient inhabitants. this settlement covered a space of nearly three acres, and one hundred thousand piles were used in the whole structure. its form was an irregular quadrangle. it was about two thousand paces from the ancient western shore of the lake, and about three thousand from the shore in the opposite direction. with the last-named side there was a communication by means of a bridge, the piles of which are still visible. on this side were the gardens and pastures. the dwellers of this settlement were unfortunate, as their habitation was twice burned up, and each time, they rallied and rebuilt their huts. they remained a long time as would seem from the depth of the peat and the vast amount of relics found. at a depth of eleven feet were found the earliest or most ancient relics; at ten and one-half feet, the remains of the first conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at seven and one-half feet, flooring, relics of the second settlement, and excrement of cows, sheep, and goats; at six and one half feet, remains of second conflagration--charcoal, stone and bone implements, pottery, woven cloth, corn, apples, etc.; at three and one-half feet, broken stones, flooring, and relics of the third settlement; at two and one half feet, stone celts, pottery, but no traces of fire. above this was two feet of peat and one-half foot of mould. without going into detail, the objects found in these various beds are as follows: made out of wood, are knives, ladles, plates, clubs of ash, in which is fixed a socket of stag's horn containing a stone celt, a boat made of a single trunk, twelve feet long, two and one-half feet wide, and five inches deep, flails for threshing out grain, bows notched at both ends, fishing implements, floats for the support of nets, suspension hooks, tubs, chisels, sandals, yokes made for carrying vessels, and a peculiar ornament. these implements were all made out of yew, maple, ash, fir, and the root of the hazel bush. out of stag's horn--arrow-heads, daggers, piercing and scraping tools, implements for knitting and for agriculture. the implements of stone were polished, and of the usual form. the objects of clay were fragments of pottery, in the shape of urns, plates, and cups, in great abundance. there were also found spoons, and a perforated cone, supposed to have been used as a weight for the loom. several crucibles or melting pots have been found, which were used for melting copper. the third building of this village was on the borderland between the stone and bronze ages. the remains of animals found here and at moosseedorf and wauwyl, all of the neolithic, belong to the brown bear, badger, marten, pine-marten, polecat, wolf, fox, wild-cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer, wild-boar, marsh-boar; the domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox, goat, sheep, and dog. the remains of the domestic hog are absent from all the pile works of this period, save the one at wauwyl. among cereals (robenhausen) were found several varieties of wheat and barley; fruits and berries--service-tree, dog-rose, elder, bilberry, and wayfaring tree; the nuts--hazel, beech, and water-chestnut; the oil-producing plants--opium, or garden poppy, and dogwood; the fibrous plants--flax; plants used for dying--weld; forest trees and shrubs--silver fir, juniper, yew, ash, and oak; water and marsh plants--lake scirpus, pondweeds, common hornwort, marsh bedstraw, buckbean, yellow waterlily, ivy-leaved crowfoot, and marsh pennywort. besides these there have been found many specimens of plaited and woven cloth; also ropes, cords, and a portion of a linseed cake.[ ] in the different settlements the same axes and knives abound, and are of small size. the arrow-heads and saws are an improvement on those of the preceding epoch. among domestic implements, spindle-whorls of rude earthenware were abundant in some of the villages, and corn-crushers are occasionally met with from two to three inches in diameter. about five hundred implements of stone have been found at wauwyl, consisting of axes, small flint arrow-heads, flint-flakes, corn-crushers, rude stones used as hammers, whetstones, and sling-stones. as these lake-dwellings not only belong to the last of the neolithic, but extend beyond, they naturally have a place in the close of this period. m. troyon says the dwellings of this period came suddenly to an "end by the irruption of a people provided with bronze implements. the lake-dwellings were burned by these new-comers, and the primitive inhabitants were slaughtered or driven back into remote places. this catastrophe affects chiefly the settlements of east switzerland, which entirely disappeared, and also a number of those on the shore of the western lakes. some few settlements, however--namely, those of the so-called transition period--are said not to have been destroyed by the new people till after the inhabitants had begun to make use of bronze implements."[ ] dr. keller takes exception to these views. he says there is no sudden leap from one class of civilization to another, and that the metals came gradually into use. the lake-dwellings were not burned down by the irruption of a foreign people; for at niederwyl, and several settlements of the unter-see, no traces of fire have been observed. the fact that but a very few human skeletons have been found in the whole settlements, contradicts the supposition of a battle having taken place between the aborigines and the supposed conquerors, and of the destruction of the former by the latter.[ ] lake-dwellings belonging to this age and the bronze, have been found in bavaria, northern italy, mecklenburg, pomerania, france, england, scotland, and ireland. herodotus says that the pæonians lived this way in lake prasias (thrace), and lubbock says that the fishermen of lake prasias still inhabit wooden huts built over the water. the town of tcherkask in russia, is constructed over the river don, and venice itself is but a lacustrine city.[ ] several attempts have been made to estimate the time which has elapsed since the neolithic period. the estimates of m. morlot are based on the discoveries made in a hillock formed by the river tinière at its entrance into the lake of geneva. this cone contained three distinct layers of vegetable earth placed at different depths between the deposits of alluvium. the first was at a depth of three and one-half feet from the top, and was from four to six inches thick, and in it were found relics of the roman period; the second was five and one-fourth feet lower, and six inches thick, in which were fragments of bronze; the third was at a depth of eighteen feet from the top, and varied in thickness from six to seven inches, and contained fragments of the stone age. history proves that the layer containing the roman relics is from thirteen to eighteen centuries old. since that epoch the cone has increased three and one-half feet, and if the increase was the same in previous ages, then the bed containing the bronze is from twenty-nine hundred to forty-two hundred years old, and the lowest layer, belonging to the stone age, is from four thousand seven hundred to ten thousand years old. the calculation by m. gillieron was made from the discoveries near the bridge of thièle. about one thousand two hundred and thirty feet from the present shore is the old abbey of saint jean, built in the year . there is a document which seems to show that the abbey was built on the edge of the lake. then, in seven hundred and fifty years the lake retired one thousand two hundred and thirty feet. the distance of the present shore from the settlement of the bridge of thièle is eleven thousand and seventy-two feet, and consequently the settlement is not less than six thousand seven hundred and fifty years old. m. figuier assigns to the lake-dwellings an antiquity of from six to seven thousand years before the christian era.[ ] chapter xi. man of the neolithic. from the human bones found in peat-bogs and tumuli, man is represented as having a narrow but round skull, with a projecting ridge above the eyebrows, showing he was round-headed, his eyebrows overhanging, small of stature though stout, and having a great resemblance to the laplanders. in many respects the race was much superior to that of the preceding epoch. man advanced rapidly in the arts, and made great progress in civilization. he had passed out of the barbarous, and might be called a semi-barbarian. _habitations._--man's habitation varied according to the locality. in the extreme south of france he continued for a considerable length of time to occupy the caves and rock-shelters; in switzerland, the pile-buildings, and in denmark he undoubtedly had rude huts placed close together and in proximity to the shell-heaps. _clothing._--clothing also varied according to locality. where the wild animals were numerous their skins were used--there being no incentive to substitute other material. coarse material made of fibrous plants had come into use. the lake-dwellers clothed themselves with this material, and completely protected their bodies. they also used sandals for their feet, as these have been found with the usual indications of usage. _food._--where wild animals could be obtained they were used, and the marrow of the long bones extracted. to this, fish and birds were added. in denmark the principal food was the different species of the edible mollusk. in switzerland a higher order and greater variety of food was used. the meat of the wild animals, birds, and fish was varied with bread made of barley and wheat, and fruit and berries. the meat was not only obtained from the wild animal, but they provided against the uncertainty of the chase by domesticating the boar, ox, sheep, and goat. the horse and dog were domesticated to assist in the chase, but sometimes served for food, probably during a famine. if these people were cannibals, the evidence must rest solely on the human bones discovered at a dolmen near the village of hammer, denmark, which had been subjected to the action of fire. they were found together with some flint implements. but this evidence is not sufficient to lead to the conclusion that at the funeral banquets human flesh was used along with the roasted stag. _arts and manufactures._--the flint hatchets of the refuse-heaps are generally of an imperfect type; the long knives indicate a considerable amount of skill; the bodkins, spear-heads, and scrapers are but little improved. in the latter part of this epoch, the various kinds of implements, especially in switzerland, attained to a surprising degree of perfection, in so much so, it is difficult to understand how this was achieved without the use of metal. they were made into various shapes, and with the design of pleasing the eye. besides the various types of implements common to the different countries, the tribes of denmark manufactured a drilled hatchet, which is combined in various ways with the hammer. a specimen of this type is represented in fig. , now in the museum of copenhagen. it is pierced with a round hole, in which the handle was fixed. the cutting edge describes an arc of a circle, and the other end is wrought into sharp angular edges. new inventions were brought into use. among them was a comb which, according to shape, might be compared to the dung-fork of the american stables. ornaments for the body, made of various materials were fashioned. pottery was still in a rough state, though gradually improving. the loom was invented, and various kinds of cloth were manufactured. also out of the fibrous plants cordage was made, which again was fashioned into nets for fishing. many canoes at various places have been found, showing that they were not only used for fishing but also for carrying cargoes. workshops were established, and there the stone implements were made and polished; one of these shops was at pressigny. [illustration: fig. . danish axe-hammer, drilled for handle.] some idea may be had of the vast number of stone implements which occur, when it is considered that in the museum of copenhagen there are about twelve thousand, consisting of flint axes, wedges, broad, narrow, and hollow chisels; poniards, lance-heads, arrow-heads, flint flakes, and half-moon-shaped implements. in other collections in denmark there are twenty thousand implements. the museum at stockholm contains about sixteen thousand, and the royal irish academy owns seven hundred flint-flakes, five hundred and twelve celts, more than four hundred arrow-heads, fifty spear-heads, seventy-five scrapers, and numerous other objects of stone, such as sling-stones, hammers, whetstones, grain-crushers, etc.[ ] some of these implements, however, may belong to other epochs. war must have been carried on to a considerable extent, as fortified camps have been discovered in belgium, at furfooz, and other places. their weapons were the axe, the arrow, the spear, and possibly the knife. these were wrought with great care. _agriculture._--man commenced to till the ground in this age, and thus laid the true foundation of civilization. he probably was forced to do it. the beasts of the forest were gradually decreasing. they had nourished him in the infancy of his mind, and now he should begin to look to the soil, and by the cultivation of its products he must sustain his life. his principal implement of agriculture must have been the sharpened stick, pointed with deer-horn. he cultivated the cereals, made his corn-mill, and stored the grain for winter use. _burial._--how the colonists of the lake-dwellings disposed of their dead is unknown. in denmark, and many other places, the dead were buried in dolmens or tumuli. a dolmen is a monument consisting of several perpendicular stones covered with a great block or slab. when it is surrounded by circles of stone it takes the name _cromlech_. the dolmens occur also in scandinavia, france, and brittany. they were formerly considered to have been druidical sacrificial altars. they were usually covered over with earth, and in them were buried from one to twenty persons, accompanied with their implements. when a person died, the tomb was reopened to receive the new occupant. at such a time fire was used for the purpose of purifying the atmosphere of the tomb. in brittany, in the vicinity of the tombs, there were set up in the ground enormous blocks of stone, that have received the name of _menhirs_, the most noted of which is that at carnac. when these dolmens remain in the state in which they were left, still covered with earth, they take the name of _tumuli_. comparatively few of the tumuli belong to the neolithic. in these, large numbers of bodies have been found, and none of them in a natural position, but cramped up and their heads resting between the knees. judging from the calcined bones, which are frequently met with at the tomb, it may be inferred that victims were offered during the funeral ceremonies, perchance a slave, or the widow. lubbock is of opinion that when a woman died in giving birth to a child, or even while still suckling it, the child was interred alive with her.[ ] this hypothesis is substantiated by the great number of cases in which the skeleton of a woman and child have been found together. in the ceremonies at the tomb, some read the belief in a future state of existence. the evidence, however, is no clearer than that in the previous epochs. man undoubtedly had such a belief, but science does not reveal it. chapter xii. bronze epoch. the age of bronze bears no direct relation to the antiquity of man, for it is largely embraced in written history. although history does not record the events of the age of bronze in western europe, yet history covers the time which embraces the use of bronze. this epoch has more to do with the archæologist than the geologist. it is marked by the abundance of swords, spears, fish-hooks, sickles, knives, ornaments, and other articles made of bronze. the bronze implements are principally found in england, scotland, ireland, france, denmark, norway, italy, and switzerland. the lake-settlements of switzerland known to belong to this epoch are: geneva, ten settlements; neuchatel, twenty-five settlements; bienne, ten settlements; morat, three settlements; and sempach, two settlements. to these may be added some of the crannoges of ireland; also many tumuli and mounds. _type._--the man of this epoch was not unlike that of the preceding. his head was rather broad than long, he was small, energetic, and muscular; his hands were small, as is proven by the remarkably small handles of their swords, which are too small for a hand of the present day. this type of man has maintained itself in the north of switzerland to the present time. _habitations and food._--the caves and rock-shelters gave way entirely to the rude huts which now protected man. if they were resorted to, it was only from some peculiar cause or danger. the food was the same as in the neolithic, with additions to the cereals. _clothing._--the skins of animals were used less than formerly for clothing. garments made of other material have been found, and even the whole dress of a chief. in a tumulus of jutland there were found a thick woollen cap, a coarse woollen cloak (fig. ), semicircular in form, scalloped out round the neck, shaggy in the inside, three feet four inches long, and wide in proportion; two woollen shawls, a woollen shirt, woollen leggings, and the remains of a pair of leather boots. fibrous plants also contributed to the comfort of man, and were possibly used for summer wear, and under garments in winter. [illustration: fig. . woollen cloak of the bronze epoch, found in , in a tumulus in jutland.] _implements._--the people of this age made great improvements in their weapons, tools, and ornaments. they consist of bronze celts, swords, hammers, knives, hair-pins, small rings, ear-rings, bracelets, fish-hooks, awls, spiral-wires, lance-heads, arrow-heads, buttons, needles, various ornaments, saws, daggers, sickles, and double-pointed pins. there were also ornaments of gold. only one implement, a winged celt, has been found, which bore an inscription. _arts._--progress was made in the art of weaving. soldering and the moulding of metal were practised; foundries were established, the remains of which have been discovered at devaine and walflinger in switzerland; stone moulds were used, one of which, on trial, produced a hatchet exactly similar to those which have been collected. the moulds were usually made out of sand. the crucible used for the melting of the metal was made out of pottery which was placed over a hole in the earth filled with burning charcoal; when the metal was melted, it was poured into the mould. pottery took new shapes and was adorned with various patterns. glass, which has so long been ascribed to phoenician origin, was invented in the bronze age, for glass beads, of a blue or green color, have been found in the tombs of this epoch. _agriculture._--the cereals attest to the tilling of the soil. the ground was prepared by the projecting branch of a stem of the tree, used as a plough. the grain was stored for winter use, and when required was crushed by being rubbed between two stones serving as a mortar. _fishing and navigation._--there are no distinct traces of improvement beyond the past epoch, in fishing and navigation, unless it be in the improved hooks made of bronze. _burial._--the custom of burning the dead was almost universal in denmark, and was more or less practised in other countries. the ashes and fragments of the bone were collected and placed either in or under an urn. when buried, the corpse was usually placed in a contracted position, but occasionally extended. with the dead were buried their implements and clothing. the body of the chief discovered in a tumulus in jutland, where the clothing was found, was buried in a coffin nine and two-third feet long, over two feet in breadth, and covered by a movable lid. the body was in a good state of preservation, owing to the action on it of water strongly impregnated with iron. it was wrapped in the woollen cloak, and again wrapped in an ox's hide. buried with it were the shawls, leggings, shirt, boots, and caps, two small boxes, a bronze razor, comb, a bronze sword in a wooden sheath, and a long woollen band. in other coffins have been found swords, knives, brooches, awls, tweezers, and buttons, all of bronze. in a baby's coffin was found an amber bead, and a small bronze bracelet. _religious belief._--many crescents, made of stone and earthenware, have been found which are regarded, by some archæologists, as religious emblems. dr. keller calls them "moon images," and has devoted a short chapter to their consideration.[ ] on the other hand, lubbock and carl vogt regard them as resting-places for the head at night.[ ] they carefully arranged their long hair, and evidently sacrificed comfort for vanity. they carried a long pin with which to scratch the head. this kind of a pillow is still used by the fuegeans and abyssinians, who have their hair elaborately decorated; and in some cases this is never disturbed. if the people were worshippers the crescent is the only evidence from archæology. no idols have ever been discovered. that the people were already worshippers may be learned from the traditions recorded in history. chapter xiii. iron epoch. as the _iron epoch_ fairly establishes civilization, and belongs almost wholly to the historical epoch, it will be here briefly noticed, and then dismissed after giving a quotation from dr. keller. the bronze had not only prepared the way for the iron epoch, but also gave a great impulse to succeeding ages. the art of metallurgy assumed a new importance and gave new life to every movement that tended to the assistance of man. the works of bronze gave way to those of iron. a knife made of iron is represented in fig. . knives of this pattern were, however, made of bronze, and served for the same purpose. the workshops of this age were so numerous that four hundred of them have been discovered in one province. the potter's wheel was invented; money was introduced, and agriculture greatly nourished. [illustration: fig. . a knife of the iron epoch.] some of the swiss lake-dwellings of neuchatel and bienne belong to this epoch. dr. keller, in summing up some of his observations, has made use of the following language: "the phenomenon of the lake-dwellings, so important in the history of civilization, the time of their first establishment, their original design, their development, and their final extinction, in spite of many accumulated facts, is in many respects clouded in doubt.... it is certain from the very beginning of this peculiar mode of living to the latest period of its existence, while outward circumstances remained the same, a quiet advance to a better development of the conditions of life may be observed, in which there was neither retrogression nor any sudden advance by the intervention of foreign elements. the general diffusion of metals in a country which had none, is explained simply by the barter which existed throughout europe in the very earliest ages. the question why the inhabitants of a lake-dwelling of the stone age abandoned their settlements, while those of another, not many hours' or many minutes' walk distant, remained quietly living on their platforms, is of no greater importance than the inquiry why, during the middle ages, so many localities have disappeared, the names and situations of which are known to us. the presence of objects of industry on the area of the lake-dwellings has nothing in it very surprising, if we consider what misfortunes villages of straw-covered huts were exposed to, in which not only the houses themselves, but even the platforms on which they stood, were formed of very combustible materials. it is possible, if we are to take cæsar's account literally, that when the helvetii, whose arrival in the country is neither mentioned in history nor shown by archæology, withdrew, the lake-dwellings then existing were, as a whole, burned down; but there can also be no doubt that some remained standing, or were rebuilt after the return of the population. their continuing down to the roman time is only astonishing to any one who imagines that at this time the whole population had gone over to the roman manner of life, while the proof lies before him that the lower class adhered to their own manners and customs till the entrance of the german races."[ ] chapter xiv. traces of man in america. america furnishes a better field for the antiquary than the old world. her ancient remains are not so much injured by the decay of empires and the rude hand of war. succeeding ages have not so much effaced these marks, and many of the remains still stand as left by the original occupants, save only the change and decay which time itself produces. america will yet be discovered. it is true the landmarks are known; but these have not been investigated so diligently as the remains of man in europe. the boucher de perthes and the dr. schmerling are yet to come. until they do, the history of primitive man in america must be surrounded with great uncertainty. much labor has been given to the investigation of this subject, and many works written, all looking toward an early development which must sooner or later come. in this chapter the aim will only be to point out some of these traces. _enumeration._--the implements from the gravel beds of colorado and the skull from calaveras county, california, have already been referred to (pp. , ). near osage mission, kansas, there was found a human skull imbedded in a solid rock, which was broken open by blasting. it was examined by dr. weirley, who compared it with a modern skull, and found it resembled the latter in general shape, yet it was an inch and a quarter longer. of this relic he says: "it belonged to a man of a large size, and was imbedded in conglomerate rock of the tertiary class, and found several feet beneath the surface. parts of the frontal, parietal, and occipital bones were carried away by the explosion. the piece of rock holding the remains weighs some forty or fifty pounds, with many impressions of marine shells, and through it runs a vein of quartz, or within the cranium crystallized organic matter, and by the aid of a microscope presents a beautiful appearance." in shape the neanderthal man comes nearest to it.[ ] in the comstock lode (nevada), at a depth of five hundred feet, judge a. w. baldwin found a human skull of unusual and peculiar shape. it is very short from base to summit, and exceedingly broad between the ears. the skull is entire, with the exception of the facial bones. this skull has never been examined by a competent person.[ ] in the drift-clay, in the city of toronto, at a depth of two feet from the surface, were discovered the bones and horn of a deer, amidst an accumulation of charcoal and ashes, and with them a rude stone chisel or hatchet.[ ] in the gravel of the gold-bearing quartz of the grinell leads (kansas), was found an imperfect flint knife at a depth of fourteen feet. above the implement the gravel, composed of quartz and reddish clay, was ten feet thick, and above this was four feet of rich black soil. this implement was given to dr. daniel wilson by mr. p. a. scott.[ ] dr. dickeson found, in the yellow loam of the mississippi at natchez, a human pelvic bone along with the bones of the mastodon and megalonyx. they were found at a depth of thirty feet from the surface, and the human bone had the same black color which characterized the others. sir charles lyell calculated that it required sixty-seven thousand years to form the delta of the mississippi, but admits, if the conclusions arrived at by the united states engineers be correct, in respect to the annual amount of sediment discharged at the delta, the growth would be reduced to thirty-three thousand five hundred years. taking either of these estimates, the same would give the number of years which have elapsed since these bones were deposited.[ ] in an excavation made near new orleans, at a depth of sixteen feet from the surface, beneath four cypress forests superimposed one upon the other, the workmen found a complete human skeleton, and some charcoal. the cranium is similar to the aboriginal type of the indian race. this discovery furnished the data from which dr. bennet dowler assigned to the human race an antiquity, in the delta of the mississippi, of fifty-seven thousand years.[ ] count pourtalis found some fossil human remains, consisting of jaws, teeth, and some bones of the foot, in a calcareous conglomerate forming a part of the series of reefs of florida. the whole series of reefs is of post-tertiary origin, and, according to professor agassiz, has been one hundred and thirty-five thousand years in forming. if this calculation be correct, then these bones must have an antiquity of ten thousand years.[ ] dr. lund, a danish naturalist, explored eight hundred caverns in brazil, belonging to different epochs, and exhumed in them a great number of unknown animal species. in a calcareous cave, near the lake of semidouro, he found the bones of not less than thirty persons of different ages, and showing a similar state of decomposition to that of the bones of animals with which they were associated. from the discoveries there made, lund was forced to the conclusion that man was cotemporaneous with the megatherium and the mylodon--animals belonging to the post-tertiary.[ ] the shell-heaps of america are coeval with those of denmark. those at damariscotta, maine, have been examined by professor w. d. gunning. he estimates that within, an area of one hundred rods in length, eighty in width there are piled one hundred million bushels of oyster shells. one dome-shaped hillock is nearly one hundred feet in height. the only human relics found among the shells are stone gouges, arrow-heads, bone needles, pottery, and copper knives. these shells were probably deposited by but a few individuals at a time. when formed, the oyster was a native of that coast, but within the memory of man the oyster has not lived there. _the mound-builders._--an ancient and unknown people of a certain degree of civilization have left remains of their greatness in the fortifications and mounds in the valleys of the mississippi and its tributaries. these works extend over a great extent of territory. they are found in western new york, west virginia, ohio, kentucky, tennessee, indiana, illinois, wisconsin, michigan, iowa, nebraska, missouri, arkansas, louisiana, mississippi, alabama, georgia, florida, texas, and along the kansas, platte, and other western rivers. the people appear to have originated in ohio. on the southern extremity the works gradually lose their distinctive character, and pass into the higher developed architecture of mexico; and at the north, north-east, and north-west, the population seem to have been more limited and their works less perfectly developed. the people were preëminently given to agriculture; were not warlike, and only navigated the rivers along their settlements. the fertile valleys of the scioto, two miamis, kanawaha, white, wabash, kentucky, cumberland, and tennessee rivers were densely populated, as indicated by the numerous works which diversify their surfaces. the stone and bone implements from the mounds, in their shape differ but little from those of europe. the hatchets and knives are not only made of flint but also of obsidian, and other hard stones. copper was the chief metallic substance. out of this they made various implements, and swords. it was obtained from the shores of lake superior, where they carried on extensive mining. in these mines have been found their implements, some of which are very large diorite hatchets, used as sledges for breaking off lumps of copper, and so heavy that it would require more than one man to wield them. the copper was not subjected to heat, but it was hammered cold into such a shape as was desired. some idea of the number of the mounds and fortresses may be given from the statement that in the state of ohio alone there are from eleven thousand to twelve thousand of these works. the fortresses were used for the protection of the people against the predatory warfare of the hostile tribes, or even, it may be, against the incursions made by other mound-builders. in regard to the mounds, there has been much speculation, and some archæologists divide them into sacrificial, sepulchral, temple, and symbolical. _sacrificial._--the sacrificial mounds are characterized by "their almost invariable occurrence within enclosures; their regular construction in uniform layers of gravel, earth, and sand, disposed alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound; and their covering a symmetrical altar of burned clay or stone, on which are deposited numerous relics, in all instances exhibiting traces, more or less abundant, of their having been exposed to the action of fire."[ ] among the most remarkable are those found on the scioto, at the place called mound city situated on the western bank. the mounds are enclosed by a simple embankment, between three and four feet high. the area occupied is about thirteen acres, and includes twenty-four mounds. one of these is one hundred and forty feet in length, and the greatest breadth is sixty feet. in this mound occurred four successive altars, a bushel of fragments of spear-heads, over fifty quartz arrow-heads, and copper and other relics. the sacrificial deposits do not disclose a miscellaneous assemblage of relics, for on one altar hundreds of sculptured pipes chiefly occur; on another, pottery, copper ornaments, stone implements; on others, calcined shells, burned bones; and on others, no deposit has been noticed. the sacrificial mounds are found at marietta and other localities. all the investigations which have been made prove that the altars were not only used for a long period, but also had been repeatedly renewed. _sepulchral._--the sepulchral mounds are numbered by the thousands. they are simple earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped, and vary in height from six to eighty feet. usually they contain but one skeleton, reduced almost to ashes, but occasionally in its ordinary condition and in a crouching position. by the side of them occur trinkets, and, in a few cases, weapons. these mounds were probably only raised over the body of a chief or some distinguished person. _temple._--the temple mounds are truncated pyramids, with paths or steps leading to the summit, and sometimes with terraces at different heights. among the most noted of these is that of cahokia in illinois. it is seven hundred feet long at its base, five hundred feet wide, and ninety feet high. its level summit is several acres in extent. _symbolical._--the symbolical mounds consist of gigantic bas-reliefs formed on the surface of the ground, representing men, animals, and inanimate objects. in wisconsin they exist in thousands, and among the devices are man, the lizard, turtle, elk, buffalo, bear, fox, otter, raccoon, frog, bird, fish, cross, crescent, angle, straight-line, war-club, tobacco-pipe, and other familiar implements or weapons. in dane county there is a remarkable group, consisting of six quadrupeds, six parallelograms, one circular tumulus, one human figure, and a small circle. the quadrupeds are from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet long, and the figure of the man measured one hundred and twenty-five feet in length and nearly one hundred and forty feet from the end of one arm to the other. near the village of pewaukee, when first discovered there were two lizards and seven tortoises. one of the latter measured four hundred and seventy feet. in adams county, ohio, is the figure of a vast serpent; its head occupies the summit of a hill and in its distended jaws is a part of an oval-shaped mass of earth one hundred and sixty feet long, eighty wide, and four feet high. the body of the serpent extends round the hill for about eight hundred feet, forming graceful coils and undulations. near granville, licking county, ohio, on the summit of a hill two hundred feet high, is the representation of an alligator. its extreme length is two hundred and fifty feet, average height four feet; the head, shoulders, and rump are elevated in parts to a height of six feet; the paws are forty feet long, the ends being broader than the links, as if the spread of the toes were originally indicated. upon the inner side of the effigy is a raised space covered with stones which have been exposed to the action of fire; and from this leading to the top is a graded way ten feet in breadth. on examination it was discovered that the outline of the figure was composed of stones of considerable size, upon which the superstructure had been modelled in fine clay. _antiquity._--there are methods of determining the antiquity of these mounds. mr. e. g. squier has pointed out three facts which go to prove that they belong to a distant period. . none of these ancient works occur on the lowest formed of the river terraces, which mark the subsidence of the streams. as these works are raised on all the others, it follows that the lowest terrace has been formed since the works were erected. the streams generally form four terraces, and the period marked by the lowest must be the longest because the excavating power of such streams grows less as the channels grow deeper. . the skeletons of the mound-builders are found in a condition of extreme decay. only one or two skeletons have been recovered in a condition suitable for intelligent examination. the circumstances attending their burial were unusually favorable for preserving them. the earth around them has invariably been found wonderfully compact and dry; and yet, when exhumed, they have been in a decomposed and crumbling condition. . their great age is shown by their relation to the primeval forests. as the mound-builders were a settled agricultural people, their enclosures and fields were cleared of trees, and remained so until deserted. when discovered by the europeans these enclosures were covered by gigantic trees, some of them eight hundred years old. the trees which first made their appearance were not the regular forest trees. when the first trees that got possession of the soil had died away, they were supplanted, in many cases, by other kinds, till at last, after a great number of centuries, that remarkable diversity of species characteristic of north america would be established.[ ] dr. buchner assigns to them an antiquity of from seven thousand to ten thousand years.[ ] fort shelby, in orleans county, new york, was carefully examined by frank h. cushing, the archæologist. the fort was found to be composed of two parallel circular walls, with a gateway in each. the gateway in the outer wall fronted a peat-bog, the shore of which was some ten feet distant. within the enclosure he found small, flat, notched stones, used for sinking fishing-nets. into the bog he sank a shaft to the depth of seven feet, not far from the shore. at the bottom of the shaft he found the shells of living species of shell-fish. the natural surroundings show that this fort was built when the peat-bog was a lake. this is further confirmed by the fact that all ancient works are erected near a permanent supply of water. the nearest permanent supply of water is oak orchard creek, one and one-half mile distant. the formation of this peat would require not less than four thousand years, and more probably twice that number. the mound-builders must have remained a very long time. these works were formed gradually, and the population extended slowly toward the north. their corn-fields, by their raised condition, show many successive years of usage. note a.--in reference to the fossil human bones from florida count l. f. pourtales says: "the human jaw and other bones, found in florida by myself in , were not in a coral formation, but in a fresh-water sandstone on the shore of lake monroe, associated with fresh-water shells of species still living in the lake, (_paludina, ampullaria, etc._) no date can be assigned to the formation of that deposit, at least from present observation."--_american naturalist_, vol. ii., p. . note b.--besides the evidences already enumerated, col. charles whittlesey gives the following: . three skeletons of indians in a shelter cave near elyria, o., were found four feet below the surface, resting upon the original floor of the cave, upon which were also charcoal, ashes, and the remains of existing animals; estimated age, two thousand years. . several human skeletons were found in a cave near louisville, ky., cemented into a breccia. they were discovered in constructing the reservoir in . . a log, worn by the feet of man, was found in the muck bed at high rock spring, saratoga, n. y., at a depth of nine feet beneath the cave, and estimated by dr. henry mcguire to be , years old. it was discovered in . . mr. koch claims to have found an arrow head fifteen feet below the skeleton of the _mastodon ohioensis_ from the recent alluvium of the pomme de terre river, mo., and now in the british museum. his statement was, however, contradicted by one of the men who assisted him in exhuming the skeleton. . dr. holmes, of charleston, s. c., found pottery at the base of a peat bog, on the banks of the ashley river, in close connection with the remains of the mastodon and megatherium. . col. whittlesey, in , found fire-hearths in the ancient alluvium of the ohio, at portsmouth, o., at a depth of twenty feet, and beneath the works of the mound-builders.--_col. whittlesey before the american association, in ._ chapter xv. written history. it is not generally known that written history extends so far back as to make worthless the present system of chronology. the mighty empires of antiquity must have been a mystery to many a thoughtful mind. as far back as history will carry us we not only behold the world teeming with her millions of people, but also nations rising and empires crumbling. rollin felt the difficulties of the chronology which hampered him. he says the assyrian empire was founded by nimrod eighteen hundred years after the creation of man, or two hundred and twenty-four years after the deluge, or one hundred and twenty-six years before the death of noah. nimrod was succeeded by his son ninus, who received powerful succor from the arabians, and extended his conquests from egypt as far as india and bactriana. ninus enlarged his capital to sixty miles in circumference, built the walls to the height of one hundred feet, and so broad that three chariots could go abreast upon them with ease, and fortified and adorned them with one thousand five hundred towers two hundred feet high. after he had finished this prodigious work he led against the bactrians one million seven hundred thousand foot, two hundred thousand horse, besides four hundred vessels well equipped and provided. after his death, semiramis, his wife, ascended the throne. she enlarged her dominions by the conquest of a great part of ethiopia. then she led her army of three million foot and five hundred thousand horse, besides the camels and chariots of war, into india, where she suffered a severe defeat. after making these statements, rollin says, "i must own i am somewhat puzzled with a difficulty which may be raised against the extraordinary things related of ninus and semiramis, as they do not seem to agree with the times so near the deluge: i mean, such vast armies, such a numerous cavalry, so many chariots armed with scythes, and such immense treasures of gold and silver; ... and the magnificence of the buildings, ascribed to them."[ ] the difficulties presented to the modern historian never would have occurred if discredit had not been thrown on the writings of the ancients. _egypt._--the only history of egypt, written in greek, was that of manetho, a high-priest of heliopolis, who lived three hundred years before christ. only fragments of this work have been preserved. this history is taken from the ancient egyptian chronicles, and records a list of thirty dynasties reigning in one city. his "thirty-one lists contain the names of one hundred and thirteen kings, who, according to them, reigned in egypt during the space of four thousand four hundred and sixty-five years."[ ] dr. buchner says manetho "calculates for three hundred and seventy-five pharaohs a reigning period of six thousand one hundred and seventeen years, which together with the present era, makes about eight thousand three hundred and thirty years."[ ] bayard taylor makes manetho assign the first dynasty to about the year b. c.[ ] herodotus says the egyptians "declare that from their first king (menes) to this last mentioned monarch (sethos), the priest of vulcan, was a period of three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both of their kings and of their high-priests, during this interval. now three hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations filling up the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years. thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand three hundred and forty." the priests "led me into the inner sanctuary, which is a spacious chamber, and showed me a multitude of colossal statues, in wood, which they counted up, and found to amount to the exact number they had said; the custom being for every high-priest during his life-time to set up his statue in the temple. as they showed me the figures and reckoned them up, they assured me that each was the son of the one preceding him; and this they repeated throughout the whole line, beginning with the representation of the priest last deceased, and continuing till they had completed the series."[ ] from the time of sethos, the priest of vulcan, to the burning of the temple of delphi, was one hundred and twenty-two years. the temple was burned b. c. . the period which, then, has elapsed from sethos to the present ( ) is two thousand five hundred and forty-five years. adding this to the time of menes we have the whole period covering thirteen thousand eight hundred and eighty-five years. but if the generation be reduced to twenty years then the period from menes to the present is nine thousand three hundred and sixty-five years. the recent explorations made by mariette among the archives of egypt have confirmed the testimony of manetho. the names of the kings, their order of succession, and the length of their reigns correspond with manetho's table. these discoveries not only testify to the great antiquity of the empire, but also throw light on the nation, its manners, and customs. there were found stools, cane-bottomed chairs, work-boxes, nets, knives, needles, toilet ornaments, earthenware, seeds, eggs, bread, straw baskets, a child's plaything, paint boxes, with colors and brushes, etc., from three thousand to six thousand years old. there were also found the jewels of queen aah-hotep, who lived b. c., consisting of exquisite chains, diadems, ear-rings, and bracelets, which no modern queen would hesitate to wear. these statements are still further confirmed by the testimony of geology. in the year borings were commenced in the mud deposit of the nile. the most important results were obtained from an excavation and boring made near the base of the pedestal of the statue of rameses at memphis, the middle of whose reign, according to lepsius, was b. c. assuming with mr. horner that the lower part of the platform or foundation was fourteen and three-fourths inches below the surface of the ground, or alluvial flat, at the time it was laid, there had been formed between that period and the year a. d. , or during the space of three thousand two hundred and eleven years, a deposit of nine feet four inches round the pedestal, which gives a mean increase of three and one-half inches in a hundred years. it was further ascertained, by sinking a shaft near the pedestal, and by boring in the same place, that below the level of the old plain the thickness of old nile mud resting on desert sand amounted to thirty-two feet; and it was therefore inferred by mr. horner that the lowest layer (in which a fragment of burned brick was found) was more than thirteen thousand years old, or was deposited thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety-six years before the year ."[ ] other excavations were made on a large scale. in the first sixteen or twenty-four feet there were dug up jars, vases, pots, a small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, and other articles entire. when the water soaking through from the nile hindered the progress of the workmen, boring was resorted to, and almost everywhere, and from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet below the surface, pieces of burned brick and pottery were extracted.[ ] _troy._--troy, made immortal by the poem of homer, has recently been uncovered to the eye of man, and fresh lustre has been thrown over the ancient bard. the descriptions of troy given by homer, thought to have been a mere work of imagination, are now shown to be accurate, and also that he must have been there. for the re-discovery and unearthing of troy the world is indebted to dr. schlieman. four buried cities superimposed one above the other were discovered. the third city, below the surface, is ancient troy. the house of priam, the scæan gate, the massive walls and pavements, still remained. in the house of priam dr. schlieman found a great mass of human bones, among them two entire skeletons wearing copper helmets, a silver vase, two diadems of golden scales, a golden coronet, fifty-six golden ear-rings, eight thousand seven hundred and fifty gold rings, buttons, etc. immediately beside the house of priam, closely packed in a quadrangular space, surrounded with ashes, and near by a copper key, were a large oval shield of copper, a copper pot, a copper tray, a golden flagon, weighing nearly a pound, several silver vases, a silver bowl, fourteen copper lance-heads, fourteen copper battle-axes, two large two-edged daggers, a part of a sword, and some smaller articles. the value, by weight alone, of all the gold and silver found in or near the house of priam, has been estimated at twenty thousand dollars. during the excavations, over one hundred thousand articles were found. every mark showed that troy had been suddenly destroyed. conflagration, ruin, the implements and the effects of war were visible. even the brave warriors who fell while defending the palace of their king have not yet wholly crumbled into dust. the four cities may be thus summed up: the topmost stratum is six and one-half feet in depth and covers the grecian settlement which was established about the year b. c. beneath the greek masonry are found the walls of another city, built of earth and small stones, but the abundance of wood-ashes shows that the city--or the successive cities--was chiefly built of wood. the ruins of troy, next in succession, are from twenty-three and one-half to thirty-three and one-half feet from the surface, and form a stratum averaging ten feet in thickness. troy is supposed to have been founded about b. c., and its fall and destruction by fire to have occurred about b. c. under troy there is a fourth stratum of ruins, varying from thirteen to twenty feet in depth. the most remarkable feature of these oldest ruins is the superiority of the terracotta articles. these vases are of a shining black, red, or brown color, with ornamental patterns, first cut into the pottery, and then filled with a white substance. the age of these ruins "is a matter of pure conjecture, since the vicissitudes of the city's history--frequent destruction and rebuilding--would have the same practical effect, or very nearly so, as a long interval of time. we have anywhere from two to five thousand years before christ as the date of the foundation of the _first_ troy."[ ] _chaldea._--berosus, a chaldean priest of belus, nearly three hundred years before christ, wrote in greek a regular history of chaldea, in nine books. the materials for this work were supplied by the archives then existing in the temple of belus at babylon. the work was particularly devoted to a history of the kingdom prior to the beginning of the assyrian empire. fragments of this work have been preserved by josephus and eusebius. after describing the cyclical ages of ten fabulous kings, he then comes to what he considers true history, and enumerates one hundred and sixty-three kings of chaldea, who reigned successively from the time when the list begins to the rise of the assyrian empire, about the year b. c. berosus begins with a dynasty of eighty-six kings, and gives their names, which are now lost. he had no chronology of their time, but subjected it to a cyclical calculation. his list, which has so far escaped the lapse of time and the change of hands, is thus preserved: first, eighty-six chaldean kings; history and time mythical. second, eight median kings; during two hundred and twenty-four years. third, eleven kings. fourth, forty-nine chaldean kings. fifth, nine arabian kings; during two hundred and forty-five years. the rulers of the assyrian empire were next added, as a sixth dynasty. the blank spaces in the list are doubtless the result of careless copying, or caused by imperfections in the manuscripts. in order to make the old kingdom of chaldea begin about the year b. c. the first eighty-six kings of berosus have been struck out as fabulous, and the median dynasty regarded as spurious, and this without any show of reason, save that it does not agree with the chronology which the mutilators of history accept. investigations which have been made among the ruined cities of chaldea have given great weight to the authority of berosus, and are tending to the confirmation of his history. in susiana there was found a cushite inscription, mentioned by rawlinson, in which there is a date that goes back nearly to the year b. c. the testimony of the records disentombed from the ruins, as well as berosus, contradicts the prevalent hypothesis that the magian or aryan race occupied the country before the cushites. these ruins also "confirm berosus by showing that chaldea was a cultivated and flourishing nation, governed by kings, long previous to the time when the city known to us as babylon rose to eminence and became the seat of empire. during that long time there were several great political epochs in the history of the country, representing important dynastic changes, and several transfers of the seat of government from one city to another. such epochs in chaldean history are indicated by the list of berosus."[ ] by this people, the science of astronomy was well understood. "callisthenes, who accompanied alexander to babylon, sent to aristotle from that capital a series of astronomical observations which he had found preserved there, extending back to a period of one thousand nine hundred and three years from alexander's conquest of the city.... these observations were recorded in tablets of baked clay.... they must have extended, according to simplicius, as far back as b. c., and would seem to have been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the primitive chaldean people." a lens of considerable power, used for either magnifying or condensing the rays of the sun, was found at babylon, in a chamber of the ruin called nimroud.[ ] _china._--litse, an eminent chinese historian, relates that there were long periods of time when the chinese kingdom flourished, the chronology of which is not preserved, although there is recorded some knowledge of the rulers. one of these rulers promoted the study of astronomy. next come the historical epochs. during the first, astronomy, religion, and the art of writing were cultivated. this was a great epoch, and ruled by fifteen successive kings. in the second epoch, agriculture and medical science were promoted. in the third, the magnetic needle was discovered, the written characters improved, civilized life advanced, and a great revolt suppressed. in the fourth and fifth epochs, the descendants of the previous ruler reigned. next came the period of yao and shin. after this the period of the "imperial dynasties," which began with the emperor yu, who lived two thousand two hundred years b. c. the historical work of sse-ma-thi-an narrates events chronologically from the year b. c. to b. c.[ ] _mexico._--it is known that books or manuscripts were abundant among the ancient mexicans. there were persons duly appointed to keep a chronicle of the passing events. las casas, who saw the books, says they gave the origin of the kingdom as well as the founders of the different cities, and every different thing which transpired that was worthy of note: such as the history of kings, their modes of election and succession; their labors, actions, wars, memorable deeds, good or bad; the heroes of other days, their triumphs and defeats. these chroniclers calculated the days, months, and years. nearly all these books were destroyed at the instigation of the monks, and by the more ignorant and fanatical spanish priests. a vast collection of these old writings were burned in one conflagration by order of bishop zumarraga. a few of the works, however, escaped, but none of the great books of annals described by las casas.[ ] thus mexico must be left to the archæologist unassisted by written history. chapter xvi. language. the origin and growth of language evidently afford a great field for study, in not only tracing the development of civilization, but also in confirming the testimony of the ancients and the conclusions of the geologists. if the unity of language could not be established, there would still be left a field so great as would not lessen the interest or the importance of the subject. but a new language cannot be formed. for the sake of convenience the many varieties of language have been grouped into three great divisions, _i. e._, the aryan, the semitic, and the turanian. "the english, together with all the teutonic languages of the continent, celtic, slavonic, greek, latin with its modern offshoots, such as french and italian, persian, and sanskrit, are so many varieties of one common type of speech: that sanskrit, the ancient language of the veda, is no more distinct from the greek of homer, ... or from the anglo-saxon of alfred, than french is from italian. all these languages together form one family, one whole, in which every member shares certain features in common with all the rest, and is at the same time distinguished from the rest by certain features peculiarly its own. the same applies to the semitic family which comprises, as its most important members, the hebrew of the old testament, the arabic of the koran, and the ancient languages on the monuments of phoenicia and carthage, of babylon and assyria. these languages, again, form a compact family, and differ entirely from the other family, which we called aryan or indo-european. the third group of languages, for we can hardly call it a family, comprises most of the remaining languages of asia, and counts among its principal members the tungusic, mongolic, turkic, samoyedic, and finnic, together with the languages of siam, the malay islands, thibet, and southern india. lastly, the chinese language stands by itself as monosyllabic, the only remnant of the earliest formation of human speech."[ ] anterior to these three families there was still another from which these were derived. it contained the germs of all the turanian, as well as the aryan and semitic forms of speech. it belongs to that period in the history of man when ideas were first clothed in language, and has been called the rhematic period.[ ] as regards the origin of language, three theories have been proposed: the interjectional, the imitation, and the root. the first supposes that the beginnings of human speech were the cries and sounds which are uttered when a human being is affected by fear, pain, or joy. the second supposes "that man, being as yet mute, heard the voices of birds, and dogs, and cows, the thunder of the clouds, the roaring of the sea, the rustling of the forest, the murmurs of the brook, and the whisper of the breeze. he tried to imitate these sounds, and finding his mimicking cries useful as signs of the objects from which they proceeded, he followed up the idea and elaborated language." the third theory, advanced by max müller, is that language followed as the outward sign and realization of that inward faculty which is called the faculty of abstraction, and the roots, to which language may be reduced, express a general, not an individual idea.[ ] there is more or less truth in all these theories. at the very earliest period man must have possessed some method of communicating his wants or ideas. the casual observer has noticed that animals have methods of communicating with one another. it is not improbable that at the very earliest period man's only mode was that of cries and signs. this may have lasted for a very long time. then the mimicking commenced. next, comparison was resorted to when he had so far advanced as to describe his thoughts and, finally, from these various beginnings, from necessary or forced improvement, his ideas were expressed in root words.[ ] instead of new languages originating, old languages change. they are mutable, and from them new dialects are produced. in the history of man there never has been a new language, and the languages now spoken are but the modifications of old ones. the words now used by all people, however broken up, crushed, or put together, are the same materials as were used in the beginnings of speech. new words are but old words; old in their material elements, though they may be renewed and dressed in various forms. "the modifiability of the language and its tendency to vary never cease, so that it would readily run into new dialects and modes of pronunciation if there were no communication with the mother country direct or indirect. in this respect its mutability will resemble that of species, and it can no more spring up independently in separate districts than species can, assuming that these last are all of derivative origin."[ ] there are from four thousand to six thousand living languages. the number of unspoken languages is not known. their growth has required ages, and during their development many a parent stalk has ceased to exist. the changes in a language are slowly produced. it requires centuries to so far leave a language as to need an interpreter in order to understand it. some idea of this slow change may be gained by comparing the writings in the english language of different periods. in the year appeared a poem called "piers ploughman's creed," which begins as follows: "in a summer season, when soft was the sun, i shoop me into shrowds[ ] as i a sheep[ ] were; in habit as an hermit unholy of werkes, went wide in this world wonders to hear; ac[ ] on a may morwening on malvern hills me befel a ferly,[ ] of fairy me thought." etc. written language is more permanent than spoken, but the process of either is necessarily slow. when it is remembered that a language has been derived successively through numerous others, no special limit or time can be given, although a very long period would be required. the usually accepted chronology would not allow sufficient time for the diversity in the semitic family, to say nothing of the time required for the development of the three general classes. chapter xvii. unity of the human race. the theory of the unity of the human race has caused a clash of opinions among men of science. it has been the great battle field among anthropologists, ethnologists, geologists, philologists, and theologists. men of acknowledged ability have been arrayed on either side. among the foremost in favor of a diversity of origin have been agassiz, sir roderick i. murchison, georges pouchet, a. r. wallace, and schleicher. but the weight of evidence and authority is most in favor of the unity of the human race. the advocates of the theory of the diversity of the origin of the human race have advanced many objections against the unity, and produced arguments in favor of their opinions. these may be summed up under five heads. . the anatomical differences between the different races, and especially those which distinguish the black and white. . the separation of the races from each other for unknown ages by great oceans, and by formidable and almost impassable continental barriers. . the disparity in intelligence, and the grades in civilization. . a medium type cannot exist by itself, except on the condition of being supported by the two creating types. . when two types become united, two phenomena may arise: _a_, either one of them will absorb the other; or _b_, they may subsist simultaneously in the midst of a greater or less number of hybrids. the following answers may be given to these objections, or arguments: . it is just as reasonable to suppose that man is affected, as well as the animals, by climate, food, or peculiar condition. it is well known that animals have undergone more or less change by their situation or position. elephants and rhinoceroses are almost hairless. as certain extinct species, which formerly lived under an arctic climate, were covered with hair or long wool, it would appear that the present species of both genera had lost their hairy covering by exposure to heat. this is confirmed by the fact that the elephants of the elevated and cool districts of india are more hairy than those on the lowlands.[ ] a wonderful change is wrought by the influence of climate on turkeys. in india "it is much degenerated in size, utterly incapable of rising on the wing, of a black color, and with long pendulous appendages over the beak, enormously developed." "in the english climate an individual porto santo rabbit recovered the proper color of its fur in less than four years."[ ] observers are convinced that a damp climate affects the growth of the hair of cattle. the mountain-breeds always differ from the lowland breeds; in a mountainous country the hind limbs would be affected from exercising them more, which would also affect the pelvis, and, then, from the law of homologous variation, the front limbs and head would probably be affected.[ ] one of the most marked distinctions in the races of man is that the skull in some is elongated or dolichocephalic, and in others rounded or brachycephalic. mr. darwin has observed that a change takes place in the skulls of domestic rabbits; they become elongated, while those of the wild rabbit are rounded. he took two skulls of nearly equal breadth, the one from a wild and the other from a large domestic rabbit, the former was only . , and the latter . inches in length. welcker has observed "that short men incline more to brachycephaly and tall men to dolichocephaly; and tall men may be compared with the larger and longer-bodied rabbits, all of which have elongated skulls."[ ] the argument from language is of great weight, especially in considering the differences in color. professor max müller has stated this clearly: "there was a time when the ancestors of the celts, the germans, the slavonians, the greeks and italians, the persians and hindus, were living together beneath the same roof." "the evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only evidence worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods. it would have been next to impossible to discover any traces of relationship between the swarthy natives of india and their conquerors, whether alexander or clive, but for the testimony borne by language."[ ] when the great lapse of ages is taken into consideration, since man originated, it will be seen that sufficient time is given to produce the white, black, yellow, red, and brown varieties of man. . the argument from geographical distribution would hardly seem valid, as it is known that the ocean can be and has been navigated by frail crafts. lieutenant bligh, of the ship bounty, in a small boat, twenty-three feet long from stem to stern, deep laden with nineteen men and one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of water, twenty pounds of pork, etc., started from the island of tofoa (south pacific) for the island of timor, a distance of three thousand six hundred miles. in this voyage he encountered a boisterous sea, and great perils, but finally reached his destination.[ ] when men began to dwell on the sea-coast they made their small vessels and carried on a limited navigation. many a frail craft has been driven out to sea with its human freight, some of which landed on uninhabited islands. this has often happened among the south sea islanders.[ ] if it had been asserted, a few years ago, that man's distribution might have been partly caused by the agency of ice, it would have received no attention. and yet, captain tyson and his party, consisting of twelve men, two women, and five children, being a portion of the crew of the ill-fated polaris, drifted about from the th of october, , to the th of april, , on an ice-floe, and in the midst of an arctic winter. besides the provisions saved from the polaris they subsisted on the flesh of seals, birds, and bears that they were able to kill. every member of this party was rescued off the coast of labrador. it must be further noticed that the surface of the earth was not always the same. the continents have changed more or less, and during these changes man must have become more or less separated. . in respect to the disparity it may be replied that the two extreme points are observable in all the nations of the earth. even in single families there have been those who were highly cultured and refined, while other members have been very low in organization, habits, and tastes. in these days it is manifest that all the races are capable of a very high degree of improvement. on the other hand, nations have retrograded. the ignorant, wretched nomads who pitch their tents amid the ruins of babylon, are the descendants of the ancient mixed races who successively occupied mesopotamia: the assyrians, babylonians, medes, and persians, who were ruled by such renowned monarchs as shalmaneser, nebuchadnezzar, cyrus, and others. the wild marauding arabs are the descendants of a people who invented algebra and introduced the numerals. so the list might be extended. and . the fourth and fifth amount to the assumption that no race will amalgamate with another. the statements embraced under these two heads are not warranted by facts. dr. prichard says, "mankind of all races and varieties are equally capable of propagating their offspring by intermarriages, and that such connections are equally prolific whether contracted between individuals of the same or of the most dissimilar varieties. if there is any difference, it is probably in favor of the latter."[ ] he then gives a short account of several examples of new or intermediate stocks which have been produced and multiplied. they are griquas, descended from the dutch and hottentots, who occupy the banks of the orange river, and number five thousand souls; the cafusos of brazil, a mixture of native americans and african negroes; the papuas of the island of new guinea, a mixture between the malays and negroes. one of the best examples yet furnished is that of the pitcairn islanders. this colony originated in this way: the british government had sent a vessel, called the bounty, commanded by lieutenant bligh, to gather bread-fruit trees at otaheite and introduce them into the west indies. bligh was an overbearing, tyrannical, and cruel officer. driven to fury, and out of patience with the superior officer, mr. fletcher christian and others mutinied, and turned bligh and his eighteen companions adrift. the mutineers proceeded to tahiti; here they took on board provisions and live stock, nine tahitian men, twelve women, and eight boys who had secreted themselves, and then proceeded to toubouai, where they founded a settlement. owing to dissensions the colony broke up and removed to tahiti. but mr. christian, with eight other of the mutineers, three toubouaians, three tahitian men with their wives, and one child, and nine other women, left in the bounty and landed at pitcairn's island, and there burned the bounty on the d of january, . in less than nine years afterward, owing to strifes, the men were reduced to two in number, both whites, and one of them died the succeeding year. in the year the american ship topaz touched at the island. the colonists then numbered thirty-five. in they had increased to the number of one hundred and ninety, and as the produce of the island was barely sufficient to support them they were removed by the british government to norfolk island. there are only eight surnames among them--five of the bounty stock and three new-comers. they are a fine, healthy race of people; the men of a bright copper color, but the women are scarcely distinguishable from english women. if reports be true concerning them, they are the most remarkable people on earth. they never allow the sun to go down on their wrath, and are noted for their honesty, truth, chastity, industry, benevolence, reverence, simplicity, and all the virtues which combine to form true religion. the law of hybridity, which has been so strongly urged against the unity of the race, has proved an argument in favor. the offspring of birds as much alike as the domestic goose and the large muscovy duck will not propagate their species. mules cannot perpetuate their kind. the different varieties of the horse, such as the little black shetland pony and the tall white arabian, will not only breed together but these hybrids will continue to perpetuate their kind, thereby proving their identity of species. the same may be said of the cross between the most perfect and the lowest type of mankind. if some of these mixtures die out in a few generations, it is not owing to their hybridity, but to the plain violation of natural laws. when the contracting parties to a marriage are of the same constitution, there will be no issue; if the constitutions, or rather, temperaments, are in substance too nearly the same, the issue, if any, will be either still-born, or die very soon after birth; if the contracting parties shall have an adjunctive element, the issue will be short-lived, although they may arrive at the years of maturity.[ ] these laws apply to both the mixed and the unmixed types of mankind. the close affinity of all the races, their subjection to the same general laws, their capacity for mental and moral improvement, and the virtual unity of their languages lead to the conclusion that one birth-place was common to all. if that place be central asia, or any other locality, it must have been long before traditional times, when the one tribe was broken up and nations formed. races change so slow that they seem to be stationary. on the ancient egyptian monuments are representations of the negro, having exactly the same features which characterize that race at the present time; and some of these paintings date as far back as b. c. then from the unity of the race and the persistency in type, an almost incredible length of time must be assigned to permit of the great disparity as exhibited by the different types of mankind. chapter xviii. the bible and science. no book has caused so much controversy as the bible. it has been made to answer for the folly of both its friends and foes. the fierce assaults made by the sceptic have been the legitimate result of the preposterous claims made by its ignorant but too zealous friends. the bible makes no such claims for itself as have often been made for it. its meaning has been perverted, sentences distorted, and words changed in order to suit the caprice of its advocates. if it were a living, speaking existence, it would certainly beg to be delivered from its friends. it has been made to conflict with the investigations of science, and those engaged in interpreting the laws of nature have been branded as infidels, although they may have devout and reverent spirits. the bible is not and makes no pretensions of being a book of science. it is designed to be a book of religion, and a history of the ancient jews, and its references to scientific questions are only incidental. if the references to science, or the account of creation be radically wrong, its teachings on questions of morals and religion would not be thereby invalidated. the christian, or the jew, has nothing to fear from the results of scientific investigation. but there is a duty devolving on him, and that is to leave his fanciful interpretations and come to the true meaning of the scriptures, and there learn how the words were understood by those to whom they were originally addressed. the meaning of words, as used in the nineteenth century, is not to be connected with their signification as used in the past. there is a great distance that divides the present from the times of the hebrews, and their language and thoughts from the english language and modern thought. the ancient hebrews were not given to scientific pursuits, and could have been but comparatively little advanced in civilization. it is not the design here to enter upon an investigation of the points raised between the scriptures and science, but to confine the inquiry to such questions as the previous chapters have demanded. _creation._--the first and second chapters of genesis not only teach that god is the creator of heaven and earth, but also the order of succession is given. it is not stated that the world was created out of nothing. the word "bara," translated "created," has a variety of meanings. according to gesenius it means _to cut_, _to cut out_, _to carve_, _to form_, _to create_, _to produce_, _to beget_, _to bring forth_, _to feed_, _to eat_, _to grow fat_, _to fashion_, _to make_.[ ] the idea presented seems to be this: the author asserts that heaven and earth owe their origin to god. then he goes back and explains the successive stages of creation. at the commencement of the work the earth was formless and void, or in a nebulous condition, and from this preëxisting mass the worlds were evolved. when this mass was created, if ever, the author of genesis does not state. six periods, or "days," are given for the formation of the earth. the use of the words "evening and morning" naturally leads to the conclusion that the _days_ were each twenty-four hours in length. but doubt is thrown over this conclusion by the use of the word _day_ in the second chapter and fourth verse, where the whole creative week is called a _day_. the word translated "day" also means _time_, but it is to be generally taken in the sense of the civil day--from sun up to sun down. hugh miller held to the opinion that the creation was represented to moses in a vision. the periods passed before his mind in succession and had the appearance of days. the evening was the closing of one and the morning was the beginning of another period of time.[ ] if a description of the different orders of life had been given, it would have been beyond the comprehension of that primitive people. it was not the design to teach geology. the people were not prepared for such scientific knowledge. but the simple statement that god is the author of all things, could be and was understood by the israelites. on the sixth day man appears; but there are two records, and in them he is presented in different ways and for different purposes. in the first account man is made in the image of god, and to him is given dominion over the living things, and he is commanded to subdue the earth. the second account states that there was no man to till the ground, and the lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. the second account cannot be, as has been assumed, a repetition of the first. the two accounts are radically different. one account makes man to have dominion over the beasts, birds, and fishes; the other, to till or cultivate the soil. this agrees with archæo-geology. men were hunters many ages before they were agriculturists. the one account has man made in the image of god, the other, a _living soul_. the "image of god" and "living soul" may be the same, but why the change? there may be a cause for it. if the theory of the vision be the true one, then moses saw man in two capacities, differing one from the other. man may be in the "image of god," and yet in a low, savage condition--subsisting on the chase. man may be awakened from that condition, the "image of god" may assert its majesty, and make man a religious, worshipful being.[ ] that there were two classes the record implies. cain goes out into the land of nod, where his wife conceives, and he builds a city. where did cain get his wife, and why did he build a city? no account is given of the birth of his wife, but the natural inference is he obtained her in the land of nod.[ ] it has been contended that cain married his sister. if this be true it would certainly have been mentioned. it is too important a matter to have escaped notice. if he married his sister he was guilty of a heinous crime. if it was right then, it is right now. the city he built must have been more than an _encampment_, or a _small fortification_. (the word translated "city" bears this meaning also.) it would have been of no moment. it must have been a place of some consequence, and designed for more persons than cain, his wife, and son. taking all the circumstances together, including cain's dread "of every one that findeth me shall slay me," it would seem that the object of this city was to provide for individuals of the pre-adamic family dwelling on the east of eden, and possibly to ingratiate himself into their favor. then, again, in the sixth chapter, "the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." this was followed by great wickedness, in consequence of which the world was destroyed by a flood. who were the "sons of god," and who the "daughters of men"? why not the daughters of god? the "sons of god" must have been the lineal descendants of adam, and the "daughters of men" the offspring of the pre-adamic race. the mongrel race produced were monsters,[ ] and their minds were bent continually on doing evil. these sons of adam must have retrograded, or else they would not have sought wives from among a lower people. by the laws of nature their offspring was lower than either of the races, from the fact that to the brutish natures of the pre-adamic type would be added the natural wisdom of the adamic, thus producing cunning and craft in their wickedness.[ ] if stringent moral laws had been enforced upon them the result would have been reversed. _chronology._--the chronology given in the margins of the bible is a mere invention, and has worked much mischief. there is nothing to warrant it, and no excuse can be made for it. the bible gives no definite chronology for those early times. that no dependence can be placed in these chronologies is shown from the discrepancies between the septuagint and the hebrew texts.[ ] the septuagint dates the flood eight hundred years farther back than the common bible. "a margin of variation amounting to eight centuries between two versions of the same document, is a variation so enormous that it seems to cast complete doubt on the whole system of interpretation on which such computations of time are based."[ ] _the deluge._--allowing the date of the deluge to have been b. c. instead of b. c., still there is not sufficient time to repopulate the earth, and form those mighty empires recorded in ancient history. the duke of argyle has very justly remarked that, "the founding of a monarchy is not the beginning of a race. the people among whom such monarchies arose must have grown and gathered during many generations." the peopling of egypt is not the only difficulty. "the existence, in the days of abraham, of such an organized government as that of chedorlaomer shows that two thousand years b. c. there nourished in elam, beyond mesopotamia, a nation which even now would be ranked among 'the great powers.'"[ ] then the characteristic features of the negro, one of the most strongly marked among the varieties of man, were as greatly marked b. c. as at present. these statements lead to the conclusion that the flood was not universal. most nations have a tradition of a flood, but "the monuments of the two most ancient civilizations of which we have any knowledge--the egyptian and chinese--contain no account of, or allusion to, noah's deluge."[ ] many of these traditions doubtless refer to some local flood. the passages of scripture seem to teach the universality of the deluge, but the same expressions which convey the idea of universality, are sometimes used in a limited sense, and refer only to the holy land, and to bordering regions. the question is one of doubt whether or not the sacred historian means the noachian deluge to have been universal, or only a local cataclysm. _monarchies._--the scriptures do not state that nimrod was the first monarch, but "the beginning of his kingdom was babel, and erech, and accad, and calneh." nor is the statement made that he founded these cities. he was a mighty hunter, and these cities were the _beginning of his kingdom_. _the dispersion._--the building of the tower of babel is no myth, but a veritable reality. a portion of the mighty fabric still stands, a mountain of ruins, attesting to the vast amount of work it required in its construction. the story is told in few words, and those words cover centuries. the people engaged in its construction spoke one language, but when this language was confounded the empire was rent asunder. the narrative seems to teach the use of but one language on the whole face of the earth. dr. f. h. hedge, in his sermon on "the great dispersion," says, "moreover, the phrase 'the whole earth,' as commonly used in the bible, is not to be taken in an absolute or scientific sense. it is not intended to include the entire globe, or even the greater part thereof, but is loosely employed to designate the whole of that particular portion which the writer or speaker has in his mind at the time. in the present case it denotes the country bordering on the tigris and the euphrates."[ ] if the views of this eminent theologian be correct, then, by the same principle of interpretation the unity of language spoken of, is limited to the country bordering on the tigris and the euphrates. there is no necessity of a supernatural aid for the origination of language. under the view already advanced, when the animals were brought to adam, he readily gave them names, for he had received language from his predecessors, and now, being an especially chosen person, his endowments would lead him to a more vigorous application of its use. it is not incredible that god could have fashioned the world and peopled it with myriads of beings in a period of six days of twenty-four hours each. it is not incredible that a cataclysm could destroy every living creature, save an appointed few, and cover the remotest boundaries of the earth. it is possible for god to do anything save that which is inconsistent with his character. what is possible for god to do, and what he does, are two very different things. what he has done can only be told from the evidences which he has left. what he might have done is only speculation. man can only judge from the facts presented to him. he observes the course of nature, and from these observations his conclusions are drawn. the world of nature and the spirit of revelation, when properly understood, are seen to be in harmony. man is not to close his eyes and refuse to be guided by science, and with blind credulity accept the tales and prejudices of his grandfathers. note.--dean stanley, an eminent divine of the church of england, in his discourse at the funeral of sir charles lyell, takes unusual grounds for a theologist. he is reported as saying that there were and are two modes of reconciling the letter of scripture with geology, but each has totally and deservedly failed. one of these attempts to wrest the words of the bible from their real meaning, and force them to speak the language of science; the other attempts to falsify science to meet the supposed requirements of the bible. but there is another reconciliation of a higher kind, or rather an acknowledgment of the affinity and identity which exist between the spirit of science and the spirit of the bible. first, there is a likeness of the general spirit of the bible truths; and, secondly, there is a likeness in the methods. the frame of this earth was gradually brought into its present condition by the slow and silent action of the same causes which we see now operating through a long succession of ages beyond the memory and imagination of man. we do not expect this doctrine to agree with the letter of the bible. the early biblical records could not be literal, prosaic, matter-of-fact descriptions of the beginning of the world. it is now clear that the first and second chapters of genesis contain two narratives of the creation side by side, differing from each other in almost every particular of time and place and order. it is now known that the vast epochs demanded by scientific observation are incompatible both with the six thousand years of the mosaic chronology and the six days of the mosaic creation. the discoveries of geology are found to fill up the old religious truths with a new life, and to derive from them in turn a hallowing glory. glossary of scientific and difficult terms used in this volume. adjunctive, having the quality of joining. alluvial, pertaining to the deposits of sand, clay, or gravel, made by river action. amalgamate, to mix or blend different things or races. antero-posterior, in a direction from behind forward. aphelion, that point of a planet's or comet's orbit which is most distant from the sun. archæo-geologist, one versed in pre-historic remains, or familiar with both archæology and geology. archives, public records and papers preserved as evidence of fact. aryan, a term applied to all the nations who speak languages derived mainly from the sanskrit, or ancient hindoo. atomic, a system of philosophy which accounted for the origin and formation of all things by assuming that atoms are endowed with gravity and motion. auditory, having the power of hearing. baton, a staff used as an emblem of authority. brachycephalic, a skull whose transverse diameter exceeds the antero-posterior diameter. breccia, a rock made up of angular fragments cemented together. bronze, an alloy of copper, with from ten to thirty per cent. of tin, to which other metals are sometimes added. calcareous, consisting of, or containing, carbonate of lime. calcined, reduced to a powder, or friable state, by the action of heat. carbonate, a salt formed by the union of carbonic acid with a base. carnivora, an order of animals which subsist on flesh. carpal, that portion of the skeleton pertaining to the wrist. cataclysm, a deluge. celt, one of an ancient race of people who formerly inhabited a great part of central and western europe; an implement made of stone or metal, found in the ancient tumuli of europe. cereal, edible grain. champlain epoch, a name derived from the beds on the borders of lake champlain. the beds are subsequent in origin to the glacial epoch. chert, an impure variety of flint. clavicle, the collar-bone. conglomerate, rock made of pebbles cemented together. coronoid, the process of the ulna and lower jaw. cosmogony, the science of the origin of the world or universe. cranium, the skull. crannoges, small islets in the lakes of ireland and scotland, used by the ancients as places of habitation. crucible, a vessel capable of enduring great heat, and used for melting ores, metals, etc. cyclical, pertaining to a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar. data (pl. of datum), a ground of inference or deduction. debris (d[=a]-breé), fragments detached from rocks, and piled up in masses. demi-relief, the projection of one half the figure beyond the plane from which it rises. dendrites, a stone on which are tree-like markings. devonian, the geological age between the silurian and carboniferous. diluvium, the time when the glacial beds were deposited. diorite, a tough rock, in color whitish, speckled with black, or greenish black. dolichocephalic, a skull whose diameter from the frontal to the occipital bone exceeds the transverse diameter. dorsal, the name given to the second division of the vertebræ. drift, a collection of loose earth and bowlders, distributed during the glacial epoch over large portions of the earth's surface. druidical, pertaining to the religious ceremonies of the ancient celtic nations in france, britain, and germany. dynasty, a succession of kings of the same line or family. eccentricity, the distance of the centre of the orbit of a heavenly body from the centre of the body round which it revolves. edible, eatable. elliptical, having an oval or oblong figure. eocene, the oldest of the three epochs of the tertiary. epoch, any period of time marked by some particular cause or event. esplanade, a clear space, or grass plat. fauna, the animals of any given area or epoch. flora, the complete system of vegetable species native in a given locality, or period. fluor-spar, a mineral of beautiful colors, composed by fluorine and calcium. fluvio-marine, the deposits formed by the joint action of a river and the sea. foramen, a little opening. fossa, a depression in a bone. fossil, the form of a plant or animal in the strata composing the surface of the earth. genus (pl. genera), an assemblage of species possessing certain characters in common, by which they are distinguished from all others. geode, an irregular shaped stone, containing a small cavity. geognostic, pertaining to a knowledge of the structure of the earth. glabella, the middle or frontal protuberance of the superciliary arch. glaciation, the process of becoming covered with glaciers. glacier, an immense mass of ice, or snow and ice, formed in the region of perpetual snow, and moving slowly down mountain slopes or valleys. gneiss, a crystalline rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica. herbivora, that order of animals which subsists upon herbs or vegetables. homologous, having the same typical structure. humerus, the bone of the arm nearest the shoulder. hybrid, that which is produced from the mixture of two species. ilium, the upper part of the hip bone. jade, a hard and compact stone, of a dark green color, and capable of a fine polish. lambdoidal, the suture which connects the occipital with the parietal bones. leptinite, a fine-grained granitic rock. loam, a soil composed of siliceous sand, clay, carbonate of lime, oxide of iron, magnesia, and various salts, and also decayed vegetable and animal matter. loess, a term usually applied to a tertiary deposit on the banks of the rhine. lumbar, the vertebræ near the loins. mammalia, that class of animals characterized by the female suckling its young. marl, a mixed earthy substance, consisting of carbonate of lime, clay, and siliceous sand. mastoid, a process situated at the posterior part of the temporal bone. matrix, a mould; the cavity in which a thing is held. maxillary, the upper jaw bone. metacarpal, the part of the hand between the wrist and the fingers. metallurgy, the art of working metals. metatarsal, the middle part of the foot. miocene, the middle or second epoch of the tertiary. molar, a grinding tooth. mold, or mould, a prepared cavity used in casting; to form or shape; fine soft earth. mollusca, an order of invertebrate animals having a soft, fleshy body, which is inarticulate, and not radiate internally. moraine, a line of blocks and gravel extending along the sides of separate glaciers, and along the middle part of glaciers formed by the union of one or more separate ones. nebulous, having a faint, misty appearance; applied to uncondensed gaseous matter. neolithic, new stone age; a term applied to the more modern age of stone. nummulitic, composed of, or containing a fossil of a flattened form, resembling a small coin, and common in the early tertiary period. obsidian, a kind of glass produced by volcanoes. occipital, pertaining to the back part of the head. ochreous, consisting of fine clay, containing iron. olecranon, the large process at the extremity of the larger bone of the fore-arm. onusprobandi, the burden of proof. orbit, the cavity in which the eye is located; the path described by a heavenly body in its periodical revolution. osar, a low ridge of stone or gravel formed by glaciers. oscillation, the act of moving backward and forward. osseous, composed of bone. osteologist, one versed in the nature, arrangement, and uses of the bones. oxide, a compound of oxygen, and a base destitute of acid and saltish properties. pachyderm, a non-ruminant animal, characterized by the thickness of its skin. palæolithic, the ancient stone age; a term applied to the earliest traces of man when he was cotemporary with many extinct mammalia. palæontological, belonging to the science of the ancient life of the earth. parallelogram, a figure having four sides, the opposite sides of which are parallel, and consequently equal. parietal, pertaining to the bones which form the sides and upper part of the skull. pathological, pertaining to the knowledge of disease. pelvic, pertaining to the open, bony structure at the lower extremity of the body. perihelion, that point in the orbit of a planet, or comet, in which it is nearest to the sun. perimeter, the outer boundary of a body. phalanges, the small bones of the fingers and toes. philologist, one versed in the laws of human speech. pliocene, a term applied to the most recent tertiary deposits. post-tertiary, the second period of the age of mammals. prototype, a model after which anything is to be copied. quadrangular, having four angles, and consequently four sides. quadrumana, an order of animals whose fore feet correspond to the hands of man. quartz, a stone of great hardness, with a glassy lustre, and varying in color from white, or colorless, to black. quartzite, granular quartz. quaternary, same as post-tertiary. radius, the smaller and exterior bone of the fore-arm. reliquiæ, remains of the dead. rhematic, that period when men first began to coin expressions for the most necessary ideas. rodent, an animal that gnaws. ruminant, an animal that chews the cud. sagittal, the suture which connects the parietal bones of the skull. savant (sä-v[)o]ng), a person eminent for acquirements. scapula, the shoulder-blade. schist, a rock having a slaty structure. scientist, a person noted for his profound knowledge. sediment, the matter which subsides to the bottom. semitic, pertaining to one of the families of nations, or languages, and so named from its members being ranked as the descendants of shem. serpentine, a soft, massive stone, in color dark to light green. siliceous, containing silica, or flinty matter. simian, a name given to the various tribes of monkeys. squamous, the anterior and upper part of the temporal bone, scale-like in form. stalagmite, a deposit of earthy matter, made by calcareous water dropping on the floors of caverns. stratified, formed or deposited in layers. stratum (pl. strata), a bed or layer. subsidence, the act of sinking or gradually descending. superciliary, the bony superior arch above the eye-brow. suture, the seam which unites the bones of the skull. symphysis, a connection of bones without a movable joint. talus, a sloping heap of fragments of rocks lying at the foot of a hill. tarsal, relating to the ankle. temporal, pertaining to that portion of the head located to the front and a little above the ear. terra-cotta, a kind of pottery made from fine clay, hardened by heat. tertiary, the first period of the age of mammals. thoracic, pertaining to the breast or chest. troglodyte, an inhabitant of a cave. truncated, cut off. tufaceous, consisting of, of resembling, tuff. tuff, a sand rock formed by agglutinated volcanic rock. turanian, that order of languages known as monosyllabic. ulna, the larger of the two bones of the fore-arm. veda, the ancient sacred literature of the hindoos. vertebra, a joint of the back bone. index. agassiz, . agriculture, , . amalgamation, . amiel, dr., . archiac, vic. d', . arts, , , , . aymard, dr., . baldwin, a. w., . bara, . belgian caverns, , . berosus, . blackmore, dr., . bligh, lieut., , . bonnemaison, . boucher de perthes, , , , . boué, aimé, , , . bourgeois, abbé, , , . brown, james, . buchner, dr., , , , , , , , . buckland. dr., . burdett-coutts, miss, . burial, , , . busk, , , . cain, case of, . cannibalism, . carpenter, . cartailhac, . casiano de prado, , . cave of aurignac, , - . cave of brixham, . cave of chokier, , . cave of feldhofner, . cave of furfooz, . cave of gourdan, . cave of kirkdale, . cave of la madeleine, . cave of la naulette, . cave of les eyzies, . cave of massat, . cave of mentone, , . cave of saint jean d'alcas, . cave of thayngen, . cave of tron de chaleux, , . cave of trou des nutons, . cave of trou rosette, . cave of trou du frontal, . cavern of ariége, . cavern of bize, . cavern of cracow, . cavern of enghihoul, , . cavern of engis, , . cavern of gailenruth, . cavern of maccagnone, . cavern of pondres, . cavern of torquay, . caverns of brazil, . caverns of liége, . cazalis de fondace, . chaldea, - . china, . christian, fletcher, . christol, . christy, , . chronology, , . chronology, usher's, . clothing, , , , . codrington, thos., . creation, . croll, . cromlech, . cushing, f. h. . dana, j. d., . danish shell-mounds, . danish peat bogs, . darwin, charles, . dawkins, . delaunay, abbé, . deluge, . denton, w., , . desnoyers, , , . desor, , . dickeson, dr. . dolmen, . dowler, dr. bennet, . dupont, edward, , , , . dwellings, , , . edwards, m. a. milne, . egypt, - . epoch, eocene, . epoch, eocene, fauna of, . epoch, eocene, glaciers in, . epoch, miocene, fauna of, . epoch, miocene, flint flake from aurillac, . epoch, miocene, flints from pontlevoy, . epoch, miocene, glaciers in, . epoch, miocene, man in, . epoch, pliocene, . epoch, pliocene, man in, , . epochs, not sharply defined, . eschricht, prof., . esper, j. f. . falconer, dr., , . fauna of reindeer epoch, . figuier, , . filhol, , . fishing and navigation, . fontan, m. a., . food, , , . forchammer, . ft. shelby, . fossil man of denise, , . fossil man of mentone, , . fossil remains from florida, . fraas, oscar, . frere, john, . fuhlrott, dr., , . garrigou, dr., , , geikie, . gillieron, . glacial epoch, . glacial epoch, date of, . glacial epoch, duration of, . glacial epoch, fauna of, . glacial epoch, geological period of, . godwin-austen, , . gosse, . gunning, w. d., . half-castes, . hall, dr., . hauzeur, . herodotus, , . history, outline of, . horner, . human bones from colmar, , . human bones from savonia, , . huxley, prof., , , , - . hybridity, law of, . implements, , . implements, from toronto, . implements, superstitious regard for, . india, fauna of, in miocene, . issel, m. a., , . jaw from maestricht, , . jaw from moulin-quignon, , , . jaw from la naulette, , , . joly, . keller, dr., , , , . kemp, . kent's hole, , . kutorga, dr., . land of nod, . language, . language, change of, . language, divisions of, . language, number of, . language, origin of, . language, written, . lake-dwellings of switzerland, , - . lartet, edward, , , , , . las casas, . lastic, m. de, . lee, j. e. . lepsius, . litse, . lubbock, sir john, , , , , , , , , . lund, dr., . lyell, sir charles, , , , , , , , . macenery, rev. j., . mahndel before the academy of paris, . man, contentions, . man, description of, , . man, development of, , , . man, dispersion of, . man, during glaciers, . man, inventive, , . man, mode of living, , . man, origin of, , . man, type, , , , , . manetho, . marks on fossil bones, , . mariette, . matson, james, . max müller, prof., , . menhirs, . mexico, . miller, hugh, . morlot, . mound builders, - . mounds, antiquity of, . mounds, extent of, . mounds, sacrificial, . mounds, sepulchral, . mounds, symbolical, . mounds, temple, . murchison, sir roderick i., , . neolithic, . osars, hearth and wood coal beneath, . owen, prof., . pelvic bone from natchez, . piers ploughman's creed, . piette, . pliocene beds at st. prest, , , . pouchet, georges, . pourtalis, count, . pre-historic archæology, divisions of, , . prichard, dr., . quatrefages, . rames, . rawlinson, . reindeer station on the schusse, , . religious belief, . renevier, . rigollot, dr., . riviére, , . robenhausen, , . rock-shelters of bruniquel, . rollin, . schaaffhausen, prof., , . schleicher, . schlieman, dr., . schmerling, dr., , , , - , . scott, p. a., . septuagint, . shell-heaps of america, . skeleton from lahr, , . skeleton from new orleans, . skeleton from plau, . skull, engis, - , . skull, neanderthal, , - , . skull, neanderthal, race type, . skull from altaville, . skull from cochrane's cave, . skull from comstock lode, . skull from constatt, . skull from osage mission, . skull from rhine, . skull of arno, . skulls from borreby, . skulls from minsk, . skulls from moën, . somme, valley of, , . somme, valley of, implements from, - . sons of god, . spring, dr., . stanley, dean, on the mosaic record, . steenstrup, prof. , . stevens, alfred, . stone implements from bournemonth, . stone implements from colorado and wyoming, , . stone implements from foreland cliff, , . stone implements from gosport, , . stone implements from grinell leads, . stone implements from london, . stone implements from madrid, , . stone implements from seine, . stone implements near hoxne, . stone implements, number, . tardy, . taylor, bayard, . tertiary beds at st. prest, . tertiary, climate of, . tertiary, fauna of, in america, . tertiary, geography of, . tournal, . troy, , . troyon, , . traffic, . tylor, . tyson, capt., . unity of race, - , . unity of race, objections to, . vivian, . vogt, carl, , , , . wallace, a. r., , . war, . weirley, dr., . welcker, . westropp, . whitney, prof., . wilson, dr. daniel, . wokey hole, . workshops of laugerie-basse, , . workshops of laugerie-haute, , . worsaae, . zawisza, count, . zumarraga, bishop, . footnotes [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] "man in the past, present, and future," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] discoveries of this kind were made in .--keller's "lake-dwellings," p. . [ ] "principles of geology," vol. i. p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "manual of geology," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," pp. , . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] principles of geology, vol. i. p. ; "pre-historic times," p. . mr. croll believes that, owing to variations in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit "cold periods regularly recur every ten or fifteen thousand years; but that at much longer intervals the cold, owing to certain contingencies, is extremely severe, and lasts for a great length of time; and the last great glacial period occurred about two hundred and forty thousand years ago, and endured with slight alterations of climate for about one hundred and sixty thousand years."--darwin's _origin of species_, p. . [ ] it would be plausible to assume that the ice melted much more rapidly than is generally supposed. charles darwin, in his "naturalist's voyage around the world," p. , states that "during one very dry and long summer, all the snow disappeared from aconcagua, although it attains the prodigious height of twenty-three thousand feet. it is probable that much of the snow at these great heights is evaporated, rather than thawed." [ ] "principles of geology," vol. ii, pp. - . [ ] buchner, p. [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. ; "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] the "science record" for , p. , in speaking of these implements says, "at the very lowest estimate, the flint weapons were made half a million years ago." [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. ; buchner, . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. ; buchner, p. . [ ] buchner, pp. , . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] "principles," vol. ii, p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] it has been estimated by the british association that it requires twenty thousand years to produce a foot of stalagmite.--_science record._ , p. . [ ] "principles," vol. ii, p. . [ ] "man's place in nature," p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] "man's place in nature," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] "man's place in nature," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] _ibid._ p. . [ ] "man's place in nature," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] denton's "our planet," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] _ibid._, p. . [ ] wallace's "natural selection, p. ." [ ] buchner, pp. , . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] buchner, p. ; "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] buchner, p. ; "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] denton's "our planet," p. ; "american phrenological journal, feb." . having seen the statement in one of the newspapers that this skull was not genuine, but a joke played on professor whitney, i wrote to professor w. denton of wellesley, masschussetts, on th march , inquiring about it. a few days later i received from him the statement that he had visited the place where the skull was found; that certain persons assured him that professor whitney had been the victim of a joke. yet these persons had never seen the skull, and were prejudiced against professor whitney. the persons who were best informed had every reason to believe the statements made by professor whitney were true. the skull is a very remarkable one, and stands alone for the enormous size of the orbits, and i have good reasons to believe it to have been found as stated. [ ] "several geologists are convinced, from direct evidence, that glacial periods occurred during the miocene and eocene formations, not to mention still more ancient formations."--darwin's _origin of species_, p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. ; buchner, . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] "american phrenological journal," feb. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] "our planet," p. . [ ] "science record," , p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "origin of civilization," p. . [ ] figuier's "primitive man," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] buchner, p. ; "keller's lake-dwellings." [ ] "lake-dwellings," pp. , , , . [ ] "lake-dwellings," p. . [ ] "lake-dwellings," p. . [ ] "primitive man," p. . [ ] "primitive man," p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. . [ ] "primitive man," p. . [ ] "lake dwellings," p. . [ ] "pre-historic times," p. ; "primitive man," p. . [ ] "lake-dwellings," p. . [ ] "science record," p. . . [ ] "american phrenological journal," february, . [ ] wilson's "pre-historic man," p. . [ ] "pre-historic man," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. ; "principles of geology," vol. i. p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. ; "pre-historic man," p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] "primitive man," pp. , . [ ] "pre-historic man," p. . [ ] "ancient monuments," p. . [ ] buchner, p. . [ ] rollin, vol. i. p. . [ ] anthon's classical dictionary, p. . [ ] buchner, . [ ] "new york tribune", june , . [ ] rawlinson's herodotus, vol. ii. p. . [ ] "principles of geology," vol. i. p. . [ ] "antiquity of man," p. . [ ] bayard taylor in "new york tribune, extra," no. . [ ] "pre-historic nations," p. . [ ] _ibid._ pp. , . [ ] "pre-historic nations," p. . [ ] "ancient america," p. . [ ] "chips from a german workshop," vol. i. p. . [ ] _ibid._ vol. ii. p. . [ ] wake's "chapters on man," p. . [ ] "diodorus siculus, lucretius, horace, and many other greek and roman writers, consider language as one of the arts invented by man. the first men, say they, lived for some time in woods and caves, after the manner of beasts, uttering only confused and indistinct noises, till, associating for mutual assistance, they came by degrees to use articulate sounds mutually agreed upon, for the arbitrary signs or marks of those ideas in the mind of the speaker which he wanted to communicate to the hearer. this opinion sprung from the atomic cosmogony which was framed by mochus, the phoenician, and afterward improved by democritus and epicurus."--pouchet's _plurality of the human race_, p. . [ ] "principles of geology," vol. ii. p. . "it is generally acknowledged that all organic beings have been formed on two great laws--unity of type, and the conditions of existence. by unity of type is meant that fundamental agreement in structure which we see in organic beings of the same class, and which is quite independent of their habits of life. on my theory, unity of type is explained by unity of descent."--darwin's _origin of species_, p. . [ ] i put myself into clothes. [ ] shepherd. [ ] and. [ ] wonder. [ ] "descent of man," vol. i. p. . [ ] mivart's "genesis of species," p. . [ ] "origin of species," p. . [ ] "descent of man," vol. i. p. . [ ] "chips," vol. i. pp. , . [ ] lady belcher's "mutineers of the bounty," p. . [ ] "captain cook found on the island of wateoo, three inhabitants of otaheite, who had been drifted thither in a canoe, although the distance between the two isles is five hundred and fifty miles. in , two canoes, containing thirty persons, who had left ancorso, were thrown by contrary winds and storms on the island of samar, one of the philippines, at a distance of eight hundred miles. in , two canoes, one of which contained twenty-four, and the other six persons, men, women, and children, were drifted from an island called farroilep to the island of guaham, one of the marians, a distance of two hundred miles." kadu, a native of ulea, and three of his countrymen, while sailing in a boat, were driven out to sea by a violent storm, and drifted about the sea for eight months, subsisting entirely on the produce of the sea, and finally were picked up in an insensible condition by the inhabitants of aur (caroline isles) one thousand five hundred miles distant from his native isle.--_principles of geology_, vol. ii. p. . [ ] "natural history of man," vol. i. p. . [ ] powell's "human temperaments," p. . [ ] the idea that "bara" meant to create out of nothing is a modern invention, and most likely called forth by the contact between jews and greeks at alexandria. the greeks believed that matter was co-eternal with the creator, and it was probably in contradistinction to this notion that the jews first asserted that god made all things out of nothing. the word, however, only calls forth the simple conception of _fashioning_ or _arranging_.--_chips_, vol. i. p. . [ ] "testimony of the rocks," fifth lecture. [ ] rev. dr. j. p. thompson represents adam as a typical man (man in genesis and geology, p. ); lubbock regards him as a typical savage (origin civilization, p. ). why not call him the first great prototype of the human race? [ ] the word _nod_ means _to wander_, _to be driven about_, etc. it appears to have been a familiar name at the time of the fratricide. it was then the name of a land or tract of country. may there not have been roving tribes there, and from them the place was designated "wandering land"? [ ] dr. livingstone, after speaking of a half-caste man on the zambesi, described by the portuguese as a rare monster of humanity, "remarks, 'it is unaccountable why half-castes, such as he, are so much more cruel than the portuguese, but such is undoubtedly the case.' an inhabitant remarked to livingstone, 'god made white men, and god made black men, but the devil made half castes.' when two races, both low in the scale, are crossed, the progeny seem to be eminently bad. thus the noble-hearted humboldt speaks in strong terms of the bad and savage disposition of zambos, or half-castes between indians and negroes; and this conclusion has been arrived at by various observers. from these facts we may perhaps infer that the degraded state of so many half-castes is in part due to reversion to a primitive and savage condition, as well as to the unfavorable moral conditions under which they generally exist."--_animals and plants under domestication_, vol. ii. p. . [ ] this view does not conflict with the doctrine of the unity of the race. the great difficulty in interpreting the scriptures is its briefness. a long period of time is comprehended in a very few words, and much is left to inference. the tenor of the scriptures favors the idea of the unity of the race, still it is not specifically declared. the strongest passage is acts chapter and verse : "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." this does not conflict with the idea of there being more than one pair, but their _blood_ is the same. it is not declared that adam had no ancestors. when it is declared that adam was the son of god, it is only to trace man's origin to the supreme being. if adam had ancestors, the leaving of them out has no signification, as it was not uncommon to drop the name of unimportant persons. an instance of this kind is given in the genealogy of david. from the birth of obed to the birth of his grandson david (common chronology) is a period of two hundred and twenty-three years. evidently one or more members have been dropped. if adam was a prototype it was not necessary to trace the line any farther back. the forming him of the dust of the ground would give his relationship to the rest of mankind. he was chosen, endowed for the purpose of elevating the race--of becoming the head of a new type of humanity. [ ] the septuagint version is a translation of the hebrew bible into greek, made about three hundred years b. c. the oldest existing ms. of the old testament in hebrew dates back no farther than about the tenth century after the christian era--_chips._ vol. i. p. . [ ] "primeval man," p. . [ ] "primeval man," p. . [ ] "primeval world of hebrew tradition," p. . [ ] "primeval world of hebrew tradition," p. . proofreading by users emil, rikker, dekpient. pgt is an affiliated sister project focusing on public domain books on thailand and southeast asia. project leads: rikker dockum, emil kloeden. (this file was produced from images generously made available by the internet archive.) smithsonian institution war background studies number eight siam--land of free men by h. g. deignan (publication ) city of washington published by the smithsonian institution february , the lord baltimore press baltimore, md., u. s. a. contents geography peoples prehistory kingdom of sukhothai-sawankhalok kingdom of ayuthia kingdom of tonburi kingdom of siam thailand illustrations plates . , gorge of the me ping , ancient wall at chiengmai . , a monolith in the me ping gorge , boat being pulled upstream through the rapids by ropes . , the "mai kwao," tree that yields gum resin , transplanting young rice plants . , fishing from the roadsides after the rains , water buffalo . , a primitive type of cart , elephants breaking up a log jam . , small river boats, and bamboo water wheel , a temple . , a reliquary , the high altar of a buddhist shrine . , royalty visits chiengmai , a princely funeral at chiengmai text figure . map of siam [illustration: fig. .--map of siam.] siam--land of free men by h. g. deignan _associate curator, division of birds_ _u. s. national museum_ (with plates) from the earliest times the great peninsula which lies between india and china .... has been peculiarly subject to foreign intrusion. successive waves of mongolian humanity have broken over it from the north, dravidians from india have colonised it, buddhist missions from ceylon have penetrated it, and buccaneers from the islands in the south have invaded it. race has fought against race, tribe against tribe, and clan against clan. predominant powers have arisen and declined. civilisations have grown up, flourished and faded. and thus out of many and diverse elements a group of nations have been evolved, the individuals of which, môn, kambodian, annamese, burmese, shan, lao, siamese and malay, fundamentally much alike, but differing in many externals, have striven during centuries for mastery over each other, and incidentally over the countless minor tribes and clans maintaining a precarious existence in their midst. into this mêlée of warring factions a new element intruded in the sixteenth century a. d. in the shape of european enterprise. portuguese, dutch, french and english all came and took part in the struggle, pushing and jostling with the best, until the two last, having come face to face, agreed to a cessation of strife and to a division of the disputed interests amongst the survivors. of these there were but three, the french, the english, and the siamese, and therefore further india now finds herself divided, as was once all gaul, into three parts. to the east lies the territory of french indo-china, embracing the annamese and kambodian nations and a large section of the lao; in the west the british empire has absorbed the môn, the burmese and the shans; while, wedged between and occupying the lower middle part of the subcontinent, with the isolated region of british malaya on its extreme south border, lies the kingdom of siam, situated between ° ' and ° ' n. latitude, and between ° ' and ° e. longitude.[ ] so wrote graham at a period when the siamese held sway over a territory of more than , square miles or an area equivalent to the combined areas of the states of maine, new hampshire, vermont, massachusetts, rhode island, connecticut, new york, new jersey, delaware, maryland, pennsylvania, and almost half of ohio. it must not be supposed, however, that the thai[ ] had permanently resigned themselves to a continuation of this political division of the peninsula. rich provinces to which they had more or less cogent claims, based on facts of history or ethnography, lay under foreign rule and, with the rise of world-wide nationalism in the 's and 's a lively irredentism came into flower. this irredentism and its accompanying nationalistic fervor have colored the policies of the thai government during the decade just passed and serve to explain many political actions which are otherwise puzzling to the western world. [ ] graham, w. a., siam, vol. , pp. - , london, . [ ] pronunciation near english "tie." geography whatever more or less final rectifications of frontiers result from the current war, the land of the thai will still, for general purposes, fall into four geographic divisions of major importance: northern, central, eastern, and peninsular. northern thailand, lying between the salwin and the me khong, two of the world's most majestic rivers, is, for the most part, a country of roughly parallel ranges and valleys running north and south. at the heads of the flat-floored valleys, which vary in elevations above sea level from feet in the southeast to , feet in the northwest, arise important streams, the me nan, the me yom, the me wang, and the me ping, which, falling through narrow defiles to debouch in the low land of central siam, eventually there conflow to form the me nam chao phraya, the chief artery of that division. on the alluvia of these streams, as might be expected in a country whose civilization was originally based upon riziculture, live the great bulk of the northern thai or lao, in a setting of rich fields and orchards. the ranges similarly rise, southeast to northwest, from low, rounded hills to imposing peaks, many of which exceed an altitude of , feet and two of which achieve more than , feet. these mountains, rising abruptly from the valley floors and, on the whole, densely forested, are scarcely inhabited by man except for scattered groups of seminomadic hill tribes, which exist there by hunting and a primitive agriculture. the northernmost province, chiengrai, is separated from the sister provinces by a mountain wall and belongs wholly to the me khong drainage; it is largely a region of marshes and grassy savannas. central siam, the heart of thailand, is the vast alluvial plain of the chao phraya and may be described as , square miles of almost unbrokenly monotonous scenery. the level of the land is but little higher than that of the sea and, during the dry season, tidal influence is plainly evident as much as miles from the river's mouth. alluvial deposits, brought in the season of floods from the northern hills, are, however, raising this level at an astonishing rate; geological evidence shows that within comparatively recent times a great part of the plain was covered by the sea and even now the northern shores of the gulf of siam, at the mouth of the chao phraya, are advancing seaward at a rate of almost a foot a year. its rich soil, its abundance of watercourses, both natural and artificial, and its comparatively dense population combine to make it one of the most eminently suitable areas of the world for the production of fine rice. as central siam is the heart of the kingdom, the royal city of bangkok or krungthep is the very core of that heart. situated on the banks of the chao phraya, some miles from its mouth, this metropolis, whose history goes back not earlier than the mid-eighteenth century a.d., is the center for scholarship and the arts, the filter through which pass all goods and ideas received by the interior from the outside world, and the nucleus of one of the most highly centralized of national governments. its citizenry of some , represents no less than percent of the total population of the country. eastern thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the east, so that while its western rim stands , feet above the sea, its eastern rim is formed by low hills. the plateau is watered by the system of the me nam mun, a tributary of the me khong. a poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited population. peninsular siam is the narrow, northern two-thirds of the malay peninsula, sharply divided longitudinally by a mountain chain which passes down its whole length. it is a country rich in forests, cattle, fisheries, mines, and agriculture, and possessed of great natural beauty in the countless islets off its shores, its beaches lined with palms and casuarinas, and the verdure of it mountain-backed landscapes. most of the developed natural wealth of the kingdom is found in this portion, which has fine systems of highways and railroads. the whole of siam lies between the tropic of cancer and the equator and is subject to the typical monsoonal climate of southeastern asia, by which the prevailing winds, from the latter part of april to the middle of october, consistently blow from the southwest and from mid-october to april, from the northeast. in northern, central, and eastern thailand there are three distinct seasons--the hot weather, the rains, and the cold weather, the first extending from february or march to may, the second from june to october, and the third covering the remaining months of the year. when the northeast winds blow strongly, the cold weather is very marked, but at such times as the seasonal winds fail, the cold weather is scarcely distinguishable from the hot. in northern siam, which lies at greatest distance from the sea and possesses greater radiation, the days may be hot even during the cold weather when the night temperatures afford a strong contrast by dropping to as low as ° f. and on the mountains even lower, although never reaching freezing temperatures. the basin of eastern siam, with its thin vegetation and cut off from cooling breezes by its surrounding rim, is subject to terrific heats during the day and, during the winter, very low temperatures at night. the central plain, outside of bangkok, is pleasantly cooled during the hottest season by the continuous sea winds, night and day; in bangkok, however, perhaps owing to houses of masonry in place of thatch and the drainage of surrounding marshes, the climate is not only appallingly hot but actually becoming perceptibly more so year by year. peninsular siam has the mildest and most equable climate, the greatest annual rainfall, and only two noticeable seasons--the hot weather from february to august and the rains from september to january, with the peak of the wet season coming in december. owing to the fact that the political frontiers have little relationship to biogeographical boundaries, the kingdom possesses a fauna and flora richer than those of most areas of comparable size. the primeval jungles of the western and northern mountains show untrammeled nature at her tropical best. the slopes are enlaced with countless streams and waterfalls, from roaring torrents to rills which flow only during and after the rains. in the forests of these hills and valleys, huge epiphyte-laden trees, bound together by vines, shelter such animals as the elephant, the tiger, and the gaur, but so dense is the cover that the presence of large game is more often made known by signs than by actual sight, and only the hunter who is willing to work hard and long is likely to shoot a worth-while trophy. more than , different birds are recorded from the country, while fishes of almost endless variety abound everywhere, from the gulf to the smallest roadside ditches. the natural vegetation ranges from the most typically tropical plants, such as the mangosteen, to forms of the temperate zone, such as pines and violets, on the northwestern mountains. the central plain, where not devoted to rice cultivation, shows the characteristic flora and fauna of a marsh and the eastern plateau has an impoverished biota, characterized by a certain number of endemic forms; the peninsula, however, like the west and north, bears great forests rich in species of animals and plants. peoples archeology can still tell us little of the first human occupants of siam. the earliest evidence of man's existence here is furnished by celts, uncovered in the peninsula and on the eastern plateau, which are supposed to date from the later neolithic period; geology, however, gives us no reason to conclude that the makers of these implements were not preceded by other races. [illustration: . the rivers fall from the northern plateaus to the central plain through narrow defiles.] [illustration: . ancient wall at chiengmai. the city walls are preserved as picturesque ruins.] [illustration: . an international incident was caused by the european alpinist who first scaled the monolith to plant his nation's flag upon it.] [illustration: . boats must be pulled upstream through the rapids by ropes.] [illustration: . the valuable gum resin, bengal kino, is yielded by the "mai kwao" (_butea frondosa_).] [illustration: . young rice plants are transplanted from a seedbed to the flooded fields.] [illustration: . at the end of the rains, fish may be captured from the roadsides.] [illustration: . cows and water buffaloes are treated as family pets.] among the mountains of the malay peninsula exist to this day small groups of dwarf, black-skinned, kinky-haired people, different from all other races of the country but closely related to the natives of the andaman islands and the negritos of the philippines; it has been surmised that these ngo (semang) are the dwindling remnant of a once numerous population, successors to (and possibly descendants of) the neolithic men. following the ngo and sometime during the past few millennia, it is believed that there came successive waves of a people of mongolian origin who, making their way down the rivers, drove the primitive negritos into the hills and settled in their place. now conveniently known as the mon-annam family, their descendants are the mon (peguans), the cambodians, and the annamese, as well as numerous semibarbarous lesser tribes which persist among the mountains of the subcontinent. probably between two and three thousand years ago and certainly after the arrival of the mon-annam immigrants, another great population wave, known as the tibeto-burman family, rolled southward over indo-china but chiefly descended the valley of the irrawaddy (where they have given rise to the modern burmese), thus scarcely entering siam at all. only in comparatively recent times, driven from their former homes by political disturbances, have tribes of this stock (yao, meo, etc.) migrated into thailand and the territories to the east, where they are constantly being joined by others of their blood brothers from farther north. while the mon and the khmer (cambodians) were still spreading over the southern parts of indo-china and before they had begun, under the influence of colonists from india, to emerge from a condition of savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different points during their southward movement were already being driven back into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. these were the people now known as lao-tai, who, sending out bands from their ancient seat in the valley of the yangtze, had already, , years ago, established a powerful state on the banks of the me khong in the neighborhood of the modern wieng chan (vientiane). the lao-tai of the yangtze valley were evidently very numerous, for not only did they thus early establish kingdoms far from home but also became a power in their own land and for some time bid strongly for the mastery of all china. for centuries they waged successful wars on all their neighbors, but their strong propensity for wandering weakened their state and finally caused its disintegration. the chinese attacked them repeatedly, each attack producing a fresh exodus until, during the thirteenth century a.d., the emperor kublai khan dealt them a final blow which crushed their power and scattered them in all directions. fugitives entered assam, where earlier emigrants had already settled, and became the dominant power in that country; others invaded burma, where for two centuries a lao-tai (shan) dynasty occupied the throne; while down the salwin and me khong valleys came band after band of exiles who mingled with their cousins already established in those valleys and, in time fusing with the mon and the khmer, produced the race which, since the founding of the city of ayuthia, has been dominant in siam. the principal divisions of the lao-tai family now living within the borders of siam are the thai ("free men") or siamese proper; the lao, who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that afterward developed into the thai; and the shans, a later intrusion of distant cousins, descended from the lao-tai tribes that settled in the more eastern districts of burma in the twelfth century and earlier. prehistory the history of siam prior to the fourteenth century a.d. is chiefly known from a hodgepodge of disconnected stories and fragments known as the "pongsawadon mu'ang nu'a" ("annals of the north country"), compiled at different periods from such of the official records of various cities and kingdoms as had escaped the destruction which at intervals overtook the communities to which they referred. with the omission of the numerous supernatural happenings there recorded and comparative study of the chronicles of neighboring countries, scholars have been able to draw a rough picture of the condition of siam at the dawn of historical time. their researches show a country inhabited by primitive people of mon-khmer stock among whom had settled groups of their more civilized cousins from cambodia, who had brought with them the religion and customs acquired by contact with colonists from india. these communities grew from villages into cities and at the same time sent out offshoots in all directions, which in time became the capitals of small states, the chiefs of which constantly made war on each other and against the lao-tai tribes at their borders and now and again rose to sufficient strength to repudiate the vague suzerainty claimed over them all by the empire of cambodia. contemporary records of the period subsequent to the fourteenth century a.d. are easily available. the most important is the "pongsawadon krung kao" ("annals of the old capital" or "annals of ayuthia"), which contains a complete and fairly accurate account, compiled in successive reigns, of the history of the country from a.d. to . the seventeenth and later centuries have also seen the production of numerous works, by european travelers and missionaries, which deal wholly or partly with siam. kingdom of sukhothai-sawankhalok the most ancient mon-khmer settlement of which anything definite is known was sukhothai (located on the river me yom some miles north of the site of modern bangkok), which by b.c. was already a sizable village. at first putting forth no pretensions to the status of kingdom, the community evidently increased rapidly in importance, for some two centuries later the chief, phraya thammarat, declared himself king of the district, founded the new capital of sawankhalok, and appointed one of his sons viceroy of sukhothai, which itself soon grew into a fortified city. thereafter, the two towns served alternately as the capital of a country which, as the kingdom of sukhothai-sawankhalok, gradually grew to great wealth and strength. its monarchs occupied themselves with the waging of war against the petty chieftains of neighboring states (founded in the same manner and upon the same principles as their own but at somewhat later dates) and, in course of time reducing all of them to vassalage, came to be recognized as rulers of the whole country. the vague overlordship of cambodia continued for many centuries but with little or no influence upon the destinies of its nominal dependency, which was left to manage itself and its own subordinates as seemed to it best. at the same time as the various mon-khmer states of siam were struggling to subdue each other, the lao tribesmen inhabiting the mountainous districts to the north, emboldened by their increasing numbers and constantly raiding the rich villages of the plains, were demanding an ever greater amount of attention and as early as the fifth century a.d., the reduction of the lao had become almost the main preoccupation of the kings of sukhothai-sawankhalok. expeditions against them were constant, but while they were frequently defeated and large numbers of them carried captive to sukhothai or sawankhalok, the intercourse thus brought about served only to strengthen them, since it enabled them to adopt the customs and civilization of the conquerors and then turn the acquired knowledge against their instructors with an ever-growing degree of success. about a.d. , a lao city, built in imitation of the khmer capitals, was founded at a spot about miles north of sawankhalok and given the name of haribunchai (later corrupted to lamphunchai and the modern lamphun). the chief of this town married a princess of the khmer state of lopburi and established a dynasty which closely followed the brahman rites and ceremonies in vogue at sukhothai. during this time other lao states arose and the time soon came when the khmer could no longer hold the lao in check. during succeeding centuries lao armies advanced far south into the mon-khmer kingdoms, marital and political alliances between lao and khmer royalty became common, and lao settlements were established in various parts of southern siam. despite wars with rival states to the south and the lao to the north, the kingdom of sukhothai-sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time attained to a high civilization. the arts were encouraged, the people were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were maintained with china and other distant countries by frequent exchange of embassies. envoys from the emperor of china, who visited sukhothai in the seventh century a.d., have left records which indicate that the populace were chiefly engaged in the cultivation of rice and the manufacture of sugar and that in manners and customs they closely resembled the modern inhabitants of siam. the style of architecture, remains of which still survive, followed, in somewhat degenerated form, that seen in the ruins of angkor and other cambodian cities. during the reign of the hero-king rama khamheng (phra ruang) the country reached the zenith of its greatness and when he died, about a.d. , he left to his heir an empire which embraced much of the lao states to the north and all of the more southern khmer kingdoms of siam. this heritage, however, was fated to endure but a short time. during the eleventh century the khmer king of lopburi and the lao king of lamphun, both vassals of phra ruang, had been intermittently at war with each other without interference from the suzerain; toward the end of the century lopburi was finally overcome and, declaring itself subordinate to lamphun, was forced to admit large numbers of lao to settle within its borders. soon after phra ruang's death, a great lao army composed of the warriors of several allied states and led by a chief known as suthammarat, invaded sukhothai-sawankhalok itself, defeated its armies, overran its lands to the south, reduced the cities, and founded the capital of pitsanulok, southwest of sukhothai and in the heart of the khmer kingdom. thereafter, although the rulers of sukhothai-sawankhalok continued for some time to maintain regal state, they were never again to hold a paramount position and were, in fact, to become mere vassals of the ancient enemy until eventually, some four centuries subsequent to the foundation of pitsanulok, they were to be no more than provincial governors representative of the kings of ayuthia. suthammarat, an admirer of the khmer, in setting up his throne in the conquered kingdom, imitated as closely as possible the ways of sukhothai and, by marrying a lady of the country, set an example for his following which gave great impetus to that fusion of lao and khmer which, already begun in lopburi, was soon to result in the evolution of the thai (siamese) race. the early thirteenth century saw the beginning of the last and greatest influx of lao into the south of siam. the suppression of the lao-tai undertaken in southwestern china, culminating in the decisive victories of the emperor kublai khan, drove many thousands of these people down into the mountainous regions of northern siam, where the newcomers upset the balance of power among their predecessors and caused the disruption of several of their states. as a result, many impoverished petty chieftains of ancient lineage gathered their people together and set off down the rivers to seek new fortunes in the kingdoms to the south. during the following century, mingling with the khmer and the lao-khmer and acquiring great strength of numbers, the lao wrested control from the original inhabitants and established capitals of their own, one of which, supanburi, was in time to become dominant over all the rest. when, at the middle of the fourteenth century, phra chao uthong, king of supanburi, fleeing from a pestilence, marched westward to found a new capital, nong sano, now the seat of the weak successors of the great suthammarat, fell into his hands almost without a struggle, its king fled to cambodia, and uthong erected near the fallen city the new city of maha nakhon si ayuthaya (ayuthia), which was destined to become famous throughout the world as the capital of one of the greatest kingdoms in the history of farther india. kingdom of ayuthia phra chao uthong (under the name of phra ramathibodi) became king at ayuthia in a.d. and thereafter was fully occupied in bringing the outlying states and provinces into line, in organizing his government, and in setting up a system of law, parts of which continue in use to the present time. before his death in , he had brought together the whole of the components of the sukhothai-sawankhalok kingdom and had welded them so closely together that, when cambodia, annoyed by the independent attitude of what was theoretically its vassal, sent an army to reassert its rights of suzerainty, the united siamese not only defeated the enemy but pursued him well within the confines of his own country. under ramathibodi's successors the kingdom continued to prosper. during the next two centuries, buddhism definitely succeeded brahmanism as the popular religion throughout the country and great treasure was expended in beautifying the cities by the erection of graceful temples and reliquaries in the adapted cambodian style which persists in siam to this day. about a.d. , the king of pegu, enraged by the exploits of siamese marauders in his frontier province of tavoy, collected an army at moulmein and sent it into siam under the leadership of the heir apparent, bureng naung. defeating the siamese near supanburi, the peguan prince advanced to the walls of ayuthia itself; so stout was the resistance, however, and so prolonged the siege that his supply system broke down and he was forced to return to his own country, fighting rear-guard actions and losing heavily all the way. after years, bureng naung, now king, taking the assumption by the king of siam of the title "lord of the white elephants" as a casus belli, again attacked siam with a great army and once more besieged the capital. this time, to save the city, the "lord of the white elephants" was compelled to negotiate and to turn over several of the animals in question to the invader, who then retired. only a few years later, however, the siamese king repudiated peguan suzerainty; bureng naung returned, by treachery gained admission to the city, sacked and partially destroyed it, and sent the king, with many of his followers, in chains to pegu. leaving the siamese governor of pitsanulok as his viceroy in ayuthia, bureng naung pressed on to subdue other cities but was scarcely out of sight when a cambodian army, burning to avenge recent defeats and to reestablish ancient rights, appeared to begin a new siege of ayuthia; this enemy was repulsed but not before the unprotected districts around the capital had been thoroughly looted. just now, when, attacked from east and west, her provinces despoiled and her people fugitive or captive, ayuthia seemed doomed to early extinction, a hero arose to redeem her. this was phra naret, a son of bureng naung's viceroy, who, appointed by his father governor of pitsanulok, in his youth saw military service defending his province against robber bands and in the wars of nanda bureng, son and successor to bureng naung, against the rebellious province of ava. by his ability bringing upon himself the dislike of the peguan king, to such a degree that his life was endangered, he revolted (ca. a.d. ) and led a siamese army to sack and pillage tenasserim and martaban. two punitive expeditions sent against him were signally defeated by naret, who was then crowned king of siam and at once began to restore ayuthia and to repopulate it by captives brought from outlying districts which had attempted to cast off their allegiance. having established his supremacy at home, naret inflicted a crushing defeat upon yet another burmese army sent to subdue him and then, to avenge the humiliations imposed upon his country during her time of weakness, led a strong force against cambodia; this campaign ended with the destruction of the cambodian capital and the carrying of the king and many of his people captive to ayuthia, where the former was executed. finally, some time about the year , naret, at the head of a great army, invaded burma with the object of conquering the whole of that country, but this was not to be: the king met death in one of the early battles and his son and heir, abandoning the enterprise, returned to his own dominions. but within the space of not more than years, naret had raised siam from a condition of almost complete ruin to a position of ascendancy over all the neighboring kingdoms and he left to his successors a great empire which was to endure for a period of years. during this period, siam was becoming well known to the european merchant adventurers trading in the orient under the flags of portugal, holland, and england. early in the sixteenth century, the malay kingdom of malacca had been conquered by the portuguese; individuals of this nation had penetrated to ayuthia and pegu and had served in the ranks of the contending armies during the siamo-burmese wars; portuguese factories had been established at the various siamese ports. at the beginning of the seventeenth century, portuguese missionaries arrived at ayuthia, where they were well received and given land for their churches. about this time also, english and dutch ships first appeared in siamese waters and a bitter rivalry soon sprang up among the foreigners, who competed for commercial supremacy and the favor of the king, without which trade could scarcely be carried on at all. this antagonism resulted in endless quarreling and even in desperate battles between the representatives of the rival powers and by the dutch had so far prospered that they had built a fortified factory at amsterdam on the river chao phraya, carried on extensive commerce throughout siam, and monopolized the carrying trade to china and japan. with the taking of malacca by the dutch in , the influence of the portuguese soon declined, although many individuals continued to live in siam, where such surnames as da silva and da jesus persist to this day in families which no longer show any other trace of european ancestry. the dutch rapidly succeeded to all the commercial outposts of portugal in siam, devoting themselves chiefly to trade and taking little or no interest in internal politics, except insofar as their commercial prospects were affected. the first formal treaty contracted by siam with any western power was that entered into, in the year , with the representatives of the dutch east india company, authorized by the dutch republic. dutch trade with siam continued until a.d. , when the royal favor was finally lost for good and the company's agents expelled from the kingdom. in there arrived at ayuthia one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of siam. this was constantine phaulcon, the son of a cephalonian innkeeper, who ran away to sea in an english ship and, eventually making his way to siam, stayed there to become chief minister of the crown and the trusted adviser of the king, phra narai. under phaulcon's able guidance the country for a time prospered greatly. not only were the portuguese and dutch merchants, already established, encouraged to extend the scope of their enterprise but the english and french east india companies were invited to set up factories at the capital. the king himself, in partnership with his first minister, operated a profitable fleet of merchantmen and became the principal trader of his own country. about this time it came to be believed in europe that the whole of the far east was ripe for conversion to christianity and a roman catholic mission was organized in france to put this ambitious design into effect. ayuthia, possessing a cosmopolitan population and strong commercial ties with japan, china, the sunda isles, and india, was considered the best central location for the project and, in a.d. , three french bishops with a staff of priests arrived there to inaugurate the work. these ecclesiastics were favorably received by the king and within a short period the mission had acquired a considerable number of adherents. in order further to strengthen their position, however, they sought and obtained the official support of louis xiv of france, who exchanged complimentary letters and embassies with the siamese monarch. phaulcon, in the confidence of the bishops, was thus brought into correspondence with colbert, louis's minister, and before long the french king's interest was centered on more material aspects of siam than its spiritual welfare. a scheme was set afoot for securing the supremacy of france in the asiatic kingdom through the agency of the priests, who, apparently believing that, with material support from louis, they could convert the king himself to christianity, were not unwilling to do their part. six french men-of-war and a body of , soldiers were therefore dispatched to siam, ostensibly to assist in intimidating the dutch, who were at the time causing trouble from their fortress of malacca. the two principal ports of bangkok and mergui were garrisoned by a part of these french troops and the king was induced to attach another part of them to his own person. the missionaries then began to exhort the king with all the eloquence at their command but found that his conversion was a more difficult matter than had been expected. their obstinate insistence with him and phaulcon's ascendancy over him ended by alarming the siamese, and when remonstrances against the ever-increasing number of foreigners in the service of the state went disregarded, a conspiracy was formed among high officers of the court. phra narai was driven from the throne, phaulcon was killed, the european troops were driven from the country, and siam was saved from becoming the keystone of a great french empire in the far east. [illustration: . a primitive type of cart still is used in remote districts. the teak logs shown in the background must be carted or dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.] [illustration: . elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at the estacades of a bridge.] [illustration: . an extensive commerce is carried on between the riverine towns by small boats. the water wheel of bamboo (left) irrigates a garden on the shore.] [illustration: . the graceful temples of thailand are adorned with lacquer, gold leaf, and colored glass.] [illustration: . ransacked reliquaries dot the jungles of thailand.] [illustration: . the high altar of a buddhist shrine.] [illustration: . royalty visits chiengmai.] [illustration: . a princely funeral at chiengmai. white is the color of mourning.] the kingdom of ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent reigns marked by friendly relations with european nations, including the french, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. but, about the year , the burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal strife, under the martial alaung phra, initiated hostilities against the siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the capital; the burmese king, however, sickened at the beginning of the siege and died before he could regain his own country. in , under his son, sin byu shin, war was resumed by simultaneous marches on ayuthia from north and south and the city was again invested. phra sucharit, the siamese ruler, was unfamiliar with warfare but encouraged his people to a spirited resistance, hoping that relief would be afforded by the annual floods, coming in the wake of the rains; the enemy merely patrolled the waters in hundreds of boats and, as they subsided, threw up new earthworks even nearer the walls. in the spring of , sucharit, disheartened, attempted to treat with them but was rebuffed and when, with the arrival of reinforcements, the burmese made an assault in force, the weakened city fell to them and was given over to looting, flames, and slaughter. the king, unattended, escaped in the confusion but was to die of exposure only a few days later. kingdom of tonburi sin byu shin, leaving a viceroy with a small garrison to rule the country, withdrew his army to meet a threatened chinese invasion of burma and once again siam fell into an interregnum of anarchy, with outlying districts setting themselves up as independent while robber bands preyed upon the people. an ex-official named phraya taksin, who had deserted his king when ayuthia seemed likely to fall, gathered about himself a large number of deserters and broken men like himself and, by guile and treachery, soon acquired complete authority in the southeastern provinces, whence, in due time, he appeared before the walls of ayuthia as a national avenger. overcoming the garrison and killing the burmese viceroy, taksin declared himself king and selected, as the site of his new capital, the village of tonburi, on the shore of the chao phraya opposite the settlement of bangkok, where a populous city soon came into being. to strengthen his position, however, it was essential that taksin destroy a legitimate pretender to the throne whose claims had many adherents; this prince had established himself at khorat and thither the king sent an army with orders to take the city. but in advance of his soldiers he sent secret emissaries who so demoralized the prince's supporters that when the usurper's army appeared at last, the city fell into his hands almost without a struggle and the prince was captured and soon afterward murdered. with this last threat to his power removed, taksin was able to send out expeditions in all directions and soon made himself undisputed master of the whole country. the authority of this ruthless man was not to endure long. his appointment of humble relatives to high office offended the nobility, while the popular mind was turned against him by his excesses and by insidious references to his alien ancestry. in , giving out that he was mad, a cabal of his courtiers dethroned him and offered the crown to one of themselves, the son of a secretary to the last kings of ayuthia. this nobleman, phraya chakkri, already popular through his achievements as a royal minister and as a leader of the armies, was readily accepted as king by the people and ascended the throne in a.d. , to found the dynasty which still reigns in siam. kingdom of siam phraya chakkri (hereafter to be styled as king rama i) had scarcely assumed his new dignity when bodaw phra, king of burma, attempted a new conquest of siam. king rama's military ability was such that the burmese were finally everywhere defeated and, with the abandonment of mergui and tavoy by the siamese in , the recurrent wars between the two powers may be said to have ended for good. with the foreign danger averted, the king was able to organize his government, the seat of which was transferred from tonburi to bangkok, on the left bank of the river, where he constructed a fortified city. rama ii became involved in war at the beginning of his reign. in , the regent of the now effete kingdom of cambodia had formally recognized siamese suzerainty and had sent the infant king to reside at bangkok, while he continued to rule the state under siam's aegis. annam, to the east, however, made identical claims to supremacy and when, in , the annamese king attempted to enforce his demands, an army was sent from bangkok to repel him. the brief campaign ended with rama's annexation of the cambodian province of phratabong, while the rest of the country became a dependency of annam. upon this king's death in , the throne was usurped by one of his sons by a lesser wife, while the legitimate heir, chao fa mongkut, a young man of twenty-one, retired to the safety of the buddhist monkhood. the reign of rama iii is chiefly notable for siam's resumption of political relations with the nations of the west. in , a treaty drawn up between siam and the united states of america represented the first formal tie between this country and any asiatic power. toward the end of the reign, cambodian politics again caused bad blood between siam and annam. a youth named norodom, a son of the cambodian king, had some time since been brought to bangkok and reared at the siamese court. upon his father's death, he was declared by siam to be the rightful heir and, supported by a siamese army, returned to cambodia to gain the throne and, despite former agreements, to place the country again under siamese protection. during his years of retirement, chao fa mongkut, the king's half brother, had assiduously devoted himself to the study of the english language, the sciences, and the manners, customs, and systems of government of foreign lands; at the same time, he missed no opportunity to meet and converse with european travelers. coming to the throne as rama iv in , at the age of , he brought to his task a remarkable degree of enlightenment, which resulted in throwing the country open to foreign trade and intercourse, in the introduction of such arts as printing and shipbuilding, in the construction of roads and canals, in laying the foundations for systems of education and public health, and in numerous other reforms directed toward increasing the public welfare. his love of learning was indirectly responsible for his death for, visiting a mountain peak to observe an eclipse in , he contracted the illness from which he died in that year. the program of modernization initiated by king rama iv was continued and expanded by his son, the great chulalongkon (rama v). among the important reforms instituted during this reign were the abolition of debt slavery, the establishment of law courts, the construction of railways, the spread of education, regulation of the conditions of military service, and radical changes in methods of revenue and rural administration. the appointment of trained officials under organized control in place of ignorant provincial governors and hereditary chieftains welded the loose agglomeration of feudatory dependencies into the modern, homogeneous state. in the year , norodom, whom siam had placed upon the cambodian throne, made a treaty with france, now master of annam, by which he accepted french protection; at almost the same time he made an exactly similar compact with siam. thus each country found itself responsible for the protection of cambodia against any possible aggressor, while each was given the sole right of dictating the foreign policy of that state. so absurd a situation could not last and, after years of negotiation, siam was compelled to yield to the french thesis of their superior rights as successors to the annamese kings, to abrogate her treaty of , and to abandon all claim to suzerainty over cambodia. soon after siam's withdrawal from cambodia, the unofficial advocates of colonialism in france began to advance the idea that certain siamese provinces east of the river me khong, having at one time formed a part of annam, should be restored to that kingdom, now a french protectorate. there is no historical basis for this claim, which was at first unsupported even in paris, but when the colonial party added the argument that the unnavigable me khong, as one of the future trade routes of southwest china, must at all costs be acquired by france, the french government formally demanded of bangkok the provinces in question. the siamese replied by suggesting that the disputed territory be regarded as neutral until such time as the frontier could be properly demarcated and this was agreed upon but merely led to further trouble, each side accusing the other of violating the compact. siam asked for arbitration, which was declined by the french. when, in , bloody collisions occurred along the border, french gunboats, dispatched from saigon, ascended the chao phraya, despite efforts of the siamese naval forces to bar the way. in consequence of siamese resistance, the french greatly increased their demands, now insisting that siam give up all territory east of the me khong (including about half of the rich province of luang phrabang, to which no french claim had ever previously been laid). after days of blockade, the siamese had no choice but to accept a humiliating treaty which, among other concessions, required immediate evacuation of her eastern outposts and the payment of an indemnity; as a guarantee, france established a military occupation of the southeastern province, of chanthabun, which was to continue long after all the terms had been fulfilled. relations between the two countries were far from improved by this episode and, during the following years, abuses in the exercise of french extraterritorial rights were a fertile source of provocation. in fact, despite every effort to avoid unfortunate incidents, the government of siam found itself spending all its energies in replying to diplomatic representations and to demands for inquiries, explanations, and reparations. as the french demands increased in numbers and severity, there was no longer any question that siam's national survival was at stake. but, in , great britain, at last alarmed by france's growing strength in southern asia and unwilling to have her approach too near the eastern confines of india, intervened. high feelings were aroused in both countries but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was concluded in the same year, by which siam's autonomy was guaranteed that she might serve as a buffer between the rival empires. thereafter, relations between france and siam tended to improve. it was not, however, until , that, in return for yet another "rectification of the boundary," the french agreed to revise their extraterritorial rights and to remove the garrison from chanthabun. a second convention of the same year resulted in siam's restoring to cambodia the province of phratabong, which she had held since , and receiving in exchange a part of the territory yielded in and obtaining a recognition of siamese jurisdiction over asiatic french subjects. altogether, in warding off the european neighbor, siam had been compelled to sacrifice no less than , square miles of her eastern lands. thailand whether the modern traveler enters siam by steamer from hongkong or singapore or by comfortable diesel-engined train from the malay states, his destination is certain to be bangkok. here, in bewildering juxtaposition, the old siam and the new thailand confront him together on every side. the former is represented in the complicated network of canals, upon which thousands of boat-dwellers pass their lives; in the narrow streets hung with the vertical signboards of the inevitable multitude of chinese traders; in the throngs of yellow-robed monks that appear at daybreak from hundreds of gaily colored shrines whose spires arise in every direction. the new is seen in the modern boulevards lined with spacious wooden houses set among gardens and orchards; in the motorcars competing for space with bicycle-drawn jinrikishas; in the air-conditioned cinema theaters, where, before world war ii, were shown the new pictures shipped by air from california; in the cement and match factories; in the great airport of don muang, north of the city, where transports arrived daily from britain and australia, from java and the netherlands. until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting, growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the monotony of living. poverty, as understood in the industrial occident, was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of bamboo in a day or two; fruit trees bore around the year; clothing was woven at home and shoes were little worn; virtually everyone owned productive land or was at liberty to clear a tract from the forest which covers much of the thinly populated country; taxes were light and could be paid by a few days' labor on some project of public works. during the decade just passed the government has initiated a positive program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority. among the means adopted have been the development of such new sources of gain as the raising of tobacco and cotton on a large scale; the construction of great irrigation projects and the development of sources of electric power; the education of the farmer in livestock breeding and scientific agriculture; the establishment of agencies to enable him to obtain a fair market for his produce; the spread of public-health and medical services in far corners of the provinces. the results of this experiment had not yet become clear when the war interfered to hinder its fulfillment. the political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active participation by the thai in the building-up of their own land. if the means to these laudable ends were perverted, by the paid agents of japanese propaganda and a handful of powerful men within the thai government, to serve the cause of "co-prosperity," it must not therefore be assumed that the misfortunes which have recently befallen them are traceable to any activities and desires on the part of the thai people themselves. a lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside thailand and through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the thai, with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the united nations, will at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and their japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free men." children of wild australia [illustration: boy spearing fish] children of wild australia by herbert pitts author of "the australian aboriginal and the christian church" [illustration: decoration] with eight coloured illustrations edinburgh and london oliphant, anderson & ferrier printed by turnbull and spears, edinburgh to dear little mary this little book about the little black boys and girls of a far-off land is dedicated by her father my dear boys and girls, all the time i have been writing this little book i have been wishing i could gather you all around me and take you with me to some of the places in faraway australia where i myself have seen the little black children at their play. you would understand so much better all i have tried to say. it is a bright sunny land where those children live, but in many ways a far less pleasant land to live in than our own. the country often grows very parched and bare, the grass dies, the rivers begin to dry up, and the poor little children of the wilderness have great difficulty in getting food. then perhaps a great storm comes and a great quantity of rain falls. the rivers fill up and the grass begins to grow again, but myriads of flies follow and they get into the children's eyes and perhaps blind some of them, and the mosquitoes come and bite them and give them fevers sometimes. yet though much of the land is wilderness--bare, sandy plains--beautiful flowers bloom there after the rains. lovely hibiscus, the giant scarlet pea, and thousands of delicate white and yellow everlastings are there for the eyes to feast upon, but the loveliest flowers of all are frequently the love and tenderness and unselfishness which bloom in the children's hearts. i have left australia now and settled down again in the old homeland, but the memories of the eight years i spent among the dear little children out there are still very delightful ones, and they, more than anything i have read, have helped me to write this little book for you. your sincere friend, herbert pitts douglas, i.o.m., contents chap. page introductory letter i. introductory ii. piccaninnies iii. "great-great-greatest-grandfather" iv. blackfellows' "homes" v. education vi. weapons, etc., which children learn to make and use vii. how food is caught and cooked viii. corrobborees, or native dances ix. magic and sorcery x. some strange ways of disposing of the dead xi. some stories which are told to children xii. more stories told to children xiii. religion xiv. yarrabah xv. trubanaman creek xvi. some aboriginal saints and heroes xvii. the chocolate box illustrations boy spearing fish _frontispiece_ page hunting parrots and cockatoos aboriginal children and native hut learning to use the boomerang youth in war paint girls' class at yarrabah school bathing off jetty at yarrabah the first school at mitchell river children of wild australia chapter i introductory this little book is all about the children of wild australia--where they came from, how they live, the weapons they fight with, their strange ideas and peculiar customs. but first of all you ought to know something of the country in which they live, whence and how they first came to it, and what we mean by "wild australia" to-day, for it is not all "wild"--very, very far from that. australia is a very big country, nearly as large again as india, and no less than sixty times the size of england without wales. nearly half of it lies within the tropics so that in summer it is extremely hot. there are fewer white people than there are in london, in fact less than five millions in all and more than a third of these live in the five big cities which you will find around the coast, and about a third more in smaller towns not so very far from the sea. the further you travel from the coast the more scattered does the white population become, till some hundred miles inland or more you reach the sheep and cattle country where the homes of the white men are twenty or even more miles apart. further back still lies a vast, and, as far as whites are concerned, almost unpeopled region into which, however, the squatter is constantly pushing in search of new pastures for his flocks and herds, and into which the prospector goes further and further on the look-out for gold. this country we call in australia "the never-never land," and it is this which is wild australia to-day. it lies mostly in the north and runs right up to the great central desert. it is there that the aboriginals, or black people, are found. the actual number of these black people cannot be exactly ascertained, but there are probably not more than , of them left to-day. much of wild australia is made up of vast treeless plains and huge tracts of spinifex (a coarse native grass) and sand. sometimes in the north-west one travels miles and miles without seeing a tree except on the river banks, but in queensland there is sometimes dense and almost impenetrable jungle, and mighty, towering trees, with many beautiful flowering shrubs. all alike is called "bush," which is the general term in australia for all that is not town. the animals of wild australia are most interesting and numerous. several kinds of kangaroo (from the giant "old man," five feet or more in height, to the tiny little kangaroo mice no larger than our own mice at home), make their home there, and emus may often be seen running across the plains. gorgeous parrots and many varieties of cockatoos are found in great numbers, snakes are numerous, whilst the rivers and water-holes teem with fish. wild dogs, or dingos, too, are very numerous. [illustration: hunting parrots and cockatoos] for hundreds and hundreds of years the aborigines had this vast country to themselves, for though spaniards, like torres and de quiros, and dutchmen, like tasman and dirk hartog, had visited their shores, and an englishman named william dampier had even landed in the north west in , it was not till exactly a hundred years afterwards that white men first came to make their homes in their land. the aborigines are a dravidian people, and, some think, of the same parent stock as ourselves. thousands of years ago, long, long before our remote ancestors had learned how to build houses, make pottery, till the soil, or domesticate any animal except the dog--long years, in fact, before history began, the aboriginals left their primitive home on the hills of the deccan and drifting southward in their bark canoes landed at last on the northern and western shores of the great island continent. there they found an earlier people with darker skins than their own and curly hair, very much like the papuans and melanesians of to-day, and they drove them further and further southwards before them just as our own english forefathers, coming to this land, drove an earlier people before them into the mountain fastnesses of wales and cumberland and into cornwall. some time afterwards came a series of earthquakes and other disturbances which cut tasmania away from the mainland, and there till that early papuan people survived. as the blacks grew more numerous they began to form tribes, and to divide the country up among themselves. thus each tribe had its own hunting-ground to which it must keep and on which no other tribe must come and settle. but at length the white men came and they recognized no such law. they settled down and began to build their own homes upon the black men's hunting-grounds and to bring in their sheep and cattle and turn them loose on the plains. the blacks did not at all like the white man's coming, and sometimes did all they could to prevent their settling down. they speared their sheep and cattle for food, they burned down their houses, they threw their spears at the men themselves, and did all they could to drive them back to sea. sometimes hundreds of them would surround a new settler's home, and murder all the whites they could see. we must not blame the blacks. they were only doing what we should do ourselves if some invader came and settled in our country and tried to drive us back. but the white men were not to be driven back. they armed themselves and made open war upon the black people and i am afraid did many things of which we are all now thoroughly ashamed. for a few years the struggle between the two races went on and at length the blacks had to own themselves beaten, and so australia passed into the white man's hands. the blacks to-day may be divided into three classes:-- . the _mialls_, or wild blacks, still living their own natural life in their great hunting-grounds in the north, just as they lived before the white men came. it is chiefly about these that this little book will tell. . the _station-blacks_, living on the sheep and cattle stations and helping the squatters on their "runs." they are fed and clothed in return for their work, and are given a new blanket every year. the men and boys ride about the run looking after the sheep, bring them in at shearing time and help with the shearing. the women and girls learn to do housework and make themselves useful in many ways. they seem very happy and comfortable and are usually well treated and well cared for by their masters. once or twice a year, perhaps, they are given a "pink-eye," or holiday, and then away they go into the wild bush with their boomerangs and their spears, or perhaps visit some neighbouring camp further up or down the river's bank. their houses are just "humpies," made of a few boughs, plastered over with clay or mud, with perhaps a piece or two of corrugated iron put up on the weather side. in this class, too, we ought to include those blacks, some hundreds, alas! in number, who spend their time "loafing about" the mining camps and the coastal towns of the north, living as best they can, guilty often of crime, learning to drink, and swear, and gamble, and often making themselves a thorough nuisance to all around. more wretched, degraded beings it would not be possible to see--such a contrast to the fine, manly wild-blacks. the pity and the shame of it all is that it is the white man who has made them what they are. . the _mission-blacks_, that is the blacks on the mission stations such as yarrabah, mitchell river, and beagle bay. these will have some chapters to themselves later on and you will, i hope, be much interested in them. there are not very many of them, perhaps not more than six or seven hundred in all, but new mission stations are being started and so we may well hope that their number will soon increase. there are some splendid christians among them, some of them quite an example to ourselves. of those you shall hear more fully by and by. as you read this little book your heart will be stirred sometimes with strange feelings that you cannot quite understand. those strange feelings will be nothing less than the expression of your own brotherhood with them. their skins may be "black" (though they are not really black at all), and their lives may be wild; but they have human hearts beating within them just as we have, and immortal souls, like ours, for which christ died. never forget this as you are reading. it is so easy to forget--to claim brotherhood with those who are wiser and greater than ourselves, and to forget that just that same brotherhood unites us one by one with the countless thousands who make up what we call the wild and primitive peoples of the world. chapter ii piccaninnies people in wild australia very seldom talk about babies. they call them by a much longer name, and one not nearly so easy to spell, piccaninnies. but whatever name we call them by--babies or piccaninnies--the little black children are perfectly delightful, as all children are. i shall never forget the first little australian piccaninny i ever saw. it was not more than a few hours old, and so fat and jolly, with a little twinkle in its eye as much as to say, "i know all about you and you needn't come and look at me." of course i expected to see a dear little shiny black baby as black as coal, but very much to my surprise it wasn't black at all. it was a very beautiful golden-brown, but as the mother said to me, "him soon come along black piccaninny all right." under his eyes and on his arms and on other parts of his body were little jet black lines, and these gradually widened and spread till in a few weeks time he was a very deep chocolate colour, for though we call them "the blacks" the people of wild australia are not really black but deep chocolate. i am very sorry to tell you that many of the little piccaninnies who are born in australia, especially if they happen to be girls, are not allowed to live at all. perhaps the last little baby is still quite young and unable to help itself at all and so still needs all it's mother's care. or perhaps there hasn't been any rain for many, many months and the grass has all withered and the water-holes have very nearly dried up, and there is very, very little food for anyone and the natives are beginning to think that it is never going to rain any more. in either of these cases the little baby is almost certain to be killed almost as soon as it is born, and perhaps, so scarce has food become, it may even be eaten by its parents and other members of the tribe. there is another reason why babies are sometimes killed and eaten, and to us it seems a very horrible one indeed. perhaps it is fat and healthy and there is some other and older child in the tribe who is weakly and thin. the natives will then sometimes kill the healthy baby and feed the weakly child on tiny portions of its flesh. it seems, as i said just now, very awful and very horrible, but the idea is this, that the strength and vigour of the younger child will be imparted to the weaker one. it is the father who always decides whether the baby shall live or die. if it is allowed to live you must not imagine that it will be in any way neglected or ill-treated. quite the opposite is true. there is no country in the world where babies and older children are spoiled quite so much as they are in wild australia. they are never corrected or chastised by either father or mother, and they do just exactly as they like. sometimes, perhaps, when father and mother are both away their maternal grandmother may happen to give them a good smack in the same way and on the same part as is usual in civilized countries, but this is certainly the only form of punishment they ever receive. they are everyone's idol and everyone's playthings, and yet they are never kissed, because no australian aboriginal knows how to kiss. if a mother wants to show her love for her little one she will place her lips to his and then blow through them, and this is the nearest to kissing she ever gets. but baby crows with delight whenever mother does this. australian mothers never carry their piccaninnies in their arms as british mothers do, neither of course do they have any fine perambulators or mail-carts to push them out in. the most usual way of carrying them when they are quite tiny is in a bag of opossum skin or plant fibre slung on the mother's back. at night baby will very likely be put to sleep in a cradle made of a piece of bent bark perhaps sown up at the ends and covered with an opossum skin or a few green leaves. this is generally called a pitchi. as soon, however, as baby is able to hold on it seems to prefer to sit astride its mother's shoulder or hip and hang on by her hair. names are usually given according to the order of birth, but on the sheep stations the babies usually receive a white child's name. "tommies" and "maries" are of course almost as frequent as they are here at home, but some babies get very fine names indeed, and some three or four. in the wild parts, however, it would be considered unlucky to name a child before it could walk. it is often called simply "child" or "girl" until then. the name, when it is given, often depends on something that happened at the time of its birth. a baby was once named "kangaroo rat" because one of these little animals ran through the _mia-mia_ (house or home) a few minutes after it was born. another was called "fire and water" because at the time of his birth the _mia_ had caught fire and the fire had been put out with water. there is a similar custom among the bedouins to-day, which has been in existence ever since the days of jacob. you can see an instance of it in genesis xxx. , . "zilpah, leah's maid, bare jacob a son. and leah said, a troop cometh: and she called his name gad (_i.e._ a troop or company.)" is it not strange that we should find this old hebrew custom still in use in wild australia? but the name which is first given is frequently changed. most boys and girls are given a new name altogether as soon as they are regarded as grown-up, _i.e._ about the age of fourteen. again, should someone die who happens to have the same name, the child's will at once be changed, for the aboriginals, for reasons which will be explained in a later chapter, never mention the names of their dead. sometimes, again, as a sign of very special friendship two black people will exchange names. there is one very curious custom among the blacks the "why" and "wherefore" no one has ever been quite able to explain. one of the things that would strike you most if you could look into the face of an aboriginal would be the great width of the nose. it sometimes extends almost across the face. it looks, if i may put it that way, almost as though it had been put on hot and before it had properly cooled had been accidentally sat upon. the reason is that when babies are quite tiny their mothers flatten their noses, but why they do this i cannot say. probably a very broad nose is part of their idea of beauty. it is always pretty to watch children at their play. you will remember how our lord jesus christ himself, like all child lovers, would often stand in the market place and watch the children playing. sometimes they played weddings, sometimes funerals, and he once drew a lesson for the jews from the conduct of those disagreeable and sulky children who would not join in. so it is a very pretty sight to see the little children of wild australia playing. like all other children they are very fond of games and grow very excited over them. little girls may sometimes be seen sitting down and playing with little wooden dolls which a kind uncle or grandfather has made for them, whilst boys and girls alike will often play "cat's cradle" for quite a long time, and very wonderful and elaborate are the figures some of them contrive. yet, like most other children, they like noisier games best. a kind of football is very popular, and they will often play it for hours at a time. some one chosen to begin the game will take a ball of fibre or opossum or kangaroo skin and kick it into the air. the others all rush to get it and the one who secures it kicks it again with his instep. they get very excited over it and their fathers and big brothers sometimes get very excited too and come and join in, and the shouts and laughter grow until the very rocks begin to echo back their merriment. at another time they will play "hide and seek" just as white children do, or a sort of "i spy." another time perhaps a mock kangaroo hunt will engage them. one of them will be kangaroo and the others will hunt him. for a long time he will elude them, but at last he has to own himself captured and allow the hunters to dispatch him with their tiny spears. so, in one way or another, the merry days roll on until childhood's days are done and the education of the young savage, of which you will learn in a later chapter, begins to be taken in hand. often when the writer has watched the little black children at their play that beautiful promise in the prophets has come into his mind, "the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." the prophet was thinking of the new jerusalem and its happiness, and a great longing has come into the writer's mind for more men and women and children, too, to realize their duty to these forgotten children of the wild, and to take their part in bringing them into that heavenly city. perhaps all those who read this little book will try what they can do. chapter iii "great-great-greatest-grandfather!"[ ] every little black piccaninny as soon as it is old enough to understand is told by its mother what sort of a spirit it has inside it, for the blackfellows all believe that their spirits have lived before and came in the very beginning out of some animal or plant. so some children have "kangaroo spirits," some "eagle spirits," some "emu spirits," and some, perhaps, the "spirit of the rain." the mothers know exactly what kind of spirit each baby has. if it came to her in the kangaroo country then it has a kangaroo spirit and so on. in some parts it doesn't matter a bit what kind of a spirit father or mother may have. father may have an emu spirit, mother an eagle hawk's, but if the baby came in the snakes' country it will have a snake's spirit. sometimes on the rocks in wild australia you may see a rough picture of a kangaroo drawn by some native artist in coloured clays. it is a picture of the great-great-greatest-grandfather of the kangaroo men and so also, of course, of any little child who has a kangaroo spirit, because when he grows up he will belong to the kangaroo men. the story which he will be told about his great-great-greatest-grandfather will be something like this:-- "ever so many moons ago" (for the blackfellows count all time by moons), "a great big kangaroo came up out of the earth at such and such a place and wandered about for a long time. after this he changed himself into a man and then he amused himself making spirits. of course as he was a kangaroo man he could only make kangaroo spirits. these kangaroo spirits did not at all like having no bodies, so as they had none of their own they began to look about for other bodies to go into. (you will remember how in the gospel story the spirits who were cast out of the poor demoniacs of gadara were unhappy at the prospect of having no bodies, and so asked to go into the swine.) so some went into kangaroos and some into little black children who happened to come in their country. then one day great-great-greatest-grandfather called them all together--all the kangaroos and all the little children with kangaroo spirits--and told them that they all alike had kangaroo spirits and so were really brothers and must never eat or harm one another. and so to-day all the children with kangaroo spirits are taught to call the kangaroo their brother, and they will never eat or harm a kangaroo, and as you all know a kangaroo will never eat them." if they have emu spirits they will never eat emu and so on. the children are not told these stories by word of mouth as i have told you, but they are taught chiefly by means of corrobborees, or native dances, which you will read about later on. the proper name of the animal or plant whose spirit they are said to have is their _totem_, and every man, woman, and child in wild australia belongs to some totem group and calls its totem its brother. you will hear more about these totems later on. when i saw a black man, as i did sometimes, who wouldn't eat iguana i knew at once that he belonged to the iguana totem group and had an iguana spirit; and, of course, his great-great-greatest-grandfather was not a kangaroo but an iguana. now that you have learnt in this chapter something of what the little black children of wild australia are taught about where they came from and the sort of spirits which they have you will, i hope, want to do something to help to teach them the truth--that god made them all and that not the spirit of an animal or plant but a beautiful bright spirit fresh from god's own hand has been given them all, and that all have the same kind of spirit and those spirits when they leave the body will not wander about the earth again looking for some other body, but will "return to god who gave them." they, just as much as we, are meant to live and enjoy god now and be happy with him for ever hereafter. footnote: [ ] i owe this title and something of the contents of the chapter to mrs aeneas gunn's very interesting book for children, "little black princess." chapter iv blackfellows' "homes" one of the first things of which a little child takes notice is its home. the pictures on the wall, the pretty things all around, the flowers in the garden are a source of ever-increasing delight to its growing consciousness. the older it grows the more it comes to know and love its home. some of those who read this book will, perhaps, have very beautiful homes richly decked with all that art and money can supply, others will have smaller and plainer ones, but the children of wild australia have scarcely anything that can be called a home at all. a blackfellows' camp will consist of a number of the plainest and rudest huts that one can either imagine or describe. sometimes there is not even a hut, but they live entirely in the open air on the bank of some creek or stream with merely a breakwind of boughs to keep off the wind and rain. during bad weather they will all huddle together as close to the breakwind as they can, whilst their limbs shake and their teeth chatter with cold. more often, however, something in the way of a hut is made. a few pieces of stick, which will easily bend, will be driven into the ground, covered with sheets of bark and a few boughs and perhaps plastered over with mud. sometimes, where kangaroos are plentiful, some dried skins will be used instead of bark and boughs. there will, of course, be nothing in the way of chairs or tables, a few skins and a pitchi or two will probably be the only furniture, but a miscellaneous assortment of odds and ends will lie around. some eight or nine souls may claim the hut as home. these huts are arranged according to a fixed plan. some will face in one direction, some in another. thus a man's hut must never face in the same direction as that of his mother-in-law and certain other of his relatives. a native camp always has a most untidy appearance. all kinds of things are left lying about, but as the black people are very honest nothing is ever stolen. they will give their things away freely but they will never think of taking what is not their own. most of their time is spent out of doors. they only use their huts in wet and windy weather or when the nights are cold. their food is always cooked and eaten outside, and bones and all kinds of remnants are littered about everywhere, but as they usually have several dogs these things do not remain for long. how thankful you and i ought to be for our homes and our home comforts, however plain and humble those homes may be! if food is becoming scarce the people will often leave their camp altogether and migrate further up the river where it is more plentiful, for their camps, you must remember, are nearly always built upon a river's bank. sometimes there may have been heavy rain in one part of their country and very little in another. then they will move to where grass and game are more plentiful. we expect our food to be brought to our home, but the blacks take their homes to their food. sometimes after a death, too, they will desert their settlement and encamp elsewhere. the dead man may have been a very troublesome person to get on with when alive, and they think if they bury him near his old camp and then move away themselves his ghost will not know where to find them and they will be rid of him altogether. this frequent moving of their homes is in many ways a very good thing. if they stayed too long in one place their huts would soon become very insanitary and diseases would begin to work havoc among them. in the camp the old man's word is law. they even decide what food may be eaten and what must be left alone. they manage to forbid all the more delicate morsels to all the younger members of the tribe and so secure the best of everything for themselves. women and girls are of little account among them. they are in fact but the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the men, and their life is one of terrible and never-ending drudgery. the little girls, of course, do not have to work, but they are seldom made such pets of as are the little boys. at fourteen they are girls no longer and their life of drudgery begins. [illustration: aboriginal children and native hut] where, as on the mission stations, the gospel is preached to this poor people it brings new joy and hope to the women. there is no other hope for them, nothing else that saves them from the slavery in which they are compelled to live. on the mission stations are real homes, houses like our own, into which love has entered and where woman is no longer slave or chattel, but a queen. each family on these settlements has its own little holding fenced and cleared in which fruit, flowers, and vegetables and, perhaps, rice and maize are grown. the cottages are patterns of neatness both without and within, so tremendous is the difference the religion of jesus christ makes to this poor degraded people. if we had more missionaries we should have many more such homes and many more of the black women would enter into the meaning of those words in the twentieth chapter of st john--"the disciples went away again _to their own home_" and found the resurrection light shining there in all its beauty. perhaps nothing would give us so good an idea of the position of women and girls among this people as to take our place in a native camp on the morning of some aboriginal girl's wedding day. the poor little bride, she will probably not be more than about fourteen, will have been told that her husband has come to fetch her. she has very likely never seen him before, although she was engaged to him as soon as she was born, and he will probably be much older than she. she will cry a good deal and say she does not want to go, but she knows very well that by the laws of her tribe she must do so. her father, expecting rebellion, will be standing by her side with a spear and a heavy club in his hand. the moment she attempts to resist her capture (for it is really nothing less) a blow from the spear will remind her she must go. if she tries, as she probably will, to run away the heavy club will fell her to the ground. her husband may then begin to show his authority. he will seize her by her hair and drag her off in the the direction of his _mia_. she will very likely make her teeth meet in the calf of his leg, but it will be no good. she will only receive a kick from his bare foot in return. arrived at her new home she has to cook her husband a dinner and then sit quietly by his side while he eats it. when he has finished she may have what is left, although he, not improbably, has been throwing pieces to the dogs all the time. such are the marriage ceremonies in wild australia. chapter v education there are no schools in wild australia, yet it must not be thought that the children receive no education. on the contrary their education begins at a very early age and is continued well into manhood and womanhood. up to the age of seven or eight boys and girls play together and remain under their mother's care, but a separation then takes place and schooldays, if we may call them by that name, begin. the boys leave the society of the girls and sleep in the bachelor's camp. they begin to accompany their fathers on long tramps abroad. they are taught the names and qualities of the different plants and animals which they see, and the laws and legends of their tribe. lessons of reverence and obedience to their elders are instilled into their young minds, and they have impressed upon them that they must never attempt to set up their own will against the superior will of the tribe. they are taught to use their eyes, and to take note of the footprints of the different animals and birds, and eventually to track them to their haunts. in this art of tracking many of them become wonderfully skilled. they will often say how long it is since a certain track was made, and in the case of a human foot-mark will often tell whose it is. they will say whether the traveller was a man or a woman, and in some cases have been known to say, quite correctly, that the man was knock-kneed or slightly lame. trackers employed by the police have often traced a man's footsteps over stony and rocky ground, being able to tell, from the displacing of a stone here and there, that the man whom they were seeking had passed that way. on one occasion a clergyman was travelling in the bush when he was met by an aboriginal boy who told him that a man had gone along that way earlier in the day, had been thrown from his horse about five miles further on but had not been hurt very much because he had got up after a few minutes and had gone after his horse; the man, however, was slightly lame, and the horse had cast a shoe. the same evening the clergyman met the man in question and found that the native's account of what happened was correct in every detail. he had gained his information entirely from careful observation of the tracks. so wonderfully is this power of seeing trained that every object is most carefully noted as it is passed. the foot-marks of an emu or kangaroo on their way to water, the head of a wild turkey standing above the grass some two hundreds yards away, will be pointed out to the purblind white man who has never learned to see. if one of the lessons of life is to use the eyes the aboriginal teacher teaches his lessons well. the children of wild australia are taught to use their ears. they will start up at the first faint stirring of the leaves which tells that a storm of wind will soon be down upon them or that an opossum or parrot is awakening in the tree. their ears, too, will notice the slight rustling of the grass and the stealthy footsteps on the ground which tell that some enemy is near. it takes long and careful training to bring the power of hearing to such perfection as this. they are taught to use their hands and to make and use the weapons, etc., of which you will read in the next chapter. what wonderful natural history lessons, too, theirs must be. the habits of all the various animals are learned out in the wild, and numerous stories about them are told. the traditions of all the places they come to are carefully narrated by the older men, and in this way a faithful adherence to the rules and customs of the tribe is ensured. wonderful are the tales of their old ancestors which will be narrated around the camp fires at night, whilst in the day time excursions to some of the sacred spots, whose legends were told over night, may be made. so in one way or another a remarkable reverence for antiquity--for the dim and shadowy (though, to the aboriginal, very real) heroes of the "alcheringa," or distant dream age in which these old heroes lived, and for the aged will be instilled and the children grow up in ways of reverence and obedience which are often sadly lacking in more favoured lands. sometimes the growing lad at about the age of twelve or thirteen will be sent away to school, that is he will go to stay with some neighbouring friendly tribe whose old men will carefully complete the education which his father and the men of his own tribe began. but lessons are taught not only by word of mouth but by means of sacred rites which the young lad at about the age of fourteen is allowed to witness for the first time. in these sacred performances the deeds of some doughty ancestor are portrayed, and the boy as he gazes upon them, and listens to the answers given to the questions he is allowed to ask, learns more and more of the rules and traditions of his tribe. no women and children are ever allowed to be present at these solemnities. the tribal secrets which they depict may be known only to the men. a woman or girl who dared to venture near or pry into them would have her eyes put out or be killed at once by the men. before the young lad can be allowed to attend he needs to be solemnly initiated into his tribe. he is taken away into the bush and there undergoes a kind of savage confirmation. a front tooth is knocked out, and the body is gashed with sharp stones. in some tribes a new gash is given as each new secret is imparted. into the wounds thus made ashes or the down of the eagle hawk are rubbed to make the wound heal. the actual result is a raised scar which lasts on through life. sometimes what is called a fire ceremony is also performed to test the power of endurance of those who are henceforth to be regarded as men. a large fire is lighted and then the hot embers are strewn on the ground. over these a few green boughs are placed and the boys are made to lie down upon them until permission is given them by their elders to rise. the boughs, of course, keep them from being actually burned, but the heat of the fire is very great and they are often nearly suffocated with the smoke. should the faintest cry escape one of them or should they fail to lie perfectly still they would be regarded as weak and effeminate and unworthy to be "made men," and their admission into the full privileges of the tribe would be delayed. these fire ceremonies are a very severe test of their power of endurance. the native lad will suffer a great deal rather than be thought soft and womanish, and there are few who fail to stand the severe test which is here demanded of them. chapter vi weapons, etc., which children learn to make and use the people of wild australia are still in what is called "the stone age," which means that all their tools and weapons are made of wood or stone. those on the sheep stations and near the towns are, however, learning to use tin and iron, but it is not natural for them to do so. the first tool they learn to use is a little digging stick. almost as soon as they are able to run alone one of these little instruments will be put into their hands and they will be shown how to use it. with these they learn very quickly how to dig for grubs and edible roots, and as they get a little older they may be seen making little "humpies" of sand. but the most wonderful of all their weapons is the boomerang. no other people in the world is known to use it though some have thought that it was once in use among the very ancient egyptians. there is a very interesting theory as to the origin of the boomerang. some children, it is said, were playing one day with the leaf of a white gum tree. as the leaves of this tree fall to the ground they go round and round, and if thrown forward with a quick jerk they make a curve and come back. an old man was watching them playing, and to please them he made a model of the leaf in wood. this was improved upon from time to time until it developed into the boomerang. boomerangs are of two kinds--_war-boomerangs_ and _toy-boomerangs_ or _boomerangs proper_. the first kind are rather larger and usually less curved than the others, but do not return when thrown. they are often about thirty inches long and have a sharp cutting edge. they are made entirely of wood, the branches of the iron-bark or she-oak tree being preferred. the necessary cutting and shaping has to be done entirely with sharp flints or diorite, the only tools except stone axes, which the natives in their wild state employ. they naturally take a very long time to make, but, when made, are very deadly weapons. they can be thrown as far as a hundred and fifty yards, and even at that distance will inflict a very severe wound. when thrown from a distance of sixty yards they have been known to pass almost through a man's body. boomerangs proper are usually about twenty-four inches long, but there are seldom two of exactly the same size and pattern. they are rather more curved on the under than on the upper side. a man or boy who wants to throw one of them first examines it very carefully and then takes equally careful notice of the direction of the wind. he then throws it straight forward giving it a very sharp twist as he throws. at first it will keep fairly close to the ground, then after it has gone a certain distance it will turn over and at the same time rise in the air. completing its outward flight, and perhaps hitting the object at which it was aimed, it turns over again and comes back to within a few feet of the man who threw it. boys may often be seen practising for hours at a time with their little toy boomerangs, and by the time they are men many of them have become very proficient in throwing them. a skilful thrower can do almost anything he likes with his boomerang. a native has been seen to knock a stone off the top of a post fifty yards away, but very few of them are quite as clever as this. none the less it would be rather dangerous for an unwary spectator to watch a party of native men and boys throwing their boomerangs. an enemy or a hunted animal hiding behind a tree would be quite safe from a spear or bullet but could easily be taken in the rear and seriously injured by one of these extraordinary weapons when thrown by a skilful thrower. kangaroos and emus find it almost impossible to avoid them whilst they work the most amazing havoc among a number of ducks or cockatoos just rising from water, or even among a flock of parrots on the wing. many a supper has an aboriginal boy brought home with the aid of his trusty boomerang. in western australia most of the aboriginals use a smaller and lighter boomerang than those in use in the other parts of the continent. this is called a _kylie_ or _kaila_, and is very leaf-like. it will also fly further than the heavier weapon. next to the boomerang or kylie the weapons in most frequent use are _spears_. these, too, are very remarkable and vary much in length and character. some are quite small and can be used without difficulty by a child. some are as much as fifteen feet long. the simplest form of spear is no more than a pointed stick, but the wild blacks seldom content themselves with these. often a groove is cut in one or both sides of the spear, and pieces of flint are inserted in the groove and fastened with native gum. more frequently deep barbs are cut at the sides and these will inflict a very ugly and painful wound, especially when, as is often the case, they have been previously dipped in the juice of some poison plant. the most elaborate spears are those with stone heads. these heads are often beautifully made and are securely fastened to the spear with twine or gum. where there are white men glass is often used instead, the glass being chipped into shape in a perfectly wonderful way with tools of flint. the patience displayed in their manufacture is admirable indeed. when the telegraph line was first erected in wild australia the natives caused endless trouble to the government by knocking off the glass or porcelain insulators and using them for spear heads. spears are sometimes thrown with the hand, but perhaps more frequently by means of a special instrument called a _meero_ or _wommera_. this is a flat piece of wood about twenty-four inches long, with a tooth made of very hard white wood fastened to its head in such a way that when the wommerah is handled the tooth is towards the man who is holding it. this tooth fits into a hole at the end of the spear. spears thrown with the wommerah will travel further and with much greater force than those thrown with the hand. as a protection against an enemy's spear the aborigines usually provide themselves with a wooden shield or _woonda_. these are usually about thirty-three inches long and six inches wide and have a handle cut in the back. they are cut out of one solid block; and have grooved ridges on the front. the hollow parts between the ridges are frequently painted white with a kind of pipe-clay and the ridges are stained red. why they are marked in this way and why the grooves are cut at all no one seems to know. the native men are extraordinarily quick in the use of these shields, and will sometimes ward off with their aid a very large number of spears thrown at them in rapid succession. it is very important that boys should become proficient in making and using all these things as in after days their food-supply and even their lives may depend upon their proficiency. while the men and boys are hard at work making these different implements the women and girls very likely busy themselves manufacturing bags and baskets. the baskets are made of thin twigs and the bags with string spun from the fibre of a coarse grass called spinifex, or perhaps from animal fur. in them they contrive to carry all their worldly goods as they travel from camp to camp, and occasionally baby also is safely stowed away in the same receptacle. chapter vii how food is caught and cooked in very few parts of wild australia can the black people count on a regular supply of food. sometimes there is no rain for months, and consequently the grass disappears, water dries up, and many of the animals die. in these times of drought the conditions of the people are pitiable indeed. the chief articles of diet besides seeds and roots are fish of various kinds--kangaroo, emu, lizards, snake, wild turkey or bustard, parrots and cockatoos, insects and grubs. vermin, too, are sometimes eaten, and clay is occasionally indulged in as dessert. there are many ways of catching fish. the commonest method is by means of a spear. a native boy may often be seen standing on a rock in the middle of a pool, or by the water's edge, with a spear in his hand, his eyes intently fixed upon the water. as soon as a fish comes near down goes the spear and it is seldom that he fails to land his prey. in some parts rough canoes of bark are made and the fishing will be done from these. sometimes the fish are poisoned by pouring the juices from some poison plant into the water but this method is not very often employed. their method of catching crayfish is not one that you and i would care to employ. they will walk about in the water and allow the fish to fasten on their toes, but so extraordinarily quick are they that they will stoop down and crush the creature's claws with their own fingers before it has had time to nip. even more varied than their ways of fishing are their methods of catching birds. a black boy may sometimes be seen stretched naked and motionless on a bare rock with a piece of fish in his fingers. when a bird comes to sample the fish he will with his disengaged hand, catch it by the leg. parrots and cockatoos are often caught by means of the boomerang, but the native will sometimes employ quite another method. he will get into a tree at night, tie himself to a branch, and take with him a big stick. as the birds fly past him he will lash out with his stick and bring large numbers of them to the ground. emus are far too powerful to be caught in any of these ways. they are usually taken in nets as they come in the early morning to water. a number of natives will hide themselves in bushes or behind rocks and when the emus have gathered at the water-hole will steal out almost noiselessly (for emus are very timid birds and easily startled) and stretch large nets on three sides of a square behind them. the birds on returning from the pool walk straight into the nets and are easily speared. kangaroos are sometimes captured in the same way, but more frequently they are killed with spears. a native has been known to walk very many miles stalking a kangaroo. a case is even on record where a man spent three days in capturing one. when the kangaroo ran he ran, when it stood he stood, when it slept he slept, and so on till at last he was enabled to creep up sufficiently closely to dispatch it with his spear. the way in which his food is cooked when he has caught it depends upon how hungry the aboriginal is. if he is very hungry indeed he may pull it to pieces with his teeth and his fingers there and then and eat it raw. if not quite so hungry but still impatient for his meal, the fish, or whatever it is, will be thrown upon the fire and eaten as soon as it is warmed through. the most elaborate way of all is to wrap the fish in a piece of paper bark with a few aromatic leaves, tie the ends carefully with native twine, and allow it to cook slowly underneath the camp fire. a fish cooked in this way is most delicate and tasty, and would probably tempt the palate of a white man as much as it does the blacks. [illustration: learning to use the boomerang] the natives always roast their food. they never touch anything boiled. but not even an aboriginal can cook his dinner unless he has first made a fire. there is nothing of the nature of matches among this people. when they want to make a fire they will take a piece of soft wood, place it on the ground and hold it in position with their feet. another stick is then taken, pressed down upon the first piece, and made to rotate quickly upon it. perhaps a few very dry leaves are placed near the place where one stick touches the other and as soon as the friction has caused the light dust to smoulder a gentle blow with the breath will cause the leaves to burst into flame. at other times two shields or kylies will be rubbed together until the dust catches fire. as these are rather wearisome methods of kindling flame, a fire once lighted is seldom allowed to go out. when camp is moved the women may be seen carrying pieces of smouldering charcoal in their hands. the movement through the air causes these to keep alight, and as soon as the new camping ground is reached all that needs to be done is to place them on the ground, pile a few dry leaves and sticks over them, and in a very few seconds a cheerful fire is blazing merrily. so expert are the women in keeping these fire-sticks alight that a party of them will travel all day without allowing a single one to go out. chapter viii corrobborees, or native dances among the special delights of an aboriginal boy or girl is the memory of the first corrobboree he was ever allowed to see. these corrobborees are very elaborate and curious native dances nearly always performed at night. the women and children are allowed to witness them but only the men actually take part. the black men who live on or near the stations often speak of these as "debbil-debbil dances," as they are supposed to have some relation to the evil spirits, or "debbil-debbils," of whom the blacks are so terribly afraid. it takes a long while to dress the men up for these dances. often they are first pricked all over with sharp stones to make the blood flow, and this blood is then smeared all over their faces and bodies. little tufts of white cockatoo or eagle hawk down are then stuck all over them, the blood being used as gum. if the doings of some mythical emu ancestor are to be celebrated in the dance only men belonging to the emu totem group will be allowed to perform. an enormous head-dress of down and feathers will next be made and put on, and large anklets of fresh green leaves will complete the array. a large space will be specially prepared as the ceremonial ground. in front of this huge fires will usually be lighted, and either in front of these, or at the sides, a number of women and older girls will be seated with kangaroo skins drawn tightly across their knees. on these skins they beat with sticks or with their hands, making a noise similar to that which would be made by a number of kettle-drums. all the time the dancing is going on the women keep up a weird, monotonous chant, often beginning on a high key and dying down almost to a whisper. it is not very musical to our ears but the effect is often very strange and wonderful. it sometimes sounds as though a number of singers were gradually coming towards one from afar, then standing still awhile, then turning round and going back again. one of the performers will come out upon the stage, go through a few curious antics which he calls a dance, then retire whilst another takes his place. after a while, perhaps, all will come on together and the fun for a time will be very fast and furious. the blacks are all so very serious about it, but any white people who happened to be looking on would find it very difficult to restrain their laughter. it would not do to laugh though, as the "debbil-debbils" would be very angry and might revenge themselves upon the blacks before long. after they have been dancing for some time the men present a very curious sight. the perspiration which has been pouring down their faces and bodies has disarranged their paint and feathers and their head-dresses have got very much awry. perhaps, too, they have grown almost dizzy with excitement, so that they certainly look more ludicrous than impressive. they greatly enjoy these corrobborees and get wildly excited about them, but to us they would appear very monotonous and wearisome. to them, too, they are very full of meaning and they are one of the chief ways in which the young people are taught the legends of their tribes. sometimes very useful moral lessons are taught by their means. an old man will very likely sit in the centre of a group of boys and carefully explain to them the meaning of all they see. they frequently last for hours, and some of them even require three or four nights if they are to be properly performed, so that the blackfellows spend a very great deal of time in preparing for and performing them. some of these corrobborees no women and young children are allowed to see. when this is the case a peculiar piece of sacred stone with a hole in the end, through which a string is fastened, is swung round and round by one of the men. as it is swung it makes a loud booming sound. this instrument is called a bullroarer, and is looked upon as a very sacred thing. the women and girls are taught that the noise it makes is the voice of the evil spirit to whom it is sacred, warning them to hurry away and not dare to look at the sacred ceremonies which are about to be performed. if any of them disregarded the warning their eyes would certainly be put out, and they might even be put to death. when a friendly tribe, or group of natives, is visiting another tribe they will often be entertained by a corrobboree. on such an occasion the most difficult and elaborate of all their dances will most probably be performed. the next night the visitors will provide the entertainment. though there is very little idea of religion among the people, as you will see in later chapters, yet these dances have something of a religious character about them. they keep alive the old tribal legends, and the blacks most firmly believe that the spirits of their old ancestors are pleased when corrobborees are properly performed. on the other hand they are grievously offended if anything is done carelessly and without proper thought. chapter ix magic and sorcery the blacks are great believers in magic and sorcery. some of these beliefs are quite harmless and merely help to keep them amused, but others prove a terrible curse to them, as they can seldom rid themselves of the idea that another blackfellow somewhere is working them harm by means of sorcery, and they often die from fear. the magical ceremonies of the aboriginals are of three kinds:-- . those by which they think they can control the weather. . those by which they endeavour to secure an abundant supply of food. . those by which they cause sickness and death--the use of "pointing sticks" and bones. we will speak of each of these in order. the commonest and most universal of all their magical ceremonies by which they hope to control the weather is that of making rain. every group of natives has its "rain-makers," but the methods they employ are not everywhere the same. in north-western australia the rain-maker usually goes away by himself to the top of some hill. he wears a very elaborate and wonderful head-dress of white down with a tuft of cockatoo feathers, and holds a wommera, or spear-thrower, in his hand. he squats for some time on the ground, singing aloud a very monotonous chant or incantation. then, after a time, he rises to a stooping position, goes on singing, and as he does so moves his wommera backwards and forwards very rapidly, makes his whole body quiver and sway, and turns his head violently from side to side. gradually his movements become more and more rapid, and by the time he has finished he is probably too dizzy to stand. if he were asked what the ceremonies meant he would most likely be unable to say more than that he was doing just what his great-great greatest-grandfather did when he first made rain. only men belonging to the "rain totem" are supposed to possess this power of making rain. should rain fall after he has finished he, of course, takes all the credit for it and is a very important personage for a time. if it should fail to rain, as not infrequently happens, he will put it down to the fact that some other blackfellow, probably in some other tribe, has been using some powerful hostile magic to prevent his from taking effect. if he should happen to meet that other blackfellow there would probably be a very bad quarter of an hour for somebody! sometimes the rain-maker contents himself with a very much simpler ceremony. he goes to some sacred pool, sings a charm over it, then takes some of the water into his mouth and spits it out in all directions. in the new norcia district when the rain-makers wanted rain they used to pluck hair from their thighs and armpits and after singing a charm over it blow it in the direction from which they wanted the rain to come. if on the other hand they wished to prevent rain they would light pieces of sandalwood and beat the ground hard and dry with the burning brands. the idea was that this drying and burning of the soil would soon cause all the land to become hardened and dried by the sun. in fact their entire belief in this "sympathetic magic" as it is called is based upon the notion, perfectly true in a way, that "like produces like," and that for them to initiate either the actions of their ancestors who first produced such and such a thing will have the same effect as then, or that the doing of something (such as causing water to fall) in a small way will cause the same result to happen on a very much larger scale. in some parts of western australia when cooler weather is desired a magician will light huge fires and then sit beside them wrapped in a number of skins and blankets pretending to be very cold. his teeth will chatter and his whole body shake as though from severe cold, and he is fully persuaded that colder weather will follow in a few days. in the second class of magical ceremonies are included all those which have for their purpose the ensuring of a plentiful supply of food. the people of wild australia have no knowledge of those natural laws and forces, much less of that over-ruling hand controlling them, by which their food supply is assured. they think that everything is due to magic, and therefore the performance of these magical ceremonies occupies a very large amount of their time. you have seen already that every tribe consists of a number of "totem groups" as they are called, and it is to these totem groups that the whole tribe looks to maintain the supply of their particular animals or plant. if the kangaroo men do their duty there will be plenty of kangaroos, but if they should become careless and slothful and begin to think of their own ease and comfort instead of the well-being of the tribe then the kangaroos will become fewer and fewer and perhaps disappear. these kangaroo ceremonies, as we may call them, are usually performed at some rock or stone specially sacred to this particular animal and believed by the natives to have imprisoned within it, or at any rate in its near neighbourhood, a number of kangaroo spirits who are only awaiting the due performance of the ancient ceremonies to set them free from their prison and again go forth and become once more embodied. the men gather round the rock or stone, freely bleed themselves, and then smear the rock or stone with their blood. as they are "of one blood" with their totem it is, they think, kangaroo blood which is being poured out, and as "the blood is the life" they feel quite sure that it will enable the weak and feeble kangaroo spirits to become quite strong again. then they arrange themselves in a kind of half-circle and "sing" their charm. no magical ceremonies are ever performed without "singing." the "cockatoo" ceremonies, by which the natives hope to increase the number of cockatoos are much simpler, but to a white man who might happen to be in the near neighbourhood would prove a very thorough nuisance. a rough image of a white cockatoo will be made, and the man will imitate its harsh and piercing cry all night. when his voice fails, as it does at last from sheer exhaustion, his son will take up the cry till the father is able to begin again. but of all the forms of magic or sorcery the most terrible is that of "bone-pointing" and "singing-dead." a man desirous of doing his neighbour some harm will provide himself with one of these sticks or bones, go off by himself into some lonely part of the bush, place the bone or stick in the ground, crouch over it and then mutter or "sing" into it some horrible curse. perhaps he will sing some such awful curse as this over and over again:-- kill old wallaby jack, kill him dead-fellow; if he eat fish poison him with it; if he go near water drown him with it; if he eat kangaroo choke him with it; if he eat emu poison him with it; if he go near fire burn him with it; kill old wallaby jack, kill him dead-fellow quick. then he will go back to the camp leaving the bone in the ground. later he will return and bring the bone nearer to the camp. then some evening, after it has grown dark, he will creep quietly up to the man whom he wants to injure and secretly point the bone at him. the magic will, he believes, pass at once from the bone to his victim, who soon afterwards will without any apparent cause sicken and die unless some _bullya_, or medicine man, can remove the curse. the bone is then taken away and hidden, for should it be found out that he had "pointed" it he would be killed at once. [illustration: youth in war paint] all the blackfellows, men, women, and children alike are horribly afraid of these pointing-bones, and believe fully in their awful power, and anyone who believes that one of them has been pointed at him is almost certain to die. men in the full vigour of early manhood and middle life have wasted away, just as though they had been stricken with consumption, because they could not rid themselves of the belief that this horrible magic had entered them. a man coming from the alice springs to the tennant creek caught a slight cold, but the natives at the latter place told him that some men belonging to a tribe about twelve miles away had taken his heart out by means of one of these pointing sticks. he believed their story, and though there was absolutely nothing the matter with him but a cold, simply laid himself down and wasted away. probably several hundreds of men, women, and children die in wild australia every year from fear of these awful bones and sticks alone. all sickness and death is ascribed to magic. the only person who is believed able to remove this evil magic is the "_bullya_," or medicine man. these medicine men are believed to have had mysterious stones placed in their bodies by certain spirits. it is the possession of these stones that gives them their power to counteract evil magic. lest these stones should dissolve they have to be very careful never to eat or drink anything hot. you could probably never tempt one of them to take a cup of hot tea. should he do so all his powers as a doctor would be gone. medicine men, however, are not called in for simpler ailments, though these too are attributed to magic. a common remedy for head-ache is to wear tightly round the forehead a belt of woman's hair. this is believed to have the power of driving out the magic. another frequent but much nastier medicine is several blows on the head with a heavy waddy. it is wonderful how few doses are required! should a man be suffering from back-ache, or stomach-ache, he will lie down on the ground with the painful part of his body uppermost, and his friends and relations will jump on him one at a time till the "magic" goes. one day a man came home from a long journey through the bush. soon afterwards he was attacked by rheumatism and severe lameness. the medicine men told him that one of his enemies had seen his tracks and had put some sharp flints into his footmarks. his friends searched the track, found the flints, and removed them. almost immediately the rheumatism and lameness left him and he was completely cured. on another occasion a medicine man was called in to see a blackfellow who was lying very nearly at death's door. he said that some men in another tribe had charmed away his spirit but it hadn't gone very far and he could fetch it back. he at once ran after it and caught it just in time, so he said, and brought it back in his rug. he then threw himself across the sick man, pressed the rug over his stomach, made a few "passes" somewhat after the manner of a conjurer and so restored the spirit. the sick man speedily recovered. these medicine men are not guilty of any trickery. they believe in their powers as thoroughly as the best european doctors believe in theirs. they are never paid for their services, but, of course, they expect to be looked up to by the other members of the tribe and to be spared all labour and unpleasantness. they also expect the chief delicacies to be reserved for them, and that others should, as far as possible, do their bidding. no one would willingly offend a medicine man. his control of magic is much too dangerous a weapon to be used against them, far more deadly in its effects than spear or boomerang. he can put a curse in even more easily than he can get it out, and if he puts it in who is there to take it away? so you can see on the whole the medicine man has rather an easy time of it, but as no one wills it otherwise all are satisfied. what a boon a few medical missions would prove in wild australia--a few earnest christian men and women who would go and heal the bodily diseases of the black people, and by their faithful teaching destroy this awful curse of belief in magic! how glad we all ought to be that wherever missions have been started, a hospital has been one of the first buildings to be erected. at yarrabah, at mitchell river and at the roper river, all of which you will learn more fully about later on, the missionaries are devoting much time and thought to healing the sick, just as our blessed lord did when he was here among men. soon after the missionaries have settled in a new home the sick from all around will come flocking in to have their needs attended to, and often stay in the settlement long after they are cured to learn the wonderful new message those missionaries have brought about the great healer and all his power and love. chapter x some strange ways of disposing of the dead when a death has occurred in a blackfellow's camp, strange scenes are often witnessed. perhaps just before it took place the dying man or woman would be brought out of the _mia_ where he or she was lying and placed on a rug or blanket in the open air. the _mia_ would then be pulled down to prevent the spirit remaining within it and thus becoming an annoyance and perhaps a source of danger to the survivors. after death has actually occurred the mourners paint themselves all over with pipe-clay, or _wilgi_, rub huge quantities of clay and mud into their hair, and sit around the corpse making a most hideous wailing. they rock themselves to and fro for hours, keeping up the mourning cry all the time, but every now and again the women will relieve the monotony by a series of loud piercing shrieks. the bodies of very young children sometimes remain unburied for some considerable time. the mothers will carry them about with them wherever they go in the hope that the spirit, seeing their grief and so young a body, will be full of pity and return. with this exception dead bodies are usually disposed of within a few hours of death. the commonest method is burial, but bodies are sometimes burned, sometimes eaten, and not infrequently placed in trees, the bones being afterwards raked down and buried. graves are usually shallow, but the bodies are sometimes buried in a sitting position, sometimes standing. in western australia the hands, and at times the feet, are tied together in order to prevent the ghost from moving about and doing mischief. among some tribes the right thumb is cut off before burial so that the dead man may be unable to use a spear. in other tribes a spear and a boomerang will be placed in the grave as the dead man may require them in the beautiful sky country to which his spirit will go. on one of the north-west australian sheep stations a dead man who had been an inveterate smoker had his pipe and a stick of tobacco placed by his side. very often a hole is left in the grave to enable the spirit if it wishes to do so to go in and out. in some places the grave is covered with boughs. in other places a hut will be built over it in the hope that the ghost will thus be kept within bounds and will refrain from wandering about and annoying the living. the ground around the grave will be swept clean with boughs and occasionally watched for footmarks. after the burial the camp will as a rule be moved. when bodies are cremated a huge pile of dry grass and boughs is first prepared. above this a platform, also of boughs, is built, and the body placed upon it and covered with more boughs. a fire-stick is then applied by one of the nearest female relatives. the most curious of all aboriginal methods of disposing of a dead body is that which is usually called "tree-burial." this is probably done in the hope of speedy re-incarnation, but when it becomes evident, say after a year has passed, that the spirit does not intend to return the bones are raked down with a piece of bark and placed in a cave and there buried. in the kimberley district of western australia there are numbers of these burial caves. the arm-bone, however, is not buried with the rest. it is solemnly laid aside, wrapped in paper bark, and often elaborately decorated with feathers. when everything is in readiness preparations are made for bringing it into the camp with great ceremony. the bone is first placed in a hollow tree while some of the men go off in search of game which they bring into the camp and solemnly offer to the dead man's nearest male relatives. next day the bone itself will be brought in and placed on the ground. all at once bow reverently towards it, the women meanwhile maintaining a loud wailing. it is then given to one of the dead man's female relatives who places it in her hut until it is required for the final ceremonies some days afterwards. these final ceremonies begin with a corrobboree, and the bone is then snatched by one of the men from the woman who has charge of it and taken to another of the men who breaks it with an axe. as soon as the blow of the axe is heard the women flee, shrieking, to their camp and re-commence their wailing. the broken bone is then buried and the mourning ceremonies for the dead man are at an end. the most revolting of all methods of disposing of dead bodies is that of eating them. this, however, you will be glad to learn is not very often employed. sometimes it is pure cannibalism that makes them do so. mothers have been known to join in a meal upon the bodies of their own children. usually only the bodies of the famous dead, great warriors for instance, or of enemies killed in battle are thus disposed of. in some tribes it is looked upon as the most honourable form of burial. the reasons for this custom you will understand better when you have read carefully the chapter on religion. there is one very curious custom connected with mourning which i am sure you will be interested in hearing about, and the reason for which you will also come to understand when you have read a few more chapters. so far as i know it is not practised among any other people. until the period of mourning is at an end the nearest female relatives of the dead man are placed under a rule of silence, and are not allowed to utter a single word. perhaps for as long a time as two years they are only allowed to make use of "gesture language." any attempt to speak on their part would at once be visited with heavy punishment perhaps even with death itself. it sometimes happens if there have been several deaths in a tribe that all the women are under this ban, and it very seldom occurs that all are allowed to speak. chapter xi some stories which are told to children in this chapter and the next you shall hear some of the stories which the little children of wild australia are told about the earth, the origin of man, the sun, the moon, and the stars, and about how sin and death came into this world of men. these tales fall very far short of those beautiful stories which have come down to us in the early chapters of genesis, but the blackfellows all believe them to be strictly true. often when they are seated around the camp fire on some bright star-lit night when the light from the fire will be shining brightly on their eager, dusky faces these old, old tales will be told again as only an old black can tell them. they believe the earth to be flat and to stand out of the water on four huge lofty pillars, like very big tree trunks, and some think that above the sky, which they believe to be a solid dome arching over the earth, is a beautiful sky country where baiame lives and the spirits. this baiame is a god who is specially concerned in the ceremonies of making men, and is pleased when those ceremonies are properly performed. this sky country is much more beautiful and much better watered than their own, and there are great numbers of kangaroo and game so that blackfellows who go there are never hungry and always have plenty of fun. the road to it is the milky way which is made up of the spirits of the dead. in many tribes the sun is regarded as a woman because among the blackfellows it is a woman's work to make fire. here is one of the most remarkable of all the "sun stories" which the old blackfellows tell the children. in olden days before there was any sun the birds and beasts were always quarrelling and playing tricks upon one another. a kind of crane called the courtenie, or native companion, was at the bottom of nearly all the mischief. in those days the emus lived in the clouds and had very long wings. they often looked down upon the earth and were particularly interested in the courtenies as they danced. one day an emu came down to earth and told them how much she would like to dance too. but the courtenies only laughed, and one of the oldest ones among them told the emu she could never dance while she had such long wings. then all folded their wings and appeared to be wingless. the poor simple emu at once allowed her wings to be cut quite short, but no sooner had she done so than those wicked courtenies unfolded their beautiful wings and flew away. then the kookaburra--or laughing jackass--burst into a loud laugh to think that the emu could be so silly. later on the emu had a big brood. a native companion saw her coming and at once hid all her chicks except one. "you poor silly emu," she said, "why don't you kill all your chicks except one? they'll wear you out with worry if you don't. where do you think i should be if i went about with a family like that? you'll break down from over-work if you let them all live." so the silly emu destroyed her brood. then the native companion gave a peculiar cry and out from their hiding-place came all her chicks one after the other. when the emu saw them she flew into a great rage and attacked that native companion and twisted her neck so badly that in future she was only able to utter two harsh notes. next season the emu was sitting on her eggs when the courtenie came along and pretended to be very friendly. this was more than that poor tormented emu could stand and she made a rush at the courtenie. but the courtenie leaped over the emu's back and broke all her eggs except one. maddened with rage the emu made for her again, but she was not nearly agile enough, and met with no better success than before. the courtenie took the one remaining egg and sent it flying to the sky. at once a wonderful thing happened. the whole earth was flooded with brilliant and beautiful light. the egg had struck a huge pile of wood which a being named ngoudenout, who lived in the sky, had been collecting for a very long time and set it on fire. the birds were so frightened by the beautiful light that they made up their quarrel there and then and have lived happily ever after, but ever since then the courtenies have had twisted necks and only two harsh notes, and emus have had very short wings and have never laid more than one egg. ngoudenout saw what a good thing it would be for the world to have the sun, and so ever since then he has lit the fire again every day. of course when it is first lighted it doesn't give very much heat, and as it dies down towards night the world begins to get cold again. ngoudenout spends the night collecting more wood for next day. there are numerous other stories about the sun, but this one is sufficient to enable you to see the kind of beliefs the people of wild australia have on these matters. now listen to one which will show you how some of them account for the phases of the moon and for the stars. far away in the east is a beautiful country where numbers of moons live, a very big mob of moons, whole tribes in fact. these moons are very silly fellows. they will wander about at night alone, although a great big giant lives in the sky who as soon as he sees them cuts big pieces off and makes stars of them. some of the moons get away before he can cut much off, but sometimes he cuts them nearly all up and hardly any moon is left at all. "why don't stars come out in the day-time?" a young child will ask and will receive this answer:-- "the stars are all very afraid of the sun. if he finds them out in the day-time he gets very angry and burns them all. so they never come out till he has gone down under the earth. sometimes, though, a little star will come and see if he has gone, but most of them wait in their country till he is really down." some of the black children in some parts of the far north call hailstones rainbow's eggs, and worms baby rainbows, because they have noticed sometimes after a rainbow has been seen hailstones have fallen. after these have melted, or, as they would probably say, burrowed into the ground, numbers of worms have appeared. this is why they call worms baby rainbows. the black people are nearly always very much frightened at eclipses either of the sun or moon. they have two chief ways of accounting for them. some tribes will say that a hostile tribe has hidden in or near the luminary and held bark in front of it, whilst others put the whole trouble down to an evil spirit which has got in front. whatever their belief as to the cause of an eclipse may be, when one takes place they will all throw spears at it in the hope that the hostile tribe or evil spirit will find things too uncomfortable to remain. there are three ways of accounting for shooting stars. some believe them to be the spirits of the dead. some think that they are firesticks thrown down by some evil spirit who has his home in the sky, whilst others would say that a medicine man flying through the air has let his firestick fall. chapter xii more stories told to children each part of australia has its own stories as to the origin of the world and man. it would be impossible to tell them all, especially when one remembers that no two tribes believe exactly the same. there is a more or less general belief in a creator who made the sun, moon, and stars, the earth, trees, rocks, birds, animals, and man, everything, in fact, except women. their origin is left more or less unaccounted for. no creator could have bothered himself to make such unimportant things as women. different tribes have different names for the creator. in some parts he is called baiame or byamee, in others pundjel or punjil, in others daramulun. here is a story about daramulun which the men of the yuin tribe tell. ever so many moons ago daramulun lived on the earth with his mother. the earth in those days was hard and bare and there were no men and women upon it, only reptiles, birds, and animals. so daramulun made trees. soon afterwards men and women appeared, but whether daramulun made them or whether they just came up out of the earth we have not been told. one day a thrush caused a great flood, and all the people were destroyed except a few who managed to crawl out and take refuge on mount dromedary. from these have come the yuin tribe of to-day. daramulun, after the flood was over, called them all together, and told them how they were to live and catch and cook their food, and gave them their laws. at the same time he gave the medicine men power to use magic. then he went away to the sky country. when a man dies daramulun meets his spirit and takes care of it. now listen to a story about punjil which the old victorian blacks have frequently told:-- one day punjil was walking about the earth with a big knife in his hand. with this knife he cut two pieces of bark. then he mixed some clay and made two black men, one very much blacker than the other. he took all day over them and when he had finished he found that one had curly hair and the other smooth. the curly-haired one he named kookinberrook, the other berrookboru. at first they were like dead fellows, but after he had blown into their nostrils they began to move about. now the very next day punjil's brother pallian was paddling about in a creek in his canoe. presently he saw two heads come up out of the water. then two breasts followed. pallian paddled up to them and found that they were two women. he took them to punjil who was very pleased and blew into their nostrils exactly as he had done in the case of the two men he had made the day before. then punjil gave them names, one he called kunewarra, the other kimrook. after this he put a spear in the hand of each man and gave a digging stick to each of the women and showed them how to use them. then he gave the women to the men as their wives. here is a flood story which you will like to compare with the beautiful story in genesis. you will notice these among other differences. though the people of wild australia believe in a flood they have no idea that it was sent as a punishment from god. on the other hand it was purely an accident. again you must remember they have no belief in god like our own. there are various vague, indefinite beliefs in one or more creators and in a supreme being who is pleased when the different ceremonies are properly performed. there is nothing more than this. there is, for instance, no idea at all of sin as being against god. they only understand offences against the tribe which the old men must punish, or indignities against the spirits of the departed which those spirits themselves will revenge. the supreme being never interferes in purely human concerns. once upon a time there was no water anywhere upon the earth. all the animals, therefore, met in solemn council to find out the reason of this remarkable drought. after a great deal of foolish talking they discovered the secret. an enormous frog had swallowed all the water and the only way he could be made to disgorge it was by being made to laugh. so one after another they all tried to amuse him but none of them succeeded in even making him smile. at last a big eel came and he began to wriggle. this was more than the frog's gravity could stand. he opened his mouth and laughed loudly. at once great streams of water began to pour from his jaws, and in a short time so much water had come from him that a great flood followed, and many of the animals and some of the people perished in the waters. a large pelican then determined to do his utmost to save the people. he made a canoe and paddled in it from one island to another. wherever he found any blacks he took them into his canoe and so saved them. before very long, however, the pelican had a quarrel with the blacks about a woman, and as a punishment was turned into stone. chapter xiii religion in the really strict sense of the word the people of wild australia have no religion. there is, as you have already seen, some faint belief in a supreme being and creator who is known by a different name in the different tribes, but this belief in a supreme being makes no difference to their lives and they do not recognize that they have any duties towards him. he is pleased when certain ceremonies are performed properly, and angry when they are performed carelessly or not at all, but beyond that he takes no interest in them. they, for their part, do not think it necessary to worry themselves about him. they never say any prayers, they offer no sacrifices, they build no temples or altars, and they make no idols. for these reasons we usually say they have no religion. that which takes the place of religion among them is fear of evil spirits, the ghosts of the dead. these ghosts are always looked upon as hostile, and always ready to do them harm. this belief is commonly known as animism. it is a general belief among all very primitive peoples. among some races, like the kols of india, to whom the natives of australia are believed by some people to be very closely akin, it takes the form of devil worship, and constant offerings are made to turn away the anger of the spirits, but there is no attempt at propitiation, as this is called, among the people of australia. they live in constant fear of spirits it is true, but their efforts are all in the direction of avoiding them, or keeping them at a distance. for this reason they will seldom camp beneath trees for the ghosts of men and women whose bodies have been placed in those trees to decay may still be hovering about among them and would come down and harm them if they dared to sleep under their shadow. for this same reason, too, they never mention, as you have already been told, the names of their dead. if the ghost heard them talking about him he would conclude they were not sufficiently sorry and would be very angry and be sure to harm them. a white man was once talking with an aboriginal boy, and in the course of his talk he three times mentioned rather loudly the name of a dead black man. the boy was so frightened that he ran away as fast as he could into the bush and did not appear again for several days. when a death occurs any other members of the tribe will, as you have already been told, at once change their names, and should the dead man or woman have borne the name of some plant or animal a new name will at once be given to it. the aboriginals probably came to believe in spirits through their dreams. in those dreams they have visited friends in some far-off tribe, fought some battle, or engaged in a hunt, yet their bodies, they know, have not moved from their resting-place. how could they have done this unless they had a spirit which was able to pass out of their body during sleep and go away on a journey. some tribes give the name of _murup_ to this spirit. at death the _murup_ leaves the body and either goes across the sea, or along the milky way into the beautiful sky country, or continues to haunt the scenes of its earthly life and especially the place where the body is buried, so becoming a source of danger and annoyance to those who remain alive. this is why most tribes move their camp after a death has taken place and why the tribes in the kimberley district of western australia nearly always cross the river. the ghost will have great difficulty in finding them and in any case he could not cross water. some tribes believe that as soon as the dead body has completely turned to dust the soul goes back to the rock or water-hole whence the totemic ancestor, or great-great-greatest-grandfather of the dead man, originally came. there it quietly waits until some little baby is born in the immediate neighbourhood, when it passes into his body and so again becomes incarnate. you will have noticed from all this how the religion of the aborigines, like all heathen religions, is based, wholly on fear. there is only one religion, the religion of our lord jesus christ, which is based on love. this is the religion we want to teach them. it alone, we know, can change their lives and drive out that awful fear. how it is changing them you will learn in the next few chapters. "the christians," said a traveller in north australia one day, "always look so happy. the frightened look is altogether gone. you can always tell them." the man who said this was, i am sorry to say, a christian only in name, and had long been known as a strong opponent of all missionary work among this poor unhappy people, but this makes his words all the more remarkable. they should help to stir us up to do much more in the future than we have done in the past, and make us keener than ever to put forth all our efforts to spread the knowledge of our lord jesus christ among them that his beautiful light may shine more and more in them and that men may take knowledge of them that they have been with jesus. chapter xiv yarrabah there is an old persian story, which some of you may know, of a wonderful magic carpet on which one only needed to stand in order to be spirited away to some other land to which one wanted to go and see strange scenes and unwonted sights. let us take our place on this magic carpet and utter the correct formulæ, and in a few moments we shall be far away in distant and beautiful yarrabah on the north-eastern shores of queensland. the name means "beautiful spot," and it is, indeed, a lovely part of wild australia where the tropic sun looks down upon beautiful palm-trees and where birds of the gayest plumage make their home, and where the coasts are washed with coral seas. [illustration: girls' class at yarrabah school] yarrabah is a mission reserve which the queensland government gave to the australian church about twenty-five years ago. it covers about sixty thousand acres and no white man except the missionaries is allowed to make a home upon it. its beginnings were most discouraging, and nothing but the indomitable faith of the first missionaries could have kept them to their work. the tribes settled on the "reserve" were extremely fierce, and within a week or two of the actual founding of the mission three men of the tribe were killed and eaten. the native who was more responsible than any others for these acts of murder and cannibalism was some years afterwards converted to christ, baptized and confirmed, and has for years been a respected and trusted christian. it was among such tribes that the missionaries went and made their home. thousands of people would have been afraid to have ventured amongst them, but the missionaries (and there was a lady in their number) were so full of the love of jesus and so earnest in their desires to win these poor degraded tribes for him, that they never stopped to think about being afraid. it was very different to going and settling down in some town or village in china or india where there were other white people near and the dangers were not so great. there were very few white people, and probably no white women at all, nearer than cairns, thirty miles away to the north. only the wild monotonous bush was around them and fierce cannibals from whom at any moment a poisoned spear might come. at first all the missionaries could do was wait. a rough little house was put up close to the sea where they lived, said their prayers, and waited. after a while a few natives came and built their _mias_ near the missionaries' home. they soon came to see that these were kind, good people who only wanted to be friendly, and little by little they began to give their confidence. soon a little hospital was erected where sick aboriginals were attended to and healed, and a little school where the children whom their parents allowed to come and live with the missionaries were taught. to-day, about twenty-two years after its first founding, yarrabah is one of the most wonderful industrial missions in the whole island continent. please take note of those words "industrial missions," for i want you to remember that it has been found that it is very little good indeed teaching the children or the men and women of wild australia about the redeeming love of our lord jesus christ unless they are at the same time taught the duty of honest and useful work. the mere preaching of the gospel and the provision of a place of worship which would be enough among a more civilized people is very far from enough in wild australia. so all missions in that land are what we call industrial. if we visited yarrabah to-day, by means of our magic carpet, what should we see? first we should see the head station, and we should be told that there were five other settlements, little christian villages in charge of an aboriginal catechist, within a few miles of the head station, and that altogether no less than natives and half-castes were living happy, contented, well-conducted lives. the first visit some of us would be inclined to pay would be to the school where we should see quite a number of dusky little scholars. the head teacher is a white--one of the missionaries--but most of the teaching is done by several excellent and fully-qualified aboriginals who themselves learned their very first lessons in that same school and were once wild blacks. some might like to hear the children read and would probably be quite surprised to find that they were able to acquit themselves quite as well as british children of the same age. this would be true, too, of their writing. some of the older children would be able to bring out some really beautiful specimens of penmanship for our admiration. they also do sums, but these, perhaps, they do not take to quite so kindly as some of the other subjects. still, we should probably find that they do almost as well as children of other lands of the same age. but the subject which is regarded as of supreme importance at yarrabah school is the religious teaching. if the teachers were asked to quote some text which might be taken as the motto of their school i think they would choose those words from the last verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of job, "the fear of the lord that is wisdom," and they would tell us that the most important of all knowledge is the knowledge of our lord jesus christ. this is why the christians at yarrabah have not only attained considerable intellectual development but have also, in many cases, become true saints. a few years ago at an examination in religious subjects, open to all the children in queensland, white and coloured alike, the whole of the twenty-three first-class certificates which were awarded, were won by children of yarrabah. perhaps as we came out of the schools we should like to pass into the homes where the children live. many of them, however, remain at school as boarders, their parents living in one or other of the little villages on the reserve. how different these homes are to the rough, uncomfortable humpies described in chapter iv which form the homes of the poor children of the wilderness. each home at yarrabah is a little cottage of wood and iron with two or more rooms which has been built by the people themselves. it stands in an enclosed garden in which mangoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetables are growing and for part of the year beautiful flowers bloom brightly. in some of the cottages the little flower patch is the children's especial care. everything within the house is beautifully neat and clean. the older girls help their mothers to keep it so. they wash and make and mend, and as many of them dress entirely in white there is plenty of work to do. after our visit to some of the homes we pass into the little church dedicated in the name of the first british martyr, st. alban. the very name reminds us of that for which the church stands. it stands there to turn the heathens into good soldiers of jesus christ like st. alban. it is far too small for the needs of the little community which lives in its neighbourhood, and we hope before very long to be able to build a much larger and better one. it is of white wood and across the chancel is carried a scroll with these words upon it, "lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." services are held in it every day at a.m. and p.m., and nearly every one comes. on one side are seated the boys and young men, on the other the girls and unmarried women. the missionaries and the married couples take their places at the western end, while the babies and infants squat and occasionally crawl about on the floor. most of them sit or stand very reverently with folded arms. a little black curly-headed boy plays the harmonium, and the choir enters noiselessly. their feet are bare, their long surplices reach nearly to the ground, their scarlet loin cloths sometimes showing through them. an aboriginal catechist in all probability leads the service, also wearing a surplice. everything is done exactly as it would be in an english village church. on sundays the psalms as well as the canticles are sung. on other days they are sometimes read but very, very slowly, for it must be remembered that only the younger members of the congregation, those brought up on the mission, are able to read. the lessons from holy scripture, too, are read very slowly. the reverence and devotion of all alike, the hearty singing not only with the lips but with the heart, are a wonderful illustration of what the lord jesus christ has done for these dusky children of a savage and primitive people. after church each morning there is an interval for breakfast and then a parade for work. the children pass into the school, the men and boys to their allotted tasks on the farm or in the different workshops, the women and unmarried girls to their various domestic duties. all are given something to do and all are required to perform their tasks to the satisfaction of those set over them. yet i do not think anyone would talk about "tasks" at yarrabah. there is a suggestion of unpleasantness, of an imposition about the word, but no one looks at work in that light at yarrabah. it has become almost second nature and a delight to them here. sometimes, of course, when the weather is very hot and close and sultry they do not work as well as at other times, but what white man or child would not prefer to rest under such circumstances? even the tiniest children like to feel they are doing something and very soon learn to run about and pick up rubbish and fallen leaves and so help to keep the settlement clean and tidy. up on the hillside is the hospital where the sick children, as well as the men and women are carefully nursed and cared for by a kind black matron and nurses. there is a branch of the church lad's brigade, and a most efficient brass band. [illustration: bathing off jetty at yarrabah] after dinner comes play-time for a while in which all are free to amuse themselves in any way they like. then work again till service time at . then follows supper, then night prayers in their homes, then bed. the life at yarrabah might well be described as a life of honourable work, and innocent recreation hallowed by christian worship. what a wonderful contrast it all is to the wild undisciplined life of the aboriginals in the bush. the contrast almost reminds us of that wonderful story in the gospels which tells of the poor wild maniac of gergesa whose savage yells were the terror of the whole surrounding neighbourhood. people were afraid to go near him, and "no man could tame him." he wore no clothes, he had no fixed dwelling-place, and often cut himself with stones. but one came where he was and had compassion on him and commanded the evil spirits to leave him. the voice was a voice of power, and when next we see him he is "sitting at the feet of jesus clothed and in his right mind." is not this just exactly what has happened at yarrabah where the lord jesus has indeed worked a wonderful miracle, delivering those poor wild aborigines from the bondage of evil spirits and causing them to sit in love and wonder as changed men "at his feet"? chapter xv trubanaman creek we step on to our magic carpet once again and after bidding an affectionate farewell to yarrabah are soon flying through the air across some beautiful tropical forests till we come to land almost on the eastern shores of the great gulf of carpentaria, eleven miles south of the mitchell river, at a spot called trubanaman creek, where another mission was established just eight years ago. it is four hundred miles from yarrabah, and there is no mission in between. there are six tribes of fierce natives within reach of the mission. the men are strong stalwart fellows who have come very little into contact with white men. some of them carry knives of sharks' teeth which they use chiefly for the purpose of making the women do their will. there are numbers of children, and it is these children whom the missionaries are specially trying to induce to come and live with them to be taught. when the missionaries went to live there nothing but the wild bush was around them. as mr matthews, the head of the mission has said, "the hoot of the kookaburra (laughing-jackass), the howl of the dingo (wild dog), or the shout of the wild man were the only early morning noises." a few buildings were put up and after a time a few men and boys came in. some of these were sick or suffering from wounds, and their wounds were carefully attended to and dressed. they went back to their tribe and told what had been done for them and of the good and regular food they had received from the white men down at the creek. the news spread, others came in, the sick for treatment, the whole for food. many ran away again unable to endure the monotony of a settled and ordered life, but some remained. to-day there are about a hundred residents. the most conspicuous and the central building on the settlement is the church, which like that at yarrabah is of wood and has been built by the people themselves. some trees were cut down, sawn into planks at the mission's own steam saw-mill, which the men work themselves, and so the material was prepared. the furniture and fittings, too, are all of aboriginal workmanship. the services are very similar to those at yarrabah and every day begins and ends with public worship. the school is under the care of mrs matthews, wife of the superintendent of the mission, who has the help of another lady. two and a half years ago the bishop of carpentaria, in whose diocese the mission is, paid a surprise visit to the school and examined the children in their work. he expressed himself as surprised and delighted with all he heard and saw. from the school he passed to the catechism class where he found twenty boys ranging in age from ten to eighteen years. much to his surprise these boys could say together the english church catechism to the end of the "duty towards our neighbour" without any hesitation or a single mistake. most of them could also answer correctly any questions put to them separately, and could explain the meaning of the more difficult words and phrases. what, however, pleased the bishop even more was to find that they were all alike making a very real and persevering effort to carry this teaching out in their own daily lives. mere ability to recite the words of a catechism or creed is nothing, it is the living it out that matters, and this the boys of mitchell river (as we call them) are honestly trying to do. of course like other boys they are often naughty and sometimes do very wicked things but they have learned enough of the love of our lord jesus christ to know that if they are really sorry for their sins and express that sorrow both with their lips and by altered lives he will forgive their sins and receive them back into his favour and his care. fifteen married couples at the mitchell river are living in little houses of their own. seven of these couples were married by the bishop on one day. they have built their houses themselves, fenced and cleared the little holdings feet by in which the house stands and cultivate these holdings entirely without supervision. the residents, as far as possible, are allowed to live a perfectly natural life. the men and boys are, of course, required to wear loin cloths, the women and girls short skirts, but they need wear nothing more. they still enjoy hunting and fishing exactly as in the old days, and corrobborees still afford them never-ending delight. only those things in the old life which are contrary to the gospel of our lord jesus christ are forbidden them. the first baptisms took place on sunday, august th, , a day of great joy and gladness when eight males and four females made their solemn confession of repentance and faith and were received into the warmth and shelter of god's holy church. there are several other missions, but we have no time in which to visit them. we can only point out where they are and perhaps some of us afterwards will mark them on our maps. on the opposite side of the gulf of carpentaria is another church of england mission--that at the roper river. it was founded only a few years ago, but deserves special mention because it is the first australian mission which has ever employed full-blooded natives on its staff. on their way north to found it the missionaries halted a few days at yarrabah. the christians gathered together to meet them and to wish them god speed. all that the missionaries were going to do was explained to them, the hardships and dangers of their life among the fierce cannibal tribes of the far north were dwelt upon. would any of them volunteer to go? it would mean turning their backs upon their beautiful happy home, laying aside many of the blessings and privileges which were so dear to them, but it would bring great joy to the heart of the lord jesus if someone would go. there was no immediate answer, but some few days afterwards two men and one woman came to the superintendent and said they would go. in the northern territory there is also to be found the very successful mission at mapoon where also a very wonderful work has been done. it is one of the oldest missions in the north. it is conducted by missionaries of the moravian church, and its work among the children is done in the same way as in those other missions of which you have been told more fully. in western australia the roman catholic church has three missions. the oldest of these was founded nearly sixty years ago. it is situated at new morcia on the victoria plains ninety miles north of perth. the third generation of christians is now growing up under the kindly care of the good fathers and nuns who control the mission. all are living earnest christian lives. there are now no heathen left in the neighbourhood. another roman catholic mission is that at beagle bay, seventy miles north of broome. there are twenty-two resident missionaries of whom nine are ladies, and forty boys, and fifty-four girls in the schools. the children rise with the sun, say their prayers, attend service in the church, and then have breakfast. after a short time for play they pass at once to the schools where they do lessons for three hours. after dinner all rest during the great heat of the day. then work and lessons again till service-time and supper. soon after sundown all go to bed. among other things the children are being taught the very useful art of hat-making, the hats being afterwards sold in aid of the mission funds. [illustration: the first school at mitchell river] in the extreme north-west--near the little town of wyndham--the three remaining missions are found. the one on the drysdale river is under the care of the roman catholic church. a few miles away is another controlled by the presbyterians, while thirty miles south of wyndham on the forrest river lies the newest of all. it is impossible to give an account of these. none of them have done much more than begin. the most recent, that at the forrest river, was only founded last year. we can all pray that god will bless the good missionaries working upon them that under his guiding hand many more children of the wilderness may lay aside their fear of evil spirits and come to love and worship our dear lord jesus christ. chapter xvi some aboriginal saints and heroes there are some names so famous in wild australia, and especially on the mission stations, that they deserve and must have a chapter to themselves. the first of these is tom moreton who soon after he became a christian also became a leper. his earliest teachings were, i believe, received at yarrabah, and there he was baptized, confirmed, and made his first communion. when he was found to be suffering from his terrible disease, which is somewhat common in those parts, he was removed by the government to friday island, the leper settlement in the far north. nearly all the other lepers there were south sea islanders, and most of them had been baptized, having become christians during their time of service as labourers in the sugar-plantations. one of them had been a teacher of the london missionary society. tom evidently regarded his exile to friday island as an opportunity of earnest work for his saviour. he set himself to teach his poor fellow-lepers all he knew of the love and gentleness of our lord. they readily listened to his words as he taught the way of god more perfectly. their leprosy had attacked them before they had come to know all his love. he was no official missionary, there had been no formal sending, but he told them everything the lord jesus had done for him and how he had dealt with his soul. he awakened in them a keen desire to be partakers in the great memorial feast which the saviour had ordained, and then he began one by one to prepare them for it. when some time afterwards the bishop of carpentaria visited the island tom told him what he had done. the bishop spoke to them one by one, and finding them really in earnest administered to them the laying-on-of-hands. he then placed them in tom's care again. when he next came he administered to all the holy communion. the last scene of all is very solemn. the government decided to close friday island and remove the lepers to brisbane. so the bishop came once more steering his vessel with his own hands into the little bay. an ordinary washing table was brought out and placed beneath the trees. a white cloth covered it and upon it the sacred feast was spread. the sixteen poor leprous men "drew near," and there were tears in the bishop's eyes as he placed in those poor maimed hands the heavenly food. it was a pathetic farewell to friday island, but how those hearts must have blessed the faithful ministry of the aboriginal saint, tom moreton! the next name on our roll of honour is james noble. he was one of those who volunteered to go with the first missionaries to the roper river. for about three years he remained there and was a great help and encouragement to the founders of that mission, as he is a great help and strength to-day to the work at yarrabah. once a savage he has sat more than once as one of the representatives of yarrabah in the synod, or church parliament, of his diocese, and is always listened to with something more than respect as he pleads at different meetings the cause of his neglected people. he is now a catechist, and is trusted and much loved by all. sam smith's right to a place on our roll of honour no one who knows his story could deny. he is a native of new south wales, his home being near dubbo. he works on one of the sheep stations and is an earnest and devout christian. but there are no idle christians among the blacks. all are taught that they must undertake some definite work for our lord. sam has chosen as his work sunday-school teaching. every saturday afternoon when his week's work is done he starts off through the bush for his distant sunday-school twenty-eight miles away, takes his class on the sunday and then in the evening walks twenty-eight miles back again so as to be on the spot for his work again on monday morning. it is a long journey, but sam never fails. the last on our little list of saints and heroes is not a christian at all, but none the less we cannot refuse him a place among those who deserve to be remembered. neighbour, a native of the roper river country, had been arrested on a charge of cattle stealing. probably his poor savage heart saw nothing wrong in the deed. he was being led off in custody by police constable johns. when crossing a flooded stream the constable's horse turned over and kicked him badly on the head. he was in grave danger of drowning. neighbour was burdened with heavy chains, but he at once jumped into the river at the risk of his life and brought the constable to land. mounting the horse he then rode off for help. the chance was given him of freeing himself from his chains and making good his escape. his brave act was at once reported to the authorities, who brought it to the knowledge of king george. he was only sixteen and a savage. the king decided to confer the albert medal upon him. it was presented to him at a great public gathering at government house, port darwin, some months afterwards in the presence of many of the leading residents. it is the first time such an honour has ever been paid to an australian native, and neighbour's bosom swells with lawful pride as he points to the medal upon his breast. chapter xvii the chocolate box in a sunday-school in new south wales the children were very keen about their missionary duty. they were specially interested in the chocolate-coloured people of new guinea, a very large island to the north of australia, and determined to do all they could to help them. among other things they had a chocolate-coloured box made and they put in it all they could. during the season of lent they all gave up chocolates and other sweets and gave the pennies thus saved to what had come to be known as "the chocolate box." you have been reading in this little book about another people with chocolate skins, and one result of your reading ought to be a strong desire to make better known among them the redeeming love of our lord jesus christ. for some of them "he has done great things already whereof we rejoice," but if he had only more money he could do much more. we can all help him by means of a chocolate box. we can help him, too, by our prayers. this little book, if you have read it carefully, will have suggested much to you to pray about. just to tell the lord jesus about the poor little children of wild australia and their needs is to do much to help those needs to be supplied. call up in your mind what happened at cana of galilee where jesus made the water wine. his mother came to him and laid before him the need, and he in his own good time supplied it. so we can all lay before him the needs of these dear little children and we can trust him at his own time to do what is best. perhaps some day some may hear the call to personal service, to go out and make their homes among the children there and teach them, as others have been taught, to know and love the children's king.